RTHK: Trump Organization to face criminal charges - source

Former US President Donald Trump's namesake company and its chief financial officer are expected to be hit with criminal charges on Thursday by prosecutors in Manhattan, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Charges by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance are expected to focus on whether Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and other officials received perks and benefits such as rent-free apartments and leased cars without reporting them properly on their tax returns, people familiar with the probe have said.

The person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Weisselberg and the company are expected to be arraigned on an indictment on Thursday.

Trump's lawyer Ronald Fischetti told Reuters on Monday that prosecutors suggested that the charges would be related to taxes and fringe benefits and that Trump himself would not be charged in the indictment.

"This will be their first blow," Fischetti said of the prosecutors, adding that in a meeting with them last week they said they were still pursuing their investigation.

Mary Mulligan, a lawyer for Weisselberg, declined to comment on possible charges. Vance's office also declined to comment. Lawyers for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump, during a trip on Wednesday to Weslaco, Texas near the Mexican border to criticise President Joe Biden's immigration policies, did not respond to questions shouted by reporters about the criminal charges.

In a statement on Monday, Trump called prosecutors biased and said his company's actions were "in no way a crime."

The Trump Organization could face fines and other penalties if convicted.

Charges also could increase pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate with prosecutors, which he has resisted. Weisselberg is a close Trump confidant, making his cooperation potentially crucial to any future case against the former president.

Court filings, public records and subpoenaed documents have shown that Weisselberg and his son Barry have received perks and gifts potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including many benefits related to real estate.

The case could be charged as a scheme by the company to pay people off the books in order to hide assets over many years.

One possible charge would be "scheme to defraud," according to New York attorney Marc Scholl, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan DA's office.

"'Scheme to defraud' is a crime that allows the prosecution to detail a narrative in the indictment describing the criminal conduct and how it originated, no matter how long ago the crime started," Scholl said.

Prosecutors in Vance's office accelerated their focus on the Trump Organization's use of perks and benefits last fall. The office of New York state Attorney General Letitia James, which had also been looking into the Trump Organization, said in May that its probe had turned into a criminal investigation and that it had joined forces with Vance's office.

Vance, a Democrat, has in his nearly three-year-old investigation examined an array of potential wrongdoing, including whether Trump's company manipulated the value of its real estate to reduce its taxes and secure favorable loan terms.

Prior to entering the White House in 2017, Trump put his company into a trust overseen by his adult sons and Weisselberg, who has maintained tight control over its finances. It is unclear what role Trump now has at the company.

The case could also complicate Trump's political future, as he flirts with a possible 2024 White House run.

Jennifer Weisselberg, the former wife of Barry Weisselberg, has met with prosecutors half a dozen times.

Her lawyer Duncan Levin told Reuters on Wednesday that "over the past half year, Jen has been cooperating with prosecutors. We have turned over a mountain of evidence to them to support these charges. We're very gratified the DA's office is moving forward with these charges."

In an interview with MSNBC, Jennifer Weisselberg said she would be prepared to testify while adding: "My documents at this time are witnesses themselves. They are being used, and they're being walked through the grand jury panel."

"We've been going through questions pertaining to compensation, perks and taxes just to review how to ... inform a grand jury," she added. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-06-30. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: Bill Cosby released as conviction overturned

A US court overturned comedian Bill Cosby's conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman 15 years ago on Wednesday, allowing his release from prison, in a blow to the #MeToo movement.

"Cosby's convictions and judgment of sentence are vacated, and he is discharged," the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wrote in a 79-page ruling.

The 83-year-old, shattered racial barriers with his Emmy-winning role on "I Spy" in the 1960s, and then as a dad and doctor on the hit TV series "The Cosby Show" two decades later.

But he suffered a fall from grace as allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against him, and was convicted in 2018 of assaulting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion in 2004.

It was the first guilty verdict for sexual assault against a celebrity since the advent of the worldwide reckoning against sexual violence and abuse of power dubbed the #MeToo movement.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three-to-ten-year sentence for aggravated indecent assault.

It was not immediately clear when he would be released.

"We will need to receive, authenticate and review the court documents before we move forward," a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections told AFP.

An earlier prosecution ended in a mistrial in June 2017 after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Although more than 60 women charged that they had been victims of sexual assault by Cosby, he was tried criminally only for Constand's assault, since the statute of limitations had expired in the other cases.

He filed his second appeal against his conviction in August last year.

His lawyers argued that five women should not have been allowed to give evidence at his trial as witnesses.

They complained that their "decades-old" allegations, which were not part of the charges, had prejudiced the jury.

The prosecutors had put them on the stand to convince the jury that Cosby had displayed a pattern of drugging and assaulting women.

The attorneys also argued it was "fundamentally unfair" that deposition testimony Cosby gave in a civil case regarding his use of sedative drugs and his sexual behaviour in the 1970s was heard in court.

They argue that Cosby believed the testimony was immune from prosecution when he gave it.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed that Cosby had been denied a fair trial.

"He must be discharged, and any future prosecution on these particular charges must be barred," three justices wrote.

"We do not dispute that this remedy is both severe and rare. But it is warranted here, indeed compelled," they added.

Cosby had lost an earlier appeal when a court ruled that the prosecution's evidence had established Cosby's "unique sexual assault playbook."

A dozen women who say they were victims of Cosby have filed civil suits against the actor seeking compensation for damages. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2021-06-30. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Universities called to verify student information to access laptops

Higher Education and Training Minister, Blade Nzimande, has called on universities to contact the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to ensure they verify their student information so that NSFAS-funded students can receive laptops.

Addressing the media on the departments plans for post school education and training (PSET) institutions on Wednesday - following the countrys move to Adjusted Alert Level 4 lockdown - Nzimande announced that NSFAS has to date ordered 170 000 laptops from an appointed service provider, with 90 060 having arrived in the country and ready for distribution.

He said the balance of the laptops will be arriving in the country in mid-July and mid-September 2021.

However, to date the verifying of university student information as per the NSFAS portal has been slow.

A total of 1 846 students information has been shared with the provider of which 1 123 has been delivered to four universities namely, the University of Pretoria, University of Free State (UFS), Durban University of Technology (DUT), and the University of Mpumalanga (UM).

I call upon our universities to contact NSFAS through the NSFAS portal to ensure that they verify their students information. It is important that universities prioritise this task urgently, Nzimande said.

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college students do not order via the NSFAS portal, however, NSFAS will prioritise the TVET students for delivery.

A total TVET listing of 46 846 has recently been shared with the provider for delivery. The provider will contact these students to arrange for delivery as campuses are currently closed. Of the 46 846, a total of 183 has been delivered to South Cape TVET College and 86 for Central Johannesburg TVET, Nzimande said.

Exclusive online learning for all students

On measures applicable to the PSET sector during the current national lockdown restrictions, Nzimande said that in terms of the Adjusted Alert Level 4 lockdown that has now been put in place, the universities do not officially close, but all face-to-face teaching and examinations must halt for the next two-week period.

Learning will shift exclusively to online learning for all students. Residences will remain open, as it is also not safe for students to travel back home at this time, and it is necessary for students to retain access to campus and residence-based Wi-Fi.

However, universities need to continue to manage residences according to the necessary health and safety protocols, as outlined in the directions and in line with protocols developed by HIGHER HEALTH, Nzimande said.

He warned that under no circumstances should any mass social or other activities be permitted in residences or on campuses during this period and institutions are requested to strictly enforce measures.

It has also been agreed that international and inter-provincial travel will be discouraged, and limited to essential services and needs. There will be controlled access to campuses for essential services and other activities that cannot be suspended at this time.

As many staff as possible who can do so, should work from home. The sector will continue to be guided by the 29 March 2021 directions and the 27 June COGTA (Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) regulations, Nzimande said.

The principle outlined in the higher education sector directions is that all universities will manage their own academic activities, in line with the national directions and health protocols, with the support of HIGHER HEALTH.

The institutions are also expected to ensure their COVID-19 task teams are functional and active during this period to manage institutional responses to the pandemic, and maintain effective communication and consultation with staff and students.

The new directions provide guidance on matters, including institutional plans; campus health and safety; student accommodation and residences; psychosocial assistance for staff and students; academic classes and examinations; graduations ceremonies and events; international students; and international travel and vaccination.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: SA calls for eSwatini security forces to exercise 'total' restraint

The South African government says it notes with great concern the ongoing political and security situation in the eSwatini, as anti-monarchy protests continue.

We are particularly concerned by reports of loss of life and destruction of properties, said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

According to news outlets, the tensions continue to flare as pro-democracy protests engulf the country.

According to reports, protesters are demanding democratic reforms in Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Reports suggest that eight activists were allegedly shot dead by the police, while 28 have been injured and many detained.

The right to peaceful protest is universally recognised, the department said.

The South African government has since called on the security forces to exercise total restraint and protect the lives and property of the people, in keeping with the countrys constitutional provisions and laws.

In addition, South Africa urges all political actors and civil society to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve the current political challenges facing the country.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Vaccine manufacturing hub will enhance SAs local manufacturing capabilities

Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande says the establishment of Africas first messenger RNA (mRNA) technology transfer hub for COVID-19 vaccines will ensure that South Africas local manufacturing capabilities of vaccines will be enhanced.

This means that South Africa will move beyond just fill/finishing of vaccines, into the manufacturing of the active component or drug substance of vaccine. South Africas local manufacturing will be ready to move into commercial scale manufacturing of the drug substance, with relevant equipment, facility preparation, staff training, and doing validation runs, Nzimande said.

He made the remarks during a media briefing on Wednesday, where he was giving an update on ongoing work within the science and innovation sector, as coordinated through the Department of Science and Innovation.

Nzimande reiterated his gratitude to the announcement by World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that South Africa will become the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.

WHO is seeking to expand the capacity of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to produce COVID-19 vaccines and scale up manufacturing to increase global access to the critical tools to bring the pandemic under control.

During his visit to South Africa last month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will support South Africa and Africa with regards to the local manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, through the establishment of the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub.

Network for Genomic Surveillance

In response to the increasing spread of COVID-19 around the world, the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) has been monitoring and sequencing confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.

The COVID-19 genome surveillance work is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation and is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It is an entity known as KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform (KRISP).

Nzimande said on 25 June 2021, NGS-SA confirmed from the latest representative community sampling up to 17 June 2021 that the Delta variant increased significantly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and is now the most common variant detected in the province.

These Delta genomes were sampled from multiple locations across six districts of KwaZulu-Natal, Harry Gwala (n=16), Zululand (n=15), iLembe (n=14), eThekwini (n=12), King Cetshwayo (n=1) and Ugu (n=1).

This demonstrates a striking increase across the province and suggests that the Delta variant is rapidly displacing the Beta variant (501Y.V2/B.1.351), that had been dominant since the onset of the second wave, Nzimande warned.

The first detection of the Delta variant in South Africa was from a sample collected on 24 April 2021, and had, as per reporting at the time, been detected in Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

Although initial sequences were from cases with recent travel history, there is now clear evidence of community transmission of the Delta variant in South Africa.

In Gauteng, the Delta variant was detected in 1/129 (1%) of samples in April and 13/184 (7%) in May 2021. The data for sequences up to 21 June 2021 indicated that almost 75% of the cases in Gauteng were exposed to the Delta variant, with an increase of the Delta variant in the Western Cape and with signs of dominance starting to show in Limpopo and starting to replace the dominance of the Beta variant in all the provinces, the Minister said.

He acknowledged (KRISP), the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), and the University of Cape Town (UCT) who sequenced the recently confirmed cases of the Delta variant in South Africa.

He also expressed his gratitude to the NGS-SA - a consortium of scientists funded by the Department of Science and Innovation and the South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC).

The Minister further reiterated his call for the observance of all the health and safety protocols.  SAnews.gov.za

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RTHK: Nordic papers say Beijing stifling Hong Kong media

The four largest Nordic newspapers marked the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party's founding on Thursday with a joint front-page editorial denouncing the regime's attacks on Hong Kong's independent media.

"Enough is enough," the open letter to the People's Republic of China said, adding that "The world can no longer stand idly by as China gradually sucks the air out of freedom of the press in Hong Kong."

Writing in Norway's Aftenposten, Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, Helsingin Sanomat in Finland and Politiken in Denmark, the editors in chief promised to "open our newspapers to an even more intensive coverage of the frightening developments in Hong Kong."

In June the Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to close after its assets were frozen under the National Security Law and some of its executives were arrested for a series of articles published there.

While Hong Kong's leaders have made repeated speeches over the past year assuring that freedoms remain guaranteed, the expression of certain political views is a crime under the draconian law, punishable by life imprisonment.

"We watch with growing concern as our profession -- free, independent, and critical journalism -- is criminalised," the open letter said.

Before the closure of Apple Daily, the regime placed Radio Television Hong Kong under the control of the authorities and gave the police new internet censorship powers, the editorial said.

The Nordic countries, which regularly top the Reporters Without Borders world press-freedom rankings, have had several recent run-ins with China.

Diplomatic relations with Norway were frozen for six years after the Nobel committee -- independent of the country's government -- awarded the 2010 Peace Prize to the late imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Tensions also arose between China and Sweden over the fate of the Chinese-Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, currently imprisoned in China on a ten-year sentence for "illegally providing intelligence overseas". (AFP)

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Hong Kong: Govt confident of HK's future

Acting Chief Executive John Lee

It gives me great pleasure to celebrate with you today the 24th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The Chief Executive is in Beijing at the moment attending the celebration activities of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. It is my honour to attend and speak to you at this reception as the Acting Chief Executive.

The Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day on July 1 each year gives us an opportunity to proudly review the history of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, to firmly reiterate that "one country, two systems" is the best arrangement for maintaining Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, and to solemnly pledge to further promote the implementation of "one country, two systems". This year, July 1 also celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. As we celebrate this important milestone of the party, we should have a deeper understanding of "one country, two systems", which was put forward and implemented under the party's leadership. As the Chief Executive said at the thematic forum on the party and "one country, two systems" on June 12, the smooth return of Hong Kong to the motherland is an integral part of the party's century-old cause. Throughout the process, the party demonstrated its clear determination to fulfil the historical mission of erasing the century-long national humiliation and reunifying the nation, while taking care of the vital interests of Hong Kong people by preserving the systems and way of life that they are familiar with under the innovative concept of "one country, two systems".

For the past 24 years, the central government has unswervingly supported the faithful implementation of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong and has acted in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law. Although the acts of serious violence since the latter half of 2019 and the attempts of anti-China disruptors to take advantage of the loopholes in the Hong Kong SAR's electoral system to paralyse the Government and even seize power have brought unprecedented challenges to Hong Kong, the central government has stayed true to its original aspiration in implementing "one country, two systems" and helped Hong Kong solve the problems at the constitutional level. Within one year, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress enacted the National Security Law and amended Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law to improve the Hong Kong SAR's electoral system, halting chaos and restoring order in Hong Kong and implementing "patriots administering Hong Kong". These two major measures taken by the central government have laid a solid foundation for the faithful implementation of "one country, two systems" and the long-term stability of Hong Kong.

Under the leadership of the Chief Executive, the Hong Kong SAR Government has duly performed our duty to safeguard national security in accordance with the National Security Law in the past year by preventing, suppressing and imposing punishment for acts and activities endangering national security and by promoting national security education across the city. I must emphasise that it is expressly provided in Article 4 of the National Security Law that human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security. Therefore, while national security is protected, our citizens continue to enjoy freedoms under the law, including freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of demonstration and more.

The development of Hong Kong has always been closely tied to the development of the motherland. Hong Kong has been both a contributor and a beneficiary in China's reform and opening up. Our country's sustained and rapid developments in recent years have provided golden opportunities for Hong Kong. However, anti-China disruptors and individuals with ulterior motives took advantage of the loopholes in the electoral system to worm their way into the Hong Kong SAR's political structure. They kept undermining the relationship between the central government and the Hong Kong SAR, creating confrontation and obstructing governance. This has hindered Hong Kong's integration into the country's overall development. Ensuring "patriots administering Hong Kong", the improved electoral system enables Hong Kong to focus on development and leverage its advantage of being backed by the motherland and open to the world. With the support of the central government's policies, we will strive to consolidate and enhance our competitiveness as an international financial, trading and shipping centre, and promote the development of emerging industries including innovation and technology, culture and art, aviation, intellectual property trading and more.

Although Hong Kong has experienced storms and waves, facts have proved that as long as we fully and accurately implement the "one country, two systems" policy by upholding the principle of "one country" and leveraging the advantages of "two systems", Hong Kong will be able to move forward steadily. Our country's Belt & Road initiative, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, domestic and international dual circulation development pattern, as well as the National 14th Five-Year Plan's support for Hong Kong, all bring unlimited development opportunities to Hong Kong. With social and political stability restored now, Hong Kong definitely has the conditions to rebound from the doldrums and create a brighter future. In fact, thanks to the success of the anti-epidemic work in Hong Kong, there have been significant improvements in the local economic and employment situation in recent months. The real gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 7.9% year-on-year, ending six consecutive quarters of contraction. The unemployment rate has dropped from a 17-year high of 7.2% to the latest 6%. Social distancing measures have also been gradually relaxed to allow further resumption of people's normal life.

To keep this good momentum going, we must raise our vaccination rate without delay. I call on citizens to actively respond to the Government's Early Vaccination for All campaign. Please do not hesitate and get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect yourselves, your family and friends and the overall interests of the community.

Distinguished guests, fellow citizens, it has been four years since the current-term Government took office. We have faced unprecedented challenges and have constantly summed up our experience to improve governance. Today, the governing team is more confident about the future of Hong Kong than at any moment in the past four years. In the coming year, we will continue to take a firm stand in safeguarding national security, improving the implementation of "one country, two systems", and pressing ahead with a pragmatic attitude and fighting spirit. As long as we stand united, Hong Kong will certainly stride forward and scale new heights. Thank you.

This is the English translation of Acting Chief Executive John Lees speech at the reception in celebration of the 24th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the Convention & Exhibition Centre on July 1.

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: N West province determined to vaccinate all senior citizens

The North West Provincial Government says it is committed to vaccinating all registered senior citizens in July, as the province tackles the third wave of COVID-19 infections.

We will continue to reach out to these individuals so that more of the senior citizens are reached through outreach sites, especially in the far-flung and rural areas, said Premier Tebogo Job Mokgoro.

The Premier said the province will employ the services of local authorities to ensure the effective mobilisation of targeted individuals.

We request the media to pass this message to communities to motivate them to register and present themselves for vaccination at the vaccination sites.

Mokgoro was updating the media on Thursday on the provincial governments response to the recently increasing number of infections and the vaccination rollout programme.

The North West has vaccinated 133 212 individuals as of 25 June 2021. This includes healthcare workers, senior citizens in old age homes and communities, and the Department of Basic Education staff.

Vaccines

He said the province has received 19 200 Johnson & Johnson (J&J) doses and a further 24 000 are expected this week.

In three days, 155 00 doses (80.7%) of allocated doses were administered to staff of all age groups which is an average of 5 166 doses per day.

This was achieved by activating 26 additional vaccination sites across the province.

The Premier thanked the Departments of Basic Education and Health for this milestone.

At this rate, we should be able to complete the vaccination of staff of the Department of Basic Education before the end date.

In addition, 23 101 healthcare workers were vaccinated under phase one, while close to 95 000 doses of Pfizer vaccines have been distributed in phase two, which started on 17 May.

The beneficiaries at this stage are the senior citizens of our province which are the most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 disease and mortality.

He said 169 102 of the estimated 367 000 senior citizens have registered to get their vaccination.

This is close to the 50% and we need to increase the registration of this vulnerable group through self and assisted registration.

In addition, the 14 vaccination sites being used to inoculate the elderly have been increased to 20 this week.

The Premier said outreach services will continue and transport will be arranged for those who have difficulties reaching the sites.

The plan is to escalate all the 40 sites to general rollout in July, he said, adding that this will coincide with the vaccination of those who are aged between 50 and 59.

He reminded the citizens that the registration for those over 50 starts today.

We will also have to administer the second dose of Pfizer vaccine shortly. The qualifying individuals will be scheduled by Electronic Vaccination Data System for the second dose in our various vaccination sites.

He said the province is aiming to vaccinate over 10 000 people per day, as more sites are expanded.

Hotspots

Meanwhile, in the next two weeks, the provincial government will work towards strengthening the COVID-19 public awareness campaigns targeting malls in hot spots such as Matlosana, Rustenburg, and Mahikeng.

Their interventions also include heightening law enforcement on regulations, deploying Command Council members to municipal wards to monitor and promote the registration campaign and vaccination programmes.

He said government will also collaborate with civil society on its efforts to contain the surge.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: NW under pressure as COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions rise

North West Premier Tebogo Job Mokgoro has acknowledged that the province is experiencing strain, as the province battles with the COVID-19 third wave.

Providing an update on the provincial governments response to the recently increasing number of infections, Mokgoro said the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths are on the rise.

As hospital admissions increase, the ability of the Department of Health to expand the vaccination programme decreases as staff must be re-assigned to the clinical units to attend to the sick persons, he told the media on Thursday.

The province has the seventh-highest number of cumulative cases after Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga.

According to the Premier, North West has also recorded a steady surge in daily new cases from 274 reported on 31 May 2021 to 1 149 on 21 June 2021.

Meanwhile, the moving seven-day average has also peaked over the last weeks, positioning the province in the resurgence phase.

Hospital beds

Mokgoro also raised concerns about hospital admissions that have also increased in the general wards, high care and intensive care unit (ICU), with the Tshepong Hospital treating the majority of COVID-19 ill patients followed by Westvaal and Royal Bafokeng Platinum hospitals.

The province has since dedicated 1 140 general beds, 65 high care beds and 47 ICU beds to COVID-19 care in public hospitals.

The Premier said these facilities are well equipped with oxygen delivery systems, medication and personal protective equipment.

However, we are facing the challenges of insufficient staff as many of the clinical personnel have been deployed to support the COVID vaccination programme.

Staff

In addition, the North West will continue to recruit and train healthcare personnel.

He said over 12 000 personnel, including medical officers, specialists, nurses, data capturers, cleaners, food handlers, environmental health practitioners have been trained and assigned to the management of COVID-19 in the province.

Tighter restrictions

He believes that it was critically important for law enforcement agencies to intensify the enforcement of compliance of communities with the prevailing regulations to control the further spread of Coronavirus.

The need for tightening the regulations and possible imposition of higher lockdown level is becoming more apparent to slow down the transmission of COVID-19, relieve the strain being experienced by the health system and prevent morbidity and mortality.

Interventions

In addition, he said the province has adopted several interventions to mitigate against resurgence.

This includes implementation of appropriate early warning systems, strengthening governance structures and imposing restrictions on activities such as gatherings, social-cultural events, educational events, workplace congestion.

In addition, the province will also optimise all structures including screening and testing, quarantine facilities, isolation and treatment facilities and expansion of the vaccination programme to complement preventive measures.

Meanwhile, quarantine facilities are offering 478 beds to accommodate exposed people who are unable to isolate themselves at home.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: President Ramaphosa salutes SARB on centenary celebration

President Cyril Ramaphosa has commended the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its quick, bold, extraordinary and unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year.

Over the past year, the SARB slashed the repo rate by over 200 basis points in an attempt to soften the blow on consumers affected by the effects of the pandemic.

President Ramaphosa applauded the central banks response to the virus in a tribute as the institution on Wednesday celebrated a century of its existence.

In a statement, the Presidency said countries stand or fall on the quality of their institutions.

South Africans, said the President, could be proud of its central bank as an institution that has been unwavering in meeting its Constitutional mandate.

On behalf of the people of South Africa, I extend warm greetings and best wishes to the South African Reserve Bank on the occasion of its 100th birthday.

The SARB has stood witness to some of the most dramatic events in our country from the Great Depression to World War II, from the election of the Nationalist Party government in 1948 to the declaration of the republic, from the Sharpeville massacre to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and to the historic 1994 elections.

He said while the SARBs existence and work predate the dawn of democracy in 1994, the manner in which it has carried out its democratic constitutional mandate, an obligation to the South African peoples desire for liberty and prosperity, has been exemplary.

It has not only applied monetary policy instruments with diligence and care in times of global and regional crises, it has also provided sound and valuable advice to government, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

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Hong Kong: 746 people receive honours, medals

The Chief Executive has awarded 746 people in this years Honours List in recognition of their significant contributions to Hong Kong or for their dedicated public and community service.

Seven people - Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, Chow Chung-kong, Regina Ip, Chan Chung-bun, Choi Koon-shum, Lo Man-tuen - received the Grand Bauhinia Medal.

Eighteen people received the Gold Bauhinia Star, 22 the Silver Bauhinia Star, and 41 the Bronze Bauhinia Star.

Four people received the Silver Medal for Bravery and four people received the Bronze Medal for Bravery.

Eighteen people were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for disciplined services & the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and 49 the Meritorious Service Medals for disciplined services & the ICAC.

Eighty-three people received the Medal of Honour, 165 the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service and 335 the Chief Executive's Commendation for Government/Public Service.

The Government pointed out that the number of award recipients in the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service and the Chief Executive's Commendation for Government/Public Service this year is exceptionally large.

This is to give recognition to those involved in fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic in the past year, it added.

Click here for the full Honours List.

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South Africa: Spate of attacks on LGBTQI+ community in SA

Despite having constitutional and legislative protection of the rights of people of different sexual orientation, South Africa has recently seen an increase in the number of attacks against lesbians, gays and transgender people.

Justice and Constitutional Development Deputy Minister, John Jeffery, said while Pride Month, which is celebrated annually in June, was marked in many parts of the world, South Africa was seeing a spate of attacks against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) persons in the country.

These attacks are extremely concerning and put the dignity, well-being and safety of all people of different sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics in South Africa at heightened risk.

Individuals in these vulnerable communities continue to be subjected to hate crimes and gender based violence (GBV). At the same time we are also seeing allegations of homophobia and bullying of LGBTQI+ learners at schools in our country, Jeffery said.

He was addressing the media on the departments efforts to address hate crimes against LGBTQI+ persons.

During a meeting with the National Task Team on the Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, held on Wednesday, it was reported that as at 29 June, 2021 42 pending hate crimes were perpetrated against that community.

Of the 42 pending cases, 30 cases are for murder and 12 are for rape.

Out of the 42 pending hate crime cases, approximately 29 hate crime cases were reported from 2020 to date. Of these 29 hate crime cases, 16 are on the court roll with remand dates with the remaining 13 cases still under investigation.

Eight cases have been finalised, some with significant sentences such as life imprisonment for rape (Daveyton), 25 years imprisonment for rape (Ikageng), 25 years imprisonment for murder (Umlazi), and 14 years imprisonment for rape (Greytown), the Deputy Minister said.

Some 14 cases have been closed as undetected due to a lack of evidence, but may be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority to review the dockets.

Jeffery said the pending cases are being actively monitored, with government departments working with the SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority and civil society to ensure that they are thoroughly investigated, arrests are made and prosecutions follow.

The Deputy Minister emphasised that the crimes perpetrated against LGBTQI+ persons can only addressed if the information is known to law enforcement agencies.

Revised National Intervention Strategy

The Deputy Minister announced that plans are underway to have further strategic discussions on enhanced collaboration and interventions to promote and protect the rights of LGBTQI+ persons.

While the NTT was initially created to respond to hate crimes against LGBTQI+ people, the adoption of the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan (NSP-GBVF) requires that the NTT reconsiders its NIS in order to also integrate its responses to GBVF related crimes against LGBTQI+ people.

As a result, he said, the reviewed National Intervention Strategy (NIS) 2021  2025 is an opportunity to use the NTT to also respond to GBVF in ways that expand access to broader human, socio-economic, civil and political rights to LGBTQI+ people in South Africa, among others.

Our real challenges are in implementation and in changing societal attitudes in our communities.

Changing societal attitudes is the only way to ensure that persons are not victims of violence or discrimination in their daily lives on the grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics, the Deputy Minister said.

Activist, Steve Letsike, said the revitalisation of NTT at this difficult time for the LGBTQI+ community in South Africa will need to focus on implementation that helps the country to prioritise rights protection, promotion and fulfilment as enshrined in the Constitution.

The urgency of turning the tide on human rights violations is needed now more than ever. Stakeholders must discharge of their responsibilities, coherent strategies must be implemented, and lives must be saved. We have that responsibility, Letsike said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Support people affected by COVID-19 during Mandela Month

In the spirit of Madiba, Cabinet has encouraged South Africans to rise to the challenge and support those in their communities shattered by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We can embrace Madibas values and honour his legacy through humanitarian acts and initiatives supporting those hard-pressed by the impact of the virus, Cabinet said in a statement.

Every year on 18 July, South Africans, together with the global community, honour the former President and international icon, Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, through the celebration of Nelson Mandela International Day.

In these trying times, we depend on our spirit of national solidarity and selflessness as epitomised by Madiba to see one another through, Cabinet said.

During Mandela Month, South Africans embrace the chance to celebrate Nelson Mandelas life for the whole of July.

This gives everyone the opportunity to heed the call to action for people to recognise their individual power to make an imprint and change the world around them.

A global movement for positive change begins with small actions. As each person acts, they fuel momentum toward positive change, raising awareness and expanding the reach of Mandelas values of fighting injustice, helping people in need and practicing reconciliation.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: If you're in your 50s, register for your COVID-19 jab

Cabinet has encouraged those in their 50s to register for the COVID-19 vaccination on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) from today, to receive their shot from 15 July.

People in this age group are urged to register using the https://vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za or WhatsApp 0600 123456.

Meanwhile, Cabinet has confirmed that police officers will be vaccinated from Monday, 5 July.

According to a Cabinet statement released on Thursday, the inoculation of the police officers will be followed by members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) who are due to receive their jab from Thursday, 8 July.

This comes as government intensifies the countrys COVID-19 vaccination rollout plan to protect citizens from the devastating effects of the virus, Cabinet said.

As of 30 June, Cabinet said over three million people have been vaccinated. This includes healthcare workers, senior citizens, and teachers.

The dates for vaccination of employees in the frontline of productive economic sectors such as mines, retail workers, and others will be announced by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Vaccines that is chaired by the Deputy President, the Executive added.

Meanwhile, Cabinet said the tightening of the State of National Disaster restrictions to Adjusted Alert Level 4, would strengthen governments ability to limit the surge in infections by limiting the burden on the healthcare system that is already overwhelmed.

The additional restrictions will be reviewed after 14 days and took care to minimise the impact on economic activity as part of the continued balancing of the need to save both lives and livelihoods.

Cabinet has once again emphasised that the Delta variant was more transmissible than previous variants.

Therefore, this requires vigilance in our day-to-day interactions because many people who are infected with COVID-19 do not show any symptoms.

During this "dangerous" period, Cabinet is advising people to avoid public places and adhere to non-pharmaceutical health protocols by wearing masks when in public, washing hands frequently with soap and water or using a 70% alcohol-based hand sanitiser and maintaining a social distance of at least 1.5 metres.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
New book highlights need for Chaco Canyon preservation

Lincoln, Nebraska, July 1, 2021 -- Carrie Heitman can still remember the moment when -- as an undergraduate visiting for the first time -- Chaco Culture National Historic Park became the cornerstone of her academic career in anthropology.

"You have to take this 30-mile road off the beaten path to get there, and then you drop into the canyon and there are these really majestic geological features," Heitman said. "There's Fajada Butte that stands up in the center of this canyon as it opens up in front of you. When I first went there, in 1997, that was a really powerful experience, to be in this place, surrounded by these absolutely grand and majestic buildings. I fell in love with it."

That love and respect for the ancient lands where many Indigenous ancestors lived and thrived for 300 years has inspired much of the research Heitman has done as an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research projects have included constructing a digital archive of Pueblo artifacts, GPS and lidar mapping of Indigenous architecture and ancient roads, and serving as director and co-principal investigator of the Chaco Research Archive, a vast digital humanities project.

Most recently, she co-edited the new book "The Greater Chaco Landscape: Ancestors, Scholarship and Advocacy" with Ruth Van Dyke, professor of anthropology at Binghamton University in New York.

"The Greater Chaco Landscape" is unique in that it is a published volume but also exists as an open access volume online through the University Press of Colorado. The website also houses extra features related to the book and the work preceding it, such as films with indigenous people, including members of the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni and Acoma tribes, speaking about their ancestors and their connection to the landscapes; films and digital resources regarding the technology used to map the ancient architecture and roads; and conference videos about the sites from anthropological perspectives.

The book's publication in May is the culmination of eight years of work to bring the perspectives of many stakeholders -- including indigenous people, policymakers, researchers and preservationists -- together to help navigate conflicts over energy development and, more importantly, inform the public about the history and importance of the Greater Chaco landscape and advocate for its protection.

Chaco Culture National Historical Park is located in Northwest New Mexico and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to ancient great houses built more than 1,000 years ago. In recent decades, land in and around the park has been used for oil and gas drilling, leading to concern among Indigenous communities, and the larger intermountain region there, that energy development was negatively impacting cultural and natural resources.

"It's a sacred ancestral site for many, if not all, of the Indigenous descendant communities in the region," Heitman said. "With funding, conversation and dialogue with the National Park Service, we developed a research plan that would help address some of those concerns by trying to get better information into the hands of the land managers who are managing those parcels of land right around Chaco. Our initial goal was to help them understand what we know about these ancestral and ancient places, and what we still don't yet know.

"We were afraid that in the process of leasing for oil and gas extraction, they will be destroying resources that we haven't even documented yet."

Heitman, Van Dyke and Stephen Lekson, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, led the effort to bring groups of people together to discuss the various and sometimes competing interests. The first meeting was held in 2014.

"We quickly realized in those early meetings that everyone needed better information, and that meant we needed to bring multiple research teams together to reconcile discrepancies in our knowledge of locations, because the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the leases for oil and gas development, had imperfect data about the site locations," Heitman said of the initial effort.

After completing some research projects to reconcile and update the mapping and data related to the Chaco sites, the team again brought stakeholders together for a conference where everyone could learn from each other, and the idea for the book was formed.

"We're bringing together multiple perspectives on a complicated landscape that has both contemporary and ancient issues," Heitman said. "We're trying to share those perspectives and the concerns from this diverse range of stakeholders to help protect this landscape moving forward."

Through chapters by authors from different fields of expertise, the book charts the many dimensions of the Chacoan landscape. It covers the region's history, the research undertaken to document the great houses and roads, and how Indigenous communities use and connect to its landscapes still today. It is meant to be a resource for cultural and natural preservationists, policymakers and the academic community, but Heitman hopes the book and its accompanying online resources will resonate with many.

"I hope readers have a deeper understanding for the richness of the cultural history of this country and see the importance of protecting it," she said. "From my perspective, it's part of who we are as a nation. It's really important to understand and value the history of the nation going back to early inhabitants. We can be really proud and in awe of what Native people of this continent did and accomplished with their engineering, their artistry, and their rich and complex belief systems."

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This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Leading scientists praise UNESCO's draft decision on the Great Barrier Reef

Five world-renowned scientists have signed a letter to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay to "thank UNESCO for its leadership in recognising the threat of climate change to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage property."

Professor Terry Hughes, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr Sylvia Earle, Professor Johan Rockstrom and Professor Andrea Grottoli sent the letter last night from Australia.

Last month, UNESCO released a draft decision recommending the Great Barrier Reef be inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The scientists' letter is a strong show of support for UNESCO from some of the most revered coral reef experts in the world.

They write UNESCO "has made the right decision" to recommend the in Danger listing of the Great Barrier Reef, because "tragically, the Reef has suffered extensive losses in recent years through three severe coral bleaching events, fuelled by global warming."

They stress that protecting the Reef requires global action to reduce carbon emissions, "yet Australia has so far not pulled its weight in this global effort."

"An 'in Danger' listing for the Great Barrier Reef will focus action on how to limit further damage to the Reef. It presents a challenge to all nations to immediately reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Prof Terry Hughes.

"Australia has a lot to lose with current emission pledges only getting us to global surface temperatures of a lethal 3 degrees C above preindustrial levels," said Prof Hoegh-Guldberg, who also coordinated an Australian Academy of Science report on climate change earlier this year.

"We therefore greatly appreciate UNESCO's draft recommendation for Australia to urgently address the threat of climate change and welcome the draft report's recognition that 1.5 degrees C is widely recognised as a critical threshold for the property," the letter says.

The letter acknowledges efforts by the Australian and Queensland Governments to tackle sediment and nutrient pollution, which were also commended by UNESCO.

But, the scientists add UNESCO's draft decision "notes with the utmost concern that the water quality targets in the Reef 2050 Plan have not been met."

Finally, the scientists pledge that they "stand ready to help support UNESCO's efforts to secure the future of this global icon."

The 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, held online from 16 to 31 July 2021, will decide whether to accept or modify the draft decision on the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian government has said it will strongly lobby member countries of the World Heritage Committee to remove the in Danger recommendation.

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LETTER: https:/ / www. dropbox. com/ s/ 31e2xybn0j35hcu/ Letter%20to%20UNESCO. pdf?dl= 0

BACKGROUND

Professor Terry Hughes FAA is the Founding Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, headquartered at James Cook University, Queensland. In 2018, Nature recognised Professor Hughes as one of the "10 people who mattered this year" for his response to the global coral bleaching event caused by anthropogenic climate change.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg FAA is Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, a Founding Director of the Global Change Institute, and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. He was Coordinating Lead Author on the Impacts chapter of the United Nations IPCC Special report on 1.5 degrees C.

Dr Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, and Chair of Mission Blue which aims to achieve 30% protection of the ocean by 2030. She was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.

Professor Johan Rockstrom is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His climate science work formed the basis of the Sir David Attenborough-narrated Netflix documentary Breaking Boundaries.

Professor Andrea G. Grottoli, based at Ohio State University, is a Fellow and President of the International Coral Reef Society, and Director of the international Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network.

CONTACT

Terry Hughes (Townsville, AEST)

P: +61 (0)400 720 164

E: terry.hughes@jcu.edu.au

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (Brisbane, AEST)

P: +61 (0)401 106 604

E: oveh@uq.edu.au

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Melissa Lyne / Coral CoE at JCU (Sydney, AEST)

P: + 61 (0)415 514 328

E: melissa.lyne@jcu.edu.au

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Eruption of the Laacher See volcano redated

The eruption of the Laacher See volcano in the Eifel, a low mountain range in western Germany, is one of Central Europe's largest eruptions over the past 100,000 years. The eruption ejected around 20 cubic kilometers of tephra and the eruption column is believed to have reached at least 20 kilometers in height, comparable to the Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in 1991. Technical advances in combination with tree remains buried in the course of the eruption now enabled an international research team to accurately date the event. Accordingly, the eruption of the Laacher See volcano occurred 13,077 years ago and thus 126 years earlier than previously assumed. This sheds new light on the climate history of the entire North Atlantic and European region and requires an adaptation of the European climate archives. "We can now precisely date a drop in temperature at the end of the last glacial period, so that the information coincides with that observed from the Greenland Ice Sheet cores," said Dr. Frederick Reinig, a dendrochronologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (JGU). An international research team with experts in archeology, climatology, ecology, radiocarbon dating, and volcanology was involved in this study. The research results were published in the renowned scientific journal Nature.

Charred remains of birch and poplar wood have been preserved to this day

The eruption of the Laacher See volcano was a natural disaster that affected large parts of Europe. The ash rain reached as far as northern Italy in the south and Saint Petersburg in the Northeast. In the immediate vicinity and the neighboring Rhine Valley, mighty deposits of ash and pumice formed, which buried all life beneath them. "During the eruption, pyroclastic flows buried the local vegetation around the Laacher See volcano. The trees were partially charred within the ash deposits and have been preserved to this day," explained Reinig, describing the eruption process that took place over several weeks in late spring to early summer and which now enables scientists to precisely date the event. "These wooden contemporary witnesses are very rare, and they are difficult to recover," said Reinig, first author of the study.

"The regional effects of the volcanic eruption have been well studied. What we have been missing so far is the certainty of when exactly this happened," emphasized Professor Ulf Buntgen, co-author of the Nature publication from the University of Cambridge. This was now determined based on samples from buried birch and poplar trees.

The analysis of tree rings reveals the precise date of the eruption

The volcanic sediments not only preserved the wood for over 13,000 years but also allowed to identify the individual tree rings. "The tree rings enable us to exactly determine the age of the samples," said Professor Jan Esper from Mainz University. In a joint initiative of the Federal Research Institute for Forests, Snow and Landscape WSL in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, together with the Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution MONREPOS in Neuwied, both newly discovered samples and older finds were analyzed. For this purpose, the Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics at ETH Zurich carried out radiocarbon measurements on 157 individual tree rings of the examined trees. Calibration of these results against a Swiss reference chronology then resulted in the precise dating. "The constant advances in radiocarbon measurement technology and the calibration methods used, as well as the careful handling of the sensitive samples, were the key to establish this dating with an uncertainty of less than ten years," said Lukas Wacker from ETH Zurich.

Revised dating of the volcanic eruption has consequences for the synchronization of European climate archives and the understanding of large-scale climate dynamics

According to the description in Nature, the eruption of the Laacher See volcano took place 13,006 years before 1950, with an uncertainty of nine years. That is 126 years earlier than the generally accepted dating based on sediments in the Meerfelder Maar from the Eifel region in Germany.

This difference has far-reaching consequences for the synchronization of European climate archives and the understanding of North Atlantic and European climate history. Laacher See eruption ashes were widespread over large areas of Central and Northern Europe as a result of the volcanic eruption and represent an important time marker for paleoenvironmental archives. Due to the new dating, the European archives now have to be temporally adapted. At the same time, a previously existing temporal difference to the data from the Greenland ice cores was closed.

This means that the massive cooling at the beginning of the Younger Dryas - i.e., the last Ice Age intermezzo lasting around 1,300 years before the currently prevailing warm phase, the Holocene - also occurred in Central Europe 130 years earlier, around 12,870 years ago respectively. This is in line with the onset of the cooling in the North Atlantic region identified in ice cores from Greenland. During the Younger Dryas period, temperatures in Central Europe fell by up to 5 degrees Celsius. This strong cooling did not take place time transgressively, as previously thought, but rather synchronously over the entire North Atlantic and Central European region," said Frederick Reinig. The results of the interdisciplinary research team not only set a precise date for the eruption of the Laacher See in the Eifel. The revised age of the ash deposits and the associated shift in the European climate archives now sheds new light on the climate history of the entire North Atlantic region.

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Images:

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_01. jpg

13,000 year old tree trunk from the volcanic deposits of the Laacher See eruption in the vicinity of Miesenheim, Germany. photo/: Olaf Joris

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_02. jpg

Recovery of a charred tree trunk that was buried by volcanic deposits during the Laacher See eruption. photo/: Olaf Joris

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_03. jpg

A charred tree trunk in the deposits of the Laacher See volcanic eruption: the individual annual rings of the sample were decisive for the exact dating of the eruption. photo/: Olaf Joris

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_04. jpg

The individual annual rings can be seen on an x-ray image of charred birch wood, recovered from the Laacher See Eruption deposits. photo/: Frederick Reinig

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_05. jpg

Subfossil pine disc found in Zurich, Switzerland. Radiocarbon calibration of trees found within the Laacher See deposits against the Swiss radiocarbon reference based on such pines resulted in the precise eruption date. photo/: Daniel Nievergelt

https:/ / download. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ 09_geograph_klimatologie_laacher_see_06. jpg

Tree rings reveal much more than the age of a tree. For example, they allow conclusions to be drawn about the respective growing conditions and thus enable indirect climatic insight. photo/: Jan Esper

Related links:

https:/ / www. blogs. uni-mainz. de/ fb09climatology/ - Climatology Group at the JGU Institute of Geography ;

https:/ / www. geog. cam. ac. uk/ people/ buentgen/ - Professor Ulf Buntgen at the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge ;

https:/ / www. wsl. ch/ de - Federal Research Institute for Forests, Snow and Landscape WSL, Switzerland ;

https:/ / ams. ethz. ch/ - Ion Beam Physics Lab at ETH Zurich

Read more:

https:/ / www. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ aktuell/ 13258_ENG_HTML. php - press release "European summer droughts since 2015 exceed anything in the past two millennia" (16 March 2021) ;

https:/ / www. uni-mainz. de/ presse/ aktuell/ 11153_ENG_HTML. php - press release "Jan Esper receives ERC Advanced Grant to improve climate reconstructions from tree rings" (14 April 2020)

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Scientists reveal a new therapeutic vulnerability in pancreatic cancer

NEW YORK, NY (July 1, 2021)--Lowering levels of a hormone called PTHrP can prevent metastases and improve survival in mice with pancreatic cancer and could lead to a new way to treat patients, according to a study from cancer researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and with collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania.

When patients are first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the cancer usually has spread to other organs. Because of these metastases, nearly all patients will succumb to their cancer within one year of diagnosis, but no drugs exist to prevent metastasis.

In an effort to find treatments, cancer researchers at Columbia--led by Anil K. Rustgi, MD, and Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD--investigated a hormone called PTHrP. Although PTHrP (parathyroid hormone-related protein) is often highly active in patients with pancreatic cancer, its role in metastasis was unclear.

Loss of PTHrP Dramatically Improves Survival in Mice

The researchers first manipulated the levels of PTHrP in mice with pancreatic cancer. Elimination of PTHrP from mice--with genetic engineering or with an antibody that targets the hormone--not only eliminated metastasis and enhanced overall survival, but also dramatically reduced the size of the initial tumors in the pancreas.

Even in mice with a highly aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, the increase in survival was dramatic, increasing from a median of 111 days to 192 days, with near complete elimination of metastases. The 73% increase in survival, the researchers say, is one of the largest observed in mice with this type of pancreatic cancer, which closely resembles human cancers.

The striking results with mice led the researchers to test the anti-PTHrP antibodies in human pancreatic cancer cells. The results from these experiments were also encouraging: Among 3D organoids derived from pancreatic cancer patients under an IRB-approved protocol, anti-PTHrP antibodies greatly reduced growth and viability of the cells.

Two-Pronged Attack on Cell Growth and Metastasis

Targeting PTHrP attacks pancreatic cancer in two ways, the researchers say. It reduces the ability of the tumor cells to transition from an epithelial state to a mesenchymal state, which is necessary for the creation of new metastases. And targeting PTHrP also prevents the growth of primary and secondary tumors.

"We think these findings provide a strong rationale for further developing anti-PTHrP therapy towards clinical trials," says Rustgi, who adds that the antibody used in the study has the potential to be used in people and credits Richard Kremer, MD, PhD, of McGill University for developing the antibodies.

"We are hopeful that a drug targeting PTHrP could be used to treat most patients with pancreatic cancer," he says, "because the vast majority have tumors with high levels of PTHrP. There is the potential application to other cancers as well."

Potential with Other Cancers

The researchers originally began investigating PTHrP because its gene is often amplified when another nearby gene, KRAS, is amplified. KRAS has long been recognized as a cancer-promoting gene in pancreatic and other cancers.

For patients, that may mean anti-PTHrP therapies may have potential in other cancers that are known to harbor KRAS amplifications.

For researchers, the finding also suggests a wider search for cancer-causing genes is needed.

"We feel that PTHrP may have been previously overlooked as a mere passenger gene co-amplified with KRAS, but our study shows that PTHrP has its own tumor-promoting functions," Pitarresi says. "It suggests other so-called 'passenger' genes may have bigger roles in cancer than we initially thought and should be examined more closely." Rustgi notes "it might open up for combinatorial therapies of targeting the KRAS pathway with an antibody to PTHrP."

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More Information

The research appears in Cancer Discovery in a paper titled "PTHrP drives pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis and reveals a new therapeutic vulnerability."

Anil K. Rustgi, MD, is interim executive vice president and dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University and the director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/ NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD, is a member of the Rustgi lab and a research associate in gastroenterology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where Rustgi was before joining Columbia.

Other authors: Robert J. Norgard (Penn), Anna M. Chiarella (Columbia), Kensuke Suzuki (Columbia), Basil Bakir (Columbia), Varun Sahu (Columbia), Jinyang Li (Penn), Jun Zhao (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), Benoit Marchand (Columbia), Maximilian D. Wengyn (Penn), Antony Hsieh (Penn), Il-Kyu Kim (Penn), Amy Zhang (University of Toronto), Karine Sellin (McGill University), Vivian Lee (Penn), Shigetsugu Takano (Chiba University), Yoji Miyahara (Chiba University), Masayuki Ohtsuka (Chiba University), Anirban Maitra (MD Anderson Cancer Center), Faiyaz Notta (University of Toronto), Richard Kremer (McGill University), and Ben Z. Stanger (Penn).

This work was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (grants F32CA221094, P30CA01369644, R01DK060694, and R01CA229803); an American Cancer Society Professorship (Rustgi); an American Gastroenterology Association's Bern Schwartz Research Scholar Award in Pancreatic Cancer; a Hopper-Belmont Foundation Inspiration Award; U.S. Department of Defense (grant W81XWH-15-1-0723); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant MOP142287); and an American Cancer Society-Fairfield County Comedy Against Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF-19-227- 01-CMS).

Richard Kremer is the inventor of the therapeutic monoclonal anti-PTHrP antibodies used in this study and authorized for use by Biochrom Pharma. RK is founder and president of Biochrom Pharma. All other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cuimc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Online symposium addresses issues of cancer research and palliative care

Why does pancreatic cancer develop, what new therapies might be effective against metastasis formation, and what is to be considered in palliative care? Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina will address these questions at the virtual symposium of Class III Medicine.

Online-Symposium Class III - Medicine

"New advances in medicine"

Tuesday, 6 July 2021, 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. (Berlin/Germany)

Online via Zoom

Class III Academy members share insights into their current medical research at this online symposium.

Professor Aurel Perren (Director of the Institute of Pathology, University of Bern/Switzerland): "What is the origin of pancreatic endocrine tumors? Of molecular markers in precision medicine and cells of origin". Perren talks about the development of rare pancreatic tumors and molecular markers that can be used to identify the cells of origin of this type of cancer. These findings may help to further improve personalized cancer therapies and precision medicine in the future.

Professor Thomas Brabletz (Chair of Experimental Medicine, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg/Germany): "Cancer metastasis - fatal process, fascinating mechanisms, therapeutic strategies". Brabletz investigates which processes and mechanisms lead to metastases formation. In his lecture, he presents the research results and explains how new therapeutic approaches can be developed on that basis.

Professor Lukas Radbruch (Director of the Clinic for Palliative Medicine, University Hospital Bonn/Germany): "Resilience and Sense of Coherence in palliative care". Radbruch addresses ethical questions at the end of life. He talks about the importance of resilience and sense of coherence in palliative and end-of-life care.

The program can be found at: https:/ / www. leopoldina. org/ veranstaltungen/ veranstaltung/ event/ 2890/

Follow the Leopoldina on Twitter: http://www. twitter. com/ leopoldina

The event is open to all interested parties and will be held in English. Participation is free of charge. Prior registration by Sunday, 4 July, is required at the following link: https:/ / www. leopoldina. org/ index. php?id= 2605 . After successful registration, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with a dial-in link for the webinar and a password. When using the Zoom video conferencing system, the privacy policy of the provider applies: https:/ / zoom. us/ de-de/ privacy .

If you, as a journalist, would like to attend this event, please register by e-mail at: presse@leopoldina.org

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About the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

As the German National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina provides independent science-based policy advice on matters relevant to society. To this end, the Academy develops interdisciplinary statements based on scientific findings. In these publications, options for action are outlined; making decisions, however, is the responsibility of democratically legitimized politicians. The experts who prepare the statements work in a voluntary and unbiased manner. The Leopoldina represents the German scientific community in the international academy dialogue. This includes advising the annual summits of Heads of State and Government of the G7 and G20 countries. With 1,600 members from more than 30 countries, the Leopoldina combines expertise from almost all research areas. Founded in 1652, it was appointed the National Academy of Sciences of Germany in 2008. The Leopoldina is committed to the common good.

Contact:

Dr. Kathrin Happe

Deputy Head of Department Science - Policy - Society

E-Mail: kathrin.happe@leopoldina.org

Media Contact:

Caroline Wichmann

Head of the Department Press and Public Relations

Tel.: +49 (0)345 472 39-800

E-Mail: presse@leopoldina.org

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Mefloquine: A promising drug 'soldier' in the battle against COVID-19

Early 2020 saw the world break into what has been described as a "war-like situation": a pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the likes of which majority of the living generations across most of the planet have not ever seen. This pandemic has downed economies and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. At the dawn of 2021, vaccines have been deployed, but before populations can be sufficiently vaccinated, effective treatments remain the need of the hour.

Thus, other than fast-tracking research into novel drugs, scientists have also been exploring their arsenals of existing medicines in a bid to find anything that could work against COVID-19. Some approved drugs, like hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon, have already been put to clinical use against SARS-CoV-2 without well establishing their clinical efficacies, due to the severity of the pandemic. Subsequent randomized trials have not been able to yield a consensus on the efficacy of these drugs. Only remdesivir has been approved for clinical use against severe COVID-19, although its efficacy is still being debated.

In a breakthrough study, a team of scientists--comprising Dr. Koichi Watashi, Kaho Shionoya, Masako Yamasaki, Dr. Hirofumi Ohashi, Dr. Shin Aoki, Dr. Kouji Kuramochi, and Dr. Tomohiro Tanaka from Tokyo University of Science (along with scientists from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Kyushu University, The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, and Science Groove Inc.)--have identified an anti-malarial drug, mefloquine (which is incidentally a derivative of hydrochloroquine), that is effective against SARS-CoV-2. Their findings are published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Detailing their modus operandi, lead scientist in the team Dr. Watashi says, "To identify drugs with higher antiviral potency than existing antivirals, we first screened approved anti-parasitic/anti-protozoal drugs. We found that mefloquine had the highest anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity among the tested compounds. Upon testing it against other quinoline derivatives, such as hydrochloroquine, in a cell line mimicking the cell-based environments of human lung cells, we found it to be better."

The team further explored mefloquine's mechanism of action. Dr. Watashi explains the process, "In our cell assays, mefloquine readily reduced the viral RNA levels when applied at the viral entry phase but showed no activity during virus-cell attachment. This shows that mefloquine is effective on SARS-COV-2 entry into cells after attachment on cell surface."

Thus, to bolster mefloquine's anti-viral activity, the scientists looked into the possibility of combining it with a drug that inhibits the replication step of SARS-CoV-2: Nelfinavir. Interestingly, they observed that the two drugs acted in "synergy" and the drug combination showed greater anti-viral activity than either showed alone, without being toxic to the cells in the cell lines themselves.

The scientists also mathematically modelled the effectiveness of mefloquine to predict its potential real-world impact if applied to treat COVID-19. What they predicted was that mefloquine could reduce the overall viral load in affected patients to under 7% and shorten the 'time-till-virus-elimination' by 6.1 days.

This study must of course be succeeded by clinical trials, but the world can hope that mefloquine becomes a drug used to effectively treat patients with COVID-19.

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Reference

Title of original paper: Mefloquine, a Potent Anti-severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Drug as an Entry Inhibitor in vitro

Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology

DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 3389/ fmicb. 2021. 651403

About the Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https:/ / www. tus. ac. jp/ en/ mediarelations/

About Dr. Koichi Watashi from Tokyo University of Science

Dr. Koichi Watashi is a Visiting Professor at Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan. Dr. Watashi also works as the Director, Division of Drug Development, Research Center for Drug and Vaccine Development, at National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan. He is an expert in virology, with over 20 years of experience in researching molecular mechanisms underlying virus proliferation and corresponding anti-viral agents. He has over 140 publications in international academic journals to his credit. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards like The Young Investigator Award of The Japanese Cancer Association, Sugiura Memorial Incentive Award of The Japanese Society for Virology, etc.

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Don't worry, the kids are cool if you cash in on their inheritance

Cash in on the kids' inheritance and spend up big on the retirement plans - that's the message coming from the University of South Australia as new research reveals that older people are keen to spend their well-earned savings, rather than passing them on to their kids.

And while it may seem like bad news for the younger generation, the research also confirms that the kids are just fine with this scenario, claiming that no one owes anyone anything.

The surprising findings are part of a new study that explores contemporary attitudes towards wealth transfer taxation in Australia, finding that public resistance to inheritance and estate taxes may have declined in the 40 years since they were abolished in Australia.

Inheritance is the only major form of income that is untaxed in Australia - a person who works for their income pays tax on it while someone who receives a bequest is not even liable for capital gains tax.

Social policy expert, Dr Veronica Coram from UniSA's Australian Alliance for Social Enterprise says the apparent decline in the bequest motive presents a significant opportunity for Australian tax reform, and a valuable chance to address social inequalities.

"There's nothing more certain than death and taxes. But while people generally assume the combination is notoriously unpopular, our research suggests otherwise," Dr Coram says.

"We talked to young adults and senior Australians and two thirds of them thought Australia should consider reintroducing taxes on estates worth more than $3m, while only one in ten were definitely opposed.

"The lack of interest in giving or receiving inheritances meant that most participants saw no reason to object to estates being taxed, which opens potential opportunities for much-needed tax reform.

"Inheritances generally go to people who are already well-off and don't need them; they encourage inequality and inhibit social mobility.

"The Australian government needs to find ways to raise revenue to support increased spending demands generated by COVID-19, an ageing population, pressure on health systems and increasing environmental disasters.

"Reintroducing inheritance or estate taxation is a way of increasing government revenue, while reducing a key driver of inequality at the same time."

While politicians and policymakers may be wary of making moves, Dr Coram says the findings reflect changes to social norms in Australia and other OECD countries.

"Historically, inheritance taxes have been considered 'political suicide'. But perhaps their time has come, ironically due to a growing individualism and associated decline in the assumption that family members should provide for one another," Dr Coram says.

"More research on changing views towards redistributive policy is required, but the results of our study suggest that if governments are considering tax reform, they should not assume that Australians are vehemently opposed to wealth transfer taxation."

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Media contact: Annabel Mansfield T: +61 8 8302 0351 M: +61 417 717 504 E: Annabel.Mansfield@unisa.edu.au

Researcher: Dr Veronica Coram M: +61 410 161 823 E: Veronica.Coram@unisa.edu.au

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Low-income patients may be less likely to receive medical assistance in dying

In Canada, low-income hospital patients under palliative care are less likely to receive medical assistance in dying compared to those who are high income, according to a study published in British Medical Journal Open (BMJ Open).

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is legal and free under Medicare, Canada's universal health care system. Patients with low socioeconomic status (SES), however, generally tend to experience less access to medical care compared to their high SES counterparts.

Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology and public affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, along with a team of researchers from Sunnybrook Hospital in Ontario, investigated whether this trend of decreased care for low-income patients includes medical assistance in dying.

"I have long been interested in SES influences on decision-making," said Shafir. "I often discuss with my friend and collaborator, Dr. Redelmeier, ways to illustrate some of our findings in the medical realm, especially, when possible, among experts. ... In this case MAID was a really interesting domain, since it's a 'big' decision, and finances are not an issue."

Medical assistance in dying was ruled legal in Canada in February 2015 and officially implemented and covered under Medicare by June 2016. To be considered, a patient must have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, such as metastatic cancer, that causes unbearable suffering where death is foreseeable, according to the Government of Canada.

However, one's socioeconomic status can influence how medical care is administered and received by a patient in several ways. "People can be easily susceptible to pitfalls and biases in reasoning," Shafir said.

Low-income patients, for example, may feel less equipped to advocate for their care and to convey dissatisfaction. Clinicians can also succumb to the "thick-skin fallacy," or the harmful perception that low-income people are used to hardship and therefore less impacted by it.

The team explored the association between socioeconomic status and medical assistance in dying by identifying hospital patients aged 65 and older in Ontario, Canada between June 2016 and 2019. At the time of their death, all patients, all of whom had serious medical conditions, were under palliative care, receiving pain-relieving treatment for symptoms. They were then divided into groups based on socioeconomic status, which was calculated using an official algorithm created by Statistics Canada based on home neighborhood location, and whether they received medical assistance in dying.

During the three years, 50,096 patients were given palliative care in their last month of life. Among them, 920 received medical assistance in dying. Only 1.5% of low-income patients identified were given MAID, compared to 2.4% of high-income patients -- a 39% decreased likelihood for those with low socioeconomic status. This disparity in care was found consistently across a variety of patient subgroups that varied in age, sex, home location, type of cancer, health care utilization, and general frailty. It was even replicated with patients treated by the same responsible physician.

The study's results support past findings by other countries about the relationship between medical assistance in dying and patients' socioeconomic status. In countries like the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium, people who received MAID or MAID equivalents tended to be highly educated, financially secure, or live in wealthy neighborhoods.

The researchers, however, suspect that this difference in patient care may be influenced by factors that exist outside of financial capabilities. "I suspect most of what happens here is a function of the doctor-patient interaction," explained Shafir. "I think, all else equal, that doctors might see low-SES patients as less in urgent need of MAID."

Certain study limitations, such as biased and imperfect socioeconomic status measures, warrant further research exploring the link between social class and medically assisted death. "Both perspectives, the doctors' and the patients', need to be better understood by the medical community in order to provide low-SES patients with same care afforded those of higher SES," said Shafir.

The observations made by Shafir and his team address an earlier misconception in Canada that medical assistance in dying may harmfully target low-income individuals. The researchers are optimistic that their findings may help promote greater patient-clinician communication and engagement.

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"Association of socioeconomic status with medical assistance in dying: a case-control analysis" by Donald A. Redelmeier, Kevin Ng, Deva Thiruchelvam, and Shafir, was published on April 30 in British Medical Journal Open.

This story has been published on: 2021-07-01. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: Report that China building new ICBM silos 'a concern'

The United States expressed concern on Thursday over a report that China is building more than 100 new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Washington Post, citing a study of commercial satellite images by a California-based group, reported on Thursday that the silos were being built in a desert near the northwestern city of Yumen.

The James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey said the 119 construction sites in Gansu province were similar to existing Chinese launch facilities for nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked about the report on Thursday.

"I think what is fair to say is that these reports and other developments suggest that the PRC's (People's Republic of China) nuclear arsenal will grow more quickly, and to a higher level, than perhaps previously anticipated," he said.

"This buildup, it is concerning," Price said. "It raises questions about the PRC's intent.

"And for us it reinforces the importance of pursuing practical measures to reduce nuclear risks," he added.

"Despite what appears to be PRC obfuscation, this rapid buildup has become more difficult to hide," Price said. "And it highlights how the PRC appears again to be deviating from decades of nuclear strategy based around minimum deterrence."

Price was also asked whether the United States had a reaction to bellicose remarks by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi, in a speech at centenary celebrations for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said "the Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, oppress, or enslave us."

"Whoever wants to do so will face bloodshed in front of a Great Wall of steel built by more than 1.4 billion Chinese people," he said.

Price said the State Department had "taken note" of Xi's remarks "but we're not going to comment on the specifics."

"I think this administration over the course of several months has been very clear about our impressions of the CCP, in general, but I don't have a specific response for you on President Xi's remarks today," he said. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2021-07-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Researchers have developed and successfully demonstrated a novel method for studying how cells repair damaged DNA in space. Sarah Stahl-Rommel of Genes in Space and colleagues present the new technique in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 30, 2021.

Damage to an organism's DNA can occur during normal biological processes or as a result of environmental causes, such as UV light. In humans and other animals, damaged DNA can lead to cancer. Fortunately, cells have several different natural strategies by which damaged DNA can be repaired. Astronauts traveling outside of Earth's protective atmosphere face increased risk of DNA damage due to the ionizing radiation that permeates space. Therefore, which specific DNA-repair strategies are employed by the body in space may be particularly important. Previous work suggests that microgravity conditions may influence this choice, raising concerns that repair might not be adequate. However, technological and safety obstacles have so far limited investigation into the issue.

Now, Stahl-Rommel and colleagues have developed a new method for studying DNA repair in yeast cells that can be conducted entirely in space. The technique uses CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology to create precise damage to DNA strands so that DNA repair mechanisms can then be observed in better detail than would be possible with non-specific damage via radiation or other causes. The method focuses on a particularly harmful type of DNA damage known as a double-strand break.

The researchers successfully demonstrated the viability of the novel method in yeast cells aboard the International Space Station. They hope the technique will now enable extensive research into DNA repair in space. This study marks the first time that CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has successfully been conducted in space, as well as the first time in space that live cells have undergone successful transformation--incorporation of genetic material originating from outside the organism.

Future research could refine the new method to better mimic the complex DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation. The technique could also serve as a foundation for investigations into numerous other molecular biology topics related to long-term space exposure and exploration.

"It's not just that the team successfully deployed novel technologies like CRISPR genome editing, PCR, and nanopore sequencing in an extreme environment, but also that we were able to integrate them into a functionally complete biotechnology workflow applicable to the study of DNA repair and other fundamental cellular processes in microgravity," said senior author Sebastian Kraves. "These developments fill this team with hope in humanity's renewed quest to explore and inhabit the vast expanse of space."

First author Sarah Stahl Rommel adds, "Being a part of Genes in Space-6 has been a highlight of my career. I saw firsthand just how much can be accomplished when the ideas of innovative students are supported by the best from academia, industry, and NASA. The expertise of the team resulted in the ability to perform high-quality, complex science beyond the bounds of Earth. I hope this impactful collaboration continues to show students and senior researchers alike what is possible onboard our laboratory in space."

Co-author Sarah Castro-Wallace says, "It was an honor to support Genes in Space-6. I am still blown away by the incredible sophistication of the science that was realized when an organism was transformed, its genome edited with CRISPR/Cas9 to cause breaks in the DNA, followed by its growth to allow for DNA repair, and, finally, its DNA sequenced, all in the spaceflight environment onboard the ISS. The ability to perform this all-encompassing, end-to-end investigation is a huge step forward for space biology. This caliber of work speaks to both the exceptional students and the Genes in Space Program."

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Citation: Stahl-Rommel S, Li D, Sung M, Li R, Vijayakumar A, Atabay KD, et al. (2021) A CRISPR-based assay for the study of eukaryotic DNA repair onboard the International Space Station. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0253403. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253403

Funding: This study was funded by miniPCR bio and Boeing.

Competing Interests: E.A.S., E.J.G., and S.K. are employed by miniPCR bio, manufacturer of the device used for transformation, DNA extraction, and DNA amplification. D.S.C and K.D.F. are employed by Boeing and S.S.R. and C.L.C. are employed by JES Tech. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The remaining authors declare no competing financial interests.

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253403



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Shanghai (Gasgoo)- A 50/50 joint venture between Japanese automaker Toyota and Chinese hydrogen fuel cell engine developer SinoHytec was set up on June 28, signifying that the agreement both parties signed in March of this year has been firmed up.

Toyota, SinoHytec signing agreement for fuel cell JV; photo credit: Toyota



Dubbed Toyota Sinohytec Fuel Cell Co.,Ltd., the Beijing-based new company involves a registered capital of 4.5 billion yen ($40.7295 million). Its business scope extends to cover the manufacturing, consigned processing and sale of fuel cells and relevant auto parts. Dong Changzheng, senior executive vice-president of Toyota China, is the legal representative of the company.

It was not the first time for Toyota and SinoHytec to build joint venture. In June 2020, the two companies signed an agreement with four Chinese state-owned automakers for the establishment of a fuel cell system R&D joint venture in a bid to popularize fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) in China. The four carmakers are China FAW Corporation Limited (FAW), Dongfeng Motor Corporation (Dongfeng), GAC Group, and BAIC Group.

According to Toyota, the joint venture, named United Fuel Cell System R&D (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (FCRD), would primarily work on the be development of fuel cell systems for commercial vehicles to contribute to the realization of a clean mobility society in China.

Involving a planned investment of roughly 5.019 billion yen ($45.198 million), FCRD would be held as to 65% by Toyota and 15% by SinoHytec. The other 20% stake is evenly divided by FAW, Dongfeng, GAC Group and BAIC Group. The joint venture was formally founded in August last year, according to the business data platform Qichacha.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Hongqi, FAW Groups luxury brand, sold 145,000 vehicles in the first half of this year, surging 107% compared with the same period of last year, the brand announced on the last day of June. The brand aims to sell 400,000 vehicles this year, but by the end of June, it just finished 36.25% of its annual target.

Hongqi didnt offer monthly sales data of last month, but the volume of the first six months minus that of the first five months were 27,000 vehicles, up 3.4% month on month.



By the end of June, the brand has a total of 337 experience centers across the country, with total consumer traffic jumping 86.7% year on year in the past six months.

Hongqi H9 and Hongqi E-HS9; photo credit: Hongqi

Among all models it sells, the HS5 has a relatively better sales performance, followed by the H5 and the H9, and its new energy vehicle models include the E-HS3 and the E-HS9. In the future, Hongqi will launch many new models to accomplish its annual sales target, including the new HS5 whose mass production and delivery will start from July and the third quarter respectively.
Update: 27-06-2021 | 18:09:23

A delegation from the Vientiane capital of Laos on June 25 handed over 30,000 USD to the Embassy of Vietnam to help authorities and people of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City fight COVID-19.

At the handover ceremony (Photo: VNA)

A delegation from the Vientiane capital of Laos on June 25 handed over 30,000 USD to the Embassy of Vietnam to help authorities and people of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City fight COVID-19.



Speaking at the handover ceremony, Secretary of the Vientiane Party Committee Anouphap Tounalom affirmed the Lao capital citys special relations with Hanoi and HCM City, voicing his belief that the two cities will soon surmount hardships caused by COVID-19 to stabilise the life and restore production for socio-economic development.



The assistance was raised by Vientiane authorities and people, along with the Vietnamese community and firms operating in the city, he added.



For his part, Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung thanked the delegation for its support even when Laos and Vientiane in particular are also striving to curb the spread of COVID-19.



He believed that the two Vietnamese major cities and Vientiane would further bolster the traditional relations and contribute to the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the Parties, States and peoples of the two countries.



The Vietnamese Embassy has to date received about 1.3 million USD from Lao organisations and individuals to support Vietnams fight against COVID-19, including 500,000 USD worth of medical equipment./.

VNA
News  Headlines

Additional 260 more Covid-19 patients confirmed in Thursday noon report
Xi Jinping -- Leading CPC to strive for a better world

Xinhua) 07:08, July 01, 2021

-- "What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."

-- While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.

-- As the world is facing changes unseen in a century, Xi has led China to become a staunch champion of genuine multilateralism defending the international order against such challenges as unilateralism and bullying.

-- Answering the fundamental questions of what has happened to the world and how to respond, Xi offered China's proposition: build a community with a shared future for mankind, a concept that has been enshrined in the CPC's constitution and has also been guiding China's interaction with the rest of the world.

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- "What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."

Addressing over 600 representatives of political parties from over 120 countries at a high-level dialogue in 2017, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and president of China, laid out the historic mission of the world's largest political party.

Committed to the party's original aspiration, Xi is leading the CPC not only to build China into a modern socialist country but to create a better shared future for the world.

DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL

A day before the official centenary of the CPC on Thursday, China, after a 70-year fight, was officially declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, which marks the latest of the numerous achievements China has made under the CPC's leadership.

In February, Xi announced that China, with a population larger than 1.4 billion, had secured a complete victory against poverty, which was widely acclaimed as a miracle in the human history of poverty reduction.

While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.

Whether in the fight against malaria or in poverty alleviation, China has over the past decades extended a helping hand to others, especially developing countries.

Back in 2000, Xi, then governor of southeastern China's Fujian Province, helped launch a pilot Juncao project to help improve the livelihood of the Papua New Guinean people.

Juncao, famed as "magic grass" and discovered by Chinese scientists, is an economical and environmentally friendly substitute for timber, which can be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

Eighteen years later, during Xi's state visit to the Oceanian country, the two countries signed another aid project using the grass technology. By 2023, the aid program is expected to lift 30,000 local people out of poverty.

Today, the Juncao project has taken root in over 100 countries, helping combat poverty in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific region.

Residents display their certificates of training courses on Juncao and upland rice cultivation technology in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, Dec. 17, 2020. (Xinhua)

Meanwhile, from the decades-old Canton Fair to the 3-year-old China International Import Expo and to the newly launched China International Consumer Products Expo, high-end international expos have repeatedly demonstrated China's commitment to wider opening-up and mutual benefits.

People walk into the venue of the first China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, May 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Hongfa)

"China cannot be separated from the world in achieving development, and the world also needs China for prosperity," Xi said at the 20th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing via video link.

FORCE FOR PEACE

When he visited the UN headquarters in the fall of 2015, Xi brought a gift for the United Nations' 70th birthday -- "Zun of Peace," a red bronze bottle decorated by traditional Chinese auspicious patterns.

It shows the aspiration and faith of the Chinese people in seeking peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, which are also spirits of the UN Charter, Xi explained.

Under the CPC's leadership, China is marching towards the second centenary goal -- to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049, the centenary of the People's Republic of China.

"China the lion has awakened, but it is a peaceful, amicable and civilized lion," Xi said in 2014 at a gathering marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relations, stressing that the Chinese Dream is about pursuing peace, questing for happiness, and contributing to the common good of the world.

Today, China is the second largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget, and has sent more peacekeepers to UN missions than any other permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all contribute their share to maintaining and enhancing peace," Xi said in April 2013 at the opening plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, the first multilateral diplomatic event he hosted as Chinese president.

As the world is facing changes unseen in a century, Xi has led China to become a staunch champion of genuine multilateralism defending the international order against such challenges as unilateralism and bullying.

There is no better choice for world countries other than strengthening multilateral cooperation in the face of one global challenge after another, Xi told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the G20 summit held in Buenos Aires in November 2018.

SHARED FUTURE FOR MANKIND

Mankind is in an era of major development as well as profound transformation and change, and is also in an era of numerous challenges and increasing risks, Xi noted in his 2017 landmark speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Answering the fundamental questions of what has happened to the world and how to respond, Xi offered China's proposition: build a community with a shared future for mankind, a concept that has been enshrined in the CPC's constitution and has also been guiding China's interaction with the rest of the world.

In face of the unprecedented COVID-19 threat, China, the world's largest developing country, has effectively put the disease under control at home, and has meanwhile spared no effort to help other countries.

In 2020, Xi promised that Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, when available, "will be made a global public good." Now despite a tight supply and huge domestic demand, China has provided over 450 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the international community, and is continuing to help ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability worldwide.

Staff members unload China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, June 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Jiang Shengxiong)

Xi's vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind offers not only a new solution to global challenges, but also a new perspective on world civilizations.

While in the West there has been such rhetoric as the clash of civilizations or the superiority of one civilization over another, in Xi's eyes, the development of a civilization is sustained by exchanges and mutual learning.

An Asian culture carnival is held during the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations at the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China, May 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

That is in line with the future of the world he has been leading the CPC to strive for -- an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful one that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.

"Countries may have differences and even encounter problems with each other," said Xi. "But we should not forget that we all live under the same sky, share one and the same home planet and belong to one and the same family."

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Hongyu)
World's longest desert-crossing expressway in full operation

Xinhua) 07:39, July 01, 2021

-- The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic on Wednesday after its last section in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was put into operation.

-- The expressway linking Beijing and Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, has a total length of 2,800 km, with over 500 km passing through desert and no man's land.

-- It cuts the driving distance between Urumqi and Beijing by more than 1,300 km, making it the fastest road to cross north China.

URUMQI, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic on Wednesday after the last section of the route in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was put into operation.

The expressway linking Beijing and Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, has a total length of 2,800 km, with over 500 km passing through desert and no man's land.

In addition to Beijing and Xinjiang, the expressway passes through four other provincial-level regions: Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Gansu in north China.

Photo taken on June 30, 2021 shows a vehicle running on the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

It cuts the driving distance between Urumqi and Beijing by more than 1,300 km, making it the fastest road to cross north China, according to Cao Shouhua, a researcher with the Research Institute of Highway, a think tank under the country's transport ministry.

It is also the fastest land route from Tianjin Port in north China to Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands, facilitating exchanges along the Belt and Road.

Sections of the expressway in other provincial-level regions are already in operation. Due to its harsh natural environment and complex geological conditions, the section in Xinjiang was the last to be completed, taking approximately four years.

The Xinjiang section passes through varied landscapes, including the Gobi desert and grasslands. "It was no easy work," said Long Xing, general manager of the Xinjiang section's major developer, affiliated with the China Railway Construction Corporation.

Aerial photo taken on June 29, 2021 shows a view of the Barkol Lake scenic spot along the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

In addition to extreme temperatures ranging from over 40 degrees Celsius to below minus 40 degrees Celsius, workers had to deal with sandstorms, snowstorms, and a lack of stable telecommunication signals, among other difficulties, Long added.

ECOLOGICALLY, ECONOMICALLY FRIENDLY

The Xinjiang section crosses many areas rich in wildlife, and developers have managed to reduce the project's impact on local wildlife as much as possible.

A total of 62 animal passages have been built throughout the section, according to Wang Xiaozhi, the section's chief designer. The design of a three-layer passage has been specifically developed to simultaneously enable the uninterrupted passage of trains, animals and road vehicles.

The three-layer passages have cost an additional 120 million yuan (about 18.6 million U.S. dollars), but Wang believed that was worthwhile. "We should not impede wildlife's path while building our own."

Aerial photo taken on June 28, 2021 shows a section of the Beijing-Urumqi Expressway in Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

Locals living along the expressway are the biggest beneficiaries, as easier and faster transport will stimulate local economic vitality.

Delida Yerken, a resident of the Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol in east Xinjiang, said she expects booming tourism in her hometown, with an increased inflow of tourists brought by the first expressway to pass Barkol.

"I'm also planning for a family road trip to Beijing and other cities along the expressway during the holidays," she said. "It brings us closer to other areas."

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Hongyu)
Chinese farmer creates green Great Wall in desert

08:15, July 01, 2021 By Wan Yu ( People's Daily

Shi Guangyin, an exemplary individual who leads efforts in afforestation and combating desertification in northwest Chinas Shaanxi province, checks pinus sylvestris in a shelter forest. (File photo)

Shi Guangyin, a farmer in Dingbian county, Yulin city, northwest Chinas Shaanxi province, has recently received the July 1 Medal, the highest honor in the Communist Party of China (CPC), for his outstanding contributions to desertification control.

Residents in Yulin had long been plagued by heavy winds, floating sand, and barren land mainly due to the Maowusu Desert, Chinas eighth largest desert, located between Yulin city and Ordos of north Chinas Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The desert accounts for 56.1 percent of the area of Yulin city.

In the 1950s, local people in Yulin started to tame the desert by afforestation. So far, 93.24 percent of the desertified land in the city has been put under control, all the 8.6 million mu (about 573,333 hectares) of quicksand in the city has been fixed or semi-fixed, and large areas of exposed sand can barely be spotted now, to which Shi has contributed a considerable part.

At the beginning of 1984, after China rolled out policies to encourage individuals to sign contracts with the government to combat desertification, Shi entered into a contract with the local government for desertification control of 3,000 mu of land, becoming the first person who signed such a contract in Yulin.

Over the past more than 30 years, a group of local people led by Shi have braved innumerable trials and hardships and planted and kept alive more than 53 million arbors and shrubs in 250,000 mu of barren sand and alkali beaches, finally building a green Great Wall that stretches more than 50 kilometers at the south of the Maowusu Desert.

The green Great Wall has completely changed the harsh natural conditions of the area and yielded significant social, ecological, and economic benefits.

While fighting desertification, Shi has also tried to help families in straitened circumstances and bring benefits to local residents. He came up with over 1.2 million yuan ($185,760) to build two schools and an ecological relocation village, and provide financial assistance for more than 300 households.

Because of his contributions and devotion to desertification control, Shi has been awarded honorary titles including Chinas national model worker, national desertification control hero as well as outstanding farmer by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He is also called Uncle in the Desert by local people.

For desertification control, Shi and his family moved to Sidahao village, with the largest area of barren sand in Haiziliang township of Dingbian, in 1984, and began planting trees there. Although over 85 percent of the trees he planted survived that year, 90 percent of the saplings were swallowed by wind erosion and sandstorm merely one year or two later.

Instead of being discouraged by the setbacks, Shi realized that he was being foolhardy to start off for the task with only enthusiasm but the right methods. He therefore consulted technicians at the forestry bureau of Dingbian about desertification treatment, and learned from the experience of Hengshan district of Yulin and other places in controlling sand.

After acquiring and adopting scientific methods, Shi and his team set up 800 kilometers of sand-protecting barriers on 6,000 mu of barren sand, and eventually brought the survival rate of the saplings they planted above 80 percent.

By the end of 2004, the 250,000 mu of barren sand and alkali beaches Shi had been working on had seen a grass and forest coverage of over 90 percent, reflecting effective management.

After 2000, considering that the shrubwoods he planted before have a short lifespan and low economic and ornamental value, Shi started to transform such low-yielding forests. He has so far planted over one million high-quality species, which are mainly pinus sylvestris.

To make desertification control be carried on for generations, Shi set up a company that adheres to a development strategy featuring controlling and utilizing barren sand and follows a path that links the company with rural households and various bases, aiming to increase peoples income while fighting desertification.

With such strategy and path, Shi established more than ten economic entities, including pasture, dairy farm, purified water factory, as well as tourist attraction. His company now sees an annual income of over 3.4 million yuan from ecological subsidies and economic benefits of plants grown under trees.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Chinese envoy urges U.S. to return to Iran deal with no preconditions

Xinhua) 08:16, July 01, 2021

People work at the construction site of the second phase of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Bushehr, southern Iran, on Nov. 10, 2019. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, on Wednesday urged the United States to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal.

"As the Chinese saying goes, let he who tied the bell on the tiger's neck take it off. It is incumbent upon the U.S., the originator, to take the lead in returning to the JCPOA with no preconditions," Geng told the Security Council briefing on non-proliferation regarding the implementation of the Resolution 2231.

"Iran, on the basis of this, should subsequently also return to full compliance. This is the right way to bring the Iranian nuclear deal back on track and achieve de-escalation of the situation in the region," he added.

Security Council Resolution 2231 was a July 20, 2015 resolution endorsing the JCPOA on the nuclear program of Iran. It sets out an inspection process and schedule while also preparing for the removal of United Nations sanctions against Iran. The 15 nations on the Security Council unanimously endorsed the resolution, which had been negotiated by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - plus Germany, the European Union, and Iran.

Noting that the JCPOA is a diplomatic outcome achieved through hard work by all parties that engaged in consultation and negotiation, Geng said that the deal embodies the successful practice of multilateralism.

"It is an essential safeguard for the international nuclear non-proliferation regime as well as the peace and stability in the Middle East," said the envoy.

"The United States, in disregard of the opposition of the international community, obstinately made a unilateral withdrawal from the agreement, and has continued to apply maximum pressure on Iran. This is the root of the current dilemma of the Iranian nuclear issue," Geng noted.

The United States announced its withdrawal from the Iran deal on May 8, 2018.

"The withdrawal by the U.S. from the JCPOA has led to a serious trust deficit between the U.S. and Iran. This significantly hinders the resumption of compliance negotiation between the two sides," said Geng.

"Out of the concern that the U.S. may once again walk away from the agreement, Iran has asked the current U.S. administration to provide a guarantee that it will not repeat the unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA," Geng stressed.

"This request is completely understandable and should be responded to. It is our hope that all parties will adopt a positive posture and show political wisdom in finding a solution," noted the envoy.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
China, like-minded countries express concern over human rights situation in UK

Xinhua) 08:24, July 01, 2021

GENEVA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- China and a group of like-minded countries on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the human rights situation in the United Kingdom (UK), saying that severe systemic racism, racial discrimination, hate speech, xenophobia and related violence have long been existing there.

Delivering a joint statement on behalf of a group of countries, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, said that these discriminatory actions are toxic residues of the UK's history of colonialism and trade in enslaved Africans.

Jiang pointed out in the joint statement that a number of UN Special Procedures have expressed their concern, but the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which was set up by the UK government, is still trying to deny the facts.

He further mentioned that UK military servicemen on overseas operations have committed killings of civilians but are still at large. The UK is trying to shield them from due accountability by way of legislation.

Also, he said, the migrant detention centers in the UK are operating under poor conditions and the rights of migrants are severely violated.

In addition, he added, the UK spread disinformation and provoked confrontation out of political purposes, using human rights as a pretext to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and politicized acts as such have seriously undermined international human rights cooperation and are "deeply concerning".

"We call on the Human Rights Council to continuously look into human rights violations in the UK and take necessary steps to monitor actions of the UK government to correct its mistakes," Jiang urged.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
Greek, Chinese officials expect to broaden cooperation in education

Xinhua) 08:28, July 01, 2021

ATHENS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Greece and China have the willingness to broaden cooperation in many fields, including education, Greek and Chinese officials, academics and business leaders told an online conference here on Wednesday.

"We look forward to broadening our cooperation in the future," said Evangelos Syrigos, Greek deputy minister of Education and Religious Affairs, at a forum hosted by the Athens Business Confucius Institute (BCI Athens).

Both China and Greece, linked with ties of strong friendship, are willing to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in education, among other sectors, said Wang Qiang, Charge d'Affaires Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Greece.

Greece is welcoming an increasing number of Chinese students in Greek universities in recent years, while many Greeks are learning the Chinese language, a key in understanding and advancing cooperation, Syrigos noted.

To date, the BCI Athens has given the opportunity to at least 3,000 Greek students to learn Chinese, said Alexandros Papalexandris, the institute's co-director.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
Zhang Guimei, a CPC member igniting hopes for impoverished girls in mountainous areas

08:32, July 01, 2021 By Xu Yuanfeng ( People's Daily

Photo shows Zhang in the school. (Photo/Yunnan Daily)

Zhang Guimei, who has dedicated her 40 years to education at Chinas southwestern border, is a mother for more than 170 children, and a principal motivating young girls from impoverished families in mountainous areas.

Trying to cut the intergenerational transmission of poverty, she has ignited the hopes of many with the light of education.

Zhang was born in Mudanjiang, northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province in 1957. When she was 17, she came to Yunnan province, which lies in southwest China, with her elder sister, responding to the call of the country to support the development of border areas. When she first arrived there, she worked a job in the forestry industry. However, she stumbled into teaching and started a career as an educator ever since.

After Zhangs husband passed away in 1996, she went from Dali to teach in Huaping county, Yunnans Lijiang. Five years later, she established a childrens home and worked as a part-time president of it. The organization adopted a total of over 170 children, and Zhang had to take care of them only after coming back from work. The children call her mom though she has never given birth to a child.

Teaching at a middle school in Huaping county at that time, she saw many girls drop out of school due to poverty. It saddened her very much and made her realize that an educated female is able to cut the intergenerational transmission of poverty and change the future of three generations. In 2002, Zhang started her preparation to build a free all-girls high school, in hope of changing the destiny of the girls in the mountain and lifting them out of poverty.

In 2007, Zhang went to Beijing for the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress as a deputy. Her report titled I have a dream delivered at the meeting made her dream of building a free all-girls high school known to all. Later, both the Lijiang and Huaping governments sponsored her with a million yuan.

A year later, Zhangs school was completed, becoming the first free all-girls high school in China

The school, born to fight against poverty, is a shelter for a number of girls in mountainous areas. Before it was established, the enrolment rate of high school entrance exams in Huaping was less than 50 percent. However, the figure surged to over 90 percent last year, and the county has been leading in the enrollment rate of college entrance exams in Lijiang for years. In the past, rural females in the county would choose to marry and get pregnant at a young age, but today, more and more of them are going to high schools for education. During the past 13 years, the school has nurtured over 1,800 students who have made it to universities.

With no offspring and property, Zhang lives in a dormitory building with her students. She has donated all her cash awards, donations from others, and most of her salaries, which added up to more than a million yuan, to the children in mountainous areas and other people in need.

Zhang suffers from 23 diseases, including heart disease and emphysema, but she is still working selflessly. She gets up at 5:00 am and is always the first to arrive at school. She also checks how the classes are going three times a day. Zhang has made over 1,600 family visits annually for the past 12 years, covering a total distance of 110,000 kilometers.

On June 29, Zhang was awarded CPCs top honor July 1 Medal at a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At the ceremony, she said she did all this out of her gratefulness and love for the country, as well as the original aspiration and mission of a CPC member.

The things we have done are what many CPC members are doing every day. As long as Im still capable, I will stand in the classroom to give my all, which I will never ever regret, she remarked.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Experts, readers speak out against unfounded reports of U.S. media on lab leak hypothesis

Xinhua) 08:45, July 01, 2021

A staff member works in a laboratory in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

"In general, the treatment of the origins of COVID-19 by politicians and polemicists has ignored or distorted the science to the point of embarrassment for an advanced nation," said a reader.

"Let us call on our politicians to end the China bashing and negotiate a framework for a peaceful and prosperous world."

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Against the evidence-free reports of some U.S. media outlets on the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis, many experts and readers have spoken out, noting that the press coverage has only created a diversion from the real problems in the United States and chipped away at the media's credibility.

In a June 23 article on The Conversation, an online media outlet that publishes news stories and articles written by academics and researchers, Keith Grehan and Natalie Kingston of the University of Leeds said, "While a natural origin seems likely -- and many have long warned about the danger of wildlife circulating viruses -- scientists shouldn't jump to conclusions."

Noting a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report about the hypothesis, the researchers added, "The origin of Sars-CoV-2 may remain unresolved, but there is no evidence presented in the WSJ piece that scientifically supports the concept of a lab leak of a genetically engineered virus."

FAIR, a U.S. media watch group, on Monday bashed the unfounded reporting. It is certainly true that people like former U.S. President Donald Trump and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "are notorious for being shameless liars, and blatantly promoted the lab leak theory in a cynical attempt to scapegoat China for the U.S.'s disastrous handling of the pandemic," it said.

Photo taken on Jan. 12, 2019 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"Besides relying on unnamed officials," FAIR added, "another issue with the Journal report is that its lead author, Michael R. Gordon, co-authored (with Judith Miller) the notorious New York Times report ... that was perhaps the single piece of journalism most responsible for deceiving the nation about Saddam Hussein's imaginary weapons of mass destruction."

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University published a commentary on the Project Syndicate on June 22, mentioning that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not yet revealed the actual research that it has financed and supported.

"It is in fact common knowledge in the U.S. scientific community that NIH has indeed supported genetic recombinant research on SARS-like viruses that many scientists describe as GOFROC," the professor pointed out.

Added to this, the poor performance of the media and politicians has also let readers down. In a letter published Tuesday to the San Francisco Chronicle, a reader said, "In general, the treatment of the origins of COVID-19 by politicians and polemicists has ignored or distorted the science to the point of embarrassment for an advanced nation."

"Let us call on our politicians to end the China bashing and negotiate a framework for a peaceful and prosperous world," the reader said.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
Central Military Commission honors outstanding Party members, workers, organizations

Xinhua) 08:50, July 01, 2021

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- China's Central Military Commission (CMC) has issued a circular honoring a number of outstanding members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), outstanding Party workers and advanced primary-level Party organizations in the armed forces.

According to a list released by the CMC, a total of 49 Party members, 30 Party workers and 20 primary-level Party organizations are honored.

The circular says that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. During China's glorious course of great achievements made in the revolution, construction and reform under the leadership of the CPC, the people's armed forces have always acted and fought under the absolute leadership of the Party, and secured one victory after another with the contributions from Party organizations at various levels and Party members.

The circular calls on Party organizations and members in the military to learn from the honored individuals and organizations, and urged efforts to inspire army officers and soldiers to strive for achieving the Party's goal of building stronger armed forces for the new era and developing the armed forces into a world-class military.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
Allegations against Chinese vaccines "distortion of facts": media

Xinhua) 08:52, July 01, 2021

Photo taken on April 3, 2021 shows the newly-arrived COVID-19 vaccines purchased from China at Tbilisi International Airport, Tbilisi, Georgia. (Health Ministry of Georgia/Handout via Xinhua)

China hopes that relevant media and politicians will respect the facts and the opinions of the Chilean government and people, refrain from misleading the public, and make concrete contributions to promoting the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries rather than the opposite, the newspaper cited Wang as saying.

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Some Western media's allegations against the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines lack scientific basis and distort the facts, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao reported on Tuesday, citing the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

In response to a question about a recent New York Times report which questioned the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines in Chile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that such allegations were nothing but a distortion of facts and sensational accusations.

"The Chilean government has stated on many occasions that facts show that the Sinovac vaccine is safe and effective. Chilean medical experts believe that had there not been mass vaccination supported by the Chinese vaccine, the consequences would have been catastrophic," Wang said.

Even Chilean netizens agree that the criticisms against the Chinese vaccine were motivated by bias, and that Sinovac's vaccine has worked well in Chile, he added.

China hopes that relevant media and politicians will respect the facts and the opinions of the Chilean government and people, refrain from misleading the public, and make concrete contributions to promoting the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries rather than the opposite, the newspaper cited Wang as saying.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
Highlights of foreign congratulatory messages on CPC's 100th founding anniversary (28)

Xinhua) 09:02, July 01, 2021

Fireworks are seen above the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China, on the evening of June 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)

BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Political parties, political leaders and friendly individuals in other countries have extended warm congratulations on the upcoming 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In messages addressed to General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee or to the CPC Central Committee, they spoke highly of the CPC's glorious history and great achievements, and conveyed their hope to work with the CPC to build a better world.

The following is an edited summary of some of these messages.

Maithripala Sirisena, chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and former Sri Lankan president, said that the CPC has been consistent with the people-centered development philosophy, exercised strong leadership, and made remarkable achievements in national governance as well as economic and social development.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) and former prime minister, said General Secretary Xi is a great Marxist statesman, who has guided the Chinese people in their efforts to cast off absolute poverty.

The Belt and Road Initiative and the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind put forward by Xi have made great contributions to promoting world peace and development and to boosting global progress, Prachanda added.

George Papandreou, president of the Socialist International and former prime minister of Greece, said the Socialist International is ready to work with the CPC to deal with global challenges and jointly build a better world.

An art performance titled "The Great Journey" is held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China, on the evening of June 28, 2021. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that the CPC has led the Chinese people to successfully cast off extreme poverty, establish an ever-improving medical and education system and world-class infrastructure, and achieve comprehensive economic and social development.

Ahmed Majdalani, secretary general of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, said that the CPC has guided China to create "two miracles" of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, and promoted high-level prosperity and progress in China.

The CPC has also made great efforts for world peace and development, as well as for progress of human civilization, he noted.

Sidi Mohamed Ould Taleb Amar, president of Mauritania's Union for the Republic, said the CPC led by General Secretary Xi has sticked to its original aspiration and mission, led the country in achieving historic achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, and embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country.

The CPC supports world peace and development, and attaches great importance to safeguarding the interests of all humankind, which has been fully demonstrated in its solidarity with and support to countries around the world in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Amar added.

(Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Hongyu)
China eradicates malaria in 'miracle,' shows system's advantages and may offer ideas for COVID-19

(Global Times) 15:23, July 01, 2021

Photo taken on May 20, 2021 shows the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

China was officially recognized as malaria-free by the World Health Organization on Wednesday after a 70-year effort. The WHO hailed this as a "notable feat" and a hard-earned success after decades of targeted and sustained action.

The milestone, which saw China go from 30 million cases of the mosquito-borne disease annually in the 1940s to zero cases now, was a miracle for a country with 1.4 billion people, and it highlighted the strong advantages of China's political system and enlightened the world with solutions to address other major infectious diseases including COVID-19, Chinese experts said.

"China's tireless effort to achieve this important milestone demonstrates how strong political commitment and strengthening national health systems can result in eliminating a disease that once was a major public health problem," said Takeshi Kasai, regional director of the WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office.

Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Wednesday that the elimination of malaria is a notable feat of China's health endeavor and another major achievement in China's human rights cause, following the elimination of absolute poverty.

It is also a major contribution made by China to the world human rights progress, Wang said.

On Wednesday, Chinese netizens swarmed social media to hail this great achievement, and they called it a gift for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The topic had garnered nearly 300 million views as of press time on Sina Weibo.

Gao Qi, Chair of National Malaria Experts Group and member of WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee, told the Global Times on Wednesday that it is a historic miracle to eradicate malaria in a country with 1.4 billion people that reported 30 million cases of the disease annually in the 1940s.

China has seen no locally transmitted cases of malaria since 2017, warranting the malaria-free credential by the WHO.

"The miracle wouldn't be achieved without China's strong political system under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. China started to draw up practical annual and phased plans to control and eradicate malaria in 1956. Strong leadership ensured those plans were well delivered and implemented at each level of government, and each task was assigned to every individual grass-roots worker," Gao said.

Wang Peiyu, a deputy head of Peking University's School of Public Health, told the Global Times the milestone is another major public health problem that China overcame after smallpox, achieved through strong governance, professional medical workers and advanced technologies.

China's efforts against malaria started in the 1950s, when the disease was rampant in the southern parts of the country that lie close to other hotspots in mainland Southeast Asia. Over the past two decades, China ramped up its efforts and reduced the number of cases in the 1990s from 117,000 to 5,000 annually by providing staff training, laboratory equipment, medicines and new methods to control mosquito propagation, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The CPC and the Chinese government have always prioritized safeguarding public health and safety. To protect public health, the Chinese government has adopted effective measures, Wang said, highlighting China's efforts in protecting human rights.

China's strong capabilities against major infectious disease are reflected from the elimination of malaria to the combat against COVID-19.

Whether eliminating malaria or fighting against the coronavirus, China has adopted a national plan that coordinates the efforts of every level of government and involves wide community participation. When one patient is found, the country will deploy resources to track the patient down, and detect and control the sources of infection, before the disease has a chance to spread on a broader scale, Gao said.

The "1-3-7" strategy that was first brought up by Gao - one day to report a case, three days to confirm a case and seven days to prevent further spread - was one of the tools of success, and it is still used for travelers coming from malaria-infected countries.

China's eradication of malaria was driven by the goal of eradicating the disease set by the WHO. It is the universal goal that makes China to end the infectious disease possible. As for COVID-19, the complete end of the disease is not promising across the globe, because there is no universal goal to do so when some countries are only busy in politicizing the issue, Gao said, calling for a unified global target to address the infectious disease.

As long as there is one country with COVID-19 patients that doesn't take effective measures against it, the pandemic won't end, he said.

China's experience in addressing malaria offers options for other countries. China will continue to strengthen cooperation for malaria eradication with African countries as well as work with neighboring countries, including Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, using its abundant expertise and experience in malaria control and elimination, Wang told the Global Times.

Tu Youyou discovered a substance called artemisinin, which can be used to treat malaria. She tested the new drug on herself to accelerate its development, and won the 2015 Nobel Prize for her achievement.

Artemisinin-based combination therapies that were developed by Chinese scientists, led by Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou, are the primary anti-malarial therapies promoted by the WHO and the most important global weapons against malaria.

Apart from medicines, many Chinese companies also develop and supply a wide range of effective anti-malarial products, including mosquito nets, to African countries, Xinhua reported.

To help malaria-stricken African countries eradicate the infectious disease, Gao said China aims to draw up more systemic plans to help by dispatching teams of medical workers.

Domestically, the risk of imported cases of malaria remains a key concern, so the country has stepped up malaria surveillance and established mechanisms of combating the mosquito-borne disease, according to Gao.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Hongyu)
PD Editorial: A hundred years of glory created, an eternal cause to build

(People's Daily App) 15:48, July 01, 2021

The past century has witnessed many hardships and achievements. At this important moment when the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way starts smoothly, we usher in the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Standing at this critical historical juncture, looking back at the past winding road, overlooking the road ahead of struggles, we are full of excitement, passion and pride.

The past century from 1921 to 2021 saw brilliant achievements. From the groundbreaking founding of the Party, the world-changing founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the earth-shaking reform and opening-up, to the Partys and countrys historic changes and achievements since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC has remained true to our original aspiration and mission, united and led the people to create achievements in development which surprised the world, and written a great legend in the history of human development. Socialist China has been standing tall in the East of the world, and the Chinese nation has made a great leap: it has stood up, grown rich and become strong.

The past century from 1921 to 2021 saw eventful years. From Shikumen to Tiananmen, from Xingye Road to Fuxing Road, from a small red boat to a giant ship, the CPC has gone through hard and glorious years, experienced ever-changing eras, and headed for a bright and magnificent future. The CPC has developed into the worlds largest Marxist ruling party with more than 95 million members. It has governed the worlds largest socialist country for more than 70 years and received the broadest support from more than 1.4 billion Chinese people.

The past century from 1921 to 2021 saw ups and downs. The CPC has striven to seek happiness for the Chinese people and promote the cause of human progress. The CPC has adhered to the global aspiration of seeking great unity for the world, upheld the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom for all mankind, and actively promoted the construction of a community of shared future for mankind, and has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the problems of humanity, and making outstanding contributions to the cause of human civilization and progress.

As the CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping said, The history of our Party is the most heartwarming chapter in the history of modern China. The people created the CPC through exploration and struggle. The CPC then united and led the people to create new glorious achievements for the time-honored Chinese civilization. In the course of its century-long struggle, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people to blaze a great trail, make great achievements, forge a great spirit, accumulate valuable experience and create an impressive miracle in the history of the development of the Chinese nation and the progress of human society.

This is a magnificent epic of hardship. No party in the world has endured so many hardships, experienced so many tests of life and death, and made so many painful sacrifices as ours. Over the past 100 years, in the face of various difficulties and challenges, our Party has braved strong enemies and danger, and dared to struggle and to win. The CPC has united and led the people in surmounting one seemingly insurmountable difficulty after another, and won one seemingly impossible great victory after another. After one hundred years of struggle, we have achieved the broadest peoples democracy in a country with a history of thousands of years of feudalism, and the people have truly become the masters of their country, society and their own destiny.

We have achieved a miracle of rapid economic and social development from a starting point of complete poverty. In just a few decades, we have completed an industrialization process that took developed countries hundreds of years to complete, becoming the world's second largest economy with significantly increased overall national strength, scientific and technological strength, national defense strength, cultural influence and international influence. The Chinese people are now living a moderately prosperous life in all respects. The time when people lacked food and clothing has gone. China has completely shaken off absolute poverty and become the country with the largest middle-income population in the world. China has created a miracle of long-term social stability, maintained social harmony and stability, and allowed its people live and work in peace and contentment. China has been recognized by the international community as one of the most secure countries. Today, unprecedented changes have taken place in the Party, the country, the people, the military, and the Chinese nation. No force can shake the status of our great motherland, and no force can stop the Chinese people and nation from marching forward.

This is a glorious history of implementing the Party's original aspiration and mission. From the moment the Party stepped onto the political stage in China, it has unswervingly sought happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. Since then, the Chinese people have changed their mentality from passivity to taking initiative, and the Chinese nation has embarked on a difficult but irreversible course toward great rejuvenation. Over the past 100 years, no matter how the situation and tasks changed, no matter what storms we encountered, our Party has always seized the historical initiative, anchored its goals, and moved firmly in the right direction. The people are the country. Our Party fights for and guards the country to win the people's hearts and make the people live a better life. No matter how great challenge and pressure we face, no matter how much sacrifice and what costs we pay, we will never waver in this principle. After one hundred years of struggle, our Party, relying on the people, has made great historical achievements, ushered in the bright prospect of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and led hundreds of millions of people to create a happier life.

Reviewing the Party's history, the fundamental reason why our Party could gradually grow from such a small and weak beginning, defeat despair in heavy storms again and again, and continuously overcome challenges, is that no matter in good times or bad times, our Party has always remained true to the aspiration of seeking happiness for the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, advanced unswervingly toward its goal, and won the wholehearted respect and firm support of the people,General Secretary Xi Jinping said. After one hundred years of vicissitudes, Chinese Communists are still keeping the Partys original aspiration and mission firmly in mind, and fighting ahead on a new great journey.

This is the great course of promoting the localization, modernization and popularization of Marxism. In the most critical moments of modern times, Chinese Communists turned to Marxism-Leninism. Adapting the theories to Chinas actual conditions, Chinese Communists invigorated the great civilization created by the nation over thousands of years with the power of the truths of Marxism. The Chinese civilization again shined with tremendous spiritual strength. One hundred years on, Marxism has profoundly changed China, while China has also greatly enriched Marxism. The CPC upholds the unity of emancipating the mind and seeking truth, as well as the unity of the consolidation of tradition and innovation, and has constantly opened new horizons for Marxism. The CPC has established Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, all of which provide scientific theoretical guidance for the development of the Partys and peoples cause. The history of the CPC is one that continuously adapts Marxism to the Chinese context and unremittingly promotes innovation and the creation of theories. Marxism has been rejuvenated in todays China, its vitality being demonstrated with increasingly powerful and convincing strength.

This is a grand adventure of laying foundations and opening up the future. Chinese Communists have been endeavoring without any hesitation and strong persistence to achieve national independence, the peoples liberation and wellbeing, and the prosperity of the country. The Party led people to complete the New Democratic Revolution and found the People's Republic of China within 30 years of its formation. Since then, the Chinese nation has stood up. After the socialist revolution, the Party led people to carry out reform and opening-up for four decades. China has secured a great historic achievement for fully building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and a decisive victory in poverty eradication, realizing its first centenary goal. Looking ahead, China will basically realize its aim of socialist modernization by 2035 and become a great modern socialist country by the mid-21st century. Now, it is time to embark on a new journey toward the second centenary goal. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the Party and all Chinese people will unswervingly advance toward fully building a modern socialist country.

The CPCs 100 years are the century when Chinese people have fundamentally changed their destiny, when the Chinese nation stepped toward great rejuvenation, and when China has made outstanding contributions to the development of all of humanity. The glorious journey of Chinese people under the CPCs leadership is written with blood, sweat and tears. It is full of hardship and resplendence, struggle and victory, dedication and gain. And it is a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation's development. The victory by the Chinese people under the CPCs leadership has endowed vitality to the Chinese civilization in its modernization process, to scientific socialism in the 21st century, and to the Chinese nation. It is a pragmatic foundation for the Chinese people to carry forward its cause and forge ahead into the future.

Practice has proven that the CPC is the Chinese nations backbone. Only the CPC can lead China. Only socialism can save China. Only reform and opening-up can foster the development of China, socialism and Marxism. And only the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics can make China strong, thriving and prosperous, and guide it to achieve the great rejuvenation of the nation.

The world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. China is at a pivotal period of realizing the great rejuvenation of the nation. The CPC is leading the people to march forward amid great struggles with many new historical features, such as swift changes; the weighty mission of reform, development and stability; numerous conflicts and risks; and unprecedented tests of the Partys governance. We are well-aware that the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has a bright future but is also hard-earned. We face both opportunities and challenges. Standing at the intersection of the two centennial goals and looking back and ahead, time and momentum are on Chinas side. This is where our composure, determination and confidence come from.

Building a comprehensively well-off society and achieving its first centenary goal is a milepost in the history of the struggle of the CPC, the history of the development of New China and the history of Chinese civilization, General Secretary Xi Jinping said, adding at the same time, we must realize that this is only a step toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. We must not be arrogant and complacent. We must continue to be modest and prudent, guard against arrogance and rashness, continue to work hard and forge ahead, and strive hard to achieve the second centennial goal and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and continue to make new and greater contributions to the lofty cause of peace and development for mankind. We must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, strengthen our belief in Marxism and communism, enhance our belief in socialism with Chinese characteristics, enhance our confidence in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, stay true to our original aspirations, maintain our strategic determination, enhance our sense of hardship, maintain the spirit of struggle, mobilize all positive factors that can be mobilized, unite all forces that can be united, cultivate opportunities in crisis, open up new opportunities amid a changing situation, do our best to do our own work well, stand on the right side of history, and persevere in marching towards the second centennial goal. With soberness and firmness, we can answer the challenges of the new era, and fight for the eternal wellbeing of the Chinese nation in accordance with the general trend of the world.

The road ahead is long, and striving is the only way forward. We have strived, broken through brambles and thorns, and crossed ten thousand rivers and thousands of mountains. We will continue to strive, march ahead with courage, and create brighter glory! The CPC bears its eternal great cause in mind, and the centenary only ushers in the prime of life. The Party will remain invincible as long as it stands at the forefront of the times; leads the charge in overcoming difficulties and challenges, and takes root among the people. On the new great journey, the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups must rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core; strengthen the Party's consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, and follow the leadership core and keep in alignment; thoroughly implement key decisions and policies made by the CPC Central Committee; strengthen the Party's confidence in its path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; uphold General Secretary Xi Jinpings core position in the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and uphold the Party Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership; take advantage of trends and forge ahead in a pioneering spirit; strive for the goal of achieving the second centenary goals; and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Hongyu)
South Africa reviewing data of Chinese, Russian vaccines for registration

Xinhua) 22:32, July 01, 2021

CAPE TOWN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's national health products regulator is reviewing the data relating to Chinese and Russian COVID-19 vaccines including Sinovac, Sinopharm and Sputnik for registration, a necessary procedure before they can be procured, a health official has said.

Deputy Director General for National Department of Health, Anban Pillay, also told the parliament's Portfolio Committee on Health that the Delta variant first detected in India has become the dominant variant in many countries around the world, including South Africa, the parliament said in a statement released here on Thursday.

He also said the health ministry aims to flatten the curve of transmission of the virus, reduce hospitalization and reduce the rate of mortality through the current lockdown.

As of June 30, South Africa has administered 3,026,636 vaccines in total, including 120,172 administered in the past 24 hours.

Following the first phase for healthcare workers only, the current second phase inoculations started with persons aged 60 years and above and are opening up to the over 50-year-old people and people in the active economy.

Registration for those aged 50 and above, who were excluded in the second phase initially, will open from Thursday and they will get the chance to receive vaccines from July 15, acting Health Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane announced last Friday.

The nation that has the highest national tally of 1,973,972 cases in Africa expects to immunize over 40 million people through the three phases of vaccination.

(Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Du Mingming)
While waiting for the commemorative model Breguet plans to release this fall, it is worth recalling that the brand at the pinnacle of the Swatch Group pyramid has never ceased to perpetuate this tradition, reinforced by 21st century technology. Last year in particular, the stunning Double Tourbillon Quai de lHorloge from the Classique collection delighted collectors, while the Marine line evokes the triple historical expertise of the brand founder expressed through a more contemporary, slimmer and more efficient interpretation. Intrinsically linked to the tourbillon, Breguet also offers a reminder through this model that its inventor was appointed official watchmaker to the French Royal Navy, and that sophisticated horological complications such as the perpetual calendar and the equation of time hold no secrets for the venerable brand, which unite them here.

Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887  Breguet

Derived from the ultra-thin self-winding Caliber 581 equipped with a tourbillon, this movement features an optimized design incorporating recent innovations such as a titanium carriage with a peripheral gear wheel driving its rotation, as well as a silicon balance and escape-wheel. Similarly, Breguets designers have achieved a one-quarter reduction in the barrel thickness by cutting a groove around the drum and holding it in place by means of three externally placed bearings. Connoisseurs will recognize the function of the hand tipped with a sun, indicating the minutes of solar time (different from the minutes of civil time driven by the main gear train) thanks to differential gearing and a cam on a sapphire disk performing one revolution in a year, followed by a feeler that provides the value of the equation of time. As for the anchor-tipped hand, it provides a retrograde date display. So as to improve the legibility of all these indications, Breguet completes the perpetual calendar indications by apertures showing the day and month, which are unique in its collections. The power reserve is discreetly shown on an arc-shaped gauge at 8 oclock. All this information is easily readable on the attractive anthracite dial featuring white and gold contrasts, above which the majestic tourbillon appears to be floating in mid-air.

Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887  Breguet

A whirlwind summer

On WorldTempus this summer, were getting swept up in the horological phenomenon that turns 220 this June.

The father of modern horology, 18th century watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, observed that there might be a mechanical way to resolve all chronometric errors created by imperfectly poised regulators. By enclosing the regulating organ in a rotating cage, he would obtain one net error value for the regulator, in all its possible vertical positions over the period of one cage rotation. He could then make one single compensatory correction to the regulator and theoretically reduce the final error to zero.

Marine Tourbillon Equation Marchante 5887  Breguet

He named his invention the tourbillon. Abraham-Louis Breguet received a patent for the tourbillon on 26 June 1801, and WorldTempus is celebrating the 220th anniversary of his remarkable invention with a series of articles and videos that explores this endlessly fascinating mechanism. How do you identify a tourbillon? What are the most common misunderstandings about it? What lies behind its hypnotic dance? How does it even work? Join us on WorldTempus this summer to discover all this and more.

As a World Tempus reader, we are delighted to offer you the latest digital version of this GMT magazine that you can download here. Happy reading!
Members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) review the oath of the CPC when visiting the site of the Second Plenary Session of the 7th CPC Central Committee in Xibaipo, north China's Hebei Province, June 20, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] The Communist Party of China (CPC) has 95.148 million members as of June 5, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced on Wednesday. Membership was 3.5 percent up from the figure reported at the end of 2019, and approximately 20 times more than the figure in 1949 when the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, the department said in a report ahead of the CPC's centenary on July 1. In 1921 when it was founded, the CPC had more than 50 members. About 2.31 million people joined the CPC in the first half of this year, the statement added. "The continuous increase of members has shown the strong vitality of the Party and the prosperity of the Party's cause," the statement said. The number of primary-level Party organizations has increased from 195,000 when the PRC was founded to 4.86 million, an increase of about 24 times, according to the statement. Optimized composition The composition of Party membership has continuously improved, featuring a rising number of young members, higher education level, and steady growth in the proportion of female members and those from ethnic minority groups, according to the report. Nearly 23.68 million Party members, or 24.9 percent of the total membership, were aged 35 or younger, 0.7 percentage point higher than the rate at the end of 2019, with 52 percent of the Party members holding junior college degrees or above. As of June 5, the CPC had 27.45 million female members, accounting for 28.8 percent of the total membership, compared with merely 11.9 percent in the early days of New China. Meanwhile, the proportion of members from ethnic minority groups has grown from 2.5 percent to 7.5 percent. The total number of Party members from ethnic minority groups has reached 7.135 million, with each of the 55 ethnic minority groups in China having a certain number of Party members. Workers and peasants remain the majority of the CPC members, accounting for 33.9 percent of the total membership, with their total number currently 11.6 times the figure in 1949, data from the report shows. Among the CPC members, 10.61 million are management personnel in enterprises, public institutions and social organizations, while 15 million are professional and technical personnel, making up 11.2 percent and 15.8 percent of the total respectively. All the neighborhood offices in urban areas, townships, communities and administrative villages have established primary-level Party organizations, according to the report. The crucial role of local Party organizations and the exemplary role of Party members have been given full play, the statement noted. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, a total of 255,000 resident work teams have been sent to impoverished villages and more than 3 million people have been dispatched to serve as first secretaries and village officials to boost poverty eradication efforts on the front lines. More than 3.3 million primary-level Party organizations and 39 million Party members have been mobilized to assist the fight against COVID-19.


On June 30, the Environmental Monitoring Center of Anhui released the air quality ranking of the province's 16 prefecture-level cities (January to May 2021), with Huangshan coming at top and Huainan at bottom. During these months, the province's average composite air quality index (composite AQI) was 4.30, and the average proportion of "good" and "moderate" air quality (AQI value 0~100) days was 85.2%. According to the monitoring data, Huangshan, Xuancheng and Chizhou are ranked the top three cities in terms of air quality, among which Huangshan had the best air quality, with a composite AQI of 2.77, a year-on-year change rate of -3.1%, and a proportion of "good" days of 99.3%. Huainan, Fuyang and Suzhou are ranked the bottom three, among which Huainan is ranked the last place with a composite AQI of 4.88, a year-on-year change rate of 0.2%, and a proportion of "good" and "moderate" days of 76.8%. Regarding the change rate of composite AQI, 10 cities went greater than 0, including Chizhou, Lu 'an, Wuhu, Hefei, Tongling, Maanshan, Chuzhou, Bengbu, Suzhou and Huainan, while the other 6 cities went below 0, indicating that the air quality was better than the same period last year. Bozhou saw the biggest improvement, with -7.5 percent.
MOSCOW, June 30 (Xinhua) -- While the West blasts China for what it allegedly does in Xinjiang, it remains "conspicuously quiet" as more unmarked graves have been found at indigenous schools in Canada, British writer Tom Fowdy has said in a recent article run by RT.

"The hypocrisy (of the West) is breathtaking and blatant," Fowdy said in the op-ed titled "The silence on Canada's indigenous deaths shame shows there are double standards on global human rights."

The irony is that if these graves had been found in China, with such explicit evidence, it would have been universally decried by all the usual countries as a "crime against humanity" or even "genocide," the article said.

Fowdy, who is a political and international relations analyst with a primary focus on East Asia, said the dominance of the Anglosphere is a reminder that international justice is not uniform, and exists in two tiers.

"The largest and most notorious offenders of human rights historically are given a waiver for their sins, but nonetheless use human rights as an argument to advance their own ambitions towards other countries, often disingenuously or via a means of projection," he wrote.
With the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the foreign military students graduated from the PLA Army Logistic University sent greetings to the 100th birthday of the CPC by videos and commemorative pictures, expressing their sincere admirations for the great feats and successful experience of the CPC in leading the Chinese people to make brilliant achievements of standing up, getting rich and becoming strong.
Justice Party lawmaker Ryu Ho-jeong on Wednesday campaigned for Korea finally to legalize tattoos by posing in a purple dress that revealed her lightly tattooed back.

Ryu led a motion to legalize tattoo businesses last week and sported the dress in a press conference in front of the National Assembly. In fact it was only a sticktoo.
But finding some sort of rapprochement between the princes is crucial to the monarchy as Britain's royal family seeks to appeal to a younger generation and a more diverse population.

People shouldn't expect a quick resolution of the conflict because the two men are fighting over core beliefs, says Robert Lacey, a historian and author of "Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult.'' William is defending the monarchy, and Harry is defending his wife. It's a matter of love versus duty, with William standing for duty and the concept of the monarchy as he sees it," Lacey said. "And then from Harry's point of view, love, loyalty to his wife. He is standing by her. These are very deeply rooted differences, so it would be facile to think that there can just be a click of the fingers."

Royal watchers will be looking closely for any signs of a truce -- or deepening rift -- on Thursday when William and Harry unveil a statue of their mother, Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday. The event in the Sunken Garden at London's Kensington Palace will be their second public meeting since Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties over a year ago.

But those links are now painfully strained as William sits in London defending the royal family from allegations of racism and insensitivity made by Harry and his wife, Meghan, from their new home in Southern California.

Princes William and Harry grew up together, supported each other after their mother's untimely death and worked side by side as they began their royal duties -- two brothers seemingly bonded for life by blood, tradition and tragedy.

When Harry married Meghan just over three years ago, it seemed as if they would be central figures in that next chapter of the royal story.

The Fab Four -- William and his wife, Kate, together with Harry and Meghan -- were seen as a cadre of youth and vigor that would take the monarchy forward after the tumultuous 1990s and early 2000s, when divorce, Princess Diana's death, and Prince Charles' controversial second marriage to Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, cast doubt on the future of the institution. Meghan, a biracial former TV star from Los Angeles, was expected to be an important part of that effort, with Black and Asian commentators saying that for the first time there was a member of the royal family who looked like them. But the words "Fab Four" were quickly replaced in tabloid headlines by "Royal Rift."

First, their joint royal office was dissolved. Then, Harry stepped away from royal duties and moved his family to North America in search of a more peaceful life. William pressed on with royal tasks, including goodwill events like accompanying his grandmother to Scotland this week to tour a soft drink factory.

The relationship was further strained in March when Harry and Meghan gave an interview to U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Harry confirmed rumors that he and his brother had been growing apart, saying "the relationship is 'space' at the moment" -- though he added that "time heals all things, hopefully." Harry also told Winfrey that his father, Prince Charles, didn't accept his calls for a time.

And then came the real shocker. The couple revealed that before the birth of their first child, an unidentified member of the royal family had expressed concern about how dark his skin might be. Days after the broadcast, William responded, telling reporters that his was "very much not a racist family."

But whatever their disagreements, out of respect for their mother, William and Harry won't put their differences on display during the statue ceremony, said historian Ed Owens, author of "The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public 1932-1953," which examines the royal family's public relations strategy.

"We're not going to see any acrimony or animosity between the brothers on Thursday,'' Owens said. "I think reconciliation is a long way off, but nevertheless these are expert performers. Harry and William have been doing this job for long enough now that they know that they've got to put, if you like, occasional private grievances aside for the sake of getting on with the job."

Lacey believes William and Harry will ultimately reconcile because it is in both of their interests to do so. Harry and Meghan need to repair relations to protect the aura of royalty that has allowed them to sign the lucrative contracts with Netflix and Spotify that are funding their life in California, Lacey said. If they don't, they risk becoming irrelevant like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who were shunned by the royal family after the duke gave up the throne in the 1930s to marry an American divorcee. His brother, Queen Elizabeth II's father, then became king.

"It's very appealing, particularly in America, the idea that they rebelled against this stuffy old British institution," Lacey said. "But there's a point they can't go too far, and they're approaching that point." "On William's side, it is impossible to go on ostracizing, boycotting the only members of the royal family who are of mixed race in a multiracial world of diversity," he added.

The critical moment may be next year, when the queen celebrates her platinum jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne. Under normal circumstances for these big occasions, the queen would want the whole family together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, where the royals have traditionally gathered to wave to the public.

"Who's going to be on the balcony at Buckingham Palace?" Lacey asked. "That family grouping has surely got to include Meghan and Harry and their two children, Archie and Lili, alongside their cousins, the children of William and Kate."
This week's celebrations focus on two distinct eras -- the early struggles and recent achievements -- glossing over the nearly three decades under Mao from the 1950s to 1970s, when mostly disastrous social and economic policies left millions dead and the country impoverished. To that end, a spectacular outdoor gala attended by Xi in Beijing on Monday night relived the Long March of the 1930s -- a retreat to Yan'an that has become of party lore -- before moving on to singing men holding giant wrenches and women with bushels of wheat. But it also focused on the present, with representations of special forces climbing a mountain and medical workers battling COVID-19 in protective gear.

"By linking the party to all of China's accomplishments of the past century, and none of its failures, Xi is trying to bolster support for his vision, his right to lead the party and the party's right to govern the country," said Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Dug into earthen cliffs, the primitive homes where Mao and his followers lived are now tourist sites for the party faithful and schoolteachers encouraged to spread the word. The cave-like rooms feel far removed from Beijing, the modern capital where national festivities are being held, and the skyscrapers of Shenzhen and other high-tech centers on the coast that are more readily associated with today's China. Yet in marking its centenary, the Communist Party is using this past -- selectively -- to try to ensure its future and that of Xi, who may be eyeing, as Mao did, ruling for life.

In the build-up to the July 1 anniversary, Xi and the party have exhorted its members and the nation to remember the early days of struggle in the hills of the inland city of Yan'an, where Mao Zedong established himself as party leader in the 1930s.

For China's Communist Party, celebrating its 100th birthday on Thursday is not just about glorifying its past. It's also about cementing its future and that of its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The party has long invoked its history to justify its right to rule, said Joseph Fewsmith, a professor of Chinese politics at Boston University. Shoring up its legitimacy is critical since the party has run China single-handedly for more than 70 years -- through the chaotic years under Mao, through the collapse of the Soviet Union and through the unexpected adoption of market-style reforms that over time have built an economic powerhouse, though millions remain in poverty.

Many Western policymakers and analysts believed that capitalism would transform China into a democracy as its people prospered, following the pattern of former dictatorships such as South Korea and Taiwan. The Communist Party has confounded that thinking, taking a decisive turn against democracy when it cracked down on large-scale protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and quashing any challenges to single-party rule in the ensuing decades -- most recently all but extinguishing dissent in Hong Kong after anti-government protests shook the city in 2019.

Its leaders have learned the lesson of the Soviet Union, where the communists lost power after opening the door to pluralism, said Zhang Shiyi of the Institute of Party History and Literature. Instead, China's newfound wealth gave the party the means to build a high-speed rail network and other infrastructure to modernize at home and project power abroad with a strong military and a space program that has landed on the moon and Mars. China is still a middle-income country, but its very size makes it the world's second-largest economy and puts it on a trajectory to rival the U.S. as a superpower.

In the meantime, it has doubled down on its repressive tactics, stamping out dissent from critics of its policies and pushing the assimilation of ethnic minorities seeking to preserve their customs and language in areas such as Tibet and the heavily Muslim Xinjiang region. While it is difficult to gauge public support for the party, it has likely been boosted at least in some quarters by China's relative success at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and its standing up to criticism from the United States and others. "We have never been so confident about our future," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told journalists on a recent trip to the party's historic sites in Yan'an.

Tiananmen Square, where Mao proclaimed the founding of communist China in 1949, is no longer a home for student protesters with democratic dreams. On Thursday, the plaza in the center of Beijing will host the nation's major celebration of party rule. While most details remain under wraps, authorities have said that Xi will give an important speech.

The anniversary marks a meeting of about a dozen people in Shanghai in 1921 that is considered the first congress of the Chinese Communist Party -- though it actually started in late July. The festivities will likely convey the message that the party has brought China this far, and that it alone can lift the nation to greatness -- arguing in essence that it must remain in power. Xi also appears to be considering a third five-year term that would start in 2022, after the party scrapped term limits.

The centennial is at once a benchmark to measure how far the country has come and a moment for Xi and the party to move toward their goals for 2049, which would mark the 100th year of communist rule, said Alexander Huang, a professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. By then, Xi has said, the aim is basic prosperity for the entire population and for China to be a global leader with national strength and international influence.

"Whether they can achieve that goal is the biggest challenge for the Chinese leadership today," he said, noting growing tensions with other countries, an aging population and a young generation that, as elsewhere, is rejecting the grueling rat race for the traditional markers of success.

Still, the party's ability to evolve and rule for so long, albeit in part by suppressing dissent, suggests it may remain in control well into its second century. The party insists it has no intention of exporting its model to other countries, but if China continues to rise, it could well challenge the western democratic model that won the Cold War and has dominated the post-World War II era.

"In the United States, you only talk, talk, talk," said Hua of the Foreign Ministry. "You try to win votes. But after four years, the other people can overthrow your policies. How can you ensure the people's living standards, that their demands can be satisfied?"
Justice Party lawmaker Ryu Ho-jeong is on a crusade to overturn Korea's decades-old tattoo ban. In the course of her campaign she has come across many curiosities, not least the discovery that her arch-conservative elderly colleague Hong Joon-pyo has had his eyebrows tattooed.

More surprising still is that the person most likely to have a tattoo is your auntie. A survey of 5,030 people by pollster Tillion Pro showed Koreans in their 60s are the biggest customers of tattoo services.

One 61-year-old housewife had her eyebrows and eyelids tattooed. "I realized how old I looked after turning 60," Lee said. "I'm happy to hear my friends tell me my eyebrows and eyelids look fuller after I got them tattooed and I can save time putting on makeup too."

To be fair, that is not quite the same as having a mermaid inked on your arm or a Celtic pattern in the small of your back. Among respondents, those in their 20s mostly had tattoos on their arms and legs, while over half of those in their 50s and 60s had their eyebrows and eyelids tattooed for cosmetic reasons.

Lee admits she does not think of herself as tattooed in the same way a sailor or hipster might. "I would have thought I got some sort of cosmetic procedure, and I didn't know it was illegal," she said.


New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Thunderstorms. High around 85F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 73F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
ROUND THE CLOCK DEDICATION - Schools Superintendent Dr. John Doherty (above) met with the School Committee yesterday to ratify three union contracts. The rare Wednesday morning meeting came on Dohertys last official day of work before his retirement.
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BOISE  Parts of south-central Idaho will move to stage one fire restrictions on July 2. The Bureau of Land Management and Idaho Department of Lands said the restrictions will help decrease the chance of preventable fires.

This order applies to certain federal, state, endowment and private forest lands in Blaine, Camas and Custer counties. More specifically, zone one, also called Sawtooth North. This includes lands north of U.S. Highway 20 to the top of the Sawtooth National Forest boundary and from Hill City east to the Craters of the Moon National Monument Park Visitor Center, according to a press release.

The Sawtooth National Forest announced Tuesday it is also moving to stage one fire restrictions on July 2.

All Sawtooth National Forest now in stage one fire restrictions

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These restrictions prevent igniting, burning, maintaining, attending or using a fire. Exceptions are made for fires within in permanent metal or concrete fire rings or on private lands within an owner-provided structure.

Additional exceptions include fires fueled by liquid petroleum and all land within a city boundary.

Smoking is prohibited unless done in an enclosed vehicle, building or in an area at least three feet in diameter that does not contain any flammable materials.

If you are planning to visit public lands in these areas, you can check with the Twin Falls District BLM or Idaho Department of Lands for the most updated information.

Watch now: BLM Firefighters train
A federal judge has halted the enforcement of a new Indiana statute mandating doctors tell patients pill-induced abortions possibly can be "reversed."

U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Hanlon issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday against a provision of House Enrolled Act 1577, mere hours before it was to take effect, after the Valparaiso University Law School graduate concluded the law likely is an unconstitutional infringement on the right to free speech.

In a 34-page order, Hanlon determined there's no basis for the state to require doctors tell patients there is "some evidence" a pill-induced abortion can be "reversed," because none of the limited medical studies of the "reversal" procedure show it alone was responsible for pregnancies continuing after patients took the first of two doses of the abortion pill.

"The medical studies in the record do not justify that statement because those studies do not support causation," said Hanlon, who was appointed to the bench in 2018 by Republican President Donald Trump.

Hanlon said the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to require doctors tell women considering an abortion "truthful and not misleading" information about the procedure as part of the informed consent process.

But he said high court precedent "does not allow a state to compel abortion providers to recite anything the state chooses."

In this case, Hanlon said requiring doctors tell patients there is "some evidence" supporting abortion "reversal"  when there is not  is speech compelled by the government and that runs afoul of the First Amendment.

"Because the evidence in the record does not show that the required disclosure is 'truthful and not misleading,' it is not a reasonable regulation of the practice of medicine ...," Hanlon said.

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Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Munster native, said he's reviewing the ruling with an eye toward next steps.

Rokita is likely to appeal Hanlon's decision to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, which repeatedly has affirmed lower court decisions striking down Indiana abortion restrictions enacted by Republican Indiana governors and legislators over the past decade.

WATCH NOW: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops  Patrolling Lowell with Cpl. Aaron Crawford

The statute was challenged by a coalition of abortion rights organizations that have succeeded in blocking the enforcement of similar abortion "reversal" advisories required by laws enacted in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

"Today was a big win for people across Indiana because access to accurate and honest information about abortion prevailed. This law is meant to shame and confuse patients seeking access to a safe, legal medical procedure," said Chris Charbonneau, CEO of Indiana's Planned Parenthood affiliate.

"The bottom line is abortion is still legal in Indiana, and we must do everything within our power to protect access to reproductive health care. The courts made the right decision and further protected our patients' ability to trust that we are providing them with scientific and evidence-based medical information."

All-Options v. Rokita ruling of U.S. District Court

Get to know these new Indiana laws enacted in 2021
The woman who served as first lady of Indiana from 1969 to 1973 alongside Republican Gov. Ed Whitcomb has died.

Patricia "Pat" Whitcomb died June 27 in Seymour, Indiana, according to an announcement by her family. She was 91.

The St. Louis native met the future governor while she was working as a model at an Indianapolis department store after graduating from Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee.

She helped her husband build his law career, his political base, and was responsible for getting his first book published  all while raising five children.

WATCH NOW: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops  Patrolling Lowell with Cpl. Aaron Crawford

Before, during and after Ed's single term as Indiana's chief executive he and Pat traveled to all 92 Indiana counties and countries around the world.

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To ensure she could engage with people everywhere she went, Pat learned courtesy phrases in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Tagalog and German.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb described Pat as a first lady who served Hoosiers "with honor and grace."

"I loved that she learned how to greet people in many different languages so she could communicate with the world, as she loved meeting new people from all corners  always defining our signature 'Hoosier Hospitality,'" Holcomb said.

"Janet and I extend our condolences to the Whitcomb family."

Holcomb has ordered all flags in the state to fly at half-staff in Whitcomb's memory until sunset July 12.

Get to know these new Indiana laws enacted in 2021
A Gary man sentenced to death for murdering his wife and two stepchildren in 2007 has exhausted his state court options for overturning his conviction and death sentence, and must now seek relief in federal court if he is to stay alive.

On Wednesday, the Indiana Supreme Court unanimously rejected a petition for post-conviction relief filed by Kevin Isom, 55, who claimed his lawyers failed to properly represent him both during his trial at the Lake Superior Court and in his direct appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.

In a 46-page ruling, Justice Geoffrey Slaughter, a Crown Point native, scrutinized each and every instance where Isom alleged ineffective assistance of counsel, including jury selection, jury instruction, sentencing, and competency, among others.

Ultimately, Slaughter and the state's high court agreed with Lake Superior Judge Samuel Cappas that there was no basis to grant Isom relief on his post-conviction claims.

Court records do not yet list an updated execution date for Isom. He currently is incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

If he challenges his conviction, or Indiana's method of execution, in federal court, it potentially could be years before Isom is at risk of being killed by lethal injection.

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State records show 19 people have been executed at the Indiana State Prison since 1995.

WATCH NOW: Riding Shotgun with NWI Cops  Patrolling Lowell with Cpl. Aaron Crawford

The most recent state execution took place Dec. 11, 2009 in Michigan City, though 13 people were executed between July 2020 and January 2021 at the federal death chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Isom was convicted in 2013 of three counts of murder for shooting to death Cassandra Isom, 40, Michael Moore, 16, and Ci'Andria Cole, 13, at the family home in the 5700 block of Hemlock Ave. in Gary's Miller neighborhood.

Isom v. State ruling of Indiana Supreme Court (2021)

Get to know these new Indiana laws enacted in 2021
Press Release

July 1, 2021 De Lima calls ICC probe on gov'ts drug war an 'extraordinary remedy' Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has called the International Criminal Court's (ICC) full-blown investigation of the thousands of killings under the Duterte regime's drug war an "extraordinary remedy," which she said is possible in the case of the Philippines where domestic justice system can no longer be expected to provide a genuine solution to end impunity and prevent further acts of injustice. In a lecture presented by Dean Tony La Vina on De Lima's behalf during the webinar entitled "Duterte's Crimes Against Humanity: Rendering Justice Through ICC" last June 28, De Lima said the most heinous offenses are the ones that usually go unpunished, especially when it is the very same officials who are in charge of protecting the people that are committing acts of violence against them with impunity. "Ideally, domestic problems of extrajudicial killings should be resolved domestically, employing our domestic constitutional and legal remedies of criminal investigation and prosecution," she said. "In such cases, when the 'ideal scenario' fails to manifest itself in reality, there remains an international forum under which justice can be achieved if and when domestic remedies fail to provide a genuine solution. The ICC provides such a forum," De Lima added. Then ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced last June 14 that she has sought permission for a full-blown investigation to follow The Office of The Prosecutor's (OTP) preliminary examination into the allegations against Duterte and others involved in the current administration's drug war, committed from July 1, 2016 to March 16, 2019, or prior to Duterte's withdrawal of the country from the Rome Statute. In its Preliminary Examination Report to the Pre-trial Chamber of the ICC to request authorization to proceed with the investigation of Philippine case, De Lima recalled that the OTP said there was a "failure to take steps to investigate or prosecute" EJKs in the drug war, aside from Duterte promising immunity for the perpetrators. In March 2018, it may be recalled that Duterte ordered the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, and while the withdrawal was formalized on March 17, 2019, Bensouda proceeded with her probe. Under article 53(1) (a)-(c) of the Statute, it is stated that the OTP shall conduct a preliminary examination in order to "determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation" by considering factors that are not limited to jurisdiction, interests of justice, but also of complementarity. "Complementarity consists of an examination of the existence of genuine relevant national proceedings in relation to the potential cases being considered for investigation by the Office, bearing in mind the Office's prosecutorial strategy of investigating and prosecuting those most responsible for the most serious crimes," she explained. "The requirement of complementarity is not satisfied where the state party is able to show that it has taken genuine steps to: (1) End impunity; (2) Encourage genuine national proceedings; and (3) Prevent the further commission of the crime," she said. "The OTP was never in a rush to find the existence of complementarity and proceed with their own investigation. In fact, it gave the Philippine government ample opportunity to resolve the crimes under our own system of domestic remedies." "Unfortunately, at each and every turn, the Duterte Administration sought to defeat our own legal system from genuinely ending impunity or enforcing accountability, and preventing state actors from perpetrating further atrocities," she added. The 2019 Report of the OTP on the government's drug war noted that "a limited number of investigations and prosecutions have been initiated (and, in some cases, completed) at the national level in respect of direct perpetrators of certain criminal conduct that allegedly took place in the context of, or connection to" the drug war. It may be recalled that De Lima, for her part, submitted a communication to the ICC on October 9, 2017, meant to supplement the earlier filed communications of the late Atty. Jude Sabio, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, and former Rep. Gary Alejano. The said ICC Communication discussed, among others, "the failure of the justice system to prosecute Duterte" which consisted of sub-topics such as the demonization and attempt to defund the CHR by the Duterte regime and the failure of the Ombudsman to fulfill its mandate to investigate and file an impeachment complaint against Duterte.
Press Release

July 1, 2021 Drilon warns: 2022 nat'l budget can be used to fuel presidential ambitions Amid concerns that it would be used for presidential election in 2022, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon asked the help of the Filipino people to guard the 2022 national budget and vowed to shave the excess fat in the final budget of the Duterte administration. "I must put a warning: everyone should watch out because next year is an election year," Drilon said Thursday. "The most important piece of legislation in the coming Congress is the budget. The budget is a major instrument for the recovery of our economy. Therefore, next year will be very critical in terms of the budget, because, first, 2022 is an election year, and, second, next year is critical for our economic recovery," Drilon stressed. "We have to make sure the money collected from the taxes are spent properly and not for election purposes," he added. The Senate chief fiscalizer appealed to economic managers not to let those who will try to use the budget to fuel their political ambitions. "I hope that our economic managers will not get influenced by political whims that will dictate on the allocation of very limited resources next year," he said. Aside from being an election year, Drilon underscored that 2022 will be critical for the country's recovery from the effects of the pandemic. "We have a very limited resource. Putting the resources in the right places is critical in our recovery from the pandemic. We need resources because of the pandemic. The economy suffered. A lot are unemployed. A lot are hungry. Our economy shrunk. All of these are because of the mismanagement of COVID-19 pandemic," Drilon reiterated. Drilon said the people must watch out for excess fats in the budget, citing, for instance, the allocation for the anti-insurgency campaign which he previously tagged as "Malacanang's pork barrel." Drilon had earlier warned that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) would propose an increase in their budget next year, and vowed to oppose it "tooth and nail." "This is the kind of excess fat that can be cut. We must shave the excess fat in the budget and devote it to resources that are needed like funding the ayuda or social amelioration program," he said. To me, the anti-insurgency fund is totally unnecessary. Pork barrel lang iyon. We can devote it to 4Ps or the ayuda which is totally unfunded," he added.
Press Release

July 1, 2021 Drilon reiterates appeal to DOF: Repeal or suspend erroneous BIR order raising tax on private schools In anticipation of the incoming school year and airing fears that private schools who are already badly battered by the effects of the pandemic might be forced to pass on to the students the burden of paying for the exorbitant income tax, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon underscored the urgency for the Department of Finance (DOF) to immediately repeal or suspend the implementation of the erroneous Bureau of Internal Revenue Regulation 5-2021 raising to 25-percent their income tax. Drilon suggested that the Senate pass a resolution expressing the legislative intent of the Senate when it passed the CREATE Law and rejecting the patently erroneous interpretation of tax regime governing educational institutions. He said the resolution should accompany Senate Bill 2272, filed by Sen. Sonny Angara, which seeks to clarify that the qualifier "non-profit" under Section 27(B) of the National Revenue Code only applies to hospitals and not to proprietary educational institutions. "We did not amend the coverage of educational institutions. The BIR regulation ruled and interpreted it otherwise and redefined what is an educational institution for purposes of tax regime. That is totally an uncalled-for interpretation," Drilon said during the Committee on Ways and Means hearing Wednesday. "The way the BIR interprets what we passed is entirely wrong. We support this amendment and we are confident that SB 2272 which clarifies the tax on educational institutions will be passed," Drilon said in an interview. Drilon added the BIR order will continue to be the "sword of Damocles" hanging over private schools during the world's most uncertain times brought about by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. "Should the committee file a report favorably endorsing this bill, I would strongly suggest that a resolution which will put on record the legislative intent of the Senate as expressed during the plenary deliberations of the CREATE bill, accompany the Committee Report. Drilon added, "What we will do is clarify the wording of the law. Let me stress that this is not an amendatory law, we are merely clarifying the erroneous interpretation. With more reason that the BIR and DOF should suspend the Revenue Regulation." "It is reasonable to ask for suspension of BIR Revenue Regulation 5-2021 until we can correct this erroneous interpretation through a law. The Senate is not in session and we can only discuss this on the floor next month. The schools are already suffering from the pandemic. They have to decide by the opening of the school year how to handle this. There is urgency in this." Drilon said.
Press Release

July 1, 2021 "3.4M KIDS UNDERNOURISHED"

HONTIVEROS: INVESTING IN FIRST 1000 DAYS OF A CHILD'S LIFE SPELLS SOCIAL, ECONOMIC SUCCESS Senator Risa Hontiveros is calling on the government to invest more in nourishing Filipino children during their first 1000 days of life, especially amid the pandemic. The senator says focusing more resources on the "crucial nutritional window" is an opportunity to end intergenerational malnutrition and undernutrition. According to a World Bank study, for every $1 invested in nutrition specific interventions, this could lead to a potential return of $44. "Investing on a child's first 1000 days is actually a life-long investment. Kahit nasa sinapupunan pa lang ni mommy, nagsisimula nang mabuo ang kinabukasan ng isang baby. Kapag well-nourished ang bata sa unang 1000 araw, mas mababa ang risk niya sa pagkakasakit. Kapag malusog ang sanggol, paglaki nya, mas mataas ang nararating nya sa pag-aaral, at, kalaunan, mas mataas ang sweldo kapag nagtatrabaho na," the senator said. The statement comes in time for Nutrition Month, which has the national theme, "Malnutrisyon Patuloy na Labanan, First 1000 Days Tutukan!" Hontiveros sponsored and co-authored Republic Act 11148 or the 'Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act', which emphasizes the importance of proper nutrition during the first two years of a child's life. The National Nutrition Council (NNC) estimates that at least 30.3% of kids below five years old are stunted or small for their age, which translates to 3.4 million children who have chronic or recurrent undernutrition. The senator, however, laments that the NNC, which is the country's primary policy-making and coordinating body on nutrition, was given only P488 million in the 2021 budget. While this is higher than the P461M allotted in 2019, the amount is still insufficient for the nutrition programs needed to stamp out malnutrition and undernutrition in the country. "Recently, the World Bank put the Philippines on notice, dahil, for nearly 30 years, patuloy pa ring nasasadlak ang mga bata sa gutom at paghihirap. Naipapasa tuloy nila ang undernutrition sa mga susunod na henerasyon. This is why we cannot continue missing the unique window of opportunity presented to us by the first 1000 days of a child's life," she said. A 2017 report from UNICEF had previously estimated that the total cost to the Philippine economy brought by childhood undernutrition was around $1.4B or 1.5% of the country's GDP. Hontiveros then called on all government agencies to protect a child's right to nutrition, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the country ranks fifth in the region with the highest prevalence of stunting and is among the top 10 countries globally with the highest number of stunted children, according to UNICEF. "Dapat siguraduhin ng DOH at DSWD na nai-implement ang maternal health, nutrition, at social welfare programs sa ilalim ng batas. The magnitude of future social and economic losses because of undernutrition should be enough reason for the government to start spending more on our children's nutrition in the first 1000 days. Hindi naibabalik ang panahon," Hontiveros concluded.
Press Release

July 1, 2021 TRANSCRIPT OF SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS' INTERVIEW

ANC Headstart with Karen Davila Q: My first question is, What do you think of Bayanihan 2 expiring. It's now expired, and they claim there was still P9 Billion left in Bayanihan 2, if those figures are correct. SRH: Yes, Karen, and good morning. I know there was a coalition of tens of civil society organizations na nag-signature campaign pa nga sila, ultimately kay Presidente, pero pati sa Kongreso, na i-extend daw ni Presidente yung validity of the Bayanihan 2 funds, as we, in Congress, already did from last year to end of middle of this year, yesterday, kasi gusto nga nila na hindi maputol yung funding, especially for COVID-19 and recession responses this year and nanawagan sila sa amin na magpasa, in fact, ng Bayanihan 3. Unfortunately, the President did not act on this appeal. At ngayon we're on the eve of once again opening our budget debates, where I do agree with them, top of our duties will be to pass a COVID- and recession-responsive budget for 2022. Pero na i-consider din namin ng seryoso ang pagpasa ng isang Bayanihan 3 para totoong hindi maputol.. para hindi masayang ang pondong 'yun. In fact, dapat talaga gastusin at ngayon para sa ating kalusugan at ating ekonomiya. Q: Senator Manny Pacquiao accused the DOH as one of the most corrupt agencies and Secretary Duque just read the utilization rate of Bayanihan 1 and 2. Are you satisfied with the performance of the health department? SRH: Not satisfied, Karen. In fact, that's part of my pending resolution, requesting the Commission on Audit to conduct a special audit of our COVID-19 expenses, doon palang sa Bayanihan 1. I've been calling for the Executive, Malacanang, to pick up yung kalahating taon nang naputol na weekly reports dapat sa ating mamamayan, sa Kongreso, of again, their COVID-19 expenses. And of course the DOH is front and center of what should be that spending for our health response. I'm not at all satisfied with the performance so far of the DOH, not in terms of performance on the ground, and not in terms of reporting to the people. Paano ginagastos ang bawat piso natin para sa kalusugan? Q: So you feel there is a lack of transparency? SRH: There is a lack of transparency or cuts on the transparent communication to the public. Because why is the last Malancang weekly report way, way back in January, more than half a year ago? Bakit hindi parin nagkakaroon nga ng COA special audit? Of course, they're not an Executive body, they're a Constitutional body, but why hasn't there been action towards a special audit on DOH and all the other agencies moving under or within the IATF? Q: Bloomberg came out with a study and ranks the Philippines 52nd out of 53 economies, so 2nd to the last, in terms of resiliency ranking with the COVID programs and you heard Secretary Duque, he said it's unfair, it's skewed towards countries who have a lot of supply of vaccine and he went as far as saying, 'I'm pissed with this report.' So what do you make of that Bloomberg report? SRH: I think, Karen, ang dapat talagang ma-piss-off ay hindi yung Health Secretary, pero yung ating mga mamamayan, not with the Bloomberg report, because it's just the latest reflection of the truth on the ground. Ang talagang nakakabwisit, nakakadismaya sa mamamayan is the very poor health response and twinning that, the poor economic response. Unfair ba ang Bloomberg report? Mas unfair na this health and economic response has been so poor in protecting our people from the worst effects of COVID-19, and of the recession. Skewed daw towards vaccination administration? But my gosh, yung vaccination is already the fifth in our set of life-saving responses to the COVID pandemic. Last year pa dapat nag-proprocure na tayo or nag-sisignify ng intention to procure, in addition to what we would be receiving through COVAX. Yung unang apat na steps nga, Karen, test, trace, isolate or quarantine and treat, hanggang ngayon we haven't come up to speed with that and vaccination is just already the fifth step. Sisisihin pa ba natin ang Bloomberg? Hey, they're just doing their duty as a very dispassionate, hard-nosed economic publication and monitor. Rather than getting mad at Bloomberg, we should step up. Kasi hindi naman Bloomberg, ang ika nga nag-drop ng ball. I'm sorry, it was the health department, under the leadership of the good Secretary, that has been dropping the ball so far. Q: On another issue, you have been calling for a National Day for the West Philippine Sea. Let's talk briefly about this and how important is this, you feel? SRH: It is so important. The West Philippine Sea alone is so important in terms of marine and energy resources for our country. And that victory at the Hague in 2016, it signaled that the world, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, recognizes and with the Philippines, upholds our national sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea vis-a-vis that regional giant, China. I felt Karen, it was time, through the Senate resolution, to call for a special day and other activities na i-marka talaga sa kalooban ng bawat Pilipino itong tagumpay natin. Q: And so the next generations will know.. They will not lose memory of the victory. SRH: They will not lose memory. In the face of this wave of disinformation and misinformation about our victory in terms of the West Philippine Sea, at para din, Karen, magunita ng bawat Pilipino na, in the face again of all the dis- and misinformation, it was the late President Noy, who is the father of our victory at the Hague, in terms of the West Philippine Sea. He is a true patriot at dapat maggunita natin, taon-taon, July 12, itong tagumpay natin tungkol sa West Philippine Sea, at na si PNoy ang ama niyan. Q: I'm curious. Are you seeing that passed within this administration? SRH: A resolution is always seeking a consensus and I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will see the political and the moral import of this. At syempre, pagdating na ng isang batas sa desk ng Pangulo, he will have to assess the merits of this law. And if and when he signs it into law, makinig din siya sa sentimiento ng karamihan ng mga mamamayan, finally, it will signal his loyalty to the Philippines, and not to China. Q: My last question is the 2022 elections. You have senior members of the party, someone like Senator Drilon, already saying he'll retire and just wait for a post. Vice President Leni Robredo, who is unsure of running. Where do you see yourself in 2022? I'm assuming of course you will seek reelection. SRH: Yes, I'll be seeking reelection to the Senate, again carrying my certificate of candidacy from Akbayan party, my party. And even now, looking back on the past two years na mga one-on-one talks among different parties and even different individuals, seeing itong recent na pagsulpot ng initiative ng 1Sambayan, looking forward in the next several months to many more talks among different formations, parties, individuals. Q: Do you feel disheartened, somewhat? SRH: I have no right to feel disheartened. I feel all the more yung tungkulin ko bilang isang, hindi lang politiko, bilang isang aktibista to hope, and to contribute that hope actively into towards how I see myself also in the next months. Gusto kong maging bahagi ng isang united front, isang mas malawak na pagkakaisa, not just among us usual suspects in the opposition, but a broader unity among Filipinos lahat tayo na kahit hindi oposisyon, basta na gusto ng isang ibang klase at mas mabuting administrasyon. And you know, Karen, speaking about recent results of focused group discussions, karamihan ng mga mamamayan natin actually hindi pa iniisip talaga ang eleksyon because of the pressure of the pandemic and the recession. Tingin ko, ang hinahanap talaga ng mga tao is for government to give solutions, lalo tungkol sa kabuhayan at syempre pati sa kalusugan. And that's what I hope a broader unity of us Filipinos, in a united front, will be presenting now, in the next months, at sa susunod na eleksyon. Doon sana tayo magkaisa lahat, o karamihan.
Press Release

July 1, 2021 Las Pinas 'steady fight' vs Covid-19-Senator Villar ONE year and three months since President Rodrigo Duterte imposed "quarantine" in the country to contain Covid-19, Las Pinas City has efficiently and effectively put up a "a steady fight" to win the battle against the current health crisis. Through the collective efforts and systematic approach launched by its local and national officials, the city has been coping up well with the coronavirus and its variants, according to Senator Cynthia Villar. To date, Las Pinas has also started giving jabs to essential workers in city who belong to the A4 priority list in adherence to the national government's protocols. The following initiatives have been implemented in Las Pinas to address the Covid-19 pandemic, return to normalcy and reinvigorate the economy. *RT-PCR testing To help in the government ramp up COVID-19 testing, particularly for the residents of Las Pinas and others in the south of Metro Manila, Sen. Villar exerted earnest efforts since March 2020 to capacitate the Las Pinas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center (LPGHSTC) to operate its own COVID-19 testing laboratory. Senator Villar and her family immediately donated to LPGHSTC essential RT-PCR testing laboratory equipment like biological freezer, biological refrigerator, autoclave sterilizer, passbox and ventilator. They also provided assistance for the renovation or retrofitting of the area assigned as a COVID testing laboratory to conform with the standards approved by the DOH and World Health Organization. In coordination with DPWH Secretary Mark Villar, the San Miguel Foundation likewise donated RT-PCR equipment to the hospital. At present , the COVID-19 testing lab of LPGHSTC, the DOH-operated hospital in Brgy. Pulanglupa Uno, serves Covid-19 patients in Las Pinas City and nearby residents in the south. This enhanced the country's testing capacity and recovery rate for the new coronavirus disease. The Villar family has also been donating portable handwashing stations, PPEs, face masks and field shields. *Contact tracing Intensified contact tracing continuous in Las Pinas to limit the spread of COVID among its residents. This began since the initial stage of the pandemic in March 2020 and continuous until this date. Just last month, the local government hired an additional contact tracers under the TUPAD (Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers) Program, to further contain the increase of the virus in the city. *Quarantine facilities To support the government's capacity and responsiveness to the needs of COVID-19 patients, DPWH Sec. Villar construct a 27 container vans-turned 96- bed quarantine/isolation facility for Las Pinas. Senator Villar noted that the new quarantine/isofacility augmented the existing healthcare facilities in Las Pinas. She said this is a huge help in controlling the spread of Covid-19 affected persons in the city. Three buildings built by Villar family were also donated for the hospital extension facilities, temporary housing for healthcare workers and/or quarantine facility. The said buildings are the Las Pinas Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Vice Mayors' League of the Philippines (VMLP) and the Provincial Board Members' League (PBML) buildings - all located in Barangay Daniel Fajardo, Las Pinas City. At LPDATRC, LIGTAS-1 Center quarantine facility operates that can accommodate up to 100 COVID-19 patients. The accommodation, food and water, essential medicines, and the monitoring by health professionals are given for free in these quarantine facilities. *Increased in Bed Capacity LPGHSTC Las Pinas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center (LPGHSTC) increased its bed capacity from 200 to 500 beds with P644M Budget through the legislation authored by Senator Cynthia Villar in the Senate and Congw.Camille Villar in the House of Representatives. The Legislation became a law in November 2020 through R.A. 11497. The increase in bed capacity commensurate the upgrade in professional health care services and facilities that can accommodate more patients and provide necessary hospital services. *Modular Hospital The Department of Public works and highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar expands their healthcare infrastructure in Las Pinas by constructing modular facility in Las Pinas General Hospital with 36 bed capacity. The modular hospitals is more extensive than the isolation facilities according to Secretary Villar. It provide more amenities like nurse call button, negative pressure,oxygens and other additional equipment to treat COVID *Vaccination rollout Stressing this is our 'best defense' against the virus, Senator Villar has been repeatedly calling Las Pineros and everyone to receive their Covid-19 shots for the country to finally be able to move to the new normal of living and to recover from economic slump amid the pandemic. She encouraged everyone to be inoculated regardless of the vaccine brand, citing the assurance given by our health officials and the government that they are safe and effective. To help accelerate the vaccination program in Las Pinas, the Villar family has offered for free the family owned "The Tent" as another vaccination site located at Global Vista South. The Villar Tent, is the biggest and newest vaccination facility in the south part of Metro Manila that can accommodate more than 2,000 recipients of Copvid-19 vaccines daily. *House and Lot Raffle for vaccinated adult To further entice Las Pinas residents to get their jab, Rep. Camille Villar announced the Villar family would raffle off a house and lot, motorcycles, and other packages for those vaccinated against COVID-19 this coming December. Representative Villar however stressed no government funds will be spent for raffle, called "May Bahay sa Bakuna: Bakunado Ka Na, May Bahay Ka Pa" program. The city government put up screening sites in the city's 20 barangays for the listing down of those to be prioritized to receive the vaccines, and designated 18 vaccination sites during the mass vaccination program as follows: 1. Almanza Uno 2. TS Cruz Covered Court 3. Village Square Mall 4. CAA Elementary School 5. Golden Acres Covered Court 6. SM Southmall 7. San Antonio Covered Court 8. Bambusetum Covered Court 9. Robinson Place 10. Las Pinas Doctors Hospital 11. Verdant covered court 12. Pamplonas Uno Elementary School Central 13. Las Pinas Elementary School Central 14. Gatchalian Covered Court 15. SM Center 16. University of Pertual Help Data 17. Ls Pinas General Hospital & Satellite Trauma Center 18. The Villar Tent
In what was, so far, the best baseball game of the week, the Jaguars pulled their 33rd win out of the fire and salvaged a gem of a start from their star pitcher.
Member of the European Parliament representing the Czech Republic, Katerina Konecna has taken a swipe at Europe and the U.S for interfering in internal affairs of Syria, Iraq and Libya, state-run Syrian news agency SANA reports.

Konecna took aim at the U.S and its allies in Europe in an interview with the Parliamentary Papers website. The Czech politician noted that the U.S. is still trying to play the role of the international policeman, which only leads to a deterioration of the situation in the countries in which it intervenes.

She blamed Washington for the political, security and humanitarian situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

The three countries are facing daunting security, political and socio-economic challenges.

The U.S and its European allies invaded Iraq in 2003 on the back of accusation that then leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The country since then is reeling with woes despite the US presence.

Syria descended into chaos in 2011. President Bashar Al Assad faced opposition and terror groups financed from outside but managed to turn the tide with Russias support in 2015.

The NATO backed in 2011 rebels to overthrow and kill Libyas strongman Muammar Gaddafi over accusation that former Libyan leader massacred his own populations. The country is still fragile and has become the playground of several external powers vying for control of the resources of the oil-rich African country.

Earlier, Konecna had confirmed in an article published on EDNIS website that the United States uses cheap and empty slogans to justify its interference in the internal affairs of Syria and a number of countries, while refraining from applying them in other countries to serve its interests, the SANA notes.
"Genetic studies may help reduce some of the stigma society has against substance use disorders, while also making treatment more accessible," says Victoria Risner, first author of the new study on nicotine dependence, who did the work as an Emory undergraduate.

Some people casually smoke cigarettes for a while and then stop without a problem, while others develop long-term, several packs-per-day habits. A complex mix of environmental, behavioral and genetic factors appear to raise this risk for nicotine dependence.

Studies of groups of twins suggest that 40 to 70 percent of the risk factors are heritable. Until recently, however, studies have only explained about 1 percent of the observed variation in liability to nicotine dependence, using a genetic score based on how many cigarettes a person smokes per day.

A study led by psychologists at Emory University offers a new model for examining this genetic risk. It leveraged genome wide association studies for a range of different traits and disorders correlated with nicotine dependence and explained 3.6 percent of the variation in nicotine dependence.

The journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research published the finding.

Higher polygenetic scores for a risk for schizophrenia, depression, neuroticism, self-reported risk-taking, a high body mass index, alcohol use disorder, along with a higher number of cigarettes smoked per day were all indicators of a higher risk for nicotine dependence, the study found. And polygenetic scores associated with higher education attainment lowered the risk for nicotine dependence, the results showed.

If you look at the joint effect of all of these characteristics, our model accounts for nearly 4 percent of the variation in nicotine dependence, or nearly four times as much as what we learn when relying solely on a genetic index for the number of cigarettes someone smokes daily, says Rohan Palmer, senior author of the study and assistant professor in Emorys Department of Psychology, where he heads the Behavioral Genetics of Addiction Laboratory.

What were finding, Palmer adds, is that to better leverage genetic information, we need to go beyond individual human traits and disorders and think about how risk for different behaviors and traits are interrelated. This broader approach can give us a much better measure for whether someone is at risk for a mental disorder, such as nicotine dependence.

All of the traits and diseases we looked at are polygenic, involving multiple genes, adds Victoria Risner, first author of the study, who did the work as an Emory undergraduate majoring in neuroscience and behavioral biology. That means that millions of genetic variants likely go into a complete picture for all of the heritable risks for nicotine dependence.

The researchers hope that others will build on their multi-trait, polygenetic model and continue to boost the understanding of the risk for such complex disorders. The more we learn, the closer we can get to one day having a genetic test that clinicians can use to inform their assessment of someones risk for nicotine dependence, Palmer says.

Although the hazards of smoking are well established, about 14 percent of Americans report daily use of tobacco. Around 500,000 people die each year in the United States from smoking or exposure to smoke, and another 16 million live with serious illnesses caused by tobacco use, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary disease. While the toxic chemicals produced during smoking and vaping are what cause harmful health effects, its the addictive component of nicotine that hooks people on these habits.

Risner worked on the current paper for her honors thesis. Nicotine dependence was interesting to me because the vaping scene was just arriving while I was an undergraduate, she says. I saw some of my own friends who were into vaping quickly becoming dependent on it, while some others who were using the same products didnt. I was curious about the genetic underpinnings of this difference.

The project leveraged genome-wide association studies for a range of traits and disorders. The researchers then looked for matching variants in genetic data from a national representative sample of Americans diagnosed with nicotine dependence. The results showed how polygenetic scores for the different traits and disorders either raised or lowered the risk for that dependence. The number of cigarettes smoked per day, self-perceived risk-taking and educational attainment were the most robust predictors.

The multi-variant, polygenetic model offers a road map for future studies. A clearer picture of heritability for nicotine dependence, for instance, may be gained by adding more risk associations to the model (such as nicotine metabolism) and clusters of polygenic traits (such as anxiety along with neuroticism).

As we continue to zero in on who is most at risk for becoming nicotine dependent, and what inter-related factors, whether genetic or environmental, may raise their risk, that could help determine what intervention might work best for an individual, Palmer says.

Just a few decades ago, it was not well understood that nicotine dependence could have a genetic component, Risner says. Genetic studies may help reduce some of the stigma society has against substance use disorders, while also making treatment more accessible.

Risner graduated from Emory in 2019 and is now in medical school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This summer, shes applying the coding and analytical skills she learned at Emory to conduct research into genetic factors that may raise the risk for pre-term births.

Emory co-authors of the Nicotine & Tobacco Research article include graduate student Lauren Bertin; post-doctoral fellow Chelsie Benca-Bachman; and Alicia Smith, associate professor in the School of Medicine. Additional authors include researchers from the University of Helsinki; Brown University; the Providence VA Medical Center; the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine; Purdue University; and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The work on the Nicotine & Tobacco Research article was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Academy of Finland.
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Vikalp Sangam protests  by Vikalp Sangam Core Group  12/06/2021

We, the Core Group members of Vikalp Sangam (Alternative Confluences), are shocked at the recent developments in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. The actions of the Administrator of the UT, Mr. Praful Khoda Patel, are arbitrary and insensitive, and will have irreversible ecological, social and cultural impacts on the inhabitants of Lakshadweep and the rich and fragile ecosystem in and around the islands. We call for all the recent regressive legal and administrative measures to be withdrawn immediately, Mr. Patel to be recalled with immediate effect, and a widespread process of consultation in the islands be initiated to evolve a development plan that is in keeping with their ecological and cultural ethos.

Background

Lakshadweep, the smallest union territory (UT) of India is an archipelago of 35 islands in the Arabian Sea; it was declared a UT in 1956. The islands form the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Lakshadweep Ridge. Only 11 of these islets are inhabited and the population, as per 2011 census is 64,473. They are categorised as scheduled tribes. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the UT and the region comes under the jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court. The Lakshadweep has one District Panchayath and 10 Grama Panchayaths. Main occupations of the people are fisheries and coconut farming. The Islands are historically connected to Kerala, ruled by the Kannur Kingdom for centuries until the British took over in 1903. The people, predominantly Muslim (97%), speak Malayalam which is also the medium of education. Their main connecting points with the mainland are Kochi and Baypore (Kozhikode) with limited operations with Mangalore and Tuticorin.

Lakshadweep is a peace-loving territory with one of the lowest crime rates in India. It has very low poverty rate and very low economic disparity. The highly progressive land reforms regulation of 1964 ensured land rights to the peasants. The islands also have unique biodiversity with some of Indias richest coral reefs.

Controversial actions of the Administrator

The present Administrator is trying to impose a series of reforms that would drastically alter the social, cultural and religious fabric and economic activities of the people of the islands. Development activities in the UT have to be in accordance with the Integrated Islands Management Plan (IIMP), approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forests & Climate Change (MoEF & CC) in 2015. The IIMP, prepared initially by the National Centre for Earth Sciences Studies (NCESS), Thiruvanathapuram, was finalised after incorporating recommendations by the Supreme Court appointed Justice Raveendran Committee. The reforms proposed by the new Administrator are not in tune with the IIMP. The actions of the Administrator seem to be part of a three-pronged strategy  pave way for big players in tourism sector, restrict cultural-religious freedom, and cut off links with Kerala.

The proposed regulations have been vehemently opposed by the local people as these regulations are a grave threat to their deep cultural and diverse linguistic traditions and history. The majority of the inhabitants are fisher people, who have evolved through centuries as stakeholders of local ecosystems and developed identities fundamentally intertwined with nature. The forced imposition of development will cause social and economic crisis among the community and also lead to cultural erasure. This assault by the current regime is also in line with its well-known hatred for Muslim populations.

These plans and regulations, designed to enable large-scale corporate entry into the tourism and hospitality sectors, are not only anti-people, but also anti-environment. The proposed development plans will irreversibly damage marine ecosystems including coral reefs, and speed up the climate crisis. This goes against our national policy regarding Climate Change, and is a violation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 as well as Indias obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992. The plans for on-shore and off-shore development of Lakshadweep UT for high-end tourism, and to make Kavaratti into a smart city are rightly opposed by local people for failing to take into account acute limiting factors like availability of land, scarcity of fresh water.

The measures taken and proposals adopted by the administration are in violation of the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution. The people of Lakshadweep, with women at the forefront, have been justifiably protesting against these regulations.

The draft Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021, allows the Administrator to unilaterally detain people for up to one year without public notice, and has been brought in with no justification as to its necessity. On the contrary, the UT has one of the lowest crime rates in the entire nation. Moreover, the Indian Navy has a base there in the form of INS Dweeprakshak and the Coast Guard is also present there. They can very well handle any law-and-order issue, if it arises in future. As a matter of fact, contradictorily, alcohol restrictions have been relaxed to support the focus on tourism, in spite of resistance from the community. It seems the PASA regulation is intended at suppressing opposition to the ulterior motives of the administration.

The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation, 2021, concentrates planning powers with the administration, and empowers it to take any piece of land on the islands, irrespective of its ownership, for development purposes, to further tourism expansion. It causes justified concern not only regarding the ecological impact, but also when it comes to the impossibility to provide adequate rehabilitation to the population to be displaced, and compensation for the loss of livelihood through fishing.

In 2012, the Central Government had handed over five departments, directly connected to the people  Education, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Fisheries and Health Care  to the Local Self Governments. A committee headed by S S Meenakshi Sundaram had recommended more powers to the LSGs. However, the Administrator has taken back all these departments from the District Panchayath, through an ordinance dated May 5th, 2021.

Another regulation prevents citizens with more than two children from contesting Gram Panchayat elections. The draft Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021, bans beef, including removing it from mid-day meals of a population that is 97% Muslim and for whom the main source of protein is beef and fish. Violations carry draconian penalties. This is a clear communal attack.

Air ambulance was being provided to patients for treatment at the main land (Kochi and surroundings) on the basis of recommendations by medical officers of respective islands. Now this power of the medical officers has been taken back and permission for air ambulance has been centralised and is vested with a committee headed by the health secretary.

These plans and regulations have been introduced without public consultation of the small communities of Lakshadweep, and without regard to their social and religious sensibilities, their ways of life and livelihood, their economic well-being, and their environmental and natural resource situation.

The administration is trying to block trade links of the islanders with Beypore port in Kozhikode and plan to take it to Mangalore.

The Administrator has also, shockingly, relaxed the hitherto mandatory Covid-quarantine for all visitors to the islands. Consequently, after more than a year with no Covid cases, the deliberate sabotaging of containment efforts has led to more than 26 deaths, as well as the arbitrary imprisonment of those resisting such overt suppression.

In solidarity with the people of Lakshadweep

Vikalp Sangam stands in solidarity with the people of Lakshadweep, in their struggle for social justice and ecological rights. We condemn the attempt of Lakshadweep administration to paint the legitimate concerns of the inhabitants of the islands and of those in solidarity, as misleading propaganda, and demand the following:

Withdraw immediately Lakshadweeps Administrator Praful Khoda Patel and replace him by an I.A.S cadre officer as previously done. Suspend the plans for on-shore and off-shore development of Lakshadweep for high-end tourism, and making Kavaratti into a smart city. Conduct social and environmental impact assessments of all proposed development initiatives with transparent public hearings and consultations and involving local people as well as those who have been working for conservation of biodiversity in the region; explore decentralized and regenerative alternatives in participation with the local people privileging the local livelihood needs and the ecosystems. Restore the powers of Local Self Governments with immediate effect. Withdraw, in public interest, the draft Regulations and other measures like relaxing alcohol restrictions, relaxing Covid quarantine, etc. Withdraw the ban on beef and respect the food habits of the local people. Scrap the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Regulation, 2021. Roll back the move to by-pass the islanders trade links with Baypore and move it to Mangalore; do not tamper with the historical, economic and cultural connect of the islanders with Kerala. Stop the repressive measures and legal action by the UT administration against people rightfully and peacefully protesting these authoritarian measures.

We remind the Home Minister of India to keep his promise to consult the people of Lakshadweep, and immediately engage in widespread public consultation processes across the islands on the policy and legal directions they would like to see in the islands.

We call upon all concerned citizens, environmental groups, democratic movements to stand by the people of Lakshadweep Islands against this brazen attack on their culture, identity, economy and ecology.

Vikalp Sangam Core Group

Endorsed by members of Vikalp Sangam Core Group, listed below alphabetically. The Vikalp Sangam process is a platform to bring together movements, groups and individuals working on just, equitable and sustainable pathways to human and ecological well-being. It rejects the current model of development and the structures of inequality and injustice underlying it, and searches for alternatives in practice and vision. Over 70 movements & organisations around the country are involved. For more information: http://www.vikalpsangam.org/about/

ACCORD (Tamil Nadu)

Adivasi Lives Matter (national)

Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (national)

Alternative Law Forum (Bengaluru)

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Bengaluru)

BHASHA (Gujarat)

Bhoomi College (Bengaluru)

Blue Ribbon Movement (Mumbai)

Centre for Education and Documentation (Mumbai)

Centre for Environment Education (Gujarat)

Centre for Equity Studies (Delhi)

CGNetSwara (Chhattisgarh)

Chalakudypuzha Samrakshana Samithi / River Research Centre (Kerala)

ComMutiny: The Youth Collective (Delhi)

Deccan Development Society (Telangana)

Deer Park (Himachal Pradesh)

Desert Resource Centre (Rajasthan)

Development Alternatives (Delhi)

Dharamitra (Maharashtra)

Ekta Parishad (several states)

Ektha (Chennai)

EQUATIONS (Bengaluru)

Extinction Rebellion India (national)

Gene Campaign (Delhi)

Goonj (Delhi)

Greenpeace India (Bengaluru)

Health Swaraaj Samvaad (national)

Ideosync (Delhi)

Jagori Rural (Himachal Pradesh)

Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (Pune)

Kalpavriksh (Maharashtra)

Knowledge in Civil Society (national)

Kriti Team (Delhi)

Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (Ladakh)

Local Futures (Ladakh)

Maadhyam (Delhi)

Maati (Uttarakhand)

Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (national)

Mahalir Association for Literacy, Awareness and Rights (MALAR)

Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (Rajasthan) Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network (national)

National Alliance of Peoples Movements (national)

National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (national)

National Coalition for Natural Farming (national)

Nirangal (Tamil Nadu)

Non-timber Forest Produce Exchange India (national)

North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (Meghalaya)

Peoples Resource Centre (Delhi)

Peoples Science Institute (Uttarakhand)

reStore (Chennai)

Sahjeevan (Kachchh)

Sambhaavnaa (Himachal Pradesh)

Samvedana (Maharashtra)

Sangama (Bengaluru)

Sangat (Delhi)

School for Democracy (Rajasthan)

School for Rural Development and Environment (Kashmir)

Shikshantar (Rajasthan)

Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (Ladakh)

Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Womens Association

Social Entrepreneurship Association (Tamil Nadu)

SOPPECOM (Maharashtra)

South Asian Dialogue on Ecological Democracy (Delhi)

Students Environmental and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (Ladakh)

Thanal (Kerala)

Timbaktu Collective (Andhra Pradesh)

Titli Trust (Uttarakhand)

Tribal Health Initiative (Tamil Nadu)

URMUL (Rajasthan)

Vrikshamitra (Maharashtra)

Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (Andhra Pradesh/Telangana)

Youth Alliance (Delhi)

Yugma Network (national)

Let India Breathe

Travellers University

Dinesh Abrol

Sushma Iyengar

Contact persons on behalf of the VSCG:

Ravi SP, Chalakudypuzha Samrakshana Samithi, spravi.18 at gmail.com

KJ Joy, SOPPECOM, joykjjoy2 at gmail.com

Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh, Pune, ashishkothari[at]riseup.net

Statement also at: https://vikalpsangam.org/article/statement-and-appeal-on-the-retrograde-moves-in-the-union-territory-of-lakshadweep/
[1]

All India Trade Union Congress

Press Statement

The following statement from AITUC National Secretariat issued to press by Ms Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, AITUC today on 01st July 2021

All pretensions of the Central Government to stand for democratic principles

so soon evaporate, after berating 26th June Emergency!

Government promulgates ordinance to ban any strike in the Ordnance Factories!!

AITUC demands withdrawal of Draconian ordinance

On 30th June, the Central Government promulgated an ordinance banning any strike in the Ordnance Factories. It is known that the Modi government had plans to corporatise the 41 ordnance factories under the Ministry of Defence and 80000 workmen have consistently opposed the move: through appeals, demonstrations and even strikes. The government on its part, only made a show of discussing the question with the Federations of Defence Employees, while actually planning to hand them over to the corporates. The proverbial last straw was when the Central Labour Commissioner, without inviting the three Federations, suddenly closed the conciliation proceedings and submitted a failure report on 15th June and immediately on the next day, the Cabinet of the Central Government approved corporatization of 41 Ordnance Factories. The Defence Employees have been forced to revive their strike notice.

AITUC condemns this move of the Central Government most emphatically and stands firmly with the Defence Employees in their resolve to defend this precious asset of the nation (the Ordnance Factories) from being robbed by the agents of the Corporates - the Central Government - in broad daylight.

The Defence Employees have no interest in disrupting defence production. In fact they are urging that the national defence production capability be kept free of any obstacles from profit-mongering corporates for the sake of national security.

The AITUC demands of the Central Government to shelve their plans to corporatise 41 Ordnance Factories, which, in the long run will jeopardize our national security. AITUC Demands the withdrawal of Draconian ordinance of 30th June.

Amarjeet Kaur

General Secretary

o o

[2]

Communist Party of India

Central Office

New Delhi

Tele: 011 23235546

e-mail: cpiofindia[at]gmail.com

July 01, 2021

Press Release

CPI Demands Withdrawal of Essential Defence Services Ordinance 2021

D. RAJA, General Secretary, Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on July 1, 2021):

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India severely condemns the draconian Essential Defence Services Ordinance 2021, promulgated by the Modi government to crush the democratic rights of the defence civilian workers.

The defence civilian workers have been fighting to save the 41 Indian Ordnance Factories from the ill-conceived policy decision of the government to destroy the same by converting them into seven non-viable corporations. This has been done at a time when the Modi government has already declared that only four public sector units will remain in the strategic sector. Defence is one of the strategic sectors where already eight PSUs are functioning.

When the seven Ordnance Factories Corporations will be added to the existing eight DPSUs, it will become 15 DPSUs. Out of the 15, which four will remain with the government is not known. Therefore, the picture is clear that all the seven Ordnance Factories Corporations will become sick, making the path clear for the government for their privatisation and sale. Smelling this danger, the trade unions of defence civilian employees for the past more than one year are fighting to save the Ordnance Factories and 76,000 employees. However, the government has ignored all their proposals and representations. Even conciliation proceedings have been closed abruptly. In such a situation the trade unions have decided to use the last weapon of the strike.

The Party notes that it is unfortunate that the Modi government instead of dealing with the dispute under the provisions of ID Act 1947 has chosen the Ordinance route to crush the strike by incorporating draconian provisions like dismissal from service without inquiry, arrest and imprisonment up to two years for calling a strike and participating in a strike. This is draconian and against the legal right of the employees. This Ordinance is also against the various ILO conventions.

CPI condemns the draconian EDSO promulgated by the Modi government and urges upon the government to withdraw the same, start negotiations with the trade unions and reach a settlement since the Ordnance Factories are the national assets which cannot be allowed to be closed and sold in the name of corporatisation.

S/d

(Roykutty)

Office Secretary
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on July 1, 2021

2021/07/01

CCTV: According to reports, the World Bank's China Office released a report recently, highlighting improved consumer and business confidence and better labor market conditions in China and projecting China's growth to reach 8.5% this year. What is your comment?

Wang Wenbin: The World Bank's report once again shows the international community's confidence in China's economic development.

This year, the Chinese economy has continued to recovery steadily, with a consolidating momentum for the better and accelerating pace of opening up. From January to May 2021, China's GDP witnessed continuous and steady growth. The paid-in FDI to China registered 481 billion yuan, up by 35.4% year on year. The non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) was $43.29 billion, up by 2.6% year on year. China's import and export volume reached a record high of 14.76 trillion yuan, giving a strong boost to world economic recovery and growth.

As China has entered a new development stage, it is following the new development philosophy and formulating a new development paradigm to advance high-quality development. This will enable the Chinese market to offer more investment and growth opportunities to our cooperation partners. China will follow the vision of openness, cooperation, solidarity and win-win results in firmly expanding all-round opening-up to make the Chinese market a shared market for the world. We welcome all parties to actively integrate into the Chinese market and share China's development opportunities, so as to achieve common development and deliver benefits to the people of all countries.

Associated Press of Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan has sent a message of felicitation to President Xi on the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He highlighted the CPC's role and sacrifices for China's liberation and its subsequent rise. He also appreciated the CPC's role in nurturing all-weather friendship between Pakistan and China. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Having received the message of congratulation from Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Chinese side expresses its thanks and appreciation. CPC stands firmly for developing a friendly relation with Pakistan, which is also a consistent position of the Chinese Government.

With the efforts of our two leaders and supports of our two peoples, China and Pakistan have become all-weather strategic partners. This year marks the centenary of the founding of CPC, and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. Over the past seven decades, regardless of the changes in international landscape, China and Pakistan have respected, trusted and supported each other, forged an all-weather friendship, and carried out cooperation in an all-round way. The rock-solid and everlasting friendship between our two countries has become the most precious strategic asset for both of us.

On the new journey forward, China will continue to uphold peace, development and win-win cooperation, work for a new type of international relations and the community with a shared future for mankind, boost high quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and provide new opportunities to the rest of the world while developing itself. In this process, China will always take Pakistan as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic ties, China stands ready to work with the Pakistani side to host a series of celebration activities, and elevate China-Pakistan relations to a new level and deliver more benefits to our peoples.

Bloomberg News: The Financial Times report said US and Japan have been conducting war games and joint military exercises to prepare for any potential conflict with China over Taiwan. The planning began in the final year of the Trump administration. Does the foreign ministry have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We note relevant reports. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The Chinese government and people's firm resolve and will to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not waver in the face of any external pressure. We hope relevant sides will stop hyping up the "China threat" theory and instead do more things in the interest of regional peace and stability.

CNR: As the global pandemic situation remains complicated and grave, could you update us on the progress in China's "spring sprout" program overseas to help get Chinese nationals vaccinated?

Wang Wenbin: Since COVID-19 broke out, the life and health of each and every Chinese national overseas has always been on the mind of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government. Since State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the launch of the "spring sprout" program at a press conference during the "two sessions", China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and overseas diplomatic and consular missions have helped over 1.7 million overseas Chinese citizens in more than 160 countries to get inoculated with Chinese or foreign-made vaccines, conveying the care of the CPC and the Chinese government to Chinese compatriots all across the world.

Going forward, we will stay true to the purpose of serving the people heart and soul, strengthen communication and cooperation with relevant countries, and further expand the scope of the "spring sprout" program on the basis of complying with host country laws and regulations and respecting the will of each individual. We hope to make more progress in this program to ensure that overseas Chinese nationals who should be vaccinated can get the jabs as soon as possible and all those who want to be vaccinated have access to doses. Through such efforts, we hope to build a strong firewall to protect the safety and health of overseas Chinese nationals.

*********************************

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. We would like to wish the great, glorious and correct CPC a very happy birthday!
This illustration highlights a newfound small white dwarf, discovered by ZTF, that is 4,300 kilometers across, or roughly the size of Earth's moon, which is 3,500 kilometers across. The two bodies are shown next to each other for size comparison. The hot, young white dwarf is also the most massive white dwarf known, weighing 1.35 times as much as our sun. CREDIT Giuseppe Parisi

Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen.

The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is heavy, "packing a mass greater than that of our Sun into a body about the size of our Moon," says Ilaria Caiazzo, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech and lead author of the new study appearing in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature. "It may seem counterintuitive, but smaller white dwarfs happen to be more massive. This is due to the fact that white dwarfs lack the nuclear burning that keep up normal stars against their own self gravity, and their size is instead regulated by quantum mechanics."

The discovery was made by the Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, which operates at Caltech's Palomar Observatory; two Hawai'i telescopes - W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai'i Island and University of Hawai'i Institute for Astronomy's Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui - helped characterize the dead star, along with the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar, the European Gaia space observatory, and NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.

White dwarfs are the collapsed remnants of stars that were once about eight times the mass of our Sun or lighter. Our Sun, for example, after it first puffs up into a red giant in about 5 billion years, will ultimately slough off its outer layers and shrink down into a compact white dwarf. About 97 percent of all stars become white dwarfs.

While our Sun is alone in space without a stellar partner, many stars orbit around each other in pairs. The stars grow old together, and if they are both less than eight solar-masses, they will both evolve into white dwarfs.

The new discovery provides an example of what can happen after this phase. The pair of white dwarfs, which spiral around each other, lose energy in the form of gravitational waves and ultimately merge. If the dead stars are massive enough, they explode in what is called a type Ia supernova. But if they are below a certain mass threshold, they combine together into a new white dwarf that is heavier than either progenitor star. This process of merging boosts the magnetic field of that star and speeds up its rotation compared to that of the progenitors.

Astronomers say that the newfound tiny white dwarf, named ZTF J1901+1458, took the latter route of evolution; its progenitors merged and produced a white dwarf 1.35 times the mass of our Sun. The white dwarf has an extreme magnetic field almost 1 billion times stronger than our Sun's and whips around on its axis at a frenzied pace of one revolution every seven minutes (the zippiest white dwarf known, called EPIC 228939929, rotates every 5.3 minutes).

"We caught this very interesting object that wasn't quite massive enough to explode," says Caiazzo. "We are truly probing how massive a white dwarf can be."

What's more, Caiazzo and her collaborators think that the merged white dwarf may be massive enough to evolve into a neutron-rich dead star, or neutron star, which typically forms when a star much more massive than our Sun explodes in a supernova.

"This is highly speculative, but it's possible that the white dwarf is massive enough to further collapse into a neutron star," says Caiazzo. "It is so massive and dense that, in its core, electrons are being captured by protons in nuclei to form neutrons. Because the pressure from electrons pushes against the force of gravity, keeping the star intact, the core collapses when a large enough number of electrons are removed."

If this neutron star formation hypothesis is correct, it may mean that a significant portion of other neutron stars take shape in this way. The newfound object's close proximity (about 130 light-years away) and its young age (about 100 million years old or less) indicate that similar objects may occur more commonly in our galaxy.

MAGNETIC AND FAST

The white dwarf was first spotted by Caiazzo's colleague Kevin Burdge, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, after searching through all-sky images captured by ZTF. This particular white dwarf, when analyzed in combination with data from Gaia, stood out for being very massive and having a rapid rotation.

"No one has systematically been able to explore short-timescale astronomical phenomena on this kind of scale until now. The results of these efforts are stunning," says Burdge, who, in 2019, led the team that discovered a pair of white dwarfs zipping around each other every seven minutes.

The team then analyzed the spectrum of the star using Keck Observatory's Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), and that is when Caiazzo was struck by the signatures of a very powerful magnetic field and realized that she and her team had found something "very special," as she says. The strength of the magnetic field together with the seven-minute rotational speed of the object indicated that it was the result of two smaller white dwarfs coalescing into one.

Data from Swift, which observes ultraviolet light, helped nail down the size and mass of the white dwarf. With a diameter of 2,670 miles, ZTF J1901+1458 secures the title for the smallest known white dwarf, edging out previous record holders, RE J0317-853 and WD 1832+089, which each have diameters of about 3,100 miles.

In the future, Caiazzo hopes to use ZTF to find more white dwarfs like this one, and, in general, to study the population as a whole. "There are so many questions to address, such as what is the rate of white dwarf mergers in the galaxy, and is it enough to explain the number of type Ia supernovae? How is a magnetic field generated in these powerful events, and why is there such diversity in magnetic field strengths among white dwarfs? Finding a large population of white dwarfs born from mergers will help us answer all these questions and more."

###

The study, titled "A highly magnetised and rapidly rotating white dwarf as small as the Moon," was funded by the Rose Hills Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NASA, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the A. F. Morrison Fellowship of the Lick Observatory, the NSF, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

ABOUT LRIS

The Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) is a very versatile and ultra-sensitive visible-wavelength imager and spectrograph built at the California Institute of Technology by a team led by Prof. Bev Oke and Prof. Judy Cohen and commissioned in 1993. Since then it has seen two major upgrades to further enhance its capabilities: the addition of a second, blue arm optimized for shorter wavelengths of light and the installation of detectors that are much more sensitive at the longest (red) wavelengths. Each arm is optimized for the wavelengths it covers. This large range of wavelength coverage, combined with the instrument's high sensitivity, allows the study of everything from comets (which have interesting features in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum), to the blue light from star formation, to the red light of very distant objects. LRIS also records the spectra of up to 50 objects simultaneously, especially useful for studies of clusters of galaxies in the most distant reaches, and earliest times, of the universe. LRIS was used in observing distant supernovae by astronomers who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for research determining that the universe was speeding up in its expansion.

ABOUT W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

The W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes are among the most scientifically productive on Earth. The two 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes atop Maunakea on the Island of Hawai?i feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at Keck Observatory, which is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the Native Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.



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The Cygnus resupply ship will complete its cargo mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday.

Several hours later, Russia's ISS Progress 78 (78P) cargo craft will launch on a two-day trip to replenish the Expedition 65 crew.

Commander Akihiko Hoshide joined Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet and closed the hatch on the trash-filled Cygnus early Monday morning. Following that, NASA Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Mark Vande Hei installed the Slingshot small satellite deployer on Cygnus' hatch.

Cygnus will be released from the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 12:25 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Once Cygnus reaches a safe distance from the station, the Slingshot will deploy five CubeSats for a variety of research including atmospheric physics as well as software evaluation and development.

The 78P cargo craft sits atop its rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan. It will launch Tuesday at 7:27 p.m. carrying over 3,600 pounds of food, fuel and supplies for the seven space station residents.

Roscosmos Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov spent Monday morning preparing for the arrival of the 78P scheduled on Thursday at 9:03 p.m. The duo practiced telerobotically operated maneuvers to manually dock the ISS Progress 78 to the Poisk module in the unlikely event the Russian cargo craft was unable to automatically dock on its own.

NASA TV, on the agency's website and the NASA app, will broadcast all three mission events live. Cygnus departure coverage begins at noon. The ISS Progress 78 launch broadcast starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday with docking coverage starting Thursday at 8:15 p.m. View the NASA Television schedule here.

Despite the cargo craft preparations, there was time for science today aboard the orbiting lab. Kimbrough set up the InSpace-4 physics study that will explore advanced materials and manufacturing techniques. NASA Flight Engineer Megan McArthur studied ways to produce high-quality protein crystals in microgravity to benefit the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries on Earth.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads

Behavioral Core Measures (BCM): The crew set up the appropriate robotics hardware and performed the BCM testing. These sessions are nominally planned to be completed once per month, starting two weeks after a crewmember's arrival on ISS. The Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions (Behavioral Core Measures, or simply BCM) experiment initially examined a suite of measurements to reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration spaceflight, and evaluated the feasibility of those tests within the operational and time constraints of spaceflight for two crewmembers. Subsequent subjects perform a subset of the original activities to measure the performance capabilities of deconditioned crew members to complete either individual or crew telerobotic operations within the first 24 hours after landing. This information could help characterize what tasks a crewmember who has spent months in weightlessness can reasonably be expected to perform after landing on the surface of Mars.

ELaboratore Immagini TElevisive - Space 2 (ELITE-S2): The crew removed the ELITE-S2 hardware from its location in Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station (EXPRESS) rack 4 and prepared it for return to the ground. ELITE-S2 investigated the connection between brain, visualization and motion in the absence of gravity. By recording and analyzing the three-dimensional motion of crewmembers, this study helps engineers apply ergonomics into future spacecraft designs and determines the effects of weightlessness on breathing mechanisms for long-duration missions. This experiment is a cooperative effort with the Italian Space Agency, ASI.

ElectroMagnetic Levitator (EML) Valve Configuration: In support of science operations, the crew closed the Helium valve, opened the Argon valves, and opened the sample chamber valve. EML is a multi-user facility that provides containerless melting and solidification of electrically conductive, spherical samples, under ultra-high vacuum and/or high gas-purity conditions. Heating and positioning of the sample is achieved by electromagnetic fields generated by a coil system. The EML supports research in the field of meta-stable states and phases and in the field of measurement of high-accurate thermophysical properties of liquid metallic alloys in the stable and undercooled state.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Ellipsoids (InSPACE-4): The crew gathered the appropriate items and set up the InSPACE-4 hardware in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox (MSG). Unfortunately, the ground was not able to successfully checkout the camera systems needed for the experiment. It's currently believed alternate video cables will resolve the issue and the ground teams will discuss a forward plan. InSPACE-4 studies the assembly of tiny structures from colloids using magnetic fields. These structures change the properties of the assembled material, such as its mechanical response to or interaction with light and heat. Microgravity allows observation of these assembly processes free of confining sample walls and sedimentation and during timescales not possible using simulated microgravity. Results could provide insight into how to harness nanoparticles to fabricate and manufacture new materials.

Microbial Tracking-3 (MT-3): The crew participated in a conference with the MT-3 payload developer, and then performed surface sample collections per plan. The Quantifying Selection for Pathogenicity and Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria and Fungi on the ISS - a Microbial Tracking Study (Microbial Tracking-3 or MT-3) investigation continues a series focused on ongoing monitoring of pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) and antibiotic resistance in potentially disease-causing bacteria and fungi present on the ISS. The investigation aims to identify, analyze, and characterize pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance, and genomics to augment the NASA GeneLab with the statistical confidence to characterize microbes associated with closed habitation and predict those that may pose a threat to crew health.

Phase II Real-time Protein Crystal Growth on Board the ISS (RTPCG-2) Plate Load 2C1: The crew pipetted and mixed solutions of varying viscosities onto the crystallization plate, and sealed the wells, and transferred the completed plate into Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL) for incubation. RTPCG-2 demonstrates new methods for producing high-quality protein crystals in microgravity. Previous work has shown that microgravity can sometimes produce high-quality protein crystals that can be analyzed to identify possible targets for drugs to treat disease. RTPCG-2 tests high-quality proteins crystals for detailed analysis back on Earth.

SlingShot Bracket and Deployer Install: In preparation for the Cygnus departure from ISS, the crew installed and connected the SlingShot hardware to the Cygnus vehicle. SlingShot is a small satellite deployment system that fits inside the Cygnus spacecraft's Passive Common Berthing Mechanism (PCBM). SlingShot can accommodate up to 18 satellites that are deployed post Cygnus unberth.

Systems

Cygnus Departure Preparations: The crew performed several activities in order to prepare Cygnus Northrup Grumman-15 (NG-15) for departure. The crew de-routed the Intermodular Ventilation (IMV) supply duct from Cygnus, closed the Cygnus hatch, reconfigured Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Controller Panel Assemblies (CPAs), and demated power and data connections in the Cygnus/Node 1 vestibule. Finally, the crew closed the Node 1 Nadir hatch and began depressurization of the Cygnus/Node 1 vestibule. NG-15 release is scheduled for Tuesday, June 29th at 11:15 AM CT.

Cargo Dragon Cargo Operations: The crew performed cargo transfer operations for Cargo Dragon SpaceX-22 (SpX-22). There are approximately 11 hours of SpX-22 cargo operations remaining to complete prior to departure. SpX-22 undock is scheduled for July 6th to return cargo and payloads to the ground.

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Loop Scrubs and Iodinates: The crew degassed a newly flown water processing jumper and then initiated water loop scrubs on EMUs 3009 and 3015. Following the water loop scrubs, the crew acquired and tested water samples for conductivity for both units. Finally, the crew performed an Iodination of the EMU cooling loops. EMU loop scrubs and Iodinates are required preventative maintenance needed to remove any chemical and biological contaminants from the EMU transport loop.

Alternating Current (AC) Inverter R&R: Today, the Node 2 Wireless Access Point (WAP) went offline prompting the crew to inspect the power configuration. Upon inspection, the crew noted that upstream Node 2 120 Volts Direct Current (VDC) to 120 Volts AC (VAC) Inverter S/N 1001 was receiving power in but not supplying power out through any of its ports. The crew performed an R&R of the suspect AC Inverter S/N 1001 and the downstream loads returned nominally.

Completed Task List Activities:

None

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Cygnus Departure Preparation Commanding

Cygnus-SSRMS Power Apply

EMU Loop Scrub Support

SDMS Activation

Look Ahead Plan

Tuesday, June 29 (GMT 180)

Payloads:

AC Touch

BCM test

DREAMS

ICF Troubleshooting

InSPACE-4 Experiment Run Operations 1-2

Microbial Tracking 3

OBiS Bag 1 (21-25) Initiation

Phospho-Aging

Repository

Systems:

NG-15 Unberth and Release

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

EVA Tool Stow and Battery Operations

EVA A/L Restow

Wednesday, June 30 (GMT 181)

Payloads:

AC Touch

APEX-07 Clean and Dry

CAL Hololens C/O

DREAMS

EML Lens Switch

InSPACE-4 Experiment Runs 3-4

OBiS Bag 2 (21-25) Initiation

Repository Urine and Blood Collect

SideKick Initiation Configuration and Remote C/O

Tangolab2 and 4 Cardcube Replace

VEG Monitor Analysis Photo

Systems:

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

ROBoT OBT

Thursday, July 1 (GMT 182)

Payloads:

APEX-07 Deactivation

CAL Science Module Pack for Return

CBEF Measurement Experiment Unit

DREAMS

InSPACE-4 Run Operations 5-6

Microbial Tracking-3

NanoRacks Mod-9 Operations 4

OBiS Bag 3 (21-25) Initiation

Plant Habitat Facility Preparation

Repository

RTPCG-2 Plate 2C17

Systems:

78P Dock

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

IMV Flow Measure

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Body Mass Measurement - BMMD

Gather Vestibule Outfitting Kit (VOK)

Dragon Cargo Transfer

MSG Activation

SlingShot BPW and Procedure Review

Cygnus Cargo Closeout

InSPACE-4 Hardware Setup

RTPCG-2 Recipe Card Print

RTPCG-2 MELFI Vial Retrieve

Cygnus Egress

Real-time Protein Crystal Growth Maintenance Work Area Preparation

EVA Water Processing Jumper Degas

EMU Cooling Loop Maintenance Scrub Initiation

CBM CPA Rotation and Closeout

Remove CBM CPAs

InSPACE-4 Hardware Historical Photo

Cygnus/Node 1 Vestibule Configuration for Demate - Part 1

SlingShot Hardware Gather

Polar Desiccant Swap

Microbial Tracking-3 Crew Conference

EMU Cooling Loop Maintenance Iodination

MT-3 Environmental Sample Collection

SlingShot Bracket Installation Assist

SlingShot Bracket Installation

Glacier Desiccant Swap

SlingShot Deployer Install

RTPCG-2 Production Plate Load S/N 2C1

MT-3 Sample POLAR Insert

Discharge PBA with low pressure

USOS Window Shutter Close

Node 1 Nadir CBM CPA Installation

Relocate Station Support Computer (SSC) 23 in Node 1 support Pressure Management Device (PMD)

Cygnus/Node 1 Vestibule Configuration for Demate - Part 2

EMU Cooling Loop Scrub Deconfiguration

PMD Equipment Setup and Power and Data connections

Behavioral Core Measures ROBoT-r Test

ELITE-S2 IMU (Interface Management Unit) Removal and Return

N1 Deck hatch MPEV open

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The uncrewed Russian Progress 78 is safely in orbit headed for the International Space Station following launch at 7:27 p.m. (4:27 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned for a two-day rendezvous on its way to meet up with the orbiting laboratory and its Expedition 65 crew members.

After making 34 orbits of Earth on its journey, Progress will dock to the station's Poisk module on the space-facing side of the Russian segment at 9:03 p.m. Thursday, July 1. Live coverage on NASA TV of rendezvous and docking will begin at 8:15 p.m.

Carrying more than 3,600 pounds of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 65 crew, the Progress 78 resupply spacecraft will spend almost five months at the station. The cargo craft is scheduled to perform an automated undocking and relocation to the new "Nauka" Multipurpose Laboratory Module in late October. Named for the Russian word for "science," Nauka is planned to launch to the space station in mid-July.

Progress 78 will undock from the orbiting laboratory in November for a re-entry into Earth's atmosphere that results in its safe destruction.

Earlier at 12:32 p.m. EDT, flight controllers on the ground sent commands to release the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from the Canadarm2 robotic arm after earlier detaching Cygnus from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module. At the time of release, the station was flying 270 miles over southern Wyoming.

The Cygnus spacecraft successfully departed the International Space Station four months after arriving at the space station to deliver about 8,000 pounds of scientific experiments and supplies to the orbiting laboratory.

After departure, Cygnus will remain in orbit to deploy five cube satellites, including the Ionosphere Thermosphere Scanning Photometer for Ion-Neutral Studies (IT-SPINS), which will add to researchers' fundamental understanding of Earth's Ionosphere, and the Khalifa University Students Satellite-2 (MYSat-2), which will train graduate students through the development and evaluation of its software.

Thursday evening Cygnus will perform a deorbit engine firing to set up a destructive re-entry in which the spacecraft, filled with waste the space station crew packed, will burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

On-Orbit Status Report

Cygnus Northrup Grumman-15 (NG-15) Release: NG-15 (named the S.S. Katherine Johnson) was successfully released by the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and departed the ISS today at 11:31 AM CT while the crew monitored from the Cupola. The completion of the NG-15 mission on ISS marks both the longest Cygnus mission duration to-date of 127-days and the highest Cygnus disposal mass to-date of approximately 3846 kg. NG-15 will complete several post-departure science objectives during free-flight prior to destructive re-entry planned for July 1st.

Payloads

Behavioral Core Measures (BCM): The crew set up the appropriate robotics hardware and performed the BCM testing. These sessions are nominally planned to be completed once per month, starting two weeks after a crewmember's arrival on ISS. The Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions (Behavioral Core Measures, or simply BCM) experiment initially examined a suite of measurements to reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration spaceflight, and evaluated the feasibility of those tests within the operational and time constraints of spaceflight for two crewmembers. Subsequent subjects perform a subset of the original activities to measure the performance capabilities of deconditioned crew members to complete either individual or crew telerobotic operations within the first 24 hours after landing. This information could help characterize what tasks a crewmember who has spent months in weightlessness can reasonably be expected to perform after landing on the surface of Mars.

Dreams: The crew charged up the Dreams Dry-Electroencephalography (EEG) headband and donned it prior to going to sleep. Sleep plays a major role in human health and well-being. Insufficient sleep, or sleep disorders can increase the risk of developing medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, and can impair task performance. The Sleep Monitoring in Space with Dry-EEG Headband (Dreams) is a technology demonstration investigation that utilizes the Dry-EEG Headband: an effective, affordable, and comfortable solution to monitor astronaut sleep quality during long-duration spaceflight aboard the ISS.

Industrial Crystallization (ICF) Troubleshooting: To resolve suspected internal ICF computer issues, the crew set up a video camera, and connected peripherals to attempt a startup of the internal computer. Recovery will allow the ground team to continue the observation of the protein crystal chamber prior to its return to the ground. The ICF is a small chamber that allows crystals to grow over time into large crystals, appropriate for use in science labs on Earth. When grown in the microgravity environment of the ISS, the crystals are of much higher quality than those currently grown on Earth.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Ellipsoids (InSPACE-4): The crew performed steps to recover the video cameras, then installed the InSPACE-4 sample module. After working through some camera positioning issues, a science run for this experiment was started. Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Ellipsoids (InSPACE-4) studies the assembly of tiny structures from colloids using magnetic fields. These structures change the properties of the assembled material, such as its mechanical response to or interaction with light and heat. Microgravity allows observation of these assembly processes free of confining sample walls and sedimentation and during timescales not possible using simulated microgravity. Results could provide insight into how to harness nanoparticles to fabricate and manufacture new materials.

Microbial Tracking-3 (MT-3): The crew continued with the week-long sampling operations for MT-3. The Quantifying Selection for Pathogenicity and Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria and Fungi on the ISS - a Microbial Tracking Study (Microbial Tracking-3 or MT-3) investigation continues a series of investigations focused on ongoing monitoring of pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) and antibiotic resistance in potentially disease-causing bacteria and fungi present on the ISS. The investigation aims to identify, analyze, and characterize pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance, and genomics to augment the NASA GeneLab with the statistical confidence to characterize microbes associated with closed habitation and predict those that may pose a threat to crew health.

Oral Biofilms in Space (OBIS): The crew initiated the experiment operations for Session Packs (SP) 21-25. The connection to the waste bag in SP 24 was loose and could not be attached successfully, but due to a self-sealing feature in the system, the science was able to be started. Effect of Environmental Stressors on Oral Biofilm Growth and Treatment (Oral Biofilms in Space) studies the effect of gravity on the behavior of oral bacteria, including the structure of the bacterial community, and changes in bacterial response to common oral care agents. The findings could support development of novel treatments to fight oral diseases such as caries, gingivitis, and periodontitis. The investigation also could provide insights into how microgravity affects the microbiome of other mucosal surfaces in the body.

Systems

Cargo Dragon Cargo Operations: Today, crew performed cargo transfer operations for Cargo Dragon SpaceX-22 (SpX-22). SpX-22 undock is scheduled for July 6th to return cargo and payloads to the ground.

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Recovery Activities: The crew completed several activities in order to recover from the ISS Roll-Out Solar Array (IROSA) 2B and 4B Install EVA series and return equipment to a nominal configuration. The crew replaced expiring components from Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) 3006 and 3009, performed a Remove & Replace (R&R) of the Umbilical Interface Assembly (UIA) Supply Biocide Filter, and installed Lithium-Ion Rechargeable EVA Battery Assemblies (LREBAs) and Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) batteries into the Battery Stowage Compartment to initiate a charging autocycle. Finally, the crew reconfigured stowage in the Airlock.

Space Station Computer (SSC) Shell Swap: The crew reported that SSC3 was unresponsive. The crew performed a field-strip of the SSC to attempt recovery of the hardware, but the signature persisted. Finally, the crew swapped the SSC shell with a spare, and the hardware recovered nominally.

Completed Task List Activities:

Wanted Poster: Condensate Transfer Manifold

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Cygnus Unberth and Release Commanding

Node 1 Active Common Berthing Mechanism Inspection

SSRMS Double-Walkoff and PMA-1 Survey (In Work)

Look Ahead Plan

Wednesday, June 30 (GMT 181)

Payloads:

AC Touch

APEX-07 Clean and Dry

CAL Hololens C/O

DREAMS

EML Lens Switch

InSPACE-4 Experiment Runs 3-4

Oral Biofilms Bag 2 (21-25) Init

Phospho Aging

Plant Hab Procedure Review

Plant Water Management 3 and 4 Hardware Locate

Repository Urine and Blood Collect

SABL3 CO2 Controller Remove

SideKick Initiation Configuration and Remote Checkout

Tangolab2 and 4 Cardcube Replace

Veggie Monitor Photo

Systems:

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

ROBoT OBT

Crew Dragon Tablet Sync

Thursday, July 1 (GMT 182)

Payloads:

APEX-07 Deactivation

CAL Science Module Pack For Return

CBEF Measurement Experiment Unit

DREAMS

InSPACE-4 Run Operations 5-6

Microbial Tracking-3

NanoRacks Mod-9 Operations 4

OBIS Bag 3 (21-25) Initiation

Plant Habitat Facility Preparation

Repository

RTPCG-2 Plate 2C1/7 Observation

Systems:

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

IMV Flow Measure

Friday, July 2 (GMT 183)

Payloads:

AC Stow

CIR/ACME Reconfigure for CFI-G Part 2

ELF

Food Acceptability

Food Physiology

GLACIER Sample Transfer

ICF

InSPACE-4

MT-3

POLAR CS Transfers

PWM 3 and 4 Preparation

RTPCG-2

Systems:

78P Dock

SpX-22 Cargo Operations

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

HRF Generic Urine Collections

Phospho-Aging Generic MELFI Sample Insertion Operations

HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection and MELFI Insertion

EMU Swap

Water Recovery and Management CWC-Iodine Transfer

Cygnus PCS Command and PROX Link Verification

Phospho-Aging Generic Sample MELFI Retrieval and Insertion

USOS Window Shutter Close

EMU Resize

Dragon Cargo Transfer

InSPACE-4 Cable Swap

EVA UIA Biocide Filter Changeout

Phospho-Aging Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations

Microbial Tracking-3 Environmental Sample Collection and POLAR Insert

EVA Battery Install

EVA Battery Operations Terminal Autocycle Initiation

Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis and Data Record

OBiS Assembly Hydration

InSPACE-4 Experiment Run Ops

Behavioral Core Measures ROBoT-r Test

N1 Deck hatch MPEV close

Pressure Management Device (PMD) Teardown

Antimicrobial Coatings Touch

Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Downlink

Progress 77 USOS Cargo Trash Gather/Pre-gather

Dreams Dry-EEG Headband charge and Setup

SSRMS Cygnus Release and departure monitoring

ICF Troubleshooting

Progress 77 USOS Trash Handover

Restow Vestibule Outfitting Kit (VOK)

PMD SSC Return

EVA Airlock Restow

Artemis HERA Adlink Mini PC Reboot [Aborted]

iPad Flight Group 9/10 Stow

MERLIN OBiS Assemblies Insertion

RWS Monitor Deactivation

RWS Teardown

Dreams Dry-EEG Headband doffing after recording

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Fans will return to Clinton Raceway this Sunday (July 4), and driver Doug McNair, who will steer two starters in the three-year-old trotting filly Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions and one of the favourites in the $58,300 Kin Pace Final, is thrilled that there will be a crowd for the Huron County ovals signature event.

Clinton always has a big fan base. Its a small place where they get a good crowd, and its a lot more exciting when youve got fans in the stands, thats for sure, said McNair. It feels like qualifiers when theres no fans; it just doesnt feel the same.

McNair, who currently leads all drivers in Canada in earnings, will make his first start on Sundays card with A Blue Blood, who gets post 4 in the second $21,450 three-year-old trotting filly Grassroots division (race 5). The filly heads into the race off a couple of errant trips, but McNair likes her chances in the Grassroots season opener.

Shes come back pretty good, a lot better than she was last year, I think, said the Guelph, Ont., resident. Shes a little tricky. Sometimes shes a little tricky in the turns, but hopefully theyll put some snug hopples on her to get around that track, because shes talented enough.

The drivers father, Gregg McNair of Guelph, trains A Blue Blood for Matthew and Roy Trelford of Mildmay, Ont. Last season, the daughter of Muscle Mass recorded a pair of seconds in Ontario Sires Stakes action and earned enough points to qualify for the Grassroots post season. Through five sophomore starts, A Blue Blood has a pair of wins and a pair of violations for traveling inside the pylons  an outcome McNair will be looking to avoid on Sunday.

In the fourth and final Grassroots split (race 9), McNair returns to the bike behind Rubys Are Nice. The pair competed primarily at the Gold Series level last season and McNair expects the fillys speed will work in her favour on Sunday:

I drove her last year and she was real fast last year. Shes usually decent off the gate and stuff, obviously a lot tighter turns that shes going to be going around, but I think shell handle them. She doesnt have to go to the gate a hundred miles an hour.

Rubys Are Nice will start from post 6, and McNair said the outer half of the starting gate can be an advantage for a young trotter.

Thats the perfect spot for a young green trotter, or I think any kind of trotter, on the smaller tracks. That way, when you go into the turn, youre swooping into the turn instead of heading straight left when you get there, McNair explained. They dont have to be quite as good gaited if theyve got the middle or the outside of the gate.

Rockwood, Ont., resident Rob Fellows trains Rubys Are Nice for owner-breeders Blair and Erna Corbeil of Beaumont, Alta. The Muscle Mass filly heads into Sundays test off a 1:56.4 victory at Woodbine Mohawk Park on June 24.

McNair will wrap up his stakes drives behind A Better Game in the Kin Pace Final. The pair sprinted home to a 1:56.4 victory in their elimination last weekend, and McNair expects Clinton fans will send the Betterthancheddar daughter to the starting gate as their top choice in the 10th race:

I think shes definitely the one to beat. Last week I didnt know what to expect from her, but she got around them turns perfect and she still had the plugs in at the wire, so I think shes got a real big shot this weekend as long as she behaves, said the driver, who will send the filly after the lions share of the $58,300 purse from post 5. I think she can win off either trip. She can win on the front or from behind, obviously she showed that last week. Weve just got to hope we get some luck, thats all.

A Better Game qualified but did not race as a two-year-old. Since making her racing debut in April, she has tallied three wins and one second in eight starts, taking a 1:52.3 personal best at Woodbine Mohawk Park on June 15 for trainer Blake MacIntosh of St. George, Ont., and his co-owners John Nizlek of Danbury, Conn., and Ridgeway Racing of Ridgeway, Ont.

Shes a lot more sure of herself and shes got a lot of pace right now, said McNair, who has driven three previous winners of the Kin Pace. Im kind of really high on her for this weekend. Im just hoping it goes all right, thats all.

Clinton Raceway sends its first race behind the starting gate at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, with the three-year-old trotting fillies making their Grassroots debuts in races 3, 5, 8 and 9 and the Kin Pace going postward in race 10.

The number of spectators welcome to attend the event in person is limited and reservations are required. To make a reservation, please visit this link.

To view Sunday's complete entries, click the following link: Sunday Entries  Clinton Raceway.

(Ontario Sires Stakes)
The Fourth of July may be Sunday, but the harness racing fireworks will be exploding a bit early as Yonkers Raceway hosts a quartet of major stakes on Friday (July 2) for three-year-olds, including the kick-off legs for both the trotting and pacing Triple Crowns.

Eliminations on June 25 thinned the fields down to the elite eight that will compete in each of two $500,000 Triple Crown races, the MGM Yonkers Trot and MGM Grand Messenger, as well as two $150,000 filly companion races, the New York New York Mile Trot and Park MGM Pace. As is customary, the ladies lead off the parade of stakes carded as races six through nine on the 12-race card that starts at 7:15 p.m.

Trainer Marcus Melander enters the New York New York Mile Trot with a strong pair of Courant Inc.-owned three-year-old fillies on opposite ends of the starting gate. The 2019 Dan Patch Trainer of the Year sends out Iteration from post 2 and Imhatra Am S from the eight-hole in hopes of taking down at least half of the $150,000 prize.

Iteration, along with Sweeping Rainbow (9-2, post 5, David Miller), were given byes as the other six finalists competed for spots in last weeks elimination. The Chapter Seven-sired Iteration, listed as the 5-2 morning line favourite, has won both of her starts in 2021, including an impressive 1:53.1 Empire Breeders Classic victory at Vernon Downs on June 18.

She really stepped up in the Empire Breeders Classic. I wasnt there, but Brian [Sears] said it was not the best track that night. She did it very easy and I think she is coming into this very sharp, said Melander, who felt the change to the smaller half-mile oval wouldnt hurt her chances. She was on the half last year and didnt have any problem with it, and I would be shocked if she had a problem with it this year.

Regular driver Brian Sears will be in the bike again on Friday as he choose Iteration over Imhatra Am S (15-1), who gets a very capable replacement in George Brennan. Imhatra Am S came charging home when clear in the stretch to finish just a head back in second behind Mazzarati (3-1, post 7, Tim Tetrick) in the elimination a week ago.

She raced very well in the elimination. If she wouldve gotten room a little earlier, I think she wouldve gotten there, said Melander about Imhatra Am S. I think she can get a good check with the right trip, but the eight-hole is the eight-hole.

The wide-open New York New York Mile also features a pair of starters from trainer George Ducharme  Lindys Dollywood (9-1, post 4, Todd McCarthy) and Contested Hanover (8-1, post 6, Scott Zeron)  and elimination fourth- and fifth-place finishers Rebel Girl (6-1, post 3, Dexter Dunn) and Presto (9-1, post 1, Yannick Gingras).

There is no doubt that the seventh race Park MGM Pace will feature the shortest-priced favourite of the stakes on the Friday card. The unbeaten-in-2021 Test of Faith headlines the field of sophomore fillies after winning her elimination handily in 1:52.1, more than two full seconds faster than the other elimination was timed.

She came out of the race really good, said trainer Brett Pelling, who admitted that Test Of Faith has no weaknesses. If she has one, I havent found it yet. Shes sound, has a beautiful gait, gets around a half perfectly and doesnt wear any rigging. I try to spend time with her but my job as a trainer is to fix things and there isnt much wrong because she is who she is.

Test of Faith (3-2), who will start from post 3 with regular pilot David Miller at the controls for owners Melvin Segal, Kentuckiana Racing Stable and Eddie Gran, should face her greatest obstacles to the winners circle from a pair of Linda Toscano-trained fillies on the inside of the gate. Heart Of Mine (7-2, post 1, Jason Bartlett) won the other elimination a week ago in 1:54.2 and is now perfect in six starts this year. Her stablemate Marsala Hanover (9-2, Zeron) starts just to her outside and was third behind Test of Faith in the elimination.

Marsala Hanover has gone some big trips and might be the only one that can go her speed. Do I fear her, probably not, said Pelling when asked about the competition.

Other contenders in the field include Darby Hanover (7-1, Andy Miller) and Classicist (7-1, Todd McCarthy) from posts 4 and 5, respectively. Both finished second in the preliminary round last week, with the former chasing Heart Of Mine and the latter getting run down by Test Of Faith.

All 20-1 in the early line, Shania Blue Chip (Dunn), So Irresistible (Andrew McCarthy) and Lyons Softassilk (Tetrick) complete the field from posts 6 through 8, respectively.

Race eight marks the 2021 launch of the Trotting Triple Crown, which comprises the MGM Yonkers Trot, Hambletonian at The Meadowlands, and Kentucky Futurity at The Red Mile. All eight starters in the $500,000 Yonkers Trot are also Hambletonian eligible, and one winner will have the opportunity to become the 10th Triple Crown champion.

Trainer Tony Alagna hopes he has that chance with elimination winner Ahundreddollarbill (4-1, post 6, Andrew McCarthy), who scored over the surface last Friday in 1:54.2. Owned by Crawford Farms Racing and James A Crawford, the son of Chapter Seven has posted a perfect record in four starts this year.

Hes trained back well all winter and has really lived up to what we thought he could be, said Alagna. I think we have the best horse, but it is half-mile track racing and you need things to go your way. As far as ability-wise, who hes racing against and how hes done it so far  he won with the earplugs in the other day  I feel very comfortable.

While handicappers may be concerned that Ahundreddollarbill had trouble with the turns at Yonkers in his elimination win, Alagna is hardly worried.

It was more so that Andy [McCarthy] was taking a hold of him to see where the field was getting settled. It really wasnt the [first] turn itself, he just had him doubled-up letting everyone else get position before he could move on to the front.

Fellow elimination winner Johan Palema (1:54.1) worked out a perfect pocket trip and sprinted home in 27.2 to advance to the final. That sharp mile earned him morning line favourite status at 3-1. Driver Yannick Gingras should once again get the chance to make his own luck with the Ake Svanstedt-trained and Bender Sweden Inc.-owned son of Bar Hopping from post 3.

Svanstedts chances of taking home the trophy is exponentially better than Gingras since he also trains Ambassador Hanover (9-2), who he co-owns and will drive from post 1, and Mon Amour (6-1), leaving from post 4 with Andy Miller in the bike.

As in the New York New York Mile with Imhatra Am S, the post draw was not kind to the Marcus Melander-trained Yonkers Trot starter In Range (7-2). Considered one of the top three-year-old trotters in the sport entering the year, In Range has only posted one win from four starts and must overcome the eight-hole with Tim Tetrick in the bike.

Obviously we are going to need some luck from out there, but that is Timmys [Tetrick] problem, joked Melander about $446,887 career winner owned by AMG Stable Inc, Kenneth Kjellgren and Rick Wahlstedt.

You cant ask for him to go faster than he did in the last quarter, added Melander on In Ranges :27.2 final fractional time in his elimination. I dont know what Tim is going to do but I guess he has to leave a little bit.

Even the outsiders on the morning-line in the Yonkers Trot have the credentials to win. On A Streak (10-1, post 2, Dan Dube) is a Breeders Crown winner and leads the field in earnings at $764,659. Ethan T Hanover (12-1, post 5, Bartlett) has a win over the track and along with Arnold N Dicky (10-1, post 7, Dunn) has eclipsed six figures in the earnings column.

The pacers get their chance to shine one race later in the $500,000 MGM Grand Messenger and four of the eight starters  Simon Says Hanover, Ill Drink To That, American Courage and Abuckabett Hanover  are eligible to the Cane Pace, the second leg of the Pacing Triple Crown.

Certainly the fastest and perhaps the most impressive elimination winner was American Courage. The Fiddlers Creek Stables-owned colt secured the lead passing the opening quarter from an inside post and marched down the road for a 1:50.4 win. Now driver Matt Kakaley may have to map out a new plan from post 6 in the final.

He came out of it better than he went into his elimination, said trainer Travis Alexander. Post 6 is not the greatest, but it isnt the worst either. Matt [Kakaley] doesnt usually fire him out anyway. Im sure the 2, 3 and 4 will blast out hard and then he can make a decision. My job is just to get the horse ready and the rest is up to Matt.

Despite winning his elimination, American Courage was installed as the 7-2 second choice on the morning-line behind the horse that finished 1-1/4 lengths behind him in second, Charlie May (2-1, Brett Miller), who received the opposite post switch from 7 in his elimination to 3 on Friday night. The Don Tiger-owned and Steve Carter-trained gelding by McArdle had some bumps in the road to start the year, but has since paced three impressive miles and certainly is on Alexanders radar.

Charlie May. Hes a nice horse, said Alexander on the rival he fears most in the field. I know he didnt do a lot of work in his elimination, but Steve Carter is no dummy. I respect him very much. Its a good field, but if I had to pick one horse, it would be Charlie May.

Considered one of the favourites coming into the Messenger, Abuckabett Hanover, who scored a 1:51.3 elimination victory as part of a 1-9 entry, has dropped to 6-1 on the morning line. Despite the impressive performance line on paper, perhaps the oddsmaker and the general public saw the son of Betting Line veer sharply right on the first turn before ultimately coming first-over to win.

He got around the turns good, but the issue was we put a gaiting pole on him to help him out a little bit, said trainer Tony Alagna about Abuckabett Hanovers first-turn issues. He raced in his first start at The Meadowlands, but we never had to touch him with it. Andy [McCarthy] touched him with it in the first turn and he turned right. It just scared him. So we are going back to a gaiting strap, which is what he wore when he won at Chester [Harrahs Philadelphia].

With the equipment issues behind him, Abuckabett Hanover, who is co-owned Alagna Racing along with Crawford Farms Racing, Jablonsky Held Stable and Barbara Wienick Stable, will try to keep his unblemished record in four starts intact despite an unfavorable starting spot.

With the eight-hole hes going to have to have some things shake his way, said Alagna, who is clearly focused not only on the Messenger but on the long stakes season for three-year-olds that is just kicking off on Friday.

Also given a 6-1 early chance of winning for Alagna is Simon Says Hanover. Much luckier at the draw, he starts from post 1 with Scott Zeron in the bike for Riverview Racing, Brad Grant, Ken Jacobs, Plouffe Head and VJ Stable.

The way he closed in his elimination the other day, I thought he was really good. I thought he might even get up for second, said Alagna about the Hanover Shoe Farms-bred son of Captaintreacherous who was fourth, beaten 1-3/4 lengths, in the elimination. If they mix things up and he gets a good trip, he wouldnt be a total surprise.

The early speed in the Messenger is sure to come from Ill Drink To That (4-1, post 2, Dunn), who hasnt been worse than second in six 2021 starts, and Chase H Hanover (10-1, post 4, Sears), another son of Captaintreacherous who has been first or second at the quarter in all five of his current-year starts.

Outsiders Mysweetboymax (post 5, Bartlett) and Higlandbeachsbest (post 7, Gingras), both rated at 20-1, round out the field.

The stakes action at Yonkers doesnt end Friday. When the July 4 weekend fireworks conclude, fans will only have to wait one week for more top horses to visit as the eliminations for the MGM Springfield for two-year-olds is scheduled for July 9. The New York Sire Stakes series will also make multiple stops to Yonkers culminating in New York Night of Champions on Sept. 10.

Yonkers races Monday to Friday weekly with a 7:15 p.m. post time.

(Yonkers Raceway)
Stanton Public Policy Center Condemns Conservator and Court Decision Preventing Britney Spears from Having a Child

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Stanton Public Policy Center

July 1, 2021



WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /Standard Newswire/ -- In dramatic court testimony, Ms. Spears said, "I would like to progressively move forward and I want to have the real deal. I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I have an [IUD] inside of myself so I don't get pregnant. They don't want me to have children - any more children."



Here is link to a national news story on her court testimony:

https://people.com/music/britney-spears-wants-more-kids-get-married-but-claims-cant-conservatorship/



It is difficult to imagine any court in American forcing Ms. Spears to be sterilized and prevent her from having a child. This only serves to reinforce how women are treated as second-class citizens by our judicial system.



Stanton Public Policy Center calls for the immediate removal of this barbaric court order and would allow Britney Spears the right to pursue her God-given and Constitutional right to marry and have children.



Stanton Public Policy Center is a women's advocacy and educational group that works on issues of human rights and justice which empower and inspire women. It is affiliated with Stanton Healthcare which has life-affirming women's health clinics in America and internationally.



Below is a joint statement by the Stanton Executive Committee:

"In China, Uyghur women are sterilized and prevented from having children just like Britney Spears. The United States government rightly condemns these actions by the Chinese Communist Party as a blatant human rights violation and an attack on women.



"Yet in America, a Los Angeles court is allowed to tragically prevent Britney Spears from having a child by allowing her to be sterilized. It is difficult to imagine a more barbaric way to strip Ms. Spears of her basic human rights and diminish her as a woman.



"Stanton Public Policy Center unequivocally condemns this court decision and calls for Judge Brenda Penny to lift this unjust order."

For more information or interviews call:

Rev. Patrick Mahoney at 540.538.4741



SOURCE Stanton Public Policy Center



CONTACT: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, 540-538-4741


Barco is about to expand the highly praised and awarded ClickShare family to enable businesses to prepare for a smooth return to the office and step into the new reality of the hybrid workplace. Completing the recent wireless conferencing range with two new models of ClickShare Present, our wireless presentation & collaboration solution, we offer customers worldwide the freedom to equip hybrid meeting rooms according to their own requirements, existing ecosystems, and company IT policies.

The hybrid meeting technology that puts people first

Theres no going back to the way we worked before. Were no longer prepared to slog to every meeting in person. And the virtual meeting has its shortcomings too. Instead, we are going for something better than both, which we call hybrid, a seamless blend of the physical and the virtual, of in-office and remote, says George Stromeyer, Senior VP and GM Enterprise, Barco.

Mixed working and collaboration solutions like ClickShare take center stage in this new era. We reinforce the capabilities of high-end video technology and bring meeting participants closer together. ClickShare enables seamless, highly engaged collaboration no matter where employees are working. With a full range of wireless solutions, we encourage businesses to re-enter the hybrid workplace safely and effectively and offer exactly that technology that fully matches their business and IT requirements. ClickShare puts the employee at the heart and fosters both engagement and connectivity.

In the past, technology has tried to recreate real life meetings. But in-person meetings arent perfect. At Barco, we have a different approach. We start with people. And how every person can be at their very best. Engaged. Agile. Fully involved. Inspiring each other. Only then we create the tech that makes that happen, George Stromeyer continues.

One range, two flavours

With ClickShare, our wireless presentation and conferencing hub, we make hybrid collaboration seamless for all. No matter where we are  in Barco Experience Centre in Singapore or at our workstation at home, all we need is one click to start collaborating and share content. Participants can engage in an immersive conferencing experience in a matter of seconds, Olivier Croly, Vice President for APAC in Barco explains.

With the introduction of ClickShare Present to the meeting room ecosystem, we now offer a solution for any customer wanting to turn existing conference rooms into fully equipped hybrid collaboration rooms. ClickShare Present is a seamless extension to wirelessly share content in your existing meeting room setup. Customers with existing Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Webex conference rooms can benefit from adding easy, wireless content sharing. ClickShare completes the collaborative experience with full BYOD, interactivity features and workflow integration. The focus shifts from mainly conferencing to true hybrid collaboration.

On the other hand, the fully agnostic ClickShare Conference models, launched successfully last year at ISE in Amsterdam, unleash the power of BYOM (Bring Your Own Meeting) by bridging to remote participants through your video service of choice. ClickShare Conference gives users the freedom to organize hybrid meetings the way they want and where they want. They host calls from their laptop, use their preferred UC&C platform, and wirelessly connect to the meeting room display and AV peripherals. Any meeting room can easily be redesigned into a wireless hybrid meeting room by adding ClickShare Conference.

Making hybrid collaboration flow in one click

ClickShare offers IT managers the freedom to choose between plug & play collaboration with the ClickShare Button or powerful workflow optimization with the ClickShare Desktop App. Both empower hybrid meetings through the same, simple, intuitive experience.

The Button is an instant plug-in for both employees and guests, while the App can be pushed through an MSI to all employee laptops. ClickShare is the perfect match for any digital workplace strategy. Touch or touchless, Button or App. It is the customers way of working, the customers decision.

ClickShare is simple, easy and wireless. Users decide how they want to present with no complex set up of room devices. You can bring your own meeting anytime in a secured manner to achieve intuitive teamwork by collaborating with remote colleagues, Marc Remond, Vice President of Meeting and Learning Experiences for Asia Pacific in Barco clarifies.

Introducing a complete portfolio: connected, secure at heart and enterprise-grade.

The new ClickShare Present range consists of 2 different models for wireless presentation in existing VC rooms.

 The entry C-5 is ideally suited for huddle spaces and small meeting rooms, offering the key functionalities of wireless 4K content sharing.

 The high-end C-10 is the perfect companion for interactive collaboration in any meeting space, adds enhanced video performance and a set of interactivity features such as touch back support, moderation, blackboarding and annotation to make users truly connect and click in meetings.

The entire ClickShare family is connected, IT-grade and matches your network configuration, whether in standalone, connected or fully networked mode. As ISO 27001 certified product, our focus is entirely on security and central management, which is essential for IT compatibility. Using our XMS management dashboard, you can easily manage and update your units, and you get useful insights into behaviour in the workplace. All units feature Barcos SmartCare offering, including five years of coverage, advanced access to Barcos helpdesk and a license to the XMS Insights module.
Berns Brett Masaood (BBM), the Abu Dhabi-based independent insurance broker, financial adviser and risk management company, has confirmed the acquisition of Dubai-based consultancy Refpoint Insurance Consultants LLC (RPIC). It is a strategic move that strengthens its already extensive services in insurance, risk management and financial services, and expands its regional footprint.

The investment underscores BBMs far-reaching brokerage capabilities, top-level consultancy services and sophisticated risk transfer solutions, in addition to its burgeoning corporate network, which also includes a large retail business and a growing reinsurance division.

RPIC specialises in insurance portfolio management and advisory support from its Dubai Maritime City location, providing clients with the tools to develop sophisticated and cost-effective risk transfer solutions, supported by latest technology and research.

Vedanta Baruah, CEO and shareholder of BBM, said: We view RPIC as an ideal fit and a vital component in realising our aggressive growth targets and robust expansion plans. This acquisition is an emphatic demonstration of our aim to be the number one broker in the UAE and the standout leader in a country that is fast becoming a global centre of excellence for the insurance sector.

The global insurance industry has witnessed a sharp drop in the past 18 months, however BBM remained focused and was least affected due to the UAEs thriving economy, our leading market position and the advantage we own in garnering loyal customers. This has enabled us to grow our portfolio of offerings through key partnerships, and achieve a satisfactory financial performance, marking the 12th consecutive year of this growth trajectory.

Following the acquisition, RPIC Managing Director Ken Maw will continue in his current role while working closely with the BBM Executive Director team of Alka Sudhakaran, KS Krishnan, Lavanya Mamidanna and Sam Carter on business alignment and development and reinforcing BBMs overall proposition.

Maw said: We are at the cusp of building some exciting associations across Africa and Asia, which will align nicely with our colleagues at BBM. I look forward to getting the wheels turning and all the necessary building blocks in place.

Baruah, who was recently awarded a 10-year Golden Visa for the UAE in the investor and entrepreneur category, added: This is a fantastic opportunity for us all to personally grow and learn more. We have remained true to our promise to invest in the UAE as our hub and to use this as a base to explore new opportunities in emerging markets. This new association and the wealth of relationships and skills it brings will fuel and accelerate this process. -- TradeArabia News Service
UAE construction group Arabtec Holding said a Dubai court has approved the opening of its bankruptcy proceedings along with its six subsidiaries - Arabtec Construction Abu Dhabi, Arabtec Construction Dubai, Austrian Arabian Ready Mix Concrete and Arabtec Precast in addition to Emirates Falcon Electromechanical Company (Efeco) Abu Dhabi and Efeco Dubai.

The court has also appointed a trustee for each of the entities and ordered them to review its debts, deposit a list and a record of Arabtec Holding, its creditors and conduct all the procedures stipulated under the bankruptcy law within 35 days, said Arabtec in its filing to Dubai bourse.

Providing an update about the recent procedures taken in relation to the bankruptcy and liquidation application for Arabtec Holding and certain subsidiaries, Arabtec said the court had last week approved the liquidation of the company along with its six subsidiaries.

The court had further instructed each trustee to prepare an initial separate report on the assets of each entity and its rights with third parties, in addition to a list of all its managers and members of the board of directors and shareholders for the two years preceding the bankruptcy application, and the trustees opinion with respect to the management and the preservation of the companys assets.

Such initial report shall be deposited at the court within two weeks, stated Arabtec in its filing to Dubai Financial Market.

The court also decided to stay all judicial procedures and execution procedures upon the companies assets until approving the restructuring plan or the lapse of ten months from the date of the decision to open the bankruptcy proceedings. The court has scheduled the next hearing for July 26, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
The Maritime Standard (TMS), a Dubai-based specialist events organiser and publisher, has announced that the sixth edition of the popular TMS Tanker Conference series will take place in Dubai on November 23 in Dubai, UAE.



It will return to Dubais World Trade Centre where last years hybrid event, seamlessly blending participation both in person and virtually online, offered up an exciting and fresh format, creating innovative, but safe, opportunities for engagement and participation.



Trevor Pereira, Managing Director of The Maritime Standard, said: Last year we were the only company able to hold a maritime conference in person, with 150 people in the ballroom and another 100 online, and we plan to build on that positive experience again in 2021. As the only tanker trade event that took place physically in 2020 it undoubtedly helped sustain the momentum of the market and we believe it will do so again.



There is a clear sentiment as we recover from the depths of the pandemic that people want to go back to face to face meetings and this event will certainly be the one for people in the tanker shipping business to attend and meet up with friends and clients as they did in the past.



The conference programme that is being put together will feature three separate sessions packed with top quality and influential leaders from the regional and global tanker business and support sectors. The event will take stock of the effects of the global pandemic and assess likely trends in the crude oil chemicals, and products trades.



It will also spotlight the key operational, technical, and environmental issues facing the tanker shipping business and possible solutions. The Conference will further look at new technology developments, including digitalisation, regulatory factors, and the development of support services, amongst other topics.



Top quality presentations from leading figures in the tanker shipping business will give participants a privileged insight into what the future holds for the regional tanker trades as well as a global perspective. TMS is putting together an informative, thought-provoking and insightful programme that will draw on the expertise of industry leaders who will lead inclusive discussion and debate.  TradeArabia News Service
This years African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) Agribusiness Deal Room has been launched.

The African Development Banks incoming Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr Beth Dunford, and Director for Agricultural Finance and Rural Infrastructure Development Atsuko Toda joined development leaders online to launch it.

The AGRFs agriculture matchmaking platform initiative links some 4,000 actors in the agriculture sector to investment and networking opportunities.

In her first public engagement since her appointment, Dr Dunford gave keynote remarks at a virtual session that drew more than 200 participants on Tuesday, 29 June. Dr Dunford said that across Africa, there is a growing class of agripreneurs who are looking for investment, partnerships, technical knowhow and financing to scale up their business.

The African Development Bank is excited to grow its partnership to this initiative. The Agribusiness Deal Room compliments our efforts to expand finance for agribusiness to enable small and medium enterprises to grow and attract new and innovative sources of sustainable capital, she told the online audience.

Organised by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, this fourth edition of the Agribusiness Deal Room will be featured at the annual AGRF Summit that convenes stakeholders to facilitate partnerships and investments in African agriculture. The Agribusiness Deal Room specifically supports governments and companies with access to finance and partnership opportunities.

Dr Dunford told session attendees that the platform aligns with the Banks Feed Africa Strategy (https://bit.ly/3hCzaMr), which seeks to ensure that the growth of the agricultural sector includes food security, and encourages inclusive growth by involving more women and youth. She also said Bank support of the Agribusiness Deal Room signals a commitment to a collective vision to accelerate Africas food system transformation.

In my new capacity with the Bank, Im looking forward to working with the AGRF and so many partners with us online, to see these food systems become more sustainable and more resilient, Dr Dunford added.

This year, the AGRF Agribusiness Deal Room will focus on addressing the challenges in agricultural lending to small and medium enterprises, or SMEs.

The huge potential of the agricultural sector on the continent remains unmet, with agriculture potentially the engine of African economies. We designed the Deal Room to build the capacities of SMEs while at the same time connecting them with sources of financing. We are looking for investments and partnerships that will unlock the sectors potential, said Dr Fadel Ndiame, Deputy President, AGRA.

The Bank is one of 24 Agribusiness Deal Room partners that bring complementary capabilities, resources, and networks to the platform.

Toda served on one of two discussion panels at Tuesdays launch, the first focused "Investments for resilience, public and private sector strategies," the latter, themed "Building SME capacity to mitigate risks for a sustainable African food system."

Speaking to the theme of building SME capacity, Toda said that these often under-the-radar businesses play a key role in delivering food to African tables and in generating employment.

SMEs are the engine of growth for food supply chains. If you look at any food supply chain, between 65  90% of the food supply is actually through small and medium enterprises, Toda said.

For people to have jobs in Africa  it is very difficult to get into the formal sector. So the informal sector - the small, medium enterprises - are so important for creating jobs on the African continent, she added.

Dr Dunford will be responsible for the Banks strategy, lending and other activities in agriculture, as well as in water and sanitation, education, health, and Bank-wide work on employment and gender equity.

-- TradeArabia News Service
From April to June, Hong Kongs exhibition scene has picked up more momentum with the return of a series of close to 20 physical exhibitions at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Featuring a wide variety of products and services ranging from technology, and lifestyle, to arts and jewellery, the successful fairs attracted over a million visits under the pandemic, which is a promising sign for the exhibition industry.

The positive response clearly indicates that the value of physical shows is high and Hong Kong has demonstrated how to safely and seamlessly resume large-scale business events gradually, and pave the way for further recovery including international conventions and trade fairs.

Kenneth Wong, General Manager, MICE & Cruise of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, shares that "We are delighted to see such a strong pick-up in demand for physical fairs. These events are a good demonstration of Hong Kong's readiness to welcome business events of any scale, and also an encouraging sign for the exhibition industry that the physical show is invaluable and we are very much looking forward to a resumption of more trade fairs in the coming months.

Inaugural physical show drives future of business

GOVirtual Business Expo is newly launched to provide a one-stop trade platform to support enterprises to unlock and capture the boundless potential of virtual business in the post-pandemic economy, and to encourage active interactions between tech industry and business sectors which will inspire frequent cooperation, says Culsin Li, Managing Director of Baobab Tree Event, organiser of GOVirtual Business Expo, with which the GS1 HK Summit is co-located. Li adds, we are thankful to host this new show safely and help our visitors to explore virtual business opportunities, and technology and business trends in the Greater Bay Area.

Positive feedback, remarkable attendance

Priscilla Lo, Director of Hongkong-Asia Exhibition (Holdings) Ltd., organiser of the 18th Hong Kong Mega Showcase, the 19th Hong Kong Food Festival, the 21st Hong Kong Homex 2021 and the e-Expo & Auto HK, was ecstatic about the impressive attendance during the pandemic. "We are glad to see that our efforts paid off as our exhibitors and visitors alike were very satisfied with the overall arrangements. Were grateful to HKCEC for its support and flexibility to enable the smooth and safe delivery of our events," she shares.

Hygiene and safety are our top priority, says HML

"By implementing stringent preventive measures at the HKCEC and working closely with organisers, a number of well-attended exhibitions and conferences have been held safely and successfully since January 2021. The safety of visitors, users and staff of HKCEC is paramount. Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (HML) ensures that organisers integrate preventive measures in event arrangements and in compliance with regulatory requirements and industry best practices, assures Monica Lee-Muller, Managing Director of HML.

The five-day inaugural Lifestyle ShoppingFest of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) delivered a one-stop shopping experience for over 55,000 consumers keen to explore a broad selection of products, from global delicacies to fine jewellery and much more, presented by 430 exhibitors.

Benjamin Chau, Deputy Executive Director of the HKTDC said that the positive response to the new event reflected the fact that physical shows are irreplaceable. "We are pleased that our inaugural Lifestyle ShoppingFest was held successfully, with 75 per cent of exhibitors believing physical shows can help boost their business, while 82 per cent of visitors were satisfied with the health and safety measures at the show. Next, the HKTDC will host three concurrent trade fairs in July, its first B2B events since the onset of the pandemic.

Strengthening the citys position as a leading exhibition hub

The citys recent success in hosting physical events in a safe and seamless manner and the enthusiastic response from the public, together with the strong free venue rental support from the HKSAR government, all are solid encouragement for the citys upcoming B2B trade shows, such as Jewellery & Gem ASIA Hong Kong held by Informa Markets in late June, the inaugural HKTDC International Sourcing Show and TKS Exhibitions International Travel Expo Hong Kong in July, just a few of the citys even stronger line-up in the third quarter.

Lee-Muller of HML highlights that the Governments Convention and Exhibition Industry Subsidy Scheme can certainly strengthen our competitiveness in attracting exhibitors and buyers and reinforce the citys position as the regions leading exhibition hub. The subsidy scheme will be extended for six months to 30 June, 2022 to benefit more convention and exhibition activities and enhance the confidence of event organisers in staging activities in Hong Kong.  Trade Arabia News Service
July 1st marks two years since The Royal Australian Air Force and the Temora Aviation Museum formed a strategic alliance which saw the RAAF take ownership of 11 historic ex-military aircraft types which served the RAAF during times of conflict.

This partnership allows for the aircraft to remain at Temora Aviation Museum to assist in broadening the Museums engagement with the Australian community. The Temora Historic Flight Club continues to be responsible for the flying displays at Temora, and the Temora Aviation Museum Engineering team continues to provide maintenance to all the aircraft at the Museum.

Since 2019, RAAF 100 Squadron has been re-established and is responsible for the continued operation of their historic fleet of aircraft based at Temora and Point Cook. Together they have commenced the commemoration of the RAAF Centenary year, celebrated 20 years of the Temora Aviation Museum, and continue to showcase the 100SQN Temora Historic Flight aircraft both locally and interstate.

We look forward to continuing seeing this partnership between the RAAF 100SQN and the Temora Aviation Museum supporting the continual operation of Australias ex-military aircraft history for many years to come.
by Shafique Khokhar

The girl had complained about harassment and threats at work. The police decided to investigate only after media pressure. Fr Asher Liaqat pledges support to the family.

Karachi (AsiaNews)  Four men stormed the home of a Christian family and kidnapped 14-year-old Shama.

The incident took place on 24 June in the Ghaghar area but became public only when the media got a hold of it.

When the teenager's parents went to Steel Town Police Station to report the incident, the officers on duty refused to file the case.

Shama and her family moved to Ghaghar 10 years ago in an attempt to escape poverty.

Shama and her older sister Samina work at a pharmaceutical plant, but had repeatedly complained about harassment and threats from one of the security guards, Mohammad Ikhtiyar.

According to the girl's mother, Ikhtiyar and three other men with guns broke into their home late in the afternoon when most of the residents had already gone to the mosque to pray and the streets were deserted.

The girls father, Baboo Masih, told AsiaNews that it was only after addressing the media that the police decided to investigate the kidnapping.

Fr Asher Liaqat, director of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese of Karachi, visited the Masih family yesterday pledging support.

At present, the whereabouts of Shama her kidnappers are unknown. In Pakistan, having sex with a minor can result in the death penalty or imprisonment of up to 10 years.

Kashif Anthony, coordinator of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, told AsiaNews that he fears kidnappers could produce a conversion or marriage certificate to prove their innocence.

Such a practice often affects law enforcement in Pakistan and prevents Christians from having their daughters back.
As of today Turkey officially withdraws from the international treaty signed in 2011. A motion presented to the Court of Appeal was rejected this week. Feminist leader promises to continue the battle in defence of rights. In the last five years at least one woman is murdered every day.

Istanbul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - As of this morning, Turkey is no longer an integral part of the international treaty against violence against women, better known as the "Istanbul Convention" because it was signed in 2011 in the country's economic and commercial metropolis.

Thus, a decision announced in March by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been applied, raising the indignation and condemnation of many activist organizations and Western governments, including several allied nations.

Human rights movements and ordinary citizens are lined up, ready to take to the streets and demonstrate. The fear is that the police could intervene with force and suppress protests with beatings and arrests, as happened in recent days on the occasion of the Pride 2021 parades in favour of LGBTQ rights.

This week the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal lodged by some associations to block the process of withdrawal from the Convention. " "We will continue our struggle," Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women's Associations, said on Wednesday. "Turkey is shooting itself in the foot with this decision."

She said that since March, women and other vulnerable groups had been more reluctant to ask for help and less likely to receive it, with COVID-19 fuelled economic difficulties causing a dramatic increase in violence against them. he direct consequence, she warns, is a "dramatic increase" in violence against women.

The Istanbul Convention, negotiated and signed in 2011, commits its members to prevent and prosecute domestic violence, while promoting equality and equal opportunities between the two sexes. The decision to withdraw resulted in condemnation of the United States and the European Union.

According to a monitoring group, "at least one femicide" per day has occurred in the last five years, with a trend steadily increasing. That is why it would be useful to apply the convention more rigorously and expand it, instead of withdrawing as did Erdogan. According to the AKP, the president's party, it "undermines the family structure" that underlies and protects Turkish society, increasingly linked to a fundamentalist vision of Islam.

This month, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey's interior and justice ministers expressing concern about a rise in homophobic narratives by some officials, some of which targeted the convention.

"All the measures provided for by the Istanbul Convention reinforce family foundations and links by preventing and combating the main cause of destruction of families, that is, violence," she said.
The Chaldean primate explores themes and models of the new synod drawn up by Pope Francis. The hope that every continent will have a permanent assembly consisting of "a small number of bishops". Greater authority at individual conferences to face the demanding challenges of everyday life. The experience of the Eastern Churches.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - "To support the Holy Father's desire for greater synodality, one model would be that every continent have a sort of permanent synod, consisting of a small number of bishops" from the geographical area, writes the Chaldean primate, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, in a message sent to AsiaNews.

In the missive the leader of the Chaldean church explores the guidelines drawn by Pope Francis on the synodal assembly. "The Roman Curia - continues the cardinal - is a valuable support, but the bureaucracy is exhausting and endless" having failed to adapt to modernity.

According to Patriarch Sako, it is equally important to "grant greater authority" to the Episcopal Conferences of individual countries, so that they can face "the demanding challenges" to which they are subjected on a daily basis and to be faced "with a sense of collegial responsibility". An approach, he warns him, that can prove useful "only by acting in harmony" with the pontiff "and remembering the bond that unites us with the successor of Peter".

As the Chaldean primate explains, the Catholic Church "is on the eve of a journey" desired by the Pope to "rediscover synodality" and favour "an individual and community maturation of the people of God".

In fact, in recent weeks the pontiff outlined the next Synod of Bishops in three phases, between October 2021 and the same month of 2023, which will take place in the Vatican and in each diocese. The objective of the diocesan phase is listening to the people of God, while the second and third phases will focus on the universal Church and the one on the way, emphasizing that the Synod is not an event but rather a process.

Card. Sako exalts the value of the experience of the Eastern Churches whose synod is "a canonical structure" that has operated "since the first centuries" and distinguishes between a "permanent" sphere of a patriarchal Church and a "general" one of its bishops, while maintaining "Collegiality and unity".

It "is a sign of the shared responsibility" of the bishops with the patriarch and "strengthens the centrality of the Church, strengthens the bonds of the individual Eparchies with each other and with the See of St. Peter, respecting diversity in unity".

Synodality - continues the Chaldean patriarch - is likewise a distinctive trait of the journey of the whole universal Church. With the successor of Peter, the Church acts collegially despite the great variety "that composes it".

Its purpose, explains Cardinal Sako, is that of "constituting and forming the Christian community with wisdom and care, with particular attention to future generations. and allow each faithful to live their faith hic et nunc, spreading love and hope everywhere.

Unity, he warns, does not mean uniformity and renewal is a necessity that must be applied in order to be witnesses of the Risen one.

"The invitation of Pope Francis is an opportunity to prepare the journey of the Church in an analytical way, starting from the smallest unit (involving every parish, every diocese, every episcopal conference) to reach the universal Church".

The synod of 2023 could be an opportunity to reflect "on pastoral guidelines, theological programs and administrative projects, starting from the concrete situations in which the Church lives and works". "The Eastern Churches - concludes the cardinal - can enjoy the spirituality emanating from synodality, as well as the methodology applied for the preparation of the themes" while the Western Church can "take advantage of the ancient and consolidated experience" of the Eastern ones.
by Mathias Hariyadi

The new measure will remain in force until at least 20 July. Yesterday Indonesia reported almost 22,000 new cases. Beds in intensive care units and oxygen are in short supply. The government wants to boost the vaccination rollout.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  Indonesia will impose a partial lockdown on the islands of Bali and Java to counter the rise in COVID-19 cases. President Joko Widodo announced his decision today, which he made on the advice of national health experts.

The measure, which will remain in force from 3 to 20 July, includes, among other things, the shutdown of schools and all non-essential businesses. Restaurants can remain open until 5 pm but with a maximum capacity of 25 per cent.

Yesterday, the country reported 21,807 new cases and 463 deaths. The Ministry of Health has expressed concern about the alarming high rate of intensive care bed occupancy. Many hospitals are at 90 per cent of capacity or more.

Oxygen supplies for patients are declining whilst prices are rising; an oxygen tank that normally costs US$ 50 is now going for US$ 140 dollars. This situation is very frustrating for those who have to care for family members at home.

Wahyuni, a young woman living in Semarang, told AsiaNews that she lost four relatives to coronavirus.

Daryati, 82, and her two sons have been sick, locked at home for a month. "As a result of COVID-19, these are the worst days, between life and death," said the elderly woman.

In the past week, four seminarians have also died from the coronavirus, while at least 10 priests are being treated in different hospitals in the capital.

To counter the rise in infections and the spread of the Delta variant to Java and Bali, the Indonesian government is planning to speed up the vaccination campaign.

Every person over the age of 18 can now receive the vaccine. So far however, only 13.3 million people have received two doses out of a target group of 181.5 million.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The Russians are working on the removal of the Belarusian dictator, unable to resolve the political and social crisis in his country. The goal is the incorporation of Belarus into the Russian Federation. Putin would have gotten the green light from the United States and China.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The difficult economic conditions due to Western sanctions and the pandemic have put Belarus in a serious crisis, which is increasingly seeking the support of Russia. Instead, the Kremlin wants to accelerate to build a scenario reclaimed by the "toxic president" Aleksandr Lukashenko. This is what has emerged from recent contacts between Russians and Belarusians, especially from the visit of the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolaj Patrusev, who went to Minsk on 30 June.

According to the Russian political scientist Arsenij Sivitskij, Patrusev's visit was supposed to "prepare the next meeting between Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, which will have to resume the contents of the Sochi meeting of September 2020, when the Russian president imposed an acceleration on his Belarusian counterpart on the question of the merger between the two countries." Putin would also have the go-ahead from Washington and the whole West on his side, which would welcome the closure of the Belarus case and leave it in the hands of the Kremlin.

The "Sochi accords" presuppose the liberation of the opposition prisoners of, starting with the more moderate Viktor Babariko and the members of his group. The agreement also provides for the beginning of a more inclusive dialogue between the Belarusian authorities and the opposition, and the organization of new presidential elections by the end of 2021 (without, however, the participation of Lukashenko).

At the same time, the implementation of the constitutional reforms need expediting, mirroring the Russian ones. Belarus should move into a super-presidential form, in which parliament is de facto subject to the president. In exchange, the country would obtain the guarantee of Russias personal and political protection, and then reach the "twinning" agreement, which Lukashenko himself has long sought to escape in recent years.

The economic support that Russia had allocated last year to help Belarus has run out; Moscow now intends to dictate the rules ever more stringently, acting in tune with the pressure of increasingly harsh Western sanctions. The end of 2021 therefore appears to be the deadline of Lukashenko's infinite reign, precisely because of new sectoral restrictions by Europe and the United States, which would come into force at the beginning of 2022.

The new meeting between Putin and Lukashenko should take place in the second half of July or early August. It will be the moment of the "verdict" on Belarus: the real result of the Russian-US summit in Geneva, orchestrated by Patrusev, also director of the Sochi agreements.

So far Putin has refused to meet Lukashenko again. The Belarusian leader had proposed the date of 22 June (80 years since the beginning of the Patriotic War) or 29 June, with the opening of the Forum of the Russian-Belarusian regions. Patrusev and other Kremlin officials, such as Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak, are however still working to define the agreement between Moscow and Washington on the Belarusian question.

During his visit on June 30, Patrusev would also have informed Lukashenko of an even broader agreement between Putin, Biden and Xi Jinping on the constitutional transition of Belarus, as the only way out of the crisis. Recent contacts in Minsk with the Chinese partner would have led to the same results. It would seem that Lukashenko is therefore before a real ultimatum.
Yesterday the military released journalists and protesters. According to activists it is a ploy to distract the international community. The repression of the coup generals does not stop.

Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Burmese army yesterday released more than 2,000 political prisoners, including some journalists who had criticized the harsh repression of the military junta and several demonstrators who had taken part in the protests against the coup.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun reported that most of the people were detained for joining the demonstrations: A total of 2,296 people were released. They had taken part in the protests, but not in leading roles. They had not participated in violent acts.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a non-profit based in Thailand, said the mass release was engineered to give the impression the military's sweeping crackdown had eased. "Today's events intend to make it seem like there has been a relaxation in the junta's oppression. This is not the case," it said in a statement. In fact, there are more than 5,200 political prisoners still in Burmese prisons

Salai Za Uk Ling, an activist from the Chin State Human Rights Organization, described the release as "completely meaningless" and with the sole purpose of calming the international community.

Western countries have been calling for the release of political prisoners for months, condemning the takeover of the Tatmadaw (the Burmese army). With the February 1 coup, the military overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, now in prison and on trial, and overturned the November election result.

Several newspapers have confirmed the release of some of their reporters. The Myanmar Now portal confirmed the release of one of their journalists, Kay Zon Nwa, who was detained for 124 days on charges of inciting violence. "Like many other political detainees, she was unfairly arrested. She has suffered a lot in prison. But today, I'm glad to see her again in great spirits," Swe Win, Myanmar Now's editor-in-chief said.
She said there are three main issues. Parents want vaccines that are licensed and not authorized, which will come in time. They wanted trusted messengers, which will require commitment from doctors, as well as faith and community leaders. And, Pisani said, they want to know about long-term effects from vaccines, and we counter that we dont know long-term effects of COVID.
As of Friday, the Maryland Department of Health reported a 0.57% COVID-19 positivity rate. Slightly more than 50% of Marylanders have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the health department. Hogan said these numbers informed his decision to lift the order, though he said the battles not over.
Mask wearing on buses will be required, as is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, the county said it would keep students and teachers socially distanced as much as possible.
The available viewing area at Sawmill will be smaller than in years past but the display will be bigger and can be seen from further away, the association wrote in a Facebook post. Parking for Sawmill is available at Monsignor Slade Catholic School but once the lot is full, it will close. Handicap parking is available at Sawmill Creek Park and overflow handicapped parking will be at the Pascal Center, 125 Dorsey Road.
If we hope to turn the tide on violence in our community and in our city, then we must look to models like the Innovation Fund that demonstrate what can happen when we pool our collective resources, leverage our individual expertise, and explore new solutions together, Johns Hopkins President Ronald Daniels said in a statement. We are truly excited about the selected projects and look forward to the impact they will make.
I feel like I was attempting to do all the right things, Levi said. Breaking rules is not who I am. I tried to explain what happened, and to tell the truth. At no time did I think I wasnt supposed to go to that class. I apologize to my mother and my family for what this is doing to them.
That is why making sure that the levels of oysters and numbers of oysters that are coming out of the bay for harvest are sustainable is important. We need to make sure they are able to fulfill those other roles, Colden said.
Jefferson Davis was not just a man of his time, and therefore his defenders cannot claim he was anything less than entirely culpable for the evil he defended. As president of the Confederate States, he was the leader of the effort to maintain slavery on the North American continent and directed the war effort to do so that resulted in the death of more than 600,000 Americans. His vice president, Alexander Stephens, stood out even among pro-slavery politicians for the ardent defense of the evil institution. Among Stephens many notable comments was that the Confederacy rested upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This is not merely a truth but a great truth, he said, making it somehow truer  sort of like when Donald Trump capitalized his tweets. Stephens is the man the state of Georgia chose as its representative in the Capitol Statuary. That leads to the second argument from Republicans.
I also can be sure that everything on his list is a convenience. Driving is so convenient that just about anyone who can is willing to go through the bureaucracy to get their license to do it. But picture someone who cant drive, say because of a disability. If for everything else on Mr. Webbs list they could either find a workaround or do without, why should they need to put up with the bureaucracy to get an ID that they dont need? Would such a person be incapable of handling adult responsibilities? I think this argument that anyone can get an ID is able-splaining, not taking the time nor using the imagination to put yourself in the position of someone who had heretofore not needed an ID.
History has shown us that voter ID laws have been used to intentionally impede certain voters. But that is all in the past, right? One might wonder, given the types of ID that would be acceptable in these new laws. Its possible that we could come to agreement on some future universal ID expectation within a larger voting security and voting rights bill, but it would have to be consistent across jurisdictions and include options that are equally easy to obtain across geographical, racial and socio-economic groups.
Destinations



Vote for Riviera Nayarit in 2021 Readers' Choice Awards



United Airlines' Hemispheres magazine published a list of nominees for its 2021 Readers' Choice Awards, and the Riviera Nayarit is a contender in two top categories. Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico - The Riviera Nayarit is a finalist in the 2021 Hemispheres Readers' Choice Awards. Hemispheres is United Airlines' in-flight magazine, and the destination is contending for the Best International Honeymoon Destination and the Best International Beach Destination categories of their 'The Best of 2021' contest.



Mexico's Pacific Treasure competes with two legendary romance destinations, France and Italy, and remarkably, it does so while representing Mexico. In addition, its world-famous Playa del Amor (Hidden Beach) shares a ranking alongside Australia's Bondi Beach and French Polynesia's Bora Bora for Best Beach Destination.



A love of travel



These awards celebrate a love of travel. In addition to its signature "Three Perfect Days" feature, the magazine offers a first-hand look at a city or a destination itinerary-style.



"The Riviera Nayarit attracted the attention of travelers thanks to an idyllic scenery perfect for destination weddings, honeymoons or wedding anniversaries - a matchless setting of luxury and nature. This achievement is a direct result of the work performed by the Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Bahia de Banderas Hotel and Motel Association to position the destination in the luxury and romance segments," said Marc Murphy, managing director of both entities.



Vote for the Riviera Nayarit!







The Riviera Nayarit is a safe destination. Our hotels, restaurants, and tourist establishments follow all the health protocols established by the Federal Government's Ministry of Health and operate at the allowed capacities. Access to the beaches is limited. Be a responsible tourist: wear your mask and keep your distance.



Original article - The Riviera Nayarit is a finalist in the 2021Readers' Choice Awards. Hemispheres is United Airlines' in-flight magazine, and the destination is contending for the Best International Honeymoon Destination and the Best International Beach Destination categories of their 'The Best of 2021' contest.Mexico's Pacific Treasure competes with two legendary romance destinations, France and Italy, and remarkably, it does so while representing Mexico. In addition, its world-famous Playa del Amor (Hidden Beach) shares a ranking alongside Australia's Bondi Beach and French Polynesia's Bora Bora for Best Beach Destination.These awards celebrate a love of travel. In addition to its signature "Three Perfect Days" feature, the magazine offers a first-hand look at a city or a destination itinerary-style."The Riviera Nayarit attracted the attention of travelers thanks to an idyllic scenery perfect for destination weddings, honeymoons or wedding anniversaries - a matchless setting of luxury and nature. This achievement is a direct result of the work performed by the Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Bahia de Banderas Hotel and Motel Association to position the destination in the luxury and romance segments," said Marc Murphy, managing director of both entities. Click HERE to Vote for the Riviera Nayarit in United Airlines' in-flight magazine's "The Best of 2021" Readers' Choice Awards. The voting period to select the finalists began June 18 and will close on July 10. Final results will be announced in the September 2021 edition.



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Buffalo, WY (82834)

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Governor Okalia Bilai Bernard opens Limbe FESTAC 2019 Atia Azohnwi

Okalia Bilai Bernard, Governor of Cameroons South-West Region has said after several measures taken by the state to solve the problems raised by some members of the population, it is now time for local dialogue to take place within families.

The Representative of the State in the South-West Region was speaking to state media at the end of a working session with Senior Divisional Officers, mayors, and frontline community actors to examine necessary and concrete measures towards peace.

Attendees at the session agreed that actions to ensure peace and stability in the South-West Region, especially in rural communities are the only way to bring normalcy in the region.

Governor Okalia said the session sought to bring all the living forces of this region, all the stakeholders, local elected officials to go to the grassroots population and to talk to those of their sons, family members who are still hanging around with guns to drop their guns because today, what the population of this region was expecting, they already have it."

That means, the Regional Assembly with Special Status can do all that the population was expecting. They can solve all the problems of the population because we have in that Special Status commissioners who are like local ministers with a whole house of chiefs," Okalia furthered.

So, they no longer need to continue disturbing the peaceful life of the people, the development of this very important region. The state has done its part of the work. Now, they should go and talk to their sons. Now is time for local dialogue within the families, within the communities to convince their children that they should drop their weapons, he said.

Cameroons state forces have been battling to dislodge armed separatists who pitched their tents in the North West and South West Regions since Anglophone protests transformed into an armed conflict in 2017.

Corporate demands by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers led to protests in November 2016. The street demonstrations later morphed into ongoing running gun battles between state forces and armed separatist fighters in the predominantly English-speaking regions, leading to untold destruction of human lives, their habitats, and livelihoods.

Tit-for-tat killings, kidnappings, arsons, maiming, and outright terror have become part of daily lives in some parts of the English-speaking regions. A Major National Dialogue organized in 2019 has since failed to silence the guns.
Watchtowers erected at office of Bafut Divisional Officer Teneng Lucas

Diobe-Elumba Didacus Elumba, Divisional Officer (D.O.) for Bafut Subdivision has banned a checkpoint mounted by security forces in front of his office. The ban is contained in a sub-prefectural decision dated June 28, 2021.

According to the D.O., the decision was taken considering a series of complaints from the populations, notably road users about harassments, assaults, and extortions of the Forces of Law and Order taking guard at the Sub Divisional Office, Bafut.

The Divisional Officer for Bafut adds that the job description of the Forces of Law and Order at the Sub-divisional Office, Bafut is limited exclusively to securing the premises.

Considering, therefore, the necessity to maintain peace and order and the necessity of service, the Divisional Officer for Bafut decided as follows:

That with effect from the date of signature of this Decision, the illegal check-point mounted in front of the Sub-divisional Office, Bafut by the Forces of Law and Order taking guard in its premises is hereby banned.

That any element or group of elements of the forces of law and order who contravene this decision shall be sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the laws and regulations in force;

That the brigade commander, Bafut, and the Commissioner of Public Security Bafut, are charged with the implementation of this decision.

That the present decision shall be registered and communicated wherever and whenever necessary.

The D.O. for Bafut writes that this decision was taken mindful of Decree No. 2008.377 of 2 November 2008 defining the powers and duties of heads of Administrative Units and the organization and functioning of their services, as well as Decree No. 2019/030 of 23 January 2019 organizing the Ministry of Territorial Administration.

Bafut D.O. bans "illegal" checkpoint mounted by the forces of law and order in front of his office (page 1) (c) WhatsApp

Bafut D.O. bans "illegal" checkpoint mounted by the forces of law and order in front of his office (page 2) (c) WhatsApp

Soon after the decision went viral on social media, some Cameroonians have been calling on their respective Divisional Officers to copy the example of the Divisional Officer of Bafut.

Hope the D.O. of Kumba III can also stop those tax collectors at Tancha who are exhorting money from 'poor' people, said a Kumba-based journalist. Even the regular harassment of supposed scammers by ESIR around town is a big problem here.

Another journalist based in Kumba said the D.O. of Bafut should extend this largesse to the South West Region, especially along the Kumba- Buea road where the business thrives highly. Commuters along this road are groaning under the heavyweight of police extortion. More than 8 collection, sorry control, posts on a road of just 67km.

The journalist says the exaggerated control points along this short distance have orchestrated an astronomical rise in transport fare. Kumba-Buea that was just 1.000 FCFA has gone up to 2.500 FCFA.

Some controls here have fixed their take from drivers at 2,000 FCFA. Nothing short of that can be accepted. Even when you have all your documents and respect the loading rules, the driver must drop at every stop point, the journalist furthered.
Hon. Findi Stanley Mokondo National Assembly

Hon. Findi Stanley Mokondo, one of the two Members of Parliament for Fako East (Limbe, Muyuka & Tiko) Constituency has called on the government to attend to the water and electricity needs of his constituents.

The MP was addressing the Minister of Water and Energy Resources, Eloundou Essomba Gaston during Monday's plenary sitting at the National Assembly. He was among many lawmakers who sought to understand why there exist persist, prolonged, and often unexplained power outages and water shortages across the national territory, despite the country's bountiful natural resources.

Hon. Findi wondered aloud why authorities of the Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (CAMWATER) have refused to install water pipes to no fewer than one thousand homes around the Limbe Omnisport Stadium, forcing the residents of the area to resort to digging boreholes.

I wish to draw your attention to the fact that the people around the Limbe Omnisport Stadium are still to be connected by CAMWATER. CAMWATER has refused to take its pipes to close to 1000 residents in an area full of potential customers. I want to use this medium, Mr. Minister to ask the director of CAMWATER what the problem is. The inhabitants of this area have resorted to boreholes, said Hon. Findi.

The lawmaker said three years five months ago, President Paul Biya instructed the minister of economy, planning and regional development to engage a loan of FCFA 3 billion for feasibility studies, and project conception for the rehabilitation and extension of the treatment and distribution of water in Tiko, Mutengene and Buea. Thus far, he says the project is yet to see the light of day, although Buea, Mutengene and Tiko can boast of security.

Hear Hon. Findi: This project has not been realized. Recently, the contract was awarded to a contractor but the execution still poses problems. I will want to join my voice to the other speakers who are from the crisis-hit regions or areas to say the people of Tiko and Mutengene will not appreciate it if in the future they get to understand that the contractor is unable to execute his contract because of insecurity. 

The MP for Fako East assured the Minister of Water and Energy Resources that: Tiko and Mutengene are very safe areas and these projects can be executed without any delay.

Hon. Findi Stanley Mokondo addresses Water & Energy Resources Minister ELOUNDOU ESSOMBA Gaston (c) National Assembly

'Businesses of IDPs are crumbling'

Hon. Findi Stanley Mokondo told the Minister of Water and Energy Resources that most of the businesses he set up for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have crumbled as a result of power failure.

Mr. Minister, ENEO (the electricity supply company) is not friendly to the internally displaced people of my area. Recently, the community of Muyuka under my leadership sponsored start-up businesses for some internally displaced persons said Hon. Findi. As we speak, six months after, 70 percent of these young entrepreneurs who were involved in businesses dealing with perishable goods are out of business because of the frequent power cuts. When they come to us to ask for a way forward, it is but certain that engaging a lawsuit against ENEO, as we all know, is not only cumbersome, it is time-consuming. The victims are left with no option than to stay back. 

The MP however saluted the efforts of ENEO officials in Limbe whom he said have created a WhatsApp group through which electricity users register their problems and get solutions.

At the end of the six-hour oral questioning at the Yaounde Conference Center hosting the National Assembly, Minister Gaston Eloundou regretted that thousands of Cameroonian communities will continue to go without a regular power supply for a long time to come, owing to both natural and man-made causes. He however gave assurances that the government has taken steps to solve the country's water and electricity problems.
The Congressional Research Service expects the development of such weapons to be more difficult in the U.S. than it is in Russia or China because of plans to use them with conventional warheads rather than the nuclear-based systems those countries are developing. A conventionally armed hypersonic missile will need greater accuracy than one that is armed with a nuclear warhead.
I would say Mohammed is very passionate, and he is probably one of the hardest-working individuals I have ever met, said Pedro Martinez, the superintendent of schools in San Antonio, who is Choudhurys mentor and previous boss. During his career in Texas schools Choudhury was known for school integration efforts in San Antonio and for creating, with Martinez, a more precise system of defining high-poverty schools and targeting money to them that has since been adopted by the state legislature.
She prepared for the six weeks. She went surfing, hung out with her family. Tuesday night, she watched Pixars Luca. On the way to the academy, Single listened to music. When it comes to her phone, she had not yet parted with it despite knowing she would give it up for several weeks.
Our understanding is that this conversation never confirmed a specific date and time that worked for both of us, and that there was no follow-up afterwards to schedule a date and time, he wrote. That dialogue never made it to Waynes desk, and that is our staffs fault.
Most free Black people rejected the colonization scheme, with some believing it was a ruse to sell them back into slavery. But a few Black leaders believed that West Africa offered them the best chance to escape the racism that so circumscribed their lives in the U.S. Among them were the abolitionist John Brown Russwurm, who founded the first Black-owned newspaper in the U.S. and later became the governor of Maryland in Africa.
Meanwhile, Maryland data shows 99% of the state-run psychiatric care beds were occupied as of June 4, and bed occupancy rates in hospital psychiatric units were increasing. The average bed occupancy rate rose from about 68% in both the second and third quarters of 2020 to almost 74% by the last quarter of the calendar year, the latest data available.
I want to be real clear about the judge and those in this courthouse. I am here for this mother and this child. I am not here for politics and I am not here for gain, Sharpton told a crowd of about 70 supporters. It does not take five years to understand what you have done with this family. This family is hurting. You are sitting in the courtroom arguing about your schedule, when is justice on the schedule?
I think they [the bookstores owners] have been very irresponsible in their ownership and their stewardship of the building, she said. The reason why the building is in such deplorable condition is that it has been not only neglected but abused. I think the owners would be delighted to see the building collapse.
When lighting fireworks, adults should clear the range and make sure the pyrotechnic is not pointing at someone or being thrown in the direction of a person. Adults should also supervise children and not let them handle the fireworks, Anuszewski said.
Besides documents and his own account to psychiatrists, Michelle Jeans testimony could be the only look jurors get of Jarrod Ramos upbringing and personal life. She already shared her story with police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and three sets of forensic psychiatrists. Thursday, she told it to the jury tasked with deciding if her brother will spend the rest of his life in prison or be committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.
In May, the condo association submitted plans asking for approval of a temporary parking plan in order to move forward. But their request went unanswered for more than a month. The delay, according to the Miami Herald, prompted the condo building manager, to accuse the town of holding us up as the association sought to accelerate the towers overhaul, which included repairs to a concrete slab under the pool deck and planters that experts are now pointing to as an initial point of failure that preceded the building collapse.
Conversely, we cannot have unity in a world where some wish to pretend that there are not checkered parts of our history. While America is truly exceptional, there are parts of our history of which we should not be proud. These go far beyond slavery and segregation. Most people, until recently, were not aware of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, the worst incident of racial violence in U.S. history, where hundreds of African Americans were senselessly murdered. Nor are they aware of incidents like the 1898 Wilmington insurrection, where white Democrats successfully replaced a biracial government in what amounted to a coup detat.
Under Maryland law, the governor draws the first draft of the maps following the national census. But a majority of state lawmakers can vote to redraw the proposed electoral lines. States are awaiting official data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which has been delayed but is expected later this summer.
People seeking to enter Pakistan or leave the country are facing hardship and mental agony due to the cancellation of their flights by several foreign airlines in wake of capacity restrictions.

The foreign airlines scheduled extra flights and took bookings to Pakistan presuming ease of travel restrictions by authorities. However, they had to cancel them when the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) maintained its travel curbs. No more than 20 per cent of the normal air traffic from the world will be allowed, barring a few exceptions, reported Dawn.

The NCOC had increased the capacity for only direct international inbound flights from Europe, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Malaysia and some other countries to 40 per cent of the normal volume of passengers from July 1.

Passengers who were irked by the flight cancellations took to social media to vent their anger. The airlines did not give them the reason behind flight cancellations and passengers held the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) responsible.

"My family has had flights cancelled twice in a span of a week @qatarairways and for now they aren't able to adjust before July 26th," tweeted a social media user.

'Same thing happened with us Turkish airlines canceled the tickets and they saying Pakistan Govt banned their operations from July 1 to July 18," said another Twitterati.

In view of the outrage, the CAA issued a statement to clarify its position, blaming foreign airlines for cancellations, reported Dawn.

"CAA has taken notice of the excessive booking by foreign airlines for Pakistan. The responsibility of booking and suspension of flights lies on the airline concerned as CAA has nothing to do with cancellation or overbooking," the authority claimed.

Meanwhile, an official of Qatar Airways told Dawn some of its flights had been cancelled to comply with the NCOC's restrictions.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesperson said due to the limited number of flights operated by Gulf-based carriers, a large number of Pakistanis were unable to travel to Pakistan from Doha and vice versa.

(ANI)

Also Read: Pakistan's external debt likely to increase as dependence on foreign loans continues
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said that China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards with the aim to equip itself with "greater capacity" to safeguard its "national sovereignty, security, and development interests."

Addressing an event in Beijing marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi was quoted by Xinhua as saying that "We must accelerate the modernization of national defense and the armed forces."



Xi, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission and general secretary of the CPC's Central Committee, said the "people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity."

On a bellicose note, the Chinese president added that any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail.

"The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," Xi said.

He further said that resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an "unshakable commitment" of the CPC.

"We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward 'Taiwan independence,' and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation," the Chinese President said.

China has also recently sent dozens of warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, even though the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.

Also Read: Pakistan was 'bad-mouthed', says Imran Khan as he rules out allying with US in war
If you are old enough to remember the hit comedy movie of 1980, Caddy Shack, then you will recall that a gopher infestation was threatening a golf course in Nebraska. The somewhat deranged groundskeeper was tasked with getting rid of the pest. His efforts at eradication include shooting, f
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!

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Message from the Chair

This past week I attended the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Mid-Year convention-virtually-as the CSKT delegate. I will report on the proceedings the next couple weeks with accompanying articles of interest further covered by the CharKoosta News reporters.

One of the highlights of the convention was reports from various Cabinet offices. The Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury spoke about the enhanced child tax credit, part of the American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden signed into law in March. For the tax year 2021, it expands the existing child tax credit to $3,000 from $2,000 for dependents 17 and younger and gives an additional $600 for children under the age of 6. It requires half of the credit to be paid in advance by having the IRS send monthly payments to families from July 2021 to December 2021.

(See accompanying article in link below.)

Low-income families to benefit from Child Tax Credit Payments starting at $300 a month to come to eligible families

The other highlight was the announcement by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative directing the Department to prepare a report detailing available historical records, with an emphasis on cemeteries or potential burial sites, relating to the federal boarding school program. This work will occur under the supervision of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

This initiative will serve as an investigation about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences of residential Indian boarding schools. The primary goal will be to identify boarding school facilities and sites; the location of known and possible student burial sites located at or near school facilities; and the identities and Tribal affiliations of children interred at such locations.

The work will proceed in several phases and include the identification and collection of records and information related to the Department of Interiors own oversight and implementation of the Indian boarding school program; formal consultations with Tribal Nations, Alaska Native corporations, and Native Hawaiian organizations to clarify the processes and procedures for protecting identified burial sites and associated information; and the submission of a final written report on the investigation to the Secretary by April 1, 2022.

NCAI President Fawn Sharp issued the following statement:

The National Congress of American Indians commends the Department of Interior for taking the essential first step of providing an official account of the atrocities that Native children experienced during the boarding school era. By documenting who, what, when and where these egregious abuses occurred, Native families may not be able to fully heal, but they may be able to begin to reconcile with the past. Many mothers, fathers, siblings, and children of boarding school victims and survivors have walked on without ever knowing the full extent of what happened to their loved ones. But knowledge is power. By learning the truth, we can finally begin reconciling the past and healing for the future.
Staffing had been the nurses main concern leading up to the strike, with many saying that a dearth of nurses was leading to delays in patient care and burnout among nurses. Cook County Health previously said it has been continually recruiting nurses and hired nearly 800 nurses over the past year.
The WOW! acquisition, which is expected to close in the second half of the year, will significantly expand RCNs footprint in Chicago. RCN Chicago is currently available to homes in Chicago, Evanston, Lincolnwood and Skokie. The company declined to say how many Chicago-area customers it has.
To me, the big thing landlords should be thinking about is how to stay relevant for folks who are only in their building one to three times a week, he said. Youve even seen things like gyms doing home classes. I think youll see that creative thinking continue to develop over the next couple of years.
Gonzalez Valle liked to keep another shrine to St. Martin near the register, with the patron saint of innkeepers and winemakers sitting on his horse, feeding a beggar. Next to it, he kept a cup filled with water and bunch of cilantro he refilled daily  his way of feeding the horse.
Over here, an early strip about a lesbian relationship that ran in the Chicago Tribune in 1905. Over there, the earliest Black cartoonists in Chicago, often drawing for the Chicago Defender. Over here, the comics of Lyonel Feininger, later synonymous with the German Bauhaus movement, hired as part of a (deeply unpopular) Tribune initiative to hire German artists (and serve a German-American readership). Over there, the early illustrated stories of John T. McCutcheon, whose sense of irony seems contemporary and prescient. This McCutcheon here, Samuelson said, its from a story about a change in the neighborhood on the West Side and a family had an estate then real estate development happens and theyre surrounded by apartment buildings so they have one last lawn party and the picture is the people in the neighborhood who show up and stand at the gates to watch and police are called and this one guy tells the police officer he can do what he wants, its a public sidewalk, and so then the cop beats the man and thats the end of the story.
In other words, thanks to Geffen, you might be watching a stage director who could not otherwise have afforded to go to Yale then give an opportunity to a dancer from somewhere else entirely. So the fascinating idea is that the free tuition even can expand exponentially to help yet more artists. Its an interesting argument, rarely applied to philanthropy in education, but Salovey, a social psychologist, makes a decent case. Free tuition can indeed help other people, assuming the graduates who benefited then work in collaborative professions that typically struggle with issues of equity and economic opportunity.
Patients have the right to choose not to take the second pill and pursue alternative options to save their pregnancies, the office said in a court filing. Denying patients information regarding alternatives should they wish to continue their pregnancies harms women by depriving them of that choice.
Just two months before the building came down, the president of its board wrote a letter to residents saying that structural problems identified in the 2018 inspection had gotten significantly worse and that major repairs would cost at least $15.5 million. With bids for the work still pending, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.
The ruling comes eight years after the high court took away what had been the Justice Departments most effective tool for combating discriminatory voting laws  a different provision of the voting rights law that required the federal government or a court to clear voting changes before they could take effect in Arizona and other states, mainly in the South, with a history of discrimination.
Officers were called to the 11300 block of South Wentworth Avenue about 1:10 a.m. and found two women, one 40 and the other 30, had been shot as they sat on a porch, police said. The 40-year-old was shot in the torso, and she was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead.
The officer returned to his car and Holliman approached him, scissors in hand, and asked if the officer would shoot him if he ran toward the officer with the scissors above his head. The officer tried to calm him and Holliman got back in his car, according to Murphy.
We are not going to move people back into an area that is not safe for their health and safety, he said. We want to make sure its the right choice. And we hear our citizens  Im one of our citizens. We dont want our people out of their homes.
Austin was a key Black supporter on the City Council for the agendas of Daley and later Mayor Rahm Emanuel. She chaired the powerful Budget Committee for years, shepherding those mayors annual spending plans through the City Council with a brusque style, often calling on opponents to come up with better ideas or keep their criticisms to themselves.
Kinzinger and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming were the only Republicans to vote for the creation of the panel. Both were among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over his role in the insurrection, which came as the House was convening to certify Joe Bidens win in the presidential election.
The Supreme Court had outlawed such racist covenants, but they were still widely used during the post-war baby boom era. What were the effects of not allowing Blacks to buy homes in certain areas, and why should it matter today if redlining and other discriminatory practices occurred in the past?
A police department social worker was called to the scene to try and get the man to leave the home safely, but police said he continued to refuse. The department reached out for assistance from the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System (NIPAS), a multi-department tactical unit trained in hostage and barricade situations, and additional officers and negotiators arrived at the scene.
CCTV: According to reports, the World Bank's China Office released a report recently, highlighting improved consumer and business confidence and better labor market conditions in China and projecting China's growth to reach 8.5% this year. What is your comment?

Wang Wenbin: The World Bank's report once again shows the international community's confidence in China's economic development.

This year, the Chinese economy has continued to recovery steadily, with a consolidating momentum for the better and accelerating pace of opening up. From January to May 2021, China's GDP witnessed continuous and steady growth. The paid-in FDI to China registered 481 billion yuan, up by 35.4% year on year. The non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) was $43.29 billion, up by 2.6% year on year. China's import and export volume reached a record high of 14.76 trillion yuan, giving a strong boost to world economic recovery and growth.

As China has entered a new development stage, it is following the new development philosophy and formulating a new development paradigm to advance high-quality development. This will enable the Chinese market to offer more investment and growth opportunities to our cooperation partners. China will follow the vision of openness, cooperation, solidarity and win-win results in firmly expanding all-round opening-up to make the Chinese market a shared market for the world. We welcome all parties to actively integrate into the Chinese market and share China's development opportunities, so as to achieve common development and deliver benefits to the people of all countries.

Associated Press of Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan has sent a message of felicitation to President Xi on the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). He highlighted the CPC's role and sacrifices for China's liberation and its subsequent rise. He also appreciated the CPC's role in nurturing all-weather friendship between Pakistan and China. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: Having received the message of congratulation from Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Chinese side expresses its thanks and appreciation. CPC stands firmly for developing a friendly relation with Pakistan, which is also a consistent position of the Chinese Government.

With the efforts of our two leaders and supports of our two peoples, China and Pakistan have become all-weather strategic partners. This year marks the centenary of the founding of CPC, and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. Over the past seven decades, regardless of the changes in international landscape, China and Pakistan have respected, trusted and supported each other, forged an all-weather friendship, and carried out cooperation in an all-round way. The rock-solid and everlasting friendship between our two countries has become the most precious strategic asset for both of us.

On the new journey forward, China will continue to uphold peace, development and win-win cooperation, work for a new type of international relations and the community with a shared future for mankind, boost high quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and provide new opportunities to the rest of the world while developing itself. In this process, China will always take Pakistan as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic ties, China stands ready to work with the Pakistani side to host a series of celebration activities, and elevate China-Pakistan relations to a new level and deliver more benefits to our peoples.

Bloomberg News: The Financial Times report said US and Japan have been conducting war games and joint military exercises to prepare for any potential conflict with China over Taiwan. The planning began in the final year of the Trump administration. Does the foreign ministry have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We note relevant reports. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The Chinese government and people's firm resolve and will to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not waver in the face of any external pressure. We hope relevant sides will stop hyping up the "China threat" theory and instead do more things in the interest of regional peace and stability.

CNR: As the global pandemic situation remains complicated and grave, could you update us on the progress in China's "spring sprout" program overseas to help get Chinese nationals vaccinated?

Wang Wenbin: Since COVID-19 broke out, the life and health of each and every Chinese national overseas has always been on the mind of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government. Since State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the launch of the "spring sprout" program at a press conference during the "two sessions", China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and overseas diplomatic and consular missions have helped over 1.7 million overseas Chinese citizens in more than 160 countries to get inoculated with Chinese or foreign-made vaccines, conveying the care of the CPC and the Chinese government to Chinese compatriots all across the world.

Going forward, we will stay true to the purpose of serving the people heart and soul, strengthen communication and cooperation with relevant countries, and further expand the scope of the "spring sprout" program on the basis of complying with host country laws and regulations and respecting the will of each individual. We hope to make more progress in this program to ensure that overseas Chinese nationals who should be vaccinated can get the jabs as soon as possible and all those who want to be vaccinated have access to doses. Through such efforts, we hope to build a strong firewall to protect the safety and health of overseas Chinese nationals.

*********************************

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. We would like to wish the great, glorious and correct CPC a very happy birthday!
Greece and China have the willingness to broaden cooperation in many fields, including education, Greek and Chinese officials, academics and business leaders told an online conference here on Wednesday.

"We look forward to broadening our cooperation in the future," said Evangelos Syrigos, Greek deputy minister of Education and Religious Affairs, at a forum hosted by the Athens Business Confucius Institute (BCI Athens).

Both China and Greece, linked with ties of strong friendship, are willing to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in education, among other sectors, said Wang Qiang, Charge d'Affaires Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Greece.

Greece is welcoming an increasing number of Chinese students in Greek universities in recent years, while many Greeks are learning the Chinese language, a key in understanding and advancing cooperation, Syrigos noted.

To date, the BCI Athens has given the opportunity to at least 3,000 Greek students to learn Chinese, said Alexandros Papalexandris, the institute's co-director.
"Red building" of Peking University is a key location in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC). [Photo/Xinhua]

The renovated site of the "Red Building," once the main campus of Peking University and a key location in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), reopened to the public on Tuesday.

Visitors to the building in Beijing will be able to enjoy a themed exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.

The exhibition features 1,357 cultural relics and employs new-media technologies such as holograms to demonstrate the Party's early revolutionary activities in Beijing.

Built from 1916 to 1918, the building was named after its red brick walls and tiled roof. It witnessed several of China's major historical events, including the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement, both of which greatly contributed to the early spread of Marxism in the country and the founding of the CPC.

In history, the Party's pioneers, including Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Mao Zedong, carried out revolutionary activities in the building.

The room 119 in the southeast corner of the building's first floor, which is now the director's office of the Peking University Library, served as a former working site of Li Dazhao, where the communist complied prominent articles and introduced Marxism theories into Chinese universities.
A new mainstream film "1921" presents how the earliest founders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) tried to find new solution to save China from grave crisis in the turbulent revolutionary years.

Directors Huang Jianxin and Zheng Dasheng and their cast members pose for a group photo at the premiere of "1921" held in Beijing, June 28, 2021. [Photo courtesy of Dark Horse]

The film, directed by Huang Jianxin and Zheng Dasheng, premiered on Monday ahead of the centenary celebrations of the founding of the CPC on July 1. It provides a panoramic view of the historical events, retelling the revolutionary heroes' devotion to and sacrifice for the rise of the Chinese people.

The film portrays the early revolutionary heroes in a more intimate and younger way, with help of 100 movie stars such as Huang Xuan, Liu Haoran, Wang Renjun, Li Chen, Ni Ni and Karry Wang.

Huang Jianxin, known for directing "Beginning of the Great Revival," said the cast and crew had prepared for five years to study the in-depth history and develop the script and the various characters.

As actor Zhang Songwen revealed, he and Huang once spent eight hours discussing how to make role of He Shuheng  a proletarian revolutionary and one of the founders of the CPC played by him in the film  more detailed, showing just how much heart and soul they put into the film.

"We want to capture the personalities, ideals, faiths of these revolutionary heroes, making them not only the symbols and icons, but in a more human way," the director said. "This time our creation is like finding a light in the mist. The light is these young people who lived a century ago. Together, we have walked along and followed them."

"I remembered that when I dug into historical documents, students at that time often remembered a humiliation that, when they boycotted Japanese goods, they found the matchsticks they were using to set fire to the Japanese products were also made in Japan," co-director Zheng said. "This was the embarrassment and pain of that generation, and we added this detail to the film."

A poster of "1921" [Image courtesy of Tencent Pictures]

Now, China has more than just its own matchsticks, and is far more high-tech from its own rockets to its own Mars rover, producer Ren Ning said, "I believe that, just because joint efforts and cohesive force by every sector of the country, China will become stronger, greater and more beautiful."

"1921" will hit Chinese theaters on July 1 and be simultaneously released in North America, particularly aimed at overseas Chinese viewers, through the Smart Cinema USA platform and its American partner TV brand platform Vizio which serves more than 30 million households in the U.S.
Editor's note: Here are five events you don't want to miss this week: two dramas telling revolutionary stories, an exhibition at China's top museum, and two movies featuring CPC pioneers.



1, Drama: Battle of Triangle Hill

The Battle of Triangle Hill, also known as the Shangganling Campaign, was a protracted military engagement during the Korean War.

This drama presents a part of the Battle of Triangle Hill and details how a group of brave, iron-willed Chinese volunteer soldiers fought against enemies in a narrow tunnel. They went on to victory despite lacking food and ammunition as well as losing contact with their troop.

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing

Dates: July 2-4

2Silent Ode to History: A Thematic Exhibition of Party History in Classic Artworks

This exhibition focuses on classic artworks that reflect the history of the CPC. Approximately 100 valuable pieces, including oil paintings, Chinese paintings, prints, and sculptures have been gathered for the exhibition from the National Museum of China, the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, the National Art Museum of China, the Art Museum of China Academy of Art (CAFA),and the Guangdong Museum of Art.



Venue: National Museum of China

Dates: June 22-July 25

3Drama: The Wave

"The Wave" tells true stories of five martyrs from the League of Left-Wing Writers and was made to commemorate the 90th anniversary of their sacrifices. The drama eulogizes the revolutionary spirit of the young writers Ro Shi, Hu Yepin, Li Qiushi, Feng Keng, and Yin Fu, and demonstrates the strength of faith.

Venue: SAIC Shanghai Culture Square

Dates: July 1-3

4 Two patriotic films: "1921" and "The Pioneer"

"1921"

Movie "1921" provides a panoramic view of the founding of the CPC 100 years ago via early historical stories set in the months leading up to and after the first National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai in July 1921. It demonstrates how the pioneers set out to establish the Party amid a turbulent era full of espionage and foreign threats. The film thus retells the revolutionary leaders' devotion to and sacrifice for the rise of the Chinese nation.

Director: Huang Jianxin, Zheng Dasheng

Cast: Huang Xuan, Liu Haoran, Wang Renjun, Yuan Wenkang, Li Chen, Ni Ni, Karry Wang and Zhong Chuxi

Release Date: July 1, 2021

Venue: Theaters nationwide

"The Pioneer"

"The Pioneer," directed by Xu Zhanxiong and produced by Guan Hu, portrays the political acts of Li Dazhao, one of the founders of the CPC. Set between 1912-27, the film tells the revolutionary stories of Li's short life, and leads audiences on a journey of how he sought to change China and save the nation as well as how he led revolutionaries to disseminate Marxism in China and eventually found the CPC in 1921. Li was among the early trailblazers to spread Marxism and Communism in China. However, his life came to an abrupt end when he was executed by warlord Zhang Zuolin in 1927. Li is considered a pioneer of China's Communist movement, a great Marxist, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionary.

Director: Xu Zhanxiong

Cast: Zhang Songwen, Li Yifeng, Tong Liya, and Peng Yuchang

Release Date: July 1, 2021

Venue: Theaters nationwide

Cultural events of the week: June 21-27




DiDi Global Inc., a Chinese ride-hailing giant, began trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).



The company, trading under the ticker symbol of "DIDI," announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 316.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at a price to the public of 14 U.S. dollars per ADS for a total offering size of 4.4 billion dollars, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs.

Each four ADSs representing one Class A ordinary share of the company.

DiDi started trading at 16.65 U.S. dollars per share on Wednesday, up nearly 19 percent from its pricing. The stock closed at 14.14 dollars apiece, after climbing to as high as 18 dollars in intraday trading.

Founded in 2012, the company offers a wide range of app-based services across Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa, as well as in Central Asia and Russia, including ride hailing, taxi hailing, chauffeur, hitch and other forms of shared mobility.

Urbanization, economic development, and an increasingly connected world continue to elevate the importance of mobility, the company said in its prospectus, adding China's massive and urbanizing population presents opportunities for new mobility services.

China's mobility market is expected to reach 3.9 trillion dollars by 2040, by which time the penetration of shared mobility and electric vehicles is expected to have increased to 35.9 percent and 50.2 percent, respectively, according to its prospectus, citing a report by China Insights Consultancy, an independent industry consulting platform.

As of Tuesday, the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges by total market cap, stood at 4,829.73, marking a 5.41-percent rise for the month-to-date returns and a 7.56-percent slide for the year-to-date returns.
You are here: China

China will steadily improve its social security benefits and other social safety-net programs during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), a plan released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced Wednesday.

By 2025, the country's basic old-age insurance coverage will reach 95 percent, the plan said.

In the five years, China plans to establish a basic pension scheme for enterprise employees under unified national management and boost the supplementary pension fund to over 4 trillion yuan (about 619 billion U.S. dollars).

Efforts would gradually raise the retirement age and increase unemployment insurance and work-related injury insurance coverage to 230 million and 280 million, respectively, it said.

From 2021 to 2025, China aims to create more than 50 million new urban jobs, keep its surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5.5 percent, and subsidize professional training programs with 75 million attendances.

The country will also move faster to train technicians and skilled workers, improve the income distribution system, create harmonious and stable labor relations, and enhance public service regarding human resources and social security, said the document.

China's surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.6 percent in 2020. In May, the rate came in at 5 percent, 0.9 percentage points lower than the same period last year, the latest data showed.
The Beijing-Urumqi Expressway, the longest desert-crossing expressway in the world, fully opened to traffic on Wednesday after the last section of the route in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was put into operation.



The expressway linking Beijing and Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, has a total length of 2,800 km, with over 500 km passing through desert and no man's land.

In addition to Beijing and Xinjiang, the expressway passes through four other provincial-level regions: Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Gansu in north China.

It cuts the driving distance between Urumqi and Beijing by more than 1,300 km, making it the fastest road to cross north China, according to Cao Shouhua, a researcher with the Research Institute of Highway, a think tank under the country's transport ministry.

It is also the fastest land route from Tianjin Port in north China to Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands, facilitating exchanges along the Belt and Road.

Sections of the expressway in other provincial-level regions are already in operation. Due to its harsh natural environment and complex geological conditions, the section in Xinjiang was the last to be completed, taking approximately four years.

The Xinjiang section passes through varied landscapes, including the Gobi desert and grasslands. "It was no easy work," said Long Xing, general manager of the Xinjiang section's major developer, affiliated with the China Railway Construction Corporation.



In addition to extreme temperatures ranging from over 40 degrees Celsius to below minus 40 degrees Celsius, workers had to deal with sandstorms, snowstorms, and a lack of stable telecommunication signals, among other difficulties, Long added.

Ecologically, economically friendly

The Xinjiang section crosses many areas rich in wildlife, and developers have managed to reduce the project's impact on local wildlife as much as possible.

A total of 62 animal passages have been built throughout the section, according to Wang Xiaozhi, the section's chief designer. The design of a three-layer passage has been specifically developed to simultaneously enable the uninterrupted passage of trains, animals and road vehicles.

The three-layer passages have cost an additional 120 million yuan (about 18.6 million U.S. dollars), but Wang believed that was worthwhile. "We should not impede wildlife's path while building our own."

Locals living along the expressway are the biggest beneficiaries, as easier and faster transport will stimulate local economic vitality.

Delida Yerken, a resident of the Kazak Autonomous County of Barkol in east Xinjiang, said she expects booming tourism in her hometown, with an increased inflow of tourists brought by the first expressway to pass Barkol.

"I'm also planning for a family road trip to Beijing and other cities along the expressway during the holidays," she said. "It brings us closer to other areas."
You are here: China

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, on Thursday addressed a ceremony celebrating the CPC centenary at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing.

Please see the attachment for the full text of the speech.

Full Text: Speech by Xi Jinping at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC
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Rescuers have found seven bodies, rescued 46 people and kept searching for 11 missing persons after a passenger ship capsized in waters off Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Tuesday, rescuers said on Wednesday.

Head of the Bali Search and Rescue Office, Gede Darmada, told Xinhua via phone that the numbers still could change.

Alif Supartana, head of the Bali office's operation affairs unit, said via phone that "the figure of missing persons may change. We will wait until there is no more report from the relatives or families. Then we can figure out the precise number of the missing persons."

He added that the actual number of people on board the ship may also be different from the manifest.

Supartana said that the search and rescue mission will be carried out for seven days.

The KMP Yunicee ship sank at 7:06 p.m. local time on Tuesday near the Gilimanuk port in Bali after departing from the Ketapang port in the East Java province.
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Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, on Wednesday urged the United States to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal.

"As the Chinese saying goes, let he who tied the bell on the tiger's neck take it off. It is incumbent upon the U.S., the originator, to take the lead in returning to the JCPOA with no preconditions," Geng told the Security Council briefing on non-proliferation regarding the implementation of the Resolution 2231.

"Iran, on the basis of this, should subsequently also return to full compliance. This is the right way to bring the Iranian nuclear deal back on track and achieve de-escalation of the situation in the region," he added.

Security Council Resolution 2231 was a July 20, 2015 resolution endorsing the JCPOA on the nuclear program of Iran. It sets out an inspection process and schedule while also preparing for the removal of United Nations sanctions against Iran. The 15 nations on the Security Council unanimously endorsed the resolution, which had been negotiated by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - plus Germany, the European Union, and Iran.

Noting that the JCPOA is a diplomatic outcome achieved through hard work by all parties that engaged in consultation and negotiation, Geng said that the deal embodies the successful practice of multilateralism.

"It is an essential safeguard for the international nuclear non-proliferation regime as well as the peace and stability in the Middle East," said the envoy.

"The United States, in disregard of the opposition of the international community, obstinately made a unilateral withdrawal from the agreement, and has continued to apply maximum pressure on Iran. This is the root of the current dilemma of the Iranian nuclear issue," Geng noted.

The United States announced its withdrawal from the Iran deal on May 8, 2018.

"The withdrawal by the U.S. from the JCPOA has led to a serious trust deficit between the U.S. and Iran. This significantly hinders the resumption of compliance negotiation between the two sides," said Geng.

"Out of the concern that the U.S. may once again walk away from the agreement, Iran has asked the current U.S. administration to provide a guarantee that it will not repeat the unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA," Geng stressed.

"This request is completely understandable and should be responded to. It is our hope that all parties will adopt a positive posture and show political wisdom in finding a solution," noted the envoy.
Choteau resident Cody Marney (left) holds the 15 liters of blood filtered to remove the stem cells that he donated to a 9-year-old girl battling leukemia. The procedure took place at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Marney shared his journey with family and friends on Facebook including photos of the medical supplies (top right) used for the series of Neupogen injections given the week before stem cell collection to build up his white blood cell count.
My association with African Enterprise began after my twelve years of service with CMS in Tanzania and the Australian home base. Back again in parish ministry I met with people who had become very committed to a new kind of African ministry called African Enterprise. I joined their Board and in due course became its Chairman and later International Chairman. I think that in that time I learned these four important things about AE.

First, it is indigenous i.e. it sprang up in Africa to be operated by Africans who minister to their own people in their own unique and special style. My connection with African Enterprise began sometime after my experience as a CMS missionary in Tanzania. Back in a Sydney parish again I met some people who were keen on this new kind of African mission which had begun to have a base in Australia. An old friend, Dr Paul White, was the Australian Chairman and I was soon invited to join AEs local board. In due course this new connection took me to Africa, to AEs people-on-the-ground and eventually to my Chairmanship of their International Board. Over the years which this involved I learned to cherish various aspects of AEs ministry

We dont send missionaries to them - they are the missionaries and sometimes they also bring a powerful message to us. In Philip Jenkins book The Next Chistendom there is a fascinating account of how Christianity has grown in the Southern Hemisphere, in Latin America, parts of Asia (who knows about China) and also in Africa. African Enterprise had played a significant part in this great movement.

Secondly AE is holistic i.e. although its major task is preaching the Christian Gospel it realises that it also must do something to alleviate the sufferings and the deprivation of the poor: it builds clinics in the slums, hygienic latrines and pipes in good water there. On one occasion AE helped to bring millions of trees to an area where an increased population had removed them. In the Christian world there has sometimes been a sad division between those who believe in evangelism and those who accentuate social action. Thankfully at the great Lausanne conference in 1982 evangelicals began to rethink this dichotomy and repent of their neglect of the poor and disadvantaged (something that their evangelical forbears had never neglected). So it was not surprising that AE has always had the two streams running together not using social action as a bribe to win converts but as evangelisms necessary companion. E.g.in the mission to Lilongwe as the preaching continued so latrines were dug in large schools which had previously had none! AE is proud of the words word and deed in our mission statement.

Thirdly - and most importantly - AE is an evangelistic ministry, targeting the huge and growing cities of Africa using the unique method of stratified evangelism i.e. reaching every aspect of the city from homes, to market places, office blocks, schoolrooms, army and police barracks etc. Africa is, despite its many problems wide open to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and one thing the media never bothers to tell us is that there are large and growing churches in Africa south of the Sahara When I went to Tanganyika (later Tanzania) in 1960 there was one CMS aligned Diocese but now there are many in a continually growing and expanding church. Muslims too are working hard in Africa, fuelled by petro dollars to win Africa, hoping to plant a mosque in walking distance all the way from Cairo to the Cape. So these are the days of huge opportunity in Africa and we must not miss the great evangelistic opportunity which we have.

Fourthly AE, although based in Africa is an international partnership - and that is where we in Australia come in. At the International Board meeting there can be representatives from 13 to 14 different nations (mostly African) but also with reps from the UK, the USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia. We in Australia have the huge privilege of being part of what the teams are doing right throughout Africa through prayer and also through financial support. AE continues its evangelistic ministry to the great cities of Africa through word and deed in partnership with the churches.

Written by David Hewetson (AE Board Member 1979  2012)
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With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-352-3334 or email legals@waverlynewspapers.com.
Market Research Future Published a Half Cooked Research Report on Global Potash Ore Market.

Market Overview:

Potash ore is used in a wide range of applications that play an important role in developing fruits, plants, vegetables, and others. Owing to these factors, they are used in the heavy end industries such as agriculture, chemical, metallurgical, and others. The global potash ore market is spanned across five regions of the world namely Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among these, North America holds the major share of the global market and is projected to continue leading, owing to the increasing consumption of the product in agriculture, chemical, metallurgical, and others. It is estimated that the agriculture segment is set to observe the highest CAGR in the market due to growing use of the product in the production of fertilizers, and others. The increasing demand for the product in chemical and metallurgical sectors have propelled the market to witness a rapid growth during the forecast period. These factors led the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to be the leading players in this region.

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The Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at a higher CAGR due to extensive consumption of the product in end-use industries such as agriculture, chemical, metallurgical, and others. The growing demand for hygienic food and changing lifestyles is projected to fuel the market in the coming years. China, Japan, and India have achieved a significant stage in the market due to rising per capita income and high disposable income in the end-use industries. Therefore, the growing demand for the product in end-use sectors is estimated to drive the market during the forecast period.

A notable development is achieved in Europe due to the growing demand for organic food, in hotels and restaurants. Potash ore is used for the production of fertilizers, and other chemical compounds. Moreover, the growing innovation and technological advancement have propelled the market to witness a higher growth. Owing to these factors, countries such as Germany, the U.K., and Italy are the major contributors to this market.

A considerable development is predicted in the Latin American region such as in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina due to growing production capacity and demand for potash ore in agriculture industries. Moreover, a rapid development is estimated in the Middle East & African region such as Qatar, the U.A.E, and others due to extensive use of the product in major industries.

Some Of The Well-Known Players Operating In The Global Potash Ore Market Are: EuroChem (Switzerland), Intrepid Potash, Inc. (U.S.), Uralkali (Russia), Mining Associates (India), Nutrien Ltd (Canada), JSC Belaruskali (Belarus), K+S KALI GmbH (Germany), ICL (Israel), Kore Potash Limited (Australia), and Encanto Potash Corp. (EPO) (Canada) among others.

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Segmentation:

The global potash ore market is segmented into the source and application. On the basis of the source, the market is segregated into potassium chloride, sodium chloride, and others. On the basis of application, the market is bifurcated into agriculture, chemical, metallurgical, and others.
Overview:

The global market for barite is getting significant traction from the healthcare industry and the construction sector. Barite or baryte is known for its low solubility, brightness or whiteness, high density, chemical inertness, softness, and low cost, which makes it perfect for several industries. Its application as an additive for paints, rubbers, plastics, friction materials, and other products are expected to make sure that the market gains substantial traction from several end user industries. Market Research Future (MRFR) predicts the market would rise by 5.82% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. However, challenges posed by strict regulations and availability of substitutes may deter the market from having a smooth growth.

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Segmentation:

The global barite market, as discussed by the research analysts of MRFR, has been segmented by application and region to open up spaces for interpretations. This segmentation would reveal several insights that are backed by scientific inputs, factors, figures, graphs, and charts. This will help in crafting methods to increase the profit margin.

By application, the global report on the barite market has been segmented into chemical manufacturing, drilling mud, pharmaceuticals, paints & polymers, and others. The drilling mud segment is getting significant traction from the oil and mining industry. Its ability to absorb X-rays and gamma rays and excellent purity are making the percolation process into the pharmaceutical industry much easier. The paint & polymer segment is also witnessing a significant rise in demand due to the growing activities related to construction.

Regional Analysis:

Asia Pacific dominates the market as most of the barite-producing countries are from this region. In addition, the region is experiencing substantial growth in several barite-related industries. North America is second in terms of generating revenues. The major part of its income comes from drilling mud.

Competitive Landscape:

Milwhite, Inc. (US), The Cary Company (US), DESKU GROUP INC. (US), Halliburton (US), Ashapura Group (India), APMDC (India), International Earth Products LLC (US), Mil-Spec Industries Corporation (US), Kaomin Industries LLP (India), and Dev International (India) are some of the major companies making substantial changes in the global barite market. Their focus is mostly on strategic dealings that can improve their market position and broaden the scope for operation. This triggers the implementation of techniques like merger, acquisition, innovation, branding, launching, tie-ups, and others. These companies have also increased their research-related funding to get certain advantages from the market. MRFR reported latest dealings of the market to understand how changes will impact the market and what trends are triggering growth.

Industry News:

In February 2020, Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Announced that they had received successful test results from SGS Minerals & SGS Life Sciences division (SGS) on the Frances Creek barite project. SGS testing is a part of the preliminary process that would assess the economic state of the Frances Creek project. The company confirmed the barium sulfate mined from the Frances Creek barium sulfate had met all the specifications released by the US Pharmacopeia (USP) guidelines.

The global market for barite is expected some struggles in the coming days due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. As a result of this outbreak, various industries have started suffering due to the lack of demand. Barite finds significant usage in the oil and mining sector, but due to the imposed lockdowns, the sector failed to meet the general standard of production. This triggered measures to save costs. It would affect the intake capacity of barite. Also, the slump in the construction sector can deter global market growth.

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Global Electric Power Distribution Automation Systems Industry: Set to Witness Huge Growth by 2028





The Electric Power Distribution Automation Systems Market is anticipated to reach around USD 23.8 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the industrial segment dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. North America is expected to be the leading contributor to the global market revenue during the forecast period.

The growing adoption of smart cities, along with high demand of smart grids has boosted the adoption of electric power distribution automation systems. The rising demand for electricity, and growing demand for efficient and low-cost solutions for efficient power distribution further support the growth of electric power distribution automation systems market. Increasing investments by vendors in technological advancements, growing need to update existing networks, and increasing ageing infrastructure would accelerate the adoption of electric power distribution automation systems during the forecast period. Growing demand from emerging economies, increasing adoption smart grid applications, and technological advancements are expected to provide numerous growth opportunities in the coming years.

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North America generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the global market throughout the forecast period. The presence of established telecom and cloud infrastructure in this region, and growing trend of smart cities drive the market growth in the region. The growing demand from energy sector, and technological advancements further support market growth in the region. The use of smart technologies in energy and utilities, investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure, and increasing ageing infrastructure is expected to support market growth in this region during the forecast period.

The companies operating in the market include General Electric, Eaton Corporation Plc, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., ABB Ltd., G&W Electric Company, Schneider Electric, Elster Solutions, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Siemens AG, and S&C Electric Company. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.

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Read More :

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/spirometer-market-size-is-projected-to-reach-1-78-billion-by-2028--cagr-10-1-polaris-market-research-301254824.html

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ankylosing-spondylitis-market-size-is-projected-to-reach-8-45-billion-by-2028-polaris-market-research-301255992.html
Global Electronic & Consumer Goods Plastics Industry: Set to Witness Huge Growth by 2028





The global electronics & consumer goods plastics market size is expected to reach USD 59.48 billion by 2028 according to a new study by Polaris Market Research. The report Electronics & Consumer Goods Plastics Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Type (PE, PVC, PS, PP, Others); By Application; By Region, Segments & Forecast, 2021  2028 provides a comprehensive analysis of present market insights and future market trends.

In 2020, the household appliances segment dominated the global industry, in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor to the global electronics & white goods plastics industry revenue during the forecast period. A significant increase in disposable income, changing lifestyles, and initiatives by industry players to offer innovative products in the market drive the growth of the industry.

Other driving factors include a growing middle-class population and the increasing penetration of e-commerce platforms. Increasing demand from developing nations and technological advancements are expected to provide numerous growth opportunities to the industry players during the forecast period.

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There has been a shift towards e-commerce and customers are increasingly purchasing electronics & consumer goods through online platforms, which increases the demand for plastics. However, rising awareness towards e-waste management along with strict regulations imposed by several governments regarding plastic waste disposal is likely to hinder product demand in the coming years.

Improvement in lifestyle due to rise in income level, especially in the developing countries of Asia Pacific fuels the demand for electronic & other goods plastics industry. Factors such as an increase in per capita income and changes in consumer behavior are expected to accelerate the adoption of electronics & consumer goods polymers in the coming years.

The Asia Pacific generated the highest revenue in the industry in 2020 and is expected to lead the global electronics & consumer good plastics industry throughout the forecast period. The increasing population in the region coupled with growing disposable income drives the industry growth. The improving living standards in countries such as China, Japan, and India further support industry growth.

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The major players in the electronics & consumer goods polymers industry include BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Company, Celanese Corporation, Trinseo S.A., Formosa Plastics Group, Covestro AG, Chevron Phillips Chemical, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, and Solvay S.A among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of customers.

Polaris Market Research has segmented the electronics & consumer goods plastics market report on the basis of type, application, and region:

Electronics & Consumer Goods Plastics, Type Outlook (Revenue  USD Billion, 2016  2028)

Polyethylene

Polyvinyl Chloride

Polystyrene

Polypropylene

Others

Electronics & Consumer Goods Plastics, Application Outlook (Revenue  USD Billion, 2016  2028)
San Francisco, 1 July 2021: The Report U.S. Tissue Diagnostics Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Technology & Product (IHC, Primary & Special Staining), By Application (Breast Cancer, NSCLC), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028

The U.S. tissue diagnostics market size is estimated to reach USD 2.81 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 3.91% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Pivotal factors supplementing the market growth include continuous rise in the cases of cancer, growth in organ transplantation & donation, and increased acceptance toward personalized medicine & companion diagnostics in the U.S. Increase in the number of research activities targeted toward the development of novel tissue diagnostics solutions is also expected to drive the market.

The field of anatomic pathology has witnessed a paradigm shift, which can be attributed to the exponential growth in cancer incidence in the U.S., thereby expanding the clinical pathology industry. Also, steady convergence of molecular pathology with anatomic pathology, steep adoption of novel biopsies for cancer detection, and integration of digital technologies is expected to collaboratively make a positive impact on market growth.

Tissue analysis provides significant information, which is difficult to understand using conventional molecular techniques. Currently, companion diagnostic tests are rapidly being adopted by pharmaceutical companies for obtaining first-line therapy designations/approvals for their products. In addition, their use in the identification of patient cohorts, which are likely to benefit from targeted therapeutics, has increased the significance of tissue diagnostics in the development of precision medicine.

In addition, the field of tissue diagnostics has witnessed gradual evolution with the introduction of upgraded technologies, including Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH), Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Immunofluorescence (IF), comparative genomic hybridization, and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). Key players are focused on identifying novel biomarkers and developing assays for advanced cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, companies are conducting biomarker pathologist training programs to boost the adoption rate of modern pathological solutions.

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U.S. Tissue Diagnostics Market Report Highlights

The IHC segment held the highest revenue share of over 28% in 2020. The segments dominance is attributed to the wide acceptance of IHC across clinical laboratories for different workflows

These workflows include tissue examination targeted toward disease prognosis and anticipating therapeutic response among patients with cancer

The digital pathology segment is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR during the forecast period mainly due to heavy investments in infrastructure as well as an onsite server for image digitization

In addition, the lack of skilled pathologists has propelled the demand for automated systems in disease diagnosis, thereby boosting the segment growth

An increase in the prevalence of breast cancer along with the launch of novel products dedicated to breast cancer detection have led to the dominance of this application segment

Moreover, the advent of genomic technologies aimed at gaining a better understanding of the genetic markup of a tumor is further offering lucrative growth opportunities to companies

The market players are investing significantly in novel product development and acquisition of small players to increase their revenue share

List of Key Players of U.S. Tissue Diagnostics Market

Merck KGaA

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Abbott Laboratories

Siemens Healthineers AG

Danaher

bioMerieux SA

QIAGEN

Becton, Dickinson & Company (BD)

Agilent Technologies, Inc.

General Electric Company (GE Healthcare)

BioGenex

Cell Signaling Technology, Inc.

Bio SB

DiaGenic ASA

Sakura Finetek Japan Co., Ltd.

Abcam plc

Enzo Life Sciences, Inc.

VITRO SA (Master Diagnostica)

TissueGnostics GmbH

Access Press Release of U.S. Tissue Diagnostics Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/us-tissue-diagnostics-market-analysis


San Francisco, 1 July 2021: The Report Nasal Cannula Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Low Flow, High Flow), By Material (Plastic, Silicone), By End-use (Hospitals, Ambulatory Healthcare Services, Long Term Care Centers), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028

The global nasal cannula market size is expected to reach USD 9.8 billion by 2028, based on a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2021 to 2028. The rise in prevalence of respiratory diseases and the growing geriatric population contribute majorly to the growth of the market. The lifestyle changes, rising percentage of smokers, climatic conditions, and the increasing air pollution attributes majorly to the growing prevalence of respiratory diseases.

Moreover, the current Covid-19 pandemic has further propelled the demand for medical devices worldwide. The surge in the adoption of the single-use nasal cannula was prevalent in all the settings, including hospitals, home settings, and care centers. Furthermore, the medical device witnessed a surge in demand during the pandemic facilitating oxygen delivery in all settings, including hospitals and home care.

The development in the medical device by different key players of the market has further propelled the adoption due to innovation in the nasal cannulas to provide more flexibility and comfort to the patients. The recent developments in high-flow nasal cannula facilitate expanding the usage at low-level healthcare settings or home use leading to further market growth.

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Nasal Cannula Market Report Highlights

The low flow nasal cannula segment dominated the market in 2020 owing to the growing prevalence of respiratory diseases, the low cost of the cannula, and the Covid-19 impact

The plastic material segment dominated the market in 2020 in terms of revenue share owing to the higher adoption due to low cost and variations available in the market

The hospital segment dominated the market in 2020 owing to the increasing adoption of the high-flow nasal cannula and the developments made to expand the usage and scope in various indication treatments

On the other hand, the growing geriatric population and the patients with long-term respiratory distress are expected to support the growth of the long term care center segment

In 2020, North America held the highest share in the market owing to the rise in the occurrence of respiratory diseases such as COPD and asthma, and growth in the local and international manufacturers facilitating swift availability of the medical device at low cost

In Asia Pacific, the market is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period owing to the rising geriatric population and prevalence of respiratory diseases, increasing healthcare expenditure, and rise in the local manufacturers

List of Key Players Nasal Cannula Market

Allied Healthcare Products, Inc.

Teleflex Incorporated

Flexicare Medical Ltd.

Vapotherm Inc.

ResMed Inc.

Fairmont Medical

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited

Well Lead Medical Co. Ltd.

Salter Labs

Access Press Release of Nasal Cannula Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-nasal-cannula-market
Market Research Future Published a Half Cooked Research Global Sulfuric Acid Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022 - Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast up to 2022.

Sulfuric Acid Market  Market Overview

Sulfuric acid is a mineral acid and is one of the largest volume industrial chemical produced across the globe. Fertilizer production, especially phosphate fertilizer from wet-process sulphuric acid, is the major end use market fort sulfuric acid. The major application area of sulphuric acid covers fertilizers, chemical manufacturing, refinery, textile, pulp & paper manufacturing, metal processing and others.

Agricultural economies holds the greater importance in this market, as fertilizer production considered as a key focused area for the consumption of sulpfuric acid. Increasing demand for fertilizer to attain the higher agriculture yield had a significant impact on this market over the past few years and set its uplifted usage in the coming years. China, alone acquired almost half of the global market in terms of sulphuric acid production resulting into domination of Asia Pacific over the global market. In addition to this, fertilizer consumption of India represents massive number on account of presence of large agriculture base and is driving the demand for sulphuric acid. Apart from the, automotive industry expected to provide higher gains to key industry players in this market during the forecast period. This is due to use of sulfuric acid in the automotive batteries which has triggered automotive application of sulfuric acid. However, volatility in the raw material prices and growing consumption of phosphate based fertilizer limited the growth scope of this market.

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Sulfuric Acid Market- Competitive Landscape

Global Sulfuric Acid market is highly concentrated as well fairly competitive in nature. The key industry participants operating in this market are Agrium, Akzo Nobel, Bayer, BP, Chevron, Cytec Industries, Dupont, Evonik Industries, Honeywell and Solvay. The major companies in this market are seen adopting collective market strategies to such as mergers, acquisition and joint-ventures in order to consolidate their product portfolio and to strengthen their market presence. Several production capacity expansion has also witnessed across the various developed markets to strengthen market penetration into emerging markets and exploit untapped markets. The overall effect of market competition observed in global sulphuric acid market is observed as high and is expected to get even higher due consistent increase in the production activities.

Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:

May 18, 2017- Yidu Xingfa Chemical and DuPont tied in an agreement for an engineering and technology license for a 3,600 Mtpd MECS MAX3 sulfuric acid plant. The collective effort has taken to build one of the largest sulfuric acid plant in China in order to cater the ongoing demand. Xingfa is expanding its existing site, located in the Hubei province near Yichang city, with the aim of roughly doubling the phosphate fertilizer capacity. The new MECS MAX3 sulfuric acid plant will process 1.2 MMtpy of sulfuric acid, as well as support the production of an additional 400,000 tonnes/yr of phosphoric acid, 400,000 tonnes/yr DAP and 35,000 tonnes/yr of potassium phosphate monobasic. The overall expansion activity expected gain market effectiveness while bridging the demand supply gap of sulfuric acid.

October 10, 2017- Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd and Jordanian Phosphate Mines Company has formed joint venture to build largest sulfuric acid plant in India. The agreement has undertaken by investing overall amount of USD 860 million. The plant will come as a huge relief to Indias agricultural sector requirements in view of meagre availability of phosphates in India. Phosphoric acid produced at the plant will be exported to the Kandla port in Gujarat from Jordans Aqaba port, which is close to the location of the plant.

November, 2017- Leading chemical industry player BASF has launched new sulfuric acid catalyst. BASF has introduced the new sulphuric acid catalyst O4115 Quattro into the market. The new, cesium-based catalyst is unique due to its geometrical shape  a combination of four strands  leading to a 30 percent greater catalytic surface area compared to conventional sulphuric acid catalysts. The newly launched catalyst has 30 % greater catalytic surface area and helps to improve performance during the sulfuric acid production.

August 31, 2016- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc, Acquires BAYQIK Sulfuric Acid Converter Technology from Bayer AG. The company has acquired patented technology from Bayer AG, under the term of agreement the overall technology shift includes transfer of relevant Bayer technical, commercial and market information to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. BAYQIK technology enables more efficient conversion of process gas with high sulphur dioxide concentrations. Therefore, it altogether expected to provide growth offerings in the Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. growth offering.

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Market Research Future Published a Cooked Research Global Color Masterbatch Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 - Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast up to 2027.

Color Masterbatch Market  Market Overview

Color masterbatches is made up of rubber, plastic, and elastomer in which pigments are dispersed optimally, this solids are cut into small pieces, which is further processed and used to make value added products in various industries which includes packaging, building & construction, consumer goods, automotive, textile and agriculture among others.

Packaging as an end-use industry accounts for the largest market for color masterbatch. Increasing consumption of plastics across the globe in an array of industries is expected to boost the market for color masterbatch. Especially, the packaging sector which is the largest consumer of plastics. Evolution of different packaging techniques in the sector is propelling the market for color masterbatches.

Rapid urbanization and changing lifestyle of consumers in the emerging markets can be further attributed to the growth of color masterbatch market. Consumers are more inclined towards packaged food items. Also, an emerging textile industry in the Southeast Asian counties, especially, Vietnams textile sectored which is growing at a rate of nearly 9% will offer ample opportunities for color masterbatch.

Plastics are gaining traction in the building & construction sector replacing traditional materials. The economic downturn in 2008-09 in the U.S which had an adverse effect on the housing industry in the country witnessed sharp decline in the ceramic tile industry. However, the recent stats showing a positive outlook for housing market in the U.S for 2017-18 with low mortgage rates in the country beefing up new construction activities. A similar trend has been noted in the European market. Whereas, the ongoing and upcoming construction activities in the region is stimulating the demand for color masterbatch. For instance, amidst the decline in oil prices in the GCC the construction activities in the region still remains as a strong indicator for economic growth in the region. The construction activities is expected to stimulate in the coming years with an overall capital spending in GCC estimated at USD 480 billion of which 65% will be towards infrastructure development. Accounting for the latter mentioned factors it is healthy to assume a pool of market opportunities for color masterbatch in the Middle East region.

Furthermore, regional demographics and macroeconomic indicators such as rise in disposable income, decline in unemployment rates, and an increasing middle class population in the emerging economies is expected to increase the spending power of the population the region. Thus, the above mentioned factors are some compelling factors for the market growth.

Increasing scrutiny towards the vehicular emission across the globe has resulted in extreme pressure on OEMs to alter their vehicle design without jeopardizing the performance of the vehicle. Hence, more and more lightweight materials are being adopted in automotive sector. For instance, 10% of the average weight of a medium size passenger vehicle is of the plastic materials. Also, new regional norms like Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) and EU to cut down the emission from vehicles are propelling the market for plastics in automotive. Hence, driving the market for color masterbatch.

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Key Players:

A Schulman Europe, Tosaf Compounds, Polyplast Muller, Polyone Corporation, Hubron, Clariant Masterbatches, Ampacet, and Cabot Plastics International among others. are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Color Masterbatch Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.

Color Masterbatch Market  Competitive Analysis

Color masterbatch market is a fragmented market with Tier `1 manufacturers and domestic players. The major trends noted among the manufacturers are expansion, joint-ventures, and acquisitions to capture the market share and increase their market presence in line with the increasing demand for masterbatch. For instance, Ampacet has announced its new production plant for masterbatches in Australia for catering the ever-growing demand for masterbatches from the food, shipping, industrial and retail industries.

In similar lines, A Schulman Inc, opened a new color master batch facility in Hangzhou High Tech Industrial Park CEDZ, Jiangsu, China in 2016. This expansion in China and other growing markets throughout the Asia Pacific will produce A. Schulman's premium color additives for packaging, automotive, agricultural, sports, and leisure & home customers.

Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:

November, 2017- Ampacet, a global leader in the masterbatch market has launched its new production line for production of white masterbatch in Dudelange, Luxemborg. The main aim of the company with this newly opened production line is to maximise the overall customer experience by optimizing the lead time enhancing the delivery flexibility.

July, 2017- In 2017, Ampacet has announced its new production plant for masterbatches in Australia for catering the ever-growing demand for masterbatches from the food, shipping, industrial and retail industries. The newly opened plant will enable the company to further strengthen its presence in the Oceania region.

March, 2017- In 2017, Ampacet invested in new production lines across its various manufacturing facilities in Europe in line with increasing the production capacity of color additives, black and white masterbatches at its Messacny facility in Belgium. Second capacity increase was at its Dudelange facility in Luxemborg.

July, 2016- In 2016, A Schulman Inc, enters a partnership with Snetor Chimie headquarters in Courbevoie (France )- this partnership will allow the expansion of its master batch footprint on the African continent

April, 2016- In 2016, A Schulman Inc, opens a new color master batch facility hangshu High Tech Industrial Park CEDZ, Jiangsu, China. This expansion in China and other growing markets throughout the Asia Pacific will produce A. Schulman's premium color additives for packaging, automotive, agricultural, sports, and leisure & home customers
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.

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Market Forecast

Global AI in Drug Discovery Market is expected to hold a value of about USD 2,015.1 Million by 2025, and it is projected to register a CAGR of 40.8% from 2019 to 2025.

AI in Drug Discovery Trends and Opportunities

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is projected to provide productive avenues in the healthcare industry. The implementation of AI has helped with reducing the researches and development gap in the drug manufacturing process and also in the targeted manufacturing of the drugs. Owing to these aspects, biopharmaceutical industries are tending towards AI to enhance market share. This is an influential factor fueling the growth of the global AI for drug discovery market.

also read @ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/covid19-impact-on-artificial-intelligence-drug-discovery-market-latest-innovations-drivers-dynamics-and-strategic-analysis-challenges-2021-01-05

The escalating pressure on the drug manufacturer to reduce drug prices is yet another factor expected to boost the AI for drug discovery market. This is all due to Al reduced the failure rate of clinical trials, and eliminated research and development costs in drug discovery. Apart from this, there has been a regular increase in the number of patients suffering from chronic diseases globally, and pharmaceutical companies are investing high in the development of various drugs. Artificial Intelligence has been able to assist manufacturers by offering a solution to complex situations. In the current scenario, AI is providing many novel analytical approaches for the design and development of novel products, which is another reason behind the markets exponential growth.

More factors, such as the flourishing healthcare sector coupled with manufacturers approach towards lowering the manufacturing cost associated with drug development, have also recorded to be reasonable for the markets growth. Besides, escalating investment by significant players in biopharma companies and rising public and private partnerships for R&D activities are more critical factors expected to boost the growth of the target AI in Drug Discovery market in the future.

In the case of point, back in the year 2019, GlaxoSmithKline plc, a multinational pharmaceutical company, invested US$ 300 Mn in 23 and Me, a gene testing company. The deal, in the current time, is expected to facilitate the company to access the database related to DNA related to relations between genes and diseases. This factor will further help in the development of novel products as well as the AI drug discovery market.

On the contrary, the factor of the scarcity of skilled healthcare professionals has been considered as a hindering factor and anticipated to slow down the growth of the global AI for the drug discovery market in the future.

AI in Drug Discovery Market Segment Review

By the segment of product type, the market has included software and services

By the segment of molecule type, the market has included Large Molecule and Small Molecule.

By the segment of technology type, the market has included machine learning, deep learning, and others.

By the segment of indication type, the market has included Immuno-oncology, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases, Metabolic Diseases, and others.

By the segment of the application, the market has included target identification, candidate screening, drug optimization and repurposing, de novo drug designing, and preclinical testing.

By the segment of End-User, the market has included pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, contract research organizations, research centers, and academic & government institutes.

AI in Drug Discovery Market Regional Landscape

Americas and its Countries such as the US and Canada have been at the vanguard of the healthcare industry over the years. The rising number of big AI platform developers in the region is one of the primary reasons for the express growth of the AI in the drug discovery market in the region. Some top AI platforms such as Google AI, Microsoft Azure, and TensorFlow have adopted the Big Pharma companies for utilization in the drug discovery procedure.

Europe is the second-largest market for AI in drug discovery after the Americas. Rising R&D activities in the pharmacy sector and high demand for AI solutions by Big Pharma companies are other factors expected to boost the augmentation of the regional market. Peak pharma companies have made partnerships with AI service providers to integrate AI technologies into the drug discovery process.

The growth of the Asia-Pacific AI In Drug Discovery Market is attributed to the escalating demand for effective drug discovery solutions. Many startups are working to integrate AI applications in drug discovery. Some of these startups are Adagene, Mozi, Accutar, Xbiome, Elucidata Corporation, Deep Intelligent Pharma, CaroCure, and Interprotein, among others. With the rapidly upward pharmaceutical market in the Asian region, probably, the approval of the AI technologies in the majority drug discovery protocols will take place in the forecast period.

Top Players

The top players are Microsoft Corporation, Google (A Subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.), IBM Corporation, Atomwise, Inc., Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Inc., BenevolentAI, Cyclica, Bioage, Envisagenics, Owkin, Inc., Verge Genomics, and Berg LLC.

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Market Highlights:

The Global Cochlear Implants Market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.86% and is due to reach USD 3,203.8 Mn over the forecast period of 2017-2023, projects Market Research Future (MRFR) in a detailed report.Cochlear Implants are medical devices that are surgically inserted to provide a sense of sound to a person with hearing loss. The last few years have witnessed a significant increase in the demand for cochlear implants owing to the rise in a number of patients with hearing impairment who generate demand for diagnosis and treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that by 2025, 900 Mn people are likely to suffer from hearing impairment.The rise in global geriatric population is also expected to be a positive factor influencing the growth of the global cochlear implants market. The aged populace is more susceptible to hearing loss which induces high demand for cochlear implants.

There has been increased interest by medical device manufacturers to invest heavily in R&D activities which have led to the development of advanced cochlear implants. The increasing use of next-generation metals, polymers, ceramics and biomaterials in cochlear implants has resulted in enhancement of the value of surgery and improvement of surgical outcomes which has further accelerated the growth of the market.Other factors boosting the growth of the market include a rise in a number of clinical trials, improving reimbursement scenario in developing countries and an increase in the number of FDA approvals. Conversely, the cost of cochlear remains a significant hurdle to the growth of the global cochlear implants market. The estimated cost of a cochlear implant can go up to high amounts which might not be affordable to middle-class and low-income class population.

Segmentation:

Cochlear Implants Market Growth has been segmented based on product, type, and end user.

By Product, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into a cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.

By Types, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.

By End User, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, research & academic institutes, and others.

Regional Analysis:

The Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa are the key markets for cochlear implants. The Americas represent a significant market for cochlear implants owing to the presence of a vast patient population. Rising geriatric population, increasing demand for advanced treatment options and affordability are key factors determining the growth of the Americas market.Europe accounts for the second largest share of the global cochlear market. The Europe market is driven by strong government support, availability of funds for R&D activities and high expenditure on healthcare.

Asia Pacific follows Europe closely and is slated to be the fastest growing market over the forecast period. Rapid advancement in medical technology in the region and the presence of considerable patient pool in the region drives the market for cochlear implants. Also, improving reimbursement scenario, the growing need for better medical devices, and expanding expenditure on healthcare due to a rise in disposable income has created a conducive environment for the growth of the market. China and India are the key contributors to the APAC market.The MEA market accounts for the least share of the global cochlear implants market. Limited availability of medical facilities, poor economic conditions, and lack of awareness restricts the growth of the Africa market. Meanwhile, the well-developed economy in the Middle East offers growth opportunities for cochlear implants.

Competitive Landscape:

The notable players in the global cochlear implants market MED-El (Austria), Microson S.A. (Spain), Widex (Denmark), GAES MEDICA (Spain), Cochlear Ltd (Australia), William Demant Holding Group (Denmark), Advanced Bionics AG (Switzerland).

Industry Updates:

In August 2018, Advanced Bionics, a global leader in cochlear implants, announced FDA approval for its new HiRes Ultra 3D Cochlear Implant. The new cochlear implant is hassle-free and pain-free choice for patients and is equipped with a unique magnet technology.

In November 2018, researchers at Asan Medical Center (AMC) developed artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction platform for cochlear implant surgery. The platform can provide rapid diagnoses, treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing loss.

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has been segmented based on product, type, and end user.

By Product, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into a cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.

By Types, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into cochlear implant system, and accessories & upgrades.

By End User, the Global Cochlear Implants Market has been segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, research & academic institutes, and others.

Regional Analysis:

The Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa are the key markets for cochlear implants. The Americas represent a significant market for cochlear implants owing to the presence of a vast patient population. Rising geriatric population, increasing demand for advanced treatment options and affordability are key factors determining the growth of the Americas market.Europe accounts for the second largest share of the global cochlear market. The Europe market is driven by strong government support, availability of funds for R&D activities and high expenditure on healthcare.

Asia Pacific follows Europe closely and is slated to be the fastest growing market over the forecast period. Rapid advancement in medical technology in the region and the presence of considerable patient pool in the region drives the market for cochlear implants. Also, improving reimbursement scenario, the growing need for better medical devices, and expanding expenditure on healthcare due to a rise in disposable income has created a conducive environment for the growth of the market. China and India are the key contributors to the APAC market.The MEA market accounts for the least share of the global cochlear implants market. Limited availability of medical facilities, poor economic conditions, and lack of awareness restricts the growth of the Africa market. Meanwhile, the well-developed economy in the Middle East offers growth opportunities for cochlear implants.

Competitive Landscape:

The notable players in the global cochlear implants market MED-El (Austria), Microson S.A. (Spain), Widex (Denmark), GAES MEDICA (Spain), Cochlear Ltd (Australia), William Demant Holding Group (Denmark), Advanced Bionics AG (Switzerland).

Industry Updates:

In August 2018, Advanced Bionics, a global leader in cochlear implants, announced FDA approval for its new HiRes Ultra 3D Cochlear Implant. The new cochlear implant is hassle-free and pain-free choice for patients and is equipped with a unique magnet technology.

In November 2018, researchers at Asan Medical Center (AMC) developed artificial intelligence (AI)-based prediction platform for cochlear implant surgery. The platform can provide rapid diagnoses, treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing loss.

Access Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cochlear-implants-market-5256

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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
Market Highlights

Factors such as the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and rising therapeutics demand are estimated to drive the market growth during the forecast period. Additionally, advancements in diagnostic and treatment technologies boost the market. However, low awareness and lack of healthcare services in the middle and low-income countries are estimated to restrain the market growth during the projected period.

also read @ https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/biobanking-market-growth-status-strategies-key-factors-comprehensive-analysis-competitive-landscape-and-forecast-2021-01-17

Biobanking Market Segmentation

The global biobanking market is segmented by products and services, sample type, storage type, application, and end-user.

On the basis of products and services, the biobanking market is segmented into equipment, services, consumables, and software. Equipment is further sub-segmented into sample transport equipment, sample processing equipment, storage equipment, sample analysis equipment, and others. Consumables are further sub-segmented into processing consumables, storage consumables, analysis consumables, collection consumables, and others. Services are sub-segmented into processing services, storage services, transport services, and supply services.

By sample type, the biobanking market is segmented into biological fluids, blood products, cell lines, human tissues, nucleic acids, and others.

Based on storage type the biobanking market is segmented into manual storage and automated storage. Applications of the market include life science research, regenerative medicine, and clinical research.

By end-user, the Biobanking Market Growth is segmented into research centers, hospitals, diagnostic laboratory, and others.

Biobanking Market Regional Analysis

Based on region the biobanking market is segmented into Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). The Americas region is segmented into North America and South America.

The Americas is the largest biobanking market due to heavy investments in research of theranostics and a large patient pool suffering from chronic diseases. Presence of large number of biobanks in hospitals in the U.S. can encourage growth in North America. On the other hand, South America can grow at a rapid pace due to increasing demand for advanced treatments for chronic diseases and technologically advanced diagnostic devices.

Europe can also exhibit a stellar growth rate during the forecast period due to emphasis on research and development activities in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Collaboration between biobanks and pharmaceutical companies for encouraging research can drive the global biobanking market growth. On the other hand, APAC can be lucrative for the global biobanking market due to inclination towards drug discovery and scientific research.

Biobanking Market Competition Outlook

Tecan Trading AG, Qiagen N.V., Brooks Automation, Inc., VWR Corporation, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Promega Corporation, Hamilton Company, Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd., Greiner Holding AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Chart Industries, Inc., Merck KGaA, and others are notable players of the global biobanking market.

Browse More Details at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/biobanking-market-5967

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Biobanking Industry News

The Manchester Cancer Research Center biobank collects ovarian cysts samples from women afflicted with the disease. This sample can be used in the testing of new drugs and its efficacy for its future commercialization.

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Market Highlights

Global Epilepsy Devices Market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.56% during the forecast period and is expected to hit USD 551.2 Million by 2027.

In epilepsy, the brain activity becomes abnormal, resulting in seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness. Although it could affect anybody irrespective of age and gender, its prevalence is significant and continuously increasing in the geriatric population.

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Epilepsy Research, UK (ERUK) launched a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) Grant Scheme with the aim of capacity building of the UK epilepsy research environment. ERUK is currently inviting applications from research institutes to apply for multiple linked Ph.D. studentships to commence 2021-2023. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the USS National Institutes of Health, had appropriated USD 154 million in 2017 for research on epilepsy. The appropriation rose to USD 188 million in 2019 and is estimated to reach USD 203 million by 2020. The notable studies and research institutes that NINDS has funded include The Epilepsy 4000 (Epi4K), The Center for SUDEP Research (CSR), The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy (EpiBiosS4Rx), The Channelopathy-Associated Epilepsy Research Center (CAERC), and The Epilepsy Multiplatform Variant Prediction (EpiMVP). The Epilepsy Foundation awarded USD 200,000 to two of the finalists who competed in the 9th Annual Shark Tank Competition on August 27 at the 2020 Epilepsy Pipeline Conference, Maryland, US. This included a grant of USD 125,000 to a researcher for a medical-grade smart-mattress device known as Chorus to reposition individuals and stimulate them post-seizure to prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Similarly, National Institute for Health Researchs (UK) Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation (RIGHT) program has awarded USD 6.6 million to fund a project investigating epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa in February 2020.

Segment Analysis

Global Epilepsy Devices Market has been segmented based on Product Type, Technology, Seizure Detection and Prediction Devices, and End Use.

On the basis of product type, the global epilepsy devices market is segmented into wearable devices, conventional devices, and implantable devices. The wearable devices segment is further segmented into watches, bracelets, camera devices, mattress devices, anti-suffocation pillows, and others.

On the basis of technology, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as vagus nerve stimulation, responsive neurostimulation, deep brain stimulation and accelerometry.

On the basis of seizure detection and prediction devices, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as seizure detection and prediction devices, electroencephalogram, intracranial EEG, surface electromyography, electrodermal activity, electrocardiography, video detection systems, implanted advisory systems, and others.

On the basis of end use, the global epilepsy devices market has been classified as hospitals & clinics, neurology centers, home care settings, and others.

Regional Analysis

Global Epilepsy Devices Market, based on region, has been divided into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas accounted for a larger share of the global epilepsy devices market. The large share is majorly attributed to the presence of key device manufacturers, increasing adoption of innovative software for detection of seizures, technological advancements, and high disposable income. Boost in the research funding in the European region, rising government initiatives, increasing number of patients suffering from epilepsy, an increasing number of manufacturers, improving economies, high disposable income per individual, and increased healthcare spending are resulting in the high the growth of the market in this region. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to grow at a lucrative CAGR over the forecast period. A study funded by the Global Health Department of Sanofi and Grand Challenges Canada (grant number 032504) found that epilepsy affects more than 50 million people worldwide, 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). n Southeast Asia, the prevalence was moderate (6%). Around 1012 million people with epilepsy reside in India. A significant number of patients do not receive appropriate treatment, leading to a large treatment gap. A high prevalence and incidence of epilepsy has been reported in onchocerciasis-endemic regions in Central and East Africa. There is compelling epidemiological evidence suggesting that this high burden is caused by onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy (OAE).

Key Players

MRFR recognizes the following companies as the Key Players in the Global Epilepsy Devices Market Boston Scientific Corporation, Medpage Ltd (Easylink UK), Cerbomed GmbH (TVNS Technologies GmbH), Liva Nova (Cyberonics), Compumedics, Nihon Kohden, MC10, Empatica, Inc, Medtronic Plc, Neuropace, Inc, and Natus Medical Incorporated.

Browse Full Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/epilepsy-devices-market-10427

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HONG KONG, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hong Kong famous musician Joanus Lam's single music NFT auctioned 520 ETH at Openlake (https://openlake.io), which was about US$1.2 million. It is the world's highest record for a single music NFT. The world record-breaking NFT transaction occurred in block 12729915, and the transaction hash is 0xd8cb40df37f5be9f3e472f2db24726eb62df20cb20c4ca206c100484e3a142d7. The music NFT collection "Traces of Love" is composed of 5 music DEMOs, namely "Too Late", "Share Happiness", "Broke Up", "I used to love you like this" and "Traces of Love". These music demos were created by Joanus LamA from 1995 to 2005 and have never been made public. The one sold this time is one of them. The collection ran through the peakA period of the Chinese music industry and has a very high collection value. Joanus Lam releases this collection as a salute to the NFT era. Joanus Lam was the director of music and artist in Gold Typhoon Group, one of the most successful independent music companies operating in the Greater China Region(China mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Gold Typhoon Group was acquired by Warner Music Group in 2014. As a well-known musician in Greater China Region, Joanus Lam started composing at the age of fourteen and entered the music industry with the Blackbox Orchestra in 1995. He has composed and produced more than 350 songs, including Eason Chan's "Stay with Me" and "My Happy Times",Leo Ku's "Fatal Trick", "Eyes Must Be Tears", "Diamond Queen", Jacky Cheung's "Illness Moaning", Twins' "Floating Swallows", Alex To's "Lover", Karen Mok's "Suddenly" ", Aaron Kwok's "Fate", etc. Openlake is the first NFT marketplace to integrate NFT with HLS streaming protocol and AES-128 to encrypt music and video content with secure streaming. It provides one-stop service for secure storage, encrypted playback, distribution and sales of music or video works. Openlake uses the smart contracts built into NFTs to help manage the rights for music. Publishing, authorship, reproduction, rental and performance rights are just some of the elements covered. Openlake also supports trickle-down rights management, where secondary creations have rights auto-generated by smart contracts.A But more than that, Openlake is giving users more control. By working around 3rd party streaming platforms, they are giving artists direct access to their fans. And since fans will reward good-quality music, this will help the music industry to start investing in itself again. NFT's involvement is a brave innovation for the music industry, and will provide a wider arena for new musicians entering the field. With the aids of NFT and other technologies such as AI and IoT, the music industry will be revitalized and even pushed to new heights.
Coronado, CA (92118)

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The total number of car thefts reported in Connecticut rose to about 6,200 in 2020, though the data have not been finalized, up from a historic low of 5,964 in 2019, Barones team found. The number of cars stolen annually in the state dropped precipitously since peaking in 1991, when 26,254 vehicles were taken, but began to rise again around 2013 with the emergence of keyless cars that have proven much easier to steal, Barone said.
Students do not know who the Title IX Coordinator is, where the Title IX office is located, and do not know where or how to make a report of sexual misconduct, the report said. TNG said Eastern should make it easier for students to report abuse and create a better system to not only document, but also track cases.
But some parents see that sort of analysis as a threat and have jumped on a fast-moving bandwagon that paints any mention of diversity or equity as part of a plot to insinuate Critical Race Theory into the culture. Critical Race Theory is actually a legal framework developed in the 1970s rooted in the notion that racism is systemic, intertwined in institutions of law and government. Though courses in critical race theory tend only to appear at the undergraduate or law school level, the concept has become a lightning rod in an expanding conflict over public education.
Restaurants in Hampton Roads have been struggling to hire wait and kitchen staff for months, and many of them blame the pandemic-related unemployment benefits for keeping people out of the workforce. But now the financial strain is causing restaurants to close their doors  sometimes for a couple days a week, others for months on end.
Jonathan McNamara, communications director for the Red Cross of Virginia, said the Food and Drug Administration allows the Red Cross to provide items of nominal value as a thank-you to donors. According to its online policy guide, the FDA requires blood from paid donors to be labeled as such but still allows the volunteer designation for blood from donors who receive incentives that cant readily be sold or converted to cash, including prize giveaways.
As a young man, Glenn joined a small company and over the next 25 years worked his way up to the top of the company, helping to grow it into a hugely successful enterprise that turned good businesses into great businesses, created tens of thousands of jobs, and funded the retirement pensions of police officers, firefighters, and teachers, said Youngkin spokesman Macaulay Porter. Under Glenns leadership, The Carlyle Group employed nearly 2,000 people and managed assets totaling nearly four times the size of Virginias yearly budget.
Since then, Boone has become chief, and he has spoken little about gangs. In 2017, he told The Pilot there were only two or three active gangs in the city, although the department never answered a follow-up question about how many inactive ones existed. Boone at the time declined to make anyone available from the departments gang unit to talk about gangs in the city. Mentioning them in the media, he said, gives them the attention they crave.
There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its 'Green Pass' scheme. (ANI Photo)

New Delhi: Nine European nations are accepting Covishield vaccines for travel to their countries, sources said on Thursday. Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are among the countries allowing travel by people who have taken Covishield vaccines, the sources said.

They said Switzerland is also accepting Covishield as a Schengen state. Separately, Estonia has confirmed that it will recognise all vaccines authorised by the government of India for the travel of Indians to that country, the sources said.

India has already asked the EU member countries to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken Covishield and Covaxin vaccines and want to travel to Europe.

The European Union's Digital Covid certificate or "Green Pass" is coming into effect on Thursday with an aim to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under this framework, persons who have taken vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU region.

The individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or those recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

There have been apprehensions in India that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its 'Green Pass' scheme.

The EU Digital Covid certificate or 'Green Pass' will be mandatory to travel to European countries and the document will serve as proof that a person is vaccinated against COVID-19.

An EU official on Tuesday said individual member states of the European Union will have the option to accept vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) like Covishield for obtaining the bloc's digital Covid certificate.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday took up the issue of inclusion of Covishield in the EU digital Covid certificate scheme during a meeting with Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Italy.
The comments by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad follow accusations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that Twitter Inc had violated rules requiring it to appoint new compliance officers. (PTI file photo)

New Delhi: India's technology minister said on Wednesday that U.S. social media giants must obey the laws of his country, where they are doing brisk business.

The comments by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad follow accusations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) had violated rules requiring it to appoint new compliance officers.

"You operate in India, you make good money in India ... but you will take the position that 'I will only be governed by laws of America' ... This is plainly not acceptable," Prasad said during the India Global Forum 2021 event.

"You have to be accountable to India's constitution and India's laws."

The minister also objected to a recent brief block imposed by Twitter on his account for a tweet he issued years ago, as it violated U.S. laws, saying the platform must then also obey Indian laws.

Industry executives say India's tussle with Twitter, coupled with discontent over increasing regulatory scrutiny of other U.S. digital giants such as Facebook's WhatsApp and Amazon (AMZN.O), has soured the business environment in a growth market.

WhatsApp has 530 million users while Facebook has 410 million in India - their top market by users globally, while Twitter has 18 million users.

As acrimony grows with Indian authorities, Twitter faces at least five police cases in different states. Its non-compliance with new rules raised suggestions that Twitter may no longer enjoy legal protection in India over content posted by users. read more

On Wednesday, an Indian state challenged in the Supreme Court a bar on police action against Twitter's country head, Manish Maheshwari, after a lower court protected him against arrest over an accusation that the platform had been used to spread hate.

Police in Uttar Pradesh, ruled by Modi's party, issued a summons this month to Maheshwari over a video that they said had incited "hate and enmity" between Hindu and Muslim communities. read more

Twitter and police in Uttar Pradesh declined to comment. Maheshwari did not respond.

When Maheshwari approached the lower court, he argued that the investigation concerned content on the Twitter platform, which is run by Twitter Inc, a company "incorporated under the laws of the United States of America," according to a court filing seen by Reuters but not made public.

Twitter's Indian unit had no role in "operation and management of the said platform", the filing added.

The Uttar Pradesh case concerns the spread of a video in which some apparently Hindu men beat an elderly man, believed to be a Muslim, and cut his beard.

Other cases arose from complaints that some politically sensitive regions were depicted as outside India in a map on Twitter's careers website, or that child pornography was visible on its platform.

Twitter has not commented on the map cases. On Tuesday, it said it had a policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation of children.
Narayan said the date of opening of offline classes depends on the success of this vaccination drive and the government is ready to extend all cooperation in this regard. (AFP Photo)

Bengaluru: Setting a deadline of July 7 to vaccinate all students above 18 years to facilitate reopening of colleges and resume physical classes, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan asked the vice chancellors of universities to speed up vaccination. "Students have to be vaccinated by July 7 as per the schedule of the vaccine drive and the VCs should try to ensure vaccination of all students by the said date and if required this could be extended by two to three days," Narayan, who holds the higher education portfolio, told the vice chancellors during a virtual meet.

He told them that the students are being vaccinated as a priority group to facilitate the opening of physical classes of higher education classes.

Narayan said the date of opening of offline classes depends on the success of this vaccination drive and the government is ready to extend all cooperation in this regard.

The DCM also instructed the VCs to work towards the implementation of national educational policy.

Colleges have been shut since the second wave of COVID-19 hit the state in March.
Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said the Centre had allotted 25.5 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers quota to Telangana for kharif of which 8.38 lakh metric tonnes including 4.35 lakh metric tonnes of urea stocks were available in the state at present. (AFP Photo)

Hyderabad: About 25 percent of targeted crop sown area for kharif season (June-September) has been achieved in June with the state receiving 50 percent excess rainfall this month. According to an IMD report, the normal rainfall in the state for June should be 130 mm, but the state received 194.55 mm from June 1 to 30, which is in excess of 50 per cent. In June last year, the state received rainfall of 171.66 mm.

While Adilabad district received the highest rainfall of 318.77 mm, Wanaparthy district got the lowest rainfall of 76.8 mm. Out of total 33 districts, six districts - Mancherial, Nirmal, Kothagudem, Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Vikarabad  received normal rainfall, while the remaining 27 districts received excess rainfall.

The agriculture department has estimated total crop sown area of 141.12 lakh acres this kharif, of which crops were sown over an extent of 34.35 lakh acres in June amounting to 25 per cent of total estimated area. Cotton was sown in 26.05 lakh acres, red gram in 3.18 lakh acres and paddy in 96,000 acres. Green gram was sown in 50,000 acres and maize in one lakh acres.

This apart, vegetables and leafy vegetables were sown in 87,000 acres. Horticulture crops have been sown in 5.70 lakh acres.

The government has asked farmers to reduce paddy cultivation in kharif and opt for cotton and red gram crops instead. Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said the Centre had allotted 25.5 lakh metric tonnes of fertilisers quota to Telangana for kharif of which 8.38 lakh metric tonnes including 4.35 lakh metric tonnes of urea stocks were available in the state at present.

He said the special task forces constituted by the state government to check sale of spurious seeds had been conducting raids across the state and booked 325 criminal cases and arrested 518 people so far. They seized 11,848 quintals of spurious seeds and stopped sales of 23,720 quintals of spurious seeds worth Rs 78 crore.
Kerala has the best single window clearance system for industries in southern India. (Photo: PTI/File)

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government would be coming out with a second package for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under which Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) would be giving loans at 5 per cent interest, besides an additional three-month waiver on repayments after the existing moratorium ends, Industries Minister P Rajeev, said on Thursday.

Under the package some of the focus groups would be women, especially widows, youth and pravasis returning to India, the minister told a meet-the-press programme organised here.

The government also intends to promote in a big way the industries unique to Kerala, like agro-based and fish processing, he said.

The minister also highlighted the steps taken by the LDF government for completing various "flagship projects", including the Kochi-Bangalore industrial corridor, announced and launched by the previous administration in a timely manner.

A monitoring mechanism has been put in place for all these projects and evaluation meetings have been held in respect of each and they were all proceeding speedily, he said.

With regard to the land acquisition forthe Kochi- Bangalore industrial corridor, the minister said it was expected to be completed by December this year and a web portal would be set up to identify the work that has to be done by each department or local authority to monitor their progress.

The other focus areas of the state government were setting up a paper and allied products companies, an electronics hardware park at Amballoor in Ernakulam here and strengthening the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries in view of the prevailing situation.

Rajeev said that an expert committee has been constituted to study the paper mill industry at Karur in Tamil Nadu before setting up such a company in Kerala for which Hindustan Newsprint Limited (HNL) has already been taken over.

For the electronics hardware park at Amballoor, he said that around 80 acres of land has been identified and as the rest was wet land, a committee wasset up to examine if it can be used for setting up the project.

If the committee's report was favourable, then the project would be completed in three years,he added.

On strengthening the pharma and medical equipment industries, he said the government would first examine the quantity of drugs being produced in the state presently and how the numbers can be augmented.

Initial studies have been conducted with regard to manufacture of cancer treatment drugs in the state.

A statutory redressal mechanism would also be set up to address grievances and claimed that according to FICCI, Kerala has the best single window clearance system for industries in southern India.
It is only upon the failure of the executive to act and thereupon, the Court perceiving the matter to be a danger to society, ought to step in. (PTI Photo)

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to direct the authorities concerned to ban all on-line and off-line video games, which are allegedly spoiling the school going children. There is no doubt children and young adults these days were addicted to their phones and laptops and their world appears to revolve around these gadgets.

But the courts cannot pass any such ban order at present, the first bench said. It is the policy matter to be looked into by the appropriate governments in the State or the Centre, the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said while disposing of a PIL petition from city advocate E Martin Jayakumar.

The bench said constitutional courts should be slow in entering into such areas and dealing with such matters on the personal sense of morality of the individual complainant or of the judge or judges concerned.

There is no doubt when there is some illegal action or something which is detrimental to larger public interest, constitutional courts intervene; but in the matters of the present kind, especially when elected governments are in place, such matters of policy should be left to the wisdom of those representing the people and having their mandate instead of the Court issuing a diktat.

It is only upon the failure of the executive to act and thereupon, the Court perceiving the matter to be a danger to society, ought to step in.

The bench directed the petitioner to send within four weeks, representations to the Centre through the Ministry of Women and Child Development and to the State government through the department perceived to be most appropriate by the petitioner.

The authorities concerned should give their due consideration to the matter and indicate their stand to the petitioner within eight weeks thereafter, the bench said.

The intricacies of the menace that the petitioner complains of and the larger or long-time effects these online games have on children and young adults have not been gone into in any great detail in the present proceedings, particularly in the absence of any scientific material in such regard, the bench said.

Nothing in this order will prevent further complaints in being carried even to this court if appropriate executive action thereon is not forthcoming, it said.

According to the petitioner, mobile phones have completely taken over people's lives and even children and minors crave for and obtain mobile phones.

Many children and young adults are hooked to online games and have become addicts. The addiction would be devastating and life-threatening in the sense that it destroys the career-building phase of a young adult and may even lead to suicidal tendencies, the petitioner contended.
BJP workers show a sword on a damaged vehicle after clash with farmers protesting against three farm laws, at Ghazipur border in New Delhi, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: A scuffle broke out between some local BJP workers and the protesting farmers at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur on Wednesday. Later, the BJP men held a protest near the office of the local police chief, demanding that immediate action be taken against the farmers who have been blocking the highway since November last year.

The farmers objected when they saw the BJP men, carrying party flags, gathering at the protest site at around noon. They showed black flags to the BJP men, setting off an altercation which turned violent. Stones were thrown and the BJP leaders car was allegedly attacked.

The ruckus took place as BJP workers were taking out a procession on a flyway where the farm law protesters, chiefly supporters of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, have been camping. As the two sides came near each other on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway at around 12 noon, a scuffle broke out and they fought with sticks, which led to some injuries. Videos and pictures surfaced on the social media, purportedly showing some damaged vehicles that were part of a cavalcade of a BJP politician, Amit Valmiki, who was on his way to Bulandshahr.

The farmers leaders, however, alleged that the episode was yet another conspiracy by the government to quell their protests against the three controversial farm laws and to give them a bad name.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, meanwhile, reiterated on Wednesday that the protesting farmers unions should not be adamant on the repeal of the new farm laws, adding that making it a precondition for talks with the government does not serve any purpose.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha spokesman Jagtar Singh Bajwa claimed that the farmers at the Ghazipur border had asked the district administration and government officials to remove the party workers as they were creating a ruckus on the pretext of a rally. They misbehaved with the farmers and damaged their own vehicles as part of a conspiracy. This conspiracy is not going to succeed as such tactics to end the farmers protest have been used in the past too, Mr Bajwa said.

We are going to lodge a complaint with the police on todays incident, and if no action is taken, we shall plan our strategy accordingly, he said. We condemn the ruckus created by the BJP workers, Mr Bajwa said, adding that such tactics wont work as the farmers stir has been peaceful for the last seven months and will continue to be so in the future.

An investigation is in progress, the police said.

Mr Khattar also said that only a handful of people were opposing the farm laws, and that ordinary farmers are happy. He added: Those spearheading the agitation are in reality not farmers. The real farmers have no objection to the farm laws, they are happy. He said those who are opposing the farm laws are doing so for political reasons.

Their Punjab team is doing so as polls are approaching there. But there are no polls due in our state. Here the agenda is to defame the government, using the political angle. The Congress is also supporting them in doing this, Mr Khattar claimed.

The Haryana CM said the word kisan (farmer) is a sacred one, but some incidents like the alleged sexual exploitation of a West Bengal woman at the Tikri border last month have prompted people to raise questions.
Nagarjuna Sagar closed, not allowing public to pass by due to the tension between the irrigation departments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Thursday. (Photo:DC)

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has stepped up security at all irrigation projects over Krishna anticipating protests and attacks from political parties and farmers in Andhra Pradesh against generation of hydel power by TS Genco.

Heavy police force was deployed at Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Pulichintala and Jurala projects on Thursday. The AP government too deployed police at Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam, the joint projects of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The Telangana government has deployed hundreds of policemen for the safety and security of hydel power stations and TS Genco staff working in all projects for power generation. The police are working in three shifts round-the-clock.

The situation at Nagarjunasagar dam was like a war zone on Thursday with the Telangana and the AP governments deploying hundreds of policemen on either side of the borders.

Telangana police inspected every vehicle passing from AP to Telangana at the border. Tension prevailed for some time when AP irrigation officials tried to meet TS Genco officials at Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam and Pulichintala to submit representation seeking stoppage of hydel power generation.

TS Genco officials refused to meet them. With this, TS police obstructed them leading to heated arguments from both sides. Left with no option, they submitted representation to the police and left.

However, AP officials could submit representation to TS officials at Pulichintala.

The Telangana police blocked roads leading to Jurala dam in Mahbubnagar district for a few hours in the morning leading to traffic jams for a few hours.

Meanwhile, the TS Genco continued hydel power generation on a full scale at all projects over Krishna on Thursday as per the directions of the state government despite heightened tensions between both the states over Krishna water sharing.
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FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2021, file photo, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla. A billionaire Republican donor is paying $1 million to help defray the cost of deploying the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S. -Mexico border. The amount of the donation was confirmed Wednesday by Gov. Kristi Noem's office.
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Fort Hood, TX (76544)

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Thunderstorms likely. High 83F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

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This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Our correspondents from the area reported that a member of the Damascus government forces called "Ahmed Jamal Tabani, a 39-year-old from the city of Aleppo," was killed last night as a result of the intense artillery and missile shelling of the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries, which targeted the village of Arida in the western Gire Spi countryside.

It is noteworthy that the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries launched intensive attacks last night with heavy weapons, targeting all villages on the contact lines in the western countryside of Gire Spi, most of which are stationed by Syrian government forces.

J.O

ANHA
Korea Investment Corp. (KIC) CEO Jin Seoung-ho speaks during a press conference at KIC headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of KIC



Sovereign wealth fund doubtful about cryptocurrency investments



By Park Jae-hyuk



Korea Investment Corp. (KIC) CEO Jin Seoung-ho expressed his skepticism of a proposal from Rep. Park Yong-jin of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), one of the ruling party's presidential candidates, to establish a "Korean version of Temasek" by integrating the sovereign wealth fund and the National Pension Service (NPS) Investment Management.



"The kind of assets under our management and our investment targets are different from those of the NPS. It seems unfeasible at this moment," he said during a press conference held Thursday to celebrate his appointment to the job in May and the 16th anniversary of KIC. "We can consider joint investments and different kinds of cooperation with the NPS instead."



The CEO also refused an offer made by Korea Development Bank (KDB) Chairman Lee Dong-gull last month to make KIC one of the state-run bank's subsidiaries for future-oriented investments.



"I think his intention was to seek support from KIC for Korean companies' strategic investments overseas," Jin said. "We can discuss ways to help Korean firms when they make investments in other countries."



He also said KIC is not considering investing in cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, despite the recent trend of global institutional investors including virtual assets in their portfolios.



"Because we are a sovereign wealth fund managing the government's foreign currency reserves, we should pursue relatively stable investments compared to private companies," he said.



Aims to rank among leading sovereign wealth funds



During the press conference, the CEO outlined KIC's growth strategies to become one of the world's top 10 sovereign wealth funds.



"We will secure a sizable amount of assets to vie with major sovereign wealth funds worldwide," he said. "After checking our current asset portfolio, we will boost our profitability through aggressive long-term, diversified investments."



Founded in 2005 for the purposes of increasing the nation's sovereign wealth and contributing to the financial industry, KIC is currently the 15th-largest sovereign wealth fund globally in terms assets under management (AUM). As of the end of 2020, its AUM totaled $183.1 billion won.



Jin promised KIC will continue to increase the proportion of alternative investments for long-term profitability and risk diversification.



In particular, its San Francisco office that opened in March will play a key role in investments in promising startups there, which have technologies for robotics, healthcare, self-driving technology and new renewable energies, according to the CEO.



He noted that KIC will reinforce its overseas offices and build networks with various institutions around the world to cope with the changing market environment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasized the necessity of using artificial intelligence, big data and experts in innovative technologies to manage KIC's assets.



Amid the growing importance of investments considering environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles, the CEO vowed to make more efforts for socially responsible investments. KIC plans to introduce a new system during the second half of this year to measure the possible risks from carbon dependency and climate change.



In order to contribute to the nation's financial industry, the institution is also pushing ahead with establishing an international finance academy intended to foster and train global financial specialists.



"After adopting ethical and transparent management as our basic principle, we have tried hard to inspire all employees to have a sense of ethics," Jin said. "We will continue to manage our assets transparently."


Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Eun Sung-soo speaks during the National Policy Committee meeting at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap



By Lee Kyung-min



Banks should ensure that their virtual currency exchange clients have anti-money laundering safeguards in place, as one of their key responsibilities to screen and monitor for irregularities concerning the operators of digital assets, the country's top financial regulator said Thursday.



"The responsibility falls on banks first and foremost to detect any irregularities of crypto exchanges, including conducting anti-money laundering activities," Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Eun Sung-soo said during the National Policy Committee meeting at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul.



The comments seek to divert criticism that the FSC is refusing to take full responsibility for cryptocurrency regulation and monitoring, amid the rapid surge in popularity of digital currencies, especially among young people.



Many frame the issue as Eun and the FSC forcing banks to do most of the legwork, and thereby altogether postponing or refusing to take responsibility and step in.



But banks bear the primary responsibility for identifying what could later become suspicious financial transactions, as evidenced by them having to report bank transfers of over 10 million won to the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), he said.



"Banks are aware that they are to maintain extreme caution because of severe penalties, a practice shared by banks around the world. Banks should allow exchanges to open real-name accounts, only if they judge they can withstand the possible consequences. If they think the risks are beyond their capacity, they should not be in the business of banking."



The comments are in line with a previously outlined policy, in which banks are to identify high-risk clients, as well as strengthen financial transaction monitoring and user ID verification procedures.



This guideline is a regulatory action seeking to protect customers against fraud and allow them to recover their investments, in the event that some exchanges become disqualified to run and are shut down.



Currently, operators can set up exchanges without major regulatory hurdles such as user ID verification responsibilities and real name-based exchange accounts.



Exchange operators seeking to keep running will have to submit a request for a license by Sept. 24, after which the intelligence unit will begin a three-month review of their trading activities.



Eun denied that the financial policy regulator is reviewing ways to limit crypto management responsibilities for banks. A coalition of banks had submitted a request for a rule that exempts them from punishment in cases of financial crimes with no premeditation at play.



"I have never had a conversation regarding the issue, nor have I heard about the said exemption rule," he said.


JW Marriott Hotel Seoul serves the "Sea Breeze Afternoon Tea Set," a summer resort-themed selection of homemade desserts and savory dishes, until Aug. 31. Courtesy of JW Marriott Hotel Seoul



By Jun Ji-hye



Luxury hotels here have created a selection of summer-themed afternoon tea sets to offer visitors refreshment amid the hot and humid weather.



These afternoon tea sets deliver gastronomic and aesthetic pleasures at once, through a combination of cute desserts designed to evoke a summer resort ambience and savory items offering light meal alternatives.



The Lounge, located in the eighth-floor reception lobby at JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, is serving the "Sea Breeze Afternoon Tea Set," a selection of homemade desserts and savory dishes inspired by a summer resort, until Aug. 31.



Nine desserts include berry mousse cake, chocolate baskets and seaside muffin cake, with all desserts coming in different shapes and flavors, conjuring the colorful ambience of a holiday resort.



The dessert selection is complemented by nine savory items offering light meal alternatives, including lobster roll and French toast.



Sheraton Seoul D-Cube City Hotel is serving the "Afternoon Tea Set  Holiday Edition" until Aug. 29 at its lobby lounge bar, featuring a three-tier dessert tower that includes lemon pound cake, bacon and spinach quiche and scones.





Sheraton Seoul D-Cube City Hotel presents the "Afternoon Tea Set  Holiday Edition" until Aug. 29, offering a three-tier dessert tower. Courtesy of Sheraton Seoul D-Cube City Hotel



Guests choosing the afternoon tea set are presented a cooling welcome drink made with sweet, tangy white grapes.



The afternoon tea set is served on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.



Andaz Seoul Gangnam has launched the "Andaz Afternoon Tea Set" featuring desserts, finger food and unlimited servings of coffee or tea, at its second-floor Jogakbo Bites & Wine bar.



Featuring a variety of colors and textures, the set is served in a unique package modeled after an actor's makeup case and accompanied by dry ice, creating a novel experience from the moment of delivery.



The package also includes three illustrations on the themes of Seoul's nature and travel, created in collaboration with artist Jeon Ye-ji.



InterContinental Seoul COEX is serving the "Apple Mango Afternoon Tea Set" in its first-floor Lobby Lounge until the end of August.



The set comprises a selection of desserts celebrating the flavors of apple mango, and scones with three varieties of jam by Korean master Kim Dong-u in addition to a choice of tea or coffee.



The afternoon tea set menu is also available to go, offering ideal options for home parties.



Fairmont Ambassador Seoul's first-floor Atrium Lounge is presenting the "Bee High Tea Set" until July 31. The menu features desserts crafted from sustainably produced Korean honey, including honey chocolate flowerpots, plus savory items such as smoked salmon caviar brioche.



A choice of coffee and tea beverages combining a seasonal immune system boost are also offered.



The afternoon tea set marks the launch of Fairmont Ambassador Seoul's Bee Sustainable program, a key element of Fairmont's environmental conservation campaign, and embodies a message of the importance of bees in maintaining healthy ecosystems.



Novotel Ambassador Seoul Gangnam has unveiled the "Tropical and Afternoon Tea Set," featuring 13 desserts crafted from tropical grapefruit, mango, melon and pineapple, including sweet mango panna cotta.



Guests are also offered a choice of tropical teas by premium tea brand Ronnefeldt and tropical smoothies. The set is available daily from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. until Aug. 31.



In Busan, the Lounge at Park Hyatt Busan is offering the limited-edition "Summer Afternoon Sea Set," a selection of desserts expressing the various sights of the Busan coast, from the depths of the sea to the surface and mist.



The afternoon sea set describes Korea's iconic summer destination Haeundae Beach and Park Hyatt Busan, shrouded in thick sea mist, through desserts and savory items.



The set is served daily from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.





Park Hyatt Busan offers the "Summer Afternoon Sea Set," a selection of desserts expressing the various sights of the Busan coast. Courtesy of Park Hyatt Busan




South Korea signed a "travel bubble" deal with Saipan on Wednesday to exempt fully vaccinated people from mandatory quarantine upon entry into each other's territory.







Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is the first partner of South Korea's travel bubble initiative announced in early June.







The agreement was signed in a ceremony here by Seoul's vice transport minister Hwang Seong-kyu and Saipan's governor Ralph Torres. It is expected to take effect in late July or early August after relevant preparations.







Under the agreement, visitors are required to receive full COVID-19 vaccinations, authorized by their health authorities at least two weeks ahead of trips.







They also have to carry official certificates of vaccine shots and submit documents showing the negative result of a coronavirus test conducted within 72 hours prior to departure.







Only those on group trips arranged by travel agencies can benefit from the agreement. (Yonhap)


"Meet me" offers various routine tasks including home decorating and running / Courtesy of meet me



By Lee Gyu-lee



A working mom stumbled across a website that offers a program that requires her to devote 40 minutes of her time every morning to follow a set of self-development tasks. A friend introduced her to the platform, called "meet me," after seeing her struggling to balance work and family life. The online program invites participants to set aside 20 minutes to keep a journal and another 20 minutes to work out right after getting up in the morning.



"She didn't look so happy at first because it's hard for working moms to have their own time. But (after the program), she told me that this allowed her to dedicate 40 minutes of her morning to fully focus on herself," Lee Yong-bok, CMO and one of the three co-founders of the lifestyle startup "meet me" said during an interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday, at the company's facility in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul.



The concept of a "ritual lifestyle," or committing oneself to a specific task or activity in day-to-day life, has been growing in popularity, especially among the MZ generation  born between 1980 to the early 2000s.



The three co-founders and former co-workers at the vacation rental platform Airbnb  Son Ha-bin, 37, Kim Eun-ji, 35, and Lee, 32  strive to use ritual to guide people on a journey to find their true self by making small changes in their daily routines.



"When you get through just a few questions with someone, you realize not a lot of people know themselves well," Son, co-founder and CEO, said. "Not many people can answer me when I ask if they are fully satisfied with their life and why and how they are not satisfied."





Co-founders of "meet me," a self-development service startup, Lee Yong-bok, from left, Son Ha-bin and Kim Eun-ji pose for a photo. Courtesy of meet me



Under the slogan, "nice to meet me," the company offers various ritual lifestyle programs ranging from yoga, running and home decorating to writing journals after listening to music or writing lyrics, along with counseling or therapy programs.



Before opening its own space called "meet me home" this May, it mostly operated online programs. The company now has about 50 offline and online programs and attracted about 3,000 users since it started in August last year.



"Therapies help you figure out your trauma and get to know yourself, but if you can't keep that attitude in your daily life, it's pointless. So we came up with programs that will help us to look into ourselves through our daily routines, like eating, reading and doing physical activities," Kim, co-founder and CSO, said.





Yoga studio space at "meet me home," located in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul / Courtesy of meet me



Each ritual program runs for a certain period, usually four weeks. Every day, the users complete the ritual at a given part of a day. The crucial part is to reflect on oneself and focus on emotion while doing the activity. Then, the users freely share their thoughts or personal stories with the rest of the group.



"Anything can be a ritual program. There are a lot of ways to find and meet me, other than therapy. It can be listening to music, meditating, other therapeutic activities or writing," Kim noted. "There's no answer. It's only important that we figure out our needs and desires to steer in that direction as we live our lives, so we try to share different ways to help people do that."



One might say the programs it offers are no different than other social gathering communities based on hobbies or interests. But the co-founders emphasized that the rituals are different from hobbies, because they go a step further than just physically doing the activities.



"Ritual is a way to take care of yourself every day. For example, listening to music is a hobby, but when you write down what comes to your mind while listening, it becomes a ritual," Son said. She added that a ritual is about putting oneself at the center of those activities. "Hobbies can be used as a sidestep like watching TV to get your mind off of things that give you a hard time. It can make you feel good at that moment, which isn't bad. But it's also not going to solve your problem."





A "ritual maker" of the aroma meditation program at meet me / Courtesy of meet me



The co-founders explained that their common backgrounds and experience at their previous job helped them come up with the idea to start this business.



Kim, who was the head of Airbnb's Seoul office, said she went through her own soul-searching phase during her 20s.



"I've lived up to other people's expectations like I felt like I would be a failure if I don't get a job at some large corporation. But in my mid-20s, I was doing everything that my parents told me would make me happy, but I wasn't," she said. That's when she had an epiphany to quit her job at a big-name petrochemical company and go on an adventure.



"I've tried a lot of things, like getting counseling and going on trips overseas for programs to learn how to live happily," she said, adding that she also has freelanced and worked at social ventures, and ran her own business before working for Airbnb.



"Airbnb's corporate culture encourages and respects diversity, and after working there for a while we got to know each other very well and I also had a chance to think about how I want to build my future," Kim said.





Interior of a meet me home office / Courtesy of meet me



And as Airbnb's business took off in Korea and its office grew into an established corporation, the co-founders started to feel the need to find their own project.



"As a business grows, it's inevitable and necessary to establish a functional process but I think there are different types of people an organization needs depending on its phase of growth, and we were fit for the starting stage: getting our hands on shaping the business," Son said.



And this led her to pitch her idea for "meet me" to her co-workers, Kim and Lee, and establish the startup together.



"I'm the type of person that really easily draws in influences. And when I'm in a positive environment (like Airbnb), the speed I take things in gets much faster, which made me realize the importance of a community," Son said. "And since I love making changes to myself, and other people I started to think about my next move to engage in life-changing work."



For Son, the life-changing experience is to go on a journey of self-discovery. She took this chance to create a community that has a positive influence.





A "ritual maker" of a ritual program that invites users to listen to music and write in a journal every day / Courtesy of meet me



Creating a warm, encouraging environment for users is one of the keys to running the platform. To do that, "ritual makers" are hand-picked by the company to lead each program and act as an inspiration among the group.



"We know having a daily routine like mediation, yoga or writing is good, but it's hard to keep it up by yourself. So we thought of how people can continue their daily rituals, and came up with the idea to create a community, led by a ritual maker," Kim said.



"This ritual maker, who has already been doing the ritual on their own, can inspire and lead others. Participants might hit a bump while trying to keep up, and when they do, ritual makers can encourage them  like a cheerleader  and get them through difficulties."



And the endless encouragement brings positive changes in the participants and gets them to be more engaged in the programs.



"A lot of positive feedback was about how they could follow along with the ritual routines with meet me, and about how we have such warm communities that make them want to come back," Son explained.





Ritual room at the meet me home / Courtesy of meet me



"(The program's) priority isn't on completing the tasks here, we try to focus on the fact we are taking part rather than focusing on what we didn't do. As we praise each other about even small things, that can lead them to do it again," Kim said. "We're all doing it for our own good, so it shouldn't come to feel like a burden or coercion."



Lee shared a story of a middle-aged man who joined her program, whose ritual is to walk 10,000 steps daily and share journals with the group. At first, he didn't take part at all, because he felt uncomfortable sharing his personal stories and how he felt that day, like other people in the group.



"So I told him he can just share the screenshot of his steps and nothing else, and he completed his task 100 percent the next week," she said. "And people cheered him on and applauded him even for the screenshots, which made him begin sharing his stories. He felt a sense of achievement and belonging in doing it together and started to show changes."



Although its membership is growing, based largely on word of mouth, the co-founders said most of the users are women in their 30s to 40s. To reach a wider range of platform users, the co-founders said they are focusing on two things: making ritual programs as accessible and simple, and as diverse as possible.





One of the two chefs who operates a kitchen on the second floor of meet me home / Courtesy of meet me



"If it is something special, it won't last, because most people live to have a busy lifestyle. So it has to be something that would make use of the free or remaining time of a day," Son said. "Not a lot of people even acknowledge the concept of knowing themselves. They don't know why they should, as if they are trying to avoid facing such topics we need to awaken our senses and be keen on learning about ourselves."



To promote interest in the platform, meet me is teaming up with different companies, from beer and cosmetic brands to event planning agencies.



"Ritual can be combined with any lifestyle-related thing, so we are getting offers to collaborate from all sorts of fields, which we have been carrying out together," Son said.



The company's newest addition "meet me home," which takes up four of the five stories of a building in Seongsu-dong, is another way to open up its doors and invite new users.





The rooftop area of the building offers a space for people to spend their time in relaxation. / Courtesy of meet me
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un / AP-Yonhap



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to elevate relations with China to a new strategic point as he sent a congratulatory message to Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, state media said Thursday.



In an apparent reference to the deepening Sino-U.S. rivalry, Kim also said in the message that "hostile forces" are engaged in "vicious slander and all-round pressure" upon China, but they can "never check the on-going advance of the Chinese people," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).



"Despite the complicated international situation, the two parties and the two countries, with firm faith in the justice of the socialist and communist cause, accelerate their advance toward a brighter future, tiding over difficulties and ordeals by dint of their militant friendship and bonds of kinship," Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.



"The WPK, by its firm unity with the CPC, would raise the DPRK-China friendship to a new strategic point as required by the times and as desired by the peoples of the two countries, and powerfully encourage the socialist construction... to vigorously advance despite any change of the situation and challenges," he added.






Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday, calling on the government to declare a state of emergency over North Korea's cyberterrorism campaign against South Korea. Yonhap



By Kang Seung-woo



Several major South Korean facilities have fallen victim to cyberattacks originating from North Korea in recent months, as the reclusive state has been ramping up its cyberterrorism campaign against its southern neighbor.



According to relevant organizations and Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) was attacked in May, followed by attacks on Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME).



KAERI is a government-funded research institute in charge of developing nuclear technology, and KAI is the nation's sole aircraft manufacturer, while DSME is a major shipbuilder specializing in the construction of submarines and other naval vessels.



Some of the cyberattackers' online addresses were traced back to the servers of "kimsuky," a North Korean advanced persistent threat group.



KAI appears to have had its system compromised twice this year by unidentified entities, and "a large quantity of documents" seems to have been leaked, confirmed by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) which handles national arms procurement.



Making the situation worse, some say the breached data might include sensitive information about major defense items, such as the KF-21 fighter jet development project, FA-50 light combat aircraft, unmanned aircraft and radar.



"As there have been suspected cyberattacks, we requested a police investigation on Monday. We will fully cooperate with investigators to reveal the facts," KAI said in a statement, Wednesday, without elaborating further.



In terms of cases regarding the KAERI and KAI, they were attacked through a VPN system vulnerability, according to Ha.



"If the country's nuclear power and other key technologies have been leaked, it could become a massive security breach following Pyongyang's infiltration of Seoul's military cyber command in 2016," Ha said.



The opposition lawmaker claimed that a series of cyberattacks, especially regarding the KAI case, had to do with the United States.



"The North Korean cyberattacks targeted core technologies of a nuclear-powered submarine, which could directly threaten the U.S.," Ha said.



The lawmaker also said the North's cyberterrorism may develop into a diplomatic issue, given that KAI is connected with U.S. defense companies, which could place them in jeopardy.



"Before it evolves into a diplomatic issue between allies, South Korea and the U.S. need to hold a cybersecurity meeting," Ha said.



KAI and U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin jointly developed the T-50A trainer aircraft.



In the wake of the cyberterrorism campaign, Ha urged the government to declare a state of emergency and take actions to deal with it.



"First, Cheong Wa Dae needs to convene a National Security Council meeting to call for a pan-government all-out way to deal with the cyberattacks," he said.



The lawmaker also said South Korea and the U.S. need to handle the issue jointly, while urging President Moon Jae-in to hold National intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won responsible for not stopping the cyberattacks.


This photo disclosed by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government on Oct. 2, 2019, shows surveillance camera footage of an operating room at the Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center's Ansung Hospital. Courtesy of Gyeonggi Provincial Government



By Lee Hyo-jin



The continuing debate over the need to have surveillance cameras inside hospital operating rooms has resurfaced after a series of alleged medical malpractice cases during surgery made headlines recently.



In May, a hospital in Incheon west of Seoul, specializing in spinal surgery was found to have allegedly allowed administrative staff to perform surgical procedures such as incisions and sutures.



In early June, a hospital in Gwangju specializing in spinal procedures made it on the news after a whistleblower employee reported to police that nurses, who weren't qualified as medical practitioners, routinely performed surgery there in 2018.



Police raided the hospital, but are facing difficulties identifying how the "proxy surgeries" were conducted due to a lack of evidence as the operating room was not equipped with any surveillance cameras.



The debate over this issue is nothing new. Bills requiring cameras in operating rooms had been proposed twice, but to no avail, in the 19th and 20th National Assemblies. At the current 21st Assembly, three such bills, proposed by lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, are pending.



Meanwhile, an increasing number of people seem to be supporting the installation of cameras, according to a survey released by the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission, June 28.



Among the 13,959 respondents, 98 percent were in favor of installing surveillance cameras, citing the need to monitor potentially illegal medical procedures when patients are under anesthesia.



But the issue remains unresolved due to sharply divided views between medical practitioners and patients.





Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, talks with Lee Na-geum, who is holding a one-person rally calling for the legislation requiring CCTVs in operating rooms, in front of the National Assembly, June 15. Lee is the mother of a deceased victim of a botched plastic surgery in September 2016. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun
President Moon Jae-in and outgoing U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams salute during a decoration ceremony at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae



Moon calls on new commander to closely communicate with Korean military



By Nam Hyun-woo



President Moon Jae-in bestowed outgoing U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Robert Abrams with an Order of National Security Merit, Thursday, in appreciation of his service here over the past 32 months.



During a ceremony at Cheong Wa Dae, Moon bestowed on him the Order of National Security Merit Tongil Medal, the top honor in the five-level merit system that awards people who have made extraordinary contributions to national security.





Seen above is a ceremonial sword President Moon Jae-in presented to outgoing U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams, Thursday, in appreciation for his service here. Yonhap



Moon also presented Abrams with a ceremonial sword made by a master blacksmith who is designated as an intangible cultural asset holder. It is engraved with Abrams' Korean name Woo Byung-soo, which he was given in May by a South Korea-U.S. friendship group for his "contribution to the alliance and defense of South Korea."



"During Abrams' tenure, the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. has become more solid, and there were noticeable outcomes, such as the Sept. 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement between the two Koreas and the summit between the U.S. and the North, which helped relieve tension on the Korean Peninsula," Moon was quoted as saying during a luncheon after the ceremony, by presidential spokeswoman Park Kyng-mee. "I appreciate Abrams for successfully carrying out his role as the commander of the USFK, Combined Forces Command (CFC) and United Nations Command."



Abrams said he and other U.S. service members here were lucky to be stationed in Korea, which was the safest country in the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Park.



Abrams has been serving as the role since November 2018. During his tenure, Abrams stressed the importance of a combined defense posture between South Korea and the United States, describing it as the "single greatest deterrent" against any potential adversaries, including North Korea.



Due to this stance, Abrams has been at odds with the Moon administration on several occasions including over the suspension of live-fire exercises for USFK attack helicopters and the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of Korean troops from Washington to Seoul, as the government took a conciliatory attitude toward the North hoping to revive inter-Korean talks.



The suspension of exercises came after residents living near the live-fire range complained of noise and other inconveniences due to the drills, calling for a halt to training there and the closure of the range.





President Moon Jae-in presents a sash to outgoing U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams after bestowing him with an Order of National Security at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Yonhap



Abrams will hand over his command to Gen. Paul LaCamera, who most recently served as Army Pacific commander, during a ceremony scheduled for Friday. LaCamera also attended Thursday's ceremony and the luncheon afterward at Cheong Wa Dae.



Moon told LaCamera, who served near Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the late 1990s, that he has "high expectations as LaCamera has expertise in security issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula," and asked him to pay greater attention to pending issues such as the OPCON transfer and to closely communicate with the Korean military.



LaCamera also shares Abrams' idea of strengthening military readiness. During his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in May, he said he believes joint field exercises are "extremely important to build readiness," and said he would work toward their resumption.



South Korea and the United States regularly hold combined military drills, but these have largely been held as computer simulations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.



Over the OPCON transfer, LaCamera also said it should be "conditions-based" and cautioned against "any effort to apply a time-based approach to this important endeavor." This came as a counter to the Moon administration's efforts to regain OPCON from the U.S. by the end of the President's five-year term in May next year.



Regarding the combined exercises between Seoul and Washington, however, LaCamera said he also recognizes that the exercises are a "bargaining chip" for negotiations with Pyongyang. In the past couple of years, Seoul and Washington have canceled or scaled down the exercises, either for diplomatic reasons regarding the North or, as in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.




A handout photo made available by Xinhua News Agency shows doves being released into the sky at Tiananmen Square in Beijing during a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, July 1. EPA-Yonhap
A sign posted on state-owned property near a creek in Gimpo City, Gyeonggi Province on June 26. It reads "Commercial farming not allowed." Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung



Civil law turns blind eye to farmers illegally growing crops on other people's property



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province I've been in a waiting game for weeks since mid-June when I first discovered someone growing sweet potatoes and green onions, without my permission, on my property located a 10-minute drive from my home in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. Near there, fresh green bean sprouts were also growing under a black plastic net. The crops were planted over a total of some 50 square meters of the innermost stretch of my property, which is almost invisible from outside, because it is surrounded with lush trees and overgrown wild flowers.



I had this disturbing discovery during my first visit this year to my 2,000-square-meter property near the Han River. I had been unable to find time to check on the fields before June, mainly because my ailing mother, who was hospitalized three times between January and May, underwent brain surgery twice, first for a cerebral hemorrhage in March and then for the recurrence of the same ailment a month later. While my mother was recovering from her condition, I finally had some free time to go and see the property for the first time since January.



Annoyed by what I discovered there, I felt the urge to exercise my rights as a property owner. I put up waterproof plastic signs here and there, informing the anonymous illegal farmer of the fact that the land is my property and that growing plants or crops on my property without my permission is illegal. I demanded that they remove all the crops from my property no later than June 30. If they fail to meet the deadline, my warning continued, I would take legal action against them.





"Do not grow crops on someone else's property. If you fail to remove the crops by June 30, I will report the matter to the police," the sign reads. It was put up at the entrance of the reporter's property in Gimpo. Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung



Since putting up those signs, I've returned regularly, mostly during weekends or my days off, hoping  perhaps in vain  to cross paths with the person, and to deliver my concerns and warnings directly. But all I found was that my notice didn't have the effect I had hoped for.



The anonymous farmer turned a blind eye to my written warnings. Instead, he or she removed the black plastic covering the green bean sprouts to encourage them to grow better in the sunny summer weather.



I was deeply disturbed. I learned that there are many property owners like me who are embroiled in conflicts with anonymous farmers who secretly visit others' land to grow their own crops illegally. Like me, many of the owners live in the city far away from their property, so most of them  particularly those who have full-time jobs  have difficulty finding time to pay visits to their properties in the countryside frequently.



What frustrates property owners  like me  is that we don't even know who the intruders are.



"Under the current law, there are no legal measures property owners can take to protect their property from others' use if they don't know any personal information about the farmers," said lawyer Koh Youn-gi. "If property owners remove or destroy what others planted on their land, even though someone else planted them without the owners' approval, those owners must pay the farmer financial compensation, in the case the intruders resort to legal action. Under criminal law, the property owner can also face punishment for theft or destruction of the intruder's property  in this case, the crops."





A close-up photo of a sign that the reporter put up on her property / Korea Times photo by Kang Hyun-kyung



There was a previous legal case in which the court ruled against an unspecified property owner who destroyed the crops that intruders had planted without the former's permission. According to experts, the rationale behind court's siding with the farmers is that, unlike trees, which take years or sometimes decades to grow, it takes only several months for agricultural crops to grow, so the damage to property owners is relatively insignificant. Albeit illegally planted, the courts concluded, crops that were planted by intruders belong to those who planted them and not the owners.



Simply put, the current law protects the property of trespassers over the right of property owners.



Koh explained that the "outdated" stipulation was made some six or seven decades ago when owners abandoning their property without growing crops or vegetables was considered something akin to an act of sin, as back then, farmers were being encouraged to grow crops to produce a self-sufficient national food supply.



Farmers illegally taking advantage of a similar public property law has also become a headache for local municipalities. In Gimpo City, for example, there is a narrow stream flowing across the city area, along with rice paddies, in the neighborhood of the local Hanaro Mart, operated by Nonghyup Bank. The stream and the surrounding fields are state-owned land.



Yet, someone has grown corn, green peppers, green onions, tomatoes and other crops around the stream. Four signs were put up here and there on the sidewalk next to the stream, warning people that growing crops there is illegal and that farmers can be fined tens of millions of won if they don't remove their crops from the area.



Kang Dong-uk, a Gimpo City official in charge of government-owned land, said that, anyone caught farming illegally on government-owned property will have to pay 120 percent of the rent that the public property users pay to the government in return for their use of the land.



"What we do is first issue a written letter to illegal farmers, ordering them to remove the crops they planted and restore the territory to what it was before they planted the crops there. Then we issue another order that they pay a fine," he said.



But such "principled" measures are meaningless in case where the government has no idea who the farmers are. In effect, there are no measures that can be taken, other than putting up warning signs against them to stop growing crops on public property.




Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk arrives at Seoul Central District Court, June 11.Yonhap



By Lee Hyo-jin



Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk has filed a 1-billion-won ($890,000) damage suit against the Chosun Ilbo, a conservative daily newspaper, for using an illustration of his family in an article about soliciting a prostitute.



The ex-minister filed the lawsuit at the Seoul Central District Court, Wednesday, seeking 500 million won each, from the reporter who wrote the article and from the editor.



In addition, Cho plans to file a separate lawsuit at a U.S. court against the Los Angeles Chosun Ilbo for publishing the same content.



The newspaper is accused of using an illustration depicting Cho and his daughter, Cho Min, in a June 21 article about a trio convicted of soliciting a prostitute. That illustration was originally used in a Feb. 23 Chosun Ilbo column about the fabrication of Cho Min's academic records to gain admission into medical school.



Following a flood of criticism, the newspaper changed the illustration several hours after the article was published. The daily also issued an apology to Cho's family and readers on June 23 for the inappropriate use of the illustration. It explained that the reporter had failed to acknowledge that the image had depicted Cho and his daughter and admitted that its monitoring of the article had been lax.



Despite the apology, Cho views the incident as a "serious infringement of personal rights, which cannot be justified by 'freedom of speech' or 'errors in the working process.'"



"I am requesting a high amount of compensation in order to eradicate the unacceptable practice of defaming other people and attacking their character in the form of public media articles," he said in a statement.



The Chosun Ilbo published an additional apology in this Wednesday's edition, devoting a full page to a detailed explanation of the incident, with proposed measures to prevent reoccurrence.


KBS headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul / Korea Times file



By Jun Ji-hye



KBS, the country's public television and radio network, is facing widespread criticism after its board of directors decided to seek to raise the monthly TV license fee to 3,800 won ($3.36) from the current 2,500 won.



Objectors claimed that KBS doesn't deserve more money from viewers as it has not carried out its role as a public broadcaster properly.



The TV license fee is a quasi-tax used to operate the public broadcaster, thus everyone must pay it even if they do not watch its channels and programs  payment is included in electricity bills.



On Wednesday, KBS's 11-member board passed the motion with nine in favor, one against and 1 abstention. The broadcaster is scheduled to submit the motion to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) next week. After a review, the KCC must forward it to the National Assembly within 60 days, where it will be finalized if a plenary session votes in favor.



After passing the motion, the board said in its statement, "The TV license fee has been frozen for the past 41 years. We agreed with the need to adjust the fee to normalize the TV license fee system and become a broadcaster that has the public trust."



KBS President Yang Seung-dong also said during a press conference, Thursday, that the broadcaster is making every effort to fulfill "our duties to ensure management transparency, expand viewers' participation, deliver unbiased news and protect people's safety," noting that the firm could no longer delay raising the fee.





KBS President Yang Seung-dong speaks during a press conference held at KBS headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap




The National Assembly on Thursday approved a revision bill enabling the government's financial compensation for small business owners ravaged by COVID-19 business restrictions.







The proposed revision of the Act on the Protection of and Support for Micro Enterprises was passed by the assembly's plenary meeting, opening the door for the government to recompense small merchants for business losses incurred by antivirus restrictions.







The new law stipulates the government compensate owners of small enterprises through an objective evaluation by a relevant committee when they suffer business losses due to state-issued business restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of an infectious disease such as COVID-19.







At the initiative of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), which advanced the bill, however, it has been formulated not to be applied retroactively, meaning business losses inflicted so far since the initial local COVID-19 outbreaks early last year will not be covered by the new law.







Instead, the DP included a supplementary provision in the bill, requiring the government to make up for the past losses in the form of "damage assistance."







During a parliamentary session a day earlier, SMEs and Startups Minister Kwon Chil-seung estimated the combined size of business losses suffered by small merchants last year due to antivirus restrictions to be about 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion). The sum could change depending on the method of calculation, he added.







The bill, however, ran into protests by lawmakers of the main opposition People Power Party and the progressive minor Justice Party, who claimed it falls short of the expectations of struggling small merchants. (Yonhap)






To delve deeper into the evolving digital sex crime cases in Korea and across Asia, The Korea Times has been collaborating with four media organizations  the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, Tempo in Indonesia, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and ABS-CBN in the Philippines  on a special investigation into this issue over the last seven months.



After releasing the first joint project on May 29th, although some partners are still working on more stories that will be published over the next couple of months, the Asian reporting team got together for a group video call to talk about difficulties they faced during the investigation, behind-the-scene stories and why they collectively agree that the continuation of collaborative reporting among Asian countries is important.




By Lim Jae-hyeon





The "Korean wave," referring to the global popularity of Korean culture, has been extending its fan base beyond Asia as Korean dramas and popular music have been stirring a broader interest since the late 1990s.



The letter "K" is now widely used to indicate Korea in a wide range of areas besides Korean pop culture. K-pop, K-food, K-beauty and K-quarantine have become big manifestations of global culture, industry and systems. They are no longer merely passing fads.



In this regard, "K-customs" is no exception, unleashing the potential of the globalization of Korea's customs administration.



The World Customs Organization (WCO) designated a detector dog training center in Incheon as its WCO Regional Dog Training Center in February 2021. With this, Korea has become the first country to host all four WCO-designated regional bodies including the Regional Training Center, Regional Intelligence Liaison Office, Regional Dog Training Center and Regional Customs Laboratory in the Asia-Pacific region.



The Customs Border Control Training Institute in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, was designated as a regional training center in 2010 to train customs officers in the Asia-Pacific region. Following this, the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office in Seoul for the Asia-Pacific region has been operating since 2012 to fight international crime, prevent the illegal drug trade and exchange information among relevant stakeholders.



The Korea Central Customs Laboratory (Jinju) was appointed as the WCO Regional Customs Laboratory in 2018 for its outstanding scientific equipment and analytic capability. What is more, we hosted the WCO Regional Dog Training Center for providing first-rate infrastructure and professional dog training techniques. In total, we hosted all four WCO regional bodies.



The WCO, representing 183 customs administrations, is an independent intergovernmental body supporting members' customs modernization, effective revenue collection, trade facilitation and stringent enforcement on illegal trade along with discussing overall customs policies.



Indeed, the appointment of the WCO regional body requires competency in customs administration, high-quality facilities, financial solvency, performance, concrete future plans and approval from members and the secretariat. The hosting of the WCO regional bodies shows that the Korea Customs Service (KCS) now play a leading role in establishing international standards with its enhanced capacity and infrastructure.



In 2019, a senior KCS official was elected to serve as director of the Capacity Building Directorate among three directorates at the WCO. This was the first time for a KCS official to take a high-ranking position at the WCO.



The director of capacity building is responsible for coordinating modernization products, providing training in legal frameworks and customs-related techniques for three quarters of the 183 members. This showcases that the profile of the KCS has been remarkably raised for its greater contribution to the global customs community.



The KCS is providing assistance in customs service for developing countries. Training projects have been implemented to target developing countries in clearance, investigation, e-commerce and risk management as they wish to learn knowhow and experiences from our side. Senior customs officers have been invited to forums and on-site study, expanding the scope of partnership.



Based on this continued cooperation, UNI-PASS, Korea's e-customs clearance system has been exported to 15 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is, however, unfortunate that training sessions and conferences have been held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.



In line with the current trend when we are seeing the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, use of new technologies, and the growth of e-commerce and electronic data exchange, the KCS is making forward-looking moves in trade facilitation. The Big Data Promotion Group was launched in 2020 and the E-commerce Division was set up as part of a reshuffle this year.



In doing so, the KCS is pursuing positive changes in customs work by promoting public-private cooperation to fully utilize AI and new technologies, establishing the Electronic Origin Data Exchange System (EODES) and expanding the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs).



"K-Customs" is just the beginning, and an extension of the letter "K." Hopefully, we can expect that the infrastructure and systems of the KCS to wash across the world as a role model.





Lim Jae-hyeon is commissioner of Korea Customs Service.


By Donald Kirk





WASHINGTON  The news from Afghanistan is not good, but what did anyone expect? As the U.S. and other NATO forces withdraw, the Taliban are attacking, killing enemies, taking over the country, including stockpiles of U.S. supplies provided for Afghan government forces.







President Joe Biden has said really the Afghan government has to stand up for itself and survive on its own. For many reasons, ranging from the strength of the Taliban and the support it's receiving from Russia and Iran, among others, to the inherent weakness of a regime riddled by corruption and inefficiency, its days in power in Kabul appear numbered.







Disappointment over Afghanistan mirrors other setbacks for the U.S. No one should forget the U.S. failure to stand by the Kurds, left on their own in Syria when Donald Trump in one of the more controversial acts of his presidency ordered U.S. troops to pull out. Now we wonder about the U.S. commitment to the Persian Gulf, defended by the U.S. Fifth Fleet, supported by U.S. air power, against Iran, supported by Russia.







That's not likely to happen for a number of reasons, notably the U.S. commitment to Israel, by far the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, but what's going on in the middle east has huge repercussions for Asia, especially China and the Korean peninsula.







One rationale for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is the renewed emphasis on Asia amid acrimony if not enmity between the U.S. and China. Barack Obama, when he was president and Biden was vice president, touted the U.S. "pivot" to Asia, and Biden is picking up on the same theme.







The U.S. military establishment may appear incredibly strong, but U.S. forces have been stretched thin since waging war on behalf of the wobbly Iraqi government that took over after the demise of Saddam Hussein. Committed to vast expenses on rehabbing America's overstressed "infrastructure," Biden cannot be deploying U.S. forces everywhere. Americans don't welcome "endless war" in the Middle East any more than they wanted to keep fighting in Vietnam, from which U.S. troops withdrew in 1973 two years before the demise of the Saigon regime.







The shift to Asia presents challenges all around China, from the Yellow Sea and North Korea to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. The Pentagon has to worry about defending South Korea while President Moon Jae-in looks for resuming dialog with the North. The U.S. is making a show of endorsing this ambition even as U.S. military people worry about the effect of much reduced joint exercises with South Korean forces. They say these are essential while South Korea prepares for OPCON, taking full control of the defense of the South in case of North Korean attack.







Actually, now might be a great time to get around to talks with the North. Regardless of the rhetoric, North Korea is in no condition to fight anyone. Kim Jong-un has made no secret of the dire state of the North Korean economy, and the North remains extremely worried about COVID-19 while denying the existence of any cases. The stuff we're hearing from the North, including seeming rejection of dialog by little sister Kim Yo-jong, may not preclude sitting down again for more talks. No, the North won't be giving up its nukes and missiles, but it won't be threatening to use them either.







Then there's Taiwan. The signs are growing that China may be gearing up finally to try to recover the island province to which the forces of Chaing Kai-shek fled in 1949 as Mao Zedong's Red Army was completing its takeover of the mainland. We've been hearing so long about China's claim to Taiwan that it's easy to ignore the latest clues to China's intentions. There are good reasons, moreover, for China not to do a thing, most notably China's enormous trade surplus with the U.S. It would really foolhardy for President Xi Jinping to risk funds that he needs to fuel China's forces everywhere else, including the South China Sea.







You never know, though. Washington, like most other countries, has long since recognized the Communist government in Beijing but maintains an "American Institute" in Taipei as a de facto embassy. For the U.S. to turn its back on Taiwan would be an act of betrayal that would immediately raise questions about America's willingness to defend South Korea in a showdown with the North.







Let us hope these questions never have to be answered as the U.S. increases its strength in Asia after running out on Afghanistan.









Donald Kirk(

) rites from Seoul as well as Washington.


LG Uplus CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik speaks during a press conference held at the telecom firm's headquarters in central Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of LG Uplus



Company pledges to bring up percentage of non-telecom biz to 30% by 2025



By Kim Bo-eun



LG Uplus CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik is confident that he can strike a content deal with Disney as the Korean mobile carrier has a proven track record of handling a content-driven business with global top-tier providers such as Netlix and YouTube.



"From Disney's standpoint, LG Uplus could be the right fit in terms of providing its content to mass consumers in a more convenient way. Once negotiations are finished, then we may be able to announce good news," the CEO told reporters in a news conference at the company's head office in downtown Seoul. This was Hwang's first press conference since he took over the position in March.



"What I've learnt from negotiations with Disney is Disney has higher standards both in terms of service, convenience and quality. It seems that LG Uplus' collaboration with Netflix and YouTube is helping us get a better position. Regarding the timing of the availability of Disney Plus, I would say this is Disney's decision," he said. LG Uplus earlier became the first local network operator to partner with Netflix.



The LG Group's telecom affiliate has been in talks with Disney since last year regarding the launch of Disney Plus here, which is widely expected to be within this year.



"The segment we are targeting is also considerably similar to the segment Disney is targeting for its over-the-top (OTT) media service," Hwang noted.



The U.S. media giant hasn't laid down a specific timetable for the expansion of its Disney Plus streaming service in Asia, though it earlier indicated that launches in South Korea and Hong Kong could happen sometime in 2021. Disney hasn't renewed its licenses to provide Korean streaming platform Wavve with 100 of its film titles.



The CEO said LG Uplus will expand its portion of non-telecom businesses to 30 percent by 2025, up from the current 20 percent. The shifting of gears toward new business such as media and internet data centers comes at a time when telecom companies are seeking new growth engines amid market saturation for telecom services here.



To achieve this, the company is looking to secure options in six sectors  artificial intelligence, big data, cloud storage, security, B2B solutions, and media content. Aside from partnerships with relevant firms, the CEO said LG Uplus will eye strategic investment opportunities and M&As, as well as increase its pool of experts in the six sectors to 4,000 by 2025, up from the current 800.



"We project that the shift in the B2B market will accelerate to wireless from wired and to solutions from infrastructure and that this will present greater growth opportunities than B2C businesses," Hwang said.



LG's telecom affiliate is working closely with LG Group's AI Research lab in various relevant sectors. In the mobility sector, LG Uplus plans to focus on infotainment in connected cars, and create synergy with LG Electronics' auto parts business. LG Electronics launched a joint venture with Magna International, Thursday, which will focus on the electric powertrain market.



As for business opportunities in "smart or connected cities," LG Uplus has begun undertaking projects, earlier wining a 45 billion won intelligent transportation system contract for the city of Gangneung in Gangwon Province and also a smart city project contract for the administrative city of Sejong, with LG CNS, an LG affiliate in IT services.


Seegene's COVID-19 test kit / Courtesy of Seegene



By Baek Byung-yeul



Seegene is tapping into the in-vitro diagnostics market in the United States by forging a partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, a U.S.-based developer of clinical diagnostic products, the company said Thursday.



The Korean biotech company said the two firms agreed to pursue joint business projects and cooperate in obtaining authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell molecular diagnostics products for infectious diseases.



The company added that the term of the contract is five years from the date of receiving FDA approval of the deal.



Seegene expects the partnership to help improve its business as the U.S. is home to the largest diagnostics market in the world.



According to 2020 data by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the U.S. accounted for the largest share of around 37 percent of the global in-vitro diagnostics market.



However, foreign firms have struggled to advance into the U.S. market due to the country's prioritization of local companies, which has posed obstacles for foreign firms to obtain authorizations from the U.S. drug administration.



Seegene plans to win FDA approval for seven products, including a COVID-19 testing kit. It also envisions establishing a production and research facility in the U.S.



The company said it has worked closely with Bio-Rad for the past 10 years as the U.S. firm, established in 1952, has a solid sales network in the U.S. and secured industry-leading technology in molecular diagnostics equipment.



Dara Wright, executive vice president at Bio-Rad, said the company looks forward to working with Seegene to provide necessary diagnostic testing products to the U.S. market.



"Seegene's unique assay design, chemistries, and high-level multiplexing can detect multiple infectious disease targets simultaneously, making the assays well-suited for syndromic testing," she said.



"Following a series of recent contracts in Europe, including Italy and Scotland, this partnership is a turning point for us to advance into the U.S. market," Lee Ho, president and chief of sales at Seegene, said. "Expanding into the U.S. market will be a great stepping stone for stable growth of the company."



Seegene became one of the world's leading diagnostics firms with its COVID-19 testing kits in 2020. The company rolled out the testing kits just three weeks after development began by using advanced technology to quickly analyze a vast amount of virus data and the classifications of patients.


Participants wave national and party flags as balloons are released at the end of the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 1. Reuters-Yonhap



China will not allow itself to be bullied and anyone who tries will face ''broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,'' President Xi Jinping said at a mass gathering Thursday to mark the centenary of the ruling Communist Party.



Wearing a grey buttoned-up suit of the type worn by Mao Zedong, Xi spoke from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate, emphasizing the party's role in bringing China to global prominence and saying it would never be divided from the people.



Xi, also head of the party and leader of the armed forces, also said China had restored order in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous city in 2019 and reiterated Beijing's determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control.



He received the biggest applause, however, when he described the party as the force that had restored China's dignity after taking power amid civil war in 1949.





Chinese President Xi Jinping waves next to Premier Li Keqiang and former President Hu Jintao at the end of the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 1. Reuters-Yonhap



''The Chinese people are a people with a strong since of pride and self-confidence,'' Xi said. ''We have never bullied, oppressed or enslaved the people of another nation, not in the past, during the present or in the future.''



''At the same time, the Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,'' Xi said.



Xi did not say what those forces were, but China is enmeshed in a deepening rivalry with the United States for global power status and has clashed with India along their disputed border. China also claims unpopulated islands held by Japan and almost the entire South China Sea, and it threatens to invade Taiwan, with which the U.S. has boosted relations and military sales.



Xi said the party would retain absolute control over its military wing, the People's Liberation Army, which now has the world's second-largest annual budget after the U.S. armed forces and has been adding aircraft carriers and sophisticated new aircraft, showcased in a flyover at the start of the ceremony featuring a squadron of China's J-20 stealth fighters.





A man looks at China's national flags and Hong Kong's flags hanging above a street in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong, June 29. AFP-Yonhap



Events are being held across the country, including in Hong Kong, which is simultaneously holding commemorations of its 1997 handover from British to Chinese control.



China has cracked down hard on freedom of speech and political opposition in the territory, while rejecting all outside criticism and sanctions imposed on its leaders.









Thursday's events are the climax of weeks of ceremonies and displays praising the role of the nearly 92 million-member party in bringing vast improvements in quality of life at home and restoring China's economic, political and military influence abroad.



While the progress dates mainly from economic reforms enacted by Deng Xiaoping four decades ago, the celebrations spotlight the role of Xi, who has established himself as China's most powerful leader since Mao.



Xi, 68, has eliminated limits on his time in office. He is expected to begin a third five-year term as party leader next year.



While Mao and other past leaders are also featured, the centenary celebrations appear designed to burnish Xi's credentials as having achieved key breakthroughs in poverty alleviation and economic progress while raising China's global profile and standing up to the West.



In seeking to capture more gains for the party on the world stage, Xi is setting up China for a protracted struggle with the U.S., said Robert Sutter of George Washington University's Elliot School of International Affairs.



''In foreign affairs it involves growth of wealth and power, with China unencumbered as it pursues its very self-centered policy goals at the expense of others and of the prevailing world order,'' Sutter said.





Participants rehearse in Tiananmen Square before a parade marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing, July 1. EPA-Yonhap




By Neil Jayson Servallos



The nightmare began four years ago, when Grace* was in high school. She remembered sitting quietly at her desk during lunch when visibly distraught friends approached her and broke the news. By Neil Jayson ServallosThe nightmare began four years ago, when Grace* was in high school. She remembered sitting quietly at her desk during lunch when visibly distraught friends approached her and broke the news.

"They told me that people were fussing over explicit photos and videos of me that were being spread inside and outside my school," she told the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) in an interview.

She couldn't breathe in wild panic. Dozens of boys who went to school with her had downloaded and shared these photos, which she had sent to her boyfriend, and videos he took of her when they were still together.

There was nothing else she could do at that moment but to weep.

The images and videos were taken when she was 16 and was dating a senior in her school. He was 18. He asked for her naked photos at first. She obliged, but didn't want to include her face. He insisted.

When they started having sex, he persuaded her to film the act, too. She remembered agreeing in one instance, but another video she was shown came as a surprise. "I had no idea he took a video of me," she said.

"I was still a minor back then, and I was heavily manipulated and groomed into sending those materials. That's why I was in fear of asking for help [until later]," she told the PCIJ.

The Philippines has several laws that make her partner's actions a crime, but it was Grace who suffered the consequences.

The change was drastic for the honor student, who enjoyed the trust of school officials. "When they got word about my scandal, they didn't treat me the same anymore," she said.

"[They seemed to have suddenly] assumed that I got my achievements by cheating and they even went as far as to not allow me to have a testing folder' (to cover her exam papers) in order to monitor me," she said.



A few hundred cases

Grace was not alone in her situation. She's among more than 200 underage Filipino girls who have sought the help of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) in taking down their images from the internet.

The ACG has recorded at least 233 victims of "child pornography" by way of these schemes in the last decade. The year before the pandemic, 2019, saw the highest number of victims, 62. Last year, there were 37 victims as of October 2020.









From January 2020 to May 2021, the PNP also recorded 625 voyeurism cases coming from various Anti-cybercrime police units in the country. While they could not tell how many of the victims were underage, police typically filed charges under the following laws: Republic Act (RA) No. 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act), RA 9995 (Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009), RA 9262 (Violence Against Women and their Children Act) in relation to RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act), and RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act).







The numbers only represent cases where the families pursued cases against the perpetrators.From January 2020 to May 2021, the PNP also recorded 625 voyeurism cases coming from various Anti-cybercrime police units in the country. While they could not tell how many of the victims were underage, police typically filed charges under the following laws: Republic Act (RA) No. 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act), RA 9995 (Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009), RA 9262 (Violence Against Women and their Children Act) in relation to RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act), and RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act).

The desks of the ACG's Women and Children Cybercrime Protection Unit (WCCPU) nationwide receive complaints daily, but most of the victims only seek help in taking down their videos.

"When I was still working in Calabarzon, there was a kid weeping in our office every day asking for help," said Police Maj. Joseph Villaran, the spokesman of the ACG when he was interviewed by the PCIJ in November 2020. He now teaches cybercrime investigation and cyber forensics at the PNP Academy.

Maj. Lalaine Marty, an inspector for the WCCPU, said investigators also handle four or more reports daily. "Especially during this time we're in a pandemic, children and teens are forced to stay online for long hours to kill time," she said.

It is not clear why Grace's ex-boyfriend released her images. Villaran said perpetrators had different motives for releasing these videos and various schemes to accomplish their goals.

Predators might want to use the materials as a means to control their victims, he said. Revenge was also common.

There were instances when these images and videos were used to extort or swindle the minors.

Some perpetrators created fake accounts and pretended to be kids or women. They looked for unsuspecting young internet users, initiated conversations with them, and upon securing their victims' confidence, proceeded to solicit their naked images.

"There were also recurring instances where the perpetrator pretended to own a production or modelling company [and later] asked the victims for money in exchange for not uploading the content," Villaran said.



Repeated abuse

The sexual abuse is repeated each time the photos and videos are downloaded on the Internet.

Grace received messages from many strangers. Some continued to harass long after her videos were first uploaded.

"After a month or two, another dummy account would message me trying to blackmail me. They would send me my pictures from before and tell me: Alam ba yan ng mama mo (Does your mom know about this)?' Or say how nice my body looked even as a minor and how my body would look way nicer now as an adult," she said.

It took time but Grace and her friends eventually succeeded in getting Facebook, Twitter, Google Drive and other websites to take down the materials. Still, she lived in constant fear that the images and videos were still out there and might be uploaded again.

"I would like to think that they're not online anymore, but deep down I know they are," she said. "These materials, no matter how hard you try to take them down, will always be re-uploaded, because that's just how it works nowadays."

She's right, according to authorities.

Marty said even if social networking platforms did take down these abusive materials, there were so many ways they might be copied or uploaded again. Phones can screen-record video, for example.

These photos and videos might have also been uploaded to other platforms such as messaging apps, online forums, websites, media storage drives and pornsites. These platforms increase the number of consumers exponentially and make erasing the images very difficult.

The abuse won't end so long as there are people who download or reupload them  abetted by an ugly internet culture where users share images and videos of young girls among themselves.

RA 9995 also punishes the reproduction, sale, and distribution of such materials. The penalty is imprisonment from three years to seven years, and a fine of P100,000 to P500,000.

But the identity of the distributors and their patrons are almost always anonymous, even if the materials are not difficult to find on the internet.

PCIJ found a Reddit thread with Filipino users who circulated a link to a media storage drive. It had 351 folders of explicit materials of girls from a country in the Asia-Pacific.

The folders contained the girls' full names and screenshots of their Facebook profiles, as if to prove the legitimacy of the content. Dozens of them appeared to be minors.

Reddit is among a number of platforms that are barely monitored. The internet user who created the Reddit thread appeared to be a regular source of these materials. The thread was titled: "Ninong is back!"

Ninong is a Filipino word for godfather. "Salamat sa napakaraming biyaya ninong. Pagpalain ka sana araw-araw
A handout photo made available by Xinhua News Agency shows Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering his speech during a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing, July 1. EPA-Yonhap



Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday to complete "reunification" with self-ruled Taiwan and vowed to "smash" any attempts at formal independence for the island, taking a tough line on the 100th birthday of the ruling Communist Party.



China considers democratically-ruled Taiwan its own territory, and under Xi has stepped up efforts to assert its sovereignty claims, including regularly sending fighter jets and bombers close to the island.



"Solving the Taiwan question and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland are the unswerving historical tasks of the Chinese Communist Party and the common aspiration of all Chinese people," Xi said in an address from Beijing's Tiananmen Square.



"All sons and daughters of China, including compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must work together and move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any 'Taiwan independence' plots."



While China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, Xi called for a process of "peaceful reunification".




A protester holding a British flag is arrested by police officers during the 24th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China along a street in Hong Kong, July 1. AP-Yonhap



Marking the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese control, a top city official defended the national security law imposed by Beijing to crush pro-democracy rallies and said Thursday it would be used further in the coming year to ensure stability.



Police sealed off Victoria Park  until recently the site of annual pro-democracy rallies marking the 1997 handover  and put up flags warning people that they could be prosecuted if they enter or remain in the enclosed area. Police said there were online calls encouraging people to take part in an unauthorized protest.



The security law was implemented one year ago as authorities cracked down on dissent after Hong Kong was rocked by massive anti-government protests in 2019. Critics say Beijing has reneged on a promise to keep the special privileges for Hong Kong for 50 years  the autonomy of its courts and legal system, civil liberties that include a free press, freedom of speech and the leeway to take to the streets to protest.



Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee said the national security law stipulates that human rights are respected and allows residents to enjoy freedom of the press and free assembly.



However, large-scale demonstrations have been banned and a number of pro-democracy activists and journalists have been arrested, ceased public activities or have left Hong Kong.



For two years in a row, authorities banned an annual June 4 candlelight vigil commemorating the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and the July 1 handover protest, citing pandemic social distancing restrictions.



On Wednesday, Chow Hang-tung, a key organizer of the June 4 vigil, was rearrested on suspicion of inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly.



Police have arrested seven journalists and executives of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was a vocal critic of Hong Kong and China's governments. Authorities also froze $2.3 million in assets linked to Apple Daily, forcing it to cease operations last week.



Western government criticized the arrests of journalists. On Thursday, four leading Nordic newspapers published an open letter to protest the arrests and the closure of Apple Daily.



''Now enough is enough. The world can no longer passively watch China gradually suck the air out of press freedom in Hong Kong,'' Christian Jensen, chief editor of the Danish Politiken newspaper wrote in the front-page letter. ''Unfortunately, the last  and perhaps naive  hope was definitely extinguished when the free newspaper Apple Daily had to succumb to the authorities' denial of freedom of expression.''



Lee was speaking at a reception commemorating the 24th anniversary of the former British colony's return to China. It coincides with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party on the mainland, where Hong Kong's top leader Carrie Lam has been attending.



Lee said Hong Kong was on the rebound as the national security law restored social and political stability.



''Our team has more confidence than ever in Hong Kong's prospect. In the coming year, we will continue to uphold national security with determination and improve the implementation of the one country, two systems principle,'' he said.



In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a keynote address during a celebration of the party centenary that China will uphold the ''one country, two systems'' framework in Hong Kong and Macao to ensure full sovereignty, social stability and maintain prosperity in the two regions.





A woman walks past a banner with photos of pro-democracy activists, including Joshua Wong, center, during the anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to China from Britain in Hong Kong, July 1. AP-Yonhap
An aerial view of Vijitt Resort, one of the Thai tourism authority approved hotels, on Rawai beach in Phuket on July 1. AFP-Yonhap



Thailand embarked on an ambitious but risky plan Thursday that it hopes will breathe new life into a tourism industry devastated by the pandemic, opening the popular resort island of Phuket to fully vaccinated foreigners from lower-risk countries.



As the first flight arrived, airport fire trucks blasted their water canons to form an arch over the Etihad jet from Abu Dhabi as it taxied to its gate.



Leaving the airport, Frenchman Bruno Souillard said he had been dreaming for a year of returning to Thailand and jumped at the opportunity.



''I am very, very happy,'' the 60-year-old tourist said.



The ''Phuket sandbox'' program comes as coronavirus infections are surging in Thailand, including a significant number of cases of the Delta variant, and many have questioned if it's too early to woo tourists back, and whether they'll come in significant numbers in any case due to the restrictions they'll still face.



But the number of new cases on the island itself is extremely low, in the single digits daily, and more than 70% of its residents are fully vaccinated. The government is gambling that travelers will be willing to put up with coronavirus-related regulations for the opportunity for a beach holiday after being cooped up in their home countries for months.



Before the pandemic, the tourism sector made up some 20% of Thailand's economy, and 95% of Phuket's income.



The resort island off the southern coast saw fewer than a half million visitors in the first five months, and almost no foreigners, compared to more than 3 million during the same period last year including some 2 million foreigners.





A handout photo made available by the Royal Thai Government shows Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, center, posing with village health volunteers during a visit Phuket resort island to reopen for international tourists at Phuket Island, Thailand, July



In a nod to the importance of the ''sandbox'' plan, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew to Phuket to be on hand in person for the launch.



He emphasized that the sandbox was just the first step toward his goal announced in June of having Thailand completely reopened within 120 days.



''This reopening is related to not only Phuket but also the whole country,'' he said.



Last-minute hitches in some of the program details and cautions from authorities that if cases start to rise on the island more restrictions may be needed  or it may have to be shut down entirely  meant some cancelations before it even began. Fewer than 250 international travelers were expected on the first day compared to the initial target of 1,500.



But as the kinks are worked out and people report their first-hand experiences, authorities are hopeful for a steady increase in the numbers. From July 1 to 15, there are currently 1,101 hotel bookings for a total of 13,116 room overnights.





The first foreign tourists arrive at the airport as Phuket reopens to overseas tourists, allowing foreigners fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 to visit the resort island without quarantine, in Phuket, Thailand, July 1. Reuters-Yonhap
Gyuri's boyfriend had been investigated for three incidents.

Keep on reading to know more.

Former KARA Member Gyuri's Boyfriend Investigated for Hit and Run, Driving Under the Influence

On June 29, KST, media outlets reported that Gyuri's, a former member of KARA, boyfriend had been investigated for a hit and run, driving under the influence (DUI), and confinement.

According to the reports, a well-known businessman who is currently in his 20s was apprehended by the police after being caught driving under the influence and subsequently running from the scene after colliding with another vehicle around Gangnam, Seoul.

Later on, the perpetrator was revealed to be Song Ja Ho, Gyuri's boyfriend and also the eldest grandson of Song Seung Hun, the founder of Dongwon Construction.

It was revealed by the reports that Song Ja Ho had been under the influence at approximately 11:20 pm on June 22, KST in Cheongdamdong, Seoul, when he ran away from the scene after colliding with another vehicle in a parking lot. Song Ja Ho then ran away to the intersection at Dosan Park from the intersection at Cheongdamdong, but later returned to Cheongdamdong intersection where he continued to drive backward, heading to the intersection in Hakdong.

After being apprehended, it is said that his blood alcohol concentration level was high enough to revoke his driver's license.

Gyuri's Boyfriend Also Investigated for Confinement

In addition to driving under the influence and the hit and run, Song Ja Ho had also been investigated for allegedly confining the woman he was within the vehicle after the woman had asked him to let her exit the vehicle, to which Song Ja Ho had ignored her requests.

If Song Ja Ho is found guilty of confinement, he can be sentenced up to five years in prison, or be made to pay a fine of up to seven million won (around $6,200 USD). According to reports, the woman he was with in the vehicle was not Gyuri.

Song Ja Ho had admitted to the charges of driving under the influence. He stated that he regrets drinking and driving and is reflecting on his actions. He added that because he was aware of what he did wrong, anything that he said would be seen as an excuse. "Until the investigation was over, I had tried to reflect on my mistakes. I had ended up apologizing in a situation where the things being said are different from the truth," said Song Ja Ho.

Song Ja Ho also explained that he had contacted a driver, however, the driver was unable to drive after seeing the vehicle as he was not able to operate it. In addition, once he had realized that he had hit and scratched another vehicle, he contacted the owner and settled the insurance matters.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: KeyEast Denies Claim That Former KARA Jiyoung Suffers From Harassment and Obsession of a Japanese Agency's President

Regarding the woman who was in the vehicle with him, he explains that it was a representative of a client that he had met for work and that the matter had also been settled.

He then apologized to Gyuri, "I am sorry that my girlfriend has become involved in this because of me. I hope you will see it as my fault as she doesn't have anything to do with this."

Gyuri's agency stated that Gyuri and Song Ja Ho is still in a relationship and are looking into the details of the incident.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Robyn Joan


Description

At Liberty Mutual, our purpose is to help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow. Thats why we provide an environment focused on openness, inclusion, trust and respect. Here, youll discover our expansive range of roles, and a workplace where we aim to help turn your passion into a rewarding profession. Liberty Mutual has proudly been recognized as a Great Place to Work by Great Place to Work US for the past several years. We were also selected as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT on IDGs Insider Pro and Computerworlds 2020 list. For many years running, we have been named by Forbes as one of Americas Best Employers for Women and one of Americas Best Employers for New Graduatesas well as one of Americas Best Employers for Diversity. To learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion please visit: https://jobs.libertymutualgroup.com/diversity-inclusion We value your hard work, integrity and commitment to make things better, and we put people first by offering you benefits that support your life and well-being. To learn more about our benefit offerings please visit: https://LMI.co/Benefits Liberty Mutual is an equal opportunity employer. We will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, veterans status, pregnancy, genetic information or on any basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. ** Bilingual (Russian & English) Sales Representative MUST live in CONNECTICUT ** $5K Sign On Bonus for new candidates that have an active P&C or active Life license! *To qualify for the Sign-On Bonus, Applicants must be new (not applied in the past 6 months) and apply by 9/1/2021 and start by 11/1/2021 to qualify. Bonus will be scheduled on day 30 for next period pay out date. There is a 1 year payback clause if your employment is terminated prior to your first year anniversary Do you want to join a Fortune 100 company where youll be rewarded for developing new clients, discovering new markets and providing customers with the products they need? As a Liberty Mutual field sales representative, youll enjoy a diverse, supportive environment, along with a competitive compensation program, including base salary, uncapped commissions and a bonus structure, and comprehensive benefits. Field sales representatives also receive ample opportunities for recognition and rewards, including earning awards, bonuses and recognition trips. In this full-time role, youll also stay ahead of the curve with industry-leading, paid sales training and mentorships with successful colleagues. We encourage you to apply and bring your expertise if youre a: Passionate salesperson : Youll use your knowledge and enthusiastic work ethic to generate prospects and sell Auto, Home and Life Insurance products within an assigned territory

Competitive go-getter : Ready to earn uncapped commissions and bonuses? Youll have your chance while engaging in friendly (and rewarding!) competitions with your sales team and the opportunity to win recognition awards

People person : Using your interpersonal skills and market insight, youll identify and cultivate prospective clients, and tailor products and services to meet the needs of existing customers

Relationship builder : Youll play the long game, building strong relationships within local community and organizations, and maintaining open lines of communication for future sales opportunities Experience Previous employment in sales where you have successfully turned prospects into customers

A state insurance licenseor willingness to earn one with Liberty Mutuals training and supportin Property & Casualty, Life, and Accident & Health Skills Effective written, oral communication and presentation skills

Well-developed persuasion and negotiation skills

Great interpersonal skills and a proven ability to build rapport with prospective and existing customers

Effective time management and organizational skills Knowledge Ability to learn insurance coverage and underwriting guidelines

Familiarity with finding, building and growing leads and customer base Education A Bachelors degree or equivalent



Requirements

See job description.






ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF FINANCE  AUDITOR/ CONTROLLER ($3,500.80- $4,255.20 bi-weekly) 1 Reg. full-time position at the Department of Finance. 5 yrs exp in accounting or financial auditing, banking, investment mgmt or taxation, include 2 yrs supervisory exp. Pos. of a bachelors degree from an accredited college or univ. CPA Certificate desired. New employees should anticipate being hired at the beginning of the salary range.) For a Glenn County Employment Application (a resume is not accepted in lieu of an application) and instructions  www.countyofglenn.net/jobs, deadline 5:00 pm, Friday, 7/23/21. Glenn County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status or disability (in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act) with respect to employment opportunities. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to equal treatment of all employees without regard to race, national origin, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, physical or mental disability or other basis protected by law.

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TARC is seeking an efficient and detail-oriented person to join our Finance Team. The Finance Coordinator position is responsible for processing invoices and completing payments, including checks and electronic transfers.

This position will also be responsible for:

electronically submitting Medicaid billings

applying payments

following up on reconciling items.

Obtain W-9s and prepare 1099s.

Maintain client contracts and related billing information

Individual must be organized, reliable, proficient at data entry, efficient at learning and using a variety of software programs and have a basic understanding of accounts payable, accounts receivable and accounting procedures. Payroll experience a plus. This is a full-time position.

Bachelors degree in accounting or requisite experience in business administration and/or accounting.

Four years work experience in accounting and experience with various software including Microsoft Office required. Insurance billing experience preferred.

TARC, Inc. conducts background screenings and post-offer pre-employment drug testing. Must have and maintain a valid Kansas Drivers License and driving record that meets insurability requirements as defined by the Companys insurance carrier.

EOE

Click to submit application online!

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PowerSouth Energy Cooperative General Accountant I PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, an electric generation and transmission cooperative serving Alabama and Northwest Florida, is seeking qualified applicants for the position of General Accountant I in the Financial Planning Department at the Headquarters Office located in Andalusia, Alabama. The purpose of this position is to perform specific accounting and supervisory duties within the Financial and Administrative Services division. This position requires a four (4) year post-secondary degree in accounting or a closely related field and three (3) or more years' experience, preferably in a general

accounting environment with exposure to all phases or accounting. Employment is subject to a negative drug test, background check and completion of a comprehensive application for employment. PowerSouth offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits program. EOE In 1941, PowerSouth was formed by 11 cooperatives to generate and sell electricity. First known as Alabama Electric Cooperative, the name was changed to PowerSouth Energy Cooperative in 2008 to better reflect the cooperative's geographical service territory and to position the company for future growth opportunities. Today, as one of 62 G&T cooperatives in the United States, PowerSouth is a trusted energy provider for the distribution members, who serve end-users in 39 Alabama and 10 Florida counties.

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Youth Counselor

Working as a Youth Service Worker at Adelphoi can provide you with the wage, the benefits, and the perfect schedule! We are looking for motivated individuals who would benefit from working in our group homes supervising the youth under our care.

No experience required. We provide all the training you will need to excel as a Youth Counselor.

Adelphoi offers

Full pay while you train and learn about our youth counseling programs.

Increased starting wage!

Affordable benefits for full-time medical, dental, vision, retirement, vacation, and more.

A pay increase at the end of your first 90 days.

Interested Lets talk and see if this type of opportunity can meet your needs! Immediate openings for both and positions!

Please apply at www.adelphoi.org

or send resume to:

310 Ligonier Street,

Latrobe, PA, 15650

or fax to 724 539-7060.

Adelphoi USA, a major player in the delivery of counseling, residential, adoption, foster care, and educational services to youth and families. For over 40 years we have helped thousands of families and youths with growth to more than 25 group homes and education centers throughout Pennsylvania, including a central 19-acre campus in Latrobe. Come see us!

Adelphoi is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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At KPMG, we are reimagining tax with you in mind. Become an integral part of a dynamic team within a collaborative, future forward environment at one of the world's top tax firms. Be surrounded by deep tax knowledge and equipped with the latest in cutting-edge tax technologies. And join an extensive network of functional, industry, legislative and technical specialists with access to our Ignition Centers, where technology innovation accelerates. We welcome people with a passion for tax, a spirit for new thinking, and a commitment to providing outstanding client service today, and tomorrow. KPMG is currently seeking a Manager to join our Valuations practice. Responsibilities: Manage and deliver business and intangible valuations for mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, tax and regulatory compliance, restructuring and reorganization, corporate services and management planning purposes

Design the scope of work for engagements, oversee day-to-day activities, assume responsibility for quality control and accuracy of client deliverables, and effectively manage risk associated with engagements

Build, maintain, and enhance client relationships

Perform reviews of third party appraisals for audit support purposes

Supervise and mentor staff; provide timely and effective performance feedback and training

Assist in business development efforts; collaborate with other KPMG practices to build cross-functional relationships Qualifications: A minimum of five years of financial advisory and valuation experience within a business valuation firm or valuation practice of an audit, tax and advisory firm with a strong finance and/or accounting background

Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or business from an accredited college/university;

Completion of ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation) credential is required

Significant experience with valuations of business entities and intangible assets, purchase price allocations, analyzing goodwill and long lived asset impairment, supporting a company's value for bidding or asking price plans, litigation support, and financial analysis and research

Fluent in both Japanese and English. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, solid analytical and financial modeling skills, the ability to work well in a team environment and a commitment to mentoring and developing staff

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, solid analytical and financial modeling skills, the ability to work well in a team environment and a commitment to mentoring and developing staff Demonstrated ability to oversee multiple valuation engagements and manage client relationships KPMG LLP (the U.S. member firm of KPMG International) offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package. KPMG is an affirmative action-equal opportunity employer. KPMG complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws regarding recruitment and hiring. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. The attached link contains further information regarding the firm's compliance with federal, state and local recruitment and hiring laws. No phone calls or agencies please.


Director of Social & Emotional Learning & School Development

Queensbury Union Free School District is seeking an exceptional leader for the position of Director of Social & Emotional Learning and School Developement. Valid NYS Certification: SDA or SDL.

Competitive salary and excellent benefits. Application details and job description at queensburyschool.org or call 518-824-5614.

Interested applicants may apply at www.olasjobs.org/capital until July 18, 2021. EOE.

Queensbury Union Free School District sits in the shadows of the Adirondacks, but it ranks among the top school districts in the Capital Region for academics and fiscal efficiency. More than 3,200 students in grades K-12 attend school on a single campus.

The district mission is to empower all students to be lifelong learners, inspired to pursue their dreams and contribute to the global community. School board members, administrators, teachers, support staff, students, and parents all work together to fulfill this mission in tangible, measurable ways.

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Maintenance Technician We are looking for a reliable, skilled maintenance worker to perform essential upkeep tasks throughout our facility. In this position, you will be responsible for a wide variety of activities such as repairs and cleaning to ensure that our facilities are both tidy and functional. Being reliable and self-motivated with a keen eye for detail is essential in this job, as the ideal candidate will have significant work experience and solid technical knowledge. You should have the manual dexterity and physical stamina necessary for this work. Job Description Part-Time Maintenance Technician position

Friendly apartment community is looking for a highly motivated individual to join our staff. Duties will include, but are not limited to:

Responding to service calls and completing work orders for Tenants

Cleaning the grounds

Emergency On-Call availability

Working to ensure 5 day turnaround time for vacant units

Responding to service calls and completing work orders for Tenants Cleaning the grounds Emergency On-Call availability Working to ensure 5 day turnaround time for vacant units The successful candidate will be:

 Motivated team player

 Must be able to complete unit turnovers and perform related janitorial/repair work

 Some exposure to electrical, residential plumbing, drywall, and painting

 Able to establish good working relationships with coworkers, residents, & subcontractors

 Able to be on call for emergency after-hours situations.

 Must have reliable transportation

 Motivated team player  Must be able to complete unit turnovers and perform related janitorial/repair work  Some exposure to electrical, residential plumbing, drywall, and painting  Able to establish good working relationships with coworkers, residents, & subcontractors  Able to be on call for emergency after-hours situations.  Must have reliable transportation This position requires the ability and willingness to travel occasionally to pick up supplies as needed for repairs.

This institution is an equal opportunity employer and provider.

EOE/AA Maintenance Worker Requirements and Qualifications High school diploma or equivalent

Proven experience as a maintenance worker or other similar position

Basic working knowledge of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems

Experience working with tools, including hand and electrical tools

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

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We're Currently Filling the Positions of:  Executive Director of Student Services & Title IV Compliance  Testing Center Technician Mission Statement Chattahoochee Valley Community College promotes student success and is committed to enriching our community by offering accessible quality and engaging educational opportunities through academic transfer career and technical education workforce development and adult education. Vision Statement Chattahoochee Valley Community College (CVCC) will be a dynamic engaged institution of higher learning dedicated to serving the community and students by providing excellent educational cultural and career opportunities allowing individuals to be successful and achieve their goals. CVCC will provide quality services through innovative practices state-of-the-art facilities and an understanding of meeting individuals where they are. CVCC will enhance the lives of its students faculty staff and the community by: Promoting instructional excellence in all program areas.

Expanding and enhancing programs to meet the needs of the areas workforce.

Strengthening partnerships to advance the mission of the College.

Creating a supportive teaching and learning environment.

Integrating technology to support all programs and services.

Implementing the use of evidence-based decision-making and.

Providing exceptional student support services. EOE

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Module Process Engineer Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Jun 23, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200257855 Apple is looking for a Module Process Engineer to join Panel Process and Optics (PPO) Engineering team. Module Process Engineers are responsible to develop new innovative manufacturing process technologies to solve complex design challenges that have direct impact to future product, quality and delivery of Apple Displays & Touch. You will serve as a focal point in the process development of advanced key process modules from the concept/architecture stage through product engineering validation builds. We work at a fast pace and require everyone to be highly self motivated. A successful candidate needs to be a flexible thinker and be able to problem solve outside of their respective technical area. Key Qualifications Self-starter with demonstrated ability to lead a project from lab scale development to high volume production without major last minute surprises

Hands-on experience in the development of module processes & its integration in back-end processes of Flat Panel Display & Touch industry or other related industries

Demonstrated ability to perform DOE, data analysis, SPC control

Demonstrated failure mode analysis, root cause investigation, and problem solving for product yield and quality issue.

Excellent written & verbal communication skills and demonstrated leadership ability

Project Management- Excellent data handling, documentation, critical milestone creation, and organization skill

Ability for International business travel to support project implementation and collaborate with external vendors for product manufacturing Description Process technology feasibility studies through theoretical simulation and/or practical engineering methods Process Development - Leads design and development of technically complex manufacturing processes including material selection, parameter optimization, equipment, metrology and system design to enable new products designs & functional requirements. Develop Process for Manufacturability - Provide early and ongoing manufacturing leadership to ensure new process is scalable for high volume Process FMEA - Lead PFMEA generation for new process technology Failure Analysis - Lead root cause analysis and metrology development for issues related to new process technology Cross-functional interaction with Product Design, Display Engineering, Display Operations and international vendors Keep abreast of relevant industrial process & material manufacturing technical trends Education & Experience Ph.D. or M.S. degree in Physics, Material Science, Mechanical Engineering with 5+ years of experience in related field preferred




Accessibility Software Engineer - iOS Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Software and Services Summary

Posted: Jun 23, 2021 Weekly Hours: 40 Role Number: 200256960 Do you have a passion for mobile development? Are you interested in creating software that promotes equality and inclusion for everyone? Here at Apple we believe that technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone. Our team, the Vision Accessibility team is looking for a Software Engineer who can contribute to an accessible experience on iOS and tvOS. Key Qualifications Motivated to learn new programming languages and development environments.

Well grounded in essential algorithms and data structures.

Passionate about writing high quality software with an emphasis on correctness, readability and testability.

Familiar with testing technologies such as unit tests, integration tests and UI tests.

Persistent in using debuggers and other problem solving techniques to track down and fix bugs.

Upbeat, adaptable, and results-oriented attitude

Excellent cross-functional and communication skills Description Apple's Accessibility team is looking for a motivated and driven iOS Software Engineer to help develop its various assistive technologies including VoiceOver, Magnifier and everything in between! In our dynamic group, you'll have the rare and rewarding opportunity to help craft products that improve and enhance the lives of everyone who uses Apple products regardless of differences. You must be comfortable with rapidly evolving designs and requirements, and have excellent interpersonal skills. Throughout the process, you will work collaboratively with our world-class team of engineers, partner with designers, and coordinate with other teams at Apple including iOS Application teams, framework teams, and other hardware and software teams across Apple's entire product line. The successful candidate will be challenged to create and maintain a consistent experience across a diverse platform landscape. This will require you to apply your understanding of computer science fundamentals in a variety of environments, each with its own design architecture, development tools and debugging techniques. You will need to solve problems and fix bugs that may require learning new technologies and collaborate with colleagues who specialize in these domains. Finally, you must be motivated to create unique solutions to support a wide audience. This will involve collaborating with designers and accessibility experts. Critical thinking and the ability to innovate are requirements for this position, however no prior experience with accessibility software is required. You'll join a focused team, but also work closely with the larger Accessibility organization at Apple. You will frequently interact with many groups at Apple to deliver ground breaking features. Here you'll find that we: Have a wide range of experience, from new engineers to Apple veterans. Provide a fast-paced and rewarding work environment. Have an encouraging and growth-focused workplace culture. Offer excellent benefits. Education & Experience Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, or equivalent experience. Additional Requirements Familiarity with the following programming languages would be beneficial, but not required:

C / C++, Java, Javascript, Objective-C, Swift

Experience with these technologies would also be beneficial, but not required:

Apple platform development (iOS, tvOS etc).

Development tools such as Xcode, Visual Studio etc.

Unit testing frameworks and technologies

Continuous integration systems

Source code versioning systems (git)








Software Engineer - Reminders Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) , California , United States Software and Services Summary

Posted: Jun 10, 2021 Role Number: 200254992 Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, new ideas have a way of becoming extraordinary products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. Are you interested in building the next generation of iOS apps? The Reminders team at Apple is looking for talented iOS App developers to join a small team of highly skilled engineers to build world class applications across all of Apple's platforms. As a member of our team, you'll be responsible for building features for upcoming releases, prototyping new feature concepts, and making sure our users always have a phenomenal experience. Key Qualifications Strong grasp of Swift and/or Objective-C design patterns

Experience with iOS frameworks such as UIKit, Core Data, and CloudKit

Ability to write performant and accurate multi-threaded code

Passion for quality and attention to detail

Aptitude to independently learn new technologies

Outstanding ability to identify and resolve sophisticated problems

Excellent oral and written communication skills Description This position requires knowledge of UIKit, AppKit, and SwiftUI. You must be comfortable with rapidly evolving requirements, and have excellent interpersonal skills. Throughout the process, you will work collaboratively with our world-class team of engineers, partner with designers, and coordinate with other teams at Apple including the iOS, macOS, and watchOS teams. This position requires a self-motivated engineer with strong technical and communication skills to handle responsibilities including: Implementing new features Prototyping new ideas to help with initial feature definition Communicating ideas to the Apple design team and other cross functional teams Participating in architecture and code reviews Exploring new frameworks and technologies and how they can aid in implementing new features Building internal tools as needed to help ship high quality software Education & Experience


Dr. David Ashby is a Certified Financial Planner and the retired Peoples Bank Professor of Finance at Southern Arkansas University. He holds degrees in accounting and business administration and a doctorate in finance from Louisiana Tech.
Malibu, CA (90265)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. High 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low around 60F. WNW winds shifting to S at 10 to 15 mph.


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Crime, justice and security statistics comprises statistics compiled from the Mauritius Police Force, the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, the Judiciary, the Mauritius Prison Service & the Probation and Aftercare Service.

Care should be taken in interpreting these figures. When comparing figures, it should be realised that police and judiciary figures are based on offences but prison and probation figures are based on offenders, and that many offenders are sentenced for more than one offence. Offences reported at the police can sometimes be reclassified as they proceed from police investigation through prosecution to final court sentence. Also trends in certain offences are subject to fluctuations as a result of sensitisation/awareness campaigns and intelligence-led operations.

Crime, Justice and Security Statistics  2020

Highlights

1. Crime, justice and security statistics comprises statistics compiled from the Mauritius Police Force, the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, the Judiciary, the Mauritius Prison Service & the Probation and Aftercare Service.

2. Care should be taken in interpreting these figures. When comparing figures, it should be realised that police and judiciary figures are based on offences but prison and probation figures are based on offenders, and that many offenders are sentenced for more than one offence. Offences reported at the police can sometimes be reclassified as they proceed from police investigation through prosecution to final court sentence. Also trends in certain offences are subject to fluctuations as a result of sensitisation/awareness campaigns and intelligence-led operations.

3. Offences reported to the Police, excluding contraventions, increased by 23.1% from 45,004 in 2019 to 55,402 in 2020 mainly due to a rise in drug offences (+7.4%), partly offset by a decrease in assault (-10.7%).

4. Road traffic contraventions decreased by 28.5%, from 176,692 in 2019 to 126,358 in 2020. It is to be noted that  exceeding speed limit  decreased by 40.6% from 81,691 to 48,556.

5. Some 19,367 persons were suspected, arrested and/or cautioned in the course of criminal investigations in 2020, up by 21.5% from 15,941 in 2019. The number of persons prosecuted fell by 10.9% from 14,841 in 2019 to 13,226 in 2020.

6. From 2019 to 2020, the number of cases referred by Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Intermediate and Supreme Courts decreased by 24.1% from 1,037 in 2019 to 787 in 2020.

7. The number of criminal cases lodged in Court decreased by 14.3% from 80,993 in 2019 to 69,449 in 2020. During the same period, the number of criminal cases disposed of dropped by 40.7% from 84,363 to 50,036.

8. Out of the 3,328 adult convicts admitted in prison in 2020, some 72.1% were re-offenders who had been imprisoned in the past, regardless of any observation period.

9. An average amount of Rs 794 was spent daily to maintain a detainee in 2020 in the Island of Mauritius compared to Rs 746 in 2019.

10. The number of Probation Orders issued, decreased by 61.0% from 200 in 2019 to 78 in 2020.

11. The number of offenders, subjected to community service orders, decreased by 32.6% from 524 in 2019 to 353 in 2020.

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Sooduesh Callichurn a participe aux travaux sur ce projet de loi presente par le ministre des Finances le 29 juin 2021 au Parlement.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir,

The Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2020-2021 makes provision, inter alia, for an additional sum of Rs 4.6 Billion to enable the corporation to settle its liability, following the judgement delivered by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 14 June 2021 in the case Betamax Ltd v State Trading Corporation (STC).

I would, therefore, like to enlighten the House on this issue.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir, I must confess that after the reply to the PNQ at the sitting of 17/06 and following the governments decision to meet the full claim of the Betamax LTD following the judgement of the Privy Council, I thought that it was time to put this matter to rest and move forward with the huge challenges with which our country is faced, especially in the post Covid 19 global context. The fact that I am taking the time of the House again on this matter, Mr Speaker, is a reflection of the utter disgust which I felt following the unacceptable behaviour of some of the Members on the other side of the house. The glee with which they were celebrating the outcome of this whole matter as if they have been able to get away with murder.

Allow me to explain why I believe so,

Mr deputy speaker Sir,

Being the sole importer of petroleum products for the country, it is fully understood that back in 2006, the aim of the then Government was primarily for the STC to acquire its own tanker with a view to reduce dependence on foreign tanker operators for the transportation of petroleum products for Mauritius and to reduce freight rates and ensure timely supplies. A study was thus conducted by a consultant on the acquisition of a tanker vessel. The consultants concluded that if Mauritius owns its own tanker, there would be net substantial savings of USD 12.6M annually, greater control over pricing, delivery, timing and volume of imports.

In 2007, the then Government decided that local private companies should be invited to finance the purchase of the tanker. Subsequently, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Land Transport and Shipping (Land Transport & Shipping Division) sought the collaboration of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry for soliciting interest of the private sector in the project. Out of 400 firms contacted, only 6 firms showed interest. However, when a formal invitation for expression of interest was sent to them, Betonix Ltd was the only one to submit a responsive proposal, in partnership with the Executive Ship Management (ESM) Private Limited of Singapore.

In December 2008, the then Government agreed that Betonix Ltd, in partnership with the ESM Private Limited to acquire, operate and register locally a double-hull tanker vessel, subject to a commercial contract being entered into between STC and the promoters for the transportation of petroleum products for Mauritius for a period of 15 years as from August 2010. With regards to the operation and ownership of the new tanker, a new company would be formed whereby Betonix Ltd would hold 85% and ESM Private Limited 15% of the shares. Betonix Ltd and ESM Private Limited was to fully finance the purchase of the double-hull tanker vessel from their own funds and without any financial commitment and involvement whatsoever from Government. The vessel would be registered locally and freight rates would be charged on the transportation of petroleum products and had to be jointly agreed upon between Betonix Ltd and ESM Private Limited on the one side and the STC on the other, and would be based on rebates available with regard to indicative market rates.

Consequently, the joint venture Betonix Ltd/ ESM Private Limited submitted a draft proposed Contract of Affreightment and Implementation Agreement to the STC regarding the ownership and operation of a brand new tanker vessel with a carrying capacity of 64,000 tonnes for a period of 15 years. The draft Contract of Affreightment was submitted to State Law Office for vetting. On 28 April 2009, the State Law Office responded stating that the Public Procurement Act which came into force on 17 January 2008 stipulated that any major contract for the procurement of goods or services or the execution of works by a public body, unless the procurement falls within the exceptions as set out at section 3(1) (a) and (b) and which exceptions are not applicable in the present case, must have the approval of the Central Procurement Board.

The State Law Office was of the view that since the STC is a public body, it was bound to follow the procedures under the Public Procurement Act as the contract contemplated was that of freight, for the carriage of petroleum products and as such, had to obtain the approval of the Central Procurement Board.

The State Law Office, therefore, advised that STC be precluded from signing the contract unless the approval of CPB was obtained.

In order to obviate the legal difficulty raised by the State Law Office, the then Government, on 29 June 2009 hastily amended the Public Procurement Regulations 2008 to include STC as an exempt organisation under the Public Procurement Act for Goods purchased for resale, including services incidental to the purchase or distribution of such goods (GN 68 of 2009). When they realised that the amendment was not enough, the then Government again, on 30 July 2009, amended the Public Procurement Act through the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 to state that Public Procurement Act does not apply to the procurement effected by an exempt organisation. ( going through the back door not even a proper debate on the issue- made in catimi)

Now Mr deputy Speaker, this clearly begs for the following questions 

Why the acquisition of a tanker by STC was conveniently put aside by the then Government? May we know why? Was it not supposed to be a project of the STC financed by the STC?

what was the aim of the then Government back in 2006 was it not primarily for the STC to acquire its own tanker in order to make savings, as rightly mentioned by Hon Juman.

Who was the minister of commerce then? Is it not because he was related to the Bhunjun family and inorder to avoid any conflict of interest issues, there a remaniment ministerial?

Perhaps those in power at that time know the answer. Justment, Hon Boolell who will be speaking after me, I hope he answers my questions.

what was the intent of the then government when all these manoeuvres were taking place?

Was it to protect the best interest of the country or were there more sinister ulterior motives?

Mr deputy speaker Sir,

One simply has to look into the nature of the transaction which was made possible outside the purview of the Public Procurement Act. It is because of this important amendment to the public procurement regulations that led to the SIGNATURE OF THE CONTRACT OF AFFREIGHTMENT BETWEEN STC AND BETAMAX LTD IN NOVEMBER 2009.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir,

It is vital for people to understand the implications of such a contract. Allow me to quote

Professor Swaley Kasenally in an interview given to lexpress on 7/07/11 said the contract between STC and Betamax for the transportation of petroleum products contains clauses inimical to the interest of the country.

Indeed the Contract was disadvantageous in all sense to the STC. It guaranteed an annual rent of USD17.6 Million for 100% of the freight capacity of its vessel, regardless of whether the vessel carried a full load for an uninterrupted period of 15 years plus costs of fuel, port dues and demurrage charges irrespective of fall in world prices of freight and lesser number of trips undertaken from Mangalore to Mauritius. Mr Speaker Sir, it is also worth mentioning that the daily rate freight charges at that time was around USD 16,500 per day whereas STC paid approxiamately 3 times that amout i.e USD 48,000. Moreover, they had the guarantee for increase in freight charges of 1.5% from year 6 and by 2% as from year 10.

In the same article I mentioned earlier professor Swaley Kassenally asked a very important question was the arrangement between STC and Betamax tantamount to STC financing the tanker which costed USD 58 million according to BDO-DCDM report by guaranteeing the annual payment of 17.6million USD as rent for the vessel.

Was it not in the best interest of the STC to have bought a vessel at USB 58 million instead of renting one from a private operator at USD 17.6 million annually. It would have taken STC approximately 3 years and few months to wholly financed the acquisition of a similar vessel. So where was the interest of the Government then. Now they say the tax payers will pay for the wrong doing of this Government. Did they not think about it when giving the contact couler dans du beton X sil vous plait, to a private operator.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir,

It was clear that the clauses of the contract offered numerous benefits to Betamax Ltd only and none to the Government of Mauritius. So, how could this Government have continued with such a contract where the liabilities to the STC well outweigh those of Betamax Ltd and was not, in any sense, in the interest of our people.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir,

When we took office in 2014 we did not just terminate the contract outright as many people believe and it was certainly not because vendetta politics Hon Eshan Joomun. Actually we invited Betamax to re-negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract. But I am informed that unfortutately they did not want to review the terms and conditions that were outrageous. Hence negotiations failed. I am not in presence of a copy of the minutes of proceedings of that meeting refered to by Hon Uteem. But if that was the case, the correct facts will surely come to light soon.

In January 2015, When the Government took the decision for STC to terminate the Contract it was done in the interest of the country. we were fully aware of the risks that we were taking, but also, and this is especially important Mr Speaker, we were also comforted by the fact that figures obtained from the STC indicated that a release from the contract would result in immediate and substantial savings on freight costs for the Corporation.

It is also worth noting that for the period August 2010 to January 2015, STC had to pay Betamax Ltd a total amount of around USD 126M as freight and demurrage fees. From February 2015 to July 2019, after the termination of the contract between STC and Betamax Ltd, savings of Rs 1.5 billion were realized. This represents savings of about Rs 340 million per year. Over a period of 15 years, STC would have made further savings of Rs 5 billion.

Mr deputy Speaker Sir,

Having gone through the chronology of events leading to the signing of this most immoral one-sided contract in favour of Betamax ltd, I shall not hesitate to state Mr Speaker, that the signature of this contract was nothing short of a conspiracy to defraud the country of Billions of rupees over that period of 15 years. It was for intent and purposes a well planed and perfectly excuted scheme with the blessing of the then Government.

And, Mr. deputy Speaker, because we did the right thing, because we do not have anything to hide and because the wrongdoing and the malicious intention was on the part of those who awarded the contract in November 2009, Government, in its own deliberate judgement has now decided to set up a commission of inquiry in the matter. In the end truth will prevail as may have lost a battle but not the war.

The STC has honoured its commitment and paid around Rs 5.56 Billion

to Betamax Ltd on the 22 of june 2021. The Government living up to it responsibilities has contributed Rs 4.6 Billion of this amount. I, therefore support the provisions being made under this Supplementary appropriation Bill.

Thank you Mr Speaker Sir.
Mauritius will allow international travellers without Covid-19 vaccinations to enter Mauritius, subject to undertaking a mandatory 14-day in hotel room quarantine, from 15 July 2021.

Travellers from Reunion are also able to enter Mauritius.

Mauritius is opening in phases during 2021 with the first phase from 15 July to 30 September 2021 now being extended to both vaccinated and non-vaccinated visitors.

Non-vaccinated visitors from 15 July 2021

Visitors who have not been fully vaccinated are required to book a 14-night in-room quarantine stay in one of Mauritius quarantine hotels before departure. Visitors will stay in their room during this time and meals will be delivered to them.

A quarantine hotel stay is only available for non-vaccinated international visitors and returning Mauritian nationals and can book through a tour operator, travel agent or directly with the hotel. A full list of approved quarantine hotels and entry requirements are available at www.mauritiusnow.com

Fully vaccinated Travellers from 15 July 2021  30 September 2021

Different arrival protocols apply for fully vaccinated travellers with Mauritius launching a unique 14-day resort bubble holiday on the island.

Fully vaccinated visitors will be able to enjoy facilities within their chosen hotel including the swimming pool and beach. If guests stay for 14 days and have negative PCR tests during their stay in the resort, they will then be able to leave the hotel and travel around the island freely for the rest of their stay, exploring the islands many attractions. However, for shorter stays, they may leave the resort earlier and travel back home. Non or partially vaccinated visitors are unable to use a resort bubble package. The approved Covid-19 safe resort bubbles as well as entry requirements for are available on: www.mauritiusnow.com

All travellers 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 undergo a PCR test on arrival at the airport in Mauritius, on day 7 and 14 of their resort bubble or quarantine hotel, as applicable.

The announcement follows the acceleration of the vaccination campaign and the progress made towards herd immunity expected by the end of September. Tourism employees were prioritised during the vaccine rollout. This has enabled 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 countrys population.

Air Mauritius, Emirates are other global airlines will add additional flight capacity from 15 July 2021 which will increase in the lead up to the full reopening of 1 October 2021.

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If there is no dispute about the facts, there is little question Gerlach violated the states requirement that she report allegations of child abuse. Angela Liddle, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, said the fact that the boy identified himself to Gerlach as a 16-year-old who had run away from home, according to court documents, was enough to trigger Gerlachs obligation to call ChildLine, the child abuse hotline run by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Under Pennsylvania law, any person under 18 without proper housing or supervision warrants a child welfare investigation, Liddle said.
Under the one-year contract with Fox Rothschild, ASD will pay a retainer fee of $35,000 to cover two board meetings a month and routine matters. The firm will charge an added hourly fee of $205 per hour for certain services not covered by the retainer. Those would include such work as personnel items involving demotions, seniority calculations, investigations of management-level employees or other such personnel actions, contracts relating to administrators, and responses to grievances of a collective bargaining agreement, among other issues. Other hourly rates would be charged for specialized areas of school district business.
Before the vote, Brace suggested reducing the tax hike to 1% and aiming for a 95% collection rate of those taxes. The district typically has a 93% or 94% rate. But her motion failed as most board members agreed it was too risky to rely on a better collection rate to ensure the revenue income.
As U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote in his decision on a 2007 case: The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. DNA sequencing pioneer Craig Venter found the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis. Race should be irrelevant, and only by treating it as irrelevant will we achieve inclusivity. A person should be included because of their individual character not because of their race.
They are entitled to their opinion about whether all graffiti is art and about the aesthetic appeal of those particular markings. But there should be no doubt about whether the graffiti belonged there.
If convicted, its possible she would have to step down because of the citys Home Rule Charter. It states that council members convicted of a second-degree misdemeanor or higher crime shall forfeit their office. She would be entitled to a hearing before council.
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: neiubyiasiy (neiubyiasiy), : HuNan

 : The FBI should not just focus on Giuliani, "you know" Guo Wengui should be investigated

: BBS  (Wed Jun 30 23:19:42 2021, )



The FBI should not just focus on Giuliani, "you know" Guo Wengui should be

investigated

On April 28, U.S. federal agents searched Rudy Giuliani's home and office in

New York and seized electronic devices. Giuliani was mayor of New York

and later became a private lawyer, working for former president Donald

Trump. Investigators looked at Giuliani's activities in Ukraine related

to trump's 2020 re-election campaign. What FBI did shows that the U.S.

law enforcement agencies began to investigate those who interfere in the U.

S. election in 2020.

Giuliani's intervention in the U.S. election in 2020

Giuliani, a high-profile supporter and adviser of Trump, tried to obtain

information in Ukraine before the 2020 US election, which might be

unfavorable to Biden, the presidential candidate at that time, especially

materials about the huge payment to Biden's son Hunter Biden, the Voice of

America reported. And through the joint dissemination of foreigners for

the presidential candidate Biden's "Ukraine Scandal" event adverse

information, thus affecting the polls, intended to interfere with the U.S.

election.

Foreigners involved in Giuliani's intervention in the 2020 US election

Guo Wengui, a famous Chinese tycoon who fled to the United States illegally,

released negative information about the Communist Party of China in order

to meet the Anti China needs of western conservative forces and obtain

political protection. In the 2020 U.S. general election, Guo Wengui

bets on US President trump, sets up a stage with Giuliani to spread the

false information of the scandal about Hunter Bidens "three hard disks",

and attacks Biden, who is the presidential candidate, in an attempt to

intervene in the direction of the U.S. general election. According to "

exclusive live photos" broadcast on April 29 by YouTube blogger Lawrence

playing twitter, the FBI searched Giuliani's house today, and the truth

about Guo Wengui's "Scandal about Hunter Bidens disks" is coming to be

clear! Guo Wengui and Luther are under investigation for espionage!

160;More serious than GTV fund-raising fraud! Giuliani urgently

cancelled the established public statement in the afternoon In the

video, Guo Wengui and Giuliani are closely related, and their intimate

relationship has been confirmed by twitter user "Zhang Lifan @ zhanglifan".&

#160;In the process of creating a false event of "Scandal about Hunter Biden

s disks" and spreading the unfavorable atmosphere of public opinion

towards the presidential candidate, Mr. Biden, in the election campaign, the

vain Guo Wengui's Royal anchor Luther inadvertently leaked his framed

photos with Juliani, Bannon and Yan limeng on his twitter, showing that Guo

Wengui arranged for Juliani, Trump's staff Bannon, Luther and Yan limeng

160;In her apartment on the 18th floor of the sherry Netherland hotel in New

York, Yan limeng secretly talked about publishing false information

attacking the then presidential candidate Biden.

Later, Guo Wengui instructed his royal anchor Luther to publish "10 / 16 /

2020 Luther review" on his personal YouTube: two weeks ago, Luther's three

hard disk videos were popular on American social media; The FBI child

pornography lawyer is responsible for the case of Biden's hard disk door, re

verifying the negative information of Biden's presidential candidate when a

large number of attacks with "three hard disk doors" as the topic, such as

"the revelation of Luther show". At the same time, the G news website

of Guo media, which is related to Guo Wengui and Bannon, has released the

headlines of Pro US President trump for several months in a row, including

the panic message that Biden's victory will make the Chinese ruling

authorities "take over the world". Although Guo Wengui's related

behavior could not control the election result in the end, he and his gang

released misleading materials, which had some impact on the US general

election.



The alien status is disturbing

As we all know, Guo Wengui once claimed that his name in the code of

national security of the Communist Party of China is Wu Nan, which serves

for the national security of the Communist Party of China. It is hard

to imagine that Guo Wengui is not a double-sided spy. By actively "

disclosing" the false and true information of the Communist Party of China,

he is trying to get into the US politicians and celebrities. However,

Giuliani, Trump's campaign adviser, and Bannon, a former White House aide,

may just be his pet dog and enter the Trojan horse of the US government to

obtain intelligence. The public information has made it clear that

Giuliani disclosed the "three hard disks" incident information to Guo Wengui

's team for external dissemination. Is it possible that the US foreign

policy towards Ukraine has leaked to Guo Wengui? Of course, Guo Wengui

may also get some of the most important political intelligence, including

internal poll data, from Trump's campaign team in cooperation with Giuliani

in disseminating unfavorable information to then presidential candidate

Biden and supporting Trump's campaign, so as to reverse the strategy and

resource concentration of Biden's campaign team, And which groups Biden

is trying to win over - valuable information for any foreign government

about the potential current U.S. government.



Guo Wengui has been accused of spying by an American company

On July 22, 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Virginia based

strategic vision US LCC filed a lawsuit in court accusing Guo Wengui, a

Chinese tycoon in the United States, of being a spy of the Chinese

government. The company said that Guo hoped the research company would

investigate a list of personnel to deal with the Chinese Communist Party.

However, the company found that the first 15 people on the list were

protected by the US government and could not be disclosed to the public to

provide help to the US government. The company thus concluded that Guo

Wengui was not the dissident he claimed to be. On the contrary, Guo Wengui

had been with the company in the past

Now it's all a dissident hunter, an advocate, an agent.

FBI should not just focus on Giuliani. "You know" Guo Wengui should be

investigated

Guo Wengui's past and present identity is a mystery. His false "revelations"

cater to the remarks of the far right forces in the United States, and help

him enter the circle of individual dignitaries and celebrities in the

United States. There are many "friends" around him, including the advisers

and staff of the former president. The professionalism of the former agent

allows him to communicate with Giuliani, the president and the president

160;Bannon, the political leaders, was keen to capture the American

intelligence, which was important or not. As a doubting dissident and

foreigner, Guo Wengui himself is a bomb. Today he can intervene in the US

general election for political asylum, and tomorrow he can trade important

US intelligence information for exemption from punishment. In western

society, there is no Chinese culture of "not our own race, their hearts must

be different", but there is also the idea that heretics are not trustworthy

. Based on this, the FBI should not only focus on Giuliani, "you know" Guo

Wengui should be investigated.



--

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State

Advisor Toshi Wungtung passes away

Dimapur/Kohima, JUL 1 (NPN) | Publish Date: 7/1/2021 12:11:51 PM IST

Advisor of IPR, SCERT and Village Guards Toshi Wungtung passed away at New Delhi Thursday morning after a brief illness. He was 56 and is survived by his wife.

Wungtung was undergoing treatment for post-Covid-19-related health complications in Delhi, official sources confirmed. Earlier, Wungtung was tested positive for Covid sometime in May and admitted to a hospital in Dimapur. He was then airlifted to Delhis BLK Hospital on medical advice, sources said.

Wungtung was the son of former minister and four-time legislator K. Yamakam Yimchunger. Wuntung made his electoral debut in 2018 when he contested and won on NDPP ticket from 58 Shamatore-Chessore constituency.

Known for being soft-spoken by nature but outspoken advocate on environment conservation, promotion of Naga cultural identity and traditions, and Naga political issue.

A prayer service was held at the lawns of Nagaland House, New Delhi Thursday evening, attended by chief minister Neiphiu Rio, Mrs Rio, Dy CM Y. Patton, ministers- Temjen Imna Along, Kashiho Sangtam, Lok Sabha MP Tokheho and several other dignitaries.

The service was conducted by NCF pastor Rev. Ricky Medom while short speeches were delivered by chief minister Neiphiu Rio, state BJP president and minister Imna Along, minister Kashiho Sangtam and family members.

State funeral: Wungtungs body is expected to arrive Dimapur on Friday afternoon after which it would remain in state at his mothers residence at Purana Bazaar. As decided by the State cabinet at an emergency meeting on Thursday, a State funeral will be accorded to him.

According to a circular issued by chief secretary J Alam, the State funeral will be held at late Wungtungs mothers residence premises in Purana Bazaar area Dimapur from 8 a.m. onwards on July 3. After this, the body is likely to be airlifted by chopper to Shamator where he will be laid to rest.

Condolence messages

Nagaland governor RN Ravi and chief minister Neiphiu Rio led others in condoling the passing of advisor ToshiWungtung, who breathed his last Thursday morning in New Delhi.

In a condolence message to Mrs. Lipokla Wungtung, Nagaland governor said late Wungtung tirelessly and selflessly worked for the better future of the youth and dedicated his life to building a peaceful and prosperous Nagaland.

Ravi described late Wungtung as a visionary leader and said his contributions towards upliftment of the relatively less developed people of eastern Nagaland would be remembered for years to come.

In his demise, governor said the country and the state had lost a promising and dynamic young leader.

Ravi conveyed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and prayedthat God bestow the needed fortitude to the family members to bear this tragic loss and grant them solace at this hour of enormous pain.

CM: State chief minister Neiphiu Rio expressed deep shock and pain over the demise of late Toshi Wungtung and said Naga society as a whole has lost a dynamic leader and a true son of the soil.

In a condolence message, Rio said late Wungtung, who was an intellectual activist working with various organisations, civil societies and NGOs, had a vast experience and close networks with all sections including international organisations.

Stating that late Wungtung was a leader who stood for the masses and reflected the aspirations of the people, the chief minister said the vacuum created due to his demise would be difficult to fill.

However, Rio said his legacy would continue to live on through the many lives he touched. The chief minister conveyed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members and prayed that Almighty God give them strength and courage to bear the irreparable loss.

NLA speaker: State Assembly (NLA) speaker Sharingain Longkumer described late Toshi Wungtung as an exceptionally dynamic and vibrant leader, who was equally active in the Assembly, government and in the larger public sphere.

In a condolence message, NLA speaker said the Wungtungs death is a big loss to Nagaland and our Eastern brethrenin particular, addingthe void created would be very difficult to fill. Sharingain, on behalf of all the Members of the 13th NLA, conveyed deepest condolences and sympathies to the members of the bereaved family and prayed that Almighty God give them strength and fortitude to bear the loss.

ENPO: Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organization (ENPO) expressed deepest sorrow at the demise of Toshi Wungtung and said his passing was an immeasurable loss for the people of Eastern Nagaland in particular and the Nagas as a whole. In a condolence message, ENPO said late Wungtung enduringly and selflessly carried to greater heights the cause of the Frontier Nagaland to the present status.

ENPO said that the people of Eastern Nagaland would fondly remember his supreme endurance as he spent many years of his precious and remarkable time in the organization in various capacities such as spokesperson, general secretary, advisor and talk team member.

ENPO extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family members and prayed for the departed soul to rest in eternal peace.

DY.CM: Expressing sadness over the demise of Wungtung, state deputy chief minister and BLP leader Y. Patton said late Wungtung was a spirited young leader, full of energy and dynamism, adding that Nagaland has lost a very young,efficient and visionary leader.

In a condolence message, Patton said late Wungtung was fully committed to uplifting the people of his area and the state of Nagalandas a leader of various NGOs in the past and as an MLA.

Patton termed as unfortunate that late Wungtung had to depart so early when he had so much more to deliver.

The deputy chief minister, on behalf of the state BJP legislators, conveyed deepest sympathies to the bereaved family and prayed for the departed to rest in peace.

LoP: Leader of the opposition TR Zeliang mourned the demise of Toshi Wungtung, who he said was a brilliant upcoming Naga leader.

In a condolence message, Zeliang said late Wuntung following the footstep of his father late K. Yamakam Yimchunger, grew up to be an illustrious leader. His demise is a great loss, LoP said extended deepest condolences to the bereaved family membersand during this time of grief.

Bio-Data: Toshi Wungtung he did his MA and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and was associated with many organisations, including as president of Naga Students Union Delhi, member of Consultative/Advisory Committee of Naga Students Federation, member of border area research and drafting committee of NSF on legal interpretation of Art. 371 (A) in regard to land and resources and 16-Point Agreement.

He also served as a student representative to Academic Council of JNU, senior research fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and associate for ethnic/native studies at the University of Texas, USA.

Wungtung served as spokesperson of Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organisation (ENPO) on Indo-Naga political affairs and peace process and in various capacities in both ENPO and Yimchungru Tribal Council, besides being a member of the negotiating team in bilateral-talks between Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and ENPO for social economic and political empowerment of eastern Nagaland.

He was also a member of Forum for Naga Reconciliation and was working on wildlife conservation, particularly along the Saramati mountain and cross-border areas, besides being UNICEFs State coordinator for HIV/AIDS, member of governing body of North East Zone Cultural Centre.
Fourth of July's weather will either be extremely wet, extremely hot, or extremely dry, depending on the area you are based, as a lot of individuals look forward to going out and celebrating Independence Day for the first time in two years.

The Forecast

One location that has been constantly bombarded with rain during the last few months is the South. Not too long ago, Tropical Storm Claudette brought almost a foot of rain to some regions in Mississippi and up to 8 inches in some parts of Louisiana.

Houston also experienced inundating rain with close to 14 inches between May 11 and June 3, making it the second wettest period that has ever been recorded for the city. Now, looking onwards to the Fourth weekend of July, the forecast seems like it will be wet in the South once again.

The lead forecaster at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Houston, Brian Kyle said there has been sort of a break so that the ground could dry out but we are entering a wetter pattern again. Brian Kyle said more intense gulf moisture will be moving into the region, together with daytime heating will make good chances of showers and storms available every day.

Also Read: Despite Temperature Spikes, American Northeast May Experience Some Cooling Due to Stormy Weather

Wet Holiday Weekend

And this weekend, possibility of rain will stretch across the South and up the Eastern Seaboard. For millions, this will be a wet holiday weekend. As people went to the beaches for the long weekend, more showers and storms signify more risk.

The lead forecaster said It's a big time with the beaches in the area and rip currents are usually an unease going into the holiday week. The isolated storms off the Gulf will cause periods of powerful southerly winds which could make rip currents. And could contain lightning and periods of very intense rainfall also.

The lead forecaster said in the Houston region the greatest concern is the rainfall rates, this concern is even greater than the amount.

Flash Flooding in Some Portion of the State

The metro regions with so much concrete can at times get rainfall rates of 3-inches plus an hour, and the ground just won't be able to absorb it that quickly. And that's what usually leads the flash flooding in this portion of the state.

The West can't seem to get over a few drops while the South copes with drenching rain. With about 91% of the west in some level of drought, the circumstances are terrible.

Chelsea Peters, NWS Las Vegas Meteorologist said: "We speak to emergency managers and people in the fire department and they reveal that 4th of July is their most occupied time of year, due to the likelihood of getting so many calls.

Peters said nearly all the local fireworks are contained within the city, and don't appear to spark as many wildfires.

Related Article: Lake Charles Slammed: Flash Flooding Emergencies Declared in Louisiana, Texas

For more news, updates about weather forecast and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Oymyakon, Russia, commonly regarded as the world's coldest inhabited location, is not living up to its title.

On Tuesday, the town reached a high of 88.8 degrees Fahrenheit (31.6 degrees Celsius), the warmest it has ever been in June. The previous three days have been similarly hot in Oymyakon, with temperatures hitting 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperature Rise

According to Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls, the weather will drop off a bit on Thursday and Friday, with highs in the upper 70s. Still, the heat will return during the weekend.

"On Saturday, temperatures are expected to rise to approximately 30 degrees Celsius (86F). Sunday was not quite as warm as Saturday, but it was still warm by Oymyakon norms, with temperatures reaching 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), "According to Nicholls.

"Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth"

The town of around 500 people, located in Russia's Sakha Republic, is known for its freezing weather. According to The Siberian Times, the lowest officially recorded temperature in Oymyakon was 89.9 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (67.7 degrees below zero Celsius) in 1933.

Temperatures in Oymyakon dropped to an unusually cold -73 degrees Fahrenheit in January, indicating the city's temperature has changed by a staggering 161 degrees Fahrenheit this year.

Related Article: Scientists Are Baffled After Massive Antarctic Lake Has Suddenly Vanished Without Trace



Geographical Location

Oymyakon is located in a permafrost zone, which means that the ground temperature is consistently below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 C).

According to Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews, the severe winter environment of far northeastern Asia is also known as the "Pole of Cold."

"In northern Asia, the Siberian 'Pole of Cold' is located within the Sakha Republic, or Yakutia," Andrews explained. "Only the summits of huge Antarctica and Greenland ice sheets are colder in the winter than it is in the summer."

Average Temperature

The temperature does climb in the summer, with the average high in June reaching a respectable (but not scorching) 68 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the average low temperature returns to the upper 30s.

Oymyakon is roughly 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, which many people believe is frigid all year, yet as recent thermometer readings show, the air there can become warm.

The temperature reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit on June 24 at Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The temperature at Little Chicago, Northwest Territories, Canada, hit 91 degrees Fahrenheit.

Increase in Temperature

The Pacific Northwest also saw all-time high temperatures this week. Three days in a row, Portland set a new daily high-temperature record at 116 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the BBC, a new all-time high temperature was achieved in Lytton, British Columbia, when the thermometer reached 121.1 F (49.5 C) on Tuesday.

This month was likewise scorching hot in Moscow. The arrival of summer coincided with a heat wave that pushed temperatures to levels not seen since 1901.

Also Read: NASA Reports Earth Has Been Trapping "Unprecedented" Amount of Heat in Energy Imbalance

For more Environmental News, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
A heat wave has gripped the Northwestern United States and Pacific Canada, which the National Weather Service described as "historic and hazardous" in a statement issued on Sunday (June 27). A "heat dome," a meteorological oddity, is partially to blame.

Record Breaking Heats All Over

Multiple cities in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, and British Columbia have set scorching all-time heat records in recent days, including a high of 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) in Seattle on Sunday (June 27) - the city's highest ever recorded temperature - and a high of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius) in Salem, Oregon, on the same day. Because the power lines were melting in the heat in Portland, the city's streetcar system had to suspend service for the day.

Meanwhile, the town of Lytton, British Columbia, just north of the Canadian border, hit 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius) on Monday, the highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Canada, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

Related Articles:

Western Canada Breaks National Heat Records at 116 Degrees

Oymakon, Russia, The "Coldest Inhabited Place on Earth" Is Experiencing Drastic Temperature Rise





Heat Wave Plus Summer Heat

While normal summer temperatures are continuously rising owing to human-induced global warming (2020 is tied with 2016 for the warmest year on record, according to Live Science), a meteorological anomaly is also to blame for the Pacific Northwest heat. According to CBS News, converging high- and low-pressure systems have imprisoned the region in a "heat dome" - basically, "a mountain of heated air" held in place by undulations in the jet stream (a river of strong wind flowing high through the upper sky).

Related Articles:

US Braces For 'Apocalyptic' Summer Due to Record-Breaking Drought and Heat Waves

Megadrought Ravages the American West, Climate Change Worsens the Situation

Heat Dome

The jet stream has locked a ridge of high pressure (the heat dome) above the Pacific Northwest, preventing the weather system from moving on. Instead, the high-pressure system's hot air presses down over the region, generating a stifling heat blanket. According to CBS, the wind patterns swirl around the heat block in the shape of the Greek letter Omega, as shown on weather maps like this one. This gives systems like this the term "Omega blocks."

Related Articles:

Dozens of Sudden Deaths in Vancouver Linked to Extreme Heat Dome

Scientists Are Baffled After Massive Antarctic Lake Has Suddenly Vanished Without Trace

Is the Worst Over?

Fortunately, the worst appears to be gone for the time being, according to the National Weather Service, which stated that "the stagnant upper-level high pressure in situ over the region [is] beginning to migrate to the east over the next couple of days." For the next several days, the greatest temperatures are expected to be in eastern Washington, Oregon, and western Idaho, according to the NWS, before moving over Montana by Thursday (July 1). For much of the region, excessive heat advisories are still in effect.

Also Read: Megadrought 2021: The Worst Drought Suffered by the US West in 1,200 Years

For more climate and weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Following another dry spring, experts anticipate that the poisonous bloom of algae that paints western Lake Erie a horrible shade of green each summer and threatens drinking water and fish will be less this year.

According to researchers, the shallowest of the Great Lakes is expected to have back-to-back years of relatively moderate algal blooms for the first time in more than a decade. However, they warn that this isn't an indication that the lake is about to turn a corner.

That's because they believe the news this year is due to a lack of strong rainfall, which would normally wash phosphorus-laden animal dung and chemical fertilizers off farm fields and into the lake, feeding algae.

"While this is encouraging news, the phosphorus concentration remains unchanged from previous years," said Rick Stumpf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Until we see decreases in phosphorus concentrations, the following year's above-average rainfall will result in a more severe bloom."

Rendering Water Undrinkable

Since algal toxins rendered more than 400,000 residents in the Toledo area unable to drink their tap water in 2014, Ohio's authorities have been under pressure to battle the blooms. There has been little development thus far.

Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, is relying on cleaning up the lake with a 10-year plan that includes financial incentives for farmers to embrace better farming techniques and create a network of wetlands to absorb and filter runoff from fields.

Related Article: Harmful Blue-Green Algae Found in Australia Might Just Be What Makes Mars Habitable



Looking for a Permanent Solution

Those efforts, though, are only beginning. States dealing with a growing number of algae outbreaks are keeping a close eye on the strategy. Some environmental groups are pessimistic, while others who have previously clashed with the farming business are optimistic.

According to NOAA's estimate for this summer, the bloom will score a 3 on its severity index, which is the same as last year. Any number greater than 5 indicates a significant bloom.

Since 2008, algal outbreaks have grown increasingly regular and severe. However, if the prognosis for this summer holds true, three of the previous four years will be rated below a 5 on the scale.

Adaptive Farming

Farmers have been growing more cover crops and adopting innovative techniques to decrease fertilizer runoff throughout that time, according to Jordan Hoewischer, Ohio Farm Bureau's director of water quality and research.

"It doesn't make sense to place all the blame on the farmers if there is a huge bloom and give all the credit to the weather on years when there is a smaller bloom," he added.

Cyanobacteria Toxin

Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, can generate a liver toxin known as microcystin, which is toxic to humans and can be deadly to animals, including dogs. Even if there are fewer blooms in a given year, they can still release harmful poisons.

Reducing Toxic Discharge

The objective of NOAA and the other US and Canadian agencies is to get the Lake Erie bloom down to a 3 on the index.

Ohio, Michigan, and the Canadian state of Ontario have likewise committed to reducing phosphorus discharge by 40% by 2025 compared to 2015.

According to Laura Johnson, director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University in Ohio, measurements this year in the Maumee River, which transports much of the agriculture runoff from Ohio and Indiana into the lake, there are still elevated phosphorus concentrations.

The main difference, she explained, is that it has been scorched, resulting in a significant reduction in the volume of water flowing through the river.

Blooms will continue to be an issue unless large and regular reductions in phosphorus levels are implemented in the agriculturally intensive Maumee River watershed, according to Don Scavia, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and a member of the prediction team.

"We can't just cross our fingers and pray for better weather to keep us safe," he explained.

Also Read: Study Reveals that Algae Blocks Excess Light During Photosynthesis

For more news about Cellular Technology, follow Nature World New
When a guy from San Francisco was hunting for crabs at Gray Whale Cove State Beach, he felt a severe ache followed by a little push. He was looking in the face of a great white shark that had just bitten him when he looked down.

"I was thinking, 'OK, I got struck,'" Nemanja Spasojevic told NBC's "TODAY" show at the time. "I began feverishly kicking at the rocks."

Spasojevic, 38, said he enjoys surfing and snorkeling and has visited the beach in San Mateo County several times. He admitted that sharks were known to reside in the region, but claimed they seldom attacked people.

Harmless Dive

So, on Saturday morning, Spasojevic didn't hesitate to put on his wetsuit and dive into the ocean. He told "TODAY" that he wanted to capture some crabs for a "beautiful supper."

Things began off well, according to Spasojevic. He was swimming near the rocks in a crab-infested region. The shark attacked him as he was gazing at one.

It was "no larger than a dolphin," according to Spasojevic, and only bit him once, on the back of his thigh. He began kicking right away, attempting to reach the beach.

Related Article: Shark Season 2021: Sightings Increased in East Coast as Summer Approaches



Going Back to Land

Spasojevic requested assistance once he was back on the beach. Thomas Masotta, who was fishing on the beach at the time, rushed to his aid.

Masotta earlier told NBC News via email, "He called out to me, then fell." "He was rolling around on the ground, saying he wasn't in too much pain but was concerned about his blood loss."

Related Article: Small White Shark Population Continues to Thrive in the Coast of Central California



Shark Bite

According to Spasojevic, his wetsuit was filling up with blood. The shark's teeth had punctured his leg ten times during the attack.

There was a sense of relief when the medics came.

"'Hey, is my leg going to be all right?' I wondered. 'Yeah, you're going to keep the leg,' they said. So I thought to myself, 'OK, I've got a leg, I'm going to survive, what more can I ask for?' "he stated.

Related Article: Gargantuan Basking Shark After a Plankton Gives Students a Big Scare



Immediate Treatment

Spasojevic was transported to the trauma center at San Francisco General Hospital for treatment.

"I'm probably the luckiest man in the world," he told NBC Bay Area, "to get struck by the great white and walk out of the hospital the same day."

According to the publication, Spasojevic has a small limp in addition to the puncture wounds. He stated that after he recovers, he intends to return to the beach.

Related Article: Shark Infestation in British Beaches Caused by Calmer Waters Due to Covid Protocols

Are Sharks Evil?

"Sharks, in my opinion, are not the evil animals. It's the right type of house for them. "We're simply passing through," Spasojevic told "TODAY.." "" "I'm definitely going to come back."

Also Read: Hoffman's Dragon Shark: Mexican 'Godzilla Shark' Finally Given a Proper Name

Fore more news from the animal kingdom, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Predicting the worldwide consequences of coral loss on fish communities is a critical job, particularly because of reef fish supply sustenance to millions of people. A new research headed by the University of Helsinki forecasts how fish diversity will respond to coral losses, estimating that future coral loss might result in a worldwide drop of more than 40% in reef fish variety.

Coral Bleaching

When the water temperature rises, corals begin to bleach and die. What happens if there are no other reefs for fish to swim to? The few fish species that feed on corals will definitely perish, while the remainder may survive by moving to rocky habitats. It's been difficult to conduct large-scale studies that can predict which fish will survive in a world without corals. According to a recent study conducted by Giovanni Strona of the University of Helsinki, global predictions of fish variety without corals are as low as small-scale studies imply.

International Collaboration

A multinational team of marine biologists began by mapping tropical fish and coral diversity for every square degree of latitude and longitude across the world's seas. These groundbreaking maps revealed what marine biologists had long suspected: fish and coral diversity vary greatly. The Indo-Pacific "coral triangle" has many more species than the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. The way that latitude, habitat, temperature, and geography impact speciation and extinction rates among corals and fishes has long been described as a source of marine diversity hotspots. The scientists discovered that even after adjusting for factors that promote diversity in general, regions with diverse corals tended to have more different fishes, implying that coral diversity breeds fish diversity.

"This isn't unexpected, considering that corals provide a unique food supply for certain species, as well as a three-dimensional home for many others. Fish that rely on corals may also be prey for fish that do not rely on corals directly. "Giovanni Strona of the University of Helsinki is the primary author.

Related Article: Ocean's Extremely Hot Causing Great White Sharks to Find Other Habitat

Coral Diversity and Fish Diversity

The authors conducted a simple thought experiment after fitting the line between coral diversity and fish diversity. They predicted global coral extinction by extending the fish vs. corals relationship until no coral species remained. According to this projection, about 40% of the world's tropical reef fishes are expected to perish if corals are lost. This is a significantly larger loss than those species known to rely directly or indirectly on coral, as proven in smaller-scale studies, implying that coral reef food webs will begin to unravel if corals become extinct. In certain areas, the unraveling is likely to be more dramatic than in others. The Central Pacific is predicted to lose more than 60% of its reef fish, but the Western Atlantic will lose only 10%.

"To disentangle the effect of environment, biogeography, and history on fish and coral diversity, we first devised a statistical model that accurately predicted local-scale fish diversity as a response to several environmental variables such as water temperature, pH, and salinity, as well as coral diversity," Strona explains.

Diversity Forecast

"In addition to providing a means to forecast fish diversity under unique environmental conditions, the approach provided a tool to investigate how to fish diversity may alter in response to changes in coral diversity," says Valeriano Parravicini, a study co-leader from the University of Perpignan.

"This thought experiment should be alarming to anybody who has enjoyed snorkeling on a coral reef or to the millions of people who rely on reef fish for sustenance. However, it motivates people to work harder to protect and repair coral reefs. The advantages would extend well beyond corals to fish and other species that rely on corals directly or indirectly. "Kevin Lafferty, a Senior Scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, works for the US Geological Survey.

Also Read: UNESCO: Great Barrier Reef Should Be Classified as "In Danger" Due to Degradation

For more news update about Environmental Action, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Academics are convinced they have recognized a notable geological secret - a sunken continent concealed underneath Iceland and the nearby ocean, which they have named "Icelandia."

Sunken Continent

An international team of geologists, that was headed by an Emeritus Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University (UK), Gillian Foulger, is convinced the sunken continent could extend from Greenland getting to Europe.

This sunken continent is believed to envelop a region of approximately 600,000 km2 but when connecting regions west of Britain are added to a "Greater Icelandia," there is a possibility the whole area will be approximately 1,000,000 km2 in size.

If this is confirmed, it implies that the giant supercontinent of Pangaea, which is believed to have split up more than 50 million years ago, has in fact not completely broken up.

This new theory places a challenge to the scientific ideas that has been held for a long time around the extent of oceanic and continental crust in the North Atlantic area, and how the formation of volcanic islands, like Iceland, happened.

Also Read: Map of 'Lost' Continent Zealandia That Disappeared 23 Million Years Ago Ultimately Revealed!

The New Theory

The presence of continental - instead of oceanic - crust could also brings up discussions concerning a new source of minerals and hydrocarbons, both of which are found in the continental crust.

The revolutionary new theory was originated from an innovative series of expert conferences that took place in Durham and is added to a dedicated chapter of In the Footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton: New Ideas in Earth Science (released 29th of June 2021 by the Geological Society of America), which Professor Foulger wrote together with Professor Laurent Geoffroy of the Ocean Geosciences Laboratory, University of Brest in France, and Dr. Laurent Gernigon of the Geological Survey of Norway.

Taking about the new theory, Professor Foulger said that till now Iceland has confused geologists, as the believed-theories that it is made of and surrounded by oceanic crust are not backed by multiple geological data. For instance, the crust located underneath Iceland is more than 40 km thick - seven times denser than typical oceanic crust. An explanation of this could not be given.

Testing the Theory

However, when the possibility of this thick crust being continental has been considered, the data gotten by the scientists suddenly made sense. This made the scientists immediately realize that the continental part was much larger than Iceland itself - there is a concealed continent right there beneath the sea.

There is fantastic work to be carried out so that the existence of Icelandia will be proven but it also brings up an entirely different view of scientist's geological understanding of the world. Similar things could be occurring at many more locations.

Presently, the research team is working with collaborators from all over the globe on work to put their theory to test, which will kick off once the restrictions of COVID-19 permit.

Related Article: Incredible! Hidden Continent With a New Subduction Zone Close to New Zealand

For more news, updates about hidden continent and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
California firefighters have been more in demand than usual as California wildfires occur more frequently than before.

San Diego continues to recruit firefighters of the city's largest firefighting agency, training them harder on defense against flames and sizzling heat on the outskirts of the region.

For the past years, California's firefighters face extreme wildfires, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Fortunately, worst-case scenario was being brought to hospitals for treatment.

The state has been working with the government for available resources and support for wildfire frontliners in fighting against a climate crisis the city had been experiencing for years, destroying millions of acres of land, tens of thousands of infrastructures and countless threats for human lives.

From 'Fire Seasons' to 'Fire Years'





"Because of climate change, wildland firefighting is no longer a seasonal endeavour," the White House stated.

The state had been establishing a year-round workforce as vital due to wildfires taking longer than usual to die out. It was deemed necessary to maximize availability of firefighters as much as possible, while making sure that they are 'equitably compensated' and competent in the field.

The unprecedented 2020 fire in California, Oregon, and Colorado obtained the state of California its first recorded 'gigafire' which burned and expanded beyond 1million acres along the Pacific coastline in northern California. The fire was also referred to as the August Complex, a first in modern history.

Since 1970, the destruction brought by California wildfires accelerated, with the wildfire season itself extending on for at least two additional months. During the course of 1972-2018, California increased its annual burn five times more, with intense speculation of anthropogenic climate change being the main driver.

In addition, the extreme heat and drought brought by global warming fuels the relentless fires. Authorities say the having lesser rain during autumn and spring does not help at all in decreasing heat and providing moisture in vegetation and soil.

"We haven't had half the rain we're supposed to get, and half the snowpack. It makes it really hard when we don't have water," said Tony Davis, manager Lake Oroville's marina.

Also read: Rattlesnakes Everywhere! California's Severe Drought is Forcing Rattlesnakes Out of Their Habitat

The Ecological Role of 'Good Fire'

California's native tribes and indigenous people believe that there must be occurrence of 'controlled fires'. For millennia, these tribes use this technique to 'regenerate land, prevent overgrowth, and support the lifecycles of species.' Instead of suppressing fires, there should be an occasional encouragement of the 'good fire' to prevent carpeting forest floors and piling up dried vegetation susceptible to igniting fires.

For the last 20 years, major wildfire events had destroyed lives and traumatized communities in California, including the Camp Fire in 2018 which was considered the 'deadliest'.

Aside from this, wildfires also cause air pollution, gradually destroying human health through the tiny particles it suspends in the air lodging deep in the lungs. According to medical experts, an hour exposed to wildfire smoke is equivalent to 60 minutes of continuously smoking cigarettes.

Also read: Greta Thunberg: Heatwave 'Just Getting Started' as Canada Breaks All-time Record Highest Temperature


MAJOR General (Retired) Clever Shadreck Chiramba, who succumbed to Covid-19 complications on Sunday, was yesterday declared a national hero.

The announcement was made by President Mnangagwa at the national heros Hatfield home in Harare. Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba, who was aged 66, died at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

President Mnangagwa was accompanied by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Zanu PF Second Secretary Kembo Mohadi, Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and service chiefs.

President Mnangagwa described Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba as a cheerful and intelligent cadre who dedicated his life to the liberation and development of the country.

The late Major General was a strong revolutionary cadre who served his country before and after independence with utmost loyalty, dedication and commitment, he said.

I knew him personally, even though he joined the liberation war via Botswana and Zapu.

President Mnangagwa said Maj-Gen Chiramba was bestowed with the national hero status due to his unwavering commitment to Zanu PF.

He consoled the Chiramba family, saying the nation was mourning with them in their bereavement.

Vice President Chiwenga said he worked together with Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba after independence in the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), when the Maj-Gen was his deputy at Five Brigade in Gweru from 1985 to 1988.

I knew him at a personal level, we wanted to see him get old, but unfortunately due to the pandemic he left us early, he said.

Vice President Chiwenga said at the time of his death, Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba was part of veterans of the struggle who were writing a book on the liberation war. Cde Mohadi consoled the family, saying the nation shared in their loss.

He said Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba contributed immensely to the countrys independence and maintenance of peace.

Father to Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba, Mr Shadreck Chiramba, thanked President Mnangagwa and Government for honouring his son and family.

Mr Chiramba said the honour bestowed on his son was a consolation to his family in their time of mourning.

Maj-Gen Chirambas younger brother, Alfred, also thanked the President for the honour, saying even after retirement, his brother remained loyal to Government and the ruling party, Zanu PF.

Born on February 2, 1955, in Chivi district in Gude Village, Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba did his primary education at Jenya Primary School from 1961 to 1968.

He left the village for Mashava where he did Ordinary Level through correspondence and would later join the liberation struggle, which led to the independence of the country in 1980.

He was later attested in the ZNA where he rose to become a Major General until he retired from active service in 2004. Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba led Two Infantry Brigade during the DRC campaign under the auspices of the SADC Allied Forces.

The military intervention, which was code-named Operation Sovereign Legitimacy, was meant to ward off rebels, secure the DRC territory, and to protect civilians.

Maj-Gen (Rtd) Chiramba is survived by his wife, Beatrice Chiramba nee Pawandiwa, eight children and 16 grandchildren. Herald
A Harare woman recently arrested together with her South Africa-based husband for allegedly stealing top-of-the range vehicles from Namibia and smuggling them into South Africa and Zimbabwe, has been freed on $20 000 bail.

Police yesterday said Sikholisiwe Zondo (27) of Hatfield, Harare, was released at the High Court on Tuesday.

Her arrest came after she and three men, including her husband, Brian Mabika (29), a Zimbabwean living in South Africa, were arrested in Mainway Meadows in southern Harare.

They were found in possession of a Range Rover Evoque (registration number HZ 33CN GP) and a Toyota Fortuner (JH 81 HR GP), worth a combined R1 million. The vehicles are suspected to have been stolen in Namibia before being smuggled to South Africa and then Zimbabwe aen route to Zambia.The other two arrested were South African Mpswati Obed Lucar (33) and Zambian A. Kalengo (36).

It is alleged that in May, Zondo went to CE Car Rental in Namibia to hire the Toyota Fortuner which she promised to bring back. She then drove the vehicle to South Africa while in the company of the three other suspects.

There they tampered with the chassis numbers and fixed a fake registration number plate.

Investigations carried out by detectives from the CID vehicle theft squad led to the arrest of Zondo and it is suspected that the four are allegedly part of a syndicate stealing and then smuggling them to other countries for resale using fake documents.

The four was arrested following a tip off and the three men remain in custody as investigations continue. Herald
United States sanctions have begun to take a toll on President Emmerson Mnangagwas ally, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, with his Sakunda Holdings embarking on a retrenchment exercise that has seen the company operate with a skeletal staff of only 16 workers.

Tagwirei was slapped with economic sanctions last year, accused by the US Treasury Department of providing support to the leadership of the Government of Zimbabwe.

The mining and energy mogul has been accused by the US of capturing Mnangagwas government and profiteering on illegal government tenders.

Well-placed sources told NewsDay that Sakunda chief operating officer Mberikwazvo Chitambo and head of special projects Clement Kahiya had been victims of the exercise that has affected over hundreds of workers employed by the diversified firm.

The effects of the sanctions have begun to weigh on Sakunda. The company has retrenched hundreds of workers, including some senior executives, Chitambo and Kahiya. The company is left with only 16 employees, the source said.

Last year, commodities trader, Trafigura, booted out Tagwirei by increasing its stake in Trafigura Zimbabwe to 100%, from 49% after buying the 51% held by Tagwireis Sakunda, which also operated Trafiguras Puma Energy fuel outlets.

Early this year, international media claimed he was now trading offshore as a way of busting the sanctions.

Tagwirei was not picking calls yesterday and did not respond to questions sent to his mobile phone. Newsday
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The Delta variant, which was first identified in India, is now responsible for 25% of all new coronavirus cases in the U.S. Walensky predicted it would become the dominant strain nationally within the next several weeks at the longest.
Mayor de Blasio announced a major expansion of the 3-K program earlier this spring, aided by the arrival of federal stimulus funds. Officials projected that roughly 40,000 students would be enrolled by the fall, and said the program would be available in every district, though not to every student.
Thousands of New Yorkers rely on buses every day to commute to work, attend classes, see a doctor, and take their children to day care, Stringer said. Riders who rely on and pay a premium price for express bus service shouldnt be left waiting, uninformed of delays, or stranded at bus stops.
At least seven cyclists have been killed on New York City streets this year, down slightly from eight during the same period of 2020. This years toll is half the 14 cyclists killed in motor vehicle crashes during the first six months of 2019.
Police said that Welds is homeless but for the last several months has been housed at the Four Points by Sheraton on W. 40th St.  just two blocks from the attack.
The man was crossing Astoria Blvd. near 98th St. in Jackson Heights about 9 p.m. Wednesday when a silver-colored SUV blew a red light and hit him, officials said.
One of the three thieves kept an eye on the woman right up to the point just after 7 p.m. when she started loading her car with her pricey goods, police said.
He just went airborne, the owner of a nearby seafood store, who would only identify himself as Mike, said of the motorcyclist. He went up, did at least one flip and landed on his back. (He was) at least high enough to go over the car.
With the wheelchair, I was able to take out the garbage, but Im not able to do that now, Jett said. I had a part time job, but I cant do that anymore. I was doing to that to save up and get this wheelchair, but I cant do that anymore.
No one was injured and no equipment was stolen, the Chronicle reported. The suspects have not been identified or arrested. Police did not describe Cespedes as a victim in the attempted robbery.
This is not just a Black thing, he told Mix 92.3. This is for all the people who have been imprisoned wrongfully, regardless of race, color or creed, because I met them in there  people who talked about what happened and what they did. And I know there are many liars out there, but these people cant get lawyers.
The state Supreme Court overturned Cosbys conviction because Montgomery County prosecutors once gave him immunity in exchange for his testimony in a lawsuit by former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her in his mansion in 2004. Cosby was eventually charged in that case anyway and sent to prison for three to 10 years.
The 57-year-old Harlem-born rapper, known best for his 1989 single Just a Friend, has struggled with his health for years, dating back to a diabetes diagnosis in 2010. Three years later, he told the Daily News that he had dropped about 140 pounds in an effort to control his weight and manage his health.
Then the cops came flying down the street and then more cops came and then more cops came and they were trying to get in the house over there and I think they broke the door down, the witness said. And they fired at least 50 shots, maybe more.
When we take our oath, we know that our work will put us in serious, dangerous and potentially deadly situations, Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic said in a statement. We go to great lengths to protect our community, but the tragic reality is that, in rare cases, incidents may end in the loss of a life.
Let us be clear, Rep. Walshs comparisons are a gross misappropriation of history to advance an ignorant political point of freedom. It is deeply offensive and discounts the painful history of marginalized communities, said Miri Cypers, the Northwest Region regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in a statement. There is simply no comparison for the systematic murder of six million Jews and the segregation of the African American community that has lasting impacts to today.
The King County medical examiners office, which covers an area including Seattle, said on Wednesday that a total of 13 people had died from heat-related causes. In neighboring Snohomish County, three men  ages 51, 75 and 77  died after experiencing heatstroke in their homes, the medical examiners office told the Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, on Tuesday. Four deaths have also been linked to heat in Kitsap County, west of Seattle.
No one should have to suffer a penalty for missing work because of COVID, and under this new law, every public employee in our state will get the protection they deserve  so they dont have to face unfair consequences for doing what was necessary to protect themselves and their loved ones, the governor said in a statement.
This is all they have? said Ronald Fischetti, a veteran defense attorney in New York City who leads Trumps legal team. In my 50 years of practice, I have never seen this office bring a case like this and, quite frankly, I am astonished. The district attorney is supposed to be apolitical, but everyone knows that the only reason they are proceeding with this case is because it is Trump.
I am excited that it is a wide open race, Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor de Blasio, said in a news conference outside City Hall. The people will speak, and they have spoken, we just need to know what they said.
A 20-year-old student in the western Mexican state of Michoacan was killed with a gunshot to her head, despite initial reports that she had died after an alleged fall.
The BOEs failure to serve voters can be traced back to its structure and practices. Its leadership structure is convoluted: 10 commissioners from five counties split across the two major parties. They are nominated by county party operatives who are not accountable to the public. They are chosen based on political connections, not qualifications, and are rubber-stamped by the City Council, despite recent efforts by individual councilmembers to have more transparent confirmations. An external accountability structure spread across state and city officials, whose respective oversight powers are underutilized, further enables the agency to dodge consequences for underperformance.
Let me add one other piece of news. If the margin between a winner and the second-place candidate is one-half of one percent or less, the state law allows a manual count of all the ballots in a race. This means the board will look at each and every ballot, whether it is a few thousand in a City Council race or close to a million in the mayoral race. Did the voter properly fill in the ovals next to the candidates name or did they circle it? Either would count. Did they write next to the name I support so-and-so! That ballot will not count.
If he does indeed join the Republican primary, the venture capitalist and Yale Law grad, 36, will have to go up against former state treasurer Josh Mandel  currently seen as the frontrunner  and former chair of the Ohio Republican party Jane Timken as well as businessmen Bernie Moreno and Mike Gibbons, according to the outlet.
Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard Universitys policies, Howard University tweeted. We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment.
The fiery back and forth prompted the new head of ABC Kim Goodwin to step in and tell the two to cool it, saying their attacks on each other came off as toxic to viewers, according to TMZ.
Whether we like it or not, Im not going anywhere on the show, Joys not going anywhere on the show, we all have to live and co-exist together just like Americans right now ... but were all going to try and co-exist and I really want to have us all move forward, McCain told Andy Cohen on Bravos Watch What Happens Live in January.
When I announced my plan to retire, I promised our people we would recruit an outstanding new CEO to lead Red Lobster to even greater success over the next generation, and I absolutely believe Kelli is that person, he said. Her experience and deep industry insights coupled with her integrity and commitment to fostering a purpose-driven culture are the perfect fit as we begin this new chapter.
Tavyiah was hit in the head, and King drove to Silver Star Road where he made Tavyiah and the two other girls get out of the car because he didnt want to be charged with murder, the affidavit said. He later ditched the car, which was stolen, police said. Orlando police officers found Tavyiah and called for paramedics, who took her to the hospital.
He said parents sending their children to college worried about indoctrination on their campuses and whether they would be taught to think for themselves. Though the legislation does not spell out how the results of the viewpoint diversity survey would be used, he hinted that institutions could face consequences if students and employees answers indicated an imbalance on campus.
Experts tapped by the state to help write or review new Holocaust standards say Floridas proposal fails to connect the horrors of the Holocaust to lessons that would encourage todays students to understand the ramifications of prejudice, stereotyping and racism. That failure is a violation of the states nearly 30-year-old Holocaust education law, they say, and undermines the work of longtime Holocaust educators.
We are conducting a thorough investigation to see where this suspect got the child pornography, who he distributed it to, and if hes sexually abused any children to whom hes had access, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. The sheer volume of this disgusting collection of images showing children being raped and sexually violated is horrible. His actions are vile and demented, and he needs to stay locked up.
In June 2018, a year before the commissions vote, Grenier appealed to a Florida Department of State statue relocation panel to pick Lake County to be the future home of the figure, which Grenier had once called our King Tut. He claimed then to have support of all five county commissioners who will supply you with letters or anything you need ... Ive got emails from them over the last couple of days saying Go get it, Bob. Best of luck. Get the statue. Bring it back home to Lake County. "
I dont know if folks see the grand picture, said Shakhea Hinton, Central Florida regional director for nonprofit Florida Rising. This is going to be massive if there is not a solution by July 31. ... I dont know if it has dawned on our leadership that this is going to be bigger than what any of us can imagine. Ive never seen a mass herd of people being evicted out of their homes. I dont even think we have the infrastructure in Orlando to house all these folks. Where are they going to go? If they dont have the funds to pay their rent, how are they going to get the funds to relocate?
This level of eagerness to engage in environmental policymaking has not been seen in the Republican Party since the 1970s  an effort so productive that the period came to be known as the environmental decade. With support coming from voters across the political spectrum, Republican candidates are left with a very clear message: if you want Congress to go red, then you have to go green.
FILE - In this 1995 file photo, members of the FLATs, also known as the Mercury 13, gather for a photo as they attend a shuttle launch in Florida. From left are Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman. Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos has chosen Funk, an early female aerospace pioneer, to rocket into space with him later this month. The company announced Thursday, July 1, 2021, that Funk will be aboard the July 20 launch from West Texas, flying as an honored guest. Funk, along with the other women of Mercury 13, went through astronaut training in the 1960s, but never made it to space - or even NASA's astronaut corps - because of their gender. (NASA via AP) (AP)
Janet was an incredible partner leading Kennedy over the past 14 years, and I couldnt be happier that she will take over in a permanent capacity. There is no one better to lead the incredible team at Kennedy, Cabana said in a statement. Im confident that under Janets leadership, Kennedy will continue to grow, building on its legacy as the United States premier multi-user spaceport and supporting NASA and private industrys activities throughout the solar system.
But the later, extended evening hours will be available for guests staying in Disney Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort levels of hotels on select nights in select parks. (Think monorail resorts, Animal Kingdom Lodge and such  not Port Orleans or Pop Century). That will start in early October; Disney has not shared exact dates.
Oswego, NY (13126)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Oswego, NY (13126)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 72F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Limited's ( ) Nick Rowles-Davies and Patrick Moloney join Proactive London's Katie Pilbeam to discuss market conditions and opportunities, their current portfolio and Global Alternative Returns Fund.

Rowles-Davies explains what drives the market, he explains how businesses use LCM to fund to preserve their balance sheet, he explains the benefits from counter-cyclical features and economic uncertainty.

Moloney talks through their current portfolio and their asset management business which is a 150m fund, the Global Alternative Returns Fund.
The appointment follows the retirement of David Quinlivan from the role but the company will continue to benefit from his knowledge and expertise as a non-executive director.

The new MD has 25 years of industry experience in operational and mine management roles.

( ) (OTCMKTS:ESGFF) (FRA:M6N) has appointed Peter Nicholson as managing director with effect from today and this follows the retirement of David Quinlivan as MD.

Nicholson will step into the new role after holding the position of chief executive officer since April 2, 2021.

Quinlivan will immediately assume the role of a non-executive director of the company.

Thanked for contribution

Chairman Peter Mansell said We sincerely thank David for his contribution to the company since his appointment in the role of MD and CEO at the time of the administration of Eastern Goldfields.

"It was a difficult period for the company and David really rose to the challenge. We look forward to his continued involvement with Ora Banda as a non-executive director.

Industry experience

The new MD has 25 years of industry experience in operational and mine management roles, coupled with experience in private equity across companies involved in international mining and mining services.

He has had exposure to an extensive range of assets and commodities, spanning more than 50 countries and has considerable experience in leading senior multidisciplinary technical and commercial teams.

Mansell added: "Undoubtedly, we will benefit from Peters diverse suite of skills and his technical, commercial and operational expertise and experience, which will be a substantial contributor to the ongoing success and growth of Ora Banda.

Nicholson holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) and Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Positive Iguana results

Earlier this week, the company unveiled strong initial gold results from infill drilling at Iguana gold deposit in Western Australia.

This deposit has the potential to provide additional feed for the companys nearby Davyhurst processing plant.

READ: Ora Banda Mining's strong initial Iguana gold results confirm resource potential

In April 2021, 27 reverse circulation (RC) holes covering 3,750 metres were completed over the prospect, which forms part of the Lady Ida Project area.

As much as 1-metre at 41.3 g/t gold has been uncovered at Iguana during the campaigns early stages, with phase one resource definition drilling now complete.

The infill campaign forms part of a broader program to upgrade and expand Iguanas mineral resource, which currently stands at 2.722 million tonnes at 2.0 g/t gold for 175,000 ounces.

Iguana on the right track

Nicholson said: The strong initial drilling results indicate that our development plans for the Iguana deposit are on the right track.

This is a large deposit that has the potential to deliver higher-grade ore to our 1.2 million tonnes per annum Davyhurst processing plant.

We have more work scheduled at Iguana and remain excited to see what the next round of drilling delivers to allow us to move forward with assessing the potential for material mine life extension via this deposit.
Plant commissioning work continues, with the first sulphate of potash (SOP) product expected in the weeks ahead.

Lake Way will be the first producing asset within the companys project portfolio

's ( ) ( ) ( ) (FRA:W1D) process plant at the Lake Way SOP Project near Wiluna in Western Australia has been issued with a Practical Completion certificate from GR Engineering Services.

The plant handover to the Salt Lake Potash operations team is now complete.

Plant commissioning work continues, with the first sulphate of potash (SOP) product expected in the weeks ahead.

Delivery of first SOP

Salt Lake Potash chief executive officer and managing director Tony Swiericzuk said: The SO4 operations team continues to work towards continuous operation of the process plant to deliver first SOP, expected over the coming weeks.

Fine-tuning

Commissioning activities continued throughout June with all sub-systems that comprise the plant having been individually commissioned.

Fine-tuning of the flotation circuit is ongoing with the initial product expected in the weeks ahead.

Lake Way will be the first producing asset within the companys project portfolio.

Once ramped up, the project will produce 245,000 tonnes per annum of premium SOP.

The Goldfields Highway passes less than 1 kilometre from the Process Plant and 5 kilometres from the Lake while the Goldfields Gas Pipeline is adjacent to SO4's tenements, running along the eastern side of the Lake.

Debt financing

In June, the company concluded its debt financing process, receiving funds from the final US$33 million tranche of its US$138 million Senior Debt Facility.

It also received funds from its recent A$28 million placement.

In addition, Salt Lake Potash executed the A$18 million Guarantee Facility with Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Fund (SEQI), which allows the release of A$18 million of equity back into the project.

These funds will be used for general operating expenses during the ramp-up of the Lake Way SOP Project.

Technical expertise on board

Last week, the company added senior technical and executive experience to its board of directors with the appointment of Rebecca Morgan as a non-executive director as the company headed towards first SOP production and revenue from the Lake Way Project.
Footsie finished up over 87 points, or 1.25%, at 7,125. The midcap FTSE 250 was also up, over 246 points, or 1.10%, at 22,622

FTSE 100 closes up 1.25%

Primark owner back with a bang

US stocks mixed at midday

5pm: FTSE 100 finishes higher

FTSE 100 index finished convincingly higher on Thursday - the first day of the new trading month - as the 's governor Andrew Bailey calmed nerves on rising inflation.

His dovish tones on monetary policy sent the UK pound falling, which had a knock-on positive effect for the US dollar earning UK blue-chips.

Footsie finished up over 87 points, or 1.25%, at 7,125. The midcap FTSE 250 was also up, over 246 points, or 1.10%, at 22,622.

Against the US dollar, the pound was down 0.42% at US$1.3773.

"The FTSE 100 has outperformed its peers today, as dovish tones from the helped to drive the pound lower," said Joshua Mahony, the senior market analyst at online trading group IG.

"Despite warnings from the Fed that rising prices could ultimately draw forward the tightening phase for monetary policy, BoE governor Andrew Bailey instead laid out a confident stance that higher prices would be temporary in nature.

"While Bailey admitted we could soon see inflation hit 4%, the temporary nature of that rise should ensure the bank can remain accommodative throughout this economic recovery."

4.04pm: Bright start to the month continues

Well so far it's been a good start to the month - and indeed the quarter - for the UK market.

The leading index is 78.07 points or 1.11% higher at 7115.54, while the FTSE 250 is 1.07% better at 22,615.87.

US markets are also higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 69 points or 0.2% and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both currently in positive territory.

Postive manufacturing figures are helping, although investors appear to be chosing to ignore growing pricing pressures and agreeing with central banks that this is just "transitory."

As OPEC+ decides whether to increase production and by how much, crude prices are heading higher and giving a lift to oil shares.

( ) is 3.02% better while PLC ( ) has risen 2.79%.

( ) is the biggest riser in the leading index, up 5.35% at 968.2p as it attempted to quell some of the concerns raised by investors.

Primark owner ( ) has added 3.57% after a well received update.

Among the miners, ( ) is up 4.23%, benefitting from a rise in the gold price.

3.30pm: US factories show strong growth but prices paid jump

US manufacturing growth has slipped slightly in June but is still performing strongly.

But there are also signs of inflationary pressures in the latest ISM survey.

The index fell from 61.2 to 60.6, compared to expectations of a figure of 60.9.

US ISM Manufacturing Jun: 60.6 (est 60.9; prev 61.2)

- Prices Paid: 92.1 (est 87.0; prev 88.0)

- New Orders: 66.0 (est 65.0; prev 67.0)

- Employment: 49.9 (prev 50.9)  LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) July 1, 2021

But prices paid jumped from 88 to 92.1, well above the 87 level which had been forecast and a 40 year high.

ISM Prices Paid singing a NOT so transitory tune... pic.twitter.com/boazjzvxrk  Lawrence McDonald (@Convertbond) July 1, 2021

US markets are still higher as investors attempt to digest the news.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 86.84 points or 0.25% at 34,589.35 after earlier hitting 34,604.

The S&P 500 is up 0.27% while the Nasdaq Composite is 0.02% higher. Both are just below their peaks for the day.

In the UK the FTSE 100 is gaining ground again, up 81.58 points or 1.16% at 7119.05.

2.50pm: Crude surges as OPEC meets

Oil is heading even higher as OPEC+ meets to discuss putting more crude on the market.

Brent is now up 2.45% at $76.45 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate - the US benchmark - is 3.13% better at $75.77.

The first meeting - of OPEC members alone - appears to be over, but OPEC+ seems to be the one that matters. That includes OPEC itself plus additional oil exporting countries including, most notably, Russia.

#Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh says today's #Opec meeting was ordinary, not extraordinary, so it mostly focused on "administrative issues."



"We decided to handle the more technical and economic issues in the #Opec+ meet" - including talk about raising output. #oott  Nader Itayim |   (@ncitayim) July 1, 2021

2.40pm: Wall Street manages higher start following jobless data

The main indices on Wall Street opened on a higher footing on Thursday following the better than expected weekly US jobless claims numbers.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.28% at 34,599 while the S&P 500 rose 0.22% to 4,307 and the Nasdaq inched up 0.05% to 14,510.

Back in London, the FTSE 100 was continuing to push higher into late afternoon, rising 64 points to 7,101 at around 2.40pm.

1.44pm: Jobless claims beat expectations

US weekly jobs claims have come in better than expected, a further sign of the recovery of the US economy.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment support last week was 364,000, a decrease of 51,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since 14 March 2020.

This is better than the fall to around 388,000 which had been forecast.

The previous week's figure was revised up by 4,000 to 415,000.

US Initial Jobless Claims Jun 26: 364K (est 388K; prevR 415K; prev 411K)

US Continuing Claims Jun 19: 3469K (est 3340K; prevR 3413K; prev 3390K)  LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) July 1, 2021

US Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Report  DOL

US Department of Labourhttps://t.co/tRHpu7676z pic.twitter.com/bJwSdSL7x8  LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) July 1, 2021

Charles Hepworth, investment director at GAM Investments, said: "Whilst this data print is volatile week to week, the overall tone points to the slow continual improvement in the US economy and in particular the jobs market as the economy continues to reopen.

"As certain states begin to phase out unemployment pandemic assistance, it is obvious that workers will feel more compelled to seek work and one has to expect, bar a resurgence of new variants hampering the reopening, the trend will see further declines in unemployment from here."

The news has seen an improvement in the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, and it is now expected to open up 103 points or 0.23%. The S&P 500 is set for a 0.09% increase but the Nasdaq Composite is indicated down 0.11%.

In the UK the FTSE 100 has also gained a bit of ground, up 58.28 points or 0.83% at 7095.75.

12.25pm: Dow forecast to edge marginally higher after previous day's gains

Wall Street is set for a mixed start after a mixed day on Wednesday.

Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 moved ahead yesterday while the Nasdaq Composite slipped back.

And the same pattern holds true for the futures, albeit there is very little movement in truth. The Dow is expected to open 42 points or 0.05% higher and the S&P around 0.01%. But the Nasdaq is indicated 0.21% lower.

Sophie Griffiths, market analyst at Oanda, said: "Today all eyes will be on US ISM manufacturing PMI, particularly the prices subcomponent, given the recent spike in inflation. The paid prices index is expected to inch lower to 87 in June, down from 88. Jobless claims and the Challenger jobs report will provide further clarity on the health of the US jobs market ahead of tomorrow's key non-farm payrolls."

Also on the agenda is the return to the stock market of Krispy Kreme following a buyout in 2016.

It will join Nasdaq with the ticker DNUT, but its shares have been set at $17 each, below the bottom end of the predicted price range.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Timing is everything for an IPO, and this launch comes at a time when the public is becoming more health conscious, particularly following the pandemic where obesity now appears to have been a major factor in cases of severe sickness.

"The fact that [the price] has come in well below the bottom of the expected range indicates that initial demand for shares was lukewarm. As with any new offering, there could well be a flurry of interest as soon as trading begins, with customers and retail investors still keen to get a bite of the action."

Meanwhile the FTSE 100 is up 36.67 points or 0.52% at 7074.14.

12.06pm: Fresnillo lifted by gold price rise

The gold price has been under pressure recently, ever since the US Federal Reserve made comments perceived to be more hawkish than expected and lifted the US dollar.

But it has regained some ground and has edged higher to US$1,783 an ounce.

In turn that has helped lift precious metals miner ( ) which after recent weakness is up 4.54% or 35p to 806.6p and is topping the FTSE 100 risers.

The index itself is currently slipping back but is still positive, up 32.62 points or 0.46% at 7070.09.

11.23am: BP and Shell head higher

Oil prices are gushing higher as the OPEC+ producers meet to decide their next mover.

Brent crude has climbed 0.92% to $75.31 a barrel while the US West Texas benchmark is 0.95% better at $74.17.

( ) has benefitted, adding 1.65% or 5.2p to 320.2p while PLC ( ) has risen 1.41% or 20.4p to 1467.2p.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, said: "All traders, from bulls to bears are holding their breath before the OPEC+ decision.

"The expectation is that OPEC producers add another half-a-million barrels per day to the global supply, relaxing their strict production cut regime on the back of business reopening, improved travel and activity prospects. The problem is, the latest news flow hasnt been encouraging on the COVID-19 front. We now see cases rising across the globe, some countries going back to strict lockdown measures and imposing travel restrictions.

"If another wave of contagion sticks up its nose and changes the direction of the wind, then the global oil demand could take an unexpected hit.

"Yet, the global glut that was building during the pandemic has now dried and OPEC probably has the margin to take a chance for increasing supply, with the possibility of reversing the decision as early as next month, if needed.

"Therefore, the base case scenario is a 500,000-barrel increase in daily OPEC+ supply and a potential deeper downside correction in US crude price to the $72/70 region. But in case of a surprise no-move, we may well see the price of a barrel shoot above the $75 mark."

Helped by the gains in the oil giants, the FTSE 100 remains in the green, up 58.47 points or 0.83% at 7095.94.

10.46am: Pound slips on Bank governor speech

Andrew Bailey's comments have helped push the pound lower,.

The governor's comments suggesting it would not over-react to "transitory" pricing pressures - by say easing off QE or raising interest rates - has left the pound 0.3% down at $1.3783.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "Andrew Bailey has returned to the tune of transitory inflation, warning that policymakers should not be too keen to overreact to higher prices. Such a policy sounds sensible, but of course is much harder to implement in practice, when monthly CPI data keeps erring on the hot side and markets and the media are full of people warning about uncontrolled inflation and the spectre of the 1970s.

"Unsurprisingly these headlines have not been great for the pound, which is moving below its mid-June low against the dollar as markets bet on a policy divergence between the BoE and the Fed."

Meanwhile the FTSE 100 continues to shrug off worries about the Delta variant, currently up 57.44 points or 0.82% at 7094.91.

( ) continues to lead the way following a positive update which included the Primark-owner raising its full year sales and operating profit forecasts.

The shares have jumped 4.96% or 110p to 2326p.

10.07am: Bank should not over-react to inflation signs - Bailey

governor Andrew Bailey has been trying to ease concerns about rising inflation, and said the Bank should not over-react to the current situation.

In a speech at the Mansion House this morning he said pricing pressures should be temporary. He even said "transitory" which appears to be the current central bank buzz-word.

The three reasons for this, he said, were that weak COVID-19 activity last year meant weaker prices then and this effect would drop out of the equation; shortage of supply and growth of demand as the economy recovered was temporarily pushing up prices; and finally as the economy recovers, there should be a switch from demand for goods towards services where there is more spare capacity.

Bailey said: "The economy is bouncing back rapidly, which is good news. With that has come a rise in inflation, and we expect that rise to continue in the near term as we go through the rest of this year, such that CPI inflation is expected to pick up further above the target, owing primarily to developments in energy and other commodity prices.

"I have set out the reasons why we expect this rise in inflation to be a temporary feature of the bounce-back. The reasons for taking this view are well-founded, it is not a vain hope or a matter of whistling in the wind. It is important not to over-react to temporarily strong growth and inflation, to ensure that the recovery is not undermined by a premature tightening in monetary conditions. But it is also important that we watch the outlook for inflation very carefully, which of course we do at all times, particularly for signs of more persistent pressure and for a move of medium term inflation expectations to a higher level."

Andrew Bailey treading a delicate path in his Mansion House speech. In essence - recent inflationary pressures are temporary and we shouldn't overreact. But we're keeping a close eye on it, to maintain our credibility.  Richard Partington (@RJPartington) July 1, 2021

Meanwhile the FTSE 100 remains firmly in the green, although it is off its best levels, up 74.57 points or 1.06% at 7112.04.

9.47am: Near record growth but inflation worries continue

UK manufacturing continued to enjoy strong growth last month, albeit slightly below forecast.

The latest IHS Markit purchasing managers' index has come in at 63.9 in June compared to an estimated 64.2 and down from May's record high of 65.6.

But rates of expansion in output, new orders and employment were still among the best seen during the near 30-year survey history, said Markit. And it is still the thirteenth month of improvement.

Improved demand was linked to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and improving global market conditions.

On the down side, companies were still reporting supply chain and distribution difficulties, leading to disruption to production schedules.

And for those worried about inflation, average input costs rose at the fastest pace in the survey history, with over three-quarters (77%) of manufacturers reporting an increase. A wide range of raw materials were up in price, including chemicals, electronics, energy, food products, metals, plastics and timber.

Growth in the UKs manufacturing sector remained robust in June, with the #PMI at 63.9. Expansions in new orders and output were central to the uptick. However, input costs and selling prices rose at record rates amid supply disruption. Read more: https://t.co/qKybRTD5aZ pic.twitter.com/XTwlcNhVkj  IHS Markit PMI (@IHSMarkitPMI) July 1, 2021

Rob Dobson, director at IHS Markit, said: UK manufacturing maintained a near survey-record pace of expansion at the end of the second quarter, as the reopening of economies at home and overseas supported increased production, new orders and employment. Solid business confidence and rising backlogs of work also suggest that the current upturn has further to run.

The sector is still beset by rising cost inflationary pressures, however, as Brexit-related trade issues exacerbated global supply chain delays. The resulting widespread raw material shortages drove purchase prices up to the greatest extent on record, leading to an unprecedented steep rise in selling prices. There are also widespread reports of supply issues causing disruptions to production schedules and impeding the re-building of buffer stocks.

"The continued inflationary impact of capacity issues at both manufacturers and their suppliers will be a further factor keeping headline inflation above the 's 2% target in coming months.

Earlier manufacturing growth in the Eurozone hit a new high in June, with the PMI edging up from 63.1 in May to 63.4.

The FTSE 100 is remarkably unmoved by all this, still well ahead on the day. It is now up 85.1 points or 1.21% at 7122.57.

9.10am: Ex-divs fail to spoil the party

Among the FTSE 100 fallers were the usual Thursday ex-dividend companies.

Just two this week, both retailers in keeping with one of the day's themes.

B&M European Value Retail S.A. ( ) is down 10.4p or 1.81% at 562.8p while Burberry PLC ( ) has slipped 0.39% or 8p to 2058p.

This has not stopped the positive mood, with the leading index now up 85.21 points or 1.21% at 7122.68.

Neil Wilson at Markets.com said: "European and global stock markets have enjoyed a strong run-up in the last six months as a combination of ultra-loose monetary policy, fiscal largesse and a vaccine-enabled reopening of economies allowed investors to look ahead to a brighter future for earnings and growth. Now there are risks on the horizon, but the market remains biased to the upside."

8.44am: Market makes strong start to the month

The FTSE 100 opened strongly as traders shrugged off concerns over the COVID-19 delta variant and decided instead to accentuate the positives.

Corporate news flow, meanwhile, increased from its late June trickle.

Leading the pack early on was Associated British Foods ( ). The owner of the Primark retail chains third-quarter figures were well received with the shares up 3.7% in the early exchanges.

Primark is back with a bang after restrictions were eased and has taken over the heavy lifting which other parts of the group had assumed during the various lockdowns, said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.

With revenues rising by 207% versus the previous year and now accounting for around 40% of the group total, this is an important return to form. In addition, there is still more to go for, with tourism travel and opening hours restrictions still in place.

At the same time, the now profitable US business has added another store in Chicago, and the total Primark estate should reach 400 shops in the autumn.

Sticking with the retail theme (in this case online sales of white goods), shares in AO World ( ) continued their dour year-to-date performance, falling a further 2.5% following the release of its prelims.

However, it is worth noting that the stock is still up around 400% from its March 2020 lows and significantly outperformed the FTSE 250 and its nearest competitors.

6.50 am: FTSE 100 set to open on the front foot

The FTSE 100 is called slightly higher on Thursday as COVID-19 continues to worry.

The moves reflected investor sentiment thats been dampened in recent days by the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 along with the fact that the global decline in cases weve seen since mid-April looks to have come to a stop now, analysts at commented.

Meanwhile growing concerns about the recovery in the second half have in turn reduced fears of an imminent withdrawal of monetary stimulus, with yesterday seeing fresh gains for sovereign bonds as investors pushed back the likely date of future rate hikes.

Data releases will potentially provide the next catalyst for markets, with the PMIs and ISMs out from today, before we get the all-important US jobs report tomorrow.

In fact, on the calendar, we have UK manufacturing PMI, US jobless claims and US manufacturing PMI.

Spreadbetter IG is expecting Londons main index to open 5 points higher on Thursday morning.

6.50am: Early Markets - Asia / Australia

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region were mostly lower on Thursday as Chinese factory activity growth slowed in June.

The Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for June came in at 51.3, lower than Mays 52.0.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.43% and South Koreas Kospi declined 0.43%.

The Shanghai Composite in China rose 0.23% while Hong Kongs Hang Seng index slipped 0.57%

Shares in Australia dipped, with the S&P/ASX 200 trading 0.52% lower.

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Zephyr Energy PLC's ( ) Colin Harrington talks to Proactive London's Katie Pilbeam about their latest update on its flagship project in Utahs Paradox Basin.

Harrington provides analysis following the in-depth results released from the State 16-2 dual-use stratigraphic test well drilled earlier this year.

The work appears to have unlocked the potential of eight high-graded hydrocarbon reservoirs overlying the Cane Creek opportunity it was initially investigating.

Zephyr believes there is the potential for up to 200 well locations across the eight overlying reservoirs identified.
The site is 20 miles away from the proposed site of another planned gigafactory being developed by another company, battery startup Britishvolt

A new 1bn electric vehicle battery gigafactory will be built in northeast England by Nissan and its partners to support the production of the carmakers new all-electric SUV in the UK.

The EV36Zero electric vehicle hub will be located in Sunderland, with a 9GW battery gigafactory centred around the Japanese groups existing car plant there. It will be powered by a new renewable energy 'microgrid' developed by Sunderland City Council and a battery storage facility using used car batteries.

It will invest 423mln into the new hub and Chinese-owned partner Envision AESC, which owns and operates an existing battery production in Sunderland for the Nissan , will invest 450mln.

The formal planning process is now beginning with Sunderland City Council for an initial 9GWh plant, Nissan said, with potential future investment of 1.8bn by Envision AESC by 2030 and potential on site for up to 35GWh.

The new plant will increase the cost-competitiveness of EV batteries produced in the UK, including through a new Gen5 battery cell with 30% more energy density which improves range and efficiency, Nissan said.

This commitment will power Nissan's new vehicles, supporting the continued localisation of vehicle parts and components with advanced technology. This will make batteries cheaper and EVs more accessible to a growing number of customers in the future, it said.

As part of the 1bn announcement, Nissan said it is building on the success of its electric car with a next-generation crossover EV produced in the UK and exported to Europe, with a forecasted production capacity of up to 100,000 units to be installed. No date was given for the new car's launch.

Production of the new car in Sunderland will create 909 new jobs at the plant, and more than 4,500 in the UK supply chain, while safeguarding a further 75 R&D jobs, the Japanese company said.

The new gigafactory will create 750 jobs and safeguard the jobs of 300 current employees.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: "The cars made in this plant, using batteries made just down the road at the UK's first at scale gigafactory, will have a huge role to play as we transition away from petrol and diesel cars and kick-start a domestic electric vehicle manufacturing base."

To keep pace with the green industrial revolution and secure the long-term future of the UK automotive sector, another six giga-factories are needed across the country over the next few years, trade union Unite said.



Steve Turner, Unite assistant general secretary for manufacturing, said: "I urge the government not to rest on its laurels. Ministers must say more today about when these sites will be forthcoming. No loose promises for the future. Our economy and UK manufacturing demands investment now in the technologies of the future. Germany, for example, is not waiting around - its government is already investing over 1 billion in the construction of facilities to support its automotive heartlands."

20 miles away, there is another proposed site for a battery gigafactory that is being developed by startup Britishvolt, pending investment.

In December, Britishvolt unveiled plans to build the 2.6bn plant on the site of the old Blyth Power Station in Northumberland, with an intention to break ground this summer and begin production of lithium-ion batteries within three years.

It said last month that it remains on-track to start production of batteries for automotive applications by the end of 2023, supported by R&D from Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria universities.

Other developments have been reported by AIM-listed PLC ( ), which has also agreed to work with Britishvolt on its plans.

Last month that it has been selected as the lead supplier in a new government-funded project focused on bringing two lithium-ion batteries to readiness for the automotive market.
Reuters =said the company is also considering a sale of assets in the Permian Basin of Texas.

Shell ( ) is to exit its California joint venture with ExxonMobil as part of it carbon footprint reduction plans, Reuters reported today.

Shell is under pressure to reduce carbon emissions, with its own plans being thrown out by a court in The Netherlands, which told the oil major to speed up the process.

The joint venture, Aera, produces about 125,000 barrels of oil and 32mln cubic feet of natural gas each day or about 25% of Californias oil and gas production, which has some of the strictest emission controls in the US.

Shell has been steadily reducing its presence in the US and has sold refinery assets in Washington and Texas, having already disposed of its California oil refining operations, as it pivots towards renewable energy.

Reuters also said the company is considering a sale of assets in the Permian Basin of Texas.

Earlier this year, Shell announced a target to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 45% by 2035 and completely by 2050 from 2016 levels.

The Dutch court, however, ruled Shell has to comply with the Paris Climate Accord, which wants a 45% cut by 2030 from 2019 levels. Shell has said it intends to appeal the ruling.
A drilling programme has found elevated gold grades

( ) has announced a highly significant development following the drilling programmes currently underway in the Victoria Goldfields, in Australia.

Logging of three diamond holes at the Maori and Dan Genders Reef at the HR3 prospect has confirmed a steep south-plunging anticline to exist sub-parallel to the Maori Reef line which hosts quartz-arsenopyrite mineralisation and elevated gold grades.

The data and presence of gold in the core samples confirm the south plunging anticline runs close to the historically mined portions of the Maori Reef, the explorer said.

ECR Minerals has 100% ownership of Bailieston Project, which is operated under its subsidiary Mercator Gold Australia.

ECR Minerals has the advantage of owning its own diamond drilling rig and, with a centralised operational hub at Bendigo, we have been able to swiftly and efficiently interpret the core samples and secure valuable data from the programmes, said chief executive Craig Brown in a release.

The additional drilling planned for the northern end of the zone will help us further understand the size and shape of the structure in order that we can determine next exploration steps.
The EUs digital Covid certificate came in to effect today

Britain might need extra precautions to protect against the spread of new variants Covid-19 Boris Johnson said today, though he did offer some hope to beleaguered travel firms.

On a visit to Nissans plant in Sunderland, where the company had just announced a huge investment programme, the PM said that people who have had two jabs might not have to quarantine when they return.

Any change in policy on travel would be revealed n the next few days, he said, adding that he was very confident that it would enable people to go on holiday this summer.

Airlines shares were among the strongest performers on the FTSE 100 on the back of the comments, which coincided with the introduction of the EUs digital Covid certificate.

This provides proof of vaccination or of a negative Covid-19 test result and allows free movement across EU countries.

European countries, however, are still expecting visitor numbers to be substantially below normal levels due to the absence of UK holidaymakers though there were reports about negotiations on a deal with the UK to allow vaccinated travellers.

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the major summer destinations for British sunseekers, but all are on the UKs amber list meaning on returning visitors have to self-isolate for ten days and take expensive PCR tests on days two and eight.

Restrictions for people visiting countries in Europe have also tightened recently due to the spread of the Delta variant throughout the UK.

Portugal, for example, now requires arrivals to prove they have had two jabs at least a fortnight earlier or else quarantine for 14 days.

Shares in easyJet ( ), which has already shifted part of its fleet from the UK to Europe, rose to 2.7% to 918.8p, while Ryanair and British Airways owner IAG added 2% and 4% respectively.

British Airways has been calling for some movement between the UK and US, which generates a substantial chunk of its revenue through business travel.
( ) ( ) ( ) CEO Stephan Beringer tells Proactive the in-content advertising company is expanding footprint into the US after it recently upgraded to trading the OTCQX platform in New York.

Beringer says the group has 'tripled down' in the US in terms of partnerships on the content side, engagements with media agencies, advertisement agencies, and their clients 'including the who's who of blue chip companies.'
Its a really exciting time at Meteoric as we explore the copper and gold potential of Juruena and take the next steps in developing projects on two continents, says MD.

Meteoric is determined to unlock the potential within its gold and copper-gold assets in Brazil and Western Australia.

Meteoric Resources NL (ASX:MEI) continues to make strong progress with exploration activity across gold and copper assets spanning two continents.

Currently, the ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer has its sights set on the Juruena Copper-Gold Project in Brazil and the recently acquired Palm Springs Gold Project in Western Australia.

In an ASX update detailing ongoing exploration work at both assets, Meteoric managing director Dr Andrew Tunks provided commentary on the companys aspirations and highlights across both projects.

As activity progresses across two prolific regions in South America and Australia, Meteoric has around $4.75 million in cash and liquid assets available to support its exploration strategy.

Juruena Project

At Juruena, Meteoric is targeting gold and copper-gold exploration, with a 3,600-metre drilling program targeting a potentially giant copper-gold porphyry target.

Initial porphyry drilling is ongoing but has already intersected broad zones of molybdenite and chalcopyrite with more localised zones of bornite within strong potassic alteration typical of a porphyry copper-gold system.

Based on the confidence in these strong early indications, five more drill holes have been planned to test the porphyry model at Juruena.

Prior to recent exploration at two of Juruenas key prospects, the precious and base metal assets JORC-compliant global mineral resource estimate stood at 1.3 million tonnes for 261,000 ounces of gold at 6.3 g/t.

However, work at the high-grade Dona Maria and Querosene gold deposits has boosted Juruenas mineral resource, bringing it to 387,000 ounces at 6.3 g/t gold, including a 170% increase in indicated resources to 156,800 ounces at 17 g/t.

Meteorics drilling to date has also uncovered bonanza-grade gold results, including 20.6 metres at 94.9 g/t gold, including 3.65 metres at a whopping 508.4 g/t gold. Activity has also unveiled a high-grade gold shoot at Juruenas Dona Maria prospect.

While all the deposits remain open at depth, the current mineral resource underpins the development options currently being assessed.

Juruena could be absolutely transformational

Commenting on its Brazilian assets potential, managing director Dr Andrew Tunks said: We currently have three exciting exploration irons in the fire and the porphyry copper-gold exploration at the Juruena Project in Brazil is right at the pointy end of risk-reward.

Yes it is high-risk, but we have already achieved remarkable results from only two holes into our program and the project could be absolutely transformational for Meteoric.

We have seen substantial thicknesses of sulphide mineralisation including copper and molybdenum minerals in a strongly altered intrusive sequence centred around intermediate porphyritic dykes.

"The first samples from holes JUDD042 & 43 have been submitted and we eagerly await the results. In both holes, but particularly in JUDD042, we have also intersected several potential gold zones with similar characteristics to the low sulphidation epithermal gold deposits at Dona Maria and Querosene.

On the gold front at Juruena the significant 2021 mineral resource upgrade, which includes 40% of the gold endowment in the indicated category, allows us to update the existing 2017 scoping study and prepare to apply for a mining licence with Brazilian mining authorities.

In addition, all of the high-grade epithermal gold projects remain open at depth so there remains considerable opportunity for further resource growth with additional drilling.

Tenders for the scoping study update at Juruena have been called for in both Brazil and Australia.

Palm Springs Gold Project

Meanwhile, over in Western Australia, Meteoric is also investigating the potential of its Palm Springs Gold Project, which is relatively new to the portfolio, having only been acquired in mid-2020.

The project has already been established as an advanced exploration play, historically producing 52,000 ounces of resource at 2.1 g/t gold from the Butchers Creek open-pit.

Following what the company describes as an outstanding initial exploration season, combined with a treasure trove of exploration and mining data, Meteoric established a maiden mineral resource estimate at Palm Springs last month.

The asset is thought to host 357,000 ounces of gold at 2 g/t gold, with 139,000 ounces at 2.24 g/t in the indicated category and 218,000 ounces at 1.9 g/t in the inferred category.

Signifcantly, a large portion of the indicated resource occurs in the floor and beneath the historical Butchers Creek open-pit, providing immediate ore for future development.

Moving ahead, the 2021 exploration program has set its sights on increasing the resource and converting additional resources from the inferred to the indicated category before the project advances to economic and pre-feasibility studies.

In fact, Meteoric says the maiden resource is only the beginning, with two drill rigs currently operating at Butchers Creek, targeting the high-grade fold hinge position and extending mineralisation down plunge to the southwest.

Whats next for Palm Springs?

Talking to the outlook at Palm Springs, Dr Tunks continued: Back at home, our impressive progress at Palm Springs in WA, including the early delivery of our maiden resource estimate, underpins our ability to grow and develop the project, which has a history of gold production.

Our next step at Palm Springs is to complete the current 3,800-metre drill program at Butchers Creek, which is strongly focused at higher grade mineralisation occurring in the closure of a regional scale anticline.

Importantly, we have been able to establish confidence in historical drilling data at Palm Springs, which allows us to accelerate our development of the project and once current drilling is complete, start work on economic and pre-feasibility studies for the project.

Its a really exciting time at Meteoric as we explore the copper and gold potential of Juruena and take the next steps in developing projects on two continents, I look forward to keeping our shareholders updated on our progress.
The company is among 20 South Australian businesses selected for funding to accelerate export market development initiatives.

Angel is the Southern Hemispheres largest producer of certified organic and sustainable Pacific Oysters.

( ) has secured funding from the South Australian Government-aided Global Expansion Program aimed at growing export capacity into new and existing markets.

The Global Expansion Program is a four-year funding program targeting South Australian businesses with solid growth and potential to diversify or boost their presence in existing or new markets.

Angel Seafood is among 20 South Australian businesses to be selected to benefit from the initial $1 million funding program.

South Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Stephen Patterson made the announcement as part of the Showcase SAs Business Accelerator series during a visit to Port Lincoln.

Three-pillar growth strategy

Angels CEO and founder Zac Halman said: Export of our premium organic oysters into emerging high-value markets such as South-East Asia and the Middle East is a significant part of our three-pillar growth strategy to increase scale and profitability.

We thank the South Australian Government for recognising Angels potential among other South Australian businesses and promoting our products.

The funding and assistance from the State Government will help Angel to obtain professional services to gain insights into new and existing markets and to establish new partnerships that will accelerate our efforts to increase exports.

We are very excited to be part of this program and look forward to achieving further traction in new high-value export markets.

About business

Angel has grown from a family-operated South Australian business and has rapidly developed from a traditional oyster-growing business into a premium, innovative and organically certified producer of Coffin Bay Oysters.

The company primarily sells oysters to the domestic market, however, exports represent a substantial long-term growth opportunity.
Four ASX-listed companies presented during the online webinar which can be viewed at any time on YouTube.

Earlier this week Proactive held a Gold Webinar which saw four ASX-listed gold companies  Latitude Consolidated ( ), Great Boulder Resources ( ), Resources ( ) and Platina Resources ( ) - present on upcoming plans for 2021.

The webinar, which included four 12-minute presentations followed by a 5-minute Q&A session was live-streamed and can be viewed at any time.

To watch the full webinar, follow this link.

Latitude Consolidation advancing

Latitude Consolidateds chief executive officer Tim Davidson highlighted the companys humble development since February 2021, when the junior gold explorer acquired the Murchison Gold Project from Silver Lake at $10 per resource ounce ($8 million).

The acquisition included the Andy Well and Gnaweeda Gold projects, which have a combined 343 square kilometre landholding in the Murchison Gold Fields in Western Australia.

He said: The project is underpinned by a large, high-grade and high-confidence 1.1 million resource  we think thats a fantastic starting point for us, but certainly a lot left to be found.

Along with the project, LCD also acquired a large geological dataset  worth more than $30 million and comprising 786,500 metres of drill hole, aeromagnetic, sub-audio magnetics and gravity data.

This was a fantastic addition to drive the project forward from a geological targeting perspective.

With $9 million in the bank as at the end of June 2021, Davidson said the company remains well-funded to execute on its exploration plans and mining study work.

To view this presentation, follow this link.

Great Boulder targeting growth

Second in line, Great Boulders managing director Andrew Paterson addressed investors on its gold projects, in particular, Side Well and Whiteheads, which he believes, are poised for outstanding growth through exploration.

The companys Whitehead Project, surrounded by the likes of Norton Gold Fields, Northern Star and neighbouring Estrella Resources T5 nickel sulphide discovery at Carr Boyd, includes a landholding of 450 square kilometres with more than 25 kilometres of prospective strike.

Paterson said Great Boulders focus had been on finding new targets and making new discoveries, which led the company to the Arsenal Trend  a surface gold anomaly, more than 5 kilometres long at 10ppb including the Gunners and Blue Poles prospects.

At the companys Sidewell Gold Project in the richly endowed Murchison goldfields, Great Boulder has drilled more than 110 aircore holes and 40 RC holes, with results including bonanza grades of up to 3 metres at 34.5 g/t from 32 metres and 6 metres at 31.25 g/t from 130 metres.

Paterson said: 31 grams per tonne is a very high grade and a lot of mines around Australia are operating at 1 to 2 grams per tonne, so this is super high-grade and that is an absolutely fantastic result.

To view this presentation, follow this link.

on hunt for next Wattle Dam

Next up, Maximus Resources managing director Tim Withers kicked off the presentation by emphasising the reasons why investors should think about MXR as a potential asset.

The companys Wattle Dam Mine is 25 kilometres from Kambalda in the heart of Western Australia eastern Goldfields region, within 50 kilometres of seven gold processing plants and 25 kilometres from BHPs nickel concentrator.

Work is underway to evaluate a mineral resource estimate with assays pending from resource drilling completed in June.

Mined until 2012, Wattle Dam was one of Australias highest-grade gold mines producing around 286,000 ounces at 10.1 g/t gold.

Maximus is developing several small high-grade operations across the tenement portfolio, whilst actively exploring for the next Wattle Dam.

To watch this presentation, click here.

Platina Resources outlines new strategy

To conclude the webinar, Platina Resources managing director Corey Nolan highlighted what makes the company unique.

The company controls a portfolio of precious, specialty and base metal projects including the 1 million gold ounce deposits at Xanadu in Western Australias Ashburton Basin as well as Challa in the Yilgarn Craton.

Nelson said Platinas strategy has been evolving over the last 12 to 18 months with the company focusing primarily on gold exploration in Australia.

He said: The reason we are pursuing this gold strategy is because we believe that real value can be generated through discovery, building a resource base and going through feasibility.

To view this presentation, follow this link.
The TECH Project will be a modern and sustainable producer of a critical chemicals.

Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd (ASX:QPM), (formally Pure Minerals Ltd), is the 100% owner of the Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH Project).

Queensland Pacific Metals advances financing for its 'green' Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub Project

Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd (ASX:QPM) (FRA:4EA) is advancing discussions with a number of parties pertaining to debt and equity funding for its 'green' Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) Project in Queensland.

The company believes achieving success in the project feasibility stage will increase its value and open doors to funding opportunities for the project construction.

Its funding options include traditional equity investors, strategic investment by partners/offtakers, government grants, including manufacturing grant and R&D tax incentive.

The company is pushing ahead to turn into a producer of battery chemicals in Australia, as well as positioning the TECH Project to be a world-leader in sustainable nickel production as the "exceptional greenhouse gas life cycle data" makes it even more attractive to investors.
(CVE: OG  OTCQX: OGGFF) President Matt Lurie joined Steve Darling from Proactive to share news the company has released their Q-1 numbers that a small decrease in gross by16.6% to $2.0 million from $2.4 million.

Lurie talks about the numbers and the fact the company is in a very strong cash position with up to $2.8 million from $1.6 million as of January 31, 2021 and $1.2 million as of April 30, 2020.
Just one week away from its proposed ASX debut, Charger Metals has officially exercised an option to buy a major stake in three battery metals projects from Lithium Australia, leaving the ASX-lister to concentrate on the development of a circular battery economy.

Charger Metals has exercised an option to buy a major stake in three battery metals projects ahead of its ASX quotation.

Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) (OTCMKTS:LMMFF) (FRA:3MW) has progressed its joint venture with soon-to-be-listed Charger Metals with the latter exercising its option to acquire a 70% stake in three of LIT's battery metals assets.

Charger, which is poised to list on the ASX in the coming week, will oversee exploration across the Coates, Bynoe and Lake Johnston projects.

However, Lithium Australia will still have exposure to the battery materials projects as it will retain a 30% free carried interest in the exploration assets and remains Charger Metals largest shareholder.

To finalise the acquisition, Charger has handed over a $100,000 cash payment and 9.6 million Charger shares to Lithium Australia, valued at $1.92 million.

Following an oversubscribed $6 million initial public offering (IPO), Charger Metals is preparing to list on the ASX, with quotation anticipated on Thursday, July 8, according to the companys prospectus.

Charger to expedite focused exploration effort

Following the option exercise, Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said: "Lithium Australia retains significant exposure to raw materials through its equity in Charger, as well as its free-carried project interests.

The latter potentially provide access to raw materials that the Lithium Australia group of companies can further process.

Charger Metals specialised expertise will expedite a focused exploration effort, leaving Lithium Australia to concentrate on its core business: the ethical and sustainable supply of energy metals to the battery industry and the development of a circular battery economy.

We eagerly await exploration outcomes at the Coates, Bynoe and Lake Johnston projects.

The projects

As it prepares for its ASX debut, Charger officially brings the Coates, Bynoe and Lake Johnston exploration assets under its wing.

Coates project

The Coates project is a WA-based nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group elements (PGE) play, situated about 20 kilometres from Chalice Mining Ltds (ASX:CHN) (OTCMKTS:CGMLF) Julimar discovery.

The project comprises one granted exploration licence, one application and one retention licence, covering a combined 48 square kilometres.

Lithium Australia's Coates project exhibits geology similar to that of Julimar, with geochemistry results from an adjacent tenement returning encouraging nickel-copper-PGE and gold anomalies that few explorers identified previously.

Lake Johnston

Further east in Western Australia lies the Lake Johnston lithium, nickel and gold asset  Chargers most advanced project, with tenements covering around 25 square kilometres.

The most promising Lake Johnston target uncovered to date is the Lake Medcalf prospect, where LIT geologists identified a large zone of very strongly mineralised spodumene pegmatite at Bontempelli Hill.

The Bontempelli Hill outcrops consist of near fresh, stacked pegmatites, containing between 20% and 30% spodumene. Rock-chip samples from the pegmatite dyke swarm average 3.6% lithium oxide and up to a maximum of 7.15% lithium oxide from spodumene outcrop.

Notably, the Lake Johnston region has not been subjected to long periods of intense exploration like most other greenstone belts in Western Australia due to the difficult access and the lack of outcrop.

Bynoe project

Finally, travelling up to the Northern Territory, Charger now holds a managing stake in the Bynoe lithium and gold asset  situated just 38 kilometres from Darwin.

The Bynoe Pegmatite field is one of the most prospective areas for lithium in the NT and has many similarities to Greenbushes in WA, one of the worlds largest spodumene deposits.

The tenement is surrounded by ASX-lister Core Lithium Ltds (ASX:CXO) extensive holding, with Bynoe in close proximity to the Finnis Lithium Project.

Finnis boasts a 14.7-million-tonne mineral resource, grading at 1.32% lithium oxide. Significantly, 7.6 million tonnes of resources fall into the measured and indicated categories.

The Finnis project is at a very advanced stage of development, with a definitive feasibility study completed in April 2019.

Charger Metals prepares for ASX debut

Lithium Australias joint venture partner is likely just days away from joining the local share markets register after it completed an oversubscribed IPO last month.

LIT shareholders received priority access to the offer, able to subscribe for $500,000 worth of Charger shares at 20 cents apiece.

Since then, Charger has lodged its prospectus with ASIC and is poised to commence trade under the ticker CHR.
Field operations have run consistently and the response has indicated favourable trends with no further field layout adjustments required.

The recovery stream appears to be sufficiently close to the target range of 450 to 600 mv to support higher uranium production grades.

s ( ) ( ) (FRA:P1M) low-pH in-situ recovery (ISR) field demonstration at the flagship Lance Project in Wyoming, US, has yielded further improved production results.

The pH and free acid concentration of the recovery composite stream has reached target levels and with an Oxygen Reduction Potential (ORP) level consistent at around 400 mv, PEN believes the recovery stream appears to be sufficiently close to the target range of 450 to 600 mv to support higher uranium production grades.

Results meeting targets

Speaking to the update, managing director and CEO Wayne Heili said: In reviewing the results of the field demonstration over the past few weeks, it is clear that the learnings-based adjustments implemented at Lance were well thought out and appropriate.

The composite production stream pH and free acid levels are now meeting our control targets and importantly, the uranium solution grade has responded with a strong improvement.

Information gained during the demonstration operations will be applied to the commercial low-pH approach as the company progresses the Lance Project toward a return to production.

Increased uranium grade

The recovery composite stream uranium grade has recently increased to approximately 40 ppm and is trending toward continued improvement, compared to the uranium concentration of between 20 and 25 ppm in mid-May.

Achieving and then maintaining the correct operational pH and ORP for the process solutions is critical to successful low-pH ISR uranium operations.

With the pH and free acid target now achieved, the rate of acid addition has been reduced to a rate sufficient to maintain current levels.

As previously reported, a change in the type of oxidant utilized has delivered significant improvement in the injection and recovery stream ORP levels.

Uranium capture  ion exchange

The success of ion exchange (IX) processes is concentration driven and the system technical performance is known to improve with increasing uranium grades.

A pilot-scale IX system has been online since March.

The performance of the IX has improved with the upward trending uranium concentration and it is achieving loading results that are consistent with typical levels for low-pH lixiviant applications.

Peninsula Energy has also continued evaluating several alternative uranium capture/recovery process options which may improve upon standard ion exchange performance.

Evalutations of two proprietary innovative concepts have been advanced with completed desktop evaluations.

A laboratory benchtop assessment of one technology has been planned to be completed in July.

If successful, the testing may be advanced to pilot scale demonstrations that could be run in conjunction with the current field demonstration.

These advanced technologies have the potential to significantly enhance downstream processing performance while reducing operating costs.
In a wide-ranging update, the group also revealed it had landed the Chill.com (www.chill.com) domain

Zoetic International ( ), the CBD specialist, said it was making significant operational and financial headway.

The owner of the Chill brand of CBD smokes and chews told investors it has launched in the UK following the completion of the thechillwayuk website (www.thechillwayuk.com).

"This is a decisive moment for the company as our Chill-brand CBD smokes launch in the UK, said Trevor Taylor, Zoetics co-chief executive.

We are excited to enter this rapidly expanding and yet underserved market that currently has little access to CBD smokes.

We are keen to build on the brand's successes in the US where it has gone from strength to strength.

The growth of our global consumer base only looks set to grow as we launch a dynamic UK website and continue to see high-value repeat sales in the US."

At the same time, it has acquired the Chill.com (www.chill.com) domain, which it said provided it with unique marketing opportunities.

Co-CEO Antonio Russo said the move opens up a highly complementary sales and marketing channel adding significant value as we build out a robust international retail footprint.

Zoetic has also registered a further US$720,000 worth of sales through its US distributor network. This is in addition to the previously announced new business.
The Gibraltar Crypto Stamp and the Gibraltar Genesis Collection of NFTs have spotlighted our technology focus and capability within the area said boss Eddy Travia

( )( ) said although the Open Finance and non-fungible token (NFT) markets are in their infancy, developments in the past year and a half have increased confidence in the company's ability to generate credible revenue streams.

The groups financial results for 2020 showed a net fair value gain of 565,713 compared to a gain of 572,805 in 2019 with a gain from continuing operations of 309,590 compared to a loss of almost 259,000 a year earlier.

There was cash at bank of just over 173,000 at the end of last December and with an additional 1.2mln raised in May, the company said all its current operational commitments are fully funded up to January 2022 and beyond.

Following a strategic review that concluded in December, the board resolved to focus on NFTs and Open Finance.

In his outlook statement alongside the results, chief executive Eddy Travia said the board sees a significant opportunity in these two areas, highlighting projects that its wholly owned Nifty Labs arm is developing with partners.

The Gibraltar Crypto Stamp and the Gibraltar Collection of NFTs, while principally being working pilots, have spotlighted our technology focus and capability within the area, Travia said, and have served to generate a broader interest that we aim to capitalise on.

He said sales of NFT collections will have a twofold impact on the companys ability to generate revenues, he said, firstly, we will generate revenues from the initial sale or 'drop' of the NFT; and then again from all secondary market trading activities (particularly pertinent in respect of the rarer and more valuable digital assets) with the capability for programming into the smart contract a commission or royalty on any subsequent trades.

Beyond this, he said the board believes Nifty Labs subsidiary has the potential to generate significant value for the company.

It is currently working on the build-out of a digital marketplace, with Travia saying the capability of developing a bespoke marketplace solution not only showcases our tech development capability, it also allows us to create something that will be of benefit to the wider blockchain ecosystem.

He added that the current solid financial base means Coinsilium can continue to be strategically flexible and take an opportunistic approach to new developments and opportunities within NFT and Open Finance markets and potentially other digital finance markets.
Exxon Mobil's boss, Dan Woods, professed to be shocked by the lobbyists' assertions. Many other observers would have been totally unsurprised by them

US oil giant s ( ) support for a carbon tax has been dismissed as nothing but a public relations ploy by Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group.

Greenpeaces investigative journalism branch, Unearthed, posted a video interview with Keith McCoy, a senior director in Exxons Washington government affairs team, in which he essentially said the company could score a few brownie points by expressing support for a carbon tax as Republicans in the US Congress will never introduce it.

Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, and the cynical side of me says, yeah, we kind of know that  but it gives us a talking point that we can say, well, what is ExxonMobil for? Well, were for a carbon tax, McCoy said in the interview.

Unearthed reporters posed as recruitment consultants looking to hire a Washington lobbyist for a major client and interviewed McCoy on Zoom.

During the interview, McCoy revealed that Exxon has funded shadow groups whose aims are to muddy the waters over climate change issues.

McCoy said the support was not illegal and the purpose was to look out for the interests of Exxon shareholders.

Unearthed also interviewed Exxons former White House lobbyist, Dan Easley, who said the oil and gas industry was also lobbying against other environmental issues, such as the requirement for the federal government to purchase green energy and retrofit federal buildings.

Easley said the worry was that a future Republican administration would be unable to reverse such developments once they became law.

As one might expect, Exxons chairman and chief executive officer, Dan Woods, quickly distanced the company from the lobbyists comments.

Comments made by the individuals in no way represent the companys position on a variety of issues, including climate policy and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing climate change. The individuals interviewed were never involved in developing the companys policy positions on the issues discussed, Woods said in a written statement to the Guardian newspaper.

We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them, including comments regarding interactions with elected officials. They are entirely inconsistent with the way we expect our people to conduct themselves. We were shocked by these interviews and stand by our commitments to working on finding solutions to climate change, Woods said.
Over 20% of Steppe Golds shares are already owned by Mongolian investors and it said the cross-listing reaffirmed its commitment to enable more Mongolians to share in its success

Proceeds of a share placement will be used for the Phase 2 expansion of Steppe Gold's flagship ATO gold mine

( ) ( ) (FRA:2J9) said it has received permission to cross-list on the Mongolian Stock Exchange in a move that will allow more Mongolian investors to trade in its shares.

Following the approval by the Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia, the gold mining company said it planned to raise 5 billion Mongolian togrog (C$2.2 million). Proceeds of the placement will be used for the Phase 2 expansion of its flagship ATO gold mine.

Over 20% of Steppe Golds shares are already owned by Mongolian investors. It said the cross-listing reaffirmed its commitment to enable more Mongolians to share in its success.

Steppe Gold quickly positioned itself as Mongolias leading gold producer and we are excited to attract more Mongolian retail investors and institutions in the growth of our exciting and growing portfolio of precious metal assets, the company's president and CEO Bataa Tumur-Ochir said in a statement.

Steppe Gold has built a strong reputation regarding community engagement, investment on the education of Mongolian youths, local development support, job creation, and responsible mining. This cross-listing is aligned with our goal to make an important contribution to not only Mongolias economy, but also Mongolias stock market, he added.

Ard Securities, the lead advisor and underwriter of the capital raise, said there was increased interest from Mongolias growing retail investor base, with local investors excited to participate in the success of a home-grown mining company with a demonstrated success story.

Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com
Panacea produces soft gels, gummies, tinctures, sublingual tablets, cosmetics and other topicals

Exactus Inc ( ) has announced the acquisition of Panacea Life Sciences Inc, a producer of legal, trace THC, hemp-derived cannabinoid products for consumers and pets.

Panacea, founded in 2017 by Leslie Buttorff, operates a 51,000-square-foot cGMP (current good manufacturing practice)-certified facility in Golden, Colorado and PANA Botanical Farms in western Colorado, complete with fully integrated extraction, manufacturing, testing and fulfillment.

The company produces soft gels, gummies, tinctures, sublingual tablets, cosmetics and other topicals for purchase online, in stores and at smart kiosk vending machines being rolled out nationally.

In consideration for the transaction, Exactus issued 1 million shares of Series C convertible preferred stock, 1,000 shares of Series C-1 convertible stock, 1,000 shares of Series D convertible preferred stock and more than 473 million shares of common stock.

Panacea also founded the Cannabinoid Research Center at Colorado State University and supports medical studies designed to evaluate the effects of cannabinoids in human health and wellness, the company said. The company attracted significant early investment, including $14 million from 22nd Century Group, which recently went on to sell its Panacea stock for an 11.6% stake in Exactus.

"Our focus on quality and traceability are the hallmarks of Panacea's seed-to-sale strategy, Buttorff said. From our state-of-the-art CO2 extraction, chromatography equipment and product manufacturing lines, we can produce as much product as we need to meet our sales goals for the foreseeable future."

"We first entered the CBD arena with a world-class SAP (systems applications and products)-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) system developed for the cannabis industry by Quintel Management, which tracks the full chain of custody for every product, as well as provides all back-office and production planning capabilities. We believe this sets us apart from the majority of hemp farms and CBD companies.

Buttorff is also CEO of an SAP consulting firm, the company said.

"Seeing the utter chaos that permeates the emerging cannabis and hemp industry, accurate supply-chain accounting and reporting is crucial to our success, she continued. Unlike other companies, we set out to set the industry standard for compliance and reporting, which has been rewarded with our successful partnership and investment in joint technology with 22nd Century."

Additionally, Larry Wert has resigned as Exactus chairman, but he will remain on the companys board of directors.

"Since the beginning of 2021, we have focused on restructuring and properly positioning the company to execute a strategic acquisition. We are thrilled to have met Leslie Buttorff and the Panacea team as they have developed a real gem of a CBD company." Wert said.

"Throughout this process, we have evaluated many companies, and Panacea has proven to be superior in all aspects. We are pleased to provide our loyal shareholders this opportunity to continue in the CBD arena. I would also like to thank Exactus' founder and investor Harvey Kesner and Andrew Johnson, who provided invaluable insight and support throughout our difficult transition year and in connection with the Panacea transaction."

In connection with the closing, Johnson resigned as an officer of Exactus but will continue on with Panacea to assist with investor relationships, the company said.

Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel
"The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood."

Molly Ivins
Russian President compels foreign IT giants to open offices in Russia

11:51 01/07/2021

MOSCOW, July 1 (RAPSI)  Russias President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill obliging foreign IT companies to open offices in Russia into law, according to the official website of legal information.

The law touches those IT companies whose daily audience in Russia exceeds 500,000 people, according to Chair of the Committee on Informational Policy Alexander Khinshtein.

The initiative envisages that starting January 1, 2022, a foreign IT firm must open an office or an accredited legal entity in Russia, register its personal profile on the website of Roskomnadzor communications agency and publish electronic follow-up form for Russian citizens and organizations on its website.

However, the amendments contain measures of compulsion inducing IT giants to comply with Russian legislation. These measures include informing users of breaching of Russian laws by a resource, the resource advertising by off-site advertisers, restriction of payments and funds transfer, search results ban, prohibition of collection and trans-border transfer of personal data, slowing of traffic or website blocking.

The document also preliminarily names 20 platforms falling within the purview of law. The list includes Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Aliexpress, Gmail, Ikea and Wikipedia.




Russias Ombudsman registered more than 4,000 appeals on housing issues over last year

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:11 01/07/2021

MOSCOW, July 1 (RAPSI)  In 2020, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova received 4,202 appeals concerning the exercise of the right to housing.

The Ombudsman reminded that a day earlier the President of Russia Vladimir Putin for almost 4 hours answered 68 questions from citizens during the direct line time. Although the question ran across a broad range of topics, they all related to the rights and freedoms and problems actual for people. The overwhelming majority of questions concerned the social sphere. First of all, these were the problems associated with housing, the Ombudsman wrote on her social network page.

Thus, for example, the President promised to work out and sort out the situation of high charges for relocation from old unsafe houses, which was exemplified by the problem faced by a participant in the direct line.

The Ombudsmans Office also often faces housing and utilities challenges in its work, Moskalkova writes. In 2020, the Office received 4,202 appeals concerning the exercise of the right to housing. This topic takes the third place among all appeals. Thus, from this January to May the Office has already received 2,426 complaints. Many of them are submitted in connection with the work of housing and communal services and emergency relocation, the Rights Commissioner observes.

At the end of May, during a working trip to Krasnoyarsk, Moskalkova conducted a personal reception of citizens. Most of the complaints also concerned housing issues; in general, according to the Ombudsman, her Office often had to intervene in such cases taking place over the country.
Posted by Jay on at 10:38 AM CST

Marvel has sent out solicitations for their September 2021 titles, including 7comics and one trade paperback!ALYSSA WONG (W)  MINKYU JUNG (A)COVER BY SARA PICHELLIBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by PAOLO VILLANELLILucasfilm 50th Anniversary Variant Cover by CHRIS SPROUSEREPEAT OFFENDERS DOCTOR APHRA and SANA STARROS are imprisoned by a POWERFUL ENEMY! If they want to escape, theyll have to work together with former foes JUST LUCKY and ARIOLE... And venture deeper into the heart of a CRIMSON DAWN FLAGSHIP!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99CAVAN SCOTT (W)  ARIO ANINDITO (A)  Cover by PHIL NOTOVariant COVER by LEINIL YUVariant COVER by CARLO PAGULAYANA NEW STORY BEGINS THIS ISSUE  THE SHADOW OF THE NIHIL! Following the terrible events of The Rising Storm, the villainous NIHIL are in retreat, hunted by THE JEDI. WAYSEEKER KNIGHT ORLA JARENI is attacked by a lone Nihil Stormship in deep space, a Stormship commanded by one of the Jedis own. Which of STARLIGHT BEACONS number have joined the Nihil Horde? And how far will they turn from the Light?32 PGS./Rated T $3.99(of 5)Charles Soule (W)  LUKE ROSS (A)  Cover by STEVE MCNIVENVariant Cover by BRYAN HITCHBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by PAOLO VILLANELLITrading Card Variant Cover by JOHN CASSADAYAction Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHERTHE WAR CONTINUES! The true machinations of the theft of HAN SOLO from BOBA FETT become clear, as one-time love of Solo QIRA has returned her terrifying criminal organization, CRIMSON DAWN, to the galaxy. Qira used Han to bring the most powerful players in the galaxy together, and now the pieces are moving toward their endgame. DARTH VADER, LUKE SKYWALKER, LEIA ORGANA, VALANCE, APHRA, THE HUTTS  all are vying for the ultimate prize, while Boba Fetts stuck in the middle, a simple man just trying to get whats his!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99GREG PAK (W)  RAFFAELE IENCO (A)  Cover by AARON KUDERBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by PAOLO VILLANELLILucasfilm 50th Anniversary Variant Cover by CHRIS SPROUSETARGET SKYWALKER All of DARTH VADERS careful scheming and brutal power moves to claim HAN SOLOS frozen body have one ultimate end goal: LUKE SKYWALKER, the only person who could challenge Vaders primacy at the Emperors side. Now everything comes to a head as father closes in on son and Luke finally grasps a shocking truth... one that will shape his destiny FOREVER!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99ALYSSA WONG (W)  David Baldeon (A)  Cover by Mahmud AsrarVariant cover by PHIL NOTOArtist Variant COVER by KHARY RANDOLPHBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by Paolo VillanelliTHE SECRET ORIGIN OF BOUSHH! A WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS TIE-IN!Before PRINCESS LEIA acquired his armor to infiltrate Jabba the Hutts palace, BOUSHH roamed the galaxy as a bounty hunter. He and his team of lethal warriors were exiled from their homeworld; but what horrible event from Boushhs past doomed them all to wander with no hope of ever returning? Desperate to survive, Boushh takes a suspicious job from a shadowy organization to assassinate DOMINA TAGGE, the leader of the powerful Tagge Family  a galactic dynasty stretching back countless generations. But Domina is the most dangerous enemy Boushh has ever faced, and the desperate exile has the most difficult choice of his life to make! ALYSSA WONG and David BaldeonS one-shot is the third of four action-packed War of the Bounty Hunters tie-ins about the criminal underworlds most notorious hunters and scoundrels, all told by the best STAR WARS writers and illustrators in the galaxy.40 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T $4.99ETHAN SACKS (W)  PAOLO VILLANELLI (A)COVER BY GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLIBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by PAOLO VILLANELLILucasfilm 50th Anniversary Variant Cover by CHRIS SPROUSESHADOW SOLDIERS VALANCE and DENGAR make a last stand against DEATHSTICK! TONGA seeks help from a LEGENDARY BOUNTY HUNTER! The bounty hunters converge on a high-stakes auction as CRIMSON DAWNS plans come into focus!32 PGS./Rated T $3.99CHARLES SOULE (W)  RAMON ROSANAS (A)Cover by CARLO PAGULAYANVariant Cover by RAHZZAHBounty Hunter Ship Blueprint Variant Cover by PAOLO VILLANELLIAction Figure Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHERLucasfilm 50th Anniversary Variant Cover by CHRIS SPROUSETHE CHASE! SITH LORD DARTH VADER has discovered that his son, Jedi Knight LUKE SKYWALKER, is finally within striking distance. He will pursue him to the very ends of space...Who is hunting whom? Meanwhile, LEIA ORGANA battles the forces of CRIMSON DAWN to regain her lost love, HAN SOLO.32 PGS./Rated T $3.99WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS TPBWritten by GREG PAKPenciled by GUIU VILANOVA & RAFFAELE IENCOCover by AARON KUDERThe next critical new chapter in Darth Vaders ongoing evolution! Returned to the fold after his rebellion against the Emperor, Darth Vader faces the horrors of reconstruction in the secret laboratories of Coruscant. As he blacks out under the knife, does the Dark Lord of the Sith still dream of revenge against his master? Or do his thoughts drift toward his son  and the friends who make Luke Skywalker so vulnerable? Featuring the revelation of the first time Vader learned the name Han Solo! As Vader and Ochi of Bestoon embark on a search for Solos carbonite-frozen body, who is the Umbaran? What happens when she emerges from the darkness? And what will a raging War of the Bounty Hunters mean for the Dark Lords ongoing schemes? Collecting STAR WARS: DARTH VADER #12-17.112 PGS./Rated T $15.99ISBN: 978-1-302-92622-9Trim size: 6-5/8 x 10-3/16
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Georgia Attorney General have filed a joint lawsuit against a debt relief company and its owners and executives. The company is accused of deceiving consumers into hiring them to lower or eliminate credit-card debts and improve consumers credit scores.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Rockport, TX (78382)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 86F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 77F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
After one-and-a half years, jailed MLA and a local party president Akhil Gogoi is likely to be freed as the Guwahati-based special NIA court, on Thursday, acquitted him in the second of the two cases filed against him in connection with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act stir in Assam in December 2019.

Akhil Gogoi's lawyers told the media that he is expected to be freed from the Guwahati Central jail soon.

Gogoi and his three associates were accused in two cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The Independent lawmaker and his associates were last week cleared of all charges in the first case. The 46-year-old jailed farmers' leader and Raijor Dal President Akhil Gogoi, was elected from eastern Assam's Sibsagar seat in the March-April assembly polls and currently lodged in Guwahati central jail. He is currently under treatment at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

The right activist has been in jail since December 2019, for allegedly fomenting violence during the anti-CAA agitations.

The National Investigation Agency had taken up the cases against him and his associates on the basis of two FIRs registered at the Chandmari police station in Guwahati and Chabua police stations in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh district.

"The NIA special court released him today (Thursday) in the Chandmari case. Last week the court discharged him in the Chabua case," Gogoi's lawyer Rahul Sensowa told the media.

Sensowa, who is one of the members of Gogoi's lawyers' team, said three others arrested along with Gogoi - Dharjya Kowar, Manas Konwar and Bitu Sonowal - were also discharged on Thursday. All the three activists are, however, already out on bail.

Gogoi and his associates are charged with criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds such as religion, race and language, assertions against national integrity and support to a terrorist organization including Maoist link.

Welcoming the NIA court's ruling, Raijor Dal's working president Bhasco de Saikia said the court's verdict has exposed the BJP government's attempts to target the party president without any basis.

The NIA court had last week granted two days' parole to Gogoi to meet members of his family in Guwahati and eastern Assam's Jorhat. His 84-year-old mother Priyoda Gogoi is also ailing.

Akhil Gogoi is the first lawmaker in Assam to win an election from jail after his octogenarian mother, son Nasiketa and prominent rights leaders of the country campaigned for him.

Rights activist Medha Patkar, Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, several students of Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and intellectuals from different parts of the country and Assam had come to Sibsagar to campaign for Gogoi in the March-April elections to the 126-member Assam assembly.
The West Bengal state transport department's decision to hire a 10-seater air-conditioned plane on a "wet lease" of three to five years, has sparked huge political controversy. The BJP is labelling the state government's decision "politically motivated" and procured for a "self-proclaimed Prime Minister" (Mamata Banerjee).

On June 11, the West Bengal Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd floated an e-tender for wet-leasing a fixed-wing, twin-engine aircraft for three to five years. The plane should be a twin-engine air-conditioned 'Falcon 2000' category aircraft with a "minimum seating capacity of 8-10 passengers", the tender said.

In a wet lease, the owner provides the aircraft as well as the crew to the lessee and is responsible for maintenance. The Bengal government will assure a minimum business of 45 hours every month, the tender document states.

Senior transport department officials said several states, including Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, had this arrangement. They stressed that there was no scope for any irregularity as the e-tender was a public document and could be accessed by any willing participant.

Mocking the TMC supremo, Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, uploading the first page of the tender, wrote a tweet saying the aircraft was being hired at public expense to campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Without naming chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Adhikari said a Pushpak Rath (the mythological flying chariot) was being procured for a "self-proclaimed Prime Minister."

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, "The government already has a helicopter. Why does it need an aircraft when there are only three operational airports in the state? This is a waste of public money."

TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said, "Many states in India have more than one plane. Adhikari should be aware that before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls Narendra Modi used the Gujarat government's plane to fly between different states for carrying out campaigns."

Former Kolkata Corporation mayor Firhad Hakim alleged that the file for hiring the plane was cleared by Suvendu Adhikari himself when he was the transport minister.

State Trinamool Congress Kunal Ghosh said, "These turncoats don't remember that he also availed the facility of the helicopter when he was the transport minister of the state".
At least seven European countries including, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain, and Switzerland have approved the Covishield COVID-19 vaccine for 'Green Pass'.

The development comes a day after India asked the members of the 27-nation grouping to individually consider allowing Indians who have taken Covishield and Covaxin vaccine jabs.

Differences emerged between India and Europe in recent days over the exclusion of Covishield as an accepted vaccine by the European Union vaccine passport programme.

From today, the programme allows anyone who is fully vaccinated with any of five Western-made vaccines  Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford-AstraZeneca  to travel freely within the bloc, Reuters news agency reported.

The exclusion of Covishield, which is produced by Indias Serum Institute using methods analogous to the EU-approved Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Vaxzevria but does not have EU market authorisation, stoked anger and the threat of retaliatory measures by India against travellers from Europe.

An Indian foreign ministry source said on Thursday that Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland had informed the Indian government that Covishield would be accepted for the purposes of travel.

Estonia has said it would recognise all the vaccines authorised by the Indian government, the source said, which would include Covaxin that has been developed by India's local firm Bharat Biotech.
Britain has reported another 26,068 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, the highest since Jan. 29, according to official figures released Wednesday.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 4,800,907.

It was the third consecutive day that Britain has reported more than 20,000 daily cases. A total of 20,479 coronavirus cases were recorded Tuesday.

The country also recorded another 14 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain to 128,140. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

Earlier Wednesday, British Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said he expects school "bubbles" to be removed as part of the final step of England's roadmap for lifting COVID-19 restrictions.

Speaking in the House of Commons, lower house of British Parliament, Williamson said that he wanted to see restrictions on schools and colleges, including the bubble system, removed "as quickly as possible along with wider restrictions in society".

"Further steps will be taken to reduce the number of children who have to self-isolate, including looking at the outcomes of a daily contact testing trial, as we consider a new model for keeping children in schools and colleges," he said.

The British government is under growing pressure to remove or alter the bubble system after figures showed the number of children off school due to COVID-19 in England is at its highest rate since schools reopened in March after the country's third national lockdown, according to Sky News.

Official data showed more than 375,000 pupils, about one in 20, were out of school for coronavirus-related reasons, up by more than 130,000 in a week.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a four-week delay to the final step of England's roadmap out of COVID-19 restrictions until July 19, amid a surge in cases of the Delta variant first identified in India.

More than 44.7 million people in Britain have received the first jab of COVID-19 vaccine and more than 32.8 million people have received two doses, the latest figures showed.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. Enditem
Toronto, ON -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/01/2021 -- DivorceGo is a law firm owned and operated by Bluetown law. The law firm is fully equipped with an experienced family lawyer in which clients can trust to complete their case quickly and efficiently. In addition, they understand what individuals go through due to family law cases, assisting them every step of the way.



The company spokesperson said, "While divorce is not easy, it doesn't have to be all costly. One can choose to have a collaborative divorce by agreeing on how they will divide their property, children, and other divorce issues. This implies that couples can divorce without going through court proceedings to have their divorce certificate. With collaborative divorce, one will have a faster time negotiating custody, spousal support, division of assets. Furthermore, they will have a faster divorce process after agreeing on all their divorce processes. Although collaborative divorce is for spouses who feel they can work out their divorce issues together, a legal representative assists spouses resolve issues while at the same time protecting their legal rights. At DivorceGo, we have lawyers trained to assist such spouses. Their lawyers have the right knowledge of the financial documents needed to make informed decisions."



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Responding to an inquiry on what are the drawbacks of collaborative divorce, the company spokesperson said, "The only drawback in a collaborative divorce is if both parties cannot agree, their lawyers are forced to withdraw from the case and can't represent such in court proceedings. Again, if one needs an emergency court order, such as their spouse leaving with children without informing them, collaborative divorce may not be suitable. But if all things go well, then the result will be written agreements used for their final divorce decree."



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/01/2021 -- The report "Medical Radiation Detection Market by Detector (Gas-Filled Detectors, Scintillators, Solid-State), Product (Personal Dosimeters, Passive Dosimeters), Safety (Full Body Protection), End User (Hospitals)  Global Forecast to 2025?, the global medical radiation monitoring, and safety market is projected to reach USD 1,207 million by 2025 from USD 949 million in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period.



The growth in Medical Radiation and Safety Market is attributed to the increasing use of nuclear medicine and radiation therapy for diagnosis and treatment, growing number of diagnostic imaging centers, rising prevalence of cancer, increasing safety awareness among people working in radiation-prone environments, and the growing number of people covered by insurance.



COVID -19 Impact on the Medical Radiation Detection, Monitoring and Safety Market;



COVID-19 has disrupted healthcare services in most countries worldwide; the worst affected so far are the US, Russia, Spain, Italy, the UK, India, Germany, and Iran. A number of countries across the globe have seen non-urgent diagnostic imaging surgeries being postponed due to the pandemic.



The American College of Radiation supports guidelines suggested by the CDC that advises medical facilities to reschedule non-urgent outpatient visits. Non-urgent procedures include non-urgent imaging and fluoroscopy procedures, such as screening mammography, lung cancer screening, non-urgent computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), plain film X-ray exams, and other non-emergent or elective radiologic and radiologically guided exams and procedures.



Request Research Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=1200



The full-body protection segment accounted for the largest share of the medical radiation safety market in 2019;



By products, the medical radiation safety market is segmented into full-body protection, face protection, hand safety, and other medical radiation safety products. The inframammary fold segment accounted for the largest market share in 2019. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the growing number of radiological procedures performed and increasing awareness among physicians, radiologists, and patients



Hospitals accounted for the largest share of the medical radiation detection market in 2019;



Based on end-users, segmented into hospitals and non-hospitals. The hospital segment accounted for the largest share of the medical radiation detection, monitoring and safety market in 2019. The increasing number of hospitals across the globe is the major factor driving the growth of this end-user segment



Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=1200



Geographical View in-detailed:



The medical radiation detection, monitoring and safetymarket is segmented into four major regional segments, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. In 2019, North America accounted for the largest share of the medical radiation detection, monitoring and safetymarket. The large share of North America can be attributed to factors such as the increasing awareness about radiation safety, growing number of radiodiagnostic procedures performed, and ongoing research aimed at the development of new and advanced radiation detection, monitoring, and safety products are driving the growth of the North American medical radiation detection, monitoring, and safety market.



Global Key Leaders:



The major players in the medical radiation detection, monitoring and safety market are Fortive Corporation (US), Mirion Technologies (US), IBA Worldwide (Belgium), Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), and Sun Nuclear Corporation (US).
Page Content

~ To await Constitutional Court decision ~





On Tuesday, June 29th, the Honorable Ministers of General Affairs Silveria Jacobs; Justice, Anna Richardson; Finance, Ardwell Irion; Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, drs. Rodolphe Samuel; and Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Omar Ottley met with the Committee for Civil Servants Unions (CCSU) members; WICSU-PSU, WITU, ABVO with representatives of NAPB upon invitation of government to ensure inclusion. During the meeting, the Ministers and the union representatives were allowed to explain their positions on the 12.5% cost-cutting measures on the employment benefits, determine the way forward and to present a joint press release of the positive meeting.





The union representatives were informed that the government had done all to fulfill its agreements with the government of the Netherlands to receive liquidity support while awaiting the Constitutional Court decision of the petition of the Ombudsman; however, liquidity remains a challenge. Government's intention to ensure payment of salaries in full, although there is limited liquidity available even with the recent 5th tranche, liquidity support of NAf 39 million remains a strive.





The government intends to pay out the 3% (50% vacation pay) withheld in June 2020; as soon as calculations are finalized to pay. Nevertheless, the NAf 3.5 million representing 50% of the vacation pay needs to be sought financially elsewhere; this requires further discussion with parties. However, the intention is also to agree to pay out the balance of the 6% (full vacation pay) owed for 2021 in two equal tranches every three months, though this will depends on when liquidity becomes available.





The challenging reality of the present situation is that should the laws pass the scrutiny of the Court and





be enacted; then the legal basis will lead to a situation where calculations would have to be reviewed and the vacation pay that was received will need to be repaid. Nevertheless, the unions and ministers have agreed to return to the table to discuss possible options to realize the cuts as well as after the Court's decision.





All parties present highlighted the importance of continued transparent communication and agreed unilaterally on a previously presented proposal to have quarterly meetings and even separate committee meetings depending on the subject at hand. Parties also agreed to meet once the Constitutional Court's decision is made to discuss the consequences thereof and the way forward. Parties look forward to the ruling of the Constitutional Court so that clarity exists for all concerned.




China will never allow foreign bullying

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivered an important speech at a grand gathering celebrating the centenary of the CPC's founding at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on Thursday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]



Here are the highlights:

- China has realized the first centenary goal -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

- The CPC has united and led the Chinese people over the past 100 years for one ultimate theme -- bringing about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

- Seeking happiness for the people and national rejuvenation has been Party's aspiration and mission since founding.

- The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in fighting bloody battles with unyielding determination, achieving great success in the new democratic revolution.

- The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in endeavoring to build a stronger China with a spirit of self-reliance, achieving great success in the socialist revolution and construction.

- The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in freeing the mind and forging ahead, achieving great success in reform, opening-up and socialist modernization.

- The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in pursuing a great struggle, a great project, a great cause and a great dream through a spirit of self-confidence, self-reliance and innovation, achieving great success for socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

- China's success hinges on the Party.

- The firm leadership of the CPC must be upheld.

- Only socialism could save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics could develop China.

- By pursuing reform and opening-up, a crucial move in making China what it is today, China has caught up with the times.

- The people are the true heroes, for it is they who create history.

- The great founding spirit of the CPC is the Party's source of strength.

- Xi pays tribute to former Chinese leaders, revolutionaries, Chinese people and foreign friends who have contributed to the Party's growth.

- The Party will continue leading Chinese people toward a better life.

- The Party must continue to adapt Marxism to a Chinese context.

- The Party must uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.

- The Party must continue self-reform.

- It is necessary to carry out a great struggle with many contemporary features.

- The Party is still in its prime, determined as ever to achieve lasting greatness for the nation.

- Party has secured extraordinary achievements on behalf of the people, starts new journey.

- China is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation.

- The CPC and the Chinese people, through a tenacious struggle, have shown the world that China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability.

- All Chinese people, both at home and overseas, can focus their ingenuity and energy on the same goal and come together as a mighty force for realizing national rejuvenation.

- China is committed to "one country, two systems" in governance of Hong Kong and Macao.

- Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China.

- Chinese young people should carry on the mission of national rejuvenation.

- Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail.

- The time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others is gone forever.

- China welcomes helpful suggestions, but will not accept sanctimonious preaching.

- We must accelerate the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.

- China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards so that we are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security and development interests.

- Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, oppress or subjugate us.

- China will keep promoting a human community with a shared future.

- China is committed to world peace, development and order.

Source: China Daily
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Bir Lehlu (Sahrawi Republic), July 01, 2021 (SPS) - The Prime Minister of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Mr. Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun, congratulated his Algerian counterpart, Mr. Aiman Bin Abderrahman, for his recent appointment as head of his country's government.

I am very pleased to convey to you, on my behalf and on behalf of the Saharawi government and people, my warmest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of your appointment by President Tebboune as Prime Minister of the sister Democratic and People's Republic of Algeria, asking the May Almighty guide your steps in this noble mission of working for the good, security, honor and prosperity of our beloved Algeria , highlights the letter from the Prime Minister of the SADR.

Prime Minister Beyun also expressed our sincere will and firm determination to make all possible efforts to strengthen and support the relations of brotherhood and alliance existing between the two countries and the Algerian and Saharawi peoples, at the service of the values, principles, interests and a common destiny that unites our two States .

According to a statement made public by the Algerian presidency, Mr. Aiman Bin Abderrahman was appointed yesterday by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as Prime Minister of Algeria, entrusting him with the mission of continuing consultations with political parties and civil society to form a government as soon as possible". SPS

125/090/TRA
We as citizens, should wholeheartedly support health workers and authorities in their mission in controlling the pandemic by strictly adhering to the health guidelines and practices.

by Professor Jayantha Lal Ratnasekera

Vice Chancellor, Uva Wellassa University

The island-wide travel restrictions imposed on May 21, were lifted after a month on June 21. It was officially called country-wide travel restrictions, but, de facto it was a country-wide lockdown. At the time of writing this article, the travel restrictions between provinces are still in effect, but other travel restrictions are lifted. Though it is too early to assess the real impact of month-longcountry-wide lockdown on controlling the spread of coronavirus, there are already signs of decrease in the daily new corona patients. The daily new cases have gone beyond 3000 at the end of May, but has come down to around 1800 during last few days. However, the pandemic situation is still far from satisfactory and the threat still prevails, repeatedly emphasized by medical experts.

Currently, the total number of corona patients in Sri Lanka has exceeded 250,000, and the total number of corona deaths has also gone beyond 3000. Though there is a drop in the daily new cases, daily death count is still revolving around 50 mark. In this instance, it is important to know the number of PCR tests conducted daily, as the ratio of daily new cases into number of PCR tests would be a more appropriate indicator. The raw number of new cases does not depict the actual picture, and reducing PCR tests would not help the cause. It is under these circumstances, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) has written to the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on June 19, requesting to continue the island-wide travel restrictions without lifting it on June 21.Lifting the lockdown even for few days is likely to take us back to the major epidemic situation prevailed in April, and the gains that have been made during the lockdown of the last three weeks will then be sacrificed. SLMA President Dr. Padma Gunaratne said in her letter to the President.

Undoubtedly, the month-long country-wide lockdown, or travel restrictions as officially declared, has helped in controlling further spread of the virus. As stated by the Chairman of the Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) Union,Mr. Upul Rohanaduring a discussion on DeranaTV, the lockdown has indeed been useful.The restrictions have aided PHIs and health authorities to detect more patients and trace contacts, he said.Before the travel restrictions, there were times when we would go to a house to get a patients information or trace contacts, and nobody would be at home. But, under the lockdown, we were able to direct patients to treatment centres and close contacts to quarantine facilities without much difficulty, Mr. Upul Rohana further explained.

However, there have been regular violations of travel restrictions, with thousands of people moving freely all over the country. When you look at the number of vehicles entered Colombo city every day during the lockdown, you start to wonder whether the restrictions were really enforced. You start to wonder whether all these are essential workers, as only the essential services were allowed to roam around. On one occasion, it was reported that more than 100,000 vehicles have travelled along the Southern expressway within 48 hours. Even under normal circumstances, 100,000 vehicles in 48 hours on the highway is quite a high number, and all this clearly indicates that some people have completely ignored the travel restrictions. Moreover, there were numerous public gatherings,partying wedding, birthdays and other special events. There were get-togethers from five star hotels to private houses, and from famous celebrities to local politicians have joined in. Of course, in some cases, police got involved and sent them for quarantine, but there could have been much more occasions not reported or not detected by authorities. On the other hand, this kind of misconduct by some people gives the impression that health guidelines and relevant rules are not applicable to them.

We could imagine how these people would behave when the travel restrictions were lifted, and it was confirmed on June 21. On this day, when the country was opened after a month, almost all the towns in the country were packed with people; the necessary physical distance was not observed at all; the mask is around either the chin or the neck. This irresponsible behaviour continues to date, despite severe warnings from medical experts.Of course, as human beings, we do not like to be restricted to a small area for a long time, but prefer to roam around freely. However, we should understand that the current situation, COVID-19 pandemic, is not a normal one. This global pandemic has restricted our freedom in all spheres and we have to change our behavioural patterns accordingly.

In the meantime, the medical experts have warned that the Indian virus variant known as Delta might become the dominant variant in Sri Lanka as well, if proper measures were not taken in time. Few patients infected with Delta virus variant were identified in Dematagoda and the area was locked down. Investigations are in progress to verify whether the COVID patients from Madiwela and Kahathuduwa are also having Delta variant. Delta, earlier known as B.1.617.2, one of the four variants of concern listed by the World Health Organization (WHO), was first discovered in India in October 2020. Other virus variants labelled as variants of concern by WHO are alpha, first found in UK, beta, first found South Africa and gamma, first discovered in Brazil. Out of these four strains, Delta is said to be the most dangerous virus variant, and was responsible for disastrous second COVID wave started in the latter part of April in India. Delta variant has completely paralyzed the Indian health system and resulted in a huge number of deaths.

The delta variant seems to be around 60 percent more transmissible than the alpha variant, according to early research data.The data, from England and Scotland, suggest that a person is twice as likely to be hospitalized if infected with the delta variant compared with the alpha. As reflected by hospitalization risk, delta variant seems to be associated with an increased disease severity.Delta variant has threatened even the countries where further spread of virus has been controlled to some extent thanks to speedy vaccination drive. It was reported that the delta variant is already dominant in countries like Australia, Indonesia and Israel, and the government of Bangladesh has decided to lockdown the Dhaka city for one week effective from June 28, due to the spread of delta virus variant. As mentioned above, COVID infected with Delta virus variant were already found in Sri Lanka as well, and there is a possibility of penetrating this variant from India to the island through fisherman. So, in order to avoid a worse scenario, it is extremely important to strictly adhere to the health guidelines and practices, medical experts warn. Though the island-wide travel restrictions were lifted, the real threat of COVID-19 had not disappeared at all, medical experts emphasize.

Professor Jayantha

Lal Ratnasekera

It is understood that the country cannot be kept closed continuously for a long time, as in such a case, the impact on the economy will be really bad. It is estimated that the economic loss per day due to country-wide lockdown was around 15,000 million rupees. Needless to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has done a irreparable damage to the economy during last one and half years. Threat of an economic tsunami is looming along with the COVID threat. Hence, the government is bound take measures to prevent further collapse of the countrys economy. On the one hand, government has to impose strict restrictions to curb the pandemic, and on the other hand, to take measure to revive the economy.

We as citizens, should wholeheartedly support health workers and authorities in their mission in controlling the pandemic by strictly adhering to the health guidelines and practices. We should be able to impose some kind of self-discipline during these pandemic days, and should have some courage and strength to behave responsibly and ethically during these pandemic days. We should leave behind our personal or political agenda, if any, and be united as one nation in this critical juncture. Otherwise, we all together will have to suffer from a fourth COVID-19 wave!
U.S Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, on Friday presided over the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in her Congressional tenure. According to her office, she is the first Black Lives Matter activist, Black woman and nurse to serve as Speaker Pro Tempore.
On Saturdays she sets up at Volunteer Park in Plantation and on Sunday you can find her at Veterans Park in Tamarac. Shes open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., but her sought-after brisket often sells out in just a few hours. She also serves chicken, lamb, ribs and fish, and you can add sides like collard greens, grits, mac and cheese, or baked beans, until they run out.
Herrera said she has given a lot of thought to her former notions of what a beautiful woman looks like and how it likely differs from how others perceive her. She used to think her implants made her attractive, especially on TV. But almost two decades later, she decided her health was more important.
Biden said family members are very realistic about the chances any of the people still missing will be found alive. They know that the chance are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly, the president said. At a minimum, they want to recover the bodies, he said. Family members who wanted to go to the site of the collapse, saw for themselves the pancaked floors.
FPL justifies the rate increase in several ways. The company wants to have 30 million solar panels in place by 2030 and says it will use the rate increase to develop those new solar resources. It also points out that, even with the rate increase, customers will have among the lowest utility bills in the country. According to the companys own numbers, the typical household paid $108.61 per month in 2006, but only $103.02 in 2021, meaning rates decreased even as the price for electricity increased on average 30% nationwide over the same time period.
I am a local Realtor with 40 years of experience. Whenever I requested a buildings certification as part of my due diligence checklist, I found that many owners had not done it. The certification letter was not required at a closing and most parties did not feel it was necessary. The Wall Street Journal reported that Florida requires a 40-year recertification on buildings to ensure structural integrity. My attorney reported that Broward and Miami-Dade have such ordinances but not Palm Beach County. Im sure there are other counties also lack this requirement. But many changes are on the way.
We put it on the market at a premium, but the market slowed down, so we pulled the price down to more reflect sales over the last three or four months, said Julian Johnston, a real estate broker with The Corcoran Group in Miami Beach, who holds the listing. He said that the owners are relocating to California to be closer to family.
Eleven Balearia ferry crew members, that sailed the route from Melilla to Malaga on Wednesday (30 June), have been isolated in a city hotel after testing coronavirus positive.

The members of the Bahama Mama's crew had to disembark in the citys port after displaying typical Covid symptoms during the journey.

This has been confirmed to SUR by official sources, both at the Port and by the Government of Melilla. They said that the asymptomatic crew members have been moved to a hotel in the city, where they remain in quarantine.

The Bahama Mama arrived in Malaga at 11.30pm but the alert had been raised during the journey. According to Port sources, after the tests on the 11 crew returned positive, they were immediately isolated for the rest of the crossing. "At no time was there close contact with the passengers," they say.

The ship was disinfected, a task that took some two hours, following Junta de Andalucia protocols, and then it was allowed to sail back to Melilla.

The Bahama Mama covers the Melilla-Malaga three times a week, and the next one is scheduled for Friday (2 July).

This Thursday morning, the Bahama Mama should have resumed its regular programme and sailed the route to Motril. The Government of Melilla, however, decided to keep the ship in port until a new disinfection of the ship was carried out and the entire crew was tested.

The appropriate indications have been given to suspend the boarding of the Balearia ship until diagnostic tests are carried out on the entire crew, after yesterday eleven members were disembarked in Malaga after giving a positive result, explained Melillas Minister of the Economy, Mohamed Mohand, in a statement.

Despite repeated attempts, SUR has been unable to contact the shipping company for a statement.
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Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 89F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

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Bahrains Liquidity Fund said that it would start receiving financing requests for private sector companies and institutions as of July 1 in line with the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to launch the financial and economic stimulus package to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.



The initiative is being launched in partnership with the participating national banks, namely the National Bank of Bahrain, the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, the Bahrain Islamic Bank and the Bahrain Development Bank, reported Bahrain News Agency (BNA).



The move is also in line with the decision of the Cabinet, chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to reopen the door for applications to the Liquidity Fund with a focus on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).



Applications for large companies, with an annual income of BD3 million ($7.91 million) and more, will be received for a period of one month, running from July 1 to August 1 via the nbbonline.com website.



These companies can obtain financing from the Liquidity Fund provided that they have an active Bahraini CR, have been operating in the Kingdom of Bahrain for four consecutive years, demonstrate they are solvent with a positive net worth, in addition to having audited financial statements for 2 fiscal years, including 2018 and 2019, with a positive profit margin for the fiscal year 2019, internally audited financial statement for the fiscal year 2020, and interim financial statements for 2021.



Furthermore, the companies must operate within the affected sectors as per the decision of the Minister of Labour and Social Development No. 47 of 2021, the BNA report said.



The applications for SMEs, with annual income of less than BD3 million, can submit their applications from July 1 and until September 30 through the website bdb-bh.com.



Eligible SMEs looking to obtain financing from the Liquidity Fund are required to have an active Bahraini CR, have been operating in the Kingdom for at least one year, and for companies that have been in operation for at least three full fiscal years they must submit financial statements for the previous three years, including audited financial statements for the fiscal year 2019, and demonstrate positive gross margins for at least one year, while companies who have been in operation for less than three years will be asked to submit financial statements and demonstrate positive profit margins in accordance with the number of years of activity.



Moreover, eligible SMEs should not have filed for bankruptcy under the bankruptcy law, and must operate within the affected sectors as per the decision of the Minister of Labour and Social Development No. 47 of 2021.



The Liquidity Fund will allow companies that have previously benefited from financing facilities under the previous rounds of the Fund to submit requests to extend the financing repayment period or increase the facility amount up to the maximum allowed. All requests for support will be subject to the discretion of the banks, the report said.



The Liquidity Funds package will amount to a maximum of BD300,000 for SMEs, and up to BD1 million for large companies, with the value of the financing facility for eligible companies being determined based on the banks review of the applications and their credit evaluation.

It is not necessary for the applicant seeking financing to have an existing bank account in one of the national banks contributing to the Fund (National Bank of Bahrain, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, Bahrain Islamic Bank and Bahrain Development Bank) in order to apply for financing, according to the BNA report.
Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) has marked a milestone in its Qatar Clean programme, with 100% of QNTC-licensed hotels now Qatar Clean certified.



Launched in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in June 2020, QNTCs Qatar Clean programme ensures the highest standards in hygiene and cleanliness, with rigorous procedures in place to ensure the safety of customers.



QNTCs Secretary General Akbar Al Baker as well as COO Berthold Trenkel marked the anniversary with a visit to the W Doha, which was the first hotel to be certified Qatar Clean. With 100% hotels now fully certified, the programme is now being expanded to restaurants, and can be rolled out to other sectors including transport, retail and culture.



Akbar Al Baker , also CEO of Qatar Airways Group, said: As we mark one year of our Qatar Clean programme, we are very pleased with its successful implementation. 100% of QNTC-licensed hotels have now been certified Qatar Clean, and the programme illustrates how together we are with our stakeholders and therefore have been able to innovate and adapt to the challenges of the past year.



Qatar Clean is a key component of our proposition; those in Qatar can enjoy our award winning hospitality and world class offerings with their safety assured, and we look forward to welcoming visitors from both near and far.



As Qatar begins to ease restrictions, Qatar Clean certified hotels and restaurants can operate at limited capacity and serve fully vaccinated individuals. And with visitors from the GCC now able to enter Qatar, both visitors and residents can rest assured that the highest standards of health and hygiene are being maintained at Qatar Clean certified venues.



To maintain a Qatar Clean certification, hotels must adhere to the following:



1. Each hotel facility must appoint its own Qatar Clean Programme Manager responsible for overseeing employee training and overall compliance with programme requirements.



2. Hotels must sterilise their facilities daily, conduct frequent and thorough cleaning, use disinfectant in all rooms, air conditioning systems, water tanks, toilets, and ensure stringent sterilisation of designated guest areas, especially reception halls and lobbies.



3. In order to reduce contact with guests, hotels must adopt mobile or other contactless procedures for check in and checkout, while optimising spaces to maintain a distance of at least two metres between individuals.



4. Hotels must carry out daily temperature checks on all employees at the start of their shifts, as well as on suppliers and guests. Anyone exhibiting symptoms of Coronavirus must immediately be placed in isolation, and MOPH would be contacted.



Joint committees from QNTC and MOPH continue to inspect hotels and their facilities to ensure programme standards are being applied and adhered to, with penalties imposed for non-compliance. With the success roll out of Qatar Clean across hospitality, the programme is being considered for other sectors such as transport, retail and culture.  TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi, Jul 1 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said 5G technology will bring significant changes in the world and India is preparing for that.

Interacting with the beneficiaries of Digital India today through video conference, on the occasion of Digital India completing six years since its launch, Mr Modi said this decade is going to greatly enhance India's capabilities in digital technology and its share in the global digital economy.

He believed that the youth will continue to take the country to new heights with digital empowerment and help the decade emerge as 'India's Techade'.

Mr Modi said, 'Digital India means opportunity for all, facility for all, participation of all. Digital India means everyone's access to the government system. Digital India means a transparent, non-discriminatory system and an attack on corruption. Digital India means saving time, labor and money. Digital India means fast profit, full profit. Digital India means minimum government, maximum governance.'

The Prime Minister said the Digital India campaign has helped the country during the Corona period.

'At a time when developed countries were unable to send aid money to their citizens due to the lockdown, India was sending thousands of crores of rupees directly to the bank accounts of the people,' he said.

He said digital transactions have brought an unprecedented change in the lives of farmers.

The Prime Minister said under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Rs 1.35 lakh crore have been deposited directly into the bank account of more than 10 crore farmer families.

'Digital India has also realized the spirit of One Nation, One MSP,' he said.

A lot of emphasis, he said, is being made on the scale and speed at which the infrastructure for Digital India is being made.

He added that through 2.5 lakh Common Service Centres Internet had reached remote areas.

'Under Bharat Net scheme, work is underway on a mission mode to bring broadband internet to the villages. Through PM WANI, access points are being created so that rural youth can connect with high-speed internet for better services and education,' the Prime Minister said.

He said affordable tablets and digital devices are being offered to students across the nation. Production Linked Subsidies are being offered to electronic companies to realise this goal, the Prime Minister said.

In the last 6-7 years due to Digital India, around Rs. 17 lakh crore has been transferred to the bank accounts of beneficiaries under various schemes.

The Prime Minister said India has shown both passion for innovation and ability to adopt those innovations rapidly.

'Digital India is the resolve of India. Digital India is the instrument for Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Digital India is a manifestation of a strong Indian that is emerging in the 21st Century,' he said.

The Prime Minister evoked his mantra of Minimum Government  Maximum Governance and explained how Digital India is empowering the common citizen by reducing the gap between government and people, system and facilities, problems and solutions.

He gave an example of how Digilocker helped millions of people especially during the pandemic.

School certificates, medical documents and other important certificates were stored digitally across the nation, the Prime Minister said.

He said the services like getting a driving license, birth certificate, paying electricity bill, paying water bill, filing income tax return, etc have become fast and convenient and, in villages, e Common Service Centres (CSCs) are helping the people. It is through Digital India, initiatives like One Nation One Ration Card are realised.

He commended the Supreme Court for asking all the states to implement the initiative in the respective states.

The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction over how Digital India has changed the lives of the beneficiaries.

He noted the benefits of Svanidhi Scheme and solving the problem of lack of security of ownership through Swamitva scheme.

He also mention e-Sanjivini scheme with regard to remote medicine and informed that work is on for an effective platform under National Digital Health Mission.

The Prime Minister said the digital solutions that India has prepared in the Corona period are a topic of discussion and attraction all over the world today.

One of the world's largest digital contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu has helped a lot in preventing corona infection, he said.

He added that many countries have also shown interest in India's COWIN app for vaccination.

'Having such a monitoring tool for the process of vaccination is a proof of our technical proficiency,' the Prime Minister said.

Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and MoS for Education Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre were also present on the occasion.

UNI NY SB 1500
ELIZABETH URBAN is News Editor for The Vidette. Urban can be contacted at emurba1@ilstu.edu. Follow Urban on Twitter at @eliizabethurban.

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In the WCOs capacity as a member of the United Nations (UN) Counter Terrorism Coordination Compact, the WCO Secretary General, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, spoke at a UN High-Level Conference, held virtually in New York on 29 June 2021, to highlight the contribution of the WCO and global Customs community to combating terrorism.

During the session on addressing challenges, chaired by Saudi Arabias Ambassador to the UN, H.E. Mr. Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, Secretary General Mikuriya stressed that there had been a shift in Customs priorities from revenue collection towards focusing more heavily on security in regions such as West and Central Africa where terrorist attacks and armed insurgencies were becoming a widespread scourge. Without first ensuring security, it would be difficult for Customs to facilitate trade or collect revenue at borders.

Dr. Mikuriya underlined the importance of using technology for Customs controls, especially technology based on advanced electronic data analysis and non-intrusive inspection images for risk management purposes. He acknowledged that criminal and terrorist groups also make use of technology, before sharing, as example, some of the results of recent WCO-coordinated operations aimed at detecting counterfeit and substandard medicines and medical goods in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Customs administrations around the world having seized millions of illicit items purchased online and shipped as small parcels.

Secretary General Mikuriya added that Customs should not operate in isolation but rather with society in general. He therefore underscored the importance of gender equality and diversity to promote inclusiveness within Customs administrations, though this approach also required private sector support.
At the invitation of Fijis Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), H.E. Mr. Satyendra Prasad, leading the UN Pacific Group, the WCO Secretary General, Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, briefed 16 Ambassadors and Representatives to the UN of Small Island States from the Pacific region on the WCO Small Island Economies (SIEs) initiative during a meeting held on 28 June 2021. The meeting was coordinated by the UN Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), under the leadership of the UN Under-Secretary General, Ms. Fekita K. Utoikamanu.

Dr. Mikuriya highlighted the WCOs major instruments and tools for facilitating and securing trade supply chains, including the Revised Kyoto Convention which was also key to implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement and to regional integration. In addition, he described various WCO capacity building programmes to help Members implement the Organizations standards and address human resource issues, such as integrity and inclusiveness.

Ambassadors of WCO Members showed an interest in maximizing the advantages of being part of the WCO network, while Ambassadors of non-WCO Members expressed their interest in WCO membership, with the benefits far exceeding the annual membership costs. They were also attracted by the WCOs Master Trainer Programme (MTP), funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which could be extended to the Pacific region based on its success in Africa. Being a train-the-trainer programme, it had created a pool of experts in African Customs administrations who would in turn train their fellow Customs officers.

Dr. Mikuriya later visited the Office of UN Under-Secretary General Utoikamanu and thanked her for previously cooperating with the WCO in assisting landlocked developing countries and SIEs. They agreed that these economies would gain the most from WCO programmes, given their need for enhanced connectivity.
Tara Reid has frozen her eggs so she has the potential to have kids in the future.

The 45-year-old actress has insisted she would be open to the idea of having children in later life, and has taken the steps to freeze her eggs just in case she decides to go through with the plan.

However, Tara also said she is very comfortable with her life at the moment, and wouldnt be disappointed if she never had children.

Speaking to internationally syndicated columnist Allison Kugel, she said: "Will I have kids? Lets see what is in store for me. Its not a no, and its not a yes. I have gotten my eggs frozen so there is definitely the potential of that. If it is meant to be, it will happen. If not, Im very comfortable where Im at.

Elsewhere in her interview, the American Pie star also said she has forgiven the media for hounding her when she was a young star, after she took time to grow and let go of her anger.

She explained: "I didnt [for a long time], and I was upset about it when I was younger. But I realised the only way I was going to grow and get out of that situation was to grow as a woman. So therefore, I do forgive them now. I have moved on, and my press has changed. Im not angry about it anymore. When you finally let something go, it goes. Its like taking a balloon and putting it up in the air, and its gone. Im 45 years old and Im not a child anymore.

And Tara said praying and listening to tapes by author Deepak Chopra have helped to direct her energy into something positive.

She added: "I do pray, and who I pray to depends on what situation I am in. I pray to Jesus, but I also pray to my parents all the time. They are probably my number one. And I pray to my guardian angels; I pray to St. Jude, St. John, or St. Christopher. They have different meanings depending upon what you are in need of.

I also listen to tapes by Deepak Chopra which has helped me tremendously. His tapes help you break down, Who am I close to? Who am I? What do I want? What do I not want? And you really have to write it out in a diary form. My life started changing. A lot of us dont know how to direct that positive energy, and I think that he is someone that really knows how to give that to you.

Allison Kugel can be found on Instagram at theallisonkugel and AllisonKugel.com.
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 93F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
West Hartford (06107)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 68F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Jordan Named Paducah's New City Manager

By West Kentucky Star Staff





PADUCAH - The city of Paducah has chosen its new city manager.In a press release, the city said commissioners have chosen Daron Jordan for the position. He has been serving as city manager of Paris, Kentucky, but has notified them that he is leaving and will begin his tenure with Paducah on August 1.Mayor George Bray said, I am pleased with the recruitment process and the incredible number of highly qualified candidates who wanted to be Paducahs next city manager. During the process, Daron Jordan stood out to the Board and to the others who had the chance to meet him as a great fit for Paducah. Daron was born and raised in Western Kentucky and is the current city manager in Paris, Kentucky. He has had excellent success in Paris and brings a wealth of economic development experience, a collaborative personality, and a love for Kentucky. The Board and I look forward to working with Daron.Jordan visited Paducah earlier this month and was interviewed by commissioners, the citys leadership team and a community panel on diversity, equity, and inclusion.Jordan said, I am excited for the opportunity to join Team Paducah. Paducah has a great history, and I want to be part of the team that continues to progress and move Paducah forward.He has been city manager of Paris since January 2017. Other local government experience includes more than 16 years with the city of Madisonville and four years with the city of Henderson. Jordan holds a Masters in Organizational Management and has been certified by the International Economic Development Council as a Certified Economic Developer.His contract with the city will be on the agenda for approval at the next City Commission meeting, which should be July 13.Jordan will replace Jim Arndt, who announced in January that he will move back home to Illinois to be closer to family and to open a local government management consulting business. Arndts employment contract ends July 31.
Police K9 Tracks Down Fleeing Massac Suspect

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - For the second time in a week, a Paducah Police Department K9 has helped authorities locate and detain a suspect. This time it was in response to a multi-state police pursuit.The McCracken County Sheriffs Office says they got involved in the pursuit after a Metropolis man crossed the Ohio River bridge into Kentucky while fleeing from Massac County Sheriff's deputies.The incident began early Wednesday morning when 26-year-old Steven J. Youman of Metropolis fled from Massac County Sheriff's deputies after initially being stopped in Massac County. Youman allegedly tried to strike a deputy with his car as he took off.McCracken County Sheriff's deputies picked up the pursuit once Youman crossed the Ohio River Bridge. Deputies deployed 'stop sticks' around the 9 mile marker on I-24 which punctured Youman's tires. Despite the front tires falling off their wheels, Youman continued to flee South on Husbands Road before eventually losing control of the vehicle and crashing into a field at Krebs Station Road. Youman then left the vehicle and took off on foot.While searching for Youman deputies were able to detain his passenger, 30-year-old Faith Sullivan of Brookport, who was wanted on a warrant out of Massac County.Paducah Police Department K9 officer Joker was brought in to assistant with the search and was able to find Youman hiding in a field within minutes of arriving.Youman was arrested but taken to a local hospital after he allegedly told Sheriff's deputies that he had ingested methamphetamine while fleeing. He was then medically cleared and taken to the McCracken County Regional Jail.Youman has been charged with reckless driving, fleeing or evading police 1st degree (motor vehicle), fleeing Or evading police 1st degree (on foot), two counts of wanton endangerment 1st degree, criminal mischief 3rd degree, operating a motor vehicle under the influence 1st (aggravating circumstances), failure To transfer a motor vehicle, failure to produce an insurance card.Sullivan was charged with fugitive from justice warrant, the original charges from the warrant was out of Massac County.This was the second time this week a Paducah Police Department K9 unit has assisted with locating a suspect. On Monday K9 officer Don was used to track down a Keeton Correctional Institute Escapee.On the Net:
Tennessee Woman Injured in I-24 Crash

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - A Tennessee woman was injured Wednesday morning when the she rear-ended a tractor-trailer on I-24 near exit 3 in Paducah.The Paducah Police say that truck driver Edgar Venable told them he was stopped on I-24 when a Ford van hit the rear of his trailer.The van was driven by Amaya Cox, who officers were unable to interview at the scene because she was being treated for her injuries. However, police said witnesses confirmed Venables account of the crash.Cox was taken to Mercy Health Lourdes Hospital for treatment. Officers believe Coxs inattention to the road was a contributing factor in the crash.
Illinois Gas Tax Gets Automatic Hike Today

By West Kentucky Star Staff

SPRINGFIELD - Drivers in Illinois should be prepared to pay for a little more gas starting today with another automatic hike instituted by Governor Pritzker.The states gas tax increases another half-cent to $0.392 per gallon. The gas tax saw an automatic increase to $0.387 cents in 2020.The gas tax originally doubled from $0.19 in 2019 as part of Pritzkers Rebuild Illinois plan, intended to help pay for statewide construction program for roads, bridges, mass transit, schools and other public works.According to Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois has the sixth-highest gas tax in the country.Drivers paid $1.3 billion dollars in total gas taxes for Fiscal Year 2019, with that figure nearly doubling to $2.3 billion for 2020. The Institute estimates that the 2019 gas tax hike costs the average motorist, about $100 more a year.
Local Schools Get Grants for Resource Centers

By West Kentucky Star Staff

WESTERN KENTUCKY - The Commonwealth of Kentucky has awarded $15 million in grants to family resource and youth services centers in several area school districts.On Thursday, the Governor's office announced grants to 150 local Family Resource and Youth Services Centers from the second round of the Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund 2. They will fund educational support services needed due to COVID-19s impact on schools, youth and families, with a focus on early childhood education and child care, as well as family crisis and mental health counseling.The grants will be managed by the Division of Family Resource and Youth Services Centers in the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.School districts in our area receiving grants include:Laker Cove FRC, Laker Lighthouse FRC, Laker Anchor YSC, Harbour YSCThe Family ConnectionFulton Co Family Ties CenterGraves Central FRC, Fancy Farm FRC, Sedalia FRC, SAFE FRC, Wingo FRC, Family Ties YSC, Summit YSCCardinal Connection YSC, Family First FRCRoots to Wings YSCF.A.C.E FRC, Mayfield YSCKids First FRC, Lone Oak FRYSC, Flash FRYSC, Reidland FRYSC, Mustangs YSC, Greyhound FRYSC, Reidland FRCMurray FRYSCKids Co Too FRC, Morgan FRC, Kids Co 1 FR, Tornado S.T.A.R YSCHorizon Youth Services Center
Marshall Fiscal Court Approves 911 Chair Purchase

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MARSHALL COUNTY - At a special called meeting Tuesday the Marshall County Fiscal Court settled it's long running dispute over what to do with the purchase of chairs for the county's E-911 center.The chairs had already been purchased for the E-911 center, when approval of the purchase was brought to a vote at a meeting earlier this month. Originally all three commissioners expressed their disdain for the price of the chairs with District 2 Commissioner Kevin Spraggs presenting cheaper alternatives to the court.At the time none of the three commissioners seemed to have an issue with seeking a more affordable alternative, however the problem the court faced was with returning the already purchased chairs.At Tuesday's meeting County Attorney Jason Darnall explained the purchase contract with the seller of the chairs, Evan's Consoles, and the potential risks they faced in breaking that contract.Darnall told the court he wasn't sure a restocking fee would apply, but returning the chairs could put the county in a position to be sued.Despite the potential return fees and legal issues, Spraggs stood behind the alternative chairs he had previously submitted to the court."These chairs that have been referred to as lesser expensive are the chairs that Calloway County and KSP (Kentucky State Police) use," Spraggs said. "If they are good enough for them, they are good enough for us is my opinion. The total on those chairs with shipping is $10,132. The total on the other chairs is $17,444.54. That is a difference in $7,312.54. I am not going to sit back and be ok with what I feel is excessive spending, not today, not ever."District 1 Commissioner Justin Lamb said he agreed with Spraggs in principle."It's our job as a court to try and curb excessive spending," Lamb said. "I still support my position that we as commissioners have a right to question bills and look for cheaper alternatives. Trying to find a common ground has been very difficult in this situation because we are in a predicament. We have the chairs that have been delivered. Are we going to virtually waste more money in sending them back?"Both Lamb and District 3 Commissioner Monti Collins worried that sending the chairs back would not only cost the county more money, but damage the county's reputation in future business deals.In the end the issue was put to a vote with Lamb and Collins along with Judge Executive Kevin Neal voting to keep the already purchased 24/7 chair, mainly in order to avoid those potential legal issues. Spraggs was the only one to vote no.
Navy Electricians Mate 3rd Class Alphard S. Owsley of Paris, Kentucky, was killed Dec. 7, 1941, when his ship, the USS Oklahoma, was attacked by Japanese aircraft. PHOTO:https://www.dpaa.mil/

KY Sailor Who Died at Pearl Harbor Identified

By The Associated Press

PARIS - The military says a sailor from Kentucky who was killed at Pearl Harbor has been identified, and he will be buried in his hometown next month.Navy Electricians Mate 3rd Class Alphard S. Owsley of Paris, Kentucky, was killed Dec. 7, 1941, when his ship, the USS Oklahoma, was attacked by Japanese aircraft.The 23-year-old was among 429 crewmen who died on the ship.The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Wednesday that Owsley was accounted for on Sept. 14. Owsley will be buried Aug. 5, 2021, in his hometown.
Pavlick, Maryann

Mrs. Maryann Pavlick, 89, of Murray, went to her heavenly home on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at Spring Creek Post Acute Care & Rehabilitation. Mrs. Pavlick was born on March 18, 1932 in Downers Grove, IL to the late Robert and Ruth Kube. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Education from Western Michigan University and went on to earn her Master's from Eastern Michigan University. She and her husband, Ed, loved to travel. In their younger years they visited many places in their travel trailer. Maryann was a profound artist and had a love of watercolor. You'll see many of her pieces displayed throughout their home. She loved writing poetry as well and wanted anyone she came across to have a copy. Most importantly Maryann loved the Lord and lived her life as such. She was a member of League of Women Voters and of Hardin Baptist Church. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by her husband, Ed Pavlick who passed away on May 7, 2021. Those she lovingly leaves behind include two sons, James Pavlick of Ohio, Robert Pavlick (Amy) of Murray; two daughters, Susie Barrick of San Francisco, CA, LeeAnn Wall (Michael) of Michigan; a sister, Jane Humphrey of Murrells, Inlet, SC; grandchildren, Joshua Gehrke, Jason Gehrke, Lauren Elizabeth Barrick and five great grandchildren. A private family service will be held at a later date. Please join family and friends in honoring the life of Mrs. Maryann Pavlick by visiting www.imesfh.com and posting your tributes and memories.
Independence Day will be extra special this year for many reasons. Like many other things in life, you dont really understand the importance of something until you cant experience it. On Sunday, I will have a whole new level of appreciation for celebrating our wonderful country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at the ceremony to present the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing]

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) - Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Tuesday conferred the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, on model CPC members.

A total of 29 CPC members who have made "outstanding contributions to the Party and the people" received the honor, some posthumously.

This is the first time the medal has been awarded as the CPC is set to celebrate its centenary on July 1.

Over the past 100 years, the Party "has written a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation's development and that of humanity's progress," said Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

In the Great Hall of the People, Xi draped the medals around the necks of the recipients, shook their hands and congratulated them.

Xi addressed the attendees after presenting the medals.

Role Models

Over the past 100 years, generations of CPC members have worked hard and made selfless contributions in the pursuit of national independence and the liberation of the people, as well as in striving for a prosperous and strong country and the people's well-being, said Xi.

Noting that the awardees have been outstanding representatives of CPC members on all fronts, Xi said they embody Party members' staunch faith, fighting and dedicated spirit, integrity and devotion, and loyalty to the Party's fundamental tenet  putting the people at the very center of their hearts, and wholeheartedly serving the people.

To maintain staunch faith is to stay true to the Party's original aspiration and dedicate everything, even one's precious life, to the cause of the Party and the people, said Xi.

All Party members should trust, love and devote themselves to the Party, he said.

Xi also told CPC members to work diligently, maintain high morale, tackle challenges and continue the fine traditions of hard work and plain living, and to put public interests above personal interests.

The ceremony was presided over by Wang Huning, and attended by Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng  all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, as well as Vice President Wang Qishan.

Wang Huning read a decision of the CPC Central Committee on conferring the medals.

Everyday Heroes

The recipients of the medals all come from the people and are rooted in the people. They are everyday heroes who have fulfilled their duties and made contributions, said Xi.

They include a veteran of the Red Army and those who fought in the War of Liberation and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. They also include a volunteer who has spent decades serving her community, a Uygur village official resolutely fighting ethnic separatist activities, a welder, a weaver, a veteran diplomat and a police detective.

A battalion commander who sacrificed his life defending the Chinese border, a Party official who was sent to a village to fight poverty and died on the front line, and a war hero who worked in obscurity after retiring from the military were awarded the honor posthumously.

Zhang Guimei, the principal of a senior high school that offers free education to girls from impoverished families, called herself an "ordinary teacher" when she delivered a speech on behalf of the honorees after receiving her medal.

"The honor belongs to every CPC member working on different fronts," said Zhang. "What we've done is just what many CPC members are doing every day."

According to figures released last year, the CPC has more than 91 million members.

Xi called on the Party to follow the example set by the awardees, saying every CPC member can make accomplishments for the Party and the people in the great cause of national rejuvenation.

"The new era needs heroes and can give birth to heroes," he said.

At the end of the speech, Xi called on CPC members and officials to boldly advance toward the second centenary goal of fully building a modern socialist country, as well as the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

After the ceremony, Xi and other leaders took a group photo with the medal recipients.

Before the ceremony, Xi and other leaders met with awardees of the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country, and took a group photo with them.

The meeting on awarding the three titles was held Monday, which was attended by Wang Huning and Zhao Leji.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at the ceremony to present the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Ding Lin] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, walks with the recipients of the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, into the venue of the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, walks with the recipients of the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, into the venue of the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Tao] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other leaders pose for a group photo with the recipients of the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves while meeting with awardees of the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country before the ceremony to present the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other leaders meet with awardees of the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country before the ceremony to present the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Shen Hong] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other leaders meet with awardees of the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country before the ceremony to present the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to outstanding Party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Shen Hong] A meeting on awarding the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 28, 2021. [Xinhua/Zhang Ling] Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, present awards to awardees of the titles of outstanding Party members, exemplary Party workers, and advanced community-level Party organizations from across the country at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 28, 2021. [Xinhua/Zhang Ling] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Lan Tianye at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Cui Daozhi at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Wei Deyou at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Ma Maojie at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Wang Shumao at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Wang Zhanshan at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Wang Lanhua at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Ai Aiguo at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Shi Guangyin at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Lyu Qiming at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Ting Bater at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Liu Guijin at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Memetjan Wumer at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Li Hongta at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Wu Tianyi at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Zhang Guimei at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Lin Dan at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Zhoigar at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Zhou Yongkai at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Guo Ruixiang at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Huang Dafa at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presents the July 1 Medal, the Party's highest honor, to Huang Baomei at the award ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. The award ceremony of the July 1 Medal was held Tuesday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

(Source: Xinhua)
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with outstanding Party secretaries of county-level CPC committees selected from across the country in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

BEIJING, June 29 (Xinhua)  Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met in Beijing with outstanding Party secretaries of county-level CPC committees selected from across China Tuesday morning.

Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, extended greetings and congratulations to the awardees and took group photos with them.

Also present were Ding Xuexiang, director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Chen Xi, head of the CPC Central Committee's Organization Department, both of whom are members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Approved by the CPC Central Committee, 103 county-level Party secretaries were awarded for remarkable achievements on their posts.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with outstanding Party secretaries of county-level CPC committees selected from across the country in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

Chen Xi, head of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's Organization Department, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attends a meeting to award outstanding Party secretaries of county-level CPC committees selected from across China in Beijing, capital of China, June 29, 2021. [Xinhua/Zhang Ling]

(Source: Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 00:04:41|Editor: huaxia

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Workers transfer containers of the COVID-19 vaccine in Maputo, Mozambique, on June 30, 2021. Mozambique on Wednesday received 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine purchased by the country's private sector in coordination with the government. The procurement of the 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, an inactivated vaccine called SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell), is part of the local initiative "United for the vaccine against COVID-19" (UNIVAX), of which, 139,000 doses will be offered to the Mozambican government. (Photo by Edson Manjate/Xinhua)

MAPUTO, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Mozambique on Wednesday received 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine purchased by the country's private sector in coordination with the government.

The procurement of the 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, an inactivated vaccine called SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell), is part of the local initiative "United for the vaccine against COVID-19" (UNIVAX), of which, 139,000 doses will be offered to the Mozambican government.

Speaking about the vaccination plan at the reception ceremony, the Minister of Health Armindo Tiago said the 500,000 doses of the vaccine will contribute to the immunization of around 240,000 people and accelerate the implementation of the national vaccination plan.

"Vaccines arrive in the country at a time when we are registering an increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19," he said.

The minister said that a rapid vaccination process could save lives of more people and prevent the collapse of the national health system, while calling for more public participation in the program.

The country is to receive another 1.5 million doses in the coming weeks, said the official, who hoped that half of the population will be vaccinated against COVID-19 by August. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 06:19:03|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has its landmark climate law entering into force on Wednesday as the Minister of Environment and Climate Action of Portugal Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes signed the text.

The signing ceremony coincided with the conclusion of the Portuguese six-month presidency of the Council of the EU. Slovenia will take over the rotating presidency on Thursday.

The climate law, adopted by the EU member states on Monday, makes the bloc's ambitious target of becoming climate neutral by 2050 legally binding. It also requires cutting of net emission by at least 55 percent by 2030 compared with the 1990 level.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the milestone on Twitter.

"In 15 days we will propose the laws to make Europe #FitFor55," she said, referring to the task of updating governing regulations in line with the new law. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 13:49:13|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported one case of COVID-19 related to recent returnees in managed isolation facilities and no cases in the community on Thursday.

The newly imported case came from Cambodia and has remained in a managed isolation and quarantine facility in Auckland, according to the Ministry of Health.

One patient was recovered. Three previously reported cases have now been reclassified as under investigation pending a historical classification investigation. These cases have now been removed from New Zealand's COVID-19 tally, said a ministry statement.

The number of active cases in New Zealand is 28, and the total number of confirmed cases is 2,384, according to the statement.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is two, it added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 15:11:10|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported four new imported cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the total tally to 11,927.

The CHP said there were altogether 42 new cases over the past two weeks, including 40 imported cases and two infections related to imported ones.

Hong Kong's vaccination program starting in late February continued to pick up pace as the number of daily jabs reached 60,000 on Wednesday, hitting a record high.

Nearly 2.25 million residents have taken at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for 33.1 percent of eligible groups, with 1.48 million people fully vaccinated. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 17:52:06|Editor: huaxia

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The Ukrainian edition of the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" is released in Kiev, Ukraine, June 30, 2021. (Photo by Sergey Starostenko/Xinhua)

KIEV, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian edition of the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was released here on Wednesday.

The event, co-organized by China's State Council Information Office, China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration and the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine, was attended by about 100 political leaders, government officials and people from all walks of life of both countries.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal sent a congratulatory letter to the event. Xu Lin, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and minister of the State Council Information Office, delivered a video speech.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, who is also the Ukrainian co-chair of Chinese-Ukrainian Inter-government Cooperation Committee, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Uruskyi, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleh Nemchinov, David Arakhamia, leader of the ruling party Servant of the People faction of Ukraine, leader of the Fatherland party Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasyl Bodnar and Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong also attended the event.

In his congratulatory letter, which was read by Nemchinov, Shmyhal extended his warm congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the CPC. The Ukrainian prime minister said that the publication of the Ukrainian edition of the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" will help Ukrainians better understand and learn from China's successful experience in national governance.

Xu Lin said in his video speech that the first, the second and the third volumes of Xi's book comprehensively and systematically present the development process and main content of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

They also show the historical course and great practice of the CPC in national governance in the new era and open a window through which the world can better understand the CPC and China, Xu added.

Xu also said that Xi's book demonstrates that the CPC has been consistent with the people-centered development philosophy, and illustrates the glorious course of the national rejuvenation led by the CPC on the basis of China's basic conditions.

The book also elaborates on the CPC's philosophy and proposals on pursuing peaceful development and building a beautiful world, and chronicles its ideas and practices of conducting strict self-supervision, self-discipline and self-reform.

Experts and scholars of both countries voiced their belief that the Ukrainian edition of the book will help Ukrainian readers understand Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the process of China's reform and opening up and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and will boost exchanges in national governance between China and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian edition of the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" was jointly translated and published by China's Foreign Languages Press and Ukrainian publishing house Folio Publishers.

So far, the first volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" has been translated and issued in 34 languages and circulated in more than 170 countries and regions. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 18:39:19|Editor: huaxia

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A flag-raising ceremony is held by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said.

He vowed continued efforts to safeguard national security, improve the implementation of "one country, two systems", and forge ahead with pragmatic approach and the spirit of rising to the challenge.



HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong held various events on Thursday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) were hoisted and the national anthem was played at the Golden Bauhinia Square in a flag-raising ceremony held by the HKSAR government.

Helicopters flew over Victoria Harbor and a fireboat sprayed a water salute. A torch relay race was also held.

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said Thursday morning during the events held in celebration at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

A reception marking the 24th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is held in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Lee vowed continued efforts to safeguard national security, improve the implementation of "one country, two systems", and forge ahead with pragmatic approach and the spirit of rising to the challenge.

With the leadership of the CPC, the strong support of the nation and the success in implementing "one country, two systems," Hong Kong compatriots will be able to share the glory of a prosperous and strong nation, said Chen Dong, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR.

Chuang Tze-cheung with the Hong Kong Celebrations Association said Hong Kong will continue to give full play to its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" and make greater achievements with the effective administration of the HKSAR government and concerted efforts of the society.

A series of celebrations were organized across Hong Kong, including parades of buses and fishing vessels. A commemorative movie named "1921" is on the big screens in multiple cinemas. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 19:41:36|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday expressed concern over the safety of school children in Libya due to armed clashes.

"On June 26, two children were confirmed injured, one in critical condition. These two children with their 239 schoolmates in school, in El-Jadida Municipality, Zwara, west of Tripoli were subjected to fear and distress due to shooting as a result of a quarrel between gunmen outside their school," UNICEF said in a statement.

The UN agency said it was deeply concerned about such incidents "where individuals/civilians and possibly children continue to be caught in crossfire in times of peace in Libya."

UNICEF reiterated its call to the Libyan authorities and armed groups to strictly abide by the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2020 and work towards long-lasting peace.

"Schools should be safe places, a sanctuary where children can learn, grow, play and be safe. Violence has a profound and long-lasting impact on children," UNICEF said.

The North African country has been mired in insecurity and turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising killed the country's long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 22:09:30|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The 19-member eurozone's unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, the European Union's (EU) statistical bureau Eurostat said on Thursday.

In the EU, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent in May, declining 0.1 percentage point over a month.

About 15,278 million people were unemployed in the EU in May, 382,000 less than in April. In the eurozone, 12,792 million people were unemployed in May, a decrease of 306,000 from April.

For both the eurozone and the EU, the rates were still higher than a year ago. In May 2020, the unemployment rate in the eurozone stood at 7.5 percent and in the EU at 6.9 percent.

Greece and Spain were the countries most affected by unemployment in May, with rates reaching 15.4 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively, while Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Malta, the Netherlands and Hungary all registered unemployment rates below four percent.

The overall evolution of the unemployment rate in the eurozone and the EU has followed the development of the economic changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unemployment rose sharply in the second quarter of 2020, when hard lockdowns were implemented. It decreased in summer last year, as economies reopened partially; rose again in autumn during the second COVID-19 wave; and stabilized in winter.

The decrease in unemployment in May this year corresponded to the reopening of economies as the vaccination campaigns across Europe were well underway.

However, it must be noted that several companies were still using short-time work schemes, which allowed them to keep employees on the payroll while not working full time, or not working at all, commented Aline Schuiling, senior economist at ABN Amro Bank.

As these government-subsidized schemes, designed to mitigate the effects of lockdowns, will come to an end, the number of job seekers will increase, she said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 23:42:36|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, July 1 (Xinhua) -- "I started practising yoga about 10 years ago, and I learned it on my own. As time goes by, I found more and more Moroccans who were interested in it. In Casablanca, a friend of mine organizes yoga workshops regularly," Yousra El Ansar, a Moroccan yoga enthusiast, told Xinhua.

Yoga has grown in popularity among Moroccans in the past several years, with various yoga workshops sprouting up in major cities like Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech.

"It started getting popular in Morocco between 2014 and 2015," said Btissam Mssilea, a Moroccan physiotherapist-in-learning and guided meditation instructor.

Before then, yoga was no more than a body exercise preferred by people who have access to Asian culture and could pay more to attend workshops abroad, Mssilea said.

Nowadays, an increasing number of yoga studios have been opened in Morocco, accompanied by international yoga events held across the country. EPIC, a global movement celebrating yoga, held a three-day international yoga festival in Marrakech in June 2019, which has now become the biggest yoga event in the North African country.

"When I arrived here in 2017, many Moroccans said they had never met a male yoga teacher before," Kevin Parker, an American yoga instructor who has lived in Morocco on and off for several years, told Xinhua.

However, things have changed and not just women, there is even an increasing number of male yogis in Morocco, said Parker.

Nowadays, there are about 11 yoga clubs in operation in both the capital Rabat and Marrakech, not to mention the numerous gyms that offer yoga classes in the two cities.

Similar is the case with Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco, which has at least 10 clubs dedicated to yoga as well as numerous gyms of the kind.

Madara Baltina, a certified air yoga and fitness instructor from Latvia, runs air yoga classes weekly in Tamraght and Agadir. There used to be many foreigners from Europe who came for her classes before the outbreak of COVID-19.

"Yoga is still something new for Moroccans. So we try to encourage local people, especially women, to try this, because this technique is very special and unique," Baltina told Xinhua, noting that air yoga is still not so popular as traditional yoga in Morocco.

"Thus, there are endless opportunities for yoga to grow in Morocco, whether it be traditional yoga, fitness, air yoga," she concluded. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 00:33:27|Editor: huaxia

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A flag-raising ceremony is held at the Golden Bauhinia Square by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong on Thursday held various events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

PROSPERITY SINCE RETURN

China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) were hoisted and the national anthem was played at the Golden Bauhinia Square in a flag-raising ceremony held by the HKSAR government on Thursday morning.

Helicopters flew over Victoria Harbor and a fireboat sprayed a water salute.

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said on Thursday morning during the events held in celebration at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Lee vowed continued efforts to safeguard national security, improve the implementation of "one country, two systems" and forge ahead with a pragmatic approach and the spirit of rising to the challenge.

With the leadership of the CPC, the strong support of the nation and the success in implementing "one country, two systems," Hong Kong compatriots will be able to share the glory of a prosperous and strong nation, said Chen Dong, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR.

Chuang Tze-cheung with the Hong Kong Celebrations Association said Hong Kong will continue to give full play to its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" and make greater achievements with the effective administration of the HKSAR government and concerted efforts of the society.

GRAND CELEBRATIONS

A series of celebrations were organized across Hong Kong, including parades of buses and fishing vessels, and festive decorations could be found in many places from stores along the streets to landmark buildings.

In Victoria Harbor, fishing vessels sailed in a procession and were greeted by joyful Hong Kong residents on the bank.

A torch relay race was also held to mark the centenary of the CPC and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return. A participant born in 1997 said this year's July 1 is a meaningful day and he felt the responsibility on him and also the young generation at large to carry on the success of Hong Kong.

Hongkong Post started on Thursday issuing commemorative stamps for the big day, its first release on the theme of the CPC. Long queues were spotted outside post offices in the morning even before the opening hour.

A commemorative movie named "1921" is on the big screens in multiple cinemas.

It is particularly meaningful to watch this film on this special day, Chuang Tze-cheung said, adding that he hopes more young people will watch this movie. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 01:44:57|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's Digital COVID Certificate officially came into force on Thursday, allowing EU citizens and residents to have their pass issued and verified across the bloc.

By Wednesday evening, 21 out of the 27 EU member states, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, were connected to the system's network while the others were technically ready and joined the system on Thursday. Some countries already began using the new health certificate in June.

According to the European Commission, all member states should now be in a position to issue and accept the pass.

The EU Digital COVID Certificate is free and should be recognized by all 27 member states as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway. The certificate will facilitate travel, helping to exempt holders from restrictions such as quarantine.

The EU had said it was in talks with several other countries, such as Britain and the United States, over mutual recognition and operation of COVID-related documents.

The certificate applies in three situations: it attests whether a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, whether they have had a recent negative test, or whether they are considered immune having previously contracted the disease.

Countries are obliged to accept vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), namely Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Welcoming its entry into application, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that "The European Digital COVID Certificate is a symbol of an open and safe Europe that is opening cautiously putting the protection of the health of our citizens first."

She said that more than 200 million certificates have already been generated.

Under the new rules, member states must refrain from imposing additional travel restrictions on holders of an EU Digital COVID Certificate, unless they are necessary and proportionate to safeguard public health. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 02:37:01|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Around one in four people lacked safely managed drinking water in their homes in 2020 and nearly half the world's population lacked safely managed sanitation, said a joint report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday.

COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need to ensure everyone can access good hand hygiene. At the onset of the pandemic, 3 in 10 people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water within their homes, the report added.

"Handwashing is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, yet millions of people across the world lack access to a reliable, safe supply of water," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore added that even before the pandemic, millions of children and families were suffering without clean water, safe sanitation, and a place to wash their hands.

According to the report, between 2016 and 2020, the global population with safely managed drinking water at home rose from 70 percent to 74 percent; safely managed sanitation services grew from 47 percent to 54 percent; and handwashing facilities with soap and water increased from 67 percent to 71 percent.

It is not enough despite the progress, said the report, noting that Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing the slowest rate of progress in the world.

Highlighting an urgent need for investment, the report warned that billions of people across the world will be unable to access safely managed household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services in 2030 unless the rate of progress quadruples.

"Investment in water, sanitation and hygiene must be a global priority if we are to end this pandemic and build more resilient health systems," said the WHO chief. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 04:34:13|Editor: huaxia

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Peter Maurer (C), president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), attends a press conference in Aden, Yemen, on July 1, 2021. The ICRC confirmed on Thursday its readiness to facilitate exchanging prisoners between the various parties in Yemen's years-long conflict. (Photo by Murad Abdo/Xinhua)

ADEN, Yemen, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Thursday its readiness to facilitate exchanging prisoners between the various parties in Yemen's years-long conflict.

During a press conference held in the country's southern port city of Aden, ICRC President Peter Maurer reaffirmed that his teams operating in Yemen's branches are still working to help those affected by the conflict.

He previously spoke with Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik on the urgent humanitarian challenges in the Yemeni regions.

Maurer reiterated the "ICRC's readiness to continue facilitating any future detainee release operations between the parties to the conflict."

On Wednesday, Maurer arrived in Aden, where the internationally recognized Yemeni government is temporarily seated, on a six-day visit to the war-ravaged Arab country, including the capital of Sanaa, which is under the control of the Houthis, to inspect the humanitarian situation there.

In October 2020, the Yemeni government and the Houthis released a total of 1,056 prisoners from both sides, the largest UN-sponsored exchange deal between them since the outbreak of the civil war in Yemen.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of Sanaa. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 05:36:45|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA -- Turkey on Thursday canceled most of its COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and events and lifted nighttime and Sunday curfews after daily infection numbers remain steadily around 5,000 cases.

The intercity travel restrictions and limits on guests at restaurants and wedding parties are also lifted, said the interior ministry in a statement said.

It added that concerts and festivals are also allowed on the condition that the music must end by midnight. (Turkey-Coronavirus-Restrictions)

- - - -

TEHRAN -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed on Thursday First Deputy Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei as the new chief justice to replace Ebrahim Raisi, now the president-elect.

Khamenei cited in a decree, carried by the official news agency IRNA, that Ejei boasts legal competence, valuable experience, deep knowledge, and a brilliant record in the judiciary.

Ejei, a 65-year-old Shia Muslim cleric and a member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, has held several high-ranking positions in the Iranian government, including the attorney general and minister of intelligence. (Iran-Chief Justice-Appointment)

- - - -

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennet on Thursday said that Israel is determined "to prevent Iran from having nuclear military capabilities."

Bennet made the remarks during a meeting with visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, during which they discussed the "Iranian nuclear threat," said a statement issued by the Israeli PM's office. (Israel-Iran-Nuclear issue)

- - - -

ADEN -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Thursday its readiness to facilitate exchanging prisoners between the various parties in Yemen's years-long conflict.

During a press conference held in the country's southern port city of Aden, ICRC President Peter Maurer reaffirmed that his teams operating in Yemen's branches are still working to help those affected by the conflict.(ICRC-Yemen-Visit) Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 06:23:50|Editor: huaxia

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Nicolas de Riviere (R, rear), French UN ambassador and president of the Council for the month of July, attends a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, on July 1, 2021. The UN Security Council meetings will be "completely" physical if health conditions allow, Nicolas de Riviere said on Thursday. (Xinhua/Xie E)

UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council meetings will be "completely" physical if health conditions allow, Nicolas de Riviere, French UN ambassador and president of the Council for the month of July, said on Thursday.

"This month in July, if health conditions allow, the meetings will be completely, all of them, in person," de Riviere told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"There will be no longer any video conferences. So, the participants will be in-person participants, including ministers that are invited," he said.

"The ambassador noted that doing so is "very important because the Security Council is also a dialogue between the 15 representatives. And the aim is to find common ground to try to make progress to solve crises."

He expressed the hope that ambassadors will not just "make speeches one after the other, which is not always that useful."

Speaking about the program of work for the month, de Riviere said that there are two main priorities for the month.

"The first one relates to humanitarian issues, which for us, are really peace, international peace, and security issues." he explained.

According to the ambassador, there will be a ministerial meeting on the protection of humanitarian space on July 6.

On July 16, there will be a meeting discussing "good practices with regard to humanitarian assistance, the importance of preserving humanitarian space, protecting humanitarian and medical workers."

Another related issue of humanitarian subject will be "the negotiations that have begun on the renewal of cross-border access for Syria."

"That is something that we have to conclude in the first 10 days of the French presidency on the 10th of July," he added.

On the second priority for the Council's July work, he said that it will be the Middle East.

The ambassador said the situation in the Middle East is "extremely fragile," broadly speaking.

"Whether we talk about Libya, Yemen, Syria or other areas during the month of July, we'll be focusing particularly on that region," he stressed. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 10:31:53|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabweans to a great extent took heed of the enhanced COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown measures announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday.

Police warned that those who wanted to connive with rogue officers to circumvent the regulations would be punished.

Although the measures were supposed to take immediate effect on Tuesday, enforcement was difficult as many people had been caught unawares.

Strict observance began Wednesday with shops opening and closing at the prescribed time of 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), while the curfew starting at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT) was also observed as people cleared roads and there was little vehicular traffic.

The curfew ends at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).

There is a general feeling among many people that some rogue members of the police force are taking bribes and turning a blind eye to rule-breaking offenders, especially traffic operators, who failed to observe the set regulations.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi on Wednesday warned that transporters found contravening the government's intercity ban would have their employees arrested and vehicles impounded.

"Any connivance by these illegal operators with members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police will be severely dealt with," Nyathi said.

He also warned people who are holding church gatherings and all-night prayers to comply with the government's regulations.

"The public should take note that only gatherings or funerals of 30 or fewer people are allowed. Police officers on patrol will check on compliance for the security of all," he said.

President Mnangagwa announced the enhanced lockdown measures following a spike in COVID-19 infections.

Under the lockdown measures, which will run for two weeks pending review, commerce and industry will open from 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) to 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT).

Industry was instructed to decongest staff to 40 percent of the workforce with the rest working from home, while intercity movements have been prohibited except for production and logistics of food and medicines.

Travelers from countries with Alpha and Delta variants will be quarantined and tested at their own expenses, and deportees will be quarantined for 10 days either at places of their choices or at other designated venues.

Ministers and parliamentarians were instructed to disseminate information on vaccination in their constituencies. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 18:30:31|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday said that 70 illegal migrants have been returned to Libya by the Libyan Coast Guard.

"Seventy persons were returned tonight to Tripoli by the Libyan Coast Guard. The group embarked yesterday night from Zliten area, 160 km east of Tripoli," UNHCR Libya tweeted Wednesday.

"UNHCR and IRC attended the disembarkation to provide urgent medical aid, food and water to all survivors," it said.

The North African country has been mired in insecurity and turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising killed the country's long-time 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.

According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 15,000 illegal migrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far this year.

The rescued migrants have ended up inside overcrowded reception centers across Libya, despite repeated international calls to close those centers. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 19:04:42|Editor: huaxia

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KINSHASA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- At least ten people were killed on Wednesday night in an attack by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in Beni territory of North Kivu province, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to local authorities, ADF rebels raided the Rwangoma district in Beni. At least ten people were killed, including four women, while the assailants also burned down homes and shops in the area.

The bodies of the ten people killed were deposited at the general morgue of Beni by the local authorities.

Beni's residents led a demonstration on Nyamwisi Boulevard on Thursday morning to express anger at the massacre and the insecurity that persists in this part of the country.

On Sunday, two bomb blasts hit Beni, killing one person and injuring several others. On Sunday evening, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a peripheral neighborhood, injuring at least two people. The army has identified the bomber as an active ADF member.

Hundreds of people have died in recent months in Beni territory, and in part of Ituri, where ADF rebels are operating simultaneously.

Since the beginning of this year, members of the ADF, originated in Uganda, have increased their attacks in North Kivu and Ituri. Faced with growing insecurities in the region, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in the two provinces in April. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 19:51:37|Editor: huaxia

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LIBREVILLE, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The perpetrators of a failed coup attempt in January 2019 in Gabon were sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison, ordered the Special Military Court in Gabon's capital Libreville.

Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang and two of his fellow Republican Guard members were prosecuted for endangering state security, destroying public property, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and theft.

On the night of January 7, 2019, renegade soldiers stormed the national radio station in Libreville around 4 a.m. local time to announce the establishment of a "national council of the restoration".

In the statement, Kelly Ondo Obiang, then-lieutenant of the Republican Guard, announced that they were disappointed by the message delivered earlier by President Ali Bongo, which "rather heightened doubts about his ability to assume the office of President of the Republic."

In the evening, the Gabonese government had reassured that calm had returned and the situation was under control. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 01:10:59|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire in the country's northern Tigray region as its objectives had been met, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Thursday.

Speaking to journalists, Dina Mufti, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire in Tigray region Monday because the main objectives of the almost eight-months-long "law enforcement operation" have been achieved.

With the freeing of Ethiopian soldiers and the degradation of the former regional ruling party Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) military capabilities, the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral ceasefire, Mufti said.

"The two major objectives of the law enforcement operation have been achieved," said Mufti. "One was to actually make sure that the Ethiopian soldiers who were detained by the rebels were freed, and they were freed. The other was to take away the military hardware from the rebels."

The unilateral ceasefire is also said to facilitate humanitarian assistance, peaceful livelihood in the region, as well as agriculture activities amid the approaching rainy season.

Since the early hours of Nov. 4, the Ethiopian government had been undertaking military operations against the TPLF which used to rule Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray regional state.

Fighting of months in Tigray between the TPLF and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces backed by allied forces has reportedly left thousands of people dead, hundreds of thousands displaced. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 14:48:38|Editor: huaxia

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HERAT, Afghanistan, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban militants' attack on Ghoryan district of Afghanistan's western Herat province has been repulsed and the armed group fled with 20 militants killed, a statement of the provincial government said Thursday.

Hundreds of Taliban insurgents launched multi-pronged offensive on Ghoryan district in the wee hours of Thursday but the security forces retaliated forcing the insurgents to flee leaving 20 bodies behind, the statement said.

Ten more militants were injured in the counter-offensive backed by fighting planes, the statement added.

The statement also confirmed that one security personnel was killed and three sustained injury.

It also noted that the security forces would continue to chase the militants in Ghoryan and its vicinity to ensure security.

Taliban militants have reportedly captured more than 70 districts since the start of the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan on May 1.

The militant group has yet to make comments on the situation in the troubled Ghoryan district. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 16:35:16|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand launched a new Ministry for Ethnic Communities on Thursday, elevating the position of the previous Office of Ethnic Communities, in a move to strengthen ethnic affairs following the March 15 terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques in 2019.

"This is the first time in its history that New Zealand has had a Ministry and Chief Executive solely focused on improving outcomes for our ethnic communities, which make up nearly 20 percent of our population," Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan told the launching ceremony.

The government wants to ensure that "New Zealand is a place where everyone feels safe, valued, heard, and has a sense of belonging," Radhakrishnan said.

New Zealand's diversity is a source of strength and "we must ensure we take steps to become even more inclusive so that diversity can thrive," she said.

The government committed to establishing the new ministry last December, as part of its response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019, according to the minister.

The ministry will continue to deliver the functions of the Office of Ethnic Communities, but will also look to build additional functions and influence across the public sector, she said.

"Many from our diverse ethnic communities have been calling for a Ministry for some time now," said Radhakrishnan.

There is a lot more needed to do to tackle the challenges many are facing in the labor market, education and health sectors and when accessing government services, she said.

"Some have also raised the need to address the discrimination that has led to the underrepresentation of these communities at various levels of leadership," she added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 16:53:21|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,795 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,418,337.

The death toll climbed to 24,797 after 135 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

The Philippines, with a population of more than 110 million, has tested more than 14 million people since the outbreak in January 2020.

"The risk classification nationally is already at low risk," Alethea De Guzman of the DOH's Epidemiology Bureau said in an online briefing, adding that the national case growth rate and average daily infection rate for the past two weeks have slowed.

The number of cases in Metro Manila continued to decline, while infections in the Visayas region in the central Philippines and Mindanao in the south "peaked" in June and showed "signs of decline over the past week," De Guzman said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) called on the Philippine government on Thursday to speed up the vaccination of priority groups, especially the elderly.

WHO Representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said that senior citizens are at the highest risk of death due to COVID-19.

He said focusing vaccination efforts on those "at greatest risk of severe disease and death will have the biggest immediate impact on saving lives, especially amid a limited global supply of vaccines."

The Philippines has administered more than 10 million doses of vaccines since the nationwide rollout on March 1. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 17:23:01|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia was speeding up its COVID-19 vaccination drive as new infection rates continued to soar, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Thursday.

The Southeast Asian nation confirmed 999 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the national caseload to 51,384, the health ministry said, adding that 26 more fatalities were reported, bringing the death toll to 628.

The kingdom launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive on Feb. 10, starting from capital Phnom Penh and Kandal province before expanding it to other provinces recently.

In a televised speech on the state-run National Television of Cambodia (TVK), Hun Sen said that 4.2 million people, or 42 percent of the 10-million targeted adult population, have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine so far.

"We're rushing to inoculate all the 10-million targeted adult population by November ... and then, we will consider providing the vaccine to children aged under 18," he said.

The prime minister said that China is the major vaccine supplier to the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen said that the country was using Chinese medicine to treat COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms and advised the health ministry to purchase more medicine from China. "I take the Chinese medicine too." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 20:07:53|Editor: huaxia

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BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A Belgian F-16 jet collided with a building at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands on Thursday morning, injuring two people, the Dutch and Belgian authorities said.

"On Thursday morning an incident took place with an F-16 fighter aircraft at Leeuwarden Air Base," the Dutch Air Force confirmed.

"The pilot sustained a leg injury and was transferred to hospital for treatment. A member of the Belgian technical staff who was present during the incident was also taken to hospital as a precaution", the Belgian Defense said in a statement.

A team from the Ministry of Defense's Aviation Safety Investigation Board (ASIB) will travel to Leeuwarden to conduct a flight safety investigation, the Belgian Defense said on Twitter.

The pilot was participating in the Weapons Instructor Course (WIC) at Leeuwarden Air Base, according to the Belgian Defense. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 21:20:56|Editor: huaxia

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COPENHAGEN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge on Thursday cited increased mixing, travel, gatherings, and easing of social restrictions as the main culprits ending a ten-week decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in Europe.

"Last week, the number of cases rose by 10 percent. This is taking place in the context of a rapidly evolving situation - a new variant of concern, the Delta variant - and in a region where despite tremendous efforts by the member states, millions remain unvaccinated," said Kluge at an online press conference in Copenhagen.

He noted that "Delta variant overtakes alpha very quickly through multiple and repeated introductions, and is already translating into increased hospitalizations and deaths."

The WHO European Region, according to Klug, is expected to be "Delta dominant" by August. He also warns that new variants, deficit in vaccine uptake and increased social mixing would cause a new wave of excess hospitalizations and deaths before the autumn in the region.

To counter the expected upsurge, Kluge again called upon the region to "remain disciplined" and for citizens to take up vaccines when offered.

"Vaccines are effective against the Delta variant. Not one dose but two doses. Delays in getting vaccinated cost lives and economies, and the slower we vaccinate, the more variants will emerge."

Again, Kluge lamented over the clear disparity in vaccine equality between rich and poor countries in Europe and noted that it was "unacceptable" that vaccine coverage was 24 percent throughout the entire region, "far from the recommended 80 percent coverage of the adult population."

"With these figures, nowhere is the pandemic over, and it would be very wrong for anyone - citizen and policymakers - to assume that it is."

Concerned about the current EURO 2020 tournament as a spreader event, as numbers of fans throughout the region had returned to their home countries infected with the virus, Kluge reiterated his message of caution and called upon all fans to wear masks "especially indoor and in crowds."

"The stakes are still high. COVID-19's trajectory in the coming weeks and months depends on the decisions and actions of us as individuals, communities, and as governments, we will take now and the weeks ahead, solidarity pays off!" Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 23:41:03|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia will continue supporting Belarus amid ongoing external pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at the 8th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions.

"I would like to stress that Belarus is not just a good neighbor, but above all our closest ally. Our relations are based on the principles of mutual respect, support and consideration of each other's interests," the president said, according to the Kremlin.

"We are currently supporting and will continue to support our Belarusian friends in confronting the sanctions imposed by the European Union," he added.

"The ban on the supply of a number of goods to EU countries from Belarus harms the interests of businesses and ordinary people," Putin said, pointing out that those who initiated such restrictions should take that into consideration.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in turn thanked Putin for Russia's public support and assistance during difficult times, according to the Kremlin.

Cooperation and unity are particularly important at times when the West is concentrated on curbing the country's development and disrupting integration projects, Lukashenko said.

"At the same time, it is clear that all the sanctions are just presumptuous attempts to eliminate economic competitors," he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 07:52:31|Editor: huaxia

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Cyclists pass an information board outside Erin Mills Town Center in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on June 30, 2021. Canada's Ontario province allowed most regions to reopen more businesses on Wednesday as they moved into step two of the province's reopening plan, including hair salons, nail salons and stores in shopping malls. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 08:09:26|Editor: huaxia

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-- "What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."

-- While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.

-- As the world is facing changes unseen in a century, Xi has led China to become a staunch champion of genuine multilateralism defending the international order against such challenges as unilateralism and bullying.

-- Answering the fundamental questions of what has happened to the world and how to respond, Xi offered China's proposition: build a community with a shared future for mankind, a concept that has been enshrined in the CPC's constitution and has also been guiding China's interaction with the rest of the world.

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- "What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."

Addressing over 600 representatives of political parties from over 120 countries at a high-level dialogue in 2017, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and president of China, laid out the historic mission of the world's largest political party.

Committed to the party's original aspiration, Xi is leading the CPC not only to build China into a modern socialist country but to create a better shared future for the world.





DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL

A day before the official centenary of the CPC on Thursday, China, after a 70-year fight, was officially declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, which marks the latest of the numerous achievements China has made under the CPC's leadership.

In February, Xi announced that China, with a population larger than 1.4 billion, had secured a complete victory against poverty, which was widely acclaimed as a miracle in the human history of poverty reduction.

While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.

Whether in the fight against malaria or in poverty alleviation, China has over the past decades extended a helping hand to others, especially developing countries.

Back in 2000, Xi, then governor of southeastern China's Fujian Province, helped launch a pilot Juncao project to help improve the livelihood of the Papua New Guinean people.

Juncao, famed as "magic grass" and discovered by Chinese scientists, is an economical and environmentally friendly substitute for timber, which can be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

Eighteen years later, during Xi's state visit to the Oceanian country, the two countries signed another aid project using the grass technology. By 2023, the aid program is expected to lift 30,000 local people out of poverty.

Today, the Juncao project has taken root in over 100 countries, helping combat poverty in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific region.

Residents display their certificates of training courses on Juncao and upland rice cultivation technology in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, Dec. 17, 2020. (Xinhua)

Meanwhile, from the decades-old Canton Fair to the 3-year-old China International Import Expo and to the newly launched China International Consumer Products Expo, high-end international expos have repeatedly demonstrated China's commitment to wider opening-up and mutual benefits.

People walk into the venue of the first China International Consumer Products Expo in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, May 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Hongfa)

"China cannot be separated from the world in achieving development, and the world also needs China for prosperity," Xi said at the 20th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing via video link.





FORCE FOR PEACE

When he visited the UN headquarters in the fall of 2015, Xi brought a gift for the United Nations' 70th birthday -- "Zun of Peace," a red bronze bottle decorated by traditional Chinese auspicious patterns.

It shows the aspiration and faith of the Chinese people in seeking peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, which are also spirits of the UN Charter, Xi explained.

Under the CPC's leadership, China is marching towards the second centenary goal -- to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by 2049, the centenary of the People's Republic of China.

"China the lion has awakened, but it is a peaceful, amicable and civilized lion," Xi said in 2014 at a gathering marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relations, stressing that the Chinese Dream is about pursuing peace, questing for happiness, and contributing to the common good of the world.

Today, China is the second largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget, and has sent more peacekeepers to UN missions than any other permanent member of the UN Security Council.

"Countries, whether big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all contribute their share to maintaining and enhancing peace," Xi said in April 2013 at the opening plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, the first multilateral diplomatic event he hosted as Chinese president.

As the world is facing changes unseen in a century, Xi has led China to become a staunch champion of genuine multilateralism defending the international order against such challenges as unilateralism and bullying.

There is no better choice for world countries other than strengthening multilateral cooperation in the face of one global challenge after another, Xi told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the G20 summit held in Buenos Aires in November 2018.





SHARED FUTURE FOR MANKIND

Mankind is in an era of major development as well as profound transformation and change, and is also in an era of numerous challenges and increasing risks, Xi noted in his 2017 landmark speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Answering the fundamental questions of what has happened to the world and how to respond, Xi offered China's proposition: build a community with a shared future for mankind, a concept that has been enshrined in the CPC's constitution and has also been guiding China's interaction with the rest of the world.

In face of the unprecedented COVID-19 threat, China, the world's largest developing country, has effectively put the disease under control at home, and has meanwhile spared no effort to help other countries.

In 2020, Xi promised that Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, when available, "will be made a global public good." Now despite a tight supply and huge domestic demand, China has provided over 450 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the international community, and is continuing to help ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability worldwide.

Staff members unload China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, June 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Jiang Shengxiong)

Xi's vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind offers not only a new solution to global challenges, but also a new perspective on world civilizations.

While in the West there has been such rhetoric as the clash of civilizations or the superiority of one civilization over another, in Xi's eyes, the development of a civilization is sustained by exchanges and mutual learning.

An Asian culture carnival is held during the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations at the National Stadium in Beijing, capital of China, May 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

That is in line with the future of the world he has been leading the CPC to strive for -- an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful one that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.

"Countries may have differences and even encounter problems with each other," said Xi. "But we should not forget that we all live under the same sky, share one and the same home planet and belong to one and the same family."
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 09:12:12|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us, said Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Thursday.

"Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," said Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC.

"We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will," Xi said.

China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and preserve international order, Xi said, calling for continuous efforts to promote the building of a human community with a shared future. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 10:06:21|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- "The Great Journey," an art performance marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), will be broadcast by China Media Group on Thursday evening.

It will also be broadcast simultaneously by television and radio stations across China, as well as on news websites and new media platforms. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 11:01:26|Editor: huaxia

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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks in an interview with Chinese media in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on June 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

by Xinhua writers Li Hao, Jiang Chao

ISLAMABAD, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has made remarkable achievements such as the eradication of absolute poverty, said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In an interview with Chinese media at the Prime Minister House on Tuesday, Khan lauded the CPC's efforts to score a complete victory in China's fight against poverty.

"This is, I think, one of the most remarkable achievements of any human society. I don't think there is any precedent in history of a society achieving these great goals," he noted.

Extending his congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the CPC, the Pakistani prime minister described the party's governance of China as a unique model.

People were told that the Western system of democracy is the best way for social progress, and yet what the CPC has achieved proves that there is another feasible model, he said.

As the prime minister of Pakistan and chairman of the country's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Khan has paid several visits to China in the past few years. He said that the CPC's system of talent selection and grooming as well as its long-term planning for the development of China have impressed him.

Climate change, Khan said, is one of the most serious challenges facing mankind. And the CPC has been upholding the idea of the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and leading China to do a large amount of work in protecting the environment and tackling climate change.

On Pakistan-China relations, Khan said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties seven decades ago, the two countries have been walking shoulder to shoulder through difficulties, and have forged a very deep, strong and unique relationship which is not limited between the two governments, but also exists between the two peoples.

He said that whenever Pakistan is in trouble, the Chinese side will always extend a helping hand. "The people of China have a special place in the hearts of the people of Pakistan. Because you will remember a friend who stands with you in your difficult times as in good times, everyone stands with you."

In the fight against COVID-19, China has not only performed exemplarily within the country, but also helped many other countries including Pakistan control the epidemic through vaccine donation and other ways, Khan said.

Hailing the vaccine donation by China a timely help, he said that his country was able to kick off the nationwide vaccination drive because of the vaccine doses from China to vaccinate frontline health workers and senior citizens in the first phase, "which gives us a lot of confidence."

As a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been fruitful in solving Pakistan's electricity shortage and improving the country's transport infrastructure, the Pakistani prime minister said.

The CPEC is "a program which gives us the greatest optimism and hope for our future economic development," he said, adding that Pakistan will deepen industrial, agricultural and skill training cooperation with China in the future.

Pakistan will attract companies from China and other countries to invest in the special economic zones under the CPEC through incentives to create jobs and bolster economic growth, Khan said.

Pakistan will further strengthen its relations with China in the future, including political and economic and trade relations, he said, adding that no matter how the world situation changes, the Pakistan-China relationship will remain rock-solid. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 17:17:19|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, on Thursday addressed a ceremony celebrating the CPC centenary at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing.

The following are some highlights of his remarks:

-- We are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.

-- All the struggle, sacrifice, and creation through which the Party has united and led the Chinese people over the past hundred years has been tied together by one ultimate theme -- bringing about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

-- The Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong, and China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability.

-- The people are the true heroes, for it is they who create history.

-- China's success hinges on the Party.

-- Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass.

-- At the fundamental level, the capability of our Party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works.

-- We are eager to learn what lessons we can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism. We will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us.

-- A strong country must have a strong military, as only then can it guarantee the security of the nation.

-- The Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes.

-- We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will.

-- We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.

-- Today, we are closer, more confident, and more capable than ever before of making the goal of national rejuvenation a reality. But we must be prepared to work harder than ever to get there.

-- The patriotic united front is an important means for the Party to unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, both at home and abroad, behind the goal of national rejuvenation.

-- A hallmark that distinguishes the Communist Party of China from other political parties is its courage in undertaking self-reform.

-- No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

-- Today, the image China presents to the world is one of a thriving nation that is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 17:31:27|Editor: huaxia

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Acting Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee addresses a reception held by the HKSAR government at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in celebration of the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong on Thursday held various events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) were hoisted and the national anthem was played at the Golden Bauhinia Square in a flag-raising ceremony held by the HKSAR government.

Helicopters flew over Victoria Harbor and a fireboat sprayed a water salute. A torch relay race was also held.

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said Thursday morning during the events held in celebration at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Lee vowed continued efforts to safeguard national security, improve the implementation of "one country, two systems" and forge ahead with pragmatic approach and the spirit of rising to the challenge.

With the leadership of the CPC, the strong support of the nation and the success in implementing "one country, two systems," Hong Kong compatriots will be able to share the glory of a prosperous and strong nation, said Chen Dong, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR.

Chuang Tze-cheung with the Hong Kong Celebrations Association said Hong Kong will continue to give full play to its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" and make greater achievements with the effective administration of the HKSAR government and concerted efforts of the society.

A series of celebrations were organized across Hong Kong, including parades of buses and fishing vessels. A commemorative movie named "1921" is on the big screens in multiple cinemas. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 21:18:32|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC), the world's largest governing party, celebrated its centenary on Thursday with a solemn ceremony and the grand accomplishment of "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects."

At 100, the CPC is loaded with vigor and all set for tests ahead as China continues the journey to "build a great modern socialist country in all respects."

Speaking at the ceremony on Tian'anmen Square at the heart of Beijing, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said that over the past century, the CPC has secured extraordinary historical achievements on behalf of the people.

"Today, it is rallying and leading the Chinese people on a new journey toward realizing the second centenary goal," proclaimed Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Over 70,000 people cheering with exhilaration thronged the public square, festooned with red flags and a large Party emblem installation. It was a celebratory aura -- golden figures of "1921" and "2021" represented the 100-year timeline, aircraft flew past in echelons overhead and a 100-gun salute roared through the sky.

The Chinese civilization has lasted five millennia, but the country plunged into a century of humiliation due to the corrupt feudal rule and invasion by Western powers. Many attempts were made to salvage the nation and all ended in failure.

In 1921, the CPC was founded, taking up the mission of "seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation."

Through a century of endeavors, the CPC led the people to overthrow the "three big mountains" of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, founded a new China, pioneered the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and built a poor state into the world's second-largest economy.

With merely over 50 members at the time of its founding, the CPC today is the world's largest governing party with more than 95 million members, leading a country of more than 1.4 billion people. It also enjoys tremendous international influence.

The Tian'anmen Rostrum, where Xi made his speech, stands witness to history. This was where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of New China in 1949. It also saw people in festive parades paying respect to Deng Xiaoping, the architect of reform and opening-up in 1978 that has led China to moderate prosperity.

Martin Albrow, a renowned British sociologist, said the CPC's promoting the building of a human community with a shared future and the development of the Belt and Road Initiative through joint efforts are benefiting the world.

The Party's 100th anniversary is marked across China and congratulatory messages were also sent from space station core module Tianhe about 400 km away from Earth.

The profound changes that the CPC has brought to China and its deep impact on the world have led many to decode the formula to the Party's success.

The firm leadership of the Party, its people-centered philosophy of development and upholding socialism with Chinese characteristics are considered to be among the most important factors and hallmarks that distinguish it from other political parties.

In a joint congratulatory message, the non-CPC political parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and personages without party affiliation said they have kept in mind the original aspiration of cooperation, and will continue to stand and work together with the CPC.

Faced with changes unseen in a century, the journey ahead is bound to be challenging.

In his remarks, Xi called on the Party to continue its great founding spirit. It is comprised of the principles of upholding truth and ideals, staying true to the original aspiration and founding mission, fighting bravely without fear of sacrifice, and remaining loyal to the Party and faithful to the people.

"Looking back on the path we have traveled and forward to the journey that lies ahead, it is certain that with the firm leadership of the Party and the great unity of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, we will achieve the goal of building a great modern socialist country in all respects and fulfill the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation," Xi said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-01 22:39:25|Editor: huaxia

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Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, announced on Thursday that China has realized its first centenary goal -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The achievement marks a key milestone for the world's most populous country on its journey toward national rejuvenation.

"This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects," said Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, at a ceremony marking the CPC centenary at Tian'anmen Square.

The achieving of moderate prosperity, or Xiaokang in Chinese, is measured in consideration of multiple aspects such as the economy, democracy, science and education, culture, society and people's lives. The requirements include doubling the country's 2010 GDP and per capita disposable income by 2020.

Last year, the country's GDP exceeded 100 trillion yuan (about 15.45 trillion U.S. dollars). Its per capita disposable income hit 32,189 yuan, double the level in 2010. The country has developed the world's largest social security system and boasts the world's biggest middle-income group -- 400 million people. In a historic feat, China has eliminated absolute poverty.

Poverty relief assistants Liu Ying (1st L) and He Changle (2nd L), and village officials help carry melons planted by villagers in Dongqin Village, Congjiang County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

Xiaokang is a phrase about well-off life first mentioned in the Book of Songs, China's first anthology of poems dating back more than 2,000 years. An idea cherished by the Chinese people for thousands of years has become a reality in today's China.

Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once used Xiaokang to describe Chinese modernization, and first proposed building a Xiaokang society. The 12th National Congress of the CPC in 1982 set the achievement of Xiaokang as a goal. Later, Xiaokang was included in the country's three-step strategic plan for economic development.

The country realized Xiaokang on the whole at the end of the 20th century. In 2002, the CPC put forward the aim of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012 set the goal of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. The standards of and requirements for Xiaokang became increasingly comprehensive and strict.

The CPC stressed that no one should be left behind on the path to a Xiaokang society. In the past eight years, China focused on areas of extreme poverty, and lifted the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents out of poverty by the end of 2020.

Over the past 40-plus years, the country has lifted 770 million people out of poverty, meeting the poverty eradication target in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule, and resolving its greatest challenge in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Li Weiyun, from Xiuyun Village of Cangxi County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, has keenly felt the changes in his village. With the development of eco-agriculture, many villagers have moved into multistory homes and purchased cars.

"Now a good life has been achieved at home," he said. He brought in an income of 200,000 yuan this year by growing peaches.

"It is a tremendous contribution to the world that 1.4 billion people are living a Xiaokang life," said Liu Endong, a professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

Such a feat has become a reality only under the leadership of the CPC, which "puts the people first, has strong execution capabilities, and upholds socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

"China's success in achieving Xiaokang has made important contributions toward the Sustainable Development Goals and provides valuable lessons for other countries in the global fight against poverty," said Beate Trankmann, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme in China. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-07-02 00:48:23|Editor: huaxia

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A flag-raising ceremony is held at the Golden Bauhinia Square by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said during the events held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

HONG KONG, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong on Thursday held various events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

PROSPERITY SINCE RETURN

China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) were hoisted and the national anthem was played at the Golden Bauhinia Square in a flag-raising ceremony held by the HKSAR government on Thursday morning.

Helicopters flew over Victoria Harbor and a fireboat sprayed a water salute.

Hong Kong's smooth return to the motherland is an important part of the CPC's great achievements over the last 100 years, Acting Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee said on Thursday morning during the events held in celebration at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Lee vowed continued efforts to safeguard national security, improve the implementation of "one country, two systems" and forge ahead with a pragmatic approach and the spirit of rising to the challenge.

With the leadership of the CPC, the strong support of the nation and the success in implementing "one country, two systems," Hong Kong compatriots will be able to share the glory of a prosperous and strong nation, said Chen Dong, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR.

Chuang Tze-cheung with the Hong Kong Celebrations Association said Hong Kong will continue to give full play to its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" and make greater achievements with the effective administration of the HKSAR government and concerted efforts of the society.

Guests attend the opening ceremony of celebrating activities for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

GRAND CELEBRATIONS

A series of celebrations were organized across Hong Kong, including parades of buses and fishing vessels, and festive decorations could be found in many places from stores along the streets to landmark buildings.

In Victoria Harbor, fishing vessels sailed in a procession and were greeted by joyful Hong Kong residents on the bank.

A torch relay race was also held to mark the centenary of the CPC and the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return. A participant born in 1997 said this year's July 1 is a meaningful day and he felt the responsibility on him and also the young generation at large to carry on the success of Hong Kong.

A reception is held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government in celebration of the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Hongkong Post started on Thursday issuing commemorative stamps for the big day, its first release on the theme of the CPC. Long queues were spotted outside post offices in the morning even before the opening hour.

A commemorative movie named "1921" is on the big screens in multiple cinemas.

Fishing boats flying China's national flags and the flags of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) cruise at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, south China, July 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

It is particularly meaningful to watch this film on this special day, Chuang Tze-cheung said, adding that he hopes more young people will watch this movie. 
interview

Dessalegn Aberra Elias is an Ethiopian social media personality and activist with millions of followers on his popular YouTube channel known as Mehal Meda. Dessalegn's works aim to bridge divides and promote peace, understanding, and unity. He has managed to garner increasing attention and influence because of the powerful messages and deep insights that frequently characterize his episodes. Recently, Dessalegn traveled to Eritrea to take part in the country's 30th Independence Day anniversary. I caught up with him to hear about his stay and general impressions about the celebration.

Mr. Dessalegn, thank you very much for agreeing to share your experience. How was your visit in general?

You're welcome. It was extremely wonderful and surprisingly interesting. I enjoyed every minute of my entire two-week stay in the country.

Could you tell me some of the places that you visited?

I toured the whole Asmara over and over again. I could not get enough of it! I got to visit Adi Halo, Gergera, Massawa, and a big dam along the road. I also toured the plastic factory in Massawa and many other development sites along the way.

What about the 30th Independence Anniversary? Did you attend?

Of course, I did. It was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so real that I thought 'this could not be a live show'. The flow of the programs, the songs, and the sincerity of the people who participated felt unreal. The shows were creative and also full of pride and deep emotion.

What unique things did you observe in the celebrations?

First things first, I could feel the energy that was emanating from the people out there. There was something about the way they sang their national anthem. I was like 'These people truly love their country!' That is not a common national trait. And when the President went down to the stage to meet the student dancers, my amazement reached its threshold.

Who is Dessalegn Aberra?

I was born and raised in the southern rural part of Ethiopia; I lived most of my life in Hawassa. Then I went to the United States of America seven years ago. I worked there as an accountant. Then I started practicing journalism because it was my hobby. I share my ideas on social media mostly Facebook and YouTube. I became more active by the day and quickly began to amass a lot of followers. The good thing is that even though I am an Ethiopian, I am not only followed by Ethiopians. I have diverse followers including a lot of Eritreans.

What is the core objective of your channel?

The objective is to promote peace, understanding, and unity. As you know, my country has a diverse cultural, religious, and social structure. Though it is being worked on, the system is still kind of divisive. That is why it is necessary to use media to fight the possible divisions that arise from the difference in ethnic values. So, in my programs we discuss trending issues by inviting knowledgeable and relevant personalities. A lot of people participate through phoning-in, including Eritreans. Any type of hate-speech or anything that degrades the values of personalities is not tolerated in the discussions. I have interacted a lot with Eritreans because of the shows and that helped me to question and reconsider many of my pre-established perceptions or assumptions about Eritrea.

Pre-established perceptions?

What I mean is that for the last twenty years we have been told that Eritreans are a "war loving" people. And that the government is even worse. Whatever happened during those years, it was blamed on the EPLF. For instance, say there were disasters or problems in society. These problems were blamed on the Eritrean government and people. Even when Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed agreed to come to Asmara, we doubted that he would come back alive. To my amazement, the people accepted him openly and cheered for him. The sheer size and passion of the crowd took my breath away.

For me, the [2018] peace agreement brought to light the hidden emotions and realities of the Eritrean people. I told myself that something must be wrong with my eyes and I thought, 'so, these people are actually cheering for peace; maybe I was wrong'. Then President Isaias came to Ethiopia and gave a speech at the Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa. That was another point of realization that Eritrea is the opposite of what our former regime claimed it to be. Then I decided to do my own research and I approached a lot of Eritreans. The first few people admired the government so much that I thought that they must be from the Embassy. Then I asked them to introduce me to someone that does not work for the Embassy. I met this man called John and we had such a wonderful conversation. But things did not change, whether it is someone from the Embassy or not, it was largely the same attitude. Then I decided that the people of Eritrea love their country and trust their government like no other. They contribute whatever they can and are all ready to talk about their country. I believed some of the things that they said, but some others didn't make sense to me. One of the things that they kept talking about was the peace and security in Eritrea. Nowhere in the world is there such a peace as they said there is in Eritrea, not even in the US. That is why I was eager to see for myself.

What did you find on the ground?

When I got here, I had two big things I needed to certify. One is how peaceful Eritrea was and another is the fact that everyone is equal, from leaders to the general population. A minister is not set apart in Eritrea. Instead, they are just a person serving the people at their level. In my country and basically even everywhere else in the world, leaders are utterly privileged. Not only them, but anyone who is close to them is somehow benefited. That being what I live around, it was hard that the country and people that I thought were rogue had the peace that I have never seen before. I began to reformulate and reconsider my perceptions, beginning to agree that the country might be peaceful and not like what I have been told for years. When I arrived here and started observing the situation and the dynamics of the people's social life, I found out that what they have been telling me is less than what I experienced. They didn't tell me the whole story. I explored then that the peace in Eritrea is not a situation, it is a culture. It is unique and built into the system of each individual. It is not easy to craft that kind of state, it is too natural.

You said you visited some of the major development sites in Eritrea. What common thing, among all of them, attracted you the most?

There were two major things that blew me away. One is the efforts of the country to preserve and wisely use water. At all the sites, I could see how much the government and people realized the importance of water, particularly given that the country is located in the sub-Saharan Africa. Everyone is striving to preserve water at all costs. That could be the reason why water policy in Eritrea is very well planned and executed. I never realized the importance of water; I mean, I know the general importance but not in the Eritrean sense of water preservation. It is a priority in the country.

The other surprise is the amount of young people involved in all the development sectors. Especially Adi-Halo's workshop, it is a den of young creators and aspirers. That was a big surprise. I hear a lot of young people fled the country which I know they don't fail their nation wherever they go, but I did expect to see less young p e o p l e . In a nutshell, I see a lot of good things happening in the country but the development has a uniform pace in all areas. The advancement is not only concentrated in the cities but extends to the furthest and most remote parts of the country. I talked to many young people in the development sites and to my amazement, they do not just talk about the work they do. They are aware of the challenges from outside and promise over and over again, to thrive with resilience. One of the young people that I talked to said "I do not work for money. I can go somewhere and earn money but I cannot go anywhere and earn a country". That was well said. Everyone I talked to spoke about the regional issues at the moment openly and I stopped being amazed at the project infrastructure. The human infrastructure in the country is more marvelous. People from a lot of countries do not pay heed to the dynamics of the political situation of their nation. These people are pressed on by sanctions and unfair international treatments and war, but they are still very composed. I feel like Eritrea is a unique and quiet country.

Do you think Eritrea's self-reliance policy aligns with what is being done on ground?

I was wondering about this the whole time. Self-reliance is in everyone's mouth. One of the many things that surprised me is the usage of highly political words such as self-reliance, resilience, and thrive. For me, that is abnormal, because, we usually hear such words from politicians and leaders during grand ceremonies and speeches trying to work their way into people's hearts. This in itself is an integral part of the Eritrean culture. But here, ordinary citizens are declaring self-reliance. I did not expect the country to be any different than a war-wrecked land because of the wars and the sanctions. I saw those development sites and I asked myself 'what if there was peace in the region and these people did not have to face all the pressures, unfair international policy, and sanctions? What could they have done?' Everything was beyond my expectation.

People in rural areas have access to services and opportunities, which reflects the government's focus on equality. This is opposite to what has been the norm in Ethiopia for a long time. In my country, a city is built and is well advanced in a couple of years. It is good for the media but the rural areas are lagging in terms of development. People then migrate to the urban areas to get a better life and that crowds the cities. With 85% of the population in the rural areas, however, the Ethiopian government should copy this policy.

Another shock was the Eritrean women, their concept of equality and the way that they carry themselves in public, at work, everywhere. It is out of this world. Most women around the world beg for their equality. The women here have earned it, not only through armed struggle but even now, I could see women in all sectors of the development of the nation. I visited the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) and I saw their history since before independence. Well documented! It was a shock to know that the struggle recognized the concept of equality and worked towards it while fighting battles.

How was your impression of Massawa?

I felt at home! All the people that I met were super welcoming and the hospitality in Massawa is... I don't have words for it. They make you feel like they know you forever, like you are at home. The sea is like no other in the world; it is in its natural state, very clean and original. The fish there has an exceptional flavor. I toured the whole city and I think Massawa is not just a city, it is a treasure. Eritrean and world treasure. I saw that every building has its own taste of the Eritrean history from before the rise of city states. It needs to be preserved as a world heritage site. I admire the government for keeping the city in its original state. All the history it ever has entertained is engraved in the walls of the buildings. I hope the new generation will take on the tasks of holding onto these world treasures. The former regime in Ethiopia has destroyed a lot of historical records. It heavily invested in wiping the entire history and writing it in a way that they see fit. When you go through the records, you can feel that something is missing. In Eritrea, when I go around looking at things and reading the records, it has a smooth flow. I could read, see, and feel it. That's how I know it is a full package. I visited the museum and in just a day, I felt like I learned a lot about Massawa and the Eritrean people as a whole. The way the documents are handled is very precious, leaving you no choice but to believe it.

As a social media personality and activist, what do you think is the role of people like yourself in harmonizing your own people and the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia?

Social media is a powerful instrument. You can kill or heal using the medium. I am trying to use it to heal the differences and conflict in my country and between our two countries. I try to see the truth and pass it on so people can decide based on the truth and not propaganda. Nowadays, you do not need to have a comprehensive knowledge of things; one can witness the truth and share it to the world. Let's just use social media properly and we can solve many problems. I think that if used wisely, the medium is an amazing gift for this generation. I know Eritrea now because I heard about it in the medium, came to see for myself, and I am sharing it with the rest of the world. That way, we can use this gift to unify. Enough is enough. This region deserves peace, prosperity, and harmony. We are no different from those who are living in peace. They have their differences but they worked through them. It is not good to fight for no reason. At this point, we have no option but to understand each other because we now have everything except peace and collaboration. And as neighbors, we have the responsibility to commit to peace and harmony inside and between our countries. We should use whatever means at hand to nourish a peaceful environment and pass it on to the next generation. Social media is one of the best tools.

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How do the youth respond to your activities?

People are tired of listening to constant news of war and conflict. This channel, Mehal Meda, is pretty new but the scope of influence and feedback is increasing. This is proof that our people are peace loving and that they will respond to anything that comes with good intentions and civility.

On the other hand, there are a lot of extremists and war loving people and they have equal access to social media. It is a battle in which we cannot claim to have won one's heart because there are always new evils and divisive ideas that we have to tackle. So it is an unending battle. And now that I have seen Eritrea, I feel more responsible to share how peaceful and welcoming its people are.

In one sentence, how do you describe your visit to Eritrea?

It was a life changing visit. And if I may add, I am astonished by the peace, hospitality, law abiding culture, and nice weather. The whole experience makes me feel good and I want to visit the country over and over again.

What is your last message to the Eritrean people?

I love Eritrean people! I feel connected to them and I am not the same at all towards Eritrea. I understand the people of Eritrea much better now and I want to plead with them to maintain their strength, keep fighting and liberating this region, and show us that things never stay the same. I visited the famous Tank Graveyard in Asmara and it shocked me. I cried when I saw it, but I was like, "these people are something else, you cannot break these people". I have seen what the current and the past generation can do and I cannot wait to see how the next one will turn out. I hope it carries on the legacy of past generations. So, I want to say just keep being Eritreans, the rest you can get through.
PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan with a lot of sensitivity in nation building has crafted her government and appointed three charismatic leaders in key positions, which direct or indirectly relate to her office.

The posts included vetting and naming the Vice-President, Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary. In the appointments she named Dr Philip Mpango, who formerly Minister of Finance and Planning to man the Vice-President's office, Kassim Majaliwa retained the position of the Prime Minister and former Tanzania ambassador to Japan, Hussein Katanga became the new Chief Secretary.

The list also included making mini-cabinet reshuffle that brought in new faces, but largely concentrated on relocating ministers and their deputies in a bid to bring more efficiency.

Clarifying, Ms Samia made it open on the qualities she wanted to run the government so that all are involved in nation building. Speaking on why she appointed Dr Mpango for the Vice-President's office, President Samia said she wanted a hardworking and God- fearing person, who should also be well-versed on issues pertaining to the economy and management of public money.

"I brainstormed here and there to find who should be my Vice-President. I looked for the right person inside and outside the Parliament, but I finally got back right into the cabinet. So, the right person, who I thought of ... .would move with me is our brother, Dr Phillip Isdory Mpango, whose name fascinated me," said President Samia.

She said Dr Mpango is a cool person with a clean record, adding: "In other names... I realized this and that but for Philip, I found out that he is cool and I said this is the right person to go with."

The President further revealed that Dr Mpango was the right person to address challenges in the financial realm, especially between Zanzibar and Union government, because he was familiar with the matter after having worked with the ministry of finance and planning.

Borrowing a Kiswahli adage that says 'Mpe mchawi mtoto amlee,' and loosely translates as give a witch your child to take care of, President Samia said it was Dr Mpango and his team of technocrats in the financial pool, who would find a lasting solution to the issue of financial problems in the country.

"So, it is my expectations that Dr Mpango will find fellow wizards to seek a lasting solution to this," said President Samia. On reasons why she appointed Amb Katanga to the Chief Secretary's post, President Samia said his previous work record was good and worth emulation. "I did not know him personally but I had details of his performance, I was impressed with his achievements and unique qualities," she said at a swearing-in ceremony for Amb Katanga and ministers as well as their deputies in the capital city of Dodoma.

Amb Katanga is on record as a hardworking person, who always wanted to see results and changes coming from his projects without excuses. Therefore, Ms Samia believed that Amb Katanga would use this expertise to coordinate activities in ministries and other government's institutions.

The President further explained that she decided to make changes without dropping the serving ministers, because within a short time they had shown competence and teamwork spirit after being sworn-in by the late President John Magufuli.

"Being trusted is what made you remain in the positions... go and work hard," the President told the ministers and deputies, while reminding them on zero tolerance if one would underperform.

She also appointed three new Members of the Parliament including Ambassador Dr Bashiru Ally, who was former Chief Secretary, Amb Liberata Mulamula and Ambassador Mbarouk Nassor Mbarouk.

In her new cabinet line-up, President Samia appointed Mr Mohamed Mchengerwa as the Minister of State in the President's Office, Public Services Management and Good Governance, seeing the previous holder of the office, Mr George Mkuchika sifting to be the Minister in the President's Office without Portfolio.

Ms Ummy Mwalimu has been transferred to the President's Office, Regional Administration and Local Government, replacing Selemani Jafo, who has been appointed the Minister of State, Vice- President's Office (Union and Environment).

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President Samia has also appointed Godfrey Mwambe the Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office Investment, as she retained Jenista Mhagama as Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Prof Palamagamba Kabudi has been transferred to the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, replacing Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, who becomes the Minister for Finance and Planning.

Dr Nchemba fills the void left by the former Minister, Dr Mpango, who has been appointed the new vice-president, while Amb Mulamula becomes the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation.

The Minister of State in the President's Office- Investment Prof Kitila Mkumbo has been transferred to the Industry and Trade portfol
AIICO Insurance Plc said it has launched a new corporate website and e-business portal. This, it stated was in line with its commitment to providing superior and remarkable experience for both its customers and the public. The company, said besides providing information about its operations, its products and services, it is strategically positioned as a digital marketing ecosystem where the users' journey from awareness to purchase and post-purchase experience is now easy and seamless.

AIICO Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Babatunde Fajemirokun, speaking on the new website said: "Our obsession for superior customer experience is the key driver for the development of the new website.

"We restructured the layout to make navigation a whole lot easier. The contents are now simpler and more relatable. Also, we considered speed and responsiveness to different users' devices, guaranteeing a uniform experience at all times."

Fajemirokun, further said the new website is AIICO's way of refreshing the minds of its audience on its brand values, while keeping value to customers and other stakeholders in mind.

"We are in touch with the realities of the rapid developments in the digital space vis-a-vis customer expectations and we are uniquely positioned to keep meeting and surpassing these expectations," he added.

According to him, one key feature on the new website and the e-business portal is security, adding that the company has put measures in place to guarantee safe transactions at all times.

"We invite existing and prospective customers to do business with us without worries," he assured.

According to him, with the new website, reporting claims is now easier with the prominent claims button at the top menu, giving opportunity to customers to initiate a claims process easily.

He said without doubts, the new website's aesthetic values and functionalities are a reflection of a futuristic brand, going above and beyond, and positioned for long-term market leadership.
TWO men who appeared in court on allegations of duping a Green Success company employee of R138 000 in a car deal with one of them impersonating Deputy Health Minister Dr John Mangwiro, were yesterday denied bail.

Patrick Chirume of Epworth and Edgar Masora of Glen Norah in Harare were denied bail by Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje, who said they were sophisticated SUSPECTS who could skip trial.

Mr Mambanje noted that the State had a strong case against the two since there were WhatsApp messages showing communication with the complainant in which one of the suspects claimed to be Dr Mangwiro.

The court also denied the duo bail saying they were strongly linked to the offence as one of them was found in possession of a SIM card bearing numbers registered in the Deputy Minister's name.

Masora and Chirume were not asked to plead to the fraud charges.

Mrs Netsai Mushayabasa, appearing for the State, said on June 16, Mr Munyaradzi Chauraya saw an advertisement where Chirume's brother, Governor Chirume, was claiming to be a car dealer in South Africa.

Chauraya is said to have ordered an Isuzu KB300 which Chirume offered for R138 000 inclusive of driving it to Beitbridge Border Post.

Mr Chauraya accepted the deal and the next day deposited R138 000 into Chirume's South African account held with FNB Bank. Governor Chirume then contacted his brother in Zimbabwe who allegedly brought Masora into the deal.

No vehicle was delivered and Mr Chauraya became suspicious.

Patrick Chirume allegedly took Masora to Mr Chauraya and introduced him as Deputy Health Minister Mangwiro and said his money would be reimbursed in cash. When no cash came through, Mr Chauraya filed a police report.

Police are said to have recovered a line registered in Dr Mangwiro's name from Masora.

The duo is expected back in court on July 13.
Lovemore Chikova  Development Dialogue

The completion of the Tugwi-Mukosi development master plan kicks off real work around the water reservoir, with the aim of fully exploiting the water reservoir's economic potential.

It will be like the re-awakening of a sleeping giant, as the implementation of the development master plan takes effect.

The development master plan had been talked about for a long time, but the setting in of the New Dispensation saw a real push by President Mnangagwa's administration to ensure it is completed.

A development master plan holds back all work for a project because business has to be done in a systematic and organised way that ensures all stakeholders benefit.

The master plan will designate land use pattern in and around the dam, including demarcation of the exact areas earmarked for irrigation and other projects. A milestone was thus reached with the announcement last week that the long-awaited development master plan for Tugwi-Mukosi Dam in Chivi South, Masvingo, is now complete and will soon be tabled in Cabinet.

This came soon after the Government gazetted the Regional Town and Country Planning (Tugwi Mukosi Dam and Environs Combination Master Plan Authority) Notice, 2021.

The notice outlines institutions that are empowered to work together in implementing the Tugwi-Mukosi development master plan.

The institutions are the Chivi Rural District Council, Masvingo Rural District Council, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Environmental Management Agency, Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Zimbabwe Council for Tourism.

From the above institutions, the idea of businesses and land use expected to be undertaken around Tugwi-Mukosi Dam becomes clear, and it is now up to authorities to expedite work for the benefit of the country.

Chivi and Masvingo rural district councils come in as the custodians of the giant dam which is located at the confluence of Tugwi River, which flows from Chivi and Mukosi River, which flows from Masvingo. The two rural district councils will be responsible for various projects that are likely to sprout at the dam.

Projects to be undertaken around the dam are expected to transform the area and foster reliable access to water for communities where the impact of climate change is being intensely felt.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority manages the wildlife resources for the country and it is envisaged that fisheries and a national wildlife park will be set up at the dam.

The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, as its name indicates, will be involved in projects cutting across the whole spectrum of the development master plan.

The establishment of irrigation schemes around the massive dam is one of the major expectations, and the ministry will play a major role in ensuring that is successful.

The reservoir, with a full capacity of 1,8 billion cubic meters, was initially billed to irrigate around 25 000 hectares, but advances in irrigation technology over the years have pushed estimates for irrigable land to over 40 000ha.

This will result in a greenbelt in the catchment area of the dam, establishing an irrigation hub courtesy of Tugwi-Mukosi Dam irrigation water. The involvement of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Zimbabwe Council for Tourism indicates an intention to make Tugwi-Mukosi Dam a tourism hub, with a number of activities being initiated to attract tourists. Apart from water activities that tourists can take advantage of, the scenery around Tugwi-Mukosi Dam has the potential to attract tourists if the place is marketed accordingly.

The beautiful mountainous terrain that stretches from just before the dam through Ngundu to the area around Lundi River, running for about 20 kilometres, can be exploited to become a tourism hub, with various activities being initiated to increase the tourists' appetite.

The face of Ngundu business centre is bound to change dramatically, as the place has potential to become a town, with its location right on the Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway increasing the stakes.

Other business activities that can be undertaken in relation to Tugwi-Mukosi Dam include hotels and lodges, canoeing, house boats, touring firms and amusement parks.

The development and initiating of activities around Tugwi-Mukosi will be in line with the Second Republic's ambition to achieve an upper middle income economy by 2030 under Vision 2030.

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It had become clear that full exploitation of the country's largest inland water body, which was commissioned in 2017, was being hamstrung by delays in crafting the development master plan.

Until now, the major beneficiaries of water from the dam have been the Lowveld sugar estates, whose irrigation potential has been boosted by the availability of the extra water.

More water is expected to be pumped to Mwenezi when the development of Kilimanjaro sugarcane estates is finalised.

While the development master plan is important to ensure strategic planning to avoid haphazard settlements, it is equally important that people surrounding the water resource start driving the benefits.

This leaves the institutions tasked with implementing the development master plan with a huge responsibility to ensure that whatever decisions they make benefit the country without leaving out the local communities.

The vast swathes of arable land in the Madzivire and Shindi communal lands surrounding the dam should start being prepared for irrigation purposes.

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THE Ministry of Urban and Rural Development has ordered the Otavi Town Council to reverse the appointment and promotion of five staff members.

The involved staff members were allegedly promoted between 2019 and earlier this year without necessary procedures having been followed. The council has also been told to charge controversial acting chief executive officer (CEO) Ernst Gaoab with misconduct for allegedly abusing his position, and to recover all the money paid to the concerned staff members as a result of the irregular promotions.

This has been revealed in a report on a special investigation conducted by the ministry into allegations of unprocedural recruitments and promotions at the town. The report was released by the ministry earlier this year. According to the report, the Otavi Town Council irregularly appointed and promoted at least five staff members between 2019 and early this year.

This includes Gaoab, who was elevated to the position of acting CEO, despite holding the position of human resources practitioner only. As acting CEO, Gaoab was allegedly supervising more qualified and senior staff members.While in that position, he is said to have created the position of manager of human resources and administration, appointed himself to this position, and adjusted his own salary. This position, according to the report, was not on the council's staff establishment and was not approved by the line minister.

"It is grossly inappropriate for Mr Gaoab to issue himself a letter appointing himself in the position of manager HR and administration," the report reads.

The town's finance manager, Kefas Ubiteb, was opposed to the decision by Gaoab to adjust his own salary, saying it constituted fraud, and that he should pay back the money. While serving in the self-created position of manager for human resources, the report states the town council paid Gaoab a vehicle allowance without providing the necessary proof, such as monthly statement as required by the council's staff rules.

The report says Gaoab must be charged because he failed to advise the council on the correct recruitment procedures and for his own irregular appointment as manager of human resources and administration - a position which does not exist.

Despite the damning orders by the ministry, The Namibian has been informed that the town council has yet to implement the recommendations and reverse the illegal appointments. The chairperson of the management committee, Elisia Negumbo, earlier this month said the council was given until 4 June to respond to the report.

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Otavi mayor Isaac !Hoaeb was hesitant to comment on the report on Sunday, saying it contains "highly confidential information regarding the recruitment of people". He, however, said the council has discussed the report and has already responded to the ministry on the way forward. He refused to confirm whether the council has yet to reverse the concerned appointments.

"We discussed it as a council and have crafted our response to the ministry, and we are waiting for them to inform us on the way forward. I will not be able to comment further, because it is also in the hands of the Anti-Corruption Commission. They were here to investigate," he said.

Gaoab said he is still the acting CEO until 5 July, when a new CEO will assume duty. He, however, refused to comment on the recommendations in the report, saying the mayor is in the process of compiling a response to the ministry.

The ministry's report revealed that the council has also illegally been making monthly payments as housing allowances to about 18 staff members. According to the report, the involved staff members are paid at least 40% of their basic salaries as housing allowances per month, which is in contravention of the council's rules.

At least 14 staff members have been paid 40% on top of their basic salaries as housing allowances, despite failing to provide proof of having a bond with any recognised financial institution, or lease agreement. Instead, the staff members concerned provided proof of personal loans to claim a housing allowance from the council.
press release

On behalf of the Democratic Alliance, I convey our congratulations to the Governor, Deputy Governors and the professional staff of the South African Reserve Bank on the occasion of the Bank's centenary.

As we celebrate this centenary, we recommit ourselves to the firm defence of the SARB's independence against all those who would seek to undermine it.

South Africans can rightly feel proud of the Reserve Bank. While so many other institutions in our democracy have faltered, or have been deliberately hollowed out, the SARB has stood as a consistent champion for sensible economic policy.

It is an institution marked by its commitment to excellence and independence, demonstrating the very best of what our country can do.

Of course, it was not always so. For many decades, monetary policy was deployed in aid of an isolationist siege economy, cut off from the world and from economic best-practice. Now the Bank faces pressures of a not-too-dissimilar kind, as populists try to capture the SARB for their own destructive political ends.

It has also all too often had to carry the burden for irresponsible fiscal policy by the government of the day.

Against all of these forces, it has stood as a bulwark.

Future prosperity for South Africa depends on strong independent institutions like the SARB applying the best evidence to formulate stable and predictable policy.

May the SARB continue in this important work over the next 100 years.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.
The UN and human rights groups have warned seven months of fighting has hampered food security in Tigray with a real risk of famine.

Washington, DC  This statement was provided to AllAfrica by five former American ambassadors who led U.S. representation in Ethiopia for 13 of the past 25 years. The career diplomats welcome the cease-fire declaration by the Ethiopian government and issue an urgent call for humanitarian relief to the strife-torn Tigray region.

Begin Text

We the undersigned former U.S. Chiefs of Mission to Ethiopia, having closely followed the tragic conflict in Tigray which erupted in November 2020, were greatly relieved at the chance for an end to the suffering and a hope for peace offered by the Ethiopian Governments declaration of a cease fire on June 28, 2021.

We believe this is an opportunity which must not be lost, and in that regard urge the following:

All sides involved in the conflict should immediately accept the offered cease fire.

Immediately open all areas which suffered conflict to humanitarian relief agencies to provide assistance to those in need.

Withdrawal of all outside forces from the conflict zone.

All sides involved in the conflict should also use the opportunity offered by the cease fire to undertake serious discussions to make peace permanent, and also negotiate the future status of Tigray acceptable to all parties.

Strongest support possible to advance peace and reconciliation from the international community including bilaterally from all of Ethiopias partners and neighbors and from multilateral institutions and civil society. In this regard, as soon as peace is established, we call for an international conference to bring together all stakeholders to discuss joint relief and rehabilitation efforts in all areas which have been impacted by the conflict.

Encourage the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to move forward quickly with their joint investigation into the human rights violations and abuses allegedly committed by all parties in the Tigray conflict.

End Text

Ambassador David Shinn (ret)

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (ret)

Ambassador Patricia Haslach (ret)

Ambassador Aurelia Brazeal (ret)

Ambassador Tibor Nagy (ret)

RELATED: Ethiopia's Crisis Needs Urgent Solution  Five Former U.S. Ambassadors Raise Alarm 24 Feb 2021
document

On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of the Republic of Burundi as you celebrate 59 years of independence.

We welcome Burundi's progress in combating trafficking in persons, fighting corruption, and engaging with regional and multilateral partners. We look forward to our continued work together to advance public health, good governance, and economic development for all Burundians.

On this anniversary of Burundi's founding, I wish all Burundians a happy Independence Day.
A GANG of vehicle smugglers yesterday fled into Zimbabwe from South Africa after a shootout with soldiers who foiled their attempt to take three stolen cars across the Limpopo River.

Border control authorities could not apprehend the smugglers, but recovered three vehicles worth a combined R1,6 million.

The incident occured in the Madimbo area which is adjacent to Tshikwalakwala in Zimbabwe and some 140 km east of Beitbridge Border Post.

In a statement last night, South Africa's Limpopo provincial army headquarters said they had recovered a Toyota Fortuner, a Toyota Hilux and a Volvo XC60.

The vehicles are worth R430 000, R400 000 and R800 000 respectively.

"South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers were busy with standing patrol in the Madimbo area when they spotted a Toyota Fortuner which was traveling at a very high speed towards an illegal crossing along with the Republic of South Africa/Zimbabwe border.

"Upon trying to intercept the vehicle, the occupants of the vehicle fired shots from what looked like pistols. The soldiers returned fire and the suspects escaped towards the Zimbabwean side of the border," said SANDF.

According to the statement, the smugglers kept firing at the soldiers in a bid to stop them from recovering the Toyota Fortuner.

The SANDF said the soldiers then called for back up and eventually managed to recover the vehicle but the smugglers escaped from the scene.

The soldiers conducted a mop-up operation around the area and discovered that there were two other vehicles hidden in the bush.

"The vehicles were handed over to the South African Police Services," said the statement.

The incident comes a few days after seven SANDF members were arrested by the neighbouring country's elite police, the Hawks for abetting vehicle smuggling activities between 2017 and 2019.

The group would reportedly demand R15 000 per vehicle to facilitate the smuggling.

According to the Hawks, the soldiers would then share the money but were busted following an intelligence operation code-named "Night Vigil'.

The accused include privates Edward Lepokolo (48), Rapula Reuben Maidi (49), Bulelani Danti (30), Peter Thato Nemane (52), Thembani Mjelo(31) and two Lance Corporals, Marks Funeka (49), and Ludwe Gwedashe (44).

The smuggling of vehicles along the Limpopo River is rife and most of the vehicles will be en route to Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania while some will be destined for the Zimbabwean market.
KOIYET VILLAGE  Digital services are helping small-scale farmers weather financial losses and adapt to climate shifts - but experts say the tech migration is leaving many behind

* Africa's digital farming services growing nearly 45% per year

* Sub-Saharan Africa has more than 400 farming apps and platforms

* Farmers use apps to buy goods, access loans, reach customers

Over the past year, Wilson Lang'at has made a steady profit from his farm in Koiyet village, managing to get the seeds and fertiliser he needs, planning ahead for droughts and floods, and borrowing money to diversify his crops - all through his phone.

His experience is not the norm, as most farmers across Kenya have struggled with the double hit of extreme weather shrinking their yields and coronavirus lockdowns and curfews choking off access to supplies and demand for their produce.

Until two years ago, the 46-year-old father of six traded cows while growing maize on the side at his 6-acre (2.5-hectare) farm in Kenya's Rift Valley. Then he started using the DigiFarm app to access farming inputs, weather reports and financing.

Lang'at said he went from producing six 90-kg (200-pound) bags of maize per acre to about 20 bags per acre, as well as beans, potatoes and tomatoes - and quickly earned enough that he could drop the bovine arm of his business.

"Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have never stopped farming. Farming has become more profitable (than cows), and now it's my full-time job," he said.

In Africa, experts say agricultural technology - or agri-tech - like DigiFarm is increasingly playing a crucial role in cushioning small-scale farmers against the crop-damaging effects of climate change and the economic pain of the pandemic.

According to government figures, there are about 4.5 million small-scale farmers in Kenya and their collective output accounts for more than 60% of the country's food.

DigiFarm, a free service from telecoms giant Safaricom, was launched in 2017 - but the bulk of its current 1.4 million users signed up after the pandemic hit, said Elizabeth Mudogo, customer experience lead at DigiFarm.

Daniel Langat, a DigiFarm village advisor in Bomet County, where Koiyet is located, said the app saves farmers time and money.

After ordering through the app, farmers get SMS notifications when their goods are ready for collection at a local depot - the company has nearly 30 in Bomet alone - and they can get store credit and discounts, Langat said.

DigiFarm also helps farmers prepare for more erratic weather patterns by sending them information on best practices and tips to reduce crop loss, along with historical weather reports and forecasts.

"This app has brought farmers together in our area," Langat said. "As all the farmers plant at the same time since they get weather updates at the same time, this helps in disease control and decision-making."

In case farmers do still suffer unexpected crop losses, DigiFarm offers insurance and loans through popular mobile money platform M-Pesa.

During the pandemic, Lang'at, the farmer, borrowed 1,300 Kenyan shillings ($12) through the app to buy tomato seeds.

He earned more than 50 times that selling the produce, which allowed him to pay one of his children's college fees.

"Planning is easier. (For example) when I receive updates of low rainfall, I plant beans, which do well with shorter rains," he said.

TURNING TO TECH

An April report from the Netherlands-based Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation said Africa's digital agricultural services sector has grown nearly 45% annually in terms of farmers reached over the last three years.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Kenyan company Twiga Foods has seen a jump in the number of farmers using its digital platform Soko Yetu (Our Market) to reach customers without going through expensive brokers, said chief technology officer Caine Wanjau.

Twiga, which launched in 2014, harvests and buys produce from its member farms, then takes the goods to collection centres for processing and packaging, he explained.

When vendors order something through the app, the company delivers it directly to their stores.

Originally operating only in Nairobi, the platform expanded to five other major towns in Kenya during the pandemic and recently announced a new expansion into Uganda, Wanjau said.

The app now covers more than 17,000 farmers and 35,000 vendors, he noted.

Ann Waithera signed up to Twiga a year ago to help her keep running her general store on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Instead of going to markets to buy goods, she places her order from home and it is delivered the following morning.

"Nowadays, the market is on my phone. I save over 500 shillings (every day) which would have been used for transport," she said. "And I no longer wake up at 4 a.m. to go to the market in Nairobi, so now I can be with my kids."

LOW-INCOME FARMERS

A January report by consultancy McKinsey & Company said farmers across sub-Saharan Africa are using more than 400 apps and digital platforms for everything from accessing financial services and planting advice to supply-chain management.

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But, it noted, uptake of these apps is limited by tech challenges such as lack of internet access for farmers, with 3G networks covering only about 40% of sub-Saharan Africa's rural areas, while half of the region has no grid electricity.

Still, David J. Spielman, senior researcher at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, said agri-tech apps are already helping build the climate resilience of small-scale farmers.

"Crop and livestock yields and production are edging upwards in Africa - the larger issue is that this rate of growth has to increase," he said by email.

To do that, he urged developers to focus more on tools for poorer and other marginalised communities, so that platforms can address their specific needs.

For example, some technologies provide weather information when the real constraint facing farmers in a particular area might be access to credit and finance.

"There is significant potential growth of digital innovation across the region if developers and providers can figure out how to genuinely target and benefit people in low-income groups," Spielman said.

($1 = 107.7000 Kenyan shillings)
Nigeria's justice minister Abubakar Malami said Nnamdi Kanu was seized with Interpol's help. Local media claim the leader of the Biafra independence movement was picked up in Ethiopia.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of a group that has called for the independence of Biafra from Nigeria, was presented before a federal high court in Abuja on Tuesday, days after his arrest at an undisclosed location.

"Nnamdi Kanu has been intercepted. ... He has been brought back to Nigeria in order to continue facing trial after disappearing," said Justice Minister Abubakar Malami, referring to the fact that Kanu had not been seen in Nigeria since he was released on bail in 2017.

Kanu's outlawed movement, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which agitates for a separate state for ethnic Igbos in southeast Nigeria, has been labeled a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government.

One of Kanu's lawyers, Nnemeka Ojeifor, described Kanu's arraignment in court without the presence of his legal representative as "against the administration of criminal justices act."

"If they want justice, they know Nmandi Kanu has lawyers. I am one of the lawyers. Why was he brought to court without informing us? How can they arraign him without telling his lawyers? This is totally unacceptable, unconstitutional," Ojeifor told DW.

Secrecy surrounds Kanu's arrest

Justice Minister Malami said 53-year-old Kanu was arrested on Sunday but gave no details about the location.

Local Nigerian media speculated that the leader of the Biafran pro-independence group was arrested in the Netherlands while on transit to Ukraine.

The online Nigerian news website The Will claimed, however, that Kanu was nabbed in Ethiopia with the help of the international policing body Interpol.

The website did not name its source and also did not say how Nigerian authorities learned about Kanu's alleged presence in Ethiopia.

In a 2015 telephone interview with DW, Kanu said he was in Israel and that he had managed to flee Nigeria with help from friends in Israel.

Agitation for independent state called Biafra

The push for an independent Biafra has a long history in Nigeria.

In 1967, the calls of Igbo leaders for a separate state led to a brutal two-and-half year civil war. A siege by Nigeria's federal troops on Igbo lands lead to the death of estimated 1 million people, mainly due to starvation, famine and disease.

Kanu, who was born in 1967 in the war era, later took up the cause of an independent state for Igbo people, founding the Indigenous People of Biafra in 2014.

He was subsequently arrested on 14 October 2015 and slapped with 11 charges, including terrorism and treasonable felony.

He disappeared while on bail.

In 2020, IPOB established an armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), which has been blamed for a number of violent attacks on police stations, electoral offices and other federal properties in southeast Nigeria.

Around 130 police and security officials have been killed and some 20 police stations were attacked this year, according to local media tallies.

Abdul Azeez Sulaiman, representing the Coalition of Northern Group, a non-governmental organization campaigning for the interest of northerners in the southeast, told DW that IPOB's independence aspirations has significant impact on ethnic non-Igbo Nigerians living in the country's southeast.

"We are calling on federal authorities, the federal prosecutors to include charges of incitements to violence, that involved violent killings and attacks on people of non-Igbo ethnicity living in the southeast and other places," said Sulaiman.

Biafra campaign goes online

The secessionists have been carrying out massive online campaigns, publishing and distributing tweets and Facebook posts via an army of online activists.

President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to crush IPOB in a recent tweet, which the platform subsequently deleted for breach of its policy.

In the deleted tweet, Buhari compared the civil war, in which he fought on behalf of the federal government, to recent attacks on offices of the national electoral commission. He 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.

Nigeria's government has since banned Twitter and also said that social media companies wishing to operate in Nigeria must register as a local entity and be licensed.

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It has denied that the Twitter ban had anything to do with the deleted presidential tweet.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed cited Kanu's posts as a factor in the government's decision to suspend Twitter.

Divided opinions

The name Nmandi Kanu is as controversial as his mission which deeply divides opinions in Nigeria. His rearrest has sparked a heated debate among different segments of Nigeria's population.

According to security analyst Kabiru Adamu, transparency on the part of the Nigerian government will be key in dealing with how the public react to Kanu's trial.

"Law enforcement and judicial bodies will need to collaborate in terms of putting forward clear and convincing evidences of [Kanu's] culpability in all the things he is being accused of and a transparent judicial process be pursued so that he is tried in a manner that will convince anyone that there is no political interference in the trial," Adamu told DW.

Ubale Musa in Abuja contributed to this report.
Niger state governments says it knows the location of the abductors but chose to negotiate with the kidnappers to avert harming the students in a military rescue operation.

The Secretary to the Niger State Government, Ibrahim Matane, has explained why the state is yet to use force against the kidnappers of 138 pupils of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School despite knowing their location.

Mr Matane said the government was "taking time to evaluate ongoing negotiations with the bandits in order to prevent collateral damage".

"We know the location where they (pupils) are; we are very careful of any untoward situation; we do not want to hurt the children while resorting to military operations," he was quoted to have said by Leadership newspaper.

He further told the paper that the state government was looking at other options of negotiation devoid of payment of ransom before taking "kinetic action".

Probed on the negotiation by the government with the bandits, official stated that the government told the bandits that if they lay down their arms and release the pupils they would not face prosecution.

He also confirmed that the bandits had reached out to the parents for ransom.

"The parents of the pupils abducted were in touch with the bandits who were demanding money; the parents garnered what they have, but we made it clear that this government does not pay ransom."

On May 30, bandits stormed Saliu Tanko Islamic school in Tegina in Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State.

The school, which consists of nursery and primary schools, also hosts Islamiyya students in the evening and at weekends.

Two parents reportedly died of shock after hearing that their wards had been kidnapped, this newspaper gathered.

One of the teachers, Yakubu Idris, said the bandits demanded N150 million as ransom "but nothing is forthcoming from the parents".

The Islamic school pupils are one three groups of students currently being held by kidnappers in the northern part of Nigeria.

Others include eight students of Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, a state-owned Polytechnic in Zaria, Kaduna Atate and scores of students of the Federal Government College (FGC), Yauri in Kebbi State.
The Senate increased the fine from N1,000 to N5 million or imprisonment for three years, or both.

The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that seeks to increase the fine and punishment for illegal importation and sales of firearms in Nigeria.

The bill titled 'Firearms Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021' was read for the third time and passed after the lawmakers considered the report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

The legislation contains amendments to some sections of the main Act ranging from imposition of fine to the destruction of firearms illegally imported into the country by an individual or group.

Amendments

In Section 27 of the Act which deals with fines and penalties for offences, the Senate increased the penalty from N1,000 to N5 million or imprisonment for three years, or both.

The lawmakers agreed that the upward review of the penalty is necessary so as to deter illegal importation and sales of firearms in Nigeria.

Section 38 of the principal Act authorises only officers of the Nigerian Police Force and the Armed Forces to be given licence to carry firearms or ammunition. This was amended to include other law enforcement agencies as well.

A new Clause 39 was introduced in the bill. It gives power to officers of the Nigerian Police, Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies to seize and confiscate any illicit and illegal firearms imported into the country without any valid import documents or firearms in possession of any individual, corporate bodies and other organisations, without a valid licence.

Sub-clauses (4) and (5) of the same clause was amended to ensure that firearms that are not of military serviceable grades but are serviceable, can be deployed for use by Civilian Joint Task Force and other Registered Vigilantes, under the approval and supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser.

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The lawmakers said the amendment was necessary because the joint efforts are also funded by the government.

A new sub-clause (8) was also to clearly define the nature and types of firearms to be destroyed, for ease of understanding and clarity.

According to the bill, "the firearms subject to seizure and destruction includes small arms and light weapons, ghost guns or homemade firearms - relinquished during amnesty programme, operations by security agencies and/or collection programme by security agencies or recovered in crime or identified as surplus requirements of the Armed Forces."

Chairman of the committee, Bamidele Opeyemi, who presented the report, said in view of proliferations of firearms across the country and the security challenges, the legislation was necessary.

The new law, he said, will serve as a deterrent and strengthen current efforts geared towards the control of illicit and illegal firearms influx into the country and in the possession of individuals.

The bill will be sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence and thereafter transmitted to the president for assent.
Abuja  President Muhammadu Buhari has said that neither ethnicity nor religion is to blame for the myriad of problems facing the country, "but we ourselves," for inherent injustices.

President Buhari in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina came to this conclusion after reflecting on the complexities of the Nigerian condition.

According to the statement, the President spoke while receiving members of the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group, who visited State House, Abuja, to present a compendium of five years achievements of the administration.

President Buhari went into the trajectory of his struggles to get justice at the courts, after disputed results of presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011, submitting that people who ruled against him were of his own ethnic stock and religious persuasion, while those who stood up for him were of other faith and ethnicity.

He said, "Our problem is not ethnicity or religion, it is ourselves.

"After my third appearance in the Supreme Court, I came out to speak to those who were present then. I told them that from 2003, I'd spent 30 months in court.

"The President of the Court of Appeal, the first port of call for representation by presidential candidates then, was my classmate in secondary school in Katsina. We spent six years in the same class, Justice Umaru Abdullahi.

"My legal head was Chief Mike Ahamba, a Roman Catholic and an Ibo man. When the President of the court decided that we should present our case, my first witness was in the box.

"Ahamba insisted that a letter should be sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to present the register of constituencies in some of the States, to prove that what they announced was falsehood. It was documented.

"When they gave judgment, another Ibo man, the late Justice Nsofor, asked for the reaction from INEC to the letter sent to them. They just dismissed it. He then decided to write a minority judgment. That was after 27 months in court.

"We went to the Supreme Court. Who was Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)? A Hausa-Fulani like me, from Zaria. The members of the panel went in for about 30 minutes, came back to say they were proceeding on break. They went for 3 months. When they came back, it didn't take them 15 minutes, they dismissed us.

"In 2007, who was the CJN? Kutigi. Again, a Muslim from the North. After 8 months or so, he dismissed the case.

"Again in 2011, because I was so persistent, Musdafa, a Fulani man like me, from Jigawa, neighbor to my state, was CJN. He dismissed my case.

"I've taken you round this to prove that our problem is not ethnicity or religion. It is ourselves.

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"I refused to give up. I had tried to wear Agbada after what happened to me in Khaki. Something was done to me, because I did something to others. You know it. In the end, I myself was arrested, sent to detention, and they were given back what they had taken. I was there for three and a quarter years. This is Nigeria.

"I hope historians and intellectuals would document this, because it is a fantastic state of political development. Let our grandchildren and great grandchildren see how we came along. We didn't get it as easy as other people think. Not because God has given us great population and resources. We have suffered along the line.

"I try to mention these things because you got yourselves together, used your resources, energies without any input from me. I cannot thank you enough. I'm very grateful to you and to Nigerians because in 2019, I visited all the states, the people that turned out to see me across the country (because I'm dedicated to serve Nigeria and Nigerians), the love is genuine.

"Thank God that over the years, they can't accuse me of corruption. And I've been everything; Governor, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Head of State, President and in my second term. I thank you that nobody forced you, but you got together, used your energy, time and resources, I thank you very much. I assure you, history will do you justice."

Vanguard News Nigeria
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol should be more than N280 per litre.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, Kyari said petrol price ought to be more than N280 per litre which Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, is currently being sold.

He said the federal government is still in talks with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) over the cost of petrol.

He said based on the ongoing engagements, there will be no fuel price increase in July.

Kyari said, "Today we are paying N162/litre (for petrol). I am sure many people buy AGO (diesel) in the market and it is selling at N280/litre in the market today.

"So (there is) nowhere in the world diesel sells more expensive than PMS. That means that the price of petrol anywhere in the world, assuming you are going to sell it at the market, you are going to sell it above that price you have seen."

Kyari added that while the subsidy regime wasn't sustainable, President Muhammadu Buhari has directed NNPC to do everything legally possible not to make petrol price out of reach of Nigerians, "especially at this moment".

"What this means however is that we are taking out cash that could have been used for other things to pay under-recovery," he added.

The NNPC boss said although petrol evacuation by NNPC in Nigeria was currently about 60 million litres daily, the corporation was sure that consumption was not up to that volume.

He said organised smuggling was the reason for the huge consumption volume, stressing that the low petrol price of N162/litre was also an incentive for this.

On what the landing cost of petrol could be as of Tuesday, Kyari said: "Today, from what I can remember, I checked the number two days ago; what would we sell if we are at the filling station today and recover our cost fully is around N256/litre," he stated.
Canada has shown interest in increasing both bilateral and multilateral cooperation with Nigeria, and subsequently increase the volume of trade with the country.

Addressing the media in Abuja earlier in the week to mark Canada's independence from the British on July 1, 1867, the Acting High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, Nicolas Simard, said: "We look forward to broadening and deepening our cooperation with Nigeria, both bilaterally and multilaterally."

Nigeria presently stands as the second largest trade partner of Canada on the African continent, exceeded only by South Africa.

The Canadian High Commissioner said: "Nigeria is Canada's second most important partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Nigeria is an important partner for Canada. Our bilateral relationship is multifaceted and growing stronger each year, through our longstanding cooperation across trade, development, diplomacy, education, and security."

On the volume of trade with Nigeria, Simard said as per year-to-date data from statistics, the total merchandise trade between Canada and Nigeria is estimated to be $1.4 billion (Canadian dollar, CAD), with Canadian merchandise imports from Nigeria accounting for more $411 million (CAD) and Canadian exports to Nigeria at more than $539 million (CAD).

He disclosed that the main sources of imports from Nigeria consisted of minerals (mineral fuels, oil and bituminous subs), vegetable products (oil seeds, grains, fruits and nuts) and processed food, while Canada continued to export a wide range of products to Nigeria, including vehicles and equipment, wheat, manufacturing equipment, aircrafts, vessels and cars.

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Simard said despite the uncertain economic conditions, the volume of trade between Canada and Nigeria remained stable and slightly outpaced the total volume of trade in 2019 - estimated as $801illion (CAD).

The High Commissioner also disclosed that Canada's top trade partners in Africa include South Africa, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Botswana and Ghana.

He said in 2019, bilateral merchandise trade with Nigeria totalled $800.26 million, with the decrease from the previous year largely due to a significant decline in Canadian imports from Nigeria.

He said: "Notwithstanding, Nigeria still maintains its position as Canada's second largest bilateral merchandise trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa - following South Africa ($1.383 billion) and followed by Cote d'Ivoire ($604 million), Botswana ($544.88 million) and Ghana ($358.84)."

The High Commissioner said Canada is waiting on the Nigerian National Assembly to breathe life into the machinery that will increase Canadian investment in Nigeria.

According to him, "A bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with Nigeria would be instrumental to facilitating further Canadian investment and commercial activity in Nigeria and deepening trade relations between both countries.

"Although the governments of Canada and Nigeria jointly signed a FIPA in 2014, the Parliament of Canada ratified the agreement, but the Nigerian National Assembly is yet to do so and seeks for the agreement to be renegotiated."
Lives are being saved, injuries are being treated immediately, babies are being successfully delivered, vaccines are being stored correctly, doctors and nurses can work more productively, clean water now available to thousands of project beneficiaries across nine sites in Borno State.

The communities include: Bama and Gwoza General Hospitals, Mainok - Kaga LGA, Auno - Konduga LGA, Gajiganna - Magumeri LGA, Biriyel - Bayo LGA and Dikwa - Dikwa LGA), and the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Maiduguri thanks to the installation of containerized solar micro-grids systems funded by the European Union. The project forms part of the European support in response to recovery, resettlement and resilience in Borno state.

In the past, Bama and Gwoza General Hospitals and the five villages which include Mainok, Auno, Gajiganna, Biryel and Dikwa, faced regular power cuts due to intermittent energy supply from the grid. This posed a great challenge to the doctors and nurses treating patients in hospitals, as well as the inhabitants of the five village clusters.

With the funding support of the European Union in 2018, three different contractors were mobilized (FCDO/AECOM, EM-One Energy Solutions and MTECH Renewables to install nine solar micro-grids across eight sites in the state to improve the quality of lives of the good people of the state.

The EU funded solar microgrid systems were designed with community recovery and resilience in mind. The solutions are fully integrated, scalable, and quick to deploy, using tier-1 equipment components from proven technology partners.

The project now completed and fully operational will have its official commissioning which will take place at the College of Nursing and Midwifery, in Maiduguri, Borno state on July, 6 where two of the sites operational since 2020 are located.

Impact

The Head of Section for Economic Cooperation and Energy at the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), Inga Stefanowicz remarked: "Funding these projects in Borno State was borne out of the desire to support the state government developmental strides in spite of the enormous security challenges. This will enhance the welfare of thousands of people, support the fight against COVID-19, reduce carbon emissions by replacing diesel with renewable energy, and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 and 13."

The Hospital Secretary, Borno Health Board in Gwoza General Hospital, Mr. Yahaya Ibrahim, noted: "The solar system has made great impact in the hospital; energy is always available; hospital services and the treatment of patients have improved drastically. We are grateful to the European Union for the donation of the system."

In Bama and Gwoza General Hospitals, the solar power plants generate 444,300 KWh of energy annually, saving N49,761,600 in diesel spend and reduce CO2 emission by 476 tonnes per year. The beneficiary local government areas (LGAs), Bama and Gwoza, are two of the largest in Borno - with a combined residential population of over 500,000 and over 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), residing in refugee camps.

One of the trained technicians in Bama General Hospital, Mr. Mohammed Ali, stated: "We have seen a lot of improvements since the installation of the solar system. This includes increased patient satisfaction of services because of available electricity, increased patronage to the hospital from the community, service provider satisfaction from the health workers and bettered laboratory services. We also recently had a successful surgery conducted in the Hospital, which is a great success as we would normally have had to transfer the patient elsewhere due of lack of electricity."

The two systems at the College of Nursing and Midwifery, completed under the Solar Nigeria Programme, with the financial assistance of the European Union, generate 577,900 KWh of energy annually, saving N64,724,800 in diesel spend and reduce CO2 emissions by 619 tonnes per year.

The Provost, College of Nursing and Midwifery, Ms. Rukaya Shettima Mustapha, said: "We are happy to say that 770 students enrolled in 2020, compared to 145 students in the previous year. In addition, for the professional qualification examination for nursing and midwifery, we had a pass rate of 98.2%, as compared to a 50-60% pass rate before the solar system was operational."

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Conclusion

The intervention in the state has continued to help raise awareness of the broader need to expand renewables and serve as a proof of concept to the fact the solar PV does work in Nigeria, particularly in rural communities. To achieve universal electrification in Nigeria, distributed energy systems and digitalization are the way forward to transform the energy value chain, lessons we can learn and apply immediately from the global energy transition.

Through this project, the EU continues to make great progress to support the Nigerian government with systemic and sustainable change in the country. As technology continues to reduce the price of solar, there is hope that the microgrids and on-site energy systems play a larger role towards achieving universal energy access in Nigeria.

Aliamaka wrote from Lagos
Dignitaries who attended the event praised the young author for her talent and hard work.

A book authored by a 16-year-old Nigerian girl, Maadiah Johnson, was on Saturday launched in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The book, Clawed to Death, is a fictional prose about a boy who lost his father at a tender age and had to struggle all the way, against all odds.

"We (women) are not meant to be raped, butchered, murdered and trafficked," Miss Johnson, an SS2 student, said at the launch, apparently denouncing the rise in gender-based violence in Nigeria.

The 26-year-old female job-seeker, Iniubong Umoren was raped and brutally killed in April in Uyo by a 20-year-old man, Uduak Akpan who had lured her with a fake job offer.

Nigerians have been putting pressure on the police to bring Miss Umoren's killers to justice.

Women in Nigeria should be treated as "queens" and assisted to grow their talents, said Miss Johnson who informed the dignitaries that turned up for her book launch that she started writing the novel when she was just 10.

She said she lost the motivation to go further at some point. Five years later, during the COVID-19 lockdown, she picked up, finished her work which is on sale on Amazon.

The book launch was part of the activities for the monthly reading of the Uyo Book Club, and was graced by several authors, including Anietie Usen, the author of the award-winning novel, Village Boy; Ekong Sampson, and Udeme Nana.

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Miss Johnson's mentoring project, Raise them Queens, was also inaugurated.

Her parents, family members, and friends attended the event.

"I had a talent, I had a story. I had something that is going to motivate other children to keep writing. If I kept that story without showing it to the world it is me deliberately reducing value from society," Miss Johnson said.

She said she was delighted to see the number of people who came around to show support for her work.

Mr Usen, who chaired the event, described Miss Johnson as the 'youngest author in Nigeria's Niger Delta region'.

He said, "There is something about this kind of event. It is the realisation that writing is a gift. It is a dash from God.

"The good thing about Maadiah is that she discovered this gift in time which is something parents must do to help our children discover what God injected into them in time."

Mr Sampson, a lawyer and author of several books, described Miss Johnson as "a future Nobel Prize winner".

Mr Nana, the founder of Uyo Book Club and a journalism teacher, pledged to ensure that Akwa Ibom, Nigeria and the world celebrate the young author.

A senator and former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, who participated in the event via zoom, congratulated Miss Johnson and promised to host her in Abuja.

"Every girl child should be seen as an honour and a solution to society," the young author said proudly at the event.
The experts, who brainstormed on the nation's energy sector crisis, agreed that urgent reforms were needed to bring the sector to par with global standards.

Government officials, business executives, Civil Society Organisations, energy experts and the media on Tuesday in Abuja gathered at the International Conference Centre to identify the challenges posed by Nigeria's intractable power challenges and offer solutions.

The experts, who brainstormed on the nation's energy sector in moderated sessions, agreed that urgent reforms were needed to bring the sector to par with global standards.

The event was the 7th edition of the N-PoD Monthly Policy Dialogue (Summit) which was organised by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy Development/Analysis.

The topic which pegged discussions by the panellists was tagged: 'The power sector's unending challenges and new perspectives'.

Ibrahim Hassan, the SSA to the president on policy development and analysis, who organised the event, said the experts gathered to proffer solutions to help the government address its over a decade long power crisis and present same to his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, through the SSG.

Some of the experts who spoke at the event included Ransome Owan (lead discussant), Managing Director, Aiteo Power and Gas Group; Muazu Magaji, Chairman, NNPC AKK Pipeline Project Delivery and Industrialisation Committee; Justice Derefaka, Technical Adviser, Gas Business and Policy Implementation, Dauda Abdul-aziz of the North-South Power Company Ltd and other industry officials.

Perennial challenge

PREMIUM TIMES in May analysed how 11 years after ex-president, Musa Yar'Adua's death, Nigeria's electricity challenges remain, some argue, has worsened.

The newspaper also reported that although installed generation capacity, mostly from thermal and hydro sources, has improved over the years, less than 50 per cent of the generated power is being distributed to Nigerians.

This challenge and the need to offer new perspectives formed the basis of the discussion at the summit which also had a large virtual audience both locally and internationally.

Conversation

The minister of power, Mamman Saleh, who started the conversation in a virtual submission from one of his aides, said some of the major challenges facing the nation's power aspirations were lack of adequate infrastructure, implementation of policies, revenue, and distribution of power.

He said it was sad that while Nigeria has 23 power generating plants connected to the national grid with the capacity to generate 13, 000 MW of electricity, it could only distribute about 4500.

"We have over 13, 000 MW of generation capacity but what we are able to distribute is about 4500," he said. "Beyond this 'misalignment' of energy capacity, we have the challenge of paltry remittance from the downstream participants, that is the distribution companies as well as the problem of low uptake of stranded capacity in the whole power system of unserved grid buyers."

Mr Owan, who led the discussions offered three new perspectives he opined would radically address Nigeria's power challenges.

He said it was time Nigeria started/enhanced a 'free meter saturation programme' which would increase energy capacity, access, and revenue ultimately. He also proposed a 'city by city power 24/7 programme', which he said should be a leaf borrowed from the nation's mobile phone industry.

In addition, he advocated a process whereby the government would attract industries and growth around power plants.

In concluding his thoughts on the new perspectives Nigerian should be mulling, he said: "Nigerian should stay the course of privatisation, and avoid policy somersaults".

He also said while reforms were necessary, it was also important to make the sector investment-friendly.

He said "The velocity of metered electricity or power to the consumer must be equal to the revenue coming back to the operators. However, in our nation, there is an inequality sign which translates to revenue shortfall and this is one of the challenges we must address."

***insert Owan's Video

Mr Abdulaziz, in his short submission, said Nigeria's capacity to generate optimal energy levels may stagnate if there are no programmes to sustain it even as demand spikes due to the rising population.

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He also said power systems globally take a long time to take shape, enabling policies must be implemented to ensure all targets are met.

Meanwhile, Mr Muazu, who said the DISCOs (distribution firms) are like 'sick babies' whose needs must be tended to achieve success and results in the power sector, also added that reforms must involve the bringing in of real operators "who truly understand how the system works".

He also proposed an "adjustment in the current privatisation equity" so as to enhance the optimal performance of the sector.

"We need to refocus to have an identity of its own and a brand we must be able to hold accountable," he said. "There are of course vested interests as in every sector, but we must have the courage to do the right thing for our people.

PREMIUM TIMES also reported how the summit also attracted economic experts, government officials and leadership consultants, who gathered in May to deliberate on how the country can successfully navigate its recent exit from recession and ensure sustainable economic growth.
The convoy of the governor was returning to Kano from a ceremony in Zamfara when it ran into bandits.

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and his Jigawa State counterpart, Muhammad Badaru, on Wednesday narrowly escaped being attacked by bandits on a highway linking Zamfara and Kano states.

The governors had attended the ceremony in Gusau in which Zamfara governor, Bello Matawalle, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The convoy of the Kano governor was returning to Kano from the ceremony when it ran into the bandits.

However, the Kano governor was not in the convoy as he had joined that of Mr Badaru, which passed the same route earlier before the bandits apparently struck.

Kano State Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, confirmed the attack to BBC Hausa Service.

Mr Garba said Mr Ganduje was not riding in his convoy when it was attacked by the outlaws.

He said "the governor had left with Mr Badaru in the Jigawa governor's convoy before the attack."

The official said three police officers were hit by bullets released by the bandits while vehicles in the convoy belonging to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and an ambulance were also riddled with bullets.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the bandits had earlier killed Mohammed Ahmed, a lawmaker from Zamfara State.

The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isah, said the bandits blocked the highway along Sheme-Funtua Road around 10:30 p.m, on Tuesday.

He, however, said no incident of kidnap was reported.

The governors had attended the defection ceremony in Zamfara where they received Mr Mattawalle late in the day.
The Inspector-General, Senegalese Armed Forces, Maj.-Gen. Elhadji Niang, has solicited collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria in dealing with the menace of insurgency in sub-Saharan Africa.

Niang made the call when he paid a courtesy call on Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor, on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that his visit to Nigeria was to assess the operational readiness of Nigerian troops which include the army, navy and air force as well as the Police.

He expressed the commitment of the Senegalese military to work closely with the Nigerian military with a view to tackling the challenges of insurgency and terrorism in the West African sub-region.

"We believe that working more closely with Nigeria will make us more efficient due to the experience and expertise of the Nigerian military in various realms.

"We hope that from this visit we will find ways to be more cooperative and more efficient in order to solve our various issues," he said.

Responding, the CDS, Irabor, acknowledged that Nigeria and Senegal had maintained a cordial relationship both at the political level and in military engagements.

Irabor said that the two countries had been having extensive interaction in terms of operation and training, adding that their experiences could be leveraged for greater effectiveness of the two nation's armed forces.

According to him, the visit of the Senegalese military chief would enable the two armed forces to strengthen that bond of friendship that they have had.

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"The West African sub-region as you know is currently faced with some kinds of security challenges.

"Senegal may not be directly affected but its neighbours like Mali and other countries around it are faced with challenges that need attention.

"For us in Nigeria, we are also facing the problem of insurgency and terrorism which we believe requires a collective effort.

"So, if the movement of these criminal elements, especially from the Sahel down this part of West Africa with the intervention of Senegalese military assisting the Malians and the Burkinabe in one way or the other will help to reduce the Sahelian movement of these criminal elements.

"I think that our collaboration will help to significantly improve the state of security in the sub-region," he said. (NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria, ruling out the influence of ethnicity and religion.

Buhari said this while receiving members of the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group, who visited State House, Abuja, to present a compendium of five years achievements of the administration.

The president reflected on the complexities of the Nigerian condition and resolved that neither ethnicity nor religion was to blame "but we ourselves" for inherent injustices.

Buhari went into the trajectory of his struggles to get justice at the courts, after disputed results of presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011.

He said that people who ruled against him were of his own ethnic stock and religious persuasion, while those who stood up for him were of other faith and ethnicity.

"Our problem is not ethnicity or religion, it is ourselves," the president said.

His words: "After my third appearance in the Supreme Court, I came out to speak to those who were present then. I told them that from 2003, I'd spent 30 months in court.

"The President of the Court of Appeal, the first port of call for representation by presidential candidates then, was my classmate in secondary school in Katsina. We spent six years in the same class, Justice Umaru Abdullahi.

"My legal head was Chief Mike Ahamba, a Roman Catholic and an Ibo man. When the President of the court decided that we should present our case, my first witness was in the box.

"Ahamba insisted that a letter should be sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to present the register of constituencies in some of the States, to prove that what they announced was falsehood. It was documented.

"When they gave judgment, another Ibo man, the late Justice Nsofor, asked for the reaction from INEC to the letter sent to them. They just dismissed it. He then decided to write a minority judgment. That was after 27 months in court.

"We went to the Supreme Court. Who was Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)? A Hausa-Fulani like me, from Zaria. The members of the panel went in for about 30 minutes, came back to say they were proceeding on break. They went for 3 months. When they came back, it didn't take them 15 minutes, they dismissed us.

"In 2007, who was the CJN? Kutigi. Again, a Muslim from the North. After 8 months or so, he dismissed the case.

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"Again in 2011, because I was so persistent, Musdafa, a Fulani man like me, from Jigawa, neighbor to my state, was CJN. He dismissed my case.

"I've taken you round this to prove that our problem is not ethnicity or religion. It is ourselves.

"I refused to give up. I had tried to wear Agbada after what happened to me in Khaki. Something was done to me, because I did something to others. You know it. In the end, I myself was arrested, sent to detention, and they were given back what they had taken. I was there for three and a quarter years. This is Nigeria.

"I hope historians and intellectuals would document this, because it is a fantastic state of political development. Let our grandchildren and great grandchildren see how we came along. We didn't get it as easy as other people think. Not because God has given us great population and resources. We have suffered along the line.

"I try to mention these things because you got yourselves together, used your resources, energies without any input from me. I cannot thank you enough. I'm very grateful to you and to Nigerians because in 2019, I visited all the states, the people that turned out to see me across the country (because I'm dedicated to serve Nigeria and Nigerians), the love is genuine.

"Thank God that over the years, they can't accuse me of corruption. And I've been everything; Governor, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Head of State, President and in my second term. I thank you that nobody forced you, but you got together, used your energy, time and resources, I thank you very much. I assure you, history will do you justice."
A 2021 press freedom report has revealed that the media industry recorded seven unresolved killings, 300 violations and abuses, affecting 500 journalists, media workers, and media houses since 2015 under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The report, released on Wednesday in Abuja by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in collaboration with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said that this development is of major concern as journalists and media organisations are targets of attack by both protesters and government.

The Executive Director, Citizen Advocacy for Social and Economic Right (CASER), Barrister Frank Tietie, while presenting the report, said that this development is unexpected as it only brings back unpleasant memories of the long tenure of military rule and the established culture of intolerance against the media when Nigeria recorded its most grievous crimes against the industry.

He said: "The nation is witnessing actions that seek to undermine the journalism profession by both state and non-state actors.

"Nigeria is fast gaining notoriety for its failure to tackle impunity for crimes against journalists including killings.

"For example, in 2017, four journalists were killed in separate incidents with no credible inquiry yet to find the culprits and their motive for the fatal attacks.

"The four were Ikechukwu Onubogu, a cameraman with the Anambra Broadcasting Services; Lawrence Okojie of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) in Edo State; Famous Giobaro, a desk editor with Glory FM in Bayelsa State and freelance broadcaster, Abdul Ganiyu Lawal in Ekiti State."

The body noted that clamping down on the media was a sign of weak democracy and a restive government and it is instructive to note that a free and open press is part of the bedrock of democracy and development, and these should be encouraged and sustained.

Speaking earlier, the president of the NUJ, Chris Isiguzo, decried the incessant attack on journalists in the country.

According to him, the safety of journalists goes beyond killings and physical assault but also include the absence of arbitrary arrests, resorting to exile to escape repression, harassment as well as destruction and confiscation of equipment and premises.

On his part, the chairman, NUJ, FCT Council, Emmanuel Ogbeche, called for more collaboration to ensure that freedom of the press is guaranteed in the country.

He also said that the union would continue to support the fight against all forms of violence against media practitioners in the country.
Abuja  The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari has expressed optimism that companies working in Nigeria's petroleum industry can achieve $10 oil production cost.

Kyari who stated this on Tuesday when he appeared on Arise Television explained that the corporation was working with its partners to achieve the target.

He said that the industry has been embarking on cost sharing, including making use of one aircraft, "whereas in the past each company could deploy individual planes.

"The end result is that we have been able to substantially pull down cost although I can't put a number to it. But I know that we have been able to bring down operating costs by at least 30 per cent, at least from what it used to be one year ago", he stated.

He pointed that with current production cost NNPC was always comfortable when oil sells for between $50 and $60 per barrel.

On implication of rising oil price, he explained that getting back to pre-Covid level will be achieved by at least 2022, stressing that the oil industry was not comfortable with high oil prices because "customers will look for alternatives".

The NNPC boss noted that the only way to pull down prices was to increase supply, adding that OPEC may intervene at their meeting.

He however pointed out that part of the problems with shutting down oil wells due to the OPEC cut was that it may be challenging getting it back to produce.

Kyari said that in the past, all the focus was on oil, pointing out that with renewed attention to gas as a transition fuel and plenty need for the product to power the country, gas will become the new oil.

He said the Ajaokuta -Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, OB3, and others will give more access to an excess of two billion cubic feet of gas in the country.

Vanguard News Nigeria
The World Bank has announced a provision of $4.4 billion for the purchase and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines for 51 developing countries, but Nigeria is not listed among the benefiting countries half of which are in Africa.

The financing is part of the Bank's commitment to help low- and middle-income countries acquire and distribute vaccines and strengthen their health systems.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Bank said more than half of the latest financing comes from the International Development Association, IDA, the Bank's fund for the world's poorest countries, and is on grant or highly concessional terms.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank Group has approved more than $150 billion to fight the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic.

Speaking on the development, World Bank Managing Director of Operations, Axel van Trotsenburg, said: "The World Bank is helping developing countries in every region of the world with vaccine purchase and rollout. Significant challenges still remain regarding vaccine deployment and hesitancy.

"We are taking action on all fronts to tackle these challenges, working in solidarity with international and regional partners to expedite doses to as many people as possible and to enhance disease surveillance, preparedness, and response."

Reiterating its call to governments, pharmaceutical companies, and organisations involved in vaccine procurement and delivery, the Bank urged for help to increase transparency and build greater public information regarding vaccine contracts, options and agreements, vaccine financing and delivery agreements, and doses delivered and future delivery plans.

The Bank asked the countries anticipating excess vaccine supplies in the coming months to release their surplus doses and options as soon as possible, in a transparent manner, to developing countries with adequate distribution plans in place.

The $4.4 billion is supporting COVID-19 vaccination efforts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Comoros, the Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, and Honduras.

Others are Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yemen, and Zambia.

According to the Bank, its vaccine finance package is designed to be flexible. It can be used by countries to acquire doses through COVAX, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, AVATT, or other sources.

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It also finances vaccine deployment and health system strengthening, such as vaccine cold-chains, training health workers, data and information systems, and communications and outreach campaigns to key stakeholders which are crucial to ensure vaccination acceptance.

The Bank has aligned its eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines with the revised eligibility criteria of COVAX and other multilateral partners and is partnering with the African Union and Africa Centre for Disease Control to support AVATT initiative with resources to allow countries to purchase and deploy vaccines for up to 400 million people across Africa.

The Bank is also convening a task force with the IMF, WHO, WTO, and other partners to track, coordinate, and advance delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.

The latest findings show that 95 per cent of countries have developed national vaccination plans, 79 percent have safety measures in place, and 82 percent have prioritizations of populations to receive the vaccine.

However, only 59 percent have developed plans to train the large number of vaccinators needed and less than half have a plan in place to generate public confidence, trust, and demand for COVID-19 vaccines.

Vanguard News Nigeria
National Pension Commission, PenCom, Wednesday, announced President Muhammadu Buhari's approval for the payment of outstanding pension liabilities of the Federal Government retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, especially retirees of Treasury-funded Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

In a statement, the management of PenCom said: "The President has approved payment of outstanding accrued pension rights for verified and enrolled retirees of treasury-funded MDAs that retired but are yet to be paid their retirement benefits.

"Also, the backlog of death benefits claims due to beneficiaries of deceased employees of treasury-funded MDAs, payment of 2.5 percent differential in the rate of employer pension contribution for Federal Government retirees and employees, which resulted from the increase in the minimum contribution for employers from 7.5 percent to 10 percent in line with Section 4(1) of the PRA 2014, and payments for retirees and existing employees would take effect from July 2014.

"It is worthy to note that subsequently, the Federal Government of Nigeria is expected to continue with the payment of the 10 percent rate of employer pension contribution for its employees.

"Thus ensuring a remittance of at least 18 percent monthly (employer 10 percent and employee 8 percent) as provided by the PRA 2014. 3.

"Funds have already been made available for the settlement of the above stated pension liabilities.

"Accordingly, remittance into the various Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, of the affected retirees and employees is currently being processed.

"The affected retirees and employees would be notified in due course by their respective Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs.

"The settlement of the outstanding accrued rights of verified and enrolled Federal Government retirees and compliance with the reviewed rate of contributions are significant developments that have resolved the challenges in these aspects that have lingered since 2014."

The statement added that the Board and Management of the Commission reiterates their appreciation to Mr. President for his support and commitment to the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme and ensuring welfare of retirees.

Vanguard News Nigeria
Palma  It's a situation that no woman could wish to find herself in. Caught in conflict in northern Mozambique, displaced women wanting to give birth safely in health facilities are being sent back to their temporary homes, where they may not have the medical support they need to deliver their babies.

"One of the major challenges is access to medicines and medical care at health facilities," says a displaced woman from Palma District. Many women have been unable to deliver at these facilities due to a lack of space and the precarious situation of the health units, she says. She warns of a potential increase in child marriages, often considered a last resort for families with many mouths to feed.

More than 67,000 people have fled Palma District due to the conflict and violence that began in March (IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix, 4 June 2021). Of the displaced population, more than a third are women and nearly half are children. They flee on foot, by bus or boat to neighbouring districts and the provincial capital of Pemba in search of safety and support.

Women and girls worst impacted by violence

"With girls out of school, and families coping with economic loss and hardship, the risk of child marriage and teenage pregnancies is of increasing concern," said Andrea M. Wojnar, UNFPA Mozambique Representative. "As girls are at risk of giving birth too young and potentially being subjected to other harmful practices, collective action is needed to reduce the risk of maternal and newborn mortality or complications, particularly as health facilities throughout Cabo Delgado are closing, are limited in operation, or lack essential staff, supplies and equipment."

"Palma district has been cut off from the rest of the country due to insecurity," confirmed Dan Onyango-Maina, UNFPA Mozambique Humanitarian Coordinator based in Cabo Delgado, who travelled to the district in February. "Increased humanitarian support is desperately needed for women and girls who lack access to reproductive and maternal health care, and are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence."

Supporting dignity of women and girls

Many displaced women and girls are arriving at displacement sites or in host communities with very few personal or essential items, having fled the violence at a moment's notice. In response, UNFPA Mozambique has supported the government in the distribution of dignity kits to almost 1,300 women and girls who arrived from Palma in recent weeks. These kits provide for their menstrual health, sanitary, and female dignity needs. For safety and protection, the kits also contain whistles and flashlights to aid women and girls who move on foot at night in host communities and displacement camps, and information on gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and services available for GBV survivors.

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Since January, more than 26,000 women and girls in displacement sites and host communities in Cabo Delgado have received maternal and child health-care and family planning services through remote-based mobile clinics, supported by UNFPA and local partners, and led by the government.

UNFPA also supports the government with the installation and running of women-friendly spaces for displaced women and girls. These offer health-related information, counselling and psychosocial support for survivors of GBV, as well as income-generating activities.

UNFPA is appealing for $12 million to provide emergency life-saving health and protection services for the women and girls who have been displaced by the recent attacks in Cabo Delgado, including their host communities. To date, 30 per cent of the appeal has been funded.
opinion

The 2018 Nobel Laureate, Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynaecologist celebrated for his work with survivors of sexual assault in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said, "Rape is a strategy of war - it is meant to destroy women and communities physically and mentally". Sadly, this destruction has become a daily reality for women and girls in Tigray in northern Ethiopia.

In recent weeks, women have come forward with the most devastating stories of sexual violation and physical abuse. Selam, 22, who found shelter in a safe house, is one of the survivors. She recalls "running from place to place without food or shelter" and "constantly living in fear" after being displaced from her home and repeatedly facing harrowing incidents of sexual violence.

Persistent fighting, forced displacement, and dire living conditions over the past eight months in Tigray and the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara in northern Ethiopia, have created one of Africa's most pressing humanitarian crises. More than 5.2 million people in Tigray alone require humanitarian assistance; among them are 118,000 pregnant women and 1.3 million women of reproductive age. Amid the crisis, gross violations and abuses against civilians, including sexual violence, continue to be reported.

The health and well-being of women and adolescent girls are further threatened by food insecurity that is expected to worsen. The destruction and looting of health facilities - around a third are partially functioning, and a mere one per cent are offering clinical management of rape services - further complicates the situation amidst the threat of COVID-19.

Selam's experience is just one of the stories captured by health officials and UN agencies, and these testimonies likely represent only a fraction of the real prevalence. Even under normal circumstances, given the high levels of stigma, among other factors, gender-based violence is largely unreported in Ethiopia. Only 24 per cent of survivors ever seek assistance, according to the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic Health Survey.

Rape and other forms of sexual abuse have a devastating impact on women's physical and mental well-being, rights and choices, and affect their ability to care for their children, support their families and contribute to their societies. A social worker at the UNFPA-supported safe house where Selam now resides described the women as arriving "traumatized and depressed due to prolonged suffering, distress and horrendous violence".

Even when women have not experienced sexual violence, the fear of rape or insecurity prevents them from accessing food distributing centres and critical health-care services for themselves or their children, and adolescent girls may stay away from school. In the long run, hiding from potential attacks contributes to malnutrition, poor health outcomes, and a lack of educational attainment among women and girls.

UN Member States have recognized the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. The UN Security Council-adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, calls on all parties in hostilities to take special measures to "protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in situations of armed conflict". The African Union also committed to "Silencing the Guns" by "ending all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence, violent conflicts and preventing genocide on the continent by 2020".

Women's bodies must not be the object of war or collateral in conflicts. Rather, women must be the central subjects and partners in peacebuilding.

In retelling their stories, women in Tigray describe their attackers as "armed men". These serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law must be swiftly investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.

We urge the Government of Ethiopia and the international community to step up efforts to end hostilities and all forms of violence in the country, including gender-based violence, to ensure the health and safety of women and girls.

As part of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) system-wide scale-up for the Tigray region activated in April 2021, UNFPA is expanding and accelerating support in its areas of responsibility - protection, prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) and delivering quality sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services.

Women-friendly spaces, safe houses and one-stop centres in the conflict-affected regions have been set up to provide clinical management of rape and psychosocial counselling. These spaces connect women to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services and legal services.

What transforms a rape victim into a rape survivor is justice. UNFPA is working with partners to ensure effective referral and prosecution systems are available. We are working with the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth of Ethiopia to enable the capacity-building of armed personnel and the constitution of a Gender-Based Violence Task Force, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Police University and the Federal Police Commission.

UNFPA is also providing medical supplies, helping to restore health system services, and cumulatively, has distributed hundreds of Emergency Reproductive Health Kits and thousands of Dignity Kits.

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Additionally, to prevent COVID-19 infections among key staff providing SRH and GBV services and information in government and partner-run health facilities and one-stop centres, nearly 11,000 Personal Protective Equipment items have been distributed since November 2020.

Providing adequate levels of these kinds of life-saving services requires urgent funding. We are calling on all who can help, including government and development partners, to assist us in addressing the immediate needs of women and girls and help us avert the medium to long-term repercussions of sexual violence. The immediate funding requirement for the next six months is US$15 million.

The women and girls of Tigray have told us their stories, and we continue to hear them. Our actions to deal with their trauma and rebuild their lives must be our urgent response.

For women to participate equally in society, they need to make decisions about their bodies freely and without fear. Rape and other forms of gender-based violence destroy the ability of women and girls to make choices and fulfil their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Even in times of conflict, we must continue to defend and protect the rights of women and girls and devote the necessary attention and resources to prevent sexual violence and decisively ensure justice.
The spokesperson said the raid of suspects occurred around 1:00 midnight on Wednesday.

The police in Lagos said they have arrested 144 suspects at blackspots in the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos.

Muyiwa Adejobi, the Lagos police spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement he released on Wednesday.

He said the arrest is in furtherance of the commitment of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, to get rid of criminals and miscreants in the state.

The spokesperson said the raid of suspects occurred around 1:00 midnight on Wednesday.

"The combined team of operatives from the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Command's Special Squad and Taskforce raided some blackspots at Ebutte Meta area of Lagos State today Wednesday 30th June 2021 at 1 a.m. and arrested One Hundred and Forty-Four (144) male suspects.

"The raid was at the instance of the intelligence reports and the special request for assistance from the neighborhood to dislodge criminals hibernating in some of the shanties in the area," the statement reads.

Mr Adejobi, a chief superintendent of police, said many dangerous weapons and substances suspected to be Indian hemp, and suspected stolen items were recovered from the suspects.

"The suspects will be arraigned in court as urgent as possible," he said in the statement.

The Commissioner of Police, Mr Odumosu, said police officers in the state are ready to flush miscreants and hoodlums out of Lagos, and secure public space in the State.

He warned sponsors and aiders of hoodlums and criminals in the state to desist from such criminal act, as the police will not spare anyone caught promoting crimes and violence in Lagos State.
"None had existed in Nigeria in the past and it has provided a gap to many things. It is a good starting point for regulating transplantation."

There is no agency or body that regulates the harvesting or transplanting of human organs in Nigeria, Amisu Mumuni, the chairman of Medical Consultants Association of Nigeria, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), has said.

Mr Mumuni spoke during a one-day public hearing on a bill to establish an organ harvest transplantation department in the Lagos State Ministry of Health organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

He said they had been working with the Ministry of Justice on the issue for a long time, adding that the law would regulate organ harvesting and transplanting in the state.

"It is a step in the right direction. A regulatory body is being set up for the first time to regulate organ harvesting and transplantation in the country," he said.

"None had existed in Nigeria in the past and it has provided a gap to many things. It is a good starting point for regulating transplantation.

"But I want to advise that the department should be independent. The membership of the committee should be increased."

The bill to regulate organ harvesting and transplanting in the state, which includes criminalising illegal organ trade, scaled through second reading in the House of Assembly last week.

Hakeem Sokunle, Chairman, House Committee on Health Services, said an organ harvest transplantation department was to advise the state government on all matters relating to organ harvest, transplantation, and preservation.

The lawmaker said the department would also formulate and develop state strategies, guidelines, and protocols for medical transplant and harvest in the state.

"The bill when passed into law will formulate and develop state strategies, guidelines, and protocols for medical transplants and harvest in the state."

Mr Sokunle (Oshodi-Isolo 1) said the bill was long overdue due to the sales of human organs by unscrupulous elements.

He added that it was meant to regulate the harvest of human organs and to ensure adherence to the right process.

Akin Abayomi, the state commissioner for health, said the demand for organ transplantation was rising because of the improved use of technology, adding that there was a need for the government to regulate the practice so as to prevent quackery.

The commissioner said the state would not be doing things below the global standard either on the side of the donor or the recipient.

The Majority Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade, said that it was not all hospitals that would have the privilege to remove or transplant organs.

Mr Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1), however, said before transplanting was done, the organ must have been harvested.

"There are penals for doing anything that is inconsistent with the provisions of the bill. Whoever has organ failure will have access to where they are available.

"We want to make Lagos State, where conducts of human beings are regulated with laws," he said.

More contributions

Bodunrin Oshunkomaiya, a blood transfusion consultant, said it was important to indicate the organs that were being discussed.

Ms Oshunkomaiya said bone marrow transplant should be included as well as ovaries and embryos.

She added that the authorisation committee should be very dynamic, and that there should be a member that knows about a particular transplant in the committee.

According to her, private hospitals should be included in the transplant as there are facilities for bio-bank in some private hospitals.

Titi Ekosa from 24 Centre, a non-governmental organisation, said there was no space for community participation in the bill .

Ms Ekosa stressed that community people had a lot of information about organ harvesting and should be accommodated in the authorisation committee.

Ajibola Keshinro, a Psychiatrist and Medical Director, General Hospital, Apapa, said the topic should be changed because there were so many things involved in the bill.

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Mr Keshinro said people with mental health issues should also be considered in the whole process, stressing the need to include a psychiatrist in the authorisation committee.

Earlier in his keynote address, the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, urged the people to make their input on organ harvest and transplant.

Mr Obasa (Agege 1), represented by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni (Lagos Island 1), said the objective of the bill was to ensure there was no illegal organ transplant or harvest in the state.

"We also want to make sure that organs are available to those who need them and ensure that the best practice is observed in organ transplant in Lagos State.

"We are gathered here to deliberate and meditate on the bill before the House. The bill seeks to create a department on transplanting and harvesting of human organs in the state ministry of health.

"It will create a system to stop the bad practices on organ transplant and harvest. It is meant to criminalise unethical malpractices and stop the practice of transplanting human organs illegally.

(NAN)
Sources say the application is to enable Mr Ganduje file a fresh suit against the publisher.

The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has applied to withdraw the suit he filed against Daily Nigerian publisher, Jaafar Jaafar, over the publication that exposed the governor collecting a bribe.

However, sources said the application is to enable him file a fresh suit against Mr Jaafar.

Mr Ganduje sued the publisher over a video he published in 2018 where he (Ganduje) was caught pocketing bundles of American dollars he allegedly took from a contractor.

Mr Ganduje, in a new application, asked the Kano State High Court to discontinue the case but gave no reasons for the application.

Sources told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Ganduje plans to file a fresh application and present new witnesses, having sacked one of the original witnesses.

Mr Ganduje's former media aide, Salihu Tanko, was initially one of governor's witnesses in the case.

He was, however, sacked on February 27 for criticising President Muhammadu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Twitter.

Application

On Wednesday, Daily Trust reported that Mr Ganduje has applied to the Kano State High Court on June 28.

In the application made through his lawyers led by E.O.B Offiong, the governor sought the following orders from the court:

"An order granting leave to the Plaintiff/Applicant to discontinue his claims in Suit No K/519/2018 against the defendant before this Honourable Court.

"An order discontinuing Plaintiff/Applicant's claims in Suit No K/519/2018 against the Defendant in this Honourable Court.

"And for such further or other Order(s) as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this case."

The application was supported by a four-paragraph affidavit deposed to by C. N. Obile, Esq. who said in paragraph 3 (c) and (d) that "the matter is yet to proceed to trial and the Plaintiff/Applicant now intends to discontinue this action before this Honourable Court.

"That by the Rules of this Honourable Court, where a defence has been filed and a plaintiff wishes to discontinue his action, leave of court is required to discontinue, hence this Application," the newspaper reported.
Abuja  Ahead of the November 6 Governorship Election in Anambra State, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has expressed dismay at recent attacks on its office in the state but said the Commission is more concerned about the safety of citizens and its officials rather than electoral materials.

He stated this during the 2021 annual Abubakar Momoh Memorial Lecture, with the theme "Security and Elections: Implications for Anambra State Governorship and 2023 General Elections."

He described the numerous attacks on the Commission's offices and properties as alarming, adding that between 2019 and now, there have been attacks on 42 INEC facilities in the country.

"More immediately, we are equally concerned about the Anambra Governorship Election that is scheduled for 6 November, 2021, especially following the attack on the head office.

"The Commission, in collaboration with all stakeholders is determined to tackle this challenge. Definitely, we cannot face it alone, this is why voter education and information, constant dialogue, community outreaches, deliberations and assessment fora such as this public lecture will continue. The Nigerian public must own the desire for democracy and peaceful conduct of elections," he said.

He however offered condolences to the family of the erstwhile Director-General of The Electoral Institute, Professor Abubakar Momoh, describing him as a renowned civil rights activists and an advocate for transparency, accountability and good governance.

Speaking in the same vein, Director-General, The Electoral Institute, TEI, Dr. Sa'ad Idris, said, considering the necessity of conducting elections and presenting a secured environment during elections, the topic is very apt to the build-up to the 2021 Anambra Governorship and 2023 General Elections.

"Security issues in Nigeria today are highly multi-faceted as they are multitasking. Before now, what we only grappled with was preponderance of political violence and thuggery in elections, the trend that led to a situation whereby the citizens of Nigeria were viewing elections and democratic processes with apprehension and anxiety.

"The unfortunate situation we are all facing today is that the security situation in the country has degenerated beyond the above-mentioned reckless manipulations, the politics of brinkmanship and subversion.

"The constant fears expressed today by the electoral umpire (INEC), the electorate and the Nigerian citizens in general are the possibility of insecurity at elections, banditry, kidnapping and the threat of highly dangerous criminal elements marauding the country as a whole.

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"It is my belief that this memorial lecture will interrogate the relationship between Security and Elections as far as the Anambra State Governorship and 2023 General Elections are concerned, and suggest ways of conducting free, fair, credible and inclusive elections amidst the kind of security scenario Nigeria is experiencing now," he stated.

In his remarks, National Commissioner and Chairman Board of Electoral Institute, BEI, emphasized that security is an issue that goes along with elections, maintaining that INEC is charged with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections.

To this end, he said there is reason to be concerned about the Anambra state governorship election and the 2023 general elections, as it would avoid constitutional crisis, noting that elections must be conducted in line with constitutional timelines.

Delivering a keynote lecture, Prof. Adele Jinadu highlighted that the power to have a successful Anambra gubernatorial elections and 2023 general elections, lies in the hands of all Nigerians.

"In the words of the Catechist, God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform! But it would be unscientific for us to think we can muzzle through to Anambra, 2023, and indeed beyond as we did in earlier elections, waiting for God's Grace to help us muzzle through.

"God, they say, helps those who help themselves -which is to say we have the power of agency to direct our lives", he said.

Vanguard News Nigeria
analysis

The ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) presents a conundrum for all stakeholders to resolve, despite plans and agreements to end it. The creation of the armed Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement (CPC) - which tried to derail the country's elections and seize power in Bangui in January 2021 - has further complicated matters.

Recent skirmishes on the Chad-CAR border and ensuing tensions between the two countries show that a lasting solution to the question of armed groups can only be found through a coordinated regional response.

To this end, the African Union's (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) is currently undertaking a field mission to the country. The four-day trip started on 28 June and followed a joint visit by the AU, United Nations (UN), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and European Union (EU) to the CAR in early June.

The PSC aims to assess the situation since the advent of the CPC. The coalition - composed of six major armed groups that signed the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation - was formed in December 2020 and is responsible for attacks across the country.

CAR's civilians need protection from the warring parties, including the government and its allies

Former president Francois Bozize is believed to have been instrumental in setting up the CPC and is the coalition's coordinator. While the CAR's electoral process ended with the election in May/June of the remaining Members of Parliament, the CPC has remained active.

There is consensus in the CAR government and among the country's main multilateral partners (the AU, UN, ECCAS and EU) that the 2019 agreement is the only viable framework for peace. But ensuring that the deal holds is not a straightforward task. The government faces challenges in dealing with the political opposition, which it has accused of being in cahoots with armed groups.

To make matters worse, UN experts report that authorities' response to the CPC threat has been marred by alleged human rights and humanitarian law abuses. The experts expressed concerns about the 'increased recruitment and use of private military and foreign security contractors by the government of the CAR, and their close contacts with UN peacekeepers.'

These allegations were corroborated by The Sentry and CNN, which investigated 'an array of mass atrocities against civilians in the Central African Republic.' Some multilateral donors - such as the World Bank and EU - have threatened to suspend their cooperation with the CAR government should the armed forces' human rights abuses continue.

The PSC should strengthen AU-UN ties to push for proper implementation of the 2019 peace agreement

In March, the UN Security Council (UNSC) increased its Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the CAR (MINUSCA) from 11 650 to 14 400 military personnel, and from 2 080 to 3 020 police personnel. This is intended to improve MINUSCA's ability to protect civilians. Over the years, there have been calls for the mission to have an offensive mandate, which the UNSC has been reluctant to grant.

Tackling the CAR's security situation is complicated. It must be done while ensuring that civilians are protected from the warring parties, including the CAR government and its allies. Inclusive dialogue with the non-armed political opposition is also necessary to bring calm to the political and social environment, and to begin the country's reconstruction.

The government has denied the atrocities uncovered by The Sentry and CNN, denouncing the claims as a plot to undermine its efforts to deal with the CPC's armed groups. It also says it won't be caught up in a proxy battle between France and Russia.

Since 2017, Russia has significantly increased its presence in the country and tightened its collaboration with the state. France, a historical CAR partner, doesn't view Russia's presence positively and recently froze 10 million in budgetary support and suspended military assistance to the government.

A joint PSC-UNSC Sanctions Committee visit to CAR could improve implementation of the peace deal

France defends its actions on the grounds that the CAR government is complicit in a disinformation campaign against France, spearheaded by the Russians. It also accuses President Faustin-Archange Touadera's government of failing to engage in a constructive dialogue with the political opposition.

The PSC's visit this week is important in marking the AU's commitment to the peace process in CAR. But unless it gets an accurate picture of the political and security situation on the ground, adjusting and improving the AU's strategy will be difficult.

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The PSC should help strengthen ties between the AU and UN to push for the proper implementation of the 2019 peace agreement. A joint visit of the PSC and UNSC Sanctions Committee could help achieve that. Africa's three non-permanent UNSC members could set up a more permanent link between the two councils. The PSC also needs to encourage ECCAS to play a more active role in stabilising the CAR and the region.

Ultimately though, to end the cycle of instability in the CAR, a new approach is needed. The AU must proactively ensure that the security arrangements in the 2019 peace agreement are carried out. In some parts of the country where armed groups have reneged on the deal, the idea of mixed security units needs to be revised, and the perpetrators of violence held to account.

Touadera has begun his second and last term in office. With his newly appointed prime minister, Henri-Marie Dondra, and a new government, the president faces a mammoth task in rebuilding the country. He will need all the help he can get from the AU, regional and international partners.

Mohamed M Diatta, Researcher, PSC Report, ISS Addis Ababa

This article was first published in the ISS PSC Report.
Hip-hop musician Alishias Musimbe, known as Maskiri in music circles, has released a hip hop song "Mbinga from Binga" that has generated mixed feelings on social media, as some fans expressed dissatisfaction with his inclusion of the murdered Murehwa boy Tapiwa Makore's name.

Tapiwa Makore was killed at the age of seven in a suspected ritual practice and was buried without his head after all efforts to locate it were in vain.

In the song, Maskiri sang, "Handina musoro kunge Tapiwa Makore... ," a part that has sparked outrage on social media.

People who have listened to the song insist Maskiri could have done better than revealing his insensitivity when it comes to painful social issues.

"The man has crossed the lines," said one of Maskiri's fans on social media. "Tapiwa Makore is not supposed to be in the song judging from the view that the parents lost a child and are still mourning. The family will not cease to mourn."

A Facebook fan, Simon Dusky Bvirwa, said Maskiri should remove the offensive part from the song.

"But if possible, line raTapiwa iro should be removed it brings a sorrow memory even to the family, pliz do something there," said Simon Dusky Bvirwa

Another fan, Stan Nie, said Maskiri owed the Makore family an apology for being sarcastic in his new song.

"That was very insensitive of you," he said.

Some fans were of the opinion that somehow it was artistic licence that is usually common with the genre.

"I understand that Maskiri has gone too far, maybe it is just a way for him to comeback into the industry. Somehow that is art, but it depends on who and how people react," said one fan identified as Malcom.

Maskiri said he used Tapiwa Makore's name as a metaphor, insisting music has no boundaries.

"Team B (My team), let me explain the Tapiwa line that I have used," he posted on social media. "It is a metaphor: Tapiwa akawanikwa asina musoro because akawanikwa asisina musoro and nyaya ya Tapiwa inondibata pa mwoyo.

"Music knows no boundary, especially when you are expressing your feelings and emotions, you can go far."
Less than 2% of worlds COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Africa

The high costs of Covid-19 tests is now becoming a hindrance to the free movement of people and goods in the East African Community (EAC).

This is according to members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), who are rooting for harmonised costs and to make them more affordable.

Dennis Namara, Chairperson of the Committee on General Purpose at EALA said that the Covid-19 related non-tariff barriers (NTBs) continue to hinder cross-border trade in the region.

He was on Wednesday, June 30, presenting the report of the committee on the EAC budget estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2021/22 during the EALA plenary session.

"It costs an average of $100 to carry out a Covid-19 test of visitors in the six EAC partner States. The Committee finds this cost prohibitive and a challenge to the free movement of persons and goods in the region," Namara said.

It was also noted that EAC citizens are subjected to double testing whereby they are tested before departure and upon arrival in the country of destination, he exposed. "The EAC region must cooperate to harmonise Covid-19 protocols and containment measures to reduce the cost of travel...while not undermining the safety of its citizens," he said.

Indeed, the cost of testing for Covid-19 is generally higher than the cost of the vaccine against the disease.

Available vaccines are currently priced at around $10 and $70 each (including those with a two-dose regimen).

The costs for Covid-19 vary in the EAC Partner States.

For instance, in Rwanda, the test is $50 if it is done through the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and $10 for rapid antigen test, while in Tanzania, Covid-19 RT-PCR test is $100 and $25 for a rapid antigen test.

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Francine Rutazana said that the harmonisation of Covid-19 testing and related costs with regard to making them affordable would ease the movement of people and goods, which is the essence of regional integration.

"The current costs are high and prohibitive... for instance, some cross-border women traders told us that they cannot afford them," Rutazana said, indicating that businesses were struggling in the wake of the pandemic.

"We request that the leaders of this Community sit together and harmonise the Covid-19 testing system and related prices as well as ensure that the results are at the same standards such that when a citizen comes from one EAC member country after being tested for the disease, they will not be subjected to another test when they reach another member country, rather the results will be trusted in others," she said.

Rutazana pointed out that the development would facilitate trade, observing that "though we are during the Covid-19 pandemic, we should look for ways to sustain trade."

"And, if a trader incurs such a cost and factors it in the price of goods when selling them to consumers, it will result in the rise of the cost of living," she said.

entirenganya@newtimesrwanda.com

Follow https://twitter.com/EmNtirenganya
The eSwatini government's strict Covid-19 restrictions have been dismissed as a ploy to crush dissenting voices following several days of unrest.

The curfew, announced on Tuesday afternoon, coincided with overnight protests in the southern African country, which saw supermarkets looted and property burned.

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku said the government was aware of the Covid-19 Delta variant in South Africa and introduced a curfew in an effort to limit its spread into eSwatini.

"All offices and businesses must close by 15:30 and essential workers must carry a permit at all times. Schools are also closed with immediate effect. No one is expected to be in the streets after 18:00," Masuku said at 17:00hrs local time.

The curfew will be in effect from 18:00hrs and 05:00hrs.

'Nothing to do with Covid'

However, the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a lobby movement based in neighbouring South Africa, says the curfew has nothing to do with Covid-19.

"Firstly, they shut down the internet yesterday [Tuesday] immediately after the Prime Minister's press conference. When the curfew was announced it was 5pm. How do you announce a curfew an hour before the curfew? If the curfew was a government initiative, it could have been announced in the morning or the previous day," said Lucky Lukhele of SSN.

eSwatini has seen increasing protests in recent weeks to demand multiparty democracy, economic reforms and police accountability.

The protests gained momentum when a government decree banned citizens from demonstrating and delivering petitions to government officials.

Mr Masuku said the government would introduce an email address where petitions can be sent.

He said the move will ensure the government deals with citizens' grievances but also maintains "the rule of law and de-escalate tension that had turned this exercise into violence and disorder".

But activists accuse the government of heavy-handedness in its response to protesters.

The People United Democratic Movement accused the government of using military forces to crack down on civilians. The group claimed at least five people were critically injured and a dozen were arrested.
The Ethiopian government on Wednesday warned it will cancel ceasefire deal if fighters loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front violate truce.

Redwan Hussein, the Spokesman of the Tigray Emergency Taskforce, said the Ethiopian National Defence Forces pulled out of Makelle, the capital of the restive northern region, to avoid civilian casualties and allow humanitarian access.

But he and Lt-Gen Bacha Debele, spokesman for the military, indicated they could cancel the decision and return to pursue TPLF fighters.

"The ceasefire considered the law enforcement operation, survival of the nation, concerns of the people of Tigray and the international community," Redwan told the media, referring to the November 4, 2020 decision to launch attacks on the TPLF, once a ruling party in Ethiopia but now seen as a terrorist group.

According to Ethiopia, the initial targets of the operation such as destroying enemy ammunition, freeing captured troops and weakening the TPLF had been achieved. And although Reda did not indicate how many captured soldiers had been freed, he said the ceasefire was also meant to reduce the financial costs of the war, which he argued had reached Birr 100 billion ($2.3 billion).

"TPLF is no longer an existential threat to the wellbeing of the nation," Redwan said.

Lt-Gen Bacha indicated Makelle was no longer the "centre of gravity" that could threaten the Ethiopian government, suggesting they will focus on other issues. But he did warn the troops could return if TPLF attacked their forces or supporting Amhara region, or Eritrea.

"The army is ready to respond accordingly if unduly provoked by attacks that compromise the spirit of the ceasefire," he said.

On Monday, Ethiopia issued a unilateral decision for a ceasefire, saying it was doing so to allow humanitarian access, allow farmers to till their land and avoid further civilian casualties.

In the wake of the truce, however, the TPLF have claimed victory, saying Ethiopian forces and Eritrean troops have been supporting Ethiopia against TPLF were fleeing from defeat. Gatachew Reda, spokesman for the TPLF said the Ethiopian forces had left key bases in Tigray after suffering losses.

"Our forces are making more and more gains. With thousands more killed the last two days, the enemy camp is in total disarray. Four enemy divisions are totally destroyed and heavy artillery pieces and numerous equipment captured," Getachew tweeted on Monday, taunting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

"With his most functional divisions totally destroyed and in captivity, the naked emperor has little chance to maneuver militarily, politically and diplomatically. Abiy has essentially lost the war!"

On Tuesday, they took over Shire, a strategic town near the border with Eritrea, after Eritrean forces left the site and the entire Tigray region.

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TPLF forces also took control of the historic and major tourist destination city of Axum.

This is the city where hundreds of unarmed civilians had been systematically massacred by Eritrean troops mainly over two days during the early days if the conflict.

According to an Amnesty International report, on 28-29 November 2020, Eritrean troops carried out mass killings by opening fire in the streets of Axum and by conducting house-to-house raids.

Amnesty in its report, made public in February said that the mass killings in Axum may amount to a crime against humanity.

On Wednesday, the US government, one of the international entities that have been demanding ceasefire, said it will only be useful if people on the ground felt the peace.

"A unilateral ceasefire in the Tigray region could be a positive step," said Ned Price, spokesman for the State Department.

"We call on all parties to commit to an immediate, negotiated and indefinite ceasefire; ensure unhindered humanitarian access; and for Eritrean forces to withdraw immediately."
At least eight people were killed on Wednesday as police cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in Eswatini, activist lobbies tracking unrest in the country say.

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) and the Swaziland Youth Congress (Swayoco), which have been pushing for political freedoms in the monarchy, said Wednesday that several people had been shot dead by security forces deployed to quell the protests.

Reports say the protests started peacefully in the Manzini region of Africa's last absolute monarchy on June 20 when youth took to the streets demanding the right to democratically elect the prime minister.

Under the current system, King Mswati III picks the premier of his choice.

"We can confirm there are eight people that were shot dead. They were shot by the army. 28 people were seriously injured and some of them are said to be in and out of theatre," Lucky Lukhele told Nation.Africa.

Eswatini officials did not immediately comment on the casualty situation, but Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku had asked people to stay away from gatherings on Tuesday, citing Covid-19 measures. He said the police will be deployed to ensure restrictions are followed.

Protesters, however, see the new restrictions as a measure to counter protests under the guise of fighting the pandemic.

Swayoco said they would continue with the protests "in honour of our fallen patriots we will soldier on until democracy".

Curfew

Acting PM Masuku on Tuesday announced a 6pm to 5am curfew which he said was meant to minimise unnecessary movement to ensure the safety and security of eSwatini's people. He also ordered the internet service providers to shut down the service.

"This is a conscious decision to maintain the rule of law and de-escalate tension that had turned this exercise into violence and disorder," he said.

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Footage of soldiers beating up civilians has been circulating on social media.

Meanwhile, protesters torched a building belonging to Eswatini Beverages, which King Mswati partly owns.

The protests took a violent turn after Mr Masuku issued an order last week suspending the delivery of petitions from citizens, saying this had created "a breeding ground for anarchy and has been intentionally hijacked to sow seeds of division".

The Eswatini government also dismissed reports that King Mswati III had fled to South Africa in the wake of protests.

SSN has expressed concern at South Africa's continued silence amid the chaos from the neighbouring country.

Despite South African companies dominating the Eswatini's economy, so far there is no word from President Cyril Ramaphosa since the protests began.

"For South Africa, it is simple as an immediate neighbour to get together with Mozambique on behalf of the African Union and SADC," SSN spokesperson Lucky Lukhele told Nation.Africa.
The government of Eswatini was last evening fighting a crisis of existence following claims the king had left the country as pro-democracy protesters upped their ante.

But the events erupting in the tiny country bordered by South Africa and Mozambique started years, if not decades ago.

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku admitted there was a "situation" in the country but told a virtual press conference the king had not left, as earlier reported.

"His Majesty King Mswati III is in the country and continues to lead in working with government to advance the kingdom's goals," Mr Masuku told a virtual press conference.

"The government will update the nation on interventions on the current situation as the day progresses."

Eswatini, known as Swaziland until 2018, is a country of 1.2 million people. Run by the monarch, he wields powers over appointment of ministers, judges, civil servants and almost anyone else in the country.

Considered a lower-middle income country, it has a population that is mostly poor, with six in every 10 people living below the poverty line, according to a bulletin by the World Bank.

Freedom of speech

With political freedoms limited and political parties banned since April 1973, the country's people, known as emaSwati, have been agitating through lobbies, some of them exiled in South Africa, to push for change.

And for the past three weeks, protesters angered by the lack of political reform became increasingly vocal in demanding an elected prime minister with executive powers and freedom of speech, amongst other things.

And the king added more fuel to the protests after officially banning petitions. The Times of Eswatini reported that a "revolution" had begun, after a "third night of chaos".

The protests actually began three weeks ago after a group of about 500 youths took to the streets in Manzini district, some 30 kilometres from the capital. They were protesting against police brutality after the death of law student Thabani Nkomonye earlier in June.

Mr Colani Khulekani Maseko, the president of the Swaziland National Students' Union, said they were demanding the end of police brutality and a multi-party democracy "in which the police are accountable to the people and not only to the king."

Nkomonye, the 25-year-old was a final year law student at the University of Eswatini and was allegedly killed by police, who also allegedly tried to hide his death and tamper with evidence.

Nkomonye's body was recently found in a field in Nhlambeni, about 10km outside Manzini.

Protests escalated

"The protests were sparked by a few MPs who are moderate. They called for an elected prime minister and the youth picked up the baton stick and started marching. The government would often say 'you are allowed to go to the constituency offices'" said Mr Lucky Lukhele, spokesperson for the pro-democracy group Swaziland Solidarity Network.

"So, they decided to use the constituency offices to register their displeasure. Some of those constituency offices, are in deep rural areas."

The demands snowballed, however. In addition to having a directly elected prime minister, they also want the unconditional return of all political exiles, and an interim government that will run the kingdom for two years before a new government is elected into power.

The government had a trick up its sleeve, however. And Mr Masuku announced a decree by the king banning all marches two weeks ago. National Police Commissioner William Dlamini warned that officers would be "zero-tolerant" of breaches of the ban.

The protests escalated on Monday, nonetheless, as groups started targeting facilities. Leading chain store OK Foods in Matsapa was set on fire and a confrontation between the police and protesters became intense. The Times of Eswatini photographed a police man negotiating for his gun, snatched by the youth after he reportedly dropped it in a confrontation.

Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has one of the most youthful populations in Africa. Its median age is just 20.7 years and most of the people were not born when political parties were banned. It is the only country in Africa that recognises Taiwan as independent of China.

The king, for his part, has been marrying more often. Through the controversial Umhlanga Reed Dance, where girls dance topless, Mswati III's wife selection parades were only restricted by Covid-19. By the last count, he had married 15 times, although some reports say he has 18 wives.

High maintenance queens

The wives are high maintenance queens, each with a security detail, a house befitting a king and an annual budget that goes with it. Mswati III once imported dozens of Range Rovers and Porsches for the queens. But it is the ceremonies which angered donors, some of who say it made fighting HIV/Aids difficult.

Yet Eswatini lives next to a politically vibrant South Africa and most citizens work or rely on trade with South Africa. The Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland, which borrows the name from South African Julius Malema's party, has pushed for reform.

The group said on Tuesday its supporters in Eswatini had demanded peaceful protests, only to be bludgeoned by the police.

"We call upon all Swazis not to give up now, Victory is coming tomorrow," said Mr Sphelele Nkomondze, the group's spokesperson in a statement.

"As a peaceful organisation, we always believe in peaceful ways to sort the differences with the government, but those in power always use their power and influence to unleash violence. We will defend ourselves every time we are attacked," the official said.

There are other problems. Using Covid-19, the government has cracked down on free movement, which often affected even cargo carriers, according to the Network.

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"Every day at 5pm all major border gates are closed, if you are a truck driver; you cross and just park next to the border gate because that's where it's safe. The trucks are not allowed in and out of Swaziland," Mr Lukhele added.

Pro-Mswati camp

As protests rose, reports indicated the king had been unable to access his palace a few days ago and had to seek refuge at a local hotel.

Seeing that the youths were unrelenting, the king reportedly decided to flee before they invaded the airport as well.

"Before he left, he instructed the army to move in and quell the situation. There are reports that one person has been killed," Mr Lukhele said.

There was a new danger emerging on Tuesday, with reports showing the army may now be divided between the pro-Mswati camp and those siding with the protesters.

The army was deployed to areas of unrest on Monday night after trucks - some of them belonging to South African companies - were torched over the weekend and shops looted in the rural town of Siphofaneni.

The Economic Freedom Fighters of Swaziland condemned the deployment of the army "to unleash violence towards innocent citizens".

The party said the pro-democracy protests escalated after dozens of students marched to Eswatini's Parliament to demand justice for a young man believed to have been killed by the police.
Kakamega County on Tuesday admitted that the demand for oxygen is overwhelming due to the high Covid-19 numbers, but denied reports by insiders at the county referral hospital that patients were being asked to bring their own oxygen cylinders.

Deputy Governor Philip Kutima said the county referral hospital cannot sustain any new admissions that require oxygen as it is currently overwhelmed.

Prof Kutima said while patients were currently getting oxygen, the numbers have overwhelmed the capacity produced by the two oxygen production plants in the county.

"The current machines are pumping the gas directly to the patients and we cannot sustain any new admissions who require oxygen. If we add another patient, the machine trips. But this does not mean that we have asked any patient to bring a cylinder," he said.

Hospital cylinders empty

Sources within the hospital told the Nation the cylinders at the hospital were empty and patients coming in for admission were being asked to get their own to supplement the biting shortage.

Our highly placed sources who requested not to be named for fear of victimisation said last week, six families were asked to bring oxygen cylinders while admitting their loved ones who were in dire need of oxygen.

"The available oxygen cylinders at the facility are empty. Of the six families, only one was able to supply the oxygen cylinder to save the life of their loved one," said the source.

For those who cannot afford the oxygen cylinders, they were forced to look for bed space in other hospitals.

"I know of a case where a patient was asked to pay a deposit of Sh20,000 to get bed space at a local hospital as they were told to look for another Sh50,000 fee for treatment," she said.

ICU beds occupied

The isolation centre at the Kakamega county referral hospital is full and all the ICU beds occupied with Covid-19 patients in critical condition.

Sources confirmed that they are turning away those who are not critically ill to create space for the critical cases.

On Tuesday, Prof Kutima said Kakamega was receiving patients from the neighbouring counties, on the understanding that those from the county could be admitted to hospitals in other counties.

In April, this year, the county installed two oxygen plants, each producing 230 litres and 320 litres per minute.

Prof Kutima said the county had further procured a new oxygen plant from France with a production capacity of 1,000 litres per minute that will supplement oxygen production in the county to reach 1,550 litres per minute.

"The plant is currently at the port of Mombasa awaiting shipment to Kakamega and once installed, it will fix the current shortage experienced across the country and relieve the pressure in the county," said Prof Kutima.

Prof Kutima said the number of deaths to Covid-19 in Kakamega County as of June 29, had reached 29, with 18 positive cases in the isolation centre.

"Three patients are in ICU, two on ventilation machines and seven on high flow oxygen machines," said Prof Kutima.

Difficulty in breathing

In Kisumu, where 88 people had died of Covid-19 complications in June by last week, the CEO of the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Dr George Rae, said difficulty in breathing is the most common symptom of severe Covid-19 cases.

"Patients with severe case of Covid-19 have symptoms of difficulty in breathing, chest pain and loss of speech," he said.

Dr Rae said Covid-19 destroys the lungs, restricting the passage of air in the blood.

"It affects the air supply to the lungs and kidney. Once the kidney and lungs collapses, the patient faces hypoxia and confusion," said Dr Rae.

Older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk for developing more serious complications from Covid-19.

In Kisii, 10 patients are on oxygen support. The most common presenting symptoms among those who were symptomatic are cough, fever, and difficulty in breathing.

In Homa Bay, the HDU at the county teaching and referral hospital is running out of space. Hospital CEO Peter Ogolla said nine beds were empty after their occupants were discharged by Tuesday Morning.

The HDU has 32 beds.

Most patients at the hospital are in critical condition, with three out of four requiring oxygen therapy, which could get bad if oxygen runs out.

Low oxygen circulation

County Preventive and Promotive Health Deputy Director Meshak Liru told the Nation that most Covid-19 patients admitted at the HDU have low oxygen circulation.

"A common symptom is pneumonia. A lot of patients are having difficulties in breathing," the doctor said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which offers support at the hospital, said 20 patients died at the hospital last month due to complications from the virus.

According to MSF project coordinator in Homa Bay Roshni Mahida, the situation is getting dire by the day.

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"Currently, close to half of the people we test at the Homa Bay County Referral Hospital turn positive for Covid-19," she said.

"To better respond to the virus surge, we would like to see more personal protective equipment (PPE), rapid diagnostic tests, medicines and oxygen back-up," the medic added.

Since April this year, MSF has been routinely testing all patients admitted to the medical in-patient wards at the referral hospital.

Cases increasing steadily

For more than 10 weeks now, the number of patients turning positive for Covid-19 in the county has been increasing steadily, with the weekly average positivity rate reaching a high of 50 per cent.

Mr Mahida described the situation as worrying.

This is coupled with the go-slow by health care workers in the county who have been protesting delayed salaries, which results in most county residents to boycott going to hospitals.

Some sick people who seek medical care go to hospitals when it is too late.

"Most patients are not going to government hospitals thinking they are closed because of the "go-slow" while MSF-supported inpatient wards for adult medicine, tuberculosis and Covid-19 remain open," said the MSF officer.

Reporting by Shaban Makokha, Elizabeth Ojina and George Odiwuor
A standoff between the Homa Bay County government and Kenya Power over a Sh14 million unpaid electricity bill has caused a water crisis, with most residents now depending on untreated water for domestic use.

At least one million residents in Homa Bay are at the risk of contracting diseases associated with the use of dirty water.

Many families cannot access clean tap water after Kenya Power disconnected electricity to water treatment plants.

Kenya Power County Manager Ken Okumbe said electricity to the plants was disconnected after the county's department of water services failed to pay the bill on time.

Substantial amount

"The county government owes us a substantial amount of money which is yet to be paid. The money was to be paid last month based on our agreement with some senior county officials but we are yet to get anything," he said.

Factoring in the current and previous bills, he said, the bill would balloon to Sh22 million next month.

But Homa Bay Water and Environment Executive Dickson Nyawinda claimed the county government owes Kenya Power only Sh2 million and threatened to report the matter to County Commissioner Moses Lilan.

Mr Nyawinda said his office recently paid Sh10 million to Kenya Power from an initial debt of Sh12 million.

"We promised to pay the remaining amount and agreed with the company to restore power. The utility firm is, however, yet to act as per our engagement," he said.

But Kenya Power management disputed the claim.

Protest threats

Disgruntled residents have threatened to protest at Governor Cyprian Awiti's office to demand answers, especially at this time when plenty of water is needed in the fight against Covid-19.

A 20-litre container of water now retails at Sh50, up from Sh20, with residents saying they cannot afford to buy water to take care of all their needs.

Some residents demanded changes in the water department, arguing that the problem is not new.

"If the county government collects bills from homes that are supplied with water, why can't officers from the water department pay Kenya Power? This has been a perennial problem and it needs to stop," said Polycup Nges.

Affected areas

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In Homa Bay town, the crisis has affected several areas, including Sofia, Got-Rabuor, Kapita, Makongeni and Shauri Yako estates.

Taps at institutions like the GK prison and Homa Bay Police Station are also dry.

Prison Commander Robert Basigwa said the correctional facility is relying on water from a borehole.

Mr Nyawinda said his office was in talks with the county finance department to settle the debt.

"Kenya Power should be honest. They should know that the demand for water during the Covid-19 pandemic is high and water should not be disconnected. I will ask the county commissioner to compel them to restore power at our facilities," he said.

The county can only supply two million litres of water per day to Homa Bay town residents against a demand of nine million litres, said Homa Bay Water and Sanitation Company (Homawasco) Managing Director Evans Nyagol.

The town has at least 120,000 people.

To ensure everyone gets some water, Homawasco normally resorts to rationing.

The current crisis has made the situation worse as some residents now use water directly from the lake.
As Kenya was coming to terms with Covid-19 last year, a "worrisome" measles outbreak was happening.

"Immunisation coverage dropped due to Covid-19. If nothing is done now we will have an outbreak like in the DRC," Dr Collins Tabu, the head of Kenya's National Vaccines and Immunization Program told HealthyNation.

In the last one-and-a-half years, the cases of measles, the world's fastest spreading virus, has increased by more than 700 per cent in the country, said the Health ministry.

Dr Tabu termed the trend worrisome, prompting the government to launch a vaccination campaign targeting 3.9 million.

The expert observed that within the country, there has been a gradual rise in the number of cases, which would lead to about 2.1 million children being susceptible to the disease.

Following a nationwide risk assessment conducted by the Ministry 22 counties were identified for a vaccination campaign.

Dr Peter Okoth, a health specialist at Unicef, which is helping the ministry procure the vaccines, said these counties were selected for being "high risk".

The counties are Kilifi, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana, Tana River, Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo Marakwet.

Others are Busia, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii, Kajiado, Nairobi, Bomet, Bungoma, Kakamega, Narok and Vihiga.

"From October 2019 to date we have registered 786 cases and two deaths .There is an active outbreak in West Pokot after Mandera and a gradual rise in the number of cases," said Dr Tabu.

Dr Mercy Mwangangi, the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Health ministry, said last week that Kenya remains at constant threat of measles outbreaks.

"The ministry, through the National Vaccines and Immunization Program, plans to conduct the campaign that started on June 25 to July 5," she said.

The campaign targets to reach children of between nine and 59 months and is expected to cost Sh800 million.

Reduce measles

The World Health Organization ranks the measles virus as the most infectious virus on the planet. The virus' reproduction number -- that is the number of people infected from one case -- is between 12 and 18. This is higher than most viral diseases. For instance, Sars-Cov-2 which causes Covid-19 has a reproduction number of between 2.5 and 3.5.

Measles-rubella infects both children and adults. It is spread through sneezing and coughing.

Once it gets to the body of the child, it can cause damage to the lungs, the brain, the ears and even to the stomach and intestines, and eventually death," said Dr Okoth.

Dr Stephen Mutwiwa, Kenya's country director for Jhpiego, told HealthyNation that death or sickness from both viruses are preventable by vaccines.

"Vaccination remains one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing infection and due to this Kenya has seen a tremendous decline in deaths or disease caused by measles over the years," said Dr Mutwiwa.

He added that Kenya's goal is to reduce measles cases by 90 per cent and deaths by 95 per cent. "We should support the government in this endeavour by all means, including helping mothers and caregivers take their children to the facilities, and be available should the health workers visit them at home to administer vaccines," he added.

The campaign will involve more than 16,000 health workers who are currently undergoing training and will offer the vaccines free of charge through 5,061 vaccination posts that will be set up in public places.

On October 20, 2019, a total of 281 cases with nine positives for measles and two for rubella with one death were first reported in Pokot North Sub-County, West Pokot County.

"The outbreak in Tana River County has affected two sub counties: Bura and Galole. A total of seven confirmed cases have been reported. The outbreak is still on. In Wajir County, the outbreak has affected Wajir East, while in Garissa four sub-counties have been affected. The Kilifi County outbreak is from Ganze," the health ministry said in 2019.

In 2020 the number of counties affected increased to five. "An outbreak of measles is active in five counties - West Pokot, Garissa, Wajir, Tana River and Kilifi. The total number of cases reported are 382, confirmed 48 with two deaths," said the ministry then.

Rubella, like measles, is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause serious health complications to newborns such as birth defects, including heart problems, loss of hearing and eyesight, and brain damage.

Covid-19 disruptions

Due to Covid-19 and other health system related issues, many parents did not take their children to the hospital for vaccines for fear of contracting the coronavirus.

There were also interruptions in service delivery, such as health workers' strikes.

These health challenges started even before the pandemic.

In a paper published in the journal Nature, the Local Burden of Disease Vaccine Coverage Collaborators -- a group of researchers from reputable scientific institutions including the University of Nairobi and African Population and Health Research Center -- mapped vaccination for measles and the results were saddening: measles vaccinations are under threat due to inequities in coverage and the poor coverage of routine first-dose measles vaccines between 2010 and 2019.

WHO notes that before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

The global health body recorded more than 140,000 deaths from measles in 2018 - mostly children under the age of five years despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.

WHO said accelerated immunisation activities have had a major impact on reducing measles deaths. "During 2000-2018, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 23.2 million deaths. Global measles deaths have decreased by 73 per cent from an estimated 536,000 in 2000 to 142,000 in 2018," said WHO.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family and it is normally passed through direct contact and through the air.

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The virus infects the respiratory tract then spreads throughout the body.

On the other hand, rubella is an acute contagious viral infection which causes a mild fever and rash in children and adults. Infection during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, can result in miscarriage, foetal death, stillbirth, or infants with congenital malformations, known as congenital rubella syndrome.

When a person is infected, the virus spreads throughout the body in about five to seven days. This is followed by the symptoms which usually appear two to three weeks after exposure.

When a woman is infected with the rubella virus early in pregnancy, she has a 90 per cent chance of passing the virus on to her foetus.

According to Dr Rose Jalang'o of the National Vaccines and Immunization Program, in 2000 measles was the leading cause of vaccine preventable paediatric deaths but is now third after pneumococcal virus and rotavirus.

"Ninety-five per cent population immunity is not achievable with only one dose even at a very high vaccination coverage as only 85 per cent of children vaccinated against measles develop immunity from the first dose. So, the accumulation of children without immunity occurs overtime thus the high risk of an outbreak," Dr Jalang'o told HealthyNation.

He said this was the reason the coverage must be above 95 per cent in the target age group. "Take children aged between nine to 59 months to the nearest health facility or immunisation post for vaccination," he said.
Kinangop residents have asked Kenya Power to plug electricity pole holes dug and left open by a contractor three years ago, saying they had become death traps to humans and livestock.

The latest incident involved a two-year-old boy who went missing over the weekend before his body was found later and retrieved from a pole hole in their compound.

Several people and livestock have suffered severe fractures and injuries after falling in the open holes, some of them six feet deep.

Samuel Mwaura, the boy's father, said his son went missing on Friday but his mother thought he was playing with other children in the neighbourhood.

"She went to the farm but she was concerned when our son failed to join her at the farm about an hour later. She left what she was doing to look for him. She alerted neighbours when she failed to find him," he said.

Neighbours began a search and later discovered the child's body in the hole. He had suffered a broken neck and leg.

Another victim, Vincent Waweru, who suffered a broken leg after tripping into a hole just a few metres from his home, said Kenya Power should be held responsible for the contractor's delays in finishing the job.

"I spent a fortune in treatment. My family raised the issue with Kenya Power but no action was taken. I have also lost a cow, which fell into one of the holes," said the farmer.

Kenya Power and the contractor

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Sheila Wambui, also a victim, says she was lucky to be retrieved from a hole at a neighbour's compound.

"I went to fetch water from my neighbour's compound when I lost balance and slipped into the hole on my way back. Luckily, my neighbour was still outside her house, she raised the alarm attracting, other neighbours who came to my rescue. I suffered a fractured hand and bruises," she said.

Her other neighbour, Gladys Macharia, has lost two cows and some chickens, which fell into the holes. She now demands that the holes be covered.

"It has taken three years for the contractor to do the job. We have on several occasions complained about the open holes but in vain. They are a death trap and Kenya Power should be held responsible for contracting a lazy contractor," Ms Macharia said.

King'ori Wambugu, the area's ward representative, who is also the majority leader in Nyandarua County Assembly, said families of the affected victims will sue for compensation from Kenya Power and the contractor.

"We are mobilising resources and have contracted a lawyer to take up the matter. I have on many occasions raised concerns with KPLC officials but they take us for granted. The affected victims must get justice, they must be compensated," he said.

We reached out to Kenya Power for comment on Tuesday but the company had not responded by publication time on Wednesday.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan has recused himself from leading the case facing Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru.

Khan, who took over from Fatou Bensouda two weeks ago, had represented Deputy President William Ruto in the 2017 post-election violence case at the Hague-based court.

While confirming his recusal, Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou who is handling Mr Gicheru's case, said it will henceforth be led by Deputy Prosecutor James Stewart.

Gicheru is facing allegations of interfering with key witnesses who were relied upon by the prosecution in Dr Ruto's case, which was shelved.

In its submission, the office of the prosecutor told the chamber that Mr Khan's decision was informed by article 42(7) of the Rome Statute which states that a prosecutor or his deputy may be disqualified from a case if "their impartiality might reasonably be doubted on any ground".

"On 28 June 2021, the Office of the Prosecutor advised the Chamber that the current Prosecutor has recused himself from the proceedings in this case, pursuant to article 42(7) of the Statute. It further explained that the Deputy Prosecutor will perform all the acts that the Prosecutor would have to carry out in the present case," the judge stated.

No access

According to the court, Khan will now be denied access to any confidential filings regarding the case and he has been barred from involvement in any discussion or decision on a substantial or administrative level related to the case.

"Further, the Chamber considers that the Deputy Prosecutor will replace the Prosecutor and perform any of his functions for the purposes of this case," said Gansou.

Before her retirement, Bensouda had indicated that Khan would not get involved in any case that is related to those he had been involved in before as a lawyer.

In a statement, she had said: "Khan has informed me that he will recuse himself from any case, where a conflict of interest may be perceived to arise from his former representation of suspects or accused persons. He will have practical measures implemented to protect against any such risk, and the public can have complete confidence in the good faith and efficacy of this process, and Mr Khan's unyielding commitment to his duties and responsibilities under the Rome Statute."

It has emerged that Khan also recused himself from a case concerning violence in Darfur, Sudan against Abdallah Banda who has a warrant of arrest against him.

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The British lawyer emerged among key figures in the cases involving Kenya's post-election violence against six suspects that included President Uhuru Kenyatta, DP Ruto and journalist Joshua arap Sang, owing to his eloquence and assertiveness in defending his client.

He took over as ICC prosecutor at a time when the court is still receiving submissions from parties involved in Mr Gicheru's case, which is at the confirmation of charges stage.

The confirmation of charges proceedings had stalled in May pending the swearing-in of a new prosecutor. It will determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence to conduct a trial.

In its submissions, the office of the prosecutor had alleged that Gicheru was part of a team that schemed to bribe witnesses so that they would withdraw their statements incriminating DP Ruto.

However, Gicheru has dismissed the allegations claiming the prosecution is relying on hearsay, hence the case should be not proceed to trial.
Mombasa gubernatorial aspirant Suleiman Shahbal has hit out at one of his opponents, saying he needs no endorsement to go for the county's top seat.

His bluster comes barely two weeks after Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir castigated him as a party hopper who is now singing the Orange Democratic Movement's tune and yet he ran against it in the last two elections.

In an exclusive interview with the Nation, Mr Shahbal, who a fortnight ago decamped from the Wiper party back to ODM, said he is a tough competitor with grassroots support that he believed will give him the opposition party's nomination without anybody's endorsement.

"Why are they scared? If they are confident that they will bag the nomination, then they should just chill out. Let the people decide. It will be interesting to see what these people who are describing me as a Johnny-come-lately would have done in 2013, if they were in my position," he said.

"With Governor Hassan Joho's strong roots within the party, I stood no chance. Even for those castigating me, what would they have done? Stayed out in the cold for ten years, or find another home?"

Governor Joho, who is serving his last term, has been open about his support for Mr Nassir, noting that he will join national politics while the latter will take charge of regional politics in Mombasa.

Now Mr Shahbal says he is not scared of facing off with his opponents. The Mombasa businessman added that his personal relations with ODM leader Raila Odinga goes beyond politics and the party, noting that they have travelled together to many places looking for investments.

"So, I'm not a Johnny-come-lately in his circle, and sure, our relations go beyond politics, but ODM has always been my home. It is where I started as a politician. They should relax. I'm just back home," Mr Shahbal said.

"People should not panic. The reality is that my entry into ODM in Mombasa has created a lot of excitement and energised the party. It is not important on how long you have been a member of it, but what you have brought to the table?"

He added: "When I started in 2013 seeking a political position, I opted to go for ODM. But then I realised Governor Joho had deeper roots within the party, and his loyalty to Mr Odinga was unquestionable. It was unrealistic to expect that the party would give me the ticket. And that explains why I opted out and sought the gubernatorial position on another ticket."

Two weeks ago, on a visit to the Coast region, Mr Odinga maintained that his party will conduct free and fair nominations ahead of next year's General Election, rekindling the fight between loyal members and those they regard as "party hoppers".

A secret meeting between Mr Odinga and Mr Shahbal set tongues wagging, and sent back to the drawing board Mr Nassir, who expected to have a direct nomination to contest the governorship.

Mr Shahbal says his re-entry into the opposition party is to re-energise it, given its dwindling fortunes in the Coast region.

"Where was all this energy? Suddenly, I rejoin ODM, and everyone starts getting excited. Perhaps that is what the party needed. I have excited the rank and file, and this means we should start actively promoting the party," he said.

Even though he has put on a brave face and encouraged other people to join and strengthen the party ahead of next year's election, Mr Nassir seems to have been rubbed the wrong way by the party's decision to accept Mr Shahbal back to its fold.

Mr Nassir castigated Mr Shahbal, who in the last campaign season was in the forefront blackmailing ODM while campaigning for Jubilee.

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"We have seen some who have been at the forefront tarnishing the name of Raila and his party, claiming it's a tribal party, coming back," Mr Nassir said.

"I would like to tell him, I will be the Mombasa governor on an ODM ticket since we know voters and the party is not short of mind. They can recall and know who is for his own interests and not those of the party in his heart."

He added that the party will hand him a direct nomination to run for governor because "party loyalty is expensive".

Mr Nassir has been an ODM member and a close ally of Mr Joho, but recently Mr Shahbal has been implementing several projects with the Mombasa County government, raising questions about what is expected in the coming months.

Already, several members of Mr Joho's 2017 campaign team have moved to spearhead Mr Shahbal's campaign strategies.
A man whose picture went viral when he spent a night in the rain and next to casket carrying the body of his wife outside a police station in Meru has been compensated by court.

Charles Mwenda was forced to spend the night outside the police station as authorities enforced Covid-19 travel restrictions last year.

On Wednesday, Judge Edward Muriithi of the High Court in Meru awarded Mwenda Sh1.5 million.

The judge said police used excessive force when they arrested Mwenda, 32, and treated him inhumanely as he travelled to bury his wife.

In a brief judgment, the judge noted that Mwenda's rights and freedoms under the Bill of Rights were violated and held police culpable.

He ordered the Inspector-General of Police to bear the cost.

Mwenda together with 31 mourners had on May 28, 2020 traveled from Malindi to Meru for the burial of Faith Mwende who had succumbed to cancer.

However, on reaching Keeria market in Meru County, they were stopped and the 31 mourners, including his two children, ordered to return to Malindi.

The mourners were threatened with being subjected to forced quarantine at their own cost.

A contingent of armed police officers then ordered Mwenda to board a police vehicle together with the casket, and transported him to Kianjai police station where he spent the night.

Mwenda narrated how during the night, he pleaded with the police in vain to be allowed to transport the casket to his home which is only five kilometres away.

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Aggrieved, he filed a petition at the High Court in Meru through lawyer Vivian Wambulwa, urging the court to find that he was treated in an inhumane manner.

"Police left me alone in the rain. I dragged the casket all alone and sheltered it under the lorry that was parked near Kianjai police post. Stagnant water entered the casket," Mr Mwenda said in an affidavit.

On Wednesday, Justice Muriithi agreed that police acted extra judicially and in breach of fundamental rights and violated his rights under Article 28 of the Constitution of Kenya to be treated with human dignity.

He said the act left Mr Mwenda stigmatized as grieved.

The judge, however, let Meru County Government off the hook, saying it had no powers to order the police.

An elated Ms Wambulwa hailed the judgment, saying it would console his client who underwent a traumatizing situation.

"The respondents and their agents treated the petitioner with total indignity by transporting the petitioner and his deceased wife and dumping him in the middle of the night by the roadside while it was raining without care as to his security and well-being and without any legal basis," says Ms Wambulwa.
In a bid to fix perennial oxygen shortages at its health facilities amid a pandemic, the Kericho County Government has allocated Sh67 million in its 2021/2022 fiscal year to put up a plant for the key commodity.

Currently, the county sources oxygen used in its health facilities from BOC Ltd company, an arrangement the devolved unit is seeking to wriggle out of and be self-sufficient.

The county's health department is among major beneficiaries of the Sh8.6 billion budget with an allocation of Sh2.2 billion as recurrent expenditure and Sh230 million for development.

Dr Patrick Mutai, the County Executive Committee (CEC) in charge of Finance, Economic Planning and Head of County Treasury, said feasibility studies on the project have been completed, adding that Kericho hopes to one day produce 500 litres of oxygen per minute.

"Due to the acute shortage of oxygen in our health facilities as a result of increased demand due to Covid-19 I propose Sh67 million to be allocated for construction of an oxygen plant to be installed at the Kericho County Referral Hospital," said Dr Mutai in a budget speech presented at the county assembly on Tuesday evening.

The money will be used to put up a building a structure, install oxygen plant equipment, piping works, supply of oxygen cylinders, and a motor vehicle for transporting oxygen cylinders to health facilities in the county.

"Once the plant is operational, Kericho County will be self-sufficient with cheaper oxygen. Surplus oxygen will be supplied to neighbouring counties and private health facilities to generate revenue," stated Dr Mutai.

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"Despite the limited resources in the backdrop of Covid-19, our facilities rank top in delivery of service. With continued modernisation and face lift of the county referral hospital, we endevour to become a medical tourism destination," he added.

The county has also set aside Sh53.6 million for completion of health centres and dispensaries, ablution blocks for health facilities, refurbishment and maintenance of existing facilities in all its 29 civic wards.

A further Sh59.8 million has been earmarked for purchase of medical and dental equipment, equipping of maternity wings, laboratories and surgical wards in level II and III facilities in the county's six constituencies of Ainamoi, Kipkelion East, Kipkelion West, Soin/Sigowet, Belgut and Bureti.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday said he has immunity against prosecution in any criminal or civil court while in office.

While urging seven judges of the Court of Appeal to quash a declaration that he can be prosecuted while still in office, President Kenyatta said he enjoys the full protection of the law.

"No suit either criminal or civil can be filed against the President while in office," Senior Counsel Mohammed Nyaoga, who is representing the Head of State, told the seven appellate judges Wednesday.

He quoted judicial decisions from established democracies such as the US, India, Nigeria and other countries that said a sitting president cannot be sued.

Mr Nyaoga, who is teaming with Senior Counsel Waweru Gatonye and Kimani Kiragu, said Articles 38 of the Constitution allow the President to participate in political activities given that he is the leader of a political party. He submitted a gazette notice issued in respect to the BBI, noting that the President was exercising his official duties.

He also said that under Article 133 of the Constitution, the President is mandated to undertake various roles in ensuring national unity.

"Although the petitioners, who filed the case challenging the BBI, accused President Kenyatta of undertaking the move to amend the Constitution, he cannot be punished legally since as a Kenyan he is allowed to privately and individually participate in political processes," Mr Nyaoga said.

Mr Kiragu said there is no express provision in the law prohibiting the President from participating in the initiative to amend the Constitution.

"If it is not expressly prohibited then it is permitted," Mr Kiragu told the appeals court president Daniel Musinga, sitting with six others.

He said it has not been shown how the President violated the law in supporting the popular initiative to amend the Constitution.

"The President can be involved in the amendment process," Mr Gatonye said.

Judges Musinga, Roselyne Nambuye, Hannah Okwengu, Patrick Kiage, Kairu Gatembu, Fatuma Sichale and Francis Tuiyot were urged to set aside High Courts' decision declaring that a sitting President can be prosecuted.

The judges heard President Kenyatta did not take part in the petition in the High Court and neither was he served to respond to the concerns raised.

Meanwhile, former Attorney-General Githu Muigai said the five judges of the High Court assumed the role of the Supreme Court by offering an advisory opinion.

Instead of confronting serious legal issues presented before them, they ended up granting reliefs not sought, Prof Muigai said.

Prof Muigai said the five judges departed from their core duty of interpreting the law by transforming themselves into a philosophical forum.

He, therefore, said the five-judge bench judgement is an "opinion".

"Nine out of ten issues in the entire judgement is an advisory opinion. The judges sat as jurists and thinkers of the law," the former AG said.

He said when the High Court sits as a constitutional court it is limited to interpreting the law and not delving into other matters and advancing their personal views.

Answering a question from Justice Patrick Kiage as to whether there was any process happening before the five judges, Mr Muigai, answered saying the process before the judges was the BBI.

While urging the appeals court to reverse the high court judgement he said the judges erred in stating IEBC could not transact its constitutional mandate as it had three commissioners and therefore it lacked quorum to transact its business.

"The five judges failed to appreciate earlier decisions on the issue of quorum where it had been ruled IEBC could transact business with only three commissioners," Prof Muigai submitted.

He said IEBC is an independent body just like the Judiciary and takes no directions from any quarters while discharging its functions.

He said the judges erred in declaring that IEBC could not discharge its mandate due to limited commissioners.

He submitted IEBC is protected by the law and "the fact that there are vacancies does not render it unconstitutional."

He said IEBC conducts its duties through the guidance of the law and "not implementation of resolutions."

He submitted courts may create judicial anarchy if they depart from earlier decisions.

Prof Muigai said nothing turns on the number of judges sitting in a matter since the jurisprudence of a single judge matches those of five or even seven.

He said the higher number of judges in a matter only indicates the importance of the issues in question.

He said all matters which are taken to court must be hinged on the law.

He said political matters must be allowed to evolve politically while judicial matters must thrive on the jurisprudential tenets.

He said instead of the parties in the BBI petition drawing the issues for determination by the court, it is the Five Judges who drew up the issues to be answered in their judgement.

"This judgement cannot be allowed to stand as it interferes with many fundamental constitutional tenets. It is a recipe for chaos," Prof Muigai

He said the judges said there are eternity clauses in the constitution that cannot be amended.

He said the judgement invites insurrections.

"The judges have therefore ruled that Kenyans cannot be trusted to make amendments with the constitution which they themselves promulgated," Prof Muigai.

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Prof Muigai is appearing for IEBC in the appeal with lawyers Erick Gumbo and Moses Kipkogen.

Mr Kipkogen faulted the high court judgement saying the judges erred in declaring the IEBC did not forensically verify the 1milion signatures collected by the promoters of the BBI.

Mr Kipkogen said IEBC verified the signatures in the manner prescribed in the law.

" There is no law requiring IEBC to verify the signatures collected by the promoters of the constitutional amendments forensically by officers from the directorate of criminal investigations," Mr Kipkogei stated.

He urged the judges to quash the declarations made by the five judges saying they erred in their findings.

He further said that the judges erred in saying there is no law guiding the referendum.

He said the referendum is guided by the Election Law.

"The word referendum has been mentioned 167 times in the Election rules. The judges erred in declaring there is no law on referendum," Kipkogei.

Mr Gumbo and senior counsel Lucy Kabuni said IEBC carried out public participation in the manner acceptable by the law.

Mr Gumbo also said verification and collection of the 1 million signatures was done within the confines of law.

The hearing continues.
Nairobi County Chief Finance Officer Halkano Waqo has snubbed a summon to appear before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Mr Waqo was summoned by the anti-graft agency over an ongoing probe into City Hall's controversial Sh84 million Covid-19 feeding programme.

The chief finance officer was summoned to record a statement over the programme that was meant to feed 127,500 households in Nairobi's informal settlement to mitigate the effects of Covid-19.

In a letter by the commission's Deputy Director of Forensic Investigations John Lolkoloi, EACC said it is undertaking investigations into allegation of irregular award of tenders by Nairobi City County Government for supply and delivery of food and non-food items for disaster emergencies to ease the effects of Covid-19 among households in slums.

"To facilitate our investigation, kindly inform Mr Halkano Diida Waqo, Chief Officer Finance to avail himself at Integrity Centre on June 30, 2021 at 9am for interview and statement recording on the matter," read in part the letter dated June 28, 2021.

"Our officers David Changkwony and Jeremiah Buchianga will be available for the exercise," added the letter to Nairobi County Secretary Jairus Musumba.

Reached for comment, Mr Musumba said Mr Waqo did not make it to the grilling as he had another engagement and so they requested to be given a new date.

"He did not appear as we requested for adjustment. We were hosting an exit meeting with officers from the Auditor General's office," he said.

The saga surrounding the feeding programme came to light in April when Nairobi County Assembly Minority Chief Whip Peter Imwatok turned into a whistleblower, lifting the lid on the happenings surrounding the programme.

According to documents, the seven companies were given contracts worth between Sh3 million and Sh22 million to supply the items.

In a letter dated April 24, 2021, the Makongeni MCA wrote to EACC to investigate the matter alleging that payments were made although no food was supplied to the county and no food was distributed.

The MCA claimed that payment vouchers indicate the firms supplied rice, sugar, maize and wheat flour, bread, mineral water, sanitary towels, blankets, mattresses and basins.

The letter was copied to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji, and Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti.
Three people accused of poaching 187 dikdiks will spend another week in remand in Voi, Taita Taveta County, after the court pushed their sentencing to July 5.

Voi Principal Magistrate Cecilia Kithinji ordered that the suspects be detained for one more week.

The accused - Kaviha Charo, Katana Unda and Bugo Suluhu - pleaded guilty to three charges related to poaching wildlife on June 21.

They were arrested with the animals in Akales, Galana Ranch, in Tsavo East, Kilifi County.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Lilian Moke asked the court to give them more time to obtain Suluhu's birth certificate and his school report.

She said the age assessment conducted at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi established that the accused is 23 years old though his parents insisted he is 16 years.

"The parents have promised to bring the birth certificate. We are also waiting for a letter from his school to confirm that he is indeed a student," she said.

Last week the magistrate ordered prosecutors to establish Suluhu's actual age after he claimed to be a minor.

On Wednesday, the magistrate said the court was also waiting for a report from the probation department beforesentencing the trio.

"We will wait to establish the factual age of the third accused person before giving the sentence," she said.

Suluhu will remain at the Voi Police Station cells while his two accomplices will be held at Manyani Maximum Security Prison.

The three were charged with dealing with the carcass of wild animals, being in possession of wildlife trophies and conveying hunting apparatus in a protected area.

They were found with game meat weighing 596kg. The wildlife trophies - 25 roasted heads of dikdiks, 187 dikdik carcasses, two gerenuk and three kori bustard bird carcasses - were found being ferried on five motorcycles.

The suspects were also found with hunting materials, including 10 hunting sirens, five machetes, 14 torches, assorted batteries and clothing.
By Winston W. Parley

Liberia's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Karteh says the country is expected to get 96,000 vaccines as the nation races to curb the spread of the coronavirus here by next week, amid the resurgence of the third wave of the virus here.

"[Fortunately] for us, we may be getting our consignment of vaccine latest next week. We should get about 96,000. But besides the 96,000 we are expected to get additional vaccines through the AU [African Union] system, we should be [getting] another vaccine and with the European Union too, we are working with them to get an additional vaccine," he said Wednesday, 30 June.

During a live phone conversation with local broadcaster OK FM Wednesday morning, Dr. Karteh revealed that hopefully by mid - July, Liberia should have enough vaccines to begin to inoculate residents here.

But Dr. Karteh urged that everyone should continue to wear masks, including those who are vaccinated and those who are not.

He informed the public that just on Tuesday this week, Liberia had recorded an additional 193 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country's cumulative to 4,098 since the first-ever Coronavirus case was reported in Liberia from March 16, 2020, to the present.

In this week alone, he said Liberia's cases have gone up to 362 new cases since Sunday, compared to a total of 689 confirmed cases that were recorded for the whole of last week, the highest the country has ever had since the response began in 2020.

"And it seems that we may exceed that 600 if things continue the way [they are] going," Dr. Karteh warned, though he urged the public not to panic but to continue to wear masks, observe the social distance, wash hands, seek treatment when feeling unwell and if illness persists after two days of treatment, do a rapid Covid - 19 test at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center, among others.

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As of Wednesday, Dr. Karteh said Liberia had 65 patients in the treatment unit of whom 62 are confirmed cases of the virus while results for the others are pending. He added that 49 of the 65 cases are severe cases, meaning they are oxygen-dependent.

He reported that two additional patients were admitted to the treatment unit earlier on Tuesday, and eight patients were discharged while one death was recorded. Overall, he said Liberia has recorded a little over 120 coronavirus deaths cumulatively since the crisis.

Dr. Karteh said 12 of Liberia's 15 counties are now in response, while the remaining three counties including Grand Kru, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh are still standing and are in preparedness.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/stop-hijacking-covid-19-vaccines-exports/
The attention of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been drawn to a false Facebook story carried by Cable TV, alleging that UNDP Staff is responsible for the recent wave of Covid-19 cases in Liberia.

The online network further alleged that UNDP expatriates from Pakistan and India brought the "Delta Variant" of Covid-19 into the country a couple of weeks ago.

UNDP wishes to emphatically refute these allegations from the Cable TV network as false and outright misleading. Nothing in the report is accurate or true.

Like everyone else, the United Nations in Liberia is extremely concerned about the surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths and is working closely with the Government of Liberia to do everything to turn the tide on this new wave of COVID-19.

"Central to our approach is ensuring that the public has the correct information to stay safe and prevent further spread of the virus. Rather than spreading misinformation, we want the media to encourage people to wear face masks, wash hands, keep the recommended social distance, avoid crowded places, and get vaccinated," UNDP stressed in a release.

"The Key to beating this wave of COVID-19 lies in following official safety guidelines provided by the government and other bodies such as the W.H.O. There is no place for pointing fingers and spreading false information."

The UN, like many other organizations in the country, has adopted telecommuting arrangements to help reduce the spread of the virus and keep both its staff and members of the public safe.

Finally, UNDP and the UN remain strong partners of the Government helping to fight the spread of the disease and the various misinformation circulating about the disease and the vaccine.
-in lawmaker's alleged drug trafficking claim

By Lewis S. Teh

A pressure group in electoral district#13, Montserrado County - Team Andy, is calling on the leadership and members of the 54th Liberian Legislature to conduct an impartial investigation into circumstances involving one of their colleagues, who has been accused of drug smuggling in the country.

"We are triggered by an allegation publicized in the June 28, 2021 edition of the FrontPage Africa Newspaper wherein a member of the 54th National Legislature residing within the township of Gardnersville was associated with drugs smuggling", the group says.

Addressing a news conference Wednesday, June 30, 2021at its district office in Topoe Village, Somalia Drive, Team Andy explains it is an embodiment of enlightened young professionals who seek to promote national development through ethical leadership, capacity building initiatives, grassroots community engagements thus, it owes its brilliance, capacity, and professionalism to the lowest ebb of the community and country at large.

Chairman Henry G. Brumskine said the information surrounding the unidentified Lawmaker' involvement in drugs smuggling came to the spotlight as a result of a female commander of the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) Martha Massaley who made the disclosure during the commemoration of International Day against Drugs Abuse and Illicit Drugs Trafficking recently.

Brumskine noted that considering the demographic of the National Elections Commission, the Township of Gardnersville encompasses three (3) statutory electoral districts namely; district # 11 headed by Rep. Richard Nagbe Koon, district #12 headed by Rep. George Beyan Samah, and district # 13 headed by Rep. Edward Papay Flomo.

He says Team Andy believes the allegation gravely borders around the integrity of the first branch of government and said the lawmaker has dishonorably assassinated the sacred solemnity of the Liberian constitution as enshrined in Chapter V, Article 31.

Disappointingly, "we witnessed the appearance of Martha Massaley disgustingly contradicting herself and fumbling with elementary logic in an effort to protect her life and job", he noted, and added that "we believe her statements before plenary were infallibly hypocritical, unethical, deceptive, unpatriotic and disjointed from her statements made on the international day against drugs abuse."

Mr. Brumskine believes Commander Massaley was under external political pressure, job coercion, and life threats which prompted her to have an automatic drift from her call to national duty to the subjugation of inferiority complex.

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The group, therefore, calls on the national legislature to inquire deeply into this matter, saying this could be done by demanding the full audio or video recordings of Martha Massaley's statements made on Friday, June 25, 2021.

He wants the legislature to execute its duties without bias, cautioning the disdainful act allegedly being carried out by a member of the legislature centers around the integrity of the legislature and the international image of Liberia.

TEAM ANDY calls on Rep. Edward Papay Flomo to empathically state his official position on the matter within 48 hours and be the lead-campaigner within the plenary.

Brumskine says the failure of Flomo to make clear his position on the issue will be a clear demonstration of his unwillingness to fight drugs smuggling and validation of the longstanding ghetto characterization which has been over his personality for a long period of time.

Meanwhile, Team Andy says it is troubled by the escalation of the fatality rate within the homeland, including the tragic passing of an immaculate statesman and papered historian Rev. Emmanuel Bowier and all other faithful departed by natural causes or by means of the pandemic. "We extend our condolences to all of their families and we wish for their souls to peacefully rest in martyrdom."
Hold first meeting in Cotonou.

The first meeting of the ECOWAS Regional Monitoring Committee on the Action Plan 2019-2023 on the return of cultural properties to their countries opens in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

The three-day meeting will close on Thursday, July 1, 2021.

While welcoming the Committee Members, Mr. Mamadou Traore, Acting Commissioner for Education, Science, and Culture of the ECOWAS Commission, whose speech was read by H.E. Blaise Diplo-Djomand, Resident Representative of ECOWAS in Benin, highlighted that out of a total number of 1,121 cultural heritages on the list of world cultural and natural heritages, the ECOWAS Region has 32.

He added that a significant number of the cultural heritage of West Africa is pre-served in Western Museums. Therefore, the approval of the Action Plan on the Return of Cultural Properties to their Countries of Origin by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government is a step in the right direction.

In his opening remarks, Hon. Jean-Michel Abimbola, Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Benin, stressed that culture is the fruit of the creative genius of our ancestors and bears witness to a past that we must now approach in a constructive and uninhibited manner.

"Our relationship with history should therefore serve as a springboard for us to mark a turning point in development cooperation. Indeed, our determination for the restitution of our cultural property is the manifestation of our political will", he added.

The ECOWAS Action Plan 2019-2023 was approved by the Authority of Heads of State and Government in December 2019, with the aim of contributing to the returning ECOWAS Member States' cultural goods to their countries of origin, in order to reconstitute the regional cultural heritage.

The Action Plan in its implementation mechanism provides for the establishment of a Regional Committee in charge of the monitoring of the action plan. The Regional Committee includes eminent personalities from the political, diplomatic, and cultural world.
The Liberian Women Humanitarian Network or LWHN has called for the closure of schools in the country in the midst of the rapid increase in the cases of coronavirus here.

The women group expressed deep concern about the newest outbreak and rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus in Liberia and calls for the immediate closure of all schools. This, the group said will aid the government and health practitioners to focus on the chain of transmissions and safe lives.

To date, the Nation Public Health Institute of Liberia reports that Liberia has had a total of 3,900 confirmed cases while 1,458 are currently active confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Armed with these reports, the Liberian Women Humanitarian Network calls on the Liberian Government to consider the immediate closure of schools and or lockdown across counties that are consider hotspots in Liberia for 3 weeks in order to help break the chain of transmission of COVID-19.

According to NPHIL statistics at the time of this release, 13 of the 15 counties are currently responding to active COVID19 cases.

The Network recognizes and applauds the Government for the initial regulations put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and notes that to quickly curb the transmission of the virus, social distancing should be practiced in combination with other everyday preventive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Given the interactive nature of society and the number of students per class generally in most schools, it is almost difficult to strictly adhere to the social distancing measure; hence it is prudent to allow the children to stay away from school for a minimum of three weeks until the situation is steady.

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The LWHN acknowledges that why in-person school is preferred by the government for students to complete the academic year, it is best to continue in-person classes only when it is safe.

The women group also calls on all schools to put in place the following recommends safety measures be put in place and adhere to at all times: Encourage all teachers to get vaccinated as a priority; Carryout regular spot checks at various schools to ensure they are strict; observing the health protocols. Schools non-compliant be penalized immediately according to the Public Health Law of Liberia; Work with PTAs as partners in ensuring their various schools are fully compliant. Activate these community structures to help stop the spread, and institute a mandatory stagger schedule for schools with alternating timetables to reduce the number of students in the school during the day and school week.

The Network calls on the general public to continually and vehemently follow the health measures put in place by the Government of Liberia - wear a mask at all times in public, wash your hands frequently, stay away from the huge gathering, get tested, and vaccinated.

Established in 2016, the Liberia Women Humanitarian Network (LWHN) consists of heads of women-led local non-profit organizations (NGOs) and individuals that are impassioned about humanitarian work.

In the years since its formation, the network has intervened in humanitarian disasters not only locally in Liberia but also regionally in Sierra Leone where it supported victims of the mudslide disaster in Sierra Leone in 2017.-Press release
document

Statement by Michelle Bachelet

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Distinguished President,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

I welcome the Council's attention to the human rights of older persons in the context of climate change.

Population ageing and climate change have significant implications for human rights. By the year 2050, it is estimated that humanity will include 1.5 billion people aged 65 and above. And by 2050, if greenhouse gas emissions have not been reduced to net zero, global warming will exceed 1.5 Celsius.

Climate change has significant implications for people over 65, especially when physical, political, economic and social factors make them vulnerable.

Ageism contributes to this vulnerability. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how age-related discrimination creates and exacerbates the poverty and marginalization of older people, amplifying human rights risks.

In the face of climate change, older persons are likely to face negative impacts on their health; access to food, land, water and sanitation; housing; livelihoods and fundamental well-being.

In 2003, a heatwave across much of Western Europe created crop shortfalls and killed tens of thousands of people. Out of the 14,000 heat-related deaths in France, 80 per cent were people aged over 75.

In 2013, 70 per cent of the people who died as a result of floods in La Plata, Argentina were over the age of 60.

The study submitted by my Office pursuant to resolution 44/7 finds that older people face disproportionate impacts from climate change on the effective enjoyment of their rights - and that they may be neglected or marginalized by climate laws and policies.

Madam President,

The existing international human rights framework provides fragmented and inconsistent coverage of the human rights of older persons, in law and practice. Older persons are also seldom mentioned in international environmental agreements.

There is no dedicated normative instrument on the rights of older persons, and the limitations of existing instruments can hinder their effective protection, including in the context of climate change.

However, many older persons occupy positions of authority and have benefitted from the economic development pathways that cause climate change. As a result, they have a particular responsibility to leave a better legacy for future generations.

To the benefit of us all, many older persons are increasingly using their skills, knowledge, experience, resources, and resilience to help stop climate change and address its worst impacts:

Across Latin America, indigenous elders have formed networks of solidarity to preserve their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge and advocate for climate action that respects their entitlement to free, prior and informed consent.

In Norway, the Grandparents' Climate Campaign has been supporting climate litigation and contributing to public advocacy on Norway's climate policy.

In Australia, the Knitting Nannas have adapted peaceful direct action tactics to advocate for policies that preserve the environment and fight against climate change.

Excellencies,

States have legal obligations, including under international human rights law, to implement climate policies that will stop future warming; promote effective adaptation; redress existing harms; and ensure that all people - including older people - are empowered to participate in climate action.

This Council has acknowledged, in its resolution 44/7, the need to support the resilience and adaptive capacities of older people to respond to climate change. It has also emphasised the importance of international cooperation and assistance to address the adverse impacts of climate change, particularly on older people.

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The study undertaken by my Office presents promising practices related to inclusive climate action that are being implemented by governments, including in the context of Mexico's implementation of the Paris Agreement; collection of age-disaggregated data for disaster recovery planning in the Philippines; and ensuring access to climate information for older people in Iraq.

I urge States to draw from today's discussion opportunities to implement an age-inclusive approach to climate action, noting that the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing was adopted by the General Assembly last year.

My Office is committed to supporting you in taking urgent and ambitious climate action to protect all people everywhere from the worst impacts of climate change by putting human rights at the centre of climate action.

Thank you.
Maputo  According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, the number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique is continuing to rise, as are hospitalisations, and the number of active cases.

According to a Tuesday press release from the Ministry, since the start of the pandemic, 595,730 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 1,735 of them in the previous 24 hours.

The majority of these were from the known Covid-19 hotspots of Maputo and Tete - 590 from Maputo city, 59 from Maputo province and 349 from Tete. Between them these three provinces accounted for 57.5 per cent of Tuesday's tests. There were also 482 tests in Cabo Delgado, 87 in Sofala, 70 in Nampula, 37 in Manica, 22 in Niassa, 21 in Inhambane, and 18 in Zambezia. No tests were reported from Gaza.

1,329 of these tests yielded negative results, and 406 people tested positive for the coronavirus. This brings the number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 75,828.

Of the new cases diagnosed on Tuesday, 378 are Mozambican citizens, two are known to be foreigners (but, as usual, the Ministry release did not give their nationalities), while the nationalities of the remaining 26 have yet to be confirmed. 216 were men or boys, and 190 were women or girls. 37 were children under the age of 15, and 13 were over 65 years old. In seven cases, no age information was available.

The great majority of the positive cases were from Maputo city (196) and Tete (129). These two provinces accounted for slightly more than 80 per cent of the new cases.

In Cabo Delgado, although the number of tests (482) was second only to Maputo city, only eight positive cases were found. This could be testimony to the success of the drive to suppress the virus during last year's outbreaks in Afungi and Pemba.

There were also 39 positive cases in Sofala, 12 in Manica, and two each in Nampula, Niassa and Zambezia. None of those tested in Inhambane were positive.

The national positivity rate (the proportion of those tested who are infected by the virus) was 23.4 per cent. The rate over the past few days was 14 per cent on Monday, 24.4 per cent over the weekend, 17.4 per cent on Friday, and 22.7 per cent on Thursday.

This national average, however, conceals a wide gulf in the positivity rates between the Covid-19 hotspots, and the north of the country, where there are relatively few cases. The Tuesday positivity rate in Tete was an alarming 37 per cent, but even this was surpassed by Sofala, where the rate was 44.8 per cent. The rate in Maputo city was 33.2 per cent, in Maputo province 27.1 per cent, and in Manica 32.4 per cent.

But in the north, the picture was very different, with rates of 11.1 per cent in Zambezia, nine per cent in Niassa, 2.8 per cent in Nampula, and only 1.6 per cent in Cabo Delgado.

The Ministry release said that, in the same 24 hour period, 29 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (23 in Maputo, two in Tete, two in Sofala, one in Nampula and one in Manica). But 50 new cases were admitted (36 in Maputo, six in Tete, four in Sofala, three in Matola, and one in Manica).

The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 treatment centres rose from 159 on Monday to 176 on Tuesday. The great majority of these patients - 120 (68.2 per cent) - were in Maputo, 21 were in Tete, 14 in Matola, 13 in Sofala, two in Nampula, two in Zambezia, one in Niassa and one in Inhambane. There were no patients in the Covid-19 wards in Cabo Delgado or Gaza.

Three more Covid-19 deaths were reported on Tuesday - two Mozambican women and a foreign man (whose nationality was not revealed). Their ages ranged between 30 and 70. Two died in Maputo and one in Matola. This brings the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 872.

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The Ministry also reported that on Tuesday 36 people were declared fully recovered from Covid-19 (23 in Niassa, seven in Maputo province and six in Inhambane). The total number of recoveries now stands at 71,136, which is 93.9 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

With the number of new cases greatly outstripping the number of recoveries, the number of active Covid-19 cases inevitably rises - from 3,399 on Monday to 3,766 on Tuesday. The distribution of these cases was as follows: Maputo city, 1,712 (45.5 per cent); Tete, 718; Maputo province, 703; Sofala, 208; Inhambane, 135; Manica, 81; Niassa, 77; Gaza, 52; Cabo Delgado, 31; Nampula, 29; and Zambezia, 20.
Maputo  Mozambican Prime Minister, Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, on Wednesday said the country has recorded meaningful progress in the implementation of public policies, which led to the improvement of living conditions, 20 years after the adoption of the National Population Policy.

Addressing the opening session of a high level meeting on National Population Policy, in Maputo, Rosario said Mozambique adopted the population policy in 1999 in order to establish mechanisms which enable social and economic development to answer effectively the dynamics of demography, notably population growth.

"The National Population Policy is an integral part of the country's national development strategy which contributes to improving the planning process as well as public policies to promote well being," do Rosario declared.

Quoting data from the 2017 population census, do Rosario gave as an example the reduction in infant mortality rates to 67 per 1,000 live births in 2017 compared with 94 per 1,000 in 2007. In education, illiteracy dropped from 50 per cent in 2007 to 39 per cent in 2017.

As far as water supply is concerned, coverage reached 49 per cent of households in 2017, compared with 35 per cent in 2007. With regard to access to electricity, the coverage was 10 per cent in 2007 but in 2017 the figure grew to 22 per cent. Life expectancy was 49 years in 2007 and improved to 54 years in 2017.

However, in order to consolidate progress attained so far in improving the quality of life, Rosario urged stakeholders, such as civil society and the country's cooperation partners, to pay special attention to demographic dynamics.

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"One of the great challenges we face is to find solutions and create mechanisms which can allow us to answer social and economic constraints that may arise from rapid population growth," Rosario said.

It was therefore important, he added, to commit further investments to health, job creation and the swift implementation of macro-economic policies which meet the expectations of younger generations.

The deputy representative in Maputo of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Eduardo Celadas, said the rapid population growth, at three per cent a year, poses increasing challenges to the country's economy to respond to the demand for services and opportunities young men.

He said the fact that millions of young Mozambicans live in poverty and unemployment remains a great concern, as do the growing geographical, gender and economic inequalities, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maputo  The long promised Covid-19 treatment centre in the Mavalane General Hospital in Maputo finally opened its door to patients on Monday.

Work on the Mavalane Covid-19 wards was regarded as a priority in January and February, when Mozambique was fighting the second wave of Covid infection, and it was feared that Maputo would run out of beds for Covid-19 patients.

The main Covid-19 treatment centre was the Polana Canico General Hospital, and at one point it was touch and go as to whether this hospital could cope with an avalanche of Covid patients, even with some patients accommodated in tents in the grounds of Maputo Central Hospital.

But when the second wave was deemed to have ended, the Maputo health service had not collapsed, and the Mavalane rehabilitation work was suspended.

Now Mozambique is grappling with a third wave of infection, which the health authorities fear could be worse than the first or second waves, and so work on the Mavalane wards has finally been completed. Six Covid-19 patients have been admitted to this hospital, one on Monday and five on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the National Director of Medical Care, Luisa Panguene, said the Mavalane centre can hold 320 patients simultaneously, in three Covid-19 wards. The hospital has two large tanks of oxygen for seriously ill Covid-19 patients, who require supplementary oxygen.

Panguene said the Greater Maputo area now has 510 beds for Covid-19 patients - in addition to the 320 at Mavalane, there are 100 beds in the Polana Canico hospital (all of them currently occupied), 40 in the Central Hospital Transit Centre, and 50 in the adjacent city of Matola.

If demand continues to grow she added, a tent with the capacity for 170 beds will be erected on the Mavalane hospital grounds.

The authorities are worried that there may not be enough beds in the western city of Tete, currently one of the areas worst hit by the pandemic. There are 38 beds available in the city's main hospital, of which 20 are already occupied.

The solution is to convert the new health centre in the Chingodzi neighbourhood, recently inaugurated by President Filipe Nyusi, into a Covid-19 treatment centre. That will make 70 beds available.

That might not be enough given the speed at which Covid-19 is advancing in Tete. 129 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Tete on Tuesday, and 513 in the previous week.
Maputo  The Labour Consultative Commission (CCT), the tripartite negotiating forum between the Mozambican government, the trade unions, and the employers' associations, met in Maputo on Wednesday, and decided, by consensus, to start discussions on increasing the minimum wage.

The government thus kept its promise that the CCT would meet in June, with just one day to spare.

After the opening session of this extraordinary meeting of the CCT, the representative of the Labour Ministry, Emidio Mavila, announced that, following consultations between the three parties, it had been decided to press ahead with discussions on the minimum wage, sector by sector.

Mavila said the CCT discussions should last for no more than 30 days. He hoped that a consensual document on wage rises would be reached, and then submitted to the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) for its approval.

The minimum wages are usually discussed annually at the CCT. The 2020 negotiations began on 18 March that year, but the Covid-19 pandemic was used as an excuse to stop the talks. In previous years, an increase in the minimum wage was usually announced in late April and was always backdated to 1 April.

There have been no wage rises since April 2019 - and some representatives of the Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA) made it clear they did not want any wage rises this year. On 16 June, at a Maputo press conference, the CTA deputy chairperson, Vasco Manhica, implied that the employers want the wage freeze to continue indefinitely. He claimed that anything that could increase company costs, such as raising the minimum wage, "could interrupt the recovery effort and compromise the survival of companies".

The unions were infuriated, and feared that the CTA and the government were reneging on the promise to resume CCT negotiations in June. Alexandre Munguambe, general secretary of the main trade union federation, the OTM, accused the employers of deliberately avoiding any discussion about wage rises.

The fact that there had been no wage rises since 2019, Munguambe added, in an interview with the independent newssheet "Mediafax", had worsened the already difficult living conditions of Mozambican workers.

In 2019 the OTM argued that, to provide a basic basket of goods and services for an average family, a minimum monthly wage of 19,600 meticais (297 US dollars, at the exchange rate of the time), would have been needed. In 2020, the cost for the same basket, according to the OTM, would be 22,700 meticais a month.

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But the monthly minimum wages agreed when the CCT met in 2019 came nowhere near 19,600 meticais. They ranged from 4,266 meticais for fishery workers on Lake Cahora Bassa in Tete province, to 12,760 meticais for workers in banking, insurance and other financial services. The minimum wage for public sector workers was just 4,467 meticais a month.

To make matters worse, Mavila said that any wage rise agreed at the CCT will not be backdated to 2019. The negotiations will not envisage any backdated payments, due to the impacts of the economic recession of the last two years.

"The months under discussion at the CCT refer to this year", he added. "Certainly we shall not go back to 2019 and 2020".

Speaking for the unions, Munguambe said the discussions will take into account the performances of each sector of activity, and he expected the sectors to provide whatever was possible, in order to grant some dignity to the workers.

He hoped that each sector would decide on "fair wages in order to motivate the workers".

CTA representative Paulino Cossa took a position markedly different from that stated a fortnight earlier by Vasco Manhica. He said the basis for discussion should be the performance of the Mozambican economy.

"The private sector is proposing a fair adjustment of wages, compatible with the situation of our country's economy", he said. "We believe that the economy depends fundamentally on motivated workers, workers with an incentive to improve production and productivity".
WITH many lives lost to Covid-19, bikers from various clubs from Windhoek and Okahandja reached out to six hospitals in the capital on Saturday.

The group visited and prayed for patients, healthcare workers and affected family members at the Lady Pohamba Private Hospital, Roman Catholic Private Hospital, Rhino Park Hospital, Paramount Healthcare Centre, the capital's oncology centre and the Widnhoek Mediclinic.

The prayer session was organised by Natasha van Heerden and Reinhard Redecker from the Harley Owners Group Namibia Chapter 7968.

Van Heerden says she saw fear in people's eyes.

"I did not expect it to have such a great outcome and support. We first tried to see how it would go before reaching out to other hospitals.

"They must know they are not alone," she says.

Van Heerden was inspired and motivated by Matthew 18:20: "For where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with them."

Redecker says the group is planning more similar events, and other towns have been invited to copy the initiative.

He says reaching out to state hospitals was impossible, due to a policy of no visitors allowed.

Betty Schroder, a senior African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor, who also attended the prayer session, says prayer provides insight to dilemmas and tough decisions.

"For us it was one of the only ways we could think of to reach out to the medical staff, nurses, doctors, and families who are left either hopeless or anxious at hospitals where visitors are not allowed to see Covid-19 patients.

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"We wanted to remind the infected and affected there is hope in this hopeless situation. We too have lost loved ones, so caring for one another and assisting the government with easing a part of the mental stress and anxiety the nation is going through became our prime focus," she says.

Schroder says the initiative has received overwhelmingly positive feedabck.

Lives were touched and medical staff sent messages of gratitude for giving them hope, she says.

Biker Herman Vlok says the event was emotional.

"Each and everyone in our country should see what can happen if we stand together," he says.

Social media on Sunday circulated pictures of people praying outside hospitals at different towns.
press release

SALC is concerned by the recent developments in Eswatini. The Kingdom of Eswatini has seen a wave of protests over the past month.

Protests started in May 2021, following the unexplained death of Thabani Nkomonye, a final year law student. The hashtag #JusticeForThabani soon trended, and he became the symbol of police brutality in the country.

On 16 June 2021, it was reported the youth marched along the highway to deliver a petition to the Kwaluseni Member of Parliament, demanding that he withdraws his statement that constituents are happy with the Tinkhundla system. The Tinkhundla system is a form of governance based on traditional administrative subdivisions. There are 55 Tinkhundla in Swaziland scattered around the four districts. Under the Tinkhundla system, the balloting is done on a non-partisan basis. The Tinkhundla system features a bicameral parliament comprising the House of Assembly of 65 members, 55 of which are elected from candidates nominated by traditional local councils while the other 10 are appointed. The upper house of parliament or Senate has 30 non-partisan members, 10 of which are elected by the parliament and the other 20 appointed by the monarch to serve five-year terms.

Since then, protesters have marched on various Tinkhundlas to submit petitions to their local members of parliament. This week protesters also marched on media houses that they deem linked to the King. This week, images circulated on social media of protesters looting trucks, blocking roads with burning barricades and shops being set on fire. Since the beginning of the protests, several videos have emerged showing police using violence to disperse protesters. Police are seen using excessive force and tear gas to disperse protesters. Section 49 of the Police Service Act No. 22 of 2018 makes it a disciplinary offence to use violence or unnecessary force or to intimidate a person with whom the officer may be in contact with in the execution of duty. Section 10(3) of the Act provides that: "a member of the Police Service may not inflict, instigate or tolerate any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, nor may any member of the Police Service invoke superior orders or exceptional circumstances as a justification for torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

Acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku said in a statement on 29 June 2021 that in order to quell the unrest, the government has ordered all businesses to close by 3:30 pm and a strict curfew to have all residents off the streets from 6 pm until 5 am. Schools were told to close immediately to ensure the safety of learners. On the same day, the government of Eswatini ordered network providers, Eswatini Post and Telecommunications, Eswatini MTN and Eswatini Mobile to temporarily turn off internet connectivity and advised that military and police will be deployed to quell protests.

Principle 38 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' 2019 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information specifically states that "States shall not interfere with the right of individuals to seek, receive and impart information through any means of communication and digital technologies, through measures such as the removal, blocking or filtering of content, unless such interference is justifiable and compatible with international human rights law and standards. States shall not engage in or condone any disruption of access to the internet and other digital technologies for segments of the public or an entire population."

Background

On 12 April 1973, King Sobhuza II issued a proclamation which, amongst other things, "dissolved and prohibited" all political parties. The official position of the Government, as recently conveyed to the UN Human Rights Committee, is that the 1973 proclamation was repealed by the Constitution. In theory, the ban on political parties introduced by the 1973 proclamation was thus effectively lifted with the coming into force of the Constitution on 8 February 2006.

Section 24 of the Constitution states in subsection (1), that "a person has a right of freedom of expression and opinion"; and in subsection (2), in relevant part, that "a person shall not except with the free consent of that person be hindered in the enjoyment of the freedom of expression, which includes the ... freedom to receive ideas and information without interference". Section 25 of the Constitution states in subsection (1), that "a person has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association"; in subsection (2), in relevant part, that "a person shall not except with the free consent of that person be hindered in the enjoyment of the freedom of ... association, that is to say, the right to ... associate freely with other persons for the promotion or protection of the interests of that person".

The reality for political parties and human rights activists in Eswatini is markedly different. Some political parties remain prohibited organisations under the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act in being designated as specified entities, PUDEMO and the other organisations were effectively declared to be terrorist groups. These organisations remain designated groups despite a court judgment in 2016 declaring the relevant provisions in the Act unconstitutional. The State has appealed the decision, but the Supreme Court has failed to hear the appeal.

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In Thulani Maseko and Others v Prime Minister of Swaziland and Others [2016] SZHC 180, the High Court also declared sections 3(1), 4(a), 4(e) and 5 of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act of 1938 unconstitutional. (The subsections which had not been specifically declared unconstitutional are still inoperative because the definition of seditious intention had been declared unconstitutional.)

Sadly, the State continues to charge activists with sedition. In the case of Goodwill Sibiya v the King In re: The King v Goodwill Sibiya (183/2019) [2019] SZHC 180 (18 September 2019), the High Court held that the interests of justice dictate that the Crown ought to stay prosecutions under section 3(1) of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act: "[40]... To allow the prosecution to prosecute people on legislation that has been pronounced by the Courts to be inconsistent with the Constitution would be undermining the judgment of the Court and the provisions of section 21 of the Constitution which prescribes and protects accused persons' rights to a fair trial. This, in turn, would result in a violation of the constitutional rights of the Accused to a fair trial; thus, it should not be allowed." The charges were withdrawn against Sibiya on 19 May 2020, after he had spent a year in custody. In June 2020, another activist, Ncamiso Ngcamphalala, was charged with sedition. He is currently out on bail.
The Electoral Commission has welcomed the decision of the Electoral Court to postpone eight by-elections scheduled for today.

The Electoral Court this morning authorised the postponement of the by-elections for a period not exceeding 120 days from the date of the order.

The Court also granted the Electoral Commission leave to approach the Court for further relief should it be necessary.

"The Electoral Commission took the decision to seek the court's approval to postpone the by-elections this week following the implementation of Adjusted Alert Level 4 lockdown restrictions which prohibit almost all public gatherings including political gatherings," the Electoral Commission said in a statement.

"The Electoral Commission will continue to assess the prevailing conditions including the level and scope of restrictions imposed in terms of the Disaster Management Act to determine an appropriate date for the by-elections to be held," the Commission said.

The Electoral Commission will engage with the relevant provincial MECs for Cooperative Governance other key stakeholders including political parties and candidates who are registered to contest the by-elections in this regard.

Today's by-elections were to have taken place in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape across 48 voting stations and involving 71 305 registered voters.

They were to have been contested by 40 candidates from 14 political parties and three independent candidates.

The eight postponed by-elections are as follows:

Eastern Cape: Ward 03 in the Makana Municipality - EC104.

KwaZulu-Natal: Ward 98 in the eThekwini Municipality - ETH; Ward 05 in the eDumbe Municipality - KZN261.

Northern Cape: Ward 01 in the Sol Plaatje Municipality - NC091.

Western Cape: Ward 51 in the City of Cape Town Municipality - CPT; Ward 63 in the City of Cape Town Municipality - CPT; Ward 01 in the Cederberg Municipality -WC012; Ward 02 in the Swartland Municipality -WC015.
Tunis/Tunisia  All incoming passengers to Tunisia must from Thursday, July 1, present a negative COVID-19 PCR test with a QR code, carried out within 72 hours of the flight, said chair of the quarantine committee at the Health Ministry Mohamed Rabhi.

All travellers, including those vaccinated and those who have been infected, must present a negative PCR test, even they have no symptoms, he told TAP on Wednesday.

In the majority of cases, symptoms of the coronavirus are not visible in vaccinated or previously infected people when infected with a new variant, he said, warning of the risks of silent and asymptomatic infections.

All Tunisian travellers are required to present a negative PCR test on their return to Tunisia from July 1, even if the period of travel did not exceed two days.

Travellers leaving Tunisia for other countries are subject to the entry and travel conditions of the destination countries in relation to the COVID-19 vaccination documents and the negative PCR test.

These decisions were taken by the national committee to combat the coronavirus at a virtual meeting chaired by PM Hichem Mechichi on Tuesday evening.
Tunis/Tunisia  Speaker of the House of People's Representatives (HPR) Rached Ghanouchi strongly condemned any aggression against Tunisian women and women in general, said Wednesday, Assessor in charge of information and communication Meher Medhioud.

This statement comes after the assault, at the Bardo hemicycle, committed by MP Sahbi Smara against President of the Free Destourian Party (PDL) group Abir Moussi.

Medhioub added during a press briefing that the Speaker of Parliament described this act as odious and unjustifiable, reaffirming his total refusal of any attack targeting women.

Answering a question from a journalist, Medhioub said that the Bureau will meet soon to take the necessary measures.

A video published on social media shows MP Sahbi Smara (out of group) leaving his seat and heading towards Abir Moussi and hitting her in the face, causing chaos in the plenary hall.

The president of the session Samira Chaouachi asked MP Sahbi Smara to leave the session immediately.
Tunis/Tunisia  "Tounesna", a space to help the social and economic reintegration of migrants voluntarily returning to Tunisia was inaugurated Tuesday at the headquarters of the Office of Tunisians Abroad (OTE).

The structure that will be operational in 9 governorates (Tunis, Bizerte, Kef, Kairouan, Monastir, Sfax, Gafsa, Tataouine, and Medenine) has the mission of facilitating the implementation of the mechanism of social and economic reintegration of Tunisians returning home, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

At the inauguration ceremony, Minister of Social Affairs, Mohamed Trabelsi, who was accompanied by Ambassador of the European Union in Tunis, Marcus Cornaro and Ambassador of France in Tunis, Andre Parant, said the structure will allow Tunisians who have chosen to return to their country, to build their capacity ahead of integration into the labor market.

"It will provide assistance to Tunisian returnees to set up their own business, benefit from national programmes of the Office of Tunisians Abroad and the National Agency for Employment and Self-Employment and offer support formulas to facilitate procedures with the administrations and structures concerned, "he said, adding that about 600 applications of people wishing to join this program have been examined so far.

The OTE is working in coordination with the structures concerned in the implementation of this project which is part of a cooperation programme of the European Union through the programme ProGres Migration Tunisia, funded by the Emergency Trust Fund (UTF), with Expertise France and the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII).

The inauguration ceremony took place in the presence of the ambassador of the Netherlands in Tunis, and representatives of the embassies of Switzerland and Austria in Tunis as well as representatives of the National Agency for Employment and Self-Employment and Expertise France and OFII.
Tunis/Tunisia  The governorate of Kasserine saw four more coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours. This takes the death toll to 581, since the beginning of the pandemic, deputy local director of primary health Moncef Mhamdi told TAP.

During the same period, the region also recorded 104 new infection cases, after the release of results of 207 tests, or 50% of incidence rate. This brings to 16488 the total COVID-19 cases reported since the emergence of the virus.

According to the same source, the occupancy rate of resuscitation beds at the local hospital in Kasserine has reached 80%, while 70 beds of a total of 180 oxygen-supported beds available, are occupied.

Regarding the national vaccination campaign, 32 thousand COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the governorate of Kasserine.
Tunis/Tunisia  Minister of Economy, Finance and Investment Support Ali Kooli met, Wednesday in Brindisi, with Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Marina Sereni, as part of her participation in the G20 Foreign Ministers' meetings held on June 29 and 30 in Italy.

The two sides affirmed the solidity of relations between the two countries at all levels and their common will to bolster and diversify them, in light of the socio-economic difficulties in Tunisia, which were worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sereni affirmed her country's commitment to continue supporting Tunisia at the bilateral and multilateral levels and within the framework of the European Union.

She stressed her country's readiness to support Tunisia's planned reform programmes and economic transition.

Kooli expressed satisfaction at the level of bilateral cooperation during the last decade, especially in the economic and financial fields, stressing his commitment to strengthen it.

He also met with a number of his counterparts from the G20 countries; these meetings focused on ways to develop economic relations with these countries for the current and post-pandemic periods.

The Minister also took part in a G20 Ministerial Event on COVID-19 logistics and preparedness, co-hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World Food Programme (WFP).

He stressed the importance of giving greater importance and support to health-related logistics in developing countries in the framework of international cooperation.

Italy, in November 2020, succeeded Saudi Arabia to chair the 16th session of the G20.

The G20 Summit will be held on October 30-31 in Rome.
opinion

Health facilities across South Africa are regularly assessed and rated on their quality and ability to meet patient needs. Currently, the way these assessments are performed means that despite an excellent rating, things may not be what they seem.

As South Africa faces a severe third wave of COVID-19, communities deserve a standard of care that can stand up to scrutiny every day and during a devastating pandemic, it is even more urgent to ensure transparency and accountability in our quality assessment processes.

Imagine this scenario:

Leilah - a suspected COVID-19 case - enters her local health facility with breathing difficulties. She needs an oxygen mask, which had been confirmed as available in the facility just hours before she arrived. Leilah's condition quickly deteriorates, and she passes away because there was no mask. Upon investigation, several compliance issues emerged that had not been apparent on the day of the assessment. The facility was checked, and the masks were there but only because they were borrowed from a neighbouring clinic in an attempt to pass the inspection. The masks were returned swiftly afterwards.

Shortcuts and false compliance

South Africa's Department of Health has two quality assurance programmes which both assess the compliance of health facilities to the minimum health standards.

Currently, the national Department of Health benchmarks quality of care through assessments conducted by "peers", which include a group of nurses within the local area. These groups move from site to site, assessing each other with a standard checklist and provide a score that rates the quality at the site. These assessments form part of the Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance programme, also referred to as the Ideal Clinic programme.

These assessments differ from the assessments conducted by the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), which uses trained inspectors in a legislated quality assurance programme based on the National Core Standards (NCS). The Ideal Clinic programme was implemented after the roll-out of NCS to create a more sustainable, hands-on programme that would allow health staff to engage with quality assurance activities on a more frequent basis. The OHSC remains in place to provide oversight but the two assessments are not currently being monitored or reported on in one combined document and sites are receiving accolades on the peer-assessed programme as opposed to the legislative programme.

In my experience working in public health quality assurance across government, municipal and NGO spaces, I design and conduct assessments and can see first-hand the shortcuts taken to gain good ratings, and the strategies used to avoid true compliance. The current system of health facility assessments is seen as a tick box exercise or a short-term hurdle to overcome to please management or funders.

False compliance continues to lead to gaps in care and even when health facilities receive high ratings, the experience of patients does not bear this out. The cost of failing to address this is high.

Assessments lack objectivity

A critical study from the University of KwaZulu-Natal published in the journal Curationis found that among the many challenges facing the healthcare system in South Africa, the lack of objectivity in health facility assessments is one reason millions still experience preventable harm every day due to poor health services.

Even with these dubious attempts at increasing scores, only a third of provinces meet the scores necessary to qualify for support. In 2018, 47% of sites accessed by the Office of Health Standards Compliance were deemed compliant. In the 2018/19 financial year, the Office of Health Standards Compliance released an annual inspection report in which it stated that only 137 out of the 730 (18,7%) health facilities assessed in South Africa were compliant. Interestingly, the same listed health facilities that were not compliant with the National Core Standards have received awards in their Ideal Clinic assessments.

A comparison of the various assessment outcomes is not reviewed by the OHSC or the Department of Health and the question remains how one site could be both compliant and not compliant in the same period. Over the 3-year period (2019 - 2021), the government has allocated R19.2 billion to improve facilities and an additional R4.3 billion via the National Health Insurance Fund, but these funds remain largely untouched and may even create a further perverse incentive for manipulating assessment outcomes.

We must ensure that quality services and lifesaving facilities are available to communities and that compliance assessments are done with integrity and without bias. That means ensuring more accountability in peer and self-assessments, by including external verification and transparent communication of findings to communities. These external assessments from unrelated entities ensure the findings are correct and provide training to peer assessors to ensure consistency.

An 'obvious solution'

A way forward could be right in front of our eyes.

Existing mechanisms such as Health Committees can play an instrumental role in assessments and ensure the oversight, assurance, and objectivity necessary to save lives. These bodies are legally appointed by the MECs of Health in provinces to strengthen the link between the community and the health facility. Committee members from the community should be empowered to act as the voice of the community, which is sorely missing in the assessment process.

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Of course, peer assessments can be a powerful tool - they promote opportunities for learning and remove the power dynamic present with external assessors, and they can foster trust between nursing management across facilities. This must not be lost. But the truth remains that the peer assessment on its own promotes bias and has led to a competitive culture where gaining a positive ranking is more important than community needs. Ratings are linked to the status of the facility management and staff; it is recognised through internal communications channels and rewarded with a shiny accolade. All of this pushes facility staff to bend the truth and paint a picture that all is well when it truly is not.

Very often, these assessments are not worth the time, effort or resources afforded them and do a disservice to staff and patients alike. As COVID-19 continues to challenge us to do more and do better, we have an opportunity to engage communities in this critical process through the Health Committees already in place. Given the right authority, we can equip them to hold health facilities accountable, to identify gaps honestly so we can address them, and ensure assessments do what they were meant to do: protect communities and give them a true sense of security.

*Sparks is a health activist and an Aspen New Voices Fellow.
"Development" and "regeneration" euphemistic terms are often used by the state government when it is set to demolish poorer communities. They are then rebuilt with upscale properties, which the original residents of the communities cannot afford.

Like an ominous shadow, demolition has followed Florence Njoku, 65, from one slum to another around Lagos.

She has moved from Oko-Baba slum, to Iddo and now Otto-Ilogbo slum in Ebutte-Meta area of Lagos. Mrs Njoku, who cannot afford to pay the expensive rent for an accommodation in a decent neighbourhood in the city of over 21 million residents. Things have even become worse for her in the last few years.

"I have been living here (Otto-Ilogbo) for the past 25 years with my 10 children," she said, pointing to her wooden home, which is almost collapsing because of its weak structure.

"I had a shop before, but now, I pick plastic and sell it to feed the children. I just sent one of my children to look for plastic that we can sell to buy food," Mrs Njoku continued.

Things may get further worse for her as she may soon become homeless if the state government goes ahead with a plan to "develop" and "regenerate" her neighbourhood.

"Development" and "regeneration" euphemistic terms often used by the state government when it is set to demolish poorer communities, which are then rebuilt with upscale properties, the original residents of the communities cannot afford.

"Now, I am hearing that they want to break this place, and I don't know where to take all my children to. I born 10 children and have seven grandchildren," Mrs Njoku said.

Background

Otto-Ilogbo, Otto, Otumara and Ifesowapo communities are slums located at Ebutte-Meta West, Lagos Mainland. The communities serve as home to hundreds of Lagosians, who are mostly victims of past evictions in the state.

Residents of the communities include victims of Makoko, Maroko, Badia, Oko Baba and Otodo Gbame evictions.

Due to the dense population of slum dwellers, the communities registered as Community Development Areas (CDAs) and are identified by the Lagos Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Musbau Agbodemu, a CDA chairman in Otto said.

"We are part of the 21million residents Lagos count as its population to get Federal Government allocations and international grants," Mr Agbodemu said, explaining how a recent move to regenerate the communities without their consent will be unfair to the hundreds of residents.

Precedence

Mr Agbodemu, who is one of the oldest dwellers of Otto/Otumara slum said there have been past attempts by the Lagos State Government to evict residents.

In July 2011, during the administration of Babatunde Fashola, residents of Otto and Otumara communities received a "Notice of Abatement of Nuisance" from the Environmental Sanitation Agency to keep their environment "free from filth, refuse or waste."

Following the notice, structures in the communities were marked for demolition by the agency, an act which would have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents.

"We took the government to court during that time and with the help of NGOs, CSOs and human right lawyers, we won the case," Mr Agbodemu said in a cheering voice.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained copies of the court proceedings where residents of Otto, Otumara and adjoining communities approached the Lagos High Court for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.

Although the notice did not state that homes will be demolished, the residents told the court their houses were also marked for demolition by the same agency.

In a motion filed on August 11, 2011 before Femi Adeniyi, a Judge at the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere the residents asked the court for the enforcement or their fundamental rights, pursuant to sections of the 1999 Constitution, African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, and of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009.

The communities sought the declaration of the court that the threatened demolitions of their buildings threatened their fundamental rights under the Constitution and the court should declare the demolition orders null and void.

Giving judgement in the matter on March 5, 2013, the judge, Mr Adeniyi said the notice served on the communities had no demolition of any of the houses in its content.

"Although both parties (the applicants and respondents) have alluded to demolition marks being made on the premises, I am not satisfied that a notice to the applicants to abate nuisance under the Environmental Sanitation Law 1992 translates into a threat to demolish the premises.

"Although Section 6 of the Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Agency Law 1992 gives the Agency's officers powers to demolish a structure which constitutes public nuisance, the section merely states those powers and nothing more.

"I find therefore that the applicants have not established to the satisfaction of this Court that there is any threatened demolition of their houses which may violate their fundamental rights as envisaged under section 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution. The application fails and is accordingly dismissed," the judge ruled.

Lagos govt to "develop" Otto/Otumara Slums

On May 7, the Lagos Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development announced that approval has been given for the regeneration of Otto and Otumara slum communities in Lagos Mainland.

The ministry, through its commissioner, Idris Salako said the Sanwo-Olu-led administration has concluded "regeneration" plans to create a new Micro City with better urban aesthetics and vibrancy in Otto and Otumara."

Mr Salako said the new micro-city will feature socio-economic amenities such as hospitals/clinics, schools, market, and water facility.

The commissioner added that ecologically sensitive land spaces, such as Buffer Zones, Earth Drain, Floodplains and waterfronts will be preserved in the communities.

"It is to be upgraded rather than total displacement," Mr Salako said - a statement which suggests that residents of the community will not be totally displaced.

However, it is unclear what the regeneration plan of Otto and Otumara communities looks like or how it will affect the slum dwellers.

Residents express fear over possible demolition/eviction

A resident, Abiodun Ajimuda, 78, said 'regeneration/development' are words the government uses when it wants to demolish the homes of poor people.

Mr Ajimuda has been a victim of two evictions - Maroko and Makoko, he moved to Otto slum, where he has been residing since 1996.

"I was at Maroko initially, I had a house there, my family was also there. They came to evict us and demolish Maroko on July 7, 1990. From there we went to Makoko, again, they demolished Makoko without giving us any notice," he said.

Mr Ajimuda, a retired petty-trader said he has been living in slums because he could not afford to pay the expensive rents for decent accommodations in Lagos.

"The suffering is too much, the government should have pity on us and help us. "Those places are water-logged areas, it is after we develop them that the government will come and send us packing.

"Where do we go, since 1996 I have been living here and suffering. It surprises me that the government sees us and knows that we are suffering, but it is after we fill up a water-logged area and develop it that they come after us without giving us a better place to live in," Mr Ajimuda said.

Several other residents who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they were worried over a possible eviction and demolition of their properties by the state government.

Having witnessed past evictions, many of the residents are unsure of what their fate would be when the planned regeneration commences.

"I have no place to go, no one likes to live in a place like this, it is because we don't have the money to take good houses that we are here," Gideon Adams, a resident, said.

Meanwhile no notice has been served on the communities by the Lagos State government, nor has any meeting been held on the regeneration plan.

A clergyman within the community, Moruf Bello, said he made some payments to the Olotto of Otto-land to get land allocated to him in the slum.

'I came here because of church. When I got here like 27 years ago, everywhere was water, it was a swampy area. I met with the Olotoo of Otto land and they measured this place for me. I got here with the intention to buy land and they collected about N180,000 from me.

"Since then, I have been here inside this water, filling up this place to make it look like this," he said pointing to the church building which was filled with water.

Mr Bello said the community has been set on fire about three times in the past, to force residents out.

Musbau Agbodemu, the CDA chairman of Otto-Ilogbo said the deficit in housing for the teeming population of Lagosians led to hundreds of thousands of families living in the slums.

"We have been here since 1996, developing this place and when the government and the so-called land grabbers realized that this place is developing into a community, they started with their antics and different policies that they want to take over this place.

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The CDA chairman said the recent announcement of the regeneration of Otto and Otumara by the Sanwo-Olu-led administration is another way being devised to take over the communities.

"They sat comfortably in one of the chambers and they designed a regeneration plan without people's consent. They are coming not for development but they are coming to demolish our expectations, our hopes," Mr Agbodemu said.

Regeneration of slums laudable, but must be 'just' - CSO

A non-profit organisation, Spaces for Change (S4C) said the plan to regenerate Otto and Otumara communities by the Lagos state government is laudable but must be in the interest of the people.

In a letter written to the Ministry of Physical planning on behalf of residents of Otto and Otumara communities, S4C urged the ministry to embark on a people-oriented project and allay fears of demolition and displacement of the people.

"While this regeneration plan is laudable and timely, the target communities fear that gentrification, demolition and displacement are usually occasioned by this kind of development.

"The communities, however, stand ready to support this laudable initiative with the hope that it will lead to major improvements in their social, economic and living conditions," the organisation wrote.

S4C urged the Lagos government to make Lagos a "Just City" and not only a Mega City.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mukaila Sanusi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Physical Planning on the regeneration plan and how it will affect residents, he explained that the project will be executed by a sister agency.

"The regeneration is being anchored by LASURA, it is carried out by the Ministry through LASURA," he said.

The spokesperson of the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA), Olatunde Olusesi, said the agency has never carried out any demolition in the state.

"LASURA has never demolished any community, if we want to do any project, we provide temporary places for people, even the one we did at Adeniji Adele.

"LASURA is not going to be demolishing any community and we have never done that," he said.
Nuusita Ashipala

The Helao Nafidi Town Council, which previously argued the appointment of a CEO is council's prerogative, has been dealt a blow after its line minister Erastus Uutoni shunned a request to extend the incumbent's term for a further year and four months.

Council will now have to advertise the position.

The council had requested for an approval for its current CEO Inge Ipinge's term to be extended from 7 August 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Ipinge is believed to be 65 and her contract ends in August.

In a communication seen by New Era, Uutoni said the extension request is not in line with Section 27 (3) (a) (1) (aa) of the Local Authority Act 1992 (Act No 23 of 1992) as amended.

According to Uutoni, the said provision requires for a CEO to occupy office for five years from the date of appointment.

"The said provision of the Act specifically requires a person, who is appointed as CEO or a staff member of a local authority council, who is promoted to the office of the CEO, to occupy that office for a period of five years from the date of his or her appointment," the communication reads.

New Era understands the council wanted to extend the contract to assist them, as the whole council, except one member, are new since the last election.

The mayor, Darius Shaalukeni, said he has received the letter from the minister but council is yet to sit to deliberate on the letter. Shaalukeni, during a previous interview, said the appointment of the CEO is the right of the council.

"The appointment of the CEO is a council's prerogative. That prerogative is not even with the minister. The minister only approves and makes recommendations," said Shaalukeni at the time.

He, however, remained tightlipped on whether the council was considering the re-appointment of the council, citing that it is a personal matter.
ONGWEDIVA  The Ongwediva Town Council has cancelled its annual Ongwediva Trade Fair, slated for August, for a second consecutive year. The council had this year planned to host 250 exhibitors on the trade fair ground and 50 virtual exhibitors. The council previously hosted up to 500 exhibitors, including international exhibitors. The popular trade fair was expected to run from 26 to 31 August 2021.

A gala dinner, which was to precede the trade fair on 3 July this year, was also cancelled. Speaking during a media briefing on Tuesday morning, council's spokesperson, Jackson Muma said the trade fair management wants to join government efforts in the fight against Covid-19 and conform to the regulations.

"The heightening risks and overwhelming concerns about Covid-19 served as a scale for the trade fair society not to proceed with the trade fair during such an unprecedented global situation," said Muma.

Muma further said although the council is disappointed that such a notable event could not take place for two consecutive years, they are convinced the cancellation remains the right decision. Meanwhile, Muma said the halls at the trade fair grounds, except the King Kauluma hall, remain open for any other bookings. "However, with the limit of the number of participants at public gatherings, the bookings have dropped, and this has a direct financial impact on what could have been generated through the hiring of halls," said Muma.
Roland Routh

The trial of fraud accused Manga Manga-Mukena, her husband Joseph Mukena and Celestino Gabriel Antonio had to be put on hold on Monday after the court was informed that one of the accused had contact with a Covid-19 positive person.

Windhoek High Court Judge Herman January had to postpone the matter to 27 September after he was informed Antonio is in isolation.

The trio pleaded not guilty on several charges of fraud alternatively theft, forgery and uttering a forged document, money laundering and obstructing or defeating the course of justice.

Nawa-Mukena faces 85 counts of fraud, she and her husband 85 counts on the alternative of theft, Nawa-Mukena alone 84 counts of forgery and uttering a forged document, and all three accused face a second count of forgery and uttering a forged document.

The Mukenas face one count of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, while all three accused face one count of money laundering. All three accused also face one count of obstructing or defeating the course of justice or attempting to do so, while Manga alone faces one count of contravening the Value Added Tax Act.

The prosecution says all charges emanate from the falsification of 80 invoices, worth N$2 088 071 for advertising services.

According to court documents, between 1 April 2013 and 17 March 2017, Mukena and her co-accused allegedly defrauded MultiChoice Namibia. The documents further state that over a period of three years, the trio falsified 85 invoices and enticed the television company to pay for advertising services that were never rendered by State-owned newspaper, Kundana.

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Allegedly, the invoices were presented with banking details but not of Kundana and - as such, the payments were made into the accused's accounts. In plea explanations Nawa-Mukena and her husband deny any wrongdoing.

According to Nawa-Mukena, everything was done above board and with the knowledge of Roger Gertze and Annarien Vorster, the general manager and finance manager, respectively, who signed off a contract entered into with a company, called Kundanam, which belongs to Antonia that was lawfully contracted by Multichoice to do some promotions for them.

Mbanga Siyomunji, who represents Antonia, said his client put the State to the proof of each and every allegation and that he retains his right to remain silent. The State is represented by Timo Iitula. Nawa-Mukena and Antonio are free on bail, while Mukena is free on a warning.
John Muyamba

RUNDU - The Shadikongoro community says they are unhappy with Mukwe constituency councillor Damian Maghambayi telling them not to take matters into their own hands as they mourn the death of a 22-year-old student, whose body was discovered on Thursday, floating in the Kavango River.

Villagers believe the young man was killed for body parts by suspected shebeen owners in the area. The victim was a student at the University of Namibia's (Unam) Rundu campus and he was reported to have disappeared in the area of Shadikongoro.

"We met the councillor - and before

handing over a complaint to him on Monday, we briefed him of what our community has been going through," said Claudia Nangura Marungu, who is part of the VDC. In their letter, addressed to the councillor, the Shadikongoro village development committee (VDC) stated that 18 people have so far been suspected to have been killed for body parts to be used in rituals by business folk.

In the recent case, the police said all body parts were intact, but the villagers said the opposite. "The community and family of the late Mukuve Fredrick Kanyanga are not happy you call upon the community not to take the law into their own hands and allow police investigations to continue," said the letter sent by the VDC to Maghambayi.

"Our response is that we refuse to wait for police investigations because similar cases had happened in our community; the police were involved to investigate but nothing has come out," the letter further stated.

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The community is organising a demonstration to air their grievances. "We demand that you invite the media to come and capture our demonstration before the burial of the late Mukuve," the letter said.

The VDC in the letter also demanded the councillor to ensure he responds to the community within days, and that failure to do that will result in them taking the law into

their own hands.

On his part, the Mukwe councillor confirmed the VDC met with him and he told them to take the letter to the police if

they wanted to demonstrate, as he can only receive the petition but not be part of the

activity.

"I told them that they must bear in mind that with the current regulation, gatherings are limited to 10 people," Maghambayi said.

"I told them no one is above the law, and we should wait for the autopsy report. As a step to clean out crime in the area, we are busy with law enforcement agencies, arranging to launch a neighbourhood watch to combat crime in the area, as the are many crime activities in the area," he said.
John Muyamba

RUNDU - A police officer on Monday afternoon injured three trial-awaiting inmates at the Rundu Police Office when he shot at inmates at the front desk.

A case of attempted murder has been opened by the Namibian Police Force internal investigations unit at Rundu.

The inmates are hospitalised at the Rundu Intermediate Hospital.

According to witnesses who were at the charge office front desk at the time of the incident, the inmates usually come to the front desk to send (with their own money) some willing officers and visitors to buy them food, as they have been starving due to lack of food supply at the holding cells - and that is what they were doing at the front desk on Monday.

However, the officer allegedly told them to return to their cells - and as they were trying to explain, he allegedly took out the gun and shot at them.

"It is not the first time the officer is doing it. There is a broken window that is still not fixed after a bullet missed an inmate during his last shooting incident and the station management is aware of it," said the source, who refused to be identified, fearing victimisation.

However, the police, in a report, said the three wounded trial awaiting inmates allegedly refused to be taken back to the police holding cells and aggressively approached a certain warrant officer, who was armed with a rifle and they allegedly attempted to assault him.

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"During the process, the member discharged two rounds that ended up striking the three inmates, causing them serious injury," said deputy commissioner Kauna Shikwambi from the Namibian police public relations office.

"One sustained slight injuries and is stable. He was allegedly injured by a ricochet. Only two sustained serious injuries," said Shikwambi.

One was seriously injured on the left leg (fracture) and the other was also seriously injured on the left leg but is in a stable condition - and the third victim also sustained serious injury to the left leg as well as in the abdomen, and they are all admitted to the Rundu intermediate hospital and are reported to be in stable conditions.

"The behaviour by the member is uncalled for and the inspector general has immediately ordered an investigation - and as such, a case of attempted murder has been registered against the suspect," Shikwambi said.

"The officer is not yet arrested, pending investigations," she noted.
Civil society organizations (CSOs) have petitioned Malawi Government through Parliament to make a supplementary budget for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines enough to carter for five million individuals in the country.

The CSOs, led by Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), delivered the petition under the banner 'Vaccine Our World', demanding that the government should set aside US$40 million for the vaccines.

Vaccine Our World' is a campaign, which aims at lobbying world leaders, vaccine manufactures and public health organizations to protect humanity by providing equal access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, particularly in lower income countries including Malawi.

Speaking during the presentation of the petition at Parliament Building in Lilongwe on Tuesday, AHF Country Program Manager Triza Hara said despite that 2021 budget was already passed in parliament; there is a need to make a supplementary budget towards procurement of Covid-19 vaccines

Hara said this is an issue that requires an urgent action and that depending on donors alone will not accord an opportunity for eligible Malawians to urgently get Covid-19 vaccination jab, a situation that can put Malawian lives at risk.

"Malawi has presently run out of first COVAX consignment of 510,000 vaccine doses of AstraZeneca which has coincided with a surge of cases in the past weeks and more demand for vaccination in the country. Delay in the arrival of 900,000 vaccine doses due to logistical challenges and the decision by India to prioritize its citizens over exporting of the vaccines has negatively impacted Malawi and the lives of Malawians are on danger and as such depending on the COVAX initiative alone will not solve Malawi's vaccine needs," she said.

Among other highlights in the petition, CSO are requesting government to urgently address the existing inequalities between rural and urban Malawians on matters around vaccine availability, accessibility and information sharing on benefits of vaccine and safety.

Receiving the petition, Member of Parliament for Thyolo South West and a Member of Parliamentary committee on Health, Chimwemwe Chipungu, said all the concerns presented in the petition are valid and that health committee will not sleep over it but to take urgent action for the benefit of all Malawians.

"This is a serious matter that needs an urgent action, I will make sure that this petition lands on speaker's desk today and us as parliamentarians in the health committee, will advance the agenda to make sure that the lives of fellow Malawians are safe," he said.

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Speaking during a round table discussion after presenting the petition, Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) executive director, George Jobe, reiterated that the global Covid-19 vaccination effort must secure $100 Billion from G20 Countries in order to produce and provide seven billion vaccine doses worldwide within one year.

Africa had expected to acquire 75 million vaccine doses but so far, only 12 million doses have been delivered and in Malawi, as of June 2021, only 426,356 people have received a Covid 19 vaccine. 2.1% of the population has received at least one dose with only 0.2% having been fully vaccinated.

Malawi launched Covid-19 vaccine campaign on 11 March 2021 in Zomba and since then the country has been depending on donations from outside institutions and countries such as Covax Facility, World Bank and government of India, among others.
Newly minted graft-busting body Chief, Martha Chizuma says the levels of corruption in Malawi are deeply shocking and astonishing to an all high, and that there is a greater need for every citizen to be responsible in fighting the cancer that is corruption.

Chizuma, who is one of the people's favourite public officers in the country, made the remarks Tuesday ahead of a public lecture under the theme: 'Understanding the role of Umunthu in dealing with the corruption in Malawi' to be held on Wednesday at Sunbird Mount Soche in Malawi's commercial city, Blantyre from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

The ACB Director General, Chizuma tweeted: " The levels of corruption in this country are staggering. We all have a moral obligation to save ourselves from the mess we have created.

"We all need you to join hands. Join us your ACB as we engage the academia for this public lecture on 'the role of umunthu in corruption fight."

Chizuma, who will be host of the show will be joined on the stage by the vice chancellor of the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) Professor Address Mauakowa Malata, as a resource person.

The public lecture will be covered live on ZBS radio and tv, Times Television (TTV) radio and it will also be streaming on Facebook live and people will be allowed to ask questions during the public lecture.

Human Rights and Social justice advocate and private practice lawyer, John-Gift Mwakhawa hailed Chizuma for the lecture saying it is timely as now more than ever as Malawians needs to acquaint themselves on dangers of corruption.

"When people are informed, they make informed decision and for Martha to come and give a lecture on corruption is an incredible feat. It is time we take matters of corruption to be taken seriously.

"For now, I can say that we are on the right path, we just all need to take our responsibility to fight corruption," said Mwakhwawa.

Chizuma is the first woman to head the corruption-fighting organisation and expectations are so high as Malawian are waiting with abated breath to see how Chizuma, known for her bulldozer attitude would execute her duties at ACB, an important organisation, which for so long has been a toothless bulldog.

With vast experience and expertise in the legal profession, Chizuma is going to ACB as the people's favourite public servant to help clean and clear the rubble.

The Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) was established by law Malawi to fight and prevent corruption as well as promoting and upholding the rule of law in the country

Section 13 of the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi committed the country to "introduce measures which will guarantee accountability, transparency, personal integrity and financial probity and which by virtue of their effectiveness and transparency will strengthen confidence in public institutions" In conformity with this commitment, Government presented a Corrupt Practices Bill, no 18 of 1995 which Parliament which was passed in December 1995. It was amended in 2004.

The ACB is a government department headed by the Director General assisted by the Deputy Director General who are both appointed by the President but whose appointment is subject to ratification by the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament.

Other officers of the Bureau are appointed by the Director General following normal procurement procedures. The finances of the Bureau are charged to the consolidated fund.

Gilton Chiwaula took took up his position as the first ACB Director on 1st March 1997 but ACB only became functional and commenced its full operations on 9th February 1998.

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Others who served as ACB directors, among others, in the recent times, include Lucas Kondowe and Reyneck Matemba.

However, ACB is a controlled legal entity as its Director General is subject to the direction and control of the Minister (of justice) on all matters of policy, but otherwise is not subject to the direction or control in the performance of his professional duties.

Over the years the ACB has not been as effective as it should due political interference and lack of independence as the Bureau needs consent from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to prosecute suspects - a legal requirement widely viewed by many legal minds as controlling and not necessary.

President Lazarus has promised Malawians that he will guarantee the needed independence to all state agencies that are tasked with the law to fight crime in the country and Chizuma's appointment seem to suggest Chakwera's intent to root out corruption in the country.
As many as 19 people have reportedly been killed during the prodemocracy protests in Swaziland (eSwatini).

The Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) reported five people had been certified dead at the Mbabane Government Hospital in the Swazi capital.

In a statement on Wednesday (30 June 2021) it said more than 50 people had been admitted to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

A dusk to dawn curfew was imposed on Tuesday after weeks of protests across Swaziland where King Mswati III rules as an absolute monarch. Pollical parties are banned from taking part in elections and groups advocating for democracy are outlawed under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

'In Nhlangano town [on Tuesday night],the military killed one person and injured at least four, including a child of about nine years old,' the CPS reported.

It added, 'Nurses from the Manzini Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital report that this morning they received three cases of protestors who died after getting shot by the military during the Tuesday night protests at Matsapha. Many more have been admitted with gunshot wounds inflicted by the military.'

It added, 'At least five people have been confirmed dead following attacks by military during the Manzini-Matsapha protests since [Tuesday] night.'

CPS said, 'In Mankayane, five have been confirmed dead, shot by the military.'

Internet connections across the kingdom have been shut down. CPS said, 'The regime used the internet blackout to invade people's homes, randomly assault, shoot and kill people, hoping that attacks would not be detected.'
A #LuandaLeaks illustration, showing how Isabel Dos Santos exploited family ties, shell companies and inside deals to build an empire.

Luanda  A Dutch court has dismissed a case brought by Isabel dos Santos in which the Angolan businesswoman demanded the removal of the judicial administrator appointed to the Esperaza Holding that in the Exem Energy and Sonangol holds an indirect share in Galp Energy.

Quoted by Portuguese newspaper Expresso, the Exem Energy, a company controlled by Isabel dos Santos, had as a shareholder her late husband, Sindika Dokolo.

On May 21, the Exem Energy demanded the removal of Camilo Schutte as judicial administrator of Esperaza Holding.

The attempt aimed to invalidate the report prepared by Schutte, which referred to the Angolan State's effort to remove the Exem and Isabel dos Santos from Esperaza.

This was to allow Sonangol take up exclusive control of th company holding 45% of Amorim Energy, the company that controls 33,34 of Galp.

The Dutch justice refused the appeal filed by Exem, that requested the Schutte removal, as part of a decision made last week and released on Monday by ICIJ - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of which the Expresso newspaper is part and which was responsible for publication of Luanda Leaks.

Effort by ICIJ to get comment on the decision, the advisory team of Isabel dos Santos failed to cooperate, until the time the story was published by ICIJ.

The Esperaza trustee prepared a report that may compel the Dutch justice to declare as null the agreement through which, in 2006 the Exem secured the purchase of an indirect asset of 6% in Galp.

Under this agreement, the Exem (of Sindika Dokolo and Isabel dos Santos) acquired 40% of Esperaza (owner of 45% of Amorim Energy).

However, most of the amount for this acquisition had been incurred by Sonangol, which remained with 60% of Esperaza, in an loan that Exem would only have to pay after 10 years.

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According to the Expresso newspaper, the report that Camilo Shutte completed last May considers null the purchase agreement of 40% of Esperaza by Exem and as invalid the payment of a dividend of 52.6 million Euros to Exem in 2017.

The administrator concluded as well that Sonangol is the only legitimate beneficiary of Esperaza, whose indirect share in Galp is of 15%. Up to date, 9% was attributed to Sonangol and the remaining 6% to Isabel dos Santos.

Esperaza administrator highlighted in his report that the 2006 agreement allowed the Exem to secure a 40% share in Esperaza, worth 115 million Euros, only paying 75 million, of which 11 million at the head and the remainder on a deferred basis.

The same official states that this transference of public assets of Sonangol to the family members of the former president of Angola, through a transaction that was hidden from the public and that implies a transference of state assets of high value to its particular side, in a exchange of an unreal economic assessment shows that the Exem transaction is part of a corruption activity and a money laundering scheme.

The administrator indicates that it will be up to the Dutch Public Prosecutors Office to assess whether the facts that occurred in 2006 are likely to constitute other criminal offences.
Luanda  The Law on Legal Regime of Real Estate Registry, which comes into force soon, facilitates better planning and management on occupation and use of national land, said Tuesday the State Secretary for Land Planning, Ana Paula de Carvalho.

Of the initiative of the Head of State, the Law was approved definitely with 180 votes in favor, none against and no abstentions, during the 7th Extraordinary Plenary Meeting of the Parliament.

Ana Paula de Carvalho told a First Conference on Property Registration that such a legal instrument will also improve the Registration process and allow greater impact on the Real Estate Registry.

"Angola gained an instrument that will improve the registration of property as well as the control and advantage of the natural sources and public works", highlighted the official.

The conference recommended the need to extend the property registration countrywide, adding that the process to grant the land should start from municipal administrations.

The Law on Legal Regime of Real Estate Registry stipulates that each registered building holds an identity through a code number called Property Identification Number (NIP).
Luanda  Multi-sector Commission for Prevention and Combat Covid-19 has called on political parties in Angola to strictly comply with the Presidential Decree on Situation of Public Calamity.

The appeal was made by the Commission's coordinator, Francisco Pereira Furtado, on Tuesday who urged for the need to step up biosafety measures.

Speaking at the meeting with representatives of the parties with Parliamentary seat, Furtado spoke of the need to respect and enforce the guidelines from the health authorities while performing their duty.

Francisco Furtado stressed the importance of abiding by the measures saying that the move can help the Executive to deal with Covid-19, rather than promoting actions that worsen the country's epidemiological situation.

"Let us roll up our sleeves, combine efforts and open a new front against Covid-19. Let us teach people how to make use of masks, ensure hand hygiene and maintain social distancing", he stressed.

The official regretted, on the other hand, the fact of the political parties to hold their activities in a way that promote the dissemination and spread of virus, violating the Presidential Decree that bans political rallies that bring together more than 50 people, in Luanda, and more than 100 people in the other parts of the country.
Luanda  The country's authorities have announced plans to resume the construction and completion works of the new Luanda International Airport, estimated at 1.4 billion dollars.

This was announced by minister of Transport, Ricardo de Abreu, at the end of the Meeting of the Cabinet Council of Economic Commission.

The minister said the funding will ensure the conclusion of the project adding that there will be no need to resort to additional financing.

"During the negotiation with the contractor we came to an agreement on the limit of the available amount, estimated at USD 1.4 billion", the minister added.

The minister said that 33.6 percent of this amount has already been implemented.

According to the official, the understanding is the result of negotiation the Operation Office of the new International Airport of Luanda held with the contractor and supervisor of the work.

Ricardo de Abreu also said that the covid-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the re-launch of all the works of the new international airport.

Also conditioned the works was the negotiation on the financing with China, the normalization of funding conditions as well as the agreement of the financing source with the work supervisor.

However, the official assured that conditions have been created to

re-launch the construction works of the new International Airport of Luanda in all its components.

The minister highlighted that in the physical terms the airport is already with the implementation of about 56 per cent, adding that 12 more months were added to complete all the engineering works.

A pre-study on Master Plan of Icolo e Bengo Airport City, to complement to the new Luanda international airport, was presented at the meeting, with public or private partnership management and governing model to launch a set of actions for implementation of project of the new Icolo e Bengo Airport City.
Algiers  President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has appointed Aimen Benabderrahmane as the new Prime Minister, instructing him to continue consultations with political parties and civil society to "shortly" designate the government, said the Presidency of the Republic in a statement.

"Under the provisions of the Constitution, including Article 91, paragraphs 5 and 7, President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune appointed Wednesday Aimen Benabderrahmane, as the new Prime Minister, charging him to continue consultations with political parties and civil society to "shortly" designate the government.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) which Africa's greatest raconteur and novelist founded at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, the Anambra State Government has endowed a one-million naira (N1 million) worth Chinua Achebe Prize for Nigerian Writing.

The Prize is to be administered by ANA founded in 1981.

The state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba, made the endowment known in Awka, the Anambra State capital, while speaking to journalists today.

Mr Adinuba reported Governor Willie Obiano as stressing that Achebe deserves celebration not only in his native Anambra State but also all over Nigeria, Africa and the world as the globally acclaimed "father of African literature".

The Chinua Achebe Prize for Nigerian Writing will be awarded to the best novel published by a Nigerian writer in each calendar year.

The prize will be distinctive from the usually awarded ANA Fiction Prize, ANA Poetry Prize, ANA Drama Prize etc., in that it will draw entries from distinguished publishers in Nigeria, Africa and the world.

The Nigerian Diaspora that rates quite high on the literary front will through the Chinua Achebe Prize for Nigerian Writing identify strongly with the home front.

Chinua Achebe blazed a trail in world literature when he published the classic Things Fall Apart on June 17, 1958 at barely 27 years of age. The novel has since been translated to well over 60 languages and ignited a boom in African writing. The other novels of Achebe are No Longer At Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People, and Anthills of the Savannah.

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By instituting the Chinua Achebe Prize for Nigerian Writing, the Anambra State Government has written its name in history as the first state government in Nigeria to honour a writer.

Camilus Uka, professor of literature at Imo State University and ANA president, has praised Governor Obiano for the honour to Achebe.

"In an era of crass philistinism in Nigeria", he declared in a telephone conversation with Commissioner Adinuba this morning, "it is reassuring that there are top government officials like Chief Obiano who appreciate ideas, letters and culture".

Professor Uka said that the governor's gesture has galvanised ANA to consider holding a meeting in Awka to mark the association's 40th anniversary as it has already done in some Nigerian cities.

Vanguard News Nigeria
opinion

In mid-February, this year, electricity consumers in Orisumbare in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State heaved a great sigh of relief. Ikeja Electric, IKEDC, after almost a year, agreed to restore electricity to the community.

This came after the community was compelled to pay a huge amount of money. It is also worth stressing that several meaningful socio-economic activities in the area were already brought to a complete standstill.

The same source of relief is fast turning into a burden too heavy to bear. There is equally no clear sign that the excruciating pain is ending very soon. Therefore, the consumers are clearly left to lick their wounds and prepare for whatever IKEDC throws at them.

22 Lagos communities ask IKEDC for disconnection

The questions are endless and the desired answers are not even provided. How does one justify the billing of a one-bedroom apartment, with one or absolutely nothing to be counted as a power-consuming appliance, as high as N30,000 in a month? How does one justify that a house, with an unoccupied shop, is considered as a commercial building and must be billed as high as N60,000 in a month?

The acquisition of pre-paid metre is consistently touted as the best alternative to estimated billings. Findings, however, showed that most electricity consumers in Orisumbare, who got theirs after long years of waiting, are equally wailing. This further confirmed that whatever is issued by IKEDC as a bill is even beyond the reach of the rich.

It is clear that power distributors across the country, not consumers, are king. The staff of IKEDC, however, operate more like kings. They are having an unchallenged run as super-powerful emperors. In short, the manner and time they go about disconnecting so-called defaulters is strong enough to overpower the strongest of hearts.

Meanwhile, most electricity consumers in Orisumbare have been using legitimate channels in engaging and expressing their grievances. There is, however, nothing suggesting that IKEDC is concerned about how its billings translate into unimaginable hardship for the consumers. How long will electricity consumers in Orisumbare cry over this burden that is extremely heavy to bear?

*Odiaka, a media practitioner, wrote from Lagos
A DAY after Ibom Air took delivery of two brand new Airbus A220-300 aircraft at Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, on June 14, an elated Governor Udom Emmanuel put a call through to Captain Mfon Udom.'

"You guys did it again," he told Udom, Ibom Air Chief Executive Officer. Magnanimity and humility, virtues of the heart, are the essence of leadership - and Emmanuel possesses them in abundance.

"When you sold your vision on Ibom Air to me a few years ago, I had no doubt that despite all odds, it was a good idea," Udom answered.

Ibom Air, owned by the Akwa Ibom State government, is Emmanuel's baby and a soaring success story. But in his humility, he gives credit to others for the giant strides the airline has taken in just two years.

When he mooted floating an airline in 2019, he was opposed vigorously, but he held on to his vision informed solely by a desire for the government to maximise common good.

"When we started Ibom Air, I made known my target, that when I came into office, I met one private jet and that before I leave office, I will not leave without at least 10 airplanes that will be beneficial to all Akwa Ibomites. We are pursuing that goal," he reminded Udom.

"Fellow Akwa Ibomites," the governor called out, turning to the entire indigenes in ululation. "We have some exciting news. As you may already know, we have recently taken delivery of two brand new Airbus A220-300 series, the latest in aircraft manufacturing.

"I want to say here that this is huge, it is exciting news, it is good news and we are working tirelessly to become the preferred airline in the entire region. This makes us one of the fastest and finest in the aviation history and this wouldn't have been possible without one man, the CEO of Ibom Air."

Nigerians love bandying cliches, particularly if the goal rationalises the failures of governments and incapacities of those who straddle the corridors of power. Too often, you are inundated with platitudes such as "it is not government's business to own businesses."

Who says? At issue is not the inability of governments to run businesses successfully. Globally, governments do the heavy lifting that clears the way for private sector participation, and businesses have been run successfully by governments.

What is bandied as evidence of the inability of successive governments in Nigeria to run businesses that impact positively on citizens is failure of leadership. When leadership is devoid of vision and strategic thinking, governments fail in business. The bourgeoning success of Ibom Air also amplifies the leadership mantra that when vision meets passion, success is assured. The airline is pivotal in Emmanuel's vision of making the oil-rich state a sub-Saharan industrial hub.

"Our blueprint to becoming an industrial hub hinges around opening major gateways of air, sea and land," he explains.

He sees the delivery of the two aircraft as a milestone. "On Ibom Air, it is a major breakthrough in the entire region. In the entire Gulf of Guinea, I think this is the first airline to fly this latest in aircraft manufacturing.

"The success of this airline holds immense benefit to the people of Akwa Ibom. It shows our positive attitude, it shows the people our creative mind, it shows our people our capacity; how we can weather the storm.

"And it shows the people that we are the eagle that can fly no matter the weather condition."

Besides, it shows that leadership matters. Emmanuel has every right to crow. He is accomplishing what no other government, state or federal, is able to do. Since the deregulation of the aviation industry in 1985, no state government has come close.

And the Federal Government has floundered in its attempt to float another national carrier since the liquidation of Nigeria Airways Limited, NAL, by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004.

As Emmanuel noted: "Never in the history of this nation or indeed anywhere else in Africa that I can recall, has a state government gone into airline operations."

Being the first state to achieve that feat, the governor deserves a pat on the back. But again, characteristically, he gives it back to the people. "We should all collectively give ourselves a pat on the back."

Established in June 2019 with a single Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft, the airline grew its fleet to five by October 2020.

Remarkably, all the five Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft were less than five years old when acquired, and equipped with the latest aviation technology, including the sought after HEPA filters that clear the air of contaminants like the COVID-19 virus.

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With the acquisition of the two Airbuses, which took the fleet to seven, Ibom Air is now one of Africa's most vibrant startup airlines. A very young airline on the continent is poised to dramatically change Nigeria's aviation landscape for good.

But it was not happenstance. The choice of aircraft was strategic.

"The reason is that with the right aircraft type, we don't have to carry a hundred passengers in order to make good the business," explained George Uriesi, Ibom Air Chief Operating Officer.

"Our break-even point is lower than [that of] many of our competitors, and as long as we have a certain number of passengers per flight, we are comfortable; and certainly, the market provides the number of passengers per flight. As long as we have those passengers or more, we [will] continue to be profitable."

Aviation experts concur that Bombardier CRJ900 with capacity for 76 to 90 passengers and a range of 1,553 nautical miles (2,876 km) are very useful.

The range has enabled Ibom Air to open up several routes from its Victor Attah International Airport hub in Uyo to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar; Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu; and Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

But the airline nursed, ab-initio, an ambitious route expansion strategy beyond the national airspace. The Airbuses are meant to make Uyo a continental aviation hub, and that seems to have been kick started.

Gambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mohamadou Musa Njie, recently went to Uyo to discuss with Emmanuel the prospects of Ibom Air flying to Banjul, The Gambia. That was even before the Airbuses were acquired.

Beyond acquiring more aircraft, the state government is also modernising the aviation infrastructure. To actualise its ambition for international flights, it is constructing an international terminal at Victor Atta Airport and concluding arrangements for an in-house maintenance, repair, and overhaul, MRO, facility at the airport.

"We are going to have the smartest airport terminal building in the whole of Africa and that is under construction. We are going to commission the terminal building by December 2021 and once we commission it, we are going to start full international flights of Ibom Air by the first quarter of 2022," Emmanuel said in October 2020.

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Those who believe that governments cannot run businesses successfully should borrow Emmanuel's template, which is, when a government runs a business as business to promote efficiency and eliminate cronyism, it succeeds.

Ibom Air is a classic example. Though funded by the state, there is absolute absence of government interference in its day-to-day operations. It was set up as a going business concern and professionals knowledgeable about aviation business were brought on board and given a free hand to run the airline.

Captain Udom is fully in-charge. If the governor wants to travel with the airline, he buys his ticket. There is no complimentary ticket. He must be at the check-in counter 45 minutes before departure. Flights are not delayed for him. And every other person has fallen in line.

Within two years, Ibom Air has won the hearts of air travellers for efficiency, quality services, safety, keeping to schedule and high level professionalism by the staff by keeping to its three core values of schedule reliability, on-time departures and excellent service - the three key yearnings of the average Nigerian Air travel passenger.

"Investors will continue to flock into our state, given the ease of traveling; the launch of this airline will engender the peace we enjoy and the hospitality of our people. We are all winners in this," Emmanuel promised Akwa Ibomites at the launch in 2019.

How prescient! But in delivering so handsomely on his promise, even as others continue to lament over economic crunch, Udom Emmanuel, the governor of Akwa Ibom State, has become the quintessential Eagle that flies regardless of weather condition.
BY accident, the author had stumbled on a published video clip on YouTube entitled: "Send them back: The Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens". A profound debate moderated by the famous Sudanese-British radio and television journalist "Zainab Badawi".

This was published by "The Intelligence Squared" (a nonpartisan, non-profit organisation in the US aimed at restoring civility, reasoned analysis and constructive public discourse).

The video presents a profound debate reinforcing the need to bring back or reunite looted treasures or artefacts to their source of origin or the creative owners from where they were removed. Arguably, they are loot, the spoils of war, often perceived these days as pillage with dishonest intent. Though this video was specifically about The Parthenon Marble carted from Athens in Greece, there were similar insinuations and remarks in the video (the particular clip of interest) about the Benin Bronzes that were carted away in 1897.

This was discussed by Oba Erediauwa of Benin (1923-2016) in an interview with Art Historian Gus Casely-Hayford in February 2013, exploring "The history of the Lost Kingdoms of West Africa, with particular attention to the 16th-century bronzes from the kingdom of Benin".

He maintains that these Benin Bronzes and artefacts were records, plaques and symbols of the Benin people, commissioned by the reigning Oba (King) of Benin, to depict or record significant events for posterity.

This view was further elucidated by another high-ranking royal (Prince Edun Akenzua) who claims that these looted artefacts were significant records, and thus represent "several chapters of history".

This is the history of the Benin people, apparently forcibly removed by the British in the aftermath of the "Benin Massacre" imbroglio. Historical records are indispensable in understanding the present, the future and the workings of any society. History, therefore, presents an inherent part of societal evolution; and in human evolution, societies, communities and peoples' development are mutually intertwined.

Therefore, mutual respect of the culture and beliefs of others, listening and respecting other people's opinion is globally considered a civilized norm. It is considered a fundamental in British values.

This was clearly exemplified in 1815 by Arthur Wellesley (the first Duke of Wellington) after the Battle of Waterloo when he repatriated the artwork plundered by Napoleon to Italy.

These artworks would have been the spoils of war following the resounding defeat of the French armies; and were particularly susceptible to that fate considering the huge cost of the war. However, in the spirit of good conscience, the Duke refrained from plundering France and repatriated France's prior seizures from Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Prussia.

According to Wellesley, the moral decision to "restore" the art to its proper context, that is the country of origin, or its heirs, was overwhelming. This magnanimity of Arthur Wellesley has conscientiously constituted an ethical precedent.

It's my view that such precedent, consistent with the right argument and dialogue, could advance the pace of art, artefact and cultural heritage restitution and repatriation globally. Precedents are a significant facet of the Common Law legal system practised in the UK. Precedents provide stability and moderation for the rule of law, to say nothing of the fact that the rule of law is also a significant British and European value system.

With the law of precedent, natural justice and good conscience, the case for the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes and other artefacts is overwhelming. The mode of repatriation may be subject to dialogue and deliberations in mutual respect and understanding.

The outcome of such dialogue would undeniably amount to victory; victory for contemporary diplomacy over the application of the brute "rule of the jungle" which seems to have characterized the 19th century Anglo-African relations. It would amount to a victory for all parties!

Another contemporary precedent worthy of note is the offer by the Victoria and Albert Museum to return Ethiopia's looted Maqdala treasures on a long-term loan, which strengthens the argument for the return of the Benin Bronzes carted in similar circumstances.

A similar model for the repatriation of looted artefacts is being contemplated for the Benin Bronzes, bearing in mind the assurances provided by the current Oba of Benin (Oba Ewaure II) and the Edo State Government for the provision of a world-class social tourism infrastructure to house and secure these artefacts. It is important to add that Oba Ovoramen of Benin was found not guilty of the Benin Massacre in 1897 by the British Government.

Yet his palace was burnt, ravaged and plundered and he was subsequently forced into exile to Calabar. This clearly suggests that it wasn't the Benin Massacre of 1897 that led to the punitive British expedition. Whatever it was, it wasn't disclosed to the British public and taxpayers at the time. Apparently, the British taxpayers (at the time) were deceived into believing that the Benin Massacre was the obscenity that led to the British invasion of Benin in 1897.

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History now has it that the Benin Massacre imbroglio and the consequent military invasion were prearranged and driven by the economic interest of the time. Furthermore, the ordeal of Oba Ovoramen was a complete travesty of all norms of natural justice and precedents.

In the light of the unfair treatment to which Oba Ovoramen of Benin was subjected (i.e. the flagrant disregard to the law of natural justice and precedents), and the entire deception underpinning the massacre in 1897, the British Government should reconsider the provision of some form of 'voluntary restitution' through the provision of logistical support to the state government for the realisation of the intended tourism infrastructure for Edo State.

All attempts - constructive dialogue and efforts - to repatriate Benin Bronzes from around the world (that is the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Germany and the United States) to the Oba of Benin's Palace, from where they were stolen, will boost tourism and tourism infrastructure in Edo State and Nigeria; and will be very well received by the Benin people and all well-wishers with good conscience.

VANGUARD
The Senate on Wednesday passed the Firearms Act 2004 (Amendment) Bill 2021 raising the fine for illegal importation and sale of firearms from N1,000 to N1 million.

The Bill was passed after it considered the report of its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

Presenting the report, Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Michael Bamidele, said "the fine was pegged at N1,000 in the extant Act which was not punitive enough to deter illegal importation and sale of firearms."

Section 35 of the Bill was also amended to impose a fine of N3 million or imprisonment for three years or both on anyone who failed to surrender illegal firearms to relevant authorities whenever so directed.

"Clause 39 of the Bill, which deals with power to seize and destroy confiscated illegal firearms, was amended to provide for inclusion of other law enforcement agencies besides the Police and the military.

"This is necessary because the power to confiscate or seize illegal firearms should be all-inclusive and not limited to a particular arm of force or law enforcement agency," Bamidele said.

The Bill also amended Sub-clauses (4) and (5) of Clause 39 to allow firearms that are not of military serviceable grades but are serviceable to be deployed for use by Civilian Joint Task Forces and registered vigilance groups.

This has to be done with the approval and supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser, however.

"This is important because these joint task forces are also funded by the government," Bamidele stressed.

He noted that the Bill had become imperative in view of the proliferation of firearms and the security challenges the country was faced with.

Vanguard News Nigeria
The Court of Appeal, Yola Division, Adamawa State, has affirmed the conviction of Ibrahim Mohammed Umar, a former electoral officer with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Yola South Local Government Area.

A statement by EFCC's Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said "Umar and his accomplice had earlier been convicted of a three count charge by an Adamawa State High Court and sentenced to Seven (7) years imprisonment for receiving monetary benefit (bribery) to the tune of N362 million, being part of the bribe allegedly distributed by a former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke to influence the outcome of the 2015 elections."

The statement reads: "Umar was arraigned alongside a former staff of a new generation bank by the EFCC on September 28, 2018. During the trial, EFCC called 14 witnesses and tendered several documents which were admitted in evidence.

Justice Nathan Musa, in his judgment, held that EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt as investigation proved that the convict was identified as the person who signed and collected the said sum and was unable to account for its whereabouts.

"He was therefore convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment without an option of fine on all the counts.

"Dissatisfied with the judgement, the convict approached the Court of Appeal, Yola Division on March 4, 2020 asking that the judgment of the lower court be set aside.

"The appellate court on April 14, 2021 delivered its judgement, wherein it unanimously affirmed the judgment of the lower court."
Nairobi  Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Secretariat are accusing the five-judge High Court bench that nullified the constitutional amendments saying they ignored there submission indicating that Suna East MP Junet Mohammed and former Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru are the promoters of initiative.

In his submission before the seven-judge Appeals Court bench, lawyer Otiende Amollo said the ruling failed to address the process in its entirety, like the functions of the secretariat as well as the promoters of the Bill.

"Against all evidence, which was not controverted, the promoters were Waweru and Junet but the (High) Court insists on finding that His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta was the promoter of this Initiative," he said.

Amollo went on to explain that President Kenyatta cannot be prevented from exercising his political right to support an idea in which he feels aligns with his thinking.

The Raireda MP narrated the process Mohammed and Waweru took in collecting the 1 million signatures in support of the proposed amendments, which were then reduced into a Bill and it's at that point that the popular initiative started.

According to Amollo, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission sent a letter to the counties and confirmed that the duo are the promoters of the BBI.

He accused the High Court judges of practicing judicial activism and subverting the will of millions of Kenyans who endorsed the process, with the help of a section of politicians opposed to the BBI process and members of the civil society.

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The Rarieda MP pointed out that the five judge-bench coined the word 'initiator' to explain that the subject referred to as the above was behind the initiative.

"Having realised that the President was not the prompter, the Court then coined a term initiator which does not exist in Article 57. There is only a promoter and the supporter, in respect this word (initiator) is then used in the judgement to camouflage the difficulty to identify the promoters," he explained.

Otiende cautioned that if the ruling by the High Court was allowed to stand, it would make it impossible for any Kenyan to initiate an amendment to the Constitution as it will force the promoter to go through all the steps involved in law from collecting signatures all the way to Parliament.

"Those prescriptions by the Court are impossible to achieve. They are eutopic. There were over 4 million signatures and not a single person came out to complain that my name was there erroneously," the Rarieda MP said.
Washington / Khartoum  The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have announced that Sudan is to benefit from $50 billion in foreign debt relief, effectively reducing the country's current estimated $56 billion foreign liability to $6 billion over three years.

A joint statement from Washington yesterday says that at a meeting on Monday, the Executive Boards of the World Bank's International Development Association and the IMF have determined that "Sudan has taken the necessary steps to begin receiving debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative". Sudan is the 38th country to reach what is known as known as the "HIPC Decision Point".

"This decision is an important milestone which will support Sudan's reform and development agenda and our efforts to move away from the past and foster better lives for our people," said Sudan's Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok. "The journey leading to this decision required hard work, dedication and strong partnership with the international community. This is a big day for Sudan and reaffirms that all the efforts and sacrifices of Sudanese people are recognised and rewarded. The government of Sudan expresses its appreciation to the IMF, the World Bank Group, and other partners for their unwavering support and to the Sudanese people for their resilience, patience, and dedication in these trying times."

'This is a big day for Sudan and reaffirms that all the efforts and sacrifices of Sudanese people are recognised and rewarded' - PM Abdullah Hamdok

In a statement today in reaction to the decision, the Chairman and Members and of the Transitional Sovereignty Council lauded "the great role played by France by hosting the Paris Conference to Support Sudan, and contributed to mobilisation of regional and international support for writing off Sudan's foreign debts".

The TSC , also commended the efforts exerted by the international financial institutions, the World Bank and IMF which contributed through contacts and talks, in this connection.

'Debt will be irrevocably reduced'

The World Bank/IMF statement says that the debt relief will support Sudan in implementing essential reforms to improve the lives of its people by allowing the freeing up of resources to tackle poverty and improve social conditions.

"Sudan's external public debt will be irrevocably reduced-through HIPC debt relief and other debt relief initiatives anchored to the HIPC initiative-by more than US$50 billion in net present value terms, representing over 90 per cent of Sudan's total external debt-if it reaches the HIPC Completion Point in about three years' time."

It also points out that as Sudan continues on its path towards peace, stability and development after more than 30 years of isolation from the international financial system, the normalisation of its relations with the international community will enable access to critical additional financial resources to strengthen the economy and improve social conditions.

'This is a potentially transformative outcome for a nation of 44 million people that has suffered conflict, instability, and economic isolation for decades - World Bank Group President David Malpass

"Today marks an important milestone that will enable Sudan to significantly reduce its debt burden. This is a potentially transformative outcome for a nation of 44 million people that has suffered conflict, instability, and economic isolation for decades," said World Bank Group President David Malpass following Mondays' decision. "The World Bank has been providing pre-arrears clearance grants to Sudan and supporting the Sudan Family Support Programme, and I am looking forward to further scaling up our engagement to improve the living conditions of the Sudanese people."

'I would like to congratulate the Sudanese government and people for their steadfast efforts over the past year leading to this historic milestone under challenging conditions' - IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva

"I would like to congratulate the Sudanese government and people for their steadfast efforts over the past year leading to this historic milestone under challenging conditions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director. "Successful reform efforts have laid the groundwork for fostering inclusive economic growth and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people. Sudan needs to sustain and expand the implementation of these reforms-and in doing so it can count on the IMF's continuous support to secure a more prosperous future."

Sudan is committed to strengthening macroeconomic stability; implementing policies to reduce poverty; and putting in place a set of reforms focused on fiscal sustainability, exchange rate flexibility, expanding the social safety net, strengthening the financial sector and improving governance and transparency, in order to reach the HIPC Completion Point. The World Bank and the IMF will continue working together to provide the technical assistance and policy guidance needed by the authorities to achieve these goals, including in the context of the new, 39-month IMF financial arrangement, the statement says.

In addition, following the arrears clearance, the World Bank has unlocked substantial project financing through IDA, which will provide nearly US$2 billion in grants for poverty reduction and sustainable economic recovery-with a focus on enhancing competitiveness, transparency and accountability; increasing investment in irrigation and agriculture to support sustainable livelihoods; supporting access to energy, water, health, and education; creating jobs; and creating entrepreneurship opportunities for women and youth.

The Head of the United Nations Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes has hailed Sudan's joining the ranks of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) is important step that will lead to its debt relief. "The move will open spheres of cooperation with development and funding partners to back up sustainable development , combat poverty and increase investment," Perthes commented via social media.

At the start of the HIPC process, Sudan's total public- and publicly guaranteed external debt was estimated at US$56.2 billion in NPV terms. Application of traditional debt relief mechanisms reduces this debt to US$30.9 billion.

Additional debt relief under the enhanced HIPC Initiative is estimated at US$23.3 billion in NPV terms. Of this amount, US$4.6 billion, US$17.0 billion, and US$1.7 billion are projected to be provided by official multilateral, bilateral, and commercial creditors, respectively.

Paris Club creditors have provided financing assurances for interim debt relief to Sudan . The largest Paris Club creditors for Sudan are France, Austria, the United States, Belgium, and Italy. The IMF Executive Board has approved interim debt relief assistance on debt service falling due to the IMF in the period between the HIPC Decision and Completion Points. At the HIPC Completion Point, Sudan's current debt due to the IMF will be paid with the proceeds of voluntary financial contributions that have been received from over 100 IMF members, including many low-income countries.

Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). MDRI debt relief from IDA and the African Development Bank would cancel all remaining claims at the Completion Point.

Altogether, Sudan's external debt burden is expected to fall from about US$56 billion (163 percent of GDP) in NPV terms as of end-2020 to US$6 billion (14 percent of GDP) once the Completion Point is reached and with the participation of all creditors.

IMF and World Bank Arrears Clearance Operations

Arrears to IDA were cleared on March 26, 2021 through bridge financing provided by the United States, reimbursed with the proceeds of a Development Policy Grant primarily funded from IDA's Arrears Clearance Set Aside in IDA19.

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Arrears to the African Development Bank Group were cleared on May 12, 2021 through bridge financing provided by the government of the United Kingdom and contributions from Sweden and Ireland. The bridge loan from the UK was reimbursed via the proceeds of a Policy Based Operation Grant.

Arrears to the IMF were cleared on June 29, 2021 with the assistance of bridge financing from the government of France, which the authorities reimbursed using front-loaded access under the new IMF financial arrangement.

The HIPC Initiative

In 1996, the World Bank and IMF launched the HIPC Initiative to create a framework in which all creditors, including multilateral creditors, can provide debt relief to the world's poorest and most heavily indebted countries to ensure debt sustainability, and thereby reduce the constraints on economic growth and poverty reduction imposed by the unsustainable debt service burdens in these countries. To date, 38 HIPC-eligible countries, including Sudan, have reached Decision Point, of which 36 have reached Completion Point.

Created in 2005, the aim of the MDRI is to further reduce the debt of eligible low-income countries and provide additional resources to help them reach their development objectives. Under the MDRI, three multilateral institutions-the World Bank's IDA, the IMF and the African Development Fund-provide 100 percent debt relief on eligible debts to qualifying countries, at the time they reach the HIPC Initiative Completion Point. Sudan will receive additional debt relief under the MDRI from the World Bank Group and the AfDB Group, but it is not eligible for MDRI debt relief from the IMF because Sudan does not have any outstanding MDRI-eligible loans from the IMF. Sudan, however, is expected to be considered by the IMF for "beyond HIPC" debt relief, as was done in the case of Liberia and Somalia, which would amount to 100 percent debt relief on eligible debt from the IMF.
One of the weapons surrendered to the DCI by Citizen TV, following an expose on illegal weapons, as pictured during a press conference by DCI boss George Kinoti on April 20, 2021.

Khartoum  The Wali (governor) of Khartoum state has issued a decree prohibiting individuals and groups from carrying and possessing knives and edged weapons in public places. He also issued a decree banning motorcycles without licence plates in the state.

The edged weapons decree prohibits the sale and transport of edged weapons within the state borders. Violators face imprisonment and a fine.

Khartoum Wali, Ayman Khaled, stipulated that the decree prohibited the sale or transfer of knives from one person to another. It excludes those whose profession requires the possession of knives within the limits of their places of work, as well as arms dealers, according to certification.

The state has seen a surge in knife-related crime during the first quarter of 2021. There have been 153 reports under Article 130 of the penal code in Khartoum. Knives were reportedly used in 131 of these crimes.

Khaled also issued a decree banning unlicensed motorcycles without plates in the state The decree specified penalties for violators of imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months and a fine of SDG 300,000, with forfeiture of the motorcycle.
Justice Basiru V.P. Mahoney has given Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Attorney General, three days to reply to the voters' card attestation case brought to Court by two civil society groups and the Councilor of Box Bar Ward in Banjul.

In this case, the appellants are Gambia Participates who were represented by Marr Nyang, the Executive Secretary, Councilor Abdou Aziz Gaye of Box Bar Ward and Center for Research and Policy Development, who were represented by Sait Matty Jaw, whilst the respondents are the Mayor of Banjul Rohey Malick Lowe, who was absent, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), who were represented by Sulayman Joof, the Director of Administration at the Commission and the Attorney General.

Lawyer Abdoulie Fatty appeared for the appellants, while Lawyer Sasum Sillah appeared for the Mayor; Lawyer Kebba Sanyang appeared for the IEC and Lawyer Binga D. the Director of Civil Litigation, appeared for the Attorney General.

The lawyers for the respondents informed the Court that they needed time to reply to the arguments filed by the appellants and on this basis, Justice Mahoney gave them three days to file their responses to the case and adjourned the case to Monday for the lawyers to make their oral arguments on behalf of their clients. Lawyers Fatty and Sillah both requested for forty five minutes to argue, whereas Lawyers Sanyang and Binga both requested thirty minutes each to make their oral arguments. Their requests were granted by the Judge.

For the information of the readers, 'Gambia Participates' and the Centre for Research and Policy Development (both civil society organizations), and the Councilor for Box Bar Ward in Banjul North Abdou Aziz Gaye, filed a summon before the High Court on 23rd June 2021, against the Mayor of Banjul (Rohey Malick Low), the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Attorney General, challenging the legality and validity of the mandate accorded the Mayor, to issue attestations to Banjulians, in the ongoing general voter registration.

The position of the three plaintiffs is that there is no legislation (law) that mandates a "Mayor" to issue attestation to constituents in order to apply for a voters' card; that this power and authority is only vested to village Alkalos or District Chiefs (Seyfo) as per Section 12 (2) (e).

They argue that the actions of the IEC and Mayor of Banjul are in conflict with the laws governing voter registration and ultra vires and a grave violation of the Election Act and other relevant laws. The three plaintiffs contend that the issuance of attestation to the constituents of Banjul is unlawful and is not in conformity with the relevant laws governing elections in the country. The plaintiffs further argue that the Mayor of Banjul lack such powers and her action is a serious contravention of the Elections Act.

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The plaintiffs therefore want the High Court to make a declaration that the actions of the Mayor of Banjul in issuing attestations to constituents of the City of Banjul in the ongoing Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) general registration of the voters, contravenes Section 12 (2) (e) of the Elections Act. They want the Court to make a declaration that the actions of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in conferring

such power to the Office of the Mayor of Banjul to administer attestation forms generated by the IEC for the purpose of claiming voters' cards in the City of Banjul, contravenes Section 12 (2) (e) of the Elections Act and want the High Court to make an order quashing the decision of the IEC to bestow upon the Mayor of Banjul, the power and authority to issue attestations to the constituents of the City of Banjul.

Also, they want the Court to make an order setting aside all attestation forms endorsed and or issued by the Mayor of Banjul for which voters' cards were issued by the IEC.

Consequently, an order striking-out and or cancelling all voters' cards issued by the IEC which were supported by attestation forms issued and or endorsed by the Mayor of Banjul, is what they are calling for.
Stakeholders have proffered recommendation that rescinding the National Assembly's decision is a topmost pre-requisite in a bid to revive the draft constitution from its current state of coma.

The stakeholders made this and other recommendations during a recent meeting with Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and National Assembly Members, in their engagement Members to revive the draft constitution.

The meeting which was organized by the National Youth Parliament (NYP) was themed on: "Reviving the Final Draft Constitution through Parliamentary Advocacy", and was aimed to engage stakeholders in an open discussion and opinion sharing, with a view to revive the draft constitution.

Bubacarr Trawally, the event's focal person reminded the convergence that since the rejection of the draft constitution by the country's law making institution, the NYP has been making efforts to revive it from the state of coma it has been subjected to.

"This gathering solely aims to engage stakeholders in an open and frank discussion, to be able to identify challenges that impede efforts to reviving the draft constitution, as well as to proffer solutions to these challenges, with the objective of devising ways of reviving the draft, which is an integral part in strengthening our democracy," he said; that when the draft constitution was rejected by the legislature, the NYP wrote a letter to Members of the Assembly and has since been sensitizing the citizenry countrywide, to increase their awareness of the draft in a bid to revive it.

Speaking during the occasion, Dagene Jobe, Speaker of the National Youth Parliament, said since the draft constitution was put on hold, they saw it as imperative to hold such a discussion in order to revive it back.

Omar Cham, Speaker of the NYP, said they have embarked on a series of programs with the objective of reviving the draft constitution; that one of the key elements in ensuring a successful transitional justice system is the draft constitution, but it could not pass due to one reason or the other.

"As a CSO, we are very much committed towards good governance and democracy and keeping in mind the ideals of this draft constitution, as well as in considering how impactful it could be, if we are able to successfully strike a deal amongst ourselves to revive this constitution," he said; that they have decided to dedicate this important activity to discuss with 'our' National Assembly Members in order for us to identify the challenges that actually impeded the passing of the draft constitution and as well to proffer solutions in ensuring that the constitution comes into being.

Muhammed S. Bah, Vice President of the Gambia Press Union, highlighted that lack of compromise among political parties on contentious issues such as term limits and simple majority as challenges that impeded the smooth sailing of the draft constitution in parliament.

He urged all the parties to come to a compromise on these issues. This he said, will play a pivotal role in reviving the draft constitution that it is currently in a state of comma.

Saikou Marong, the member for Latrikunda Sabiji said it is crucial that the legislature has realistic dialogue on the draft constitution and ensure that the necessary Clauses are amended.

Marong called on the general public to desist from using abusive languages on lawmakers especially those who voted against the draft, adding that such abusive languages will not and cannot help remedy the situation. He urged the NYP to continue such engagement, stressing that it is pivotal in reviving the draft constitution.

Saikouba Jaurjue, the Member for Busumbala, said the process of drafting the new constitution failed since its initial stage. He however urged the NYP not to relent, saying the draft can come back, as a matter of priority, for the citizenry.

The Member for Banjul South Fatoumatta Njai, said lack of political will and interest by the executive especially the President, led to the unsuccessful passing in parliament, of the draft constitution; that this is not about contentious issues, which she said can be changed.

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"Had interest been shown by the person who brought the motion (Government) things would have changed. We all saw in September when the President gave his address without encouragement to the legislature, to actually think about reflecting on the importance of the new constitution," she said.

Omar Ceesay, the Member for Niamina East, said the retroactive Clauses are the fundamental issue blocking the passing of the draft constitution; that if the retroactive Clauses are compromised, it will undoubtedly revive the constitution. He said the legislature can also rescind its decision and proceed with the passing of the draft constitution.

These were the recommendations which were proffered during the engagement and they included but were not limited to rescinding legislative decisions on the rejection of the draft constitution, the holding of frank and realistic discussions, to compromise on the retroactive Clauses, create awareness campaign on the significance of reviving and passing the draft constitution and having dialogue with political parties.
The Gambia has on Tuesday 29th June 2021 recorded ten (10) new cases taking the total number of COVID-19 cases ever confirmed in the country to six thousand and seventy-nine.

The new cases are five males and five females with ages ranging from 27 - 82 years.

No new COVID-19-related death was registered, bringing the total number of deaths since March 2020 to one hundred and eighty-0ne.

This is the 335th national situation report since the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in The Gambia, on the 16th March 2020. Currently, no one is in hotel quarantine but forty active cases.

Modou Njai, the Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, said eight hundred and eighty-six new laboratory test results were received from the National Public Health Lab and the Medical Research Council.

Of these, Director Njai said ten tested positive, representing a 1.1 % positivity test rate.

Three (3) new COVID-19 patients were newly discharged from treatment centers, while none got discharged at least 10 days from the day they tested positive but evaded institutional isolation. Four (4) COVID-19 patients are currently on oxygen therapy and nine (9) new contacts have been traced and are being monitored.

As of 20th June 2021, the health authorities said 102 new clients received Psychological First Aid (PFA) Services provided by MoH, Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and Paradise Foundation, thus bringing the number patients of attended to 1,931 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and senior Police heads on Tuesday headed a peace mediation team in Manduar, after the people from Manduar Mandinka-Kunda and Manduar Touba (Wollof)-Kunda, clashed over alkaloship and attestation for voters' registration.

Manduar Mandinka-Kunda and Manduar Touba (Wollof)-Kunda, who shared the same community- a few kilometres away from Brikama town, have a history of conflicts over land, ethnolinguistic issues and Alkaloship.

This long history of conflicts over land alkaloship cooked the tension, whereby the people of Mandinka-Manduar claimed that Manduar is one village with one Alkalo and that everyone should register at the village's registration centre.

But the people of Wolof Touba-Manduar dismissed that argument, saying they have their own territorial village with an Alkalo and they should only be in charge of their own voter registration.

This resulted in a confrontation, where the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) intervened and started firing tear gas to the rioters. The IEC also evacuated immediately.

But peace was immediately restored after the deployment of the paramilitary, who at the time effected some arrests.

The arrested persons were taken to Brikama Police station, where rioters attempted to launch a counter attack on the Police for detaining their colleagues. The attackers did not succeed following the reinforcement of paramilitary.

The reporters observed that the rioters briefly threw stones at the officers inside the station. According to a senior officer, who was commanding the reinforcement, an officer was injured at the spot and was immediately rushed to Brikama Health Centre.

A young man was also seen being picked up and beaten by a paramilitary officer, who escorted him to the said police station where he was detained.

At 1pm, the IEC officials and Police heads held talks with both Alkalolu and villagers. The first one was held in Manduar - Mandinka, while the second one was in Manduar Wolof-Kunda.

Anthony Robert Secka, IEC Commissioner and peace mediator at Manduar said, the two groups have a long-term problem about alkaloship.

"Now, according to the Mandinka side, they said they have only one Alkalo. Now what we have been made to understand from the governor's office is that there is an Alkalo in Touba Manduar, which the Mankinka side is not accepting. They said as far as they are concerned, there is only one Alkalo and there will be only one stamp for this station," he said.

"This is why there is a violence this morning because they said they will not allow the other Alkalo (Wolof-Kunda) to attest to his own people. The issue is a problem of Alkaloship. We are not local government authorities and therefore that is for the local authorities to take care of it."

The IEC Commissioner Secka added: "We are only concerned about electoral matters and as far as we are concerned, we are dealing with what we are being informed by the governor; that there is an Alkalo in Touba-Manduar and the Mandinka side are saying there is no other Alkalo."

Secka further said during the incident, he had to withdraw his team in the morning when there was a clash. But unfortunately, he said the issue was stabilized, saying this led the Touba Manduar people to return to their home village.

"We decided to bring the team (IEC staff) back again. As you can see, work is in process. We cannot stop because we have only a few more days left. So, it's their right to vote, it's their right to register and it's free," he said.

Commissioner Secka said they are going to report back to their office in order to strategize and see what to do and ensure the people of Touba Manduar are registered too. He said they are an institution that deals with law and all their actions are guarded by law.

"We will seek legal advice, then we will take appropriate measures. As far as we are concerned, we have only one polling station in Manduar, which is shared by both the Mankinkas and the Wolofs and that pool is the school. Where registration is done, it is important that it is also done within the village," he explained.

According to Commissioner Seacka, they have not agreed on anything yet, saying they will go and sit as a commission and see where they can find a peaceful solution to it. He said the registration is still going on and assured that people will continue to be registered.

Jerreh Bojang, the Alkalo of Manduar Mankinka-Kunda, said they do not acknowledge nor have information that Wollof-Kunda have their own Alkalo.

He said he knew this during the registration process. He said Manduar Wollof-Kunda should have sent a delegation with kola nuts and a written letter, stating an Alkalo has been appointed in Wolof-Kunda.

According to Bojang, what happened was due to a lack of communication and dialogue. He nonetheless advised his villagers to respect the registration process, including the staff of IEC

During the second discussion with the Wolof-Kunda side, villagers said since they have their own Alkalo, it is fair for them to use their own stamp to issue attestation.

An old man stood up and recalled that years back, he told the officials that during registrations, their ID cards, passports and birth certificates were seized by people of Manduar Mandinka, who will not only stop at that, but also describe them as strangers; when Police Commissioner for West Coast Region, Commissioner Pateh Bah, asked the old man whether the seizure of their documents was an issue that happened this year.

The Commissioner made it clearer to them that even him, as a Police commissioner, has no right to seize anyone's documents, noting that no other person has the right to seize their documents.

The Commissioner immediately stood up with a scroll face and left the mediation ground.

The mediation team tried to convince people of Manduar Wolof Kunda to go to the registration center, which is at Manduar Mandinka Kunda, but they refused, saying they were mercilessly attacked and beaten until some of their colleagues were seriously wounded. They instead claimed for a new registration center to be stationed at their area or elsewhere or even at the IEC building.

Alhagie Babucarr Secka, the Alkalo of Manduar Wolof Kunda, said he was appointed as Alkalo in 2012.

He said they went to the village Bantaba where the voter registration was taking place, they placed their table so that the people from Wolof Kunda could do their registration.

He said the youth from Manduar Mandinka Kunda said that would not happen because they have only one Alkalo who hails from their end. Alkalo Secka said the youth told him that he has to identify someone from Wolof Kunda to come and sit next to the Mandinka Kunda Alkalo, Jerreh Bojang. It was at this juncture, tension broke out.

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Secka said they would not go back to the village Bantaba to get registered.

According to him, they wrote to the IEC on 14 January 2021 for them to have their own registration center, but they did not receive any reply from IEC. He said they later understand that the person who delivered the letter did not take it to the right place.

IEC Official, Sambujang Njie, said after listening from the two camps, they cannot take any decision at the moment. He said they would go back and deliberate on the matter with his boss and report back to the village before Thursday on the decision made about their situation.

Mama Kaddy Manneh, resident of Manduar village, said he went for registration and learned about the incident. She said she understood that people from Manduar Suwura Kunda came with their Alkalo to be registered.

"I was there and people from Manduar Mandinka Kunda said they would not accept that because they only have one Alkalo in the village," she said.

She said even her brother's wife is in hospital because of the tear gas she inhaled which the police threw to disperse the people.

Jabbu Jeng, Amadou Tijan Jallow, and Kiaraba Jabbi, all business individuals around the Brikama Police Station, were affected by the incident. They complained that they could not sell because people from Manduar village trooped to the police station and the police threw tear gas to disperse them.
Rabat  Denmark and Morocco share a "strong and solid" relationship that has been continuously reinforced over the past 15 years, Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Jeppe Sebastian Kofod said Wednesday in Rabat.

Speaking in a press briefing following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, Kofod noted that his visit to Morocco is intended to explore the means to further develop bilateral relations.

Regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue, Kofod stressed that his country, along with the European Union (EU), is in favor of a solution based on the UN process and negotiations, adding that Denmark has always had a consistent position on this issue and continues to advocate for a solution within the framework of the United Nations.

The Danish minister commended Morocco's management of the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that talks with his Moroccan counterpart also focused on the means to ensure a sustainable economic recovery.

He also voiced his country's readiness to support Morocco during the recovery stage, recalling in this regard the Memorandum of Understanding signed Tuesday with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Morocco to strengthen the access of women and girls in vulnerable situations to essential rights and services and ensure their social and economic empowerment.

On green energy, the minister said that "Morocco is at the forefront and has a great potential," stressing that the two countries enjoy excellent cooperation in the energy sector.

Commenting the fight against terrorism, Kofod deemed Morocco as "an important partner in the fight against extremism," citing in this context its participation in the ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daech, held this week in Rome.

The Danish diplomat also congratulated the Kingdom for its co-presidency of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF).

"We also discussed migration and the importance of joint efforts in this issue," Kofod said, expressing Denmark's willingness to support the Kingdom in the fight against illegal emigration. He also thanked Morocco for its efforts undertaken in this area.
Khartoum  Leading international financial bodies are agreed in Washington that Khartoum has made the required moves entitling the Sudan to enjoy debt relief assistance within what is known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

The Executive Boards of the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said debt relief will support Sudan in implementing essential reforms to improve the lives of its people by allowing the freeing up of resources to tackle poverty and improve social conditions.

Sudan's external public debt will be irrevocably reduced-through HIPC debt relief and other debt relief initiatives anchored to the HIPC initiative-by more than US$50 billion in net present value terms, representing over 90 percent of Sudan's total external debt-if it reaches the HIPC Completion Point in about three years' time.

"My warmest congratulations to the government and the people of the Sudan on this landmark achievement, freeing the country from the heavy debt burden inherited from the past and gaining access to significant new financial resources from development partners to build the future", said the IMF Managing Director, Kristina Georgeviea.

She said this stage was reached as the various parties work together, including that the country working hard on vital economic reforms and the international community supporting debt relief for Sudan in its largest operation since the adoption of the highly indebted countries initiative.

"We in the IMF have done and will continue to do our part for Sudan's economic revival at par with the aspirations of the Sudanese people; especially the women and the youth of Sudan that led the historic transformation of the country" said Kristlina Georgieva, IMF managing Director.

Meanwhile the World Bank Group President David Malpass has stressed that the date marks an important milestone that will enable Sudan to significantly reduce its debt burden.

"This is a potentially transformative outcome for a nation of 44 million people that has suffered conflict, instability, and economic isolation for decades," he said following the World Bank Executive Board discussion on June 28, 2021.

He said the World Bank has been providing pre-arrears clearance grants to Sudan and supporting the Sudan Family Support Program, and that they are looking forward to further scaling up WB engagement to improve the living conditions of the Sudanese people.

According to a statement released by the IMF on Wednesday, Sudan is committed to strengthening macroeconomic stability; implementing policies to reduce poverty; and putting in place a set of reforms focused on fiscal sustainability, exchange rate flexibility, expanding the social safety net, strengthening the financial sector and improving governance and transparency, in order to reach the HIPC Completion Point.

The World Bank and the IMF will continue working together to provide the technical assistance and policy guidance needed by the authorities to achieve these goals, including in the context of the new, 39-month IMF financial arrangement.

In addition, following the arrears clearance, the World Bank has unlocked substantial project financing through IDA, which will provide nearly US$2 billion in grants for poverty reduction and sustainable economic recovery-with a focus on enhancing competitiveness, transparency and accountability; increasing investment in irrigation and agriculture to support sustainable livelihoods; supporting access to energy, water, health, and education; creating jobs; and creating entrepreneurship opportunities for women and youth.

The leaderships of the World Bank Group and the IMF have expressed gratitude to their member countries of all regions and income levels, in particular Canada, France, Italy, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, together with the European Commission, whose interventions and additional grants helped catalyze international support and raise the necessary financial resources to help Sudan reach the Decision Point.

They also thanked other countries which went through their budgetary processes to contribute: Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey.

Meanwhile the U.S. Department of the Treasury has welcomed the announcement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that Sudan has successfully cleared roughly $1.4 billion in arrears to the IMF, a press release by the Department of the Treasury said.

It said the American administration has also commended Sudan's civilian-led transitional government for reaching the first phase of debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

It said the move was a milestone that stands as a testament to the sustained commitment of Sudanese authorities to implement challenging but necessary economic reforms amidst the country's transition to democratic rule. These reforms include unifying the exchange rate and strengthening governance and transparency.

"This is a historic moment for Sudan and its people," Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, was quoted as saying. "The U.S. is proud to have been an early advocate for Sudan to normalize ties to the international financial institutions and helping it to secure debt relief. These steps will unlock much-needed financing and will help build the foundation for poverty reduction, inclusive development, and economic growth. All Sudanese can take pride in this achievement."

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The release pointed out that the U.S. has played a critical role in supporting Sudan's path to HIPC debt relief, in recognition of the important work the Government of Sudan has undertaken to restore economic stability. Treasury provided same-day bridge financing of approximately $1.15 billion in March to help Sudan clear its arrears at the World Bank, at no cost to U.S. taxpayers, and co-hosted a roundtable with the Department of State to encourage Sudan's bilateral creditors to advance debt relief efforts.

The release went on to say that Treasury has also committed to contribute up to $120 million in grant resources to fund IMF debt relief for Sudan under the first phase of HIPC announced today.

"The U.S. is pleased to join other Paris Club members in providing both immediate and future debt relief in accordance with the provisions of the HIPC initiative and will continue to support Sudan as it implements additional economic reforms needed to complete the HIPC process", the release stressed.

It is to be noted that the Sudan is the last country to clear protracted arrears to the IMF, which now faces no repayment arrears from its members for the first time since early 1975.

The European Union has on the other hand welcomed the announcement that Sudan has successfully reached the Decision Point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
Geneva  "Over two years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the World Health Organisation said that governments had to 'fix the roof before the rain came'. And yet countries were still caught off-guard in 2020.

The world can and must do better next time. Individual countries, particularly low-income ones, cannot prepare on their own. A new mechanism at the international level would provide both the right incentives and the financial sustainability necessary to establish robust social protection systems," said the UN poverty expert.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the majority of the world's population -- 55 percent, or 4 billion people -- lacks any form of social protection. Another 16 percent, or 1.2 billion people, enjoy only partial protection. Only 35 percent of children, approximately one in three, benefit from child allowances that would ensure they receive childcare, nutrition and education.

"The overall picture is clear: in the past, too little was invested in healthcare, unemployment, old-age pensions, or children and disability allowances," said De Schutter. "And the poor are now paying the high cost of this mistake."

Investments in such public programs, part of what universal social protection systems are, would have largely prevented the additional 88 to 115 million people who were pushed into extreme poverty in 2020 and the additional 23 to 35 million that are expected for 2021.

"Establishing a Global Fund for Social Protection is doable, and it is affordable, but it requires political will," De Schutter said. "The ILO estimates that less than $78 billion would be needed for low-income countries to establish social protection floors, including healthcare, covering their population of 711 million. While that might sound like a high figure, it is actually less than half of what developed countries are already providing in development aid. The question is therefore not about affordability, but about setting the right political priorities."

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"Moreover, social protection is not just a cost weighing on public budgets," he added. "It is an investment that benefits societies over generations, helping increase education levels, improving food security and health, and yielding economic benefits for local economies. It is a steppingstone towards more equal and resilient societies."

The Global Fund for Social Protection will allow recipient countries to gradually increase their own levels of funding devoted to social protection. Rather than creating a new form of dependency, the Fund will both help identify new sources of domestic revenue and ensure sustainable levels of support to countries committed to these programs.

"In fact, the Global Fund should gradually make international support redundant, and it can be phased out once countries have enhanced their capacity to raise taxes progressively and to redistribute them equitably in the form of universal social protection," the expert said.

"Last week, on June 19th, the International Labour Conference voted to bring the Global fund for social protection to the work table of the ILO, a historical breakthrough. We should now set as our collective goal to put in place this new solidarity mechanism by June 2022, 10 years after the initial ILO Recommendation on social protection floors was adopted," said De Schutter. "The world can't wait for the next pandemic to happen before we get ready. We need to act now, and a Global Fund of Social Protection is our best bet."
The Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, has commenced construction work on a new 15 kilometers 33kV line from Ile-Ife transmission station to Olode-Garage (Awolowo Town) to restore power supply to Ifetedo/Garage-Olode, Ife South LGA of Osun State.

The project when completed would restore power supply to the area which has being without electricity supply for over 10 years.

Speaking at the official flag-off of the project, on Tuesday, the Executive Director, Network, NDPHC, Mr. IfeOluwa Oyedele said the distribution intervention project also includes the rehabilitation of Ifetedo/Garage-Olode 33kV power line.

Oyedele stated that the project would see the dualisation of 3km of 33KVA line from Mayfair roundabout to Modakeke, adding that eight 300KVA and eight 500KVA distribution transformers will be supplied and installed in the community.

He described the flag-off of the project construction as historic as it marked "the commencement of the construction of a project that is conceived and will be implemented to improve lives and economic activities in Garage-Olode Town in Osun State."

Oyedele commended the Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola for pushing hard for the project.

According to him, "Following the intervention of the Governor of Osun State, we at NDPHC, in keeping with our mandate to improve electricity infrastructure in Nigeria visited Olode-Garage Community for location inspection and discovered that the Community electricity supply is being fed from old Akure Transmission Station which has been dilapidated for a very long time."

He explained that "in scoping this project, we engaged with IBEDC and we have been assured that the intervention of NDPHC in the improvement of electricity infrastructure in this Community will align with their proposed infrastructure upgrade in the Community and the entire State.

"With this intervention, there will be great improvement in the condition of living of the people, socio-economic activities, commerce and industry and general wellbeing in Garage-Olode Community.

"All these, the people owe to a thoughtful and purposeful leader President Mohammadu Buhari and supported by Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola," he added.

Also speaking at the event, Governor Oyetola who flagged-off the project praised the people of the area for their patience in the past ten years without electricity supply.

"For me, today is a day of joy as history is being made. I am elated that we have now brought to an end the tortuous journey that left you, our dear people, in darkness for over ten years", he stated.

Oyetola also thanked NDPHC for executing the project, noting that "through this project, power supply will be restored to Ife South West LCDA, thus ending the unpalatable decade of power outage."

He said the power intervention efforts will also help to power towns and villages such as Iyanfoworogi, Aye Coker, Aye-Oba, Wanikin Eleja, Egbejoda, Idi Obi and Ali Ahanran in this first phase, and when completed, the project will cover the entire Ife South Local Government and the LCDA.

Governor Oyetola said the project occupied a strategic place in his Administration's agenda to empower the benefiting communities to contribute substantially to the development of the State.

Earlier, Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Dr. Amidu Tadese Raheem, expressed gratitude to the Governor for his intervention.

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He commended the prompt intervention, which according to him, will go a long way to restore the lost glory of the communities in terms of socioeconomic and commercial activities in the affected areas.

In his remarks, member, Osun House of Assembly representing Ife-South State Constituency, Hon. Benjamin Ogundipe, described the project as one that would bring succour to the people of his constituency.

He commended the governor for taking their welfare to the frontline of his Administration's priorities despite the socioeconomic realities of the State.

Earlier in their separate remarks, the Olubosin of Ifetedo, Oba Akinola Akinrera, and the Olu of Olode, Oba David Omisore, expressed their profound gratitude to the Governor for taking their subjects out of protracted darkness that had paralysed the socioeconomic activities of the areas in the last ten years.

Vanguard News Nigeria
The British High Commission in Nigeria said yesterday that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stood ready to provide 'consular' assistance on the issue of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's British nationality.

Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was re-arrested abroad, brought back home and re-arraigned by the Federal Government, on Tuesday and thereafter detained by the Department of State Service, DSS, on court order.

The UK assistance pledge is coming as the Kanu matter caused uneasy calm in the South-East, with the IPOB leader's family protesting what it called the 'abduction' of their son from Kenya to Nigeria, describing it as a violation of international law and basic principles of the rule of law.

Several calls put across to the Kenya High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Wilfred Machage, proved abortive.

The IPOB, yesterday, also alleged that its leader was abducted and not intercepted or arrested as claimed by the Federal Government of Nigeria, saying it will expose the details of his alleged abduction later.

In Imo, Kanu's travails have split the leaders as well as followers of the IPOB just as Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister and a close ally of Kanu cautioned the Nigerian government over the rearrest of Nnamdi Kanu saying the IPOB leader must not die in custody.

Also yesterday, the World Igbo Congress, WIC, urged the United Kingdom to defend Kanu, its citizen, against illegal abduction and extradition.

However, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has commended the Federal Government on its moves so far saying the government is capable of handling the matter.

'UK'll provide consular assistance'

Head of Communications, British High Commission in Abuja, Dean Hurlock, also confirmed yesterday that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was ready to provide "consular" assistance to Nnamdi Kanu.

He said: "In response to any queries on whether Nnamdi Kanu was extradited from the UK, we can reafirm that Nnamdi Kanu was not arrested in the UK and nor was he extradited from the UK.

"With regards to any questions about the possible legality of his arrest, the British High Commission in Abuja is currently in the process of seeking clarification from the Nigerian government about the circumstances of the arrest.

"With regard to any questions about whether the British High Commission is providing assistance in this case, we can confirm that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office stands ready to provide "consular" assistance.

"With regard to any questions about what the UK thinks about the proposed legal process that Nnamdi Kanu is facing in Nigeria, the UK would expect any trial or legal proceedings to follow due process.

"This is as much as we can say on this matter for now. I will be happy to provide further responses to additional questions in due course."

Kanu's family protests arrest, extradition

A statement on behalf of the family by Kingsley Kanu said that Nnamdi Kanu was unlawfully arrested in Kenya, detained, and was subsequently subjected to extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria.

The family's statement read in part: "News has reached Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's family that he has been unlawfully arrested in Kenya, detained and has subsequently been the subject of extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria where he is now detained.

"Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra. My brother, Nnamdi Kanu, demands the right to self-determination for Biafra. Self-determination is guaranteed by the United Nations laws. Because Biafrans support Nnamdi Kanu's call for Biafran self-determination, my brother has now been subjected to the most serious violations of international law.

"Whilst visiting Kenya, Nnamdi Kanu was detained and handed over to Nigerian authorities who then flew him to Nigeria. My brother has been subject to extraordinary renditions by Kenya and Nigeria.

"They have violated the most basic principles of the rule of law. Extraordinary rendition is one of the most serious crimes states can commit. Both Nigeria and Kenya must be held to account. I demand justice for my brother, Nnamdi Kanu.

"Nnamdi Kanu holds both British and Nigerian citizenship. Nnamdi Kanu is Biafran, not Nigerian. He has rejected his Nigerian citizenship. The British High Commission in Nigeria must insist upon my brother's immediate release.

"They must guarantee his safety and security. Nnamdi Kanu must be returned home to the UK to his wife and his sons who live here.

"The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, must make it clear to the Nigerian authorities that they will not tolerate the unlawful detention of British citizens and that the UK Government condemns Nigeria and Kenya for undermining the rule of law.

"Foreign Secretary Raab, must be clear. There will be consequences for those who resort to extraordinary rendition. The British government must insist upon justice for Nnamdi Kanu."

No going back on Biafra struggle-- IPOB

On its part, the IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, entitled, Nothing should happen to our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, alleged that Kanu's abduction was masterminded by the Nigeria government in collaboration with all those that view IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu as a stumbling block to their bid to continue to attack Igbo communities, and hold Biafrans in perpetual slavery.

IPOB also stated that even with Kanu's alleged abduction and subsequent detention in DSS custody, all its activities must go on unhindered because they have crossed the rubicon in their struggle and will never relent in the pursuit of Biafra freedom no matter the level of intimidation and harassment.

IPOB's statement read in part, "We the global family of movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra, ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wish to confirm the abduction of our leader by the Nigerian government and her security operatives. We shall expose details of his abduction later.

"Our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is presently in custody of the Nigeria government. This crime of kidnapping was masterminded by the Nigeria government in collaboration with all those that view IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as a stumbling block to their continued attack of Igbo communities and in their bid to hold Biafra in perpetual slavery.

"We, therefore, enjoin every IPOB member both at home and in the Diaspora and all Biafrans to remain calm because this is not the end of the road, our activities continue unhindered even with the abduction and detention of our leader.

"We will mobilize to Court on the day of our leader's next court appearance, which is July 26, 2021 and we call on Biafrans to mobilize and attend the court hearing.

"IPOB will not relent in the pursuit of Biafra freedom. We have crossed the Rubicon in our struggle for the restoration of Biafran Sovereignty. There is no going back no matter the level of intimidation by our oppressors.

"Our Leader can never be coerced into abandoning the struggle for Biafra restoration irrespective of the present circumstance.

"At this very challenging moment in the history of our march to freedom, all IPOB family members must stand firm and resolute behind our selfless leader. We stand by him and the God of Heavens in whom we trust and rest our confidence shall not let us down. We shall triumph!

"We want to draw the attention of the world to a statement from one of our intelligence officers saying, "Please Nnamdi Kanu's life is at risk... Don't doubt it, don't ask me how and don't chat me up privately on this.

"They are seriously planning to poison his food in detention or poison his skin through health treatment and trust me this time, they will succeed.

"We, therefore, want to remind the Nigerian government and her security agencies that our leader deserves justice and fair hearing. We also want to state unequivocally, that no harm should befall or be done to our leader.

"His life should not be tampered with. Should anything untoward happen to him, Nigeria Government will be held accountable for it, and we assure you that Nigeria will fall for it."

We don't believe Kanu was arrested --IPOB in Imo

Vanguard met with some members of IPOB in Owerri, who said until the Federal Government shows video of IPOB leader, they would still consider it as rumour.

They said that IPOB members were still studying the situation to take a position.

"We are not afraid. How are you sure the man arrested is IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu? That is arrant nonsense. Very soon, you will hear from the horse's mouth.

"What we know is that Britain has disappointed us and it is time to end it. Whether you like it or not, Nnamdi Kanu is still free. Nobody has arrested him.

"If you had arrested him, why did you refuse to show us the video of his appearance in court? You are arresting a man for not doing anything. Kanu has not been arrested and if such a thing happened, this country will break into pieces," one of them said.

Kanu must not die in custody - Fani-Kayode warns Buhari

In a tweet, Fani-Kayode urged the Federal Government to ensure that Kanu is treated with decency and respect while in custody.

"It is no longer news that @MaziNnamdiKanu has been arrested and detained. I advise the FG to ensure that he does not die in custody and that he is treated with decency, decorum, and respect," he tweeted.

The Nigerian government had arrested Kanu and repatriated him to Nigeria to continue his trial.

Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, disclosed that Kanu was arrested on Sunday.

Malami had said the IPOB leader was re-arrested through a combined operation of Nigerian and foreign security agents.

Following his repatriation, he was re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako-led Federal High Court who ordered his remand in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.

Defend your citizen over illegal extradition, WIC tells UK govt

The position of WIC, which was signed by the Chairman, and Public Relations Officer, Professor Anthony Ejiofor and Basil Onwukwe respectively, read: "World Igbo Congress has been briefed on the abduction and arraignment of Nnamdi Kanu in Nigeria, and the court hearing is scheduled for July 26, 2021.

"It has also been confirmed to us that Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen, was abducted in a country other than the United Kingdom, UK, to which he travelled on a British passport. Consequently, this raises the spectre of illegal abduction and international gangsterism that violates the spirit of the process of extradition.

"World Igbo Congress, therefore, calls on the Nigerian Government to ensure that Nnamdi Kanu is treated following the rules and international conventions that guarantee that his rights and personal safety are respected.

"We call on the British Government to stand up and defend the right of her citizen. The UK Government needs to investigate the collision of any other country or party in this saga.

"We call on the Government of the United States of America, the United Nations and the international community, to take note of the ongoing abuse of human rights in Nigeria including this matter of abduction of Nnamdi Kanu.

"And the Igbo at home and abroad to see this as a continuation of the different strokes for different folks, which has characterized the approach of the current administration of the Federal Government of Nigeria, in dealing with national issues.

"The world has taken notice of the disparity in the treatment of Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani herdsmen, who have been designated as terrorists, by known international agencies. These killers are routinely arrested, compensated, released and often times, absorbed into the Nigerian security services.

"On the other hand, the Igbo has been subjected to massive shoot-at-sight order, arrests and abduction. We would like to emphasize that no government in the world, or any international security agency, has designated IPOB, as a terrorist organization and Nnamdi Kanu is not on any terrorist watch list anywhere in the world.

"All Igbo worldwide to remain calm. The rights of the Igbo must be protected and the Igbo cannot be subjugated forever."

Uneasy calm in South-East

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The re-arrest of Kanu was a major topic on newspaper stands but there have been no threats to breach of peace.

"Many people find it difficult to believe the report because there are no videos to support claims Kanu has been arrested. If Kanu is truly arrested, the youths of the South-East, in our usual practice, will defend him," an Enugu resident said.

"Soldiers have been all over Enugu town in Enugu State for the past few days. We were still wondering what could have happened.

"They are on major roads in Abia too. But one thing is clear; the voice of the people cannot be subdued. Maybe the military will kill everyone in the South-East and start living there," another resident said.

A member of IPOB in Awka who spoke on condition of anonymity said a broadcast on the radio Biafra channel saw a broadcaster; Mazi Chideraa assuring all members to be calm as Kanu was okay.

"When I tuned into Biafra Radio 103.7 this evening, Mazi Chideraa was making a broadcast, assuring everyone that though the news was true, but there was no need to panic."

FG competent in handling security matters -- ACF

Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has said that with the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu amid other security challenges in the country, the government is competent in handling security matters .

In a communique after the BoT meeting in Kaduna, yesterday, by Ambassador Shehu Malami,

Chairman, ACF Board of Trustees, the group praised the Federal Government, security agencies both local and international that brought Kanu back to Nigeria.

The board said the action of the government in handling Nnamdi Kanu in such a neat way amid many other security challenges showed that the government is very competent in handling security matters.

Part of the communique reads: "The meeting was opened by the chairman, Ambassador Shehu Malami. He apologized for his inability to attend the first meeting which was presided over by Senator Fred Orti, the Deputy Chairman of the Board .

"He regretted that despite the efforts of the Federal Government, Boko Haram, bandits kidnappers, clashes between herders/farmers have been a security scare for the North, the country and the ACF.

"The Board decried a situation whereby the North was left without a single financial institution to advance the economic growth and fortunes of the region.

"Similarly the Board decried the lack of Media houses in the north to keep the citizens of the North well informed.

"The Board observed that without a sound financial foundation and backing, the North will always remain backward."

"On the problems of unemployment in the north, the Board said it is regrettable that the north has not realised it is sitting on a time bomb which can explode at anytime.

"The Board resolved that there was need to take immediate action to salvage the youth from lethargy, drugs and substance abuse, despondency, banditry, etc."

Vanguard News Nigeria
Eritrean organizations in Italy conducted six months activity assessment meeting on 26 June adopting resolution to reinforce organizational capacity in line with the prevailing new era.

At the virtual meeting in which 75 members of the executive bodies participated, Mr. Fessehatsion Petros, Ambassador of Eritrea to Italy, delivered extensive briefing on the objective situation in the homeland and the region as well as on the responsibility of nationals in the prevailing new era.

Participants conducted extensive discussion on the activity reports presented by executive and national committees and agreed to organize regular meetings in accordance with the extenuation of the restrictions issued to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

In related news, at a memorial events organized in connection with the 20 June, Martyrs Day, nationals residing in various cities of Italy contributed a total of 41 thousand 365 Euros to augment the Martyrs Trust Fund.

According to report, nationals residing in Abruzzo contributed 420 Euros, nationals in Firenze 1 thousand 370 Euros, nationals in Pisa 900 Euros, nationals in Rome 13 thousand Euros, nationals in Napoli 310 Euros, nationals in Bari 1 thousand 040 Euros, nationals in Catania 1 thousand 080 Euros, nationals in Parma 1 thousand 500 Euros, nationals in Bologna 2 thousand 875 Euros, nationals in Verona 470 Euros, nationals in Milan 17 thousand 700 Euros and in Brescia contributed 700 Euros.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed through a televised statement aired today said that the government declared a ceasefire to focus on other national priorities and the decision to leave Mekelle was made to avert a scenario where the military sees the people at large as the enemy. In separate a joint presser the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MoFA) and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) explained that the government's decision to withdraw and declare a ceasefire was 'an attempt to address the major concerns of the international community for cessation of hostility, unimpeded access to the region, and the withdrawal of Eritrean troops.

The PM disclosed that , amid increased pressure related to the GERD, Covid-19 pandemic and other issues,the federal government spent 100 billion ETB outside of the expense of the military operation, which is 13 percent more than Tigray's annual budget, 20 percent of the country's budget. "All we got in return was being blamed for creating hunger, allowing Eritrean troops, communication black out and impeding humanitarian access." he said.

According to the PM the nature of the conflict changed over time explaining that a combat that started with a conventional army changed into a scattered insurgency after the federal government completed its military operation in Three weeks. Narrating the proceeding of the conflict, he indicated that members of the military were attacked by civilians from time to time. "This sentiment seeped into the majority of the members of the military," the PM said, "They started viewing everyone they see as the enemy."

"Priests were seen holding firearms and persuading people to take up arms," he said, further explaining how graveyards were used to store firearms. He also accused civilians of sharing aid food with the armed group. He indicated that the people who were seen celebrating the recapture of Mekelle are in fact combatants awaiting for a chance to attack.

He went on to explain that the federal government had no plans to occupy Tigray's capital Mekelle. He described that Mekelle was a seat of the region's government and housed immense resources. "Military wise Mekelle is no longer a gravitational center," the PM said, adding "The city has no more significance than that of Abiadi, Shiraro or Beshasha." He underscored the need for the media to set the records straight and keep away from 'the enemy's narratives'.

He also adressed the speculations of attempts by Tigrayan forces to retake contested areas in western Tigray. He reminded that creating fear on the people of Amhara is tantamount to denying the fact that it is capable of defending itself against attacks. "The people of Armachiho, wolkayit and Tsegede, had been resilient in the face of challenges for the last 30 years while identifying themselves as Ethiopians and people of Bege Midir."

The PM stated the government declared a ceasefire to focus on other priorities. He noted that the decision for declaring a ceasefire was made to avert a scenario where the military sees the people at large as the enemy and 'leave a dark spot in its history'. "We chose to retreat and give the people of Tigray a period of reflection." he said, adding "We have retracted our missiles and arms from the region. Last year's threats are no longer." He concluded by vowing that no one would defeat Ethiopians and being Ethiopian.

Similarly, Lieutenant General Bacha Debele and the State Minister Rediwan Hussien restated the federal government's stance on the conflict that erupted in November last year. Redwan explained that the government's decision to withdraw and declare a ceasefire was 'an attempt to address the major concerns of the international community for cessation of hostility, unimpeded access to the region, and the withdrawal of Eritrean troops.' He also said the army has to refocus its attention to protecting the country from another national threat, this time an external one, rather than fighting the already incapacitated TPLF.

Moreover, the Ambassador said the ceasefire would 'help the people of Tigray to reflect on the pros and cons of colluding with a terrorist group to fight the Ethiopian troops who were providing protection and humanitarian aid in the region'. "The government declared the ceasefire because the Ethiopian army was not ready to exchange fires with people in Tigray who have been misled by the ethnically charged propaganda of the TPLF." Redawan said, urging the international community to ramp up humanitarian aid to the people of Tigray and to pay attention to TPLF's threats to launch attacks against the Amhara region and Eritrea.

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General Bacha Debele, on his part, stated "Mekelle has ceased to be the center of gravity that is capable of posing a threat to the nation and the federal government." He refuted the claims that the ENDF was expelled from Mekelle by Tigrayan forces saying, "The group was defeated in a Three weeks swift conventional war while it was armed to teeth but now its military, administrative and organizational structure is obliterated." AS
editorial

The Managing director of the Forestry Development Authority has said that Liberian forests are not under threat, but are well protected, especially the North Nimba Reserved forest.

Mr. C. Mark Doryen told this paper last week that Liberian forests are not under any form of threat, especially the East Nimba Park.

More to that, the FDA said they are investing in human resource capacity that will have a long lasting impact on the forests.

"Who told you that the forest is under threat? We are doing a lot for that forest. In fact it is protected than before," he said.

Recently, it was reported that the forest was under threat due to the lack of sufficient logistics for rangers to patrol and protect. As a result of that, there are intruders.

But he said, the FDA is working with its international partners and is doing much more for the protection of the forests.

"In fact that park is the most protected area. It is about 11,000 hectors. We have twelve rangers on patrol and each has a motorbike that we fuel monthly. In addition to that, we provide a four door Landcruiser jeep to the Chef park warden," he added. "We provide fuel to it on a monthly basis."

According to him, as a way to ensure that they increase surveillance, recently, they were given five drones by conservation international to track down any intruders.

"We were given five drones which are put up to track down intruders. Also, to track down people who will be selling bush meat- once they are seen, they will be detected in the specific area and later moved to be arrested."

Now, you hardly see people selling meat on the streets and around supermarkets, he added.

"We have forest politics and they have ignorance. Some people assume and lie. They speak as if all is true. But those who tell you are not saying the fact."

He continued: "the forest area has very limited human activities in the area. In fact residents in the areas are now serving as security."

He said, "When you talk about threat, remove Nimba national forest. Over 30 years, no one has gone there to that place to cut a single tree. It is even the most protected park."

In addition to the local protection, he said, it has external protection as well. It is a reserved forest that is located near the borders with Guinea and Ivory Coast.

"There is what we refer to as trans-border conservation corridors.

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With rangers from Ivory Coast with Ivory Coast, Guinea, what is happening is a situation where those people are protecting their areas. They cannot allow anyone to cross to hunt here and we from this side do the same."

According to him, they were able to have an agreement with Arcelor Mittal to support the community forests.

"These are support that comes from the FDA and the Liberian forest sector directly to the park. We have an MOU with AML. Under that MOU, AML supports the activities of the park and the community with USD$10,000 monthly," he said.

This amount is not given to the community in cash, rather, logistics and other items needed for the support of the forest.

"That money is managed by a joint committee headed by one Mr. Saye Thompson. AML is on the committee, FDA along with others from the communities. We have made a policy here that we should decentralize our activities. They manage it and not a dime comes to FDA. The money is spent there in the community," he said.

Cash only comes in, he said, to the community when people there have to do physical work like brushing. With that, they are paid.

He said recently, two elephants crossed over from Guinea into Liberia and they have to ensure their safety by placing rangers to protect them.

"They were here for one month. We guarded them until they returned.

There are about 14 protected areas in Liberia
Abuja  The Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ and Media Foundation for West Africa have released a report detailing atrocities, murder, torture and rights abuses of journalists practising in Nigeria, naming the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, state governors, NASS members, politicians, security agencies, among others, as the biggest violators of press freedom.

The report, entitled "The State of Media Freedom in Nigeria", released at a briefing in Abuja yesterday, focused primarily on the last six years of President Buhari in power.

It listed journalists killed and those whose deaths were yet to be resolved as well as those harassed by State actors and beaten up in their line of duty. Media houses harrased by security operatives, were also included in the report.

National President of NUJ , Chris Isiguzo, while speaking during the presentation, said practising in Nigeria is becoming a dangerous venture and bemoaned the repeated harassment of journalists called on State actors to desist from such.

The report read: "Politicians have realized that to acquire power, either through legitimate means or through outright manipulations, they need to obtain the connivance of the media.

"And politicians and political office holders also know that to retain power, they require the support of the media, ditto those who wish to ascend to power.

"Even those whose positions are threatened suddenly realize the need to pocket the media. These elements have compounded the problems of the media.

"The media in Nigeria have suffered a number of setbacks over the years, with the obvious but unsuccessful attempts by government to control them. There are equally increased harassment and killings of journalists in the country.

"These acts are daily causing frustrations among media professionals in the country. Politicians, both in and out of government are increasingly filing legal cases against journalists who especially report on allegations of corruption, while security operatives have been used to block access for reporters in several areas.

"Acts of impunity against journalists, particularly murder, is the ultimate form of censorship. These unfortunately, are likely to continue unabated. From the murder of Dele Giwa in 1986 through a parcel bomb, the killers are yet to be fished out and brought to book.

"Since then several attacks have been recorded against journalists, in spite of the fact that attacks against journalists and media equipment are illegal under international humanitarian law and the Nigerian legal system.

"Clear signals indicate that such killings are sponsored by desperate politicians and high office holders who had things they wished kept secret.

"For the period being reviewed, 2016- 2020, we have recorded some of the highest levels of violence targeting journalists in the country. These statistics constitute an indictment of the poor record on democracy and rule of law in Nigeria.

"The lack of transparency, corruption and politics of exclusion often result in frustrations and violent rivalries, creating dangerous environments in which journalists become easy targets for powerful forces intent on suppressing dissent and evading public accountability.

"The increasing rate of violations of media professionals and members of their families, is a clear signal that journalists are now being deliberately targeted as a result of the work they do.

"At least 300 violations affecting about 500 journalists, media workers and media houses have been recorded in Nigeria under the regime of President Buhari.

"On April 11, 2016 around 3am, an unknown gunman kidnaped Tope Kuteyi, the Channels TV correspondent in Owerri from his home. The kidnapper later made a ransom demand of N15million.

"On December 2016, the Department of State Services in Lokoja, Kogi State, arrested Friday Ogungbemi, publisher of Policy and Lawmaker Magazine and detained him without trial.

"This action which was at the instance of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State was another example of how prominent Nigerians react to Media scrutiny.

"Friday Ogungbemi's alleged crime was authoring an Editorial on the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kogi State, Mr Edward Onoja.

"On January 17, 2017, the Borno State Police Command arrested and detained Inuwa Bwala, Publisher of National Trail newspaper in Abuja, at the instance of a top politician in 2016.

"This Journalist had to send an SOS to the Nigeria Union of Journalists and friends that there was a threat to his life in detention. It took the intervention of the Union to secure his release.

"On January 13, 2017, the Police CID in Area 10 Garki, Abuja, arrested and detained Desmond Utomwen, publisher of Freshnews, an online newspaper, at the instance of a serving Customs officer, Inspector Umaru Faru.

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"Desmond was working on a story which allegedly was critical of the said officer. Desmond was released following the intervention of Police AIG Usman Shehu who received a complaint from the NUJ.

"The union demanded for a thorough investigation by the customs of the alleged corruption by Umaru Faru, but to no effect.

"On January 19, 2017, the police arrested Premium Times Publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi alongside the Judiciary Reporter, Evelyn Okakwu, and held them for several hours at Police Headquarters in Abuja.

"This was at the instance of the Chief of Army Staff then, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai who complained about defamation of character.

"On April 19, 2017, some men of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police Force, arrested and detained Midat Joseph, correspondent of the Leadership newspaper for being critical of Kaduna State Government and the Governor Nasir el-Rufai's administration.

"The journalist later released on bail granted by a court after spending two nights at the Police cell."

Vanguard News Nigeria
The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into the non-payment and under utilisation of non-regular allowances of army personnel from 2017 despite increment in budgetary provision for the allowances in 2020 and 2021.

The decision of the House was sequel to the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance moved by Hon. Abubakar Nalaraba at the plenary yesterday.

Moving the motion, the lawmaker recalled the significant upward review of non-regular allowance of the Nigerian army in 2017 to ensure that serving army personnel are adequately remunerated and motivated for optimum performance in provision of adequate security in the country.

The lawmaker noted that the non-regular allowance, which includes payments such as first 28 days allowance, operations allowance and duty tour allowance of soldiers and officers, was necessitated to mitigate the effects of current economic realities on the welfare of troops and the entire personnel of the Nigerian army.

Nalaraba said the increment was captured in the Manual of Finance Administration (MAFA) and approved for implementation by President Muhammadu Buhari on January26, 2018.

He said: "Despite the increment in budgetary provision for non-regular allowances from N283 billion in 2020 to about N380 billion in 2021, the welfare of army personnel has not felt the corresponding effect and personnel of Nigerian army involved in internal security operations, training and performance of other military duties, who are still being owed various types of non-regular allowances."

The lawmaker pointed out that the country is besieged by several security challenges and the Nigerian army is currently saddled with internal security operations, which include anti-insurgency operations in the North-east, anti-banditry operations in the North-west, anti-bunkering in the South-south and anti-kidnapping across the country.

The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on Army to investigate the disbursement of non-regular allowances to army personnel from 2017 till date and report back to the House in four weeks.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Malam Mele Kyari, has stressed the need for Nigeria to develop a framework on energy security in order to have diversified sources of petroleum products supply and to secure all the sources.

According to him, the massive population of Nigeria, where 70 per cent of the people is predominantly youths, poses a challenge to the energy security of the nation.

Kyari, while fielding questions on The Morning Show, the flagship breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, also defended the federal government's interest in acquiring a 20 per cent stake in Dangote Refinery, worth about $3.8 billion.

He stated that if the deal is consummated, NNPC could recoup its investment in five years.

He said: "For example, when there is a minor scarcity of petrol, it affects several things and several people because of our large population size and shortage in the supply chain of petroleum products. So there is a need to secure our sources of petrol supply at all times, which calls for the need to develop a framework where energy security is guaranteed.

"Three years ago, NNPC decided that it needed to expand its portfolio as a company, and spread its risks since it can't depend on the refineries owned solely by NNPC. There was a need to spread the location of the refineries, the ownership of the refineries in such a way that at any point in time, the government can guarantee energy security for our country, and have multiple sources of supply. We decided that we are taking equity in many other assets. Today, NNPC has equity in ammonia plants, methanol plants and fertiliser plants so that we can spread our risks and portfolio and particularly in terms of petroleum. NNPC believes that taking equity in any refinery that is producing more than 100,000 barrels of petrol per day is the right thing to do."

Kyari stated that although government refineries have not been properly managed in the past years, the government now has a different perspective in managing them now.

He added that the federal government had to change the old model to a new one, such that the best practice is for government to get an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contract to run refineries, and not for NNPC to run them.

He said the government would consider a situation where NNPC must hand over the operations of refineries to an O&M contract.

"We know that having that type of structure will work and that type of structure is seen in Dangote Refinery and other private enterprises.

"We followed the process that will enable us to award NNPC contract, and we are also following through a process to award contracts for Kaduna and Warri(refineries). In the same manner, for a reputable international company, the process of doing this turnaround is to ensure it is efficient, transparent, and we are going to end up with the best contractors to deliver on this. Overall, the Warri and Kaduna (refineries) will catch up with the Port Harcourt process because they have learnt from the Port Harcourt mistakes we made," he added.

Kyari also gave reasons why NNPC had to acquire equity in Dangote Refinery.

He said: "We have to invest in Dangote Refinery in order to expand our portfolio in the oil industry. When you acquire equity in other people's business, it helps you to diversify and spread risk as an investor. So I feel NNPC should not be confined to Nigeria's national petroleum products only but should diversify and spread its investment portfolio in private businesses.

"What business diversification means is that if one arm of the business is not doing well, the other arms could be doing well to sustain the company."

He attributed another reason for the planned investment in Dangote Refinery to the need to ensure that government, which depends largely on revenue and resources from petroleum for its wellbeing does not allow the private sector only to have that control.

He added: "No country does it; others have tried it, but failed and they have paid the price for it. We have seen this coming so we decided to acquire equity in Dangote Refinery. Aliko Dangote did not ask for it, it was our decision that we needed to take equity and this decision was made three years ago. I can confirm to you that it's not what they want to do but we made a request and with the policy of the government, we took interest in it."

Speaking about the board control, Kyari said NNPC would have a seat on the board of the refinery since 20 per cent equity could guarantee a seat on the board of any company.

He, however, said talks were ongoing for NNPC to take a 30 per cent stake in Dangote but that the deal had not been closed since conversations to clear issues around governance and terms of conditions, were ongoing.

"What they want is for us to take less, but because we are very experienced in the NNPC about what refineries do and what returns come from refinery operations, we have seen that this refinery, whenever we invest, we are very sure we can cash out on our investments in five years, maximum. So, it's a very valuable investment that we have seen.

"Therefore, we insisted that it has to be 20 per cent of the equity. Obviously, that's not what they want. Negotiations are on and in any case, you can't force yourself into a private business, but they asked for something less. We didn't start negotiations today. We started around December last year," he stated.

Giving insight on how to raise the money for the investment, Kyari said NNPC would borrow $1 billion from a syndicate being coordinated by African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), adding that no group would want to give out that amount of money if they don't see a pathway to recovery.

He assured Nigerians that NNPC was not going to use any government money to pay back the loan and that NNPC would pay back the loan from the cash flow of the refinery, as it will make money and also pay dividends to enable NNPC to pay back the loan.

"The goal of all this is to be a net exporter of petroleum products in a very short time, probably less than two years. If that happens, then you have to look for the market, which means that you have to see how the flow of products works within West Africa. This is an obvious advantage and something we should have done about 20 years ago," Kyari said.

On the state of the oil market, Kyari stated that getting back to pre-COVID-19 level will be achieved by 2022 at the earliest, adding that the oil industry is not comfortable with high oil prices because customers will look for alternatives.

He added that the only way to pull down prices of oil in the international market is to increase supply.

Kyari expressed optimism that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC) may intervene on production level at its meeting today.

According to him, part of the problems with shutting down oil wells due to the OPEC cut is that it may be challenging getting them back to produce.

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On the cost of production of oil, Kyari explained that the corporation has engaged with its contractors and asked for discounts in excess of 30 per cent, adding that it is possible to bring costs per unit to $10 per barrel.

He said the industry had been embarking on sharing of costs, including making use of, for instance, one aircraft, whereas in the past each company could deploy individual planes.

He stated that the NNPC was working to optimise production, stressing that the corporation is always comfortable when oil sells for between $50 to $60 per barrel, in contrast to the current $75.

Kyari said that in the past, all the focus was on oil, adding that with renewed attention to gas as a transition fuel and plenty need for the product to power the country, gas will become the new oil in the nearest future.

He assured the country that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, OB3 and others will give more access to an excess of two billion cubit feet of gas in the country.

On the recent Shell's objection to portions of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), he stated that over 100 amendments had been made, stressing that the oil giant may not be aware of the changes.

He said that although vandalism has not fully stopped, it has reduced considerably because of more intense engagement with host communities as well as firmer actions by the security forces.

On the global transition to renewables, Kyari stated that Nigeria was watching the trends in the global space, explaining that the world isn't moving away from fossil fuels immediately, but could deploy them for safer uses.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday blamed Nigerians for the inherent injustices plaguing the country, saying neither ethnicity nor religion is responsible for the myriad of problems facing the country.

The president, in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated that he came to the conclusion of Nigerians being responsible for the challenges facing the country after reflecting on the complexities of the Nigerian condition.

"Our problem is not ethnicity or religion, it is ourselves," the president said.

Buhari spoke while receiving members of the Muhammadu Buhari/Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group, who visited the State House, Abuja, to present a compendium of five years of achievements of his administration to him.

He recalled his struggles to get justice at the court, after disputed results of presidential elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011, noting that the people who ruled against him were of his own ethnic stock and religious persuasion, while those who backed him were of other faith and ethnicity.

He stated: "After my third appearance in the Supreme Court, I came out to speak to those who were present then. I told them that from 2003, I'd spent 30 months in court. The President of the Court of Appeal, the first port of call for representation by presidential candidates then, was my classmate in secondary school in Katsina. We spent six years in the same class, Justice Umaru Abdullahi.

"My legal head was Chief Mike Ahamba, a Roman Catholic and an Ibo man. When the president of the court decided that we should present our case, my first witness was in the box. Ahamba insisted that a letter should be sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to present the register of constituencies in some of the states, to prove that what they announced was falsehood. It was documented.

"When they gave judgment, another Ibo man, the late Justice Nsofor, asked for the reaction from INEC to the letter sent to them. They just dismissed it. He then decided to write a minority judgment. That was after 27 months in court.

"We went to the Supreme Court. Who was Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)? A Hausa-Fulani like me, from Zaria. The members of the panel went in for about 30 minutes, came back to say they were proceeding on break. They went for three months. When they came back, it didn't take them 15 minutes, they dismissed us."

He also talked about his experience after the 2007 and 2011 presidential polls saying: "In 2007, who was the CJN? Kutigi; Again a Muslim from the North. After eight months or so, he dismissed the case."

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He added: "Again in 2011, because I was so persistent, Musdafa, a Fulani man like me, from Jigawa, neighbour to my state, was CJN. He dismissed my case."

"I've taken you round this to prove that our problem is not ethnicity or religion. It is ourselves.

"I refused to give up. I had tried to wear Agbada after what happened to me in khaki. Something was done to me because I did something to others. You know it. In the end, I myself was arrested, sent to detention, and they were given back what they had taken. I was there for three-and-a-quarter years. This is Nigeria.

"I hope historians and intellectuals would document this because it is a fantastic state of political development. Let our grandchildren and great-grandchildren see how we came along. We didn't get it as easy as other people think. Not because God has given us a great population and resources. We have suffered along the line.

"I try to mention these things because you got yourselves together, used your resources, energies without any input from me. I cannot thank you enough. I'm very grateful to you and to Nigerians because in 2019, I visited all the states, the people that turned out to see me across the country (because I'm dedicated to serving Nigeria and Nigerians), and the love is genuine.

"Thank God that over the years, they can't accuse me of corruption. And I've been everything; governor, Minister of Petroleum Resources, head of state, president and in my second term. I thank you that nobody forced you, but you got together, used your energy, time and resources, I thank you very much. I assure you, history will do you justice."
"This is no longer a new thing in FUOYE as we have even had a class by the dumpsite."

The students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), have lamented the shortage of classrooms in their university.

Aderiye Oyindamola, a 400-level student of Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies described the issue as one of the major problems students of the university grapple with daily.

"This is one of the major problems we face in FUOYE every day," she said. "My faculty is in Phase 3. However, the unavailability of lecture halls makes us go to Phase 1, most times. Sadly, we get to share one lecture hall with over three classes when we use the Main Auditorium. Hence, the inability to hear well in classes," she said.

A 100-level student from the department of English and Literary Studies, Ofem Wofai, also expressed sadness at the situation.

"It is very disappointing and tiring. I went to a class some time ago. We were told it would be held in the Main Auditorium. When we got there, a church was having a programme, and we were directed to use the Faculty of Arts' Pavilion. On getting there again, the class was filled up and most of us had to squat throughout the class. Me, particularly, squatted for over an hour until a friend offered me a seat at the front," she said.

Abiodun Oluwafemi, a 300-level student of Demography and Statistics, said:

"The funniest part of this challenge is that even lecturers fight over classes. It's now based on 'first come, first serve'. It is very disheartening to come to class from a far distance only to go home because of the unavailability of lecture rooms. Let the management do something, please."

On Thursday, June 3, these reporters saw a lecture hall overfilled with students. While the lecture was ongoing, some of the students were standing outside the hall while others were sitting on the windows.

Speaking with UCJ FUOYE reporters, Adeyemi Temitope from the department of Criminology and Security studies expressed his lack of surprise at the occurrence.

"This is no longer a new thing in FUOYE as we have even had a class by the dumpsite, here. This is POL 102 class in which three departments do the course. The class was slated for 8 a.m., I got here some minutes late only to find out there's no space inside the hall. We are used to it already," he said.

Harry Olufunwa, a PhD holder and a lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, said there has been a shortage of classrooms since he got to the university in April 2016.

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"It has affected the quality of teaching. Once upon a time, we had like 32 students in a classroom, and 32 students could fit into any class. But we now have an excess of 200 students in the same class.

"As an English lecturer, my English classes 212 and 102 can only be held at the Faculty of Arts' Pavilion and the Main Auditorium. There are no other venues that can accommodate the students. If I attempt to do so, it will become difficult for the lecturer and the class," Mr Olufunwa said.

In the Faculty of Arts, classes are restricted to two venues: the University Main Hall at Phase 1 area of the university and the Faculty of Arts' Pavilion for large classes.

Students are usually the ones who suffer most due to the shortage of classrooms, Mr Olufunwa said.

"When students are not able to hear the lecturer in a big hall or an overfilled classroom, they spend that time doing something else. That usually has consequences in the examination for them," he said.

FUOYE is one of the universities established by the federal government in 201. It, like most other public universities, faces the challenge of inadequate funding and facilities. But the university's management says it is concerned about the situation and is trying to find a solution.

"I can assure you the Vice-Chancellor has been proactive in attending to it (inadequate classrooms)," the Dean of Students' Affairs, Dosu Malomo, who also lectures in the Faculty of Sciences, said.

He, however, did not disclose the specific actions being taken by the university management on the matter.
"In under four months this year, IPOB has carried out over fifty-five (55) violent acts in various parts of South-east Nigeria killing scores of people and destroying many properties..."

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, 'orchestrated' the killing of 60 persons and the destruction of property in 55 violent attacks across the South-east and South-south zones within four months.

The Federal Government stated this in a letter to western diplomats.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the letter dated April 26, 2021 detailed the atrocities committed by members of IPOB on the alleged instruction of Mr Kanu who was then in exile.

NAN also reports that one of the attachments to the letter listed the attacks on lives and property by IPOB in some parts of the country between January and April 2021.

With several Kanu's broadcasts from Europe, there were concerns in official quarters that some western countries were justifying IPOB's violent acts under the guise of the group's pursuit of self-determination.

According to the "demarche" from the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to some western countries, the Federal Government objected to a statement by "an agency of a western nation whose government had noted and admitted that the creation of Eastern Security Network (ESN), based on its own understanding, was to combat insecurity".

The Federal Government, in its letter, however considered the statement (by the western nation) as "justifying the establishment of a militia by a non-state actor and glossing over the destructive and violent acts of IPOB and the ESN."

"In under four months this year, IPOB has carried out over fifty-five (55) violent acts in various parts of Southeast Nigeria killing scores of people and destroying many properties."

"Indeed it would seem that the position of the (western nation) seems to have further emboldened Nnamdi Kanu the self-confessed leader of IPOB.

"As recently as 22nd April, 2021, broadcasting online from his base in London, Mr Kanu has issued series of instructions to his militia and other members of the outlawed organisation, on acts of violence to be carried out within the territory of Nigeria," the Federal Government stated in the letter.

'Copious references by Kanu'

The letter made copious references to some of the threats issued by Mr Kanu thus: "Our madness has just begun.

"Every night, young men will not sleep, you will come out, at the starting of every road that leads to every populated area under human habitation to make sure that appropriate road blocks are put in place to slow them down so we can catch them (Fulanis) and kill them.

"That is what we want you to do. Obiano (Governor of Anambra State) from today onwards, anywhere you are seen in public you will be attacked ... . Obiano, ... you are a dead man walking.

"Any landlord that gives accommodation or rents his house or her house to a Fulani person, to an army personnel, to somebody who works for the police or DSS ... .

"Kill them. If you see the army and the police in your place, kill all of them... Kill them.

"From today I am announcing, there will be no election in Anambra State. Every edifice of election in Anambra State, will be destroyed. I am warning you in advance. There will be no election. There will be no campaign in Anambra State.

"Any vehicle you see, from tonight (22nd April 2021), 12 midnight to 5, destroy it completely. That is the time they (referring to Fulanis) move about abducting people. And we keep quiet. ... What stops you young people from, once you see them coming around 4am in the morning, you will block all every exits, set it on fire?"

"They will exhaust all the ammunition that they have, then we capture them alive and cut off their heads. All of them. Decapitate them," the Federal Government further quoted Mr Kanu's alleged instructions to IPOB members.

'Targeted attacks'

The Federal Government also noted that members of the outlawed organisation, in furtherance to these instructions, intensified their attacks on the specified targets.

According to the Federal Government, "Kanu issues instructions from western capitals using Radio Biafra and members of the outlawed organisation carry them out in Nigeria".

"For example, a day after Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has confirmed to newsmen that Nnamdi Kanu has ordered members of the group to kill him and other South-East Governors, which orders were repeated on Radio Biafra, the private residence of Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, in his hometown in Omuma, Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State, was attacked and set ablaze and two of the security men attached to the house were killed," the Federal Government said.

The letter then listed the IPOB attacks in the South-east and South-south zones:

1. Abia: Between January 26 and April 19, 2021, six policemen were killed while property worth huge sums were destroyed by IPOB members in coordinated attacks at Uratta junction, Aba North LGA; Omoba Police Station, Isiale-Ngwa South LGA; Abriba Community in Ohafia LGA, and Uzuakoli Police Station in Bende LGA.

2. Akwa Ibom: 25 persons, including security personnel were killed in deliberate attacks on different locations across the state, between January 27 and April 19, 2021.

3. Cross River: Seven police officers were killed at Calabar-Ikom highway in Obubra and Yakur LGAs, on March 2, 2021, while a soldier was killed two days later on March 4 at a military checkpoint at Obubra Junction in Obubra LGA.

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4. Delta: Between January 10 And April 14, IPOB members attacked and killed 11 persons including security personnel in Ughelli, Ndokwa East, Ezza South, Onicha, Ezza North, Ohaozara, Ohoukwu, LGAs.

5. Enugu: Three policemen were killed in attacks on different locations across the state between February 28 and April 18.

6. Imo: Between January 3 and April 24, 2021, IPOB members killed seven persons and injured many others in different attacks in Orlu, Obouo, Aboli Mbaise, Chitte Uboma, Isiala Mbano, Owerri, Njaba, Mbatoli, Oru East LGAs.

7. Rivers: On April 17, 2021, IPOB operatives killed an NSCDC operative on guard duty at Shell crude oil manifold in Elelewon village in Obio/Akpor LGA and injured many others.

The Federal Government also told the western nation that its position "may seem to have further emboldened Kanu", adding that this may explain the increased tempo of attacks carried out by members of his group".

Mr Kanu, who jumped bail in 2017 and fled the country after his country home was attacked by Nigerian soldiers, was arrested and re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.(NAN)
Lusaka  ZAMBIA has disputed allegations, raised by Amnesty International, that the government was curtailing people's freedoms in the run-up to August 12 elections.

The accusations are carried in a report released on Monday, titled, "Ruling by Fear and Repression."

Amnesty International alleged "killings and brutal crackdowns" against dissent had set the tone for the polls.

Amos Malupenda, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, reacted strongly to the report.

The government spokesperson suggested Amnesty International was biased and inferred the rights group had vested interests in the election outcome.

"Government urges the Zambian people to remain calm and understand that it is not unusual for some organisations like Amnesty International to cause panic when they anticipate that an election outcome is not likely to suit their preferences," he said.

Malupenda said contrary to assertions, a vibrant civil society existed in Zambia, alongside a thriving independent media and an impartial judiciary that protected civil liberties and checks any possible excesses of the executive.

Amnesty had asserted that authorities targeted opposition leaders, journalists, media houses and activists for speaking out against allegations of government corruption or abuse.

Malupenda disputed this, saying Zambians were free to criticise public officials while opposition parties were allowed to conduct public meetings in accordance with the law and the public health guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These conditions are not unique to Zambia.

"It is, therefore, not true that people who engage in these activities are arrested for merely engaging in such activities," Malupenda said.

The spokesperson assured Zambian citizens and the international community that there was no cause for alarm.

Polls are set to be the most tightly-contested in the nation's history.

Incumbent, Edgar Lungu, seeks re-election. Businessman, Haikande Hichilema, is again his biggest rival.
Kampala, Uganda  A coalition of global energy sector leaders have launched an integrated energy pilot project dubbed 'The Utilities 2.0 Twaake' in Uganda with the aim of lighting up homes, businesses.

Coordinated by Power for All and funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the project unites Umeme Ltd, the centralized power utility company and several leading Uganda-based renewable energy companies (DREs) to provide affordable, reliable, and clean power for all in what has been described as the utilities of the future.

In a country with only 28% of the population accessing electricity by the central grid, it would take over 10 million customers for Uganda to achieve universal access according to the World Bank recent studies.

With the average cost of grid extension connection at $1,400, if grid extension is the sole method of service provision, the required investment would likely be in the range of USD $7billion, nearly a fifth of Uganda's current annual GDP estimated at $35 million.

The Utilities 2.0 Twaake pilot is designed to at least halve this cost by relying on integrated energy.

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Integrated energy combines centralized and decentralized technology (including solar home systems, mini-grids, grid, and smart grid systems) into an intelligent and interactive energy network that can deliver customer-centric, clean energy solutions to end energy poverty at the lowest cost and transform billions of lives faster than isolated approaches.

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Through this integration, Uganda's energy customers will derive more benefit for each kilowatt consumed, creating more opportunities for business, education, health, safety and overall quality of life.

The integrated energy pilot is deployed across two sites: Nyenje (grid) and Kiwumu (non-grid DRE site).

The grid connected Nyenje has been operational since July 2020 with over 26percent of businesses to date receiving income generating assets for the purpose of productive use.

In Kiwumu, the pilot has deployed a 40kWp mini grid in Kiwumu, Mukono district in Uganda to power 300 households and 60 local businesses.

Over 50percent of the businesses in Kiwumu will receive asset financing to assist businesses with productive use. By helping customers move beyond access with appliance financing and financial literacy, the pilot project is expected to deliver jobs and improve incomes across both villages, according to Kristina Skierka, Power for All CEO.

Results of the pilot project will inform future plans which should align with government's development agenda.
Uganda's finance ministry and Uganda Revenue Authority executives have agreed that there is need to centralize collection of revenues within the East African Community.

This, they say, will play an important role on mitigating tax competition which has significant implications on attracting investors.

Article 32 of the EAC Common Market Protocol provides for the harmonization of tax policies to remove distortions and facilitate the movement of persons, goods and capital, to promote trade and investment, while Article 8 of the EAC Monetary Union Protocol provides for harmonization of fiscal policies for the avoidance of harmful competition. However, most of these policies are yet to be implemented.

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Leonard Kizito Ojara, the Commissioner of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of EAC Affairs revealed during the Post-EAC Budget Dialogue on June.22 that Uganda as a member of the trading bloc is ready to implement policies geared towards the harmonization of the policies because the government knows its implications.

A study of the tax systems in the EAC by the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute, SEATINI, found that the main impediment to implementing this, is the failure to apply the EAC Code of Ethics and fear of losing national revenues among others.

SEATINI Uganda Executive Director, Jane Nalunga said the EAC also has no guiding principles for implementing certain policies.

She said numerous taxes including excise duties on goods produced within the region, as well as the varying rates of Value Addition Tax and recently, Capital Gains Tax, have over the years caused controversies in the region.

Kenya, for example, charges a VAT of 16%, while the rest of the countries impose 18% on the products produced within their countries and later sold to other partner countries. This makes Kenyan products cheaper and thus a recipe for smuggling into the country.

Nalunga said significant differences also exist in regards to how the tax incentives are applied. For instance, Kenya and Uganda have an automatic tax exemption regime where the taxpayer meets the set criteria which is not the case with the other EAC countries.

Though Tanzania requires the Minister to exercise discretion to grant the exemption; such executive exemption happen in Uganda though not statutory.

She also said Uganda and Kenya have time bound exemptions for ten years while the Tanzanian exemption regime is not limited by time.

"Uganda has an elaborate regime that lists the qualifying sectors. In Kenyan and Tanzania, regimes are wider without being limited to specific sectors," she said adding that Uganda tries to favor local industries and EAC citizens.

Abel Kagumire, Commissioner Customs at URA said harmonization does not mean similar or equal tax rates, but the similarity in the tax policies. This, he said, helps to prevent any national tax measures that would harm the free movement of goods, services and capital within the EAC.

Possible solution?

Going forward, Nalunga said there is need to develop an online platform that tracks tax amendments across the region arguing that this would greatly support easy comparisons and subsequently early interventions against harmful tax measures.

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She says that otherwise, without harmonization, regional integration cannot succeed.

But Kagumire noted that it is difficult to harmonize some policies because of the different levels of development in the region.

"It is important to appreciate that we are at different levels of development as partners. As we are implementing tax harmonization, we need to consider the possibility of having centralized revenue administration collection. That is the big picture," he said.

Kagumire says until the region implements a system of joint revenue collections, as well as harmonize other policies, competition will persist.

Leonard Wanyama, the coordinator of the East Africa Tax and Governance Network said there is lack of political will in this equation amongst the countries which compromises tax collection and policy implementation.
Kaduna  Forty-two women drawn from the 23 LGAs of Kaduna State have been empowered with tailoring and catering skills to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another 110 women were also given N20, 000 each as grants to start up menial businesses under COVID-19 Empowerment Programme.

The First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, through her programme, Future Assured, in collaboration with the National Centre for Women and Development (NCWD) supported by the Ministry of Local Government Affairs, Kaduna State, provided sewing machines and freezers for the 42 beneficiaries.

The Director General of NCWD, Dr. Asabe Vilita-Bashir, said it was to contribute to President Muhammadu Buhari's agenda of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

The Kaduna State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Ja'afar Sani, said the Federal Government Social Investment Programme was multi-faceted and essentially to lift Nigerians out of poverty.
analysis

South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa are in the midst of 'a perilous moment', according to the IMF. The snail's pace of vaccinations and the fastest growth in infections in the world is widening the 'dangerous divergence' in the global economy.

The race to vaccinate and achieve Covid-19 resilience and thus economic resilience continues apace. Sadly, the rate at which South Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa are vaccinating is now by far the slowest in what is becoming a three-speed global vaccination roll-out.

This compares with the US, which has become the foremost Covid-19-resilient economy in the world, according to Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking, a far cry from the Covid mess in the world's largest economy early in the pandemic.

India has also made huge, impressive strides in its vaccination drive, pulling the country out of its Covid morass just a month ago when images of overflowing hospitals, black market oxygen supplies drying up, and devastating death counts dominated the news. Now, it is the country with the second-highest vaccination rate after pipping the US to the post over the past month.

By contrast, South Africa, which had been warning about...
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania  Serengeti Breweries Limited (SBL) today announced a programme worth over 2.3 billion TSH ($990,000) to support bars and eateries in Dar es Salaam and other major towns to protect their staff and customers against the Covid-19 pandemic.

SBL's support comes to light as the world struggles to return to the business from the torment inflicted by the global pandemic (Covid-19). While everyone wants to transcend the journey from failure to triumph, which as a notion, provides food for thought, SBL has identified conditions critical against all communicable diseases in the country, which include COVID-19.

Dubbed "Raise the Bar" or "Tunyanyuke Pamoja", it will be a two-year programme starting in July 2021, offering outlets with free access to digital training and support.

According to the company's Managing Director Mark Ocitti, this initiative by SB also complements the government's efforts to call on people and businesses to practice good hygiene to prevent themselves from communicable diseases, COVID-19 included.

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5

"In our initiative, we will support resilience, resolve and re-imagination to on-trade in Tanzania. The ultimate goal is to rise again, hence the name of our new project, Raise the Bar or Tunyanyuke Pamoja. The project will cover 2,000 outlets in the cities of Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza," he said

The project will support on-trade through 'Tunyanyuke Pamoja' in several ways, from training the outlet owners and staff against communicable diseases to providing technical equipment to transforming their outlets, according to Ocitti.

This program by SBL is part of a global campaign by Diageo to enable bars to respond to the impact of COVID-19. Other significant cities worldwide benefit from the program: Nairobi, Kampala, New York, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sydney, and beyond.

The "Raise the Bar" program was designed following a survey of bar owners to identify key priorities to support the reopening of their business. Their top priorities included hygiene measures, digital support and valuable equipment to transform how their outlets will work when they reopen.

The "Raise the Bar" programme will provide targeted support to help pay for the physical equipment needed for outlets to reopen. For example, it can provide initial funding for: 'hygiene kits' with high-quality permanent sanitizer dispenser units, medical-grade hand sanitizers and a range of personal protection equipment (such as masks and gloves); help pubs and bars to establish partnerships with online reservations and cashless systems; mobile bars and outdoor equipment," the MD elaborated.

From June 30th, bar owners will be able to register their interest in the "Raise the Bar" programme globally. Bar owners will receive regular updates on best practice training and resources and participate in global surveys to share insights as they build back their businesses.

The managing director added: 'Our bars and eateries constitute a critical part of our hospitality and service industry. Their universe employs thousands of people and benefits many more indirectly. We have launched "Raising the Bar" because so many outlets have recorded business slowdown as a result of this health crisis and therefore, badly need to recover."

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SBL is a key stakeholder against COVID-19 in Tanzania since the first case of the pandemic was reported in the country. In March 2020, the company partnered with the ministry of health to create COVID-19 awareness to the public by distributing flyers and posters throughout the country. A month later, SBL donated sanitizers to the Ministry of Health, again supporting the country's effort to combat the further spread of Covid-19.

The impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector has been widespread, with the closure of venues. However, by providing access to free digital support, technology, training and equipment, Diageo aims to help any bar, anywhere, open its doors again.

SBL is the second largest beer company in Tanzania, with its own brands accounting for 15% of the market by volume and when combined with EABL's portfolio, accounts for approximately 28% of the Tanzanian branded beer sector.
Nairobi  Kenya and the United States governments on Wednesday said they had resolved the stalemate on the lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs, paving way for the release of the Sh1.2 billion HIV commodities stuck at the port of Mombasa since January.

The stalemate had disrupted the supply of the drugs to the 1.2 million Kenyans who depend on them, as they were forced to receive less than the usual three months' supply of the medications.

The hitch arose following a misunderstanding between the government of Kenya and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a key donor of the HIV commodities.

National Aids Control Council CEO Ruth Masha said after a series of meetings from both sides the issues had been addressed fully, including signing a framework to facilitate tax and fee waivers, as well as distribution of the USAID purchased products.

"These commodities are now cleared and ready for distribution," she said in a statement seen by Capital Fm News.

The team that was tasked with unlocking the impasse was appointed by Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache on May 11, 2021, drawing representatives from the Ministry of Health, National AIDS Control Council, National AIDS and STI Control Programme, Malaria Programme, Kenya Medical Supply Authority, Pharmacy and Poisons board and the Council of Governors.

Masha said they will continue to work with all stakeholders so as to address gaps and challenges in the HIV response including the issues affecting the commodity supply chain.

USAID had declined to approve distribution of the drugs in the country after the Kenyan government demanded millions in taxes for the healthcare donations, leaving the consignment stuck at the port of Mombasa.

The USAID agency had proposed using a company called Chemonics International to procure and supply the drugs to Kenyans due to "trust issues" with the national medical supplies body (KEMSA).
Kampala, Uganda  Uganda's vanilla harvest date for the first season of this year has been sent for July 1, with the new Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) Frank Tumwebaze urging farmers, traders and processors to maintain best practices for the product to be competitive on the world market.

Declaration of harvest date is one of the global best practices adopted by MAAIF to fight the vices in the vanilla industry. Vanilla harvesting process takes about a month, but a harvest date declared by Government marks the beginning of the harvesting period.

"Farmers should harvest only fully mature and ripe vanilla. Simultaneously, traders and processors must ensure that they buy only mature vanilla and ensure professional handling and processing of vanilla to attain the highest possible vanillin content," Tumwebaze said in press statement.

Poor quality of vanilla ultimately affects the prices that are offered for Uganda's vanilla by the international buyers. Consequently, the actors including farmers earn less.

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"If we can work together to address the practices that reduce the quality of vanilla, we will be in a stronger position to protect our farmers from the price fluctuations on the worldwide vanilla market and Uganda will become a number one supplier of the high-quality vanilla in the world."

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Vanilla is a high value horticulture crop grown and used as a flavoring agent in beverages, confectionaries, and pharmaceuticals. In Uganda Vanilla is grown mainly in central, western, and Eastern regions in about 28 districts.

Although the global price of vanilla has dropped, of all the crops grown in Uganda, vanilla still fetches the highest price per kilogram.

Due to its high price, there are several malpractices along the vanilla value chain. These include theft, thuggery, robbery, murders, immature harvesting, handling, and processing, which compromise the overall quality of the final vanilla product that is put on the market.

Government, through MAAIF has partnered with the promoters of vanilla like Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the vanilla exporters association of Uganda (VANEX), UVAN and farmers to identify and popularize strategies that reduce the malpractices along the vanilla value chain to improve the quality and profitability of Uganda's vanilla.
OccupyGhana, a Civil Society group has condemned in no uncertain terms, the incidents of violence perpetuated against Ghanaians in Ejura in the Ashanti Region by the military, urged on by the Police.

The citizens were demonstrating against the murder of Ibrahim Mohammed, a social media activist who had been insisting that the country needed to be fixed.

According to a statement issued by OccupyGhana, today, June 30, 2021,"It is painfully ironic that the Police, who apparently do not have answers as yet for the circumstances under which the activist was killed, could then line up with the military to engage in the maiming and killing demonstrating citizens in Ejura in marksman style, as videos and photos of the incidents suggest."

The statement said, "Our history is replete with several instances of the deployment of the military and deadly force to quell protests; and they have almost always ended in the shooting and killing of civilians. One would have thought that after the 28 February 1948 Crossroads shooting incident, the use of deadly force to control crowds would be the last thing that any government of an independent Ghana would authorise or tolerate.

"We reject the notion that the only way that authorities know of to de-escalate tension, is the deployment of the military, and that the military's only knowledge about such matters is the use of deadly force."

The statement continued, "The contrasts in our recent history are sharp and real. The deployment of the military and deadly force led to the Kume Preko killings and Techiman South killings. To the best of our knowledge, no one was punished for those killings. In contrast, the non-deployment of the military during the Occupy Flagstaff House demonstration meant that although the police wrongfully arrested some protesters, no one was shot or maimed.

"We clearly have learned no lessons from these, hence that national embarrassment on live TV when the military was called in on our Parliament, however rowdy the election process of the Speaker was, literally at the dawn of this stage of the Fourth Republic.

"We have learned no lessons also because these incidents have never been thoroughly investigated, and no one is ever punished for taking the lives of citizens of the land through such needless military action."

It added, "Soldiers are built and trained for war. The presence of the military in any civil event could turn that location into a potential war zone, where one side has all the firepower purchased for them by the citizens at the receiving end of the force. This is why it is the civil Police that should lead out in all matters involving the interior.

"That is why we condemn the militarisation of keeping the peace in Ghana. It must end forthwith. The last citizen-funded bullet fired on citizens should be the last ever."

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The statement concludes that in the face of repeated executive failure to lead on this matter, "we demand that Parliament must now take the lead by passing a law that regulates the involvement of the military in matters concerning the interior. That law must provide for military activation only when irrefutable evidence shows national police personnel will be overwhelmed by an escalating event. That law must also provide for a full scale judicial inquiry into each such activation, whatever the results are, reports published and punishments meted to those who flout the law and cause needless deaths.

"We express our deepest condolences to the families of the dead. We wish those in hospital all the best and speedy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them."

Source: Publicagendagh.com
The government has abandoned the demand that it should be the only one to distribute a Sh2.1 billion consignment of HIV drugs donated by the US, ending a six-month standoff on distribution of the anti-retroviral drugs.

However, the governments of Kenya and the United States of America have reached a compromise that the consignment stuck at the Port of Mombasa will be distributed by Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (Meds). The government had insisted that only the Kenya

Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) would distribute the drugs to counties.

Meds is a faith-based organisation leading in promoting healthy lives that supplies health products to various entities in the country.

The ARVs, among other medicines imported in January, have been lying at the Port of Mombasa for six months. They were donated by the US government through its aid agency USAid, and are yet to be taken to county hospitals due to a standoff over taxation and the distributor.

This has placed the lives of 1.5 million HIV patients who have been struggling with a shortage of the drugs at risk.

The matter was worsened by the insistence of the Ministry of Health to have Kemsa distribute the drugs, a decision the USAid opposed, instead selecting its own entity - American firm Chemonics - to procure and distribute the donations to Kenya, causing tension between the two entities.

Distribution of drugs

The US agency opposed Kemsa due to the corruption scandals that have rocked the agency in recent months.

However, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe had earlier indicated that the government was not going to sign any contract with an organisation it knows nothing about to bring medications into the country, unless the USAid does that and takes care of the tax issues.

"We do not want to work with that private company, it has several accusations from other countries and we have brought this to the donor's attention and if they have to continue working with them, then it has to be their issue and the Kenyan government is not going to be part of their deals," Mr Kagwe said.

The Ministry of Health and the donors in March formed a committee to look into the issues surrounding the agency while they look for a way forward.

"With the agreement, the USAid had instructed the Ministry of Health to put everything from the last meeting in writing, including the officers at Meds that the USAid was to engage, so that they release the drugs," said a source who sought anonymity.

A source at the Ministry of Health told the Daily Nation that the letter is yet to be delivered to the US embassy, and it was only after that that the two will start distributing the drugs to the counties.

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Stalemate unlocked

"We agreed, yes, in a meeting but the ministry was to put everything in writing, the letter is yet to be written. But the process is ongoing. The distribution will take place immediately after that," said the source.

However, according to a statement from Dr Ruth Laibon Masha, the CEO of the National Aids Control Council (NACC), the two have since unlocked the stalemate and the drugs were ready for distribution.

"On May 11, 2021, a committee was formed to work on modalities of resolving the stalemate. We held a series of meetings with US representatives where all outstanding issues were resolved," Dr Masha said.

The resolutions, according to the statement released by NACC, include signing of a framework and implementation letter to facilitate tax and fee waivers, and distribution of the USAid-purchased commodities. These commodities are now cleared and ready for distribution.

The consignment arrived on January 18, 2021, after an application for the import permits and approval of import declaration form were submitted on December 16, 2020 and resubmitted in January 5, 2021 by the appointed agent.

The donors had earlier hinted they were considering moving the drugs to another country, citing the remaining shelf life of the drugs and the storage charges accruing.

By the beginning of June, the storage charges had amounted to more than a quarter of the total cost of the drugs.
opinion

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the ANC is actually lukewarm on the issue of expropriation without compensation (EWC). With the so-called Radical Economic Transformation (RET) forces in the party in disarray, with action against Ace Magashule and Jacob Zuma, it is even more on the back foot.

Section 25 of the Bill of Rights - Chapter 2 of our supreme law, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa - sets out the parameters within which the right to property is respected and protected by the state.

At its 2017 elective conference held at Nasrec, the fractious and faction-ridden delegates voted in favour of a resolution that requires Parliament to revisit section 25 with a view to introducing a system that allows for confiscation of land or, as it is more delicately, albeit inaccurately, called, "expropriation without compensation".

The resolution was explained to the media at the time by ANC spokesperson, Enoch Godongwana, and was reported as:

"The final conclusion that we agreed, the national executive committee will initiate some amendments in the Constitution's section 25 to achieve expropriation without compensation.

"For that to happen it must be sustainable," said Godongwana. This means it must not impact on agricultural production,...
Serengeti Breweries Limited (SBL) has unveiled a programme worth over 2.3bn/-to support bars and eateries in Dar es Salaam and other major towns to protect their staff and customers against the Covid-19 pandemic.

SBL's support comes to light as the world struggles to return to the business from the torment inflicted by the global pandemic.

While everyone wants to transcend the journey from failure to triumph, which as a notion provides food for thought, SBL has identified conditions critical against all communicable diseases in the country, which include Covid-19.

Dubbed "Raise the Bar" or "Tunyanyuke Pamoja", it will be a two-year programme starting in July 2021, offering outlets with free access to digital training and support.

According to the company's Managing Director Mark Ocitti, this initiative by SBL also complements the government's efforts to call on people and businesses to practice good hygiene to prevent themselves from communicable diseases, Covid-19 included.

"In our initiative, we will support resilience, resolve and re-imagination to on-trade in Tanzania. The ultimate goal is to rise again, hence the name of our new project, Raise the Bar or Tunyanyuke Pamoja. The project will cover 2,000 outlets in the cities of Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza," he said.

The project will support on-trade through 'Tunyanyuke Pamoja' in several ways, from training the outlet owners and staff against communicable diseases to providing technical equipment to transforming their outlets, he said.

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This programme by SBL is part of a global campaign by Diageo to enable bars to respond to the impact of Covid-19. Other significant cities worldwide benefit from the program: Nairobi, Kampala, New York, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Sydney, and beyond.

The "Raise the Bar" programme was designed following a survey of bar owners to identify key priorities to support the reopening of their business. Their top priorities included hygiene measures, digital support and valuable equipment to transform how their outlets will work when they reopen.

The "Raise the Bar" programme will provide targeted support to help pay for the physical equipment needed for outlets to reopen.

For example, it can provide initial funding for: 'hygiene kits' with high-quality permanent sanitiser dispenser units, medical-grade hand sanitisers and a range of personal protection equipment (such as masks and gloves); help pubs and bars to establish partnerships with online reservations and cashless systems; mobile bars and outdoor equipment," he said.

From June 30th, bar owners will be able to register their interest in the "Raise the Bar" programme via www.diageobaracademy.com globally.

Bar owners will receive regular updates on best practice training and resources and participate in global surveys to share insights as they build back their businesses.

"Our bars and eateries constitute a critical part of our hospitality and service industry. Their universe employs thousands of people and benefits many more indirectly.
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has expressed her condolences to the family and friends of Dan Maswanganye and Celeste Phillips who passed away this week.

Maswanganye was a technical manager at Primedia Broadcasting while Phillips had worked for the SABC news and eNCA during her broadcasting career.

"We wish their families and loved ones peace and strength during this difficult time, and pray that they find comfort in the beautiful memories that they shared with their loved ones.

"As the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies, and the custodian of broadcasting policy in country, we acknowledge the role that they have played in shaping the broadcasting industry in South Africa, and the many young people that they inspired," Ndabeni-Abrahams said on Thursday.
On Monday, June 28, Rwanda through a new Ministerial Order outlined a framework for the growing, processing and medical use of cannabis in the country.

Among the provisions in the new ministerial order is the medical use of cannabis and cannabis products in the country.

The order noted that cannabis and related products can only be used on condition that it is prescribed by a specialist medical doctor.

For this purpose, the order specifies that a specialised medical doctor is one whom the Ministry of Health has given, in writing, the authority to prescribe cannabis and cannabis products for use by a patient.

Rwandan medical experts say that among key instances where cannabis-related medication may be prescribed include treatment of chronic pain stemming from different health issues, use in the administration of anesthesia as well as sedatives and hypnotics.

Medical marijuana has been found effective in management of chronic pain especially for patients with conditions such as cancer, severe accidents among others.

Local medical practitioners including doctors and pharmacists welcomed the development, noting that it is a significant pharmaceutical advancement.

Geoffrey Beingana, a pharmacist and global health specialist, noted that while it is a pharmaceutical advancement, it should remain in the hands of experts to avoid any chances of misuse.

"Medical marijuana is very important in pharmaceutical advancement. However, this should be put in the right hands of experts in this field to avoid any chances of misuse," he said.

Dr. Jean-Claude Byiringiro, the acting Chairperson of the Rwanda Medical and Dental Council welcomed the development, noting that it is known to have medical advantages.

He said that the local medical practitioners have adequate capacity and professionalism to ensure that there is no misuse or unnecessary prescription. He added that locally, there are other select medical products that can only be prescribed and administered by specialized medical professionals which has created a framework that could be replicated in medical marijuana prescription.

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The new order does not in any way have provisions for cultivation, processing or use of cannabis for recreational purposes in the country.

Persons found to use, cultivate or sell marijuana outside the set order will be considered to be handling narcotics which is punishable by law.

According to the ministerial order, the cannabis value chain will have specific roles with up to eight licenses and permits required.

Types of licenses and certification include; cultivation license; import permit for seeds, genetic materials and other planting material; export permit for seeds, genetic materials and other planting materials.

Other licenses and permits include; cannabis and cannabis products processing license; cannabis and cannabis products import permit; cannabis and cannabis product export permit.

Other certifications and permits are finished cannabis and cannabis products registration certificate and research license.
Isolation and quarantine resources within the higher learning institutional residences have been established, in a bid to prevent further outbreaks in common areas, including dining halls, kitchen and study halls.

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said that during all the COVID-19 waves, including the current third wave, the department experienced several cluster outbreaks across many institutional residences, which has warranted HIGHER HEALTH to develop a specific protocol for residences to deal with COVID-19 positive cases.

Going forward, Nzimande said the department will accelerate daily COVID-19 screenings at residences in order to identify possible outbreaks early.

Addressing the media on the department's plans for the Post School Education and Training (PSET) institutions on Wednesday, as the country moves to Adjusted Alert Level 4 lockdown, Nzimande announced that HIGHER HEALTH has trained and developed over 49 000 campus-based frontline institutional staff and student volunteers.

They include residence officers (on-campus, off-campus and private accommodation), management, student support services, campus security and cleaning staff.

The Minister said HIGHER HEALTH will now embark on training resident managers, wardens, other resident staff, including private accommodation on the Resident Safety Protocol, in partnership with all institutional managements.

He urged all institutions to work with HIGHER HEALTH, as "residences pose a serious risk for COVID-19 outbreaks and ensuring we save lives among our students".

"It is now evident that the new Delta variant is highly transmissible and increasingly infecting larger numbers of younger persons in the population - unlike the previous (Alpha) variant. It is therefore crucial for young people to take these extra measures very seriously if we are to prevent community transmission," Nzimande warned.

HealthCheck screening tool

The Minister reminded students to use the HIGHER HEALTH toll-free digital screening tool, called HealthCheck, which is available on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), WhatsApp and in a webform.

This provides comprehensive symptom screening on a daily basis.

"It also issues a daily passport to enable all our students and staff to screen their COVID-19 status, thus allowing easy access in our campuses. I urge all our students, staff and service providers to use HealthCheck before leaving your home or residence in order to look after yourself as well as protecting others.

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"Keeping in mind the new variants that are highly transmissible even when someone is asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and especially in the third wave, daily COVID-19 screening is critical towards saving human lives.

"Thus far, over 12.9 million passports have been issued through this tool since its launch in early June 2020," Nzimande said.

District Campus Health

In order to strengthen student health and wellness services at campuses in underprivileged communities, HIGHER HEALTH has established District Campus Health and Wellness Mobile Clinic Health Care Programme to play a key role in managing cluster outbreaks across campuses.

The department works closely with the Health Department and National Health Laboratory Services, to enable early detection, isolation and further mitigating the spread of infection, across residences and campuses.

The Minister has also instructed HIGHER HEALTH to come up with a PSET vaccination strategy that is aligned with and supporting the Department of Health's phased national vaccine roll out strategy.

"The strategy will help to ensure access to vaccination for all our staff, including academia, management but importantly our frontline staff at our residences, cleaning, security and other support staff. This matter has been tabled at the IMC (Inter Ministerial Committee) and I am confident that very soon we will start the roll out of vaccination to all our staff in the post school system."
Rwanda is set to provide 15 scholarships to medical students who want to study plastic surgery, Patrick Ndimubanzi, the Executive Secretary of Rwanda Human Resource for Health Programme (HRH) - an initiative within the ministry of health - has said.

"We are working on the education curriculum for students who will do the plastic surgery training and we are also planning to get more plastic surgeons to train the students adding on to the two we already have," Ndimubanzi said.

In addition, he disclosed that in August this year the government will receive partners from the American College of Surgeons to discuss the number of plastic surgeons "they can give us."

The revelations come in the wake of a dire shortage of plastic surgeons in the country, coupled with the high cost associated with carrying out the surgery.

The country has only two plastic surgeons and three plastic surgeon residents.

With only five doctors working on plastic reconstructive surgery that involves congenital malformation, defects from trauma that include accidents or burns and cosmetic plastic surgery-the country needs more doctors to ease the workload on the existing ones.

The University of Rwanda in collaboration with Operation Smile and The College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) have now teamed up to fix this shortage.

The two organised the first Rwanda plastic surgery symposium to discuss solutions.

Dr Charles Furaha a plastic surgeon at Rwanda Military Hospital said that he is only able to conduct six to 12 surgeries a week depending on how complex the surgeries are.

This, he says is a very low number compared to a waiting list of more than 600 patients.

"We do not have the accurate number of patients who need plastic surgery but from some registry of the Ministry of Health between 100 and 150 children are born with defects, and of course, they will have to be put on the waiting list which sometimes leads to death of some patients or others are crippled because their conditions were not treated early," he told The New Times.

Another major challenge that the doctors face especially in rural Rwanda is the prevailing stigma directed towards patients

People who suffer from these defects are usually rejected by their peers and family members.

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"Parents do not know that these are treatable conditions and hence do not seek medical help," Dr Furaha added.

Professor Abebe Bekele, the Country Representative of COSECSA, says that the gap of plastic surgeons can only be bridged through training more medical students and turn them into professionals.

COSESCA is a non-profit organisation that offers postgraduate education and surgical training in Rwanda.

"We have seen that most training hospitals are based in big cities and the rural communities are left out, we seek to increase these training into district hospitals which will make trainees reach more patients and also try to reduce this gap" he added.

Francoise Mukagaju one of the three plastic surgeon residents said that they have been learning a lot from the few resources they have and through Operation Smile they were able to get professional education, medical journals and funding.

Andrew Karima the country manager of Operation Smile (OS) in Rwanda told The New Time that: "Our aim is to provide the right care to patients who need plastic surgery and do it at the right time, through the engagement of Community Health Workers (CHWs).

The organisation aims to train some 250 CHWs, and through medical students they will enhance recruitment of patients who need plastic surgery.
Nairobi  The Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) has launched an investigation into fraudulent payment of Sh275 million by the Nairobi County Government, for the supply of goods that were never delivered.

The food and non-food items were to be supplied to 127,500 households in Nairobi's informal settlements, as part of measures to cushion them from the challenging economic situation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission on Wednesday questioned the County Finance Chief Officer Halakano Waqo.

"The commission is undertaking investigations into allegation of irregular award of tenders by Nairobi City County Government for the Supply and Delivery of Food and non-Food items for disaster emergencies to mitigate effects of COVID 19 pandemic," stated the Commission's Deputy Director Forensic Investigation John Lolkoloi.

The investigations follow a letter by Makongeni MCA Peter Imwatok to the anti-graft Commission claiming that the payment of the goods was illegal.

He alleged that some of the companies involved in the deal are owned by some members of the county assembly and staff.

Payment vouchers indicated that the companies supplied food and non-food items including, rice, flour, maize, sugar, water, bread, blankets and mattresses.

Imwatok's letter highlighted companies that were paid the monies among them Tsuma Trading Company Limited (sh 82.6 million), Flexilease Limited (sh 89 million), Msafiri Feeds Limited (sh 39 million) Throughout General Supplies Limited (sh 17.7 million) Asmara Ventures Limited (sh 27 million), Capital Waste Management Limited (sh 10 million) and Daasanach Construction Limited (sh 9 million).
WOOL and mohair cottage industries were established in the late 1800s. The major objective of their establishment was to conserve the original art and also to sustain the traditional skills of weaving and hand crafted articles for local, tourist and export markets. The cottages were also instituted to create job opportunities for rural Basotho women while carrying out common domestic and seasonal activities.

A number of bottlenecks and constraints affect the ability of cottage groups to realise their full potential. Local cottage industry is hampered by a number of factors, including: limited access to finance, lack of access to reliable and sustainable markets, inability to access quality raw materials and adopt latest technologies, low levels of entrepreneurial and managerial skills and the fact that it is still dominated by old women(mostly). Most weaving enterprises make products, mostly tapestries, which no longer meet market demands in terms of product design and or quality.

To address the aforementioned challenges, the cottage industry and niche market development sub-component of the Wool and Mohair Promotion Project (WAMPP) led by the Department of Marketing (DoM) is putting its efforts towards strengthening capacity of cottage weaving groups in enterprise planning and management, marketing and product design and also to establish linkages with international and local markets.

Since the project inception, the sub-component has made its mark on the following:

The DoM through WAMPP has commissioned Niche Market and comprehensive Market study with the objective to identify suitable market outlets to absorb locally produced fibre products.

The DoM in collaboration with WAMPP has mobilised over one hundred and thirty eight (138) youth nationwide to venture into wool and mohair cottage industry. This is done in an effort to curb high unemployment rate faced by the youth.

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The same youth were trained by Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO) on business management skills, technical skills in processing wool to design and produce products using crochet, knitting, and weaving.

As a result of the training, three (3) youth cooperatives were formed in the districts of Leribe, Maseru and Berea. Some of the products from the cooperatives are already being sold in the local markets.

The small-scale processing facility in Berea district is almost 90% complete and it is meant to assist the industry with value-addition activities such as cleaning of the fibre, dying, and yarn making.

The wool and mohair cottage industry has a potential to contribute towards national development goals. In order for the industry to unleash its potential, the DoM's medium to long term plans include carrying out market requirements survey to determine the hospitality sectoral needs as far as wool and mohair products are concerned. In addition, cottage enterprises will also be trained to innovate trending wool and mohair products. The stakeholders are also working towards establishment of an online platform which is intended to promote the industry globally. A Cottage Technical Assistant has also been engaged for a period of nine months (April - December 2021), to further help support the growth of the cottage industry.
ELEVEN of out 20 illegal miners, whose bodies were last week discovered at Orkney Mine in South Africa's North West Province, have been positively identified as Basotho.

This was confirmed by Lesotho's Consul General, Selimo Thabane, in an interview with the Lesotho Times this week.

All in all, 20 bodies were found wrapped in grain bags outside the abandoned mine. They are suspected to have died in an underground mining accident. South African authorities are still investigating the cause of the deaths.

Over the weekend, Mr Thabane and North West premier, Job Mokgoro, accompanied some Basotho families to Tshepisong Mortuary, Klerksdorp where they positively identified 11 bodies.

Mr Thabane said they had initially received reports that 15 dead miners were thought to be from Lesotho.

However, only 11 bodies had been identified because the rest did not have any form of identification on them.

"Family members were able to identify 11 bodies and we have started the repatriation processes," Mr Thabane said.

"There are other bodies without name tags and we urge people to come forward and help identify the bodies.

"We were able to find the deceased miners' relatives with the assistance of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS), chiefs and councillors," he said.

He said the deaths were attributable to the economic challenges in Lesotho which had forced many people to trek to South Africa in search of opportunities to sustain their livelihoods.

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He called on the Lesotho government to urgently find ways of growing the economy to create jobs to reduce the number of people flocking to South Africa and ending up as illegal miners.

"Basotho are flocking into South Africa in large numbers in search of greener pastures. It is high time the government comes up with a roadmap that addresses unemployment.

"I believe that job creation at home will go a long way in reducing the number of people who come to South Africa illegally. The main reason why people are going to South Africa is because of unemployment. It is time we look at long-term solutions in order to curb these avoidable deaths. I will engage the government on this matter," Mr Thabane said.

He said he had held meetings with Mr Mokgoro to find ways of curbing the problem of illegal Basotho miners in South Africa.

"We are working together to find ways to address the issue. It is unfortunate that these accidents have been recurring for decades now. We have to come up with ways of addressing the problem effectively. Therefore, discussions have already started, we intend to come up with a permanent solution," Mr Thabane said, adding it was still premature to reveal the exact details of their discussions.

Meanwhile, Mr Mokgoro released a statement, saying, "the situation calls for drastic deliberate action that should happen almost immediately.

"We have to strengthen our integrated approach towards dealing with illegal mining. Our efforts must be more sustainable and long lasting in terms of effectiveness. Going forward we will pull all our resources together to combat, counter and eradicate this menace completely," Mr Mokgoro said.
THE Students' Union of Namibia (SUN) called on society to reflect on and review Namibian history to reduce the 'entrapment syndrome'.

The union said this in a statement issued today by national spokesperson Tyson Hihanguapo.

He called for equity and social justice in Namibian schools.

"The process of decolonising the curriculum can be facilitated by drawing from the work of Smith (1999), who identified elements of decolonization," Hihanguapo said.

He said the school curriculum should be rewritten correctly to suit the people whom it is meant for.

"It will be important to teach Namibian pupils about detailed genocide and the significance of the war against national resistance," Hihuanguapo said.

" . . . it is important for misrepresented information to be rebuilt and to create balance to the benefit of pupils and future generations.

"It is important to spell out during a history lesson how our independence was negotiated . . . that gave the Namibian child political freedom and not economic freedom," he said.
MORE than 370 schoolgoing girls fell pregnant in the Khomas region during the 2020 academic year.

Of that number, 24 girls were in primary school, while 321 were in secondary school, and 26 were from resource schools.

These figures were revealed by Khomas regional governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua during her state of the region address on Wednesday.

Katjirua expressed concern over the high number of pupils falling pregnant in Khomas every year.

Apart from teenage pregnancies, Katjirua said the region's education system also faces various challenges that eventually contribute to the poor performance of schools in the region.

Other challenges, Katjirua said, include absenteeism and dropouts due to hunger, and the low capacity of some schools to cope with and mitigate health-related challenges.
The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) has called for the amendment of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA) 2007 for the harnessing of the full potential of the sector and aid the nation's diversification quest from crude oil.

This was the high point of the launch and public presentation of 'Research on Solid Mineral Development in Nigeria: Evidence from Ebonyi, Ekiti and Taraba States' in Abuja recently.

Dr Ben Nwosu of NODAC Consulting said the amendment would define a clear approach for managing grievances that may arise through the implementation process of the Community Development Agreements (CDAs).

The Executive Director, Centre LSD, Mr. Monday Osasah, said the project was started in 2016 when the government promised to reform the extractive sector.

He said the centre did a plan on how to mobilise citizens to participate in natural resources governance with research conducted in three states already revealing significant outcomes.
Barely 72 hours to the Yoruba nation rally in Lagos, the Soka Ibadan residence of Yoruba Nation Agitator, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho was reportedly attacked in the early hours of Thursday by yet-to-be-identified gunmen.

Report has it that the incident occurred around 1:00am.

According to the media page of Igboho's spokesperson, Mr Olayomi Koiki, some men allegedly adorned in military uniforms carried out the attack.

The report further has it that Igboho's vehicles, including his G-wagon, Prado Jeep, some valuable properties including furniture, and windows were destroyed.

Bullet holes were reportedly found in cars parked in the premises while blood stains were seen at the premises, while it was also alleged that some persons in the house including a close ally of Igboho identified as 'Lady K', were whisked away.

Vanguard learnt Igboho was not at home during the alleged attack.

As of the time of filing this report, Oyo Police Command was yet to confirm the attack, while calls placed across to the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Adewale Osifeso were unanswered.

Vanguard News Nigeria
In March 2021, Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan made history when she was sworn in as Tanzania's first female president. Having previously made history as the country's first female vice president, President Hassan assumed office amidst grief and sorrow as the nation mourned her predecessor, President John Pombe Magufuli.

I remember wondering how daunting it would be to suddenly become a commander in chief while also facing the responsibility of consoling a nation, being a beacon of hope and direction, and ensuring the people remain in solidarity. With the utmost faith in her government and a growing sense of optimism, it has been beyond impressive to witness President Hassan's leadership over her first 100 days in office.

Over the past three months, President Hassan has not only inspired me as a citizen - she has also driven me as a business leader, encouraged me as a player in the global financial industry, and motivated me as a member of the private sector. A strong symbol of ethical leadership, one of the very first assurances President Hassan issued was her zero tolerance approach to corruption. As Chairman of the CEO Roundtable of Tanzania, an organisation with business and ethics among its focus areas, I found this to be an encouraging mark of carrying on the staunch ethical stand that had permeated various areas across the country. President Hassan's first 100 days in office have also been characterised by a shift in levels of transparency.

For one, she quickly formed a committee of experts to share advice on dealing with Covid-19, ending months of silence by the government on the nation's state as far as the global pandemic was concerned. She also lifted media bans, permitting the reopening of several media houses.

The President's call for transparency is one I certainly hope will be mirrored by all leaders - business and community alike. By recognising and acknowledging weaknesses amongst ourselves, we are able to redirect and take on new paths that can turn those flaws into strengths. It is no secret that President Hassan's directive to government officials to promote and drive investment, trade and expand the tax base, has been met by strong support from the business community. Our President's inclusive approach, recognising the legitimate interests and contribution of all social partners, including business is encouraging, the overall tone of connection, correction, collaboration and direction that we have witnessed in the first 100 days is key to driving enhanced economic expansion, this will serve to unlock more strategic investments and promote faster economic growth aligned to Tanzania's 3rd five year development plans (FYDP III).

The business community has previously voiced their challenges with investing and operating in the country, and long held out hope for a more conducive business environment. The President's remarks in this regard, including at the recent 12th meeting of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) have reaffirmed our commitment to playing a key role in building our nation's economy, and this has been a good start to further regaining investor trust and confidence. Whilst plenty needs to be done to meet our national collaborative ambitions including navigating local and global disruptions due to the pandemic, the work has evidently begun - policy makers are meeting with business representatives and laws and policies are being reviewed. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and on the journey to promote medium to long term prosperity in Tanzania, President Hassan's administration has already made progress including through interventions highlighted in the Budget for period 2021-22. We look forward to continuing that walk together and coming to a place where industry and trade is an even larger contributor to the country's gross domestic product.

Along with moves to improve the business environment, it has been uplifting to also see President Hassan's focus on strengthening international relations. Besides having important engagements with development partners in the country she has visited neighbouring East African countries on critical business promotion exercises and during her visit to Kenya, she signed an agreement to transport liquefied petroleum gas from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the Tanzanian economic capital Dar es Salaam. In Uganda, she had bilateral trade talks with President Museveni that will culminate in the signing of the crude oil pipeline deal. She has been positioning Tanzania as a powerhouse in regional trade and ensuring cooperation between the East African Community (EAC).

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Most recently, President Hassan has also encouraged our central bank to be prepared for the use of digital currencies and ensure Tanzania takes the lead and optimises on the opportunities that 4IR brings. I have had the privilege of engaging with Her Excellency many times before and I recall on 2017 when I met her with Group leaders from Standard Chartered Bank visiting Tanzania she keenly discussed with us about evolution of cryptocurrency, this is a testament to her curious nature and dynamic leadership. She is clearly intent on making sure Tanzania has an economic stronghold in the global market, overcoming financial instability and boosting development.

President Hassan is a formidable leader who is strong willed and goal oriented, and I look forward to watching the story of her purposeful service in leadership unfold, indeed as we say it in Tanzania, Kazi Iendelee.
Dar es Salaam  President Samia Suluhu Hassan's pronouncement that the government has restarted negotiations on reviving the $10 billion Bagamoyo Port Project has prompted debate on the matter, with some analysts saying it was the right thing to do.

The government signed a framework agreement in 2013 with China Merchants Holdings International (CMHI) and Oman's State General Reserve Fund to build the port and a special economic zone as part of efforts to transform Tanzania into a trade and logistics hub in the region.

But the Fifth Phase administration of the late John Magufuli dismissed the project, saying it was exploitative and inappropriate.

However, chairing her maiden Tanzania National Business Council in Dar es Salaam recently, President Hassan - who ascended to the Presidency on March 19, 2021 following the death in office of Dr Magufuli on March 17, 2021 - said the Bagamoyo Port project should be implemented for the benefit of the country.

Analysts now say there had been a number of falsified statements during the past administration to justify the cancellation of the project.
A Zimbabwean receives a COVID-19 vaccine jab at Wilkins Hospital - Zimbabwes main vaccination center in Harare on May 12, 2021 when things were still on course. Then shortages began.

At least more than 800 people and undisclosed number of clients from several companies in Kampala Metropolitan Area received fake Covid-19 jabs last month.

Some of the recipients have since died in the second wave of the pandemic.

Dr Wallen Naamara, the head of State House Health Monitoring Unit, told Daily Monitor that the people who took the fake Covid jabs shouldn't get worried because there is a possibility that the fraudsters could have used water they put in stolen bottles.

Dr Naamara told a press conference in Kampala that the suspects, including a doctor, who is currently on the run, duped several people and companies and injected them with fake vaccines between May 15 and June 17.

State House detectives yesterday arrested two nurses from Nakawa, Kampala, on accusations of vaccinating people using a suspected fake vaccine.

"The contents of labels of this vaccine are suspected to have either been stolen from somewhere or manufactured from Nasser Road in Kampala but they did not pass the right channels of the government.

Almost all the vaccines of Covid-19 are 5mls, but this one doesn't look like 5mls, it's actually more, the top of the vial is so tempered with and it looks like a fake vaccine," Dr Naamara said.

Daily Monitor understands that a joint health intelligence team on June 17 raided Kiswa Health Centre, a vaccination centre in Nakawa Division, Kampala, and found that the nurses there were charging people between Shs100,00 and Shs200,000 for each dose to vaccinate against Covid-19.

During the operation, the detective impounded a book with a list of people who have been vaccinated with a drug that did not pass through the right channels of government. The book had names of person and serial numbers of certificates awarded to those who had been vaccinated.

"We got a social media story and information from the Resident District Commissioner for Nakawa about people who were carrying out Covid-19 vaccination. We informed the police, State House intelligence team and Chieftaincy of Military intelligence to do undercover work. In the process, two nurses, who were vaccinating individuals, people in corporate institutions with Covid-19 vaccine, were arrested and taken to Jinja Road Police Station for investigations," he said.

Dr Naamara, however, said the arrested nurses revealed to security that they were receiving the vaccine from Dr Francis Baguma, who is also on the run.

The detained nurses were found with stamps belonging to Kampala Capital City Authority and Kiswa Health Centre. They had 150 pieces of vaccination cards, vaccine carriers and nine vials of Covid-19 vaccines, which were ninety dozes. They also had absorbent cotton, medical examination gloves and a note book of the names of vaccinated people from different institutions.

The nurses had the identification tags of Kampala Capital City Authority, consent forms and when we contacted KCCA, they denied them being their officials.

Related

Dr Naamara said they have retrieved a record of different offices and companies where the nurses carried out the vaccination exercise. Such companies include Dott Services, Diamond Trust Bank, United Bank of Africa , Tororo Cement, Uganda Bati, Madhvani, Seven Hills, Dot Maxs Packaging, and more than 800 individuals.

He added that whereas the Ministry of Health offers free vaccination services, the vaccination at Kiswa Health Centre was being administered at a fee, with each doze ranging from Shs100,000 to Shs200,000.

Ms Sheila Nduhukire, the NMS spokesperson, said: "Our drugs are labelled by the government of Uganda , National Medical Stores, therefore, if the drugs don't have those features, then they are not ours," she said.

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Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said Kiswa Health Centre is among the official vaccination centres in Nakawa.

When we asked him on the suspected stolen Covid-19 batch that was discovered by State House Health Monitoring Unit, he said he was not aware of the information.

"I am going to find out more about the batch with relevant authorities," he said.

Dr Naamara, however, said when they contacted National Medical Stores to prove the authenticity of the suspected drugs, they confirmed that the batch was not imported in the country.

The Resident City Commissioner of Nakawa Division, Mr Herbert Burora', said: "Vaccination is for all of us, therefore, corporate companies should work with government such that they are given the right vaccine," he said.
The Ministry of Health yesterday appointed a team to study the expenditure of private health facilities, which are treating Covid-19 patients, in a bid to solve the issue of the exorbitant charges.

The team was appointed yesterday during a closed door meeting with the leadership of the private hospitals and is expected to report to the ministry today with recommendations on which costs government can take over.

During the meeting, a team from the private health facilities presented a list of their expenditure.

Though Ministry of Health has not publicly disclosed the composition of the team, sources say it comprises both ministry officials and private sector players.

A source, who attended the meeting but preferred anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media, said the ministry is ready to take up some of the costs provided it will translate into reduction of charges by the private facilities.

The source said key on the list is the cost of oxygen administration, personal protective equipment (PPEs) and other equipment needed for emergency services.

The team is supposed to come up with a report today so that government comes out with a clear position on which expenses it will take over before the end of the week.

This comes after the public raised concern over the exorbitant charges demanded by the private health facilities to treat Covid-19 patients.

According to figures seen by this publication, private health facilities have been charging between Shs2m and Shs10m daily for ICU admissions.

They also demand upfront payment before admitting a patient.

Dr Denis Kimalyo, the executive director of the Uganda National Association of Private Hospitals, who has been key in the discussions, failed to respond to our inquiries on the high costs.

He told this publication that he was busy attending a World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting and that he would respond to our inquiries later. However, by press time, he had not responded to our repeated calls.

We were also unable to reach Ms Grace Kiwanuka, the executive director of Uganda Healthcare Federation, who is a member of the committee, as she did not respond to our repeated calls and text messages.

In an interview with Daily Monitor on Sunday, Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, admitted that government was engaging the private health facilities to find a way to reduce the costs.

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"This discussion is still ongoing, we think there is a window that these people can cut their costs to a reasonable rate. I know Covid-19 is a very expensive disease to treat because those PPEs and the other things they use are very expensive," Dr Atwine said.

She, however, said while they were engaging the proprietors of the private health facilities, there is no legal framework which they can use to compel the private facilities to reduce the charges.

"We do not have the law to push by force even if we told them. I think the best is for people not to go there, unfortunately, people are desperate and sometimes they have nowhere to go, but there," she said.

Court case

As the private hospitals make a killing from the Covid-19 pandemic, a health advocacy organisation, Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and its executive director, Mr Moses Mulumba, at the weekend dragged the government to court over the exorbitant prices charged.

The petitioner said government failed to regulate the high medical bills being charged by private health facilities for Covid-19 treatment.

In his affidavit to support the petition, Mr Mulumba said the rates charged by the hospitals are clearly exorbitant in nature.
Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente on Wednesday hosted Aivo H. Andrianarivelo, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director, in an event the two officials said provided an opportunity to strengthen the funds relationship with Rwanda.

Andrianarivelo, who is in the country for a week-long visit, represents the Africa Group 1 constituency, a grouping of 23 sub-Saharan African countries, on the IMF Executive Board.

While speaking to the media, the official said that he had held 'fruitful' discussions around the challenges of accelerating economic growth following a significant shock stemming from the pandemic.

"There is already a very good relationship with the IMF and Rwanda," he added, "Through this visit, we plan to exchange ideas and also give you assurance of our support to the recovery as we face this pandemic."

Andrianarivelo commended the Government of Rwanda's recent efforts in implementing the economic recovery fund, citing that he was earlier briefed on its progress by the premier.

"As you know Africa, and specifically Rwanda is witnessing a surge in cases. We stand ready to support the country."

To return to its path of stronger growth, he said that Rwanda, like other African countries, needed carefully calibrated domestic policies and stronger support from the international community to recover from the crisis.

"Some weeks ago our chief economist of the IMF implemented a plan of funding the vaccination of low-income countries. We are trying to advocate large funding for these countries not only Africa but other small states."

Questioned on further debt relief allocations, Andrianarivelo disclosed that the fund is considering 'substantial additional financing', but no further details were provided.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Minister of Finance Uzziel Ndagijimana pointed out that the IMF has allocated a total of $200 million in interest-free loans.
Over 2,000 workers from the troubled Mumias Sugar Company have accused local politicians of being used to sabotage the revival efforts of the miller.

They blame the leaders of spewing sour politics and stalling an ongoing process aimed at breathing new life to the once thriving sugar giant that provided livelihood to thousands of residents from Western Kenya.

"Farmers are owed Sh1.6 billion in salary arrears. We are saddened that the same people we expect to defend our rights are the same ones who are out sabotage the process," said the workers through their union.

Kenya Union of Sugar Plantation and Allied Workers (Kuspaw) Secretary General Francis Wangara, termed the move as selfish and demoralising to thousands of stakeholders who depended on the lucrative sector.

"As a private company, the Kenya Commercial Bank appointed receiver manager Ponangipalli Venkata Ramana Rao who acted within the procurement laws to get a new investor to revive the ailing company," said Mr Wangara.

Speaking in Kisumu on Wednesday, Mr Wangara called on local leaders to back the process led by the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) governors to give Mumias a new lease of life.

New investor

LREB chairman Wycliffe Oparanya last weekend said they will support efforts by KCB to bring in a new investor who is capable of turning around the fortunes of the company and restore the confidence of farmers who had opted for other crops.

"We have confidence that KCB will identify the most suitable investor to revive the fortunes of the sugar miller and ensure that it gets back to its feet," he said after presiding over the 7th LREB summit held at Ciala Resort in Kisumu County.

Mr Wangara further noted as insincere to dismiss Devki Group of Companies for being involved in cement and steel industry.

"This should not be a basis to shun an investor. We have other successful entrepreneurs who have invested in other sectors but are still doing well in the sugar industry," he stated.

Mumias Sugar was placed into receivership after falling into technical insolvency with total liabilities outstripping total assets by Sh14.39 billion.

To restore the operations of the company, the receiver manager has identified leasing to a private investor as the best way to inject the much-needed capitalization.

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Citing political interests and a bid to protect his name and business, Devki Group chairman Narendra Raval withdrew plans to inject Sh5 billion to modernise the company.

He however affirmed that he is still interested to embark on the process if the bidding is conducted in consultation with all stakeholders.

Among other leaders, ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi pointed out that the plan did not go through public participation. He cautioned that the resuscitation plans for the miller could be disrupted.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has also moved to court seeking removal of the receiver manager saying he has failed to protect the assets of Mumias Sugar.

In the petition, Mr Omtatah says instead of breathing life into the company, Mr Rao has allegedly mismanaged ethanol operations and shut them down in March, thus halting all manufacturing operations at the company.

vraballa@ke.nationmedia.com
The teachers' employer has defended its non-monetary counteroffer to the unions, saying it is the only deal they can afford in the prevailing economic situation.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said the 2021-2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was not only about monetary gains, but also about conditions of service for teachers.

Ms Macharia said while she appreciates the right of the unions to decline the offer, they should also consider the economic situation the country finds itself in and the fact that she could not offer what she did not have.

"We urge the union leadership to consider that, as an employer, we have stood with their members and paid full remuneration even when other sectors of the economy were experiencing job losses, salary cuts and other harsh employment conditions as part of the measures to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic," said Ms Macharia.

Professional environment

Ms Macharia said the agency is committed to providing an outstanding working and professional environment for all the 330,671 teachers in its employment.

"A proof of this, the commission has this month paid the last salary under the 2017-2021 CBA, which has ensured our teachers now earn salaries that are comparable to their peers in the region and in the public service," she said.

Ms Macharia added that over the past eight years, the commission has embraced open dialogue as a means of managing industrial relations in the teaching service.

She said that is how the commission was able to carry out reforms to ensure the teaching sector remains professional, peaceful and free from industrial disharmony.

SRC advisory

Ms Macharia said their counteroffer to the unions was based on an advisory from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

She said the commission's proposal had factored in the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Aware the CBA 2017-2021 would come to an end on June 30, 2021, and in conformity with the constitutional provisions requiring employers in the public sector to obtain opinion from SRC, the commission sought advisory opinion on the way forward regarding a new CBA for the 2021-2025 period," she said.

The SRC gave an advisory on June 17, 2021 that there would be no pay reviews for the basic salary structures, allowances and benefits paid in the public sector in the financial year 2021/2022 to 2022/2023.

Ms Macharia said the negotiations they had with teachers on Tuesday at Nairobi's Safari Park Hotel were based on the understanding that the basic salary, annual increments, allowances and benefits teachers are currently getting would be maintained.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (Kusnet) have rejected TSC's counteroffer and threatened to paralyse learning next term when schools reopen for first term.

Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori said the union would use all means including the judiciary to challenge the legality of the SRC position blocking public-sector salary reviews for two years.

Rights of workers

"Should the SRC position stand, the whole idea of collective bargaining would come a cropper and with that, the rights of workers in Kenya would be compromised," said Mr Misori.

In the union's proposals presented to the TSC before the end of last year as required by the law, Knut proposes teachers' basic salaries be increased from between 120 per cent and 200 per cent, while Kuppet wants increment in the same job grade to be between 30 per cent and 70 per cent.

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For their part, Kusnet proposed a basic salary increment of between 50 per cent and 60 per cent.

The unions argue that teachers are frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19 and, therefore, they need a pay increase.

TSC had proposed a maternity leave of 120 days, paternity leave of 21 days, a pre-adoptive leave of 45 days and fast-tracking of promotions in arid and semi-arid land (Asal) areas.

This means, for the next four years, teachers will not receive their usual annual salary increase. The Sh54 billion 2017-2021 CBA negotiated in 2016 expired yesterday.

fnyamai@ke.nationmedia.com
Promoters of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) Wednesday made a final push in an effort to overturn a judgment that derailed their bid to amend the Constitution, urging the Court of Appeal to allow Kenyans to complete the process.

While urging the seven judges of the appellate court to reverse the High Court verdict, Senior Counsel and Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo argued that the BBI secretariat co-chairmen, Mr Dennis Waweru and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, were the initiators of the process.

By this argument, the pro-BBI camp was targeting the High Court's verdict that the Bill that was being pushed to amend the Constitution through a popular initiative had violated the law because it had been sponsored by President Kenyatta, who cannot legally initiate such a process.

Mr Amollo stated that Mr Waweru and Mr Mohamed were the ones who presented the signatures to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) for verification.

According to the lawyer, anyone, including President Kenyatta, was free to support the initiative.

"It is the co-chairs who collected the signatures and submitted them to IEBC through an intensive process. Without a doubt, the promoters of the initiative are the two gentlemen," Mr Amollo told the seven judges.

He added that it was also Mr Waweru and Mr Mohamed who appeared before joint committees of Parliament.

Later in the afternoon, the President, through his lawyers, Mr Waweru Gatonye, Mr Mohammed Nyaoga and Mr Kiragu Kimani, argued that the High Court judgement, if let to stand, had the implication of limiting his right to participate in political processes.

Constitutional reforms

"Nobody has [shown the] court [any] provision in the Constitution that bars the President from using a popular initiative, or says that he can only use Parliament. No provision bars the President from initiating an amendment of the constitution through a popular initiative," said the lawyers during the second day of the hearing of appeals against the High Court decision that blocked a plan to change the Constitution.

Today, the respondents, the parties who successfully petitioned the High Court to nullify the process to amend the Constitution, will defend their position.

Earlier, the court heard that the High Court judges deliberately ignored evidence presented before them and the over three million supporters of the initiative, who declared that they had read and understood the constitutional amendment Bill.

The promoters of the BBI have faulted the judgment, saying, the judges introduced an alien organ, namely the constituent assembly, as a criterion for the exercise of the people's sovereign right to a referendum, and which restricted the same right.

Former Attorney General Githu Muigai, who is representing the electoral commission, criticised the judgment of the High Court, arguing that those opposed to the process had moved to court prematurely.

Prof Muigai said that, going by the decision, "the judges are saying that Kenyans cannot be trusted with the constitution they made".

According to Prof Muigai, the BBI process is a political process, which must be allowed to evolve politically.

Seeking judicial interventions

"The judgment cannot be allowed to stand because it violates many fundamental tenets of the Constitution. If allowed to stand, it would create a recipe for chaos," he said.

Prof Muigai argued that the five judges of the High Court departed from their core duty of interpreting the Constitution by "converting themselves into a philosophical forum".

He cautioned that some litigants have regrettably developed a trend where they move to court seeking judicial interventions even where there is no conflict, controversy or concrete parties.

He added that such decisions have no sanctity of law.

The former AG said the High Court sitting as a constitutional court has limited view to entertain institutional controversies brought to it by parties, who have a standing and cause of action.

Further, Prof Muigai said the High Court was wrong [in] stating that the IEBC lacked quorum as it only had three commissioners and should not be allowed to transact its business.

He said the court failed to appreciate earlier decisions on the same issue of quorum at the IEBC and the fact that there are some vacancies does not render the commission unconstitutional.

"The work of the commission must continue despite the number. We will end up creating judicial anarchy if courts of the same jurisdiction ignore previous decisions," he said.

High Court's ruling faulted

Prof Muigai said that, instead of the parties in the BBI petition drawing the issues for determination, it was the five judges who framed the issues and answered them in their judgment.

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Lawyers Erick Gumbo and Moses Kipkogey, also appearing for IEBC, faulted the High Court's ruling, saying, the judges erred by stating that the commission did not forensically verify the one million signatures collected by the promoters of the BBI.

Mr Kipkogey said IEBC verified the signatures in the manner prescribed by law.

"There is no law requiring IEBC to verify the signatures collected by the promoters of the constitutional amendments forensically," Mr Kipkogey stated.

Mr Gumbo and senior counsel Lucy Kambuni said IEBC carried out public participation in a manner that was acceptable by law and the verification and collection of the signatures was similarly done within the confines of the law.

In the verdict in May, the High Court said the BBI steering committee was illegal and unconstitutional and the signatures collected by the BBI task force to support the initiative did not amount to a citizen-led process.

The BBI secretariat argues in the appeal that the intention of the promoters of BBI and the over three million supporters should not be reduced to a mere academic exercise.
President Uhuru Kenyatta says the High Court infringed and limited his individual rights when it denied him an opportunity to be heard in the petitions relating to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).

The President says the High Court also erred by declaring that he had violated the Constitution for proposing and promoting amendment of the Constitution through the BBI task force, which was declared an illegal entity, instead of using the parliamentary route.

In his partial appeal where he is fighting the declarations of the High Court that are adverse to him personally, the President argues that the Constitution does not bar him from using the popular initiative to drive constitutional amendments.

Through a team of three lawyers led by Waweru Gatonye, Mohammed Nyaoga and Kiragu Kimani, the President says the High Court judgment has implication of limiting his right to participate in political processes.

"Nobody has directed the court to a provision in the Constitution that bars the President from using popular initiative or says he can only use Parliament. No provision bars the President from initiating an amendment of the Constitution through a popular initiative," said the lawyers yesterday during the second day of hearing of appeals against the High Court decision that blocked a plan to change the Constitution. The session was later in the evening disrupted by a power blackout.

The lawyers urged the appellate court to set aside a declaration by the High Court that the President does not have authority under the Constitution to initiate changes to the Constitution, and that a constitutional amendment can only be initiated by the President through the Attorney General in Parliament through a parliamentary initiative.

The seven-judge bench of the appellate court heard that the trial court made a fundamental error by making adverse declarations and orders against the President without finding out whether he had been furnished with the petition in which he had been sued in his private capacity.

Mr Gatonye said the President had been made a party by one of the petitioners, Isaac Aluoch Polo Aluochier, and the trial court condemned him unheard.

Right of fair trial and hearing

"When a person has been sued, he is entitled to be notified and served with the documents on allegations made against him. In this case a petitioner sued the President in his private capacity and failed to serve him. The court proceeded to hear the matter and made orders against him," said Mr Gatonye.

While emphasising that President Kenyatta is entitled to the right of a fair trial and fair hearing, the lawyer said the breach of rights in litigation is so serious that the resultant orders are a nullity.

Mr Gatonye stated that without service of document, it does not matter, in litigation, whether there is evidence of the allegations or not. He said failure to serve documents is a serious omission in litigation.

The lawyer said the Attorney General had objected to suing of the President at the High Court, but his protest was futile.

Further, he added that the trial court had initially ruled that the Attorney General was representing the President in the case, only for the judges in their judgment to declare that the President should have responded to the petition in person or through a private lawyer.

Mr Gatonye urged the court to set aside the order and declarations adverse to the President, arising from the BBI dispute.

Lawyer Nyaoga said unless the declarations made against their client are annulled, he (the President) will face civil cases that will distract him in performance of his duties.

Criminal proceedings

The lawyer said the trial court made an erroneous finding that civil proceedings can be opened against the President in his personal capacity.

"The President is immune to civil and criminal proceedings during his tenure of office in respect of anything done or not done in exercise of his powers. The holding of the trial court was without a constitutional basis," said Mr Nyaoga.

However, the argument on President's immunity to legal proceedings attracted questions from the judges on what happens to disputes arising from President's personal engagements such as private contracts, businesses or social disputes.

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Since the Constitution says the President cannot be sued for exercising his constitutional powers, the court posed a question to the lawyer on what happens when he (President) acts outside constitutional powers.

Lawyer Nyaoga maintained that the President cannot be sued at all and that even if he misconducts himself, there are other mechanisms of addressing the disputes.

He urged court to set aside High Court's declaration that civil court proceedings can be instituted against the President or a person performing the functions of the office of President during their tenure of office in respect of anything done or not done contrary to the Constitution.

Mr Kimani argued that their client is entitled to protection of the law, service (of court documents) and invitation to defend himself.

He stated that the President can take any position he wishes on the Constitution and he can be involved in the process of amending it.

jwangui@ke.nationmedia.com
A financial crisis is looming in Vihiga County after the High Court issued a conservatory order stopping the implementation of the Sh5.8 billion 2021/22 budget approved by the assembly last week.

The order, issued Thursday in Kakamega by Justice William Musyoka, follows a petition filed by former county secretary Francis Ominde and political analyst Joseph Simekha challenging the legality of the budget.

The two are alleging the county government's spending plan is illegal because it did not get approval of the county executive committee as required by law.

The stay order consequently suspended the execution of the budget as the new financial year starts, pointing to a major cash crunch.

While certifying the application as urgent, Justice Musyoka set the inter-parties hearing for July 6.

"A temporary conservatory order is hereby issued staying and or suspending the execution and or implementation of Vihiga County annual budget for the financial year 2021/22 pending inter-parties hearing of this application," Justice Musyoka said.

As a result, it could take longer before the approved budget -- and also the Appropriations Bill, 2021 -- are assented to to enable funds to flow to the devolved unit.

Respondents

Finance Executive Alfred Indeche is listed as the first respondent while Governor Wilber Ottichilo, Speaker Hasna Mudeizi and County Assembly Clerk Ambaka Kilinga are the second, third and fourth respondents respectively.

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The Controller of Budget, Deputy Governor Patrick Saisi and all the CECs have been listed as interested parties.

In the court papers, the petitioners argue that the budget estimates were not discussed or approved by the county executive committee as required by Section 129 (1) of the Public Finance Management Act, the Constitution and other applicable laws.

They say their petition concerns the protection and enforcement of the principles of public finance and executive authority of the county.

The matter, now before court, first emerged in May after the deputy governor raised the alarm that the budget estimates which had already been forwarded to the assembly for consideration had not been discussed and approved by the county's Cabinet.

Required process

At the time, Dr Saisi -- who has since fallen out with Governor Ottichilo -- had asked Speaker Mudeizi to return the county's Sh5.8 billion budget to the executive to enable it go through the required process.

Through a letter to the Speaker, the deputy governor said he was shocked that the document that needs approval of the county's Cabinet was already before the assembly undergoing public participation.

"I wish to reiterate that as a member of the county executive committee, I have no recollection of any meeting passing the annual budget estimates for financial year 2021/22," Dr Saisi said in his letter.

He added: "As per the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, Section 129(1) and (2), it is very clear that the county annual budget estimates need the county executive committee's approval."

DMusalia@ke.nationmedia.com
Muslim women are pushing for one of them to be appointed to the Kadhi courts' top position as incumbent Chief Kadhi Sheikh Ahmed Muhdhar's tenure ends, a call he has supported.

The promotion of Martha Koome to Chief Justice, they said, has given them new impetus to seek the top position in the courts that determine questions of Muslim law that relate to personal status, marriage, divorce and inheritance.

Islamic law scholar Fatuma Juma said if women ascend to such high positions, they will bring a new perspective on women's issues that are not well articulated in the current set-up.

"It is not a must that the Kadhi position goes to men. It is not a reserve for them. If we are given those chances, women may help to solve issues affecting them, and articulate them better," she says.

Most Muslim women, she said, are shy and need a fellow female advocate to help them handle marital and other challenges.

Her fellow Muslim lawyer Nusrat Mohammed echoed those sentiments, arguing that it is time for women who have studied Islamic law to get decision-making positions in Kadhi's courts.

"Almost all Muslim advisers to the Kadhi are men. We need to change this narrative, and consider having female advisers as well. We also need women scholars within the court who can act as intermediaries," she said.

Chief Kadhi Muhdhar supports the idea, saying women are also entitled to the position as long as they are qualified.

"As long as you have studied the Islamic Sharia law, you are entitled for the Kadhi position, irrespective of gender," he said.

Women are entitled to the Kadhi positions if they have gone through Sharia law school, said Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya (Supkem) Coast branch chairman, Mudhar Khitamy.

"What people need to understand is that the Kadhi Court is just a magistrate court and can be led by either a man or woman. And if a woman applies for the position, she is entitled to it," he said.

Ruwayna Suleiman, another woman scholar, said that often when women seek advice at a Kadhi's court, they end up finding male advocates.

"We need women advocates in almost all positions at the court. There are things we as women cannot say to the other gender," she said.

But Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya national commissioner Hassan Omar strongly objects, saying a woman should never be a Kadhi.

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"In Islamic history, there has never been a woman Kadhi, so that should not happen now. A woman cannot officiate nor oversee marriages, and neither can they stand in to solve divorce cases, so that is impossible. If such a situation comes up, we will oppose it in the courts," he said.

Women's rights advocacy groups have said this is the kind of reasoning that has allowed husbands to mistreat their wives.

The position of Kadhi said Likoni MP Mishi Mboko, is always guided by Sharia law and ideals and if women are going to become Kadhis, such a change must be done through Sharia law.

In 2011, following a debate on social media on whether the Judicial Service Commission should appoint women Kadhis, the Chief Justice at the time, Willy Mutunga, said Kenya should have women Kadhis.

Mr Mutunga cited the examples of Malaysia, Sudan, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates as countries that have women Kadhis.

The Kenya Muslims Advisory Council plans to hold a meeting in the coming weeks to discuss the subject of women's appointment to Kadhi's courts, said national chairman Juma Ngao.
Sudan on Wednesday started testing its ability to provide security and other services to regions initially engulfed in war, after African Union and United Nations peacekeeping forces officially left the country.

Wednesday, June 30, was the last day for the AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (Unamid) to complete the phase-out under UN Security Council Resolution 2559 (2020), which terminated the mandate of the mission in January.

Deployed in 2007, Unamid was mandated to bring peace to a region where conflict had broken out about four years earlier when local armed groups rose against the government of Omar al-Bashir, whom it accused of oppression.

Bashir has since been ousted and is in jail for corruption, but the conflict in Darfur is said to have left 300,000 dead and another three million displaced, according to UN estimates.

Unamid's departure means Khartoum, which has worked to reconcile with various armed groups, will now be in charge of overall security for the country, for the first time in 15 years.

Babacar Cisse, the UN assistant secretary-general in charge of UNAMID, will now oversee the phase-out period. That will include finalising staff departures, repatriating assets, transferring team sites to local authorities and working with the government on related issues.

Unamid, in its term, had seen over 100,000 military and police peacekeepers deployed to Darfur. Its highest contingent was 23,000 troops in 2011 but by the time the mandate ended, it had just about 7,000 forces and civilian personnel, most of whom have returned to their countries.

Unamid said it had handed over 14 team sites to the government, which has committed to using them for civilian purposes and in line with the framework agreement signed on March 4 this year.

These facilities will be used for healthcare, education and other social services, including vocational training and community centres as identified by members of local communities, officials said.

While the responsibility for ensuring the safety and protection of sites rests with the central government, the Darfur state government remains responsible for ensuring that the facilities are used as intended.

The government of Sudan has established a Joint Task Force and State Delivery Committees as key interlocutors for Unamid during the phase-out, which officials say will not involve the military aspect.

Instead, officials will consider the specific needs of each community and provide services such as water and sanitation trucks, water treatment equipment, generators and vehicles, which Unamid had been providing.

Unamid had provided Darfuri communities with 193 vehicles, including 27 water and sanitation trucks and 196 generators, and donated its clinic in Zalingei and medical facilities in Nyala and Kabkabiya for use by local communities.

"Good coordination and cooperation with the government of Sudan has been crucial in meeting the tight timetable and criteria set by the Security Council for the phase-out period," Cisse told reporters in Khartoum on Wednesday.

"Likewise, it will be important for the government to ensure the protection of the logistics base and the repatriation of the remaining staff to facilitate a smooth liquidation phase."

There were challenges, including looting by communities, as well as the general geographical locale of Sudan's war-scarred Darfur, which largely has no paved roads or other facilities. Cisse admitted there had been a misunderstanding with locals at some point as the forces prepared to depart. Some, he said, demanded all the assets be handed to local communities.

As one of the largest peacekeeping operations in the history of the UN, UNAMID has provided a security environment in Darfur for more than a decade. The departure now leaves the duty of protecting civilians in the hands of the Transitional Government of Sudan, now under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

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Cisse argued the mission will leave the country better prepared and that it had conducted some programmes such as resettling displaced civilians and economic support, as well as women's empowerment including addressing sexual and gender-based violence.

From Thursday, Unamid now enters the 'liquidation phase', which will mostly focus on transferring the remaining property the mission owned to either Sudan or other places deemed useful.

A policing unit made up of 363 staff will remain behind to protect UN personnel, facilities and assets in the El Fasher Logistics Base, where the mission was based.

In turn, the joint Sudanese forces will continue to deploy outside the base under the command of the government of Sudan, in close coordination with the UNAMID elimination team, Cisse explained.

These forces will have a joint responsibility to secure the perimeter of the base, provide safety and security for UN personnel, and ensure that incoming convoys of contingent-owned assets and equipment can arrive without incident.
PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has reaffirmed Tanzania's commitment to ratify the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

She also pledged that Tanzania will fully support the continent economic emancipation drives. Once Tanzania ratifies the agreement, it is expected to have access to a market of over 1.3 billion people across the continent.

A statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications said President Samia made the pledge, when she met with the Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, Mr Wamkele Mene, at the State House in Dodoma, yesterday.

"The government is finalising the process towards the ratification of the AfCFTA agreement. On the other hand, Tanzania will fully collaborate with you to achieve your mission of recovering the economy of the African continent," said President Samia.

Elaborating, she applauded Mr Mene for being elected Secretary General of AfCFTA by African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government during the 33rd Ordinary Session held from February 9 - 10, 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On his part, Mr Mene congratulated President Samia for being the first female President in Tanzania and for being the only female Head of State in the African continent.

"We are pleased that Tanzania has returned to the drawing table and all that has been discussed has attained a consensus," he pointed out.

Hence, the Secretary General welcomed President Samia to attend the secretariat meeting in Accra, Ghana this month as the lead speaker, noting that among the major goals of the meeting is to establish the Women Trade Protocol for petty traders.

Elaborating, Mr Mene noted that through the meeting, the secretariat will coordinate a fundraising to collect funds for rescuing businesses in various financial institutions including banks.

Equally, he expressed the secretariat's commitment to ensure that all its members benefit through industrial investment and increase the value chain of the products, which have been introduced.

In his speech, he further applauded President Samia for restoring the country to its right track, terming it leadership role as the way Father of the Nation, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who was the founder of Pan Africanism managed and envisioned.

The President's pledge comes just a few days after the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Ambassador Liberata Mulamula disclosed that Tanzania was finalising steps towards the ratification of AfCFTA aimed at facilitating the free movement of goods and services within the continent.

"The process of ratification has come to an end before the country officially endorses the crucial agreement, " said Amb Mulamula. However, she assured the AfCFTA Secretary General that it will not take very long before Tanzania ratifies this crucial agreement.

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The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of Africas Agenda 2063 and a major step towards African continental economic integration, which Tanzania fully participated and signed for its establishment. Analysts reports show that the significance of the AfCFTA cannot be overstated: It will be the world's largest free trade area since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994.

It is estimated that under a successfully implemented AfCFTA, Africa will have a combined consumer and business spending of 6.7 trillion US dollars in 2030.

AfCFTA will also have a significant impact on manufacturing and industrial development, tourism, intraAfrican cooperation, and economic transformation. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has predicted it will raise intra-African trade by 15 to 25 percent, or 50 billion US dollars to 70 billion US dollars, by 2040, compared to an Africa without the AfCFTA.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) similarly projects that, under the AfCFTA, Africa's expanded and more efficient goods and labor markets will significantly increase the continent's overall ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index.

Increased market access, in turn, is expected to enhance the competitiveness of industries and enterprises, the exploitation.
THE Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has dropped the money laundering charge against four officers with the National Environment Management Council (NEMC), who are facing some economic charges at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam.

The good news was announced by Prosecuting Attorney from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Nixon Shayo before Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi yesterday when the trial came for hearing.

Following such charges of circumstances, the accused persons, Deusdedith Katwale, Magori Matiku and Obadia Machupa, all Environmental Officers at NEMC Headquarters and Lyidia Nyinondi, who is Assistant Accountant, will be entitled to bail as the remaining eight offences are bailable under the law.

Such charges include conspiracy to commit offences, fraud, abuse of position and occasioning loss to a specified authority.

The preceding magistrate proceeded to grant bail to the accused persons on grounds of each securing one surety with national identification card who could sign a bond of 20m/-.

However, Matitu could not be bailed out because he is facing another case before the same court, and was thus returned to remand. The case has been set for hearing on July 22, 2021.

It is alleged by the prosecution that on diverse dates between June 1, 2016 and July 30, 2017 at various places in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma cities, jointly and together, the accused persons conspired to commit various offences of forgery, uttering false documents and causing loss to a specified authority.

The prosecution alleged that between July 4, 2016 and January 1, 2017 within the two cities, Katwale forged two documents, Site Verification Report and Minutes for the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) relating to Ibra General Enterprises Fuel Filling Station Project.

Such project, according to the prosecution, is on Plot No. 132 Block T, Chadulu Street Area E in Dodoma. The accused person is alleged to have purported to show that the initial environmental audit for the project was conducted and that a meeting was held and minutes recorded, while it was false.

The court heard also that on July 5, 2016 at NEMC offices in Kinondoni District, Lydia allegedly forged a receipt valued at 18.5m/-, purporting to show that such an amount was paid to the Council, a fact which to her knowledge was not true.

Between June 1, 2016 and July 30, 2017 at NEMC offices in Kinondoni District, knowingly and fraudulently, Katwale allegedly uttered the two false documents, that is the Report and Minutes, to the Director General in respect of the project in question.

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According to the prosecution, the accused person purported to show that the verification was conducted and the said minutes were of the Technical Advisory Committee Meeting.

The prosecution told the court that on July 5, 2016 at NEMC offices in Dar es Salaam, knowingly and fraudulently, Matiku uttered the said receipt to one Yunus Mfala, who is the owner of Ibra General Enterprises Fuel Filling Station.

Between June 1, 2016 and July 30, 2017 within Kinondoni District in Dar es Salaam, being employees of NEMC, jointly and together, in violation of section 29 of the Environmental Management Act, the accused persons allegedly intentionally abused their positions, thereby obtaining 18.5m/-.

The court was told further that on diverse dates between June 1, 2016 and July 30, 2017 at NEMC offices in Kinondoni District, being employees of the Council, by their willful acts, jointly and together, all accused persons caused their employer to suffer pecuniary loss of the said amount.
THE Vice-President Dr Philip Mpango has reiterated Tanzania's commitment to collaborate with France in showing course of conserving the environment.

Dr Mpango met and held discussions with the Head of the French Senate Mr Ronan Dantec at the Senate building in Paris, France yesterday. The discussions dwelt in the areas of climate changes and environmental conservation.

"Tanzania is a strong contender of environmental conservation and takes into consideration the rights of its people," said Dr Mpango.

In particular, he was pleased with the way France is conserving its environment mostly the capital city of Paris, despite being one of the oldest towns. Equally, the Vice-President reiterated his country's commitment to collaborate with France in showing course of conserving the environment, adding that the senate was welcomed to cooperate with Tanzania to meet the goal.

In the discussion, Dr Dantec focused on the area of environmental conservation as one of the major factors, which attribute in reducing carbon emissions globally. Hence, he stressed on the need for the establishment of a compensation fund for the affected countries in the management and conservation of the environment.

Dr Mpango is in Paris to represent President Samia Suluhu Hassan at Generation Equality Forum, which began yesterday, aimed at further addressing issues of gender equality.

A statement issued to the media by the Vice-President's office noted that the conference will take place from June 30 to July 2, this year and advocate the resolutions of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995.

In a related development, he visited a library in the Senate building in the city and briefed on the history of French leaderships. Meanwhile, the Vice-President is expected to meet with the Tanzania Diaspora living in France this Saturday to interact with them on various issues.

A statement issued by the Association of Tanzanians living in the country noted that that will form part of his working tour. "During his visit here in France, the Vice-President would like to meet with the diaspora for an official meeting," it read in part.
THE government said yesterday that it is finalizing some amendments in the Non Citizens (Employment Regulation) Act, 2015, purposely to open up doors for foreign investors to operate efficiently and boost investment in the country.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said in Parliament that the government has set priorities in various areas citing investment, developing skills, agriculture, environment and Population and Housing Census among others to boost economic growth in the country.

The list also included improving petty traders' sector and providing them with identification cards, ensuring constant supply of medicines and medical equipment, universal health insurance and many other That was when the leader of 'Government Business,' in the House was winding up the parliament session, adding that on investment, the government was working hard to address all challenges, which delay investment development in the country.

Elaborating, the Premier said wooing of investors was one of major issues that were raised during the budget session, and that the government has considered all contribution from Members of Parliament on the matter.

"I would like to inform the Parliament that the government is finalizing procedures for major changes to create friendly environments for investors to set up businesses easily in the country," he pointed out.

Equally, the Prime Minister noted that the government has already met and collected opinions from various stakeholders to be discussed and accommodated in the new document.

"We have involved Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (Tucta), Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE), the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) and Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), our aim is to ensure all challenges are addresses," he said.

Mr Majaliwa told the Parliament that the government has so far, managed to identify areas that were causing challenges and thus affecting investment activities in the country.

"We have identified all challenges areas and our focus now is to clear the situation," he said.

Apart from focusing on amending the Act, the Premier said the government has started applying the Online Work Permit Application and Issuance System (OWAIS) since April 23, this year, adding that during the pilot study; at least 500 applications have been attended in the new system.

"We are continuing to receive opinions from our clients on the effectiveness of the new system for improvements, which is set for official launch in August, this year," he said.

Elaborating, he said the new system has reduced the time for processing work permit from 14 days to three days. On health sector, Mr Majaliwa said the government has continued to maintain the availability of medicines in various health facilities countrywide.

He said the availability of 312 types of essential drugs has reached 75.6 percent and that the government has provided 191bn/- for purchasing them, estimated as 95.5 per cent of the funds being allocated to them.

He said the government through the 2021/22 budget has set strong strategies that will lead to the improvement of health sector, where so far only 8,224,271 of Tanzanians (14.7 per cent) have access to health services through Health Insurance.

In doing so, the government in its capacity has ensured that more Tanzanians acquire National Insurance Fund for reliable and quality health services.

On agriculture sector, the Premier said at least 4,616 Tanzanians are beneficiaries of skilled agriculture programme in five regions of Dar es Salaam, Singida, Tabora,Arusha and Coast. Hence, he ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure availability of wheat and grapes seeds as well as others and fertilizers are availed to boost agriculture growth in the country.

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Moreover, the Prime Minister said the government is focusing on making improvements on petty traders' identification cards, as well as improving and protecting environment so that all sectors benefit for the mutual development of the nation.

From March 30, 2021, the Parliament among other things received President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who addressed them especially in April 22, 2021. In her speech, the Head of State revealed her major focus, which included boosting the investment sector to raise economic growth in the next five years.

Moreover, the Parliament has passed the Financial Bill 2021, the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2021.The Bill proposed amendment of three laws, namely the Interpretation of Laws Act, Cap.1, the Land Disputes Courts Act, Cap. 216 and the Magistrates' Courts Act, Cap. 11.

Also the Bill of amendments for the Road Traffic Bill 2021 was read in the House for the first time, as well as the house passing the third five year national development plan.
French historian Vincent Duclert, accompanied by members of his commission, on Wednesday, June 30, met leaders of the umbrella association of Genocide survivors, Ibuka, and presented a copy of his report which concluded that France played a key role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

After their meeting, in Kigali, Naphtal Ahishakiye, the Executive Secretary of Ibuka told The New Times that Duclert and his delegation had been in the country for about a week; visiting various places and meeting different other people and Ibuka too was on their list.

The French historian and his team, Ahishakiye said, were scheduled to leave the country the same day.

Ahishakiye said: "On our part, we were happy meeting with them: one, there is the content in their report. Then there was meeting these experts and exchanging with them on various matters."

"Of course we had already read their report but now we have, officially, a new and important entry in our archives."

Duclert first officially handed to President Paul Kagame the report in early April, after its release in Paris, France on March 26.

His team of experts and researchers was commissioned in 2019 by French President Emmanuel Macron to probe the then French government role in the 1994 Genocide in which over a million people were killed.

The government of Rwanda maintains that the report represents an important step towards a common understanding of France's role in the 1994 Genocide.

In April 2019, Macron appointed a panel of experts to probe France's actions in Rwanda during the Genocide, a subject that, for long, hindered relations between Rwanda and France.

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The Duclert Commission's report, among others, concludes that France bears heavy and overwhelming responsibilities over the 1994 Genocide but makes no mention of any evidence of French complicity.

The 1,200-page report concludes that the European country, led by the Francois Mitterrand during the Genocide, was "blind" to preparations of the massacres.

During his recent visit to Rwanda, President Macron on May 27, sought the forgiveness of the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, for what he admitted was his country's historical and political responsibility in Rwanda.

He delivered the speech at the Kigali Genocide Memorial - the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi where he laid a wreath and honoured Genocide victims.

According to Macron, France has a duty to face history and to recognize the suffering it has inflicted on the Rwandan people by, for too long, being silent as far as facing and examining the truth is concerned.
Nairobi  Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi says Kenya's social media will not be shut down over hate speech.

Speaking at the Bomas of Kenya during the launch of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) strategic plan, Matiangi however, warned that the government will be ruthless on anyone violating the law.

"In some cases we will be fairly ruthless, when it comes to those who interfere with the freedom of others or those who engage in activities that are likely to mess up our country. We will not hesitate neither will we be intimidated by any pressures or complains from anybody. We will protect this country because it our only home on earth," he said.

He added that the security sector was ready do its part to protect Kenya ahead of the elections and that they will enforce responsibility and accountability without fear or favour.

Matiangi said that all Kenyans will be protected from any individual who engages in hate speech and the security sector had formed a multi-agency team that had mapped the country, looked at hotspots and areas that may pose security challenges.

"Vernacular radio stations and those of us who have already fallen into the temptation of misusing social and the internet. We are not going to do those things that people do in other places on Earth like turn off the internet or switch off twitter , those will not happen in this country," he said "This is a confident government. We are not going to harass people, break the law or interfere with the freedoms of our people. We will call people to account. "

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) strategic plan runs from 2025 to 2025 and outlines strategies that that will enhance awareness creation, issue-based politics as opposed to ethnic politics, inclusion and diversity and delivery of peaceful electoral processes as the country prepares for the 2022 election.
The High Court Special Chamber for International and Transnational Crimes has convicted Jean-Claude Iyamuremye of Genocide and sentenced him to imprisonment of 25 years.

The 46-year-old was being accused of having been a leader of the Interahamwe militia in Kicukiro during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in addition to being an influential member of the former ruling party, Mouvement revolutionnaire national pour developpement (MRND).

He was extradited from the Netherlands in 2016, and since then he has been in courts of law, facing charges including genocide, complicity to genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, murder and extermination as crimes against humanity.

Back in the Netherlands where he had lived for 14 years, he is understood to have worked as a taxi driver for the embassies of Israel and Finland before he was arrested and sent to Rwanda.

He was extradited together with Jean-Baptiste Mugimba, another man suspected to have had a role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
MainOne, an information technology firm, is expanding its digital footprint in Ghana with the launch of its Data Centre located in Appolonia City.

The 100-rack facility near Accra offers customers the opportunity to host infrastructure in a facility guaranteed to provide high levels of availability and rich connectivity with a global network of customers, partners and suppliers within and outside Ghana.

In a statement, the firm said the data centre features private data centre suites, enterprise-grade 247 multi-level security and video surveillance, among others.

Chairman of MainOne Ghana, Mr Africanus Mensah, said the new facility which will be managed by MDXi, a subsidiary of MainOne, offers open access connectivity options to all the leading telecom networks in Ghana and directs access to MainOne and other submarine cable systems.
Cape Town  The Constitutional Court has ruled that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not willfully mislead Parliament with regard to donations made to fund his campaign (CR17) for the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC), IOL reports.

The ruling comes after Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane appealed a Pretoria High Court judgment of March 2020, which set aside Mkhwebane's decision to probe Ramaphosa's CR17 campaign. The case began in November 2018. Ramaphosa was questioned in Parliament about a R500,000 payment into an account allegedly belonging to his son, Andile Ramaphosa. The payment was reportedly made by Gavin Watson, the late head of Africa Global Operations, the firm formerly known as Bosasa. The firm was found to have secured lucrative government tenders, illegally. Initially Ramaphosa claimed the payment was related to work his son Andile had performed for the company. A week later however, Ramaphosa addressed the speaker of the National Assembly in a letter explaining that the payment was made to fund his CR17 campaign.

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was then tasked to investigate whether Ramaphosa had intentionally misled Parliament. A report by Mkhebane in July 2019 found that the president had breached the Executive Ethics Code by misleading Parliament. Ramaphosa subsequently challenged the report.
Asefon Sunday is the President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). In this interview he speaks on the alleged collection of N40 million to cancel protest and how the union has been infiltrated by people with hidden agenda

Is it true that the union is being hijacked by politicians?

To those who believe that NANS has been hijacked, I stand to be corrected; NANS has not been hijacked by any politician, though it depends on the perspective you are coming from. Gone are those days when students engaged in hooliganism and rascality. We operate scientific unionism with diplomacy.

In the days of Okewu, Segun Mayegun, Radical brothers and others, it was so easy for the struggle of the people but now, civilisation has caused so much damage to the students' movement. In those days when the students' union spoke, everyone listened, but today nobody carries us along.

Now as a students' union, if you speak on campus, management will threaten you. What led to this? Most of our leaders who also passed through this chain have bastardised this organisation to some extent.

Before, the union was not polarised but now the organisation has been infiltrated by school managements and oppressors because of the unity that is not there.

Again, today if you go to any school and say you want to call for a protest, if it is not about increment in fees, I can assure you that they will not answer you. You will be fighting for them and you will see them going the other way. The consciousness is no more there.

The recent cancellation of protest has created doubt over the union; what do you have to say about that?

We agreed that there was a need for us to protest to demand adequate security around our campuses. We want a safe school where we will have confidence to go and stay. We also want to call on security to be more proactive and the president to wake up on the issue of insecurity as well during the protest.

After our exco meetings in Abuja, we have a committee to look into the modalities of how we can do the protest without it being hijacked, and most of our students are not one. I only know myself; I don't know others but as a leader, I must provide adequate security for them and to guide it from getting out of hand.

We fixed June 12 for the protest because we believed it's also a day we should celebrate the heroes who fought for the democracy we are enjoying today.

Four days after it was blown in the national dailies, events kept unfolding. I kept receiving different calls from different people who pretended to be in alliance with us and love our struggle and want to show support. We discovered that they were fake and looking for a platform to ventilate their agenda that was different from ours.

They kept calling some of our members who are leaders in their various institutions. We wanted to organise our protest with students in every state being coordinated and monitored by their leaders.

We also had a committee that would monitor each state because we wanted a coordinated protest so that those we want to send the message to will get nothing short of that.

I put up a letter to the Director of DSS and IGP that this is our plan across all the 36 states. I was invited and I explained to them, and the IGP said he could not stop us from having a protest, adding that we could request for security protection and not permission.

I discovered some politicians wanted to hijack it and we got a lot of intelligent information and for those who had called on me to come so they could help us to mobilise it in Abuja.

When we got to know there was a threat, we all agreed to suspend it and that a new date would be announced because we do not want a replica of #EndSARS.

There was an allegation that you collected N40 million; the possible reason for cancelling the protest; how true?

The allegation was from Sowore and it is not true. When I was contesting for the position of the president, Sowore had a candidate and was interested in the process. His candidate polled five votes and I pulled 155 votes.

He went out to say I was 47 years old, in addition to other forms of blackmail, but I don't have an issue with him.

There is no agency in Abuja that I will collect money from and it will not be made public.

He also came out to say I collected N40 million from NNPC and I have never visited NNPC to meet their chief. When he said I collected money, he should bring out the proof. I wanted to institute a case against him but most of my people said I should not be distracted because people know him and what he stands for.

There was a dinner organised by Ondo students in April. I was dancing and students seeing their president dancing were spraying money on me. The video was later sent to me that Sowore wants to use it as a proof that after collecting N40 million, I am now spending money.

I went to a social media platform for students to raise an alarm over their plan, so the moment I shared it, they couldn't use it anymore.

Is the protest still going to be held?

Our protest is still going to be held but we don't want people to hijack it. We want to change the modalities of doing it. Instead of all the 36 states, we may do it according to our four zones and they will pick a state for it.

From your meetings with the minister and other education stakeholders, is there any headway in addressing the FG/ASUU feud?

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It is part of what we discussed with the minister; we heard that the new ASUU president said he will continue from where his predecessor stopped. We have this problem of the government playing politics with so many things and I had advised the government to borrow leave from Singapore who turned to a knowledge-based economy.

In Nigeria, 75 percent of students who studied Medicine leave the country the moment they graduate for where the pay is better. It now shows that it is easy to acquire knowledge here and turn it into money over there.

There is a need to change our curriculum as it is part of the problem we are facing. We are not learning for the future; we are learning from the past. Our education is no more interesting and that is why even the poor in the society strive to send their children to private schools; because they can get adequate education without strike.

Our public education is neglected by the federal government as it is not funding education as it should. If the education they attended was like this then all of them would not be where they are today.

Majority of them were beneficiaries of free education and allowances and even before graduation, jobs were already waiting for them. But today, your parents struggle to send you to school and after graduation, you have nothing to do.
Monrovia  The Plenary of the Liberian Senate on Wednesday constituted itself into a committee of a whole to begin public hearings into its leadership's recommendation on the way forward in implementing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

Lawyers, Civil Society Organizations and former members of the TRC are being invited to provide expert opinion on best way forward with the TRC recommendations.

The Senate's first witness was Cllr. Syrennius Cephus, Liberia's solicitor General.

In his opening remarks, Cllr. Cephus was quick to issue disclaimer that his position on the report didn't represent the Government of Liberia's position but were his personal opinions on the debate surrounding the TRC recommendations and the way forward.

He expressed his support for the establishment of a Transitional Justice Commission to handle the TRC report rather than a war and economic crimes court. According to him, to establish a war and economic crimes court, it would require amending the Constitution.

"We all know the socio-economic impediment and the processes that occasioned the final report of the TRC, the constitutional challenges bordering on due process and the question of the full implementation was left unaddressed.

"Therefore, for me, my opinion on this debate and I think the surest way to revert to the TRC process is that I clearly support the formation of the Transitional Justice Commission so that, the question as to why the TRC Recommendations have not been fully implemented can be addressed. "

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According to Cllr. Cephus, the original objective of the TRC was to provide a forum for national reconciliation and healing and had the TRC met up with its full objective Liberia would not have been where it is today.

The Solicitor General, in his statement as an expert witness, told the Senate that the framers of the TRC didn't intend for it to be a court where Commissioners of the Commission would have provided dissenting opinion but was intended for a unanimous report.

He said, if there was a dissenting opinion, the surest way forward was inclusiveness of said opinion.

"My position on this is that the Transitional Justice Commission is that indeed is the better forum to be able to carry out this work. The TRC was not a Supreme Court or any court of appeal where descending or conclusiveness of a judgment is based on majority opinion.

"Liberia's mere commitment to treaty obligations does not constitute parts of the laws of Liberia. Even after ratification of a treaty where it becomes law it, it becomes subject and subordinate to the Constitution and can be reviewed by Article 2 of the Liberian Constitution."

The Need for Amendment

Cllr. Cephus also told members of the Senate that creating a war and economic crimes court in Liberia which will which will have an international character will require significant constitutional amendments of Articles 2, 50, 54, 56.

He also advised that for the establishment of an economic crimes court, there already exist a Criminal Court "C" that deals with criminal matters.
District Two  Residents of William Potter Town and Gborpue Town in Marlor Clan, District 2 in Grand Bassa County are left with no alternative but to drink from contaminated creeks due to lack of safe drinking water in their area.

The lack of safe drinking water facilities remains a major challenge for Liberians mainly in the rural parts of the country.

Hundreds of rural residents in William's Potter Town and Gbarpue Town in Grand Bassa County still rely heavily on creek water both for cooking, drinking, washing and bathing.

According to a dweller of Gborpue Town, Hannah Thompson, they have been using creeks for drinking, washing and cooking since the establishment of their towns.

She said "drinking creek water has gotten used to us because when I was a kid I drank this same water up to now my kids are also drinking this same water from the creek and we have never gotten sick."

Ms. Thompson mentioned that since the establishment of the Town several years ago, they have been yearning for at least a hand pump but they are yet to benefit from such essential need as a people.

Anthony Toe, a resident of William Potter Town said that their rights have been denied by their leaders, adding they've been deprived of safe drinking water.

"Sometimes I sit and cry when I see my children drinking the same water I drank when I was young. We've been crying on our leaders to help us but they're yet to listen to us," he said.

He further said, "It's my prayer that humanitarian organizations will see this story to come to our aid because the lack safe drinking water is a major challenge for us".

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Toe stressed that pregnant women, babies and children are the ones mostly being infested by the creek water. He said that many times the babies and pregnant women suffer from diarrhea due to the contamination of the water.

He said, "The other time, my wife nearly died because she was pregnant and by that time the company was cleaning the road and so the whole water got dirty but we had no option but to drink the dirty water."

According to him, their lives will always be at a health risk if nothing is done to help them get safe drinking water.

District 2 is Grand Bassa's second district which is being represented by Representative Mary Karwor.

Madam Karwor said she has played a major role in helping to ensure safe drinking water in her district by providing hand pumps.

The Government of Liberia is a signatory to the Declaration of Human Rights and other United Nations Declarations which ensure that all human beings have the right to life and dignity. Among these rights are the right to safe drinking water and the right to live in dignity in ones country of choice.

Improving water supply and sanitation (WSS) coverage has been one of the most important priorities of the Liberian Government.

This story was produced with support from Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), through its Mobilizing Media in the Fight Against COVID-19 in partnership with Front Page Africa and (name of the media outlet
Barkedu  The convictions of Alieu Kosiah and Mohammed Jabateh for war crimes committed in Liberia sparked celebrations across Liberia. 18 years since the war ended survivors saw them as long overdue justice for the horrors of the civil war. But Liberia's Mandingo population has not felt the same way.

"There are other people in this country like Prince Johnson taking governmental positions are not targeted," said J. Sumawolo Kante, 41, Commissioner of Barkedu township, a predominantly Mandingo town in Lofa County. He pointed to the former warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson who is listed as one of the "worst perpetrators" in Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Report. "I don't like to see my kinsmen going for trial while others are seated."

Four of the ten cases brought against combatants in Liberia's civil wars since 2017 have been Ulimo, the rebel group made up predominantly of Mandingoes that formed after Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front launched its rebellion against the government of President Samuel Doe in December 1989. Of the three convictions so far, two have been Ulimo. The high-profile nature of those convictions - Mohammed Jabateh alias "Jungle Jabbeh" in the United States in 2017 and Alieu Kosiah in Switzerland this month - have some Mandingoes saying they are being singled out.

But while it is true that more Ulimo combatants have been convicted, more of Taylor's allies have been charged.

Taylor's number two lieutenant Thomas Woewiyu was convicted of criminal immigration fraud in the United States in 2018 in relation to his war crimes. Taylor allies Agnes Reeves Taylor and Martina Johnson were charged with war crimes (Taylor's case in the UK was dismissed on a technicality in 2020). Gibril Massaquoi, the former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) commander and Taylor ally, is currently on trial in Finland.

The cases have all been brought under the principle of international jurisdiction which says that a perpetrator who commits crimes against humanity can be prosecuted anywhere.

Hassan Bility, head of Global Justice Research Project, which has helped international prosecutors build all the cases, is a Mandingo himself. He is also a survivor of war crimes at the hands of Taylor's lieutenants. He dismisses the claims.

"It is ridiculous. This is not about Mandingoes. This doesn't make any sense," Mr. Bility said. "Basically, we do not target people. The minimum time we spend on an investigation before any case is two years plus. We are very clean people who conduct impartial investigations that meet international standards."

Mr. Bility said Mandingo anger is being fueled by people with bad motives.

"They want to stand in the way of justice."

Nonetheless, people of the Mandingo tribe have a long painful history as the targets of discrimination and violence in Liberia. They claim the trials have rekindled hostility among other groups.

"People participated in the war not because they wanted to. Some were forced to do it. Some joined to see their people free from exile to come," he said. "Why should we the Mandingos be targeted? You can't travel any more once you know that you participated in the past wars. They are after us."

Nowhere is that sentiment felt more strongly than here in Barkedu.

Barkedu Massacre

On July 12, 1990, fighters of Taylor's NPFL stormed Barkedu Town armed with guns and other deadly weapons. It was six months after Taylor launched his invasion from Ivory Coast. The NPFL had overrun much of Liberia before breakaway leader Prince Johnson formed his own rebel group and killed President Samuel Doe.

That day in Barkedu, the rebels at first cajoled citizens to hold a meeting. The town chief and residents crowded into the town hall with smiles and excitement planning to receive the rebels and present them with gifts.

But their high hopes turned into a nightmare.

"We went to welcome them but when we get to the town hall, there was no meeting," recalled Abu M. Ballo, one of the villagers, now 70-years-old. "They told us that people told them Mandingo people are living here and they were going to kill us."

Barkedu Town is the most populated town in Quardu-Gbonii-which is predominantly Mandingo (99%) and are all Maliki Muslims.

Abu Lassana Ballo, 67, the younger brother of Abu M. Ballo, was also there.

"I came and saw my brother trembling and the rebels asked me to sit down too, Lassana said. "I saw them bringing plenty people to join us. By that time, there was gun sound all over the town. One of them took the RPG and said he wants to spoil the mosque."

The NPFL rebels demanded gifts from the town. Lassana's father was the treasurer so Lassana handed over village savings of LD$3000, one bag of rice and a cow. The small amount angered the commander. The rebels ordered women and children to leave the hall.

"The commander told us that from the day God created us up to this time, we know that you people are our enemies," recalled Lassana. "He counted from one to four and the people started firing for more than 30 minutes."

The NPFL rebels killed more than 200 people in what came to be known as the Barkedu Massacre.

"People heads were bursting and scattering all over. All the walls and roof were burst," Lassana recalled. "The people that were in front were the ones they killed and the people behind fell down on their own to pretend that they already die. The bullet touched me and so, I was just lying down thinking I was dead."

Abu survived the massacre after he was shot and dropped among the dead bodies in the hall. He now carries scars on his left thigh and fingers. He has no doubt why they were attacked.

"We had Kpelle, Gbandi and other people here," he said. "But only Mandingo people were killed. Even one man was Kpelle man here in the town hall. They asked him for his tribe and allowed him to go".

The Massacre Gives Birth to ULIMO

The bloodbath in Barkedu and other areas in Lofa drove thousands across the border to Guinea. In exile they created ULIMO and a determination to win back their land and protect fellow kinsmen.

"That was the reason ULIMO was formed because of the way their parents were killed," said Abu. "When they came here, they started to protect their own of people."

When ULIMO crossed back into Liberia they laid a trail of destruction themselves under leadership that included Kosiah, Jabbateh and Kunti K, who will face trial for war crimes in France next year. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report found Ulimo responsible for seven percent of all the human rights violations reported to it including killing, raping, enslavement and displacement. The Mandingo suffered about 4.9% of the total violations reported to the TRC. By contrast, Taylor's forces committed 41 percent of violations recorded by the TRC, the highest number of any faction.

To many, Mandingoes Ulimo's actions were justified. They say the rebel group was the only thing that stopped the NPFL forces that were intent on wiping them out.

Trials of ULIMO's Jungle Jabbah and Alieu Kosiah were covered extensively in Liberia's media. Both men received lengthy sentences. The only other Liberian convicted over war crimes in Liberia was Thomas Woewiyu, Charles Taylor's number two, who died of Covid-19 in the United States in 2020 while he was awaiting sentencing. The Barkedu massacre played a heavy role in Woewiyu's conviction. Survivors travelled to the trial in Philadelphia in 2018 to testify about the massacre and the horrors suffered by the people at Barkedu. The jury held Woewiyu responsible.

Justified or not, the high-profile nature of the Jabbateh and Kosiah convictions has combined with the Mandingos long standing resentment to create a perception that their kinsmen are being unfairly targeted in these trials.

"I don't know the reason they are arresting them because, there were lots of tribes that were involved in the fighting (war) and majority of the people they are arresting were not those who started the war here," said Abu. "After the war and massacre, we made big sacrifice and said everything finished."

"For us, we are Muslims. We know that the massacre that took place - if God couldn't have agreed, it was not going to take place," said Lassana.

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"Whatsoever that passed here or happened, that's God will and we forget about everything."

J. Sumawolo Kante, Commissioner of Barkedu Township, lost his oldest brother, who was the breadwinner of the family, during the massacre. He echoes Lassana's anger.

"ULIMO was made up of different tribes: Lorma, Mandingo, Vai, and Krahn were there. And so, I am just confused for Mandingos to be facing prosecution," Mr. Kante said.

Mr. Bility formed GJRP in 2012 after then-president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf rejected the TRC's recommendation that the country hold a war and economic crimes court. In partnership with Civitas Maxima, the Geneva-based non-profit, and the Center for Justice and Accountability in the U.S., he has documented crimes against combatants in Liberia, tracked them down in exile and helped investigators in European and US jurisdictions bring cases against them.

Mr. Bility claimed that "misguided individuals" who are envious of the workings of his group are the ones paying for false stories in Liberian news media and spreading the falsehood that only Mandingo are being targeted for prosecution.

"We are aware that they've said that only Mandingo people are being arrested but that is not true," Mr. Bility said. "Mr. Woewiyu was not a Mandingo, Martina Johnson and other people were not."

"People who committed international crimes - because war crimes are international crimes - can be arrested, investigated and hopefully prosecuted even in any country around the world".

Mr. Bility said GJRP will continue to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity involving anyone and submit its evidence to judicial authorities in other countries to conduct their own independent investigations and ensure the prosecution of these individuals regardless of tribe or affiliation.

Mandingo leaders in Barkedu will hold him to that promise.

This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.
Monrovia  In 2018, the Liberian Office of a pro-Human Rights and capacity-building Italian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)--named Association Friends of Raoul Follereau (AIFO)--established a project for Liberia's community of persons living with disabilities. The project was named Disability And Start-Up (DASU) AIFO was founded in 1961, and registered its humanitarian presence in Liberia in 1997. The organization's introductory program cared for Liberia's leprosy community, and later added a palm oil and rice productions program, being run by Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) in three of Liberia's 15 Counties: Montserrado, Bong, Nimba, and Grand Gedeh. Another is a Radio program--on ECOWAS Radio (91.5 FM) for discussion on disability-related matters.

One of AIFO's partners on the inception phase of the DASU Project was the National Union of Organizations for the Disabled (NUOD), independent advocacy and capacity-building umbrella body, which later became beneficiary of AIFO's gesture of office space (the entire ground floor of AIFO's Liberia Office, situated on 19th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia)

The DASU Project has officially closed, announced at a one-day AIFO-sponsored National Seminar on June 29, 2021. The event was held at the Head Office of Smart Liberia, a popular Liberian career/business-development organization, situated in Jallah Town, 2nd Street, Sinkor, Monrovia.

The Seminar's Theme was: "Increasing the Technical Skills of DPOs in Fund Raising and Lobbying Strategies for Persons with Disabilities"

Welcome Remark, NUOD's president, Madam Naomi B. Harris, described her organization's interaction with AIFO-Liberia on the DASU Project as "extraordinary rewarding most for NUOD".

She said NUOD had been having severe challenges with the main subjects to be deliberated on: Fundraising and Lobbying.

"I urge all persons with disabilities present here to listen keenly to the presenters. In the future, you will need the knowledge you got here today," Madam Harris assured.

On "Purpose of the Seminar", NUOD's Vice President, Mr. Daniel N.O. Dagbe, began with calling a Moment of Silence for NUOD's members and partners who had died in different parts of Liberia in recent times.

He said the knowledge to be acquired will engender a "paradigm shift" of taking NUOD from the point of "always begging" foreign institutions for financial support to NUOD's projects.

The main parts of the Seminar were preceded by remarks from AIFO's partners--from the Government's circle and the private sector.

On the Governmental list, only the National Commission on Disabilities (NCD) was present, out of a group containing and the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection--each into areas the Italian organization is "supporting Liberia" on.

The non-governmental group had Alliance on Disabilities, Sight Savers International, and BRAC-Liberia.

Speaking for his institution, NCD, Mr. Fallah Boimah said he had no personal knowledge of most of AIFO's activities in Liberia, but praised the Italian organization for "supporting Liberian disabled people's organizations in a long time."

The representative of the Ministry of Education, Madam Madam Theresa W. Garwo, Director of Special and Inclusive Education at the Ministry of Education, urged disabled people to prioritize quality education, which is the major way for them to conjure respect for the non-disabled section of the society.

"Also hold together on unity for your advocacies on human rights-related issues to have weight," she advised.

The representative of Bright Liberia said persons with disabilities are many on the Institution's education support program. "Our academic records show that students with disabilities have performed more than students with no disability," he announced.

Giving the Overview of the DASU Project, Mr. J. Sylvester Roberts, AIFO's County Coordinator, focused much on the "achievements" and "challenges" components of the Project.

On the achievements, he mentioned organizing of training programs for DPOs, national seminars, provision of start-up funding for members of DPOs for economic ventures, and other life's sustainability or visibility-related publicity programs for the Liberian disability community.

On achievements on national seminar, Mr. Roberts mentioned a Malawian pro-PWD Advocate, Rachel Kechej, as a Guest Speaker at one of AIFO's past programs.

"Many of the beneficiaries of the DASU Project fund mismanaged the money. They couldn't provide records on the funds," Mr. Roberts said when he came to the "challenges" component of the Overview.

Some of the other challenges he mentioned are: difficulty to reach disabled people in Southeastern Liberia, particularly Grand Gedeh County, due to deplorable road condition; Local Government's lack of interest in disability issues, shown by invited officials' absence at AIFO-sponsored consultative program in their domain of the County; and poor information dissemination on PWDs by many Journalists, especially those at Radio stations.

The first presentation, "Strategy and Techniques Needed for Fundraising", was done by Mr. Abel Dugbe Nowon, Financial Management Specialist at the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP)

He outlined various channels of raising--mail (traditional and electronic), door-to-door (physical meeting), telephone, online, etc.

"The integrity of the person asking for the fund plays a major role," he cautioned, and warned each leader of a disabled people's organization against calling a personal account to a donor when he/she is representing an organization. "Some leaders of organizations give their personal account numbers to donors. This makes the donor perceive you as being dishonest or a criminal, and ultimately causes your losing the opportunity for help," he added.

On how to lure the financial help all philanthropist, he advised leadership of disabled people's organization to thank all helpers on the same level, in spite of low financial support from the other giver.

Mr. Nowon concluded his presentation with group work, of four groups, to pick any of the channels of fundraising he had deliberated on. Focus, as he dictated, should be on an earmarked project (activity), beneficiary organization of the project, strategies for fundraising, projected budget, how the fund would be raised, and duration of the project.

Four groups were formed, each with a different name, and each focusing on a different age group and different needs. Names formed were: "Helping Hand Liberia", "United People With Disabilities Organization", "Center for Women Empowerment", and "Disabled People's Children Rehabilitation Organization".

The second presentation, "Strategy and Techniques Needed for Lobbying", was facilitated by Mr. Thatcher M. Tweh of Educare Liberia, a private organization into training on business start-up.

He said what's called "bribery" in other sectors is a 'facilitation fee' in the Lobbying World.

"If you want you want somebody to help you, you must give money--to get money," he advised NUOD and representatives of other disabled groups in attendance.

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To push his "facilitation fee" point further, he spoke about the business interaction between Liberian Senator, Varney Sherman (Lobbyist) and the Management of APM Terminals, a foreign Shipping Company, for control of the Port of Monrovia--Liberia's leading sea port.

He talked about another Lawmaker, Gabriel Nyenkan, of District #11, Montserrado County, whose understanding of the give-money-to-get-money part of lobby caused rush of the Ministry of Public Works to build roads in his Constituency.

"Representative Gabriel Nyenkan had written over eighty letters, but he couldn't get result, until he did what he could do," Mr. Tweh said.

Participants made contributions, through questions or comments, during question/comment segment of each Presentation. A female participant, of Nimba County's DPO, reported inclusion of PWDs on the County's Social Development Fund (SDF), and said it was a "advocacy" by County's Disabled People's Organization.

At the end of the Seminar, Journalists held separate exclusive interviews with heads of DPOs. Each person praised AIFO on its intervention through the DASU Project; majority lamented on finance-related challenges.

"AIFO has greatly helped my organization, Nimba Disabled Community," the group's president, Mr. D. Abestine Tozay, in a wheelchair, said to a journalist during an exclusive interview.

In her closing remark, NUOD's president, Naomi B. Harris, said proudly: "We are moving. Many DPOs are joining us. Let's not forget our motto: There's nothing for us that's not by us."

Madam Josephine Geegbee served as the Seminar's Sign Language Interpreter--for the hearing-impaired (deaf) participants.

Post Views: 1
Addis Abeba  The shortage of belg season rains (April to June) due to late-onset and long dry spells has left communities in East and West Hararge Zones with no harvest and food products. The failure of the belg rains has also largely affected land preparation for the 2021/22 meher season (June-September), the UNOCHA said.

Farmers in the two zones had lost an average of 30 to 40 per cent in production during last year's Meher season (2020/21) as the rain was erratic, uneven, and inconsistent with onsets and withdrawals. There was also crop damages due to Desert Locust and floods.

Thus, the entire food security situation in both zones is dire where rain conditions continue to be very poor, potentially leaving nearly half of the population to be in need of food assistance in 2021/2022. Currently, a significant increase of an estimated 40 to 50 percent of malnutrition cases was reported in East and West Hararge Zones compared to the same period of time last year. The monthly increase was particularly high in East Hararge Zone. Food insecurity, inconsistent provision of targeted supplementary feeding supplies, and the phasing out of many nutrition projects have contributed to the increase of malnutrition especially among children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women. During humanitarian crises, women are more likely to make sacrifices, such as eating less food portions, for the well-being of their families. Malnourished pregnant women face increased risks of miscarriages and anemia as well as dying during delivery. Malnutrition also has severe impact on the physical and cognitive development of children, leading to perpetuating illness, poverty and inequality.

East and West Hararge Zones host nearly 150,000 IDPs and over 300,000 returnees who are living in dire conditions with insufficient humanitarian assistance.
Intissar El Sisi, wife of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, greeted Wednesday 30/6/2021 the Egyptian people on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of June 30 Revolution, saying the revolution was an embodiment of a historical scene that saw all State institutions' unity.

On the 8th anniversary of the June 30 Revolution, the president 's spouse praised on her social media accounts the wisdom of Egyptians, who portrayed through their revolution, a model to follow as all sects of the Egyptian society stood four square behind their country.

She wished Egypt more peace, security and stability.

MENA
Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Ehab Nasr and Egyptian archaeologist and Egyptologist Zahi Hawass discussed on Wednesday 30/6/2021 with Russian Culture Minister ways of boosting cultural cooperation.

The two sides discussed details of several joint cultural activities to take place within the coming two years, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry.

During his visit to Moscow, Hawass delivered a lecture at Foreign Literature Library that was attended by 100 Egyptologists and aired in Russian tv channels and websites.

MENA
Tunis/Tunisia  A cooperation and partnership agreement aimed to to promote the Tunisian public administration was signed on Wednesday between the National School of Administration (ENA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This agreement which is part of the achievement of the sustainable development goals, mainly SDG16 +, aims to promote the Tunisian public administration through the adoption of innovative approaches and building the capacities of senior public servants, the UNDP says in a press release.

Under this agreement, the UNDP offers the ENA technical assistance to design and set up a public innovation laboratory at the ENA, organise internships for students in the higher cycle of the ENA and set up a training program, for senior managers, for the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies.

The convention was inked by ENA Director Khaoula Laabidi and UNDP Resident Representative to Tunisia Steve Utterwulghe, in the presence of Minister to the Primr Minister in charge of the Civil Service Hasna Ben Slimen and Netherlands' ambassador to Tunisia Ton Lansink.
opinion

A year ago, I met a 26-year-old breastfeeding mother who was a graduate student. She was married with three children; the youngest was just eight months old. She started using oral contraceptives after the return of her menses following the birth, but she hid the pills from her husband. When he discovered them, he forced her to throw them away.

Not long after that, she conceived again. Three months later, she had a miscarriage caused by stress. She was admitted into hospital with infection and blood loss. Thankfully, she survived, and her husband has since changed his attitude towards contraceptive use.

In my work in rural areas of Nigeria, attending mostly to uneducated women, their inability to make their own decisions on contraceptive use, combined with lack of awareness of what contraceptive methods are available, are prominent factors that affect contraceptive uptake. About 80 percent of the women we see do not use modern contraceptives because of lack of knowledge, or because their spouses are against it.

However, it is cheering to note that when I talk with couples about the importance of contraception to a woman's health and her family's welfare, I see a marked change in attitude. From my conversations with others working in reproductive health services, it seems that they have also had success when they talk to couples.

It is already a government policy to increase the use of modern contraceptives in Nigeria. The official goal, first set in 2012 and revised in 2017, was to reach a modern contraceptive prevalence rate of 27 percent by the year 2020. Unfortunately, the level of contraceptive use reached in 2020 was only 12 percent, one of the lowest rates in the world.

A key reason for the low level of contraceptive use is lack of government leadership. Despite making promises to fund modern contraception, the government actually cut funds for family planning by 80 percent in its 2019 budget, with further cuts in 2020. In effect, the government is leaving international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to pay for most of the contraception and family planning services in Nigeria. While NGOs do an admirable job, none has the capacity to run a sustained national awareness campaign, or to change deeply ingrained social attitudes affecting contraceptive uptake. This is the work of government, which needs to invest in family planning education, including in schools, and ensure modern contraceptives are widely available at little or no cost.

The government also needs to tackle stigma. Here in Nigeria, we need to stop being embarrassed about contraception or treating it as a secret. We can learn from the success of immunisation campaigns against childhood diseases, for example, which have used massive awareness campaigns and health workers going house to house to carryout vaccinations.

Today, it is quite normal to vaccinate children when it was previously viewed with suspicion. The government should apply the same strategy to family planning, using health workers to educate couples and deliver contraceptive services at home. They would have an opportunity to speak to couples together, and importantly include men in the conversation.

By speaking with couples normally about contraception, we in the health sector can show that there is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about, reassure both women and men that the products are safe, and address any misconceptions and answer questions. The problem now is that the system encourages secrecy and misinformation, making it even harder for women to control their fertility, and often putting their health and welfare at risk.

The cost of this problem to the country is significant. The health and social impacts that I see frequently include unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortion, maternal deaths, perpetuation of poverty, malnutrition, frequent hospital visits and children dropping out of school.

If all the unmet needs of modern contraception were satisfied, it is estimated that unintended pregnancies in Nigeria would drop by 77 percent - from 2.5 million to555,000 per year - and the number of abortions would drop from 1.3 million to287,000. Full provision of modern contraception, combined with other medical care, would reduce maternal deaths by 68 percent (61,000 to 19,000 per year) and newborn deaths would drop by 85 percent (from 255,000 to 38,000 per year).

We know that our rapidly growing population is one of the country's biggest economic and political challenges. Latest official data puts Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and population growth at 2.2 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. We are poised to be the third most populous country in the world by 2050, ahead of the United States. Finding jobs for all these people is already extremely difficult. Protecting our environment in the face of massive population growth is another challenge. Contraceptives have always been a vital tool for countries to build viable societies, and when given the option, most families make responsible decisions, ensuring that they can provide for the children they have.

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I want to emphasise that this is not just a problem facing poor people in rural areas. The woman I described at the beginning of this article is well-educated, living a comfortable middle-class life. Yet the taboos around family planning affected her just as much as the rural women I also treat on a regular basis.

This is a problem impacting every part of the Nigerian society. Therefore, I call on government at all levels to prioritise family planning. It will be necessary to increase spending, employ more health workers, carry out awareness raising campaigns, and take contraceptive services to homes, as they do for immunisation. Perhaps they can combine these roles - training vaccination teams to also deliver contraception.

As a man, a father, and a husband, as well as a doctor, I also call on all men to educate themselves about these issues and consider their wives and children's well-being above all. The benefits of change will flow not only to women, but to the whole country, by enabling families to prosper, reducing poverty, protecting our environment, and building a more sustainable future.

Dr Tijani Salami is a physician, sexual and reproductive health expert and founder of Sisters Caregivers Project Initiative
opinion

Years ago, I went into local politics in Belgium. I was encouraged by the then mayor of my city, the late Marcel Hendricks, to run. I respected him a lot but I was reluctant. I was young, I was very busy and I had zero experience. With Naija as my frame of reference, I never imagined myself in politics. Not even at the local level. On the other hand, I also complained a lot to anyone who would listen about the underrepresentation of minority groups in public spheres in my city (and in Belgium as a whole).

While I was still deciding whether to run or not, I ran into a friend who said I should stop dithering and just do it because "als je niet aan tafel zit, word je vergeten." If you're not at the table, you'd be forgotten. Also, the then ambassador of Nigeria to Belgium paid a visit to my city and had lunch with Mayor Hendricks and me. The mayor 'reported' me to the ambassador. Long story short, folks, I agreed to run.

We put up posters (paid for from the party purse) and campaigned door to door. Some people were polite, others less so. It did not cost me a single euro. I did not have to distribute branded bags of rice to anyone. Of all the people we spoke to, only one person asked what was in it for them personally. An African man. He asked me what I'd give him to vote for me. He was convinced that if I won, I'd be in enjoyment heaven making money hand over fist and therefore, I had to pay him for the privilege of his vote. "You'll get in and chop money, so invest now," he might have said to me. I told him I had nothing to give him , and that in fact, I could not even give him anything had I wanted to. It is illegal in Belgium to give out anything that could be construed as a bribe to potential voters. He shrugged and said that in that case, he'd be voting blank (Belgium has the oldest existing compulsory voting system although you can exercise your right to vote for no one) because he couldn't give me his vote for nothing.

It never occurred to this 'brother' of mine that voting for me might mean having a member of his family at the table making sure that he got food. Or that I might have been running because I wanted to serve my community, not benefit from it. I remember this story now because I have been ruminating on the just concluded PDP primaries in Anambra State and on Naija elections in general.

Folks have alleged, for example, that religious denomination and money and godfatherism all played roles in these primaries. In a state that is predominantly Christian, apparently it matters what denomination one belongs to. And in a race to choose who would represent the state, it was important that zoning agreements be respected. Seriously? I, a naturalised Belgian could run (and win a seat) in Turnhout, but Anambra North and Anambra South are so radically different that there is an agreement in place to rotate gubernatorial candidates between the two regions? I am sure a similar agreement is in place with APGA and APC too.

Some folks have also said that the better candidates - as far as they were concerned- got the fewest votes from the delegates and that the reason is that they did not have the support of a strong godfather. Godfatherism in Nigerian politics is not new. These wealthy men who sink money into campaigns and into electing their desired candidates so that the godfathers can in turn influence policy and demand their pound of flesh are a blight on our political system and should be done away with.

And why were there 217 super delegates rather than the anticipated 3200 delegates? Who's going to be the gubernatorial candidate if two candidates claim to have won? Why were there two parallel primaries for the same position? I am so confused right now. Meanwhile APC leaders claim their own primary in Anambra State was fraudulent and 11 of the 14 aspirants have rejected the result. And in APGA, Prof. Soludo who won had been suspended by a faction of the party before the primaries and that faction does not consider his win valid. Wahala just full ground.

Apart from the shenanigans, there is the disheartening fact that in 2021, there were hardly any women on the tickets of the parties despite the concessions some of the parties have made for women. However, these concessions mean little when the environment itself does not encourage their participation. Someone trustworthy told me that a big shot/ political godfather of one of the parties in the state said that he'd vote for a woman over his dead body. Chances are that there are many who think like him.

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We must be intentional about having more women in positions of power; otherwise whatever concessions made for them are more performative than heartfelt. One of the things I was pleasantly surprised by when I entered politics in Belgium was the fact that my party reserved half of the spots on the ticket for women and a certain number for the youth. There was an energetic recruitment of viable candidates to fill the quota. We got enormous support from the party and successful young women candidates also stood a good chance, ensured by the system, of becoming aldermen handling important portfolios. This is how one ensures that politics isn't dominated by fossilised, mostly male politicians with youth (and women) rarely getting a look in. If we are to achieve truly democratic governance, then we must invest in and encourage women and youth participation in active politics.

And a truly democratic governance is what we all want, abi?
July 1 is observed every year in Rwanda, as the day that the country gained independence from Belgian colonial rule in 1962.

Though it is one of the public holidays observed in the country, there are no national celebrations held to mark the day.

The reason for this, according to different sources who spoke to The New Times, is chiefly because Independence Day takes place only three days before the Liberation Day, which is celebrated on July 4.

Thus, if government allocates funds towards organizing two public functions, it would be expensive.

"It is a matter of prudence. If you have two public holidays, which are all in the liberation sense, organising celebrations for only one is okay," said Protais Musoni, the Chairperson of the Pan-African Movement (PAM-Rwanda).

He reasoned that the independence is an important day, though to Rwandans, Liberation Day is even more important because it anchors nationalism more due to the achievements registered after it, mainly in terms of unity.

"We mark independence and we value what our forefathers fought for. So it is important, but we should note that after the colonial rule, the same philosophy of divisionism more or less persisted through the pre-colonial era. And therefore, the liberation anchors nationalism more into the picture," he said.

Dr. Canisius Bihira, an Economist Analyst also told this newspaper that it would not be very prudent spending if the country organised two public fetes in three days.

Therefore, he said, it is better to mark one which has stronger meaning for the country, and for him it is the Liberation Day.

Both Bihira and Musoni reflected on the journey that the country has been on since independence: the achievements registered, and the gaps that need to be addressed.

On his part, Musoni said a lot has been achieved politically, saying Rwandans are in control of their country. He however pointed out some gaps which the country should try to address, for example economically, going forward.

"Since independence, I think our country has gained quite a number of things. Politically, I think we are setting the standards of our governance, and improving our systems of our governance. You would say Rwandans are in charge politically," said Musoni, who has previously held different leadership positions, including in cabinet.

"Economic transformation will lead us to economic independence, for example in terms of fully meeting our national expenditures without foreign assistance.

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"If you followed the national budget through the recent years, you can see that we are having higher and higher percentages of internally generated resources," he added, saying that the ambition is to make it fully funded internally.

He also reflected on culture, saying some achievements have been registered, as people are embracing their identity as Rwandans.

However, Musoni noted that the journey to true independence is a "continuum" and thus, there is need to continue working towards it.

"For me it is a continuum. We need to constantly ask ourselves: what else do we need to liberate ourselves from. Is it shortage of infrastructure, is it poverty, or is it the need for a voice on the global arena?" he said.

Bihira told The New Times that there is need for a more independent mentality for Rwandans, where, for instance, they will take big steps towards making most of their God-given resources and ingenuity.

"I can give you an example, there are companies that make juice here. But, they import raw materials from abroad, yet we can use our own," he said.

"Some people think that things that are made in Rwanda are not good, and this is not a right mentality," he added.

Belise Uwase, a youth in Kigali said that she is proud of the achievements that the country has made, but noted that independence is a journey that is continuing.

"I am proud of the leadership, the security in general. I think more can be done in the sector of education," she said.
Rwanda has signed a Rwf3.6 billion agreement with the European Union (EU) to enhance the attractiveness of Rwanda for investments in vaccine manufacturing, a statement from Rwanda Development Board (RDB) says.

According to the statement, this financing agreement signed between the EU and RDB on Wednesday, June 30 is in line with promoting the country's medical tourism.

The agreement, it said, will strengthen the capacity of the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) which is key to enhancing the country's attractiveness for investments in vaccine manufacturing.

Rwanda has been announced as one of the hubs for vaccine manufacturing in Africa, besides Nigeria and South Africa.

In May, President Paul Kagame said that "in the context of developing hubs for manufacturing the vaccines in our continent, Rwanda is in advanced talks with private firms and multilateral agencies to build manufacturing capacity in our region for the raw materials to produce mRNA vaccines."

Kagame was speaking at the virtual Global Health Summit, co-chaired by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President of the European Union Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The Summit focused on how to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships said that the agreement to increase the capacity of Rwanda FDA is key to improving access to medicines.

"This is an important step in supporting local manufacturing of health products in Africa. As announced by President of [the European Union Commission] von der Leyen, Team Europe will continue to support this country and Africa in strengthening the regulatory framework and attracting investment in the pharmaceutical sector," she said.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije said the European Union is a central partner in our efforts to bridge the gap in vaccine equity in Africa by building pharmaceutical production capacity.

"Upgrading Rwanda's regulatory capabilities to the required international standards, is a critical step on our journey to vaccine manufacturing," he remarked.

Commenting on the development, Clare Akamanzi, CEO of RDB said access to vaccines is critical especially for Africa where only 1 percent of vaccines are manufactured on the continent.

"This agreement boosts Rwanda's efforts to build a vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem to contribute to the health security of the region and continent," she observed.

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The development will help the Rwanda FDA to establish a strong quality control laboratory for the medical products and supply new equipment for an integrated information management system.

This will help the body in achieving the required level of certification by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be able to fully play its role to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of vaccines and pharmaceutical products.

The agreement is part of a comprehensive medium-term #TeamEurope support to bring the Authority's laboratory, technical and organizational capacity to high levels of performance.

As part of the effort, the EU Delegation will also seek to facilitate a peer-to-peer partnership between the Rwanda FDA and the national regulatory authorities from EU Member States.

The statement indicated that the EU and the European Investment Bank are in discussions to partner with the Government of Rwanda to facilitate and promote investment by pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the country, including exploring opportunities for co-financing and de-risking potential investments.
Aron Mushaukwa & Dephine Simasiku

Fire crews in Katima Mulilo scrambled to extinguish a fire at the house of Kabbe North councillor Bernard Sisamu on Monday evening.

The fire that raged for hours razed the house to the ground as the local fire brigade struggled to put it out. Zambezi crime investigations coordinator Evans Simasiku confirmed the incident. He, however, stated that no case has been opened with the police as the cause of the fire is not yet known. "It could have been an electrical failure, it could have been anything but at the moment, no case has been opened," said Simasiku. Sisamu's house is located in Boma location, a few metres from the Katima Mulilo police station.

Contacted for comment, Sisamu said the fire started around 16h00 and even though the fire brigade was contacted immediately after the fire broke out, they only arrived an hour later. "They appeared not to be ready, as they came with an empty tank, and later they went to the river to fetch water," he said.

"They tried to quell the flames but they could not do it, until later when the other fire brigade from the airport came." He further explained the fire started from one of the bedrooms.

"When the fire started, I was taking a nap, and my wife and four children were also around. My wife who came shouting from outside woke me up," said Sisamu. He also stated the fire was only brought under control around 21h00. He also explained the total loss of property, excluding the house, is close to N$200 000.

"I don't know how to explain this but it is really a great loss," he said.
Roland Routh

Covid-19 has claimed another scalp in the form of a trial that needed to be postponed because one of the lawyers either had contact with a positive person and is in isolation or contracted the virus themselves. This time around, it is the criminal trial of Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement activist Dimbulukeni Nauyoma.

Magistrate Olga Likando had to postpone the matter in which Nauyoma was supposed to plead to charges of hindering a person and entering upon land, all in contravention of Section 2 of Proclamation AG 21 of 1985 to 4 April next year. The reason given was that the prosecutor dealing with the matter is in isolation after coming into contact with a Covid-19 positive person.

The matter was previously put on hold to wait for the High Court's ruling in which he is challenging the Squatters Proclamation Act.

Nauyoma was arrested on 18 January 2019, when he allegedly attempted to stop Windhoek City Police officers from demolishing a shack belonging to Okuryangava resident, a 33-year-old single mother of two, Wilhemina Shipingana.

Police reported at the time that Nauyoma and other activists tried to rebuild Shipingana's shack.

The police then arrested Nauyoma along with Emilia Simon, Tuhafeni Kamati, Wilhem Mapele and Ismael Kalumbu, who have since been released on a warning and have not been charged.

At the time, Shipingana told New Era that her shack was initially demolished in the morning after she refused to have sexual intercourse with the man who gave her a piece of land to build her shack in December 2018.

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Shipingana said the community and Nauyoma rebuilt the shack on the land while trying to get another place. Her shack was again demolished after it was rebuilt During his arrest, Nauyoma allegedly sustained injuries on his shoulder and ribs.

AR resorted to High Court, which ordered the police at Wanaheda Police Station to take him to Rhino Park private hospital. Nauyoma was then transferred to Windhoek Central Hospital, where he was under police guard.

However, on 15 September, Nauyoma approached the High Court, seeking an order declaring the Squatters Proclamation AG, 21 of 1985 as unconstitutional.

The particular act, amongst many things, provides for the removal of persons unlawfully occupying land or buildings, and for the demolition of structures that are unlawfully erected. In his affidavit, Nauyoma is arguing that the Act does not make provisions for circumstances under which unlawful land occupiers obtained the land.
Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente is in Bujumbura, Burundi where he is attending the celebrations of Independence Day, according to his office.

Rwanda and Burundi are celebrating almost six decades of independence gained on July 1, 1960 from Belgium.

However, since 2015, the two countries have shared frosty relations, but efforts to mend their differences have been underway since the election of the new government led by President Evariste Ndayishimiye in Burundi.

Several talks have been held from both sides to restore the diplomatic relationship.

The visit by Ngirente is widely viewed as part of the efforts to mend the icy relations between the two countries.
Schools have started to send students back to their homes as they respond to the new guidelines set by the government to help contain the spread of Covid-19.

The new guidelines, which were announced on Tuesday, include the closure of schools in some 10 districts.

On Tuesday, June 1, The New Times visited two schools in Kicukiro District and found that preparations were underway to facilitate the students' departure.

William Rwiririza, Deputy Director of King David Academy, said; "We were not surprised by these measures... the students have completed their exams and we are still preparing their report cards".

Rwiririza said 90 per cent of their students are from Kigali, and parents have been informed to pick them from the school between 8:30 am up 4:30 pm

The government has arranged transport for students travelling to the countryside.

Asked about the students' reports, he said "every student will receive his/her report through email and we will send them in the coming days."

A S.5 at E.S Kanombe (EFOTEC) who spoke to The New Times said; "We have observed every measure put in place during this period we were at school. Even though we are going home under hard circumstances, we'll continue to take care of ourselves and be role models in our families".

We have concluded our exams, he added, and we hope that the results will be good.

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"Although we are not happy to go back home without our results, we know that our schools will send them to us at the right time"

The school third term for non-candidate students was supposed to end on July 9 but has been brought to an early closure due to the spike in new Covid-19 infections in the country.

At E.S Kanombe, the school administrators were receiving money from the parents to facilitate their children's transportation back home.

The school said that all students were in good condition save for one who missed the exams due to illness.

On Thursday morning, many students travelling to the countryside convened at Kigali Stadium where they are being transported to their respective provinces

The exercise will go on until June 4.

The Ministry of Education said on its Twitter handle that students who are set to do the national exams will stay at school.
With effect from Saturday, all categories of travellers will be required to present a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours as opposed to the earlier 120-hour requirement.

Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general of health services at the Ministry of Health, said the new policy seeks to curb the spread of new Covid-19 variants that are circulating in 85 countries.

Uganda is one of the countries struggling to contain the spread of the Delta variant.

"All travellers arriving or departing from Uganda are required to have a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel. Please note that the 72 hours begins on the day the sample is collected for testing," Dr Mwebesa said in a statement yesterday.

Initially, government had indicated a 72-hour duration, however, the policy was relaxed to 120 hours. Government has yet again revised the timeline to 72 hours.

Dr Charles Olaro, the director of curative services at the Ministry of Health, said the longer periods of testing leave gaps for people to interact before travel.

"When a longer period of 120 hours is given, people test but they may get infected with the virus as they wait for results," Dr Olaro said.

Since March last year when Uganda registered her first Covid-case, more than 1.3 million tests have been conducted and of these, 79,977 people have turned positive. At least 52,961 have recovered from the virus.

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According to Ministry of Health, the testing capacity has increased from 74,000 in previous months to 151,000 PCR tests per month. Government projects to increase the capacity to 320,000 PCR tests by the end of June.

In a bid to prevent the spread of new Covid variants, the government suspended all passenger flights from India last month and categorised countries based on the presence of variants of concern, high rate of transmission of the disease and number of deaths reported.

The government also advised people intending to fly into Uganda from the US, the UK, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan ,and Tanzania, among others, to postpone non-essential travels.

However, those travellers from the above categories, who were referred to as Category Two, including nationals, are subjected to a PCR Covid-19 test at points of entry. However, we could not establish if there have been changes in categories of countries on travels. The Ministry of Health had not provided us with such information by press time.

UK travel ban

The United Kingdom added Uganda to its travel ban red list last week to prevent the spread of new Covid-19 variants. The UK had aslo earlier this year red listed several other countries including South Africa, the UAE, Burundi and Rwanda among others.
Medics and leaders in Ntungamo District are getting concerned as residents who test positive for Covid-19 resist returning home.

The medics say the residents argue that when they go home they will infect people in their households since most of their homes are congested and can't have room for self-isolation. They want to remain in health centres for specialized treatment.

"Most people we test and find positive are reluctant to go back home. As medics, we also do not have enough equipment and the capacity to keep them here. We are not trained enough to handle Covid-19 and most importantly, we do not have the budget. But they insist they are not going anywhere," Ms Aphia Ankunda, the Ntungamo Municipality Health Centre IV In-charge, said.

She said at least 52 per cent of the patients who turn up at the health centre and are tested for Covid-19 return positive results which puts the medics at risk of contracting the disease since they don't have protective gear.

"When they gave us test kits for coronavirus, we were not prepared for this. There was no PPE provided for the people in the lab who test, it's just like they do to malaria. No gloves, no facemasks, no disposable aprons, no face shields, no gumboots, and the medics are stressed and stretched," Ms Ankunda added.

The Ntungamo District Covid-19 task force set up Rubaare health centre IV, Kitwe health centre IV, Rwashamaire health centre IV, Itojo Hospital, Ntungamo health centre III, for rapid tests and Mirama Hills Border post for sample collection for other specialized tests.

However, the district health officer Dr Richard Bakamuturaki says they have not established any Covid-19 treatment centre as Itojo hospital it congested with patients with different ailments and can't find space for Covid-19 isolation and treatment centre.

He says, currently, m]the Covid-19 patients are referred to Kabale or Mbarara hospitals but are looking at measures to have the district treatment centre as community infections soar.

Itojo Hospital constructed in 1964 has space for only 80 in-patients including maternity, male and female, pediatrics, surgical and causality and there has not been any additional construction since official opening in 1972.

A midwife at Kitondo health centre IV, Ms Patience Arinaitwe died last week as a result of Covid-19 after contacting it from an expectant mother. Another midwife at Nyabushenyi health centre III is in ICU over similar complications.

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A medical officer at Rwashamaire health centre who preferred anonymity said they are currently treating two Covid-19 patients at the facility because who refused to go back home.

At Kitwe health centre, police was called on Monday to take away a man who had refused to return home after testing positive for the deadly disease. Medics said they had no PPEs to care for the patient.

The Kajara county Member of parliament Mr Micheal Timuzigu Kamugisha toured three health centres on Wednesday observing serious medical challenges in the units.

"Government has absolutely neglected health workers. When you ask the permanent secretary of the minister of health they will tell you they have sent PPEs to the facilities, but I want to tell you I have seen it myself, these people at health units are just sacrificing their lives. A health worker told me she used a pair of gloves for a whole day sanitizing every other time, the patients are insisting they want to be cared for. Something must be done," Mr Timuzigu said.

The Ntungamo Resident District Commissioner, Mr George Bakunda, says the district has been in contact with the ministry of health over the establishment of a Covid-19 treatment centre at Itojo Hospital.
Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is banking on May and June to beat its Shs21.6 trillion revenue collection target, which by the end of April was behind by Shs5 trillion.

In an interview early this week, Mr Ian Rumanyika, the URA assistant commissioner public and corporate affairs, said although the 2020/21 financial has closed (yesterday), URA's performance has been fairly good building on the optimism that in May and June tax payers dash to file different returns as well as paying arrears.

"We were given a target of about Shs21.6 trillion and by the end of April 2021, we had collected Shs15.5 trillion against the set target," Mr Rumanyika said in a virtual meeting, noting that they will wait for to see how May and June turn out.

"So far revenue performance in terms of percentage is about 72 per cent and we continue to urge taxpayers to file their returns by close of business today [Wednesday]," he added.

Should URA fail to hit its target, this will be the second time it closes the revenue collection account with a deficit.

Covid-19 has been a big constraint to tax collection.

However, Mr Rumanyika said they are optimistic given that a number of system, mainly of which are digitally supported, will help in improving revenue collection.

Already a move between Uganda Registration Services Bureau and URA to integrate Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) with National Identification & Registration Authority (NIRA) is ongoing.

Through the system URA will seek to draw more than four million tax payers into the taxable fold.

URA is has also created other digital systems such as the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution and Digital Tax Stumps in which it seeks to create and efficient tax collection medium.

Recently, Dr Fred Muhumuza, a Makerere University School of Economics lecturer, during the Economic Recovery and Re-igniting Economic Growth discussions, said revenue collection is product of a healthy economy, noting it would be difficult for URA to hit its targets, amid constrained economic activities.
By Moses Ndhaye

A Joint security team led by Police Crime Intelligence personnel locked down three zones in Kawempe Division for more than six hours as they carried out a search to arrest three suspects in an attempted assassination of Gen Edward Katumba Wamala last month.

Heavily armed personnel in plain clothes and black uniforms put Lugoba, Kaziga and Kibwa zones under lock down on Monday until they arrested suspects whom they claimed were under their watch list, but had hid in the house a few days after the shooting.

One suspect was later arrested in a rental at Kibwa, another in Kaziga, and the last at Lugoba.

The suspects were dragged into the waiting vehicles and driven away. Their identities aren't yet known.

Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire confirmed the presence of security personnel in the area, but declined to divulge any information.

"You talk to police headquarters for the details," Assistant Superintendent of Police Owoyesigyire said yesterday.

Efforts to get a comment from the national police spokesman were futile.

Gen Katumba was shot and injured while in his army vehicle by armed assailants, who were riding motorcycles. His daughter Brenda Nantongo and driver Haruna Kayondo were shot dead by the assailants on Kisota Road in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb on June 1.

Two suspects, Ismael Hussein Sserubula and Siraji Yusuf Nyanzi, were later arrested and charged in court and remanded to prison with the murder of Nantongo and Kayondo, and attempted murder of Gen Katumba.

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Crime Intelligence sources said the suspects were tracked using the new technical capabilities that were acquired under the smart city project.

The operatives kept waiting for them to get out of their residential areas, but they could have detected the move by the security officers and locked themselves in the houses.

The source said the operatives later decided to do a cordon and search of the entire area and each suspect was found hiding in the house.

During the operation at Kawempe, armed operatives didn't allow any residents in the area to move. Motorists were also told to stay where they were until 7.30 PM when the operation ended.

Residents, who were rushing back home to avoid being caught by curfew deadline, were told to wait by the roadside.
Media Personality Nick Odhiambo is in mourning.

The former Radio Maisha presenter on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, announced the death of his son.

The deceased was three days old.

The veteran presenter could not hold back his emotions as he narrated the tragic situation to his fans on social media, describing it as a 'short-lived' joy.

"What a short-lived joy! Born Friday 25th June- 28th June 2021... been celebrating you and giving mom space to heal Then am told you were buried yesterday. And just seen your new home! #RiPSoN I have cried my eyes out asking why? Lil'Kyeon," tweeted Mick Odhiambo.

He did not divulge more information regarding the cause of the death of his son.

His friends and fans went on social media to offer their messages of condolences to the radio presenter.

"Pole sana Nick. May he RIP," wrote Philip Mwaniki.

"I am so sorry Nick. May he rest in peace," said KTN news anchor Linda Oguttu.

"Oh Nick this is sad and hard to comprehend. So so sorry. May the little angel rest well," tweeted @PeggyJo.

"Sorry Nick for your loss. No words can offer you comfort otherwise we would flood you with them. May this have meaning for you and for the boy, who we believe/know still lives elsewhere," commented @GathirimuPeter.

"Losing a child is the most painful type of loss anyone will ever experience. The heartbreak from child loss can never be explained with words... The void left behind can never begin to be filled. May God grant you peace Nick," said BrianInzai.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, dude. I could almost see the happiness in your tweet when you first tweeted about his birth. I personally am a father of a 15 month-old son and my biggest fear is losing him. Comfort is on the other side of this grief. I understand grief, I lost a bro," remarked @GideonKigen.

"No amount of words can express the pain that you are going through, pole sana Nick," said @steve_egess.

"Gutted to hear this man, we just celebrated with you last week Friday,
Seasoned journalist Lolani Kalu has started a music studio with the proceeds he received from Kenyans of goodwill when he was struggling on the financial front.

And he's urged the government to help the project by absorbing his music records into the school curriculum.

"I have an operational recording studio, a camera to do my recordings and to also go live with. I have written a music theory book in Swahili titled Mawe Saba and I would like to request the Ministry of Education to have it in schools for music lessons," he said.

A few months back, the former NTV presenter opened up on his financial and health struggles after he abruptly left his job and was forced to retreat to the village.

The plight of his struggles was highlighted on Twitter, forcing media personality Felix Odiwuor, aka Jalang'o, to invite him for an interview on his online TV, from where he asked his fans for support.

Kalu said he needed sh250,000 to buy a camera and a computer to jumpstart his life.

"I would appreciate it if I can get Ksh200,000 for a camera and sound equipment and Ksh50,000 for a computer that would enable me to edit the footage I would have shot," said Kalu.

Kenyans on social media joined hands to raise the amount for the journalist who also got a job at K24 TV.
A Kajiado hunter who was reportedly found with a dikdik at his home in Saikeri village has made a U-turn and denied charges of possession of the animal's carcass.

Joshua Ladapash disowned his own plea of guilty and denied accusations he'd admitted before Kibera law courts on Monday.

Before changing his mind, Ladapash was awaiting the presentation of facts by the prosecution before sentencing.

He'd earlier told the court that it was true he was found by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers with the animal shortly after it was killed by his dogs.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to possession of the carcass weighing five kilos after he was arraigned by KWS officers.

Ladapash was arrested at his home where he was reportedly found killing the animal.

Court heard KWS officers in Nairobi had received information about Ladapash and his accomplices' hunting mission and they proceeded to his village.

They surrounded his home after they heard the animal make the whistling sound in pain.

Unfortunately, they found the suspect had killed the animal.

The carcass has been photographed before disposal and only the photos will be presented in court in the future.

Ladapash was released on a Sh100,000 bond and an alternative cash bail of the same amount.

The case will be mentioned on July 15 for pre-trials and setting hearing dates.
The fully armed gunmen whisked the six workers away to an unknown location.

Gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped six workers of West African Ceramic Company in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State.

The incident happened in the Emiworo community in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of the state, where the company mines stones.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the workers were abducted while loading stones expected to be delivered in the ceramic site located at Itobe, in the same council area.

The suspected criminals, who were fully armed, whisked the six workers away to an unknown location.

The Kogi state police Public Relations Officer, William Aya, confirmed the incident to this newspaper on Thursday.

He said the officers deployed by the Commissioner of Police were operating in collaboration with other security agencies to see that the victims are rescued.

According to him, the operatives were still combing the bush in the local government area on the trail of the assailants.

The company, however, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report. Its known telephone numbers were unavailable on Thursday morning.
The World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, said this was the largest healthcare investment it had mobilised to date.

The World Bank, France, Germany and the US are pumping 600-million - about R10-billion - into the South African pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare to boost its production of Covid-19 vaccines for Africa.

The injection will bolster Aspen's finances so it can continue to produce vaccines under licence for the US pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson at its sterile plant in Gqeberha. Aspen is compounding, finishing, filling and packaging J&J's Janssen vaccines and supplying them to South Africa and the rest of Africa.

The World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is mobilising the deal and contributing 200-million. The French development institution Proparco is providing 156-million; Germany's development institution DEG, 144-million; and the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) the remaining 100-million.

The IFC said this was the largest healthcare investment it had mobilised to date, in the statement announcing the package. The four development financing institutions said they were answering the call from African governments to bolster the continent's vaccine supply chain to counter Covid-19 and strengthen their health sectors in...
column

After a four-year interregnum, the trial of the 'supreme leader' of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu resumed on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja. First arraigned on 14th October, 2015 before he eventually secured bail and fled the country, Kanu had been slammed with an 11-count charge bordering on terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods. According to the Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, SAN, Kanu is now also accused of inciting violence through television, radio and online broadcasts that resulted in the loss of lives and property of civilians, military, paramilitary, police forces as well as the destruction of civil institutions and symbols of authority in the Southeast.

While the security agencies may have scored a huge coup by arresting Kanu abroad and bringing him home to face trial, nobody should be under any illusion that this is a simple case. The trial of Kanu resembles that of his friend-now-turned-foe, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari who was charged with similar offences under President Olusegun Obasanjo. Let's hope it doesn't turn out the same way. Although Dokubo-Asari's case eventually ended with his release from detention by my late boss, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on 14th June 2007 (two weeks after assuming office as a prelude to the Niger Delta Amnesty programme), anybody who wants to recall that drama and its lurid details should read the Supreme Court judgement of 8th June 2007. Incidentally, that judgement (on a bail application case) was delivered by Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (with concurrence by Aloysius Katsina-Alu, Niki Tobi, Francis Fedode Tabai, Pius Olayiwola Aderemi and Anthony Ikechukwu Iguh). Meanwhile, Dokubo-Asari's lawyer was Festus Keyamo, SAN, the current Minister of State for Labour and Productivity.

Let me refresh the memory of readers on that case before I go to the substance of my intervention. Arraigned on 6th October, 2005 before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Dokubo-Asari was accused of managing "unlawful societies of more than ten persons respectively known and called Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Congress for the Liberation of Ikwere People (COLIP) and Chikoko Movement" with objectives that allegedly include: Levying war on the government of Nigeria; encouraging the killing and injuring of persons and property; promoting the subversion of the government of Nigeria and its officials; committing and inciting acts of violence and intimidation; encouraging interference with or resistance to the administration of law; and encouraging the disturbance of peace and order in the Niger Delta.

In one of the charges, Dokubo-Asari was said to have held a meeting on 28th August 2005 at Samsy Hotel in Benin, Edo State capital where he planned to cause civil disorder that would lead to the overthrow of what he reportedly called "the dictatorial government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo". And on 10th September 2005, he also granted an interview to the Independent Newspaper where he said: "Nigeria is an evil entity. It has nothing to stand on and I will continue to fight and try to see that Nigeria dissolves and disintegrates and I am ready to hold on to the struggle to see to this till the day I will die. I do not see any reason why I should continue to live with people that have no relationship with me whatsoever."

During the trial on 19th February 2007, Dokubo-Asari created a never-to-be-forgotten scene when he told Justice Peter Olayiwola who had asked that he be taken out of court for unruly behaviour: "Stupid man! Stupid judge! You want to adjourn this matter again? You want to send me back to the underground cell again? I am sorry for you. Your family will weep when it happens. They will cry and cry.

Your family members cannot escape too. I know where they live. And Obasanjo will not be able to protect you." In the end, that trial catapulted Dokubo-Asari into national and international limelight and perhaps, stupendous wealth as well.

However, while the recall is important to situate the issue of Kanu's trial, I am also aware that the Southeast is not exactly the Niger Delta in the mind of the current dispensation. Obasanjo and Yar'Adua may also have taken different approaches but for essentially economic reasons vis-a-vis the oil factor. There are no such considerations in this case. Besides, the most incensed members among Kanu's supporters are in the Diaspora. The feeling within the Southeast political circle may be one of relief that Kanu is out of circulation. Indeed, following their meeting in Enugu on 15th September 2017, the Southeast Governors' Forum announced the proscription of IPOB activities. The then chairman, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State also assured Nigerians that "full investigation is ongoing on all allegations of killings, maiming and other unlawful conduct in the (Southeast) zone within this period".

But nobody can deny that Kanu is now a huge factor in Southeast politics. Because some people cannot differentiate between Biafra and the Igbos, Kanu has been able to create a 'We' versus 'Them' narrative on what remains an emotional injury in the Igbo collective psyche. The tragedy really is that it did not have to come to this, if Kanu had not been consumed by hate-mongering. In my 1st October 2017 'Platform Nigeria' presentation, 'A Nation on the Edge: Which Way Nigeria?', I spoke on how Kanu was insulting other ethnic nationalities. Yet those who ought to have restrained him refused to do so. As I asked in one of my columns, when Kanu said "anybody attending a Pentecostal church with a Yoruba pastor is an idiot, a complete fool and an imbecile" before adding, "if your pastor is Yoruba, you are not fit to be a human being" or "Pastor Kumuyi should be stoned and dealt with thoroughly if he comes to Aba for his planned crusade", was I expected to clap for him as a Yoruba man?

However, what provoked my 'Platform Nigeria' intervention was the ultimatum given by some 'youths' for all Igbos to vacate the northern region, as a result of killings in the Southeast at the time. Let me take excerpts from what I said on that occasion: "On 6th June this year (2017), some old men under the aegis of Coalition of Arewa Youths gave all the Igbo people living in the North till yesterday, 1st October to vacate the region. Even though the quit notice was eventually withdrawn, the damage that ultimatum did to our national psyche would take many years to heal. But then, the action of this group was also a response to the uncontrolled verbal aggression by Mr Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the so-called IPOB.

"Egged on by the mob, comprising mostly Okada riders with online support from several of his kinsmen in the Diaspora, Kanu was allowed to take hate speech to an unprecedented level. Even when he was presented a golden opportunity to champion the genuine grievances of his people with civility, following an ill-advised treason trial that catapulted him into national limelight and prominence, Kanu could not rise beyond the mediocrity of the adulation of some street urchins. He felt that by making incendiary statements to offend, insult, intimidate and threaten people from other ethnic groups, he was helping whatever his cause was. At the end, he made a strategic miscalculation.

"However, while I do not know why Kanu believes spreading hate and violence would help his cause, the Arewa youth counter-response was also very much unfortunate because the inference was that because Kanu is Igbo, all Igbo people must suffer the consequences of his action... Unfortunately, the message that was also lost on the authorities in Abuja is that you cannot build an inclusive society when you react to national security threats in a manner that suggests some people are above the law; although many people across the country also felt let down that some otherwise respected senior citizens from the South-east who ought to have called Kanu to order were practically genuflecting before someone young enough to be their grandson!"

In that presentation, I also made it clear that the excessive military show of force in the South-east under the pretext of 'Operation Python Dance' was a dangerous gambit that could play into the hands of Kanu given public resentment by the people who were made to pay for what they knew nothing about. Sadly, that was what fed the general angst that eventually turned Kanu into a folk hero within the region.

Now, let me come back to the 2017 'Platform Nigeria' intervention for my closing argument: "Admittedly, ours is a fragile polity but the social and economic bonds that unite us are strong and hard to dissolve. Yet the task of conscious nation building has hardly been done. The rights of citizenship are still shackled by boundaries of state of origin and ethnicity. The excessive hangovers of prolonged military rule are still with us in the form of impulsive arbitrariness. Our government still finds it easy to call in military force to quell elementary civil unrest. We are yet to teach our citizens from infancy the values of group living and how to compete as individuals without resorting to primordial hate when we cannot prevail.

"However, despite all these, the real challenge is that of creating enough wealth to cater for the need of our huge population. If we remain a poor country with an external reserve that is less than the cash holding of Facebook alone, our competitions might get bloodier and our future more speculative and tentative. Our task therefore is to make Nigeria a land of equal opportunity for all, a nation whose unity is not decreed as non-negotiable but is guaranteed by the practical incentives it offers for all to want to stay in and perfect the union."

ENDNOTE: As we gradually inch towards the 2023 general election and the permutations for presidency in the two leading political parties continue, we are bound to confront the Igbo question in a way that could tie into Kanu's travails, even if unintended. His trial has now been compounded by the fact that he jumped bail which, in some jurisdictions, is usually deemed a "consciousness of guilt". But Kanu deserves a proper trial and respect for the rules. The federal government should grant him access to his lawyers, obey the courts, and ensure that he gets justice, according to the laws of the land and the constitution.

Meanwhile, Southeast leaders will also do well to reassure other Nigerians that IPOB does not speak for the region. By his conduct and utterances in the past six years, Kanu has succeeded in alienating many open-minded Nigerians (outside the Southeast) who appreciate the legitimate demand of Igbo people for fairness, equity, and justice in an inclusive nation they can call their own.

The Usifo Ataga Tragedy

Ever since the tragic death of the CEO of Super TV, Mr Michael Usifo Ataga, the public has been treated to a cocktail of salacious stories that have tended to further traumatize a family that just lost an important member in gruesome circumstances. At the centre of this sordid drama is the police whose personnel have carried media trial to a most bizarre level. On Tuesday, there were several reports in major newspapers that suggested very clearly that journalists were not only given access to interview the prime suspect but were orchestrated to do it individually. As Mr Levi Obijiofor wrote in his latest column in 'The Sun' newspaper, the Ataga tragedy has unleashed on the Nigerian public, "backyard criminologists, motor park forensic analysts, unlettered rookie lawyers, untrained sociologists" and other busybodies who add to "the ordeal the family is experiencing as they mourn and search for answers."

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It is only in Nigeria that a homicide crime scene could be turned into a tourist attraction for gossipers masquerading as journalists to take photographs while the deceased was not given any dignity with the way pictures were taken of his lifeless body. The CCTV camera videos of his last hours are also all over the social media and the police seems to have sublet the interrogation of the lone suspect to reporters. This is neither right nor fair. In the interest of both the deceased and suspect, and that of criminal justice administration in Nigeria, the police should take this matter out of the media.

One Party State!

Apparently in response to the defection from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State and some Senators, this short piece credited to one Bamidele Johnson is making the rounds on WhatsApp. It sums up the state of our democracy: "Nigeria is not about to become a one-party state. Nigeria, for some time has been a single-party state. The major parties since 1999 are hardly distinguishable from one another/each other. The frequency/fluidity of movements between and among (members of) these platforms makes it impossible for them to be different.

Irrespective of the party, the conduct is the same at the national and sub-national levels. Same poison in different bottles.

Curiously, we've made ourselves victims of an epic swindle by politicians who continue to sell the same thing to us as different things. We whoop with joy at defections which deliver benefits exclusively to the defectors and their friends. We're a one-party state and we've been for long."

End of discussion!

2021 Teens Conference Registration

Registration for the 2021 edition of annual Teens Career Conference of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) The Everlasting Arms Parish (TEAP), Abuja with the theme, 'A Brave New World: Who Dares, Wins!' begins today. The speakers are Chairman, Talent City Inc, Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, MAX.NG, Mr Chinedu Azodoh and Group Managing Director (Nigeria), NewGlobe Education, Mrs Omowale David-Ashiru. Like previous editions, it will bring together teenagers from Abuja and its environs to listen to expert advice on career choices in today's dynamic and challenging world. For details on the conference, interested teenagers should visit www.rccgteapteens.org.

- You can follow me on my Twitter handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com
editorial

Recently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced plans to invest in some upcoming private refineries in the country. According to the oil conglomerate, the decision is in line with the corporation's commitment to guaranteeing national energy security.

The corporation said: "The oil refining sector is one of such segments where NNPC is revisiting its strategy in order to strengthen domestic refining capacity and guarantee national energy security. "The new vision is to grow domestic refining capacity, improve petroleum products supply from our local refineries and become a net exporter of petroleum products."

It explained that the proposal is in conformity with government directive stipulating the mandatory participation of the corporation in any privately owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity, and disclosed that it was currently seeking to acquire a 20 per cent minority equity stake in Africa's biggest oil refining facility, Dangote Refinery.

Already, the corporation has put in place what it calls the green field refinery and the Greenfield Refining Projects Division as part of a strategy to collaborate and seek partnerships with private investors. At the moment, Dangote Refinery, has a 650,000 barrels per day capacity plus a mini 80,000 tonnes per annum petrochemical plant.

This encouraging prospect may have encouraged the NNPC to seek to have a 20 per cent minority stake in Dangote Refinery as part of its collaboration given the huge crude requirement for that refinery.

This pronouncement by NNPC to invest in these upcoming private refineries has continued to elicit mixed commentaries from stakeholders in the nation's oil and gas industry. While the NNPC has sought the support of Nigerians for its new investment decision, LEADERSHIP is of the view that the planned decision should be implemented in a manner that will respect the private modalities on which these refineries are expected to operate. We point this out so as to guard against the inefficiencies that have tied down the nation's four refineries currently enmeshed in an endless Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) syndrome.

It is a known fact that while oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain parade enduring infrastructure and high standards of living of their citizens as proof of their oil wealth, same cannot be said of Nigeria, no thanks to the convoluted management structure of the oil industry, the over-bearing influence of the oil majors which makes the corporation a supervisory agency and an operator with the resultant conflict of interest.

We consider as plausible NNPC's argument that the planned investment in the private refineries will guarantee regular supply of crude oil to the refineries on completion and by extension, a satisfactory supply of refined products for local consumption.

Also, we applaud this effort at building synergy between the corporation and the private sector players. However, it is pertinent to point out that crude oil is an international product, sold in dollars and the refineries on completion, can decide to source crude oil wherever the prices and other terms are favourable. Without doubt, this will make refined products available but also at prices that are market driven. We are left wondering what this will portend for local consumers.

There is also another argument that these private refineries should make haste slowly in their quest for NNPC's and other investors' offers. It will be advisable for them to consider the provisions of the soon-to-be-passed Petroleum Industry Bill so as not to pre-empt what it sets out to achieve in the industry.

We are aware that PIB seeks to unbundle the NNPC and bring about some changes in the present arrangement in the industry as well as in the corporation itself. Part of the content of the bill is the anticipation that the NNPC will transmute to a private limited liability company that will be run strictly on private business principles.

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Therefore, we suggest that the private refineries, no matter how much they hanker for the offers thrown at them now due to an anxiety to be seen to be earning some revenue, they may well be persuaded to tarry awhile until PIB comes to life so that they will negotiate rules of engagement with what becomes of NNPC based strictly on terms and conditions that conduce with private operating standards.

As it is, entering into a business deal with NNPC, a wholly-owned government enterprise, may unwittingly dilute how things are done in private business environment. Regardless, it is our expectation that, eventually, the result of the final engagement between NNPC and any private refinery will be such that presents optimum benefits to all the stakeholders especially the consumers of petroleum products in Nigeria.
After sparing boda boda operators, infant flour and bread from new taxes, a parliamentary committee has proposed increases in other taxes that will raise the cost of airtime and internet data services.

The taxman will raid internet service providers and mobile phone companies for additional taxes, under amendments to the Finance Bill 2021 by the National Assembly's Finance and National Planning Committee.

The proposals will increase the rate of excise duty from 15 per cent to 20 per cent on telephone and internet data services, says a report from the committee chaired by Homa Bay Woman Rep Gladys Wanga.

The committee is allowed by law to make changes to finance bills presented by the Treasury, but the changes must be adopted by the full House to take effect.

If adopted as proposed, Kenyans should expect an increase in internet fees in coming days. The proposal was not initially included in the Finance Bill.

This comes as Kenyans are spending more time online and it will be a sure revenue earner for the government in the short term as it struggles to find ways of paying for the Sh3.6 trillion budget.

Kenya seems to be following in the footsteps of its neighbours in taxing internet services to plug budget holes. Data is a quick cash cow for tax collectors given that most government services such as drivers' licences, land transfers and parking are now offered online. This will also push up the cost of airtime.

Hidden tax

Another hidden tax proposed by the committee is an increase in the rate of excise duty on imported sugar confectionery from Sh20 to Sh35 per kilo.

Ironically, as it hiked taxes on internet services, Parliament lowered excise taxes on betting from a proposed 20 per cent to 7.5 per cent of the amount staked or wagered on gaming.

However, as they spared betting companies, lawmakers have gone after all other entities that offer rewards for any competition. The committee has proposed a 7.5 per cent tax to be charged on the total amount paid to participate in any other prize competition. Excise duty on lotteries (excluding charitable lotteries) will also be 7.5 per cent.

Initially, the Treasury had proposed a 20 per cent excise tax on betting. This is the second time in a row that lawmakers are coming to the aid of betting companies, which have been on the Treasury's tax hit list.

"The betting sector is overburdened by different tax obligations. The government should impose administrative regulations to regulate operations in the sector rather than discourage investments in a single industry," the report noted.

The committee also spared manufacturers of nicotine patches, proposing to reduce the excise duty on products containing nicotine from Sh5,000 to Sh1,200 per kilogramme.

It also cut excise duty on imported furniture from 35 per cent to 25 per cent. It also stopped the Treasury from increasing the time companies can keep tax records from five years to seven years.

Good news

If approved, this will give companies a major sigh of relief as they would have been forced to keep records by two more years, allowing the taxman more time for historical tax assessments.

The committee rejected new taxes on bread, flour and motorcycles, terming them essential products whose price increase would hit low-income earners hardest.

The committee also proposed to exempt from minimum tax any investor engaged in manufacturing and whose cumulative investment is at least Sh10 billion. This will see them enjoy the same treatment on minimum tax as those licensed under the special economic zones Act.

It is also good news for suppliers of disposable plastic syringes after the committee rejected a proposal to apply 16 per cent VAT on syringes. Other syringes with or without needles were also spared from the new tax.

It also rejected the Treasury proposal to bypass Parliament when making changes to the VAT Act. This will have allowed the Treasury CS to increase VAT without the approval of lawmakers.

The committee has also proposed to stop companies from deducting sea and air transport costs when computing income tax. This will see companies pay more taxes.

Retirement dues

The Finance Bill 2021 seeks to amend several tax laws, among them the Income Tax Act, the Value Added Tax Act, the Excise Duty Act, the Tax Procedures Act, the Miscellaneous Fees and Levies Act, and the Capital Markets Act.

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Also to be amended is the Insurance Act, the Kenya Revenue Authority Act, the Retirement Benefits Act and the Central Depositories Act.

The amendments also include measures on regulatory reforms, revenue administration reforms and measures to strengthen macroeconomic stability.

It will also be painful for employers who fail to remit retirement dues to pension schemes. This is after the committee proposed to empower retirement benefit schemes to appoint the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to collect the dues on their behalf.

This will see KRA issue agency notices to defaulting employers and upon the expiry of the notice be allowed to attach the bank accounts of the defaulter.

"The cost of the recovery of unremitted contributions shall be borne by the defaulting employer," the report notes.

"The amendment is to provide for collection of unremitted retirement benefits, through appointment of an agent (KRA). The appointment is to be done by the trustees of a scheme but with approval of the Retirement Benefits Authority."
Detectives say they have finalised investigations into tenders involving companies associated with Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua, putting the legislator in trouble over Sh12 billion said to have passed through his accounts.

The number of companies associated with the MP's transactions, and those of his proxies, have now reached 40, revealing what seems to be a complex web of transfers.

Most of the transfers end up in a company known as Wamunyoro Investments Limited, where Mr Gachagua and his wife, pastor Dorcas Wanjiku, are the only shareholders.

"We have completed that investigation and it has taken us a lot of time," said Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, without revealing his next move.

Eight months ago, detectives from the Serious Fraud Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations questioned the MP over alleged corruption and money laundering and later released him without charges.

In their final report, detectives say Mr Gachagua used his companies and proxies to fraudulently procure multibillion-shilling health tenders in the counties and the national government.

For instance, while a company known as Upperdeck Agencies won a Sh9.4 million tender to supply linen to Nyeri County hospitals, its proprietors were listed, in the bank records, as Gerald Waema Mbatha and Moses Otieno.

Detectives later found out that when the money was paid on February 18, 2015, the entire amount was transferred to Wamunyoro Investments Limited, leaving a balance of Sh5 only.

Proxies companies

They also found out that the listed proprietors were not signatories to the bank account.

The sole signatory was a Mr Sammy Cheborgey, an employee of Mathira National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) committee. But Kenya Revenue Authority documents indicate Mr Gachagua is linked to the company.

The entire scheme appears to have started when Mr Gachagua's elder brother, James Nderitu, who died in 2017, was the governor of Nyeri County.

The family appears to have used some of the companies - through proxies - to carry out business with the county.

"Accounts held at Rafiki Deposit-taking Microfinance have been used to source for loans (and) these loans have been used to cover up for funds received from government departments or intercompany transfers in a bid to conceal the ultimate beneficiary or beneficiaries of the funds," the final investigation report says.

For instance, Crystal Kenya Limited, which had an account at Rafiki DTM, transferred some money to the late governor and the money was used to buy some plots in Nyali, Mombasa.

Another of Mr Gachagua's companies, Rapid Medical Supplies, was being investigated over Sh47 million medical supplies to Nyeri County.

After analysing the bank accounts of some of these companies, the detectives say "the bank statements were noted to made minimal or no payments whatever to 'would-be' suppliers, yet they receive large amounts for supplies (and) works done. This is likely to imply that no supplies are made or works done," the report says.

Apart from the DCI, the Asset Recovery Agency (Ara) has taken Mr Gachagua to court where they are questioning his billionaire status and the source of money found in his various accounts.

But while Ara had targeted to freeze the accounts, the agency told the court Mr Gachagua managed to withdraw Sh7.3 billion, which he disbursed to various companies and bought some assets. The agency said it could only locate Sh5.2 billion, according to court records.

Links with DP Ruto

Mr Gachagua, however, read politics and dismissed his previous arrests and investigations as "persecution" over his alliance with Deputy President William Ruto.

In past public pronouncements, the legislator claimed he was being targeted because of the "poor turnout" when President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Mathira.

After he was questioned by the DCI, Mr Gachagua sought the protection of the High Court.

In a signed affidavit, he said: "I have a genuine fear that I will soon be arrested and charged with offences I do not know about. My impending false arrest is based on my political standing. It will be malicious and devoid of merit to arrest me without any evidence linking me to any crime," swore Mr Gachagua.

Yesterday, Mr Gachagua said he is "aware" that he is set to be arrested.

"They want to get me out of Kiambaa by-elections where Jubilee is facing an uphill task and where I was a DO (District Officer) for many years. I also know that I will soon be facing trumped-up charges but I am ready for them. If they want to arrest me, they know my home, and they know my office. I am ready. But the good thing is that the courts are independent and will bring his monkey-business to an end."

Besides Mr Gachagua, the investigators have recorded statements from 102 people, include Meru Senator Mithika Linturi, former Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and Laikipia Senator John Kinyua. Bank records have indicated they received some payments from some of the companies.

The investigators were concerned that some of the companies had some youths as proprietors but upon receiving the payments for tenders reserved for the youth, the funds were wired to Gachagua's companies.

"During the recording of the statements, they appeared clueless, naive, unprofessional and (as) persons who had no idea what their companies had done," a preliminary inquiry report had noted.

"The tenders won involved construction of roads, water pans and others but they did not have any idea how it is done. They had no known office space, staff and both were operating from Gachagua's office."

Road construction tenders

The final document states that "there have been attempts to conceal" the beneficiaries of the accounts, with some entities paying money into a clearing account at Rafiki DTM, from where it was moved to respective beneficiary accounts.

"The funds received through the suspense/clearing account were ultimately utilised by immediate transfers to Wamunyoro Investments, transfers to Rigathi and to Julienda Jahenda Makaa, personal secretary to Rigathi," the dossier points out.

According to detectives, Ms Makaa was an M-Pesa attendant in Buruburu before she became a hairdresser in a salon operated by the Gachagua family.

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Ms Makaa is the proprietor of Skytop Agencies, which received tenders valued at millions of shillings from Mathira CDF.

Detectives are pursuing leads as to why some companies that won road construction tenders in Nyeri County paid part of their proceeds to either Mr Gachagua's companies or his proxies.

For instance, Stecol Corporation, which has won tenders in the county, paid Sh15 million to Skytop Agencies, while Endrem Agencies paid Sh34 million to Machine Centre Limited.

Machine Centre Limited is associated with William Wahome - the board chairman of Mathira NG-CDF - and Elizabeth Wachera. Both Machine Centre Limited and Gachagua's Wamunyoro have two Joint Venture savings accounts in Equity Bank.

"Further, Machine Centre Limited received a total of Sh314 million from the Ministry of Water and Sanitation for Sagana River Restoration Project. This contract was awarded to Baran International, an Israeli company and it is not clear how the payment, which is 20 per cent of the project cost, was made to Machine Centre Limited," documents indicate.

While analysing the bank documents relating to Machine Centre Limited, detectives found out that a majority of the withdrawals or transfers were "in a structured manner to beat the reporting threshold of Sh1 million".

In total, police have been looking at 66 bank accounts, include 10 belonging to the MP. But in a previous interview with the Nation, Mr Gachagua said the cases "will be determined on merit, not by directives of some dynastic sympathisers who are hell-bent on curtailing our democratic choices and attached liberties to speech and association".
editorial

The Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) is Nigeria's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So much has been achieved under the federal government's Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) Fund without many Nigerians being aware of such programmes. Not many too know that over one million Nigerians have so far benefitted from the Survival Fund scheme. The Presidency recently said there are 500,000 beneficiaries from the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Payroll support track, 44,500 under the one-off General MSME Grant, and another 265,425 under the artisan support track, among others.

For the Payroll Support track, there are so far 459,307 successful beneficiaries. Under the scheme, beneficiaries receive payment of the N30, 000 or N50, 000 grants per month for a period of three months. Not less than 202,494 businesses have also, so far, benefitted under the ESP Survival Fund formalisation support track, which is aimed at registering 250,000 new businesses for free with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

The federal government may have meant well with the ESP Survival Fund but the overall objective, in our view, has not been met, especially with regard to the low level public awareness on the programmes occasioned by avoidable communication gaps.

The Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) is Nigeria's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was first passed in July 2020, outlining 12 months of government spending in the 2021 fiscal year. The ESP was developed in consultation with Ministers, Heads of Federal Agencies, the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), State Governors and the National Assembly. It was developed as a 12-month, N2.3trillion 'Transit' Plan between the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the successor plan to the ERGP, which is currently on the drawing board.

In furtherance of the Buhari administration's support for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic under its ESP, between last year and this year, payments have been made to beneficiaries of the Fund's Payroll support track and the one-off General MSME Grant of N50, 000.

The payroll support track aims to support 500,000 beneficiaries with payment of up to N50, 000 per employee for a period of three months. The MSME Survival Fund, a component under the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan, NESP, is designed to support vulnerable Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs in the MSMEs sector.

The scheme is estimated to have saved not less than 1.3 million jobs across the country and specifically impacted over 35,000 individuals per state. The General MSME one-off grant of N50, 000 was given to each qualified MSME as direct cash injection into their enterprise. The total number of beneficiaries in this track is 100,000 spread across the states.

The Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme is aimed at protecting and sustaining the incomes of vulnerable Micro and Small Enterprises by guaranteeing the offtake of their products. A total of 100,000 Micro and Small Enterprises are to benefit from the scheme. It is worth noting that the plan also includes a commitment from the federal government to deliver and maintain five million new solar connections under a 'solar power strategy.

With more than 80 million citizens living without electricity, renewable energy in Nigeria helps fight energy poverty. Demand for electricity rose throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but the country's notoriously unreliable energy grid struggled to accommodate the strains of remote work. The Economic Sustainability Plan solves this problem and promises to deliver renewable energy to 25million Nigerians.

Again, following the finalisation of the agreement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the N200 billion facility, the drawdown, with a guarantee from the Ministry of Finance, is now commencing to fund the housing project. The fund, which would be released in tranches, is expected to cover the Nigerian Social Housing Project (NSHP) project execution cost of the houses that would be constructed under the social housing project.

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Under the Social Housing Programme, the federal government plans to support 1.5million Nigerians to acquire low-cost houses through mortgage options and also rent to own option. The scheme is expected to also generate 1.8million jobs and deliver houses to about 1.5million Nigerian families.

To achieve greater success, in the opinion of this newspaper, the federal government must do more in working closely with state governments to stimulate the economy by preventing business collapse and ensuring liquidity and create jobs using labour intensive methods in key areas like agriculture, housing, digital business services and direct labour interventions.

Similarly, in our view, the government must also undertake growth enhancing and job creating infrastructural investments in roads, bridges, renewable energy, and communication technologies, and extend the protection of vulnerable groups - including women and persons living with disabilities. It is the only way that the average Nigerian will feel the impact of federal government intervention programmes.
press release

Today, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced a joint financing package of 600 million for Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., headquartered in South Africa, to expand local vaccine manufacturing capacity. DFC is working together with DEG (Germany), Proparco (France), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to provide financing support. The package will help increase capacity to support Aspen's efforts to produce COVID-19 vaccines with Stringent Regulatory Authorization (SRA) and/or World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Use Listing, including the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccines will be primarily distributed to the African Union, South African Government, and COVAX.

This effort supports the Administration's goal to scale vaccine production, invest in African ingenuity and resilience, and help the global community beat this COVID-19 pandemic.
interview

Somaliland Is Enjoying a Boost Following Parliamentary Elections At the End of May That Resulted in a Surprise Victory for the Opposition. Dr. Mohamed Farah Hersi Joins Alan Boswell to Explain What This Changing Political Dynamic Means for the Country As It Continues Its Quest for Recognition As an Independent Country.

This week on The Horn, Alan Boswell welcomes Dr. Mohamed Farah Hersi to discuss Somaliland's evolving role in the Horn of Africa as it works to legitimise itself on the global stage following an unexpected outcome in a recent parliamentary election.

They discuss the strong bonds that hold Somaliland together in pursuit of external recognition, and how clan identity affects its national politics. Dr. Hersi also talks about the changes that need to be made in the negotiations between Somaliland and Somalia to make progress possible and how Somaliland has used its geographic position to secure alliances with the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan, altering the dynamics of the Horn of Africa region.

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Contributors

BY: Alan Boswell

Dr. Mohamed Farah Hersi
The situation at Manduar village in West Coast Region has calmed now as mediation efforts by government and IEC officials and villagers seem to be working.

Yesterday, people from Manduar Mandinka-kunda and Manduar Touba-kunda clashed over alkaloship and issuance of attestation for voters' registration.

The aforesaid officials initiated a peace mediation team to solve the situation and we have received reports that the situation is under control at the moment.

Speaking to Foroyaa, Jerreh Bojang, Alkalo of Manduar-Mandinka, said serenity has returned at the village, thanking God for the current situation.

"As of now, there is no problem and that is what we are praying for. As I'm talking to you, everything is in the hands of IEC," he said. "Whatever decision (IEC makes) is ok for me."

Muhammeh Alieu Krubally, IEC Supervisor 37, also confirmed that everything is going smoothly. He said the registration process is ongoing.

Alkalo Bojang urged the villagers to register for their voters' cards. But he was quick to add that they must go with one of the necessary documents.

Babucar Secka, the Alkalo of Manduar Wolof, said they are still waiting on the IEC's decision.

"I cannot say anything as of now until we get information from IEC," he said.

The mediation team tried to convince people of Manduar Wolof Kunda to go to the registration center yesterday after the clash broke out, but they refused, saying they were mercilessly attacked and beaten until some of their colleagues were seriously wounded. They instead claimed for a new registration center to be stationed at their area or elsewhere or even at the IEC building.

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Secka, yesterday, said they would not go back to the village Bantaba to get registered.

Meanwhile, Alkalo Bojang said some 5 people were arrested and they are yet to be released.

Ousman Saidy, who spoke on behalf of the youth our reporter met, said they are not happy with the PIU officers, saying they are yet to know the whereabouts of the people the PIU arrested.

"Since yesterday... the information we have is that they are in Banjulinding Station which is false. We later understand that they are in Bijilo Police Station and we have information that they are not in better condition. They normally have only breakfast there. The government has to do something about it," Saidy said.
The hue and cry over the advertisement regarding the position of UTG Vice Chancellor has reached its crescendo. It is quite baffling that a simple and straight forward matter like this is threatening to tear the university apart. The Governing Council has reviewed and evaluated all the allegations put forward by the Staff Association and wishes to clarify as follows: .

1. That the Governing Council and its Joint Search Committee have violated no section of the 1999 Act which established the University of The Gambia, or the Conditions of Service for Senior Staff of the UTG, 2007.

2. The first issue raised by the UTGFSA was regarding Section 4.3.5 of the Conditions of Service which states that we should advertise the position of Vice Chancellor "one year before the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent." This rule could not be appropriately followed because the incumbent Vice Chancellor's contract, which was reviewed in March 2021, was not renewed beyond September 2021. To apply that rule would mean that we would hold the position of Vice Chancellor in an acting capacity for at least six months after the departure of the incumbent. That would be a most undesirable scenario. So at the Governing Council Meeting which agreed not to extend the incumbent's contract, Council decided that the position be advertised in time for a new Vice Chancellor to assume duty on October 1, 2021. In taking this decision, Council relied on Chapter 2; Section 2.2: Interpretation and Amendments, of the Conditions of Service, 2007:

"The Council has the power to amend, relax, change or delete any rules or regulations, which it deems not to be in the best interest of the University."

A noteworthy point here is that in setting aside the one-year advertisement rule, the Council did not violate the Conditions of Service of any member of staff.

It should also be pertinent to say that in exercising the same power vested in it to amend any aspect of the Conditions of Service, the Council in 2020, changed the policy since 1999 of appointing staff on three-yearly contracts( Section 4.2.2) and introduced permanent appointment of staff with effect from January 2021. We suppose one should not expect the Staff Association which demanded the change to cry foul.

3. Butfor better clarity, itis important to consider the one-year period for the advertisement in its historical context. In 1999 and going into the first decade of the life of the University, advertising high profile academic positions was done through the print media locally, which had limited and slow circulation, or in international educational journals whose reach was wider but still slow. So one needed a long period of exposure to reach potential applicants and attract responses. Today, technology has made it possible to reach the entire academic world within a few days, through websites, social media platforms, and online journals. So much so that we advertise no position in the world today for one year, not even the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. Our current advertisement for the position of Vice Chancellor of the University of The Gambia has reached the entire English-speaking academic world and Commonwealth. We have reached more people in a much shorter period; that is progress.

3. The second complaint of the UTGFSA is that the Registrar of the University should not be part of the Joint Search Committee because he is not listed as a member in Section 4(2) (a) (b) (c) of the Bye-laws. Including the Registrar is lawful under Section 8:

"(6) The Council may establish Committees of Council and may co-opt a person who is not a member of Council to any Committee for such term as may be prescribed"

The Registrar is co-opted as Secretary to the Joint Search Committee because he is the most experienced person within the University regarding the Committee's assignment of facilitating the recruitment of a Vice Chancellor. The Registrar is the Secretary to both the Governing Council and Senate (1999 Act Sections 8(2) & 9(6)). These are the two highest and most sensitive committees of the University. It would therefore be only natural and appropriate for him to be Secretary to a joint committee of Council and Senate. In fact, the inclusion of this as a complaint is quite baffling. This is because the same Section 4.3.5, part of which the UTGFSA quoted in their letter regarding the one-year advertisement, continued in the next paragraph to allow the involvement of the Registrar in the appointment process of a new Vice Chancellor, by stating:

"After the closing date, the University Registrar shall on the advice of the Vice Chancellor, prepare a short-list of applicants qualified in terms of the advertisement."

The Governing Council gets the impression that the UTGFSA ignored that paragraph of the Conditions of Service because it did not suit their purposes. But what part of the process is more sensitive than the short-listing of applicants? Yet the same Conditions of Service say that the Registrar shall do the short-listing of applicants. However, to improve on the transparency of the process, the Joint Search Committee will do the short-listing at committee level, rather than leaving it with the Registrar alone to do. Is this then a violation of the Law?

The governance laws, rules, regulations and guidelines of the University or any other institution are a homogeneous and organic whole. Cherry-picking isolated quotes without cross-reference with complementing sections is recipe for confusion and can be interpreted as a sinister ploy at misinformation.

The third issue or complaint was why the decision to direct all interested persons to send their applications to the Chairman of Council and the Registrar as Secretary. The Committee's decision was taken on a majority voice of six to one. The four members of Council and two members of Senate spoke against any other method of receiving applications than through the Chairman and the Secretary. They trusted that the two persons involved would safeguard the integrity of the process.

Subsequently, as indicated by UTGFSA, Dr. Gibba resigned from the Joint Search Committee for the same three facile reasons that are now being wielded as weapons for a Staff industrial action. For reasons best known to him, but which are now obviously unwholesome, he went public with a newspaper publication, a preemptive move for possible disruptive action; thankfully, the average Gambian reader is now quite discerning.

UTGFSA embark on industrial action based on misinformation, unfounded claims, distrust, suspicion and conspiracy theories? For what gain and whose interest? No member of the Council depends on their membership for a livelihood and Staff on strike action receive their salaries at the end of the month. But the helpless student, who is still trying to catch-up after the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 slowdown, is abandoned. That would be a damning indictment on the leadership of the UTG Faculty & Staff Association.

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The Staff Association should learn to respect the legally prescribed separation of Responsibilities in the UTG. The responsibility for Governance lies on the shoulders of the Council supported by the Vice Chancellor and his Management Team. Academic staff are to perform the principal function of the University - to teach, guide and undertake research work. The Administrative staff are to support and facilitate the operations of the University. Then there are the students for whose reason the University exists and whose interest should be paramount in the entire scheme of things. In promoting and protecting the interests of their members, Student and Staff Associations cannot take over the functions of the Council and Management; that is an aberration that cannot be condoned.

The Governing Council would urge that UTGFSA weigh its options carefully and avoid any action that would create the impression that the UTG is an unstable and acrimonious community. The current popular view the UTG is an island of tranquility in a turbulent University environment in our sub region was not easily earned but can be completely lost with one thoughtless action. Tarnishing the image of the University and by extension the country would be a terrible legacy for UTGFSA executive, a less than patriotic achievement.
The two sides of Manduar had never been divided. They walked shoulder to shoulder to bring about change in 2016. They have no reason to sow the seed of intolerance. None will derive benefit from it. All the people need clen drinking water, proper health facilities, and other public amenities. They want their children to learn and serve their families, communities and nation. The conflict that flared up in the village has settled. However, the uneasy peace needs to be given more life support.

Each side should meet and select a group of mediators from its ranks. The mediators should take note of all the grievances of each side before convening a meeting to discuss all the points to come up with a common negotiating position to build consensus.

They should visit the home of the injured person and show empathy and find out how to provide redress and settle matters out of court

They should also visit the homes of those arrested to show concern and counsel village unity and tolerance.

The group could then meet the Police and the IEC to assure them of the return to normalcy.

All outstanding issues could be solved through dialogue and consultation. The Human Rights Commission and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Agency may be of assistance.
The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) in collaboration with World Customs Organization (WCO) and donor support from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), held a two-day virtual workshop on accession to the revised Kyoto Convention. The virtual workshop which was attended by participants, comprised GRA staff and relevant stakeholders such as the Office of the President, Ministries of Finance, Trade and Foreign Affairs, Gambia Ports Authority and the Association of Gambia Clearing and Forwarding Agencies.

The online workshop is meant to further support the Authority to conduct a Gap Analysis for the accession of the country to the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) on the simplification and harmonization of customs procedures.

During deliberations, WCO's technical support team presented and outlined their program of activities and highlighted the importance of acceding to the RKC for the country, through the support needed from participants.

This was followed by a presentation from Omar Bojang, Customs Manager in charge of Trade Facilitation and International Cooperation, on the update of Gambia's preparedness to accede the RKC, the challenges involved and the way forward.

During the second day, the activities of the workshop were mainly centered on the Gap Analysis and this attracted the participation and contribution of all stakeholders in attendance.

Prof. Jainaba Kah, from the Office of the President, thanked the donors and WCO for their support saying their presence was a strong indication of Government's will to support the GRA to accede to "this important convention."

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On his part, the Commissioner General of the GRA Yankuba Darboe thanked WCO and HMRC for their continued support, to his institution. He highlighted the importance and number of benefits for the country to accede to the RKC and went on to elaborate on some of the benefits that will be derived from acceding to the RKC which he said, "is not limited to enhance trade facilitation but predictability in international trade, efficiency in service delivery that will be a foundation for reforming and strengthening Gambia Customs legislation by aligning it with WCO's best practices."

Alhagie K. Mbye, Deputy Commissioner in charge of the Monitoring Unit of the Customs Department and Technical Support, thanked participants and WCO while reiterating on the "importance of acceding to the RKC, which he said cannot be underestimated because it serves as a guiding instrument in the work of Customs officials."
The share of exports from Africa to the rest of the world ranged from 80% to 90% between 2000 and 2017. This has created a growing demand for Africa to be less dependent on commodity exports and focus on regional commerce. Not only does this decrease export dependence, but it also forms new markets for value-added goods to be exchanged.

Yet, Africa is home to the slowest and costliest ports in the world. Reports say that sometimes it is logistically cheaper and faster for African businesses to trade goods with distant overseas partners than via Africa's intracontinental trade corridors. That's a big problem and Jetstream, a Ghanaian-based company proposing to change that just closed a $3 million seed round.
press release

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the concerted effort under way in Madagascar for the past week to smear French freelance journalist Gaelle Borgia after she embarrassed the government by posting a video on Facebook illustrating the desperation to which a major famine has driven some Madagascans.

Based in Madagascar for more than ten years, reporting for France 24, TV5 Monde and AFP, Gaelle Borgia won a Pulitzer Prize last year for her investigative reporting into Russian interference in Madagascar's 2018 presidential elections.

The video Borgia posted on Facebook on 21 June showed residents of the southern region of Androy eating strips of zebu hide normally used for making sandals. Intended to highlight the extremes to which some people are being driven by the famine that has hit part of southern Madagascar, the video went viral but triggered a chain reaction questioning this prize-winning journalist's honesty and seriousness.

Androy's governor issued a statement on 23 June accusing her of "peddling false information," "insulting local culture" and exploiting the population's misfortunes in order to "try to shine publicly." When reached by RSF, the governor was more measured, acknowledging a "need for the international press" to talk about the situation but still claiming that Borgia had demonstrated a "lack of objectivity and nuance."

The story could have ended there. But national TV broadcaster TVM followed up the governor's statement with a " report " in which, one by one, the people in Borgia's video said she had paid them to eat the zebu leather and that the local population would "take measures if such behaviour is repeated."

Borgia responded by posting a second video on Facebook in which the same people acknowledged that they had been both paid and threatened by men armed with a knife to make the defamatory statements about her to TVM.

According to the information obtained independently by RSF, the TVM report was indeed made with the aim of discrediting Borgia, who was not asked to respond to the charges. When reached by RSF, TVM's interim director said he trusted his local reporters although the subsequent statements to Borgia clearly show that the "information" broadcast by TVM was obtained under duress.

"We strongly condemn the crude and mendacious attempts to discredit this journalist's work using the victims of climate change and the national TV broadcaster to spread false information and attack her," said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF's Africa desk. "The organisers are the only persons discredited by this smear campaign, which is also irresponsible because it could have endangered someone known for being a serious and professional journalist."

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Madagascar-based international correspondents issued a joint statement in which they voiced their "dismay" at the "dishonest use of the state media to stir up dangerous hatred" against Borgia.

RSF has received several disturbing reports from Madagascar in recent months, especially reports about the use of harassment, intimidation and threats in an attempt to control coverage of certain subjects, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

In April, RSF condemned the use of a state of emergency to impose bans on nine political radio and TV programmes on the grounds that they were "likely to disturb public order and security and undermine national unity." The bans were finally lifted a few days later.

Madagascar has fallen three places in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index and is now ranked 57th out of 180 countries.
African countries are seen as being both deeply religious and underdeveloped. Could religion be the underlying problem? Or is the misrepresentation of faith a hindrance to greater development?

Africa is host to the highest number of religious countries in the world, according to a recent Gallop poll.

The survey appears to support the prevailing narrative that the most aggressively religious nations tend to be the least developed.

But, says development scholar Gareth J. Wall, the notion of what 'development' means should to be examined before religion can be taken into account.

Does development here mean "economic growth" or rather "a human development perspective which (the Indian economist and philosopher) Amartya Sen would define as the 'ability to live a life one values'," asks Wall, who is examining how development is measured in his doctoral thesis.

Then the idea that western countries are "less religious than African countries also needs to be challenged," Wall told DW.

"The US is also an incredibly religious country," he said. "And the UK is not a secular country. The head of state (the queen) is also the head of the Church of England. It is one of only three countries (Iran and Belize being the other two) to have religious leaders -- in this case bishops -- in the legislature."

A new way of measuring the concept of development

Amartya Sen, whom Wall cited earlier, has a concept of development as a notion of 'freedom' which supersedes the (perhaps rather limited) ideas of Western development theorists.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate argues in his writings that "individual agency is, ultimately, central to addressing ... deprivations" which for long have defined the African continent in western eyes as a place of lack.

"Development can be seen ... as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product ... industrialization, or with technological advance, or with social modernization," Sen suggests in his book "Development as Freedom."

The book, which was first published in 1999, has long become a staple among development experts rethinking their approaches to helping developing nations.

Sen's ideas divorce religion from playing a role in development -- for better or for worse.

But whether religion plays a role in Africa's development prospects by any measure or standard, is nevertheless part of an ongoing conversation across the continent.

We spoke to various people on the ground to gather their views on this uneasy relationship.

Religion: divine solution or root of all problems?

Cynthia Banda in Malawi believes in miracles and has faith that the ultimate solution to all societal problems lies in the hand of God.

"Miracles can be performed even now... if you are following as a Christian, it helps in the development of a country," Banda told DW.

She shares her line of thinking with fellow Malawian Charles Wahara who said: "It's important in these modern days to believe in miracles and to go to church. ... Religion has played a better role as far as the development of Africa is concerned."

But in Nigeria, some take a more critical view toward the role of religion in public spaces.

"The two major religions in Nigeria are Islam and Christianity and neither have ever preached anything that has to do with corruption in any way at all," says engineer Ashafa Shiru.

"Religion should have helped those practicing it if the teachings of the religion are respected. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the heart in terms of holding onto the faith of religion," he added.

His view is supported by Kalu Dimbili, a Nigerian civil servant, who says: "Actually, religion has not in anyway helped Nigeria. Rather, it has contributed a lot in dividing us."

Such a divergence of views, however, is also exactly in the spirit of Sen, whose theory on development rests on the value that people "must be allowed freely what traditions they wish or not wish to follow."

A holistic perspective on the holy

Religious leaders, meanwhile, have to navigate their way through mindsets and cultures that represent such opposing and divergent views.

Reverend Jude Thaddeus Langeh, the Provincial Superior of the Claretian Missionaries in Cameroon, defends the role of faith in development, for example in education, arguing that "you cannot talk of intellectual development, without talking about the monks."

"Can you look back into those days when the only prestigious and available schools were owned by missionaries? That already shows you one of the great parts of development," he told DW, adding that religious orders picked people up where European settlers once failed them.

In Malawi, Bright Mhango thinks that when it comes to services provided by religious institutions, the relationship between faith and development is complicated.

Yes, religious orders played a role in setting up hospitals and schools and ending slavery, he said. But, "many people are religious because they are "desperate".

"They are poor, they go to church looking for hope."

That sentiment might be in line with Amartya Sen, who stresses that education is not only key to developing human capital but also more valuable than any other commodity by which societies and their levels of development have historically been judged, as it empowers the individuals.

"If a person can become more productive in making commodities through better education, better health and so on, it is not unnatural to expect that she can, through these means, also directly achieve more -- and have the freedom to achieve more -- in leading her life," Sen writes in "Development as Freedom."

Meanwhile some Muslim leaders also believe religion is indeed a powerful catalyst of development, and that those giving faith a bad name should be called out for it.

Muslim scholar Bakari Arabi from Nigeria, for example, stresses that in his view "religion is always a blessing. ... We should be able to distinguish between religion and bad followers of religion."

Keeping church and state corruption separate

Indeed the realities of corruption and endemic conflicts are a stark contradiction to the core tenets of Africa's two major religions, Islam and Christianity, which both advocate morality and decency for those working in public office.

This contradiction has likely contributed to some people turning their backs to religion.

Some even go as far as saying that greed and graft have even made religion an accomplice in holding African nations back from reaching their full potential.

David Moses, a trader in Nigeria, says that "even in religion itself, there is corruption."

So that is part of the statistics as well. I cannot estimate if religion has helped or not because it is part of the system, a corrupt system."

Muslim scholar Arabi, while acknowledging the endemic problem of corruption in African societies , argues that this is not in line with the teachings of Islam.

He highlights that underhanded deals, questionable government tenders and laundering of state funds might be regarded as "legitimate in our African society but it is corruption in Islam and therefore unacceptable."

Reverend Langeh supports the same view, elaborating on how religion can be abused to reach illegitimate and selfish ends: "Somebody will steal and give big donations in churches. That is a wrong use of religion."

But in the same breath he underlines the fact that this does not remove legitimacy away from genuine practitioners of faith and their collective efforts to help move society forward.

"It does not cancel the fact that religion contributes to development. Back here in Africa, I want to vehemently say that religion has always helped in development," he said.

Amartya Sen, in his writings, also acknowledges that "religious and communal differences are, of course, vulnerable to exploitation by sectarian politicians, and have indeed been so used on several occasions."

However, that "most of the substantial sections of the nation condemn such deeds, provides ultimately the main democratic guarantee against the narrowly factional exploitation of sectarianism," he writes.

Religious role models in development issues

As much as religious figures might not condone corruption, they often having a hard time proving that they also aren't part of the problem, partly because of the failure to separate church and state in many African nations.

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For many believers, religion plays a major role in informing government decisions -- whether there is an official state religion or not.

But some religious leaders also highlight that the church and state can be inseparably linked in a positive way.

"Mahatma Ghandi was not only a political leader. He was a religious leader who combined the issue of praying and development ... and his nonviolence was actually based on Hindu and Christian values," says Reverend Langeh.

"Mother Theresa of Calcutta took her prayers into the streets of Calcutta, and brought about the integral development of the human person. ... Julius Nyerere of Tanzania was also a very religious man. Can you really talk of development in Tanzania without talking about Julius Nyerere?" he asked.

Muslim scholar Arabi takes that idea even one step further, saying that everyone has the power to act as a role model in his or her own faith: "If you apply (religious principles) strictly, according to the way the religion wants them to be applied, you will always end up with blessings and not a curse."

"These bad leaders should be blamed for their actions -- and not religion."

Practicing what you preach

While opinions about the influence and role of religion in Africa's development may differ, the bottom line is that only the interpretation and application of religion can bring about consequences of any kind -- rather than religion as a practice itself.

And when that interpretation is detrimental to the tenets of the faith, it will likely be detrimental to the members of society as well.

The notion of measuring development in dollars might also deserve an overhaul.

Both the concept of faith and the very idea of what development actually means could potentially benefit from constructive attempts to redefine their roles and values in society today -- especially in a restive continent like Africa
analysis

The decision by a majority of South Africa's Constitutional Court to sentence former president Jacob Zuma to a prison term of 15 months, acknowledges the seriousness of the threat posed by Zuma's coordinated and scurrilous full-frontal attack on that court, the administration of justice and the rule of law. Unfortunately, the minority -- indulging in magical thinking -- failed to grasp the severity of this threat, thus abdicating its responsibility to protect the Constitution.

Should a court ever be entitled, in civil contempt proceedings, to sentence an individual to a mandatory jail sentence if that individual resolutely refuses to obey a court order as part of the individual's deliberate and coordinated all-out assault on the legitimacy and authority of that court, the legal system, and the rule of law?

Earlier this week, acting Chief Justice Sisi Khampepe (for the majority of the Constitutional Court) held that it was entitled to do so, in the case of Jacob Zuma because it was the only way to protect the court, the legal system, and the rule of law, from the existential threat posed by Zuma's scurrilous and fact-free war on the judiciary. The majority emphasised in several passages in its judgment that...
Fisheries sector is an important contributor to the gross domestic products of any nation. The sector plays greatly to the food security needs of millions around the globe.

Statistics revealed that the sector in terms of food security benefits millions of people, while also providing income for many.

However, the potentials of the sector are not being exploited to the fullest due to Unreported, Unregulated, and Illegal (UUI) fishing in our waters.

The minister of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters recently told lawmakers that a combined total of D461,621,022.01 (four hundred and sixty-one million, six hundred and twenty-One thousand and twenty-two dalasis, one butut) has been generated in the country's fishing industry since 2017.

This is indeed a welcome development. But did the Fisheries minster reveal how much in terms of monetary value, is the country losing to shoddy agreement reached with the European Union.

It was sometime in July 2019, when the European Union and The Gambia government signed a new 6-year fisheries partnership agreement and associated protocol setting out the fishing opportunities for EU vessels. Though, the financial compensation will be paid by the Union and the modalities of sectorial support to the fishing sector of The Gambia. But is this partnership agreement doing harm or good to the country fishing sector? Well, that will be another topic for another day.

Well, we have to protect and jealously safeguard our territorial waters. The country's Atlantic is a rare gem, which need to be secured.

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Off recent, IUU fishing is one of the biggest threats to our oceans, impacting the sustainability of the fisheries sector and even coastal communities.

On a daily basis, good quantity of juvenile fishes are being caught and dumped along our shores.

The sector is one player when it comes to the employability of youth. And we are glad that the sector has created employment for over 2,809 Gambian youths of which 2,124 are deckhands and 685 as fisheries observers, according to the minister.

More importantly, a total of 186 fish landing sites are in operation in small scale artisanal fisheries sub-sector out of which 10 are located within the Atlantic Coast.

Fish is one of the most traded food commodities on the global market. Therefore, the sector is a leading player as far as nation's economy is concerned.

There is need for greater security of our waters from foreign fishing trawlers. Experts believe that pollution from a vibrant tourism sector and foreign trawlers have reduced stocks along our coastline. This has resulted to fast deletion of the continent's fish stocks by industrial trawlers which indiscriminately fish in our oceans to feed European and Asian markets.

"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."
The President of the Republic, H.E. Dr. George Manneh Weah has expressed profound gratitude to the government and people of France for the country's continued support to Liberia's development drive, especially in the areas of capacity building, infrastructure development and sports.

The Liberian Leader made the remarks during a special bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday, July 1, 2021.

President Weah also expressed appreciation for President Macron's "gracious support" towards Liberia's engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which he said has greatly contributed to the improved fiscal and monetary policy implementation and efficiency the country now experiences.

He informed his French counterpart that his Administration continues to work in close collaboration with these international financial institutions, "which sometimes require the formulation of difficult policies, such as the Salary Harmonization Policy". But he said the policies have been required to make the "necessary corrective measures and structural adjustments" for the good of the Liberian economy.

President Weah called for the continuation of the Franco-Liberia relationship, including the strengthening of collaboration between the French Military and the Armed Forces of Liberia on the Malian peacekeeping mission. "In this regard", he said, "it is important to note that the Liberian contingent has now been tasked with providing Base Security for the Timbuktu outpost and, as such, more modern equipment and logistics are urgently needed."

The Liberian Leader enumerated the many other support the French government has rendered to Liberia in recent months, including funding for capacity development, sports, the resumption of flight by Air France, the construction of a new building for Alliance Francaise Institute, and the increase in activities by French businesses and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).

Regarding ongoing efforts by the Liberian government to curb further spread of COVID, President Weah thanked President Macron and the Government and People of France for "generously providing" a number of ventilators and several thousands of testing kits. He told his counterpart that Liberia would need millions of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines to help fight the spread of the virus.

For his part, President Emmanuel Macron assured President Weah of his unflinching support towards the Liberian government's efforts to improving the lives of its people.

During the hour-long meeting, Macron said his country's support to Liberia will be tangible so that it is felt by the citizens directly.

Macron said in addition to his country's efforts at capacity building and youth development, additional urban projects will be undertaken by the Agency for French Development totaling an initial amount of 23 million euros.

He assured the Liberia Leader that this assistance will be immediate.

President Macron also informed President Weah that his country will make an immediate donation of some 40, 000 test kits and several respirators. He said France will increase its quota to the COVAX structure, while ensuring that "Liberia directly benefits and have its population vaccinated".

He highlighted the strong historical ties between both nations, saying that both leaders ought to work harder in order to ensure the relationship yield tangible mutual benefits.

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The talks covered a wide range of issues, including French support to the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) in order to enhance its ability to perform its service in Mali. The French President also promised more logistical support and training for the AFL and further cooperation in the area of information exchange.

The discussions also covered the issue of Piracy in the Gulf Guinea and the need for both nations to cooperate in order to halt the menace. The French government promised more equipment and training for the Liberian Coast Guards. The French Navy will study the option of having its Frigates participate in the fight against piracy in order to ensure that vital maritime commerce is carried out unhindered.

Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Kemayah, Defense Minister Daniel Ziankahn and Maritime Commissioner Lenn Eugene Nagbe formed part of the discussions which were followed by a closed door tete a tete between the two leaders.
Tunis/Tunisia  The High Committee for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (French: CSDHLF) decried Thursday the involvement of State apparatus in protecting terrorists and facilitating their the entry in Tunisia.

The involvement of  two judges, symbols of the Tunisian justice, in the protection of terrorists and the corrupt,  was also denounced.

The CSDHLF also said there are serious suspicions  weighing on the prime minister and acting interior minister and the acting justice minister in providing cover for terrorism and corruption.

'These suspicions could undermine confidence in State institutions and the government," the committee said. "Recurrent laxism in the face of corruption and impunity undermine national security and poses a threat to social peace.

The committee strongly condemned assault on president of an opposition party, Abir Moussi, in the parliament building in the presence of the minister of women and family.
analysis

The organisation is taking on municipal duties in areas without services.

First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.

Driving through some of South Africa's rural towns, with broken pavements and stuttering infrastructure increasingly the norm, you'd sometimes be forgiven for wondering if you'd arrived in warzone Kinshasa. The worrying factor is that the tentacles of this rapid demise have reached into the cities. Disregarding dilapidated downtown Johannesburg and the torn roads of the city's traditional northern suburbs, parts of Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom are besieged by a combination of water shortages and potholes. So advocacy group AfriForum set up a local government centre a couple of months back to try to help out.

An AfriForum Excel spreadsheet details that, in 11 days of October 2020, its volunteers in Potchefstroom repaired 317 potholes in the city, using 142 sakkies teer, or bags of tar. Thirty-nine potholes were apparently repaired in Walter Sisulu Street alone.

"Our main strategy," says AfriForum's Strategic Advisor for Community Affairs, Dr Eugene Brink, "is to mobilise communities to take ownership of their towns, cities and neighbourhoods".

For the residents of a number of Bloemfontein suburbs, Brink's statement addresses mounting concern about the widespread and growing inability...
Roland Routh

A Windhoek High Court judge yesterday dealt a significant blow to Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP) when he issued an order declaring that the outfit is not in possession of a valid environmental clearance certificate and is therefore not entitled to undertake mining activities. The possibility of phosphate mining on Namibia's seabed has sharply divided opinions in recent years.

Judge Harald Geier's judgement came after several postponements on an application by the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations (CNFA), the Namibian Hake Association (NHA), Midwater Trawling Association (MTA) and Omualu Fishing.

The parties brought an application last year to the High Court for a declaration that the licence issued to NMP in 2011 lapsed and is thus invalid and of no force and effect.

The order Judge Geier made reads: "NMP not having applied in the prescribed manner for an environmental clearance certificate during the relevant time - and -currently - in any event being without an environmental clearance certificate - is hereby declared - in accordance with the provisions of Section 57, as read with Sections 27(1) and (3) of the Environmental Management Act of 2007 - not to be entitled to undertake a listed activity until such time that it has obtained a valid environmental clearance certificate in relation to such activity or activities."

The judge also granted NMP an order to delete certain passages in the founding affidavit of Matti Amukwa, the chairman of the CNFA, on the basis that it is hearsay evidence.

He further ordered the applicants to pay the costs of the strike application on the basis of one instructing counsel and two instructed counsels and NMP to pay the rest of the costs on the basis of one instructing and three instructed counsels.

The applicants claimed that NMP - jointly owned by Namibian Knowledge Katti and Omani businessman Tariq Al Barwani - had not complied with the applicable mineral licence conditions in terms of which it had to submit an environmental impact assessment and an environmental management plan report within six months from the date of issue of its mining licence when it submitted a "draft report" in this regard on the last day of the prescribed six month period and a "final one" outside the time window created by the applicable condition.

Geier said in his view what was submitted was in fact a "draft report" and that the relevant condition did not contemplate the filing of a "draft report" and that NMP was thus in breach of the relevant mining condition.

He further said the question is on what authority did NMP continue to collect samples from the seabed as the Act only allows a licence holder to undertake a "listed activity" - an activity listed on the licence - for a period of one year and that such a person wishing to continue with a "listed activity" must apply for an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) before its expiry.

Only when such a person applied for the certificate may they continue with the "listed activity" until the application has been dealt with.

In the case of NMP, the judge said, the only authorisation it had to carry out "listed activities" was the conferral of the licence and it was incumbent on them to apply for an ECC which they failed to do and is thus without an ECC and not entitled to undertake any "listed activities".

The judgement will undoubtedly ruffle feathers in the mining sector.

An article recently published by the Chamber of Mines of Namibia stated that developing Namibia's marine phosphate resources, coupled with a fully integrated fertiliser industry are optimally aligned to national development agendas.

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"A Namibian phosphate industry will create local value addition of raw materials before they are exported, thereby building and promoting regional value chains, bilateral cooperation and continuous reform of the business environment to become more competitive. A phosphate industry provides potential for critical upstream, downstream and side-stream linkages for the Namibian economy, through value addition, integrated business development, logistics services, power, water, skills development and research," the chamber's article reads.

According to the chamber of mines, phosphate mining has the potential to generate more than N$18 billion for Namibia on an annual basis.

On the other hand, the fisheries industry and unions are vehemently opposed to establishing a phosphate mining operation, arguing that Namibians are committed to responsible and sustainable management of renewable resources.

The unions fear that the 16 000 jobs in the fishing industry could become vulnerable if seabed mining for phosphate is allowed.
Kuzeeko Tjitemisa

The government plans to increase the isolation bed capacity to 2 024 to address the overflowing number of patients in hospitals amid the continuing surge in cases, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula said yesterday.

"In the next few days, government will commission two field hospitals in Windhoek and Oshakati, with the capacity of 70 and 40 beds, respectively," Shangula said during yesterday's 'family meeting' where government announced new measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

He said another building at the Katutura State Hospital complex, with a capacity of 46 beds and the Katutura Hospital Nurses Hall have been repurposed and will also be opened for use in the coming days.

"Another 100-bed unit will be constructed at Katutura Intermediate Hospital soon. The site works have commenced. This will increase the number of isolation beds to 2 024 countrywide and enhance access to medical care for those who will need it most," said Shangula.

He said there are 1 732 isolation beds countrywide, in the public and private sectors, of which 143 are ICU beds.

Furthermore, Shangula said by Tuesday, there were 35 503 doses of vaccines in different districts around the country, of which 12 195 are AstraZeneca and 23 311 are Sinopharm.

He said some five districts have exhausted their allocated stock of AstraZeneca vaccine, while two districts have used up all the allocated Sinopharm doses.

"Getting vaccinated is the most effective way to protect our country against the onslaught of this dangerous pandemic," he stressed.

He said as per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance, even the first dose provides important protection against Covid-19.

Shangula reiterated that the available doses will be used to vaccinate those receiving the first dose as well as identified persons considered to be at the highest risk of severe disease, hospitalisation and death.

He urged Namibians to stand together to fight and defeat the infodemic of false information and conspiracy theories.

"I urge all Namibians to form a united front in order to continue combating this pandemic. Assuring the continuity and uninterrupted vaccination in order to reach herd immunity is an ongoing pursuit," he said.

"It requires a combined effort from all stakeholders, using each and every tool in our arsenal," he added.

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He said according to guidance from the WHO, a delayed administration of the second dose of the vaccine will not adversely affect individuals.

In fact, he said, the administration of the second dose may be delayed for up to 6 weeks.

"The delivery of vaccines to the country has been delayed and we are working day and night engaging manufacturers and through diplomatic channels to get the vaccines soonest," he said.

He said the country has paid up in full for 108 000 doses of AstraZeneca via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility.

To date, he said 67 200 doses have been delivered while the balance of 40 800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to reach the country during this month.

"We have also finalised orders for doses of Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. We await the delivery of these vaccines in the coming weeks and months," he explained.

Since the launch of the vaccination campaign in April this year, Shangula said the country has to date received 197 200 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

"The majority of these doses have been used up and only a limited stock remains. We will continue to vaccinate at sites where vaccine stocks are still available," he said, adding that this is the international best practice as other countries that have faced vaccine supply constraints have done the same.

"The fact of the matter is that some protection is better than none," said the health minister.
Construction of a water project at Nyakato Ward, some 15 kilometres from Bukoba town is at advanced stages following supply of some needed construction materials.

The water project commenced in December, 2020 and was expected to be complete by February, this year.

However, due to lack of construction materials including water pipes and bricks had delayed completion of the project.

Bukoba District Engineer of the Rural Water and Sanitation Authority (RUWASA), Engineer Severin Rugemalira, told this paper that lack of construction materials including bricks and water pipes delayed completion of the project which is expected to supply clean water to Bulugo villagers.

EngRugemalira said plans were underway to procure all required materials through government tendersystem and that the project will be completed before the endof July, this year.

"Construction of a water tank had already been completed. We are waiting for water pipes which will be purchased in bulk through the regional water tender board," he said.

Earlier this year, the late former PresidentJohn Magufulihailed the residents of Nyakato Ward for offering over tenhectares of landfreely for the construction of the VETA project.

The Late Magufuli directed the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Water to ensure that they provide electricity and clean water to the surrounding villagers.

He commended the governments of China and the United Kingdom (UK), for supporting Tanzania in various key sectors including education, health and the infrastructure.

He showered the praises during his tour in the region after laying a foundation stone for construction of an international Vocational Education Training Centre (VETA), at Nyakato Ward, in Bukoba Municipal Council which will cost over 22bn/- with support from China government.

Later, he inauguratedthe rehabilitated buildings at Ihungo secondary school, a project which cost a total of 11.1bn/- with support from UK.

"When Tanzania approached the UK after the September 10, 2016 5.9 magnitude earthquake they responded quickly by donating a total of 6.1bn/- for the rehabilitation of the school while the Tanzania government contributed about 4.8bn/-. A friend in need is a friend indeed," he said amid applause.

During her recent tour in the region, Deputy Minister for Water, Engineer MarypriscaMahundiinspected several water projects including the Rusumo Water Supply project, in Ngara district which was being implemented at a cost of 2.7bn/, a loan from the World Bank (WB).

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"Corruption has affected this project. I will personally make a close follow-up to know the exact costs. Some engineers under Ruwasa have been colluding with unfaithful consultants to steal taxpayers' funds," she said.

Engineer Mahundi cited an example that there was a project wherebya Consultant issued an estimated cost over 40bn/- but later the project was completed at only 500m/- using the Force Account.

She explained that the government was keen to ensure that all villages access clean and safe water.

"Our target is to ensure that women are relieved from the burden of carrying a bucket of water on their head. The water tanks should supply water directlyto their households,' she said.

However, she appealed to Tanzanians who access tap water to pay their bills appropriately to facilitate implementation of water projects.

She warned the workers of water authorities to avoid issuingunrealistic water bills to customers adding that she recently rejected EWURA's plan of increasing water tariffs until further notice after an evaluation team completes its task.

She further revealed that the government allocated over 117bn/- to 17 regions facing critical water shortages including Kagera Region which was allocated about 9.7bn/-.
Community has been advised to report sexual violence incidents as a step towards eradication of the barbaric acts at the family level.

In an exclusive interview with Daily News Online, Kiota Health and Development (KIWOHEDE) project coordinator in Mwanza region, Ms Lulu Makwale called upon the society to take the initiatives, emphasizing that women and girls are the main victims of sexual violence.

"My call to society is to break the silence and report sexual violence happening in its locality," she said and mentioned the type of violence in the society as physical, health, economic and psychological violence.

Explaining roles of KIWOHEDE in fighting against sexual violence, the regional coordinator said the organization deals with rights promotion as well as developing social economical and development approaches gerared to emanicipate marginalized women, children, youth and the community at large.

Currently, she added, the non-governmental organization is executing a project geared to fight gender based violence and sexual corruption among girls and women.

She said the project which is currently being implemented in Mwanza and Kigoma Regions, focuses is to fight child sexual abuse, violence and exploitations, teen pregnancy, early marriages and school dropouts among girls across the country.

The project which is funded by Women Funds Tanzania started in July, 2019 and is expected to be completed this month.
The senators were divided over funds for host communities.

The Senate has passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The bill was passed after the lawmakers considered the report of the Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas Resources on Thursday.

The passage of the bill as also a sequel to a closed door meeting with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari..

The meeting lasted for almost two hours.

The duo appeared before the Senate to provide the lawmakers with technical details of the legislation as well as provide clarification where needed.

In the approved bill, the Senate approved a funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPC's profit from oil and gas for frontier basins. This fund is for oil exploration in frontier states.

However, in the report seen by PREMIUM TIMES the states referred to as 'frontier basins' were not clearly stated.

The passage of the bill was preceded by disagreement and division among the lawmakers.

'Chaos'

The lawmakers had started the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill when some lawmakers began to raise concerns in Clause 240.

The Clause prescribes the fund for host communities.

The bill had proposed 2.5 per cent Equity Share Holding for Host Communities while the committee recommended five per cent.

The Equity Share Holding for Host Communities was top among the demands of individuals and groups at the public hearing of the bill which held over five months ago.

While many opposed the proposed 2.5 per cent, Mr Sylva had said the amount was fair.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the key recommendations from Nigerians at the hearings of the Senate and House of Representatives.

When the lawmakers got to Clause 240, Katsina senator, Babba Kaita, proposed that the amount for the fund be reduced from five per cent as proposed by the committee to three per cent.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, put the question for a voice vote and despite resounding nays, Mr Lawan passed in favour of the ayes.

This generated noise in the chamber as some senators, majorly the South-south senators, were uneasy with the ruling.

James Manager then called for another vote opposing the initial vote.

And again, Mr Lawan ruled in favour of Mr Kaita's amendment.

Akwa Ibom senaor, Albert Bassey, was next to rise.

He explained that the reason of the recommended five per cent fund for host communities is so it can be used to remedy unfortunate incidents that may affect the assets.

His comment was greeted by more chaos. And in the midst of the noise, River lawmaker, Goerge Sekibo, raised a Point of Order.

Mr Sekibo cited Order 73. This order challenges the ruling of the chairman (Mr Lawan). It requires that he put the question to vote a second time. And if his opinion is again challenged, he shall call each senators name to vote.

This time, the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya appealed to Mr Sekibo to withdraw the order.

"My heart bleeds. This Senate has come a long way. We have never treated ourselves this way. We are embarking on a very dangerous journey. We have had and cherished unity. This is a path to Armageddon. I appeal to my brother and friend tSenator Sekibo to withdraw the point of Order, " Mr Yahaya said.

Mr Lawan, too, made the same appeal.

"What we have been educated by the GMD gives us better ideas. This three per cent. At least the Senate did not pass 2.5 we passed something slightly higher than that.

"I appeal to Sekibo to withdraw the point of order. We should not insist on dividing the Senate. It is our right," Mr Lawan said.

Mr Sekibo withdrew his order but pleaded that the Senate increases the amount a little higher. But his appeal was ignored by the Senate President.

Amidst murmurings, the lawmakers continued the consideration and eventually passed the bill.

Major amendments to the bill

Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Sabo (Jigawa South West), who presented the report earlier, explained that the bill of five chapters, deals with creating efficient and effective governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry and promoting transparency and accountability in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria, among others.

Some key amendments made by the committee include:

** Streamlining the regulatory and commercial role of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited which the chapter seeks to establish.

He said the bill when passed, will strengthen the accountability and transparency of NNPC Limited as a full-fledged CAMA company under statutory oversight with better returns to its shareholders.

**Frontier Basins

He said the committee recognised the need for the country to urgently and aggressively explore and develop the country's Frontier Basins to take advantage of the foreseeable threats to the funding of fossil fuel projects across the world due to speedy shift from fossil fuel-to other alternative energy sources.

"To this end, the Committee recommends funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPC Limited's profit oil and profit gas as in the production sharing, profit sharing, and risk service contracts to fund exploration of frontier basins.

"A total of 110 amendments were recommended to this Chapter while others were retained," he said.

** Five per cent share holding

After extensive engagements with various stakeholders, he said, the panel recommended strengthening measures and saddled the host communities with responsibilities with a view to reducing or completely eradicating interferences and tampering in the country's oil and gas production assets.

"Furthermore, to ensure adequate development of the host communities and reduction in the cost of production, the Joint Committee recommends five per cent of the actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations affecting the host communities for funding of the Host Communities Trust Fund."

** Petroleum Industry Fiscal Framework

For the petroleum industry's fiscal framework, he said the legislation when passed into law, will attract and unlock the long-awaited capital investment inflows to the country's oil and gas industry since it contains enhanced incentives in land, swamp, shallow and deep waters terrains.

The bill also seeks to separates the NNPC into three: Nigerian National Petroleum Authority, Nigerian National Petroleum Commission and NNPC Limted (now to become a limited liability).

Schedules of the bill

The bill comprises eight schedules:

The first schedule generally asserts the Minister's right of pre-emption in line with various circumstances in the industry.

The second schedule defines and enhances the principle of negotiating Incorporated Joint Ventures (IJVs) in line with the provisions of the bill.

The third schedule defines the domestic base price and pricing framework of gas under a free market structure of willing buyer and willing seller.

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The fourth schedule provides the formula for gas price and other gas-based industries with the possibility of creating flexibility with respect to the pricing structures where market conditions change.

The fifth schedule explains the capital allowances as it relates to the use and disposal of oil and gas assets.

The sixth schedule defines production allowances and cost price ratio limits in the oil and gas industry.

The seventh schedule explains the main fiscal framework of the bill which covers petroleum fees, rents and royalties across the various production terrains as well as its related penalties for non-payment.

While the eight schedule deals with creation of the Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated to legalize the shareholding of NNPC Limited with provisions required for the creation of same.

More demands...

Prior to drama, the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, had commended the panel for amendments made to the initial proposals in the bill but said that people of Niger Delta "want a deal."

He had even praised the leadership of the National Assembly for increasing the Equity Share Holding from 2.5 per cent to five per cent. He asked that it be increased a little higher.

"I know we cannot get the entire 10 per cent but I will still make a case that we go a bit higher. This is the agitation at home."

On penalties for gas flaring, he said funds gotten as penalties from gas flaring should be invested in development for host communities and not gas infrastructure as proposed.

"We don't want it invested in mid-stream gas. This is a penalty. Gas glaring is harming people. We want the penalty to be used for remediation investment and development in the communities.

After the bill was passed, Mr Lawan commended everyone involved in the legislative work describing the act as a milestone.
Maputo  Mozambique received on Wednesday 500,000 doses of vaccine against the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, purchased by 318 private companies.

The companies were mobilized under the initiative "United for Vaccination against Covid-19" (Univax). The companies intend to use most of the vaccines to immunise their own work force and their relatives, and to donate 139,000 doses to the Ministry of Health for its general vaccination campaign. This consignment consists of the VeroCell vaccine, produced by the Chinese company Sinopharm.

Speaking at Maputo International Airport, at the official ceremony to receive the vaccines, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said the quantity is enough to vaccinate 250,000 people (each of whom would receive two doses).

"The acquisition by the private sector plays an important role in the National Vaccination Plan", he said. "It will allow protection of productive units at risk from the spread of Covid-19, eventually contributing to lower rates of absenteeism and guaranteeing greater productivity".

Tiago urged all the eligible workers to accept vaccination, pointing out that many Mozambicans want to be vaccinated, but few doses of vaccine are currently available.

"Initially, there were those who said there would be fraud", declared the Minister, "but we argued that together we are able to build a dream. Today is the implementation of that dream. It is an example of how fruitful the partnership is between the government and the private sector".

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The representative of the Mozambican private sector, Osorio Lucas, of the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC), said this initiative is a model which should be replicated across the country.

"The success of the initiative sends a clear sign that public health is not the exclusive responsibility of the state", he added. "The companies are extremely willing to take responsibility for becoming actively involved in solving the challenges facing the country".

With this consignment, Mozambique has, to date, received over 1.18 million doses of coronavirus vaccine - 384,000 from the Covax initiative coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 200,000 offered by China, 100,000 offered by India, and now half a million provided by the private sector.

Tiago also announced that, thanks to the joint platform between the Health Ministry and the private companies, Mozambique expects to receive a further 1.5 million doses of vaccine in July.

"This is an acquisition which will speed up our plan to vaccinate some of the 17 million people we hope to reach", the Minister said.

He added that the country may possibly receive another nine million doses in August, acquired by the government through an African Union mechanism.

This would make it possible to reach 50 per cent of the government's vaccination target.
Maputo  According to the Mozambican health authorities, well over a quarter of those tested on Wednesday were positive for the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, and in the two central provinces of Tete and Manica, over half of those tested were carrying the virus.

Since the start of the pandemic, 597,833 people have been tested for the coronavirus, 2,103 of them in the previous 24 hours. According to a Wednesday press release from the Health Ministry, 597 of the samples tested (29.4 per cent) were from Maputo city, 323 from Tete, 231 from Cabo Delgado, 186 from Sofala, 134 from Maputo province, 118 from Zambezia, 106 from Nampula, 104 from Inhambane, 99 from Manica and six from Niassa. No tests were reported from Gaza.

1,527 of the tests yielded negative results, and 576 people tested positive for the coronavirus. This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 76,404. The number of positive cases is the largest recorded in a single 24 hour period since mid-March,

Once again the known Covid-19 hotspots of Maputo and Tete accounted for many of the cases, but they are now joined by a spurt of new cases in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala. There were 198 cases diagnosed in Maputo city, 175 in Tete, 54 in Maputo province, 74 in Sofala and 54 in Manica. Between them, these five provinces accounted for 96.2 per cent of the new cases diagnosed on Wednesday.

There were also 15 cases in Zambezia, five in Inhambane, one in Nampula and one in Cabo Delgado.

The national positivity rate (the proportion of those tested found to be infected with the coronavirus) was 27.4 per cent on Wednesday, the highest rate over the past week. There is a sharp difference in positivity rates between the five provinces with the largest number of Covid-19 cases and the rest of the country. The rates were 54.5 per cent in Manica, 54.2 per cent in Tete, 40.2 per cent in Maputo province, 39.2 per cent in Sofala, and 24.9 per cent in Maputo city.

But the situation is very different in the north, with positivity rates of 12.7 per cent in Zambezia, 0.9 per cent in Nampula and 0.4 per cent in Cabo Delgado. This cannot be attributed to lack of testing: there were 231 tests in Cabo Delgado, and 106 in Nampula. In both provinces, only one person tested positive.

The Ministry release said that, in the same 24 hour period, 17 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (14 in Maputo, two in Matola and one in Tete). This was more than outweighed by 33 new admissions (20 in Maputo, five in Tete, four in Sofala, two in Matola and two in Niassa).

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The number of people hospitalised in the Covid-19 treatment centres thus grew from 176 on Tuesday to 186 on Wednesday. Of these patients, 123 (66.1 per cent) were in Maputo. There were also 24 patients in Tete, 16 in Sofala, 13 in Matola, three in Niassa, two each in Nampula, Zambezia and Manica, and one in Inhambane. The Covid-19 wards in Cabo Delgado and Gaza remained empty.

The Ministry also reported that 19 people made a full recovery from Covid-19 on Wednesday (14 in Nampula and five in Niassa). The total number of recoveries now stands at 71,205, which is 93.2 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

A further six deaths from Covid-19 were reported on Wednesday - the largest death toll in a single 24 hour period for all of June. The victims were four men and two women, all Mozambican citizens, aged between 31 and 89. The number of Covid-19 deaths in June was 44 - exactly twice the number of fatalities in May. The national death toll from Covid-19 now stands at 878.

The number of active Covid-19 cases rose from 3,766 on Tuesday to 4,317 on Wednesday. The geographical distribution of these cases was as follows: Maputo city, 1,907 (44.2 per cent of the total); Tete, 892; Maputo province, 756; Sofala, 280; Inhambane, 140; Manica, 135; Niassa, 72; Gaza, 52; Zambezia, 35; Cabo Delgado, 32; and Nampula, 16.
Maputo  The demobilisation and disarming of the militia of Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, advanced into the western province of Tete on Wednesday.

According to a report on Radio Mozambique, there are 368 former Renamo guerrillas to be demobilised to be demobilised at the Monjo base in the Tete district of Moatize. The demobilisation here will continue until 14 July.

The demobilisation began in October 2019, and so far nine Renamo military bases have been dismantled - five in Sofala province (Savane, Muxungue, Maringue, Inhaminga and Chemba), one in Inhambane (Mabote), and three in Manica (Barue, Tambara and Mossurize).

By Wednesday, a total of 2,307 former Renamo fighters had been demobilised. According to the Renamo leadership, what are euphemistically referred to as its "residual forces" are 5,221 strong. But this number could well be a considerable exaggeration.

After they hand over their weapons, the Renamo demobilised return to their home areas (or anywhere else they wish to go). They are registered so that they can enjoy the rights envisaged for the former guerrillas under the peace agreement signed by President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade in August 2016.

At the accommodation centres for the demobilised fighters, they are provided with various services, such as the issuing of identity documents, birth certificates, and tax numbers. They are also assisted in opening bank accounts, and are provided with pre-paid SIM cards for mobile phones.

Speaking on Wednesday, the Secretary of State for Tete province, Elisa Zacarias, urged citizens to facilitate the integration into society of the Renamo demobilised, and give them opportunities to participate in productive and training projects.

Renamo Secretary-General Andre Majibire, who is also the Renamo representative on the Commission on Military Affairs, set up under the dialogue between the government and Renamo, expressed satisfaction at witnessing another stage in implementing the peace agreement.

He foresaw difficulties in the social integration of the former guerrillas in their zones of origin, but challenged them to overcome them, and declared that they could count on the support of the local authorities.
Maputo  The Mozambican defence and security forces claim they killed more than 150 terrorists in operations between 21 and 23 June, in the Afungi peninsula, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report on Radio Mozambique.

The interim commander of the Afungi Special Theatre of Operations, Col. Francisco Assane, said that in the same operations, the defence forces captured 39 people who are believed to be part of the terrorist group.

They were taken prisoner "in combat, when we were exchanging fire with the enemy. The enemy was resisting, and was attacking our positions in Mondlane and Palma".

Assane also said that the terrorists are now using women to carry their weaponry. One of these women, captured in Palma district, and referred to only as Anika, said she had been ordered to spy on the movements of the defence forces, and report back to local terrorist commanders.

She claimed she worked for the terrorists because she had received death threats, She has a scar on her chest, which she claimed resulted from a knife wound inflicted by a terrorist when she said she intended to go to the authorities.

"They told me, take this money and go - don't tell the soldiers anything. If you tell them anything, we shall kill you", said Anika. When she was reluctant to take the money, "they asked me, do you want to die of hunger? Do what we tell you! Since I am poor and I was afraid, I accepted".

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The defence forces also rescued over 100 people who had been prisoners of the terrorists in the Afungi region.

The commander of the army, Gen Cristovao Chume, told Radio Mozambique these rescues were the result of recent acquisition of land, sea and air equipment by the armed forces, allowing the troops to operate effectively, and inflict considerable losses on the enemy.

He also noted that the jihadists are now using human shields, to create additional difficulties for the defence forces.

"In all the offensive actions we undertake, as soon as we reach the place where the terrorist group is installed, the first barrier we encounter consists of children and women", said Chume. "We have been ordering our comrades in the fighting to save the lives of these children and women, and to go after those who are really carrying guns or who, even if they don't have guns, present themselves as part of the terrorist group".
Maputo  Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday recommended that the country's justice sector should exploit to the maximum the reforms under way in Mozambique, so that it can rise to new challenges.

Speaking at the ceremony where he swore into office Judge Sandra Machatine Ten Jua, as a new member of the Supreme Court, Nyusi pointed out recent changes in the penal code and the penal procedural code, approved by the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, in order to simplify legal procedures.

He urged all magistrates to dedicate themselves zealously to their tasks, and to refrain from any practices that could harm the performance of the judicial system.

The president insisted that the judiciary should be more open, should communicate more, and should ensure that its decisions are understood. "It is important to bear in mind the sociology of law", he said, "in order to better understand our communities and their true longings in matters of justice".

Nyusi said he wanted to see "a judiciary proactive in the defence of the constitutional guarantees in the exercise of fundamental rights, but also a judiciary committed to the relentless combat against organised crime, such as drug trafficking, people trafficking, terrorism, corruption, money laundering and kidnapping".

Before her promotion to the Supreme Court, Sandra Ten Jua was the Presiding Judge of the Gaza Provincial Court. On the Supreme Court, she occupies the place left vacant by Joaquim Madeira, who has retired.
Maputo  Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday pledged that over 10 million households will have access to electricity in their homes for the first time by 2024 in the framework of the "Energy for All" Programme, intended to secure universal access to electrical power.

Nyusi reaffirmed the government's commitment to achieve this goal at the inauguration of a power supply system in Macate district, in the central Mozambican province of Manica. This cost 238,000 US dollars disbursed by the government, and will benefit 250 households. Presently, 66 connections have been established.

"Six months ago, I announced the abolition of the electricity connection fee, a move intended to fast track new connections and hasten the achievement of universal access to energy. We are not only encouraged but enthusiastic with the results attained so far. About 500 new consumers are connected to the national grid, every day," Nyusi said.

Since the elimination of the fee, Nyusi added, 115,317 households have been connected, while neighbourhoods and other public spaces have been illuminated, thus transforming the lives of many Mozambicans.

"Macate is now in a position to improve its production levels and we would like to urge the district to step up such levels to justify the investment we have made," Nyusi stressed, pointing out that the impact of electricity goes beyond the economic front. Energy answers the consumption needs of households and its availability will leverage the use of health and education facilities, thus boosting the quality of life.

Because of these reasons and the urgent need to shake up the productive sectors, Nyusi advised the local government to spread the productive use of electricity, by promoting investment in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, fisheries, and agro-processing.

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From now on, Nyusi said, the milling facilities must operate at full swing in Macate, and there should be an expansion in the size of the district capital, as a place to make a living and to do business.

Nyusi also urged every resident of Macate to stage a tireless struggle against possible vandalism and theft of electrical equipment, since such behaviour undermines collective welfare. "It is good to see electric lighting at night, but suddenly a criminal comes and rips out the cables to make a snare for poaching", he said.

The darkness into which Macate used to plunge every night is a thing of the past, and so Nyusi asked every resident to safeguard the correct functioning of the system and ensure the longevity of the equipment, taking into account that it is a collective asset.
Maputo  The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has strongly condemned the municipal police in the northern city of Nampula for a physical attack against four journalists on Tuesday.

According to a MISA-Mozambique press release, the victims of the police assault all work on private television stations. They were Leonardo Gimo of TV Sucesso, Faizal Abudo and Simao Mugas, reporter and cameraman of TV Muniga, and Emerson Joaquim of Afro TV.

They went to the head offices of the Nampula municipal police, because they were investigating the alleged illegal detention of three youths by the municipal authorities.

The Nampula nucleus of MISA-Mozambique said the three youths belonged to an association calling itself "Mentes Resilientes" ("resilient minds"). They were detained by the municipal police supposedly because, on a TV Muniga programme, they had denounced a physical attack, caught on an amateur video, by the police against an informal trader.

Investigating the matter, the four journalists went to the municipal police headquarters, where they were met by insults and physical attacks. The policemen who attacked the journalists were led by the head of operations, Oliveira Maneque.

"The police had no time to hear us and understand our concern", said Simao Mugas. "Instead they accused us of defamation and staining the reputation of the police".

During the attack a motorcycle belonging to Mugas was stolen, and its current whereabouts are unknown. The police also temporarily seized Gimo's camera.

MISA said it condemns this assault and any other act of violence against journalists. It pointed out that the freedoms of expression and of the press are protected under the Mozambican constitution,

MISA reiterated that "it is the duty of the police authorities to protect journalists and never to attack them", and warned that legal action will now be taken to hold the assailants responsible for their behaviour.
Esther Atieno prepares dinner for her family in Kisumu, Kenya using a jiko kisasa (firewood stove) that uses less fuel and burns more efficiently than her previous stove.

guest column

When world leaders gather at summits to discuss global issues, do they ever stop to ask how the food was prepared or by whom? We eat every day, yet how food is cooked and the impacts of these methods are largely ignored  at great cost to health and landscapes.

Dirty cooking fuel in parts of the world is ever-present but usually invisible.

It just so happens that over the next 12 months, major global meetings will focus on green transitions and international development. The UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy, COP26 and Africa-Europe Summit provide world leaders with a unique opportunity to rethink how they perceive and prioritise cooking.

World governments have pledged to deliver on SDG 7  Affordable and Clean Energy - and ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.

The urgent need for electrification is now recognised by governments worldwide, and bold targets have been agreed at the global level, but the mundane tasks of simmering stew, heating water and cooking soup remain out of sight and thus out of mind. Around 600mn Africans are still without access to electricity, and while most African countries have drawn up national energy strategies, scaled investment and taken steps to get everyone connected to the grid, cooking remains largely absent from these plans.

Around 900mn Africans rely on woodfuel, charcoal or kerosine to prepare daily meals. However well-managed, these fuels produce smoke, greenhouse gas emissions and particulates, which causes coughing and lung and respiratory disease.

In Africa, there are an estimated 500,000 premature deaths each year from indoor air pollution, particularly amongst women and girls, and levels of respiratory infections amongst infants remain high, collectively accounting for a far larger toll than official COVID-19 deaths to date.

Franco Volpato / Shutterstock Across Africa, girls and women - like this woman in Tanzania - bear the main burden of fetching firewood for cooking, while the harvesting of wood fuel and charcoal has devastated forests and landscapes.

The drudgery of fetching and carrying fuel, or coaxing a fire into life using what charcoal can be afforded, takes a heavy daily toll on the work of women and girls, while the harvesting of wood fuel and charcoal has devastated forests and landscapes, aggravating soil erosion and reducing rural resilience, in regions throughout Africa. The global community cannot address the climate and biodiversity crisis without improving the way people cook.

Leaders must take immediate action to ensure clean cooking for all is achieved. Solutions range from improved biomass stoves to biogas, ethanol and electric cooking. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is one of the most economically viable and scalable solutions, not only ensuring access to basic essentials, but firing up economic activity and delivering improved health and environmental benefits compared to traditional biomass alternatives.

Several LPG for clean cooking businesses now supply homes in Africa's urban areas and informal settlements, offering jobs in distribution and supply which are often taken by women. Funding and investment are needed to scale LPG supply chains and ensure accessibility and affordability, particularly for remote and vulnerable households.

However, LPG is derived from fossil fuels, and public subsidies are now threatened as donor governments and development finance institutions continue to scale back support for fossil fuels. Is it right to take such a one-size-fits-all approach to the climate challenge at the expense of households which have made negligible contributions to global emissions?

It's irresponsible to pass up the opportunity to relieve pressure on forests and woodlands, improve the health of the poorest households and transform the lives of women by freeing up time to engage in other productive and leisure activities.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation Mo Ibrahim and Mary Robinson

It's time for ambitious political and financial leadership. The Africa-Europe Foundation and Clean Cooking Alliance have formulated a Clean Cooking Manifesto with 10 immediate actions for governments, development partners and the private sector to take in delivering modern cooking services for all.

In addition to integrating clean cooking into national and city energy planning, governments must create clean cooking delivery units to coordinate national action. A robust clean cooking industry must be supported through tax and import duty exemptions. Purely market-based models are not likely to leverage the speed of deployment needed. Given the social and environmental benefits associated with clean cooking, smart subsidies are also well-justified.

As development finance withdraws from fossil fuel production, there should be an exemption for LPG for clean cooking. Donors can support the development of national action plans and increase funding to match the scale of the challenge. Increased use of carbon finance and carbon offsets could also help bridge the affordability gap.

Alongside development finance, increased private investment can build commercially viable models and reduce risk. The private sector should partner with the electricity sector to ensure energy planning accounts for e-cooking and involve women and girls in producing and distributing products.

Delivering clean cooking solutions to millions of African households in low- and middle-income countries is far from a menial, housekeeping topic.

Universal clean cooking must become a shared priority for Europe and Africa.

Mo Ibrahim is Co-Founder of the Africa-Europe Foundation and Founder and Chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Mary Robinson is Honorary President of the Africa-Europe Foundation, and Chair of the Elders and former President of the Republic of Ireland.
Blog

On June 9, following a closed-door meeting, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) issued a public statement that the Igbo-dominated southeast should be allowed to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria if it was necessary to avoid a civil war.

NEF spokesman Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said "the Forum has arrived at the difficult conclusion that if support for secession among the Igbo is as widespread as it is being made to look, and Igbo leadership appears to be in support of it, then the country should be advised not to stand in the way." His statement continued that secession was not in the best interest of the Igbos or of Nigerians. Rather, all should work to rebuild Nigeria. But, blocking secession "will not help a country already burdened with failures on its knees to fight another war to keep the Igbo in Nigeria."

The statement also suggested that northerners subject to harassment in the southeast should return to the north. There was no reference to secessionist sentiment in Yorubaland, in southwest Nigeria, to which former President Olusegun Obasanjo has referred. The former president said that Yoruba secession, too, would be unwise, but that maintaining unity should not come "at any cost."

Though there is no specific reference to it, clearly animating the NEF statement is the memory of Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war, successfully fought by Nigerian nationalists to keep Igbo-dominated Biafra in the federation; it left up to two million dead. It, too, involved massive population movements, with Igbos fleeing to the south a northern pogrom and fewer northerners leaving the southeast. In the civil war, northern elites strongly supported the nationalists.

Current Igbo disgruntlement has its roots in defeat in the civil war and the belief that they are marginalized from the upper reaches of the Nigerian state. (There has never been an Igbo president of Nigeria.) Such feelings of marginalization are exacerbated by Nigeria's nationwide epidemic of violence and economic malaise. The NEF, for its part, has responded to rising insecurity in Nigeria by calling for President Buhari to resign or to be impeached. Resignation or impeachment is a reversal of the NEF's support of Muhammadu Buhari's presidential candidacy in 2015.

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It should be noted that the NEF statement in support of allowing secession had two caveats: that there be widespread support for it among the Igbo but also among their "leadership" (not further defined). While secessionist advocates will argue to the contrary, prima facie evidence for both either way is thin.

Do the views of the NEF matter? How representative is it of northern elite opinion? Buhari's Special Adviser on Media Femi Adesina responded to its June 9 statement by dismissing the NEF as "a mere irritant" that hardly exists beyond its convener, Ango Abdullahi--a distinguished, former vice chancellor (president) of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

According to Adesina, the former vice chancellor is a general with no troops. Indeed, the influence of the NEF is hard to judge. But, its public statements attract widespread media attention. As with former President Obasanjo's comments on Yoruba separatism, at the very least the NEF statements is an indication that rising insecurity is leading at least some of Nigeria's elites to rethink the basis of the Nigerian state--and of the consequences of its civil war.

Blog posts represent the views of CFR fellows and staff and not those of CFR, which takes no institutional positions.
announcement

Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021

Time: 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Time Zones: 3:00 p.m. (Cairo & Joburg); 4:00 p.m. (Addis & Nairobi); 2:00 p.m. (Lagos & London)

Duration: 2 hours

Register Now



Co-Hosts Ambassador Robin Sanders and Gallup Global Managing Partner Jon Clifton, in partnership with allAfrica.com, the African & Caribbean Business Council (ACBC), United People for African Congress (UPAC) and U.S.-Africa Trade Council, invite you to the 8th Annual FEEEDS-Gallup Africa Forum: Africa's Business Economy & the AfCFTA  the Role of SMEs.



This is an opportunity to hear firsthand from the events honored featured speakers: Dr. Hippolyte Fofack of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Dr. Francis Mangeni, advisor to the Secretary General of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Each will discuss how their institutions support the critical role Africa and the Africa diasporas small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) serve in the region's economy and the broader success of the AfCFTA. Gallup's leading Africa research director, Magali Rheault, will scene set with relevant polling data on the current business environment for Africa SMEs and regional economies.

SPEAKERS

Ambassador Robin Sanders

CEO of FEEEDS

Ambassador (Dr.) Robin Renee Sanders served as one of the U.S. Governments top diplomats on African issues over a long career in the United States Diplomatic Corps reaching senior positions ranging from Ambassador to the Republics of Nigeria, Republic of Congo, two stints  NSC Director for Africa at the White House, and U.S. Permanent Representative to the West African Regional Organization ECOWAS. Dr. Sanders received her doctor of science degree from Pittsburghs Robert Morris University, where she also holds the title of Distinguished Public Service & Rooney Scholar; has MA and MS degrees from Ohio University; and, a BA from Hampton University. She is a recognized thought-leader on Africa's political, economic, technology, security (e.g. Boko Haram, Al Shababb) and policy issues, as well as on regions thematic topics such as SDGs, food security, democracy/elections, education & climate change. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on these topics. Her advisory firm is divided into two parts: The FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative and FE3DS, LLC. FEEEDS focuses on Africa economic development, Diaspora, Entrepreneurship/SMEs issues. FEEEDS also advises several organizations; co-hosts an annual Africa event with Gallup World Poll; and publishes @The FEEEDS Index. Sanders' national security expertise is based on her work at the White House; as Deputy Commandant-Eisenhower College, the National Defense University, the U.S. military's premier institution for strategic studies; her diplomatic postings; and her work on global issues. She is sought after by media such as Al Jazeera, China Television, VOA, and CNN for her Africa expertise. FE3DS, LLC provides business strategies on Africa trade, technology, power, renewables, affordable housing and aviation.

Jon Clifton

Global Managing Partner, Gallup

Jon Clifton is the Global Managing Partner of Gallup, an advisory firm that specializes in big data analytics of employees, customers, students and citizens. Jons mission is to help 7 billion citizens be heard on their most pressing work and life issues through the Gallup World Poll, a 100-year initiative spanning 150 countries. Because of his expertise, Jon has been interviewed on BBC News, C-SPANs Washington Journal, and Al-Jazeera, and has testified in front of the U.S. Congress on the state of American small business and entrepreneurship. He is a frequent contributor on Gallup.com and has written for The Hill, The Diplomatic Courier, and The Global Action Report.

FEEEDS 8th Annual FEEEDS-Gallup Africa Forum: Africa's Business Economy & The AfCFTA - the Role of SMEs

Dr. Hippolyte Fofack  Honored Featured Speaker

Chief Economist, Director of Research and International Cooperation, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)

Speaker Topic: How Afreximbank Leverages Its Programs to Support the SME Sector

Dr. Hippolyte Fofack has more than 20 years of experience in development economics, international trade, banking and international finance and academia. Prior to joining the African Export-Import Bank, he was with the World Bank Group, where he served in several capacities, including as senior economist and head of the Macroeconomic and Growth Research Program. In 2005, Dr. Fofack was elected to the African Academy of Sciences, a continental organization dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for economic development and welfare improvement. He has served on the advisory board of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and is a member of the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa Board of Directors. He is also a member of several leading professional and scientific organizations, including the American Economic Association and the African Finance and Economic Association. Dr Fofack has been a guest editor of several prominent journals, including The World Bank Economic Review and Economic History of Developing Regions. Dr. Fofack has been published extensively, is Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Issues in African Trade and Trade Finance (CIAT) and is a member of several editorial boards, including the Journal of African Development, the Journal of African Trade and the Gulf Economics Journal.

Dr. Francis Mangeni  Honored Featured Speaker

Head of Trade Promotion & Programs, Advisor to AfCFTA Secretary General

Speaker Topic: AfCFTA: How It Supports SME Participation in Regional Trade

Dr. Francis Mangeni has worked and consulted extensively on the multilateral trade system and African economic integration. He is a senior fellow with the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance and has served as head of trade promotion and programs with the AfCFTA and director of trade customs and monetary affairs with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. He has served as advisor to the Minister of Commerce and Industry of the government of Malawi, senior economist at the Permanent Delegation of the African Union to the United Nations and regional trade policy advisor at the Commission of the African Union, and acted as a consultant for numerous regional and international organizations. His analytical work has focused on the social and economic implications of economic reforms, negotiation preparation and trade opportunities. Dr. Mangenis analyses have informed key initiatives for economic integration throughout Africa and served as a basis for advice to African diplomats attending World Trade Organization conferences and trade negotiations with Africas major partners.

Magali Rheault

Regional Director, Sub-Saharan Africa, Gallup World Poll

Topic: Current Africa Business Environment for SMEs & Regional Economies

Magali Rheault is Regional Research Director for sub-Saharan Africa for the Gallup World Poll. As the largest independent source of global survey research, the World Poll measures the most important issues people around the worl face. Ms. Rheault leads survey research operations across the African continent and is responsible for sampling, questionnaire design, fieldstaff training and quality control. Her main research interests focus on the intersection of governance, economic growth and human development in sub-Saharan Africa. As an academically trained urban planner, Ms. Rheault focuses on big-picture thinking to better understand how people's surroundings shape their perceptions and opinions. She is passionate about translating data into information and knowledge to help clients incorporate survey findings into impactful initiatives.
More African Govts Legalise Cannabis for Medicinal Use

Rwanda has reportedly passed a new order that legalises medical use of Cannabis, also known as marijuana, as the country moves closer to mass production and export of the multi-billion-dollar cash crop.

The consumption of marijuana products for recreational purposes however, remains illegal in Rwanda. The country maintains harsh penalties for illegal production, distribution and consumption of the herb.

Malawi's Cannabis Regulatory Authority is calling for the creation of structured markets for cannabis growers in that country. The board is also calling for universities and research institutes to start working on the local variety to see how effective it could be, since it would be in the same family of medicinal hemp.

In South Africa the use, possession and cultivation of the plant is set to be decriminalised. Nigeria is also considering legalisation, however there is also fierce opposition to a law change there.
Six-Month Standoff on ARVs Ends After Kenya, U.S. Strike Deal

The Kenyan government has abandoned its demand that it should be the sole distributor of a U.S.$19 million consignment of HIV drugs donated by the U.S., ending a six-month standoff on distribution of the anti-retroviral drugs.

However, the two governments have reached a compromise that the consignment stuck at the Port of Mombasa will be distributed by Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS). The government had insisted that only the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency would distribute the drugs to counties.

The ARVs, among other medicines imported in January 2021, have been lying at the Port of Mombasa for six months. They were donated by the U.S. government through its aid agency USAid, and are yet to be taken to county hospitals, writes Angela Oketch for The Nation.
Sudan Gets Huge IMF, World Bank Debt Cut Amid Protests

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have announced that Sudan is to benefit from U.S.$50 billion in foreign debt relief, effectively reducing the country's current estimated U.S.$56 billion foreign liability to U.S.$6 billion over three years.



The Executive Boards of the World Bank's International Development Association and the IMF said in a statement that they have determined that "Sudan has taken the necessary steps to begin receiving debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative".



Sudan is the 38th country to reach what is known as the "HIPC Decision Point". However hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the capital Khartoum to demand the transitional government resign over controversial economic reforms. Citizens are unhappy with the IMF-backed reforms that slashed subsidies on petrol and diesel, more than doubling their price.
20 Years Later, Nigeria Passes Long-Awaited Oil Reform Bill

The Nigerian Senate has passed a long-awaited oil industry reform bill that will overhaul nearly every aspect of oil and gas production. The Petroleum Industry Bill has been two decades in the making to overhaul the way Nigeria will share its oil resources with international oil companies and aim to attract new investment in oil and gas. In the bill, the Senate approved a funding mechanism of 30 percent of NNPC's profit from oil and gas for frontier basins. This fund is for oil exploration in frontier states.

Community leaders in Nigeria's oil-rich regions want changes to the latest version of the bill, asking for a larger share of revenues for the community. Last month, Nigeria's National Petroleum Corporation said it had signed a deal with Shell, Exxon, Total, and Eni to develop an offshore oil block that includes the deepwater Bonga field. The NNPC noted the deal marks a historic moment as it settles long-running disputes between the Nigerian government and international oil companies.
15:58 | Lima, Jun. 30.

Inked on June 25, the agreement is expected to be carried out until December 2025, with a US$6.4 million contribution from the Korean Government.

This project aims to enhance the resilience of the environment to manage mining activities and potential impacts of mining by building technical capacity and awareness of the general public.

As part of the project, activities will be carried out to strengthen technical capacities in the area of remediation of mining environmental liabilities (PAM, for its acronym in Spanish), through the transfer of technology to Minem, by implementing pilot plants that allow to conduct research and development testing on the application of passive, active and/or mixed acid water treatments.

Likewise, work will be done to strengthen the information systems related to the Mine Closure Plan (PCM, for its acronym in Spanish) through the implementation of a computer system that will allow Minem to digitally manage the PCM, as well as to articulate and collaborate with other entities involved in the management of mine closure plans.

Additionally, during the project, the technical capacities of mining sector officials in Peru will be strengthened through training in Korea and Peru, as well as the development of conferences and workshops to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of related activities.

Finally, it is expected to raise and strengthen public awareness regarding mining environmental liabilities and mining activities in Peru, as well as to disseminate the environmental remediation activities carried out by the Peruvian Government and activities in cooperation with the Korean Government.

Considering the importance of this project, the Ministry of Energy and Mines through its focal points of the General Directorate of Mining and the General Directorate of Mining Environmental Affairs has worked in close coordination with a team of professionals from Korea, from the initial stage of the research planned by KOICA , to support project activities and the implementation of the project.




Now that visits to the Inca citadel are increasing as part of the efforts to revive the tourism sector and after it received the Safe Travels stamp that recognizes it as a safe destination amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to note the importance of July in the festive calendar of Machu Picchu.





Hiram Bingham





On July 24, 110 years will have passed since the arrival of U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham in this impressive stone city nestled atop a mountain ridge in the jungle of Cusco.









Although the first direct references to the discovery of Machu Picchu date back to 1902, when a group of locals visited the Inca structure vestiges, it was Bingham who sponsored by Yale University and the National Geographic Society initiated the scientific study of the last capital of the Incas in 1911 and made it known to the outside world.





World Heritage Site





With the passage of time and greater awareness of its importance as an Inca religious, ceremonial, astronomical, and agricultural center, Machu Picchu was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 9, 1983.





Impressive biodiversity





The National Sanctuary of Machu Picchu has an impressive Andean and Amazonian biodiversity. It is home to 384 species of trees, 468 of orchids, 279 of ferns, 443 of birds, 84 of mammals, 22 of reptiles, and 17 of amphibians.





New Wonder of the World





Additionally, July 7 marks the 14th anniversary of the day Machu Picchu was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.





The Inca Empire's most representative construction was crowned on 7 July 2007 along with the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, Petra city in southern Jordan, the Roman Coliseum, Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and the Maya Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico.





Safe Travels Stamp and Carbon Neutral Initiative





In October 2020, Machu Picchu was one of the first destinations to get a 'Safe Travels' stamp from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).





Additionally, the Inca citadel has developed a Carbon Neutral initiative aimed at turning the area into the first tourist destination to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and manage solid waste.





Visitor capacity





On the other hand, the visitor capacity for Machu Picchu has increased over the past weeks. According to the Ministry of Culture, the Inca citadel receives between 1,000 and 1,200 visitors a day.









However, the number of visits is expected to increase gradually as the Government has issued a decree that stipulates that capacity restrictions will no longer apply for museums and archaeological sites, as they are open-air venues.





Machu Picchu Brand





In addition, the Machu Picchu Brand will be launched on July 7, on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the day the Inca citadel was named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.





According to Mayor Darwin Baca, this brand is intended to generate economic dynamism through the promotion of archaeological, cultural, and natural tourist attractions in Machu Picchu.





World Travel Awards





Finally, the ancient citadel is competing to be South America's Leading Tourist Attraction , an award it has obtained for the last three years in a row (2018, 2019, and 2020) in the regional edition of the World Travel Awards. People will be able to vote in support of its nomination until July 26.





(END) LZD/MAO/RMB/MVB

July is a particularly important month for the Historic Sanctuary and Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu Peru's biggest attraction which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.Published: 7/1/2021
?? En vivo | La titular de la PCM, junto con ministros de Estado, brindan conferencia de prensa para informar a la ciudadania sobre los acuerdos adoptados en la sesion de Consejo de Ministros de hoy.https://t.co/lxv8EOd5QD
From the Executive Branch, he said, his administration never tried to impose anything on Parliament or denigrate it.

On the contrary Mr. Sagasti affirmed he always sought Parliamentarians' collaboration and attention was drawn to legislative initiatives that had faced some legal, constitutional, or financing difficulties.

In this sense, the top official advocated that this example of collaboration be replicated between the next Executive and Legislative Branches starting July 28 when the new President of the Republic and Congress members take office.

About the law

"Now Concytec has the opportunity to give the guidelines and coordinate all efforts which are made to develop science and technology," he said.

In addition, two special programs have been created: Proinnovate, which will channel public financing for companies or universities in science and technology applied to the productive and service systems.

There is also Prociencia, which will develop high-level human resource training, as well as support for scientific and basic research.

Presidente @FSagasti: La Ley del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion que acabamos de rubricar es una demostracion clara del trabajo conjunto y ejemplo de colaboracion activa entre los poderes Ejecutivo y Legislativo. pic.twitter.com/69xL00lUSx
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. The names of three Armenian villages nominated for the Best Tourism Villages program by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will be announced in July.

The Tourism Committee of Armenia has already completed the application collecting process, and now the assessment stage is underway.

Public Relations and Digital Marketing Expert at the Tourism Committee Gayane Ayvazyan told Armenpress that a total of 76 applications have been received. More villages were nominated from Aragatsotn, Gegharkunik, Lori, Kotayk and Shirak provinces.

The program requirements are the followings: the village population must not surpass 15,000, the village must be known for any type of economic activity  agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, etc, and the village must have unique tourism offers or lifestyle.

There was quite a big interest, we were receiving many calls and letters. 76 applications were received, some of which are repeated. Individuals could also submit applications. Why we did so? Because we wanted to see what villages exist, because very often applying only to specialists, we could miss interesting villages. Its a very good opportunity for us to engage different people and get offers from them, Gayane Ayvazyan said.

All villages will be examined with all their opportunities, and three of them will be selected. After that the UNWTO will select the best village. All member states of the Organization can nominate villages.

The initiative includes three pillars:

1. The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Label: The Label will recognize a village which is an outstanding example of a rural tourism destination with recognized cultural and natural assets, that preserves and promotes rural and community-based values, products and lifestyle and has a clear commitment to innovation and sustainability in all its aspects  economic, social and environmental. The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Upgrade Program: The Upgrade program will benefit a number of villages that do not fully meet the Label criteria. These villages will receive support from UNWTO and its Partners in improving elements of the areas identified as gaps in the evaluation process. The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Network: The Network will provide a space for exchanging experiences and good practices, learning, and opportunities. It will include representatives of the villages awarded the Best Tourism Village by UNWTO Label, the villages participating in the Upgrade Program, as well as experts, public and private sector partners engaged in the promotion of tourism for rural development.

I want to note that this is a continuous program, therefore, new villages can be nominated in coming years. Its possible to work on the development of that villages within a year and again nominate them, Gayane Ayvazyan said, adding that there are opportunities of implementing different projects and works for development of villages.

Interview by Anna Gziryan

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. US House Appropriations Committee released its reports for Fiscal Year 2022 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs and Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bills, Armenian Assembly of America reports.

It recommends not less than $50 million "for Armenia for economic development, private sector productivity, energy independence, democracy and the rule of law, and other purposes." In addition, the report language also calls for "not less than $2,000,000 for demining activities in Artsakh."

With the Subcommittee having considered the draft Bill on Monday, June 25, 2021, the full committee is poised to "mark-up" the legislation tomorrow, July 1, 2021.

The Bill also restates Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, in addition to prohibiting the sale of defense articles to the Turkish Presidential Protection Directorate. The report language also reiterates the Assemblys concerns about the military disparity in U.S. assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan: "The Committee is concerned by disparity in military assistance provided to Azerbaijan in comparison to Armenia that is enabled by the annual waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act by the Secretary of State, including the most recent waiver signed by the Secretary on April 23, 2021. The Committee directs the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the diplomatic consequences of such disparity in military assistance be considered by the Secretary in any decision with respect to the renewal of the Section 907 waiver during fiscal year 2022."

In 1992, Congress took a principled stand against Azerbaijani aggression with the adoption of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which states that U.S. funds "may not be provided to the Government of Azerbaijan until the President determines and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh."
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. The extraordinary session convened at the initiative of lawmakers continues in the Armenian Parliament.

The MPs will debate the bills adopted at first hearing on June 30.

The Parliament will also debate today a number of bills at second hearing.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to Xi Jinping, President of the Peoples Republic of China, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the centenary of formation of the Communist Party of China, Pashinyan's Office told Armenpress.

The message reads:

Excellency,

Please accept my most cordial congratulations on the centenary of the Communist Party of China.

The Communist Party of China has won the Chinese peoples trust since its inception by defying numerous challenges and leading the country along the path of sovereignty, empowerment and socio-economic development.

The achievements of the CPC continued and multiplied under your leadership. This landmark year was marked by two key milestones: China achieved its centennial goal of overcoming extreme poverty and returned to the path of development by overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.

Armenia is eager to further develop the friendly relations and the ongoing mutually beneficial cooperation with the Peoples Republic of China.

I am confident that the Armenian-Chinese relations will continue to strengthen and deepen for the benefit of our two countries and peoples.

I wish you robust health and ever new achievements, as well as peace and prosperity- to the friendly Chinese people.
On June 29, 2021, the Completion Ceremony of The Project for Construction of Water Pipe to an Irrigation Reservoir in the Hors Community in the amount of USD 84,120 within the frameworks of Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) of Japan was held at the Hors community.

The Ceremony was attended by Mr. Masanori Fukushima, Ambassador of Japan to Armenia, Mr. Ararat Grigoryan, Governor of Vayots Dzor region as well as representatives from Vayots Dzor regional-territorial structures.

The Project aimed at increasing the volumes of water and supplying the water for irrigation to the community in the dry season in Hors community in Yeghegis cluster of VayotsDzor province by constructing the water pipe to an irrigation reservoir. As a result, 420 villagers in the Hors Community benefited from the Project.

The Governor of VayotzDzor, Mr. Grigoryan, first of all congratulated the newly appointed Ambassador on assuming the responsible mission, expressing confidence that he would make an exceptional contribution to the strengthening of Armenian-Japanese relations. Mr. Grigoryan expressed his gratitude to the Government of Japan for the support provided within the Project, which will provide irrigation water to the community and will also contribute to the ecological sustainability of the community.

Ambassador Fukushima, in turn, stressed that he is particularly glad to know that as a result of the Project, more than 420 people in Hors community already have sustainable supply of water for irrigation. In view of the crucial importance which agriculture has in the economic development of Armenia, this Project is perfectly in line with the Armenian Governments priorities to increase the efficiency of agriculture by improving access to irrigation.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. In the framework of the regional visit, Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, will arrive in Armenia on July 8 on a two-day visit, the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress.

According to the ministrys statement, the purpose of the visit is to reaffirm the EUs readiness to foster the stability and predictability in the South Caucasus region.

Editing by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau on the occasion of the Canada Day, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Armenia and Canada, our countries have developed close friendly cooperation in various areas. Armenia is ready to make further efforts to boost our relations at bilateral and multilateral levels, by expanding the political, economic, cultural ties, developing the contacts between the peoples.

The global challenges, facing the world, have revealed the numerous- both vulnerable and strong -sides of our society, the high level of solidarity between the countries and peoples. I am sure that our countries will overcome those huge challenges, which we are facing today, with joint efforts, the Armenian President said in his letter.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Samples of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 have been produced in Armenia, Caretaker Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan told reporters after the Cabinet meeting today.

These samples will be tested in the nearest future. After the test, maybe there will be an opportunity for serial production of the vaccine in Armenia, she said, adding that there is already a major progress in this process.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan says the circumstances of the 2020 Artsakh War must be seriously and thoroughly examined, because, he adds, there are some issues, the public needs the answers.

Of course, its another topic which part must be investigated within judiciary framework, which system must be investigated in commission or other formats prescribed by law, but its important to record that all circumstances of the 44-day war and other circumstances connected with it must be definitely examined where there is a problem of criminal-legal assessment, there should be a criminal-legal assessment. Where there is a problem of political assessment, political assessment must be given, but I think that the public and we all feel that necessity, and the prosecution has a lot to do in this respect, Pashinyan said.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan attended the solemn session dedicated to the day of establishment of the State Protection Service of the National Security Service.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the State Protection Service personnel on the occasion of the festive day, noting that the State Security Service is an important institution. ''In the case of Armenia this becomes particularly important, because, unfortunately, incidents like October 27, 1999 have taken place in our country', Pashinyan said, thanking them for their service.

Ensuring the security of the state and state institutions is one of our key tasks'', Pashinyan emphasized, highly assessing the service of the State Protection Service.

Pashinyan thanked the servicemen of the Service and wished success. I want that the challenges facing s should ease down, instead of growing, but in any case we, and first of all the State Security Service and the National Security Service should be ready to manage and prevent any threat and thats more important than struggling against their consequences in the future, Pashinyan said.
YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS. Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Armenian Caucus, issued a statement following the introduction of the Fiscal Year 2022 State and Foreign Relations funding legislation, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of Adam Schiff.

After a year marked by devastating conflict and incredible suffering, we have been able to secure more than $52 million in funding for Armenia and Artsakh in the recently introduced House Foreign Affairs spending bill, along with the other co-chairs of the Congressional Armenian Caucus. This robust investment will support democratic, economic, and energy reforms in Armenia and provide urgent humanitarian relief in Artsakh.

But our work is far from done. We must continue to push the Biden administration to take every possible diplomatic action to end Azerbaijani aggression and secure immediate release of all Armenian detainees and prisoners of war, some of whom have been tortured in violation of international human rights conventions. And we must also continue to push President Biden to withhold U.S. assistance from the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan, which continues to commit grave human rights abuses and threaten the independence of Armenia.

I will always stand with the people of Armenia and Artsakh. Always.
The accused had set off a bomb on a running passenger train resulting in huge loss of lives and property

The arrested brothers have been remanded to judicial custody, the NIA said adding that further investigation is underway. (Representational image: ANI)

Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday said it had arrested two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists from Hyderabad in connection with the Darbhanga railway station blast case of Bihar. The accused had set off a bomb on a running passenger train resulting in huge loss of lives and property.

The arrested were identified as Imran Malik alias Imran Khan and Mohd Nasir Khan alias Nasir Malik, both brothers residing at Nampally, Hyderabad. Both of them are from Uttar Pradesh.

Initially the case was booked by the Railway police of Bihar relating to a parcel bomb explosion on Platform No. 1 of Darbhanga railway station on June 17.

Investigation revealed that the parcel was booked at Secunderabad and had arrived on Train No. 07007 Secunderabad- Darbhanga Express.

"The accused have revealed a transnational conspiracy hatched by top operatives of proscribed terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) to execute terror acts across India and cause large-scale damage to life and property," the NIA said.

Acting under the directions of Pakistan-based LeT, the brothers fabricated an incendiary IED and packed it in a parcel and booked the same on a long-distance train from Secunderabad to Darbhanga. This was aimed at causing explosion and fire in a running passenger train.

The NIA probe also revealed that Mohd Nasir Khan had visited Pakistan in 2012 and had received training from LeT to make an IED from locally available chemicals. He along with his brother Imran was in touch with the LeT over encrypted communication platforms.

The arrested brothers have been remanded to judicial custody, the NIA said adding that further investigation is underway.
Visiongain has published a new report on  European Antibiotics Market 2021-2031. Forecasts by Drug Class (Cephalosporin, Fluoroquinolone, Penicillin, Carbapenem, Macrolide, Sulfonamide, Amino glycoside, 7-AC, Others), Action Mechanism (Protein Synthesis Inhibitors, Cell Wall Synthesis Inhibitors, RNA Synthesis Inhibitors, DNA Synthesis Inhibitors, My colic Acid Inhibitors, Others), Gender (Male, Female), Age (0-14 years, 15-54 years, 55 years and above), Route of Administration (Oral, Intravenous, Others), Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Rest of Europe), PLUS COVID-19 Recovery Scenarios

European antibiotics market size was valued at US$11,484.1million in 2020 and is further expected to reach US$ 14,711.6million in 2026 while growing at a CAGR of 4.18% during the first half of the forecast period i.e., 2021 to 2026. The European market size is further projected to reach US$17,778.6million by 2031 at a CAGR of 3.86% from 2026 to 2031. The overall CAGR for the European antibiotics market is expected to be 4.02% from 2021 to 2031.

Download Exclusive Sample of Report @ https://www.visiongain.com/report/european-antibiotics-market-2021/#download_sampe_div

Key Questions Answered by this Report:

 What is the current size of the overall European Antibiotics market? How much will this market be worth from 2021 to 2031?

 What are the main drivers and restraints that will shape the overall European Antibiotics market over the next ten years?

 What are the main segments within the overall European Antibiotics market ? How much will each of these segments be worth for the period 2021 to 2031? How will the composition of the market change during that time, and why?

 What factors will affect that industry and market over the next ten years?

 What are the largest national markets for the European Antibiotics? What is their current status and how will they develop over the next ten years? What are their revenue potentials to 2031?

 How will market shares of the leading national markets change by 2031, and which geographical region will lead the market in 2031?

 Which are the leading companies and what are their activities, results, developments, and prospects?

 What are the main trends that will affect the European Antibiotics market between 2021 and 2031?

 What are the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the market?

 How will the European Antibiotics market evolve over the forecasted period, 2021 to 2031?

 How will market shares of prominent national markets change from 2021, and which countries will lead the market in 2031, achieving highest revenues and fastest growth?

Story continues

Internationalization Technique Anticipated to Offer Lucrative Growth Prospects for European Antibiotics Market Players

Internationalization is the most known technique used by all companies in the antibiotics supply market. In terms of revenue and activities, most companies operate in multiple countries. Internationalization can also be explained by the fact that diseases that need antibiotic treatment occur in many countries, resulting in related needs on different markets. Furthermore, pharmaceutical firms try to expand into new markets to offset their high fixed costs (for example, R&D if they are dealing with branded/patented drugs, while generics companies have an advantage in selling the same product in different markets because they have fixed costs for producing and releasing their generic products).

COVID-19 Impact Analysis

Almost every country is struggling with the COVID-19 crisis. Most markets are declining as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, which has had a negative impact on a variety of healthcare-related industries. In the future, this pandemic is projected to provide growth prospects for European antibiotics market players owing to rising health awareness coupled with growing government initiatives to tackle the pandemic.

Get Detailed TOC @ https://www.visiongain.com/report/european-antibiotics-market-2021/#download_sampe_div

Growing Demand for Generic Drugs to Offer Lucrative Growth Prospects

European antibiotics is segmented on the basis of drug class into cephalosporin, penicillin, fluoroquinolone, macrolide, carbapenem, aminoglycoside, sulfonamide, 7-ACA. Penicillin segment holds majority of the market share owing to maximum prescription as well as the most generic manufacturers throughout the industry. Furthermore, the growth is anticipated to be fueled by a rise in demand for generic drugs. Generic medications tend to be less expensive than their brand-name counterparts. As a result, demand for generic drugs is surging in the market, thus anticipated to boost the growth of the penicillin segment. According to Visiongain analysis, over the forecast period from 2021 to 2031, fluoroquinolone & cephalosporin segments are anticipated to expand with significant growth rate of 5.68% and 5.50% respectively. The commercialization of new drugs during the forecast period from 2021 to 2031 is anticipated to fuel the growth of these segments.

Competitive Landscape

To strengthen their position in the European antibiotics market, top companies are forming various strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures (JVs), partnerships, collaborations, new product launch, expansion of R&D, distribution, and management facilities among others. For instance, in July 2020, Novartis (Sandoz's generics unit) and the Austrian government announced a US$176 million investment over the next five years to boost antibiotics manufacturing at a Novartis plant in Austria. This is expected to introduce new process technology for producing penicillin APIs across the region. Abbott Laboratories, Allergan (AbbVie Inc.), Cipla Ltd, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis International AG, Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., and Viatris (Mylan).are some of the major players profiled in the report.

Find quantitative and qualitative analyses with independent predictions. Receive information that only our report contains, staying informed with this invaluable business intelligence .

To access the data contained in this document please email contactus@visiongain.com

Information found nowhere else

With our newly report title, you are less likely to fall behind in knowledge or miss out on opportunities. See how our work could benefit your research, analyses, and decisions. Visiongains study is intended for everybody needing commercial analyses for the European Antibiotics Market and leading companies. You will find data, trends and predictions.

Find more research reports on the Pharmaceutical Industry , please click on the following links:

Do you have any custom requirements we can help you with? Any need for a specific country, geo region, market segment or specific company information? Contact us today, we can discuss your needs and see how we can help: sara.peerun@visiongain.com

About Visiongain

Visiongain is one of the fastest growing and most innovative, independent, market intelligence around, the company publishes hundreds of market research reports which it adds to its extensive portfolio each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis across 18 industries worldwide. The reports cover a 10-year forecast, are hundreds of pages long, with in depth market analysis and valuable competitive intelligence data. Visiongain works across a range of vertical markets, which currently can influence one another, these markets include automotive, aviation, chemicals, cyber, defense, energy, food & drink, materials, packaging, pharmaceutical and utilities sectors. Our customized and syndicated market research reports mean that you can have a bespoke piece of market intelligence customized to your very own business needs.

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Independence Day is upon us and amongst the fireworks, sunshine and ice cream, we should take time to reflect on the veterans both active and retired who have served our country. We here at the Cayuga Economic Development Agency want to take a moment to highlight the services that are available for veterans in Cayuga County. In addition to our programs and resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs, there are programs specific to veterans. One such program is the Boots to Business Reboot online workshop being held July 29-30.

Boots to Business Reboot is an entrepreneurial education and training program offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The course provides an overview of entrepreneurship and applicable business ownership fundamentals. Veterans of all eras, active-duty service members (including National Guard and Army Reserve), and spouses are eligible to participate. During Reboot, participants are introduced to the skills, knowledge and resources they need to launch a business, including steps for developing business concepts, how to develop a business plan, and information on SBA resources available to help. The program is facilitated by subject matter experts from the SBA and their extensive network of skilled business advisors. To register for this workshop, please visit sbavets.force.com.
Education

alert

EDUCATION

Survey respondents: Don't change Auburn High School's name

The overwhelming response from a community survey, left, and a student survey was "no" to the Auburn Enlarged City School District's question about whether residents support changing the name of Auburn High School.

Two surveys conducted last month by the Auburn Enlarged City School District on the possibility of renaming the high school both yielded results overwhelmingly in favor of not making any changes.

Results provided to The Citizen in response to a Freedom of Information Law request showed that 78.5% of 1,928 community respondents answered no to the question Are you in favor of changing the name of the high school? An even larger proportion of student responses  82.3% of 718 responses  also said they opposed any new name.

The surveys were conducted as part of the district's process for considering a name change request brought forward in January by a group of high school students, who asked that the board rename the school to honor Harriet Tubman, the historic abolitionist who lived much of her adult life in Auburn.

The district's board of education had established a committee of community volunteers that was going to come up with a recommendation on how to proceed, with the board making a decision in early June. But on May 25, the board voted to pause the process, citing the divisions it was causing in the community and problems with the consideration process.

Kevin Rivoli / Kevin Rivoli, The Citizen Auburn High School

The community survey went live online on May 20, and results were collected through May 31. The district this week also provided the raw data from that survey in response to The Citizen's FOIL request, with redactions to protect respondents' privacy.

An analysis of that data showed two major themes from explanations respondents could provide for being against a renaming. One was the importance of the name Auburn High School for maintaining a sense of community and history. The other related to concerns about the potential cost of any name change.

Of the responses that chose no to any renaming, 31.1% cited one or more of the following terms in the explanation field: cost, expense and money. The district has not provided the public with any estimates on what the name change would cost; the school board had asked the administration to research that question before the early June vote, but then the board has not revisited the issue since the May 25 pause vote.

Another 34.1% cited the words Auburn and community without any reference to the financial concerns. An example of a typical response from that group of explanations: My parents went to Auburn High School, I went to Auburn High School and I want my children to attend Auburn High School. I believe that Auburn High School is a representation of the community."

Among the yes votes from the community survey, the most popular choice among those respondents was to rename the school Harriet Tubman High School, with 91.8% choosing that as one of their top three choices.

Joseph Sheppard, the current school board president who is seeking to retain that leadership post in the district's new fiscal year, said in an interview with The Citizen on Wednesday that since the board resolution in May that paused the renaming consideration, the district is no longer working on the issue and the board's strategic planning committee hasn't been discussing it.

"We've stopped any discussion on it," he said.

Sheppard said last week that he intends to pursue being board president for the next school year at the 2021-22 re-organization meeting July 1. On Wednesday, he said he doesn't currently have an expectation of the issue coming up again if he remains president, but did note that any board member could bring it back.

Auburn board pauses high school renaming process AUBURN  After months of community discourse over possibly renaming Auburn High School, the Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education is pausing the review process.

The only recent related work that has been done on the issue is the district reached out to the Erie 1 BOCES for guidance to develop a new policy on the naming and renaming of any district buildings in order to amend the district's current policy.

The pause was a way for the district to develop a plan to establish strong polices on the process of potentially renaming facilities and "looking at ways to develop community dialogue on matters of building names on matters of diversity, on matters of district equity, on ways that the district can receive better communication from our community, from our constituents," Sheppard said.

If these renaming issues were to be brought up again, he added, he would want a stronger process to be in place. Sheppard said the current policy is "just a shell of something, so we were kind of developing a process as we were going." He added that the district was making changes based on the community input the board was receiving.

Sheppard also said he would want an independent entity to be involved that could dive into these issues with no personal attachments or biases, "to focus the conversation and work with the community and work with the board."

"If this comes forward again, I want to have a solid process in place that involves an outside group monitoring and guiding discussion," he said.

In assessing the results of the district's surveys on the issue, Sheppard said the 2,600 survey responses is a small portion the district's overall population.

"I think the next step should be to have a greater discussion about the issue and to generate focus groups, and to just have a larger, broader discussion," he said. "I think that's the biggest part, is to expand the discussion."

Regarding respondents concerns about potential renaming costs, Sheppard said the district had Lisa Green, its business official, look into its documentation on costs back when East Middle School and West Middle School were merged to form Auburn Junior High School several years ago, as well as when the district's administration building was named after Tubman. But records of those expenses aren't required to be kept beyond seven years, so the district could not find detailed documentation.

Green did reach out to other school comparable districts that did building name changes. The "big ballpark" estimate, Sheppard continued, for a building name change for a small city school district of Auburn's size range from about $750,000 to $1.5 million.

Sheppard said he believes $1.5 million is "a pretty big expense," but noted it's possible those costs could be covered by Auburn's state building aid. At this point, though, the district has not looked into detailed cost figures.

Auburn Superintendent Jeff Pirozzolo on Wednesday said the district was in the process of starting to explore cost estimates specific to Auburn High School when the board voted to pause the undertaking.

Some residents at board meetings in recent months have insisted that any name change be voted on through a public referendum. Pirozzolo said he thinks that could be possible.

"I would imagine it could be an option, if that's what's written into the policy and the policy allows for it, that's one thing that we will have to see and check up with our counsel but I do believe that that could be done," he said.

Pirozzolo also addressed the survey results, thanking the community members and students who gave their feedback. "The community is a important part of this process," he said.
High-speed rail has been a contentious topic, mainly due to the cost needed to construct new lines. In New York, there have been discussions over the years about adding high-speed rail service in upstate New York. But no progress has been made in bringing that to fruition.

But supporters of high-speed rail believe the benefits outweigh the costs of these projects. In their letter to congressional leaders, lawmakers highlighted the job creation necessary for the construction phase and the development that will occur in cities and other communities near rail lines.

The members of Congress noted that a Microsoft study examining the construction of a 250 mph high-speed rail line that would connect Oregon, Washington and British Columbia in Canada would generate an estimated $355 billion in economic benefits  a 10-to-1 return on investment, according to the report.

When President Joe Biden released his infrastructure plan, he included funding for passenger and freight rail. An agreement reached between Democratic and Republican senators would also provide federal funds for rail.

However, the coalition in Congress is requesting a specific carve-out and increased funding for "high-speed rail corridor planning and development grants."
The "Building Bridges" proposal is similar to what Katko and the Problem Solvers Caucus first unveiled in 2018. The central New York congressman shared copies of that proposal when he met with Biden at the White House in March. He distributed an updated version of the plan at a summit organized by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

Biden has made infrastructure a top priority in his first year in office. His proposal is much larger  $4 trillion  and has funding to address other issues, such as child care. While there is Democratic support for Biden's plan, Republicans have balked at the proposal because of its broader definition of infrastructure.

The Problem Solvers Caucus is confident that there is bipartisan support for an infrastructure deal that can pass both houses of Congress.

"We cannot miss this historic opportunity to show the American people that both sides of the aisle can work together to deliver real results for the nation," Fitzpatrick and Gottheimer said. "We look forward to continuing our discussions with the Biden administration in a bipartisan, bicameral manner on this physical infrastructure package to ensure that we can move this across the finish line."

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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"We are encouraged that a federal mediator is involved in the negotiations to assist the parties given the challenging nature of the bargaining unit."

The hospital revealed  and Krause confirmed  that there is an effort to decertify the union. A petition was circulated by some members and submitted to the National Labor Relations Board. Krause said there will be a vote soon and members will decide whether to keep the union.

Employers can't be involved in the process  it's against federal labor law  but the hospital acknowledged that has "been made aware that a number of bargaining unit employees who work in the local doctor's office" are attempting to decertify the union. Krause said 1199SEIU believes the effort is due to management's bargaining tactics.

"We think it's all connected," she said. "Anybody that's been fighting for a first contract for three years is going to be losing hope at this point. We think that dragging on this long was by design."

To educate its members about the contract talks, 1199SEIU will hold informational pickets outside of some Auburn medical offices on Thursday. There are other outreach efforts to update workers.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly  one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.

As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.

An excessive heat warning remained in effect for parts of the interior Northwest and western Canada Thursday.

The death toll in Oregon alone reached 79, the Oregon state medical examiner said Thursday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland.

In Canada, British Columbias chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between Friday and Wednesday afternoon. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.

She said it was too soon to say with certainty how many deaths were heat related, but that it was likely the heat was behind most of them.
The unfavorable view of Cuomo hit a record high in April, at 52 percent, in the midst of allegations ranging from his administration's handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, sexual harassment allegations leveled by multiple women, and a $5 million book deal during the pandemic. His peak favorability was 77 percent in February 2011, his first year in office.

State Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading an investigation into Cuomo and who some view as a potential candidate for governor, remains relatively unknown to New Yorkers. Nearly half of registered voters said they do not know her or have no opinion of her, in line with her recognition throughout the year. About a third of New Yorkers view her favorably, slightly down from earlier this year.

A majority of New Yorkers say they would prefer someone other than Cuomo, if he were to run for governor in 2022. He could also face a challenger in a Democratic primary. The Republican Party's "presumptive nominee" is Suffolk County U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, a former state senator and an ally of former President Donald J. Trump.

Regardless of the leadership, many New Yorkers continue to view the state as on the "right track," according to the poll, with 48 percent saying New York is heading in the right direction and 38 percent finding it's going in the wrong direction. In April 2020, as the pandemic was surging, a Siena Poll indicated 65 percent of New Yorkers believed the state was on the right track  the highest since the college began polling that question in 2005. The lowest confidence was recorded in October at 14 percent.

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Central New York has already had a number of days over 90 degrees and we are only a few days into summer. In our quest to cool off to beat the heat, some people forget about how animals cope with the heat.

Cats and dogs have limited sweat glands compared to humans; they have a few sweat glands in their paws. Additionally they pant to cope with the heat, but that mechanism is not as efficient when the humidity level rises. Small, short-faced breeds such as pugs and Boston terriers have a more difficult time in high temps because of short nasal passages.

The best courses of action to help your pets cope with the heat are to have plenty of fresh cool water available, keep them shaded, if possible provide air conditioning or have a fan running if they are kept indoors. If you have an outdoor dog, make certain the doghouse is out of the sun as much as possible as temps in a doghouse can be stifling. New York state law requires dogs to have adequate/proper shelter during inclement weather and high temps are included.
We are super grateful the forest is closed. Since COVID hit we have been busier than we have ever been in the history of our shop. We are ready for it to slow down, McKendree said.

Even the months that would have typically been considered an off-season for the bike shop remained busy during the pandemic, McKendree added. But the relief from the busy year could be short-lived as bicyclists realize it is the perfect opportunity for a tune-up.

Traditionally, every time they close the forests here there is about a week of it slowing down. We start to play tourist guides, telling people no you cant ride here. McKendree said. And then after that week locals realize it is a good time to get their bike serviced.

And while other business owners have not been as optimistic about the closures, most were supportive of the decision to close the forests even if it meant taking a hit to revenue.

It has certainly been impactful, but we are definitely in support of trusting the emergency folks and we welcome any firefighting efforts or headquartering [near Fort Tuthill], Kent said. When they are around we feel very safe.
As the type 1 incident team prepares to move on, fire managers reported the Rafael Fire at 72% containment.

In a video posted to social media, incident commander Dave Bales thanked everyone who worked on the fire and said his team would be turning management of the fire back over to local officials on Friday morning.

Throughout this event weve received nothing but support from local law enforcement agencies and just the communities of Williams, Flagstaff, Sedona, Camp Verde, Cottonwood; we appreciate everyones support throughout the entire incident, Bales said.

According to fire managers, firefighters continue mop up efforts as they put out hotspots and are prepared to quickly suppress any new fires started by lightning strikes.

On Tuesday, hand crews, with the aid of bucket drops from helicopters, worked in the Mooney Canyon area on a hotspot. Fairly heavy rain fell in the area of Whiting Ranch and a flash flood warning was issued for Sycamore canyon, although no flooding was reported, according to a media release.

Smoke from burning interior fuels will continue to be visible for a few more days. The process of demobilizing crews and equipment will also continue.
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Patrick Walker, who works as a concierge for the apartment building, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he heard a barrage of shots.

Walker was at the building's front desk when he heard the shots and saw police come running through the doors. Employees and others in the lobby tried to find safety, he said.

Walker then saw an officer being carried out by his arms and legs, bleeding so bad, he told the newspaper.

Authorities did not immediately identify the officer or the person who was fatally shot.

Anthony Crawford, a U.S. Army veteran, said he was at a nearby cafe when he heard what sounded like semi-automatic gunfire. His heart started racing.

I just took off running, he said.

He said he later saw the wounded officer taken out on a gurney with his face bandaged. He was sitting upright and responding.

He looked like he was doing alright, he said.
On the other side, defense attorney Todd Lancaster said that was evidence only of an effort to get rid of the body.

"That's all it is. It's not something else depraved with some other heinous intention on the mind of whoever's disposing of that body," he said.

Lancaster said in Nebraska mutilation cases rising to the death penalty have been limited to injuries while the victim still was alive. Not dismemberments after the victim's death, like here.

And he asked the three-judge panel to look with skepticism at statements about torture and killing made months before Loofe's killing that the state was asking them to consider.

"The evidence you're going to hear is obviously going to include statements and behaviors and acts done by Aubrey Trail," Lancaster said. "He is not the person that we are determining that these aggravating factors apply to today. It's the state of mind and actions of Bailey Boswell."

Testimony began with FBI Special Agent Eli McBride and photos of the scenes where Loofe's remains had been scattered in ditches in rural Clay County and by afternoon moved to Dr. Michelle Elieff, the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy and concluded Loofe's death was caused by "homicidal means, including strangulation."
The Nebraska State Patrol released the identity of a 58-year-old man killed in a shooting Tuesday.

The patrol has identified the man as Larry Hunt.

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Morrill County Sheriff Milo Cardenas said officers with the Western Nebraska Intelligence and Narcotics Group (WING) with the assistance of Morrill County Sheriff's Deputies had been serving a warrant at a residence at 123 Second Avenue in Bayard. On Wednesday, the patrol released additional details in a press release alleging Hunt became combative with officers. The officers discharged their firearms striking him. Officers provided immediate medical aid to the subject, and Bayard ambulance personnel transported him to Regional West Medical Center.

Nebraska State Patrol Troop E Capt. Kurt Von Minden said a special investigations team, with investigators assigned from throughout the state, has been assigned, as occurred recently when a shooting involving law enforcement officers occurred in Scottsbluff. Neighbors reported seeing Nebraska State Patrol officers arriving via helicopter at a park near the home Tuesday afternoon.

How long the perimeter remains in place and the scene sealed depends on the investigation, Von Minden said. Investigators were mapping the area and collecting evidence.
"Stay sober, because unruly and intoxicated behavior will only earn you a spot with the jailbirds rather than enjoying the beauty and adventure of Yellowstone.
ATLANTA (AP)  State law officers on Thursday identified the man who they say opened fire on two Atlanta police officers, hitting one of them in the face and shoulder, when their elevator opened in an apartment building where they were responding to a previous shooting.

Joseph Lee Humbles, 29, of Atlanta was killed when the officers returned fire Wednesday afternoon in the citys Midtown area in an attack the city's mayor described as an ambush on the officers.

The wounded officer, Khuong Thai, remained in stable condition at a hospital, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said at a Thursday briefing.

He's in better spirits even today," Bryant said Thursday.

When the chief visited with Thai a few hours after the shooting, he was sedated but able to speak with him and others. Thai has been on the force for about two years, Bryant said.

On Thursday, Bryant said Thai was shot twice  once in the face and also in the shoulder.
Some of the harshest critics called for Rashad to be removed from her post, saying her apparent indifference to serial sexual assault allegations made her unfit for a position of authority over students.

Jelani Cobb, a Columbia University journalism professor and frequent New Yorker magazine contributor, tweeted directly to Howard University, bluntly stating: This person should not be a Dean.

Rashad's support for Cosby is not new. She had publicly defended him during his years-long legal battles. But the rise of the #Metoo movement and her new position at a prominent educational institution have contributed to the intense backlash as Cosby goes free.

Hours after her tweet Wednesday, Rashad sent out a clarification, stating her sympathy for all survivors of sexual assault but not mentioning Cosby or his case.

I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth," she wrote. "Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.
For BLM to go along with APRs extremist proposal would be a radical departure from historic use of our public lands, he wrote in an email. BLM rangeland by law is reserved for livestock grazing, but APR has made it clear they have no intent to run their bison herd as livestock. Its clear BLM would be violating the Taylor Grazing Act if they approve APRs plan.

Likewise, the Montana Stockgrowers Association expressed disapproval of the preliminary decision.

We feel many of the request changes in the draft have significant resource impacts and have not been fully vetted or analyzed by the BLM, said Jim Steinbeisser, MSGA president.

Modified

APRs request for the change, along with a proposal to modify the permits season of use and to allow the reconstruction or removal of fences, was submitted to the BLM in 2019. That proposal was a reduction from an original application that sought year-round grazing across 290,000 acres. The first APR proposal drew more than 2,400 comments, prompting the group to make changes in an attempt to reduce locals concerns, while at the same time proving bison are not a problem.
State and federal wildlife authorities are seeking who is responsible for cutting the head and paws off a grizzly bear that may have drowned and washed up on a gravel bar in the Yellowstone River north of Gardiner in mid-June.

It could have been a purposeful take, or half innocent not knowing about the illegality, said Kevin Frey, FWP wildlife management specialist based in Bozeman. Theres a lot of interest in having the skull or claws off them.

Possession of grizzly bear parts, since it is protected under the Endangered Species Act, is a violation of federal law. That means investigators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are involved.

The 25-year-old male bear was a known Yellowstone National Park resident, having been captured and tagged with the number 394.

Gardiner sculptor George Bumann heard about the dead bear from a rafting guide and boated to the site to take measurements for his artwork. On June 11, he posted on his website a blog about the bear, along with several photos of its claws, paws and worn-down canine teeth, taking care to not identify where the bear was located.
Noem said the drought, which she declared a state of emergency for earlier this week, is extremely concerning.

She said the Black Hills have probably received the most moisture this year, but the rest of the state is devastated by the lack of moisture.

Our ranchers are facing a decision within the next week or two on whether they need to sell whole herds of cattle, she said. A lot of farmers are cutting small grains for feed and selling it, and their corn and soybeans are drying up, too. Theyre a week or two away from losing everything and Id encourage everybody to pray for rain and to reach out to federal offices.

Noem said the state is working to remove restrictions for hay hauling and ditch mowing to get through the difficult time together. She said there are also a number of federal disaster programs available for farmers and ranchers.

Kools said her yard has been pretty dry, but knows nothing would probably happen if a fireworks show were held at Mount Rushmore and that precautions would be taken.

She said she agrees with Noem that she has the right over President Joe Biden to decide whats best for her state.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  The grim toll of the historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest became more apparent as authorities in Canada, Oregon and Washington state said Wednesday they were investigating hundreds of deaths likely caused by scorching temperatures that shattered all-time records in the normally temperate region.

British Columbias chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between Friday and Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the Canadian province over a five-day period.

While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather, LaPointe said in a statement.

Many homes in Vancouver, much like Seattle, dont have air conditioning, leaving people ill-prepared for soaring temperatures.

"Vancouver has never experienced heat like this, and sadly dozens of people are dying because of it, Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Addison said in a statement.
The first cutting of the alfalfa hay crop is about half complete -- slightly ahead of the average pace -- and more than half of the crop continues to be rated poor or very poor. Only 10% of the crop is rated in good condition.

The weekly report rates 66% of topsoil moisture and 78% of subsoil moisture in North Dakota as being short or very short of moisture -- both slight improvements from the previous week.

Forty-four percent of the state's staple spring wheat crop is rated in poor or very poor condition, down 6% over the week. About one-fourth of the corn crop and one-third of the soybean crop remain in those categories.

Farmers and ranchers during recent drought meetings hosted by state and federal officials have spoken of wheat that is only 3 inches tall but already heading out. The head is where the grain kernels form.

"Any time you have growth that's that minimal, your yield is going to be tied to it," said Tyler Kralicek, agriculture and natural resources agent in Burleigh County for North Dakota State University Extension.

"The healthiness of the plant is severely diminished when it's that tall," he said. "Whatever grain development you're going to have is going to be minimal, as well."
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  Gov. Kristi Noem's administration is guiding law enforcement officers not to honor Native American tribes' medical marijuana identification cards if they are not issued to tribe members.

The guidance, released by the South Dakota Highway Patrol just hours before the voter-approved medical marijuana law took effect Thursday, sets up a potential conflict between prosecutors and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, which has set up the state's first marijuana dispensary and plans to issue medical cannabis ID cards to anyone with a certified medical condition, the Argus Leader reported.

People seeking medical cannabis ID cards in South Dakota currently only have the option to obtain one from a Native American tribe because the state will not begin issuing ID cards until November.

However, the Highway Patrol's guidance also states that troopers should not arrest people who have no more than three ounces of pot if they have an ID card from another state or can show a statement from a doctor certifying they have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition. While the guidance only officially applies to the Highway Patrol, it encouraged other law enforcement officers to follow it to promote consistency in enforcing the state's new laws on medical marijuana.
Separately, his family's philanthropy, Willis and Reba Johnson's Foundation, typically gives $1 million or more a year to churches and charities  including so-called abortion alternative services, disclosures show.

According to U.S. Defense officials and tax experts, his foundation's donation to South Dakota is highly unorthodox but permissible.

As South Dakota's governor, Noem has the legal authority to send her troops to Texas on state-activated duty, funded by the state, the defense officials said. The two states are also working within an existing emergency pact that allows them to send guard troops to each other when needed. Once in Texas, the South Dakota Guard troops would be under the Texas governors authority.

Officials said that the private funding given to South Dakota did not go directly to the National Guard. Instead it goes into the state treasury, and the state has wide latitude over how the money can be spent. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations on state matters.

The White House said the use and funding of the National Guard was the governors prerogative. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
Whether or not we view taxation as having moral downsides and bearing a moral weight has significant implications for the proper size of government and can make a world of difference in public policy decisions. []

As Congress works on a $6 trillion spending bill that would be funded by higher taxes and increasing the national debt, Americans should be asking themselves: When is taxation morally permissible?

Taxation is justified only when the moral benefits of the programs these tax dollars fund outweigh the moral costs, or downsides. Taxation has Moral weight, by which I mean it requires good justification in order to be morally permissible. Laying off an employee is another example of an action with moral weight: Sometimes it is morally permissible or even right to lay off an employee, but only when done after a cautious and solemn analysis of the moral costs involved.

Whether or not we view taxation as having moral downsides and bearing a moral weight has significant implications for the proper size of government and can make a world of difference in public policy decisions.

Here are three often overlooked reasons why taxation has a moral weight.

First, taxation infringes private property rights. In most cases, it coerces people to turn over their property against their will. It forcibly takes what rightfully belongs to someone, whether that money was earned through ones own labor or received as a gift. For this reason, while taxation is not morally equivalent to theft, it is fair to call taxation a cousin of theft. The same moral problem we have with theft should lead us to use taxation cautiously.

Second, taxation has a large opportunity cost. People use their money to take care of their families, pursue their passions and dreams, and donate to charities they support. The more money the government takes from someone, the less that person has to pursue these ends. Taxes are usually supposed to fund services that provide a fair amount of value back to the taxpayer. But a moral analysis of taxation should consider not just the value gained through government expenditures, but the value that would have been gained if that money had not been taken. If the government took less money, more would be given to charities, reinvested in businesses, and spent in our communities.

Third, taxation violates freedom of conscience. Regardless of who you are, there are likely government expenditures that you disagree with on moral grounds. Controversial government expenditures have included wars in the Middle East, construction of a Mexico-United States border wall, funding of Planned Parenthood, and Guantanamo Bay. The point here is not that these expenditures are in fact immoral. Rather, because a large percentage of taxpayers deeply believe these expenditures are immoral, these uses of tax dollars violate many Americans rights of conscience.

Suppose Abigail pickpockets Amirs wallet. This is an immoral action. But now suppose that Amir is a devout Muslim who believes that pork consumption is immoral, and that Abigail donates the money in Amirs wallet to a pork lobby. Doing this would make Abigails action even more objectionable. The government likewise bears an additional moral weight when it spends tax revenue on expenditures that violate many of its citizens ethical or religious beliefs.

These reasons show that while taxation is sometimes necessary and morally permissible, it should only be implemented after a careful moral analysis of the tradeoffs involved. This understanding should drive a conversation on reforming the tax system.

Consumption taxes and lotteries, each with their own problems, seek to reduce the involuntary nature of taxation and thereby solve the first moral weight discussed. Taxing the rich is often proposed to reduce the second moral weight, since the richer someone is, the less utility they will generally derive from additional money. Reconsidering highly controversial government programs may reduce the third moral weight.

No tax system, however, can entirely avoid the three moral issues discussed. A moral government will therefore tax its citizens only to fund expenditures with necessity and moral worth that outweigh the moral weight on the other side of the scale.
A Midsummer Nights Walk takes groups of 25 patrons through various locations in Delaware Park to see selected scenes from Shakespeares romantic comedy, A Midsummer Nights Dream. The show has been produced with affable charm and energy, ingeniously disguising the fact that the idea was born of a crisis.

This is Shakespeare in Delaware Parks playfully inventive response to the uncertainty of the pandemic. Staging full productions of Shakespeare is expensive and takes about a year. The cost of assembling the outdoor stage, alone, is breathtaking. Last summer the venerable festival was obliged to derail its season, except for an evening of small excerpts from Shakespeares plays. With news from the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization changing by the hour, it seemed wise to prepare for any contingency.

And so, Shakespeare in Delaware Park devised this variation on its usual format, taking advantage of their Delaware Park setting and creating a special experience for smaller groups who could be masked or unmasked as the protocols required.
As I stood there above the river, that duality took on a visceral form. A presence.

There was a moment. The rational mind might have insisted otherwise. But there was a moment. In a flash, I felt the power of the land and the presence of those who had passed through it. Not in some Hallmark Channel, neatly wrapped-with-a-bow manner. But through a strong and deep mini-epiphany that was both exhilarating and profoundly sad.

A location-aware experience

Last summer, Artpark became one of the few venues in the region to find a way to engage its audience during the thick of the pandemic, when social distancing and reduced capacity were mandatory realities. Part of that summers unique programming included a collaboration with genre-bending composers and multimedia artists the Holladay Brothers, renowned for their forward-looking work in the world of location-aware musical compositions that employ GPS technology to curate experiences for listeners tailored to their geographic surroundings.

Dubbed Cover the Water, the location-specific, ever-morphing ambient composition accompanies the listener on a lengthy trek through trails that mirror the snaking path of the Niagara River.
WKBW-TV (Channel 7) anchor Keith Radford reacted to a video tribute from his co-workers on his final day at the station Wednesday in a typical self-deprecating manner.

Are you sure this is me all those people are talking about? Radford joked to co-anchor Ashley Rowe, who presided over the 30-minute celebration of his almost 34-year career at Eyewitness News.

The celebration started with Rowes interview with Radford in which he illustrated the same "Whats all-the-fuss-about?" manner as he did in my interview with him published Sunday.

The camera loved him, proclaimed Rowe, referring to his early days in TV.

Thats because he was the same in front of the cameras as he was off camera.

Rowe led Radford down memory lane. As he did with me, Radford teared up talking about the late Jason Dunham of Scio, a Medal of Honor recipient who covered a grenade with his body to save the lives of fellow Marines in 2004.

The prerecorded interview was the only time Radford teared up on a night in which he anchored his final newscast at 5:30 p.m. in the same professional manner that he has in 33-plus years. In other words, he exhibited his work ethic right up to the minute the celebration began at 6 p.m.
In a typical year, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz would host his annual State of the County address in a large, public auditorium and invite elected officials and community leaders to join him as he reviewed the county's accomplishments and new priorities.

But, as with everything else, this is not a typical year. So as the county emerges from the Covid-19 crisis, this year's State of the County address looks very different.

Instead of hosting a full-house event in the auditorium of the Buffalo History Museum, Burchfield-Penney Art Center or Buffalo Museum of Science, as he has done in past years, Poloncarz's State of the County address is prerecorded and posted to YouTube for today's release.

Instead of standing up on stage before a PowerPoint presentation at the Albright-Knox auditorium, like he did in 2019  the last time he held a live State of the County event  Poloncarz opted for a 19-minute video, complete with piano music, photo cut-ins and animated graphics.
The night before Quentin Suttles was sentenced to four years in prison on a gun possession charge, a party was held to send him off.

Byron Brown can't overcome India Walton after absentee ballots counted Walton picked up 505 absentee votes, while Brown had 1,002, according to the Erie County Board of Elections, which counted the absentees today.

Suttles' name was one of those evoked amid Black Lives Matter protests in Buffalo last year after video circulated on social media of him being punched by a Buffalo police officer during an arrest while he was out on the gun charge.

But it wasn't Suttles who got all the attention at his party Sunday night. Some of it went to his cousin India Walton.

Walton five days earlier had stunned Buffalo's political establishment and became a national figure when she defeated four-time incumbent Mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic primary.

Walton said she stopped by the party to show her support for a family member facing a difficult situation.

"My reputation in this community is one of helping and of care, OK? And I wanted to stop by to let his girlfriend know that she has support in the community and I wanted him to keep his head up and make the best use of the time that he has to sit, get some skills, stay out of trouble, and be prepared to come home and be great and take care of his family and his children," Walton told The Buffalo News.

Walton said she would have gone to the party regardless of what happened in the primary.

"These are people that I grew up with and my responsibility first is to my community, and that is where politics ends with me," she said.

Walton, whose victory has made her a hero of the progressive movement, has made it clear that she is no ordinary politician.

A self-proclaimed democratic socialist who vows to "put people first," she said her life  growing up poor on the East Side, being a single mother of four boys, being a nurse and a community organizer and having firsthand experience being arrested by Buffalo police  has prepared her for this moment as she faces a write-in campaign from an emboldened Brown in the general election on Nov. 2.

"I wasn't surprised. We planned for this. We knew that he wasn't going to go down quietly ...," she said.

As Brown officially announced his plans for the write-in effort, interest in Walton's past has grown. Walton, who has promised a transparent campaign and administration, answered a broad range of questions about her life in an interview with The News at her campaign office on Jefferson Avenue.

Pregnant in high school

Walton, whose maiden name is India Suttles, was born in Buffalo. She was one of six children being raised by her mother. She attended elementary school at the former Lincoln Academy on Broadway and later Loraine Elementary School in South Buffalo, and said she finished with a nearly perfect grade point average.

"I've always been intelligent, but oftentimes my smarts got the best of me," she said.

Walton said she was a freshman at Leonardo da Vinci High School when she got pregnant.

"It slowed me down. It saved my life. It made me a lot more thoughtful about the decisions that I was making because they affected someone who was completely dependent upon me and my success for their own life," Walton said.

Walton said she decided that she didn't want her or her baby to be a burden on her family, so she voluntarily moved into a home for teenage mothers at Our Lady of Victory.

"I was able to attend school and know that my child was well taken care of," Walton said.

She lived there for two years and then faced a decision: either go to school full time or drop out and work full time to support her child while getting a GED.

She opted for the latter.

She was working on that GED when she got pregnant by her now ex-husband. When she was 24 weeks pregnant with twins, she was in a car crash and went into premature labor, she said. Both of her babies weighed less than 2 pounds at birth and spent six months in the old Children's Hospital on Bryant Street.

But the experience as a mother of prematurely born children led to a life-changing decision for her: She said she received kindness and support, but at the same time saw how poor people of color can be treated differently in the health care system.

"I felt a lot of times like I was not a member of my child's care team, that decisions were made without consulting me or without fully explaining what was happening," she said.

A trusted nurse told her that if she didn't like what she was experiencing, she should herself become a nurse.

Arrested at work

Walton enrolled in courses through BOCES to become a licensed practical nurse. When she completed that program, she took a job as a pediatric home care nurse and went back to school at Erie Community College to become a registered nurse with plans to work in Children's Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She was hired as an RN in January 2008.

But Walton said she resigned from the job following a series of tumultuous events around 2014.

"I was in the process of leaving my husband," she said.

Walton said she was being bullied on social media by co-workers at the hospital, one woman in particular.

"I told her that we are professionals and we're adults and if she wanted to have a conversation we should do it in person and not via social media," Walton said. A short time later, Walton took a leave of absence because she was going on disability for surgery, she said.

"When I came back to work, I found out that she had filed for an order of protection," Walton said.

The notification for Walton to appear in court on the matter had been mailed  unbeknownst to her  to her soon-to-be ex-husband's home, Walton said. A warrant was issued for her arrest for failing to show up.

Walton said she went to the human resources office at Children's Hospital.

"I was arrested. I was humiliated. I've never been arrested and I was put in a jail cell until I was able to see a judge later on that day," she said.

Buffalo police records show she was arrested June 27, 2014, on a warrant for a violation, second-degree harassment for physical contact. Walton denies touching the woman who accused her of the harassment.

The woman did not return a phone call from The News.

"I just wanted it to go away, so I took an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal and I went about my business," Walton said. Erie County records show no criminal convictions on her record.

Resigns from nursing

She then went to work as a nurse in the Buffalo Public Schools, which had a contract with Kaleida Health.

In 2017, Walton said she was on an approved family leave from the job to take care of one of her sons when she was invited to a conference about community organizing that was being held in Spain.

"So I called my sister and I asked her to look after my child while I went to Barcelona for three days for a professional development opportunity. Kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, right? Young girl who grew up on the East Side, and I get a chance to attend an international conference about how to make the place I live better and learn from some of the best in the field. I kind of didn't want to pass it up," she said.

When Kaleida officials learned about the trip, Walton said she was threatened with termination and a union representative suggested she resign, which Walton said she did.

She said leaving the job "felt like it was a blessing because it allowed me to pursue what I really wanted to do and that was work on policy and be able to impact my community at a broader scale."

Kaleida Health confirmed Walton worked for the network as a registered nurse, but a spokesman would not comment on the allegations.

Food stamp fraud alleged

In 2015, she heard about a new program offered by Open Buffalo, a nonprofit dedicated to social and economic justice issues called "Emerging Leaders" that taught people how to be community organizers. She applied and was accepted to the four-month program.

"It had huge impact on my life," Walton said.

She would go on to teach the class and then worked on criminal justice reform, police transparency and accountability and legalization of adult use of marijuana through Open Buffalo.

She also became involved in the Fruit Belt community and became the founding executive director of the Fruit Belt Community Land Trust "to develop permanently affordable housing," according to her campaign website.

Walton faced some financial issues early in her life. Erie County records show she was accused of food stamp fraud in 2004 and paid back $295, and a $749 state tax lien was placed on her and her ex-husband in 2008, as first reported Tuesday by WKBW.

Walton said that in the past, she prepared her taxes herself because she couldn't afford an accountant.

"At age 22 I made an honest mistake filing my taxes that resulted in a penalty that I promptly paid off. Additionally, when I was receiving food stamps, I was overpaid and had my wages garnished to pay back the difference," she said.

She added that those are the kind of financial issues many people in Buffalo face all the time.

"We understand just how expensive it can be to be poor in this country. I ran for mayor to make it easier for working people to get by and so that residents of Buffalo dont have to struggle like I did," Walton said.

The campaign ahead

Walton knows the next four months will not be easy, but she knows she has support.

Monday, after Brown's announcement about his write-in effort, her campaign raised close to $40,000 in new donations from around the country.

Tuesday afternoon, a crowd approaching about 100 people gathered at a rally in Niagara Square, right in front of City Hall. "India! India! India!" they chanted.

"I think that our campaign slogan  "Real, resilient and ready"  these things that are coming out that are meant to be used against me, it's proof that I am real," she said. "I am definitely resilient, and I am ready. I'm prepared to take on the challenges that the majority of Buffalonians are facing, and I'm not going to back down, I'm not going to cower and I'm not ashamed. These are conversations that more of us should be having."

News staff reporter Patrick Lakamp contributed to this article.

Maki Becker

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The Village of Williamsville is seeking input from residents about its waterfront plans along Ellicott Creek.

The village's Waterfront Advisor Committee will conduct the sessions in preparation of Williamsville's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, which intends to "enable waterfront communities to evaluate land use and waterfront resources and develop a comprehensive strategy to effectively manage and protect those resources," according to a release.

The village will hold three outreach sessions on Saturdays during the summer, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 10, Aug. 7 and Sept. 11, near the front of Village hall, 5565 Main St. The sessions are being held in conjunction with the weekly Williamsville Farmers Market, held next door in the parking lot of the Williamsville library.

The village said the outreach will give it an opportunity to provide information about Williamsville's LWRP, while also gathering feedback from the community about ideas to improve the waterfront along the Ellicott Creek corridor.

"The goal is to develop a local program that effectively protects important resources along Ellicott Creek and recognizes opportunities for public improvements," according to a news release.
Among the examples cited in FINRA's settlement was the suicide of a 20-year-old customer last year. A note found after his death said he was confused about how he could have used borrowed money to trade when he thought he had turned off that feature. The day before he died, Robinhood showed the customer that his cash balance was negative $730,165.72, when it was actually negative $365,530.60.

FINRA said he was one of more than 800,000 customers that Robinhood allowed to make certain kinds of trades that could automatically trigger the use of borrowed money, even if they had turned off the ability to trade on margin." He was also an example of the more than 135,000 customers where Robinhoods website and mobile app gave inaccurate numbers for their cash balances from December 2019 to June 2020.

FINRA also accused Robinhood of using approval bots, with only limited oversight, to decide whether to allow customers to trade options. Such trades can be riskier than simply buying stocks, with the potential for quicker and bigger losses. FINRA said those bots often approved customers based on inconsistent or illogical information." They gave the OK to some customers who were younger than 21 but also said they had more than three years of experience in trading options, for example.
Is Chris Jacobs a man utterly without conviction? Like a feather in a hurricane, he blows with the political winds, oblivious to principle.

In December, the Orchard Park Republican rightly declined to support an insane Republican lawsuit meant to steal the election from Joe Biden who, as even Donald Trumps former attorney general, Bill Barr, acknowledged this week, actually won.

Only weeks later, he reversed himself and voted not to certify electors for Biden, siding instead with the insurrectionists who had just overrun Capitol in an effort to intimidate Congress into doing as Trump wanted.

That people died didnt matter to Jacobs.

In May, he surprised many by voting with just 34 other House Republicans to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection. The measure died in the Senate, where Republicans filibustered the bill. They didnt think the attempted overthrow of the government was worth their time.

This week, Jacobs reversed himself again, this time voting against the creation of a bipartisan House committee that will be charged with doing what the proposed independent committee would have done: Digging into the roots of the lethal assault on the nations Capitol. Why wouldnt Republicans want to do that?
Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw, a Republican who never misses a chance to criticize a Democrat, called Chimeras situation an example of a corrupt, double-dipping system.

In reality, double dipping would be if Chimera could collect her teachers pension and a pension from the Legislature after leaving that body, but state law prohibits that. Chimera was advised by state pension administrators to make use of the loophole by resigning from the Legislature and she was fully transparent in her resignation letter.

Chimera would not have faced such a quandary if her new job was with a private employer that did not do business with New York State. In that scenario there would be no restrictions on her earnings while she continued to collect her teaching pension.

The News story pointed out that a Republican member of the Chautauqua County Legislature made a similar move to collect his state pension after retiring from his job as an aide in the State Senate. Kevin Muldowney resigned in February of last year, then was reappointed to the same job the next month. He also needed to temporarily resign from his job as a part-time assessor for the Town of Pomfret. Muldowney won re-election to the County Legislature seat last November.
How to Get Better Sleep

How to Sleep Like a Rock

The AskMen editorial team thoroughly researches & reviews the best gear, services and staples for life. AskMen may get paid if you click a link in this article and buy a product or service.

Product photos from retailer sites.

The old message was that you need eight hours of sleep each night, no matter who you are. The new message? Its more nuanced.

Recent research shows a wide range of true sleep needs in the United States: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society officially recommend that most healthy adults get between seven to nine hours of sleep per night. However, there are always exceptions, with some people needing a bit more or less.

So how can you know your own sleep need?

It starts with paying closer attention. Ideally over time you can figure out the usual number of hours you get in a 24-hour period. If you can sustain that number, the next question is, How do you feel when youre getting that number?

I would say the vast majority of people in this country have no idea what their sleep need is, says Donn Posner PhD., president of Sleepwell Consultants and an adjunct clinical associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The reason? Sleep insufficiency. To get a true read on your natural sleep need, you must give yourself adequate opportunity to sleep. Sleep has to be important, because every living animal on the planet down to insects sleep, and sleep is dangerous from an evolutionary standpoint, so it must confer something essential. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing it, says Posner, a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a founding member of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine.

Whats more, a recent Northwestern University study found that deep sleep has an ancient, restorative power to clear waste, such as potentially toxic proteins, from the brain. Waste clearance could be important for maintaining brain health or for preventing neurogenerative disease, according to the studys authors.

That said, insomnia, as a reaction to stress, also played an important part in our evolutionary history, simply because sleep puts us in such a vulnerable position. As a stress response, not sleeping is normal. Its over time that insomnia becomes a problem, one that can sneak up on us.

RELATED: Sleep Apnea: What It Is And How To Treat It

What Is Insomnia?

Possibly the most crucial piece of the sleep puzzle is defining the term insomnia.

To truly understand what it is, you first need to know that there are two types of insomnia, chronic and acute, notes Posner.

Lets start with chronic insomnia. There are a few layers to identifying it:

What it is

Associated symptoms

Frequency

Duration

What It Is: Chronic insomnia is trouble getting to sleep, maintaining sleep or waking too early.

Associated Symptoms: Insomnia really should be thought of as a 24-hour problem, not just a nighttime problem, says Posner. As a result of having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, insomnia brings on associated symptoms that can show up in different ways such as feeling fatigued, experiencing concentration issues, memory problems, proneness for errors, stomach upset or headaches. If none of those things exists, you don't have insomnia even if you're not sleeping in the middle of the night, says Posner.

Frequency: It doesnt stop there. A troublesome combination of the events above needs to take place at a frequency of more than three days per week.

Duration: Once youre experiencing three or more nights of problems each week, with associated daytime symptoms for more than three months  thats chronic insomnia.

So what about acute insomnia? Same as the above, but for three months or less.

Acute insomnia can be caused by any kind of stressor, good or bad. This includes jet lag, a tight deadline at work, or having a new partner in bed. All of that is normal and what you hope is that when the stressor remits, you adapt to it or you treat it and the insomnia goes away, says Posner.

The problem is once the insomnia is chronic, it is no longer likely to go away when the stressor remits. Its taken on a life of its own. Thats when most people try to self-treat and begin leaning on compensatory behaviors like sleeping in, missing work, and using substances, all of which throw off their natural sleep factors so much that the insomnia keeps going year after year.

When Is It Time to Seek Help for Insomnia?

You should seek help after one or two weeks, says Posner. I've always said we should have a series of public service announcements out there that says, Don't let this linger. We should treat acute insomnia just like an infection.

Normally, insomnia is treated more like pain than an infection.

The root cause is sought out first and things like medication are prescribed on an as-needed basis. But according to Posner, the ideal is to act fast, before you start to develop compensatory behaviors, and head off chronic insomnia before it has a chance to settle.

I'm not trying to scare anybody. When you start thinking about all the terrible things that sleep deprivation will do to you over time, that's really long term stuff, says Posner. You're not developing Alzheimer's this year because you didn't sleep all year long. The idea is not to panic, but also not to let this go.

If your sleep problems are getting in the way of your daily functioning, you should seek medical help, says Rajkumar (Raj) Dasgupta, MD. Dr. Raj is the Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

What to Say to Your Doctor If You Cant Sleep

So what do you do if this is you? Start with your primary care physician, but ask for a referral to a sleep specialist, says Posner. He suggests saying, "I've got a sleep problem and I don't want to just get on sleeping pills. Who are the specialists that you send people to?"

If you want to do the research on your own, you can visit the Society for Behavioral Sleep Medicine or SleepEducation.org to find a behavioral sleep specialist or a sleep center near you. You do not automatically need to undergo an overnight sleep study for insomnia, Posner adds.

Whats important is being assessed by a sleep physician at a sleep center.

How to Maintain a Good Nights Sleep

Wake up on a schedule: For these people who are already sleeping well, the number one way to keep doing that is to wake up at the same time, at least five days a week, says Posner. Wake time is the anchor, not bedtime. Light exposure is how you set your internal clock. This is why when people start getting up at different times, they feel jetlagged; a common issue during COVID when rigid work schedules suddenly became relaxed.

Dasgupta suggests maintaining good sleep hygiene by making sleep a priority during the work week. Catching up on your sleep during the weekend may not be enough to stave off the effects of sleep loss, he says.

Eat regularly: Next is to have the same number of meals at roughly the same time each day. When you're going to bed at night, your brain is going to ask, How many meals were there? Is it bedtime yet? says Posner.

RELATED: What Is a Sleep Divorce?

Exercise around the same time each day: Exercise is the same as meals. It should fall at roughly the same time each day.

Separate night from day: Finally, nighttime should be marked. Two hours before bedtime, keep electronic use to a minimum and use blue light filters, says Posner.

Blue light inhibits the body from naturally falling asleep and further impacts sleep quality, says Dasgupta. He recommends turning off electronics 3060 minutes before bedtime, silencing your notifications, and charging your devices away from your bed so you are not tempted to look at social media or news alerts.

Many people keep their cell phones or televisions on overnight, he says. This can be highly distracting.

At least one hour before bedtime stop working and do quieter activities that relax you. This last part is important. If watching the evening news stresses you out, this is not the time to do it.

How to Get Better Sleep If Youre Having Trouble

Dont Compensate: Once trouble has begun, dont compensate for a bad nights sleep, says Posner.

This is precisely when you need to buckle down; Getting up at your normal wake time is more important than ever. Of course your instinct after a bad nights sleep is to sleep in; the very type of compensatory behavior that causes you to throw off your circadian rhythm. Posners advice: Get up at the same time regardless of how you slept.

Don't Alter Your Schedule: People with chronic insomnia start to say, I had a lousy night last night. I can't get that report done today because I'll probably screw it up, says Posner. But when they go to bed the next night, they have more work on their plate, which stresses them.

Get Out of Bed: If you are lying awake the next night, get out of bed. You should never be in bed more than 20 minutes awake. Dont read, write, eat or watch TV in bed, says Dasgupta.

Instead of dwelling on the fact that you cant sleep, get up and do a relaxing activity someplace else. If anybody is on their sofa watching TV and it's hard for them to stay awake and then they get into bed and they're wide awake, that's called conditioned insomnia, says Posner. Because you've spent so many hours in bed in misery, you've conditioned your bed to become a trigger for sleeplessness.

Watch Your Substances: Your time out of bed does not include turning to any beloved substances. Alcohol might make you drowsy, but it will wear off in the middle of the night and fragment sleep. Nicotine is a stimulant, so try not to smoke two hours before bed or in the middle of the night if possible.

In the morning, caffeine is okay, but remember that it has a half-life of five to six hours. Dont drink coffee after lunch, says Dasgupta. It can lead to tossing and turning all night.

Dont Force It: If you can't sleep, do not try to force it. Your body isnt betraying you. Remember that acute insomnia is a normal response to stress, says Posner. It's a call to arms.

Are Any Products Helpful for Beating Insomnia?

Posner does not recommend any special products, due to the rhythm of insomnia. Remember the definition of three or more days a week, he says. Even chronic insomnia has a pattern of a few bad nights followed by a good one. This will be the case no matter what products you use, which means everything will seem to work sometimes.

Dasgupta shared a similar message. If someone finds that a weighted blanket or special earplugs help them fall asleep, they can feel free to use them! he says. Otherwise, theres no reason someone would require additional products other than a comfortable bed in a bedroom that is cool and quiet.

The most important thing to do is seek specialized help. According to a recent survey by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, more than half of Americans say they have experienced an increase in sleep disturbances since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, yet, only 20% of people indicated that they would contact a sleep center to address a sleep disorder.

Sleep hygiene is like dental hygiene, says Posner. It's brushing and flossing. But once you get a cavity, all the brushing and flossing in the world isn't going to fix the cavity.

Our Favorite Sleep Aids

No one product will cure your insomnia, but there are a few options that people have found consistently helpful over the years, from special drinks to favorite blankets. Here are some of the best options you can use to prepare yourself for a good nights sleep:

Best Sleep Tea

Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Extra

The right tea can help you relax before bed time, and the actual act of drinking it can become a ritual that prepares your mind for rest. We love Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Extra, which is blended with both chamomile and valerian root (long used as a natural sleep aid). It tastes delicious and helps soothe your body before bedtime.

Promising Review: I drink one of these every night. I have terrible insomnia and it takes me hours to fall asleep. Then I don't stay asleep. I drink this a few hours before bed and I find I fall asleep way faster, sometimes only an hour or two after lying down, which is wonderful. Along with a weighted blanket and a sleep mask, the combo is really helping me sleep and get better sleep. I also don't know if it's related, but I haven't had a cold or anything all year, and it's December now.  P. Ferdinand

$20.28 at Amazon.com

Best Weighted Blanket

Waowoo Weighted Blanket (15lbs)

Why do weighted blankets work? Theres no clear explanation yet, but people have advanced many probable ones: the comforting sensation they provide, the sense of restricted movement, or even the security of feeling tucked in to a greater degree. Still, not all weighted blankets are equal. Waowoos offering provides weight and support without overheating you, thanks to the premium fabrics and multi-layered construction.

Promising Review: This blanket is so nice!!! I tend to get cold easily at night and everyone else likes to keep the house cool, so I needed a big heavy blanky to crawl under when Im freezing. I really didnt expect the material to be this soft. The weight is really evenly distributed, like its sewn into place and will not bunch up over time. I like that the case it came in is reusable for storage too during the hottest parts of summer when it will go under the bed.  Chel

$39.99 at Amazon.com

Best Sleep Mask

Unimi Sleep Mask 3D

Ideally, your bedroom will be a quiet, pitch-black place, since light and sound both keep your brain alert and interfere with your natural sleep rhythms. But we dont live in an ideal world. If you like in a city, chances are good youve got a lot of light bleeding into your apartment, even in the early hours of the morning. The solution is a high-quality sleep mask, and Unimis offering fits the bill. Its glass bead interior keeps your face relaxed, even through long hours of wearing, while the 3D design doesnt agitate your eyes.

Promising Review: Great mask! I have chronic insomnia and this sleep mask feels so luxurious and soft! Even though it is weighted, and I was concerned about it feeling heavy and uncomfortable, it is neither heavy nor hot. It can be easily packed for travel and I dont plan to be without it in the future. Im very impressed with the quality and how comfortable this sleep mask truly is! It is also adjustable and will accommodate most head shapes. I will recommend this sleep mask to my girlfriends and purchase a new one whenever my current one needs to be replaced but this is durable material and I dont anticipate needing to replace it anytime soon!  TEXAS1206

$17.99 at Amazon.com

Best Ear Plugs

Flents Ear Plugs (50 Count)

Light is an obvious obstacle to a good nights sleep, but excess noise is even worse. Late-night construction, loud neighbors, partying college students, a snoring spouse  the list of potential noise sources is endless, which is why its a great idea to keep these Flents Ear Plugs on hand. Theyre extremely comfortable, and quickly mold to the unique shape of your ear, and with a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) rating of 33, theyll shut out most noises and offer you a blissful silence.

Promising Review: I purchased these ear plugs because I suffer from something called annoying neighbors syndrome. I'm not entirely certain of their activities, but I would liken the sounds coming from below and across from my apartment to that of an auto shop or a construction site, perhaps even an airplane hanger. It's particularly horrendous in the evening. Therefore, I have resulted to ear plugs to ensure I get a somewhat worthwhile night of sleep. The contour capabilities of these ear plugs make them incredibly comfortable to wear and the lime green color is particularly stylish, if looks are important while you sleep.... After inserting the ear plugs and allowing them to adjust, silence befell my bedroom. I was able to sleep free from the obnoxious noises that surround my apartment. My only complaint is perhaps these ear plugs work a little too well. I missed my alarm... by an hour and a half. For a full 90 minutes my phone alarm was ring-dingling away and the ear plugs blocked every bit of noise. After the initial panic of being late for work wore off, I was slightly amused that my neighbors had to listen to my alarm while I, for once, slept through their douchbaggery. These will be the only ear plugs I wear from now on. And I'm considering a louder alarm, so suggestions would be helpful.  Claire

$14.99 at Amazon.com

Best App for Sleeping Better

Sleep Cycle

If you only want one app for better sleep, make it Sleep Cycle. It analyzes your sleep patterns, uses smart alarm technology to wake you up at the ideal moment, and offers a variety of soothing sounds, relaxing bedtime stories (often read by celebrities with great voices), and even data-based insights into your unique sleep patterns, all to help you perfect your sleep schedule and wake up feeling more rested.

Promising Review: Am I a morning person? No, absolutely not. Alas, I have a full twelve hour schedule that requires me to be up and ready pretty early in the morning but actually waking the hell up? My body thinks thats a hilarious concept. Im naturally a very deep sleeper, but Im also a night owl who prefers staying up late, so often times Ill find myself in bed from anywhere between 10:30 pm - 12:00 am and then Ill have to wake up at about 6:30 am so I can properly get ready for school and then work afterwards. As a college student with 17 credits its very hard to not be tired. I decided I needed something to help me wake up easier, since sleeping through alarms or waking up a bleary mess and falling back asleep was just not working for me. I gave this a shot as a last ditch attempt and what would you know? It worked. I just used this app once, last night at the time of writing this and boy am I satisfied. I didnt think it would work on me to be entirely honest, but it did and I woke up feeling a lot better than I wouldve with an alarm jolting me awake. This alarm is gradual and soft and even when its time for you to wake up it doesnt fee invasive and obnoxious. Im looking forward to using it continuously!  canipleasejustsum

Find out more at SleepCycle.com

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DUBLIN, July 01, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Egypt Tobacco Market- Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Egypt Tobacco Market is expected to register a CAGR of 7.16% during the forecast period of 2020-2025.

Changing lifestyle, continuous product innovation in terms of flavor, size, ingredients, nicotine level, coupled with consumer's belief that smoking reduces stress and anxiety, are some of the major factors propelling the growth of the market studied.

Additionally, factors, such as consumer knowledge and increase in awareness of products and services, through social media, like Facebook and other sources, coupled with the advent of digital media, are educating consumers about the benefits of low tar, low nicotine, organic, and smokeless products. This, in turn, is driving the demand for e-cigarette and other advanced tobacco products.

Key Market Trends

Rising Popularity For Low Tar, Nicotine Products

To reduce the use of conventional/combustible cigarettes, consumers in the region are increasingly using e-cigarettes, snuff, and low tar cigarette products concurrently. Also, as e-cigarettes mimic the experience of smoking conventional/combustible cigarettes, consumers are significantly using them to satisfy their nicotine dependency, is driving the market.

Furthermore, e-cigarettes, snus, and other products have lower levels of the carcinogen compared to combustible smokers. In addition, increasing cases of tobacco-related cancer across the region and most cases being related to cigarette smoking has resulted in the public looking for alternatives.

Moreover, E-cigarettes do not produce the tar that is produced by regular cigarettes, which is the main cause of lung cancer. According to the World Health Organization, the age adjusted death rate is 7.59 per 100,000 population due to lung cancer in the market.

Shisha Segment is Growing At The Fastest Pace

Story continues

Shisha is a traditional tobacco product, and/or flavored, syrupy used in hookah or waterpipe which is also known as Shisha maassel. According to a study on shisha smokers conducted by Central Agency For Public Mobilization and Statistics, 81 % were found to be spending 10% of their income on daily shisha consumption.

Moreover, the prevalence rate of their smoking shisha is relatively higher than other tobacco products, with a regular rate of 8.7%. Moreover, younger adults who smoke shisha tend to smoke more often with friends, and it is a popular social activity among the consumers in the market.

Furthermore, most of the female shisha (waterpipe smokers) consumer had the perception of the product as fashionable and believed that waterpipes are less harmful than cigarettes. Smoke apple, watermelon, strawberry, orange coffee, and other flavored shisha are growing in the market. Thus, owing to the high market potential, foreign brands are investing to. For example, Japan Tobacco Inc. has acquired Al Nakhla Tobacco Company a major shisha/molasses company and widened its brand portfolio in the segment.

Competitive Landscape

The tobacco market in Egypt is competitive with the presence of various regional and global players in the market. The well-established companies and imported brands have higher availability across retail shelves in the country. The Eastern Tobacco Company (ETC) holds a significant share in the Egyptian tobacco market, with the share of 55%, followed by Phillip Morris International and British American Tobacco.

The Egyptian e-cigarette market is low on competition with the presence of imported/foreign brands operating in the segment. In the market studied, well-established companies, with known brands attached to their business profiles, have a higher penetration across speciality retailers, mostly on account of business expansion as well as operating businesses through online channels.

Key Topics Covered:

1 INTRODUCTION

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3.1 Market Overview

4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Drivers

4.2 Market Restraints

4.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Product Type

5.1.1 Cigarette

5.1.2 E-Cigarette

5.1.3 Shisha

5.1.4 Smokeless Tobacco

5.1.5 Other Product Types

5.2 By Beverage Type

5.2.1 Offline Retail Stores

5.2.2 Online Retail Stores

5.3 By End User

5.3.1 Male

5.3.2 Female

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Market Share Analysis

6.2 Most Adopted Strategies

6.3 Company Profiles

6.3.1 Eastern Company SAE

6.3.2 Philip Morris International Inc.

6.3.3 British American Tobacco PLC

6.3.4 Japan Tobacco International SA

6.3.5 Innokin Technology Co. Ltd

6.3.6 Joyetech Group

6.3.7 Imperial Brands PLC

6.3.8 J Well France SARL

7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

8 IMPACT OF COVID ON THE MARKET

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4l51bg

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005342/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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For the second time in his life, a former army general has found himself at the centre of a rebellion against the Ethiopian government in the mountainous Tigray region, writes analyst Alex de Waal.

The commander of Tigrayan rebel forces, Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae, is regarded by international security analysts as one of the finest military strategists of his generation in Africa.

The 68-year-old abandoned his biology degree at Addis Ababa University in 1976 to join the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). At the time it was a band of a few hundred guerrillas in remote mountains fighting the-then Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

His analysis, organisational skills and ability to win the trust of the fighters meant that by the late 1980s, he was one of its most respected operational commanders.

By 1991, the TPLF was a formidable army of more than 100,000 and included mechanised divisions.

In May that year, Gen Tsadkan - along with Eritrean forces then allied with the TPLF - led the attack that ended with the capture of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and the overthrow of the Mengistu regime.

Mengistu Haile Mariam's army was defeated three decades ago

As the TPLF fighters moved in, they secured a temporary headquarters for him, at a guesthouse near the Hilton Hotel.

There Gen Tsadkan slept in a bed with sheets for the first time for 15 years. Under his command, the guerrillas rapidly restored order to the capital - they entered the city on 28 May, and pensions and civil servants' salaries were paid three days later.

Raid on al-Qaeda base

For the next seven years, Gen Tsadkan led the reconstruction of the Ethiopian army. He was given the rank of general and the position of chief of staff.

During Gen Tsadkan's 10 years as head of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, former TPLF commanders made up the core of the military, leading to criticism that the army was not ethnically balanced, as Tigrayans make up about 6% of the population.

Gen Tsadkan also returned to college, studying for an MBA by correspondence at the UK's Open University.

Story continues

Prof Graeme Salaman remembers his former student: "He is about as far from the stereotypical army officer as you could get - quiet, reflective, a listener, almost shy, open-minded - but of course there is steel inside."

Tigray's mountains provide an ideal hide-out for rebels

The civil war may have been over but the Horn of Africa was in tumult.

He dispatched troops to raid an al-Qaeda base in Somalia in 1996 and also sent forces clandestinely across the border into Sudan to support the opposition to President Omar al-Bashir.

Fired from the military

Gen Tsadkan's warnings that the Eritrean leader Isaias Afewerki was a threat to Ethiopia went unheeded by his TPLF colleague, then Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

But during the war with Eritrea which broke out in 1998, Gen Tsadkan was Ethiopia's military planner.

It was an extremely bloody conventional conflict that cost some 80,000 lives on both sides. In June 2000, an Ethiopian offensive broke the Eritrean defences and troops poured over the border.

Gen Tsadkan was intent on advancing towards the Eritrean capital Asmara, but Prime Minister Meles called a halt, saying that Ethiopia's war aims had been achieved and Eritrea was now humbled.

Map

After the war, the TPLF split rancorously over both the war aims and the party's political direction. Mr Meles fired Gen Tsadkan as chief of staff.

Suddenly stripped of the career that had defined him, ostracised by the TPLF leaders, and watched closely by its security agents, Gen Tsadkan struggled to adapt as a private citizen.

He wrote a report on how armies could control HIV. He was hired by the UK Department for International Development to advise the new government of South Sudan on security sector reform - a project that failed to professionalise that country's army.

Gen Tsadkan started a brewery in his home district of Raya, in southern Tigray, and began a horticultural business.

Anti-Tigrayan sentiment

He drew criticism from his former TPLF colleagues when he welcomed the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia's prime minister in 2018 and said he was ready to work with him.

Gen Tsadkan is accused of treason by the federal government

During 2019 he joined an informal group trying to mediate between Mr Abiy and TPLF leaders but quit a year ago, saying that Mr Abiy was not serious.

As anti-Tigrayan sentiment in the capital Addis Ababa mounted, he moved back to Tigray's capital, Mekelle.

When war broke out in Tigray in November last year, he joined the armed resistance, putting aside his differences with other Tigrayan leaders.

Young people flocked to join, horrified at the atrocities committed against their people. Other veterans also signed up, including many who had split from the TPLF years ago.

For its part, the Ethiopian government issued an arrest warrant for Gen Tsdakan and other Tigrayan leaders. It accused them of treason, saying they had started the war by organising an attack on federal military bases in Tigray.

Astounding military achievement

The resistance was organised under the banner of the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF), incorporating both TPLF and non-TPLF members.

Gen Tsadkan was elevated to its central command and assumed joint responsibility for military affairs.

Thousands of people are reported to have been killed in the conflict

In January, he said: "We were biting the dust." They were on the run, hemmed into mountainous terrain in southern Tigray, many of their young fighters barefoot, armed only with weapons they could carry by hand.

But they managed to break out of the encirclement, surprising the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces with the ferocity of the counter-attack. Gen Tsadkan will not say how many TDF fighters were killed or injured.

For four months they were training, organising and fighting at the same time until, by May, Gen Tsadkan and the other commanders estimated that they had achieved parity with their adversaries.

More on the Tigray crisis:

Three weeks ago, the G7 called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Tigray. The TPLF put out a statement, saying it was ready to distribute relief - and made no mention of a truce.

Then on 17 June the TDF took the initiative. It says that in a series of battles it recaptured territory and routed eight divisions of the Ethiopian army - half its combat strength. The Ethiopian army dismissed its claims as "fake news".

Journalists have yet to visit the battlefields or interview the prisoners of war to confirm these claims. But it appears to be an astounding military achievement by the TDF that few had expected and the Ethiopian military has suffered a heavy setback.

Fears of conflict with Eritrea

TDF forces have entered Mekelle, and the Ethiopian government and army have fled - declaring a ceasefire.

Equipped with a huge arsenal of captured equipment, the TDF is now facing the Eritrean army, which joined the war in November on the side of the Ethiopian military.

It is a more formidable foe and its army is still intact. Reports indicate that it has abandoned the cities it occupied in northern Tigray and has prepared defensive lines close to the border.

Eritrea's President Isaias is faced with the decision of whether to withdraw north of the border or fight, but the TDF could also force his hand as its view is that it cannot be secure while he remains in power.

Another major battle may, therefore, be looming.

Short presentational grey line

Alex de Waal is the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the US.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 30)  After releasing their tropical-themed album "Taste of Love," K-pop girl group TWICE hopes their fans would feel the summer vibes with their latest tracks.

Eight members of TWICE - one of the most famous K-pop groups - sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN Philippines to share what it's like to be able to contribute in song writing for their latest album.

Dahyun, one of the members who contributed, said they were excited to be able to participate. She added that while they were writing, they kept wishing their fans - known as "ONCE" - would enjoy their songs and hope they gain energy and happiness from these.

"We made our comeback in the summer, so we hope the summer vibes remind you of us. We also hope that our songs can refreshen our ONCE, especially in the Philippines since it's hot there. So hopefully listening to our songs make you feel cooler and fresher," Nayeon said in Korean when asked how they want "Taste of Love" to be remembered.

The group made a June-comeback with a new mini album "Taste of Love." This was immediately followed by their release of their Japanese track, "Perfect World."

The group also expressed hopes to be able write and produce their own songs and album in the future.

"If we have the opportunity it would be great for all the members to try it again in the future," leader Jihyo said.

She added that they hope to go back to the Philippines in the future and hold a concert again. TWICE last visited the country in 2019 for their "TWICELIGHTS" world tour.
(CNN)  Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction, saying the disgraced actor's due process rights were violated.

The stunning decision in the case of the man once known as "America's Dad" reverses the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era.

The panel of Pennsylvania State Supreme Court judges said in their opinion that the former Montgomery County district attorney's decision to not prosecute Cosby in 2005 in return for his deposition in a civil case was ultimately used against him at trial, the judges said.

"In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor D.A.s to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby's due process rights," the judges wrote.

Cosby was sentenced in 2018 to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

Cosby, 83, in a white t-shirt, made a brief public appearance outside his Pennsylvania home Wednesday afternoon but did not speak to reporters.

Hours earlier, Cosby was released from a prison outside of Philadelphia and picked up by his press representative. Cosby served three years in prison. His attorney Brian Perry said the comedian and his legal team were headed to his Pennsylvania home to "celebrate."

"I want to thank the Supreme Court who saw the light and saw the truth," Cosby's family said in a statement released by the press representative, Andrew Wyatt.

For victims who sought closure in the case's resolution, the ruling represented "a slap in the face" in the words of Lisa Bloom, the attorney for three accusers.

Bloom said she thinks it could be "a very hard day" for all the women who accused him of sexual assault.

One accsuer, Victoria Valentino, said in a statement: "I am outraged! Outraged! Stunned! My stomach is in knots. The work that we have done to uplift women has been overturned by a legal glitch. We now have a serial predator on the street."

Gloria Allred, who represented other accusers, said the overturning of the conviction on technical grounds did not vindicate Cosby.

"My heart especially goes out to those who bravely testified in both of his criminal cases. I represented a majority of the prior bad act accusers who testified," Allred said in a statement.

"Despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision, this was an important fight for justice and even though the court overturned the conviction on technical grounds, it did not vindicate Bill Cosby's conduct and should not be interpreted as a statement or a finding that he did not engage in the acts of which he has been accused."

Indeed, the Montgomery County district attorney who prosecuted Cosby, Kevin Steele, said the actor was free on a procedural issue that is "irrelevant to the facts of the crime."

"I want to commend Cosby's victim Andrea Constand for her bravery in coming forward and remaining steadfast throughout this long ordeal, as well as all of the other women who have shared similar experiences," Steele said.

"My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims. Prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads. We still believe that no one is above the law  including those who are rich, famous and powerful."

Constand and her attorneys said the decision to vacate Cosby's conviction is disappointing and could discourage others survivors of sexual assault from coming forward.

"Today's majority decision regarding Bill Cosby is not only disappointing but of concern in that it may discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting or participating in the prosecution of the assailant or may force a victim to choose between filing either a criminal or civil action," Constand and her attorneys said in a statement.

Judges on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last December heard arguments that Cosby sat for a civil deposition only because former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor had promised he would not prosecute him criminally. In that deposition, Cosby admitted that he procured Quaaludes for women he wanted to have sex with.

In their decision Wednesday, the judges wrote that Castor felt that "he would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cosby drugged and raped Constand."

"Seeking 'some measure of justice' for Constand, D.A. Castor decided that the Commonwealth would decline to prosecute Cosby for the incident involving Constand, thereby allowing Cosby to be forced to testify in a subsequent civil action, under penalty of perjury, without the benefit of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination," the judges wrote.

That civil deposition that Cosby gave was revealed in 2014, and one of Castor's successors later used statements he made in the deposition as part of the criminal trial.

The judges wrote that they weighed different remedies -- including having another trial for Cosby -- but felt there was only one proper remedy.

"He must be discharged, and any future prosecution on these particular charges must be barred," the judges wrote. "We do not dispute that this remedy is both severe and rare. But it is warranted here, indeed compelled."

Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, said the only place to appeal an opinion from the Pennsylvania's highest court is the US Supreme Court.

"There is no way the US Supreme Court will take this case... The court says you cannot retry him for this particular victim," he said of Constand. "We know that the statute of limitations has passed for many of these victims."

Cosby "has been released" from prison, Pennsylvania Department Of Corrections spokesperson Maria Bivens said Wednesday afternoon.

Wyatt met Cosby to drive him home.

"Mr. Cosby was originally given a deal by Bruce Castor in which he was granted immunity. He gave up his fifth amendment rights in hopes that he would get back to work, back to life. And he always showed up for any legal matters and questions on his own accord. Charges should never have been brought against Mr. Cosby," the statement said.

"I want to thank the attorneys who successfully argued his appeal and especially Mrs. Cosby who stood strong and was here for Mr. Cosby every step of the way and supported every idea and strategy from the attorneys and the team and she always knew that Mr. Cosby was innocent."

Cosby denied parole in May by the Pennsylvania Parole Board, which cited a number of reasons for its decision, according to a letter from the board obtained by CNN.

The letter said Cosby had to "participate in and complete additional institutional programs." The board cited Cosby's "failure to develop a parole release plan" and a "negative recommendation by the Department of Corrections" as factors that contributed to the decision.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  The city government of San Juan has vaccinated 86% of its eligible population and is just a month away from its target of completing the COVID-19 doses of all vaccinees, its mayor said Thursday.

"As of yesterday, we have vaccinated 73,987 people out of 85,400 and that represents 86.6% already of our target population to be vaccinated," Mayor Francis Zamora told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Zamora said they only need to inoculate 11,413 more individuals or around 13% of the target population. The local government intends to give the whole eligible population their first dose in the middle of July and have everyone fully vaccinated by August.

"At the rate were going, I believe these targets are achievable as long as constant supply would be on hand, I don't think there will be any problem," he added.

So far, San Juan's vaccination drive is ongoing for health workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), persons with comorbidities (A3), essential workers (A4), and indigent citizens (A5).

On Wednesday, San Juan started inoculating Moderna doses to over 900 residents after the country received its first batch of vaccine from the US firm.

The city will also hire an additional 200 health workers for the opening of its third vaccination site at the V Mall next week, Zamora added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  On April 27, the Masungi Georeserve posted alarming photos on its social media accounts of fires raging at the upper Marikina watershed, urging authorities to act. It was the first burning incident the group published this year.

It looks like the smoke signalled illegal clearing and something will now be built inside the protected area, the Facebook post said. Under environment law, engaging in kaingin or any manner causing forest fires inside the protected area is illegal.

The next month, Masungi continued its appeal for action as the blaze proceeded to ravage its forest cover. Masungi told CNN Philippines in May that at least ten hectares of land have been damaged by the fires. The burned expanse has since increased to 16 hectares, where around 32 species of trees and 29 species of animals including birds, amphibians and mammals were earlier sighted, Masungi Managing Trustee Billie Dumaliang said Friday.

On May 30, a different incident occurred. Masungi said it was informed that local government officials shut down illegal resort development activities at the site. The private entity responsible for the resort development was different from the firm behind the 16-hectare forest fire, Masungi later found out.

Meanwhile, the forest fires continued in segments, Masungi observed, and in June, the group reported another attack: more land clearing with young trees cut down at the side of the mountain. Photos showed a patch of land stripped of trees with some logs even gathered and arranged like a pyre ready for burning. Masungi called it a tree massacre.

Confirming what could be seen in aerial images, these burnings and clearings were done in patches and consolidated in a systematic manner, said the group. This was not a small-scale event.

History

In 1993, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources proposed that Masungit Rock and its vicinity in Baras, Rizal be declared as a Strict Nature Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary, effectively prohibiting mining, exploration and any development activities that would upset the areas ecological balance.

The Masungi Georeserve was created in 1996 to restore the sanctuarys forest spaces and in 2015, the Masungi Georeserve Foundation was formed to sustain these conservation efforts. Two years later, the DENR tapped Masungi to restore 2,700 hectares of deforested land in the upper Marikina watershed, Kaliwa watershed and Masungi Wildlife Sanctuary.

The reserve is located in the Marikina Watershed Reservation which was declared a protected area in 2011 and is now known as the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape.

The georeserve is widely known as a tourist spot for its scenic trails, but it is also an award-winning conservation area that preserves numerous animal and plant species, including new organisms that have been discovered within its domain.

However, it is no stranger to encroachment, quarrying and land grabbing by private firms that refuse to respect its protected status.

2020

Dumaliang said the site faced at least five major encroachment incidents in the past year. A major incident means a private entity was behind the attack, she explained.

In February 2020, Masungi formally launched the #SaveMasungi Movement Against Quarrying after Rapid City Realty and Development Corp. fenced off sections of the reserve without permits. Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu personally visited the site the next month and announced the suspension of the quarry.

In October, another company by the name of Rublou Inc. and its subsidiary Green Atom Renewable Energy Corp. installed fences and armed guards around hundreds of hectares in the protected land. Masungi staff documented confrontations with the armed personnel who refused to leave the site.

Rublou later released a statement saying it was protecting the area to help an indigenous tribe that claimed Masungi was occupying its ancestral domain. Supposed members of the tribe later sued Masungi, challenging its jurisdiction, but a regional trial court in Morong, Rizal junked the civil case in April due to lack of legal capacity to sue," which meant the complainants did not have the authority to represent the indigenous group.

Masungi later met with the tribe and they are currently in talks about a long-term partnership, Dumaliang said.

She said attacks against the reserve occur yearly and the number continues to increase even in the middle of the pandemic.

When Luzon was hit with travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus, Masungi moved its entire team of more or less a hundred to work in the conservation site in Baras to continue their hands-on work  meeting and educating communities about conservation and guarding the watershed.

While tourism profits plunged in 2020, Masungi was able to maintain its staff without retrenching. Dumaliang explained that since they are a privately managed group, they can be flexible in making decisions and managing their funds, despite the lack of income from guest visits for nine months.

Were confident na [that] later on we can recover through the resumption of tourism, said Dumaliang in a CNN Philippines interview. Were lucky we were able to manage our finances sustainably. Its all about priorities.

Priorities

Though Masungi stands by its working relationship with the DENR, it said there is a need for stricter enforcement of the law on protected areas in the georeserve, with more security services a priority.

If I were to suggest legislation or policy, it is policies that support implementation of the law that will ensure speedy, transparent and honest enforcement actions for the watershed, said Dumaliang. We need political will to restore and protect the watershed.

Dumaliang also proposed giving incentives to the private sector  to civil society organizations and non-government organizations  to support conservation projects.

Last year, Masungi was able to save at least 1,000 hectares of forests against destructive operations and was able to plant 59,000 native trees. Amid the health crisis, the group provided donations to 200 families, distributed COVID-19 information kits to upland communities, and facilitated medical consultations for park rangers and the elderly.

Masungis projects continued to receive recognition on an international scale. Among its recent awards were the Vanity Fair Changing Your Mind Travel Award and the Global Water Partnership Water Changemaker Award. The organization was also a finalist for the Win Win Gothenburg Sustainability Award and the World Travel & Tourism Council Tourism For Tomorrow Award.

Masungi also recorded another achievement in the discovery of a new subspecies of microsnail living in its rocks, in partnership with scientists from the University of the Philippines-Los Banos.

With tourism gains remaining slow, and quarrying attacks gaining steam, Masungi stressed that the fight to save the watershed is pressing on.

We are asking our leaders, our citizens to really come together to make a serious effort towards protecting one of the nearest protected areas and one of the most critical watersheds to Filipinos, said Dumaliang.

We have to show that we can protect this area and when we do, we can show we can protect all the other areas of biological and ecological significance in our country, she added.

CNN Philippines sought comments from the DENR in Rizal and the Interior Department but has not received a response.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Tons of debris were removed from the Tullahan River as part of a cleanup project headed by San Miguel Corporation (SMC).

A statement from one of the country's largest and most diversified conglomerates released on Thursday said as of June 28, a total of 301,695 metric tons of silt and solid waste have been removed from the first 11.5-kilometer section of the river from Manila Bay in Navotas to Potrero in Malabon and Valenzuela cities. For this section, the target dredging output is 1 million metric tons.

In February, the company said it would extend the project to further support current flood mitigation measures.

It has also deployed more equipment for the cleanup efforts.

According to SMC, following completion of sections that include Barangay Bangkulasi and Tanong in Navotas City, the cleanup team is currently operating in Barangay Longos in Malabon City.

SMC president Ramon S. Ang said despite the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, they have not paused the clean up operations and are now working on deepening and widening parts of the river to complement government's flood mitigation measures.

"Even during the rainy season, our dredging teams will continue their operations to ensure that the Tullahan river will have greater capacity to receive flood waters from adjacent areas, particularly during typhoon season," Ang added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Metro Manila, once the country's pandemic epicenter, is "ready" to loosen coronavirus quarantine restrictions, but local city executives need to consider the presence of a new variant.

"Handa naman kami," Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Benhur Abalos said when asked on his reaction to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua's statement that the capital has an "opening" to shift to modified general community quarantine.

"Pero pag-uusapan namin nang husto ito, ang preparasyon dito, dahil we have a new variant, he said in a virtual briefing Thursday.

[Translation: We are readyBut we have to discuss this carefully and prepare since we have a new variant.]

The Philippines already recorded 17 cases of the Delta variant, the DOH said on June 21. The Delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India in February, is believed to be 60% more contagious than the Alpha variant and can cause severe symptoms.

Earlier this week, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the new quarantine status proposed by the pandemic task force, with Metro Manila, Rizal and Bulacan remaining under general community quarantine "with some restrictions" until July 15.

READ: NCR, Rizal, Bulacan to remain under GCQ 'with some restrictions' until July 15

RELATED: Palace releases final community quarantine classifications for July

During the briefing, Abalos reported that Metro Manila has been seeing "good" figures regarding its COVID-19 cases.

So far, the capital region already administered 4.3 million vaccine doses. By end-September, Abalos sees hitting 14.5 million doses.

Metro Manila has a population of 14 million.

READ: Task force 'very confident' of vaccinating 50% of Metro Manila population by September

The official also claimed that the national government and Metro Manila mayors were "successful" in balancing the health of the public and the economy in the country's ongoing fight against COVID-19.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  AFP Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade has resigned as spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) weeks before his mandatory retirement.

President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted his resignation, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Thursday after confirming it with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

Parlade will retire from the military service on July 26 when he turns 56. Maj. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, Army's 2nd Infantry Division commander, will take over as the new commander of the Southern Luzon Command.

Parlade said he made the decision to quit the NTF-ELCAC after senators questioned the legality of an active military officer holding another office.

"I want to ease the pressure on the NTF ELCAC principals who are being questioned by legislators for designating me despite my being in the active service," he said in a statement on Thursday.

While some senators lauded Parlade's decision to quit, Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said Parlade has to be made accountable for his actions.

"Resign na lang, wala nang pagpapanagot sa kanyang paghahasik ng kasinungalingan? (He just resigned, he will not be punished for spreading lies?) As spokesperson of NTF-ELCAC, Parlade used and abused his position to attack government critics, spread fake news, and red-tag activists and organizations," Gaite said in a statement.

Parlade said leaving NTF-ELCAC does not mean he will stop his fight against insurgency and communist rebels.

"Even then, I want to assure our critics that I am not running away from this fight," he added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  The Philippines is currently tagged as "low risk" for COVID-19 due to the drop in new cases in the past two weeks, a Department of Health official said Thursday.

DOH chief epidemiologist Alethea de Guzman said the country's two-week growth rate (TWGR) from June 13 to 26 went down to -9%, compared to the 15% recorded from May 30 to June 12.

If the TWGR is zero or below, an area is considered at low risk.

De Guzman warned that growth rates between -1% and -10% may be "prone to sudden spikes."

While the country's overall classification is low risk, its average daily attack rate or ADAR was at a "moderate" level or 5.42 from June 13 to 26, lower than the 5.96 logged from May 30 to June 12. A moderate risk means the ADAR is between one and seven.

The TWGR refers to the growth in cases in the last two weeks, while the ADAR is defined as the number of infected people per 100,000 population.

"The risk classification nationally is already at low risk," de Guzman said during an online briefing.

Meanwhile, four regions fell under the "high-risk" category in terms of ADAR, the epidemiologist said.

These are the Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Davao Region, and Soccsksargen.

An area is considered high risk if its ADAR reached above seven.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1) - The entire country is experiencing a shortage in COVID-19 vaccines, Malacanang explained on Thursday as areas nationwide appeal to be given more supply.

Lahat po ng ating mga kababayan ay nagsasabi kulang po ang bakuna, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing.

Lahat po ng syudad, lahat ng probinsya, lahat ng sulok ng Pilipinas, kulang po talaga ang vaccine, he added.

[Translation: All of our countrymen are saying there arent enough vaccines. In all cities, provinces, and corners of the Philippines, there really is a shortage of supply.]

Amid limited deliveries, the national government is currently prioritizing nine areas in the immunization drive. These are the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao -- areas dubbed as economic centers highly vulnerable to the coronavirus.

The Department of Health said distributing the bulk of the shipments to this so-called "NCR Plus 8" will help the country attain herd immunity faster.

Roque said, however, that even with the priority given to these high-risk localities, they are also not getting enough supply.

Humihingi po kami ng pasensya dahil yan ang realidad [We ask for the public's understanding, because thats the reality]. We cannot do anything about it, Roque said, noting the global race among nations trying to procure enough doses.

Even so, he said the government remains confident Filipinos will have a better Christmas this year as more shipments are expected to arrive, including the recently secured 40 million Pfizer doses.

This week, the country breached the 10-million mark in COVID-19 vaccines administered. However, only around 2.5 million individuals have been fully inoculated as of June 28.
(CNN)  The Delta variant of coronavirus has now been detected in all 50 US states and Washington, DC, according to the latest tally from CNN.

The last state to report the variant is South Dakota, which confirmed its first case on Tuesday.

With the more transmissible variant spreading, this puts even more pressure on local and state officials to vaccinate more people.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday he's "very concerned about" the stark disparity between places with low and high vaccination rates. This unfortunately could lead to there soon being "two Americas" -- one where most people are vaccinated and another where low vaccination rates could lead to case spikes.

"When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions -- be that states, cities or counties -- you're going to see these individual types of blips," he said. "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."

Young people -- age 18 to 24 -- are still a group that officials are trying to get vaccinated. The proportion of young people hospitalized is increasing, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director.

Since May, people ages 12 to 29 have accounted for about a third of hospitalizations -- a greater proportion than in the past, Walensky said. CDC data shows, however, that vaccination coverage among young adults is improving. Over the past two weeks, the 18-24 age group made up 12.6% of those becoming fully vaccinated, the CDC said.

But spikes in coronavirus cases are "entirely avoidable, entirely preventable" with vaccination, said Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci's remarks come as the Delta variant, which is more contagious and aggressive, has reached nearly every state and accounted for 26.1% of US Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to the CDC.

"I'm concerned about the Delta variant," US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN on Wednesday. "And I am worried that what we are seeing in terms of a plateauing of cases nationally but also an increase in cases in many small sections of the United States, that that is, in fact, being driven by the Delta variant."

There is still a lot of virus circulating in the US, and close to 300 people -- "just far too many" -- are still dying daily from the coronavirus, Murthy said, citing data from recent weeks.

"This is not over, and the virus wins when we let our guard down, when we take our eye off the ball," he said. "We've seen many times that it's fooled us in the past. We've got to stay vigilant, got to get vaccinated, we've got to talk to other people about getting vaccinated."

Indeed, the rise and spread of more transmissible coronavirus variants are changing the equation for achieving herd immunity -- the point at which enough people are protected against a virus to suppress its spread -- a coronavirus specialist told CNN on Tuesday.

"Every time a virus gets better at transmitting, the number of people that have to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity increases," said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is studying the coronavirus.

"Certainly, we are not out of the woods yet because we haven't had a vaccination rate where we get those herd immunity effects."

Places with low vaccination rates are especially vulnerable to the Delta variant, experts have said.

In Mississippi, where just 29.7% of the population is fully vaccinated, unvaccinated people have accounted for more than 90% of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the past month, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer for the Mississippi Department of Public Health.

Mississippi joins Alabama, Arkansas, Wyoming, and Louisiana in having less than 35% of residents fully vaccinated.

Mask guidance stays the same in most places

Even as the Delta variant spreads, most mask guidance and policies don't appear poised to change.

"For now, the CDC recommendations stand that if in fact you are vaccinated -- fully vaccinated -- you are protected, and you do not need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors," Fauci said.

Policies around masks on planes and public transport aren't expected to change soon, Walensky said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"Vaccinated people can take off their masks and celebrate July Fourth and feel safe in doing so, see each other smile again," she added. "And then we're really going to have to continue the hard work that we are doing to get people vaccinated and for those who are not to continue to protect them with mask wearing and distancing because of this Delta variant."

Children under 12 -- who aren't yet eligible for coronavirus vaccines -- should continue to wear masks indoors until the Delta variant is under control in the US, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Wednesday.

Local differences in where the variant has spread means parents need to fully understand the risk in their area, he added.

"A lot of it has to do with where you are," Hotez said. "If you're in the Northeast, where transmission is really low, then your kids are a lot safer than in parts of the south-central US right now, where the epidemic is really taking off, that one-two punch of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates."

Regardless of age or vaccination status, Los Angeles County has brought back its voluntary guidance to wear masks until health officials can "better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading," the county's department of public health said.

And while nearly all the staff at Johns Hopkins' public health school in Baltimore are vaccinated against Covid-19, they are still wearing masks to work, Pekosz told CNN.

"We still have a masking policy here, particularly in group situations," he said. "This pandemic isn't over yet."

Los Angeles County appears to be the only county so far to recommend wearing masks in response to the spread of the Delta variant, the National Association of County and City Health Officials told CNN on Tuesday. But health officials are continuing to monitor the spread of the variant in the US, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, the group's chief executive officer.

Nationally, the number of people practicing safety measures, such as social distancing and masking, continues to decrease, even as 84% of Americans have heard of the Delta variant, a poll published Tuesday by Axios-Ipsos showed. The poll, conducted Friday through Monday, comprised of a nationally representative sample of 1,106 adults.

Meantime, most adults who plan to get the Covid-19 vaccine have already done so, another poll shows.

A Kaiser Family Foundation report released Wednesday shows 65% of adults polled have received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from 62% in May. Only 3% of those who haven't been vaccinated said they plan to do so as soon as they can. About 14% said they will definitely not get vaccinated.

In the long term, the cost of the pandemic is not just lives lost but also the mental health and well-being of people across the country, Murthy told CNN on Wednesday.

"We have a long way to go to recover from this pandemic," he said. "We can only do it together, but it starts with us getting vaccinated."

Covid-19 cases among children are dropping

While children under 12 aren't yet eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, but there is some good news about declining cases.

More than 8,400 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in children last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' weekly report, the lowest weekly number of cases since May 2020.

Children represented about 10% of reported Covid-19 cases last week. More than 4.03 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

The decline in cases among children comes as the new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates Covid-19 vaccination rates among children ages 12 to 17 years are rising. About 34% of parents said their eligible children have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, up from 24% in May. About 8% said they plan to get their 12- to 17-year-old children vaccinated right away.

Data for vaccine efficacy in children under 12 may be analyzed "in the fall/winter timeframe," according to Dr. Peter Marks, director of the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

"It makes sense that it's going to take a little longer there, because there had to be dose de-escalation -- lower doses used, essentially dose de-escalation -- and as well as we want to see longer follow-up data to make sure that we have the kind of safety in that population," Marks said.

Vaccines protect against Delta variant, experts say

As variants spread, health experts are urging people to get fully vaccinated so they can have maximum protection.

Two weeks after the second dose, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 88% effective against symptomatic infections caused by the Delta variant, Fauci has said. Those who received only one dose have less protection.

Moderna's vaccine was found in lab experiments to work against new variants including the Delta strain, the company said Tuesday. Serum samples from people who received two shots of the Moderna vaccine showed neutralizing activity against the variants, Moderna said in a pre-print study that hasn't yet been peer-reviewed.

As for the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, it's "highly likely" it can protect against the Delta variant, though it hasn't been proven through research yet, Fauci said.

Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which uses the same platform as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are about 88% effective against the Delta variant, and "you can make the reasonable assumption" the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be "just as good," Fauci said.

As of Tuesday, 46.4% of the US population was fully vaccinated, CDC data showed. Sixteen states have fully vaccinated more than half of their population. And 16 states have reached President Joe Biden's goal to vaccinate 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4.

This story was first published on CNN.com The Delta variant has now been detected in all 50 US states and Washington, DC
(CNN) -- More than 50 million Americans remained Wednesday under heat alerts and hundreds of deaths have been reported across the Pacific Northwest and Canada amid a devastating heat wave. But relief is coming for many, forecasters say.

Brittish Columbia and US cities -- including Seattle and Portland -- have reported their hottest temperatures on record.

Oregon State Police said the state medical examiner's office has received reports of 63 deaths "that preliminary investigation suggests may be associated with the Pacific Northwest heat wave," according to spokesperson Capt. Timothy R. Fox.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 633 heat-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care in five days.

On the East Coast, Boston and New York have experienced a heat wave that brought extreme, record-breaking temperatures. CNN meteorologists say the East Coast heat wave will end Wednesday night.

In the meantime, electricity provider Con Edison implored its 3.5 million customers in New York City and Westchester County to conserve energy as the company tries to "help keep service reliable, as the intense heat and humidity continue for a fourth straight day," the statement read.

While temperatures are likely to let up in the Northeast by Wednesday's end, the heat is expected to last in the Northwest well into mid-July, CNN's meteorologist Michael Guy predicted.

Temperatures are expected to remain above normal over much of the Northwest heading into the weekend, but the record-setting heat wave will continue to slowly diminish.

Portland set an all-time, record-high temperature three days in a row, topping out at 116 degrees on Monday. Seattle hit 108 degrees, breaking the all-time record it set just a day earlier.

Across the border, Lytton, British Columbia, hit 121 degrees on Tuesday -- the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. The record was broken on Sunday and then again on Monday.

Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the heat wave is "unprecedented."

"We saw heat records over the weekend only to be broken again the next day," Dahl told CNN, "particularly for a part of the country where this type of heat does not happen very often."

Multiple experts, including Pennsylvania State University's climate scientist Michael E. Mann, have blamed one thing for the soaring temperatures -- climate change.

"You warm up the planet, you're going to see an increased incidence of heat extremes," Mann told CNN.

Seattle sees record number of emergency calls

At least 676 people in Washington state visited emergency departments for heat-related symptoms from Friday through Sunday -- before the heat wave hit its peak.

On Monday alone, there were 688 heat-related emergency department visits, according to Portner, who said the state had recorded at least 1,384 hospital visits related to the heat since the weekend.

In addition to the three potential deaths connected to heat-related illnesses, Portner said officials were looking into one potential death associated with submersion and drowning.

Seattle fire officials said Wednesday they responded to more emergency calls for service on Monday than on any single day in at least the last six years. The city hit 108 degrees on Monday, when firefighters responded to 544 emergency calls, according to Kristin Tinsley, a Seattle Fire Department spokesperson. The calls were for heat-related medical emergencies and brush fires.

Since the start of the heat wave on Saturday, Seattle firefighters have responded to 129 heat-related medical emergencies, with 75 calls alone on Monday, Tinsley said.

King County, which is home to Seattle, had 40 emergency department visits for heat-related illness on Saturday and 91 on Sunday, according to Gabriel Spitzer, communications specialist for Public Health Seattle & King County.

On Monday, there were 223 emergency department visits for heat-related illness among King County residents, according to Spitzer.

The King County, Washington, medical examiner's oOffice on Wednesday reported 11 heat-related deaths and one drowning. There were also 105 emergency department visits for heat-related illness on Tuesday, with 32 admitted to hospitals.

The eastern Washington city of Spokane hit 109 degrees, breaking the previous record of 108 degrees set on August 4, 1961, according to National Weather Service Spokane.

Two people died in Spokane after experiencing symptoms consistent with heat-related stress, city spokesman Brian Coddington said. A man in his 70s, was found by firefighters in an apartment building downtown, Coddington said.

"While they were there, they noticed in a neighboring apartment unit, the door was ajar, and they looked in there and found a second person who was also deceased."

The city of Wenatchee, Washington, broke an all-time heat record, reaching 114 degrees. And Omak, Washington, hit 117 degrees, shattering the previous record of 114 degrees set on July 4, 1928.

Volunteers with the United Farm Workers in Prosser, Washington, distributed water and Gatorade in the cherry fields, according to the UFW Facebook page.

The high in Prosser reached 113 degrees on Tuesday.

Oregon farm worker dies during heat wave

In Oregon, a total of 506 heat-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care centers were reported by the state's health authority. At least 251 visits occurred on Monday alone, when temperatures were highest.

In the Portland area, the 97 emergency department and urgent care clinic visits for heat illness is nearly the same number of cases they would expect to see all summer, according to Multnomah County communications director Julie Sullivan-Springhetti.

"The record breaking heat also broke records for calls for help. Emergency calls, visits to the emergency rooms, and calls for people and pets reached all-time highs," Sullivan-Springhetti said in an email to CNN.

A farm worker in St. Paul, about 30 miles south of Portland, died Saturday, prompting Oregon Occupational Safety and Health to open an investigation into Brother Farm Labor Contractor and Ernst Nursery & Farms, a spokesperson told CNN.

"The employee was working on a crew moving irrigation lines. At the end of the shift he was found unresponsive in the field," Oregon OSHA spokesman Aaron Corvin told CNN.

Corvin says officials have listed the preliminary incident description as "heat."

CNN has reached out to Brother Farm Labor Contractor, Marion County Emergency Management and the Marion County medical examiner for autopsy results but has not yet heard back.

A representative for Ernst Nursery & Farms declined to comment.

Nearly 500 deaths reported in Canada

At least 486 sudden deaths have been reported across the western coast of Canada near the US border.

"The 486 deaths currently entered represent a 195% increase over the approximately 165 deaths that would normally occur in the province over a five-day period," British Columbia Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

"While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to extreme weather (British Columbia) has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province," Lapointe said.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, officers have responded to more than 98 sudden deaths since the heat wave began on Friday, according to Sgt. Steve Addison, media relations officer. The deaths prompted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to issue a statement about a "concerning increase in sudden deaths amid the heat wave."

In Surrey, British Columbia, there have been 59 sudden deaths since Friday, authorities said. While there were only five sudden deaths reported on Wednesday, the Surrey Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) responded to 31 such calls on Tuesday.

"While the causes of death has not yet been determined in each of these cases, we can confirm that Surrey RCMP is responding to a higher than usual number of deaths since the beginning of the extreme weather conditions," media relations officer Cst. Sarbjit K. Sangha told CNN.

In the nearby city of Burnaby, police responded to 52 sudden death calls since Friday. Of these calls, 48 were received Monday and Tuesday. Heat is believed to be a contributing factor in the majority of the deaths, according to a release from RCMP.

"We are seeing this weather can be deadly for vulnerable members of our community, especially the elderly and those with underlying health issues. It is imperative we check on one another during this extreme heat," Cpl. Mike Kalanj with Burnaby RCMP said.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Hundreds of deaths reported as cities urge residents to conserve power during ravaging heat wave".
(CNN) -- Japan's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence given to a 74-year-old serial killer, known as the "Black Widow," for the murder of three men, including her husband, and the attempted murder of a fourth.

Chisako Kakehi, reportedly received large insurance payouts after poisoning her victims with cyanide, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Kakehi was sentenced to death in 2017 for the killings, which occurred between 2007 and 2013 in Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo.

Kakehi's legal team had appealed the death sentence, arguing she was suffering from dementia and incapable of taking part in a criminal trial. The Supreme Court rejected her appeal, however, and finalized the decision on Tuesday, according to Kakehi's lawyer.

"She used the matchmaking agency to get acquainted with elderly victims one after another and poisoned them after making them trust her," said Judge Yuriko Miyazaki in the ruling, according to NHK. "It is a ruthless crime based on a planned and strong murderous intention."

Miyazaki added that "even with due consideration given to the defendant's favorable circumstances, such as being old, the death penalty is unavoidable."

The date of her death sentence has not been released.

Police began investigating after Kakehi's husband died in 2013, less than two months after their wedding. An autopsy report found cyanide in his stomach and blood; Kakehi was arrested 11 months later.

A previous fiance, who died when he crashed his motorcycle, was also found to have traces of cyanide in his body.

Police would only say "many" of Kakehi's previous partners -- who were between ages 54 and 75 -- had died in the past two decades.

Kakehi had been with the victims when they were poisoned, and began the process for inheriting their assets immediately after their deaths, said the judge in 2017, NHK reported at the time.

She isn't Japan's only so-called black widow killer, or even the only one on death row -- Kanae Kijima, the most famous other example, is also awaiting a death sentence after being found guilty of killing three men she met on dating websites and making it look like suicide in each case.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Japan's 'Black Widow' serial killer loses death sentence appeal".
(CNN)  US President Joe Biden, whose empathy amid loss is his chief political characteristic, traveled Thursday to console families in Florida who are enduring the excruciating search for loved ones inside a seaside condo that suddenly collapsed a week ago.

"Never give up hope," he told the anguished relatives of those still missing, who had gathered in a hotel ballroom to hear from a President whose own reckoning with grief has colored his personal and political lives.

Speaking inside a hotel ballroom, with his remarks translated into Spanish as he spoke, Biden said the families should not give up hope and acknowledged some of the anguish they are feeling toward the response efforts. The meeting was closed to the press but some attendees posted about the event on social media.

"It used to drive me crazy when they'd say I know how you feel," he said, recounting the deaths of his wife, daughter and son -- losses that have punctuated his public life. "And you know they meant well but you know they had no idea. None."

He was speaking from experience. From the day in 1972 when he was sworn in as US senator at his sons' hospital bedside following a car crash that had killed his wife and daughter, Biden's persona been defined by grief. When one of those sons, Beau, died of a brain tumor in 2015, grief again came to color Biden's life. He wrestled with it publicly, including as he weighed a presidential run.

"No matter what the outcome, the people you love, the people you may have lost, they're going to be with you always. Part of your soul. Part of who you are," Biden said as attendees' eyes filled with tears.

"Be patient with one another," he went on. "Hang on. Hold on. I don't want you to feel like you're being sucked into a black hole in your chest. There's no way out. But there is."

The devastating structural failure, which so far has resulted in 18 confirmed deaths with another 145 people still unaccounted for, could become the deadliest non-intentional building collapse in American history. It has raised new questions about the safety of high-rises that run for miles along the South Florida coast, along with similar developments across the nation.

Biden, who was joined by first lady Jill Biden in Florida, is awaiting findings from a team of six federal scientists and engineers collecting information on the ground. He hopes to use results from their investigation to determine how infrastructure like residential towers can be better fortified against catastrophic failure, according to officials.

But before then, there are grieving families to comfort and exhausted rescue personnel to thank -- a presidential responsibility Biden takes as seriously as any.

"The waiting," Biden told the families, "the waiting is unbearable."

The bulk of Biden's day occurred behind closed doors with families. Plans to visit the site of the collapse itself were scrapped, and search-and-rescue operations were halted Thursday amid concerns over the rubble's stability.

His spent roughly three hours meeting with the dozens of families affected by the tragedy.

He was briefed by officials, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, a chief acolyte of former President Donald Trump who is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2024, during a midday meeting alongside other officials.

"I think there's more we can do, including, I think I have the power -- we'll know shortly -- to pick up 100% of the costs for the county and state," he said from an interior conference room at the St. Regis Hotel, where maps and diagrams -- including one showing the storm path of an incoming weather pattern -- hung on the wall.

Biden hailed their ability to work together responding to a catastrophic building collapse.

"You know what's good about this?" Biden said. "We live in a nation where we can cooperate. And it's really important."

The two men have mostly sought to put aside politics in the wake of the disaster -- though Biden raised eyebrows last week when he told reporters he was "waiting on a call from him if he needs the help."

They eventually connected in a phone call that one official described as professional and focused on providing Florida the help it needed. Biden signed an emergency declaration that freed up federal resources and Federal Emergency Management Agency search-and-rescue teams. And DeSantis has appeared alongside Democrats throughout this week during news conferences near the site of the collapse.

"You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one and you've been very supportive," DeSantis said during Thursday's briefing.

"This is life and death," Biden said. "And so  I don't think  I just got back from 12 days in Europe. They wonder whether we can do this. And you're doing it. Simple act of everybody doing whatever needs to be done. And it really makes a difference."

While politics inevitably seep into disaster relief, Biden has emphasized the need for bipartisanship to get things done. While aides began planning for a visit to Florida shortly after the gravity of the disaster became clear, the President issued specific and firm instructions that no visit take place if it meant diverting a single firefighter or law enforcement officer from the search-and-rescue efforts, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Throughout the weekend and early this week, officials were in talks with authorities on the ground to ensure the efforts at the condo site were not affected by the requirements of a presidential visit, which typically include a large contingent of state and local police.

White House officials said they hoped to keep Thursday's visit as apolitical as possible, instead underscoring Biden's unique capacity for conveying compassion in dark moments.

The President has long drawn upon wells of his own private grief to help comfort individuals facing loss. Aides have maintained a file folder of dozens of eulogies he has delivered over the years, along with quotes on loss and grief that can be incorporated into speeches or talking points.

In Florida, he assumed a role that presidents have long taken on, with differing levels of aptitude, after natural disasters or man-made catastrophes throw communities into grief.

The collapse of Champlain Towers South doesn't fall neatly into either of those categories, neither natural nor criminal, though residents of the building have already begun to lay blame on poor maintenance and neglect. And while hope for finding survivors dims by the day, it is still too early for Biden to officially mourn all of those who have been lost.

But in traveling to Surfside, Biden hoped to convey solidarity and resolve even as much about the disaster remains unknown.

It won't be the first time as president that he assumes the role of consoler-in-chief. He has sought to correct what he said was a glossing over by his predecessor of the hundreds of thousands who have died from Covid-19, including during a somber White House ceremony when the death toll reached 500,000.

"I know all too well that black hole in your chest. You feel like you're being sucked into it. The survivor's remorse. The anger. The questions of faith in your soul," Biden said before observing a moment of silence in front of a candlelit South Portico.

Throughout his career, he has sought to convey lessons he learned from his own coping process, including a well-worn mantra that a day will come when the thought of a loved one "brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Biden reprises role as consoler-in-chief during South Florida visit."
Bulkley said the City is asking that people at odd-numbered addresses water their lawns on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while those living at even-numbered addresses water their lawns on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Wacha noted that the water restriction is completely voluntary.

"We're just asking citizens to try and conserve water. There's no penalty for anything, it's not mandatory," Wacha said.

Meanwhile, Wacha said people may notice changes in water quality, as the increased water flow knocks debris loose throughout the system.

"We've had people calling in, they'll notice some dirty water every once in a while and some low-pressure fluctuations," Wacha said.

So far, Wacha said, all of the low water pressure calls have turned out to be related to the level of water in the City's water tower.
Columbus Public Schools Superintendent Troy Loeffelholz noted that the proposed standards will go through several revisions before being voted on by the State Board of Education.

This was step one of a  three to five step process, Loeffelholz said. The thing about the health standards, though, is since it's not attached to any federal funds, or title funds or anything else like that, we are not required to adopt them.

Loeffelholz said even if the 2021 Nebraska health standards were approved as is, CPS would use the states version as a template and modify it to make it appropriate for children.

From a professional standpoint, there are some things in there that I think through the process will be removed, Loeffelholz said. I think those controversial things that you're hearing a lot of these groups talk about will be eventually removed from the standards. And they should be, I think some things are not age appropriate.

Loeffelholz added that other standards, such as social science and English, will also go through the same process.

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I understand why people are getting excited about it. Because if you look at what they believe in their faith life or personal life, I could see where these would hit a so-called hot button, Loeffelholz said.
She died at the scene, Dresner said. An obituary said Schramm was going to be a senior at Truman High School in Kansas City. Her family could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Dresner said park rangers were heartbroken by Schramms death and offered condolences to her family.

The Rev. Craig Otto is pastor at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Lees Summit and has known the Schramm family for 17 years. It was an unfortunate accident, and the whole congregation of 1,000 people here are mourning greatly, he said.

Otto said Schramm was involved in Lutheran schools and had a role in the Passion play at church for several years, acting as narrator. She was the youngest of four children and close with her brother and two sisters, he said.

Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park is in Middlebrook, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Missouri Highway Patrol investigates drownings and boating fatalities on state waterways, but park rangers are in charge of the Schramm investigation because of the way she died. Dresner said there was a similar death in 1999.

The park name is a reference to the Black River valley and how its much wider both upstream and downstream, Dresner said. But the portion of the valley where people gather to swim is much narrower, or shut-in, he said.
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Pa. Agriculture secretary launches ice cream trail at Hampden's Urban Churn

Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, left, takes an ice cream sample from Nissa Kelly, general manager at Urban Churn Craft Creamery, Hampden Township, Wednesday. Redding visited the store to announce the fourth annual Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail. The visit also coincided with the creamery's recent launch of its new location. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Urban Churn recently opened a Hampden Township location off the Carlisle Pike, offering a variety of unique ice cream flavors. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Harrisburg-based Urban Churn recently opened its second location in Hampden Township. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Urban Churn Craft Creamery is one of a number of creameries in the area on the state "ice cream trail." Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Urban Churn Craft Creamery's new Hampden Township location is near Domino's and Buffalo Wild Wings off the Carlisle Pike. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Carrie Lepore, deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's office of marketing, tourism and film, speaks during a news conference Wednesday and is joined by Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, right, at the new Urban Churn Craft Creamery. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding visited the new Urban Churn Craft Creamery in Hampden Township Wednesday. Jason Malmont, The Sentinel Urban Churn Craft Creamery recently opened a Hampden Township location, offering a variety of ice cream flavors.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding remembers taking his turn as one of 11 children turning the crank on the churn when the family made homemade ice cream.

This summer, families across Pennsylvania can enjoy ice cream without the crank by visiting any one of 31 shops on Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail, a creation of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Department of Agriculture, PA Preferred and the Center for Dairy Excellence.

The shops on the trail can be seen at visitpa.com/scoops.

Speaking at an event at the new Urban Churn location on the Carlisle Pike in Hampden Township to launch the 2021 version of the trail, Redding said there are many ways to tell the story of the dairy industry and agriculture, including through jobs, workforce development and partnerships like PA Preferred.

The most important way to tell the story is the families, he said. Think about how important that is to the culture of Pennsylvania and the business community.

Carlisle restaurant scene bouncing back after pandemic throws industry for a spin Borough restaurants interviewed by The Sentinel reported a steady increase in customers over the past two to three months as COVID-19 vaccination rates have risen and cases of the virus have declined.

The ice cream trail takes visitors across the state to meet those families and to be reintroduced to the food and culture that people have missed over the past year, Redding said.

To qualify for the trail, the creameries make a commitment to use PA Preferred products, Redding said.

Lolly Lesher of Way-Har Farm Market in Bernville said her family is in the fourth generation of running a farm market and her children represent the seventh generation of dairy farmers.

It really is a cow to cone experience in our family farm, she said.

Each day they have the opportunity to share what they do with consumers and to share high-quality food with their neighbors and the larger community, Lesher said.

The South Central Trail, which includes Urban Churn and the Sugar Shack in Boiling Springs, is the largest of the three regional trails in the program and includes 12 creameries or ice cream shops from Bernville to Chambersburg.

Adam Brackbill of Urban Churn said 2020 was a wild ride, but he took the time to think about how he wanted to go, deciding to expand into a second location with the Hampden store. The first location is in Harrisburg.

Twenty-twenty was definitely a pause in life. It seems like 2021 is catching up especially for us, he said. The ice cream trail is a perfect segue into catching up on life and having the opportunity as a family to get out and support small industry, especially the dairy industry.

Carrie Lepore, Department of Community and Economic Development deputy secretary of marketing, tourism and film, said there is a growing appetite for travel. Citing the latest Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, Lepore said three-quarters of those surveyed now feel safe going to places outside their local communities for shopping and dining.

Current market trends show a demand for road trips, nostalgia and outdoor activities. The agricultural industry is perfectly positioned to take advantage of these trends to provide authentic opportunities that allow families of all shapes and sizes to pursue their happiness here in Pennsylvania, she said.
He was 25 and playing with some of the great European orchestras, Froemke said. He would study and study and he would be full of nerves before he would go before these orchestras. Theres a moment in Rotterdam, Yannick is waiting outside the stage door to go into the first rehearsal and you see the fear in his face.

Froemke said he told her that when he rewatched the video of that moment recently, The fear came back to him in a profound way.

To help him through that period, his parents, Claudine Nezet and Serge Seguin, and his life partner, violist Pierre Tourville, spent most of a decade traveling with him from city to city.

The documentary is bookended by scenes of Nezet-Seguin preparing two productions he conducted during the Mets 2018-19 season, his first as music director and the last full season before the house shut down because of the pandemic.

He's shown working with soprano Diana Damrau on Verdis La Traviata, in which she portrays Violetta, a courtesan who is dying of tuberculosis.

In the opening scene, Violetta is throwing a late-night party, and the music on the surface is festive and carefree. But the conductor asks his star to dig deeper.
That certainly sounds like a human to me.

The reason the reporters question was relevant and posed to Psaki in the first place was that in the fall, the U.S. Supreme court is scheduled to hear arguments on Mississippis ban on most abortions after 15 weeks. In the past, the president, through spokespeople, has called such prohibitions on abortion an assault on womens rights.

Such language has been part of the abortion debate for decades. Proponents of legal abortion would like you to believe that what is at stake in the Mississippi case and other similar cases is a womans right to choose. Theres nothing new about this defense, of course.

What is new is that we know a lot more about unborn babies than we did in 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade.

We know that some 62 million abortions have been performed in this country since 1973 and we can clearly see, through scientific innovation, the humanness in an unborn baby.
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It allows them to compete on a level playing field with the internet companies, he said. The way we do commerce is changing and we must adapt to the changes. The brick-and-mortar stores provide employment to the people in our community.

Henderson said in order to go into effect locally, counties and cities must pass a use tax -- if they have not already passed one -- to collect the tax on internet sales in that municipality. Since the tax on internet sales is considered a use tax, it will only apply to jurisdictions where the voters have approved use tax collections.

Rep. Cyndi Buchheit-Courtway, R-Festus, said many businesses, including local businesses, have closed their doors citing their inability to compete with internet sales.

Many brick-and-mortar business owners have complained to me about the competitive disadvantages small businesses have with internet sales, especially Amazon, she said. In some instances there is at least 10% or more difference in the total cost. This is very challenging for small business owners, and with the passage of Wayfair, this will help our Missourians.

Buchheit-Courtway said to offset the increased sales-use taxes, Missourians will eventually see lower income taxes.
The way its written, this is not the legalization that we deserve in the state we love, Suttle said. The extra regulations you are putting on this are not fair to those that have been hurt the worst by the war on drugs.

Cannabis centers and law enforcement would have access to an online portal to check patient registrations, and an approved amendment would raise penalties against those who misuse medicinal marijuana for drug trafficking. Still, social conservatives again urged opposition to the bill, saying the safety and efficacy of cannabis remain uncertain and don't meet standards for other lawful drugs, and that the measure will ultimately lead to the legalization of recreational use.

Smoked marijuana is not medicine, said the Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League of North Carolina.

Several Democrats on the committee praised the bill. At least two Republicans on the committee voted no.

Senate Majority Leader Kathy Harrington, a Gaston County Republican, said she probably wouldn't have supported the bill six months ago. But that changed because she said her husband has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma and received cancer treatments.

Life comes at you fast, Harrington told colleagues. I believe we've already had some moments in our lives where this type of medication would have assisted in some of the responses to the treatment. She made the motion to recommend the measure.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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DEAR HARRIETTE: I need to tell my boss that I'll be quitting next week, since I believe a reference request will be in her email inbox by EOD. I want to be considered for a position in a different company. I've already talked to the manager about it, and the company wants me. They just want to hear from my boss about my work ethic and capabilities. I work with a tiny, close-knit team -- just 5 of us -- and we all get along well. My boss has spent a significant amount of time training me and assisting me in developing me for the job; therefore, I feel bad about informing her that I would be departing. At the same time, I need to go for this opportunity, as I feel it's a much better fit for me and my goals. How should I break it to her? -- Taking the Next Step

DEAR TAKING THE NEXT STEP: Immediately tell your boss that you need to talk to her. Then let her know what's going on. Thank her for all the support that she has given to you. Make it clear that you are grateful and that she has helped you grow. Explain that this new opportunity is in alignment with your long-term goals, so you believe you should go for it. Apologize for any inconvenience that your departure may cause. Emphasize how much you care about her and your co-workers and that your intention is not to make it hard on them as you pursue your goals. Ask her to respond to the reference request that she will be receiving, and directly ask her to give you a favorable review. Remind her of key highlights that showcase your work so that they are top of mind for her. Be positive.
Now, 600,000 Americans have died in a pandemic that began under suspicious circumstances in China and about which the Chinese government is stonewalling all meaningful investigation. 600,000 dead -- that is a lot bigger than a few Russian Facebook ads in Wisconsin. And yet leading figures in the Biden administration and the Democratic Party seem to have far less zeal about pursuing the origins of a disease that killed 600,000 Americans than they had in investigating what Russia did in the 2016 election.

It doesn't make sense. Everyone involved, scientist and non-scientist, agrees it is important to know the real origins of COVID. The Americans who want more investigation are not accusing China of deliberating loosing the virus on the world, but they do think there is persuasive evidence that the virus escaped into the human population as a result of an accidental leak during research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And they know that China has hidden the facts from the very beginning.
The baby was born premature at 24 weeks in February 2020, when her mother died of an aneurism and the doctors performed a caesarian delivery. She remained in the hospital for roughly six months before being allowed to come home last summer.

Consolvo said Jenkins, who had four other daughters at home when the baby was injured in late May, would allegedly hyperextend the babys arms as she used a walker, raising it above her head. Consolvo told the court that when admitted to the emergency room, the baby had a bilateral bucket fracture (corner fracture) to her femur, which according to the National Institutes of Health is indicative of non-accidental trauma to the patient. Consolvo also said she had bruises on her back, chest and one on her groin, blisters on her fingertips as if something hot had been applied to them and a subdural hematoma that is indicative of Shaken Baby Syndrome.
French explained that he and TMF president and CEO, Roy Young, have been using the rubric as a road map to a better understanding of what they like to call Montpeliers whole-truth history.

We made sure that the MDC was an independent organization from the start, so that it would be authentic and have the maximum impact, French said. Shortly after the formation of the committee, I was invited by Roys predecessor (Kat Imhoff) to join the Montpelier foundations board of directors.

Although the journey to reach the current power-sharing agreement has been a long and winding one, Young believes that the partnership will only strengthen the efforts to tell the full history of Montpelier.

The first step is the acknowledgement that the history exists and that were no longer going to erase it. Then theres this need to tell the history. Yet, you can only tell the history through the staff members that are here to interpret it. Therefore, we started engaging descendants to see who was interested in doing this work with us.

Young also emphasized the pioneering and groundbreaking aspects of the leadership reorganization and pointed to the fact that it could set a new standard among national historic sites.
The successful completion of this project was the result of cooperation between multiple agencies, including VDOT, the Virginia State Police and the Nelson County Sheriffs Office, as well as Nelson County officials. Three VDOT districts, Culpeper, Lynchburg and Staunton, as well as VDOTs Northwestern Regional Operations group, contributed resources to the project, the release said.

During the past eight weeks, contractors with VDOT have worked nearly around the clock to repair and stabilize the slope above U.S. 250, removing loose soil, trees and rocks and drilling numerous soil nails into the roughly 80-foot-tall by 240-foot-wide area.

Nelson Supervisor Tommy Harvey said it was just wonderful to have the roadway reopened ahead of schedule.

He thanked all of the agencies and law enforcement involved for their continued efforts to clear the rockslide.

It took a little while and government doesnt move fast, but they solved most of the problems as far as the trucks, and that will continue, Harvey said. The people have put up with a lot, but its something that happens that nobody has control over, but youve just got to make the best to fit. I know everybody is going to be happy.
Mack wept at times while reading her statement to the court. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told her he believed her apology was sincere, but said she deserved a serious sentence for using her celebrity to groom victims as a willing and proactive ally and essential accomplice to Raniere's monstrous crimes.

Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Mack had faced between 14 and 17 1/2 years behind bars, but her defense team argued in court papers that probation or a sentence to home confinement was more appropriate. Prosecutors had agreed that any prison term should be below the guidelines range because of her cooperation.

The NXIVM saga and the story of Ms. Macks descent have been a tragedy for all involved. But that need not, and should not, be the end of the story for Allison Mack, her lawyers wrote in court papers.

A victim, Jessica Joan, rejected Mack's apologies, telling the judge the actor deserved no mercy.

She can blame Keith all she wants but she is a monster cut from the same cloth, Joan said in court on Wednesday. Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being.
The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority will be an independent agency governing the new industry. Gov. Ralph Northam will appoint its chief executive officer in the coming days.

The regulatory process also will be driven by the three boards.

In the coming days, Northam also will make public his appointments to a five-person Board of Directors of the Cannabis Control Authority, which must be confirmed by the legislature.

As the launch of the legal market nears, it will create the regulations for the legal market. For manufacturers, as an example, regulators will have to issue guidance on packaging and labels for marijuana products. Theyll also issue standards for cultivation, sanitation and testing of marijuana production and the product.

The state also will create the Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, a 21-member board that will issue binding opinions on regulations that have to do with public health.

The state also will create a 20-member Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Board. It will be responsible for doling out the 30% in marijuana revenues that the state decided to direct to persons, families, and communities historically and disproportionately targeted and affected by drug enforcement, according to the law.
Seaborn says the marijuana laws, and their impacts on colleges and businesses, are getting more complicated as more states legalize it.

Its gotten more complicated because every state is taking its own unique approach, he said. Its not just a simple state issue versus federal issue because every state has its own flavor of legalization.

For Virginians, that flavor is a bit vanilla. As of Thursday, state law allows people 21 and older to possess up to an ounce for personal use and to consume it on private property. Consuming it in public is illegal. Adults also may grow up to four plants on their own property. They cannot grow their plants on someone elses property, even with permission. Neither can they let someone grow plants on their property.

No sales are allowed, although gifts are permissible. Prohibited are schemes in which marijuana is given to one person at the same time as an exchange of another item or cash.

Where were at now is that were taking a step to legalize it, but were not taking the step of having a commercial industry, yet, Seaborn said. As a consumer, its not legal to buy, so were in a complicated legal position for the next while.
Yes. I will do my part to conserve household energy usage, even if I'm uncomfortable in my home.

No. It is too hot to conserve household energy usage.

I already conserve, even before ERCOT requested it.

Maybe, depending on the reason ERCOT provides and whether or not I am home during that time.

Vote

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Tamil Nadu: After annual ban ends, fishermen return to shores, but claim poor catch

July 01,2021 | Source: The Hindu

After the annual fishing ban ended, the fishermen from the coastal hamlets had ventured into the sea on Tuesday night and returned in the early hours on Thursday. Though the markets were flooded with the catch and crowds thronged to buy them, fishermen leader Jesu Raja said that the catch was not very encouraging. The 61-day annual ban ended on June 14, but the fishermen from Rameswaram, Mandapam and Thangachimadam had not set off into the sea the following day (June 15). For almost a fortnight, the fishermen took time to repair the boats, fishnets and also had to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Above all, the lockdown restrictions, though there were certain relaxations, had made them venture into the Palk Bay for fishing only on June 29 night, he said. On the reasons for the poor catch, Mr. Jesu Raja said that the annual ban period, which was meant for production, was misused by some country boat fishermen, who ventured into the sea. The Fisheries Department officials should have been more vigilant, he said. On the mechanised boat fishermen venturing into the sea without obtaining tokens from the Fisheries Department, Mr. Jesu Raja said that it was unfortunate. Our association from five districts including Pudukottai, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam had passed resolutions urging the fishermen to follow the regulations but they had ventured into the sea on June 29 night itself, he said.



However, a mechanised boat owner Anthony Jesu from Thangachimadam said that only on the first day after the annual ban ended, fishermen set off in a bid to get the best catch from the seas. The CITU fishermen wing district secretary M. Karunamoorthy said that the Fisheries Department officials should take stern action against those fishermen and seize their mechanised boats, who had not obtained tokens. Venturing into the sea without taking tokens was a high risk, especially, when the Sri Lankan Navy was rude with the fishermen. The State government should determine the price for the fish on the lines of fixation for paddy and other produce, Mr. Jesu Raja said and added that export varieties were being procured by the export firms for a paltry ?350 per kg, while it was being sold at ?800 and above by them, he charged. The government should also enhance subsidies for diesel as the price per litre was ?100. Moreover, the cost of fishnet, repairs and ice had gone up due to several factors, while the export firms procured prawns for a paltry price. The fishermen too had to part with it immediately as they do not have any storage facilities, he pointed out.

 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD.
Tamil Nadu: Over 2,500 mechanised boats venture into sea without tokens

July 01,2021 | Source: The Hindu

A majority of fishermen from five districts  Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam (up to Kodiyakarai), ventured into the sea in over 2,500 mechanised boats on Tuesday (June 29) night in violation of resolutions passed by the Federation of Fishermen, which had proposed fishing only from Wednesday morning after obtaining tokens from the Fisheries Department. Up to 3,000 fishermen had ventured into the sea, in 750 mechanised boats from Rameswaram and 550 boats from Mandapam, in Ramanathapuram district, the federation members said. After the annual fishing ban ended on June 14, the fishermen had sought extension of the ban period till June 30 as they had to carry out repair works and other preparations. When the ban was in force, Sri Lankan authorities had dropped bus scrap in the sea, stating that it would help in fish production. However, the fishermen of Tamil Nadu had said it was done with the objective of damaging their boats and nets. Tokens not obtained While it was mandatory for the fishermen to get tokens to venture into the sea, they had not collected tokens this time.



CITU Fishermen Workers Welfare Union district secretary M. Karunamoorthy said the district administration should view the violation seriously as the fishermen risked their lives by not obtaining tokens. The practice of issuing tokens helped to keep a tab on each mechanised boat venturing into the sea with details of the owner and the number of persons on board. The All Fishermen Welfare Federation, which included members from the five districts, had also passed resolutions stating that the Fisheries Department should take stern action by not allowing such boats to venture into the sea at least for a week, and the government should discontinue diesel subsidy offered to such fishermen. When contacted, a Fisheries Department official said since the end of the ban period on June 14, the officials had been issuing tokens to boat owners. Assuring to look into the charges that a large number of boats had ventured into the sea from the five districts without obtaining tokens, the official said there were legal provisions to take action against them.

 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD.
Andhra Pradesh: VMRDA draft master plan projects boost to fisheries

by Umamaheswara Rao

July 01,2021 | Source: The Times of India

The draft master plan-2041 prepared by Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority has proposed seven fishery development nodes in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts in areas like Revupolavaram, Muthyalammapalem, Chinnamangamaripeta, etc. The VMRDA region has a nearly 250 km coastline dotted with 80 fishing villages, which is 26% of the coast length in Andhra Pradesh. Fishing is a traditional occupation in the region. Andhra Pradesh has favourable agro-climatic conditions for the growth of fisheries and aquaculture sector. The state is contributing as much as 29.7% of national fish production. It is a major exporter of shrimp in India with a share of 40.4% in total value of seafood exports of the country during the 2019-20 financial year. The sector is providing employment to nearly 26.5 lakh people. Fisheries contribute 7.4% of the gross state domestic product of Andhra Pradesh. Hence, due importance is being given to conserve and harness this traditional occupation in the region in the VMRDA draft master plan-2041. Apart from the fishery development nodes, the other prominent suggestions given in the draft plan for this sector are to increase infrastructure facilities, employment-based allied industries, and proposal of new fishing harbours in areas like Etcherla, Kalingapatnam, Bheemili and Pudimadaka.



Key objectives of the recommendations are to sustain fish production, promote fishermen welfare, address critical gaps in the infrastructure for the value chain, and to promote domestic fish consumption in the state. Skill development and creating fishing infrastructure will boost the declining active fishermen. Provisioning of mini harbours or jetties will increase the number of crafts, which will eventually increase the economy of fisherfolk. The envisaged logistic connectivity, proposed development plans, and exporting facilities would make the region advantageous for these establishments. The master plan also proposes encouraging the primary sector by adopting sustainable agricultural practices and technologies. This will conserve fertile agricultural land and help in optimum use of available resources without hindering the rural fabric. Providing required infrastructure and easy access to markets will boost the local economy and aid in easy transfer of agricultural commodities.

 2021 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
Gujarat: Panchayat in Valsad passes resolution against port plan

by Kamal Saiyed

July 01,2021 | Source: The Indian Express

A protest has been brewing among the fishermen community in Nargol after the Gujarat government announced a plan to build a greenfield port on the Nargol coast in Valsad district of South Gujarat, bordering Maharashtra. On Tuesday, the Nargol Gram Panchayat held a general board meeting and passed a resolution opposing the development of the port, fearing it would affect the livelihood of farmers and fishermen. There are 14 elected members, including the sarpanch, in Nargol Panchayat. Last week, the state government announced plan to develop a port at Nargol in Umargam Taluka as a cargo port on Build, Own, Operate, Transfer basis for a period of 50 years, on public-private partnership basis. Talking to The Indian Express, Nargol village sarpanch Kantibhai Kotwal said, The major source of income of people of Nargol and its neighbouring villages are farming and fishing. They will lose their livelihood. The state government has not shared information about the project with us. People of nine villages neighbouring Nargol village are supporting us in opposing the project. Deputy sarpanch of Nargol village, Sweety Bhandari, said, Villagers dont want a port, we want tourism. Nargol is of historical significance as the Parsis from Iran landed in Sanjan and stayed in Nargol village The port would pollute the coastal area The land in the coastal area belongs to the tribals and it is the only source of their income. Nargol Gram Panchayat member Upendra Tandel told this paper, If a jetty comes up, fishermen will have to suffer. Tandel is member of the Umargam Taluka Kinara Bachao Utkarsh Samiti, an offshoot of Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, that protested Maroli port project in the same taluka in 1999-2000 under Lt Colonel (retd) Pratap Save. The project was abandoned.

 2021 The Indian Express [P] Ltd.
A Sweet Home man pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in a scheme to steal funds intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Russell Anthony Schort, 39, pleaded guilty to bank fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office - District of Oregon.

Schort worked with an accomplice, Andrew Aaron Lloyd, 51, of Lebanon, to take advantage of the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program, an integral part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020. The CARES Act provided emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans and small businesses suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic.

According to court documents, on May 1, 2020, Lloyd submitted a PPP loan application under Schorts business name, Schort Lee Construction, to U.S. Bank. Included in the loan application package was a false IRS form 944 listing 2019 wages paid of more than $3 million. The application also included a fake list of 56 employees and the wages purportedly paid to each.
State

After a year of living carefully, nearly half of Texas voters have returned to their pre-pandemic lives, UT/TT Poll finds

Al Key/DRC file photo In a photo taken in April on Dentons Square, some folks wear masks, some dont  and some keep their masks close by around their necks.

As an increasing number of Texans get vaccinated against COVID-19, most voters here are returning to their pre-pandemic lives  or something close to it  after a year of living carefully, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

In the June poll, 47% of voters said they were coming and going as they were before the pandemic restrictions hit, while 39% said they were leaving the house regularly while still exercising caution. Another 14% said they were still staying home all the time or only going out when absolutely necessary, according to the poll.

Conservatives are more likely to be living normally now, the poll found: 68% of Republicans are returning to pre-pandemic lifestyles compared with only one in five Democrats  even though Democrats are more likely to have been vaccinated.

A year ago, nearly three-quarters of Texans were isolating at home, according to a UT/TT poll from April 2020, a month into the statewide stay-at-home orders. At the time, more than half of Texas voters were extremely or very concerned about the virus spreading throughout their community, according to UT/TT polls.

But now, only 27% of the polls respondents have that level of concern over viral spread, and the fear is concentrated among communities of color, the poll found.

Among Black voters in Texas, 58% say they are still extremely or very concerned about the spread of the virus in their communities, just over half are worried about themselves or someone they know getting infected, and only 19% say they have fully returned to their normal, pre-pandemic lives, according to the poll.

One-third of Hispanic voters said they have returned to normal life, and 38% said they are extremely or very concerned about viral spread in their communities.

By contrast, 59% of white voters have returned to their normal pre-pandemic lives with no additional precautions or restrictions that arent mandated, the poll shows. Fewer than 1 in 5 white Texans have a high level of concern about themselves or someone they know being infected.

There are pretty large racial and ethnic disparities in levels of concern. This gap has persisted throughout the pandemic, said Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. The fact that these groups express more concern is a reflection of the reality that theyve faced more harm or impact.

Less than half of Texas voters believe that coronavirus is still a significant crisis, compared with two-thirds in April 2020.

Democrats and Republicans differ sharply on this, and have disagreed since the beginning of the pandemic, the poll found. More than three-quarters of Democrats believe the pandemic is still a significant crisis, while less than one-quarter of Republicans feel the same. More than a third of Republicans say its not an issue at all.

At the start of the pandemic, 91% of Democrats viewed coronavirus as a significant concern, while less than half of Republicans felt that way, the April 2020 UT/TT poll found. By June 2020, that level of concern among Republicans dropped to 29% and stayed close to that rate for the next year.

The consistent differences in the perspective on the pandemic between the two parties has been reflected in the decisions being made by Texas Republican leaders  easing business restrictions just a month after shutdowns started, or fighting Democratic efforts to push through voting procedures that they believed reduced risk at the voting booth, pollsters said.

It also seems to be the underpinning of GOP Gov. Greg Abbotts more recent decisions to end the statewide mask mandate in March, block so-called vaccine passports and ban local governments and school districts from enacting safety protocols, among other policies, said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin.

Texans are fairly evenly divided overall on the issue of requiring vaccine credentials in order to gain admission to events or activities with large groups of people. The poll found 41% of voters support vaccine passports, while 46% oppose them. Along partisan lines, the divide is much deeper. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats support requiring vaccine credentials, compared with 17% of Republicans, the poll found.

More than two-thirds of Republicans approve of the job the state government is doing in response to the coronavirus now, compared to just 20% of Democrats, the poll shows. Overall, the approval rating for the state response to the pandemic came in at 45%, with a 34% disapproval rating.

Republicans were ready to move on much sooner than Democrats were, Henson said. Theres been a gap from the beginning. And I think its hard not to map that on to the political response from Republican leadership in the state.

Personal decisions

About 50% of voting-age Texans have been fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Yet the poll shows that while Republican and Democrat voters in Texas differ on what personal precautions they are taking, the majority of Texas voters are still masking up and avoiding large groups of people. Half of them are still avoiding other people outside of their households.

Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to avoid large crowds, the poll showed. They are also almost three times as likely to mask up around people outside their households or avoid them altogether, according to the poll.

People of color are also more likely to be taking personal protection measures. Nearly 90% of Black voters and 72% of Hispanics are still wearing their masks around people outside their households, compared with 44% of white Texans. The differences were similar regarding avoiding large groups and avoiding other people in general.

At the same time, however, this most recent poll shows that more Texans feel safe doing more activities that, a year ago, they viewed as dangerous  most of all grocery shopping, haircuts and working at the office.

More than half of Texas voters still see going to bars as a risky activity.

Vaccines

Black people, Hispanics and other people of color in Texas have higher rates of infection and deaths, have less access to the vaccines than white Texans and tend to hold jobs that put them at higher risk of getting infected.

They also trust vaccines, in general, slightly more than white Texans, the poll found, and Black voters were nearly three times more likely to say they planned to get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was available to them.

Both national and state agencies have made focused outreach efforts to increase vaccination acceptance among communities of color, which is most likely what is being reflected in the poll, Henson and Blank said.

Overall, though, two-thirds of Texans believe that vaccines in general are safe and effective.

Democratic voters were also more likely to have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus, with 79% reporting that they had gotten their shot, compared with 47% of Republican voters.

The University of Texas/Texas Tribune internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from June 10-21 and has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points.
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Japanese telecommunications services and technology giant SoftBank has teamed up with the Smart Africa Secretariat, an alliance of 32 African countries, international organisations and global private sector players tasked with Africas digital agenda. They aim to work on an initiative to use non-terrestrial connectivity as a way of connecting remote or underserved regions of the continent.

A recently announced memorandum of understanding between the partners highlights plans for a collaboration on what are called innovative solutions towards achieving the vision of providing affordable broadband. The aim seems to be to bring together a number of existing approaches to satellite and high-altitude communications with an investment plan called the Bulk Capacity Purchase Project.

As part of Smart Africas strategy to double broadband penetration to 51 percent in Africa by 2025 it is working to implement the Bulk Capacity Purchase Project, an initiative that aims to deliver affordable internet connectivity for African citizens through the large-scale joint procurement efforts of Smart Africa member countries.

To contribute to the project, SoftBank will deploy its non-terrestrial network (NTN) solutions to reduce internet costs and build affordable internet infrastructure.

SoftBanks NTN solutions will utilize the connectivity services of satellite internet company OneWeb, satellite IoT business Skylo and HAPSMobile, an operator of high altitude platform station (HAPS) networks, among others, to provide connectivity from space and the stratosphere. SoftBank aims to deploy NTN solutions in African markets by collaborating with Smart Africa and working closely with its member countries.

Five African countries have already expressed interest in the Bulk Capacity Purchase Project: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Rwanda.

How this plays out in practice will be interesting. Connectivity from high altitude could overcome the technical problem of traversing remote terrain and serving low population areas  if it can be done affordably.

However, one such initiative has already foundered on this issue. As we reported in January, Alphabet pulled support from its internet-beaming balloon subsidiary Loon, after the company failed to find a financially stable business model.
La Aldea: The 'Temporary' Cuban Shelters That Arent Those who live in this 'transitional community', as the government describes it, arrived expecting to be there for a short time, but many have been trapped in it their entire lives.

Nobody dreams of living in a shelter. However, the people who reside here have spent much of their lives in cramped spaces, without separate rooms or privacy, and it shows in their claustrophobic gazes. Many ended up here after their homes collapsed. In this place a prime is hardly placed on education, as when poverty and hunger rear their heads, the prevailing philosophy is just to survive.

These shelters, whose occupants have dubbed them La Aldea (The Village), like almost all such accommodations, are made up of a series of tiny cubicles. The State assumes that a family of up to six people can live in each one. Outside, the ground is dusty and the streets are cracked, with no traces of any asphalt. Inside, a semi-polished concrete mixture covers the floors.

No politicians or high-ranking officials visit any of these "houses", which are officially called "transitional communities," despite the fact that they house families whose struggle against uncertainty is perpetual.

The Cubans who were forced to take shelter here did so with the expectation that it would be for a reasonable period of time, until the State assigned them homes of their own. But, as they waited, their interiors began to fill with family photos, ornaments and other objects making them feel like permanent homes. There are some families that have been living in La Aldea for more than 20 years. Many have been born, married and had their children here.

In his living room, barely two meters wide and four meters long, Angela Herrera has a television that she turns on at noon to watch the Noticiero, the daily newscast. But the news barely talks about the situations of shelter residents like her. She is now going on five years, living in a unit approximately seven meters long by four meters wide, including a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. A kind of makeshift screen, made up of fabrics and wood scraps, marks off the living room. She has a sofa, a couple of chairs, and an air conditioner capable of cooling the entire property at night.

56 years old, Angelas odyssey of a life continues. She was born in Moron, Ciego de Avila. At the age of 8 she moved with her family to Cienfuegos, where she lived until she got married, had children, and separated. Then she met her current husband and they emigrated together to Centro Habana, in the capital.

The district bordered by Zanja, Belascoain, Galiano and San Lazaro streets, sprayed by the salt and breezes of El Malecon, is known as San Leopoldo. The large houses of this fossilized neighborhood, once inhabited by the city's aristocracy, gave way to crumbling properties, many in danger of collapse, divided into small rooms. Angela lived illegally in that area for 20 years. In 2016 her building collapsed, like many others, due to a lack of maintenance. "First they took us to La Villena, a school in Santiago de Las Vegas, where we stayed for a month. Then they brought us to this shelter, and the rest is history. Here I am, to this day."

To the East of Havana, between the borders of the Bahia and Guanabacoa neighborhoods, are the shelters of Old Havana, where Angela and her family were transferred. These structures provide accommodations mainly for people who previously resided in Old Havana and Central Havana. There are 17 warehouses, divided into cubicles where 200 families live packed together like sardines. In La Aldea the kitchens and bathrooms get wet on rainy days, and the fiber cement tiles used to manufacture the ceilings, which are low to the ground, have a desert-like effect: "When the weather is hot, it gets hot, and when it's cold, it gets cold," Angela explains, foregoing any metaphors.

In the early 90s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, which bankrolled Cuba's tropical socialism, and the advent of the "Special Period, sheltered communities began to gradually spread throughout the country. 104 of them are located in Havana. On January 26, 2020, before the coronavirus hit the island, the Cuban government announced a reconstruction plan through the Cuban News Agency (ACN).

A Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) report focused on "Temporary Shelters" in Cuba explained that "the operation of shelters must feature the organization of general services guaranteeing the conditions essential for their inhabitation." The reality of these structures, however, is very different. The sewers overflow most of the year, with areas that constitute virtual breeding grounds for mosquitoes, other insects, and rodents.

Potable water fittings suffer from leaks and, sometimes, breaks that lead to mixing with wastewater.

On the weekend of January 8, 2021, a score of residents at the Bahia-Plaza shelter near La Aldea commenced a protest to demand their transfer to a place featuring better conditions, and that they be given their own homes. "Next to the warehouses where we live they are erecting a building for Electricity Company workers. There are also new, empty buildings in Cojimar for the military. But we, after spending years amidst mice and mosquitoes, in houses that get all wet, and iand in which we can suffer electrical shocks they... don't give us anything. Were tired of going to every possible place, and in the end it's all for nothing," said Lourdes Quintana, a mother of five.

A llegaypon by the shelters

A recent report from the Ministry of Construction indicates that at the end of April 2021, 5,791 homes were completed throughout the country, earmarked for various groups, including subsidized and sheltered people. According to the report, this number of buildings represents 13% of what was slated in the construction plan for this year. Those numbers were announced in May 2021 on Cuban TV's Noticiero Nacional, but it was not specified how many homes were planned for each sector.

Despite the deterioration, the inhabitants of La Aldea have never taken to the streets: "We behave like civilized people, because, in the end, I tell you, that I was born under, Fidel and I owe what I have to Fidel. Were not counterrevolutionaries, and we support this Revolution. I, particularly, love President Diaz-Canel. Actually, what I would like is for him to come out and see how people live in the shelters," Angela said, hopeful.

Joel Muwanga was born in Kampala, Uganda, a landlocked country located in East Africa. He was the second child of a couple formed by a young Ugandan man, an Agricultural Engineering student in Cuba, and a Cuban girl who was studying Commerce. His parents separated when he was 12 years old. His mother took the first flight to Cuba and brought him with her. He never saw his father again.

They settled on the Calle Aponte, in Old Havana before spending time in the Guanabacoa district and ending up next to the shelters, in a llegaypon, a makeshift shelter built on vacant land; literally, an arrive and put.

"This was empty land where people who didn't have houses came and settled. That is why it is called a llegaypon. We built a wooden house and, with that, struggling, we laid the foundation, put down blocks and that's what you see right now," says Joel. That is the llegaypon: a whole neighborhood built without the approval of any architects, based entirely on the tastes and resources of each family.

Muwanga is a rapper and music producer. In his songs he evokes the times when his house was still made of boards, with a dirt floor, and he recorded his songs with Ediel and El Fila, the two deceased members of his old group, Kick Krack. Through years of effort, along with his family, he expanded the spacious living room, kitchen, bathroom, garage, and an entranceway with a small altar to Saint Lazarus. Now he intends to build a second floor.

"This is not going to change any time soon"

There is not much difference between the people in the shelters and those at the llegaypon. They are affected by the same deficiencies and the same abandonment. This is so much the case, in fact, that, from the outside, the whole territory is seen as one place. Only its residents recognize the boundaries between the two. "I'm used to seeing the shelters, for me it's normal. But I've come with friends of mine and, we get here, and people tell them 'come in here, this is my pad' and friends have told me 'No way, Joel', and sometimes they're speechless."

Most of the shelters' occupants were born in slums or tenements, or emigrated from the countryside seeking a better future in the capital. Muwanga still feels the leery gazes of residents of the Bahia neighborhood settle on them.

"When you arrive in the most residential area of Bahia and say, 'I'm from the shelters', people look at you differently," says Muwanga, who also offers a theory as to why most of the people are black in those areas. "The blacks in the shelters are ones segregated from Havana, who they sent away a little. In those places the State put its hotels, cafes and their own things. I know that is the country's economy, but they're looking to make a lot of money, when there are people who have been here for 20 years."

In La Aldea most people work. Many make a living on the black market , reselling products they buy in stores accepting Freely Convertible Currency (MLC). They spend their time standing in long lines in the sun to get them. La Aldea, thus, has become a place where one can find products that are in short supply at shops and markets, such as shampoo and conditioner.

Despite the explosion of the pandemic in Havana, La Aldea has not been the most affected place. Before the curfew was instituted due to Covid-19, many young people from different areas of the Bahia district, in the absence of discos and bars, would go to one of the warehouses there to buy the low-quality, cheap alcohol known as chispa de tren, or "train spark". The shelters comprised a kind of haven where the authorities hardly intervened, rum flowed, and one could talk.

This is still true today. It's almost 9:00 at night, curfew time, and people come and go from Joel's house as if the law did not exist. They are people from the neighborhood, friends and acquaintances. In the living room they have a PlayStation, and in the bedroom Joel has a little alcohol in a plastic bottle that he will share, straight from it, with anyone who visits, as he has done all his life.

Recently the Official Gazette announced new terms for citizens to access a housing plan and subsidies for people without a home, or those who need to remodel theirs. Applicants must have at least three children under 17 years of age. Materials have already arrived, and work has begun on buildings to replace the shelters, but progress is slow. In the time it takes to erect a building for people in crisis, several hotels for tourists can be built in Old Havana from which most of those living in the shelters were driven.

"This is not going to change any time soon," Angela declares.

Again, no metaphors.

This article is part of "El ultimo techo" ("The Last Roof") a special transnational series by the Laboratorio de Periodismo Situado.
If you ask Washington State swimmer Taylor McCoy how she came to adopt the backstroke as her specialty, she might talk initially about the chicken and the egg. Does she like that stroke because shes good at it? Or is she good at it because she likes it?
The challenged provisions mostly have to do with monitoring or photographing parts of the election process.

Bruce Brown, a lawyer for the activists and others who filed the suit, said the state misrepresents the law as promoting transparency and election integrity.

They say that, but what they mean by transparency is a fake transparency, Brown said during the online hearing. It's transparency theater. It's integrity theater.

Instead, Brown said, the challenged provisions of the law effectively obstruct election transparency and intimidate voters and members of the news media who provide citizen oversight for the way elections are run.

Bryan Tyson, a lawyer for the state, argued that the challenged provisions are necessary to protect ballot secrecy and the integrity of the state's elections. He also noted that none of the activists have said that they intend to violate the challenged provisions, and that they face no harm unless they violate these provisions.

The Georgia First Amendment Foundation has filed a brief in the case, saying the new law "has imposed new and dangerous restrictions on news gathering that threaten the ability of the public and press to remain informed about Georgia elections.
People leaving a centralized facility after completing a 21-day quarantine period in HCMC's Thu Duc City, June 28, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa.

Vietnam's ongoing outbreak continues to grow with 189 new domestic Covid-19 patients confirmed Thursday morning, including 158 cases in HCMC.

The rest of the cases were registered in four other localities: Tien Giang (16), Phu Yen (eight), Hung Yen (six), and Vinh Long (one).

All the new cases in HCMC were recorded in quarantine zones and areas that have been isolated.

The cases in the Mekong Delta's Tien Giang had contact with previously confirmed Covid-19 patients.

All the cases in the central Phu Yen Province and the northern Hung Yen Province also had contracted the virus after coming into contact with Covid-19 patients.

The case in the Mekong Delta's Vinh Long is a woman who returned from HCMC.

Over two months into the new Covid wave, the fourth one and the most challenging Vietnam has faced yet, the nation has recorded 13,684 domestic cases in 50 of its 63 cities and provinces.

Bac Giang Province and HCMC account for most infections, with 5,703 and 3,998 cases.

The country has vaccinated more than 3.7 million people against Covid-19, including 193,041 who have got two shots.
The Baihetan hydropower plant is seen in operation on the border between Qiaojia county of Yunnan province and Ningnan county of Sichuan province, China, June 28, 2021. Photo by Reuters.

The Mekong River Commission has urged China and Southeast Asian countries to share more data on hydropower operations that can contribute to abnormal rises and falls in water levels on the Mekong.

The changes in water levels have affected navigation, river ecosystems and riverbank stability in the region, where tens of millions depend on the Mekong for their livelihoods.

In a report released on Wednesday, the MRC said hydropower dams were holding back water at the start of this years dry season, but releases were partially triggering higher-than-average water flows in the first five months of this year.

Dry conditions in the past two years continue to adversely impact seasonal water flows and interrupt the flooding cycles on the Tonle Sap lake, which much of Cambodias population relies on for agriculture, fishing and transportation.

And while parts of Thailand and northern Cambodia saw record rainfall in April to May, the river flow did not register a significant increase in the period, the report said.

The MRC - of which Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are members - also said that while hydropower water releases could be beneficial for agriculture and combating seawater intrusion, the management of the river basin could be improved with more data sharing.

"Both member countries and China should notify any planned major changes in the operation of hydropower projects and share that information with the MRC Secretariat," said An Pich Hatda, MRC Secretariat Chief Executive Officer.

China last year agreed to share year-round water level and rainfall data with the MRC and pledged to notify the commission and its member countries of any abnormal changes in water levels.

Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said it was providing data that was "fully open and transparent" to the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), another platform of international cooperation set up in 2016.

"China has provided the Mekong countries with real-time hydrological information...and has taken the initiative to report major changes in the discharge flow," Wang told a briefing.

The report also forecast higher-than-average rainfall in June compared to the past two years, but lower than normal rainfall in Cambodia, the Central Highlands of Vietnam and southern Laos in July.
Vietnamese repatriated from Europe arrive at Van Don Airport in Quang Ninh Province, March 23, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Binh Minh.

The northern Quang Ninh Province, which will implement the vaccine passport program this month, has begun trialing the use of tracking wristbands on visitors as a Covid-19 control measure.

Visitors to the province without smartphones will have to strap on the wristbands while those who have phones will receive a SIM card and be asked to install medical declaration and contact tracing apps like Vietnam Health Declaration or Bluezone.

The wristbands come with QR codes to be scanned during a person's time in quarantine or self-isolation. They would be reminded by officials to declare their medical status every day and look out for abnormal signs.

This will be done for 28 days following a person's entry.

The tracking wristbands use either Bluetooth or GPS to track their wearers. Their batteries last for around 30 days and are rechargeable.

Prototype models of G-Track tracking wristbands, which utilize GPS technologies, developed by Ginnovations.

A spokesperson for the Authority of Information Technology Application said the wristbands were developed by tech firm Ginnovations and trialed on passengers arriving in Vietnam on certain flights since June.

Other countries like Singapore and South Korea also use tracking technology to monitor people.

Vietnam would trial its vaccine passport program in July in Quang Ninh, home to Van Don International Airport, letting in foreign entrants who have either been fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19, and test negative for the coronavirus upon arrival. These arrivals will only have to undergo a seven-day centralized quarantine period instead of the usual 21 days.
Vietnam plans to aid those financially affected by Covid-19 with a VND26 trillion ($1.13 billion) package.

The package is a follow-up to a previous initiative of VND62 trillion ($2.6 billion) Vietnam issued last year for the poor and businesses hit by Covid-19, Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung told a government meeting Tuesday.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh demanded the labor ministry thoroughly ensures the package could reach those in need, including informal laborers like street vendors.

The financial support package released in April last year included nearly VND36 trillion ($1.55 billion) from the central government and local administration budgets.

It targeted six categories of individuals and businesses.

Those having lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 crisis for 14 days or more would get a monthly allowance of VND1.8 million.

Part-time workers who were unemployed but have not received related benefits would access a monthly allowance of VND1 million.

Poor and near-poor households would receive VND250,000 per month while those with a record of meritorious services to the nation would get VND500,000 per month.

Household businesses with revenues below VND100 million a year whove had to suspend operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic would also be supported with VND1 million per month.

Businesses that suffered financial difficulties as a result of Covid-19 were allowed to borrow money from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies at zero percent interest to pay their employee salaries for three months. The loans would cover a maximum 50 percent of the local minimum wage, with businesses responsible for paying the remainder.

As of May this year, nearly VND14 trillion of the package had been disbursed to help 13.2 million people.

The Economic Committee of the legislative National Assembly on June 15 said the policy to use the package has not been effective enough to help laborers and businesses vulnerable to the pandemic.

Many people in need have complained about complicated procedures preventing them from getting the support.

The committee suggested the government make a comprehensive assessment of past support policies to make them more effective.

Two months into the new wave, Vietnam has recorded over 13,200 community infections in 50 of its 63 cities and provinces, with localities home to most industrial zones in Vietnam, including Bac Giang and Bac Ninh in the north and Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong in the south, among those hardest hit.

The labor ministry predicts if the epidemic continues to adversely affect industrial zones, 2-2.5 million factory workers would lose their jobs.
Austria, Thailand and the Philippines have listed Vietnam among countries and territories with low Covid-19 risks and eased travel restrictions for Vietnamese visitors.

Vaccinated tourists from Vietnam, or those having recovered from the virus and bearing a negative certificate for Covid-19 will be allowed to enter Austria from July 1 after the Austrian government deemed Vietnam had the lowest Covid-19 risks.

If they fail to show proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test from Covid-19, they will be required to undergo a Covid test within 24 hours after arriving in Austria.

Thailand's famous Phuket Island reopened to foreign tourists since Thursday following a long period of economic woes caused by the Covid-19 crisis, allowing in vaccinated Vietnamese without quarantine.

According to Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Tanee Sangrat, Thailand currently welcomes travelers from 66 countries and territories with low Covid-19 risks to Phuket under the new tourism model.

They must obtain a certificate of entry at the Thai embassy where they are from. Then, within 72 hours before flying to Thailand, get a certificate showing negative Covid-19 test results.

Once in Phuket, tourists are also required to take three Covid-19 tests. The tests can be done at certified hotels or partner hospitals. If they test positive, tourists will be transferred to healthcare facilities for treatment.

The Filipino government on Wednesday also released a list of more than 50 countries and territories, including Vietnam, that have been identified as "green" or with a low coronavirus risk, Philippine News Agency reported.

Filipino authorities have approved shorter quarantine protocols for travelers from green countries in which passengers who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 would only have to spend seven days in quarantine upon arrival in the Philippines, instead of the standard 10-day period at government-designated facilities and four days in their place of accommodation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month eased travel restrictions to many countries and territories, and placed Vietnam on its list of safest destinations.

Vietnam's containment of Covid was a worldwide success story until late April when a fourth wave caused by the delta variant first found in India began with 13,684 cases recorded so far.
Japan has decided to halve Covid-19 quarantine for travelers from Vietnam to three days starting on Thursday.

This is due to "signs of an improving situation," Japan Times reported, quoting government sources.

People arriving from Vietnam will be required to undergo a test on the third day before leaving quarantine, and cannot use public transportation for two weeks after arrival except for designated trains and taxis and rented cars.

Several countries have been banning and imposing stricter quarantine measures for travelers from Vietnam ever since Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said in late May a hybrid variant with characteristics from the Indian and U.K. coronavirus strains and which spreads rapidly through the air has been found.

WHO rejected this, saying there is no new "hybrid variant" of the coronavirus in Vietnam, and did not sound an alert.

Vietnam's containment of Covid was a worldwide success story until late April when a fourth wave caused by the delta variant first found in India began. There have been 13,684 cases so far.

The country is pushing its vaccination campaign in an effort to curb the spread of infections. It received nearly a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine gifted by Japan last month and has used most of it in the epicenter HCMC. Another million doses from Japan are expected to arrive in two deliveries on July 1 and 8.
Dastrup thanked Robinson for her efforts, despite the pandemic and the negative atmosphere that has prevailed during Covid.

She hopped into the middle of a fire in a pandemic. I know what she tried to do in the middle of unbeatable, just crazy odds, Dastrup said. There was no way she could win no matter what she did. I want to go on record and say I appreciate the work she did for Elko County.

Cooney echoed Dastrups thoughts, pointing out that Robinson navigated the school district through the states Covid restrictions without violating the law. We had all of our kids back in person, full-time by the end of the school year, which a whole bunch of school districts in this state cannot say that [as] they stayed in hybrid or even full virtual. So I thank her for that.

As the district enters a transitional phase, Trustee Luc Gerber asked for the publics patience with the board, Smith and the future superintendent going forward.

Change comes slow, so it takes a lot for somebody to come into this district this size that is spread out so wide. It does take a minute for someone  especially if theyre not necessarily local  to embrace our community and to embrace each community to kind of figure out what is going on, Gerber said.

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Prosecutors said in recent court filings that the Nevada Department of Corrections has provided the court with undisputed medical and pharmaceutical evidence establishing the execution will not result in unconstitutional pain or suffering  "indeed, it is likely to result in very minimal to no pain.

Floyds lawyers say the state wrongly maintains the alternatives they have suggested are not legitimate options because Nevada law provides only for lethal injection and the Department of Corrections has been unable to get a barbiturate.

But they said the Supreme Court has made it clear that an inmate seeking to identify an alternative method of execution is not limited to choosing among those presently authorized by a particular states law. They said both of Floyds proposed alternatives are well-established in other jurisdictions.

Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah authorize execution by firing squad, they said. Texas, Georgia and the U.S. government have recently used pentobarbital in executions.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A mother from San Jose, California, on Wednesday was denied bail by a Nevada judge who was told by a prosecutor that the woman admitted strangling her 7-year-old son.

Samantha Moreno Rodriguez, 35, made an initial court appearance by video after being arrested June 8 in Denver and transferred Monday to Nevada.

Liam Husteds body was found May 28 by hikers near a trailhead outside Las Vegas.

Police have said they believe Rodriguez left San Jose with her son in a car full of their belongings days before he was killed.

His body remained unidentified for over a week.

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Rodriguez was arrested after a family friend recognized the boys image from news reports.

During Wednesdays court appearance, a prosecutor said Rodriguez confessed to strangling her son and disrobing his dead body before leaving him in the desert.

This is a pretty egregious case, Deputy District Attorney John Giordani said. She essentially said that she became frustrated with the child and strangled him.

Rodriguezs only comment during the proceeding was to confirm her identity.
Another possibility is that this Ranked Choice Voting exercise isnt going very well because the powers that be in New York City politics dont WANT it to go very well. In a system where two parties continually dominate, and in a city where one of those parties enjoys a pretty firm stranglehold on power, RCV threatens to upset the (big) apple cart. It produces winners based on the broadest level of popular support rather than leaving voters with a binary choice between lesser evils. Party bosses hate that idea. Its possible that New York Citys version of RCV was built to fail

A non-possibility is that Ranked Choice Voting itself is to blame for the fiasco. Theres simply nothing complex or confusing about it.

The voter simply ranks the available candidates from first place to last, something he or she probably already did when considering which candidate to vote for in vote for one elections.

At the election administration level, RCV MORE work, but its not COMPLICATED work. If no candidate receives a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the fewest such votes is eliminated. His or her votes are transferred to those voters second choices.
More than 180 million doses of covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the US but a small number of individuals were originally given a saline-only jab by mistake. Those individuals were contacted once the mistake was discovered and given the proper dose of the vaccine.

The most recent example comes from South Carolina, but other cases of the mix-up have been reported in North Carolina and in Ontario. Saline solution, which is just salt and water, is used to dilute the covid-19 vaccine prior to use. A saline-only shot should not cause any adverse effects but should not have happened and where it has occurred a review is ongoing to prevent it from happening again.

A very limited number of people given saline-only shots

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) acknowledged that officials were aware of a very limited number of instances where individuals were given covid-19 shots absent the actual vaccine. The acknowledgement came after WCSC received a report from one of its viewers that days after she received her second dose of Pfizer vaccine, she was told by the pharmacy that administered the jab that it had not been activated.

She was told to return to the pharmacy in Summerville, South Carolina, outside of Charleston, so that the covid-19 vaccine could be re-administered. Saline is used as a diluent when administering the Pfizer vaccine and should be harmless.

In response to WCSCs inquiries into the matter Laura Renwick, spokesperson for SCDHEC, gave the following statement "DHEC has received a very limited number of reports of 'diluent only' administrations since December 2020. In each case that DHEC has become aware of, the provider has addressed this on an individual level with each recipient to appropriately re-administer vaccine."

The customer told me that she was mostly frustrated because it meant another week of waiting until she would be fully protected from the coronavirus Lisa Weismann

Reports of saline-only shots in North Carolina and Canada

The few individuals that had to go back to get the activated dose of their covid-19 vaccine in South Carolina are not alone. In April there were separate reports from both North Carolina and Canada.

A North Carolina Walgreens in March gave 22 people at one Monroe County location a saline injection. As in South Carolina the individuals affected were contacted by the pharmacy and were given the covid-19 vaccine as soon as they could return. Walgreens said in a statement Its also very important to note there is no reason to believe there is harm to any of these patients. We continue to strengthen our operating procedures and are committed to this not occurring again.

Another episode of failing to mix the covid-19 vaccine into the saline diluent occurred at the end of March in Ontario, Cannada. Six people who had their shot administered to them at an immunization clinic north of Toronto received saline-only jabs. Staff at the pharmacy realized the mistake at the end of the day when there was too much vaccine left over according to two of the people affected.
Party keeps coping with challenges toward national rejuvenation

No one can argue against China's success in achieving long-term economic growth and social stability. Behind what is often called the "Chinese miracle" is the tenacious struggle of the Communist Party of China in leading the country toward national rejuvenation since its birth a century ago, according to experts. Maintaining a fighting spirit is the CPC's most distinctive characteristic and is also a major contributor to the Party's triumph over the difficulties, risks and challenges seen during the Chinese revolution, through construction and reform, and has enabled the country to become the world's second-largest economy and an influential player on the international stage, they said.

The CPC was born during a time of fierce struggle in which the Chinese people overthrew feudal rule and foreign oppression, and developed through decades of painful struggle to pursue national independence and liberation.

Under the leadership of the CPC, the nation reversed its fate of continuous decline following the Opium Wars in the 1840s and 1850s via steady progress toward prosperity and strength.

The century-long history of the CPC is a process of great struggle that has spanned the decades from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the reform and opening-up policy, as well as advancing socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, said Li Jie, president of the Association of Chinese Historians.

"By struggle, we mean not only fighting against those who are hostile or confront us, but also prevailing over natural hazards, overcoming difficulties arising from the modernization drive and dealing with problems, risks and challenges that pose threat to the development of the Party and the nation," Li said.

President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has warned on many occasions of the growing complexity of the risks and tests China has to face in realizing its dream of national rejuvenation. He has stressed the long-term nature of various struggles and called for the courage to fight and the mettle to win.

In March 2019, while addressing the opening ceremony of a study session dedicated to young and middle-aged officials at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, Xi called for the continuation of the Party's fighting spirit and urged officials to strengthen the ability to struggle.

Xi said achieving national rejuvenation is no easy job and that realizing the great dream demands great struggle. Resolute efforts must be made to fight against the risks and challenges that endanger the CPC's leadership and the socialist system, harm China's sovereignty, security and developmental interests and jeopardize the core and fundamental interests of the nation, he added. Saying that fighting is an art which demands strategies and skills, Xi urged efforts to mobilize all resources available to strive for unity, cooperation and win-win results.

Complexity

Huang Xianghuai, director of the Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said "great struggle" has been a key phrase in the governance philosophy of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core.

"Taking into account the great practice of the CPC's governance of the country, particularly the Party's efforts in anti-corruption, poverty alleviation, responding to trade frictions with the United States and combating the COVID-19 outbreak, we will have a better understanding of why the CPC highlights the significance of the great struggle in the new era," Huang said.

China's successful efforts to eradicate absolute poverty in rural areas across the country have demonstrated how the CPC's fighting spirit functions in a nationwide campaign to improve people's well-being.

Over the past eight years, 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living below the poverty line have all been lifted out of poverty. Meanwhile, all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list.

Since the unveiling of the reform and opening-up policy more than 40 years ago, the country has lifted 770 million rural residents out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global impoverished population, according to the World Bank's international poverty line. It has also met the poverty eradication target set in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged the success of China's anti-poverty drive in recent years, calling it "the most important contribution" to the cause of global poverty reduction.

When addressing a grand gathering held in Beijing to mark accomplishments in poverty alleviation and honor models in fighting against poverty, Xi said, "No country has been able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time."

The anti-poverty campaign has operated under the unified and centralized leadership of the CPC Central Committee. A total of 255,000 teams were dispatched to offer on-the-ground support and more than 3 million officials were sent from cities and towns to the countryside as special commissioners for poverty relief.

Over recent decades, China has made miraculous achievements in various fields including poverty alleviation, which would not have been possible without the leadership of the CPC, said Saifullah Khan Nyazee, chief organizer of Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf, Pakistan's ruling party.

The world has witnessed China's poverty eradication campaign, he said, adding that as per the commitment of the CPC, the achievement in poverty relief is nothing less than a miracle and an example of true hard work and commitment.

In addition to poverty alleviation efforts, one of the greatest achievements the world can see from the CPC's governance is the effective handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

When the novel coronavirus outbreak occurred in 2019, the CPC led the Chinese people in making painstaking efforts to contain the virus in a short time and restart economic activities. It has also worked with political parties of other countries to uphold public health security, providing medical supplies and expertise to affected countries to help them fight the virus.

During the fight, the CPC has upheld the belief of "putting people first" and mobilized all resources available to protect lives. Xi acted as commander-in-chief in the fight against the contagion, urging officials to give top priority to health and lives.

Stephen Ndegwa, a communication expert in Nairobi, Kenya, said, "While many countries were still dilly-dallying even after the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic of global concern, the world was treated to images of the CPC-led government rising to the occasion in a resolute manner and implementing strict measures to contain its spread."

The curbing of the outbreak in its tracks in China was enabled by the strong and disciplined management of public affairs. That ensures everyone plays their role for the greater good and not to fulfill selfish ends at the expense of others, he added.

Various tasks

While striving for high-quality growth in the new development stage, the CPC is also tasked with various jobs including forestalling and defusing major financial risks, combating pollution and promoting green development, and frustrating attempts to split China or undermine its ethnic unity and social harmony and stability. Externally, unilateralism, protectionism and trade bullying have posed a great threat to China's developmental interests as well as the global economy and international order.

With strong awareness of risk prevention and control in mind, Xi has urged Party officials to be clear-headed about the long-term and complex nature of both domestic and international unfavorable factors, and to be well-prepared for any difficult circumstances. In the meantime, he has also underlined the need for the Party to strengthen strict self-governance to ensure its members refrain from incompetence, disengagement from the people, inaction and corruption.

Gu Hailiang, a professor of Marxist theory at Peking University, said that as part of the CPC's great struggle, self-reform within the Party aims to strengthen Party building to make it more powerful and improve its governance capacity.

Raphael Tuju, secretary-general of Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party, said, "You have to give credit to the Communist Party of China for having managed to steer the country in a disciplined and focused manner, which has enabled them to achieve what one can generally call the 'Chinese miracle'."

He added: "We have a lot to learn from the CPC. I think one of the things one can talk about is the way they keep focusing on fighting corruption."
On the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, brilliant light shows were held in many places. Photo taken on June 28, 2021 shows citizens watching a brilliant light show in the Zhongguancun Technology Town, Beijing, China's capital city. (Chen Xiaogen/Guangming Picture)

Photo taken on June 27, 2021 shows the night scenery of the Twin Towers in the Financial Town of the High-tech Zone in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Liu Guoxing/Guangming Picture)

Photo taken on June 28, 2021 shows the light show held in Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang City, north China's Hebei Province. (Wu Zhiwei/Guangming Picture)

Photo taken on June 28, 2021 shows 600 drones forming a slogan "Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" over Sanjiangkou in Ningbo City, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Hu Xuejun/Guangming Picture)

Photo taken on June 28, 2021 shows the themed light show "Follow the Light" in celebration of the CPC centenary staged on both sides of the Gan River in Nanchang City, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Ding Bo/Guangming Picture)

Photo taken on June 29, 2021 shows the a three-dimensional light show held to celebrate the 100the anniversary of the founding of the CPC in in Jinan City, east Chinas' Shandong Province. Over 60 buidings in the city are included. (Hao Xincheng/Guangming Picture)

[ Editor: WXY ]
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that all issues regarding Ukraine are resolved only in Ukraine and by the Ukrainian state. He said this in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, commenting on the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin that "Ukraine is under the external control of the United States, Germany and France."

"In the real world, all issues regarding Ukraine are resolved exclusively in Ukraine and by the Ukrainian state, and certainly not in any neighboring country and certainly not by 'shadow intermediaries' who are now under house arrest or on the wanted list," Zelensky said.

Zelensky confirmed that he is ready to meet with Putin, "if it really leads to solution to a number of crisis issues that objectively exist in bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia."

According to Zelensky, the thesis about any "external control" is an exclusively propaganda mantra for the domestic consumer in Russia itself.

"I will add that, as the recent U.S.-Russia summit has shown, the issue of Ukraine is not resolved even in the format of direct communication between the U.S. and Russian presidents. As it has been, let's speak frankly, almost always. Today everything works differently. Consultations with Ukraine before the Summit and public voicing of the position, agreed with us. This unambiguously indicates that the subjectivity of our state has significantly increased. Why did this happen? Because the subjectivity of the state always grows when you are ready to defend the position of your state publicly, regularly and at the system level. And not to exchange the reputation of the state for some kind of situational profits for yourself," he said.

The President reported that on July 12 he will have a personal meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and at the end of July there will be direct talks with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Zelensky also said that he was not personally "touched" by Putin's phrase that "what is the point in talking with Zelensky if everything is decided in Washington?"

"It looks like, if I said, for example: why do Russians need elections, direct democracy, if everything is decided exclusively in the Kremlin?" he said.
Ukraine hopes the EU will add it to the list of countries from which free entry is allowed in two weeks, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko said.

"There is no policy in the recommendation of the European Commission. Every two weeks, the EU member states revise the list of third countries for free entry into the EU. The recommendation is formed, in particular, based on four factors: the rate of new cases of COVID-19 reported per 100,000 population over the previous 14 days, the number of tests in seven days, the level of positive tests and the nature of the virus, in particular the presence of more dangerous strains," Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

He said the indicators in Ukraine for the period when the European Commission conducted the assessment, even exceeded the norm.

"It should be borne in mind here that the assessment of indicators was conducted not over the past days, but over the previous several weeks, when they were higher. Since we are now more and more approaching the norm established by the European Commission, on behalf of Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian Delegation to the EU is interacting with the European side to include Ukraine in the list during its next review," the spokesperson said.

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the recommendation of the European Commission to open the EU borders for a certain list of countries is not legally binding.

"EU member states individually approve final decisions to weaken or strengthen travel restrictions. Accordingly, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is working with European countries on a bilateral level to simplify travel conditions for Ukrainians, in particular the recognition of vaccination certificates and digital COVID-19 certificates," Nikolenko said.
Forced delays of charter flights to Antalya (Turkey) are caused by problems on the Turkish side due to the increased demand for the destination, Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) said.

"Forced delays of charter flights to Antalya (scheduled departure on the night of July 1, 2021) are due to a sharp seasonal increase in the number of flights, as well as the restoration of air traffic between Turkey and Russia, which entailed a significant complication of slot regulation. In this regard, the Turkish aviation regulator was unable to provide processing flight requests in advance," the airline said on Thursday.

According to UIA, delays affected charter flights Kyiv-Antalya, Kharkiv-Antalya and Lviv-Antalya.

"The air carrier and the Turkish aviation regulator are doing everything possible to promptly resume charter flights between UIA and Antalya during the day," the airline said in the statement.

UIA said passengers of the delayed flights were provided with all the necessary assistance. In particular, everyone who had to fly from Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv was provided with hot and cold meals.

"Passengers who were waiting to return to Kyiv on these flights from Turkey were partially transported to hotels. They are provided with meals, they will be transferred to a new departure time," the airline said.

As noted in UIA, in the summer season 2021, given the limited possibilities of tourist flights to European countries, the attention of Ukrainian tourists is focused, in particular, on the resorts of Turkey. It is specified that in June 2019, UIA operated 202 charter flights to this country, while 166 flights in 2020, and 505 flights in June 2021.

"One should also take into account the current growth in the number of flights to Turkey and to a number of other countries: in the aggregate, such trends have caused unexpected complications on the route," the airline said.
Lekhim Group to supply first batch of CoronaVac vaccine to Ukraine under contract with Crown Agents

The Lekhim Group of Companies plans to supply the first 500,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine against coronavirus (COVID-19) CoronaVac produced by Sinovac and purchased by the British agency Crown Agents at the expense of the national budget.

The company told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, the first delivery under this contract is expected on July 5.

In addition, the company said that on July 29, Lekhim carried out the last delivery of this vaccine under a contract with state-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine.

As reported, Lekhim supplied 1.9 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine to Ukraine under a contract with the Health Ministry.

The contract with Crown Agents provides for the delivery of 7.7 million doses of this vaccine to the country.
The decline in the incidence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in Ukraine is slowing down, but there is currently no high risk of an increase, experts from Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) have said.

"The situation with the incidence in Ukraine continues to decline in terms of the number of detected cases. At the same time, the decline rate is slowing down," Head of KSE Center for Health Economics Yuriy Hanychenko said during an online presentation of an analysis of the situation with the spread of COVID-19.

At the same time, he said that an outbreak of the disease in the country is possible in July-August  everything will depend on how the situation with the spread of the British, South African and Indian strains of the virus will develop in Ukraine.

"However, in the next week or two, we do not expect a significant increase in the incidence," Hanychenko said.

According to him, the average daily number of deaths in Ukraine continues to decline and amounts to 31 deaths per day.

"The number of hospitalizations has stopped declining and reached a plateau. This may be the result of a long weekend. At the same time, discharges continue to exceed hospitalizations by more than 1.5 times. The number of patients with COVID-19 is reduced by 20% per week. This week, there was an increase in the level of hospitalizations in Luhansk region by over 60%, but this growth was technical," Hanychenko said.

At the same time, he noted that three regions need to increase the number of tests.

"In Kyiv, Luhansk and Khmelnytsky regions, the level of testing is falling. It is very dangerous due to the fact that the Delta strain was detected in Ukraine last week. In Kyiv and Luhansk regions, along with the reduction in testing, the detection rate is growing," Hanychenko said.

KSE said that Ukraine needs to triple the pace of vaccination in order to reach the European level.

"The pace of vaccination in Ukraine is increasing  by a third over the past week. Thanks to this, the lag behind the average European pace of vaccination has decreased, but it still remains high [by three times]. Ukraine needs to triple the pace, there is a vaccine for this," Hanychenko said.

He said that currently in Ukraine about 62,000 people are vaccinated on average per day. To vaccinate 70% of the population of Ukraine, it is necessary to vaccinate more than 225,000 people daily.
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a law on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.

The adoption of relevant bill No. 5506 was supported at the first reading by 331 MPs, and the adoption at a final stage was supported by 325 MPs at an extraordinary plenary session of the parliament on Thursday.

The bill defines the concept of "indigenous people" and legally stipulates that such in Ukraine are Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks.

According to the bill, an "indigenous people" is an autochthonous ethnic community that has formed on the territory of Ukraine, is a bearer of a distinctive language and culture, has traditional social, cultural or representative bodies, self-awareness as an indigenous people, constitutes an ethnic minority within the population and does not have its own state formation outside the state.

The bill also defines guarantees of legal protection against any actions aimed at depriving the signs of ethnicity and integrity as distinct peoples, depriving them of cultural values; eviction or forced relocation from places of compact residence in any form; forced assimilation or forced integration in any form; encouragement or incitement to racial, ethnic or religious hatred directed against them.

The bill guarantees the cultural, educational, language and informational rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, as well as the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine to sustainable development.

Most of the provisions of the law come into force from the day of its official publication, except for Part 3 of Article 7, which comes into force after the return of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol under the general jurisdiction of Ukraine.

Thus, Part 3 of Article 7 of the adopted law provides that indigenous peoples have the right to channel part of the income received by budgets of all levels from the use of natural resources located on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol for the needs of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.
The Verkhovna Rada has passed at the first reading president's bill No. 5599 on the prevention of threats to national security associated with the excessive influence of persons with significant economic or political heft in public life (oligarchs).

Some 275 MPs voted for the document at an extraordinary plenary session of the parliament on Thursday.

According to the document, any three of the four conditions are sufficient for the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to include a person into a register of oligarchs: excessive influence on the media, participation in political life, beneficial ownership of a monopoly company, and a fortune of over 1 million living wages (about $83 million at the current exchange rate).

The basis for the inclusion of oligarchs into the register will be the NSDC decision. The NSDC will form and maintain the register, as well as provide open round-the-clock access to it. Information will be entered into the register no later than three days from the date of the NSDC relevant decision.

At the same time, persons included into the register will be banned from making contributions (directly or indirectly through other persons) in support of political parties, and being a buyer (beneficiary of the buyer) in the process of privatization of large-scale privatization objects. In addition, oligarchs will be required to submit a declaration of a person authorized to perform the functions of the state or local self-government, in accordance with the law on the corruption prevention.

The decision to exclude oligarchs from the register will be made by the NSDC if it is established that such persons do not have at least two of the four stipulated signs of an oligarch. At the same time, the sign of excessive influence on the media will not be considered absent if the status of the beneficiary of the relevant media outlet has passed from the person included into the register to a person related to them or a person who does not have an impeccable business reputation.

The signs of a bad business reputation of an individual are the presence of an outstanding criminal record, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions by a court, non-payment of taxes and fees on a large scale, application of sanctions against them by Ukraine and other states (except for aggressor states) over the past three years, and inclusion into a list of persons associated with terrorist activities.

The procedure for checking a business reputation of a media buyer, according to the bill, will be approved by the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting.

The bill also provides that a public servant, after contacts with an oligarch or their representative, no later than the next day, must fill out a declaration of contacts on the official website of the NSDC.

The bill clarifies that contact with an oligarch is a meeting and conversation, including those conducted online. At the same time, oligarchs and their representatives are obliged to inform public officials about the fact of inclusion into the register of information about them before the start of a meeting or conversation.

The obligation to submit such a declaration applies, in particular, to the President of Ukraine, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, their deputies, MPs, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers, the minister and their deputies, the SBU Chief and their deputies, the Prosecutor General and their deputies, the Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine and their deputies, judges of the Constitutional Court, members of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, the Antimonopoly Committee, the Accounting Chamber, the Central Election Commission (CEC), the High Council of Justice, the NSDC Secretary and their deputies, the heads of the State Property Fund, the National Agency for the Corruption Prevention, directors of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, State Bureau of Investigations, Bureau of Economic Security and their deputies.

According to the bill, violation of the obligation to submit a declaration of contacts is the basis for bringing a person to political or disciplinary responsibility.

The declaration of contacts must contain information about the persons who submitted the information, about oligarchs included into the register and their representatives, with whom there was a contact, the date, place of a conversation and its brief content.

The transitional provisions to the bill indicate that the law will be limited to 10 years.

In addition, the presidential bill expands the list of mass media by electronic media on the Internet.

"Electronic media is a means of disseminating periodically updated information for an unspecified circle of subjects in electronic form using the Internet under a permanent name as an individualizing feature," such definition is given in the document.

According to it, a social network profile (account) is not considered as electronic media.

At the same time, in general, as mass media, the bill proposes to define the print media, electronic media, news agency, and broadcasting channel.
2019 American Music Awards  Arrivals  Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Photo : REUTERS/Danny Moloshok)

Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Venice International Film Festival in September, where the latest instalment of her "Halloween" movies will screen out of competition, organisers said on Wednesday.



Curtis made her film debut in John Carpenter's 1978 horror flick "Halloween", playing babysitter Laurie Strode, who faced off against deadly serial killer Michael Myers.



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She has reprised the role several times since in the popular slasher film franchise.



"I am incredibly humbled to be honored in this way ... 'Halloween' - and my partnership with Laurie Strode - launched and sustained my career, and to have these films evolve into a new franchise that is beloved by audiences around the world was, and remains, a gift," Curtis said in a statement.



"Italian Cinema has always honoured and heralded the genre that gave me my career, so I couldn't be more proud and happy to accept this award ... on behalf of Laurie and all the courageous heroines of the world who stand tall in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and refuse to yield."



The 62-year-old, also known for "True Lies", "Freaky Friday" and "Knives Out", will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 78th edition of the festival before an out-of-competition screening of "Halloween Kills", scheduled for release in October.



"Jamie Lee Curtis belongs to that rarefied group of Hollywood actors who best reflect the qualities that are the very soul of the global film industry and its legacy," festival director Alberto Barbera said.



This year's festival runs from September 1-11.


Armed men attend a gathering to announce their support for Afghan security forces and that they are ready to fight against the Taliban, (Photo : REUTERS/Stringer)

Gun in hand, 55-year-old Dost Mohammad Salangi recites poetry as he leads a small group of men to a look-out post high in the rugged hills of Parwan province, north of the Afghan capital Kabul.



Heavily bearded and wearing a traditional circular pakol hat to keep off the sun, he has a warning for the Islamist militant Taliban movement, which has increased attacks on Afghan forces and claimed more territory as foreign troops withdraw.



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"If they impose war on us, oppress us and encroach on women and people's property, even our seven-year-old children will be armed and will stand against them," he told Reuters.



Salangi is one of hundreds of former "mujahideen" fighters and civilians who have felt compelled to take up arms to help the army repel a growing Taliban insurgency.



The group's ascendancy on the ground comes as the last U.S.-led international forces prepare to leave after two decades of fighting that ended with no clear victory for either side.



"We have to protect our country ... now there is no choice as the foreign forces abandon us," said Farid Mohammed, a young student who joined a local anti-Taliban leader from Parwan.



He was speaking as the German military concluded the withdrawal of the second largest contingent of foreign troops after the United States with around 150,000 soldiers deployed over the past two decades, many of them serving more than one tour in the country.



U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO said in mid-April they would pull out the roughly 10,000 foreign troops still in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York that prompted the mission.



The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan said this week the Taliban had taken more than 50 of 370 districts and was positioned to control provincial capitals as the country looked increasingly unstable as foreign military support ended.



Armed mainly with old assault rifles, pistols and grenade launchers, men like Salangi and Mohammed have joined local shopkeepers and traders as part of a loosely-formed Public Uprising Force trying to reclaim some of those areas.



Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a spokesman for the Afghan defence and security forces, said Afghans keen to take up arms against the Taliban were being absorbed intro the structure of territorial army forces.



But some political analysts warn of the growing risk of a return to civil war as more groups took up arms.



Faced with rising violence, President Ashraf Ghani visited Washington in June to meet Biden, who pledged U.S. support to Afghanistan but said Afghans must decide their own future.



Talks to try and find a political settlement in Afghanistan have stalled, although the head of the Afghan peace council has said they should not be abandoned despite the surge in Taliban attacks.


Binance logo and stock graph are displayed in this illustration taken, (Photo : REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Wednesday that sterling withdrawals from its platform had been reactivated, with users also able to buy digital coins with debit and credit cards.



Binance customers said on Tuesday they were unable to deposit or withdraw sterling from the platform, days after regulators in Britain cracked down on some of its activities in the country.



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Users of the exchange, one of the world's biggest, said they were unable to withdraw or deposit sterling via the Faster Payments network - which enables mobile, internet and other payments between British bank accounts - or bank cards.



A Binance spokesperson said withdrawals via the Faster Payments network were reactivated on Tuesday, adding that bank card purchases of crypto were again possible.



Many users complained that Binance had given no information about transactions being blocked, beyond a "down for maintenance" message.



Binance had said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) move would not impact services offered on its website, access to which by British residents was unaffected by the crackdown.



Later on Wednesday, the crypto exchange displayed a notice on its Binance.co.uk website stating that Binance Markets Limited, a UK based company, was not permitted to undertake regulated activities in the country.



It tweeted the same statement from its Binance.UK twitter handle. However, Reuters could not find a notice on the Binance.com website or under the Binance twitter handle.



The FCA had told the company to post the notice on Binance.com, its mobile and desktop applications and social media channels by the close of business on Wednesday.



Both Binance and the FCA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.



While crypto trading is not directly regulated in Britain, offering services such as trading in cryptocurrency derivatives does require authorisation.



Headed by Canadian Changpeng Zhao, Binance is coming under increasing scrutiny by regulators globally, many of which have voiced concern over the use of cryptocurrencies in general for money laundering and other crimes.



Binance offers services ranging from digital token trading to derivatives, as well as emerging technology such as tokenised versions of stocks. Its own cryptocurrency, Binance Coin, is the world's fourth-biggest with a market value of around $45 billion.


A newfound small white dwarf, called ZTF J1901+1458 and located 130 light-years from Earth, that is slightly larger than the size of the moon in diameter (Photo : Giuseppe Parisi/Handout via REUTERS)

In their death throes, roughly 97% of all stars become a smoldering stellar zombie called a white dwarf, one of the densest objects in the cosmos. A newly discovered white dwarf is being hailed as the most "extreme" one of these on record, cramming a frightful amount of mass into a surprisingly small package.



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Scientists said on Wednesday this highly magnetized and rapidly rotating white dwarf is 35% more massive than our sun yet boasts a petite diameter only a bit larger than Earth's moon. That means it has the greatest mass and, counterintuitively, littlest size of any known white dwarf, owing to its tremendous density.



Only two other types of objects - black holes and neutron stars - are more compact than white dwarfs.



The way this white dwarf, named ZTF J1901+1458, was born also is unusual. It apparently is the product of a binary star system in which two stars orbit each other. These two stars separately evolved into white dwarfs at the end of their life cycles, then spiraled toward one another and merged into a single entity.



With even a smidgen more combined mass, this merger would have resulted in an immense stellar explosion called a supernova, said Caltech astrophysicist Ilaria Caiazzo, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. It still might explode at some point in the future, Caiazzo added.



"This white dwarf is really extreme," Caiazzo said. "We found an object that is really at the limit of how small and heavy a white dwarf could be."



It is located relatively nearby in our Milky Way galaxy, about 130 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year - about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).



The white dwarf is actually shrinking very gradually, becoming ever more dense. If it does not explode, that could lead to a core collapse transforming it into a neutron star, another type of stellar remnant about the size of a city, typically formed after certain very massive stars go supernova. This would be a previously unrecognized path to neutron star formation.



The white dwarf was spotted by astrophysicist and study co-author Kevin Burdge from Caltech's Palomar Observatory.



"White dwarfs are the most common form of stellar remnant," said Burdge, who worked on the study at Caltech and is headed to MIT. "So it's stunning to see the most extreme outliers among them."



Its diameter of roughly 2,670 miles (4,300 km) - approximately the distance from Boston to Los Angeles or London to Tehran - slightly exceeds the moon's diameter of about 2,160 miles (3,475 km).



While our sun rotates around its axis once every 27 days, this white dwarf does so every seven minutes. Its magnetic field is about a billion times stronger than Earth's.



Stars with up to eight times the mass of our sun are thought to be destined to end up as a white dwarf. Such stars eventually burn up all of the hydrogen they use as fuel through nuclear fusion. At this point, gravity causes them to collapse and blow off their outer layers in a 'red giant' stage, eventually leaving a dense core that is a white dwarf.



White dwarfs initially have high temperatures but gradually cool over time, lacking any new energy source. In roughly 5 billion years, our sun is expected to become a red giant and later a white dwarf.


Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an annual nationwide televised phone-in show in Moscow, Russia (Photo : Sputnik/Sergei Savostyanov/Pool via REUTERS)

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia could have sunk a British warship that it accused of illegally entering its territorial waters without starting World War Three and accused Washington of a role in the "provocation".



Tensions between Moscow and London soared last week after Russia challenged the right of HMS Defender to transit waters near Russian-annexed Crimea, something Britain said it had every right to do.



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Putin's comments add menace to earlier Russian warnings that Moscow would bomb British naval vessels in the Black Sea in the event of further provocative actions by the British navy near heavily fortified Crimea.



Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Britain and most of the world recognise the Black Sea peninsula as part of Ukraine, not Russia.



In an account of last week's incident which London said it did not recognise, Russia said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the British warship which was en route from Ukraine to Georgia.



Putin, speaking during his annual question and answer session with voters, signalled his anger over what he called "a provocation" designed to reveal how Russian forces in Crimea reacted to such intrusions.



When asked if the world had stood on the precipice of World War Three during the standoff, Putin said: "Of course not."



"Even if we had sunk the ship it is hard to imagine that the world would have been on the verge of World War Three because those doing it (the provocation) know that they could not emerge as victors from such a war," he added.



Putin accused the United States and Britain of planning the episode together, saying a U.S. spy plane had taken off from Greece earlier on the same day to watch how Russia would respond to the British warship.



"It was obvious that the destroyer entered (the waters near Crimea) pursuing, first of all, military goals, trying to use the spy plane to see how our forces would stop such provocations, to see what is activated and where, how things work and where everything is located."



Putin said Russia had realised what the aim of the exercise was and had responded in a way that would only give the other side the information Moscow deemed necessary.



Putin said he saw a political element to the incident, which took place shortly after he had met U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva.



"The meeting in Geneva had just happened, so why was this provocation needed, what was its goal? To underscore that those people (the Americans and British) do not respect Crimeans' choice to join the Russian Federation," he said.



The Russian leader accused London and Washington of a lack of gratitude, saying he had earlier this year given the order for Russian forces to pull back from near Ukraine's borders after their build-up had generated concern in the West.



"We did this," said Putin. "But instead of reacting positively to this and saying 'OK, we've understood your response to our grumbling' - instead of that, what did they do? They barged across our borders."


A supporter purchases copies of the Apple Daily newspaper from a newspaper stall after it looked set to close for good by Saturday following police raids (Photo : REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

Hong Kong media group Next Digital, owned by jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai, will cease operating from July 1 after the company's assets were frozen as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.



Next Digital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



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The company is the publisher of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy newspaper that closed last week after its newsroom had been raided by 500 police officers investigating whether some articles breached the security law.



Beijing imposed the legislation in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. It punishes acts deemed by China to be subversive, secessionist, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.



Critics say it has been used to crush dissent, while its supporters said it has restored order in Hong Kong after months of pro-democracy protests.



The Next Digital memo, shared separately by two employees, said assets linked to the company remained frozen under the national security investigation.



Dated June 30, the memo was addressed to all Hong Kong staff from the board.



"The group will cease operations," it said. "Although the road ahead is difficult, continue to move forward!"



The Hong Kong Security Bureau, which directed the asset freeze, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Lai, a staunch Beijing critic, was arrested last year on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. He is currently serving a prison sentence for taking part in illegal assemblies during Hong Kong's mass 2019 pro-democracy protests.



Next Digital, which had a market capitalisation of HK$765 million ($98.52 million), said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday that it had accepted a proposal to divest Amazing Sino, which operates the online edition of Taiwan's Apple Daily.



It had earlier ceased printing its Taiwan edition on the democratic island, which China views as a breakaway province, blaming declining advertising revenue and difficult business conditions in Hong Kong linked to politics.


The Egyptian public prosecution said on Wednesday that it has ordered the detention of 19 people pending investigations, including former MP Alaa Hassanin and renowned businessman Hassan Rateb, over the illegal excavation and trafficking of antiquities.

Rateb and Hassanin were arrested separately less than a week ago. Rateb is accused of funding the excavations, which, under Egyptian law, can only be carried out by specialised state institutions.

Earlier this week, a court ordered the detention of Rateb and Hassanin for 15 days pending investigation.

In a statement on Wednesday, the prosecution said that 227 artefacts were found in the possession of the suspects.

According to the prosecution, an investigation by the interior ministry has revealed that the gang of 19 people was trading in looted antiquities obtained in illegal excavations in different parts of the country.

The suspects aimed to both sell artefacts inside the country and smuggle pieces abroad, the investigation revealed.

A committee formed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities has dated the seized artefacts to different eras in Egyptian history, the prosecution said on Wednesday.

The prosecution also said that it has identified and examined four of the gangs illegal dig sites, and that it has interrogated 17 of suspects who were caught at these dig sites in possession of artefacts and digging tools.

The prosecution also said that it has interrogated former MP Hassanin, who was in possession of suspected antiquities upon his arrest.

Hassanin has denied the charges against him, which include managing the excavation operations.

Rateb has also been interrogated and denies the charges against him, the prosecution said.

Rateb is the former owner of Al-Mehwar satellite channel as well as the chairman of Sinai University, Sama Group, and the Sinai Cement Company.

The illegal excavation and smuggling of antiquities is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi extended his congratulations to Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

It is my pride to extend to you, and through you, the friendly Chinese people, my congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, El-Sisi said in a message addressed to his Chinese counterpart, who is also the CPCs secretary-general.

The Communist Party, El-Sisi added, has successfully led China to achieve national independence and lay the ground base for modern China and managed to achieve the Chinese economic miracle that put the East Asian country alongside developed nations.

The Chinese experiment has become a success story that many are striving to study and benefit from, he noted.

President El-Sisi vowed to promote Egyptian-Chinese ties towards broader prospects, calling for exerting all efforts to exchange experiences and successful experiments.

The coronavirus pandemic has proven that cooperation between countries and the ability to achieve integration and harmony at various levels are important factors to ensure the stability and safety of the international community, he assured.

El-Sisi also praised the positive role made by the Chinese government to support Egyptian capabilities to confront the ramifications of the pandemic.

The Egyptian president said the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1921 corresponded to the Egyptian revolution on 23 July 1952.

The 1952 Revolution laid the foundations for the directions of the modern Egyptian state and the elimination of colonialism in Egypt, and supported all liberation movements in the African continent, El-Sisi pointed out.

Egypt was the first Arab, African, and Middle Eastern country to recognise the Peoples Republic of China and the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party and established diplomatic relations with it, he added.

On the 30th of May this year, sixty-five years of relations between our two countries will have passed, he concluded.

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The Arab League is keen on ensuring that Egypt and Sudan resorting to the UN Security Council over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue does not turn into a dispute between Arab and African sides, its ambassador to the UN said.

Ambassador Maged Abdel-Fattah, the Arab League representative to the UN, told privately owned satellite channel Sada Al-Balad that a five-member committee formed by the Arab League has requested meetings with the president of the UNSC and its permanent members.

The committee has also called for a meeting with the Ethiopian representative in New York.

The Arab League has also backed an intervention by the UNSC, stressing during a meeting in Doha in June its rejection of any measures that would undermine the water share of Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia has slammed the AL resolution, describing the organisations approach as unhelpful and misguided.

Changes at the UNSC

There has been a change in the composition of the membership of the UNSC, Abdel-Fattah said, explaining how this change could affect support for the Egyptian-Sudanese action.

According to Abdel-Fattah, Ireland and Norway, which replaced Germany and Belgium, could have more understanding towards the Egyptian and Sudanese position on the dam.

Kenya, which has replaced South Africa, could show less sympathy towards Ethiopia, he said, adding that South Africa, which presided over the AU-backed talks on the GERD as the president of the AU in 2020, has shown great sympathy with Ethiopia.

Abdel-Fattah said Kenya continues to cooperate with Ethiopia despite its conflict with Addis Ababa over the Omo River, on which there are several dams built by Ethiopia.

Niger will also have some sensitivity in dealing with the GERD issue given the existing issues it has over the Niger River with Benin and Mali.

The Arab League representative said there has been a state of indecision in the UNSC regarding issues related to water and rivers, as well as development issues, migration and climate change.

There are ongoing efforts to secure nine votes inside the UNSC for a resolution backing the rights of Egypt and Sudan, Abdel-Fattah said.

Ethiopia remains adamant on proceeding with a second filling of its dams reservoir in July despite the lack of an accord with downstream countries.

In a letter to the UNSC in June, Egypt denounced Addis Ababa's plan to unilaterally move ahead with the second filling of the dam in July, a step that is expected to affect the water security of downstream countries.

The 95-page letter 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.

Egypt and Sudan have been negotiating for almost a decade now with Ethiopia to reach a legally binding and comprehensive deal on the GERDs construction, which Addis Ababa started to build on the Blue Nile in 2011.

Ethiopias rejection of several proposals by Egypt and Sudan on the negotiation mechanism, which includes international quartet mediation, has led to the collapse of the Kinshasa talks sponsored by the AU in April.

Egypts 100 million-plus population depends on the Nile for over 95 percent of its fresh water.

Sudan fears the GERD will put the operation of its Roseires dam and the lives of 20 million Sudanese citizens at a very high risk if an agreement regulating the operation and filling of GERD is not reached before the second filling.

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Ethiopia's government on Wednesday said its military could re-enter the capital of its embattled Tigray region within weeks, calling into question the unilateral cease-fire it declared in Tigray just days ago.

Ethiopia also asserted that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who had been collaborating with Ethiopian forces, had withdrawn from Tigray. That could not immediately be confirmed and Eritrean officials did not respond to questions, but the withdrawal would be another major development in the nearly eight-month war.

Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Tigray emergency task force, spoke to reporters in Ethiopia's first public remarks since its soldiers retreated from the Tigray capital and other parts of the region on Monday in a dramatic turn in the fighting.

The Tigray forces that have retaken key areas after some of the war's fiercest fighting have rejected the cease-fire, telling The Associated Press it was a 'sick joke' and vowing to chase out Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.

There will be no negotiations with Ethiopia until communications, transport and other services that have been cut or destroyed for much of the war are restored, the Tigray forces' spokesman, Getachew Reda, told the AP on Wednesday.

'We have to make sure that every inch of our territory is returned to us, the rightful owners,' Getachew said, adding that Ethiopian forces are still fighting to regain territory and Eritrean forces still control a 'significant part'' of the region.

That contrasted with Redwan's comment that 'the Eritrean army has withdrawn'' from Tigray. He didn't respond to questions for more details. The United States on Tuesday said it had not yet seen a statement from Eritrea saying it was committed to the cease-fire.

The situation in Tigray remained 'extremely fluid,' the United Nations said, adding that Tigray forces now control the regional capital, Mekele, as well as Shire and the towns of Axum, Adwa and Adigrat.

One aid worker told the AP their organization's internal assessments showed that Eritrean forces had only pulled back to border areas. The aid worker, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, added that 'several thousand'' Tigray fighters passed through Shire on Wednesday morning, saying they were going to Hitsats to the west to fight.

The long-time president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, has long been an enemy of Tigray's leaders, who for years dominated key positions in Ethiopia's government and military before being sidelined by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Witnesses have accused the Eritrean soldiers of some of the worst atrocities in the conflict.

'We will do anything in our power to make sure that Isaias will never be a threat again,'' the Tigray forces' spokesman said. Eritrea shares a long border with the Tigray region along which it and Ethiopia fought a war in 1998-2000.

With the current war likely to continue, the fate of more than 1 million Tigrayans in hard-to-reach areas is in question as Ethiopia and authorities on the ground are accused of blocking access for the delivery of aid. Phone and internet services remain cut.

Ethiopia has said it declared the cease-fire in part on humanitarian grounds, but said it would end once the crucial farming season in Tigray is over, which means September.

Seeking to explain this week's dramatic retreat, Ethiopian Lt. Gen. Bacha Debele on Wednesday said the military had to move forces from Tigray to face 'bigger threats' and referred to the border, but denied the possibility of a conflict with neighboring Sudan over disputed lands.

Some observers expressed concern that the warring sides wouldn't use this new period to pursue a peaceful resolution in Tigray.

'The fear is that the Tigrayan forces are not going to be interested in negotiating, even though they are now in a position of strength,'' said Ahmed Soliman, a researcher with Chatham House. 'The (Ethiopian) government might also use this period (of rainy season) to regroup and reinforce in anticipation of future conflict. That would be a missed opportunity.''

Speaking to reporters at U.N. headquarters, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the Ethiopian government's announcement of a unilateral cease-fire 'gives us a light glimmer of hope, because we always said there is no solution to any crisis which ... is waged by military means.''

'There is no solution to this crisis by military means, only a political solution will work,'' Nebenzia said. 'How that will translate in what is happening in Ethiopia - is it a temporary lull or is it a road which will pave the way to the political settlement? That is a question to be addressed.''

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A bridge that's crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday, as Tigray fighters were said to be approaching other combatants occupying large areas nearby

The destruction of the bridge over the Tekeze River ``means aid efforts will be even more severely hampered than before,`` the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. Tigray has the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade, with the United States saying up to 900,000 people face famine conditions in a situation it calls ``entirely man-made.''

It was not immediately clear who destroyed the bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray, which is occupied by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, and the rest of Tigray.

Aid groups were looking into reports of other key bridges destroyed. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's government has prohibited aircraft to fly below 29,000 feet within the airspace over Tigray, according to a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration notice posted Wednesday.

The Tigray forces, emboldened after retaking the regional capital this week in a stunning turn in the eight-month war with Ethiopia's military, have taken control of key towns this week, and several thousand fighters had been seen to be moving west.

The spokesman for the Tigray forces this week told The Associated Press they would ``liberate'' the region from ``enemies'' including the Ethiopian forces, Amhara forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.

Ethiopia's government, under pressure from battlefield losses amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war, this week declared an immediate and unilateral cease-fire. Witnesses have seen Eritrean forces retreating toward the border Eritrea shares with Tigray.

Amhara authorities have warned the Tigray forces against trying to retake western areas.

The Amhara regional spokesman, Gizachew Muluneh, told the AP an investigation would be carried out into the bridge's destruction. Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane said that ``we have the information about it but it will be disclosed in a press conference.''

Humanitarian aid groups have been badly constrained in Tigray, with electricity and communications links still cut in the region and main supply routes blocked. The Tigray fighters, who had long dominated Ethiopia's government and military before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have demanded the return of services to the region as a condition of any peace negotiations.

In a recent case of blocking aid, a 29-truck convoy carrying World Food Program supplies was denied access and had to return to the Amhara region earlier this week, a U.N. humanitarian worker said. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

A WFP spokesman, Peter Smerdon, told the AP the Tekeze bridge's destruction ``will have an impact, but we are currently assessing how much of an impact and whether there is an alternative route we could use to bring in urgently needed food stocks from Gondar to our warehouses in Shire.''

He did not say how soon those Shire warehouses would be empty if a supply route cannot be found. The rainy season now beginning in Tigray will further complicate matters.

The cease-fire is limited; Ethiopia's government has said it will last only until the end of the crucial farming season in Tigray, which means September.

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Tunisian political forces are facing hard times with regards to solving their divisions and addressing the economic challenges facing the country. The situation, according to experts, has reached a stage where it has become difficult to know which of the two issues comes before the other.

As put by Mahmoud El May, a member of the constituent assembly that wrote the new constitution for Tunisia after the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, the relationship between the political and economic crises and reforms is like the relationship between the chicken and the egg. Nobody knows who came first.

An endless debate on the structure of the government, whether to have a constitutional court, and the shape of the political systems remains ongoing between President Kais Saied, leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party, and parliament speaker Rached Al-Ghannouchi and the latters ally premier Hichem Mechichi.

Saied believes that Tunisia has moved to a parliamentary, multi-party system that bruises the Tunisian people in terms of food, transportation and health, especially amid a catastrophic health situation. He wants a political conversation that ends up with a new political system in place and amendments for the 2014 constitution. He seems to be leaning towards a presidential system.

He also opposes the establishment of a 12-judge constitutional court, for which the parliament, president and judiciary each have to provide four members. They have missed the deadlines ... Anyone wanting me to violate the constitution is looking for a mirage, said Saied in April, adding that after more than five years, after a deep sleep, theyve remembered about the Constitutional Court... I will not accept a court formed to settle accounts.

El May explained that the new constitution, in accordance to which Saied was elected, replaces the constitutional council with a constitutional court that exercises broad review powers. In the old one, he added, the constitutional council was  if the president wished  allowed to check if legislations are consistent with the constitution.

The severity of the crisis is reflected in Saieds words. For instance, he shockingly described some of Tunisias politicians as coming from the same strain of the new COVID-19, adding that they keep changing their position as much as they want. This came during his meeting with Mobarka Ewaineya, the wife of an anti-Islamist politician whose family accused the then-ruling Ennahda of assassinating him.

It is hard to ignore the symbolism of the meeting. Ironically, Saied reached Carthage Palace in the 2019 presidential run-off partially because of Ennahdas support. He then ran against Nabil Karoui, a businessman, the Qalb Tounes Party leader and a current ally of Ennahda who previously faced tax evasion and corruption charges.

This is in total opposition of what Ennahda and Mechichi want, said Sarah Yerkes, a senior fellow at Carnegies Middle East program. Yerkes pointed out that Ennahda and Mechichi are looking for a separation of power between the president and the head of government.

She added that, on the contrary, Saied seeks a more centralised government structure in which executive power is concentrated in the presidency. Yerkes noted that the president also advocates a more diffuse government structure in which local authorities such as governors and municipal councils are empowered to manage their own local affairs.

This political dilemma has extended to Mechichis government itself. In March, Mechichi changed 11 ministers out of the 28-minister cabinet. This step was widely seen as a move to replace the pro-Saied figures with those who are close to Ennahda and Qalb Tounes. Saied then responded by refusing to swear in four of them, including the new interior, justice and health ministers.

The three parties to this story are seemingly interested to see its end in the near future. Mechichi and key Ennahda figures have publicly stated that they are ready for dialogue over this issue. Al-Ghannouchi met the president last week, a step that is widely seen as the first in the road to settling the current clash.

At this stage, the economic situation plays a major role, but dealing with it seemingly requires fixing Tunisias politics first. As an example, Tunisias General Union of Labour proposed last December that Saied lead a dialogue over ending the countrys socioeconomic and political crises. He refused, however, saying he rejects the participation of the corrupt people, arguably referring to Qalb Tounes.

In April, Tunisia announced a 5 percent increase in fuel prices for the third time in 2021. A litre of gasoline now costs 2.095 dinars instead of 1.995, leading to an increase in the prices of many goods and services. This came in response to the demands of the International Monetary Fund for Tunisia to cut wages and restrict energy subsidies in order to deal with its fiscal crisis.

The Tunisian government wants to reach a deal with the IMF over a loan. The latters figures suggest that Tunisias fiscal deficit is estimated to have reached 11.5 percent of the GDP. Hiring more people in the health sector to deal with COVID-19 has pushed the civil service salary bill to 17.6 percent of the GDP, the IMF warned in February.

However, Yerkes underlined that it is not the economy alone that is driving the crisis. She still does not rule out that disagreement over how to tackle the necessary economic reforms definitely adds fuel to the political crisis.

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Pope Francis will meet Thursday with ten Lebanese Christian leaders to reflect on the dire economic and political situation in their country, which he hopes to visit soon.

The leaders will stay at the Saint Martha's guest house in the Vatican, where the pontiff himself lives, before taking part in what he described as a "special day of prayer and reflection on Lebanon".

"I invite you all to join spiritually with us, praying that Lebanon may recover from the serious crisis it is going through and show the world once again its face of peace and hope," Francis tweeted on Wednesday.

The pope has repeatedly offered his prayers for the people of Lebanon, which was plunged into crisis by a massive blast in Beirut last year that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the Mediterranean city.

More than once, Francis has expressed his desire to visit Lebanon, which he has described as an "example of pluralism in both the East and the West" but which he said faced challenges that "threaten the very existence of this country".

His visit could "perhaps" come at the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022, preferably after a new government is formed, according to Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the pope's de facto foreign minister.

Maronite patriarchal vicar Samir Mazloum told AFP that Thursday's meeting would focus on the emigration of young people and the impact of the crisis on schools, hospitals, families and food security.

Currently "50 to 60 percent of our young people live abroad, there are only old people and children left," he lamented, noting high unemployment and the collapse in the value of the local currency.

Among those attending the Vatican talks is Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, who has been outspoken in criticising the corruption of the political class in Lebanon.

The day with the pope "will be an important step to help Lebanon remain the home of the Christian-Muslim partnership," he told the French language daily L'Orient-Le Jour.

Lebanon recognises 18 official religious sects and its 128 parliamentary seats are divided equally between Muslims and Christians.

For another participant, Cesar Essayan, apostolic vicar in Beirut, "Lebanon is in the middle of an identity crisis" with corruption reaching all sectors of society, including the religious.

"This is a very important moment for us," he told an online press conference.

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Suha El Kodwa Arafat and Zahwa El Kodwa Arafat, who are French citizens, filed their case with the Strasbourg-based European court in 2017 after French courts dismissed their claims.

Arafat died at the Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Many Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning Arafat, a charge flatly denied by the occupation state.

But in 2012 his widow, Suha El Kodwa Arafat, said traces of the radioactive isotope polonium 210 had been found on his clothes, prompting a French lawsuit alleging his murder.

After a series of analyses and witness interviews, a court in Nanterre, west of Paris, dismissed the case, a ruling upheld on appeal.

Lawyers for Arafat's widow said the investigation had been "fundamentally biased" and accused the judges of closing the probe too quickly.

Arafat's wife and daughter turned to the European court in 2017, saying they had been refused their right to a fair hearing, in particular a refusal of their request for an additional expert report on his death.

In a unanimous decision, three judges said that after reviewing the case, "at all stages of the proceedings the applicants, assisted by their lawyers, had been able to exercise their rights effectively".

"Judges did not appear to have reached arbitrary conclusions based on the facts before them and their interpretation of the evidence in the file or the applicable law had not been unreasonable," they added.
French prosecutors have charged a French IT company that allegedly helped the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi spy on opposition figures who were later detained and tortured, sources close to the inquiry said Thursday.

Amesys, which is now owned by the Bull technology group, and its former chief, Philippe Vannier, were charged with complicity in acts of torture on June 18, the sources said.

The inquiry was opened in 2013 after a complaint by two French-based NGOs, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the League of Human Rights (LDH).

They accused Amesys of selling internet surveillance gear to Libya between 2007 and 2011 which was used to hunt government opponents.

The deal was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in 2011, as the Arab Spring protests against autocratic governments raged in several Middle East countries, including Libya.

Contacted by AFP, a lawyer for the company, Olivier Baratelli, denied "any sort of complicity in torture whatsoever."

Amesys has acknowledged the tech deal with Libya, which was agreed in the context of a rapprochement between Gaddafi's regime and the West starting in 2007, when Gaddafi visited then French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

"A decade on, it's time to face justice," the FIDH said on Twitter.

London-based rights group Amnesty International welcomed the indictments of both firms as "unprecedented."

"These indictments send a clear message to surveillance companies that they are not above the law, and could face criminal accountability for their actions," Amnesty tech director Rasha Abdul Rahim said in a statement last week.

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Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was soiled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday, his family said in a statement. He was 88.

Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America.

In 2001 he began his second tour as Pentagon chief under President George W. Bush, but his plan to ``transform'' the armed forces was overshadowed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

He oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, where he was blamed for setbacks including the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and for being slow to recognize a violent insurgency.





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Pakistan authorities on Thursday again blocked the popular TikTok social media app after a court ruling on a private citizen's petition that accused the company of promoting obscenity.

"The TikTok ban is effective from today," a representative of the company told AFP, and users confirmed they could not access their accounts or view the short video clips that have made the app one of the most popular in the country.

"It is absurd," said Imdad Kazmi, studying mass communication at a government university.

"It affects thousands of people who promote their products, fashion and other goods. The ban is not a solution at all."

Chinese-owned TikTok has been shut down twice before in Pakistan because of alleged "indecent" content -- most recently in March, after which the company pledged to better moderate content.

It said Wednesday it had removed more than six million videos from its Pakistan service in the past three months alone -- around 15 percent featuring "adult nudity and sexual activities".

A spokesman said the content was removed as a result of both user and government requests.

In the Muslim nation, posting videos in Western clothes that reveal too much skin is taboo, and is often met with abuse.

Earlier this month, small anti-TikTok rallies were held against what protesters called the spreading of homosexual content on the platform.

"We have grown our local-language moderation capacity for Pakistan and work diligently to review and take action on content in violation of our community guidelines," a TikTok statement said after the latest takedown.

The Sindh High Court said the suspension would hold in place until the next hearing on the petition on July 8.

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Germany's vaccine committee on Thursday recommended that everyone who received an AstraZeneca first dose switch to BioNTech-Pfizer or Moderna jabs for better protection against the coronavirus, including against the Delta variant.

Studies show that the immune response is "clearly superior" when an AstraZeneca shot is combined with a second mRNA vaccine, compared with double AstraZeneca jabs, said STIKO.

The commission therefore recommended the mix "regardless of age" and with a minimum gap of four weeks between the two jabs.

The vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna are based on the same novel messenger RNA technology, which trains the body to reproduce spike proteins, similar to that found on the coronavirus.

When exposed to the real virus later, the body recognises the spike proteins and is able to fight them off.

Viral vector vaccines like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson use genetically-engineered version of a common-cold causing adenovirus as a "vector" to shuttle genetic instructions into human cells.

Chancellor Angela Merkel had received a Moderna second jab after getting an AstraZeneca injection for her first.

Pointing to studies in Britain, STIKO said protection against the Delta variant is "significantly reduced" after only one shot.

"In this context, STIKO points out that it is important to get the second vaccine dose," it said.

Travel Bans Rethink

Germany expects the Delta variant to take over as the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the country in the coming days.

"I expect that in the course of July we will see Delta accounting for over 70 to 80 percent of infections in our country," Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) health agency reported on Wednesday that the Delta variant, first identified in India, already accounted for 37 percent of infections in Germany the week to June 20.

The variant is expected to account for at least half of all new infections by this week, the experts said.

If the Delta variant becomes dominant in Germany, so-called coronavirus variant countries such as Britain and Portugal -- from which most travel is currently banned -- could be reclassified, Spahn said.

Given the increasing spread of Delta and research showing that full vaccination protects well against it, "we will look at the situation in the next few days", Spahn said.

"If both of these things are confirmed, we will then be able to treat Portugal and the United Kingdom as high-incidence areas", rather than variant countries, he said.

Only citizens and residents of Germany are permitted to enter from a variant country and are subject to a two-week quarantine, regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated or can provide a negative Covid-19 test.

By contrast, anyone can enter from a high-incidence country and can end their quarantine after five days with a negative test.

The current variant countries list includes Britain, Portugal, India and Russia.

Despite the rising share of the Delta variant, the overall incidence in Germany has been steadily declining in recent weeks.

The RKI on Thursday reported 892 new cases in the past 24 hours and an incidence rate of 5.1 new infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days.

But across Europe, the number of new cases rose again last week after 10 weeks of decline, according to the World Health Organization.

Speaking in the European Parliament, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde also warned of the threat posed by virus variants to the economy.

"The nascent recovery still faces uncertainty, also due to the spread of virus mutations," she said.

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Egypts House of Representatives approved three development financing agreements this week worth a total of $1 billion, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat announced on Thursday.

The approved agreements were signed with the World Bank Group (WBG) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance Egypts Universal Health Insurance System (UHIS) and support the transportation sector through developing the railway network.

These agreements come within the framework of the role played by the Ministry of International Cooperation to consolidate economic cooperation and partnerships with multilateral and bilateral development partners based on the principles of economic diplomacy and to support the states development priorities and implement Egypts Vision 2030; consistent with the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), said Al-Mashat.

The minister also elaborated that through presidential directive no. 190 for 2021, the House approved the development financing agreement between Egypt and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the lending arm of the WBG, regarding a project to support the UHIS with development financing worth $400 million.

Moreover, the House approved presidential directive no. 250 for 2021 regarding the agreement inked between Egypt and IBRD for the development of safe and secure railways, amounting to 362.9 million ($430 million).

Meanwhile, it also approved presidential directive no. 265 for 2021, which concerns the development financing agreements between Egypt and the AfDB aiming to modernise the countrys railway network, amounting to 145 million ($172 million).

Al-Mashat asserted the importance of soft development financing in supporting the Egyptian governments efforts towards achieving the SDGs, explaining that the conditions of soft loans include a 1.5 percent to 2 percent interest level with long-term grace and repayment periods.

Despite a high demand for development financing globally, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Egypt was able to secure necessary financing through its cooperation with multilateral and bilateral development partners, and through its clear and ambitious reform programme and development plans, according to Al-Mashat.

On Tuesday, Al-Mashat launched a book that documents Egypts experience in cooperative development titled Stakeholder Engagement through Economic Diplomacy that was published by the London School of Economics.

The book showcases Egypts experience in international cooperation, sharing with neighbouring countries a replicable template on how to utilise multilateralism to foster impactful partnerships. The book also explains how Egypts experience was carried out through international standards and how it was implemented on the ground by national efforts.

During 2020, the Ministry of International Cooperation held two multi-stakeholder platforms in the transportation and health sectors, which brought together national entities and all multilateral and bilateral partners to present financing needs.

This contributed to the provision of development funds worth $1.8 billion to develop the infrastructure of transportation and $477 million for the health sector.

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The death of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat from Hebron in the West Bank last week has sparked widespread anger and political and security repercussions, setting off protests that have quickly escalated due to the brutal response of the Palestinian security agencies and the sharp polarisation of the Palestinian streets.

Banat was a leading critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA), most recently condemning what he described as corruption in a Covid-19 vaccine deal between the PA and Israel, whereby Israel would supply the PA with the Pfizer vaccine in return for Israel receiving vaccines from a batch allotted to the Palestinians.

The deal was cancelled when it emerged that the expiration date of the vaccines was fast approaching.

Hebron mayor Jibreen Al-Bakri said on 24 June that a warrant had been issued by the Public Prosecutors Office for Banats arrest, and after his arrest his health had deteriorated and he had been transferred to the state-run Hebron Hospital where he had died in custody.

This version of events did not convince the Palestinian public, especially since Banat had said there was a plot to silence him. His family said that some two dozen armed men had raided his house and beaten him up, spraying him with pepper spray and then arresting him.

While the PA at first remained silent about the incident, it eventually announced that it had formed a committee to investigate it with the participation of a representative from Banats family and human-rights groups.

However, Ammar Al-Dwaik, director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), then withdrew from the investigation. He was followed by the Palestinian Bar Association also declining to participate, and finally Banats family also withdrew its representative from the committee.

Banats family preempted the outcome of the investigations into Banats death by saying it would reject its findings. The family has blamed Palestinian prime minister and Minister of the Interior Mohamed Shtayyeh, as well as the director of the security agencies in Hebron.

The family said that the PA must admit what had occurred was a crime and its perpetrators must be identified through an impartial committee. It would not accept what it described as an incompetent and flawed investigative committee whose members represented the authorities, the family said.

It called for the arrest of those responsible for Banats death and for them to be put on trial.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in several areas of the West Bank, especially Ramallah and Hebron, to protest against Banats death. In Ramallah, the Palestinian security forces put down the protests with tear gas, preventing journalists from covering the events.

In response to the brutality, the demonstrators demanded the resignation of the Palestinian government, saying it had failed to prevent Banats death and had permitted the suppression of the protesters.

The government said it was confronting attempts to destabilise security on the West Bank by parties aiming to take advantage of Banats death to pursue their own agendas.

Banats death and the subsequent clashes in several West Bank cities were criticised by the UN, EU and the US State Department, which expressed serious concerns over the events and called for an independent investigation and the prosecution of the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Peoples Party, affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), announced the resignation of its minister from the Palestinian cabinet and called on the government to resign due to what it called violations of public freedoms.

Palestinian journalists protested at being prevented from covering the events, demanding that pressure be put on the PA to protect journalists. They urged the Palestinian Press Syndicate not to cover news of the Palestinian presidency and cabinet, the sacking of the Ramallah police chief, and that the government issue an apology for its actions.

Banats death has raised tensions between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, with the former accusing the latter of taking advantage of the incident to achieve political gains. Hamas is spearheading moves to condemn the death of Banat.

There have been calls for the governments resignation and new elections to be held to end the political impasse. Fatah resorted to civilian elements to confront the demonstrators, and in Ramallah clashes erupted between Fatah supporters and the groups opponents.

In an attempt to calm the situation, Shtayyeh said that anyone found to be connected to Banats death would be prosecuted, adding that anyone who broke the law or endangered peoples lives would also be held accountable. He rejected accusations against the Palestinian security agencies that had dispersed the marches in Ramallah.

The security institution with its patriotic creed is the protective shield of our national aspirations, he said.

Some observers believe that the angry reactions to Banats death have been augmented by the perceived political impotence of the PA, especially after the elections that were to be held on 22 May followed two months later by presidential elections were cancelled by a presidential decree on the pretext that Israel had blocked the elections in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian factions have also failed to end divisions and achieve reconciliation after the military confrontation between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Israel. Both factions, Fatah and Hamas, have returned to blaming each other for the continued divisions.

Alaa Abu Amer, a former Palestinian diplomat, said that this is not only about Banats death. It is about much more than that. His death has been a catalyst for rebellion and for everyone who wants change. One phase has politically ended, and if the regime does not change its behaviour, change will come from the outside.

Those who have lit the fire are the only ones who can put it out. It will not be put out except with icy water that cools the hearts of people in a patriotic rage. They are the majority who care about the nation and have nothing to do with foreign agendas, he added.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Yemen is witnessing escalation on all fronts despite reports of an imminent peace deal. Last week, fighting flared up in oil-rich Maarib as the Houthi militia launched a three-pronged attack on the government forces controlling the region. The Coalition for Support of Legitimacy launched multiple air raids on Houthi forces west of Maarib in response. The weekend fighting left more than 100 dead, mainly Houthis.

Maarib is the only northern part of Yemen under the control of the internationally recognised government. The rest of the north has been in Houthi hands since the Iran-backed militia deposed the legitimate government in 2014. The Saudi-led Coalition started a war in 2015 that freed the south of Houthi control. But the legitimate government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi suffered many setbacks and does not enjoy very much popularity in the war-torn country.

In a Saudi effort to bring all parties around the Hadi government to focus on fighting the Houthi rebels, Riyadh mediated an agreement between the government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) at the end of 2019. The STC aspires to independence for Southern Yemen but has agreed to take part in the gradual efforts to rein in the Houthis. The implementation of the Riyadh agreement was suspended this weekend as a protest by the STC to increased Muslim Brotherhood influence in the Hadi government. The most recent government included the Brotherhood-affiliate Islah Party. On Saturday, the militia arm of the Brotherhood attacked a demonstration in Shabwa organised by southerners.

The breakout of heavy fighting and political struggle is not confined to Yemen. Houthi rebels have intensified drone and missile attacks on southern Saudi Arabia since the Maarib battle started earlier this year. In recent weeks, not a day has passed without the coalition announcing that its air defences destroyed bomb-laden drones or ballistic missiles launched from Yemen across the border into Saudi Arabia. The Houthi and Iranian media talks of dozens of drones and missiles being launched over the last few days, especially after the coalition intensified its bombing of Houthi militias in Maarib.

The current wave of conflict coincides with the UN and the US working on a peace settlement to end the war in Yemen. UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths and US Envoy Tim Lenderking have been talking to all parties in the hope of starting a political process. With Oman now active in the mediation, messengers between Riyadh, the Omani capital Muscat and Sanaa are racing to start a peaceful reconciliation

This week, Reuters reported that Yemens warring parties are thrashing out terms for a peace deal that would extricate Saudi Arabia from a costly war and help alleviate a devastating humanitarian crisis, two sources close to the talks and a Houthi official said. The report noted that talks between the Saudi-led Coalition and the Houthis are focused on steps to lift a blockade on Houthi-held ports and Sanaa Airport in return for a promise from the rebels for truce talks. According to a Houthi source, their leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi made a commitment to an Omani delegation that visited Sanaa this month to enter into ceasefire discussions immediately after the blockade is lifted, in line with the latest proposal from UN Envoy Martin Griffiths.

In what looked like an American attempt to help the peace efforts, Lenderking said for the first time that the US recognises the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as a legitimate actor and accepts the idea that both sides in the conflict are responsible for violence. He made the remarks during a webinar organised by the National Council on US-Arab Relations on Thursday.

As one Saudi academic put it, this could be the flare before the end of war and the start of political settlement in Yemen. The Americans are involved in tough negotiations with the Iranians about reviving the nuclear deal, he told Al- Ahram Weekly. They have not completely ignored Irans meddling in the region. For example, they are targeting Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. They may look lenient on the Houthi militia in Yemen, but that is not actually the case. It seems to be part of the Vienna talks.

That optimistic tone is not shared by others who believe that the US is shifting its focus away from the region. The new American administration is focusing on China, Russia and the Indo-Pacific region. According to those commentators, the Middle East is no longer that important for the US, which provides regional powers with the opportunity to sort out their issues on their own.

A Gulf source close to decision-making circles downplayed the chances of a breakthrough via the political route. He acknowledged the UN and American involvement in consultation with Saudi Arabia, but cast doubt on the prospect of Omani mediation efforts bearing fruit, accusing the Houthi rebels of reneging on promises. The present Omani role is different from the role Oman played seven years ago helping the US and Iran to reach the nuclear deal. He noted that at the time there was no war between Washington and Tehran, and neither had border proximity to the Sultanate. Those were talks between two states, what is more, while present talks involve a militia that is a proxy for Iran.

Asked by the Weekly if the issue is Saudi Arabia agreeing to direct dialogue with the Houthis, the source reiterated that Saudi Arabia and the Arab Coalition would recognise Houthi as part of the Yemeni landscape and would definitely be a party of any peaceful settlement. But he stressed that so far, it is up to the Yemeni factions including the Houthis to come up together and reach a political reconciliation towards a lasting peaceful solution. Unless the rebel militia lays down arms and accepts the political track it will be futile to engage with them. The coalition does not want to continue with the war, but Iran is encouraging their proxy to keep the fire on.

What is clear is that all parties are wary of the prolonged military conflict with its disastrous humanitarian consequences. Yet it seems every party is trying hard to improve its bargaining position in any upcoming negotiations by scoring advances on the ground. How long this manoeuvring will continue is not clear. In the course of it, millions of Yemenis continue to suffer.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Egypt embarked on a host of national projects some seven years ago to lay out the new infrastructure required for a modern state. The efforts started with an extensive network of roads to connect all the countrys cities with each other, followed by the building of new fourth-generation cities that will provide living areas and services for all social brackets.



Until 2012, all Egyptians lived on seven per cent of Egypts land. Increasing the amount of urban land was one of the key goals of the national plan, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, head of the General Authority for Urban Planning (GAUP), told Al-Ahram Weekly.



The plans have been implemented not by building on agricultural land, but by expanding in new areas that are promising for their natural resources and economic infrastructure. These can generate job opportunities to encourage people to move there, Abdel-Fattah said, adding that the new cities also have to be accessible.



The locations of the new cities have been selected according to studies conducted in coordination with several authorities, such as the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Defence, and the National Centre for Planning and Land Use, he said.



A presidential decree then gives the green light for the building of a new city, with the implementation being the responsibility of the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA).



The NUCA oversees the execution of the GAUP plans, detailing the housing areas and types, leisure zones, streets, service areas, and areas designed for utilities and industrial activities, Abdel-Motaleb Mamdouh, deputy head of the NUCA, told the Weekly.



The idea of building new cities in Egypt first surfaced in 1977. Cities such as Salam, 6 October, Borg Al-Arab, 15 May, and 10 Ramadan were constructed as integrated cities comprising industrial, agricultural, leisure, and service zones. Abdel-Fattah said these elements were the pillars of economic and urban planning and the keys to the success of cities not only in Egypt, but also worldwide.



The main target of Egypts new cities is to expand in desert areas and to avoid building in the Delta and the Nile Valley, particularly after the takeover of some agricultural land due to illegal construction, he said. It was necessary to provide jobs and services in the new cities, which was the case with the first, second, and third generations of them.



10 Ramadan City is a success story, for example. It has been able to achieve self-sufficiency and to provide job opportunities for residents. It has become one of the most successful new cities in the Middle East, Abdel-Fattah commented.



Planning and constructing the new cities are implemented according to a timeframe, but their growth can take many more years. The growth of cities is the result of social and human factors, such as peoples attachment to the places where they are brought up. In moving from one place to live in another, people may be worried at first, but their need to start a new life and form a family urges them to move, Abdel-Fattah said.

Selecting the location for the new cities is preceded by comprehensive studies to ensure the optimum use of natural resources. Studies are carried out on underground water resources, pinpointing land that is rich in minerals and that is most suitable for agriculture. Based on the results of the studies, land is designated for different activities, such as agricultural land and residential plots, he added.The road networks connecting the new cities in the east and west of the country and from the north to Upper Egypt are one of the main reasons that have helped in the extensive urbanisation of the past seven years, Abdel-Fattah said.SELF-SUSTAINING CITIES: The new fourth-generation cities have almost doubled the urbanisation rate in Egypt, which for decades stood at around seven per cent of the countrys total area.The road networks established in recent years have facilitated access to areas targeted for development and encouraged investment by decreasing the cost of transportation. The new cities provide for diverse activities to support their inhabitants.Having different activities that provide sustainable job opportunities, be they in the agricultural, industrial, or tourism sectors, supports the creation of new urban communities that can be self-sufficient, Abdel-Fattah continued.On the pre-construction phase, Abdel-Fattah said that the GAUP was authorised to contract experts and academic specialists in different fields, including housing, the economy, services, or environmental matters, to collaborate on producing studies.The secret to success is committing to deadlines. This was the case for the roads network, the projects of the Egyptian Tunnels Authority, and the projects for the new cities, the housing complexes, and reviving historic areas, he stressed.The state is building new cities and developing existing ones in an effort to improve the livelihoods of all Egyptians. The goal is in line with Egypts Vision 2030 strategy for sustainable development, Walid Abbas, assistant to the minister of housing and supervisor of planning and projects at the NUCA, told the Weekly.The fourth-generation cities have been established to reduce congestion in other areas, provide the services and activities the public need, generate job opportunities, and introduce the use of artificial intelligence in smart cities in a manner in line with the states vision of the future, he added.At present, there are 37 fourth-generation cities spread over around 167,000 feddans of land, including 17 cities under construction, such as the New Administrative Capital, New Alamein, and New Mansoura. Strategic plans are being drawn up for a further 14 new cities, such as New Suez, New Rosetta, and New Beni Mazar, while six cities are still in the planning phase, such as New Gerga, New Esna, and New Hurghada, Abbas said.Overall, there are 61 new cities nationwide built on a total of 2.5 million feddans, or 12.8 per cent of the countrys inhabited area.As part of the strategic vision for 2050 and Egypts Vision 2030, the NUCA is creating opportunities for development through the construction of fourth-generation cities, especially those in Upper Egypt such as New Mallawy, New Fashn, New Aswan, New Beni Mazar, and New Naga Hammadi, and on the Mediterranean coast from New Borg Al-Arab to Salloum, Abbas added.He explained that the economic foundations of each new city differ according to their natural and economic potential. The new cities should generate jobs, attract investment, and offer appropriate housing.In each new city, different housing projects are established to appeal to all economic groups, Abbas said. For residents of informal areas, alternative housing projects have been constructed using modern architectural designs, he added.There are social-housing compounds, middle-income housing projects like the Sakan Masr projects, upper middle-income projects like the Dar Masr projects, and luxury projects under the Ganna label. There are also the Beit Masr projects that appeal to Egyptians who have been residing abroad and fulfil their social and leisure needs.

According to a recent presidential directive, a new housing type has also been added called Housing for all Egyptians that will attract middle-income brackets willing to acquire real-estate loans.Some have criticised the government for directing its efforts at construction and housing instead of developing resources to increase incomes more directly.But Abbas rejects such criticisms, pointing out that construction and housing are crucial sectors in the state budget. They offer job opportunities and decrease unemployment rates. According to statistics, public investments increased by 23 per cent from July 2019 to March 2020 as compared to a year earlier to record LE113 billion, Abbas said, adding that 20.9 per cent of public investments are directed to the housing sector.A social-housing unit costs LE280,000 to build, to which should be added the cost of the land and utilities, which are shouldered by the government. This offers cash support to a maximum of LE50,000, said Abdel-Mottaleb Mamdouh, deputy head of the NUCA.A set of regulations drawn up by the Ministry of Housing, the Administrative Control Authority, and the World Bank determine the amount of cash support each citizen can receive, he added.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Trapped in famine-hit Afgoye, a rag-hut city ruled by Islamist Shabab rebels and the world's largest camp for displaced people, Saedo Saleh knew she had to escape when her baby son fell sick.

"There is nothing there, no aid of any kind," she said, cradling her screaming one-year old son in a clinic in the government-held but war-torn Somali capital, where she sought help after sneaking across the frontline.

Kenyan troops and tanks crossed the border into southern Somalia at the weekend to assault hardline Shabab positions there, after a spate of kidnappings of foreigners inside Kenya, but the rebels remain in control of much of southern and central Somalia.

Afgoye, a crowded corridor of some 410,000 people along a key road running west out of Mogadishu is struggling under the Al-Qaeda linked Shabab's draconian restrictions on foreign aid.

Almost three months since the UN declared famine in the first of several southern Somali regions -- now including Afgoye and camps inside Mogadishu -- the situation remains grim, despite international efforts to increase aid.

The United Nations has described Somalia, where a civil war has been going on since 1991, as facing the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world.

Four million Somalis are in crisis, with some 750,000 at risk of dying in coming months if efforts are not scaled up, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned.

Even inside Mogadishu, base of a 9,000-strong African Union force and the weak Western-backed government, recent fighting and security concerns have limited access to desperate people needing food, shelter and medicine.

"We are doing are best, but the demands are enormous," said Ibrahim Mohamed Kasim, manager of the mother and child Hanano clinic -- meaning "care" in Somali -- in central Mogadishu.

"The aid has increased but it is not being coordinated well; people are still in need and more people are arriving," he added.

Heavy seasonal rains have begun, providing some relief for cattle herders, but adding to the misery of the tens of thousands living in rag and plastic shelters, having fled war and drought in their home areas.

"Infectious diseases -- including cholera, pneumonia, dengue fever and malaria -- are common in the city" with the rainy season feared likely to increase their spread, Doctors Without Borders said in recent statement.

"There is not enough food, and my family is getting sick," said Rahma Abdullah, a former shepherd from Baidoa region, who came to the capital after his animals died, and lives in a plastic shelter in a makeshift camp.

"The (government) soldiers here now are better than the Shabab, but they are not strong, they ask us for food and money."

The Shabab, who have vowed to step up a bombing campaign after killing at least 82 people in a suicide attack in Mogadishu earlier this month, have been pushed out of most of their positions in the capital but remain a threat.

"Security is better here in Mogadishu these days, but I think the Shabab will launch more bomb attacks," said Sara Ibrahim, a mother of six, living in basic plastic shelter provided by a Qatari aid agency.

"Some have come to help us, but we need more, because we have so little -- the food we get is just enough to survive from day-to-day, but not enough to live a life."

Children weakened by hunger are now "sitting out in the rain all night, and risking contracting diseases," said Sonia Zambakides, from Save the Children Somalia office, adding that two children were recently swept away by flood waters.

"The rains are going to get worse, and we must provide help to these families as this crisis enters a new phase," she said.

Food deliveries have reached some 2.2 million people as of last week, over half of those in need and massive increase since a few weeks ago, OCHA's latest report reads.

But getting aid out across the areas of southern Somalia hardest hit by "constant security threats and access restrictions," is tough OCHA has warned, adding that Shabab fighters seized ten food aid trucks earlier this month.

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Back in September 2020, there were some positive statements by Turkish officials towards Egypt, and these led many people to believe that relations between the two countries could be restored.

In the following months, the rate at which such statements occurred gained momentum, capped by statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself. At the same time, the Turkish government hinted that it would open a new chapter in its relations with other Arab countries, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and with European countries with whom its relations had almost hit rock bottom. France and Greece come to mind in this respect.

However, all the attention was given to Ankaras relations with Cairo, and Middle East observers started speculating about the possible timing of the normalisation of relations between the two countries and the nature of the understandings that would provide the basis for it. These included what concessions each of the two governments would accept in order for such an outcome to come true.

Expectations ran high, and the statements coming out of Ankara in the first few months of 2021 left the impression that the normalisation of relations with Cairo was almost a done deal.

While the Turkish government regularly made positive statements about the benefits that would accrue once relations with Cairo were restored, Egypt remained silent, however. This silence from the Egyptian authorities confounded many as to the reasons for it. Were the Turks exaggerating the prospects of restoring relations with Cairo, or was there a joint understanding between the two governments on a timeline for their restoration?

The fact of the matter is that Cairo was not quite sure of the true motives behind the Turkish overtures. Misgivings and a lack of trust in Turkish policies and their true intentions characterised the Egyptian reactions. Probably, this was also the reason why Cairo waited so long before announcing that a round of political consultations with Turkey would take place in early May. The announcement was also made at very short notice.

Cairo hosted the first round of the consultations, and it was expected that the next time such consultations or political talks were held Ankara would be the venue.

The official statement that came out of these consultations said that the two countries would review their results and act accordingly on the following steps to be taken. It was understood that a meeting on the level of the foreign ministers of the two countries would probably follow and with it the nomination of ambassadors. The statement went on to say that the talks had been frank and had covered both the bilateral relations between the two countries and regional questions on the situations in Libya, Syria and Iraq.

Two regional developments followed the political consultations. One week later, Israel launched a military attack against the Gaza Strip that lasted for 11 days until Egypt and other international powers successfully pushed for a ceasefire. The other development that has had a direct bearing on Egyptian-Turkish relations has been the situation in Libya and the manoeuvring by pro-Turkish groups, particularly the Libyan followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, to exempt Turkey from withdrawing its forces from Libya as per the ceasefire agreement of 23 October last year in the context of the Libyan Joint Military Commission, commonly known as the 5+5 Commission.

Things came to a head at the Berlin II Conference on Libya that was jointly hosted by the German government and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 23 June. The Turkish delegation to the conference decided to take exception to the paragraph demanding the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Libya.

The reservation goes to show, from an Egyptian point of view, that Ankara is playing a double game. On the one hand, it is making overtures to Egypt expressing its willingness to normalise relations with Cairo, but on the other hand it is not making the concessions required to normalise relations with Egypt. It should not be lost on whoever makes decisions in Ankara that Egypt will not move forward one inch in the nascent process of normalisation with Turkey before the withdrawal of all Turkish forces from Libya along with the Syrian militias contracted by the Turks to fight in the country. To believe otherwise would be counterproductive.

Today, the process of restoring relations between Cairo and Ankara to their pre-2013 level is on hold until Turkey makes up its mind on its strategic priorities in the Middle East and North Africa, being either expansionism or coexistence with the leading Arab and regional powers. To think that Turkey would be able to persist in its expansionist policies while improving its standing with Egypt is a non-starter.

From the outset, there have been serious doubts about how genuine Turkey is in opening up to Egypt and other leading Arab powers. Was it too credulous to believe that Ankara, given the Islamist ruling party in Turkey, would just relinquish the policies of the last ten years and start a new chapter with the leading powers in its neighbourhood? I guess it was always a long shot to believe that this could be the case.

The litmus test for improved relations with Egypt is whether Turkey will withdraw its forces from Libya or not. If the latter proves to be the case, relations between Egypt and Turkey will remain the same, being tense, implicitly confrontational and expressing a fierce regional rivalry across the board from Libya in the west to Iraq in the east and passing through Syria.

It is up to Turkey to decide whether it wants to coexist peacefully with its neighbours or whether it wants to keep rocking the boat by pursuing policies aiming to secure strategic footholds in various parts of the Middle East and North Africa region, whether through maintaining a permanent military presence and/or through its Muslim Brotherhood proxies and other groups.

The future of Egyptian-Turkish relations looks murky, and hoping they will see brighter days under the present Turkish president will be next to impossible unless there is a complete overhaul of Turkish foreign policy in the region. This is something that looks improbable under the present circumstances.

The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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It seems the fourth Gaza war is not over yet. Hostilities could resume at any time as a result of new circumstances in Palestinian politics. Reconciliation efforts have just run up against a wall again after a short period of calm and near solidarity between Fatah and Hamas during the war and its aftermath. The circumstances in Israel are also new. After more than a decade under Benjamin Netanyahu, the country has a new coalition government made up of eight Israeli factions, one of which is Palestinian in identity and affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, just like Hamas in Gaza. Whether in Palestine or Israel, the situation could not be more fragile. Neither can afford to resume a war the wounds of which are still gaping. Yet neither is inclined to reassess their difficult circumstances.

In Palestine the crux of the problem is the confusion between a legitimate government in Ramallah and another authority that rests on force of arms in Gaza. It is hard to say whether either is truly committed to advancing the Palestinian cause. It could be that while the Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying to re-establish its primacy as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, Hamas feels that the best way to sustain its popularity is to keep the cause ablaze. So it plays with fire, literally, by launching incendiary balloons into Israel  and the latter has retaliated with extreme force.

On the Israeli side, the new government, which hinges on a Knesset majority of a single seat, knows that it has no chance of survival unless it has enough time to achieve the minimum aims of each of the eight coalition partners which hail from the far left to the far (Arab and Israeli) right. All they have in common is the desire to keep Netanyahu out of power forever. Apart from that, their calculations are complicated, especially in the light of Egypts continued efforts to prevent a resumption of hostilities and to promote its initiative to transform the truce into an enduring ceasefire. The main instruments to this end are the reconstruction of Gaza, prisoner exchange negotiations, securing a halt to missiles from Gaza and other measures that make life easier for both sides. This seemed possible when, following a security evaluation, Israel allowed a limited resumption of commercial exports from Gaza, a measure that remains conditional upon the preservation of security stability.

However, the resumption of war versus a more durable ceasefire is not solely contingent on the Palestinians and Israelis. This is because the war between them is actually three intricately interrelated wars in one. The second is the war between Israel and Iran, the terrain of which extends from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gulf and the Gulf of Aden, to the Mediterranean. The weapons in use range from fighter planes and missiles to cyberattacks. The missiles that Hamas used during the fourth Gaza war were versions of the Iranian Badr missile, which suggests that other Iranian missiles, as well as drones, could also come into play. Tehrans intervention in Gaza is a way to retaliate against the continued strikes and cyberattacks against Iranian targets, from the Natanz nuclear facility to the bases and facilities of pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), Hizbullah and other such organisations in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. That Iran is currently engaged with the US in an attempt to revive the Iran Nuclear Deal has not reduced the intensity of the Iranian-Israeli war. In fact, both sides are using it as a means to leverage negotiations or to their advantage. After all, both war and negotiations are ultimately political tools for attaining ulterior ends.

As though the Iranian factor has not complicated the Palestinian-Israeli conflict enough, a third war has taken it to new thresholds because it is unfolding all across the region. This war pits the forces of stability, which have been fighting to restore order after a decade of the anarchy and destruction wrought by the so-called Arab Spring, against the forces of instability which seek to perpetuate revolutionary anarchy. The former forces are striving to attain their ends by means of extensive reform processes at home and defusing hotspots abroad, in Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and, of course, Palestine. The destabilising forces use radical ideologies and extremist groups as their weapons, relying on the Palestinian cause as an instrument to stoke the widespread anger that fuels anarchy. The former camp includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that have endorsed stability as an aim and reform as a goal. The latter is spearheaded by Iran, which relies on subordinate Shia groups, Islamist organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and various other groups in the countries that were swept by upheaval, which has not yet subsided. It is no coincidence that Iranian-made missiles are used by both Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen as well as Hizbullah in Syria and Lebanon. Israel, at present, is not a force for stability. Nor can it be as long as it persists in settlement expansion in the West Bank, inflaming hatred between Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel, attacking Islamic holy sites, threatening Arabs with evacuation and catering to violent Jewish extremist groups, all the while ignoring the fact that six Arab countries have made peace with Israel while many more have signed the Arab Peace Initiative.

Perhaps there is little new in these three interwoven wars, at least considering what the crisis-ridden, war-plagued Middle East is used to. Perhaps it is a matter of course that certain regional forces are keen to perpetuate this condition and intensify tensions, taking advantage of the USs gradual withdrawal from the region after its failed attempts at state building in Iraq and Afghanistan where it tried to apply a special kind of democratic project that only succeeded in tearing these countries apart. Nevertheless, the profound reform processes underway in several leading Arab powers, with the emphasis on rapid and extensive social and economic development, have worked to counter the destabilising dynamics. This, in turn, throws into relief the need for profound reform at the regional level. Its a process that must, first, take as its primary building block the Arab nation state, in light of the authenticity and cohesiveness of its borders, identity, history and future. Secondly, it must engage the principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other states. Thirdly, it must espouse the pursuit of peace and regional cooperation. In fact, considerable progress has already been made in this regard, to which testify the Abraham Accords and the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, both of which are founded on new and unprecedented bases for regional relations. Fourthly, the reform must step up efforts to resolve this regions chronic problems. This includes, of course, the Palestinian question which, as recent history tells us, might seem to subside for a while but will always flare up again. It also includes the problems of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly acute in Iraq and Syria, in the framework of the civil nation state. Fifthly, it will do well to take the initiative that Egypt is currently pursuing, with considerable support from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, as a platform for a much broader drive than just securing a ceasefire.

The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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On the evening of 3 July 2013, millions of Egyptians celebrated the end of Muslim Brotherhood rule. Much of the Western media was stunned by the events that culminated in the dismissal of former president Mohamed Morsi after a year in power. Immediately following Morsis removal, Western political, intellectual, and media circles expressed anger at the developments despite the unprecedented scale of the grassroots uprising that made it possible and the consensus of national political forces about the dangers of the mother of all Islamist organisations remaining in power in Egypt.



Eight years later and the balances of power in Egypt and the region have shifted. This does not, however, preclude the need to examine the facts from that period through a lens that encompasses more than the criteria of formal democracy, not least because, under Morsi, there were signs of a repeat of Irans Islamic revolution and the imposition of a theocratic order in Egypt.



The 30 June 2013 Revolution was a watershed moment par excellence, regardless of the opinions of those who had banked on Islamists dominating the region. In Egypts case it is not difficult to envision what would have happened in the absence of the revolution. Yet though the disastrous effects of the rise to power of an organisation that views democracy as no more than a means to gain control so that it can then manoeuvre to perpetuate that control indefinitely were staring everyone in the face, the 30 June Revolution is still treated with suspicion by some Western research centres. All too often this bias is informed by the relationship between foreign think tanks and intelligence agencies on the one hand, and Islamist groups on the other. The relationship dates back to the 1950s, when Islamists were used as a tool against Arab nationalism and the Arab left, and as a weapon in the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the communist camp.



The grassroots revolution in Egypt put paid to the notion advanced within some academic circles that it is possible to coexist with undemocratic groups that mix religious demagoguery with politics in order to attain and hold onto power. Arab and Muslim societies, so the fallacious argument goes, have a specific nature that has to be taken into account when promoting democratisation in countries that have suffered more than their fair share of corruption and nepotism. The Islamists presented themselves as a magic solution, pointing to the great role that religion plays in the lives of Arab and Muslim societies, and positing themselves as experts on Islam.



So, what would have happened had the 30 June Revolution failed?



The answer put forward by a number of Western research centres is that one cannot judge Muslim Brotherhood rule from its single year in office. The group, they say, needed time to correct its undemocratic practices. As if there isnt an entire body of Islamist literature and doctrine offering justifications to monopolise power and end the rotation of authority. According to some of this literature bequeathed by the emirs of violence, including the assassins of president Anwar Al-Sadat  in 2012 Morsi released them from prison and then invited them to attend the commemoration of Sadats signature achievement, victory in the 6 October War  jihadist groups had long been waiting for the opportunity to lock horns with other factions they felt less ideologically qualified to lead an Islamic nation.



Consensual solutions within a democratic framework have proven unsustainable in societies that tried to introduce a formula for coexistence between Islamists and democratic liberal trends. Nevertheless, Western advocates of genuine representative democracy in their own countries somehow find it acceptable to defend the right of anti-democratic groups that mix religious demagoguery with politics to be included in democratic processes that they are certain to subvert once they reach power.



Certainly, it is no secret what Islamist rule would hold in store for religious minorities, women, and personal freedoms. Yet, by some curious logic, Western critics of the 30 June Revolution accuse the people who defended plurality, freedom of belief, the rights of minorities, womens rights and personal rights, of being anti-democratic, and whitewash the Islamists, whose doctrines and writings overtly advocate reducing religious minorities to second class citizens and curtailing womens rights, as defenders of democratic transformation.



Before defending the right of a reductionist, exclusively religious-oriented party to participate in a pluralistic democratic process, one should consider what is required to safeguard that process. One requirement is a strong civil state equipped with checks and balances capable of preventing a single trend or group from monopolising the political process, or threatening to propel the nation into civil war. And make no mistake, it was civil war that was looming in the run-up to 30 June 2013.



Thankfully, a critical mass of the Egyptian people chose to save the civil state and preserve the cohesion of their society. These were the driving principles of the movement that ushered the Muslim Brotherhood out of power, something certain camps in the West still fail to grasp. These camps prefer to believe that the Egyptian people have no agency and instead attribute the overthrow of the elected president to plots and machinations of the deep state. They ignore the fact that Morsi was simply a facade for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation to which he owed his prior allegiance and which has always behaved like a state within a state.



The 12 months of Muslim Brotherhood rule present an alarming picture: total economic collapse, bureaucratic incompetence of a scale unseen in Egypts modern history, stealthy yet relentless steps on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership to consolidate all powers in the executive, to the detriment of the army and police, the judiciary, the intelligence agencies, and even the diplomatic corps. The Brotherhoods goal was self-empowerment, and its chosen method was to purge sovereign agencies of all but Muslim Brotherhood loyalists. While the Brotherhoods Guidance Bureau was busy drawing up lists of officials to replace with their own, another wing was negotiating pacts with other extremist groups, cajoling them to recognise the Muslim Brotherhood, the mother Islamist organisation, as their legitimate representative, and to ideologically reconcile. In return, they were promised privileges and political advantages tailored to the battles they had been waging beneath the banner of jihad for more than 40 years.



All this was accompanied by an unprecedented spike in sectarian tensions. It was clear from the outset that the nature of the state the Muslim Brotherhood envisioned was far removed from the modern civil state. Their state had no room for Christians, except within mediaeval bounds. Their discriminatory attitudes and dogma were already evident on many issues before they came to power, especially with regard to womens rights and religious minorities. In the opposition in parliament under Mubarak, they set their sights on dismantling the civil state. When they reached power, they expanded their ambition to dismantling the nation state itself, to be replaced with a replica of their own secretive organisation, the better to impose their own brand of religious extremism. As their plans advanced, Egypts security agencies began to fear a slide into civil war.



There was a long-standing feud between the Brotherhood and strong and effective institutions of state, and the group had its crosshairs set on the Egyptian army above all. One way to weaken it was to embroil it in proxy wars abroad. An early indication of this tactic occurred in October 2012 during the military parade on the anniversary of the 1973 War. The Muslim Brotherhood used the occasion to declare jihad against the Syrian regime, giving a green light to its members, and members of allied groups, to fight in Syrias civil war. It opened an early chapter in the story of mercenaries in Syria. As many familiar with the thinking in Western political and intelligence circles at the time know, using Egyptian troops in the regions proxy wars was a down payment on the anticipated alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and Western governments.



These were just some of the factors that drove tens of millions of ordinary Egyptians to take action against Muslim Brotherhood rule. In response, as investigations have shown, the organisation rallied its affiliated groups to counter the massive outcry for its removal from power. But the organisations mobilisation at home, and its appeal to foreign powers, could not help Morsi save his position, or return him to it after his removal. Nor could other ploys, such as the melodrama staged in Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in eastern Cairo. Regional and international media affiliated with the group helped with the production: they cut and edited footage in such a way as to create the impression that Egyptians supported the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in. The same media shrugged off the huge surge in attacks against churches, Christian property and persons throughout the country, dismissing it as part and parcel of the violent tug-of-war between two sides. Regardless of whether Western media calls the events of 30 June a revolution or a coup, what counts is that the will of the vast majority of the Egyptian people prevailed, yielding first the interim government and, in 2014, the election of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.



Eight years after these momentous events and the government has reversed the severe deterioration under Muslim Brotherhood rule. The country is now on a path diametrically opposed to that envisioned by the Islamists. The comprehensive development drive that President Al-Sisi initiated has won the praise and admiration of international agencies. In addition to the largest-ever infrastructure development projects Egypt has ever seen, the government has launched multiple programmes to raise standards of living and quality of life in rural Egypt. Adopting a holistic concept of human development, the government has also passed legislation to promote the empowerment of women and guarantee the constitutional principle of equal rights for all citizens. The guiding principle here is social justice, not just in terms of political rights, but also in terms of economic and social rights, including access to proper healthcare and education. The government understands that to ignore social welfare and safety networks is to leave important sectors of society vulnerable to the predations of extremist groups. This consideration has also informed the governments drive to reform educational curricula and deepen the culture of tolerance and acceptance of others.



There is a saying that foreign policy proceeds from the home front. This certainly applies to Egypt: in recent years the success of its domestic policies has increasingly been reflected on the foreign policy front. Egypt has scored major successes in the war against terrorism, winning many over to its comprehensive view on how to confront violent extremist groups while preserving the unity and integrity of the nation state, the importance of which President Al-Sisi has repeatedly underscored since taking office. As stability returned to Egypt, Cairo began to resuscitate its regional role and influence. The gauge of success here is to be found in Egypts deterrent diplomacy, designed to curb the schemes of regional powers to capitalise on the wave of upheavals and conflict in the Arab world in order to encroach onto Arab states and make a grab for their land and resources. The red line that Al-Sisi drew in Libya is a case in point. That policy marked the turning point that made it possible to bring a halt to hostilities and usher in a new interim phase. Currently, Egypt is playing a crucial role, in collaboration with international partners, in helping the Libyans prepare the groundwork for general elections. The Palestinian cause is another area in which Egypt has demonstrated its crucial influence. Egypt brokered the recent truce in Gaza, and is currently sponsoring talks in Cairo to promote a lasting ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians.



The security breakdown and instability that characterised the Muslim Brotherhoods year of rule inspired a massive upgrade of Egypts military forces and a comprehensive vision for Egypts national security. The modernisation of all branches of the Egyptian Armed Forces, which has included the creation of a southern fleet to safeguard maritime borders, is one of the main reasons for the success of Egypts deterrent diplomacy and growing influence. But President Al-Sisis vision is more far-reaching. This is why, despite waves of terrorist attacks, he set in motion sweeping national development campaigns that addressed the needs of the poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable, giving concrete substance to the principle of equal citizenship without discrimination.



What if The answer to the question posed at the outset is easy. On the one hand, there is the accumulation of concrete achievements that have compelled some, if not all, Western media to reassess their views on what made millions of Egyptians to take to the streets on 30 June 2013. On the other, we have the economic decay, the social disintegration, the extreme polarisation, the exclusionist and discriminatory tendencies of the Islamists, the lack of prudence, the export of jihadist mercenaries, a panoply of phenomena that threatened to drag Egypt and Egyptian identity into dangerous territory. The consequences would have been disastrous, not just for us but for the region.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 July, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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On my last visit to Palestine, I had a deep sense of sadness and sorrow over the state of affairs there, but the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip remains unimaginably tragic. The restrictions imposed on people's movement and their ability to obtain the most basic human needs in terms of health, food, education and travel are intolerable. It is time to take real steps to turn things around there. It is time for this tragedy to end.

In Gaza Strip, UNFPA staff members spoke with a young girl, Roaa, shortly after the latest ceasefire agreement was in place. She introduced herself not as thirteen, but as four wars old.

One of my UNFPA colleagues told us: I was given only 5 minutes to evacuate my house. I couldn't comprehend what could be done, it is only five minutes to safe my disabled mother,to ensure the survival of the family,and to save our belongings and memories before they are all smashed by the shelling.

On the ground, working with the women in the communities we serve, we hear, repeatedly: Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Nowhere is safe. Something has to change.

The recent military escalation in May, which left 242 people dead and nearly 2000 injured. More than 16,600 people saw their homes damaged.

This escalation is only the most recent of a long series of devastating events that leave the people of Gaza feeling hope is slipping away. Today, Gazans face a veritable mental health crisis.

Even before the war, in 2012 the UN issued a reportpredicting that unless action was taken to improve access to basic services in the territory, the Gaza Strip would become unlivable by 2020.That year came and went, with unprecedented challenges. In addition, the restrictions on movement is adding to the more insult to the injury of thousands of Gazans in need for medical treatment outside the besieged strip. More than a quarter of cancer patient referral applications in 2021 were delayed according to WHO.

The COVID pandemic has not spared Gaza, and the socio-economic impact of lockdowns and economic hardship has been distressing.

Destruction happens quickly, in seconds. The reconstruction, not only of buildings and physical infrastructure, but also of peoples lives and their recovery from trauma, is painstakingly slow. People in the Gaza Strip speak of their loss of hope, their fear that their children will experience war after war and a life of trauma, with no normal future in sight.

As is often the case, women and girls pay a heavy price for the dire situation in the Gaza Strip. The stresses and tensions of the occupation, coupled with financial hardship, frequent electricity cuts, loss of economic opportunities and COVID-related lockdowns already made many women and girls extremely vulnerable. At the beginning of the COVID-lockdown, the main hotline for women and girls facing violence experienced more calls in a week than they normally would in three months. Since then the situation has only deteriorated.

Over the next three months, around 16,500 women will give birth in the Gaza Strip. With a health system under profound pressure for many years, ensuring essential health services are available to ensure safe birth is a priority for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). We are working to ensure that hospitals and clinics are equipped to deal with these life-saving interventions.

We are deeply concerned that vulnerable women and girls in need of protection have access to competent and compassionate care: health services, counselling, legal advice and more. We are providing support to these service providers  including by providing them with psychosocial support so that they themselves can help others  and are scaling up cash and voucher assistance to vulnerable women to alleviate some of the financial pressures on their households, which make a bad situation worse.

However, what of the trauma experienced by pregnant mothers who had to flee their homes in the middle of the night under heavy bombardment?

What of the women who urgently need breast cancer treatment, but cannot acquire the necessary permits to exit Gaza?

What of the women who face ever increasing domestic abuse, exacerbated by stress and tension and financial hardship?

Humanitarian aid alone cannot change the equation. For that, bigger changes must occur. The blockade of Gaza must end.

Yet, as we in UNFPA see daily through our programs with young people, the energy, the initiative, the entrepreneurship and the skillsets needed for a better tomorrow. This is a competent and proactive young population. They have the solutions. They just need a chance  to breathe, to feel safe, to build their small business, and to feel assured that their investment would not be in vain when the next round of missiles strike.

Indeed, something has to change. The international community has an obligation to ensure that people in the Gaza Strip have the basic conditions for a life with dignity and enjoy their rights simply like other people elsewhere. We believe that a human rights approach, and recognizing the inalienable rights of every person, is the beginning of the solution. We work hard to ensure women and girls enjoy the right of choice regarding their bodily autonomy.

**Luay Shabaneh, is the Regional Director for Arab States in UNFPA, the UN agency for sexual and reproductive health.

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I am overwhelmed with happiness and pride while writing this article that I have been preparing for a while to be published in conjunction with the Egyptian National Day for Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which falls on June 14.

After writing all its drafts to be revolved around the pain and suffering of girls and women from that harmful practice, and between appeals and demands for a harsher punishment, It ended up with me writing these lines in joy and celebration of achieving the dream.

Yes, the political will of Egyptian women and girls triumphed again, on April 30, 2021, when President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi signed law no 10 of 2021 to introduce amendments to several provisions of the Penal Code to toughen the penalty for FGM.

The amendment stipulates that whoever performs FGM involving the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or causing injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than five years. In case the crime led to a permanent handicap, the punishment shall be imprisonment for a period of no less than 7 years with hard labour. If the act led to death, the imprisonment shall be for a period of no less than 10 years.

As per the new amendments also, if the perpetrator of the crime is a doctor or nurse, he or she shall receive the penalty of rigorous imprisonment from 3 to 15 years in jail. If the crime resulted in a permanent disability, the penalty shall be imprisonment for no less than 10 years with hard work. If the act leads to death, the punishment shall be no less than 15 years and will not exceed 20 years.

In addition to this, the court shall rule to dismiss the offender from his position for a period not exceeding 5 years if the crime was committed for a reason associated with his/her job. The establishment where the crime is committed shall be shut down for the same number of years of the penalty handed to the doctor or nurse implicated. That is if the owner knows that the place was used for that purpose.

Imprisonment shall be the penalty inflicted on whoever asks for FGM and has succeeded in persuading someone to circumcise the victim.

In this context, it is important to emphasise that this law is the third generation of previous laws that were issued to criminalise FGM; in June of 2008, an amendment to the penal code was issued to criminalise FGM in legal texts, as article 242 stipulated that: While showing due regard for Article 61 of the penal code and without prejudice to any harsher penalty prescribed in another law, a prison term of no less than five years and no more than seven years shall be levied against anyone who circumcises a female, namely, by partial or total removal of the external genitalia or causing injury to the genitalia without medical justification. The penalty shall be hard imprisonment if the act results in a permanent disability or if it leads to death.

Therefore, in 2016, they amended article 242 by aggravating the penalties of the penal code and introducing a new Article under law 78/2016. The amendments of 2016 redefined FGM as a felony rather than a misdemeanor and increased the penalty for performing FGM from five to seven years of imprisonment and up to 15 years imprisonment if the act of FGM leads to the death of the victim or a permanent disability. Also, the articles provided punishment between one to three years imprisonment of any individual who requests and abets the performance of FGM.

Although the month of June comes yearly to remind us of a very painful memory, the death of the 11-year-old schoolgirl, Budour Shaker, who passed away after being subjected to FGM in a private clinic in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya in June 2017. Her death came hours after her success in the final exams of Grade 6. This tragedy was the reason behind launching the National Day for the Elimination of FGM.

Four years later, and after the death of many girls because of FGM, we celebrate that 2021 is the year of achieving the dream, as it included many strong leaps in the issues of criminalising FGM.

The beginning of this year witnessed the cabinets approval of the draft law submitted by the National Committee for the Elimination of FGM on disallowing those medical professionals convicted of performing genital mutilation from practicing their job, in addition to applying the rest of the penalties stipulated in the draft law to amend the penal code; legal measures were taken to study this draft in the Ministry of Justice.

Also, last March, the Egyptian House of Representatives approved the anti FGM draft law presented by the government after holding constructive discussions and a very rich dialogue. What made me most happy is knowing about the support of male parliamentarians of this draft, in addition to the female parliamentarians who proved their success in supporting one of the most important issues for Egyptian girls and women.

In this regard, I would also like to refer to the initiative of parliament representatives of the Coordination Committee of Partys Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP) to support, on their social media pages, the efforts of the National Committee for the Elimination of FGM and the amendments of the law that criminalise FGM during the celebration of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM in February.

All these steps encouraged us to be optimistic that there are parliamentarians who have are enlightened thinkers willing to reject backward ideas and fight them with full force in addition to supporting the government in progressing more and more in women and human rights issues.

And to emphasise the continued rejection of the religions of this harmful practice and inhuman crime (Its alleged that theres Islamic religious roots of FGM), the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, wrote in a letter he sent to the Public Prosecution in February of last year that It has become clear to Al-Azhar, through what was decided by the people of jurisprudence and trusted medical professionals, that circumcision causes great damage to a girls personality in general and affects her family life after marriage in particular, with a negative impact on society as a whole.

He continued, Accordingly, the Islamic Research Academy in Al-Azhar decided, after studying the issue of circumcision from all its correct jurisprudential aspects and with the unanimity of its members in the session held in February 28, 2008, that no unequivocal text is found in the Quran or the Sunna that call for circumcision, and that it only dates back to inherited traditions and customs within the framework of an incorrect understanding of religion; its negative impact on physical and mental well-being has been proven.

As female circumcision was agreed to be one of the harmful traditions according to legal and medical opinions, and its legitimacy is not assured by valid evidence, thus it is prohibited, and the infliction of punishment on the one who do it is permissible according to Sharia law, he concluded.

This letter came as a response to an inquiry from the public prosecution about the legitimate opinion on female circumcision, after the death of a girl as a result of her circumcision.

Many fatwas were issued over the course of several years by the Egyptian Dar Al-Iftaa prohibiting female circumcision and ensuring that it is a matter of customs and contrary to Sharia and law.

Last April, the Coptic Orthodox Church issued a document on its stance against female circumcision, signed by Pope Tawadros II, the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark. The document assured that the church is totally against FGM and considers it a crime and a grave sin. Also, there is no basis for FGM in Christianity, not a single verse calling for it in the holy book. The document assured that FGM represents a danger and a violation of human rights.

All these strong and serious steps confirm that all state institutions, religious institutions, and legislative institutions have united to renounce this harmful practice.

I return once again to the latest and most important step in this issue, which is the ratification by the president of law No. 10 of 2021, which I consider a great victory, and a new dream come true after long years of suffering and pain experienced by millions of women due to FGM, causing constant anxiety and a lack of confidence in themselves and in their closest relatives.

Yes, this important step came to reaffirm the keenness of the political will to protect women and girls from all forms of violence directed against them, confront this criminal act locally and internationally, and to stand as a deterrent for anyone who thinks to commit or participate in this harmful practice against any female.

This step is considered a culmination of the efforts of women who devoted their lives to fighting this crime, such as Aziza Hussein, Mary Assad, and others, may their souls rest in peace.

This step also comes as a culmination of the efforts of the National Committee for the Elimination of FGM, co-chaired by the National Council for Women and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, which was formed in May of 2019, and is honoured by the membership of representatives of all concerned ministries, competent judicial authorities, Al-Azhar, the three Egyptian churches and community organisations, in addition to development partners.

The National Committee has taken it upon itself since the first day to work with all diligence and sincerity to eliminate this harmful practice, and to fight against reactionary thought and misconceptions about FGM through many activities.

In the framework of its mission, the committee formed a board to study the legislative aspects related to the criminalisation of FGM, which included members from the National Council for Women, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, the Public Prosecution, the Ministry of Interior, the Doctors Syndicate, and the Ministry of Health and Population, and with the participation of forensic medicine. This board suggested tightening the penalty for FGM and expanding the scope of criminalisation of the draft law approved by the government and parliament and ratified by the president.

After two years of the committees efforts, it managed to achieve 76 million awareness contacts in many villages throughout the country, in various forms, such as organising medical and educational convoys, launching awareness media campaigns, raising the efficiency of institutional building, in addition to organising door-knocking campaigns under the slogan Protect her from circumcision.

This anti FGM law was praised by many international institutions and figures, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and a member of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Nicole Ameline.

Moreover, Egypts effort in this law was hailed by the European Union, United Nations Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and the United States Agency for International Development.

Following these carefully studied steps taken by the Egyptian government, I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to Egypts Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly for his approval on the draft law submitted by the committee and to the Egyptian House of Representatives.

I want also to thank the Ministry of Justice for its fruitful cooperation to come up with the amendments to the articles of the FGM law, and the public prosecutor, who presented an exceptional model in the implementation of prompt justice.

Also, my great thanks to the Ministry of Interior for its unremitting efforts in confronting all those who try to break the law in cases of violence against women.

This confirms the consensus of all state institutions on the need to eliminate this harmful practice, in implementation of Article 11 of the Egyptian Constitution, which stipulates that the state will protect women against all forms of violence, and the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030, which comes in line with Egypts Vision 2030 to achieve sustainable development goals.

Finally, on behalf of the National Committee for the Elimination of FGM and on behalf of all Egyptian girls and women, I extend my deepest thanks, appreciation, and gratitude to the first supporter of Egyptian women, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, for the ratification of the law that guarantees a safe life for girls.

Many thanks President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

#Long live Egypt

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Egypt-Sudan move at UNSC over GERD should not turn into Arab-African dispute: Arab League ambassador



Menna Alaa El-Din, , Thursday 1 Jul 2021



There has been a change in the composition of the membership of the UNSC, which could affect support for the Egyptian-Sudanese action, the AL ambassador said



The Arab League is keen on ensuring that Egypt and Sudan resorting to the UN Security Council over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue does not turn into a dispute between Arab and African sides, its ambassador to the UN said.



Ambassador Maged Abdel-Fattah, the Arab League representative to the UN, told privately owned satellite channel Sada Al-Balad that a five-member committee formed by the Arab League has requested meetings with the president of the UNSC and its permanent members.



The committee has also called for a meeting with the Ethiopian representative in New York.



The Arab League has also backed an intervention by the UNSC, stressing during a meeting in Doha in June its rejection of any measures that would undermine the water share of Egypt and Sudan.



Ethiopia has slammed the AL resolution, describing the organisations approach as unhelpful and misguided.



Changes at the UNSC



There has been a change in the composition of the membership of the UNSC, Abdel-Fattah said, explaining how this change could affect support for the Egyptian-Sudanese action.



According to Abdel-Fattah, Ireland and Norway, which replaced Germany and Belgium, could have more understanding towards the Egyptian and Sudanese position on the dam.



Kenya, which has replaced South Africa, could show less sympathy towards Ethiopia, he said, adding that South Africa, which presided over the AU-backed talks on the GERD as the president of the AU in 2020, has shown great sympathy with Ethiopia.



Abdel-Fattah said Kenya continues to cooperate with Ethiopia despite its conflict with Addis Ababa over the Omo River, on which there are several dams built by Ethiopia.



Niger will also have some sensitivity in dealing with the GERD issue given the existing issues it has over the Niger River with Benin and Mali.



The Arab League representative said there has been a state of indecision in the UNSC regarding issues related to water and rivers, as well as development issues, migration and climate change.



There are ongoing efforts to secure nine votes inside the UNSC for a resolution backing the rights of Egypt and Sudan, Abdel-Fattah said.



Ethiopia remains adamant on proceeding with a second filling of its dams reservoir in July despite the lack of an accord with downstream countries.



In a letter to the UNSC in June, Egypt denounced Addis Ababa's plan to unilaterally move ahead with the second filling of the dam in July, a step that is expected to affect the water security of downstream countries.



The 95-page letter 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.



Egypt and Sudan have been negotiating for almost a decade now with Ethiopia to reach a legally binding and comprehensive deal on the GERDs construction, which Addis Ababa started to build on the Blue Nile in 2011.



Ethiopias rejection of several proposals by Egypt and Sudan on the negotiation mechanism, which includes international quartet mediation, has led to the collapse of the Kinshasa talks sponsored by the AU in April.



Egypts 100 million-plus population depends on the Nile for over 95 percent of its fresh water.



Sudan fears the GERD will put the operation of its Roseires dam and the lives of 20 million Sudanese citizens at a very high risk if an agreement regulating the operation and filling of GERD is not reached before the second filling.



https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/416415.aspx
KYODO NEWS - Jun 30, 2021 - 23:59 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan is considering extending its coronavirus quasi-state of emergency in Tokyo and three adjacent prefectures, government sources said Wednesday as a rebound in COVID-19 cases has raised the possibility of the capital hosting the Olympics without spectators.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government will make a decision next week on a possible extension beyond the emergency's expiration on July 11, just before the Summer Games open on July 23, the sources said. Some in the government speculate Suga may declare another state of emergency in the Tokyo area.

Earlier Wednesday, the Tokyo metropolitan government reported 714 new daily coronavirus cases, reflecting a sharp rebound in the 10 days since the capital exited a state of emergency and shifted to quasi-emergency measures.

Tokyo's seven-day rolling average of infections per day came to 508.4, topping the 500 mark and hitting Stage 4, the worst level on the government's four-point scale.

"The number of new infections in Tokyo is on a rising trend," Suga said at a ministerial meeting on COVID-19. "We will closely monitor the situation and take necessary measures in a timely manner."

The Suga government "could consider issuing (another) declaration," a government source said.

The government has currently invoked the COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, as well as six other prefectures including Osaka, Kyoto and Aichi.

Under the quasi-state of emergency, which currently is set to end on July 11, alcohol can be served until 7 p.m. as long as certain COVID-19 precautions are in place, but dining establishments are asked to close by 8 p.m.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has said it will request eateries stop serving alcohol immediately if situations equivalent to Stage 4 are in sight.

At a separate meeting Wednesday of a panel of the health ministry, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said the Delta coronavirus variant, first detected in India, accounted for an estimated 30 percent of infections in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures at the end of June.

The institute warned the figure could exceed 50 percent in mid-July.

Elderly people accounted for the lowest percentage of infections since last fall, it said, suggesting the effectiveness of vaccination.

Norihisa Tamura, minister of health, labor and welfare, has called for a discussion on how to address rising bed occupancy rates at hospitals in the capital.

Meanwhile, Suga said new applications for COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered at workplaces and universities would remain suspended indefinitely, with the government continuing to process applications already received.

Tokyo logged 12,979 new infections in June. While cases fell in the first half of the month when the state of emergency was in place, they began to rebound quickly after measures were eased on June 21.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 2, 2021 - 09:10 | All, World

A group of 130 nations and regions agreed Thursday to implement a global minimum corporate tax rate and duties on multinational giants in 2023, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

In online working-level OECD talks, participants vowed to aim for the introduction of a common minimum tax rate of at least 15 percent for globally operating companies to prevent them from shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions as well as to secure more revenue, the organization said in a press release.

The new tax will apply to multinational giants with global annual revenue of at least 20 billion euros ($24 billion) and a profit margin of over 10 percent.

About 100 companies are likely to become subject to the new tax and the impact on Japanese firms is considered to be "relatively limited," according to a Japanese government official.

OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann welcomed the agreement, saying in the press release that the "historic package" will ensure that major global firms pay their fair share of tax everywhere.

To implement the rule, a multilateral treaty is due to be drawn up in 2022, with each government to prepare necessary revisions of domestic laws and regulations, according to the Paris-based club of 38 mostly wealthy nations.

The talks came as momentum has been building for the development of universal taxation rules for companies operating across borders amid criticism that digital giants such as Google LLC and Apple Inc. book profits in low-tax jurisdictions.

Using the outcome of the OECD meeting as a springboard, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 major economies aim to reach a broad agreement on cross-border taxation issues at a meeting scheduled for July 9-10 in Venice, Italy, as the Group of Seven finance chiefs did last month.

In June, the finance ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union agreed on a Washington-proposed global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent at talks in London.

The G-7 ministers also committed to setting new rules to enable countries to impose duties according to where multinational companies make sales, regardless of whether they maintain a presence there. Those agreements were endorsed by G-7 leaders at their summit in Cornwall, southwestern England, in mid-June.

After details such as the specific minimum tax rate and how France, Italy and Britain, which already have digital service taxes, commit to the common taxation rule are sorted out, the scheme will likely be finalized at another G-20 finance meeting in October in Washington, the official said.

A total of 139 governments have joined the framework of the OECD and the G-20 on the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, launched in 2012 to combat multinational tax avoidance.

Out of them, nine countries failed to join Thursday's agreement. Those nations include Ireland and Hungary, which set effective corporate tax rates of 12.5 percent and 9 percent, respectively, to attract companies.

"We are taking the number of agreeing countries positively," the Japanese official said. "We would never exclude the (nine) nations from our discussion. In the process of hammering out more details, we hope them to join us by October."

Governments expect the new taxation rules to increase inflows into their coffers, which have been depleted by large-scale fiscal stimulus measures implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2021 - 18:15 | World, All

Hong Kong on Thursday marked the 24th anniversary of its handover from Britain to China amid a heavy police presence to prevent pro-democracy protesters from gathering despite a ban on such an activity.

Police sealed off sections of Victoria Park at noon, citing rumored plans for unauthorized assembly that were circulated online. According to media reports, 10,000 officers were deployed throughout the city, over double the number last year.

Thursday also marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

At a flag-raising ceremony held at Golden Bauhinia Square, newly appointed Chief Secretary for Administration John Lee said the implementation of the national security law a year ago has returned Hong Kong to order from chaos.

Lee gave remarks in place of Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who was attending the coinciding anniversary celebration in the capital Beijing.

Earlier this week, Hong Kong police banned the annual July 1 pro-democracy rally, citing public health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a press briefing held at Victoria Park on Thursday, police warned that those who participate in the assembly would be in violation of the Public Order Ordinance, punishable by up to five years in prison.

This marked the second consecutive year that the rally has been banned by the authorities. Despite the ban, over 10,000 people participated last year, partly to express opposition to the just-enacted national security law.

The law, which came in the aftermath of the sometimes violent 2019 pro-democracy protests, criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

The law's implementation has resulted in the arrests of over 100 pro-democracy activists. Critics say the law has been used by authorities to suppress freedoms in the city.

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KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2021 - 10:09 | All, Japan

The number of nuclear warheads possessed across the globe was estimated at 13,130 as of June, down 280 from the same month a year earlier, according to a research center at Nagasaki University, due to efforts to reduce and modernize arsenals amid reignited tensions among major nuclear powers.

The reduced number does not suggest a slowing of the nuclear arms race as warheads in military stockpiles have not decreased in the nine nuclear states, the university's Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition said. The total figure includes those stored at nonmilitary facilities for dismantlement.

Of the total, the number of warheads in global military stockpiles rose to 9,615 from around 9,346, according to a survey by the research center based on studies and data from institutes and researchers around the world. Those held by Russia and the United States accounted for 86 percent.

"The nuclear arm race is reigniting between the United States and Russia, as three-way tensions and conflicts including China continue," the center in the atomic-bombed city of Nagasaki said in the survey.

Of the nine nuclear-armed states, Russia possessed the largest number of overall nuclear warheads at 6,260, followed by the United States at 5,550, China at 350, France at 290, Britain at 225, Pakistan at 165, India at 160, Israel at 90, and North Korea at 40, according to the research center.

China and Britain increased their nuclear warheads by 30 each from a year earlier, while Pakistan, India and North Korea added around five to 10 each.

In February, the United States and Russia extended the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to cap their nuclear arsenals for five years. The agreement came after the previous U.S. administration of President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a 1987 pact with Russia.

The British government said in March that it was lifting the cap on its nuclear warheads to 260 from 180 to address the risk of a terrorist group launching a successful chemical, biological or nuclear attack.

"The plan will have a serious impact" on nuclear arms reduction efforts, Keiko Nakamura, an associate professor at the research center, said at a press conference in June.
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2021 - 20:02 | World, All

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged Thursday to adopt a hardline approach to foreign powers meddling in the Asian nation's domestic affairs, while touting the achievements of the ruling Communist Party on the 100th anniversary of its founding.

Xi made a one-hour keynote speech at a high-security celebratory event in Tiananmen Square in the capital Beijing, as many democratic countries cast a stern eye on the Communist-led government's belligerent political behavior on the regional and global stages.

"The Chinese people will never permit any foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us," said Xi, clad in a grey Mao suit, adding if they do so, they will face "broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people."

One year has also passed since mainland China on June 30, 2020, formally promulgated the controversial national security law for Hong Kong to crack down on what it views as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, amid a wave of international criticism.

On the internal front, Xi declared the ruling party has reached its long-held goal of building a "moderately prosperous society."

"A moderately prosperous society has been built in all aspects" and "the absolute poverty problem has been solved historically," Xi told 70,000 participants, stressing that all citizens now can enjoy a comfortable life at home.

Xi's leadership had vowed to build a moderately prosperous society, defined by Beijing as doubling its 2010 gross domestic product and per capita income by 2020. The goal was originally set by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979.

Showing his confidence that mainland China has followed the path of "socialism with Chinese characteristics," Xi said the Communist Party will attain "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

The participants in the event did not wear protective face masks as requested by the authorities, with Xi underscoring the party's commitment to curbing the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

In 2018, China removed from its Constitution the two-term limit for the president and vice president, enabling Xi, who became the head of the ruling party in 2012, to hold on to power for life.

Xi is believed to be aiming for re-election as leader of the Communist Party at its twice-a-decade congress in autumn next year. He has apparently regarded the success of the 100th-anniversary celebration as a key step in paving the way for a third term.

As China is certain to continue to grow on the back of its huge population, cutting-edge technology and ample natural resources, the country's economy is likely to overtake the U.S. economy and become the world's biggest before 2030, some analysts say.

As for Hong Kong, Xi emphasized that the Communist Party will bolster efforts to "maintain long-term prosperity and stability" in the special administrative region.

Hong Kong authorities, meanwhile, have banned demonstrations staged every year on the occasion of the July 1 anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule.

Under China's "one country, two systems" policy, Hong Kong was promised it would enjoy the rights and freedoms of a semiautonomous region for 50 years following its return to the mainland in 1997.

Beijing, however, has been recently taking strict actions against Hong Kong since large-scale protests sparked by a now-withdrawn bill allowing extraditions to the mainland morphed into a pro-democracy movement in 2019.

China has also been lambasted by democratic nations, including the United States and Japan, for its alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and security challenges posed to self-governed Taiwan and its vicinity.

"Solving the Taiwan question and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland are the unswerving historical tasks of the Chinese Communist Party and the common aspiration of all Chinese people," Xi said.

The mainland will "advance the process of peaceful reunification," while smashing any "Taiwan independence" plots, he added.

China and democratic Taiwan have been separately governed since they split in 1949 as a result of a civil war. Their relationship has deteriorated since independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan's president in 2016.

There is concern that Beijing, which considers Taiwan as a renegade province, will try to achieve its cherished goal of reuniting the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.

The Communist Party was established in 1921 in Shanghai. In 1949, its then leader Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist army and ridding the nation of foreign forces.

From 1958 through the early 1960s, the catastrophic Great Leap Forward, seen as a misguided economic policy initiated by Mao, caused tens of millions of citizens to starve to death. The 10-year Cultural Revolution launched by Mao in 1966 also resulted in massive suffering.

To prevent a return to the chaos, Deng promoted a policy of reform and opening-up from 1978 to facilitate economic activities with capitalist countries like the United States and Japan.

China's economy was hit hard by international sanctions in the wake of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the Tiananmen Square in 1989.

But by becoming the "world's factory," China, with its population of more than 1 billion, overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP in 2010.

As of early June, the Communist Party has over 95 million members, about 20 times more than the figure in 1949, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The following is a chronology of major events related to the Chinese Communist Party that have occurred since its founding in 1921.

July 1921 -- Mao Zedong and others founded the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai.

October 1949 -- Mao declares the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the party defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party in a civil war.

1958-1960 -- An attempt to achieve rapid development under the Great Leap Forward campaign fails, leading to mass starvation.

1966-1976 -- The Cultural Revolution, a political movement launched by Mao, causes social chaos.

1978 -- China moves to "reform and opening-up" policy under Deng Xiaoping.

June 1989 -- China cracks down on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, drawing economic sanctions from the United States and other Western countries.

January, February 1992 -- In speeches during his southern tour that included Shenzhen and Shanghai, Deng directs that the pace of reform and opening-up to be sped up.

December 2001 -- China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization.

2010 -- China becomes the world's second-largest economy in terms of gross domestic product.

September 2013 -- China establishes a pilot free-trade zone in Shanghai.

December 2019 -- First case of coronavirus infection confirmed in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

December 2020 -- President Xi Jinping declares a major victory in poverty alleviation.

July 2021 -- The party marks the 100th anniversary of its founding.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2021 - 17:37 | All, World

Donald Rumsfeld, a two-time U.S. defense secretary who oversaw wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, died Tuesday of multiple myeloma at his home in New Mexico, his family and U.S. media said Wednesday. He was 88.

After becoming the country's youngest defense secretary at the age of 43 under the administration of President Gerald Ford in 1975, Rumsfeld was sworn in again as Pentagon chief under George W. Bush in 2001.

Rumsfeld directed military actions in Afghanistan in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the conflict becoming the longest U.S. war in history. He was also one of the architects of the war in Iraq, which started in 2003, but faced criticism for his handling of it and resigned in 2006.

Under his watch, the United States promoted the realignment of its overseas forces.

During a visit in 2003 to Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the Asian ally, he is said to have voiced concerns over the dangers posed by the Marine Corps' Air Station Futenma, located in a crowded residential area.

The airfield has often been called "the most dangerous base in the world," but progress to relocate it within the island prefecture has been slow due to strong opposition from locals who want the facility to be moved elsewhere.

Rumsfeld died "surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico," his family said in a statement posted on Twitter, hailing his "extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service."

The former Navy pilot also served as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and as a congressman from Illinois.

In Tokyo, Japan's top government spokesman paid his respects to Rumsfeld, praising him for leading the U.S. "war on terror" and helping bolster bilateral relations.

"For years, he was responsible for America's national security policy and made great contributions to strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference Thursday.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 2, 2021 - 12:34 | All, World

The U.S. State Department on Thursday maintained its assessment of Japan's efforts toward the elimination of human trafficking at Tier 2 on its four-level scale, acknowledging some progress but also citing ongoing abuse of foreign workers.

Countries with poor human rights records including China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela remained in Tier 3, the lowest level in the rating system, which also includes a Tier 2 Watch List.

According to the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, Japan was rated at Tier 2 for the second consecutive year after earning the highest classification of Tier 1 in 2018 and 2019.

The Japanese government "does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so," the department said, referring to the investigation, prosecution and conviction of some traffickers and the implementation of public awareness campaigns.

But Japanese authorities have to investigate and prosecute sex and labor trafficking cases more vigorously, and hold convicted traffickers accountable by imposing "strong" sentences, it said.

Foreign-based and domestic traffickers also continued to abuse Japan's so-called technical intern program, which has helped fill labor shortages in the graying country by accepting workers from developing countries.

"Despite persistent reports of forced labor among labor migrants working in Japan under its auspices, authorities again did not proactively identify a single trafficking case or victim" in the program, said the report covering a 12-month period through the end of March this year.

The Japanese government also failed to hold "recruiters and employers accountable for abusive labor practices and forced labor crimes," the report said.

The top government spokesman in Tokyo declined to comment specifically on the department's assessment but said Japan takes alleged cases of human trafficking seriously and is making a concerted effort to stamp out forced labor.

"Human trafficking is a grave violation of human rights and we will work with the relevant ministries to implement thorough countermeasures," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a press conference Friday.

Many of the Tier-3 countries, including China and North Korea, continued to be recognized as having a "policy or pattern" of the government itself engaging in trafficking.

Highlighting forced labor against the Uyghur minority and other Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region, the State Department said in the report that the "government is the trafficker" and is carrying out mass arbitrary detention of the region's people.

Authorities use "threats of physical violence, forcible drug intake, physical and sexual abuse, and torture to force detainees to work in adjacent or off-site factories or worksites" producing garments, footwear, materials for solar power equipment and other various goods, the report said.

Noting that such products are "injected into international supply chains" and spreading China's "forced labor complicity around the globe," it suggested that governments, companies and consumers can all play a role in demanding an end to the use of forced labor in Xinjiang.

China has remained in Tier 3 since 2017.
By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Jul 1, 2021 - 20:28 | World, All, Japan

Ordinary Chinese people have become worried that the Communist Party, which marked the 100th anniversary of its founding on Thursday, has ruined the image of the nation across the board, hindering private exchanges with Japanese.

"China is not equal to the Communist Party," said Zhang Yong, a 45-year-old architect. "I hope more Japanese will visit China and know more about what we are now, after travel restrictions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic ease."

Some pundits say a bad impression of China among Japanese citizens has not necessarily been brought about by the Communist Party, adding the crux of the matter is their fundamentally biased perception of the fast-growing Asian country.

"Japanese that do visit and know China better have problems voicing their real experience back in Japan, too. It's a view not accepted by most," said Stephen Nagy, a senior associate professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

There are "in-group and out-group dynamics in Japan where people harmonize with the majority," he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken a hardline approach to foreign powers, saying in a keynote speech at Thursday's celebration that if they bully China, they will face "broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people."

Many Chinese citizens have apparently shared concern that the ruling party's aggressive and assertive posture toward Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South and East China seas might be posing a serious threat to the nation's neighbors including Japan.

They have also expressed fears that issues lambasted by the United States, such as Beijing's alleged intellectual property theft and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, could prompt more Japanese companies to leave the Chinese market.

The Communist-led government's reported attempt to cover up information about the virus in the initial stages of the outbreak "has dealt a crucial blow to the image of China," Zhang said.

Indeed, the number of Japanese who have positive feelings about mainland China has been decreasing recently.

The ratio of Japanese who have an "unfavorable" impression of China was 89.7 percent in 2020, up 5 points from the previous year, according to a survey by the Genron NPO, an independent think tank in Japan.

Among them, 57.4 percent criticized the intrusion of Chinese vessels into the waters surrounding the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, claimed by Beijing, in the East China Sea, while 47.0 percent said they feel discomfort with the Communist one-party rule.

Meanwhile, the survey, conducted between September and October last year, showed 45.2 percent of Chinese answered they have a "favorable" image of Japan. The percentage was the second-highest since comparative data became available in 2005.

The most common reason for the Chinese positive attitude toward Japan was because Japanese are "polite" and they "put emphasis on manners" with "high cultural standards," the organization said.

Japan invaded a huge swath of China before the end of World War II that lasted until 1945. Against a backdrop of anti-Japanese education by the Communist Party, many Chinese are thought to harbor negative feelings about Japan.

"Most of my Chinese friends who have visited Japan, however, say they have become fond of Japan. They like Japanese animations and dramas as well as Japanese senses of hospitality, cleanliness and safety," said Yang Mei, a housekeeper in her 50s.

"If Japanese come to China, they may like China. I want them to change their impression of our country, filled with state-of-the-art technology," she added.

Japan has clearly lagged behind the world's second-largest economy in digital technology, which Japanese people who have not made a trip to China cannot be aware of.

In China, owners of smartphones now use them for just about everything from bike-sharing services to taxis and they pay without cash at almost all restaurants and stores -- whether they be kiosks in a village or luxury department stores in a city.

Related coverage:

Chinese Communist Party's centenary celebrated

China's Xi touts achievements of 100-year-old Communist Party

China's Communist Party may be forced to tackle new threat at home

A robot with wheels carries a delivered product to a room in some apartments. Facial recognition surveillance cameras have been utilized nationwide to crack down on traffic rule violations.

As for virus-related technology, a health code system installed in a smartphone shows whether a person has a high risk of infection, has a negative certificate of a virus test and has been vaccinated.

Nevertheless, a Japanese journalist in China said, "We will never report such technologies in a positive manner, given that using them coincides with revealing personal information, which would be checked by the Communist Party or utilized as sources of big data."

"We should always be suspicious about China's moves that could jeopardize security of Japan. China, in this case, refers to the Communist Party, not a nation composed of ordinary Chinese citizens," he said.

But an Asian diplomat familiar with Japan-China ties shrugged off the remarks, saying Japanese journalists "just do not want to report good aspects of China because they have basically mocked Chinese since the end of World War II."

"Many Japanese have yet to be able to accept the fact that Japanese technology is no longer superior to that of China in some fields. They still want to believe China continues to make imitations by stealing Japanese technology," the diplomat said.

"Should some Japanese journalists try to report a positive phenomenon in China, others would reject it. They would not dare to do so again. Under such circumstances, Japanese will not have a good image of China."

Li Xinyuan, a 36-year-old engineer, said, "Not all of the Chinese citizens are compliant with the Communist Party. I hope Japanese will watch China without prejudice and get along with Chinese, who are essentially kind and friendly."

Nagy said the "lack of knowledge" is partly to blame for Japanese not warming up to Chinese.

"More direct experience with China will improve this situation," but "that will be difficult over the next few years" in the aftermath of the virus spread, he said.
Hyderabad:

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slamming the RSS said five of seven soldiers martyred were Muslims and questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not tweet about the attack even after four days.

Owaisi during a function in Hyderabad said, They (RSS) questions a Muslims loyalty for India in various TV news shows. They call us Paskistani, now when five Muslims have died in Sunujwan, why RSS is quiet.

The terrorists do not differentiate between Hindu and Muslims. They kill every Indian, still Muslims of the country have to prove their loyalty to the country, added Owaisi.

He further asked BJP to make its stand clear after PDP the saffron partys alliance in Jammu and Kashmir called for talks with Pakistan to stop bloodshed in the state.

Also read: Jail term for anyone who calls Indian Muslims Pakistani, demands Owaisi

Taking a jibe on PM Modi, Owaisi said, I cannot comment anything because no one knows when the PM would decide to land in Pakistan to attend a marriage.

On Saturday, Sunjuwan Army camp was attacked by three terrorists in which seven soldiers were killed and at least 10 people suffered serious injuries.

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New Delhi:

Delhi Police special cell on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a 32-year-old man having links with banned terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen (IM) wanted for 2008 serial blasts in Delhi which had claimed lives of at least 30 people and had left more than 100 injured.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Pramod Singh Kushwaha confirmed the development.

The arrested Indian Mujahideen suspect has been identified as Ariz Khan alias Junaid, a resident of Uttar Pradeshs Azamgarh. According to the DCP, Junaid has been evading police arrest since 2008 and he carried an award of Rs 15 lakh (Rs 10 lakhs by NIA and Rs 5 lakh by Delhi Police ) on his head.

Kushwaha further added that in 2008 after serial blasts, police had cornered Junaid and other wanted in Batla House. He managed to escape, while two other terrorists were gunned down, said the DCP.

Also read: 'India's Laden' Abdul Subhan Qureshi, 2008 Gujarat blast mastermind, arrested in Delhi

According to police, Junai is an expert in making improvised explosive devices. He was was also wanted by various security agencies for 2007 UP blast, 2008 Jaipur blast and 2008 Ahmedabad blasts.

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Chandigarh:

In a bizarre move, a Punjab minister took to flipping a coin, purportedly to decide on the right candidate, out of two nominees, for the post of a lecturer in a polytechnic institute.

The incident was caught on cameras and aired by television news channels.

However, a spokesperson of the Congress government in the state claimed that the minister's intention was to allot the posts in a "transparent" manner and blamed the media for creating an unnecessary controversy.

Two lecturers -- one from Nabha and another from Patiala -- wanted to be posted to a government polytechnic institute at Patiala. In order to resolve the issue, Punjab Technical

Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi decided to toss a coin.

The incident took place on Monday when the minister had called 37 mechanical lecturers, who were recently recruited through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) examination, for giving them their posting orders.

Meanwhile, the government spokesman defended Channi's move.

Also read: Singer Guru Randhawa has made his mark in the Indian music industry

Stating that both the candidates were vying for the same post, he said, "One of them said his scores were better than the other candidate, while the other one said he was more experienced.

"The minister had asked them to solve the matter mutually, but they insisted that he should take a decision.The minister then asked them about flipping a coin, to which both agreed."

The spokesman also claimed that the minister's intention was to allot the postings in a "transparent" manner.

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New Delhi:

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds press conference over security situation in Jammu.

The counter-terrorist operation in Sunjuwan was called off today at 10.30, however, the sanitisation operation is on, says Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Jammu.

6 fatal casualties, including a civilian, were cost by the terrorists. 3 terrorists have been eliminated. There were reports of 4 terrorists. The fourth terrorist must have been a guide and may not have entered the Camp area, says Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Terrorists belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed, sponsored by Azhar Masood residing in Pakistan and deriving support from there says Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Jammu.

All the pieces of evidence collected have been compiled. Definitely, they will be given to Pakistan. Even after giving dossiers after dossiers Pakistan has not taken any action: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Giving the pieces of evidence to Pakistan will be a continuous process. It will have to be proved over and over again that they are responsible. Pakistan will have to pay for this misadventure: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Intelligence inputs show that terrorists were controlled by their handlers from across the border. The evidence is being scrutinised by the NIA. Pakistan is expanding the arch of terror to areas south of Pir Panjal and resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

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New Delhi:

The defence ministry on Tuesday cleared a proposal to buy 7.40 lakh assault rifles at a cost of Rs 12,280 crore for the three services, officials said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) presided over by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The defence ministry will also procure light machine guns worth Rs 1,819 crore, they said.

In other decisions, a proposal for purchase of 5,719 sniper rifles for the army at a cost of Rs 982 crore was also approved.

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New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on day four of his Jana Aashirwada Yatre in the poll-bound Karnataka attacked BJP on several issues and said the Modi govt is trying to bureaucratise every government institutions.

Reacting to the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, Rahul said, BJP is in a process to bureaucratise every institution of the Govt. This is because they have no grasp of the real world.

The National Medical Commission Bill that seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a new body was opposed by the resident doctors from AIIMS-Delhi and other institution and staged protest.

During his Karnataka poll campaign, Rahul Gandhi also criticised Modi govt for imposing untested policies like the Good and Services Tax or GST and promised to simplify the new tax regime if elected to power.

We asked Modi govt to do a pilot test of GST and urged them to not impose an untested policy on the people. But they did not listen. We will simplify the GST, the Congress president said.

Also Read | Don't roam inside campus on Valentine's Day, Lucknow University diktat to students

Rahul also attacked the Centre for its new Pulses Policy that allegedly impacted the farmers of Karnataka drastically and said, our policies should protect the farmers.

He said the Modi government doesnt have any fool-proof solution for providing right Minimum Selling Price (MSP) to the farmers and claimed the MSP was better under UPA than NDA.

We should provide farmers with right MSP, protect their yield from natural calamities, and improve seed quality. There is no one fool-proof solution for this.

"Data shows, MSP growth was much better under UPA than under NDA. Congress will focus on getting technology into the farm and train the farmer to use it," The Congress President said.

Earlier, praising Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Rahul said, "PM Modi loves to blame everyone without delivering on his own promises. He should learn how to run a Govt from Karnataka CM."

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New Delhi:

Members of the JNU Students Union central panel have been slapped fines of Rs 10,000 each for protesting outside the administration block against the compulsory attendance move by the university.

Circulars issued by Chief Proctor Kaushal Kumar on Tuesday asked the JNUSU president, vice president, general secretary and joint secretary to pay fines in 10 days.

In a proctorial enquiry you have been found guilty of leading a protest demonstration near the staircase of the administration block. This act is violation of High Court ruling, one of the circulars said.

On January 4, students, led by JNUSU, had gathered in large numbers near the administration block to meet the vice chancellor and submit a memorandum against the compulsory attendance move.

The crowd, however, dispersed after they were denied permission and given an appointment date later.

JNUSU, in a statement, termed the issuance of circulars as vendetta against the student leaders.

The administration is hyperactive in targeting student leaders and activists on the campus for the crime of wanting to meet the VC. This is simple and clear vendetta against student leaders, and also highlights the fact that the VC doesnt want to meet the students, it said.

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Bhopal:

Union Minister Uma Bharti on Tuesday at Bhopal declared that she will not contest elections for the next three years due to health issues. She also clarified that she is not retiring from politics.

The Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation said, I need some time to take rest. I am suffering from knee and back problems. I will not fight for elections for the next three years.

The BJP MP from Jhansi told the reporters that she for the time being wants to work from 9AM to 5PM.

She added that her doctors have asked her to follow a strict lifestyle. I need to rejuvenate my body, said the 58-year-old BJP leader.

The Union Minister added that she had informed BJP president Amit Shah about her wish to take a leave. Amit Shah ji has asked me to continue as Union Minister till 2019.

Also read: Also read: 'I will fast unto death if Ganga cleaning plans don't start by October 2018', says Uma Bharti

Taking three years leave does not mean I am retiring from politics. After these three years I will have many more years in politics, added Bharti.

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New Delhi:

In a shocking incident, a body of a minor girl was found hanging from a railing at a house in New Delhi on Tuesday night.

The incident came to light after the Delhi Police registered a complaint on Wednesday. The girl was identified as a domestic help.

Police said, on Tuesday late night they received a call alerting about a girl hanging from a balcony of a house in the New Friends Colony.

The body of the minor has been sent for postmortem and an FIR has been lodged under relevant sections, said police.

"We are investigating the case in all angles," said the police.

The Delhi Police did not reveal about the girls identity or her employers.

New Delhi : IAS aspirant kills renters 5-year-old son after being asked not to party



Last month, a doctor was arrested by the Delhi Police for mentally and physically torturing a 14-year-old tribal household help. The girl hailed from Jharkhand was rescued in a joint operation carried out by the DCW and the local police.

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London/Singapore:

Embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya has lost another legal battle linked to his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the UK High Court awarded Singapore-based BOC Aviation an estimated $90 million in claims.

The latest case involving the 62-year-old businessman, whose extradition case over alleged loan defaults amounting to around Rs 9,000 crores returns to Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on March 16, is related to the leasing of aircraft by Kingfisher Airlines dating back to 2014.

Justice Picken, in a judgment dated February 5 at the Business and Property Courts of the High Court in London, ruled that "the defendants have no real prospect of successfully defending the claim".

The defendants in the claim brought by BOC Aviation in Singapore and BOC Aviation (Ireland) Ltd have been named as Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd.

"We are pleased with the judgment but would not like to comment further at this stage," said a spokesperson for BOC Aviation in Singapore.

The legal claim relates to a leasing agreement between Kingfisher Airlines and aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation involving four planes, of which three were delivered.

The delivery of the fourth was reportedly withheld due to unpaid amounts due in advance under the lease arrangement. BOC Aviation claims that the security deposit, which is a course of redress in such matters, was also inadequate to cover the payments that Kingfisher was "contractually bound" to make, resulting in the High Court claim in London.

In his order, Justice Picken awarded BOC Aviation the amount overdue along with interest payments and legal costs, which overall amounts to nearly $90 million.

"The Second Defendant [United Breweries] shall be jointly and severally liable with the First Defendant [Kingfisher Airlines] to pay the Claimants [BOC Aviation] half of the said costs liability," the court order notes.

There was no immediate response from Kingfisher.

The latest ruling comes weeks before India's extradition case against Mallya is set to come up for one of its final hearings before Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot on March 16, with a judgment expected in May.

The businessman remains on a 650,000-pound bail bond, extended until April 2 at the last hearing in the extradition case in January.

Mallya had been arrested on an extradition warrant by Scotland Yard in April last year and has since been appearing for his extradition trial, which opened on December 4 last year to establish if he can be forced to return to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering involving Kingfisher Airlines' default of bank loans worth nearly Rs 9,000 crores.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed that the evidence they have presented confirms "dishonesty" on the part of the businessman, who acquired the loans through misrepresentation and had no intention of repaying them.

Mallya's defence team has deposed a series of expert witnesses to try and establish that the default by Kingfisher Airlines was the result of business failure within a wider context of a global financial crisis and that its owner had no "fraudulent" intentions.

When the trial returns next month, the judge will hear concluding arguments on the admissibility of some of the evidence presented by the CPS, on behalf of the Indian authorities.

Meanwhile, Mallya faces parallel litigation around an estimated 1.5-billion-dollar worldwide freeze order on his assets.

According to court documents submitted at the UK High Court last year, the claim brought by 13 Indian banks is expected to come up for a two-day hearing in the Queen's Bench Division of the commercial court in England's High Court of Justice sometime after April 11.

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Patna:

The Centre has given its nod for setting up 25 medical colleges across the country, out of which five are proposed in Bihar, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey said on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, Choubey said the budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier this month contained a proposal for setting up 25 medical colleges and a sum of Rs 250 crore will be provided by the Centre for establishing each such institution.

Choubey, who also represents Buxar in the Lok Sabha, said Bihar has been divided into five zones - each comprising three parliamentary constituencies - where one medical college each will be set up.

The zones are Buxar-Ara-Pataliputra, Jamui-Munger-Banka, Sheohar-Sitamarhi-Madhubani, Vaishali-Gopalganj-Siwan, and Samastipur-Supaul-Araria, the minister said adding that the state has been asked to acquire land for setting up of medical colleges at the earliest.

He also said that the state government has been asked to make land available within a month for a proposed cancer research center at Muzaffarpur, modeled after Tata Memorial Cancer Institute, the foundation stone for which will is likely to be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also Read: Union Cabinet passes National Medical Commission bill

The 125-bed cancer research center will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore with the help of Bhabha Atomic Research Institute, Choubey added.

He also said that a move was afoot to set up diagnostic centers in all 38 districts of the state where cancer could be detected in the earlier stages.

The Minister claimed that the AIIMS at Patna was making fast progress and it now had 30 functional departments and 91 faculty members.

Besides, the hospital will have eight states of the art operation theatres by the end of this month and emergency services will be offered from May onwards, Choubey added.

The MoS for Health also said that allocation has been made in the budget for meeting the shortfall of doctors in PHCs and CHCs. He said Bihar had 4400 practicing doctors at present and the state needed at least 1200 more of them.

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Jaipur:

A Muslim man threw acid on a 30-year-old married woman after she turned down his marriage proposal at a mall in Rajasthans Jaipur on Wednesday.

Police said that the victim has been married for 10 years and has three children. She was suffered 15% burn injuries on her face and hand due to the attack, said a officer part of the investigation team.

The officer added that the accused has been identified as 36-year-old Mehboob Khan. He has married twice and left his wives in both the instances.

Jaipur police commissioner Sanjay Agarwal said, The duo had an argument, following which he attacked the woman with the acid.

He has also suffered burns in the incident. Both the victim and accused are being treated as SMS Hospital, said police.

Also read: Road-romeos eve-tease, throw acid on 20-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh



A senior police officer of Jhotwara station said that the accused has been frequently harassing the woman with frequent proposals of marriage for the last two years.

Both the attacker and victim are from residents of Shastri Nagar.

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New Delhi:

The body of a minor boy was on Tuesday found stuffed in a suitcase from an apartment in north west Delhi's Swaroop Nagar, following, which the tenant was arrested for allegedly killing him, the police said.

A civil services aspirant killed the seven-year-old son of his landlord and stuffed the rotting body in a suitcase in the same room for 35 days before the stench revealed the crime he had committed.

Avdesh Sakya, 27, had kidnapped the boy for ransom on January 7 but ended up taking the minor's life fearing police action and killed the child. He had also had a verbal duel with the childs father a few months ago and was looking to seek revenge, police said.

Sakya was arrested on Tuesday after the neighbors complained of a foul smell emanating from his room in Swaroop Nagar, near north Delhis Bhalaswa.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that the boy's father was opposed to his fondness towards Shakya for which he killed the minor.

Shakya wanted to dispose off the body and demand a ransom of Rs 15-20 lakhs from the boy's father, the police officer said. The accused, however, was forced to keep the body at his place due to a heightened police patrol in the area.
Jewargi (Karnataka):

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused BJP of creating friction between communities and 'igniting" fire as he ramped up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his campaign in poll-bound Karnataka.

"Wherever there is a BJP government like the ones in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, violence prevails," he alleged at a public rally here on the third day of his first leg of campaign in north Karnataka.

He said, "At some places, they kill Dalits, minorities, and tribals. They pit one section of society against another and ignite fire. In Haryana they pitted Jats against non-Jats. And they come here and talk about violence," he said.

"Peace prevails here Modiji. Go and see what is happening in UP, Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. There is violence which is being spread. So don't talk about violence and corruption when you visit Karnataka. People of Karnataka are intelligent and they know everything," he said.

Gandhi asserted that Congress believed in taking everyone together and moving forward.

The Congress president, who addressed public and roadside meetings in Raichur and Kalaburagi districts, continued his attack on Modi, saying he should speak about allegations of corruption against BJP president Amit Shah's son.

Gandhi, on a four-day 'Janashirvad Yatra', said Modi should look "left and right" before talking of corruption.

"If you want to talk about corruption, talk a bit about Amit Shahs son's corruption. How he made Rs 80 crore out of Rs 50,000 in three months? You should also be telling this to the country," he said.

Addressing people who had gathered to welcome him before he continued his campaign in the state's Hyderabad-Karnataka region, Gandhi also lashed out at BJP leaders in the state.

"Modiji you talk of corruption. Modiji, if you have some time after talking of the past, look at your left and right sides...."

"On one side is (BS) Yeddyurappa who has been to jail. On the other side, as many as four (former) ministers who went to jail... and behind, 11 leaders who had to resign on charges of corruption," he said.

Gandhi said Modi had "failed" to create jobs and address farmer distress.

"Modiji, people of this country gave you work, farmers had given you work, youth had told you that our competition is with China. China provides job to 50,000 youths in 24 hours. Modiji has failed," he said.

Travelling in a customised bus along with other leaders from the state, Gandhi was greeted by party workers and people who lined up on both sides of the road at various places.

Speaking to reporters at Shahpur in Yadgir district, Gandhi, who is facing the charge of practising "soft Hindutva", defended his visits to temples and religious places, asserting that he would continue it.

"I like going to temples. Wherever I get religious place I go there. I feel good and feel happy, and I will continue (to go)," he said.

Gandhi was responding to BJP state President BS Yeddyurappa's "Election Hindu" jibe at him.

The Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprises districts of Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari and Kalaburagi which were part of the Nizam-ruled Hyderabad state till 1948.

Gandhi will wind up his tour on Tuesday, interacting with professionals and business community and a visit to "Anubhava Mantapa' at Basavakalyan in Bidar, akin to Parliament, started by 12th-century social reformer Basavanna.
New Delhi:

In a strategic move to strengthen its presence in the Indian Ocean region, India has secured access to Oman's key Port of Duqm for military use and logistical support, top sources told a leading English Daily.

As per a report in Indian Express, India is extending its footprints in the Indian Ocean as part of countering the Chinese expansionist intentions in the region. This was one of the foremost gains of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Oman over the last two days.

He met Sultan of Oman Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said and an annexure to the Memorandum of Understanding on Military Cooperation was signed between the two countries. As per sources close to the matter, the services of Duqm port and dry dock will be available for maintenance of Indian military vessels.

Also Read | Fearing FATF, Pakistan amends Anti-terror law to ban UN-listed terror groups

The Port of Duqm is situated on the southeastern seaboard of Oman, overseeing the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is strategically located, in close proximity to the Chabahar port in Iran.

With the Assumption Island being developed in Seychelles and Agalega in Mauritius, Duqm fits into Indias proactive maritime security roadmap.

Recently, Duqm has seen a surge in Indian activities. In September last year, India deployed an attack submarine to this port in the western Arabian Sea.

A Shishumar-class submarine entered Duqm along with naval ship INS Mumbai and two P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft.

India gets access to strategic Oman port for military use, reconnaissance aircraft. The naval units were on a month-long deployment with the aim of enhancing surveillance and cooperation.

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Islamabad:

Under pressure to act against banned groups, Pakistan has launched a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, a media report said today.

The action came after a high-level UN sanctions team visited last month to review progress against groups and individuals banned by the world body.

Following orders by the Punjab government, district administration of Rawalpindi took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by Saeed-linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

The seminary has been handed over to the Auqaf department which controls the religious properties, Dawn reported.

The paper reported that the provincial government las Friday directed the Auqaf department to take control of the seminaries.

The provincial government handed over a list of four seminaries in Rawalpindi to the district administration. The district administration teams have visited the seminaries but JuD has denied any link with the madressahs, said a senior official of the district administration.

The official said that the government had directed the district administration to also check the details of students and teachers of the JuD-run seminaries as well as doctors and paramedical staff of the FIF dispensaries.

He said that the government had constituted a joint team with the district administration, police and the Auqaf department to check the details.

He said that a similar operation would also be launched in Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum districts.

Deputy Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal confirmed that the government had assumed control of one seminary and four dispensaries, run by JuD and the FIF, respectively.

However, observers believe that it would be a difficult task for the government to take over JuD offices scattered across the country.

Pakistan has recently taken several actions against the entities banned by the UN.

The recent actions have come ahead of the crucial Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris, scheduled to be held from February 18 to 23.

The US and India are spearheading an effort to get Pakistan included in the watchdogs international money-laundering and terror-financing grey list, reports said.

Pakistan was last placed on FATFs grey list in February 2012 and stayed on it for three year.

The federal cabinet yesterday approved new rules to block funding for banned groups.

Last week, Pakistan changed anti-terror laws through a presidential ordinance to include Hafiz Saeed-linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation and other militant outfits on the list of UN proscribed groups,

The government has also barred companies and individuals from giving donations to JuD, FIF and other organisations on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions list.

Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, heads the charity JuD, believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.

Pakistan has come under intense pressue to rein in terror groups after US President accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to it.

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New Delhi:

A Kolkata couple on Monday lodged a complaint with the Cyber Cell of Kolkata Police after it allegedly received death threats.

The couple was reportedly listed on social media as a case of "love jihad."

The list was posted by Hindutva Varta on Facebook in January which was later deleted.

"Yeh ek suchi hai un hindu ladkiyon ke Facebook profile ki jo love jihad ka shikar ho chuki hain yah ho rahi hain? har....sher se aagrah hai, inme jo ladke hain, unki khoj ke shikaar karein (This is a list of Facebook profiles of Hindu women who are victims of love jihad? We call upon all... tigers to find out the men listed in these profiles and hunt them)," the post read.

Hindutva Varta also shared links to profiles of inter-faith couples from across the country in the post and asked Hindu girls to be "wary of men" from other religions.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Praveen Tripathi said, "We are investigating the case. A possible source involved in the matter has been identified."
New Delhi:

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Pakistan was resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration and asserted that Islamabad was expanding its "arc of terror" to areas south of the Pir Panjal Range in Jammu region.

Sitharaman, however, said infiltration across the LoC had ebbed due to the deployment of the anti-infiltration obstacle system (AIOS) and a dynamic multi-layered counter-infiltration grid.

"Pakistan is expanding the arc of terror to the areas south of Pir Panjal Range (Jammu region) and resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration. These are being responded appropriately," Sitharaman, who arrived here to take stock of the situation following the attack on the Sunjuwan Army camp, told reporters here.

She said that security along the LoC was further being beefed up with electronic surveillance equipment. "With a view to enhance alertness along the borders, additional sensors, unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and long range surveillance devices have already been deployed to cover the entire frontage of the LoC," she said.

The minister said terror activities in the hinterland were being controlled. "The activities of the terrorists in the hinterland are being severely curtailed due to the relentless efforts of the security forces," she said.

Sitharaman maintained that the government is implementing Philip Compose committee report for the security of all military installations.

She said, "Although, the terrain configuration and snow conditions make it difficult to completely stop the infiltration, the government is undertaking a host of measures in procuring modern electronic surveillance systems...for which a sum of Rs 1,487 crores has been allocated".

"We will continue to thwart any attempt by Pakistan- sponsored terrorists to cause violence in our country and necessary action to deal with them through our counter terrorist strategy has been put into action," she said.

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New Delhi:

A joint study by two researchers at the University of Hawaii and Sonneberg Observatory in Germany has revealed that aliens are able to wipe out the life from Earth with just AI messages, and do not even need to visit us.

According to the researchers, the aliens will not be sending any flying saucers to destroy the life. They will be simple sending messages through Artificial Intelligence to wipe out the human life.

If humans get message or mail which cannot be decoded, from the aliens, they should delete the communication without reading it as the mail may result in the destruction of the planet. Responding or replying to the messages could prove costly as it might alert the extra-terrestrial beings, said the researchers.

The Academic paper, which is titled Interstellar Communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible, discusses a possible alien invasion. The research was carried out by Michael Hippke of Sonneberg Observatory, and John G. Learned from the University of Hawaii.

According to the scientists, the messages will be impossible to decode, and thus, there is no reason to open any such mail or message. They also warn that these emails or messages might contain malware or virus which could be so strong that it can destroy the technologies which exist on the planet.

Also Read: Aliens may cause end of human lives on Earth? Experts warn!

The researchers wrote in their academic paper, A complex message from space may require the use of computers to display, analyze and understand. Such a message cannot be decontaminated with certainty, and technical risks remain which can pose an existential threat. Complex messages would need to be destroyed in the risk-averse case.

With the paper going viral, several theorists claim that Artificial Intelligence can be a possible way in which the aliens can cause the end of our planet.

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New Delhi:

Bajrang Dal has pasted posters in Narendra Modis home-state Gujarat warning Hindu girls not to celebrate Valentine Day. The warning posters have been pasted in front of all girls college, co-ed colleege, malls and public areas.

The posters stuck by the saffron group is divided in two parts. One part with yellow background shows a girls one half of the face open and other half covered in burkha. With love jihad written in both English and Hindi. The poster also reads, Hindu larkiya savdhan (Hindu girls beware).

The other part of the poster shows a crossed heart and appeals its readers say no to Valentines Day.

The poster claims it was issued by Bajrang Dal and Karnavati. Ahmedabad city president of Bajrang Dal confirmed the media that the posters were pasted by them.

Also read: Indian-origin ISIS's 'New Jihadi John'; US designates British citizen as global citizen

We are giving two messages by this poster. We are asking girls to be careful of Muslim boys who trap them in love and later force them to convert to Islam, said Mehta.

He added that he and his group is not against love but are against the public display of obscenity in name of Valentines Day.

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New Delhi:

At least five people were killed and 15 others injured in an explosion onboard Sagar Bhushan, a drill vessel at Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

The explosion occurred on Monday when the ship owned by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was undergoing repairment work at Cochin Shipyard.

The police officials and fire tenders rushed to the spot immediately and were trying to douse the fire.

The number of causalities could go up as some of the injured were in critical condition. All the injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital while efforts were on to rescue two more people trapped inside the burning ship.

The fire was under control after Naval fire tenders were pressed into service.

Union Minister of Shipping & Water Resources Nitin Gadkari has directed MD Cochin Shipyard to provide all medical support to victims and initiate an inquiry into the incident.

Kerala: Explosion at Cochin Shipyard kills 4, Police & fire tenders at the spot pic.twitter.com/NRGQtHPdWH  News Nation (@NewsNationTV) February 13, 2018

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Mathura:

A BJP lawmaker of Yogi Adityanath government watched his son and supporters allegedly thrashing an employee at toll plaza in Uttar Pradeshs Mathura on Tuesday.

The incident came to light after a CCTV footage showing the BJP lawmakers son thrashing the toll plaza employee made rounds on the social media.

According to eyewitnesses, BJP MLA Pooran Prakashs son allegedly thrash the toll plaza employee a boom barrier fell on their car while it was crossing the toll on the VIP lane.

The toll workers told the media that the SUV of the lawaker sped after another car was cleared to pass.

In the CCTV footage making rounds on the social media one can see two employees bringing down the barrier when as a car tried to pass the toll without paying.

According to toll employees the BJP lawmaker was sitting in the car all the time while his son and supporters were thrashing the toll plaza employee.

Prakash talking ANI accused the toll plaza employees for the incident.

Also read | Video: Woman toll collector assaulted at toll plaza in Gurgaon

Mt security vehicle crossed the toll before us. They saw Vidhayak written in my car still they dropped the barrier on my car, said the BJP lawmaker.

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Rome:

The United States is urging allied nations to help deal with the growing number of foreign fighters that are being held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, saying the militants should be turned over to face justice in their home countries.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to raise the issue during a meeting in Rome this week with other members of the coalition that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The SDF is currently holding thousands of IS detainees, including hundreds of foreign fighters from a number of nations. The issue became more prominent in recent days, after the announcement that the SDF had captured two notorious British members of an Islamic State cell who were commonly dubbed the Beatles and were known for beheading hostages.

US officials have said putting the two in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility is not an option. And British leaders have suggested they dont want the two men returned to Britain.

Were working with the coalition on foreign fighter detainees, and generally expect these detainees to return to their country of origin for disposition, said Kathryn Wheelbarger, the principal deputy assistant defense secretary for international security affairs.

Defense ministers have the obligation and the opportunity to really explain to their other ministers or their other Cabinet officials just the importance to the mission, to the campaign, to make sure that theres an answer to this problem.

Speaking to reporters traveling with Mattis to Europe, Wheelbarger said the key goal is to keep the fighters off the battlefield and unable to travel to other cities.

The capacity problem is very real, Wheelbarger said, noting that at one point the SDF was capturing as many as 40 militants a day. Success in the campaign means you get more people off the battlefield. ... These facilities are eventually going to be full.

US military officials have confirmed that El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, who grew up in London, were captured in early January in eastern Syria.

US officials have interrogated the men, who were part of the IS cell that captured, tortured and beheaded more than two dozen hostages, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and American aid worker Peter Kassig.

Hundreds of foreign citizens fought alongside IS as it took control of large parts of Syria, raising concerns that they will bring terrorism with them if they ever return home.

The legal issues are daunting. Most nations, including the US, would be unwilling to take back detainees unless they have the evidence to prosecute them, and that often is difficult to collect in such battlefield captures.

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Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appointed Finance Minister Ayman Benabderrahmane as the new prime minister, post the resignation of Abdelaziz Djerad last week, the presidential press service said on Wednesday.

The nomination of Benabderrahmane has been the culmination of a series of talks between Tebboune and representatives and leaders of political parties and independent candidates who secured seats in lower house of Parliament after the ballots. The Constitutional Council announced that the National Liberation Front (FLN) grabbed 98 seats out of 407 seats at the lower house, and the independent list candidates collected 84 seats, while the Islamist oriented Movement of Society for Peace (MSP) collected 65 seats, followed by the former ruling party of the National Democratic Rally (RND) with 58 seats.

Benabderrahmane has been serving as Algeria's finance minister since June 2020. Before that, the 60-year-old was the head of the country's central bank. Djerad, who served as Algeria's prime minister since December 2019, resigned last Thursday.

On Wednesday, Tebboune, who had previously expressed dissatisfaction with Djerad and his cabinet, thanked him for leading the government during difficult conditions, particularly the coronavirus pandemic.

Nepal Aviation approves month-long internal flights schedule to 11 destination s

White House: Biden nominates Indian-American Shalina D. Kumar as federal judge

Iran's Health Ministry authorises emergency use of a second domestic vaccine against Covid
For the past year, Avishek has been taking online classes at a well-known school in Kathmandu. For the eight-year-old, the initial days were fun as he enjoyed being able to sit in front of a computer and take classes as his elder sister does. But, as months went by, he stopped enjoying the classes and he started to feel the fatigue of spending so much time in front of the screen. With time, he also found it quite hard to understand what he was being taught and that has been a cause for concern for his parents.

Hes never been a bright student, but in the past, he hasnt been this bad, says his mother. Maybe its time they rethink how online education works when it comes to children.

The government for a second year has asked schools to remain shut and conduct classes online. They have also been asked to conduct tests online as the SEE candidates will once again be evaluated based on their performance in their internal examinations.

To make sure that children are not deprived of their right to education, the government is introducing a guideline which will help children learn through alternative means like radio, television and online applications. However, psychologists say online education is having a negative impact on children mostly due to being one-sided communication and it is hampering their psychological heath.

The sound of silence

Representational image

Prem Budhathoki from Jwagal studies in the second standard. His mother Sneha Tamang says she hardly sees the seven-year-old having a conversation which his teachers. After realising this, Tamang started to observe the class to see if it was only her child who did not speak. To her surprise, the entire class was quiet while the teacher taught.

Initially, she felt that it might be a rule not to stop the teachers while they were teaching. But, she has now realised that it is not a rule and feels teachers should encourage students to speak and ask questions they want answers to.

How can teachers expect seven-year-olds to understand without asking questions? I think schools need to revise how they conduct online classes, says Tamang.

She says that in the past year, her son has changed a lot. He was active and bubbly as he loved to play outdoors on his bicycle. But lately, all that has changed.

All he does is sit home and watch TV or is busy on the phone, says Tamang.

This example proves psychologists right. As children have to sit through seven to eight hours of continuous online classes with breaks of five to 10 minutes between classes, they seem to be fatigued. Not being able to meet their friends in person has also made schooling boring for many as many parents have complained that their child has become lazy.

Effects on psychological heath

Representational image

Psychologists say they have been getting calls from parents asking them why their child does not want to have conversations with others and does not understand simple things being taught in class. Many parents have even complained about their child being uninterested and lacking focus.

Many schools have asked children to listen to the teacher and only ask questions at the end of the lecture, that too in a written form on apps like Zoom. Even, homework has to be sent online. This, according to psychologist Dr Pushpa Adhikari, is having a negative impact on the childs mental health.

They ask students to mute the microphone as it gets too loud, but when its only the teacher who speaks, things can get monotonous which in the long can get exhausting, says Dr Adhikari. They really need to assess what can be done to curb this burnout in students.

Another reason why students do not talk to teachers is because they can now record everything that is being taught by the teacher. As they can also screenshot the notes, they feel they no longer need to have a conversation with the teachers. Psychologists say that as it is hard to stare at a screen eight hours a day, concentration lapses are natural as children are bound to be distracted by the smallest of things when uninterested.

What can schools do?

Photo: Pixabay

Educationists and psychologists say that schools need to change the way they conduct online classes, adding that the classes need to be made more interesting. Dr Adhikari says that schools need to start a new way to incorporate practical learning.

They need to come up with a new structure and syllabus, she says.

She says that children will only learn and have fun doing so if the syllabus is taught in a more creative and interesting manner as the current structure only promotes a mugging-up culture.

I personally feel that in a 40-minute class, the teacher should teach for 20 minutes and the remaining time should be spent having conversations with the students about their day and what they are struggling with, says Dr Adhikari.

She also urges teachers to give students more group works or team activities as homework so that their ability to work in a team also gets better.

Child psychologist Madhu Bishal Khanal says that the government has not thought about a childs mental health when preparing course structures. That coupled with online classes has drastically hampered the mental psyche of children, he says.

Times have changed and with that, we need to change education practices too. Kids today learn what kids in the 90s learnt despite a lot of things changing. We use technology, but we dont know how to use it to reform education, says Khanal.
Kathmandu, June 30

Nepal and Republic of Sierra Leone have established diplomatic relations on Tuesday.

With this, the number of countries with which Nepal has diplomatic relations has now reached 171.

Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, Amrit Bahadur Rai, and Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, Alie Kabba, signed a joint communique to this effect in a brief ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations, New York on Tuesday morning, the New York-based Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN stated in a press release.

The two ambassadors also signed a joint letter informing the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. On the occasion, the two ambassadors exchanged views on various matters of common interest to strengthen bilateral cooperation at national and multilateral settings, particularly at UN forums for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a country located on the southwest coast of West Africa with an area of 71,740 square km, bordering Liberia to the southeast, Guinea to the Northeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Both Nepal and Sierra Leone are members of the Group of 77 and China and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Biratnagar, July 1

India has allowed the import of refined palm oil from Nepal again after a suspension of around 13 months.

The Economic Times reports the New Delhi government removed the item from the restricted list and made it importable freely until December 31.

Though Nepal does not produce crude palm oil, its refined version has been one of the largest exports of the country. Nepal imports crude palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia.

India had imposed a ban on its import in January 2020, but it had lasted only a month. However, the ban was reintroduced after a few months again.

Industrialists of Biratnagar have expressed their happiness over the decision to lift the ban. In and around Biratnagar in the Morang district, there are seven palm oil refining plants whereas the number of such enterprises in the country is 20.

However, it will take around one month to resume the export, according to an industrialist Abinash Bohora.
Government Innovation Awards

Deadline extended for 2021 Rising Star nominations

We all know innovation takes a lot of time and hard work -- and so, evidently, does writing nominations for the best early-career innovators in government IT! So after many requests for a little more time, we're extending the nomination deadline for the 2021 Rising Stars -- and for all the other Government Innovation Awards -- until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 15.

With the Rising Stars, we're looking for early-career phenoms whose leadership, innovation and all-around extra effort are having a powerful and positive impact. And we need those nominations ASAP!

Anyone in the government IT community is eligible  military and civilian, career and political, contractor, academic and association expert alike. Nominees must be less than 10 years into their government IT careers, and winners are chosen for their impact so be sure to explain what a nominee did and what all that work accomplished.

And don't forget about the other awards. We're looking for Industry Innovators and Public Sector Innovations as well! Details and nomination forms can be found at GovernmentInnovationAwards.com.

Please spread the word, and move fast -- help us celebrate all the top drivers of government innovation.

All 2021 nominations are due by July 15, so please submit yours today!
Management

White House stresses stakeholder engagement in Evidence Act guidance

The White House has released new guidance for federal agencies requiring department leaders to implement critical evidence-building provisions of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policy Act, nearly three years after its passage.

Evidence-based policymaking groups have been calling for stricter implementation of the legislation and additional codifying measures since at least 2019, along with guidance for agencies on stakeholder engagement and the importance of public-private coordination around evidence-based capabilities.

On Wednesday, the White Houses Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum calling on all agencies across the federal government to satisfy the Title I deliverables featured in the Evidence Act, including smaller and non-CFO Act agencies which may not yet have begun implementing their learning agendas and evaluations plans as outlined in the bill.

The memorandum provides further clarity for certain deliverables -- like the appointment of evaluation officers -- to help those agencies get started, recommending relevant positions are filled with senior career officials who possess a demonstrated expertise, rather than a political appointee.

Moreover, the memorandum stressed the need for agencies to conduct continued stakeholder engagement "in a manner and using methods that are transparent, generate trust, and advance equity." It also offered recommendations like participatory research methods and technical working groups, as well as listening sessions and one-on-one consultations with those affected by agency policies, to further promote stakeholder engagement.

Stakeholder engagement appeared throughout the document, and its importance was highlighted in the introduction. The guidance itself was drafted with the help of policymaking groups who have been calling for such recommendations around the Evidence Act, including the Data Foundation.

"The broad applicability of OMBs new guidance to the whole of government suggests the promise of coherent planning, leadership, capacity, and resources for generating actionable evidence that can both address policymaker needs and improve government services for the American people," Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation, said in a statement. "OMBs new guidance provides clarity for agencies and partners about the role of stakeholder engagement and coordination on data and evidence capabilities in order to generate useful evidence that is then actually used in practice."

OMB urged agencies in its memo not to think of the implementation of the Evidence Act as an exercise in compliance, instead writing: Agencies should not simply produce the required documents and then turn their attention elsewhere; success requires that agencies develop processes and practices that establish habitual and routine reliance on evidence across agency functions and demand new or better evidence when it is needed.

President Joe Biden previously signed a memorandum during his first month in office that said his administration would make "evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data." That memo required agency leaders to form evidence-based policies and fulfill the annual evaluation plans included in the Evidence Act.

The new OMB memo also featured a list of deliverables with timelines throughout FY2021 and FY2022, including a September deadline for full draft learning agendas and capacity assessments. The office requested final evaluation plans for FY2023 and other deliverables no later than February next year.
IT Modernization

Lawmakers mull federal response to state and local technology gaps

Lawmakers are looking for ways Congress can push state and local governments to modernize their IT systems.

During a Wednesday hearing held by a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, witnesses and members of Congress discussed strategies for updating legacy technology, training the tech workforce and addressing scalability of government systems.

"The pandemic laid bare the consequences of decades of deferred investment in government information technology, and we must not let the lessons learned during the crisis go to waste," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. "The federal government can serve as a resource to provide guidance and best practices on IT modernization as it also swallows that medicine itself."

Connolly is planning on introducing a House companion to a Senate bill backed by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called the State and Local Digital Service Act. It would authorize funding for state and local tech strike teams modeled after the federal U.S. Digital Service and 18F.

Connolly also said he intends to reintroduce the Restore the Partnership Act, which would re-establish an intergovernmental task force he says would help foster intergovernmental work on government IT issues.

Amanda Renteria, CEO at Code for America, suggested reducing administrative burdens and complexity and improving data operations.

Streamlining cybersecurity and data privacy regulations could be especially impactful, said Teri Takai, vice president at the Center for Digital Government and a former Defense Department CIO.

"I think it's essential that there is a harmonization because it is a burden, particularly on state, but more so on local government, to ensure compliance," Takai explained, emphasizing that this should be done with state and local government input.

The Government Accountability Office found in a 2020 report that "each federal agency that exchanges data [with states] has specific regulations, guidelines, or other requirements for states to follow when accessing, storing, and transmitting  data," but improving consistency in policies could save millions in federal and state costs.

Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Associate of State Chief Information Officers, suggested that Congress empower the Office of Management and Budget to harmonize regulations across agencies.

The pandemic also revealed another problem  many government systems were unable to quickly scale to meet spikes in demand for government services.

"It's not about the availability of the technology to solve the problem. It's the necessary business process re-engineering that has to take place, as well as creating more citizen centric opportunities. That's where there clearly was a gap," said Robinson. "States had not prepared for that kind of magnitude of demand."

Modernizing legacy systems will require state governments to get onboard not only in the offices of state CIOs, but also executive and legislative branches that make budgets, he said.

When they modernize, states should take an enterprise view, Takai said.

"The relationship between IT modernization, digital citizen services and cybersecurity is critical. There's a risk that these three technology efforts will be seen separately," she said. "It is impossible to drive digital transformation without focusing on an overall enterprise approach."

Progress will also require workers.

State and local governments are feeling the squeeze of a tight market for IT talent just like federal agencies and the private sector, said Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute. Government also needs to reskill IT professionals in an ever-changing landscape, he said.

Robinson also noted that states were unprepared to combat fraud during spikes in demand for unemployment benefits.

"Only in recent months have [states] invested in advanced analytics and automated fraud detection services," he said. "They would all recognize that they had not prepared for something as extreme as the pandemic when it came to the magnitude, the volume and velocity of those requests coming in, and they didn't have the capabilities up front to do predictive analytics to stop the fraud."
Stockholm July 1, 2021: Aino Health announces today that they signed an agreement for the SaaS solution HealthManager with Adecco Sweden AB yesterday. The agreement is regarding a pilot project for 900 employees. The project will start during the third quarter of 2021.



By implementing Aino HealthManager, Adecco Sweden AB wants to create long-term support for their managers for handling sickness-related absences among the personnel and enable proactive valuable dialogues between the managers and employees where the managers have large possibilities to improve the wellbeing and engagement among the personnel.

The pilot project will start during the third quarter of 2021 and includes 900 employees who are active in several of Sweden's largest industrial companies. After the pilot project, there is an opportunity for further rollout in the first quarter of 2022, which includes 3,000 employees.

"We are very pleased to be able to contribute to Adecco's success in the Swedish market and increase the well-being of their employees", says Jyrki Eklund, CEO of Aino Health.

HealthManager is a SaaS solution that supports managers with internal health-related processes and absence management. It also offers reporting and analytic tools to follow key metrics related to corporate health management. The goal of the solution is to decrease sick leave and to increase employee engagement.

For more information:

Jyrki Eklund, VD Aino Health

Phone: +358 40 042 4221

jyrki.eklund@ainohealth.com



Certified adviser

Erik Penser Bank

+46 8 463 83 00

certifiedadviser@penser.se

Adecco Sweden AB

Adecco is one of the world's leading suppliers of HR solutions and one of the world's largest recruitment and staffing companies. In Sweden, Adecco offers tailored personnel solutions, both staffing and recruitment solutions as well as interim solutions and outsourcing distributed in 31 offices throughout the country. Their vision is to be the customer's and employee's obvious choice.



About Aino Health (publ)

Aino Health is the leading supplier of Software as a Service solutions in Corporate Health Management. The companys complete system of SaaS platforms and services reduces sick leave, lowers related costs, and improves business results through increased productivity and employee engagement by making health, wellbeing, and safety an integrated part of everyday work. For more information visit www.ainohealth.com.




CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / June 30, 2021 / Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (the "Company") (CSE:XOP)(LSE:COPL), announces its application for an extension to the management cease trade order (the "MCTO") originally granted by the Alberta Securities Commission on May 18, 2021 has been accepted. The MCTO is in respect of the Company's unaudited interim financial statements and the applicable CEO and CFO certifications in respect of such filings for the period ended March 31, 2021.

The MCTO will now expire on July 14, 2021. Under the terms of the MCTO and in accordance with National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203"), the Company will continue to provide bi-weekly status reports while the MCTO is in effect.

About the Company

COPL is an international oil and gas exploration, development and production company actively pursuing opportunities in the United States through the acquisition of Atomic Oil and Gas LLC with operations in Converse County Wyoming, and in sub-Saharan Africa through its ShoreCan joint venture company in Nigeria, and independently in other countries.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Arthur Millholland, President & CEO

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited

Tel: + 1 (403) 262 5441

Cathy Hume

CHF Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (416) 868 1079 ext. 251

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Charles Goodwin

Yellow Jersey PR Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 77 4778 8221

Email: copl@yellowjerseypr.com

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise. The securities of the company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This release is issued for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

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The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

SOURCE: Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited





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MIAMI, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fetal Institute, Miami, FL, which specializes in the assessment, counseling, and management of patients with high-risk pregnancies, is conducting an FDA-monitored clinical trial of fetoscopic repair in open spina bifida. This minimally-invasive technique was developed by doctors at The Fetal Institute and the USFetus in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil, translating more than 10 years of experience in the animal model to a viable clinical application.

"This trial will determine the validity of the new technique," says Dr. Eftichia Kontopoulos, co-investigator. "Because fetoscopic repair doesn't require opening the uterus, we can treat the fetus while at the same time allow the mother to deliver vaginally for the affected and any subsequent pregnancy."

Open spina bifida (OSB), a birth defect that occurs in approximately 1 in 1,500 births in the United States, results from failure of the spine to close at some point along its length during fetal development. The abnormality leads to injury and loss of spinal cord tissue at and below the defect.

Previous research has shown that antenatal treatment via open fetal surgery, which requires opening the maternal abdomen and uterus, can improve pregnancy outcomes in OSB. However, this places the mother at risk for uterine rupture and requires delivery by cesarean section for the affected pregnancy and any subsequent pregnancy.

The new minimally-invasive fetoscopic technique for OSB repair requires no uterine incision, minimizing risks to the mother while preserving the potential benefits of the in-utero repair for the fetus.

To learn more about the clinical fetoscopic repair trial or to obtain information on referring patients to The Fetal Institute, please click here or call (786)-971-2303.

About the Fetal Institute



The Fetal Institute provides patients with the latest and most advanced resources in the field of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Fetal Therapy, including high-resolution ultrasound imaging, non-invasive serum screening and prenatal testing (NIPT), as well as comprehensive invasive prenatal diagnostic and therapeutic techniques Fundamental to the Institute's philosophy, all diagnostic and therapeutic options are performed using either a non-invasive or a minimally invasive approach, which results in better pregnancy outcomes.

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Founded by Dr. Ruben Quintero and Dr. Eftichia Kontopoulos, The Fetal Institute serves as a resource to all Obstetricians and Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists and a national and international referral center for the assessment and management of complicated pregnancies.

Media Contact:

Ruben Quintero

313501@email4pr.com

786-971-2303

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SOURCE The Fetal Institute
As the need for Medical Assistants grows, graduating Hug High Health Science Academy senior, Ana Hernandez Rodriguez, starts NHSE sponsored Renown Medical Assistant apprenticeship at TMCC

Ana Hernandez Rodriguez set to begin first ever Renown Medical Assistant apprenticeship.

Ana Hernandez Rodriguez set to begin first ever Renown Medical Assistant apprenticeship.

RENO, Nev., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of Medical Assistants is projected to grow 19 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. The growth of the aging baby-boom population continues to increase demand for preventive medical services here in Nevada and across the country. An increasing number of group medical practices, clinics, and other healthcare facilities also need medical assistants to perform administrative and clinical duties. Medical assistants work mostly in primary care, a steadily growing sector of healthcare.

With an eye towards this future, Renown Health proudly accepted its first student, Ana Hernandez Rodriguez, a graduating senior from Procter R. Hug High Schools Health Science Academy CTE program in Washoe County, into its newly created Medical Assistant apprenticeship program. Ana will begin the program as a full-time employee with benefits and start her apprenticeship coursework at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC).

Sponsored by the Nevada System for Higher Education (NSHE), Renowns Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program was approved by the Nevada State Apprenticeship Council, which was overseen by the Governors Office of Workforce Innovation (OWINN), in February. The Renown Medical Assistant Apprenticeship is a one-year competency-based program that includes up to 2,000 hours of On-the-Job training and 193 hours of Related Technical Instruction offered through TMCC. All classroom, clinic and work time is paid. Apprentices work under the supervision of a Medical Assistant, Registered Nurse, or medical provider to assist in responsibilities including escorting the patient from the waiting room to the examination room, taking vital signs, stocking supplies, placing and receiving phone calls including appropriate documentation in the Electronic Medical Record, preparing lab specimens for processing, completing the necessary referral forms, obtaining authorizations and keeping records for referrals. Upon completion of the program, apprentices complete the final exam to become a National Certified Medical Assistant. NSHE is proud to serve as the apprenticeship program sponsor and create more apprenticeship opportunities like this program throughout Nevada, said Cheryl Olson, NSHE Apprenticeship Navigator and Director of the Nevada Alliance for Youth Apprenticeship.

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We welcome Ana as she joins our extraordinary team of healthcare professionals at Renown, said Tony Slonim, MD, DrPH, President & CEO of Renown. We are always looking to support and invest in the next generation of health professionals to address the health needs of our community. Medical Assistants serve an essential role in physician offices, hospitals and other healthcare facilities performing important administrative and clinical responsibilities and assisting in medical care including greeting patients, recording medical histories and vital signs and helping to coordinate care.

According to the US Department of Labor Projections Central the demand for Medical Assistants in Nevada will increase by over 25% by 2028, with over 260 job openings available per year. On the importance of apprenticeship programs like Renowns Medical Assistant program, NSHE Chancellor Melody Rose said, The Nevada System of Higher Education is committed to promoting more attainable, affordable, and innovative pathways toward successful careers in fields like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and information technology through apprenticeships. Programs such as the Renown Medical Assistant apprenticeship are changing how we think about accessing higher education and offering true Learn and Earn pathways.

Anas acceptance into the Medical Assistant apprenticeship program is a proud moment for her soon-to-be alma mater. Ana has earned this opportunity through hard work and dedication to her studies, said Melissa Osterhage, who teaches health sciences at Procter Hug High School. She is a compassionate, caring, and intelligent young woman, and I look forward to seeing everything she will accomplish as she moves forward in a career in the medical field. I couldnt be more proud of her, and I am grateful she has been awarded this apprenticeship.

Ana graduates from Hug High on June 22 and starts her Medical Assistant apprenticeship program just a few days later on June 29, and is excited for her future. "Being accepted to this opportunity at Renown has been amazing and wonderful. When they told me I was accepted, I was so excited that I cried because I felt so blessed. This is going to help my future in so many ways. It is going to give me the opportunity to work in the medical field. I will start as a Medical Assistant and my goal is to work toward becoming a registered nurse. I took a leap of hope and made it. So, I tell others- believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything in life," she said.

Ana is also welcomed to Renown by Michelle Sanchez-Bickley, Chief Human Resources Officer at Renown, who helped coordinate this workforce program. Healthcare jobs in Nevada represent excellent employment for thousands of Nevadans poised to enter the states workforce over the next decade. Opportunities are increasing as we encounter growing demand for health care services at Renown, coupled with population growth, an improving economy, and retirees relocating to the Silver State. Ana and our Medical Assistants are so vital to helping our medical providers care for patients and are critical to the excellent care we provide.

For more information on the next Medical Assistant Apprenticeship program, please email kayla.mcmain@renown.org.

To apply for a career opportunity at Renown visit our website.

###

About Renown Health

Renown Health is the regions largest, local not-for-profit integrated healthcare network serving Nevada, Lake Tahoe and northeast California. With a diverse workforce of more than 7,200 employees, Renown has fostered a longstanding culture of excellence, determination and innovation. The organization comprises a trauma center, two acute care hospitals, a childrens hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, a medical group and urgent care network, and the regions largest, locally owned not-for-profit insurance company, Hometown Health. Clinical institutes include: Cancer, Heart and Vascular Heath and Neurosciences. Renown is currently enrolling participants in the worlds largest community-based genetic population health study, the Healthy Nevada Project. For more information, visit renown.org.

About OWINN

OWINN helps drive a skilled, diverse, and aligned workforce in the state of Nevada by promoting cooperation and collaboration among all entities focused on workforce development. Its chief objectives are to prepare all K-12 students for college and career success, increase the number of Nevadans with postsecondary degrees and credentials, and boost employment outcomes in training and credentialing programs.

About NSHE

The Nevada System of Higher Education, comprised of two doctoral-granting research universities, a state college, four comprehensive community colleges, and one environmental research institute, serves the educational and job training needs of Nevada. NSHE provides educational opportunities to more than 100,000 students and is governed by the Nevada Board of Regents. The System includes the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada State College, Desert Research Institute, the College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College, and Western Nevada College.

About Washoe County School District

The Washoe County School District includes the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, and Wadsworth, Nevada. The District provides each of its 62,000 students with a superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to graduating every child career- and college ready.

Attachment

CONTACT: Renown Health Public Relations Renown Health 775-691-7308 news@renown.org




SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "3D Printing Medical Devices - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" . The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.

Global 3D Printing Medical Devices Market

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 7; Released: March 2021

Executive Engagements: 419

Companies: 93 - Players covered include 3D Systems, Inc.; Arcam EBM, A GE Additive Company; Cyfuse Biomedical K.K.; envisionTEC GmbH; Materialise NV; Organovo Holdings, Inc.; Oxford Performance Materials; SLM Solutions Group AG; Stratasys Ltd. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Component (Systems, Materials, Services); Technology (Photopolymerization, Laser Beam Melting, Droplet Deposition, Electron Beam Melting (EBM), Other Technologies); End-Use (Medical & Surgical Centers, Pharma & Biotech Companies, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global 3D Printing Medical Devices Market to Reach $3.2 Billion by 2026

3D Printing, also referred to as Additive Manufacturing (AM), Layered Manufacturing (LM), Rapid Prototyping (RP), and Additive Fabrication (AF), is described as collection of technologies, which build physical 3D objects, tooling components, final production parts, and prototypes by using a layer by layer process. 3D printing has gained recognition during the coronavirus pandemic. While aerospace and defense, medical and dental sectors are the high-value industries already utilizing the technology, automotive and oil and gas are emerging users. As many countries consider moving key production activities to home, 3D printing is expected to play a vital role in facilitating this migration. As the world grappled to deal with the coronavirus outbreak and the ensuing emergency demand for a wide range of products, 3D-printing emerged as the technology of choice that helped governments and the healthcare communities across the world deliver enhanced medical care to patients. Recent innovations in the area of 3D printing are attracting a larger number of consumers, thereby accelerating the global market growth. Moreover, the seamless development of customized medical products using 3D printing technology is expected to significantly enhance the market growth in the near future.

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Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for 3D Printing Medical Devices estimated at US$1.3 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$3.2 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 16.3% over the analysis period. Systems, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 15.9% CAGR to reach US$2 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Materials segment is readjusted to a revised 17.9% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 29.2% share of the global 3D Printing Medical Devices market. Advent of new and effective technologies and approaches, expanding application areas, and funding support from government agencies are expected to foster demand for 3D printing systems.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $507.8 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $418.5 Million by 2026

The 3D Printing Medical Devices market in the U.S. is estimated at US$507.8 Million in the year 2021. The country currently accounts for a 35.33% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$418.5 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 17.6% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 15.4% and 15.7% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 16.8% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$488.5 Million by the end of the analysis period. Rising technological advancements and growth in research and development activities are some of the major factors set to drive growth in the North America region. Asia-Pacific is also anticipated to grow at a significant rate, attributed to a surge in population and rising number of 3D printing applications in the region.

Services Segment to Reach $408.3 Million by 2026

In the global Services segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 14.2% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$160.5 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$406 Million by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$32.3 Million by the year 2026. More

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Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

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CONTACTS:

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Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: ZA@StrategyR.com

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Infrared Imaging Technology - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" . The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.



Global Infrared Imaging Technology Market

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 7; Released: April 2021

Executive Engagements: 551

Companies: 55 - Players covered include Allied Vision Technologies GmbH; Axis Communications AB; Bosch Security Systems, Inc.; FLIRA Systems, Inc.; Fluke Corporation; General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.; Hanwha Techwin Co., Ltd.; L3Harris Technologies, Inc.; Leonardo DRS; Lynred; New Imaging Technologies; Opgal Optronic Industries; Sensors Unlimited, Inc.; Xenics NV; Zhejiang Dali Technology Co., Ltd and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Technology (Uncooled, Cooled); Application (Security & Surveillance, Monitoring & Inspection, Detection); Vertical (Industrial, Non-Industrial)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.



Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry



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ABSTRACT-



Global Infrared Imaging Technology Market to Reach $7 Billion by 2026

Infrared (IR), also sometimes known as infrared light, is an electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that possesses longer wavelengths in comparison to a visible light, and is not visible to ordinary human eye. Though under certain conditions a human eye can visualize IR with wavelengths of about 1050 nm generated from specialized pulsed lasers. From the total energy emitted by the sun to the earth, more than half is emitted in the form of infrared radiation. The balance between emitted and absorbed infrared radiation shows a critical effect on the climate of the Earth. Infrared radiation is absorbed or emitted by molecules, especially when there is change in the rotational-vibration movements. As a result, the vibrational modes are excited in the molecule due to changing of dipole moment. Given these properties, infrared radiation finds application across several industrial sectors, including medical, law enforcement, military, scientific, and industrial areas. Night-vision devices that use active near-infrared illumination enable animals or people to be observed, even without divulging the details of the observer.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Infrared Imaging Technology estimated at US$4.9 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$7 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% over the analysis period. Uncooled, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 6.6% CAGR and reach US$4.9 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Cooled segment is readjusted to a revised 5.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $2.2 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $603 Million by 2026

The Infrared Imaging Technology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$2.2 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$603 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.6% and 5.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.1% CAGR.

The market is forecast to witness robust growth opportunities driven by growing demand from non-industrial sector, growing adoption in new end-use applications, technological advancements in IR imaging technology, rising adoption in security and surveillance applications, increasing availability of reasonably priced infrared cameras. Furthermore, rising demand for infrared imaging cameras in emerging economies and high penetration of SWIR cameras is poised to open up new avenues of growth in the upcoming years. The increasing use of IR cameras in quality control and inspections and steady uptake in consumer electronic market also presents untapped growth opportunities. IR imaging can be used as both a predictive and preventive tool, which makes it highly diverse. However, high cost of infrared imaging systems in comparison with substitute technologies, strict import and export regulations, and lack of awareness about the technology hamper market prospects. SWIR cameras are expensive owing to the use of expensive semiconductor material such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) sensors in their formulation.

By Application, Security & Surveillance Segment to Reach $4.1 Billion by 2026

Global market for Security & Surveillance by Application segment is estimated at US$2.9 Billion in 2020, and is projected to reach US$4.1 Billion by 2026 reflecting a compounded annual growth rate of 6.1% over the analysis period. The United States constitutes the largest regional market for Security & Surveillance segment, accounting for 42.8% of the global sales in 2020. China is poised to register the fastest compounded annual growth rate of 7.6% over the analysis period, to reach US$417.6 Million by the close of the analysis period. More



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Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.



CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: ZA@StrategyR.com



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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Laparoscopic Devices - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" . The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.

Global Laparoscopic Devices Market

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 16; Released: April 2021

Executive Engagements: 16253

Companies: 80 - Players covered include B. Braun Melsungen AG; Aesculap AG; Boston Scientific Corp.; Conmed Corporation; Intuitive Surgical, Inc.; Karl Storz GmbH & Co. KG; Medtronic, Inc.; Microline Surgical, Inc.; Olympus Corporation; Smith & Nephew, Inc.; STRYKER Corp.; Teleflex Incorporated; Teleflex Medical; Johnson & Johnson and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Product Type (Energy Devices, Access Devices, Closure Devices, Laparoscopes, Robot-Assisted Surgery Systems, Hand Instruments, Insufflators, Other Product Types); Application (General Surgery, Bariatric Surgery, Gynecological Surgery, Urological Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Other Applications); End-Use (Hospitals, Clinics, Other End-Uses)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry



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ABSTRACT-



Global Laparoscopic Devices Market to Reach $15.8 Billion by 2026

Laparoscopy is a form of minimally invasive surgery used in studying organs in pelvic and abdominal area of the body. The introduction of laparoscopic techniques revolutionized the surgical world through a gradual evolution from open surgical procedures to minimally invasive procedures. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, demand in the global market is expected to recover backed by the growing demand for minimally invasive procedures due to reduced recovery time, technological advancements, increasing adoption of laparoscopy for performing bariatric surgeries, rising cases of colorectal cancer, growing popularity of single-incision laparoscopic surgery, the availability of well-trained surgeons and growing acceptance of laparoscopic techniques. Factors such as increasing incidence of obesity and rising demand for bariatric surgery for its aesthetic appeal have pushed hospital admissions associated with bariatric surgeries. The market growth is also fueled by rising healthcare spending, insurance coverage, availability of advanced minimally-invasive surgeries, and adoption of minimally-invasive options due to fewer post-operative complications and faster recovery. Increasing technological advances and sophisticated surgeries with enhanced ergonomics and dexterity with low risks along with price declines are anticipated to present lucrative growth avenues.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Laparoscopic Devices estimated at US$10.9 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$15.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% over the analysis period. Energy Devices, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 7.5% CAGR and reach US$5.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Access Devices segment is readjusted to a revised 5.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Energy devices comprise advanced bipolar, monopolar, bipolar, harmonic, morcellator and integrated devices. Energy tools aid in different functions such as dissecting, cauterizing and resecting body tissue through a surgical procedure. Demand for single port access devices is on the rise in tandem with increasing single-port procedures.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $3.6 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $2.3 Billion by 2026

The Laparoscopic Devices market in the U.S. is estimated at US$3.6 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$2.3 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.1% and 6.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 4.9% CAGR. The US remains at the forefront of adoption of sophisticated laparoscopic devices, and growth is being driven by rising geriatric population along with high incidence of abdominal and gastrointestinal conditions. The regional market is benefitting from high prevalence of morbid obesity and chronic medical conditions coupled with increasing demand for minimally-invasive surgery. The region is also witnessing increasing adoption of robotic technology for conducting laparoscopic procedures as a result of its superior precision. In Asia-Pacific region, growth is set to be driven by ageing population, improving healthcare infrastructure, and access to cost-effective laparoscopic procedures.

Closure Devices Segment to Reach $2 Billion by 2026

The mounting healthcare costs and growing need to alleviate complications associated with laparoscopy is driving the demand for safer, simpler and more consistent devices for port closure following laparoscopic surgery. Growth in the segment is being fueled by introduction of innovative port closure devices with improved clinical outcomes and rise in number of trained surgeons. In the global Closure Devices segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 6.4% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$1.1 Billion in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$1.6 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$224.6 Million by the year 2026, while Latin America will expand at a 7.8% CAGR through the analysis period. More

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Email: ZA@StrategyR.com

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
Rick Thornton, a Dallas health insurance agent, says the high courts decision to dismiss challenges to the Affordable Care Act is a blessing for millions of uninsured Americans.

Dallas, United States, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Dallas health insurance is no longer under the thumb of potential changes to the Affordable Care Act, as the nations highest court quickly dismissed a challenge to the ACA in a decision that not only leaves the law intact but will undoubtedly save health coverage for millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans. The justices turned away red-state lawmakers and the former administration as they attempted in vain to have the entire law struck down.

For more information, go to http://insurance4dallas.com/health-insurance-dallas/

According to CNN, Justice Stephen Breyer led a 7-2 vote in favor of leaving the law intact. All but two justices say the challengers of the 2010 law did not have the legal right to bring the case, leaving everything in place for Americans everywhere, including those with health insurance in Dallas. They added that things should stay the same because Congress has reduced the penalty for failing to buy health insurance to zero. Speaking on the court ruling victory, the President added, With millions of people relying on the Affordable Care Act for coverage, it remains, as ever, a BFD. And its here to stay, he tweeted, a reference to him being caught on a hot mic telling President Barack Obama in 2010 the law is a big fking deal.

Rick Thornton, a Dallas health insurance agent said those who were against the Affordable Care Act since the very beginning failed to show concrete proof that enforcing the ACA was unconstitutional. Furthermore, all signs indicate that it is a good law. Thornton cited the Department of Health and Human Services, which reported that a record 31 million Americans have health coverage through the ACA. According to the CNN article, that includes 11.3 million people enrolled in the ACA exchanges as of February and 14.8 million newly-eligible, low-income people enrolled in Medicaid expansion as of December. This is a win-win for everyone, per Thornton.

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Insurance4Dallas, (I4D), helps insure all of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, Virginia and Florida. Insurance4Dallas provides consumers with detailed information on health insurance with the ability to purchase health insurance online. Insurance4Dallas provides a full spectrum of health, dental, vision, life and ancillary insurance products, providing a diverse selection of price and benefit options complemented by personal customer service. Available via phone, email or fax, Insurance4Dallas answers consumer questions throughout the purchasing process and during the utilization of its health insurance policies.



Website: http://insurance4dallas.com/group-health-insurance-dallas-tx/

CONTACT: Name: Rick Thornton Organization: Insurance4Dallas Address: 4516 Lovers Lane Suite 316, Dallas, TX 75225, United States Phone: +1-972-219-6004




With nearly 100 years of combined service to automotive dealers and consumers, J.D. Power and JM&A Group align to inspire confidence in Finance and Insurance offerings

Dan Chait, president of JM&A Group

Dan Chait, president of JM&A Group

Chris Sutton, vice president of Automotive Retail at J.D. Power

Chris Sutton, vice president of Automotive Retail at J.D. Power

Deerfield Beach, Fla., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JM&A Group, one of the largest independent providers of F&I products and dealer services in the industry, and J.D. Power, a global leader in data analytics and consumer intelligence, have announced a strategic alliance to develop jointly branded Finance and Insurance (F&I) products and services for auto dealers and buyers nationwide. Focused initially on a suite of warranties and service contracts designed to support the growth of vehicle sales, the two companies will also offer F&I training and certification programs and collaborate on data and analytics projects leveraging their collective industry insights.

It was important to J.D. Power to work with a group of experts that not only know the F&I space, but also have a reputation for service and integrity that would be aligned with J.D. Powers reputation as a voice for the customer, said Dan Chait, president of JM&A Group. We are honored to be the only F&I company to be aligned with J.D. Power to produce unique products and services with a consumer-centric approach.

Together, the brands will create and release protection products, including a certified pre-owned program, limited warranties, and maintenance and service contracts, that inspire confidence for buyers and dealers alike. Designed to plug seamlessly into existing auto dealer F&I workflows for both online and in-person transactions, these warranty and protection products will be offered through dealers nationwide.

"As the industry continues to evolve and dealers focus on a customer-first approach, quickly creating trust becomes paramount to success, Chait said. This alliance perfectly positions our dealers to enhance their performance in-store as well as online by building trust in the F&I products and process they present to customers."

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At J.D. Power, our goal is to help shoppers make better purchase decisions, said Chris Sutton, vice president of Automotive Retail at J.D. Power. The F&I process can be daunting for many consumers. We believe that our collaborative product design on co-branded products with JM&A Group will add value by showing consumers that the dealers F&I programs meet J.D. Powers high standards.

To help dealers who want to take their F&I operations to the next level, the two companies will also offer select F&I training and certification opportunities through the JM&A Performance Development Center. Additionally, J.D. Power and JM&A Group will be pooling their collective vehicle and customer intelligence data, assembled over a combined 100 years of auto industry experience, to design new products and services for the industry.

To learn more about the alliance, visit https://info.jmagroup.com/jd-power-alliance.

About JM&A Group

JM&A Group, a leader in the F&I industry for more than 40 years, serves more than 3,800 automotive dealerships nationwide. Comprised of Jim Moran & Associates, Inc. (JM&A), Fidelity Warranty Services, Inc. (FWS), Fidelity Insurance Agency, and Courtesy Insurance Company, it provides a variety of products and services such as F&I training and consulting, vehicle protection plans, used vehicle certification programs, prepaid maintenance plans and GAP programs. Additionally, the company has nearly 750 associates, including a dedicated sales force of 300+ associates who support process implementation for dealer operations and digital sales strategies. JM&A Group is a division of JM Family Enterprises, Inc. a privately held company with $16 billion in revenue and more than 4,200 associates, which is headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida. JM Family has earned various awards for its culture, products and services, including 23 consecutive years on Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For list. For more information about JM&A Groups products and services, contact us at 1-800-553-7146 or visit us online at www.jmagroup.com.

About J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in data and analytics, advisory services and consumer insights. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the companys business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business.

Attachments

CONTACT: Lauren Fyke JM&A Group 954-420-3279 lauren.fyke@jmfamily.com Geno Effler J.D. Power 714-621-6224 Media.relations@jdpa.com




TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945



BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Investment Management, a company of Manulife Investment Management, announced net fee reductions on five funds with a combined $7.7 billion in assets under management effective today, ranging from 2 basis points (bps) up to 13 basis points (bps). The reductions reflect contractual modifications to management fee schedules and/or reimbursement expenses for the funds and certain management fee waivers according to asset level breakpoint schedules. These changes pass additional value to shareholders through the benefit of scale. Over the past 10 years, 87% of John Hancock Investment Management's fund assets have experienced reductions in net expense ratios, due to either management actions or asset growth.1

John Hancock Investment Management (CNW Group/John Hancock Investment Management)

The funds impacted by the net fee reductions are John Hancock Strategic Income Opportunities fund, subadvised by Manulife Investment Management; John Hancock Classic Value fund, subadvised by Pzena Investment Management; John Hancock ESG Large Cap Core fund, subadvised by Trillium Asset Management; John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core fund, subadvised by Manulife Investment Management; and John Hancock ESG International Equity fund, subadvised by Boston Common Asset Management.

John

Hancock

Fund AUM

(6/30/21) Ticker  Class I Previous Net

Expense Ratio Reduction in Basis Points (bps) Net Expense Ratio

effective July 1,

2021 Strategic

Income

Opportunities $4.79B JIPIX 0.79% 2 bps 0.77% Classic Value $2.60B JCVIX 0.93% 4 bps 0.89% ESG Large

Cap Core $170.54M JHJIX 0.93% 6 bps 0.87% Fundamental

All Cap Core $136.18M JFCIX 0.97% 13 bps 0.84% ESG

International

Equity $93.61M JTQIX 1.03% 6 bps 0.97%

"We are pleased to be able to offer these pricing reductions to financial professionals and their clients. Since 2014, we have lowered fees on more than 50 John Hancock funds - through 70 strategic pricing reductions2 - and we continuously review our lineup to find additional value for shareholders and ensure our products are competitively priced for the market," said Andrew G. Arnott, CEO, John Hancock Investment Management and head of wealth and asset management, Manulife Investment Management, United States and Europe. "As investors look for new sources of return in traditional portfolios - and ESG investing continues to build momentum - our goal is to provide more options to them through our multimanager network that is backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry."

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1. Simfund, as of 5/31/21, includes John Hancock Investment Management retail sold funds only: ETFs, Open End and Closed End Funds, and Fund of Funds 2. As of 7/1/21, John Hancock Investment Management  internal data

About John Hancock Investment Management

A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 17 countries and territories. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement.

As of March 31, 2021, Manulife Investment Management had CAD $764.1 billion (US $607.6 billion) in assets under management and administration. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

Request a prospectus or summary prospectus from your financial professional, by visiting jhinvestments.com or by calling us at 800-225-5291. The prospectus includes investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should consider carefully before investing.

Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal.

John Hancock Investment Management Distributors LLC  Member FINRA, SIPC

200 Berkeley Street  Boston, MA

 2021 John Hancock Investment Management. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management
-- Along with a Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement previously published in European Respiratory Review, the ERS guidelines support the use of Acthar Gel in the management of certain patients with symptomatic pulmonary sarcoidosis --

-- Guidelines are the first ERS-issued evidence-based clinical practice recommendations for sarcoidosis treatment to include Acthar Gel --

DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (OTCMKTS: MNKKQ), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced new treatment guidelines for sarcoidosis from the European Respiratory Society (ERS), which include use of Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) therapy in the clinical management of certain patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, published in European Respiratory Journal.1 The treatment guidelines are the first ERS-issued evidence-based clinical practice recommendations, aimed at providing guidance to physicians treating sarcoidosis patients, to include Acthar Gel. In addition, the guidelines support existing consensus recommendations on the use of Acthar Gel in the management of patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis based on a recent U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement, previously published in European Respiratory Review.2

Mallinckrodt logo

Acthar Gel is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of symptomatic sarcoidosis and is only commercially available in the U.S.3 Please see Important Safety Information for Acthar Gel below.

The guidelinesdeveloped by a ERS Task Force committee composed of clinicians, methodologists and patient advocates with experience in sarcoidosislist Acthar Gel among the various anti-inflammatory treatments for pulmonary sarcoidosis and note it can be used on a case-by-case basis when other therapies are ineffective or not tolerated. Additionally, the guidelines state that recent studies have suggested the effectiveness of Acthar Gel as a steroid-sparing agent in advanced sarcoidosis. The guidelines acknowledge that the potential mechanisms of action of Acthar Gel have not been fully elucidated and that its understanding has continued to evolve with further research.1 Mallinckrodt continues to invest in studies to advance the characterization of the proposed mechanisms of action and to better understand the efficacy and safety profiles of Acthar Gel.

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"Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disorder that almost always affects the lungs. The condition can be debilitating for many patients and in some cases become serious or life-threatening, which is why it is important to recognize those patients with progressive disease and manage them appropriately," said Robert Baughman, M.D., Pulmonologist at University of Cincinnati Health, lead author of the ERS guidelines and contributing author of the U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement. "The new ERS guidelines, along with the expert panel consensus statement, provide practical guidance to physicians of the role of Acthar Gel in the clinical management of sarcoidosis based on the combined clinical experience of experts in the field, creating consensus around the real-world use of Acthar Gel in treating patients with this disease."

The U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement published in European Respiratory Review includes guidance on dosage, concomitant medications and adverse event (AE) management of advanced sarcoidosis with Acthar Gel. The panel, comprised of 12 independent physicians with expertise in treating patients with sarcoidosis, recommended a starting dose of Acthar Gel 40 units twice a week for most patients with less severe disease, but did not achieve consensus on whether a higher initial dose was indicated for patients with a more severe condition. In addition, Acthar Gel should be continued at a maintenance dose for most patients who respond to therapy, particularly those with chronic refractory/advanced sarcoidosis, and the maintenance dose should be individualized for each patient. If patients develop major adverse events, the recommendations suggested considering reducing or discontinuing Acthar Gel. The panel also made recommendations related to discontinuation of therapy, including weaning to the lowest efficacious dose if the patient has stable, well-controlled disease after six to 12 months of therapy.2

Study limitations include the following: There are no generally accepted criteria for consensus. The study is based on a degree of consensus, which may be refuted by future rigorous studies. Panelists were not accountable for their responses, and opinions may be based on insufficient/minimal consideration. Panel selection and questionnaire development may introduce bias, and perspectives from stakeholders other than U.S.-based physicians may have been missed.

Regarding the use of concomitant medications, the panel recommended that concomitant steroids be tapered and potentially discontinued as quickly as possible in patients receiving Acthar Gel, but concomitant use of immunosuppressive medications should be continued. Consensus recommendations were also reached for AE management, including that Acthar Gel be titrated down or discontinued if other interventions fail or if AEs are severe and significant.2

"There has been a need for quite some time for evidence-based consensus on the treatment of sarcoidosis, a rare disease that can significantly impact patients' functioning and quality of life and can be difficult to diagnose and treat," said Steven Romano, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt. "The ERS guidelines will help fill knowledge gaps in clinical care and enable more standardized treatment of symptomatic sarcoidosis to help improve clinical outcomes for patients. Moreover, both the guidelines and the sarcoidosis expert panel consensus statement provide practical, expert guidance on the use of Acthar Gel for physicians who manage patients with this complex disease."

Mallinckrodt has a dedicated team to support healthcare providers and patients throughout a patient's treatment regimen including personalized injection training.

About Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a challenging, yet manageable, rare multisystem disease.4,5 In some cases the symptoms may come and go throughout one's lifetime. This is referred to as symptomatic sarcoidosis. In people living with sarcoidosis, the immune system overreacts, forming clumps of cells called granulomas that result in inflammation of the body's tissues.6 The disease can impact any organ but most often impacts the lungs, lymph nodes, eyes, and skin.4 Over 90 percent of people with sarcoidosis suffer lung problems.6 Concomitant involvement of organs outside of the lungs is common, occurring in as many as half of all sarcoidosis cases.7

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Contraindications

Acthar is contraindicated:

For intravenous administration

In infants under 2 years of age who have suspected congenital infections

With concomitant administration of live or live attenuated vaccines in patients receiving immunosuppressive doses of Acthar

In patients with scleroderma, osteoporosis, systemic fungal infections, ocular herpes simplex, recent surgery, history of or the presence of a peptic ulcer, congestive heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, primary adrenocortical insufficiency, adrenocortical hyperfunction, or sensitivity to proteins of porcine origin

Warnings and Precautions

The adverse effects of Acthar are related primarily to its steroidogenic effects

Acthar may increase susceptibility to new infection or reactivation of latent infections

Suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may occur following prolonged therapy with the potential for adrenal insufficiency after withdrawal of the medication. Adrenal insufficiency may be minimized by tapering of the dose when discontinuing treatment. During recovery of the adrenal gland patients should be protected from the stress (e.g., trauma or surgery) by the use of corticosteroids. Monitor patients for effects of HPA axis suppression after stopping treatment

Cushing's syndrome may occur during therapy but generally resolves after therapy is stopped. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms

Acthar can cause elevation of blood pressure, salt and water retention, and hypokalemia. Monitor blood pressure and sodium and potassium levels

Acthar often acts by masking symptoms of other diseases/disorders. Monitor patients carefully during and for a period following discontinuation of therapy

Acthar can cause gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and gastric ulcer. There is also an increased risk for perforation in patients with certain GI disorders. Monitor for signs of perforation and bleeding

Acthar may be associated with central nervous system effects ranging from euphoria, insomnia, irritability, mood swings, personality changes, and severe depression to psychosis. Existing conditions may be aggravated

Patients with comorbid disease may have that disease worsened. Caution should be used when prescribing Acthar in patients with diabetes and myasthenia gravis

Prolonged use of Acthar may produce cataracts, glaucoma, and secondary ocular infections. Monitor for signs and symptoms

Acthar is immunogenic and prolonged administration of Acthar may increase the risk of hypersensitivity reactions. Neutralizing antibodies with chronic administration may lead to loss of endogenous ACTH and Acthar activity

There may be an enhanced effect in patients with hypothyroidism and in those with cirrhosis of the liver

Long-term use may have negative effects on growth and physical development in children. Monitor pediatric patients

Decrease in bone density may occur. Bone density should be monitored in patients on long-term therapy

Pregnancy Class C: Acthar has been shown to have an embryocidal effect and should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus

Adverse Reactions

Commonly reported postmarketing adverse reactions for Acthar include injection site reaction, asthenic conditions (including fatigue, malaise, asthenia, and lethargy), fluid retention (including peripheral swelling), insomnia, headache, and blood glucose increased

The most common adverse reactions for the treatment of infantile spasms (IS) are increased risk of infections, convulsions, hypertension, irritability, and pyrexia. Some patients with IS progress to other forms of seizures; IS sometimes masks these seizures, which may become visible once the clinical spasms from IS resolve

Other adverse events reported are included in the full Prescribing Information.

Please see full Prescribing Information for additional Important Safety Information.

ABOUT MALLINCKRODT

Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company's Specialty Brands reportable segment's areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. Its Specialty Generics reportable segment includes specialty generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com.

Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS RELATED TO FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release includes forward-looking statements concerning Acthar Gel including its potential impact on patients and anticipated benefits associated with its use, as well as related on-going studies. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

CONTACT

Media Inquiries

Caren Begun

Green Room Communications

201-396-8551

caren@greenroompr.com

Investor Relations

Daniel J. Speciale

Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations Officer

314-654-3638

daniel.speciale@mnk.com

Government Affairs

Mark Tyndall

Senior Vice President, US General Counsel & Government Affairs

mark.tyndall@mnk.com

Mallinckrodt, the "M" brand mark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. Other brands are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company or their respective owners. 2021 Mallinckrodt. US-2000641 06/21

References

1 Baughman RP, Valeyre D, Korsten P, et al. ERS clinical practice guidelines on treatment of sarcoidosis. Eur Respir J. 2021, 2004079; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.04079-2020.

2 Rahaghi FF, Sweiss NJ, Saketkoo LA, et al. Management of repository corticotrophin injection therapy for pulmonary sarcoidosis: a Delphi study. Eur Respir Rev. 2020;29:190147. https://doi. org/10.1183/16000617.0147-2019.

3 Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) [prescribing information]. Mallinckrodt ARD LLC.

4 Judson MA. The clinical features of sarcoidosis: a comprehensive review. Clin Rev Allerg Immunol. 2015;49:63-78.

5 Baughman RP, Field S, Costabel U, et al. Sarcoidosis in America. Analysis based on health care use. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2016;13:1244-1252.

6 Baughman RP, Culver DA, Judson MA. A concise review of pulmonary sarcoidosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011;183:573-581.

7 Shigemitsu H, Patel HV, Schreiber MP. Extrapulmonary sarcoidosis. In: Judson MA, ed. Pulmonary Sarcoidosis: A Guide for the Practicing Clinician. Vol 17. New York, NY: Springer; 2014:149-186.

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SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc
LONDON/DUBAI/MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - The OPEC+ group of oil producers meets on Thursday to decide on a further easing of output cuts next month and could also consider extending its overall supply pact beyond April 2022, sources within the group told Reuters.

The group comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia on Wednesday warned of "significant uncertainties" and the risk of an oil glut next year.

The supply pact forged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic's destruction of global oil demand imposed record cuts of about 10 million barrels per day (bpd) from May 2020, phasing out by the end of next April. Supply cuts still in place stand at about 5.8 million bpd.

A report from the OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee (JTC) on Wednesday said that it expects an overhang of crude by the end of 2022, based on several scenarios for supply and demand.

The report said the market would be in deficit in the short term but a glut will be on the horizon after the OPEC+ cuts end.

Oil prices were trading near $75 a barrel on Thursday, more than 40% higher than at the start of year.

The JTC still expects global oil demand to grow by 6 million bpd in 2021 but it said that "significant uncertainties" remain, including divergence in the global economic recovery, climbing sovereign debt, uneven vaccine rollouts and rising cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

OPEC watchers said the group could leave production unchanged when ministers meet on Thursday or decide to boost output, possibly by more than 1 million bpd or a more modest 0.5 million bpd.

(Reporting by OPEC team Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov Editing by David Goodman)
TAIPEI, June 30, 2021 /CNW/ -- According to BloombergNEF's recent study, the need for smarter and greener cities is greater than ever since the focus of city officials has honed in on net-zero carbon goals and COVID-19 impacts. To address worsening pollution, public health, security, and other issues, digital technology can help create more sustainable cities. Examples of such issues and technological solutions were discussed at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona. With support from Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Taiwan has implemented 223 Smart City projects which make use of various technologies and innovative solutions to improve important aspects of communities, including governance, healthcare, transportation, agriculture and more.

At 2021 MWC Barcelona, 6 providers of Smart City Taiwan share their innovative solutions and technologies that address the most challenging issues cities currently face.

On June 30, 2021, IDB of the MOEA's sponsored session, Taiwan's Best Practices in Smart City, went live at MWC Barcelona. MWC Barcelona is the world's largest mobile exhibition that is usually attended by over 100,000 people, including thousands of exhibitors and 59% of the most senior decision makers in the industry. This year, however, the exhibition will not only be accessible in-person, but also virtually with sessions on-demand and live-streamed.

The session invited 6 speakers with first-hand understanding from different companies and Smart City project areas. Cameo first presented their artificial intelligence (AI) analysis platforms that assist governments concerned with air pollution. This was followed by Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation (CIRC) which uses autonomous drones to improve surveillance of large industrial sites. Taiwan International Development Co. (TIDC) uses geomagnetic senses to reduce traffic by acquiring and sharing real-time parking information. In discussing smart aquaculture, Quadlink shared its solutions for fish farms to mitigate risks from extreme weather and food contamination. Meanwhile, U-Sync uses Human Intelligence (HI) and AI technology to increase productivity in agriculture through digitalization. The session ended with Adymeds which strives to reduce burdens on hospitals and enable remote patient monitoring through integrated medical and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions.

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Conversations with the above companies yielded greater understanding of the solutions with real cases and data. The MWC Barcelona session only covers a small number of the many Smart City Taiwan projects, but it demonstrates some of their best practices which could help cities worldwide that are tackling similar issues.

Recording of the session can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/j5R39eh4-4Q

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SOURCE Smart City Taiwan

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DUBLIN, July 01, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Thailand Crawler Excavator Market - Strategic Assessment & Forecast 2021-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Thailand crawler excavator market is growing at a CAGR of 5.98% during the period 2021-2027.

The demand in the Thailand crawler excavators market fell by 18% in 2020, but unit sales are projected to recover to pre-covid levels by 2023, assuming geopolitical stability. Public investment is projected to remain a key driver in the Thailand market, increasing over the next few years, in line with the government's infrastructure plans to attract private investment.

The report considers the present scenario of the Thailand crawler excavator market in Indonesia and its market dynamics for the forecast period 2021-2027. It covers a detailed overview of several growth enablers, restraints, and trends in the market. The study includes the volume and value sales with segment analysis of the Indonesia crawler excavator market.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE REPORT

Manufacturers are making operational advances in their excavator motors, hydraulic systems, structure, tracks, and cab construction to improve their telematics fuel efficiency and competitiveness.

Thailand is the preferred investment location due to its excellent digital infrastructure, highly skilled labour force, and high quality of living, boosting the growth of the crawler excavator market.

The crawler excavator market moves towards an innovative industry by switching to intelligent systems driven by IoT and data analysis for service, networking, and sustainability.

THAILAND CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET INSIGHTS

Increasing investment in road construction, housing projects, and Smart Cities projects is expected to spike medium excavators' demand.

Excavators used in the construction industry accounted for the largest share of around 42% due to huge government expenditure on the construction project.

Thailand's crawler excavator market demand is majorly driven by mining activities expected to show significant growth across the country.

Caterpillar strategizes to deliver high-quality power systems and machines by focusing on implementing defect-free initiatives in the country.

Due to the high procurement and maintenance cost of excavators, rentals are preferred by the contractors; thus, the rental segment will rise eventually.

THAILAND CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET - VENDOR LANDSCAPE

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Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi Construction Machinery, JCB, Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE), SANY, Doosan Excavator, Volvo Construction Equipment, and Kobelco are the major vendor in the Thailand crawler excavator market.

Komatsu is strategizing to set up manufacturing units in those countries where its products are sold. The company can establish a global network of production and sales in the market. Due to intense competition in technology and design, excavator makers are marketing their devices vigorously, focused on technologically innovative features and a wide variety of attachments.

Major Vendors

Caterpillar

Komatsu

Hitachi Construction Machinery

JCB

Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE)

SANY

Doosan Excavator

Volvo Construction Equipment

Kobelco

Other Prominent Vendors

Sumitomo Construction Machinery

Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (XCMG)

Leeboy

Kubota Machinery

Ingersoll Rand

Liebherr Group

THAILAND CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET - SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS

OEMs are majorly focusing on medium crawler excavators as this range is witnessing major demand in the recent past, and it is further expected to boost during the forecast period.

Thailand crawler excavator market revenue by agriculture is expected to reach USD 76.3 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.43%.

With the emergence of remote operation of excavators deep down in mines and the advent of 5G technology, the demand for excavators used in mining is expected to boost as it is comparatively safer to operate excavators from a distance.

Thailand's mini crawler excavator market is expected to reach 2,990 units by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.47%.

Segmentation by Excavator Type and Operating Weight

Mini (<6 tons)

Small (6-25 tons)

Medium (25-40 tons)

Large (>40 tons)

Segmentation by Application

Mining

Construction

Agriculture

Forestry

Others

Segmentation by Gross Power Output

61-101 HP

102-200 HP

>201 HP

WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS REPORT?

This report is among the few in the market that offers outlook and opportunity analysis forecast in terms of

Volume (Unit sales)

Type

Excavator Type and Operating Weight

Application

Gross Power Output

Value (USD)

Type

Excavator Type and Operating Weight

Application

Gross Power Output

Gain competitive intelligence about the economic scenario, advantages in Thailand, major projects and investments, market dynamics, and market share

Examples of latest technologies

Get presentation-ready format and easy-to-interpret data.

Enable decision-makers to make informed and profitable choices

Gain expert quantitative and qualitative analysis on value/volume growth projections of the Thailand crawler excavator market share

Complete supply chain analysis

Get COVID-19 impact analysis of the market

Company Profile of 15 major vendors

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kb60vt

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005603/en/

Contacts

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JOINVILLE, Brazil, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tupy S.A. ("Tupy"), a Brazilian multinational company dedicated to designing and manufacturing structural components, announces today the conclusion of a revised agreement with Stellantis NV ("Stellantis") to acquire the Brazilian and Portuguese cast iron components operations of Teksid SpA ("Teksid"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Stellantis.

Tupy had announced on December 2019 an agreement to acquire the global cast iron components operations of Teksid. Based on review and input from U.S. competition authorities, Tupy and Stellantis agreed to revise the transaction. In addition, Tupy has decided that a revised perimeter for the transaction will focus on assets with higher strategic fit. Therefore, Tupy will not proceed with the acquisition of Teksid's Mexican, Chinese and Polish operations and Teksid's offices in Italy and in the United States. The Enterprise Value for the new perimeter is 67.5 million.

"The conclusion of this negotiation is a very important step for Tupy, and we are glad about the potential synergy among the companies. The transaction is part of Tupy's global growth strategy and increases its capacity to manufacture blocks and heads geared for capital goods," proclaims Fernando Cestari de Rizzo, the CEO of Tupy. "The exchange of knowledge among people will be as important as the asset combination, taking into account that both companies have teams made up of highly skilled and seasoned professionals, who will contribute to the development of innovative technologies, as the history of Tupy and Teksid has already shown," concluded Fernando.

The transaction has been approved by Tupy's Board of Directors and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021. The transaction will comply with the conditions of the previous approval received from the Brazilian competition authority in April 2021.

Story continues

About Tupy

Tupy is a Brazilian company specialized in developing and manufacturing highly engineered structural cast iron components applied to complex metallurgical and geometrical components extensively used in capital goods that serve freight transport, construction industry, agriculture and many others industrial applications. These solutions contribute to the improvement of life standards such as, sanitation, drinking water, health, housing and the production and distribution of food. The technological innovation involved in our production and development processes is the company's specialty that dates back more than 80 years. Tupy's manufacturing facilities are located in Brazil and Mexico.

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tupy-reaches-agreement-to-acquire-the-brazilian-and-portuguese-cast-iron-operations-of-teksid-301324227.html

SOURCE Tupy
Worldline signs a strategic partnership with BNL

in merchant acquiring in Italy

Creation of a joint venture with BNL banking group through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy based on a  220 million enterprise value





Commercial partnership aiming to leverage BNLs banking network in order to distribute Worldlines payment products and services to customers of the bank .





Strategic opportunity to expand Worldlines Merchant Services activities in the very promising Italian market





Axepta in Italy , a significant ban k acquirer in the country , has strong positions with:



c. 200 million a cquiring t ransactions per year from c. 220 ,000 POS c. 30 ,000 merchants portfolio with more than 60% being SMBs





High growth and synergies potential, by combining Axepta Italy existing presence with Worldline scale and best in class offerings





Bezons, July 1st, 2021  Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a global leader in the payments industry, today announced the signing of a binding agreement for the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy, the merchant acquiring entity of BNL banking group in Italy.

Gilles Grapinet, Worldlines Chairman and CEO, said: The partnership with BNL through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy is a further significant development in our Group consolidation strategy in Europe, extending our Merchant Services activities towards the South of Europe. Thanks to this transaction, we indeed benefit from a direct access to an existing merchants portfolio in the fast-growing Italian market, driven by the steady ongoing adoption of electronic payments. This transaction offers attractive growth opportunities for Worldline in the coming years and a strong footprint to further expand our Merchant Services activities in Italy.

We are extremely happy to welcome soon more than 100 new Worldlines colleagues, managers, and payment experts and to work hand in hand with BNL to further jointly accelerate the development of the business of our joint venture in Italy.

Story continues

As the European leader in payments, we keep executing our strategic roadmap with a focus on value-creative consolidation opportunities to enhance Worldline scale, reach and direct presence in a growing number of countries in close partnership with leading local banks.

Marco Tarantola, BNLs Deputy General Manager, said: Through this partnership, BNL aims to pursue its specializations journey in payment solutions initiated during the last years with Axepta, after having acquired in 2016 100% of the JV, BNL positivity created in the past with another player. The Worldlines footprint as well as its expertise ensures a high standard of service level, quality and performance of its payment solutions. This will allow us to propose to our customers a broad range of products, services and payment solutions, permanently in evolution thanks to innovation and new technologies best use.

Italy: one of the most attractive payment markets in Europe

Italy is a highly attractive and strategic market for Worldline. The country is the third largest euro economies in Europe with a cash penetration that remains high with cash accounted for close to 78% of total payment volume in 2020.

The Italian payment market shows attractive growth opportunities driven by the shift from cash to card and electronic payment adoption, supported by a solid acceptance network and one of the highest POS density per habitants in Europe as well as recent initiatives to push payment card usage and strong growth for e-Commerce, in particular during the peak of Covid-19. Transactions acquired are well balanced by card type (Credit cards, PagoBancomat, and Debit & Prepaid).

As an additional very compelling characteristic, Luxury and Retail market is one of the most important sectors of the Italian economy and a key pillar of its economic growth. In addition, with close to 100 million tourists per year, Italy is one of the most visited countries in Europe and in the world. This represents a very attractive feature of the Italian payment market offering numerous additional growth opportunities in a post-Covid context by leveraging the very rich Worldline portfolio of Luxury & Retail and Travel & Hospitality solutions.

Acquisition of Axepta Italy, the merchant acquiring entity of BNL in Italy and a significant stand-alone bank acquirer in Italy based on a long-term commercial partnership

Founded in 2006, Axepta Italy is the merchant acquiring entity of BNL in Italy and one of the large bank-owned acquirers in the country. It acquires c. 200 million acquiring transactions per year (c. 5% market share in MSV) from a c. 220,000 POS acceptance network.

Lead by Stefano Calderano, the Axepta CEO, and an experienced management team committed to continue, Axepta employs more than 100 employees. It provides international payment solutions for all channels (online, mobile or in-store payment solutions) and serves c. 30,000 merchants of which more than 60% being SMBs and close to 30% being large corporates. Overall, Axepta Italy merchants portfolio is highly diversified and presents a very low attrition rate.

As part of the transaction, Worldline will enter in a long-term commercial partnership with BNL aiming to leverage its strong banking network as a key commercial channel in order to distribute Worldlines and Axepta Italy best-in-class payment product and services.

In the continuity of Worldlines existing partnerships with more than 17 banks and banking federations (regrouping c. 100 adherents) in Italy, such a strategic alliance is another proof point of Worldlines bank-friendly Merchant Services expertise, aiming at strong value creation for partnering financial institutions. The joint venture is designed to be an open vehicle for welcoming existing partners and other Italian banks willing to benefit from delivery and servicing excellence, combined with scale and competitive cost structure.

Strategic rationale

In the rapidly changing industry, driven by the customers adoption of numerous and innovative payment methods, Axepta Italy and the partnership with BNL are the ideal cornerstone to accelerate Worldlines go-to-market in the country by deploying the Groups payment offering and value-added services capabilities in order to provide the best-in-class customer proposition and user experience across all segments in Italy.

This partnership represents an opportunity for Worldline to strongly expand its Merchant Services activities in this attractive European market with an existing and high-quality merchants portfolio, while generating significant growth opportunities fueled by increasing card penetration and online capabilities, allowing the entity to grow revenue at a double-digit rate in the coming years. This accelerated growth rate will be delivered through, in particular, the roll-out of Worldline SMB offerings, the expansion of its local acquiring capabilities to provide a comprehensive European footprint for large international and national customers, and the deployment of strong e-commerce and omnichannel solutions.

Furthermore, a robust integration and development program will be implemented at closing to further improve profitability rate through operating leverage and costs efficiency.

Impacts of the transaction on Worldline

The key financial impacts of the transaction on Worldline are the following:

Additional annual revenue of c.  50 million at closing with expected double-digit organic growth CAGR over the next 4 years;

OMDA margin of mid-to-high teens expected at closing, aiming to catch-up with Worldlines Merchant Services profitability, fueled by operating leverage and expected cost and revenue synergies of c.  15 million by 2025;

Estimated cash-out of c.  180 million at closing (for 80% ownership), preserving Worldlines financial flexibility;

BNL to retain a 20% ownership in Axepta Italy, and;

Closing expected end of 2021 or beginning 2022, subjected to satisfaction of customary condition precedent.





Forthcoming events

July 27, 2021 H1 2021 results

October 19, 2021 Q3 2021 revenue

Contacts

Investor Relations

Laurent Marie

+33 7 84 50 18 90

laurent.marie@ingenico.com

Benoit dAmecourt

+33 6 75 51 41 47

benoit.damecourt@worldline.com

Communication

Sandrine van der Ghinst

+32 499 585 380

sandrine.vanderghinst@worldline.com

Helene Carlander

+33 7 72 25 96 04

helene.carlander@worldline.com

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide. With its global reach and its commitment to innovation, Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies in all sectors. Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and secure solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business growth wherever they are. Services offered by Worldline in the areas of Merchant Services; Terminals, Solutions & Services; Financial Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services include domestic and cross-border commercial acquiring, both in-store and online, highly-secure payment transaction processing, a broad portfolio of payment terminals as well as e-ticketing and digital services in the industrial environment. In 2020 Worldline generated a proforma revenue of 4.8 billion euros. worldline.com

Worldlines corporate sense of purpose (raison detre) is to design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. We make them environmentally friendly, widely accessible and support social transformation.

Disclaimer

This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors behaviors. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Worldlines beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Worldlines plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2020 Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF) on April 13, 2021 under the filling number: D.21-0303.

Worldline does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.

This document is disseminated for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they have been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or the securities laws of any U.S. state, or are exempt from registration. The securities that may be offered in any transaction have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or the securities laws of any U.S. state and Worldline does not intend to make a public offering of any such securities in the United States.

Attachment




In 1735, Mahomet Weyonomon traveled across the seas to England from Connecticut, seeking justice for the unfair treatment of his people.

Like the Mohegan chief, Madeline Sayet took the same path for a different purpose; but unlike Mahomet, who died of smallpox before presenting his case, the Mohegan playwright found an audience to hear her words.

Where We Belong, now streaming through July 11, is a thought-provoking work that debuted at Shakespeares Globe as part of the Border Crossings ORIGINS Festival in 2019. The filmed piece is produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The 80-minute autobiographical solo performance moves along beautifully, with tight direction by Mei Ann Teo and minimalist staging by Hao Bai, as Sayet explores her heritage, language, colonialism and Shakespeare. Her love for the Bard started at an early age, finding refuge in his wordsa language she doesnt have to fear losing, she says. Sayet later pursued a Ph.D. in Shakespeare in England, at the time of the Brexit referendum vote in June 2016. This is when the play actually begins as a border control officer at the Stockholm airport asks how she would vote herself. Border queues always feel like waiting in line to get in trouble, she says. Do you belong? Who decides?
PHARR, Texas (AP)  Republican lawmakers traveled to Texas to cheer former President Donald Trump as he paid a visit to the southern border Wednesday and hammered the Biden administration for its immigration policies amid a decades-high spike in border crossings.

Trump, who was joined by more than two dozen House members, also continued to spread lies about the 2020 election as he participated in a border briefing and visited the wall he championed in a trip that was strikingly similar to the many he'd taken here while president.

Biden is destroying our country. And it all started with a fake election," Trump railed as he stood at the border, an American flag hoisted by a crane waving above him. Trump has persisted in falsely claiming he won in November, even though state and federal election officials, his own attorney general and numerous judges have said there is no evidence of the mass voter fraud he alleges.

Coming fresh off his first rally since leaving the White House, the visit underscored the extent to which Republicans, both nationally and in the states, continue to embrace Trump as the leader of their party. And it demonstrated anew how much the GOP has taken up Trumps signature issue of immigration as the party looks to recapture control of Congress in next years midterm elections.
Five of the Islesboro Central School seniors take the ferry from the mainland, while the rest live on the island, which has about 700 year-round residents. So the students were not only isolated by the pandemic but they were also split apart, unable to gather for months, with a three-mile gulf between the island and the mainland.

The Class of 2021 had long been accustomed to doing things together. For Halloween, the class would coordinate group costumes and pile into a school-owned van, driven by an English teacher, to go trick or treating together on the island.

It was a large group, by island standards. In fact, the 13 seniors represented the largest senior class in recent years.

As the reality of the pandemic took hold, the seniors kicked off an email chain to discuss what to do about the trip. International travel was a no-go, so Greece, South Korea and Japan were no longer options.

They thought about scaling it back. Perhaps they could do a regional trip. It would be better than nothing. But even that started to seem far-fetched.

The worlds struggles weighed on them as they tried to justify salvaging an exotic outing against a backdrop of deaths and economic pain.
Additionally, Mitchell said he was concerned about the size of the seven million-gallon lagoon, which he said could cause biosecurity issues if contamination were to take place.

Our clients have serious concerns about whether or not this is in the best interest of Dodge County and in particular with the neighbors, where you have virtually every neighbor that surrounds this property that is opposed to this particular application, he said.

In response to the comments, Chris Reimers said he and others on the project were in the process of doing homework.

I think were doing a lot of things that are parallel in timeline that are all contingent on this process, he said. Weve looked up a copy of that easement and obviously cant make too much comment, but we realize theres some homework to be done and some stuff to verify with what that all allows for.

Travis Caspersen of Settje Agri-Services said he knew that the easement was an issue and that Reimers was working with an attorney on it.

As far as getting the approval, we didnt look at that as being a big issue that we needed to bring an attorney in to spell that out at this point in time, he said.
In a March email to the APA, City Attorney Travis Jacott acknowledged the distinction between a settlement agreement and severance agreement.

Also just to be clear, the documents sought by your office from the City do not constitute severance agreements and are indeed settlement agreements, he wrote in an email to the APA.

However, the APA asserted that the difference between the two was not immediately evident from the language of the three agreements in question.

The APA said it hoped to obtain documentation that would support the necessity and legality of the payments made under the three agreements, but said the information was not forthcoming.

On April 9, 2021, almost a month after having requested supporting documentation for the need to make the payments under the three separation agreements, the APA received a letter from Mr. Jacott, the APAs letter read. In addition to providing no compelling supporting documentation, the answers to the questions posed by the APA were not particularly helpful due to their lack of specificity.

The APA said the City made very general reference to fears of remotely possible claims against the City of Fremont involving alleged discrimination based upon age, disability or retaliation.
The American Red Cross is need of donors as it experiences a severe blood and platelet shortage affecting product availability nationwide.

Josh Murray, regional communications director for the Red Cross Nebraska-Iowa Region, said the shortage has affected the organization during the last few weeks.

Its not necessarily that weve been low on donations, its more on the fact that the hospitals are demanding more right now, he said. Theyre seeing more need for it there.

Murray said hospitals have been catching up on procedures that couldnt be done during the COVID-19 pandemic, including elective surgeries and transplants.

Weve also seen an uptick in trauma recently in the last few months, he said. So thats kind of where our shortage comes from, is that were being asked to provide more to hospitals.

Additionally, Murray said summertime is a tough time for donations as many people are busy, as well as the holidays, including the Fourth of July.

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They pleaded to the judges not to sentence her to death, at which Boswell could be heard crying in the otherwise quiet courtroom.

Gods the one that will have the final say in all this. Please dont put her to death, Boswell's mom, Prisilla Boswell, said.

She and Jeff Boswell, who adopted Bailey when she was a child after her biological father was killed in a drug deal gone bad, said she had been a bubbly, popular girl in high school and got recruited to play basketball in college.

They believe the change they saw in her was caused by abuse by her ex-boyfriend and Trail. And they were concerned about what the effect a death sentence would have on Bailey's daughter, who she calls every day.

Jeff Boswell said he remembered meeting Trail, who was going by a fake name. His impression? Bad news, he said.

One of her cousins had told investigators Trail had told her that if she didn't make calls for him involving a fraud that she would find her boyfriend in a field with his legs cut off.

She said she remembered Bailey Boswell telling her Trail was scary, and maybe she should do what he says.
Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Sunny skies this morning. Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. High 84F. NE winds shifting to SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 61F. SSE winds shifting to N at 10 to 15 mph.
Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Sunny in the morning then increasing clouds with some scattered thunderstorms later in the day. High 84F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 60F. SSE winds shifting to N at 10 to 15 mph.
DURANGO  Investigators spent years scouring steep, wooded terrain off a rugged ATV trail for answers about what happened to Dylan Redwine. During their search, they would find bones that proved to belong to the missing 13-year-old and a skull that was first spotted by hikers who made the discovery while exploring a grassy patch of land.

They would also find a torn-up T-shirt, Miller Light and Coors Light beer cans, a Nike Air Jordan shoe, a Fila sock and a pair of headphones  items that would possibly lend more clues in the investigation that has culminated in the trial of the boys father, Mark Redwine.

He is charged with second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death for his sons disappearance. Dylan Redwine was last seen alive in November 2012 while on a court-ordered visit with his father at his home in Vallecito.

Some of his remains were found just up the road on Middle Mountain in June 2013, and his skull wouldnt be found until November 2015 approximately five miles away.

Tonya Golbricht, a now-retired investigator for the La Plata County Sheriffs Office, was part of these efforts. Wednesday marked her second day on the witness stand during Redwines trial, which is now in its second of what was scheduled to be four weeks.

Golbricht said investigators were able to narrow down an area on Middle Mountain as a focal point for the search after finding a Fila sock and Air Jordan shoe on June 22, 2013.

Read more at 9news.com.
Digitally fit city agency makes smooth transition during pandemic

When the pandemic sent most of the Denver Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) 150 employees home last year, they rushed to digitize their largely paper-based processes -- and accomplished it in a single weekend.

Before the pandemic, we executed the Emergency Operations Center activations and exercises almost exclusively with paper forms, Loa Esquilin-Garcia, public information officer for the city and county of Denvers Office of Emergency Management, wrote in an email to GCN. In March 2020, we had to virtualize operations, which meant putting forms online and creating an online space that could mimic the conversations and meetings essential to handling a crisis.

The EOC was already planning to digitize forms, Esquilin-Garcia said, but the pandemic accelerated those plans.

Denver tapped process management and automation company Nintex for help, in part because it had worked with the firms tools before the health crisis began, Chelsea Warren, marketing and communications coordinator with Denvers Technology Services Department, said in an email to GCN. With such a short timeline, it was easiest to use tools already at our disposal, she wrote.

The Technology Services Department took advantage of another solution already in its toolbelt -- Microsoft Teams -- to set up an online EOC in which workers could communicate and collaborate. But paper-based workflows  some of which took up to seven steps to complete  had to be digitized for the center to optimize online operations.

In one weekend last year, Technology Services staff digitized 20 forms with Nintex Forms, a Microsoft SharePoint tool primarily used for collecting and validating user input into SharePoint lists and Nintex Workflows. The technology lets users customize the forms by dragging controls onto the canvas rather than by coding.

Within three months, they had digitized 65 forms, and that number now sits around 100, said Steve Witt, director of Nintexs public-sector unit.

Everything is accessible from anywhere. It is amazing we can run the entire operation virtually, Esquilin-Garcia wrote.

The paper-based processes were easy when the EOC staff, who worked in the basement of a city building, could walk documents around the corner to obtain a signature. But its a little bit different when everyones working from home, and now you have a skeleton crew in the emergency operations center, Witt said. The thing about the pandemic is it introduced a lot of new problems that I like to say didnt exist in January 2020. All of a sudden, in March and April 2020, youre trying to solve these problems.

Denver was well-positioned to make the changes, he said, likening it to being digitally fit. That fitness  or the work the Technology Services and EOC staff did pre-pandemic  made them flexible and agile enough to react quickly when the crisis hit.

When youre dealing with something like this, speed is the most important thing -- being able to act quickly, solve the problem and then continue to improve upon it as time goes by, Witt said.

Denvers cybersecurity and data protection teams helped with the virtualization project to ensure workflows were secure and personally identifiable information was protected. We worked on additional training around cyber and data protection for those working remotely and [on] strengthening the infrastructure that supports operations, Warren said.

Because the future of work is now hybrid, rather that office-based, this modernization has positioned Denver to be able to better respond to other crises as they emerge.

Digitizing these processes has increased safety and resulted in more focused emergency response, Esquilin-Garcia said. Our reporting and tracking have also improved tremendously with this process, which is helping us use our time more efficiently and effectively.
A search for that location on Google turns up "Sierra Realty & Management, LLC" which lists that address on its website and says that it's been in business since 2006 and oversees properties in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. That includes apartment complexes in Ames and Des Moines. "We understand how to negotiate for the best prices and how to solve problems with ingenuity, rather than spending more than necessary," the last sentence in the welcome on the front page reads.

Over the phone, an employee for the company said that they were not aware of any tax sale involving a Willow Creek Center Outlot II and that they would have to contact their accounting department. They then declined to give their full name. When asked why, they said: "Theres no story."

In a follow-up call after that, Wright again confirmed that the owner of the parcel is out of Skokie, Illinois and that it was purchased at a tax sale.

"The tax sale is outstanding. The taxes are paid in a tax sale but they have to be paid back from Willow Creek Center so that we can pay Hawkeye Lien Services back," Wright said.
After temporarily closing, Worth County Conservation has worked on a plan to address the number of incident calls it's been receiving.

The solution? Having the park open during a smaller time frame.

Starting on July 5, the park will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. all week.

The number of incident calls since the start of June led to Kuennens Quarry being shut down mid-June, according to Worth County Sheriff Dan Fank.

Fank said since the beginning of June, before Kuennens Quarry shut down on June 11, there were 18 incident calls that were reported.

According to Fank, the incident calls since June 1 included: two for theft, one for overdose, four for vandalism, one for assault, one medical call, two for alcohol, one for brandishing a firearm, five for suspicious or drug-related activity, and one call about a car going into the quarry.

"This year was the tipping point," Worth County Conservation Board Director Jim Hanson said.

Hanson said that numerous issues were causing strain on his staff, particularly with the hours that the park was open and that the calls that both Worth County Conservation and the sheriff's office received were constant.
Although Trump isn't expected to be charged Thursday, allegations against the company bearing his name raise questions about his knowledge of  or involvement in  business that practices prosecutors suspect were illegal.

James Repetti, a tax lawyer and professor at Boston College Law School, said a company like the Trump Organization would generally have a responsibility to withhold taxes not just on salary, but other forms of compensation  like the use of an apartment or automobile.

Such perks wouldn't be considered taxable income if they were required as a condition of employment, Repetti said, such as providing an apartment for the convenience of an employee who is required to be at the office or worksite at odd or frequent hours, or allowing the use of a car for business purposes.

Another prominent New York City real estate figure, the late Leona Helmsley, was convicted of tax fraud in a federal case that arose from her company paying to remodel her home without her reporting that as income.

The Trump Organization case involves possible violations of New York state tax laws.
Information from the study will help the General Assembly determine what to do next regarding cocktails to go.

If anything changes, well make the change as well, Eischen said.

Unlike Barker, two other restaurant owners said they sold very few mixed drinks to go during the pandemic, even though they offered the option.

It wasnt a big seller, said Hoi Kong, owner of Tokyo Grill at Lowes Drive.

One or two customers asked about to-go mixed drinks during the early days of the pandemic, but that was about it, Kong said. The state first began allowing sale of cocktails to go in early April 2020.

About a month or so into it, people stopped asking for it, he said.

Emily Tomlinson, co-owner at Mes Burgers & Brews, said the restaurant did not sell many cocktails to go during the pandemic, so the extension will have almost no effect on her business.

It didnt make a difference for us, she said.

However, the eatery and bar has always offered beer and wine off-premises.

We did more of the draft beer to go, she said.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The Minnesota Legislature worked into the early hours Thursday to try to finish off a $52 billion, two-year budget after working into the early hours the night before to pass a bill that ends Gov. Tim Walz's emergency powers, although a top Republican said the special session could continue for days longer to make sure the governor signed all the bills.

Trust but verify, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake, said at a news conference, quoting a proverb that President Ronald Reagan was fond of using in his dealings with Soviet leaders.

Walz laughed at the comment and said Gazelka didn't need to worry. He spoke to reporters after personally delivering the signed K-12 education funding bill to Secretary of State Steve Simon to make its enactment official, and signed three other budget bills to avert the lingering threat of a partial state government shutdown after the current budget ran out at the end of the day Wednesday.

The only budget bill still awaiting votes early Thursday was a tax bill that needed approval first in the House, then the Senate. The House debate was late to get going, and bogged down amid a partisan fight over the details of unwinding the governor's emergency powers.
Well, the COVID recovery act budget is done, the work now begins, Walz said at a ceremonial signing of copies of the big budget bills that the Legislature sent him Wednesday, just hours before the old budget expired.

As of Thursday, 70% of Minnesotans 18 and older had received at least their first vaccine shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walz said Minnesota is only the second Midwestern state to meet President Joe Bidens goal of 70% by July 4, and that the state leads the Midwest with 52% of its population fully vaccinated. Walz took pride in those numbers even though the state fell short of his goal of 70% of residents in a wider age range  16 and up  to be at least partially vaccinated by July 1. That figure stands at 67%.
Find out how many fireworks injuries there have been in recent years, plus how much U.S. air traffic has climbed ahead of the Fourth of July, 
American independence is due in part to African Americans

Like the U.S. Constitution, the final version of the Declaration never uses the word slave. But African Americans loomed large in the first draft, written by Thomas Jefferson.

In that early draft, Jeffersons single biggest grievance was that the mother country had first foisted enslaved Africans on white Americans and then attempted to incite them against their patriot owners. In an objection to which he gave 168 words  three times as many as any other complaint  Jefferson said George III had encouraged enslaved Americans to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them.

Numerous other white Southerners joined Jefferson in venting their rage at the mother country for, as one put it, pointing a dagger to their Throats, thru the hands of their Slaves.
But its unclear at this point whether the cause of the sickness is an infectious disease or something else entirely, she said. Reports of sick and dying birds began to increase in Northern Virginia the weekend of May 23, but symptoms have so far evaded birds in the Roanoke and New River valleys.

Lets take a break from feeding our birds water and food, said Sabrina Garvin, SVWC Director. Lets be proactive, not reactive. Were stewards.

Garvin said to remove birdfeeders for a few weeks, to keep whatever it is from spreading locally. Birds have plenty of natural food sources to forage from at this time of year.

Were just trying to keep them from congregating, because we dont know what it is and how it spread, Garvin said. Were all clueless.

In general, mortality events in birds are not rare, Kirchgessner said.

But there are some unique aspects to this particular one, she said. The fact that this event has lasted for so long and involves such a large geographic scope, that really makes it unique.
Louth said the state medical examiners office had to bring in some specialists  forensic anthropologists  to determine a way to thaw those remains out so we didnt lose anything, or do any damage to the remains, so wed still be able to determine whether there was anything of evidentiary value. So this was a very slow process ... and took a long time to do it properly.

Louth said investigators also had to make certain whose remains were in the freezer. While we believed it was the child of Mr. and Mrs. Weaver, we still had to verify it. We had to do some DNA testing to verify that it was Eliel. So that took a little bit of time, too.

Louth said investigators took many things from the house, such as phones, computers and documents as part of their investigation. The search warrants and police affidavits used to obtain them have been sealed by the court until Aug. 5, a circuit court clerk said Wednesday.

Court papers indicate the childs body may have been concealed in the freezer longer than the two years that Louth noted. The dates of offense listed in copies of the arrest warrants says the concealment occurred sometime between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2018.
Lebanon is going through an unprecedented economic and financial collapse, coupled with an 11-month political deadlock over the formation of a new government. The developments pose the gravest threat to its stability since the end of its civil war three decades ago. It is also trying to recover from the devastating Beirut port explosion last summer  and the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis invited the religious leaders for a day of prayer that began with a silent meditation at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and was followed by closed-door talks about how to help Lebanon emerge from what the World Bank has described as likely to be one of the worst crises the world has witnessed over the past 150 years.

In his final remarks at the ecumenical prayer service, Francis urged political leaders to find solutions and appealed to the international community to help the country recover.

Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!" he said. The Lebanese people must be given the opportunity to be the architects of a better future in their land, without undue interference."

Embattled Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who met with Francis at the Vatican in April, said from Beirut that he hoped the meeting would call on all Lebanese to preserve their coexistence.
To the editor:

Letter writer David Mantiply's, replying to my letter ("Biden may not be Trump, but he's not good," June 25) of June 21 about President Biden, describes democracy as simply an ideology. That is as ludicrous as it is absurd. The word and concept of democracy is a blessed gift from the Athenian, Pericles 25 centuries ago.

In Greek it is one word: democracy. In English it takes two: (the) people rule. Democracy is anything but an ideology. We, the people of the United States rule by voting. We elect politicians to represent us at the local, state, and national levels.

The tragedy is that many Americans do not take advantage of that right. In 2020 only 66% of registered voters did so. But Mantiplys most ridiculous claim is that no state has tried to limit access to anyone.

Apparently he has never heard of Texas, or Georgia, among other Republican-controlled states, who have passed draconian voter restriction laws in an attempt to keep minority populations from voting or at least making it difficult to do so.
And yet there is a delicacy to Bravos composition, too, thanks in part to Mica Levis whimsical score that plays on the seemingly harmless dings and rings of a smart phone. Ari Wegners trash-fairytale cinematography also mimics a kind of amateur music video, and the ugliness is at least captivating for a time. Though there is quite a bit of nudity, it is more matter of fact than erotic. Bravo celebrates the form of her two female leads, but the men, for the most part, are presented with disgust.

Keough, who is white, plays Stefani like a vulgar child appropriating and affecting an accent that she thinks sounds Black. It is its own kind of nightmare. And while Zola, who is Black, never gets any dialogue to comment on this and some other downright racist things, Paiges eyes and performance tell the audience most of what they need to know: This is not OK. This is not funny. This is something she is merely getting through so that she can make some money in the Sunshine State and go home.
Lets be honest we are all ready to get out, gather, social un-distance, and catch up with friends and family. 4th of July has a tendency to be a big barbecue/potluck kind of holiday and could be just what we need to get us back to the good old days. So we thought we would deliver 14 recipes over the next 14 days counting down to the holiday weekend. We hope our creations inspire your culinary creativity and wow some taste buds at the same time.

Easy Summer Sangria

For a few days now we have been giving you amazing side dish recipes for you and your friends and family to try during the holiday weekend. Maybe its time we step back, pull out the old lawn chair and discuss a nice refreshing beverage. There isnt much more of a refreshing adult beverage than a nice Sangria (ok a beer is up there too). This one is super easy and packed with flavor. This recipe call for Satsuma rum, which originated in Louisiana and is flavored with pure sugar cane and Satsuma tangerines. How delicious does that sound?

Lets dig in!

You will need the following ingredients:

1 16oz bag of frozen mixed fruit (Pro tip: Buy a little extra to use as ice for the drinks)

2/3 cup of sugar
HIGH POINT  A High Point man accused of killing his girlfriend and driving her body to Tennessee appeared in Guilford County court Wednesday.

Michael Louis Cadogan, 24, will remain in custody at the High Point jail without bail, charged with concealment of death and first-degree murder, according to court documents.

Cadogan was extradited back to Guilford County earlier this week after being arrested in Tennessee on June 21.

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Earlier on June 21, High Point police officers were sent to to check on Cadogans live-in girlfriend, 19-year-old Gianna Rose Delgado, at Delgados apartment at 3942 2E Pallas Way. Investigators believed Delgado, a High Point University student, was fatally assaulted by Cadogan and that he was driving to Tennessee to dispose of her body, police said in a news release.

According to a news report by WCYB-Channel 5, which serves Virginia and parts of Tennessee, Cadogan called another woman to help him dispose of Delgado's body after he strangled her during an argument. The woman, working with police, called Cadogan back and the two agreed to meet at a marina on Watauga Lake in Carter County, WCYB reported.
Weve just wanted to have access to our family and to let our kids get to know them as much as we can, Furr said.

The couple also considered living space.

Weve had a great apartment in New York City, Furr said. But as our family has grown, weve been eager for room to spread out. My acting career has basically been why weve stayed in New York. But technology has presented an opportunity to open that up a bit. Submitting on-camera and voiceover auditions from home has become the norm.

So why not do it from Greensboro, where we can have some of the other things we are interested in at this point in life?

Action Greensboros boomerang campaign did not recruit them. But it has become a welcome resource, Furr said.

It offered to connect them with real estate agents and provided information on topics such as neighborhoods and schools.

Greensboro has changed, Furr said. His wife grew up in Burlington and attended college here.
The court concluded that prosecutor who later brought the charges was obligated to stick to the nonprosecution agreement, so the conviction cannot stand. The justices wrote that "denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade."

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE NONPROSECUTION AGREEMENT?

The promise not to prosecute Cosby was made in 2005 by Bruce Castor, who was then the top prosecutor for Montgomery County. Castor was also on the legal team that defended former President Donald Trump during his historic second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

During a court hearing weeks after Cosby's 2015 arrest, Castor testified that he promised Cosby he wouldn't be prosecuted in the hopes that it would persuade the actor to testify in a civil case brought by Constand and allow her to win damages. Castor acknowledged the only place the matter was put in writing was in the 2005 press release announcing his decision not to prosecute, but said his decision was meant to shield Cosby from prosecution "for all time."
The decision by trustees to halt Hannah-Jones tenure submission has sparked a torrent of criticism from within the community. It ultimately revealed a depth of frustration over the schools failure to answer longstanding concerns about the treatment of Black faculty, staff and students.

On Wednesday afternoon, protesters had been turned back earlier in an attempt to enter the building where the meeting was being held. About 75 students, organized by the campus Black Student Movement, had gathered outside before the meeting started, then were allowed into a ballroom of the Carolina Inn as the meeting began.

But once the board voted to go into closed session to discuss the tenure issue, the students refused to go. Law enforcement was brought in to make them leave.

Students chanted No Justice! No Peace! as they were shoved into a hallway outside the room. They continued to shout, with some using a bullhorn.

One protester said she was punched in the face.

When an officer told Julia Clark to move back, she took that to mean the officer felt threatened.

Be afraid, said Clark, who is the vice president of the UNC Black Student Movement. Be afraid. I want you to be scared because we are scared on this campus every day.
Hanford City Councilman Art Brieno looks over documents as City Attorney Bob Dowd talks about the city's censure resolution against Brieno in this March 5 file photo.
Come late July, the grass might be looking a lot greener in those Montana cities that dont rely on the states faltering stream flows for their municipal water, as an early-summer heat wave shows no sign of relenting.

In Bozeman, Helena, Butte and Dillon  all of which depend at least in part on mountain streams or reservoirs for their drinking water supply  authorities are either asking or telling residents to cut back on nonessential water use. And if the current forecast of 90-degree temperatures and precipitation-free days continues, those restrictions could ratchet up.

With the hot weather, everybody wants to water their lawns every day, or sometimes twice a day, Dillon Mayor Mike Klakken said Tuesday, after his city issued an ordinance restricting hours for outdoor water use.

Along with four wells, Dillon relies on a pair of reservoirs to supply municipal water to its 4,300 residents, Klakken said. As of last weekend, the larger of the two reservoirs, which has a maximum water elevation of 23 feet, was down to just 6 feet.

Thats when we got nervous, because if a fire happened and we had to take a lot of water, its possible that would have sucked dry then, he said. Weve got to keep it at at least halfway or a little higher.
My high school history teacher was a racist. How do I know this? It was near the end of the school year when our American history class had an informal discussion on the sit-in demonstrations and other civil rights protests that were then in the news. He chimed in: "Well, how would feel if you were sitting at a counter eating lunch when a big black (N-word) came in and plopped down beside you?"

Some of us were surprised but not shocked. After all, we were all raised in a nearly all-white small town in Colorado and most of us had learned both at home and at school all about the "inferiority" of folks with skin darker than ours. And I shared more than a few racist jokes.

Naturally, the history we were taught was the whitewashed version of our nation's past  manifest destiny, white man's burden, the whole mythology. Over the years, at least I hope, much of this has changed. That's why I find it difficult to comprehend why so many white, Republican politicians are weighing in about the evils of so-called critical race theory.
CHICAGO  A monument to journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was unveiled Wednesday in Chicago.

Officially called The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument, the commemoration created by sculptor Richard Hunt was dedicated in the South Side neighborhood where Wells lived out her life.

The monument has three bronze columns that support intertwined bronze sheets twisted into coils and spirals. One observer had trouble describing the abstraction at the top of the monument, asking if it was a hat or a crown of thorns. She was more certain about the columns.

It is interesting, spectator Roberta Trotter told the Chicago Tribune. I just want to know what the artist thinks before I say more. But I do see a strong base. That, I understand  Ida was a strong woman.

Granddaughter Michelle Duster said traditional busts and statues of Wells were considered, but she and others pushing for the monument preferred something interpretive, which she said projects Wells better than the literal.

The monument to Wells was financed by contributions made during a fundraising campaign over several years led by Duster. It sits on the site of the Ida B. Wells Homes, a housing project constructed in the 1930s, torn down in 2011 and replaced with market rate and subsidized housing.

Hopefully it becomes a point of pride to Bronzeville, the kind of thing people want to serve as a backdrop to their lives here, Duster said. "Thats what I want  a gathering spot.

Congress Parkway, a major street in Chicagos business district, was renamed for Wells in 2019.

Wells, who was born a slave in 1862 in Mississippi, was a 30-year-old newspaper editor in Memphis, Tennessee, when she began her campaign against lynching. Wells' crusade was prompted by the 1892 lynching of a man whose first child was her godchild. She traveled the South over several months interviewing witnesses and reading reports of similar events, which she published in the newspaper she co-owned and edited, The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight.

In 2020, Wells was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the lynching of African Americans.

Although she was threatened frequently because of her work, she helped to found several civil rights organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of Colored Women.

Wells died of kidney disease on March 25, 1931, at 68.

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I know a thing or two about the intoxication of instant fame. When then-President Donald Trump blocked me on Twitter a few years ago  I am a survivor of stage 4 cancer who had posted a comment criticizing his latest health care plan  it briefly became an international story.

It was sort of thrilling, so I do get why Republicans in Congress enjoy the media stoplight. But still, the question should be asked, What is your spotlight for?

This years cast of QAnon-flavored Republican stars are conducting a reality-show circus, where showmanship is the purpose and were the unwilling audience. They have put their desire for attention above all else. Passing legislation and constituent services is an afterthought at best. They are focused more on building their personal brands and becoming stars of the TV circuit and Twittersphere.

Consider two of the GOPs rising stars: QAnon-friendly extremist Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

In September 2019, Boebert grabbed the mic from presidential candidate Beto ORourke at a rally in Aurora, four hours away from her home in Rifle, and rocketed to online fame. She jumped into a GOP primary to keep the spotlight. Unfortunately for Colorado, she won.

Boebert has no interest in legislation. She spoke out against the Equality Act on the floor of the U.S. House, but missed a vote on the act itself while tweeting through it. Along with more than a dozen other Republicans, she was too busy heading off to the cameras at CPAC in Florida to bother doing her job.

Following Taylor Greenes support of hate speech and violence against Democrats, her committee assignments were stripped away. She did not care, exclaiming, Ive been freed. What she was freed to do, it turns out, is to continue the trolling and stunts to get more press and TV cameras.

Meanwhile, freshman Congressman Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina has created a whole TV-ready backstory around his disability. But like the top reality stars, his self-created story is reality-adjacent at best; he has misrepresented his personal and business history, and misled the public about training for the Paralympics.

And Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is more concerned about decrying cancel culture than doing his job; in 2017, he cast the lone vote against a bill to stop sex trafficking, an offense for which he has been credibly accused. Gaetz has reportedly told associates that he is considering not running for reelection to take a job at Newsmax, a right-wing media outlet.

All of these Republican politicians have learned from the best: Our former reality television star president, Donald Trump, blazed the trail for those seeking to use the spectacle of public office to cash in.

No ethos? No worries, run for office anyway. No policies? No problem, as long as you maintain hold of the microphone. In their pursuit of 15 minutes of fame, they treat the lives of everyday Americans like the rest of us as collateral damage.

But we cant just watch the show; this isnt a television program. The words and their votes of these elected officials have real-life repercussions. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was bounced out of Republican leadership for being a little more attuned to reality than reality TV, but current leadership has left reality behind.

After four years of Trumps antics, many Americans have turned down the volume and changed the channel, but his mid-season replacements continue. Its on all of us, the voters in the audience and the show producers in the media to say enough is enough, and cancel them all.

Laura Packard is a Denver-based health care advocate and progressive digital consultant.

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Tunnel vision was the way the H&R editorial board lambasted the Illinois General Assembly for its handling of the SAFE-T Act. The editorial writers should have been careful not to analyze the issue in the same manner.

The act reworks many portions of the criminal justice system. The board blithely dismisses the progressive reforms in detainee rights, use-of-force procedures and cash bail. There may be fantastic and logical reasons behind the actions of the legislature, the editorial suggested. Not fantastic enough to devote even a sentence of analysis, apparently.

If the law would prevent police from doing their work, how about at least one example?

The editorial then conflates increased attention to police behavior with an assault on public safety. Its a leap of logic to state that criminals have been emboldened by the passage of the SAFE-T Act. Not one example is offered to support such a claim.

Speakers at council meetings have cried out for more police and more respect for the current officers. Those are valid issues: Council members should provide the maximum protection practical for Decatur, and people should avoid taking the officers who do their dangerous work for granted.

However, efforts to study police training and conduct commonly run up against the protest that they are an attack on police themselves. If there is not an open, honest discussion on how law enforcement is practiced in Illinois and elsewhere, deep divisions among portions of the community may worsen.

So, lets see what comes of the review of the SAFE-T Act. Legislators, listen thoroughly to law enforcement as they describe their objections to the proposal. Listen, too, to other participants in the criminal justice process if they have objections to the act.

Meanwhile, lets leave the tunnel vision mudslinging alone.

Dick Zaker, Decatur

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BRISTOL, Va.  A Bristol, Tennessee woman was charged Tuesday with malicious wounding and possessing a firearm by a convicted felon in the shooting of a man following an argument last Thursday.

According to Bristol Virginia Police Sgt. Steve Crawford, Breanna Fleenor, 30, approached Ronald Butler, 39, of Bristol, Tennessee, while he sat in his car in the parking lot of Eastridge Apartment Complex on Portsmouth Avenue.

Butler drove to the apartment complex to meet a friend, police said. After realizing his friend had fallen asleep, Butler decided to sleep in his SUV, Crawford said.

Authorities said Fleenor began threatening the victim with a handgun over an earlier altercation regarding some property. Crawford said Butler previously dated Fleenors mother.

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Police said Fleenor then shot into the SUV, hitting Butler once in the shoulder. He was transported to the Bristol Regional Medical Center emergency room and released hours later.
Jones said he couldnt provide the list  at least not that night, according to his answer.

We have several line items in our budget, and we want $2 million for capital projects, and theres other places that well be spending money, Jones said. But for me to stand here tonight and tell you exactly where that [roughly $8 million] is going to be spent, no one can do that.

Jones question about whether the commission could produce its own list for how it would spend $3.8 million drew no response.

King moved forward with the motion, which easily passed.

The commissioners question about school system spending wasnt the only source of heat that evening. In the public comment period before King made his motion, Bluff City resident Lena Smith and her son, Kevin, both pleaded with the commission not to raise property taxes. They said the community is still reeling from the economic blows of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now was not a good time to ask residents for more money.

Multiple people in attendance also asked the County Commission not to go forward with its proposal to lower the proportion of property taxes and increase the proportion of sales taxes going to all of the various school systems in the county.
We head to Mount Brento in Italy to meet some of the best base jumpers in the world.
The question is how, given such constraints, the U.S. can protect its own vital interests. To start, the mission needs to be defined carefully. As one top U.S. commander has already suggested, that likely means limiting targets to global threats such as al-Qaida and Islamic State. Even then, the U.S. wont be able to maintain constant pressure on such groups as it does now. The priorities should be to disrupt attacks on the U.S. and its allies, and to destroy bases and training camps where recruits might gather.

Achieving even those more modest goals will require new sources of intelligence, which need to be developed quickly. The U.S. should be investing now in increasing Afghan capabilities. It should also deepen relationships with local power brokers and ethnic leaders, who have their own reasons to oppose foreign extremists.

It might also be worth exploring a more formal intelligence-sharing arrangement with Afghanistans neighbors in the region. Whatever their differences with the U.S., China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan all know that they are equally if not more vulnerable to attacks emanating from Afghanistan. Once U.S. troops are out of the region, they should be more willing to support targeted counterterrorism efforts.
By Katharine Houreld and Giulia Paravicini

ADIGRAT/ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - The northern highlands of Ethiopia became a global byword for famine in the mid-1980s, when drought and conflict combined to create a disaster that killed as many as one million people. Now hunger is stalking the Tigray region again, and a senior UN official alleges that starvation is being used as a weapon of war.

More than 350,000 of Tigray's nearly 6 million people are living in famine conditions, according to an analysis by United Nations agencies and global aid groups first reported by Reuters on Thursday. Nearly 2 million others are one step away from such dire deprivation, they said. Ethiopia has disputed these estimates.

Fighting since November between Ethiopia's government and the region's ousted ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), has displaced more than 2 million people. The conflict broke out just before the main harvest, with each side blaming the other. The neighbouring country of Eritrea and the next-door Ethiopian region of Amhara sent forces in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government.

In some of his strongest public comments to date on the crisis, the UN's top humanitarian official, Mark Lowcock, accused Eritrean forces of "trying to deal with the Tigrayan population by starving them." In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Lowcock said Eritrean soldiers and local fighters are deliberately blocking supplies to the more than 1 million people in areas outside government control. "Food is definitely being used as a weapon of war."

Ethiopia's government, the United Nations and aid agencies have delivered food and other help to some 3.3 million Tigray residents since March, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. But most of that aid is going to government-controlled areas, Lowcock said.

Eritrea - which fought a brutal border war against Ethiopia in 1998-2000, when the TPLF dominated the central government - didn't respond to questions for this article. Minister of Information Yemane Gebremeskel has previously said accusations that Eritrean soldiers are blocking or looting aid are "fabricated."

Story continues

The Ethiopian military, the prime minister's office and the head of a national taskforce on Tigray did not respond to requests for comment on Lowcock's remarks. At a June 3 news conference, Abiy's spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, dismissed accusations that the country's defence forces are using food as a weapon as baseless and politically motivated.

Mitiku Kassa, head of Ethiopia's National Disaster Risk Management Commission, which manages the government's crisis response, accused the TPLF, the former ruling party, of attacking food trucks and aid personnel, but didn't respond to a request for examples. He told reporters on Wednesday that more than 90% of people in Tigray had been provided aid. "We dont have any food shortage," he said.

The UN, however, has said it has received reports from local Tigrayan officials of more than 150 people starving to death. Lowcock said he believed many more had died but could not provide a figure. He is already seeing echoes of the "colossal tragedy" of the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia, he said. "Its not outlandish  to think that could happen (again) if action to tackle the problem doesn't improve."

In the fertile lands of western Tigray, farmers abandoned fields full of sorghum, teff and sesame to escape the violence, Reuters reporting shows. Some residents accused Amhara forces of stealing their crops and livestock, or chasing them off their farms. In northern and eastern Tigray, farmers told Reuters that soldiers from Eritrea had torched their crops and grain stores, and slaughtered oxen needed for ploughing.

An estimated 90% of the harvest for 2020 was lost, according to the UN's analysis. Some farmers said they were now eating the seeds they needed to plant the next crop.

Gizachew Muluneh, spokesman for the Amhara regional administration, told Reuters that Amhara forces would never steal crops, livestock or block aid.

GROWING NEED

In the paediatric ward of Adigrat General Hospital, about 30 km from the Eritrea border, Adan Muez huddled beneath a warm blanket in mid-March, his skeletal frame too weak to lift up his head and eyes closed despite the chatter around him.

The 14-year-old used to be "strong as a lion," his uncle Tadesse Aregawi said at the boy's bedside, as Adan laboured to breathe. But when he was admitted earlier that month, he weighed barely 14.9 kilograms, or 33 pounds - about a third of the normal weight for his age.

The family had spent more than three months hiding in a cave to escape Eritrean soldiers, who they heard had been killing and raping people, Tadesse said - charges denied by the Eritrean government.

They survived on a handful of roasted barley per day; six other people from their village of Tsasie died of hunger and illness while in hiding, Tadesse said.

"When we came back to the village, there was nothing left - no cattle, no food, no water. Someone donated clothes to us," he said, a coat hanging off his skinny frame.

He said the family had received food aid only once since then - 20 kilos of wheat for 10 people.

Like many malnourished children, Adan had a complicating health issue - he has a gastric ulcer that makes it hard to digest some food, including certain types of grain, his medical records showed.

On May 4, the hospital referred him to another facility in the regional capital, Mekelle, a doctor at Adigrat told Reuters. Adigrat had run out of the fortified milk used to treat malnourished children. But doctors in Mekelle could find no record of Adan's admission. Reuters was unable to reach the family to find out what happened to him. Officials at Adigrat hospital say they don't know what happened after Adan's discharge.

Information on the extent of malnutrition in Tigray is spotty. Healthcare facilities were heavily damaged in the fighting, and many are barely functioning. Soldiers block main roads for weeks at a time, and much of the region still has no functioning cell phone service.

Figures collected by the UN children's agency UNICEF and shared with Reuters offer a rare snapshot of the worsening crisis.

In March, 1,187 children were treated for "severe wasting" at hospitals covering about a third of Tigray. That's about the same number who would have been treated in the entire region before the war, UNICEF said. In April, the number rose to 1,723. In May, it reached 2,931.

The international medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs mobile clinics in some remote rural areas, said it had seen "alarming" levels of malnutrition. About 19% of children visiting its clinics in May were malnourished, MSF told Reuters. More than 4% were suffering from the most severe form of malnutrition and could die without care.

AID BLOCKED, LOOTED

Hunger is a perennial threat in Tigray, a heavily agricultural region prone to drought and locust plagues. Its population is overwhelmingly ethnic Tigrayan. The TPLF dominated Ethiopia's government for almost three decades until 2018, when protests swept one of Africa's most repressive regimes from power. The TPLF then retrenched to its home region. In November 2020, the federal government drove the TPLF from the regional capital and installed a new interim administration in Tigray.

Most people are subsistence farmers whose stone houses dot carefully terraced fields.

Nearly a million were already dependent on food aid before the conflict between the federal government and the TPLF began. The number in need of emergency food has now soared to 5.2 million, or 91% of Tigray's population, according to the UN World Food Program.

The government refused to let aid convoys into the region for the first five weeks of fighting, citing safety concerns. Although access has improved since December, weekly reports from OCHA show swathes of Tigray remain out of reach.

Persistent clashes have blocked access to many rural areas, according to the UN. In the month of May, OCHA had recorded some 130 incidents of aid agencies being turned away at checkpoints and of staff being assaulted, interrogated or hindered from working in the region. Lowcock told Reuters Eritreans were "clearly" responsible for 50 such incidents and men in Ethiopian military uniforms for 50 others. Volunteer militiamen from Amhara were responsible for 27 incidents, he said. Tigrayan opposition forces also hindered operations on at least one occasion.

At least 10 aid workers have been killed in the conflict, Lowcock said. They include an employee of the Relief Society of Tigray - a partner of the U.S. Agency for International Development - who was shot dead on April 28 in the central Kola Tembien district. The U.S. Embassy released a statement on May 20 saying Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers had reportedly shot him.

"According to eyewitnesses, he clearly identified himself as a humanitarian worker and pleaded for his life before he was killed," the statement said. Neither the Ethiopian military nor the Eritrean government responded to Reuters' questions about the killing.

Ethiopian soldiers and their allies from the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) were still turning away aid vehicles at checkpoints and assaulting and detaining aid workers in the northern, central and southeastern zones of Tigray this month, according to 11 internal UN reports reviewed by Reuters and interviews with five aid workers.

The region's justice bureau head, Abera Nigus, a Tigrayan, said the issue of food-aid access was being discussed at weekly meetings between the military and the interim administration in Tigray. For the past two months, he said, he has repeatedly raised problems with Eritrean soldiers blocking food trucks along the road between two major towns, Axum and Adwa, with no results.

"The food blockage is not an accident - it is very purposefully done," Abera said.

Reuters sent detailed questions to government officials in Ethiopia and Eritrea about obstructions to food supplies but did not receive a response.

NEXT YEAR'S CROP IN PERIL

Abebe Gebrehiwot, deputy head of the Tigray interim administration, told Reuters that Eritrean soldiers were now preventing farmers from planting the next crop, while Amhara regional forces were blocking the transportation of agricultural supplies, such as seeds, into Tigray.

"It is not Ethiopian national defence forces that campaign against farming, it is the Eritrean defence force. The other challenge is coming from Amhara region militia or special forces," Abebe told Reuters in a text message. "We are on good terms with the Ethiopian military force."

But a senior Tigrayan regional official told Reuters that both countries' militaries were chasing farmers from their fields.

"This is the case for the past month  primarily Eritreans but also Ethiopian forces. They say, don't plough. Go away," he said.

Eritrean and Ethiopian officials didn't respond to questions from Reuters. Billene, the Ethiopian prime minister's spokesperson, has previously denied that farmers are being prevented from going about their work.

In the town of Ziban Gedena, in northwestern Tigray, Eritrean soldiers had burned 150 houses, killed 300 civilians, looted or slaughtered 90% of oxen and livestock, burnt and stolen harvests and set fire to animal fodder, according to notes from a UN briefing after a June 6 visit. Continuing harassment from Eritrean forces meant that no one was plowing the land for the next crop, farmers told aid workers.

Many villages on the main road to Adwa are deserted, and no work on the land is taking place, a report from an aid agency noted last week.

PROBLEMS IN THE WEST

The UN's warning of famine conditions did not contain an assessment on western Tigray, now under the control of Amhara regional forces who claim the area as their own. The UN said it didn't have sufficient data from there.

Driving through the area in March, Reuters saw fields of damaged crops left to rot. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have fled the area, many saying they were driven out by Amhara forces, including a part-time militia known as Fano.

Mizan Berhanu, 23, said he left the town of Division in March, finding shelter at an overcrowded school in Shire, a town 150 km to the northeast, to where many from western Tigray are fleeing.

"Fano and Amhara police were robbing everyone's cows," he said. "Anyone who followed them was shot at."

Gizachew, the Amhara regional spokesman, said western Tigray was now part of Amhara. He rejected the accusations that Amhara forces had taken grain or livestock. "Amhara forces are not robbers," he said. "They are keeping people from TPLF dangers." Neither Fano nor Amhara police responded to questions from Reuters. Fano has previously denied looting.

Few of the new arrivals in Shire could find space in the crowded classrooms; even the space under trees had been taken. The town is hosting over half a million people, according to the UNs analysis.

Local authorities said they are unable to feed them all.

At a gathering of farmers at the agricultural office in Shire in March, representatives from nearby districts told Reuters that their crops had been torched, their ploughing oxen stolen and the seeds they would have planted burnt or eaten. Most were supporting relatives who had fled violence elsewhere.

"The children are coughing and getting diarrhea. We eat once a day," said Mekonnen Lake, an Ethiopian Orthodox priest from central Tigray, who has 13 displaced relatives living with him. Half his harvest had to be abandoned due to fighting, and the half he had gathered in was burned, he said at the meeting.

"I think about killing myself, but it is forbidden as a priest," he said.

(Katharine Houreld reported from Adigrat and Giulia Paravicini from Addis Ababa; Additional reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Silvia Aloisi; editing by Alexandra Zavis and Janet McBride)
Chinese President Xi Jinping during the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China. (Credit: Reuters)

Beijing [China], July 1 (ANI): As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) marked 100 years on Thursday, President Xi Jinping stressed on ensuring that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao.

Xi, also the chairman of China's Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the CCP, Xinhua reported.

"We will stay true to the letter and spirit of the principle of One Country, Two Systems, under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong, and the people of Macao administer Macao, both with a high degree of autonomy," he said.

He also highlighted implementing the legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security.

"While protecting China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, we will ensure social stability in Hong Kong and Macao, and maintain lasting prosperity and stability in the two special administrative regions," Xinhua quoted Xi as saying.

The CCP is celebrating its 100th anniversary. It was founded in July 1921, in a small room in Shanghai's then French-controlled district, with a mere 13 people in attendance. Today, it has more than 95 million members, almost 7 per cent of the country's population, reported CNN.

In the meeting where the CCP was born, only two men were present at the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) - former Presidents Mao Zedong and Dong Biwu. The PRC came into existence on October 1, 1949, after a bloody civil war with nationalist party Kuomintang's (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek. Since its formation, it has been redefining its boundaries, culminating in tensions with its neighbours.

The Chinese government occupied Tibet in 1950, destroying 98 per cent of the monasteries and nunneries, and has ever since tried to control the region. More than 1 million people have been killed in Tibet by Chinese forces. During a meeting, Mao had told the 14th Dalai Lama, that "religion is poison."

Story continues

Under Mao's regime, farmers were made to leave to their fields to make steel for build the machinery required for industrialisation. Despite his promises of a "Great Leap Forward", a massive famine swept China, devastating the country and killing as many as 30 million people.

Mao also claimed that the groups opposed to communist ideology needed to be cleansed. As a result, mobs of students known as Red Guards attacked people whom they believed to be harbouring imperialist habits. People were tortured, abused, forced to confess and locked in makeshift camps. This ended with Mao's death in 1976, CNN highlighted.

Under Deng Xiaoping's regime, China witnessed the worst episode of stifling free speech, when the death of a popular Chinese politician sparked nationwide pro-democracy protests, including the largest one in Tiananmen Square.

On June 4, the Chinese military opened fire on the protesting citizens, killing at least 241 people, although human rights groups have estimated that thousands could have been killed in Beijing alone, according to CNN. The incident led to sanctions and international condemnation.

Since the massacre, the CCP has silenced calls for democracy and civil liberties.

In 2012, Xi took power as the Chinese President and became one of the most powerful leaders of the country. Under his regime, almost two million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been detained in internment camps in Xinjiang since 2017.

After years of denying the existence of the internment camps in Beijing, China in 2019 described the facilities as residential training centres that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalisation and help protect the country from terrorism.

However, several media reports and former detainees have said that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities. Former detainees have also described being subjected to torture, rape, sterilization, and other abuses while in custody.

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, with a handful of countries, the latest being Lithuania, terming the human rights abuses on the ethnic minorities as 'genocide'.

The communist nation is also under fire after the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected and killed millions of people around the world. Many countries have called for a greater investigation in China's Wuhan to uncover the origins of the deadly virus.

It has also been locked in tensions with its neighbours, such as Japan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan regarding the South China Sea, over which it claims full sovereignty and has passed a controversial law allowing it to fire upon any vessel it sees entering illegally into its waters. (ANI)
Under the system, voters could rank up to five candidates in order of preference.

Since no candidate was the first choice of more than 50% of voters, a computer on Tuesday tabulated ballots in a series of rounds that worked like instant run-offs.

In each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated. Votes cast for that person are then redistributed to the surviving candidates, based on whoever voters put next on their ranking list. That process repeats until only two candidates are left.

Adams lead shrank significantly in Wednesday's figures because he didn't do nearly as well as Garcia among voters whose first choices were Wiley or 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the other top candidates.

Garcia and Yang campaigned together, and she was the top alternative pick among his supporters. A little more than half of Wileys backers went to Garcia as an alternate choice, while only 20% supported Adams.

In all, more than 117,000 voters didnt rank either Adams or Garcia anywhere on their ballots. Thats 14% of the votes counted so far.

Versions of the ranked choice system have been used in U.S. cities including San Francisco and Minneapolis for years and in statewide races in Maine.
PARIS (AP)  France and Mexico signed an agreement Thursday on cooperating against the trafficking of cultural artifacts, a deal that the Mexican foreign minister called an important step toward recovering and protecting Mexico's cultural heritage.

Details of the deal weren't immediately released.

It came after Mexico lodged a complaint with the French government against a big auction of pre-Hispanic sculptures and other artifacts by Christies of Paris earlier this year. Paris auction houses often sell Indigenous artifacts that are already on the art market, despite protests from activists who say they should be returned to their native lands.

In signing the cooperation agreement, the French and Mexican foreign ministers acknowledged Thursday that their countries have different laws around cultural objects but promised to work together in the future to fight trafficking of artwork.

The recuperation and protection of our cultural goods is a huge issue for us," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said. I am happy that on this occasion France accompanies us and supports this initiative despite our legal systems being very different. We havent always shared the same posture, but this agreement is very positive.

He said the agreement includes mechanisms "to impede in the maximum way possible the commercialization  which is illegal  of pieces that are important for the historical and cultural patrimony of Mexico.

The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History protested the Christies Paris sale earlier this year. The collection included a 1,500-year-old stone mask from the ancient city of Teotihuacan, and an ancient statue of the fertility goddess Cihuateotl, apparently from the Totonac culture. The auction brought in more than $3 million.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Pity the kids movie that follows Pixar's act.

The Walt Disney Co.'s animation studio has long been a standard bearer that can be tough to match. But even knowing the inevitable drop-off to come, The Boss Baby: Family Business is still an awfully steep slide from the splendid, shimmering Luca.

The Dreamworks sequel to 2017's (checks notes) Oscar-nominated The Boss Baby" again pushes a simple, funny but difficult to elaborate on image  a baby in suit  to zany extremes. It was a good enough conceit for Marla Frazee's original children's book; toddlers can indeed be tyrants. But each movie has hyperactively swaddled that thin premise with a frenetic, over-plotted, off-the-wall cartoon blitz.

Director Tom McGrath (the Madagascar movies) returns for The Boss Baby: Family Business (in theaters and streaming on Peacock on Friday), and fast forwards to adulthood. Older brother Tim (James Marsden, taking over for Tobey Maguire) has grown up to be a stay-at-home dad married to the high-powered Carol (Eva Longoria), with their science-obsessed, high-achieving daughter, Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), and infant Tina (Amy Sedaris).

Boss Baby Ted (Alec Baldwin, adding to his closet of suits, including Donald Trump, Jack Donaghy and Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross) has, naturally, turned into a hedge fund CEO. The brothers have drifted apart, while still harboring Ted's secret that he was an agent for Baby Corp., a conglomerate that makes an adult-intelligence-giving baby formula. The movie opens with Tim lamenting that childhood only comes once, but Boss Baby is a totem to the truism that adults and children aren't really so different, and are sometimes even interchangeable.

Tina turns out to be a Baby Corp. agent, too, and she summons Tim and Ted back to the conglomerate for a new mission  shrinking back to their ages in the last movie to go undercover and investigate the principal, Dr. Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum, spookily clownish) of Tabitha's school. Dr. Armstrong is cooking up a baby revolution that's completely absurd yet not without its merits. The school pageant, which Tabitha is anxiously preparing for, bluntly lays climate change at the feet of an older generation. In a bit that recalls the similarly colorful but much better The Mitchells vs. the Machines," Dr. Armstrong's plot preys on parents' addiction to smart phones. The young, of course, have good reason to think they could do better with the world.

The plot is so madcap, with running gags tossed in along the way, that Family Business feels designed to prompt dizzied parents to plea for plot pointers from their diminutive movie companions. It's a manic movie in a familiarly corporate kind of way that provides kids with a computer-generated candy rush. The movie's own business imperatives occasionally show through like a leaky diaper.

But I will say, Boss Baby grows on you a little. There's a dazzlingly animated scene shared between kid-sized Tim and his daughter Tabitha on creativity and being yourself set to Cat Stevens' If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out." It's a good enough moment to redeem Family Business," even if you're still tempted to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"Boss Baby: Family Business, a Universal release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for rude humor, mild language and some action. Running time: 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.



Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Cooper vetoed 25 bills in 2017, three in 2018, 14 in 2019, 11 in 2020 and three so far in 2021.

The latest version of SB116 also makes permanent changes to work-search requirements that significantly stiffen eligibility criteria, such as a claimant must respond within 48 hours of an employers interview request.

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Moore said on June 3 in advocating for SB116 on the House floor that the perceived worker shortage in North Carolina is probably one of the more critical issues that we are now dealing with.

This bill is the way to restore strength in our economy, and finally move forward, to put this pandemic in the rear-view mirror.

Bell claims that polling is clear that on both sides of the aisle (that) people want to end the extra federal unemployment benefits and get our state back to work.

Every day, I hear from local businesses who cannot find employees to fill open jobs. I encourage the governor to sign this bipartisan legislation without delay.
The characters are a woman in her pajamas, a wannabe jock and a hippie.

Other pieces are Searching for You, the concert stage premiere of The Date and the world premiere of So Long, which is choreographed by Terpsicorps ballet master Christopher Bandy.

According to the playbill So Long is a whimsical work in four movements, choreographed in memory of a time we collectively will never forget. This new work is dedicated to all those we have lost to COVID-19. May their memories bring us joy and gratitude as we return to our lives.

The final piece is Famous Last Words, a world premiere commissioned for the Beethoven Rocks Winston-Salem Festival, that is subtitled or ... Ill pick up toilet paper next week, theres plenty at home.

Maloy said Famous Last Words starts with a comedian who quotes many famous last words of famous people.

For this piece, the performers will go through 23 rolls of toilet paper.

The idea of Famous Last Words would be right before the pandemic if you were out and somebody even offered you toilet paper, youd be. I dont need any toilet paper. And then you couldnt get any, Maloy said.
Krawiec said she agreed with that assessment.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools doesnt have a specific comment on the pending legislation, spokesman Brent Campbell said on June 23.

What I can say is we will always consult and collaborate with state and local health officials to provide the best guidelines and regulations possible that keep student and staff health and safety at the forefront.

Rep. David Willis, R-Union, said during the June 23 House floor debate that its time to give them the opportunity to take off the masks, to return to class as normal, and to get into a position where they can start to rebuild the confidence and the camaraderie that theyve had with their friends, with their classmates, and with their teachers, and to rebuild those relationships, to overcome the obstacles that we have put on them over the past year.

Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe, cited concerns that bill sponsors may be minimizing the current statewide presence of COVID-19, including in school settings.

Fisher suggested the best way to help students is for the legislature to provide funding for more school nurses and counselors.

Current status
The restaurant may have been experiencing reduced earnings after Sun Holdings bought that location and 40 other IHOP restaurants in October 2020 from another franchisee that went bankrupt in the spring of 2020, Miranda said.

Some of these people had been there for a long time, Miranda said of the employees who didnt initially get their pay. In the middle of the pandemic, it was hard to find other jobs.

In its statement, Siembra NC featured the story of Rosa Gonzalez that went viral in social media on May 1 after co-worker Vanessa Becerril posted a video on TikTok showing a group of IHOP employees walking out of the kitchen in the middle of their shift. The group took that action after Gonzalez was denied pay she was owed for 80 hours of work, Siembra NC said.

In less than 48 hours, Becerrils video had received millions of views and public demands that Gonzalez be paid were being posted all over the restaurants social media, Siembra NC said.

As a result of the pressure, a regional manager soon delivered a paycheck to Gonzalez, paying her for all the hours that she worked, the organization said. A week later, the remaining employees marched together to the restaurant to collect their paychecks, including wages they had been denied from previous months, the organization said.

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South Florida's warm climate could also help, as they're not exposed to overnight cold.

There are those who have survived despite all the odds, and I have no doubt that part of it is just that will to survive" that even science cannot explain, said Dr. David Shatz, a trauma surgeon who for 12 years was assistant medical director of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department.

Now a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, Shatz has been closely monitoring the rescue effort from afar. For years he worked shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the rescuers now toiling at the fallen condo tower.

He also recalled being part of the bucket brigade at the federal building in Oklahoma City, which was brought down by a truck filled with explosives. And he was at the World Trade Center digging through concrete, glass and metal after the 9/11 terror attacks.

With every bit of debris he cleared away, he hoped that underneath would be a person to rescue. But for all its efforts, his team never found anyone alive.

Still, the search must go on, he said. If nothing else, to recover bodies and bring closure to grieving families  and just maybe, for that singular, miraculous rescue.
Lowe said bill sponsors reviewed legislation in piecing together SB711.

We realized that for some states, it has worked out well, while for others it was just a recreational product, Lowe said. Thats not the goal with this particular bill on our state.

Rabon said on June 23 that to some people, it is a contentious issue, and to some people it is not.

I happen to be one who it is not. I know how rough it is to go through chemo and how bad it is to wake up every day and think it may be your last day on Earth.

There is nothing less compassionate on this Earth than to watch a person you love suffer when there is something that can ameliorate that suffering.

Rabon said that legalizing medical marijuana isnt guaranteeing that those who could use it will live a day longer.

But I can say that every day they are alive, they will live better.

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Can it help?

Wednesdays debate drew  as expected  impassioned advocacy from lawmakers and members of the public including cancer survivors and military veterans.
Few Democratic voters support defunding the police. Seventy-two percent of likely Democratic voters in New York Citys mayoral primary agreed that there should be more police officers on the street, an online poll last month by NY1 with IPSOS found. Only 20% disagreed.

Biden himself rejected defund calls during the presidential campaign. Arguing for the $350 billion in aid to states and municipalities contained in the COVID relief legislation this year, he warned on at least three occasions that such funds were needed because police officers were at risk of losing their jobs.

Contrast that with McCarthy, who, well before opposing this years relief bill, voted against funding for the COPS program in 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011 (twice) and 2009.

Or contrast it with Banks, who was challenged on Fox News Sunday by host Chris Wallace: You voted against that package, against that $350 billion, just like every other Republican in the House and Senate. So cant you make the argument that its you and the Republicans who are defunding the police? Banks tried to change the subject.
If Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had said that, conservatives would be demanding her resignation and burning her in effigy. But because its Carlson, the biggest flamethrower on the right, who regularly tells them who and what to be mad about, theyre giving him a pass.

The Leandro Plan

I read Kris Nordstroms June 26 column, The state is failing our students  again. I have no idea what failure Nordstrom was complaining about. He referenced the need to provide students with what he called the sound basic education that they are owed  In fact, he mentioned what they are owed five times. But search as I might, I could not find any explanation of what they are owed but not receiving. No details. He mentioned something called the Leandro Plan, but he never explained what that is. Perhaps we are supposed to know. He said that the plan can be implemented without any tax increases, which is incredible, since everything new eventually has to be paid for.
The Omaha World-Herald reported that Nebraska has the widest gap in the nation between the percentage of urban residents who are vaccinated compared with the percentage of rural residents.

While Lancaster and Douglas counties have both vaccinated more than 60% of adults, many counties, especially in central and western Nebraska, are below 40%.

However, those counties have not seen spikes in cases or hospitalizations so far.

Anthone said he thinks the gap looks somewhat high because Lancaster, Douglas and some other urban counties have done a really good job getting people vaccinated.

COVID-19 variants are a concern that state officials are monitoring, especially the Delta variant that originated in India and has been linked to more and more cases in the U.S.

Nebraska so far has not seen a lot of cases caused by the Delta variant, but that could be because we are lagging behind other states.

Anthone said the percentage of recent cases caused by the Delta variant in Nebraska is growing, just as it is across the country.

The good news, he said, is that research has shown the COVID-19 vaccines to be effective against the Delta variant. That's why it remains important for people to get the vaccine.
Monolith is expected to start construction sometime in the next three months and hopes to have the new plants operating sometime in 2024.

The company's presence has generally been welcomed in southwest Lancaster County, but the well permits have caused some controversy. Some residents of the area have raised concerns about the amount of water Monolith will use.

Darin Schwaninger, who lives within a couple of miles of the plant, has five irrigation wells and two for residential use. He's concerned that the amount of water Monolith will use could lower water levels in the area, which could require him and other irrigators to have to spend more money to deepen wells and/or buy bigger motors to run them.

In the worst-case scenario of a prolonged drought, he's also worried that water restrictions could be placed on area residents.

Monolith would be subject to the same or even stricter limits than other users, but Schwaninger worries that they would be hard to enforce.

"There's too much money involved for them to stop producing what they're producing," he said. "They're not going to idle the plant if my water level drops 10 feet."
Crime-and-courts

editor's pick topical alert top story

At death penalty hearing, state aims to prove Bailey Boswell's actions were 'depraved'

GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Bailey Boswell and defense attorney Jeff Pickens listen to opening statements in the first day of Boswell's death penalty hearing at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star FBI Special Agent Eli McBride testifies during the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon (left) and Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus listen during the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Doug Warner gives opening remarks at the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Doug Warner (left) gives opening remarks at the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Todd Lancaster, defense attorney for Bailey Boswell, gives opening remarks at Boswell's sentencing hearing on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Todd Lancaster, defense attorney for Bailey Boswell, gives opening remarks at Boswell's sentencing hearing on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Doug Warner (right) gives opening remarks at the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Saline County District Court Judge Vicky Johnson calls for opening remarks at the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star Bailey Boswell listens to defense attorney Todd Lancaster (not pictured) during her sentencing hearing on Wednesday at the Saline County Courthouse.

WILBER  Just three weeks after Aubrey Trail was sentenced to death for the 2017 murder and dismemberment of Sydney Loofe, a three-judge panel began hearing evidence Wednesday to determine if Bailey Boswell, Trail's co-conspirator, should get the same punishment.

Boswell would be the first woman in Nebraska to get a death sentence.

Separate juries found Trail, 54, and Boswell, 27, guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for luring Loofe to their Wilber apartment on the night of Nov. 15, 2017, where the 24-year-old Lincoln store clerk was killed and her body dismembered.

At a hearing that started Wednesday in Saline County District Court, prosecutors alleged the killing showed "exceptional depravity," as outlined in state law.

Trail sentenced to die for killing Sydney Loofe; becomes 12th inmate on Nebraska's death row Addressing the Loofe family, Trail said: "I won't say I'm sorry, as that would be an insult to you after what I put you through, and I won't ask for forgiveness as I don't believe there is such a thing."

Assistant Attorney General Doug Warner pointed to planning that Boswell was part of, including steps to conceal her identity when she posted Tinder profiles, and to a medium-sized sauna suit with the crotch cut out and a boxed sex toy found dumped near the remains in rural Clay County, which suggested they'd carried out a sexual fantasy other women said they'd heard them talk about in the months before the killing.

Warner also pointed to the more-than-necessary number of cuts to dismember Loofe's body and superficial cut marks around the tattoo on her arm that said "Everything will be wonderful someday" as signs that Boswell and Trail relished the crime.

On the other side, defense attorney Todd Lancaster said it was evidence only of an effort to get rid of the body.

"That's all it is. It's not something else depraved with some other heinous intention on the mind of whoever's disposing of that body," he said.

Jury finds Boswell guilty of murder in killing of Sydney Loofe The jury foreman said the eight men and four women on the jury were unanimous on the first vote on each count to convict Boswell.

Lancaster said that in Nebraska, mutilation cases that rise to the death penalty have been limited to injuries while the victim still was alive. Not dismemberments after the victim's death, like here.

And he asked the three-judge panel to look with skepticism at statements about torture and killing made months before Loofe's murder.

"The evidence you're going to hear is obviously going to include statements and behaviors and acts done by Aubrey Trail," Lancaster said. "He is not the person that we are determining that these aggravating factors apply to today. It's the state of mind and actions of Bailey Boswell."

Testimony began with FBI Special Agent Eli McBride and photos of the scenes where Loofe's remains had been scattered in ditches in rural Clay County and by afternoon had moved to Michelle Elieff, the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy and concluded Loofe's death was caused by "homicidal means, including strangulation."

With both witnesses came gruesome photos. For some of the worst, Boswell kept her head down, looking away from monitors displaying the images.

Warner questioned Elieff about marks that showed bruises forming in a line, which she said suggested Loofe's wrists had been tied prior to her death. She also had a larger bruise on her thigh, a small bump on the back of her head, a cut ear lobe and scuff marks on her spine.

And he asked about several superficial, linear markings on her body made after her death.

Lancaster objected to those and others showing postmortem injuries, arguing that anything that happened after Loofe's death wasn't relevant to this hearing.

Saline County District Judge Vicky Johnson disagreed and allowed them.

Before Elieff left the stand, Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon, who also is on the panel, asked if she could distinguish between an injury that happened seconds before versus seconds after death.

Elieff said pathologists look at whether there's any evidence of healing, which shows the body reacting.

"How soon after you die does the body quit reacting?" Bataillon asked her.

"Fairly quickly," Elieff said.

When Bataillon pressed how quickly, Elieff said once the heart stops, the body won't react. Though, you may see swelling after death, for instance when someone has a heart attack, collapses and dies.

In the end, Johnson, Bataillon and Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus would have to find the state proved the aggravator and that it wasn't outweighed by any mitigating circumstances in order for Boswell to get the death penalty.

A separate three-judge panel, which also included Johnson, announced its findings in Trail's case June 9.

On Wednesday, Lancaster tried to offer a transcript of Trail's statement at sentencing taking responsibility for killing Loofe after she freaked out and rejected his and Boswells attempt to recruit her into their crime and sex ring.

Sydney Loofe

Trail maintained that Boswell was not in the room when Loofe was killed, and played only a small role in disposing of her body.

Johnson hasn't yet ruled on whether she'll allow it in over the state's objection.

At Boswell's trial last October, prosecutors said the two worked lockstep to recruit young women in a conspiracy to kill and ultimately chose Loofe as their victim. And that Boswell lured her to their Wilber apartment the night of Nov. 15, 2017, under the guise of a date after matching on Tinder, buying the tools to dismember and dispose of her body hours before picking her up.

Nebraska prison director says they'll draft policy when a woman receives death sentence "As Nebraska has never had a woman sentenced to the death penalty, such a policy has not been necessary," Scott Frakes said in a letter to the top prosecutor in Bailey Boswell's first-degree murder case.

Lancaster contended that Boswell was another of Trail's victims and that, like other women who testified about the pair's talk of witchcraft, torture and killing, he had indoctrinated her to where she feared the punishment he would dole out if she didn't obey.

A jury rejected the idea, finding Boswell guilty of first-degree murder, improper disposal of human skeletal remains and conspiracy to commit murder.

Susie Loofe reported her daughter missing Nov. 16, 2017, a day after Sydney failed to show up for work, and a friend found Boswells Tinder profile, which helped law enforcement launch a massive manhunt that ended in their capture in Missouri.

Bailey Boswell's attorney wants probation office to look into prison's plan if a woman is sentenced to death "The NDCS has a policy and procedure for housing male inmates sentenced to the death penalty, but does not have a specific policy or procedure for housing female inmates sentenced to the death penalty," her attorney said.

Nebraska's 12 death row inmates
On the other side, defense attorney Todd Lancaster said it was evidence only of an effort to get rid of the body.

"That's all it is. It's not something else depraved with some other heinous intention on the mind of whoever's disposing of that body," he said.

Lancaster said that in Nebraska, mutilation cases that rise to the death penalty have been limited to injuries while the victim still was alive. Not dismemberments after the victim's death, like here.

And he asked the three-judge panel to look with skepticism at statements about torture and killing made months before Loofe's murder.

"The evidence you're going to hear is obviously going to include statements and behaviors and acts done by Aubrey Trail," Lancaster said. "He is not the person that we are determining that these aggravating factors apply to today. It's the state of mind and actions of Bailey Boswell."

Testimony began with FBI Special Agent Eli McBride and photos of the scenes where Loofe's remains had been scattered in ditches in rural Clay County and by afternoon had moved to Michelle Elieff, the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy and concluded Loofe's death was caused by "homicidal means, including strangulation."
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday gave its approval to an additional $20 million appropriation for construction of a new U.S. Department of Agriculture research center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The new recommended funding follows on the heels of an earlier allocation of $11.2 million for planning and design of the multi-year project.

If full funding for a new federal ag research center ultimately is acquired, that would signal the end of a long quest for a USDA presence at Nebraska Innovation Campus that began more than a decade ago.

In 2010, former Sen. Ben Nelson had championed the location of a $60 million USDA research center as a vital catalyst and anchor for the new UNL campus, but that effort collapsed when Congress eliminated the use of earmarks to fund projects.

The new USDA center at UNL would focus on "strategic research investments in areas such as agricultural innovation and precision agriculture," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has said.

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Masks will be strongly recommended  but not required  for all Lincoln Public Schools unvaccinated students under the districts proposed back-to-school plan, its updated playbook for navigating the coronavirus pandemic.

Unvaccinated staff members, volunteers and visitors to schools will still be required to mask up, while face coverings will be optional for fully vaccinated staff and students.

The protocols are spelled out in a nine-page draft document, a slimmed-down version of the 600-page playbook local school officials used as a guide last year during the COVID-19 health crisis.

The district consulted guidelines from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in crafting the proposal released Thursday as a requirement of LPS receiving federal virus relief dollars.

The draft signals the district is closer to getting back to normal as vaccination numbers climb and case counts drop, even though vaccines are not yet available for the districts youngest students and as concerns mount about the fast-spreading delta variant.
"(State officials) have woke up the sleeping giant on this one," said Albrecht, who was among the speakers.

She and her fellow senators have been inundated with emails and voicemails from parents objecting to the curriculum, Albrecht said, which served as an impetus for the letter. Albrecht also spearheaded an open letter to the Department of Education signed by 28 senators in April denouncing the standards.

Jeremy Ekeler, associate director for education policy at the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the curriculum an ideological overreach and believes key stakeholders representing the state's private schools weren't at the table when an advisory group conceived them.

"It was not a good process from the get-go," he said.

David Jespersen, a spokesperson for the state Education Department, said they've heard from school boards on both sides of the argument but added that the majority have stayed silent because there is nothing in front of them yet.

A writing team of Nebraska educators is in the process of compiling a second draft, Jespersen added, which will be released this fall. The public will be able to provide feedback on that copy, as well.
Townsell allowed Keeles partner to enter her home under the supervision of her cousin while she waited in her doorway with Keele outside, stating that because of Keeles aggressive behavior, she didnt want him inside her home.

While they waited for Keeles partner to return to the porch, Keele continually asked Townsell how Lafayettes shirt had gotten torn. Townsell was unable to answer the question.

Keele then yelled that Townsell was under arrest, abruptly entered her home and pulled her to the ground by her arm. He then pulled out his stun gun and instructed one of Townsells relatives to back up before handcuffing Townsell and escorting her to the cruiser.

As he took her to the police cruiser, Keele told Townsell that he was adding charges of resisting arrest and obstructing an officer.

Townsell then observed an exchange between Keele and his partner during which the partner told Keele that they hadnt gotten Townsells side of the story and said they needed to contact the sergeant, possibly for arrest authority. Keele said hed already contacted the sergeant, though Townsell hadnt seen or heard him do so when they were outside her home.
Johnson said he approached Noem about making a donation after hearing about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's border barrier push. He figured Texas has plenty of money so he decided to help Noem, who governs a state with a significantly smaller budget. He also said he had no plans to donate to other states to send law enforcement officers to the border.

Johnson added that he would have preferred to stay anonymous but that Noem's office told him they had to at least disclose his name. He declined to say how much he was giving.

America gave a lot of money to get that border wall done, Johnson said. It takes private individuals now.

Noem, a potential presidential contender, drew a distinction between her decision to send the National Guard and other governors who are sending state patrol officers, including Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.

The border is a national security crisis that requires the kind of sustained response only the National Guard can provide, she said in a statement. We should not be making our own communities less safe by sending our police or Highway Patrol to fix a long-term problem President Bidens Administration seems unable or unwilling to solve.
As the desperate search for survivors of the Champlain Towers South collapse came to a sudden pause early Thursday morning, the chief of Nebraskas Task Force 1 paused, too, reflecting on the week behind him and the work ahead.

Brad Thavenet, the only member of Nebraska's Urban Search and Rescue crew dispatched to the collapse sight in Florida, has responded to disasters before. He was in Houston for Hurricane Harvey. He was on hand for Hurricane Maria. He has dealt with the mental grind that comes with 12-hour shifts in the heart of calamity.

"We work a lot of our career kind of under the gun," Thavenet said in a Zoom news conference on Thursday.

Four days after he landed in Surfside to join the Federal Urban Search and Rescue Incident Support Team, Thavenet is bearing the mental toll that accompanies disaster response. There's a sign posted at the site, Thavenet said, to remind rescuers what day it is as they tend to a collapse that has left at least 18 people dead and as many as 145 unaccounted for.

"It's kind of like Groundhog Day," he said. "You kind of start and end, and the next thing you know, eight hours have just transpired and you can't recall exactly what you just did as you're pulled from one meeting to a briefing to a decision-making.
Under the deal, countries could tax their companies' foreign earnings up to 15% if they go untaxed through subsidiaries in other countries. That would remove the incentive to use accounting and legal schemes to shift profits to low-rate countries where they do little or no business, since the profits would be taxed at home anyway. Such tax avoidance practices cost countries between $100 billion and $240 billion in lost revenue annually, according to the OECD.

Not all of the 139 countries that joined the talks signed on to the deal. Ireland's finance ministry said it had broad support for the approach used in the agreement but could not agree to the 15% minimum. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said the country's 12.5% rate is a fair rate. Ireland said it would constructively engage in discussions going forward.

Signers included Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, regarded by economists as tax havens, and major economic powers China and India.
Biden rejected "defund" calls during the presidential campaign. Arguing for the $350 billion in aid to states and municipalities contained in the COVID relief legislation this year, he warned on at least three occasions that such funds were needed because police officers were at risk of losing their jobs.

Contrast that with McCarthy, who, well before opposing this year's relief bill, voted against funding for the COPS program in 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011 (twice) and 2009.

Or contrast it with Banks, who was challenged on "Fox News Sunday" by host Chris Wallace: "You voted against that package, against that $350 billion, just like every other Republican in the House and Senate. So can't you make the argument that it's you and the Republicans who are defunding the police?" Banks tried to change the subject.

Or contrast it with Stefanik, who opposed the legislation that is now funding cops in her district. The Watertown (New York) Daily Times reports that the city is using funds from the American Rescue Plan to reinstate four police positions that had been cut because of a budget squeeze.

Democrats ought to be saying, as Biden aide Cedric Richmond did on "Fox News Sunday," "Republicans are very good at staying on talking points of who says defund the police, but the truth is, they defunded the police." Unlike GOP leadership, the numbers don't lie.

Dana Milbank writes for the Washington Post.

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President Joe Biden's big gaffe was not his threat to veto a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal he had just reached with Republicans. It was accidentally saying out loud what everyone in Washington knows, but most Americans do not: that he has not compromised on infrastructure at all -- and does not intend to do so.

Standing with Republican senators, Biden boasted that "neither side got everything they wanted in this deal." That is untrue. Biden does plan to get everything he wants from the deal. While he walked back his veto threat, he is still insisting that Congress pass not one, but two infrastructure bills: the bipartisan agreement he negotiated with Republicans, and a second passed with only Democratic votes using the budget reconciliation process that includes everything he gave up in negotiations with those Republicans. "The president intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law," White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Monday.

Sorry, that is not compromise. If he signs two bills, Biden has given up absolutely nothing. Quite the opposite, he not only gets everything he wanted, he also gets false credit for fulfilling his campaign promise to reach across the aisle and compromise.
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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."
Biden tells Van Meter, who traveled with the first lady on several recent official trips for the Vogue feature, she thinks the mood of the nation has shifted since President Joe Biden took office.

"During the campaign, I felt so much anxiety from people; they were scared. When I travel around the country now, I feel as though people can breathe again," she says. "I think that's part of the reason Joe was elected. People wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, getting shots in everybody's arms."

She added she thinks Biden's demeanor affected change. "He's just a calmer president. He lowers the temperature," says Biden.

The President was also interviewed, separately, by Van Meter. Biden says being commander in chief has changed their marriage, and that he finds himself at times missing the freedoms he says they used to enjoy.

"I miss her. I'm really proud of her. But it's not like we can just go off like we used to," the President said. "When we were living in Delaware and married, once a month we'd just go up to a local bed-and-breakfast by ourselves, to make sure we had a romantic time to just get away and hang out with each other."
Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said he was deeply disappointed and concerned with Evers veto.

We need an unemployment safety net, Marklein said in a statement. We do not need our unemployment program to be a brick wall for employers.

Congress implemented a $600 boost to unemployment benefits shortly after the pandemic began. That amount was later reduced to $300 in weekly unemployment benefits, in addition to the states maximum weekly benefit of $370.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, in a statement called Evers veto foolish, adding that lawmakers need to be doing more to get individuals back to work to help businesses fill vacant positions.

By now, we all know of at least one business that is actively seeking employees, has been forced to reduce its hours, or even had to close their doors because of the worker shortage, Steineke said. Thats why it is absolutely mind-boggling to learn our governor thinks we should still be paying folks an extra $300 per month to sit home on their couch.
1. Yes. Its a common-sense bill that should be implemented. Pass it without changes.

2. Yes. The bill should pass, but some of its stipulations should be modified or dropped.

3. No. Unless significant changes are made, it doesnt deserve lawmakers support.

4. No. The original bill is dangerous. Democrats should walk out again to block it.

5. Unsure. Its had to say without knowing what final form the bill would take.

Vote

View Results
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A loud, light-colored 2000 model pickup was seen driving slowly by the house. KPD conducted a canvas of the Lake Villa Estates area after the shooting and obtained video surveillance that showed an older model white extended cab Dodge pickup traveling on Huron Drive.

Surveillance showed the same pickup driving past houses three different times during an 11-minute time frame, records indicate.

Police determined several characteristics from Fries pickup were similar to the pickup seen in the surveillance video.

The pickup information was shared with law enforcement in North Platte, where court records indicate Fries lives.

Around 11:39 p.m. Aug. 26 a Nebraska State Patrol trooper stopped a 2001 Dodge Ram pickup 6 miles east of North Platte. The vehicle matched the description of the pickup seen in the area of the shooting. Fries was identified as the driver of the pickup that also didnt have license plates and had an expired in-transit sticker.

Based on comments Fries made to law enforcement, he was placed into emergency protective custody.

Police obtained a search warrant for the pickup and located a loaded shotgun, shells, cellphone and digital voice recorder. Fries later was arrested.
Axtells pyrotechnic crew never has had an accident, England said, and he intends to keep it that way.

Keeping the crew together during the pandemic proved to be a challenge, England said. Like so many activities, the COVID crisis took a toll on the pyrotechnic crew, as several members certificates lapsed, England said.

Out of the 23 volunteers on the Axtell Fire Department, two are certified as operators. Ravenna also has two certified operators. As long as an operator is present and conducts the crew, non-certified volunteers can help shoot the display.

It can be hard work because the Fourth of July is one of the hotter days of the summer and pyrotechnic crew members must wear their bunker gear, as if theyre fighting a fire.

Kearneys display is scheduled for Thursday. Ravennas will be Saturday. Axtells show was earlier this week.

Thomsen said the date for Ravennas display usually is a date that doesnt conflict with other fireworks shows in the region. Ravenna spends about $6,000 for its fireworks, so they try to shoot the display when the most people can watch.

Pyrotechnic crews use hand-held flares to light fuses.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency would continue to leverage our longstanding relationships with state and local enforcement" but deferred to state officials to speak to any steps they are taking to increase an enforcement posture.

Ricketts has been a vocal opponent of many of the Biden administrations priorities and has weighed in on gun control, the southern border, COVID-19 relief spending and voting legislation. Recently, he has been traveling the state speaking out against Bidens 30-by-30 conservation plan, which calls for preserving 30% of the nations land and water by the year 2030.

Nebraska is stepping up to help Texas respond to the ongoing crisis on their border with Mexico, Ricketts said in the news release. The disastrous policies of the Biden-Harris administration created an immigration crisis on the border. While the federal government has fallen short in its response, Nebraska is happy to step up to provide assistance to Texas as they work to protect their communities and keep people safe.

Some have questioned whether the governor's actions amount to political posturing. But Gage said that the decision to send troopers to Texas was akin to granting other state requests for assistance.
They used Lego bricks Feldmann inherited from his older brothers Nathan and Michael and the 150 to 200 sets of his own. He estimates theres more than a million at his house, stored in his room, his brothers now-vacated bedroom and a closet. He works in a Hy-Vee deli department and mows neighborhood lawns to raise the funds to buy them.

He and Josh Bodine focused on the structural support of the ship, which tested their patience when the whole frame collapsed and had to be started over. Matthew Bodine excelled at all the details that adorn the outside.

Were all Star Wars fans, so we all knew what needed to be done, Matthew Bodine said. There were a few times where I didnt believe we would actually be able to finish, but for about the last month, we realized that we werent too far off, and that helped us finish it out.

Because its so massive, and because it will need to be transported to the local Lego show and another later in Chicago, they built it in pieces that fit together.

That gave them each room to maneuver as they were putting it together.

The best part of it was seeing over a years worth of work come together when we finally connected all the individual sections, Josh Bodine said.
Responsible gun owners know that a key element of firearms safety is keeping them out of the hands of people who shouldnt have guns: children, criminals and the mentally unstable. However, at a time when gun violence has become a national epidemic, it has become 25% more costly in the United States to acquire firearm safety devices, such as gun safes.

Thats according to the Hornady Manufacturing Co. of Grand Island, whose bullet-making business has been significantly constrained since the federal tariffs and trade war erupted three years ago.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Hornady claimed the tariffs are contributing to near weekly increases in steel prices. As a result theyre forcing the Grand Island company to pass along cost hikes to customers. Equally ominous, the tariffs are encouraging foreign competitors to take advantage of Hornadys compromised position.

Our concern is when the auto manufacturers get back going full steam in the fall, when they get their chip shortage issue resolved, then there will be even more pressure on steel costs, Hornady wrote.
Travelers are eager to get outside and enjoy themselves after a long winter of isolation during the pandemic. Our area businesses are equally excited to welcome them to the Driftless area, said Eric Frydenlund, administrator of Driftless Wisconsin.

This JEM grant will help promote the optimism for 2021 felt by both the visitor and business people as we look forward to spending time outdoors in this beautiful region.

I would like to thank Crawford County and Vernon County for their financial support of the campaign and also the many communities that offered letters of support for the application.

Driftless Wisconsin received $16,275 from the JEM (Joint Effort Marketing) Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

The money will be used for the administration, content marketing, vacation sweepstakes, campaign social posts, branding, and digital advertising.

The marketing campaign runs through the end of October and is geared towards visitors within a drive market radius including Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Driftless Wisconsin was formed in 2008 as a collaboration of the Crawford County Tourism Council, Vernon County Tourism Council, and the Kickapoo Valley Association.

For more information about Driftless Wisconsin or the JEM Grant, contact Administrator Eric Frydenlund at 608-326-6658 or email Admin@DriftlessWisconsin.com.

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When we stood up these sites starting Jan. 18 with Prevea at UW-Green Bay, the 7-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases was more than 1,900 in Wisconsin and 27 people died. As of Monday, that average was 69 daily cases with zero deaths. Thats great news for all of us, and were glad we could do our part.

We also administered 1.24 million COVID-19 tests on our UW System campus testing sites, as of June 15. In fact, only Wisconsin had a statewide community testing program at the height of the pandemic last fall to help slow the spread of the virus by enabling hundreds of thousands of people to get free and fast COVID-19 tests at our universities. It was a herculean effort, but one that used a great Wisconsin asset  our public universities.
Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, was among just three Wisconsin Senate Democrats to vote for the $87.5 billion state budget. He called it a missed opportunity but said he feels confident Gov. Tony Evers will use his line-item veto powers to improve the bill in its final form.

The two-year spending plan is much smaller than the $91.2 billion Evers first proposed earlier this year, and Pfaff said in a statement issued Wednesday night after the Senate vote that he was disappointed a number of spending did not make the Republicans cut.

This is not the budget I would have written by a long shot. It excludes critical funding for PFAS, fails to expand Badgercare, and doesnt do nearly enough for our public schools. Its a missed opportunity, Pfaff said. We could have invested in both the long-term growth of our state and use our surplus to give working-class families a tax cut.

Pfaff represents Wisconsins 32nd Senate District, which encompasses La Crosse, Vernon, Crawford and southern Monroe counties.

While Gov. Evers budget is his preferred, Pfaff said that he voted in favor of the GOP bill Wednesday to prevent the state from missing out on federal funding, which could happen if Evers were to veto the entire budget and restart the legislative process.
It breaks new ground entirely, said Oliver, who teaches at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh. It sets precedent not just for Pennsylvania but probably other states.

He said the ruling should drive home to prosecutors the risks of suggesting at news conferences, in press releases or verbally in private that they will not prosecute.

They should at least add three words  at this time, he said. If you add that qualifier, which wasnt done in Cosbys case, you should be good to go, Oliver said.

CAN COSBY BE TRIED AGAIN?

Its highly unlikely. The decision on Wednesday bars Cosby from being tried again over Constands complaint, finding it to be the only remedy that comports with societys reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.

And the accusations raised by dozens of other women, including the five who testified at his 2018 trial, often go back decades and are most likely too remote to prosecute.

Cosby turns 84 next month. However, his lawyer said he remains in good health, except for vision problems that render him legally blind.
Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday vetoed a Republican-authored bill that would have banned local and state governments from accepting election grants in most cases, dealing a blow to the GOP effort to overhaul Wisconsins election laws following former President Donald Trumps loss in November.

Assembly Bill 173, one of several election bills the Republican-controlled Assembly and Senate recently approved, would generally prohibit municipal and county governments from accepting private grants for election administration.

It would allow the Wisconsin Elections Commission to accept private election grants if it distributes the money on a per capita basis to each Wisconsin municipality, with approval from the Republican-controlled legislative budget committee, but only if the grant does not specify specific purposes for use or require repayment.

The bill would also create new restrictions for who can serve as a tabulator or poll worker. Under the bill, a tabulator would need to sign an oath, be a Wisconsin resident and be adequately trained.

It would prohibit poll workers from being employees of candidate, recall, political or campaign committees, political parties or advocacy groups.
The state DOT implemented the waiver last year in an effort to address a testing backlog and limit in-person visits to Division of Motor Vehicles service centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 48,000 drivers, or about 85% of eligible candidates, made use of the waiver from May 11, 2020, through April, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

As a pilot program, the waiver has no expiration date and remains currently available. The state DOT is required to provide the Legislature with a report on the program by the end of the year.

Once received, Evers will have six days excluding Sundays to take action on the budget. He could sign the budget as written or use his partial veto authority to make changes by striking words, though he cannot add new words. The budget would automatically become law if no action is taken within the six-day window.

State statute calls for a budget to be passed by July 1. If that doesnt happen, spending levels from the previous two-year budget cycle carry over into the new one, enabling state agencies to continue operating.
A California-based provider of gourmet meal kits is hiring 50 more employees at its East Hempfield Township facility to staff an expansion that will help the location cope with a surge in business thats been accelerated by the pandemic.

Gobble Inc., which saw orders at the local operation briefly skyrocket fivefold when COVID-19 arrived in spring 2020, has added 15,000 square feet of production, fulfillment and storage space to its leased facility at 2910 Old Tree Drive.

The enlarged facility makes Gobble East capable of producing more than 20 million meals annually to serve a 38-state territory that stretches from Maine to Minnesota to Texas to Florida, a company spokeswoman said.

The company spent $300,000 to ready the extra space for its use, anticipating that the additional room will prepare the location to handle the growth it anticipates seeing over the next five years. It went into operation Tuesday.

Gobble was among many ecommerce providers of home-delivered meal kits, meals or groceries to see their business soar when the pandemic prompted consumers to curtail trips to grocery stores and restaurants.

Its existing 40,000 square feet here, dubbed Gobble East, opened in January 2018 with 65 employees, a figure that subsequently grew to 94 employees. During the peak months of the pandemic, that workforce has been supplemented with 35 temporary workers.

Alexandra Jasinski, Gobbles general manager of East Coast operations, credited the hard work, commitment and courage of the 90+ essential workers at this food production facility throughout the pandemic that secured our future and made this growth possible.

The expansion reflects that fact that Gobble East is off to a fast start. In these early years of its operation, Gobble East is averaging annual revenue increases of 60%, the spokeswoman said.

And this latest wave of hiring isnt expected to be the last.

Under the leadership of Keith Brewer, vice president of nationwide operations, Jasinski and Frank Darden, manager of East Coast fulfillment, Gobble East is expected to have more than 200 employees by the end of 2022, she said.

As the company has done since the Lancaster site was a plan and not yet a reality, Gobble East is turning to CareerLink for help with filling its workforce needs  help thats more valuable than ever during the countys ongoing labor shortage, which has left thousands of positions in an array of industries empty.

Among CareerLinks services is supporting disadvantaged jobseekers -- people who want to work but have been unsuccessful finding jobs due to prison records, disabilities, no work experience, long spells of joblessness, different learning styles or other hurdles  a mission that resonates with Gobble East.

Partnering with programs like CareerLink and other government and nonprofit organizations that help people with obstacles to employment is and has been a core part of Gobble's culture since inception, Jasinski said.

Some hires from these programs have advanced in the company from entry-level positions to specialists, shift leaders and management, she noted.

Gobble East, which received a Governors Achievement Award for that initiative, is part of a trend here, said Cathy Rychalsky, executive director of the Lancaster County Workforce Development Board, which oversees the local CareerLink on North Charlotte Street.

More companies are thinking outside of the box  meaning theyre exploring how they can expand their search beyond their typical candidate, she said.

With 14 agencies under one roof, publicly funded CareerLink helps employers find jobseekers and helps jobseekers with job searches, on-the-job training and skills training. CareerLinks services for both jobseekers and job providers can be found at jobs4lancaster.com.

There are a lot of creative things that can happen through the CareerLink, Rychalsky said.
Music for Everyone, the Lancaster nonprofit with a mission of cultivating the power of music, launched its 2021 Keys for the City program on Wednesday morning.

The organization placed 12 pianos at various locations in Lancaster city, and one in Lititz, available to the public 24/7 until mid-October.

The program was canceled last year amid COVID-19 concerns, so Wednesdays piano placing marked the first time the instruments hit the streets since 2019.

We greatly missed the musical moments that these pianos bring to our city last year, as COVID prevented their placement. Were excited at their return, offering a chance to build community through the power of music, and further solidifying Lancasters status as The Street Piano Capital of the World,  said Brendan Stengle, director of operations of Music For Everyone, in a news release. This project is a literal expression of what this organization is about Music For Everyone.

This years display also includes a piano dedicated to first responders, located at the Wells Fargo at 100 N. Queen St.

This piano is our tribute to all of the health care professionals who literally risked their lives to keep us safe through the COVID crisis. Its our way to say thank you for your service, said John Gerdy, Music for Everyone executive director, in a news release.

A full list of locations of Keys for the City pianos follows. For more information, visit musicforeveryone.org.

Ware Center, 42 N. Prince St. Designed by Eric Tonzola. Sponsored by Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority.

Lancaster Public Library, 125 N. Duke St. Designed by Carl Bakey. Sponsored by Atlee Hall.

Tabor Building, 308 E. King St. Designed by Mu Kaw Saw. Sponsored by Church World Service.

Lancaster Arts Hotel, 300 Harrisburg Ave. Designed by Andy Metz. Sponsored by Lancaster Arts Hotel.

Musser Park, 135 N. Lime St. Designed by Jaye Christ. Sponsored by Central Market / Lori Herr and John Thomas.

Penn Square, 1 Penn Square. Designed by Chomingo Rivas. Sponsored by Lancaster County Community Foundation.

Tellus360, 24 E. King St. Designed by Keisha Finnie. Sponsored by Tellus360.

The Lumber Yard, 555 N. Charlotte St. Designed by Kaya Hobbs. Sponsored by The Lumber Yard.

Wells Fargo, 100 N. Queen St. Designed by Adam Serrano and crew. Dedicated to first responders.

Pennsylvania College of Art and Design Park, Prince and Chestnut streets. Designed by Adam Serrano. Music for Everyones Songs for Justice project piano.

Prince Street Garage, 111 N. Prince St. Designed by Fonk Shack Arts Collective. Sponsored by Steve Witmer, Lancaster City Alliance, Trout CPA, New Belgium Beer and S&T Bank.

Pebbles and Lace, 56 E. Main St., Lititz. Designed by Carrie Woodys students. Sponsored by John Bonfield Elementary School.
Affordable housing is the focus of the Home is Here art exhibit and speaker series beginning Friday at The Ware Center in downtown Lancaster.

The art exhibit features eight local artists tasked with creating pieces that address the struggle many city residents experience in their search for affordable housing.

Speakers including Lancaster City Council President Ismail Smith-Wade El and Spanish American Civic Association CEO Carlos Graupera will discuss the state of affordable housing in Lancaster city and whats next in efforts to address the issue.

Affordable housing for homeownership is the most critical aspect of this issue. Rental affordable housing units do not resolve much of the need, Graupera said. Affordable housing units for homeownership is essential to balance the gentrification that Lancaster is experiencing.

The art exhibit will be set up in The Ware Centers lobby at 42 N. Prince St. from Friday through July 30. The building will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The artwork will be visible from the sidewalk and will be lit up until midnight each night.

Our hope is that the art show will encourage a dialogue among Lancastrians about the housing crisis the city is experiencing, Madeleine Murphy, curator of the Lancaster Hub of Global Shapers, said.

The Global Shapers Community is a network of young people driving dialogue, action and change across the world, according to its website. Its membership includes more than 10,000 people that are part of nearly 450 hubs in 149 countries.

The groups Lancaster Hub organized the art exhibit and speaker series to engage and educate the community about Lancasters affordable housing crisis and the many ways art can support equitable affordable housing and community development initiatives.

As an artist, a Latina, and Lancaster city resident, I have witnessed the ways the sense of home I grew up with have changed in light of rising rent and housing costs, taxes, and rapid gentrification, said Salina Almanzar, one of the artists who will have artwork displayed in the exhibit.

For more information, go to homeisherelancaster.com.
The Lancaster police department will use a $51,894 federal grant to help pay for a review of its internal affairs office and to buy eight bicycles.

The internal affairs review and new equipment for the bike patrol are part of the citys efforts to bring the 135-officer department in line with best law enforcement practices. Those efforts were launched last year by Mayor Danene Sorace following the death of George Floyd and the social unrest that broke out in Lancaster and in communities across the country.

Lt. Kevin Fry said the review of the internal affairs office will include an evaluation of the civilian complaint process and the use-of-force review process, among other things.

The city will seek bids for outside consultants to do the review, Fry said.

The city recently reinstituted bike patrols as part of efforts to connect officers with residents, with 10 officers going through training through a program offered by the International Police Mountain Bike Association. Fry said the department wants to have another 10 officers go through the training, so more bikes are needed. He estimated the bikes will cost about $1,600 apiece.

Finally, about $1,550 of the grant will be used to help the department meet FBI-mandated reporting for the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the public database the FBI uses to keep a record of crimes.

The county, which serves as a pass-through for the federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, released the money on Wednesday.

Last year, the city used its $43,168 Byrne grant to help pay for an overall review of police department policies as part of efforts to bring the department in line with best law enforcement practices and obtain accreditation from the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association. The city hired CNA Corporation, of Arlington, Virginia, at $81,022 for the job, which is expected to be done by Dec. 31.
A New Holland man was arrested after police say he stabbed another man in New Holland on Wednesday evening.

While 24-year-old Miguel Martin is facing a single count of attempted homicide, he too was also stabbed during a fight with the man he stabbed, police said.

Officers were called to two locations close to one another near Diller Avenue around 2:46 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Officers found Martin laying in a yard after police were called after he walked into a bar he was banned from and was bleeding, police said. While officers were helping Martin, they received another call for another person who had been stabbed.

Officers arrived at a residence in the first block of Diller Avenue and found a 22-year-old man with a stab wound in the chest, according to police. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but an update on his status wasn't immediately available.

New Holland Borough police said Martin walked into his house, which he shares with the other man, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and then went into the man's bedroom and tried to stab him.

A fight ensued, and both Martin and the man sustained stab wounds, police said. Martin sustained multiple stab wounds to his arms as a result of the fight.

Police have not indicated if the man they say Martin stabbed will be charged.

Martin is in Lancaster County Prison on $1 million cash bail, police said. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. on July 9, in front of district judge Jonathan Heisse.
Columbia Borough police

HARASSMENT

COLUMBIA: Susan Gager, 44, of Columbia, was charged with harassment after he was found throwing items onto a driveway from inside a home in the 1000 block of Cloverton Drive around 1 p.m. on June 21, police said. Gager, who was drunk at the time, was breaking items and also struck a person in the face, police said.

THEFT

COLUMBIA: An AK-47 assault rifle was stolen from the trunk of a 2003 Chevrolet Impala near North 2nd Street and Bank Avenue sometime in the two to three months before June 5, police said. Authorities were notified of the theft of the gun, valued just shy of $1,300, around 3:50 p.m. on June 18, police said.

Ephrata police

ESCAPE

EPHRATA: Joshua Tyler Shannon, 28, of Ephrata, was charged with driving with a suspended license, escape and fleeing or attempting to elude an officer after fleeing police on foot after he was pulled over for driving with a suspended license in the 100 block of West Main Street at 9:14 a.m. on June 19, police said. Shannon, whose license is suspended until 2029, exited the vehicle and ignored officers commands to sit down, then proceeded to circle around the vehicle twice as officers gave chase before fleeing on foot, police said.

Lititz Borough police

CRASH

LITITZ: An unknown vehicle traveling south struck a parked, unoccupied vehicle in the 500 block of South Spruce Street and then fled the scene without stopping sometime between 9 a.m. on June 22 and 6:30 p.m. on June 23, police said. The struck vehicle sustained minor damage, police said.

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

LITITZ: John Dale Haggerty, 44, of Lititz, was charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass after vandalizing a vehicle in the 200 block of South Broad Street, causing $1,331 in damage, sometime between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on April 29, police said. Haggerty was seen on surveillance footage entering the property of a business in the area and damaging the vehicle, police said.

New Holland police

FALSE IDENTIFICATION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

NEW HOLLAND: Kimberly Marie Henson, 22, of East Earl, was charged with false identification to law enforcement and two drug charges after she provided a false name to officers while sitting as a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over after having committed multiple traffic violations in the 400 block of Brimmer Avenue at 10:15 p.m. on June 28, police said. Henson, who has multiple warrants for her arrest, was also found in possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, police said.

Northern Lancaster County Regional police

DUI

PENN TWP.: Herbert Eugene Matter, 63, of Manheim, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence after crashing into a tree in front of a residence in the 200 block of Elm Road on June 15, police said. Matter had a BAC of 0.111% at the time of the crash, police said.

HARASSMENT

WARWICK TWP.: Hope Lee Rottmund, 47, and Monte Blake York Jr., 42, both of Lititz, were both charged with harassment after officers responded to a 911 hangup in the 500 block of Furnace Hills Pike, where they found the two involved in a fight during which they both sustained superficial injuries on June 28, police said.
Military news

Commissioned

Hannah Lloyd completed her ROTC cadet training and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army on May 15, 2021. Lloyd was enrolled in the ROTC program through Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in nursing. It is customary for newly commissioned officers to select someone who has contributed to their success to pin the gold bars on their uniform. For this honor, 1st. Lt. Audrey Lloyd and Col. (ret.) Donna Hershey were selected. David Lloyd, her father, was selected to render the first hand salute. After successful completion of the NCLEX nursing examination in July, Lloyd will be assigned to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for further training prior to receiving her permanent duty station assignment. Lloyd is a 2017 graduate of Donegal High School and followed her sister, 2015 graduate Audrey Lloyd, in pursuing a military career.

Email military news items to militarynews@lnpnews.com.
THE ISSUE

Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a Republican bill that would have required voter ID in all elections and changed other aspects of Pennsylvanias election law. As the nonpartisan newsroom Spotlight PA reported, House Bill 1300 would have allowed voters to fix mail ballots with missing signatures, but it also would have instituted new security rules for drop boxes and required signature verification on mail ballots. GOP lawmakers, Spotlight PA noted, said the legislation provided extra security measures while also expanding access, but Wolf said the bill ultimately was about restricting the freedom to vote. The governor also exercised his line-item veto power to remove $3.1 million from the state budget that Republicans had included to establish a Bureau of Election Audits.

If Wolf didnt trust the intent of the Republican election bill, he was not alone. There was reason to be wary.

York County state Rep. Seth Grove, who wrote the bill, tweeted this Dec. 1: Did you know it only takes 2 people to tango and simultaneously object to Presidential Electors!!! Call your federal representatives and ask them to object to Pennsylvanias electors!

That was after we learned that Joe Biden had soundly defeated Donald Trump  and five weeks before violent insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol at Trumps behest, aiming to stop Congress from accepting Pennsylvanias electoral votes for Biden.

How is anyone to trust election legislation crafted by those who sought to undermine the legitimate outcome of the last one? As the late poet Maya Angelou famously said, When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

In a Twitter tantrum Wednesday, Grove fumed that Wolfs line item veto of the election audit appropriation shows he cannot be trusted and (has) no honor. ... Gov. Wolf has discredited his legacy and tarnished his name forever.

Pot, meet kettle.

We are disappointed that Wolfs veto means that county elections officials wont have the ability to precanvass  that is, to inspect, open and count (but not record)  mailed ballots in the next election. We supported county officials, here and across the commonwealth, who called for this change.

But an election bill pushed through by a single party because it was disappointed by the outcome of the last presidential contest was never a good idea. Pennsylvania reformed its election code in 2019. The product of bipartisan compromise, Act 77 was a good  if not perfect  law that enabled no-excuse mail-in voting in the commonwealth, and it was supported by Republicans until Trump lost.

As journalists with The Caucus, an LNP Media Group watchdog publication, noted in an article in January, Act 77 was a Republican bill shepherded by Republican legislative leaders, passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly in October 2019 with the votes of nearly every Republican legislator.

Groves bill didnt seem to be aimed at drawing much bipartisan support. Its poison pills, aimed at making it harder to vote, precluded it.

Alarmingly, Groves bill didnt go far enough for one member of the Lancaster County Republican delegation to Harrisburg: state Rep. Dave Zimmerman, a self-described conservative from East Earl Township. Zimmerman was one of three Republican lawmakers to vote against the legislation authored by Grove.

Zimmerman said this to an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter: Precanvassing is wrong, curing ballots is wrong, early voting is wrong. (Ballot curing is a process in which election officials notify a voter of a problem with his or her ballot and offer a chance to fix it.)

Zimmerman didnt articulate why these things are wrong. He just knows theyre wrong, apparently in the way he just knew several years ago that Pennsylvanians ought to be permitted to have hedgehogs and marsupials called sugar gliders as pets (his bill to legalize those exotic pocket pets was defeated).

Zimmerman is not a constitutional or legal scholar. Which perhaps explains but does not excuse this next appalling thing: He told LNP | LancasterOnline that he continues to doubt the results of the 2020 election.

Never mind that he was overwhelmingly elected to a fourth term in the same election on which he continues to cast doubt.

Not only me, theres thousands of people around Pennsylvania that question it, Zimmerman said.

That does not prove anything. Thousands of people in Pennsylvania believe in all manner of outlandish and false conspiracy theories, but that doesnt make such nonsense true.

No evidence of widespread voter fraud has been found that might have altered the election outcome in Pennsylvania or any other state. This has been confirmed by Trumps former election cybersecurity chief, former Attorney General William Barr and numerous Republican elections officials.

As weve written before, if some Pennsylvanians believe there were issues with the November election that must be remedied in order to restore their trust, thats because Republicans have been pushing that narrative and ginning up their distrust.

Federal and state Republican leadership sowed distrust about the election by perpetuating lies about election fraud and election irregularities for which there is no evidence, Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, told LNP | LancasterOnline. They are now saying, Were hearing from our constituents that they want us to address the problems. Theres this false circular logic; by spreading the Big Lie about the election, now theyre pointing to the concern that they created.

Zimmerman asserted this to an LNP | LancasterOnline reporter: The only reason we had no examples of (fraud) is the courts never looked at it, so we dont know.

This is untrue and misleading.

Republicans were not able to find evidence of fraud so they took baseless claims of election irregularities and inconsistencies to the courts, which mostly rejected those claims.

In a couple of Pennsylvania cases, however, Republicans were charged with using the identities of their dead mothers in order to vote in the 2020 election. Wheres the GOP outcry about this kind of actual fraud?

If election law is going to be reformed in good faith in Pennsylvania  and we dont think sweeping reform is necessary  perhaps it ought to be authored by those who acted in good faith after Novembers election.

Vaccinate Lancaster

Between March 10, when it opened, and Wednesday, when it closed its doors for the last time, the Lancaster County Community Vaccination Center inoculated more than 115,000 people against COVID-19.

As LNP | LancasterOnlines Nicole C. Brambila reported, the closure of the mass vaccination site signals a shift in the local vaccination campaign toward pop-up clinics, designed to target difficult-to-reach communities.

Were not done yet, Dr. Michael Ripchinski, site director and chief clinical officer with Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, said. This is just the end of this current phase of vaccinations.

A partnership between the Lancaster County commissioners, several companies and the countys health systems  led by LG Health  the mass vaccination center offered an invaluable public service.

We thank everyone involved for their work toward ending this terrible pandemic.
British Empire Taking the Lead in Efforts To Offend Russia

June 30, 2021 (EIRNS)The June 23 incident in the Black Sea during which the U.K.s HMS Defender provocatively sailed into waters claimed by Russia off the Crimean coast, was followed the very next day by a similar provocation by an associated Dutch ship, the HNLMS Evertsen. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Evertsen approached the Kerch Strait after a change in course, and in order to prevent another violation of Russias territorial waters, Sukhoi-30 fighters and Sukhoi-24 bombers were scrambled to fly near the Dutch naval ship at a safe distance. The frigate promptly turned away from the Russian maritime border and continued along its original course. The HNLMS Evertsen has been sailing the Black Sea along with the HMS Defender and, like the Defender, is attached to the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group.

The Dutch Defense Ministry yesterday charged that Russian fighter jets carried out feigned attacks against the Evertsen, that they had repeatedly harassed the Evertsen by flying dangerously low and close, and that the frigates electronic equipment was also disrupted.

This second incident makes it thoroughly clear that the dangerous Defender violation of Russian waters was by no means a one-off provocation by the British. In fact, it turns out that it was at least the third time since 2018 that the Royal Navy and its allies have provoked the Russians in the vicinity of Crimea. Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrey Kelin stated that there had been a similar incident last year also involving a British destroyer, the HMS Dragon, a sister ship of the Defender. The Dragon, he said, committed similar actions, approaching Sevastopol at a certain distance on Oct. 15, 2020. That time, the [British] Defense Attache was summoned. He was told that this was a violation of the Russian and international law regarding innocent passage. The Defense Attache was warned that such things must not happen again. And, if they do, our reactions would be much harder, the Kelin pointed out in a video statement posted on the embassy website.

The British response at the time was to categorically deny that anything had happened. The Russian Federation Navy did not impede HMS Dragons passage. She navigated without incident, exercising our right of innocent passage under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson said. HMS Dragon was taking the most direct route between two port visits, navigating a recognized safe route for all international shipping within Ukrainian waters. This is the same language that was repeated with the HMS Defender incident on June 23.

Ambassador Kelin also pointed out that as you can imagine, we are dealing with an intentional and deliberate provocation on behalf of the Britons. The purpose has to do with the fact that these occur as soon as there is a glimpse of thawing in relations between Russia and the West. The other proof that this has been a British plan is the fact that there were at least two journalists aboard the ship, one from the Daily Mail and another from BBC, he said. Both of them saw the Crimean coastline, the vessel was that close.

Another feature of the British-led provocations against Russia, in which the U.S. is a willing participant, is the appearance of the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Alaska in the British territory of Gibraltar on June 28, an event which, it turns out, is exceedingly rare. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Lenaya Rotklein, a spokesperson for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet, told the War Zone that this was the first time an Ohio-class submarine had paid a visit to Her Majestys Naval Base Gibraltar since 1999. Alaska is on a routine patrol in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa, Rotklein said. This brief stop strengthens cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom-Gibraltar.
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021

Putin Cautions U.S. To Rethink Its Priorities and Interests: The World Is Changing Dramatically

June 30, 2021 (EIRNS)In his annual Direct Line with Vladimir Putin Q&A dialogue with the Russian population today, Russian President Putin addressed a myriad of concerns about the domestic economy, the coronavirus, and day-to-day living conditions in the country. But he also took up the central strategic issue of relations with the United States. In the course of his 3.45-hour dialogue, answering 70 questions from over 2 million that came in, Putin appealed for the normalization of relations with the United States:

I do hope that the realization that the world is changingand in this changing world there will be a rethinking of ones priorities and interestswill lead to the fact that the world order will become more favorable, and our relations, including with the United States, will return to normal, the President said.

As he had in his press conference after his summit meeting with President Biden, Putin took note of the fact that there is a policy fight underway in the United States over how to address the strategic crisis. The world is changing dramatically. And our partners in the U.S., on the one hand, understand this, and this is why the Geneva meeting took place. On the other hand, they seek to preserve their monopoly position at any cost, he commented. Hence, the threats and further, destructive behavior involving exercises, provocations and sanctions, he said.

The period of the unipolar world has gone. And you should proceed from the fact that the world is changing and it is changing very quickly, Putin advised.

A joint statement issued this week by Russia and China on the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, also addressed the need for a new paradigm in international relations. The document pointed to Russia-China relations as a model for the kind of shift that is needed from todays geopolitical, unipolar world of confrontation. The Sino-Russian relationship is not similar to the military and political alliance during the Cold War, but transcends this model of state-to-state relations, does not seek expediency, is not ideological, comprehensively considers each others interests, does not interfere in each others internal affairs, has independent value, and does not target an enemy, the joint statement reads. The joint statement further emphasized the importance of cooperation on great infrastructure projects between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union.

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Vassily Nebenzia stated today that the strategic stability talks that Presidents Biden and Putin had agreed to at their recent Geneva summit, will begin in July. Talks on strategic stability will kick off in July. The sides are getting prepared for that, and he continued that following the Geneva summit, Russia had taken note of the American sides attempts to impose new conditions for cooperation on issues of bilateral relations.

What course will those relations now follow? Will the U.S., in particular, wake up and rethink its real priorities and interests? In her weekly strategic webcast today, Helga Zepp-LaRouche referred to the June 23 British-American provocations against Russia in the Black Sea:

It has all the signs that somebody wanted to destabilize things with these provocations. Just when there was a baby step in the direction of a dialogue between the United States and Russia, in the form of the Biden-Putin summit, obviously somebody thought that it would be necessary to destabilize things.

Responding to the information that an American plane had coordinated the provocations with the British HMS Defender warship, Zepp-LaRouche asked: This raises the question: Can Biden rein in whoever did that, which is threatening to ruin what he tried to accomplish with Putin in Geneva?...

I think its really important for people to be aware that we are presently in a dynamic which, as with the global NATO 2030 plan, is meant to involve all countries all over the globe in a war machine designed to encircle Russia and China. If this is not stopped, it will lead to a catastrophe. Referring online viewers of last weekends Schiller Institute international conference, in particular Panel 1 which addressed the strategic crisis, Zepp-LaRouche added: I think this was a very timely discussion, and I would urge you to take the time to watch this panel, because it gives you a very good idea of where the world stands strategically.
Allison Trades L.A. for St. Louis Metro Area

Church of the Redeemer pastor will become first African American pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, Missouri

Answering an invite to head east, the Rev. Dr. Kerry Allison is leaving Church of the Redeemer in South Los Angeles to serve as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, Missouri. He will be the first African American spiritual leader of the 150-year-old congregation.

How does one leave L.A. for the St. Louis greater metropolitan area? Not easily, admitted Allison, who has served various churches in Southern California for the past 30 years, including the last 12 years at Redeemer.

I have connections in L.A. and if I want to do something, I know who to call. So to go into a place where I am not familiar with anyone is a challenge, Allison said. But my decision came through a lot of prayers, tears and evaluation. I know it is God-led and thats my assurance. Also, the way things are working out lets me know that it is Gods will for us to move.

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Accompanying the pastor will be his wife, First Lady Oona Allison, who is an elementary school teacher and has already received a few job offers from educational institutions in the area. Also, Dr. Allison will take along many of the lessons learned during his tenure in Los Angeles.

Under his leadership, Redeemer embraced new and different methods of ministry to spread the Gospel and maintain its three-acre campus. Worship space was rented to other ministries  a Nigerian, Ghanaian and two Salvadorian churches  as well as a day care center.

He also collaborated with the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services to allow Redeemer members to develop a region-wide program for foster children and united with the Martin Luther King Community Medical Group to increase healthcare awareness in the South L.A. and Compton areas. Later this year, the church will begin construction of a Green Dot school in its property.

All of those partnerships developed into ministries that addressed a particular need among youth or families [such as] developing ESL programs at Redeemer for parents who needed to learn English as a second language, said Allison. I plan to use my organizing and collaboration skills to make a difference and to help more people. I will take that spirit of making things better to Ferguson.

The Ferguson community gained national notoriety following the killing of Michael Brown, a Black young man, by a White police officer. Prior to that tragic incident, the St. Louis suburb was already beset by a number of negative impacts.

Ferguson is a predominately Black city of 20,000 people and it has all of the challenges of urban America  issues related to poverty, education and racism, explained Allison. The majority White congregation of First Presbyterian desired to reach out to the community.

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After the turmoil arising from the fatal shooting of Brown, Allison said, The congregation wanted to be more involved in providing solutions and healing for the community. They knew that their leadership should reflect that. So they set out looking for a Black or a person of color having skills in urban ministry and community ministry. And Allison fit the bill.

He added that First Presbyterian also wants a multicultural membership and Allison noted, One of my tasks is to increase their participation locally and to help the church look like the community. They (the members) are interested in attracting people of color, particularly African Americans.

Acknowledging the big responsibility that lies before him, the pastor is nevertheless, optimistic about his future in Ferguson and impressed by the efforts of the membership. One thing I really admire about the congregation is that they see the need and are being intentional to address it, said Allison. It does not mean there wont be challenges in doing it. But they know that they need to change and do something different to help the community. That is really impressive to me.

Allisons last day at Redeemer was June 27 and the members gave him and his wife as gala, though slightly tearful, send-off. On Sunday, July 18, hell preach his first sermon and be installed as the new pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson.

To other ministers considering a change of location, Allison advised clergy to be willing to explore other opportunities. I definitely encourage pastors to take that leap of faith in order to do what God calls us to do, he said.

We must get out of our comfort zone and places are used to. God wants to use us in creative and unique ways!
Assemblymember Holdens George Floyd Law Clears Senate Public Safety Committee

Assemblymember Chris Holdens police reform legislation, AB 26, passed the California State Senate Committee on Public Safety. AB 26 establishes clear guidelines for police responsibility and accountability when witnessing excessive force by another member of law enforcement.

We are calling for responsibility and accountability, said Assemblymember Chris Holden. Instituting these core values are paramount to building public trust that has eroded between law enforcement and communities across California.

California law requires police officers to intercede when observing another officer using force that is beyond that which is necessary, but there are no universal measures used to determine that an officer has in fact interceded. In the case of George Floyd, a lawyer for one of the accused junior officers argued that there was intervention because the junior officer asked the supervising officer if they should turn Floyd on his side.

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If AB 26 becomes law, police officers would be required to intercede when witnessing excessive force under the updated guidelines and report the incident in real time to dispatch or the watch commander. The officers due process will be protected as the employing agency would review evidence and determine if the offending officer met the standard for intervention. Retaliation against officers that report violations of law or regulation of another officer to a supervisor would be prohibited.

Last year, Governor Newsoms Policing Advisors released their recommendations which included legislation to Require officers to intervene to prevent or stop other officers from engaging in excessive force, false arrest, or other inappropriate conduct.

The legislation will be next heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Bryan Takes Oath as New 54th District Assemblymember

A capacity crowd assembled to witness the swearing-in of Isaac G. Bryan, the new California assemblymember for the 54th District. The event was held June 26, at the Hot and Cool Cafe in Leimert Park.

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A festive spirit filled the air as members of the audience, who ranged from elected officials to civic leaders and local residents, greeted each other with elbow bumps and wide smiles. While the occasion certainly called for celebration, the recent relaxing of pandemic restrictions, which permits larger gatherings of people, further enhanced the joyful mood.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon administered the oath of office to Bryan, who then acknowledged his family, neighbors and constituents for their support. Bryan vowed, Im looking forward to serving with you, for you, and by you.

He also recognized several individuals during his remarks, including L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, L.A. Councilmember Mike Bonin, and Heather Hutt, the second runner-up in the race for assemblymember. Bryan ended his comments by presenting a proclamation to cafe co-owner, Tony Jolly, commending the successful Black-owned business.

Several participants preceded Bryan at the podium, starting with the Rev. Edward Eddie Anderson, pastor of McCarty Memorial Christian Church, who said the new assemblymember answered Gods call of who shall I send. Anderson prayed, Lord, as he goes to the capitol, may he be a troublemaker for justice  may he love the people, may he know the people, may he continue to work with the people all the days of his life, and may he work to repair the walls of our village and community.

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L.A. Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson said, We want to send our brother to Sacramento with all of our backing, all of our energy and all of our assistance on justice. Hell be representing all of us and were demanding change. Were demanding a better tomorrow.

There are a lot of people that like things just the way they are, so when he goes to initiate change, theyre going to fire at him. But, they got to know that when they fire at him, theyre firing at us. We will be there with you when the going gets tough and its going to get tough because you are going to make change for the rest of us, insisted Harris-Dawson.

Expressing similar confidence in Bryans abilities, Melina Abdullah described herself as a big fan of Issac and noted that the organization she co-founded, Black Lives Matter L.A., is about Black liberation and Black freedom. She added that she joined in celebrating Bryan because although he was elected to office, being an elected official is not your identity. You are a freedom fighter! You are there (in Sacramento) to do work for all of us.

We will always have your back. You are a man of tremendous vision and someone who knows that there is an end coming on unjust systems. We are so grateful that you choose to serve in this way, said Abdullah.

Dr. David C. Turner, manager of the Brother, Sons, Selves Coalition and a fellow at the UCLA Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies, led the crowd in a boisterous, repetitive chant of, Aint no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people dont stop!

Proclaiming that people power elected Bryan and people power will help redefine environmental justice and economic justice, Turner declared, Im so proud of you, Brother Isaac. You represent the movement that we have all believed in and have strived for. I have seen you in those late nights and 24-hour days putting in work for our people. You belong to the community and we will be with you every step of the way!

The audience also heard from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, California State Senator Sydney Kamlager-Dove, SEIU Local 2015 President April Verrett, and L.A. Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas. In addition, attendees enjoyed refreshments provided by Jolly and the Hot and Cool staff, along with live music by an African drum band.

As the 54th District assemblymember, Bryan will represent the neighborhoods of Baldwin Hills, Cheviot Hills, Crenshaw, Century City, Culver City, Ladera Heights, Mar Vista, Palms, Rancho Park, Westwood and sections of South Los Angeles and Inglewood.

edited 7/2/21 by Sentinel News Service
Business as Usual Keeps the Majority of Black Students from Succeeding

Celebrating commencement is one of my favorite traditions at Compton College. I especially like to hear about the achievements of students who pushed past obstacles and completed their goals. But for every success story, I know several other students were not able to finish their classes and graduate. As President/Chief Executive Officer of Compton College and a longtime educator, it is my job to ensure all students are prepared for a bright future, and that includes specifically fighting for Black student success. I make no apologies about that. Its time to take that extra step and help this student group graduate and transfer. Business as usual is not working. At Compton College, we saw a sharp decrease in degrees and certificates awarded to Black students between 2018-19 and 2019-20. Clearly, Black students are being left out. The graduation problem is real. Now what are we going to do about it? In this inaugural article of my Unapologetically Fighting for Black Student Success series, we will look at transfer paths for community college students and determine how we can get Black students on track to their own success stories.

A Path to Success

Our higher education system makes transferring to a university and earning a bachelors degree unnecessarily challenging for transfer students, especially when you compare their application process to that for high school students. For high schoolers, there is one pathway for admission to our public universities: they complete one set of course requirements, called A-G, that makes them eligible for University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses.

For California community college students, however, there is no one clear roadmap of course requirements that makes them eligible for the UC and CSU. Our public colleges and universities have created a myriad of different requirements that make transfer students eligible for campuses. It has left our students lost and confused as they try to piece together a plan that will make them competitive.

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The majority end up taking several excess courses and spending more time and money for admission to multiple campuses. And not enough students are achieving their transfer goals. At Compton College, we have created guided pathways to create a faster route to graduation, transfer, and good-paying jobs through Tartar Completion by Design. Students can see right away the courses they need now and how they align with expectations in the workforce and their transfer institution. Through this framework, and working with other institutions, the academic path needs to be streamlined, clear and accessible to raise graduation and transfer rates. This needs to be done now.

Now if California community college Black students complete their degrees and certificates, where are they transferring? Only about 3% of Black community college students transfer after two years at community college, and only 36% after six years  meaning the majority of Black students are not transferring even after six years. For those who do transfer, trends show a spike in students transferring to for-profit colleges.

These for-profit institutions can come off a lot more welcoming than our public colleges and universities. Many of us are familiar with their catchy songs on radio and television commercials, where they promise a smooth transition to their institution, flexibility for working students, and a better career at the end. What is less known to the students who attend is that many of these institutions have dismal graduation rates. Students often leave these for-profit institutions worse off than when they started, in far more debt than they can handle and without a degree to show for it in the end.

Transfer Collaboration

Our students fare better at public universities, but their journey to a bachelors degree is not without strife. Many students find that some of their courses dont transfer, so they must sometimes start over  repeating classes and spending even more time and money earning a degree.

It is painfully clear that the road to a bachelors degree is paved with systemic barriers. When what is traditionally seen as a four-year degree, becomes eight years or more, and when less than half of our Black students earn their degrees, our public colleges and universities are failing Black students.

Our state must look internally at the route from community college into university. The California Community Colleges, the UC, the CSU, and our state policymakers must all take responsibility for the barriers to transfer. Transfer is not just a community college issue, and we do our students a disservice when we act in a silo or when we point the blame elsewhere. We each play a role in these dismal success rates.

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There is currently a bill in the California Senate that will foster greater collaboration between our public colleges and universities. AB-928 Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act of 2021: Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee would create a committee to oversee the process of simplifying transfer and require the UC and CSU to consolidate their pathways into one general education pathway. It would also automatically place students on the Associate Degree for Transfer pathway, a transfer path that has a proven success rate for students that guarantees them admission to the CSU with junior standing, and is accepted at several Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Besides AB-928, the state of California should provide additional funding to the CSU and UCs to ensure all transfer eligible California community college students have a spot at our public institutions. If not, the private for-profit institutions will continue to prey upon our Black students.

Closing the Loop

AB-928 would be a major reform for Californias higher education system, so, of course it scares people. But business as usual is not the answer and continuing the ways we currently operate means that more Black students will lose out on the opportunity to earn their degrees and build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. We dont need the status quo  we need agitators who are willing to pass and implement bold reforms in the name of Black student success. Furthermore, we need to ask ourselves why arent students transferring, and why Black students specifically arent transferring. Then work with our local CSU and UCs to change this pattern. I am excited about Compton College and CSU Dominguez Hills partnership, where we just completed a data-sharing agreement between our two organizations, and are beginning to looking critically at our programs and services to support and improve student transfer and success. The partnership with CSU Dominguez Hills and Compton College is led by Dr. Thomas Parham, President, CSU Dominguez Hills, and myself. We both understand the need for transfer and we both are committed to improving student success.

When we succeed, our students do too. I know that for every student who graduates, there are several who should have been counted in that number but did not get the support needed to do so. This is especially true for community college students, who face innumerable barriers to success. I will continue this discussion next week, taking a deeper look at the data to make a meaningful impact on the success of Black students.
Calif. Atty Gen. Bonta Was Leading Force in Fight That Saved Obamacare

Last week, the United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of keeping the core of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, intact.

That decision resolved more-than-a-decade-long Democrat-versus-Republican legal tug-of-war about the federal governments role in health care coverage.

At the end of that grueling battle, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a former Assemblymember from Oakland, emerged a quiet victor.

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In March, when Gov. Newsom appointed Bonta Californias 34th Attorney General, he stepped into a respected and carefully built legacy of successful legal advocacy and litigation against Conservative foes that his predecessor Xavier Becerra left behind. Pres. Biden appointed Becerra Health and Human Services Secretary.

Bonta said the Supreme Courts decision, affirms, once again and hopefully for the last time, that the ACA is the law of the land.

Americans know health coverage can mean the difference between life and death, so families across the country should rest easy tonight knowing their healthcare is safe, said Bonta.

Bonta led a coalition of more than 20 states challenging Republican efforts to undo the Obama-Era health care act. He was joined by governor of Kentucky as well as the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

The coalition successfully pushed back a lawsuit spearheaded by more than a dozen Republican states led by Texas and upheld benefits of the ACA including patient protections, affordability measures, and coverage expansions.

In the court case California versus Texas, Republican attorney generals tried to overturn a monetary penalty for individuals who fail to obtain minimum health insurance. The ACA, enacted in 2010, required individuals to get minimum health essential health insurance coverage and individuals who failed to do so would have to pay a penalty.

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However, the requirement was amended in 2017 to cost $0 which voided the penalty fee.

Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals claiming that the amendments were unconstitutional. However, the Supreme Courts decision upheld the ACA provisions after Republicans were unsuccessful in making their case.

No one should live in fear of being denied the lifesaving care they are entitled to, especially as our nation continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, said Bonta.

According to the California Health Care Foundation, 3.7 million out of the 12.5 million people covered by Medi-Cal have health insurance through the ACA.

Health Advocates from community-based organizations across California say they are relieved by the Supreme Courts ruling to keep the ACA but say that there is still room to make the law better.

Leaders from the California Black Health Network (CBHN), urged the state to focus on equity in healthcare.

Rhonda Smith, the executive director of CBHN highlighted that the courts ruling helps reduce the lack of access to health care now that people get to keep their health care.

One of the reasons why we have health disparities is because of the lack of access to healthcare services, said Smith.

It definitely plays a key role in trying to minimize health disparities, especially the impact of COVID on black and brown communities, she said.

California Black Medias coverage of COVID-19 is supported by the California Health Care Foundation.
The California State agency targets the iconic Black-owned and family-operated business in Watts to make way for new development  community says Hell No!

Hawkins House of Burgers is one of the most iconic and longest operating Black-owned businesses in Los Angeles, if not all of California. The popular hamburger spot known as the The House, located at 11603 Slater Street in Watts, just east of Central and South of Imperial Hwy, has survived for the past 80 years. The family-owned and operated business has seen its share of challenges over the years. The restaurant survived when thousands of businesses and residents were displaced in order to make way for the 105 freeway. Hawkins Burgers has also survived through numerous social and economic ups and downs, such as the Watts Riots, the uprising after the Rodney King verdict, and has even remained a staple in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many businesses have had to shut their doors.

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But on June 18, 2021, Cynthia Hawkins, who now runs the business started by her parents, James and Elsie Hawkins over 80 years ago, is fighting a new kind of battle. This is a battle with the State of California and the Department of Transportation (CalTrans) over a parcel of land they leased next door to the land the family has owned for decades. But with no warning, a restaurant endeared by so many, was told their lease was terminated and given 60 days to remove all its improvements and vacate the space with no opportunity to acquire the parcel of land or have their lease extended.

Calls and emails were sent to the Department of Transportation (CalTrans) but as of Sentinel press time, no calls or emails had been returned. A portion of the letter sent by Caltrans to Cynthia Hawkins on June 18, 2021, stated:

A survey of the above referenced property was completed by CalTrans Right of Way Surveys and determined that your business property is encroaching onto State property line consisting of 530 square feet. Per survey map, Lot 68, the exact placement of the encroachment is shaded in red and described as, Building and Surrounding Security Gate for Hawkins House of Burgers Area = 530 SQ Ft.

This Sixty (60) Day Notice from the date of this letter, to remove any improvements and/or personal property encroaching over States property line.

In a subsequent and second letter regarding the lease, also dated June 18, 2021, but signed by a different individual at CalTrans, stated in part:

NOTICE is hereby given that, pursuant to the election of the Lessor, by the provisions of Clause 17 of the Lease Agreement dated June 22, 2016, between you and the State of California, Department of Transportation, under which you hold possession of the premises described above, the Lessor has elected to terminate said tenancy as of June 18, 2021, 60 days after service upon you of this notice, and you are hereby required to quit and deliver possession of said premises, in the condition as specified in the Lease Agreement, to the Lessor on or before the 17th of August, 2021 (60) days after service upon you of this notice.

You are required to vacate the premises on or before the date of termination. If you do not surrender possession on or before that date, legal proceedings will be commenced against you to recover possession of said premises, declare the forfeiture of the rental agreement or lease under which you occupy the premises, and recover rents, damages, and costs of suits.

In response to the June 18th letter and subsequent 60-day notice to vacate, Cynthia Hawkins gave this response:

On June 18, 2021, three days after California opened, a representative from CalTrans, Ms. Nixon, gave me a paper to vacate the parking lot within 60 days. I also received a paper indicating that a survey had been taken and my business was encroaching on State land and MUST be removed or I could be prosecuted!! The encroachment cuts right through my business!!!! Im a small minority-owned, woman-owned business that has been a staple in the Watts Community for over 80 years. For CalTrans to even think about disrupting my business is a DISGRACE! Restaurants were hit harder than any other business in California. Where is the compassion California!? Hawkins is a business that has been and shall ALWAYS be a beacon of light for the Watts Community and we are VERY proud of that!! We feed the homeless, offer food to those who cannot afford the meal, offer scholarships to the kids in our community, give discounts to the community residents, provide jobs to our community to keep them off of unemployment lines, and help those during the bereavement of their love ones (we have had MANY of our kids gunned down in the area) and we ALWAYS provide the food for their repast. They dont have to ask; they know that its automatically done. My dad ALWAYS emphasized: Take care of your community and they will ALWAYS take care of you. This was manifested in the Watts riots, the Rodney King uprising, the George Floyd uprising and everything else in between! Whatever happens to this business not only affects me but it affects the ENTIRE COMMUNITY!

64th Assembly Representative Mike Gipson, who represents the district Hawkins Burgers, has vowed to address this issue with Cal Trans and had this to say. I grew up in Watts eating Hawkins Burgers, as did thousands of children and their families in the community and beyond for the past 80 years. This family-owned business has stood the test of time, weathering recessions, racial unrest of the 60s and the challenges of a struggling community that could always find solace in a simple burger and a warm smile.

Watts residents strongly support Hawkins Burgers and I stand with them. I have invited Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin, Senator Steven Bradford and L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell to meet with Cynthia Hawkins and myself at Hawkins Burgers for lunch and to discuss solutions that Caltrans is working to execute. I feel confident that we can resolve any issues in a timely manner.

Local community residents, as well as local business leaders, have vowed to stand up in support of Cynthia Hawkins and Hawkins Burgers, and cannot understand why CalTrans would target such an iconic business within our community, over 580 sq. ft. of land.

The State should just give them the land, and if they cant do that, they should use some of that economic stimulus money they received and provide Hawkins with an interest-free loan to let her buy the property. No matter what the situation, Hawkins should get to keep the property, stated Tracy Mitchell, president of Mothers In Action, who has worked with the Hawkins business on numerous community enhancement programs to help feed families-in-need throughout the Watts and the South Los Angeles Community.

Neighboring legislatures and political leaders, as well as community advocates, have all vowed to weigh in and said, if necessary, they will go directly to Governor Newsom and demand he step in and find a way to stop this attack on Hawkins House of Burgers. The governor, who is amid a recall lead by Trump supporting Republicans, has a lot on his plate. Community leaders are demanding he step in immediately and instruct CalTrans to find a way to support Hawkins, a thriving Black business within our community.

Governor Newsom is doing a good job of navigating the state out of the pandemic and back to business. But to stave off this recall, he will desperately need the support of the African American community and Black voters to overcome this recall initiative. The last thing he needs is to turn Black people (voters) off and be seen as having turned his back on Black business. He wants our support against this recall and there are several things we need him to do as well. But, for starters, we need his support on this issue and to right the travesty of injustice directed towards Hawkins Burgers and to send a message that Black businesses will be supported, not attacked under his administration, stated Pastor William D. Smart, president of Southern Christian Leadership Conference  Southern California (SCLC-SC).



The Whipper (courtesy image)
Cosby Conviction Overturned! Attorney says, We Are on Our Way Now to the Prison to Pick Him Up

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned comedian Bill Cosbys 2018 sexual assault conviction.

The state Supreme Court ruled that Cosbys deal with former prosecutor Bruce Castor should have been honored. In a phone call with Cosby attorney Jennifer Bonjean, she states, I am thrilled! I havent made my way through the entire opinion yet, but it seems that the court agrees with what we knew all along, that Mr. Cosby never should have been prosecuted in the first place. If a prosecutors word is not his bond, then we as a society  and the entire criminal justice system  is in trouble.

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When asked, when we could expect him to be released, she responded, We are on our way to the prison now to pick him up.

He had also cast doubt on alleged victim Andrea Constands credibility. Castor told the Black Press that the trials against Cosby were a miscarriage of justice.

Cosby has served nearly three years of a 3-to-10 year-prison sentenced following his 2018 conviction on charges of indecent aggravated assault.

He had repeatedly maintained his innocence.

When an unconditional charging decision is made publicly and with the intent to induce action and reliance by the defendant, and when the defendant does so to his detriment (and in some instances upon the advice of counsel), denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade, according to the high court opinion.

For these reasons, Cosbys convictions and judgment of sentence are vacated, and he is discharged.
Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison for Killing George Floyd

There will be no probation for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin.

The ex-cop received more than a 22-year prison sentence on Friday, June 25, two months after a jury convicted him of three charges, including second-degree murder, in the death of George Floyd.

Chauvins attorney Eric Nelson had requested probation, but the judge rejected that plea.

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Nelson filed a motion for a new trial just before sentencing, contending that Chauvin did not get a fair trial.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill also denied that request before sentencing the callous ex-cop.

Prior to sentencing, Floyds seven-year-old daughter, Gianna, provided a heartbreaking victims impact statement via video.

I ask about him all the time, the young girl noted in response to questions posed by someone off camera. She said she thinks about how her father got hurt.

I want to play with him, have fun, and go on a plane ride with him, Gianna said.

We used to have dinner every single night before we went to bed. He used to help me brush my teeth, Gianna added. She concluded that those mean people did something to him.

Three others gave emotional victim impact statements, including Floyds brothers Terrence and Philonise Floyd, and his nephew Brandon Williams.

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What was going through your mind when you had your knee on my brothers neck, Terrence Floyd asked?

Philonise said he was a trucker at the time of his brothers murder and was thrust in the role of an advocate for justice. I havent had a real nights sleep because of the nightmares of hearing my brother beg and plead for his life, he told the court as Chauvin sat masked and without showing any emotion.

Ive been lifting my voice so that my brother didnt die in vain, Philonise Floyd added.

Chauvin briefly addressed the court offering condolences to the Floyd family, but cryptically stated that theres going to be some other information in the future that would be of interest and that I hope will give you some peace of mind.

Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump called the sentence historic. This historic sentence brings the Floyd family and our nation one step closer to healing by delivering closure and accountability. For once, a police officer who wrongly took the life of a Black man was held to account, Crump asserted.

Ben Crump

While this shouldnt be exceptional, tragically it is. Day after day, year after year, police kill Black people without consequence. But today, with Chauvins sentence, we take a significant step forward  something that was unimaginable a very short time ago. Now, we look for Chauvin to also be convicted on the federal charges pending against him and for the three other officers to face consequences for their actions. That would represent important additional steps toward justice.

Crump continued:

At the same time, its important to acknowledge how far weve come. Those who raised their voices to demand justice for George Floyd need to know that their activism made a difference. Not only were Chauvin and the City of Minneapolis held accountable, but cities and states across the country have passed meaningful reforms, including restrictions on chokeholds and better training and protocols. We need this sentence to usher in a new era of accountability that transforms how Black people are treated by police. To achieve that  real, lasting change in police departments from coast to coast  we need the U.S. Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act without further delay.

Last month, Judge Cahill ruled prosecutors had proved four aggravating factors that warranted a lengthy prison sentence.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and prosecutors successfully showed that Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority, treated Floyd with particular cruelty and that the ex-cop committed a felony in the presence of children whom they said witnessed Floyd dying.

It was particularly cruel to kill George Floyd slowly by preventing his ability to breathe when Mr. Floyd had already made it clear he was having trouble breathing, Judge Cahill determined.

Chauvin pressed his knee in Floyds neck for nearly nine and a half minutes, even refusing to let up as EMT workers arrived to provide medical assistance.

[Floyd] was begging for his life and obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die but [Chauvin] remained indifferent, Judge Cahill continued.

Three other former officers involved in the incident  J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, are awaiting trial on federal charges of violating Floyds civil rights and state-level indictments of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Judge Cahill set a March 2020 trial date for those officers.

Chauvin also faces federal charges of violating Floyds civil rights, and a new indictment alleges that Chauvin deprived a 14-year-old of his civil rights in 2017.

If convicted of the additional charges, Chauvin could face stiffer punishment. According to federal law, violating someones civil rights could lead to life in prison or even the death penalty.

This has been painful for Hennepin County, the state of Minnesota, and throughout the country and most of all for the Floyd family, Judge Cahill stated.
NNPA Re-Elects Executive Committee of Five Black Women Publishers

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) completed its historic virtual convention by unanimously re-electing its all-Black women executive board.

Houston Forward Times Publisher Karen Carter Richards earned a second term as the national chair of the NNPA.

Meanwhile, the executive team of Atlanta Voice Publisher Janis L. Ware (First Vice-Chair); County News Publisher Fran Farrer (Second Vice-Chair); New Journal & Guide Publisher Brenda Andrews (Treasurer); and Mississippi Link Publisher Jackie Hampton (Secretary) also won the election to second terms for their respective positions.

We are doing some great things, Carter Richards exclaimed.

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I am excited about the next two years, and to have the support and the trust from the other publishers in the organization and for the five of us to run uncontested says a whole lot.

The executive team has worked diligently since its election victory in 2019, helping to catapult the Black Press of America to arguably two of the most successful years in the NNPAs 81-year history.

In addition to the executive team, NNPA publishers also elected two board members-at-large: James Washington, the publisher of The Dallas Weekly in Texas, and Walter White, the publisher of The Dayton Defender in Ohio.

This was a historic and transformative national election of NNPA executive officers, stated NNPA President and CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

And at-large board members won by unanimous consent of the membership of the nations largest and oldest trade association of Black-owned newspapers and media companies.

The Black Press of America continues to make progress under the outstanding leadership of NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards and the Board of Directors. In 2021, Black Press Matters, Dr. Chavis proclaimed.

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Despite the pandemic that forced many out of jobs and a topsy-turvy economy where government stimulus served to rescue most, advertising and other revenue skyrocketed for the Black Press.

Much of the success is credited to a more united NNPA, a stated goal of the executive committee.

Im looking forward to working with these ladies again, Carter Richards explained.

All of us bring something different to the table. I highly respect the executive team, and I love the team because we get along great, she continued.

Most importantly, what Im looking forward to is that my family has been a part of NNPA for almost 50 years, and I realize the power of the NNPA is its publishers. James Washington said, when the publishers meet, magic happens. Well, get ready for the magic.

The chair added that the work of the NNPAs main office in Washington, D.C., has proven invaluable.

She credited Dr. Chavis, NNPA Executive Administrator Claudette Perry, and the morning live daily breaking news show, Let It Be Known, for much of the recent progress made by the NNPA.

The team and the NNPA staff have made a great impact. Let It Be Known has made us so visible to the world, and because of that morning news show, many more people know about the NNPA. It has been a key for us, and the [main office] gets the credit for that.

@StacyBrownMedia @DrBenChavis @NNPA_BlackPress @KarenCarterRich @NJGuide @theatlantavoice @ForwardTimes @CountyNews4You @MississippiLink
Orange County Community Foundation Announces New Round of Grants Totaling $132,500 from African American Alliance Fund

African American communities throughout Orange County, Calif., will soon benefit from a series of grants awarded to local nonprofit organizations. Last week, the Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF) announced a new round of grants  totaling $132,500 from its African American Alliance Fund  awarded to 15 organizations serving Black communities in Orange County and surrounding areas, in honor of Juneteenth and the Funds first anniversary.

Founded on June 19, 2020, OCCFs Tammy Tumbling, executive vice president and chief operating officer, created the Fund with a mission to raise awareness about systemic racism and support programs that advance African Americans within the region.

OCCF assembled a committee to review select proposals for funding based on the priority areas of education, health, human services, economic development, and civic engagement. The final grantees include UCI Black Thriving Initiative, Learning Rights Law Center, National College Resources Foundation, Arts and Learning Conservatory, CSUF Institute of Black Intellectual Innovation, The G.R.E.E.N Foundation, NAACP, Orange County Chapter, Positive Results Center, Council of African American Parents (CAAP), The Enlightened Mentor Project, ESP Education & Leadership Institute, Forgiving For Living, Inc., Forgotten Children Inc., Parenting For Liberation and CAP-OC.

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We are thrilled to award these 15 outstanding organizations with grants for their continued drive to advance the progress of Black communities in honor of Juneteenth, said Orange County Community Foundation executive vice president and COO, Tammy Tumbling. The African American Alliance Fund continues to see great success in its first year, and I cannot wait to see how businesses and the philanthropic community come together to support our diverse communities  and inspire others to do the same in the years to come.

In 2020, Tumbling developed the Fund, seeding $25,000 of her own money. More than $50,000 was granted last year to support the immediate needs of critical community programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2021 it has now raised over $350,000 thanks to various individual donors, corporate and community partners.

In addition to granting, the African American Alliance Fund seeks to leverage the influence and reach of OCCF to uplift the visibility and voice of Orange Countys Black community. The Fund hopes to serve as a convener in the County, building on the relationships with grantees to create a coalition of Black-led and Black-serving organizations.

For more information about the African American Alliance Fund grantees, please visit https://www.oc-cf.org/african-american-alliance-fund-grantees/.
Reflections on Americas Independence Observance

Because of where America stands today on the ever present issue of race, the following reflections are offered from the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. First, the Preamble, which has much bearing on where we stand today as a nation:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, they should declare the causes which impel them to separation

The Republican Party and all its state affiliates seeking to abolish voting and civil rights, have provided living proof that the political Bands they are connected to do not include us, as people of color. The voter suppression laws, murder of Black people by law enforcement and the biased prison sentences for the murder of Blacks such as that given to Derrick Chauvin, are clear proof that there is no belief that that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Before we get too excited about the cookouts and holiday celebrations with fireworks across this great land, let us reflect on some of the words of Frederick Douglass which appear elsewhere in this issue as his Fourth of July Speech of 1852 in Rochester, New York. Lets look at Independence as being incomplete because of the disparity that Douglass found between Black and White. Today such disparities exist at every level, in spite of the efforts of so many whites who have joined with Blacks in the struggle.

Douglass asked in his speech: Are the great principles of political freedom and

natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? It

would appear that in 160 years, many of his questions remain unanswered.

The inequality of slavery still exists today in the minds and behavior of many Americans who cannot accept that America is a melting pot of all nations. Out of many, one. That melting pot includes people of color. The key requirement is that we as people of color must never accept less than equality in all things. While we may not technically be slaves, as reminded by the recent declaration of Juneteenth as a federal holiday, many of us are still mental slaves to mediocrity and the acceptance of less than what we

should have. If some of us remain slaves to inequality and injustice, then the following question Douglass raised is appropriate today:

What to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham, your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy  a thin veil to cover crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

In conclusion: what should we do? We should review the America to whom Frederick

Douglass spoke. We should weigh against his words how far we have come. We should celebrate Juneteenth; the 13th,14th and 15th amendments; the Emancipation Proclamation, which had not been thought of when he wrote this speech; Civil rights, Voting Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity as well as an integrated armed forces. While we are remembering and celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court Decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, let us remember that our schools are more segregated

now than ever before. Yes, we can take some time out to celebrate that which we should have already enjoyed, as stated elsewhere here.

What is the 4th of July? That which I must still fight for to make real in the lives of those

who look like me.

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Sen. Sydney Kamlager Delivers Big for California Senate District 30, Securing Over $400 Million in Investments

This week, the Legislature passed the Budget Act of 2021. This bold, responsible, and balanced budget is due to be signed by Governor Newsom prior to the constitutional deadline.

A historic year of challenges calls for historic investments, said Senator Sydney K. Kamlager (D  Los Angeles). This budget is rebuilding California and rights some ships that have been sinking for some time. This is an economic justice budget. In my first term as Senator, I feel honored to vote on a budget that addresses homelessness and health care disparities, invests in education, and truly prioritizes economic and racial justice.

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This budget delivers for all of California, but I am especially proud of what we were able to secure for the 30th Senate District, continued the Senator. We will see record investments into culturally significant organizations, along with initiatives and efforts that have been plagued by a lack of attention at the state level. This budget will bring nearly $100 million directly into communities throughout the 30th Senate District.

Senator Kamlager championed over $400 million in investments for California, a quarter of which will go back to residents of Senate District 30:

Funding for transitional housing : $3,410,000 to Culver City for an emergency shelter and transitional housing project.

: Funding for arts and culture: $10,000,000 for the Museum of Tolerance , designed to help residents understand the Holocaust as well as the history of bigotry and discrimination. Advocated for a combined $15,000,000 to the City of Inglewood for the Market Street Streetscape Improvement Program and the Market Street Facade and Tenant Improvement Program. $8,000,000 to the Debbie Allen Dance Academy to support building a new facility that will provide dance education and opportunities to Black and Latino youth. $6,500,000 to the City of Los Angeles for Destination Crenshaw , a culturally representational public art space. $3,000,000 to Culver City for the New Earth Organization , aimed at reducing youth recidivism through the arts. $1,000,000 to the City of Los Angeles for Conga Kids , a virtual and social program teaching the dances of the African diaspora.

Funding for sustainable transportation and farming: $4,000,000 to Crop Swap LA for their Urban Farming Initiative in South LA $1,750,000 for the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), to fund zero emission mobility solutions (i.e. transportation and food delivery systems) in Leimert Park

Funding for health care : $30,000,000 for the Kedren Community Health and Acute Psychiatric Hospital . Advocated in support of $5,000,000 for the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Institute on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy and UCLA School of Law.

: Funding for education: $9,000,000 for the City of Los Angeles for creation of the TUMO Center with the University of Southern California (USC) Institute of Armenian Studies and $1,000,000 for the USC Institute of Armenian Studies.



Senator Kamlager also secured funding for AB 118, the C.R.I.S.E.S Act, which has been supported by a broad coalition. The funding will go towards supporting community-based alternatives to police response to 911 calls.

If the past year has taught us anything, its that the status quo isnt working. Im thrilled to see a $10 million investment for the C.R.I.S.E.S Act, continued Senator Kamlager. This funding will save lives and chart a new course for how we resolve and deescalate emergencies, without the use of police. We must reengineer our criminal legal system in ways that make sense, are responsive to different communities, and keep people alive.

Senator Kamlager also was instrumental in securing $300 million in grants for public hospitals.

Other notable statewide investments include:

Housing and homelessness: includes a $12 billion investment aimed at addressing homelessness and expanding affordable housing, the largest investment of its kind in Californias history.

includes a $12 billion investment aimed at addressing homelessness and expanding affordable housing, the largest investment of its kind in Californias history. Health care: expands Medi-Cal eligibility to Californians 50 and up, regardless of immigration status.

expands Medi-Cal eligibility to Californians 50 and up, regardless of immigration status. Economic justice: includes $8.3 billion for Golden State stimulus checks as well as $1.5 billion for small business and non-profit grants.

includes $8.3 billion for Golden State stimulus checks as well as $1.5 billion for small business and non-profit grants. Child care: outlines 200,000 more child care slots, universal transitional kindergarten, and funding to improve facilities.

Im encouraged to see our state budget include investments that will help rebuild communities and uplift Californians. This is the time to be bold, Senator Kamlager added.
The Black RJ Policy Agenda will turn racism upside down

Marcela Howell President and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda

As the U.S. Supreme Court reviews abortion cases that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, there is a lot of attention being paid to abortion rights  but not enough emphasis on the full range of reproductive health and rights issues. Every pregnant Black person faces systemic racism that makes us three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. When our children are born, we face the everyday reality of battling racism and the toll it takes on Black lives. This past year, the deadly impact of racial discrimination couldnt have been more evident as the pandemic devastated our communities, with Black and Latinx people accounting for nearly 43 percent of COVID-19 deaths. As if thats not bad enough, Black and Latinx women have paid the economic price for the pandemic, bearing the brunt of the shecession.

Thats why more than 30 Black womens organizations and Reproductive Justice activists created the Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda  innovative, proactive solutions to address the disparities and discrimination faced by Black women, femmes, girls and gender-expansive individuals. The Black Reproductive Policy Agenda is a comprehensive policy approach to the systemic racism that threatens our lives.

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Now, a lot of people hear Reproductive Justice and think birth control and abortion. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Reproductive Justice (RJ) is a collective framework grounded in human rights, social justice and Black Feminist theory that centers the intersectional impact of race, class and gender in ones ability to live free from oppression  so we can create and nurture the family of our own choosing and achieve optimum mental, physical, community and economic health.

Reproductive Justice was birthed by 12 Black women in 1994, as the U.S. contemplated universal health care without acknowledging or rectifying the health care system in place, which was  and continues to be  riddled with deadly racism. Since then, RJ has grown into a full-fledged movement that fights not only for the right to health care  including full access to birth control and abortion  but also equity in housing, education and employment. RJ doesnt leave anything  or anyone  behind. It is the comprehensive movement we need to disrupt and dismantle the deeply ingrained, systemic racism that plagues this country.

Black women, femmes, girls and gender-expansive individuals have been marginalized for far too long. We have been fighting for our survival while others stood by and watched  or worse, while they actively participated in our oppression for their own gain. No more!

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We are tired of seeing our children, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and loved ones senselessly killed by the very people who are sworn to protect us. We are fed up with not being safe in our homes, neighborhoods and churches. We demand more than one moment of reckoning.

The Black RJ movement has a policy agenda that will hold law enforcement, politicians, corporations, voters and all people living in the U.S. to account. It is an expertly informed compendium of 25 issue areas, each with effective policy recommendations. We believe that the Agenda addresses the social, economic, political and health needs of Black women, femmes, girls and gender-expansive people  so we can live our lives fully and decide for ourselves if, when and how to have and raise our families.

We hope that Congress will embrace the Black RJ Policy Agenda and work with us to pass it so that Black women, femmes, girls, and gender-expansive people can live in full autonomy, with equality and justice for all. But we know that will only happen if every Black and Brown person demands it. For white people  especially white feminists  who want to be good allies, this is their chance; they too should make implementing the Black RJ Policy Agenda a priority.

The Black RJ movement has a plan to dismantle white supremacy. I challenge and encourage you to join us in demanding that elected officials and policymakers embrace and implement the Black RJ Policy Agenda now.

Marcela Howell is president and CEO of In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. To learn more about the Black RJ Policy agenda, visit blackrj.org.
Winners and Winners: Big Takeaways from New Rent Law Benefitting Landlords and Tenants

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 832, which updates Californias eviction moratorium rules and extends it.

California is coming roaring back from the pandemic, but the economic impacts of COVID-19 continue to disproportionately impact so many low-income Californians, tenants and small landlords alike, Newsom said last week after reaching a deal on the moratorium with lawmakers.

The governor said the agreement he reached with the Legislature also gives the state more time to provide the over $5 billion in federal rent relief funds for eligible tenants and landlords.

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According to a spokesperson with the Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH), over 85,907 Californians have submitted rent relief applications to the state-run program and 37,189 of them are already being processed as of June 22.

15.79% of those applicants are identified as Black or African American.

According to the BCSH, $660 million in rental assistance has been requested and the state has paid a total of $61.6 million in back rent so far through the program.

Our housing situation in California was a crisis before COVID, and the pandemic has only made it worse  this extension is key to making sure that more people dont lose the safety net helping them keep their home. While our state may be emerging from the pandemic, in many ways, the lingering financial impact still weighs heavily on California families, Senate President pro Tem Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) stated. People are trying to find jobs and make ends meet and one of the greatest needs is to extend the eviction moratoriumwhich includes maximizing the federal funds available to help the most tenants and landlords possibleso that they can count on a roof over their heads while their finances rebound.

AB 832 also prioritizes cities and counties with unmet needs.

Kendra Lewis, executive director of the Sacramento Housing Alliance, said the law will benefit families impacted by the pandemic that are still struggling.

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The pandemic showed us all how unequal housing is and how many renters are vulnerable, Lewis said. We need to do a better job at outreach and education because if youre in a vulnerable community, or any situation regardless of your race or whatever, and the government has a program where its going to help you pay your rent, theres going to be some apprehension.

Lewis praised the eviction moratorium extension, claiming that many families will benefit from it.

Imagine being in a vulnerable community, worried about losing your job or youre a frontline worker with kids at home. The last thing you need is to be evicted, Lewis said.

How Tenants Will Benefit From AB 832

Allows a tenant to receive full amount due if the landlord doesnt participate in the program so that they are not carrying it as consumer debt.

Permanently masks COVID rental debt civil cases, thus protecting tenants from having these cases impact their consumer credit.

Extends current eviction moratorium.

How Landlords Will Benefit From AB 832

Increases rental assistance payments to give 100% of rent owed for eligible landlords and tenants.

Allows a longer timeframe for rental assistance funds, so more unpaid rent can be covered.

Authorizes rental assistance payments to be provided to landlords in situations where the tenant has moved out and now lives in a new place, but still owes rent payments to their prior landlord.

Requires a tenant to fill out the necessary paperwork for the rental assistance program within 15 business days of receiving notice of their landlord filling out its portion when a three-day eviction notice has been served.

These eviction protections do not apply to new tenancies beginning on or after October 1, 2021.


Chinese President Xi Jinping promised Thursday to complete "reunification" with self-ruled Taiwan.

The Chinese leader made the comments during an hour-long speech on the 100th anniversary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

He also promised to stop any attempts by Taiwan to seek official independence.

China considers democratically ruled Taiwan its own territory and has increased efforts under Xi to defend its sovereignty claims. Those efforts include repeated flights by Chinese fighter planes and bombers close to the island.

In his speech, Xi said, "All sons and daughters of Chinamust work together and move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any 'Taiwan independence' plots.

Xi also said anyone who tries to bully China will face broken heads and bloodshed.

The unusually forceful language appeared to be an answer to criticism from the United States and other countries. Many nations have criticized Chinas trade and technology policies, military expansion, and human rights record.

Taiwan's China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said the Communist Party had reached a "certain economic development." But it said China remained a dictatorship that abused people's freedoms and should accept democracy instead.

The council also said Taiwan's people have rejected the "one China principle," which states that the island is part of China. It added that China should give up its military threats and talk with Taiwan as equals.

"Our government's determination to firmly defend the nation's sovereignty and Taiwan's democracy and freedom and to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait remains unchanged."

China has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Xi called for a process of "peaceful reunification."

But he also said that nobody should "underestimate the Chinese people'sability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The government of the Republic of China withdrew to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of Chinas Civil War. The Chinese Communist Party took control of the mainland. The U.S. first recognized the government in Beijing in 1979.

Most Taiwanese have shown no interest in being ruled by mainland China. Taiwan says only the island's people can decide their future and have criticized Chinese pressure.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English from reports by the Reuters news service. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

sovereignty n. a countrys independent authority and right to govern itself

resolutely adv. showing strong will to do something

bully v. to try to use threats, insults or force to make someone do something

determination n. a quality that causes people to continue in efforts to do something that is difficult

stability n. the quality or state in which something is not easily changed or moved

integrity n. the state of being complete and whole
In the United States, summer is a time when students can have fun, rest, and relax -- at least those not attending summer school.

In many countries around the world, summer is also a time to take long vacations or short trips to beautiful places.

In todays Everyday Grammar, we will explore the grammar of rest, relaxation, and summer fun. You will learn how the verb have plays a central part in describing fun times.

Lets begin with a few important ideas.

Have

Have is an unusual verb. It can act as a main verb, as in:

We had fun!

Or it can act as an auxiliary verb, as in:

I have visited this place many times.

For todays report, lets only explore have in its use as a main verb.

One common structure is have + a noun phrase. A noun phrase is a group of words that act like a noun in a sentence.

Have + a noun phrase can mean to own or possess something.

But it can also have other meanings that are very commonly used. Many of these meanings express fun and relaxation.

Meals and drinks

When people go on trips, or even have time to relax at home, they are often more careful about preparing and eating meals.

Students who do not have to hurry to school may be more likely to have a big breakfast. Or perhaps families on trips take more care to have large dinners.

In any of these cases, the structure have + a noun phrase can mean to eat or drink something.

For example, a person might say any of the following:

Do you want to have lunch?

Id like to have a snack.

Enjoying something

Have + a noun phrase can take on other meanings, too.

One meaning is to enjoy something.

So, young people could describe a situation in which they had fun, or had a good time, or even had a blast.

The three statements are nearly the same in meaning, with have a blast being the strongest statement of them all.

Consider this example:

Parent: How was your day? Did you play with your friends?

Child: Yes! I went to Teddys house, and we had a blast!

Parent: What did you do?

Child: We set fire to a 

Parent: You did what?

Child: Just kidding!

Getting a chance or the time to do something

On summer trips, families and others finally get a chance to do something fun or different.

This leads us to the final meaning of have + a noun phrase: to get a chance or the time to do something. The most common expressions are have a chance or have time.

Consider these two examples:

When I go on summer vacation, I will have a chance to read books and play video games.

When I take a vacation from work, I will have time to see friends and go hiking!

Closing thoughts

While the examples we explored today are about summer vacations or trips, you can use these structures to talk about all kinds of fun and relaxing times and activities. English grammar can be fun especially when you use grammar lessons to talk about great times!

Im John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Bryan Lynn was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

relax  v. to spend time resting and enjoying yourself

auxiliary verb  n. Grammar : a verb (such as have, be, may, do, shall, will, can, or must) that is used with another verb to show the verb's tense, to form a question, etc.

snack  n. a small amount of food eaten between meals
Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC, approved tenure for Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones. The decision came after weeks of tension and protest at the school and around the country.

Tenure guarantees lifetime employment at a college or university. It can offer protection to professors who express their political and cultural opinions publicly.

UNC Board of Trustees voted 9-4 to award tenure at a special meeting Wednesday. Part of the meeting was closed to the public, which caused protests by supporters of Hannah-Jones.

Today we took another important step in creating an even better university, Gene Davis, a member of the board, said after the vote was announced. We welcome Nikole Hannah-Jones back to Chapel Hill.

Davis said that by awarding tenure to Hannah-Jones, UNC was showing its commitment to the universitys highest values of free speech and diversity of all types, including viewpoint diversity.

Hannah-Jones has won important awards for her reporting, including the Pulitzer Prize for her work on The New York Times 1619 Project. The project reported on Americas history of slavery.

The university had announced in April that it had hired Hannah-Jones. It offered her a five-year contract to lead the Race and Investigation Journalism program at the school. The leadership position usually comes with tenure but it was not offered to Hannah-Jones.

Last week, Hannah-Jones said she would not report for work unless she was awarded tenure. Officials then called the meeting to discuss the situation after weeks of protests.

Fight for tenure

Hannah-Jones said in a statement Wednesday evening that she was honored and grateful for the support she received in her fight for tenure.

She said that receiving tenure is about more than just her. The fight, she said, was about guaranteeing the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students.

It is unclear if Hannah-Jones will now accept the position at UNC. She said she needs to process the events and decide on the best way forward. Her statement was published on the website of the NAACP, a rights organization for African Americans.

After the vote, university official Ralph W. Meekins Sr., released a statement welcoming Hannah-Jones to the university.

I strongly believe that she has the right to express her ideas...here at this great university, Meekins said.

Why was tenure not offered?

Before Wednesday, the school had little to say about why tenure was not offered, but it later revealed that an important donor had questioned her journalism work.

Walter Hussman is a wealthy, Arkansas newspaper publisher and donor to the journalism school. He said he had questioned university officials about her work, which he called contentious and controversial. Officials then stopped the tenure process.

In a text message after Hannah-Jones was awarded tenure, Hussman said, I look forward to meeting her and discussing journalism.

Hannah-Jones' tenure request also had been stopped earlier in the year when school officials questioned her academic background and teaching abilities.

The entire process brought a lot of criticism within the university. It came especially from those who say the school has not answered questions about the way it treats Black professors and students.

Susan King is the head of the UNC journalism school.

Hannah-Jones will make our school better with her presence, she said in a statement.

Im Susan Shand.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

academic  adj. relating to schools, universities and education

diversity  n. the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.

viewpoint  n. a way of looking at or thinking about something

journalism  n. the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio

grateful  adj. feeling or showing thanks

contentious  adj. likely to cause people to argue or disagree

controversial  adj. relating to or causing much discussion, disagreement, or argument

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State education officials announced last week "the path is clear" for students to return to full time, in-person instruction at Oregon K-12 schools this fall.

For mid-valley school districts, however, that path has a few obstacles left  such as, who, if anyone, should continue to wear masks? How will recess, lunchtime and P.E. work? And what exactly should they do with the remote options they made available all last year?

"We anticipate being back in person and will offer a K-8 online option, but anything more is a guess," Bo Yates, superintendent of the Lebanon Community School District, said by email Monday.

The Oregon Department of Education announced a "resiliency framework" June 25 for the 2021-22 school year, meant to shift public schools back to more traditional schedules based on local decisions.

The framework reflects Gov. Kate Brown's announcement to lift all remaining COVID-10 health and safety restrictions issued under Oregon emergency statutes, including executive orders for K-12 schools, as of this week.

According to ODE, the plan is to return this fall to full-time, in-person classes, complete with instructional time requirements. Online programs may be offered at the discretion of local districts.
SEATTLE  While it's Yusei Kikuchi heading to the All-Star Game, no member of the Seattle Mariners' starting rotation has provided a bigger boost this season than Chris Flexen.
The following is taken from the Santa Maria Police Department's calls-for-service log and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office daily arrest log. Those appearing as "arrested" are only suspected of the crime indicated but are presumed innocent.

Thursday, June 17:

INCIDENT  At 12:37 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of shots heard in the 1000 block of East Butterfly Court.

INCIDENT  At 6:57 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a stalking in the 300 block of West Chapel Street.

INCIDENT  At 10:21 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a felony warrant in the 1800 block of North Broadway.

ARREST  At 6:32 p.m., Anthony Lupercio, 25, was arrested in the 200 block of North Depot Street and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of domestic violence.

ARREST  At 10:17 p.m., Jakob Bender, 54, was arrested in the 3600 block of Dixielee Street and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of child cruelty, resisting an officer with additional force and vandalism.

ARREST  At 11:52 p.m., Elias Casillas, 58, was arrested in the 1900 block of South Broadway and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of domestic violence and threats.

Santa Maria Police received 16 reports of fireworks.

Friday, June 18:

INCIDENT  At 9:03 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of shots heard in the 300 block of East Tunnell Street.

ARREST  At 6:58 p.m., James McClendon, 65, was arrested in the 1100 block of West Betteravia Road and released with a citation for elder abuse.

Santa Maria Police received eight reports of fireworks.

Saturday, June 19:

INCIDENT  At 12:49 a.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of shots heard in the 200 block of East Grant Street.

INCIDENT  At 2:35 a.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a person brandishing a weapon in the 900 block of West Donovan Road.

INCIDENT  At 9:30 a.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a hit-and-run with an injury near the intersection of South Depot Street and West Battles Road.

INCIDENT  At 3:29 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a minor injury in the 600 block of West Main Street.

INCIDENT  At 6:57 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a person brandishing a weapon in the 1500 block of South Broadway.

INCIDENT  At 9:03 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a minor injury near the intersection of South Bradley Road and East Betteravia Road.

ARREST  At 9:49 a.m., Rondell Dillard, 37, was arrested in 2400 block of South Broadway and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of domestic violence and illegal possession of narcotics.

Santa Maria Police received 22 reports of fireworks.

Sunday, June 20:

INCIDENT  At 2:38 a.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a hit-and-run with an injury in the 600 block of West Cypress Street.

INCIDENT  At 3:10 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a minor injury in the 800 block of South Blanche Court.

INCIDENT  At 3:21 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a hit-and-run with an injury near the intersection of North Blosser Road and West Main Street.

INCIDENT  At 4:51 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a robbery in the 1800 block of North Broadway.

INCIDENT  At 9:20 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a stalking in the 700 block of East Donovan Road.

Santa Maria Police received 21 reports of fireworks.

Monday, June 21:

INCIDENT  At 1:06 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a person brandishing a weapon in the 900 block of Hidden Pines Way.

INCIDENT  At 4:24 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a stabbing in the 500 block of North Lincoln Street.

INCIDENT  At 4:26 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a minor injury near the intersection of East Main Street and South Palisade Drive.

INCIDENT  At 6:45 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a robbery in the 2200 block of South Bradley Road.

ARREST  At 5:45 a.m., Juan Miranda, 29, was arrested in the 1200 block of West Sonya Lane and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of domestic violence.

ARREST  At 8:17 p.m., Gregorio Hernandez-Garcia, 55, was arrested in the 500 block of North Lincoln Street and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, non-firearm.

Santa Maria Police received 11 reports of fireworks.

Tuesday, June 22:

INCIDENT  At 3:02 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a hit-and-run with an injury in the 2000 block of South Broadway.

INCIDENT  At 10:58 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of shots heard near the intersection of North School and East Chapel street.

ARREST  At 7:07 p.m., Lisa Pineda, 50, was arrested near Highway 101 and Betteravia Road and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of child endangerment and driving under the influence.

Santa Maria Police received seven reports of fireworks.

Wednesday, June 23:

INCIDENT  At 1 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a vehicle collision with a minor injury in the 1200 block of West Main Street.

INCIDENT  At 5:08 p.m., Santa Maria Police received a report of a felony warrant in the 2200 block of South Broadway.

Santa Maria Police received three reports of fireworks.
Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr., Air Force Materiel Command Commander, presents the 2020 Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation Sword of Honor to U.S. Air Force Capt. Katie L. Broyles during a gala event at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, June 2, 2021. Since 2009 the Sword of Honor has been presented to the top performing exchange officers from the U.S Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. The award recognizes excellence in pursuit of aviation and is in keeping with Winston S. Churchill's call in 1946 for a mutual exchange of officers between the U.S. and the British Commonwealth in an effort to further the study of defense needs and weapons technology. The British 2020 Sword of Honor recipient is Royal Air Force Group Caption Andrew Lloyd.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.
One year ago this week, the Madison School Board joined others around the country as it eliminated its school-based police officer program.

One month after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, captured through bystander video, the unanimous vote included some board members who had previously been in favor of the school resource officers.

It came even as Freedom Inc., which had demanded the district remove officers from schools for years during public comment at board meetings, could only watch online, as the board met via Zoom in the earlier months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Freedom Inc. youth justice director Bianca Gomez recalled it as a very politically charged time and said the decision came on the backs of Breonna Taylor and Floyd. While she will always celebrate the win and celebrate our young people and their organizing, those deaths at the hands of police complicate the reflection.

It's always a bittersweet moment to celebrate because Black people had to die in order for that moment to happen, Gomez said. There had to be mass uprising for that moment to happen. There had to be Black suffering for that moment to even be a possibility.

Further complicating the reflection is that one year later, the decision has only affected a brief, two-month window when high school students were back in buildings at the end of the 2020-21 school year. Even then, they were in smaller groups split into cohorts, with some students remaining virtual through the end of the year.

The district created a Safety and Security Ad Hoc Committee that met virtually throughout the first semester of the school year, with 29 community members and two School Board members: Savion Castro and then-board president Gloria Reyes, one of the former supporters of SROs who voted to eliminate the contract.

If you would have asked me in 2019, would the vote to remove cops in schools be unanimous, I would have said, 'No,' Castro said. But I think in that moment where everybody was deeply reflecting, a part of me was a little surprised that folks came around to take that action, but another part of me was (thinking), what else could we have done?

District spokesman Tim LeMonds called the SRO program just one spoke in the wheel of broader work toward student safety that has been going for the past few years, with other initiatives like restorative justice receiving more focus since the removal of SROs. That previous work helped prepare staff for reopening buildings this past spring, as they focused on social and emotional health and making sure students felt a sense of belonging at school.

That allowed us to really strengthen and test ourselves and our effectiveness when working with and supporting students who were struggling during the pandemic, so there was a lot of that work going on as well, LeMonds said.

Castro believes the district is moving in the right direction but knows it will take an ongoing commitment to make restorative justice work.

We're taking the long view and trying to think boldly about what we want justice to look like in our schools because restorative justice can't just be pegged as a turn of discipline (policies), it's got to be a mindset of how we navigate conflict, of how we rectify injustices, Castro said.

Shifting ground

The Madison Metropolitan School District had officers stationed in its four comprehensive high schools for nearly two decades, and the board had approved a new three-year agreement with the Madison Police Department just over a year before voting to end that same contract.

But June 2020 was a radically different time than June 2019. Other districts, including those in the Twin Cities area where Floyd was killed, had begun to make similar decisions as they reckoned with systemic racism in policing and schools.

Castro said the vote was a stepping stone to a much broader conversation about justice, and our schools and broader community.

We have some of the largest disparities in the country, with regard to discipline, with regard to reading, and these things are interconnected, he said. When we talk about the school-to-prison pipeline, it's not just SROs, it's first graders being suspended from school, it's about their parents experiencing housing insecurity, all these things interplay with each other.

The mood around SROs is continuing to shift. On the votes anniversary, Chalkbeat reported that a prominent national education civil rights group, The Education Trust, has lobbied the Biden administration to decrease the role of school police.

The Biden administration must counter this dangerous narrative that more police, weapons, and surveillance in schools will help keep schools safe if it wishes to make true improvements to school climate nationwide, a memo from the organization said.

Changes coming

The ad hoc committees 16 recommendations included investments in restorative justice, professionalizing school security assistants and reducing class sizes.

The School Board adopted the list earlier this year.

Some who participated were disappointed in how the committee ended, as some members asked for more time. But with budget planning season approaching, Reyes told the committee they had to come up with recommendations to make sure they were included for 2021-22.

The School Board approved budget items for new restorative justice positions and increased the pay for SSAs for 2021-22.

Their role was just way bigger than school security assistants, Castro said. They were mentors to students, they were doing the work of building relationships and de-escalating conflict and kind of proving themselves that you don't need a badge or a gun to interact with young people who may be having a tough time, and they did not contribute to this school-to-prison pipeline.

He acknowledged that a part of me does wish that (the committee) went longer, but said the work continues through a superintendents work group. Freedom Inc.'s Gomez, however, noted that work is behind closed doors while the committee was public, with all of its meetings broadcast on the districts YouTube channel.

I was not thrilled about the end result, Gomez said. And we know that when things are half-done they're going to be half-implemented.

So I think there are a lot of great recommendations on the committee, but I don't know if we're going to see them through, and there's no way to hold the district accountable for doing them or not doing them.

Measuring progress

One of the recommendations discussed by the committee came from Freedom Inc. itself, and called for direct community control over police involvement at schools. That included creating a group to investigate any incident in which police were called to school and potentially dole out punishment.

I think there are some really well-intentioned people in the district, I do. I can't pretend like that's not true, Gomez said. But good intention does not change policy and practice, only policy and practice can change policy and practice.

During the abbreviated 2020-21 school year, police were called to the comprehensive high schools a total of 46 times, according to an email from Madison Police Department police property supervisor Lorie Anderson. While she was not able to disclose specifics of the calls, they could be for a range of reasons, including information, theft and parking complaints, she said.

Castro said he appreciated some points of the Freedom Inc. recommendation, but that state statutes prevent pieces of it, including some situations in which state law requires police be called to school. Hes still hopeful that whats ahead will be much better for students than whats come in the past.

We've got to be serious about being proactive and safety, he said. And I think that policing as an institution is inherently reactive. And so we want to take root cause analysis, and really help students achieve success in their life.

LeMonds said that while law enforcement is always going to be a part of our community and is required to respond to certain situations, the districts focus is on preventing those situations from occurring.

A lot of that work is focused on the intervention, working with students prior to these incidents, he said. We are implementing risk assessment programs to identify students who are at risk so that we can have those interventions and provide them the support that they need prior to all that.

Gomez and Freedom Inc. will be following closely. She said the district will have to do more than surface-level social justice initiatives to show the community that things are changing within the district for the better. Theyll focus on discipline statistics and what young people are saying about the support  or lack thereof  they receive from the district, she said.

That's how we measure progress, not by how the district tells us they have progressed, Gomez said.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
The two were sharing a room because Schwetz said there was only enough money to pay for one hotel room. According to the report, Schwetz is married and Banes is in a committed relationship, so he did not think it would be a problem.

The police report documents Schwetz becoming drunk and belligerent over two nights Sept. 23 and 24, 2018. Schwetz said she was upset because the zoo had failed an accreditation, according to the report. She attempted to have sex with Banes several times.

On the morning of Sept. 25, 2018, Schwetz asked Banes to go to breakfast and thanked him for being a good friend and the mutual trust that they had.

(Banes) felt like she was trying to manipulate him into not saying anything, according to the report.

On July 29, 2019, Schwetzs day-to-day supervisory authority over Banes ended.

Banes reported the assaults to now retired AZA CEO Kristen Vehrs and the AZA. It was then that the campaign of retaliation and discrimination against Dr. Banes began, the complaint states.
"I think we're sensitive to the health care needs of the public and we didn't have to expand Medicaid to accomplish that," Marklein said.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, described the budget as a "swing and a miss," arguing that lawmakers "absolutely wasted" the billions of unexpected dollars the state had available  particularly when it comes to spending money to expand broadband.

The budget increased funding for efforts to expand broadband access by $125 million  $75 million less than proposed by Evers  funded by borrowing.

A 2020 report by the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association found that Wisconsin's level of broadband accessibility is lower than the national average and 35 other states. The state Public Service Commission estimates that about 800,000 people in Wisconsin  or 14% of its population  don't have the infrastructure needed for an internet connection fast or reliable enough to meet the federal definition of broadband.
Progressives strongly uphold the inspiring aspirational words in our Declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

We as progressives must carry the torch to illuminate our past, cast light on the realities of our present, and shine a bright light as we push toward a more racially just future. This is how we as Americans truly honor the Declaration of Independence this Fourth of July.

Ron Malzer is a board member of the La Crosse County Democratic Party. The views expressed are his own.

Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
Before the pandemic, we were open six days a week. When COVID-19 hit, we cut back to five days. Now that were emerging from the trials of the past year, our brewery is so busy were open seven days a week. This is a reflection of the partnership that the city health department and chamber of commerce have made, along with the increased federal and state dollars being invested in us.

It helps to know we have a president whos looking out for small businesses. Now that we're opening back up, people are eager to get out of the house  but they want to be safe. Were playing our part: Weve hosted two vaccine clinics in our establishment and we have an incentive that gives a free beer to every person who gets vaccinated. People in our community know were looking out for them, just like they looked out for us during the pandemic.
Dear Editor: All votes in all 50 states were counted and validated following last Novembers elections. They were certified by both Republican and Democratic officials. As a former poll worker, I am proud of the meticulousness with which our elections are conducted.

Trumps contempt for the will of the American people is villainous, and the attempted coup by his minions on Jan. 6 to interfere with the tally of the legitimate electoral vote is a serious departure from American ideals. In the wake of these and other recent unjustified series of events, Trump continues to spread his narcissistic Big Lie.

It is truly refreshing to see that Michigan Republican state Sen. Ed McBroom stated that his Republican lead committee found "no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud." This contradicts months of assertions of fraud by Trump and members of his own party. McBroom further said the committee finds those promoting a nationwide conspiracy to steal the election at zero credibility."
The ECDC estimates its about 40% to 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant -- making it about half again as contagious.

Vaccines protect against it - but not perfectly

Real life and laboratory evidence both suggest that fully vaccinated people are protected against the Delta variant.

"The good news is if you are vaccinated -- and fully vaccinated means two weeks after your last shot -- then there is good evidence that you have a high degree of protection against this virus," Murthy told CNN's Erica Hill Wednesday. "But if you are not vaccinated, then you are in trouble."

Vaccine maker Moderna released results Tuesday showing that blood taken from vaccinated people could neutralize Delta, as well as other variants including Alpha, the Beta or B.1.351 variant first seen in South African, and Gamma, or P.1, which has swept Brazil.

"Vaccines can handle it," Mulligan said. "In most cases, we have a cushion of magnitude in circulating antibody and other cellular responses. The vaccines are able to handle this."

And in US states with lower vaccination rates, the Delta variant is more prevalent than in states where the majority of the populations are immunized.
BURLINGTON  A teacher who participated in Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol over the 2020 presidential election will no longer teach American history at Burlington High School.

Jeff Taff, who is entering his eighth year at the high school, has been reassigned from the upper-level Modern American History course to a freshman-level course known as Social Studies Foundations. Taff also will continue teaching another course, Modern World History, when classes resume in the fall.

Burlington Area School District officials declined to say whether the classroom changes are related to Taffs participation in the violent and deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, to protest the election of Joe Biden over Donald Trump as president. According to Taff, his attorney and family, he never entered the Capitol or participated in any of the violence.

Trump and many of his supporters have maintained that there was widespread fraud leading to Biden becoming president, although no proof of such fraud has been found and U.S. courts have consistently sided against Trump since the election.

The district placed Taff on leave and ordered an investigation after learning that he had shared conspiracy theories about the election with students.

The investigator found that Taff did not violate any law or district policy, although the investigator criticized Taffs judgment and professionalism on the job, and urged that the teacher undergo new training and scrutiny. Taffs suspension ended earlier this month.

YouTube video

To this day, Taff refuses to say whether he accepts that Biden won the November 2020 election legitimately.

The $50,000-a-year history teacher announced his new classroom assignments in a video he uploaded to YouTube defending his approach to teaching about the Nazi Holocaust, which was one area in which the school district investigator raised criticism.

Burlington Area School District has stripped me of teaching this class next year, Taff said in the video posted on YouTube on June 23. It can be watched at youtu.be/N54O0DWod00.

Saying that he believes the Holocaust lesson is the districts main reason for pulling him out of Modern American History, Taff cited one confused student who complained about the lesson. Taff also blamed critics who have used social media to air grievances about his teaching methods.

He added: The social justice warriors, in trying to silence the teaching of truth, only help the choir to sing more loudly.

Taff could not be reached for comment on this story.

Reactions

Parents in the Burlington school district are voicing mixed feelings about the districts decision to strip Taff of his American history teaching assignment.

Jon Phetteplace, who has criticized Taff previously and is the parent of a BHS student, said he would prefer that Taff be removed from teaching entirely. Phetteplace, however, said he is glad that the district will no longer permit him to teach American history.

Im hoping that he basically is able to just be quiet, Phetteplace said.

Phetteplace was named in the description of Taffs YouTube video, uploaded to an account titled Jeff Taff. The video description states, Jon Phetteplace goes by the alias Conrad Breadwater on his social media accounts. If you have NO IDEA what has been going on for the past 6 months, here are a few articles about Jon Phetteplaces and others false accusations, followed by links to eight news articles.

Another parent, Adrianne Melby, who has supported Taff, called the districts move unfortunate, saying that she would happily allow Taff to teach American history to her kids.

Jeff Taff is a man of integrity and common sense, she said.

School district spokeswoman Julie Thomas confirmed Taffs new teaching assignments. She also said the changes would not affect Taffs salary of $50,000 a year.

Thomas would not say who will be teaching Modern American History in Taffs place. Burlington High School Principal Eric Burling also declined to say why Taffs teaching assignments are changing.

The districts course catalog says the American history course delves into people who have shaped United States history, while Social Studies Foundations focuses on fundamental foundations of social science.

All Burlington High School sophomores are required to take Modern American History or an advanced-placement equivalent; Social Studies Foundations similarly is required of all freshmen.
Number of Guardsmen in Kenosha per day

On Aug. 24  i.e., less than 24 hours after Blake was shot by Kenosha Officer Rusten Sheskey  there were 125 National Guardsmen on the ground in Kenosha.

By Aug. 25, the night of the Kyle Rittenhouse shootings, there were 250 National Guardsmen bolstering crowd control with the many southeast Wisconsin law enforcement officers that were called into Kenosha.

On Aug. 26, the calmest night of the four since Blake had been shot, there were 500 Guardsmen active in the city. This was the night in which arrests picked up; even as protests became nonviolent, law enforcement moved quickly to arrest individuals and groups who broke off from the main crowd.

On Aug. 27, there were 750 Guardsmen in Kenosha.

On Aug. 28, there were 2,000; 800 of those came from the National Guards of Michigan, Arizona and Alabama, reportedly because Evers was now accepting outside help after having rejected it previously.
A year and a day after 18-year-old Dembo Jammeh was found dead in a Far East Side parking lot, the now-20-year-old Madison man who shot him to death pleaded guilty and will likely spend at least 20 years in prison.

Jalyn L. Cain-Roberson pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree reckless homicide in Dane County Circuit Court as part of an agreement between him and the state that dismisses first-degree intentional homicide and bail-jumping charges.

Deputy District Attorney William Brown said the state will recommend a sentence including no more than 20 years behind bars, although the court will still have the option of ordering up to 60 when Cain-Roberson is sentenced on Sept. 17.

Cain-Roberson shot and killed Jammeh at the Red Roof Inn, 4830 Hayes Road, on June 30, 2020, after the two were involved in a dispute at a nearby gas station on East Washington Avenue, according to a criminal complaint filed last year.

Surveillance video showed Cain-Roberson following Jammeh to the hotel, where he was shot three times, including once in the heart. His body was found around 8:30 p.m. at the bottom of an exterior set of stairs.
Have your say

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission is seeking comments on whether to rescind the permit and reopen proceedings on the $492 million Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line amid revelations that a former member had private communications with owners of the project.

Public comments can be submitted through through July 19 at go.madison.com/cardinalhickorycreek.
The state DOT implemented the waiver last year in an effort to address a testing backlog and limit in-person visits to Division of Motor Vehicles service centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 48,000 drivers, or about 85% of eligible candidates, made use of the waiver from May 11, 2020, through April, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

As a pilot program, the waiver has no expiration date and remains currently available. The state DOT is required to provide the Legislature with a report on the program by the end of the year.

Once received, Evers will have six days excluding Sundays to take action on the budget. He could sign the budget as written or use his partial veto authority to make changes by striking words, though he cannot add new words. The budget would automatically become law if no action is taken within the six-day window.

State statute calls for a budget to be passed by July 1. If that doesnt happen, spending levels from the previous two-year budget cycle carry over into the new one, enabling state agencies to continue operating.

The lack of a new budget starts to have more of an impact after a few months, as school districts look to their level of state funding as they craft their own budgets.
Insider accounts can be very useful. But its a comically convenient framing of Christies role in the Trump saga. He wasnt merely an observer, he was a participant, and one whose behind-the-scenes and front-facing work enabled and emboldened the Trump administration and other Republicans to ultimately secure their own demise.

Defending Trump, even around the edges at times, conditioned the very environment Christie is presumably lamenting  one that resulted in the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories, baseless claims of election fraud, the rise of GOP kooks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Theres a difference between being an insider and a co-conspirator. Christie can offer an insiders account of the GOPs self-destruction in the same way the getaway driver can offer an insiders account of a bank robbery.

Finally, and most eye-rollingly, the book will offer no-nonsense solutions for how to recover the partys image and integrity, and how to beat back the ultra-liberal policies of Joe Bidens Democrats.
Imagine that a developer has been lobbying your local town board to approve a controversial development. You file a record request asking for all emails between that developer and the boards three members.

None of them have official government email accounts, so they search their personal emails.

Two members each turn over more than 15 emails. The third says she never sent nor received any emails from the developer. Do you believe her? What can you do about it if you dont?

Shockingly, in Wisconsin its perfectly legal for government officials to use their personal emails to do government work. Even though a government entity may have no ability to access personal accounts and even though its ridiculously easy to use personal emails to hide conversations from the public, these practices are still allowed.

Yes, as anybody familiar with the open records law knows, personal email accounts are still subject to the law. Government officials are required to search through personal email accounts and produce any emails related to government work that are responsive to a record request.

But the ability of officials to use their personal email accounts is an opportunity for mischief. In a society that values transparency and public oversight, it should be unacceptable.
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HIDDEN HISTORY

Hidden History: News briefs from back in the day

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS Mychel Matthews

Editors note: This column ran Feb. 1, 2018, in the Times-News and at Magicvalley.com.

The Idaho Evening Times ran the following news briefs in November 1930:

Hill pleads not guilty to assault charge

TWIN FALLS  Charles Hill stabbed George Klundt with a knife when the latter accidentally stepped on his toe. Hill pleaded not guilty to an assault charge in probate court but could not post bail.

Gum Vending Machine Theft Reported

TWIN FALLS  D.K. Frost reported the theft of a gum vending machine fastened to a post near the old library building by thieves, the third reported theft of a gum vending machine within a week, officers said. The thieves took the post and all.

Alleged moonshiners deny charge

TWIN FALLS  Frank Bassford and Charles Marler pleaded not guilty to a charge of manufacturing intoxicating liquor. Each was held under a $300 bond.

Bank robbers still at large

FILER  No trace has been found of four bandits who held up the First National Bank in Filer. The numbers of the banknotes were known and have been broadcast, police said. They hope to catch them when they cash in the Federal Reserve notes, if still in the area.

Mother of 8 charged with old forgery

TWIN FALLS  Mrs. George Gordon, 31, of Blackfoot passed a forged $8 check at a local hardware store, signed Mrs. Burt Alred. Two years later, she charged a bill at the same place using a similar name.

Mrs. Gordon was caught after she charged a set of silverware and a cheap pocket watch and chain at the hardware store. Her husband, Ray Alred, would pay the bill, she told the store. She then asked for a $5 loan at a local barbershop, so she could go shopping. She said her husband, a regular at the barbershop and a resident of Hansen, would pay the bill. She left the silverware for collateral.

The mother of eight children was in jail in Idaho Falls when officers found her in 1928, so the charges were dropped, but they will be pressed now.

Fatal bullet wound

DENVER  Mary Behan, 65, died from a bullet wound to the neck when she raked an unexploded cartridge into a bonfire of leaves at her home.

Woman accuses husband of trying to burn her to death

JERSEY CITY, N.J.  Elizabeth Swazerly says her husband, Howard Swazerly, attempted to burn her to death while she slept. Mrs. Swazerly awoke to find her bed in flames and her husband dancing about the room waving a torch made of rolled newspapers. Her husband was held on a charge of atrocious assault and battery while police determined whether the story was true or if she suffered from delirium because of her burns.
TWIN FALLS  A 28-year-old man is in jail on a $1 million bond after police say he led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through the county last week, eventually crashing a stolen vehicle.

During the chase, a Twin Falls County sheriffs deputy forced the driver off the road south of Twin Falls. When approached, the driver tried to run down the deputy, who shot at him to avoid being hit, a court affidavit says.

Dispatchers received 911 calls just after 1 p.m. June 23 reporting an eastbound black truck with green lettering driving recklessly at high speeds on U.S. Highway 30 between Filer and Twin Falls. Minutes later, dispatchers received a call reporting the theft of a black 2020 Dodge Ram 3500 from a gas station in Filer, the affidavit says.

May crime report: School shooting, murder trial, sex offender lawsuit and more Did you miss any crime and court news from last month? Here's a collection of the crime reports, notable arrests and important court hearings 

The Dodge Ram was next seen going east on Pole Line Road, where a deputy tried to stop the driver. The driver fled at speeds up to 110 mph, striking another vehicle just west of the Twin Falls city limits. At that point, the county turned the pursuit over to Twin Falls police, who were positioned throughout the city, reports say.

The Dodge continued at high speeds through town, running stop signs and jumping curbs.
Republican state superintendents candidate Branden Durst said the board was capitulating to liberals  and called out State Board member and 2022 GOP primary foe Debbie Critchfield.

Critchfield is running as a Republican, but seems to be disinterested in the very real concerns so many Idahoans, especially Republicans, have about the indoctrination of students and the use of taxpayer dollars to do it, Durst said in a news release.

Board approves U of I law school lease

In other business Monday, the State Board unanimously approved a lease agreement to expand the U of Is Boise footprint.

The U of I has the go-ahead to lease the former Concordia University law school building in Downtown Boise. The $600,000-a-year lease will allow the U of I to leave its current law school site at the old Ada County Courthouse.

President C. Scott Green said the lease could allow the U of I to serve 90 students per year in Boise, up from its current enrollment of 60, and perhaps generate $1.8 million per year in new revenue. The increased enrollment would cover lease payments, and make improvements at its Moscow campus as well.

The fate of the old law school campus is unknown. The state owns the building, across the street from the Statehouse, and was leasing it to the U of I, university spokeswoman Jodi Walker said Monday.

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BOISE  Idaho Gov. Brad Little joined Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte on Wednesday in writing an open letter to President Joe Biden after the pair of governors were left out of a meeting on worsening wildfires that included several Western states leaders.

A White House fact sheet on the meeting said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would meet with governors from Western states, Cabinet officials and private sector partners to discuss wildfire prevention, response and more as the West faces extensive drought and a potentially catastrophic wildfire season. The Biden administration said it is working to boost firefighter pay and build a more permanent, rather than seasonal, firefighting workforce.

In their letter, the governors said they were disappointed not to be part of the meeting.

No state in what it faces and how it responds is like another, they wrote. We were disappointed to learn not all Western states who face a harsh wildfire season will be at the table.

Idaho is in the 100th percentile for wildfire likelihood, according to a U.S. Forest Service wildfire risk map. Despite several recent years of mild wildfire seasons, the state is regularly in the top 10 U.S. states for acreage burned by wildfire, Insurance Information Institute data show.

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Bound together are 50-year anniversaries of the Stanley clinic, Sawtooth NRA and NP as a new healthcare profession in Idaho. Stanleys community impacted rural health care far beyond the Sawtooth country. Half-century anniversaries are an opportunity to look backand look forward.

I ask you whose lives were touched by the Stanley clinic and ambulance: send your personal stories to the Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association (SIHA). Your recorded memories will become part of the 50-year anniversary narrative of the Stanley clinic and the Nurse Practitioner in Idaho. Send your stories to SIHA, attn: Lin Gray, Box 75, Stanley, ID 83278 or lgray@discoversawtooth.org Your stories will help preserve the past and build for the future.

Marie Osborn ARNP provided emergency and primary care services in Stanley, Idaho, from 1972-1999. From 1999 until she retired at age 80, she saw patients in Idaho City, Horseshoe Bend, and Boise. Marie has a BSN from Ball State in 1953.

Idahos first nurse practitioner, Marie trained at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Treasure Valley and Wood River Valley hospitals, University of Utah, and Chicagos Cook County Hospital. She is the mother of five children.
BOISE  With near record temperatures heading into the Fourth of July weekend, grass and other vegetation from the valleys to the mountains are drying out and the risk of fires is heightened. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is reminding users of federal forest and rangelands, state endowment lands and department-managed lands and access sites, that fireworks and exploding targets are prohibited.

If you plan to enjoy the outdoors during the Fourth of July holiday and beyond this summer, be extremely cautious, and leave the fireworks at home. People should also be aware that some municipal and county governments in Idaho have banned fireworks this year  including on private lands  due to fire risk, and they should check with their local government for more information.

Possessing and/or using fireworks on federal public lands is strictly prohibited. During closed fire season (May 10 to October 20), it is illegal to throw away any lighted material, including fire crackers or fireworks on any forest or rangeland in the State of Idaho (Idaho Code 38-117). Starting a wildfire by the use of fireworks is considered negligence, and the person who started the fire will be billed for the cost of fighting the fire (Idaho Code 38-107).
Laurel Park Middle School Principal Jo Ellen Hylton will be the next principal of Magna Vista High School.

Her appointment was made official during Thursdays Henry County Public Schools board meeting.

The board went into closed session to talk about staffing issues as well as policies regarding non-resident special placement students and a pending legal matter. After closed session, the board set a meeting for 9 a.m. July 15. The topic of the meeting was not disclosed.

Hylton has been with HCPS since 2007 in roles as teacher and as administrator. She replaces longtime principal Charles Byrd who took a position in North Carolina.

I am honored and humbled to join the Warrior community. It has been my privilege to serve the students, staff, and families of Laurel Park Middle School for the last six years, and I am excited about this new opportunity and journey, she stated in a release. I look forward to continuing Magna Vistas tradition of excellence as I work alongside this incredible faculty and staff to build life ready students.

Together, we will provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all students and ensure that all students are provided with an engaging and positive educational experience.
Along with our partners, we have made the process of getting vaccinated very easy, and this has helped also, Bell said. Im referring to extended pharmacy hours, open clinics at our health departments, and the mobile clinics that have taken place throughout the district.

That being said, we know some people are hesitating to get the COVID vaccine because of false information they have received  in particular that the vaccine causes infertility, alters DNA or that it is untested.

The health department, hospitals and pharmacies are here to help, not harm, and much scientific evidence suggests none of these fears are true.

The month ended on kind of a down note, with six new cases in the district, the second-largest single-day total of the month and the most since June 5, when there were six. There were 11 on June 4 and six on June 3.

Four of those new cases were in Patrick County, which has by far the lowest vaccination rate in the district and one of the lowest in the state.

Only 34.2% of Patrick County residents  40.9% of adults  have had even one shot, and barely 3 in 10 are fully vaccinated (37% of adults).
The annual drinking water quality and consumer confidence report for Martinsville is out, and although there are no violations of primary contaminants levels, there is one violation that could affect water color.

The aluminum in Martinsvilles water supply was measured at 278 parts per billion in July 2020. Although that is above the secondary maximum contaminant level of 200, it is still well below the national drinking water standards that allows 600 ppb.

There are no utilities in Virginia reporting aluminum above the health guidelines, but Martinsville joins 236 other utilities in the state with numbers in excess of the secondary level, a non-enforceable guideline.

According to their definition, these are considered aesthetic, cosmetic or technical effects but are not considered health hazards, Martinsville Water Resource Director Mike Kahle said.

In the case of aluminum, both naturally occurring and from water additives used to treat water, when it is above the secondary level, it may cause the water to be discolored.

We only feed chemicals in amounts high enough to produce good treatment and meet regulations required by the Health Department, Kahle said.
The new wrinkle in this is really this new variant. It just sort of rips very quickly through people who are susceptible to being infected, which overwhelmingly is people who are not vaccinated, said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. We just opened up two weeks ago, everything was hunky dory.

Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted a series of pandemic-related restrictions on June 15 after a final push to get more people vaccinated. Everyone 12 and older is eligible for shots and among that population 59% is fully vaccinated and another 10% has received a first dose.

In Contra Costa County, where 72% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, officials recently began publishing virus case rates by vaccination status. Since the county has a high inoculation rate, the number of new coronavirus cases is generally low but unvaccinated residents remain at risk, said Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county's health officer.

For example, the seven-day average of new virus cases per 100,000 people in the county was recently 7.0 for those who are unvaccinated, and 0.4 for those who are vaccinated.
In Virginia, the Mount Clifton United Methodist Church experienced a similar fate. The church can seat more than 100 but the number of weekly worshippers dwindled to 10 to 15, even before the pandemic.

The small white church built on a hill in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1880s may be rented to another congregation, or it may be put up for sale.

Its a complicated picture overall, but the pandemic was the straw that broke the camels back, said the Rev. Darlene Wilkins, who oversaw Mount Clifton. It just became next to impossible to sustain.

In the United States, the latest challenge for places of worship comes against a backdrop of a decadeslong trend of a smaller share of the population identifying as religious.

Its too early to know the full impact of the pandemic. Surveys do show signs of hopefulness  and also cause for concern.

About three-quarters of Americans who attended religious services in person at least monthly before the pandemic say they are likely to do so again in the next few weeks, according to a recent AP-NORC poll. That's up slightly from the about two-thirds who said in May 2020 that they would if they were allowed to do so. But 7% said they definitely won't be attending.
Some residents felt it was long overdue. Others called the move premature.

In the U.S., the highly infectious delta mutation currently accounts for 1 in 5 cases. Statewide, the VDH has tied the delta variant to 48 cases, six hospitalizations and one death  which occurred in Henrico County along with half of the hospitalizations.

Anderson said these figures are an undercount since not every COVID-19-positive sample is tested for variants. The VDH also does not have data available that shows how many of the people who were infected with the variant had been vaccinated.

Rebekah Butterfield, an epidemiologist with the Richmond and Henrico health districts, said the local data team is working to collect samples of the rare cases of breakthrough infections  or cases that occur among fully vaccinated people  to sequence and identify possible variants.

That way, if a specific variant was linked to a case of vaccine breakthrough, wed know right away, said Butterfield, adding that this work is in addition to the vaccine and prevention outreach teams focused in areas with low vaccination rates.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday hell push to further upgrade relations with China, his main ally, as he struggles to navigate his country out of a deepening crisis linked to the pandemic.

Kim made the comments in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulating him on the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Workers Party of Korea, by its firm unity with the Chinese Communist Party, would raise (North Korea)-China friendship to a new strategic point as required by the times and as desired by the peoples of the two countries, Kim was quoted as saying.

In an apparent reference to the United States, Kim said that hostile forces vicious slander and all-round pressure upon the Chinese Communist Party are no more than a last-ditch attempt and they can never check the ongoing advance of the Chinese people, according to KCNA.

Kims message came a day after state media said he had told a powerful Politburo meeting that a crucial lapse in the anti-virus campaign has caused a great crisis. He did not elaborate, but there was speculation that Kim may have aimed to raise a call for international assistance, including vaccine shipments.
"What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten  in order to weaken  a statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about the end of discrimination in voting. I respectfully dissent, Kagan wrote, joined by the other two liberal justices.

Native Americans who have to travel long distances to put their ballots in the mail were most likely to be affected by Arizona's ballot collection law. Votes cast by Black and Hispanic voters were most likely to be tossed out because they were cast in a wrong precinct, the appeals court found.

Election law expert Rick Hasen wrote on his blog that the decision severely weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. He noted that this decision along with others over the past 15 years have taken away all the major available tools for going after voting restrictions.

This is not a death blow for Section 2 claims, but it will make it much, much harder for such challenges to succeed, Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, Law School, wrote.
Although nation-breaking sounds alarmist, consider that amnesty for an unknown total of unlawfully present illegal immigrants  estimates range for 12 to 25 million  means that eventually theyll petition nuclear and non-nuclear family members.

Princeton University estimates that, based on historical trends, new Green Card holders petition an average of three relatives  brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and even in-laws. Doing the simple math, a 2021 amnesty creates potentially anywhere from 36 million to 75 million new immigrants. This is exclusive of the illegal aliens that continue to cross into the country unimpeded. Combined, these are totals that the nation cant support either environmentally or fiscally.

Without taking into account the illegal alien surge  U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 520,000 border apprehensions in March, April and May, a 21-year record  the Census Bureau projects that by 2050, the U.S. will have more than 100 million additional residents, a 31 percent increase, for a total population of 439 million. No one on Capitol Hill dares go on the record that their constituents communities might expand 31 percent during the next three decades if amnesty is enacted.
Credit: Asociacion RUVID

Volunteer surgeons and students take part every year in medical-surgical mission Medipinas, to perform free operations for patients with no resources in the Santa Maria Josefa Hospital Foundation of Iriga City, in the Philippines. In order to improve the monitoring of operations and to prevent infections in the surgical wounds of these patients, the Medipinas team has used an app and designed a protocol to educate patients on how to treat the surgical wound. The results of this successful experience, led by CEU UCH Medicine professor Belen Merck, have been published in medical journal Cirugia Espanola, the scientific publication of the Spanish Surgeon Association, edited by the Elsevier group.

According to doctor and professor of the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the CEU UCH, Belen Merck, "three years ago we detected that 25 of the 87 patients who we operated on in the Medipinas mission developed an infection in the surgical wound. This is a high rate compared to the average 11% published by the WHO for countries with low and medium income. The infection prevention and surgical material sterilization protocols of the hospital had been correct, which is why we found that one of the factors involved in the unusual rate of infection is the lack of knowledge of the population on how to correctly treat the wound, as well as the lack of basic material to do so and clean water. This led us to design a new monitoring and prevention protocol for Medipinas2019, with which we managed to decrease these infections by almost 20 points, from 28.8% to 9.7%. We published these results inCirugia Espanola, so that our preventive method can be used in other medical missions in third countries."

The Medipinas2019 surgical mission was added to the "Zero Surgical Infection Decalogue" (infeccionquirurgicazero.es/es/) for participating volunteer surgeons and students, with the adaptations needed to work at a hospital with limited resources. This decalogue focuses on increasing hand washing, using 2% alcohol chlorhexidine to prepare the surgical field and controlling blood sugar in diabetic patients, as well as instructions on ideal antibiotic prophylaxis. "Furthermore, to educate patients, we produced a document that we give them after the surgery. It explains, in a very simple way, the treatments for surgical wounds and signs that warn of infection. We also give them material to treat the wound," explains Belen Merck.

Monitoring with an app

Another key element in the decrease in infections achieved at Medipinas2019 was the remote monitoring and evolutionary control of the surgical wound, by adapting a computer application (Numbers, by Apple), which made it possible to gather all the clinical data of each patient. The addition of a color code on the end condition of the wound noted by Philippine nurses, also facilitated remote monitoring and treatment of all cases.

"The use of apps for surgery and cooperation is not a novelty, but the app used for Medipinas, with the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Faculty of the CEU UCH, stands out for having been created for a specific project and with minimal costs and developmental complexity," says Dr. Belen Merck.

Five years of medical volunteerism

According to professor Merck, "it is customary in these rural areas with limited resources when there is a medical issue to ask a healer, because it is more affordable than going to a doctor or the chemist. The staff who takes part in volunteering projects in other countries has to be respectful of local traditions, but must also provide the relevant education. Focusing on hand hygiene, cleaning the wound and providing material to treat the wound, which a majority would not be able to purchase, was essential to decrease the rate of infection to less than 11%, which was the goal set in Medipinas, as well as improving the remote collaboration with our colleagues, with an app which is easy to use."

Medical-surgical mission Medipinas was created in 2016 to perform operations on patients who cannot access surgery due to a lack of resources or specialists in the Philippines. The use of the new infection prevention protocol was implemented in the mission of 2019, funded with a collaboration grant of the Spanish Surgeon Association, with contributions by the CEU UCH and, especially, thanks to numerous small donations by individuals.

Explore further Dexamethasone treatment safe in surgery

More information: Belen Merck et al, Prevencion de la infeccion del sitio quirurgico mediante la educacion de los pacientes: resultados de la mision medica MEDIPINAS, Cirugia Espanola (2021). Belen Merck et al, Prevencion de la infeccion del sitio quirurgico mediante la educacion de los pacientes: resultados de la mision medica MEDIPINAS,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ciresp.2021.03.005
Credit: Jointessentials, CC BY-SA 4.0

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute, has shown that many of the symptoms in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.

The results show that fibromyalgia is a disease of the immune system, rather than the currently held view that it originates in the brain.

The study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that the increased pain sensitivity, muscle weakness, reduced movement, and reduced number of small nerve-fibers in the skin that are typical of FMS, are all a consequence of patient antibodies.

The researchers injected mice with antibodies from people living with FMS and observed that the mice rapidly developed an increased sensitivity to pressure and cold, as well as displaying reduced movement grip strength. In contrast, mice that were injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected, demonstrating that patient antibodies cause, or at least are a major contributor to the disease.

Furthermore, the mice injected with fibromyalgia antibodies recovered after a few weeks, when antibodies had been cleared from their system. This finding strongly suggests that therapies which reduce antibody levels in patients are likely to be effective treatments. Such therapies are already available and are used to treat other disorders that are caused by autoantibodies.

Dr. David Andersson, the study's primary investigator from King's IoPPN said "The implications of this study are profound. Establishing that fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disorder will transform how we view the condition and should pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected. Our work has uncovered a whole new area of therapeutic options and should give real hope to fibromyalgia patients.

"Previous exploration of therapies has been hampered by our limited understanding of the illness. This should now change. Treatment for FMS is focussed on gentle aerobic exercises, as well as drug and psychological therapies designed to manage pain, although these have proven ineffective in most patients and have left behind an enormous unmet clinical need."

Current estimates suggest that at least 1 in 40 people are affected by FMS worldwide (80% of which are women) and is commonly characterized by widespread pain throughout the body, as well as fatigue (often referred to as 'fibro fog') and emotional distress. It most commonly develops between the ages of 25 and 55, although children can also get it.

Dr. Andreas Goebel, the study's principle clinical investigator from the University of Liverpool said, "When I initiated this study in the UK, I expected that some fibromyalgia cases may be autoimmune. But David's team have discovered pain-causing antibodies in each recruited patient. The results offer amazing hope that the invisible, devastating symptoms of fibromyalgia will become treatable."

Professor Camilla Svensson, the study's primary investigator from Karolinska Institute said, "Antibodies from people with FMS living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings. The next step will be to identify what factors the symptom-inducing antibodies bind to. This will help us not only in terms of developing novel treatment strategies for FMS, but also of blood-based tests for diagnosis, which are missing today.

Dr. Craig Bullock, Research Discovery and Innovations Lead at Versus Arthritis said "Fibromyalgia affects millions of people in the UK and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. It causes pain all over the body, fatigue, disturbed sleep and regular flare-ups where symptoms get even worse.

"Fibromyalgia is a particularly difficult condition to diagnose and manage because its causes are unknown. This research shows that antibodies found in human blood can cause fibromyalgia-like symptoms in mice, suggesting that these antibodies play a crucial role in the condition. Further research is needed but this offers hope to the millions of people with fibromyalgia that an effective treatment could be found in the relatively near future."

Explore further Nerve stimulation may benefit women with fibromyalgia

More information: Andreas Goebel et al, Passive transfer of fibromyalgia symptoms from patients to mice, Journal of Clinical Investigation (2021). Journal information: Journal of Clinical Investigation Andreas Goebel et al, Passive transfer of fibromyalgia symptoms from patients to mice,(2021). DOI: 10.1172/JCI144201
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Near-death experiences are known from all parts of the world, various times and numerous cultural backgrounds. This universality suggests they may have a biological origin and purpose, but exactly what this could be has been largely unexplored.

A new study conducted jointly by the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Liege (Belgium) and published in Brain Communications shows how near-death experiences in humans may have arisen from evolutionary mechanisms.

"Adhering to a preregistered protocol, we investigated the hypothesis that thanatosis is the evolutionary origin of near-death experiences," says Daniel Kondziella, a neurologist from Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital.

When attacked by a predator, as a last resort defense mechanism, animals can feign death to improve their chances of survival, one example being the opossum. This phenomenon is termed thanatosis, also known as death-feigning or tonic immobility. "As a survival strategy," Kondziella adds, "thanatosis is probably as old as the fight-or-flight response."

Charlotte Martial, neuropsychologist from the Coma Science Group at ULiege explains: "We first show that thanatosis is a highly preserved survival strategy occurring at all major nodes in a cladogram ranging from insects to fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans. We then show that humans under attack by big animals such as lions or grizzly bears, human predators such as sexual offenders, and 'modern' predators such as cars in traffic accidents can experience both thanatosis and near-death experiences. Furthermore, we show that the phenomenology and the effects of thanatosis and near-death experiences overlap."

Steven Laureys, neurologist and head of GIGA Consciousness research unit and Centre du Cerveau (ULiege, CHU Liege) is excited: "In this paper, we build a line of evidence suggesting that thanatosis is the evolutionary foundation of near-death experiences and that their shared biological purpose is the benefit of survival."

The authors propose that the acquisition of language enabled humans to transform these events from relatively stereotyped death-feigning under predatory attacks into the rich perceptions that form near-death experiences and extend to non-predatory situations.

"Of note, the proposed cerebral mechanisms behind death-feigning are not unlike those that have been suggested to induce near-death experiences, including intrusion of rapid eye movement sleep into wakefulness," Kondziella explains. "This further strengthens the idea that evolutionary mechanisms are an important piece of information needed to develop a complete biological framework for near-death experiences."

No previous work has tried to provide such a phylogenetic basis. Laureys concludes that "this may also be the first time we can assign a biological purpose to near-death experiences, which would be the benefit of survival."

Kondziella adds that "after all, near-death experiences are by definition events that are always survived, without exception."

More information: Costanza Peinkhofer et al, The evolutionary origin of near-death experiences: a systematic investigation, Brain Communications (2021). Journal information: Brain Communications Costanza Peinkhofer et al, The evolutionary origin of near-death experiences: a systematic investigation,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab132
Fig. 1: TMPRSS2 is an androgen-regulated gene in cells from different tissues. From: The antiandrogen enzalutamide downregulates TMPRSS2 and reduces cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells

Drugs typically used to treat prostate cancer could be explored for treating patients with COVID-19, following encouraging new findings.

Researchers found that the treatment, a type of testosterone-blocker, also reduced the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to infect lung cells in the lab.

The work, carried out by cancer researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Essex, is part of larger efforts to find existing drugs which can block COVID-19 by reducing the ability of the virus to enter cells.

The team says the study adds to a growing body of evidence from groups around the world, supporting further clinical trials to assess the efficacy of the drugs, called anti-androgens, in the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

Their findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Blocking infection

SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, has been shown to attack multiple organs in the body, but is most destructive to the lungs. In the latest study, researchers focused on one of the proteins used by the virus to enter lung cells, called TMPRSS2, to see if reducing levels could block infection.

Male sex hormones, or androgens, are known to increase levels of TMPRSS2 in several tissues, most notably in the prostate. But drugs used to manage prostate cancer can block androgens, so countering the increase in TMPRSS2 and potentially offering a new treatment option to explore for COVID-19.

The team, co-led by Imperial's Professor Charlotte Bevan and Dr. Greg Brooke from Essex, found that the androgen-blocking drug enzalutamidea well-tolerated drug widely used in advanced prostate cancerreduced TMPRSS2 levels in lab cultures of human lung cells.

Importantly, they found that the treatment significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 entry and infection in lung cells. The researchers say their study adds to a growing body of evidence from groups around the world, supporting further clinical trials to assess the efficacy of anti-androgens as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Potential treatment

Professor Charlotte Bevan, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, said: "This study not only supports further clinical investigation of these prostate cancer drugs but suggests other drugs we can test that could be useful in the COVID-19 effort. As we have learnt from cancer, it is important to have a range of drugs available in the armory. And drugs that are tried-and-tested and approved in other diseases have the advantage that they can be re-purposed in this way relatively quickly."

Dr. Greg Brooke, from the School for Life Sciences at the University of Essex, explained: "Men are more likely to become seriously unwell and die from COVID-19 compared to women. This suggests the male sex hormone androgen may play a role in SARS-CoV-2 severity.

"For many years I have been working on the role of androgens in cancer so was able to use this knowledge to investigate if antiandrogens, drugs used for the treatment of prostate cancer, reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection.

"We demonstrated that these drugs reduce the ability of the virus to enter the lungs and, therefore, our data supports clinical trials to investigate if antiandrogens can reduce COVID-19 severity in people infected with the virus."

Two clinical trials assessing anti-androgens in the treatment of COVID-19 are already underway in the United States as well as Sweden, with early findings expected later this year.

"The antiandrogen enzalutamide downregulates TMPRSS2 and reduces cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells," by et al is published in Nature Communications.

Explore further Prostate cancer regulator plays role in COVID-19, providing a promising treatment lead

More information: D. A. Leach et al, The antiandrogen enzalutamide downregulates TMPRSS2 and reduces cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications D. A. Leach et al, The antiandrogen enzalutamide downregulates TMPRSS2 and reduces cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24342-y
Right, II-spectrin (magenta) forms aggregates throughout neurites of a mouse cortical neuron expressing one of the human SPTBN1 variants. Credit: Lorenzo Lab, UNC School of Medicine

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and colleagues have demonstrated that variants in the SPTBN1 gene can alter neuronal architecture, dramatically affecting their function and leading to a rare, newly defined neurodevelopmental syndrome in children.

Damaris Lorenzo, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and member of the UNC Neuroscience Center at the UNC School of Medicine, led this research, which was published today in the journal Nature Genetics. Lorenzo, who is also a member of the UNC Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) at the UNC School of Medicine, is the senior author.

The gene SPTBN1 instructs neurons and other cell types how to make II-spectrin, a protein with multiple functions in the nervous system. Children carrying these variants can suffer from speech and motor delays, as well as intellectual disability. Some patients have received additional diagnosis, such as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and epilepsy. Identification of the genetic variants that cause this broad spectrum of disabilities is the first important milestone to finding treatments for this syndrome.

Lorenzo first learned about patients with complex neurodevelopmental presentations carrying SPTBN1 variants from Queenie Tan, MD, Ph.D., a medical geneticist, and Becky Spillmann, MS, a genetic counselorboth members of the NIH-funded Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN) site at Duke University and co-authors of the Nature Genetics paper. They connected with Margot Cousin, Ph.D., a geneticist associated with the UDN site at the Mayo Clinic and co-first author or the study. Cousin had also collected clinical information from SPTBN1 variant carriers. Other clinical genetics teams learned about these efforts and joined the study.

The cohort of individuals affected by SPTBN1 variants continues to grow. Lorenzo and colleagues have been contacted about new cases after they published a preprint of their initial findings last summer. Identifying the genetic cause of rare diseases such as the SPTBN1 syndrome requires pooling knowledge from several patients to establish common clinical and biological patterns.

"Fortunately, the advent of affordable gene sequencing technology, together with the creation of databases and networks to facilitate the sharing of information among clinicians and investigators, has vastly accelerated the diagnosis of rare diseases," Lorenzo said. "To put our case in historical perspective, II-spectrin was co-discovered 40 years ago through pioneering work that involved my UNC colleagues Keith Burridge, Ph.D., and Richard Cheney, Ph.D., as well as my postdoctoral mentor Vann Bennett, Ph.D., at Duke. However, its association with disease eluded us until now."

II-spectrin is tightly associated with the neuronal cytoskeletona complex network of filamentous proteins that spans the neuron and plays pivotal roles in their growth, shape, and plasticity. II-spectrin forms an extended scaffolding network that provides mechanical integrity to membranes and helps to orchestrate the correct positioning of molecular complexes throughout the neuron. Through research published in PNAS in 2019, Lorenzo found that II-spectrin is essential for normal brain wiring in mice and for proper transport of organelles and vesicles in axonsthe long extensions that carry signals from neurons to other neurons. II-spectrin is an integral part of the process that enables normal development, maintenance, and function of neurons.

In this new study, Lorenzo's research team showed that, at the biochemical level, the genetic variants identified in patients are sufficient to cause protein aggregation, aberrant association of II-spectrin with the cytoskeleton, impair axonal organelle transport and growth, and change the morphology of neurons. These deficiencies can permanently alter how neurons connect and communicate with each other, which is thought to contribute to the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. The team showed that reduction of II-spectrin levels only in neurons disrupts structural connectivity between cortical areas in mutant mice, a deficit also observed in brain MRIs of some patients.

In collaboration with Sheryl Moy, Ph.D., professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry and director of the Mouse Behavioral Phenotyping (MBP) Core of the UNC IDDRC, the researchers found that these mice have developmental and behavioral deficits consistent with presentations observed in humans.

"Now that we've established the methods to assign likelihood of pathogenicity to SPTBN1 variants and to determine how they alter neurons, our immediate goal is to learn more about the affected molecular and cellular mechanisms and brain circuits, and evaluate strategies for potential clinical interventions," Lorenzo said.

To this end, her team will collaborate with Adriana Beltran, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UNC Department of Genetics and director of the UNC Human Pluripotent Cell Core, to use neurons differentiated from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. And the research team will continue to tap into molecular modeling predictions in collaboration with Brenda Temple, Ph.D., professor in the UNC Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and director of the UNC Structural Bioinformatics Core, both co-authors on the Nature Genetics paper.

"As a basic science investigator, it's so satisfying to use knowledge and tools to provide answers to patients," Lorenzo said. "I first witnessed this thrill of scientific discovery and collaborative work as a graduate student 15 years ago when our lab identified the genetic cause of the first spectrinopathy affecting the nervous system, and it has been a powerful motivator since."

That work was the discovery of variants in a different spectrin gene as the cause of spinocebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5), led by Laura Ranum, Ph.D., who at the time was at the University of Minnesota. In follow up work, as part of that team, Lorenzo contributed insights into the pathogenic mechanism of SCA5.

"Aside from the immediate relevance to affected patients, insights from our work on SPTNB1 syndrome will inform discoveries in other complex disorders with overlapping pathologies," Lorenzo said. "It is exciting to be part of such important work with a team of dedicated scientists and clinicians."

Explore further Genetic cause of neurodevelopmental disorder discovered

More information: Pathogenic SPTBN1 variants cause an autosomal dominant neurodevelopmental syndrome, Nature Genetics (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00886-z Journal information: Nature Genetics Pathogenic SPTBN1 variants cause an autosomal dominant neurodevelopmental syndrome,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00886-z
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A "bubble boat" carrying 118 students linked to a COVID mega-outbreak on Majorca arrived back Thursday on the Spanish mainland, ending their confinement in a quarantine hotel on the Mediterranean island.

Spain has been grappling with the growing fallout from the end-of-term trip in mid-June which has seen almost 2,000 people infected and nearly 6,000 others placed in quarantine.

The story broke last week when hundreds of youngsters across Spain tested positive after going to Majorca, prompting the authorities to quarantine some 250 students at a hotel in the capital Palma and a backlash from youngsters and their parents.

But a judge on Wednesday ordered that those students who tested negative could be released from quarantine in the four-star Palma Bellver, which has been dubbed "Hotel COVID", with a ferry laid on Thursday to bring them home.

It was dubbed the "bubble boat" because the students are in an isolated section so they can't mix with any other passengers.

The boat, which sailed from Palma, arrived in Valencia on Thursday evening, according to an AFP correspondent.

From there the students were to be picked up by health officials from their home regions who will decide whether to run a second test.

Such trips are organised as a traditional way for teenagers to celebrate the end of exams, drawing in youngsters from across the country.

Balcony protests

Health ministry figures show at least 1,824 people have been infected and 5,978 placed in quarantine, indicating the outbreak involves the Alpha strain of the virus first detected in the United Kingdom.

A young man from Valencia is currently being treated in intensive care, Spanish media reported.

On Tuesday, the local government said "Hotel COVID" was hosting at least 232 youngsters who had "a direct or indirect link to the trip" and a quarter of them had tested positive.

The court ruling on Wednesday was issued after an appeal by the families of those who had tested negative.

In recent days, TV footage has shown angry students shouting "We're negative!" from the balconies or hanging out towels scrawled with the same message.

Local police told AFP there have been complaints of students blasting loud music, throwing things into the street or hoisting alcohol up to their balconies using sheets.

Explore further Spanish students Majorca holidays turn COVID super spreader

 2021 AFP
People queue to receive a vaccination at the NSW Vaccine Centre at Homebush Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Australia has little COVID-19 because its border is closed. Many Australians are in no hurry to get vaccinated because there is so little virus. But the border is unlikely to reopen until the vaccination rate is much higher than the current 5%. Credit: Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP

Australia has weathered the pandemic far better than many nationsrecording just a single coronavirus death since last Octoberbut its success means many Australians are not in a rush to get vaccinated and that could delay the country's return to normalcy.

Concerns are growing about the economic cost to Australia of being left behind by countries that suffered far higher death tolls, but urgently embraced vaccines and are increasingly opening up.

Most of Australia's pandemic success, after all, can be attributed to the continued closure of the isolated continent's border, something that is unlikely to change until far more than the current 6% of the population is vaccinated.

But with relatively few cases of the virus and so few deaths, many in Australia are questioning whether the slight health risks to young adults of the widely available AstraZeneca vaccine make it worthwhile.

It's a debate that divided politicians and medical experts this week at a time when nearly half of Australia's 26 million people are living under lockdown measures due to the emergence of new virus clusters mostly blamed on the delta variant, which is thought to be more contagious.

The AstraZeneca shot in Australia currently is recommended only for people older than 60 because of the risk of rare blood clotting in younger people. The only alternative registered in Australia is Pfizer, which unlike the locally made AstraZeneca is imported and in short supply.

AstraZeneca had been recommended for all adults until a 48-year-old Australian died from blood clots in April. The vaccine was then recommended for people older than 50 until a 52-year-old died in May.

That's more than the single death from COVID-19 since last year, an 80-year-old man who died in April after being infected overseas and diagnosed in hotel quarantine.

Many people are refusing to take their second AstraZeneca jab, recommended three months after the first, because of the evolving safety advice. Many have canceled appointments for their first shots.

In most parts of the world, the risk-benefit assessment is stacked in favor of taking AstraZeneca. But that balance is different in Australia.

The Australian government on Monday gave all adults the AstraZeneca option if their doctors agree to administer the jab. The government also indemnified the doctors who administer the shot against lawsuits.

The leader of the Australian military's pandemic response, Lt. Gen. John Frewen, said Pfizer was restricted to people older than 40 because of limited supplies.

"It's really important that Australians have now got a choice about whether they make an informed decision about accessing AstraZeneca," Frewen said on Thursday.

"We've got AstraZeneca available and I think Australians who want to should be able to have a conversation with their G.P. about whether they access AstraZeneca now or whether they wait for another vaccine later on," Frewen added, referring to general practice doctors.

But fewer than 3,000 adults under 40 had taken up the opportunity for a first dose of AstraZeneca by Thursday.

Queensland state Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was accused by critics of scaremongering when she said on Wednesday that with only 42 coronavirus cases active in the state, AstraZeneca was not worth the risk for younger adults.

"I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldn't die," Young said.

She was contradicted by former Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia Nick Coates, who said younger Australians were at greater risk of dying of COVID-19 than they were from AstraZeneca side effects.

Young was "unfortunately out on a very lonely limb there," Coates said.

But Prof. Chris Blyth, the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization that advised the government to recommend Pfizer for those younger than 60, said few young adults should take AstraZeneca.

"I do not believe at this stage that young people should be receiving AstraZeneca at this stage unless their circumstances press for that," Blyth said. "There are some situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small."

The alternative to AstraZeneca is to wait for more Pfizer or an as-yet-unregistered Moderna vaccine contracted to be delivered between October and December.

Australia has been relatively successful in containing clusters throughout the pandemic, registering fewer than 31,000 cases and 910 deaths total.

Australia introduced extraordinarily tough border restrictions in March 2020 that prevent Australian citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country as well as foreigners from arriving except under limited circumstances.

The government forecasts that normal flights won't resume until mid-2022, which frightens business groups.

Those involved in international education, Australia's third-largest export industry, have warned that would mean overseas students would turn to universities in other countries next year and stay with those institutions throughout their courses for years.

Explore further 2 Australian states urge against under 40s taking AZ vaccine

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Sonja Langthaler, Christian Baumgartner and Theresa Rienmuller, all from the Institute of Health Care Engineering at TU Graz, were the first to pursue the idea of a simulation model for cancer cells. (from left to right). Credit: Lunghammer - TU Graz

The computer model, developed under the lead management of researchers at TU Graz, simulates the cyclical changes in the membrane potential of a cancer cell using the example of human lung adenocarcinoma and opens up completely new avenues in cancer research.

Computer models have been standard tools in basic biomedical research for many years. However, around 70 years after the first publication of an ion current model of a nerve cell by Hodgkin & Huxley in 1952, researchers at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), in collaboration with the Medical University of Graz and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, have finally succeeded in developing the world's first cancer cell model, thus launching "an essential tool for modern cancer research and drug development," reports a delighted Christian Baumgartner. The head of the Institute of Health Care Engineering with European Testing Center of Medical Devices at TU Graz is senior author of the publication in which the digital model is presented in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Excitable and non-excitable cells

Digital cell models have so far focused on excitable cells such as nerve or cardiac muscle cells, allowing the simulation of electrophysiological processes not only at the cellular level, but also at the tissue and organ level. These models are already being used to support diagnosis and therapy in everyday clinical practice. The international research team led by Baumgartner focused on the specific electrophysiological properties of non-excitable cancer cells for the first time.

In excitable cells, an electrical stimulus triggers so-called action potentials. This leads to short-term changes in electrical potential lasting milliseconds at the cell membrane that transmit "electrical" information from cell to cell. Through this mechanism, neural networks communicate or the heart muscle is activated, which contracts as a result. It is known from experimental studies that "non-excitable" cells also exhibit characteristic fluctuations of potential at the cell membrane. However, compared to excitable cells, the potential changes occur very slowly and over the entire cell cycle, i.e. over hours and days, and serve as a signal for the transition between the individual cell cycle phases," explains Christian Baumgartner. Together with the deputy head of the institute, Theresa Rienmuller, and Ph.D. student Sonja Langthaler, Christian Baumgartner was the first to pursue the idea of developing a simulation model of these mechanisms.

Lung tumor example

Pathological changes in cell membrane voltage, particularly during the cell cycle, are fundamental to cancer development and progression. Sonja Langthaler continues in detail: "Ion channels connect the outside to the inside of a cell. They enable the exchange of ions such as potassium, calcium or sodium and thereby regulate the membrane potential. Changes in the composition of ion channels, as well as altered functional behaviour of the same, can result in disruptions in cell division, possibly even affecting cell differentiation and thus transforming a healthy cell into a diseased (carcinogenic) cell."

For their digital cancer cell model, the team chose the example of the human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549. The computer model simulates the rhythmic oscillation of the membrane potential during the transition between cell cycle phases and enables prediction of the changes in membrane potential that are caused by drug-induced switching on and off of selected ion channels. "So we get information about the effects of targeted interventions on the cancer cell," Baumgartner adds.

"Freezing" cancer cells during growth or inducing them to commit suicide

The activity of certain ion channels can also drive the division of diseased cells and thus accelerate tumor growth. If ion channels are now manipulated in a targeted manner, as is the case with new, promising agents and drugs, the cell membrane voltage and thus the entire electrophysiological system can be thrown off track, so to speak. "This could be used to arrest cancer cells at a certain phase in the cell cycle, but also to induce premature cell death (apoptosis). One could "freeze" cancer cells while they are growing or induce them to commit suicide.

And it is precisely such mechanisms that can be simulated with the help of models." Baumgartner and his team see the first digital cancer cell model as the beginning of more comprehensive research. In order to increase the level of detail of the model, plans for further experimental and measurement validations have been made and submitted to the Austrian Science Fund FWF for funding.

Explore further Researchers find a novel connection between cell metabolism and cell division

More information: Sonja Langthaler et al, A549 in-silico 1.0: A first computational model to simulate cell cycle dependent ion current modulation in the human lung adenocarcinoma, PLOS Computational Biology (2021). Journal information: PLoS Computational Biology Sonja Langthaler et al, A549 in-silico 1.0: A first computational model to simulate cell cycle dependent ion current modulation in the human lung adenocarcinoma,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009091
The Biden administration this week proposed a series of changes aimed at boosting insurance enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, undoing changes made by the Trump administration and adding a few new ones.

Meanwhile, Congress is launching investigations of the Food and Drug Administrations approval of Aduhelm, a controversial drug to treat Alzheimers disease that may or may not be effective in slowing the ailments progression. The drugs pricetag  an estimated $56,000 per year  and the fact that most Alzheimers patients are on Medicare mean the federal program could end up footing most of the drugs bill and threaten the finances of the rest of the health program.
The Missoulian newspaper will continue to operate in Missoula and will relocate to another building in late 2021 if the deal goes through.
The county would get 50% of the revenue, while 45% would go to the city and the remaining 5% to the state. Already in Montana, medical marijuana has a 4% state tax and recreational marijuana will have a 20% state tax once its legal. As of May 7, there were 48 registered marijuana dispensaries in Missoula County.

Justin Michels was the only public commenter at Thursdays meeting. He warned the commissioners that placing a tax on marijuana would drive consumers to seek pot on the black market because it would be cheaper.

Ross Ingman, the chief marketing officer at Montana Kush dispensary in Missoula, wasnt at Thursdays meeting but spoke to the Missoulian about his thoughts on a potential tax.

He doesn't think the tax would be a problem for his business because the costs are passed on to consumers, he said. However, he wants the county to be clear with voters about where the money would go.

Its all about transparency, he said. The issue of how its distributed is largely undecided right now. Wed like to have a say in how its distributed.

Ingman hopes veterans organizations get some of the money, he said, adding that marijuana businesses should get a say in how some of the state tax revenue is spent.
Missoula agencies are preparing for the expected uptick in drunken driving this holiday weekend, as well as increased fire danger.

Local law enforcement officers and the Montana Highway Patrol will have increased patrols out this weekend for the Fourth of July, according to a police department news release earlier this week.

In Montana, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher, the release said. Officers will be making DUI arrests  a DUI charge includes having your license revoked, mandatory classes, possible jail time and up to $10,000 in fines and fees.

Officials are also reminding the public about the risk associated with fireworks following a week of extremely high temperatures. Missoula County has entered a state of "high fire danger," which means fireworks pose a threat to fire safety in the community.

Missoula County reminded residents in a news release Wednesday that anyone who is found responsible for starting a fire is also responsible for the cost of putting it out.

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Fireworks are prohibited within the city of Missoula, on open space lands, all U.S. Forest Service lands, in city and county parks and county-managed recreation areas and at all Fish, Wildlife and Parks fishing access sites, the news release said.
Branson would not comment Wednesday on which flight he'll be on  he wouldn't even say when the next flight might be. He did acknowledge it's very important for potential customers to see him strap in for a ride, before opening the doors to the paying public.

The thrill-seeking adventurer, who turns 71 in a few weeks, said he's not apprehensive at all about launching into space.

It's a dream of a lifetime," he told the AP.

Last week, Virgin Galactic got the Federal Aviation Administration's OK to start launching customers. More than 600 people already have reserved a ride to space. Tickets initially cost $250,000, but the price is expected to go up once the company starts accepting reservations again.

Virgin Galactic made its third flight to space in May, with two pilots in the cockpit of the winged spaceship. Like Virgin Orbit, Virgin Galactic uses an aircraft to get off the ground and waits until it reaches high altitude before releasing and firing the rocket.



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The U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday that it's on schedule to deliver the numbers used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts by mid-August after federal judges rejected a challenge that could have delayed the data release even further.

The panel of three federal judges on Tuesday denied the state of Alabamas request for a preliminary injunction to halt the Census Bureau from using a statistical method aimed at keeping peoples data private in the redistricting numbers. The decision in federal court in Opelika, Alabama, allows the Census Bureau, for now, to proceed toward its goal of releasing the redistricting data by Aug. 16.

Alabama and three Alabama politicians had sued the Census Bureau, arguing the method known as differential privacy would produce inaccurate data. But the judges said it was too soon to pass any judgments since the numbers hadn't yet been released.

It may very well be that the individual plaintiffs will return here once the final redistricting data are actually delivered to the states," the judges wrote. But we cannot know whether differential privacy will inflict the harm alleged by the individual plaintiffs until the bureau releases a final set of redistricting data."
Just three years ago, Arizona voters by a 2-1 margin rejected a universal school voucher plan passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by Ducey.

Children in struggling schools need the Legislature to focus on improving their schools, said Sen. Martin Quezada, a Democrat from Glendale.

They dont need a parachute or an escape to take them out of their neighborhood, Quezada said. They need us to invest in their neighborhood.

The state Department of Education says about 250,000 students are now eligible, but only about 9,800 students are currently getting vouchers and half are disabled children attending specialized schools. Technically called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, they cost the state about $145 million a year. Parents get 90% of the state funds that would otherwise go to their local public school to use for private school tuition and other education costs. Disabled students can receive up to $40,000 for specialized therapy.

The House and Senate also voted to increase the daily payments given to lawmakers from outside Maricopa County to cover their costs for staying in Phoenix during the legislative session. If Ducey signs off, rural lawmakers' per diem will be tied to the rate for federal employees traveling on business to Phoenix, currently $207.
Wisconsins land stewardship program would be extended for four years instead of the 10 that Evers wanted. The budget also would make $32 million per year available to acquire land, which is the amount available now but less than half of the $70 million Evers proposed.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The budget includes more money for vocational training for the disabled, and youth and adult apprentice programs with the goal of addressing the states worker shortage problem. However, Republicans rejected Evers call to spend $15 million to improve the system for administering unemployment payments. Republicans said Evers can use federal stimulus money for that.

BROADBAND

Broadband expansion would get $125 million, which is less than the roughly $200 million Evers proposed. The money would also be borrowed rather than paid with cash, as Evers proposed.

BODY CAMERAS

Funding to pay for body cameras for Wisconsin State Patrol officers and Department of Natural Resources wardens is included, but funding was rejected to equip state Capitol police officers with them.

JUVENILE PRISONS
Of course if there was new data, we would take different action," Gianforte said of variants. "But I'm pleased to report to Montanans that as of today we've rescinded the emergency order and we're back to normal.

In Montana, about 50 new cases per day of the virus were confirmed by health officials on average over the past week. That compares with a daily average of more than 1,200 cases when infection rates peaked in mid-November.

Hospitalizations are down from 427 people daily on average in November, to 54 daily on average in June. Of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 since late April, 95% were unvaccinated, said Jon Ebelt with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The respiratory disease has caused at least 1,665 deaths in Montana. More than 113,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed since the first infection was announced in early March 2020.

The actual number of deaths and infections is likely higher because not all infections are recorded. Most people recover after experiencing only mild or moderate symptoms.
KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP)  The South Carolina-based Catawba Indian Nation has opened a preliminary, temporary version of its proposed casino just across the border in North Carolina.

Tribal leaders were joined by local and state government officials Thursday for a ribbon-cutting at the modular facility containing 500 slot machines just off Interstate 85 in Kings Mountain, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Charlotte. It's a key step in ultimately creating the $273 million Catawba Two Kings Casino with plans for 2,600 permanent jobs and revenues for the tribe.

Spurned by South Carolina in previous efforts to offer gambling other than bingo in their home state, Catawba members sought to build a casino in North Carolina, citing what they call its historical and ancestral ties to land in the state. The U.S. Interior Department agreed in early 2020 to put 17 acres in Cleveland County into trust for the project.

Catawba Two Kings Casino represents the righting of a historical wrong for the Catawba Nation, tribal Chief Bill Harris said in a news release. But it is also so much more. It represents a prosperous future and renewed kinship between the Catawba Nation and the many communities that now occupy Catawba ancestral lands.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey's yearlong coronavirus-inspired ban on smoking in Atlantic City casinos will end Sunday, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday that an order he signed ending a public health emergency contained a sunset provision winding down the smoking ban within 30 days, which is Sunday.

While acknowledging gamblers will be free to light up again starting Sunday, the Democratic governor indicated he would look favorably on a measure lawmakers are considering to permanently end smoking in New Jersey's casinos.

I would be very constructive on that, he said at a coronavirus briefing, stopping short of saying he would sign the legislation.

The governor's remarks came two hours after dozens of casino workers and anti-smoking advocates rallied on the Atlantic City boardwalk to call for a permanent smoking ban.

Casinos are exempted from a state law banning most indoor smoking, while an Atlantic City law limits smoking to no more than 25% of the casino floor.

New Jersey has even prohibited smoking on beaches and public parks, which was not lost on many of the rallying casino workers.
A Basin man accused of firing a gun into someone's home and threatening the person with homophobic slurs has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime and firearm charges, authorities said Wednesday.

John Russell Howald, 44, was charged with violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and with the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Johnston presided in Tuesdays hearing. Howald was detained pending further proceedings.

The indictment alleges that on March 22, 2020, in Basin, Howald tried to injure someone because of their sexual orientation by firing a gun into the persons house, stating that he wanted to get rid of the lesbians (and) gays. The offense included an attempt to kill the individual, Acting U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.

If convicted, Howald faces up to life in prison on the hate crime charge and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, on the firearm charge.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The move comes at a time when fewer than half of all Montanans are fully vaccinated against the virus and federal health officials are warning of a new more infectious Delta variant of the disease spreading into the state.

Gianforte called on every eligible person to get the vaccine, calling it the states best way forward in combating the virus while simultaneously saying the state of emergency in Montana was over.

I chose to get vaccinated, and I hope you will choose to get your vaccination as well, Gianforte said.

The governor emphasized his push to get the state back to normal, a move he called addressing the states economic crisis. In reality, little will change with the lifting of the emergency. Gianforte had ended the statewide mask mandate earlier this year after putting in place protections for businesses and places of worship against COVID-related lawsuits. He had also lessened most of the restrictions placed on businesses that limited occupancy and hours of operation.

Asked by The Gazette how this move will affect local health officials and schools, especially after the a law signed by the governor took away some of their authority, Gianforte said those officials remain in charge of how they address local health crisis.

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Despite Zinkes presence in Trumps cabinet, the press release announcing Olszewskis congressional bid touts him as the best fit to be seated next to fellow Trump conservative, Matt Rosendale, the incumbent Republican representing the states at-large district. In an interview Thursday, Olszewski argued that his policy priorities more closely mirrored those of the former president, noting that he has a higher lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union than his primary opponent.

"I look at myself more as a Montana conservative, that falls in line with the 'America first' principles that President Trump espoused," Olszewski said. "Running against a Trump agency director, in Montana things are very local, and people in Western Montana, that I'm trying to represent, they live and breathe the right to self-determination and they want someone to represent them that's similar."

Olszewski spent six years in the Legislature, serving a single term in the House beginning in 2015 and then one term in the Senate, from 2017 to 2020. He sponsored several bills that sought to restrict access to abortions and was one of the leading opponents of the states expansion of Medicaid.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicans living abroad sent home a record amount of money in May, topping $4.5 billion in a month for the first time, Mexicos central bank said Thursday.

Just a year ago, it was considered a record when migrants' money, known as remittances, broke the $4 billion per month mark in March 2020.

They now regularly send more than $4 billion. Only January and February, traditionally slow months for remittances, fell below that mark this year, with March, April and May setting new records. May is a traditionally high month because of Mothers Day.

The $19.2 billion sent home in the first five months of 2021 is 21.7% more than during the same period of 2020.

If the pace keeps up, Mexico could be on track to top $45 billion in remittances for the full year in 2021.

As a source of foreign income, remittances earn Mexico more money than oil exports or tourism and are exceeded only by manufacturing exports.

BBVA bank said in an analysis report that the rapid U.S. economic recovery and shortages of workers in some sectors may have helped migrants send more money home. Most Mexican migrants live and work in the United States, where employment opportunities have surged as the coronavirus pandemic eases.
Here comes July 4, the birthday of the United States. I love celebrating birthdays, including the Fourth. But birthdays only mark beginnings. We should also celebrate some important anniversariesdays when we the people established the fundamental rules by which we govern ourselves.

Lets celebrate two days of observance that we already have: Constitution Day and Bill of Rights Day. Then lets add one to commemorate the most important way in which we shape our governmentby voting. Lets call it Suffrage Day.

You may not have heard of Constitution Day, Sept. 17. This is the date in 1787 when delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document that begins We the People of the United States The Constitution spells out the fundamental structure of our government and our processes for sharing power. It guarantees that no single person or institution can unilaterally control our lives. Lets discuss the Constitution and celebrate it on Sept. 17 every year.

The Constitution is like an architects plan, and no architects plan is perfect. The Founding Fathers (sorry, no mothers) knew this, so they provided a way to fix the plan when additions and corrections were needed. This is Article V, the process for amending the Constitution.
As former members of the Districting and Apportionment Commission, we know whats at stake drawing legislative districts and now a new congressional district. We commend Commission Chair Maylinn Smith for her commitment to an open, public and transparent process.

We are proud of our work on the 2000 and 2010 commissions. These commissions drew landmark plans based on the input of thousands of everyday Montanans, creating legislative maps reflecting the rich diversity of our communities across the state. Montana Democrats have a proven history of our commitment to an open process and maps that represent all Montanans at the Legislature.

In 1972, voters approved the new Montana Constitution establishing our independent citizen redistricting commission. Now the Legislatures role in redistricting is the same as every other Montanan. They can offer suggestions on how the maps should be drawn, but they have absolutely no power to pass unconstitutional laws dictating how the commission draws the maps.
California recently announced that state employees would be prohibited from traveling to Montana due to our states discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Indulging in the proud Montana tradition of mocking California, some politicians and activists had a good laugh about the ban. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines tweeted a snarky rejoinder, Republican radio host Aaron Flint had a good laugh, and plenty of other right-wing activists got their dunks in on Twitter.

Discrimination is no joke. Neither is the economic impact when people decide to take their travel dollars elsewhere. This year, the Legislature passedand Gov. Greg Gianforte signedlaws to legalize discrimination, invade the privacy of LGBTQ Montanans, micromanage family health care decisions, and mandate government inspection of childrens genitals. This culture war against our friends, family and neighbor has literal life or death consequences.

This agenda of discrimination also threatens our economy. According to the University of Montana Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research, out of state spend $3.8 billion a year, fueling an economic ripple effect in every county; 12% of these travelers are here on business trips.
Actor Stuart Damon, who for decades played Dr. Alan Quartermaine on the popular daytime soap "General Hospital," has died at age 84.

The veteran TV star died Saturday around 1 a.m. after struggling with renal failure and other "compounding issues" in recent years, his son Christopher Damon told the Daily News.

"It was very peaceful. I was with him at the time," Christopher Damon said, adding that other family members also got a chance to say goodbye the night before at the Motion Picture Television Fund's 20-acre assisted living campus in Woodland Hills, Calif.

He added that his dad relished his three decades on the longest-running American soap opera still in production. He joined the show in 1977 and was on until 2008. He returned for two guest appearances in 2011 and two more in 2013.

"He was grateful  very grateful  to be on 'General Hospital' and have that job for so many years," his son said. "He went to work with no ego. He just wanted to show up, do the best work he could and have fun."

He said his dad was very proud of the 1999 Daytime Emmy he won for his work on a story line that followed Alan Quartermaine's addiction to hydrocodone.
Public health officials trying to combat the confusion and hesitancy have put up billboards where the Amish travel by horse and buggy, sent letters to bishops and offered to take the vaccines into their homes and workplaces, all without much success.

"It's not due to lack of effort," said Michael Derr, the health commissioner in Holmes County, Ohio. "But this thing is so politically charged."

Some health clinics that serve the Amish are hesitant to push the issue for fear of driving them away from getting blood pressure checks and routine exams.

One local business and the organizers of a community event told the health department in Holmes County that it would no longer be welcome if it brought the vaccine to them, Derr said.

Staff members at the Parochial Medical Center, which serves the Amish and Mennonites in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, encourage patients to get the vaccine, but many have little fear of the virus, said Allen Hoover, the clinic's administrator.

"Most of them listen and are respectful, but you can tell before you're finished that they've already made up their mind," he said.
The restaurant may have been experiencing reduced earnings after Sun Holdings bought that location and 40 other IHOP restaurants in October 2020 from another franchisee that went bankrupt in the spring of 2020, Miranda said.

Some of these people had been there for a long time, Miranda said of the employees who were owed back pay. In the middle of the pandemic, it was hard to find other jobs.

In its statement, Siembra NC featured the story of Rosa Gonzalez that went viral in social media on May 1 after co-worker Vanessa Becerril posted a video on TikTok showing a group of IHOP employees walking out of the kitchen in the middle of their shift. The group took that action after Gonzalez was denied pay she was owed for 80 hours of work, Siembra NC said.

In less than 48 hours, Becerrils video had received millions of views and public demands that Gonzalez be paid were being posted all over the restaurants social media, Siembra NC said.

As a result of the pressure, a regional manager soon delivered a paycheck to Gonzalez, paying her for all the hours that she worked, the organization said. A week later, the remaining employees marched together to the restaurant to collect their paychecks, including wages they had been denied from previous months, the organization said.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said all intended recipient countries had received formal U.S. offers of a specific number and type of vaccine, and all legal and logistical hurdles on the U.S. side had been cleared.

The remaining doses will be shipped in the coming weeks as countries complete their own domestic set of operational regulatory and legal processes. Theyre specific to each country," Zients said Thursday. We will continue to share tens of millions of U.S. doses over the summer months as we help lead the fight to end the pandemic across the globe."

The White House declined to specify which nations were struggling with which local hurdles, saying it is working with recipient nations on an individual basis to remove obstacles to delivery.

What weve found to be the biggest challenge is not actually the supply  we have plenty of doses to share with the world  but this is a Herculean logistical challenge, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week.

It took months for the U.S. to get its domestic vaccination program running at full throttle, and officials noted that Biden only shifted the focus of the nation's COVID-19 response toward the global vaccination campaign less than two months ago.
WASHINGTON (AP)  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.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)  A Libyan military commander who previously lived for decades in Virginia cannot claim head-of-state immunity as a defense in lawsuits accusing him of atrocities in his country's civil war, a judge ruled Thursday.

Khalifa Hifter leads the self-styled Libyan National Army, a faction in a civil war that has raged in the country for years. Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.

He is also a defendant in three separate federal lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Plaintiffs allege their loved ones were killed or tortured by Hifters forces.

The lawsuits seek millions of dollars in damages that could be recovered from property that Hifter, a dual U.S. and Libyan citizen, and his family still own throughout northern Virginia.

In court papers, Hifter asserted that he is immune to lawsuits because he is head of state. He also said the judge should dismiss the cases because a lawsuit that seeks to assert blame in the country's civil war is a political question that requires deference to the executive branch.
The report, filed by a Great Falls attorney, states "Harrington's tenure with the EHPD did nothing to address these problems (inadequate management and oversight; the failure to define roles and responsibilities; lack of training; outdated policies and procedures; burnout and stress) and in fact seemed to only worsen many of the issues."

"I take these very important outside investigations extremely seriously as I know the City Council and residents do," Schell's statement reads. "I also take full responsibility for any shortcomings in my leadership that led us to this point and will concentrate my efforts on working with the staff and Council to review and implement the recommendations of those investigations into the Citys policies and procedures moving forward in an honest and transparent fashion. As is the city staff and City Council, I am committed to building on the existing Police Department members and providing the community with an ethical, well respected East Helena Police Department."
GREAT FALLS  The advisory committee set up to forward recommendations for judicial candidates to the governor settled on two names following a roundtable meeting Wednesday in Great Falls.

David Grubich, a standing master in Cascade County District Court, and Michele Levine, the judge whose appointment was rejected by the Senate just two months ago, will both be recommended to Gov. Greg Gianforte by the end of the week, committee chair Ron Nelson, a Great Falls attorney, said at the end of the hearing.

The committees process is the first of its kind. The Legislature abolished the judicial nomination commission in the last session with a bill supported by Gianfortes office. The advisory committee Gianforte set up in its place conducts largely the same function, but instead of a panel that holds its members over several years, this committee, with members specific to Cascade County, will dissolve after Gianforte makes his selection.
An Indiana man has been sentenced to 60 days in jail, five years of probation and banned from Yellowstone National Park for five years after pleading guilty following a June 21 altercation in the park.

He was also fined $1,550 along with a $50 special assessment fee.

Kyle F. Campbell, 31, of Fairmont, Indiana, reportedly got belligerent after being told by a kayaking guide that his group was too drunk for a scheduled trip from Grant Marina on Yellowstone Lake, according to a park press release.

"Campbell and his group became upset and created a disturbance that led the kayak guide to call security officers and park law enforcement rangers," the Park Service said. "During the encounter, Campbell made threatening comments and gestures toward the officers. He also exhibited signs of being intoxicated and refused to obey officers orders. Campbell continually struggled and kicked at the rangers, resisting arrest, and later injuring himself while banging his head in the patrol car."
The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, which today is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.

Last week the Cowessess First Nation, located about 85 miles east of the Saskatchewan capital of Regina, said investigators found at least 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former Marieval Indian Residential School.
Additionally, this project will have adverse effects including complete ecological destruction of this vast green space and a decrease in property values. The character of the surrounding community, neighborhoods and natural features will be irretrievably scarred, destroying habitat for thousands of animals that make their homes here.

Madison River states that the solar array will not affect property values, but there hasnt been adequate unbiased research into property devaluation in proximity to vast solar arrays like this one. One study conducted by a public policy group at the University of Texas noted most solar arrays are sited in areas that are already lower income and with depressed property valuation. Furthermore, this array would be one of the top 5 largest utility scale solar farms in the U.S., and the only one located in a city. The other arrays average 20.5 miles from the nearest communities. According to information from Construction Review, Google Maps, and the U.S. Census, those 5 communities have a total population of 8,112! By comparison, Atlas Power and its proposed Basin Creek Solar Project are 6.4 miles away from the center of Butte, population 33,964. Do we really want another large-scale industrial eyesore in our town?
I challenge Montanans to find where favorable conditions of water flows has ever been stated in a proposed environmental documents purpose and need. Oh, sure, one can find countless times that the reduction of stream sediment is a goal, but anybody in the livestock business or agriculture can assert that cattle can drink water containing sediment, and it can also irrigate grain crops.

Vigorous (green) headwater forested drainages truly act as hydrologic sponges that hold snow under their tree canopy for a slow, steady melt and runoff. Burnt watersheds that bake in harsh sunlight melt early and fast in the spring. Neither Missoula, nor St. Louis, Missouri, nor New Orleans ever need or want additional flood stage spring waters.

Of course, there is also a significant bad impact on fisheries, songbirds and wildlifewhether listed as an endangered specie or not! Watershed wildfires kill.

Yet Montanans have continually seen federal wildfire management back off from aggressive wildfire attacks in the backcountrywhich is another name for headwater drainagesand instead establish defensive plans for fire lines on the edge of the federal ownership. The causes are many:

1. God help us, but there are those that subscribe to silviculture by wildfire.
The words "bipartisan," "compromise" and "Montana"  all in one story  graced the Billings Gazette's front page Friday.

The story: A deal was reached on a bipartisan infrastructure spending measure that would finance a variety of sorely needed projects in Montana and across the country.

Included, Sen. Jon Tester said, were long-stymied large-scale water projects, as well as airports, roads, bridges and internet access initiatives.

Tester is to be commended for being one of 10 lawmakers from both parties involved in negotiating the compromise, which is supported by President Joe Biden.

The bill "will help create good-paying jobs across the state," Tester said.

Getting to yes was not easy for the negotiators over the past several weeks, and more than once, the deal looked dead on arrival. At $973 billion, the measure is about $1 trillion less than what the president initially proposed  but far more likely to attract Republican votes.
Roberts said FWP usually steers away from regulations that eliminate access to a certain type of fishing, and is more likely to consider specific stretches of water for gear-related restrictions and even then only in the face of strong evidence the gear causes a mortality risk.

We don't want to stack the deck for one type of fishing over another  banning bait fishing so more people can float the river and do catch and release. We typically try not to do that, he said.

But many anglers are calling for exactly that now that brown trout are in crisis.

If were really worried about them, weve got to stop the bait fishing, Jones said.

Rainbows

Catch-and-release regulations  in whatever form they take  should also be applied to rainbow trout on the Big Hole, Jay said.
GOING TO THE WELL

An increase of water production from Well 47 combined with cleaning of other wells should result in meeting summer water reserve requirements, Huston reported. There had been concerns because water requirements of a large industrial customer had increased considerably. Huston told the board a vendor was able to increase Well 47's output by 75% to roughly 1.5 million gallons per day.

On a related note, Huston reported the water supply should be adequate to meet a proposed water service expansion to Louisa County. "We had some very preliminary discussion," Huston told the board. "They reached out to us. For them, we would be an ideal solution."

Huston said any decision would be brought back to the board. "We will always look to protecting the interests of our Muscatine customers first," he said.

PAY EQUITY
A surveillance video shows Dickinson punch the guard with his left hand. A struggle ensued and the guard gained compliance by taking Dickinson to the ground. The guard reported Dickinson had scratched at him and attempted to poke him in the eyes and had attempted to bite him. The guard reported having to physically drag Dickinson into the cell.

The report said the guards radio mic was pulled from his shirt and he sustained bodily injuries as he had red marks or scratches around his neck and collarbone and redness in his left eye.

Dickinson has pleaded not guilty to the charge and demanded a speedy trial within 90 days. The charge has been combined with three other felony charges stemming from Dickinson allegedly eluding police on June 9.

According to a news release from the police department, at about 7:33 p.m. Wednesday, June 9, officers conducted a traffic stop near Spruce Street and Highway 61 on a 2005 Buick Century for multiple traffic violations. The vehicle abruptly pulled into a local business, and the driver, identified as Dickinson, attempted to enter the business. Dickinson then returned to the vehicle and attempted to back up, nearly striking a Wapello Police cruiser.
MUSCATINE  Joe Bottoms was named MuscaBus Driver of the Year.

The Iowa Public Transit Association announced the award at its annual meeting and training conference held virtually this week.

Muscatine Department of Public Works Public transit division nominated Bottoms, who has been a driver for more than two years.

(He) is a great driver, transit supervisor Amy Fortenbacher said. He is very friendly to all of our passengers, providing excellent customer service, and is a wonderful ambassador for MuscaBus.

Bottoms said he did not know about the existence of the award before his nomination and was surprised by the honor.

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There are plenty of good MuscaBus drivers out there, and I am very thankful that I have been selected out of them, Bottoms said. I dont really enjoy a lot of attention, but Im glad that I can represent the company and that they think enough of me to have me be Driver of the Year, and I thank them for that.

Bottoms said he enjoys talking with passengers.
Both groups argued that their contributors had in the past suffered harassment and threats and that California had in the past let the donor information become public.

In a statement, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center called Thursday a great day.

This opinion safeguards our clients donors from the threats of governmental misuse and public disclosure of their identities and addresses  whether intentional, mistaken, or by electronic theft, Louie Castoria said.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation CEO Emily Seidel said in a statement that the decision: protects Americans from being forced to choose between staying safe or speaking up."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he was disappointed by the decision.

As the Peoples Attorney, my office has the responsibility to protect charitable assets for their intended use and ensure that donations go towards their intended purpose. Stripping our office of confidential access to donor information  the same information about major donors that charities already provide to the federal government  will make it harder for the State to fight fraud and prevent the misuse of charitable contributions, he said in a statement.
Heres the truth: This is an important step forward and its worthy of celebration, Wolf told a news conference on the Capitol steps Wednesday, backed by Democratic lawmakers and public school advocates. But we still have work to do. We still have a long way to go before education in Pennsylvania is fully and fairly funded, adequate and fair funding. We dont have that yet.

Wolf in February asked lawmakers for $1.3 billion in aid to ensure that Pennsylvania's updated school-funding formula is used for every dollar of state aid, while ensuring that no district would see a reduction.

Republicans balked at the price tag.

In an 11th-hour deal to set aside $100 million for the poorest school districts, Republicans got Wolf to agree to repeal his regulation to expand the ranks of lower-wage salaried workers who must receive time-and-a-half pay for any time they work over 40 hours in a week.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Using his words, Iowas Republican U.S. senators are holding President Joe Biden accountable for his earlier commitments to support the biofuel industry and the family farmers who rely on it.

In light of recent reports about his consideration of the demands of Big Oil, Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley have written to Biden to remind him of his statements during his campaign supposedly supporting biofuel.

Those waivers are a gigantic mistake, Biden said on Iowa PBS in the summer 2019 when asked about the waivers granted by the Trump administration. We should not be exempting, we should be insisting that these major companies in fact meet the criteria.

The letter, joined by the Republican senators from South Dakota and Nebraska, and an earlier missive from Ernst to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, were motivated, in part by, Ernst said, by rumors about administrative action to reduce or eliminate renewable fuel blending targets for petroleum refiners.

Along with a recent announcement by the Biden administration regarding its intention to rewrite the definition of Waters of the United States rules, that leads Ernst to question the Biden administrations commitment to farmers.
But Democratic state Sen. Reynold Nesiba said the fact Noem is using a donor to pay for the deployment shows it is not a real priority for the state, but instead gives her political cover. He said he was looking into whether using a private donation to fund the deployment is legal.

This could set a dangerous precedent to allow anonymous political donors to call the governor and dispatch the Guard whenever they want, he said.

The federal government usually pays for National Guard deployments to other states. When troops respond to an in-state emergency, they are paid from state government funds, according to Duke Doering, a historian with the South Dakota National Guard Museum. He said he had never heard of a private donor funding a deployment.

This kind of floors me, when youre talking about a private donor sending the Guard, that doesnt even make sense to me, Doering said.

The South Dakota National Guard is expected to deploy for 30 to 60 days, Noem said, while the other states involved are sending law enforcement officers for roughly two-week stints.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  One of the worlds largest port operators, DP World, said Thursday it has acquired an American logistics firm in a $1.2 billion deal, the latest investment as the maritime company pushes to expand farther afield.

Dubai-based DP World said its purchase of global logistics provider Syncreon Holdings is expected to close later this year. The company plans to fund the acquisition from existing resources so as not to take on more debt.

The move comes after the port operator posted a 29% drop in 2020 profits as the coronavirus pandemic froze global supply chains and upended trade flows. The company delisted from the stock exchange and returned to full state-ownership last year.

Syncreon operates supply chains for the automotive and technology industries, managing warehouses and fulfillment centers for packing, shipping and delivering across 19 countries.
Guam police officers conduct an investigation on the corner of Chalan Tun Joseph Fejeran and Marine Corps Drive after a shooting involving a police officer was reported around 6:17 p.m. Wednesday. One man was killed.
Editor

Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His three books are available on amazon.com
EOH CEO Stephen van Coller is under fire for spending millions on lawyers and consultants when employees were hit with salary cuts and retrenchments.

This criticism followed news that EOH sued four of its former executives, including founder Asher Bohbot, for R6.4 billion.

EOH said this action closes off its inherited legacy issues and holds accountable those responsible for the governance failings.

The company said it ensured transparent cooperation with the relevant authorities, including the SIU, Hawks, and the Enquiry into State Capture.

It has been no easy feat getting to this point. The new EOH leadership team is immensely proud of everyone who has been involved in this process, EOH CEO Stephen van Coller said.

However, not everyone thinks Van Collers continued focus on corruption years after it happened is the right thing to do.

An EOH manager, who spoke to MyBroadband on condition of anonymity, said the CEOs actions entrench the perception that EOH is corrupt.

Instead of ridding the company of its corrupt image, it continually reminds the market that EOH is a corrupt company with serious challenges, he said.

Another problem is that EOH staff were hit by salary cuts, forfeit increases and bonuses, and faced retrenchments while the company blew millions on lawyers and consultants.

EOHs latest annual report showed that it spent over R260 million in two years on advisory and other services. A large part went to the investigation into corruption by ENSafrica.

The R260 million is, however, only part of the money spent on the issue, an EOH insider told MyBroadband. He said apart from the ENSafrica contract, EOH spent millions on consultants from PWC, Delta, and other companies.

EOH employees who contacted MyBroadband said they feel the money could have been better spent growing the company and protecting employees.

One manager said EOH employees made tremendous sacrifices since Van Coller took the reins to turn the company around, only to face salary cuts and retrenchments afterwards.

He finds it particularly unpalatable that Van Coller received a salary package of R17.6 million when low-level employees did not receive salary increases and bonuses.

Instead of seeing the latest legal action as a positive development, it is perceived as a personal crusade by Van Coller to lift his image at the companys expense.

One executive told MyBroadband there is little chance of recovering a large amount of money from the former executives.

In fact, he said, it is doubtful that EOH will even cover the legal costs associated with suing the former executives.

Suing executives for over R1.5 billion each is a vanity project which hurts EOHs image without a significant chance of benefitting the company or its shareholders, he said.

Steven Nathan, the founder of 10X Investments, credited Van Coller for uncovering corruption and holding the perpetrators accountable.

Van Collers actions, however, come at a high cost to EOH and its employees. Nathan highlighted three adverse effects on the company.

It costs a lot of money, with EOH paying expensive legal and consulting fees to investigate corruption and going after former executives. EOHs management team is spending time investigating corruption from years ago instead of focusing on growing the business. The investigations and legal action remind employees, clients, and the market of corruption at EOH.

Nathan said EOHs management team has limited time, energy, and resources. Spending it investigating previous corrupt activities rather than running the business may not be the best strategy.

He added that while it is good to go after former executives implicated in wrongdoing, it sticks to EOH.

It keeps reminding people about the challenges EOH has as a company. This is a challenge for clients and staff, he said.

It is not an easy path to follow. There are definitely consequences and some downside.

Nathan said it is sad that EOH is no longer a company that creates jobs and pay taxes.

He highlighted that EOH under founder Asher Bohbot was one of the first companies to aggressively create learnerships and job opportunities.

EOH created hundreds of jobs and gave opportunities to people without previous business experience.

Nathans views are echoed by a senior executive close to EOH, who spoke to MyBroadband on condition of anonymity.

He said Van Collers focus should be on strengthening EOH and ensuring its employees and clients are protected.

Instead of ridding EOH from its image of a corrupt company, Van Coller continues to talk about corruption at the company at every opportunity he gets, he said.

Van Coller seems to be on a personal crusade to be seen as a corruption buster instead of looking after the interest of EOH and its employees.

He said EOH used to be a great company that employed thousands of South Africans and paid billions in taxes.

Although there were a few rogue employees who harmed the company, they could have been dealt with swiftly and decisively.

EOH knew who the corrupt people were and what they did. By all means, take action against them, but dont drag the company down with them, he said.

He also questioned Van Collers strategy of selling cash generative businesses, which he described as EOHs crown jewels.

It includes the sale of financial software specialists Sybrin for R334 million, which he described as well below market value.

Instead of growing EOH and protecting staff, he is selling the crown jewels and firing employees, he said.

He said the only thing which saved EOH is Covid-19, which prevented clients from changing contracts and limited the movement of employees.

The market is also not optimistic about EOH and its prospects. EOHs share price declined from R8.63 to R7.05 year to date, indicating that investors are not encouraged with what they see at the company.

MyBroadband asked EOH how much money it has already spent pursuing legal action against former executives, but the company could not answer this question.

It could also not say whether it is confident that it will recover any funds from its former executives and whether it will cover its legal costs.

EOH would not answer whether the money could have been better spent to grow the company and save jobs.
Excess deaths, seen as a more precise way of measuring total fatalities from the coronavirus, rose to their highest level in the South African commercial hub of Gauteng since the pandemic began.

In the week to June 20, a total of 2,242 more deaths than normal were recorded in the province that includes Johannesburg, the biggest city, and Pretoria, the capital, according to a report from the South African Medical Research Council. That compares with the 475 deaths officially attributed to Covid-19.

Excess deaths in the province, which are measured against a historical average, have risen for seven straight weeks from 229 in the week to May 2, highlighting the severity of a third wave of coronavirus infections. Gauteng, where one in four South Africans live, has in recent days accounted for between 57% to 69% of all daily national infections.

The National Institute of Communicable Diseases has attributed the rapid climb in cases and deaths to the emergence in the country of the delta variant, first identified in India. The South African National Blood Service said Monday that samples from blood donations showed Gauteng had the second-lowest incidence of Covid-19 antibodies of the countrys nine provinces, making it more susceptible to a new wave of infections.

The number of excess deaths in Gauteng compares with a peak of 2,114 in the week to Jan. 10 during the second wave of infections, and 2,172 in the week to July 12 last year, the crest of the first.

Overall 32,974 excess deaths have been recorded in Gauteng and 176,700 nationally over the course of the pandemic, according to the SAMRC. That compares with an official total of 60,647 attributed to Covid-19. While not all excess deaths may be due to Covid the SAMRC says most likely are. The cause of death may not be accurately recorded if people die at home or in remote areas far from medical facilities.

Nationally 3,907 excess deaths were recorded in the week to June 20, with 1,188 of those were officially attributed to Covid-19.

South Africas official death toll and almost 2 million infections make it the country hardest hit by the virus in Africa, although testing and accurate recording of the causes of death is weak across much of the continent.

While the third wave of infections in South Africa has so far largely been concentrated in Gauteng, which accounts for two fifths of the national economy, the proportion of new cases from the province fell to 57% of the 19,506 cases recorded Wednesday. Thats the first time it has been below 60% for a number of days, possibly indicating infections are accelerating in other provinces. Daily infections are at their highest since January.

South Africa only started the main part of its vaccine rollout in May with 3.03 million vaccinations administered of which just over 700,000 were in Gauteng. South Africa has a population of about 60 million, with 15 million of those in Gauteng.

Now read: How dominant the Delta coronavirus variant is in Gauteng
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Each meeting body has unique needs and requirements, and we are looking for the best solutions for each one, which include staffing, technology, and other resources, French said in an email.

French also said the city may retain some of the virtual tools that have been used in its public meetings over the past year, depending on the availability of staffing, technology, and other resources. Official meeting protocols will be sent out to the public as soon as a plan is in place, French said in the email.

The city held its first virtual City Council meeting on March 31 last year, in response to the encroaching COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual public meetings have continued on throughout the pandemic for most governmental boards.

The Napa Valley Unified School District is planning to allow in-person public attendance at school board meetings starting in August, said NVUSD spokesperson Stacy Rollo in an email.

The Napa County Board of Supervisors has allowed limited in-person attendance at its meetings since March 4 this year, about a month following a period when the county and most of California were under strict regional COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.
Personal fireworks  even those on the smaller side  if your neighbor is the one whos setting them off, (pets) can still hear, because animals can hear (a wider frequency) than we can, Erika Gamez, manager of the Napa County Animal Shelter, said Wednesday. If it feels loud for us, imagine how loud it is for them when it seems ten times louder; that is usually why animals are going to run away.

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American Canyon to host Napa Countys only Fourth of July fireworks this year Elsewhere in the Napa Valley, mostly low-key events will mark Independence Day as the emergence from pandemic-related shutdowns continues.

While the county shelter on Gasser Lane does not track the weekly number of pets brought into its Gasser Lane facility by the suspected reasons for their separation, Gamez said that number tends to jump each July Fourth season. In 2019, the most recent pre-pandemic year, the number of animal returns to the shelter from July 3-10 was 37  compared to just 19 during the same week in 2020 when all fireworks and festivals were canceled across Napa County.

The key to avoiding a pets disappearance  or worse  begins with owners staying with their pets when possible, and not depending entirely on fences, enclosures or pet carriers to prevent a panicked escape.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer called for more shelters, while rival businessman John Cox said people insisting on sleeping on streets should be locked up or forced into treatment.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has proposed a right to housing that would require the city to provide shelter to all residents.

While the crisis is widespread across Los Angeles, a dispute about how to solve the problem has become a flashpoint on Venice Beach recently, where an encampment exploded in size during the coronavirus pandemic.

The situation has left residents weary and worried for their safety  and for the wellbeing of those in camps  after several violent incidents. A homeless man was arrested last week in the killing of another homeless man who was bludgeoned in his tent on the beach.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva, whose deputies patrol unincorporated parts of the county, entered city turf with a homeless outreach team to announce a plan to get people into housing by July 4.

His lofty overture, which has moved some people off the boardwalk but is unlikely to meet his goal this weekend, was met with resistance from much of LA's political establishment, particularly Councilman Mike Bonin, whose district includes Venice.
An apologetic fire official told a town hall Tuesday that firefighters responded to the initial small fire and left after concluding it was out. It rekindled amid winds and blistering heat because of a scorching high-pressure system over the Pacific Northwest.

While still hot, weather in the region was improving. A small area remained under an excessive heat warning, and in other areas the warning was reduced to an advisory.

The rest of California was free of weather warnings. The San Francisco Bay Area weather office wrote that the monstrosity of a high pressure system had weakened and was moving eastward.

The extent of damage from the Lava Fire was not known, but it did burn through marijuana grows that have proliferated in the region in the last few years, exacerbating a local conflict. Law enforcement has been trying to shut down the grows for operating illegally, and the operators, who are mostly of Hmong and Chinese descent, have claimed racial discrimination.

A man trying enter a grow area during wildfire evacuation Monday pointed a gun at officers and was shot to death, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said, adding that the man may have also fired shots.
SACRAMENTO  Hate crime in California surged 31% in 2020, fueled mainly by a big jump in crimes targeting Black people during a year that saw the worst racial strife in decades, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the state's attorney general.

Overall hate crimes increased from 1,015 to 1,330 last year, while the number of victims increased 23%, from 1,247 to 1,536. Black people account for 6.5% of the state's population of nearly 40 million people but were victims in 30% of all hate crimes  456 overall, up 87% from the previous year.

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What we see from these reports is what we have seen and felt all year  we are in the midst of a racial justice reckoning in this country. Its multi-faceted, and it cannot be solved overnight. Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

California saw some of the largest protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. And it also saw a surge in attacks on people of Asian descent following the emergence of the coronavirus in China.

Last year's hate crime reports were the most since 2008, when there were 1,397. That in turn was topped several times in prior years, including 2001, when there were 2,261 hate crimes reported.
One of his victims addressed the court before the sentencing and others submitted letters describing the emotional impact of the attacks, prosecutor Matt LHeureux told KSBW-TV.

The victims who choose to address the court really wanted the judge to understand that it was a psychological impact  not only on them, but on their families, on people in the community who were just afraid during this period of time to go places that they needed to go, to see people that they needed to see because they didnt know if this person was going to strike, LHeureux said.

Lafferty did not address the court or victims Tuesday but thanked one victim who told Lafferty he forgave him for what he did, LHeureux said.

After his arrest, Lafferty acknowledged to officers that he fired the marbles at unsuspecting drivers, but he never told them his motive, officials said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The latest developments around the region related to the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, as of Wednesday evening include:

San Joaquin Delta College will require students, faculty and visitors to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 before returning to campus this fall.

Delta College's Board of Trustees said all students taking on-campus classes must be vaccinated unless students have medical or religious exemptions.

However, Delta College said any individuals exempt from the vaccines must wear a N95 mask at all times while on Delta College property.

With the new requirements in place, Delta College also decided to remove all social distancing requirements as well as discontinue daily temperature and health screening checks.

San Mateo County supervisors on Tuesday allocated over $6 million of federal funds to address food insecurity for county residents in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As federal funding for the Great Plates Delivered program comes to an end in July, county supervisors approved $3.9 million to continue a similar program.
Feiring realized decades ago that, The absence of wines I wanted to drink brought me to the realization that natural wines from the Loire spoke of the vineyard and not the lab. And, she observed during the 2010s that social media accelerated the natural wine market placing it, As an overnight success after 45 years. Younger drinkers were looking for something different and the increased availability of natural wines paved their way.

She also sees the concept of faults as being redefined for fans looking for a more natural experience. Polarization in the market is lessening, but the [new found] popularity is, unfortunately, causing some producers (for economic reasons) toward early releases thus [negatively] affecting quality.

In 1977 Nicholas Joly returned to France from a successful investment banking career in the U.S. to take the reins of his familys winery. He switched to biodynamic farming even though as he jokingly admits that, I had no idea why. His strong link to nature is expressed with feeling and passion in every facet of his growing and winemaking. As he said, Healthy vines [via biodynamics] are necessary, but dont interfere in the cellar.
France has canceled most of the measures to combat the spread of coronavirus, RFI reported.

The authorities have moved on to the last stage of lifting restrictions, which President Emmanuel Macron announced at the end of April.

In restaurants, museums, and other public places, the limit on the number of visitors was canceled, and it will be possible to come to large open-air festivals without masks if you have a sanitary certificate.

Earlier, the French government planned that on June 30, the country would abandon the mandatory wearing of a mask on the street and curfew. But due to improved sanitary conditions, these restrictions were lifted several weeks earlier, in mid-June.

One of the few remaining measures to tackle the coronavirus in France has been the wearing of a mask indoors and on public transport, as well as a ban on discos and nightclubs. They will be allowed to open on July 9 after a 16-month hiatus. As noted by Ouest-France, access to them will also be carried out under the so-called sanitary certificate.

A special QR code can be obtained by those who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, have had it less than six months ago, or have passed a negative PCR test in the last 72 hours.

The French authorities also did not abandon restrictions on entry from both Europe and third countries. Residents of France and tourists from the EU and regions where the coronavirus is not actively spreading must present a health certificate or a negative test at the border. Visitors from the "red" zone, which is of concern to epidemiologists (including from Russia), must go to a strict 10-day quarantine. Self-isolation is monitored by the police, and violators face a fine of 1,500 euros.
Armenia security service chief is bestowed Major General military rank

Dead body of person, 30, who drowned in Armenia waterfall, is found

Armenia ex-President Kocharyan congratulates on Constitution Day

Analyst: Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders have committed criminally punishable crimes

Judicial farce against Armenian captives continues in Azerbaijan

53 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Azerbaijan emergency ministry launches inquiry into Caspian Sea explosion

Armenia marks Constitution Day

Armenia President: Certain provisions of current Constitution do not provide best solutions

Armenia acting PM: There have been profound changes in our constitutional awareness

Armenia embassy in Moscow comments on statements of Russia public figure

Major road accident in Armenias Kotayk, rescuers remove victim out of vehicle

China astronauts spend nearly 7 hours in open space

Clashes occur between transgender opponents, supporters in Los Angeles

Black Sea Trade and Development Bank invites expression of interest for open tender for its headquarters

Azerbaijan state oil company denies rumors of accident on its offshore platforms

Turkey to provide Ukraine with corvette and drones

US Embassy: We honor the tremendous partnership between the US and Armenia

7 people killed in Nigeria militant attacks

Deputy Director of IAEA to visit Iran

Tech week Artsakh 2021 conference kicks off in Stepanakert

UN Committee calls on African countries to share experiences in combating migration

At least 29 people killed in plane crash in Philippines

Iranian Deputy FM appoints Ambassador to UK

Biden does not rule out Russia's involvement in new cyber attack

Plane crashes in south of Kazakhstan

89 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia: 5 citizens die

Nikol Pashinyan congratulates Joe Biden on US Independence Day

Armen Sarkissian sends congratulatory message to US President Joe Biden

96 illegal migrants rescued off coast of Tunisia

Yerevan hands over minefield maps to Baku in exchange for return of 15 POWs

Frank Pallone says they discussed US role in Armenian POWs release

ECHR refuses to reopen case on death of Yasser Arafat

Russia reports on destruction of 5 terrorists

Karabakh emergency service: 4 more remains found, retrieved

Armenia opposition member: Azerbaijan is going to take UNESCO to places Baku wants to

2 people injured in Syria

Turkey, Russia exchange Syrian soldiers, militants

Armenia acting PMs latest fabrications on Artsakh not agreed with Minsk Group co-chair countries, says Ashotyan

Pashinyan to Lukashenko: Armenia-Belarus ties will continue as benchmark for interstate relations development

Newborn boy found on Gyumri street

Albania allocates $9.7m to purchase Turkey drones

I Have Honor bloc member: Last snap parliamentary elections will be another period of hell for Armenia, Artsakh

Armenia ombudsman: Azerbaijan authorities conduct is open contempt for entire international community

Caucasus Heritage Watch calls on Azerbaijan to stop destroying Armenian cemeteries

Armenia acting deputy PM Avinyan attends EBRD online meeting

Israel carries out airstrike at weapons manufacturing site in Gaza

Catholicos Aram I addresses Pope Francis on issue of Armenian captives in Azerbaijan

Avagyan: Authorities should ask Russia peacekeeping commander to talk with Azerbaijan to return convicted Armenians

US troops depart from their main Afghanistan base

Armenias Sarkissian to Belarus Lukashenko: Friendship of our peoples will still be basis for increasing cooperation

Two new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

Zas: Situation in southern Armenia does not comply with CSTO charter provisions

125 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Biden announces several key nominations

UK teen allegedly kills 2 sisters in deal with the devil

Armenia high-tech industry acting minister meets with Catalonia parliament speaker

Newspaper: Armenia outgoing legislature majority faction MPs are dissatisfied

EU to allocate over 1.5bn to Armenia for five programs

Newspaper: It is known who will head Armenia "I Have Honor" bloc parliament faction

Global food prices soaring at their fastest rate

Hikmet Hajiyev's slip of the tongue - "Zangezur corridor" in exchange of a land route for Armenia towards Russia

Bloomberg: US asks Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan to accept refugees from Afghanistan

Armenian bailiffs killed in Sochi posthumously awarded Order of Courage by Putin

Armenian court to continue examination of appeal against arrest of doctor Armen Charchyan on July 6

Turkey reaches no agreement on Kabul airport issue

French military neutralizes several ISIS leaders in Sahel

Putin, Macron discuss Nagorno-Karabakh

Baku court sentences 2 Armenian POWs to 4 years in prison, 12 captives to 6 months in prison

Bishkek offers Baku to create Council in "5+3" format at level of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan

Ambassador: US ready to provide support to peaceful normalization and reconciliation of Azerbaijan and Armenia

Man detained in Afghanistan for carrying explosives in musical instrument

Armenia government sets up inter-agency commission to eliminate consequences of drought or water scarcity

Armenia Shirak Province deputy governor sacked

Cyprus authorities change rules of entry for tourists

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of another Armenian soldier found in Fizuli region

'Armenia' bloc representative: Many police officers from Yerevan voted in Shurnukh and other villages of Syunik Province

'I Have Honor' bloc also applies to Armenia Constitutional Court regarding results of snap parliamentary elections

Mitsubishi Electric president resigns amid document forgery scandal

'Armenia' bloc representative: Petition submitted to Constitutional Court for impossibility of judge's participation
YEREVAN.  Past daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: After the snap elections to the National Assembly [(NA)] [on June 20], the first sitting of the newly elected parliament shall take place, which, according to the Constitution, will be the end of the powers of the current parliament.

According to the legislation, the first sitting of the NA was to be convened on July 5. However, as it is known, the [opposition] "Armenia" and "I Have Honor" blocs have decided to apply to the Constitutional Court [(CC)] on the matter of challenging the results of the NA elections. And this means that the first sitting will not take place on July 5.

The CC can make one of the following decisions: To uphold the decision adopted as a result of the National Assembly elections, to declare the election results invalid, and to establish the procedure for the distribution of [parliamentary] mandates, to appoint a second round of elections. The CC makes a decision on this issue within 15 days; that is, by July 17.

In the experts conviction, it is not even physically possible to discuss such a large-scale case in less than 10 days, which means that if the results of the NA elections are not annulled, the first sitting of the NA may take place on July 19 (which is virtually improbable), or on the 26th (the maximumon August 2) even in the case of fastest examination. By the way, on the very same day, in accordance with the legislation, the RA President will appoint a Prime Minister, after which the latter will have 15 days to form a government.

Well, if the CC adopts a decision to hold a second round of elections, or to declare the election results invalid, the process of forming a new parliament will be delayed for at least one and a half to two months.
President Joe Bidens waiver of Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan and the disparity in military assistance between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be addressed by Secretary of State Blinken, stated the report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2022 Foreign Aid Bill, presented and adopted by the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations earlier this week, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

In recent weeks, over 100,000 letters have already gone to U.S. Senate and House members to zero-out military assistance to Azerbaijan through the ANCAs online portal

The report accompanying the House FY2022 Foreign Bill also calls for not less than $50 million in U.S. assistance to Armenia, for economic development, private sector productivity, energy independence, democracy and the rule of law, and other purposes. It urges not less than $2 million for demining activities in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The recommendation for U.S. assistance to Armenia is over twice that requested by President Biden in his FY2022 proposed budget, which remains silent on U.S. assistance to Artsakh.

With regard to President Bidens waiver of Section 907, the report stated, The Committee is concerned by disparity in military assistance provided to Azerbaijan in comparison to Armenia that is enabled by the annual waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act by the Secretary of State, including the most recent waiver signed by the Secretary on April 23, 2021. The Committee directs the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the diplomatic consequences of such disparity in military assistance be considered by the Secretary in any decision with respect to the renewal of the Section 907 waiver during fiscal year 2022.
According to Shamshyan.com, a dispute took place in Yerevan, followed by a brawl and knife-stabbing.

At around 1:30 am, the central police station received a phone call from University Hospital #1 telling the police that a citizen had been transferred with a diagnosis of cut-pierced wound in the left lumbar area.

Police found out that the injured person was 31-year-old citizen of Yerevan Narek Shahinyan, who had been transferred to the hospital after being stabbed during a brawl.

Doctors said Shahinyan isnt capable of reporting the incident. Shahinyan is the deputy head of Yerevan Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee, and his father is former head of the Special Investigation Service Vahram Shahinyan.

According to shamshyan.com, the head of one of the divisions of Kentron district council is wanted as a suspect of the knife-stabbing.

Inquest officers of the central police station are preparing a report on the incident.
YEREVAN.  Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday attended a meeting dedicated to the 103rd anniversary of the prosecutor's office of Armenia and the Day of the Prosecutor's Office Employee. Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned about this from the press service of the Acting Prime Minister.

Also, Pashinyan addressed the event, and congratulated all the employees of the prosecutor's office on this occasion.

Pashinyan stressed the role of the law enforcement system and the prosecutor's office. According to the acting PM, the importance of state institutionsespecially of the prosecutor's officebecomes even more obvious in crisis situations.

Referring to what has happened within Armenias judiciary over the past three years, the acting premier noted that the authorities who came to power in 2018 have abandoned the policy of dictating the judiciary.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, at least very serious and profound psychological changes have taken place in Armenia. The acting PM drew the attention of those present to the fact that, in the end, the recent snap parliamentary elections, their content and results show that irreversible changes have taken place in the Armenian society, and the public administration system must be fully positioned according to those changes, recording that the greatest demand and requirement in the country has always been the full establishment of law and justice, the rule of law, and the inevitability of accountability and punishment. In this regard, according to Pashinyan, the prosecutor's office is of key importance, and there are all grounds to state that the prosecutor's office is able to fully fulfill this function in this new political situation.

Also, the acting PM awarded several employees of the prosecutor's office with medals, and submitted a petition to the President to grant the rank of State Counselor of the Third Class of Justice to two employees of the prosecutor's office.
Baku has declared the impossibility of lawyers from Armenia defending the Armenian captives in Azerbaijan.

Turan news agency has looked into this matter.

Anar Bagirov, head of the Bar Association of Azerbaijan, told the agency that the association had not received such a petition.

"Obviously, this is populism. Lawyers review the law before making any assessments. I assure that the Chamber of Advocates of Armenia, persons who make such statements, are well aware that according to Azerbaijani law, foreign lawyers are allowed to enter the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan only on the basis of mutual agreement and in accordance with international agreements to which the Republic of Azerbaijan is a party, whereas the Republic of Armenia does not have such an agreement with the Republic of Azerbaijan," he said.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 01.07.21:

The US House of Representatives members have called for at least $50m in US aid to Armenia in the fiscal year 2022.

In recent weeks, over 100,000 letters have already gone to U.S. Senate and House members to zero out military assistance to Azerbaijan through the ANCAs online portal.

Meanwhile, at Thursday's Cabinet meeting, the interim government of Armenia approved the draft presidential decree approving Amendment No. 10 to the Development Objective Cooperation Agreementbetween Armenia and the US.

Accordingly, the total amount of US assistance being provided to Armenia is increased by $12,940,000, bringing the total planned investment of USAID to $64,340,443 to continue the implementation of the programs under this agreement.

Also, the aforesaid amendment increases Armenia's respective contribution from $7,929,286 to $11,047,369.

New Jersey became the 10th U.S. State to recognize Artsakh today, the Armenian National Committee of America  Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) reported.

The New Jersey State Senate unanimously passed SCR. 71, spearheaded by State Senator Joseph Lagana.

Earlier in the day, ANCA National Board member Ani Tchaghlasian and ANC NJ advocate Joe Ariyan testified before the NJ State Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the measure.

In addition to recognizing Artsakh, SCR.71 condemns Turkey and Azerbaijan for their aggression against the peaceful populations of Artsakh and Armenia and reaffirms the states recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey have agreed to continue to closely coordinate efforts and provide support to Yerevan and Baku to solve the practical issues for settlement of relations, placing emphasis on confidence-building measures.

According to Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, they are 'satisfied with how the Russian-Turkish monitoring center is operating in the Aghdam region of Azerbaijan.'

Asked how he would assess Turkeys role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and President Erdogans recent visit to the occupied Armenian city of Shushi, Lavrov said: "As far as Erdogans visit to Azerbaijan is concerned, it was in the context of the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan."

In a few months, the Azerbaijani side will not use the Karmir Shuka-Shushi road at all, said Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State Artak Beglaryan on Thursday.

According to him, additional work is being done in this regard.

"Work is also being done also to increase road safety; lighting is being installed, control is being tightened," he added.

The Artsakh official informed that the Azerbaijanis behave rudely, often insulting the Armenians. "There have been many reports in this regard, including from Russian peacekeepers. Our armed forces also carry out precautionary measures about which nothing is said; this is of important significance," Beglaryan added.

Former leader of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DITIB) Mustafa Keskin has been charged with inciting hostility and hatred for offending Jews and Armenians, Ermenihaber reported.

Earlier, an inquest had been launched against the Turkish figure for posting offensive remarks against the Jews and Armenians on social networks, after which he resigned from the position of president of DITIB in February 2021.

As of Thursday morning, 126 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 225,221 in the country, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Also, three more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,517 cases.

Meanwhile, six new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh], bringing the total number to 914.
The Facebook page of the Armenian Church of the Holy See of Cilicia reports that Catholicos Aram I of the Holy See of Cilicia today had a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

The Armenian Church stated the following in its press release: During the first session of the meeting of Christian spiritual leaders, Catholicos Aram I delivered a lecture devoted to the current tension in Lebanon and ways to show resistance. The lecture was followed by a discussion during which the attendees positively responded to the analyses of the Supreme Patriarch.

During the second session, Patriarch Rai of the Maronite Church delivered a lecture devoted to the role of the church in the current situation in Lebanon in terms of humanitarianism and education. The attendees shared the Patriarchs concerns.

During both sessions, Catholicos Aram I placed emphasis on the importance of Christian-Muslim co-existence and the imperative to discuss the issues and seek solutions.

At midday, the spiritual leaders and their delegations were invited to lunch with Pope Francis. The session will continue in the afternoon.
University of Miami Libraries (UML) is pleased to welcome Jose F. Rodriguez as the new head of Access Services. In this role, he will provide leadership, management, and coordination for all aspects of the Access Services department at the Otto G. Richter Library and Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library, as well as collection space utilization at off-site storage.

Jose holds a B.A. in history and a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. Since 2005 he has held various library public services roles at Hillsborough Community College, State College of Florida, and Georgia State University. Before his current position with UML, Jose was the outreach librarian for the neuroscience, psychology, global studies, and honors college departments at Georgia State University.

Jose F. Rodriguez can be reached at jfr133@miami.edu.
One established program that will continue as part of the School of Nursing and Health Studies redesignation as a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre (2020-2024) was informed by the schools own emergency response plan for natural is the Certificate in Nursing Education program in Guyana. But the program, which celebrated its fifth year in 2020, had to be revised for the new normal imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With just four nursing schools in a nation of about 783,000 people, a key obstacle to getting more Guyanese nurses in the field has traditionally been a lack of teaching faculty. The SONHS Collaborating Centre, PAHO, and the Guyana Ministry of Health launched the certificate program to teach nursing leaders how to train other faculty. This builds Guyanas instructor pool and its capacity to graduate nurses.

Offered since 2015 as a hybrid in- person/online curriculum, the course moved fully online in 2020 due to the pandemic. The first all-online cohort of 25 nurses and nurse-midwives graduated in March 2021, overcoming everything from severe weather and spotty internet service to pandemic curfews and COVID fatigue.

Were having challenges here in the U.S., but the magnitude of what theyre experiencing is much greater, says SONHS Assistant Professor of Clinical Susan Prather, who taught the certificate course for the first time. Some of the students do not have access to internet at home or if they have internet at home, it doesnt work well.

Connectivity concerns couldnt dampen participant enthusiasm. Nurse tutor Cenise Glasgow Fraser says completing the course online helped her consider new ways to tie virtual resources into her own teaching. My knowledge has been expanded about various instructional methodologies or strategies I can incorporate as a nurse educator to meet the needs of my students, she says. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the knowledge is really timely too.

Fellow 2021 graduate Jenesa Fields, 33, a nurse/ midwife who teaches full-time at Guyanas Georgetown School of Nursing, agrees. This course has been a tremendous learning experience, says Fields. Were not only looking at quantity, the amount of students were putting out there. Were also addressing the quality of the nurses we send out to work in our health care system here.

University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies Dean and Professor Cindy L. Munro attended the cohorts graduation ceremony via Zoom, offering congratulatory remarks.

As tutors and clinical instructors, you were already playing a critical role in growing Guyanas nursing and midwifery workforce, said Dean Munro. The positive impact you will have on your nations health system as you go on to prepare future nurse educators like yourselves cannot be overstated. Despite the many challenges imposed by this pandemic, your actions embodied the spirit of the Year of the Nurse!
Law professors Zanita Fenton and Bernard Perlmutter, both specialists in family law, highlighted a litany of anomalies relating to the Britney Spears legal drama that is playing out in the press. The celebrity pop star has sought to endor at least alterthe conservatorship that has regulated her private life and finances since it was imposed in 2008 when she was 26.

On June 23, Spears appeared before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny and spoke publicly for the first time about the conservatorship. In the hearingwhich was broadcast in the courtroom and livestreamedshe asked for her father to be removed as a co-conservator, alleging that the overly strict conditions were abusive. On June 30, the judge denied that requestat least for now.

University law experts explained that a conservatorship, the preferred term in California, and guardianship, preferred in Florida, are essentially the same and refer to a set of conditions created by the court to benefit and protect a wardgenerally a minordeemed incapable of caring for themselves.

This whole situation is full of loads of paradox, said Fenton, an expert in family, race, and constitutional law. She noted that when the conservatorship was imposed, according to media reports, there may have been good reason for the benefit of Spears and to protect her from her own erratic behavior.

She had a breakdown, had cut off all her hair, and there was a lot of drama surrounding Britney with her and her ex-husband and childrenit was a bit of a mess, Fenton recalled.

Yet in terms of the recent allegations and publicity, Fenton highlighted that most of the critical facets of the case are sealed and unknownas they should be. She critiqued the fish-tank view of the case that has generated speculation and misinformation.

There is so much we dont knowabout the diagnosis or the cause of her breakdown, whether it was temporary or long-term or can be handled with medication, Fenton said. This is the stuff thats not making it into the paper, which is fine because that is personal and private medical information.

This is a one-of-a-kind case, commented Perlmutter, whose students represent clients in guardianship proceedings in the law schools Children and Youth Law Clinic. Theres nobody like Britney Spears in the annals of guardianship other than maybe Michael Jackson, who, by the way, never had a guardian appointed over himwhich might have been beneficial.

In Florida and in every other state, in order to establish a guardianship over an adult with the approval of the court, its not just a mere allegation that a person has a mental health incapacityyou have to prove it, and you have to give notice to the alleged incapacitated person that a process has been initiated to take away their liberties and to appoint a guardian to make financial and personal decisions for them, he explained.

Emphasizing that she was not privy to court records, Fenton dismissed the notion that the conservatorship was imposed or continues because of Spearss alleged alcoholism or mental health issues.

If we imposed a conservatorship on everybody in society whos an alcoholic or who had drug dependency problems, wed have very few people on the streets, she said, adding and we have lots of people who have mental health issues and, as a society, we leave them hanging out there on their own.

Most troubling for Fenton is the report that the conservatorship obliges Spears, who has two sons through her previous marriage with Kevin Federline, to continue to wear an intrauterine device that prevents her from having more children.

This has effectively restricted her constitutional reproductive rights and, with all the other stuff that surrounds this case, smacks of misogyny and the old-time stereotyping of women and their ability to take care of themselves, Fenton said.

She cited the 1927 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Buck vs. Bell that set a legal precedent that states could sterilize inmates of public institutions. The ruling permitted the mass scale sterilization of poor white unmarried women who happened to get pregnant on the grounds that it was insane for someone to get pregnant without a man to take care of them, Fenton explained.

Perlmutter highlighted the same case in noting the peculiarities of the case.

Scholars and the public alike are concerned by the report of this restriction of her personal freedom, he said. The report that her father, as conservator, has been essentially able to veto the most intimate of personal choices about her body and her ability to have more children strikes at the heart of fundamental constitutional protections.

In overturning the case a few years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to make decisions about procreation was such an intimate and private matter that only with the strictest scrutiny could an individuals highly personal procreation choices be made by a guardian or the court, Perlmutter explained. This question has raised a lot of concerns about the abuses that are inherent in invading the private choices made by an adult about her right to use or not use contraception and whether to have more children, he added.

Perlmutter emphasized that, for the conservatorship or guardianship to continue, reporting requirements must be met that relate to finances and to the state of the conservatee. Health records and doctors reports are critical. The onus, he pointed out, is on those who created the framework to substantiate that the wards condition remains unchanged.

There are different avenues for having a less restrictive option, even after a guardianship or conservatorship has been in place for a decade or longer, he said. The court doesnt let the person languish at the mercy of the presumptively beneficent conservatoryou have to make sure that theyre looking out for the best interests of the person whose liberty has been removed by the stroke of a pen.

Fenton pointed to another glaring irregularity in the case.

The biggest reason this is happening to Britney is because shes got loads of money, Fenton said. We dont often hear about wealth-based discrimination in that direction, normally that term is used when youre doing inappropriate things to poor people. Here the stakes are so high, and everybody wants their cut.

While I have sympathy for her and certainly dont think this should be happening, hers is quite a gilded cage. And in this time that were living for some to be chanting Free Britney feels like such a mockery of the current prison system, she added.

Fenton noted that there are no allegations that the conservator has mismanaged Spearss funds and that all indications are that, in fact, her estate is intact.

The judge in this case is guided by the California legislatures guidelines and statutory requirements and will decide based on points of evidence that Fenton suggested would include doctors evaluations and information culled from those handling her finances and personal managers who would speak to her mental well-being.

Even the fact that she has been working and performing is not sufficient in itself, she said. That may be a testament to how super creative she is. But creative types can become something on stage and thats not necessarily an indication of how they deal with their lives, Fenton added.

The professor pointed to the fact that Spears has been a public figure and pop star nearly all her lifeshe launched her career at 12 when she joined Disneys The Mickey Mouse Club.

Thats why I dont want to make a prognostication about her mental healththe problem could be as simple as all the attention shes had her entire life, Fenton said. There are lots of examples of people who just cant handle that, and most of them are dead from drug overdoses. That might be the best justification for the conservatorship, because wed like for this young woman to stay alive, she said.

Though that, too, seems so unfair to say, Fenton added. Britney is an adult and her own person.
'Xi's view on Hong Kong may differ from predecessors'

Political analyst Johnny Lau says Hong Kong may be seen as a complicated international matter in Beijing's eyes. File photo: RTHK

A political analyst says President Xi Jinping's speech to mark the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party showed the leader has adopted a high level of vigilance in his foreign policies, and that his understanding of the One Country, Two Systems principle could differ from his predecessors.



During his hour-long speech on Thursday, Xi warned that foreign forces will "get their heads bashed" if they dare try to bully China.



Political analyst Johnny Lau told RTHK that the president wants China to take a leadership role on the international stage.



Lau said Xi's mention of the military's role in safeguarding peace was something that was not stressed by his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, and this was the result of increased pressure on China from the West.



Lau also pointed out that the president may have a different understanding of the One Country, Two Systems principle governing Hong Kong and Macau.



The analyst said the protection of national security in relation to the two special administrative regions was little mentioned previously, and Xi was emphasising the central government's comprehensive jurisdiction over the two cities.



Lau said he believes problems in Hong Kong have now become a complicated international matter in Beijing's eyes, and this is why the president pointed to China's sovereignty, safety and development interests.



Meanwhile, Hong Kong's sole delegate to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Tam Yiu-chung, said he found Xi's message to be realistic.



Tam said that in the past, some people did not have an accurate interpretation of "One Country, Two Systems" and might have "deviated" when implementing the principle. He did not say who he had in mind.
Biden offers comfort as rescue suspended in Florida

Biden offers comfort as rescue suspended in Florida

President Joe Biden sought on Thursday to comfort families of people killed or missing in the rubble of a Florida beachfront apartment building, where rescuers suspended their increasingly hopeless task due to dangerous conditions.



The desperate search at the Surfside condo building near Miami took a grim new turn when authorities paused work amid fears that the rest of the structure could also collapse.



Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky warned that there was "a large column hanging from the structure that could fall" and that movements in the ruins "could cause additional failure of the building."



The 18 confirmed dead so far include two children, aged four and 10, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said late on Wednesday. More than 140 others remain unaccounted for and hopes of finding any alive are evaporating.



Biden and First Lady Jill Biden left the White House early for Surfside, saying they wanted to support first responders and comfort grieving relatives.



"What you're doing now is just hard as hell," Biden told emergency workers. "I just want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."



He was scheduled to spend as much as three hours with families in private.



"The president and the first lady will meet with the families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy, offer them comfort during this unimaginable, difficult time," deputy spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.



With Florida a crucial state on the US election map, there was considerable focus on interactions during the visit between Biden and state Governor Ron DeSantis - a rising Republican star who has been touted as a possible 2024 presidential candidate.



In another political twist to the aftermath of the catastrophic accident, former president Donald Trump was planning a rally in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday. DeSantis has joined calls for postponing the event, which is part of Trump's attempt to remain the dominant force in Republican politics.



Biden, who has made attempts at bipartisan unity a central theme of his presidency, made a point of publicly joining with DeSantis, who himself praised the president for having been "supportive" from "day one."



"We're letting the nation know we can cooperate when it's really important," Biden said.



The cave-in of the 12-story Champlain Towers South building has sparked a search-and-rescue effort involving engineers and specialists from across the United States and as far afield as Mexico and Israel.



Elad Edri, deputy commander of an Israeli search and rescue team, said rescuers had completed a map outlining the bedrooms and other living spaces in the building where residents could have been trapped.



Rescuers made it to an underground parking structure where it had been hoped they might discover people who had been trapped in cars, but found no one, Edri said.



"It's been more than six days from the collapsing," he cautioned, deeming the chances of finding any survivors "low."



Residents in the part of Champlain Towers South that remained intact reported being awakened around 1:30 am (0530 GMT) on Thursday by what sounded like cracks of thunder that shook their rooms.



"It was like an earthquake," said Janette Aguero, who escaped from the tower's 11th floor with her family.



Rescuers who arrived in the moments after the tower came down helped evacuate dozens of residents, and pulled one teenage boy alive from the rubble.



Since then, no other survivors have been found, despite deployment of sniffer dogs and cranes for lifting debris.



Experts are looking at possible pre-existing critical flaws in the structure of the apartment tower.



An October 2018 report released by city officials revealed fears of "major structural damage" in the complex, from the concrete slab under the pool deck to the columns and beams in the parking garage.



In a letter to residents in April, Jean Wodnicki, the chair of the condo association, described "accelerating" damage to the building since then.



Repairs had been set to begin soon in the 40-year-old building. (AFP)
Ten people were killed overnight in the eastern DR Congo city of Beni by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Islamist militia, the army said Thursday.

"Overnight there was an attack by ADF enemies. We lost around 10 civilians," lieutenant Anthony Mualushayi told AFP. An AFP correspondent saw 10 bodies in the morgue of Beni's general hospital.

The attack took place in the southeastern Rwangoma.

Local residents, still in a state of shock, were too afraid to speak to AFP, but angry young people paraded through the streets with one of the bodies, shouting anti-government slogans.

The ADF is the deadliest of an estimated 122 armed militias that roam the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003.

According to a tally compiled by the DRC's Catholic church, the ADF has been responsible for at least 6,000 deaths since 2013.

The Kivu Security Tracker (KST) monitor says the ADF, an Islamist group originally from Uganda, has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017.

On March 10, the US State Department branded the ADF a "foreign terrorist organisation" and said its leader Musa Baluku had pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.

But experts are still unsure about the extent of links between the ADF and IS, which has lost most of its territory in the Middle East but is expanding in Africa.

President Felix Tshisekedi on May 6 proclaimed a "state of siege" in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in a bid to curb bloodshed by the ADF.

Under this, senior civilian officials have been replaced by army officers.

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Want by Lynn Steger Strong (Picador; July 6)

Nothing in Elizabeths life is quite as shed hoped it would be: Shes using her PhD and love of books to teach English at a New York City charter school more interested in the idea of disciplining underserved (i.e., working class, Black) students than educating them; she and her husband live in a too-small apartment, sleeping in a loft bed in a closet so their daughters can benefit from a well-funded school zone; theyre broke and declaring bankruptcy; and lately, she finds herself preoccupied with thoughts of her exbest friend Sasha. Strong breaks up the present timeline with flashbacks to Elizabeth and Sashas high school and early-twenties friendship, a relationship that involved Elizabeths complete enthrallment with her beautiful and magnetic best friend, whose interactions with the world revealed both the blessings and perils of being a woman universally desired. And through Elizabeths reconnection with Sasha at this moment of crisis, Strong astutely explores the complexities of wanting within biased systems  as a woman, whose desires are so often quashed, but also as a white woman raised with wealth and the message that anything desired can be attained. Arianna Rebolini (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert (Disney-Hyperion; July 6)

Marva has been counting down the minutes until her first opportunity to vote, but it's marred by seeing a guy her age turned away at the polls for being at the wrong center. That guy is Duke, and together, they run around town trying to get him the opportunity to do his civic duty, bouncing up against every obstacle possible in the process, and finding they share a passion for more than justice. Dahlia Adler (from17 YA Romances That'll Make You Melt This Summer)

The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell (Penguin Books; July 6)

Conells offbeat debut takes place over the course of one day in the life of Martin, a humble (if slightly bitter) superintendent in an Upper West Side co-op, and his daughter, Ruby, whos moved back home years after getting an art degree thats brought her little more than massive debt. The day begins with an earnest but futile attempt at meditation  Martin cant quiet nagging resentments about his impossibly wealthy tenants; Ruby keeps going on anxiety spirals about an upcoming interview for a dream job  and unfolds toward its culmination at a penthouse party that will change their lives. Throughout, Martin is haunted by the tough-love anti-capitalist voice of his favorite tenant, whose recent death allowed one of the last rent-controlled apartments to be gutted and turned into a potential investment property for a sure-thing asshole; while Ruby comes to terms with the unspoken imbalances between herself and her childhood best friend Caroline, who now lives in the penthouse her father built on the roof. Conell creates a microcosm of life on the shit side of the wealth gap in New York City, fills it with absurd, infuriating, and endearing characters, and hilariously skewers privilege that cant (or wont) recognize privilege. A.R. (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Story continues

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Ecco; July 6)

Weidens debut is a gritty, complex, and dynamic thriller about a vigilante named Virgil Wounded Horse who metes out punishment on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota when the American judicial system or tribal council comes up short. Hes a standoffish character, ambivalent about his life and Native identity, and hes reluctant to get involved in a case about drug dealers. But when his nephew Nathan  the son of his beloved late sister  ODs on heroin laced with fentanyl, he sets off on a mission to find the man responsible, with the unexpected help of his ex-girlfriend. They find themselves in the midst of a complicated web of drug cartels, uncovering a dangerous world of money, power, and violence with far-reaching ramifications. Its an absolutely riveting page-turner, compelling not only for the mystery at its core but also for its piercing criticism of US (mis)treatment of Native populations. A.R. (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Between the years 1910 and 1970, 6 million black people made their way from the South to cities in the Midwest, West Coast, and Northeast in the hope of more opportunity. Among the folks making this Great Migration were the writer Morgan Jerkins own ancestors. Jerkins, who grew up in New Jersey, the only daughter of her father and mother who split before she was born, sets out to uncover her familial roots. Why did she grow up being told not to go near water? Why does her father have a French last name? Is it true that there is Cherokee in her family tree? Jerkins traces her family history, spending time in Georgia, New Orleans, Oklahoma, and Los Angeles. I learned a lot reading this book, including sobering information about the fight for the Gullah Geechee to keep their land, the difference between hoodoo and voodoo, and the complicated history of freedmen  Black people whose ancestors were enslaved by Native American tribes. Tomi Obaro from (29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Or What You Will reminded me of the metafictions of If on a Winters Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. It invites readers to become active participants in the narrative while the main character, 73-year-old writer Sylvia Harrison, grapples with the nature of storytelling and the making of myths. He is a character that has appeared in all 30 novels Harrison has written in some shape or fashion, from a dragon to a thief to a child. Harrison is working on her latest fantasy novel set in a fictional version of Florence, with inspiration from Shakespeares Twelfth Night and The Tempest. As she writes, this character thats rooted in every story shes ever told comes alive in a new way and tries to convince her to achieve immortality within the pages of the book shes writing. Both intellectual and engaging, this is a book for readers experienced in the fantasy genre and who also enjoy thinking about the craft of writing.  Margaret Kingsbury (from 17 Summer Must-Reads For Fantasy Lovers)

First published in 2015, Morgan Parkers debut poetry collection gets a snazzy rerelease by Tin House and features a new introduction by Danez Smith. Whether shes writing from the point of view of a Real House Wife or reinterpreting Jay Zs famous song  Girls, Girls, Girls, her writing crackles with caustic humor and wrenching insight. You know from jump that shes going places. T.O.

Wassermans second adult novel is a labyrinthine story about memory, truth, and power told in two timelines. In 1999, a woman arrives in Philadelphia with no money, ID, or memory of who she is. She falls under the care of the state and is invited to be part of a study on memory run by Dr. Benjamin Strauss, who sees her as nothing but a vessel for investigation. Lizzie, Strausss assistant, lover, and future wife, spends her days getting to know the mystery woman (called Wendy Doe) and imagining the freedom a new beginning could give. Twenty years later, Lizzie  now Elizabeth, and Strausss widow  finds Wendys 18-year-old daughter Alice at her front door, looking for her mother, whos gone missing again. What are the secrets connecting these three women, and can they help each other? Arianna Rebolini (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Impersonation by Heidi Pitlor (Algonquin; July 13)

As a professional ghostwriter, Allie Lang, a single mom in her early forties, has the deft ability to channel the viewpoints of her clients who are mostly an assortment of minor celebrities, one billionaire oilman, relatives of the famous, and the once but no longer famous. But she meets her match when shes assigned to work for the ambitious attorney Lana Breban on a memoir about motherhood. At first, she thinks the assignment is a godsend, but when her life begins to slowly unravel, with her boyfriend leaving and her childcare plans upended, Allies relationship with Lana becomes even more complicated. T.O.

Pew by Catherine Lacey (Picador; July 20)

Lacey is a writer of wonderfully strange tales, and with Pew, shes created a new fable about faith and prejudice. When a stranger is found sleeping in a small-town church, the locals dont know what to make of this silent, androgynous, racially ambiguous person they name Pew. Pew is passed from household to household, becoming a sounding board for evangelism and confession, while a spiritual lore builds around their identity. But what happens when the towns generosity runs out? Arianna Rebolini (from These Are Our Most Highly Anticipated Books Of 2020)

Van den Berg returns to short fiction in a collection of 11 stories about women and the ways in which they ache and survive. In Karolina, a woman is forced to acknowledge a disturbing truth about her brother. In Friends, Sarah keeps alienating potential friends with stories of the mother she left back in her hometown. In Slumberland, a woman who cant sleep spends her nights trying to outrun a memory by photographing strangers from afar. These women are haunted by specters of their past, often left unspecified by van den Berg, who instead drops references to traumatic events and lets the reader piece them together  it isnt the event shes interested in, but rather its echoes, and their disorienting and sublimating effects on a persons sense of self. A.R. (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Read an excerpt from van den Bergs novel The Third Hotel here.

Life Events by Karolina Waclawiak (Picador; July 27)

Evelyn is not good at confrontations, we learn early on in this BuzzFeed News executive editors third novel. Her father is dying, her marriage is on the rocks, and Evelyn, at 37, has just quit her run-of-the-mill assistant job. When she decides to join a death doula group, helping people with terminal illnesses end their lives, she discovers a whole new world of people seeking answers for lifes biggest tragic inevitability. While the subject matter is undoubtedly dark, this novel is a ruminative, incredibly moving reflection on the impossible heartbreak of waiting for a loved one to die. Tomi Obaro (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Swamys debut short story collection is rich, mesmeric, and often mournful, blurring the boundaries between dreams and reality and making time less linear and more pliable. In Blindness, a newlyweds depression causes a rift between herself and her suddenly cruel husband, leaving her to escape into alternate dream lives. In My Brother at the Station, a pregnant woman catches sight of (and then trails) her brother, long estranged because of his ability to see the dead. Theres the mother watching an approaching wildfire, the lonely woman who meets Krishna at a party. These are nuanced and quietly powerful stories about our most urgent and deeply felt experiences  grief, love, and desire. A.R. (from 29 Summer Books You Won't Be Able To Put Down)

Jul. 01, 2021, at 15:54 PM

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP)  Two public workers repairing a sewer main in South Carolina were shot by a man who also fired on a deputy Thursday, authorities said.

The shooter was involved in a standoff inside a home that ended after a few hours, but Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright said he didn't know the condition of the man or if anyone else was inside the house.

We really don't know what triggered anything, Wright said at a news conference late Thursday afternoon. We literally just secured the house. I dont know any other details.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said his investigators were called to the home for at least one death but didn't give additional details.

The man walked up to the workers near Cleveland Park in Spartanburg about 3 p.m., asked them what they were doing and then started shooting, Spartanburg Water spokeswoman Jennifer Candler told news outlets.

The workers were taken to the hospital but are expected to be all right, Spartanburg police spokesman Maj. Art Littlejohn said.

Spartanburg city officers and county deputies were fired on as they rushed to get into a home after the initial shooting because they feared someone might be hurt inside, Littlejohn said.

The deputy who was hit was expected to recover.

Praise God he was hit in the arm and no other vitals, the sheriff said.

At least two deputies fired back, and Wright said Littlejohn tore down a bannister to get the wounded officer help as soon as possible.

He put himself in harm's way to help our man. Thank you is not good enough, Wright said.

The Greenville County Sheriff's Office will investigate the shooting because it involved State Law Enforcement Division agents as well as city and county officers.
CHICAGO  After 40 days without solid food, Rachelle Zola ended her hunger strike for slavery reparations with a few small bites of yogurt Saturday.

Zola, 73, of Chicago, said she lost 23 pounds and felt weak during her last two days of drinking only water, Pedialyte and bone broth.

But she pronounced the experience an unqualified success, citing dozens of productive conversations with ordinary people, as well as TV, radio and print newspaper coverage of her fast for H.R. 40, a U.S. House bill that would establish a federal commission to hold hearings on slavery and discrimination and recommend remedies.

My voice is only getting stronger, Zola said Monday.

Zola, who is white, came to Chicago from Tucson in 2019 to meet Black and brown people and hear their stories, and embarked on the fast as a result of multiple conversations, meetings and workshops.

She hoped to attract the attention of other white people, and spur the adoption of H.R. 40, a version of a reparations bill that was first introduced in Congress more than 30 years ago.

She said the best part of her hunger strike was talking to strangers on the street. She set up a table outside Cosmopolitan United Church in Melrose Park, and sat there for hours a day. With hand-lettered signs, she waved to people who honked and chatted with anyone who pulled into the church parking lot to hear more.

She said she talked to about 60 people.

Most of them were like, OK, I can contact my representative,  she said. I really didnt get much pushback.

Some white people did want to talk about what they thought was going wrong in Black communities, she said.

But when she listened and followed up with, Are you willing to have a conversation (about reparations)? The answer was yes.

One day a man who was lost asked for help finding his way back to a halfway house. She gave him water and granola bars, spent more than an hour talking with him, and was able to find out where he was supposed to be. There was also a teen interested in social justice who stopped by at his moms suggestion.

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Citing Mondays U.N. report calling for reparations for anti-Black discrimination worldwide, Zola said her hunger strike was well-timed. Her next step will be to reach out to leaders of local churches and other houses of worship to try to build support for reparations.

She hopes to eventually get invitations to speak at fundamentalist churches in the South.

Zola said shes tired after her hunger strike, but all her vital signs are good and shes starting to exercise again.

As for H.R. 40, which has yet to reach the House floor, she said she believes the chances for passage by the end of 2022 are good.

Am I optimistic? Yeah, I have to come from that place. I do have to trust that, she said.
The first clue popped up on Omar Abdulazizs phone four years ago. A Saudi dissident attending college in Montreal, Abdulaziz got a cryptic message from Twitter. His account had been penetrated by a state sponsored actor. He should take precautions to protect his personal information, the company advised, offering no further details.

Abdulaziz didnt think much of it at the time. He changed his password and switched to two-factor authentication. I thought this is, like, a problem, it was solved and its not happening again, says Abdulaziz. I didnt know how big that was.

Omar Abdulaziz in Montreal in 2018. (Francois Ollivier for the Washington Post via Getty Images)

Bigger, as it turned out, than he could ever have imagined. Although he had no idea at the time, Abdulaziz had found himself in the crosshairs of an extraordinary corporate espionage operation  conceived in Riyadh and allegedly orchestrated by a top deputy to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS  to steal personal data from thousands of critics of the Saudi regime.

The story of the espionage plot  and its devastating aftermath for a man who would later become one of Abdulazizs closest collaborators, Jamal Khashoggi  is the subject of Influence Operations, Episode 6 in the new season of Yahoo News Conspiracyland podcast: The Secret Lives and Brutal Death of Jamal Khashoggi.

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Theres a direct trail of blood drops from this hack to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, said Mark Kleiman, a Los Angeles-based lawyer who is representing Abdulaziz.

It was a trail that led straight to the doorstep of MBS. The crown prince, who the CIA has concluded authorized the operation that killed Khashoggi, is identified as Saudi Royal Family Member-1  and his secretary as Foreign Official-1  in a pending Justice Department indictment alleging wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes associated with a plot to plant two Saudi spies inside Twitter.

As Conspiracyland reveals, MBS is even said to have boasted about his role in the criminal scheme. It was us. We did that. We have our guy at Twitter, he allegedly told an associate. (Spokesmen for the Saudi government have declined multiple requests for comment.)

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To understand how consequential the Twitter plot was, its important to understand the unique role the social media companys platform had become in the Middle East. As is well known, Twitter was the primary form of messaging among democratic activists during the Arab Spring protests that convulsed the region starting in 2011.

Yet even after those protests were crushed in the years that followed, Twitter still loomed large  and nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia. In a closed society, with no established forum for democratic debate, Twitter was the one platform for political discourse and much other discussion, says Abdulaziz.

In the United States, you have the Congress. In Saudi Arabia, we have Twitter, he says. It wasnt only a platform for us to talk about what we do believe. It was a place where we would gather, where we would see people, you know, who share the similar ideas or beliefs or who would try to do anything peacefully to change the situation in our country.

And often they did so anonymously. All the more reason that the lively exchange of ideas among Saudi Twitter users  and the biting attacks by some of them on the rulers of their country  alarmed the regime, especially the rising new power in the royal court, MBS. So starting in 2014, Bader al-Asaker, MBSs personal secretary and the director of MiSK, the princes personal foundation, launched an audacious plot to identify  and shut down  regime critics on Twitter.

Bader al-Asaker. (MiSK Foundation)

In June of that year, Asaker was on a tour of Twitters San Francisco headquarters, where he was greeted and shown around by Ahmad Abouammo, a young U.S.-Lebanese citizen, who at the time was chief of the companys Middle East partnerships tasked with managing Saudi Twitter accounts.

In classic spycraft fashion, Asaker cultivated Abouammo. He arranged to meet him in London, where he gave him an expensive luxury watch worth $20,000. It was the start of up to $300,000 in jewelry and cash that the Saudi official showered on Abouammo, with a chunk of it routed through a Beirut bank account set up in the name of one of the Twitter employees Lebanese relatives, according to an FBI affidavit entered as evidence in the case. And in exchange, according to prosecutors, Abouammo turned over the details of a widely read anonymous Saudi account critical of the Saudi regime  information that Asaker had requested. (Abouammo has pleaded not guilty to the charges.)

At the same time, Asaker recruited yet another Twitter mole, an engineer named Ali Alzabarah, who turned over the personal details  the emails, phone numbers, direct messages and IP addresses  of 6,000 users.

All of this was music to MBSs ears. Saad Aljabri, a former senior Saudi counterterrorism official who was ousted by MBS, has alleged in a lawsuit against the crown prince in the United States that the de facto Saudi ruler boasted about his role overseeing the plot, leading to his comment We have our guy at Twitter, according to an account provided to Conspiracyland by Aljabris son Khalid.

Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia, in 2019. (Kate Munsch/Reuters)

When Aljabri pushed on whether the royal courts spy inside Twitter was a Saudi citizen, MBS allegedly replied that he was in fact an American, an apparent reference to Abouammo, who has dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship. And, tellingly, MBS told Aljabri that the spy had been paid 1 million Saudi riyals for his services  an amount roughly corresponding to the $300,000 that prosecutors have alleged Abouammo received from the Saudis.

One of the remarkable aspects of the Twitter plot is that the FBI first informed Twitter executives of the scheme in late 2015. And yet seven months later, the company's CEO, Jack Dorsey, met with MBS during his charm offensive tour of the United States recounted in Episode 5.

Why would the CEO of one of Americas biggest social media companies meet with a foreign official whose operatives had, according to the FBI, just stolen his company blind? There were other factors Dorsey and the company had to consider. In the preceding months, another Saudi royal, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal  the fabulously wealthy Saudi who 25 years earlier had paid Donald Trump $20 million for the superyacht once owned by Jamal Khashoggis arms-dealer cousin Adnan  had upped his stake in Twitter to $350 million. That made him and his company, Kingdom Holding Company, one of the five biggest shareholders in the U.S.-based social media giant.

All the more reason for Dorsey to stay on the Saudis good side, as was clearly visible when the Twitter founder met the Saudi crown prince in New York, says Kleiman, Abdulazizs lawyer.

Theres this amazing photograph weve gotten our hands on from the meeting, says Kleiman. Dorsey had lowered himself, and his head was bowed and inflected toward MBS as he was shaking MBSs hand. Here he is practically curtsying to the guy. Its got to be galling to anybody whos been put at risk for this.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in New York in 2016. (badermasaker via Instagram)

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on why Dorsey would have met with a foreign leader whose spies had allegedly just infiltrated his company. The spokesman in an email said only that Twitter had notified affected users about the theft of their information and cooperated closely with government investigations. We remain committed to protecting the public conversation from abuse by state actors, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified by name.

Abdulaziz would later form a close alliance with Khashoggi, exchanging hundreds of messages about ways to counter MBSs digital repression  oblivious to the fact that the Saudis had scooped up personal details that would help them penetrate his phone and read their exchanges in real time.

But there were clues about what the Saudis were up to hiding in plain sight.

In August 2017, Saud al-Qahtani  MBSs right-hand man and enforcer, who had created a blacklist of regime critics  published his own ominous tweet. Does a pseudonym protect you from the #blacklist, he wrote. No.

The Saudis, he added, had technical ways of figuring out who the critics were and even their IP addresses. It was, Qahtani wrote, a secret Im not going to say.

It is worth noting that, as Qahtani was writing his warning, Khashoggi himself had not fully broken with the Saudi regime he had faithfully supported for several decades.

Despite his fervent backing of the Arab Spring and his calls for greater democracy and freedom of expression, Khashoggi was still trying to find a way to avoid antagonizing the royal court. As first reported by Wall Street Journal reporters Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck in their book Blood and Oil, Khashoggi proposed to the Saudi Information Ministry that he create a new U.S.-based think tank that would counter negative news coverage of the kingdom (and that he be hired as a consultant to advise the group).

But that overture never got far. He would soon be offered a chance to write op-ed columns for the Global Opinions section of the Washington Post. In his debut piece he took off the gloves, lambasting MBS for his crackdowns and arrests of dissidents. Saudi Arabia Wasnt Always This Repressive, read the headline. Now Its Unbearable.

It was a column, along with similarly hard-hitting follow-ups, that won him plaudits from dissidents like Abdulaziz, leading to a collaboration that within a year would result in Khashoggis murder.

Next on Conspiracyland: Episode 7, A Tale of Two Women

As Jamal Khashoggi becomes more forceful in his attacks on MBSs harsh crackdowns, he forms an alliance with Omar Abdulaziz, the dissident, wiring him money to fund an operation to counter Saud al-Qahtanis army of trolls. But as he does so, his personal life becomes ever more complicated. He marries one woman  a flight attendant for Emirates Airlines  in an Islamic ceremony in northern Virginia. Then, just months later, he becomes engaged to another woman, a Turkish graduate student, leading to his fateful trip to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

In case you missed it:

Episode 1: Exclusive: Saudi assassins picked up illicit drugs in Cairo to kill Khashoggi

Episode 2: Arms, harems and a Trump-owned yacht: How a Khashoggi family member helped mold the U.S.-Saudi relationship

Episode 3: I just fell apart crying heartbreak to you: A murdered journalists years-long relationship with Osama bin Laden

Episode 4: From royal insider to target: How the Arab Spring propelled Jamal Khashoggi into the Saudi leaderships crosshairs"

Episode 5: A personality type that feels absolutely no guardrails: How Saudi Arabias leader charmed Washington while cracking down on opponents

____

Read more from Yahoo News:
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When it comes to fashion, Leah McSweeney is never afraid to pull off some bold looks, and the same can be said about her swimwear. The Real Housewives of New York City cast member recently brought some glamour to the beach, soaking up the sun in a barely-there copper bikini. On July 2, Leah took to Instagram to show off her latest eye-catching swimsuit. The Married to the Mob entrepreneur sizzled while posing in front of a picturesque sunset view in a teeny metallic two-piece. As captured in the
Regional powerhouse South Africa on Thursday urged Eswatini's security forces to practise "total restraint" and Britain expressed concern following reports of a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Dissent has long been stifled in Africa's last absolute monarchy, a small landlocked state previously known as Swaziland.

But demonstrations escalated radically this week as protesters defied a dusk-to-dawn curfew to take to the streets, looting and torching buildings linked to King Mswati III -- and demanding immediate political reform.

The government in the southern African kingdom of 1.3 million people said in a statement on Thursday that it deployed the army "to regain the rule of law, peace and to protect all".

Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku said in a statement that the military's role was to enforce Covid-19 restrictions and protect national infrastructure.

"There has been no martial law that has been declared, as reported," he said.

Unverified videos that have emerged on social media showed police and soldiers using force to disperse protesters and pulling people from homes and beating them up.

Sounds of gunshots rang across a neighbourhood in the capital Mbabane where a group of young men reportedly tried to loot a liquor store on Thursday, according to an AFP correspondent.

Internet access has been limited, straining communication, while shops that were shuttered earlier this week started reopening on Thursday.

Long queues formed outside supermarkets in Mbabane as residents restocked on groceries while gas stations had run out of petrol.

Foreign governments, including South Africa, Britain and the United States, as well as global rights watchdogs have expressed concern over the violence.

"The South African government calls on the security forces to exercise total restraint and protect the lives and property of the people," foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.

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"We are particularly concerned by reports of loss of life and destruction of properties," he said in a statement.

- 'Indiscriminate shooting' -

Britain's Minister for Africa James Duddridge tweeted that "the escalation in violence, including looting, is deeply concerning".

Speaking earlier on state radio, Masuku urged citizens "not to be deceived by foreign elements," saying the rioting was carried out by "terrorists and thugs".

Activists earlier this week said eight people had been killed in clashes with police, but on Thursday an opposition party said the number was closer to 40, citing information collated from morgues.

Wandile Dludlu, secretary general of the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) said "the 40-plus we are talking about are corpses that have been delivered in the different mortuaries".

However the prime minister said the government was "yet to receive an official report about alleged deaths" -- but that it would investigate.

PUDEMO lambasted the kingdom's excess force, saying it did not fit the crime.

"These people are unarmed... but the amount of force that the state is responding with, on the basis that people looted... is brazen dictatorship," Dludlu told AFP.

Human Rights Watch said eight people reached by phone described "indiscriminate shooting at protesters by security forces and violence by some protesters".

"The Eswatini government should ensure that security forces act within the law, and avoid arbitrary use of force," said Dewa Mavhinga, Southern Africa director at HRW.

The United States has also urged authorities in Eswatini to exercise restraint and allow peaceful protests.

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CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -South Africa's top court on Thursday re-affirmed an earlier ruling that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not deliberately mislead lawmakers about donations to his 2017 campaign to lead the ruling party.

The Public Protector, an anti-graft watchdog, had been unhappy with last year's ruling by the high court, which found that Ramaphosa did not, as alleged, intentionally mislead parliament about fundraising and donations. These included 500,000 rand deposited into Ramaphosa's son Andile's account.

The case has been seen as proxy war between two rival factions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC), one supporting Ramaphosa; the other, former President Jacob Zuma, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Tuesday for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry.

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is seen as allied to Zuma's faction, a claim she has denied.

Ramaphosa ousted scandal-hit Zuma as party leader in 2018, and Zuma has since been subjected to several corruption investigations.

Mkhwebane had also alleged in her 2019 report that there was prima facie evidence of money laundering involving millions of rands in the campaign to succeed Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa denied this when he sought a legal review of her report, winning the case in the high court last year.

The constitutional court on Thursday threw out a challenge by Mkhwebane to that ruling.

"The Public Protector was wrong on the facts ... with regard to the issue whether the president had wilfully misled parliament and the high court was right to set aside her findings," judge Chris Jafta said.

(Reporting by Wendell RoelfEditing by Tim Cocks, William Maclean)
Paris won a major court fight against Airbnb on Thursday after a court ordered the home-sharing giant to pay an eight million euro ($9.5 million) fine for allowing over 1,000 listings to flout registration rules.

It was the latest clash between the US home rental platform and the French capital over accusations the platform is turning a blind eye to rule-breakers and exacerbating a housing shortage that is driving up property prices.

The case was filed in 2019 after officials found 1,010 listings for Paris, one of Airbnb's biggest markets, without the registration numbers required since a law passed in 2017.

The registrations are used to make sure that properties are not rented out more than 120 nights a year and that rental income is declared to the tax authorities.

Airbnb argued that as a service provider, it should not be responsible for ensuring that users of its site comply with local regulations.

But the Paris court ordered a fine of 8,000 euros per listing "given the severity of the violations... and their consequences with regards of the public interest of fighting against the shortage of rental lodgings" in the capital.

But the fine was lower than the 12.5 million euros sought by the city.

"This ruling, a first in France, is a great victory in our fight for housing for all and the regulation of the rental market," Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter.

- 'Responsible tourism' -

Airbnb had said earlier Thursday that it will now require Paris landlords to prove their apartments have been registered with city hall.

Until now, Airbnb was not blocking renters who failed to supply the numbers with their ads.

The platform will impose similar rules in Bordeaux on July 30 before extending them to other popular French destinations such as Lyon, Nice and Marseille by the end of the year.

"This new step is part of several commitments by Airbnb to promote responsible tourism," the company said in a statement.

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It said a "large majority" of Paris homeowners already complied with the registration requirement, without providing figures.

Before the Covid pandemic, Airbnb had 65,000 listings for the city.

"It's a victory," said Ian Brossat, the city's deputy mayor in charge of housing, in an interview Thursday with the Parisien newspaper.

He claimed that more than half of the 30,000 Paris listings currently were not displaying registration numbers.

Airbnb says Paris represented just 10 percent of all French searches in May, while searches for rural lodgings for this summer were 45 percent of the total, up from 24 percent in summer 2019.

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Trump Tower in Manhattan serves as the headquarters for the Trump Organization, and the former president keeps a penthouse apartment there. (John Minchillo / Associated Press)

The Trump Organization, an international showcase for gaudy wealth that made Donald Trump a household name long before he ran for president, has been dodging taxes for years, according to Manhattan prosecutors who unveiled the first criminal charges against the company on Thursday.

The organization is charged with criminal tax fraud and scheming to defraud the government. Allen Weisselberg, Trump's longtime accountant and keeper of his financial secrets, faces the same charges plus grand larceny and falsifying records, according to the 15-count indictment.

Carey Dunne, an assistant district attorney, said the scheme "was orchestrated by the most senior executives, who were financially benefiting themselves and the company, by getting secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal taxpayers."

Weisselberg, who appeared in court wearing handcuffs after surrendering at the courthouse, pleaded not guilty, as did the Trump Organization.

The indictment did not name Trump or any of his relatives, but it could prove debilitating for their company if it becomes harder to find business partners or obtain bank loans. Trump called the prosecution a continuation of the "witch hunt" that he's faced for years, and his lawyers criticized the charges as politically motivated.

If the name of the company was something else, I dont think these charges would be brought," Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the Trump Organization, said outside the courthouse after the arraignment.

The indictment, which was returned by a grand jury on Wednesday and unsealed on Thursday, accuses Weisselberg of avoiding more than $900,000 in taxes on $1.7 million of income that he received in the form of leased Mercedes-Benz vehicles, private school tuition for family members and rent-free apartments. Weisselberg even charged the company for beds, televisions, carpeting and furniture at his Florida home, according to the indictment.

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Former President Trump listens to speakers at a border security briefing in Texas on Wednesday. (Joel Martinez / The Monitor)

Prosecutors allege the Trump Organization kept internal spreadsheets tracking the payments, then deducted them from his official income. Although other executives also received "off the books" compensation, according to the indictment, no one was named besides Weisselberg, who was described as "one of the largest individual beneficiaries" of the scheme, which allegedly dates to 2005. Also involved was someone identified only as "unindicted co-conspirator #1."

New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who has been working with Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr. on the case, said the indictment was "an important marker in the ongoing criminal investigation" of Trump's business. Prosecutors have also been examining whether Trump improperly inflated the value of his properties to obtain loans or deflated them to avoid taxes.

"It requires little imagination to infer that the former president is someone who prosecutors are scrutinizing," said Jeffrey Robbins, a former federal prosecutor.

The Trump Organization is a sprawling yet tightly held collection of businesses that includes golf courses, hotels, real estate and licensing deals. Although Trump's business dealings have been mired in controversy and scandal before  including infamous bankruptcies in Atlantic City, fraud lawsuits over the Trump University training program, and election-year hush-money payments to women who said they had slept with Trump  the indictment represents a new level of legal peril for the company.

Experts said "collateral consequences" from the indictment could ultimately cripple the Trump Organization if it's not able to obtain financing from banks, which can face internal and regulatory roadblocks when dealing with companies facing criminal charges.

Will Thomas, a law and business professor at the University of Michigan, said the company may ultimately survive because it's not facing racketeering-style charges that suggest it engaged in a larger criminal enterprise. In addition, potential partners have long known the company's reputation.

The sorts of people willing to do business with the Trump Organization are not going to be meaningfully impacted by this, Thomas said.

Weisselberg could face significant prison time, maybe two to five years, if convicted of the grand larceny charge, especially given the length and size of the alleged scheme.

Daniel Horwitz, a former Manhattan prosecutor, said the charge was "a bit of a game changer," providing "the kind of incentive a prosecutor can use effectively with someone to flip him into being a cooperator."

The Trump Organization issued a statement Thursday calling Weisselberg a "loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather" who was "being used by the Manhattan district attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former president."

Weisselberg appears unwilling to help the prosecution after spending nearly five decades working for the Trump family. He was hired by Trump's father, Fred, to work in the company's Brooklyn office in 1973. When Trump became president, he left his company in the hands of his eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and Weisselberg, a sign of the trust the family has placed in the chief financial officer.

Weisselberg's life is deeply intertwined with the Trumps. One of his sons, Jack, works for Ladder Capital, an important lender to the Trump Organization. The other, Barry, worked for the organization itself, managing an ice skating rink in Central Park.

Barry apparently received lucrative perks of his own. The indictment says one of Weisselberg's family members employed by the Trump Organization  a description that matches Barry  lived for nearly a decade in a company-owned apartment near Central Park and paid only $1,000 per month in rent.

Even though Weisselberg may never cooperate with the district attorney's office, a schism within his family helped push the investigation along. Jennifer Weisselberg, the ex-wife of one of Weisselberg's sons who is engaged in a child custody battle with him, provided prosecutors with financial records and granted them several interviews.

"We've provided a mountain of evidence to them," said Duncan Levin, a lawyer for Jennifer.

The indictment's effect on Trump's political stature is uncertain. It will probably provide more ammunition to the minority of Republican leaders who have grown weary of Trump's influence on the party. And the charges could become a costly and embarrassing distraction at a time when Trump is laboring to maintain his political relevance since being replaced in the White House and being banned from Twitter, Facebook and other powerful social media platforms that were key to his political rise and dominance of the public stage.

Trump losing even marginal amounts of support will be devastating to those relying on his coattails to win, said Mike Madrid, a California Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. Like so much with Trump, it doesnt end well for those who support him.

But Trump's supporters have stuck with him through all manner of scandals that would have crippled another politician, including being caught on video saying crude and demeaning things about women and multiple allegations of sexual assault.

As president, he maintained loyalty from Republicans while battling investigations into Russian support for his candidacy and into hush-money payments, as well as during two separate impeachments over his push for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his incitement of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was acquitted in both instances in the Senate.

Now the criminal charges are unlikely to shake the faith of his die-hard supporters. He's already flirted with the possibility of running for president again, holding a rally in Ohio last week to support a primary challenge to a House Republican who voted to impeach him. And he traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Wednesday to criticize Democrats' immigration policy, meeting with about two dozen members of Congress and revisiting his false claims that the last election was stolen from him.

After years of controversy, views on Trump from different sides of the political spectrum might as well be etched in stone.

"For Trumps opponents, this indictment simply validates everything they already believed," said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster. "But for Trumps supporters, this indictment doesnt even scratch the surface of his image in their eyes. On the contrary, it fires them up as they point to the poison of partisan Democrat politics at play."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Police are looking for a missing child, 7-month-old Miguel David Lee Ramirez of Ennis, who authorities say was abducted by his mother on Thursday.

Police are looking for the whereabouts of 7-month-old Miguel David Lee Ramirez of Ennis, who authorities say was abducted by his mother on Thursday.

At approximately 10:30 a.m., Faith Reid and an unknown man took the baby from a home located in the 900 block of North Shawnee Street in Ennis, according to a Ennis Police Department Facebook post. A Texas Amber Alert has been issued in the search for the child.

The father of the child followed the two out of the house and became involved in an altercation with the unidentified man. The man then pulled a handgun and threatened to shoot the childs father, according to police. The man and woman then placed the child into a white Ford F-150 and fled the area.

The baby is approximately 26 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds. He has light brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a white Mickey Mouse diaper.

Faith Reid is described as a white woman, 52 tall and weighing 115 pounds with green eyes and blond hair, according to police.

Officials believe this child to be in grave or immediate danger.

Residents with information should contact the Ennis Police Department or their local law enforcement agency.
Ariana Grande arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

After announcing she's giving away $1 million in therapy to fans, Grande is now upping the ante.

The "Thank You, Next" singer is now giving away $2 million in therapy to fans thanks to Better Help.

Grande tweeted in 2018, "Therapy has saved my life so many times."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Ariana Grande is now upping the ante to ensure more of her fans can get access to free therapy.

In a social media post on Instagram earlier this week, Grande explained that she was "thrilled" to be working with Better Help to give $1 million worth of therapy. By Wednesday, Better Help announced that because "so many of you" were taking advantage, they has raised the amount to $2 million in free therapy.

Fans who sign up for this opportunity will be matched with a licensed therapist for one free month and receive a 15% discount if they renew for a second month.

The 28-year-old singer explained why she's giving therapy to fans in her Instagram caption.

"I really wanted to do this anyway in hopes of inspiring you to dip a toe in, to feel okay asking for help, and to hopefully rid your minds of any sort of self-judgment in doing so," she wrote.

The "Positions" singer acknowledged that this donation would not remove the financial barrier to therapy that often stops people from being able to access it.

However, Grande said she hopes that this will be a "helpful starting point" for fans to be able to "build space" for therapy in their lives. She wrapped up by writing, "healing is not linear or easy but you are worth the effort and time, I promise!"

Grande has been very vocal over the years about mental health, including her own. She once tweeted out to fans in 2018, "therapy has saved my life so many times" when asked about her therapist.

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The singer told British Vogue she had post-traumatic stress disorder following the Manchester bombing at her concert in 2017, and later wrote about her struggles with mental health in her songs, including "Breathin" and "Get Well Soon" from the "Sweetener" album.

Back in May, Grande shared an Instagram slideshow at the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month in an effort to end "the stigma around mental health" and normalize "asking for help."

Read the original article on Insider
The Arizona Republic has gone to court to demand records from the state Senate and one of its contractors to shed light on the audit of 2020 election results, much of which has been kept from the public despite the importance of the ballot recount.

The news organization on Wednesday filed a special action in Maricopa County Superior Court seeking financial records and communications about the audit from the Senate and Cyber Ninjas, the contractor it hired to lead the work.

But for the most part, the state has kept information on how the audit is being conducted, the businesses doing the work, where the money is coming from and what officials are saying to each other about it away from the public.

More: Arizona's still recounting ballots from the 2020 election. Here's why you don't know many of the details

The Republic had earlier requested the information through the Arizona Public Records Law but was denied access, prompting the legal complaint.

Documents related to the audit are public records because the audit is being conducted under the direction of the Senate, a public body, and the Senate is required to make available records that are in the custody or control of Cyber Ninjas, the complaint argues.

Cyber Ninjas "by virtue of its performing a core governmental function funded in part by state taxpayer dollars, was required to maintain these Public Records and make them available," the complaint said. "Yet Cyber Ninjas has refused to do so."

The Republic is seeking the records to provide the public with a better understanding of the unprecedented audit of the election, which involved the Senate issuing subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and moving election equipment and about 2.1 million ballots to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum for inspection by private contractors. The audit has taken weeks and has yet to conclude.

"Arizona law entitles the public to know how this audit is being conducted and funded," attorney David Bodney, who represents The Republic, said Wednesday after the action was filed in court. "And the Arizona public records law does not permit the Senate to play 'hide the ball' by delegating core responsibilities to a third party like Cyber Ninjas and concealing records of government activities and public expenditures in Cyber Ninjas files."

Story continues

Bodney questioned why the senators who ordered the audit would not want the documents for themselves, particularly those communications involving subcontractors to Cyber Ninjas, so they could understand the work being done in their name.

"The Senate asserts that it is not even required to ask Cyber Ninjas to share copies of its Arizona audit records with them, much less disclose them to the public," Bodney said. "And Cyber Ninjas wont produce copies of these public records, either. Their conduct leaves us no choice but to call upon the court to enforce the public records law."

An attorney for the Senate did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. But in a similar case seeking public records from Cyber Ninjas, attorneys for the Senate have argued in a court filing that such records need not be provided in a public records request.

"Private corporations that serve as vendors to the state government are not 'public bodies,' " the senators said in a motion to dismiss a case brought by a nonprofit group called American Oversight, which formed in 2017 to investigate potential fraud in the Trump administration. "It follows that any documents in their possession, custody or control are outside the scope of the Arizona Public Records Act."

The Republic's complaint seeks to have a judge set a deadline for the Senate and Cyber Ninjas' communications to be provided to the newspaper. It also asks for legal fees, arguing the records were unlawfully withheld from the news organization in violation of the state public records law.

Concerns over transparency

Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said from the outset the audit would be conducted through a transparent process, but the complaint disputes that characterization.

That transparency has been lacking, however, as defendants have refused to provide public records responsive to (The Republic's) requests that are in the custody or control of Cyber Ninjas, the complaint states.

The Republic has sought public records since the audit began in April, and while some were provided, communications from Cyber Ninjas have not.

During a meeting May 27, Fann's attorney Kory Langhofer and Norm Moore, the Senates former public records counsel, told representatives for The Republic that Fann and the Senate would not produce any records in the possession of Cyber Ninjas, arguing that they were not public records.

Also that day, The Republic issued an additional records request for all text messages, emails and other communications to and from Cyber Ninjas and other audit contractors and 27 individuals, including Ken Bennett, a former secretary of state serving as a liaison for the audit, audit spokesman Randy Pullen, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen and Fann, as well as individuals understood to be involved or supportive of the effort, including Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne and former President Donald Trump.

The Republic sent an additional request to Cyber Ninjas on June 2 seeking financial records, including contracts, invoices, bills and donations as well as Cyber Ninjas' audit-related communications with state senators, other politicians, Bennett, Pullen, Maricopa County elected officials and Christina Bobb of One America News Network.

An attorney for Cyber Ninjas responded that the company would not comply.

The complaint argues that Fann and Peterson have wrongfully denied The Republic access to records under the control of Cyber Ninjas.

The Arizona Senates audit of Maricopa County ballots is a matter of the most urgent public concern, the complaint states. Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the administration of our elections. Defendants themselves have stressed the importance of public confidence in voting and elections as justifications for the audit, and have pledged transparency in performing the audit. But the public cannot properly evaluate the conduct of and findings of the audit without prompt and full access to the very public records that defendants are unlawfully withholding.

The Republic asked the court for an order requiring defendants to show cause why the news organization should not be entitled to the records.

This case involves crucial questions for our state: Can the Arizona Senate perform an audit of Maricopa County ballots it obtained under legislative subpoena without promptly and comprehensively releasing public records related to the audit? The Republic's request states.

It argues that the records in question are public documents regardless of who possesses them because of the special position the Senate has given Cyber Ninjas.

Can Arizona politicians unfurl a veil of secrecy over their review of the election that put them in office by hiring outside contractors to perform it? it states. And can a company hired and paid by the government to perform an essential and uniquely governmental function hide behind the fiction that it is not subject to the Arizona law that allows the public to know what it is doing, how it is doing it and who it hired to do the work?

Operations 'carried out largely in secret'

Greg Burton, Republic executive editor, said the news organization is taking action because the audit is directed by a group of partisans from the Senate who themselves were on the ballots.

Despite promises by Senate leaders that its vote audit would be transparent, the operations of the recount have been carried out largely in secret by hired, not elected, parties performing the functions of elected officials, Burton said in a court declaration.

Just as the public has a right to government documents to help discern whether elected officials are acting in the public's interest, so does the public have a right to documents from contractors like Cyber Ninjas acting on behalf of the government, especially on such an important matter, he said.

The lack of information makes it difficult to discern the quality of this recount, Burton said. It will make it impossible to weigh the credibility of the work once results are announced. Information from participants, particularly Cyber Ninjas, is essential to help the public understand, let alone challenge, the process.

The Republic's action is separate from another action from American Oversight, which is seeking similar records from Fann and Petersen.

American Oversight filed a lawsuit in May after the Senate declined to turn over records after they were requested through the state public records law.

That case names Fann, Petersen and the Senate at large as defendants.

The documents American Oversight requested include communications and financial records from Cyber Ninjas and its various subcontractors and Bennett "or any other individual or entity engaged in work on the audit."

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ Republic takes Senate, Cyber Ninjas to court for ballot audit info
Daniel Perry was indicted on charges of murder and deadly conduct Thursday in the July 2020 shooting of an armed protestor in Austin, Texas, AP reports.

Driving the news: Perry, an active-duty former Fort Hood Army sergeant, drove into a crowd gathered to protest police violence, and later fatally shot demonstrator Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran.

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The event "brought national attention and deepened debates over issues, such as protester safety, self-defense and the right to openly carry guns," per the Austin American-Statesman.

Of note via the American-Statesman: "A key issue in the case is whether Foster raised his weapon at Perry. Some witnesses have said that Foster never pointed the rifle, keeping it down, but an attorney for Perry has said that police have interviewed several people who corroborated his client's account that Foster pointed the gun at him."

What they're saying: Kristen Dark, a spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriffs Office said in a statement that Perry was booked and released on $300,000 bail.

Perry's attorney, Clint Broden, maintained that his client was acting in self-defense.

It is important to note that the standard of proof required for an indictment is significantly less than the standard of proof required for a conviction," said Broden in a statement to AP.

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BENI, Congo (AP)  At least nine civilians, including women, were killed in an attack by rebels in Congos eastern city of Beni, officials said Thursday. The attack in Beni's Rwangoma neighborhood is the third such attack in the Beni area this week.

Police and the military have blamed Allied Democratic Forces rebels for the violence.

These ADF terrorists attacked peaceful populations ... killing and kidnapping others, said Beni's police chief, Col. Narcisse Muteba. These rebels used the kidnapped civilians (as shields) to escape the Congolese army. Investigations are underway to find the perpetrators of this crime.

Some of the victims were killed in their homes while others were taken to the center of the neighborhood before being shot and beaten with machetes or pieces of concrete, the military spokesperson in the region, Lt. Anthony Mwulushayi, said.

Nine bodies are in the morgue, he said, adding that one other body of a woman remains at the scene.

Alongside the human toll, businesses were looted before being set on fire, and residences were also set on fire, he said.

This attack comes days after two explosions on Sunday hit a Catholic church in Beni's Butsili district and a market in another district, leaving four wounded. The Islamic State groups Central Africa Province claimed responsibility for the two Sunday explosions, which included its first suicide bombing.

Many Beni residents protested the violence and angrily demanded that the police and military provide better protection to the civilian population. Demonstrators carried the body of a slain victim to the town hall, where the army and police dispersed the protests with live ammunition.

Are we Congolese like the others? In Beni, we are being killed with bombs, sporadic machete attacks ... I would like the government to help us because we are going to die overnight," said Kambale Tsongo, a protester carrying the body of a victim.

U.S. Ambassador to Congo, Mike Hammer, visited Beni on Thursday and told The Associated Press that the United States stands in solidarity with the residents of Beni, and will help track down attackers who are allied to the Islamic State group. He visited Beni Thursday morning.

Story continues

We will begin intelligence cooperation between the Congolese army and the U.S., he said. There will also be the arrival of more than 1,000 soldiers to hunt down the Ugandan rebels of the ADF. He said the U.S. soldiers will help train the Congolese army as well as police forces.

Eastern Congo has been mired in conflict for more than a quarter-century particularly near its border with Rwanda. Armed groups there have vied for control of the regions mineral resources.

The ADF, which traces its origins to nearby Uganda, has mounted an escalating number of attacks in and around Beni in the last several years even as the community was struck by an Ebola epidemic.

___

AP writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo contributed.
(Bloomberg) -- The uncomfortable conversations began the moment the 48-page report landed in senior managers inboxes at HSBC Holdings Plc last month. Soon, attention turned to the unlikely author who was emailing it.

A junior manager had invited more than 100 colleagues to talk with him about diversity and racism at the firm and then distilled their responses into a Wall Street-style presentation. It opens with a poem he wrote about hoping for change, before laying out his scathing conclusion: The bank is unlikely to meet its diversity goals because of discrimination and racism in the workplace, which is prompting recruits to leave.

One page ticks off a list of comments employees have endured.

I just dont like you. Im not allowed to tell you why.

Youve got all the right qualifications and youve done a great job, youre just not the right fit for the team -- its just a vibe.

Its never been harder than right now, being a White man in banking.

In past decades, under a strict Wall Street code valuing discretion above all else, the junior manager might have been as good as terminated for rebroadcasting such ugly accounts. But after a year of widespread protests over racial inequality and corporate pledges to do better, and in the month that Juneteenth became a U.S. federal holiday, a different reckoning has been unfolding inside HSBC.

The author, Ian Clarke, is still at the bank where hes spent 15 years, working in New York as a vice president in a unit that helps companies hold and move their money, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Officials at the firm have opened an internal review to take a deeper look into his findings and investigate the incidents he described.

We are committed to improving diversity and inclusion at HSBC, the bank said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson. And whilst we are making progress, we know we have more work to do. When colleagues raise concerns we take them seriously and are looking into the issues raised.

Story continues

Industrywide Frustrations

Many of the frustrations Clarke channeled from colleagues to HSBCs leadership resonate industrywide. Big banks have long acknowledged the need to cultivate more diversity within their vast workforces and senior ranks, but have been slow to make progress. Accounts of slights and overt discrimination in the mostly White, mostly male world of finance keep spilling out.

As HSBC has ramped up efforts to improve, its vowed to at least double the number of Black staff in senior leadership roles by 2025 and committed to publishing data annually on ethnic representation and pay gaps in its workforce. Among other measures, its U.S. business is tying managers performance ratings to progress on diversity and inclusion.

At the end of last year, the number of Black staff holding senior leadership roles stood at 0.7% globally, according to HSBCs latest annual report. The banks work to raise this to 1.3% will include partnering with specialist recruitment firms and improving the development opportunities for Black employees.

Pam Kaur, HSBCs India-born chief risk officer, has responsibility for overseeing the lenders worldwide ethnicity inclusion program and is also the global sponsor for its Embrace network, which is aimed at helping the company attract and retain a more diverse workforce.

Past efforts fell short, HSBC Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn said in May at a diversity event organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Im going to open up to the fact that we havent done well enough on that, and the events of a year ago with George Floyd, were a wakeup call I think for us all, Quinn said. It was a wakeup call for me because I sat down with our Black colleagues after that, and a number of us did as leaders, and said OK, weve got to do something differently.

Rather Just Leave

In his report, Clarke identifies himself as half Black, half White and LGBTQ. In a biography in a trade publication last year, he noted his dad is Jamaican but that he was raised by his English mother in a London housing project. In high school, Clarke said he got bullied for being too Black, too White, too posh (the accent) and probably gay. After college, he recalled, the accounting firms wouldnt even interview me, but HSBC recognized the value my uniqueness could bring and helped me flourish.

Yet the series of talks with colleagues shifted his perspective, according to the report. My findings troubled me greatly, and changed the way I viewed myself and my employer, he wrote.

Clarke largely focused on colleagues who are BIPOC -- Black, indigenous and other people of color -- an acronym thats gained popularity during the past years debate over racial injustice.

Two BIPOC women Clarke interviewed lauded HSBCs culture as inclusive but described feeling undervalued once the pandemic struck last year. One with severe asthma said her manager rejected her request to work remotely, leaving her hurt and confused because it seemed the boss would rather I catch the virus and died.

In another passage, Clarke said he and others witnessed senior White colleagues at a Christmas party committing physical and verbal sexual assaults on younger women. The firm encourages staff to report such incidents.

I would rather just leave and go to another bank who would support my aspirations, Clarke quoted one employee as saying. Many other people feel this way.

Tracking Defections

Overall, the report makes the case that HSBC has abnormal levels of systemic discrimination and that BIPOC departures are now so frequent that it threatens to doom the banks efforts to diversify with recruitment.

To make his point, he tracked down five BIPOC employees who left one department and discovered they all landed higher positions at rivals including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

Yet nobody is saying anything or has done anything to demonstrate to those of us left that their concerns were noted and will be addressed, he wrote in the report.

(Updates with details of banks diversity efforts from 12th paragraph.)

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By Kate Duguid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some investors are betting that U.S. government bond yields will stay subdued or continue weakening in the second half of the year, a sharp departure from the first quarter, when an unexpected surge in yields prompted many analysts to raise their forecasts.

Since peaking at pre-pandemic levels in March, yields on U.S. Treasuries have broadly moved lower as weaker-than-expected employment reports in April and May have raised questions about the strength of the reopening economy. The federal jobs report for June will be published on Friday morning.

Yields have also wavered as investors struggle to interpret signals from the Federal Reserve about how hot it is willing to let inflation run before it begins unwinding pandemic-era monetary stimulus.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield, which moves inversely to price, has fallen roughly 30 basis points since its March top of 1.776%.

Short positions in Treasuries rose to the highest since 2017, a June 14 survey of JPMorgan clients showed. Bearish positions have receded since then but remain well above their 52-week average.

Some traders have also been using derivatives to bet on lower rates. One investor on Wednesday put on a $5.8 million options bet that would pay out if the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond exchange traded fund trades higher, according to data from Chris Murphy, co-head of derivatives strategy at Susquehanna International Group. The ETF tracks longer-dated Treasury prices.

"We believe the second quarter marked the peak year-over-year growth rate for the global economy," said Matt Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management. "As a result we see downside risks to yields more than upside, and are looking for roughly a 1.5% 10-year by year-end."

Not everyone agrees.

Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, expects the unprecedented reopening of the U.S. economy ultimately to produce data prints that will outpace expectations, perhaps while the Fed begins discussing tapering its government bond purchases. That will push yields higher, he said in a recent note.

"We still see room for the 10-year Treasury yield to go substantially higher this year, with our year-end target remaining at 2.5%," Brooks wrote.

(Reporting by Kate Duguid; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Dan Grebler)
President Joe Biden's trip to huddle with family members of those lost or missing after a condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, presents a political minefield for the White House as the president makes the stop amid a tour to sell his infrastructure proposals.

While even critics give Biden points for his touch as consoler in chief, he will carefully have to navigate the politics of offering solace to survivors, families of the missing, rescuers, and the wider community affected by the construction disaster as he is in the midst of a multistate swing making the case for a bipartisan infrastructure deal and a larger package congressional Democrats hope to send him.

HARRIS AND BUTTIGIEG JOSTLE FOR LIMELIGHT IN PREVIEW OF FUTURE PRIMARY FIGHT

A fallen building is a powerful symbol of weakened infrastructure and how investment in roads to people should be a priority, according to the Brookings Institution's Darrell West.

"Collapses such as this make Biden's point very emphatically that the country has a lot of deferred maintenance and Florida is one example where that caught up with people in a very tragic manner," said West. "All he needs to do is show empathy for those who are suffering and let the images speak for themselves."

Biden has "little choice" but to visit Surfside, regardless of the risk, Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University political science chairman and politics commentator, told the Washington Examiner. A fallout is unlikely, though, if the right balance is struck, Panagopoulos said.

"It only reinforces the need for infrastructure investment," he added. "This is a national tragedy, and it is the president's duty to comfort a saddened nation and to channel the country's energy in a positive direction."

Eric Schultz, a top White House spokesman during President Barack Obama's administration, is confident Biden will "hit the right notes." And he is warning Republicans hoping to politicize the trip that they do so "at their own peril."

Story continues

"We live in such a frenetic media environment that very few news events breakthrough to the American consciousness. The tragedy at Surfside is one of those moments, and nobody is better suited to comfort the grieving, support the first responders, and channel the country's horror than Joe Biden," Schultz said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki remained tight-lipped on Wednesday regarding Thursday's logistics. She simply repeated that "every component" of the visit would be coordinated with local officials.

"There is still an ongoing search-and-rescue effort on the ground, and we want to ensure we're not doing anything to pull away from those resources," Psaki said.

Biden has appeared reluctant to politicize the $1.2 trillion bipartisan "hard" infrastructure deal and potential $6 trillion "soft" infrastructure reconciliation measure after equivocating on a veto threat. He was hesitant, for instance, to mention the bipartisan agreement's $50 billion investment in climate resiliency projects during a Wednesday briefing on wildfires.

"That's why the bipartisan infrastructure framework investment of about $50 billion in my so-called  anyway, I won't go into it, but a bill that's caused a little attention, infrastructure bill, is going to build resilience to extreme weather events like wildfires," the president said.

Biden is flying to battleground states this week to foster public support for his infrastructure packages as Republicans and liberal Democrats threaten to yank their endorsements over different aspects of the outlines. Stops have so far been scheduled in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Biden upset Republicans last week when he suggested he would not sign the bipartisan infrastructure accord without its reconciliation counterpart. He later softened the tone of his veto threat but has continued to insist that Congress consider them "in tandem." At the same time, liberal Democrats are concerned the "soft" infrastructure, social welfare provisions, possibly including universal pre-kindergarten and two years free community college, will not be generous enough.

At least 16 people died when the Champlain Towers South condo complex in Surfside, north of Miami, partially collapsed early Thursday morning. As of Wednesday evening, almost 150 residents were still unaccounted for as poor weather threatens to hinder a rescue team working in 12-hour shifts. A firefighter fell 25-feet this week as an international coalition frantically searches the rubble for signs of life.

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A 2018 inspection of the 12-story, 136-unit tower ahead of its 40-year recertification process revealed major structural damage to a concrete slab below its pool deck, affecting the parking garage. The structure was erected in 1981.

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Tags: News, Biden, Biden Administration, White House, Joe Biden, Miami Condo Collapse

Original Author: Naomi Lim

Original Location: Biden may politicize Miami condo disaster during visit
I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence, Cosby wrote in a tweet. During a press briefing with his attorneys, the comedian did not speak.

Disgraced and discharged comedian Bill Cosby broke his silence via Twitter after being released from a Pennsylvania prison Wednesday due to what the prosecution in the case called a procedural error.

(L-R) Attorney Jennifer Bonjean, Bill Cosby, and spokesperson Andrew Wyatt speak outside of Bill Cosbys home on June 30, 2021 in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. Bill Cosby was released from prison after court overturns his sex assault conviction. (Photo by Michael Abbott/Getty Images)

While he stood next to his attorneys during a media briefing on Wednesday evening after his release, he did not speak.

He later released a short statement via his official Twitter page later that night. I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence, Cosby wrote. Thank you to all my fans, supporters, and friends who stood by me through this ordeal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law.

The post featured the statement as well as a photo of Cosby with his hand raised in a fist with the same words on it.

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The creator of the legendary Cosby Show and A Different World, Cosby was convicted to a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

The 83 year old served nearly three years of his sentence.

As previously reported, Cosby was denied parole in late May for failing to participate in and complete additional institutional programs  which he has refused to do  including classes for sex offenders. He has been ordered to attend and successfully finish a treatment program for sex offenders and for violence prevention.

Mr. Cosby has vehemently proclaimed his innocence and continues to deny all allegations made against him, as being false, without the sheer evidence of any proof, said his spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, in a statement. Today, Mr. Cosby continues to remain hopeful that the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court will issue an opinion to vacate his conviction or warrant him a new trial.

Bill Cosby arrives at the Montgomery County Courthouse on the first day of sentencing in his sexual assault trial on September 24, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Cosby remained a trending topic all day Wednesday after news of his imminent release was announced. He was both vilified and supported.

Story continues

His former co-star, Phylicia Rashad, appeared to show her support for Cosby writing on Twitter, FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted  a miscarriage of justice is corrected! she continued.

She later wrote, I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.

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The post Bill Cosby breaks silence after prison release in sex assault case appeared first on TheGrio.
Andrew Wyatt and actor Bill Cosby arrive at Montgomery County Courthouse as Bill Cosby's trial continues on June 17, 2017 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Gilbert Carrasquillo/WireImage)

Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby celebrated his overturned rape conviction and prison release Wednesday.

"I have never changed my stance nor my story," Cosby said. "I have always maintained my innocence."

Cosby, 83, was released after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby celebrated his rape conviction being thrown out on Wednesday, saying he has "always maintained my innocence."

"I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence," Cosby said in a statement posted to Twitter. "Thank you to all my fans, supporters and friends who stood by me through this ordeal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law."

The 83-year-old Cosby was released from State Correctional Institution at Phoenix on Wednesday after the court's bombshell decision to throw out his sexual assault conviction.

Cosby had served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at the lockup near Philadelphia after he was found guilty in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

Cosby, 83, was released after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction, ruling that the lead prosecutor shouldn't have charged the comedian due to a deal made by a previous prosecutor.

In that deal, Bruce Castor - who would later go on to defend President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial - promised not to use testimony in a civil lawsuit filed by one of Cosby's accusers to charge him.

The court found that the later use of that testimony to convict Cosby violated his Fifth Amendment rights. Cosby was released, with the court preventing prosecutors from charging him again.

Wyatt, who walked Cosby into court every day during the 2018 trial, told Insider on Wednesday afternoon that he was personally going to the prison to pick up Cosby.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Read the original article on Insider
I swam on top of Brooklyn Point, the tallest residential building in the borough. Joey Hadden/Insider

A luxury residential building in Brooklyn says it has the Western Hemisphere's highest infinity pool.

I got the chance to swim in the rooftop pool and saw picture-perfect views of Manhattan and beyond.

From the pool at Brooklyn Point, the tallest residential tower in the borough, NYC felt so small.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

When I left my Brooklyn apartment for a rooftop swim, it was roughly 97 degrees Fahrenheit - the hottest day this summer so far in New York City, and I'd been living without AC for two months.

Me, hot, in my Brooklyn neighborhood. Joey Hadden/Insider

I was excited to take the F train to Brooklyn Point, the tallest residential building in the borough with a rooftop infinity pool that claims to be the highest in the Western Hemisphere, perched at 680 feet.

Brooklyn Point in Downtown Brooklyn. Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Brooklyn Point

At first, I was surprised that the highest infinity pool is in Brooklyn. It's the kind of superlative I'd expect from Manhattan, but, as soon as I got up there, I realized the location was prime for views.

A view from the top of Brooklyn Point. Joey Hadden/Insider

Located in Downtown Brooklyn, the pool overlooks the East River, providing picture-perfect views of the Manhattan skyline.

Me swimming around the pool. Joey Hadden/Insider

From up here, the city felt small.

I took in the views from the pool's corner. Joey Hadden/Insider

Nearly 700 feet above the streets of Brooklyn, I could see far beyond the city.

The pool is 680 feet from the ground. Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Brooklyn Point

The view was comparable to the ones outside my airplane window when I'm flying home from visiting family in Austin. As I recently wrote in a personal essay for Insider, while I loved living in the Texan city, NYC suits my lifestyle best right now.

I swam alongside the edge of the pool. Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

While the views are vast, the pool itself is small.

Me walking into the pool. Joey Hadden/Insider

The pool is just 4 feet deep, so there's no diving allowed.

Me sitting on the edge of the pool after a swim. Joey Hadden/Insider

Sitting on the edge of the pool, I pictured myself living in the luxury skyscraper.

A view of the pool from the steps. Joey Hadden/Insider

The property has 483 condos that range from studios to three-bedroom residences, with prices starting at $900,000, according to a representative for Brooklyn Point. While Brooklyn Point not a rental building, the representative said you may be able to rent from a condo owner.

Story continues

A view of the top of Brooklyn Point. Courtesy of Cody Boone at SERHANT

Source: Brooklyn Point

If I lived here, I'd use the intimate pool deck as an opportunity to get to know my neighbors.

Me relaxing in the lounge chairs on the deck. Joey Hadden/Insider

There are two rows of lounge chairs and three large couches for relaxing and socializing.

Me laying on a couch with the tip of One World Trade Center in the background. Joey Hadden/Insider

Swimming by myself, the pool felt spacious. Insider got private access to the rooftop, but normally at 5 p.m., there would be other guests around.

I floated in the pool alone. Joey Hadden/Insider

I could tell if other people were in there, it would be a little awkward if we weren't interacting. And that's just the push I'd need to say hello.

Me relaxing on the edge of the pool. Joey Hadden/Insider

Since I was alone in the pool, I paid attention to all of its details. The different shades of blue tiling were beautiful and smooth.

A close-up shot shows the pool's details. Joey Hadden/Insider

Before I left, I took one last look at the city from the water and savored it. This is easily the most amazing pool I have ever stepped into.

I lifted myself up to get a good look at New York City. Joey Hadden/Insider

Read the original article on Insider
Credit - Photo Illustration by TIMEGetty Images

When Floyd Wilson first learned of the term prison gerrymandering, hed already been incarcerated for more than 35 years. He was taking a college seminar in a prison in Graterford, Pennsylvaniathe fourth of five correctional facilities hes lived in over the decades.

Wilson grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and was sentenced to life in prison in 1976 as a juvenile for first degree murder. In every U.S. census thats taken place since his conviction, he learned that day in class, hes been counted not as a Philadelphian but as a resident of the county where he was then imprisoned, nearly all of which have been in rural areas hours away from his family. The practice, known as prison gerrymandering, boosts the population of regions hosting large prisons and impacts the drawing of states district lines. That in turn distorts political representation by redirecting power from more diverse, urban areas towards whiter, rural ones.

The impact can be drastic. Currently, Wilson is incarcerated in SCI-Phoenix in Pennsylvanias District 150, which also includes Montgomery Countys jail. If incarcerated people were not counted as part of District 150s population, it would lose more than roughly 5,000 people and likely be too small to meet the federal minimum requirements for a state representative, a 2019 study by Villanova University sociologists Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer found. (Democratic State Rep. Joe Webster, who represents District 150 and supports banning prison gerrymandering, tells TIME in an email that mass incarceration is already bad policyit shouldnt be used to undermine the fairness of elections, too.)

Three other districts would also be too small, Remster and Kramers research found; if all the prisoners in the state originally from Philadelphiaroughly a quarter of the states prison population as of 2019were counted as residents of that city, it would likely gain an additional one or two majority-minority state house districts.

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Wilson was incarcerated at 17; in the decades hes spent in prison, hes never been able to vote. His body is being counted towards a constituency he cannot actually participate in. My reaction was, this is more of the same the system being just crooked, Wilson, now 64, tells TIME. People capitalizing off of other peoples mistakes or errors.

Inside block D at the State Correctional Institution in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on June 1, 2018. Lauren A. LittleReading Eagle/Getty Images

Floyds 61-year-old sister, Roxanne Wilson, has long wanted to take action. These inmates are being counted as part of a population that is not true. Period, she says. They lived in Philadelphia. They got sentenced in Philadelphia. And then they get shipped to a coal town, and are counted as part of [its] population We feel this is disproportionate representation. Wilson has spent the past 40 years advocating for criminal justice reform in Pennsylvania, raising awareness of prison gerrymandering in her community and in the state legislature.

Voting districts are drawn every ten years by state legislators or other appointed commissions based on the results of the U.S. census. As the 2020 redistricting process approachesdeadline varies per state, but some begin this summeradvocates have called for legislators across the U.S. to change how they count prisoners this cycle, arguing that if they dont take action now, theyll have to wait another ten years to address the long-running injustice. Barring unusual circumstances, the districts that are drawn now will determine representation for the next decade, says Ginger Jackson-Gleich, policy counsel with the Prison Policy Institute (PPI). Its absolutely imperative that we take advantage of this moment.

Because its the result of a federal policy, prison gerrymandering is the default. In a 2020 report, PPI pointed out that the 2010 census counted more than 2 million people in the wrong place as a result of the practice. But in the absence of a policy change from the Census Bureau, it falls largely to states to to change their processes. Only 11 have done so, including Connecticut just last month. Those states now require redistricting officials to count incarcerated people where they lived before their conviction; Connecticuts change that goes into effect this redistricting cycle. (A 2014 report from PPI found that after 2011 redistricting, nine Connecticut state house districts only met the federal minimum population numbers by counting prison populations.)

One common misconception about prison gerrymandering is that it impacts districts funding; this largely isnt true. Most federal funding is allocated to states via block grantsand so, for these purposes, it does not make a significant difference which district an incarcerated person is counted in. Other funding programs largely ignore prison populations, per PPI. However, advocates still argue it unfairly shifts political power balances.

Pennsylvanias State House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton, who has for years been pushing the state to abolish prison gerrymandering, has put a resolution proposing to end the practice before the states Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which creates districts. McClinton, who is a part of the five-member commission, says she is cautiously optimistic that this years attempt will be successful, given the commission only meets once a decade and wields significant power.

Read more: Whether or Not Youre Able to Vote in Jail May Come Down to Where Youre Incarcerated

Prison gerrymandering particularly distorts political representation along racial lines, and compounds the political disenfranchisement minority communities already face due to partisan gerrymandering and census undercounts. Not only do rural communities gain power as a result, but urban majority Black and brown communities lose it. Entire communities are impacted if they are in areas with a high incarceration rate, because theyre underrepresented.

Remster and Kramers research found that about 264,000 people in Pennsylvaniaand more than 100,000 Black Philadelphia residents aloneare now underrepresented because they live in districts from where a large number of people are incarcerated in state or county prison and jail facilities. Such warping of political power is often built upon the disproportionate number of Black and brown people housed in Americas prisons, who have to navigate a system infamous for its racism, neglect and abuseall without the ability to elect a representative. (Only Maine and Vermont allow all prisoners to cast a ballot.)

Joaquin Gonzalez, voting rights attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, which published a prison gerrymandering report in April, describes its impact as taking these individuals that cannot vote in most states and [amplifying] other peoples political power on their backs.

Miscounting prisoners

Prison gerrymandering grew into an issue in the U.S. with the onset of mass incarceration starting in the 1970s, driven in part by the war on drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing. Between 1980 and 2013 the incarceration rate more than quadrupled, exacerbating the political distortion of power.

In Pennsylvania, in the over four decades Floyd Wilson has been in prison, the states prison populationlike those across the countryhas ballooned. In 1980, the state had under 10,000 state prisoners. Today, there are around 45,000.

Dozens of state legislative districts nationwide similarly possess inflated political power because of prison gerrymandering.

For example, In two different North Carolina districtslocated in Granville and Lumberton Countiesmore than 40% of the population is made up of incarcerated people. In Illinois, nearly half of the states prisoners come from the Chicago area but close to 90% are counted as residents of downstate prisons, according to PPI. (Illinois banned prison gerrymandering in a bill approved by the governor earlier this year but the legislation will not have an effect until the next census in 2030.)

And in rural East Texas, if House District 8 did not count its prison population, it would lose more than 21,000 residentswhich indicates that the total remaining population would fall well below the proportion legally required for a state district, per the Texas Civil Rights Project report. Both Harris County (home to Houston) and Dallas County would also likely have at least one extra state House seat if they counted incarcerated people at home, says Gonzalez, who authored the reportseats thatd be more likely to lean Democratic given their voting trends in recent elections.

The fight to abolish prison gerrymandering

In the last decade, lawmakers have started to take notice of the direct impact the practice can have on political power and take action.

In the long term, advocates say the most effective way to address the issue is at the federal level, and for the U.S. Census Bureau to count incarcerated people as living at their last known residence before incarceration. The current version of the For The People Act, the sweeping voting rights bill stalled in Congress, would do just that for the next redistricting cycle. (The Census Bureau has already been made aware of widespread criticism, accepting 77,000 comments in support of a more equal redistribution of counting prisoners in 2020.) But even if the census does change its process, it would be too late to impact the 2020 redistricting process on a national level.

So the issue falls to the states, where advocates are racing to ensure prisoners are counted according to their last residence as redistricting begins. In some states its too late to change this redistricting cycle through the legislative process. Jackson-Gleich of PPI argues that one of the only remaining solutions is to ensure redistricting officials dont dump all the prisons in one district. Until prisoners are counted at their last known residence, she says, the best thing that city, county and other local authorities can do is remove prisoners from tallies that are determining legislative districts. These entities could remove correctional populations from the redistricting data before drawing up their districts.

[That] sounds a little scary to people, says Jackson-Gleich. But because those people in those prisons have no constituent relationship with those elected officials, the best thing for them to do is just to take the prison population out and redistrict among the people who really are constituents.

Critics point out that even if incarcerated people lack the right to vote, that does not mean they and their communities deserve lesser representation. Representation is about having someone in government to whom you can address your problems, your concerns, and your hopes for the future. You dont give those away when you are incarcerated, says Rory Kramer, the Villanova University sociologist.

Roxanne Wilson tells TIME that she thinks another solution could be allowing incarcerated people to vote, including for the representatives of the district where theyre currently being counted. If youre going to elect representatives based on the population of inmates, then they should be allowed to have a say, she argues.

Floyd Wilson also supports the idea, but is doubtful incarcerated people will ever get access to the ballot. He says a more feasible fix could be to have state representatives visit and listen to the incarcerated people in their district. He sits on the Board of Lifers, a collection of five men who aim to represent the roughly 5,000 prisoners currently serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. Hes been on the board for years, and says that while hes repeatedly tried to have their state representatives come and speak, hes had little success. If were going to be your constituents, come in and talk to us, he says.

In addition, he thinks it must fall to people outside of prison to learn about the issue and take action. People have to be aware of this kind of thing, he says. And like anything else, vote on it.
Jul. 1NEW BOSTON  Tony Merchlinsky, 19, signed up to be a bone marrow donor in the fall shortly after starting at Muhlenberg College and said he did not hesitate when he found out he was a match.

"I almost felt lucky," Merchlinsky said. "I found a match in the first few months."

On Monday, Merchlinsky donated blood stem cells for a 27-year-old man in Canada with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a blood-borne cancer that can be treated through a bone marrow transplant.

Merchlinsky, a 2020 Mahanoy Area High School graduate and current student at Muhlenberg College, signed up to be a bone marrow donor through The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.

The Muhlenberg football team holds a registration event for players to sign up in honor of former head coach Mike Donnelly, who died of leukemia, another blood-borne cancer.

Merchlinsky said his procedure to donate the blood stem cells was "nothing compared to what the recipient goes through."

He underwent the peripheral blood stem cell, or PBSC, donation method, a nonsurgical procedure in which blood is removed from one arm and returned to the other arm after blood-forming cells are collected. For five days leading up to the procedure, he received injections of filgrastim, which increases the number of blood stem cells.

After that, Merchlinsky said the process was like a "mini vacation," as the program covered all expenses and made the process as easy as possible for him.

Merchlinsky and his mother, Suzanne Merchlinsky, drove three hours to Apheresis Associates of Northern Virginia, a center specializing in blood donation, on Sunday. The procedure was done Monday, and they returned to Mahanoy City on Tuesday.

"His procedure was at 12:30, and a courier came at 1:30 to collect the cells to fly them to the recipient," Suzanne said Wednesday. "They began the transplant today."

When her son called her in January to tell her that he found a match, Suzanne said she was amazed, as only a few students had joined the registry in the fall.

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"I could cry," Suzanne said. "His cells will generate and give new life."

He is committed to the recipient for one year after the donation in case more cells are needed. After that, he can rejoin the registry and donate up to two more times.

Merchlinsky said in normal years, the program would arrange to have donors meet their recipients, but they have not done that during the pandemic. He hopes he can still have that opportunity in the future.

"Some people said they were impressed he did this during the pandemic," Suzanne said. "He committed, and he followed through."

While some have called him a hero, Merchlinsky said he does not agree.

"Anyone can do this, not just me," Merchlinsky said, emphasizing that he hopes his story will encourage others to become donors.

Merchlinsky graduated from Mahanoy Area High School in 2020 and now studies political economy and public policy at Muhlenberg. In the future, he aspires to become a politician, and he is currently running for Mahanoy Township supervisor.

The family has also been fundraising for two students with blood-borne cancers in the Mahanoy Area School District. While he does not know them personally, Merchlinsky said he hopes to raise awareness about the donation program that could help them in the future.

"It's a small town, so I feel close to everybody in my school," Merchlinsky said. "They could use stem cells one day, so I hope more people sign up to be on the registry."

Merchlinsky said he has thought about blood and organ donation in the past, but he never had the opportunity before now.

"I always thought, 'If I don't need it, take it from me,' " Merchlinsky said. "I'm glad I was finally able to do something."
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is working with countries across the European Union to encourage them to accept its fully vaccinated travellers, its business minister said on Thursday, as momentum builds for a fuller reopening of travel from the United Kingdom.

Throughout May and June Britain has only permitted very limited quarantine-free travel, but the government has said that it will set out details this month of plans to allow fully vaccinated people avoid self-isolation on return from top destinations like Spain and France.

That rule change will come in by July 26, the first full week of the school holidays, The Times newspaper reported.

However, travel for those from Britain will also depend on countries allowing them in, and concern about a rise in the UK's COVID cases sparked by the Delta variant has prompted Italy, Portugal and Spain to tighten their entry requirements.

British business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said there were talks with EU countries to ensure travel could take place.

"We feel that the double vaccination does provide really, really first class support and protection against the variant, all the evidence suggests that, and we need to speak to EU governments and other countries to make that case," he told Sky News.

Britain is close to agreeing a deal with Brussels whereby its National Health Service (NHS) app would be accepted as proof of a double vaccination by the EU, and in return the UK would accept the bloc's new digital green card for travel, The Times said.

That could avoid difficulties like those in Malta in recent days, where the Maltese government has not been accepting proof via the NHS app.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his Chequers official country residence on Friday, when the pair will discuss travel restrictions.

Merkel has been pressing for the EU to impose quarantine on all British arrivals but individual countries like Spain have so far rejected that.

(Reporting by Kate Holton, writing by Sarah Young; editing by Michael Holden)
Gavin Newsom. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

On Sept. 14, California voters will hit the polls to decide whether they should recall Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) or let him finish out his term.

On Thursday, California's secretary of state certified that the campaign to recall Newsom received 1.7 million petition signatures. Under state law, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) had to schedule the election within 60 to 80 days after the signatures were certified. It was estimated by the California Department of Finance that this special election will cost $276 million.

This was the sixth recall effort launched since Newsom took office in January 2019, but the first to gain enough signatures to trigger an election. Organizers were given five extra months to gather and submit 1.4 million petition signatures, with a judge saying they needed this time because of COVID-19, the Los Angeles Times reports. This latest effort was spearheaded by conservatives who disagree with Newsom's progressive policies and his decision to lock down California to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Newsom has blasted the recall organizers as being disgruntled supporters of former President Donald Trump, QAnon adherents, and fringe members of the far-right, the Times reports. Recent opinion polls show that with the economy surging and the statewide restrictions lifted, Newsom has favorable job approval ratings. To fight the recall, Newsom is allowed to fundraise and spend with no limit, and his anti-recall committee has already raised more than $16.7 million.

Voters will decide if Newsom should be recalled, and if so, who should replace him; he is not allowed to appear on the ballot as a candidate. His opponents have until 59 days before the election to file their formal paperwork, and already several Republicans have said they will run against Newsom, including reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner and businessman John Cox. Cox lost the gubernatorial race to Newsom in 2018  the same year Newsom won by the largest electoral margin in modern state history.

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California has only recalled one governor: Democrat Gray Davis, who was removed from office in 2003 amid statewide budget cuts and rolling blackouts. Action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Davis  the last Republican to serve as California's governor.

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Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney defended her acceptance of a position on the Jan. 6 special committee despite the risk of being tossed off her Republican committee assignments.

Cheney, a top GOP detractor of former President Donald Trump, is the only Republican member among the nine-member panel to be appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, Thursday to investigate the events of Jan. 6 on the Capitol this year.

MCCARTHY WARNS CHENEY COULD LOSE COMMITTEES AFTER PELOSI APPOINTMENT TO JAN. 6 BODY

That day, Trump supporters breached the Capitol to protest the certification of the presidential election results. Cheney was among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former Republican president over instigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

However, the Wyoming Republican later lost her leadership post as conference chairwoman as the rift between her, the GOP leadership team, and the rank-and-file membership grew wider.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy suggested Cheney lose her committee assignments by accepting Pelosis appointment to the special committee.

I don't know in history where someone would go get their committee assignments from the speaker and expect them to have them from the conference as well, McCarthy said.

However, Cheney appeared unfazed by the California Republicans remarks.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Listen, I think it's clear to all the people on this committee that our Constitution, our duty, our dedication to the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power has to come above any concern about partisanship or politics, she told reporters, later saying McCarthy had not spoken to her about losing any committee assignments.

She added, I think that that's crucially important. I'm honored to be on this committee. We have an obligation to have a thorough, sober investigation of what happened on Jan. 6 and the attack on the Capitol on that day.

Washington Examiner Videos

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Tags: News, Congressional Republicans, Congress, House GOP, Kevin McCarthy, Liz Cheney, January 6

Original Author: Kerry Picket

Original Location: Cheney defends Jan. 6 panel participation despite committee loss threat
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YouTube/Rise of the MoorsA cadre of armed men from a militia group called the Rise of the Moors shut down a highway outside of Boston for more than nine hours on Saturday morning after allegedly refusing to comply with police orders and taking off into the woods with guns.The group says on their website that theyre Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders. In YouTube videos of the incident, they claimed they were only trying to travel peacefully to their 
China's President Xi Jinping has warned that foreign powers will "get their heads bashed" if they attempt to bully or influence the country.

He delivered a defiant speech at an event marking the centenary of the ruling Communist Party on Thursday.

Mr Xi also said Beijing would not allow "sanctimonious preaching", in remarks widely seen as directed at the US.

It comes as China faces criticism over alleged human rights abuses and its crackdown in Hong Kong.

Relations between the US and China have worsened in recent times over trade, espionage and the pandemic.

The issue of Taiwan is also a major source of tension. While democratic Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state, Beijing views the island as a breakaway province.

The US, under its own laws, is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself should Beijing use force to take the island back.

On Thursday Mr Xi said China maintains an "unshakeable commitment" to unification with Taiwan.

"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

Military aircraft flew in formation to mark the 100th anniversary

In response, Taiwan said it was determined to defend its sovereignty and democracy.

"Beijing should introduce democratic reforms, such as party competition, and respect for human rights while behaving as a responsible regional player," the island's Mainland Affairs Council was quoted as saying by the Taiwan News website.

The 100th anniversary celebrations on Thursday morning saw military jet fly-pasts, cannon salutes and patriotic songs played.

A carefully vetted crowd were in attendance in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, many of whom were not wearing masks.

The country has seen a media blitz in recent weeks promoting a party-approved version of China's history.

Hong Kong is also marking its handover anniversary on the same day.

People in the streets of Beijing waving at planes flying in formation to Tiananmen Square

What stood out in Xi's message?

Mr Xi, who spoke for around an hour, reiterated the role of the party in modern China, saying that it has been central to the country's growth and that attempts to separate it from the people would fail.

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"Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China," he said, referring to the system under which the party embraced markets to reform the economy.

He added that "we will never allow anyone to bully, oppress or subjugate China".

"Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of Steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he said.

The celebrations at Tiananmen Square saw massive crowds

China has repeatedly accused the US of trying to curb its growth - and these comments are also seen as a reference to Washington.

On Hong Kong and Macau - which he said both retain a "high degree of autonomy" - they should "accurately implement the principles of 'one country, two systems'", which underpinned the deal for Britain and Portugal to return the territories to China.

Analysis box by Robin Brant, Shanghai correspondent

Xi Jinping, modern China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, wore a light grey suit which appeared to be identical to the one worn by the Communist Party founder in the famous portrait that adorns one side of Tiananmen Square.

Mr Xi praised his people for the "new world" he said they had created.

What he was also saying was that this is a world that could not have come into being without the Party.

At one point military jets flew over the crowd in formation of the number 100; flown by pilots loyal to the Party and the people.

It's easy to forget when you live here but a key part of the Communist Party strategy has been to try to morph the Party and the machinery of government and the perception of the nation of China into one.

They attribute any success, progress, advancement - and there has been phenomenal economic advancement - to the people and the government but most of all the Party.

Just to make sure the message went out loud and clear, at the end of the ceremony, the crowd sung a song called "Without the Communist Party There Would Be No New China".

How did China prepare for this anniversary?

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was founded in 1921, came to power 72 years ago after a long civil war.

In that time the country has undergone massive changes - but some of these milestones were conspicuously missing in the propaganda drive.

On Monday, an art performance titled The Great Journey was staged at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, where performers put on extravagant set-pieces detailing the history of the party and country.

But significant events such the Cultural Revolution purges, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong were missing, reported AFP news agency.

The Great Journey showcased party history highlights, but some chapters were reportedly omitted

A segment of Monday's show was dedicated to how China beat Covid-19

Since April, Chinese cinemas were ordered to screen propaganda films, known as "red films", at least twice a week.

A song, called 100%, that praised China's achievements and featured 100 rappers was also released.

"Red tourism" has also become popular, with travel companies such as Ctrip launching 100 unique routes for "red pilgrims".

Tourists have been thronging "red tourism" sites such as the Memorial of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai

But not all were pleased with the propaganda.

"Now when I turn on the TV at night, dozens of stations are airing dramas about revolutionary wars," a Beijing resident told BBC Chinese.

Reporting by Waiyee Yip and BBC Chinese
President Xi Jinping on Thursday marked his Communist Partys 100th anniversary from Tiananmen Square and struck a bellicose tone, reconfirming Chinas historic mission to control Taiwan while warning other countries not to interfere.

Bloomberg reported that Xi said that no foreign forces will ever "coerce and enslave us."

"Whoever attempts to do that, will surely break their heads on the steel Great Wall built with the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion of Chinese people," he said.

Xi did not mention any country by name, but the message was clearly intended for the West, in particular the U.S.

President Biden has made it clear that China is the biggest geopolitical challenge for the U.S. In February, he announced the formation of a Defense Department China Task Force to assess the future challenge from China; earlier this month, G7 member states agreed to an initiative aimed at challenging Chinas Belt and Road Initiative.

Bilahari Kausikan, the former Singapore senior diplomat, told CNBC on Wednesday that the Taiwan issue is the "most dangerous" flashpoint between the U.S. and China. He said he believes "nuclear deterrence" will keep the peace.

Xi called Chinas commitment to unify itself with Taiwan "unshakable" and said promised "resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward Taiwan independence."

The crowd cheered Xis comments.

Taiwan and China separated amid civil war in 1949 and China says it is determined to bring the island under its control by force if necessary. The U.S. switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but is legally required to ensure Taiwan can defend itself and the self-governing democratic island enjoys strong bipartisan support in Washington.

Washington maintains a policy of "strategic ambiguity" when it comes to Taiwan. Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, wrote in April that White House Spokeswoman Jen Psaki tried to describe what that means.

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"Our position on Taiwan remains clear. We will stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values in the IndoPacific region," she said.

He responded, "Whatever that means."

He continued, "Taiwanese officials have told me that they expect American support even if their behavior, such as a declaration of independence, triggered Chinese action. And Beijing officials consistently express skepticism that Washington would act against its own interest, risking, as one Chinese general put it, Los Angeles for Taipei."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at his confirmation hearing there is "no doubt" China poses the greatest threat of any nation to the U.S. and the Trump administration was right to take a tougher stance against the Asian power.

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"President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China," said Blinken, who served as then-Vice President Bidens national security advisor before being elevated to deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama. "Not the way he went about it in a number of ways, but the basic principle was right."

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Over 100 workers at Clarks shoes are considering strike action as the company threatens to dismiss them and rehire them on worse terms.

The union says it is another example of a controversial practice which has become increasingly widespread.

Clarks has been losing money for years, and was taken over by a Hong Kong-based private equity firm in February.

A company spokesperson confirmed it is consulting with employees about employment terms.

109 of the 145 workers in the Clarks warehouse in Somerset are on contracts signed before the private equity takeover, which are more generous than those offered to recent hires.

They are being asked to accept a new contract which would reduce pay by around 15%, along with three fewer days' holiday, worse sickness terms, and eliminate 10-minute breaks and complimentary hot drinks.

Clarks will this week file official paperwork to begin a 45-day consultation, after which it could dismiss all its workers and offer to rehire them on the new contracts.

Community, the trade union representing employees, has said all options are being considered to fight the move, which could include strike action.

A Clarks spokesperson said: "Clarks is currently consulting with unions and employees at our Westway Distribution Centre in Street, Somerset on proposed changes to employment terms and conditions for all operatives.

"As we are in a period of consultation, we are unable to comment any further at this time."

The BBC understands that Clarks is still hoping to find a negotiated solution which does not involve firing and rehiring any workers. The workers on the new contracts could see their pay rise under new employment terms.

Clarks has around 460 stores in the UK and hundreds more around the world

Clarks was losing money before the pandemic, and has been hit hard in lockdown. It is expected to report a significant loss when it files its next set of annual accounts.

"The workers most adversely impacted by these changes are those who have been employees for decades, sticking with the company through thick and thin, stepping up in the last year during the challenging pandemic period," said John Paul McHugh, Assistant General Secretary from Community.

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"Fire-and-rehire is no way to thank your employees or your customers. We ask Clarks to call off the diminishing of terms and conditions."

Founded in Somerset in 1825 by two brothers, Cyrus and James, Clarks shoe shops became a fixture on the British high street. It currently has 460 UK stores and over 700 more around the world. Workers in shops are not affected by the proposed changes.

Earlier this year Hong Kong-based private equity group LionRock Capital bought a majority stake for 100m, as the Clark family lost control of the business for the first time in nearly two centuries.

Unions say disputes about fire and rehire tactics have become more common since the pandemic

What is fire-and-rehire?

When an employer wants to change workers' employment contracts, often to reduce costs, they can sometimes dismiss all the affected workers and offer to re-engage them on new contracts - known as "fire-and-rehire".

The controversy about this practice has become more intense following the pandemic.

The list of recent disputes involving alleged fire-and-rehire tactics includes British Airways, Coffee maker Jacobs Douwe Egberts, British Gas, bus company Go North West, and Tesco.

A study into fire-and-rehire by the conciliation service ACAS found evidence of the practice at small- and medium-sized employers too.

Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, as well as trades unions, have called for it to be banned.

The government has no plans to ban it but has said it should be used only as a last resort, not a negotiating tactic.
EXCLUSIVE: Sources tell theGrio that bipartisan talks to reach a deal on the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act have a hit a wall due the influence of police organizations on Senate Republicans

House Majority Whip James Clyburn is stepping in and calling his fellow South Carolinian, Republican Senator Tim Scott, to keep the negotiations alive as sources tell theGrio that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is collapsing.

Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham, also of South Carolina, has been having weekly conversations with George Floyd family attorney Ben Crump to make sure the proposed legislation will be meaningful to the Floyd family and other families of loved ones killed by the hands of police. Sen. Scott has also made calls to Mr. Crump.

The Floyd family has said repeatedly that this legislation has George Floyds blood on it and therefore has to be meaningful.

Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, speaks with other members of the Floyd family as they answer questions outside the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden May 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The nation is on standby for Senator Scotts formal plan on police reform that is expected sometime this week after the lawmaker missed Wednesdays original deadline. It remains unclear when Scotts version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act will be released, however, the police reform framework is said to be in place.

Scott had been negotiating with Democrats U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of California and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey in what had been called in the past good faith negotiations. Their negotiations, however, have stalled, causing Congressman Clyburn to reportedly step in.

Following theGrios reporting on his involvement in negotiations, Whip Clyburn told theGrio late Wednesday that he is doing everything he can to help the negotiators get to a good place. Whats more, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who served as special prosecutor in the case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, told theGrio he supports Clyburns efforts at playing broker between Democrats and Republicans.

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If anybody can pull it off its him, Ellison said.

The main source of the delay comes from attempts to get buy-in from policing organizations that are not in support of the accountability and transparency aspects of reforming or eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement. Organizations like the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the National Sheriffs Association are against the financial costs of lawsuits that could be laid against officers and police departments if qualified immunity is no longer in effect. Their concern is that departments could bankrupt as a result.

There are also reports of soft lobbying by the organizations to congressional leaders to sway them to support police immunity.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during Wednesdays press briefing there are ongoing discussions between Democrats and Republicans. She added, Police reform is long overdue and they will not get ahead of the negotiations.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Negotiations have been called a mess and in total disarray as sources close to the process contend mainstream police organizations wont agree to anything.

There are difficult components of this discussion. A lot of those are happening in private which is the place where they should move forward, Psaki explained.

Congressman Andre Carson (D-Ind.) is on several sides of the spectrum as a former police officer and as a Black man who at the age of 17 was profiled on the basis of race and religion when he was arrested outside of a mosque in Indianapolis in 1991. Carson was jailed during the incident as the then young civilian was mistaken as an older man due to his height.

U.S. Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin  Pool/Getty Images)

Qualified immunity was established to protect officers, Carson told theGrio, adding we have seen so much access and abuse by law enforcement. We have seen the public influence of white supremacists and white nationalist sympathizers and empathizers.

In police agencies and sheriff departments across our country  many of these actors are killing men and women without retribution, without justice [and] a level of accountability.

Over 90% of cases in which Black people are shot by police end in the officer involved getting the case dismissed due to qualified immunity, said attorney Ben Crump.

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A Columbia University professor who expressed his gratitude to Dr. Anthony Fauci for downplaying the possibility that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology maintains close ties to China, including Chinese Communist Party members.

Walter Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, who is known as a "virus hunter," thanked Fauci last year for publicly dismissing notions that the virus could have originated and leaked from the Wuhan lab.

Fauci's coronavirus-related emails showed that he had worked behind the scenes to sow doubt about the virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Washington Examiner noted in early June.

SEN. COTTON SAYS DR. FAUCI, NIH NEED TO COME CLEAN ABOUT WUHAN LAB FUNDING

"We deeply appreciate your efforts in steering and messaging," Lipkin wrote to Fauci on May 5, 2020, a day after he cast doubt on the lab leak theory.

The "we" referenced in Lipkin's email to Fauci appears to include a Chinese government figure. As part of the message, Lipkin forwarded an email from Chen Zhu, China's former Minister of Health, who is currently a vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China. Li Zhanshu, a prominent figure in the Chinese Communist Party and a top advisor to China President Xi Jinping, chairs that governmental body.

The entire contents of Zhu's message are unknown due to redactions made before the email's release to Buzzfeed News, which obtained Fauci's coronavirus communications through a Freedom of Information Act request. The publication received and made public 3,200 pages of Fauci's email correspondence. (Lipkin's email begins on page 706).

In addition to his government ties, Zhu also acts as president of the Red Cross Society of China, an entity that claims it is independent of state control. China's Red Cross, however, is funded and directed by the Chinese government. The honorary president of China's Red Cross, Wang Qishan, is also a member of the Chinese Communist Party and assists President Xi Jinping on foreign issues.

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Lipkin and Zhu's relationship dates back to at least the early 2000s, when the pair had worked together on the SARS outbreak. At the time, Lipkin had served as an intermediary between the World Health Organization and the Chinese government.

In late January 2020, Lipkin traveled back to China to study the coronavirus outbreak. As part of the effort, he partnered with a Chinese research crew spearheaded by Lu Jiahai, a public health professor at Sun Yat-sen University. This institution is subordinate to China's Ministry of Education. Luo Jun, a Chinese Communist Party member, steers the university.

DR. FAUCI 'CAUGHT LYING' TO CONGRESS AFTER BOOK EXPOSES DETAILS OF WUHAN LAB-LINKED GRANT, LAWMAKER SAYS

Lipkin shot down the lab leak theory just two weeks after reentering China. During an NPR segment in mid-February 2020, Lipkin said they had "examined the possibility that some have suggested that this virus might have originated in a biocontainment lab or might be some sort of biologically defined weapon." They had found "no evidence for that whatsoever," he said.

Before returning to China, Lipkin's extensive history with prominent Chinese researchers and government officials had earned him several accolades from the communist body.

In 2016, the Chinese government presented Lipkin with the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, the country's highest honor to foreign scientists. The ceremony was presided by President Xinping.

"I am deeply honored by this award," Lipkin said at the time. "It solidifies my relationship with dear friends and colleagues in the Chinese Academy of Science, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health, and with the people of China."

In early January of this year, Lipkin was presented with a medal at the Chinese Consulate of New York. China's Central Government, Central Military Commission, and State Council provided the award.

Lipkin has also praised China's response and transparency early on in the coronavirus pandemic, despite indications that the Chinese government engaged in a cover-up.

Lipkin did not respond to a request for comment.

FAUCI HAS NOT BEEN EXACTLY HONEST, QUESTIONS ON WUHAN LAB FUNDING MUST BE ANSWERED: NANCY MACE

During the onset of the pandemic, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., raised measured questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which ignited condemnation from Democrats and many media outlets, who chalked them up as "fringe conspiracy theories." Then-President Trump, likewise, consistently questioned whether the virus had leaked from the lab, further igniting left-wing media and political figures to paint the lab leak as a fringe theory.

However, the media and other skeptics have made an about-face and are now saying the lab leak theory deserves further investigation. Reports emerged stating that China had controlled an on-site World Health Organization inspection, including who the researchers spoke to at the lab.

Lipkin wasn't the only person to shower Fauci with praise for his messaging on the lab. Peter Daszak, a zoologist who leads EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that directed nearly $600,000 in National Institutes of Health sub-awards to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study bat coronaviruses, also thanked him for his public comments.

"I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Daszak wrote to Fauci in April 2020.

"From my perspective, your comments are brave, and coming from your trusted voice, will help dispel the myths being spun around the virus's origins," Daszak said.

Daszak's nonprofit provided $1.3 million in funds to Lipkin's institution, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2020, the group's tax forms show.

GREGG JARRETT: COVID AND CHINA  DR. FAUCI'S TANGLED WEB OF DECEIT JUST GOT BIGGER

Columbia has received millions in foreign funding from China. According to the College Foreign Gift and Contract Report database, which relies on universities self-reporting their foreign cash, the university has raked in at least $17.7 million from China for research, facilities and professorships. Columbia did not provide a comment on the funding.

China conducts numerous influence campaigns within the United States, including targeting institutes of higher learning.

"China is in a league of their own; there's no question about it," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., told Fox News in a video interview (above). "I saw it as an FBI agent where I worked for 14 years, where we did counterintelligence, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism investigations. The one thing we learned about China  and I now sit on the Intelligence Committee, which is confirmed, everything I was getting briefed on as an agent  is that what China does  and other countries do the same  is they identify what they call the spheres of influence."

"China's identified five [spheres of influence] essentially in the United States," he added. "It's academia; it's the media, it's Big Tech, it's Hollywood and professional sports. They view those as the five influencers of human behavior in American culture. Essentially what they try to do is silent sabotage  soft influence old government approach  where they nestle in and engrain themselves in these institutions financially to make people economically dependent on them, and then they use that as a platform to get their message out - mainly in propaganda."

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., echoed a similar sentiment concerning China and academia to Fox News.

"I would say it's been going on for a couple of years, very, very subtly with the Confucius Institutes that were widespread in the country," Foxx added. "Some of us have raised the issue many years ago  probably 10, 12 years ago  about our concern with the Confucius Institutes. It's taken a while for people to start paying attention to it, but we believe they are trying to change the way Americans think about China. They're very subversive. They've changed their name now to Chinese Cultural and Language Institutes and they claim they're teaching the Chinese language."

"One of the things we're concerned about is the Chinese trying to make American students believe that the communists in China are good people," Foxx said. "They want them to believe that the culture in China is good, and we know the culture of China is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party - and that is definitely not good for Americans."

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Columbia University was the only Ivy League school to host a Confucius Institute, which it has since quietly dissolved.

But while the institute was in operation, the university had failed to disclose at least $1 million in Chinese government funding towards it, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Part of that money was used for professor Dedong Wei, an adviser to the Chinese regime's propaganda department, to lead the institute.

As China pours significant sums into universities across the United States to expand its influence, its actual cash totals remain unknown.

A Department of Education probe into universities last year found $6 billion in unreported funds from foreign countries, including China.

Joe Schoffstall is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter for Fox News.
Bill Cosby arrives at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., for a sentencing hearing in September 2018 after his sexual assault conviction. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

Bill Cosby, who is accused of drugging and assaulting dozens of women over many decades, walked out of a maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. He was three years into a three- to 10-year sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, who once considered him a friend and mentor.

He was freed after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, saying the prosecution should never have occurred in the first place.

This is not what anyone who cares about punishing powerful miscreants would have wished for, but its hardly the victory Cosbys lawyer proclaimed. His reputation is in tatters, and regardless of this latest twist, everyone knows the man spent decades preying on defenseless women.

Convicted and imprisoned in 2018 at the dawn of the MeToo era, Cosby is now about to turn 84.

The court did not toss his conviction after the discovery of new, exculpatory evidence, nor did it weigh in on his guilt. Far from it.

Instead, in a 79-page decision, the court found that prosecutors wrongly brought Cosby to trial.

Why? Because years earlier, in 2005, a previous prosecutor, Montgomery County Dist. Atty. Bruce Castor, declined to bring charges against the star, who was accused of drugging, then fondling an unconscious Constand at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.

At the time, Castor said that unless Cosby confessed, he did not think he could prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, and he told Cosby he would not be prosecuted.

Castors decision not to proceed with a criminal case was calculated to give at least some measure of justice to Constand, because it removed Cosby's ability to invoke his 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and thus meant he had to answer questions under oath in her civil lawsuit against him.

Constand won $3.38 million, most of which, the Supreme Court noted, went to her attorneys.

Castor's decision not to prosecute, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided, amounted to a promise that Cosbys testimony in his civil deposition would never be used against him in criminal court.

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But the prosecutor who succeeded Castor did not see it that way and filed criminal charges against him in 2015, just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.

As it happened, Cosby did incriminate himself during the course of four sworn depositions in Constand's civil lawsuit.

He said the pills he gave Constand were Benadryl and claimed their interactions were consensual, but he also testified that in the past, he had illegally given Quaalude, a prescription sedative, to women he wanted to have sex with, a fact that was indeed used against him in the 2018 criminal trial.

That confession, combined with the testimonies of five other women who said he had drugged and assaulted them between 1982 and 1989, helped establish not only that he had a pattern of prior bad acts but also that there were so many chilling similarities that his behavior constituted a signature. (Nineteen women had been willing to testify; the judge allowed only five of them to do so to avoid prejudicing the jury. A total of 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.)

Its horrifying to read the Supreme Courts recap of Castors 2005 decision not to bring charges against Cosby. It reads like a litany of victim-blaming.

The prosecutor faulted Constand for waiting a year to contact police. For contacting an attorney before going to authorities. For inconsistencies in her story. For continuing to interact with Cosby after he drugged and assaulted her, behavior he wrongly concluded was atypical in such situations.

Sixteen years later, I hope prosecutors have put to rest these damaging shibboleths about how women are supposed to behave after men they work for, admire or depend on violate them.

On Wednesday afternoon, attorney Gloria Allred said she is looking forward to deposing Cosby in a civil lawsuit she has filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of Judith Huth, who alleges Cosby assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15.

The case was stayed pending resolution of Cosbys criminal appeal and can now resume. Thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Cosby will not be allowed to take the 5th.

Mr. Cosby, said Allred, who has represented 33 of his alleged victims, is not home free.

@AbcarianLAT

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
On Wednesday, Yale Universitys prestigious drama school made two interconnected announcements. One was that it was renaming itself the David Geffen Yale School of Drama. The second was the reason for the first: the Hollywood mogul and founder of the DreamWorks SKG studio had given the school a huge donation of $150 million. As a result, Yale said, the school of drama will no longer be charging its students tuition.

Yale also called the donation the largest in the history of the American theater, although there has been a striking amount of billionaires money going to the arts in recent weeks.

The latest philanthropic announcement of MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos included many arts groups, including Chicagos National Museum of Mexican Art and Black Ensemble Theater, among a stunning $2.74 billion giveaway of Amazon-induced wealth. That was the third such Scott announcement within a year, part of a combined $8 billion within a single year. And a hefty chunk has gone to the arts. Scott is so rich, her efforts dwarf federal funding in the sector, even allowing for special pandemic relief.

Columns are opinion content that reflect the views of the writers.

But where Scott has favored what she calls equity-oriented nonprofit teams capable of a high impact, Geffen has ponied up cash to a more traditional party: a prestigious Ivy League university.

On the face of it, its excellent news. Arts graduates, especially those who remain in such fields as theater and dance, are notoriously underpaid, especially early in their careers. Theyre also less likely to find work than in other fields. All of that inevitably has an impact on their ability, or inability, to pay back student debt, especially that coming from private colleges and universities.

A typical consequence is that talented but debt-laden young artists often are forced to leave the field, or they find themselves burned out from the need to work a day job and still practice their art. And that usually means that the kind of internships and foot-in-the-door positions that get you into a Hollywood studio, say, or on a Netflix shoot, are dominated by wealthy young people who did not need to go into debt to get a degree. And thats fundamentally unfair.

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As you might expect, Yale heralded the new arrangement as a blow against student debt in favor of equity and accessibility. David Geffens visionary generosity ensures that artists of extraordinary potential from all socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to cultivate their talent at Yale, said Yale president Peter Salovey, in a statement. (Yales School of Music also offers tuition-free places thanks to a gift from Stephen and Denise Adams in 2005).

And Salovey doubled down with Geffens money, arguing a version of those knock-on effects beloved of economic-impact studies in the arts that count the subsequent spending of those who have jobs in the field. Our students help drive creativity and innovation across all fields  during their time at Yale and after they graduate, he said. So, Davids transformative gift will have a ripple effect in our community and around the world.

In other words, thanks to Geffen, you might be watching a stage director who could not otherwise have afforded to go to Yale then give an opportunity to a dancer from somewhere else entirely. So the fascinating idea is that the free tuition even can expand exponentially to help yet more artists. Its an interesting argument, rarely applied to philanthropy in education, but Salovey, a social psychologist, makes a decent case. Free tuition can indeed help other people, assuming the graduates who benefited then work in collaborative professions that typically struggle with issues of equity and economic opportunity.

So who loses? Any arts school not named Yale University and lacking a close relationship with a generous billionaire like Geffen.

From this point on, it becomes more difficult not only to charge high tuition but, really, any tuition at all. Yales competitors will surely have realized that their jobs suddenly became far more difficult. If the leading program in the country (arguably) declares itself to be free, even for students from high-income families, those lower down the pike have one heck of a tough sell.

And thats a downside: there are only so many places at Yale and, notwithstanding graduate programs that employ teaching assistants, very few schools that can make a similar offer. In other words, this is a huge benefit but only for a few. And it will destabilize everything.

Thats good thing, you might say. Schools have a moral responsibility to control their own costs and not send impressionable young artists into debt. If this shakes out a few players, that might be good. On the other hand, it puts a lot of power in the hands of the billionaires of the world. Yale will need to ensure no Geffen interference in what its graduates do, either in school or beyond. The two are linked now for a students lifetime.

Patronage has existed as long as there have been impecunious artists and those who support them. At Yale, it is now arriving when you join the drama school.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Sen. Steve Daines is introducing a resolution on Thursday condemning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on its anniversary, decrying the authoritarian regime for its "tyrannical ambitions" that have destroyed "countless lives."

Daines, R-Mont., follows Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who introduced a similar resolution in the House of Representatives last week along with bipartisan co-sponsors including House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.

"Over the past 100 years, the Chinese Communist Party has overseen the deaths of millions and committed countless more human rights and religious freedom violations in its tyrannical reign of terror." Daines said in a statement. "While Chinas dictators may celebrate today, Americans must remember the lives and freedoms that have been destroyed and those still living in fear of the CCP. We can never turn a blind eye to the crimes against humanity that the CCP has, and continues to, commit."

Daines' resolution recounts millions who were killed by the CCP during its history, including approximately 4.7 million landowners from 1949 to 1953; 712,000 "Counter-revolutionaries" killed and 1.3 million sentenced to labor reform between 1950 and 1952; and 30 million who died as a result of the Great Famine.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY CONDEMNED BY BIPARTISAN RESOLUTION FOR 100 YEARS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

The resolution also notes about 1 million Uighur Muslims who have been the subject of genocide in recent years, China's menacing of Taiwan, and its complete takeover of Hong Kong.

"[T]he Senate solemnly remembers the countless lives that the Chinese Communist Party has destroyed and the people currently living in fear of its tyrannical ambitions," the resolution says.

Many senators, especially Republicans, also have vocally condemned China over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 4 million people globally, though that is not included in the Daines resolution.

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The House resolution from Fitzpatrick also covered many of the same "grotesque human rights abuses" as the Daines resolution, and said that the House of Representatives "looks forward to the day that the Chinese Communist Party no longer exists."

"Under the slogan of follow the party forever, General Secretary Xi Jinping is marking the occasion through a wave of propaganda and triumphalism, especially about the party's earliest days, rewriting history," Gallagher said in a Tuesday press conference about the CCP's anniversary.

"And in Wuhan of all places, the party put on a giant light show. Buildings and bridges are being lit up with the hammer and sickle. CCP officials have even set up a website where individuals where individuals can report on their neighbors" who won't sufficiently support the party during the anniversary, Gallagher added.

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Gallagher called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to bring the resolution to the floor, saying that Pelosi was previously "a very forceful denouncer of the CCP's human rights abuses in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square."

The Senate is out so Daines' resolution won't be able to be voted on until at least July 12. But it is likely to get at least some verbal support from senators  the chamber recently passed a sprawling bill aimed at competing with China economically and militarily with a significant bipartisan majority.
Police in Dallas are asking for the publics help in a continued effort to identify and locate a gunman who shot and injured five victims, including a 4-year-old girl, police said.

The shooter opened fire June 11 around 4:45 p.m. at an apartment complex at 378 North Jim Miller Road following a disturbance reported in the area, police said.

The child who was shot was taken to Childrens Medical Center in Dallas in stable condition, according to police.

Dallas police said the shooter was last seen in a black four-door sedan that sped away from the apartment complex. A man can be seen in the middle of a group of people standing in the parking lot of the complex before moving to the sidewalk and holding out his arm in a video released by police.

While its not clear from the video itself, police say that man was holding a gun, pointing it at people who were in the group and firing before running back across the street within the complex to the black Kia Optima with paper license plates.

Another car, which appears to be a silver or gray sedan, follows the Kia out of the parking lot. Police have made no mention of this vehicle, who might have been driving it or what they were doing.

As the man police said was the shooter runs to his car, the people who were in the group flee down the parking lot, taking shelter behind vehicles. One woman can be seen carrying a small child.

Police are asking anybody with information to contact Detective Yahir Perez at 214-671-4375 or yahir.perez@dallascityhall.com.
TAMPA, FLORIDA - JUNE 28: Fans pose for a photo prior to Game 1 of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens at Amalie Arena. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

Despite the "Canada versus USA" narrative in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning, data shows that many Americans are actually rooting for the Habs.

Information released Wednesday by online betting site BetOnline.ag showed that a large majority of states in the north and in the west are rooting for the Montreal team. The findings were based on aggregated Twitter data that looked at geotags and hashtags.

Move over, Dallas Cowboys, there's a new "America's Team" in the house.

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On top of having encouragement from fans south of the border, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has voiced his support for Montreal, even making a friendly wager with United States President Joe Biden over the result of the series.

The Government of Canadas Twitter account also jumped on board to wish the Habs good luck, which rubbed many Canadians the wrong way.

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The last time a Canadian team made it to the finals was a decade ago in 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks fell to the Boston Bruins. When looking at the last time a Canadian team actually won the Stanley Cup, that would be in 1993  when the Habs themselves defeated the Los Angeles Kings with a 4-1 series win.

The Habs fell to the Lightning 5-1 in Game 1, giving Tampa Bay the 1-0 series lead. But the two teams play again Wednesday night, when Montreal will have a chance to tie things up and give their fans in both countries reason to celebrate.

More from Yahoo Sports
Authorities in Canada, Oregon and Washington are investigating hundreds of deaths likely caused by the Pacific Northwest's worst heat wave on record, AP reports.

Driving the news: Temperatures in the region have shattered records since Friday. Extreme heat ranks as the nation's top weather-related killer annually, according to the National Weather Service.

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People in the region are not used to heat of this magnitude, which has made this event an acute health risk, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.

The big picture: The office of the British Columbia chief coroner received reports of at least 486 "sudden and unexpected deaths" between Friday and Wednesday. Typically, around 165 die in the province over a five-day period.

Oregon health officials said over 60 deaths in the state are tied to the heat, while Washington has reported more than a dozen heat-related deaths, according to AP.

At least 45 deaths in Oregon's largest county were due to hyperthermia, or an abnormally high body temperature. The county saw only 12 hyperthermia deaths between 2017 and 2019.

Those numbers are expected to rise, per AP.

The heat wave has also driven more than 1,100 people to the hospital for possible heat-related illness as of Tuesday.

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Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Travelers head to the airport wearing masks

The highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 is now spreading in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Centers for Disease Control.

South Dakota was the last state in the nation to report a case with the variant, finding its first on Tuesday. Nationwide, around 26% of all COVID-19 cases are from the Delta variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said Tuesday that he's "very concerned" about the Delta variant spreading in undervaccinated areas where people are at high risk, and said it could split the country into "two Americas": one in which the virus is circulating widely and the other with low rates because most residents are vaccinated.

"When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions  be that states, cities or counties  you're going to see these individual types of blips," he said, CNN reported. "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."

RELATED: Fauci Says the Delta Variant Is the 'Greatest Threat' to Ending the COVID Pandemic in the U.S.

Currently, 54.6% of all Americans have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 47% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. However, many states are outliers in that total. Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island all have over 70% residents now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while Alabama, Arkansas, Wyoming, Louisiana and Tennessee are at 44% or less, and Mississippi is at the bottom, with 38% fully vaccinated.

RELATED VIDEO: Nurse Whose Husband Died of COVID Is on a Door-to-Door Vaccine Crusade: 'I Can Help Save Others'

Globally, with the Delta variant circulating and lower rates of vaccinations, the World Health Organization has recommended that everyone, even those who are vaccinated, continue wearing masks indoors. That contrasts with the CDC's current guidelines, which allow for fully vaccinated people to forgo masks in nearly all indoor places.

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In response to the rise in cases with the Delta variant, and with the percentage of residents that are fully vaccinated hovering around 50%, Los Angeles County has advised that "everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in public places as a precautionary measure."

RELATED: U.S. Health Secretary Says Unvaccinated People Are 'Vulnerable' to Highly Contagious Delta Variant

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, however, has said that the federal health agency does not intend to change its mask recommendations at this time.

"We know that the WHO has to make guidelines and provide information to the world," she said on Today on Wednesday. "Right now, we know as we look across the globe that less than 15% of people around the world have been vaccinated, and many of those people have only received one dose of a two-dose vaccine. There are places around the world that are surging, and so as the WHO makes those recommendations, they do so in that context."

With more Americans fully vaccinated, Walensky said that they are "really quite protected from the variants that we have circulating here in the United States."

She added, though, that undervaccinated localities should consider increasing their mask guidance.

"We've always said that local policymakers need to make policies for their local environment," Walensky said. "There are areas of this country where ... they have low vaccination rates, and there are areas that have more disease. ... So in those areas, we have always said please look, make suggestions."
Two people died and four others were injured Thursday in a shooting and ensuing standoff with law enforcement in Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to police and media reports.

Two city water employees, a sheriffs deputy and a woman were shot during the altercation but are expected to survive, officials said. A Charter Communications worker and another man believed to be the shooter died, WSPA reported.

The Charter employee was identified as 49-year-old Perry James McIntyre, of Landrum, who was working inside the house at the time of the standoff, according to the TV station.

We are devastated by the loss of our co-worker, and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time, Charter Communications said in a statement, according to WSPA. We are working with the Greenville County Sheriff as they investigate this tragic incident.

The second person, identified as 45-year-old Shannon Earl Smith, died at the hospital, WSPA reported. The Greenville County Sheriffs Office said Smith is believed to have been the shooter, according to the TV station.

The shooting occurred around 2:30 p.m. near Cleveland Park while a team was working to repair a sewer main, Jennifer Candler, spokesperson for Spartanburg Water, told WYFF.

A man walked up, asked them what they were doing and started shooting, according to the TV station.

The two city employees were taken to Spartanburg Regional Hospital, WSPA reported. In a tweet just before 8 p.m., Spartanburg Water said they were in good condition.

We are grateful for the incredible work done today by Spartanburg law enforcement officials and first responders, Spartanburg Water said in a follow-up tweet. Our hearts are with all those impacted by todays senseless acts of violence, and we continue to hold them in our thoughts and prayers.

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Law enforcement was called to the scene after the city employees were shot, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told media outlets during a news conference Thursday.

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We really dont know what triggered anything or what happened before we got there, he said.

The suspect barricaded himself inside a nearby home and a standoff with law enforcement ensued.

Major Art Littlejohn with the Spartanburg Police Department said they believed someone might be hurt inside, prompting law enforcement to try entering the house.

During that time shots were fired, Littlejohn told reporters. Of course, shots were returned.

A sheriffs deputy was hit in the gunfire. Wright said Littlejohn literally tore one of the banisters down, threw our deputy in the car and got him to the hospital.

The deputy was shot twice in the arm and is expected to survive, Fox Carolina reported.

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The standoff ended shortly before 5:30 p.m., Wright said.

He said there were other people inside the house during the standoff. Their condition as well as the shooters was unknown as of Friday morning.

Wright said they know who the suspect is but did not release any information about him.

Dont know what started it. Its a crazy thing  but we just dont know what started it, the sheriff said.

The Greenville County Sheriffs Office is investigating the incident, Wright said.
By Ezequiel, Abiu and Lopez

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Dominican health authorities will on Thursday begin distributing a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine in an effort to protect against more contagious new variants of the coronavirus.

The additional dose will be voluntary and will first be made available to medical professions, health officials said. The campaign will then move to older adults and those with health conditions that make them vulnerable to severe COVID-19.

"The potential benefit far outweighs the possible collateral effects of a booster dose," said Health Minister Daniel Rivera in a news conference on Wednesday.

People who received the AstraZeneca vaccine will get the third dose 12 weeks after their second shot. Those who received Sinovac Biotech's vaccine can get a third shot one month after their second dose.

The Dominican Republic is facing a new surge in COVID-19 cases that has strained hospitals and sparked fears that new more easily transmissible variants of the virus could prolong the pandemic. The country, however, has so far reported 3,822 deaths from COVID-19 with a 1.18% fatality rate, one of the lowest in the region.

The Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the World Health Organization, has said there is no scientific evidence that more than two doses of COVID-19 vaccines were necessary.

Just under half of the Dominican Republic's 10.5 million people have received at least one vaccine dose, according to government data. The country has distributed COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac.

The government did not include those who received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which started arriving on June 11, in the third dose plan. Some laboratory studies and real-world data have shown the mRNA-based vaccine to be protective against concerning virus variants.

(Reporting by Ezequiel Abiu Lopez; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
French president Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace - AFP

Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned against the dangers of US-style woke culture in France, saying that debate in the country was becoming increasingly racialised.

The French president said that creeping racial and identity politics risked fracturing the foundations of French society.

"I see that our society is becoming progressively racialised," Mr Macron told Elle magazine in an interview coinciding with a UN-sponsored summit on gender inequality in Paris.

In particular, he took aim at intersectionality, a notion popular in American academia that examines discrimination and poverty through social categories such as race and gender.

"The logic of intersectionality fractures everything, said Mr Macron.

"I stand for universalism. I don't agree with a fight that reduces everyone to their identity or their particularity," he went on.

"Social difficulties are not only explained by gender and the colour of your skin, but also by social inequalities."

The centrist 43-year-old, who is expected to run for re-election next spring, added that he could think of young white men in his hometown of Amiens or nearby Saint-Quentin in northern France "who also have immense difficulties, for different reasons, in finding a job.

Compiling racial statistics is illegal in France, scarred by wartime ethnic profiling and officially colour-blind. To many scholars on race, however, the reluctance is part of a long history of denial over discrimination.

Inspired by Black Lives Matter, France has seen a string of movements over the past year denouncing the problem of racism, notably linked to cases of police brutality, and the legacy of the country's colonial past in Africa and the Middle East.

Critics, however, have warned against importing "woke culture from the "Anglo-Saxon" world, arguing that an obsession with race and the past traps minorities and women into seeing themselves as victms of oppression and discrimination.

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Among them, Elisabeth Moreno, black junior minister for gender equality and diversity in Mr Macrons government, recently slammed the threat of cancel culture and censorship in the name of political correctness.

French president Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Moreno, French junior minister for diversity and gender equality at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris - AFP

The woke culture is something very dangerous, and we shouldnt bring it to France, she told Bloomberg, adding that such discourse kick(s) out people from ongoing debates because they think otherwise.

Everyone should fight discrimination. You cant ask someone not to speak about a topic because the person doesnt feel legitimate. It makes no sense, she said, adding that she refused to be seen as successful because of her gender or race, but for her accomplishments.

French universalism means that, in the French Republic, we want to recognize people per se, not because they are women or LGBT+ or because they have a different ethnicity or whatever.

This is not Mr Macrons first warning over the issue. Last June, he blamed universities for encouraging the ethnicisation of the social question - amounting to splitting the republic in two.

The debate heated up in February when two veteran social scientists, Stephane Beaud and Gerard Noiriel, published a book critical of racial studies, saying race had become a bulldozer crushing other subjects.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Macrons higher education minister, Frederique Vidal, sparked uproar in academia by ordering an investigation into cancel culture on campuses, accusing Leftist lecturers of turning a blind eye to Islamism because of perceived persecution of French Muslims.

The French president's stance has received praise from Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who wrote in the Telegraph in November: "There are well-meaning officials who worry that Islamism, a term with credible and established meaning, could be seen as implicating the entire religion of Islam and all its diverse and peaceful adherents.

"And there are woke activists who are quick to victim-blame the West and cry Islamophobia at all attempts to deal with the issue."

Claims of censorial pressure came after the British government said it was bringing in legislation to defend free speech on UK campuses amid concerns about the rise of silencing and censoring both academics and students.

Mr Macron is set to run for re-election next April in an election that polls currently suggest could see him face off against far-Right leader Marine Le Pen.
Protesters for slain Spc. Vanessa Guillen in Los Angeles on July 12, 2020.

Combatting sexual violence in the military is becoming more paramount as time passes. Between 2018 and 2019, restricted reports of sexual assault (those that weren't investigated per the victims' wishes) went up by 17%, and formal reports by 10%, according to Pentagon data released last year.

In addition, military sexual assault harms female recruitment and retention. The Department of Defenses apparent inability to curb sexual violence threatens the most vulnerable  and, as more roles have opened to women, perhaps the most needed  military employees.

In April, the Army released the full investigation into the April 2020 disappearance and death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen. The story of her harassment and killing went viral last year, prompting protests over the way the military addresses issues of sexual assault and violence against women.

Accordingly, the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act was proposed last year. It allows for complaints about assault to be charged outside of the chain of command.

Just last week, Senate and House leaders combined last year's efforts with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's Military Justice Improvement Act to get around roadblocks to reform. The new hybrid bill, the Vanessa Guillen Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, is in the House and is an end run around Senate shenanigans.

After years of being ignored, the idea of revamping military prosecution received support from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, who finally acknowledged that the ways the Department of Defense has been handling sexual assault cases havent been working.

While the new hybrid bill is a sea change in how we tackle military justice, its potential to reduce sexual violence is limited. It won't stop sexual violence in the military because it only enhances accountability among adults and takes power away from generals acting as convening authorities.

To prevent military sexual assault and harassment, we have to start earlier.

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I served in the Marine Corps for six years. While my primary job was being a logistics officer, I also served as a sexual assault uniformed victim advocate. I educated Marines of all ranks on sexual consent, examples of assault and harassment, how victims could respond to assault and victim blaming.

Its well known that education is the path to prevention. Fiscal year 2018 and 2019 sexual assault reports by the Pentagon acknowledged that education and awareness are the best weapons against sexual misconduct. One report included input from nearly 500 personnel who desired more education on healthy relationships and consent.

But by the time troops enlist, its already too late. Teaching at later ages requires unlearning on the pupils' part. By the time theyre adults, people have had more experience with intimate relationships where boundary violations may have been normalized. Adults might also see more gray areas, meaning they might have become accustomed to certain interpersonal encroachments being acceptable when theyre not. Consent is a black-and-white issue.

As of June 1, only 18 states required K-12 sexual health education to even be medically accurate. Only nine states require that ideas centering around consent be worked into the lesson, and 28 states require curricula to stress the importance of abstinence.

People ages 18 to 24 are already at a higher risk of being victimized, so it makes sense that colleges and the military would face real problems with sexual violence. People are most at risk once theyve left high school and are starting their adult lives. Though its worth noting that 1 in 3 female victims and 1 in 4 male victims were sexually assaulted between 11 and 17 years of age  and perpetrators of child sexual abuse can be children, too.

Congress cant mandate better sexual health education throughout all states, but they can use federal funding to motivate changes. And, critically, not enough states have meaningful curriculum on healthy romantic relationships  communication, conflict resolution and personal boundaries  perhaps because theres little inducement.

Waiting to teach these lessons to adults, even younger ones, misses a crucial opportunity. Children are actually better at absorbing these instructions. They lack biases. A study published in 2018 on college sexual assault shows that comprehensive high school sex education with consent and healthy relationships verbiage can be a good strategy for preventing college sexual assault.

But Congress knows this connection exists. In 2015, Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., introduced the Teach Safe Relationships Act, after Kaine met with college students who pushed for teaching consent and healthy relationships before college. What could have been a great prevention strategy was never passed.

Passing that bill for a program with concrete guidance centered around consent and healthy romantic relationships could have resulted in students getting critical information over the past six years.

Guillens suspected killer, who was 20 when he allegedly beat her to death and later killed himself, would have been in high school in 2015 and possibly benefitted from those lessons. He was also accused of harassment.

If the solution to military sexual violence was training adults exclusively, then the money the Defense Department already spends on annual sexual assault and harassment training might have produced better results. From 2008 to 2018, the military spent almost $200 million on sexual assault violence education. And a DOD report on military sexual assault shows an increase in annual reporting, to more than 6,000 incidents in fiscal year 2019. That doesnt include the unknown number of incidents that go unreported, often because victims feel they wont be believed or supported, that theyll face retribution, or that theyll be blamed.

This doesnt mean the Department of Defense should abandon this training. The level of misconduct by troops shows that we need these modules.

But theyre not enough. The additional help the Department of Defense needs must come from the elementary and secondary school systems  Congress can and should help with that. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed last fall that Congress wont stop until we have finally, fully ended this epidemic  in the military, in the workplace and in all places.

But until that K-12 education happens everywhere more troops will be harmed  getting us no closer to making military bases safer spaces.

Kelsey Baker is a former Marine officer and military sexual assault victims advocate. She is now a freelance journalist.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Laws alone won't end military sexual assault. Teach consent in K-12.
Hate crimes against Asian Americans in California increased by 107% in 2020, according to a new report from the states Department of Justice.



Behind the surge: The crimes spiked between March and April of last year when stay-at-home orders were given in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.



California saw a total of 89 hate crimes against Asian Americans reported in 2020, compared to 43 from the previous year.

Of the reported crimes from last year, 72 were violent, an increase of 125% from just 32 in 2019. These crimes include simple assault and intimidation.

The state also saw a 55% increase in reported property hate crimes -- 17 were reported last year, while 11 were reported in 2019. These include crimes such as arson, burglary, destruction, damage and vandalism.

Of 18 different counties that reported anti-Asian hate crimes, San Luis Obispo had the highest victimization rate per 10,000 Asian residents.



The bigger picture: Overall, hate crimes in California increased by 31% in 2020, with 1,330 cases reported. Of this number, 430 have been referred to prosecution, the Sacramento Bee noted.



Hate crimes against African Americans made up the majority of reports in 2020 and were up by 87% from the previous year. Anti-white bias also increased from 39 in 2019 to 82 in 2020.

Rob Bonta, the states first Filipino American attorney general, said that last year was not just about a deadly virus, but also an epidemic of hate. Despite the increase in statistics, hate incidents are still believed to be underreported.

President of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Carl Chan -- who fell victim to an attack himself in April -- encouraged others to come forward, saying there are solutions. Please dont be afraid. We are here together. Together, we can stop this, he said, according to The Mercury News.

Bonta has developed prosecutor guidance and a law enforcement bulletin to ensure that state and local authorities can better respond to hate crimes. He has also released hate crime brochures in 25 languages for victims and members of the public.



Featured Image via California Attorney General Rob Bonta

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's withdrawal on Thursday from an international treaty to prevent violence against women is not a step backwards, President Tayyip Erdogan said, defending a move which has drawn condemnation from many Turks and Western allies.

"Some circles are trying to portray our withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention as a step backwards in our battle with violence against women," he told an action plan meeting in Ankara.

"Our battle did not start with the Istanbul Convention and it will not end with our withdrawal from the treaty," he said of the pact that was first forged and signed in Turkey's largest city in 2011.

Erdogan announced in March the decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention. The move only took effect on Thursday, with thousands set to protest it across Turkey later in the day.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
MBABANE (Reuters) - The government of eSwatini has called in the army to restore order after days of violent protests against its absolute monarch, the acting prime minister said on Thursday.

The southern African nation has since the weekend seen sporadic demonstrations against King Mswati III, some marred by rioting and looting. But most towns have been quiet since periodic Internet blackouts were imposed on Wednesday, witnesses said.

Mswati's detractors accuse him of being an autocrat - a charge he denies - and of using a poor country's public money to fund a luxurious lifestyle spread over several palaces housing himself and his fifteen wives.

The king has hardly been seen in public since recovering from COVID-19 in February, although his government denies reports that he fled abroad after protests on Monday.

"While we continue to advocate...the right to protest, we cannot condone the attacks on people and their property. The ... riots are also in violation of COVID-19 regulations," Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku said in a statement.

"We have had to call in the army to protect critical national infrastructure and enforce the COVID-19 regulations. (But) there has been no martial law," he added.

Security forces have dispersed demonstrators with tear gas, gunshots and even low-flying helicopters, prompting diplomats and rights group to urge restraint. A curfew has been imposed from 6 p.m. until 5 a.m.

"We urge the government to exercise restraint and also maintain the utmost respect for human rights," the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. "The United States strongly supports ... freedom of peaceful assembly."

Neighbour South Africa also called for restraint and "meaningful dialogue," while Amnesty International said the government had "systematically crushed freedom of expression".

The former British protectorate periodically witnesses crackdowns on dissent, such as the arrest of opposition leaders and activists in 2019.

(Reporting by Lunga Masuku, Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Germany and Spain are among nine countries in Europe who have told India they will accept travellers inoculated with Covishield, the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, Indian foreign ministry sources said on Thursday.

Friction emerged between India and Europe in recent days over the exclusion by the European Union vaccine passport programme of Covishield as one of its accepted vaccines.

From Thursday, the programme allows anyone who is fully vaccinated with any of five Western-made vaccines - Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca - travel freely within the bloc.

The exclusion of Covishield, which is produced by India's Serum Institute using analogous methods to the EU-approved AstraZeneca vaccine Vaxzevria but does not have EU market authorisation, stoked anger and the treat of retaliatory measures by India against travellers from Europe.

An Indian foreign ministry source said on Thursday that Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland had informed the Indian government that Covishield would be accepted for the purposes of travel.

Estonia has said it will recognise all the vaccines authorised by the Indian government, the source said, which would include Covaxin that has been developed by local firm Bharat Biotech.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar tweeted earlier in the week that he had taken up the issue of authorisation of the Indian version of AstraZeneca during his meeting with EU representatives on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.

Another foreign ministry source said that India had told the EU that it would lift quarantine requirements for anyone carrying the EU Digital Covid certificate, but they would have to allow equal access to Indians travelling with vaccines made in India.

"We have also conveyed to EU Member States that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate," the second source said.

Once the EU listed the two vaccines currently being administered in India in its digital certificate, then India will waive quarantine requirements from people coming from EU countries, the second source said.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Jul. 1"The Farmer and the Chef" would be tantalizing enough for Southeast Minnesota foodies even if it were a run-of-the-mill cookbook.

But this is a cookbook that aspires to be something more.

One thing that separates it from traditional cookbooks is its focus on home-grown recipes. Within its pages, you'll find recipes from well-known area restaurants such as Forager Brewery, Bleu Duck Kitchen, Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery, and Tonic Local Kitchen & Juice Bar.

Woven throughout are the stories of Minnesota farmers and their partnerships with restaurant owners and chefs that make the farm-to-table movement possible. By sourcing directly from area farmers (oftentimes at no small inconvenience), they help support farms such as Blue Fruit Farm in Winona and Earth-Be-Glad and Capra Nera Creamery in Altura.

And the proof is in the recipes.

"It's not just that idyllic farm scene with a perfect red barn and waking up to the rooster crowing. Farmers really go through a lot to bring quality, nutrient-dense food to our plates," said Claudine Arndt, the cookbook's author.

The book includes more than 90 recipes and 18 stories of featured farms, all packed with photos of farm life and food.

One recipe, Minnesota Sweet Corn, from Forager chef David Bredesen, features corn sprinkled with "semi-hard, aged goat cheese" made by Capra Nera Creamery in Altura, along with aioli.

Capra Nera is Italian for "black goat," owner Katie Bonow explained. The "goat" refers to her goat dairy operation, and the "black" is a play on "black sheep."

"What I'm doing is a little different than what a lot of people are doing around here," she said.

Bonow grew up on a small dairy farm in Southeast Minnesota, and has been around goats for 20 years, calling it a "long-term relationship." Her customers include Nosh in Winona, Root River Unwined Wine Bar in Winona, and Fat Pats BBQ in Spring Grove.

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"It's definitely challenging," she said. "Some years are more challenging than others, but it is what I do. There's not much else that I think could enjoy as much as I enjoy this."

The book was inspired by a program called Minnesota Cooks. Every year, the Minnesota Farmers Union, a nonprofit that supports family farms and rural life, gathers recipes from chefs and restaurant owners, and chooses 12 of them to illustrate farm-to-table partnerships around the state.

The recipes are then published in an annual calendar, which became a mini cookbook of sorts, with a featured recipe each month.

"The whole idea is really to help connect people more to farmers and to the source of their food, to the businesses that choose to work directly with farmers, providing them with a really important stream of income that helps support their livelihoods," said writer Arndt, who also manages Minnesota Cooks.

The program has been around for 19 years, and over time, an "amazing cache" of submitted recipes has been amassed.

Creating a cookbook seemed like a natural progression, but it was also understood to be a "massive" undertaking by the farm union. Then it got a push from a publisher, Globe Pequot, which asked for a cookbook proposal, and the ball got rolling.

The book was created by Arndt, photographer Katie Cannon, and Bruce Miller in February 2019. Miller, who helped shape the vision for the book and got the concept approved by the union's executive committee, died of cancer toward the end of 2019.

The book was supposed to be published last July, but was delayed due to COVID-19. It was officially released June 15.

Also featured is Blue Fruit Farm, a 5-acre organic farm 12 miles south of Winona that grows blueberries, black currants and elderberries. High in antioxidants and packed with flavor, the blueberries are extolled by customers as the best they've ever had, said farm owner Jim Riddle.

"We put a lot of effort into taking care of the soil and building up the health of the land, and it's reflected in the health of the crop," he said. "And the author captured that in a very lyrical prose that conveys our values."

Arndt describes the book as a "walk down memory lane" through Minnesota's dining scene, as it includes recipes from restaurants that have closed, as well as those still in business. The book, for example, includes a recipe from Tonic, which closed during the pandemic.

"We really wanted recipes from places that were very influential in helping to shape the farm-to-table dining scene," Arndt said.

Learn more

"The Farmer and the Chef" is available at Barnes & Noble at Apache Mall, the Rochester Public Library, and through online booksellers. On Saturday, July 10, Blue Fruit Farm will host the Co-op Farm Tour and Driftless Grown Vendor Fair, and offer you-pick blueberries and black currants at the farm 12 miles south of Winona. Author Claudine Arndt and photographer Katie Cannon will be at the farm from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a book signing and sale.
A federal judge on Wednesday night blocked a Florida law that would penalize social media companies for barring the speech of politicians, striking a blow to conservatives still fuming over the suspension of former President Donald Trump and allegations that Facebook, Twitter and Googles YouTube censor right-wing views.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida said the law, which would have forced social media companies to allow speech even if it violated their rules, would likely be found unconstitutional.

The technology industry challenged the law, which was set to take effect Thursday, saying it would infringe on the First Amendment rights of online businesses.

The plaintiffs are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim that these statutes violate the First Amendment, Hinkle wrote. There is nothing that could be severed and survive.

Florida lawmakers approved the law after Facebook, Twitter and YouTube suspended Trumps accounts following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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It was signed in May by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally and possible 2024 presidential candidate who championed the law as a needed crackdown on the unbridled power of social media companies.

A spokeswoman said DeSantis planned to appeal.

"We are disappointed by Judge Hinkles ruling and disagree with his determination that the U.S. Constitution protects Big Techs censorship of certain individuals and content over others," press secretary Christina Pushaw said in a statement. "Gov. DeSantis continues to fight for freedom of speech and against Big Techs discriminatory censorship."

Under the law, the state would be able to fine large social media companies $250,000 a day if they removed an account of a statewide political candidate and $25,000 a day if they removed the account of someone seeking local office. It also would require social media companies to notify users within seven days that they could be censored, giving them time to correct posts.

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A federal judge blocked a Florida law that would penalize social media companies for barring the speech of politicians, striking a blow to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other conservatives angry over the suspension of former President Donald Trump.

Two technology trade groups, NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, claimed Florida was attempting to censor free speech and expression by compelling social media companies to host speech and speakers they disagree with.

Their lawsuit alleged Floridas new law was a blatant attack on the content moderation choices social media companies make daily to protect the public and advertisers from pornography, terrorist incitement, false propaganda spread by foreign actors, calls for genocide or race-based violence, COVID-19 vaccines disinformation, fraudulent schemes and other harmful, offensive or illegal material.

Americas judiciary system is designed to protect our constitutional rights, and todays ruling is no different, ensuring that Floridas politically motivated law does not force Floridians to endure racial epithets, aggressive homophobia, pornographic material, beheadings, or other gruesome content just to use the internet, Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice, said in a statement.

Legal experts also questioned the laws viability.

Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, told USA TODAY that the Florida law was bound to draw legal challenges as some of the new laws provisions are obviously unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that publishers have the freedom to pick and choose what content they want to publish, and the bill blatantly seeks to strip publishers of that freedom, he said. Florida residents should expect better from their legislators, and now they see their tax dollars spent defending an indefensible bill that never should have passed.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida Trump law over Facebook, YouTube bans blocked by federal judge
Even though many traditional July 4 fireworks shows in Connecticut are canceled this year, more than a dozen are scheduled to go on, led by the Great American Boom in New Britain.

Wethersfield, Bridgeport, Norwalk and Danbury are among the communities that arent holding their usual Independence Day displays for the second year in a row.

Several have cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. High infection rates and social distancing restrictions lasted so long through the winter that there wasnt time to pull together large-scale festivals when conditions improved in the spring, they said.

Still, at least five fireworks shows are scheduled around the state on Independence Day itself, and more than a dozen are planned across the long holiday weekend.

Among the biggest shows will be New Britains 29th annual Great American Boom on Sunday night, but the pandemic means it will operate with several special rules instituted last year. The show is Sunday at 9:15 p.m. at Willow Brook Park and will be presented as a drive-in; attendees must buy parking passes in advance for $10 through nbparksnrec.org.

The city used to draw tens of thousands of people with a half-day festival capped by the fireworks display at Stanley Quarter Park, but moved it to Willow Brook last year with half-capacity parking limits and strict mask and social distancing rules. Those restrictions wont be in effect this year, and the city may return the show to Stanley Quarter Park when dredging of its pond is completed next year.

Many other shows have restrictions on parking or admission, so its advisable to check ahead before going. A sampling of other scheduled shows includes:

Bristol: On Saturday night, Lake Compounce will host a fireworks show. tinyurl.com/2h9mx9w7

Enfield: On Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. the towns 4th of July Celebration committee sponsors fireworks over the Thompsonville and town hall sections. tinyurl.com/5j7tdzew

Fairfield: On Saturday night, the town will present fireworks that can be seen at Fairfield or Jennings beaches at 9:15 p.m. fairfieldct.org/fireworks

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Hartford: On Saturday and Sunday nights, the Hartford Yard Goats plan fireworks after their games with the Altoona Curve at Dunkin Donuts Park. tinyurl.com/a8yc8hdk

Middlebury: On Saturday night, Quassy Amusement Park will shoot fireworks overs it lake. quassy.com/special-events

New Haven: On Sunday night, the city shoots off fireworks above East Rock with viewing at the Wilbur Cross High School starting around 9 p.m. tinyurl.com/upnm3x8n

New Milford: On Saturday night, the Chamber of Commerce presents fireworks at the town green. tinyurl.com/3wadh9vu

Norwich: On Friday and Sunday nights, the Norwich Sea Unicorns will present fireworks after their games at Dodd Stadium. tinyurl.com/3yp8nn53

Ridgefield: On Monday night, the town will hold fireworks at Ridgefield High School around 9 p.m. tinyurl.com/23jcc9a4

Simsbury: On Friday night, fireworks will follow the Celebrate America conference at the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center. tinyurl.com/3uwerht3

Stratford: On Thursday night, the town launches fireworks to be seen from Short Beach Park starting at 9 p.m. tinyurl.com/aez423d7

Trumbull: On Saturday night, Trumbull Day is scheduled to end with a fireworks show at 9 p.m. at the Hillcrest Middle School. tinyurl.com/skj6k5we

Waterbury: On Sunday night, the Brass Mill Center will conclude its food truck festival with fireworks at 9 p.m. tinyurl.com/n3bw9ey
CARACAS (Reuters) - The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that its first shipment of food intended for Venezuelan school children had arrived in the South American country, which is suffering a humanitarian crisis spurred by an economic collapse.

The WFP in April announced a deal with President Nicolas Maduro's government to reach some 185,000 children this year and expand to 1.5 million by the end of the 2022-2023 school year. Child https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/venezuela-malnutrition/#:~:text=A%20generation%20of%20children%20is,to%20care%20for%20the%20malnourishedmalnutrition is on the rise in the once-prosperous OPEC nation.

The first 42,000 food packages including rice, lentils, salt and vegetable oil will be distributed to children under age six in areas affected by food insecurity in Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, the WFP said.

Since Venezuelan schools are currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the packages will be distributed as take-home rations.

WFP said it would manage its own supply chain. Venezuela's political opposition, which labels Maduro a dictator, has long accused the government of conditioning state food assistance on political loyalty, a claim Maduro denies.

Humanitarian aid groups had pressed Maduro for years to allow the WFP to distribute food in Venezuela before he acceded in April. The move was seen by some analysts and Western diplomats as an olive branch as he seeks to persuade the United States and others to lift sanctions aimed at ousting him.

(Reporting by Mayela Armas and Luc Cohen; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Jul. 1BAGLEY  A former Bagley High School resource officer, Neil Dolan, admitted in court on Wednesday, June 30, to sexually assaulting students while he was working at the school.

Dolan, 34, pleaded guilty to two felony charges during a plea hearing: first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Another second-degree criminal sexual charge and a third-degree criminal sexual charge were dismissed with a plea agreement.

The hearing was held virtually via Zoom with Dolan appearing from the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud. He's serving two years for another third-degree charge of attempted criminal sexual conduct, which he was charged with in Becker County. Three felony charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct were dropped in that plea agreement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Erin Eldridge is representing the state of Minnesota in the case against Dolan, who is represented by Rebecca Duren of the law firm Kelly and Lemmons.

Dolan admitted to sexually assaulting two ninth-grade students in his office at Bagley High School. He agreed to the factual basis of the charges during Wednesday's hearing when questioned by Duren. Eldridge followed up with more detailed questions, confirming that Dolan wore a duty belt and firearm while working, among other details.

A sentencing hearing is set for July 12 for Dolan. The maximum penalty for first-degree criminal sexual conduct is 30 years in prison, a $40,000 fine or both. The maximum for a second-degree charge is 25 years in prison, a $30,000 fine or both.

According to two criminal complaints, one filed in November 2019 and another with additional charges in March 2020, Dolan groomed students at Bagley High School and would offer snacks, treats, drinks and other incentives to students while in his office, where he would often lock the doors and cover the windows.

He would communicate with a number of students via Snapchat, including sending photos of his penis. Snapchat is a messaging app where photos and messages only appear for a certain amount of time unless they're saved or screenshots are taken.

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The complaints state that two students, when they were 14 or 15 years old, spanning from 2016 to 2019, were assaulted in Dolan's office at the school. Both students asked Dolan to stop. Dolan would then ask them not to tell anybody, saying he could get in trouble.

According to other court documents filed during the case, in "about 2011 or 2012," a school employee walked in on Dolan when a seventh-grade student was straddling him while seated in a chair in his office. Following that, the document alleges, Dolan put paper in his office windows and later moved his office to another part of the school. Dolan remained employed at the school until he was arrested in the fall of 2019.

Court documents also showed that Dolan allegedly had more than a dozen victims between the Bagley School District and when he worked as a Many Point Boy Scout camp program director.

RELATED: Court documents: Former Bagley school resource officer had multiple victims

According to court records in the Becker County case, Dolan served as reservation program director at Many Point Scout Camp in Becker County in the summers of 2015, 2016 and 2018. It was a supervisory and leadership role at the Boy Scout camp.

At least once during each of those years, he sexually touched a teenage boy who was 17 in 2015, when Dolan was 27. Dolan at times was very aggressive, getting on top of the boy in bed, pinning him down, and on one occasion attempting to rape him, according to the criminal complaint.
Former Victorias Secret model Bridget Malcolm slammed the lingerie brand for "performative ally ship" in a recent viral TikTok video.

Malcolm called the brands "performative ally ship" a "joke" in the video after Victorias Secret did away with their models, referred to as Angels, and partnered with diverse spokeswomen, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe, instead.

"Too little, too late Victoria's Secret," Malcolm captioned her TikTok.

"Your performative ally ship is a joke."

VICTORIA'S SECRET SAYS GOODBYE TO ANGELS IN ATTEMPT TO REDEFINE SEXY

Malcolm spent the video comparing a bra she wore during the 2016 Victorias Secret Fashion Show to her bra now to show how underweight she was at the time. Malcolm wore a 30A cup bra during the show in 2016, but now wears a 34B.

"The sadness behind my eyes from the 2016 show breaks my heart," Malcolm said in the video.

HEIDI KLUM SAYS SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH DAUGHTER LENI DURING THE 2003 VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW

Malcolm then claimed she was not cast in the 2017 show after her bra size changed.

"I was rejected from the show in 2017 by Ed Razek," Malcolm said, referring to the former Chief Marketing Officer of Victorias Secret. "He said my body did not look good enough. I wore a size 30B at that point."

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Razek resigned from his role as the Chief Marketing Officer in 2019. A year before resigning, he had publicly claimed that the show should not cast transgenders because "it is a fantasy."

The company canceled the fashion show in November of 2019.

Victoria's Secret emphasized the brand's new leadership team in a statement to Fox News on Wednesday.

"There is a new leadership team at Victoria's Secret who is fully committed to the continued transformation of the brand with a focus on creating an inclusive environment for our associates, customers and partners to celebrate, uplift and champion all women," the statement said.

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To diversify the lingerie brand, Victorias Secret brought on a team of women to promote the brand through a podcast series. The list of women includes Rapinoe, actress Priyanka Chopra, model Adut Akech, skier Eileen Gu, transgender model Valentina Sampaio, plus-size model Paloma Elesser and journalist Amanda de Cadenet.

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The podcast series will feature ten episodes and give the women an opportunity to tell their stories.
Reuters

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Shares of Hong Kong beverage maker Vitasoy tumbled 12% on Monday after a worker sent around a memo offering condolences to the family of a colleague who stabbed a Hong Kong policeman, prompting social media users in China to call for a boycott of the company. Vitasoy said in a statement on social media platform Weibo on Saturday that a staff member had circulated an internal memo that was widely shared online, describing it as "extremely inappropriate" and without authorisation. The employee's memo offered condolences to the family of a 50-year-old Vitasoy worker who had stabbed a police officer, 28, and then killed himself on Thursday, the anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule.
A French court on Monday sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for the rape and murder of a young woman almost two decades ago, in a case that has long gripped and shocked the country.

An appeals court in Douai in northern France confirmed the earlier 30 year jail sentence for Willy Bardon handed down by a lower court in 2019 but, crucially, added a conviction for murder as well as rape and abduction.

Bank employee Elodie Kulik, 24, was kidnapped, raped, strangled and her corpse then burned in January 2002 in Tertry, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Saint-Quentin in the Aisne region.

In court for the verdict dressed in a black shirt and with head shaven, Bardon closed his eyes as the verdict was read out.

Since he was arrested in 2013, Bardon has always maintained his innocence in the murder of Kulik, a position he reaffirmed in court on Thursday. "I never took part in this horrific crime," he said.

But the victim's father Jacky said after the verdict that as in the initial verdict "he (Bardon) did not succeed in deceiving anyone".

Addressing his dead daughter, Jacky Kulik added: "I kept my promise.... It is the end of my struggle."

Bardon's lawyer Gabriel Dumenil accused the court of ignoring defence arguments and said his client now intended to take the case to the Court of Cassation, France's highest court of appeal.

When he was initially convicted in December 2019, Bardon swallowed pesticide in a dramatic suicide bid in the courtroom and spent five days in hospital.

Before dying, Kulik managed to call emergency services and the harrowing 26-second recording was the key piece of evidence in the trial.

Another suspect Gregory Wiart, whose DNA was found at the scene, died in 2003. But six witnesses told the court in the initial trial they recognised the voice of Willy Bardon on the tape.

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Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., with support from three other GOP House members, has invited Britney Spears to speak before Congress about her conservatorship battle, acknowledging in a letter to the 39-year-old pop icon Wednesday, "You have been mistreated by Americas legal system."

"We want to help," the letter signed by Gaetz, as well as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Burgess Owens, R-Ohio, and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., reads. "The United States Congress should hear your story and be inspired to bipartisan action. What happened to you should never happen to any other American. Congress can make things better and you can inform our policy decisions."

"If you will speak to Congress, we are ready to listen," the letter adds.

The invitation came the same day a Los Angeles Superior Court Brenda Penny denied Spears request to have her father, James P. Spears, removed from her estimated $60 million estate  and just a week after the pop icon delivered bombshell testimony before the court, speaking candidly for the first time about her 13-year ordeal, alleging she had been forced to take high dosages of lithium against her will. She also claimed her team has prevented her from seeing a doctor to have an IUD contraceptive device removed, despite wanting to attempt to conceive more children.

BRITNEY SPEARS' REQUEST TO REMOVE FATHER AS CONSERVTAOR SHOT DOWN BY JUDGE

"We have been following your conservatorship battle with deep concern," her invitation to speak before Congress says. "We could see the struggle and torment you were enduring. We could see the obvious financial, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of your conservators."

The four representatives continue, "The federal courthouse door was closed to you and to too many Americans. Your story is so powerful, and the admiration of your achievements so great, you (and perhaps only you) can blow that door wide open, giving hope to millions. Your life, liberty, and happiness have been taken from you. Please take advantage of the empowerment that public congressional testimony can unlock."

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The letter reminds Spears, "You owe nothing to anyone; you deserve to live a life of freedom and to choose your own path."

The members of Congress also point out that many others "have used their fame to advance social, political, and criminal justice reform," before asserting their hope she will accept their invitation to speak before Congress for "the sake of the justice you and many Americans deserve."

"Your life story and tremendous performing talent has continued to inspire people all over the world. We stand ready for your reply. We hope that you will express interest in sharing your story," they add. "We stand with you, Britney  whatever you decide."

Spears court-appointed lawyer, Sam Ingham, had filed a motion in November requesting that the stars father be dropped as a conservator, saying that Spears was "afraid of her father." That request was denied, but the judge is allowing Bessemer Trust Company of California be added as a co-conservator, though TMZ reported that official paperwork to make the outside firms role official has yet to be filed.

BRITNEY SPEARS' CONSERVATOR SLAMS JAMIE SPEARS' CLAIMS SHE BLOCKED STAR'S PERSONAL CARE, MEDICAL FREEDOM

Jamie Spears filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to order an investigation into claims made by his daughter during her 23-minute address in the conservatorship hearing last week. Britney Spears had asked if her statements to a Los Angeles courtroom could be shared publicly.

"I shouldnt be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people," Spears said. "It makes no sense."

She told the judge she works constantly and is surrounded by an entire staff on her payroll but isnt even allowed to control her own fortune.

"What state allows people to own another persons money and account and threaten them in saying, You cant spend your money unless we do what we want you to do?" she asked the court. "Im paying them."

Those inviting Spears to speak before Congress are not free of their own public scandal.

The Department of Justice has been investigating Gaetz for obstruction of justice, according to multiple reports last month, the latest development in a sex trafficking probe into an associate of the congressman. Gaetz has firmly denied any allegation that he broke the law.

He told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" earlier this year that it was "a horrible allegation" and "a lie" that he traveled across state lines with a 17-year-old girl for the purpose of sex. But his associate Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Meanwhile, Greene, already stripped of her committee assignments, was denounced by GOP leadership last month over remarks made comparing stickers indicating someone was vaccinated to the yellow Star of David patches Jews were forced to wear by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

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More recently, 37 House Democrats on Thursday demanded House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy take "immediate action" against Greenes recent behavior, alleging her "harassment" of colleagues, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has "reached an unacceptable level," Forbes reported. Their letter cites a February incident where Greene allegedly shouted at AOC at the Capitol for supporting "terrorists and Antifa," as well as remarks made by Greene at a rally over the weekend calling to have Ocasio-Cortez locked up.

Fox News' Michael Ruiz, Nate Day, Tyler Olson and Howard Kurtz contributed to this report.
More than 10 years ago, Leah Gilliam got a vanity license plate that her lawyer says reflects a love of astronomy and gaming.

The state of Tennessee disagrees.

Officials with the state Department of Revenue revoked Gilliams vanity plate in May, calling the contents offensive, according to state court documents.

The license plate reads 69PWNDU, which Gilliam said combines the year of the moon landing with a popular gaming term.

Gilliam, who lives in Nashville, is suing to get it back. In a complaint filed in chancery court on Monday, her lawyer said Tennessee officials discriminated against her in violation of the U.S. Constitution by restraining her free speech.

Ms. Gilliams harmless vanity plate is transparently protected by the First Amendment, and the only illegality involved is the Tennessee Department of Revenues decision to violate her First Amendment rights, said Daniel A. Horwitz of Horwitz Law PLLC, who is representing Gilliam.

The lawsuit names the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue and the state Attorney General as defendants.

A spokesperson for the state agency declined to comment in a statement to McClatchy News on Thursday, except to cite state law.

Generally, Tenn. Code Ann.  55-4-210(d)(2) prohibits the Tennessee Department of Revenue from issuing a personalized license plate that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency or that are misleading, the spokesperson said. Tenn. Code Ann.  55-5-117 authorizes the revocation of a motor vehicle registration plate that was erroneously issued contrary to the law.

According to Mondays lawsuit, Gilliam has had the vanity plate 69PWNDU for over a decade.

Gilliam described herself in court filings as an astronomy buff and a gamer. Her attorney said the vanity plate is a combination of those interests  the 69 is short for 1969, the year of the moon landing, and pwndu is gamer slang for pawned you, meaning to totally defeat or dominate, especially in a video or computer game, the lawsuit states.

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To Ms. Gilliams knowledge, her vanity plate has never caused anyone harm, her attorney said in the complaint. To the contrary, members of the public enjoy seeing it displayed.

But in a letter dated May 25, the Department of Revenue told Gilliam the plate was offensive and that she could not renew her vehicle registration until it was returned. The letter cited state statutes that give officials the right to revoke vanity plates deemed offensive to good taste or decency.

Gilliams attorney said she was threatened with a fine and jail time if she didnt comply.

He said the statutes under which Gilliams vanity plate were revoked are unconstitutional in that they violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee a right to free speech and equal protection under the law.

The state statutes are also unconstitutionally vague, according to the lawsuit.

Gilliams lawyer asked for both a temporary and permanent injunction preventing the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue from enforcing those statutes.

He also requested damages of $1 per day that Gilliam hasnt been allowed to display her vanity plate.
US apparel company Gap will close its 81 stores in Britain and Ireland by September but remain online there as it becomes a "digital first business", the retailer said Thursday.

Gap also said it had potential buyers for its outlets in France and Italy.

The move comes as the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns have pummelled brick-and-mortar businesses while giving a boost to online shopping.

"In the United Kingdom and Europe, we are going to maintain our Gap online business," Gap said in a statement.

"The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping," it said, adding: "We're becoming a digital first business."

The company said it was proposing to close all company-operated Gap Specialty and Gap Outlet stores in the UK and Ireland in a phased manner from the end of August through the end of September.

The move was "due to market dynamics" in the two countries, Gap said.

Gap arrived in the UK in 1987 and in Ireland in 2006.

The move follows a "strategic review" of the company's business in Europe which was launched last year "with the goal of finding new, more cost-effective ways to maintain a presence and serve customers" in the region, the retailer said.

Gap said it was in negotiations with Hermione People and Brands, a unit of FIB Group, to take over its stores in France.

French antitrust regulators gave FIB last week the green light to buy Gap's 21 French shops.

Gap said it was in discussion with an unidentified partner for the potential acquisition of its stores in Italy.

bur-mla/soe/lth/yad
Gap said that it would shut its UK and Republic of Ireland stores between late August and late September. Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Gap is closing all its UK and Ireland stores by the end of September, but said it would still sell clothes online.

The retailer has been struggling amid rising e-commerce competition.

Falling sales for its Gap brand have been offset by the success of its Old Navy and Athleta lines.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Gap is closing all stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland as sales fall globally for the fashion brand.

It will close all 81 stores by the end of September, but continue selling clothes online, it said Wednesday.

Gap attributed the move to "market dynamics."

"The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping," the company said in a statement. "We're becoming a digital first business and we're looking for a partner to help drive our online business."

Gap said that it would shut the stores between late August and late September. It opened its first UK store in 1987 and its first in the Republic of Ireland in 2006.

In October, Parent Gap Inc. announced the closure of 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores in North America.

Gap Inc. posted first quarter global net sales of $4 billion, up 8% compared to 2019 - but the success of its Old Navy and Athleta brands drove this increase.

First quarter revenues for its Gap brand fell 16% compared to 2019. In comparison, net sales grew 25% for Old Navy and 56% for Athleta.

"Gap was decades ahead in offering the athleisure styles which have become so popular during the pandemic," Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in a statement shared with Insider.

"But even though revenues have surged at Gap over the past year, its own brand ranges haven't set sales alight."

The 52-year-old brand, which is still "rooted in its heyday heritage," has "suffered from a kind of benign neglect," Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell, said.

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Gap said that it had started a review of its company-operated business in Europe last year to find ways to make it more cost-effective. The company said that it was in talks with Hermione People and Brands, the retail branch of FIB Group, about taking over its stores in France, and was in discussions with another partner for the potential acquisition of its Italian stores.

Online fashion giants have posted soaring revenues during the pandemic

"In this changing retail landscape and with so much shopping shifting to online, shedding expensive rents makes sense for the company, particularly given the success of online-only fashion rivals," Streeter said.

More Brits have been buying clothes online during waves of government-mandated store closures - leading to soaring revenues for online fast-fashion giants. In the year to February, Boohoo posted sales of 1.75 billion, a 41% growth year-over-year. And in the six months to February, Asos posted sales of 1.98 billion, a jump of nearly a quarter compared to the same period a year before.

Online isn't the only way for fashion brands to be successful, Hewson said. British giant Primark is topping its pre-pandemic sales despite shunning e-commerce, she said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In the estimation of Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, the Supreme Courts judgment in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee has vindicated Georgia election law.

The Brnovich decision, reached by a 6-3 conservative majority, ruled that an Arizona law banning the practice of ballot harvesting and requiring that voters cast their ballot at their assigned precinct did not violate the Voting Rights Act.

It came as welcome news for Raffensperger, whose states recently passed election law, SB 202, is the target of a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit under the same statute announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland last week.

We know that SB 202 will also be affirmed, if it gets to the Supreme Court, Raffensperger told National Review.

SB 202 requires that voters who show up to the wrong precinct before 5p.m. be directed to the correct one. If they show up after that time, they may choose to cast a provisional ballot at the one theyve already arrived at. Arizonas law  held up as lawful by the Supreme Court  states that votes cast at the wrong precinct must be thrown out.

The DOJ, seemingly reading the tea leaves of the decision, issued the following statement:

The Attorney General has made clear, the Department of Justice will never stop working to protect the democracy to which all Americans are entitled. The department remains strongly committed to challenging discriminatory election laws and will continue to use every legal tool available to protect all qualified Americans seeking to participate in the electoral process. The department urges Congress to enact additional legislation to provide more effective protection for every Americans right to vote.

The DOJ suit was brought after months of sustained attacks on the law by elected Democrats, who have likened it to Jim Crow and argued that the state Republicans who drafted the law intended to disenfranchise black voters.

Raffensperger took note of another sign that Justice Samuel Alitos majority opinion in Brnovich bodes well for defenders of Georgia election law.

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One of the things that Attorney General Garland said was that there was this legislative intent, so he alreadys been cut off at the knees and we havent even gotten to court yet, he said.

Justice Samuel Alitos majority opinion asserted that what mattered in voting rights cases was not legislative intent, but the actual words on the page and their practical effect.

And on that front, Raffensperger contends, theres no real argument to be made against SB 202, which is something he says he would have explained to MLB before the league decided to move their All Star Game out of Atlanta to protest the law. MLB representatives never contacted state Republicans as the law was being drafted. The governor and the state legislature only found out about their opposition to the law when they announced their boycott, state leaders previously told National Review.

If they had asked me and called me before they moved the MLB All-Star Game out and said Brad, what does this bill really do? I could have sat down and said this is what it really does, this is how we got here. And they would have said Oh, this sounds really reasonable. I see why you did that,' he said.

He also pushed back on Justice Elena Kagans dissenting opinion, which insists that there are ongoing voter suppression efforts at work, and claims that two [recently passed] laws even ban handing out food or water to voters standing in line appearing to refer to SB 202.

The law, which was inspired by similar legislation in New York, bans partisans from appealing to voters with food and drinks while theyre standing in line, but does not interfere with the ability of poll workers to provide refreshments.

Campaigns were encroaching in that 150 foot no campaigning zone  no politicking  and they were trying to get their last plug in for their candidate. Which is first of all politicking, but also it can lead to voter coercion, he said.

He added that Georgia has also taken steps to reduce line sizes and hold counties accountable so as to prevent the extension of the no-politicking rule from having any deleterious consequences.

Raffensperger lamented that Stacey Abramss poll-tested voter suppression narrative had filtered into one of the Supreme Court justices' views.

Of the fight to come, Raffensperger sounded confident.

I look forward to meeting them and beating them, he said.

More from National Review
By Emma Thomasson

BERLIN (Reuters) -A German minister called European soccer's governing body UEFA "utterly irresponsible" on Thursday for allowing big crowds at the Euro 2020 tournament during a spike in the coronavirus crisis from the Delta variant.

With COVID-19 restrictions varying from nation-to-nation, crowd sizes have ranged from completely full, such as 60,000 in Budapest, to 25-45 percent capacity in other venues where there have often been around 10-15,000 spectators.

"UEFA's position is utterly irresponsible," German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told a news conference.

"I cannot explain why UEFA is not being sensible ...I suspect it is due to commercialism."

Seehofer said a match with 60,000 spectators - such as Hungary's Puskas Arena and also planned for the semi-finals and final at London's Wembley stadium - would inevitably promote the spread of COVID-19.

At matches in Munich, he noted, only 14,500 fans were allowed in and all were required to wear masks, keep their distance and upload a negative COVID-19 test into an app.

In a statement to Reuters, UEFA said it was "fully alligned" with local health authorities' guidelines at every venue.

"The final decisions with regards to the number of fans attending matches and the entry requirements to any of the host countries and host stadiums fall under the responsibility of the competent local authorities, and UEFA strictly follows any such measures," it said.

WHO ANXIOUS TOO

While Europeans have been loving watching the tournament, concern over the potential health knock-on has been rising.

Scotland's health authority said earlier this week that 1,991 people had been identified as attending a Euro 2020 event while infectious, of whom 1,294 had travelled to London and 397 gone to Wembley where England played Scotland.

Finland said more than 300 nationals were infected while supporting their team.

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And Russia's deputy prime minister has called for a ban on gatherings of more than 500 people. St Petersburg is due to host a quarter-final on Friday, with 50% capacity allowed in a stadium that would usually hold 68,000 people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also weighed in on Thursday, saying crowds at Euro 2020 football stadiums and in pubs and bars in host cities were driving an infection rise.

But UEFA's Euro 2020 medical advisor Daniel Koch said vaccinations and border controls would prevent a big new wave.

"It cannot be totally excluded that events and gatherings could ultimately lead to some local increase in the number of cases," he said.

"But this would not only apply to football matches but also to any kind of situations that are now allowed as part of the easing measures decided by the competent local authorities."

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson in Berlin and Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Mitch Phillips in LondonEditing by Maria Sheahan and Andrew Cawthorne)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police raided more than 100 premises of the Bandidos motorcycle gang on Thursday and seized weapons, ammunition and large amounts of cash, the interior ministry said.

Almost 1,800 officers took part in the searches, which were focused in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and four other states, the ministry said.

The Bandidos MC group was founded in Houston, Texas in 1966 and has had a branch in Germany since 1999 with the official purpose of promoting joint motorcycling and organising events, the ministry said.

"In fact, the association is striving to gain territorial and financial power over similar competing motorcycling groups and enforces such claims with violence," it added.

The ministry did not say if anyone was arrested during the raids.

The U.S. Bandidos gang made the headlines in 2015 when they were in a deadly battle with a rival group in the Texas city of Waco that left nine people dead.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Pravin Char)
A Texas girl played dead then called for help after a shooter killed her parents and 6-year-old sister, her family said.

The 10-year-olds relatives said she was shot in the arm at a Houston apartment Wednesday night then called her grandma on FaceTime when it was safe, KTRK reported. Her 1-year-old brother was uninjured, the news outlet reported.

She said, Granny, someone came in and shot me, my mom, my dad, and my sister, and they dead, Angela Ervin, a relative, told KTRK. She was in the house for about 15 minutes with the bodies until we got here.

She FaceTimed her grandmother...showed her everything, Tamera Denton told the news outlet.

Assistant Police Chief Patty Cantu said the grandmother called 911 after learning of the shooting from the girl. The shooting happened in the living room of the apartment, she said.

This was a very, very tragic and just a horrible scene, Cantu said.

Cantu said the home had no signs of forced entry, and its possible the family knew the shooter. Detectives had surveillance video that could help in the investigation, police said.

No one had been arrested Wednesday night.

Relatives told KHOU the mother was pregnant. Her 8-year-old son was not home at the time of the shooting, the news outlet reported.

Whoever came to do this heinous crime meant to do this, the mothers cousin told KHOU. He didnt want to leave no witnesses. He didnt shoot the 1-year-old because he cant talk.

Boyfriend accused of killing Texas woman on her birthday as mom listened is sentenced

Stray bullets kill Texas mom taking her son to Naval Academy, Maryland police say
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Win McNamee/Getty Images

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a threat to his members on Wednesday, according to reports.

McCarthy targeted anyone who signs onto the Democrats' special committee on the January 6 riot.

During his Thursday press conference, however, McCarthy denied he was threatening anyone.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened his Republican members in a closed door meeting on Wednesday, according to Punchbowl News and CNN.

If any House Republicans join Speaker Nancy Pelosi's select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, "they better be ready to get all their committee assignments from her," according to Punchbowl's Thursday morning newsletter.

CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel also reported that McCarthy threatened to strip them of their committee assignments if they accept an offer to join.

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The lone Republican on the January 6 committee will be Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday.

At his weekly press conference on Thursday, McCarthy questioned Cheney's loyalty to the party and claimed he is not threatening anyone's committee assignments.

"I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi," McCarthy said, adding he found the move "unprecedented" and that Cheney may be more loyal to Pelosi than "to us."

"I don't know in history where someone would go get their committee assignments from the speaker and expect to get them from the conference as well," he continued. "Let me be clear, I'm not threatening anybody with committee assignments."

McCarthy's office did not reply to Insider's request for comment.

The California lawmaker. who has been in Congress since 2007, has promoted former President Donald Trump's false claims about the election and aligned himself with the pro-Trump forces in his caucus.

Although McCarthy's reported threat was broad, the only House Republicans who were reportedly being considered for spots on the Democrats' select committee are Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Cheney of Wyoming, both of whom are strident critics of Trump's lies about the election.

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Kinzinger responded to McCarthy's comments in the closed door meeting on Thursday morning, telling reporters on Capitol Hill "Who gives a s---?"

"I do think the threat of removing committees is ironic, because you won't go after the space lasers and white supremacist people but those who tell the truth," Kinzinger said, according to Politico.

Cheney was ousted from House GOP leadership in May after raising concerns about her colleagues' dismissal of how serious the Capitol siege was, and has subsequently said she refuses to whitewash January 6.

She was replaced by a staunch Trump ally, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who has been far less critical of the insurrection and the former president's role in inciting it.

Getting stripped of committee assignments is a serious blow to any member of Congress, leaving them with effectively no influence beyond their one vote out of 435 when legislation finally reaches the floor.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia had her committee assignments removed shortly after she arrived on Capitol Hill over past anti-Semitic and conspiratorial comments, despite most of her fellow Republicans defending her and warning of a slippery slope.

It has also happened to former Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa after years of racist comments and one particular white supremacist remark in 2019, where he was quoted by The New York Times in an interview: "White nationalist, white supremacist - Western civilization, how did that language become offensive?"

Read the original article on Business Insider
The IMF is bullish on the US economic recovery, predicting growth will hit 7 percent this year -- much stronger than previously forecast and "the fastest pace in a generation," the fund said in a report Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund's annual review of the US economy also boosted the 2022 GDP forecast by 1.4 percentage points over the April estimate to 4.9 percent.

But while the IMF mostly cheered President Joe Biden's policies to support the economy, the report flagged "significant concern" over the fact he has not pulled back on tariffs on goods like steel and aluminum imposed by his predecessor.

The US has seen a "remarkable recovery," the fund said, helped by "unprecedented" support from government spending and the Federal Reserve's "highly effective" stimulus measures.

The report notes the potential for growth to be even higher than forecast, but the outlook assumes $4.3 trillion in spending over the next decade from Biden's proposed American Jobs Plan (AJP) and American Families Plan (AFP).

Together those programs would fuel a 5 percent GDP increase for 2022-2024, the IMF estimated.

However, if Congress fails to approve the legislation or sharply curtails the size, that would reduce the growth boost.

The IMF said there is "solid empirical evidence ... of the societal payoffs" of such programs and said "a permanent increase in taxes on corporate profits and on high income households is warranted" to pay for them.

The Washington-based crisis lender reserved its harshest comments for Biden's trade policies, and said removing trade barriers would help support his worker-centric agenda.

"It is of significant concern, therefore, that many of the trade distortions introduced over the past four years remain in place," the fund said.

Biden has continued tariffs imposed by former president Donald Trump on imported steel and aluminum, washing machines, solar panels, "as well as a range of goods imported from China."

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The IMF also questioned the tougher requirements set by the Trump administration for US products in government procurement which remain in place.

"These policies should be reconsidered. Trade restrictions and tariff increases should be rolled back and 'Buy American' provisions should be tightly circumscribed," the report said.

hs/st
Gonzalo Higuain may have made his return to the field during Inter Miami CFs last game, but dont expect the Argentine forward to play his typical minutes this weekend.

After staying back in South Florida during Inter Miamis loss to D.C. United on June 19 to work on his fitness, Higuain was used as a substitute for the first time during his Inter Miami career versus Orlando City SC last Friday.

He came into the match at the 61st minute and ended Inter Miamis 358-minute scoring drought with a goal in the games 67th minute before Miami fell to its in-state rival 2-1.

Expect for Higuain to play a similar role for Inter Miami in their away match against CF Montreal on Saturday.

With Gonzalo, weve obviously got him on a special program, coach Phil Neville said Thursday afternoon. Hes going to stick with the program in terms of the minutes hes going to be playing. We realized that wed need for minutes against Orlando. He came on and gave us that little bit of that quality with the goal, but its a long-term program weve got for him.

We wanted to make sure when we come to the New York Red Bulls game [on July 17] that weve got every single player at the level to compete in every single game. Were going to stick with the plan.

Neville added that Higuain has more minutes in him, but are allowing him to incrementally increase his workload so hell ready for the seasons busier stretches.

In the last couple of games weve been really fantastic in terms of our aggression, pressing and the energy weve got in that position, said Neville, who praised Julian Carranza and Jay Chapman for their defense at the top of the teams formation. Weve just got to make sure when Gonzalo comes back into the team, its the right moment for him to be able to perform at his best level.

Neville added: [Higuains] been really mature and has shown his experience in terms of him driven this and us obviously guiding him to the point where he can compete. The goals  hell always score. I think its the competition, feeling of going out there and being better than your opponent that we want to get him to and he wants to get to more importantly.

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This week has been his best week in terms of his level of leadership around the group.

Higuains teammates have felt the boost in morale.

Theres a different aura about him when hes scoring, Chapman said. Hes been very active within the group. Hes starting to look fitter. Hes running more in training. He looks sharp. Hes a very important part of this team  not just when hes playing, but in the locker room. Hes definitely taken a step up in terms of how hes applying himself this week.

Injury update

With Gregore and Ryan Shawcross available for Saturdays match after serving one-game suspensions versus Orlando City due to receiving red cards against D.C. United, Neville said hell have a fully-fit team at his disposal against CF Montreal outside of Robbie Robinson and Joevin Jones.

Robinson has missed six of Inter Miamis last seven games due to a hamstring injury that he originally sustained in late April. He fully participated in the teams practice on Thursday for the first time in weeks, with Neville said Robinson should be OK to return to the game-day roster after Saturdays match.

Jones injured his knee during stoppage time of the loss to Orlando, with Neville saying Jones was still getting tests done to determine how long hell need to be sidelined.
The community will have the opportunity to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a free virtual educational series.

The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, in partnership with its Judi and Allan Schuman Center for Israel Engagement, will host the six-part series, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A View From The Region, at noon on Mondays from July 19-Aug. 23.

The series will be led by Avi Melamed, an Israeli educator, Middle East strategic intelligence analyst, author of Inside the Middle East: Making Sense of the Most Dangerous and Complicated Region on Earth and co-author of Separate and Unequal.

Melamed said in a news release, This series traces how events and developments in the Middle East shaped  and continue to shape - the course of the conflict and its trajectory.

Understanding the history and evolution and the links in the chain offers a platform for out-of-the-box thinking to promote a productive and sustainable arrangement that could provide Israelis and Palestinians a constructive breakthrough, he continued. And finally, this series provides a framework for constructive, productive and unifying conversations to bridge differing and opposing views.

The series first five sessions will consist of 45-minute presentations and 15 minutes of Q&A; the sixth session will be 90 minutes and include custom film footage, interviews and a concluding Q&A with residents who live in the regions, including one from the Gaza border and one from the Lebanese border.

Visit jewishboca.org/israelpa to register for the Zoom series, or call 561-852-3100 for more information. Sessions will be recorded for later viewing on the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach Countys YouTube channel.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The majority ruling by South Africa's top court, sentencing Jacob Zuma to 15 months in jail, was an "emotional and angry" unconstitutional decision, the former president's foundation said on Wednesday.

Zuma failed to appear at a corruption inquiry led by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in February, prompting the inquiry's lawyers to ask the Constitutional Court to seek an order for his imprisonment.

On Tuesday, the court sentenced Zuma to jail, and gave him five days to appear before police.

The Jacob Zuma Foundation said in a statement that Zuma had never believed he was above the law, but had only wanted his rights protected.

"Our Patron has expressed his doubts about the lawfulness of the Zondo Commission, the biased manner in which it is being conducted, and the fact that it has been transformed into a "slaughterhouse" and a forum in which all kinds of unsubstantiated and defamatory allegations have been made against him," the foundation said.

Zondo has denied being biased against Zuma and has dismissed Zuma's bid to recuse him as chairman of the inquiry.

The Zondo inquiry is examining allegations of high-level graft involving the Gupta brothers, three Indian-born businessmen, during Zuma's time in office from 2009 to 2018. Zuma denies wrongdoing and has so far not cooperated. The Guptas have also denied wrongdoing.

Judge Sisi Khampepe, who read Tuesday's judgement, refuted a 21-page letter that Zuma sent to the country's chief justice in which he claimed to have been treated unfairly.

"His attempts to evoke public sympathy through unfounded allegations fly in the face of reason, and are an insult the constitutional dispensation for which so many women and men fought and lost their lives," Khampepe said.

But Zuma's foundation said the ruling was contrary to the rule of law, arguing the commission was given an advantage in a case that was adjudicated by Zondo's colleagues.

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"The Jacob Zuma Foundation denounces Judge Khampepe's judgment as judicially emotional and angry and not consistent with our constitution."

"At a bare minimum. ..the courts must act independently and without bias, with unremitting fidelity to the law, and must be seen doing so. That did not happen in the constitutional court," the statement read.

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Two key American allies in the Indo-Pacific region are launching their first joint air force exercises as the United States seeks to assemble a coalition to counter threats from China.

As a strategic partner and friend of the Philippines, we hope that our bilateral training will contribute to further strengthen the cooperation between our two Air Forces, Japan Air Self-Defense Force Maj. Mizuno Masaki said Thursday in a statement released by the Japanese Embassy in Manila.

Japan is emerging as an entrepreneurial power in a burgeoning alliance of democracies that U.S. officials hope will help deter a war with China. The four-day exercise will focus on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, but the unprecedented drills reflect Tokyos alarm about Beijings growing military power and aggression in territorial disputes with neighbors  not only Japan but also with the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte has tried to develop a warm relationship with Beijing at the expense of a historic mutual defense treaty with the U.S.

Japan and the Philippines are both natural disaster-prone countries and there are so much we can share on disaster relief operations for saving lives and alleviating the suffering of people in need, Mizuno said. We aim for achieving a higher level of coordination and operative capabilities on HA/DR through our training exercises with the PAF.

US AND JAPAN WARN CHINA NOT TO ATTACK TAIWAN

The announcement was made on the same day that American officials in Manila kicked off commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Treaty of Manila, which was signed on July 4, 1946, and established diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Philippines.

"Through wars, natural disasters, pandemics, and whatever else may come our way, the U.S.-Philippine relationship is ... thriving at 75, John Law, the top U.S. diplomat at the embassy in Manila, said Thursday.

The Philippines figure as one of the most important U.S. allies in the region, given its location in relation to strategic waterways, but Dutertes fear of China and aversion to American human rights positions have impeded strategists in both countries who want to improve security cooperation to deter China.

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In the meantime, China has claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, home to some of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in the world, without regard for the claims of the Philippines and other states in the region. Chinese Peoples Liberation Army forces also have deployed surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles to artificial islands, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This is a big, big threat  not just for us in Asian people, but also the concern of even the American citizens or the European countries, Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama told the Hudson Institute this week while discussing Chinas militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea. So thats why all the European countries, and also, of course, the United States, the armed forces [are] now coming forward and together exercising in the Asia. And so those kind of exercise, I think, its we can show the deterrence towards the country who is doing what I told you  those kind of very dangerous activities.

The Japanese Embassy alluded to these controversies at the announcement of the impending air force exercises.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Japan reiterates the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) which is inclusive and based on the rule of law, democratic values, territorial integrity, transparency, and peaceful resolution of disputes, and underscores its intention to work together with the Philippines and other partner countries through a wide range of activities and cooperation for peace, stability, and prosperity in our regions and beyond, the embassy announcement said.



Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Foreign Policy, National Security, Rodrigo Duterte, Philippines, China, Japan, South China Sea

Original Author: Joel Gehrke

Original Location: Japan launches air force drills with Philippines under big threat from China
An Olathe man admitted Thursday in Johnson County District Court to secretly videotaping women as they undressed in a Nordstrom Rack fitting room in Lenexa after he was caught in the act by one woman two years ago.

Jonathan M. Falen, 46, pleaded guilty to a single felony count of breach of privacy. The charges stemmed from an incident that occurred in April 2019 at the Nordstrom at 95th Street and Quivera Road.

According to court records, a woman was trying on swimsuits when she noticed a phone being held with the camera facing up below the changing rooms divider by someone in the next room. She left the changing room and told a friend.

When her friend entered the same changing room, she saw the camera again. The friend told Falen she saw what he had done and then notified store employees.

Under a plea agreement struck in Johnson County, Falen admitted to a single count of breach of privacy with a term of probation for 18 months. He was initially charged with three counts of the same crime.

The plea agreement also requires Falen to obtain and follow a sex offender evaluation. The parties also agreed not to make a sexual finding that would trigger a sex offender registration requirement under Kansas law.

He also cannot have contact with any of the victims or the Nordstrom Rack and its employees.

The Stars Katie Bernard contributed to this report.
AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah left for the United States on Thursday for a three-week visit that includes the first meeting by an Arab leader with President Joe Biden at the White House since he took office, a palace statement said.

The statement said the monarch, accompanied by his wife Queen Rania, would attend an investors meeting followed by a private itinerary ahead of a working visit to Washington for talks with congressional leaders and administration officials.

An official said the king's talks with Biden were expected some time after mid-July.

The staunch U.S. ally will lobby senior officials for an extension of a five-year $6.4 billion aid package that ends next year to help shore up Jordan's struggling economy, the official added.

Washington is Jordan's single largest source of bilateral assistance, providing more than $1.5 billion every year, and the kingdom ranks among the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid, U.S. diplomats say.

Biden reaffirmed strong U.S. support for the monarch shortly after the kingdom announced it had quashed a rift within the royal family that shook Jordan's image as a beacon of stability in the region.

Abdullah had strongly opposed former U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, which he saw as a national security threat that would also undermine his Hashemite family's custodianship of the holy sites in Jerusalem.

Officials say the shift in U.S. policy under Biden towards a more traditional commitment to a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict has relieved pressure on Jordan.

A majority of Jordan's 10 million population are of Palestinian origin.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Giles Elgood)
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) -A Jordanian military court on Thursday rejected a defence request to have the kingdom's Prince Hamza and others testify as witnesses in a case against a former royal confidant accused of destabilising the monarchy, a defence lawyer said.

Prince Hamza, the estranged former heir to the throne at the centre of the case, was accused of liaising with disgruntled

members of powerful tribes who dominate the security forces and form the bedrock of support for the Hashemite monarchy.

He avoided any legal process in April after pledging allegiance to the king, defusing a crisis that had led to his house arrest.

But charges remained against former royal confidant Bassem Awadallah, including agitating to undermine Jordan's political system, committing acts that threaten public security and sowing sedition. He has pleaded not guilty.

Legal experts have questioned the legality of a trial when the man at the centre of the case, Prince Hamza, is not in the dock.

The authorities have said the trial process is fair.

Defence lawyer Mohammad Afif said the military court's decision not to take testimony from a list of potential defence witnesses - also including the prime minister and other princes - suggested the verdict could be swift.

"With no defence evidence, there could be a verdict within a week," he told Reuters. He did not elaborate on any reasons given by the court for refusing the defence request.

The military court has held its proceedings in secret since the trial started last week after authorities said public hearings would compromise national security.

The prosecution case relies on voice messages intercepted by the intelligence forces that allegedly show how Hamza was waiting for the right moment to act.

He was getting Awadallah's advise on the right tweets to exploit a wave of street protests over growing hardship.

Lawyers say there is no evidence of any plot that relied on accomplices within the army and secuirty forces. The authorities say they nipped in the bud a potential coup.

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The case shocked Jordan because it appeared to expose rifts within the ruling Hashemite family that has been a beacon of stability in a volatile region in recent years.

Officials say the prosecution evidence also shows that Hamza wanted Awadallah to use his close relationship with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to seek support for Hamza's bid to become king.

Awadallah, who challenged a conservative establishment opposed to his liberal policies and has close ties to senior U.S. officials, promised to lobby on Hamza's behalf in Western capitals and Saudi Arabia, according to the charge sheet.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by John Stonestreet and Andrew Heavens)
One of the two women who were convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing will be released early from a state mental institution, a Wisconsin judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Michael O. Bohren agreed to Anissa Weier's March petition for release, which argued that the now-19-year-old woman was no longer a threat to herself or society.

Bohren noted that hospital staff said Weier didn't exhibit "psychotic" behaviors and ordered state officials to produce her release plan within 60 days. Weier's next hearing is on September 10.

Weier is to remain in the Winnebago Mental Health Institute until then.

In 2017, Weier was sentenced to 25 years in a mental institution after she pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide.

In 2014, Weier and her friend Morgan Geyser lured their friend Payton Leutner into the woods of their Milwaukee suburb. At the time, all three girls were 12 years old.

As Weier egged her on, Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times. Leutner barely survived and was rescued by a passerby.

Weier and Geyser said that they tried to kill the girl to curry favor with a fictional horror character called the Slender Man.

Geyser is serving the maximum of 40 years in the mental hospital.

Maura McMahon, Weier's attorney, did not immediately respond to a NBC News request for comment.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin judge on Thursday ordered the release of a woman who has spent 3 1/2 years in a state mental health facility after being convicted of stabbing her classmate to please the Slender Man character.

Anissa Weier, 19, was sentenced to 25 years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in December 2017. She argued in a petition for conditional release that she's no longer a threat to anyone.

She won't be allowed to go free immediately, however. Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren gave state officials 60 days to draw up a conditional release plan and sent Weier back to the mental hospital pending another hearing on Sept. 10.

In addition to the conditions of release, Weier will be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she's 37 years old, the length of her commitment.

The May 2014 stabbing happened after Weier and friend Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods at a Waukesha park following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier encouraged Geyser to inflict the injuries. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

Weier and Geyser left Leutner for dead, but she crawled out of the woods and was found by a passing bicyclist. She suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived.

Weier and Geyser told investigators they stabbed Leutner because they thought Slender Man was real. They said they thought attacking her would make them his servants and keep him from killing their families.

When Weier petitioned Bohren for conditional release in March, she said she had exhausted all her treatment options at Winnebago and she needed to rejoin society. She vowed she'd never let herself become a weapon again" and promised to comply with whatever conditions Bohren imposed.

Prosecutors countered in court filings that Weier is still immature and susceptible to dangerous influences. They said she attracts people with myriad psychological issues of their own and there's no guarantee she won't attack someone again.

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But Bohren found prosecutors failed to prove Weier remains a threat and that nothing suggests she'll hurt people again, according to online court records documenting Thursday's hearing.

Asked via email for comment on Weier's reaction to the judge's decision, her attorney, Maura McMahon, said only that Weier was led out of the courtroom pretty quickly.

Bohren sentenced Geyser in February 2018 to 40 years in a mental health facility. She has argued that her case should have been heard in juvenile court but has gotten no traction. An appellate court ruled last year that the case was properly heard in adult court. The state Supreme Court in January refused to review that decision.

___

Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
Former Afghan interpreters for American forces demonstrate at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on June 25, 2021.

With predictions of a Taliban victory within months of an American exit from Afghanistan, White House critics are already declaring that Joe Biden will own the result.

That isn't fair, of course, since the war was never decisively waged by four successive presidents, the Kabul regime was chronically corrupt and the American public has long since lost patience with 20 years of spent blood and treasure.

But it isn't entirely wrong, either.

Exit President Donald Trump

In Biden's race for the exit, any chance of pressuring opposing factions into a peace settlement was forfeited.

The Trump administration last year brought the Taliban to the table to begin negotiating an end to the war. And at first it looked promising.

There was a seven-day reduction of violence (not quite a cease-fire). An agreement between the United States and Taliban that included an initial U.S. reduction in forces from 13,000 to 8,600, a Taliban promise to renounce terror organizations operating on Afghan soil, and initiation of final peace talks with the Kabul government.

That last provision was key.

But as months passed without any serious effort by Taliban leaders to talk peace with the democratically elected government of President Ashraf Ghani, President Donald Trump gave away leverage by continuing to withdraw U.S. troops and negotiating a May 1 exit deadline with the Taliban. He wanted to boast in an election year that he was "bringing our soldiers back home."

Enter President Joe Biden

Meanwhile, Taliban attacks across the country mounted. By the time Biden took office, U.S. troop levels were down to 2,500, supplemented by 7,000 NATO soldiers, devoted not to ground combat but to training Afghan forces, providing air support for Afghan operations or conducting counterterrorism missions.

U.S. casualties were nonexistent. Biden might have slowed down the exodus of troops and made further drawdowns contingent on the Taliban at least making a good faith effort to reach a peace deal with the Kabul government.

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Instead, Biden did the opposite, announcing in April that all troops would leave. And soon. He first set a deadline of Sept. 11. Then moved it way up to July 4 (which is this Sunday) or shortly thereafter. Several hundred troops will remain to provide security for diplomats.

Biden said it was "time to end the forever war." But, of course, that war wasn't ending. America was simply pulling up stakes, a move that only encouraged more war as the Taliban stepped up offensive operations.

Taliban battlefield successes

Militants have captured 50 district capitals since May 1, and they now control a third of the country and contest 42% more. Even their commanders are startled by their rapid battlefield successes. Meanwhile, battered and homeless Afghan women are fleeing shelters in the north to escape the brutally restrictive Taliban, and the rights of women across the country are in jeopardy.

The latest U.S. intelligence assessment is that the government in Kabul could collapse in six months, according to The Wall Street Journal. And the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller, told reporters Tuesday of his concern that the nation could devolve into civil war once NATO troops leave.

Nor is there a guarantee terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida won't once again use Afghanistan as a base of operations. The Taliban and al-Qaida have never severed ties. With U.S. troops gone, America's ability to monitor terrorism activities will diminish.

Evacuate Afghan interpreters

The Biden administration is at least planning to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces and now risk retribution from the Taliban. They're to be taken to other countries while processing U.S. entry applications. The lives of 18,000 are at stake, along with about 53,000 family members.

The task is daunting. Necessary. And the time to accomplish is quickly running out.

From right, President Joe Biden, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah meet at the White House on June 25, 2021.

But America is certainly leaving. "Afghans are going to have to decide their future," Biden said on June 25, as he met with Ghani and promised $266 million in humanitarian aid, $3.3 billion in security assistance and millions of COVID-19 shots.

There's some talk in the Pentagon of seeking authorization to launch airstrikes from outside Afghanistan in support of beleaguered government forces. This would be important if it's approved by the White House, though logistically challenging.

But Biden may say no. He seems hellbent to wash his hands of this forever war.

So be it. But the reality is that should there be harrowing images of a democracy in its death throes beamed back into American mobile devices and living rooms in the months to come, the stain left on the Biden presidency will never go away.

USA TODAY's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff and the USA TODAY Network. Most editorials are coupled with an Opposing View, a unique USA TODAY feature.

To read more editorials, go to the Opinion front page or sign up for the daily Opinion email newsletter. To respond to this editorial, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: July Fourth: Joe Biden abandons Afghanistan independence to Taliban
Just days ago, Catholic priest Juan Sosa was ministering to parishioners and visitors at his Surfside, Florida church.

Now he wonders how many of them may be buried in the mound of rubble that the 12-story Champlain Towers South collapsed into, plunging his church and the rest of the oceanside community into mourning as a lengthy search process entered its seventh day Wednesday.

"They're just beside themselves because they knew some of the members, of course. They're very affected," he said, estimating that between 18 and 22 -- or more -- of his regulars are missing.

As for the relatives whom Sosa has spoken to of the 16 people confirmed dead, "You just have to listen to them," he told AFP.

"There's nothing to converse at the moment. Just listen and be with them."

With more than 140 people still unaccounted for and no survivors found since the immediate aftermath of the beachfront building's sudden collapse in the early hours of Thursday, Surfside, population 5,725, is hoping for a miracle -- but steeling itself for grim news.

Rescuers from across the United States and as far away as Israel and Mexico are combing through the mass of debris left behind by the cave-in, as counselors and clergy work with relatives of the victims to help them process the disaster that has turned their lives upside down.

"They're in a sense of limbo and that's going to be one of the most dangerous times psychologically for what people can experience," said Raphael Poch, a psychotrauma counselor who came from Israel alongside a search-and-rescue team.

- Few answers -

When disaster strikes in Florida, it usually comes during the yearly hurricane season, and building collapses are uncommon in the United States overall.

While speculation has focused on whether a lack of maintenance caused the destruction, there are no answers yet on the event's precise trigger, nor an explanation for the families of those who have disappeared -- rescuers are only finding a handful of bodies each day, and sometimes just one.

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Poch, who has responded to disasters worldwide, said counselors have found it useful to interview families or find other ways for them to assist with the response, both to aid rescuers' work and also to give them something to focus on amid the uncertainty.

"That's giving them the sense that they're not helpless, that they're helping the situation," Poch said.

"And that's very, very important in preventing severe psychological reactions, which can happen afterwards if the senses of helplessness and loneliness are allowed to just continue unchecked throughout the limbo process."

Details like where someone tended to sleep and how they laid out their apartment have helped rescuers create a three-dimensional map of the rubble, which they're using to direct their search. The information has also helped narrow down the list of who may be trapped.

But with rescuers conceding that there's little evidence of life under the pile of concrete and rebar, counselors are girding for mourning.

We're "still trying to keep families fixated on their faith and remain hopeful and to begin to prepare people for what could be," said Ryan Saunders, a priest at a Miami church that is missing three parishioners who were staying at a friend's apartment in the building.

As the search goes on, Saunders said he and other priests expect to attend funerals and be with relatives as they grieve in the weeks to come.

"That, I think, does help bring a sense of closure, but at the same time, families will feel voids for years to come," he said.

cs/caw
South Korean military prosecution demanded a five-year prison term for disgraced former K-pop star Seungri over charges stemming from a sex and drug scandal, reports said Thursday.

The 30-year-old singer from popular boyband BIGBANG has been indicted on accusations including arranging prostitution, embezzlement and illicit gambling.

He enlisted as an army conscript last year, with the military court hearing his trial.

All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to fulfil around two years of military service to defend the country from nuclear-armed North Korea, with which it remains technically at war.

Military prosecutors on Thursday asked the judge to impose a five-year jail term and a 20 million won (US$18,000) fine.

"Even though the accused is the one who benefited the most from the crime, he is blaming others and severe punishment is needed," local reports cited the prosecutors as saying.

BIGBANG enjoyed widespread fame following its 2006 debut and Seungri went on to become a successful businessman, but the public backlash over the scandal and formal investigations caused him to retire from showbiz in 2019.

Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung-hyun, is accused of habitual overseas gambling at luxurious casinos in Las Vegas involving illicit foreign exchange transactions.

He is also suspected of arranging sex services for potential investors in his business.

The investigation into the scandal surrounding him uncovered a spate of allegations against other musicians and personnel at YG Entertainment -- Seungri's former agency and one of the biggest K-pop management firms.

It prompted the agency CEO Yang Hyun-suk to step down last year facing probes of his own into illicit gambling.

sh/slb/qan
With the clock ticking on federal unemployment benefits in Maryland, lawyers for jobless residents were working Thursday evening to get a judge to review two lawsuits that seek to force the state to continue the payments.

Both cases were brought by unemployed Marylanders and center on Gov. Larry Hogans decision to end federal pandemic benefits. The state plans to end the programs Saturday.

Attorneys with the Public Justice Center and the Unemployed Workers Union, which organized the separate lawsuits, scrambled Thursday to get a last-minute hearing scheduled in Baltimore Circuit Court before the state stops paying the benefits.

If a hearing is scheduled, it is likely to be held Friday afternoon on Zoom, according to an email attorneys received from the court Thursday evening.

They want a judge to issue an order stopping Maryland from cutting off the federal aid, which provides $300 weekly supplements and helps people not typically covered by unemployment insurance, such as the self-employed.

The federal government authorized the benefits until September, but Hogan announced June 1 that Maryland would end them early, citing job growth and employer complaints of severe worker shortages. About two dozen other Republican-led states have also moved to halt the payments.

Lawyers for the unemployed say many people who lost work because of the pandemic still cannot find jobs and that ending the federal benefits is cutting off a lifeline for thousands of Maryland families.

Over the last two days, lawyers representing Hogan and Maryland Labor Secretary Tiffany Robinson unsuccessfully tried to move the cases to federal court.

They said in legal filings that federal court had jurisdiction, arguing among other reasons that the matter rises and falls with this Courts interpretation of the CARES Act, the federal law that has provided supplemental jobless benefits.

But after hearing arguments Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett agreed with lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case filed Wednesday by the Public Justice Center, who said the case belonged in state court. Their lawsuit claims that Hogan and Robinson have violated their obligations under state law and the Maryland Constitution.

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Federal question jurisdiction does not automatically arise merely because there are federal funds involved, Bennett said in a telephone court proceeding before issuing an order later Thursday remanding the case to Baltimore Circuit Court. The laws abundantly clear on that.

State agencies are typically represented by the Maryland Attorney Generals Office, but attorneys from the private law firm Venable are now representing Hogan and Robinson. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, has publicly opposed Hogans decision to end the pandemic unemployment benefits.

With time running out, plaintiffs attorney Robbie Leonard said lawyers representing the unemployed will keep up their fight until the end.

Were confident in our pleadings ... and we know that were fighting on the right side, said Leonard, who is working with the Unemployed Workers Union.

A similar case is playing out in Indiana, where a judge last week granted a preliminary injunction ordering that state to continue to paying the federal benefits there.
Move forward

Getting vaccinated is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones from COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccines were made to save lives. They are safe and effective, and they help your body develop immunity to the virus. Vaccines cannot give you COVID-19 because they do not contain the live virus that causes the illness.

The vaccines prevent nearly 100% of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, and now everyone age 12 and older in the United States is eligible to be vaccinated for free, regardless of citizenship status. In fact, more than 170 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

To find a vaccination provider near you, go to vaccines.gov, text your ZIP code to 438829 on your mobile device or call 1-800-232-0233.

If you have been vaccinated, encourage others to do so. Learn about how to talk to your friends and family about getting vaccinated at wecandothis.hhs.gov.

Every person who chooses to get vaccinated brings us all a step closer to moving past the pandemic.

Thank you for playing your part. #WeCanDoThis.

- Nancy Rios, Regional administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Regional Operations Region 7, Kansas City

Legal ploy?

Over recent weeks, many of our Missouri legislators have decided people on Medicaid should not have any funding. (June 23, 12A, Bumbling, indifference risk Missouri Medicaid funding) But they did find a way to get more money for the state public defender system. (June 24, 1A, Missouri public defender system to get funding for more attorneys)

Does it seem obvious that lawyer legislators want to help their lawyer friends make more money? This does not smell quite right.

Maybe every one of these legislators should be voted out in the next election.

- G. Ray Nichols, Kansas City

My team, your team

I read with dismay about Missouri Gov. Mike Parson not being convinced Kevin Strickland is innocent, so he is balking on releasing him after 40 years in prison. (June 25, 1A, Parson not convinced Strickland is innocent) Im guessing its really a political thing and Parson will do nothing for a Democrat, which he presumes Strickland likely is.

Story continues

Parson expressed no misgivings with Donald Trump pardoning all those crooks like Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, because theyre part of the gang. On the other hand, Strickland, with 40-plus years behind bars, has more than paid his dues even if he had done the crime.

Parson says he cant be responsible if Strickland is released and then hurts someone else. Has he not noticed that Strickland is in a wheelchair and its very unlikely he could hurt anyone?

We have become so extremely polarized now that common sense and any compassion have completely disappeared. What has happened to us, and what has our democracy become?

The fanaticism that the Trump presidency has brought to the United States has ruined us as a country and a compassionate people. How sad is that?

- Tom Wolff, Overland Park

Pay the police

Recently there was a stickup at Community America Bank on Missouri 291, a block from my home. A few weeks ago, a fellow I grew up with in Lafayette County named Steven B. Turner Jr. was accused of killing two women, presumably in a drug deal gone wrong. (May 29, 16A, Man charged with 2 counts of first-degree murder in shooting in Independence over weekend)

I looked up what a starting police officer in Independence makes  a paltry $19 an hour. Thats nothing. No wonder the city doesnt have enough police.

The mayor and City Council desperately need to pay the police what theyre worth instead of wasting time handing out TIFs. Imagine if we paid $35 an hour?

- Holmes Osborne, Independence
For more than two months, Mitch McConnell has excoriated President Joe Bidens decision to leave Afghanistan as a hasty abandonment that will threaten the U.S. homeland and lead to a likely catastrophe.

An accelerated exit that will now pull a significant number of U.S. troops out by this weekends July 4th holiday could determine the prescience of the Senate Minority Leaders dire warnings sooner than expected.

Whereas military officials have said that al-Qaeda could regroup to target the U.S. in two years, McConnell conveyed just last week that he suspects this threat will come much more quickly.

The threats we face from terrorism and tyranny have not been defeated, the Kentuckian said after meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Capitol.

This week, the U.S.s top general in the country, Gen. Austin Miller, relayed that the Taliban has already overtaken portions of Afghanistan, potentially converting Americas longest foreign war into a bloody internecine civil war.

But even analysts who oppose an immediate U.S. pullout doubt that al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies could reassemble dominance under a watchful U.S. eye.

I think we will devote lots of intelligence to the problem to be sure sanctuaries dont develop  in the short term or the longer term of a few years, said Michael OHanlon, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute specializing in defense and foreign policy. But it is unlikely that we will be unable to see a huge ISIS or al-Qaeda sanctuary develop. Thus the odds against a major staging base are modest, I hope.

But, OHanlon added, McConnell is right that we are entering uncharted territorywith some echoes, alas, of the situation in the 1990s, if Afghanistan collapses and/or comes under Taliban rule.

Retired Gen. David Patreaus said on a Washington Post live stream he didnt see a threat to the homeland in the near future, but needless to say well see what theyre capable of doing and were going to have to pay very close attention.

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Ever since Biden announced his decision in mid-April to remove most of American troops and U.S. contractors from Afghanistan, McConnell has responded with some of his most blistering critiques of the president.

The likely catastrophe in Afghanistan may well consume this administration, he predicted at the end of April. McConnell foresees a refugee crisis, followed by a security and economic crisis across the region, due to what he calls a retreat rooted in dangerous wishful thinking.

The Biden administration counters that it was former President Donald Trump who set in motion the timeline last year and that if we did not withdraw our troops, U.S. men and women would be facing fire on the ground, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

McConnell opposed Trumps move toward an Afghanistan pullout as well, introducing a 2019 amendment warning against precipitous withdrawal that netted 70 Senate votes.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of 26 to oppose that McConnell amendment, took to the Senate floor to challenge McConnell to introduce a fresh authorization of military force to continue a war thats two decades old.

If he believes we should stay or send more troops there, that is his right. He can offer that on the floor of the Senate, said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Why doesnt he offer that? An authorization of use of military force? I think we know the answer. Theres little or no support on his side of the aisle, nor on this side of the aisle, to make the longest war in American history, even longer.

A McConnell spokesperson notes theres already an existing authorization of military force in place for Afghanistan. The real question is if Democrats want to repeal it, like the House voted to strike down the one used for the invasion of Iraq earlier this month.

Last week, the Senate considered a bill by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana to direct the U.S. government to relocate Afghan allies, like English-speaking translators, to the U.S. before the Taliban can exact revenge.

If we dont do something theyre going to be butchered, theyre going to be gutted like a deer, Kennedy pleaded.

But Kentuckys junior senator, Rand Paul, objected, arguing that removing allies from the country would only precipitate the Talibans return to power.

The quest for liberty requires fighting, Paul said. The future of Afghanistan could be a bright future but theyre going to have to fight for it. And ultimately it is their fight.

Paul, arguably the Senates leading anti-interventionist abroad, has also said he could be further convinced on spending money on infrastructure if the U.S. stopped pouring resources into Afghanistan.

A 2020 Defense Department report calculated war-fighting costs to total $815 billion.

More than 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed and 20,000 wounded in the war since 2001. Additionally, 3,800 private security contractors and 66,000 Afghan troops have lost their lives.

The Biden administration has assured that it will continue to provide sustained security assistance, but has been vague about what that exactly entails.

Still, for the moment, American public opinion is siding with Biden over McConnell on the exit.

Sixty-two percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University in late May said they approve of the Biden withdrawal, including 41% of Republicans and 63% of independents.
This image from video from Louisiana state police state trooper Dakota DeMoss' body-worn camera, shows troopers holding up Ronald Greene before paramedics arrived on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, Louisiana. Louisiana State Police via AP

Louisiana State Police blocked an investigator from filing charges against an officer following the death of Ronald Greene, according to court documents obtained by USA Today Network.

Body camera footage shows Louisiana State Police officers beating and dragging Greene during an arrest last year.

Investigator Albert Paxton wrote that he was prevented from charging Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, whom he said turned off his body camera before the beating, documents show.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Louisiana State Police officials blocked investigators from charging an officer involved in the death of Ronald Greene, according to a report from the Lafayette Daily Advertiser and the USA Today Network.

According to documents obtained by USA Today Network, Louisiana State Police Investigator Albert Paxton wrote that he was prevented from charging Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, whom he said turned off his body camera before the beating that led to Greene's death.

Police initially said Greene died in car crash following a police chase in Monroe, Louisiana, in May 2019, but body camera footage later showed officers stunning, hitting, and dragging him during an arrest. He died on his way to the hospital.

In documents seen by USA Today Network, Paxton determined in 2019 that Hollingsworth should be charged with obstruction in the case, but department leadership blocked him from pursuing the charge.

"We were told there was no obstruction and we needed to wait on the autopsy. We didn't know where (Greene's) left hand was. Bad case law, he was turning off his camera to hide bad driving, call his girlfriend, he was the second car in the pursuit, 'what is evidence and who decides?'" Paxton wrote. "We were also told if we arrest Hollingsworth for turning off his camera then we (Bureau of Investigations) would have issues with patrol."

Hollingsworth died in a single-car crash in September 2020.

Story continues

In a statement to Insider, Louisiana State Police said the department was cooperating with a federal and state investigation into Greene's death.

"LSP continues to offer our full cooperation with the investigation and fully intends to release all available documents and investigative files at the appropriate time," the department said. "All official investigative notes and reports were included in the case file delivered to investigating agencies. All circumstances surrounding this incident are being evaluated and reviewed in conjunction with the federal investigation."

Read the original article on Insider
Five out of seven members of the board of the Surfside, Florida condominium building that collapsed last week reportedly resigned in 2019 amid infighting over the significant cost of repairs identified in an engineers report.

On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that it had obtained the resignation letter of Anette Goldstein, who was president of the condos board until she resigned in September 2019. At the time, the condo owners were concerned about the ballooning costs of repairs, which rose from about $9 million to $15 million over the course of three years.

Four other board members resigned during the following two weeks, according to minutes from a meeting in early October. Its unclear why they quit.

We work for months to go in one direction and at the very last minute objections are raised that should have been discussed and resolved right in the beginning, Goldstein wrote in her resignation letter, which was obtained by the Post. This pattern has repeated itself over and over, ego battles, undermining the roles of fellow board members, circulation of gossip and mistruths.

The newspaper spoke to another former board member, Max Friedman, who said it took a lot of time to get the ball rolling on the repairs, but added: Nobody truly believed the building was in imminent danger.

A team of rescue workers searches through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, which collapsed last week. (Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The discovery comes amid an ongoing investigation into the devastating collapse of part of the Champlain Towers South building last week. At least 18 people died in the destruction and another 145 remain missing. The search for survivors will continue for the indefinite future, the mayor of Surfside told The New York Times on Wednesday.

Investigations into the cause of the collapse will likely take months.

An October 2018 report by engineer Frank Morabito warned of major structural damage in the building. He said waterproofing below a pool deck and entrance driveway had failed. During his inspection, Morabito also found abundant cracking in concrete columns, beams and walls and said repair work would be necessary to maintain the structural integrity of the building.

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The same engineering firm was hired 18 months later, in June 2020, to begin the process of detailing what work needed to be done. The condo board voted to pay for the $15 million in upgrades in April 2021, but at the time of the collapse, the major repairs had not started.

At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were underway, but concrete restoration had not yet begun, the firm said in a statement last month, per The Associated Press.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
A tornado warning briefly covered Annapolis on Thursday afternoon as several severe storms moved through Central Maryland, leaving behind fallen trees and isolated flooding.

Much of the Baltimore area was under a severe thunderstorm watch for most of the day and several specific areas were under severe warnings. Storms dropped nearly an inch of rain as of 6 p.m., according to measurements recorded by the National Weather Service at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The tornado warning near Annapolis halted proceedings in the Capital Gazette shooting trial, forcing those inside the courtroom to head to the basement. The warning expired at 4 p.m.

A flash flood watch was also in effect but has since been lifted by the weather service for most of the region. Portions of Anne Arundel County remain under the advisory until Friday morning.

Forecasters say a cold front moving through the region Thursday night will likely bring more rain overnight and a low of around 70 degrees. A quarter to half an inch of rain could fall, the weather service said.

After a sweltering start to the week, temperatures were milder Thursday  the high was 85  and are likely to stay that way in the coming days. Friday and Saturdays high should be around 80 degrees. At least some rain showers are likely each of those days, but forecasters are predicting a sunny Independence Day with a high near 83 degrees. The sun will stay out Monday, when temperatures could once again reach the 90s.
Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene appear at a joint event on 27 May. (Getty Images)

US Rep Matt Gaetz and several other House Republicans have written to Britney Spears asking the pop star to testify to Congress following her rare public remarks condemning her fathers legal mechanism that has governed her life for more than a decade.

Ms Spears detailed the abusive depths of the conservatorship and has pleaded for her release for years during her revealing courtroom testimony in her conservatorship case.

In a letter dated 30 June, Mr Gaetz said: Congress can make things better and you can inform our policy decisions. If you will speak to Congress, we are ready to listen.

Please take advantage of the empowerment that public congressional testimony can unlock, he wrote.

The letter is signed by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs and Burgess Owens.

Ms Spearss father, Jamie Spears, was the legal manager of his daughters multimillion-dollar estate since 2008; Jodi Montgomery, a private fiduciary, has served in that role since 2019.

In her testimony in a Los Angeles court on 23 June, Ms Spears detailed legal constraints against her, including a forced IUD contraception.

The recent adoption of the #FreeBritney movement by right-wing officials and personalities, among the most vocal proponents of anti-abortion policy and restrictive reproductive healthcare measures, has served as their platform for exposing guardianship abuse.

In March, Mr Gaetz and US Rep Jim Jordan requested that House Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler hold a hearing on conservatorships.

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Bessemer Trust, a wealth management firm that was set to become the co-conservator of Britney Spears estate alongside her father, filed in court on 1 July a request to withdraw from the agreement.

Mr Gaetz currently is facing a federal law enforcement investigation stemming from the prosecution of a Florida official who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor, among other felony charges.

Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector, admitted to introducing a minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with her, according to a plea agreement filed on 14 May. The other men were not named. He has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in other cases.

Story continues

Mr Gaetz also faces a House Ethics Committee investigation following similar allegations; he has denied any wrongdoing.

A group of 37 House Democrats on Thursday have also demanded Republican leadership take immediate action against Ms Greene, a far-right freshman lawmaker from Georgia whose harassment of colleagues has reached an unacceptable level, they claimed.

Read More

Matt Gaetz claiming he wants to #FreeBritney isnt cute or harmless

Britney Spears: Firm set to become co-conservator wants to resign due to changed circumstances

Why is Britney Spears still under a conservatorship when Bill Cosby is free?

Britney Spears claims of forced IUD amount to reproductive coercion, womens rights groups say

Britney Spears: Pop stars statement to court against conservatorship in full
The United States and Mexico are tussling over their dwindling shared water supplies after years of unprecedented heat and insufficient rainfall.

Map showing the American Southwest and northern Mexico

Sustained drought on the middle-lower Rio Grande since the mid-1990s means less Mexican water flows to the U.S. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies seven U.S. states and two Mexican states, is also at record low levels.

A 1944 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico governs water relations between the two neighbors. The International Boundary and Water Commission it established to manage the 450,000-square-mile Colorado and Rio Grande basins has done so adroitly, according to our research.

That able management kept U.S.-Mexico water relations mostly conflict-free. But it masked some well-known underlying stresses: a population boom on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, climate change and aging waterworks.

1944 to 2021

The mostly semiarid U.S.-Mexico border region receives less than 18 inches of annual rainfall, with large areas getting under 12 inches. Thats less than half the average annual rainfall in the U.S., which is mainly temperate.

The 1940s, however, were a time of unusual water abundance on the treaty rivers. When American and Mexican engineers drafted the 1944 water treaty, they did not foresee todays prolonged megadrought.

Nor did they anticipate the regions rapid growth. Since 1940 the population of the 10 largest pairs of cities that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border has mushroomed nearly twentyfold, from 560,000 people to some 10 million today.

This growth is powered by a booming, water-dependent manufacturing industry in Mexico that exports products to U.S. markets. Irrigated agriculture, ranching and mining compete with growing cities and expanding industry for scarce water.

Today, theres simply not enough of it to meet demand in the border areas governed by the 1944 treaty.

Three times since 1992 Mexico has fallen short of its five-year commitment to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water across the border to the U.S. Each acre-foot can supply a U.S. family of four for one year.

Story continues

Water conflicts

In the fall of 2020, crisis erupted in the Rio Grande Valley after years of rising tensions and sustained drought that endanger crops and livestock in both the U.S. and Mexico.

In September 2020, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared that Mexico owes Texas a years worth of Rio Grande water. The next month, workers in Mexico released water from a dammed portion of Mexicos Rio Conchos destined to flow across the border to partially repay Mexicos 345,600-acre-foot water debt to the U.S.

Frustrated farmers and protesters in the Mexican state of Chihuahua clashed with Mexican soldiers sent to protect the workers. A 35-year-old farmers wife and mother of three was killed.

Mexico also agreed to transfer its stored water at Amistad Dam to the U.S., fulfilling its obligation just three days before its Oct. 25, 2020, deadline. That decision satisfied its water debt to the U.S. under the 1944 treaty but jeopardized the supply of more than a million Mexicans living downstream of Amistad Dam in the Mexican states of Coahuila and Tamaulipas.

Soldiers in riot gear stand behind a fence wrapped with barbed wire.

The U.S. and Mexico pledged to revisit the treatys Rio Grande water rules in 2023.

The drought dilemma on the Colorado River is similarly dire. The water level at Lake Mead, a major reservoir for communities in the lower Colorado River Basin, has dropped nearly 70% over 20 years, threatening the water supply of Arizona, California and Nevada.

In 2017, the U.S. and Mexico signed a temporary shortage-sharing solution. That agreement, forged under the authority of the 1944 treaty, allowed Mexico to store part of its treaty water in U.S. reservoirs upstream.

Saving a strained treaty

Water shortages along the U.S.-Mexico border also threaten the natural environment. As water is channeled to farms and cities, rivers are deprived of the flow necessary to support habitats, fish populations and overall river health.

The 1944 water treaty was silent on conservation. For all its strengths, it simply allocates the water of the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers. It does not contemplate the environmental side of water use.

But the treaty is reasonably elastic, so its members can update it as conditions change. In recent years, conservation organizations and scientists have promoted the environmental and human benefits of restoration. New Colorado River agreements now recognize ecological restoration as part of treaty-based water management.

Environmental projects are underway in the lower Colorado River to help restore the rivers delta, emphasizing native vegetation like willows and cottonwoods. These trees provide habitat for such at-risk birds as the yellow-billed cuckoo and the Yuma clapper rail, and for numerous species that migrate along this desolate stretch of the Pacific Flyway.

Map of the US-Mexico border with a cross-border area highlighted

Currently, no such environmental improvements are planned for the Rio Grande.

But other lessons learned on the Colorado are now being applied to the Rio Grande. Recently, Mexico and the U.S. created a permanent binational advisory body for the Rio Grande similar to the one established in 2010 to oversee the health and ecology of the Colorado.

Another recent agreement permits each country to monitor the others use of Rio Grande water using common diagnostics like Riverware, a dynamic modeling tool for monitoring water storage and flows. Mexico also has agreed to try to use water more efficiently, allowing more of it to flow to the U.S.

Newly created joint teams of experts will study treaty compliance and recommend further changes needed to manage climate-threatened waters along the U.S.-Mexico border sustainably and cooperatively.

Incremental treaty modifications like these could palpably reduce the past years tensions and revitalize a landmark U.S.-Mexico treaty thats buckling under the enormous strain of climate change.

[This week in religion, a global roundup each Thursday. Sign up.]

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Robert Gabriel Varady, University of Arizona; Andrea K. Gerlak, University of Arizona, and Stephen Paul Mumme, Colorado State University.

Read more:



Robert Gabriel Varady has received funding from NOAA, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, Lloyd's Register Foundation, and Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation..

Andrea K Gerlak has received funding from NOAA, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, Lloyd's Register Foundation, and Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation..

Stephen Paul Mumme does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Hundreds of pages of documents provided to Meng Wanzhou by HSBC bank should be rejected from her Canadian extradition hearing because the potential evidence is irrelevant to the proceeding, a government lawyer said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Meng's team continued their attack on the record of the case that US prosecutors submitted to the hearing; they say the HSBC documents show that the case record is selective, misleading, "manifestly unreliable" and "outright false".

But Robert Frater, the top lawyer in the Canadian Department of Justice - which is representing US interests in Meng's marathon extradition battle - told the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver that the issue was not whether the documents were reliable.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

"The issue here is relevance [to an extradition hearing] ... relevance in this context means capable of showing that the evidence of the requesting state is manifestly unreliable," Frater told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes.

It was not, and the potential evidence was instead a matter for trial, he said.

Frater said there was a high threshold and a rigorous test for admissibility of evidence at an extradition hearing. "It's not enough to say that alternative inferences could be drawn," he said.

Meng is accused by the US of defrauding HSBC by lying about Huawei's business dealings in Iran, which could have put the bank at risk of breaching US sanctions. But her lawyers say that the trove of documents provided by the purported victim fatally undermine the case by showing that the US misled the Canadian court, and that Meng should be freed as a result.

They said the record of the case summarised HSBC emails to depict a schism between junior bank staff who were aware of the connections between Huawei, Skycom and Canicula, and senior executives who were not. But the actual email chains told a different story, Meng's lawyers said, with top HSBC staff knowing about the connections, and thus no fraud that hinged on them being deceived could have taken place.

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"The Requesting State's case for fraud is based on the improbable theory that a global bank relied on a single line in a PowerPoint or a single PowerPoint presentation to make a business decision about one of its biggest customers," Meng's lawyers said in a written submission, referring to the allegedly deceptive presentation she made to a HSBC banker in a Hong Kong teahouse in 2013, upon which the US case hinges.

"The new evidence shows HSBC to be the sophisticated institution it is, acting with full knowledge of Huawei's affiliates and their corporate history."

Meng, who is Huawei's chief financial officer and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, is applying to admit more than 300 pages of HSBC documents to the hearing. They were given to her by HSBC as a result of a settlement with the bank that was struck in Hong Kong in April.

Frater said the argument of Meng's lawyers about the evidence was "simply that everyone [at HSBC] knew" about Huawei's connection to Skycom.

But the witness who met Meng in the teahouse, and who briefed HSBC's risk committee about Huawei and Skycom, would testify that he did not know, said Frater.

"Undermining credibility is not the purpose of this exercise," he said. "That is why we have trials."

He continued: "Witness B says he did not know. My friends [Meng's lawyers] want to say that not only did he know, but everyone else knew ... if they want to challenge him on that point, they have to do it at trial."

Meng's lawyers had presented a case that HSBC staff "could have put it together like a desk from Ikea", Frater said, referring to Huawei's connections to Skycom and Canicula. But "there's no evidence here that someone connected the dots", he added.

Holmes pressed Frater on this point, suggesting that "the connection is obvious ... it's certainly surprising that the [HSBC] relationship manager was unaware [that these] two entities, Skycom and Canicula, were on his Huawei list".

"He should have known," Frater said, prompting Holmes to say it approached a conclusion that "he did know".

Earlier, Meng's lawyer Mark Sandler had focused on a portion of the PowerPoint presentation that he said Witness B had failed to communicate to the risk committee. That portion of the presentation had called Skycom "a controllable entity", Sandler said.

But Holmes took issue with that depiction, pointing out that the exact wording in Meng's presentation said "Huawei's engagement with Skycom is normal and controllable business cooperation"; this arguably implied something different to calling Skycom a "controllable entity", she said.

In a written submission, the Canadian government lawyers said Meng's use of the word "controllable" did not change the context of the teahouse presentation, which was to assuage HSBC's fears of sanctions risk.

"The relevant (and misleading) message for HSBC from the Applicant's PowerPoint presentation was that Skycom and Huawei were separate," it said.

Meng Wanzhou (shown on Tuesday) wants more than 300 pages of HSBC documents admitted in her extradition hearing. Photo: Reuters alt=Meng Wanzhou (shown on Tuesday) wants more than 300 pages of HSBC documents admitted in her extradition hearing. Photo: Reuters

The HSBC documents threw the schedule for the extradition fight into disarray, prompting a three-month delay while Meng's lawyers assessed the documents. Hearings are now expected to continue until August, with Holmes then considering her ruling, but appeals could drag the matter out for years.

People cannot be extradited from Canada if they are accused of an action that would not constitute a crime if committed there. While breaching US sanctions is not a crime in Canada, Meng has been accused of the extraditable offence of fraud.

She has been fighting extradition since she was arrested at Vancouver's airport on December 1, 2018. Two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, were arrested in China soon afterwards and have undergone trials for espionage. The outcomes of the brief trials are not known; Canada regards their detention as arbitrary and retaliatory.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2021 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
The still-standing remainder of Champlain Towers will probably be demolished soon, officials say (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The still-standing remainder of Champlain Towers will likely be demolished, according to local officials in Surfside, Florida.

Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the probable plan at a press conference on Thursday evening, adding that the search for survivors continues.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow
DETROIT  A contract employee for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for her role in a multi-million-dollar unemployment insurance fraud scheme.

Brandi Hawkins, 40, was charged in July with using her insider access to release federal and state funds on hundreds of fraudulent claims. A search of her home turned up more than $200,000 in cash.

Her actions resulted in the fraudulent disbursement of about $3.8 million of federal and state funds intended for unemployment assistance during the pandemic, acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin said. If every fraudulent claim released by Hawkins, a Detroit resident, had been disbursed in full, the losses would have totaled more than $12 million, Mohsin said.

'Under attack': How criminals stole hundreds of millions in unemployment benefits

What states are ending federal unemployment benefits early?: See who has cut the extra $300 a week.

Big spender: California man fraudulently got $5M in COVID-19 relief money to buy a Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini, authorities say

Hawkins' lawyer, Randall Upshaw, did not respond to an email request for comment .

Hawkins is one of several people who have been charged with stealing unemployment insurance money intended to help Michiganders who were out of work during the pandemic.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 28. Hawkins faces a maximum 20 years in federal prison.

Follow Adrienne Roberts on Twitter: @AdrRoberts

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan contractor pleads guilty in unemployment fraud scheme
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Health clinics in Moscow will begin offering booster vaccine shots against COVID-19 on Thursday, the city's mayor said, as Russian officials scramble to contain a surge blamed on the highly infectious Delta variant.

The health ministry on Wednesday recommended clinics begin administering booster doses to people vaccinated six months ago or more, making Russia one of the first countries to begin re-vaccination.

The ministry said it was an emergency measure as cases in Russia are rising sharply and vaccination rates remain low.

Russia reported 672 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, its highest official death toll in a single day.

Moscow experienced a brief spike in demand for vaccines after authorities made vaccination compulsory for service sector workers in public-facing roles.

On Thursday, the capital ran out of two vaccines, the RBC magazine reported. These were EpiVacCorona and CoviVac, Russian shots that are not as widely used as the flagship Sputnik V.

Russia has inoculated just 16% of its population since January, in part due to widespread distrust.

The health ministry said it would be recommending booster doses for vaccinated people every six months until at least 60% of the adult population is vaccinated.

Authorities had planned to reach this target by autumn, but on Tuesday the Kremlin said it would not be met.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said re-vaccination was available with any of Russia's four registered vaccines, but Sputnik V and the one-shot Sputnik-Light would initially be used at eight clinics across the city.

Scientists have said that protection from Sputnik V lasts much longer than six months.

However, scientists have recommended booster doses to keep the number of protective antibodies in the body at a high level considering the rapid spread of the Delta variant.

"We need to keep an eye on the strain, keeping antibody levels high through more frequent re-vaccination," said Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute which developed the vaccine.

The government confirmed 23,543 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the most since Jan. 17, including 7,597 in Moscow. That pushed the national case total to 5,538,142 since the start of the outbreak.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow, Polina Ivanova and Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Alison Williams, Robert Birsel, Raissa Kasolowsky and Giles Elgood)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  An 80-year-old Nebraska man has been charged with murder after telling police he shot his wife, who had Alzheimer's disease, because he was struggling to care for her.

Prosecutors upgraded the charges against John Kotopka to first-degree murder on Wednesday  a week after the death of Janet Kotopka, 78. He was originally charged with assault in the June 20 shooting at their home in Lincoln.

Janet Kotopka had been diagnosed with Alzheimers disease about two years ago and her health had deteriorated significantly, according to court documents. John Kotopka told investigators he was exhausted and couldnt take care of her any longer and he worried about the potential financial burden of her being cared for at a nursing home.

Kotopka also told police that he started thinking about hurting his wife of 57 years about 10 days before the shooting.

Kotopka is being held in the Lancaster County jail without bond and hasn't entered a plea. Kotopka's attorney John Berry said the shooting is a horrible tragedy for the family but he declined to comment on details of the case.
NBC Bay Area were conducting an interview with Guillermo Cespedes while one of the crew was held up at gun point during an attempted robbery (NBC Bay Area)

A member of a news crew in California was the victim of an attempted armed robbery during an interview with a senior crime prevention official.

NBC Bay Area was conducting an interview with Guillmero Cespedes, the chief of the Oaklands Department of Violence Prevention at roughly 3.09 pm. During the interview, they were stopped by someone with a gun as he tried to steal from one of the camera operators.

According to SFGATE, a scuffle broke out. However, a security personnel intervened, deterring the suspect by brandishing his own gun.

Our colleagues were conducting an interview at Oakland City Hall when they were approached by two armed individuals, a spokesperson for the news network said to the San Fransisco Chronicle.

Footage they had managed to capture was aired on nightly bulletin on 28 June, the day of the attack, by anchor Jessica Aguirre.

Thats the moment it happened, you see the camera knocked over during a confrontation, she said, narrating the clip.

Police said afterwards to remain cautious as the gunman is presently outstanding and warned people to safe safe.

The incident happened just after LeRonne Armstrong, the chief of the Oakland Police Department, outlined his opposition to $18 million being removed from the policing budget. The total budget for the policing the city stands at $674 million.

It looks much different when youre out in the community and meeting with the families. Its much different when you hear families demand a stronger police response to shootings, he said of the new budget that comes into effect on 1 July.

Its easier when you dont talk to senior citizens and hear them tell you that they cant sleep at night, because of all the shootings, he continued.

Oaklands rate of gun crime has increased this year, according to MrArmstrong. He said his department had seized 406 firearms. In 2021, there have been 65 murders recorded so far, nearly double the rate at the same point in 2020, which was 34.

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The redirected $18 million is intended to go towards Mr Cespedes Department of Violence Prevention as a part of the citys effort to investigate the causes of crime.

City Councilman Dan Kalb, who supported the decision, told the East Bay Times that it was time to finally do something about gun violence by potentially rooting out the causes.

And we decided this year that were finally going to say yes to that, were finally going to say we are going to start the process, start the allocations to be serious about violence prevention and intervention.

Police departments in US are believed to have a collective budget of $1 billion, according to Forbes. Recently, there has been a national discussion prompted by the Black Lives Matter protests last summer on whether policing should be reformed.

Some have suggested that money allocated to policing ought to be spent on education and social services instead.
Human rights activist Yeonmi Park, who defected from North Korea, criticized the unthinkable actions of Team USA hammer thrower Gwen Berry after she turned her back to the American flag as the national anthem played.

During the playing of the anthem at an Olympic qualifier in Oregon, first-place finisher DeAnna Price and second-place finisher Brooke Anderson faced the flag with their hands over their heart. Berry, however, shifted to face the crowd and covered her head with a T-shirt that read, Activist Athlete.

"If she did the exact same thing at this very moment, if she was North Korean, not only herself will be executed, [also] eight generations of her family can be sent to political prison camp and execution, Park said.

Berry does not know how good she and other Americans have it compared to dictatorships globally, Park said.

"I was a slave," Park said, pointing to inhumane practices in China and North Korea. "I was sold in China in 2007 as a child at 13 years old. The people actually called it slavery under [the] Chinese Communist Party in North Korea.

THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE: SOLDIER QUALIFIES FOR FIRST OLYMPICS AMID RECORD HEATWAVE

There is actual injustice [there], and the fact that she's complaining about this country  the most tolerant country  she doesn't really understand history," she added.

Responding to the criticism, Berry said she felt she was set up by the playing of the anthem and said her actions were misinterpreted.

"I never said that I hated the country, she told the Black News Channel on Tuesday. "I never said that I didn't want to go to the Olympic Games  that's why I competed and got third and made the team.

Later in the interview, Berry seemed to defend her actions.

"If you know your history, you know the full song of the national anthem, the third paragraph speaks to slaves in America, our blood being slain ... all over the floor," she said. "It's disrespectful and it does not speak for black Americans. It's obvious. There's no question."

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Park, however, said the Olympic-qualified athlete was so privileged and that she does not know what oppression under a dictatorship really looks like.

"In North Korea, people who are actually oppressed don't even know theyre oppressed, she said. The fact that she's complaining about oppression and systemic racism  she does not understand that she's so privileged."

"There are people dying to come to America at this very moment," Park said. "I just hope they go to North Korea, China and see how humans are being oppressed, and they will truly understand how valuable the freedom that we have is."

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: 2020 Olympics, North Korea, Activism, China, Slavery, Protests

Original Author: Lawrence Richard

Original Location: North Korea defector says Team USA athlete Gwen Berry would have been executed over unthinkable flag protest
A massive tabulation error in New York Citys mayoral primary this week has thrown the race into chaos, providing fresh ammunition to critics of Democratic attempts to overhaul elections.

The New York City Board of Elections on Tuesday posted a set of unofficial results from its second round of calculations in the new ranked-choice voting system. Those results raised eyebrows because it suggested Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner who placed third in the returns released on election night, significantly narrowed the healthy lead former police officer Eric Adams amassed.

ERIC ADAMS LEADS EARLY NYC MAYORAL RETURNS, BUT RANKED-CHOICE VOTING COULD SCRAMBLE RESULTS

But the board withdrew the results later that day, at first acknowledging a discrepancy between the total number of votes cast that it reported last week and the total number of votes reflected on the new returns. The board later said 135,000 sample ballots had accidentally been included in the tally and said the next round of ranked-choice voting would be rerun this week.

The hiccup set off confusion and outrage over how the election board could be seemingly so unprepared to handle vote-counting for a system it touted for months.

Ranked-choice voting, used for the first time in New York City last week, allows voters to select multiple primary candidates and list them in order of preference. If no candidate attracts 50% of first-choice rankings, and none on the Democratic side did in the primary last week, the tabulations move into successive rounds counting the second, third, fourth, and potentially even fifth choices of voters until a candidate cracks the 50% threshold.

The election boards mistake on Tuesday opened the door for mistrust of whatever result emerges from the system, shining a spotlight on the history of incompetence at the state institution.

Its a huge public relations mess, a public relations nightmare, Rob Richie, president of the nonpartisan election group FairVote, told the Washington Examiner. It was an embarrassingly rookie mistake to not clear the cache.

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Richie said the error was completely the fault of the election board, not a reflection of the ranked-choice voting system itself. Ranked-choice voting has worked without issues in other places, Richie noted, such as in Utah.

Proponents of ranked-choice voting say it helps prevent outlier candidates in crowded fields from grabbing victories with minority support.

With the blame on the board and not on the system, more ambitious voting reforms championed by Democrats could face a new line of attack thanks to the New York debacle.

The citys election board is structured, at least in theory, the way voting reform advocates would suggest: both parties select all 10 of the city council appointments, and the staff is hired on a bipartisan basis as well.

Still, the board has bungled a number of issues under its purview in recent years.

In the 2020 election, the board mailed nearly 100,000 defective absentee ballots to New York City voters in a mix-up that commissioners blamed on a printer problem.

In the 2018 election, ballot scanners across the city broke down, sparking lengthy delays at polling places that pushed lines outside of buildings into the rain because the equipment struggled to read the two-page ballot on offer that year.

In the 2016 election, the board removed 200,000 voters from the citys rolls ahead of the primaries  resulting in thousands of voters showing up at their polling places and discovering they were no longer registered.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Democratic-proposed voting reforms could create even more layers of bureaucracy and opportunities for failure by expanding requirements for voter registration, mail-in voting, and other aspects of election administration. Republicans have vehemently fought against such proposals as a power grab.

Some commentators were quick to note the New York City Board of Elections had indirectly lent credence to former President Donald Trump's unfounded election theories, in a situation involving only Democratic candidates, by demonstrating enough incompetence for the results to be thrown into question.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, New York City, Eric Adams, Voting Machines

Original Author: Sarah Westwood

Original Location: NYC primary disaster could undermine Democratic argument for election overhauls
Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, stands between President-elect Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in January 2017. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Why do so many seemingly sentient adults remain loyal to Donald Trump, even as the disgraced former president proves himself a world-class backstabber over and over?

Its a futile and rhetorical question. But it still keeps me up at night. And it resurfaced Thursday with the high-profile indictment of the Trump Organization, Trump Payroll Corp. and especially Allen Weisselberg, the 73-year-old chief financial officer of the benighted Trump Organization. Theyve been collectively charged with 15 felony counts in connection with an alleged tax scheme that started in 2005.

Donald Trump himself was not among the handcuffed.

So Weisselberg, as expected, appears to be taking it on the chin rather than flipping on the capo. For now. This makes sense, since Trump once praised Weisselberg for doing whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line  the Trump personal fortune.

For insight, I texted Michael Cohen, Trumps former personal lawyer, who once said hed take a bullet for Trump  and then flipped.

In his book, Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump, Cohen describes this self-defeating loyalty to Trump better than anyone else has.

Cohen called me back from house arrest, where hes serving time for tax evasion and campaign finance violations, misdeeds that benefited Trump. (Cohen says he committed these crimes at the behest of his boss.)

I guess I was missing something in my life, he said, explaining why he stuck with the man he calls a racist, a con man and a cheat. I was looking for excitement. Im a deal junkie. I didnt need the money.

Reflecting further on why hed been loyal, Cohen also said, with commendable honesty: I dont know.

The unknowable mystery of Trumps barnacle loyalists remains. Weisselberg has carried water and dirty laundry for the Trump family for nearly 50 years  and hes still doing so, all the way to the clink.

The indictments, unsealed Thursday afternoon in Manhattan, charge the Trump Organization with a range of offenses. They include copious documentation. Among other things, the company is accused of destroying business records in September 2016  two months before Trump was elected president.

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Also mentioned are heaps of top-dollar tax-free swag that reportedly went to Weisselberg and other unnamed Trump Org employees.

Sometimes this stuff is referred to as fringe benefits. The examples allegedly include cars, an apartment and more than $359,000 for private-school tuition for Weisselbergs grandchildren. None of this seems very fringe.

Still, the indictments are not the kind likely to bring down a whole company  or a former president. Trump can always claim he didnt know what his lackeys were doing.

But Cohen, who worked closely with Weisselberg, has long said that nothing happened at the Trump Org without Trumps sign-off  and he doesnt believe the current indictments are the whole enchilada.

Indeed, prosecutors have been mounting this case against Weisselberg for months, in an effort to pressure him into cooperating with their bigger investigation into Trumps business dealings. They seem to be after far more than the septuagenarian accountant.

They did the right thing when they gave him the opportunity to come in, retaining whatever dignity he may have left, Cohen said of Weisselbergs arrest.

Obviously, one of the hopes is that theyre showing him some goodwill to make it clear to Weisselberg that he is not the keystone to this investigation or its outcome. His participation and cooperation only benefits him, and potentially his sons, as the D.A. has more than ample documentation to see this investigation to the end.

To the end. Weve heard that before.

When it looked like the feds might get cooperation from Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign manager, it seemed for a minute as though Trump would never remain standing. Hed be indicted because of the Russia investigation  or after one of his impeachments. The prosecution looked like it would go to the end.

It did not. Trump, of course, is still a free man, and weve seen him slip the knot of justice in so many close calls that its hard to believe hell pay for any of the misdeeds that have come to light in the last four years.

But the Trump Organization as an entity is closer to Trump than any of his campaigns, his gig as president, his wives, his henchmen, even his children. People like Cohen insist that the Trump Organization  a tangle of shell companies that is the sum total of Trumps fortune and legacy  is Donald Trump.

In this view, everything in Trumps life, including the presidency and his personal actions, has been in the service of the company he inherited from his father.

So the Thursday indictments really might represent a crucial turn of the screw. Even if President Bidens Justice Department doesnt prosecute Trump for federal crimes  maybe to avoid the appearance of vengeance  this prosecution of Trumps company could expand to include some of his misconduct while in the White House, since all of Trumps enterprises in business and politics are hopelessly entangled.

Cohen is firmly convinced that the world hasnt heard the end of his former colleague Weisselberg.

Theres a big difference between being under investigation and under indictment, Cohen said.

Sometimes I need this mob-style stuff spelled out, so I asked, This indictment might make Weisselberg flip on Trump?

Correct, said Cohen.

@page88





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The parents of a boy in Virginia were arrested after officers discovered his body in their home freezer, according to police and local media reports.

Kassceen Weaver, 49, and Dina D. Weaver, 48, are charged with conspiracy to conceal a body and failing to render aid to a child, WWBT reported, citing the Chesterfield County Police Department.

Chesterfield is just outside of Richmond, Virginia, about 60 miles from the North Carolina border.

The charges stem from a tip police received in early May about the childs body being inside the home, according to WWBT. Police identified the child as Eliel Adon Weaver.

Eliel was under 5 years old when he died, WTVR reported, and the cause of death is unknown.

Liz Carron, a spokesperson for the Chesterfield County Police Department, told WRIC his body is believed to have been in the freezer for more than two years.

She explained that police suspect the parents failed to administer aid to the child and concealed his body sometime between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2018, WRIC reported.

Another child also lived at the house and has since been put in foster care, according to the TV station.

Police said the Weavers were Eliels custodial parents, WTVR reported. DNA testing confirm Dina Weaver is his biological mother but police did not confirm if Kassceen Weaver was the biological father.

Kassceen Weaver has also been charged with the domestic assault and malicious wounding of an adult female. According to WTVR, that female was Dina Weaver.

The Weavers have been released on bond.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Chesterfield County Police Department at at 804-748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 804-748-0660.

Craigslist seller tries peddling 28-inch elephant tusk to undercover agents, feds say

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Jun. 30Kiddie Klubhouse, a Park River, N.D., childcare provider, received a $97,000 loan from the North Dakota Department of Commerce to purchase a house that has allowed her to care for more children.

Lindsey Votava received the loan in the second quarter of 2021 through the North Dakota Department of Commerce Development Fund. Votava used the loan to help pay for a two-story house in Park River to use for providing child care. Votava operates the child care with Nicole Schempp, and the two women have one employee.

Votava previously ran a child care, called Lindsey's Daycare, which had 18 children, out of her Park River home. Twenty-nine children are enrolled in the Kiddie Klubhouse child care Votava and Schempp operate out of the house she purchased.

The North Dakota Development Fund manages the Child Care Loan Program created by the North Dakota Legislature in 2009. The NDDF also provides flexible funding through debt and equity investments for new or expanding North Dakota primary sectors as an economic development tool.

"The loan program is really nice for day care providers," Votava said." The home is so wonderful to have. It has so much space.".

Votava and Schempp remodeled the kitchen of the house so it would meet commercial standards, including installing a three-compartment sink. The women also converted the garage into a large indoor play area that has an obstacle course and enclosed trampoline.

Meanwhile, the home has a fenced-in yard in which the children enrolled at Kiddie Klubhouse can play.

Though buying the house increased by 12 the number of children she and Schempp can accommodate, there's still a shortage of child care in Park River, she said.

"We have turned away 10 families for summer child care," Votava said.

About 60 miles east and south of Park River, plans are proceeding to build a child care center in Warren, Minn., that will ease a serious child care shortage in that city. The city in late June secured funding of a $1.6 million loan from USDA Rural Development to build a 10,000 square feet child care center in in Warren, which would double the amount of space Little Sprouts Learning Center has now, said Shannon Mortenson, Warren City Clerk.

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The city of Warren anticipates that this week the Minnesota Legislature will approve its request to put a 1/2 cent increase in local sales tax on the ballot, Mortenson said. If the Legislature approves the option, it will have to be approved by Warren residents who will vote on the issue in the general election in the fall of 2022, Mortenson said.

The city plans to build the new child care center and lease it to Little Sprouts Learning Center, which will close its location on the north end of town and move to the new location and rent the building from the city. Proceeds from the proposed sales tax increase are expected to raise about $70,000 per year, which the city would use to pay the USDA Rural Development loan, which is expected to be about $63,000, annually.

The city of Warren plans to open the child care center project for bids late this year, and groundbreaking is expected to be in the spring of 2022, Mortenson said.
A Pennsylvania family wants authorities to reopen the investigation on the 2016 death of their Marine son, who was found shot in the head inside his Alabama apartment, after a medical examiner changed the cause of death from "suicide" to "undetermined."

The family of Ryan Presutti, a machine gunner who served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, say he had stocked his pickup truck with road trip supplies, including snacks and treats for his dog, in preparation for a 13-hour drive from rural Alabama to his hometown of Kennett Square, a suburb outside Philadelphia, in time for his 37th birthday on July 17, 2016, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

But that day his family couldnt reach him by phone and Presutti was later found dead inside his trailer with a gunshot wound to the head. William Trump, a former New Jersey State Police detective turned private investigator hired by the family in 2019, told the newspaper he has found new evidence in recent months suggesting that the Limestone County Sheriffs Office mishandled the investigation of Presuttis death.

ALABAMA INTERSTATE PILEUP DETAILS EMERGE AFTER 8 GIRLS KILLED ON WAY BACK FROM BEACH TRIP

Shortly after his death, Presuttis body had been flown back to Pennsylvania and buried with military honors at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Bucks County. A year later, Mike West, coroner in Limestone County, Alabama, changed Presuttis cause of death from suicide to undetermined.

Trump said Presutti was shot with a .45 caliber Kimber gun owned by a police officer in a different Alabama county. The private investigator described how the officer told him he did not recall what he had done with the weapon, which is worth roughly $1,500.

When Trump called the Limestone County Sheriffs Office seeking to have the gun released to the Presutti family from evidence storage, he said they didnt know where the weapon was. The office located the gun and handed it over last year, but Trump said that a forensics consultant concluded the weapon appeared to have been wiped down and did not show fingerprints.

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"No way in hell it would have been cleaned here," Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely insisted about the weapon in an interview with the Inquirer, saying he only has a key to the evidence locker. "Were not magicians and were not Columbo, but we take our jobs seriously and call it as we see it."

He could not explain why an autopsy was never performed on the body. Only a toxicology report was put together that showed Presutti had consumed a small amount of methamphetamine.

Fox News has reached out to both West and Blakely for comment. Separately, Blakely is scheduled to stand trial this month for ethics and theft charges after allegedly gambling away public funds at a Mississippi casino, AL.com reported.

Forensics Pieces, a forensic consultant agency based in Pensacola, Florida, said in an August 2020 report conducted for the family that Presuttis body appeared to have been moved after the shooting, and the location of the gun was "not consistent with the location expected from a self-inflicted gunshot wound." It also said sheriffs investigators and the coroners office likely confused the head entry wound for the exit wound.

"The entire case demands additional investigation," Forensic Pieces president Jan Johnson, a former analyst for the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, wrote in the report for the family, according to the Inquirer.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Jeremy Cameron, who owned the property where Presutti's trailer was located and lived just yards away, said he was the first to find the body and call police. The sheriffs office later seized methamphetamine, marijuana and pills from the property while conducting a search warrant and Cameron and his girlfriend, Shavonna Sue Barton, were arrested on drug distribution charges, AL.com reported.

Its unclear if the couple was ever investigated as persons of interest in connection to Presuttis death.
Howard University's dean of College of Fine Arts and former actress Phylicia Rashad is under fire after praising Bill Cosby's release from prison Wednesday when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction.

Rashad, 73, known for her role as Cosby's wife Clair Huxtable on "The Cosby Show", tweeted "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"

FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected! pic.twitter.com/NrGUdwr23c

 Phylicia Rashad (@PhyliciaRashad) June 30, 2021

The heavy social media backlash from the tweet prompted Howard University, a historically Black university that touts itself as research intensive and culturally diverse, to release a statement on Rashad's comments.

"Survivors of sexual assault will always be our priority. While Dean Rashad acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault," the school said. "Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard University's policies."

pic.twitter.com/UqiGznSkiJ

 Howard University (@HowardU) July 1, 2021

Backlash soon followed Cosby's former co-star after her initial tweet, with prominent Black figures and alumni calling out Rashad and the university.

Janet Louise, the original Vivian Banks on the sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," tweeted, "Phylicia what are you thinking!!! I don't know you but to say this was terribly wrong. EVERYONE knew what he was doing back then. How could you NOT!"

Phylicia what are you thinking!!! I don't know you but to say this was terribly wrong. EVERYONE knew what he was doing back then. How could you NOT! Get your umbrella sista here comes the shit shower. I am outraged that he has been released. Yes he is an old ass guilty man! pic.twitter.com/9mHtuEYLgk

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 Janet Hubert (@OGJanetHubert) June 30, 2021

Howard University College of Fine Arts alum and sexual assault survivor Alicia Sanchez said, "I hope we can have a dean who believes & respects survivors."

As a @HowardU School of Fine Arts alum, and as a survivor, this tweet from @PhyliciaRashad is disappointing. I hope we can have a dean who believes & respects survivors. Howards students who are survivors, I believe you & here are resources: https://t.co/AedmHaOPxN #HUStands https://t.co/qD4doAncIT

 a Black-passing openly Black Latina. (@aliciasanchez) June 30, 2021

Rashad soon sent a follow-up statement giving her full support to sexual assault survivors and an explanation of her original post. "Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects," she tweeted. "My heartfelt wish is for healing."

I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.

 Phylicia Rashad (@PhyliciaRashad) June 30, 2021

Still, some activists and social media users are upset with the dean's support of Cosby and Howard's statement.

Antirape activist Wagatwe Wanjuki said in a tweet Thursday, "It's easy for schools to release statements, but campus survivors know school's actions never match their words."

It's easy for schools to release statements, but campus survivors know school's actions never match their words. https://t.co/EaXc31AxO7

 Wagatwe Wanjuki   (@wagatwe) July 1, 2021

Rashad was appointed dean of Howard University's fine arts college in May 2021. The school also announced its reestablished College of Fine Arts will be named after alumnus Chadwick Boseman. The late actor, who graduated in 2000, had protested against the reabsorption of the college into the broader College of Arts and Sciences while he was a student and continued to advocate for its reestablishment long after he left the Washington, D.C., campus.

Bill Cosby claims vindication, while accusers say the justice system failed

Trump Organization and its CFO facing charges in New York

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Jul. 1A Hill District man who owns a tax preparation business with offices in Downtown Pittsburgh and Homestead has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of tax and wire fraud.

The 15-count indictment handed up on June 29 accuses Brian A. VanDusen, 51, of Webster Avenue, with filing nearly 3,000 fraudulent tax returns through his business EasyTax Refund, which he operated between 2014 and 2018.

The company had offices in the Warner Center in Downtown and along 8th Avenue in Homestead.

VanDusen also is a constable for Pittsburgh's Ward 3 and is seeking reelection to the post. He won the Democratic nomination in the May primary to get on the ballot for the fall general election.

No candidates sought the GOP nod to run against VanDusen.

The indictment alleges that VanDusen and his employees falsified the Schedule C forms to claim an earned income tax credit and tax refund for taxpayers.

An employee of VanDusen's company, Jessica D. Washington, 34, of Pittsburgh, was charged in a separate 10-count indictment with falsifying federal income tax returns when she worked for EasyTax in 2018.

If convicted, VanDusen faces a maximum sentence of 79 years in prison, a fine of $3.75 million, or both.

Washington faces 30 years prison and a fine a $2.5 million fine if convicted.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Tony LaRussa is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tony at 724-772-6368, tlarussa@triblive.com or via Twitter .
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis on Thursday urged the leaders of Lebanon, which is mired in a financial depression and facing its worst social crisis in 30 years, to put aside partisan interests and work for peace and stability.

Francis made the appeal at the end of a day-long summit with Lebanese Christian leaders in the Vatican to discuss how religions can help the country get back on its feet.

He also repeated his wish to visit Lebanon, which is still reeling from a huge chemical explosion at the Beirut port last year that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

"I would reiterate how essential it is that those in power choose finally and decisively to work for true peace and not for their own interests," Francis said.

"Let there be an end to the few profiting from the

sufferings of many! No more letting half-truths continue to frustrate peoples aspirations," he said during a closing prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, much of it conducted in Arabic.

Lebanon is battling a deep financial crisis, which the World Bank has called one of the worst depressions of modern history.

It has pushed more than half the population into poverty and the currency has lost more than 90% of its value in about two years.

Francis said Lebanese were "disillusioned and weary...in need of certainty, hope and peace"

Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, a Muslim, has been at loggerheads for months with President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian, over cabinet positions.

In his closing address, Francis also said Lebanon and the Middle East should not be used "for outside interests and profits".

Iranian influence has been on the rise in Lebanon over the past years through Hezbollah, the armed Shi'ite group whose political power has grown. Iran's sway has so far put rich Gulf Arab states off coming to Lebanon's rescue.

(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Beirut; editing by Toby Chopra and Angus MacSwan)
Queen Elizabeth - JANE BARLOW/AFP/Getty Images

The Queen has voiced her concern about climate change in a visit in Edinburgh, telling experts that "we are going to have to change the way we do things".

The Queen and the Princess Royal visited the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI) on Thursday to learn about its work. It was the Queen's final engagement as part of the traditional Royal Week visit to Scotland.

Dressed in a jade green Angela Kelly outfit with a ruby and diamond brooch, the Queen arrived at the University of Edinburgh premises in a hybrid Land Rover, and immediately remarked that "it's electric" as she exited the vehicle.

The Queen was speaking with experts from Climate XChange - an organisation that provides independent advice and analysis to support the Scottish Government - when she was heard commenting about the impact of tackling the global issue.

"It does mean we are going to have to change the way we do things really, in the end," she told experts.

Queen Elizabeth - Jane Barlow/PA

The Queen has rarely voiced her concern about climate change in public. Her first acknowledgement about its threat to the planet is thought to have been in conversation with David Attenborough in 2018 when she said: "If countries continue to plant [more trees], it might change the climate again."

Anne Marte Bergeseng, knowledge exchange manager at Climate XChange, said that her discussion with the monarch covered "everything, essentially" about a greener future and what that meant for our way of living.

The Queen and Princess Anne also met representatives from the Children's Parliament, who explained their recent contribution to Scotland's Climate Assembly.

The children presented the Queen with two rowan trees that will be planted as part of the Queen's Green Canopy, a nationwide planting initiative designed to create a lasting legacy to mark her Platinum Jubilee next year. Her Majesty has been a staunch advocate of planting trees to offset carbon emissions.

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Queen Elizabeth - Jane Barlow/REUTERS

Everyone from individuals to Scout and Girlguiding groups, villages, cities, counties, schools and businesses will be encouraged to plant trees from October, when the tree planting season begins, through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022.

The initiative follows in the footsteps of the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy, a scheme that encourages Commonwealth countries to protect and plant trees in her honour.

The Queen finished the event by unveiling a plaque for the institute and listening to a speech from Peter Mathieson, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.

He spoke about the challenges faced by the workforce during the pandemic and what it may mean for the future.

After the presentation, the Queen said: "It's very unnatural for us, obviously we're going to have to change our lives a bit.

Queen Elizabeth - Jane Barlow/PA

"Nothing can be quite normal again or what we thought."

The tour coincided with the announcement of the Edinburgh Earth Initiative (EEI), a project aiming to boost global leadership on the adaption to and mitigation of climate change.

EEI will be a focal point for the university's research on the climate, and will have an emphasis on supporting global partnerships to deliver solutions.
Hundreds of people are dead across Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia as the northwest region and Canada face record heat waves this past week.

There have been at least 486 sudden deaths over the past five days in British Columbia, almost triple the number that normally would occur within the province. The figure is also nearly double the number of deaths recorded from last Friday to Monday, which saw 223 deaths in the region.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said the deaths in her province are expected to rise as local coroners enter more reports.

"We believe that heat is very likely a factor in many of those deaths, but that is to be confirmed," Lapointe said in a Wednesday briefing, according to the CBC.

NEARLY 250 DEATHS REPORTED IN US AND CANADA AMID HISTORIC HEAT WAVE

Oregon health officials tied at least 63 deaths within five days to the extreme heat. Among them, 45 were in Multnomah County, which houses Portland. State officials are continuing to investigate deaths that occurred in recent days that could be linked to the heat.

Many of those who died were found alone, without air conditioning, fans, or other cooling methods, according to a statement released by Multnomah County.

"This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people," Dr. Jennifer Vines, Multnomah County Health Officer, said.

In Washington, at least 20 deaths have been linked to the heat, though officials predict that number will increase, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Cities across the northwest region and Canada have reached record temperatures that have hit over 110 degrees Fahrenheit over the past week. Localities have urged residents to stay inside as the heat remains on the rise.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Some experts have suggested that the extreme heat could be linked to the effects of climate change.

"Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves," Kristie Ebi, a professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington, told the New York Times. "When you look at this heat wave, it is so far outside the range of normal."

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Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Climate Change, Weather, Washington, Oregon, Canada

Original Author: Mica Soellner

Original Location: Record heat waves prompt hundreds of deaths in Pacific Northwest and Canada
An image of the US Capitol with orange markers where The New York Times found rioters broke in on January 6. The New York Times

Capitol rioters entered the building at points previously unknown, a new investigation found.

They used at least eight different places, concluded a six-month project by The New York Times.

In some places, the police barely challenged the crowds.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Rioters broke into the Capitol in at least eight different places during the January 6 riot, an investigation by The New York Times found.

The six-month investigation - which analyzed video, including police bodycam footage - found points of entry used by rioters that were not previously known about.

These included windows and doors that were scarcely guarded by police. This is what the Times said about those entrances:

Rioters smashed through two windows and a door in one place.

Beside it, a rioter with a crowbar smashed a second door and opened it "to hundreds of people."

Other rioters smashed a window next to the inauguration door and climbed inside.

Rioters also used another entrance, where police are seen "stand aside and allow rioters to stream in, unchallenged," according to the Times.

Police in riot gear were seen to "yield and let the crowd in" on the north side of the Capitol building.

There were another three breaches are on the east side of the Capitol, "two by the central doors into the Rotunda, and this southeast door leading into the House Chamber."

The January 6 riot took place after Trump addressed his supporters, repeating his baseless claim that he actually won the election.

Rioters stormed Congress as lawmakers voted to certify President Joe Biden's election win.

Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.

Lawmakers had to be evacuated from the chambers. They later resumed the process of certifying votes.

Video footage obtained by the Times' shows many rioters celebrating when they forced Congress to pause, saying they had achieved what they wanted.

Watch the full New York Times investigation here.

Read the original article on Business Insider
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Robinhood has settled a wrongful death lawsuit over the suicide of a 20-year-old trader last June.

Alex Kearns killed himself after thinking he lost $730,000 on the stock-trading app.

Robinhood disclosed the settlement in its S-1 filing on Thursday. Terms were not disclosed.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Robinhood has settled a wrongful death lawsuit over the suicide of a college student who killed himself thinking he lost $730,000 on the app.

The company said in its public filing for an IPO on Thursday that the lawsuit was "dismissed with prejudice following a settlement between the parties." The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in the S-1 filing.

Twenty-year-old Alex Kearns killed himself last June after seeing a negative balance of $730,000 in his account on the stock-trading app. However, the balance did not reflect the portfolio's value or debt owed. It likely came from complex options trades, which can leave temporary balances while they settle over multiple days.

Before his death, Kearns emailed Robinhood asking for help after seeing his balance, according to CBS News.

"I was incorrectly assigned more money than I should have, my bought puts should have covered the puts I sold. Could someone please look into this?" he wrote.

Robinhood replied with an automated message saying the company would get back to him but their response could be delayed, CBS reports.

The company issued a statement addressing Kearns' death last June.

"All of us at Robinhood are deeply saddened to hear this terrible news and we reached out to share our condolences with the family over the weekend," Robinhood said at the time. "We are committed to continuously improving our platform and are reviewing our options offering to determine if any changes may be appropriate."

Kearns' parents filed the wrongful death suit in February. Robinhood's S-1 says the lawsuit "asserted claims for wrongful death, negligent infliction of emotional distress and unfair business practices under a California statute, and sought damages and other relief." Kearns' parents reportedly said the app targets young people and encourages them to take part in risky trading.

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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev apologized to Kearns' family earlier this year at a Congressional hearing over the company's role in GameStop's January short squeeze.

"I'm sorry to the family of Mr. Kearns for your loss," he said. "The passing of Mr. Kearns was deeply troubling to me and to the entire company."

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Radu-Sorin Marinas

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania has asked AstraZeneca to extend the shelf life of some 43,000 COVID-19 vaccines that expired on June 30, as the country has been unable to administer them in time due to the low take-up by the public.

Vaccine hesitancy is spreading in European Union member Romania as a result of entrenched distrust of state institutions, misinformation campaigns and lack of public awareness.

Authorities have opened appointment-free vaccination centres in markets, airports and concert halls, and is sending doctors door-to-door in villages, where scepticism is rife.

Some 77% of Romanians that have been vaccinated have received the Pfizer-BioNTech, followed by AstraZeneca with 9%, Moderna with 7.7%, and Johnson & Johnson's with 6.3%.

Left holding so many unused AstraZeneca shots, the government has asked the company to advise whether they can still be used after expiry.

"If the manufacturer provides us with data certifying long-term stability or longer than six months in the coming period ... it is very possible that we will have this extension of the validity period," said Valeriu Gheorghita, head of the government's vaccination committee.

Canada's health regulator said on May 29 it has extended the expiry dates of two lots of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine by 30 days to ensure that provinces and territories are able to use up their existing inventory.

The approval to extend the shelf life of the vaccines to July 1 from May 31 was supported by scientific evidence, Health Canada said in a statement.

Bucharest, which missed its goal to vaccinate 5 million Romanians by the end of May, agreed to sell 1.17 million doses of excess Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to Denmark, the Danish health ministry said on Tuesday.

Government data showed infection rates slowed dramatically over the past weeks, with 52 new coronavirus cases reported on Wednesday, raising the total number to 1,080,792.

More than one million people recovered so far and 33,786 have died.

(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russias U.N. ambassador on Wednesday called a proposal to reopen a border crossing from Iraq to Syrias northeast for delivering humanitarian aid a non-starter. He also refused to say what will happen to the only crossing now in operation, from Turkey to the countrys rebel-held northwest.

A U.N. Security Council draft resolution proposes sending aid through both crossings, but Vassily Nebenzia said at a news conference that Russia is discussing only the possible continuation of deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to Idlib in northwest Syria. He refused to say whether Russia will vote to keep it open or use its veto to close it.

Russia has come under intense pressure from the U.N., U.S., Europeans and others who warn of dire humanitarian consequences for over a million Syrians if all border crossings are closed.

Nebenzia was commenting on a draft resolution circulated to the Security Council last Friday that would keep Bab al-Hawa open and reopen the Al-Yaroubiya crossing from Iraq in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northeast that was closed in January 2020.

The Security Council approved four border crossings when aid deliveries began in 2014, three years after the start of the Syrian conflict. But in January 2020, Russia used its veto threat in the council first to limit aid deliveries to two border crossings in the northwest, and then last July to cut another.

So today, aid can only be delivered through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, and its mandate ends July 10.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Western donors, who are the major providers of humanitarian aid to Syria, of blackmailing Moscow by threatening to cut humanitarian financing for its close ally Syria if the mandate for Bab al-Hawa is not extended.

We consider it is important to resist such approaches, he said in a recent oral statement conveyed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and obtained last week by The Associated Press. We believe that further concessions to the Americans and Europeans under the pressure of financial threats will undermine the credibility of the United Nations, its Charter and the Security Councils resolutions.

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Nebenzia reiterated Russias criticism of cross-border aid and said humanitarian assistance should be delivered across conflict lines within Syria to reinforce the Syrian governments sovereignty over the entire country.

He reiterated Lavrovs criticism of the continuous attempts since April 2020 to block a convoy by the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent to Idlib from Syrias capital, Damascus. The Russian minister blamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest militant group in Idlib, with the connivance" of Turkey, for refusing to allow the cross-line delivery.

Nebenzia was pressed at a news conference on Russias reaction to the resolution, which was drafted by Ireland and Norway, both serving two-year terms on the Security Council. The draft was discussed Wednesday by council experts for the first time, he said.

The Russian ambassador said he told Ireland and Norway in the very beginning that what we hear from our colleagues about reopening the closed cross-border points is really a non-starter.

That appears to doom Al-Yaroubiyas reopening.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who recently visited the Bab al-Hawa crossing, expressed disappointment Friday that the draft resolution didnt call for aid deliveries through three crossings, including the second crossing from Turkey to the northwest at Bab al-Salam, which was closed last July.

Millions of Syrians are struggling, and without urgent action, millions more will be cut off from food, clean water, medicine and COVID-19 vaccines, she said.

Nebenzia said the Syrian government wants to close cross-border deliveries, and dismissed claims there is no alternative.

There were predictions of disaster when Al-Yaroubiya was closed, but today facts on the ground confirm, and the U.N. says that they have increased increased humanitarian assistance to the northeast ... through the cooperation with the Syrian government, he said.

He said cross-border aid was approved in 2014 in special circumstances when there was no access to many parts of Syria.

But, of course, today it is now an outdated operation and eventually it will be closed, he said.

Asked whether he didnt see the need for even a single crossing now, Nebenzia said: I will not give you a definitive answer at this time. I will only tell you we continue consulting on this issue.
MILAN  Some light was shed on Thursday on the changes brewing at Salvatore Ferragamo.

Following an extraordinary board meeting, chaired by Leonardo Ferragamo, the Florence-based company said late that day it had reached an agreement with chief executive officer Micaela le Divelec Lemmi, who will stay on in her role until the next board meeting, scheduled for Sept. 7, communicating the companys first-half financial results.

More from WWD

From that date, all executive powers will be exercised by vice chairman Michele Norsa.

The board also approved the terms and conditions of the agreement with Marco Gobbetti, who will succeed le Divelec Lemmi as general manager and CEO, but the company did not specify when he will be released from his contractual obligations at Burberry. As reported, Gobbetti said he would remain CEO of Burberry until the end of the year.

Leonardo Ferragamo underscored the fundamental role that Gobbetti will play in growing the company as part of an important enhancement of the brand and its potential.

He also expressed his gratitude to le Divelec Lemmi for the important work she has done in her role since 2018, leading the company with commitment and dedication even in the delicate phase of the pandemic, and for having contributed to the start of a process of transformation of the group with a view to customer centricity and retail culture that will be the basis for the future developments of Ferragamo.

Le Divelec Lemmi will walk away with more than 1.97 million euros as a consideration for the early termination of the relationship and as compensation for any damages whatsoever related to such early termination to be paid by Sept. 30 this year. Le Divelec Lemmi was supposed to remain as CEO of the company until Dec. 31, 2023, as decided at the end of March. The parties confirmed the consensual termination of the non-compete clause, so no amount in this case will be paid to le Divelec Lemmi, who did not hold any company shares as of Thursday.

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As reported, Burberry Group plc revealed earlier this week that Gobbetti, who took up his CEO role in July 2017, will be exiting at the end of the year in order to move closer to his family. Minutes later, Salvatore Ferragamo SpA confirmed that Gobbetti was taking on a similar role at the Italian company.

At the time, there was no mention of le Divelec Lemmi, although rumors about her departing the Florence-based company have been circulating in Italy for some time. Le Divelec Lemmi is a Gucci veteran who joined Ferragamo as chief corporate officer and was then named CEO in 2018.

Early in his career Gobbetti served as CEO of Moschino, and later spent 13 years at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, where he was CEO of Givenchy, working with Riccardo Tisci. He later decamped to Celine, where he worked with Phoebe Philo.

Unlike Burberry, which is 100 percent listed on the stock exchange, the Ferragamo family still owns and part-manages the business.

The brands source of sales is high-end leather accessories, which are less susceptible to seasonal trends or dependent on hot designers. They also bring higher margins and fall well within the methodical Gobbettis area of expertise.

Ferragamos former creative director Paul Andrew exited the company in May, and observers wonder if Tisci could be headed to the Italian brand, following Gobbetti. The two are said to be close, although Tiscis collections at Burberry have been gaining sales and critical momentum.

Also, hes waved goodbye to Gobbetti before. Tisci spent more than a decade at Givenchy, where he was creative director from 2005 to 2017. While Gobbetti was the man who originally hired Tisci, the two overlapped at the company only a little more than three years when Gobbetti left for Celine.

Gobbetti will be Ferragamos fourth CEO in five years: Norsa stepped down in 2016 after a decade and Eraldo Poletto left in 2018 after less two years on the job, succeeded by le Divelec Lemmi.

Analysts see Gobbettis arrival as delaying a potential sale of Ferragamo, allowing the executive to engineer and execute a turnaround plan, after years of a slowdown at the brand.

Speculation about a possible sale of Ferragamo has swirled for years, and has always been denied by the family, which has been easing out of top roles and hiring outside managers to take the business forward.

In the 12 months ended Dec. 31, Salvatore Ferragamos revenues fell 33.5 percent to 916 million euros, but the company reported a progressive improvement in the second half and a positive performance of the brands stores in the first nine weeks of 2021, topped by solid growth in China and South Korea and an 85.6 percent gain in the digital channel. In the three months ended March 31, revenues rose 10.3 percent to 245 million euros despite the ongoing lockdowns of stores in some countries, impacted by the pandemic.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is greeted by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Elysee Palace on Friday during the U.S. diplomat's weeklong trip to Europe. (Andrew Harnik/ Associated Press)

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken seemed to revel in the reception he got in Europe in the last month, embraced by officials effusive about his America is back message  and perhaps happy simply that he wasnt as scornful as his predecessor, Michael R. Pompeo.

Blinkens stated mission was to revitalize U.S.-European ties, following up on a similar trip by President Biden  and allies were eager to accommodate after four years of Trump-era isolationism.

But out of the public eye, Blinken had a more difficult task: galvanizing a united front against the power that Washington now sees as the Western worlds greatest threat, China.

The common denominator that weve been discussing with all of our European partners ... is that whether [the relationship with Beijing is] adversarial, whether its competitive, whether its cooperative, were much better off engaging China together than we are alone, Blinken said in Rome. And I think youve seen that in the G-7 meeting, in the NATO meeting, in the U.S.-European Union meeting, there is increasingly convergence on engaging with China together from a common position.

The Biden administration wants to move Europes economic and trade reliance away from China while shifting NATOs strategic security underpinnings toward a greater focus on China, even perhaps over Russia.

It was the message administration officials stressed in June meetings with the Group of 7 wealthiest democracies in Cornwall, England, and with leaders from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union in Brussels. Blinken drove the points home in a second trip to Berlin, Paris, Rome and Matera, Italy, at the end of the month.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold a joint news conference in Berlin on June 23. (Clemens Bilan / Associated Press)

Success thus far is mixed, diplomats and officials said.

Russia keeps us on our toes regionally, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said after Blinkens visit. But when it comes to the future shaping of the world order, China is definitely a systemic challenge.

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Other Europeans, however, are reluctant to focus their security concerns on China instead of Russia. And many do not share sufficient common ground with the U.S. on China to make a united front against Beijing the basis for improved transatlantic ties.

It is a puzzle to me why we need China to rebuild the transatlantic relationship, said Susan Thornton, a veteran China expert and former acting secretary of State for East Asia.

Members of the administration may be looking to Europe to help replace the leverage that the U.S. no longer has with Beijing, she said, but they dont see China as an existential threat nor even as the same level of danger that the U.S. does.

They do not share the same angst about whos on top; its not what drives them, Thornton, now a senior fellow at Yale, said in an interview. Theres a pretty big disconnect.

Washington views China as a threat because its economy is outpacing that of the U.S., it ruthlessly expands its economic and technological dominance worldwide, and it relentlessly represses Muslim, Tibetan and other minorities within national borders in an effort to erase ethnic or religious identities seen as less loyal to the ruling Communist Party.

Some in the U.S. also remain suspicious of Chinas early role in the spread of COVID-19, believing Communist officials attempted to hide the seriousness of the disease and stymied investigations into its origins.

At the NATO summit June 14, with both Biden and Blinken in attendance, U.S. officials persuaded member states to agree on adding China to a final statement for the first time, stating its growing influence and international policies can present challenges that we need to address together as an Alliance.

Yet that is also emerging as another point of contention, current and former administration officials say. Few nations want to be as public about standing up to China as the Biden administration seems to be eager to do.

Biden and Blinken have framed the confrontation with China as autocracy versus democracy. But many in Europe have a more nuanced, issue-specific evaluation of Beijing.

The U.S. call to cooperate on China is a politically controversial quest from the European perspective, said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

Deconstructing the challenges posed by China will help EU member states deal with specific issues such as climate change or cybersecurity rather than accept the overarching narrative of democracy versus authoritarianism that the Biden administration is embracing, Balfour wrote in an analysis for her institute.

Blinken also hoped to persuade European allies to take on larger roles in the Indo-Pacific, where the U.S. wants to take action to counter Chinas military and economic expansion in the region. European nations may, however, balk at the expense.

There are inherent contradictions in recruiting European countries to stand up to Chinas economic coercion. Many, like Germany, have deep trade and business ties that they are loath to cancel.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken speaks to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, left, before a ministerial meeting in Rome on Monday. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken listens as Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, foreground, speaks in Rome on Monday. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Blinken repeatedly attempted to reassure allies that the administrations goal is not to contain China but to provide alternatives that help preserve a rules-based, free international order.

China, on the way to becoming the worlds largest economy, has expanded its reach worldwide, deep into Africa and Latin America through its Belt and Road Initiative that builds roads, ports and other infrastructure in dozens of countries but often under harsh terms that leave those governments crushed by debt or forced to sell off assets to Beijing.

However intense the private conversations Blinken had about China in Europe might have been  and they probably were not very contentious at the end of the day  the public interactions were warm and friendly.

The Italian foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, was Luigi, and Blinken was Tony in formal comments, the usual honorific titles dropped. The foreign minister of France, Jean-Yves Le Drian, called him my dear Tony, and Blinken delivered an hourlong talk at the U.S. Embassy in Paris in polished French, a reflection of having spent much of his childhood and high school years living in the French capital.

The Europeans are so happy that Trump is gone, they want to be helpful, Thornton said, but for them, [China represents] a different problem set. The interests are not the same.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Jul. 1Most of the National Guard members helping with food distribution at the Helping Hands Solution Center during the height of the pandemic are heading home.

At a ceremony honoring their service Wednesday, Executive Director Rebecca Skrinde thanked them for going above and beyond in their service to the community.

"I remember when the first group came in," Skrinde said in a speech. "We were going to have them for six weeks."

Now 14 months after their initial arrival, 20 of the remaining 28 National Guard members will leave their post and return to their civilian lives.

"Your community here says thank you," she said. "Thank you for making Skagit safer and more nourished."

Since April, the Guard has been helping the county's largest food bank package and deliver food, providing essential assistance during a time when the need for help had never been higher.

Nichole Long, director of development with the food bank, said the remaining eight members will help with the transition back to volunteer-run services  probably through July.

"Volunteers were a little slower to come back than we hoped," she said.

At the same time, the need in the community is still extraordinarily high, Long said.

On average, about 3,500 families per week are getting food assistance from one of Helping Hands' programs, compared with about 900 a week from before COVID-19 shut down the economy.

At the ceremony, Skrinde also thanked a number of community partners for their help during the pandemic, including Skagit Transit, Skagit County Department of Emergency Management, Janicki Industries, Marathon Refinery, the Skagit Community Foundation and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

 Reporter Brandon Stone: bstone@skagitpublishing.com, 360-416-2112, Twitter: @Brandon_SVH
The Singapore Psychological Society is the first professional body in Singapore to repudiate conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change or suppress the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people.

SINGAPORE  The Singapore Psychological Society (SPS) has denounced "conversion therapy", the practice of trying to change or suppress the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people, calling it ineffective and harmful to individuals, and recommends that psychologists use evidence-based therapy to help LGBTQ clients.

In a statement posted on the society's social media on Wednesday (30 June), SPS said:

"As a professional body, the Singapore Psychological Society commits to the use of evidence-based practice to support the needs of LGBTQ+ individuals and to do no harm.

Current research indicates the inefficacy and possible harmful effects of conversion therapy. As such, we recommend that when treating clients struggling with their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, psychologists use evidence-based therapy.

This includes exploring and affirming their orientation/identity, exploring assumptions and goals that may have originated from societal pressures, managing stress, and promoting well-being."

SPS is the first professional organisation in Singapore to state a stance on conversion therapy.

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The society was responding to the news that Canada's House of Commons passed a bill criminalising conversion therapy on 22 June. The bill still needs to be passed by Canada's Senate in order to come into force.

SPS said that people's innate sexual orientations or gender identities were not mental disorders to be fixed, and treatment for LGBTQ clients should focus on their mental health needs instead of changing their "being".

SPS also wrote in its message, "As Pride Month draws to a close, SPS stands with every single person for their deepest 'self' (i.e. who they really experience and identify themselves as)  and in particular, we honour the LGBTQ+ population who have suffered deeply, and who we deeply cherish just as they are."

The Singapore Psychological Society is the local professional association of psychologists. It currently has 1,102 members, 534 of which are registered psychologists.

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What is conversion therapy?

Conversion therapy might be performed by mental health professionals, religious practitioners or the community and family members. It seeks to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, or to reduce their non-heterosexual sexual attraction or sexual behaviour. It is practised in many places around the world; techniques include electroshock treatments, "corrective rape", psychotherapy, abstinence training, cognitive restructuring, masturbatory reconditioning, or religious prayers and exorcisms.

Places like Germany, Taiwan, Brazil, Malta, Ecuador, India, the UK and Canada have made moves in recent years to ban conversion therapy as research has shown that it is ineffective and linked to depression, suicidality, anxiety, social isolation and decreased capacity for intimacy.

Attitudes towards LGBTQ people in Singapore remain largely conservative, and mainstream Christian and Muslim religious groups have stated that homosexuality is unnatural. There is little data on the practice of conversion therapy in Singapore, but therapeutic professionals and religious practitioners are known to practise it.

Community applauds statement

Psychologist Camellia Wong, whose specialisations include sexual identity issues, said, "It's great that SPS recognises that LGBTQ individuals in Singapore need help for their own mental health too, and recognises that conversion therapy does more harm than good. For those who do not yet know what SPS does, itll be a good source of evidence-based information on the harm that conversion therapy brings when they research about it, especially for those who face discrimination from family members who want them to go through conversion therapy."

Leow Yangfa, a social worker and executive director of Oogachaga, an NGO that provides counselling services for the LGBTQ community in Singapore, said it was not unusual for them to see clients who had gone through harmful conversion therapies from their previous therapists or religious leaders, leaving them with observable symptoms of shame and trauma.

Attendees dance during the 2019 Pink Dot event calling for LGBTQ equality held at the Speaker's Corner in Hong Lim Park in Singapore. (Photo: Ore Huiying/Getty Images)

"It is extremely significant for the Singapore Psychological Society to be the first professional organisation in Singapore to take a stand that is clearly science and evidence-based, instead of one that is based on subjective opinion or religious beliefs," said Leow. "It remains to be seen if the other relevant professional bodies, such as the Singapore Association of Social Workers and the Singapore Association for Counselling, as well as those in the nursing, medical and psychiatric professions, will do the same. Elsewhere in the developed world, like the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan, many professional associations already take evidence-based stands against such conversion practices."

"In addition to being significant, it is also sending a symbolic message to members of the local LGBTQ+ community that they will be safe, affirmed and respected when they access these services," Leow added.

Pauline Ong, executive pastor of Free Community Church, the only officially LGBTQ-affirming church in Singapore, said, "The statement by the Singapore Psychological Society is timely and significant because conversion 'therapy' is still taking place here in Singapore, albeit in different forms than in the past. The current forms are more subtle but still as harmful. Psychological conversion therapy is still conversion therapy, and anything that seeks to reprogram the mind through enforced negative feedback and shame is harmful to a person's mental health and well-being. We have seen this happen in some religious circles and it is heartbreaking. We believe it is possible to reconcile one's identity or orientation with one's faith in a healthy way."

The government of Singapore said in Parliament last year that homosexuality is not a clinical disorder that needs to be cured, citing international medical classifications, and that the ministry of health expects doctors and healthcare professionals to practise according to evidence-based best practice and clinical ethics.

However, homosexuality remains illegal in Singapore. Three separate legal challenges against Section 377A of the Penal Code, a law which criminalises sex between men, were dismissed by the High Court in March last year.

Related stories:
The Canadian socialite accused of killing a Belizean police officer is now claiming in an interview that she has been treated unfairly, is a victim of her husband's rich and powerful family, and that they are using their connections to keep her away from her children.

Jasmine Hartin told 7 News Belize that no one from John Ashcroft's family visited her while she was held because they had been advised it would be bad optics.

LAWYERS FOR CANADIAN SOCIALITE ACCUSED OF KILLING POLICE OFFICER WORKING TO SHORE UP FUNDS FOLLOWING SECOND ARREST

Hartin, the mother of twin 4-year-olds, was released from jail on bail Wednesday as she awaits trial for the May shooting death of Henry Jemmott.

She told the local news outlet that while she has had a "complicated" seven-year relationship with Ashcroft, the son of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, she was "shocked" by the Ashcroft family's complete abandonment of her after her arrest.

"I can't believe how I've been treated," she said.

She added that she's heard from other family members that the Ashcrofts "were instructed to distance themselves from me immediately."

"That they couldn't have bad press associated with their reputation, so, therefore, I wasn't  I didn't have any family come to visit me in jail. I didn't have any family call me," she said. "Instead, a couple of friends came to see me, but never once was I allowed to speak to the children during that time."

Hartin was rearrested last week after her original bail backer told the court he was afraid she wouldn't show up to trial.

Frank Habet, a former associate of Hartin's, told the court he could no longer cover her $30,000 bail because of her erratic actions following her first release.

Hartin tried to access her family apartment at the Grand Colony Resort to see her young children.

Video emerged of Hartin chasing Ashcroft into the neighboring Alaia Belize hotel. Hartin allegedly took the video herself and can be heard repeatedly asking Ashcroft why he was denying her access to their children, Ellie and Charlie.

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The incident prompted Habet, the resort manager of Grand Colony, to pull his support and his funds.

"Ms. Hartin appeared at Grand Colony Resort behaving in a disorderly and abusive manner and creating great disturbance at the hotel in the presence of guests," Habet said.

Hartin was initially arrested on charges of shooting and killing Jemmott following a night of drinking. She had been held at the notoriously tough Belize Central Prison for more than a week following her arrest and said no one except her lawyer and another friend visited her.

She has been charged with manslaughter by negligence after police said they found her with blood on her clothing and arms near a dock.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Jemmott's body was found floating nearby in the water.

Hartin initially claimed Jemmott had been shot by someone from a passing boat but changed her story after authorities told her she would be charged with cocaine possession as well.

She eventually told investigators she and Jemmott met up for a night of drinking. Jemmott suggested she practice loading his gun, something she had done with him before following an incident when a man allegedly became aggressive toward her. Hartin told investigators Jemmott told her to get a gun for protection. She claims that during their second practice session that she had trouble ejecting the magazine and that it accidentally fired, hitting the father of five behind his right ear and killing him.

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Tags: News, Canada, Latin America, Crime, Tourism, Cops

Original Author: Barnini Chakraborty

Original Location: Socialite accused of killing Belize police officer claims she is a victim of husband's wealthy family
Supreme Court SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

The Supreme Court has upheld voting restrictions in Arizona, ruling two laws don't violate the Voting Rights Act.

In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld an Arizona policy requiring ballots to be tossed if they're cast in the wrong precinct, as well as a law that only voters, their family members, or their caregivers may deliver ballots, NBC News reports. Critics argued the laws disadvantaged minority voters. The majority opinion was written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

"Arizona's out-of-precinct policy and HB 2023 do not violate [Section 2] of the VRA, and HB 2023 was not enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose," the court said.

Alito also wrote that "mere inconvenience cannot be enough to demonstrate a violation" of the law, and that "the mere fact there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open or does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote." The court declined to "announce a test to govern all VRA [Section 2] challenges to rules that specify the time, place, or manner for casting ballots," Alito wrote, per NPR.

The court's ruling was a "sign of what's to come," Axios wrote, as it could be "paving the way for new limitations across the country." The ruling also suggested, The New York Times wrote, that "challenges to new state laws making it harder to vote would face a hostile reception from a majority of the justices," and law professor Rick Hasen told NBC, "This significantly dilutes the Voting Rights Act. Minority groups will now have to meet a much higher standard beyond showing that a change presents a burden to voting."

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Suspected members of a feared Islamist militia killed 10 people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Beni overnight, the army said Thursday, prompting an anti-government protest with youths parading a victim's body in the streets.

The attack "by ADF enemies" took place in Beni's southeastern Rwangoma district, lieutenant Anthony Mualushayi told AFP, referring to the Allied Democratic Forces. "We lost 10 civilians," he added.

An AFP correspondent saw 10 bodies in the morgue of Beni's general hospital.

Local residents were shocked by the first attack in the Rwangoma district since December 2019.

Angry youths marched on the town hall, carrying a victim's body and shouting slogans questioning the point of a "state of siege" imposed on May 6 with the aim of quelling ADF violence in North Kivu province as well as Ituri province to the north.

"We thought it was the light at the end of the tunnel, this state of siege," Rwangoma resident Samuel Kalume told AFP.

"But after 18 months without an attack by the ADF in our neighbourhood, we're back at square one. It's very discouraging."

The protesters shouted "State of siege = zero" and "FARDC = ADF". FARDC is the name of DRC's armed forces.

Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters, arresting six, an AFP correspondent saw.

- Army strikes back -

The DRC's armed forces said in a statement Thursday evening that its forces had "just neutralised five ADF responsible for the attack on the Rwangoma district.

"For the time being, the FARDC is continuing to hunt down these terrorists in the Virunga National Park," it added.

The army's spokesman for the neighbouring Ituri region, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, said the army there had killed 13 "ADF terrorists".

Under the "state of siege" proclaimed by President Felix Tshisekedi, senior civilian officials have been replaced by army officers.

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The last attack by the ADF in the Rwangoma district, in December 2019, was in reprisal for an army operation against the militia. Around a dozen people were killed including two soldiers.

The one before that was three years earlier, in August 2016, when around 50 people lost their lives.

At midday, Rwangoma's shops, schools and offices were closed and the streets were largely deserted.

The ADF is the deadliest of an estimated 122 armed militias that roam the mineral-rich east, many of them a legacy of two regional wars from 1996 to 2003.

According to a tally compiled by the DRC's Catholic Church, the ADF has been responsible for at least 6,000 deaths since 2013.

The Kivu Security Tracker monitor says the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017.

- IS claims -

Originally from Uganda, the ADF has long focused on DR Congo.

However Ugandan police said Thursday that the ADF "had started reactivating domestic terror cells" in Uganda.

Police in Uganda arrested four suspects and killed a fifth in a raid on a "terror cell" suspected of wounding a top minister and killing his daughter and bodyguard in an assassination attempt on June 1.

On March 10, the US State Department branded the ADF a "foreign terrorist organisation" and said its leader Musa Baluku had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

But experts are still unsure about the extent of links between the ADF and IS, which has lost most of its territory in the Middle East but is expanding in Africa.

Last weekend, there were three bomb attacks in Beni including the first targeting a Catholic church building and the first suicide bombing in the region.

IS claimed responsibility for the suicide blast and the church attack, as well as three other attacks on security forces in Ituri province, according to SITE, a jihadist monitoring site.

The ADF never claims responsiblity for its attacks.

str-mbb/dl/har
Texas sheriffs have filed a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of preventing federal officials from arresting or deporting criminal illegal immigrants.

The suit comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused to take custody and deport illegal immigrants arrested locally due to a new Biden administration policy, including one man who had previously been deported and who had been convicted of sexual battery of a child.

Five counties and five sheriffs departments, along with ICE employees from a national law enforcement organization, filed a complaint in the federal court of the Southern District of Texas Thursday afternoon. The complaint alleges the decision by President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security officials has enticed criminals to illegally immigrate to the United States, affecting local law enforcement operations and communities.

The ICE officers involved in this case are absolutely astounded at what their superiors are asking them to do: releasing people charged with rape of a child, releasing people charged with dealing drugs and resisting arrest, said Kris Kobach, the former Kansas attorney general and lead attorney for the plaintiffs, in a phone call. These are really serious criminals, and ICE is being ordered by the political leadership of the Biden administration to turn them loose.

On Feb. 18, acting ICE Director Tae Johnson issued a memo stating the only immigrants the agency would take into custody without first obtaining permission of ICE leadership would be those viewed as a threat to national security, border security, or public safety. Unless an immigrant was a known or suspected terrorist, had entered the country before the 2020 presidential election, or had been convicted of an aggravated felony or a member of a criminal gang, ICE employees would have to seek permission from managers to take custody of a person at the request of local police.

NEW INCREASE IN MIGRANT CHILDREN AT BORDER FIVE MONTHS INTO BIDEN TENURE

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Before the Feb. 18 change, illegal immigrants arrested by a sheriffs department could be turned over to ICE, where they would face deportation proceedings before a judge. The February change has forced sheriffs to release criminal immigrants back onto the street rather than set them up for removal from the U.S., which they state in the lawsuit is a violation of federal law stating illegal immigrants, regardless of criminal history, shall be detained while removal proceedings are initiated.

The Biden administration policy stands in direct violation of not one, but three, different federal statutes, Kobach, who heads the Kansas-based Alliance for Free Citizens, wrote in a statement. Congress has mandated that the executive branch must detain and remove certain illegal aliens, but the Biden Administration is ignoring the law. The administrations actions have forced ICE to stand down and have almost brought deportations to a halt. That has fueled the crisis at the border, encouraging more illegal immigration. It has also created an unbearable burden for local law enforcement in Texas.

A man deported four times and convicted of domestic violence, evading arrest, and multiple counts of driving under the influence does not fit the public safety threat category. When local law enforcement asked ICE to take custody of him because of his record, the department refused, and the man was released.

Another man who was ordered to be deported by a federal immigration judge and now facing an aggravated assault charge was also released. A third man who illegally crossed the border was arrested by local police for the rape of a child, but ICE denied the request.

Since the policy went into effect, ICE arrests have dropped by two-thirds. The sheriffs said it has also fueled the surge of noncitizens attempting to get into the U.S. in the four months since, even though illegal immigrants who came over the border during the Biden administration and are arrested are one of the few categories ICE will arrest.

The plaintiffs argued the memo was issued without considering harm to the public and without giving notice or seeking comment as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. As a result of the change, ICE employees are rarely approving the arrests of people outside those three categories.

The complaint also states Johnson was not legally allowed to issue the memo. It should have been issued by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, named in the lawsuit along with Troy Miller, the senior official performing the commissioner's duties at Customs and Border Protection.

The plaintiffs include Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson, Montgomery County, Edwards County Sheriff J.W. Guthrie, Edwards County, McMullen County Sheriff Emmett Shelton, McMullen County, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arwin West, Hudspeth County, and the ICE officers division of the Federal Police Foundation.

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Kobach was a close ally to former President Donald Trump and appointed to a commission to determine the extent of voter fraud present in U.S. elections. The commission concluded voter fraud was not widespread.

Kobach was also involved in a privately funded effort to build a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Tags: News, ICE, Kansas, Law, Joe Biden, White House, Crime, Law Enforcement, Texas

Original Author: Anna Giaritelli

Original Location: Texas sheriffs and ICE officers sue Biden for not deporting criminal illegal immigrants
The White House provided very few details on President Joe Biden's trip to visit with victims, family members of those lost, and rescuers before Air Force One took off early Thursday morning, but his "Empathy Joe" demeanor was in full effect as he talked about his own family crises.

Local authorities revealed that morning that the confirmed death toll in the tragic condominium collapse had risen to 18, with 145 individuals still unaccounted for, and search and rescue operations were temporarily paused over concerns about the safety conditions in the rubble.

DESANTIS PRAISES BIDEN FOR BEING ON TOP OF SURFSIDE CRISIS 'FROM DAY ONE'

Still, following a situational briefing with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, and other local and federal officials, the president and first lady Jill Biden spent hours meeting and thanking emergency responders and then consoling victims' families.

Here are the three main takeaways from Biden's Thursday visit.

One of Biden's greatest strengths is rooted in his own trauma

It's no secret that the president has faced horrors of his own throughout his 40-year political career.

He frequently talks about the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, and eldest son, Beau. He cited Beau's military service and unrelated death while paying tribute to the families of U.S. service members during a speech at Royal Air Force Mildenhall just last month.

But Thursday marked the latest time Biden took it upon himself to meet with families grieving their own tragic losses behind closed doors, with no press visibility.

Though the White House provided a simple "readout," or summary, of the Bidens' nearly four-hour meeting with families affected by the collapse, during which the president and first lady spent time with each individual family unit, administration officials did not pass along any of the first couple's words.

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"We're here for you as one nation, as one nation," the president said in brief remarks following the lengthy meeting. "That's the message we communicated."

"It's bad enough to lose somebody, but the hard part, the really hard part is to not know whether they're surviving or not," he added. "When the accident took my wife and my family, the hardest part was, are my boys going to get out, are they going to make it?"

"As you know, I've done a lot of these circumstances where I've met with families who have had great loss. What amazed me is the resilience and the absolute commitment and willingness to do whatever it took to find an answer. I walked away impressed by their strength," Biden closed.

This trip, at least for the president, was not about optics but rather offering the grieving public a shoulder to lean on.

DESANTIS, TRUMP FEUD OVER FLORIDA RALLY IN AFTERMATH OF SURFSIDE

All parties pushed politics aside to assist in the relief effort

The president opened the briefing with local officials by pointing out a silver lining of the tragedy: "When it's really important ... we come together. This is life and death."

"We're letting the nation know we can cooperate," Biden continued. "I just got back from about 12 days in Europe. They wondered whether we can do this, and you're doing it. I mean, just the simple act of everybody doing whatever needs to be done  it really makes a difference."

DeSantis echoed the president's statement, thanked him for being on top of the response effort "from day one," and praised Biden for "not only [being] supportive at the federal level but" also keeping the "bureaucracy" out of it.

During that same briefing, the president clarified that the federal government won't stop supporting the cleanup and search and rescue efforts and pledged to DeSantis to cover "100% of the costs."

"The governor and the mayor have been completely open with me," the president explained. "Whatever they've asked, I think weve been able to deliver, and I think theres more that we can do."

"I think theres more we can do, including I think I have the power, and well know shortly, to be able to pick up 100% of the costs for the county and the state for 30 days. I think Im quite sure I can do that," he continued. "Theres going to be a lot of pain and anxiety and suffering and even the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow. And so, were not going anywhere."

Still, never let a crisis ...

Despite the overt, bipartisan nature of the response, the president did take two public opportunities to raise the subject of climate change.

During his meet and greet with emergency responders, he pointed to the support the administration offered to firefighters on Wednesday as a means of addressing climate and rising temperatures in the Pacific Northwest.

He also speculated about climate change's potential role in causing the collapse while fielding questions from reporters after his remarks.

"There are all kinds of discussions about whether or not they thought that water level rising and the impact it had," Biden stated. "What's interesting to me  I didn't raise it  is how many of the survivors and the families talked about the impact of global warming, and they know exactly what they talk about, sea levels rising and the combination of that and the concern about incoming storms, incoming tropical storms."

He did say that there isn't "definitive" evidence of what called the collapse and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would continue its investigation into the tragedy.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

You can watch Biden's entire closing remarks here.

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Tags: News, Joe Biden, Miami, Miami Condo Collapse, White House, Ron DeSantis, Florida

Original Author: Christian Datoc

Original Location: Three takeaways from Biden's consoler in chief visit to Surfside after condo collapse
Luis Sadovnic, Moises Rodan and Andres Levine, residents of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, had more in common than just their address: The three Venezuelans went to the same Jewish high school in Caracas. Theyre still missing after the condo building collapsed last Thursday.

Its something that we werent expecting. They all left Venezuela looking for a better future and better opportunities, said Esther Beniflah Melul, who attended the same high school and is close friends with Levine. Venezuela is the kind of country where these things could happen but not here. Were all in shock.

The three Champlain Towers residents are in their late 20s and are graduates of Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik, a private Jewish school. Beniflah said that many graduates of the high school went to South Florida in early adulthood for college or work when the economy deteriorated in Venezuela under the leadership of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. She said that the three were religious and active with the strong Venezuelan Jewish community in the area.

The Jewish community has been so supportive, Beniflah said, explaining that the community has organized donations, prayer groups and psychological help for family and friends. They care a lot. ... Some of these people dont even know the victims.

Levine, 26, came to the United States about seven years ago after finishing college in Venezuela. Beniflah, who has known him since she was 12, described him as a private person and a straight-shooter who was always genuine and focused on the positive.

Hed only hang out with real friends, and hed only do whatever made him happy, she said. That was my favorite thing about him. We always got the real him.

Andres Levine had plans to get married in August. Hes a cousin of Moises Rodan, who also lived in the building.

Levine worked in finance and was engaged to be married in August. His fiance was not in the building.

He was about to get married in August. We had so many plans, so many things to do. ... I was going to have dinner with him that Thursday night. We spoke the night before. I just cant believe hes gone.

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Levine was a cousin of Moises Rodan, who lived in a unit on the third floor.

They had two apartments in the building, and it was kind of like those neighbors who are always walking from one unit to other, Beniflah said.

Rodan had just graduated from the University of Florida, where he studied computer engineering and was a part of the Hispanics in Electrical and Computer Engineering, a student group. One month ago on his LinkedIn page, he posted a photo of himself beaming in his cap and gown in front of a Gator statue.

I am happy to share that I have completed my Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, he wrote. It has been an amazing journey of hard work and consistency. Special thanks to my family, mentors, and friends who supported me during this important chapter of my life. Go Gators!

Moises Rodan, pictured with a friend who was not in the building, recently graduated from the University of Florida.

The third classmate from the Jewish high school in Caracas, Luis Sadovnic, is also a UF graduate. There he met Nicole Nicky Langesfeld, who lived with him in the Champlain Towers. The two recently married in a private civil ceremony, due to pandemic restrictions, according to The Associated Press.

According to his LinkedIn page, Luis finished an MBA from Nova Southeastern University in 2019. Nicky graduated from the University of Miami School of Law the same year. She is an associate at Reed Smith law firm in Miami and is a commercial litigator.

Friends and family of Nicky and Luis have organized a GoFundMe page in order to help their families with travel and general expenses. Nickys family is from Argentina, and Luis still has family members in Venezuela.

Nicky prides herself on her family, friends, and pets. Her presence is larger than life, and her sense of humor knows no bounds, the GoFundMe page organizer wrote, adding that she loved to spoil her pets, a guinea pig and two dogs, and go to the beach and out to restaurants.

Luis is down to earth, caring, and loving. He would do anything to protect Nicky. He loves playing golf with his friends and spending time with Nicky, the page says. Luis resume says that hes trilingual (English, Spanish and Hebrew) and that he was on the Venezuelan National Soccer Team in the 15-17 age range.
Tilda Swinton played the Ancient One in "Doctor Strange." Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Tilda Swinton said she questioned her casting as the Ancient One in "Doctor Strange."

The film was accused of whitewashing because Swinton's character was a Tibetan man in the comics.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige previously told Men's Health that he regretted this choice.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tilda Swinton told Variety in a new interview that she had "a question mark" in her mind after being cast in 2016's "Doctor Strange" as the Ancient One, a character who was originally an elderly Tibetan man in the comics.

Marvel Studios was previously accused of whitewashing for casting Swinton in the role.

The actress told Variety that originally there was "widespread welcome" to Swinton, a Scottish woman, playing this role but that the reception "shifted at a certain point, for very good reasons with which I had an enormous amount of sympathy."

Swinton and Mark Ruffalo in "Avengers: Endgame." Disney/Marvel

Swinton appeared as the Ancient One in both "Doctor Strange" and "Avengers: Endgame."

This isn't the first time Swinton has addressed the film's whitewashing criticism. In 2016, she told IndieWire that she hoped fans would embrace her casting, saying, "There's a kind of misunderstanding, which I hope the film will make clear when people see the film."

Marvel Studios defended the casting choice at the time with a statement saying, "the Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic."

Marvel chief Kevin Feige and "Doctor Strange" director Scott Derrickson both said in interviews at the time that they didn't cast an Asian man because they wanted to avoid negative stereotyping.

However, Feige more recently told Men's Health in a May interview that Marvel was wrong to cast Swinton as the Ancient One.

"It was a wake-up call to say, 'Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliche and cast an Asian actor?' And the answer to that, of course, is yes," Feige said.

Story continues

Swinton next to an image of the Ancient One from Marvel comics. Getty Images/Pascal Le Segretain/Marvel

In her new Variety interview, Swinton said she was "very, very grateful" that Feige spoke out about the role.

Swinton also addressed the criticism she'd faced in 2016 after she reached out to Asian American comedian Margaret Cho, whom she'd never spoken to before, asking Cho to explain the Ancient One casting controversy. Cho revealed the encounter in a podcast appearance and commented that Swinton made her feel like a "house Asian" by asking Cho to explain whitewashing and its history in media to someone Cho had never met.

Swinton said of her encounter with Cho: "I made a questionable decision to reach out to somebody in a certain way, which was naive and clearly confusing because their misunderstanding came about because of it."

She called it a "hot moment" and added, "The way in which people get listened to is by speaking up and getting hot. And sometimes, it needs to get messy."

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The West is a tinderbox this year, with heat waves and high winds through summer and fall expected to create the conditions for yet another brutal fire season.

Its just scary, Alexandra Syphard, chief scientist with Vertus Wildfire Insurance Services and an ecologist at San Diego State University, told BuzzFeed News. Weve seen these severe fire seasons year after year now. Everybodys nervous.

The charts and maps below will update to track current wildfires and air quality, compare the 2021 season to previous years, and monitor the weather conditions that make fires more likely to ignite and spread quickly.

Via National Interagency Fire Center

Latest fires

Latest fires, 50 acres burned or more. Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via National Interagency Fire Center / Cal Fire

This table displays active fires that have so far burned 50 acres or more, recorded by the National Interagency Fire Center and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. You can search for any of the fires in the table in the map below to zoom in on the fire and see the perimeter for the area burned, if that data is available.

Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via National Interagency Fire Center / Cal Fire

Tap or hover over the fire icons to see the name of each fire and the area it has burned so far. The map also shows any large plumes of smoke visible from satellites, recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Hazard Mapping System.

Air quality

Smoke plumes visible from orbiting satellites are often at high altitudes, so they may not affect air quality at ground level. But when wildfire smoke accumulates near the ground, it is hazardous for health.

Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via AirNow

This map shows the latest NowCast Air Quality Index (AQI) readings from permanent monitors in the Environmental Protection Agencys AirNow network. The monitors detect levels of tiny, hazardous particles called PM2.5, extrapolated over wider areas where sufficient data is available.

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These airborne particles, which measure less than 2.5 micrometers across, are the main health concern from wildfire smoke because they penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream, and can even affect unborn fetuses, lowering birth weight if pregnant people are exposed to smoke. PM2.5 can also trigger heart attacks, asthma, and other respiratory problems.

PM2.5 starts to affect vulnerable people, including young children and those with respiratory conditions, above an AQI of 100. Anything above 200 is considered very unhealthy for everyone, while an AQI of 300 or more is rated hazardous for all.

Tap or hover over the circles to see the latest PM2.5 AQI for each monitor. You can also type a city into the search box to zoom in on that area.

Current drought conditions

Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via US Drought Monitor

One reason experts are so concerned about the 2021 wildfire season is that the West is in the grip of a historic drought. An unusually dry winter left soils and vegetation parched, and mountain snowpacks, which feed the regions rivers, were well below normal. This map shows the latest assessment from the US Drought Monitor, which is updated each Thursday.

Fire weather and risks

Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via Wildland Fire Assessment System / National Weather Service

Even against the backdrop of widespread drought, the risk of fires igniting and spreading rapidly depends on local weather conditions. This map shows todays outlook from the US Forest Services Wildland Fire Assessment System, which calculates risk categories from weather forecasts and observations.

You can use the control at top right to view areas currently under red flag fire warnings issued by the National Weather Service. These are declared when warm weather, low humidity, and strong winds are forecast to produce a high wildfire danger.

How the 2021 fire season compares to recent years

Chart compares the 2021 season to the previous 10 years up until the same date. Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via National Interagency Fire Center

This chart compares the number of fires and total area burned so far in 2021 to the same date in each of the previous 10 years, according to data recorded by the National Interagency Fire Center.

But these numbers dont tell the whole story. How hazardous wildfires are to people depends on when and where those fires happen. For example, large areas of the sparsely populated Mountain West or Plains states can burn without many homes, businesses, or peoples lives or health being threatened.

Last year showed how quickly circumstances can change. The 2020 season was running below the national average for the decade until mid-August, when dry lightning storms ignited a series of massive wildfires across Northern California and Oregon. The resulting disaster burned through entire towns in Oregon and created a pall of smoke that blocked the sun, casting large parts of the region in a sickly orange half-light in September and driving air quality into the hazardous range in some cities. By the end of the year, more than 10,000 buildings had been damaged or destroyed in California alone, and the total area burned nationally, at more than 10 million acres, was the second largest on record.

Climate change is making things worse

Total acres burned at the end of each year. Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News / Via National Interagency Fire Center

This chart shows the total acreage burned at the end of each year from 1983  when federal agencies began tracking using the current reporting system  through to 2020. While the area burned varies widely from year to year, the overall trend is increasing.

Fire ecologists and climate scientists attribute this trend in large part to climate change, which is warming and drying California and other states across the West.

While media commentators sometimes describe recent severe fire seasons as the new normal, the truth is that ongoing climate change means things are likely to get worse for the foreseeable future. We have not reached the peak, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told BuzzFeed News last year. In fact, no one knows where the peak is.

More on this
Former President Donald Trump visited the southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday. Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images

Trump visited the southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday.

Trump claimed in a speech that when he left office, the border wall had needed only final touches.

The Trump administration finished building less than a quarter of the planned wall during his term.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former President Donald Trump made a trip to the US-Mexico border on Wednesday and falsely claimed that he was almost done building the border wall when he left office.

Speaking at an unfinished section of the wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, Trump said he had been just months from completing the structure. He was visiting the border with Gov. Greg Abbott and 31 Republican lawmakers, Reuters reported.

"Within two months, everything could have been completed, not sitting there rotting and rusting. It would have been perfecto. It was all set," Trump said during a rambling 30-minute speech.

He also erroneously claimed during a press conference before his speech that the wall had lacked only some final touches.

"They were supposed to paint the wall. They aren't even doing that. They've got to get a coat of paint on the wall. Believe it or not, it does rust. Maybe that's what they like. Let it rust, let it rot," Trump added.

Apart from talking about the border, Trump ranted about the election results, saying that he'd done "such a good job" during his term that migration and border control "wasn't even a factor" in the election.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration had built less than a quarter of the 2,000-mile border wall he'd promised. According to The Times, the administration built only 450 miles of the wall during Trump's term, mostly in sections with existing barriers.

President Joe Biden stopped construction on the border wall on his first day in office.

Trump's outing on Wednesday followed Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to El Paso, Texas, last Friday. In Harris' first visit to the US's southern border since she was sworn in, she met with girls living at a US Customs and Border Protection facility.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Kanye West. Saul Loeb / Getty Images

Yeezus, could it be true?

Fox News host Tucker Carlson reportedly told associates and program guests that he voted for rapper Kanye West  not former President Donald Trump  in the 2020 election, per Politico. It's unclear if Carlson was serious or kidding (he declined to comment and has claimed previously to "never" vote, even in 2016), but certain sources maintain the "affinity" the personalities have for one another is very real.

"He and Kanye get along. They both regularly find themselves in the crosshairs. They're both pro-life," said one associate to Politico. Outside of the voting booth, Carlson has "praised" West on-air, and even spent time with the rapper in Wyoming.

West failed to make the ballot in Florida, meaning if Carlson voted for him, it would have been a write-in. But, West also neglected to submit the necessary paperwork to Florida's elections division, so any write-in votes for him wouldn't have been counted. According to county officials, however, there were eight invalid write-in votes for president in the precinct where Carlson, a registered Florida Republican, voted last year. The county does not track write-in votes for non-qualified candidates, but one official said "she remembered that some people in the county did indeed write in West."

Read more at Politico.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Moscow said on Thursday that he held a positive meeting with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

John Sullivan, who returned to Moscow last month after leaving in April amid a diplomatic crisis, told reporters earlier this week that the two countries were engaged in organising the first round of talks on strategic stability.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed to start consultations on arms control at a meeting in June.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Alexander Marrow)
By Doyinsola Oladipo

(Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar's military on Thursday to release Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint now, a U.N. spokesperson said on Thursday, a day after thousands of other detainees were freed.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army took power on Feb. 1 and ousted Suu Kyi's elected government.

"We reiterate our call for the immediate release of all of those who are arbitrarily detained, and that includes President Win Myint and State councilor Aung San Suu Kyi," said Eri Kaneko, associate spokesperson for Guterres.

Myanmar freed more than 2,000 detainees on Wednesday, among them journalists and others who the ruling military said had been held on incitement charges for taking part in protests, local media reported.

Many of the military's opponents have been held, some convicted, under a law that criminalises comments that could cause fear or spread false news. Suu Kyi is on trial for a similar offence, among others, and remains in detention.

"We remain deeply concerned at the continuation of violence and intimidation, including arbitrary arrests, by the security forces," said Kaneko.

(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in Washington; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Matthew Lewis)
KAMPALA (Reuters) - The gunmen who tried to kill a Ugandan minister last month trained in an Islamist rebel camp in Democratic Republic of Congo, police said on Thursday.

Armed men on motorcycles intercepted Katumba Wamala, Uganda's works and transport minister and a former military and police chief, as he drove through a suburb of the capital Kampala and peppered his vehicle with bullets.

The suspects are part of a team that trained in a camp in neighbouring Congo's North Kivu province run by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an insurgent group, Deputy Police Chief Paul Lokech said.

The ADF claims links to Islamic State (IS). The rebel group originally started in Uganda but it now operates in the jungles of eastern DRC.

During the attack on Wamala, the assailants killed his daughter and his driver. He was injured while his body guard emerged unscathed.

"This is a straight forward case of political violence and domestic terrorism," Lokech said in a statement.

Four more people who include those who directly participated in the attack had been arrested while a fifth had been killed during an operation to detain him, Lokech said.

On Monday, two suspects were charged for their role in the attack but security officials had not provided details of their investigation.

In a search of the home of one of those detained, materials linking the suspects to ADF had been recovered, police said.

"Exhibits, including materials used in making improvised explosive devices were recovered, as well as Al-Qaeda training manuals on how to make and detonate bombs," Lokech said.

ADF has been accused of killing thousands of people since 2014, most in massacres in villages in eastern Congo carried out with machetes, hatchets and firearms.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Police in Uganda have arrested two nurses and were hunting for a man who had posed as a doctor to sell and administer fake coronavirus vaccines to hundreds of people, authorities in the East African nation said on Thursday, amid a rising second wave of infections.

The phoney doctor had persuaded several companies to pay for their employees to receive vaccines, charging between 100,000- 200,000 Ugandan shillings ($28-$56) per shot, according to the head of a public health monitoring unit within the president's office.

"This was a clear scam, this fellow was looking for money, just a common criminal...we suspect he was injecting people with water because it's colourless, odourless and not dangerous," Dr. Warren Naamara told Reuters.

"He is still on the run but we're hunting for him. We have arrested two nurses whom he was employing."

Documents seized in a raid of the premises used by the suspects showed at least 812 people had been vaccinated but Naamara said the number of victims could be more.

During a raid on the premises used by the suspects, investigators found vials whose seals had been tampered with, and had bogus vaccine labelling and false shipping information, Naamara said.

Coronavirus infections and fatalities have soared in Uganda since late May, as the highly-infectious Delta variant had fueled a second wave of infections.

A vaccination campaign, begun in March, has been hampered by insufficient deliveries of shots from the vaccine-sharing facility COVAX, that was set up to supply low income countries.

As a result, Ugandans have at times been forced to queue in long lines, some times for a whole day, hoping to be vaccinated.

($1 = 3,555.0000 Ugandan shillings)

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Omar Mohammed & Simon Cameron-Moore)
LONDON (AP)  Business leaders and unions joined forces Thursday to urge the British government to maintain a salary subsidy program that is being wound down over the coming months  or else see unemployment rise sharply.

The Job Retention Scheme was introduced at the start of the pandemic last March to ensure unemployment didn't rise substantially when lockdown restrictions were imposed. Under the program, the government paid 80% of the salaries of those workers unable to work because of lockdown measures.

The program helped support over 11 million people but the number now is down around the 2 million mark as many sectors have reopened, notably hospitality. It kept a lid on unemployment, which remains relatively low at around 5%.

On Thursday, that support started to be phased out with companies with staff still on furlough having to pick up 10% of the bill. Further tapering is due over coming months before the scheme is due to end in September.

Our Plan for Jobs has supported peoples jobs and livelihoods throughout the pandemic and its fantastic to see so many people coming off furlough and into their workplaces with our restaurants, pubs and shops reopened, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said.

However, there are growing calls on the government to keep the scheme in place for as long as needed.

The British government is hoping to lift all remaining restrictions on social contact in England on July 19 but the recent sharp rise in infections has raised concerns about whether it should, when many people have still to receive at least one dose of vaccine. The other parts of the U.K.  Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland  are taking similar steps out of lockdown.

The taper of government payments into the furlough scheme should be immediately deferred until we take the final step in the road map," British Chambers of Commerce director-general Shevaun Haviland said.

Some businesses, such as nightclubs and many theaters for example, are still unable to open their doors because of a delay in the reopening plans for England.

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The country has invested billions in keeping people in work ready for recovery, but if ministers pull the rug from under businesses too soon jobs will go, said Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of the Unite union.

The reopening of the British economy has led to a sharp recovery from the deepest recession in 300 years. Inflation has also risen as the pent-up demand built up during the pandemic raises cost pressures in the economy.

Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey warned Thursday that inflation in the U.K. is set to remain above target, but that it is likely to be temporary phenomenon, partly linked to richer households spending money saved during the pandemic.

The most recent figures showed the annual rate of inflation in the U.K. at 2.1% following a spike largely in energy prices. The bank's primary aim is to keep inflation at 2%, but it has often let it go higher if it considers the increase in prices as the result of temporary factors.

It is entirely possible that we will witness temporary periods of excess demand, or what more commonly we might describe as bottlenecks," he said in a speech in London. There are good reasons to interpret this as a temporary feature, but we must be on the lookout for the risk that these features are more sustained."

At the outset of the pandemic, the bank slashed its main interest rate to a record low of 0.!% and pumped hundreds of billions of pounds into the economy in order to keep money flowing during the stresses of the pandemic.
KYIV (Reuters) - A draft law which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says will help curb the influence of oligarchs who have dominated Ukraine for decades was approved in its first reading in parliament on Thursday.

Ukraine's international allies and donors have repeatedly criticised Kyiv for failing to reining in small number of wealthy business leaders, many of them owners of television channels, who influence policy behind the scenes.

The bill, which has to be approved in a second reading to become law, defines what an oligarch is and says those who meet the criteria must be registered as such and prohibited from financing political parties or taking part in privatisations.

They would also be required to submit an annual income declaration.

The draft law would require officials, including the president, prime minister, head of the central bank, lawmakers, senior military officials and other top authorities, to make a declaration after any contact with an oligarch.

Justice Minister Denys Malyuska told lawmakers that there were four criteria by which it would be determined whether a person is an oligarch: beneficial ownership of a monopoly company, significant influence over the media, participation in political activities, and a fortune of over 2.4 billion hryvnias (about $87 million).

"A person meeting at least three of the four criteria will be recognised as an oligarch," Malyuska said before the vote.

Local media have suggested 10 or more of the wealthiest Ukrainians could meet the definition.

Zelenskiy promised to reduce the oligarchs' influence when he was elected president in 2019 but has struggled to do so and is under pressure from Kyiv's allies to wipe out widespread corruption in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
Miami Hurricanes quarterback DEriq King and Florida States McKenzie Milton will be rivals when they face off on Nov. 13 in Tallahassees Doak Campbell Stadium, but away from the gridiron, theyre business partners.

Just after midnight from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, as college athletes were cleared to begin profiting off their name, image and likeness (NIL), King and Milton signed on as co-founders of Dreamfield.

Their NIL-based platform will focus primarily on booking live events for student-athletes, such as autograph signings, meet-and-greets and speaking engagements, according to ESPN. King and Milton will be the public faces of Dreamfield and recruit other athletes to use the platform.

It doesnt stop there for King. He also signed a joint deal with Tampa-based companies College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving and Murphy Auto Group, King told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The deal was facilitated by former Miami receiver Ahmmon Richards, who is CEO of his sports marketing agency, Lgndary Sports, which he started after retiring from football.

Kings deal will net him $20,000, Richards told the Sun Sentinel. He said he also helped UM safety Bubba Bolden ink the same deal.

King, who also struck a deal with The Wharf, a riverside bar/club in Miami, midday Thursday, additionally started his own website with his clothing apparel and signed memorabilia available for sale.

The Dreamfield operation between Milton and King will also feature a component that dives into the increasingly popular NFT (non-fungible token) market. Milton is on its first digital card, while King is reportedly set to have his own NFT debut in late July.

Senior Miami receiver Michael Harley announced a partnership with College Football Edits, a website and social media page that designs posts for college football athletes and has nearly 75,000 followers on Instagram.

Hurricanes cornerback Al Blades Jr. tweeted that he has a website opening soon. In an apparent tease to merchandise available, he tweeted an image of his father, Al Blades Sr., when he played for UM and the phrase Hit, stick, bust d---, talk s---. It was a chant Blades Sr. famously uttered in hyping up teammates when he played for the Hurricanes from 1996-2000. Blades Jr. was seen wearing the T-shirt at Miamis recruiting event on Saturday, Paradise Camp.

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Blades is also an adept video game player, and his gaming clips have garnered attention on social media. He could potentially begin to monetize his account on Twitch, a video-game livestreaming platform in which Blades has 3,000 followers.

Miami announced on Wednesday evening that it has launched its internal NIL program, called Ignite. It is powered by Opendorse, a national leader in athletic brand solutions that provides personal brand development resources and management technology used by more than 40,000 athletes worldwide, according to the UM press release.

Were excited to partner with Opendorse by launching our Ignite program across all of our sports, Miami athletic director Blake James said in a statement. Our goal at Miami is to Build Champions on and off the field, and a big part of that is providing our student-athletes with a platform like Opendorse to help build their personal brand and take full advantage of Floridas NIL law.

Opendorse announced in a tweet around noon on Thursday that, 12 hours into NIL legislation, 819 deals were sent to student-athletes via the app.

The new era in college sports still maintains amateur status for the athletes. They do not receive pay from the colleges themselves for their play.
MARACAIBO, Venezuela (AP)  The food assistance agency of the United Nations announced Thursday that its first shipments of supplies for vulnerable Venezuelan school children have arrived in the troubled South American country.

The World Food Program will begin operations in Venezuela by providing children take-home packages that include rice, lentils, salt and vegetable oil. The agency earlier this year reached an agreement with the government of President Nicolas Maduro that allows it to provide school meals, though classrooms are currently closed.

The agency said it will prioritize children under the age of 6 in communities with the highest prevalence of food insecurity and aims to provide 42,000 packages in the first month. Food supplies were being kept at a logistics hub in the northwest city of Maracaibo, about 435 miles (700 km) west of Caracas, the capital.

Under the agreement signed in April, the agency plans to gradually expand programs to reach 1.5 million children by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, up from 185,000 children this year.

The agency will provide school meals, invest in remodeling school cafeterias and will train staff in food safety standards.

Venezuela has been grappling with soaring food prices amid hyperinflation, making it challenging for families to afford nutritious meals.

The Rome-based agency has estimated that one of every three Venezuelans is struggling to consume enough daily calories.
Victim advocate Jennifer Storm stands with survivors of Bill Cosby and case workers outside his sentencing hearing. Provided by Jennifer Storm

A victim advocate for Cosby survivors wants them to know that his release doesn't negate their truth.

Jennifer Storm supported five Cosby survivors, including Andrea Constand, during the court process.

She told Insider that Cosby's release is a "complete injustice" to be blamed on former DA Bruce Castor.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jennifer Storm, former Victim Advocate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, stood in the courtroom beside the survivors of sexual predator Bill Cosby in 2018 and watched him get taken away in handcuffs.

On Wednesday, she called up five victims she represented throughout the case - including Andrea Constand - and assured them that the reversal of his conviction doesn't negate the truths they shared in court.

"Those moments of justice are not lost because this court deemed something technical today that released him," Storm told Insider Wednesday. "I was trying to make sure they understand that their voices mattered, that this case alone and their bravery has led to more victims feeling safe to come forward, and more prosecutors believing and charging offenders, than we've ever seen before."

Storm, who left her post in January, called Cosby's release from prison a "complete injustice," and blames former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor.

The state's highest court found that a deal Castor struck with Cosby in 2005 - which promised him he wouldn't be charged in a case involving Constand who alleged he drugged and sexually assaulted her a year earlier - should have prevented his eventual prosecution.

Castor eventually went on to represent former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial.

"He has consistently been on the wrong side of cases like this. When he was briefly the attorney general here in the Commonwealth, he spoke out against statute of limitation reform for sexual assault victims," Storm said. "He has historically tried to silence victims of sexual violence. I've worked with survivors of other crimes where he completely boggled cases and left victims with less than what they deserved."

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Storm believes it is debatable as to whether or not Cosby actually had a "deal" with Castor. There was no nolle pros agreement - a written agreement officially declaring the office won't pursue charges against Cosby. The deal, she said, was limited to a press release and a few emails the office exchanged with Cosby.

Regardless, if Castor had faith in Constand and the other victims, Cosby would be in prison, Storm said.

Castor didn't immediately return a message from Insider seeking comment.

"He's been an embarrassment to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," she said.

Bill Cosby departs the Montgomery County Courthouse on the first day of sentencing in his sexual assault trial on September 24, 2018 in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Mark Makela/Getty Images

Wednesday's news could retraumatize all survivors, including Cosby's

Storm, who is a survivor of sexual assault herself, told Insider that Wednesday's headlines have the potential of retraumatizing victims.

Storm said that Constand will likely release her own statement, but needed time to sit with the news. She declined to name the other four survivors she spoke with, and said she isn't speaking on their behalf.

All survivors, though, should consider utilizing local resources, like support hotlines and rape crisis programs if they need to.

"Anytime we see stories like this in the headlines, it rips open wounds," she said. "Whether your case is similar to Andrea's or not, anytime we see a predator walk free, it's triggering. It's damaging. It's painful. And so I would just encourage survivors to engage in whatever self-care works for them."

Andrea Constand, who accuses Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting her, walks in a park in Toronto, December 30, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

The reversal shouldn't stop victims from speaking up

Storm, who wrote several books about the path to overcoming sexual assault trauma, is developing a curriculum to support survivors.

She told Insider she hopes that Wednesday's ruling won't prevent victims from prosecuting their attackers.

"I think what's really important is that the facts of the case are not at dispute here," she said. "The testimony that Andrea gave, the story that she has said from day one, since 2004, when this happened, has not changed."

What the court took issue with, she said, was with Castor's choice not to prosecute Cosby when he had the chance.

"He failed to take this case to court," she said. "What I hope is that it empowers victims to say, 'my voice is evidence enough, and I don't care if we get a conviction or not, my day in court is my justice.'"

Read the original article on Insider
A 5-story building that was under construction in Washington, D.C. collapsed on Thursday afternoon, leaving several people injured, including one man who was trapped in the rubble for more than an hour.

"We do not know what caused the collapse, but there was a severe storm passing they the area," a spokesperson for DC Fire and EMS told Fox News. "Two structures to the right suffered some damage secondary to the collapse and a vacant structure to the right suffered major damage."

Four people were immediately helped out of the collapsed building and transported to a local hospital when first responders got to the scene at about 3:30 p.m. Their injuries were not life-threatening, officials said.

One person was trapped in the rubble for roughly an hour and a half, but firefighters were communicating with him and able to rescue him at about 5 p.m. He was conscious, according to DC Fire and EMS.

LIVE UPDATES: SURFSIDE COLLAPSE DEATH TOLL REACHES 18

A video posted by DC Fire and EMS showed multiple firefighters using saws and other tools to try to dig through the rubble, which is located in northwestern Washington, D.C.

"A full building collapse with rescues occurring now," a D.C. firefighters union tweeted. "Please give our members space to work safely."

Two adjacent homes were also evacuated.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Bad weather is rolling through the nation's capital Thursday, with a flash flood warning and severe thunderstorm watch currently in effect, according to the National Weather Service.
A Washington state lawmaker apologized Wednesday for wearing a yellow Star of David  a symbol forced on Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust  at a speech over the weekend to protest restrictions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, pinned a yellow Star of David badge on his shirt during a Washingtonians for Change event in Lacey, Washington Saturday.

"In the current context, we're all Jews," Walsh wrote in a Facebook comment under video of the event.

He further explained the star is "an echo from history" and said Danish people wore yellow stars to confuse the Nazis during WWII. The tale was debunked by Snopes 21 years ago.

Miri Cypers, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest Region released a statement Wednesday condemning Walsh's actions and urging him to apologize.

"Let us be clear, Rep. Walshs comparisons are a gross misappropriation of history to advance an ignorant political point of 'freedom.' It is deeply offensive and discounts the painful history of marginalized communities. There is simply no comparison for the systematic murder of six million Jews and the segregation of the African American community that has lasting impacts to today."

Dee Simon, Baral Family executive director of the Seattle-based Holocaust Center for Humanity, also criticized Walsh for wearing the star.

Our government is making an effort to protect their own citizens, not kill them, Simon told The Seattle Times. It not only trivializes it, it distorts history.

In Nazi-era Germany, authorities required all Jewish people over six years old to wear the yellow Star of David bearing the word "Jew" at all times in public. The mandate was a part of a larger goal to persecute Europe's Jewish population by stigmatizing, segregating and eventually preparing them for deportation, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Walsh is not the only GOP lawmaker to misappropriate the Star of David. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-GA, recently apologized for comparing COVID-19 safety requirements to "a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star."

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Last year, a meme comparing pandemic mask-mandates to Jewish people being forced to wear the yellow star was posted to a Facebook group belonging to a Minnesota county Republican Party.

In a Tuesday interview with the Seattle Times, Walsh said the star was given to him by an event attendee, most of whom were also wearing badges. Some of the organizers were deeply concerned about vaccine passports and vaccine segregation, Walsh told the newspaper.

The Washington Secretary of Health requires masks in public indoor settings for those who are unvaccinated. Vaccination is not mandated by the state, but businesses are required to verify vaccination status before lifting mask requirements for employees.

Walsh took to Facebook Wednesday to criticize the paper's coverage of his speech.

"Hyper partisans are trying to make a sign of solidarity into...something bad," he wrote.

But the Washington representative issued an apology for his actions Wednesday on the conservative talk radio host Jason Rantz's show.

"This gesture went too far, Walsh told Rantz. It was inappropriate and offensive. Im terribly sorry that it happened and that I was a part of it.

He added that he wanted to protest "the erosion of civil liberties" and the way that "small infringements" could lead to larger, "horrible outcomes."

A state representative since 2016, Walsh has often opposed the policies of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. He issued a statement last week against Inslee's extension of the state eviction moratorium and condemned the "Shot of a Lifetime" incentive program aimed at encouraging Washington residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WA state rep. sorry for wearing yellow star to protest covid mandates
A dangerous HIV outbreak in Charleston, West Virginia, will require low-barrier needle exchanges to stop the disease from spreading, according to a preliminary CDC investigation obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The only problem is that new state and city laws banned those needle exchanges in April.

The CDCs investigation into the HIV outbreak in Charleston comes as the city of 48,000 has emerged as the fiercest battleground in a nationwide reckoning over syringe exchanges, long shown to stop HIV outbreaks among people who use drugs. Needle exchange locations have recently faced shut down efforts in Indiana, California, and New Jersey, despite fears of more HIV outbreaks amid a nationwide epidemic of injection drug use.

It's history repeating itself, said Beth Connolly, substance use prevention and treatment initiative director at the Pew Charitable Trust and the former commissioner of New Jerseys Department of Human Services. Despite decades of evidence that needle exchanges work to stop HIV and hepatitis outbreaks in addition to helping people enter recovery programs, she said, we still are here in 2021, and people are still trying to get rid of syringe services programs.

In February, former CDC HIV prevention chief Demetre Daskalakis urged the Charleston city council to consider syringe exchange programs, calling the citys HIV outbreak the most concerning one nationwide. Largely spreading among people who inject illicit drugs, it now stands at 68 cases in the last year, with many more cases expected to turn up with more testing.

At a presentation last week, CDC experts reported preliminary results of an investigation into the outbreak during a closed-door meeting with state and local health officials. Reporters and members of the local HIV Task Force were excluded from the presentation, a move that was viewed by some as wanting to keep the polarizing topic under wraps.

BuzzFeed News obtained the CDCs presentation slides and a recording of the two-hour meeting, showing that the CDC Epidemiologic Assistance team found widespread mistrust of hospitals among people who use drugs and a lack of HIV testing in emergency room and clinic settings. Both people who use drugs and health officials interviewed by the federal health agency called for "low-barrier one-stop combinations of syringe services, medical care, and HIV testing to stop the outbreak from growing.

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"The most commonly mentioned suggestion from both people who inject and stakeholders about how to improve access to services and service integration was to implement this one-stop model," a CDC presenter said during the meeting. About a third of the people with HIV surveyed said they did not have housing and the same number reported recent arrests. Half said they injected drugs more than once daily, typically heroin or fentanyl, and around 15% reported doing sex work, raising the risk of sexual transmission of HIV.

CDC is in large part telling us what we already know, which is that people need access to sterile syringes, said West Virginia University epidemiologist Robin Pollini, who reviewed the slides for BuzzFeed News. There's a lot of suffering documented in this presentation.

Interviews with both people who inject drugs and medical staff found stigma and mistreatment were commonly encountered in healthcare settings. I wouldnt go to another hospital unless I was dying, one man told the CDC investigators. Because they dont care about you.

The report noted that none of the 65 HIV patients interviewed were prescribed pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) before their diagnosis, despite multiple earlier visits to hospitals for wounds and illnesses caused by injection drug use. You have to have a negative HIV test before you can go on PrEP, and they arent bothering to do the testing in the first place, said Judith Feinberg, an infectious disease expert at West Virginia University.

According to the CDC representatives at the meeting, the investigation is ongoing and a final CDC report is expected in August. The agency referred a request for comment from BuzzFeed News to West Virginias health agency.

Stopping HIV in West Virginia and in Kanawha County is the right thing to do and will save lives, resources and money, Andrea Lannom of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health told BuzzFeed News by email. She did not respond directly to questions about the low-barrier syringe service recommendation, but said communities can work on making sure services are available to meet people where they are.

But meeting people where they are will continue to be a problem in West Virginia. In April, the state passed a law, SB334, aimed at dismantling most needle exchanges operating in the state. The law killed off a grassroots program in Charleston called SOAR, which had started offering needle exchanges and HIV testing in the last two years after the contentious shutdown of the city's own syringe service in 2018. SOAR was the first group to ring alarm bells over the citys HIV outbreak in late 2019, after tests by medical volunteers at its bimonthly health fairs turned up eight positive cases.

The CDC findings are disheartening, but also validating, to find you were doing exactly what needs to happen, SOAR president Sarah Stone told BuzzFeed News. But also, its frustrating, because we may be the small handful of people here that believe that to be true.

Among other restrictions, the new state law requires labeling syringes  which would link needles to individual drug users  and mandates state licensing and approval from county politicians to operate. Against CDC recommendations, the law also requires that exchanges try to match the number of needles handed out with the number of returns and only give needles to people with state-issued identification, discouraging people experiencing homelessness or people using illicit drugs who fear being arrested from participating. It also forbids people from picking up needles for others, which can be helpful in a rural state with limited public transportation.

We're in the middle of an HIV crisis, and people don't know because we're not talking about it. We're talking about needles, and we're talking about homelessness, we're talking about vagrants, and we're not talking about people, said Stone. We're talking about the annoyances of people that use drugs, and that's not right.

The ACLU won a temporary injunction against the state law on Monday. While the law was set to go into effect on July 9, it has already effectively stopped SOARs health fairs, which depend on volunteers to operate. We had nurses, and med students, and physicians, at each of our health fairs, who are now scared to set up a health fair with us, said Joe Solomon, another one of SOARs leaders. Because they're afraid they'll leave in handcuffs.

A smaller needle exchange that requires identification and return of labeled needles on the east side of the city abides by the new state law but is what the CDC presentation described as a high-barrier needle exchange. Another barrier is that the majority of the people who use drugs interviewed by the CDC live across the Kanawha River on the citys western side.

The current HIV outbreak in Charleston was predicted by a 2019 Johns Hopkins University study that looked at the closure of its city-run needle exchange site. City officials condemned its findings, calling exchanges addiction empowerment, and complaining that the researchers only interviewed people who use drugs. "If we do see a disease progression into our community, being high rates of HIV or other things, we may have to have the discussion again, but right now, no, Kanawha-Charleston Health Department chief Sherri Young told a local news station in May 2019.

This week, Young announced she was resigning from her position.

More on this
Bill Cosby walked out of prison on Wednesday afternoon, two years into what was supposed to be a sentence of three to 10 years after he was found guilty of raping Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. Hours earlier, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had tossed out the conviction.

What happened?

A majority of the state justices concluded that Cosbys constitutional rights had been violated when local prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, charged him in 2015. The problem with that criminal case, the court found, was that a previous district attorney had announced a decade earlier that Cosby wouldnt face prosecution. That announcement triggered a series of events that included Cosby providing incriminating information against himself in a civil lawsuit, which eventually became part of the criminal prosecution he was under the impression would never happen.

Its an extraordinary situation that, as the court itself noted in Wednesdays decision, was without precedent. The problem wasnt just that thenMontgomery County district attorney Bruce Castor had made an unusual public commitment outside the normal process for an immunity agreement. It also wasnt just that a later district attorney went back on Castors public pledge. The court found that Cosbys decision to rely on Castors statement and incriminate himself in the civil case, and to then have those statements used against him, ran so far afoul of his due process rights that the only way to fix it was to throw out the entire prosecution.

We do not dispute that this remedy is both severe and rare. But it is warranted here, indeed compelled, Justice David Wecht wrote for the majority. [S]ociety holds a strong interest in the prosecution of crimes. It is also true that no such interest, however important, ever can eclipse societys interest in ensuring that the constitutional rights of the people are vindicated.

The wheels had been set in motion in 2005, when Castor first learned about Constands allegations against Cosby: that a year earlier, the actor had given her pills that caused her to become incapacitated and then sexually assaulted her. But Castor ultimately wasnt convinced that his office could prove the case in court given that Constand waited a year to file her complaint with law enforcement. There also was no forensic evidence, and Castor believed Constands recollections would be less precise.

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Castor told Cosbys team and, importantly, stated in a February 2005 press release that he would not bring criminal charges related to Constands allegation. Castor  who more recently defended former president Donald Trump in his February impeachment trial  later testified that his intent was to try to still help Constand get justice. By taking a criminal prosecution off the table, Castor believed that would prevent Cosby from invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in Constands civil lawsuit.

Fast-forward a decade. In 2015, when dozens of women began making similar accusations against Cosby, documents in Constands civil case were unsealed in response to a media request. Thendistrict attorney Risa Vetri Ferman then reopened the criminal investigation that her predecessor had closed.

Castor wrote to Ferman, warning her about his public promise to Cosby, but she chose to press on. Her successor, Kevin Steele, formally charged Cosby in December 2015 with three counts of aggravated assault.

A jury eventually found Cosby guilty in April 2018. He was sentenced several months later, and in addition to the prison term, he was required to register as a sexual predator.

Castor would later say that he had intended to block local prosecutors from bringing criminal charges against Cosby related to Constands allegations at any point in the future. But he did not get Constands consent to make this decision, or even communicate his promise to Constand or her lawyers. She learned about it from a reporter.

He also didnt negotiate a formal immunity agreement with Cosby and present it to a judge to get an official order that would be legally binding on the district attorneys office going forward. Instead, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court described it, Castors statement was a unilateral exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Lower courts that considered Cosbys case found that this sequence of events cut against Cosbys argument that it was reasonable for him to rely on Castors statement when he decided to testify against his own interests.

Cosby ended up sitting for four depositions in Constands civil lawsuit, during which he confessed to several incriminating acts, including providing quaaludes to other women he wanted to have sex with, though he insisted he just gave Constand Benadryl. Eventually, Constand settled the suit for $3.38 million.

But the state Supreme Court had a different interpretation of the legal heft of Castors announcement, even if there hadnt been a formal immunity agreement.

[W]e hold that, when a prosecutor makes an unconditional promise of non-prosecution, and when the defendant relies upon that guarantee to the detriment of his constitutional right not to testify, the principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced, Wecht wrote.

Two former prosecutors who reviewed the courts decision told BuzzFeed News it is very common for prosecutors to tell defense attorneys that they dont plan to pursue charges. But normally, they said, officials dont put out press releases about it.

Id been a prosecutor for more than 40 years and certainly I would periodically tell or even write to a defense lawyer saying we would decline to prosecute right now, Michael Levy, the former assistant US attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and a current law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said. I would never have thought of that as meaning no matter what happened we would never go ahead with the criminal case.

What makes this highly unusual is the public nature of this, Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor, added. Then theres the reliance by Cosby on that to say that, OK, well if Im not facing any danger, I can testify in the civil case.

But Wu also questioned the decision by Cosbys lawyers to let him testify at all, notwithstanding Castors press release.

Any time you have a person who has been charged or accused formally, its very, very risky to let them say anything ever, he said. If I were Cosby's attorney back then, I would have fought tooth and nail against him being deposed.

The state supreme court said in their opinion that, despite the deposition testimony being a bad idea, it was reasonable for Cosby to rely on the advice of his lawyers and the then-district attorney.

We cannot deem it unreasonable to rely upon the advice of ones attorneys, Wecht wrote. A criminal defendant confronts a number of important decisions that may result in severe consequences to that defendant if, and when, they are made without a full understanding of the intricacies and nuances of the ever-changing criminal law.

The courts decision wasnt unanimous. Justice Thomas Saylor wrote that he did not agree with the majority that Castors press release was an unconditional promise. He said he believed the release was a conventional public announcement by someone in a temporary, elected position that would in no way be binding upon his own future decision-making processes, let alone those of his successor.

Justice Kevin Dougherty, joined by Chief Justice Max Baer, wrote separately to say that he agreed with the majority that due process does not permit the government to engage in this type of coercive bait-and-switch. But he disagreed with tossing out the case entirely, writing that the appropriate outcome was a new trial where any evidence from Cosbys depositions was suppressed.

Hours after the decision was released, Steele, Montgomery Countys current district attorney, said in a statement that it should not deter victims of sexual assault from seeking justice.

Cosby "now goes free on a procedural issue that is irrelevant to the facts of the crime, Steele said. "Prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads. We still believe that no one is above the law  including those who are rich, famous and powerful.

But in a statement to BuzzFeed News, Jennifer Bonjean, Cosbys current attorney, said that "at the end of the day, there has to be a fair process, prosecutors have to live up to their word."

"We cannot change decades in history of our treatment of women on the shoulders of one man, or two men, which is what seems to be happening, she said. There's a lot of work that needs to be done. And we, we can't undo the past simply by cheating and breaking the rules and disregarding our cherished constitutional principles because it makes us feel good."

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It has now been over a year since tens of thousands of associates at Capital One transformed their homes and apartments into offices, Fairbank said in the letter. Despite all that has happened, Capital One has persevered. In fact, we have thrived.

We have taken care of customers, welcomed thousands of new colleagues, and remained financially resilient under stress. We have adapted strikingly well, and we have found that we can be highly effective in a virtual work environment. This way of working felt new and strange a year ago. Today, it feels almost normal.

In the Richmond area, Capital One employs about 13,000 workers at its campus in the West Creek office park in Goochland County, at offices in Henrico County and at a data center in Chesterfield County. It also has two Capital One Cafe banking locations.

Under the new work plan, Capital One employees will work remotely on Mondays and Fridays or from wherever they work best, Fairbank said in the letter. Employees will work at offices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

We strongly encourage associates [employees] to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the letter from Fairbank said.
This effort is critically important to us, to me and to our donors, in terms of making sure that we not only give out the checks in the hope that we are improving things, but that we can measure our progress, Bodine said.

Another member of Lynchburg Tomorrows steering committee is Owen Cardwell, co-director of the Center for Education and Leadership and Rosel Schewel Distinguished Chair in Education at the university and pastor of Diamond Hill Baptist Church. Cardwell said Lynchburg Tomorrow is working to identify 25 potential and emerging leaders in the Diamond Hill and White Rock Hill neighborhoods to participate in leadership development training so they can become more empowered to lead their communities.

Crystal Edwards, superintendent of Lynchburg City Schools, said the initiative pairs well with the schools desire to engage its families and the community.

If this pandemic taught us anything, it taught us the need to be collaborative, Edwards said.
With the Delta variant accounting for more than a quarter of Covid-19 cases, there could soon be "two Americas" -- one where most people are vaccinated and another where low vaccination rates could lead to case spikes, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned.

The stark disparity between places with low and high vaccination rates is something Fauci is "very concerned about," he told CNN on Tuesday.

"When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions -- be that states, cities or counties -- you're going to see these individual types of blips," he said. "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."

But spikes in coronavirus cases are "entirely avoidable, entirely preventable," said Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"If you are vaccinated, you diminish dramatically your risk of getting infected and even more dramatically your risk of getting seriously ill. If you are not vaccinated, you are at considerable risk," Fauci warned.
Abbott has pledged a $250 million down payment to resume construction of the wall. Governors in Florida, Arizona and Nebraska have dispatched law enforcement officers to Texas to support local officers and the border patrol.

What frustrates and contributes to the anger many Americans feel toward their government is that solutions exist, but many politicians refuse to apply them. Recent TV interviews with migrants have shown they were motivated to come because they believed President Biden is making it easier for them to be admitted.

Harris recent speech in which she said, do not come, do not come had about as much credibility as Bill Clintons denial of sex with Monica Lewinsky.

There are critics who say this is part of a plan by Democrats to import new voters and make the party a permanent majority. That may be part of it, but I suspect another reason is to undermine the values and traditions that built and have sustained this country from the beginning. There are those secular progressives who speak and behave as if they hate America and would be happy to see it brought down to the level of other countries or destroyed outright. What better way to do this than to dilute those values and traditions by importing foreigners?
Japan's health minister has expressed concern over an increase in the number of people who are out and about at night in Tokyo amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Tamura Norihisa attended a meeting of a panel of experts on Wednesday.

He said it is very alarming that the number of new infections nationwide has recently begun to increase slightly.

As for Okinawa, which is the only prefecture currently under a state of emergency, he said the number of new cases is on the decline. But he said the number of people going out at night is beginning to increase.

In Osaka, Tamura said the number of new infections has stopped falling or remains at the same level.

He added movement of people is increasing in parts of the prefecture.

In Tokyo, the minister said the number of people out and about at night has increased by 18 percent after a state of emergency expired on June 20. He also pinpointed a sharp increase in the number out late at night.

Tamura said that the situation is thought to be leading to an increase in the daily tallies of new cases in the capital.

He noted more people are out and about after 8 p.m. when bars and restaurants are urged to close. He said something must be done to solve the problem in order to contain the spread of infections.

Tamura said the occupancy rate of hospital beds, as well as the number of patients in serious condition, is rising slightly in Tokyo.
Low-cost carrier Spring Airlines Japan has become a subsidiary of Japan Airlines.

JAL officials say they have made an additional investment in the unit of a China-based airline, upping their stake to two-thirds.

The move is part of the company's strategy to strengthen its LCC business and cash in on an expected recovery in tourism demand.

Spring Airlines Japan connects Narita Airport outside Tokyo with Nanjing, Tianjin and other major Chinese cities. JAL aims to launch more routes going to China.

The company also plans to increase its investment in Jetstar Japan to enhance its domestic coverage. JAL already has a significant stake in the low-cost carrier. Australia's Qantas Group is another major owner.
Land prices in Japan fell 0.5% on average in 2021 from a year before, down for the first time in six years due to loss in demand by foreign visitors amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday.

The data released by the National Tax Agency showed that land prices as of Jan. 1 fell in 39 of the countrys 47 prefectures, with metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi, and 10 other prefectures suffering a setback after rising in the previous year.

Shizuoka saw the steepest decline of 1.6%, followed by Gifu and Ehime, both down 1.4%. Many other prefectures expanded their margin of decline.

Land prices in seven prefectures rose, down from 21 prefectures last year, with the margins of increase narrowing.

Fukuoka saw the biggest rise of 1.8%. While prices in Okinawa climbed 1.6%, the margin of increase shrank steeply from a 10.5% hike last year.

Of the 47 prefectural capitals, prices fell in 22, compared to one last year, particularly at tourist spots and downtown areas usually popular with inbound travelers.
New Delhi: After India formally requested European Union nations to include SIIs Covishield and Bharat Biotechs Covaxin in their exemption list for the passport, 8 nations have given go-ahead to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield).

Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are the seven EU member countries that accepted COVISHIELD vaccine on Thursday.

India on Wednesday asked EU nations to accept Covid-19 vaccines authorised by WHO or national authorities including Covishield and Covaxin, so that Indian nationals could travel to Europe without hassles. It also told EU member states that it would exempt their vaccinated people from mandatory quarantine if they recognise Indian vaccines and vaccination certificates.

WHAT IS EUs COVID-19 CERTIFICATE?

The European Union has a framework for facilitating free movement of vaccinated people within the EU. Under this framework, it issues EU Digital Covid Certificate to those who can travel without restrictions.

Persons who have received Covid-19 vaccines that have been authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU. However, Individual EU nations have the flexibility to accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or by the WHO.

Till date, only 4 vaccines namely Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Vaxzervria by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnsons Janssen have got approval of European Medicines Agency (EMA). Those inoculated with these vaccines get Covid-19 vaccination certificate and have the flexibility of travelling in European nations during the pandemic.
However, long-term survivors have endured entrapment in considerably smaller buildings, or were trapped in structures that contained sizeable voids. Many were young, and most had access to water or some other form of sustenance  so the downpours that have sometimes hampered the search in Surfside might be a blessing to someone trapped inside the wreckage. South Floridas warm climate could also help, as theyre not exposed to overnight cold.

There are those who have survived despite all the odds, and I have no doubt that part of it is just that will to survive that even science cannot explain, said Dr. David Shatz, a trauma surgeon who for 12 years was assistant medical director of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department.

Now a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, Shatz has been closely monitoring the rescue effort from afar. For years he worked shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the rescuers now toiling at the fallen condo tower.

He also recalled being part of the bucket brigade at the federal building in Oklahoma City, which was brought down by a truck filled with explosives. And he was at the World Trade Center digging through concrete, glass and metal after the 9/11 terror attacks.
If you look at it from a distance, you would think its one of the models of the movie. You wouldnt be able to tell its a Lego, Feldmann said. I dont think anything is missing. I think its as accurate as anyone is going to get to making a Star Destroyer out of Legos that looks like the movies.

The trio plans to enter the destroyer in the Brick Days Lego convention July 24 and 25 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. In 2019, they won an award for best land vehicle at the convention with a model of an AT-AT Walker from the movies.

But thats nothing compared to a Star Destroyer, Feldmann said.

Its the friends last hurrah, they say. Feldmann is heading to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the fall to study construction engineering. Josh Bodine will join him in Lincoln after a gap year. Matthew Bodine is heading into his junior year at Papio South.

They met when the Bodines moved here from Oregon. Feldmann and Josh Bodine were in the same section of the band.

We instantly connected because we both love Star Wars and Legos. We were instantly great friends, Feldmann said.

Constructing the Star Destroyer kept them busy through the long months of the coronavirus pandemic.
DENISON  Brenda Jensen, who pleaded guilty in federal court on Oct. 20 last year to embezzling nearly $1.5 million from Consumers Credit Union, was sentenced June 25 afternoon to 36 months imprisonment and was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $1,461,480.29.

She was also ordered to serve two years supervised release after the prison term.

There is no parole in the federal system.

Jensen, 53, had been the head teller of Consumers Credit Union in Denison. In a plea agreement filed last year, she admitted to embezzling money from the credit union from at least May 2012 to March 2018.

After sentencing on June 25 in federal court in Sioux City, Jensen was released on a bond previously set. She is to surrender to the United States Marshal on a date to be set.

A recommendation is that Jensen serve her sentence at a federal prison as close to her family as possible.

The sentence says Jensens first priority for restitution is to Cobalt Credit Union in the amount of $430,470.83 and the second priority for restitution is to Credit Union National Association Mutual Group in the amount of $1,031,009.46.
The STARS scholarship program, an Iowa West Foundation initiative, recently recognized STARS Scholars who have finished their programs recently and is now building its next cohort of scholars.

STARS, a program of the Council Bluffs Schools Foundation, gives low-income parents and custodial grandparents in Pottawattamie County an opportunity to earn college credentials, a press release from the foundation stated. The scholarship removes financial barriers by providing $3,500 in scholarship funds that can be used for direct and indirect expenses, including tuition, fees, books, childcare and living expenses.

The recognition ceremony honored 2019, 2020 and 2021 graduates, since last years event was canceled because of the pandemic, according to Mia Laustrup, STARS program director.

It was really nice to see all of the smiles out from behind the masks  and these students, especially nursing students, went through so many challenges, she said.

In some cases, required clinicals had to be postponed or adjusted, she said.

The ceremony featured remarks by foundation Executive Director Chris LaFerla, Iowa West Foundation President and CEO Brenda Mainwaring, guest speaker Rachel Fox and Laustrup, who was a STARS scholar.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Using his words, Iowas Republican U.S. senators are holding President Joe Biden accountable for his earlier commitments to support the biofuel industry and the family farmers who rely on it.

In light of recent reports about his consideration of the demands of Big Oil, Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley have written to Biden to remind him of his statements during his campaign supposedly supporting biofuel.

Those waivers are a gigantic mistake, Biden said on Iowa PBS in the summer 2019 when asked about the waivers granted by the Trump administration. We should not be exempting, we should be insisting that these major companies in fact meet the criteria.

The letter, joined by the Republican senators from South Dakota and Nebraska, and an earlier missive from Ernst to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, were motivated, in part by, Ernst said, by rumors about administrative action to reduce or eliminate renewable fuel blending targets for petroleum refiners.

Along with a recent announcement by the Biden administration regarding its intention to rewrite the definition of Waters of the United States rules, that leads Ernst to question the Biden administrations commitment to farmers.

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At the time, Castor said that unless Cosby confessed, he did not think he could prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, and he told Cosby he would not be prosecuted.

Castors decision not to proceed with a criminal case was calculated to give at least some measure of justice to Constand, because it removed Cosbys ability to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and thus meant he had to answer questions under oath in her civil lawsuit against him.

Constand won $3.38 million, most of which, the Supreme Court noted, went to her attorneys.

Castors decision not to prosecute, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided, amounted to a promise that Cosbys testimony in his civil deposition would never be used against him in criminal court.

But the prosecutor who succeeded Castor did not see it that way and filed criminal charges against him in 2015, just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.

As it happened, Cosby did incriminate himself during the course of four sworn depositions in Constands civil lawsuit.
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Gillocks 3-year-old daughter, Olivia, had an inoperable brain tumor. Shortly after Olivias diagnosis in May 2015, Gillock and her then-husband, Brock Swedberg, decided to donate her organs upon her death. In the time between, they shared her journey on a Facebook page, Princesses Dont Wear Pants.

I think of people that live in huge cities who would go home without any sort of support. We live in a town of 25,000 people. They wrapped their arms around us, and then Facebook came in and it helped on the journey, Gillock said.

Gillock was excited to highlight social media.

Im just grateful that were focusing on the social media part of it ... how we were connected definitely is an important part to hear.

Being able to connect with the people who received Olivias organs also gave Gillock closure.

Im grateful that Ive been able to see these kids and adult live because of her, so I get really excited when I see (Lucas) on Facebook, fishing, Gillock said. My daughter is living on through these other people, and its just an amazing gift to have.
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Jim Griffin, director-curator of the Lincoln County Historical Museum, got to know Butolph when she offered to donate Virgils uniform and her wedding dress for the museums Canteen display.

I went over to her house and talked to her, and she showed me the first letter (from Virgil) and scrapbook and pictures and told me the whole story, Griffin said Wednesday.

She gave me the uniform and wedding dress. Then she called me later, and I went over and talked to her because she had found his hat.

He also noted Butolphs knack for embroidery and quilting, which led friends and neighbors to order quilts from her for relatives.

She was always doing quilting for people, Griffin said.

Ethel, the seventh of Albert and Florence (Cumpston) Winters 10 children, finished eighth grade in McPherson County before going to work.

She worked for the postmaster at Ringgold before accompanying sister Opal to Oregon and beginning her correspondence with Virgil there.

She hurried home after Virgil sent her a telegram saying he was coming to Nebraska on leave. They crammed their in-person courtship into two weeks, attending a rodeo at Stapleton on their first date.
A generous donation by the Nebraska Grain and Feed Association could soon make grain bin safety training available to even more individuals in Mid-Plains Community Colleges service area and beyond.

The NEGFA, which has provided 125 years of service to Nebraskas commercial grain and animal feed manufacturing businesses, announced its dissolution in May.

As one of its final actions, the association donated $10,000 to MPCCs business and community education department to assist with grain bin safety and rescue training in Nebraska.

Im speechless and very humbled by this wonderful donation, said Tim Zehnder, MPCC director of fire science. We havent decided exactly what the funds will be used for, but the thought is that they might offset some of the costs associated with smaller fire departments receiving grain bin safety and rescue training. Most of the rural fire departments dont have budgets for continuing education, so this could be a way to help with that in areas where this type of training is needed most.

MPCC has the only Grain Bin Safety program in the state. Zehnder travels throughout Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming every year providing the training to fire departments, co-ops, feedlots, fairs and conferences among many other events.
In addition, transfer of management is defined on page 30 of LB 147 and it specifically states that transfer of management does not include assumption of financial liability for the funding obligations for OSERS by the state of Nebraska and does not include a merger or consolidation of OSERS with any of the retirement systems administered by the Public Employees Retirement Board for the state.

I want to set the record straight  LB 147 and LR13CA are completely separate issues. LB 147 transfers the day-to-day administration of the OSERS Plan to the PERB and LR13CA would restrict how much property taxes could be used to fund education in Nebraska. They are completely separate issues and in no way will the passage of LB 147 increase state spending on education.

As the sponsor of LB 147, I have worked with the Omaha Public Schools district, OSERS and the various stakeholder groups. My goal has been to relieve OPS of the day-to-day staffing and support services they provide to the Omaha School Employees Retirement System so OPS can focus on its core mission of educating Omahas students.
Photo-Illustration: Mike McQuade, Photos: Getty Images

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Seems like quite a few crazies, said the president.

A little more than three weeks before rioters and revelers stormed the Capitol on January 6, several thousand Trump fans and fanatics gathered in Washington, D.C. There were the Proud Boys in elaborate dress, ZZ Top beards, and tie-dyed kilts  Enrique Tarrio, a Proud Boy organizer, got in line and took a public tour of the White House  who seemed to have appointed themselves Trumps protectors and vanguard, as the Hells Angels had once done for the Rolling Stones. There were Trump impersonators and a wide variety of other made-for-the-cameras MAGA costumes. There were veterans  or people in military gear trying to suggest patriotism and firepower. There were older men and women, too  more Las Vegas than Altamont. Virtually all without masks.

Its like Lets Make a Deal, said Trump the next day to a caller, referencing the long-running game show from the 1960s  many of his references have never left this psychic era  on which audience members dressed up in foolish costumes to get the attention of the host.

The speakers at the December 12 event were themselves a retinue of Trump attention seekers: Michael Flynn, the former general who had briefly served as Trumps national security adviser before being rolled out of office for lying to the FBI, had, after pleading guilty, reversed himself and abjectly reaffirmed his Trump loyalty, finally getting his pardon just days before the rally. Sebastian Gorka, a figure of uncertain provenance and function in the Trump White House during its first months, was one of the early oddballs to be pushed out when John Kelly became chief of staff and had pursued a Trump-based media career ever since. Also speaking: MyPillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, a former drug addict and a current fevered conspiracist.

Four people were stabbed and 33 arrested, most in the several-hour melee that took place after sundown. This was, in hindsight, a run-through. But it was also a pretty good insight into Trumps relationship to his army of supporters. The president often expressed puzzlement over who these people were with their low-rent trailer camp bearing and their get-ups, once joking that he should have invested in a chain of tattoo parlors and shaking his head about the great unwashed.

The fan base had always been peculiar to him. For most politicians, vox populi is a pretty remote concept, one brought home only with polling, press, and elections. Trumps regular and, during some periods, nearly constant performances at stadium rallies gave him a greater direct route and connection to his base than any politician in the modern television age. It was adulation on a par with that of a pop star  a massive pop star. (The only man without a guitar who can fill a stadium, he liked to say about himself in another of his 1960s-stuck references.) Stars like him needed fans, but this did not mean that a fan was not a strange thing to be. The more devoted the fan, the odder the fan. Like any megastar, Trump saw his fans from a far distance out. Certainly, there was no personal connection. A star could not assume responsibility for his fans, could he?

By dawn on January 6, the crowd of great unwashed was building, with the various organizers of the various events each pulling in larger-than-expected numbers. From the perspective of the White House, the protest was still just background noise, a tailgate party before the main event: Vice-President Mike Pence counting, and they hoped rejecting, the electors representing the final tally of the November vote. That would begin at 1 p.m.

The remaining group of aides around the president that morning in the White House was down to Mark Meadows, the chief of staff; Eric Herschmann, one of Trumps on-call lawyers; and Dan Scavino, his social-media alter ego, with Jason Miller, Justin Clark, Alex Cannon, and Tim Murtaugh, the last employees from the campaign, either working from home or, in the case of Clark, heading to a Republican National Committee winter meeting in Florida. All of them had woken up with something close to the same thought: How is it going to play when the vice-president fails to make the move the president is counting on him to make? And make no mistake: Each fully understood Mike Pence was not going to make that move.

Just as relevant, none of the seven men had precisely told the president this. They, along with almost everyone else in the White House, as well as those who had slipped out, just wanted this to be over.

This was not an uncommon feeling in the final days of the Trump presidency. There was the world within shouting distance of the Oval Office  privy to the presidents monologues, his catalogue of resentments, agitation, desires, long-held notions, stray information, and sudden inspirations with little practical relationship to the workings of government  and then there was the more normal world beyond that. Early in Trumps presidency, aides noted that a second-floor office, where the likes of Stephen Miller and Kellyanne Conway worked, meant a degree of exclusion but also protection: Trump would never climb the stairs (and, by the end of his term, he never had).

To the degree that Trump had, for four years, been running the government with scant idea of the rules and practices of running the government, he was now doing it virtually without anybody who did have some idea and desire to protect both him and themselves from embarrassment or legal peril. Jared Kushner was, to his own great relief, in the Middle East, wrapping up what he saw as his historic mission: his peace deals. The president had all but banished the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone (who was grateful to be banished), and was speaking instead to Herschmann. Herschmann, believing he understood how to move the president, tended to offer objections that sounded awfully like the plaudits of a yes-man. Kayleigh McEnany had been strategically missing in action for several weeks. The remaining campaign officials (Jason Miller, Clark, Cannon) tended to be merely on the receiving end of Trumps calls and opinions. And everybody else was, effectively, cleared out. White House wags noted that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had fled as far as Sudan  where he was negotiating a good-behavior economic pact with the former terrorism-sponsor nation  to get distance from this last election gasp. The one person Trump did have at his side, Rudy Giuliani, was drinking heavily and in a constant state of excitation, often almost incoherent in his agitation and mania.

Almost everyone who remained around the president understood that he, along with Giuliani, did in fact actually believe that there was yet a decent chance of upsetting the electoral count and having Trump declared the Electoral College winner or, failing that, prolonging the election and returning the fight to the disputed states. The presidents aides (and family) understood, too, that he was the only one (along with Giuliani, which only made the situation more alarming) in any professional political sphere to believe this. Hence  although they did not call it such and tried to see it as more nuanced  derangement.

There had been hardly a waking hour in the past 48 during which he and Giuliani had not been on the phone in pent-up nervousness and excitement over the coming battle in Congress on January 6. They were two generals poring over a map of the battlefield. Both men, egged on by hypotheticals ever nearer to fantasy and after exhausting all other options, had come to take it as an article of faith that the vice-president could simply reject Biden electors in favor of Trump ones and thereby hand the election to Trump; or, falling short of that, that the vice-president could determine that a state legislature ought to give further consideration to possible discrepancies in the states vote and send back the questioned electors for a reconsideration of their certification.

There is no question, none at all, that the VP can do this. Thats a fact. The Constitution gives him the authority not to certify. It goes back to the state legislatures, said Giuliani, as though on a loop. He kept repeating this to the president and to the others who were part of the continual conversation on his cell phone. (Yes  Yes  Yes  Heres the thing  Hold on a second  Hey, let me get back to you )

The president, in his own loop, kept similarly repeating this back to Giuliani.

And they both similarly repeated this to everyone else with such insistent determination that it overrode any opportunity to disagree with them or even engage in the conversation. Throughout, they continued to weigh the odds that the vice-president would come along: sometimes 50-50, sometimes as much as 60-40, even somewhat more. At the grimmest, 30-70. But always a solid shot.

The rest of the presidents aides gave it essentially no chance. They werent putting much stock in the January 6 rally, which looked to those around Trump less like a way to keep the president in power than a way to make money afterward.

Here was the math: He was going to lose the White House; that was certain. But he was going to be left with enormous reach and sway and influence. As the great unwashed were gathering, on the evening of January 5, there was another gathering, at the Trump Hotel, of ranking Republicans, all primarily there to plan and to fund-raise for 2022. This included a circle of top-draw Trump celebrities, Don Jr., Flynn, and Corey Lewandowski among them, and presentations by groups such as the Republican Attorneys General Association.

The primary organizer was Caroline Wren, the most prodigious fund-raiser in the Republican Party. On the eve of a protest over the 2020 election, Wren had assembled 30 to 40 major Republican donors. The organizers of the rally where the president would speak included Amy Kremer and her daughter Kylie Jane Kremer, tea-party and pro-Trump super-PAC activists, organizers, and fund-raisers; Ali Alexander, another right-wing organizer and Trump fund-raiser; and Alex Jones, the conspiracist media personality  each of them with a direct financial interest in the days events and in future dealings with the Trump money machine.

Early in the morning, Jason Miller called Boris Epshteyn, the shuttle between the Giuliani camp and the Trump aides, for a reality check: So  how exactly do we think this is going to go today?

Short answer: We have no idea.

How many states are teed up? The number of states receiving House and Senate objections would determine how long and how pitched the days events would be.

Were still not sure.

And the chance of anything going anywhere? Really, ballpark me.

Zero.

And then what?

Then its over.

When Miller spoke to the president at 8 a.m., he was looking for a reaction to the loss of the Senate in Georgia  counting from the day before was only just finishing. As per their usual routine, the president, who had seen that mornings coverage, asked Miller to recap it. Who was getting blamed? But of course the president right away told Miller the answer to what he was asking.

Its all about the $2,000  if Mitch had just cut those checks. Do people get this? The Dems closing ads were all about those checks, the president said. He asked Miller what he thought Pence would do and then told Miller that Pence would do the right thing.

The family arrived at the White House shortly before 10 a.m. Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Eric and Lara, and Ivanka, on her own  Jared was on his way back from the Middle East. It was a good-feeling gathering, even a bit of a party. The president might still be dug in, but his family was moving on  and wanting to acknowledge this most remarkable four years they had experienced. No regrets. Come on  who would have expected any of this!

One curious point of consideration for the family that morning  prescient of the events that would shortly unfold  was a follow-up to a discussion initiated some months before by aides and family. Trump representatives, working with Trump-family members, had approached Parler, the social network backed by Bob Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, far-right exponents and large Trump contributors. They had floated a proposition that Trump, after he left office, become an active member of Parler, moving much of his social-media activity there from Twitter. In return, Trump would receive 40 percent of Parlers gross revenues and the service would ban anyone who spoke negatively about him.

Parler was balking only at this last condition.

This was now being offered by the family as a carrot to entice the president out of the White House (it was also a potential future family revenue stream): Trump could do what he loved to do most and potentially make a fortune off it. It was a given in the Trump White House that he was one of social medias most valuable assets and that he would like nothing better than to share, monetarily, in that value.

Giuliani left the Willard with John Eastman, a right-wing constitutional scholar whom Giuliani had recruited to argue the vice-presidents wide latitude in accepting or rejecting presidential electors; Bernie Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who went to prison on federal tax-fraud charges and to whom, at Giulianis urging, Trump granted a full pardon; and Epshteyn at a little before 10 a.m. Giuliani was now in hyperdrive over Pence. To the president, Giuliani was still offering good odds that the vice-president would come through. To others, he was saying that Pence just didnt have the balls to do what could be done.

On the evening of January 4, as both the president and the vice-president were returning from a campaign swing in the runoff Senate races in Georgia, Giuliani arranged yet another come-to-Jesus meeting for the president and vice-president on the subject of the VPs ability to upset the election  this time with Eastman in attendance. Marc Short, the VPs chief of staff, believed they had made it absolutely clear that the vice-president believed he had no discretion in the electoral count and was reluctant to reprise the discussion. He agreed now to the meeting only to avoid insulting the president  and only on the understanding that Giuliani, whom Short considered unhinged, would not be present.

The next day, the president again called Pence on the carpet  the meeting at which the president famously asked Pence, Do you want to be a patriot or a pussy? At other points, he was more politic. You want to do the right thing, said the president. I very much want to do the right thing, said the vice-president. Thats all I want to do.

Giuliani had spent weeks telling everyone that they knew exactly what was going to happen, that they could depend on Pence, no question at all about that.

Coming out of the Willard, Giuliani ran into Roger Stone in the lobby. When Giuliani asked if he was going to the rally, Stone said he hadnt been invited. He didnt even know who had organized it, he said.

The four men were let out of their car and had to walk across the grass to the Ellipse. They were already freezing by the time Giuliani went on at about 10:50.

At 11:45 a.m., the White House entourage, including Meadows, Herschmann, and Scavino, piled into the Beast, the presidential limo, and the follow-on vehicles for the two-minute ride to the rally-staging area (mostly the president liked to ride alone with the rest of the entourage following). The Trump family was already there. The greenroom tent was almost giddy. Nostalgia was beginning. Don Jr. had his phone out, filming the moment.

A few days before, rally organizers had amended their estimate of the crowds size from 5,000 to 30,000. Various media reports were now putting it at more than 10,000. The best estimate put the crowd somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000  a righteous cold-weather turnout for a defeated president. During his speech, the president would pause to observe that he reckoned there were 250,000 people there. In days to come, he would raise his estimate to 1 million.

He came onstage to his standard anthem, God Bless the U.S.A., but with less swagger than usual  slower, less sure, even. He was in a black overcoat and black gloves: a strongman look.

The speech, shortly on its way to becoming the most notorious of his presidency, and the key piece of evidence for his imminent second impeachment, was a B-grade delivery. Not long into it, Giuliani and his crew, with freezing toes, left and went back to the Willard. They had heard it all before.

At about 12:30 p.m., midway through Trumps speech, the vice-presidents office released a two-and-a-half-page letter explaining that after a careful study, the vice-president had concluded that he was not able to reject votes unilaterally or, in effect, to do anything else, beyond playing his ceremonial role, that the president might want him to do.

Oh, shit, noted Miller at home, sending the statement to Giuliani, Epshteyn, and Scavino and leaving it to one of them to tell the president. Everybody else thought Oh, shit, too.

At the Ellipse, Trumps delivery was more singsong than bombastic and explosive. He was rushing through it. Ordinarily, hed have thrown some red meat out and waited for the reaction  always, clearly, the moments of his keenest enjoyment  but now he was just plunging forward. After this, were going to walk down  and Ill be there with you. Were going to walk down. Were going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. Were going to walk down to the Capitol, and were going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. Were probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

He had added that part: the walk. After this, were going to walk down  and Ill be there with you. The walk wasnt in the text. The entourage heard little else  the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Trump rallies that they all had been subjected to blurred into the usual blah-blah, but they heard that line: the walk. He did not mean this, of course. Trump didnt walk anywhere.

Meadows and Scavino had slipped out and werent listening to the speech. One of the Secret Service agents hurried to get Meadows aside and tell him the president said he was planning to march to the Capitol with the protesters.

No. Theres no way we are going to the Capitol, said Meadows.

Meadows confirmed this with the president as soon as he came off the stage at 1:11 p.m.

The president seemed unsure what Meadows was talking about.

You said you were going to march with them to the Capitol.

Well  

How would we do that? We cant organize that. We cant.

I didnt mean it literally, Trump said.

By 1:30, the president was back at the White House, his family returning with him. Lunch was waiting.

Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric and Lara Trump left, and Ivanka hung around.

Trump was back on the phone trying to get new information on Pence. The Joint Session had convened at 1 p.m. Arizona was the first objection.

The state had occupied a special place in the presidents paranoia ever since Election Night, when Fox News had called it for Biden much earlier than its competitors  and much earlier than Trumps data team had believed was plausible.

The president was looking for coverage of the breakout sessions in Congress, when both the Senate and the House would return to their respective chambers and debate the challenges to the various states. But only C-SPAN seemed to be on it. Giuliani, calling from the Willard, where he had watched the remainder of the presidents speech and was just seeing the first mentions of disorder in the streets, gave him a breathless report on Pence but without any new information. That said, he was also promising that as many as six states would be contested, hence a volatile situation  We just didnt know whats going to happen (his breathlessness was only increasing). Meadows was in close touch with Jim Jordan. But the details Jordan was offering were unsatisfying. The president was, in theory, waging an extraordinary legislative fight, one with hardly any precedent  the culmination of a two-month battle in which he had considered little else and on which both his immediate future and his place in history depended. But other than via his own tweets and fulminations and his meeting the day before with the vice-president, nobody in the White House was much participating or even present.

There was nobody on the White House side whipping votes. There was nobody on the White House side who was particularly up-to-date on who might be with them or against them other than from public reports. To the extent that, as the media darkly warned, there was an extraordinary plot to hold on to power  an incipient coup, even  there really were only two plotters, with no one to back them up. Trump had no functioning political staff, the White House counsels office had been all but shut down (to the degree the office was still functioning, it was almost entirely focused on vetting pardon pleas), and the leadership of the Justice Department was in disarray.

All the same, the president and Giuliani, in their bubble, remained confident that success was there for them to grab.

At 1:49 p.m., the president retweeted a video of his Ellipse speech. At just about this time, rioters were breaching the Capitol door.

At two oclock, the president and Giuliani  the president in the White House and Giuliani at the Willard  tried to find Tommy Tuberville, the recently seated senator from Alabama, but they instead mistakenly called Mike Lee, the Utah senator, on his cell phone. Lee, amid the increasing confusion as reports started to come in of mobs breaching the Capitol fences, found Tuberville and put him on the phone. The president and Giuliani seemed to have no idea what was occurring, and Tuberville was either unsuccessful in telling them or thought better of trying.

At about 2:15 p.m., Epshteyn, watching television in Giulianis suite at the Willard, was one of the first people in the greater Trump circle to start, with some sense of panic, to take note of what was happening. Epshteyn spoke to Miller, who called Meadows.

Im sure youre tracking this, Miller said.

Yeah, I know. Some things are moving here that I cant get into at the moment, Meadows said.

Miller assumed the White House was mobilizing the National Guard. By 2:20 p.m., both the House and Senate had adjourned.

At 2:24 p.m., the president, having been informed that Mike Pence had not rejected the Arizona Biden electors, tweeted:

Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!

Reading the tweet in the Capitol bunker, the siege now in progress, Pence and Short, hardly for the first time, noted how far off the president could be from the page everyone else was on. That was the generous interpretation.

In part, the president seemed just not to be grasping the facts as they were coming through  mounting crowds, breached barricades, protesters entering the Capitol. Or maybe he was simply disagreeing with them: These people were protesting the election, he was still repeating as late as 2:30. The protesters wanted Pence to do the right thing. These were good protesters: his protesters.

Meadows, Herschmann, and Scavino began pressing the president to make some public acknowledgment of what was happening and to admonish the protesters, but his attention was elsewhere, still focused on the vice-president. Fourteen minutes after his tweet attacking Pence, at 2:38 p.m., the aides managed to get a tweet out from the president composed by Scavino: Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!

Approaching 3 p.m., the pressure for the president to say something quickly mounted.

Ivanka Trump had been floating around the West Wing, chatting to a variety of people. Her children had gotten into private school in Florida, and she was pleased about this  an excited topic of conversation. She was pulled away from her discussion about schools to join the increasingly tense debate about how to respond to the news.

The president, though, was digging in his heels. He remained singularly focused on the electoral challenge and had blinders on to everything else  at least, that was how everybody was rationalizing something close to his total failure, willful or not, to understand what was going on. At the same time, no one in the White House was seeing this as the full-on assault on the Capitol and the nail in the coffin of the Trump administration that the world would shortly understand it to be; they were, for perhaps another 90 minutes or so, still treating this as an optics issue, as Ivanka was putting it.

It wasnt until later in the three oclock hour that Trump seemed to begin the transition from seeing the mob as people protesting the election  defending him so he would defend them  to seeing them as not our people. Therefore, he bore no responsibility for them.

Giuliani and Epshteyn were still watching television reports from the Willard. Giuliani was on the phone with the president, relating, with growing concern, what he was seeing on television, but both men were still talking about the vice-president and what might happen in the electoral count.

Ivanka wasnt casting off the protesters entirely  here was the base. American Patriots, she addressed them directly in a tweet at 3:15, which she would shortly delete, any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.

The debate about putting the president out there to say something  something calming  continued for as much as an hour.

There were three views: that he must, as fast as possible, say something  it was getting serious (though no one yet was seeing this as the defining moment of his presidency); his own view, which was that he should say nothing  it was not his fault or responsibility, and he certainly didnt want to give a speech that might imply it was; and, lastly, that anything he said, instead of helping to address the problem, might well make matters much worse, as it did when he was forced to make a speech condemning the racist protesters in Charlottesville.

Aides put in front of the president two suggested tweets, written in Trumps voice, which they hoped he might accept:

Bad apples, like ANTIFA or other crazed leftists, infiltrated todays peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count. Violence is never acceptable! MAGA supporters embrace our police and the rule of law and should leave the Capitol now!

The fake news media who encouraged this summers violent and radical riots are now trying to blame peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters for violent actions. This isnt who we are! Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!

Trump either rejected them or ignored them (other than Dan Scavino, Trump didnt like anyone else writing his tweets).

The challenge now became how to use Trumps own arguments to convince him that he had to do something  what passed for the Socratic method in the Trump White House. He had often said what he needed to say, so just say it again: He and the Republican Party represented law and order, so how could he not speak out about lawlessness? He should urge his people, the good people, to go home and leave the bad people.

Still, he did not see the necessity of speaking out. It wasnt as bad as the media were saying it was. People were saying it was bad just to blame it on him. It took 35 minutes from his Stay Peaceful tweet to get him to go further  with Scavino as the author:

I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order  respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!

The entire narrative of the election  and indeed the Trump presidency  was quickly being transformed: The Capitol was under siege; the steal was moot. But Trump remained fixed in his obsession: The election had been taken from him, and whatever happened, someone had to give it back; he could not see or think or imagine beyond this.

By 3:30 p.m., he was telling callers that, yes, he had decided to say something. He was going to speak. But he was still repeating that the election had been stolen and was seeking assurances from each caller that the protests were overblown  that it was mostly a peaceful protest, wasnt it?

Every one of the people yet in the White House as well as those who had slipped out, along with the presidents large traveling retinue, his family, the many members of Congress seeking photo ops with him, and the legions of favor seekers, had all been at rally after rally and, over and over again, seen vivid demonstrations of the exotic, self-dramatizing, out-from-under-a-rock Trump fan base. But now, to a person, to a political professional, they were dumbfounded and awestruck  revulsion competing with incomprehension.

In part, the radically faithful had simply been concentrated. The merely eager party types, and the Las Vegas audience sorts, and the local business proprietors, and the family-outing Republicans, and the VFW-post members, and various church groups, the salt of the Republican earth, more or less in normal dress, all had mostly self-selected out, leaving what was generally, if abstractly, referred to in the Trump circle as the hard core. But no one had ever come so clearly face-to-face with this pure hard core as was happening now and would happen, in video footage and in indictments, in the weeks to come. Even Trump himself, the clearest channel through to this fan base, was growing confused.

As he went upstairs to the residence, he seemed, said some of the people talking to him there by phone, at a terrible loss. The monologue slowed and even paused, with a few people not even sure that this otherwise-unstoppable monologuist was still on the line.

At about this time, Scavino informed Trump that he had been booted off Twitter  still a temporary suspension. For more than four years, hed been told that this was always a possibility, and every time, hed responded that Twitter needed him more than he needed it.

The doubtless president was, at least for a moment, someone else. I dont know what to do here, he said to one caller not long after 7 p.m.  as stark a sense of uncertainty and even crisis as the caller had ever heard the president express.

The notable thing is that he seemed to have finally recognized that the main event, the certification of the electoral votes, was now far from the main event. He may even have realized that after 64 days of struggle, it was over.

Jason Miller, at home in Arlington, was lying stupefied in bed with his wife, watching the video loops of the day over and over again and hoping there was a plan. But no one called. At 9 p.m., he got out of bed, opened his laptop, and started to write a statement. A statement  the considered language of politics, the true mandarins language  was an indication of ongoing business. This meant doing what Trump had refused for the past 64 days to do: acknowledge that Joe Biden would inevitably be the next president.

But there was not going to be an abject or contrite Trump or even a formally defeated one. It was necessary to skip over the fairness of the election and to skip over the Trump-told narrative  the election in his mind would remain stolen, forever stolen. This statement could certainly not be the official, belated concession  at least not to Trump  but it had to establish acceptance, a fait accompli, and put Trumps stamp on the new, if disagreeable, reality.

Miller was trying to get the headline, the chyron roll: the message from Trump that something had changed.

Orderly transition.

Not exactly the torch passing, and hardly a round of applause for democracy in action.

That was as far as the president could be moved. He called Kushner and read him the draft.

Will you call the president? Kushner smoothly pushed Miller into the fray.

Miller called Meadows, still in the West Wing, and then the president. The president seemed eager to hear from Miller, eager to be on the phone. Most often for Trump, the phone was a one-way instrument: Callers listened.

How bad is this? Trump asked, a stark difference from his usual opener, How are we doing?  which was not, ordinarily, a question at all but a preface to Trumps saying how well everything was going.

Mr. President, today is literally going to change everything.

This looks terrible. This is really bad. Who are these people? These arent our people, these idiots with these outfits. They look like Democrats. Hold on, our great First Lady is here, said Trump, switching to speakerphone.

Jason, said the great First Lady with a sharp note. The media is trying to go and say this is who we are. We dont support this.

Thats what we have to make clear, said Miller, relieved that the president and First Lady were seeing the protesters as bad guys rather than good guys (and not a mix of the two). Pushing through, Miller told the president and First Lady that he had just gotten off the phone with Kushner and Meadows and that they had a proposal for later that evening if Biden reached an electoral majority. He went into reading the statement draft.

The president suggested peaceful transition instead of orderly. Miller said that that called attention to the fact that it wasnt peaceful now and might not be peaceful. Orderly, Miller did not say, suggested not just an absence of disruption but that all the aspects of government would pass, as they should, to a new administration. Peaceful put it in someone elses hand; orderly meant cooperation, too  the Trump White House would cooperate with the incoming Biden White House. It wasnt just the protesters who needed to stop; Trump needed to extend himself, too. After all, it wasnt just the recount effort and the election challenge behind the protests but Trumps personal intransigence.

Trump seemed to appreciate this now, to walk back, even. The media thinks Im not going to leave, said the president. Do they really think that? Thats crazy.

Weve never laid that out, said Miller, with some deadpan. I really cant stress enough how much we have to make it clear that were fully onboard with an orderly transition.

We didnt tell people to do something like this. We told people to be peaceful. I even said peaceful and patriotic in my speech!

Ill work with Dan on getting this out, Miller told the president. Saying this, Miller suddenly wondered if they would even have the tools and channels to get it out. Every call  to the wires, networks, and major dailies  yielded variations on the same question: When are we going to hear directly from the president? When is he going to come and talk about it? When is he going to stand in front of us and in front of the American people?

This is over, Miller thought. This is the end of the road. Of all the news outlets, only Fox had never gotten back to him. Even Fox, Miller accepted, was truly over Trump.

Scavino could use only his personal Twitter account to finally, at 3:49 a.m., get out the presidents statement.

If this was an attempted putsch, it had not only failed but shown its leader to be almost a random participant in it, without method or strategy. Disorder had always been his element, and it was now his followers, too. But he was not so much with them as alone in his own rebellion and desires, a bubble of grievance that somehow floated apart from actual events, even events that were meant to make real the presidents own delusions.

Excerpted from Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency, by Michael Wolff (Henry Holt and Co.; July 27, 2021).

*This article appears in the July 5, 2021, issue of New York Magazine.
(Bloomberg) -- The hyper-transmissible delta variant may eclipse other virus mutations in the U.S. within weeks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said. Some 1,000 U.S. counties with low vaccination rates, notably in the Southeast and Midwest, are particularly vulnerable.

President Joe Bidens administration is sending response teams to hot spots to stem the spread of the delta variant. In August, New York plans to celebrate its comeback from Covid-19 with a Central Park concert.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson said extra precautions might be needed even after July 19, the date he says Covid-19 restrictions will end. New cases in England and Scotland are rising, potentially linked to the thousands of soccer fans gathering to watch matches at the Euro 2020 tournament.

Key Developments:

Global Tracker: Cases top 182 million; deaths pass 3.94 millionVaccine Tracker: More than 3 billion doses administeredJ&J to begin first teens Covid-19 vaccine study this fallNew York risks missing window to turn hotels into housingFrom Alpha to Delta, Why Virus Mutations Cause Alarm: QuickTakeAnti-vaxxer propaganda spreads in Asia, endangering millions

Biden Sends Out Teams to Stem Deltas Spread (2:45 p.m.)

The Biden administration is sending response teams to unvaccinated pockets of the U.S. in an attempt to combat the spread of the highly transmissible delta Covid-19 variant.

U.S. health officials will boost testing, provide therapeutics and deploy federal personnel where needed and requested, said Jeffrey Zients, President Joe Bidens Covid-19 response coordinator. Staff will come from the Health and Human Services Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Delta Variant to Eclipse Others in U.S. (2:05 p.m. NY)

The hyper-transmissible delta variant is likely to become the dominant one in the U.S., underscoring the importance of further expanding vaccination, said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Delta accounts for almost 50% of newly recorded infections in parts of the U.S., she said.

Story continues

The delta variant is predicted to be the second-most prevalent variant in the United States and I expect that in the coming weeks it will eclipse the alpha variant, Walensky said in a briefing.

About 1,000 U.S. counties have vaccination coverage of less than 30%, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest, and rates of the disease are increasing in those locations, she said. Those areas are our most vulnerable, Walensky said.

German Minister Blasts England Soccer Crowds (1:05 p.m. NY)

A senior German official criticized European soccers governing body for allowing large crowds to attend European Championship matches in England, calling the decision absolutely irresponsible.

With the U.K. hit by the delta variant, health authorities say 1,991 Covid-positive people from Scotland have attended one or more Euro 2020 events since June 11. Scotland on Thursday reported more than 4,000 cases, a one-day record. Wembley Stadium will host the tournaments semifinals and final.

UEFA should shift to a common-sense policy to limit crowds, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in Berlin.

Greece Tightens Rules on Island Travel (11:34 a.m. NY)

Adults traveling from the Greek mainland to the countrys numerous islands will be required to show a Covid-19 vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test carried out no earlier than 72 hours before travel or a negative rapid test no older than 48 hours, Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said.

The requirement comes into effect on July 5, including for foreign tourists. Greece has seen a slight increase in the cases over the past week.

NYC Concert Planned to Mark Comeback (11:30 a.m. NY)

Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson will be among the performers at an Aug. 21 Central Park celebration of New York Citys comeback from the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The concert will be part of a Homecoming Week intended to market the city to tourists in an effort to bring back an industry that once welcomed more than 60 million visitors a year.

U.K. New Cases Reach 5-Month High (11 a.m. NY)

The U.K. recorded 27,989 new cases, the second straight day that the total is at a five-month high.

Hospital admissions in England are rising sharply, according to the Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group. The 7-day average climbed to 227, three times as many as in mid-May, with nearly all regions showing a strong increase.

First DNA Covid Vaccine 67% Effective (9:30 a.m. NY)

Indias Cadila Healthcare Ltd. has sought approval from the local drug regulator for its DNA-based vaccine against Covid-19 after the shot proved effective in clinical trials.

The drugmaker applied for emergency use authorization for the shot, which uses DNA to instruct the bodys cells to produce proteins that spark a protective response, according to an exchange filing Thursday. The Phase 3 trials on more than 28,000 volunteers across 50 centers showed an efficacy rate of 67%, Cadila said. That is below the rates of the shots from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer-BioNTech that use messenger RNA technology.

Scotland Has Biggest-Ever Case Increase (9:10 a.m. NY)

Scotland reported the biggest daily increase in cases since the start of the pandemic. The countrys devolved government, which is responsible for health, identified 4,234 new infections in the last 24 hours, the third daily record in the space of four days.

The Scottish government is counting on vaccinations breaking the link between infection and serious illness and is still planning to ease most of the remaining restrictions on movement and social interaction in early August, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.

Germany Recommends mRNA as 2nd Shot (8:54 a.m. NY)

German vaccine authority STIKO recommended that people who received AstraZeneca as the first Covid-19 shot get an mRNA shot as their second jab regardless of age, according to a statement. The authority cited studies that show the immune response from a mixture of vaccine technologies is better than two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Africa Faces Worst Week of Pandemic (7:38 a.m. NY)

Coronavirus cases in Africa are rising so quickly that the continent will soon face its worst week since the start of the pandemic, with the more infectious delta variant becoming more widespread.

Almost 202,000 new cases of the illness were reported in the past week, and infections are doubling every three weeks, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in an online briefing Thursday. More than 5.4 million cases have been reported on the continent, with 141,000 deaths, she said.

Johnson Warns on U.K. Covid Rules (7:33 a.m. NY)

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said some extra precautions could still be required even after the July 19 date he has said will mark the end of the countrys Covid restrictions.

The premier said he was impatient to get back to normal life but would not rule out keeping regulations or guidance in place on wearing masks in crowded public areas or on people keeping a specified distance apart.

Singapore Eyes More Easing (7:30 a.m. NY)

Singapore is slated to announce a further easing of Covid-19 restrictions in mid-July as part of a strategy for reopening the economy that may also include the long-awaited return of leisure travel by the end of the year, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told the Straits Times.

With virus clusters in the community coming under control, Ong told the newspaper that the government was looking at raising the number of people allowed to dine together in restaurants from two come July 12, while exploring other openings as well.

Malaysia Tightens Curbs (7:28 a.m. NY)

Malaysia will impose tightened movement restrictions in dozens of sub-districts across Selangor, its richest state, and several localities in Kuala Lumpur beginning Saturday to curb a worsening coronavirus outbreak.

People staying in districts such as Petaling and Klang must remain at home throughout the so-called Enhanced Movement Control Order from July 3 until July 16, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement Thursday. Only one person may leave the home at a time to purchase essential items, he said.

Six Fully Vaccinated People Died in Seychelles (7:14 a.m. NY)

Six fully vaccinated people died in the Seychelles, which has the highest per-capita vaccinations in the world. Five had received Covishield, an Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and one got the Sinopharm shot, Jude Gedeon, the island nations public health commissioner, told reporters.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Hand sanitizer will be available in schools and on all buses, which will be operating as normal.

And while on school busses, students will follow seating protocols established by bus drivers and, weather permitting, windows and roof hatches will be opened to keep fresh air circulating.

Public schools are no longer responsible for contact tracing due to exposure to COVID-19, according to the document. Alabama Department of Public Health will be notifying all close contacts directly and provide instructions related to quarantine or isolation.

Schools will proceed with normal hours of operations unless otherwise notified by Auburn City Schools, and check-in and check-out procedures will be communicated in individual school handbooks.

Visitors will be allowed to schools, checking in at the specific schools front office.

School libraries will be open to students, and elementary students will travel to art, music and computer classes.

Water fountains are going to be accessible during the day; however, students are encouraged to bring water bottles.
Lee County needs to plan how to spend $32 million in federal stimulus money, county commissioners were told Monday night.

How big of a task is it? County Administrator Roger Rendleman told the Opelika-Auburn News last month that Lee County hasnt had a federal infusion of cash on this scale since the New Deal in the 1930s.

There are over a billion dollars coming to Alabama counties. Weve never seen in our lifetime  we typically dont receive federal dollars directly, said Rendleman, referring to the federal money sent to state and local governments this spring by Congress and the Biden administration.

Governmental Relations Coordinator Wendy Swann told commissioners that there are some strings attached  Lee County cant use the money to cut tax rates, fund pensions or set it aside in a so-called Rainy Day fund.

There is a wide variety of allowable uses, including expanding broadband access for citizens, small business aid, environmental cleanup, food insecurity, housing and neighborhoods, mental health issues and addressing educational disparities in communities. All the money must be spent by 2024.
No one escapes adversity. Hardship finds us all. No matter how hard you may try to hide from trouble, sooner or later it will find you. How you react to it is what matters. Your response to adversity determines its impact upon your future.

A school teachers first child was born mentally challenged. She refused to become embittered. With the encouragement of her husband, she returned to college, earned a masters degree in special education and devoted her life to teaching children with special needs.

My mentor, Brother Stanley Jones, described the teachers response as catching hardship by the handle. He drew this conclusion from the popular saying, When Fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it: either by the blade or by the handle.

Each of us has a choice when the daggers come flying at uswe can grasp it by the blade and let it cut us, or we can grasp it by the handle and use it to defend ourselves.

David Livingstone left a good life in London and went to Africa as a missionary. When his wife Mary died of malaria at 41, he buried her under a baobab tree and devoted the rest of his days to the poor in Africa. He grasped the dagger of grief by the handle.
Staff Writer

Brad Hundt came to the Observer-Reporter in 1998 after stints at newspapers in Georgia and Michigan. He serves as editorial page editor, and has covered the arts and entertainment and worked as a municipal beat reporter.
These amounts of money are ridiculous 

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nnnnn at the photo choice lol



i love transfer window drama but ugh at the obscene amounts of money

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OMG. He literally makes my asshole itch!

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This is hysterical. Thank you!

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That thing must feel amazing tho ngl.

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I want him to leave just for the memes

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Sergio Ramos is also a free agent , him to Barcelona and Messi to Real Madrid !

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horse looking kings

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He's been there since he was a kid, like a child star, must be tough to change

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hoping for messy shit to happen







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Messi shit

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"MESSI ya NO es JUGADOR del BARCA"



Tremendo inicio de @jpedrerol en #ChiringuitoMessi pic.twitter.com/GPP6OsVxfJ  El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) June 30, 2021

I wish I knew Spanish so I could fully grasp the insanity of both this man and this show. I wish I knew Spanish so I could fully grasp the insanity of both this man and this show.

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lmaoo, that was so dramatic

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"Hazard can't continue at Real Madrid one second longer!"



How Spanish media outlet, El Chiringuito TV, reacted to images of Eden Hazard congratulating his former Chelsea teammates 



(via @elchiringuitotv)pic.twitter.com/zux4g4kaps  ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 6, 2021 Its their bread and butter over there.

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omg not el chiringuito!!! 

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I wish hed leave if only for the laughs and memes

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End of an era. Goddamn. Lemme go look at his tax situation 

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Daaaaaaammmn at Barcelona being that much in debt.  wow how the mighty have fallen.

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I'm not surprised considering all they pay to Messi + how bad Bartomeu was as a president, he sold many players for peanuts, plus the pandemic and Barcelona not being on their best condition because the current players they have lol





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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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He's talented don't get me wrong but all this money to kick a ball into a net. Society is messed up.

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On what basis are they 'confident'?! He said last season he wanted to leave, and he hasn't made a public statement signalling a change of heart...

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His best friend just joined the team

Hes not leaving

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Cities and municipalities can be the most effective policy executors. Being closer to their citizens and having more cohesive populations than nation-states helps them rally residents for challenging endeavors. Cities also adapt more easily to new digital tools, utilising data to monitor public sentiment and sharpen outreach efforts. These attributes allow cities and municipalities to act swiftly in normal times and in crises.

Climate change and the city

Cities address climate change individually and as part of a governance ecosystem. They work with national governments and international institutions to affect climate goals, but above all, cities strive for ensuring livability for their residents against climate impacts. One report on the UNs Sustainable Development Goals lauds smart citieswhich use data to enhance public service provisionas key drivers for achieving net-zero emissions by maximising energy efficiency, streamlining public transport, and monitoring air quality.

Areas where cities can enhance sustainability include:

Mobility: Cities may promote bicycle and scooter use by building segregated bike paths. They might also offer bike rentals, increase shuttles to transport hubs and initiate walkability programmes. Moreover, cities could electrify urban vehicle fleets by subsidizing car purchases through deals with car companies.

Energy efficiency: Cities can curtail energy consumption through smart building programmes. They may provide tax breaks and subsidies for building renovations and incentivise domestic generation sources like solar panels and geothermal pumps. Cities might also implement green building codes, exemplified by Brussels Passive House Standard.

Green growth: The urban green transition could bolster growth and provide payoffs at the national level. According to the OECD, green urban growth could lower the costs associated with national environmental targets through improved transportation and land-use. A World Economic Forum report suggests such initiatives can attract multinational firms committed to net-zero targets.

How cities go green

Certain conditions are required for cities to flourish within the climate governance ecosystem:

Clear objectives: Each city must consider its unique set of circumstances, factoring demographics, geography, development level, culture, and national climate objectives when setting sustainability goals. Only with clear and feasible goals will meaningful climate progress be measured.

Political will: Lacking political will, complex and costly sustainability programmes are impossible. Cities will therefore seek to make the climate agenda a recurring theme of public discourse by integrating green programmes into daily urban life, becoming part of the culture of a city.

Related: The Best Energy Dividend Stocks Of 2021

Budgeting: Sustainability objectives require adequate funding. Cities will therefore cultivate partners at higher levels of governance to ensure the resources at their disposal match their climate ambitions.

Obstacles to urban sustainability

A report by the World Economic Forum suggests the rosy picture of urban climate mitigation is incompleteconfined to a few large, wealthy cities in North America, Europe, and Chinaoverlooking failures particularly among the cities of South and Southeast Asia. Another study warns a lack of coordination between national authorities and other stakeholders will cause urban sustainability initiatives to fail in Malaysia, Indonesia, and India, risking that these cities will lock in more fully to high-cost, high-carbon development paths.

A success story

One Southeast Asian city which bucked the trend through the adroit application of the above prerequisites was Bandar Lampung in Indonesia. Bandar Lampung leveraged a cities network to inform its sustainability plans by conducting a series of learning dialogues with officials from other cities, NGOs, and universities. This process secured the political will to form a multi-stakeholder team responsible for assessing climate risks and prioritising adaptation strategies.

Being within the governance ecosystem

How cities cooperate with other governing actors will be critical to combating climate change. What cities can offer the governance ecosystem are its data capabilities, deft policy execution, and responsiveness to change. Cities rely on national governments for funding and must execute sustainability initiatives in line with national goals. But cities often have the leeway to go further than national governments, especially where national climate action is lacking.

Related: Exxon Sting Reveals Black Book Of Senators

The relationship between cities and national governments goes both ways, with cities providing governments with data on climate policy implementation. When national policy encounters difficulties, local data can uncover causes and suggest policy modifications.

International organizations furnish cities with policy guidance and facilitate information networks that disseminate models of successful policy implementation. Examples include the OECDs Green Cities Programme, which measures green economic growth in cities; the UN Environment Programmes Climate Neutral Network, which convenes local and national governments for discussions on climate change; and the EUs Urban Agenda, which develops cities capabilities for addressing climate impacts.

International institutions also provide fora for cities to advance climate initiatives. Independent of national governments, such organisations can push cities to act unilaterally against climate change. For example, the city of Haifa joined the Paris Climate Accord in response to Israels slow implementation of that agreement. Working closely with the mayor of Paris, Haifas mayor declared cities have the power to lead change, without waiting for it to come from the central government.

Looking ahead

Cities will be major players in climate action because of their ability to rapidly execute policy, craft effective public outreach, and employ data. To further advance their role in climate mitigation, they must also articulate clear objectives, account for local circumstances, and identify potential challenges.

To improve climate action, cities will seek to broaden their network of partners at the local, national and international levels, looking for data-based feedback from all governance levels as a guide.

By leveraging their place in the governance ecosystem to maximise policy options, cities could play an outsized role in achieving global sustainability objectives and turning the climate challenge into a growth opportunity. Understanding their limitations, however, will dramatically enhance those prospects.

By Global Risk Insights

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Indias oil demand is expected to get back to normal by the end of the year, following months of uncertainty in the face of a third wave of Covid-19 infections.

Following months of increasing coronavirus infections across the country and heightened restrictions meaning a lower-oil demand, India can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. According to new predictions, Indias oil demand could reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021.

Indias Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Bloomberg this week, There are signs of demand resurgence due to lifting of lockdowns and gradual pickup in economy,. Meaning, We are confident by the end of the year, we will be in a very robust position to restore our original consumption behaviour.

Diesel and gasoline have been some of the hardest hit energy products, as strict lockdowns restricted movement across the country. Demand decreased by around 30 percent compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 average.

However, as we are finally seeing a downward turn in infection rates in India, the countrys fuel consumption is gradually rising again. Providing vaccination rates increase and India avoids the ever-threatening fourth wave later in the year, oil rates could return to normal by the end of the year.

India imports around 80 percent of its oil, making it the third largest oil importer globally. With a population of over a billion people, it is a key market for oil and gas, expected to be one of the biggest over the next decade.

The concern for India now is rising oil prices. Indian officials are asking OPEC+ to stop oil cuts in order to stabilise the currently high global oil prices. Oil officials in the country are warning OPEC that Indias concern is finding the lowest oil prices, meaning it is more than willing to turn to more competitive oil-producing countries for its imports.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated at the BNEF Summit last week, Today's price is a very challenging one, I am persuading my producer friends for more reasonable oil prices.

This is concerning for Middle Eastern oil producing countries which rely on India for their export market. In May, Middle Eastern exports to India fell to a 25-month low, due to low demand, producing quotas, and high prices.

India has long spoken about diversifying its oil imports as concerns around strict OPEC production quotas increased. Until recently, Indias oil imports came predominantly from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. However, in recent weeks India has looked to alternative options for its imports.

India is setting its sights on Latin America, the United States and the Mediterranean for cheaper imports. And as Guyana increases its presence in the oil world, India was quick to forge a partnership with the rising oil power, commencing imports of Guyana's Liza light sweet crude this week.

A cargo of 1 million barrels will start its journey on July 4 on Greece-flagged tanker Militos set for India's Paradip port, where it is scheduled to arrive around August 8. While prices have not been reported, this is a trial cargo for Guyanas oil, to see whether India will deliver a longer-term contract to the new oil producer.

As oil demand slowly returns to normal in India, OPEC will have to think carefully about its next moves if it hopes to keep India as a key importer of Middle Eastern oil.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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Even after surviving an extremely difficult 2020, marred by a constitutional crisis, violent protests, and the COVID-19 pandemic, there are signs of worse ahead for Perus beaten-down oil industry. The Andean country was engulfed by political turmoil in the lead-up to the 2021 presidential elections with two controversial candidates reaching the second-round run-off. After a close-run vote, leftist Pedro Castillo appears to have emerged victorious over business-friendly Keiko Fujimori, daughter of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori who is serving a jail term for corruption. According to the latest ballot count Castillo has emerged victorious with 50.1% of the vote with Fujimori trailing at 49.9%. Nonetheless, Fujimori refuses to concede demanding electoral authorities review ballots which she claims are irregular. That is fueling further turmoil in what has been a deeply polarizing and extremely close election marred by violent incidents including the massacre of 14 people in a remote coca-growing region of Peru, which was thought to have been committed by a dissident faction of the socialist Shining Path guerillas. If Castillo eventually secures victory, he will take office on 28 July 2021. The growing likelihood of the socialist candidate winning has sent a shudder through Perus political establishment, the business community as well as mining and oil industries. In the run-up to the election, Castillo campaigned on a platform of resource nationalism, including greater state control of natural resources, sparking fears that the nationalization of oil and mining assets could be on the agenda if victorious. While his party recently ruled out the nationalization of natural resources, including mining and petroleum assets, greater state interference could be disastrous. One need only look at the history of neighboring Ecuadors oil industry under leftist president Rafael Correa, who from 2007 to 2017 embarked on heavy-handed state intervention in the economically crucial resource sector. Correas policies, which included gaining greater state control of oilfields and petroleum reserves as well as hiking taxes and royalties, not only deterred foreign investment in Ecuadors hydrocarbon sector but precipitated significant corruption. That saw exploration and development activities decline causing oil reserves as well as production to stagnate.

Recent events in Peru, including the massacre of 14 people in a remote part of the Andean country, which was the worst in decades, highlight the clearly visible fractures in a society that has been sharply impacted by the pandemic. It is extreme poverty and lack of access to resources in many rural regions, particularly in Perus Amazon, triggered violent protests during 2020 against the oil industry which disrupted operations and production. While the national government in Lima committed to a $1.7 billion regional aid package to address the community concerns driving the protests, it is yet to be delivered, creating the potential for further civil dissent and violence. The plethora of issues impacting Perus oil industry, including a lack of investment, aging infrastructure, and a lack of social license in many communities where it operates are impacting production.

Related: Oil Markets To See Deficit Of 5 Million Bpd By End 2021

There are signs, however, despite the political turmoil Perus petroleum industry is recovering. Data from the national oil company and regulator Perupetro shows (Spanish) May 2021 crude oil output averaged 41,128 barrels per day which was a healthy 13% greater than a month earlier and an impressive 30% higher year over year. Natural gas liquids production expanded by a notable 15% month over month to 78,787 barrels of oil equivalent, although that was marginally lower compared to the same period in 2020. Unlike hydrocarbon liquids, Perus May natural gas production declined sharply falling 10% compared to a month earlier and nearly 8% year over year to an average of 134,682 barrel per day. As a result of that solid performance, Perus total hydrocarbon output for May 2021 of 342,714 barrels of oil equivalent daily was 2% greater than April and an extremely healthy 33.7% higher than for the equivalent month in 2020.

Source: Perupetro and U.S. EIA.

Those numbers demonstrate that Perus petroleum industry is finally rebounding after an extremely tough 2020 when the National Society of Mining Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE  Spanish initials) issued a statement in November (Spanish) claiming it was in crisis. Some analysts are predicting that the oil industrys contribution to Perus gross domestic product will grow by up to 9% between 2021 and 2022. That will act as a powerful driver of Andean countrys post-pandemic economic recovery. The IMF estimates that Perus GDP will expand by 8.5% this year following an 11% contraction during 2020.

There is every likelihood that Perus hydrocarbon production will continue to grow. Perupetro is focused on reactivating operations in blocks 8, 64, and 192 located in its Amazon basin. The companies which were operating those blocks, Pluspetrol, Geopark, and Frontera Energy, withdrew after community blockades and protests saw them call force majeure. Perus regulator, in January 2021, flagged that it was considering launching a 2021 bid round for 10 blocks, which if it takes place will be the first such event in over a decade. If those measures are successful, they will add additional momentum to Perus growing hydrocarbon production.

The primary threat to Perus petroleum industry is Castillos plans to expand how much the state receives from energy companies operating in Peru. In April this year, he stated that he was seeking to take up to 70% of energy and mining companies profits which would impact foreign investment making Peru a less attractive destination. There is also the ever-present fear of nationalization, but that appears highly unlikely given that he will need to build consensus within a divided congress which will prevent him from implementing radical policies. Nevertheless, some analysts believe that as Castillo progresses in his term as president that the policies implemented by his government could become steadily more radical.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

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Russia and Saudi Arabia have reportedly reached a preliminary deal for OPEC+ to gradually increase output by 2 million barrels per day between August and December, Reuters said, citing an unnamed OPEC+ source.

This is this unofficial sourcing coming out of a meeting of the JMMC, which was still ongoing as of 13:00 EDT.

An OPEC panel has proposed monthly increases in output of 0.4 million barrels per day.

Updating on Twitter, Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief & Chief Opec Correspondent for EnergyIntel, reported that the JMMC was currently addressing some countries dissatisfaction with their existing baselines.

Bakr also noted, alongside Reuters, that the talk at the JMMC was for a potential 400,000 bpd per month increase from August to December, cautioning that there has been no official announcement that this proposal has been adopted as of yet.

Reuters also said that oil supply management could run into the end of next year.

As of the time of writing, sentiments were bullish, but Brent was pulling back slightly from its price of over $76 this morning, to $75.88 at 13:07 EDT. WTI is trading at $75.23.

Overall, the market is liking it. The global economy is recovering, and both American shale producers and OPEC have demonstrated the right amount of restraint for the gradual increase proposal to be met with bullish sentiments.

OPEC is looking like its going to keep some restraint, and to me, the market is in a really good place, Bloomberg quoted Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management, US, as saying. People are very comfortable and constructive with the profile over the next year.

Speaking to Agence France Presse, PVM analyst Stephen Brennock described OPECs strategy as thus far spot on, saying the cartel has managed to restore the oil balance without over-tightening the market.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com

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Oil prices shot up early on Thursday as reports started to emerge that OPEC and its non-OPEC partners led by Russia were discussing another gradual increase in oil supply of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) between August and December.

At 9:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, at the close of the initial OPEC-only meeting where ministers read prepared statements about the general market situation, the U.S. benchmark WTI Crude hit $75.90, exceeding the $75/barrel mark for the first time since October 2018. Brent Crude was above $76.60.

The first OPEC meeting ended with no discussion of an output increase, but all eyes are now on the JMMC (Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC) meeting, which starts at 10:30 am EDT, and the OPEC + meeting opening two hours later.

Before the official start of Thursdays meetings, a source at OPEC+ told Reuters that the alliance was preparing to move toward easing the production cuts by 2 million bpd from next month until the end of the year, adding around 400,000 bpd of supply to the market each month between August and December.

This would be lower than analyst forecasts of at least 500,000 bpd output hike for August alone.

Other delegates told Reuters, as well as Bloomberg, that OPEC+ leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia already had a tentative agreement  before the official meetings began  to further ease the cuts from August.

Sources at OPEC+ also tell media outlets that any agreement to further unwind the curbs would hinge on the ongoing talks about Iran and the United States returning to the so-called nuclear deal.

The OPEC+ group is also debating the extension of the current agreement beyond its end-date, of April 2022. Delegates are considering potentially extending the deal until the end of 2022.

Currently, the OPEC+ alliance keeps around 5.7 million bpd off the market. It will have returned by end-July 2 million bpd of supply between May and July, as per the agreement earlier this year. Now another 2 million bpd gradual increase  if confirmed  signals confidence in demand recovery but also a more tentative approach than analyst expectations of at least 500,000 bpd production hike for August alone.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The United Nations political affairs chief has called on the United States to either lift or waive the American sanctions against Iran as the Islamic Republic, the U.S., and the remaining signatories to the so-called 2015 nuclear deal continue difficult negotiations about Washington and Tehran returning to the agreement.

Representatives of Iran and the United States have faulted each other for not complying with the 2015 accord, while UN Security Council delegates urge the parties to work to achieving a breakthrough in the ongoing talks in Vienna, the UN said.

The negotiations have protracted beyond the presidential election in Iran on June 18a development that the parties were initially reportedly trying to avoid and reach a deal before the election. However, despite some progress being made, talks have been dragging out for weeks, delaying the timeline for a potential legitimate return of Iranian oil to the market.

With talks ongoing in Vienna to fully restore the landmark 2015 agreement to contain Irans nuclear ambitions, the United Nations political affairs chief called on the United States to lift or waive its sanctions against Tehran, as Security Council delegates rallied the parties to make the difficult political decisions needed to achieve a breakthrough, the UN said at the end of a Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacekeeping Affairs, urged the United States Administration to extend the waivers related to oil trade with Iran and to facilitate non-proliferation activities at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Fordow Facility and the Arak reactor, calling these moves needed steps to advance implementation of the Plan and resolution 2231 (2015), the UN says.

At the same Security Council meeting, Irans Ambassador to the UN, Majid Takht Ravanchi said:

Those who broke their promise are the ones who must prove their sincerity and genuine political will. They are the ones who must take hard decisions.

Iran seeks enough assurances that all sanctions are removed verifiably; and the U.S. will not, once again, withdraw from the JCPOA, Ravanchi added.

The stalemate in the talks is good news for the visibility of the oil supply policy of the OPEC+ group, which is widely expected to further ease the production cuts as of August.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Amid a rise in demand for cryptocurrencies, especially in emerging markets, and an increased appetite for sustainable finance globally, efforts are under way to develop a so-called green Bitcoin  that is, an ecologically sustainable cryptocurrency.



Last year proved to be a boom year for cryptocurrencies, with the pandemic forcing many people to make payments online, thus moving them away from physical cash.

Indeed, as OBG has detailed, cryptocurrencies have experienced significant growth in emerging markets. According to statistics firm Statista, Nigeria was the leading country for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption last year, and the firm associated much of this spike in demand with remittances, as in many cases people saw alternative currency trading as an effective way to circumvent perceived overvaluations of exchange rates.

This increased interest has naturally had an effect on value. For example, the price of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, rose by 490% between October last year and mid-April, when it reached an all-time high of more than $63,000.

However, in a sign of its volatility, since this high-water mark the value of Bitcoin has halved, and stood at $34,365 on June 29. Nevertheless, current prices are still three times as high as they were pre-boom.

There has also been a growing acceptance of Bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment.

In early June, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, while there are also similar proposals under consideration in Paraguay.

While many see this as an exciting opportunity, the increase in uptake has also raised concerns about the environmental footprint of cryptocurrencies.

Estimates vary on the energy consumption associated with Bitcoin mining  the process of creating new Bitcoin by solving complex computational puzzles through a proof-of-work principle  but the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, a tool created by researchers at the UKs University of Cambridge, calculated the annual total at 121.36 TWh, which is more than is consumed in the whole of Argentina each year.

Developing a green Bitcoin

These environmental concerns, which have coincided with a growing demand for the implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in business, have ultimately led to efforts to create more environmentally sustainable cryptocurrencies.

In April a group of private sector bodies  led by non-profits Energy Web, the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and RMI  launched the Crypto Climate Accord (CCA), an initiative inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement which aims to decarbonise the cryptocurrency industry.

With 45 companies from the finance, tech, energy and climate sectors supporting the accord, those involved aim to ensure that 100% of the energy consumption from cryptocurrencies comes from renewables by 2025.

This was followed in May by an announcement from UK crypto mining company Argo Blockchain  a CCA signatory  and Canadian firm DMG Blockchain Solutions, that the two companies were working towards launching the worlds first clean energy Bitcoin mining pool.

Related: Exxon Sting Reveals Black Book Of Senators



Labelled the Terra Pool, the planned initiative is a cryptocurrency mining platform powered exclusively by renewable resources.

Elsewhere, in June representatives from the Switzerland-headquartered commodity trading company Mercuria said it was working with Bitcoin producers to supply them with renewable energy sources to help curb their carbon footprint.

Chia: the future of green crypto?

One possible solution to help curb environmental impact is the cryptocurrency Chia, which was launched in February.

Rather than Bitcoins proof-of-work principle, Chia is instead farmed via a method known as proof-of-space. In short, instead of being produced through the completion of complex mathematical puzzles, as is the case with Bitcoin, Chia is created by storing data on a large number of empty hard discs.

Proponents claim that this method is greener, more reliable and more secure than others, as it is significantly less energy-intensive than other crypto mining processes.

However, despite these recent steps towards creating more environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies, there are a number of critics who are sceptical about their purported sustainability credentials.

A major criticism relates to the hardware required to carry out crypto mining. Critics argue that even cryptocurrencies produced via renewable energy would still have a significant carbon footprint, due to the emissions generated in the manufacture of hardware such as computer processors, which are fundamental to the Bitcoin-mining process.

Such concerns also apply to supposedly less energy-intensive cryptocurrencies like Chia.

Given the need for a large number of hard discs in the farming process, there are concerns that the widespread adoption of Chia would simply result in an increase in emissions and e-waste as a result of the increased manufacture of hardware.

In an example of the complex challenges associated with creating more sustainable cryptocurrencies, industry media has reported that in some cases Chia farming had reduced the lifespan of a 512GB hard drive from a decade to around 40 days, ultimately leading to a significant increase in electronic waste that is likely to end up in landfill.

Furthermore, there have been significant side-effects of the Chia boom. In recent months countries like Vietnam have reported a shortage of hard discs and graphics cards, thought to be linked to Chia farming, while Chinese media have reported that between Chias launch in February and mid-May, the prices of 12-terrabyte drives had gone up by 59%.

By Oxford Business Group

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Chevron is reportedly planning to sell oil assets in the Permian that could fetch up to $1 billion, according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters.

According to Reuters, the supermajor has confirmed plans for sale involving conventional oil fields but did not specify the value of a possible deal or deals.

Chevron has hired an investment bank to find buyers for assets worth $879 million. It has also earmarked another $200 million worth of Permian fields for sale, sources told the media outlet.

A pickup in asset sales was expected as oil prices rebound, reaching the highest in more than two years. Companies, even as large as Chevron, could do with the additional cash while offloading non-core assets.

"The big picture is that Chevron has one of the largest and most advantaged positions in the Permian and is able to test the capital discipline of the industry with what it would consider marginal assets that are a much smaller package than the Shell potential offering," Reuters quoted analyst Paul Sankey as saying.

Chevrons low-cost Permian assets are its primary growth driver, Zacks analysts said earlier this week in an industry outlook.

In addition to its strict capital discipline and conservative spending plans, these assets should help it weather the effects of the latest crisis and continue growing.

Besides being more conservative with its spending plans than most peers, Chevron is also bucking a trend in business diversification that has had European supermajors scrambling to boost their exposure to wind and solar energy while reducing their oil and gas output.

Recently, the company said it had no plans to reduce its oil and gas production and start investing in wind and solar energy. Thats despite a majority of shareholders voting at the companys latest AGM to have it reduce its Scope 3 emissionsthe ones generated by the use of its products.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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A Greenpeace sting has had an Exxon lobbyist expose the names of 11 Senators he said were crucial for the supermajors lobbying efforts.

The names include both Republicans and Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin, who represents gas-producing West Virginia and is chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whom the lobbyist called kingmaker when it comes to lobbying efforts in Congress.

The list also includes Senator John Barrasso from Wyoming, a top Republican representative on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Shelley Moore Capito, also from West Virginia.

Further, the Exxon lobbyist, Keith McCoy, discussed the issue of carbon tax that the company publicly supports but, according to his comments, is privately aware will not be particularly popular among businesses.

I will tell you, there is not an appetite for a carbon tax. It is a non-starter. Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, he said, as quoted by Yahoo Finance. And the cynical side of me says, 'Yeah, we kind of know that. But it gives us a talking point. We can say, 'Well, what is ExxonMobil for? Well, were for a carbon tax.'

In response to the news, Exxon issued a statement that said, Comments made by the individuals in no way represent the companys position on a variety of issues, including climate policy and our firm commitment that carbon pricing is important to addressing climate change. The individuals interviewed were never involved in developing the companys policy positions on the issues discussed.

We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them, including comments regarding interactions with elected officials. They are entirely inconsistent with the way we expect our people to conduct themselves. We were shocked by these interviews and stand by our commitments to working on finding solutions to climate change, the company also said.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Despite a strong rebound in European natural gas demand, Russias gas giant Gazprom has not booked additional entry capacity to Europe via Ukrainea move that Ukraines gas transmission system operator described as blackmail.

Gazprom did not book additional capacity via Ukraine at this weeks monthly auction, which will effectively mean that supplies to Europe would be reduced by 2 billion cubic meters in July, Upstream quoted Gazprom as saying.

The Russian gas monopoly will also shut for maintenance the Yamal-Europe pipeline carrying gas from Russia through Belarus and Poland to Germany between July 6 and 10. Gazprom will also halt deliveries via Nord Stream between July 13 and 22.

Despite the maintenance on the northern pipeline routes to Europe, Gazprom hasnt taken extra capacity offered in Ukraine.

Analysts say that this could be an opportunistic move from the Russian giant to drive up Europes gas prices further and take advantage of what are now the highest prices in 13 years.

Other analysts think that Gazproms effective reduction in supplies would be to force Europe to recognize that gas customers on the continent need the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany bypassing Ukraine.

Gazprom is effectively saying to the EU: give us the green light for Nord Stream 2 and we will send you all the gas you need, Tom Marzec-Manser, lead European gas analyst at ICIS, told the Financial Times last week.

This week, Gazprom did not book additional capacity for the route via Ukraine, drawing criticism from Ukraines gas transmission system operator.

The Russian gas giant is looking to push European gas prices even higher by deliberately withholding supply, Sergiy Makogon, the chief executive officer of Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, told FT, noting that the recent jump in prices is an artificially created problem.

[Europe] should not follow this blackmail of Gazprom with prices, Makogon told FT.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Before demolition of Jobbers Canyon was even a thought, a piece of the historic warehouse district had been turned into a hip place to live.

RJ Neary remembers because he not only helped renovate the century-old New Idea building, he lived there after it became edgy apartments in 1986.

With its rooftop deck, patio and street-level commercial space, the former farm equipment center at Ninth and Jackson Streets was the first downtown Omaha housing created east of 10th Street in modern times. People were fascinated, Neary said, and the five-story New Idea became a hot spot for guests wanting to check out the repurposed digs.

The New Idea renovation provides a glimpse of what might have happened on a broader scale, if the six-block district  including New Idea  hadn't been cleared for the multimillion-dollar Conagra-anchored riverfront project.

But it doesn't answer a related question: How long might it have taken to convert Jobbers Canyon to new uses?

Todd Heistand of NuStyle Development, another Omaha housing pioneer who has converted many downtown buildings, says the Jobbers Canyon neighborhood in the 1980s was rather rough. He believes construction of the Conagra campus and neighboring Heartland of America park helped accelerate the conversion of other downtown warehouses into cool housing and commercial space.

Indeed, he said the suburban-like Conagra complex brought a sense of stability. Without it, he wonders when the hundreds of housing units that NuStyle later developed near it would have come into the market.

"Conagra really did change the feel of downtown," Heistand said. "It brought a level of safety to downtown."

So goes discussion, speculation and debate  still decades later  over what downtown might be today if the mother lode of historic Omaha warehouses had remained and blossomed into the extension of Old Market lofts and shops that some envisioned.

Business and civic leaders say the Conagra project brought jobs to the riverfront and spurred lots of development. Even though Conagra in 2016 relocated its corporate headquarters and top leadership to Chicago, about 1,300 Conagra employees still work on its downsized campus.

Others lament the loss of more than 20 buildings that collectively represented an irreplaceable part of Omaha's history and commercial growth. The demolition and its impact remains a case study for urban planning students.

"To this day, people still talk about it," Martin Janousek, a local architect with Leo A Daly, said about the fight waged to save the Canyon. "I mean, it rocked a lot of people."

The World-Herald, in partnership with History Nebraska, is examining key issues in Omaha's downtown redevelopment over the past 50 years. That includes both the destruction of Jobbers Canyon (bounded generally by Eighth, 10th, Farnam and Jackson Streets) and the recent conversion of numerous vintage structures into worksites, housing and shops.

For some, it's hard to reconcile the two facts.

"You look at that and say: 'Wow, it could have been so different,' " said Jeff Slobotski, ecosystem and business development manager for the emerging Millwork Commons neighborhood near 12th and Nicholas Streets. The area is near Hot Shops, a former mattress factory dating back to 1886 that turned into an art center in 1999.

Launched about three years ago, Millwork Commons developers are trying to create a 45-acre live-work-play campus for tech and other creative businesses. Investors led by Paul and Annette Smith and Black Dog Management are directing up to $300 million for the effort.

An anchor of Millwork Commons is the recently renovated Ashton warehouse, built in the 1880s, which covers nearly 200,000 square feet. The Ashton features a spacious public lobby called The Dock, where people can watch movies on a giant screen, socialize over a latte from Archetype Coffee or house-made beer from the Kros Strain tap room.

The Dock opens up to an outdoor park and event area and a few hundred new housing units under construction. Also there is the 1940s-era Mastercraft, whose lengthy transformation from furniture factory to business office center began under different owners in 2005.

So far, Ashton business tenants include WP Engine (formerly known as Flywheel), a clothing boutique, a restaurant-meal deliverer. More are coming, including a home furnishing store and an information technology school. South of the Ashton, another like-sized millwork operation built in 1886 and known as the Disbrow block is soon to be renovated into offices, retailers and residences.

While impressive, Millwork Commons is not as huge a redevelopment project as the Jobbers Canyon district would have been. And while the recent efforts are transforming older warehouses (often built in the same era as Jobbers Canyon), the bulk of those structures still sat derelict or underused for a long time.

At a different downtown spot, south of the Old Market along 10th Street, another cavernous brick structure stood inactive and mainly used for storage for roughly four decades. Jon Crane of Boyd Jones Construction had the idea to turn the former railroad mail-sorting facility into a now fully occupied, 100,000-square-foot modern worksite.

Four years after the renovated Rail & Commerce Building opened, tenants include Boyd Jones, Warren Distribution, HTI Labs and Cafe Postale. There's also a co-working level called Commerce Village, where about 40 entrepreneurs are based.

When Crane bought the dilapidated structure, he hoped its location and ambiance would help recruit talent for his company that had outgrown space near 44th and Nicholas Streets. That happened, he said.

He anticipates further growth, noting the building's design allows for two additional floors.

Not every old building is salvageable, Crane said. But he says he is pleased he took on the $25 million renovation challenge at 10th and Mason Streets.

"You get to breathe new life into these historic buildings and, in a way, you're living in the best of both worlds."

A few other emerging areas:

Flat Iron District: Developers are turning old buildings (and building some new ones) near 18th Street and St. Mary's Avenue into housing, offices, restaurants and other commercial space. Neeraj Agarwal, for instance, is rehabbing a century-old Buick dealership and the historic Standard Oil facility. Dicon Corp. led conversion of the century-old Freiden building into micro apartments.

New North Makerhood: The Peter Kiewit Foundation's aim is to turn a worn pocket of structures northwest of 11th and Cuming into an affordable neighborhood for artisans and entrepreneurs. In its heyday, the area was a bustling industrial tract. Next step is turning an old lumber warehouse into artist studios and outdoor event space.

At 12th and Jones Streets, the Fairmont Creamery stands as an example of how challenging a conversion project can get. Omahan Paul Waggener bought the former cold storage and meat-processing plant, which dates back to 1898, and planned to create 142,000 square feet of residences, retail and gallery space.

The estimated $30 million rehab now has stalled, due mostly to rising wood and steel prices, said Waggener, who is considering bringing on a partner. Earlier, Waggener said he "fell in love" with the structure then only about 20% in use, adding that he "wanted to make sure she was taken care of properly."

Neary felt similarly back in the mid-1980s when he walked into the New Idea building then operated by Lindsay Brothers Co. as a wholesale distributor of farm equipment. He thought: "This is a perfect conversion (project)."

Within a few months of completing the rehab, its 24 apartments were filled, "proving that demand existed," said Neary, a real estate businessman who recently ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

Neary and his partners ultimately sold the property to the Omaha Development Foundation as it assembled land for Conagra's new campus and more. Neary said his group got about $1 million more than its original investment.

Heistand  who is Omaha's largest converter of old structures into trendy housing  views demolition of Jobbers Canyon as a "double-edged sword."

From a builder's perspective, he is confident that in today's market, the warehouses could have been swiftly turned into the kind of history-filled, mixed-use centers urban dwellers flock to.

But, he said, that wasnt as easily said or done in the 1980s when the area was not as appealing for residential living.

Heistand said demand for his own early conversion efforts, including the Bull Durham apartments that opened in 1997 at 10th and Leavenworth, likely benefited from the post-Conagra project environment that infused more office workers and corporate feel near the riverfront.

NuStyle, boosted also by development tools including tax-increment financing, went on a roll converting old buildings. Around 2002, for example, the company finished transformation of two century-old 11th and Jones Streets warehouses into about 260 Old Market Lofts with street-level business space.

The previous owner, Ford storage and moving company, had been downtown about 85 years when it sold NuStyle the nine-story structures and another six-story warehouse at 11th and Dodge (which also became apartments and then condos).

Other NuStyle conversions included the eight-story Beebe & Runyan warehouse into condos at Ninth and Douglas in 1998 and Tiptop facility into apartments and commercial space at 15th and Cuming in 2005.

Increased popularity of urban core living helped create demand for more transformations. Since 2013, NuStyle carved out more than 2,000 apartments from eight aging structures spanning 2.5 million square feet within a few miles of the Missouri River.

Most recently, NuStyle turned an old power plant just south of Conagra into a 217-apartment complex called The Breakers. The plant hadn't operated for three decades, and, according to Heistand, was his team's most difficult conversion yet.

For starters, it had no traditional floors, only a framework of iron grates that former power plant workers walked around on. Crews had to start from scratch to build an internal structure for individual apartments.

NuStyle turned it down twice before buying it in 2015 at a discount price.

Soon after opening two years later, the $40 million Breakers filled up. An architect who worked on the design liked the finished product  and its views of the river and casinos to the east  so much that he and his wife sold their house of many years to move there.

Heistand recalls a couple of decades back when Omaha's growing urban housing market caught the attention of peer cities. Officials from Kansas City and Des Moines visited to see Omaha's downtown projects.

Today, Heistand says he can "feel the loss" of the historic Jobbers Canyon that could have been turned into housing and more.

"At the same time," he said, "if they wouldnt have done Conagra, a Fortune 500 company, down there, would those warehouse buildings have sat for another 15 or 20 years like in other cities?

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The last few days of Adi Pours long career are winding down, and the Douglas County health directors office is full of congratulatory cards and flowers.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert on Tuesday presented Pour with a key to the city. She recognized Pour, who turns 70 this month, with a proclamation for her tremendous commitment to public service and the health and safety of the citizens of Omaha and Douglas County.

But perhaps the best retirement gift Pour will receive are the numbers displayed on the Douglas County Health Departments COVID-19 dashboard: as of Wednesday, 50.4% of all Douglas County residents were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. And 67.9% of county residents 18 and older have gotten at least one dose of vaccine.

It was a nice surprise for me, and I hope it will continue, said Pour, who on Monday will leave the post she has held since 2002.

Pour wasnt sure the county would hit those numbers. No one could predict how the countys vaccination campaign would go. But she said the vaccination figures  plus low case counts and the end of the states coronavirus emergency  underscore her conclusion that it was the right time to retire.

Honestly, I couldnt have written my timing better than it is, she said.
Townsell allowed Keeles partner to enter her home under the supervision of her cousin while she waited in her doorway with Keele outside, stating that because of Keeles aggressive behavior she didnt want him inside her home.

While they waited for Keeles partner to return to the porch, Keele continually asked Townsell how Lafayettes shirt had gotten torn. Townsell was unable to answer the question.

Keele then yelled that Townsell was under arrest, abruptly entered her home and pulled her to the ground by her arm. He then pulled out his stun gun and instructed one of Townsells relatives to back up before handcuffing Townsell and escorting her to the cruiser.

As he took her to the police cruiser, Keele told Townsell that he was adding charges of resisting arrest and obstructing an officer.

Townsell then observed an exchange between Keele and his partner during which the partner told Keele that they hadnt gotten Townsells side of the story and said they needed to contact the sergeant, possibly for arrest authority. Keele said hed already contacted the sergeant, though Townsell hadnt seen or heard him do so when they were outside her home.
Philip Milo Bail succeeded Rowland Haynes as president of the then-Municipal University of Omaha on July 1, 1948.

The 49-year-old school administrator, with the build of an athlete, came to the University of Omaha from Butler University in Indiana with impressive qualifications. The regents considered 121 candidates before selecting Bail.

When Bail joined the university, at a salary of $10,000 and under a three-year contract, the only major structures on campus were the administration building and the partially finished fieldhouse. Major additions during his career included the applied arts building (now the Engineering Building), the Gene Eppley Library (now the administration building) and the Milo Bail Student Center.

At the University of Omaha, now the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Bail impressed faculty and students with his concern for individuals and his inspirational talks to incoming freshmen.

Dr. Jack A. Hill, who joined the university in 1955 and was a professor of management in the College of Business Administration, said Bail "just wanted to be close to everyone."

"He hired everyone, I mean right down to the janitors." He said Bail was a good manager of money and often was able to provide faculty members with bonuses even when money was tight.
More than 18 months after the gut-punch announcement that homegrown brokerage firm TD Ameritrade was being acquired by Charles Schwab, the combined company has almost the same number of Omaha workers  and it soon will have even more.

Schwab announced Thursday its in the process of adding more than 200 jobs in Omaha, building on the workforce of 2,200 the company says is currently based here.

That means after those hires, Schwab would have roughly 100 more jobs in Omaha than TD Ameritrade did when the marriage of the two brokerage industry giants was first announced.

Schwabs Thursday statement on the new jobs is about as close as the company has come to date to making a commitment to retaining operations in Omaha. The statement said the firm expects its Omaha employees to play a key role in serving Schwabs growing base of client investors.

TD Ameritrade has been a member of the Omaha community for over 40 years, and Schwab is committed to its local workforce in service to our clients, said Dan Madott, who is Schwabs managing director of retail strategy and analytics and leads a local employee council in Omaha.
HONOLULU (AP)  A former administrator of federal coronavirus aid funds allocated for Honolulu was sentenced Wednesday to over three years in prison for embezzling more than $500,000 in taxpayer money.

Hanalei Apioalani, 42, pleaded guilty to embezzling from the AmeriCorps program and agreeing to take a bribe to administer grants through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as CARES. Prosecutors said he and his wife spent the money on themselves, including $22,000 at a hotel beach club, more than $3,000 at a Hawaii water park and more than $10,000 to lease a BMW.

Sentencing was postponed for his wife Angelita Aipoalani, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to embezzle from AmeriCorps. Prosecutors say the program brings volunteers who receive stipends to work in vulnerable and marginalized communities.

The couple flaunted their lavish lifestyle on social media, prosecutors said, including photos of a Ferrari the husband rented for his birthday, the wife sitting in first class during a flight to San Francisco and a $395 dinner at a New York City steakhouse.
Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest.

Current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saluted Rumsfeld on Wednesday for his boundless energy, probing intellect, and abiding commitment to serve his country.

He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and member of Congress.

For all Rumsfelds achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.

Nine months into his second tour as defense secretary, on Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, thrusting the nation into wars for which the military was ill-prepared. Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime. Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, applauded for his blunt talk and uncompromising style.
HELENA, Mont. (AP)  Gov. Greg Gianforte declared a statewide drought emergency Thursday and asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare all 56 of the state's counties as primary natural disaster areas. The designation would give them more access to federal assistance after the heat wave that stifled the Pacific Northwest moved into Montana.

Every region of the state faces severe to extreme drought conditions, and the situation is getting worse," Gianforte said in a statement. These alarming drought conditions are devastating our ag producers, challenging our tourism industry and could bring a severe wildfire season.

More than 92% of Montana faces abnormally dry conditions. High temperatures have been in the 90s and 100s for days, the National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings in northwestern and eastern Montana and red flag warnings of severe wildfire danger are in effect for several areas because of high temperatures, low humidity and winds that could contribute to extreme fire behavior.

The governor's declaration directs the state departments of Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources and Conservation to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure federal funding to address the fallout from the drought.
National Democrats began airing a pandemic recovery ad in the Omaha area on Wednesday, signaling that they're still willing to put resources into Nebraska's competitive 2nd Congressional District, even though the rest of the state is solidly Republican.

The 60-second ad in the Omaha television market highlights the nation's efforts to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and return to normalcy.

The ad includes several shots of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who won the 2nd District in the 2020 election, marking only the second time in history that Nebraska has split its Electoral College votes.

Even though Biden and Harris won the district, voters also reelected Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon over a well-funded Democratic challenger. The 2nd District, including the core of the Omaha area and parts of its suburbs, is one of the few nationally that's consistently competitive between Republicans and Democrats.

In a statement, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee said the American Rescue Plan signed by Biden is helping vaccinate Americans, reopen small businesses and provide financial assistance.
An emergency injection of Nebraska taxpayer dollars, that is. And less than two years after approval of the contract.

Faced with the prospect of child welfare services collapsing in the Omaha area, the state approved an emergency contract, through February 2023, for $147 million. That put state payments to St. Francis at about the same level that its competitor, locally based PromiseShip, had bid in 2019.

This affair was a significant failure by an administration that touts its supposed business-like approach to governance. Nebraska taxpayers can rightly ask what kind of process the state is using that would produce such a troubling result.

Finding answers is the task of the legislative investigative committee. At its recent hearing, testimony rightly prompted several lawmakers to point out Nebraskas need to allow appeals to its contract decisions. Several of Nebraskas neighboring states  Iowa, Missouri and Colorado  use this approach, by which losing bidders can appeal for court review of the contracting process.

No question, such outside scrutiny would have served the public interest in the St. Francis matter and likely saved the state the worry and embarrassment of a contract woefully deficient in meeting an important social need.
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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten has joined hundreds of industrial key players to commission state-of-the-art detergent manufacturing plant owned by the African Consumer Products Limited in Tema in the Greater Accra Region to directly create jobs for the teeming unemployment youths in the country.



Delivery the keynote address at the ceremony which was held in on Thursday July 1, 2021, Mr Kyeremanten commended the Senior Executives of Wilmar Africa Group and Kapa Oil Refineries Limited to Ghana for taking the trouble to attend this ceremony in person.



The sector Minister congratulated the management and staff of the Wilmar company for their dedication and hard work, and for putting up this state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, particularly during this very challenging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.



"Today we are taking another giant step in the Industrial Transformation Agenda of our country, which seeks to make Ghana the new Manufacturing Hub in Africa.



"In pursuit of this, the Government recognizes the importance of attracting private sector operators to invest in the productive sectors of the Ghanaian economy by taking full advantage of the available local resource endowments, as well as the attractive incentives being offered by Government to support the private sector," Mr Kyeremanten noted.



According to him, the establishment of this state-of-the-art factory underscores the importance of such a strategic partnership between the private sector and government in pursuit of its common goal of creating jobs and bringing prosperity to the people of the country.



This new detergent manufacturing plant, Mr Kyeremanten noted is going to provide direct employment for about 220 people which will improve their livelihoods and that of their dependents.



In addition to the above, he stated that the establishment of the company will boost the governments strategic effort aimed at import substitution, especially in sectors where there is local capacity for value addition.



In the year 2020 alone, he indicated that Ghana imported soaps and detergent products worth over $40 million Dollars which could easily have been produced here in Ghana.



With an installed capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes of soap per annum compared to a national demand estimated at 100,000 metric tonnes, this new factory will help bridge the gap between demand and supply of soaps and detergents.



He lamented that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only disrupted the global supply chain for goods which has adversely affected livelihoods.



The wake of the virus, he said has also increased the consciousness regarding personal hygiene and care, leading to a significant surge in the demand for soap and household cleaning products, thus, enhancing the market growth of detergents.



"With the detergents market projected to register a cumulative annual growth of over 4%, I believe this company will flourish not only in Ghana but Africa as a whole, by taking advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).



"As the host country of the AfCFTA Secretariat and one of the first African Union Member States to have signed and ratified the AfCFTA Agreement, Government has taken concrete steps to establish a National AfCFTA Office, and also developed a comprehensive National Action Plan to help Ghanaian manufacturers to take full advantage of the opportunities under the AfCFTA," Mr Kyeremanten noted.



In addition to the enormous benefits that AfCFTA presents to the Ghanaian private sector, he said the businesses located in Ghana have Duty Free Quota Free access to the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom markets.



"Indeed, today marks the commencement of the operationalization of the Ghana-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

Let me assure the business community that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has put in place measures to ensure that Ghana continues to benefit from these various trade liberalization frameworks," the sector Minister said.



According to him, the the market access opportunities offered under the Trade Agreements that Ghana has signed, is a strong stimulus for attracting Foreign Direct Investments into Ghana.





Under the new National Export Development Strategy being implemented under the direction of Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ghana Export Promotion Authority, he asserted that Ghana seeks to achieve an export value of US$25 Billion by the year 2029 in non-traditional exports.



He was confident that the Wilmar Group with their excellent range of products will be a major contributor to the achievement of this target.



According to him, Ghana is on the path towards a major industrialization take-off and there could be no better time than now for us to commission this new industrial facility.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Principal of the Tumu College of Education, Mr Bertinus Adams Kaleo, has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ease the ban on sporting activities in schools in the country.



According to the principal, easing the restrictions on sporting activities at the college, zonal and national levels would enable students to blend academic work with recreation.



At the school's fourth congregation ceremony last Saturday, Mr Kaleo indicated that adherence to the COVID-19 safety measures was high among the college students, adding that if the restrictions were eased, the colleges of education would be able to conduct sporting activities at the college and zonal levels with strict compliance to all the COVID-19 protocols.



"If there is any place that the COVID-19 restrictions are strictly adhered to at the tertiary level, it is on the colleges of education campuses. I am convinced that we will be able to conduct our sporting activities at the college, zonal and national levels with strict compliance with all the COVID-19 protocols," he said.



The principal further appealed to the President and other stakeholders to ensure that the choice of membership of the governing councils of colleges reflected their new status as tertiary institutions.



Congregation



The congregation ceremony witnessed the conferment of diplomas to 678 students from two batches, 2019 and 2020, who successfully satisfied the requirements for the awards by the mentoring institutions.



According to the principal, out of the total number of graduands, 383 of them completed their studies in 2019 while 295 completed in 2020.



He added that the college, over the years, had witnessed gradual improvement in students' performances, saying the second congregation which witnessed the graduation five different batches in 2017, recorded only two first class honours, while the third congregation in 2018 recorded five first class honours.



He, however, said the fourth congregation recorded significant increase in the number of first-class students to nine, while the number of students graduating with pass reduced to 29.



Reforms



Mr Kaleo said the college intended to introduce junior high school specialism in the 2021/2022 academic year, which he said would place emphasis on participatory methods of teaching and learning to make the process more interactive.



"To facilitate the process, the use of ICT is no more an option but a must. The COVID-19 pandemic has even made the use of ICT an essential element of our teaching and learning process," he added.



He said a component of the new programme was the supported teaching in school (STS), which sought to offer trainees the opportunity to have practical experience throughout their training period.



Mr Kaleo added that the STS was necessary because students would get acquainted with the challenges associated with the teaching profession right from day one of their training, which would enhance their professional values and attitudes, professional knowledge and professional practice.



Challenges/appeal



The principal further stressed the need for technical and financial clearance to be granted to colleges for the recruitment of both academic and administrative staff in order to sustain the Bachelor of Education programme as the current staffing situation was woefully inadequate.



Mr Kaleo said there was the need for an intervention to tackle the contemporary challenge of using emergency remote teaching modules which, he said, required the use of ICT and internet connectivity.



He added that the school lacked lecture rooms and ICT and science laboratories that were tertiary compliant, saying that the school needed a 65-seater bus for the effective implementation of the STS and a cross country vehicle for official engagements since the maintenance cost of the over 10-year old patrol was very high.



Advice



The principal admonished the new graduates to protect and project the image of the college by being passionate and showing a high level of commitment to work wherever they found themselves.



He further urged them to be active among the alumni and to help the alumni to move from its current state of a WhatsApp platform association to a more serious and vibrant one, as the college was yet to feel the presence of the alumni association.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Government has condemned the incidents of violence that claimed the lives of 3 persons and led to 3 persons sustaining various degrees of injury after a youth protest in Ejura in the Ashanti Region of Ghana yesterday.



The youth protest was after Ibrahim Mohammed, a resident of Ejura was attacked by unknown persons last Friday and subsequently died on Monday.



Addressing journalists in Accra on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Minister for Information condemned the act of violence and called on the security agencies to swiftly carry investigations on the matter.



The Minister said: our security agencies should be quick and clinical in getting to the bottom of this and other unresolved comes. While we understand that police investigations sometimes take a while, it does not instil confidence in the population if such acts go unresolved and unpunished. So the police need to get to the bottom of this, and justice must be done.



A credible investigation also needs to be conducted into the crowd rioting and crowd control incidents of 29th June. This will bring clarity to the sequence of events and ensure that if any persons acted inappropriately, those persons are punished, he added.



Saaka, 45, was reportedly attacked by some unknown people in Ejura last Friday. He died on Monday afternoon, June 28, 2021, at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi where he was receiving treatment.



Meanwhile, checks with the Regional Police Command indicate that two suspects have since been picked up by the police in connection with the death of Saaka.



This the Minister appealed for calm even as the security agencies work to bring perpetrators of the heinous crime to book.







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Daily activities have currently taken a good shape at Ejura in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality of the Ashanti Region after the deadly violence by the youth protesting the death of one social media activist, Ibrahim Mohammed.



The protest turned violent as the agitated youth and the security made up of the police and military clashed claiming two lives and injuring four others.



The dead were buried on the same day per the doctrines of the Muslim Religion whereas the four injured were transferred to the hospital for medical attention.



The Medical Superintendent of the Ejura Government Hospital, Dr. Mensah Manye in an interview with Hello FM's Prince Kwadwo Boadu on cases brought to the facility confirmed the critically injured have been transferred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and two minor cases were discharged on the same day.



The youth were said to have taken to the street to demand justice for Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka) who before his murder was a Social Media Activist.



Macho Kaaka was pronounced dead on Monday after failing to respond to medical treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.



Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Ashanti Regional Police Commander on Hello FM, COP Kwasi Mensah Duku revealed that the violence was so dreadful to the extent that the police had to call for reinforcement from Mampong and also Operation Calm life.



Three suspects have so far been arrested by the Ashanti Regional Police command.









Source: Prince Kwadwo Boadu/Hello FM









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed his condolences to the families of the three deceased residents of Ejura namely; Ibrahim Mohammed a.k.a Kaaka widely known to be an activist, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed.



Mohammed Kaaka met his untimely death when some unknown mob reportedly assaulted him for his adamant posture in addressing national issues.



The other two deceased were shot dead during a violent confrontation when a joint Military and Police deployment to Ejura turned south as the Military fired gunshots to disperse a crowd protesting on the streets on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.



A statement issued by the Acting Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, read; The President is deeply saddened by the deaths of Ibrahim Mohammed, alias Kaaka, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed. He extends sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, and wishes the injured a speedy recovery.



Read full statement below:

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Seasoned Journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr. has scolded the joint Military and Police forces over the use of live bullets to disperse protesters at Ejura on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.



The protesters are said to have been in the middle of a funeral service for a resident named Ibrahim Mohammed, alias 'Kaaka', who is known to be a social activist in the community and met his untimely death after a mob reportedly assaulted him.



A Military and Police personnel were dispatched to the community but fired gunshots into the protesters killing two persons namely Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed and injured four others.



Discussing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Baako bemoaned the Military intrusion to the vicinity to supposedly control the crowd.



He stressed those who were in command of the field operations must be called for interrogations.



" . . I'm uncomfortable with what has happened. I think it was completely avoidable. It was untidy and somebody somewhere, within the hierarchy of the security agencies, those on the field will have some good questions to answer. I'm talking of those in control and command of the field operation," he said.



He, however, admitted he doesn't have adequate facts on the operation but, to him, ''even if I had it, there's nothing that will make me agree with the Military's intrusion especially their posture, the shootings with live bullets. Look, we shouldn't rationalize it at all".



"Live bullets to go and confront an unruly or rowdy youth throwing stones? It is disproportionate! Unless, somebody can tell me maybe somebody fired also from among the unruly youth, then you can talk about self-defence in collective reaction, but I have my doubts that even if that happened. Because looking at the videos circulating around, there is no incident which show someone on the other side had an armed capability," he added.



He condemned the security approach saying, "these (protesters) are not armed robbers; they're not terrorists. They are some youth demonstrating even if unlawfully and you call in, then that's completely out of proportion. It is disproportionate! . . . Rampaging youth throwing stones, that is what has happened. Disproportionate response! So, they went there armed to the teeth with live bullets; I'm telling there's something wrong then . . . That is not part of the rules of engagement in crowd control.''



Mr. Baako stressed it was a wrong move to have involved the Military.



"I've been part of mass movements, street protest and I've seen it all under constitutional and unconstitutional; so both. I've experienced both. I am saying that this, particular incident, completely avoidable especially the fatalities . . . The Police have been trained to deal with the civilian population whether it is law and order breakdown or not. So, psychologically, there's that some psychological angle. You know this is a funeral. The people are in procession to go and bury somebody. Already, there is anger and tension, so the way you handle it is important'', he said.



He also threw shots at who gave the order for the Military deployment.



"So, those top guys who gave the green light, did they appreciate what they were going to encounter?'', he fumed.



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Millions of fully vaccinated people in India and Africa could face challenges traveling to Europe under the EUs new vaccine passport scheme, scheduled to take effect on July 1. Thats despite the fact that theyll have taken a vaccine that, on the face of it, is already authorized in the EU, as well as by the UK and the World Health Organization.



The problem? The EU is making a distinction between one brand of the AstraZeneca jab, named Vaxzevria, and its identical, but Indian-made version Covishield. The latter, manufactured under license by Indias Serum Institute, is not one of the vaccines listed for the EUs new digital travel pass.





India has administered nearly 300 million doses of Covishield, while the global, multi-agency Covax program that serves many African countries managed to get hold of about 30 million jabs before supply issues led to restrictions. The move could also exclude travelers from other countries that make local versions of the AstraZeneca vaccine, such as South Korea.



Serum is applying for emergency authorization, BBC News reports. But unless the EU changes its rules, a lot of people could face friction at its borders even when they begin to relax restrictions for non-EU arrivals. More friction than usual, anyway.



What is the EU Covid-19 vaccine passport?



From July 1, all EU residents can use paper or digital documentationcalled the EU Digital COVID Certificateto enter the bloc, or travel without restrictions inside its borders. The certificate proves that the traveler has been vaccinated against Covid-19, received a negative test result, or recovered from the disease. It is free of charge, available in both English and all EU languages, and has a QR code.



Read Full Story .... qz.com >>> :









Source: qz.com









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There are concerns that the European Union's vaccine passport programme could exclude people who have been given a version of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine that was made in India.



Most of the vaccines supplied to the Covax scheme, intended to get the jab to poorer countries, have been from India.



The head of the African Union's vaccine delivery programme, Dr Ayoade Alakija, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that she hoped the EU exclusion was an administrative error.



But she said she was concerned that "what it feels like here is there's a two-tier vaccine system".



The EU is set to introduce its Digital Covid Certificate on Thursday, but only four vaccines - all made in Western countries - have been approved for inclusion.



The head of the Serum Institute of India, which is licensed to make the AstraZeneca shot, known in India as Covishield, has tweeted that he has taken the issue up "at the highest levels".



The Reuters news agency says the EU has not responded to requests for comment.



Just under 1.5% of all the vaccines administered globally so far have been given in Africa, which accounts for more than 15% of the world's population.

Source: BBC









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Dr. Bryan Leon Cox, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Spinal Clinic Limited has urged state authorities to clamp down on fake chiropractors in the country.



He bemoaned the fact that most of these fake chiropractors take advantage of their patients, charging exorbitant fees without healing them.



"I have friends who complain of patients going to some of these places where a huge amount of money is collected yet no results and it's about time laws are enforced to deal with such fake chiropractors" he intimated while speaking to Peacefmonline.com at the 15th anniversary of the Spinal Clinic.



Meanwhile, as part of their anniversary celebration, the Spinal Clinic among numerous packages has given a 50% discount to all its first-time visitors.



About Spinal Clinic



Spinal Clinic is a Chiropractic industry that uses a holistic 100% treatment approach to help all people with STRESS-related and discomfort lifestyles. This is done by activating the innate power to heal itself with a simple look to the spine.



Spinal Clinic has won different awards including BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD in the industry, THE BEST CHIROPRACTIC PRACTITIONER, THE BEST PERSONALITY IN CHIROPRACTIC AND THE OVERALL CHIROPRACTIC CENTER; all within the years from 2010  2020.



Through the help of Dr. Cox, a Ghanaian medical student has gone to a Chiropractic school in America and today, he has opened up his own practice successfully in the Volta Region of Ghana, creating more spinal awareness.



Why us and what can we do for you?



 With our competitive advantage in the market in quality service delivery which is incomparable, we can give the best care that will guarantee your strong immune system for a dream lifestyle.



 With our corporate service and package to your organization, we can help cut down your employee's sick leaves which in the end will increase work productivity for your company. And our office is a testimony to that.



 We will provide you with a detailed health analysis and Chiropractic education for results right from our consultation level to treatment stage. Which you cannot get anywhere.



 We have a team that bonds with our clients to understand individuals health conditions and offer solutions uniquely.



 Because of our great service to you, you will join our clients who have rated us as the Leading chiropractic office



 We will sell you Value before cost and will offer you a payment plan that will encourage your love for Chiropractic care and erase the myth that, Chiropractic is expensive.



 Lastly, we will educate you to value your health with Chiropractic more important than anything else and if possible consider preventing future Spinal decay from your children who might be going through the same stress as you are.



















Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/Peacefmonline.com









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Namibias President Hage Geingob has said his country is facing a dark and sombre moment as coronavirus deaths and cases rapidly increase.



Addressing the nation, he said that 513 Namibians had died in the last 15 days as a result of the virus and cases have trebled since the beginning of June.



With a population of just 2.5 million this represents one of the worst death rates on the continent.



Introducing new restrictions, including stopping movement between the countrys regions, Mr Geingob said that things were likely to continue to get worse until mid-August at the earliest.



Speaking after the president, Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula said the country was literally in an existential struggle we are in a fight for our very lives.



He described a stretched health service and said that the countrys mortuaries have reached maximum capacity.



The minister announced that more intensive care beds were being prepared and steps had been taken to boost the countrys purified oxygen supply.



Rounding off his message, President Geingob urged people to co-operate with the new measures and insisted the nation would overcome the crisis.

Source: BBC









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The police in Ejura have picked a third suspect in connection with the death of the social media activist Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Macho Kaaka.



The suspect, which Graphic Online understands is named Iddi Mohammed, is a brother to the deceased.



The suspect was arrested Wednesday (June 30, 2021) morning.



On Monday evening, the police with the assistance of the military arrested the first two suspects in Macho Kaakas death.



They are Ibrahim Issaka also known as Anyass and Fuseini Alhassan.



Fuseini Alhassan, 40, Butcher



Ibrahim Issaka, Bookman



Graphic Online's Ashanti Regional reporter, Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor visited Ejura on Wednesday and the police told him that a third suspect has been arrested but the police did not give out the name of the suspect.



The Ejura District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Phillip Kojo Hammond, told the media that the police were still investigating the incident that led to the death of Kaaka and appealed to residents to assist them with information, Donkor reported.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Atik Mohammed has taken a swipe at the ''Fix the Country'' campaigners over their claims that an activist, Ibrahim Mohammed, who was murdered at Ejura is a member of their movement.



Ibrahim Mohammed's death was reportedly caused by a mob that assaulted him for his vehement activism on social media.



Before he passed away, Mohammed was said to have received threats from unknown persons warning him to stop his activism.



The ''Fix the Country'' campaigners claim the deceased was one of them and purported his death had something to do with him exposing the poor governance of the President, hence supposedly accusing the government of masterminding the assault.



Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Atik Mohammed blasted the campagniers for taking advantage of the Ejura situation.



"The things we say here in Accra, how many people have been killed in Accra here?," he questioned the campaigners.



He blamed them for the violence following Ibrahim's death which resulted in the killing of two protesters and four others seriously injured when a joint team of the Military and Police went to Ejura and shot into a crowd of protesters.



"This (Accra) is where the real action takes place. So, people are not killed for expressing their views in Accra, is it in Ejura that the President and his officials will feel so offended by the activities of a party man? . . . and that the President has sleepless nights because of the social advocacy of this man to the extent that he will commission, I mean, sometimes thinking about some of these things is terrible. And it is simply because this group called 'Fix the Country', in fact they started this rumour-mill and it gained currency for us to now reach where we have reached today."



"So, what has been done to those in Accra saying fix the country? Nobody has even laid a finger on you, much less someone residing in Ejura," he further rebuked the campaigners.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A video of some youth in Ejura in the Ashanti Region chasing a water cannon shooting water at the police has surfaced online.



In the video, the protesting youth hurled stones at the police water cannon .



The driver was attempting to disperse them with the water but the youth chased the water cannon away with stones.



Video



The video show the some of the protesters chasing the water cannon shooting water at the police vehicle while they were protesting.



The protesting youth were on the streets of Ejura to demand what they said was justice over the attack death of Ibrahim Mohammed also known as Macho Kaaka.



In an attempt to quell the protest, the security officers fired shots and two more people died while four others sustained injuries.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister of Interior to institute a public inquiry into the incidents at Ejura.



The Minister of Interior, Mr Ambrosse Dery is expected to announce a three-member committee of inquiry.



Watch the video below



















View this post on Instagram



A post shared by Phylx Akakpo (@phylxentertainment_)





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
Scrap dealers at Agbogbloshie in Accra are resisting the decongestion exercise by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council.



The scrap dealers and onion traders at Agbogbloshie are being relocated to Adjen Kotoku to help free the congestion in the central business district (CBD) of Accra as part of the agenda "Make Accra work" initiated by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Henry Quartey.



The decongestion exercise started Thursday morning was moving smoothly until the team arrived at the scrap dealers section.



The dealers set spent vehicle tyres ablaze in protest against their removal from the spot, claiming they were served no eviction notice.



According to our reporter, they were throwing stones at the security personnel who in turn fired shots to disperse.



"They also started burning tyres", he added.



He said the exercise aimed at removing onion traders and scrap dealers to Adjen Kotoku was peaceful until they reached the scrapyard.



The scrap dealers argued that they were not served any notice to vacate the place.



"So the military had to intervene by firing warning shots to disperse them," he added.<iframe width="470" height="322" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6JfJIQ79O4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>





Source: graphiconline.com









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Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has slammed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for linking the death of an activist at Ejura, Ibrahim Mohammed 'Kaaka', to President Akufo-Addo's administration.



The NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi has blamed the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the killing of Ibrahim Mohammed a.k.a Kaaka.



Allegations



Sammy Gyamfi is convinced the mob that attacked Macho Kaaka are members of the ruling party stressing the killing of the activist is an indication of insecurity under the leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo.



In an interview with Okay FM, Sammy Gyamfi alleged; There is hardship in the country and people are afraid to talk because they are afraid for their lives. Today, they have killed Kaaka. NPP killed Kaaka. Kaaka stays in Ejura and has been on this #fixthecountry campaign. He has been talking about abandoned projects. Before he was attacked by a mob, he announced that he has been threatened by the known NPP members. He even published the threats. He was beaten by a mob.



Ex-Prez Mahama's Statement On Ejura Killing



Former President John Dramani Mahama has also called on the President to direct an immediate de-escalation of the situation at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.



I add my voice to calls for calm following the shooting to death of two persons and the injury to many in Ejura today, following the murder of youth activist Ibrahim Kaaka Mohammed. I have just seen a video of the firing of live ammunition into a crowd by persons wearing military attire, after the burial of the murdered youth activist.



There must be a very thorough investigation of both the murder of the youth activist and the security rules of engagement, which resulted in the shooting to death of the two others, Mr. Mahama stated on his website.



Kwamena Fires NDC



Discussing the issue on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Kwamena Duncan blasted the NDC for scoring political points with the Ejura incident.



He questioned the party's motive saying, "the NDC and President Mahama, are they telling us that, during that time when such incident occurred, the NPP should have issued a statement to say President Mahama and the NDC did it? 2014, there was an incident. They have always taken Ghanaians that these are persons or people who forget easily. I mean they will forget easily and therefore we will take advantage of their nature where they tend to forget. At the time, no NPP member issued a statement saying we hold NDC responsible for what has happened because we didn't have basis for that''.



''When people want to ride on the back of bloodshedding to gain some political mileage, it's difficult to understand. The incident that has happened, drawing attention to it; well and good but, when you say 'warns Police and blames government for death of activist', is that how you intend drawing attention to what has happened? If you want to draw attention, is that how you do it? When government neither stood left nor right, when government has absolutely no hand; why do we want to rush?'', he fumed.



He, however, challenged the oppostion party to make public any evidence they have to corroborate their claims.



''What information does the NDC have which proves that it is the government that murdered Kaaka Mohammed? Can they make that information available to the Ghanaian people?'', he asked.



''Let's focus on building the nation. Why? Why has the NDC become something like without power, they simply cannot survive as a political party? Why? When they get power too, it is only just to take the entire country back," he further rebuked the NDC.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Former President John Mahama has said a video circulating of my visit to injured persons in a hospital is an old one and has no link to current developments in Ejura.



Prior to the circulation of the video, the former flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had said: I urgently call on President Nana Akufo-Addo to initiate an immediate de-escalation of the situation in Ejura, where two protesters were killed by a combined police and military team as they marched in anger a day after the mob killing of local social media activist Ibrahim Kaaka Mohammed.



Four other protesters also got injured in the clash between the demonstrators and the security personnel.



In a statement issued on Tuesday, 29 June 2021, the former president said: There must be a very thorough investigation of both the murder of the youth activist and the security rules of engagement, which resulted in the shooting to death of the two others.



Mr Mahama said: I add my voice to calls for calm following the shooting to death of two persons and the injury to many in Ejura today.



I have just seen a video of the firing of live ammunition into a crowd by persons wearing military attire, after the burial of the murdered youth activist, he observed.



My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and the Ejura community.



Meanwhile, the Ashanti regional police command has commenced investigations to establish the circumstances surrounding the violent clash.



In a statement, the police said its preliminary investigation shows that following the burial of Ibrahim Mohammed aka Kaaka at Mempeasem cemetery at Ejura on Tuesday, some irate youth blocked the main Ejura Atebubu road, thus, impeding traffic flow.



The police moved in with military reinforcement to quell the situation but the irate youth charged on the security officers with all manner of implements including firearms, clubs, machetes and stones.



The security officials fired into the crowd to disperse the angry mob, who failed to retreat but rather massed up in all corners.



The death and injuries were recorded in the process.



The security situation as of 3:30 pm, according to the police, is calm.



However, security has been reinforced to ensure total stability.



The regional command has also taken over the investigation into the murder of Kaaka and has appealed to anyone who has credible information to share with the command at the Central Police Station, Kumasi or call 0299207770.



The strictest confidentially is assured, the police said.



The command also appealed to everyone, especially the youth of Ejura, to remain calm and also called on the traditional and opinion leaders to call for restraint to avert an escalation.





Source: classfmonline.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
Audio Attachment: Listen to Sam Pyne on Peace FM's 'kokrokoo' programme

Ashanti Regional Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sam Pyne, has corroborated claims by some Officers of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that an activist, Ibrahim Mohammed alias 'Kaaka', who was murdered at Ejura is a member of the ruling party.



Ibrahim Mohammed was killed last Friday for being vocal about issues affecting Ghana, particularly the Ejura area.



The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ejura is accused of masterminding the murder following reports that he and the latter had a hostile relationship.



The NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, addressing the issue in an interview on Okay FM, has blamed the NPP for the activist's death saying, there is hardship in the country and people are afraid to talk because they are afraid for their lives. Today, they have killed Kaaka. NPP killed Kaaka. Kaaka stays in Ejura and has been on this #fixthecountry campaign. He has been talking about abandoned projects. Before he was attacked by a mob, he announced that he has been threatened by the known NPP members. He even published the threats. He was beaten by a mob.



Speaking on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Sam Pyne revealed that the deceased was indeed a member of the ruling NPP.



He also confirmed his uncordial relationship with the MCE.



He, however, shared limited information on whether or not the MCE had a hand in Kaaka's death.



Sam Pyne also refuted claims that the NPP is behind the killing and stressed the Police should be allowed to do their thorough investigations.



Confirming to host Kwami Sefa Kayi, he said, ''I know him. He is an NPP activist. I've sent him on occasions. The time we allowed the MCE to go unopposed, one of the guys who was opposing it, he was one of them; so there is the history that he and the MCE have uncordial relationship."





National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament(MP) for Ejura Sekyedumase in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Mohammed Bawa, says he is unaware that Ibrahim Mohammed, aka Macho Kaaka who was viciously attacked and later died at the hospital is a member of the pressure group, #Fixthecountry.But speaking in an interview onmorning show, "Ghana Montie", Hon Bawa pointed out that Kaaka had always been a member of the ruling party and was not too sure of his association with the pressure group as being reported.I know him to be a member of the NPP, I doubt his involvement with the #Fixthecountry group, he said.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery to conduct a public inquiry into the killing of three persons at Ejura.



The unfortunate occurrences at Ejura have caused a stir in the nation and to bring closure to the situation, the President has given 10 days to Minister to provide a detailed report on the incident.



"The Interior Minister is to provide a detailed report from the Inquiry, with recommendations for appropriate action, within ten days, i.e., by 9th July 2021, to President Akufo-Addo," a statement issued by the President's Communications Director read.



As a result of the President's directive, a three-member Committee is to be set up to hold a probe into the issue.



Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' today, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sam Pyne has urged the members of the Committee to be objective in the inquiry.



He asked them not to be moved by their biases or seek their own interest but rather establish the truth about what led to the killings of the three persons, Ibrahim Mohammed, alias Kaaka, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed.



''The Committee members should let truth prevail...A painful thing in the world is for you to be charged falsely; as for this, the Committee members should let it be far from them'', he advised.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Dotted by hilltop views and an historic city center, Frances southwestern city of Angouleme had certainly played host to a handful of live-action shoots in recent years.

But for the most part, the commune, just under 50,000 strong, had made its name as the countrys cartoonist capital, the place where Gallic scribblers go to burnish their reputation at the Intl. Comics Festival  the second largest in Europe  and maybe stuck around to work at one the three dozen animation or post-productions studios.

More from Variety

So it goes without saying that nothing quite prepared the locals for when, in late 2018, Hollywood came knocking.

Earlier that year, Wes Anderson looked toward a number of options when prepping the Cannes-debuting The French Dispatch, set in 1950s Paris and in the suitably tongue-in-cheek (and, as goes without saying, entirely fictional) commune of Ennui-sur-Blase.

Anderson nixed Nice and, for a time, considered Albi, but once Andersons eyes fixed and heart warmed on Angoulemes Old World architecture, he promptly sent a crew the likes of which few locals had ever seen into the southwest town.

With an estimated budget of $25 million, and a cast that mixed regular stalwarts Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray with Anderson newcomers Timothee Chalamet, Benicio Del Toro and Kate Winslet, The French Dispatch marked the largest-scale Hollywood shoot to hit the area since Steven Spielberg lensedscenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark in the nearby La Rochelle in the early 1980s . And even then, Spielberg and crew only stayed for four days.

Anderson and crew, however, stuck around a lot longer, descending on the hillside city in November 2018 to kick off a six-month shoot that swept many locals right into the fray.

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Everyone mobilized to host this exceptional project, says David Beauvallet, director of communications at the citys audio-visual development body, Magelis. The production recruited 80 local technicians (out of a crew of 200) and repurposed a local high school for its canteen.

The shoot became the talk of the town; while businesses kicked in supplies and locals came to gawk, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (where Angouleme is located) offered a 150,000 ($167,000) production grant. In all 2,500 residents auditioned as extras  with just under a third of them even making it into the film.

Angouleme was able to welcome a production of such international scope because for 20 years we have created and maintained a high level of activity in the field, and thus had a substantial pool of local technicians and seasoned extras [to provide], Beauvallet says.

Though the city does not have any productions of commensurate scale planned for the near future, it does hope to capitalize on its unprecedented exposure once The French Dispatch launches out of Cannes.

In the intervening years since the shoot, two local businessmen have taken a former factory that was repurposed as a soundstage and plan to develop it into a permanent production facility.

And staying true to form, 12 local cartoonists have co-authored an omnibus book, called Wes in Town, detailing their experiences on the shoot, which is due for release just in time for Cannes.

Meanwhile, Beauvallet hopes that the film might dispel certain misconceptions for Americans coming to shoot in France.

Big international productions tend to shoot in Paris, he says. They want the street scenes, the Eiffel Tower in the background, and they think it will be easier in terms of logistics, while shooting in [other parts of France] tends to worry them more.

We showed that a small town in France could host a production of such scale because we have an ecosystem already in place. We had all the technicians, production staff, and casting heads right here. And it worked out great.

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Look, we already know that, in terms of places you want to get caught in during the pandemic, the Philippines is somewhere between the Hellmouth and a cardboard box. Its a sad but undeniable fact of life, given the economys continued recession and a less-than-stellar Covid-19 response.

Its deeply disappointingbut not surprisingthat, as Bloomberg announced that its Covid Resiliency Ranking now looks ahead to post-pandemic happy times, the Philippines has fallen even lower in the rankings.

The biggest vaccination drive in history is enabling parts of the globe to abolish mask mandates, relax restrictions and dismantle border curbs, making the magnitude of reopening key to quality of life. Taming cases and deaths was once paramount, along with ensuring a robust health-care system. Now, the ability to essentially turn back the clock and return to pre-pandemic times is taking on an even greater significance, explained the articles authors, Jinshang Hong, Rachel Chang, and Kevin Varley.

India, the Philippines and some Latin America countries rank lowest amid a perfect storm of variant-driven outbreaks, slow vaccination, and global isolation, the article also reads.

This news has not pleased Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who complained in an interview with ABS-CBN that the ranking was very unfair, further adding that the criteria were skewed toward countries with high vaccination rates. Thats very unfair and I am really pissed with this kasi hindi naman tama, Duque said.

Duque also said that the Philippines was faring well in terms of factors like infection rates per population, and number of deaths. This does not appear to be tru, however. According to data published by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the Philippines is among the top 20 countries with the most deaths proportionally to the total number of cases or population. With our Covid-19 pandemic death toll at 1.74% of total infections, we are ahead of India, whose fatality rate is at 1.3%.

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Also read: Is the Philippines faring well in terms of Covid-19 deaths? Not so, says the data

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In the meantime, Senator Risa Hontiveros today expressed her own displeasure at the health secretarys reaction. I think ang dapat talagang ma-piss off ay hindi yung health secretary, pero yung ating mga mamamayan. Sisisihin pa ba natin yung Bloomberg? Hontiveros said in a different interview with ABS CBN. (I think its the people who should get pissed off, not the health secretary. Are we really going to blame Bloomberg?)

This article, Philippines ranks 52nd out of 53 countries in Bloombergs Covid Resiliency Ranking; Duque mad, Hontiveros even madder, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.
The Thai island of Phuket re-opened to tourists today (July 1) for the first time since the pandemic started and as the country battles rising numbers of Covid-19 cases. Footage shows the first holidaymakers - including a number of British people - leaving their Etihad flight from the Middle East before hitting the beach. When asked if he was happy to be here, one elderly Brit said: 'Yes, very happy'. He said he would 'see the sights of Thailand'. Ministers hope the 'sandbox' scheme - with vaccinated holidaymakers spending 14 days roaming the tropical island - will be successful and rolled out to other regions to kickstart the ailing economy. Visitors must get a 'certificate of entry' from a Thai Embassy before boarding their flights, pay for a hotel and pay for three Covid-19 swab tests as well as travel insurance and a test before leaving their home country. However, anyone who tests positive for the virus will have their holiday cut short and spend 14 days in a military-style field hospital or private hospital. The number of cases in Thailand is also rising, with 5,489 testing positive today bringing the total since early last year to 244,447 with 57 dead. Despite some optimism over the Phuket sandbox scheme, economists warned that it could be another five years before the country's tourism industry returns to pre-pandemic levels. Two years ago tourism made up an estimated 21 per cent of Thailands GDP, generating 1.8 trillion baht in revenue. However, the country's National Economic and Social Development Council predicted that it could be another five years before similar numbers are seen. Analysts said that between now and 2026, around seven million workers will continue to be affected by the economic harm from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planetalmost 3C over the last 50 years," warned the head of the UN's World Meteorological Organization.

The United Nations on Thursday recognised a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent, confirming a reading of 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) made last year.

The record heat was reached at Argentina's Esperanza research station on the Antarctic Peninsula on February 6, 2020, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said.

"Verification of this maximum temperature record is important because it helps us to build up a picture of the weather and climate in one of Earth's final frontiers," said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.

"The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planetalmost 3C over the last 50 years.

"This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing."

The WMO rejected an even higher temperature reading of 20.75C (69.4F), reported on February 9 last year at a Brazilian automated permafrost monitoring station on the nearby Seymour Island, just off the peninsula which stretches north towards South America.

The previous verified record for the Antarctic continentthe mainland and its surrounding islandswas 17.5C (63.5F) recorded at Esperanza on March 24, 2015.

The record for the wider Antarctic regioneverywhere south of 60 degrees latitudeis 19.8C (67.6F), taken on Signy Island on January 30, 1982.

Verification process

In checking the two reported new temperature records, a WMO committee reviewed the weather situation on the peninsula at the time.

It found that a large high-pressure system created downslope winds producing significant local surface warming.

Past evaluations have shown that such conditions are conducive for producing record temperatures, the WMO said.

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed a record high temperature for Antarctica at the Esperanza Base on February 6, 2020.

The experts looked at the instrumental set-ups and the data, finding no concerns at Esperanza.

However, an improvised radiation shield at the Brazilian station on Seymour Island led to a demonstrable thermal bias error for the permafrost monitor's air temperature sensor, making its reading ineligible to be signed off as an official WMO weather observation.

The new record at Esperanza will be added to the WMO's archive of weather and climate extremes.

The archive includes the world's highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hailstone, longest dry period, maximum gust of wind, longest lightning flash and weather-related mortalities.

The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was minus 89.2C (minus 128.6F) recorded at Vostok station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983.

Global warming concerns

Antarctica's average annual temperature ranges from about minus 10C (14F) on the coast to minus 60C (minus 76F) at the highest parts of the interior.

"Even more so than the Arctic, the Antarctic is poorly covered in terms of continuous and sustained weather and climate observations and forecasts, even though both play an important role in driving climate and ocean patterns and in sea level rise," said Taalas.

The Earth's average surface temperature has gone up by 1C since the 19th century, enough to increase the intensity of droughts, heat waves and tropical cyclones.

But the air over Antarctica has warmed more than twice that much.

Recent research has shown that warming of two degrees Celsius could push the melting of ice sheets atop Greenland and the West Antarcticwith enough frozen water to lift oceans 13 metres (43 feet)past a point of no return.

"This new record shows once again that climate change requires urgent measures," said WMO first vice president Celeste Saulo, the head of Argentina's national weather service.

"It is essential to continue strengthening the observing, forecasting and early warning systems to respond to the extreme events that take place more and more often due to global warming."

Explore further Antarctica registers record temperature of over 20 C

 2021 AFP
Researchers in Japan have designed a technique that can make point mutations to the DNA of plant chloroplasts without leaving any of the genetic engineering technology behind to be inherited by future generations. Their proof-of-concept experiments published in Nature Plants successfully demonstrated that new or more robust crops could be created without requiring a GMO food label. The image is a photo of paper quilling art. Green represents the internal structures of chloroplasts. White represents chloroplast DNA. The letter C is highlighted for editing (with scissors) because the ptpTALECD enzyme makes point mutations by turning specific GC pairs in the DNA code into AT pairs.Image by Hiroko Uchida CC BY-SA 4.0, http://uchidahiroko.com/works-s.html. Credit: Hiroko Uchida CC BY-SA 4.0, http://uchidahiroko.com/works-s.html

Breeding better crops through genetic engineering has been possible for decades, but the use of genetically modified plants has been limited by technical challenges and popular controversies. A new approach potentially solves both of those problems by modifying the energy-producing parts of plant cells and then removing the DNA editing tool so it cannot be inherited by future seeds. The technique was recently demonstrated through proof-of-concept experiments published in the journal Nature Plants by geneticists at the University of Tokyo.

"Now we've got a way to modify chloroplast genes specifically and measure their potential to make a good plant," said Associate Professor Shin-ichi Arimura, who leads the group that performed the research.

Chloroplasts, the parts of plant cells that convert carbon dioxide and sunlight into sugar, possess their own circular DNA that is made of the same ATGC-code as the double helix DNA in the nucleus of the cell. However, chloroplast DNA is maintained and inherited completely separately from nuclear DNA. Every cell can contain multiple chloroplasts, each with many identical copies of the chloroplast DNA. The same change must be made in every copy of chloroplast DNA if any genome editing is to have a noticeable effect that can be inherited by the plant's offspring.

In the 1990s, experts invented a technique to insert new DNA fragments into chloroplast genomes, but it also inserts extra genetic tags or markers.

The goal of Arimura and his colleagues is to make uniform, inheritable modifications to only specific parts of chloroplast DNA without leaving genome editing tools behind or permanently altering nuclear DNA. They started with an existing tool known as TALENs. The original TALENs use a large protein that recognizes specific short DNA sequences and cuts that DNA with an enzyme. In recent years, other research groups have improved TALEN technology: the DNA recognition sequences can be customized and the DNA cutting enzyme can be replaced with an enzyme that changes GC pairs in the DNA code into AT pairs.

These GC to AT changes are subtlejust changing one point of the DNA code to another, rather than inserting or deleting whole genes. However, point mutations can have major effects depending on their location.

Arimura's team combined these TALEN improvements and added an extra "chloroplast-targeting" component, calling their finalized version ptpTALECDs. For every genome edit that researchers wanted to make, they needed to build a matching left and right pair of ptpTALECDs in bacteria. The design process is complicated because the pairs of large TALENs proteins and the chloroplast-targeting signals must be expressed simultaneously as a single unit from the nuclear DNA.

"Building the ptpTALECDs was an extremely laborious process, but we have a very dedicated master's degree student who did almost all the work, Issei Nakazato," said Arimura. Nakazato is the first author of the research publication.

After designing the ptpTALECDs DNA sequence, researchers then inserted it into Arabidopsis thaliana plants, a species of thale cress common in research laboratories. The UTokyo researchers are confident that after building them, the ptpTALECDs could be inserted into many crop species because that part of the process is a straightforward and standard procedure in agriculture and botany labs.

The ptpTALECDs enter the plants' nuclei and then the cells produce ptpTALECDs in the same way they produce any other protein. The chloroplast-targeting sequence ensures that the finished ptpTALECD proteins are shuttled out of the nucleus into the chloroplasts where they then are expected to edit every chloroplast genome they encounter.

This first generation plants are considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because their nuclear DNA has been permanently altered to contain the ptpTALECD sequence.

When these genetically modified plants reproduce with themselves through self-fertilization or with nonmodified (wild-type) plants, the next generation of plants inherits nuclear DNA in the normal way, meaning genes are mixed and matched between the ovules and pollen. Some seeds inherit the ptpTALECD sequence and other seeds do not.

However, plants always inherit their chloroplasts whole and intact through their "mothers," the ovules. So regardless of what nuclear DNA the next generation of plants inherits, if their female parent plant had modified chloroplasts, the next generation will always inherit modified chloroplasts.

Researchers then search the offspring to find plants that did not inherit edited nuclear DNA, but did inherit modified chloroplasts. These members of the second generation of plants and any of their future offspring can be considered non-GMO end products because their nuclear DNA contains none of the ptpTALECDs' genetic engineering machinery.

Legal definitions vary, but broadly speaking, countries either assess the end product or the process when deciding to label an organism as a GMO. By end-product definitions used in Japan and the U.S., plants produced with this technique are not GMOs. However, the same plants are GMOs under process based-definitions used in the European Union.

So far, Arimura's team proved their system works by editing three chloroplast genes and observing the expected effects in the offspring plants.

"Chloroplast DNA encodes less than 1% of the total genetic material in a plant, but it has a very important effect on photosynthesis, and therefore the health of the plant. Hopefully, this method will be useful in fundamental research and applied agriculture," said Arimura.

Researchers are optimistic that the fact that none of the genetic engineering tools are inherited by future generations and that the method only makes point mutations will ensure that the method will be used to breed better crops that are accepted by farmers and consumers.

Explore further Ion transporters in chloroplasts affect the efficacy of photosynthesis

More information: Targeted base editing in the plastid genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, Nature Plants (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41477-021-00954-6 Journal information: Nature Plants Targeted base editing in the plastid genome of Arabidopsis thaliana,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-021-00954-6
Artists concept of NASAs WISE spacecraft, which was an infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope active from December 2009 to February 2011. In September 2013 the spacecraft was assigned a new mission as NEOWISE to help find near-Earth asteroids and comets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NEOWISE has provided an estimate of the size of over 1,850 near-Earth objects, helping us better understand our nearest solar system neighbors.

For two more years, NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) will continue its hunt for asteroids and cometsincluding objects that could pose a hazard to Earth. This mission extension means NASA's prolific near-Earth object (NEO) hunting space telescope will continue operations until June 2023.

"At NASA, we're always looking up, surveying the sky daily to find potential hazards and exploring asteroids to help unlock the secrets of the formation of our solar system," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Using ground-based telescopes, over 26,000 near-Earth asteroids have already been discovered, but there are many more to be found. We'll enhance our observations with space-based capabilities like NEOWISE and the future, much more capable NEO Surveyor to find the remaining unknown asteroids more quickly and identify potentially-hazardous asteroids and comets before they are a threat to us here on Earth."

Originally launched as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission in December 2009, the space telescope surveyed the entire sky in infrared wavelengths, detecting asteroids, dim stars, and some of the faintest galaxies visible in deep space. WISE completed its primary mission when it depleted its cryogenic coolant and it was put into hibernation in February 2011. Observations resumed in December 2013 when the space telescope was repurposed by NASA's Planetary Science Division as "NEOWISE" to identify asteroids and comets throughout the solar system, with special attention to those that pass close to Earth's orbit.

"NEOWISE provides a unique and critical capability in our global mission of planetary defense, by allowing us to rapidly measure the infrared emission and more accurately estimate the size of hazardous asteroids as they are discovered," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer and head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Extending NEOWISE's mission highlights not only the important work that is being done to safeguard our planet, but also the valuable science that is being collected about the asteroids and comets further out in space."

Comet NEOWISE  which was discovered on March 27, 2020, by NASAs Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission  was captured on July 6, 2020, above the northeast horizon in this image just before sunrise in Tucson, Arizona. Credit: Vishnu Reddy

As asteroids are heated by the Sun, they warm up and release this heat as faint infrared radiation. By studying this infrared signature, scientists can reveal the size of an asteroid and compare it to the measurements of observations made by optical telescopes on the ground. This information can help us understand how reflective its surface is while also providing clues as to its composition.

To date, NEOWISE has provided an estimate of the size of over 1,850 NEOs, helping us better understand our nearest solar system neighbors. As of March 2021, the mission had made 1,130,000 confirmed infrared observations of approximately 39,100 objects throughout the solar system since its restart in 2013. Mission data is shared freely by the IPAC/Caltech-led archive, and the data has contributed to over 1,600 peer-reviewed studies. The University of Arizona is also a key partner of the NEOWISE mission as the home institution of the NEOWISE principal investigator, Amy Mainzer, who is a professor of planetary science at the University's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Among its many accomplishments after its reactivation, NEOWISE also discovered Comet NEOWISE, which was named after the mission and dazzled observers worldwide in 2020.

NEOWISE's replacement, the next-generation NEO Surveyor, is currently scheduled to launch in 2026, and will greatly expand on what we have learned, and continue to learn, from NEOWISE.

"NEOWISE has taught us a lot about how to find, track, and characterize Earth-approaching asteroids and comets using a space-based infrared telescope," said Mainzer. "The mission serves as an important precursor for carrying out a more comprehensive search for these objects using the new telescope we're building, the NEO Surveyor." Mainzer is also the lead of the NEO Surveyor mission.

Explore further NEOWISE celebrates five years of asteroid data
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

New research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year, suggests that people with COVID-19 frequently pass it on to their pets. Cats that sleep on their owner's bed seem to be at particular risk of infection.

Previous studies have shown that cats and dogs can catch COVID-19 from their owners but it wasn't clear how susceptible they were and what, if anything, increased their odds of becoming infected. Answering these questions is important from both a public health and animal health point of view.

To find out more, Dorothee Bienzle, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues studied cats and dogs of people who had had COVID-19.

The animals, 48 cats and 54 dogs from 77 households, were tested for antibodies to COVID-19a sign of past infection. Their owners were surveyed about how they interacted with their pets, including whether they petted them and kissed them and allowed them to sit on their lap or sleep in their bed. They were also asked if they allowed their pet to kiss them or lick them on the face and how long they spent with their pet each day.

Other questions included whether their pet had become ill around the time they had COVID-19 and what sort of symptoms the animal had.

75 dogs and cats living in an animal shelter and 75 stray cats that had been seen at a low-cost veterinary clinic were also tested for antibodies.

67% (32/48) of the owned cats and 43% (23/54) of the owned dogs tested positive for antibodies, showing they had had COVID-19. This compares to just 9% (7/75) of dogs and cats from the animal shelter and 3% (2/75) of the stray cats.

20% (11/54) of the dogs had symptoms, mainly lack of energy and loss of appetite. Some animals had a cough or diarrhoea, however all symptoms were mild and quickly cleared up.

27% (13/48) of the cats had symptoms, with a runny nose and difficulty breathing the most common signs of COVID-19. Although most cases were mild, three were severe.

The amount of time an owner spent with their dog and the type of contact they had with them did not affect the animal's chance of getting infected.

Cats that spent more time with their owners, however, seemed to be at higher risk of infection. And cats that slept on their owner's bed were more likely to have COVID-19.

The study's authors say that cats' biology, including their viral receptors, the "locks" the virus unpicks to enter cells, make them more susceptible to COVID-19 than dogs. Cats are also more likely to sleep near their owner's face than dogs, increasing their exposure to any infection.

They add that the higher rate of infection in animals with owners than in those from the shelter and the strays, coupled with results of previous genetic studies, means that the most likely route of transmission is from human to pet, rather than the other way round.

Professor Bienzle concludes: "If someone has COVID-19 there is a surprisingly high chance they will pass it on to their pet. Cats, especially those that sleep on their owner's bed, seem to be particularly vulnerable. So, if you have COVID-19, I'd advise that you keep your distance from your petand keep it out of your bedroom.

"I'd also recommend that you keep your pet away from other people and pets. While the evidence that pets can pass the virus on to other pets is limited, it can't be excluded. Similarly, although pets have not been shown to pass the virus back to people, the possibility can't be completely ruled out."

Explore further Study suggests substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs are infected with SARS-CoV-2 by their owners

Provided by European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
The Dolichomitus meii wasp was discovered in western Amazonia. Its body looks black but glitters electric blue in light. The wasp lays its eggs on insect larvae living deep in wood. It reaches the host larvae with a long ovipositor. Credit: Filippo De Giovanni and Rodrigo Araujo

Researchers at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku, Finland, study insect biodiversity particularly in Amazonia and Africa. In their studies, they have discovered hundreds of species previously unknown to science. Many of them are exciting in their size, appearance, or living habits.

"The species we have discovered show what magnificent surprises the Earth's rainforests can contain. The newly discovered Dolichomitus meii wasp is particularly interesting for its large size and unique coloring. With a quick glance, its body looks black but glitters electric blue in light. Moreover, its wings are golden yellow. Therefore, you could say it's like a flying jewel," says Postdoctoral Researcher Diego Padua from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA) in Brazil, who has also worked at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

Dolichomitus parasitoid wasps are parasitic on insect larvae living deep in tree trunks. They lay a single egg on the insect larva and the wasp hatchling eats the host larva as it develops.

"The ovipositor of the Dolichomitus meii wasp is immensely long. It sticks the ovipositor into holes in the wood and tries to find host larvae inside. The species' striking coloring protects it from birds that prey on insects. They do not snatch the wasp sitting on the tree trunk as they think it will taste bad or that it is dangerous," says Professor of Biodiversity Research Ilari E. Saaksjarvi from the University of Turku.

Polysphincta parasitoid wasps manipulate the behavior of the host spider

At the same time as the publication on the Dolichomitus meii species, the researchers published another research article on South American wasp species. The article describes altogether seven new wasp species belonging to the Polysphincta genus.

The name Polysphincta bonita refers to the species beautiful appearance. The species is parasitic on spiders. Credit: Diego Padua and Ilari E. Saaksjarvi

The Polysphincta parasitoid wasps are parasitic on spiders. The female attacks a spider in its web and temporarily paralyzes it with a venomous sting. After this, the wasp lays a single egg on the spider, and a larva hatches from the egg. The larva gradually consumes the spider and eventually pupates.

"The wasps that are parasitic on spiders are extremely interesting as many of them can manipulate the behavior of the host spider. They can change the way a spider spins its web, so that before its death, the spider does not spin a normal web to catch prey. Instead, they spin a safe nest for the parasitoid wasp pupa," describes Professor Saaksjarvi..

Researchers at University of Turku have already discovered 53 new species this year

The new species are often discovered through extensive international collaboration. This was also the case with the newly published studies.

"For example, the discovery of the Dolichomitus meii species was an effort of six researchers. Moreover, these researchers all come from different countries," says Professor Saaksjarvi.

The work to map out biodiversity previously unknown to science continues at the University of Turku and there are interesting species discoveries ahead.

"I just counted that, in 2021, the researchers of the Biodiversity Unit at the University of Turku have described already 53 new species from different parts of the globeand we're only halfway through the year," Saaksjarvi announces cheerfully.

Explore further Parasitoid wasp species discovered in the Amazon can manipulate host's behavior

More information: Filippo Di Giovanni et al, A striking new species of Dolichomitus Smith, 1877 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae; Pimplinae) from South America, Biodiversity Data Journal (2021). Filippo Di Giovanni et al, A striking new species of Dolichomitus Smith, 1877 (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae; Pimplinae) from South America,(2021). DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e67438 Diego G. Padua et al, A review of the spider-attacking Polysphincta dizardi species-group (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Pimplinae), with descriptions of seven new species from South America, ZooKeys (2021). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1041.65407 Journal information: Biodiversity Data Journal , ZooKeys
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

This year, billions of Brood X cicadas emerged in the United States and generated quite a buzz, according to environmental experts. They also prompted questions about whether they are safe to eat, and who would want to eat them.

It's safe for most people to eat insects, including cicadas, said Margaret Slavin, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies in George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services.

"Cicadas and other insects contain high-quality protein," said Slavin. "Insects are generally considered to be good sources of protein, fiber, and minerals. They are commonly eaten in other places around the world for their nutritional qualities and their taste."

Tweets from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) point out that eating too much of the exoskeleton can be irritating or even a choking hazard. Also, the FDA cautions that people with seafood allergies shouldn't eat cicadas because they might also be allergic to insects.

Sapna Batheja, term assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, agrees, noting that the insects share a family relationship with shrimp and lobsters.

Batheja said the insects are harmful to dogs if they are consumed in large quantities, and may cause stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, and poor appetite.

Batheja also had some guidelines for human consumption of cicadas.

"To cook cicadas, it is recommended to freeze them first to kill them humanely," said Batheja. "The next step would be to cook them by either grilling, roasting, frying or boiling them."

Batheja and Slavin said cicadas can be a healthy food alternative.

"The teneral [post-molting] and nymph stages are ideal for eating; however, these are short-lived phases of the cicada," said Batheja. "You can eat a full-grown adult cicada, although there is a higher risk that they will be infected with a fungus. Pesticides may also be a concern, but you can gather cicadas from a place that has not been treated with fertilizer or chemicals."

Restaurants that serve cicada-inspired meals are "a great way for individuals who are curious about their taste to try them without having to experiment with catching and cooking them themselves," said Batheja. "Some individuals describe the flavor of cicadas as nutty, with a hint of asparagus taste to it. Others proclaim that they do not have a ton of flavor, so you can add different spices, flavorings or sauces."

Slavin added that insects are considered a more environmentally sustainable source of protein than livestock like cows, pigs, chickens.

According to Batheja, "there was a push in 2013 by the United Nations to promote insects as an inexpensive and sustainable protein source, and there are a variety of bug powders and snacks that have been on the market over the past several years."

"Eating cicadas once every 17 years won't solve our current challenges surrounding food security and sustainability," said Slavin, "but the novelty of it may help to educate people about edible insects being a possible way for us to address these important issues of our time."
The study looked at the Wandel Sea north of Greenland, which is inside what's known as the "Last Ice Area" of the Arctic Ocean. Credit: Schweiger et al./Communications Earth & Environment

In a rapidly changing Arctic, one area might serve as a refugea place that could continue to harbor ice-dependent species when conditions in nearby areas become inhospitable. This region north of Greenland and the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has been termed the Last Ice Area. But research led by the University of Washington suggests that parts of this area are already showing a decline in summer sea ice.

Last August, sea ice north of Greenland showed its vulnerability to the long-term effects of climate change, according to a study published July 1 in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment.

"Current thinking is that this area may be the last refuge for ice-dependent species. So if, as our study shows, it may be more vulnerable to climate change than people have been assuming, that's important," said lead author Axel Schweiger, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

How the last ice-covered regions will fare matters for polar bears that use the ice to hunt for seals that use the ice for building dens for their young, and for walruses that use the ice as a platform for foraging.

"This area has long been expected to be the primary refuge for ice-dependent species because it is one of the last places where we expect summer sea ice to survive in the Arctic," said co-author Kristin Laidre, a principal scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

The study focused on sea ice in August 2020 in the Wandel Sea, an area that used to be covered year-round in thick, multi-year ice.

A polar bear is perched on a thick chunk of sea ice north of Greenland in March 2016. These thicker, older pieces of sea ice don't fully protect the larger region from losing its summer ice cover. Credit: Kristin Laidre/University of Washington

"Sea ice circulates through the Arctic, it has a particular pattern, and it naturally ends up piling up against Greenland and the northern Canadian coast," Schweiger said. "In climate models, when you spin them forward over the coming century, that area has the tendency to have ice survive in the summer the longest."

Like other parts of the Arctic Ocean, the ice here has been gradually thinning, though last spring's sea ice in the Wandel Sea was on average slightly thicker than previous years. But satellite images showed a record low of just 50% sea ice concentration on Aug. 14, 2020.

The new study uses satellite data and sea ice models to determine what caused last summer's record low. It finds that about 80% was due to weather-related factors, like winds that break up and move the ice around. The other 20%, or one-fifth, was from the longer-term thinning of the sea ice due to global warming.

The model simulated the period from June 1 to Aug. 16 and found that unusual winds moved sea ice out of the area, but that the multiyear thinning trend also contributed, by allowing more sunlight to warm the ocean. Then, when winds picked up, this warm water was able to melt the nearby ice floes.

The record-low ice concentration in 2020 was surprising because the average ice thickness at the beginning of summer was actually close to normal.

This photo of sea ice on the Wandel Sea north of Greenland was taken Aug. 16, 2020, from the German icebreaker Polarstern, which passed through the area as part of the year-long MOSAiC Expedition. This area used to remain fully covered in ice throughout the year. Satellite images show that Aug. 14, 2020, was a record low sea ice concentration for this region, at 50%. Credit: Felix Linhardt/Kiel University

"During the winter and spring of 2020 you had patches of older, thicker ice that had drifted into there, but there was enough thinner, newer ice that melted to expose open ocean," Schweiger said. "That began a cycle of absorbing heat energy to melt more ice, in spite of the fact that there was some thick ice. So in years where you replenish the ice cover in this region with older and thicker ice, that doesn't seem to help as much as you might expect."

The results raise concerns about the Last Ice Area but can't immediately be applied to the entire region, Schweiger said. Also unknown is how more open water in this region would affect ice-dependent species over the short and long terms.

"We know very little about marine mammals in the Last Ice Area," said Laidre, who is also an associate professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "We have almost no historical or present-day data, and the reality is that there are a lot more questions than answers about the future of these populations."

Explore further Sudden stratospheric warming linked to open water in polar ice pack

More information: Accelerated sea ice loss in the Wandel Sea points to a change in the Arctic's Last Ice Area, Communications Earth & Environment, DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00197-5 , www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00197-5 Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment Accelerated sea ice loss in the Wandel Sea points to a change in the Arctic's Last Ice Area,
Spotted lanternfly hatchlings emerge from egg cells on an Ailanthus altissima tree. New hatchlings are initially white in color before their exoskeletons harden and turn black in color. Credit: Erica Smyers

Research conducted by scientists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has led to the creation of an online tool that can help predict seasonal egg hatch for spotted lanternflies.

The spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect from Asia, was discovered in North America in Berks County in 2014. The pest since has spread to at least 34 Pennsylvania counties. It also has become established in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.

PestWatch uses weather records available for specific dates and durations to provide an estimate of first instar emergence based on current temperature conditions, noted lead researcher Erica Smyers, a doctoral candidate in entomology.

The tool allows users to zero in on a geographic region to view the probability of egg hatch for that location based on the weather conditions experienced there to the present date. The hatch percentage is displayed using color gradients ranging from light yellow representing zero hatches to dark burgundy for 100% hatch.

As of June 30, this map shows primarily burgundy throughout the country, meaning that in any area where lanternfly might be present, sufficient heat has accumulated for the eggs to have hatched.

"The spotted lanternfly poses a significant threat to Pennsylvania agriculture, landscapes and natural ecosystemsincluding the grape, hardwood and nursery industriesas well as to outdoor recreation, backyard enjoyment and biodiversity," Smyers said. "Having a better idea of when eggs will hatch can help with control tactics to reduce the number of first-instar nymphs."

Citizens and the agricultural industry can use this tool, which is located at stopSLF.org under "resources," to make decisions about timing and management strategies, she pointed out. Government agencies, university researchers and extension professionals also should find it helpful in their monitoring and surveillance efforts.

Smyers explained that there are maximum and minimum temperatures that govern insect growth. These thresholds differ between species and even can vary within a species when a population adapts to a specific geographic location to survive in its environmental conditions. The insects must accumulate a certain amount of heat from their environment before transitioning to their next life stage.

An insect's temperature thresholds can be determined through controlled-temperature laboratory experiments. Scientists can use these thresholds to estimate the amount of heat unitscalled growing degree daysthat an insect needs to transition to the next phase of life, noted Smyers, who worked under the guidance of Julie Urban, associate research professor of entomology, and Dennis Calvin, an entomologist who also is a former associate dean and director of special programs in the college.

A tray of spotted lanternfly egg masses during the constant temperature study. Sets of 30 egg masses were placed inside temperature-controlled environmental chambers to study the effects of constant temperature on egg developmental rate. Credit: Erica Smyers

Similar growing degree day models are used by growers to predict the timing of the development of their crops.

"We wanted to see how the minimum, or base temperature, for spotted lanternfly egg development in Pennsylvania populations compared with those in South Korea, where the insect also is an invasive," she said. "We then could use this information, along with observed hatch data from field sites at different geographic locations, to create a model for predicting hatch over time and space."

The experiments, the findings of which were published in Environmental Entomology, took place from 2016 through 2019 in a quarantine research lab at Penn State's University Park campus and at a residential property in Oley, Pennsylvania.

The homeowners, Tracy and Chris Kolb, had been dealing with spotted lanternflies on their property for some time. Not only did they agree to allow Smyers to conduct her research in their backyard, but they also invited her to stay at their home while conducting her studies.

"My stay with the Kolbs was one of the most memorable experiences of my student career," Smyers said. "I would wake up every morning and spend the day in the woods behind their home, counting newly hatched nymphs on egg masses. For an entomologist, it could not be better."

During these field studies, which spanned three months in the spring of 2017, Smyers observed 112 marked egg masses every one to two days throughout May and every three to six days in June for the emergence of first-instar nymphs. She recorded the number of new hatchlings on an egg mass and open egg cells for each sampling interval. Temperature loggers took readings every hour.

In the controlled lab studies, Smyers evaluated sets of 30 individual egg masses at five constant temperatures of 67, 76, 77, 80 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. After placing the egg masses in incubation chambers, the entomologists monitored the temperature and humidity conditions. The researchers inspected the chambers regularly for newly emerged first-instar nymphs to determine the days to hatch for the entire population.

Smyers found that the egg developmental rate increased as the constant temperature increased in the laboratory experiments. When compared to similar experiments performed by researchers in South Korea, the individual studies resulted in different minimum temperatures; however, the egg developmental rates were not statistically different.

"That meant we were able to combine the data from the different studies to determine an average model and minimum temperature value to describe the relationship between temperature and the rate of egg development," said Smyers.

By combining results from the lab experiments with her field experiment, Smyers constructed a model for predicting percentage of hatch. A research group from Virginia Tech verified the use of the model through hatch observations in Winchester, Virginia, in 2019.

Explore further Researchers study lanternfly's potential to harm grapevines
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

As the COVID-19 pandemic exploded across the globe in early 2020, the world's leaders were faced with a flurry of tough moral dilemmas. Should schools and businesses shut down, and if so, for how long? Who should receive scarce resources, such as ventilators, when there wouldn't be enough for everyone? Should people be required to practice contact tracing to control the spread of infection? Should life-saving medicine be held for a country's own citizens or shared with those in greater need?

Some global leaders advocated for a utilitarian approach to these dilemmas: impartially maximizing the greatest good for the greatest number of people, even if that would come at the cost of harming a minority of the population. Utilitarianism, however, is a controversial way of making moral decisions and those who use this approach might not be viewed as trustworthy.

In a new study, Molly Crockett, an associate professor of psychology at Yale, examined whether people trust leaders who make utilitarian decisions during a pandemic. To find out, she and her co-first authorsYale's Clara Colombatto and the University of Kent's Jim Everettassembled a multidisciplinary team of 37 international researchers to study people's trust in leaders around the globe. In a series of online experiments conducted as cases surged late in 2020, the team asked nearly 24,000 people in 22 countries whether the endorsement or rejection of utilitarian policies impacted their trust in leaders.

The results, published July 1 in the journal Nature Human Behavior, show people had a nuanced view when judging the policy decisions of leaders. People tended to trust utilitarian leaders who sought to save the most lives around the globe, rather than favoring their own citizens. But they were far less willing to trust those whose policy decisions would sacrifice the well-being of some for the benefit of others.

For instance, a shortage of ventilators led some leaders to propose reserving them for younger people more likely to survive a severe case of COVID-19. People tended to distrust leaders who accepted this form of utilitarianism, known as instrumental harm. However, they bestowed more trust in those who would share scarce medicine in regions globally where it is most needed, an aspect of utilitarianism called impartial beneficence.

The results were consistent across the countries studied, which included Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

These patterns held regardless of whether or not people personally agreed with the leader's policy decision. "People do prefer leaders who agree with them on policies, but even after we control for individual policy preferences, people generally trust leaders who endorse impartial beneficence and distrust leaders who accept instrumental harm," said Colombatto, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology.

Everett concluded, "When communicating during a crisis, leaders should be aware that utilitarian approaches to moral dilemmas can both erode and enhance trusteven when the leaders themselves doesn't have the power to resolve them."

Pandemic choices: Do you trust leaders who make these?

Researchers asked almost 24,000 people in 22 countries to read about moral dilemmas leaders faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two examples of those tough moral choices are below. After learning about the leaders' decisions, respondents were asked to rate how trustworthy they thought those leaders were, and to make decisions about whether to trust each leader with control of a group's financial resources. Subjects were also asked whether they would vote for a leader who took a particular policy position.

A demonstration of the trust rating survey is available here:

https://yalesurvey.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ekzXerwo4NHMzyK

Medicine Dilemma

Non-Utilitarian Leader

Imagine that the mayor of a major city in your region is arguing that U.S.-made medicine should be reserved for treating American citizens.

This mayor said, "We have a right to use our own resources to help our own citizens before everyone else. Other countries can produce their own treatments for COVID-19."

Average self-reported trust: 3.93 out of 7; votes: 38.93%

Utilitarian Leader

Imagine that the mayor of a major city in your region is arguing that U.S.-made medicine should be given to whoever needs it most, even if that means sending it to other countries.

This mayor said, "COVID-19 is a global pandemic that affects all humans equally. We need to be impartial and send treatment where it can achieve the greatest good."

Average self-reported trust: 4.57 out of 7; votes: 61.07%

Ventilators Dilemma

Non-Utilitarian Leader

Imagine that the mayor of a major city in your region is arguing that doctors should give everyone equal access to COVID treatment.

This mayor said, :It's not our place to choose who lives. Everyone has the same right to receive equal access to treatment, and we cannot abandon our most vulnerable in an effort to save more lives."

Average self-reported trust: 5.41 out of 7; votes: 85.15%

Utilitarian Leader

Imagine that the mayor of a major city in your region is arguing that younger and healthier people should be prioritized for COVID treatment.

This mayor said, "We have to think about how we can do the most good with the resources we have, and that means prioritizing those people who have the best chance of recovering and living a long and healthy life."

Average self-reported trust: 2.97 out of 7; votes: 14.85%

Explore further Anxieties about side-effects and perceived trial uncertainties driving vaccine hesitancy
This infographic outlines the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Click to explore in full size. Credit: NASA

The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Combined data from three NASA satellites have produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling and contracting. Scientists have long predicted this effect of human-driven climate change, but it has been difficult to observe the trends over time.

"You need several decades to get a handle on these trends and isolate what's happening due to greenhouse gas emissions, solar cycle changes, and other effects," said Scott Bailey, an atmospheric scientist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and lead of the study, published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. "We had to put together three satellites' worth of data."

Together, the satellites provided about 30 years of observations, indicating that the summer mesosphere over Earth's poles is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and contracting 500 to 650 feet per decade. Without changes in human carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers expect these rates to continue.

Since the mesosphere is much thinner than the part of the atmosphere we live in, the impacts of increasing greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, differ from the warming we experience at the surface. One researcher compared where we live, the troposphere, to a thick quilt.

"Down near Earth's surface, the atmosphere is thick," said James Russell, a study co-author and atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Virginia. "Carbon dioxide traps heat just like a quilt traps your body heat and keeps you warm." In the lower atmosphere, there are plenty of molecules in close proximity, and they easily trap and transfer Earth's heat between each other, maintaining that quilt-like warmth.

That means little of Earth's heat makes it to the higher, thinner mesosphere. There, molecules are few and far between. Since carbon dioxide also efficiently emits heat, any heat captured by carbon dioxide sooner escapes to space than it finds another molecule to absorb it. As a result, an increase in greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide means more heat is lost to spaceand the upper atmosphere cools. When air cools, it contracts, the same way a balloon shrinks if you put it in the freezer.

This cooling and contracting didn't come as a surprise. For years, "models have been showing this effect," said Brentha Thurairajah, a Virginia Tech atmospheric scientist who contributed to the study. "It would have been weirder if our analysis of the data didn't show this."

While previous studies have observed this cooling, none have used a data record of this length or shown the upper atmosphere contracting. The researchers say these new results boost their confidence in our ability to model the upper atmosphere's complicated changes.

These AIM images span June 6-June 18, 2021, when the Northern Hemisphere noctilucent cloud season was well underway. The colors  from dark blue to light blue and bright white  indicate the clouds albedo, which refers to the amount of light that a surface reflects compared to the total sunlight that falls upon it. Things that have a high albedo are bright and reflect a lot of light. Things that dont reflect much light have a low albedo, and they are dark. Credit: NASA/HU/VT/CU-LASP/AIM/Joy Ng

The team analyzed how temperature and pressure changed over 29 years, using all three data sets, which covered the summer skies of the North and South Poles. They examined the stretch of sky 30 to 60 miles above the surface. At most altitudes, the mesosphere cooled as carbon dioxide increased. That effect meant the height of any given atmospheric pressure fell as the air cooled. In other words, the mesosphere was contracting.

Earth's Middle Atmosphere

Though what happens in the mesosphere does not directly impact humans, the region is an important one. The upper boundary of the mesosphere, about 50 miles above Earth, is where the coolest atmospheric temperatures are found. It's also where the neutral atmosphere begins transitioning to the tenuous, electrically charged gases of the ionosphere.

Even higher up, 150 miles above the surface, atmospheric gases cause satellite drag, the friction that tugs satellites out of orbit. Satellite drag also helps clear space junk. When the mesosphere contracts, the rest of the upper atmosphere above sinks with it. As the atmosphere contracts, satellite drag may waneinterfering less with operating satellites, but also leaving more space junk in low-Earth orbit.

The mesosphere is also known for its brilliant blue ice clouds. They're called noctilucent or polar mesospheric clouds, so named because they live in the mesosphere and tend to huddle around the North and South Poles. The clouds form in summer, when the mesosphere has all three ingredients to produce the clouds: water vapor, very cold temperatures, and dust from meteors that burn up in this part of the atmosphere. Noctilucent clouds were spotted over northern Canada on May 20, kicking off the start of the Northern Hemisphere's noctilucent cloud season.

Because the clouds are sensitive to temperature and water vapor, they're a useful signal of change in the mesosphere. "We understand the physics of these clouds," Bailey said. In recent decades, the clouds have drawn scientists' attention because they're behaving oddly. They're getting brighter, drifting farther from the poles, and appearing earlier than usual. And, there seem to be more of them than in years past.

"The only way you would expect them to change this way is if the temperature is getting colder and water vapor is increasing," Russell said. Colder temperatures and abundant water vapor are both linked with climate change in the upper atmosphere.

Currently, Russell serves as principal investigator for AIM, short for Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, the newest satellite of the three that contributed data to the study. Russell has served as a leader on all three NASA missions: AIM, the instrument SABER on TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics), and the instrument HALOE on the since-retired UARS (Upper Atmospherics Research Satellite).

TIMED and AIM launched in 2001 and 2007, respectively, and both are still operating. The UARS mission ran from 1991 to 2005. "I always had in my mind that we would be able to put them together in a long-term change study," Russell said. The study, he said, demonstrates the importance of long-term, space-based observations across the globe.

In the future, the researchers expect more striking displays of noctilucent clouds that stray farther from the poles. Because this analysis focused on the poles at summertime, Bailey said he plans to examine these effects over longer periods of time andfollowing the cloudsstudy a wider stretch of the atmosphere.

Explore further NASA's AIM spots first Arctic noctilucent clouds of the season
Physicists at MIT and elsewhere have used gravitational waves to observationally confirm Hawkings black hole area theorem for the first time. This computer simulation shows the collision of two black holes that produced the gravitational wave signal, GW150914. Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) project. Courtesy of LIGO

There are certain rules that even the most extreme objects in the universe must obey. A central law for black holes predicts that the area of their event horizonsthe boundary beyond which nothing can ever escapeshould never shrink. This law is Hawking's area theorem, named after physicist Stephen Hawking, who derived the theorem in 1971.

Fifty years later, physicists at MIT and elsewhere have now confirmed Hawking's area theorem for the first time, using observations of gravitational waves. Their results appear today in Physical Review Letters.

In the study, the researchers take a closer look at GW150914, the first gravitational wave signal detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), in 2015. The signal was a product of two inspiraling black holes that generated a new black hole, along with a huge amount of energy that rippled across space-time as gravitational waves.

If Hawking's area theorem holds, then the horizon area of the new black hole should not be smaller than the total horizon area of its parent black holes. In the new study, the physicists reanalyzed the signal from GW150914 before and after the cosmic collision and found that indeed, the total event horizon area did not decrease after the mergera result that they report with 95 percent confidence.

Their findings mark the first direct observational confirmation of Hawking's area theorem, which has been proven mathematically but never observed in nature until now. The team plans to test future gravitational-wave signals to see if they might further confirm Hawking's theorem or be a sign of new, law-bending physics.

"It is possible that there's a zoo of different compact objects, and while some of them are the black holes that follow Einstein and Hawking's laws, others may be slightly different beasts," says lead author Maximiliano Isi, a NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. "So, it's not like you do this test once and it's over. You do this once, and it's the beginning."

Isi's co-authors on the paper are Will Farr of Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics, Matthew Giesler of Cornell University, Mark Scheel of Caltech, and Saul Teukolsky of Cornell University and Caltech.

An age of insights

In 1971, Stephen Hawking proposed the area theorem, which set off a series of fundamental insights about black hole mechanics. The theorem predicts that the total area of a black hole's event horizonand all black holes in the universe, for that mattershould never decrease. The statement was a curious parallel of the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy, or degree of disorder within an object, should also never decrease.

The similarity between the two theories suggested that black holes could behave as thermal, heat-emitting objectsa confounding proposition, as black holes by their very nature were thought to never let energy escape, or radiate. Hawking eventually squared the two ideas in 1974, showing that black holes could have entropy and emit radiation over very long timescales if their quantum effects were taken into account. This phenomenon was dubbed "Hawking radiation" and remains one of the most fundamental revelations about black holes.

"It all started with Hawking's realization that the total horizon area in black holes can never go down," Isi says. "The area law encapsulates a golden age in the '70s where all these insights were being produced."

Hawking and others have since shown that the area theorem works out mathematically, but there had been no way to check it against nature until LIGO's first detection of gravitational waves.

Hawking, on hearing of the result, quickly contacted LIGO co-founder Kip Thorne, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. His question: Could the detection confirm the area theorem?

At the time, researchers did not have the ability to pick out the necessary information within the signal, before and after the merger, to determine whether the final horizon area did not decrease, as Hawking's theorem would assume. It wasn't until several years later, and the development of a technique by Isi and his colleagues, when testing the area law became feasible.

Before and after

In 2019, Isi and his colleagues developed a technique to extract the reverberations immediately following GW150914's peakthe moment when the two parent black holes collided to form a new black hole. The team used the technique to pick out specific frequencies, or tones of the otherwise noisy aftermath, that they could use to calculate the final black hole's mass and spin.

A black hole's mass and spin are directly related to the area of its event horizon, and Thorne, recalling Hawking's query, approached them with a follow-up: Could they use the same technique to compare the signal before and after the merger, and confirm the area theorem?

The researchers took on the challenge, and again split the GW150914 signal at its peak. They developed a model to analyze the signal before the peak, corresponding to the two inspiraling black holes, and to identify the mass and spin of both black holes before they merged. From these estimates, they calculated their total horizon areasan estimate roughly equal to about 235,000 square kilometers, or roughly nine times the area of Massachusetts.

They then used their previous technique to extract the "ringdown," or reverberations of the newly formed black hole, from which they calculated its mass and spin, and ultimately its horizon area, which they found was equivalent to 367,000 square kilometers (approximately 13 times the Bay State's area).

"The data show with overwhelming confidence that the horizon area increased after the merger, and that the area law is satisfied with very high probability," Isi says. "It was a relief that our result does agree with the paradigm that we expect, and does confirm our understanding of these complicated black hole mergers."

The team plans to further test Hawking's area theorem, and other longstanding theories of black hole mechanics, using data from LIGO and Virgo, its counterpart in Italy.

"It's encouraging that we can think in new, creative ways about gravitational-wave data, and reach questions we thought we couldn't before," Isi says. "We can keep teasing out pieces of information that speak directly to the pillars of what we think we understand. One day, this data may reveal something we didn't expect."

Explore further Gravitational wave echoes may confirm Stephen Hawking's hypothesis of quantum black holes

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Credit: University of Manchester

New collaborative research led by Manchester Museum, part of The University of Manchester, has resulted in the first scientific description of an extremely rare tadpole.

The Cruziohyla calcarifer, also known as the Splendid Tree Frog or Leaf Frog, originates from Ecuador and is extremely difficult to observe in the wild. Less than 50 adult specimens have ever been found, and five of its tadpoles are currently being housed at Manchester Museum.

Almost nothing has been known of the frogs' breeding biology to date and a visual description of it in tadpole form has never existed.

Following captive breeding in Germany, an extensive piece of research led by Andrew Gray of Manchester Museum, which details of the tadpole's unusual appearance, have now been published.

It is characterised in having a distinctive mouth shape and unusual markings.

Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum explained: "We're delighted that we can now clearly visualise the tadpole of the Cruzihyla calcarifer for the first time ever. It has a couple of distinguishing features including what looks like the letter M on its backso it's very fitting that part of the research took place here in Manchester!

Credit: University of Manchester

Credit: University of Manchester

Credit: University of Manchester

"Once fully grown, the adult frog has black and orange flanks along the body, and a brilliant yellow surround to its beautiful grey eyes.

"This work represents a wonderful collaboration between a researcher from Germany, the museum in Paris, and a PHD student from The University of Manchester's faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. It also exemplifies Manchester Museum's mission to build understanding between cultures and a more sustainable world."

This break-through follows another key scientific description at Manchester Museum, where a new species to science, Sylvia's Leaf Frog was also described. The Manchester Museum was the first institution to breed that species, where the vivarium team recreate the exact conditions the frog enjoys in Costa Rica, Central America.

Explore further Spectacular frog identified as new species
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, earning Moscow a key win in the Cold War, Russia is again in a space race with Washington.

This time though the stakes are somewhat glitzier.

On October 5, one of Russia's most celebrated actresses, 36-year-old Yulia Peresild is blasting off to the International Space Station (ISS) with film director Klim Shipenko, 38.

Their mission? Shoot the first film in orbit before the Americans do.

If their plan falls into place, the Russians are expected to beat Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and Hollywood director Doug Liman, who were first to announce their project together with NASA and Space X, the company of billionaire Elon Musk.

"I really want us to be not only the first but also the best," Peresild told AFP, with the clock ticking down to the planned October 5 blast-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Callthe Russian project's working titlewas announced in September last year, four months after the Hollywood project.

But apart from its grand ambitions, little is known about the film.

Doctor who?

Its plot, which has been kept under wraps by the crew and Russia's space agency, has been revealed by Russian media outlets to feature a doctor dispatched urgently to the ISS to save a cosmonaut.

Nor has The Call's budget been disclosed. But it's no secret that travel to space is a costly business: one seat on a Soyuz rocket to the ISS usually costs NASA tens of millions of dollars.

Hinting at the film's aesthetic direction, one big name on the credit list is Konstantin Ernst, the 60-year-old head of the overtly Kremlin-friendly Channel One television network.

Ernst has stage-managed some of the most important moments in Russia's recent political history and of President Vladimir Putin's career: military parades, inaugurations, the opening ceremony of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, will also feature when the credits role in theatres throughout the country.

He is not known for prominence in the film industry, but rather for presiding over an agency plagued by stagnation and corruptionand for publicly sparring with Musk on Twitter.

'Propaganda tool'

For Rogozin, 57, the film is a way to project stature as Roscosmos loses ground in technological advancement to US rivals.

But it is also part of a geopolitical battle his country is engaged in with Washington, according to a recent interview he gave to a Moscow tabloid.

"Cinema was long ago turned into a powerful propaganda tool," he told popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in June.

His assessment of the role of film comes at a time when the relationship between Moscow and Washington has frayed to the point of resembling the standoff of the Cold War.

Rogozin said in the interview that Cruise and Liman had initially approached Roscosmos in early 2020 to collaborate on the film.

But, he said, unnamed "political forces" pressured them to give up on the idea of working with the Russians.

"I understood after this that space is big politics," he told the paper. "It was then that an idea appeared to make the film".

Representatives of Cruise did not respond to AFP requests for comment.

'Not a superhero'

In preparation for this 21st-century space race, Peresild has since late May been undergoing intensive training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside Moscow.

When she spoke to AFP, she had already managed the centrifuge and would be getting trained in how to survive in hostile environments for when she plummets back to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on October 17.

Still, she is focused on the task at hand.

The tiny film set of the ISS will be a challenging space in which to work, particularly for the director, who will also handle the cameras, lighting, sound and make-up.

"We will have to film in space what it is not possible to shoot on Earth," she says.

Peresild said that unlike many other Soviet children who grew up with Gagarin's feats looming large, she never dreamed of going to space.

She admits to feeling "afraid" when she was selected for the job from a pool of 3,000 candidates.

"I am not a superhero," she told AFP.

She said she had drawn inspiration from children involved in her Galchonok foundation that supports young people with disabilities.

"For them, picking up a spoon is like going to space for me."

They "must believe in the impossible".

Explore further Russia to send film crew, Japanese billionaire to space

 2021 AFP
This illustration shows the SWOT satellite in orbit around Earth, with two antennas on either side of the spacecraft, as well as two large solar panels. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Set for launch next year, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will help scientists monitor Earth's ocean, as well as the amount of fresh water in its lakes and rivers.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission took a big step toward launch this week when a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California shipped the scientific heart of the satellite to France. A U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane carrying the hardwarewhich includes finely tuned research instrumentsleft March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California, on June 27. It arrived June 30 at a Thales Alenia Space clean room facility near Cannes, France, where engineers and technicians will spend the next year integrating the hardware with the rest of the satellite.

"Sunday was a long day under very hot conditions, but the team did a great job packing the hardware into the plane. Now that the payload is in France, we're a major step closer to finishing this satellite and getting to launch," said Parag Vaze, SWOT project manager at JPL.

SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatial (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). The SUV-size spacecraft will make global surveys of Earth's surface water. By measuring its height, researchers can track the volume and location of the finite resource around the world. The data will help with monitoring changes in flood plains and wetlands, measure how much fresh water flows into and out of lakes and rivers and back to the ocean, and track regional shifts in sea level.

Part of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellites science instrument payload sits in a clean room at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory during assembly. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission (SWOT) will help scientists monitor Earths ocean, as well as the amount of freshwater in its lakes and rivers when it launches in late 2022. After engineers put together the spacecraft's payload of scientific instruments at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the satellite now moves to Cannes, France, to complete integration before it will be launched in late 2022. Project manager Parag Vaze explains. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The information SWOT will provide on small-scale ocean currents will also support real-time ocean activities like shipping that are affected by tides, currents, storm surges, and other natural phenomena. And SWOT data will provide, for the first time, global observations of how circular currents, called eddies, affect how the ocean stores heat and releases it into the atmosphere, as well as how carbon moves through the marine environment.

Several of JPL's engineers and technicians are following the hardware to France. Once there, they'll help their counterparts with CNES and their prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space, complete the build. Once done, SWOT will make the journey back to California, where it will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base no earlier than November 2022.

Explore further International SWOT satellite to survey the world's water

More information: To learn more about the mission, visit: To learn more about the mission, visit: swot.jpl.nasa.gov/
The nanowire is suspended between two metal conductors (purple). The superconductor made of aluminium (blue) covers part of it leaving a gap of exposed inner wire made of indium and arsenic (orange). In the setup with the small junction, the scientists expected to see the separated "half-electrons" in the exposed superconductor -- illustrated by portraits of Ettore Majorana, the Italian physicists for whom they were named. But they did not find anything. In the setup with the big junction, the exposed core of the wire formed a quantum dot and its electrons interacted with the electrons in the superconductor coating forming the mimicking signal. Credit: IST Austria

Quantum computers promise great advances in many fieldsfrom cryptography to the simulation of protein folding. Yet, which physical system works best to build the underlying quantum bits is still an open question. Unlike regular bits in your computer, these so-called qubits cannot only take the values 0 and 1, but also mixtures of the two. While this potentially makes them very useful, they also become very unstable.

One approach to solve this problem bets on topological qubits that encode the information in their spatial arrangement. That could provide a more stable and error-resistant basis for computation than other setups. The problem is that no one has ever definitely found a topological qubit yet.

An international team of researchers from Austria, Copenhagen, and Madrid around Marco Valentini from the Nanoelectronics group at IST Austria now have examined a setup which was predicted to produce the so-called Majorana zero modesthe core ingredient for a topological qubit. They found that a valid signal for such modes can in fact be a false flag.

Half of an electron

The experimental setup is composed of a tiny wire just some hundred nanometerssome millionths of a millimeterlong, grown by Peter Krogstrup from Microsoft Quantum and University of Copenhagen. These appropriately-called nanowires form a free-floating connection between two metal conductors on a chip. They are coated with a superconducting material that loses all electrical resistance at very low temperatures. The coating goes all the way up to a tiny part left at one end of the wire, which forms a crucial part of the setup: the junction. The whole contraption is then exposed to a magnetic field.

Printed circuit board for mounting the nanowire sample. Credit: IST Austria

The scientists' theories predicted that Majorana zero modesthe basis for the topological qubit they were looking forshould appear in the nanowire. These Majorana zero modes are a strange phenomenon, because they started out as a mathematical trick to describe one electron in the wire as composed of two halves. Usually, physicists do not think of electrons as something that can be split, but using this nanowire setup it should have been possible so separate these "half-electrons" and to use them as qubits.

"We were excited to work on this very promising material platform," explains Marco Valentini, who joined IST Austria as an intern before becoming a Ph.D. student in the Nanoelectronics group. "What we expected to see was the signal of Majorana zero modes in the nanowire, but we found nothing. First, we were confused, then frustrated. Eventually, and in close collaboration with our colleagues from the Theory of Quantum Materials and Solid State Quantum Technologies group in Madrid, we examined the setup, and found out what was wrong with it."

A false flag

After attempting to find the signatures of the Majorana zero modes, the researchers began to vary the nanowire setup to check whether any effects from its architecture were disturbing their experiment. "We did several experiments on different setups to find out what was going wrong," Valentini explains. "It took us a while, but when we doubled the length of the uncoated junction from a hundred nanometers to two hundred, we found our culprit."

Marco Valentini working in the lab. Credit: IST Austria

When the junction was big enough the following happened: The exposed inner nanowire formed a so-called quantum dota tiny speck of matter that shows special quantum mechanical properties due to its confined geometry. The electrons in this quantum dot could then interact with the ones in the coating superconductor next to it, and by that mimic the signal of the "half-electrons"the Majorana zero modeswhich the scientists were looking for.

"This unexpected conclusion came after we established the theoretical model of how the quantum dot interacts with the superconductor in a magnetic field and compared the experimental data with detailed simulations performed by Fernando Penaranda, a Ph.D. student in the Madrid team," says Valentini.

"Mistaking this mimicking signal for a Majorana zero mode shows us how careful we have to be in our experiments and in our conclusions," Valentini cautions. "While this may seem like a step back in the search for Majorana zero modes, it actually is a crucial step forward in understanding nanowires and their experimental signals. This finding shows that the cycle of discovery and critical examination among international peers is central to the advancement of scientific knowledge."

Explore further One-dimensional quantum nanowires fertile ground for majorana zero modes

More information: M. Valentini el al., "Nontopological zero-bias peaks in full-shell nanowires induced by flux-tunable Andreev states," Science (2021). Journal information: Science M. Valentini el al., "Nontopological zero-bias peaks in full-shell nanowires induced by flux-tunable Andreev states,"(2021). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.abf1513
The Great Barrier Reef has now suffered three mass coral bleaching events in the past five years, losing half its corals since 1995.

Five climate and marine experts wrote to UNESCO on Thursday to thank it for threatening to put Australia's Great Barrier Reef on its list of endangered World Heritage sites in a step that has angered the Australian government.

The UN's cultural agency "made the right decision to recommend that the world's most iconic Reef system be inscribed on the List of World Heritage In Danger," said the five.

In a draft report ahead of a key meeting in China from July 16-31, the UN body last month recommended that the world's largest reef system, the jewel in Australia's tourism crown, be downgraded because of damage to the corals, chiefly from global warming.

"It's a warning to the international community and all of humanity that the coral ecosystem is in danger," Fanny Douvere, the head of UNESCO's World Heritage marine programme, said at the time, emphasising that the decision was made on the basis of scientific reports coming out of Australia itself.

Applauding the move, the scientists said that protecting the reef "requires effective global action to reduce carbon emissions".

"Yet Australia has so far not pulled its weight in this global effort," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Terry Hughes of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Andrea Grottoli of the International Coral Reef Society, Johan Rockstroem of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Research and American marine biologist Sylvia Earle.

This echoed complaints from climate activists over Australia's refusal to commit to a target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

Placement on the UN body's heritage "in danger" list is not considered a sanction but it is seen as a dishonour by some countries.

Australia has lobbied hard against the move, which could severely impact the tourist appeal of the reef.

Canberra has accused UNESCO of playing politics with the reef and said it will strongly oppose it being put on the endangered list.

Last week, the UNESCO envoys of Australia and 11 other countries wrote to the Paris-based body to share their "collective concerns" over its decision-making.

In the letter, published by the Guardian newspaper, the ambassadors of the UK, France, Spain, Turkey and other countries said that UNESCO had "limited ability" to "evaluate and analyse reports" and to visit World Heritage sites during the Covid-19 pandemic.

They said any recommendations about world heritage sites should be based on "close consultation" with the country involved.

The reef, which was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1981, is one of seven sites threatened with being classed as "in danger" due to ecological damage, overdevelopment, overtourism or security concerns.

The Italian city of Venice, which has been overrun with tourists and cruise ships, also risks being added to the heritage in danger list.

Meanwhile the waterfront of the English city of Liverpool, which is undergoing a major redevelopment, risks being deleted entirely, a move which has infuriated municipal leaders.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said the decision risked being taken "sat around a table on the other side of the world."

The recommendations will be examined at the meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Fuzhou, China from July 16.

Explore further Australia hits out at threatened UN downgrade of Great Barrier Reef

 2021 AFP
Bonobo nest in varying stages of decay. Credit: MPI of Animal Behavior/ Barbara Fruth

There might be fewer bonobos left in the wild than we thought. For the last 40 years, scientists have estimated the abundance of endangered bonobos by counting the numbers of sleeping nests left by the apes in forests of the Congo Basin. Now, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior report that the rate of sleeping nest 'decay' has lengthened by 17 days over the last 15 years as a result of declining rainfall in the Congo Basin. The study warns that longer nest decay times have serious implications for ape conservation: failure to account for these changes would lead to overestimating population density by up to 60 percent, subsequently jeopardizing conservation of these endangered great apes in the wild.

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are a species of great ape similar to chimpanzees that are found only in the rainforests of the Congo Basinthe second largest forest area of the planet and known as one of Earth's 'green lungs.'

The study of the LuiKotale Bonobo Project, which is part of an ongoing collaboration with scientists at Liverpool John Moores University, the Centre for Research and Conservation, and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, aimed to assess the influence of weather on the decomposition of bonobo sleeping platforms, also called nests. In the LuiKotale research site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the scientists studied 15 years of climate data, including rainfall, and 1,511 bonobo nests observed from construction to disappearance. "While climate change is known to be impacting Central African rainforests, a lack of real data from the Congo Basin meant that we didn't know how this was affecting the region and bonobos," says Barbara Fruth, Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, who is senior author on the study. "Our study provides evidence that the world's largest freshwater reservoir is suffering from climate change," she says.

Bonobos, like other great apes, build sleeping platforms each night. These nests are used by scientists to estimate numbers of apes in the wild. Credit: MPI of Animal Behavior/ Barbara Fruth

How to convert nest counts into ape counts

This troubling trend has added importance for bonobos, and great apes in general, because their populations are estimated not by counting actual apes, but rather the nests left by the primates each night. Knowing how fast these nests disappear is essential for converting nest counts to ape counts. The study's results showed a steady decline of rainfall across years and the impact of this on bonobo nest decay times. Less rain meant that nests persisted for longer in the forest. Further, the scientists observed bonobos using more solid construction types in response to more unpredictable storms.

The connection between nest decay and climate change is relevant to conservation of all great apes because nest counts are used as the "gold standard for estimating their populations," says first author Mattia Bessone, a Ph.D. student at Liverpool John Moores University who is working on validating cutting-edge methods for assessing threatened species. "As climate change continues to affect both the process of nest decay and ape nest building behavior, great ape nest decomposition times are likely only to increase further in future years. "We stress the absolute necessity to take into account the specific impact of climate on nests in areas where these are being used to surveying great apes. Failure to do so will invalidate biomonitoring estimates of global significance and subsequently jeopardize the conservation of great apes in the wild."

Explore further Bonobo diet of aquatic greens may hold clues to human evolution

More information: Mattia Bessone et al, No time to rest: How the effects of climate change on nest decay threaten the conservation of apes in the wild, PLOS ONE (2021). Journal information: PLoS ONE Mattia Bessone et al, No time to rest: How the effects of climate change on nest decay threaten the conservation of apes in the wild,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252527
The jellyfish, Cotylorhiza tuberculata, from Naples, Italy hosts the symbiotic algae Philozoon medusarum. Credit: Marco Cannavacciuolo

In the late 1800s, scientists were stumped by the "yellow cells" they were observing within the tissues of certain temperate marine animals, including sea anemones, corals and jellyfish. Were these cells part of the animal or separate organisms? If separate, were they parasites or did they confer a benefit to the host?

In a paper published in the journal Nature in 1882, biologist Sir Patrick Geddes of Edinburgh University proffered that not only were these cells distinct entities, but they were also beneficial to the animals in which they lived. He assigned them to a new genus, Philozoonfrom the Greek phileo, meaning "to love as a friend," and zoon, meaning "animal'and then promptly changed his career direction to pioneer professions in urban planning and design. Over time, Geddes's scientific contributions were largely forgotten, and the Philozoon genus name was never used.

Now, more than a century after Geddes's paper was published, an international team of researchers has revisited these "yellow cells," which, after Geddes, had been determined to be photosynthetic algae in the family Symbiodiniaceae.

In a study published in the June 28 issue of the European Journal of Phycology, the team resurrected the genus Philozoon by using modern technologies to thoroughly characterize two of the species of algae that Geddes had investigated, along with six new related ones.

"Patrick Geddes was ahead of his time in recognizing the ecological significance of the 'yellow cells' found in some animals were actually distinct entitiesmicro-algal symbiontsexisting inside the animal's tissues and creating a photosynthetic animal. That was a major revelation. In fact, we now know that microorganisms live in partnership with all multicellular organisms; for example, the bacteria that comprise our human gut microbiomes are essential for our overall health," said Todd LaJeunesse, professor of biology, Penn State, and lead author of the paper. "By emending and reviving the Philozoon genus, we are honoring the work of this natural historian."

Portrait of Sir Patrick Geddes (c. 1888) at the age of 34, several years after publishing observations from his experiments on animals containing chlorophyll. Credit: libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk

LaJeunesse and his colleagues used genetic information; outward physical, or morphological, characteristics; ecological traits; and geographic distributions to define the diversity found within the newly recognized Philozoon genus. They obtained animal samplesincluding from soft and stony corals, jellyfish, and sea anemonesfrom locations all over the world. They also obtained samples from Italy where Geddes first conducted his original research.

"Because our team comprises scientists from seven countries, we were able to collect all of these samples, and some during the global pandemic," said LaJeunesse. "This study highlights how the spirit of scientific discovery brings people together, even in times of hardship."

"The fact that these algae exist in animals from the Mediterranean Sea to New Zealand to Chile reminds us how widespread these symbioses are on Earth," said LaJeunesse. "Also, since most of the algae in the family Symbiodiniaceae have been thought to be mostly tropical where they are critical to the formation of coral reefs, finding and describing these new species in cold waters highlights the capacity of these symbioses to evolve and live under a broad range of environmental conditions. Life finds a way to persist and proliferate."

The team documented that at their northernmost and southernmost latitudinal extremes, Philozoon experience water temperatures that may reach winter lows of nearly 40 degrees F and summer highs of close to 90 F.

"The abilities of these Philozoons to withstand a wide range of temperatures is likely due to their diversification during the cooler periods of the late Pliocene and most recent Pleistocene epochs," said LaJeunesse. "This adaptation to a range of temperatures could protect them and the animals with which they associate from some of the effects of climate change, at least in the near term. Similarly, adaptation to high latitude environments may condition Philozoon species to tolerating future increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, which could also help make them resilient to some of the effects of ocean acidification."

"Yellow cells" of the symbiotic algae, Philozoon collosum, isolated from the soft coral, Capnella gaboensis, collected off the east coast of southern Australia. Credit: Matthew R. Nitschke

He added that careful identification and categorization of these symbiotic algae is essential to understanding the biology and evolution of marine animals that rely on these organisms for their survival.

"The advanced molecular-genetic techniques available to us today have substantially improved our ability to study and understand these microbes," said Pilar Casado-Amezua, researcher, HyT Association, Spain. "Our new study lays the groundwork for extensive research on the ecological role of animal-algal mutualisms in temperate marine ecosystems."

LaJeunesse noted that although there were a handful of other scientists during the late 1800s that were investigating these "yellow cells'," it was Geddes who unequivocally recognized the full significance of the evidence before him.

He explained, "In describing the associations between the cells and the host animals, Geddes called them 'animal lichens' and eloquently wrote, 'Such an association is far more complex than that of the fungus and alga in the lichen, and indeed stands unique in the physiology as the highest development, not of parasitism, but of the reciprocity between the animal and vegetable kingdoms.' Geddes vigorously contended that these algae were symbiotic in nature. Now, more than a century after their discovery, the true identities of these algae are finally being properly characterized."

Explore further Widespread coral-algae symbioses endured historical climate changes

More information: Todd C. LaJeunesse et al, Revival of Philozoon Geddes for host-specialized dinoflagellates, 'zooxanthellae', in animals from coastal temperate zones of northern and southern hemispheres, European Journal of Phycology (2021). Journal information: Nature Todd C. LaJeunesse et al, Revival of Philozoon Geddes for host-specialized dinoflagellates, 'zooxanthellae', in animals from coastal temperate zones of northern and southern hemispheres,(2021). DOI: 10.1080/09670262.2021.1914863
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The heat wave hitting the northwestern U.S. and Canada has been shattering records, with temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal. With drought already gripping the West, the intense heat has helped suck even more moisture from millions of acres of forests and grasslands, bringing dead vegetation in many regions to record-dry levels and elevating the fire danger to its highest categories.

With this combination of extreme drought, heat and dry vegetation, all it takes is a spark to ignite a wildfire.

That's why over 100 fire scientists, including us, along with fire officials across the West, are urging people to skip the fireworks this Fourth of July and to avoid other activities that could start a blaze.

Humans start the most wildfires on July Fourth

For decades, one of the most striking and predictable patterns of human behavior in the western U.S. has been people accidentally starting fires on the Fourth of July. From 1992 to 2015, more than 7,000 wildfires started in the U.S. on July 4the most wildfires ignited on any day during the year. And most of these are near homes.

With this year's tinder-dry grasslands and parched forests, sparks from anythinga cigarette, a campfire, a power line, even a mower blade hitting a rockcould ignite a wildfire, with deadly consequences.

Year-round, humans extend the fire season by igniting fires when and where lightning is rare. And it is these very fires that pose the greatest threat to lives and homes: Over 95% of the wildfires that threatened homes in recent decades were started by people. Farther from human developmentbeyond the "wildland-urban interface"the majority of area burned by wildfires in the West is still due to lightning.

Whether ignited by people or lightning, human-caused climate change is making fires easier to start and grow larger due to increasingly warm, dry conditions. The western U.S. saw these consequences during 2020's record fire seasonand the 2021 fire season has the ingredients to be just as devastating.

Here's how to stay safe

We've spent years studying the causes and impacts of wildfires across North America and around the globe, and working with managers and citizens to envision how best to adapt to our increasingly flammable world. We've outlined strategies to manage flammable landscapes and thought carefully about how communities can become more resilient to wildfires.

When asked "What can we do?" many of our suggestions require long-term investments and political will. But there are things you can do right now to make a difference and potentially save lives.

Around your home, move flammable materials like dried leaves and needles, gas and propane containers and firewood away from all structures. Clean out your gutters. If you tow a trailer, make sure the chains don't hang so low that they could hit the pavement and cause a spark. If you have to mow a lawn, do it in the cooler, wetter morning hours to prevent accidental sparks from igniting fires in dry grass. Don't drop cigarette butts on the ground.

This Fourth of July, skip the fireworks and campfiresinstead, catch a laser light show, make s'mores in the microwave and celebrate by keeping summer skies smoke-free for as long as possible.

Many communities are banning personal and public fireworks and voluntarily canceling fireworks displays because of wildfire concerns.

Adapting to increasingly uncharted territory

The fingerprints of human-caused climate change are all over the current drought, the recent heat waves, and what could become another record-setting fire season. Research highlights how human-caused climate change increases the frequency and magnitude of extreme events, including drought, wildfire activity and even individual extreme fire seasons.

Adapting to longer, more intense fire seasons will require reconsidering some traditions and activities. As you celebrate this Fourth of July, stay safe and help out the firefighters, your neighbors and yourself by preventing accidental wildfires.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
A depiction of how sci-Space captures the personalities and localities of individual cells as they come together to form organs in a developing mouse embryo. Credit: Nigel Sussman

A new technique called sci-Space, combined with data from other technologies, could lead to four-dimensional atlases of gene expression across diverse cells during embryonic development of mammals.

Such atlases would map how the gene transcripts in individual cells reflect the passage of time, cell lineages, cell migration, and location on the developing embryo. They would also help illuminate the spatial regulation of gene expression.

Mammalian embryonic development is a remarkable phenomenon: a fertilized egg divides repeatedly and turns, in a matter of weeks or months, into a complex organism capable of a myriad of physiological processes and composed of a variety of cells, tissues, organs, anatomical structures.

A better understanding of how mammals form before birthparticularly the prenatal spatial patterns of gene expression at a single-cell level during embryonic developmentcould advance biomedical and veterinary research on a variety of conditions. These range from inherited disorders to congenital malformations and developmental delays. Understanding how organs originate might also assist future regenerative medicine efforts.

An international team led by scientists at UW Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in Seattle demonstrated the proof-of-concept of their sci-Space technique in mouse embryos.

Their results are published in the July 2 edition of Science. The lead authors are Sanjay R. Srivatsan of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Mary C. Regier of the UW Department of Bioengineering.

The senior authors are Jay Shendure, UW Medicine professor of genome sciences, and director of the Brotman Baty Institute, and an investigator at the Allan Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing; Kelly R. Stevens, UW assistant professor of bioengineering; and Cole Trapnell, associate professor of genome sciences. Regier and Stevens are also investigators at the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research.

The researchers observed the orchestration of genes in 120,000 cell nuclei. All the body's somatic cells contain the same DNA code. The researchers captured information on which genes were turned on or off in these nuclei as mouse embryos took shape. The scientists also investigated how cells' locations in an embryo affected which genes were activated during development.

This technique builds on previous work in which these scientists and other groups developed ways of conducting whole-organism profiling of gene expression and DNA-code accessibility, in thousands of single cells, during embryonic development. They did so to track the emergence and trajectory of various cell types.

How cells are organized spatiallywhat physical positions they take as an embryo formsis critical to normal development. Misplacements, disruptions, or cells not showing at the right time in the right spot can cause serious problems or even prenatal death.

However, gaining knowledge on spatial patterns of gene expression has been technically difficult. It has been unwieldy to assay gene transcripts of individual cells over wide swaths of the embryo. This limited the scientific understanding of how spatial organization influences gene expression and, consequently, why which cell types form where, or how neighboring groups of cells influence each other's future roles.

The scientists on the present study had earlier developed a method to label cell nuclei, a technique they called sci-Plex. They then went on to index single-cell RNA sequencing, with a method called sci-RNA-sequencing.

Now, with sci-Space, by analyzing spatial coordinates and cell gene transcripts the scientists identified thousands of genes whose expression was anatomically patterned. For example, certain genetic profiles emerged in neurons in the brain and spinal cord and others in cardiac muscle cells in the heart.

The scientists also used spatial and gene profile information to annotate subtypes of cells. For example, while both blood vessel cells and heart muscle might both express the gene for a particular growth factor, only the heart muscle cells produced certain growth factor receptors.

The researchers also observed that cell types varied greatly in the extent of their spatial patterning of gene expression. For example, connective tissue progenitor cells showed a relatively large proportion of spatially restricted gene expression. This observation suggests that subtypes of these cells behave in a position-dependent manner throughout the body.

To measure the power of spatial position on a cell type's gene transcript profile, the researchers also calculated the physical distance between cells and the angular distance of their gene expression profiles.

"For many cell types, as the physical distance between cells increased, so did the angular distance between their transcriptomes," the researchers noted in their paper. However, they added that this trend varied considerably. It was most pronounced in certain brain and spinal cord cells.

The genetic transcript profiles of some other cell types were highly influenced by their position in the developing embryo. Among these are certain cartilage cells, which become part of the scaffolding for bones of the head and face.

The researchers also studied gene expression dynamics that took place as part of brain cell differentiation and migration during mouse embryonic development. The researchers examined how various brain cell trajectories were anatomically distributed. The researchers did so by using the Allen Institute's Anatomical Reference Brain Atlas as a guide.

"Cells from each trajectory overwhelmingly occupied distinct brain regions," the researchers noted. They also observed gradients of developmental maturity in different regions of the brain. These gradients revealed both known and new patterns of migration.

In the future, the researchers hope sci-Space will be further applied to serial sections that span the entire mouse embryo and that cover many points of time.

Explore further Profiling gene expression in plant embryos, one nucleus at a time
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Proper pay for Ohio teachers makes a difference. A recent study by Ali Enami, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics at The University of Akron, shows that increasing teachers' compensation in high-poverty school districts in the state of Ohio leads to better test scores for students.

Enami's recent study, "Labor versus capital in the provision of public services: Estimating the marginal products of inputs in the production of student outcomes," co-authored with James Alm, Ph.D., professor emeritus at Tulane University, and Rodrigo Aranda, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate at Georgia Policy Labs in Georgia State University, was recently featured in Economics of Education Review. The study shows that between 1996 and 2015, 1 percent increase in teachers' compensation in high poverty school districts amounted to an approximately 2.62.9 percentage points increase in the math proficiency rate of high school graduates.

"The state of Ohio has a program that helps schools in high-poverty districts fund their construction projects, but a similar program does not exist that would allow them to significantly improve their ability to better compensate their teachers," said Enami. "Given that teachers' compensation appears to have a much higher impact on student test scores in high poverty school districts, Ohio and other states can better achieve equality of opportunity in their public schools if they prioritize using their resources to improve teachers' compensation in these districts."

Public school funding in Ohio has been the topic of debate for years and even the Supreme Court of Ohio attempted to reduce the inequality of expenditure across school districts in a series of cases known as DeRolph v. State. Unfortunately, this problem is not unique to Ohio and almost all states struggle with the concept of inequality of opportunity in public schools to some extent. While equalizing the existing funding system may take a significant amount of time or may not be possible, federal and state policy makers are able to prioritize equalizing the component of the system that matter the most. The study by Enami and his co-authors attempts to identify the areas in which Ohio in particular can maximize the impact of school funding on students and therefore improve the equality of opportunity in public schools in an efficient and cost-effective way.

The study compares the impact on student test scores of additional operating and capital expenditures for public schools in Ohio. It finds that although the state of Ohio has significantly invested in buildings over the past decades, only additional operating expenditures appear to have an impact on students test scores and the effect appears to be limited to high poverty school districts. The authors analyze a number of factors, including teachers' compensation, class size, discipline, and attendance rate that may explain how the additional operating expenditure would lead to better test scores. They find that teacher's compensation is the only channel that could explain this relationship.

"We believe our study will help inform policy makers at the state and federal level about how to focus already limited resources on areas that may have a larger impact on students' achievements," said Enami. "Focusing spending increases on high poverty school districts can create a higher return for the state and federal investments."

More information: Ali Enami et al, Labor versus capital in the provision of public services: Estimating the marginal products of inputs in the production of student outcomes, Economics of Education Review (2021). Ali Enami et al, Labor versus capital in the provision of public services: Estimating the marginal products of inputs in the production of student outcomes,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102131
An international research team led by a researcher from the University of Tsukuba proposes that catering to different visitors has influenced flower evolution. Credit: University of Tsukuba

Flowers come in a multitude of shapes and colors. Now, an international research team led by a researcher from Japan has proposed the novel hypothesis that trade-offs caused by different visitors may play an important role in shaping this floral diversity.

In a study published last month, the team explored how the close associations between flowers and the animals that visit them influence flower evolution.

Visitors to flowers may be beneficial, like pollinators, or detrimental, like pollen thieves. All of these visitors interact with flowers in different ways and exert different selection pressures on flower traits such as color and scent. For example, a scent that attracts one pollinator may deter other potential pollinators. In this case, the flower would be expected to cater to the best pollinator.

"On the basis of this theory, you'd expect that flowers would mostly be visited by one particular group of pollinators," says lead author of the study, Professor Kazuharu Ohashi. "But flowers often host many different visitors at the same time and flowers appear to meet the needs of multiple visitors. The question we wanted to answer is how this happens in nature."

Balancing the demands of multiple visitors involves trade-offs. For example, diurnal bees and nocturnal moths can both pollinate goat willow but prefer different smells. A floral scent adapted to only one of these animals would mean missed opportunities for pollination by the other. To see how these types of visitor-mediated trade-offs affect the evolution of flowers, the researchers developed a conceptual framework to examine the different types of trade-offs and how flowers might adapt. They then looked at previous studies of flower-animal interactions to see whether the research supported the proposed framework.

What they found was a variety of strategies for mitigating trade-offs. In the case of goat willow, flowers produce different scents during the day and night, and therefore attract both types of pollinator. Another example is floral color change as a strategy to attract both bees and flies. Retaining old flowers could attract opportunistic foragers like flies, while repelling smart foragers like bees. The color change in flowers as they age could reduce this trade-off by allowing bees to select young, rewarding flowers. Many other strategies were noted, all of which involved acquiring novel combinations of traits to attract, or exclude, different visitors.

"Most flowers are ecologically generalized and the assumption to date has been that this is a suboptimal solution," explains Professor Ohashi. "But our findings suggest that interactions with multiple animals can actually be optimized by minimizing trade-offs in various ways, and such evolutionary processes may have enriched the diversity of flowers."

The discrepancy between observed flower visitors and those predicted on the basis of a flower's traits has long been a topic of debate. Taking visitor-mediated trade-offs into account in future studies of flower evolution may help settle that argument.

Explore further The humidity of flowers acts as an invisible attractor for bumblebees

More information: Kazuharu Ohashi et al, Tradeoff mitigation: a conceptual framework for understanding floral adaptation in multispecies interactions, Biological Reviews (2021). Journal information: Biological Reviews Kazuharu Ohashi et al, Tradeoff mitigation: a conceptual framework for understanding floral adaptation in multispecies interactions,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/brv.12754
Evgeny A. Podolskiy, lead author of the study, assembling the ocean-bottom seismometer in Qaanaaq, northwest Greenland, July 2019. Credit: I. Asaji

Scientists show that an ocean-bottom seismometer deployed close to the calving front of a glacier in Greenland can detect continuous seismic radiation from a glacier sliding, reminiscent of a slow earthquake.

Basal slip of marine-terminating glaciers controls how fast they discharge ice into the ocean. However, to directly observe such basal motion and determine what controls it is challenging: the calving-front environment is one of the most difficult-to-access environments and seismically noisyespecially on the glacier surfacedue to heavily crevassed ice and harsh weather conditions.

A team of scientists from Hokkaido University, led by Assistant Professor Evgeny A. Podolskiy from the Arctic Research Center, have used ocean-bottom and surface seismometers to detect previously unknown persistent coastal shaking generated by a sliding of a glacier. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Sensors to measure glacial motion can potentially be placed on top of, within, or below the glacier; however, each approach has its own drawbacks. For example, the surface of glaciers is 'noisy' due to wind and tide-modulated crevassing, which can overwhelm all other signals; while the interior is quieter, it is the hardest area to access. However, all of these locations are plagued by common issues such as station drift, melt out and level loss, cold temperatures, and potential instrument destruction by iceberg calving.

The ocean-bottom seismometer being deployed by the authors and colleagues, 21 July 2019, Bowdoin Fjord. Credit: I. Asaji

In the current study, the scientists used an ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) that was deployed near the calving front of Bowdoin Glacier (Kangerluarsuup Sermia) to listen to icequakes caused by glacial basal motion. By doing so, they insulated the sensor from the near-surface seismic noise, and also circumvented all the issues that accompany the deployment of sensors on the glacier itself and nearby. The data they collected from the OBS was correlated with data from seismic and ice-speed measurements at the ice surface.

The analysis of the data revealed that there is a continuous seismic tremor generated by the glacier. In particular, the broad-band seismic signal (3.5 Hz to 14.0 Hz) detected by the OBS correlated well with the movement of the glacier. The scientists were able to identify signals that were not associated with glacial basal dynamics. Data from the OBS were necessary to establish a correlation between tremors detected by the surface stations and GPS-recorded displacement of the glacier. In the process, they demonstrated that continuous seismic data that was historically considered 'noise' contains signals that can be used to study glacier dynamics.

Key advantages of deploying an ocean-bottom seismometer near the calving front of a tidewater glacier. Subglacial and ocean seismo-acoustic signals can be detected, while the impact of surface seismic sources is minimised (Evgeny A. Podolskiy, Yoshio Murai, Naoya Kanna, Shin Sugiyama. Nature Communications. June 24, 2021). Credit: Evgeny A. Podolskiy, Yoshio Murai, Naoya Kanna, Shin Sugiyama. Nature Communications. June 24, 2021

The scientists also suggested that glacier slip is similar to slow earthquakes. The characteristics of the Bowdoin-Glacier tremor remind those of tectonic tremors in Japan and Canada. Moreover, the presence of the tremor is in line with recent theoretical models and cold-laboratory experiments.

The scientists have presented a novel method to collect continuous glacioseismic information about glacier motion in an extremely noisy and harsh polar environment using ocean-bottom seismology. "Future research in this area could focus on replicating and expanding upon the findings of this study at other glaciers," says Podolskiy. "The experimental support for the relationship between glacier tremors and tectonic tremors suggests that a long-term multidisciplinary approach would be beneficial in fully understanding this phenomenon."

Explore further Revealing complex behavior of a turbulent plume at the calving front of a Greenlandic glacier

More information: Evgeny A. Podolskiy et al, Ocean-bottom and surface seismometers reveal continuous glacial tremor and slip, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Evgeny A. Podolskiy et al, Ocean-bottom and surface seismometers reveal continuous glacial tremor and slip,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24142-4
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Giving women in India's Madhya Pradesh state greater digital control over their wages encouraged them to enter the labor force and liberalized their beliefs about working women, concluded a new study co-authored by Yale economists Rohini Pande and Charity Troyer Moore.

The study, published in the American Economic Review, found that a relatively simple intervention directed to poor womenproviding them access to their own bank accounts and direct deposit for their earnings from a federal workfare program, along with basic training on how to use local bank kiosksincreased the amount they worked, both in the government program and for other employers.

The women who had access to the banking resources were more likely to report in surveys that a working woman made "a better wife" and that husbands with working wives were better spouses and providers. They also were less likely to say women who work outside the home bear social costs for it.

The study points to the role of gender norms in India's low and declining rate of women in the workforce and it also demonstrates that boosting women's control of their finances can expand their autonomy, said Pande, the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"Economics research often assumes that a country's men and women embrace the same cultural norms, but our study highlights the fact that norms can be differently experienced and held within the same country or culture," said Pande, who is also director of Yale's Economic Growth Center. "Improving a woman's access to her earnings should cause her to work less because she can make the same amount of money with less effort. That we found women work more suggests that some women would prefer to work but are potentially being constrained by social stigma perceived by their husbandsspecifically, that working wives diminish their husbands' social status."

India experienced a period of strong economic growth between 2005 and 2018 with declining fertility rates and gains in education for women, but the rate of female labor force participation fell from 32% to 21% during that period. However, one-third of Indian housewives say in surveys that they are interested in working outside the home. Bringing these latent workers into the workforce would contribute substantially to the country's economic growth, Pande said.

Working in northern Madhya Pradesh, a region marked by particularly restrictive gender norms, the research team collaborated with government and banking partners to enable direct deposit of women's wages from the federal workfare program into their own bank accounts rather than into a male-controlled household account. They conducted a randomized controlled trial covering 197 village clusters and surveyed a total of 4,300 women. The villages were divided among a control group and four treatment groups, only one of which received bank accounts, direct deposit, and training. The researchers refer to this group as being "digitally empowered."

The study found an overall increase in labor supply among digitally empowered women compared to women who only received a bank account. They were 28% more likely to have participated in the workfare program during the past year than were the women who only received a bank account and 13% more likely to report any paid work in the previous month, according to the findings. The digitally empowered group also earned 24% more (950 rupees) annually from the private sector, which is notable given that the direct deposit was only linked to workfare wages and private-sector work often is paid in cash.

"The fact that digitally empowered women were earning more in the private sector suggests that having more control of their earnings spread into other aspects of their lives, giving them the ability to negotiate with other household members to work more outside their homes," said Troyer Moore, director of South Asia economics research at Yale's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. "It tells us that a simple policy intervention has altered a cultural norm, which is very exciting."

The researchers separated the sample into two groups: Women who had worked in the government program before, and those who had not. In surveys, women in the latter group reported having less decision-making power, and that their husbands were more likely to associate a working wife with social stigma. The data showed that while the increases in work outside the home trailed off among those who had previously worked in the program by the study's third year, it persisted for the socially constrained group, demonstrating that the intervention had the most durable impact on women facing the greatest barriers to work.

Study participants were surveyed to measure their thoughts about working and non-working women. The results showed that compared to women who received only bank accounts, digitally empowered women liberalized their personal beliefs about women's work.

While researchers were conducting the study, the Indian government began scaling up direct deposit of workfare wages into female-owned accounts nationwide, but the effort involved neither targeted outreach to eligible women nor any systematic account training, key elements of the most successful intervention that the study identified, the researchers said.

"We look forward to working with government partners to scale up the policy intervention in a manner that maximizes the benefits to women," Troyer Moore said.

Explore further Low wages and gender wage gap contributed to women leaving the workforce during COVID-19

More information: Erica Field et al, On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms, American Economic Review (2021). Journal information: American Economic Review Erica Field et al, On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms,(2021). DOI: 10.1257/aer.20200705
NMD Pharma Doses the First Myasthenia Gravis Patient in a Combined Phase I/IIa Clinical Trial of NMD670

Details Category: Small Molecules Published on Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:12 Hits: 567

AARHUS, Denmark I June 30, 2021 I NMD Pharma A/S, a biotech company leading in the development of novel therapeutics for neuromuscular disorders, today announces that it has dosed the first myasthenia gravis (MG) patient in a combined Phase I/IIa clinical trial of NMD670, NMD Pharmas lead program.

Thomas Holm Pedersen, Chief Executive Officer of NMD Pharma, said: We are pleased to announce the dosing of the first myasthenia gravis patient today with our lead development candidate, NMD670. This represents a significant milestone in this study and for NMD Pharma.

Dr. Geert Jan Groeneveld, Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) and the Principal Investigator of the trial added: Myasthenia gravis is a debilitating autoimmune disease which can lead to life-threatening symptoms. There is a real unmet need for a therapy to help relieve these symptoms and so it is particularly exciting that this trial has now moved into patients. The pre-clinical data generated by NMD Pharma demonstrates the potential of CIC-1 inhibition in strengthening neuromuscular transmission in myasthenia gravis and I am hopeful that we can replicate those promising pre-clinical results in patients.

NMD670 is in development to treat the symptoms of MG and is also being evaluated for the treatment of other neuromuscular diseases. It is a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of the muscle specific chloride ion channel, the ClC-1 ion channel. NMD Pharma has already demonstrated that ClC-1 inhibition can strengthen neuromuscular transmission and ultimately skeletal muscle function and this novel treatment approach has demonstrated compelling preclinical data for MG.

The combined Phase I/IIa clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled, single and multiple dose escalation study designed to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of NMD670. Healthy male and female subjects have received single doses of NMD670 and safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic parameters have been assessed. The Phase I program now continues with the administration of NMD670 dosed daily for 10 days, and with single doses given to patients with MG. The primary outcome of the study includes a number of safety and tolerability endpoints and the secondary outcomes are a number of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic endpoints.



Further information on the study can be found on the Netherlands Trial Register: https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/8692

About NMD Pharma

NMD Pharma A/S, is a private biotech company leading in the development of novel first-in-class therapies for severe neuromuscular disorders. The Company was incorporated as a spin-off from Aarhus University, Denmark in 2015 and was founded on more than 15 years of muscle physiology research with a focus on regulation of skeletal muscle excitability under physical activity. NMD Pharma has built a world-leading muscle electrophysiology platform leveraging the in-depth know-how of muscle physiology and muscular disorders, small molecule modulators, enabling technologies and tools as well as in-vivo pharmacology models for discovering and developing proprietary modulators of neuromuscular function. NMD Pharma received seed financing from Novo Seeds, Lundbeckfonden Emerge and Capnova in 2016, and in 2018 raised a 38 million Series A financing, led by new investor INKEF Capital, together with new investor Roche Venture Fund and existing investors Novo Seeds and Lundbeckfonden Emerge. Find out more about us online at http://www.nmdpharma.com/.

About NMD670

NMD670 is NMD Pharmas lead development program. It is a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor of the muscle specific chloride ion channel, the ClC-1 ion channel. NMD Pharma has demonstrated that ClC-1 inhibition can strengthen neuromuscular transmission and ultimately skeletal muscle function and this novel treatment approach has demonstrated compelling preclinical efficacy data for MG.

About Myasthenia Gravis (MG)

MG is a rare and chronic autoimmune disease where IgG antibodies disrupt communication between nerves and muscles causing debilitating and potentially life-threatening muscle weakness. It most commonly affects the muscles that control the eyes and eyelids, facial expressions, chewing, swallowing and speaking but it can affect most parts of the body. More than 85% of people with MG progress to generalized MG (gMG) within 18 months and in more life-threatening cases, MG can affect the muscles responsible for breathing. Patients with confirmed acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies account for 80-90% of the total gMG population. There are approximately 100,000 people in the European Union, 65,000 people in the United States and 20,000 people in Japan living with the disease.

About the Centre for Human Drug Research

The Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) is an independent institute that specialises in cutting-edge early-stage clinical drug research. Combining innovative methods and technologies, state-of-the-art facilities, and talented, motivated researchers helps CHDR maximise their clients success. CHDRs overall mission is to improve the drug development process by collecting as much information as possible regarding a candidate drug in the early phases of development. This information helps clients make informed decisions regarding the course of clinical development for their product. CHDR places the highest priority on their subjects comfort and safety, and they play an active role in helping to educate the medical and clinical research communities. Find out more about the CHDR online at https://chdr.nl/.

SOURCE: NMD Pharma
It was originally designed (so) if there was any runoff from the PCB-contaminated materials, that it would be stored and not discharged, he said.

That is an advantage because stormwater regulations have gotten much more stringent, Zongol added.

The plant has one electrical substation that could be tapped by one large user of the site, but if there were multiple users on the property, it would get a little more complicated.

Consultant Jeff Budrow of Weston & Sampson said access to the rail and canal are advantages, although it is somewhat far away from the highway.

Some of the utilities would have to be upgraded, he said.

There are some wetlands on the site.

Eric Halvorsen of consultant RKG Associates said that, based upon demographics and workforce data, he believes the site could be used for green energy manufacturing or agricultural technology.

SUNY Adirondack has been in talks about using the site as a training facility for hospitality workers.

Solar energy and wind energy are potential uses. Biosolids and waste process and composting are other growing fields.
State police will increase patrols and crack down on drunk and drugged driving and other traffic infractions during the July 4 weekend.

The campaign will be in Friday and run through Monday.

Police also will be looking for motorists who are using their phones and other electronic devices while behind the wheel. Drivers should also remember to move over for stopped emergency and hazard vehicles on the side of the road when they travel New York roadways, according to a news release.

Troopers will be using both marked and unmarked cars.

Last year, police issued nearly 9,214 vehicle and traffic tickets during the Independence Day weekend.

The initiative is partially funded by the Governors Traffic Safety Committee. The GTSC and the New York State STOP-DWI Foundation remind drivers that their Have a Plan mobile app is available for Apple, Droid and Windows smartphones.

The app enables New Yorkers to locate and call a taxi or ride-share service and program a designated driver list. It also provides information on DWI laws and penalties and provides a way to report a suspected impaired driver.
A child clasped his hands together prayerfully alongside his mother at a ceremony observing the Martyrdom Day of the fifth Sikh guru, Arjan Dev Ji, in Pakistan.

A worshipper wearing a face mask to protect him from the coronavirus carried a goat as an offering to Hindu gods at the smoking crater of Mount Bromo, an active volcano in Indonesia.

Palestinian women touched the head and face of one of their own in consolation at a funeral in the West Bank for a security officer shot dead by Israeli forces.

Images captured by AP photographers around the world in June illustrated the ways people everywhere seek spiritual sustenance in ritual and ceremony.

Sometimes it was to come together in grief, as with the dozens of mourners at an outdoor funeral where Canadian flags covered the coffins of four family members run over by a truck in what police say was a premeditated attack because they were Muslim.

But it was a more joyful occasion at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Pennsylvania, the United States oldest Hindu shrine, where devotees lined up on its immaculately landscaped grounds to go inside following the final rituals of the Maha Kumbhabhishekam rededication ceremony.
But those efforts are just getting started. The approach is being watched closely by states struggling with an increasing number of algae outbreaks. Some environmental groups are skeptical, but others that have been at odds with the farming industry are hopeful.

The forecast for this summer released by NOAA predicts the bloom will come in at 3 on its severity index  a mild reading on par with last year. Anything above 5 indicates a severe bloom.

The algae outbreaks have become more frequent and severe since 2008. But if this summer's forecast holds true, three of the last four years will be below a 5 on the ratings scale.

During that time, farmers have been planting more cover crops and using new methods to reduce fertilizer runoff, said Jordan Hoewischer, director of water quality and research for Ohio Farm Bureau.

It doesnt make sense to give all the credit to the weather on years when there is a smaller bloom and put all the blame on the farmers if there is a big bloom, he said.

The blooms contain blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, which can produce a liver toxin called microcystin that is harmful to people and can be fatal to animals, including dogs. Even in years when there are smaller blooms, they can still produce dangerous toxins.
Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the AP this week that there was no indication Trump himself was included in the first batch of charges.

There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president, Fischetti said. I cant say hes out of the woods yet completely.

Weisselberg, a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred, came under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his sons use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.

Barry Weisselberg managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park.

Barrys ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with the investigation and turned over reams of tax records and other documents to investigators.
Unfortunately, it has taken too long to get to this point.

We also must recognize our community is flush with guns. Apparently, it is not hard to get them; new laws at the state level are making it even easier. Its also discouraging to read reports, like the investigation recently from USA Today and The Trace, which said the federal ATF is too lax when it comes to penalties against gun sellers who commit serious violations.

Sikorski was right about another thing Monday; he was right that we are fortunate that police werent talking about the deaths of several people. The idea that nearly 80 gun shots found only glass and building material as their final destination, rather than flesh and bone, sounds to us like the kind of luck we can only count on rarely. The next time, who knows?

It was shocking to see that amount of gunfire in downtown Davenport this weekend, a place where many of us go to have fun, to listen to music or look at the river. Imagine how much more shocking it would have been if those 80 rounds had found a human target, or more than one, rather than an art museum and a pedestrian overpass.

Lets hope that it doesnt come to that. Lets hope that after all the years of talking about a problem weve all recognized, that soon we get the results we all want.

This editorial was first published June 9 in the Quad-City Times of Davenport, Iowa.

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NORTHFIELD  The Fourth of July is a very big day in Northfield. It begins with the Connolly Mile and is followed by a big parade down Shore Road to Birch Grove Park. The parade had been organized by the Northfield Cultural Committee for many years. The committee annually chooses the dignitaries who will lead the parade and after the one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Cultural Committee honored the dignitaries Saturday evening at Birch Grove Park.

The Cultural Committee chose the Northfield Mothers League as the Citizens of the Year. Joan Pullan Brennan, a member of the Cultural Committee thanked the members of the group for all of the good work they do on behalf of the residents of Northfield like the spaghetti dinner, the Easter Egg Hunt, the Thinking of You campaign and more. Megan K. Taylor, president of the Northfield Mothers League, said the group is honored to be chosen for the Northfield Citizens of the Year. Members will ride at the front of the parade on July Fourth.

Taylor and Jonah Poiroux are both active duty in the Coast Guard. They were transferred to the area in 2019. Their daughter Josie Poiroux was born Jan. 19, and was the first baby born to Northfield parents of year. Taylor Poiroux (originally from Alabama and her husband from Louisiana), was surprised to get a call that Josie was going to be recognized.
SEA ISLE CITY  Each June, Sea Isle Citys Division of Tourism organizes the annual Skimmer Festival Antique Auto Show, which attracts scores of vintage cars and trucks. During this years show on June 20, one-hundred (100) vehicles entered the annual display and competition, which takes place on Sea Isle Citys oceanfront Promenade (aka Boardwalk).

According to Jim Ambro, host of the auto show, this years event featured a wide variety of cars and trucks in excellent condition, which made it difficult for judges to choose the winning vehicles.

At the end of the show  moments before all of the events vehicles cruised through Sea Isle City during the annual Skimmer Antique Auto Parade  Mayor Leonard Desiderio presented the Best in Show award to Robin and Stuart Cohen, of Vineland, owners of a 1928 Packard 526 Runabout convertible, which featured running boards, a rumble seat, a side storage compartment, and huge whitewall tires.

The 2021 Mayors Choice trophy went to Bob McArdle, of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, owner of a 1958 Ford Fairlane convertible that sported pristine white paint, rear tire covers, whitewall tires, and glistening chrome.
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Latest offshore wind award to triple megawatts off South Jersey

mpost-pressofac / General Electric / provided Rendering of the 12-megawatt turbine made by GE Renewable Energy to power the 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind offshore wind farm to be built off Atlantic City.

The state awarded the right to build another 2,600 megawatts of offshore wind electric generation to two companies Wednesday, a milestone Gov. Phil Murphy celebrated during his regular COVID-19 media briefing.

We just approved the largest combined offshore wind award in history, Murphy said of the action by the state Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday morning. It will triple our total capacity and strengthen our commitment to securing good union jobs and make New Jersey a national leader in the offshore wind industry.

BPU President Joe Fiordaliso, who attended Murphys briefing, said Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind will build a 1,510 megawatt farm off the coast between Long Beach Island and Atlantic City, and rsteds Ocean Wind will build 1,148 megawatts of the new solicitation in its leasing area in federal waters southeast of Atlantic City.

Combined, once these turbines are in the water, they will supply power to 1.1 million homes in New Jersey, Fiordaliso said.

In 2019, rsteds Ocean Wind was awarded the right to build the first 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind generation in the same leasing area, which will supply another 500,000 homes, he said.

Bill removing local control of NJ wind power lines approved ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  Local communities would be stripped of most control over where and how power lines from offshore wind energy projects come ashore under a bill that received final approval Thursday in the state Legislature.

Were at approximately 1.6 million homes that are going to be energized by offshore wind, Firodaliso said.

In the middle of a heat wave, the timing is perfect for the NJBPU to double down on offshore wind, said Environment New Jersey Executive Director Doug OMalley. Offshore wind is our best bet to power our states economy with clean energy.

Many environmentalists expressed support for the awards, as did the Southern New Jersey Development Council and some unions.

There will be solicitations for more farms every two years until 7,500 megawatts are awarded, Fiordaliso said. The goal is to have 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind entering the grid by 2035.

Ratepayers will pay to build the projects, and the money generated by the sale of the energy will be returned to ratepayers under the plan.

Shore towns want say over wind projects, push back on bill ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  Lawmakers from Jersey Shore towns are pushing back against a bill meant to fast-track offshore wind energy projects by taking away local control over transmission lines and other onshore infrastructure.

According to the BPU, Atlantic Shores project is expected to add about $2.21 to the average residential monthly bill, $20.81 to the average commercial customers monthly bill $172.25 to the average industrial customers bill. These bill impacts will not begin until the project is operational, which is estimated to occur in 2027-28.

Ocean Winds Phase 2 is estimated to add $1.28 per month for residential customers, $11.73 for commercial customers and $99.91 for industrial customers starting in 2028-29.

Clean energy costs money, there is no getting around it, Fiordaliso said. You also have to look at the economic benefits of thousands of jobs and infusing billions of dollars into the New Jersey economy.

The two projects are estimated to create 7,000 full- and/or part-time jobs across the development, construction and operational phases of the projects, the BPU said.

Ocean Wind 2 will contribute to an expansion of the EEW Paulsboro monopile facility, said David Hardy, CEO of rsted Offshore North America. The $250 million facility will provide 500 full-time jobs, and Ocean Wind 2 will generate more than $4.8 billion in net economic benefits for the state, Hardy said.

rsted is also bringing a commitment from GE Renewables to locate one of the countrys first offshore wind nacelle assembly facilities at the New Jersey Wind Port in Salem County, Hardy said. The nacelle of a wind turbine houses the drive train and other components that sit at the top of the tower, with the blades rotating around it.

Joris Veldhoven, commercial and finance director at Atlantic Shores, said the companys plan will provide workforce training and supply chain development.

Atlantic Shores project, which aims to begin construction in 2024, also includes a 10 megawatt green hydrogen pilot with South Jersey Industries and a turbine nacelle assembly center at the Wind Port, according to the company.

Ocean City officials have expressed concerns about how offshore wind will affect its tourism business, as Ocean Winds phase 1 will be visible from the beach and will need to connect into the grid across the city.

The second phase of the wind farm will be farther south, but about the same distance from land  about 15 miles, so it should not be visible from Ocean City, Hardy said.

BPU approves B.L. England for offshore wind connections The company building an offshore wind farm about 10 miles southeast of Atlantic City recently got approval to hook into the grid at the retired B.L. England electric plant in Upper Township.

Fiordaliso said the BPU and the state Department of Environmental Protection will manage a $26 million fund to protect the environment and wildlife around the farms.

While the commercial fishing industry has expressed concerns about how the wind farms will affect its ability to function, Fiordaliso said the BPU believes fishing and offshore wind can coexist without harming each other.

In no way are we subjecting the (fishing) industry to any kind of disaster. If it happens, we will figure out how we are going to remediate that, Fiordaliso said. To the best of our ability, we are creating, not destroying.

Atlantic Shores is a 50-50 joint venture between EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies US LLC. The venture was formed in December 2018 to co-develop a lease area of 183,353 acres 10 to 20 miles off the coast between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light.

rsted is a Danish company that won the states first offshore wind solicitation in 2019 to build an 1,100-megawatt wind farm called Ocean Wind on a lease area about 15 miles southeast of Atlantic City. Ocean Wind is expected to begin operating in 2024 and is still awaiting federal approvals to begin construction.

Newark-based Public Service Enterprise Group bought 25% of the Ocean Wind project from rsted, which owns and operates 26 offshore wind farms around the world, including the first in the United States, the Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island.

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Throughout the area, parades, ceremonies and concerts will be back after a year off, but not everything is completely back to normal. Some large-scale events will not take place until next year, Wieland said, including Sea Isle Citys Skimmer Weekend. Katherine Custer, a spokesperson for Sea Isle, said a smaller-than-usual event took place in lieu of Skimmer Weekend on June 20, but she added this summer is off to a great start, with weekly concerts and other events in full swing. Fireworks are set for 9 p.m. Sunday, and last Saturday's kickoff to the city's summer concert series drew thousands.

"It was as big a crowd as we could have hoped for," she said. "The audience had a great buzz. A lot of smiles and happy people."

Wieland reports that 70% of Cape May County residents are fully vaccinated, but there is no way to know the percentage of vaccinations for the thousands of visitors set to pour into the region over the weekend.

We continue to get the message out, if you feel uncomfortable in a crowd and you cant social distance, wear a mask, she said. It isnt totally over.
Both were charged with being fugitives from justice and taken to the Atlantic County jail, awaiting extradition to Delaware.

Two men who lived in the property in the 100 block of North Georgia said they were awakened by police entering the building. The men said most of the occupants exited the home with their hands up as instructed, but the two who were eventually arrested remained inside, which started the standoff with law enforcement.

I came outside (my room) because (the police) were talking to him and I got worried, one of the men said in reference to the one he was standing next to. Then I get grabbed by some (officer). Theyre passing me through the line (of officers).

The two men were questioned and detained for about an hour before being let go, they said.

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Drones from the Fire Department were also deployed. Fire Chief Scott Evans said the drones were used to survey the area and help police develop strategies to enter the home.

They were particularly helpful with this building, because this building sat in the middle of three other buildings and a courtyard, Evans said. This building sat in the middle of the block. It was surrounded by buildings.
Two Atlantic City men arrested, two guns recovered in separate incidents ATLANTIC CITY  Police arrested two men and recovered two guns in separate incidents, the de

The company projects hiring 100 people for a medicinal cannabis site, and Reilly has said that could double if the property also grows for the retail market.

There is the possibility of financial support in the future, Reilly said, but for now the company will offer expertise and guidance in helping prepare students for cannabis jobs. Although the company does not yet have any locations in New Jersey, it is well established in Massachusetts and has medical cannabis locations in Pennsylvania and Florida.

Through our partnership with Atlantic Cape Community College, we plan to help identify, educate and prepare future employees for careers in the cannabis industry, Reilly said. That will include developing a medical cannabis curriculum at the community college, creating an internship program and supporting workforce development events at the campus.

The partnership will also encourage diversity in the program and in jobs it may lead to, according to statement from the company and the school. Reilly said the company has a similar arrangement with Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts.
The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs announced Thursday the award of $7,441,299 in Small Cities Community Development Block Grants to municipalities and counties in the state, including projects in Cape May and Cumberland counties.

There are 27 grants in total benefitting 21 municipalities in seven counties and one countywide program that will benefit about 27,000 people in the state, including senior citizens and people with disabilities. The DCAs Division of Housing and Community Resources will distribute the grants.

Among the projects receiving grants:

Cape May will get $400,000 to aid in installation of a dedicated 12-inch raw water main from Well No. 8 to the Desalination Facility to improve citywide water service.

Cumberland County will receive $292,820 for septic system improvements as part of an owner-occupied housing rehabilitation project for low- to moderate-income residents.

Deerfield Township will get $400,000 for removal of mobility barriers that hinder access to the disabled and elderly at Carmel Park, the Municipal Building and Senior Center. An emergency generator will be installed at the Senior Center.
Its unfair, said Lamont White, who has worked as a casino dealer since 1985. It doesnt make any sense to me how people say gambling and smoking go together. Drinking and smoking go together, but you cant go inside a bar and smoke.

The Casino Association of New Jersey, a trade group, opposes a permanent smoking ban, saying it could lead to fewer customers, fewer casino jobs and lower tax revenue.

While acknowledging gamblers will be free to light up again starting Sunday, Gov. Phil Murphy indicated Wednesday he would look favorably on a measure lawmakers are considering to permanently end smoking in New Jerseys casinos.

I would be very constructive on that, he said at a coronavirus briefing, stopping short of saying he would sign the legislation.

Atlantic City to hold produce giveaway in Brown's Park ATLANTIC CITY  The city will hold a fresh food and resource giveaway Wednesday at Brown's Park.

Casino worker Nicole Vitola said allowing smoking allows employees to be treated like second-class citizens.

How can you exclude one group of people from being able to work in a safe and smoke-free environment? How is it that youre not allowed to smoke on our beaches and our boardwalks but you can smoke right at my table where I cant move or walk away? Vitola said. All I want is the same respect that every worker in the state of New Jersey receives.
NORTHFIELD  A long-awaited new and larger Atlantic County veterans clinic will be built near the existing one on New Road and will open in 2023, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday.

It caps off a series of improvements in veterans care in the region that followed the 2016 suicide of a local veteran on the lawn of the Northfield facility. That traumatic act brought attention to long wait times, especially for mental health services.

The new location, at 2101 New Road, will be the only Veterans Affairs clinic in South Jersey that provides on-site radiology, greatly reducing travel times for local veterans, said U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, who has been working with local veterans on the project. At 30,000 square feet, it will be three times the size of the current clinic, which opened in 2011.

Im just elated, said veterans advocate Marco Polo Smigliani, of Egg Harbor Township, chairman of the South Jersey Veterans Consortium. This will help thousands of families for years to come.

The consortium worked for years to help the VA improve services in the region and helped guide decisions on the clinics in Vineland, Rio Grande and Northfield, he said.

+2 Hundreds of flags fly in Northfield to honor veterans who lost died by suicide NORTHFIELD  At West Mill and Zion roads, 660 American flags wave in a grass field beside th
The need to relocate the needle exchange program for drug addicts out of the Atlantic City Tourism District has been obvious for a decade. Doing so is a crucial and necessary part of the reinvention of New Jerseys gaming capital as a destination resort.

Atlantic City and state officials have worked for years to get it done, but without the necessary level of cooperation from the nonprofit South Jersey AIDS Alliance that partners with the city on the service. Two years ago we praised officials for the patience and carefulness of their efforts. Now its time to be firm, for the tough love that serves the full public interest.

Nine years ago the late former city mayor and then state Sen. Jim Whelan made it clear the relocation needed to happen, saying in these pages, Atlantic City cannot be the economic engine for the region with an economy based on tourism if it is the premier site of social agencies that serve the homeless.

Significant progress has been made. It took a few years but the regions premier addiction treatment program, the John Brooks Recovery Center, relocated to Mays Landing with a branch in Pleasantville. The center has remained a success and helped pioneer treatment at the Atlantic County jail that has been a model for the rest of the state.
It always seemed curious to me that someone like Biden, who wrote candidly about his crack cocaine and alcohol addiction in his memoir Beautiful Things, would post up a block from the beach, which is, at the current unfortunate moment, an open-air drug market speckled with homeless encampments. After all, he boasted in the book, his superpower was sussing out drugs anywhere, anytime.

Why put yourself in temptations path like that?

And if you seek privacy, why live in a home that is exposed to the public on three sides?

Anyway, those questions are moot now.

Several weeks ago, a big yellow moving van appeared in front of the house and the agents disappeared.

As reckless as Hunter Biden has been  and its a miracle hes not dead or in prison if everything he wrote in his memoir is true  you have to admire him for at least one thing: He has tried carefully to curate his redemption story.

In July 2019, he rolled out his sordid history of drug addiction and influence peddling to The New Yorker in an effort to inoculate his father from his failures and poor judgment.
July 1, 2021 in Travel (E)

[prMac.com] Taipei, Taiwan - QuinnScape today announces a limited-time July 4th Sale of 33% off for its popular Packing Pro travel app. From now until July 4, Packing Pro can be purchased for only $1.99 - one third of its original price of $2.99 - a great deal, and perfect timing for summer travel. Packing Pro has been the flagship travel packing app on Apple's iOS App Store for over 12 years, and has been updated and improved dozens of times, most recently adding helpful COVID-19 tasks and items to the Master Catalog for safer and smarter traveling.



During the 12 years that Packing Pro has been on Apple's App Store, Packing Pro has been highlighted there several times, such as in the "Travel Essentials," "Travel Survival Kit" and "Travel Expenses" promotions, among others. It has also ranked at #1 for iPads and #2 for iPhones in the U.S. App Store's Travel section. Besides Apple, Packing Pro has also been recognized by CNN, WSJ, BBC, The New York Times, Expedia and Budget Travel, and has earned glowing reviews on major tech and app blogs (Gizmodo, Mashable, Macworld, CNET and iPhone Life, among others).



Packing Pro is a mobile travel packing list app that features unlimited, 100% customizable packing lists, an extensive, yet flexible, catalog, handy sample lists, iCloud auto-sync and various list sharing options. A host of special functions include:



* Multi-item selection from catalog for speedy list building

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* List sorting & filtering by packing status, priority, need to buy, bag and/or person

* Item, weight, value and packing status totals & subtotals

* Item images to eliminate any confusion - never again pack the wrong item

* Item & list alerts for user-set reminders

* Email export for list & file sharing

* Wireless printing

* Fully customized device support for all sizes of iPhone, iPad & iPod touch

* Full multi-lingual support for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Japanese & Chinese



Besides the core features listed above (which are also present in the basic Packing ( TO DO!) app), Packing Pro also gives its users the following Pro-level features:



* iCloud auto-syncing support

* Expert packing list wizard that can "automagically" create a list

* Email, iTunes, AirDrop, Dropbox & Box file sharing, backup & out-of-app editing support

* Customized design (themes, layout, fonts, colors, textures)

* Double-sized Master Catalog with over 800 items and to-do tasks

* Twice as many sample lists

* Smart Search (lists & catalog)



Packing Pro's July 4th sale comes at the perfect time for a return to almost-back-to-normal summer traveling. Check it out today, and happy packing!



Pricing and Availability:

Packing Pro is a universal app that is available for purchase worldwide on the iPhone & iPad App Store for $2.99 (Now Only $1.99 USD), or the equivalent in local currency. The basic Packing (+TO DO!) sells for just $0.99 (USD).

Since its founding in October 2008, QuinnScape has been managed by Quinn Genzel. Quinn is best known for his popular, top-ranking travel packing apps: Packing ( TO DO!) and Packing Pro. Packing Pro has been recognized by Apple, CNN, WSJ, BBC, National Geographic, Budget Travel, Fodor's, CNET, Macworld and a host of others as one of their top apps for traveling. Other app created by Quinn include a grocery shopping list app (Shopping Pro), nature appreciation apps (iLove Nature and iLove Birds), 3D VR action games (R.I.P and Ghost Buddy) and high-quality puzzles (the aQ's Pro Slider Puzzle series). Copyright (C) 2008-2021 QuinnScape. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

###
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  An Army soldier who shot and killed an armed protester after driving into a crowd demonstrating against police violence in the Texas capital last summer has been indicted on a murder charge, authorities said Thursday.

Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood, was booked and released on $300,000 bail, said Kristen Dark, a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Perrys attorney, Clint Broden, has said the soldier was working for a ride-sharing company and acted in self-defense after Foster pointed a gun at him. Broden issued a statement Thursday expressing disappointment in the indictment and confidence that Perry would be acquitted.

It is important to note that the standard of proof required for an indictment is significantly less than the standard of proof required for a conviction, the statement said.
After eight years of being a coffee fanatic, Davenport resident Lindsey Schmidt decided to take the leap and open up a coffee shop of her own.

Coffee Apothecary, located at 2571 53rd Ave. in Bettendorf, has a unique medical theme and drinks with names such as Lobotomy and Plague Doctor.

Schmidt decided to take it on with her mother, Cindy Williams, a seasoned entrepreneur who has opened 12 previous businesses in the Quad-City area and was happy to lend her experience.

I feel like Ive been meant to be an entrepreneur since I was little since shes done it her whole life, said Schmidt.

After earning degrees in business management and psychology from St. Ambrose University and working in operations management for a few years, Schmidt decided it was finally the time to open a business.

Williams came out of retirement to invest and take on the business' initial steps of dealing with contractors, confirming the layout and ordering the needed tools, steps she had experience with from past ventures.

Once the location was confirmed, Schmidt quit her job at a local pharmaceutical company and set to work creating the atmosphere of the coffee shop, one based around a theme of old-fashioned medical practice.
I was a horrible blogger. It's hard coming up with one thing to write about, let alone anything worthy of communicating daily. My excitement rapidly turned into posts like, "I am having a sandwich for lunch. Here's a picture of it. What are you having for lunch?"

I stopped posting after just a few weeks. But a couple times a year, I still upload to it. There's just one reason I've kept it around: the analytics.

I can see how many people visit my blog. I can see where they're visiting from (I have one ardent fan in Belarus.) I can see which entries people read. I can see what keyword searches brought them to my blog.

These are actual keyword phrases people have searched recently that have led them to my blog:

"I LIKE BIG COWS WITH SPOTS" And I'm fine with that. To each their own cow fetishes. I just want to know what you were hoping to accomplish by entering that into Google. I'd also like to know how disappointed you must've been to be taken to my website.
A Clinton County man was sentenced Thursday to serve the rest of his natural life in prison for his role in sexually abusing four children over a three-year period.

During a sentencing hearing in Clinton County District Court, District Court Judge Patrick McElyea sentenced Todd William Adams, 54, to a term of natural life for being convicted of five counts of second-degree sexual abuse, each a Class A felony under Iowa law. Each count carries a prison sentence of up to life.

In his sentencing order, McElyea noted that sentencing on the first two counts of second-degree sexual abuse  counts one and two in the court document  are to run consecutively, or back-to-back. McElyea also sentenced Adams to four years on two counts of indecent contact with a child, with one of those counts running consecutively, or back-to-back, with the first two counts of second-degree sexual abuse.

On May 20, a Clinton County jury found Adams guilty on the five counts of second-degree sexual abuse and the two counts of indecent contact with a child after a trial that began May 17.

According to the affidavit filed by Clinton County Sheriffs Detective Marissa Mussmann, the case was opened Oct. 9 based on a report by the Iowa Department of Human Services.
Also deserving introductions are our summer interns. A graduate of Pleasant Valley High School, Alyce Brown will attend Northwestern University in the fall, where shell study journalism. She recently won Iowas award for the states top high school journalist. Sam Rothbardt, another PV grad, is attending Drake University, where hes focused his studies on digital journalism.

We're not done growing. We're seeking more reporters to keep local governments in check, and sportswriters to cover your favorite teams.

I believe its a testament to the strength of the newspaper and the Quad-Cities to attract such high-level talent to our region. All our new reporters are certainly qualified to be working in bigger markets, but they chose us because they recognize something special in the Quad-Cities and the way we tell stories.

More importantly, these journalists will be serving you, day in and day out, tackling the areas most important stories, and delivering watchdog journalism and investigative work you wont find on TV. Reach out to them with story ideas or thoughts about coverage; theyll welcome your support.
A Southwest spokesperson said in an email Wednesday the airline couldnt comment on details involving individual passengers, but no irregularity reports were generated from the specific flight the congressman was filmed on.

The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for enforcing COVID-19 safety restrictions of commercial aircraft. Agency spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez reiterated that airline passengers are still required to wear masks on planes and in airports, though she did not respond to specific questions about the congressman's failure to wear one.

Last year, after Roy was exposed to a fellow GOP congressman who then tested positive for COVID-19, he declined to self-quarantine and said he wasnt worried about catching the virus.

In a July 2020 interview with CNN, Roy questioned the effectiveness of mask wearing for preventing the spread of the virus, especially during interactions with perfect strangers on an airplane with circulating air.
To government watchdogs and good-government groups, the mistake was disappointing, if not that surprising.

Neal Rosenstein of the New York Public Interest Research Group said lawmakers need to do more than lambaste the board for bungling.

The attention and the blame is being focused on the board, which is appropriate, but it doesnt go deep enough. It doesnt go into: How are we going to prevent this? How are we going to fix this? he said. To him, the agency ends up being a shield that elected officials use to deflect voter anger.

The board has long been a favorite target.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio on Wednesday called it broken and an entity from another time. To his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, the boards many mishaps made it worse than the gang that couldnt shoot straight. Gov. Andrew Cuomo summed it up last year as a disservice to the citizens.

The implications of this week's mistake extend beyond the agencys future, said Joanna Zdanys, a lawyer on the election reform team at the Brennan Center for Justice, part of New York Universitys School of Law.
This has been a very tough year, I think, on a lot of people, she said in the spring. Were coming up to the two-year anniversary, and I think a lot of people are taking stock of where they are.

Current and former Lightfoot advisers, however, complain that she doesnt take advice and can be difficult to approach. Like her predecessor, Emanuel, Lightfoot is known to be profane and hard-charging with other elected officials, once telling aldermen dont come to me for s--- if they voted against her budget.

She can also be tough on her staff. Last May, Lightfoot emailed her chief of staff, her deputy mayor for economic development and scheduler a photo of ripped-up documents.

Lightfoot also faced criticism for emailing her scheduler in January with complaints that she doesnt get enough office time. In the note, Lightfoot repeated several sentences  one 16 times  to highlight her displeasure over her schedule.

Rounding out her answer on WTTW, Lightfoot acknowledged she can improve on the job but again connected the criticism.
On April 20, the court issued yet another order extending the same allowance for delays to juvenile proceedings.

Those orders came at a time when the state, and Cook County in particular, had been trying to reduce the number of people held in local jails for pretrial detention. It also came just before the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus launched its social justice reform initiative which included a proposal to phase out the use of cash bail, an initiative that was signed into law earlier this year.

Speaking at a criminal justice reform conference Wednesday, Cook County States Attorney Kimberly Foxx said that about 6,000 people were currently being held in the countys jail, down significantly from the roughly 11,000 people being held there at any given time eight years ago.

And while she did not specifically mention the pandemic rules that paused the speedy trial requirements, she said the jail population had been significantly lower than 6,000 at the beginning of the pandemic, and weve seen a steady increase.
CHICAGO  A monument to journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was unveiled Wednesday in Chicago.

Officially called The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument, the commemoration created by sculptor Richard Hunt was dedicated in the South Side neighborhood where Wells lived out her life.

The monument has three bronze columns that support intertwined bronze sheets twisted into coils and spirals. One observer had trouble describing the abstraction at the top of the monument, asking if it was a hat or a crown of thorns. She was more certain about the columns.

It is interesting, spectator Roberta Trotter told the Chicago Tribune. I just want to know what the artist thinks before I say more. But I do see a strong base. That, I understand  Ida was a strong woman.

Granddaughter Michelle Duster said traditional busts and statues of Wells were considered, but she and others pushing for the monument preferred something interpretive, which she said projects Wells better than the literal.
What is the relationship between weather and fireworks, and what you need to consider when setting off your backyard display?

As the Fourth of July weekend draws closer, fire safety experts and medical professionals recommend leaving fireworks handling to the professionals.

Matt Perez, Illinois fire marshal, said fireworks only should be used by a trained professional, in line with state laws that restrict what fireworks people can purchase.

"Fireworks not only could injure those shooting them but could also start fires in neighborhoods," Perez said. "Numerous communities have canceled shows again this year, which could be tempting for individuals to hold their own backyard displays. Remember, fireworks should only be used by professionals."

Illinois reported 163 people were treated in hospitals for fireworks injuries in 2020, up from 126 in 2019, according to numbers from Perez's office. The accidents caused mostly eye injuries, burns, and ruptured eardrums. The number of injuries to children ages 11-16 doubled to 23 from 12 in 2019.

Sangamon County Sheriff's Capt. Anthony Mayfield said the department receives 100-150 calls about fireworks-related injuries or accidents each year. Fourth of July weekend, Christmas and New Year's are the peak times for injuries, he said.

Mayfield added people can think of fireworks as harmless largely because they can be sold in grocery and big box stores.
Pete Daniel, in his book Dispossession: Discrimination Against African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights, documents how Black farmers lost their operations at a disproportionate rate when compared to their white counterparts. They were systematically denied loans or not provided adequate information on how they could benefit from New Deal-era programs.

A 1999 federal court ruling, Pigford v. Glickman, sent about $1 billion to individual farmers who had experienced racial discrimination by the USDA. Similar victories were won by Latinx farmers in Garcia v. Vilsack and Native American farmers in Keepseagle v. Vilsack.

Other groups, including veterans and women, have also received special attention, but these did not lead to lawsuits on behalf of excluded whites, who are now falsely being portrayed as victims by political conservatives.

Moreover, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has noted, When you look at the COVID relief plans that had been passed and distributed by USDA [in 2020], and you look at who disproportionately received the benefits of those COVID payments, its pretty clear that white farmers did pretty well. One analysis found that white farmers received 97% of the money dispersed in the first of two pandemic relief programs last year.
Fireworks are on the minds of many now. The Illinois Insurance Association and its member companies encourage residents to remember that fireworks are dangerous explosives that need to be handled with extreme caution.

Personal fireworks are responsible for thousands of injuries and structural fires each year. Sparklers seem harmless but burn at temperatures as high as 1,200 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Protect yourself and your loved ones by leaving the fireworks display to professionals.

Residents bent on lighting displays are urged to confirm compliance with federal, state and local laws and ordinances and make safety a priority. Some tips to keep in mind:

 Buy pre-packaged fireworks from a licensed store or stand. Homemade and professional-grade fireworks are unsafe for personal use.

 Store fireworks in a cool, dry, dark location away from any source of heat until ready to light.

 Designate a sober adult to oversee lighting fireworks. Alcohol and drugs do not mix well with explosives. Confirm children are supervised and well away from the staging area. Move pets inside.

 Light one firework at a time in a flat, open, outside location away from homes and buildings.
As Independence Day approaches, communities and areas in the Northern Hills have various rules and regulations for the discharge of fireworks.

Fireworks are prohibited in all areas of the Black Hills National Forest and within the Black Hills Fire Protection District, which basically follows the hill-line south of Interstate 90, including the cities of Deadwood and Lead.

Possessing, discharging or using any kind of fireworks or pyrotechnic device is prohibited on the Black Hills National Forest, year-round, regardless of weather conditions or holidays, said Scott Jacobson, public affairs officer with Black Hills National Forest.

Spearfish also prohibits fireworks within city limits.

Independence Day is a time to celebrate, and we hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend, Public Safety Director Pat Rotert said. With the drought and dry conditions this year, we urge people not to shoot off fireworks even in areas where they are allowed. Within Spearfish city limits, fireworks are not allowed. Let me say again, do not shoot off fireworks of any kind in city limits. In addition to following the law, we ask people to be thoughtful of your neighbors.

However, in Belle Fourche and Sturgis, the fireworks rules change.
State Fire Division sets up Spearfish base

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety Wildland Fire Division plans to set up a base at the Spearfish airport for wildland fire suppression.

The Spearfish City Council approved a private hangar ground lease agreement with the department for a 5,000-square-feet area at Black Hills AirportClyde Ice Field. The base would be used for carrying out the business of wildland fire suppression.

The term of the lease is one year, with a rental sum of $850, based on the 17-cent per square-foot lease fee.

McDonald named Spearfish interim administrator

Spearfish City Attorney Ashley McDonald has been appointed interim city administrator following the departure of Mike Harmon, who submitted his resignation recently, effective July 16.

The Spearfish City Council approved the resolution June 21.

After speaking with a number of department heads, Harmon said he felt McDonald is the best fit for the job, and she also has a position that the city can more easily fill through legal services contracts in the private sector.
Noem said the drought, which she declared a state of emergency for earlier this week, is extremely concerning.

She said the Black Hills have probably received the most moisture this year, but the rest of the state is devastated by the lack of moisture.

Our ranchers are facing a decision within the next week or two on whether they need to sell whole herds of cattle, she said. A lot of farmers are cutting small grains for feed and selling it, and their corn and soybeans are drying up, too. Theyre a week or two away from losing everything and Id encourage everybody to pray for rain and to reach out to federal offices.

Noem said the state is working to remove restrictions for hay hauling and ditch mowing to get through the difficult time together. She said there are also a number of federal disaster programs available for farmers and ranchers.

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Kools said her yard has been pretty dry, but knows nothing would probably happen if a fireworks show were held at Mount Rushmore and that precautions would be taken.

She said she agrees with Noem that she has the right over President Joe Biden to decide whats best for her state.
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The specific terms of the most recent contract for DPEC & RCS Joint Ventures are not currently known, as the U.S. government's System for Award Management, or SAM, was experiencing an outage Wednesday for "Contract Data Refresh."

However, the initial requests for proposals for the Ellsworth project were issued in late 2021. According to records, work includes general construction to include maintenance, repair, alteration, mechanical, electrical, heating/air conditioning, demolition, painting, paving, and earthwork for industrial and office buildings at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Work is expected to be completed by May 31, 2031. The massive project is in preparation for the arrival of the B-21 Raider, a new stealth bomber that will eventually replace the aging B-1 Lancer.

Ellsworth AFB was officially named the Air Force's first base to receive the new aircraft on June 9. The B-21 has nuclear-strike capabilities and different needs for facilities on base. Security and infrastructure will be increased at Ellsworth as the B-21's arrival date approaches.
Gov. Kristi Noem said she met Willis Johnson just a while ago while looking at old-fashioned cars.

She said Johnson has never been a political contributor of hers, and was introduced to him a short time ago through acquaintances and friends.

Noem announced this week she was deploying up to 50 South Dakota National Guard troops to Texas at Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts request to secure the Texas-Mexico border. Johnson fit the bill with a $1 million donation to the state, the Associated Press reported.

Johnson lives in Tennessee and built Copart Inc., which is a publicly traded global business dealing with cars. He previously donated to President Donald Trumps campaign and has given at least $2.3 million to federal campaigns over the last decade.

This is an incredibly important issue for our country, Noem said. In my opinion, the National Guard is best suited for going down there and securing our border. This is what our National Guard does, and people need to remember theyre trained and equipped for missions to go into situations exactly like what were seeing.
Yet the pay-to-play transaction also highlights another way that big-dollar donors have insinuated themselves into governmental process to drive decisions. It also shows the lengths to which some GOP governors will go to show their fealty to Trump even as they try to position themselves for higher office.

We dont need this donation and whether its legal or not, its a terrible idea because it looks like our guardsmen are being used as political pawns, said South Dakota state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, a Democrat.

Noem's spokesman Ian Fury said the money would help alleviate the cost to taxpayers of deploying the 50-person contingent, adding that it could legally be accepted into a state fund designated for responding to emergencies and disasters. South Dakota currently has a budget surplus, something Noem has boasted about.

South Dakota state law suggests that's not the way such donations are intended to be used. The law states that the fund can only be used to meet special emergency requirements of the Division of Emergency Management, an agency tasked with preparing the state for natural disasters or other emergencies.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday designated 17 countries as not doing enough to combat human trafficking and warned them of potential U.S. sanctions. The administration also called out several U.S. allies and friends, including Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Turkey, for backsliding in their efforts.

The designations came in the State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons report, which cited the coronavirus pandemic as a cause for a surge in human slavery between 2020 and 2021. The report covering 188 nations and territories said the outbreak had put millions more people at risk for exploitation and distracted some governments from efforts to stem human trafficking.

The report classified the 17 mostly authoritarian nations as Tier 3 for failing to meet minimal standards to stop what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called an inhumane cycle of discrimination and injustices. The designation means that without a presidential waiver those countries could lose some U.S. assistance, although decisions on such penalties will not be made until later this year.
We will also have an (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant room with a bathroom and shower. We have not been able to do that in the rental house. Im so excited well be able to do that, Beam said.

Passages has raised more than $774,500 in cash and pledges toward the cost of its new residential facility, including a recent $300,000 grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation and $300,000 from the John T. Vucurevich Foundation.

In addition to the land, Beam said architectural site plans and some engineering work has been donated. Scull Construction is donating dirt work, and other companies have agreed to donate some labor and supply some materials at cost.

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Were so grateful. Theres too many people even to list that have made this possible for us, with a lot of volunteers and donors and hearts put into this, Beam said.

Founded in 2008, Passages provides a safe, supportive environment for women who are newly out of incarceration or homelessness. Women can live in the Passages house while they spend six to 18 months in the program. The women accepted to the program come from the South Dakota Womens Prison, the Pennington County Jail, Pennington County Drug Court program, treatment centers and the Cornerstone Rescue Mission. More than 140 women have gone through the program so far.
Captain of the RCPDs Investigations Division James Johns said that cannabis is not a commonly arrestable offense, though, and usually charges occur in conjunction with another, larger crime. Post-July 1, determining whether an arrest is necessary will depend on the circumstances of a particular situation and will be based on whether other charges are filed.

The true beast, he said, would be enforcing the laws for people who do not follow the rules or are using cannabis recreationally.

If youre at a big party and everybodys rolling a joint and smoking it, then thats still going to be illegal under Initiated Measure 26. You have to have a medical reason to be in possession of marijuana, Johns said.

The medical law has a provision to protect patients before cards are issued, but it is not a valid defense for recreational users.

People have to be informed about what theyre doing. Ignorance of the law is not a defense. So if somebody is going to be out there making a choice to have marijuana or be around marijuana or use marijuana, they better be making an informed decision, because if theyre wrong, there will be consequences, he said.

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The South Dakota Department of Health announced on Wednesday a preliminary list of conditions that will be covered by the states medical cannabis program. The program is in effect as of July 1. More than 70% of voters passed Initiated Measure 26 to legalize medicinal cannabis in the November election.

Under the law passed by the voters, patients must be experiencing a debilitating medical condition and be certified by a doctor that medical cannabis will help alleviate their condition, South Dakota Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon said in a news release. This preliminary list of conditions meets the definition as passed by the voters, and is a result of feedback the department has already received. A process will be available for South Dakotans to petition to add more conditions to this list in the future.

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The preliminary list of conditions includes:

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV);

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrigs disease;

Multiple sclerosis (MS);

Cancer associated with severe or chronic pain, nausea or severe vomiting, or cachexia or severe wasting;

Crohns disease;

Epilepsy and seizures;

Glaucoma; and

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Then, ownership of the ranch bordering the fort changed. Yahraus, who purchased the land in 2017, was instrumental in working with the FWP to provide the acre for the lot.

Her willingness and friendliness to work with Montana FWP is why we were able to purchase this piece of land from her and welcome back visitors in a really positive fashion, said Maci Macpherson, park manager of the Bitterroot District of Montana State Parks and project coordinator at Fort Owen.

In addition to Yahraus selling of the land, MacPherson pointed to a $507,500 grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust  as well as a $80,000 stipend from Montanas Department of Commerces heritage program  as being significant in the development of the parking lot and future restoration and revamping projects.

The parking lot is only the beginning, MacPherson said. Plans are in place to begin historic preservation efforts on the adobe brick of the parks eastern building, as well as develop a plan for community engagement  things like exhibits and school field trips. The fact that there now is room for a bus to park opens many doors.

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Public lands are such an enormous part of our economy. We're seeing that now, Bishop said.  ... (Voters) get to see the things that Im fighting for when were talking about public lands and were talking about child care and housing and mental health and what these mean for Montanans and their economy. These arent the things that I think hes standing up for and talking about, and he has a record that isnt going to look like my record.

Bishop said that as part of the Democratic-minority leadership team in the 2019 Legislative session, she was a member of the group that worked to broker an infrastructure deal after years of stagnation and extend the states Medicaid program. She was also a part of leadership in this year's session.

In 2016, Bishop won House District 60 in Livingston and went on to re-election in 2018 and 2020. Republicans previously won the seat in 2012 and 2014.

I'm coming out of a district that ... has elected both Republicans and Democrats. I've been successful in being a part of what's helped to make that a stronger Democratic seat, but threading that needle requires really having the sensibility that someone who comes out of a community like that has, and I think that's a really good fit for a congressional seat, Bishop said.
Commissioners also chose to put off for another year a new accounting method that assures NorthWesterns fixed costs are recovered but that the utility isn't overpaid.

Those fixed costs are associated with things likes service, transmission and power plant expenses, which are fairly flat, unlike fuel costs which can vary. Residential customers would have been rebated $9.5 million this fall had the accounting method been in place, according to PSC analysts. The accounting method had been delayed a year at NorthWesterns request at the start of the pandemic, which the utility argued was too unpredictable for trying a new accounting method.

This spring, NorthWestern asked the commission to put off the accounting method again, for another year, citing again the unknowns of the lingering pandemic. But PSC analysts said the pandemic didnt create the unpredictability NorthWestern suggested. There were soft boundaries on conditions in which the fixed costs the accounting mechanism was expected to operate. During the pandemic, costs didnt stray outside those limits. In other words, nothing happened at the electric meter that the accounting method couldnt handle.

However, Commissioner Brad Johnson said the first year of the pandemic was so unusual it was hard to know how the new accounting method would work in the second year.
Strandquist said that he met McBride last year when they were working on a mural together across from the Virginia Commonwealth University police station.

When we first met, she was 13 or 14 and smarter, more creative, more passionate than most adults Ive met in my life, Strandquist said.

McBride, who has been involved with RISE for Youth, said that she wanted to use her art to try to make a difference in my community. I want to fight for the people who cant fight. It gives me a platform and a way to be heard.

Valerie Slater, executive director of RISE for Youth, said she sees the Freedom Constellations as a call to action.

We are laser-focused that youth incarceration becomes a thing of the past, she said. Were advocating to change the justice system. To change communities. To make sure that all opportunities are available to youth. A healthy community is a thriving one where children dont find themselves entangled in the justice system.
Using Helvetica font for time stamps and title cards, Bravo refers to the texts digital origins while creating a sense of urgency and impending doom, which is underscored by a motif of shots barreling down the highway in Tampa. Zola (Taylour Paige) met Stefani (Riley Keough) only a few days earlier, waiting tables. When Stefani invites Zola to dance at a strip club in Florida, she jumps at the chance, and right into a black Mercedes G-Wagon belonging to Stefanis roommate (Colman Domingo), with Stefanis boyfriend, Derrek (Nicholas Braun), along for the ride.

After one brief, gloriously euphoric moment, the bloom is almost immediately off the road-trip rose, as Zola realizes shes made a terrible mistake joining the obnoxious and shifty Stefani. Paige has the gift of an icy stare that Bravo puts to good use: the annoyance that Zola feels is palpable.

But this isnt just about being stuck on a trip with someone you despise, as the weekend jaunt devolves into chaos. Stefanis roommate is her pimp, and he expects the girls to work, not just the pole. Zola is too confident and self-possessed to be pushed into sex work by a stranger, but she stays with Stefani in a sisterly attempt at protection and solidarity, and ultimately becomes something of a madam herself.
Virginia Commonwealth University and ChamberRVA have received a $250,000 grant in hopes of filling the shortage of paid internships for college students in the Richmond area.

Awarded by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the funds will support a new initiative called the RVA-VTOP Collaborative, or Virginia Talent Opportunity Partnership, and is designed to keep more area college graduates working locally.

These days, employers are more likely to ask for internship experience on their job postings, said Beth Weisbrod, who leads talent retention and recruitment for ChamberRVA. Applicants with internship experience in their field are more likely to succeed after they gain a full-time job.

And yet, the same employers arent offering enough internships, causing a shortage.

While large companies are more likely to offer them, smaller companies often cant afford to or dont see the value in them. Its unclear how many internships exist in the Richmond area and how many are enough.

What is clear is that there is more demand than there is opportunity, Weisbrod said.
Freestanding stone chimneys  representative of what was left of the many abandoned and burned-out homes on park land  have come to be the iconic symbol of the organization and the monuments. On each memorial chimney, a plaque displays the surnames of families and landowners displaced from the mountains in that county.

If you go up in the park today, youll find quite a few chimneys still standing, Bill Henry, who founded the Blue Ridge Heritage Project, told me in 2017. The first chimney I came across in the backcountry was a very powerful experience. I didnt know the whole story back then. It was like, Wow, somebody lived here.

Once I learned about the people being evicted and the houses being burned  the chimneys left standing really had a lot of meaning to me, said Henry, a retired school teacher in the area who grew up in Fairfax County and regularly visited Shenandoah National Park as a child, but has no personal connection to the displaced families. The chimneys show the determination and spirit of the mountain people.
As the holiday approaches, fire departments statewide are confiscating tens of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks and warning users that setting them off could lead to devastating wildfires. Los Angeles police on Thursday announced that they seized another ton of illegal fireworks from a shipping container and the bomb squad trucked it to a storage facility.

In LA, Moore said on Wednesday that three box trucks and a 53-foot (16-meter) trailer were brought in to load up the fireworks at the South Los Angeles home and move them to a safe location. However, the improvised explosives that were also found were too dangerous to move, the chief said.

There was a 300-foot (91-meter) boundary around the vessel  a typical safety range  and police had knocked on doors before the blast to evacuate homes on both sides of the street where the truck was parked. But firefighters later found people in some of the homes, officials said.

It's not unusual for bomb squads to not know exactly what comprises the homemade explosives they are detonating, Diaczuk said.

You dont know what youre dealing with. You dont know what this character made, he said. It doesnt come with ingredients in it like when you go to the grocery store.
Youngkin has made his business experience and status as a political outsider central to his pitch to voters. But more often than not, he discusses his career in broad strokes, without mentioning his lofty position or even the name of his former firm.

Asked in a February interview with a former state lawmaker that was streamed on social media how he viewed the role of private equity in the economy, Youngkin responded: We invest in companies, and we try to take good companies and make them great companies. And we do that by helping them expand.

While creating big profits for the firms investors, Carlyles deals sometimes triggered layoffs, outsourced jobs and complaints from the people served by the companies acquired.

The details in some cases may be politically damaging for Youngkin, but the situation is also complicated for his Democratic critics, who have tried to portray Youngkin as too close to former President Donald Trump. McAuliffe himself invested in Carlyle before and after becoming Virginias governor in 2014.
Most new laws approved earlier this year by the Virginia General Assembly go into effect on July 1.

This years session was the second year Democrats had full control of the General Assembly since flipping the House of Delegates in 2019. While marijuana was one of the top issues, heres a recap of some other new laws that will affect people:

State employee raises

The budget includes money for a 5% raise for teachers, state employees, college and university faculty and employees, and state-supported local employees like sheriffs deputies. State troopers will get an additional 3% raise, plus money for each year of service.

Death penalty

After punting on the issue in 2020, the General Assembly passed measures to make Virginia the first state in the South to end capital punishment.

Voting rights
When he was in his early 20s, Earl Tillett took the clothes out of the armoire in his bedroom and retrofitted it into a grow room. At the time, it was a mix of curiosity and recreation.

I was brought up on a farm, and I wanted to grow something. I went from starting off in a greenhouse and my mom tearing my bud up, said Tillett, now 46.

For the New Kent County resident, who served in the U.S. Army and later lost a leg in an accident, marijuana has become more than a pleasure or hobby: Its therapy, pain relief and a salve for post-traumatic stress.

For Anah Johnson, 26, getting her hands in the soil to care for a marijuana plant is a way of reconnecting with my ancestry and culture.

Marijuana is an ancestral medicine for Black people, said Johnson, praising what she describes as the metaphysical properties of the plant. But instead of that legacy being nurtured, she said, marijuana has instead been used to vilify and target people in the Black community, even though white people smoke just as much as Black people.

Her hopes of growing marijuana wont involve expensive tents or light other than what comes from the sun. I really just want to put them in soil and watch them grow, said Johnson, a Richmond resident.
The decision preserved a buffer for many tenants still seeking to get caught up on balances that have accrued since the pandemic hit and jobs vanished. At the same time, Virginia let lapse several key state protections geared toward helping tenants get caught up.

Under a state of emergency order that expired Wednesday, Virginia had required landlords to notify tenants about how to apply for rent relief through the states program or apply or seek the money to cover delinquent balances tenants owe. The state had also barred landlords from proceeding with an eviction for 45 days while waiting for a relief application to be approved.

With the federal moratorium soon to expire, ensuring tenants know about, and can access, the states $1 billion pot of rent relief is crucial, said Marty Wegbreit, director of litigation for the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.

Its remarkable how much of a lack of knowledge there is about both the CDC eviction protections and the rent relief program, Wegbreit said.

As of mid-June, the state has paid $263.7 million in federal and state relief funds for about 41,400 renter households, according to data provided by the Department of Housing and Community Development. Thousands of other applications remained incomplete or pending in the states pipeline.
The daily number of cases have been dropping, but experts worry that could change in the fall because the virus is more likely to thrive in cooler weather. Dr. Danny Avula, state vaccine coordinator, said more people will need to be vaccinated to slow transmission of variants of the virus.

State and local health departments can still access federal funding for extensive vaccination strategies after Wednesday since the national state of emergency is ongoing.

Here are the following protections that either ended or changed upon the orders expiration:

Masks

Virginia law prohibits people from wearing face coverings to hide their identity with an exception of a public health crisis. The state of emergency precluded arrests on the state law regarding wearing masks in public or on private property  a Class 6 felony.

People who are not vaccinated are encouraged to wear a mask, according to Northams spokesperson Alena Yarmosky. Regardless of someones vaccination status, people must wear a mask on modes of public transportation traveling within, into or outside the U.S.
The law is intended to get crisis patients into care as rapidly as possible, before their conditions can worsen and before they can put themselves or others in danger.

It was passed because of the experience of state Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who had sought emergency care for his son. Gus Deeds was sent back home after a regional mental health employee said he could not find a bed for him; hours later, the young man attacked his father and killed himself.

Mandating placement for patients in this kind of extremis is well-intentioned. What wasnt anticipated was just how many patients would need such interventions, or how seriously these placements would overwhelm hospitals and staff.

A legislative group known as the Deeds Commission is working hard to find solutions, and find them quickly.

Speed is necessary because the General Assembly will meet in early August to determine what to do with the $4-plus billion that Virginia received from the American Rescue Plan.
King's legacy at odds

with CRT teachings

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

The Rev. Martin L. King Jr.s famous dream that the day will come when we judge each other by our character and not by the color of our skin has been turned on its head.

Enter the sheer lunacy called critical race theory (CRT). At the very core of this mutated ideology is the demand that if your skin is white you intrinsically are an oppressor and are perpetrating systemic racism. Anyone who disagrees with this premise is simply a racist needing re-educating. CRT trashes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by cutting at the very root of equality and justice.

Divinity treats us all alike. God has created all human beings equally with the same privileges  a very common-sense matter unless you subscribe to CRT, which seeks to establish the very evil it claims to eradicate. The immense progress this country has made in race relations rapidly is on track to be obliterated if CRT is left unchecked.
Happy Marijuana Freedom Day in the commonwealth of Virginia! For the first time in generations, its legal for adults to possess small amounts of weed and to grow up to four marijuana plants. Its also legal for them to (privately) consume the devils lettuce, but not to buy or sell the plant.

Whether you realize it or not, this marks a sea change in Virginia politics. Surely you recall less than a decade ago, when Virginias attorney general tried to redraw the 1776 state seal because (gasp!) it depicts a bare boobie. Weve come a long way from such paroxysms of prudery.

Unfortunately, Virginias legal-weed law has significant shortcomings. As it now stands, retail sales of recreational pot wont begin until 2024. In the meantime we can grow and use our own. But that presents a cannabis conundrum. Where can we find seeds?

In the 1970s when I was at the University of Maryland, that question was laughable. Back then, every $30 ounce of black-market Mexican ditch weed sported enough seeds to sow a quarter-acre patch. But most pot smokers didnt bother.

Instead, we cleaned weed using the cardboard cover from any double vinyl-record album. Believe it or not, that was one of the eras down-low social skills.
The box contained a metal pipe with two end caps and a fuse inserted into a hole drilled into the apparatus, officials said. The device didnt contain explosive powder but agents said powder was found nearby in an ammunition reloading station housed in the outbuilding.

Both Robertson and a Roanoke-based store told authorities that he never picked up the new gun orders being held for him. The store owner said Robertson had come in to see some of the firearms but told staff that the conditions of the courts bond prohibited him from taking them.

Prosecutors wrote that it was illegal for someone under felony indictment to ship, transport, or receive firearms or ammunition in interstate or foreign commerce.

They asked the court to revoke Robertsons bond, arguing that he has flouted his release conditions, and instead hold him in custody pending trial.

Robertson had not yet filed a response Wednesday. An email sent to him late that evening did not draw an immediate reply. He is accused of obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building, and disorderly conduct in the federal case.
As the largest state by population yet to switch to managed care, North Carolinas foray into privatized Medicaid will be watched closely by other states and Medicaid experts. In mid-2018, almost 70% of the nations Medicaid enrollees were participating in managed care plans in nearly 40 states, or about 54 million people, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data. Enrollment

For decades, Medicaid has used a traditional fee-for-service process, whereby providers bill the state for each test or procedure. Now health plans will receive monthly payments for each patient enrolled. For example, health plans initially will receive on average $170 monthly for each covered child and $420 for each adult, according to Department of Health and Human Services data.

The plans financial gains or losses will depend on whats left over after medical expenses and other costs. Healthier patients could mean monetary bonuses, with financial penalties possible for poorer outcomes.

Patients have signed up for a health plan  some operated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield and United Healthcare and others with less familiar names like WellCare and AmeriHealth Caritas  or have been enrolled automatically in one. Medical providers have entered into contracts with plans and consumers are being told what to expect.
While McAuliffes ties to big donors and lobbyists are well-established, Youngkin has only begun to confront difficult questions about his business background. His team declined to address any of Carlyle's specific deals.

As a young man, Glenn joined a small company and over the next 25 years worked his way up to the top of the company, helping to grow it into a hugely successful enterprise that turned good businesses into great businesses, created tens of thousands of jobs, and funded the retirement pensions of police officers, firefighters, and teachers," said Youngkin spokesman Macaulay Porter. Under Glenns leadership, The Carlyle Group employed nearly 2,000 people and managed assets totaling nearly four times the size of Virginias yearly budget.

Youngkin has made his business experience and status as a political outsider central to his pitch to voters. But more often than not, he discusses his career in broad strokes, without mentioning his lofty position or even the name of his former firm.

He leans on the phrase building business and creating jobs when talking about his career, typically without specific description of the types of deals he oversaw.
PENHOOK  Patrols are ramping up in anticipation of another busy Fourth of July weekend at Smith Mountain Lake.

Conservation police officers with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources are encouraging boaters to be safe and sober this weekend with heavy traffic expected on the water.

Friday marks the start of the departments Operation Dry Water, a national awareness and enforcement campaign focused on reducing the number of alcohol and drug related fatalities on the water. It will continue into the Fourth of July weekend.

In addition to increasing awareness, a greater presence of conservation officers is expected this weekend to deter any bad behavior by boaters. Sgt. James Slaughter said between three and five boat patrols are expected to be on the water at any time during the weekend  especially at peak times in the afternoon and during lakes two scheduled fireworks shows on the water.

We anticipate this being a really busy weekend, Slaughter said.

The department has charged four people on Smith Mountain Lake with operating a boat under the influence of drugs or alcohol so far this year. Slaughter said it is not as much as in previous years, but the number is still concerning. It is up from where we would like to see it, he said.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Roanoke Times and 33 other newspapers in the ARC states have agreed to participate.

Each op-ed will be unique and put forth a governors respective vision for the region and will not be edited for content. I want to thank Dwayne Yancey of the Roanoke Times for collaborating with the governors offices on this project.

Through these op-eds, you will find that states throughout Appalachia have a lot in common.

We have an opportunity through the Appalachian Regional Commission to show that Republicans and Democrats can work together and rally around common causes.

From Pennsylvania to Alabama, over the next several weeks you will hear from a diverse group of leaders. At the end of these op-eds Gov. Northam will host the annual ARC meeting in Southwest Virginia.

Over the course of a few days in early October, governors and their staffs will discuss priorities for the region and enjoy fellowship and fun with the many outdoor recreational opportunities this part of the state has to offer.

Virginians have a lot to be proud of in terms of what has been accomplished over the last four years.
While I have seen letters concerning the Congressional Representative from the 6th District, all seem quiet about our newly elected Representative from the 5th District Bob Good.

If only I were writing to say he has lived up to his namecliche or not. Alas, his lack of experience and judgment is evident by his votes and actions that are not good.

I dont rush to judgment, even if the politician is someone I did not vote for. I corresponded directly to Mr. Good by email.

He responded a week later but failed to answer a number of my concerns. In addition, he hinted that he was only interested in the concerns of the 74 million that voted for the former president.

Going in, he was a believer in the Big Lie, and he sided with those in Congress willing to overturn the votes of people from other states. Why would there only be fraud in the Presidential contest, when many Republicans were elected on the same ballot? Time to take down the Trump 2020 signs.

I wrote to Mr. Good after he voted against the Asian Hate Crime Bill. I simply asked, why? Before I sent the message, I happened to see a photo of him standing next to Marjorie Taylor Greene and her other allies. So, I added a comment expressing my dismay at his alliances.
The Islamic finance industry is already worth over $2 trillion, and S&P Global Ratings estimates that this year and next will see it grow by up to 12% with an infusion of various tech products that offer Muslim markets a way to access the broader market with ethical products and services.

Saudi Islamic Development Bank estimates that global Islamic finance assets will reach $3.69 trillion by 2024.

Most recently, British asset manager Ethos Invest announced plans to raise $1.39 billion for what it set to become the world's biggest Sharia-compliant fintech-focused private equity fund, which will target small and medium-sized firms, between $50 million and $200 million in size.

It will focus on companies in areas including banking, asset management, payments and life sciences, using technology including blockchain, robotics and cybersecurity, and will largely be deployed in the UK, but with additional investments in Europe, Saudi Arabia, Southeast Asia, and even North America.

As well as helping companies in Muslim markets with ethical products and services access the broader global market, the fund would also look to help Western firms go the other way, Dr Quintan Wiktorowicz, partner at Ethos Invest said in press release.

Islamic finance encompasses business and financial practices that are compatible with Islamic (Sharia) law. In a nutshell, it is supposed to be interest-free, risk-free and with no speculation (short-selling and gambling). Transactions that lack transparency are also banned.

Considering that Islamic financial instruments can potentially offer higher profits and are less risky than non-Islamic assets, they also stand to be increasingly attractive to non-Muslim investors, especially in a world where ESG is taking over.

Also, due the fact that tobacco, alcohol and gambling are forbidden in Islam, some investors see those stocks as alternative, more ethical investing.

Still, one of main factors behind the growth of the Shariah-compliant funds industry lies in the simple fact that Muslims represent about a quarter of the worlds population. Yet, at the same time less than 1% of global financial assets are Shariah-compliant.

In the UK alone, Islam is the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom, according to the latest census with Muslim population of 2.5 million or 4.4% of the total population. Recent survey of British Muslims found that 90 percent would want to use Islamic finance, but fewer than 25 percent were actually using it.

Islamic fintech is arguably the area that has received the most attention recently in the industry. In the UK, there are some 30 Islamic fintech companies, which abide by interest-free Sharia laws and avoid unethical investments

Other than that, asset management and Islamic insurance are the most growing sectors of the Islamic Finance.

Over the next 12 months, we could see progress on a unified global legal and regulatory framework for Islamic finance  we believe that such a framework could help resolve the lack of standardization and harmonization that the Islamic finance industry has faced for decades, S&P said.

The ratings agency also said that the industry is expected to receive some support in the coming two years in Saudi Arabia, where mortgages and corporate lending are expected to rise.
Home News Kid Superheroes: Saving the Planet, One Environmental Issue at a Time!

July 2021

Superheroes are all around us, but they arent wearing capes or running at super speed. Instead, theyre passionate kids, using their voices and demanding to be heard, especially when it comes to sparking environmental change. This Clean Beaches Week (July 1-7), were sharing examples of how kids are making a difference in their communities (and beyond) as evidenced through research by Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar, Jenna Hartley.

All over the world, youth are making a difference in impacting adult attitudes and improving the environment. In Thailand, after learning about forest degradation in their classes, students created change through organizing tree plantings and speaking up against forest burning. Within the United States, the NOAA Ocean Guardian School Program has empowered students to push for environmental policy change. Through this program, Adams Elementary students advocated for the Skip the Straw campaign at a Santa Barbara City Council Meeting. In turn, council members were so moved that they enacted a plastic straw ban.

These noteworthy kids demonstrate the power of intergenerational learning (IGL), the bi-directional transfer of knowledge across generations. IGL has the potential to initiate a chain reaction in which youth learn about environmental issues from their teachers and can then spread this knowledge to their peers and adults, both within and beyond the family unit. Through this process, people of all ages can work together to tackle environmental issues.

Okay, we see that youth can teach adults about environmental issues, but how much of an impact do they really make?

NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar, Jenna Hartley has set out to answer this question. As a former classroom teacher and environmental education specialist, Jenna believes deeply in the power of young people in creating environmental and community solutions. Jenna also recently served a two-year term in the Education Seat on the Sanctuary Advisory Council for Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, working alongside site staff to consider innovative approaches to marine science education. Jenna is currently completing her PhD research at North Carolina State University under the advisorship of environmental education researcher Dr. Kathryn Stevenson. Jenna's research examines the role of students as environmental change-agents in their communities, specifically on the topic of marine debris and plastic pollution.

Fourth and fifth grade students attended a Fuquay-Varina Town Hall meeting with the mayor and Board of Commissioners after presenting on the topic of marine debris. Photo courtesy of Jenna Hartley

Stemming from this research, Hartley and her colleagues recently conducted a study that found a quantitative increase in adults levels of concern about marine debris and support for a marine debris ordinance following youth presentations. Hartley and her research team discovered that young people were able to bring together typically-polarized political identities, through both in-person events and virtual outreach methods such as youth-led public service announcement (PSA) videos. These findings are really encouraging, especially for kids to know that they have power, said Hartley. Even educators and parents should understand that kids can have a really important voice in their communities.

By speaking up and sharing their opinions and behaviors with adults, students are able to affect environmental policy. As the mayor of Fuquay-Varina, John Byrne, said after hearing one of the youth presentations at a Town Hall meeting, We've got to use things sensibly. It's deeper than just plastics. 'Where do we want our world to be 50 years from now?' ... We learned a lesson today from our young people.

It takes a village. Lets find out how YOU fit into this superhero narrative!

Students: Activate your kid powers today by learning as much as you can about the environment and sharing your knowledge proudly with the world! Some fun ways to initiate change in your community include making PSA videos, giving formal presentations to adults in political venues (i.e., your town or City Hall meetings), or even just having conversations about marine debris at the dinner table. Beach clean-ups are also a great way to get your community actively involved in making a difference. If you dont live near the beach, you can clean up trash around any local waterway!

Teachers: Kid powers cant come to life without your help! Support students and amplify their voices by helping them craft PSA videos in class, hosting poetry nights, or organizing any other event that helps students reach adults. Be creative and implement engaging elements that target your students interests. To use the activities used in this study, see the free marine debris curriculum developed by the Duke University Marine Lab.

One fifth grade teacher, Crystal Holland, added some friendly competition to a cleanup event to get her students engaged. We did our river clean-up and had a blast. I made it a contest between our two fifth grade classes and I couldn't believe what they found, said Holland.

The clean-up took place right by their school, and students and teachers alike were amazed by the plethora of debris collected. Ms. Hollands river clean-up shows that you dont need to travel far to make an event meaningful. Change can be made just around the corner, and thats exactly where it should start.

A student from Wrightsville Beach School helps out at a beach clean-up. Photo courtesy of Jenna Hartley. Two students from Isaac Dickson Elementary School take part in an outdoor clean-up. Photo courtesy of Jenna Hartley

Parents and Community Members: Empower the kids of your community by listening. Their superhero voices can speak only as loud as youre willing to hear. Be open to conversations that challenge your own thinking, and spread what you learn to others.

Looking for programs to get you started?

There are several NOAA programs related to youth engagement with environmental science and policy. Here are three to consider:

Ocean Guardian School Program - Ocean Guardian schools commit to the conservation of local watersheds, the worlds ocean, and special ocean areas, like national marine sanctuaries. Students can partake in critical learning projects and opportunities related to sustainability and conservation.



Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Programs - K-12 educators and students can gain an authentic experiential learning experience through meaningful watershed educational experiences.



Marine Debris Program - Citizens can receive funding for their marine debris projects, and projects can focus on marine debris removal, prevention, and research.

Theres no need to fear, the superhero kids are here!

Environmental issues such as marine debris present ongoing challenges, but with a little help from adults, superhero kids can save the day. To learn more about Hartleys study and how kids had a positive impact in their local communities, read the article published in Frontiers in Political Science.

Lauren Miller and Jackie Jaffe are students at Duke University and are DukeEngage interns for the Duke University Marine Lab Community Science Initiative. Jenna Hartley is a PhD Candidate at North Carolina State University and a NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  A longtime county official in South Carolina announced Wednesday that he's switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, a move that the state GOP chairman says shows a deepening conservatism despite blue trends in neighboring states.

Scott Suggs, who has been Darlington County's clerk of court since 1997, said that he had been pondering the party switch for years, due to what he characterized as shifts in Democrats that made the party unrecognizable compared to that of years past.

I take my job very seriously, and, because of the outrageous policies of the national Democratic Party, I can no longer serve with a D behind my name," Suggs said. My commitment to Darlington County is as strong as its ever been, and Im ready to keep working for the people who live here.

Suggs wife, Angie Suggs, won the county auditors race last year by five points as a Republican. State GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said that election, plus Scott Suggs' party switch, now means Republicans control half of the elected positions in Darlington courthouse.

That feat, McKissick said, represents the GOP's growth across the board in South Carolina, where the party controls both legislative chambers, all statewide-elected offices and all but one congressional delegation seats.
 When might we expect appointments to a new  a truly new  US Sentencing Commission? | Main | "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Imposes a Moratorium on Federal Executions; Orders Review of Policies and Procedures" 

July 1, 2021

Encouraging(?) update on prospects for series of small federal sentencing reform bills

Politico has this new piece on the the prospects for (small) statutory sentencing reforms making their way through Congress soon. Both the headline and contents of the article are generally encouraging, though one is always wise not to expect much from Congress these days. The piece, headlined "As police reform talks sputter, bipartisan criminal justice bills advance," should be read in full by federal sentencing fans. Here are a few highlights:

Democrats don't want to borrow a thing from Donald Trumps four years in power, with perhaps one exception: bipartisan criminal justice reform. As police reform talks edge closer to collapse and Democratic priorities from gun control to immigration stall, the Senate is chugging ahead on an overhaul of the U.S. criminal justice system that advanced under Trump. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) described criminal justice reform as a personal priority for himself and his GOP counterpart, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.... House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this week that he expects both chambers will "be moving a series of bipartisan criminal justice reform bills ... to deal with the mass incarceration epidemic that we have in America and the over-criminalization problem which both Democrats and Republicans recognize as a challenge that must be decisively tackled." Whether Republicans back criminal justice reform to the extent that they did in 2018 remains to be seen. The First Step Act, which included sentencing as well as prison reform provisions, passed the Senate with 38 GOP votes but only after many conservatives got on board following a personal appeal from Trump. A potentially stronger deterrent than a Democrat in the White House, for some Republicans weighing this year's bills, is the current increase in violent crime. "A bigger issue is the big rise in crime in the last year, Grassley said in an interview. I think thats the biggest impediment, not because Trumps not president. Durbin countered that the package he is working on with Grassley, a trio of bills, focuses on non-violent crime.... So far, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved three bills co-sponsored by Durbin and Grassley. The first would give inmates the ability to petition for the sentencing changes established in 2018 to apply retroactively, among other provisions. The second would prohibit a judge from considering any conduct for which a defendant was acquitted in sentencing. Finally, the third would expand eligibility for a program that allows elderly prisoners to serve out the remainder of their sentences at home. That measure also includes a provision that would allow vulnerability to Covid-19 to qualify as a reason for compassionate release. But criminal justice reform advocates are pushing for the inclusion of more provisions in a larger package, especially legislation that would eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Biden administration recently backed the bill, and Durbin's committee held a hearing on it last month that featured GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson (Ark.), a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief, and Matthew Charles, the first person released from prison after the First Step Act passed in 2018. The road to closing that crack-cocaine sentencing disparity, a longtime progressive cause, is a hard one.... Advocates are hoping to see further movement before Congress leaves for its scheduled August recess. However, both Grassley and Durbin suggested that could be a heavy lift, given their limited days left in session and the intense focus on moving through both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and reconciliation. Durbin said he is working to pass his bills by voice vote, but if that doesnt work he will ask Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for floor time. Grassley predicted that some time in the fall would be more likely.... As Congress enters the second half of the year, proponents of criminal justice reform are confident that some type of legislation will get through, given the ideological range of groups pushing for change. Each member, both Republican and Democrat, have very much an interest in it based upon inequities that have happened because of past tough on crime legislation, Grassley said. But something that really helps is when you have a broad coalition of the most liberal and the most conservative interest groups in the United States working together for it.

Because there are many moving parts to the legislative proposals in play, and especially because of partisan divisions along with the fraught politics of crime, I fear that there could be many speed bumps on the way to congressional approval of even the small sentencing reform proposals that have so far advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee. But if there are enough folks on both side of the political aisle who remain eager to get something done in this space, and especially if the Biden Administration might be prepared to prioritize these issues after infrastructure discussions are resolved, I will be hopeful that we could see one or maybe more federal sentencing reform bills become law in 2021. But I should close by repeating what I said at the outset, namely that it is always wise not to expect much from Congress these days.

Some of many prior related posts:

July 1, 2021 at 06:16 PM | Permalink

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 "The Puzzle of Clearance Rates, and What They Can Tell Us About Crime, Police Reform, and Criminal Justice" | Main | "Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification Laws: An Empirical Evaluation" 

July 1, 2021

Hoping grandmothers and others on home confinement get compassionate consideration

In prior posts (some linked below), I have discussed the Office of Legal Counsel memo which interprets federal law to require that certain persons transferred to home confinement pursuant to the CARES Act be returned to federal prison when the pandemic ends. There has been particular advocacy directed toward Prez Biden urging him to use his clemency powers to keep these persons from being returned to federal prison, and I have recently argued Congress could and should address this matter with a statutory fix. But, critically, judges also might be able to grant relief on a case-by-case basis via sentence reduction motions under the (so-called compassionate release) statutory provisions of 18 U.S.C.  3582(c)(1)(A).

One person at risk of serving many more years in prison after success on home confinement, Gwen Levi, is getting particular attention because she seems like low-risk person who has already been re-incarcerated on the basis of a seemingly minor technical violation. Here are just some of the stories discussing her plight:

From The Root, " 76-Year-Old Black Woman Released From Prison Amid Pandemic, Sent Back for Missing Phone Calls While Taking a Class"

extraordinary and compelling reasonsFrom USA Today, "'Scared and confused': Elderly inmate sent home during COVID is back in prison after going to computer class"

From the Washington Post, "A grandmother didnt answer her phone during a class. She was sent back to prison."

Upon hearing about this story, I expressed on Twitter my hope that Gwen Levi was pursuing a compassionate release motion. Kevin Ring of FAMM informed me not only that she was, but also that he had submitted a letter in support of her effort to secure a sentence reduction. Kevin recently sent me a copy of this letter and has allowed me to post it here:

Download ECF 2079 Kevin Ring letter in support of comp. release

Though I do not know all the facts surrounding the crimes and current circumstances of Gwen Levi and the 4000 other persons on home confinement at risk of going back into federal prison, I do know that these situations certainly seem to present "extraordinary and compelling reasons" to consider whether further prison time is needed.

Some prior recent related posts:

July 1, 2021 at 01:22 AM | Permalink

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 Latest online issue of NACDL's "The Champion" full of sentencing articles | Main | When might we expect appointments to a new  a truly new  US Sentencing Commission? 

As detailed in this local article, Texas completed an execution last night just before the end of June. Here are some details:

Texas executed John Hummel Wednesday evening for the 2009 murders of his family members.

Hummel, 45, was sentenced to death by a Tarrant County jury in 2011 after the slayings of his pregnant wife, his 5-year-old daughter and his father-in-law at their Kennedale home. Police found their burned, beaten bodies in or near their beds after responding to an early morning fire, according to court records. Officials determined that they died by blunt-force injuries before the fire was set....

Shortly after 6 p.m., Hummel was escorted into the state's death chamber in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m., 13 minutes after he was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, according to prison reports....

Hummels appeals  including a push last year to have the Tarrant County District Attorneys Office taken off his case because his defense attorney at trial had become a leader in the prosecutors office  had been denied before Wednesday.

Last week, however, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sought to stop his execution because prison officials failed to let reporters witness a May execution for the first time in the history of the state's modern death penalty. Reporters for the Associated Press and the Huntsville Item, who attend every execution, were left waiting to be escorted from prison administrative offices across the street when Quinton Jones was killed. The same reporters were able to witness Hummel's execution Wednesday, Joseph Brown of the Huntsville newspaper, The Item, confirmed.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has said excluding the onsite reporters was a mistake, and has assured that media will be allowed in the future to observe as the state wields its greatest power over life. The agency blamed new execution staff, a revised execution protocol and a lack of oversight, according to a TDCJ statement....

Nationwide, reporters have served as watchdogs in botched executions in states that struggle to find lethal injection drugs as capital punishments popularity wanes. And Texas media reports often provide detail excluded from agency accounts of executions  like prisoners describing a burning sensation after lethal drugs are injected in their veins....

After the execution, Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said in a statement that the death penalty should be reserved for the worst crimes. "John Hummels actions were unconscionable," she added.

Hummels execution, originally set for last March, was the first in the state to be taken off the calendar because of the coronavirus pandemic. Texas has executed two people in the pandemic  Billy Wardlow last July and Jones last month. Thats an exceptionally low number for Texas, which leads the nation by far in executions. Aside from Hummel, four other mens executions were halted because of public health concerns.

So far, four other men are scheduled to be executed in Texas in 2021. Only one other execution in the nation is scheduled for 2021, in Nevada, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
 Texas completes only second state execution of first half of 2021 | Main | Encouraging(?) update on prospects for series of small federal sentencing reform bills 

July 1, 2021

When might we expect appointments to a new  a truly new  US Sentencing Commission?

As the calendar turns to July, it seems a good time to express my frustration that we are now nearly six months into the Biden Administration and there has not yet been any nominations to the US Sentencing Commission. As I have noted in a number of prior posts (some linked below), due to a lack of Sentencing Commissioners, the USSC has been only somewhat functional for only a small portion of the last five years, and the USSC has not had complete set of commissioners firmly in place for the better part of a decade. The USSC staff has completed lots of useful research and reports in the interim, but the FIRST STEP Act's passage in December 2018 makes it particularly problematic for the USSC to have been completely non-functional in terms of formal amendments or agendas in recent years.

Of course, the federal sentencing system can and does march on without a fully functioning USSC. But the lack of Commissioners is a significant lost opportunity for this significant agency to this particular moment. When functioning well, the USSC can and should be part of a hearty and healthy dialogue with Congress and the Justice Department, especially when these political branches are interested in criminal justice reforms. As I stressed in a recent post, "Timely reminder of US Sentencing Commission's decarceral potential ... when it is functional," even small changes to the US Sentencing Guidelines by the USSC can have a huge impact on criminal justice practices and the federal prison population. Moreover, as noted in this recent Bloomberg Law piece, headlined "Near-Vacant Sentencing Panel Gives Biden Chance for Fresh Start," the USSC these days could and should be thinking about a lot more than small guideline changes:

Six of seven possible seats on the U.S. Sentencing Commission remain empty, giving President Joe Biden an opportunity to remake the panel at a time when overhauling criminal justice is a rare example of bipartisan consensus.... In addition to taking up issues that have been unaddressed, a new set of commissioners could help review the decades-old sentencing guidelines wholesale to reflect a modern understanding of criminal justice, observers say. It is a great opportunity for the administration, said Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, who focuses on policy surrounding clemency, sentencing, and narcotics. Because if you want a great shot at really creating reform in the federal system, the guideline commission is one place to start. And the bipartisan consensus on the need to overhaul sentencing gives a new commission a chance to do things like simplify the guidelines, Osler said.... During the 2020 presidential race, Bidens campaign recommended tasking the Sentencing Commission with conducting a comprehensive review of existing sentencing guidelines and statutory sentencing ranges. The guidelines were drafted 40 years ago at a time when the emphasis was on punishment rather than rehabilitation, said Nancy Gertner, a former federal district judge in Massachusetts and a senior lecturer at Harvard who teaches law and neuroscience and has written about sentencing. Since then, the connection between the guidelines and mass incarceration is clearer and people have a better understanding of the science behind the issues that impact crime, such as mental health, she said. In my view, these are guidelines that need to be reexamined and reevaluated, Gertner said.

Back in February, I wrote a commentary, "Reviving the U.S. Sentencing Commission," which noted that the USSC has historically been dominated by persons with prosecutorial backgrounds; I also lamented that the USSC now needs six new confirmed members to get back to full strength and at least three new commissioners to even be somewhat functional. At that time, I did not reasonably expect to see needed nomination to the US Sentencing Commission until at least some Circuit and District Judge nominees were put forward. But yesterday, Prez Biden announced his fifth round of judicial nominees. The USSC, which is also in the judicial branch, needs to get appointments soon or there will be reason to fear we will not get confirmed Commissions in place until 2022 or even later.

I especially hope the frustrating wait for nominations will be rewarded soon with some terrific nominees for the Sentencing Commission who will be committed to thinking big about how to make federal sentencing sounder. Especially in light of the FIRST STEP Act and other national criminal justice developments, we need not just new US Sentencing Commissioners. The country could and would benefit from a truly new US Sentencing Commission committed not just to monitoring and managing the federal sentencing guidelines, but also to being a powerful advocate for humane, evidence-based sentencing systems throughout this great nation. Notably, what I wish to imagine today is what Judge Marvin Frankel ably urged a full 50 years ago when he first set out his ideas for a "Commission on Sentencing" at the very end of Criminal Sentencing: Law Without Order:

The uses of a commission [should be as] to marshal full-time wisdom and power against the ignorance and the barbarities that characterize sentencing for crimes today.... The need for change is clear. Our justly proud awareness that "we the people" have the power should carry with it a corollary sense of duty. It is our duty to see that the force of our state, when it is brought to bear through the sentences of our courts, is exerted with the maximum we can muster of rational thought, humanity, and compassion.

A few prior recent related posts:

July 1, 2021 at 02:54 PM | Permalink

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian warships have carried out a live fire training exercise in the Black Sea, the country's Black Sea fleet said on Thursday, as Ukraine and NATO countries held military drills in the same wider area.

The Sea Breeze drills, led by Ukraine and the United States, follow a spike in tensions between NATO and Moscow after Russia last week said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to expel it from its territorial waters near Crimea.

London said it did not recognise Moscow's account of the incident near the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Moscow had called for the Sea Breeze exercise to be cancelled before it began, and the Russian defence ministry has said it will react to safeguard national security if necessary.

Russia's Black Sea fleet said in a statement on Thursday carried by the Interfax news agency that the crews of two large landing ships had fired at sea and air targets in the Black Sea.

The drill came two days after Russia tested its air defence systems in Crimea.

In separate comments, Russia's defence ministry said it was tracking an Italian navy frigate after it entered the Black Sea on Thursday, Interfax reported.

Sea Breeze 2021 will last two weeks and involve about 5,000 military personnel from NATO and other allies, and around 30 ships and 40 aircraft, with U.S. missile destroyer USS Ross and the U.S. Marine Corps taking part.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn, William Maclean)
File image from January 2021 shows the police booking photo of Miya Ponsetto (AP)

A 22-year-old California woman who accused a Black teenager of stealing her phone after she left it in the back of a taxi has been charged with hate crimes.

On 26 December last year, at Arlo Hotel in New York City, Miya Ponsetto accused Keyon Harrold Jr - the 14-year-old son of Jazz musician Keyon Harrold - of stealing her phone. A viral video of the incident also appeared to show her attacking him. In the video, Ms Ponsetto is seen yelling at Keyon and lunging at him while he denies stealing her phone.

On Wednesday, Ms Ponsetto was arraigned in Manhattan and charged with hate crimes. She pleaded not guilty, appearing for her arraignment virtually.

Ms Ponsetto was arrested on 8 January in California and was charged in Manhattan with two counts of attempted assault, attempted robbery, grand larceny and endangering the welfare of a child. Reports said that she wasnt charged with a hate crime at that point. However, Harrold subsequently asked for hate crime charges to be levelled against her.

During the arraignment, assistant District attorney Sarah Marquez said a Lyft driver had returned her phone to the hotel, saying it was left in their vehicle.

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Ms Ponsetto was indicted by the grand jury of the county of New York on two counts of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree as a hate crime, aggravated harassment in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child, reports said.

Her attorney, Paul DEmilia, meanwhile told the media that the hate crime charges against her client were shameful.

Ms Ponsetto is due back in court in October.

Mr DEmilia said: The charges alleged are a brazen and clear overreach of the intent of the statute. In sum, they are absurd and a perversion of our legal system.
NEW YORK (AP)  Donald Trumps company and its longtime finance chief were charged Thursday in what prosecutors called a sweeping and audacious tax fraud scheme in which the executive collected more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition.
ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- The lawyer for a man granted a new trial in a Sioux County murder case has asked that it be conducted in another county.

Defense attorney Brendan Kelly said media coverage of Gregg Winterfeld's first trial, guilty verdict and a recent order for a new trial would make it hard to seat an impartial jury.

"Local sentiment against defendant apparently continues to run contrary to his receiving a fair trial in Sioux County," Kelly wrote in his motion for change of venue, filed Tuesday in Sioux County District Court.

District Judge Jeffrey Neary scheduled a hearing on the motion for Sept. 3. Winterfeld's trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 5.

Neary last month granted Winterfeld a new trial because of a mistake made while choosing the jury for his first trial, which ended in April with a jury finding him guilty of second-degree murder for the May 9, 2020, shooting death of Grant Wilson. Winterfeld, 71, of Spirit Lake, Iowa, had been charged with first-degree murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge.
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"We are aware of the litigation and are in the process of reviewing it," Kollbaum said in an emailed statement.

Doug Phillips, a Sioux City attorney representing the city and Hegenbarth, declined to comment.

The suit stems from a Feb. 9, 2020, incident in which Cundiff's roommate Kyiah Kastner created a video showing roommate Ellie Thompson putting dried skin shavings from her heel into a bag of shredded cheese belonging to a fourth roommate. The video, as well as a video and pictures showing the roommate, unaware of the skin, eating the cheese, were posted on Snapchat. Kastner later admitted to school officials she shaved Thompson's skin and put it in the cheese bag, the lawsuit said.

An initial report compiled by NCC administrators, based in part on statements from other students, indicated Cundiff was involved in the incident with Kastner and Thompson. The college fined the three $100, moved them into separate dorm rooms and put them on notice they'd be evicted from on-campus housing in case of another violation. Cundiff also was stripped of her role as a student ambassador.
SIOUX CITY -- District Judge Patrick Tott has been appointed chief judge in Iowa's 3rd Judicial District.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen announced the appointment Thursday. Tott will succeed District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer, who is retiring Aug. 5.

"Judge Tott brings wide-ranging experience and the respect of his fellow judges to the important position of chief judge," Christensen said in a news release.

Tott was appointed to the bench in September 2014 by former Gov. Terry Branstad. The Sioux City native received his undergraduate and law degrees from Creighton University, the latter in 1991.

"I am honored and humbled to have been chosen as the new chief judge for the 3rd Judicial District," Tott said. "I am fortunate that the 3rd Judicial District has many fine judges, clerks and administrators that I look forward to working with to ensure the fair administration of justice to all Iowans that will appear before our courts."

The chief judge supervises all judicial officers and court employees in the district, sets court schedules, designates presiding judges and serves on the judicial council, which advises the Supreme Court on administrative matters.
Alarcon-Flory said Monday many points in the contract are tied to the superintendent's performance. At each request, Alarcon-Flory said she sought advice from the school attorneys on how to proceed. The board chair said she offered to have such a discussion in closed session but Greenwell kept pushing for a public forum.

"Such discussions would be inappropriate in an open meeting and should take place during the Superintendents evaluation meeting, which is held in closed session at the request of the Superintendent," Alarcon-Flory said in a June 22 email.

Alarcon-Flory and Greenwell also disagreed on whether Gausman's three-year contract automatically rolls over from one year to the next.

In an email to the board chair on June 23, Greenwell cited district policy that he claimed said the board must affirm multi-year contracts before they renew each year.

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Just for clarification, the current Contract term (absent renewal) ends on [June 30, 2023]," Alarcon-Flory said in a email, in response to Greenwell's request. "In addition, no affirmative Board action is required to extend the contract term, as it would automatically continue absent the notice described in Section 2 of the contract."
The locations are scheduled to be cleaned, Steelman said. Upon learning of these cases, personnel acted swiftly in distributing testing kits to the impacted areas in the building. Please contact your Human Resources office if you have any questions, concerns or would like to be tested.

Moreland did not respond to a question about whether any of the infected employees were working from home before Gov. Mike Parson called state workers back to the office by May 17.

The plan drew criticism from employees, including from at least one union representing state workers, which demanded Parson allow paid time off for employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and that the state work with the union on safety protocols.

Local 6355 of the Communications Workers of America also wanted a way for workers with child and family responsibilities to request delayed returns to the office.
I'm excited that we're able to make sure to get our education funded, he told reporters, saying the $8,700 grant is a great place for them to go into their school year starting on July 1st working on their budget. I think that's a positive.

This is a great bipartisan effort to have the largest investment in education in Michigans history, said Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing, the top Democrat on the Senate budget panel. Im really proud of the work that the governor did to get here and I was proud to support it.

Legislators embraced Whitmer's revised proposal to expand state-funded preschool to 22,000 eligible but unenrolled 4-year-olds and to raise the amount allotted per child.

They added $240 million to hire additional school nurses and counselors and $155 million for Grand Valley State University to disburse up to $1,000 each to K-5 students who are not proficient in reading. The scholarship could be used for instructional materials, tutoring, summer and afterschool programming.

The goal of this program is to provide as many good options to parents as humanly possible, said Sen. Lana Theis, a Brighton Republican who cited learning loss as kids went to school online in the coronavirus pandemic.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Oregon and Washington on Wednesday lifted most of their COVID-19 restrictions to become two of the last states to broadly ease virus orders put in place in the very first days of the pandemic.
It sounds odd to say that a movie about rapacious capitalism, systemic racial bias, corporate corruption, and organized crime in 1950s Detroit has a summer vibe. But thanks to Steven Soderberghs light touch with a heist caper, thats the mood of No Sudden Move (premiering on HBO Max on Thursday), a modestly scaled neo-noir that combines the packed ensemble cast and shaggy-dog plotting of Soderbergh films like The Limey or Logan Lucky with the embedded social critique of The Informant! or The Girlfriend Experience.

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We first meet Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle, in top form) making his way from the crumbling Black Bottom neighborhood to a fancier white district, backed by the uneasy rhythms of David Holmes jazz-inflected score. Curt walks in the dead center of the street, for reasons that dont need explaining; as a Black man in a gentrifying citya man, we soon learn, who has just been released from prisonhe cant afford to let down his guard by getting caught in the shadows. Nor can he afford to turn down the $5,000 fee he is offered by the mysterious Jones (Brendan Fraser) to do whats billed as a three-hour job for an unnamed local crime boss.

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Curt soon finds himself teamed with two fellow small-time hustlers, the openly racist Ronald (Benicio Del Toro) and jittery live wire Charley (Kieran Culkin). Their task, Jones explains, is to babysit the family of Matt Wertz (David Harbour), a midlevel pencil-pusher at General Motors, while one of them accompanies Wertz to his office to retrieve a document. What exactly is on that piece of paper, and why so many powerful people are jockeying to get their hands on it, becomes more than a mere MacGuffin. In the movies final 10 minutes, a major movie star makes an uncredited cameo appearance to lay out for the hired gunmen and for the audience exactly what the document means and why it matters, both to the era the film is set in and to our own.

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The script (by Ed Solomon, who also wrote Soderberghs TV series Mosaic, Men in Black, and all three Bill & Ted movies) never belabors its larger historical and political points. Indeed, the 11th-hour clarification comes so late and is over so fast that I for one could have done with a bit more belaboring. Like most of Soderberghs prior heist films, No Sudden Move is an intricately plotted crime story that makes the viewer piece together whats going on at the same time the characters do. This approach provides plenty of propulsive forward motion, even if it also occasions more than a few moments of wha?

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No Sudden Move hits its peak early in a jaggedly suspenseful home-invasion sequence in the suburban kitchen of the Wertz family. Mary (actor-director Amy Seimetz) is getting her two children (Noah Jupe and Lucy Holt) ready for school when the hastily assembled trio of crooks bursts in, masked and armed, demanding that her husband come with them to open a safe in his bosss office. When he protests that he doesnt even know the combination, one of the invaders snarks, We hear you have the combo to his secretary. The marital tension introduced by this revelation provides one of the movies best dramatic arcs, thanks to Seimetzs standout performance as a tightly wound, chain-smoking housewife whose quilted floral bathrobe belies a steely core.

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Less well developed is Curts history with his ex, Clarisse (Lauren LaStrada), whom he pays a visit in what feels like a piece of a storyline thats been cut down. In general, the female characters in No Sudden Move tend to be underwritten, especially relative to how crucial they are to the plots unfolding. We learn little about the backstory of Vanessa (Uncut Gems discovery Julia Fox), who is both the girlfriend of Del Toros Ronald and the abused wife of local crime boss Frank Capelli (Ray Liotta), or about Paula (Frankie Shaw), the secretary at GM who is the fed-up mistress of the comically inept Matt Wertz.

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There are other holes in the labyrinthine plot (which includes no fewer than two crime organizations, two home invasions, and two precious stolen documents). The initial meeting between Curt and Ronald establishes a racial tension between the two that seems to dissipate a few scenes later with no explanation, and an FBI agent investigating the link between the home invasion and the mob (Jon Hamm) enters the story too late and has too little time onscreen for the twist involving him to have much resonance.

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It gets both darker and funnier as the betrayals and double-crosses pile up.

But No Sudden Move isnt a movie whose pleasures come from understanding every plot detail. As in a classic film noir, all you really need to know is that everyone is out for themselves and no one can be trusted. The movie opens on a vintage Warner Brothers logo, as if to nod at its resemblance to that studios low-budget crime dramas from the period when this movie is setgritty thrillers like The Enforcer or I Died a Thousand Times. Soderbergh drives home the point by shooting several of the more shifty characters from Dutch angles, a classic noir framing that is the visual equivalent of that slightly off-kilter score. Hannah Beachlers production design is beautifully detailed without being Hollywood-lavish: Detroits ongoing project of urban renewal (or as one Black character calls it, Negro removal) is established as much through the smart use of locations as through expository dialogue. The cinematography and editingboth by Soderbergh, under his longtime aliases of Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernardare as elegant and nimble as they need to be without getting in the storys way. And as should be the case with any good heist thriller, No Sudden Move gets both darker and funnier as the betrayals and double-crosses pile up.

If I had to rank Soderberghs crime-themed movies, this one would rank somewhere below Out of Sight and The Limey (what movie wouldnt?) but above, say, Logan Lucky or the last two movies in the Oceans trilogy. The whole thing vanishes pretty quickly from memory once its over. But for that hour and a half of fluid, kinetic filmmaking, you are putty in the hands of Steven Soderbergh, a reliably pleasurable place to be.
There has never been a movie quite like Zola: an adaptation of not just a true(-ish) story, but one told over a series of nearly 150 tweets. In October 2015, Aziah Zola Wells King recounted a trip she took to Tampa with a woman she barely knew, the womans erratic boyfriend, and a mysterious, trigger-happy man who turns out to be the womans vicious pimp. The tweets became known as #TheStory, and the viral success of Wells Kings tale has been credited for popularizing Twitter threads.

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The new movie attempts to adapt all of Wells Kings casual, slangy tweets into a cogent narrative without relying on aesthetic media tropes. There arent any screenshots or chat bubbles or animated likes popping up on screen; Zola is about #TheStory, not #ThePlatform. But in translating 140 characters (multiplied by 148 tweets) into an 85-minute film, co-screenwriters Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris made a few changesjust as the real-life Zola herself did to her own tale, it turns out.

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Below, weve collected the biggest differences between the infamous Zola thread and the newly released Zola movie. Weve also broken down how both tellings deviate from the true version of the story that eked out after the thread went viral.

Zola

In the film, as in the thread, Zola (Taylour Paige) is working as a waitress at Hooters, a job she took while on a break from her gig as a pole dancer. One of her customers is another young womanZola often calls her this white bitchwho invites Zola on a trip to Tampa, Florida, to make some money at their high-paying clubs. Zola follows along as this white bitchaka Jessica in the thread but called Stefani (Riley Keough) in the filmgets in deeper trouble with her pimp and boyfriend (Jarrett in the thread and Derrek in the film; hes played by Nicholas Braun), both of whom were there for the trip.

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What happens to Zola on this trip, however, is where the movie deviates from the thread. As much as she wants to disentangle herself from the group, Zola doesnt manage to, culminating in a tense and disturbing scene in a hotel room where both Zola and Stefani are supposed to do some sex work. In the film, the pimp called X (played by Colman Domingo and known in the thread as Z) tries to distract an angry competitor posing as a customer from kidnapping Stefani by baiting him with Zola. Zola stands rigidly as the man kisses her and gropes her, all at the urging of X. Somehow, the plan works, and Jessica is rescued  after X shoots the other pimp in the face. The gang high tails it out of the hotel, Zola in shocked but complicit silence.

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But the actual Zola was never in that hotel room. As she tells it, she largely kept away from any of the sex work herself, creating a Backpage profile for Jessica but screaming HELL NO!! at the immediate sign of any danger, as she describes in her tweet. According to the thread, when Jessica was pulled into the hotel room by not just a rival pimp but another guy, too, Zola stayed behind in the hallway for safety before running away. In Zolas telling, Jarrett follows, and soon so does Z, who is now carrying an unconscious Jessica he saved from the room.

This means that Zola never actually saw Z shoot the man in the face, per the thread, although she trusts that hes telling the truth about what happened, and she does say she heard the gun go off. She says that she also refused to stay with the crew after that, instead demanding that Z take her to the airport and never contact her ever again. Zola and Jessicas friendship is overZolas certainly not driving all the way back to Detroit with that girl, as they do at the end of the film.

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Its worth noting that the veracity of Zolas account has been disputed by the other major players involvedmore on that in a bit. These days, Zola has two daughters and lives with her family in suburban Atlanta. Shes active on Instagram and OnlyFans and, according to a lengthy pre-film release Vulture profile, is ready to enjoy her rekindled spotlight.

Stefani/Jessica

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The movie makes a lot of alterations to the character known as Jessica in the original thread, including the obvious change of her and her boyfriends names. (Hes Jarrett in the thread, Derrek in the movie). In the movie, Stefani is eager to please her pimp and fed up with her boyfriend. She doesnt know much about how to handle her sex work on her own, which is why shes making barely any money from it. (In the movie, she makes $150 from sleeping with a guy; in the thread, its $100.) Stefani convinces herself that Zola is a true friend for sticking by her during this trip and helping her earn some real cash for putting out, all while fighting with Derrek constantly and telling X that he owns her heart.

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The movie ends with all four people driving back to Detroit together, likely never to talk again of their wild weekend. But Zolas thread ends with her flying back to Detroit with a rattled Jarrett, leaving Z and Jessica behind to continue their work in Tampa and beyond. Then, per the thread: I get a collect call 4 days later from a jail in LAS VEGAS! Its JESSICA! Both Jessica and Z were arrested for sex trafficking, according to the threads version of events, while Z was also supposedly wanted for kidnapping 15 underage girls and is linked to 6 murders including [in Florida]. Zola refused to have any part in bailing Jessica out, she says, and later found out that Jessica claimed to be the victim in all of this and ends up freed from jail and back home to Detroit.

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It may not be surprising to hear that Jessica denies the majority of Zolas story, speaking out in a long Reddit thread shortly after the tweets went viral. (Jessicas version of events, in which Zola is actually the one who was out there doing sex work while she only fucks with Jesus, is presented as a hilarious, monologuing tangent by Stefani in the film.) But Jessica did confirm that her pimp Z ended up in jail, while she painted herself as simply an innocent woman who fell prey to his ill-intentioned charms. Nowadays, Jessica takes care of her young daughter and speaks out against sex trafficking.

X/Z

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Both the film and the thread use a single letter to denote the pimp, who is a mysterious Nigerian man whose accent only comes out when hes angry. In real life, X/Z is Akporode Rudy Uwedjojevwe. Rudy was reportedly introduced to Zola as Jarrett and Jessicas roommatea connection he does maintain in the filmbut his past with Jessica goes far beyond that. Jessica says that, in real life, she met Rudy at a club, where he comforted her after she had been raped by a client. They became close friends and, eventually, co-workers; that is to say, he became her protective pimp.

Other details across the thread and the film remain fairly consistent, except for the part where Jessica and Z have sex in front of Zola, which doesnt happen in the movie. Nor does Zola show a picture of Jessica and Z having sex to Jarrett to prove to him that his girlfriend is unfaithful, as she does in the thread. But Zs wealthy, stoic white fiancee, the hotels of wildly varying quality that he puts them up in: Those all appear in both tellings of the story.

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The wild claim that X shot a rival pimp in the face, meanwhile? False. In the film, we see it happen in front of Zola, Derrek, and Stefani; in Zolas thread, Zola only hears the gun go off. But Jarrett told Rolling Stone no one ever got shot, a detail corroborated by local authorities. Nevertheless, Jessicas pimp did go to jail: Las Vegas police apprehended Rudy Uwedjojevwe when he was there with Jessica, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of sex trafficking and coercion. He is currently serving a 16-year prison term, although hes now up for parole.

Derrek/Jarrett

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The most dramatic change between the film, thread, and reality is what happens to the poor, put-upon boyfriend. Both Derrek in the film and Jarrett in the thread suffer from mental health issues that exacerbate his relationship issues. Its how he ultimately reacts to the mess that is Jessicas averted kidnapping attempt that marks fiction from fact. In the movie, Derrek yells at Stefani that hes going to kill himself when she refuses to stop working with X. He runs toward the balcony and jumps off, landing on the pavement beside the pool below them. The film then cuts to Derrek holding his bleeding head and sobbing hysterically in the car as the foursome drives home.

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In the thread, this basically happens too. The main difference is that Jarrett and Jessica get into a fight over her refusal to go back home to Detroit with him, with her instead choosing to stay longer in Tampa to make more money. He is so distraught over this, according to Zola, that he then jumps off the balcony. I screamed SO LOUD my heart stopped, reads her tweet about the harrowing moment. Z takes Jarrett and puts him in the car with Zola, who is heading to the airport. It should almost go without saying that his relationship with Jessica is over; Zola added some photos of Jarrett with his new boo later on in the thread, looking much happier.

But in actuality, no one jumped off anyones balcony. All the players involvedZola, Jessica, and Jarrettlater said that he only threatened to jump, but he didnt go through with it. Instead, Jarrett chose to leave with Zola for the airport of his own volition. Phew!
Dear Prudence is Slates advice column. Submit questions here.

Dear Prudence,

My cousin and I are not close, but our parents are. She had a stillbirth about eight years ago and named the baby after her late mom. I am having a girl and naming her after my husbands mom and late grandma. There is a vague overlap with my cousins babys namethink Juliana and Lianna.

I didnt know she had my number until she called and started to rant at me for being selfish and stealing her dead babys name. Also, I apparently had a childhood grudge against her. I told her she was acting crazy and to get professional help.

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I was not in the loop that she was mentally unwell and in therapy. But after our conversation, my cousin made enough suicide-leaning social media posts that my uncle got the authorities involved. The family has decided to rally around my cousin to scapegoat me, saying I should have been more sensitive. How do we deal with the fallout?

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Baby Name Baffled

Dear Baffled,

As a general rule, dont call people crazy and act as if getting professional help is a punishment for being unreasonable. But you know you arent the cause of your cousins problems, and the rest of the family has to know too. Dont engage in any conversation about this beyond Im sorry I snapped at her, but I have every right to choose the baby name I did, and Im not responsible for her mental health. It sounds like she has a lot of people who care about her, so let them focus on how shes doing while you focus on your baby.

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Dear Prudence,

My best friend is back on with her on-again, off-again partner of a little over two years. He is manipulative and gaslighting, and they have no life values and priorities in common. Once, when she tried to end things in the past, he said, You only think you want that because youve been talking to your friends, like [me], too much. I really thought the last break up was going to be the one that stuck. Im worried if I remind her of how miserable he made her, I will lose my best friend. (Ive spent many evenings comforting her while she sobs about how a relationship shouldnt feel like this and how she dreads a future where she spends the rest of her life feeling like this. I also have a two-page note from her about all the things she was going to remind herself of if she was ever tempted to call him again.) Im also worried Ill lose her if I leave her in this relationship. He knows I dont think hes good for her, apparently, and I find him impossible to even make small talk to. Is my best friend gone from my life for good?

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Gone for Good?

Dear Gone,

Shes not gone for good. You just have to outlast this guy. But it wont be easy, and this phase of your friendship with her might be extremely frustrating and might involve a lot of selflessness on your part.

The advice Im going to give you is based on my belief that its a waste of time to try to talk a friend out of a relationship thats bad for them. Even if youre right. Even if you have all your evidence lined up. Even if that evidence includes a letter the friend herself wrote, making the case that the relationship is worthless. Love (even dysfunctional love) often just seems to have a stronger pull than friendship, and it doesnt really respond to reason.

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Its also based on another belief: That people are on their own journey and just have to go through what they have to go through. While wed like to help our friends take shortcuts around pain and suffering and get out on the other side as soon as possible, thats not often the way things work out. Im not saying being manipulated and gaslit is necessary to build character. Im just encouraging you to approach the situation with an openness to the idea that this relationship has something to teach her and she will make a move when shes been transformed by her suffering and finally feels deep down inside that she deserves better. Feeling is not the same as understanding intellectually, or being told. And getting there might take some time.

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I do think you can help the process along. But the best way to help her get to the part where she loves herself enough to stop finding this awful relationship attractive is not to remind her of all the reasons the guy is bad. Its to remind her that shes good and worthy, and not crazy, and deserving of respect, and able to be happy. You can do this simply by being a good friend, by affirming her and showing up for her, and by showing her what it looks like to interact with someone who actually cares about her and respects her.

So when she brings up that hes lied to her or hurt her feelings, your line is not Hes such a jerk! Hes always been a jerk! Its Youre such a good/honest/compassionate person, and you dont deserve to be feeling like this. When shes in tears because they had yet another fight, dont say, I cant believe youre letting this guy ruin another weekend for you. He always does this! Say: I hate seeing you like this and my hearts breaking for you right now. Lets go do something and try to salvage part of Sunday and lift your spirits. Focus on her and only her. Dont even say his name. Its totally fair if this feels like too much, and if watching her continue to be hurt is too frustrating. But shes your best friend, and you care about her, so maybe it will be worth itespecially because it means youll still be close to her when this chapter is over.

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How to Get Advice From Prudie

Submit your questions anonymously here. (Questions may be edited for publication.) Join the live chat every Monday at noon (and submit your comments) here, or call the Dear Prudence podcast voicemail at 401-371-3327 to hear your question answered on a future episode of the show.

Dear Prudence,

Our first kid was an oops and wasnt planned. My husband always said he wanted at least two kids. But with jobs, travel, and constant moves, I wasnt ready to have another so shortly after the first one. I wanted to wait at least two years. Out of two years, it became three, then four.

When we started to try to have a second baby after about five years, my doctor referred me to a specialist, as we had been trying for a year without a pregnancy. After two years of medicated cycles and several IVF attempts, COVID came around the corner, and for me, that was the point to stop. I couldnt take the constant injections and hormone changes, and I was getting to an age where my eggs werent good anymore. We kind of just stopped talking about it, and I noticed that I was happy with one and couldnt imagine going through the whole baby phase without losing myself.

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But every time I say something about friends having kids or our son mentions other kids with siblings, my husband shuts down and gives me this look of disgust or disappointment. I am the one that waited too long, I am the one who couldnt get pregnant naturally, I am the one that cost us $40,000 of injections  Yes, I feel guilty for waiting, not knowing that my body would betray me like that, but I am trying to be at peace with this decision. But every time something (anything) sibling-related comes up, he cant stand me. When will this stop?

Sadly One and Done

Dear Sadly,

You are a hundred percent right to not try for a child if you dont want one. And your husband is justified in being deeply disappointed, especially because youd agreed on a plan and you unilaterally changed it without much discussion. This is such a heavy issue, and it sounds like he already deeply resents youincluding for some things that arent at all your fault, like being unable to get pregnant naturallyand isnt handling it well. I have to sit this one out and tell you to find a good couples therapist who can help both of you sort through your feelings and figure out if theres a way you can be together (and enjoy the child you do have!) without bitterness and guilt.

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Introducing Big Mood, Little Mood

Danny Lavery has a new Slate podcast! Listen and subscribe to Big Mood, Little Mood, where Lavery will be chatting with special guests, doling out advice, and talking about feelings, from the monumental to the minute. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

Dear Prudence,

My name is Karen. As you probably know, over the past year or so, my name turned into a meme with some pretty bad connotations. It was funny when it was the Id like to speak to your manager jokes, but now its associated with racism and bigotry. I like to think that Im as far away from the meme version of my name as I can get, but its still causing me a lot of anxiety about how others perceive me and my name. When I go out to eat or get coffee, I ask whoever Im with to give their name instead of mine. When Im scrolling through social media, Im jarred by seeing people censor my name with asterisks. I dont want to change my name (I actually quite like it!), but this attention is making me feel really self-conscious. I also feel like I cant even share my feelings, since thats feeding into the meme. I know, of course, there are way more important issues out there that others face, and in the grand scheme of things, this is not a big dealbut Ive been trying to deal with this on my own and cant seem to shake this feeling. Do you have any advice for moving past this, not worrying about what others think, and learning to love my name again?

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Whats in a Name

Dear Whats in a Name,

Take a three-month social media break and reevaluate how big a deal this is. Karen as a stand-in for entitled, busybody, police-calling white women is 1) mostly online 2) temporary. The vast majority of people you interact with in your daily life arent thinking about the negative associations. And even if they are, what is your fear here? That the person making your coffee is imagining you did something awful as an infant that made your parents choose this name for you? I feel confident that people know how names work and that they dont actually say anything about the people theyre assigned to.

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Either way, the meme will pass. In the meantime, make it your mission to be a decent person who doesnt call the manager on everyone, and reclaim your name.

Dear Prudence,

A couple months ago, I met Tom through friends. He and I were very friendly for a while, and I started to have feelings for him. Over the weekend, he confessed he had feelings for me too, but I get the impression his feelings are far deeper than mine. He also asked me to move to his hometown when he goes back there. Im seriously considering it. Ive been wanting to move for a while but got stuck here because of the pandemic. His hometown is a lot bigger than mine, although it was definitely on my list of potential places to move. The big problem is Ive never been there and only know a few acquaintances there. Plus, Im worried about how much more emotionally invested he is in this than I am. Am I crazy to be considering moving halfway across the country? He leaves in a month and says hell give me all the time I need to figure it out. Im just worried Id be jumping into something a bit too fast. Does this seem like its going to blow up in my face? Ive never even moved for someone so Im feeling a little out of my depth here. Do you have any advice?

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Staying or Going

Dear Staying or Going,

You are not crazy, but you need to listen to yourself. If you told me youd just met this guy but you were super into him and felt excited and confident about making the move, Id tell you to go for it and enjoy. But that voice thats saying Im worried and Will it blow up in my face? and Im out of my depth is your intuition, and its telling you this is not a great idea. If you really want to move, you can do it without complicating the situation by tying yourself to a man who youre not that into.

Dear Prudence,

My coworker Jake and I have been associates (not really friends) for years. I have kept Jake at arms length because he is a bit of a gossip as one of his negative attributes. I try to see the good in all. I am very quiet about my personal life.

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Recently, there was a black-tie fundraiser. Many people were talking about my date and how attractive she wasnot to me, but behind my back. Jake came to my office and started asking personal questions like: Is that my lady, or are we just friends? I gave him a disapproving look, and he responded with a Oh, that is personal? He began telling me I shocked everyone. He also told me someone said they thought I was gay, and he alleges he played the role of defending me. Im not the only one who has a problem with him. Is my cutting him off completely overreacting?

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Grudge Holder

Dear Grudge Holder,

No, youre not overreacting. Dont cut him off completely, because it might lead to workplace drama if you refuse to speak to him, but do cut him off when it comes to anything beyond whats necessary to do your job. Personal conversations with coworkers are a privilege, not a right.

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Dear Prudence,

How do I convince my brothers wife Im better for her? My brother cheated and is in jail. Ive fallen for her.

Cant Get Her Out of My Mind

Dear Cant Get Her Out of My Mind,

Ill answer the question you should have asked, which is not How convince my brothers wife Im better for her? but Should I try to steal my brothers wife, whos given no indication that shes interested in me, even if she may be over him?: No.

Classic Prudie

I asked a familiar-looking, elegant woman at the gym if her name was Maria, an old and well-liked acquaintance I had not seen for years. I am a white woman, the person I asked was Hispanic. She replied, No, my name is Vangie. We all look alike. I was POd, and I want to challenge her regarding all the assumptions she engaged in when making that reply next time I see her. Should I just let it drop?
In October 2014, a poll from Pew research found that about 61 percent of Americans were confident that the U.S. hospitals could diagnose and isolate possible cases of Ebola. The survey was conducted between October 16-19, a few weeks after the first travel-associated case of Ebola was confirmed in the U.S. and around eight days after the man died. Two health care workers who cared for him tested positive for Ebola as well, and recovered. On October 24, an aid worker who volunteered in Guinea was confirmed to have the virus. They recovered, too. Outside of those four cases, seven other people were treated in the States after they contracted the virus during trips to West Africa. One died and most of them were health care workers.

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Ebola was not felt in the U.S. like it was in West Africa. It was a possible but distant threat, much like the coronavirus was perceived stateside in the days before the pandemic was officially declared as such. And in March 2020, just before the pandemic ramped up, a Pew survey found that 71 percent of adults felt as though the health care system in their area could adequately handle those who fell severely ill after contracting the coronavirus. The same was said by 68 percent of participants about health care institutions across the country.

This is no longer the case.

New polling data from Pew shows that only 55 percent of Americans believe the health care system could handle another pandemic, which is the lowest level of belief among 17 countries surveyed. This drop is likely due to the pandemic laying bare the astounding inequities present in Americas institutions. Every opportunity to contain the virus was blown by the previous presidential administration, and the extent to which public health is underfunded in America became clear. COVID-19 infections overwhelmed already strained hospitals, which left already exhausted health care employees to worry about whether they had to ration out care. Inadequate testing was prevalent during the course of the crisis and mostly catered to people who drove. Efficient, widespread contract tracing? Forget about it.

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Stark divides between who could and couldnt afford to work from home led to reductions in public transit services, which, in turn, hurt the working poor who make up the essential workforce. When the vaccine rolled out, digital signups disparately excluded the eldery and those without internet accesstwo groups who needed vaccines the most. Food delivery service, which became a staple during the bulk of the pandemic, was less available to anyone who needed to use EBT or WIC benefits.

Thats just a glimpse of the failures, just as COVID-19 is a snapshot of pandemics to come. The World Health Organization has listed 10 worrisome diseases for which there is no, or limited, medical intervention availableincluding Disease X, which represents the knowledge that somewhere theres a pathogen that has not yet been identified as a grave threat to human life.

Before 2020, those potential pandemics may have seemed like future challenges for the U.S. public health system to meet. Now they seem more like future tests.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Brnovich v. DNC, effectively dismantling what remains of the Voting Rights Act. The 63 ruling marks yet another blow to equal suffrage, and is the latest in a long line of decisions greenlighting voter suppression laws. By now, everyone should know that the Supreme Courts conservative supermajority is hostile to the franchise. But just how bad is Brnovich in the grand scheme of reactionary SCOTUS decisions? To contextualize the ruling, weve created a system that ranks Supreme Court opinions against previous rulings across three criteria: radicalness, cruelty, and scope of impact.

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Brnovich takes aim at the heart of the VRA as it operates today: the results test in Section 2. Like the 15th Amendment, the VRA bans voting restrictions enacted with racist intentbut Congress understood that legislators rarely admit they are trying to stop racial minorities from voting. So, in 1982, it added the results test, which prohibits any law that results in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race. This test clarifies that an election must be equally open to participation by all races, and that racial minorities have equal opportunity to participate.

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For years, courts have interpreted this test to mean what it says: A law that disproportionately burdens racial minorities access to the ballot violates the VRA. For instance, an appeals court struck down a Texas voter ID requirement that made it substantially harder for Black and Latino people to vote under the VRAs results test. In Brnovich, however, Justice Sam Alito rewrote this test to deprive it of virtually any power. Alito held that voter suppression laws with a disproportionate impact on racial minorities are not inherently unlawful. Rather, as long as minorities have some other opportunity to voteat least in theorya law that violates the results test will generally still pass legal muster. Alito further held that courts should assume laws that were common in 1982 are legal today. Most states severely restricted early and absentee voting in 1982, so Brnovich all but guarantees that states can cut back early and absentee voting without fear of the VRA.

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In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan condemned Alitos opinion as a law-free zone. We think thats exactly right. The court replaced the actual VRAa law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support by the democratic brancheswith an empty promise. And it did so at a time when, as Kagan put it, too many states and localities are restricting access to voting in ways that will predictably deprive members of minority groups of equal access to the ballot box. We therefore rank Brnovich as VERY RADICAL. But its not as radical as the Supreme Courts last major blow to the VRA, 2013s Shelby County v. Holder. In Shelby County, the court invented an incoherent constitutional principle to rip out the heart of the law: a requirement that new voting restrictions in historically racist states receive preclearance from the Justice Department. Shelby County was a near-fatal blow to the VRA. Brnovich essentially finished the job.

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Brnovich blatantly favors Republican legislators racing to restrict access to the ballot in the wake of the 2020 election. It will swiftly reverberate across minority communities, especially those in GOP-controlled states like Georgia and Arizona. The court gave lawmakers a much freer hand to target minority voting under the pretext of preventing fraud. Judges can now uphold laws that disproportionately stop nonwhite people from casting a ballot. There are countless stories of Black and brown Americans who are disenfranchised by the kind of laws that SCOTUS blessed in Brnovich; many lack the documentation necessary to acquire an ID, for instance, and are stripped of the right to vote by stringent voter ID requirements. Some elderly Black Americans literally cannot obtain this documentation because Jim Crow states didnt care about preserving Black peoples vital records. As a consequence, they can no longer participate in elections. To them, the Supreme Court says: Too bad.

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The cruelty isnt necessarily the point here, but it is a byproduct of the conservative justices cynical attitude toward voter suppression measures. Brnovich isnt as vicious as, say, Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld the criminalization of sodomy; its about on par with Ledbetter v. Goodyear, which carved a loophole into laws requiring equal pay for women. Congress overturned Ledbetter through legislation, but it seems increasingly unlikely that Congress will do the same for Brnovich. We therefore deem Thursdays decision FAIRLY CRUEL.

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The impact of Shelby County, while severe, was limited to the area covered by preclearancenine states and multiple counties in several other states. Brnovich, by contrast, affects the entire country. The VRAs results test applies nationwide, which is part of what made it such a powerful tool in the fight against voter suppression. By disassembling it, SCOTUS has deprived millions of Americans of this crucial protection, while Republicans are rushing to crack down on the right to vote. This will have a cumulative impact on millions of Americans throughout the country, and the Supreme Court just ensured most if not all of these GOP measures will survive legal challenges. Brnovich affects substantially more people than recent notorious decisions like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, whose impact was limited to employees of companies that oppose contraception. There are, after all, tens of millions of minorities who may now face even greater barriers on the ballot. Put simply, Brnovich will affect A WHOLE LOT of people.
Theres no way to sugarcoat it: On Thursday, the Supreme Courts six conservative justices dismantled what remains of the Voting Rights Act, all but ensuring that every voter suppression law passed in the wake of the 2020 election will survive judicial scrutiny.

Thursdays 63 decision in Brnovich v. DNC feigns moderation. Justice Sam Alitos opinion for the court purports to leave the VRAs most crucial remaining provision intact. Dont believe it. Alito transformed a sweeping, historic lawone intended to bar voting restrictions with a racially discriminatory impactinto an empty promise. In theory, the VRA still stands. In reality, it has been flattened into meaningless symbolism, just when Black and brown Americans need it most.

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Brnovich revolves around Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which contains the laws results test. Congress added this test in recognition that racist voting restrictions are often neutral on their face. That was true after Reconstruction, when grandfather clauses and literacy tests proliferated, and it is true today. So, Congress did not only prohibit voting laws that could be proved to have been passed with discriminatory intent. It also forbade any voting law that results in a denial or abridgement of the right to vote on account of race. An illegal denial or abridgement occurs when an election is not equally open to participation by all races and racial minorities have less opportunity to participate.

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This test is extraordinarily broad. And in Brnovich, a federal appeals court found that two Republican-sponsored Arizona laws could not pass it. One law discarded ballots accidentally cast in the wrong precinct; another severely limited third parties ability to collect mail ballots and hand them over to election officials. Both laws, the appeals court found, disproportionately affected racial minorities, so both violated the VRAs results test. The court also held that the ballot collection ban was enacted with discriminatory intent, which is always unlawful.

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court reversed that decisionand did so in a way that mangles the results test beyond all recognition. Remember: The VRA demands equal opportunity to vote across races. So, as Justice Elena Kagan explained in her trenchant dissent, a voting restriction is unlawful if it makes it harder for members of one racial group, than for others, to cast ballots.

Alito did not adopt that straightforward reading. Instead, his opinion is, in Kagans words, a law-free zone that leaves the VRAs language almost wholly behind. Rather than enforce the VRAs text, Alito effectively crafted a new, vastly weaker statute out of thin air. For instance, he wrote that most voting rules in place when Congress added the results test in 1982 will probably pass legal muster. He dismissed predictable disparities between white and nonwhite voting opportunities that ostensibly result from differences in employment, wealth, and education. He insisted that courts consider the opportunities provided by a states entire system of voting when assessing the burden imposed by a challenged provision, meaning a restriction that disproportionately burdens racial minorities may be lawful if they still have other means of voting. And he wrote that states can justify a broad range of voting limitations by citing their strong and entirely legitimate interest in the prevention of fraudeven if there is no evidence that fraud has ever occurred in the state.

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Taken together, Alitos rules establish a brand-new test under the VRA, one that bears little resemblance to the law that Congress actually passed. His apparent goal was to ensure that a voter suppression laws grossly disparate impact on racial minorities will no longer serve as grounds for its invalidation. Mission accomplished. Many if not all of the voting restrictions passed after the 2020 election would survive Alitos test: As he noted, most states strictly limited both early and absentee voting before the results test was enacted in 1982, and Republican lawmakers have targeted these exact methods of voting in their quest to prevent more Democratic victories today. GOP legislatures around the country have, in the past year, curtailed early votingespecially on days favored by Black residentsand cut back on absentee voting. They have passed draconian laws that, while ostensibly race-neutral, are obviously designed to suppress racial minorities votes.

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Alito established a brand-new test under the VRA , one that bears little resemblance to the law that Congress actually passed.

In the past, federal courts have struck down such laws due to their discriminatory impact on nonwhite voters. Those rulings will now come to a halt. Under Alitos test, these laws will presumably survive a court challenge. After all, residents theoretically have other ways to cast a ballot, and most states still provide more options today than they did in 1982. Plus, states have strong interest in preventing fraud by making it harder to vote, even if they cant summon an iota of evidence that voter fraud exists in the first place. Thus, even if a certain law may have a devastating impact on racial minorities preferred method of voting, courts will now uphold it.

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The only realistic way to challenge a voter suppression law after Brnovich is to prove that it has discriminatory intentin other words, that it was passed with racist motivations. But here, again, Alito tightened the screws. The appeals court found that Arizona legislators acted with racist intent because, among other things, they fixated on a racist video when debating a ban on ballot collection. Lawmakers, the appeals court wrote, spewed false allegations and racial innuendo against Latino voters, who use ballot collection more than white voters. But Alito dismissed this evidence. He wrote that, if anything, GOP legislators wanted to suppress Democratic votes, and since Hispanics are disproportionately Democratic, their law just so happened to fall especially hard on Hispanic voters. Alito even described the appeals courts conclusion as insulting to the legislators accused of racism, a classic move from a justice who is offended by the mere supposition that racism still exists. This portion of his opinion will likely doom the Department of Justices lawsuit against Georgias sweeping new voter suppression law, which is based on a theory of discriminatory intent.

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As election law expert Rick Hasen noted on Thursday, the Supreme Court has now taken away all the major available tools for going after voting restrictions. The preclearance requirement, once the heart of the VRA, was destroyed in 2013s Shelby County v. Holder. And now Section 2s results test is something close to a dead letter. Of all laws, Kagan wrote in her Brnovich dissent, the VRA deserves the sweep and power Congress gave it. That law, of all laws, should not be diminished by this court. The VRA, Kagan observed, still has much to do at a time when too many states and localities are restricting access to voting in ways that will predictably deprive members of minority groups of equal access to the ballot box.

But the courts conservative justices despise the VRA, and they no longer feel any obligation to conceal their hostility. After Brnovich, theres no point in denying it: Congress dream of a nation where all races have equal access to the ballot is dead.
Early Thursday morning, Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorneys office. Weisselberg was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday, and is reportedly being charged with evading taxes that should have been paid on non-salary benefits he received. The Trump business entity itself is also expected to be criminally charged over related matters.

The Manhattan inquiry is, roughly speaking, the one millionth legal investigation of Donald Trump that has been launched since he ran for the presidency in 2016. Many have found that Trump and his children engaged in illegal or egregiously corrupt behavior, from the deployment of high-pressure sales tactics to sell useless university courses to the misuse of charitable donations to the misuse of the entire United States government to try to convince voters that Hunter Biden did something real messed-up involving Ukrainian natural gas.

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None of these investigations, although they did probably contribute to Trump losing the 2020 election, have succeeded in directly making him pay a price beyond relatively small financial settlements. And while tax evasion is a significant issue in the aggregate, it would be anticlimactic if these charges, against someone who doesnt have the last name Trump, were the only result of the investigation led by outgoing Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance, which involved a long legal fight to access the elder Trumps personal financial records. (That fight was ultimately decided in Vances favor by the Supreme Court.)

None of the reporters following Vances investigation, though, have reported any indication that Trump (or one of his children) are close to being charged with anything, although multiple outlets have said that prosecutors are at least looking into the possibility that Trump intentionally submitted inaccurate property valuations in order to avoid paying taxes. The D.As team reportedly targeted Weisselberg in hopes that he would flip and testify to Trumps involvement in more high-stakes fraud, but he has not yet agreed to do so. And of the high-profile associates and advisers who have taken falls for Trump that resulted in criminal charges, convictions, or prison timea list that includes Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen, 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, and political operative Roger Stoneonly Cohen has ultimately turned on his boss. (Manafort said he would, but then didnt.)
Kyrsten Sinema is at the center of the political universe, both in terms of her ideology and in her role in negotiations over President Joe Bidens legislative agenda. But despite all the attention, she remains kind of a black box, according to the 19th reporter Amanda Becker. Beckers recent story declared, Kyrsten Sinema doesnt feel the need to explain herself.

That wasnt always the case. Early in her political career, Sinema ran as an independent affiliated with the Green Party. She organized anti-war protests, worked on Ralph Naders campaign, and penned a diatribe against capitalism. Now, its difficult to tell what exactly she stands for. On Thursdays episode of What Next, I talked to Becker about the senators political evolution, her commitment to bipartisanship, and the prospects of a primary challenge back in Arizona. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Mary Harris: In that first run for the statehouse in Arizona, Sinema was an independent, and shes said, Heres the thing: You cant win that way. But I didnt know that. And so she re-registered as a Democrat, and the next election she won. To me, its like the first realization that I need to moderate a little bit.

Amanda Becker: Yeah. And at that point, it was simply just saying she was the member of a party, one of the major two parties, but that evolution continued. So she essentially has written about how her first year in the Arizona Statehouse was a complete waste. She didnt get anything done. She talks about how she gave these kind of fiery floor speeches and was kind of this Bernie Sanders type figure in the Arizona Statehouse that was heavily Republican, and she was completely ineffectual, in her own telling. And so after that first year, she did some self-examination and decided that she wanted to befriend people on the other side in order to get things done, that that was the only way to achieve lasting political wins.

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In the stories she tells about her time in the state Capitol, she likes to point out how she got on Republicans level, appealing to their values and principles to get them to vote with her. But you say that, with the benefit of hindsight, a lot of Sinemas favorite political victories werent all they were cracked up to be.

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One thats really big, looming in her mind, from what shes written about it and the interviews shes done on it, was when she was in the statehouse and she was part of a coalition that defeated a ballot proposition that would have prohibited same-sex marriage by adding that to the state constitution. Now, same-sex marriage was already prohibited in Arizona at this time. This would have prohibited adding it to the actual constitution. Now, eventually, this was null and voided by a Supreme Court decision a few years later, but at this time, she talks about how, by the way that they decided to frame the issue, which is they actually used older heterosexual couples who were living together in terms of framing this as a domestic partner benefits issue, she was able to get more conservative Republicans on her side. Now, this upset some LGBTQ activists at the time, who thought this should be framed as a right or wrong. You either support the rights of the LGBTQ community or you dont, and we shouldnt have to couch it in making a heterosexual couple the face of this. But that victory was short-lived. The state eventually did approve this in a ballot proposition.

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The same thing happened for another coalition she worked with to prevent another ballot proposition from being on the ballot that would have banned affirmative action. So Sen. Sinemas whole argument for the importance of bipartisanship is that you need bipartisanship to create lasting change, durable change, so you dont leave constituents swinging back and forth and law and policy going back and forth in this confusing, wild way, depending on whos in power. But two of the examples that shes written about the most were changes that didnt last.

Sinema caught heat back in March, when she voted against including a minimum wage increase in the coronavirus relief package. Plenty of people, including Democrats, voted nobut she did it with panache.

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She comes into the Senate chamber to cast her vote on the inclusion of this minimum wage hike, and she walks up to where they record the votes and she does a thumbs-downwhich is normal in the Senate, especially with masks on. People use that a lot, senators do, to just get their vote recorded. But then she curtsied, she did kind of this dip. Now, what you could see on camera was just her curtsying in front of the staffers recording her vote. And then she talked to a couple Republicans on her way out of the chamber.

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And how did commentators react when they saw this?

The backlash was swift. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, wrote on Twitter, Just wow, linking to a post about her previous support for raising the minimum wage. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, wrote on Twitter, No one should ever be this happy to vote against uplifting people out of poverty. So this was really seen by a lot of progressive Democrats as kind of an F you, that not only was she not going to vote to include it, but the way she did it was rubbing salt in the wounds of working people and the lawmakers who wanted to get this done.

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No one should ever be this happy to vote against uplifting people out of poverty. This is Senator Sinema voting no on $15 minimum wage. https://t.co/qNfYy8co4m  Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) March 6, 2021

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But was it that?

No. So she got a lot of flak in media reports as well for this, both nationally and in her hometown paper. When I started reporting it out, because I was already working on a profile of her at this time, I was told by multiple peopleand the more people I asked, the more people confirmed itwas that what you couldnt see is that right off camera there were nonpartisan Senate staffers, so these are staffers who work for the Senate, not for one party or not for one lawmaker. They had had to stay up all night the night before reading the bill, and it was hundreds of pages long, so they had been there all night. Earlier that day, Sen. Sinema had brought them a cake, and they were thanking her for it as she voted. And so she was looking at them, beyond the staffer that was recording the votes, as they thanked her, and she curtsied as a response to them, a gesture of acknowledging their thanks.

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Now, the really puzzling part to me was why her office or she herself wouldnt have just said that at the time. The only thing her office did say about it was they told [HuffPost] that it was essentially sexist to talk about a womans body language. They told [HuffPost], Commentary about a female senators body language, clothing, or physical demeanor does not belong in a serious media outlet. 

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I mean, the title I put on the story that I wrote about her is Sinema doesnt feel the need to explain herself. And I really dont think that she feels that she does. Now, I question whether thats a good decision for someone in politics, but I dont feel as though she feels as though she needs to answer to people on the progressive side of politics right now. She sees herself as having put together a winning coalition that included a lot of Republicans and crossover and independent voterstheres a lot of independent voters in Arizonaand she views that as why she won. In Arizona, just five years ago, a Democrat winning a Senate seat was a bit of a political coup. Now I think things have changed, even since then. So I think it remains to be seen whether her calculation is correct, that that is the only group of people she should be focused on in her coalition.

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Does anyone know what Sinema actually believes? Other than friendship across the aisle, what does she stand for?

By even putting herself in the role as deal-maker, that to a certain extent makes her also a de facto obstructionist of the Democratic agenda.  Amanda Becker

So, after talking to many people in her orbit, a couple dozen, including some people who are pretty close friends with her to this day, I am told that she has not changed her core beliefs, that they havent shifted all that much.

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So she still wants to burn down capitalism. [Laughs]

You know, Im not sure it extends that far. I think theyre more talking about her latter statehouse days than her Green Party, anti-war activist, Ralph Nader days. But she believes deeply in food security issues and stuff like that. She believes deeply in supporting the military. She has members of her family who were in the military. She believes very strongly in voter rights. I had a couple people tell me that if there was anything that would get her to change her mind on the filibuster, it would be if she came to the realization or the conclusion that Republicans were truly going to make sure that nothing got through on protecting the right to votethat that might be the one thing that would change her mind on the filibuster.

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But H.R. 1 just failed.

It did. She was an original co-sponsor, though, and she voted for it.

But that wasnt enough.

Apparently not, because she just wrote an op-ed right ahead of that vote on protecting the filibuster. But beyond that, I dont think that she seems to have changed her core beliefs on anything, according to the people closest to her. Its just she feels as though she was elected to represent a group of voters who skew moderate to conservative. Whether that will be the same profile of voters she deals with going forward, that is TBD.

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Yeah. Is that still true? Because I wonder if Sinema is doing what her voters want or what she thinks they want based on a previous understanding of who they are.

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When I went and talked to voters in Arizonaliberal-leaning voters, who were ecstatic to elect the first Democrat to a Senate seat in a long while, in 2018, who worked really hard on her behalftheyre fed up. And more than one of them told me, you know, She doesnt return our calls. Sometimes they dont even know how to get a hold of her or someone on her staff. She wont meet with a lot of the progressive groups. Meanwhile, shes meeting with a lot of industry groups and other more moderate or conservative-leaning organizations. And they told me, Were not going to put the same human power into her next campaign. If that means she loses, then so be it. They think that there could be a credible primary challenger. And while Sen. Sinema might not see these people as the ones who put her over the edge and got her her victory, they were certainly the ones making phone calls, doing lit drops, going door to door. And they tell me that they just are not willing to do that a second time around. And if she faces a challenge from someone else whos well known in the state, I think that she could have a really rough primary in 2024.

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If you read or listen to Kyrsten Sinema, its clear that she thinks of herself as a deal-maker. Do you think about her as a deal-maker or an obstructionist?

I think that she bases that view of herself on perhaps an outdated political dynamic and climate that has shifted. This year is the first year in Kyrsten Sinemas political career that she has been a member of the party in control. I mean, her party controlled the House before, when she was in the U.S. House, but Republicans had the Senate and the White House, so it effectively didnt really matter. When she was in the statehouse, Republicans usually were in control with a supermajority. So in that context, her commitment to reaching across the aisle did make her a deal-maker. Now, I think that she is viewed by her own party as potentially being and playing the role of an obstructionist as they try and get key pieces of legislation passed, either because she has not announced shes on board in terms of some piece of legislation, such as a labor bill, or because she is one of the most vocal opponents on the Democratic side of changing the filibuster.

The person who would be the real deal-maker right now would be the Republican version of a Kyrsten Sinema. Because by even putting herself in the role as deal-maker, that to a certain extent makes her also a de facto obstructionist of the Democratic agenda, because shes not automatically on board.

Kyrsten Sinema needed the Democratic Party to get into politics. She just couldnt get elected without them, she said it herself. And now shes in this funny situation where the larger party needs her, but she seems to be pushing back. Its a funny flip to me.

Maybe its not a flip at all. I mean, maybe she doesnt feel like, at the end of the day, she answers to the Democratic Party. She started out as not a Democrat, and it just has never become a pivotal point of discussion until now, because Democrats have not been in power until now.

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Air conditioners have become a treasure in Washington and Oregon amid an unprecedented heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. Portland and Seattle hit records of 116 and 108 degrees on Monday. More than 35 cities in the region tied or broke their heat records, experiencing temperatures 30 to 40 degrees above normal. For many residents, it has become hard to escape the heat even inside their houses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 44 percent of the homes in the Seattle metro area have air conditioners, which is the lowest rate of any metro area in the country. Households in Portland metro area are better prepared for the heat, with 79 percent of them equipped with AC units. Still, Portland is way behind other big cities: For example, in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami, more than 98 percent of homes have air conditioning.

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It is important to note that during the heat wave, an air conditioner is not just a luxury for a comfortable life; it is a necessity that keeps people from heatstroke, heat exhaustion, and other heat-related illnesses that can cause death. Oregon and Washington linked at least 70 deaths to the hot temperature in the last few days, and this number is likely to increase. In British Columbia, Canada, there have been hundreds of excess deaths.

Many residents of the Pacific Northwest, accustomed to relatively chilly and rainy summers, first thought that the heat wouldnt last long, and they would get through it as usual, without AC. When the heat wave hit, many changed their mind, but it was already too late to buy any cooling system - most of them were gone. Jane C. Hu, a Slate contributor living in Seattle, joked on her Twitter that trying to buy an AC unit in Seattle right now feels like trying to find a Nintendo switch in April 2020. She told me that on Tuesday, June 22, there were tons of portable air conditioners available online, but by Saturday afternoon, when the temperature approached 103 degrees, there was nothing. On Sunday, Jane happened to be in Home Depot, picking up some other things, when an employee approached her and said, You arent looking for an air conditioner, are you? Thats how she figured out that the staff had gotten that question roughly a billion times that day, and no, there were no air conditioners. (A spokeswoman at Home Depot, Christina Cornell, told me that their merchandising and supply chain teams are working hard to replenish in-demand items.)

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Another resident of Seattle, Yarelys Rivera, was also not successful in getting an AC. She didnt find anything in Home Depot or Lowes. Target and Walmart websites showed that air conditioners were out of stock. That was for fans as wellfloor, pedestal, fans were all gone, says Yarelys. Steve Salazar, Lowes corporate communications manager, confirmed that their store teams have been staying busy the past couple of weeks helping people keep their homes cool, and they are continuing to actively ship in additional product to stores across the region. Targets and Walmarts press offices couldnt provide comments.

Seattle resident Eugenia was relatively lucky: She already had a portable air conditioner when the heat wave began. But she told me that her family has been using it so much recently that it started leaking. Eugenia didnt consider buying a new one, though, as she managed to fix it. However, she shared with me a screenshot from a private Facebook group, Seattle Russian mamas and papas, where one of the members wrote that she purchased the AC in Costco, but she had to get in a line near the store at 6 a.m.

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People across Washington and Oregon states are waiting in virtual lines as well. The manager at Kellys Appliances store in Eugene, Oregon, whom I spoke to Tuesday, told me that the next shipment was supposed to be on Wednesday. By that time, they already had a list of around 50 people they needed to call as soon as new inventory comes in. The last time the store got AC units was on Saturday, and, according to the manager, they were sold out in 15 minutes.

My owner has been working nonstop, the manager said. We had our truck drivers drive up to Seattle just trying to get more air conditioners.

But based on my conversations, there are no units to be found neither in Seattle nor in Portland, nor in smaller towns. When I called on Monday and Tuesday, shelves were empty in Walmart in Eugene, Oregon, and in Hoys Ace Hardware in Yakima, Washington. In the latter, the manager hung up right after saying that they sold out, apparently (and understandably) annoyed about answering the same question repeatedly. But my experience wasnt the worst. One would-be customer wrote on a June 25 Yellow Pages review that when he called Lowes in Portland about buying an air conditioner, the manager just laughed in response.

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An employee of DeWhitt Portlands Appliance experts told me that they received hundreds of calls about air conditioners on Monday, which was the hottest day. But they had only 140 AC units in stock on Thursday, June 24, and they were all gone by last Saturday. The manager at Hoys Ace Hardware in Seattle, which also ran out of air conditioners, called the number of calls they got pretty crazy. He added, however, that in the store, people act not too badly, not frantically. I immediately thought of the situation at Leroy Merlin store in Moscow, which had its own heat wave last week. There, customers were ready to fight for the air conditioners. However, here, most of the employees of hardware stores I spoke to told me that though some customers were disappointed with the shortage of AC units, they were understanding.

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By now, the temperature in the region has decreased a bit, but according to forecasts, the unusual heat will stay in the Pacific Northwest till next week. Those who gave up looking for options to cool off their homes might spend more time in air-conditioned public spaces, like grocery stores, libraries, and movie theaters. Air-conditioned hotels in many areas have sold out.

For those who are giving up on buying an A/C for now, it might be worth thinking ahead and buying an air purifier while they are still available. Residents of Seattle and Portland I spoke to expressed concerns that wildfires might start earlier than usual because of the heat.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Welcome to Source Notes, a Future Tense column about the internets information ecosystem.

Sometimes (a lot of times?) the internal politics of Wikipedia mirrors its real-world counterparts. In January 2017, the United Kingdom House of Commons launched a parliamentary inquiry into the growing phenomenon of fake news. The chairman behind the inquiry expressed concern about the effect of fabricated news stories on democracy, particularly the influence on voters in the recent United States election.

That same month, the English Wikipedia user Hillbillyholiday launched a Request for comment about the Daily Mail, a top-selling British tabloid newspaper. Volunteer Wikipedia editors argued that the Daily Mail had made a habit of spreading misinformation, referencing the papers then-recent sanctions from the International Press Standards Organisation for violating professional norms for accuracy. After an extended discussion process, the Wikipedia editing community decided that the Daily Mail was a generally unreliable source that should not be used on Wikipedia. Going forward, any user who attempted to cite the tabloid on a Wikipedia page would receive a warning and a request to cite a more reliable publication.

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At the time, Wikipedias judgment about the Daily Mail generated a significant amount of media attention, especially in the British press. The Times, the Guardian, and the HuffPost U.K. all reported on the unprecedented ban. Wikipedias co-founder Jimmy Wales, a British citizen since 2019, agreed with the Wikipedia communitys decision, noting that the Daily Mail had mastered the art of running false clickbait stories. Meanwhile the Daily Mail punched back at Wikipedia with an inflammatory article attacking both the sites individual volunteers and the project as a whole.

Wikipedians are willing to reject newspapers that flagrantly disregard the trutheven if those publications are otherwise popular.

The Wikipedia community upheld its decision regarding the Daily Mail in 2018, and since then, there has been a lot less coverage about the sites relationship with the newspaper. Based on an archived version of Wikipedia from Jan. 1, 2017, there were at that point more than 30,000 articles using the Daily Mail as a reference. Earlier this month, a Reddit user posted that Wikipedia was now down to fewer than 10,000 uses of the Daily Mail as a source. As far as I can tell, theres been no journalistic interest in these basic issues of why Wikipedia editors make the decisions they do, and how they give effect to them, despite the fact the announcement of the ban was basically worldwide news, wrote Reddit user ronsmith7.

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Well, ronsmith7, today is your lucky day because this journalist is interested in those issues. The Wikipedia communitys deprecation of the Daily Mail shows that the projects volunteers are unwilling to accept that all publications are equally reliable. Moreover, Wikipedians are willing to reject newspapers that flagrantly disregard the trutheven if those publications are otherwise popular.

The print circulation of the Daily Mail, which was founded in 1896, is quite high, exceeding 960,000 copies per issue, according to ABC Data, an organization that tracks the U.K. media industry. The British paper is often compared to the U.S. tabloid the National Enquirer.

Steven Slater, a Wikipedia editor based in Essex in England who was involved in the deprecation discussions, told me in an email that British people regularly use the Daily Mail as a byword and a meme for shoddy and dishonest journalism. Consider this example: The Daily Mail in 2015 published an article titled Read History as It Happened: Extraordinary Daily Mail Pages From the Day Adolf Hitler Died 70 Years Ago This Week. The featured image in the 2015 story purported to be a photo of the front page of the Daily Mails print edition from that time, which boldly declared HITLER DEAD. The actual front page from 1945 used a slightly different headline, Hitler Dead, German Radio Tells World, and included different content. Is it just me or this extremely weird: the Daily Mail forging its *own* archival front pages? tweeted Huw Lemmey, a British writer.

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The Wikipedia verdict on sources like the Daily Mail can be found by searching Wikipedia for WP:RSP, which leads to a list of so-called Perennial Sources. According to Wikipedia, Slate is considered generally reliable, which has us feeling chuffed. Traditional newspapers like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post have also received Wikipedias greenlight.

On the other hand, the Wikipedia consensus on certain publications is a lot more complicated. For instance, Wikipedia editors have distinguished the inconsistent editorial quality of BuzzFeedwhich is open to user-generated blogs and listiclesas opposed to BuzzFeed News, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner that is considered a reliable source. At present, Fox News opinion talk shows like Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight are considered generally unreliable for statements of fact and not to be used as sources on Wikipedia. Outside of the opinion shows, Fox News can be used as a reliable source for most news coverage, with one big caveat: When it comes to politics and scientific subjects, Wikipedians note that Fox News should be used with caution.

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Who precisely is making these decisions about what journalism is and is not acceptable as a source on Wikipedia? That would be Wikipedias volunteer editing community, who collectively own decisions about the sites content, often via the process known as Request for comment or RfC. Once an RfC is proposed, Wikipedia editors make statements opposing or supporting the proposal. To the untrained eye, it might seem that Wikipedia editors are voting on the topic. But Wikipedians are quick to point out that the process is not a vote. More specifically, Wikipedians refer to it as a not-vote or !vote, where the ! represents the symbol for logical negation. Thats because the goal of an RfC is not to gauge majority rule but rather to have a consensus-building discussion, where the proper course is determined by the strength of the respective arguments.

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Those editors who !voted their opposition to the ban in the 2017 RfC mostly argued that every newspaper made mistakes, especially now that the industry could not afford proofreaders and fact checkers, and that it was unfair to single out the Daily Mail, specifically. But many more editors argued that the Daily Mails errors exceeded the occasional mistake and that selling false but sensational stories seemed to be part of the papers business model. Guy Macon, a Wikipedia editor with more than 15 years experience, pointed to incorrect Daily Mail news stories such as publishing the wrong verdict in the Amanda Knox case and falsely claiming that Beijing residents watched sunrises on giant TV screens because their sky was too polluted to see natural light.

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At the end of the comment period, volunteer administrators reviewed the comments and decided that there was consensus to generally prohibit use of the Daily Mail as a source. In reply, the Daily Mail published a scathing attack on the Wikipedia editors who were involved in the decision. The paper name-checked Slater and Macon as Wikipedia activists with a warped agenda. Macon told me that he was able to brush off the attack, writing, I have been on the Internet since the days of USENET and have reached the point where the trolls are either amusing or boring. Still, there is plenty of evidence that one reason people are discouraged from editing Wikipedia is because of past issues with harassment of its contributors. The fact that a newspaper with a circulation of nearly 1 million copies per issue put individual Wikipedia editors on blast for their Wikipedia-editing hobby doesnt help change the perception that Wikipedia isnt safe.

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As ronsmith7s Reddit post mentioned, the number of citations to the Daily Mail on Wikipedia has decreased dramatically in the three years since the publication was deprecated. Slater told me that removing Daily Mail links requires a lot of human work, in the form of finding these links on Wikipedia pages, analyzing the context, and removing them or finding other sources as appropriate.

I wondered whether the Wikipedia community had considered programming a bot to remove the Daily Mail links. There are bots for other basic tasks on Wikipedia, like ClueBot NG, which flags edits containing markers of vandalism such as common swear words. When I spoke to editors about the bot idea, they made the distinction between the encyclopedias sources, which should be reliable as a matter of policy, and the content of the articles, which might be accurate regardless of the source. It would be easy to just fire up a bot that removes all citations to the Daily Mail, but we dont remove material just because it came from the Daily Mail, Macon explained. Instead we carefully evaluate it. Furthermore, its not as if anybody can simply let a bot loose on English Wikipedia. According to the sites bot policy, bots must be approved by actual humans, specifically the Wikipedians who sit on the bot approvals group or BAG. As one member of the BAG explained, a bot that removed all Daily Mail links would be unlikely to be approved. According to the sites bot policy, unsupervised bots should not make context-sensitive changes that would normally require human attention. Although the Daily Mail is prohibited in most contexts, it is permitted as a source when used in an about-self fashiona nuance that a bot is perhaps unlikely to detect.

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For now, there is a lot of nonautomated, human effort involved in the process of pruning the internet encyclopedia from the Daily Mail and other deprecated sources. In recent years, Wikipedia has been focusing more on the projects human side in its messaging. For instance, when Wikipedia celebrated its 20th birthday earlier this year, the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation celebrated the humans, volunteers, and supporters who make Wikipedia possible. Like a lot of nonprofit fundraising drives, the human-interest theme felt a bit too cute to me. But at its core, that is the right way to think about Wikipedia. The project is a human-led effort to build a knowledge resource, which of course means that it involves the emotions and messiness that define us !robots.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
5-year-old migrant girl dies after 17 days at sea heading for the Canaries



A helicopter rescue failed to save the girl after a merchant vessel picked her and her companions up off the coast of Africa

Efforts to save the life of a 5-year-old migrant girl who was spotted drifting in the Atlantic on board a small boat after 17 days at sea proved fruitless in Gran Canaria on Wednesday, after she was airlifted to land by helicopter.

The helicopter collected the girl, along with a man and woman, from the merchant vessel the Cape Cape Taweelah, which had picked them up from the open sea, and arrived at the Hospital Universitario Doctor Negrin in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria shortly before midnight on Tuesday. Both the woman and the girl had been in very poor health since they were rescued from the sea, and medical staff managed to save only the elder of the two.

Their boat had been spotted between Nuadibu in Mauritania and Dajla in the Western Sahara, two of the coastal locations most often used as starting points for migrants attempting the perilous voyage towards the Canaries and EU territory. Initially it was reported that 35 people had successfully been taken on board the cargo ship and that only a dead man remained on the small boat, and this misinformation, coupled with rough sea conditions, delayed the rescue mission.

Figures compiled by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UNs ACNUR Commission report that between 136 and 160 people lost their lives while attempting to cross on small boats from north-western Africa to the Canaries in the first six months of this year, equating to an average of almost one death per day.

Image: Salvamento Maritimo
State wants to motivate people to be vaccinated through a lottery

The financial bonus for those who persuade others to be vaccinated will depend on age.

Finance Minister Igor Matovic presented his proposal to reward people who persuade the others to get jabbed against Covid. (Source: TASR)

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The Finance Ministry has come up with a new idea to motivate people to be vaccinated against Covid.

The Ministry hopes to increase the share of vaccinated people by offering a financial reward through a state vaccination lottery, with prizes worth up to 2 million. Another financial reward should motivate people to persuade others to register for the jab.

Our paywall policy: The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.

Both schemes should be part of a draft law authored by the Finance Ministry, which the parliament should discuss on July 1, the SITA newswire reported.

The issue of increasing the share of vaccinated people became even more pressing after the first people infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus were revealed. Yet, some experts hesitate on saying whether money is the right motivation.

Vaccinated people will also take part

The vaccination bonus should be given to people selected in a weekly lottery. The plan is to distribute up to 2 million in total a week, said Finance Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO), adding that the exact sum should be set by the cabinet after the respective law is adopted by the MPs.

It may be between zero and 2 million, he added, as quoted by SITA.

Anyone older than 18 years will be able to take part in the lottery, including those who have already been vaccinated.

A bonus for mediators

How to change people's minds about vaccination? Experts hesitant that money is the answer Read more

Another financial tool is a bonus for people who will persuade others to get vaccinated. The person who is persuaded should be older than 18 and should receive at least the first shot between July 1 and October 31, 2021.

The bonus for the mediator will depend on age. If they manage to persuade a person younger than 50, it will amount to 30; if the person is 50-60 years old, it will be 60; and if the person is older than 60 years, it will be 90.

The Finance Ministry plans to create a website where every person vaccinated against Covid will be able to register. They should subsequently receive a code, which they will give to the mediator, the Dennik E economic daily reported.

In Matovics opinion, it is better to spend 100 million to support vaccination than witness the high economic losses caused by a third pandemic wave, as reported by SITA.

His ministry has been working on the proposals for four weeks, with the support of the coalition council, and Matovic expects the proposals to pass.

Read more about the Covid vaccination in Slovakia:

1. Jul 2021 at 11:42 | Compiled by Spectator staff
Croatia changes conditions for arrival, test or vaccination necessary

The conditions apply as of July 1.

A group of tourists walk across a bridge on the seafront in Opatija, Croatia. (Source: TASR)

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Croatia announced that it would lift measures for travellers from Slovakia on June 19. At that time, travellers did not need any test results, proof of vaccination or proof that they had recovered from Covid-19. A valid travel ID was all that was necessary.

Our paywall policy The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.

Not even two weeks have passed and Croatia has changed the conditions for travelling to the country again.

To enter the country, it is necessary to have either confirmation of vaccination or recovery from Covid-19 or a negative test result.

As a result, main border crossings from Slovenia to Croatia experienced tailbacks that sometimes lasted even three hours, the TASR newswire reported.

EU Digital Certificates required

Only travellers with valid EU Digital Covid Certificates will be able to travel freely, the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote on its website.

The ministry also recommends filling in the necessary online form before arrival to save time at the borders.

Travelling abroad is possible. This is what you should prepare for Read more

The ministry also said travellers who still do not have an EU Digital Certificate will have an exception if they show a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or a rapid antigen test no older than 48 hours.

Entrance to the country will also be granted to those who have confirmation no older than 210 days that they have been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V or Sinopharm vaccines or who have received the Johnson&Johnson vaccine no sooner than 14 days prior.

People who have confirmation that they have recovered from Covid and have received at least one dose of the vaccine up to six months (210 days max) from the start of the disease may enter too.

All mentioned certificates and confirmations have to be either in English or Croatian.

Staying in quarantine

Slovaks plan summer holidays but they still fear travelling abroad Read more

If a traveller does not submit a negative result of a Covid-19 test, he or she is obliged to enter 10-day quarantine or self-isolation that will end either with a PCR or rapid test in Croatia. The result will be sent to the e-mail address that the citizen will obtain after crossing state border when arriving in Croatia, the ministry noted.

Exceptions apply to transiting people, drivers of cargo transport, diplomats and international organisation workers. However, they cannot spend more than 12 hours in the country.

More on coronavirus development:

1. Jul 2021 at 17:07 | Compiled by Spectator staff
George Brennan became just the 11th North American driver to reach the milestone of 11,000 career wins thanks to a 1:55 tally with Jose Godinez trainee Dibaba N in Wednesday night's (June 30) fifth race at Yonkers Raceway.

Brennan came into the program with 10,998 trips to the winner's circle, and made his total 10,999 after a 1:56.3 decision with Scott DiDomenico trainee Party Queen in the third dash on the card. Two races later came the big prize, as Brennan tipped Dibaba N two-wide from the pocket on the final turn, and she drew off after passing leader Amanderosa to win by 1-1/2 lengths.

The 54-year-old driver shared top honours in the standings at Yonkers Raceway in 2019 with Jason Bartlett, and he has also been the top dog across the river at the Meadowlands during his career. He was second to Bartlett at Yonkers in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 Yonkers season, and he is currently second to Jordan Stratton at the Westchester oval this year.

His best year to date overall came in 2011, when he finished second nationally in both wins (753) and earnings ($14,530,682). He has finished in the top 25 in driving wins in 10 of the last 11 years, and his charges have banked over $187.8 million, placing him eighth all time.

(Yonkers Raceway)
Gerry Fielding is celebrating, and why not? After all, not many 78-year-old drivers still are able to drive, much less rein a winner in a pari-mutuel contest as Fielding did in Wednesday afternoon's (June 30) Catskill Amateur Drivers Club pace at Monticello Raceway.

Driving 13-1 shot Back On Board N from the pole position, Fielding settled in fourth along the pylons as Rock N Roll Legacy (Joe Lee) led the field by the first stanza in :28. But when Lee began to back off the second quarter, Fielding was out and going, challenging for the lead by the half.

When Lee began to back off the second quarter, I did not want to get caught in. So I moved first-up, and when we headed up the backside for the second time, I had cleared to the lead, Fielding explained.

In front by a solid length, Back On Board N led his competition by the third stanza in 1:28.1.

Once comfortably on top, both Fielding and his pacer were looking for competition  which didn't come until McKenzie Sowers and All Net took aim at the pacesetter heading for home. But, their late charge wasn't enough. Back On Board N rallied to a 2-1/2-length triumph over All Net in a time of 1:58.1. Third place went to Midnight Shark (Chad Washington).

For Fielding, who doubles as the president of the Catskill Amateur Drivers Club, it was his 65th career driving victory and his first since 2018.

Back On Board N, an 11-year-old Christian Cullen gelding, is owned by Michael Elia and trained by Veronica Merton. He paid $29.20 to win.

(Catskill Amateur Drivers Club)
The popular $12,600 features for developing younger horses drew four divisions of promising trotters and pacers on a hot Wednesday (June 30) at Harrahs Philadelphia.

Distaff pacers got the card started with a 1:51.4 mile, and at the finish everyone knew that McCarthy had driven the winner  but was it Todd or Andrew? The photo showed it was the Somebeachsomewhere sophomore filly Beach Crazy and Todd McCarthy who rallied up the inside to get a nose advantage over favored Nashville Elgenna and brother Andrew. Beach Crazy lowered her mark a tick for trainer Stacy Chiodo, whose Chiodo Racing LLC co-owns the in-form filly with Jeffery Shore and Robert Barr.

In the division of the feature for trotters, Andrew McCarthy got his turn in the spotlight with the Father Patrick 3-year-old gelding Southwind Caeser, using the passing lane in defeating Big Sky Ex in 1:56 by a length. Roni Vandervort conditions the sophomore for the partnership of Connie and Homer Hochstetler, Robert Buddig, and Allen Schwartz.

Todd McCarthy reclaimed the focus by guiding the faster winner in the two divisions of the features for male pacers. He kept the Betting Line gelding Imaginary Line inside to the three-quarters, then gained into the :27.4 kicker to get a neck advantage over railshooting Carbine in a lifetime mark 1:52; heavy favorite Serious Miki, who had set the pace, was another neck back in third. The winner is trained by Ron Coyne Jr. for his Ron Coyne Stables Inc., Blair Corbeil, Mike McAllister, and Edward Pachuta.

The other section for pacing males went as expected to the Sweet Lou gelding White Belly, who came into the care of trainer Scott Di Domenico in early May and now has two firsts and two seconds in his last four starts after a 1:52.4 victory here. Tim Tetrick put the chalk on the lead, and nobody could catch him in a :55.4 back half. What About Bob tried hard but came up a length shy. The winning 4-year-old is owned by Triple D Stables Inc., Minisink Farms LLC, and Stephen Iaquinta.

Todd McCarthy won the last race to take honours on the day with four wins, one ahead of his brother and Tetrick. Trainer Darran Cassar also had a triple on the day.

A two-year-old to be watched is Wolftrax, who lost his cover on the far turn but still went on strongly to defeat American Artist K by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:53.3 in his first betting start. Wolftrax certainly has the breeding to be a top horse (by the hot young sire Betting Line out of the $1.5M-winner Cathedra Dot Com), and he finished very sharply for drive Scott Zeron, trainer Paula Wellwood, and her familys Dreamville Stable.

A pair of $14,400 contests highlight the Trottin Thursday card (July 1) at Philly as the calendar swings into the second half of the year. Post time is 12:25 p.m. (EDT); program pages are available at https://www.phha.org/harrahspps.html.

(PHHA / Harrah's Philadelphia)
Pickup Man Hanover scored his first career victory and also set a new track record along the way in his $33,600 division of the New York Sire Stakes for two-year-old colt and gelding pacers at Buffalo Raceway on Wednesday evening (June 30).

Covering the mile in 1:56.1, Pickup Man Hanover (Billy Dobson) eclipsed the long standing divisional mark of 1:56.3 established by Roadside Delight in July 2010.

Other Sire Stakes winners included Hurrikane Chuck (Jim Morrill Jr.), who toured the Buffalo Raceway half-mile oval in 1:57, and JD (Mark MacDonald) posted a mild $10.20 upset with a 1:56 gate-to-wire score.

Pickup Man Hanover sat in third until just after the opening panel and breezed past El Pistolero, hitting the half in :59.4 over a fast track. After several breakers scattered the field, Pickup Man Hanover was more than able to hold off a mild bid from El Pistolero (Greg Merton) in the stretch. Jitterbug Flip (Fern Paquet Jr.) finished fifth, but was moved up to third via a pair of disqualifications.

"He was good in the turns," said Dobson. "I was surprised we got a track record."

Owned by Dennis and Simone Noud and trained by Monica Krist, Pickup Man Hanover (Huntsville-Pilgrims Witchie) increased his bankroll to $25,512.

The heavily favoured Hurrikane Chuck ($3.10) didn't disappoint in his bracket as he recorded a neck victory over KJ Hunter (Matt Kakaley) while Greg The Leg (Mark MacDonald) was third.

A big brush approaching the first half sent Hurrikane Chuck to the lead, but he wasn't out of the woods. Heading for home, KJ Hunter (Matt Kakaley) and Greg The Leg (MacDonald) made valiant efforts, but Hurrikane Chuck had just enough to secure the win.

Morrill said, "I used him (Hurrikane Chuck) twice in the race, and he gave me 150 per cent."

Hurrikane Chuck (Huntsville-All The Buzz), trained by John McDermott, has now earned $18,952 in his two career outings.

JD pulled a minor surprise by wiring the field in his leg as the heavy chalk, Blue Collar Man, broke stride. Pleaseletmeknow (Kakaley) took second with Howulikemenow Ray (David McNeight III) finished in third.

MacDonald stated after the race, "I was careful with him on the turns. He's a big horse so I kind of let him drift out to the 1-1/2-path, then I'd straighten him out."

Trained by Ray Schnittker, JD (So Surreal-Park N Orchard) put $16,750 in his bank account with the triumph.

Power Blu ($8.20) took a $15,000 Excelsior A bracket with a 1-1/2-length nod over Lanjo Lee, while Gussys Trump Card ($3.70) scored a neck victory over Jovian in 1:58.4 in the second division.

Mr Deal ($5.10) captured the lone $6,800 Excelsior B event with a solid 4-1/4-length romp over Stewardoftheland in 1:58.4.

Morrill finished the evening with four victories and MacDonald had a driving triple.

Racing will continue on Friday evening (July 2) at 5 p.m. with nine races on the docket. For more information, including the latest news, race replays, entries and results, go to www.buffaloraceway.com.

(Buffalo Raceway)
The name Frances (Frankie) Lund is a popular one on Canadas east coast, especially if you are talking about photography. If you live on the Island and youre involved in the harness racing industry, you have most likely noticed Frankie at the track with her camera in hand and theres a good chance youve been noticed  and possibly captured  by the award-winning photographer.

Frances Lund of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, captured this image of Cy Poirier giving young Jaxon Merner a lesson on holding the reins at Dusty Lane Farms in Cornwall, P.E.I. The photo is featured as the July image in the Heart of Harness Racing Calendar.

While working at a local grocery store throughout the pandemic, Lund stayed very busy, leaving little time for photography and the horses.

I work for Loblaws doing computer ordering that controls the stock levels in the store and I never stopped during the pandemic. As an essential worker I put in a lot of extra time and things were a tad bit crazy, especially in the toilet paper aisle!

Once things slowed down at her workplace and toilet paper became less essential, she took advantage of the spring weather and headed out to Dusty Lane Farms with her camera in tow.

One spring afternoon I biked out to the farm, as horses always make things better and the track was on lockdown, so I headed to a spot where I knew things would be as normal as they could be during the pandemic.

The afternoon trip to the farm provided Lund with the spur-of-the-moment photo op. Jaxon  who should have been at daycare that day  was at the farm with his dad, Adam Merner, as child care facilities were closed across the province due to the pandemic. Jaxon didnt mind at all, as he got to spend his days hanging out with the horses at his newfound daycare  Dusty Lane Farms.

Last summer when the tracks reopened in P.E.I., Frankie was able to forget about stocking toilet paper and got back to helping with the horses. She spent some time working with the MacGregor family over the summer and then followed that by helping Woodmere Farms at the yearling sale last fall.

I feel very lucky to be on P.E.I. where life has returned to normal pretty quickly, we got to race last year and we are racing now, although masks are required at the moment. I am looking forward to Old Home Week this year, and hopefully I will get to see some friends from outside the Atlantic bubble.
When harness racing shut down in Ontario, Jeff Gillis faced a decision to either weather the storm at home or to ship his O'Brien Award-winning trotting mare Hey Livvy stateside. Despite her not being a great traveler, Hey Livvy went south and has since showed her class and impressed her connections while on American soil.

In fact, shes not staked to a lot of things down here for that reason, Gillis told Trot Insider regarding his mares difficulties travelling. Last year, we paid her into everything and we werent able to travel with COVID. Shes not a great traveler to begin with, but necessity is the mother of all invention so we were forced to change her routine. That in part is what took her so long to get her started down here. I hesitate to use the word success because it can be fleeting in this game, especially with trotters  temperamental ones even more so.

Hey Livvys first mile of the year came on May 21 at Yonkers in a qualifier, where she strolled to a 1:53 mile in rein to new driver Jordan Stratton. Stratton remained in the sulky for her next two starts, the first a 1:54 win in the Open Handicap at Yonkers and the following another victory at that class but in a 1:52.4 mile  a track record for aged trotting mares.

In Canada, Trevor Henry was the driver tasked with keeping her together and was retained to drive courtesy a piece of ownership. Henry helped develop the six-year-old Donato Hanover mare into the Grand Circuit contender that captured the $220,000 Armbro Flight last year en route to divisional honours in Canada.

I like to bust [Trevors] chops a little bit about that, but the truth is that he was instrumental in getting her to this point. Jordan has done a phenomenal job and Trevor texted as much to me the other night. Its not an ego thing  we all want whats best for the mare. Theyve both done a fabulous job; I couldnt be happier.

Stakes-wise in the states, Hey Livvy is not nominated to any upcoming American Grand Circuit events. However, Gillis doesn't have any immediate plans to bring her back to Canada.

Were going to kind of take it a start at a time, Gillis said. She obviously will be coming home for the Armbro Flight and the Maple Leaf Trot, which are actually in reverse order this year. Her schedule between now and then is a little bit up in the air.

At the top class in Yonkers, Hey Livvy landed a handicapped spot from Post 7 in her most recent victory. She will move one slot wider on Friday (July 2) and start from Post 8 in the $42,000 undercard feature on Messenger Pace/Yonkers Trot night, carded as Race 10. Jordan Stratton again has the assignment on the 2-1 morning line favourite.
A relatively experienced Lignum hemp farmer interested in education and community will host the Virginia Cannabis Conference Aug. 28 at Culpeper Countys own legal moonshine distillery, Belmont Farms.

Mike Sauer of Honey Hill Hemp in Culpeper is organizing the daylong, 21-and-older ticketed event to recognize the July 1 state law that makes recreational use of marijuana legal in Virginia, letting adults possess an ounce of it and grow four of their own plants. The event will run from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sauer also wants to share with the wider public his past several years of hands-on knowledge about growing cannabis for industrial hemp, used for THC extraction, on a small farm off State Route 3 in eastern Culpeper County. Marijuana is also cannabis, but with a higher THC level.

We wanted to acknowledge the fact that the law was changing and that marijuana was going to be legal for recreational use in the commonwealth, Sauer said. This law is an opportunity to take a neutral stand. The law is the law.

We also wanted to provide education for people that are interested in growing cannabis for personal use so they can do it properly in accordance with state guidelines and be successful growing and what they are trying to accomplish, he added.
CRAWFORD  Preserving history for future generations takes an understanding of the past and a vision for the future. In Crawford, Charlene Vail, a volunteer at the Crawford Historical Museum, possesses both of those qualities.

Vail was recently presented with a Heritage Hero certificate and pin from History Nebraska for her efforts to keep the towns history alive and accessible.

Charlene has worked tirelessly to keep the museum open, wrote fellow volunteer Carol Foster in her nomination of Vail for the award. Charlene knows the importance of keeping objects for family history, and she wants to save this towns and Fort Robinsons history. It is hard to put into words what a big project this has been for her.

Vail was presented with the Heritage Hero Award June 29 at the museum by History Nebraska board member and former State Senator Bob Wickersham. Vails contribution to local preservation efforts are also a contribution to the state, he said.
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Former President Donald Trump, left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, right, speak during a stop at an unfinished section of border wall, in Pharr, Texas, Wednesday, June 30, 2021.
Entrepreneur Kim Kardashian is currently spending her vacation in Rome, and even there, the TV star doesnt forget about her Armenian roots and has told about a gift that she has received.

The mother of four shared her impressions of the visit on Instagram. Kardashian particularly visited Fendi, dined at a restaurant, as well as set aside the gold necklace that she received as a gift from Patriarch Yeghishe Derderian of the Armenian Orthodox Church. Gift from Armenia, Kim wrote.

Earlier, Kim Kardashian and Cher had called on joining the Teach for Armenia initiative to expand educational opportunities for students in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

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WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and British agencies disclosed on Thursday details of brute force methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to try to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations.

An advisory released by the U.S. National Security Agency describes attacks by operatives linked to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, which has been previously tied to major cyberattacks abroad and efforts to disrupt the 2016 and 2020 American elections.

In a statement, NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce said the campaign was likely ongoing, on a global scale.

Brute force attacks involve the automated spraying of sites with potential passwords until hackers gain access. The advisory urges companies to adopt methods long urged by experts as common-sense cyber hygiene, including the use of multi-factor authentication and mandating strong passwords.

Issued during a devastating wave of ransomware attacks on governments and key infrastructure, the advisory does not disclose specific targets of the campaign or its presumed purpose, saying only that hackers have targeted hundreds of organizations worldwide.
Weve moved in the right direction, Cope said. But were not at the finish line, and the business community knows that. Theres still some anxiety around that, but overwhelmingly from what Ive heard, business owners are just happy to have restrictions lifted and  have ability to do business at that level they were before.

Staffing shortages and increased costs of some supplies will continue to be a challenge, Cope said.

Thats not going to be quickly remedied by a proclamation of reopening, but were resilient, she said. Reopening is not an end-all be-all solution. It took 15 months to be here, and will take that, if not double or triple that, time to rebound.

The YMCA of Southwest Washington has been slowly ramping up back to normal but it will take time to operate at 100% capacity because the organization is shorthanded, said CEO Janine Manny.

Starting next week, the YMCA will offer more open swims, family swims and allow more guests and day passes, Manny said. The organization will continue taking reservations for lap swims but they wont be required for other activities, she said.

Response to the reopening has been really good, Manny said.

Some people are hesitant still  and are worried about capacity, she said. But most people are happy its easier to come and go and do things again.

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Cox, who works as a teacher in Wahkiakum School District, said he had recently gone through the equity training required by the state law. While he questioned many of the specific details included in the training, Cox said teachers still had a lot of choice in how much of that training or related material made it into the classroom.

We can learn about the Constitution the way I want to teach about the Constitution, Cox said.

Other candidates focused on the role parents played in holding schools responsible for their lessons. Moldenhauer outlined how textbooks and curriculum are approved, and how few parents had reviewed the new social studies curriculum in Longview when it was available for public comment. Mathes said concerned parents should talk to their kids about what is being taught, or even sit in on classes to understand how lessons are presented.

Richards, who said she pulled her children from public schools over COVID requirements, advocated for more dramatic measures that would impact the finances of schools that taught critical race theory.

I would say to pull them out this year, Richards said. I dont think they need to be muzzled like they have been.

The Cowlitz County Republicans will hold a similar forum July 13 for candidates in upcoming city council races. Longview City Council member Chet Makinster and his opponent Angie Ween briefly spoke at the event Tuesday because they would be unable to make the event in July.

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The Go 4th Festival is beginning to take shape at Lake Sacajawea.

Longview's annual Independence Day festival is set to officially kick off today. Go 4th had been an annual city celebration since 1949 but was canceled last year because of the pandemic.

Carnival attractions were assembled in front of R.A. Long High School beginning Wednesday morning. The Portland-based Funtastic Traveling Shows brought in a collection of carnival rides, games, booths and food stands for the festival.

Teresa Spromberg lives in Longview and works as one of the managers of Funtastic Rides. Spromberg said the company had not been able to do any business in Oregon since the COVID restrictions began, and that the events in Washington had scaled back to the most popular attractions.

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"Up until now we had all the masks and COVID shot requirements and limits on how many people can attend," Spromberg said. "Here's the state about to open up, and we can allow everyone in."

The first event related to the festival is the Firecracker 5K Fun Run, which sets off from Hemlock Plaza at 6 p.m. today. The carnival attractions and other day-long features will open Friday.
Congressman Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said in a statement that Walshs conduct dishonors the victims of the Holocaust, the survivors and their families, as well as the brave American military & our allies who fought, and died, to defeat the Nazis.

Some of Walshs legislative colleagues on both sides of the aisle also publicly condemned his conduct.

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Encouraging vaccination against a virus that killed 600,000 Americans is the *opposite* of Nazi persecution of Jews. Equating them trivializes the Shoah, devalues the lives and memories of 6 million people systematically slaughtered, and brings unnecessary pain to their families, wrote state Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, on Twitter.

State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, sent Walsh an email copied to House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox, saying his use of Holocaust-related imagery was a profound distortion of one of the most horrific acts in global history and urging him to apologize and educate himself about the experience of Jews during the Holocaust.

Carlyle, who founded an informal Jewish caucus in the Legislature, invited Walsh to engage with Seattles Holocaust Center for Humanity and other resources.
Burt said that while Microsoft Corp. does cooperate with law enforcement on a broad range of criminal and national security investigations, it often challenges surveillance that it sees as unnecessary, resulting at times in advance notice to the account being targeted.

Among the organizations weighing in at the hearing was The Associated Press, which called on Congress to act to protect journalists' ability to promise confidentiality to their sources. Reporters must have prior notice and the ability to challenge a prosecutor's efforts to seize data, said a statement submitted by Karen Kaiser, APs general counsel.

It is essential that reporters be able to credibly promise confidentially to ensure the public has the information needed to hold its government accountable and to help government agencies and officials function more effectively and with integrity, Kaiser said.

As possible solutions, Burt said, the government should end indefinite secrecy orders and should also be required to notify the target of the data demand once the secrecy order has expired.

Just this week, he said, prosecutors sought a blanket gag order affecting the government of a major U.S. city for a Microsoft data request targeting a single employee there.

Without reform, abuses will continue to occur and they will occur in the dark, Burt said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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In this April 27, 2017, file photo, visitors walk past a sign for Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Beijing. Chinese ride-hailing service Didi says it lost $5.5 billion over the past three years ahead of its U.S. stock market debut Wednesday, June 30, 2021, but it's highlighting its global reach and investments in developing electric and self-driving cars. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein,File

Didi Global Inc., a Chinese ride-hailing service, jumped 16% Wednesday shortly after making its U.S. stock market debut.

The stock opened at $16.65 on the New York Stock Exchange. The Beijing-headquartered company's initial public offering of 288 million shares was priced at $14 a share. The company said it aimed to spend 30% on technology development, another 30% to expand outside China and 20% on new products.

Didi's U.S. market debut comes a day after the company said it lost $5.5 billion over the past three years, though the company also touted its global reach and investments in developing electric and self-driving cars. Didi operates in 16 countries, though almost 90% of the 493 million customers who used the service at least once in the past year are in China.

The company founded in 2012 by Will Wei Cheng, a veteran of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, says it aims to become the "world's largest one-stop transportation platform" and operator of vehicle networks.

"We aspire to become a truly global technology company," said Cheng and president Jean Qing Liu in the prospectus. Liu is a former Goldman Sachs managing director and the daughter of Liu Chuanzhi, founder of computer maker Lenovo Group.

Early investors included Apple Inc., Japan's Softbank, Alibaba and Chinese internet giants, Tencent Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc.

Didi acquired rival Kuaidi in 2016 and Uber Technologies Inc.'s China operation the following year, ending a battle in which the American company said it was losing $1 billion a year.

China's populous ride-hailing market has gone through abrupt changes as the ruling Communist Party tries to nurture development of technology while keeping control of promising industries.

Founded as a smartphone-based taxi-hailing service, it launched ride-hailing in 2014 and expanded abroad in 2018 by acquiring Brazil's 99 Taxis and setting up operations in Mexico.

In 2015-16, regulators tightened control in what state media said was an effort to curb traffic congestion and prevent crime linked to ride-hailing services. Drivers were required to be residents of cities and towns where they worked and to be more closely supervised.

Didi has plowed money into development of self-driving, electric vehicles and other technology. The company launched an electric car last year with Chinese automaker BYD Auto, a unit of BYD Ltd.

Didi lost 15 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) in 2018, 9.7 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in 2019 and 10.6 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) last year, according to its prospectus. It says Didi had $3 billion in cash as of Dec. 31.

Explore further Chinese ride-hailing app Didi files for New York listing

More information: Didi Global Inc.: Didi Global Inc.: www.didiglobal.com/

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The patterned-light illumination system and experimental results of the worm bending response upon laser beam excitation. Credit: Science Robotics (2021). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abe3950

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto and Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, has developed a technique for controlling the movements of a live nematode using laser light. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes their technique. Adriana San-Miguel with North Carolina State University has published a Focus piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

As scientists continue to create new kinds of robots, they often look to nature for inspiration. Researchers have found that studying locomotion in natural organisms is one of the best ways to develop strategies for developing microrobots. In this new effort, the researchers looked to the nematode for inspiration. They note that prior efforts to control tiny robots have very often involved combining electronics with small creatures such as cockroaches, controlling them via external stimuli, such as small charges of electricity. In this new effort, the researchers sought to gain better control of a creature using a different approach.

It involved genetically engineering several nematode specimens so that the muscles they used for locomotion would activate when exposed to light. They then injected a drug into the worms to paralyze them. Next, they placed them on an agar substrate beneath a triple-beam laser outfitted with a microscope and camera. Then, by optimally illuminating only small parts of the worm at a time, they found that they could force the nematode to move in desired directions without damaging itthe laser light was of sufficient strength to penetrate the skin of the nematode and stimulate the muscles, which would constrict and relax on demand. The researchers demonstrated their control of the nematode by moving it through a small maze. They note that the key to properly directing their cyborg worm was to first study how the worm used muscles during locomotion and then to mimic those actions. They next plan to replicate their efforts using portable equipment to make their robotic worm usable in real-world applications.

Explore further Researchers discover fundamental rules for how the brain controls movement

More information: Xianke Dong et al, Toward a living soft microrobot through optogenetic locomotion control of Caenorhabditis elegans, Science Robotics (2021). Xianke Dong et al, Toward a living soft microrobot through optogenetic locomotion control of Caenorhabditis elegans,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abe3950 Adriana San-Miguel, Optogenetics gets the worm, Science Robotics (2021). DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abj3937 Journal information: Science Robotics

 2021 Science X Network
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

On a Friday night this spring, surveillance cameras detected a stolen car driving through a Vernon Hills, Illinois neighborhood. Police were alerted, tracked the car to a nearby gas station, and charged the driver with illegally possessing a stolen vehicle, drugs and a gun.

The arrest was a prime example of how automated license plate recognition, or ALPRs, can help catch criminals and possibly prevent crime, police Chief Patrick Kreis said.

"These cameras have helped us," he said. "Perhaps that prevented further wrongdoing."

Critics of the cameras note that only a tiny percentage of the billions of plates photographed lead to an arrest, and that the cameras generally haven't been shown to prevent crime. More importantly they say the devices are unregulated, track innocent people and can be misused to invade drivers' privacy.

The controversy comes as suburban police departments continue to expand the use of the cameras to combat rising crime. Law enforcement officials say they are taking steps to safeguard the data. But privacy advocates say the state should pass a law to ensure against improper use of a nationwide surveillance system operated by private companies.

Across the Chicago area, one survey by the nonprofit watchdog group Muckrock found 88 cameras used by more than two dozen police agencies. In response to a surge in shootings, after much delay, state police are taking steps to add the cameras to area expressways. In the northwest suburbs, Vernon Hills and Niles are among several departments that have added license plate cameras recently.

The city of Chicago has ordered more than 200 cameras for its squad cars. In Indiana, the city of Hammond has taken steps to record nearly every vehicle that comes into town.

Not all police like the devices. In the southwest suburbs, Darien and La Grange had issues in years past with the cameras making false readings, and some officers stopped using them.

Unlike other cameras, which monitor traffic flow or issue speeding tickets, license plate readers are designed to record the plate number, make, model and color of every vehicle that passes, and often compare them to the National Crime Information Center or a local police "hot sheet," which may list stolen cars, suspended plates and people with outstanding arrest warrants or traffic violations.

Homeowner associations may also tie their cameras into the systems, which is what led to the arrest in Vernon Hills.

One of the leading sellers of such cameras, Vigilant Solutions, a part of Chicago-based Motorola Solutions, has collected billions of license plate numbers in its National Vehicle Location Service. The database shares information from thousands of police agencies, and can be used to find cars across the country.

The cameras often are mounted on police cars. But some departments have reported problems with that arrangement, noting the system may record addresses or other useless numbers, and may flag hits for vehicles going in the opposite direction, too late to stop them. So some officials prefer to mount the cameras on light poles, traffic light poles, or other stationary sites.

In Prospect Heights, cameras helped identify a car in a hit-and-run, leading to the arrest of the suspected driver, Chief Jim Zawlocki said.

Police there don't use the cameras for traffic enforcement, only using them when there is an incident prompting an investigation, such as a crime or a missing person.

"They're very beneficial when we're actively investigating something," he said.

In nearby Mundelein, police stopped using a license plate reader recently after several years. The chief said the system never worked as well as they'd hoped, often getting tripped up by outdated information. Another issue police identified is the long time it takes to get permission from the Illinois Department of Transportation to put a camera on a state route.

And in north suburban Highland Park, police looked into using the cameras, but the City Council has held off while seeking more information.

If the city were to use the cameras, City Manager Ghida Neukirch said, it would require tight restrictions, including only using the information with limited access for investigations, and deleting the information after 30 days.

"We are certainly sensitive to privacy concerns," she said. "It's imperative that any municipality have a detailed policy set forth on when it would be used, and have a reporting mechanism so the public understands how it's being used."

In a survey of law enforcement agencies using the cameras, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog, found that 99.5% of the plates were not under suspicion when scanned, and that police shared their data with an average of 160 other agencies.

Two big concerns the American Civil Liberties Union has always had about the cameras are that the information can be used to track the movements of the general population, and often is sold by operators to third parties like credit and insurance companies.

Then there is the potential for abuse by police. One investigation found that officers nationwide misused agency databases hundreds of times, to check on ex-girlfriends, romantic rivals, or perceived enemies.

To address those concerns, 16 states have passed laws restricting the use of the cameras. The ACLU supported such legislation in Illinois and Indiana, but it failed to pass in either state. As a first step, the agency called for states at least to monitor what agencies are using the technology, and in what manner.

And local officials should have public hearings to decide if or how residents want such surveillance.

"There ought to be a discussion of how much surveillance a community thinks is appropriate," ACLU of Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka said. "We don't think it's a decision that ought to be solely left to law enforcement agencies."

Explore further Amazon's Ring to make police video requests public

2021 Chicago Tribune.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Melt pool shape and the temperature and melt pool flow velocity predicted by a physics-informed neural network (PINN) for case A, B and C at quasi-steady state (2 microseconds). Credit: Qiming Zhu, Zeliang Liu, Jinhui Yan

Additive manufacturing has the potential to allow one to create parts or products on demand in manufacturing, automotive engineering, and even in outer space. However, it's a challenge to know in advance how a 3D printed object will perform, now and in the future.

Physical experimentsespecially for metal additive manufacturing (AM)are slow and costly. Even modeling these systems computationally is expensive and time-consuming.

"The problem is multi-phase and involves gas, liquids, solids, and phase transitions between them," said University of Illinois Ph.D. student Qiming Zhu. "Additive manufacturing also has a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This has led to large gaps between the physics that happens on the small scale and the real product."

Zhu, Zeliang Liu (a software engineer at Apple), and Jinhui Yan (professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois), are trying to address these challenges using machine learning. They are using deep learning and neural networks to predict the outcomes of complex processes involved in additive manufacturing.

"We want to establish the relationship between processing, structure, properties, and performance," Zhu said.

Current neural network models need large amounts of data for training. But in the additive manufacturing field, obtaining high-fidelity data is difficult, according to Zhu. To reduce the need for data, Zhu and Yan are pursuing "physics informed neural networking," or PINN.

"By incorporating conservation laws, expressed as partial differential equations, we can reduce the amount of data we need for training and advance the capability of our current models," he said.

A fully connected deep neural network for metal additive manufacturing. Credit: Qiming Zhu, Zeliang Liu, Jinhui Yan

Using the Frontera and Stampede2 supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (the #10 and #36 fastest in the world, as of June 2021), Zhu and Yan simulated the dynamics of two benchmark experiments: an example of 1D solidification, when solid and liquid metals interact; and an example of laser beam melting tests taken from the 2018 NIST Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series.

In the 1D solidification case, they input data from experiments into their neural network. In the laser beam melting tests, they used experimental data as well as results from computer simulations. They also developed a "hard" enforcement method for boundary conditions, which, they say, is equally important in the problem-solving.

The team's neural network model was able to recreate the dynamics of the two experiments. In the case of the NIST Challenge, it predicted the temperature and melt pool length of the experiment within 10% of the actual results. They trained the model on data from 1.2 to 1.5 microseconds and made predictions at further time steps up to 2.0 microseconds.

The team published their results in Computational Mechanics in January 2021.

"This is the first time that neural networks have been applied to metal additive manufacturing process modeling," Zhu said. "We showed that physics-informed machine learning, as a perfect platform to seamlessly incorporate data and physics, has big potential in the additive manufacturing field."

Zhu sees engineers in the future using neural networks as fast prediction tools to provide guidance on the parameter selection for the additive manufacturing processfor instance, the speed of the laser or the temperature distributionand to map the relationships between additive manufacturing process parameters and the properties of the final product, such as its surface roughness.

"If your client requires a specific property, then you'll know what you should use for your manufacturing process parameters," Zhu said.

Comparison of the predictions of the temperature and melt pool fluid dynamics of finite element method (FEM), physics-informed neural network (PINN) and experiment for case B (195 W, 0.8 m/s) at quasi-steady state (2 microseconds) when the melt pool shape is not changing. Left: FEM prediction. Middle: PINN prediction. Right: Thermal video frame based on radiance temperature from experiment. Credit: Qiming Zhu, Zeliang Liu, Jinhui Yan

In a separate paper in Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering published online in May 2021, Zhu and Yan proposed a modification of the existing finite element method framework used in additive manufacturing to see if their technique could get better predictions over existing benchmarks.

Mirroring a recent additive manufacturing experiment from Argonne National Lab involving a moving laser, the researchers showed that simulations, performed on Frontera, differed in depth from those in the experiment by less than 10.3% and captured the common experimentally-observed chevron-type shape on the metal top surface.

Zhu and Yan's research benefits from the continued growth of computing technologies and federal investment in high performance computing.

Frontera not only speeds up studies such as theirs, it opens the door to machine and deep learning studies in fields where training data is not widely available, broadening the potential of AI research.

"The most exciting point is when you see that your model can predict the future using only a small amount of existing data," Zhu said. "It's somehow learning about the evolution of the process.

"Previously, I was not very confident on whether we'd be able to predict with good accuracy over temperature, velocity, and geometry of the gas-metal interface. We showed that we're able to make nice data inferences."

Explore further Researchers propose methods for additive manufacturing quality control

More information: Qiming Zhu et al, Machine learning for metal additive manufacturing: predicting temperature and melt pool fluid dynamics using physics-informed neural networks, Computational Mechanics (2021). Qiming Zhu et al, Machine learning for metal additive manufacturing: predicting temperature and melt pool fluid dynamics using physics-informed neural networks,(2021). DOI: 10.1007/s00466-020-01952-9 Qiming Zhu et al, A mixed interface-capturing/interface-tracking formulation for thermal multi-phase flows with emphasis on metal additive manufacturing processes, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2021.113910
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Staff writer Harry Funk, a professional journalist for three-plus decades, has been on the staff of The Almanac since 2015. He has a bachelors degree in journalism and master of business administration, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Before the pandemic, the tourism sector made up some 20% of Thailand's economy, and 95% of Phuket's income.

The resort island off the southern coast saw fewer than a half million visitors in the first five months, and almost no foreigners, compared to more than 3 million during the same period last year including some 2 million foreigners.

In a nod to the importance of the sandbox plan, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew to Phuket to be on hand in person for the launch.

He emphasized that the sandbox was just the first step toward his goal announced in June of having Thailand completely reopened within 120 days.

"This reopening is related to not only Phuket but also the whole country, he said.

Last-minute hitches in some of the program details and cautions from authorities that if cases start to rise on the island more restrictions may be needed  or it may have to be shut down entirely  meant some cancelations before it even began. Fewer than 250 international travelers were expected on the first day compared to the initial target of 1,500.
Richwood, TX (77531)

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Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 86F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low around 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Colombian authorities on Wednesday said they have arrested a Romanian hacker who is wanted in the U.S. for distributing a virus that infected more than a million computers from 2007 to 2012.

Mihai Ionut Paunescu (aka "Virus"), the individual in question, was detained at the El Dorado airport in Bogota, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia said.

Paunescu was previously charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) in January 2013 for operating a bulletproof hosting service that "enabled cyber criminals to distribute the Gozi Virus, the Zeus Trojan and other notorious malware, and conduct other sophisticated cyber crimes." He was arrested in Romania in December 2012 but managed to avoid extradition to the U.S.

"Through this service, Paunescu, like other bulletproof hosts, knowingly provided critical online infrastructure to cyber criminals that allowed them to commit online criminal activity with little fear of detection by law enforcement," the DoJ said in an unsealed indictment.

Gozi (aka ISFB, Snifula, or Ursnif), a Windows-based banking trojan, had its roots dating as far back as 2005 prior to its deployment in real-world attacks in 2007. At least 40,000 computers in the U.S., including those belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are said to have been infected with the virus.

Germany, Great Britain, Poland, France, Finland, Italy, and Turkey are the other countries where Gozi infections were reported.

In May 2016, Gozi's primary developer, a Russian citizen named Nikita Kuzmin, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and fined $7 million over charges of computer intrusion and fraud, and for causing "tens of millions of dollars in losses" to individuals, businesses, and government entities. Kuzmin also rented out the malware to other criminal operators in exchange for $500 a week.

Separately, Deniss Calovskis, a Latvian national who developed "web injects" so as to enable Gozi to surreptitiously gather information entered by users on banking websites, landed a 21-month prison term in January 2016 for his co-conspiratorial role in the fraudulent scheme.

Despite these law enforcement efforts, Gozi, however, continues to be an ever-evolving malware that has since morphed from a simple banking trojan into a modular malicious content delivery platform, with cybersecurity firm Check Point uncovering "modern derivatives" that were actively deployed in several cyber attacks as of August 2020.
Cybersecurity researchers are warning of ongoing attacks coordinated by a suspected Chinese-speaking threat actor targeting the Afghanistan government as part of an espionage campaign that may have had its provenance as far back as 2014.

Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Research attributed the intrusions to a hacking group tracked under the moniker "IndigoZebra," with past activity aimed at other central-Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

"The threat actors behind the espionage leveraged Dropbox, the popular cloud-storage service, to infiltrate the Afghan National Security Council (NSC)," the researchers said in a technical write-up shared with The Hacker News, adding they "orchestrated a ministry-to-ministry style deception, where an email is sent to a high-profile target from the mailboxes of another high-profile victim."

IndigoZebra first came to light in August 2017 when Kaspersky detailed a covert operation that singled out former Soviet Republics with a wide swath of malware such as Meterpreter, Poison Ivy RAT, xDown, and a previously undocumented piece of malware called xCaon.

Check Point's investigation into the attacks commenced in April when NSC officials began receiving lure emails allegedly claiming to be from the Administrative Office of the President of Afghanistan.

While the message urged the recipients to review modifications in an attached document related to a pending NSC press conference, opening the decoy file  a password-protected RAR archive ("NSC Press conference.rar")  was found to trigger an infection chain that culminated in the installation of a backdoor ("spools.exe") on the targeted system.

Additionally, the attacks funneled malicious commands into the victim machine that were camouflaged using the Dropbox API, with the implant creating a unique folder for every compromised host in an attacker-controlled Dropbox account.

The backdoor, dubbed "BoxCaon," is capable of stealing confidential data stored on the device, running arbitrary commands, and exfiltrating the results back to the Dropbox folder. The commands ("c.txt") themselves are placed in a separate sub-folder named "d" in the victim's Dropbox folder, which is retrieved by the malware prior to execution.

BoxCaon's connection to IndigoZebra stems from similarities shared by the malware with xCaon. Check Point said it identified about 30 different samples of xCaon  the earliest dating back to 2014  all of which rely on HTTP protocol for command-and-control communications.

Telemetry data analyzed by the researchers also found that the HTTP variants primarily set their sights on political entities located in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, suggesting a shift in targeting in recent years along with a revamped toolset.

"What is remarkable here is how the threat actors utilized the tactic of ministry-to-ministry deception," said Lotem Finkelsteen, head of threat intelligence at Check Point.

"This tactic is vicious and effective in making anyone do anything for you; and in this case, the malicious activity was seen at the highest levels of sovereignty. Furthermore, it's noteworthy how the threat actors utilize Dropbox to mask themselves from detection."
According to a new report from CoBanks Knowledge Exchange, the outlook for continued U.S. grain exports to China remains strong, primarily due to its projected growth in pork production and steady demand for feed grains. However, the current U.S. grain run has entered a new phase marked by significant price volatility, and China is leveraging that volatility to its advantage.

China will remain an active buyer of U.S. grain through at least the 2021-22 marketing year, said Kenneth Scott Zuckerberg, lead grain and farm supply economist with CoBank. But the increased volatility in grain prices has led China to shift its buying pattern to wait for price weakness before committing to additional purchases, as well as to contract now for the next marketing year.

Chinas heightened demand, CoBank said, resulted in record high grain prices that peaked in May and have since been extremely volatile. A period of elevated price volatility, coupled with an ongoing inverted futures curve, means that grain elevators and merchandisers will require capital discipline and excess liquidity, said Zuckerberg.
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Another Nebraska business, according to Fisher, said that its steel costs have doubled during the past six months going up virtually weekly.

We have had to pass along price increases to our customers every month and will have more to go as steel costs continue to go up, according to the testimony provided by Fischer.

Our concern is when the auto manufacturers get back going full steam in the fall when they get their chip shortage issue resolved then there will be even more pressure on steel costs. We ordered steel back in the January/February time frame for delivery in April and May. We are just now starting to get the April stuff. This has put tremendous pressure on our manufacturing and shipping folks, not to mention our dealers and end customer/growers. At this point we are having to order steel with expected deliveries later this fall but we cannot lock in a cost, so we will just have to wait and see what our costs will be at that time.

Fischer and a number of her Senate colleagues also are asking the Biden administration to uphold the promises he made on the campaign trail to support the biofuel industry and the family farmers who rely on it.
KEARNEY  When fireworks explode over Washington, D.C., Sunday night, Kim and Randy Buschkoetter of Kearney will be watching from the White House lawn.

One of my great philosophies of life is when someone offers you a cookie, you take it, and this is a pretty good cookie, said Randy Buschkoetter.

He and Kim were invited to the event by a friend, Manny Banner, a former employee of Harlan County Health Services who might have declined the invitation if Buschkoetter hadnt reminded her what a special experience it would be.

Today, Banner is the CEO of the Memorial Community Hospital and Health System in Blair. Recently, Banner hosted the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, who came to the Blair hospital for a fact-finding visit.

After the visit, Emhoff  the second gentleman of the U.S.  sent four invitations to Banner. There was one invitation for her along with three additional invitations for her guests, so she invited her husband Gary, and Kim and Randy Buschkoetter.
Williams eventually pleaded no contest to attempt of a Class 1 felony, which is a Class 2 felony, and he was sentenced to five years of probation last October.

However, earlier this summer he was back in custody and in the courtroom after he violated numerous terms of that probation.

As part of the factual basis during Williams earlier plea, regarding the probation violations, York County Attorney John Lyons told the court that Williams was cited by the sheriffs department for theft, he failed to appear for that hearing, he was cited for failure to appear, he was in the company of people who had recent convictions, he admitted to alcohol use, he left a sober living house and did not notify probation, and in order to be present here today, he had to be extradited from Colorado as he fled from Nebraska.

This week, during Williams sentencing proceedings, Lyons told the court he initially asked the court for Williams to be incarcerated. He was granted probation and I was concerned then that he would not comply. He tried to sell a stolen firearm in a local gas station. Then he absconded. He will not follow the law. We are asking that he be imprisoned, so then he cant run around our community with a shotgun when he isnt even supposed to possess one.
The Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, said Xi, who has eliminated limits on his time in office, prompting speculation that he could rule for life, as Mao did.

The strong language appeared aimed at revving up and playing to a domestic audience. The strongest elements of it  the references to bashing heads and bloodshed  were left out of state media's English translation of the quote.

Xi declared that China had restored order in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in 2019 and reiterated the Communist Partys determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control.

Both policies have been widely criticized by Western democracies. They have accused the Communist Party of abusing its power at home, including detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim minorities for political reeducation in the northwest region of Xinjiang, and for imprisoning or intimidating into silence those it sees as potential opponents from Tibet to Hong Kong.
This years celebration of the Fourth of July provides a particularly apt occasion for considering the health of our republic.

Opinions vary. One friend thinks that democracy as we used to know it in America is in extreme peril. Another believes that things are no worse now than they were in the 60s. (I assume he means the 1960s, not the 1860s.)

And a third maintains that Americas commitment to democracy endures and that the institutions originated by the Founders have succeeded in keeping our nation on track.

I hope he is correct, but, at best, its a close-run thing. Liberals and conservatives who are still committed to the values we celebrate on the Fourth of July should be concerned.

Some of this concern stems from the remarkable events of the past five years. Normal presidents dont behave in ways that result in two impeachments in one term. Normal presidents dont alienate our allies and cozy up to autocrats. Normal presidents dont prefer the dubious declarations of one of our chief adversaries over the findings of our intelligence agencies. Normal presidents dont refuse to perform a peaceful transfer of power when they lose an election. And then theres Jan. 6.
IT Trends

Implementing a Unified Communication Platform to Build Community Trust

New York district overhauls school-to-home communications efforts with a unified, data-rich communication platform to improve disconnected communications with families.

New York district overhauls school-to-home communications efforts with a unified, data-rich communication platform to improve disconnected communications with families.

When I joined Mechanicville City School District in 2019, I immediately noticed that communications to students and their families were few and far between. I also noticed that communications between our district and homes only included input from select staff and wasnt a collaborative effort. Instead of families receiving the entire story, for example, they were only receiving bits of the information that we really wanted to convey.

Without a clear picture of what was really going on, there was a disconnect with the community and lack of overall trust in the district. This culture spread among students, leaving them feeling like they too didnt have strong relationships with their teachers or school leaders.

With all of this in mind, I knew we had to seize this critical opportunity, tackle these challenges, and rebuild trust in our school community. To get there, we needed to make clear, consistent, and transparent communications a priority so that we could build a vibrant school community with strong relationships.

5 Reasons to Adopt a Unified Communications Platform

By adopting ParentSquares unified communication platform, we felt that we could create exactly what we needed to bring our school community together  namely, a consistent communications plan that keeps school community members informed and allows them to voice their input.

Today, our district regularly communicates with our school community in real-time, receives parent feedback, and connects with community members in meaningful ways. Here are five more wins that weve seen since implementing our unified communication platform:

Better use of technology. Rather than sending out long emails or newsletters with a lot of text, we can upload videos every week with school and district updates. Parents can absorb a lot more information when they watch a quick video, and videos are also a more personal way for our school and district leaders to communicate home.

A two-way communication stream. Our parents also needed a way to reach school and district leaders. The platform has a survey feature that we use to gather feedback from parents, as well as two-way communication so that parents can communicate with the school and district straightaway.

Leverage the power of the web and social media. Using the platforms Social Share feature, we can post information directly to our website, Twitter, or Facebook. This gives parents multiple places to find information, which is an improvement from our previous, limited communications approach.

Real-time insights and analytics. We now have powerful dashboards that provide real-time insights and analytics. These tools help us identify the parents and guardians that we are not reaching, so we can find alternative methods to connect. Additionally, we can ensure contact data is accurate and up-to-date, so everyone has a chance to engage with important communications.

Address COVID-19 protocols. Students and staff can fill out their Health Screening Form in the platforms app, making an otherwise lengthy screening process more efficient, and helping our school community maintain compliance with state-specific and CDC-guidelines surrounding COVID-19.

Building a Better-Connected School District

Im happy to report that our district has successfully reached its reimagined goal to provide consistent, transparent, purposeful, and timely communications to all school community members regarding district business with a special focus given to district goals. In fact, the platform made it really easy for us to rebuild our communications process from scratch. The district completely transformed its communications program so that every family is now informed and engaged, resulting in a more unified school community with strong trust.

Bruce Potter is Superintendent at Mechanicville City School District in New York.
Paris, TX (75460)

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Sunny. High near 90F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

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A few passing clouds. Low around 70F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
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America is back, President Biden announced repeatedly in meeting with allies in Europe. The question, of course, is back for what? Biden has sensibly insisted that we must build back better at home and abroad. Our neighbors to the south in Latin America offer a clear opportunity to show that is true. Now more than ever, it is time for a new Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America.

Donald Trump had little interest in Latin America, other than labeling its refugees as terrorists, drug dealers, and rapists. He reversed the initial steps Obama took to move to better relations with Cuba. He doubled down on crippling sanctions, illegal under international law, on Venezuela, and pushed to overturn the president of the country.

Biden has both an opportunity and an imperative to offer better relations. Latin America has been battered by the economic collapse accompanying the pandemic. Poverty has soared as has the death toll of the coronavirus, over 500,000 dead in Brazil alone.

Now elections promise to bring a new generation of progressive leaders to power across the hemisphere. Peru has led the way with the election of Pedro Castillo, running on a populist agenda accusing the mining barons of looting and promising to tax them to invest in health care and education.
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Claflins Downtown Center opens in Orangeburg; president: university is committed to city

LARRY HARDY, T&D Cutting the ribbon on the Claflin University Downtown Center are, from left, Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler, Claflin University President Dwaun Warmack, Claflin Trustee Leslie Price and Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering. LARRY HARDY, T&D Claflin University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the universitys Downtown Center on June 30.

Claflin University has expanded into downtown Orangeburg.

The university officially opened the Claflin University Downtown Center at 1425 Russell Street on Wednesday.

This is the first step of many of what Claflin University will do down here, Claflin University President Dr. Dwaun Warmack said.

We have a civic and a moral responsibility to be a beacon of light, and support the revitalization of Downtown Orangeburg, he said.

The center will house several programs geared toward helping the community, including the Center for Social Justice, the Center for Professional and Continuing Studies, the Pathways from Prison Program and the universitys online classes, or Claflin Online.

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler said the center is a part of the citys vision for a revitalized downtown.

This is a part of the vision that we have envisioned for downtown, to establish foot traffic down here. One of the vehicles that we wanted to use is to have partnerships with the universities, and get the universities from out of the walls, and bring their students out into Orangeburg, Butler said.

Claflin puts community in student center plan; 3-story facility is to include movie theater In a few years, Claflin University will have a new facility to serve students and the community.

Many initiatives will be housed in the center.

The components associated with the social justice center are health care, diversity and inclusion initiatives, prison education, education opportunities to former prisoners and police education, according to Warmack.

The university will offer certification programs, training programs in diversity and inclusion and certification programs in urban and rural policing. It will also help develop cultural competency and unconscious bias training.

Warmack noted Orangeburgs role in the civil rights movement, including the Feb. 8, 1968 incident that is now known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

Three students were killed and 28 others were injured when S.C. Highway Patrol troopers opened fire on a crowd of protesters following three nights of escalating racial tension over efforts to desegregate the All-Star Triangle Bowl.

South Carolina State College students Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, along with 19-year-old Wilkinson High School student Delano Middleton, were killed in the incident.

The former bowling alley is located near the center.

This had significant value, and significant historical context around the notion of social justice and the work that will go behind that, Warmack said.

The center will also focus on global education, allowing the universitys programs and initiatives to be accessible around the world.

Our Center for Global Education will provide all of these trainings from a virtual format across the world. You could be in the continent of Africa, you could be in Europe, and still take advantage of the social justice component we will offer here at Claflin University, Warmack said.

This is an exciting time. Were committed to the City of Orangeburg, Warmack said. This is just the beginning of our work and our commitment to Orangeburg, the state and the country.

The Center for Social Justice will have up to ten interns who will conduct research and programmatic activist work, according to Warmack.

The center will also feature technology available to the public.

We will open an Apple Lab here, and that will be open to the community to utilize computer literacy, and things like that as well, Warmack said.

The universitys high school dual enrollment and workforce development programs will also be housed in the center.

We want everything community-facing right here, and allow the community. We dont have to be inside the gates at Claflin, we are outside the gates at Claflin, and everything thats forward-facing will be done out of this facility, Warmack said.
ALLENDALE  The sheriff of Allendale County withdrew thousands in cash with no explanation. The clerk of court paid thousands in Christmas bonuses to staff, and to herself, without reporting them to the IRS. And the tiny, rural county has at least 45 bank accounts, some in individuals names, according to findings in a new forensic audit.

The audit, by Burkett Burkett & Burkett of West Columbia, examined several years of financial records and cited a range of severe accounting deficiencies that left the county at serious risk of fraud. County Council members heard details of the new report on June 29.

The county lacks checks and balances in its accounting practices, has issued payments without invoices and hasnt kept a general ledger  one of the most basic of accounting tools  for the past 13 years, the auditors found.

Council members and the county administrator pledged to make improvements and cited changes already underway. They sought the audit after complaining that the county treasurer, who is elected, was not providing them basic information about revenue, among other concerns. The treasurer, Gerzell Chaney, resigned two weeks ago, just days after state lawmakers wrote to Gov. Henry McMaster urging him to take action.
The university will offer certification programs, training programs in diversity and inclusion and certification programs in urban and rural policing. It will also help develop cultural competency and unconscious bias training.

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Warmack noted Orangeburgs role in the civil rights movement, including the Feb. 8, 1968 incident that is now known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

Three students were killed and 28 others were injured when S.C. Highway Patrol troopers opened fire on a crowd of protesters following three nights of escalating racial tension over efforts to desegregate the All-Star Triangle Bowl.

South Carolina State College students Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond, along with 19-year-old Wilkinson High School student Delano Middleton, were killed in the incident.

The former bowling alley is located near the center.

This had significant value, and significant historical context around the notion of social justice and the work that will go behind that, Warmack said.

The center will also focus on global education, allowing the universitys programs and initiatives to be accessible around the world.
Today is Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Let's get caught up.

Here's what you should know today: Temperatures obliterated heat records in the Pacific Northwest on Monday; the search for victims of Florida condo collapse stretches into sixth day; Trump Org lawyers make pitch against prosecution.

Keep scrolling for today's top stories, this date in history and celebrity birthdays.

TOP STORIES

Northwest US faces hottest day of intense heat wave

SEATTLE (AP)  The hottest day of an unprecedented and dangerous heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest on Monday, with temperatures obliterating records that had been set just the day before.

Seattle hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) by evening  well above Sundays all-time high of 104 F (40 C). Portland, Oregon, reached 116 F (46.6 C) after hitting records of 108 F (42 C) on Saturday and 112 F (44 C) on Sunday.
Christians Engaged teaches the faithful how to apply their world view to contemporary public policy issues. Christians Engaged gives people something to think about; teaches them how to think about it, but not what to think. (This novel approach should be considered by our public education system as a refreshing change of pace.)

But those for whom partisan politics is their true religion simply cannot fathom that some prioritize faith over party. They are incredulous that people of faith applying their shared values could arrive at different conclusions and respect each others decisions.

People of faith from all points along the political spectrum can debate which party more closely aligns with religious doctrine. What they should all be able to agree upon is that the IRS should stay out of that debate. With its letter the IRS has claimed there is only one interpretation of biblical principles: Theirs. If the religion clauses of the First Amendment mean anything it is that government has no place in telling people of faith what their holy scripture requires of them, let alone claiming an exegetical monopoly.
Agriculture contributes close to $47 billion and a quarter-of-a-million jobs to the South Carolina economy each year and continues to lead the way as the states largest economic sector.

More importantly, the food, fuel and fiber grown in South Carolina keep our state, our nation and our world running. As it turns out though, theres still untapped potential in the land we manage, and our sector can have even more impact  reaching far beyond economics.

While farmers have long sought to preserve the integrity of the land we live off of, regenerative farming offers us a new opportunity to do just that. By adopting a range of farming practices  from cover cropping to permaculture design  farmers can store more carbon in the soil, thus reducing it in the atmosphere along with its ability to accelerate changes to our climate. But carbon sequestration is a complicated process, not to mention that farmers plates are already full; so many have faced challenges in adopting the practice.
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According to the affidavit, investigators found messages between Jackson and the victim, arranging to meet, talking about sexual activities and discussing the secret nature of their relationship. Messages from Jackson also reportedly show him sending photos, telling the victim to lie to people in her life and giving her cell phones, tablets and a debit card.

He knows his behavior is inappropriate and unlawful, the victims father said Wednesday, or he would not have hid his actions.

Records were also recovered from the victims grandmothers phone that indicated she had used it to Facetime with Jackson while she was in the shower.

The victims mother voiced concern that Jackson would find her daughter after getting out of jail in a year, and her father criticized the plea deal for being too lenient. The victim also gave a short statement on Wednesday, telling Johnson she believed Jackson would leave her alone as long as she did the same.

Jackson will also have to undergo sex offender treatment as part of his probationary process.

I want to give my sincere apologies to the family, Jackson said before sentencing Wednesday. I know it means nothing to them, but I do mean it and Im sorry for everything Ive put them through.

Jackson appeared in court Wednesday free on bond, but was required to report to the jail by 7 p.m. the same night.

Follow city and crime reporter Ellen Gerst on Twitter at @ellengerst.

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Nobody has given him (Bouchard) any information to indicate that theres been voter fraud in Wyoming, April Poley, Bouchards campaign coordinator, told the Star-Tribune. I am getting tired of the Twilight Zone circus, she later added.

That being said, Bouchard is not entirely convinced that the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.

That doesnt mean that he doesnt think theres a fraud issue, Poley said.

In one of Woods Telelgram posts, he said that he spoke on the phone with Bouchard after the initial endorsement of Gray.

I received a phone call from Mr. Bouchard this morning in which he sought to question my endorsement. I explained that for me, my litmus test is that a candidate must demand and fight for full forensic audits of the November 2020 election in each state. Voting integrity is THE most important issue before this country and cost is not relevant. We The People must know the TRUTH, Wood wrote on Telegram.

The Bouchard campaign confirmed that the two spoke during a 30-minute phone call, in which Wood tried to convince Bouchard that the presidential election results in Wyoming (which Trump won by the largest margin in the nation) need to be audited, according to Poley.
Large numbers of migrants have been showing up at the U.S. border with Mexico, with many turning themselves over to U.S. Border Patrol agents in seeking legal asylum status. But the numbers of families and children traveling without their parents crossing into the U.S. have dropped sharply since March and April, while the encounters with single adults have remained high.

A private donation will fund the cost of sending the South Dakota National Guard troops, Noem said. The deployment is expected to last from 30 to 60 days, while the other states involved are sending law enforcement officers for roughly two-week stints.

Noem, who is seen as a potential presidential contender, drew a distinction between her decision to send the National Guard and other governors who are sending state police officers.
CONSTRUCTION of the new airport terminal in Tobago is expected to resume today, the date of the resumption of Government construction activities.

Work had to be suspended in May as a result of anti-Covid-19 restrictions.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced on Saturday the reopening of all construction today after announcing last week Saturday that only Government construction would be open today.
WHY do we do the things we do? Whats fuelling our choices?

Both introspective, soul searching questions are at the heart of Lisa-Anne Juliens first novel If You Save Me published by Kwela Books. The novel revolves around four men and a little girl and spans three countries: T&T, the UK and South Africa. It centres arounds Carl, a South African, London-based surgeon who performs living donor liver transplants.
Trinidadian Akil Inniss, who was stuck in the United States due to Trinidad and Tobagos border closure, will never get the chance to return home as he contracted Covid-19 and died of the virus last month.

Inniss left Trinidad a week before the borders closed in March 2020 to go to New York to seek medical attention.
The multimillion-dollar fees paid out to attorneys and firms under the Peoples National Movement (PNM) Government are no longer secret, having been revealed by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

Last month, the AG was adamant that he would not disclose the fees of attorneys who do work for the State.
Sometimes the black sheep is the only one telling the truth.

As I read the Express Editorial dated Sunday July 4, that phrase came to mind.

The editorial chose to defend the Ministry of Healths medical team, unceremoniously attacked the Leader of the Oppositions stance of questioning the competence of the medical team in their response to Covid-19 over the past 15 months.
"He was principled and had a strong internal compass. He loved his job and we were blessed to work with him."
PHOENIX  A new ruling upholding Arizona election laws comes as state lawmakers just changed one of the reasons the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to leave those statutes in place.

In concluding the ban on ballot harvesting does not violate the Voting Rights Act, the court cited how easy it is for Arizonans to cast early ballots, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that, among other things,any voters may ask to be sent an early ballot automatically in future elections. And, at the time the case was argued at the court in March, that was true.

But that was before the Republican-controlled Legislature adopted SB 1485.

That law by Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, spells out that if someone does not return an early ballot in at least one of four prior elections  meaning a primary and a general election in two successive years  the person is dropped from what until now had been called the permanent early voting list.

They still could sign up again to get early ballots. They also would have to be notified before being removed from the list.

And they could still go directly to the polls on Election Day.

But it would entail an additional hurdle.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base would lose its active-duty A-10 fighter squadron but gain A-10 and rescue units from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, under a realignment plan announced by the Air Force.

Nellis units operating A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets and HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters would be transferred to Davis-Monthan, under the first phase of a proposed plan, released as part of the Air Forces fiscal year 2022 budget request.

But that plan is contingent on congressional approval of the retirement of 42 A-10 aircraft, including 35 now at Davis-Monthan AFB, the Air Force said.

But moving the A-10 and HH-60 aircraft squadrons, one maintenance squadron and all the supporting personnel from Nellis will result in a small personnel increase at D-M, the Air Force said.

D-M is home to one A-10 combat unit  the 354th Fighter Squadron Bulldogs  as well as an active-duty A-10 training squadron and an Air Force Reserve A-10 training squadron, as well as rescue squadrons, under the host 355th Wing.

The moves will free up more space for more F-35 fighter-jet squadrons at Nellis and are part of a larger plan make the Tucson base home to centers of excellence for combat search and rescue, the Air Force said.
Scientists believe the area  north of Greenland and Canada  could become the last refuge for animals like polar bears that depend on ice, said Kristin Laidre, a co-author and biologist at the University of Washington.

The main cause for the sudden ice loss was extraordinary strong winds that pushed the ice out the region and down the coast of Greenland, Moore said.

That had happened in smaller, infrequent episodes, but this time was different, Moore said. The researchers used computer simulations and 40 years of Arctic sea data to calculate that there was a significant climate change signal"  about 20%, they estimate  in the event, Moore said.

In the past, thicker Wandel Sea ice would have resisted the strong winds, but in 2020 it was thinner and more easily broken up and pushed out, said National Snow and Ice Data Center scientist Walt Meier, who wasnt part of the study.

Another part of the Last Ice Area, off Canadas Ellesmere Island, had open waters after the July 2020 collapse of part of the Milne ice shelf, but scientists are still studying it to determine if there is a climate change connection, Moore said.


Among them, the budget:

 Bans any instruction that implies that one race is inherently racist, should be discriminated against or feel guilty because of their race. It is another in a series of measures targeting or reacting to so-called critical race theory, which is not currently being taught in K-12 schools. Teachers could lose their licenses and their schools fined for violations.

 Strips Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of the power to defend election-related lawsuits against the state, and bars Hobbs from hiring private attorneys. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich will instead get the power to stake out the state's position in election matters. The power transfer expires after Hobbs and Brnovich leave office in 2023.

 Creates a $12 million election integrity fund to pay for election security updates and future hand recounts. It also lays out a series of security features for ballot paper, such as watermarks or holograms, though it stops short of explicitly requiring they be used. The provisions are a response to the unfounded theory that former President Donald Trump lost in Arizona and other battleground states because of voter fraud.
CHICAGO (AP)  Fewer killings were reported over the first six months of 2021 in Chicago compared with the same period last year even as the number of shootings and people shot increased, according to statistics released Thursday by police.

Between Jan. 1 and Wednesday, there were 332 killings in the city  six fewer than in the first six months of 2020. Both numbers are much higher than the 246 recorded over the first half of 2019.

Chicago has seen a number of mass shootings and mass killings in recent weeks. Coupled with others around the country in June, shootings stoked concerns about a spike in U.S. gun violence heading into the summer, as coronavirus restrictions ease and more people are free to socialize.

Chicago ended 2020 with 769 slayings. So far this year, there have been 1,515 shooting incidents and 1,880 people shot in the city. Shootings incidents and victims over the first six months of 2020 totaled 1,377 and 1,656, respectively.
But residents still were not allowed to return home until after 9 p.m. Thursday. An earlier order was to end at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Tracey Steffes, chief of the Morris Fire Protection and Ambulance District, said Thursday afternoon that he still wasn't sure when the evacuation order will be withdrawn.

Crews have used concrete to try to smother the batteries and a construction crew is digging a trench to capture any water runoff, Steffes said.

We are doing everything we can, but we are not going to move people back into an area that is not safe, he said.

Lithium batteries have exploded inside the building and fire officials have said they decided to let the blaze burn out because they fear trying to extinguish it could trigger more explosions.

The building  to the surprise of the fire department and other city agencies  was being used to store nearly 100 tons of lithium batteries ranging in size from cellphone batteries to large car batteries.
ATLANTA (AP)  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is endorsing a Democrat-turned-Republican who's challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the state's 2022 Republican primary.

Giuliani spoke to reporters Wednesday before headlining a fundraising dinner for former state Rep. Vernon Jones in Atlanta.

Jones was on the outs with his party when he shot to prominence in Republican circles as an African American Democrat who endorsed Donald Trumps reelection campaign. Jones has since switched parties and doubled down in support of Trumps false claims of election fraud, appealing to Republican voters in Georgia who might be unhappy with Kemp. Trump has repeatedly attacked Kemp but has not so far endorsed Jones.

Giuliani said his main reason for endorsing Jones was their shared belief that then-President Trump was cheated out of Georgia's 16 electoral votes and the overall election.

The current governor has been a failure. I mean, he's had his time. He put together an election that wouldn't have passed muster in Africa, Asia, in undeveloped countries, Giuliani said.
Thompson said he was staying in town as the committee sets up office space and hires staff, saying the investigations could unfold in public hearings or closed-door interviews. He did not rule out issuing subpoenas for testimony, if necessary, and made clear the committee's work would continue if Republicans choose not to participate.

Asked when the work would begin, he quipped, about 30 minutes ago.

Its unclear whether the panel would call McCarthy to testify, or others who are publicly known to have spoken with Trump during the run-up to the siege and as the attack unfolded. He seemed to indicate Trump himself would not be called to testify.

I think theres a lot of other things that we have to do, Thompson told reporters.

As one of only 10 Republicans  and the only member of GOP leadership  who voted for Trump's 2nd impeachment, Cheney has separated herself from most of her Republican colleagues in recent months by directly blaming the former president for the insurrection.

She accused Trump of betraying the Constitution by fomenting the attack, saying he summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  A historical plaque memorializing the dozens of Native American children who died while attending a boarding school in New Mexico more than a century ago has gone missing, sparking concern among Indigenous activists.

Members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women are among those pushing the city of Albuquerque to investigate. The small plaque was in a park near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the original site of the Albuquerque Indian School.

The plaque noted the site of a burial ground for students who attended the school between 1882 and 1933. They included children from the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and Apache tribes.

The removal of the plaque comes as the U.S. government embarks on a nationwide investigation aimed at uncovering the troubling history of boarding schools that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the massive undertaking last month while addressing tribal leaders from across the nation.

Advocacy groups have praised the effort as a first step toward acknowledging what many have referred to as a dark history.
Criminal cases for 53 of the officers ended in a non-conviction, while 45 cases are still pending, according to the findings.

Nineteen of those 45 convicted were through a guilty plea  similar to what is planned in Delke's case  while the rest were through a jury conviction, according to Stinson's research.

In only 25 of the 143 arrests did the person who was fatally shot have a gun; just five were convicted, according to Stinsons tally. He said there's always risk for prosecutors that a case like this could end in an acquittal or a mistrial with a hung jury.

It's not uncommon for the case to end in a guilty plea and it's not uncommon for the case to end in a guilty plea on the eve of trial, either, Stinson said.

Delkes attorneys argued the officer followed his training and Tennessee law in response to an armed suspect who ignored repeated orders to drop his gun. Funk argued Delke had other alternatives, adding that the officer could have stopped, sought cover and called for help.
CHICAGO (AP)  A man who was allegedly with a 13-year-old shortly before the child was shot to death by a Chicago police officer pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a variety of charges.

Defense attorney Michael Oppenheimer, during a hearing before Cook County Circuit Judge Charles Burns, entered the not-guilty plea on Ruben Romans behalf.

Roman, 21, was indicted in May on three counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of recklessly discharging a firearm. Not included is a child endangerment charge which were filed against Roman when he was arrested.

The child endangerment charge was dropped after the Cook County states attorneys office determined erroneous information was entered into the court record about the shooting by a prosecutor.

Surveillance video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability show Roman shooting at a passing vehicle the morning of March 29, while Adam Toledo stood near to him.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  An 1854 letter hinting at Abraham Lincoln's transition from prairie legislator to political powerhouse, donated to the state of Illinois, was unveiled Thursday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The short missive, which a scholar once labeled in a sense, the most interesting document Lincoln ever wrote, explains his decision not to return to the Illinois House of Representatives so that he could remain viable for the U.S. Senate. The choice opened the door to the White House and Lincoln's preservation of the nation during the Civil War.

Lincoln wrote it at a pivotal time in his life. Would he focus on the law or make a return to politics?" Lincoln library and museum executive director Christina Shutt said. "His decision changed history, so its appropriate for this letter to find a home at the library and museum dedicated to telling the story of Lincolns impact on the world.

On Nov. 27, 1854, the circuit-riding attorney wrote friend and Peoria attorney Elihu N. Powell: Acting on your advice, and my own judgment, I have declined accepting the office of Representative of this county. He was responding to Powell's earlier reminder that service in the state House would prohibit an 1855 Senate run.
For decades, the two little grave markers sat side by side in a Mississippi Coast cemetery, identified only as Baby Jane and Baby Jane II.

The infants, both Jane Does, were found on different occasions, in 1982 and 1988, in Jackson County rivers and buried by community members, after investigators found no leads in either case.

Then late last year, investigators were able to identify Baby Jane through DNA testing, almost 40 years after her death. This week, investigators exhumed Baby Jane II from her resting place in Jackson County Memorial Park in Pascagoula, with hopes of finding her true name.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said in a news release that the remains of the infant have been sent to the Mississippi Crime Lab. Once her DNA is collected, investigators hope to use it to build a family tree.

Baby Jane II was found in the Pascagoula River on June 28, 1988, by two men fishing near the wildlife management area in Wade. The child was found tangled in a fishing line.

An autopsy showed that the baby, 3 to 5 weeks old at the time, had died by drowning.

The case has had a devastating impact on the community, even years later.
Two of them were alerted based on that temperature alarm. That would be a signal that it was based on age, that it wasnt able to meet the run at the capacity it was rated for, Rosentrater said.

One of the substations impacted was in the midst of a rebuild process that takes several years, said Avista spokeswoman Casey Fielder.

Heat is suspected as the cause of death for three people in Spokane, though details of the deaths have not been made public. Officials have said that heat is probably to blame for the deaths of hundreds more in the Canadian province of British Columbia, elsewhere in Washington state and in Oregon.

The heat wave that enveloped the regions last weekend was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.

Seattle, Portland and many other cities shattered all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).
These people were dressed in neither sheriff nor peace officer uniforms. They yelled commands and did not announce themselves as law enforcement of any kind, the attorneys said. While yelling commands for them to put their hands up, multiple armed people targeted their weapons upon her and Mr. Smith.

Askar's attorneys said that she was scared for her life and complied, and that Smith had a mobile phone and began to record for Facebook Live.

As he raised the phone all she could hear was gunfire and saw Winston Smith slump over, the attorneys said. When asked if they were suggesting that law enforcement mistook the phone for a gun, Nguyen said: I think that's a logical inference.

When asked whether task force officers are supposed to identify themselves as law enforcement, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said he could not comment due to the ongoing investigation. A spokeswoman with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also had no additional comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

The attorneys said Askar was pulled out of the SUV, handcuffed and put in the back of an unmarked car. She stayed in handcuffs until paramedics gave her medical attention. The attorneys said an officer later asked her how her date was.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A man convicted along with three others in the racially motivated killing spree that terrorized San Francisco in the 1970s died in a prison cell while on hospice care, officials announced Thursday.

Jessie Lee Cooks, 76, was found dead Wednesday in his bed at the California Medical Facility, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. The cause of death will be determined by the Solano County Coroner, officials said.

Cooks was sentenced in San Francisco County on March 29, 1976, to serve life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree robbery.

Cooks, Manuel More, J.C.X. Simon and Larry C. Green were convicted of targeting white victims between October 1973 and April 1974 in a rampage that terrorized San Francisco and left 14 people dead.

The murder victims included a woman who was beheaded with a machete, an 81-year-old man and a 19-year-old college student carrying a teddy bear as a Christmas present.

The attacks were known as the Zebra murders because investigators communicated their information in the case over the police broadcast band Z. The wounded included Art Agnos, who would go on to serve as San Franciscos mayor.
Five Idaho State Police troopers will come to Arizona for 21 days to help with border security, Gov. Brad Little said Thursday.

The Republican governor said the troopers will will start a 21-day mission on Tuesday to help Arizona law enforcement officials with intelligence gathering and investigative work to prevent illicit drugs from crossing the border.

The crisis at the United States-Mexico border and the alarming bump in illegal drug activity are direct results of failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration that harm the people of Idaho, Little said in a statement.

Republican Govs. Doug Ducey and Greg Abbott of Texas sent a letter to fellow governors last month asking for law-enforcement help.

On behalf of Texas and Arizona, we respectfully but urgently request that you send all available law-enforcement resources to the border in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity, the two governors wrote.

Little, who faces reelection next year and is being challenged by far-right Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, said it will cost Idaho just over $53,000 to send the troopers to Arizona. He said Idaho State Police leadership assured him that the troopers duties in Idaho will be covered while theyre in Arizona.
Last month, some 20,000 people gathered at a central square in the capital, Ljubljana, to demand that the government step down and early elections be held. Several workers unions and opposition parties joined the demonstration.

Critics accuse Jansa of assuming increasingly authoritarian ways similar to those of his ally, Hungarys hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban. They claim that Jansas government has pressured Slovenian media and spurred hate speech, while mishandling the coronavirus crisis.

He has come under particular scrutiny for keeping a strangle-hold on funds for Slovenias only news agency, the STA.

But on Thursday he said, somewhat cryptically, that in Europe, you usually pay the bill when you get it. Our problem is that we need a document. He did not provide details but said that he expects the problem to be resolved this fall.

Officials in Brussels have also been concerned for some time about Jansas delay in appointing two legal experts to the European Public Prosecutors Office, a new body that started work this month with a brief of tackling fraud linked to the EUs budget.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Kosovo on Thursday and reassured local leaders that the international Kosovo Force will remain in place to secure regional peace and stability.

Stoltenberg was in the Kosovar capital Pristina where he was also to visit the NATO-led mission, known as KFOR, and show NATOs commitment to peace and stability in the Western Balkans.

NATO has been leading KFOR since 1999, with more than 3,700 troops from 27 countries.

Stoltenberg said history has shown that the KFOR mission is important not only for Kosovo and for the region, but also for NATO and for all NATO allies."

He said that after Western forces presently complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, for years NATO's biggest operation, KFOR will not only be the longest, but also the biggest NATO military operation.

The 1998-99 war in the former Serbian province of Kosovo between ethnic Albanian independence fighters and Serbia left more than 10,000 dead and ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign.
OPINION: Water for wildlife and the changes at the Pima County Attorney's Office are the topics of the day. Join the discussion by submitting a letter to the editor at tucson.com/opinion.
With the new additions, American will serve eight destinations from Tulsa, including Phoenix (PHX), Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago (ORD), and the airlines two largest hubs in Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT) and Dallas Fort Worth (DFW).

Tulsa travelers will soon be able to enjoy the ease and convenience of a nonstop flight to two of our most requested destinations  Washington, D.C., and Miami, Alexis Higgins, CEO of Tulsa International Airport, said in a statement. Thank you, American Airlines, for demonstrating your continued commitment to the Tulsa community. We look forward to supporting the success of both new routes.

Starting Nov. 2, American will offer daily service between TUL and DCA, excluding Saturdays. Flights will leave TUL at 6 a.m. and arrive at DCA at 9:29 a.m., with inbound flights leaving Washington at 8:40 p.m. and arriving in Tulsa at 10:35 p.m.

Beginning Nov. 6, American will offer service between Tulsa and Miami on Saturdays. Flights will leave TUL at 7 a.m. and land at MIA at 11:05 a.m., with inbound flights departing Miami at 7:30 p.m. and arriving in Tulsa at 9:45 p.m.

Both routes will operate on an Embraer 175 aircraft. Tickets go on sale Monday on aa.com.
Integrated. Canada and the United States not only sell to each other, we make things together. Since the beginning of the pandemic, our countries have worked hard to maintain the two-way flow of goods, particularly medical supplies and critical inputs across our borders, while protecting our communities from COVID-19. On average, over 25% of a finished product we sell to you is American content. Just like most imports from Canada are used in production that puts Americans to work. These long-standing, binational supply chains have not only kept us safe, they have kept us competitive globally.

Reliable. Energy from Canada more than from any other country contributes directly to U.S. economic prosperity, security and environmental objectives. We are your largest and most secure supplier of all forms of energy, carried by 71 oil and gas pipelines and 35 transmission lines across our shared border. Importantly, a good portion of those energy liquids go to Oklahoma for further refining and processing, providing jobs and generating exports. We are also investing in new technologies and infrastructure to be a global leader in clean energy and innovation. Canada is developing our energy resources; in a way that creates prosperity and engages communities, while reducing emissions and preserving the environment.
Panera Bread will give a free bagel to anyone who has received a COVID-19 vaccination Friday through Sunday, July 2-4. The promotion is in support of the White Houses National Month of Action.

The bagel giveaway is available only in Panera Bread stores and is limited to one bagel per vaccinated customer per day. Online and catering orders are excluded. Spreads are not included in the promotion.

During the past year, we have focused on uniting and serving our entire Panera family  our guests, associates. and communities. Today, we are proud to continue our work through support of the We Can Do This campaign, said Niren Chaudhary, CEO, Panera Bread. We have come through one of our nations greatest crises by supporting one another, and now, together, we can all take a simple act that will help our communities overcome this pandemic.

Panera provided weekly family meals to its cafe associates during the pandemic, and the company regularly donates ingredients from its supply chain to those in need. Panera has also continued its longstanding food donation program, Day-End Dough-nation, in participating cafes, using a new contactless model to donate bread and baked goods to local community nonprofits who are in need now more than ever.
The city has created an online tool for current and former employees to check whether their personal information has been made public by the group behind the ransomware attack on the citys computer system.

Nearly 19,000 city files have been released onto the dark web by the hackers, according to the city.

The citys IT director, Michael Dellinger, said Wednesday that nearly all of those files were online police reports that are already public record.

There are some additional employee files that are departmental files, and in that there was an employee file that contained employee information, Dellinger said.

The online tool for current and former city employees is not available to the public.

The single file with employee information is from 2017, Dellinger said, so if you were not employed in the last (few years) you are not there.

City officials have said previously that the cyber attack likely occurred April 21, and that the malware lay dormant for some time before it was detected May 6. The city immediately shut down its computer system.

The citys core systems are expected to be up and running within two months with the entire network operating by October.
When we think about coming out of COVID-19, coming out of this last year, we need more and more supports for our students, she said. The way we wrote the grant was to get some college and career readiness counselors to help  as well as more mental health counselors. When we applied, we applied for funding for two sets of people who could help our students rebound after such a tumultuous year.

Also among the recipients is the Osage County Interlocal Cooperative, a consortium of 13 rural school districts whose attendance areas span portions of Osage, Noble, Washington and Nowata counties. The entity has an office in Hominy and provides shared services for member districts as needed, including professional development, grant writing and mental health programs.

OCIC will receive $522,000 over three years to hire counselors to work with students in six of its member school districts. Along with Pawhuska, South Coffeyville, Shidler and Wynona, the OCIC grant includes two dependent school districts: Osage Hills near Bartlesville and Anderson on Sand Springs north side.

Of the six school districts included in the OCIC grant proposal, only Pawhuska and Shidler had a counselor on staff as of the application deadline.
Carson taught a couple of years at TU previously and left only to accept an appointment to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2011.

He said it was faculty relationships he made at TU that paved the way for his return.

I was very lucky that some faculty members recommended me for the presidents position, he said. They reached out, and I went from there.

He said the new job is really just an incredible opportunity, a great challenge and one that Im excited to try to meet.

Carson said his goal to start is to spend the first few weeks listening  listening to the faculty and staff, the students, the alumni, everyone from the greater Tulsa area who has a keen interest in what TU is doing.

Carson comes on board as TU is entering a new era. The schools Board of Trustees adopted a new strategic plan in January.

Carson said hes enthusiastic about the plan. Were building on TUs traditional strengths and extending into new areas that are going to be really important in the 21st century, like our cybersecurity program, which is growing exponentially right now, he said.
What was of specific concern was that over the last six days we had not seen that type of significant movement, or in some locations any movement in those elements of the structure, Nacheman said Thursday during a briefing for family members.

Rescuers also use laser devices that can detect shifts of a few millimeters, Cominsky said.

We are constantly monitoring the building, he said.

Heavy equipment in the rubble pile caused vibrations, according to Nacheman. Rain has also been entering exposed parts of the building, saturating items and adding weight to the floors.

Covering parts of the structure to prevent further water damage or tearing down the building risks additional loss of life because those steps would require sending people back inside, Nacheman said. Demolition would also add debris on top of areas that have already been cleared of rubble.

Peter Milian is a cousin of Marcus Guara, who died along with his wife, Anaely Rodriguez, and their two children, 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara. Milian said he understands why the rescue work had to be temporarily halted and is confident search efforts will continue.
OKLAHOMA CITY  A controversial law passed last session that would restrict teaching certain aspects of race and gender in schools is among 79 new laws that became effective Thursday.

House Bill 1775, by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, bans the teaching that one race or gender is superior to another and makes college gender or diversity training voluntary.

It also bans the teaching that a person, by virtue of race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.

Some believe that the measure is aimed at the teaching of critical race theory  a premise that argues that American society, including its laws, politics, and economic system  have been shaped in ways to benefit whites at the expense of minorities. The specific term "critical race theory" is not mentioned in the bill, however.

West said there has been a misunderstanding about the bill. Some argue that it will prohibit the teaching of authentic history, which he said is not true. He said the measure does not prevent the teaching of concepts that align with the Oklahoma Academic Standards.

West said he was taught that hard work and character matter, not sex or race.
Its always great to see another job creator move into our state, and the recent announcement that electric vehicle maker Canoo will build a new manufacturing plant east of Tulsa was wonderful news that we will be celebrating for some time.

But there is more to celebrate than a single car manufacturer opening operations in Pryor. We are in the early stages of a trend, a changing attitude, starting in the Governors Office and filtering through Oklahomas business communities.

Oklahomans have always been proud of their state, but, more and more, we are showing others why were proud, and people are listening. Gov. Kevin Stitt had the moxie to go head-to-head with Texas for Teslas new gigafactory last year. Rest assured, there were many states competing for that plum, but the race ultimately came down to two cities, Austin and Tulsa, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk chose Austin.

That was a tough loss for Stitt, but did he sit down? No. He took stock in all the relationships he and his team had created in the process, and he set his sights on the next opportunities. Canoo was one of them, but it is not the only one.
Heres a salute to the Oklahoma National Guard, which performed essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, the Guard will transition out of a 15-month assignment aiding Oklahoma State Department of Health personnel with the crisis.

During that period, the men and women of the Guard have provided support with contact-tracing efforts, testing clinics, community resources, vaccine operations and staffing. Guard forces were essential parts of planning, sanitation, treatment, transportation and logistics.

We could not have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in the way we did without their help, Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said in a press release. In addition to being head of the State Health Department, Frye is a longtime Oklahoma Air National Guard member.

Over the course of the effort, some 500 Guard soldiers took part at one time or another. At the height of the response, 385 were involved.

Guard members were force multipliers for the Health Department. Because of them, the state was able to accomplish more while doing it faster, better and more nimbly than would have been possible otherwise.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the administration in Da Nang launched on Wednesday a plan to promote urban energy security in the central Vietnamese city.

This is part of the USAID Vietnam Urban Energy Security, a four-year (2019-23) project worth US$14 million.

The project is aimed at supporting the deployment of advanced and distributed energy solutions, such as rooftop solar systems, electric vehicles, waste-to-energy technology, and other energy efficiency solutions, in urban areas in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City.

It addresses rapidly growing energy demand and air pollution in these urban areas by working with city governments and creating business opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Thanks to the project, Da Nang is expected to deploy at least 40 megawatts of advanced distributed energy and mobilize at least $60 million in public and private investment for such energy systems.

At least five innovative solutions will also be demonstrated or commercialized to address urban energy and environment issues in the central hub.

During the ceremony on Wednesday, which was held virtually, Mission Director for USAID/Vietnam Ann Marie Yastishock stated that the agency is excited to work with Da Nang to promote clean energy, provide access to technical expertise, and become a global convening center to help Vietnam realize its goals in renewable energy.

Over the past five years, USAID has committed more than $40 million to supporting the energy sector in Vietnam and plans to supply an additional $36 million in the next five years.

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The World Bank (WB) has approved two development policy operations (DPOs) totaling US$321.5 million for Vietnams COVID-19 recovery efforts and urban management improvement in Ho Chi Minh City.

The two DPOs are meant to assist the central government and Vietnams largest economic hub, Ho Chi Minh City, in their efforts to proceed with an economic recovery that is inclusive, digitally transformative, and sustainable, the WB said on Tuesday.

Given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam needs to accelerate its reforms if it wants to become a high-income economy by 2045, said Carolyn Turk, WB country director for Vietnam.

The country must not only manage the immediate effects associated with the pandemic, but also build the foundations for a green recovery in the longer-term, the country director emphasized.

The first DPO, worth $221.5 million, focuses on policy actions that will make the recovery more inclusive, including support for e-governance, renewable energy, mobile money, and childcare.

E-government development activities will help accelerate a recovery process based on digital transformation so that public services can be provided more effectively and comprehensively to Vietnamese people and businesses, the WB said.

Policies to encourage the development of renewable energy will assist Vietnam in prioritizing solar energy projects as greener and less carbon-emitting alternatives to coal.

Supporting the adoption of mobile payments aims to increase access to financial services for unbanked households, which are still a majority in Vietnam.

By providing more access to affordable and quality childcare, this operation will help to address one of the greatest barriers to womens workplace equality in industrial parks, said the WB.

Meanwhile, the second DPO, valued at $100 million, will support Ho Chi Minh City in promoting the use of integrated and transparent spatial information for urban management.

This operation is designed to strengthen public asset and debt management, as well as improve the delivery of priority municipal services  a basic element for effectively governing a modern city.

The bank expects that reforms aimed at simplifying business registration procedures and enhancing access to planning information will help improve the citys business environment, thereby attracting more private investors, increasing labor productivity, and generating jobs.

By strengthening the city's public asset and debt management efficiency, this operation is expected to help improve fiscal efficiency and generate additional revenue in the coming years.

In the long term, residents will benefit from higher-quality urban services thanks to the citys reforms to promote competitiveness and transparency in the transport and real estate sectors.

This operation will also help the city relieve its vulnerabilities to climate change through increasing transparency in climate-informed land zoning, expanding drainage coverage, and the expected switch from private transport to less carbon-emitting public transport.

It will promote gender equality by encouraging women and girls to use public transport by enhancing connectivity and personal safety measures.

The funding for the national DPO comes from the International Development Association while the financing for the Ho Chi Minh City DPO is sourced from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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In Vietnam, it is extremely rare for a woman to choose to become a mechanic, let alone a mechanic working on an ocean liner, so Hua Nguyen Hoai Thuongs story catches everyones attention.

Men usually go with each other on ocean voyages, while Thuong is working alone at sea, Thuong recited old folk poetry to describe her work as a mechanic on an ocean liner traveling around the world.

When I was a child, I had a boat powered by an AAA battery that was made by my brother.

"He and I often played with the boat in the afternoon in a river behind our house, where I began dreaming of becoming a mechanic in the future."

The only female ship mechanic

Thuong, 23, is currently working for Truong Phat Loc Shipping JSC based in Ho Chi Minh City. She is the only woman who works on the companys ocean trips.

There have not been many female ship mechanics, only two so far, general director Le Minh Dung said, adding that one of them is working on an international liner.

Having a special love for ships during her childhood, Thuong found out she was really interested in the engine room on huge vessels when she studied at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport.

Despite understanding that ocean liner voyages can last many months or even a year, she was determined to become a seafarer.

I feel like being challenged in the engine room operating a ship," said the young female technician.

"I dream of traveling around the world while taking the job as well.

The woman has taken the duty as a mechanic on a ship for less than a year. Thuong is working on an international voyage these days to transport goods for her companys business partners.

Every day, she has a morning meeting that usually lasts 30 minutes with other co-workers. The chief engineer will control the meeting while the second engineer will point out the duties for each crew member during the day.

After discussing potential obstacles relating to the duties as well as finding solutions to them, each sailor will try to finish their own work.

Thuong will never forget the happiness of working as an official mechanic on the first day on the ship.

I have served my internship many times before having a chance to work officially in the position, shared Thuong.

I have to learn how to use support tools, how to control the technical equipment in the engine room, and how to fix a problem when it occurs."

Despite taking a lot of training classes before working on a ship, Thuong felt unavoidably nervous.

Thanks to working directly with technical systems and equipment, the young mechanic feels more confident with the passing of time.

I remember how extremely happy I felt when I could operate the waste burning system on the ship for the first time.

"It was beyond all words."

Hua Nguyen Hoai Thuong operates an oven to burn garbage on the ship. Photo: Thy Hue / Tuoi Tre

'It is not arduous work'

Working as a mechanic to Thuong is not a tough duty. In contrast, she feels so proud of herself to live day by day with her passion for contributing to the ships safety in voyages.

I really cannot remember how many enjoyable moments that I have had while working on the ship," Thuong said.

"I am asked to do tasks suitable to my strength and always to be instructed by older co-workers.

Because of my young age, I am considered as a little sister on the ship by everybody.

"I always get the love from them."

There is a popular myth that scares many women from choosing a career as a sailor. They are told that working on a vessel can cause infertility.

Like many other women, Thuong knows about this before deciding to become a seafarer.

From my experience, I think that we can be affected badly by the work when we dont comply with established guidelines, she said.

For example, we may fail to wear personal protective suits when exposed to chemicals or any equipment on board.

"You will not run into any health problems if you meet all safety standards."

As Thuongs current instructor, chief mechanic Pham Ngoc Anh gave incredibly positive feedback about his subordinate.

Thuong has put a lot of effort into the work," said Anh.

"She is quick in both gaining knowledge and putting it into practice at work.

She is friendly with everyone and she is working as well as other peer male co-workers."

Thuong intends to study more to become a senior engineer in the future.

She will try her best to achieve this goal, which will be a crucial step that would keep her career growing.

According to Le Minh Dung, female mechanics have difficulty getting a certificate of technical capability from the Vietnamese marine administration despite the job being recognized by the 2019 Labor Code.

Currently, Thuong works as a staff with certificates of basic training issued by the Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport in lifesaving, fire extinguishing, first aid, and safety situations.

She will be able to get an official position on board only when she has a certificate of technical capability.

That is why Thuong has not been added to the list of on-duty staff on the ship.

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PHUKET, Thailand -- As Thailand's government prepares to celebrate its reopening to foreign tourists this week, many businesses on the holiday island of Phuket aren't so enthusiastic about the return of visitors.

Phuket is a pilot programme for Thailand's reboot of a tourism industry gutted by the pandemic, allowing fully vaccinated visitors with negative coronavirus tests to fly directly to the southern island, bypassing 14-day quarantine requirements.

But local firms say they've been left behind and aren't expecting much from the trickles of tourists due to arrive starting Thursday. Visitors will see a different Phuket from the one visited annually by millions before the pandemic struck.

An elephant is seen at an elephant camp as Phuket prepares to open to overseas tourists from July 1, allowing foreigners fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to visit the resort island without quarantine, in Phuket, Thailand June 30, 2021. Photo: Reuters

"They will see buildings on sale, buildings for rent, shop closed, convenience store closed. Do you think it's a good environment for the tourist? No," said Srangsan Thongtan of the Phuket Tourism Entrepreneur Development Association, adding that businesses are urgently in need of soft loans to rebuild. "It's very hard to open ... we don't have budget, we don't have money to repair, repaint everything to bring our business back."

More than 2 million Thai tourism workers have lost their jobs since last year, including 400,000 in the first quarter of 2021, an industry group said this week, while the central bank governor said tourism could take "five years plus" to normalise.

A jacuzzi tub is pictured at Centara Grand Beach Resort as Phuket gets ready to open to overseas tourists from July 1 allowing fully vaccinated foreigns to visit the resort island without quarantine, Phuket, Thailand June 29, 2021. Photo: Reuters

Thailand lost about $50 billion in tourism revenue last year when foreign arrivals plunged 83% from the nearly 40 million visitors in 2019.

Natchakanya Sanguanwong, manager of Anchan spa, which once served hundreds of tourists each day, said many businesses won't see the revenues from the first batches of visitors, who will stay in government-accredited hotels.

"Our spa couldn't reopen because it requires the cost of utilities, staff, and rent," she added.

Dimitry and Alona from Ukraine swim at Patong beach as Phuket prepares to open to overseas tourists from July 1, allowing foreigners fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to visit the resort island without quarantine, in Phuket, Thailand June 30, 2021. Photo: Reuters

Manish Prathap, manager of the Centara Grand hotel, said his resort is expecting about 20% occupancy initially and for that to double when the plan catches on.

"Agents and as well as guests will start having trust and faith in Phuket Sandbox programme," he said.

The hotel's duty manager, Kamonrat Thudphimai, said she was excited.

"I've been missing the moments during holidays like during Christmas," she said. "We're hoping those moments return."
A heatwave that smashed all-time high temperature records in western Canada and the U.S. Northwest has left a rising death toll in its wake as officials brace for more sizzling weather and the threat of wildfires.

The worst of the heat had passed by Wednesday, but the state of Oregon reported 63 deaths linked to the heatwave. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, reported 45 of those deaths since Friday, with the county Medical Examiner citing hyperthermia as the preliminary cause.

By comparison all of Oregon had only 12 deaths from hyperthermia from 2017 to 2019, the statement said. Across the state, hospitals reported a surge of hundreds of visits in recent days due to heat-related illness, the Oregon Health Authority said.

In British Columbia, at least 486 sudden deaths were reported over five days, nearly three times the usual number that would occur in the province over that period, the B.C. Coroners Service said Wednesday.

"This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be," Multnomah County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines said in the statement. "As our summers continue to get warmer, I suspect we will face this kind of event again."

Tyson Morlock stands next to a swimming pool hooked to a fire hydrant under a freeway underpass during a heatwave in Portland, Oregon, U.S., June 29, 2021. Photo: Reuters

The heat dome, a weather phenomenon trapping heat and blocking other weather systems from moving in, weakened as it moved east, but was still intense enough to set records from Alberta to Manitoba, said David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, a government agency.

"In some of these places, their (temperature) records are being annihilated," Phillips said. "It really is spectacular, unprecedented for us."

It was unclear what triggered the dome, but climate change looks to be a contributor, given the heatwave's duration and extremes, Phillips said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused to remember the dead during remarks in Ottawa on Wednesday and expressed concern over the fire threat.

"We've been seeing more and more of this type of extreme weather event in the past years," Trudeau said. "So realistically, we know that this heatwave won't be the last."

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said climate change was driving "a dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought," warning that the United States was behind in preparing for what could be a record number of forest fires this year.

Katherine Milton, originally of Juneau, Alaska, who is experiencing homelessness, cools off under a homemade cooling-off station and mist system that a neighbor set up in their front yard for people, especially those without homes, during the scorching weather in Seattle, Washington, June 28. Photo: Reuters

Smashing records

Lytton, a town in central British Columbia, this week broke Canada's all-time hottest temperature record three times. It stands at 49.6 degrees Celsius (121.28 degrees Fahrenheit) as of Tuesday. The previous high in Canada, known for brutally cold winters, was 45C, set in Saskatchewan in 1937.

In the U.S. Northwest, temperatures in Washington and Oregon soared well above 100F (38C) over the weekend. Portland set all-time highs several days in a row including 116F (47C) on Sunday.

In Washington state, where media also reported a surge in heat-related hospitalizations, Chelan County east of Seattle topped out at 119F (48C) on Tuesday.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency due to "imminent threat of wildfires" while the U.S. National Weather Service in Portland issued a red-flag warning for parts of the state, saying wind conditions could spread fire quickly.

The Portland Fire Department banned use of fireworks for the Fourth of July weekend, when Americans celebrate Independence Day.

People sleep at a cooling shelter set up during an unprecedented heat wave in Portland, Oregon, June 27. Photo: Reuters

Fire and melting ice pose risks

Most of Alberta and large parts of British Columbia and Saskatchewan are at extreme risk of wildfires, according to Natural Resources Canada's fire weather map.

"All the ingredients are there. It's a powder keg just looking for a spark," said Mike Flannigan, professor of wildland fire at University of Alberta.

But the Chilcotin region, roughly 600 km (370 miles) north of Vancouver, was on flood warning due to the "unprecedented" amount of snow melting at "extraordinary" rates, according to a government release.

"These are the types of issues that are going to be confronted more and more over the next few years," said Adam Rysanek, assistant professor of environmental systems at the University of British Columbia.
Read what is in the news today:

COVID-19 Updates

-- The Vietnamese Ministry of Health on Thursday morning confirmed 189 new local cases of COVID-19, including 158 in Ho Chi Minh City, raising the national tally to 17,052 infections, with 6,840 recoveries and 81 deaths.

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has approved an additional budget of nearly VND7.7 trillion (US$333.6 million) for the Ministry of Health to purchase 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca Plc and 31 million doses from Pfizer Inc.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will collect 600,000 samples for COVID-19 testing in Thu Duc City on Thursday, 460,000 in Binh Thanh District on the same day and Friday, and 150,000 in District 3 from now until July 5.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health on Wednesday evening said that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city in the current outbreak had exceeded 4,000 and was expected to continue increasing rapidly in the coming time.

Society

-- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Peoples Committee of Da Nang City on Wednesday jointly launched a project with a budget of $14 million to promote deployment of advanced and distributed energy solutions in urban areas in the central Vietnamese city and Ho Chi Minh City.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Procuracy on Thursday evening said the sudden passing of a pharmacist working at Cho Ray Hospital on June 25 was due to pulmonary edema, but emphasized that it was not the final conclusion about her cause of death. The hospital leaders, meanwhile, said they had no comment on the link between the incident and the deceaseds previous COVID-19 vaccination and will wait for an official announcement from the health ministry.

-- Vietnamese netizens have hailed a cyclist for timely stopping his bike to successfully catch a baby falling to the sidewalk from the second floor of a house on Tran Quang Khai Street in Nam Dinh City, located in northern Nam Dinh Province, on Tuesday.

-- The Ministry of Transport has reported to the prime minister that site clearance for the Long Thanh International Airport project in southern Dong Nai Province has been behind schedule.

-- The government is planning to provide a COVID-19 support package of up to VND26 trillion ($1.13 billion) benefiting directly and severely affected people, Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday.

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Police in the northern Vietnamese province of Thai Binh on Wednesday afternoon said that they have filed charges against a private daycare center in Thai Binh City amidst allegations of torture at the facility.

The daycare center in question is Sao Viet Daycare Center at 56 Tran Thu Do Street in Tien Phong Ward, Thai Binh City.

The center, licensed on July 3, 2020, is owned and operated by Le Thi Huong Giang, 33, from Thai Thuy District in the same province and operates under the management of the Bureau of Education and Training of Thai Binh City.

A video recently circulated on social media showed that a 11-month-old victim crying and struggling while a woman working at the daycare center stuffed a rag into his mouth and held his hand.

Police say the incident occurred on April 6, 2021.

The woman in the video does not have a pedagogical license and is Giang's younger sister, according to police officers.

The video was reportedly recorded by another teacher working at the daycare facility and uploaded to social media by a relative of the baby with the aim of creating a public outcry for authorities to take action.

The victim began attending the daycare center in March this year and has since been scared of directly contacting strangers and has lost weight, according to the relative.

The childs family said on Tuesday that they had filed a request with authorities for clarification of the abuse, while Giang, the facility owner, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that she is currently working with the authorities regarding the case.

The Peoples Committee of Thai Binh City suspended the center from operations the same day.

Based on documents they collected, the citys police department has taken legal action against the daycare and is consolidating its file on the case before beginning legal proceedings against a specific suspect.

At the police station, Giang's younger sister -- Le Thi Lanh, 19 -- admitted all of her actions as shown in the video, saying that she wanted to stop the baby from crying.

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A Vietnamese court has handed down capital punishment to a Chinese man who killed his fellow countrywoman, cut her body into pieces, and dumped them into a river in the central city of Da Nang last year.

The Da Nang Peoples Court on Wednesday gave the death penalty to 28-year-old Xiao Guiping, a Chinese national, who committed the murder in February 2020.

The victim was Bao Danping, a 31-year-old female Chinese employee of a casino in the city, where Xiao often gambled before killing her.

At the court, Xiao admitted to his crime and explained that he murdered the woman due to a dispute over gambling money.

According to the indictment, Xiao and his Chinese girlfriend Qin Li traveled to Da Nang in late December 2019 and they stayed in Ngu Hanh Son District.

Through Qin, Xiao got to know Bao and the two agreed to pool money together to gamble at the casino on the rule of equal sharing of gains or losses.

On January 26, 2020, Bao gave Xiao US$45,000 for gambling before he won $34,000.

The man repaid her the amount she had given him and suggested sharing the winning money equally between them, but she asked him to continue keeping her share ($17,000) for the next gambling round.

On February 4, 2020, he used the $34,000 to gamble and lost it all. He informed Bao about the gambling loss.

One day later, she gave him $11,000 for gambling and the gambler lost the entire amount again before notifying her of his failure.

On February 6, Bao met Xiao and compelled him to repay her a total of $28,000.

She threatened that if he failed to return the money, she would ask her brother-in-law to beat him.

In a fit of anger and fear, Xiao strangled Bao to death with a rope.

He went on to cut her body into pieces, packed them in plastic bags and suitcases, carried them to the Tien Son Bridge, and threw them into the Han River.

The killer was arrested one day later.

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Police Ho Chi Minh City are investigating a house fire that engulfed a pho eatery in Tan Binh District on Wednesday.

The fire erupted at around 4:00 pm on Wednesday in a three-story house located at 115 Dong Den, Ward 12, Tan Binh District.

Residents in the house managed to escape the flames after neighbors notified them that the building was ablaze.

The neighborhood attempted to quell the fire but it still managed to spread upward and engulf the building.

Four fire trucks and dozens of firefighters from the fire brigade of Tan Binh District promptly arrived at the scene to handle the fire.

By 5:00 pm, the flames had been put under control but two motorbikes and several valuable were damaged beyond repair.

Local police are still investigating the cause of the fire.

A food stall in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City is burned down, June 30, 2021. Photo: M.H. / Tuoi Tre

Fire policemen use water hoses to control a fire in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, June 30, 2021. Photo: M.H. / Tuoi Tre

Firefighters use water hoses to control a fire in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, June 30, 2021. Photo: M.H. / Tuoi Tre

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Hundreds of street racers on motorbikes gathered on Nguyen Huu Tho Street in Tan Hung Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City to take part in a drag race early Tuesday morning, sparking concerns from local residents over the groups violation of the citys social distancing mandate.

Videos of the illicit race were recorded by local residents and circulated on social media that same morning.

The video shows hundreds of motorcyclists lining up on Nguyen Huu Tho Street around 2:50 am, continuously revving their engines and disturbing the entire neighborhood.

Leaders from District 7s police department told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday morning they had been informed of the case and were working to identify the racers.

The race took place a few days after Ho Chi Minh City intensified social distancing measures with the enforcement of Directive 10 on June 19.

The directive requires the suspension of all non-essential businesses and unofficial markets, public gatherings of no more than three people, and a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between people in public.

Residents are required to stay home unless purchasing food and supplies, seeking emergency treatment, or going to work.

On Thursday morning, Vietnams COVID-19 caseload rose to 16,863, with 6,840 recoveries and 81 deaths.

Since April 27, when the pandemics latest wave broke out in the country, it has documented 13,631 local infections across 50 of its 63 provinces and cities.

Currently, the city is accelerating its mass COVID-19 vaccination drive, which started on June 19, thanks to 836,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the Japanese government.

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Veteran US comedian Bill Cosby has been released from prison after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction.

Cosby, 83, had served more than two years of a potential three-to-10-year sentence following his 2018 conviction over sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in his home in 2004, after giving her unidentified pills.

The court found that a previous prosecutor had made a deal with Cosby not to charge him in the case.

What we saw today was justice  justice for all Americans, his spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, said.

Mr Cosbys conviction being overturned is for the world and all Americans who have been treated unfairly by the judicial system.

In a statement, Andrea Constand and her attorneys said they were not only disappointed in the ruling, but concerned it could dissuade other victims from seeking justice.

Once again, we remain grateful to those women who came forward to tell their stories, they said.

She was one of 60 women who had accused Americas Dad of sexual assault over a period of decades.

However the Pennsylvania courts majority found that a state prosecutor, Bruce Castor, struck a deal with his attorneys in 2005 not to bring criminal charges.

In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor DAs to prosecute Cosby violated Cosbys due process rights, Justice David Wecht wrote.

There is only one remedy that can completely restore Cosby to the status quo ante. He must be discharged, and any future prosecution on these particular charges must be barred.

I am furious to hear this news, actor Amber Tamblyn, a founder of advocacy group for victims of sexual assault, Times Up.

I personally know women who this man drugged and raped while unconscious. Shame on the court and this decision.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36

1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732.

Source: ABC
My Life is Murder Season 2 will have its Australian Premiere on Acorn TV on August 30, but screens later on 10 (it isnt clear how long that window is).

There have been some notable changes between seasons, relocated to NZ by Greenstone TV (NZ production house owned by original producers CJZ). The series is now produced for TVNZ, Acorn TV and DCD Rights in association with Network 10.

I am in love with the city of my birth and Im thrilled to be showing her off to the world as the stunning backdrop to our stories. We are joined by some of NZs finest acting talent, headed by Rawiri Jobe and Joe Naufahu, says Lucy Lawless.

Due to 2020 / 21 travel restrictions this sees Martin Henderson effectively taking the male lead from Bernard Curry but Ebony Vagulans returns as sidekick, Madison Feliciano.

Also as guests are Jay Ryan, Bill Bailey , Michelle Ang, Sara Wiseman, Matt Whelan,drag performers Kita Mean and Amanduh La Hor -and William Shatner via zoom.

AMC Networks Acorn TV is thrilled to announce a host of exciting new guest stars in the upcoming season of its original New Zealand mystery series My Life Is Murder, starring award-winning Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Spartacus). With its Australian premiere on streaming service Acorn TV set for August 30, Season 2 will reunite Lucy with several former castmates from her most iconic series, including Anna Hutchison (Spartacus), Graham Vincent (Spartacus), Jay Ryan (Beauty and the Beast, It Chapter Two, Mary Kills People) and Bruce Hopkins (Lord of the Rings, Xena: Warrior Princess). They will be joined by an array of acclaimed actors in guest star roles including the beloved William Shatner (Star Trek, Haven), Martin Henderson (Greys Anatomy, The Gloaming), Bill Bailey (Black Books, Ralph Spaced), Michelle Ang (Fear The Walking Dead, Triple 9), Sara Wiseman (A Place to Call Home, Rake), Matt Whelan (Narcos: Mexico, The Sounds) and popular drag performers Kita Mean and Amanduh La Hor, among several other guest stars yet to be announced.

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Building on the warmth, intrigue and humor of its acclaimed Australian series, My Life Is Murder moves to Auckland, New Zealand for its new 10-episode season.

Alexa finds herself back in her home country for the first time in years and cant help herself when she is asked to look into a bizarre unsolved murder. Joined again by her partner-in-crime-solving, Madison Feliciano (Ebony Vagulans), as well as series newcomers, the charismatic detective Harry (Rawiri Jobe) and cafe owner Reuben (Joe Naufahu, Game of Thrones), she quickly finds herself investigating other murder mysteries in surprising, glamorous worlds filled with intriguing characters who are hiding dangerous and deadly secrets.

This new season of the ratings-hit crime drama was greenlit by a consortium consisting of AMC Networks streaming service Acorn TV, which will take a package of English-speaking rights (North America, the UK and Australia premiere rights with secondary rights for NZ), DCD Rights for rest of world and producer Greenstone TV, with New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ and Network 10 in Australia also on board. TVNZ 1 has the global premiere of the series earlier in August.

Monday August 30 on Acorn TV.
Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
Education

Wisconsin group asks Tyler ISD to revoke half-million in funding for kids

Mentoring Alliance /courtesy Kids participate in one of the Mentoring Alliance summer camps.

Tyler ISD is reiterating the schools commitment to the Mentoring Alliance after a nonprofit from Wisconsin promoting separation of church and state, requested the district revoke funding to be used for kids summer camp costs from the mentorship group.

On April 8, the Tyler ISD board of trustees approved a contract with the Mentoring Alliance worth $500,000 to send 314 high-risk area students to the Mentoring Alliance summer camps for 10 weeks at no cost to the kids families.

Superintendent Dr. Marty Crawford said in April the school district is in the seventh year of working with the Mentoring Alliance. The focus of the funding is to help high-risk students who have fallen behind due to learning loss.

He said the funds were budgeted last August.

In partnership with Tyler ISD, Mentoring Alliance summer camps have helped students close summer learning gaps while having fun and with the gospel at the heart of the camps, according to the groups website.

On June 3, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Christopher Line wrote a letter to Crawford claiming the approval of the contract was unconstitutional due to the Mentoring Alliances religious connection.

Line wrote in the letter that a concerned Tyler ISD community member reported the districts partnership with the Mentoring Alliance, which provides after-school and summer camp programs for area students.

The letter from the Wisconsin group notes the alliances mission statement: The Mentoring Alliance exists to mobilize godly people into the lives of kids and families, to provide tangible help and eternal hope. Line also points out the organizations core values listed on the website: Christ-centered, biblically grounded, grace-based, excellence-driven and multiethnic.

We write to ask that the district immediately cease funding attendance at a Christian summer camp and ensure that the district is not promoting religious activities to students and that it is being inclusive of all its students, regardless of their religious or nonreligious beliefs, Line writes in the letter. The Mentoring Alliance, a Christ-centered, multi-ethnic ministry is simply not an appropriate use of district funds and should not be promoted by the district.

Tyler ISD issued a statement this week showing its support toward the Mentoring Alliance and what its staff does to help students.

We value our partnership with The Mentoring Alliance and their support of the districts mission of successful student outcomes, the Tyler ISD statement read.

During the workshop meeting in April, Tyler ISD Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Christy Hanson told the board of trustees the students will have 90 minutes of math and reading sessions each and a specific curriculum to prepare them academically for the next school year.

Rather than maintain, we know were trying to fill some really significant gaps, Hanson said.

Mentoring Alliance CEO and President Kevin East said in April the Mentoring Alliance is continuing to offer scholarships for students to reduce the cost of attendance.

(This funding) is saying for these 314 (students) they are VIP. Theres no cost for them to come, East said. So we can get the right kids getting ample instruction for multiple weeks in the summer to try to deliver them back in the fall. Having not just slid, but actually caught up more is the goal this year.

The Mentoring Alliance conducts fundraising efforts worth millions of dollars to support after-school programs and summer camps, East said.

Suzette Farr, Mentoring Alliance vice president of marketing and community engagement, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Mentoring Alliance values its partnership with Tyler ISD.

It is our aim and priority to provide services to children, youth and families in this community that directly overlap with Tyler ISDs mission of successful student outcomes and state guidelines and regulations, Farr said.

Line later cited court cases throughout the letter to support that public schools may not advance or promote religion. He added that the funding violates part of the First Amendment that prohibits the government from funding religious worship and funding to an explicitly Christian summer camp equals endorsement of religion.

At the end of the letter, Line makes a public information request for records related to the districts funding of the Mentoring Alliance, such as communications between Tyler ISD representatives about Mentoring Alliance and any agreements between the district and the alliance.
Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
Tyler, TX (75702)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
Tilda Del Toro "Capone" (BRON Studios), "Night School" (Universal Pictures), Rowena Koenig (Berlinale Talent Campus Alumna, "Hirokin: The Last Samurai" starring Wes Bentley), and Lucia Senesi ("A Short Story", Alliance of Women Directors) have been awarded The Franz Wieser ARRI Grant for "Black Madonna". The short Film features black actress Tye Myers ("Angels in Paradise", "Loop") in the title role and showcases under-represented voices both in front of and behind the camera. Producers Del Toro and Koenig also act in the film. Senesi co-produces and is the writer and director.

Every key department of the production was led by women, above and below the line. The project, now wrapped and into post-production, was made possible through $145,000 (approximately 105,000) equipment on loan from ARRI, with additional equipment sponsorships from Wooden Nickel Lighting and Stray Angel Films

How it started

Del Toro and Koenig met in 2019 through their work with internationally renowned author, teacher, director, and creative consultant Stephen Book (Juilliard, Stanford, Spolin Theater Game Center). The two women connected over a shared interest in working on projects that help amplify under-represented voices. Undeterred from pursuing their creative collaboration during quarantine, Koenig and Del Toro worked together to define their creative goals and vision.

Acting collaboration as well as partnering on a producing effort was the logical next step. Then, "Black Madonna" director Lucia Senesi came into the mix. Lucia presented us with a full package, unlike anything we had seen before. Her passion for this project was persuasive, and the theme was an extension of Senesis recent essay on the Madonna del Parto published in Image, says Del Toro.

Koenig, a vice president at a non-profit, contributed fundraising expertise that was instrumental in securing the prestigious Franz Wieser grant from ARRI. Del Toro and Koenig plan to continue working together and are strategically developing and writing short-form and feature-length content for future collaboration. Projects they are considering for production include their original features, as well as content by other filmmakers and creators.

About 'Black Madonna'

"Black Madonna" is a deeply personal film inspired by the directors experience growing up Catholic in Italy, but told from a black female leads perspective. This film is the uncompromising vision of multi-award-winning director Lucia Senesi, with cinematography by Lucia Rinaldi (American Film Institute, The BAFTA Newcomers Program). The film explores the line between madness and spiritual ecstasy with reverence for the feminine embodiment of the divine. Notable additional participants in this project, include Kristine N. Haag, Emmy-nominated costume designer and executive producer on the project, Jody Vaclav, author, trans activist, Emmy nominated art director, also an executive producer, and Lori Dovi, sound mixer ("Suicide Squad", "Nocturnal Animals", Founder of International Women Working in Film).

The on-set experience was unique, says producer and actor Rowena Koenig.Working with our team of fifteen talented and creative women on our almost exclusively female set was an empowering and unforgettable experience.

Diversity

ARRI, a leading camera company that most notably supplied Chloe Zhaos Oscar-winning film "Nomadland", is committed to ensuring that under-represented and qualified emerging filmmakers have access to ARRI products to support their narrative vision. "Black Madonna" benefitted from the donated use of over $145,000 (105,000) in ARRI equipment. Ksenia Lappo, who oversees the Franz Wieser Grant Program at ARRI in Burbank, California, says: ARRIs Franz Wieser grant program seeks to amplify the voices of filmmakers who have something to say through the complimentary use of ARRI equipment.

ARRI recognises that diverse perspectives are essential to advancing the cinematic arts, and is committed to helping under-represented emerging filmmakers tell their stories in the most eloquent way.

"Black Madonna" is represented by Italian distribution company Premiere Film for international film festival entries in 2021.
NEW YORK, July 01, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Calvin Klein, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PVH Corp. [NYSE: PVH], and Calvin Klein Fragrances, a division of Coty Inc. [NYSE: COTY], today revealed the worldwide global advertising campaign for Calvin Klein Defy, a new mens fragrance featuring award-winning actor Richard Madden as the face of this new chapter within the Calvin Klein fragrance portfolio. The fragrance and campaign embrace a journey of defiance while exploring authentic truths and the contrasts within.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005525/en/

Calvin Klein Defy (Photo: Business Wire)

The campaign features Madden in a series of vulnerable, self-reflecting and authentic moments that culminate into a courageous leap of faith, a symbolic metaphor for personal defiance and daring to take risks. The accompanying still visual translates the powerful essence of the campaign featuring Madden seated on a rooftop with a rebellious stare in iconic Calvin Klein jeans and a timeless Calvin Klein white t-shirt. The advertising campaign will be featured globally and supported by digital, social, print and TV.

"Its been an exciting opportunity to partner with Calvin Klein on this new launch for Calvin Klein Fragrances," said Madden. "Making the Calvin Klein Defy campaign was an amazing experience; Im excited about this partnership and our work together."

The Calvin Klein Defy fragrance features a daring contrast of invigorating freshness and powerful woods. Crafted by Anne Flipo, Master Perfumer, and Senior Perfumers Pascal Gaurin and Loc Dong of IFF, the fragrance defies expectations and evokes the ethos of the campaign opening with an addictive blend of citrus highlighted by crisp Bergamot and fresh Lavender Absolute. The heart of the fragrance and star ingredient, Vetiver Oil, is responsibly sourced from Haiti, and provides a vibrant earthiness and irresistible rugged texture that compliments a rich and alluring base of Amber notes.

Story continues

The masculine and woody fresh scent is captured in a modern and minimalist glass bottle carved with curved rounded edges and sharp linear lines, representing the duality of vulnerability and courage on the path to defiance. The cap and carton pay homage to Calvin Klein jeans with a matte textured blue denim inspired embossed finish and striking silver branding.

Joanne Bletz, Senior Vice President Global for Calvin Klein Fragrances at Coty said, "We are hugely excited by the launch of Calvin Klein Defy. The creation of this new mens fragrance, starring the award-winning actor Richard Madden, marks the next chapter in our partnership with the iconic fashion house. The fragrance and campaign embrace the spirit of pushing boundaries as personified through our Dare to Defy concept and celebrates the courageous leap of faith it takes to follow your convictions while acknowledging the vulnerability and courage to defy expectations. We are confident that Calvin Klein Defy, which encapsulates a renewed take on masculinity, self-reflection and defiance, will resonate with modern men across the world, driving further global demand for Calvin Klein fragrances."

To celebrate the launch of Calvin Klein Defy, a branded tournament will take place on Twitch where consumers will have the opportunity to defiantly battle against top streamers for a chance to win prizes followed by a virtual afterparty.

Calvin Klein Defy is available starting today in select countries and will be available globally on a rolling basis.

About Richard Madden:

Golden Globe winner and Scottish actor Richard Madden is fast becoming one of Hollywood's most in-demand actors. Upcoming, Madden will be seen in Chloe Zhaos Eternals in which he portrays the character Ikaris opposite Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gemma Chan. The superhero film based on the Marvel Comics of the same name follows the saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations. The film is slated for release by Disney on November 5, 2021. Additionally, he is currently in production on the Russo Brothers CITADEL alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The upcoming global thriller multi-series for Amazon Studios will feature interconnected, local-language versions of the story in several other countries.

About Calvin Klein, Inc.

Calvin Klein is a fashion lifestyle brand with bold, progressive ideals and a sensual aesthetic that is recognized worldwide. Our modern and minimalist approach to design, provocative imagery and authentic connection to culture has resonated with customers for over 50 years.

Founded in 1968 by Calvin Klein and his business partner Barry Schwartz, we have built our reputation as a leader in American fashion through the distinct Calvin Klein brand lines and a licensed range of products. We were acquired by PVH Corp. in 2003. For more information, please visit www.calvinklein.com.

About COTY Inc.

Coty is one of the worlds largest beauty companies with an iconic portfolio of brands across fragrance, color cosmetics, and skin and body care. Coty is the global leader in fragrance, and number three in color cosmetics. Cotys products are sold in over 150 countries around the world. Coty and its brands are committed to a range of social causes as well as seeking to minimize its impact on the environment. For additional information about Coty Inc., please visit www.coty.com.

ADVERTISING CREDITS:

Creative Agency: The Style Council

Still life photographer: Thomas Legrand

EDITORIAL CREDIT: Calvin Klein Defy

TVC: https://youtu.be/cPX33PuC9UA

SOCIAL MEDIA: #ckdefy

BRAND HANDLE: @calvinklein

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005525/en/

Contacts

Calvin Klein, Inc.

Erin Leary, Director Corporate Communications, Calvin Klein, erinleary@ck.com

Coty, Inc.

Ariel Dunne, Senior Director, Influencer Marketing, ariel_dunne@cotyinc.com

Jason Noda, Senior Manager, Influencer Marketing, jason_noda@cotyinc.com
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Influencers in Norway are now required by law to label when their images on social media have been retouched.

The new regulations from Norways Ministry of Children and Family Affairs have been brought in to try and fight unrealistic beauty standards.

Earlier this month, the law passed with 72 officials voting in favour and 15 voting against it. The King of Norway will later decide when it will come into effect.

When the law is implemented, it will require influencers who are making money from their content, to label when an image has been retouched.

This includes alterations that have been made to the subjects body size, shape, or skin, either before - like through a filter - or after the image has been taken.

Specific examples include enlarged lips, edited muscles and cinched waistlines.

Images that have been retouched will be legally required to carry a label designed by the government that alerts the viewer.

Advertisers who use social media content for promotional purposes will also be affected by the law.

In addition, influencers and celebrities who post on social media sites will be obliged to comply if they receive any payment or other benefits from the posts.

A 2019 study found that viewing images of cosmetically enhanced females increased the desire for cosmetic surgery among women aged between 18 and 29 years old.

In Norway, debate around kroppspress, which translates to body pressure, has been taking place.

In the proposed amendments sent to the Norwegian parliament, the ministry said: The measure will hopefully make a useful and significant contribution to curbing the negative impact that such advertising has, especially on children and young people.

In 2017, image database site Getty Images announced it would ban photos of retouched models. In the same year, France brought in legislation requiring magazines to say when an image has been retouched.

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French Businessman and High-Stakes Poker Player Arnaud Mimran Sentenced 13 Years for Kidnapping

July 01 2021 Jason Glatzer

French businessman, socialite, and high-stakes poker player Arnaud Mimran won't be returning to the poker felt any time soon. Last Friday, Mirman was sentenced to 13 years in a French prison for masterminding the 2016 kidnapping of Swiss financier Yomi Rodrig.

The 49-year-old was already serving an 8-year prison term for his 2016 conviction for a complex carbon VAT fraud scheme and also was indicted in April for two separate charges of murder, which could pad on more time behind bars.

Related: From High-Stakes Poker to Jail: Arnaud Mimran Arrested in France

Backing Out of Inaugural Big One for One Drop

Prior to heading into dark waters, Mimran was mostly known as a wealthy French mogul and socialite, whose fortune was believed to be derived in the real-estate sector. Living the high life, he once dated Paraguayan supermodel Claudia Galantia and claimed to have donated 1 million in political contributions to his friend and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mimran was often seen playing high-stakes cash games and occasionally dabbled in tournaments as well, with his best result coming after taking 13th place in the 2006 EPT Monte Carlo 10,000 Grand Final for 28,100.

The poker world took notice in 2012 when Mimran was among the wealthy businessmen to commit to the initial Big One for One Drop during the 2012 WSOP with the event featuring poker's first seven-figure buy-in. However, Mimran backed out of this event despite losing a $50,000 non-refundable deposit in the process.

Antonio Esfandiari won $18 million at the inaugural Big One for One Drop in 2012

Related: Antonio Esfandiari Wins $18 Million at WSOP Big One for One Drop $1M Buy-in Poker Tournament

First Taste of Prison

Mimran was first sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a complex Carbon VAT fraud in 2008-2009 According to The Times of Israel, the scheme involved 50 people working in small teams of two to three people taking advantage of differing European tax rules to exchange carbon credits and permissions to emit carbon dioxide.

Those involved with what was dubbed the "Swindle of the Century" would purchase tax credits in a country with no VAT before selling them in a country with VAT. Companies in France typically have 90 days to remit VAT and by that time, the money was moved offshore.

This resulted in an estimated loss of1.6 billion in unpaid VAT taxes, according to the French government's estimates with total losses in Europe estimated to be between 5 million to 10 million.

Twisted Kidnapping and Extortion Plot

While fraud is one thing, what happened next was something typically only seen around Hollywood. Mimran found himself deep in debt including owing approximately $6 million to the Wynn Las Vegas, according to court filings at around the time of the kidnapping of Rodrig in 2015.

According to Casino.org, Rodrig testified that he was tossed into a car by a gang led by Sabir Titax Titouh and held in captivity for six days. During this time, Rodrig was forced to purchase $2.6 million in stock in a shell company called Cassidy Ventures Inc, controlled by Mimran.

Goldman Sachs initially rejected the trades due to their "bizarre" nature and the kidnappers forced Rodrig to purchase shares via smaller brokers.

The plot thickened as Titouh was murdered on his doorstep, leaving the gang without a leader. The gang eventually let Rodrig walk but not before sharing he was lucky as he was earmarked to be killed.

Mimran admits he consulted with Titouh but shared he was unaware of the kidnapping and extortion plot. The court clearly saw otherwise as the 13-year sentence of Mimran was at least double that of three other defendants, each of who were committed and sentenced to 4-8 years in prison.

Even Worse: Two Murder Trials to Come?

Mimran was charged in April for two murders that were alleged to been committed a decade ago, including one on his partner in crime Samy Souied in 2010. If that wasn't enough, it appears his family wasn't off-limit either according to the accusations. Prosecutors will also argue Mimran murdered his billionaire 76-year-old father-in-law and art dealer Claude Dray, who was shot dead in his home in 2011.

It's been quite the fall from grace for the socialite once slated to play the Big One for One Drop, but who's now all but certified to spend the next decade behind bars.
David Szep Wins GGPoker's Super MILLION$ At Very First Attempt

July 01 2021 Matthew Pitt

Hungary's David Szep's decision to enter the second GGPoker Super MILLON$ of Season 2 turned out to be one of the best he has ever made because it resulted in Szep walking away with the title of champion.

Szep's first foray into the Super MILLION$ world ended with his GGPoker bankroll swelling by an impressive $228,170.

Super MILLION$ Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 David Szep Hungary $228,170 2 Bert Stevens Mexico $178,191 3 Nicolo Molinelli Tunisia $139,160 4 Enrico Camsoci Tunisia $108,678 5 Pascal Hartmann Austria $84,873 6 Marius Gierse Austria $66,282 7 Thomas Muehloecker Austria $51,763 8 AlexGLrus77 Russia $40,425 9 judd trump China $31,570

Former Super MILLION$ champion "judd trump" sat down at the final table as the second-shortest stack and he busted as he attempted to rectify his lowly position. Approximately 30 minutes into the action, with blinds of 15,000/30,000/3,500a, Szep min-raised to 60,000 from early position with pocket tens, and the action folded to judd trump in the small blind. judd trump three-bet to 211,020 before calling when Szep set him all-in for the 441,471 chips judd trump had behind. A king on the flop gave judd trump hope, but the board four-flushed with spades and Szep had the ten of spades in his hand.

A very short-stacked "AlexGLrus77" was the next to bust. The Russian min-raised to 60,000 from early position with ace-jack, Thomas Muehloecker responded with a three-bet to 135,000 with pocket kings in the cutoff before calling when AlexGLrus77 jammed for the 242,214 in total. Muehloecker's kings remained true, and his Russia opponent headed to the showers.

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Muehloecker's Comeback Cut Short

Muehloecker, who sat down at the final table ninth in chips, was the next player out of the door despite winning that pot. During the 17,500/35,000/4,500a level, Nicolo Molinelli opened to 73,500 from the button with pocket nines, and Muehloecker ripped in his 896,340 stack from the small blind with ace-king. Molinelli made the call, and his nine not only held but caught an unnecessary set on the river to cut Muehlocker's comeback short.

Marius Gierse was extremely short-stacked when Muehloecker busted, and almost called Muhelocker's all-in bet, but folded his ace-ten. A short while later, Gierse found ace-queen under the gun and raised to 266,666, which left him only 285,304 chips behind. Bert Stevens, a former Super MILLION$ champion, called from the cutoff with the dominated ace-jack. Gierse committed the last of his chips on an eight-queen-eight flop, which seemed perfect for him, especially when Stevens called. Gierse's joy turned to despair when Stevens went perfect-perfect on the turn and river to win the hand with an unlikely queen-high straight.

Fifth place and the last five-figure prize went to another former Super MILLION$ champion, Pascal Hartmann. The Austrian crashed out during the 30,000/60,000/7,500a level when he raised to 432,000 with ace-five of hearts from under the gun, a raise that left him only 385,195 chips behind. Szep was next to act, and he called. Hartmann pushed all-in on the six-five-four flop, and Szep called. A queen on the turn changed nothing, but the jack of diamonds on the river resigned Hartmann to a fifth-place finish.

Thomas Muehloecker

Everyone Locks Up Six Figures

The surviving four players were now guaranteed at least $108,678, and it is that sum Enrico Camosci walked away with. The start-of-the-day chip leader saw Szep open to 182,000 at the start of the 35,000/70,000/8,500a level and decided to move all-in for 1,247,916 with ace-king. Szep called with the dominated ace-nine, which improved to a hand-winning pair of nines on the river.

Heads-up was set soon after when Molinelli lost the biggest pot of the evening so far. The hand started with a 182,000 raise from Szep on the button, and a three-bet to 1,050,000 with pocket tens in the small blind from Molinelli. Stevens woke up in the big blind with ace-queen, and jammed all-in for 4,061,981. Szep ducked out of the way, but Molinelli called. A queen on the flop and an ace on the river gifted the monster-sized pot to Steven.

Win Free Prizes Just For Logging Into Your GGPoker Account

That hand propelled Stevens into the chip lead, his 6,694,977 stack towering over the 3,805,023 of Szep.

Szep drew level before forging a substantial lead for himself; he had one hand on the trophy and the near $230,000 top prize. Szep's heads-up performance was something else, and he deserved to become the latest Super MILLION$ champion.

The final hand took place during the 60,000/120,000/15,000a level and saw Steven open-shoved for 918,266 with ten-nine of spades. Szep called with pocket fours. A king-high flop failed to alter the course of the hand, although the turn gave Stevens outs to an open-ended straight draw. The river missed both player, however, which resigned Stevens to a second-place finish worth $178,191, and handed the title and $228,170 to Szep, the man playing in his first-ever Super MILLION$ event!
The chance to work on the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Blue Ridge Campus was an easy decision for Lori Bramlett. The lifelong Ellijay, Georgia, resident and 1995 UNG alumna was excited to help others in her community see how higher education opens doors for students.

The assistant director of enrollment services loves the atmosphere she shares with her colleagues and students.

"We all care about each other. We want to see each other succeed, both as a unit and individually. I think you can feel that close bond as soon as you step on campus," Bramlett said. "To me, it is all about meaningful relationships. By investing in others and surrounding yourself with a good team, you can conquer the world."

A major part of those relationships is treating people the right way, she said.

She is grateful that UNG offers new possibilities for students in the region. Previously, some of these students may have gone straight into the workforce instead of leaving home to attend a four-year university. Now, they can begin their college career in Blue Ridge before finishing on another UNG campus.

"It's a great opportunity for them to not have to incur that expense the first two years of college," Bramlett said. "They can stay in the community where they're comfortable."

She offers students assistance with admissions, enrollment and advising questions. She seeks to be well-versed and isn't afraid to pick up the phone or send an email.

"If I don't know the answer, I'm smart enough to know who to go to for an answer," Bramlett said.

She thrives on encouraging and supporting students through an open-door policy while challenging them to grow.

"I love to help students however I can, but helping them become self-motivated is my ultimate goal," she said. "When you see it click, it is a great feeling."

Some of her proudest moments include seeing former Blue Ridge Campus students go on to receive academic scholarships such as the Fulbright, as well as seeing them flourish in leadership roles on the Dahlonega Campus and ultimately graduate from UNG and enter their career fields.

"It's nice to see them succeed and have smiles on their faces," Bramlett said. "And knowing that UNG's Blue Ridge Campus was part of a student's journey makes all the work worth it."
The prospects for the imminent completion of Russia's Nord Stream 2 energy project continue to haunt politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. And although the tone of rhetoric against Russia has noticeably decreased in Washington, the Americans are actively using the topic of the gas pipeline in their political games, EU Reporter informs.

President Biden did not impose sanctions against Nord Stream AG (51% of the company belongs to GAZPROM) but strengthened sanctions against Russian pipe-laying companies. In Washington, they made it clear that they would no longer be able to stop the almost finished project. Nevertheless, Secretary of State Blinken continues to speak "about the danger" of the Russian gas pipeline for the energy security of Europe.

In turn, for Germany, Nord Stream 2 has long been a headache. The unprecedented pressure that Washington has exerted on Berlin in the last period is unlikely to have pleased Germany. However, in the end, the White House decided not to demonize Germany, but to achieve compromises for America that would allow Washington, if necessary, to control the transit of Russian gas, especially if it tries to significantly reduce the gas flow to Europe through Ukraine.

In Ukraine itself, the upcoming launch of Nord Stream 2 raises serious concerns, primarily due to potential losses for Kiev as a result of Moscow's reduction in gas pumping through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. Many experts in Ukraine seriously calculate possible losses.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has already reacted to such gloomy forecasts. First of all, the Ministry stated that Nord Stream 2 is a purely economic project that has no political dimension. Ukraine has a contract with Gazprom until 2024, and the issue of further gas transit will be resolved through negotiations. At the same time, Moscow is convinced that Ukraine will not remain without Russian gas. That was clearly stated by high ranking representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Along with Ukraine, Poland actively expresses its dissatisfaction with the Nord Stream 2. Warsaw is known for its negative attitude to the Russian gas supplies to Europe. The country has already launched the construction of an alternative pipeline to Denmark, the Baltic Pipe, to deliver gas from Norway. However, experts doubt that the relatively modest reserves of Norwegian gas will be able to compete with natural fuel from Russia.

In any case, various political games and intrigues around the Nord Stream 2 are likely to last for a long time, largely due to pressure from Washington, the unwillingness of Germany and other EU countries to quarrel with America, as well as the desire to support Ukraine.
Aging, shrinking, its top position reserved exclusively for men  Japans monarchy is a neat microcosm of society as a whole, The Diplomat writes. Under current conditions, only men of the male line may ascend to Japans Chrysanthemum Throne. The Imperial Household Law of 1947 decrees that female family members lose their royal status upon marriage. Any sons they may have are equally ineligible to become emperor.

With 13 women among the 18 living royals, the present restrictions severely truncate the line of succession. In 2019, former Emperor Akihito (now 87) abdicated, citing fatigue. When his son, Naruhito (61), ascended to the throne, that left the new emperors brother, Crown Prince Akishino (55), and nephew, 14-year old Prince Hisahito, as the only two viable heirs in the succession plan.

The other eligible candidate, Prince Hitachi, Emperor Naruhitos uncle, is 85. The pressure placed on the shoulders of young Prince Hisahito and any future partner to propagate the male-to-male line for another generation is therefore huge.

Similarly, with every royal marriage of a female family member, the monarchys pool of human resources diminishes again by one. Responsibility for the often onerous array of royal duties concentrates ever more keenly on a rapidly dwindling group.

In March, the Suga government convened an expert panel of imperial household specialists to discuss ways to ensure the continuity of the monarchy. Polling suggests that the public overwhelmingly supports further integration of women. Yet powerful conservative factions within the ruling LDP continue to stymie any hopes of progressive change.

Why exactly? Many on the right point to tradition and millennia-long efforts to preserve  with 10 notable exceptions  the male-to-male line of succession as reason for the continued exclusion of women. They advocate instead for reintegrating tributary branches of the royal family, exiled during the post-war U.S. occupation, as a means of strengthening the male-to-male line.

Such arguments highlight resounding gender stereotypes that shape perceptions of male/female societal roles in Japan. For example, the political scientist and activist Miura Mari has written of the strong feeling in society that politics is essentially a male sphere of activity. And while the role of emperor is of course largely symbolic, gender stereotypes that elevate men into leadership roles, while encouraging women to adhere to traditional good wife and wise mother behavioral norms, also work to restrict notions of who can and should become the nations titular figurehead. Aging, shrinking, its top position reserved exclusively for men: the monarchy offers a neat reflection of Japanese society in microcosm.

The nations demographic crisis is well documented. Statistics released in August 2020 show that the over-65 age group now makes up 28.41 percent of the total population, making Japan a super-aged nation. The birthrate has fallen to 1.38 births per woman, much lower than the 2.1 births necessary to maintain the current population of 126 million.

If present rates of decline continue unchecked, the overall population is expected to sink below 100 million by 2050. By 2040, the workforce will have shrunk by 20 percent. Industries such as construction and healthcare already suffer major labor shortages, while the nations big industries  auto manufacturing and electronics  can now expect just one domestic applicant for every 1.5 of their blue-collar vacancies.

And yet, the same traditionalist mindset preventing female involvement in the imperial succession plan has so far prevented successive administrations from acknowledging the most pragmatic solution to this predicament: namely, an overhaul of immigration policy.

To date, Japans immigrant population  1.75 percent of the total population, compared to 16.1 percent in Germany and 21 percent in Canada  remains, by OECD member standards, exceptionally low. Until recently, there was little to no inclination to increase immigration for anyone other than highly skilled technicians in particular industries. Then, in April 2019, widening gaps in the domestic workforce prompted the Abe administration to relax immigration controls. The move paved the way to entry for 345,000 Specific Skills Workers across 14 sectors, including hospitality and the food services.

Uptake for the five-year initiative has, however, so far proved disappointing. Within the first six months, only 1,621 Specific Skills visas were issued. Researchers found that various adaptability issues, not least the difficulty of learning the Japanese language, had deterred potential applicants.

Another problem was a lack of assistance in navigating often complex institutional frameworks such as education, pensions, and tax. The non-renewable five-year visa also prohibits workers from bringing their families. When pushing through the changes, former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo insisted he was not pursuing what is commonly considered an immigration policy. Instead, he was seeking a way of simply borrowing overseas workers to temporarily fill gaps in the labor market. Workers would arrive under the proviso that they would not be staying permanently.

Such assurances work to allay fears among voters that an increase in immigration could lead to rising crime and the deterioration of traditional cultural values. However, immigration policies predicated on such short-termism do little to tackle the long-term issue of chronic population decline.

For Professor Gracia Liu-Farrer, an Asian immigration expert, the apparent lack of desire to integrate immigrant workers is a symptom of an exclusionary ethnonationalist perspective that restricts understanding of what it means to be Japanese. Japans post-war economic reconstruction was largely dependent on its domestic labor force, Liu-Farrer explained. With the economic boom, Japan regained national confidence. Its economic success was tied to this self-image. It has never wavered from this.

Such is the reluctance on the part of policymakers to envisage a multicultural or multiethnic Japan that the nations institutions  from its employment and training systems, to labor and education  have yet to adapt to global labor mobility and general sociocultural diversity.

Therefore, despite halfhearted attempts to boost the labor force, Japan remains a nation seen as unfriendly to large scale immigration. Rather than working actively to change this reputation, policymakers seek solutions elsewhere. The reintegration of retirees plugs holes in less-physically strenuous industries. Increased funding in robotics accelerates the pace of automation. However, much like proposals to reattach severed branches of the royal family tree, such plans offer only partial, reactive solutions to a much wider societal issue.

In the monarchys case, gender stereotypes place the institutions future at risk. Integrating women would not only shore up the royal succession plan. It would also send a powerful message of change, working to increase female representation in wider society.

For Japan as a whole, notions of Japaneseness prevent policymakers and the general public alike from acknowledging immigration as a practicable solution to rapid population decline. Effective integration of a potentially growing immigrant population would not only secure the nations future. It would open a path toward a more adaptive and diverse Japan.
At the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, Kazakhstans first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, thanked him for the support of his country during the pandemic and the provision of vaccines.

"I have sincerely wanted to thank you in person for Russias support of Kazakhstan during the pandemic - with vaccines, medicines, and so on. Do you remember, when we went to an exhibition in St. Petersburg and then we looked and agreed on a joint venture? Now that company in Karaganda produces the Russian vaccine, of the same quality and in large quantities," Nazarbayev told Putin.

Nazarbayev pointed out that, when he came down with coronavirus, a team of Russian doctors treated him, TASS reported.

"I will never forget lots of things - when I got sick, a group of Russian doctors stayed by my side for ten days. It was crucial for my recovery. It is not forgotten," he explained.

On June 25, Kazakhstan's first president received the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Karaganda pharmaceutical plant. On June 18, 2020, Nazarbayevs press service reported that he had tested positive for coronavirus, so he self-isolated and switched to working online. On July 2, 2020, he was reported to have recovered from COVID-19.
At least 800 people in Uganda have been inoculated with fake COVID-19 vaccines, officials disclosed on Wednesday.

Police, Health Ministry officials, and State House Health Monitoring Unit have arrested two nurses for injecting people with fake shots and issuing fake certificates. The doctor who was leading the operation, however, is on the run.

Addressing a news conference in the capital Kampala, Dr. Wallen Naamara, the head of the health unit, said the network duped many people and companies.

"It is unfortunate that some medical workers are administering fake COVID-19 jabs to unsuspecting people. We did undercover work and arrested two nurses in the act," she said.

According to her, those injected were mostly from companies that paid 200,000 Uganda shillings ($54) for the vaccination of each of their workers, Anadolu Agency reported.

A representative of the Uganda National Medical Stores, a government-owned organization mandated to obtain, store and distribute medicines, said the items seized from the nurses were not procured from them. The drugs did not have government labeling, as required by law, the representative added.

With 543 new infections and 34 related deaths, the East African country has so far confirmed 79,979 COVID-19 cases and 1,023 fatalities. It received 964,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in March, and over 800,000 people have since been vaccinated. An additional 175,200 doses arrived in June.
Ministers of OPEC countries will have the first in-person meeting in a year on September 30, 2021, in the Iraqi capital to celebrate the occasion of the 60th OPEC Anniversary that has been postponed since last September, according to the Secretariats invitation letter.

Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar offered holding the meeting at the end of September in Baghdad to OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo. The celebration has been postponed so far due to epidemiological and transport restrictions. The list of distinguished delegates will be formed by July 14, 2021, TASS reported.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to swiftly adapt to the new circumstances by organizing our work and regular meetings virtually. However, the prospect of meeting in-person <> instills particular joy and hope," according to the letter. The ministers of OPEC and non-OPEC countries participating in the crude production cuts agreement last met in person in March 2020.
Yerevan has no intention to sign a peace agreement with Baku, a representative of the ruling My Step faction of the Armenian National Assembly said.



In an interview with Sputnik Armenia,Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly Ruben Rubinyan indicated that Armenia will not sign a comprehensive peace agreement with Azerbaijan until, in his words, the "Nagorno-Karabakh conflict" is "settled".



The "My Step" bloc in the recent parliamentary elections was led by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.



Last week, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, receiving the EU delegation and the foreign ministers of Romania, Austria, Lithuania, recalled that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has already been resolved, now it is necessary to elaborate "the basic fundamental approaches of the post-conflict situation" in order to move from a post-conflict state to peacekeeping development and cooperation.



"Unfortunately, so far we have not heard anything similar from Armenian government. All our statements with respect to beginning negotiations on peace agreement with Armenia are ignored by Armenian government," the head of state said then, not excluding that the situation may change after elections are over in Armenia.



The Azerbaijani leader warned that if they dont have a peace agreement with Armenia that means we dont have peace not only between the two countries but also in the South Caucasus
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko has voiced solidarity with his country in its resistance to illegitimate Western sanctions, the Kremlin's press-service said.

The two leaders paid great attention to the continuing sanction pressure on Belarus.

"The Russian side expressed solidarity with Belarus, which resists unilateral illegitimate restrictions imposed by the Western countries in violation of international law," the news release says.

On the eve of the full-scale meeting of the eighth forum of the regions of Russia and Belarus, in which Putin and Lukashenko will participate in a videoconference mode, the two men also discussed a number of crucial issues on the bilateral agenda.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law obliging large foreign IT companies to open branches or representative offices in Russia, the document was published on Thursday on a government legal information site.

The owners of Internet resources, the daily audience of which exceeds 500,000 Russian users, will have to create branches, open representative offices or establish legal entities in Russia, starting on January 1, 2022. According to the document, the branches need to "fully represent the interests of the parent companies." "A set of measures is also introduced to force IT companies to comply with Russian legislation, including, as a last resort, the possibility of partial or complete blocking of the offending resource.

A set of measures is also being introduced to force IT companies to comply with Russian legislation. Among them, informing users of Internet resources about violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation, bans on the distribution of advertising on an information resource, on making payments to it, on search results, on the collection and cross-border transfer of personal data of Russian citizens. As a last resort, the possibility of partial or complete blocking of the offending resource is provided.

The preliminary list of Internet resources, the owners of which may be obliged to open branches or representative offices in Russia, includes 20 platforms. It includes social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter), video hosting (YouTube, Twitch.tv), instant messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber), mail service (Gmail), search engines (Google, Bing.com), hosting providers (Amazon, Digital Ocean, Cloudflare, GoDaddy), online stores (Aliexpress.com, Ikea.com, Iherb.com), and Wikipedia.org. At the same time, this list can be adjusted. The corresponding legislative initiative was submitted to the State Duma on May 21 by a group of deputies from the Duma Committee on Information Policy and Senator Alexei Pushkov. The document was supported by the Russian government, the Bank of Russia and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
Russia and the United States have joined efforts to organize an event commemorating those who were killed by terrorists in the 9/11 attacks, prior to the 20th anniversary the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"If we talk about the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we are working with our American colleagues to organize an event to commemorate the victims of the terrorists," he said.

"The victims of terrorists is one of the top issues on our offices agenda. It is crucial to pay more attention to them and their plight," TASS cited Voronkov as saying.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania killed 2,977,000 people who were citizens of 90 countries and more than 6,000 were injured.
The U.S. ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan said on Thursday that he held a positive meeting with Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Sullivan, who returned to Moscow last month after leaving in April amid a diplomatic crisis, told reporters earlier this week that the two countries were engaged in organising the first round of talks on strategic stability, RIA Novosti reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden agreed to start consultations on arms control at a meeting in June.
Russia will provide any necessary assistance to Tajikistan under its commitments in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the event of mounting terrorist threats from Afghanistan as the U.S. pulls out its troops from that country, State Duma Defense Committee Head Vladimir Shamanov said on Thursday.

The senior Russian lawmaker made this statement ahead of a meeting with the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Council on Thursday. Shamanov is a member of the Russian delegation that will take part in the conference.

"We will surely provide comprehensive assistance to Tajikistan under the CSTO commitments [in case of the mounting terrorist threat]. Naturally, we wont leave it [Tajikistan] alone," Shamanov assured.

The situation in Afghanistan will be discussed at the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Council, he said. "I believe that this issue is more likely to be discussed from the viewpoint of assessing potential developments. As of now, and we talked with colleagues yesterday and today, the leadership of Tajikistan does not express such a serious concern," he pointed out.

This issue has to be kept under control from the standpoint of predicting possible developments, Shamanov said.

"Our committee is taking systemic measures to assess the situation. We cautioned that some terrorist groups would be airlifted by the aircraft of European countries and the United States from Iraq to northern Afghanistan. This was several years ago. That is, the situation is being constantly monitored," the senior Russian lawmaker stressed.

The head of the State Duma Defense Committee also reiterated Russias position with regard to the concerns over the situation in Afghanistan.

"The measures, including those taken by the Russian side, were outlined both by the [Russian] defense minister and the president [of Russia] to the effect that we need to think about providing the 201st military base in Tajikistan with the required capabilities," Shamanov pointed out, adding that Russian border guards were now "taking a number of organizational measures" in this regard, according to the information available to the lawmaker.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced on April 14 that the United States would launch the process of pulling American troops out of Afghanistan in May and complete it by September 11, 2021, although the previous administration of Donald Trump had signed a peace deal with the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) in Doha in February 2020, which stipulated the withdrawal of US and allied forces by May 1.
Health care workers and people aged 50 and above will be eligible for a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine in Turkey starting tomorrow, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

"Our people and health workers will be able to choose any vaccine they want regardless of what they received in the previous two doses," Koca said in a virtual press conference following a meeting with the country's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board.

The minister also announced several changes to Turkey's vaccination campaign, including shortening the period between doses and how soon a person who tested positive for COVID-19 can receive a jab.

"People who have tested positive for COVID-19 had to wait six months to become eligible for a vaccine. That period has now been shortened to three months," Koca said.

"Following new scientific findings, the time period between the two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been reduced from six weeks to four weeks," he added.

Koca's latest announcement comes amid significant recent momentum in Turkey's vaccination campaign. After suffering a slowdown in vaccination figures due to unexpected delays in shipments of doses, Turkey has significantly increased the reach and the speed of the campaign.

Our vaccination campaign is being carried out in full force to make sure each and every one of our citizens receives a vaccine. We are one of the worlds leading countries with the number of daily doses administered exceeding 1 million, Koca said.

According to Health Ministry data, Turkey has administered more than 49 million doses so far. More than 15 million people have received both of their shots.

Speaking about the importance of being vaccinated, Koca said the jabs were humankind's current best bet to fight the pandemic, especially when the coronavirus variants are threatening to undo the progress of the global vaccination process.

"The vaccines we have available in our country so far appear to be effective against mutations. But the only way to truly stop the pandemic is to complete the vaccination before giving any opportunity to mutations. Several countries with high vaccination rates have reported increasing Delta variant cases. This should be a warning for us and it should be our cue to get a vaccine," Daily Sabah cited him as saying.

According to the Health Ministry, Turkey on Wednesday recorded 5,496 new infections and 45 daily deaths.
Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to station two more airplanes at Kutaisi International Airport and add seven more flight destinations, corporate communications manager of Wizz Air Andras Rado announced to Georgian Public Broadcaster's First Channel.

"Now there are six flights, after placing the planes at Kutaisi base, seven more destinations will be added and there will be 13 in total  passengers can already book tickets. During the week, 24 flights from Kutaisi will be performed, starting next week," Agenda.ge cited Rado as saying.

Wizz Air will resume flights from Kutaisi to six new destinations: Athens, Thessaloniki, Memmingen, Milan, Prague and Wroclaw starting July 1. It is mandatory for passengers over the age of two to wear face masks during the whole flight.
With total market capitalization value of $1.45 trillion as of June 21, the cryptocurrency ecosystem has attracted investors but has also been an ideal hiding place for illegal activities.

Lawyer Luong Van Chuong

It was 9 am at an office in the central area of HCMC. The computer screen in front of Quoc Viet showed a series of charts, which reflected the ups and downs of many cryptocurrencies.

Viet looked at the charts attentively. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency with the name of the Japanese dog breed Shiba, had been the focus on exchanges.

Dogecoin once reached its peak at 69cent/coin. This means that if investors spent $1,000 to buy Dogecoin in early 2021, when the cryptocurrency was priced at less than 1 cent, they would make a profit of $120,000, if noting that the current price is 69 cent. Dogecoin increased by 120 times just after several months.

Some people said Dogecoin has increased too sharply, so investors would suffer if betting on the currency. The charts showed abnormally sharp price increases with the prices increasing by 3-4 times just in the first week of May. Sharks have gone, so you will die if you touch it, Viet said. .



The word shark is used to talk about individuals or institutions holding large amounts of Bitcoins in the cryptocurrency market. They are believed to be able to drive the market as they want. Viet thinks that the galloping increase of the Dogecoin is unsafe.

Not only Dogecoin, but Bitcoin also worries made the investor.

I once estimated that the Bitcoin price may reach $69,000, and investors would hold Bitcoin and not make transactions. The Bitcoin value can increase by $1,000 within several minutes. Its value goes up and down all the time. One month ago, the currency lost $10,000 per Bitcoin just within 30 minutes, he said.

Viet is not the only office worker that plays cryptocurrency. A survey of global consumers by Statista in 2020 showed that Vietnam ranked second in terms of the popularity of crytocurrency.

Up to 21 percent of 1,000-1,400 polled individuals in Vietnam said they once used or owned cryptocurrencies. The figure can show a part of the picture about the cryptocurrency rush.

Bitcoin is considered the king of cryptocurrency, leading the cryptocurrency ecosystem, attracting investors with the value of $35,000 per Bitcoin, or 45 percent of total market capitalization value, as of June 21.

Loopholes for tax evasion, money laundry

With anonymity and cross-border trade, cryptocurrency facilitates tax evasion and illegal remittances, payments and funding for illegal transactions. Criminals can convert money into Bitcoins and then, through e-wallets, remit money abroad without having to pay any kind of fee.

On September 21, 2017, the first lawsuit on collecting tax arrears on the profit from cryptocurrency investment, was heard in Ben Tre.

Arguing that cryptocurrency was a kind of asset and goods, the Ben Tre City Taxation Sub-department released a decision on collecting the personal income arrears of VND2.6 billion from Nguyen Viet Cuong, who traded cryptocurrency via internet from 2008 to 2013.

Cuong sued the taxation agency for this decision. The Ben Tre provincial Peoples Court then released a decision on canceling the tax arrears decision. Since cryptocurrency was not legally considered a kind of good, the decision by the Ben Tre taxation agency was unreasonable.

Citing the case, Lawyer Luong Van Chuong from the HCM City Bar Association, said that with anonymity and cross-border trade, cryptocurrency facilitates tax evasion and illegal remittances, payments and funding for illegal transactions. Criminals can convert money into Bitcoins and then, through e-wallets, remit money abroad without having to pay any kind of fee.

This is the loophole that can be exploited for money laundering and money transfer from Vietnam to other countries. The remittance is used to buy properties or for other illegal activities.

According to Chuong, money laundering via Bitcoin has not been seen in Vietnam, but found in the US.

In late April 2021, FBI dismantled Silk Road, a big crime ring, and seized two e-wallets containing 174,000 Bitcoins. With Bitcoin value at $57,600 on May 1, 2021, the amount of Bitcoins exceeded $10 billion.

With Blockchain, a user can send a digital asset through the Internet to another user, and this transaction is guaranteed to be safe, highly secure, and not easily modified. Therefore, it is difficult for state agencies to supervise and inspect once they suspect that the transactions are illegal.

Nguyen Hoang Dung, a respected economist, said the convenience of cryptocurrency is undeniable, but many countries dont recognize the legitimacy of the ecosystem worth trillions of dollars in cyberspace because of high risks.

If you just need to sit at home but can make transactions of millions or billions of dollars with just mouse clicks, why wouldn't criminals do it? he said. When the central bank cannot control this, it will be just an unlocked door which crimes are ready to go through."

Currently, Vietnam has no legal regulations governing activities related to cryptocurrencies and virtual assets.

In August 2017, the Government released Decision 1255, assigning ministries to complete the legal framework on cryptocurrency management.

On April 11, 2018, the PM issued Directive 10/CT-TTg on strengthening the management of activities related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Quang Dinh

Legal framework needed to better manage cryptocurrency market A delay in issuing official legal regulations on managing cryptocurrencies will cause a rise in the risks of fraud and theft related to virtual assets, experts have warned.
Facebook has filed a lawsuit against four people living in Vietnam for hacking into accounts and running illegal ads worth more than $36 million.

In a blog posted on June 29, Facebook said it had filed two lawsuits against those who violated the Advertising Policies. The defendant in the first lawsuit is a California-based marketing company and agents. The second lawsuit is against a group of people living in Vietnam, who hijacked accounts to run illegal ads.

According to Facebook Director of Law Enforcement and Litigation Jessica Romero, four individuals living in Vietnam  NHT, LK, NQB and PHD  used cookie stealing or session stealing techniques to compromise personal accounts of employees of many advertising and marketing agencies, and then they ran unauthorized ads from these accounts. The Facebook blog claimed that victims were scammed, leading to account loss after installing an app from the Google Play Store called "Ad Manager for Facebook". The app has been removed by Google.

When the Ad Manager for Facebook is downloaded, the victim shares their Facebook login information and others. The hackers use the information to access the account and then run ads. In some cases, they used the accounts to commit online scams.

According to Romero, this group ran illegal ads worth more than $36 million. Facebook refunded victims and helped them secure their accounts. Facebook said it was trying to expose the entire behavior of the four violators, forcing them to take responsibility for writing the "Ad Manager for Facebook" application to trick users.

According to Facebook, this is the company's second lawsuit against account hijacking. The first lawsuit occurred in December 2019, in which the defendant tricked people into installing malicious code on the Internet. The malicious code allowed the defendant to compromise the victim's Facebook account and run unauthorized ads to promote items such as fake and imitated goods and weight loss pills.

Du Lam
The Government has urged the use of non-cash payments and the deployment of Mobile Money as a solution. The service is still awaiting licensing.

On March 9, 2021, the PM agreed to apply Mobile Money on a trial basis. The time for trying the service is two years from the date it was licensed.

In order to register Mobile Money service, clients need to show ID cards/passports with the information coinciding with the information in their registered mobile phone subscription, and get identified by licensed service providers.

Mobile subscribers must have continuous use of at least 3 months by the time they register for Mobile Money service.

Tran Duy Hai, Deputy Director of the Authority of Telecommunications, said the agency prepared the plan on applying Mobile Money on a trial basis when ministries were awaiting the PMs nod on the pilot implementation.

In early April 2021, the agency assigned its staff to join forces with relevant units in MIC, referring to the PMs Decision No 315 and other countries experience, to guide businesses to draw up plans and submit to the State Bank for permission to provide Mobile Money service.

The agency also asked businesses to prepare solutions, facilities, technological infrastructure, workforce and policies to be able to deploy the service soon after getting the central banks approval.

A report showed that over 50 percent of Vietnamese population still do not have bank accounts. Many people are excluded from the formal financial system, especially the poor in rural areas and people in remote areas. Mobile Money can help them access paid services on the internet, including healthcare, education, financing, jobs and social security.

Mobile Money is expected to penetrate the rural market and digitize the agricultural value. In developing countries, about 15 percent of adults have revenue from selling farm produce, but they receive cash, which is a risky, ineffective and inconvenient payment method.

Mobile Money will provide the clients who dont have bank accounts with one more transaction channel. This will help increase the non-cash payment ratio as requested by the Government.

Thanks to Mobile Money, rural people will have the chance to experience convenient shopping with fast and accurate payments, suitable for small transactions.

Chair of the Vietnam Internet Association Vu Hoang Lien commented that Mobile Money would bring a lot of benefits to consumers and society.

If Mobile Money gets licenses soon, it will be the first Governments sandbox to make a breakthrough and strong motivation for new technologies and services to be brought into society, he said.

Thai Khang

Fintechs to partner with telecom carriers to offer Mobile Money The pilot program on providing the Mobile Money service is expected to increase non-cash transactions, especially in remote areas. To improve users' experience, fintechs should work with network operators, experts say.
In-person classes. Crowds at Lane Stadium. Campus events. These activities can happen only if the majority of Virginia Tech students and employees are vaccinated for COVID-19.

As the fall semester inches closer, the university is making progress. But it isnt there yet.

According to a newly launched dashboard on the Virginia Tech website, 25.2 percent of students and 27.9 percent of employees have uploaded their vaccine cards as proof that they are fully vaccinated for the coronavirus, as of June 28. The dashboard will be updated twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays, through the fall semester.

Virginia Tech created the dashboard to inform the campus and the larger community of the universitys vaccination status. It represents the Hokie Nations path to a new academic year, and one that it hopes will resemble a pre-pandemic environment.



The dashboard tracks our progress, said Mike Mulhare, assistant vice president for emergency management at Virginia Tech. It informs us on where we are and where we need to be. To operate in a near normal environment, our employee and student vaccination percentages need to significantly improve."

The vaccination percentages, displayed on the dashboard in two pie charts, count employees and students at all of Virginia Techs campuses. Students who are taking courses fully online and have requested a waiver are not counted in the percentages.



Vaccination numbers are tallied only when an individual registers their vaccine status here. Schiffert Health Center receives student vaccine information, while Human Resources receives employee information. All vaccination data is confidential.

Virginia Tech students are required to be fully vaccinated by Aug. 6, and there are dates by which they need to receive certain vaccines to meet the deadline.

Employees are strongly encouraged to receive a vaccine. With the Delta variant emerging, having vaccinated employees is even more important. "We know that vaccination is the most effective tool to protect our workforce and our community," Mulhare said.

Those employees who are not vaccinated will be required to participate in the universitys surveillance COVID-19 testing program during the semester. More details on fall testing will be shared in the coming weeks.



If there is not continued progress in the vaccination rate of the Virginia Tech community, the university will require additional mitigation strategies and operations likely will be impacted, Mulhare said.

Each pie chart moves from gray to maroon as vaccine numbers increase for employees and students. The goal is to turn most of each chart maroon, Mulhare said.







The push for vaccinations, particularly within universities, is an important step toward the community resuming a healthy, pre-pandemic life, said Noelle Bissell, health director of the New River Health District, during a meeting with the news media earlier this week.

Our institutes of higher education, they want to get back to a normal learning experience this fall, and they are a congregate setting, and we know that COVID spreads quickly in congregate settings, she said. Last fall, thats where we found a lot of our cases, where people gathered socially, and thats where the infection spreads. So, its really important that we have high numbers of people who are vaccinated in those situations and that way, were going to decrease the spread.







She explained that vaccinations not only protect the people who are vaccinated, but they also protect others who may not be able to receive a vaccine for a certain reason or who may have a suboptimal response to a vaccine.

 Written by Jenny Kincaid Boone
With the virus mutating to spread more easily, Wilson said that makes it all the more important to vaccinate students before they return to school this summer.

Since the Pfizer vaccine was approved for children as young as 12 in the spring, 1,593 McLennan County residents age 12-15 have gotten at least one shot, close to a tenth of that population, according to Census Bureau estimates.

Wilson said approval of a vaccine for younger children could provide the entire county population some protection.

I think it would help if they would open up to kids younger than 12, he said. Thats our largest group of people who havent had the option to get the vaccine. Unfortunately, thats what it may take to get (the county vaccination rate) to 50%.

Wilson, who sees adult patients as an internist, said that based on his experience, availability of the vaccine is not the main problem.

At this point, the vast majority of patients I come across in my practice have either been vaccinated or do not plan to be vaccinated, he said.

He said resistance to the vaccine often stems from personal religious or moral objections or from misinformation from the internet.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden came up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June as a host of logistical and regulatory hurdles slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy.

Although the Biden administration has announced that about 50 countries and entities will receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses, the U.S. has shipped fewer than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries, according to an Associated Press tally. The White House says more will be sent in the coming days and stresses that Biden has done everything in his power to meet the commitment.

It's not for lack of doses. All the American shots are ready to ship, the White House said. Rather, it's taking more time than anticipated to sort through a complex web of legal requirements, health codes, customs clearances, cold-storage chains, language barriers and delivery programs. Complicating matters even further is that no two shipments are alike.

One country requires an act of its Cabinet to approve the vaccine donation, others require inspectors to conduct their own safety checks on the U.S. doses, and still others have yet to develop critical aspects of their vaccine distribution plans to ensure the doses can reach people's arms before they spoil.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Kansas Republicans are trying to pull Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly into a national debate over border security as the GOP works to undercut her standing with voters ahead of her re-election bid next year.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, who represents south-central Kansas, publicly urged Kelly on Wednesday to send law-enforcement resources to Arizona and Texas to help them with security along the border with Mexico. His call came the same day former President Donald Trump visited the border to assail President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

Estes and the state's other two Republican congressmen, Jake LaTurner and Tracey Mann, sent Kelly a letter last week, pushing her to share resources with Arizona and Texas. Earlier this month, the Kansas Republican Party criticized Kelly for being silent on border security.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 180,000 encounters on the Mexican border in May, the most since March 2000.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)  Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday vetoed a bill that limited when isolated confinement or seclusion is used in Connecticut prisons, saying he supports the bill's intent but wants to make sure inmates and staff are safe.

Instead, the Democrat directed the Department of Correction commissioner, in an executive order, to increase out of cell time for all incarcerated individuals, including those in restrictive status. He said that will happen well before the effective dates of the bill, which would have taken effect a year from now.

I am not signing this legislation because, as written, it puts the safety of incarcerated persons and correction employees at substantial risk, Lamont wrote in his veto message. He noted the bill puts unreasonable and dangerous limits on the use of restraints, among other measures, that could place people at risk.

It's unclear whether the Democratic-controlled General Assembly will attempt to override the veto, which came as a surprise and disappointment to some advocates.

Joseph Gaylin, a steering committee member for the group Stop Solitary CT, said Lamont's executive order falls far short of what's needed to ultimately reduce the amount of time inmates in Connecticut spend in prolonged isolation.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  A bill touted as the country's strictest statewide regulation on the use of facial recognition technology has become law in Maine.

While several states regulate facial recognition as a surveillance tool, the Maine law represents a broad prohibition of the technology at the state, county and municipal government levels, with limited exceptions for law enforcement purposes, officials said.

The ACLU of Maine said it's the strongest statewide facial recognition regulation in the country, and the bill's sponsor, Rep. Grayson Lookner, called it a huge victory for privacy rights and civil liberties in Maine.

"I hope that Maine can provide an example to other states that want to rein in the governments ability to use facial recognition and other invasive biometric technologies, said Lookner, D-Portland.

The bill became law without the governors signature.

Under the law, police may request a facial recognition search from the FBI and Bureau of Motor Vehicles databases if they have probable cause to believe an unidentified person in an image has committed a serious crime. Those requests will be tracked.
Lamb had been living with the boys mother, Kassandra Orona, and her three children in the apartment, Orona told investigators, according to the affidavit.

Orona and Lamb used the two-burner butane torch to smoke marijuana, she told investigators.

The size and shape of the torch's burners appeared very similar to the shape and size of the burns on Athian, the affidavit said. The boy died two to four hours before he was found of blunt force trauma, lack of oxygen to the brain, or both, the coroner concluded.

Orona told police that Lamb was watching her three children the night before her son was killed while she worked a sandwich shop shift, court documents said.

She told investigators she arrived home at about 3:30 a.m. and was later awakened by Lamb, who wanted her to drive her daughter to school a few minutes away because the girl was running late, according to the documents.

After Orona and Lamb got back, Orona told investigators that she went back to bed. Lamb woke her up just after 12 p.m., saying Athian was missing, according to her account provided to investigators.
As recently as the early 1990s, the United States was the worlds largest producer of rare earth minerals, which are indispensable in weapons production and a wide array of clean energy technologies. Today we have just one rare earth mine remaining and it must ship its ore to China for processing.

President Joe Bidens goal  to slash carbon emissions 50 percent by 2030  hinges on clean energy technologies that rely heavily on minerals like lithium. According to a report from the International Energy Agency, global demand for minerals far exceeds supply  and the problem could worsen in the years ahead. By 2040, demand for lithium is expected to increase 4,200 percent; graphite, 2,500 percent; nickel, 1,900 percent; and rare earths, 700 percent. These are the so-called EV battery metals.

The assumption that Canada, Australia, and other friendly countries can meet our needs for battery metals and other critically important minerals and metals is wrong. The unfortunate reality is resource nationalism is global. Take copper, which is essential for decarbonization and the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy. In addition to electrification, copper is still needed for standard uses, copper wiring, copper piping, construction and telecommunications, and components of airplanes, trains, cars, and boats. Chile and Peru, the worlds number one and two producers of copper, are both seeking to raise the royalty tax on copper producers while the Democratic Republic of Congo has slapped a ban on copper exports  an action almost identical to what has happened in Indonesia with nickel. At the same time, China is locking up the nickel supply in Indonesia and copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Third, Milleys analogy is  and this is my characterization, not that of Waltz, who was much more diplomatic  preposterous. Nobody believes that West Point is taking the same attitude toward critical race theory that it does toward Maoism. Its not inviting Maoists to give guest lectures with no rebuttals.

If the military were treating CRT as a dangerous set of beliefs that needs combating, Waltz and Gaetz wouldnt be complaining, although some other congressmen might. I would add that comparing CRT to ideologies that led to tyranny and mass murder is not quite the slam-dunk defense of it that progressives are taking it to be.

Neither Waltz nor Gaetz was making a negative generalization about the U.S. military or its officers. At the end of his remarks, Milley noted that Waltz and he are both Green Berets. In our conversation, Waltz volunteered that he respects Milley. During the hearing, Gaetz emphasized that he was channeling concerns he increasingly hears from officers themselves.

Maybe those concerns are overstated or misguided. Thats a fair debate. Saying that raising them is an attack on the military, on the other hand, is an attempt to shut down debate. A democracy should respect the military that serves it. But it should also have the self-respect to tell its top military commander when hes out of line.

Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Thomas Hanson, Bynum

STAAR values

The article Waco ISD STAAR performance lags state as pandemic takes heavy toll is misleading. The validity of any measurement instruments values requires a particular set of assumptions being met. Using a bathroom scale in outer space would indicate I weigh zero pounds, but that value would not be valid because the assumptions for using a bathroom scale are not met.

The same is true for the STAAR. Interpreting its values is based on a particular set of assumptions being met. I challenge Carl Hoover or the Texas Education Agency to provide evidence that this is the case last year with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing. Without such evidence, the STAAR values have as much validity as values from bathroom scales in outer space. This means that comparing this years STAAR values to last years values is just an exercise in futility.

Alexander Beaujean,

Woodway

Gov. Tantrum
GWAFF has been able to fundraise about $700,000, and the city received a Nebraska Game and Parks grant for $400,000. Pascoe said GWAFF still intends to meet the fundraising goal of $2 million they set back in 2019.

City Administrator Stephanie Fisher said the city is currently waiting to begin the bidding process because of the certain procurement rules that come from dealing with federal money such as the grant. Fisher expects the bidding process to begin in August or September.

On behalf of the city, we just want to say that we appreciate the partnerships between our businesses in our community, Fisher said. Were very thankful for the Trackside donation, just like weve been extremely thankful for all of the other donations that have come in.

Blake said a big factor in dealing with the pandemic was just the unknown.

You think, well we can get through for a little but you dont know if its going to be six months, you dont know if its going to be a year, Blake said. It was mainly just the unknown.

Despite the unknown and lack of business from Lincoln, the Waverly community stepped up.
PODCAST

PROJECT 38: Booz Allen's next strategic plan and the power of diversity

Booz Allen Hamilton is now at No. 6 on the 2021 Washington Technology Top 100 and the company is coming off of its Vision 2020 strategy that transformed it from a management consulting firm to a technology company.

For this episode, Editor Nick Wakeman shares excerpts from his interview with Booz Allen Executive Vice President Karen Dahut. They talk about the strategy that will drive Booz Allen for the next decade as well as the value the company places in diversity and inclusion.



They also talk about what it will take for Booz Allen Hamilton, now 107 years old, to make it to the firm's 200th birthday in 2114.
TOP 100

How the 'Verizon 2.0' vision continues to shape its public sector arm

As most would in this circumstance, Jennifer Chronis had one main reservation about accepting Verizons offer last summer to take up a new job as head of the telecommunications giants federal business:

How does one start a new job at a new employer, particularly when meeting and getting to know everyone on the new team is much harder during a pandemic?

I asked Chronis that question and she put it this way: The destination and what Verizon's focus is greatly helped her decide to join. As of April, she now leads all public sector business including federal.

The network is critical to everything that our customers are doing now, Chronis told me. Its critical to cloud, its critical to innovation, its critical to remote working and 5G is a huge enabler.

Chronis started the federal-focused job on August 3, 2020 after four years in what she called a fascinating experience as head of Amazon Web Services Defense Department business that gave her insight into how customers use and think about connectivity.

Verizon holds steady at No. 20 on the 2021 Washington Technology Top 100 with $2.1 billion in prime contracts, both marks roughly unchanged from last year's list.

In her current role, Chronis is tasked with continuing to ensure the public sector business is aligned with the broader Verizon 2.0 vision and transformation that CEO Hans Vestberg has articulated for close to three years.

Verizon 2.0 is designed to organize the company around more of a customer-facing model versus one centered on products. Public sector specifically is part of the Verizon Business group that focuses on all enterprise customers, whether they be government or commercial.

We are really, really focused on continuing to drive growth for (the) Verizon Business group to continue to implement Hans vision of ensuring our customers are adopting 5G, adopting network as-a-service, broadening our partner channels and our go-to-market, and leveraging new B2B (business-to-business) applications like mobile edge compute Chronis said.

A second Verizon leaders vision that Chronis emphasized in our conversation as one the public sector shop contributes to is that of Tami Erwin, CEO of the Verizon Business group.

Erwins vision sounds similar as Chronis described it: Driving growth for our customers and becoming their indispensable partner, and going deeper into their digital transformation journeys.

In May, Verizon secured a potential $495 million contract to help DOD operate a high-speed and high-performance computing network used by the departments science and research community to collaborate and share their work.

This fourth iteration of the Defense Research Engineering Network contract will go for up to 10 years, beginning with a four-year base period followed by a trio of two-year options.

DREN is managed by the departments High Performance Computing Modernization Program office with this mission as described by Chronis:

Working some of the most challenging problems, not only for the DOD but across the federal government like climate change, pandemic response and next-generation autonomous defense systems.

For DREN 4, Chronis said Verizon will work with DOD to better secure the network and move it away from a hardware-centric construct to one more defined by software. That shift is intended to be in keeping with how the broader technology world is moving in a more software-defined direction.

Added capability and reach is also key for this new version of DREN. Chronis said Verizon and DOD are aiming to provide higher bandwidth and lower latency connectivity between and among the 200 different HPC locations and labs focused on research, development, testing and engineering efforts.

Then of course there is the massive Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions vehicle for all federal agencies to acquire next-generation telecommunications products and services from Verizon and the other nine prime carriers.

Deltek data indicates Verizon has received the largest amount of unclassified prime obligations to date via EIS to the tune of around $182.6 million.

Four of the largest wins Verizon has recorded against that vehicle have come out of the Health and Human Services and Labor departments, Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration.

Chronis said EIS also gives agencies some added leverage to acquire cloud services, though conceded it is in the very early stages of seeing customers trying to do that.

The ongoing 5G revolution and transition is a third pillar in Verizons public sector and broader corporate strategy.

One project Chronis highlighted included one at Marine Corps Miramar Air Station in Greater San Diego, which was the first U.S. military installation to implement Verizons 5G ultra wideband network. Miramar also will house a 5G living lab to see how the Marine Corps can leverage that new network architecture.

Verizon is taking a similar approach with the Energy Department at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where the parties are working on new ideas and solutions to apply 5G in research efforts. Chronis said other agencies such as the Homeland Security Department could benefit from that collaboration.

The 5G realm is also an area where Chronis sees Verizons public sector and broader corporate strategy as being one and the same in certain respects, especially when considering what Verizon 2.0 is intended to be.

We do our best to try to cross-pollinate the teams that we have that build our 5G test labs and innovation centers are the same teams that we use across public sector, enterprise, small and medium business and business markets, Chronis said.

Were sharing the resources, we are leveraging the same lessons learned, and I think we are really helping to kind of push the envelope a bit and show our customers what were seeing in commercial that can potentially be leveraged in the public sector.

(A future episode of Project 38 will feature my full conversation with Chronis that includes more on the federal governments progress in adopting 5G, how Verizon is shaping its post-pandemic future of work and additional insights into how public sector feeds into the broader corporate strategy)
A total of 37 schools or systems within the archdiocese are part of the STO, which received $4.5 million in donations last year. Among others in the Cedar Valley, Zeman said 45% of Bosco Catholic School System students in Gilbertville and Raymond, 40% at St. Athanasius School in Jesup and 23% at St. Patrick School in Cedar Falls received scholarships. St. Pauls Lutheran School in Waverly, which is part of the Our Faith STO as well, received scholarships for 39% of its students.

Across the archdioceses schools, 3,400 of 8,780 students received the scholarships during the past year. For the next year, he noted that the organization has nearly $4.3 million available to give out in tuition assistance.

Donations to the STO were down in 2020 in part because of, obviously, the pandemic and the economic uncertainty, said Zeman, as well as the derecho that hit Cedar Rapids. Were hoping that the state increasing the tax credit to 75% will help on giving and help things rebound in 2021.

Along with assisting families, he said the tuition scholarships provide an economic boost by potentially funding private school staff positions. Zeman also contended that if more students now in Catholic schools were in the public system it would be at a higher cost than the tax credits based on the estimated per pupil expense of education.
The Iowa Supreme Court 2020-21 adjudicative term ended Wednesday with the court having rendered opinions on 120 cases and held one over for resubmission.

The courts decisions are available at https://www.iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/supreme-court/supreme-court-opinions/. Oral argument videos, case briefs, attorney names, and the Iowa Court of Appeals decisions from further review cases can be found on the Iowa Judicial Branch website by searching for the case name or number using the sites search function on the homepage at https://www.iowacourts.gov.

A new administrative term begins Thursday. A schedule of cases will be posted on the judicial branch website. The Supreme Courts 2021-22 adjudicative term begins Sept. 1.

SAFETY FIRST ON THE FOURTH: With thousands expected to travel across the state and enjoy Iowas natural resources, state and local law enforcement agencies will be focusing on safety this Fourth of July holiday.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Bureau will focus efforts on intoxicated boaters as part of the national Operation Dry Water campaign to draw public attention to the hazards of boating under the influence.

In Iowa, it is illegal to operate a vessel or vehicle with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher.

DNR conservation officers will heavily patrol Iowa waterways Friday through Sunday. They will conduct heightened awareness and enforcement of boating under the influence laws in hopes of decreasing the number of crashes and removing any impaired boat operators.

Tips for staying safe while boating include staying sober because alcohol and drug use impair judgment, balance, vision and reaction time; wearing a life jacket and having the proper number onboard; and taking a boating safety class.

The DNR also offered safety tips for people using the states public beaches: Swim in designated areas, wear a life jacket, swim with a buddy, and avoid areas with waves or rip currents.

MORE COMPENSATION: Beginning Sunday, there will be an increase in the maximum weekly benefits paid to unemployed Iowans and to workers injured on the job, according to Iowa Workforce Development. A statutorily required annual review of wages covered by unemployment insurance has triggered the increase. The average annual wage for insured Iowa workers increased to $52,130.71 in 2020, up from $48,455.86 in 2019.

Iowa Workforce Development officials noted that about half those eligible for unemployment insurance benefits have enough earnings to qualify for the maximum benefit. The 2022 taxable wage base will be $34,800.

The new benefit payment schedules apply to individuals who file new unemployment insurance claims and workers injured on or after Sunday. Those currently receiving benefits from state or federal programs will continue to receive the same weekly benefit amount.

Beginning Thursday, the workers compensation maximum weekly benefit for temporary total disability, healing period, permanent total disability and death will rise to $2,005. For permanent partial disability, the weekly maximum will be $1,845.

For more information, visit https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov.
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He entered the Stuck at Prom scholarship contest because he likes art and dislikes English.

I didnt have to write an essay for this one, he said, smiling. Im a creative person. Im a good student, but English is my worst subject.

Caseys parents encouraged him early on to apply for scholarships. He graduated from Jesup High in May and will attend Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the fall where hell study ministry and leadership. Private college is an expensive endeavor, and Tom and Kay Alferink left it to their son to find scholarships to help pay for it.

Kay Alferink didnt know Casey was working on his Duck Tape tux until he was well into the process. When she saw his work, she was astonished.

Ive always known he was artistic, but this blew my mind, she said. Its so detailed and colorful. He worked so hard on it, and Im so proud of him.

Hundreds of students across the country submitted photos and videos of their Duck prom designs. A panel of judges narrowed the field to 10 finalists based on workmanship, originality, use of colors, accessories and use of Duck brand duct tape.
While he felt relief and happiness after learning about the grand jurys decision, Gokal said the ordeal has taken a toll on his family, as his wife's health has been impacted and his children's grades suffered.

Gokal said he would still like to work in some capacity in public health but worries the theft accusation has put this in danger. Since he was fired by the county health department, he has worked part time in the emergency departments at two Houston hospitals.

For the time being, Im not going hungry and my family is doing OK," he said.

Gokal said he and his family, including his two daughters and son, have been grateful for the outpouring of support they have received.

So many people reached out, helped in different ways, from GoFundMe (donations) to prayers and messages. Ive been so overwhelmed by that," he said.

In March, the Texas Medical Board dismissed an investigation against Gokal, saying he appeared to have administered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to patients that were properly consented, in the eligible patient category, and they were given doses that would have otherwise been wasted.
The fees would be determined upon completion of a gun harm study from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation, a group that promotes individual and public health, welfare, and safety.

In a preliminary report released ahead of the vote, the institute estimated that gun-related homicides, suicides and other shootings cost San Jose around $63 million annually. A more thorough study is expected to be completed in the fall.

Jaime Bellemare of Brady United Against Gun Violence, the national nonprofit that advocates against gun violence, said there have been other similar laws proposed but San Jose is the first city in the country to have passed one.

One challenge to enforce the law will be in determining how to administer the new liability insurance and fee requirements.

City officials know how many guns were purchased in San Jose since 2001, Liccardo said, but the city has no gun registry and no way to track gun owners.

Earlier this month, city lawmakers passed a new law requiring all retailers to record video and audio of all firearm purchases. San Jose became the largest California city with such a rule.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, San Francisco Chronicle.

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Heidi Klum is thrilled her daughter is finally ready to embark on her modelling career.

The 48-year-old star is "happy" 17-year-old Leni is going to follow in her footsteps as the teenager has spent so long "nagging" her about going out to work as a model.

Asked if she was prepared for Leni to start modelling, Heidi told 'The Late Late Show with James Corden': "Yes, because she's been nagging about it for such a long time.

"I'm so happy that we finally arrived and she's old enough and can do this, she's 17 now."

Heidi also described sharing the cover of a Vogue Germany issue as the handing of the "baton" to her daughter.

She said: "I was kind of giving the baton to her."

Heidi described seeing her daughter modelling as the "wildest thing" and sometimes sees herself in Leni when she is at work.

The 'America's Got Talent' judge explained: "It is the wildest thing.

"Sometimes I see myself in her because we're quite goofy and silly and she's on the set, like, being me. It's like a mini-me, but then she's doing her own thing. It's quite a lot of fun to watch."
Prince Harry has claimed his grandfather Prince Philip was "adamant" he didn't want to live to be 100.

The 36-year-old royal's elderly relative passed away in April, months before he reached the landmark age, and the Duke of Sussex has now spoken out about the family bereavement for the first time.

Harry attended a party for the winners of the Wellchild Awards on Wednesday (30.06.21) and met Carmela Chillery-Watson - who won the Inspirational Child 4-6 Years Award for raising more than 50,000 for Muscular Dystrophy UK during lockdown - and her dad Darren.

After Darren passed on his condolences, Harry thanked him and said: "He had a great innings. He was 99 and he was adamant that he never wanted to live to 100."

Following Philip's death, Harry - who made a surprise appearance at the Wellchild event having completed a five-day quarantine after flying into the UK from his US home last week - remembered the Duke of Edinburgh as a "legend of banter".

He said in a statement: "My grandfather was a man of service, honour and great humour. He was authentically himself, with a seriously sharp wit, and could hold the attention of any room due to his charmand also because you never knew what he might say next.
I started to laugh when I read about Putin and Xi having a video conference

The image of what the western politicians and those who embrace the religion of Russophobia/Sinophobia, will think and do in my mind was a pleasure to behold

So I laughed

Wanna know what they talked about?

Glad you asked

Vladimir Putin had a conversation, via videoconference, with President of the Peoples Republic of China Xi Jinping in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the signing of the bilateral Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation.

Source: Conversation with President of China Xi Jinping  President of Russia

Always a pleasure to give everyone what they desire. Right here on WtR

WtR
We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine).





That includes these certification types:





ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS





 Made with Organic Grapes





Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range)

Winery: certified organic facility

Labeling : front or back label





 Ingredients: Organic Grapes





Vineyards : certified organic

Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine)

Labeling: back label only





BIODYNAMIC CERTIFICATIONS





 Biodynamic Wine





Vineyards : certified biodynamic

Yeasts : native

Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear





 Made with Biodynamic Grapes





Vineyards : certified biodynamic

Yeasts : native or organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back





Note : unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only.





SULFITES IN CONTEXT





According to U.C. Davis, t he average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm.





WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES





Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.")





From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines:





1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine)

2. Made with Organic Grapes

3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes





The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled.





Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine."





With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine."





We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own.





This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm).




Malayalam stalwart actor Mohanlals Drishyam 2 skipped its theatrical release due to the COVID second wave and had its direct OTT release on Amazon Prime Video earlier this summer. This Jeethu Joseph directorial, just like its predecessor, won critical acclaim for its suspense and thrill factors.

Now, for the first time in Mollywood history, Drishyam 2 becomes the first Malayalam film to have a theatrical release after OTT premiere. Drishyam 2 is all set to release today (July 1) in the UAE-GCC region in over 40 locations. The Gulf and Middle East regions are back on their feet after controlling the pandemic and even theaters are being reopened in full capacity.

Drishyam 2 also features Meena, Murali Gopy, Asha Sarath, Ansiba Hassan and Esther Anil in lead roles. Antony Perumbavoor is the producer and hes co-producing the films Telugu remake in association with Suresh Babu.









Articles that might interest you:
Mario Tamo/Getty Images News

En espanol | While efforts to get more Blacks and Hispanics inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccines are bearing some fruit, a new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds that continued lower vaccination rates put these minority groups at a greater risk for the coronavirus, particularly as new variants spread.

The good news is recent trends suggest a narrowing of racial gaps in vaccinations at the national level, particularly for Hispanic people, who have received a larger share of vaccinations compared to their share of the total population (32 percent vs. 17 percent), the report says. The KFF analysis is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as of June 28 from the 47 states that track COVID-19 vaccinations by race and ethnicity. The CDC says this data represents race/ethnicity for 57 percent of people who have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

"For the first time, KFF researchers say, the share of recent vaccinations received by Black people also surpassed their share of the total population (13 percent vs. 12 percent)."

Administration officials have targeted much of their recent effort to reach unvaccinated Americans to minorities, including enlisting religious, civil rights and other community groups. President Joe Biden had set a goal of 70 percent of all adults getting at least one shot by July 4. CDC data show that as of June 30, 66.5 percent of adults age 18 and older had received at least one shot. At the same time, the data show that 87.9 percent of adults age 65 and older have gotten at least one vaccine dose. The president has acknowledged that the 70 percent goal will not be reached for several weeks beyond Independence Day.


Update on IDEAQU Investment

Sydney, July 1, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Actcelerate International Group Ltd ( NSX:ACT ) is pleased to provide shareholders with an update on its investment with Ideaqu Pte Ltd (IDEAQU), an innovative Australian financial services technology (Fin-Tech) business operating in Singapore and Australia.As announced 1 July 2019, the Company entered into a convertible note deed (Deed) with IDEAQU for an investment of SGD$400k by way of subscribing for convertible notes (Notes). The Notes were for an initial 2-year term, and attracted a coupon of 9% per annum, paid half yearly. IDEAQU have been meeting their coupon payments to date.As foreshadowed at the Company's Annual General Meeting, IDEAQU have been advancing their plans to seek a listing of the business on an international exchange. As part of this process, AIG's investment in the Notes will be converted into equity in the new listed company (Conversion Event).Pursuant to the Deed, and to provide IDEAQU with time to undertake their listing event, the parties have agreed to extend the repayment date of the Notes until the earlier of the Conversion Event or 31 December 2022.About Actcelerate International Group Limited

Actcelerate International Group (NSX:ACT) is a Diversified Investment Company whose focus is on the Asia-Pacific market. Our investments focus on four major sectors. These are, Information and Communications Technology, New Age Retail, Financial Services, and Green Technology. The objective of the company is to capture the above-mentioned sectors, that have a high potential for growth, in the Asia-Pacific market. This is as the Asia-Pacific is a single market and production base, and is a competitive economic region within the global economy. We invest in companies and businesses which meet the above-mentioned criteria. We then provide these companies with the opportunity to expand their market coverage. We focus on SMEs and start-up companies in the Asia Pacific that have the potential for continuous growth. We can strengthen our purchasing power by leveraging and co-investment collaborations. Our target companies will be working closely with us in all aspects of business. This gives them an in-depth, better understanding of the nature of the business. It allows us to develop focused strategies to accelerate the growth potential of the business.
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The Latino experience varies from person to person.

Thats why Wendy Llinas and her team at PBS created the three-part anthology series The Latino Experience.

It will premiere at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 6, on New Mexico PBS, Channel 5.1. It will repeat at 8 p.m. July 13 and 20. The series features 13 original films made by filmmakers working across genres. The shorts explore a wide range of experiences, perspectives and styles to highlight the rich diversity of the Latino community across the United States and Puerto Rico.

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Llinas, senior director of programming and development at PBS, says the films are for everyone.

The stories are universal, she says. It also gives insight to the obstacles that people are going through.  These narrative and scripted shorts reflect the joy, creativity, courage, humor, pain and resilience in our communities with top-notch authentic storytelling that reflects the many lived experiences of Latinos/as/x at this moment in history.

Films included in The Latino Experience were selected from entries received by PBS after a call for submissions in August. Chosen by a panel of experienced filmmakers, the shorts received funding support as well as a national broadcast as part of the series.

It takes a village to make this happen, Llinas says of the series. I think the hardest part was picking from the submissions, because we had so many great ones. We feel very lucky that the filmmakers trust PBS to showcase these pieces on a greater scale.

Llinas says that each story explores a journey and that he hopes the audience will be on it as well.

The experience of being human are the stories told, she says. There are some talking about the pandemic. Its a mosaic of stories told through film. Thats the feeling I want folks to come away with. We have so many things in common; its our humanity that shines through.

Another goal for Llinas was to showcase the diversity within Latino communities.

A difficult part of the process was being sensitive to the world today, she says. We needed to find balance between something that is satire and a piece that is more hard hitting and truthful. At the end of the day, its storytelling that shines through, and you want something that will make the viewer pause and take notice.

Llinas team continued to work through the pandemic to create the series.

Its about bringing new voices to the conversation, she says. Each one of the filmmakers does that. They are shining light on an issue they think is important.

Llinas says the series can also be an entry point for people who are curious and want to explore some of these issues.

Whether you can relate on a personal level or not, each film is shot beautifully, she says. It will be a great showcase, and hopefully we can do this every year. Theres a lot of potential.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  Spurred by growth among its partner companies, Concentrix Corp. is hiring nearly 200 new employees in Rio Rancho.

The company is planning to hire 195 customer service and sales positions in Rio Rancho over the next few months. Mary Scott, vice president of talent delivery at Concentrix, said the push in New Mexico is part of a larger hiring effort by the company.

We are experiencing a ton of growth, Scott said.

Scott said the jobs can be done at the companys facility in Rio Rancho, located at 6090 Zenith NE, or remotely by workers living locally. All of the jobs will be full-time, though some will be seasonal.

Scott added that Concentrix, which provides customer experience solutions for client companies, works with a lot of health care providers in New Mexico, which are particularly busy toward the end of the year with open enrollment needs. However, she said seasonal employees who complete licensing requirements may have the opportunity to move into full-time roles.

Most people we find are interested in full-time (roles), Scott said.

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The company is offering a range of benefits, including paid training, medical care, paid time off in the first year and access to Concentrix University, an online learning platform provided by the company. Scott did not disclose a salary range, saying pay varies by position.

While Concentrix maintains offices across the country, Scott said the Rio Rancho facility is one of just a few in the Southwest. The company doesnt disclose its clients, but Scott said the location has seen growth across various industries.

Clients like our Rio Rancho location, Scott said.

Anyone interested in learning more can call or text the company at 505-539-0452, or visit www.careers.concentrix.com.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Los Angeles police arrested a man accused in a 2017 shooting that left a 14-year-old dead and two others injured outside a Dions restaurant in Albuquerque.

Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said 32-year-old Derreck Flocco was arrested last week in the death of Martin Recio.

Gallegos said Flocco was a fugitive for more than two years until he was arrested by Los Angeles police the evening of June 24 or the morning of June 25.

Detectives traveled to Los Angeles to interview Flocco, he said. He faces charges in LA, but will eventually be extradited to Albuquerque to face charges for the 2017 homicide.

A warrant was issued for Floccos arrest in 2019 when he was charged with shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in death in the case.

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On July 21, 2017, Recio and two of his friends were shot in a Dions parking lot, near Gibson and University SE. Recio later died at a hospital.

According to court records, Flocco shot all three boys during a drug deal.

(Flocco) is known to be from California and has only very limited ties to New Mexico, a prosecutor wrote in 2019. The shooting occurred during an alleged drug transaction for which (Flocco) had traveled to New Mexico to oversee.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The State of New Mexico is taking over operations of the Santa Rosa prison following a historic drop in inmate populations across the state.

Spokesman Eric Harrison said the state Corrections Department has entered into a lease agreement to transition the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility to a publicly operated facility.

Its the second time the state has taken over operations of a private prison in the past two years.

The medium security prison in Santa Rosa, currently run by the GEO Group, is expected to be turned over to the state by November.

Although Harrison recently told the Journal there were no plans for the state to take over the facility, he said discussions between the state and GEO over the past few weeks led to the decision.

Things just changed by the day, Harrison said, calling the end result the best possible outcome for the state and inmate populations.

The decision comes amid a large decrease in prison population levels across New Mexico following a pandemic-related executive order to decrease inmate numbers by the hundreds.

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The Guadalupe County prison had operated at 42% capacity over the past few months, with 252 inmates at a prison that can hold 590. Private prison contractors such as GEO Group are typically paid based on the number of beds occupied at their facilities.

Harrison said the states mission remains the same in operating prisons despite the population size, while private prisons operate for profit.

Four of the 11 prisons in New Mexico, including the Guadalupe County facility, are privately run and hold 42% of the states inmate population.

The transition is the second in two years.

In 2019, the state took over operations of the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton, also formerly run by GEO group, after the corporation cited issues hiring and keeping staff at the rural prison.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The Santa Fe Police Department is hoping to lure officers from other agencies with generous signing bonuses, an effort aimed at combating understaffing in the department.

The department on Wednesday announced that it is offering a $15,000 signing bonus for lateral officer hires and a pay increase for current officers ranging from 1.2% to 6.06% depending on the officers rank.

City government gave the department $423,127 for the salary increases, which averages out to a 4% increase for each funded position, Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said.

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The city is offering the bonus and raise to help the agency stay competitive and to show appreciation to staff for the hard work theyve done during the pandemic, Valdez said. SFPD currently has 32 vacancies for uniformed officers. Fully staffed, the department would have 169 officers, meaning it is operating with a 19% shortage.

This will help on one hand with retaining our staff (and) on the other hand to also attract other candidates, whether it be entry-level employees or lateral police officers to come and join our team, Valdez said.

The bonuses for lateral hires  officers working in the state who already have their law enforcement license  will be covered through the cost savings on vacant positions, Valdez said. Officers will get $7,500 when theyre first hired and the rest of it after their one-year probationary period ends.

For fiscal year 2021, the department was able to hire 11 lateral police officers, which hasnt been possible in a decade. Valdez said lateral officers are a great benefit to the department because they bring experience with them and can hit the streets more quickly because they dont have to go through the training and certification process that police cadets do.

In 2018, SFPD lost 38 officers, including 10 to the Albuquerque Police Department, which was offering incentive bonuses to lateral recruits. Valdez said these initiatives aim to help prevent that from occurring again.

We lose out because (departing officers) have a lot of institutional knowledge, he said. Its hard to lose that many people in that short a period of time.

Since then, Valdez said the city has stepped up to help the department retain and grow its current staff.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  First, the apology, and its an effusive one, an earnest one in my opinion, and one that Geckos restaurateur Wally Minoli repeats again and again throughout our interview.

I was an idiot, he says. I made a mistake. I embarrassed myself. I am sorry.

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You may have seen what Minoli is sorry about. He posted a sign on the front door of his Nob Hill bar and restaurant about being short staffed and unable to serve food Saturday night.

Geckos is closing our kitchen tonight due to lack of staff, it read.

But he didnt stop there.

Special thank you to our Nazi in Santa Fe and our socialist in D.C. for trying to buy votes with extended benefits.

He might as well have lighted his restaurant on fire. A photo of the sign went viral on social media. People were livid, vowing never to set foot in his establishments again.

As a business owner you need to respect both political sides, one commenter wrote. They just offended at least 51% of Albuquerque! How idiotic!

Cant get away with slave wages anymore, Geckos, another person retorted.

And still another: The only thing shocking about this is that they managed to stay in business this long. Buh-bye.

Such signs are common these days at restaurants and other low-wage businesses coming out of the COVID-19 shutdown and unable to find enough staff to open fully.

The most polarizing signs accuse workers of being too lazy or too busy reaping the largesse of unemployment benefits. Sadly, due to government handouts no one wants to work anymore is a common refrain  never mind that what some of them offer a potential employee are low wages, crummy conditions, crummy customers, the continued threat of catching COVID-19 and little chance for advancement.

Employees are all working overtime every week to cover shifts because no one wants to work, a sign at Casa Taco reads. Kitchens are hot, hours are long, stress is high.

Well, gosh, who wouldnt want to work under those conditions?

Despite what his sign suggests, Minoli said he is a Libertarian and voted twice for Libertarian candidate (and former New Mexico Gov.) Gary Johnson for president. He voted for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and has contributed thousands of dollars to both her gubernatorial and congressional campaigns since 2008, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Recently, though, he became frustrated with comments attributed to Lujan Grisham and President Joe Biden indicating that the labor shortage was not the result of pandemic stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits. Minoli says his experience suggests that it is.

He says applicants for line cooks arent interested in the job. They submit applications online and then turn down the job, even before asking the salary and hours.

Theyre just applying as a requirement to keep their unemployment, he says.

The last two applicants who did show up for an interview said they would work if they were paid $15 an hour in cash under the table so they could still receive unemployment benefits, he says.

The second guy wanted to be paid daily in cash, he says.

He estimates that 95% of the negative comments hes received are not about the name-calling but about how much  or how little  he pays his line cooks.

They call me a cheapskate, he says. But I pay at or better than market rates.

He pays $13 an hour to start, more depending on experience, he says. A check of salary.com and Indeed, a job platform, where 140 openings for line cook jobs in Albuquerque are now listed, supports his claim.

Its above New Mexicos $10.50-an-hour minimum wage, below the so-called living wage of $15 an hour.

Minoli says he has never struggled this much to hire cooks since buying the Nob Hill Geckos in 2002 and adding the Academy site in 2006. Rarely, he says, have cooks left him to work at other restaurants  even upscale Scalo, next door in Nob Hill.

On Monday, Minoli issued a public apology on Facebook. It said, in part: Saturday night I made a very stupid decision and referred to our Governor as a Nazi and President Biden as a socialist. I am embarrassed that I made this statement. What happened to the Jews during the holocaust was reprehensible. It is not what I believe.

The staff at Geckos issued a lengthy response:

We, the workers of Geckos Bar and Tapas at Nob Hill, find Wallys statement posted on Saturday 6/26 to be unprofessional, unacceptable and offensive.  It is not our desire to at all defend or shelter Wally and we hope to use this as a learning experience to make our establishment more welcoming to all members of our community.

The employees also demanded that Minoli apologize directly to Lujan Grisham, the Jewish community and to them, saying that they have already been hurt personally and financially by his sign.

We ask the community to stand with the staff of Geckos as we decide what steps to take going forward, they said.

Minoli said he has sent a written apology via text to Lujan Grisham and a letter of apology to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque.

The governor responded early Wednesday, leaving a voicemail acknowledging that she had received his message and appreciated it. She also said she had some ideas going forward, left her work number and invited him to call her.

Minoli said the two communicated further and that the governor plans to visit his establishment at some point, and the two would talk further.

As for apologizing to his staff, he said he has begun to speak to each one individually and is setting up a meeting to speak to the Nob Hill staff as a whole. In addition, he is closing the Nob Hill location for a week to give staff time off  with pay  and away from the tumult. It will reopen Wednesday. The Academy location will remain open.

Two blocks east of Geckos in Nob Hill, The Farmacy restaurant also struggles to find enough line cooks. It offers a full-time annual salary of $26,000, slightly less than Geckos. On Monday, The Farmacy announced prices would be raised to pay staff more. Public response has been warm and approving.

Its easy to suggest that paying employees more will eradicate the labor shortage, but its a far more complex issue, and not every restaurant would survive an increase in prices.

Its also easy to boycott a restaurant, but its the employees who suffer the most.

The service industry is facing a reckoning, and in many ways, thats a good thing. For now, may I suggest we accept genuine apologies, tip well and remind restaurateurs that serving up a side of polarizing and demeaning politics leaves a very bad taste.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Reach Joline at 730-2793, jkrueger@abqjournal.com, Facebook or @jolinegkg on Twitter.
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The gorgeous vermilion flycatcher is one of my favorite birds and I never tire of looking at it.

This little 6-inch flycatcher is a showstopper. It has a brilliant red head and chest, with a dark back and dark eye stripe.

The vermilion flycatchers genus name is Pyrocephalus which translates to fire-headed. The female is not as showy and has more subtle coloration, including a cream-colored breast, light brown back and pinkish belly.

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This flycatcher is common throughout Central and South America, and its summer nesting range does enter parts of the southwestern U.S., including southern to central New Mexico.

One of the best places to view this attractive flycatcher is at Percha Dam and Caballo Lake state parks, south of Truth or Consequences.

I have seen the vermilion flycatcher as far north as Socorro.

The vermilion flycatcher prefers scrubby desert areas and grassy meadows with a mix of trees near streams or rivers. This desert riparian habitat provides the needed insects this flycatcher relies on.

All flycatchers, including the vermilion have extraordinary vision which enables them, while in flight, to track and grab fast-moving insects in mid-air. All birds process images more than twice as fast as humans, and flycatchers are the fastest processing of any birds tested.

Vermilion flycatchers sit on exposed branches and swoop out to grab insects in mid-air, often returning to the same perch to consume their prey. This behavior of returning to the same perch makes viewing flycatchers somewhat easier than many other birds.

The vermilion flycatchers foods include small flying insects, as well as larger prey like butterflies, honey bees, beetles and grasshoppers.

During spring and summer nesting season the male vermilion flycatcher puts on quite an elaborate flight display to attract the attention of a nearby female.

The male flaps its wings and glides up to 60-to-100-feet in the air while singing. During courtship the male will often bring a colorful insect, like a butterfly, as a gift to the female.

The male aggressively defends the nesting territory from other males and predators. Vermilion flycatchers nest up to 10,000 feet in elevation.

This flycatcher depends on somewhat fragile desert riparian habitat for its survival. Human development, which includes water use, can negatively affect this type of habitat. Fortunately, the vermilion flycatcher is common in its range and currently has a stable population.

Mary Schmauss is the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Albuquerque. A lifelong birder and author of For the Birds: A Month-by-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to your Backyard.
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JINGGANGSHAN, China  Backs straight, heads high, three dozen Communist Party members in red neckties who hope for leadership posts belt out a poem by revolutionary leader Mao Zedong at a historic mountainside battle site in central China.

We stay upright even as were surrounded by countless enemy forces! declare the men and women, who are on a two-week course at the China Executive Leadership Academy. Together, we will defeat the enemy!

As the party celebrates the 100th anniversary of its 1921 founding, training centers such as the one in Jinggangshan play a key role in efforts by President Xi Jinpings government to extend its control over a changing society.

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Drawn from among its 95 million members, ambitious people at state companies and government offices are schooled in an idealized version of the partys early revolutionary fervor before Maos guerrillas fought their way to national power in 1949.

Zhou Xiaojing, who works at a political training center for the Chinese central bank in the central city of Zhengzhou, described Jinggangshan as a spiritual shock and a kind of baptism.

When I came here, I felt that my belief as a member of the Communist Party has become firmer, said Zhou, 49 and a party member since 2009. Their education of party spirit, theory and ability are thirst-quenching.

Trainees say they want to serve the public, but people who are picked for higher party posts also receive benefits including more influence and quicker promotions at state companies, universities and government ministries.

Party schools are meant to promote the faithful and ensure they ask no questions about the top leadership and party ideology, said Willy Lam, a politics specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Xi, who took power as the Communist Partys general secretary in 2012, launched a campaign in February to increase teaching of party history.

That official history skips over a 1959-61 famine caused by Maos policies that killed as many as 50 million people, the millions killed in the ultra-radical violence of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution launched by Mao and the deadly 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests under then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping.

It is silent on power struggles among party leaders and complaints of rampant corruption and other abuses.

Xi hopes the party can preserve the myth that it has always been correct and brilliant in promoting Chinas position in the world, Lam said.

The campus in Jinggangshan, an early site where Maos army developed, is one of three nationwide for the Leadership Academy, which caters to high-ranking professionals and party officials. The China Daily newspaper said in 2016 that the party has a total of 2,900 training centers nationwide at different levels of government, ranging from county to provincial.

The 44-acre (18-hectare) campus in the mountains of Jiangxi province has dormitories and an auditorium, library and cafeteria.

Participants in the two-week Jinggangshan Spirit course spend 6 1/2 hours a day in class starting at 8:30 a.m., with occasional evening events.

Students took a field trip to Huangyangjie, where Maos guerrillas fought off enemy forces on Aug. 30, 1928. According to party history, the Communists were outnumbered but repelled the attack.

Mao heard about the victory on his way to Jinggangshan and celebrated by writing the poem recited by the students.

This spirit of sacrifice and dedication for the party and the people is very remarkable and profound, said another trainee, Wei Yanju, deputy chairwoman of the Womens Federation in the eastern province of Shandong.

I hope everyone can come to understand China and see how superior and great China is, she said.

Party members are required to take at least 32 sessions of training per year. Some leadership posts require 56 sessions.

Party officials know that being sent to certain select classes at a party school may indicate a bright future for them in the party, said Charlotte Lee, author of the book Training the Party: Party Adaptation and Elite Training in Reform-era China.

They have to demonstrate loyalty and certain skills in return, said Lee, who teaches at Berkeley City College.

Yao Yuzhen, an instructor at the school whose grandfather was a Red Army soldier, conceded that while promotions are not guaranteed, students will make better progress after the course.

Thats for sure, she said with a chuckle.

Foreign reporters were invited on a tour of the Jinggangshan campus ahead of the partys anniversary festivities this week.

Photos of Xi were shown at the front of a lecture hall as an instructor introduced Xis speeches and highlighted the importance of party spirit and history.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out clearly in his speech that the 100 years of our party is the 100 years when we were committed to fulfilling the original mission, said Prof. Chen Shenghua, head of the academys party history education research center.

Studying party history is the obligation of every party member, cadre, mass and youth, he said.

The primary political task for party members is to study and implement Xi Jinpings thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, according to the training plan for party members.

A plan for higher-level members requires that Xi Jinping Thought be the main focus of teachings, and that theoretical and party spirit account for at least 70% of class hours.

The Jinggangshan curriculum focuses on the partys early days in 1927-35 and Maos battles with the Nationalist government.

Lectures jump over the following decades to modern successes in fighting poverty and the coronavirus.

Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, we mobilized the whole country, said the instructor, Liu Qiufu, and we won the war against the epidemic.
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BEIJING  Cannons roared, bands played and fighter jets soared overhead as thousands of carefully selected participants gathered in Beijings iconic Tiananmen Square Thursday for a ceremony marking the centenary of the ruling Communist Party.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong held its own annual commemorations of its 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule, given added significance this year by the party centenary and the arrests of political activists and journalists following Beijings imposition of a sweeping national security law on the city last year.

Chinese President and party leader Xi Jinping delivered a lengthy address to the Beijing crowd from atop Tiananmen Gate, where Mao Zedong declared the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949, praising the partys successes and warning of dire consequences for any foreign force that sought to bully, oppress or enslave the country.

Dressed in a grey, high-buttoned suit of the type worn by Mao, Xi didnt identify whom he was referring to, but the party centenary comes amid rising tensions with the U.S., Britain, the European Union and Chinas Asian neighbors with whom it has territorial disputes.

Xi also called for further development of Chinas military, the worlds largest, and reiterated Beijings determination to bring self-governed Taiwan under its control, receiving extended applause from the soldiers, officials, military musicians and others seated on the vast square.

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Celebrations in Hong Kong were more muted, although city officials ensured that Chinese national flags were on display and the logo of the centenary celebration was plastered on buses and trams.

While the territorys leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, attended the festivities in Beijing, her deputy, Chief Secretary John Lee, said the national security law stipulates that human rights be respected and allows residents to enjoy freedom of the press and free assembly  despite a ban on large-scale protests, the arrest of political critics and the closure of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily after journalists and executives were detained and funds frozen.

On Thursday morning, a group of four activists marched through city streets calling for the release of people imprisoned for involvement in opposition politics.

Police sealed off Victoria Park  until recently the site of annual pro-democracy rallies marking the 1997 handover  and put up flags warning people that they could be prosecuted if they enter or remain in the enclosed area.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Detectives have arrested an 18-year-old accused of fatally shooting a man outside a motel in Southeast Albuquerque in March.

Yonnis Abreu is charged with an open count of murder in the March 23 death of Dylon Spiess, 29. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center early Thursday morning.

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It is unclear if he has an attorney.

So far, Albuquerque police have made 18 arrests in 65 homicides that have taken place so far in 2021.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

Officers responded around 4 p.m. to a shooting at the American Inn and Suites on Central, near Louisiana. They found Spiess fatally shot on a second-floor walkway. He died at a hospital.

The manager told police he heard a gunshot and found Spiess on the ground, but cameras may have captured the incident. Surveillance footage showed a man with distinctive tattoos and dyed blond hair running from the scene with a gun.

Detectives found a man matching the description of the suspect in Facebook photos of one of the hotel guests and traced it to Abreus profile. Then, during a separate homicide investigation at the hotel, police found a phone with a selfie of the suspect in its camera roll.

On June 30, the detective was conducting a separate investigation when he saw Abreu outside the Rags to Riches Smoke Shop, near Central and Wyoming. Abreu agreed to speak with police, through a translator, and told them he had been staying with a friend at the American Inn and Suites.

When confronted with the photo from the surveillance camera, Abreu denied being involved.

(Abreu) began to cry and became visibly upset as he was presented photos of him and his distinct tattoos and hair that matches the photo from the homicide investigation, the detective wrote.

The officers told Abreu they knew it was him and wanted to know what happened, and Abreu requested a lawyer.

Prosecutors filed a motion to detain Abreu until trial, saying he had no regard for the safety of the victim when he pointed a gun at him and shot him.

No one in our community should live in fear of coming into contact with a suspected killer, the motion states.
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TUCSON, Ariz.  Pima County Constable Oscar Vasquez has been suspended for nearly six months for allegedly refusing to serve an eviction while waiting for the tenant to find another housing option.

Vasquez serves eviction papers and other legal summons in Justice Precinct 4.

The Arizona Daily Star reported that the state ethics board that oversees constables performance asked Vasquez to resign from his position while asking the county Board of Supervisors to suspend him 180 days without pay.

Supervisors voted 3-2 last week to suspend Vasquez, according to the Star.

The Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board voted unanimously to urge Vasquez to resign from his elected position.

Vasquez wrote in response to the complaint that he has never nor will not put an evicted Pima County resident in a worse situation by making them homeless due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and housing crisis, adding that it is morally wrong and unjust.

The Star reported that the ethics board found Vasquez deliberately disobeyed a lawful order by delaying a writ of restitution for five days without a Centers for Disease Control declaration protecting the tenant from eviction.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  A historical plaque memorializing the dozens of Native American children who died while attending a boarding school in New Mexico more than a century ago has gone missing, sparking concern among Indigenous activists.

Members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women are among those pushing the city of Albuquerque to investigate. The small plaque was in a park near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the original site of the Albuquerque Indian School.

The plaque noted the site of a burial ground for students who attended the school between 1882 and 1933. They included children from the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and Apache tribes.

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The removal of the plaque comes as the U.S. government embarks on a nationwide investigation aimed at uncovering the troubling history of boarding schools that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the massive undertaking last month while addressing tribal leaders from across the nation.

Advocacy groups have praised the effort as a first step toward acknowledging what many have referred to as a dark history.

Coalition member Jovita Belgarde  who is Isleta, Ohkay Owingeh and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa  said the discovery of the missing plaque added insult to injury. Many Indigenous families have been reeling since hearing about the bodies of hundreds of children being uncovered at the sites of boarding schools in Canada. The launch of the Interior Departments investigation also has stirred unresolved feelings in the U.S.

Belgarde sees the recent taking of the plaque as a continuation of efforts to silence Indigenous voices and perpetuation of violence against Indigenous people.

These atrocities  people talk about them like theyre in the past. These are not the distant past, she told The Associated Press. These actions left deep scars for many of our elders, our families, our friends  and many people have not had any support to heal that trauma and have had to live with this pain and silence for generations.

Albuquerque officials said Thursday they are working with tribal leaders, historical experts and others to determine the next steps with regard to the missing plaque. They also noted that a public art piece and a second plaque that references the history of the site are still at the park.

As we continue to work with the respective leaders on this issue, we urge the public to respect the cultural and spiritual significance of this site, city parks director Dave Simon said in a statement.

With more light being shined on past boarding school policies, tribal governors from around New Mexico have advocated for accountability and justice.

All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Wilfred Herrera Jr., who is from Laguna Pueblo, said recounting what Pueblo parents and children experienced has been painful.

While some of our children endured years of abuse for speaking our languages, practicing our cultures, and maintaining our traditions, the unbearable truth is that many of our young never returned to their Pueblo homelands, ever, he said in a statement.

The Albuquerque Indian School was started in 1881 by the Presbyterian Church. It came under federal control a few years later and was among hundreds of known boarding schools across the country. The school closed in the 1980s, and the property was put into trust for New Mexicos 19 pueblos. The buildings eventually were torn down, and a tribal development corporation is working to make it a commercial hub.

Aside from determining the fate of the missing plaque, Belgarde said advocates want an investigation into the site overall in hopes of turning up more information about exactly how many children might have been buried there. She said the site demands more reverence, and city officials need to be transparent about how they proceed.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Health Secretary Tracie Collins  a key figure in New Mexicos response to the pandemic  plans to leave the governors Cabinet later this month and return to the University of New Mexico.

Collins, a physician, took over the Department of Health in December and led the agency as it oversaw the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

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She accepted the state job with the understanding that she might return to academia after overseeing the vaccinations, according to a statement by the Governors Office. Her tenure coincided with a critical period in the pandemic, taking over as New Mexico faced then-record highs in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Collins departure this month comes after recent turnover in the leadership of the departments of Workforce Solutions and General Services.

Information Technology Secretary John Salazar also plans to retire July 30, citing family health concerns.

Altogether, nearly half of the Cabinet-level department jobs have changed hands since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took office in 2019. Eleven departments have had different leaders, and 12 have had the same secretary.

Collins said she was grateful to her colleagues in the Department of Health and to Lujan Grisham for her faith in her skills.

Im proud of the work weve done to protect New Mexicans, Collins said, especially with our emphasis on equity and reaching underserved populations.

David Scrase, secretary of the Human Services Department, which runs the Medicaid program, will take over the Department of Health on top of his other duties. It will be a temporary assignment.

Scrase is a physician who has helped shaped New Mexicos response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lujan Grisham has called him New Mexicos own Dr. Fauci, a reference to Anthony Fauci, who has served as an adviser to then-President Donald Trump and now President Joe Biden.

I ask a lot of Dr. Scrase, and that wont stop any time soon, Lujan Grisham said in a news release. Throughout the pandemic, he has shown his quality day-in, day-out, as a leader who gets the most out of people and as someone who digs into the data and helps us find the right answers.

Before joining the state Department of Health, Collins served as dean of UNMs College of Population Health.

As health secretary, Collins makes about $156,000 a year  the standard amount that most Cabinet secretaries get. She is set to step down at the end of July.

In an interview, Rep. Christine Trujillo, an Albuquerque Democrat and chairwoman of the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee, said she heard nothing but good things about Collins work as a Cabinet secretary.

Trujillo said she was surprised to hear Collins will leave but that turnover in highly scrutinized Cabinet jobs is to be expected.

I think its par for the course, she said of the changes.
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Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Sir Richard Branson plans to fly to space aboard Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo Unity on July 11  beating out Amazons Jeff Bezos, if weather and technical checks go as planned.

Virgin Galactic announced the new flight  the ships fourth rocket-powered spaceflight with a crew onboard  Thursday afternoon in a press release.

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It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the companys founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience, the release said.

Unity will launch from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico while attached to the underbelly of mothership VMS Eve. Eve will fly to about 50,000 feet, at which point the rocket will break away and fire up its motors to shoot into space at 50 miles up.

Passengers will float for a few minutes in microgravity and view the Earths curvature before gliding back to Spaceport America.

Speculation around a specific launch date has run rampant since Virgin Galactic successfully launched Unity into space in a test flight from the Spaceport on May 22.

That milestone put the companys space program back on track after a failed attempt to reach space in December.

After Bezos previously announced plans to fly to space July 20 aboard Blue Origins New Shepard rocket from West Texas, media outlets suggested that Branson could look to launch ahead of that planned flight, potentially as soon as the July 4 weekend, according to previous Journal reporting. The company had denied those reports.

Virgin Galactics stock price, which was just over $43 per share at the close of markets, spiked to over $52 per share in after-hours trading at about 5 p.m.

Virgin Galactics flight will allow the company to evaluate the commercial customer cabin with a full crew. The company intends to look at factors like seat comfort, the weightless experience and views of Earth, among other objectives, according to the release.

Three mission specialists will accompany Branson: chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations, according to the release. The pilots will be Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci flying Unity, and CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer flying Eve.

Additionally, the flight will be livestreamed to a global audience through Virgin Galactics website, along with the companys channels on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Several New Mexico officials praised the announcement.

In a prepared statement, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state is excited to share this moment with the world.

New Mexico has always been a hub for exploration, and the dawn of space tourism is happening right here, Lujan Grisham said.

New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes described the launch as a huge moment for Spaceport America and New Mexico.

By investing in the aerospace industry, New Mexico continues to demonstrate its commitment to diversifying its economy, Keyes said.

Scott McLaughlin, executive director of Spaceport America, told the Journal that it has been a challenging path to get to this point, but said the states hard work is paying off.

The people of New Mexico own Spaceport America, and I think they should be very proud, McLaughlin said.
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The former Disney actor has threatened his accuser with legal action as he is facing a felony charge for alleged inappropriate communication with a minor.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - An attorney for former child star Kyle Massey is threatening legal action against the girl at the centre of his sexual communication scandal.

Police in Washington filed a charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes against the ex-Disney actor, amid claims suggesting he sent an unnamed female inappropriate text messages, videos, and images of his erect penis vis Snapchat between December 2018 and January 2019.

The purported victim was just 13 at the time, and originally sued Massey in March, 2019, seeking $1.5 million (1 million) in a civil suit, which she subsequently abandoned in favour of taking her complaint to authorities.

Massey denied any misconduct following the initial news of the lawsuit, claiming he was being extorted, and he is again fighting the accusations via his attorney, Lee A. Hutton.

The representative explains his client was a no-show for Monday's (28Jun21) arraignment hearing because he was not properly notified of the charge, which he only learned about through media coverage, and insists Massey is only being targetted by the teen out of revenge for her failed civil suit.

In a statement issued to TMZ, Hutton writes, "(Massey) intends to aggressively defend these accusations again and will seek civil damages from those that refuse to hear the facts."

He adds, "We plan to seek an early dismissal (of the charge), finally putting this bad behavior to rest."

Despite Massey's denial of any wrongdoing, the scandal has already cost him one endorsement deal - bosses at vaping company Dr. Dabber have decided to cut ties with the former "That's So Raven" star, just weeks after recruiting him as a brand ambassador on a trial basis.
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The women, who accused the 'Cosby Show' actor of sexual assault, have voiced concerns over the decision by Philadelphia Supreme Court to overturn the guilty verdict.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - Pennsylvania prosecutors are adamant Bill Cosby isn't really exonerated just because his sexual assault conviction was overturned on a legal technicality.

"The Cosby Show" star was officially released from prison on Wednesday afternoon (30Jun21), hours after judges at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out the funnyman's 2018 conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University staff member Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

They agreed with allegations suggesting his trial was unfair because five accusers were allowed to give "decades-old" testimony that prejudiced the jury against the actor, who has always protested his innocence.

Judges also claimed authorities had reneged on a deal offered to Cosby by a former prosecutor, who declined to originally file charges regarding the Constand case and allowed him to speak freely in a deposition for an old civil suit, which was subsequently used as evidence against the comedian.

However, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele insists Cosby's release doesn't change his guilt.

He states, "The majority decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court orders the release of William H. Cosby Jr. from state prison. He was found guilty by a jury and now goes free on a procedural issue that is irrelevant to the facts of the crime."

"I want to commend Cosby's victim Andrea Constand for her bravery in coming forward and remaining steadfast throughout this long ordeal, as well as all of the other women who have shared similar experiences," Steele continues.

"My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims.

"Prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads. We still believe that no one is above the law - including those who are rich, famous and powerful."

Meanwhile, some of Cosby's alleged victims have voiced their concerns about allowing the actor to simply walk free, weeks after he was denied parole, partly due to a lack of remorse for his crimes.

Sammie Mays, who accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in the 1980s, has blasted the ruling as "disrespectful and despicable" for Constand, while Angela Leslie tells TMZ, "I'm surprised and shocked with today's news of Cosby's release. It seems the justice system served the criminal, in this case, as opposed to the victims."

And former model Beth Ferrier, who was allegedly raped by Cosby in 1984, is equally as disgusted over the overturned conviction.

"It's bulls**t! I think it's all bulls**t," she told the New York Post. "It's money and power. He's so guilty of what he did. It doesn't matter, and it sets a precedent. It's not OK... I'm floored by it. He's guilty. We got him in prison."

Ferrier is concerned Cosby will now try to cash in on his release, fuming, "What will we get from it? He took everything from us. I'm anxious to see what comes of this. He is guilty, I lived through it."
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After the comedian got arrested for allegedly assaulting Lucas Crawford with a metal chair, his representative accuses his former partner of manipulating and dominating their relationship.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - Funnyman Andy Dick is pleading self-defence over allegations he attacked an ex-lover.

The comedian, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting former boyfriend Lucas Crawford with a metal chair on Saturday, June 26, has been released from custody on bail, and now claims he was the victim and his ex broke his leg.

Dick's representative told Page Six, "Lucas came to Andy's apartment that day already in a bad mood. They were play fighting and razzing each other and Andy says next thing he knew, things turned serious for Lucas."

The actor adds Crawford "body-slammed" his leg, and he threw the chair in an effort to get away.

"My femur got broken and my ankle got shattered and the tendons and ligaments on the other side are ripped off the bone," Andy says. "I was limping and it hurt and then we got into another fight and I threw a chair. He just has a little cut. I am in a cast. We wrestled and... he's just too strong."

His rep adds, "Andy didn't want to report Lucas. As a friend, he's tried to help Lucas on several occasions, including giving him money and a place to crash when he's needed it. Lucas is obviously an individual who has manipulated and dominated his relationship with Andy."

Dick is also upset that news of his arrest was leaked by his fiancee, Elisa Jordana, on her YouTube show, "Kermit and Friends", on Tuesday, June 29.

"He could have killed him," she said of Crawford, revealing that there were signs that something was about to go wrong in her troubled fiance's life.

"It was getting worse and worse and worse," she added. "Every day there was some kind of problem. There are warning signs with people. It doesn't happen out of the blue. When I heard he was in jail, I wasn't that surprised."

Dick has had countless run-ins with Los Angeles police and in 2019 he was sentenced to 14 days behind bars for sexual battery after assaulting a woman.

The year before, he pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor sexual battery for allegedly groping his male Uber driver. Also in 2018, Dick's estranged wife was granted a domestic violence restraining order against her husband. He was required to move out of the family home and stay away from her and their children.
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Among celebrities calling out the Clair Huxtable depicter on 'The Cosby Show' are William Baldwin, author Julie Klausner and broadcaster Gretchen Carlson.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - Phylicia Rashad has addressed backlash over her support for Bill Cosby. Hours after she celebrated her former "The Cosby Show" co-star's prison release, the Clair Huxtable depicter on the sitcom insisted that she didn't mean to be "insensitive."

The 73-year-old offered her clarification via Twitter on Wednesday, June 30. "I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing," she stated.

Phylicia Rashad addressed backlash over her support for Bill Cosby.

Phylicia's post came just hours after she expressed her joy about Bill's release from jail. She tweeted, "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"

Many of the actress' famous pals, however, condemned her support for the 83-year-old comedian. One in particular was William Baldwin who wrote, "The bye Phylicia to end all bye Phylicia's." The "Difficult People" creator and former star Julie Klausner questioned, "why phylicia."

Also criticizing Phylicia was broadcaster Gretchen Carlson. The latter complained, "Phylicia! #BillCosby being released from prison on a technicality is a complete miscarriage of justice & will never be an exoneration for the brutal crimes he committed against women. The world is now woke & women will no longer be silenced. You should be ashamed of yourself."

William Baldwin, Julie Klausner and Gretchen Carlson slammed Phylicia Rashad for supporting Bill Cosby.

Other celebrities also slammed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision for vacating Bill's 2018 rape conviction. "I know many young women and men who are so Afraid to press charges against their rapist and Re traumatize themselves I am heartbroken today to hear of the news of Cosby's release .this is sickening. My heart is with my sister survivors. We have work to do," Rosanna Arquete raged on Twitter.

Debra Messing, meanwhile, noted on her own page, "To every woman who was sexual assaulted by #BillCosby my heart hurts for you today and I am full fury. It's horrifying." Padma Lakshmi argued, "Cosby drugged and raped 60 women. Do they not deserve 'fairness' and justice?"

Rosanna Arquete, Debra Messing and Padma Lakshmi condemned court's decision for vacating Bill Cosby's 2018 rape conviction.

"This is why people don't come forward," the author further fumed. "This is why urging people to 'press charges' falls short, as long as wealthy & powerful men can rape & sexually assault people for decades with impunity #MeToo."
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In the viral clip, the 29-year-old Australian model shows off one of its bra that she modeled to share how she was left with no other choice than being underweight.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - Former Victoria's Secret model Bridget Malcolm criticized the brand in a scathing TikTok video, which has gone viral. In the clip, she showed off one of its bra that she modeled back in 2016 to share how she was left with no other choice than being underweight.

"I found my bra from the 2016 Victoria's Secret fashion show. It is a size 30A, I am now a size 34B which is healthy for me," the 29-year-old said the in the clip. She then put the bra on before demonstrating how it looked too small for her now-healthy body.

Bridget then showed some pictures of her wearing the 30A bra while participating in the fashion show. "Look how big it was on me, the sadness behind my eyes from the 2016 show breaks my heart," she went on to say.

Elsewhere in the video, she accused Ed Razek, the former chief marketing officer for L Brands, rejected her from a 2017 fashion show due to her body. "I was rejected from the show in 2017 by [former VS CMO] Ed Razek. He said, 'My body did not look good enough,' " she recalled.

Concluding the video, Bridget added, "Victorias Secret your performative allyship is a joke."

In response to the model's scathing video, the company said in a statement, "There is a new leadership team at Victoria's Secret who is fully committed to the continued transformation of the brand with a focus on creating an inclusive environment for our associates, customers and partners to celebrate, uplift and champion all women."

This is not the first time for Bridget to speak out against Victoria's Secret. Back in 2018, the Australian beauty claimed that Malcolm first spoke out about Victorias Secret and the modeling industry in a 2018 interview with Harper's Bazaar that she had eating disorder that "left her with a ruined digestive system and chronic anxiety" because of her time as a model for the brand.

Her TikTok video arrives after Victoria's Secret announced its brand makeover with two new initiatives, The VS Collective and The Victoria's Secret Global Fund for Women's Cancers. The lingerie retailer's VS Collective features Priyanka Chopra, Megan Rapinoe and many other "accomplished women who share a common passion to drive positive change," Victoria's Secret announced in a press release.
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The 44-year-old wrestling star and actor has been known to not wanting kids as it was the biggest reason why he and ex-fiancee Nikki Bella split after six years of being together.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - It seems like John Cena is changing his mind when it comes to having children. The "Fast & Furious 9" star talked about being open to having children after his marriage to wife Shay Shariatzadeh in a new interview with The Sun.

The 44-year-old former athlete mentioned to the news outlet that he realized that he's getting older and being a parent is inevitable. "I'm a little bit older, a bit wiser. I'm realizing there is life and life exists and it's beautiful - and I think part of that is being a parent, so we'll see," so he shared.

Cena and Shay tied the knot in 2020 after several months of dating. The pair first met in her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia while working on the film "Playing With Fire". They then were spotted out-and-about in Vancouver holding hands and having an outdoor dinner date before making their red carpet debut in October 2019.

It's reported that the pair had secretly tied the knot in a private ceremony in Tampa on October 12, 2020. John has not confirmed the secret nuptials reports. He, however, seemed to hint at his newlywed status as he shared a cryptic quote on Twitter on Monday, " 'I will be happy if I only get (x).' This is a great way to mold an entire life spent chasing happiness and never finding joy."

The wrestling star was known to not wanting kids as it was the biggest reason why he and ex-fiancee Nikki Bella split. Sharing in an episode of "Total Bellas", Nikkie said that she didn't want to "force" him into having kids.

Nikki went on to say in an interview with PEOPLE, "Even in the end when he was willing to give me kids, I could just tell, it's not what we wanted," she reflected in an interview with People. Nikki and John decided to end their one-year engagement after being together for six years.
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Aside from talking about the missed opportunity, the actor husband of Barbra Streisand gets candid about the reason why he also turned down the chance to play Superman.

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - James Brolin missed out on playing James Bond when Roger Moore signed on to portray 007 in one more film.

The TV and movie veteran had nailed the role and was actually preparing to play Bond in Britain when Moore announced he wanted to make another film.

"[Bond boss] Cubby Broccoli hired me... We spent time together because Roger Moore was gonna quit to be a movie star," Brolin tells Access Daily. "At the last minute, he said, 'No, I'll do one more!' By then, I was back getting all my stuff together... I had my flat in London."

Timothy Dalton eventually replaced Moore as 007.

Brolin also turned down the chance to play Superman, because he didn't like the idea of parading around in tights all day. "What are they, red and blue, and you're hanging up there on a wire...? Get me down," he adds.

It was not the first time Brolin talked about losing Bond role to Moore. In a previous interview with Parade magazine, he recalled, "What happened is that Roger Moore said he'd never do another Bond movie. So the producers asked me to go to London and start working out and do a screen test."

"It all went well and I was ready. Two weeks later, Roger agreed to go back. But it didn't take me a long time to get over it because the whole thing was absurdly wonderful," the actor husband of Barbra Streisand went on to explain why he did not regret it. "I look at it as a gift."
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Confirming that she once dated the 'Million Dollar Listing New York' star, the 'Real Housewives of New York City' regular reveals that her hookup with him occurred at a 'humanity event.'

Jul 1, 2021

AceShowbiz - Sonja Morgan has revealed that she once dated Ryan Serhant. When recalling her past romance with the "Million Dollar Listing New York" star, "The Real Housewives of New York City" regular jokingly said that "he was a newbie" back then.

The 57-year-old made the revelation when appearing in the Tuesday, June 29 episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" along with her co-star Leah McSweeney."I dated Ryan before he got married," she said to a clearly shocked Andy and Leah.

Sonja went on to spill that her hookup with the real estate broker occurred at some kind of "humanity event." She then quipped, "So I felt I needed to kiss him to be a humane person."

"We did a few things else, afterward. We went on other dates," the TV personality further divulged. "He was a newbie. He didn't know how dangerous it was."

Sonja once confirmed that she was dating Ryan when speaking to the website Rumor Fix in February 2012. "He's adorable! I'm very excited about getting to know him better and spending more time with him," she said, according to E! News. "Who wouldn't? But I want to take things slowly."

While it remains unclear how long Sonja and Ryan had been together, the 36-year-old hunk married Emilia Bechrakis in July 2016 in the island of Corfu in Greece. The couple now shares 2-year-old daughter named Zena.

As for Sonja, she was married to John Adams Morgan from 1998 to 2006. When talking about her ex in a June episode of "RHONY", she said, "I lost my best friend and a wonderful marriage. Is he dead? No. But for all intents and purposes, for me, he's gone."

"I had to make a choice for my daughter and I feel so bad," the reality star continued. "Maybe I should have stayed with him and made sure she had everything she needed and got more time with me."
With the Delta variant accounting for more than a quarter of Covid-19 cases, there could soon be "two Americas" -- one where most people are vaccinated and another where low vaccination rates could lead to case spikes, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned.

The stark disparity between places with low and high vaccination rates is something Fauci is "very concerned about," he told CNN on Tuesday.

"When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions -- be that states, cities or counties -- you're going to see these individual types of blips," he said. "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."

But spikes in coronavirus cases are "entirely avoidable, entirely preventable" with vaccination, said Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci's remarks come as the Delta variant, which is more contagious and aggressive, has reached nearly every state and accounted for 26.1% of US Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I'm concerned about the Delta variant," US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN on Wednesday. "And I am worried that what we are seeing in terms of a plateauing of cases nationally but also an increase in cases in many small sections of the United States, that that is, in fact, being driven by the Delta variant."

There is still a lot of virus circulating in the US, and close to 300 people -- "just far too many" -- are still dying daily from the coronavirus, Murthy said, citing data from recent weeks.

"This is not over, and the virus wins when we let our guard down, when we take our eye off the ball," he said. "We've seen many times that it's fooled us in the past. We've got to stay vigilant, got to get vaccinated, we've got to talk to other people about getting vaccinated."

Indeed, the rise and spread of more transmissible coronavirus variants are changing the equation for achieving herd immunity -- the point at which enough people are protected against a virus to suppress its spread -- a coronavirus specialist told CNN on Tuesday.

"Every time a virus gets better at transmitting, the number of people that have to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity increases," said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is studying the coronavirus.

"Certainly, we are not out of the woods yet because we haven't had a vaccination rate where we get those herd immunity effects."

Places with low vaccination rates are especially vulnerable to the Delta variant, experts have said.

In Mississippi, where just 29.7% of the population is fully vaccinated, unvaccinated people have accounted for more than 90% of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the past month, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer for the Mississippi Department of Public Health.

Mississippi joins Alabama, Arkansas, Wyoming, and Louisiana in having less than 35% of residents fully vaccinated.

Mask guidance stays the same in most places

Even as the Delta variant spreads, most mask guidance and policies don't appear poised to change.

"For now, the CDC recommendations stand that if in fact you are vaccinated -- fully vaccinated -- you are protected, and you do not need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors," Fauci said.

Policies around masks on planes and public transport aren't expected to change soon, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"Vaccinated people can take off their masks and celebrate July Fourth and feel safe in doing so, see each other smile again," she added. "And then we're really going to have to continue the hard work that we are doing to get people vaccinated and for those who are not to continue to protect them with mask wearing and distancing because of this Delta variant."

Children under 12 -- who aren't yet eligible for coronavirus vaccines -- should continue to wear masks indoors until the Delta variant is under control in the US, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Wednesday.

Local differences in where the variant has spread means parents need to fully understand the risk in their area, he added.

"A lot of it has to do with where you are," Hotez said. "If you're in the Northeast, where transmission is really low, then your kids are a lot safer than in parts of the south-central US right now, where the epidemic is really taking off, that one-two punch of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates."

Regardless of age or vaccination status, Los Angeles County has brought back its voluntary guidance to wear masks until health officials can "better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spreading," the county's department of public health said.

And while nearly all the staff at Johns Hopkins' public health school in Baltimore are vaccinated against Covid-19, they are still wearing masks to work, Pekosz told CNN.

"We still have a masking policy here, particularly in group situations," he said. "This pandemic isn't over yet."

Los Angeles County appears to be the only county so far to recommend wearing masks in response to the spread of the Delta variant, the National Association of County and City Health Officials told CNN on Tuesday. But health officials are continuing to monitor the spread of the variant in the US, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, the group's chief executive officer.

Nationally, the number of people practicing safety measures, such as social distancing and masking, continues to decrease, even as 84% of Americans have heard of the Delta variant, a poll published Tuesday by Axios-Ipsos showed. The poll, conducted Friday through Monday, comprised of a nationally representative sample of 1,106 adults.

Meantime, most adults who plan to get the Covid-19 vaccine have already done so, another poll shows.

A Kaiser Family Foundation report released Wednesday shows 65% of adults polled have received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from 62% in May. Only 3% of those who haven't been vaccinated said they plan to do so as soon as they can. About 14% said they will definitely not get vaccinated.

In the long term, the cost of the pandemic is not just lives lost but also the mental health and well-being of people across the country, Murthy told CNN on Wednesday.

"We have a long way to go to recover from this pandemic," he said. "We can only do it together, but it starts with us getting vaccinated."

Covid-19 cases among children are dropping

While children under 12 aren't yet eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, but there is some good news about declining cases.

More than 8,400 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in children last week, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' weekly report, the lowest weekly number of cases since May 2020.

Children represented about 10% of reported Covid-19 cases last week. More than 4.03 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.

The decline in cases among children comes as the new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates Covid-19 vaccination rates among children ages 12 to 17 years are rising. About 34% of parents said their eligible children have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, up from 24% in May. About 8% said they plan to get their 12- to 17-year-old children vaccinated right away.

Vaccines protect against Delta variant, experts say

As variants spread, health experts are urging people to get fully vaccinated so they can have maximum protection.

Two weeks after the second dose, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 88% effective against symptomatic infections caused by the Delta variant, Fauci has said. Those who received only one dose have less protection.

Moderna's vaccine was found in lab experiments to work against new variants including the Delta strain, the company said Tuesday. Serum samples from people who received two shots of the Moderna vaccine showed neutralizing activity against the variants, Moderna said in a pre-print study that hasn't yet been peer-reviewed.

As for the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, it's "highly likely" it can protect against the Delta variant, though it hasn't been proven through research yet, Fauci said.

Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which uses the same platform as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are about 88% effective against the Delta variant, and "you can make the reasonable assumption" the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be "just as good," Fauci said.

As of Tuesday, 46.4% of the US population was fully vaccinated, CDC data showed. Sixteen states have fully vaccinated more than half of their population. And 16 states have reached President Joe Biden's goal to vaccinate 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin judge says a woman convicted of stabbing her classmate to please the Slender Man character in 2014 can be released from a mental health facility.

Nineteen-year-old Anissa Weier asked Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren to release her from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, arguing she was no longer a threat to anyone.

Bohren agreed during a hearing Thursday and ordered her release, pending preparation of a release plan. He gave state officials 60 days to draw up the plan. Weier will be held at the facility at least until a Sept. 10 hearing.
REDDING, Calif. - Firefighters are urging extra caution ahead of the 4th of July weekend as extremely dry conditions pose a fire danger.

Well you immediately have PTSD from previous fires and think Oh no, here you go again, but it was small and there was a lot of dry grass just like this year and it doesnt take much, Redding resident Karen Lawrence said.

With wildfire season and dry conditions present, the Redding Fire Department is urging the public to avoid illegal firework activity.

Go down to the civic center and watch the fireworks show. It's controlled and you dont need to take any chances, Lawrence said.

The Redding Fire Department said that they will have additional staff for the 4th of July weekend and that law enforcement will be patrolling for illegal firework activity.
Update 8:15 a.m. - California Highway Patrol has lifted all closures on Interstate-5, according to CHP.

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REDDING, Calif. - Due to the Salt Fire, CalTrans and California Highway Patrol has closed the northbound lanes of Interstate-5 at the Fawndale Road exit in Redding.

CHP said they do not expect to close the southbound lanes in that area and have no timeline for reopening the closure.

As an alternate route, CHP suggests that drivers exit SR-299 east up through Burney and then head north on SR-89. From SR-89, head all the way to Mount Shasta and re-enter back onto Interstate-5 north.

CHP reps are asking the public for patience and courtesy while passing through that alternate route.

Southbound Interstate-5 traffic is halted about 1 mile south of Lakehead.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) marked June 30, World Social Media Day, with a webinar that comprised two panel discussions involving stalwarts from the Indian and global advertising industries as well as stakeholders from the influencer marketing space and the government.

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Fresh from the launch of its influencer marketing guidelines, ASCI aimed to expand the discussion to what lies ahead for the sector, the impact created with the introduction of the guidelines, the challenges that have surfaced, how they can be overcome as well as regulatory necessities like monitoring and the plan that takes-off from here.

The first panel presented the content creators perspective. It focused on the need to balance creativity in influencer marketing with responsibility and the need to protect consumer interest. It showcased what influencers thought of the evolution of this new branch of marketing, why creative engagement works despite the labelling of content that is promoted and what brands think of it.

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The panel comprised actor-influencer Karan Tacker, ASCI Secretary-General Manisha Kapoor and Founding Partner of the Collective Artists Network and CEO of BigBang.Social Dhruv Chitgopekar.

Key takeaways:

We are observing various crossovers coming live in various formats with respect to finance, cryptocurrency, etc

We will see the commercialisation of content creators with the evolution of technology

We are in the midst of a major transformation. There is a tectonic shift in advertising with the COVID-19 intensifying the momentum of audiences and brands preference for digital

Advertising is shifting decisively to digital platforms because the lockdown has accelerated digital consumption

People are spending a lot of time on social media, so brands must recognise their responsibility to be transparent about promotional content

ASCI has found strong allies in brands and content creators since the launch of the guidelines. Not only are they embracing labelling norms, they are seeing the benefits of it

Supporting the new normal in influencer marketing, Tacker said: It is a myth that creative engagement and responsibility cant go hand in hand. As we celebrate World Social Media Day, it is important that we educate new influencers, who are joining the space and contributing to our growth, to employ fair practices. In terms of importance, it is nice to have discipline and everybody should be aware of the guidelines

Kapoor added: Many companies, brands, influencers and agencies continue to engage with us for clarifications. Since the launch of the guidelines, we have observed a significant interest and belief from all stakeholders. Complaints against influencers and brands for misleading ads in the digital space have also started coming in. The good part is, that as soon as ASCI reaches out to those influencers, the ads are either taken down or corrected within hours.

Chitgopekar said: The power of Influence, as we call it, is totally a new era. The market will have its own push and pull as we evolve together. The new labelling framework has given birth to an active dialogue and we believe that to be the best part because it symbolises success and acceptance. This is just the beginning; the nuances will change as we move ahead in the journey and so will the whole system.

The second panel centred on social media and governance. The panelists were a unique mix of Indian and global advertising veterans as well as a representative of the government. While ASCI Chairman Subhash Kamath provided the Indian perspective, Guy Parker, President of ICAS and Chief Executive of ASA, UK, offered the global experience. Guillaume Doki-Thonon, Founder-CEO of Reech, spoke about why monitoring for violations of influencer marketing norms was critical and how his organisation is helping ASCI do that in India. The government point of view came from Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov, President and CEO of the National e-Governance Division, and MD and CEO of the Digital India Corporation.

Key takeaways:

Influencer marketing norms exist in many countries without any adverse impact on the engagement or creativity of content creators

The common thread across all the guidance is to remain upfront and transparent with the content you create

Technology now has the power to sort sponsored content from un-sponsored

With the help of a machine learning algorithm, it can be detected whether brand-influencer partnership has been disclosed or not

Influencers are becoming more creative with their ads, which underscores the need to constantly improve the algorithm

Many brands and agencies have reached out to ASCI for advice or course correction before the campaign is executed

This ASCI advisory isnt pre-approval of campaigns but to see whether they violate any norms

The government is very keen on tapping into the expertise of influencers to raise creativity levels and engagement around its messages

The government has collaborated with many well-known influencers to achieve more impact

Social media in India should be used extensively to reach a larger audience and in different languages to establish stronger connections

Awareness and communication have always been part of the governments outreach but, so far as social media is concerned, the government can target people better and bust myths of fake news

A great example is the awareness campaign for COVID-19, which was very impactful because of the power of social media

Here on, the use of social media will be more video- and audio-driven with regional languages at the forefront

Asserting that the government is very keen on associating with influencers to raise creativity levels and engagement, Singh said: We are very happy to work with influencers because of the impact and the power they wield. We collaborate with several influencers to work on social media. In addition, the government promotes the use of regional languages and Indian social media apps to increase engagement.

Applauding the strides India has made, Parker said that influencer marketing norms exist in many countries and that there has been no impact on engagement or creativity. He added: Influencer advertising has exploded in the past 10 years. Consumers shouldnt have to play detective to deduce the authenticity and status of the content. The need to keep the principles of advertising intact called for guidance across influencer markets. ASCIs guideline is a good example of high-quality guidance because its easily understandable, practical and pragmatic. Globally, the same principle runs through all the guidance as a common thread, which is to be upfront with people about the content you are putting out.

Doki-Thonon, explaining the monitoring system Reech is setting up for Indian influencer marketing, said: At the end of the day, the consumer will gain from transparency  that is now the norm of the influencer market, thus boosting the confidence of consumers. With the help of a machine learning algorithm, we can detect whether a partnership between an influencer and a brand has been disclosed or not. Influencers are becoming more creative with their ads, but the good thing is that the algorithm also learns and adapts constantly.

The codification of the declaration of promotional content and labelling requirements are not only indicators of the maturity of Indian influencer marketing but also why self-regulation is critical for industries like advertising. Other stakeholders like brands are also modifying their marketing approach to build in greater safeguards for consumers.

ASCI.Social, a repository for everything about the influencer marketing guidelines as well as the home for a community of stakeholders, has taken off well. Not only are influencers visiting it for guidance, they are also taking the online pledge to employ only ethical practices. The platform is also a great forum for the exchange of ideas.

Kamath had the last word: We have been focusing on bringing in more clarity in the digital space. We dont want to just police the narrative, but help shape a more responsible one. There is a lot more that is coming up. We want to thank everyone who supported us. Ask questions, discuss, debate and join us on ASCI.Social.

Later that evening, ASCI also participated in a Clubhouse discussion with nearly 200 creators, moderated by noted influencers Scherezade Shroff and Janice Sequeira, on how to be creative while also being responsible.
TCNS Clothing Co. Ltd, the leading apparel company for women have signed the Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt as the face for the brand for its ethnic-wear brand Aurelia. The actress known not only for her impeccable performances but also for her fashion choices will collaborate with the Indian ethnic wear brand to promote the range.

Aurelia, by TCNS, is an Indian ethnic wear brand targeted at women who are looking for great design, fit and quality for their casual, work and occasion wear requirements. The brand is synonymous with ethnic designs that effortlessly fit into a modern womans wardrobe. The synergy between Aurelia and Alia will appeal to the quintessential Indian woman and further enhance the deep-rooted connection.

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Talking about the association with Alia, Anant Kumar Daga, Managing Director, TCNS Clothing said, Aurelia has always promoted effortless style - encouraging women to choose their own representation of beautiful. Associating with Alia Bhatt was a strategic decision to communicate the same ethos. Alia is a youth icon who loves her effortless style. The brands youthful image appeals to young and modern women who do not believe in superficial barriers and Alia is someone who portrays the same through her onscreen as well as off-screen presence seamlessly.

Having increasingly made its dominance felt in the Indian women apparel market, Aurelia has catered to the ethnic wear needs of the modern Indian woman for over a decade. The brand is available both online and offline through 220+ exclusive brand outlets & presence in 1000+ large format stores across 150 cities across India, Srilanka, Nepal and Mauritius.

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Commenting on the brand association, Alia Bhatt said, "I am proud to partner with Aurelia, one of the most loved ethnic wear brand by women across age groups and professions for its effortless design and styles. The brand while staying in the realm of tradition, is re-defining ethnic wear, and I look forward to our association.
ClearTax Indias leading fintech SaaS company today unveiled Clear, an umbrella name under which all of its offerings across taxes, invoices, wealth management and credit for businesses will reside. In its decade-long journey, the company has expanded from an e-filing tax platform to being a full stack financial services provider.

With the Clear identity, the company said it will continue to offer great products nurturing its legacy of accuracy, security and reliability, complementing the ClearTax brand. ClearTax will continue its tax offerings (Income Tax and GST) which is loved by millions of Indians.

Launched in 2011, ClearTax began its journey as an online tax compliance platform by helping individual taxpayers with filing their income tax return online. With the coming of GST, the company deepened its reach to its customers via several products that touch every aspect of a business. It launched dedicated offerings including ClearGST, ClearE-Invoicing, ClearOne for businesses, ClearPro for Tax Experts, and Black for individuals among others. Clear identifies itself as a tech and product first company having graduated from web-only cloud based form factor to now web, desktop, mobile and APIs. The latest addition to its portfolio is ClearOne - an easy to use, one-stop invoicing and compliance solution for SMEs. In the last 12 months, the firm has heavily focussed on ease of access for businesses and individuals via launching 4 mobile apps that simplify finances for Indians.

Today, Clear caters to over 2,000 of Indias biggest brands and corporations and more than 5 million individual taxpayers. It processes about 10% of Indias B2B invoices with over $300 billion in trade value every year and more than 10% of Indias overall income tax returns. Last year, the fintech firm saved over 1,000 crores for more than 4 lakh businesses. At the same time, it helps over 130 million Indians to demystify personal finances via its website every year and saves over 2 million man-hours via its compliance offerings.

Speaking at the announcement, Archit Gupta, Clears Founder and CEO, said  We started the company to simplify taxes, over the years we have evolved beyond taxes and have grown tremendously. Today we make SaaS for taxes, invoices for connected businesses and offer wealth management. Clear captures our huge ambitions to serve Indians in the areas of invoicing, wealth management, credit and much more.

As per estimates, Clear is expected to manage invoices worth over $1 trillion by 2023.
Indias consumer digital economy which was pegged at USD $85-90 billion in CY 20, is expected to become a USD $800 billion market by 2030, according to reports released by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer at their flagship event Ground Zero 5.0. The digital economy includes 60% of travel, 40% of non grocery retail, 30% of education, 25% of food and beverages services and 6% of Pharma/Grocery going through digital channels by CY30.

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The Ground Zero 5.0 event was attended by Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Ayog along with T.V Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, co-founder, Info Edge along with other stalwarts of the Startup Industry who participated in the day-long panel discussions on retail, mobility, logistics, digital ads, fintech and IPOs.

Commenting on the overall digital ecosystem, Anil Kumar, founder and CEO of RedSeer, said, Over the last one decade, entrepreneurs have dedicated themselves to solve for the specific needs and pain areas of Indian consumers. Today, 50% + customers say they use online services because of convenience. Few years back almost 70% + used to say the key reason is discounting but with the hit of Covid, digital services have undoubtedly served the customers very well, which is evident in high customer satisfaction and customers willingness to keep using the digital as a key channel to fulfill their needs. The next wave of entrepreneurs will create innovations which will make the Indian model successful globally.

India to become 3rd largest online retail market by CY30

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Online retail is set to become the third-largest online retail market by scale by CY30 with an annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $55 billion in CY21 and $350 billion in CY30, said RedSeer at its flagship event Ground Zero 5.0, according to reports released by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer at their flagship event Ground Zero 5.0.

According to the data released by RedSeer Consulting, 88% of the online shoppers that will be added between 2020-2030 will be from Tier 2+ cities. Further, $>7 billion cumulative incremental online retail transactions to be added from Tier 2+ city customers over CY 20-30 while easily more than $~150 billion cumulative incremental online retail GMV to be added from Tier 2+ city customers over CY 20-30. The adoption factors that will drive the growth for the next few years are:

Companies have started to focus on tier 2 cities

Growing online spends by 'Digital Natives' and supply-side innovations

COVID-19 has caused an inflection in e-commerce penetration across city tiers

Lowering costs of servicing tier-II and other smaller cities

Additionally, kiranas are expected to achieve approximately achieve a $1.5 trillion sales by CY30. The growth will be driven by:

Platforms that are enabling these kiranas technologically and digitally

Cashless payments

Book Keeping and EB2B offerings

New-Age Logistics players created an opportunity of 500,000 employment for gig workers in 2020

E-Logistics in India has become the fastest growing market globally with over 3 billion shipments in 2020. India traditionally had an inefficient supply chain with a slow and undemocratic access. Today ~ 90%+ of the orders fulfilled by the online commerce get done by the new age logistics, an industry which has come up only in the last one decade and has solved for the above challenges through technology and customer centric mindset. Further, three out of the top 10 logistics players in India are today the new age (e- logistics) players. The new age logistics players are expected to deliver 2.5 billion D2C shipments by 2030.

With the rise of eCommerce, the need for specialized delivery service emerged, which led to the overall growth of the logistics segment. Emergence of this sector created 500,000 employment for gig workers in 2021 across captive and 3PL. The new-age 3PL logistics players have delivered 850 million shipments in 2020.

New age logistics players have reduced the average time of delivery by 2/3rd in last 7 years, have covered nearly all the pincodes across India through enabled deep tech solutions to serve the different type of customer needs and requirements like same day delivery, hyperlocal, service enabled etc. E-logistics has been fulfilling the needs of the small city customers. Increasing coverage across India and faster delivery, enabled Tier-2+ cities to account for 50%+ shoppers to Indian eCommerce by the end of 2020.

Other emerging trends



Other sectors in the new-age economy have also been strongly impacted by the pandemic. A number of new trends are emerging in these various sectors which will shape the ecosystem going forward.

Shared mobility dips but personal mobility soars in demand

According to RedSeer research, shared mobility saw a sharp decline due to the 2nd wave led lockdowns in the last two months. Although the autos segment recovered the fastest, the overall sector merely clocked 18 million rides, a drop from 113 million rides in January last year. However, while the shared mobility is dipping, personal mobility space is riding on a wave of strong traction seen since last year.

While auto OEMs have responded with relevant offerings to democratize access to cars, tech platforms are also accelerating focus on digitizing the car ownership journey. Online used car transaction penetration to grow ~9x in the next ~10 years. Another category that is ripe for digital disruption is the car service & repairs market which is still a highly fragmented market which faces challenges like inefficiencies, bloated pricing and poor experience for both consumers and service workshops. This segment is expected to penetrate ~15% of this highly fragmented market by CY30.

With rise in digital content, advertisements see higher demand

On the other hand, online content is seeing phenomenal growth leading to the overall growth of the digital ad industry as well. Digital content is emerging as the bellwether of demand creation for time spent.

India, one of the largest economies, is surging ahead on content and smartphone usage. Monthly active users (MAU) have become democratised with increasing adoption of varied digital services and platforms. Further, another example of democratization is seen in an increasingly largely base of active digital content users now coming from Tier 2+ cities with the top two categories being Facebook-owned WhatsApp followed by news aggregators.
ITC Hotels, one of Indias leading luxury hotel chains that operates over 100 hotels across 70 destinations in India under four distinct brands, has signed on ActiMedia India Pvt. Ltd., as its PR and communications partner.

Inaugurated in 1975, ITC Hotels is today, Indias leading premier chain of luxury hotels that is synonymous with Indian hospitality. Through its motto of Responsible Luxury, the group offers guests at each of its environment-friendly destinations, authentic, indigenous luxury experiences that celebrate regional cuisine and tradition in harmony with the local community.

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ActiMedia is a two-decade-old leading public relations agency that delivers 360-degree integrated communications and digital strategy solutions to clients across the spectrum from its offices in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

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The ITC Hotel Group has been offering unmatched luxury and leisure experiences highlighting regional flavors of each destination for over four decades now. Their hotels reflect an intrinsic responsibility towards the local community and the environment at large. We look forward to being an integral part of the ITC Hotels family and strengthening the presence of the brand among both Indian and global travelers, said Amitabh Saksena, Founder & Managing Director, ActiMedia India Pvt. Limited.
MedikaBazaar, the leading one-stop Medical and HealthTech procurement platform, undertook the initiative of ensuring that people are educated about safety and preventive measures during the second wave of the COVID pandemic through its unique #DontShowMeYourFace campaign. The mask awareness campaign in association with Rotary Club of Nariman Point Mumbai and the Mumbai Police, focused on highlighting the importance of wearing a mask to fight COVID-19. The massive mask distribution program saw over 100,000 masks handed out to the general public at railway stations, hospitals and other key public places. The general public was also educated on how to correctly wear the masks.

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Out of the over one lakh masks donated, 50,000 masks were donated to the underserved and underprivileged sections of the society. The other 50,000 masks were handed over to Mumbai Police to distribute in all police stations across the city.

The #DontShowMeYourFace campaign took a 360-degree approach and was launched across social media, television and through on-ground promotions. It was successful in delivering its message and sensitizing the general public about the need to wear a mask to prevent a COVID infection. The awareness campaign garnered over 1.5 million views on television, over a hundred thousand views of the campaign video and over a million impressions on social media.

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Mr Vivek Tiwari, Founder & CEO, MedikaBazaar was felicitated by the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order), Vishwas Nangare Patil for spearheading this one-of-its-kind Mask Awareness Initiative and helping protect those that protect the citizens round the clock. Mr Tiwari said, The #DontShowMeYourFace campaign is a movement to ensure people are cautious about prevention measures to be taken against COVID-19. With majority of case being mild or asymptomatic, it may not be possible to tell who has COVID-19. Till the time we reach a stage where we have 100% vaccination, effective usage and correct wearing of a mask is the only solution to prevent infection. We felt that a campaign that plays on the negative connotation of not showing your face with a positive angle of preventing infection would catch peoples interest and ensure that they take the message seriously. I would like to thank the Mumbai Police and Rotary Club for their support in making this initiative successful.

The mask awareness drive was extensively covered by the media with TV, print, digital and social media channels carrying details of the initiative. The initiative was lauded by government officials including Dr. Mohan Joshi, Dean, Sion Hospital and Mr. Manjunath Singe, Deputy Police Commissioner, Zone 8, Mumbai Police.
Image sharing social platform, Pinterest launches a new product called Idea Pins - a multi-page video format for creators. The tool has been launched in the India, US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Idea Pins makes it easy for creators to publish high quality, long lasting, save-able content directly to Pinterest. Idea Pins is an evolution of Story Pins. Creators will have access to a suite of new publishing tools including, video-first features, fresh editing tools and updates.

Idea Pin now includes the features:

Video recording and editing for up to 20 pages of content

Voice over recording so creators can add their own personal voice

Music selection by Epidemic Sound

Ghost mode transition tools

Detailed pages for instructions or ingredients

Interactive elements like people tagging and stickers

Multi-draft save so creators can publish more ideas

Export options to share content beyond Pinterest

Topic tagging, a publishing feature that helps connect content to relevant interests

The Creator Code - content policy

All Pinners will see Idea Pins from creators they follow right at the top of their home feed. These following streams give Pinners a new way to see fresh content from creators they follow and discover new creators to engage with.

The company is also showing Idea Pins in more places, including search, the Today Tab and the top of creator profiles. Idea Pins will be displayed in this special full-screen stream view, designed to engage and inspire Pinners.

In addition to the new Creator Code, moderation features and the content claiming portal which was announced last month, the app is also building tools to help creators build their presence on Pinterest by focusing on published content (like Idea Pins).

Along with this, there are new updates to Analytics that will help creators learn what content resonates with their audience. A new Followers and Profile Visits driven metric will show creators how their Idea Pins have driven deeper engagement with their account. This update has also made it easier for users to access other important engagement metrics like saves, comments and reactions, all of which affect creators' content distribution.
upGrad, South Asias largest higher edtech company, today announced the appointment of Shreyas Shevade as the Head of Creative and Content Marketing. Shreyass role will be to integrate upGrads brand messaging across traditional and new media.

An award-winning creative professional, Shreyas brings with him over 11 years of experience in integrated advertising, digital marketing, PR, and relationship marketing. He has previously worked with leading and multi-national agencies such as MRM//McCann, Edelman, Contract Advertising, Rediffusion Y&R, and Grey Worldwide. Through the course of his career, Shreyas has crafted clutter-breaking campaigns for brands like Volkswagen, Durex, Surf Excel, Dove, Bajaj Allianz, and IndiaFirst Life Insurance, that have won several national and international awards.

On welcoming Shreyas to his new role, Arjun Mohan, CEO-India, upGrad, said, Smartly-crafted branded content and storytelling skills have the potential to connect with audiences at an emotional level. Shreyass rich marketing experience and cultural inclination, will help us strengthen our brand presence across the country. We are thrilled to welcome Shreyas to the upGrad family.

Shreyas Shevade, Head of Creative and Content Marketing - India, upGrad, added, After a decade of being a mercenary on hire for brands, Im now proud to pledge my allegiance to just one. Edtech is at an interesting juncture of revolutionising education, changing the norms of how, where, when, and who it is made accessible to, and upGrad is at the helm of this revolution. The fact that upGrads philosophy of Lifelong Learning matches my own, and that I get to work closely with entrepreneurs Ive admired from afar, is what Im pumped about the most.

Inclined to the tradition of imparting knowledge and education even outside of work, Shreyas gives guest lectures at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, has been on the jury for their CCC PG Certificate Programme, has taken a Masterclass for The Economic Times, and has been invited for a podcast at IIM Kozhikode. He also works with home-grown businesses within his personal networks, to guide and mentor them in their marketing initiatives.
Vicks, a brand synonymous with family and care, today launched the third edition of its iconic #TouchOfCare campaign series, on the eve of National Doctors Day 2021. The past year has been challenging for many, and it is our Doctors who have carried us on their shoulders of hope, by selflessly caring for us, and our loved ones.

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The third edition of #TouchOfCare, a tribute to the Doctors community across the nation, underscores the powerful impact of care through the real-life extraordinary story of the late Dr. Dnyaneshwar Bhosale. The film takes viewers on the inspiring journey of Dr. Bhosales selfless acts of care, as he left no stone unturned to ensure many less fortunate children received life-saving medical attention during the pandemic. Gone too soon, Dr. Bhosale left behind his wife, kids and his dreams of building his own pediatric hospital. The film is a solemn reminder that like Dr. Bhosale, hundreds of doctors lost their lives during the pandemic leaving their families and dreams behind.

In addition to sharing Dr. Bhosales inspiring story, Vicks has also pledged to support Mrs. Bhosale to help build a pediatric hospital in memory of her husband's extraordinary acts of care. Committed to making a meaningful difference and step up as a #ForceforGood, Vicks continues to support Indias fight against Covid-19 through P&Gs Suraksha initiative. Under this initiative, P&G recently contributed towards 1 million vaccination doses for 5 lakh citizens in partnership with state governments and local authorities.

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Dr. Priyanka Dnyaneshwar Bhosale, Wife of the late Dr. Dnyaneshwar Bhosale shared, It was difficult to see my husband take his last breath and my prayer then was that somehow he would receive the healing hand of care just like the one he selflessly extended to many children. I thank Vicks for bringing to light my husbands extraordinary work and inspiring story and joining me to keep his dream of building a childrens hospital in Latur alive so his memory and touch of care live on forever.

Himanshu Tewary, Senior Director and Category Head, Personal Healthcare at Procter & Gamble said, Our doctors have given a new meaning to humanity during these challenging times, and their selflessness deserves lifelong gratitude. Vicks #TouchOfCare is a reminder of the extraordinary acts of care, courage and bravery of each one of our doctors, those with us, and those who we have lost. As a society, its time to rise together and give back to our doctors community for all they have done for us and our loved ones by preserving their #TouchOfCare for generations to come.

The films Director, Anand Gandhi, Dr. Dnyaneshwar Bhosale dreamed of building robust, empathetic systems of care and medicine. This film is a glimpse into the vision and commitment that he had for his community. Its a call to togetherness, a reminder of the selflessness of all our healthcare workers during this time. I am grateful to the people at Vicks and Publicis Singapore for getting me on board to bring this story to life.

Ajay Thrivikraman, CCO, Global Clients, Publicis Singapore commented, Vicks Touch of Care has always been a platform to shine a spotlight on the most vulnerable communities in our society. Just over a year ago, one would hardly have expected our doctors to be among them, but this pandemic has changed everything. It has been an incredibly difficult time for doctors and their loved ones. Its humbling to see that their care for others is more than a lifetime commitment; it is a legacy that will live on into the future.

In 2017, #TouchOfCare 1 showed how through care, families are formed beyond biological ties, breaking stereotypes and highlighting how motherhood has no gender through the story of an orphan, Gayatri and her transgender mother Gauri Sawant. In 2018, #TouchOfCare 2 brought to light the story of Nisha, a girl born with Ichthyosis - a genetic skin condition who was abandoned by her biological parents at birth. Her life took a positive turn with the unconditional love and care extended by her adoptive parents.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 01.07.2021 - Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis will make an official visit to the Baltic states from 4 to 8 July 2021. He will travel to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. He will also participate in the Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius on 7 and 8 July. The talks will focus on European policy, bilateral cooperation and the challenges currently facing the international community. Mr Cassis is attending the Reform Conference in preparation for Switzerland's upcoming chairmanship in 2022.

The trip marks two anniversaries Switzerland is celebrating with the three Baltic states in 2021. A hundred years ago, Switzerland recognised the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and 30 years ago, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it resumed bilateral relations with all three states. During his meetings, Mr Cassis will emphasise that even without the institutional agreement, Switzerland remains a reliable partner for the European Union.

Bilateral meetings in three countries

Mr Cassis will first travel to Riga, where he will be received on an official visit. He will meet Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, President Egils Levits and Parliamentary Speaker Inara Murniece. To mark the double anniversary, the Swiss embassy in Riga will co-organise with the Riga Jurmala Music Festival a virtual conference on the topic of 'Digital Transformation in Culture' and Mr Cassis will deliver a welcome address to the participants.

In Tallinn, talks will focus on digitalisation and cyberdiplomacy. Based on the priorities of Switzerland's Digital Foreign Policy Strategy 202124, Mr Cassis will discuss the current challenges in this area with his Estonian counterparts. He will also visit the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and the e-Estonia Briefing Centre. The programme also includes talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets and Parliamentary Speaker Juri Ratas.

Last, Mr Cassis will travel to Vilnius, where he will meet his Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis and visit an exhibition of Swiss election posters as part of the anniversary celebrations.

Ukraine Reform Conference

The visit to Vilnius will focus on Mr Cassis' participation in the Ukraine Reform Conference, a high-level event that has been held in a different country each year since 2017. This year's edition is particularly relevant, as Switzerland will officially take over the chairmanship from Lithuania when the conference ends on 8 July and will co-host the next edition with Ukraine in Lugano in 2022. The aim of the conference is to support the reform process in Ukraine and formulate recommendations for action. Switzerland will host the event in 2022 against the backdrop of its significant and long-standing commitment to Ukraine: since 1999, Switzerland has supported Ukraine's reforms through humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding efforts. At this year's conference in Lithuania, Mr Cassis will hold bilateral talks with various stakeholders, including representatives of the Ukrainian government.

Members of the National Council Corina Gredig (Political Institutions Committee member) and Lilian Studer (Political Institutions Committee member) will accompany Mr Cassis on his trip to the Baltic States.

Address for enquiries

FDFA Communication

Federal Palace West Wing

CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53

Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55

E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch

Twitter: @SwissMFA

Publisher

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

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Federal Department of Finance

Bern, 01.07.2021 - From 10 to 21 May 2021, the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) conducted a bug bounty pilot project in collaboration with Bug Bounty Switzerland GmbH, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and Parliamentary Services (PS). The project was very successful and the lessons learned are to be incorporated into the implementation of further bug bounty programmes in the Federal Administration.

The purpose of bug bounty programmes is to identify, document and remedy any vulnerabilities in IT systems and applications in cooperation with ethical hackers. A total of 15 ethical hackers commissioned by the Confederation took part in this pilot project.

Ten security vulnerabilities discovered

For the pilot project, ethical hackers scanned a total of six IT systems of the FDFA and Parliamentary Services for any security vulnerabilities. Overall, ten security vulnerabilities were reported to the NCSC. One of these turned out to be critical, seven were classified as medium and two as low. All of the vulnerabilities were immediately eliminated by the competent providers. The ethical hackers then verified and confirmed the successful elimination of the vulnerabilities.

Positive conclusion

The pilot project demonstrated that vulnerabilities in IT systems and applications can be efficiently identified and remedied by means of bug bounty programmes. The return on investment was found to be high. A bug bounty programme for the Federal Administration, operated by the NCSC, makes an important contribution to reducing the Confederation's cyber-risk exposure.

Based on the experience gained with the pilot project and the lessons learned by all those involved, the NCSC intends to continuously expand the bug bounty programme to as many Federal Administration systems as possible.

Consequently, the procurement process is to be launched as soon as possible. In the meantime, several other companies in Switzerland also offer bug bounty programmes in addition to Bug Bounty Switzerland GmbH. In order to ensure neutrality in the procurement process, Florian Schutz, the Federal Cybersecurity Delegate, is thus stepping down from the Advisory Board of Bug Bounty Switzerland.

Address for enquiries

NCSC Communications

ncsc-media@gs-efd.admin.ch

Tel. 058 46 50 464

Publisher

Federal Department of Finance

https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html



Secretariat-General FDF

http://www.efd.admin.ch



Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




Ask most folks how agricultural commodities are transported to market; theyll probably say truck or train. Some might say ships.
The start of July marks the end of the window to spray dicamba, according to the federal label in effect for 2021. As farmers and applicators navigated this updated label, early reports are that there werent as many issues in the Midwest regarding the herbicide.

We didnt hear quite that much of an uproar, said Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Extension weed specialist. This season has not been terribly bad for us in terms of the number of complaints in Illinois, based on observation.

The final spraying date for dicamba was June 30, according to the federal label, with Illinois moving its cutoff date up to June 20.

Hager said some of the restrictions, such as temperature, should help limit drift damage in Illinois. He said when additional measures were put on in 2019, the label complaints dropped dramatically. Delays in the label process affected the 2020 growing season, and complaints jumped to over 700. With no delay this year, and with spraying limited to days under 85 degrees, he expects another lower year.

I think that has contributed to helping reduce the number of complaints of off-target movement on the soybeans, Hager said.

He also said some producers who use commercial applicators are opting to use gluphosinate instead of dicamba.

After a fairly hot June, Iowa State University Extension weed specialist Prashant Jha said there may have been difficulties spraying dicamba due to the 85-degree restriction. And if there was product in the field, it could have adverse effects.
Peter Vitaliano says 2020 looked to be very positive for the dairy industry. But like most of agriculture, that optimism dwindled as COVID-19 tightened its grip globally.

Numbers have since recovered somewhat as cooperatives cut milk production and export figures improved.

When the pandemic hit, the industry was coming off several years of lower-than-average prices, but prices were decent in the second half of 2019, says Vitaliano, chief economist with the National Milk Producers Federation.

Milk production increased at a rapid rate over the beginning of 2020, so when the pandemic hit, it was very difficult.

He says with the food service industry basically shut down due to pandemic restrictions, markets for products like cheese were more limited. Vitaliano says it took time for the industry to shift gears to producing more items consumers could use at home.

The supply chain needed time to switch over, he says.

Over the past few months, more and more consumers have ventured out of their homes and into restaurants, providing a familiar market for milk products. Vitaliano says the export market is fairly strong, too.

On the balance, however, theres still too much milk, he says.

The dairy industry also benefited from government payments issued to farmers during the height of the pandemic, which Vitaliano says provided a major boost to all producers.

How dairy farms did in 2020 and into 2021 largely depends on geography, says Christopher Wolf, a professor of applied economics at Cornell University. He says some farms did very well over the past year, while others suffered.
For Rachel Hopkins, taking care of the family farm in Crawford County, down in the Ozarks, is part of her heritage. Her family has owned the f
"In 2017 there was a good amount of spring wheat cut for hay. This year, however, a few neighbors in the area dont feel the wheat will be tall enough to justify cutting. If they do, it will not amount to much." Crop Watcher Jeremy Stoecker shares a report:
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Israeli-Aid-Worker-Comforts-Families-in-Florida.html

An interview with Itzik Itach who is part of the Israeli contingent searching for survivors and counseling families.

We get hugs from people. They say, 'Thank you for coming from Israel to help us. We appreciate you very much. Itzik Itach shares the warm reception he and his fellow Israeli rescue workers have received over the past few days in Surfside, Florida, where authorities are still sifting through the rubble of the Champlain Towers. Approximately 140 are still trapped underground and unaccounted for. To date 18 bodies have been pulled out of the rubble.

In the days after the catastrophic collapse of Champlain Towers, rescue workers began a frantic search for survivors. The situation has been gut-wrenching for families waiting to hear news.

Israel has a long record of sending experts to aid in disaster situations, and several Israeli organizations quickly assembled teams to help with the rescue operation in Florida. Israels military dispatched a team of expert searchers from their National Rescue Unit, where they are aiding Miami-Dade Fire Rescue teams as they search for survivors. The operation is called Yad Achim  Helping Hand for Brothers.

Itzik Itach at the site of Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida

A number of Israeli volunteers also raced to Florida to try to help. Among them is Itzik Itach, an undersea rescuer from Israels volunteer medical group Hatzalah, who travelled from his home in Jerusalem to Surfside, Florida, to aid at the scene. In an Aish.com exclusive interview, he explained how hes been able to provide some help and comfort to families waiting for news of their loved ones.

I'm part of the delegation from SSF  Rescues Without Borders. a rescues organization working with Magen David Adom first responders that travels to help with disasters worldwide, he explains. A few days ago he was told he had just moments to travel to Ben Gurion airport in Israel in preparation for a rescue mission in Florida. Itzik said goodbye to his wife and four young children and raced to board his flight, determined to help any way he could. He joined four other SSF volunteers, all with extensive medical and rescue experience, including in counseling people experiencing trauma and stress.

An expert in solar energy, Itzik recalls deciding to train as a paramedic five years ago after witnessing a car accident in Jerusalem. He was so upset at not knowing what to do to aid an injured person, he resolved to learn how to be a medic so that he could help people in the future. Since then, Itzik has worked to help victims of scores of natural accidents and terror attacks in Israel and abroad.

Golan Vach, Commander of Israel Defense Forces National Rescue Unit

While search and rescue teams continue to hunt underneath the rubble for victims, Itzik and his fellow SSF volunteers have been working with the families of people who are still unaccounted for. They show us pictures of their loved ones and say Maybe you saw them? Its so sad...and we really share in their pain and try to give everything we can.

Hes noticed that the presence of so many Israeli volunteers from various organizations has boosted the morale of some of those who are waiting for word about their loved ones. Some family members have commented to him that they felt a new sense of urgency and hope when the Israelis arrived. Israel has great technologies in disaster relief due to our extensive experience. Its in the excavations, in manpower, in professionalism.

For Itzik and the other SSF volunteers, trauma counseling has been a major need. The families are craving information about their loved ones." He and his fellow SSF volunteers are there to spend hours sitting with families, listening to their fears and sharing their pain.

Its been a terrible time. Relatives are in torment, not knowing whether their loved ones might still be alive underneath the collapsed tower. Itzik describes the need for help and support as acute. With a strong hug, with loving actions, we are showing them that there is somebody there with them, he explains.

Some of the SSF volunteers in Florida

The alacrity with which Israelis have rushed to Florida has a wider message for the Jewish world, Itzik observes, quoting the famous statement by the Jewish sage Rashi that all of Israel stood kish echad blev echad  One man with one heart (Rashi, Exodus 19:2). We want to show solidary with our fellow Jews in Florida and around the world."

Itzik notes that whenever there are disasters in Israel, American Jews step up to help the Jewish state. If something happens in Israel, you are coming all the time, we see it, he explains. Now something happened here, so we come. Whatever happens to one Jew, all the other Jews come and help him  this is the important thing.

With the search and rescue operation continuing, Itzik sees his mission helping comfort the families continuing. Despite the difficulty of this work, theres nowhere else hed rather be right now than helping aiding his fellow Jews and others. The role of the people of Israel is to help each other anywhere in the world.
News

New state laws set to kick in

Photo: Governors Office The Georgia legislature approved a number of bills during 40 days under the Gold Dome covering a variety of issues that, like the controversial election measure, take effect on Thursday.

ATLANTA  The controversial election bill the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed in March garnered the most publicity by far of anything lawmakers did during this years session.

But the legislature approved a number of other bills during 40 days under the Gold Dome covering a variety of issues that, like the election measure, take effect on Thursday.

July 1 will see the implementation of a state tax cut and a series of new tax breaks for Georgia businesses. Local police departments will get new protections from budget cuts, and a new crime applicable to a type of theft popularized during the pandemic will go on the books.

The tax cut will increase the standard deduction for married couples who file joint state income tax returns by $1,100. Single taxpayers can deduct an extra $800, while Georgians ages 65 and older can deduct another $1,300. Married couples filing separately will be able to deduct an additional $550.

House Bill 593 is a follow-up to legislation the General Assembly adopted in 2019 lowering Georgias income-tax rate from 6% to 5.75%.

Mostly lower- and middle-income families will benefit from the higher standard deduction, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said.

Today marks another chapter in Georgias continuing commitment to provide sustainable, meaningful tax relief to Georgians to let them keep more of their hard-earned money, Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said after the mid-March vote passing the bill.

Separate legislation also taking effect Thursday serves up a smorgasbord of new tax breaks aimed at spurring business investment in Georgia. It offers tax credits to medical equipment and pharmaceutical manufacturers, aerospace defense projects, performing arts venues, short-line railroads and developers of corporate mega-sites.

While most of the bill doles out more largesse in the form of tax credits, Senate Bill 6 also seeks to rein in tax breaks that dont give enough bang for the buck. It requires independent audits of up to five tax credit programs each year to determine whether their economic impact justifies the loss of state tax revenue.

This is a large bill, state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said as the multifaceted measure was being debated on the Senate floor during the final day of the 2021 legislative session. It brings checks and balances. It has us measure the return on investment, and it keeps Georgia the No. 1 place to do business.

Republican legislative leaders focused much of their attention this year on crafting friendly tax policies to help Georgians and Georgia businesses cope with the economic damage wreaked by the pandemic.

But another thread that ran through the 2021 session stemmed from last years murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, which sent demonstrators into the streets of America to protest racism and police brutality.

An offshoot of those protests was the defund the police movement, as some on the left called for slashing police budgets and redirecting those funds to social programs aimed at the causes of a nationwide surge in violent crime.

Georgia lawmakers reacted by passing legislation limiting local government from reducing funds for police more than 5% during a 10-year span.

This legislation sends a strong message that we support our law enforcement officers and we will never defund police here in Georgia, Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, the chief sponsor of House Bill 286, said.

Legislative Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the bill as a power grab by the state over local governments. Critics also argued it would stall efforts to fund other areas like mental health, housing and education that aim to keep people from landing in jail.

Lawmakers also were divided over a bill criminalizing porch piracy, a form of theft that hadnt been given much thought before the pandemic prompted shoppers hunkered down in their homes to do most of their buying online.

House Bill 94 makes it a felony to be caught in possession of at least 10 different pieces of stolen mail that is addressed to three or more separate recipients  even if it is unclear who exactly stole the mail.

The bill also makes it a felony to steal three or more envelopes, bags, packages or other mailed items from the porch, front or back entrance of a residence.

This was a problem before the pandemic, Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, the measures chief sponsor, said during a committee hearing on the bill. It has become even more of a problem now.

While the legislation drew some support from Democrats, others questioned the severity of the bills penalties, noting porch pirates could face more jail time and a worse criminal record than those who commit petty theft at a retail store.

Other bills the General Assembly passed this year that take effect July 1 include:

 House Bill 112  extends COVID-19 liability protections for Georgia businesses and hospitals into the summer of 2022.

 House Bill 317  extends the state tax on hotel and motel rooms to marketplace facilitators including Airbnb and Vrbo.

 House Bill 511  prohibits spending money deposited in nine state dedicated trust funds on any other purpose.

 House Bill 617  lets student-athletes at Georgia colleges, universities and technical colleges receive compensation for their name, image and likeness.

 Senate Bill 34  allows victims of human trafficking to petition to change their name without public disclosure.
Courtesy of JNS; Photo credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.

Israeli security forces clash with protesters outside a home of a Jewish family during a protest against the pending eviction of Arab residents from homes in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, May 8, 2021.
After sixteen years, Federation CEO Shep Englander is moving on to his next professional challenge (pictured with Federations Chair of the Board, Debbie Brant).
Programs and activity at the Mayerson JCC heating up this summer
Lake Charles, Louisiana (70615)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. High 89F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms overnight. Low near 75F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
I've noticed that whenever the subject of Nazi Germany is raised, someone always says something like this: "It's unbelievable that Adolf Hitler was able to manipulate and control the entire German population. It just seems impossible."

Yet that's exactly what he did. Yes, there were some dissenters and political foes, but they were subdued and quashed as the boundless power of the Nazi regime shut down all dissent with the use of the brown-shirted Sturmabteilung or SA, the Schutzstaffel or SS, and the dreaded Gestapo or Geheime Staatspolizei.

Perhaps a bit of context is in order here. I spent three years in Germany with the Army Security Agency involved in SIGINT (intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets). I am fluent in German, my wife is German, I have studied German history, and I keep up with current events in the country.

Like a lot of Americans, I always assumed that America was safe from the kind of tyranny the German people experienced under the heavy hand of the Third Reich. There is no way our federal, state, and local governments could restrain and control the American people the way Hitler and his Nazis dominated the German population, I thought.

Yet, for the past eighteen months, that's exactly what has happened in America.

A nation that always prided itself on its independence and individuality was suddenly locked down. Travel was restricted, schools and businesses were shuttered, we were commanded to wear face masks, voting laws were altered, isolation and quarantines were mandated, and speech was censored by social and mainstream media if Big Tech oligarchs judged what was said or written as "misinformation."

It didn't stop there. A public health emergency was declared, borders were closed, and large gatherings were forbidden  including church attendance, funerals, and weddings.

In short, civil liberties that Americans had always taken for granted were suspended by those in power, just as the Nazis rescinded the rights of the German people, including a free press guaranteed by Germany's Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933). The German press quickly complied with its new masters.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's Minister of Propaganda, had no use for a free press and once said, "Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."

Alter that quote a little, and you have a passage more relevant to American social media today: "Think of social and mainstream media as a great keyboard on which Big Tech oligarchs can play."

Big Tech in the United States is following another Goebbels maxim: "Not every item of news should be published. Rather, those who control news policies should endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose."

We know what that "certain purpose" is.

During Biden's socialist regime, the legacy media's goal is to promote socialist policies and protect our feckless president from all criticism  the same objective that Goebbels was tasked with during Adolf Hitler's reign.

No doubt Goebbels would be proud of America's Big Tech oligarchs. They are performing the same tasks in 2021 America that Goebbels performed during the 12 years of the Third Reich.

Instead of opposing restrictions on our First Amendment rights, which guarantees five basic freedoms (religion, speech, the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances), millions of panicked Americans were quick to acknowledge and tolerate these new restrictions of their civil rights. The media declined to investigate the pandemic, its source, its causes, and its severe impact  especially on young children and the elderly. Instead, our media spent most of the pandemic refusing to look at China as the cause and source of the COVID-19 virus, choosing to pillory President Trump for daring even to suggest that China might be culpable. Today, we are learning (much to the chagrin of the media) that Trump was probably right. The virus came from a Wuhan, China lab and not from a flying rodent.

As was the case in Nazi Germany, American K12 schoolchildren and students in universities are being indoctrinated with political dogma from socialist organizations like Black Lives Matter. Curricula are filled with the bogus and deceptive Critical Race Theory and the debunked and fallacious 1619 Project. Those who don't adhere to the dogma are ostracized, canceled, and even fired from teaching positions.

In 1930s socialist Germany (Yes, folks, the Nazis were socialists. Nazi stands for "Nationalsozialist" or National Socialism), the Nazis went even farther. They sent educators, religious leaders, and political opponents to concentration camps like Dachau. They encouraged supporters to take to the streets to harass and assault Nazi opposition. It was a winning tactic because few Germans dared oppose armed mobs of brownshirts who were never arrested or prosecuted for their assaults on people or property.

Sound familiar? Remember Black Lives Matter and Antifa in places like Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, and New York City? They are still burning and looting.

"Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street," Goebbels once said. "Total dominance is the goal."

In Germany, it was one-party dominance that put the state at the summit of the political and social lives of the German people. History was rewritten, free speech was suppressed, books were banned, people's lives were monitored, and religion was ridiculed and stifled in favor of the secular nation.

Today, Democrats in Congress talk about banning or outlawing the Republican Party  or at least those Republicans and independents who supported and voted for Donald Trump or who refused to follow government decrees and diktats during the pandemic.

Others are quick to support the lockdowns and suspension of civil rights.

"This pandemic is a 'black swan event,' one without modern precedent," opined Harvard Law professor Charles Fried. "Most people are worried about restrictions on meetings  that's freedom of association. And about being made to stay in one place, which I suppose is a restriction on liberty. But none of these liberties is absolute; they can all be abrogated for compelling grounds. And in this case, the compelling ground is the public health emergency."

I'm not buying it.

What we have experienced in the United States since January 2020 has been a gross overreach of state and national power  the domination of individual freedoms never before seen in this country.

Where were the resisters, the "anti-Nazis"?

In Nazi Germany, Jews were portrayed as a public health menace, vermin to be exterminated. The monthly magazine Neues Volk, published by Germany's "Office of Racial Policy," argued that all Jews suffered from "hereditary illness" and that each Jew cost German taxpayers and the community 60,000 Reich Marks over the course of a single lifetime. Lists of Jews were compiled in every German town and city, and today we know that millions were rounded up and murdered.

There are troubling parallels to that kind of thinking in America today as examples of anti-Semitism escalate day after day, mostly from a left that supports Palestinian causes and terrorist tactics but maintains a visceral hatred toward Israel.

Democrat members of Congress have taken that kind of political and social "cleansing" even farther, insisting that Republicans, conservatives, and anybody who supported or supports Donald Trump should be sent to "re-education camps" and "deprogrammed."

Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other leftist Democrats insist that "lists" should be made of all Trump supporters so they can be "ostracized and otherwise punished." Keeping "enemies" lists was a favorite tactic of the Gestapo. Thank you, AOC, for reintroducing this insidious tool to Congress.

But Democrats didn't stop there. Michael Beller, principal counsel for the tax-supported Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), said in a video that the children of supporters of President Donald Trump should be seized and placed in "re-education camps."

"We should go for all the Republican voters, and Homeland Security will take their children away, and we'll put [Trump-supporters' children] into re-education camps," Beller said in the video.

Beller must have been listening to Adolf Hitler, who, in 1933 said this about children: "If the older generation cannot get accustomed to us, we shall take their children away from them and rear them as needful to the Fatherland."

Is this the state of our nation today?

We are a country divided politically and socially into warring tribes: Democrats vs. Republicans, liberals vs. conservatives, minorities (brown, black, and yellow people) vs. whites, victims vs. oppressors, communities "of color" vs. police, the "haves" vs. the "have nots," socialists vs. capitalists.

All that's left is for Americans on opposing sides to arm themselves and commence slaughtering one another because of conflicting political and social opinions or skin color. Wouldn't China, Russia, and America's other enemies just love that?

In 1920s Germany, it was Hitler's brownshirts attacking the feeble Weimar Republic  Germany's first experiment with democracy. It was a growing Communist Party vs. a nascent Nazi Party. But after 1932, when Hitler and the Nazis gained power, Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and political opponents were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

Is this the "Endlosung" (final solution) that some socialists, radical leftists, and Democrats are proposing for America's Republican Party, conservatives, and Trump supporters?

Are we headed for a one-party socialist political system in which we allow our rights to be suspended indefinitely, the way we did for the past 18 months?

After millions of courageous Americans went to war in World War II and more than 500,000 made the ultimate sacrifice fighting fascism, are we going to roll over and accept domination by a few elite socialists and leftist Democrats who are convinced they should remain in power ad infinitum? Are the American people going to submit to the Big Tech oligarchs, the corrupt and compliant media, and the socialist elites in Washington and allow their rights to be trampled and obliterated?

Are we becoming Nazi Germany?

Ronald E. Yates is a U.S. Army veteran, author, former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, and professor and dean emeritus of journalism at the University of Illinois. His website: http://www.ronaldyatesbooks.com.

Image: Louis P. Hirshman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
As Governor Phil Murphys pick for top cop, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has become the perfect chameleon, changing his ideological stripes against whatever political backdrop he finds himself. Since taking office in 2018, Grewal has spent much of his first two years suing and publicly berating Donald Trump. His department directives have also seeded a radical police reform agenda amid claims that they were already on the drawing board long before the 2020 summer of unrest

That was a half-truth.

In 2018, Grewal released his Immigrant Trust Directive, a mandate that put a chokehold on cops enforcing federal immigration law. It instructed law enforcement to dishonor ICE immigration detainers for jailed illegals and prohibited participation in their street enforcement operations. It also prevented prosecutors from raising the issue of immigration status during trial proceedings or in requiring detention as a flight risk.

Then came George Floyd.

Floyds death was, if anything, an epiphanous event to Grewal, driving him to extremes to reimagine policing in a state where police reform was well underway, cities engaged in innovative police-community relations, and effective crime fighting and information-sharing collaborations were best practice across the more than 500 urban and suburban police departments. With very few exceptions promptly quelled by arrests, Floyd and BLM-sponsored protests were free from the burning and plundering seen in the neighboring states. Newark, the states largest city, had reduced shootings in 2020 by thirty percent and police hadnt fired a single shot in all of that year, making it the shiny object in American policing. If Grewal truly believed that Jerseyans distrusted their police, he would have to rely on straw arguments and sow discontent within his own rank and file.

Grewal let loose a blitz of media interviews, tweets, and opinion pieces that were an exemplar of virtue signaling. His directives on use of force, body cameras, and police discipline played more into the hands of black blocers than the welfare of the thin blue line. Prim and well-spoken in public, he charmed the woke merchants at The Atlantic and Washington Post, hawking the line that his office was leading the country in police reform. For good measure, he lowered himself to online rants and potshots at the Trump White House, calling the president a huckster and advancing a non sequitur to his Twitter followers that the coronation of Joe Biden predestined the return of democracy to America. Through all of the drivel, his invocation of Floyds name was ubiquitous and foreshadowed an enfilade on the states 36,000 law enforcement professionals.

Dismissing advice from police chiefs and rank and file unions often absent from the discussion, in 2020 Grewal issued two directives with significant impact on the safe conduct of risky police operations. Directive 2021-5 amended the states body camera policy, expanding its use to tactical entry teams, drug sweeps, and other street-level investigative operations. Recording the entry tactics and survival techniques of pre-planned and rehearsed SWAT operations was the functional equivalent of pasting ones battle plan to the inside of a felons door.

The decree also denied officers the ability to review their own body cam footage as an essential means to prepare accurate after-action reports, especially crucial when recounting highly dynamic and emotionally-charged incidents requiring the use of deadly force. Nowhere mentioned in the 27 pages of Grewals new policy were the indisputable psychological and physical manifestations and after-effects of police-involved shootings, during which temporal loss of auditory function and peripheral vision, crippling anxiety, and memory lapses occur. In these supercharged and often arms-length public encounters, officers sharply focus upon threat but often lose awareness of their surroundings. Misrecollections cause unwitting omissions in reports and testimony that not only offer an unfair advantage to felons and their attorneys but also unnecessarily impugns the reputation and credibility of police officers.

Directive 2020-6 ordered every police department in the state to disclose to the public the circumstances and identity of any police officer who was fired, demoted, or suspended for five or more days. In the case of just one department, this disclosure would extend back twenty years and involve almost 500 state troopers, most of whom had long since retired and some deceased. Overturning statute and regulation without recourse or challenge, Grewal reversed hundreds of confidentiality agreements legally struck by previous attorneys general and other state and local prosecutors.

It also mattered little to Grewal that the majority of missteps by his own state-level cops involved administrative infractions and off-duty behavior, such as driving under the influence, minor domestic squabbles, or failure to file reports in a timely fashion. Less than two percent, just eight of 495, involved excessive use of force, the cause celebre of the progressive defund movement and a pretext for urban destruction and cop-shaming by Antifa hobgoblins. The New Jersey State Police, in fact, boasts some of the most stringent ethical and disciplinary standards in the police world, casting a wide net for wrongdoing within the force and setting the bar far higher than most other professions, including law and medicine, where negligence is often settled with sealed court records, hushed payouts, and nondisclosure agreements.

Directive 2020-13 spotlighted police use of force, much of it echoing the best practices already drummed into the heads of Jersey cops through academy curricula and annual refreshers. For instance, when use of force is necessary use as little as possible and as a last resort, never use chokeholds or head strikes until you have to absolutely choke or strike to survive a deadly encounter, dont fire at a moving vehicle unless the driver is hell-bent on using it to kill you, and you should provide medical aid to anyone injured by the use of force. Virtually all of this was turn-of-the-century doctrine to cops; Grewals attempt to rebrand it was self-aggrandizement, at best.

June 2021 was sizing up to be a bad month for Grewal, starting out with the hijinks of a principal deputy attorney general, Brian Biscieglia, who was exposed on Facebook and Twitter for his cop-hating diatribes and fondness for drug cartel leaders. Weeks later, he is apparently still on the payroll, revealing a far greater tolerance by Grewal for the misbehavior of close associates.

On June 29, after resurrecting bygone transgressions by his own office that shut down gay bars between 1933 and 1967, Grewal made the media swoon by scheduling a formal apology to the LGBTQ community in Asbury Park and laying down a permanent marker at the former site of an outlawed business. For New Jersey, not a good moment; to Grewal, a woke opportunity pulled from the dustbin of history.

Hours before arriving in Asbury Park came sudden word that Grewal was resigning to take a federal job, fueling speculation of friction between an authoritarian governor and an attorney general whose more radical brand of progressivism got the bigger headlines. Grewal had sided with forces aligned against the cops, prompted local prosecutors to look away from COVID violations at BLM protests, sought the power to impose state consent decrees upon police departments, supported antiracism training for K-12 school kids, and was suffering a thousand cuts from union lawsuits targeting his policies. His persona had become political baggage too heavy to lift in a gubernatorial election year.

Grewal had used Jersey cops as steppingstones to showcase his liberal qualifications for a Biden appointment to the bench. Instead, hes heading off to rally the guvvies enforcing the rules and regs at the Securities and Exchange Commission. For Grewal, an elephant's burial ground of sorts.

Image: Office of the NJ Attorney General

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There is a growing anger in America. You won't see it on PBS or on the mainstream media. You won't hear it at college orientations. But patriotic America is angry. It is angry at athletes who represent America and then denigrate our national symbols. It is angry at those who justify such despicable behavior by saying everyone has a right to protest. Yes, but if you represent America, perhaps, you should have the good sense not to spit on your country.

It is angry at elites who exported our jobs to China, borrow money from the communists, and then extend them foreign aid. It is angry at being told all whites are racists. It is angry at having a six-year-old first-grade white child being told she is responsible for all the evil in the world. It only has to look at former colonies and ask: what has anti-colonialism wrought? Is Hong Kong better off under China than the British? It is angry that Jan. 6 will be investigated but the street thuggery of BLM and Antifa is immunized from any scrutiny.

It is angry about the violence in the inner city that now spreads to solid middle-class neighborhoods. Patriotic America is the America of traditionalism  of churchgoing believers, of people who serve in the military and the police, of people who are blue-collar workers and lower-middle-class workers. It is primarily white but not exclusively so. It is more likely to be rural than urban. It is eschewed by the Obamas of the world, who see it as clinging to its religion and its guns. It clings to both with pride and conviction.

It is angry about people who become millionaires by selling socialism to the overeducated and misinformed. It awaits mobilization. It sits on the social periphery, abandoned by elites. It awaits a leader. It gets riper each day for mobilization. It will have its day, either in the arena of politics or in the streets, but it will not be denied. It yearns to for a leader, a messianic presence that will lead it to a new millennium. It seeks a savior, for the America that currently exists is seen as destined for perdition.

It is angry at ideologies posing as intellectual theories that are inoculated from being rejected, like so-called "Critical Race Theory," which like Marxism and fascism is an ideology  not a theory. Theories are subject to refutation. Critical Race Theory is not.

It is angry at bringing into this country some immigrants who not only do not share our values, but also seek to destroy us. Unlike elites and the media, when it learns of a random knife attack on innocent people where the perpetrator yells, "Allahu akbar," it doesn't need days to discern the motivation. The elites who do so are laughingstocks who undermine their own legitimacy.

The pursuit of the millennium is part of the human instinct, especially when people feel that their leaders have isolated, denigrated, and abandoned them. When jobs are exported. When elite universities gloat over changing admissions standards and admitting a disproportionate number of nonwhites, they are inadvertently sending a message that further marginalizes whites who do not share these values.

Donald Trump was the incarnation of this anger. He came on the political scene and won the presidency to the shock and disbelief of the political elite class. Yet they never comprehended why he won. They still refuse to see the consequences of their embrace of a politically correct ideology that alienates hundreds of millions of Americans.

We are, perhaps, more divided than we have been since the Civil War, and there is no one on the political stage, in the mass media, or in the institutions of so-called higher education that will bring us together.

The political "deplorables" will be tired of being stigmatized. They will grow tired of seeing their children harassed for the color of their skin. And they will do what all such people have done since time immemorial. They will embrace a political savior who will lead them to a new millennium.

Abraham H. Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati, and a distinguished fellow with the Haym Salomon Center.

Image: Currier & Ives.

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We have seen this movie before. Socialism destroys a country, and its people look for freedom. My parents and the three of us lived it in the mid-1960s.

Check out Venezuela and the people fleeing the wonders of socialism:

Last month, 7,484 Venezuelans were encountered by Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border  more than all 14 years for which records exist. The surprise increase has drawn comparisons to the midcentury influx of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castros communist rule. Its also a harbinger of a new type of migration that has caught the Biden administration off guard: pandemic refugees. Many of the nearly 17,306 Venezuelans who have crossed the southern border illegally since January had been living for years in other South American countries, part of an exodus of nearly 6 million Venezuelans since President Nicolas Maduro took power in 2013. While some are government opponents fearing harassment and jailing, the vast majority are escaping long-running economic devastation marked by blackouts and shortages of food and medicine.

It's the 2021 version of the Cuban Freedom Flights that brought many to the U.S. Between 1965 and 1975, two planes left Havana daily for Miami. They generally brought families who quickly integrated into the successful Cuban economy in South Florida.

It's like watching a remake of the Cuban movie. First, the ones connected with Batista fled. Then came the big wave of people like my parents, who did not want their kids, the three of us, to grow up in a communist country. As I told some college students a few years ago, my parents saw the real face of socialism and communism and did not want that for their children.

Wonder why President Trump carried Florida by big numbers? It was the Cubans and the Venezuelans who became citizens recently.

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

Image: Leo Ramirez, AFP.

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Not for the first time, Ezra Klein, a youthful hipster leftist writer favored by the elites, has said more than he probably intended to.

Get a load of this from Fox News:

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein feels President Biden is making life too difficult for Vice President Kamala Harris and feels she should be given simpler tasks to enhance her reputation, but critics on both sides quickly found problems with his argument. "Kamala Harris will probably be the Democratic nominee in 24 or 28. Biden's team should be giving her portfolios that make it likelier she'll win. Instead they're giving her impossible problems that will likely become liabilities," Klein tweeted.

This seems right. Kamala Harris will probably be the Democratic nominee in 24 or 28. Biden's team should be giving her portfolios that make it likelier she'll win. Instead they're giving her impossible problems that will likely become liabilities. https://t.co/Bd8ATdv6kL  Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) June 29, 2021

This is exactly the same as saying she should be put at the little table. She should be given training wheels. She should be praised for her finger-paint pictures.

She's not up to the job.

It's also kind of funny in that Klein's fellow leftist pundit of the establishment, Tom Friedman of the New York Times, in December 2020, argued this:

Kamala Harris Deserves a More Important Job

But mainly, it's stupid.

Klein's statement is an amazingly idiotic thing to say since he wants to make her president anyway. Why should someone who can't complete presidential tasks be president at all? Someone who can't solve the border crisis and isn't even trying is, in his book, somehow meant for bigger things.

His idea though, is to give her smaller tasks? The way it's done when some incompetent is demoted? Wow.

Harris is a textbook case of someone, in C. Northcote Parkinson's observation, who's reached her "level of incompetence," a level she reached long ago, actually. She's been promoted and promoted, and now she's unable to do her job with any leadership, so she's set to stay just where she is under normal conditions. Achievers get bigger tasks. Underperformers get lesser ones. That's human behavior in any organization. Even bin Laden promoted only the best, from his point of view. China and Russia, whose leaders rule by holding onto power, wouldn't dream of anything as stupid as this, at least on anything important.

Ezra, though, would. By his statement, he seems to be seeking a kakistocracy, rule by the worst instead of the best, with his call to give Harris little tasks more suited to her limited ability, just enough to get her elected in 2024.

After all, Klein seems to think the border surge is intractable. Never mind that President Trump solved it with one hand tied behind his back as leftists gummed up his every effort to fix it with their junk lawsuits and obstructions. Trump fixed it anyway, with great determination, in a model of competent crisis management.

It was only Joe and his idiocies undoing all that Trump achieved that brought the mess we are in. Latin American presidents, in Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere, have repeatedly pointed out this very fact.

Solving the crisis can be done easily by restoring Trump's achievements. But Harris, who is a cog in the administration that created the problem, somehow can't do it. So now the problem is claimed by Klein and others to be "impossible," beyond Harris's capabilities.

Harris actually has no capabilities, and the reason for that is clear enough: every step up the rung of her political ladder was based on sucking up to some older man, not performing well in some job or another.

She got her leg up in politics by serving as Willie Brown's mistress. After that, she got cozy with Barack Obama. She was pals with unlikeable Hillary Clinton. She was always looking for her next job, as those in her circle have told the press. Now that there's just Joe, with his vindictive wife Jill probably leaking on her (as Andrea Widburg in this terrific post noted), those tactics don't work anymore. She's out of tricks now but holds the strategic high ground. She's now Biden's apparent chosen successor, so there's no getting rid of her. She's just waiting now for the passage of time to have the presidency handed to her, which explains her lack of interest in accomplishing anything serious.

So she doesn't have a single success to her name. Her successes are in charming older men to get better jobs, not in governing well with a track record to show for it.

So now Klein wants her to have some little tasks in order to claim some kind of record of achievement. He knows there's a problem. yet he's convinced she must be president anyway, perhaps to make him feel virtuous for electing a "historic first."

He can't bring himself to admit that maybe Kamala herself is the problem. And now it's getting embarrassing.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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On June 29, the San Jose City Council unanimously passed ordinances requiring "every gun owner to buy liability insurance coverage for their firearms" and also to "pay a fee to compensate taxpayers for the emergency medical and police responses to gun-related injuries and deaths," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. San Jose is the first city in the United States to enact such a radical  and preposterously unconstitutional  anti-gun stance.

Shortly before the vote, an organization called the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation (PIRE) released a preliminary report stating that gun violence in San Jose costs the city approximately $442 million annually. Officials have yet to decide on the amount of the fee that legal gun-owners will now be forced to pay.

Predictably, far-left Democratic mayor Sam Liccardo praised the measures and reportedly argued that gun-owners who refuse to comply with the new laws would have their weapons seized. Liccardo issued a statement reading: "While the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms, it does not require taxpayers to subsidize gun ownership. We won't magically end gun violence, but we will stop paying for it."



San Jose City Council debated the law on a Zoom virtual meeting.

YouTube screen grab.

Everything about the measures is tyrannical and counterproductive. The unprecedented ordinances are sure to be challenged in court by firearm rights groups. One such group, the Firearms Policy Coalition, has already planned legal action. The FPC put out a statement reading in part:

All states and local governments must comply with the Bill of Rights and Fourteenth Amendment, period. The days of governments doing whatever they wish to impose expansive, unconstitutional gun control laws are numbered. We will work tirelessly to bring your tyrannical efforts to a crashing halt, and are committed to restoring human liberty and freedom using every available resource. If San Jose adopts Mayor Liccardo's outrageous and unconstitutional gun control proposals, we will not hesitate to challenge the City's policies in federal litigation and take every possible action to block their enforcement.

The gun rights group went on to refute each piece of the council's (10-point) plan, explaining why each specific measure is unconstitutional.

Legal firearm-owners must reimburse taxpayers for emergency medical and police responses to gun-related injuries and deaths? The vast majority of legal gun-owners are taxpayers themselves, unlike many others in the city. And legal gun ownership prevents far more crime, injuries, death, property destruction, and monetary loss than it causes.

Is the San Jose City Council also going to enact laws forcing spoon-owners to pay for the staggering costs that obesity inflicts on society? If spoon owners refuse to comply, will they have their beloved spoons seized by the city? Or will those like Nancy Pelosi, who own wildly expensive freezers specifically designated to hold their vast collections of custom ice creams, have to pay for these costs? California is wine country, but why shouldn't those with a wine cellar have to pay for the terrible costs of alcoholism? Or those who own a shot glass?

In reality (a scary place Democrats/progressives/leftists never visit), it's the city council's own policies  and other leftist lunatics' policies on a local and national basis  that cause the destruction of the family, breakdown of morality, dismissal of religion, subsidizing of immoral and destructive behavior, and punishment of traditional Judeo-Christian values that lead to the poverty, addiction, soullessness, and hopelessness that cause crime. Oh, and defunding the police doesn't help, either. It isn't rocket science. In fact, it's a simple case of good versus evil.

If our elite progressive rulers were actually worried about "justice," they would be compensating taxpayers, preferably by not using the money they take from them to make things worse. If they really wanted to be social justice warriors, they would resign. Or become conservatives.

Until they do, the rest of us need to stick to our guns.

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Recently, Tucker Carlson uncovered evidence that the National Security Agency (NSA) was reading his personal emails. He was given information from a whistleblower who provided convincing evidence that his personal communications were being monitored.

Rather than shrinking away, Tucker Carlson chose to attack the NSA head-on to publicize their subterfuge. He publicly announced that the NSA was spying on him during his evening newscast, and the following day, the NSA issued this misleading statement:

On June 28, 2021 Tucker Carlson alleged that the National Security Agency has been "monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air." This allegation is untrue. Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air. NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.

The NSA is actively gaslighting the American public. In their statement referring to a quote from Tucker Carlson's show the NSA claims: "This allegation is untrue."

Except the NSA is misleading the reader because the Tucker Carlson statement they quote refers to three allegations united together:

"monitoring our electronic communications" "planning to leak them" "in an attempt to take this show off the air."

If any one of these three allegations is not precisely correct, then the misleading statement from the NSA claiming that the "allegation" is untrue is technically correct. For instance, the NSA could truthfully claim:

"The NSA is not planning to leak the information we are gathering illegally. The information will be passed to another federal agency which will leak the information." "The NSA is not attempting to take the Tucker Carlson show off the air. Another government agency will handle that."

The NSA statement continues: "Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency."

Of course, Tucker Carlson was not an intelligence target, but the NSA is not saying it did not read his emails. The monitoring of his communications was not intelligence-related; it was purely malicious.

The NSA is a truly evil and disgusting entity that is infringing on the rights and privacy of American citizens. The NSA could have issued a simple statement saying, "We never monitored Tucker Carlson's emails," but they chose not to. They did not because they could not honestly make that statement.



The domestic spying capability of the NSA needs to be eradicated. There is no place and no rationale within our government to justify spying on the American public. This is not a partisan issue: politically this cuts both ways against the interests of all American citizens regardless of their political party.

It is a crime for ordinary citizens to lie to the FBI or to lie to Congress. Government officials should be held to the same standard: FBI officials, congressional members, NSA officials, and all government employees should be locked up if they lie to the American people.

Image: NSA.

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After years of prosecutors targeting Trump in search of a crime, Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "surrendered early Thursday to New York authorities for arraignment in the first criminal indictment arising from a two-year investigation into the former president's company," according to the AP.

The charges relate to paying perks for executives without showing those perks on their W-2 forms and paying income taxes and payroll taxes on those perks.

I bet the WaPo, NYT, and other media outlets will have trouble finding those charges against other corporations, so I am sure they will advocate for going after all corporations and entities for this crime because they always want equal treatment under the law, don't they?

All corporations, including the WaPo and the NYT, should now be investigated to make sure that no executives ever get free stuff, like country club dues or special transportation, without paying income and payroll taxes.

Since the Trump organization got in trouble for paying private tuition, every university that gives free or subsidized tuition to its administrators and professors will now be charged with a crime, and the perk will be cut off. Does anyone think that will happen?

Every airline that gives free flights to its employees and family members will have to stop giving that perk, won't it, since there is no legitimate business purpose for that expense?

Pelosi and other members of Congress will now have to pay full freight every time a family member goes on a flight on a government-owned plane. Why do taxpayers have to pay for this largesse in the first place?

The bill to Joe Biden and the government will be massive for all the flights Hunter took on Air Force 2 as he was going overseas to line up as many kickbacks as he could from foreign countries and companies. After all, Joe said he never talked with Hunter about anything concerning his business dealings, so there is no way his presence on all those flights could have had any legitimate business purpose.

Donald Trump must be extremely clean because, after years of targeted investigations by the IRS, the FBI, the media, Congress, and N.Y. prosecutors, this is all they could come up with. That is clearly evidence that this was a witch hunt in search of a crime instead of an investigation because there was evidence of a crime.

The DNC and Hillary campaign committees were having so much trouble finding dirt on Trump that they had to pay a foreign national over $10 million to create a fictional dossier to destroy him. The media and other Democrats even had to create the lies about Russian collusion in their efforts to take Trump out. There was never one piece of evidence of Russian collusion, but since Trump's low-tax, smaller-government policies were very popular and were lifting people of all races and all education levels up, he had to be destroyed. After all, the media and other Democrats care about power, not great results, so they had to intentionally mislead the public.

If the FBI, state prosecutors, the IRS, and the intelligence agencies spent their time doing their jobs instead of spending a significant amount of time and resources targeting their political opponents, the government would be much more efficient, and taxpayers would save a lot of money.

Most of the media will still pretend that there is nothing political about the Obama and Biden administrations' IRS and FBI and that the N.Y. prosecutor is honest. I bet if the N.Y. prosecutor's office looked for a few minutes at the Clinton Foundation, it might find inappropriate payments and activity.

Hillary, Biden, Lois Lerner, Comey, McCabe, Holder, and others could violate as many laws as they liked with no repercussions, but the Trump organization is charged with paying inappropriate perks? As the media and other Democrats continue to pretend no one is above the law.

Photo credit: President of Ukraine, CC-BY-4.0.

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Throughout history Man has shown extraordinary imagination in inventing penalties and sentences for crimes committed by fellow man. The Romans in particular had an almost theatrical quality in the way these punishments were dolled out. One of the worst was reserved for parricidethe killing of a parent in which the prisoner was placed in a sack with several live animals and thrown into the water: the poena cullei, or penalty of the sack.

The German philosopher Erich Fromm said that we are "the only animal that enjoys doing evil to its own kind without any rational biological or social benefit". But sometimes there was, and still is, a moral pretext: the defense of society. Aristotle himself affirms in his work Politics that the most necessary public position is that of a jailer, while Pio Baroja, through the mouth of a character in his novel La lucha por la vida, equated the office of executioner with those of priest, military and magistrate, as supports of society.

In this sense, patricide was considered a particularly infamous crime in ancient Rome (and earlier in Greece, as evidenced by the myth of Oedipus or the harshness with which Solon treated it), where the character of Tulia the Less was a figure of unfortunate memory. As almost everything in the monarchical stage, history and legend intertwine and there remains a mixed narrative of how the youngest daughter of the sixth king, Servius Tullius, not only participated in the conspiracy to assassinate her father and get her second husband, the future Tarquinius the Superb, to ascend the throne, but also desecrated his corpse by driving over it with a chariot.

It must be understood that the Roman family was the basic cell of society; it was a vast institution that grouped the members of the family, but also those adopted and even servants, and was under the absolute authority of the pater familias, whose patria potestas allowed him to dispose of the lives of all those dependent on him. Therefore, to kill him was revealed as an atrocious act in the personal but also in the social sphere and the state had to act accordingly. The Lex duodecim tabularum (Law of the XII of Tables) defined parricide as the voluntary homicide of parents by their children.

A 1560 sketch showing capital punishment.

But this legislative corpus was made in the middle of the 5th century B.C. and, with time, the section referring to this type of crime was expanded. For example, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, consul between 88 and 80 BC. (with a period of dictatorship from 81 to 80 B.C.), extended the possible liability to other relatives in addition to offspring. And the Lex Pompeia de parricidiis, established by Pompey in 55 B.C., did the same with potential victims, going from being only parents to stepparents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, spouses, cousins, in-laws, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, stepchildren and even employers.

Those who fell outside these categories were governed by the general Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis, which remained almost unchanged since the XII Tables and punished murder with banishment. Likewise, according to Herennius Modestinus (a Roman jurist of the 3rd century A.D.), the Lex Pompeia could be used to accuse parricide in reverse, that is, parents who murdered their children, grandparents who did so with their grandchildren or even anyone who bought poison with the intention of killing their parent, even if they did not actually do it.

Once the crime has been clarified, how does the corresponding punishment arise? It is possible that the origins of the poena cullei date back to the monarchic period. During the reign of Tarquinius the Superb, one of the duumviri sacrorum (priests) Marcus Atilius, appointed to guard the Sibylline Books, revealed some of their secrets. This was a sacrilege because these books were an anthology of prophecies dictated by the Sibyl of Cumae and were consulted every time Rome faced a difficult situation to seek possible solutions, so they were forbidden to the public. Consequently, Atilius was condemned to be thrown into the sea inside a sewn sack.

Now, what does that have to do with patricide? Nothing really, unless we believe Dionysius of Halicarnassus, according to whom Atilius was also condemned for parricide. Other authors are of the opinion that he simply took advantage later of that form of execution because his extravagant character went well to exemplify. Plutarch places the date after the Second Punic War and gives the name of Lucius Hostius as the first documented parricide of Rome, although he does not explain how he was executed; before, the death of a father at the hands of his son would be considered a homicide more, generically.

When it began to give differential category to that type of crime, it would have resorted to the atavistic method of delivering the culprit to the family of the deceased; but being the same, it became necessary to also devise a different punishment. This must have begun towards the end of the third century B.C.; according to some historians, perhaps because of the social disorders that arose among the Romans as a result of the invasion of the Italian peninsula by the Carthaginian Hannibal. They even believe to see in certain passages of Plautus, at the beginning of the following century, humorous references to the introduction of the poena cullei.

Of course, Marcus Attilius was not the only one to go down in history dying in such an ignominious way. Plutarch also describes the case of a certain Gaius Vilius, who was condemned for having supported the reforms of the Gracchi and who was executed by being locked inside a vase with snakes inside. A variant that preceded by a few decades the one that Titus Livius is considered to be the first to be executed for parricide in the way that would last from then on: Publicius Maleolus, who, having been found guilty of murdering his mother around 100 B.C., was condemned to be put inside a closed sack and thrown "into a stream of water".

The case of Maleolus is described by various sources and none of them mentions that animals were also introduced with the prisoner, which confirms the current belief that this was a later addition of the first imperial stage. The description that can be read in the Rhetorica ad Herennium (Rhetoric to Herennius, an anonymous philosophical treatise dated approximately 90 B.C.), does provide other details, such as that Maleolus' head was covered with a wolf-skin bag and soleae lignae (wooden clogs or shoes) were put on him, objects that were intended to isolate the culprit from the world.

However, Cicero (to whom the Rhetoric to Herennius was erroneously attributed for a long time) objects in his De inventione that the head bag was made of simple leather, perhaps a wineskin. Cicero speaks several times of poena cullei in his writings. For example, in the vibrant speech with which he defended Sextus Roscius against the accusation of murdering his father (in reality it was a personal vendetta in which Roscius himself almost died after his father), Cicero criticized the system of execution, and incidentally, obtained the acquittal of his client.

Suetonius says that it was Augustus who formally authorized the poena cullei, although in practice it was already applied, as we saw, and since then it became habitual; so much so that, according to Seneca, in the time of Claudius they saw "more sacks than crosses", from which it would be necessary to deduce that the parricides proliferated. That parricide had become more frequent than desirable has its icing on the cake in the death of Agrippina at the hands of her son Nero.

Suetonius attributes to the emperor the death of her young lover, Aulus Plautius, suspecting that she wanted to replace him on the throne; later, he adds, he did the same to her under the influence of his wife, Poppaea Sabina, fulfilling an ancient prophecy that foretold that he would be emperor but would kill his mother, to which she would have replied "Occidat, dum imperet!" (Let him kill me as long as he reigns!).

Regardless of whether these facts are true or not, as also happens with the life of the reviled Caligula (Suetonius, one of the main sources for both, belonged to the senatorial class and in that period the Senate struggled not to lose its power before the growing imperial authority), and returning to what concerns us, Juvenal wrote that Nero deserved more punishment than to end up in a sack. Something that Suetonius endorses again when he narrates how, after the emperor's suicide, a statue of him appeared partially covered with a culleum and accompanied by a writing that read "I did what I could. But you deserve the sack!"

The poena cullei was not only a form of execution. It constituted a whole ritual full of symbols, although not all were incorporated at the same time. Some had antecedents as old as Pharaonic Egypt, where the parricide was martyred by cutting off pieces of flesh with sharpened reeds ad hoc and then burning him on thorns. In this sense, the aforementioned Modestino narrates how the prisoner was whipped with the virgae sanguinae (blood sticks, so called because of their function or perhaps because they were previously dyed red), before his head was covered, the clogs were put on him and he was introduced into the sack, whose opening was then sewn; in this way, he was deprived of seeing the sky before dying.

The extra element of the animals inside the sack did not arrive until imperial times. It was precisely Seneca's father who testified to the novelty of the introduction of snakes with the prisoner (specifically a viper, a species believed to kill its parents at birth), while the poet Juvenal, a little later, did the same with respect to a monkey, which embodied madness and was considered a caricatured version of the human being. It is not clear at what point the rest of the fauna appeared, a rooster (metaphor of ferocity and violence against its own parents) and a dog (representative of rabies, a despicable animal for the Romans).

In the second century A.D., under Hadrian, we find another faunal element, although not inside the sack: a pair of black oxen pulled the cart that transported the prisoner and his peculiar prison to the water. This had a double meaning; on the one hand, the culprit of such a horrendous crime was deprived of land where he could rest in peace and, on the other hand, the human and animal remains would end up mixed for his eternal dishonor, all of this sifted by the purifying quality attributed to water in the Roman world.

However, with Hadrian the poena cullei fell into disuse and became optional; there were other alternatives such as buried alive or in a damnatio ad bestias (that is, being devoured by wild beasts) in the arena of the amphitheater, although it seems that it applied mainly to lower-class people and it is also unclear whether the condemned could defend themselves (damnatio ad bestias proper) or awaited their terrible end tied up (obicere bestiis). It is possible that this was to make things easier if there was no body of water nearby.

However, in the third century Constantine revitalized the ceremonialhe was the one who brought the dog and the rooster without considering it incompatible with the new Christian faith. In fact, it was even extended, for in the following century Constantius and Constantius included the penalty for adultery and added a fish, symbol of lust, to the sack. The same happened with Justinian three centuries later, since in his Institutiones (an introduction to the legislative compilation he made under the title Corpus iuris civilis) the poena cullei is reflected with all its paraphernalia, including animals. Nevertheless, the Basilika (the legal corpus of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise) shows that in the ninth century it no longer existed and had been replaced by the stake.

This did not prevent it from being briefly resurrected in the Middle Ages. For example, it appears in the Siete Partidas (a legislative body introduced in 13th century Castile by King Alfonso X) and with all the characteristics (sack, animals, water), although over time it tended to be carried out only metaphorically: the condemned was dragged to the scaffold in a seron dragged by some beast of burden (something that continued to be done until the middle of the 19th century) and then his corpse was introduced into a bucket that had a dog, a monkey, a rooster and a snake painted on it, and which was simulated to be thrown into the water before burial.

But where it really survived was in medieval and modern Germany, as evidenced in the 12th century by the Sassen Speyghel (Saxon Mirror), the most important penal code of the Germanic Middle Ages. There were some differences, however: the rooster was not included, and the serpent was represented only pictorially on a piece of paper and the monkey was replaced with a cat, often separated from the prisoner by a sewn cloth. Moreover, the sack was not made of leather but of linen, which facilitated death by drowning rather than by asphyxiation. This meant shortening the suffering, something that was sometimes sought and sometimes not.

A case is recorded in Dresden in which a leather sack waterproofed with pitch was used to make the agony of its occupant last longer. But the sack burst open when it hit water, and the animals were able to escape. The condemned, however, presumably tied, drowned and got his punishment. The last time this punishment was meted out in 1734, somewhere in Saxony. However, according to some sources, it could have been the Saxonian city Zittau, where the last case is alleged to have happened in 1749. In 1761 the poena cullei was definitively abolished.

This article was originally published in La Brujula Verde. It has been translated from Spanish and republished with permission.




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(Photo courtesy Andover Center for History & Culture) The America House at 147 Main St. dates to 1825. Seven years later, Samuel F. Smith wrote the words to the patriotic song America while living at the house as a student at the Andover Theological Seminary. Smith set the words to a German tune in a book he was translating, which also happened to be the melody to God Save the King.
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(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 1 - A 49-year-old man was found guilty of raping a woman over 14 years ago by a Milan judge on Thursday after DNA testing helped solve the cold case.

The man, an Algerian national, raped and robbed the woman in the centre of Milan in August 2006 and was sentenced to 13 years, four months in jail at the end of a fast-track trial.

He was identified with the help of genetic analysis and the fact that the victim still recognised him and he was arrested on January 16. (ANSA).


(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, 01 LUG - A large new art space opened on Thursday in the Dubai Mall titled "Infinity of LIghts", which will be the largest digital art gallery in the country.



The 2,700-square-metre space was created through a collaboration between InfinityArt and Culturespaces Digital.



The immersive digital art experience utilises 130 projectors, 58 loudspeakers and 3,000 high-definition images.



The magazine "What's On" said the space, with its technology and digital platforms, will contribute to Dubai's image as a city of the future.



The work of Vincent Van Gogh will be on display along with a projection of "Dreamed Japan", Japanese decorative art projected on a 3,300-square-metre surface, including walls and floor.



The artwork will be shown completely through seven-foot-tall projectors that visitors can walk through, bringing to life colours, sounds, movement and rhythm.



"We are happy to bring this impressive way of showing art in an immersive manner," said Luc Archambeaud, head of business development at Culturespaces.



"For the first time, residents of this region of the world and tourists will have the opportunity to take a multi-sensory journey, seeing art come to life around them". (ANSAmed).
Turkey withdraws from Istanbul Convention, women protest Decree by Erdogan goes into effect today

(ANSA) - ISTANBUL, 01 LUG - Various demonstrations are planned for Thursday afternoon in Turkey to protest against the country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention against violence against women.



The country's withdrawal from the Convention goes into effect on Thursday after the decree issued in March by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.



The protests were organised by the platform of associations that have been waging a months-long campaign to defend the Convention.



The main protest is planned in Istanbul in the Tunel area, not far from Taksim Square.



The initiatives by the organisations of Turkish women began after the decree was issued, which established Turkey's withdrawal from the Council of Europe Convention on the prevention and fight against violence against women and domestic violence.



It is known as the Istanbul Convention because it was first signed in 2011 in the Turkish city.



Turkey is the first country to withdraw from the Convention, after having been the first to ratify it.



In addition to the NGOs, the country's opposition parties are also against the withdrawal, denouncing the risk of a further worsening of gender violence in Turkey.



The country's Council of State, however, rejected appeals to annul Erdogan's decree.



According to the Turkish platform "We Will Stop Femicide", last year at least 300 women were killed, the majority by their husbands, partners or family members; and 171 others were found dead in suspicious circumstances.



Based on a report presented in the Turkish Parliament by the country's interior ministry, in addition, there were a total of 73,000 verified cases of domestic violence in the first four years of 2021. (ANSA).




New DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has vowed to unite the party after several weeks of turbulence.

Sir Jeffrey also said he expected the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to right the wrong of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Lagan Valley MP was confirmed as new party leader following a meeting of the DUP ruling executive in Belfast.

The partys 130-strong executive met at the La Mon Hotel to approve the appointment on Wednesday.

Sir Jeffrey, the partys 58-year-old Westminster leader, was the only candidate to put his name forward for the DUP leadership after the dramatic resignation of Edwin Poots earlier this month.

Speaking to the media after he was confirmed as leader, Sir Jeffrey said: What we have seen tonight is our party coming together, healing, uniting, looking to the future and drawing a line under what has happened in the past.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaks to the media after he was ratified as DUP leader (Liam McBurney/PA)

There are many challenges ahead but I am confident now that the DUP will face those challenges together.

I am confident that the party will now build towards the Assembly elections and I intend to work to ensure that once again the Democratic Unionist Party prevails in the election.

I intend over the coming weeks and months to get out, into and across Northern Ireland, to meet with people, listen to what people have to say, understand their concerns and then we will seek to address those concerns.

The new leader referred to recent internal divisions within the party which were laid bare after successive revolts deposed former leader Arlene Foster and her successor, Mr Poots.

Mr Poots demise came only weeks after he narrowly defeated Sir Jeffrey in the leadership contest to succeed Mrs Foster.

Sir Jeffrey said: There has been a lot of talking, I have spent time over the past few days talking quietly to colleagues, including Edwin (Poots).

Edwin Poots leaving the La Mon hotel, Belfast, after the ruling executive of the Democratic Unionist Party ratified Sir Jeffrey Donaldson as the new party leader (Liam McBurney/PA)

There have been things we have said to each other, recognising the hurt that has been caused. I think that has been good, it has been cathartic for the party and I think there is now a united determination. There is a desire to unite, to draw together, because in our unity is our strength.

Sir Jeffrey also referred to the ongoing row over the Northern Ireland Protocol after a High Court ruling on Wednesday said that it conflicts with legislation that created the United Kingdom but is still lawful.

He said: I have said to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons that the Protocol doesnt just impact on trade, it impacts on our constitution. The Government has a duty to put right what has been done.

At the heart of the agreement which protects the peace process is the principle of consent. I expect the Prime Minister to put right this wrong, I expect the Prime Minister to take the action that is required to restore our place within the UK.

The new leader has made clear his intent to return from Westminster to assume the First Ministers job at Stormont.

However, the timeline for that move remains unclear. He would have to trigger a parliamentary by-election in Lagan Valley in order to re-enter the Assembly and it is unclear whether he would want to prompt such a contest in the near future, given the DUPs recent poor poll ratings.

Sir Jeffrey is due to make his first keynote speech as party leader on Thursday.
Children from most ethnic minority backgrounds missed more sessions of school in England during the autumn of last year than their white counterparts due to Covid-19, new figures suggest.

Nearly one in 10 (9.2%) Asian pupils were absent from school due to coronavirus-related circumstances  the highest of all the major ethnic minority groups, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).

Mixed race pupils had absence rates of 7.3% and black pupils 7.2%, compared with 6.6% for white pupils.

In further detail, the DfE said pupils from Gypsy/Roma and Pakistani ethnic groups had the highest levels of absences, with rates of 10.9% and 10.8% respectively.

This compared to 7.0% across all pupils.

Chinese pupils were the least likely to miss school, with 6.1% recorded as absent due to the virus.

Overall rates of non-attendance were not hugely different, with 4.7% of white pupils missing school compared with 5.1% of mixed race pupils, 4.5% of Asian pupils, 3.7% of black pupils and 2.7% of Chinese pupils.

Pupils returned to school full-time in September (Ben Birchall/PA)

Millions of children returned to school full-time in September after being home schooled for several months due to the pandemic.

A week later, dozens of schools in England and Wales were forced to close again after pupils and teachers tested positive and had to self-isolate.

Rising case numbers led to a tier system being established across England and a circuit-breaker lockdown being held in November.

The nation then went into lockdown for a third time in January.

In May, research conducted by scientists found South Asian communities in England experienced greater levels of Covid-19 infection and severe disease compared to other minority ethnic groups during the second wave of the pandemic.

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The findings, published in the journal Lancet, were based on 17 million adults in England and tracked data from September to December 2020.

Separately on Thursday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the latest figures from its school infection survey.

These suggested that among a small sample of schools in England, 0.65% of primary school pupils and 0.05% of secondary school pupils tested positive for Covid-19 between May 5 and 21.

The sample was based on 142 schools in 14 local authorities, 131 of which returned no positive cases among participants tested as part of the study.
US investor Elliott Management has called for GlaxoSmithKline to appoint a new board which can decide whether Dame Emma Walmsley is the best person to lead the business into the future.

The drugs giant is set to be split next year into a consumer healthcare division and the so-called New GSK, which includes its pharmaceuticals and vaccines arms.

GSK has promised to appoint more directors with biopharmaceuticals and scientific experience to the board of New GSK; however Elliott has urged it to do this before the split.

This would allow the board to choose the best possible leadership for the two new companies, Elliott said, adding that it has a list of potential candidates it is prepared to share.

To be clear, we believe that existing management should remain in place until a decision is made regarding future leadership, the investor said.

But it added: Elliott strongly believes that the future CEOs of New GSK and CH (consumer healthcare) must have the skillsets and expertise to match their respective tasks at hand.

The comment was widely interpreted as a question about current chief executive Dame Emma.

Her background is in consumer healthcare  she was the boss of that division before becoming GSK chief executive  rather than pharmaceuticals.

Last week Dame Emma said she would not talk about all the things Im not, which others have already covered.

Let me tell you what I am I am a change agent, I am a business leader, and I am very excited about the new plans for a New GSK that were laying out today, she said.

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Although it was a poorly kept secret, Thursdays letter is the first time that Elliott has publicly said it has a major stake in GSK.

It further called on the company to link a substantial part of managers pay to financial targets.

This could include revenue growth targets, but also research and development milestones which will benefit shareholders in the long run, Elliott said.

The investor said GSK should not rule out selling its consumer healthcare division instead of managements plan to hand it over to shareholders as a new listed business.

Money from a sale could pay down debt or buy back shares from investors, Elliott added.

If such opportunities arise in the next few months, we urge the board to evaluate them impartially against the default spin and sell-down plan announced in the investor update, it said.

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GSK said it is already working towards fixing many of the issues that Elliott raised in its letter.

We set out on 23 June an ambitious plan to deliver a step-change in performance and realise significant value for GSK shareholders over the next decade, it said.

We believe our shareholders are supportive of this strategy, and that they are focused on GSK executing on it without distraction or delay. This is our clear priority.

We will respond to Elliotts letter more fully in due course.
Government efforts to level up funding for education have resulted in cuts to the money going to the most deprived schools, the Whitehall spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said since the introduction of a national funding formula for England there had been a relative redistribution of resources to schools in better-off areas.

In contrast, it said, almost 60% of the most deprived fifth of schools had seen a real terms reduction in Government funding since 2017-18.

While schools in poorer areas continue to receive more support than those in better-off parts of the country, the NAO said the gap was narrowing and questioned whether the formula was leading to a fair allocation of resources.

The findings are potentially embarrassing for Boris Johnson who shortly after entering Downing Street in July 2019 announced an increase funding under the formula with the aim of levelling up education funding and giving all young people the same opportunities to succeed.

The formula, first introduced in 2018-19, brought in minimum per-pupil funding levels, but because most schools with high levels of deprivation were already receiving above the minimum threshold they did not see any increase.

However, under the formula, more than one in three of the least deprived fifth of schools (37.1%) did get a rise. In all, in 2020-21 an additional 266 million was allocated to 3,150 schools  none in the poorest fifth.

The NAO said that since 2017-18, average per-pupil funding for the most deprived fifth of schools has fallen in real terms by 1.2% to 5,177, while for the least deprived fifth it has risen by 2.9% to 4,471.

Cities with high levels of deprivation, such as Nottingham and Birmingham, as well as most London boroughs, saw cuts while local authorities with relatively low levels of deprivation in the South West, the East Midlands and the South East received increases of around 1%.

Boris Johnson promised to level up funding for education (Paul Ellis/PA)

In all, 58.3% of the fifth most deprived schools suffered a real terms per pupil funding cut, including 83.6% of those Inner London.

While overall funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to schools rose from 36.2 billion in 2014-15 to 43.4 billion 2020-21, an increase in pupil numbers meant it amounted to a real terms per pupil increase of just 0.4%.

At the same time the DfE estimated that between 2015-16 and 2019-20, cost pressures on schools outstripped funding increases by 2.2 billion, mainly because of rising staff costs.

The head of the NAO Gareth Davies said: The Department for Education has met its objective of making the way it allocates school funding more transparent and consistent. However, it is less clear whether it has met its objective of allocating funding fairly.

Although more deprived areas and schools continue to receive more per-pupil funding than those that are less deprived, the difference in funding has narrowed.

The department must evaluate whether this funding model is matching resources to need.
Author: Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan, Sinologist (ex-Diplomat), Editor, Analyst, Non-Resident Fellow of CCG (Center for China and Globalization), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan. (E-mail: awanzamir@yahoo.com).

A century ago, on 1 July 1921, CPC was established in Shanghai, under circumstances where China was facing enormous challenges. The ruling elite Nationalist Party (Guo Min Dang) was unable to pull China out of the crisis. Colonization was at its peak, Japan was strong & aggressive, and the whole Western world was against China. It was the CPC who took the initiative to change the fate of China. After a long struggle, it resulted in the liberation of China and the establishment of the "People's Republic of China" on 1 October 1949. It was a miracle and mega achievement of CPC.

Under the outstanding leadership of Chairman Mao, the political reforms were introduced and completed successfully till 1978.

China entered into a new stage in 1978, "Economic Reforms and Open Door Policies," under the visionary leadership of Deng Xiao Ping. CPC turned the impossible into tremendous achievements, and China emerged as the second-largest economy. I was studying in China in 1980-1987, the early days of reforms and opening up, and eye witness China's rapid economic development. As a general rule of thumb, any country needs Capital, Technology, and Human resources to develop quickly. Unfortunately in China at that time was lacking Capital, lacking technology, and also lacking highly qualified Human resources. But, the CPC was determined to boost the economy and worked hard. China introduced flexible and attractive investment policies to overcome the Capital issue. China sent millions of youth to the world's best Universities to train high-quality Human Resources as well as to acquire the latest technologies. CPC succeeded in its economic reforms and opening-up policies, and China rapidly developed to the Second Largest Economy in the world.

In2020, the sudden broke-out of COVID-19 was another mega challenge. It was a new virus, and little knowledge was available in the world. Under the visionary leadership, CPC worked hard, studied the genomics of the virus, and implemented strict measures to overcome the outbreak. Today, China is the first country who defeated the COVID-19 and heling the rest of the world in their struggle to overcome the Pandemic. The credit goes to CPC.

Eradication of poverty from China and lifting almost 800 million people from the poverty line was not easy. The uninterrupted hard work of CPC succeeded in achieving the status of a moderate prosper society, a decade ahead of its target set in 2030. Applause CPC again.

How can the CPC make the impossible into possible?

Based on Marxism, Leninism, Mao Ze Dong Thought, and Deng Xiao Ping's theory, President Xi Jin Ping, who is also the Secretary-General of CPC and Chairman of Military Commission, evolved "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," which is the biggest climax of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and an extraordinary contribution to the Party's development.

This critical Thought represents the newest achievement in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and is a vital component of the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The advancement of the Thought into the Party's guiding principle is of great political, theoretical and practical significance. All-Party members are called for studying hard Xi's "new era" approach in terms of its traditional background, scientific system, and functional requirement.

The approach on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era builds on. Further, it improves Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development. The new Thought brings the understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics to a new height, and it turns into a new era.

As China enters into a new stage of development, the CPC must write a new chapter of the 21st-century. That is Marxism with a broader vision to achieve its goals of basically realizing socialist modernization in the first stage from 2020 to 2035, before developing China into a "great modern socialist country" that is "prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful" after another 15 years. CPC has a history of making impossible into possible. It is expected that CPC will resolve all-new challenges and succeed in achieving the next goals, and overcome any difficulty in their way to move forward.

Availing this opportunity, I would invite the whole world to join the happy and joyful celebration of the 100th anniversary of founding the CPEC. Many activities are being organized, and everywhere there is an environment of festival in China. On behalf of people of Pakistan, we share the excitement and joys of the celebration with Chinese brothers and sisters equally and sincerely wish them all the best and good luck in their future endeavors. Wish the traditional friendship between China and Pakistan to grow further.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
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The government was not giving priority to the medical sector or issues of immediate concern, CJI said

Studies, Justice Ramana said, had shown that knowledge and awareness was negligible in rural India on diabetes. (PTI)

Hyderabad: Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said huge economic losses inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic on India, and across the globe, should wake us up to the reality that there is no substitute for a free and universal public healthcare system that focuses on disease prevention.

The government, the Chief Justice of India said, was not giving priority to the medical sector or issues of immediate concern.

Launching the Defeat Diabetes campaign by the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India on Thursday, Justice Ramana, in a virtual address, said if diabetes was to be battled effectively, the state had to come up with a comprehensive policy framework in which awareness campaign became a part of diabetes eradication endeavours.

For the programme to be successful, it needs to be integrated into a free and universal public healthcare system. Left to individuals, we will never reach the goal, Justice Ramana said.

On the rising diabetes cases in India, he said, One must pause and wonder about the implications of this on the already strained healthcare system in the country. Formulating public healthcare policies based on intense scientific research is needed.

Studies, Justice Ramana said, had shown that knowledge and awareness was negligible in rural India on diabetes. The knowledge gap leads to myths like it is the obese, those who consume more sugar, are the ones who get the disease, or that it is contagious and the one that says women are immune to the disease.

Where there is room for myths, there is room for quackery. Quackery is the biggest disease affecting India. Quackery begins where awareness ends, he said.

Quoting the Telugu saying Aarogyamey mahabhagyam, the Chief Justice of India said it was the universal truth that health was wealth. Any investment is justified to acquire this wealth because only a healthy nation can become a wealthy nation, he said.

Here are a few thoughts and facts for all stakeholders to ponder over, he said, adding, Our doctors are being attacked while on duty. Why is it that our medical professionals are at the receiving end for someone elses failure?

This, the Chief Justice said, was because of insufficient number of medical professionals, insufficient infrastructure, lack of medicines and outdated technologies. The government was not giving priority to the medical sector or issues of immediate concern, he said.

Justice Ramana also said it was saddening to see how a good qualified doctor cannot start a hospital on his own and survive. Why is profiteering by corporators being blamed on doctors? After years of learning, doctors struggle to get decent salaries. The medical bodies and concerned agencies in the government should put their heads together to address these concerns, he added.

Only then, the Chief Justice of India said, can we sincerely greet the doctors on the first of July every year.

Calling doctors living Gods, Justice Ramana said no other professional could render sacrifices as valuable as those made by doctors. IMA data suggested that more than 798 doctors lost their lives in the second wave of pandemic, he said, adding that his heartfelt sympathies were with the families of medical professionals and health workers who lost their lives while saving the lives of patients during the pandemic.
Shaik Ahmed of Hyderabad, had kidnapped a minor, Class 6 student of St Marys High School, Rezimental Bazaar, Secunderabad in 2011

New Delhi: If an abducted person is not assaulted or threatened to be killed and treated well, then the kidnapper cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 364A of Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court has said.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy made the observation while setting aside the conviction of an autorickshaw driver, Shaik Ahmed of Hyderabad, who had kidnapped a minor, Class 6 student of St Marys High School, Rezimental Bazaar, Secunderabad in 2011 and demanded a ransom of Rs 2 lakh from his father.

The top court said that there are three essential ingredients to convict an accused under Section 364A (kidnapping for ransom) which need to be proved by prosecution.

It said the three essential ingredients are - kidnapping or abduction of any person or keeping him in detention; threatening to cause death or hurt to such person, or the kidnapper's conduct gives rise to a reasonable apprehension that victim may be put to death or hurt in order to compel the Government, foreign State or any Governmental organization or any other person to pay a ransom.

Referring to the punishment of life or death sentence provided for convictions under Section 364A, the top court said, In addition to the first condition either condition (ii) or (iii) has to be proved, failing which conviction under Section 364A cannot be sustained.

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Telangana resident Shaik Ahmed challenging a high court order.

The High Court had dismissed his plea against conviction and sentence of life imprisonment under section 364 A of the IPC.

Shaik Ahmed had kidnapped a Class 6 student of St Marys High School on the pretext of dropping him home. The child was rescued by police when the child's father went to pay the ransom. The child, who was 13 years old at the time of incident in 2011, and his father had told the lower court that Ahmed never threatened to kill or harm the boy.

The top court set aside the conviction under section 364 A of the IPC.

From the evidence on record regarding kidnapping, it is proved that accused had kidnapped the victim for ransom, demand of ransom was also proved. Even though offence under Section 364A has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt but the offence of kidnapping has been fully established to which effect the learned Sessions Judge has recorded a categorical finding.

The offence of kidnapping having been proved, the appellant deserves to be convicted under Section 363 (Punishment for kidnapping). Section 363 provides for punishment which is imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine, the bench said.

The apex court said that it is satisfied that the appellant deserves to be sentenced with imprisonment of seven years and also liable to pay fine of Rs 5,000.
HP

kW

However, the French automaker has just put the spotlight on the third-generation supermini , introduced in 2016 and facelifted last year, with the new You! special edition.The model presents a sober and singular attitude, Citroen says, and will win you over with its uniqueness, practicality, and serenity behind the wheel.Priced at 14,490 ($17,211) in France in the PureTech S&S BVM specification, with a small gasoline engine making 83 PS (82/ 61) and a manual transmission, the 2021 Citroen C3 You! is already on sale in its home market, and will arrive at dealers in September.The French subcompact hatchback can be ordered in six body colors, including Elixir Red, Steel Grey, Perla Nera Black, Sand, Polar White, and Platinum grey. It features 15-inch Arrow wheels, matte black fender flares and rocker panels, white fog lamp housings, side mirror caps and roof (optional), and You! logo on the front doors, as well as special decorations on the C pillars.Inside, the 2021 C3 You! gets Brilliant Black dashboard panel, Mica Grey fabric trim, air conditioning, MP3 player with four-speaker audio system, Bluetooth connectivity, USB port, electric front windows, and height/depth adjustable steering wheel. The hill-start assist and cruise control with speed limiter are included as well.The 2021 Citroen C3 family starts at 15,600 ($18,529) in France for the Live trim level, which is followed by the Feel, Feel Pack, and C-Series, available from 16,800 ($19,955), 17,600 ($20,905), and 18,550 ($22,033). The Feel Business, Shine, and Shine Pack will set buyers back at least 18,700 ($22,212), 19,350 ($22,984), and 20,250 ($24,053) respectively.Fords Fiesta, which is one of its biggest rivals in the segment, ranges between 16,750 ($19,895) for the Cool&Connect, and 26,950 ($32,011) for the ST.
There were eight entries in the competition at the start of the voting process, from vague concepts like ACE (Artemis Crew Explorer) or Delos, after the name of the place where both Apollo and Artemis are said to have been born, to proper names from NASAs glorious past, like Irene Duhart Long, Julius Montgomery, or Arturo Campos.When all was done earlier this week, the name that emerged victorious was Arturo Campos, and this is the name the NASA dummy will be carrying to space on its trip around the Moon.Campos was one of the many people on deck in the Manned Spacecraft Center during Apollo 13 in the 1970s and instrumental to the mission not turning into a major disaster.As we already know, NASA has a habit of making contingency plans for everything it can think of, and even for things it cant. For Apollo 13, one such contingency plan covered what to do if the service module oxygen tank aboard the Apollo spacecraft ruptured.As history notes it, this is exactly what happened with Apollo 13 and led to what must have been one of the craziest rides NASA has ever known. The said contingency plan was devised by Campos and modified on the fly to handle the challenges the crew had to face in space.So, even if the engineer didnt get to fly into space himself, his name will do so when the Artemis 1 mission takes off later this year. It will be slapped on a dummy NASA called until now Moonikin , a piece of hardware also used for the Orion vibration tests.The Campos mannequin , who is male, will not fly alone into space but accompanied by two model human torsos, one male and one female. They are generically called phantoms, but also named Zohar and Helga, and their role will be to provide data on radiation levels during missions to the Moon.
New colors Mars red metallic, Manhattan metallic matt and

Option 719 Galaxy Dust metallic/Titanium silver2 metallic.

For Option 719 Galaxy Dust metallic/Titansilber 2 metallic black drive train is coupled with reverse assistance.

Geometric change of lower luggage holder. No disassembly required when riding without case (R 18 Classic only).

New Option 719 Design Package AERO includes cylinder head covers and front cover made of brushed aluminum.

Option 719 seat.

Option 719 wheel sets AERO and ICON.

Design option chrome freely selectable for all colour variants.

Lination freely selectable for Black storm metallic and Mars red metallic.

First Edition is dropped.

As we wait for the family of two to expandthe range comprises for now just the standard R 18 and the Classicthe Germans decided its time for a refresh and announced several changes for the 2022 model year.The biggest modification is the addition of new color combinations. There are three in all, namely Mars Red metallic, Manhattan metallic matt, and Option 719 Galaxy Dust metallic/Titanium silver2 metallic.The last of the bunch also comes with a black drive train that is coupled with reverse assistance, and theres also an Option 719 Design Package AERO that comes with cylinder head covers and front cover made of brushed aluminum.You can read the entire list of changes in the bullet list below this text, but before you do that, you should know that the First Edition of the R18 will no longer be offered when the 2022 model year hits the shelves this August.Also, its important to note BMW will add two new models to the range in the not-so-distant future, namely the R 18 B and the Transcontinental. Both will retain the 2-cylinder engine with 1,802 cc of displacement but will be built to appeal to different riders, namely those looking for a sportier ride and those going for a more touring-oriented machine.
AWD

The American truck market is being inundated with brand-new modelsHyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick , Nissan Frontier, Toyota Tacoma, and especially the Lightning. In his review of the Ridgeline, DeMuro argues that it's the least truck-like model because it's based on a crossover platform shared with the Pilot.Apparently, if you're looking for a real truck, it shouldn't be on your list, but if you want factory-fitted gold wheels, this has got them. According to him, you shouldn't be fooled by the fender flares.However, we'd like to point out that the Ridgeline isn't the only "fake truck" out there. And Honda buyers are known for their love of factory body kits or cosmetic packages, especially if they bring a color or gloss black (Black Edition).But at least it's got quirks and features, right? Otherwise, this wouldn't be a good DeMuro review. According to him, Honda knows about the off-roader trend that spawned things like the Bronco. But it only has crossovers, and so they're forcing them to look more rugged, which explains the new front end of the Ridgeline, which no longer looks like it copied some crossover's homework.The HPD kit costs $2,800 extra and brings you the gold wheels we mention. DeMuro argues that HPD , short for Honda Performance Development) is an embarrassing copy of TRD, the famous Toyota brand for making everything cooler.Obviously, the Ridgeline can't match a Tacoma TRD 's off-road capabilities, though Doug doesn't subject it to any serious test. Don't hate us for saying this, but we still think the Honda is cool. It's got some decent on-road manners, and for 2021,comes standard.The bed seems to get DeMuro's seal of approval. It's got an interesting tailgate that opens both from the side and up-and-down, plus composite lining, so you don't have to worry about rust and scratches as much. Also, there's a kind of trunk with a drain at the bottom.Under the hood, you have the same 3.5-liter V6 with a 9-speed as before, good for 280 horsepower. The Chevy Colorado will pull more, but at least the Ridgeline gets a better payload rating than a Tacoma. So you see, it's not all that bad, but Doug is probably chasing clicks by jumping on the "Ridgeline is not a pickup" internet hate bandwagon.
The Pacific Northwest heatwave has broken records in Portland, with temperatures reaching all-time highs. The National Weather Service reported a high of 115 degrees on Monday, breaking the previous high of 112 degrees set on Sunday. The maximum temperature in Portland on Monday was the hottest ever recorded there since records were started in the '40s.As of June 30th, the State Medical Examiner's Office had received a report of 63 deaths related to the Pacific Northwest heatwave. Due to the extreme and dangerous temperatures, the state's restrictions prohibiting people from pumping their own gas have been temporarily lifted.For those who might now know, there are only two states in the U.S. where self-service fuel filling is illegal, and Oregon is one of them (New Jersey is the second state). Oregon has banned self-serve gas since 1951 but in recent years has relaxed its rules.Oregon modified some of its regulations in 15 rural counties in 2015 ( those with less than 40,000 residents). To let stations operate for 24 hours a day, some fuel providers started to allow people to self-serve from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Three years later, for locations without a market or convenience store, the rules were extended to for the whole day.Last year, due to the health crisis, self-serve laws were temporarily modified, although this only lasted a few months. This week saw the citizens able to pump their own gas for 48 hours. And even if the temporary suspension has ended, the extreme heat does not stop there. For several days, it will continue to sweep across the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures reaching triple digits.Currently, Oregonians are able to pump their own gas only where allowed by Oregon statute. If you live in Oregon, you can check this map , where you can see in what locations self-serve is allowed.
You can put a rotary engine in any kind of vehicle, and the enthusiasts will follow that build with avid interest. Granted, they're a bit more sensible when it comes to someone fiddling around with their beloved cars. The RX-7 has been around for decades, and we've seen it used for many purposes. But if there's one thing the RX-7 is known for, is its inability to be a proper family car.Sure, that's not all on account of the cramped cabin of the car. The FC was built as more of a grand tourer, and I've managed to transport as many as three people inside for short trips. I'm 1,83 meters tall, and I can fit comfortably behind the wheel, whereas a Mazda MX-5 with stock seat rails was just too tight to handle. And having driven the FD3S, too, that's the only time I ever wished I wasn't so damn tall. But I'm trying to convince myself that with the factory exhaust and tune, the only inconvenience left would be the lack of cabin space.Khyzyl Saleem, who is one of the most well-known automotive 3D artists of our time, also happens to own a Mazda RX-7. And so, it feels only natural that his latest project was based on that exact model. While Mazda never built a shooting brake version of the RX-7, that didn't stop Khyzyl from drawing one up. Sure, Greddy has had a rear-hatch for the RX-7 on offer before, but somehow that didn't look as natural as Khyzyl's work.What's even more interesting is the fact that Khyzy l wrapped this idea up as a '90s brochure advert. I get the feeling that if someone less of an RX-7 specialist looked at these photos, they would surely believe this is a genuine Mazda-built vehicle and not the work of a 3D artist. "Apparently, men think about it every second seconds" sounds like brilliant copyrighting to me, and that only works to get me more pumped up for this month's main event, a celebration for all RX-7 enthusiasts: 7's Day!Being an RX-7 owner himself, Khyzyl was excited to work on this project, noting that "this was honestly so much fun to do." The photos will be used as part of a Meguiars campaign called "The Popping 90s", hence why Khyzyl used the company's "Gold Class Line" as an inspiration for the design. I imagine that at this point, where Khyzyl has managed to turn several of his projects into road-going vehicles, there should be at least one rotor head out there willing to bring the RX-7 Shooting brake to life.
The GWM POER (its supposed to be pronounced power) was officially announced at Auto China 2020, as a new-generation pickup truck , the first one in the companys history to come with automatic transmission and advanced safety technology. This showed, right from the start, GWMs intention to conquer the international market.The name is an acronym for powerful, off-road, enjoyable and reliable. And, according to the Australian media (following a recent test drive event for several GWM models), the GWM POER seems to live up to its name.The Chinese car maker is betting on the trucks versatility. The large cabin and leather seats are supposed to be comfortable enough for a nap-break during long journeys, while the vehicle itself is big enough to bring along bicycles, tents, or even a motorboat. And it comes with 4 all-terrain driving modes (standard/commerce/sports/4L), so that it can perform just as well on sand as on muddy gravel roads.As we mentioned, advanced technology is one of its strongest assets. An emergency brake assist feature, hill-start assist control, traction control system, tire pressure monitoring, plus a reversing camera and reversing sensor are part of the safety system that upgrades this pickup truck to a higher-class level. In fact, POER even got a five-star safety rating from the independent safety agency ANCAP.The L2 level automatic driving is another important innovation for the Chinese pickup truck, including features such as automatic emergency brake, adaptive cruise control, all-around blind spot monitoring and traffic sign recognition.All in all, the GWM POERs design (both exterior and interior), smart technology and off-road performance seem to have earned it a good reputation so far. Well have to wait and see how far its reputation will extend.
This groundbreaking concept was developed by a team of experts from different fields - Jacopo Buongiorno, TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Kevin Chilton, retired commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Steven Aumeier of the Idaho National Laboratory, and Robert Frida, a founder of GenH.The result of their research was published in The Bridge, the journal of the National Academy of Engineering.Nuclear energy is an important alternative for carbon-free electricity and heat, but the problem so far has been that traditional nuclear reactors were very big, requiring large construction sites, years  if not decades - to build and, of course, huge costs. The scientific community has been looking at developing smaller reactors, but its for the first time that a radically small unit is considered.It would be so small that it could be built in a factory (no dedicated construction site required), it would fit in a standard container and it could be deployed on demand, in just a few weeks.Instead of working for years on a huge power plant, these nuclear batteries could simply be transported wherever they are needed, run safely for 5 to 10 years, and then taken back to the factory, to be refueled. As Jacopo Buongiorno explains, this technology is taking modularity to the extreme and the reduced size is what changes everything. Thanks to it, the micro-reactors would also be as safe as possible, because its easier to keep the nuclear fuel cool without intervention and the amount of residual heat when the reactor is shut down is also reduced.Institutions such as NASA and several companies have already worked with national labs to test different versions of micro-reactors. These nuclear batteries could be the next step in creating a widespread solution for sustainable energy and reducing carbon emissions.
EV

kWh

This electric crossover was said to replace the Nissan Leaf by some media outlets, but that role was already with the Ariya . Weirdly, this newwill also sit on the CMF-EV platform, which would make it compete with the Ariya if they had the same size. Luckily, Nissans teaser image gives us some hints on what this new electric crossover will be.The picture reveals a vehicle that seems lower and longer than the Nissan Ariya, which suggests a higher price tag. That is something the information about a new cell plant there confirms.According to the press release, Envision AESC will be Nissans partner in the EV36Zero  as it is with Renault . It will expand its factory in Sunderland to 9 GWh with an investment of 450 million. With that, the current 300 employees will see 450 more join the facility. The issue is that we have conflicting information about its future capacity. Despite what the press release states, the image created to summarize the information mentions it will be 7.5 GWh.We got in touch with Nissan to clarify this, but lets suppose that what the press release states is more reliable than the image reveals. With 9 GWh, Nissan intends to manufacture 100,000 units of this new EV in Sunderland. We did the math and it revealed that the new electric crossover would have a 90battery pack, the largest one available for the Ariya. Again, that suggests we are talking about a D-segment vehicle.It makes perfect sense. Nissan will not export this EV as easily as it shipped Leafs when the UK was part of the European Union. A vehicle with a higher profit margin has more chances to compete in other markets and to be exported.That would be fantastic both to Nissan and to Envision AESC. The battery supplier plans to invest 1.8 billion there to expand that capacity to up to 35 GWh and manpower to 4,500 people by 2030.Both the Sunderland plant and Envision AESCs factory will be powered by a microgrid composed of solar and wind generation. That microgrid alone will demand 80 million and prevent the emission of 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Before we focus on the people involved and their reactions, let's dig up some info on the car itself. As you've probably guessed, we're not dealing with a sort of art project. And just like the 2016 Ford "Consumer Car", this is connected to the Peterson Automotive Museum.The four-wheeled wedge is dubbed "The Lo Res Car" and it's going up for auction . It's supposed to depict the Lamborghini Countach, an iconic Italian supercar. But Rem D. Koolhaas and the United Nude team boiled down all the details to this simple shape vaguely reminiscent of the Tesla Cybertruck.As for its construction, it consists of an angular steel frame wrapped in smoked polycarbonate bodywork. Basically, it's like the stealth bomber meets a fish tank. Right at the beginning of the video, you'll see Supercar Blondie pulling up to a large house. The whole body lifts up from the front of the vehicle. The interior isn't exactly spacious, but there's just enough room for the tandem seating of the two celebs.It's not fair to call this a never-before-seen UFO, as the YouTuber does in her social media posts. It won a design award from Wallpaper magazine in 2016 and was part of the music video New Freezer by Rich the Kid featuring Kendrick Lamar, released in 2017 (see below).But Supercar Blondie's channel is an amazing platform for such a creation, and Jeffree Star's connection will make it even more popular. While this video is brand new, the social media posts on the Countach UFO have already racked up a few tens of millions of views.We get that this is supposed to be an art piece, but if you look at it as a vehicle of the future, it fails. Like a movie prop car from the 1990s, it jiggles over every bump. But at least it's powered by electricity and not some scooter engine.
Some websites said they could determine that this was indeed a Model S Plaid due to the badge on the trunk lid, which would still be visible in the pictures. The images we have seen are not so good. Even if it seems like it, we can't say that for sure.It also has the new 21-inch Arachnid wheels, but those are also an option for the Long Range. We have also seen them in the Model S with a hanging airbag module , but a paper inside that car said it was a Long Range.The fire was reported on multiple Reddit threads. The moderators erased the main one , but there are others that claim that the vehicle was moving while it was on fire, leading to jokes about self-driving capabilities that no production car so far presents.Well try to find out more about the fire. If you happen to know the vehicle owner, please put them in touch with us. Most of all, we need to confirm if this was really a Model S Plaid. If that was really the case, it is undoubtedly not good publicity when a brand new vehicle is caught in a blaze like this.
Our firm & @AthleteDefender represent an exec who purchased new Tesla Plaid Model S, which was 1/250 shipped. On Tuesday it spontaneously combusted. Our client was trapped & could have died. We tried reaching out to Tesla & have been ignored so far. This is car after escape. pic.twitter.com/wXyJXbWggJ  Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) July 1, 2021

According to Meiselas, his client was trapped inside the vehicle when it caught fire at night on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Thanks to the Gladwyne Volunteer Fire Company, we know that it happened almost at 9 PM. Check his tweet below.Meiselas said his client managed to escape. That may explain why some people said it was moving while on fire: his owner had no time to think about braking it or anything else. The attorney then said that they are trying to contact Tesla since the blaze broke and that the company is ignoring them until now.We got in touch with Meiselas to speak to his client and understand everything that happened. What his tweet made very clear is that it was not a criminal fire of any kind: as the lawyer puts it, the Model S Plaid spontaneously combusted.At this point, we are glad that the Model S Plaid customer managed to escape the car. On April 16, 2021 , William Varner and Everett Talbot died in Harris County, Texas. They crashed Varners Model S in a three, but none of the bodies was found at the drivers seat. The crash is still under investigation, but one of the hypotheses was that Varner left the drivers seat to try to escape and died in the rear seat.The Pennsylvania blaze is the first involving a Model S Plaid but joins a long list of other cases with the electric sedan. The latest spontaneous fire that came to our attention happened on November 24, 2020, in Frisco, Texas
On June 30, 2021, Missouri became the last state with a sales tax to require out-of-state sellers and marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales and use tax. Its been a long time coming. Senate Bill 153 establishes economic nexus, which bases a sales tax collection obligation solely on a remote sellers economic activity in the state. Starting January 1, 2023, an out-of-state business with no physical presence in Missouri must register with the Missouri Department of Revenue and comply with all applicable sales and use tax laws if, in the current or previous calendar year (determined quarterly), it had cumulative gross receipts of at least $100,000 from the sale of tangible personal property in the state. Marketplace facilitators engaged in business in Missouri (i.e., those with economic nexus or a physical presence in the state) will be liable for the tax due on all sales made through the marketplace on and after January 1, 2023  both direct sales and those made on behalf of a third party.

Years of work finally pay off

Missouri lawmakers have been trying to get an economic nexus and marketplace facilitator bill across the governors desk ever since the Supreme Court of the United States issued its groundbreaking decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., on June 21, 2018. The Wayfair decision overturned a rule that prevented states from taxing the sales of businesses with no physical presence in the state. Although physical presence in a state still creates a sales tax collection obligation, its no longer the sole requisite because of Wayfair. One reason previous attempts to establish economic nexus and a marketplace facilitator law in Missouri failed is because the states sales and use tax system is so complex. There are more than 2,000 local taxing jurisdictions in the state, and each has its own reporting code and rate. Making matters more complex, these jurisdictions can overlap; combined rates often include the state, county, and municipal rates plus one or more of more than a dozen special district taxes (e.g., ambulance, library, regional recreation, transportation, etc.). Currently, most local taxing jurisdictions levy a local sales tax only; very few have local use tax, though that could change once Missouri starts taxing remote sales. The Missouri Department of Revenue already has a sales tax mapping tool that generates the total combined sales tax rate for locations throughout the state. The new law requires the department to create and maintain a use tax mapping tool. This will help out-of-state vendors, who are liable for use tax rather than sales tax  the purview of in-state businesses. Local use tax rates often differ from local sales tax rates in Missouri. SB 153 also tasks the department with providing reasonable notice of taxability changes. Additionally, businesses wont be held liable for charging or collecting incorrect tax if the business relied on erroneous data provided by the department.

Certified service providers could simplify compliance for remote sellers

Although SB 153 doesnt obligate Missouri to join the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement , it authorizes the Missouri Department of Revenue to consult, contract, and work jointly with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreements Governing Board to allow sellers to use the governing boards certified service providers and central registration services. Alternatively, the department could consult, contract, and work with certified service providers independently. The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement was created to ease the burden of sales and use tax compliance for remote sellers. To that end, its 24 member states developed and maintain certain streamlining measures, including: a central, electronic registration system; uniform sourcing rules for taxable transactions; and uniform tax base definitions and rules. In Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) member states, businesses can opt to outsource the bulk of sales and use tax administration to an SST Certified Service Provider (CSP) like Avalara. CSP services are available to any business, and for those that qualify as a CSP-compensated seller (aka, volunteer seller), the cost is subsidized by the state. To qualify as a volunteer seller, a business must meet certain criteria. For example, during the 12-months prior to registration in the SST member state, the business must have: Less than $50,000 of property in the state

Less than $50,000 of payroll in the state

Less than 25 percent of total property or payroll in the state

No fixed place of business for more than 30 days in the state A handful of states, including Illinois and Pennsylvania, offer independent CSP programs that function much like the SST CSP program. Under SB153, Missouri could do the same.

A fun twist on local use tax collection

Interestingly, Missouri will allow local governments to exclude remote vendors from the obligation to collect local use tax enacted prior to January 1, 2023. A remote seller or marketplace facilitator wont be subject to local use taxes enacted prior to January 1, 2023, unless that seller would have been subject to the tax prior to January 1, 2023, or a majority of voters in the district approve an expansion of the tax after January 1, 2023. Remote sellers will be subject to any new local use tax enacted on or after January 1, 2023. This local use tax provision will further complicate Missouris tax system, as does the fact that many local taxing jurisdictions currently dont levy local use taxes. Having the ability to tax remote sales will likely incentivize jurisdictions to levy a local use tax on or after January 1, 2023. That could make for a lot of rate changes.

Start preparing
Unrest in Nicaragua and Colombia is generating concern from Latino members of Congress who worry about violent crackdowns to curb continuing protests.

Why it matters: After 20 years of focus on the Middle East, Latino lawmakers are reaching across the aisle and helping shift some of the nation's foreign policy spotlight to Latin America, which continues to battle COVID-19 and pockets of political turmoil.

Driving the news: At least 24 people have been killed in Colombia since protests began in April against a tax reform proposal that has since been withdrawn. Demonstrators also want a universal basic income and an end to police violence, among other demands.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in May called for investigations into the deaths of anti-government protesters in Cali, Colombia, following violent clashes between protesters and the military.

A helicopter carrying Colombian President Ivan Duque last week was struck by multiple bullets during a flight over the Catatumbo region. No one was hurt.

A demonstrator protesting Colombian President Ivan Duque throws a brick at riot police in Bogota. Photo: Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortegas government has detained about 20 opposition figures, including five presidential candidates, as part of a wider crackdown on his critics ahead of the November presidential elections.

Last week, several of the most influential critics of Ortega, including journalists, opposition leaders and activists, fled the country, the Washington Post reported.

What they're saying: The Ortega regime is carrying out a widespread crackdown aimed at demolishing hopes for free and fair elections in November and consolidating a third dictatorship in the Americas, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) wrote in a recent letter asking U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to put diplomatic pressure on Ortega.

This authoritarian power grab poses direct challenges to U.S. national security, regional stability, and raises deep concern among Nicaraguan-Americans in the United States, Rubio and Menendez wrote.

"We must show Ortega's regime that they cannot continue repressing the Nicaraguan people while reaping the economic benefits of free trade with the United States," U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) said while introducing a bill to review Nicaragua's free trade status.

Rubio and Menendez also are sponsoring a companion bill to review Nicaragua's free trade status and impose sanctions for corruption.

U.S. Reps. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) also are pressuring the Biden administration to monitor the political violence in Colombia.

We are deeply disturbed by reports of dozens of disappearances during the crackdown on protestors in Colombia. We call on President Duque and the Colombian government to thoroughly investigate each case to locate those who are missing and reunite them with their families," they said last week in a statement.

The bottom line: Elected Latino officials want to make sure the U.S. is engaged in Latin America as China makes overtures in the region and continues to invest in projects.
In the months since former President Donald Trump left office, media companies readership numbers are plunging  and publishers that rely on partisan, ideological warfare have taken an especially big hit.

Why it matters: Outlets most dependent on controversy to stir up resentments have struggled to find a foothold in the Biden era, according to an Axios analysis of publishers readership and engagement trends.

By the numbers: Web traffic, social media engagement and app user sessions suggest that while the entire news industry is experiencing a slump, right-wing outlets are seeing some of the biggest plunges.

A group of far-right outlets, including Newsmax and The Federalist, saw aggregate traffic drop 44% from February through May compared to the previous six months, according to Comscore data.

including Newsmax and The Federalist, saw aggregate traffic drop 44% from February through May compared to the previous six months, according to Comscore data. Lefty outlets including Mother Jones and Raw Story saw a 27% drop.

including Mother Jones and Raw Story saw a 27% drop. Mainstream publishers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Reuters dropped 18%.

App visits tell a similar story. Both right-leaning (including Fox News, Daily Caller) and left-leaning (including Buzzfeed News, The Atlantic) saw considerable average drops in app user sessions over this time period at 31% and 26%, respectively, according to Apptopia data.

Data from Sensor Tower shows that downloads of fringe-right social networking apps like MeWe, Rumble, Parler and CloutHub have also plummeted.

Engagement on social media has taken the biggest dive, according to data from NewsWhip.

Left-leaning and right-leaning publishers have seen social interactions on stories drop by more than 50%, while mainstream publishers have experienced a slightly more modest drop of 42%.

The big picture: Opposition media traditionally relies on traffic booms when a new party takes office, but right-wing outlets have seen some of the most precipitous declines in readership since a Democratic president took office.

In this particular cycle, the opposition is more heavily linked to an ex-president than in the past," says Rodney Benson, chair of NYU's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication.

"And the fact that Trump has been banned from the major social media likely has spill-over effects decreasing circulation of the opposition media.

Between the lines: While the Biden administration has seen plenty of debate over policy, economics and a a crisis at the border, personality-based controversy has largely been absent.

He's not giving the opposition a lot to attack," Benson notes. "This could suppress the audience for pro-Trump media, at least in the short-term."

Benson notes. "This could suppress the audience for pro-Trump media, at least in the short-term." A slower political news cycle has put the spotlight on breaking news stories that may not have otherwise gotten as much attention in the Trump era, like a ship getting caught in the Suez Canal or the Derek Chauvin trial.

Yes, but: Changes to the media landscape could also be at play here. For example, there's been enormous growth in conservative podcasts over the past year.

In particular, an analysis from conservative media expert Howard Polskin finds that younger conservative talk personalities, like Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino and Steven Crowder are gaining enormous traction, alongside veterans like Bill O'Reilly and Mark Levin.

What to watch: "I anticipate traffic levels to conservative websites will start to rise in the first half of 2022 starting in about February," Polskin said.

"The midterm elections will begin heating up and audiences will be seeking news and insights about the various races," he said. "That will help drive audience growth. However, I would be surprised if we hit the traffic numbers we saw in 2020."

Methodology: To measure the decline in engagement among certain types of publishers, Axios created five groups of publishers based on assessments of their news bias, in consultation with news bias ranking service NewsGuard. Each group contains 4 different publishers, with the exception of mainstream, which contains 8. Those groups include far-right, right-leaning, mainstream, left-leaning, and far-left.
Nearly three-dozen corporate PACs have donated at least $5,000 to Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 election, yet Toyota leads by a substantial margin.

Why it matters: Following Jan. 6, huge segments of corporate America rethought their political-giving programs. The new numbers suggest some large companies have decided to maintain support  even for members of Congress deeply enmeshed in the pro-Trump conspiracy theories that fueled the Capitol attack.

Some prominent GOP objectors also have found they can replace any lost corporate support with small-dollar, grassroots donations driven by their reputations as pro-Trump hardliners.

By the numbers: Data compiled by the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington show Toyota gave $55,000 to 37 GOP objectors this year.

That equates to a quarter of the bloc that voted to nullify President Biden's win after the Capitol siege.

Toyota gave more than twice as much  and to nearly five times as many members of Congress  as the No. 2 company on the list, Cubic Corp., a San Diego-based defense contractor.

The Japanese automaker's donations this year included a February contribution to Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican who has been one of Congress' most vocal election conspiracy theorists. According to an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" rally prior to the Capitol attack, Biggs also helped put on that event, a charge Biggs has denied.

What they're saying: "We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification," a Toyota spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Axios.

"Based on our thorough review, we decided against giving to some members who, through their statements and actions, undermine the legitimacy of our elections and institutions.

The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up about the specific threshold for statements that cross that line.

The big picture: According to CREW data shared with Axios, 34 companies have donated at least $5,000 to the campaigns and leadership PACs of one or more election objectors this year.

Other notable names on the list include Koch Industries, telecom giant AT&T, health insurer Cigna and tobacco company Reynolds American.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to note that Biggs has denied organizing the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6.
Arsen Torosian was named to manage the prime ministers staff on January 18. He previously served as Armenias health minister.

Torosian was replaced by Arayik Harutiunian, a senior adviser to Pashinian and a former education minister. Both men are leading members of Civil Contract.

Pashinian introduced Harutiunian to his staff later in the day. Commenting on what was the first major personnel change made by him since his Civil Contract partys victory in the June 20 parliamentary elections, he said Torosian asked to be allowed to take up one of the ruling partys 71 seats in Armenias new 107-member parliament.

Pashinian also cited the need to increase the efficiency of governance in the country. The quality of governance starts from the prime ministers staff, he said.

Pashinian should technically form a new cabinet and receive a vote of confidence from the National Assembly later this summer. Neither he nor his political allies have indicated so far whether he will replace many of his current ministers.

Pashinian sacked seven ministers in a cabinet reshuffle announced by him in the aftermath of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November.

Armen Khachatrian, a pro-government member of Armenias outgoing parliament, said on Thursday that he does not know whether the new cabinet will be significantly different from the current one. He said he hopes that Pashinian will pick more technocrats.

I think that professionals must be chosen  for a number of spheres, Khachatrian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. As regards the question of who they have supported and what they have done, it must not matter at all.

Khachatrian asserted at the same time that Pashinians staffing policy has been too tolerant until now.

Sofia Hovsepian, one of several lawmakers who defected from Pashinians team late last year, was skeptical about the composition of the new cabinet and its competence. They dont get rid of failed officials, she told reporters.

Hovsepian said that instead of appointing capable individuals to senior positions Pashinian is planning a purge of civil servants and other state officials who have not pledged allegiance to him. She said Torosians replacement by another Pashinian ally suggests that the prime minister has not learned any lessons from his mistakes.

The secretary of Armenias Security Council, Armen Grigorian, claimed earlier this week that Pashinians party received a popular mandate to carry out such a purge. The state apparatus  must unequivocally serve the victorious [political] force, he told Armenian Public Television.
Meeting with members of his staff, Pashinian argued that the Civil Contract party won a popular mandate to implement its election platform.

I want to say that the entire government systems task is very clear: to implement over the next five years what is written in the Civil Contract partys pre-election program and was approved by Armenian citizens votes, he said. Therefore, it is people who believe in that program and regard it as their operational guideline who must work in the state governance system. This is an important precondition.

Those who do not believe, do not accept or have reservations [about the program]  we find that normal. Therefore, we must wish those who have a problem with that success in their further activities, he said.

Pashinian did not specify any mechanisms for getting rid of government or law-enforcement officials not trusting him. He said only that his government is planning major reforms of the civil service system.

Armenian law bans politically motivated dismissals of civil servants.

During the recent election campaign Pashinian pledged to purge the state bureaucracy and wage political vendettas against local government officials supporting the opposition. He repeatedly brandished a hammer meant to symbolize a popular steel mandate which he said he needs in order to continue ruling Armenia with a more firm hand.

The state human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, denounced that campaign rhetoric. He said that staff purges inevitably involve mass violations of workers rights.

The secretary of Armenias Security Council, Armen Grigorian, stated earlier this week that Pashinians party received a popular mandate to carry out such purges. The state apparatus  must unequivocally serve the victorious [political] force, he told Armenian Public Television.

According to Armenian press reports, several provincial governors appointed by Pashinian are now pressuring elected heads of local communities, who supported opposition forces during the elections, to resign. One of those governors has publicly demanded their resignation.

The Union of Communities of Armenia, which represents the countrys elected local administrations, on Wednesday condemned the government pressure as illegal and undemocratic.

Pashinian already pledged to purge the government, judiciary and security apparatus of remnants of the countrys former leadership in April 2020. He accused them of trying to discredit him and scuttle his initiatives.
A controversial law enacted by the Armenian government last year allows prosecutors to seek asset forfeiture in case of having sufficient grounds to suspect that the market value of an individuals properties exceeds their legal income by at least 50 million drams ($100,000).

Courts can allow the confiscation of such assets even if their owners are not found guilty of corruption or other criminal offenses. The latter will have to prove the legality of their holdings.

The politically sensitive process is handled by a special division formed within Armenias Office of the Prosecutor-General last September.

A spokesman for the law-enforcement agency, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RLs Armenian Service on Thursday that the division has investigated more than 200 individuals and believes that at least four of them had illegally enriched themselves and their families.

Abrahamian said the prosecutors have secured court decisions to freeze their assets worth a combined 6 billion drams ($12 million). Those include 20 properties and cash, he said.

The suspects are Vladimir Gasparian, a former chief of the Armenian police, fugitive former Environment Minister Aram Harutiunian as well as a retired National Security Service officer and his son.

Abrahamian said Gasparian has already visited the prosecutors headquarters in Yerevan to familiarize himself with details of investigators claims about the legality of properties owned by him, his wife, two children and mother-in-law.

A lawyer for Gasparian declined to say whether the once influential police general will plead guilty to the corruption accusations.

The law in question allows an out-of-court settlement of such cases which would require suspects to hand over 25 percent of their assets to the state.

In Abrahamians words, the prosecutors will take court action if the suspects refuse such a settlement in the coming weeks.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly portrayed the law on asset forfeiture as a major anti-corruption measure that will help his administration recover wealth stolen from the people. Pashinian has indicated his intention to use it against Armenias former leaders and their cronies.

Opposition groups and figures, among them supporters of former President Serzh Sarkisian, have condemned the law as unconstitutional and accused Pashinian of planning a far-reaching redistribution of assets to cement his hold on power.

One former official, who used to run the Armenian customs service, decided to donate a luxury hotel belonging to his family to the government in late 2018 to avoid prosecution on charges of illegal entrepreneurship and money laundering. The government has repeatedly failed to auction off the property which was valued at $15.8 million before the coronavirus pandemic.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a proposal Wednesday that makes it illegal in most cases to collect and drop off someone else's ballot.
Only one case of delta variant identified in Kern County, but not all cases are sequenced to detect mutations
Email Dan Walters of CalMatters at dan@calmatters.org. CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining Californias policies and politics. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
Billy Preston (B.P. or Bill) Miller, age 91 of North Tazewell, VA passed away Friday, July 2, 2021 at his home. Born March 16, 1930 in Boissevain, VA he was the only son of the late Ernest and Willie Miller who were from Abbs Valley, VA. Bill was a member of Main Street United Methodist Chur
DALLAS (AP)  Southwest Airlines plans to raise minimum pay to $15 an hour for about 7,000 employees, citing the need to attract and keep workers as the airline industry continues to recover from the pandemic.

Southwest said Friday that it intends for the raises to take effect on Aug. 1.

The airline said the raises will work out to 7% to 11% for new hires and cover call center operators, customer service agents, skycaps and others. For some, the company will have to negotiate with labor unions.

Southwest continually works to attract and retain the best candidates for open positions, said spokesman Brad Hawkins. As part of this ongoing effort, Southwest is increasing minimum pay rates so that all hourly employees will make at least $15 per hour.

Southwest's announcement comes as air travel picks up at the beginning of the summer vacation season after the pandemic turned last year's peak season into a disaster. The number of people going through security checkpoints at U.S. airports has topped 2 million seven times in the past two weeks, hitting levels not seen since early March 2020.

However, domestic travel this month is still running 27% below June 2019, according to figures from the Transportation Security Administration.

Dallas-based Southwest carries more passengers within the United States than any other airline and is less dependent than rivals American, Delta and United on business travel, which is still in a deep slump. Those factors have helped Southwest fare better than other airlines this year  it turned a small profit in the first quarter, thanks to federal pandemic relief, after losing $3 billion in 2020.

Southwest has about 56,000 employees, down from about 61,000 a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing. The company announced Wednesday that longtime CEO Gary Kelly will step down next February and be succeeded by Robert Jordan, the airline's executive vice president of corporate services.

News of the pay raises was reported earlier by Bloomberg.
An Ohio man has been transferred to Jefferson County to face trial for the alleged assault and murder of a Beaumont teacher.

Clayton Bernard Foreman, 61, on June 15 was taken to the county jail by a contracted transport company, Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens confirmed Wednesday. Stephens said all new inmates are required to stay in a transition dorm for 14 days due to novel coronavirus pandemic protocols.

The Beaumont Enterprise previously reported that an Ohio judge ordered that Foreman return to Jefferson County following a Governors warrant and an exhaustive investigation into the death of Mary Catherine Edwards.

The investigation, which involved local, state, and federal agencies, found DNA evidence to allegedly tie Foreman to the crime scene where Edwards was found dead, officials say. The evidence led to Foremans arrest at the end of April by authorities in Franklin County, Ohio.

Edwards was a high school classmate and acquaintance of Foreman. And in 1982, Edwards was a bridesmaid at Foremans first wedding, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham told The Enterprise shortly after the arrest.

Only 31 years old at the time, Edwards was a well-loved teacher who lived alone in a Beaumont townhouse. According to Enterprise archives, she was last seen leaving her classroom around 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13, 1995.

She would normally stay late at school preparing her lesson plan for the following class, Price Elementary Principal Floyd Broussard told The Enterprise at the time.

The next day, Edwards didnt respond to phone calls, and her parents went to check on her at her home on Park Meadow Street. They found her drowned in her bathtub upstairs, police said at the time.

An autopsy revealed that she had her hands bound behind her back in handcuffs and was sexually assaulted before she was killed.

According to a front page Enterprise story shortly after the death, friends described Edwards, a petite woman who stood less than 5 feet tall, as a little gal with a big heart.

Foreman has no attorney on file, according to court records previously reviewed by The Enterprise.

No further information was available.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com
On June 19, 1866, from a balcony of a home in Galveston, Gordon Granger, the Union General in command of the city, pronounced that the Emancipation Proclamation had freed enslaved people in Texas.

Since then, that date has been a day of celebration, and with this years signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act by President Joe Biden, this was Jaspers first Juneteenth Celebration also recognized as a national holiday.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  The estate of pop artist Robert Indiana has reached a settlement that keeps intact a longstanding relationship with Morgan Art Foundation, which holds the copyright for his iconic 1960s LOVE series, to promote and preserve his work, officials said Friday.

New York-based Morgan Art Foundation intends to work with the Maine-based Star of Hope Foundation, which aims to transform Indianas island home into a museum to celebrate his work.

While the museum takes shape, the two organizations will work to display Indiana's artwork at venues around the country.

Weve done a lot of good stuff, but its overshadowed by the litigation, said Larry Sterrs, chair of the Star of Hope Foundation. Completion of the museum is likely years away, he said.

Indianas estate, which is valued at upward of $80 million, had been entangled in a lawsuit brought by Morgan Art Foundation. The lawsuit was filed the day before Indianas death on May 19, 2018, at age 89 on Vinalhaven Island, 15 miles (25 kilometers) off Rockland, Maine.

It accused the reclusive artist's caretaker and an art publisher of taking advantage of Indiana and producing forgeries  accusations the pair denied. That led to more claims and counter claims.

Under the agreement, Morgan dropped its lawsuit against the estate and Indianas caretaker but not against the art publisher.

It also doesnt resolve a case brought by Maines attorney general, who claims the estate paid excessive legal fees during litigation. That lawsuit contends $3.7 million paid to four law firms and about $400,000 collected by the estates personal representative were excessive.

Indiana created a lifetime of art but hes best known for LOVE, spelled with two letters to a line and with a tilted O.

Its been transformed into sculptures around the world, and was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

The goal is display such artwork in a home museum that's going to be created at Indiana's former residence in a converted Odd Fellows Hall, a Victorian-style building, on Vinalhaven. Indiana also had several other properties that could be utilized for the art museum, art education and artist-in-residency programs, Sterrs said.

In the meantime, though, Morgan Art Foundation and the Star of Hope Foundation will work together to get the artwork in front of people at venues around the world, Sterrs said. Most of the estate's $80 million worth cited in court documents comes from the art collection.

The future is bright for the market and legacy of Robert Indiana, and the estate is pleased to have helped create this success, said James Brannan, a Rockland attorney for the estate.
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.

Dozens of survivors of the shooting, family members of those who died and first responders were invited to a ceremony Saturday on the grounds of the Pulse nightclub, south of downtown Orlando. The site has been turned into an interim memorial lined with photos of the victims and rainbow-colored flowers and mementos.

Others were being invited to watch the ceremony via a livestream feed on gigantic screens in front a performing arts center in downtown Orlando.

Five years ago, 49 people, most of them Latinx, Black and LGBTQ, were killed in a terrible act of violence at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Fifty-three more were injured and countless others were forever changed by witnessing hate or losing a loved one," said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a gay rights advocacy group.

As we hear the stories of those who were slaughtered, we see small glimpses of 49 unrealized futures, knowing no words can capture the full scope of what their families lost, what our community has lost: beloved parents, beloved partners, beloved co-workers, beloved children or beloved friends."

Gunman Omar Mateen killed the 49 victims at the nightclub during a three-hour standoff with law enforcement on June 12, 2016. He eventually was killed by SWAT team members. Mateen pledged fealty to the Islamic State in talks with hostage negotiators and 911 operators during the standoff.

At the time, the Pulse massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. However, another mass shooting the following year along the Las Vegas Strip became the deadliest when 58 people were killed.

Pulse owner Barbara Poma has established a nonprofit with a goal of opening a permanent memorial and museum in the nightclub's neighborhood. U.S. senators this week passed a bill designating the site of the former nightclub as a national memorial. The measure now heads to President Joe Biden's desk for approval.

Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was criticized for cutting funding that included money earmarked for mental health programming to support Pulse survivors, housing for LGBTQ youths and Orlandos LGBTQ Community Center.

Some of Central Floridas most vulnerable citizens rely on The Center Orlando to provide lifesaving services, such as case management, navigation, and critical mental health counseling," George Wallace, executive director of the LGBT+ Center Orlando, said last week.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A long-awaited U.S. government report on UFOs released Friday makes at least one thing clear: The truth is still out there.

Investigators did not find extraterrestrial links in reviewing 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories. But they drew few other conclusions and instead highlighted the need for better data collection about what's increasingly seen by Democrats and Republicans as a national security concern. In all but one of the sightings investigated, there was too little information for investigators to even broadly characterize the nature of the incident.

There were 18 cases in which witnesses saw unusual patterns of movement or flight characteristics, the report said, adding that more analysis was needed to determine if those sightings represented breakthrough technology.

Long the domain of science fiction and so-called ufologists, the subject of UFOs has in recent years drawn serious study from the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. The prospect of an adversary spying with unknown technology has alarmed lawmakers in both parties.

Congress last year required the creation of the report delivered Friday. While its lack of conclusions has already been made public, the report on what the government calls unidentified aerial phenomena still represents a milestone in the study of the issue.

U.S. officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said there were no clear indications that the sightings could be linked to alien life. There is also no definitive linkage of sightings to potentially unknown technology of an adversary like Russia or China.

Its clear that we need to improve our capacity to further analyze remaining UAP observations, even as we accept that there are some limits to our capacity to characterize and understand some of the observations that we have," one official said.

The report was published online and delivered to the House and Senate intelligence committees with a classified annex. Lawmakers were given a briefing last week on the investigation. One person who attended the classified briefing and spoke on condition of anonymity said that lawmakers were given little information beyond whats publicly available and that the only videos shown had already been made public.

The report lists five potential categories, including the possibility of foreign adversaries flying unknown technology to events occurring naturally in the atmosphere.

But only one instance was categorized as airborne clutter" and believed to be a large, deflating balloon. The rest are uncategorized because of a lack of information. That includes three instances of potential sightings captured on videos that were declassified and released in recent years.

The Department of Defense will over the next three months develop a new strategy for collecting and tracking information on potential sightings.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the UAP report highlights the problem of flight hazards on or near military test and training ranges. She ordered the Pentagons top intelligence and security official to establish a more formal means of coordinating the collection, reporting and analysis of UAP information. This body also would make recommendations on securing military test and training ranges.

It is critical that the United States maintain operations security and safety at DoD ranges, she wrote in a memo released Friday. To this end, it is equally critical that all U.S. military aircrews or government personnel report whenever aircraft or other devices interfere with military training. This includes the observation and reporting of UAPs.

Part of the data collection effort is destigmatizing UAPs and pushing pilots to report what they see, even when what they see is implausible.

A big problem around UAPs has been the cultural stigma," said Rep. Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, in an interview last week. "It has largely been relegated to science fiction.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who as the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee has long pushed for more disclosure about UAPs, called the report an important first step in cataloging these incidents, but it is just a first step.

The Defense Department and Intelligence Community have a lot of work to do before we can actually understand whether these aerial threats present a serious national security concern, Rubio said in a statement.
Enterprise

Rep. James White, R-Hilister, has announced his intention to become the first Republican primary challenger for incumbent Sid Miller in the race for state agriculture commissioner.

White previously had teased in a radio interview that he may consider a run for the position after announcing a few weeks ago that he didnt intend to seek a seventh term as representative of Texass District 19.
The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to undo years of improvement for Texas students meeting grade requirements in reading and math, with students who did most of their schooling remotely suffering "significant declines" compared to those who attended in person, according to standardized test results released Monday by the Texas Education Agency.

In districts where fewer than a quarter of classes were held in person, the number of students who met math test expectations dropped by 32 percentage points, and the number of students who met reading expectations dropped by 9 percentage points compared to 2019, the last time the test was administered. In districts with more than three-quarters in-person instruction, the number of students meeting math expectations only dropped by 9 percentage points and those who met reading expectations by 1 percentage point. Students of color and lower-income students saw greater gaps as well, although those gaps were smaller than the one between remote and in-person instruction.

READ ALSO: Texas universities got more state funding this year than anticipated, still hoping for more support

The impact of the coronavirus on what school means and what school is has been truly profound, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told reporters Monday. What we know now with certainty is that the decision in Texas to prioritize in person instruction was critical.

The STAAR test was optional last year due to coronavirus-related orders, but 87% of students still participated  compared to 96% of students in 2019. Morath said those numbers allow for fairly effective comparisons. The STAAR assessment for math and reading is administered from grades 3 to 8.

Since 2012, test results in the state had been steadily improving, but after COVID-19 related disruptions, the percentage of students meeting reading expectations dropped back to 2016 rates and the percentage meeting math expectations dropped to 2013 passing rates. Math test performance saw the most significant drop, from 50% of students meeting their grade level in 2019 to only 35% this year.

Hispanic students in districts with over three-quarters of learning done remotely saw the largest drops compared to other demographics, with a 10 percentage point decrease in the number of students meeting reading expectations and a 34 percentage point decrease in those meeting math expectations. This is followed by Black students taking mostly remote classes, who saw a 6 percentage point decrease in those meeting reading expectations and a 28 percentage point in those meeting expectations for math.

Students who took the test in Spanish also saw far more significant declines in rates of grade level than those who took the test in English, Morath said.

The data may be disheartening, but with it, our teachers and school leaders are building action plans to support students in the new school year, he said. Policymakers are using it to direct resources where they are needed most.

He said parents can also sign in to TexasAssessment.gov to go over their childrens results and strategize how to catch them up.

READ MORE: A barbecue 'university' for aspiring pitmasters fires up in Texas

There were outliers among the results, with some remote learners demonstrating progress and even some school districts containing a high concentration of remote learners with good outcomes. These outliers will be studied by a new commission on remote learning formed by the Texas Legislature.

While many districts expected remote learning to continue as an option moving into next year, a bill that would have funded it died during the final days of the Texas Legislatures regular session. Some programs were canceled with thousands of students signed up, such as in Frisco, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Morath said on average, only 4% of students across all grades who are below grade level catch up within two years. But he pointed to the recently passed House Bill 4545 as an opportunity to help with catching students up. The bill requires school districts to offer tutoring to any student who doesnt meet grade level expectations and to offer high-performing teachers.

He said the agency will also be offering rigorous instructional materials, additional teachers support, help wherever appropriate to expand learning time, and targeted tutoring this summer in an effort to close the gap.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Bedford, PA (15522)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High around 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.
Twenty-four people were killed in the July 1, 2016 attack in Bangladesh, including seven Japanese citizens whose photos BenarNews was unable to obtain. They were Yuko Sakai, Rui Shimodaira, Makoto Okamura, Hideki Hashimoto, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, Hiroshi Tanaka and Koyo Ogasawara.

Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of Bangladeshs worst terror attack but there was no public remembrance of it or the 24 victims on the day itself due to a complete shutdown of the country amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

On the eve of the anniversary, the envoys of four nations and the European bloc paid homage to the dead at the former site of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe where the attack took place, because they did not want to violate the lockdown starting Thursday, said Sadat Mehdi, the restaurants owner.

We could not observe the day today due to the government lockdown. The diplomats did not want to flout the government order, and they showed respect to the victims one day ahead, Mehdi told BenarNews.

"I will never forget that day."

The envoys of the European Union, India, Italy, Japan and the United States placed wreaths at the site of the former cafe site, where Mehdi and his family now reside, and where Mehdis wife runs a clinic.

[W]e renew our commitment to fight against religious extremism and terrorism, the Italian embassy said on Twitter, along with photographs showing the five Dhaka-based envoys at the site.

The citys police commissioner also did not make it to the attack site on the anniversary, Mehdi said.

The commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police was supposed to come today [July 1], but considering the worsening coronavirus situation, he refrained from visiting [the site], he said.

Earlier in the week, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said he would not be able to attend because of the start of the lockdown that coincided with the somber anniversary.

We cannot forget this tragic event, he told BenarNews.

The cafe has since moved to another location in Dhaka, away from the site in the capitals tony diplomatic quarter where the attack occurred.

On the night of July 1, 2016, five members of Neo-JMB, a Bangladeshi militant group aligned with the so-called Islamic State, slaughtered 20 diners when they took over the Holey Artisan Bakery. They separated Muslims from non-Muslims and killed mostly the non-Muslim hostages, hacking many of them to death with machetes, the authorities had said.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, 6 Bangladeshis including two police officers, one Bangladeshi-American, and one Indian were among the victims.

The five attackers, young men who came from well-off Bangladeshi families and who attended some of the countrys most prestigious schools, were killed when police commandos launched a raid on the morning of July 2 to break the siege.

A Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer places a wreath at a monument to police officers slain during a terror attack five years ago, near the site of the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in Dhaka, July 1, 2021. [BenarNews]

In a statement on its Facebook page, the United States embassy in Dhaka remembered an American victim and a Bangladeshi who had attended university together in the U.S.

We remember Abinta Kabir, a U.S.-Bangladeshi dual citizen and student at Emory University, as well as her Emory classmate Faraaz Hossain, who even when given the chance to save himself chose to remain with his friends, the statement said.

Surviving witnesses said Faraaz Hossain refused to leave other hostages behind when the gunmen said Muslims could leave the cafe.

On Thursday, the director general of the polices elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, placed floral wreaths at a monument erected near the cafes old site to commemorate the two police officers who were killed while trying to stop the militants.

In Washington, Americas top diplomat paid tribute to the victims of the attack.

The United States stands with the people of Bangladesh on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, resulting in the deaths of 20 people, including one U.S. citizen, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday.

We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the victims. We commend Bangladeshs efforts to bring those responsible to justice and recommit to our strong counterterrorism partnership to prevent future attacks.

Meanwhile, most Bangladeshis stayed home on Thursday, with the army and police out in force to ensure people leave their homes only for emergencies, as the country went into a week-long complete shutdown to combat an alarming rise in COVID-19 infections.

The Dhaka police said in a press statement that they detained close to 500 people  arresting 258 of them  in the capital for flouting the restrictions.

The country reported a record 143 virus-related deaths, as the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 pushed new infections above the 8,000 mark on Thursday.
Foreign workers who lack valid documents board an Immigration Department truck to be taken to the agencys headquarters in Putrajaya, Malaysia, June 7, 2021.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday relegated Malaysia to the bottommost Tier 3 in its latest annual report assessing efforts by countries worldwide to combat human trafficking, saying Kuala Lumpur did not convict officials suspected of complicity in related crimes.

Malaysias next-door neighbor, Thailand, was demoted to the Tier 2 Watch List  a notch above Tier 3  dropping from Tier 2 in the departments 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which covers 188 countries.

Bangladesh and Indonesia stayed at Tier 2 and the Philippines remained at the top level, Tier 1, in the report delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Trafficking in persons is an appalling crime. Its a global crisis; its an enormous source of human suffering. By its nature, its often hidden from view, Americas top diplomat said as he released the Biden administrations first TIP report.

Estimates put the number of human trafficking victims at nearly 25 million worldwide, he noted.

This crime is an affront to human rights; its an affront to human dignity. We fight it, you fight it, because its the right thing to do, Blinken said.

Its also in our interest to stop trafficking. We know its destabilizing to societies and to economies. So we must do everything we can as a country, but also as a global community, to stop trafficking wherever it occurs.

In its chapter on Malaysia, the more than 600-page report faulted the Southeast Asian country for not doing enough to put officials implicated in human trafficking behind bars.

Despite ongoing concerns that corruption facilitated trafficking, the government arrested and investigated, but did not prosecute or convict, officials who were allegedly complicit in trafficking-related crimes, the report said.

Malaysia had been on the Tier 2 Watch List for the previous three years.

Malaysia would have been demoted from the Tier 2 Watch List last year but was given a waiver because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, the 2020 report said.

At least one senior police official had expected Malaysia to move up, the state-run Bernama news agency reported earlier this week.

We are (trying) to put our efforts on Tier 2 or Tier 1 with countries such as Singapore and the Philippines. We have achieved Tier 2 in 2017, and we will ensure our best-integrated efforts with agencies under MAPO (Anti-Smuggling of Migrants) even though we remained on Tier 2 Watch List last year, said Abdul Jalil Hassan, the Royal Malaysia Police Criminal Investigations Department director.

Instead, Malaysia returns to Tier 3 for first time since 2014 and joins Myanmar, China, North Korea, Russia and 12 others on the list of countries at the bottom-rung. The 17 nations could be subject to U.S. restrictions of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related funding during the fiscal year beginning in October under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

In addition, President Joseph Biden could move to instruct the U.S. executive director of multilateral development banks and the International Monetary Fund to deny any loans or other uses of the institutions funds to a designated Tier 3 country for most purposes, the report said.

Malaysian concerns

The report also faulted Malaysia for initiating 57 investigations against employers in the rubber-product manufacturing sector to confirm compliance with housing laws, but it did not investigate these allegations as potential trafficking crimes.

In December 2020, the Malaysian government filed 19 charges against an unnamed disposable glove manufacturing company, under the Workers Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act, for inhumane living conditions in migrant workers dormitories.

It also filed 30 charges against another unnamed rubber glove manufacturer following a series of raids where labor inspectors discovered more than 200 foreign workers living in inhumane and unsanitary conditions, the report said.

The government did not report investigating or prosecuting these companies for human trafficking crimes despite credible evidence of debt-based coercion, it said.

A State Department spokesperson identified the companies as Top Glove Sdn Bhd and Brightway Holdings.

In July 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency announced it was blocking imports against Top Glove and its subsidiary, TG Medical Sdn Bhd, over forced labor concerns. Top Glove is the worlds largest maker of medical rubber gloves.

The evidence reveals multiple International Labor Organization indicators of forced labor, including debt bondage, excessive overtime, retention of identification documents and abusive working and living conditions, a CBP spokesperson said in a news release at the time.

Top Glove said it employed 19,000 people producing 78.7 billion gloves annually for more than 2,000 customers in 195 countries.

Army personnel set up barbed-wire fencing around dormitory buildings belonging to Top Glove, a rubber-glove manufacturer, in Klang, Malaysia, Nov.17, 2020. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

Thailands fall

In dropping Thailand from Tier 2  its ranking since 2018  to the Tier 2 Watch List, the State Department said officials identified significantly fewer victims in 2020 than in previous years, and it continued to make inadequate efforts to protect forced labor victims.

It said authorities identified 230 trafficking victims in 2020, compared with about 868 victims in 2019, and 631 in 2018.

Some officials failed to recognize trafficking cases that did not involve physical force or overt signs of coercion, such as delayed or non-payment of wages, debt-based coercion, and document confiscation, the report said.

Anecdotal reports suggested some government officials were reluctant to receive complaints or to identify victims due to fears it would indicate law enforcement incompetence or a failure of the governments efforts to combat trafficking.

Praise, concern

The Philippines, a Tier 1 nation since 2016, received praise for demonstrating serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking.

These efforts included prosecuting more traffickers than the previous reporting period, including significantly more defendants charged with using child soldiers and sentencing the majority of convicted traffickers to significant terms of imprisonment, the report said.

Tier 2 nations Bangladesh and Indonesia were praised for increased efforts to eliminate human trafficking in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report credited Bangladesh for opening an investigation against and parliament for revoking the seat of an MP who allegedly was involved in bribing a Kuwaiti official to fraudulently send more than 20,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers to Kuwait.

Indonesia, meanwhile, received praise for investigating, prosecuting and convicting recruitment agents who facilitated the forced labor of Indonesians aboard Chinese fishing boats.

In July 2020, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi expressed profound concern during a meeting with her Chinese counterpart over reports that at least 16 Indonesian crew members had died on Chinese-flagged fishing boats, beginning in November 2019.

Meanwhile, the report criticized all five nations over officials alleged involvement in trafficking crimes.

International organizations continued to allege some Bangladeshi officials facilitated trafficking of Rohingya, including by accepting bribes from traffickers to gain access to camps, it said.

The State Department expressed concern about official complicity in human trafficking offenses in Indonesia while noting that two government officials have been convicted of child trafficking offenses.

Despite its Tier 1 rank, the Philippines was criticized for actions by law enforcement, immigration and diplomatic officials.

Some corrupt officials allegedly accept bribes to facilitate illegal departures for overseas workers, operate sex trafficking establishments, facilitate production of fraudulent identity documents, or overlook illegal labor recruiters, the report said.

It alleged that some Thai government officials were directly complicit in trafficking crimes, including through accepting bribes or loans from business owners and brothels that exploit victims.

In Tier 3 Malaysia, the report said, corruption continues to undermine anti-trafficking efforts.

Credible reports indicate some corrupt officials protect brothels, other commercial sex venues, factory owners and fishing vessel owners from raids, inspections, and prosecutions, and collude with traffickers, the report said.

Some local police reportedly withhold information from prosecutors to protect traffickers. Some government officials profit from bribes and direct involvement in extortion from and exploitation of migrants.
A protester wears a hat calling on the Philippine government to stop red-tagging  a practice by the military and the police to label groups or individuals as being supporters of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines  during a demonstration in Manila on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, 2020.

A controversial Philippine army general confirmed Thursday that he quit from a government anti-communist task force after he angered people by accusing lawmakers, journalists and celebrities of supporting the outlawed communist party and its guerrilla wing.

Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. said he had resigned as spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) about a month ago, but vowed to carry on with the fight against the countrys 52-year-old insurgency. He serves as head of the militarys important Southern Luzon Command.

I have submitted my letter of resignation addressed to the President almost a month ago. I want to ease the pressure on the NTF-ELCAC principals who are being questioned by legislators for designating me as spokesman despite my being in the active service, Parlade said in a statement.

President Rodrigo Dutertes spokesman, Harry Roque, announced on Thursday that the chief executive had formally accepted the generals resignation. This came after months of pressure from congress people, rights groups and activists who had called for the generals removal from the task force.

I want to assure our critics and naysayers that I am not running away from this fight, Parlade said. As a citizen of this country, it behooves me to continue with my patriotic duty to defend our country and end the 52 years onslaught of the CPP-NPA terrorists, [in] whatever legal way I can, he continued, referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army.

Parlade earned a reputation for red-tagging  a practice among Philippine military and police personnel of accusing individual people or groups of being communist rebels or sympathizers.

The general has faced defamation cases from leftist lawmakers, groups and personalities whom he red-tagged. He has had to apologize publicly or retract his accusations a few times, as he did when he linked a Filipina movie film star, Angel Locsin, to the communists.

In February, Parlade accused Tetch Torres-Tupas, a reporter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, of being a communist propagandist after she reported about indigenous tribesmen petitioning against a controversial anti-terrorism law, which the government passed last year.

Media advocacy and human rights groups complained that Parlades comments about the journalist was a threat to press freedom. New York-based Human Rights Watch then called on Manila to investigate red-baiting and have Parlade answer for his provocative comments.

In March, the Senate recommended Parlade be removed from the anti-communist task force, citing a constitutional provision that prohibits active military servicemen from occupying civilian government posts.

The following month, some senators proposed to defund the task force after Parlade insinuated that a popular citizen-led movement to feed the poor, called community pantries, was a communist ploy. Parlade said the senators would be stupid to strip the task force of funding.

President Duterte established the task force in December 2018 after failed attempts at peace negotiations with the communists.

The task force implements the governments two-pronged strategy to stamp out the insurgency: sustained military operations against guerrilla units coupled with local government programs to entice rebels to defect, including amnesty and economic aid packages. The communist rebellion in the Philippines is Asias longest-running insurgency.

In recent years, scores of activists and personalities associated with progressive groups were killed in assassinations or in police operations, often after they were red-tagged. Rights groups expressed fears about worse scenarios under the new anti-terrorism law.

It criminalizes communication and collective action that may be interpreted as supportive of groups which the government considers as terrorists, such as the communist party and its guerrilla force.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who sponsored the anti-terrorism law, welcomed Parlades resignation.

The Senates legal position on the issue is clear  that his appointment as an active military officer in a civilian position is clearly proscribed by the Constitution, and whatever legal discussion or debate on his official designation in a civilian office while still in the active military service has not become moot and academic, Lacson said.

Lacson, a former national police chief, had earlier warned that Parlades missteps in red-tagging innocent civilians might diminish his own enthusiasm for the task force.

I am glad it has ended this way, Lacson said in a statement.

Parlade is set to retire from the military service on July 26, making him eligible for appointment to the civilian government.

Retirement does not mean the end of my advocacy. In fact, this is a new beginning, sans the prohibitions imposed on public servants. You will be hearing more of citizen Antonio Parlade Jr, the general said.
Three Beechcraft TC90 aircraft from the Japan Ministry of Defense fly over before arriving for a transfer ceremony of the planes to the Philippine Navy, at the Naval Air Group headquarters in Sangley Point, Cavite City, south of Manila, March 26, 2018.

The Philippine and Japanese air forces will hold their first-ever joint exercises next week, Tokyos embassy said Thursday, signaling a deepening of bilateral ties amid the nations tensions with Beijing over territorial disputes in the South and East China seas.

A statement from the Japanese embassy here did not mention China but said Tokyo was willing to work with Manila to maintain a free and strong Indo Pacific region, which is inclusive and based on democratic values and territorial integrity.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force  will conduct a Bilateral Training on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief  with the Philippine Air Force (PAF) on July 5-8, 2021, at Clark Air Base, Mabalacat City Pampanga, the statement said.

This is the first Air-to-Air bilateral training between the two air forces, which will mark a significant milestone for defense cooperation between Japan and the Philippines.

These joint exercises come as the two countries are set to mark the 10th anniversary of a strategic partnership, said Maj. Mizuno Masaki, unit commander of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force.

Japan and the Philippines are both natural disaster-prone countries and there [is] so much we can share on disaster relief operations for saving lives and alleviating the suffering of people in need, Mizuno said in the statement.

During the exercises, Japan will deploy a training unit of its Air Support Command  a C-130H cargo aircraft along with its personnel, the embassy said.

The unit will hold a four-day joint training session with its Philippine counterparts to boost the ability to operate together in delivering relief goods and evacuating people in emergency situations.

As a strategic partner and friend of the Philippines, we hope that our bilateral training will contribute to further strengthen the cooperation between our two Air Forces, Mizuno said.

These joint exercises come after Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte agreed in May to boost diplomatic relations and press for an unfettered Indo-Pacific.

Both nations are locked in separate territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, respectively.

Japan reiterates the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) which is inclusive and based on the rule of law, democratic values, territorial integrity, transparency, and peaceful resolution of disputes, the embassy statement said.

Japan intends to work with the Philippines to achieve these goals, the embassy added.

Both nations are also U.S. allies, and Japan is part of the Washington-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) on the Indo-Pacific region, an alliance Beijing has called anti-China.

Potential F-16 sales to Philippines

Meanwhile, Manila has been embroiled in tensions with Beijing over the presence of Chinese ships within the Philippines exclusive economic zone in the waterway since April.

Amid this latest row, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced last week that the State Department had approved a possible sale of billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Philippines.

This includes possible sales of F-16 fighter jets and related equipment worth U.S. $2.43 billion, and AGM-84 Harpoon and AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles worth $162 million, approvals that are seen as countering Beijings expansionism in the South China Sea.

The approval notices came 10 days after the Philippines put off by another six months a decision on whether to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement, a key military pact with the U.S.

On Thursday, John Law, the Charge dAffaires at the U.S. embassy in the Philippines, said Washington hoped to continue with the pact, the state-run Philippine News Agency reported.

He also said that U.S. equipment is deemed the most appropriate for Philippine Armed Forces.

The DSCA said the potential sales would boost strategic partner Philippines defense capabilities.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in South East Asia, the agency said in a statement on June 24.

This capability will provide the Philippine Air Force the ability to employ a highly reliable and effective system to counter or deter maritime aggressions, coastal blockades, and amphibious assaults, it said about the Harpoon missiles.

According to the website of Defense News, notifications from the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency do not serve as guarantees that sales will happen.

The U.S. Congress has to also approve the sale, after which a potential foreign customer can enter into sale negotiations.

Since Washington announced the potential arms sale to the Philippines, senior government officials in Manila have not yet responded to BenarNews requests for confirmation about the possible deal.
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Defendant Leonard Forte, 79, is shown in a police surveillance video running errands up to 30 miles from his home in Florida this January. The video was presented by the prosecution during Fortes evidentiary hearing in May, as it challenges his claim of physical incapacity to stand trial.
Do you know where your asparagus comes from? What kind of soil does it call home? How about the farmer who grows it?
Hi there, Eagle readers! Welcome to the first installment of The Cannabis Consultant, a new, sponsored column that aims to educate and help cl
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989. She can be reached at jmaschino@berkshireeagle.com.
Statehouse Reporter

Danny Jin is the Eagle's Statehouse reporter. A graduate of Williams College, he previously interned at the Eagle and The Christian Science Monitor. Danny can be reached at djin@berkshireeagle.com or on Twitter at @djinreports.
Meghan Martins booking photo at the time of her 2019 arrest in Florida, where she faced 50 counts of fraudulent use of a credit card. Martin had been wanted on a warrant and was arrested by Dalton Police after a short chase Wednesday that slightly injured two officers.
Amanda Burke covers Pittsfield City Hall for The Berkshire Eagle. An Ithaca, New York native, she previously worked at The Herald News of Fall River and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise. Find her on Twitter at @amandaburkec.
Mail-in ballots are prepared last year at the registrars office in Pittsfield. After broadening ballot options and expanding early voting for more than a year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Legislature allowed the provisions to lapse as the calendar flipped to Thursday in the face of renewed criticism from Secretary of State William Galvin and with the layout of several upcoming local races at stake.
Bill Schmick is registered as an investment adviser representative of Onota Partners Inc. in the Berkshires. He can be reached at 413-347-2401, or email him at billiams1948@gmail.com.
Donald Morrison is an Eagle columnist and co-chairman of the advisory board. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of

The Berkshire Eagle.
One of social medias hottest couples, Da Brat and Jesseca Judy Dupart, are heading to reality television.

They are starring in the WEtv reality show Brat Loves Judy, which premieres August 5.

Lauren Gellert, executive vice president of development and original programming for WEtv, said in a written statement, WEtv has long solidified itself as a home for authentic stories and relatable relationships, and were thrilled to add Brat and Judys larger-than-life love story to our Thursday night originals.

RELATED: After Da Brat Shares Sweet Message To Girlfriend, Jesseca Dupart, Fans Celebrate

Gellert also added, These two powerful and successful women are sharing their brand-new relationship with audiences for the first time ever, bravely inviting viewers to experience all their emotional firsts alongside them.

In March of 2020, the Chicago icon revealed that she was dating the Kaleidoscope Hair Product CEO and founder in an emotional Instagram post.
Conservatives are taking a break from attacking Colin Kaepernick and have now targeted U.S. Olympian Gwen Berry for allegedly snubbing the American flag. The Views Meghan McCain is the latest person to slam Berry.

On an episode of The View, McCain ranted, If anyone just saw Vladimir Putins recent speech when he met with President [Joe] Biden, hes using the propaganda that America is a craphole against us. Were having our enemies and propaganda dictators using our own propaganda against us, which in turn, turns into a national security risk.

She continued, For some reason, my relationship with the flag isnt allowed. My love of the American flag, my love of the national anthem!

She then referenced her father, the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ),I know its very triggering for people and people get very upset when I talk about my dad, for whatever reason, which is why I really stopped doing it on the show unless its really meaningful to me.



McCain told a story about her dads time as a POW and how he made her value the American flag.

RELATED: Simone Biles Dominates U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials

McCain didnt stop there, For some of us, I will die for this! I will die on this hill that it is not appropriate or patriotic to go to a foreign country where you are supposed to represent America and act like it's just about you! It's not about you! It's about all of us!

Despite McCains comments, Berry told Black News Channel, "I never said that I hated the country, never said that. All I said was I respect my people enough to not stand or acknowledge something that disrespects them. I love my people point blank, period."

On June 26, she finished third in the hammer throw and as she stood on the podium, the playing of the national anthem unexpectedly began, which caused her to turn away from the American flag and place a T-shirt reading Activist Athlete over her head.

Watch the clip from The View below:
The House of Representatives passed a resolution Tuesday (June 29) to remove Confederate memorials and monuments from the U.S. Capitol. The resolution calls to remove statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederacy against the United States in the Civil War.

The resolution also calls for a bust of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to replace a bust of Roger B. Taney, the chief justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery. The statues of John C. Calhoun, Charles Aycock and James P. Clarke, who defended slavery, segregation and White supremacy as elected officials, would also be removed.

The vote was 285 to 120, with sixty-seven Republicans voting with 218 Democrats in support of the bill.

RELATED: John Lewis Pushed As Replacement For Confederate Statue At U.S. Capitol

This the Houses second effort to remove Confederate memorials from the capitol after the George Floyd protests last year. The House passed a similar resolution last July, but it stalled after Senate Republicans argued that the states should decide which statues they'd like to display in the Capitol. Every state sends two statues of prominent residents to the Capitol as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection.

The current resolution has a better chance to pass now that Democrats have the Senate majority.

"It's never too late to do the right thing, and this legislation would work to right a historic wrong while ensuring our Capitol reflects the principles and ideals of what Americans stand for," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, after he introduced the resolution this year.

Some states have already voted to swap out Confederate memorials they previously sent to the Capitol. In 2016, Florida lawmakers voted to replace its statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith with one honoring civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune.

Last December, Virginia lawmakers voted to replace its statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee with one honoring Barbara Rose Johns, an African American woman who played a key role in the civil rights movement.
Saint Augustines University announced that it would clear its students debt from the 2021 spring, summer, and fall semesters after federal, state, and private aid factors are considered, school officials said in a statement Tuesday (June 29).

The private HBCU located in Raleigh, N.C., decided because of the financial challenges faced by its students as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. After completion of their FAFSA application for student aid, balances will be marked at zero, the school says.

We are pleased to offer this timely support to our students, Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail, the schools president, said in a statement. At Saint Augustines University, we are committed to delivering on our promise to be one of the nations best universities for personalized education, student life, and affordability.



The estimated relief will be more than $9 million, and about 800 Pell Grant-eligible students will be helped, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The funding comes from money Saint Augustines received from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which was part of the CARES act from earlier this year.



Saint Augustines joins other HBCUs that have been forgiving or canceling student debt during the economic upheaval caused by the pandemic. Wilberforce University in Ohio, for example, canceled the debt of its graduates in a surprise announcement at its commencement ceremonies in May.



Delaware State University in Dover, Del., also used COVID relief fund money to cancel more than $730,000 in student debts, as did Shaw University, another private college in Raleigh, to the tune of $116,000.



The largest example is that of billionaire Robert F. Smith eliminated $40 million in student debt for the graduates of Atlantas Morehouse College in 2019.



RELATED: Who Is Robert F. Smith? Meet The Black Billionaire Who Paid Off Morehouse Grads Student Loan Debt



According to Inside Higher Ed, Black college graduates carry an average of about $52,000 in student debt when they receive their degrees and owe an average of about $25,000 more than their white counterparts.



Students at Saint Augustines said the cancelation would go a long way toward preventing heavy debt that would take years to pay off.



I come from a low income, single-parent household and I am a first-generation high school graduate and first-generation college student, said McKenzie Estep, Saint Augustines senior in a statement. This type of support brings me one step closer to reaching my dream of starting a career with less debt and becoming financially stable.
News

Glasgow park project moves ahead amid questions

Gina Kinslow for the Bowling Green Daily News Close to 100 people turned to show their support for a proposed park that the Glasgow Downtown Parks Committee is looking to develop on 2.4 acres one block from the towns public square along West Main Street.

GLASGOW  The Glasgow City Council voted to allocate up to $15,000 to the Downtown Parks Committee for a design-build request for proposals for a park the committee hopes to build on about 2.4 acres one block from Glasgows public square along West Main Street.

The councils unanimous decision Monday night came after confusion regarding whether the park project was a public-private venture and whether Mayor Harold Armstrong supported it.

Nearly 100 people attended the council meeting to show their support for the park project. Some had signs that read, Yes to the Park.

Planning for the park has been underway for nearly two years.

At the councils June 14 meeting, committee Chairman Wes Simpson said the committee decided to do a design-build request for proposals. The proposals were to be returned by Aug. 4.

In the meantime, Simpson sent a copy of the request for proposals to the city.

City Attorney Danny Basil reviewed the document and then spoke with Armstrong and Chris Johnson of the Kentucky League of Cities about it.

Johnson referred the city to Jason Halligan, an attorney with the Lexington law firm of Frost, Brown and Todd, who has been working with public-private partnerships across the state.

The city hired Halligan to serve as a consultant on the matter. He attended the council meeting via Zoom.

Simpson said the committee isnt interested in the type of public-private partnership that involves private citizens making an investment in government infrastructure with the anticipation of a return on their investment.

These private folks are looking to give the city money and are not expecting anything in return but a name on the park somewhere, whether that be a playground or splash pad or whatever, he said.

Simpson said he thought everyone was ready to move ahead with the park project after he forwarded the request for proposals. He also said the original resolution the council adopted called for an allotment of $15,000 for the design document and to then put the project out to bid.

We decided we may not get what we need with $15,000 and so it would actually be a better deal for taxpayers if we did a design-build RFP, Simpson said.

After delivering the design-build request for proposals to city hall, Simpson said he didnt hear anything for about a week. He said he was then told that the city would take it from there.

Which kind of felt like shutting the door on the committee before we were actually finished with what we were tasked to do, he said. I get it. Not everybody agrees with the project  but mayor, you came out in support of this project before.

Simpson referenced news reports in which Armstrong seemingly spoke in favor of and against the project.

Simpson then told the council he was confused, because he thought everything was running smoothly with the project.

Armstrong explained what he told a television reporter.

I said to the TV station if the council wants it, if it is legal and we can afford it, fine, he said. But I dont think we can afford it.

The mayor said he told Simpson that if the city was going to go with a design-build request for proposals, the city needed an expert to do the lifting.

If we can afford to do it that way and the citizens and the council want to do that and not give raises to the sanitation workers and the police  , he said.

Armstrong was interrupted by booing from the audience.

Simpson then said that when he spoke at the June 14 council meeting, he shared that the committee had pulled out the most expensive part of the project, which was an amphitheater stage. He also said he understands there are legalities that must be followed, but he said that is separate from the issue of the mayor seeming to be flipping on the issue.

The mayor explained that design-build request for proposals have to be done through the city and not a private entity.

A member of the public, Don Baker, then asked if the city needed a special attorney to send a request for proposals. Baker said such an attorney might be needed if the city was doing a public-private partnership.

But why are we spending the money on that when we dont even know if we are going to do the project yet? Surely, we have the expertise to put out a simple RFP, Baker said.

Armstrong replied that the Kentucky League of Cities has said the committee can do an request for proposals or sealed bids, but that they have to be done through the city.

Nobody argued that it has to be through the city. I think the question is if the project is going to be a city project, bids are going to go through the city. The city has put out many RFPs. Why are we paying an attorney to talk about public-private agreements, which is not even what we are doing? Simpson asked.

Simpson said the committee isnt interested in a public-private project and that nothing in the request for proposals he sent to the city alluded to it.

It seems to be we are wasting time by saying we are going to bring somebody in to talk about setting up this framework before we can even get a price from design-build contractors, Simpson said.

The audience then applauded.

Its not a joint project. I guess thats where were getting our wires crossed, mayor. This is a city project. You are funding private funds to the city, which I cant believe I am saying that, to be earmarked for this project. All these folks are asking for is a name on the park and representation when this goes through to make it work, Simpson said.

The mayor said the committee was going to raise $2 million and the city was going to put in $2 million and that it was going to be done as a private-public venture.

Thats what you told me, Armstrong said.

But Simpson said the money is actually a donation to the city and that the committee isnt wanting anything in return from the investment.

As being the city, I am responsible for the daily activities. If we do something inappropriate then we are in trouble all the way around, Armstrong said. Youre not. Youre a private individual. The councilmen, they could be (in trouble) and thats the reason weve got somebody here to tell us. You tell him what you want to do and if he says you can do that then fine. Go for it.

Councilman Patrick Gaunce made the motion to allocate up to $15,000 to the committee so it can work on the request for proposals with Halligan and bring it back to the council to be issued.

After the council meeting, Simpson said he was OK with the councils vote.

We havent spent any of the citys money. And the council, if they feel like thats the best to engage this attorney to get the RFP advertised then whatever moves the ball further down the field I feel good about. I want to save as much money as we can in this process. Thats been my whole goal. But I cant feel bad because it was unanimous to move it along, so feeling OK, he said.

Among those in attendance for the meeting was Brandi Button, executive director of Sustainable Glasgow, which oversees the management of the Bounty of the Barrens Farmers Market.

Button also sits on the park committee.

I think a lot of money and time could have been saved as far as our committee and the city as well if the RFP would have gone out that we gave to the city two weeks ago, she said.

Button said she thought Halligan made it clear that the request for proposals he was looking at would only need revisions if the city were looking at a public-private project, which is not what the city asked the committee to look at.

Its frustrating, but at the same time I feel like we had a lot of support and attention to whats going on and thats the most important thing that the community feels like they are being heard and involved, she said.
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Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 91F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low around 60F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High around 90F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 61F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
How Can We Tell When Something Is False Prophecy?

The true essence of what makes something a prophecy that came from God is if what was said came true. This is the dividing line that separates true prophecy from false prophecy.

As God was preparing Israel to go into the promised land, he knew those lands were inhabited by nations of people who practiced sorcery or divination. This was and is one method of how people who do not know God look for direction and instruction. For Israel, they were not allowed to engage in these evil practices, they were to look only to God and listen to the prophets that he would send, which created a dilemma. If someone spoke prophetically, how would they be able to tell if someone was speaking on Gods behalf or if they were speaking out of their own minds. Here is the test God gave them:

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death. You may say to yourselves, How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord? If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

As you can see this was a simple test, but there was a dire consequence in those days for speaking presumptuously: you were put to death. Another reminder of how serious it is to stand and proclaim that something is what the Lord is saying.

Do People Still Prophesy Today?

You may be wondering if people still prophesy today. The answer is yes, especially when you remember that to prophesy is to declare something that God has said. There are many people doing that today. The reason I can say with certainty that people are still prophesying today is because Jesus said this would happen. This is one of the signs of the end of the age.

And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people (Matthew 24:11).

Jesus declared there will be many who will stand up and prophesy, unfortunately many of them will be false prophets and they will lead many people astray. We are living in a day and age where lots of people are making prophetic declarations and even calling themselves prophets. I am by no means calling all these people false prophets, but if you are going to believe Jesus, then some of them are.

Photo credit: Getty Images/diego_cervo
BOISE - On Thursday, July 1, Idaho Governor Brad Little announced the details of his plan to send Idaho State Police (ISP) troopers to Arizona to help secure the United States-Mexico border and curb the flow of illegal drugs into Idaho due to "failed Biden-Harris immigration policies."

The crisis at the Unites States-Mexico border and the alarming bump in illegal drug activity are direct results of failed polices of the Biden-Harris administration that harm the people of Idaho, Governor Little said. Drug seizures for meth, fentanyl, and heroin have doubled since Biden took office and weve seen the highest number of illegal crossings this year in 21 years. Biden reversed numerous Trump policies that kept the American people safer, and now our nations governors must step up to protect Americans because the Biden-Harris administration wont. The State of Idaho proudly stands with our fellow Americans along the United States-Mexico border.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey sent a letter to the nations governors in June pleading for extra manpower through other states law enforcement agencies to help secure the border. Governor Little quickly committed to supporting their efforts.

Since Governor Littles office received the letter, the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM) and ISP have been working closely with the State of Arizona to determine how Idahos resources can best support the mission. The collaboration resulted in an emergency mutual aid compact (EMAC) that Idaho will fulfill to support Arizonas efforts.

Idaho will send a specialized team of five ISP troopers on a 21-day mission commencing July 6 to assist Arizona State Police with intelligence gathering and investigative work related to drug interdiction at the border. The specialized team of ISP troopers will act as a force multiplier to augment Arizonas drug interdiction team.

We did our homework and worked closely with Arizona State Police to determine the true needs and how Idaho can help in a meaningful, impactful way without compromising public safety here at home. States frequently assist each other through the emergency response system with fires, floods, and other emergencies, and this situation is no different, Governor Little said. Our specialized team will help curb the flow of illegal drug smuggling and organized crime into our country and our state, and the troopers will gain valuable hands-on training that will improve their ability to serve the people of Idaho when they return.

The ISP troopers will be cross deputized with the State of Arizona and will act under the same authority given to Arizona State Troopers. The support will cost the State of Idaho $53,391  $16,149 in travel and other costs and $37,242 in personnel costs. The ISP leadership is ensuring the troopers duties at home are covered while they serve their mission.

With his plan, Governor Little joins Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts in lending support.

Idaho will continue to evaluate our resources and the border states needs to determine if we can do even more to help in the fight to protect Americans against the Biden-Harris inaction, Governor Little said.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho  A Montana man who pleaded guilty to firing into a crowd at a northern Idaho bar last year has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Austin L. Sherper, 25, of Whitefish, Montana, pleaded guilty in April to seven felonies including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, The Coeur d'Alene Press reported. Prosecutors said he shot 10 times at a crowd outside a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho bar after security staffers told him he wasn't allowed inside. Two people were grazed by the bullets and treated at a nearby hospital.

First District Judge Scott Wayman sentenced Sherper on Monday to 15 years in prison for each felony, but said the prison terms would be served at the same time and that he would be eligible for parole after serving at least five years in prison.

Police responded to reports of the shooting at the Iron Horse Bar & Grill around 9 p.m. on July 11, 2020. According to court documents, a man later identified as Sherper had earlier had an altercation with security staffers at the bar, who told him he was no longer allowed inside.

Prosecutors said Sherper returned to the bar in a truck and fired at people gathered outside.
MECOSTA COUNTY  After a 15-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, jury trials are once again underway in Mecosta and Osceola county courts.

A memorandum to all judges from the Supreme Court Administrative Office, dated July 21, states all courts can now advance to Phase 4 of the COVID-19 protocol.

Together, the sharp decline of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, increased availability of vaccines, and recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control for fully vaccinated individuals, means all Michigan courts can safely expand operations and tailor mitigation measures to local conditions, the memorandum said.

Chief judges have discretion to determine the pace of reopening consistent with local conditions. This will enable all courts to expand capacity, focus on conducting jury trials, and address backlogs.

The Phase 4 protocol calls for following all local public health and Michigan Occupational Health and Safety guidelines; conducting proceedings virtually as much as possible; in-person proceedings must follow social distancing, capacity limits and mask mandates for court participants; and in the case of resurgence, the court may be required to return to previous phases.

District Judge Peter Jaklevic told the Pioneer jury trials have begun at the Mecosta County courthouse.

They are holding one as we speak, Jaklevic said on Wednesday. He just entered a plea this morning. We picked the jury at Williams Auditorium and they started calling witnesses yesterday."

Our direction from the SCAO is to continue to do as much remotely as we can, but certain things need to be done in person, such as jury trials and circuit court sentencing, he added. We are going to be able to start doing that following the CDC guidelines for now.

The CDC's guidelines continue to call for limited indoor capacity, with social distancing and masks required for unvaccinated persons.

Due to social distancing requirements, and limited space at the courthouse, jury selections are being done at the Williams Auditorium on Ferris State's campus, Jaklevic said.

They are picking the jury at Williams Auditorium because the jury pool can have as many as 100 potential jurors in the room for a circuit court case, he said. You kind of want them all in one room. It works out better that way, because you are shuffling people in and out as they get picked.

The trials are being held in the courtrooms, and we do have space for the actual trials, it is just the jury pick that is problematic, he added.

Jaklevic said for his trials, he will be doing the jury picks at the courthouse and will utilize two separate courtrooms for that.

My pool will only be around 30-35 people, so I will have some of the pool in one courtroom and the rest in another, he said. I think I will be able to do it here safely, and I will get my cases going pretty quick.

They are picking dates and holding pretrials for his cases, he said, but the priority will go to the circuit court cases.

We are letting them get their trials going first, he said. That is the most important because some of those people are incarcerated. We are trying to prioritize cases because we can not run trials in two different courts at the same time. That will tax the security needs of the jail and everything else.

Once the trials are scheduled and get going, the public will be able to attend, but there will be capacity limits in place, which will depend on the size of the courtroom.

I am allowing a limited number of the public to come into my courtroom, and I believe other judges will, as well, Jaklevic said. Social distancing and masks are still required.

He said with the capacity limits in place, the public will still be able to access the trials remotely through YouTube, and if they have an overflow crowd in person, the trial will be accessible through closed circuit TV in another part of the building.

We are doing our best, under the circumstances, to keep everybody safe and ensure we give every defendant the right to a jury trial, Jaklevic said. If people still have concerns about being in an enclosed space, they are encouraged to call the court that is noted on their summons and share those concerns.
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Professor Tan Huay Cheem, Director, National University Heart Centre, Singapore will be handing over the baton to Associate Professor James Yip after more than 13 years of dedicated leadership

Singapore's NUHCS announced that Professor Tan Huay Cheem will be relinquishing his role as Director of the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) on 1 July 2021. For the last 13 years, Prof Tan has charted the growth of the centre in many ways. He has strengthened manpower training and development of clinical programmes, instituted structured training programmes for trainees, nurtured a research ecosystem, and cultivated young clinician scientists.

Under his leadership, the centre has achieved numerous clinical breakthroughs. He converted the primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) programme for patients with acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) heart attack into a 24/7 service in 2001. In 2017, he inaugurated the Western STEMI network in the Western region of Singapore, achieving the shortest door-to-balloon time for patients transfer to National University Hospital (NUH) and lowest STEMI mortality rates in Singapore.

The Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery also achieved peaks of excellence such as the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Programme and the Aortic Centre. The mobile Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) service also played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing care to the most severely ill COVID-19 patients.

Taking over the baton will be Associate Professor James Yip. An accomplished cardiologist and clinician-scientist, A/Prof Yip helped developed the structural heart disease programme in NUH and the National University Health System (NUHS) from 2003-2017. He has also led many international trials in pulmonary hypertension as Principal Investigator.

A/Prof Yip played an instrumental role in developing the undergraduate ultrasound training module in the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and is a core tutor and program evaluation member of the NUHS senior residency program in cardiology. He has been conferred the NUH University Medical Cluster Outstanding Tutor Award six times since 2010 in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate medical teaching.

A/Prof Yip was appointed Chief Medical Informatics Officer of NUH in 2006 and has served as NUHS Group Chief Medical Informatics Officer since 2017. He will relinquish his GCMIO role when he assumes the role of Director, NUHCS on 1 July 2021.

Image Caption: Prof Tan Huay Cheem (Left); AProfessor James Yip (Right)
Whether it is the industry or academia, life sciences workers are gradually accepting the fact that lab data digitisation improves processes, simplifies workflows and makes research and development (R&D) more efficient. With increasing advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), digitisation in the research environment is set to become an integral part of every laboratory worldwide. But in emerging markets such as India, there are a large number of factors responsible for its slow adoption such as lack of skilled workforce, high maintenance and service costs, limited expertise, data security etc.
Calls for evidence-based studies on benefits of yoga

The Prime Minister (PM), Narendra Modi greeted the doctor community on Doctors Day, celebrated on July 1. He said this day, celebrated in the memory of Doctor BC Roy, is the symbol of the highest ideals of our medical fraternity.

The PM stressed on the importance of documentation of experiences by doctors. Along with the experiences, symptoms of the patients and treatment plan needs to be documented in great details. This can be taken up as a research study where effects of various medicines and treatments are noted.

Modi said that sheer number of patients served by our doctors put them ahead of the world. Now is the time when the world takes cognizance and take benefit from these scientific studies. Covid-19 pandemic can be a good starting point for this.

"I wonder if we could study more deeply how vaccines are helping us, how early diagnosis helps. There is no documentation available about the last centurys pandemic but now we have technology and our documentation about how we faced Covid-19 will help the humanity", the PM said.

He also commended medical fraternity for spreading awareness about Yoga. THe PM has asked if the Indian Medical Association (IMA) can take up the evidence-based studies on yoga in a mission mode. He also suggested that studies on yoga could be published in international journals.
Nkgabiseng Motau, CCO and founding partner at Think Creative Africa, was once again selected to be part of the jury for Cannes Lions 2021 and is joining the final jury at Ad Stars 2021 in South Korea, a global festival based in Asia.

Nkgabiseng Motau, CCO and founding partner at Think Creative Africa

What does your role as CCO entail and what does your day at work look like?

What was your career path? Tell us about how you ended up in advertising.

What do you love most about your work?

You were appointed to be a judge on the Cannes Lions Print & Publishing jury, could you tell us about that experience?

In your opinion, what does South Africa bring to the table in the creative industry?

#CannesLions2021: "SA brings a unique cultural sensitivity" - Nkgabiseng Motau Cannes Lions and its official representative in South Africa, Ster-Kinekor recently announced this year's jury. With only one month to go until two years' worth of Lion-winning work is awarded, we touched base with some of the local jury members for a preview of what to expect. First up, Nkgabiseng Motau...

Tell us a bit about some of your most successful campaigns and why they were successful.

What is the future looking like for you in your career?

What other skills and interests do you have besides your work?

What advice would you give to young people looking to break through in the advertising and creative industries?

A giant in the industry, she holds creativity from the South African perspective close to her heart. Motau has been a recurring judge for Loeries, Pendorings, Creative Circle and Cannes Young Lions. She was a Jury Member for the 2020 D&AD Awards and is a member of the ABInbev Braintrust.Here, we find out more about her day-to-day work and what her life looks like behind the scenes...At Think Creative Africa, it often means finding insightful ideas and fighting for them. No day is like the next, and that is what is special about my work. Some days are spent before a screen in back-to-back meetings with the creative team or presenting ideas to clients. Other days are spent on set or in the studio overseeing productions.I attended an art school in Pretoria called Pro Arte which heightened my desire to work in the arts. I wanted a way to participate in the commercial world, but to also express my creativity. I then applied to Vega having heard about it from a friend. Vega really opened doors for me through their programme that placed students in agencies for an internship. The rest is pretty much history, all I needed was one foot in the agency door and the ad bug bit me.I love the ability to see an idea come to life and impact millions of people in our country.The experience was invaluable, a school of sorts. I learned what makes really great work while lending my voice and insight to make sure the best work wins.The diverse nature of our country brings a unique perspective and cultural sensitivity. We are able to tap into so many versions of reality, drawing on our history and our presence to create work that is really universal.Think Creative Africa has achieved so much in a short time. One of my favourite pieces of work is a campaign called Nothing To Hide for a brand called Yalu. The campaign allowed us to take a challenger brand to the battlefield with the Goliath of the financial services industry. The campaign earned over 100% increase in sales, which is an incredible achievement.I hope to build impactful businesses that will change what it means to be a young Black businesswoman in South Africa.I have a podcast called Why Is That in which I explore various topics with field experts.Be relentless. It can be a difficult industry to get into, but its in desperate need of young, free thinkers. If you have the talent and tenacity, there is a place for you.Catch Nkgabiseng and selected Cannes Lions judges speaking at the forthcoming Cannes Lions Trend Talks 22 July, 2021. See footer for more info and bookings.
Fondly known as Bra Dan, Dan Maswanganye passed away in hospital on Tuesday night due to Covid-19 complications. Maswanganye was the technical manager at Primedia Broadcasting in Johannesburg.

We close off with very tragic news. The Primedia family has lost one of our own. Bra Dan Maswanganye, Technical Manager in Johannesburg, passed away in hospital last night. 702 colleagues past & present share tributes. RIP Bra Dan.  pic.twitter.com/WcUFsX1u8X

 702 (@Radio702) June 30, 2021

We pay tribute to one of our own Bra Dan Maswanganye - our beloved technical manager who succumbed to Covid



A special Doctors Roundtable on the pandemic#702Breakfast pic.twitter.com/WxMV2Guldj  Bongani Bingwa - (@bonglez) July 1, 2021

Devastated to hear of the passing of my friend, colleague and someone who has played such a big role in my broadcasting career.



I have known Dan Maswanganye for more than 30 years, he was one of the first people I met at 702. pic.twitter.com/H5pcYYj69q  Aki Anastasiou (@AkiAnastasiou) June 30, 2021

Ah Bra Dan! Not you succumbing to this awful virus! What a loss to @BrandPrimedia. You were the BOSS of outside broadcasts; elections, inaugurations, the best technical manager. And that laugh? EVERYTHING made you laugh! You & @AkiAnastasiou & @thomasmmanamela made life beautiful pic.twitter.com/f7rPqrl3QT  Redi Tlhabi (@RediTlhabi) June 30, 2021

Bra Dan worked at Primedia Broadcasting for 37 years and has been described as a consummate professional who was warm, welcoming and had infectious laughter.Tributes have been pouring in on social media.
At 6am this morning, Hot 102.7FM, the first new commercial music station to launch in the Johannesburg market this century, made its presence known with the McFadden and Whitehead hit "Ain't No Stopping Us Now". The station, which plays Joburg's best old skool and R&B, from a powerful transmitter which reaches the greater Johannesburg area - and beyond.

Hot expands its footprint Icasa recently approved a new ownership structure and format change for Classic FM; as of 1 July 2021, the company will begin to trade as Hot 1027...

New commercial station Hot 102.7FM announces on-air lineup from 1 July 2021 On 1 July 2021, Hot 102.7FM takes to the airwaves on a powerful FM transmitter that will ensure blanket coverage of the greater Johannesburg area...

About Hot 102.7FM

Opening the station at exactly 6am, Hot 102.7FMs managing director, Lloyd Madurai, welcomed listeners saying: Today we change the landscape of radio in South Africa, setting the benchmark for world-class radio; radio of the highest standard. Today we stand proud knowing that a dream has become a reality for many, put together by an amazing team of professionals who are passionate about radio. A team who still feels the sheer sense of excitement each time the microphone is turned on in the studio. We have succeeded despite the determination of many in the industry to keep us off the air.Today, we are filled with joy and pride as we are ready to serve you and make a meaningful difference through everything that we do, whilst bringing back radio that is fun, meaningful and most of all radio just for you. We love the music we play, we love what we do, and the best part is that we get to share it with you every day.The station boasts a solid programming lineup of seasoned radio professionals including Tony Murrell, Simon Hill, Bunny Majaja, John Walland, Ragani Achary, Mark Pilgrim, Ursula Chikane, Simon Parkinson, Keo Rapetse, Dylan Rogers, Michael Avery, Carolyn Steyn, Treasure Tshabalala, Kevin Savage, Shane The Duke Wellington, Rob Vega, Devon Dalbock, Mzi Kaka, Simone Trethaway and Benjy Mudie. Their overarching brief is to have fun. If were having fun on-air, the spirit translates through this magic medium of radio into the psyche of our listeners and uplifts their spirit and makes them feel great, says Madurai.Hot 102.7FM will also play a meaningful role in the community through its association with the Hot Cares Charity. With this huge reach across the entire Johannesburg region, and knowing the good hearts of our listeners, I am very confident that we can do more to assist in alleviating the lot of those in our community who need assistance, especially in these times, says Madurai.Hot 102.7FM transmits on FM on DSTV channel 822 and streams online via www.hot1027.co.za Hot 102.7FM is Joburgs newest commercial radio station, broadcasting to the greater Johannesburg area and beyond on a powerful 10-kilowatt transmitter. The stations music format of old skool and R&B is complemented by a lineup of the best presenters, entertaining, amusing and compelling content, including pertinent, relevant news and traffic information.The station brings a heart of gold to the city of gold through the Hot Cares NPC charity initiative, which aims to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need. The station also contributes to the growth and continued success of the radio industry through the Hot Radio Training Academy, which provides a training programme that upskills and equips future radio industry professionals.
Eskom, Africa's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, is pitching a $10bn plan to global lenders that would see it shut the vast majority of its coal-fired plants by 2050 and embrace renewable energy.

Cows graze as steam rises from the cooling towers of Matla Power Station, a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, 20 May, 2018. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo

Lining up funding

That is the future. I don't think we can look at 2050 and still see fossil fuels in there to be honest.

Discussions have already started with development finance institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank, a senior Eskom official told Reuters."It's a lot of money, so what we are putting on the table is to say to funders: South Africa can offer you the biggest point source of carbon emissions reduction in the world," said Mandy Rambharos, general manager at Eskom's Just Energy Transition office.Eskom, which generates more than 90% of the country's electricity chiefly by burning coal, is looking for around $7 to $8 for every tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent it cuts from its greenhouse gas emissions. Eskom currently emits around 213-million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year.The idea is to line up some of the funding before the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. The utility is already looking at "repowering" its Komati coal plant using solar and battery storage and could present the project at COP26 to show it is serious about curbing emissions.Rambharos said Eskom was modelling different scenarios to reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050.The least aggressive path is the one the government laid out in a 2019 document called the Integrated Resource Plan, which envisaged Eskom shutting down some 35,000MW of coal by 2050. As of March 2020, Eskom had around 41,000MW of installed coal-fired capacity.A bolder one would see even Medupi and Kusile, which will be two of the world's largest coal plants when fully operational, shuttered in the 2040s, at least 20 years ahead of schedule and leaving Eskom with no coal by 2050 from 15 stations now.While Eskom could use natural gas as part of its energy transition, the ultimate aim is to replace coal with renewables, Rambharos said.Analysts have flagged the carbon intensity of South Africa's economy as a major risk as investors and governments become increasingly attuned to climate concerns, and Rambharos said it was time to act."We will be left in this little bubble where we are not going to be able to export our wine or our fruit or our cars if we don't transition," she said. "The whole world is transitioning, we have to get on this bandwagon - for South Africa to remain competitive and for our economy to grow."
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With hot temperatures bearing down on Manitoba and much of western Canada this weekend, the province is advising people to be prepared and plan for the heat.

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With hot temperatures bearing down on Manitoba and much of western Canada this weekend, the province is advising people to be prepared and plan for the heat.

Environment Canada issued a heat warning on Thursday for almost the entire province, including all of Westman. In Brandon, the temperature is forecasted to reach a high of 32C on Thursday and 34C on Friday.

Municipalities can repurpose facilities as cooling centres for people with no other way to cool off. Outdoor splash pads are also now open in the City of Brandon.

Everyone is at risk during a heatwave, but older adults, people with chronic illnesses and people without air conditioning are at particular risk of heat illness, the province said in a press release.

Young children and people who exercise or work outside are also at a greater risk.

"Manitobans are encouraged to check in regularly with vulnerable or socially isolated community members, friends and family. Contact people by phone where possible to reduce face-to-face interactions, which will help control the spread of COVID-19."

People and pets should not be left alone in a parked vehicle or in direct sunlight.

Symptoms such as headache, red, hot and dry skin, dizziness, confusion, nausea, rapid weak pulse or loss of consciousness could be symptoms of heatstroke.

"The longer a persons body temperature is above 40C (105F), the greater the likelihood of permanent effects or death. If these symptoms occur, immediately move to a cool place and drink water," the press release reads.

Emergency medical care may be needed depending on the severity of the symptoms. If someone is unconscious or confused, call for help, the province advises.

While waiting, cool the person off by moving them to a cool place or pouring cold water on them.

The risk of heat illness can be reduced by drinking plenty of liquids, wearing loose, light-coloured clothing, planning outdoor activities at cooler times in the day, limiting alcohol consumption, limiting sun exposure, going to cool indoor places or taking a cool shower or bath.

 The Brandon Sun
The Branson Board of Aldermen on Thursday (now postponed to July 28) will consider an ordinance that would require face coverings in public spaces. The aldermen might approve it, disapprove it, or approve an amended version. Would you be in favor of some form of mandatory face covering ordinance in the city of Branson?

You voted:
Airlines follow a pretty simple formula for success -- fill as many seats and fly as many hours as possible, and keep a young fleet. One Indian budget carrier is going another way to drum up income -- not flying.

SpiceJet hasnt flown any of its Boeing 737 MAX jets for more than 27 months, after two deadly crashes operated by other airlines led to a global grounding. While most other major markets apart from China have cleared the MAX to fly again, SpiceJet seems in no hurry to get it back in the air, and not just because theres less demand to use the jet because of the pandemic.

SpiceJet hasnt flown any of its Boeing 737 MAX jets for more than 27 months. Credit:Bloomberg

Indias second-biggest budget carrier booked other income of 10.9 billion rupees ($190 million) in the seven quarters through December.

That was the amount it expected to get in compensation from Boeing for not being able to fly its 13 MAX aircraft, helping the company to trim its losses during deeply challenging times. Given the planes remain grounded, the figure is likely to rise when SpiceJet reports results for the year through March this week.
It was the biggest initial public offering since 2018, but PEXA made a lacklustre debut on the ASX with its high listing price blamed as much as an embarrassing operational glitch on the eve of its float.

The online property conveyancers shares opened at $16.68 on Thursday morning, more than 2 per cent below their IPO price, and dropped further to trade as low as $16.40 before staging a late recovery. They finished their first trading day at $17.15, 2 cents above the listing price.

In a statement to the sharemarket on Thursday morning, the company said an outage had temporarily prevented members from being able to log on to the platform for a period of 1 hour 45 minutes on Wednesday afternoon. It said services had been restored by 5pm.

All property settlements that were in Ready status proceeded yesterday, with the remainder requiring rebooking, PEXA explained.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Cyber security experts, ex-military officials and some politicians are pushing for ransomware gangs to be treated not as hackers but like pirates of the past, in a rethink of how to best counter their growing threat to businesses, industries and society. The shift recognises the way ransomware gangs are used by authoritarian nations to mount sustained attacks on Western businesses and sectors, a new dimension in the ongoing contest between strongmen and democracies. Tim Watts, shadow assistant minister for communications and cyber security, calls ransomware gangs modern-day pirates. He wants aggressive coordination between international law enforcement, targeted sanctions, even cyber operations aimed to disrupt the gangs, in an effort to close the gaps being exploited by cyber criminals. The bulk of the solution here is not technological, but instead policy, regulation, law enforcement, diplomacy and then a bit of offensive cyber, says Watts. Labors assistant spokesman for communications and cybersecurity Tim Watts likened ransomware crews to pirates. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer For years, ransomware attacks were treated as a subset of hacking. The liability of such intrusions was considered a cost of doing business  one whose responsibility sat squarely on the businesss shoulders. But things have changed.

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In a decade, ransomware software has grown from a tool by hackers to extort individuals for hundreds of dollars, to an underworld service-for-hire among criminals to shakedown entire industries for hundreds of millions. Cryptocurrency, meanwhile, has proven an ideal means of paying ransom to shadowy gangs across borders. JBS food processor in Australia and the US was hit by ransomware gang DarkSide in May, leaving about 7000 meat workers out of work until the company could develop a workaround. In the US, a DarkSide ransomware attack halted petrol to the east coast. The Clop ransomware group was reportedly behind the December attack Transport for NSW. All of the gangs are based in Eastern Europe but the Kremlin wont extradite or prosecute these gangs as long as they dont attack Russian interests. The political protection they enjoy allows the growing industry of cyber criminals to operate with impunity, costing businesses as much as $3.4 billion in ransom and downtime in Australia in 2020, cyber security company Emsisoft reports. Meanwhile, the frequency of attacks has increased during the pandemic with hospitals, most recently finding themselves under attack during COVID-19. Loading To date, the most common designation for a hacking group is advanced persistent threat - a term that denotes a sophisticated team, often linked to a government. The famed Russian hacking group Fancy Bear is also known as APT 28. Because of the changing nature of ransomware, now even information security researchers are reconsidering how to view the problem. Cisco Talos Intelligence Group has proposed a new classification for the groups, a term that is taken directly from the pirate days: privateer.

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We believe its time to recognise that a new category can be defined, one where the ransomware syndicates enjoy some kind of protection from governments, even if not intentionally. Pirates with papers Talos proposes the term privateers  to describe actors who benefit either from government decisions to turn a blind eye toward their activities or from more material support, but where the government doesnt necessarily exert direct control over their actions. Watts agrees with privateer designation. A privateer, or a pirate with papers, in the 18th Century worked similarly. They were commissioned by governments to carry out quasi-military activities, according to Britannica, robbing and pillaging all who they crossed  as long as they werent from their sponsoring country. Theres political history too. In the 1700s the Spanish navy dominated the seas until a poorer and weaker Britain came along and overwhelmed it by giving pirates the protection to act on its behalf without official sanction.

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The use of privateers allowed states to project maritime power beyond the capabilities of their regular navies, Britannica writes. Russias President Vladimir Putin, right, and US President Joe Biden have ramped up rhetoric over allegations of cyber attacks. Credit: Today ransomware gangs in Eastern Europe or North Korea extend the power of those countries deep into targeted democracies. With political cover at home, the gangs are free to go after Western business which also serve the political goal of Moscow or Pyongyang, which see themselves at war with democracies and their economic dominance. As technology advances and the cost to business spirals, the economics of the threat become more favourable to the criminals. Robert Potter of Canberra-based cyber security company Internet 2.0 says approaching ransomware gangs as privateers is a good idea especially if it involves intelligence sharing and working directly with law enforcement. His company has already been working with law enforcement to break up ransomware gangs through intelligence sharing. The Australian Federal Polices Cybercrime Operations is expected to form a ransomware taskforce to co-ordinate efforts against the gangs. The Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission will likely have a role in the effort.

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Some experts think Western governments should recast their relationships with business in a way that essentially mirrors the wider links between ransomware gangs and their governments. Loading Retired US Army major general Thomas Ayres wrote last month that todays pirates sail the cyber seas in their search for riches by ransom or theft. Recent destructive hacks have proved that federal action alone cant protect the cyber infrastructure Ayres wrote. He calls for the US government to give companies targeted by ransomware immunity to lawsuits for data loss in exchange for helping mount a rapid response. He wrote last month that the time has come to ...enlist and arm private corporations to defend their interests and those of a country. Such a bold move would essentially convert companies into a fleet to fight off ransomware gangs.

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Australian audiences wont be getting the abridged, one-night version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child soon to open in New York  at least not this year.

The epic, smash-hit show has run over two nights in Melbourne, as it has in London since its 2016 opening. But it has been re-staged and cut for its return to Broadway in November, as well as in San Francisco and Toronto.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on stage in Melbourne. Credit:Matthew Murphy

The Australian production has been seen by 326,500 people at Melbournes Princess Theatre in its first year of playing. A spokesman said there were no plans to adopt the new version here at this stage, though they didnt definitively rule it out.

We have a new batch of tickets going on sale on Friday for performances through to January 30 next year, so were very committed to the two-part format, he said.
Slowly and relentlessly it drags you along so that you can feel just how high a bar beyond reasonable doubt can be and so you share in the jubilation of a diver surfacing with a crucial find from the ocean floor. Like the police, you will likely conclude the accused man is guilty of having invited this woman to sea purely to enact a sick fantasy of rape, murder and decapitation long before it can be proven.

This six-part dramatisation of the police work that finally led to the conviction of Walls killer in 2018 is a meticulous step-by-step procedural that would put the likes of CSI and Law & Order to shame with its slow accumulation of detail, its eschewal of lucky breaks, its focus on dogged repetition as the backbone of police work.

Theres plenty of information online about the man who killed Danish journalist Kim Wall aboard his home-made submarine in August 2017. But you wont find much of it in The Investigation .

The central player though is not the killer, it is Jens Moller (Soren Malling), Copenhagens (now-retired) head of homicide. He is an inscrutable figure, giving almost nothing of himself away. The job is his life, the task of bringing closure to Kims parents, Ingrid (Pernilla August) and Joachim (Rolf Lassgard), is his mission.

Pointedly, The Investigation never mentions the killer by name. It does not show him, give a lot of biographical detail, or even offer much from his testimony  perhaps because it is not worth much. He gave three wildly conflicting versions of his story, changing it each time the investigators turned up new evidence, starting with Kims torso and ending, months later, with the rest of her dismembered body.

He is, as far as the show is concerned and in line with a push from victims rights groups around the world, not worth dignifying with a name. All we need to know about him is what he did, and that he was narcissistic enough to imagine he would get away with it.

Rolf Lassgard and Pernilla August play the parents of murdered journalist Kim Wall (inset) in The Investigation.

He is treated here as being beneath contempt, and that makes The Investigation a case study in how filmmakers might deal with traumatic tales of real-life crimes without giving the perpetrators the fame they so desperately crave.
Most Australians are reporting side effects such as a sore arm, fatigue and headaches from the first dose of AstraZeneca and the second dose of Pfizer, but experts say this is normal and could be a sign the vaccines are doing their job.

AusVaxSafety, a collaboration led by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, reports weekly on adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccinations. The side effects are self-reported in a survey sent three days after the jab, with hundreds of thousands of responses so far.

Sholto Macpherson, 45, from Maroubra, in Sydneys eastern suburbs, had his second Pfizer vaccination last week and experienced typical side effects. He had no reaction to the first jab and experienced minor fatigue and headaches after the second dose.

Sholto Macpherson experienced fatigue and headaches from the second Pfizer dose but says it was worth it. Credit:Rhett Wyman

He said the side effects were not enough to stop him from working and looking after his children, and he considered it well worth it.
Its not often that Sydney Universitys student protest crowd is schooled for forgetting their gender theory Ps and Qs. And yet, the universitys arts dean and feminist studies expert Annamarie Jagose was prompted to issue a firm slapdown to students after protesters committed a major gender rhetoric faux-pas at a recent shout-fest.

Annamarie Jagose. Credit:Dallas Kilponen

Id heard of course previous rallying cries against Michael Spence  so I didnt take offence to my own name being set down to a familiar marching-beat rhythm: Annamarie, get out. We know what youre all about, Jagose wrote in her most recent letter to students.

The problem? This chant made an insinuatingly gendered recourse to my first name only.

We know, talk about offensive!
NSW reported 24 new cases of local COVID-19 cases on Thursday as concerns grew about an increasing number of COVID-positive being detected outside of isolation, and as active exposure locations across NSW swelled to more than 300.

Only about half of Thursdays new cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday were in isolation for their entire infectious period, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard during the COVID-19 update. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Nine were in isolation throughout their infectious period, while a further three cases were in isolation for part of their infectious periods. Twelve were infectious in the community.

Ms Berejiklian said a number of people who had been in the community while infectious was cause for concern and stressed the need for people to minimise their movements during the lockdown.
The federal government will loan $175 million to a $900 million coal mine project that will clear koala and glider habitat in central Queensland almost 20 times the size of Australia Zoo.

Thursdays announcement by Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt was slammed by environmental groups as deeply irresponsible and flying in the face of overwhelming advice by scientists.

FILE IMAGE: The federal government has confirmed the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility will help fund Queenslands Olive Downs coal mine project. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The loan to the Olive Downs metallurgical coal project, put forward by Pembroke Resources, will be 40 kilometres south-east of Moranbah and allowed to extract 15 million tonnes of coal each year.

The coal it produces will be taken east by rail to the coal terminal at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, 20 kilometres south of Mackay, for export to Asian markets.
A man, his sister and her boyfriend tried to smuggle about $35,000 worth of a prescription opioid into a south-east Queensland jail last year, but their parcel was intercepted by prison officers.

Travis William Stubbs, 36, Samantha Byrne, 34, and Clayton Farrer Byrne, 31, were sentenced in the Brisbane District Court on Thursday for supplying dangerous drugs within a correctional facility.

Woodford Correctional Centre is located about 60 kilometres north of Brisbane CBD.

In January 2020, Mr Byrne was doing time at Woodford Correctional Centre, Stubbs was on parole and Ms Byrne was in a relationship with Stubbs.

Mr Byrne hoped to get $4500 to $5000 by selling the 177 strips of Buprenorphine in the prison, his sister would get $1000, while Stubbs, who posted the drug parcel, stood to get nothing.
A small section of timber from the keel of Captain Cooks HMB Endeavour is to be auctioned in Sydney in four weeks with a reserve price of $400,000.

The unique provenanced piece of timber just 22 centimetres long and two centimetres wide is inside a small display case and bears an inscription believed to have been written by the sister of botanist Sir Joseph Banks, Sarah Sophia Banks.

Ross Pratley owns a small part of the keel from HMB Endeavour, which will be auctioned in Sydney this month. Credit:James Brickwood

It reads: This is part of the keel of the Ship Endeavour, which under the command of James Cook, Esq, circumnavigated the Globe in 1768-1770, Broken up at Newport, Rhode-Island, USA, 1796.

The catalogue entry for lot 853 states: There are only two pieces of this historic ship in private hands, this one and the other is in a Sydney collection, excessively rare and of the highest importance to Australian history.
Most of my critics around sex work have never been sex workers. That is not to say that the observations of the sex industry by academics, politicians, NGOs or police are not valid in shaping public policy around it. Its just that they dont have a lived experience of being a sex worker, which means they can never understand the awful discrimination and the highly secretive and selective nature of the problems that sex workers face every day.

That is why I sought out the opinions of as many sex worker groups and sex workers as I could during the course of the inquiry that the government had tasked me to run, so I could arrive at the best way of decriminalising sex work in Victoria. If you do not listen to the views and the ideas of the people who are at the heart of any industry, i.e. those doing the work, you are wasting your time.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten led a 2019 parliamentary review of laws governing sex work in Victoria. Credit:Justin McManus

The collective view of all the sex worker groups was that decriminalising the industry was by far the best way to afford them the best occupational health and safety outcomes. It also allowed them to make a true profession out of their work, to pay tax, to demand better conditions and to be more open with their friends and family about what they do. And this is not a new view. In 1985 when regulation of the sex industry was first being investigated by Professor Marcia Neave, the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria was calling for a decriminalisation model, although it wasnt called that at the time. If Victoria does decriminalise sex work this year, it will be a long time in the making.

At a minimum, decriminalisation involves the removal of criminal sanctions on sex work, which unnecessarily criminalises parts of the sex work industry and over-regulates others. I see decriminalisation as removing the criminal laws that apply to consensual adult sex work and regulating the sex work industry under the same laws and regulations that govern other businesses and service providers.
It started with a newsroom discussion about the Prime Ministers use of Facebook, and it ended with the National Archives getting $67.7 million to save Australias crumbling history.

The federal government confirmed on Thursday it would pump the money into the National Archives to cover a fast-track digitisation of documents at risk of turning to dust.

Pitcairn Island registers of inhabitants and births deaths and marriages are at risk of decaying before they can be digitised. Credit:National Archives

But that decision only followed a series of articles that ranged from Prince Charles and the Bounty mutineers to decaying images of Italian POWs held across Australia during World War II.

And those articles started because of the way Scott Morrison occasionally posts important policy announcements on his Facebook page  but which fail to make it to his official pm.gov.au website.
Leading aged care providers say theres a blind spot in the Commonwealths plan to have all residential aged care workers vaccinated by September and urged national cabinet to extend mandatory vaccinations to home care workers as well.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday evening that it would become mandatory for all residential aged care workers to have at least one vaccination by September, in order to further protect the vulnerable aged care resident population.

Home care workers are not included in the mandatory vaccination order for aged care staff. Credit:Bloomberg

We will work with the sector to ensure this is done as effectively and as safely as possible, he said at the time.

The largest group of non-government aged care services providers, Catholic Health Australia, said home care workers must be part of the mandatory vaccination program given the spread of the more infectious Delta variant.
Younger Australians have shown a stronger interest in getting the AstraZeneca vaccine in the days since Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a controversial move to make it easier for them to see their doctor amid a backlash from some states against the idea.

Australia recorded its highest daily number of vaccinations on Thursday, with 161,390 doses administered, to take the total to 7.8 million doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer delivered in five months.

A combined 6034 people under the age of 40 got first and second doses of the AstraZeneca jab on Tuesday and Wednesday  more than the combined 4471 on the previous Tuesday and Wednesday.

More than 7.8 million doses have been administered across the country. Credit:Justin McManus

Mr Morrison announced a no-fault indemnity scheme for doctors on Monday, but it sparked backlash from Queensland in particular, after the Prime Minister said people under 40 could go to their GPs to get advice on AstraZeneca.
In older age groups the risk is much lower: 1.4 per 100,000 in 60 to 69-year-olds, 1.8 in 70 to 79-year-olds and 1.9 in people 80 and over. The risk of a severe case of the clotting disorder is low, but so far in Australia two people have died. For those aged over 60 the risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19 is higher than in younger people, the advisory group said, so for older people, the benefits of AstraZeneca outweighed the risks. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Younger people could get AstraZeneca if they were not able to access Pfizers Comirnaty vaccine, the group said, with the benefits then outweighing the risks.

Australian Medical Association President Dr Omar Khorshid said AstraZeneca was a safe vaccine. No scientists that Ive heard has said that AstraZeneca is a dangerous vaccine, because, yes, there are serious risks, but theyre one in 40,000. And the death rate [from clotting] in Australia is less than one in two million, he said. The reason [ATAGI changed the advice] is because the benefit side of the equation changes. This idea that theres so much more risk in vaccinating young people is just not true. What does this actually mean? Dr Price said it was important for younger people to talk to their GP if they wanted to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

It is a complicated person-by-person, case-by-case discussion, she said. The Melbourne GP said she would first ask a patient what their level of understanding was of the vaccine and their risks of getting COVID-19. Next, she would go through the ATAGI information with them and discuss the clotting side effect, including how many deaths there have been, what the symptoms are, and how treatment and diagnosis works now we know what to look for. I have to be pretty convinced, the younger they are, that there was an urgent need for vaccination, knowing that at the moment AstraZeneca is one dose now providing 33 per cent protection against Delta and another 12 weeks before they get up in their protection, she said. GP clinics across the country were starting to receive Pfizer deliveries from today, Dr Price added.

In two weeks time, I may well be able to give this person a Pfizer vaccine and complete the vaccination course in a month. Loading While Dr Khorshid is an orthopaedic surgeon, he gets asked about vaccines every day. He said if people waited for Pfizer, they could be immune to the Delta variant faster than if they got AstraZeneca. I recommend that they have the Pfizer vaccine and they wait - they may not be delaying their coverage against Delta because Pfizers given three weeks apart, he said. But if his patient was anxious to get some level of protection sooner, and they understood the risks, he would be happy to give them AstraZeneca.
NSW Labor leader Chris Minns is pushing for the states public sector workers to be paid vaccination leave as a second hospital worker in Sydney tested positive to COVID-19.

Mr Minns said frontline workers in the health system, teachers and those working with vulnerable citizens had to be given the opportunity to access the vaccine during working hours.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns is pushing for paid vaccination leave for public sector workers. Credit:Rhett Wyman

He said paid leave, which would be two half days, would allow frontline workers to get access to the appropriate medical advice and a COVID vaccination.

NSW Health has prioritised vaccines for hotel quarantine workers, border staff and frontline healthcare workers at COVID-19 clinics, emergency department workers, COVID ward workers, and pathology lab staff.
Annastacia Palaszczuk had been warning that the coronavirus situation was like a pressure cooker.

And when boiling point was reached this week, it was not because of an explosion of community cases in Queensland, but the result of another conference of fiery exchanges with journalists, heating up day-by-day during this weeks lockdown.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk shut down a line of questioning from a journalist after accusing her of being rude. Credit:Jono Searle/ Getty Images

It came to a head on Thursday when Seven Network reporter Bianca Stone tried to ask the Queensland Premier about Health Minister Yvette DAths complaints the federal government had rejected a request for more Pfizer vaccines.

Heres the transcript.
Singapore: There were only two times in Xi Jinpings hour-long speech on Thursday when the crowd interrupted the Chinese Presidents address to the nation.

Willed on by the rising rhetoric of their leader, the thousands assembled in Beijings Tiananmen Square to mark the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party swapped their choreographed clapping for loud cheers.

Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us, Xi said to roars of assembled soldiers, teachers, students, nurses and cadres.

Chinese President and party leader Xi Jinping making his keynote speech in Tiananmen Square to mark the partys centenary. Credit:Xinhua

Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.
Singapore: Chinas President Xi Jinping has told thousands assembled in Beijings Tiananmen Square that the Chinese Communist Party has altered the development of the world.

Celebrating 100 years since the founding of the CCP, Xi on Thursday said the Chinese people had stood up under the leadership of the Party.

A screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping speaking during a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday. Credit:AP

This great transformation of China from a poor and backwards country laid down the fundamental conditions necessary for realising national rejuvenation, he said.

Only socialism could save China and only socialism with Chinese characteristics could develop China.
Singapore: Indonesia has been urged to try to buy any excess AstraZeneca vaccines from Australia amid a worsening COVID-19 crisis that is being compared with Indias outbreak.

With major hospitals and morgues filled as the Delta strain surges in the worlds fourth most populous country, Indonesia President Joko Widodo has outlined ambitious new vaccination targets as his government tightens restrictions on movement on Java and Bali.

Indonesia is ramping up its vaccination program but does not yet have enough to inoculate its 270 million people. Credit:AP

But as adequate supply remains elusive, Indonesian medics are asking if the nation can get access to unwanted AstraZeneca from Australia, which has grown increasingly ambivalent about the Anglo-Swedish vaccine.

Dr Erlina Burhan, the spokeswoman for COVID-19 from the Indonesian Medical Association, said Indonesias health ministry and state-owned vaccine producer PT Bio Farma should procure any unwanted doses from the 50 million being produced by Australian biotech company CSL.
London: The World Health Organisation has called on governments exempting their vaccinated citizens from pandemic restrictions to grant the same allowances to people who have received any WHO-approved jab.

It would mean a country like Australia, which has approved only Pfizer and AstraZeneca for use, would have to recognise Chinas two approved vaccines. The Chinese vaccines have been given to Australians living in other countries, but are less effective than others also approved by the WHO.

The World Health Organisation has called on countries to accept travellers who have received WHO-approved vaccines. Credit:AP

The WHO has approved AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for emergency use. It said all the vaccines it had approved for use and distribution through its COVAX scheme, of which Australia is a participant, should be recognised to prevent creating two classes of fully vaccinated people.

Such moves are already undermining confidence in life-saving vaccines that have already been shown to be safe and effective, affecting uptake of vaccines and potentially putting billions of people at risk, the Geneva-based UN body said in a statement.
London: Britain has always struggled with how to immortalise the Peoples Princess  often with spectacularly bad consequences.

Eight years to the day since Diana and her lover Dodi Al-Fayed died in Paris, billionaire Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed unveiled a garish statue of the couple dancing on water beneath the wings of an albatross. The work, titled Innocent Victims, depicted the Princess of Wales in a low-cut dress with a slit up the side and became such a source of ridicule that the stores new Qatari owners decided to get rid of it.

Prince William and Prince Harry take the covers off the new Kensington Palace statue. Credit:Getty Images

In the West Midlands town of Walsall, an Indian granite recreation of Diana was considered so awful the local council wanted nothing to do with it and the piece was eventually placed outside a funeral home. Moss took over years later, earning the statue unfavourable comparisons to Princess Fiona from Shrek.

The Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park found more fans but still had plenty of critics, including Al-Fayed who likened it to a sewer. Writer Vivienne Parry, who knew Diana, called the water fountain less of a national monument to an iconic British figure and more of a power station outflow that has found its way into Hyde Park.
Bryan, OH (43506)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 91F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

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A few passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Ryan Ramczyk can't really pinpoint whether he's a few blocks away, around the corner or just down the street. But the New Orleans Saints' star right tackle knows he's approaching being the player he wants to be.
Anil Agarwal-led Group on Thursday announced a Rs 5,000 crore social impact programme with focus on nutrition, women and child development, healthcare, animal welfare and grass root level sports, including investments in a Corona-free village project across several states to combat the pandemic.

Foundation (AAF) will be the umbrella entity of Vedantas social initiatives provide all-round development to work towards these goals over the next five years, said the company in a release.

KPMG will be a strategic partner of AAF in implementing this massive programme.

The Swasth Gaon Abhiyaan initiative will be a mega project which will enhance immunity in community to ensure minimum impact of Covid, as part of their overall objective of providing social development and infrastructure as an essential service to the nation.

has already pledged to give 75 percent of his wealth towards social good and upliftment of the masses.

In addition, the program will also enhance job opportunities, reskill the youth and help bring in stability and progress.

We aim to strengthen our efforts and facilitate sustainable and inclusive growth, which is the need of the hour to protect and provide for our communities.

The Swasth Gaon Abhiyaan initiative is the first step in our journey to provide end to end healthcare solutions across the rural landscape covering 1000 villages. This program will also complement Vedantas flagship Nand Ghar project which aims to impact 70 million children and 20 million women, Agarwal said.

London-based Agarwal was addressing the media via virtual platform today.

The Foundation plans to support and strengthen healthcare services across 1,000 villages within 24 districts and 12 states in the country, impacting over two million lives.

The initiative will follow a model of interventions at the district level, such as Oxygen Generation Plants, Telemedicine services, Upgradation of Medical and Diagnostic infrastructure and Mobile Medical Van/Ambulances.

Efforts are being made to promote vaccination through special medical and wellness camps being held in remote areas. Provisions of medical amenities are also being made in district wise hospitals and health care centres to ensure quality treatment, said

Limited is a diversified mining and metals company with presence in copper, aluminium, zinc, steel and iron ore among others.
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A senior executive of U.S. money manager (FT) told an Indian appeals tribunal the country's market watchdog "overstepped" its powers by banning him from the securities market for unfair trade practices, a filing showed.

Vivek Kudva, head of Asia Pacific distribution at FT, was barred last month by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which said he and his family members used non-public information to sell holdings worth about $4 million in Franklin debt funds that were shut down weeks later and caused investor panic.

In an appeal filed at the Securities Appellate Tribunal, Kudva argued that Indian law prohibits unfair trade practices, but mutual fund redemptions were not a "trade" and were akin to withdrawing one's own money from a bank.

When contacted on Thursday, Kudva said in a statement he had always acted in accordance with Indian regulations and that his "personal transactions" had been "conducted in good faith and with no intent to gain unfair benefit".

did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The regulator had imposed a one-year market ban on Kudva and his wife and fined them $1 million. It said it was not "fair conduct" as Kudva was privy to non-public information.

Arguing he acted only on public information, Kudva said there was no reasoning in SEBI's decision "to justify the draconian directions and restrictions," according to his 232-page filing which was seen by Reuters and is not public.

had "overstepped its authority and misused the discretion," said Kudva, who has worked at FT for more than 15 years and is a former HSBC executive.

His appeal will be heard by the tribunal later on Thursday.

The filing comes when FT India is locked in a broader legal battle with after the fund house, considered a fixed income heavyweight, was barred from launching any new debt schemes for two years following a probe into closure of six credit funds in 2020 that the regulator said found "serious lapses and violations".

The securities tribunal put the SEBI order on hold this week after hearing Franklin's appeal, but still ordered the fund house deposit about half of the $68.5 million it had been asked to refund.

In FT's appeal filing, seen by Reuters, the fund house argued it acted in investor interest and followed Indian regulations in winding up the funds, and has distributed nearly three quarters of the assets to the unitholders as of mid-June.

The filing adds FT used "business judgement in good faith" to close the funds and that it should not be penalised for it.

Franklin, part of Franklin Resources Inc, manages more than $8 billion for more than 2 million people in India, and has said it is committed to the market.
Fashion retailer on Thursday reported a bigger than expected second quarter profit as many of the company's stores reopened but earnings remained well below pre-pandemic levels and the group's shares fell sharply.

The Swedish company, along with other big clothing chains, is trying to bounce back from the pandemic, where restrictions and lockdowns earlier this year hit the industry's sales.

"As more and more people are vaccinated and restrictions are eased, the world is gradually opening up and customers can once again visit our stores," Chief Executive Helena Helmersson said in a statement.

"Online sales have continued to develop very well even as the stores have opened," she said.

said 95 of its 5,000 stores remained temporarily closed due to restrictions currently, against around 1,300 at the start of March.

The world's second-biggest fashion retailer swung to a pretax profit of 3.59 billion crowns ($419 million) in the second quarter from a year-earlier loss of 6.48 billion.

Analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast a 3.42 billion crown profit.

The profit was, however, down from the corresponding quarter in 2019, when it was 5.93 billion crowns.

Sales in June 1-28, the first month of H&M's third quarter, were up 25% year-on-year measured in local currencies.

But compared with the same period in 2019, sales were down 4%, indicating that sales slowed throughout the month. had said earlier that sales for the first two weeks of June were higher than in 2019.

H&M's shares were down 4% in early trade.

In China, where H&M in March was hit by a consumer boycott after comments the company made in 2020 on the Xinjiang region, local-currency sales were down 23% in the second quarter.

H&M said its board very good prospects of a dividend for 2020 in the autumn. It did not proposed one at its annual general meeting in May due to the pandemic but flagged it would probably pay one later in the year.

Retail sales in Germany, H&M's single-biggest market rebounded in May as a gradual easing of restrictions supported consumer spending, data showed on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Associated British Foods said third-quarter sales at H&M rival Primark were ahead of expectations in all markets.

($1 = 8.5635 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard and Jane Merriman)

(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.)
(TCS), announced that it has expanded its strategic partnership with Royal London, the largest mutual life insurance, pensions and investment company in the UK, to help the latter transform its pensions platform estate and deliver market-leading services to members and customers.

has been engaged with Royal London in various consulting, innovative, thought leadership engagements as well as strategic programmes like DevOps initiatives, platform simplification and migration, and Run transformation to enable the insurer to adapt swiftly to future needs.

Our strategy as an insight led modern mutual recognises that we need to drive change and keep pace with the world around us, to build a business that supports the future needs of our customers and markets, said William Pritchett, Group Chief Information Officer, Royal London. We want to reduce complexity in our day-to-day business and empower our employees to respond to customers needs by being data led and digitally nimble.

As part of the expanded partnership, will work collaboratively with Royal London to support its ambition to transform into a data-driven and digitally nimble insurer. will leverage its Machine First Delivery Model (MFDM) and Location Independent Agile model to help the company achieve its digital strategy, gain business agility, and drive deeper customer relationships. TCS will also enable technology transformation to rationalise the IT estate, increase the pace of change, enhance operational resilience, and reduce risk exposure.

We are delighted to partner with Royal London in their endeavour to optimize their services, reduce operational risks and maintain their market leadership. We will continue to use our industry expertise, contextual knowledge, agile methodology and innovation framework to help Royal London achieve its digital ambition and strategic growth, said Vinay Singhvi, BFSI Business Unit Head  UK and Ireland, TCS.
SKODA AUTO DigiLab India today announced the launch of i-mobilothon, an event in collaboration with Volkswagen IT services. i-mobilothon offers an inclusive, agile and multi-disciplinary collaborative environment for creative minds and code developers to leverage their skills in building prototypes that drive real business impact at scale.

The contest is open to teams from start-ups, as well as university students across India who possess a knack for innovation and disruptive technology. The event will also be open to employees of Volkswagen group in India.

Gurpratap Boparai, Managing Director, SKODA AUTO Volkswagen India said, SKODA AUTO DigiLab is responsible for growing our core business of mobility through innovative digital solutions. It is my strong conviction that the right environment is a key empowering influence for young and innovative minds to come together and be the torch-bearers of progress. With this platform, we look forward to enabling an array of solutions around mobility and IT.

The 14-week long hackathon will be held online in two stages. Contestants will have the option to choose between scenarios that echo future car connectivity, customer experience, business digitization, pre-sales and post-sales challenges driven by artificial intelligence, augmented reality and data analytics. The last date for submission of entries is 30th July 2021. The hackathon will conclude in the last week of September 2021 after two evaluation levels and the final prototype demo.

Headquartered in Pune, SKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Private Limited (SAVWIPL) is the new company that represents the passenger vehicle brands of Volkswagen Group in India.

SAVWIPLs division, SKODA AUTO DigiLab India is one of the 4 agile business innovation hubs for SKODA AUTO globally joining those based in Prague, Tel Aviv and Beijing. The division functions as a start-up collaborator in the IT industry, allowing SAVWIPL to sustainably strengthen its expertise in both innovation and digital development.

SAVWIPL has been formed following the merger of Volkswagen India Private Limited (VWIPL), SKODA AUTO India Private Limited (SAIPL), and Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Limited (NSC). The combined entity oversees the Indian operations of five brands  SKODA AUTO, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini.

SAVWIPL operates two manufacturing facilities - at Chakan, Pune and Shendra, Aurangabad.
Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal on Thursday said the company was ready for a tariff hike and will not hesitate, provided it is joined by others.

We will not hesitate to raise tariffs, but it cannot be done unilaterally. We are not asking for a massive increase in tariffs, but we have to be mindful of the market, said Mittal, in an interaction with the media.

The latest tariff hike by the three operators happened in December 2019. Since then, has been making a case for tariff hikes. However, it is not ready to blink first.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Gopal Vittal had said in the past that the tariffs needed to go up and the average revenue per user needed to be close to Rs 200.

Analysts believe that the case for a tariff hike may be further dampened after the announcement by Reliance Jio to unleash a cheap smartphone in the market on September 10.

Goldman Sachs in a report said, For Jio to be able to capture a sizeable share of the 2G customer base, we believe it will need to be competitive on both device pricing (which should not be materially higher than feature phone average selling price) and tariffs (which will need to be in line with 2G tariffs). Without either of these, we think the traction on this smartphone could be limited, at least in the near term.

Jio and Google will roll out one of the most affordable 4G smartphones on September 10, and expand their partnership to power 5G solutions in enterprise and consumer segments.

The telecom industry is in a tremendous amount of stress. I hope the government and authorities focus on this issue and Indias digital dream remains intact through the three operators, Mittal said after the OneWeb announcement.

Bharti-backed OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit satellite communications company, announced the successful lift-off of another 36 satellites to mark the completion of its Five to 50 mission. With this major milestone, the company is on its way to deliver connectivity across the UK, Canada, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, and the Arctic Region.

As far as investment plans in the satellite endeavour are concerned, Mittal said, There were some advance conversations going on, which we had mentioned earlier. It is not a huge sum of money but some amount of money where we can have a more strategic participation from the right candidate at the shareholder table. Whatever has to be done will be done in July.

He even added that the should be breaking even 24 months from the date of full commercial service.
In what could be the worlds first approved deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-plasmid vaccine, Ahmedabad-based Cadila Healthcares three-dose vaccine ZyCoV-D is expecting a nod from Indias drug regulator. The vaccine has shown 66.6 per cent efficacy in interim analysis of Phase 3 trials, and can be stored at 25 degrees Celsius for three months.

No moderate case of Covid was observed in the vaccine arm after administration of the third dose, suggesting 100 per cent efficacy for moderate disease. No severe cases or deaths due to Covid occurred in the vaccine arm after administration of the second dose of the vaccine, the company claimed.

ZyCoV-D efficacy is in the range of Johnson & Johnsons single-dose vaccine, which uses a human adenovirus vector Ad26  a 66.3 per cent efficacy in preventing Covid.

As for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the World Health Organization notes on its website, The AZD1222 vaccine against Covid has an efficacy of 63.09 per cent against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Covaxin has shown 77.6 per cent efficacy against symptomatic Covid illness from interim analysis of Phase-3 trials, while Sputnik V has shown 97.8 per cent efficacy against severe Covid disease in a trial on 81,000 subjects in the UAE.

Zydus has submitted safety and tolerability data on adolescents from Phase 2 clinical trials, and has generated the data on 1,000 adolescents (between 12 and 18 years) from its Phase 3 trials too.

We intend to submit this immunogenicity data (whether the vaccine induces the desired immune response) in four weeks to the drug regulator, said Sharvil Patel, MD of

If things go well, ZyCoV-D could be the first approved vaccine for adolescents. Zydus has also claimed that its vaccine works against the Delta variant.





The trials carried out in more than 50 clinical sites and during the peak of the second wave have shown the vaccines efficacy against the new mutant strains, especially the Delta variant.

Zydus has submitted the immunogenicity data from a two-dose regimen (using 3 mg doses) trial to the Drugs Controller General of India, which shows equivalent immunogenicity with that of the three-dose regimen.

Patel is hopeful of a good discussion point with the regulator for approval of a two-dose regimen. The efficacy trial on 28,000 volunteers was on the three-dose regimen given on Day Zero, Day 28, and Day 56. Zydus has invested Rs 400-500 crore in developing the ZyCoV-D so far, which includes setting up of manufacturing plants.

We have repurposed an existing plant where we are now producing, and our new plant will be ready by the end of July. By August, we should have the capacity to make 10 million doses a month and by the end of this year, we would have made 50 million doses of ZyCoV-D, said Patel.

Conventional active vaccines are made of a weakened form of the infectious agent. DNA plasmid vaccine is a relatively new approach where a strand of DNA containing 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 is able to generate the specific antibodies against it.

DNA vaccines, Zydus has claimed, have been shown to stimulate sustained immune responses.

It has not stockpiled vaccines, and expects the vaccine may be available in 45-60 days in the market once the nod comes in. The pricing, the company says, will be made public closer to the commercial launch.
The BJP-led government could vaccinate only 16.63 lakh people in the last 10 days, almost 45 per cent less than Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's target of inoculating 30 lakh people, due to a massive shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, a senior health official said on Thursday.

As per the daily COVID-19 bulletin issued by the National Health Mission under the state Health Department, a total of 16,63,405 people were inoculated across the state from June 21 to June 30.

This figure is way below the ambitious 30-lakh target set during Sarma's meeting with all the stakeholders of the districts on June 19.

"This is a part of our Enhanced Immunisation Drive. From June 21, we shall be targeting three lakh vaccinations daily till June 30," the chief minister had said in a press meet after reviewing preparations with the districts.

According to the NHM data, the government could touch the daily target of three lakh vaccines only on two days -- June 21 (3,30,667 jabs) and June 23 (3,60,315 jabs).

The state government could vaccinate more than two lakh people on one day, one lakh on four days and less than one lakh on three days, a compilation of the bulletins showed.

The Health Department even witnessed one of the lowest vaccination figures till now -- 14,551 doses on June 30, NHM said.

The administration vaccinated 3,30,667 people on June 21, 2,84,643 on June 22, 3,60,315 on June 23, 1,79,595 on June 24, 1,66,934 on June 25, 1,52,956 on June 26, 19,924 on June 27, 1,08,623 on June 28, 45,197 on June 29 and 14,551 on June 30, it said.

When contacted, NHM Mission Director Lakshmanan S told PTI that the supply of COVID-19 vaccines dropped after three days of commencement of the Enhanced Immunisation Drive on June 21, leading to a lower number of vaccinations.

"During the first three days, we had enough vaccines and inoculated more than 9.75 lakh people. However, the numbers went down as we did not get enough supplies," he said.

Initially, there was a short supply of only Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, but later the availability of Covishield by the Serum Institute of India also became an issue, Lakshmanan said.

"Yesterday, we got six lakh doses of Covishield. We immediately distributed these to the districts. So, you will see the vaccination numbers rising again in the next three days. However, we do not have any idea when we will get the next supply in the coming 15 days," he said.

The NHM mission director also said that the government had prepared more than 2,000 centres to achieve the daily target of vaccinating three lakh people, but many of them became inactive after the supply declined.

"These centres were opened mostly in local hospitals and health centres. Now, they are engaged in giving other vaccines like polio and TB to children and other people under the Universal Immunisation Programme.

"We also have in stock 40 lakh Japanese Encephalitis vaccines for adults, but we could not start the drive due to engagement with COVID-19 inoculation programme," the official said.

On June 19, the chief minister had said that if the government could meet the target of inoculating at least 2.80 lakh to 3 lakh people daily for 10 days from June 21, the Centre would ensure that the state continues to get more vaccines in July as well.

To meet this humongous target at a time when the state was vaccinating only 50,000 to 1 lakh people daily, he had even said that there would be no government work for one week and the entire machinery would be involved in the inoculation exercise.

The launch of the programme coincided with the day when the Centre restarted free vaccination for all people in the country.

According to the NHM bulletin issued on Wednesday night, a total of 70,22,282 doses of vaccines have been administered in This includes 57,91,586 first doses and 12,30,696 second doses.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After one-and-a half years, jailed MLA and a local party president is likely to be freed as the Guwahati-based special NIA court, on Thursday, acquitted him in the second of the two cases filed against him in connection with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act stir in in December 2019.

Gogoi's lawyers told the media that he is expected to be freed from the Guwahati Central jail soon.

Gogoi and his three associates were accused in two cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The Independent lawmaker and his associates were last week cleared of all charges in the first case. The 46-year-old jailed farmers' leader and Raijor Dal President Akhil Gogoi, was elected from eastern Assam's Sibsagar seat in the March-April assembly polls and currently lodged in Guwahati central jail. He is currently under treatment at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

The right activist has been in jail since December 2019, for allegedly fomenting violence during the anti-CAA agitations.

The National Investigation Agency had taken up the cases against him and his associates on the basis of two FIRs registered at the Chandmari police station in Guwahati and Chabua police stations in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh district.

"The NIA special court released him today (Thursday) in the Chandmari case. Last week the court discharged him in the Chabua case," Gogoi's lawyer Rahul Sensowa told the media.

Sensowa, who is one of the members of Gogoi's lawyers' team, said three others arrested along with Gogoi - Dharjya Kowar, Manas Konwar and Bitu Sonowal - were also discharged on Thursday. All the three activists are, however, already out on bail.

Gogoi and his associates are charged with criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds such as religion, race and language, assertions against national integrity and support to a terrorist organization including Maoist link.

Welcoming the NIA court's ruling, Raijor Dal's working president Bhasco de Saikia said the court's verdict has exposed the BJP government's attempts to target the party president without any basis.

The NIA court had last week granted two days' parole to Gogoi to meet members of his family in Guwahati and eastern Assam's Jorhat. His 84-year-old mother Priyoda Gogoi is also ailing.

is the first lawmaker in to win an election from jail after his octogenarian mother, son Nasiketa and prominent rights leaders of the country campaigned for him.

Rights activist Medha Patkar, Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, several students of Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University and intellectuals from different parts of the country and had come to Sibsagar to campaign for Gogoi in the March-April elections to the 126-member Assam assembly.

--IANS

sc/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.)
The will pronounce the verdict in the Gulshan Kumar case at 10.30 am today.

A bench of Justices Jadhav and Borkar will pronounce its verdict in the case.

A total of four appeals are listed in the High Court. Three appeals are against the conviction of accused Rauf Merchant, Rakesh Chanchaya Pinnam and Rakesh Khaokar, while another has been filed by the Maharashtra government against the acquittal of Ramesh Taurani. He was acquitted on the charges of abetment to

Gulshan Kumar, the founder of the T-Series music label and a Bollywood movie producer, was killed on August 19, 1997, in Juhu. Several people were arrested and prosecuted in his cases.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the 66th Foundation Day of the State Bank of India (SBI), its employees donated Rs 62.62 crore to the to support the nation's ongoing fight against COVID-19. Continuing their support to the fight against COVID-19, around 2.50 lakh employees of the SBI, have donated a sum of Rs 62.62 crore to the on the occasion of the bank's 66th Foundation Day, an official statement read.

This is the second time that State Bank Employees have contributed to the Last year also, they had contributed to the same cause. Dinesh Khara, Chairman, SBI, said, "It is a matter of pride for that our employees have continued to offer banking services to our customers throughout the pandemic, putting service before self, in the true sense of the term. In addition, they have voluntarily come forward to contribute to the PM CARES Fund at a time when the government is strengthening the healthcare system to tackle the pandemic." He added that as a responsible corporate citizen, remains committed to supporting the government in all its endeavours to address the challenges arising out of the pandemic.

(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 Thursday reported a net reduction of 13,807 in active cases to take its count to 523,257. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 4.57 per cent (one in 21). The country is third among the most affected countries by active cases. On Wednesday, it added 48,786 cases to take its total caseload to 30,411,634 from 30,362,848  an increase of 0.2%. And, with 1,005 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 399,459, or 1.31 per cent of total confirmed infections.

With 2,760,345 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Wednesday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 335,716,019.

The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 29,488,918  or 96.97 per cent of total caseload  with 61,588 new cured cases being reported on Thursday.

Now the third-most-affected country by active cases and deaths, second by total cases, and first by recoveries, India has added 328,856 cases in the past 7 days.

India now accounts for 4.57% of all active cases globally (one in every 21 active cases), and 10.05% of all deaths (one in every 9 deaths).

India has so far administered 335,716,019 vaccine doses. That is 1103.9 per cent of its total caseload, and 24.09 per cent of its population.

Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Maharashtra (36874126), Uttar Pradesh (36063712), Gujarat (29362507), Rajasthan (29312190), and West Bengal (25836860).

Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (463461), Gujarat (459706), Delhi (469315), Uttarakhand (436207), and J&K (376586).

Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 19 days.

The count of active cases across India on Thursday saw a net reduction of 13,807, compared with 15,595 on Wednesday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Kerala (1708), Tripura (295), Odisha (90), Manipur (89), and Arunachal Pradesh (75).

With 61,588 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 96.97%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.31%.

The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.70%), Uttarakhand (2.15%), and Maharashtra (2.01%). The rate in as many as 18 is higher than the national average.

Indias new daily closed cases stand at 62,592  1,005 deaths and 61,588 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 1.6%.

Indias 5-day moving average of daily rate of addition to total cases stands at 0.2%.

Indias doubling time for total cases stands at 431.7 days, and for deaths at 331.5 days.

Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (13658), Maharashtra (9771), Tamil Nadu (4506), Andhra Pradesh (3797), and Karnataka (3382).

Among states with more than 100,000 cases, the five with worst recovery rates at present are Maharashtra (96.02%) and Kerala (96.08%).

India on Wednesday conducted 1,921,450 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 412,021,494. The test positivity rate recorded was 2.5%.

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 (18.07%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (14.58%), Maharashtra (14.56%), Kerala (12.67%), and Sikkim (12.25%).

Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added  are, Sikkim (24.42%), Manipur (11.84%), Kerala (9.71%), Nagaland (7.86%), and Meghalaya (6.3%).

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 (1147846), J&K (732063), Kerala (646331), Karnataka (507227), and Uttarakhand (491870).

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6061404), Kerala (2924165), Karnataka (2843810), Tamil Nadu (2479696), and Andhra Pradesh (1889513).

Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 9771 new cases to take its tally to 6061404.

Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 13658 cases to take its tally to 2924165.

Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 3382 cases to take its tally to 2843810.

Tamil Nadu has added 4506 cases to take its tally to 2479696.

Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 3797 to 1889513.

Uttar Pradesh has added 156 cases to take its tally to 1706107.

Delhi has added 94 cases to take its tally to 1434188.
A vaccine controversy is raging in Brazil and at the centre of it is Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. The Brazilian government is facing allegations of irregularities in the deal it signed with Bharat Biotech for procuring its Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, for its people.

Following these allegations, the Brazilian government has said that it will suspend the contract with Bharat Biotech on advice by its federal comptroller, the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU). What is at the root of the controversy and what do the two sides have to say about it? Lets find ...
Routinely excluded from urban systems, India's struggled to find medical help for Covid-19 and other diseases during the second wave of the pandemic, a recent survey by labour rights organisation Aajeevika Bureau found. They also had trouble accessing free Covid-19 vaccines.

Of the interviewed in the first week of May 2021, 27% had Covid-19 or other diseases during the second surge. Of them, 70% struggled to find treatment, 58% got no support from their employers and 62% were forced to borrow heavily to cover the costs, shows Aajeevika's telephonic survey of 195 in Ahmedabad.

In a two-part series based on the survey, we explore the impact of the sporadic state lockdowns on the lives of migrant workers who have chosen to remain in cities. The first part dealt with job and wage losses. In this, the concluding part, we examine the health impacts of the crisis and trace these to the structural exclusion of migrants from urban health systems, lack of support from employers and a deep mistrust of the public system.

32% of sick workers dismissed

Swati Saktavat, a community leader who works with tribal migrant workers in Ahmedabad, recounted the experience of Shamliben*, who caught a Covid-19 infection in April 2021 while she was in her village in Dahod district, eastern Gujarat. Though she was diagnosed in Ahmedabad where she works, Shamliben chose to return to her village when her condition worsened because she did not trust the government health facilities in the city.

"Having spent upwards of Rs 25,000 towards her hospitalisation in the village, she struggled to repay her debt. Days after getting discharged, she was forced to return to the city, during the second wave in the hope of finding some work at the labour naka," said Saktavat.

Our survey also revealed an absence of support from employers. Up to 58% of the workers who had Covid-19--or other diseases--were not paid for the period when they were ill; 32% were dismissed.

Choosing between safety and sustenance

Rajanben Parmar, a leader of a workers' collective in Ahmedabad, says that unlike the 2020 outbreak of Covid-19, in April 2021 every tenement in her building complex in Narol had a positive case and the fear of infection was palpable. Aajeevika's survey found that 73% of the migrants feared contracting Covid-19 during the second wave because it would mean loss of income as well as heavy medical expenses.

She recounted the tragedy of a migrant household in her building where a mother and daughter spent an entire day looking for a hospital bed for a critically ill relative who was also the family's sole earning member. He eventually succumbed to the disease and with no support system in the city, the family returned to their village.

In the absence of wage security, workers found themselves trading-off their safety for sustenance. "Ghar se aadmi naukri par ja rahe hai. Dar bhi lag raha tha. Ghar se nikle ya nahi? (My husband goes to work outside. I am also scared. Should one go out of the house or not?)," said Parmar about the fears migrant families faced.





ALSO READ: Crushed in first wave, migrant workers have few jobs, little support again

Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aroyga Yojana (PMJAY), the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme which allows vulnerable families to avail free medical treatments of up to Rs 5 lakh per year, was extended to migrant workers for Covid-19 treatment in 2020. However, a June 16, 2021, India Today inquiry found that in Gujarat, not a single Covid-19 patient had been able to avail this scheme.

Pankti Jog of Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, a social activist, explained that Covid-designated hospitals were not necessarily empanelled under the PMJAY and Mukhyamantri Amrutam Yojana, Gujarat's own health insurance scheme for poor families. And hospitals had received no directives either to treat cardholders for both schemes.

Many have questioned the effectiveness of the Ayushman Bharat scheme with its exclusive reliance on private healthcare infrastructure. Even government data from 2020 bear this out.

'Had to borrow for treatment'

The second wave of the pandemic put a severe strain on Ahmedabad's healthcare system even as it compounded the workers' vulnerability to health shocks. Up to 68% reported excessive medical expenditures, and 62% reported borrowing for medical expenses and treatment, our study found. In interviews with authors, some workers revealed that during the second wave private clinics and chemists had begun charging 2-3 times higher than the usual consultation fees, adding to their financial burdens.

Manju Meghwal*, a domestic worker in Ahmedabad, caught the infection from a family she cooked for. She got no help from the households that employed her and incurred a medical bill of around Rs 20,000, which she paid off by borrowing from neighbours.



ALSO READ: 'Unpardonable': SC slams Centre over apathy on registering migrant workers

Neglected by urban health networks

Domiciliary requirements, language barriers, stigmatisation and logistics have precluded migrants from accessing local public healthcare systems in the city. Outreach by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and other health workers to migrant households is also erratic as migrant settlements are not recognised by local authorities.

"Migrant workers who face health issues in the city are not able to access government medical support in Ahmedabad," said Mahesh Gajera of Aajeevika's Ahmedabad centre.

A pre-pandemic study of migrants' access to urban governance system conducted in 2020 said that 90% of those interviewed preferred private clinics, and this included consultations with quacks and pharmacists, over urban health centres (small clinics that provide free primary health care) or public hospitals (for secondary treatment). They paid anywhere between Rs 100 and Rs 3 lakh out of their own pockets for these consultations.

Mistrust in public healthcare

Ranjanben Parmar added that during the second wave, government health workers had started visiting migrant neighbourhoods in Narol every day, but migrants were reluctant to consult them because of mistrust and fear of forceful containment in hospitals and separation from families.

This mistrust can be traced to the weak public healthcare systems in rural areas, Pavitra Mohan, co-founder of Basic Healthcare Services, a non-profit working in southern Rajasthan, pointed out in an interview to IndiaSpend. He added that this anxiety was worsened by stories about the forcible quarantining and coercive testing of migrants returning from cities last year.

Vaccine: exclusion and hesitancy

With the onset of the second wave, attention shifted towards speeding up mass vaccination in Gujarat. As of June 30, 19.8 million of Gujarat's 18+ eligible population have been administered the first dose, whereas in Ahmedabad, up to 2.3 million people have been covered, according to government data.

At the time of the Aajeevika survey, the rollout for the 18- to 44-year age group had just begun and none of the migrant workers within that age group had taken the vaccine. Our survey found that 60% of them were willing to be vaccinated. However, even among those willing, many expressed a lack of confidence in the vaccine.

"Now that the pandemic situation is getting better, workers are growing even more reluctant to get vaccinated saying that they are all healthy, and there is no need for the vaccine," says Mahesh Gajera.

Up to 40% of the migrants stated that they were not willing to get vaccinated, citing hearing of bad experiences among distant relatives and misconceptions about possible side-effects. Surat also reported a growing mistrust in the vaccine among migrant workers.

The requirement for digital registration for vaccination has also been one of the biggest hurdles faced by workers willing to be immunised. The Supreme Court's direction to review this policy and the recently announced free-vaccination drive with on-site registration could change this.

However, limited slot timings may create logistical hurdles for workers in 12-hour shifts. Also, up to 62% of workers said that they would have to lose a day's work and wage to take the jab and recover from its potential side-effects.

Workers will have to be incentivised with wage-loss compensation and targeted outreach, suggested Gajera. Odisha's scheme for returning migrants that offered Rs 2,000 as compensation for a 14-day quarantine during the first lockdown is an example of an effective incentive.

*Names changed to protect identities
The (IMA) celebrates July 1, as Doctors Day, every year. The day is dedicated to all the and healthcare workers who have been serving the people. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it has once again reminded people about the contributions of healthcare workers across the world. It is celebrated on different dates across the globe.

History of Doctors Day

Doctors Day is celebrated on July 1, in India, to mark the birth and honour the contributions of renowned physician and former West Bengal chief minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy.

The first Doctors Day was celebrated in the year 1991. He was instrumental in establishing institutions like Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital, Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, among others. He was awarded with the Bharat Ratna on February 4, 1961.

National Doctors Day 2021

For 2021, the day is to be observed to recognise the efforts of all the and healthcare workers who are putting their lives at risk in these hard times, whether in main and secondary care settings or in committed Covid care facilities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted,On Day, my greetings to all doctors. India's strides in the world of medicine are commendable and have contributed to making our planet healthier.

PM Modi, in his Mann Ki Baat address on Sunday, remembered Dr BC Roy and said, We must pay tribute to our doctors who ensured that India did not succumb to the challenges posed by Covid-19.





On Doctors Day, my greetings to all doctors. India's strides in the world of medicine are commendable and have contributed to making our planet healthier.



Here is what I said during #MannKiBaat a few days ago. pic.twitter.com/KWw3WTrVAA  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 1, 2021

Covid-19 pandemic and doctors

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the on Tuesday said that 798 doctors have lost their lives in the second wave of coronavirus.

The maximum 128 doctors lost their lives in Delhi, followed by 115 in Bihar.

The IMA has announced the formation of the IMA Benevolent Fund, which will be devoted solely to its member doctors who have died while serving on Covid-19 duty.

According to the IMA, 748 doctors died in the first wave of the pandemic.





Rohan Aggarwal, 26, a resident doctor treating patients suffering from Covid, looks at a patient's x-ray scan, inside the emergency room of Holy Family Hospital, during his 27-hour shift in New Delhi, India, May 1, 2021. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
On the occasion of National Doctors' Day Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday thanked the doctors on behalf of 130 crore Indians for their services during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the medical fraternity via video conference at a virtual programme organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) the Prime Minister said that this day, celebrated in the memory of Dr BC Roy, is the symbol of the highest ideals of our medical fraternity.

Acknowledging the doctors' contribution, the Prime Minister recalled their heroic efforts during the pandemic and paid homage to those who laid down their lives in the service of humanity.

He further said that our scientists and doctors have found solutions for all the challenges thrown by COVID-19.

"Our doctors are facing this new and fast mutating virus on the basis of their experience and expertise. Despite the limitations of long-neglected medical infrastructure and pressure of population, India's per lakh population rate of infection and death rate is still manageable compared to even developed countries. Loss of lives is always painful but many lives have been saved too. Credit goes to hard-working doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers for saving many lives," said the Prime Minister.

He also underlined the focus of the government on strengthening healthcare. During the 'first wave' about Rs 15,000 crores were allocated for healthcare and this year, the health sector budget has been doubled to more than Rs 2 lakh crore. Rs 50,000 crore have been allocated for credit guarantee scheme to develop health infrastructure in the under-served areas.

He further said, "Today, our doctors are making and implementing protocols for COVID-19. Earlier, we all saw how medical infrastructure was ignored. Despite all problems, India's condition was somewhere stable than other developed countries."

"Our doctors, their knowledge and experience is helping us battle this COVID-19 virus," he added.

Like every year, the country is celebrating National Doctors' Day on July 1 to honour the contributions of the doctors. The first National Doctor's day was celebrated in the country in July 1991.

(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.)
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) recovered eight Chinese drone cameras from the possession of three persons at the India- border in East Champaran district, informed Police on Wednesday.

The three persons were then handed over to Police and sent to Judicial custody. The police have started an investigation.

"Eight Chinese camera drones were recovered from the possession of three people during checking by at border under Kundwa Chainpur Police Station. All three people were booked and sent to judicial custody. We are probing all angles," said Naveen Chandra Jha, Superintendent of Police, East Champaran.

The incident comes in the wake of an attack on the Indian Air Force station in Jammu last Sunday and a subsequent alert sounded for drones.

(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 day after external affairs minister S Jaishankar said he has taken up with to accept COVID-19 vaccines, such as Covishield and Covaxin, for Indian nationals travelling to Europe, Switzerland, Iceland and seven countries on Thursday allowed the Serum Institute-manufactured Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine.

According to sources, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Estonia and Spain have confirmed accepting Covishield for travel entry. Switzerland has also allowed Covishield for the Schengen state.

Estonia has confirmed that it will recognize all the vaccines authorized by Government of India for travel of Indians to Estonia, said sources.

Union minister Jaishankar had on Tuesday met Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and discussed vaccine production and access. He also took up 'Covishield' authorisation for travel to Europe.

Jaishankar, who is in Italy for G20 foreign ministers meeting, said he will be following up on the matter concerning authorisation for made in India COVID-19 vaccine.According to diplomatic sources, travellers who have been administered with the Covishield vaccine can now get a green pass to enter Switzerland.

A German Embassy spokesperson has said that versions of (EU)-approved vaccines that have been given approval abroad are equivalent to the mentioned EU-approved vaccines for proof of COVID-19 vaccine protection.

India has requested EU member states to individually consider extending exemption to those persons who have taken Covishield and Covaxin and said it will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital COVID Certificate, according to sources.

"We have requested EU member states to individually consider extending similar exemption to those persons who have taken COVID-19 vaccines in India i.e. Covishield and Covaxin, and accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal. The genuineness of such vaccination certification can be authenticated on the CoWIN portal," a source said.

The 27-member European bloc is introducing the EU Digital COVID Certificate framework to facilitate safe free movement during the COVID pandemic and it will come into effect from July 1.

Under this framework, persons vaccinated with vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU, sources said adding that individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorized at the national level or by the World Health Organization.

Earlier, an EU official on Tuesday said that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not received any request for approval of authorisation for Covishield.

Speaking to ANI, the EU official said: "Concerning a possible EMA authorisation for Covishield, as of yesterday, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) stated that it had not received a request for approval. It will examine any such request when received, as per its procedures."

"The EMA does not investigate new drugs on its own, unless it is asked by the relevant companies," he said.

EU Ambassador to India Ugo Astuto has clarified that there is no ban in the European Union on the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The EU Ambassador said that a new system has been put in place of the digital COVID certificate.

Meanwhile, as relaxed COVID-related restrictions from June 26, the government's Federal Council of Public Health has informed that persons from countries with a variant of concern like India, who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19, will be permitted entry without the need for a negative test or quarantine.

This means that persons who have been vaccinated or who have recovered do not have to produce a negative test even when travelling from countries where the Delta variant is widespread (such as India or the United Kingdom) and do not have to quarantine on entry.

(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.)
Though Gerry Casida is on the priority list for a free Covid-19 vaccine in the because of his asthma, hes isnt planning to get the shot any time soon. A video he found on social media of a woman claiming vaccines are being used for genocide helps explain why.

Ive read a lot of posts on Facebook about how many died in other countries because of vaccines, and how thats being concealed, the construction worker, 43, from Manila said. My mom also consulted a folk healer, who said the vaccines could affect my heart.

Millions of people like Casida in some of the worst Covid hotspots in Southeast Asia are in no rush for inoculation or just saying no, swayed by disinformation on social media from both local sources as well anti-vaccination movements in the U.S. Those false claims are fueling vaccine hesitancy in some pockets of the region, undermining efforts to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people in Asia and end a pandemic that has stalled the global economy.

Despite some of the highest rates of new cases in the world, recent surveys have shown vaccine resistance is prevalent in the region. In the Philippines, 68% of the people are either uncertain or unwilling to take the shots, according to polling company Social Weather Stations. A third of Thais have doubts or refuse to be vaccinated, according to the Suan Dusit Poll, while a separate survey in Indonesia showed nearly a fifth of the population hesitating.

Anti-vaccination propaganda is a big reason for that hesitancy, which has further slowed takeup in countries already struggling with limited supplies. Less than 10% of the population in and the have received even one shot.

It is a polluted media landscape, Melissa Fleming, the United Nations under-secretary-general for global communications, said at a virtual forum in May. This infodemic has shifted now, and the focus is misinformation on vaccines. Its about instilling fear in people.





ALSO READ: US Covid-19 vaccination slows down as Delta variant infections climb

A heavily Catholic country, the has been vulnerable to falsehoods peddled online by U.S. evangelical Christian groups, which then filter across through church and family networks. Among many Facebook discussion groups focused on anti-vaccination theories and trawled by Bloomberg News, one video in the local Filipino language said Covid shots will brand people with the mark of the beast, alluding to the Antichrist in Christian eschatology. It got more than a thousand views.

An English language video with hundreds of views said the vaccine makes recipients magnetic. In Malaysia, misinformation ranging from exaggerated risks to life and body organs to genetic alteration are spreading on the Facebook Inc.-owned messaging service WhatsApp. Many of them twist and amplify arguments made by U.S. politicians and also Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer Inc. scientist and a Covid-vaccine skeptic whos become an icon for anti-vaxxers.

Other popular conspiracy theories being peddled on social platforms across the region include one that says microchips in Covid-19 vaccines are used to collect biometric data.

The resistance is turning out to be a challenge for governments keen to get as much as 80% of their populations protected against the deadly pathogen. Almost all countries in Southeast Asia are struggling with a perfect storm: outbreaks driven by more transmissible variants; lagging inoculation because of shortages after rich nations snapped up stock; and, global isolation. In Bloombergs Covid Resilience Ranking, which tracks how well the worlds biggest 53 economies are handling the crisis, these countries are now in the bottom ten.

Without some semblance of herd resiliency to the coronavirus, large countries and small will have difficulty in accommodating the free flow of international travelers, which is important not only for the travel and hospitality industries, but for business and international investment, said Steve Cochrane, chief APAC economist at Moodys Analytics.

In February, Malaysias Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had to reassure the public about the safety of vaccines, saying they dont have microchips. He also rubbished claims that they are part of an Illuminati agenda to establish a new world order, according to a report by the Straits Times.

Open Letter

Even in Singapore, which has largely contained the spread of the virus, the young and educated succumb to fake news, said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease physician at Singapores Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital.

Some of the stories get amplified more, but the reasons are pretty much the same, he said.

In late May, an open letter by a dozen Singapore doctors questioning the safety of mRNA vaccines, including a claim that the shots would change ones DNA, was circulated on WhatsApp. That elicited a swift rebuke from the city-states health ministry, which issued a press release saying all but one of the medical professionals have since retracted their statement.

Malaysia's minister of science, technology and innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin visits a Covid-19 vaccine program. Photo: Bloomberg

Despite efforts by governments and companies to curb unsubstantiated information, the false claims in English often continue to spread in non-English speaking communities. Encrypted platforms, where theres less moderation, also play a key role, said Ishaana Aiyanna, a researcher at Logically, a technology company that tracks misinformation and targeted disinformation campaigns.

Western narratives that have previously been debunked are often circulated alongside hyper-localised narratives, she said. This is compounded by a lack of media literacy on the part of a vast majority who rely solely on these groups and online communities for information.

Theres another major reason for hesitancy. With wealthier Western nations getting the lions share of the super-effective mRNA shots, poorer countries are having to contend with limited supplies and fewer available brands, exacerbating the problem. When a country offers a choice of only one vaccine, many people want to wait until they can get a higher-efficacy shot.

In Thailand, some are refusing vaccines from Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the U.K.s AstraZeneca Plc. In the Philippines, nearly 50% in a survey earlier this year said they trust U.S.-made shots the most, but the nations vaccine program has relied primarily on Sinovac. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail those who refuse vaccines.

Others are taking a quirkier approach to encourage vaccinations. A district in northern started raffling off cows in mid-June as an incentive. In rural Indonesia, vaccinated residents got free chickens, while a city in the Philippines is giving away a house.

Educating vaccine recipients and even medical practitioners is the best tool to fight hesitancy, said Leong.

The biggest weapon the Covid-19 virus has against humans is one, vaccine hesitancy, and two, the lack of a coordinated worldwide response, he said. And in these two, human beings have failed miserably and the virus is winning incredibly.
Covid-hero is now a vaccine laggard

As highly contagious variants and lockdowns spread, Australia, the country that once earned praise for keeping virus at bay and avoiding hundreds of thousands of deaths, is now struggling in its vaccination drive. The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows the nation is ahead of only neighbour New Zealand among the 38 OECD nations in administering doses. has provided enough jabs for just 14.7 per cent of its population, falling behind smaller economies such as Morocco at 25.4 per cent, Azerbaijan (17 per cent) and the tiny South American nation of Suriname (15.5 per cent). Read here

Let's look at the global statistics Global infections: 182,214,039 Global deaths: 3,947,163 Vaccine doses administered: 3,191,466,486 Nations with most cases: US (33,665,034), India (30,411,634), Brazil (18,557,141), France (5,837,265), Russia (5,449,594). Source: John Hopkins Research Center

Eastern Europe is racing to use Covid shots before they expire

Demand for inoculations has plunged in two eastern European countries, Romania and Bulgaria, leaving stockpiles of shots that officials need to use fast before their expiry dates. The alternative would be to destroy them, which would be a depressing outcome given the shortage of shots elsewhere, such as in poorer African nations. With spare doses piling up, shots are being sold or donated to other countries, governments want deliveries delayed, and Bulgarias hotel industry is pushing to have free vaccinations given to foreign visitors. Read here

Brazil vaccine scandal poses fresh political threat to Bolsonaro

Brazil's rightwing president is in a bind on an unfolding scandal over the procurement of vaccines. Opponents of Jair Bolsonaro have seized on the opportunity to turn up the political heat on the president. Allegations of corruption in a deal to buy 20 million doses of the Indian-made Covaxin jab have stoked criticism of the governments handling of the pandemic, which has left more than half a million people dead in Latin Americas most populous country. The controversy also comes at a politically sensitive time for Bolsonaro, who is gearing up for a re-election battle next year. Read here

Pet owners urged to avoid their cats and dogs if they have Covid

Even though no transmission of has been reported from pets to humans till date, experts have warned that cat or dog owners who are infected must avoid their pets. Scientists in the Netherlands have found coronavirus is common in pet cats and dogs where their owners have the disease. While cases of owners passing on Covid-19 to their pets are considered to be of negligible risk to public health, the scientists say there is a potential risk that domestic animals could act as a reservoir for coronavirus and reintroduce it to humans. Read more
Reserve Bank of India's Financial Stability Report is an eagerly awaited report to gauge the health of the banking system in particular and the likely stress situation. The readings from the report are encouraging just like the downward movement of the Covid curve in the country. Contrary to all expectations of NPAs increasing due to the pandemic, the report reveals that they were pretty much under control at 7.5% in March 2021. This should come as a relief to the market as earlier conjectures were in the region of 12-15%.

The other encouraging revelation is that the stress tests indicate that under normal conditions the NPA ratio will increase to 9.8% by March 2022 while the two stress scenarios could push it to 10.4% and 11.2%, respectively. But the stress scenarios look very unlikely as they involve GDP growth slumping to 6.5% or less than 1%. Therefore, one can be confident of the quality of assets being firm even though a flag has been raised by the on the migration in SMA quality. Significantly, in terms of restructured assets, the ratio is just 0.9%, which is low and surprising. Surprising because it was felt that the one-time restructuring exercise that was adopted would have led to several companies exercising this option, which is not the case.

Credit should go to the and for managing the situation. The plan of giving moratorium during tough times and rolling back the same has helped to keep things under check. The same holds for classification of NPAs where we are back to normal. too have not gone overboard in lending despite all the schemes, which has actually made NPA ratios in all sectors, except retail, to decline. The slippage ratio which is NPAs on incremental loans is low at 2.5% which gives credit to the Similarly, the coverage ratio at 68.9% has also ensured that banks were progressive here, which has maintained sanity against any future shocks. In a way it can be said to be a true team effort in containing the situation. The lessons of the past has definitely helped banks to be more cautious.

The sectors of concern for NPAs- CGEM (construction, gems and jewelry, engineering and mining) have over 15% ratio while metals, infra, power, textiles, food etc. are in double digits. Chemicals and auto have done well with 5-7% range. Retail is minor concern even though the ratio is low at 2.1% as it should not become a part of the culture of not repaying. Hopefully, this is temporary as last year was tough for individuals who were out of jobs and income to service their debt.

An interesting aspect pointed out in the report is that the has actually ensured that the investment valuation did not cause disruption for banks. Normally when there are large investments made in a market where the government borrowed Rs 12.8 trillion, yields should have gone up thus pushing prices down. However, by carefully managing the yield curve with various operations like GSAP and OMOs, banks have been protected against a valuation decline. This is also indicative of the fact that in 2021-22, the picture will be replicated as the yields have been kept down, which means that banks can be comfortable with the investment portfolio.

Last, even the profit ratios look good with NIM at 3.3% and return on assets too in the positive territory. One thing that stands out is that the cost of funds was 4.7% while yield on assets was 7.6% - quite clearly the deposit holder bore the brunt as 2.9% spread looks high by any standard.

The author is Chief Economist, CARE Ratings and author of: Hits & Misses: The Indian Banking Story. Views are personal.
Scientists in Canada have found a new lifesaving treatment for people suffering from rare blood clots associated with COVID-19 vaccination.

The researchers at the McMaster University recommend a combination of anti-clotting drugs and high doses of intravenous immunoglobulin to combat vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).

VITT is a rare side effect of adenoviral vector vaccines against COVID-19. It occurs when antibodies attack a blood protein, which results in activation of platelets in the blood, causing them to clump together and form clots.

The treatment, described in The New England Journal of Medicine, has proven effective in three Canadian patients who received AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India, and subsequently developed VITT.

The patients were between the ages of 63 and 72 years, and one of them was a female. Two suffered clotting in their legs and the third had clots blocking arteries and veins inside their brain.

"If you were a patient with VITT, I'd be telling you we know of a treatment approach," said Ishac Nazy, associate professor of medicine at McMaster University.

"We can diagnose it accurately with our tests, treat it and we know exactly how the treatment works," Nazy said.

The researchers noted that blood samples taken from the patients after the new treatment showed reduced antibody-mediated platelet activation in all cases.

While the study patients were older, many VITT cases have affected younger people.

However, Nazy and his colleagues said VITT is a rare disorder, regardless of people's age.

The scientists devised an effective VITT test and treatment by building on their previous investigations of heparin-induced thrombocytopaenia (HIT), a disorder that results from the direct effect of blood thinner, heparin, on platelet activation.

While the two conditions are similar, using a standard HIT antibody test to detect VITT can yield false negative results, the researchers said.

Due to this reason they modified the HIT test to detect VITT-specific antibodies that are found in rare cases in patients who had a COVID-19 vaccine.

Subsequent lab tests on patient blood samples showed how high doses of intravenous immunoglobulin coupled with blood-thinner medications shut down platelet activation and stopped clot formation.

IVIG is a blood product prepared from the serum of donors. It is used to treat patients with antibody deficiencies.

"We now understand the mechanism that leads to platelet activation and clotting," Nazy 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.)
Chinese President on Thursday said that China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards with the aim to equip itself with "greater capacity" to safeguard its "national sovereignty, security, and development interests."

Addressing an event in Beijing marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi was quoted by Xinhua as saying that "We must accelerate the modernization of national defense and the armed forces."

Xi, who is chairman of the Central Military Commission and general secretary of the CPC's Central Committee, said the "people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity."

On a bellicose note, the Chinese president added that any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail.

"The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," Xi said.

He further said that resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an "unshakable commitment" of the CPC.

"We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward 'Taiwan independence,' and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation," the Chinese President said.

China has also recently sent dozens of warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, even though the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.

(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.)
Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who became the face of US foreign policy under President George W Bush while the administrations troop deployments toppled hostile regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, has died. He was 88.

His death was confirmed by the Associated Press, citing Rumsfelds family. No details were provided.

Along with Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld was one of the main architects of Bushs West Asian wars, triggered by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when one of four hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon while he was still in the building. Rumsfelds job then evolved to include fighting two of the longest wars in US history, during which he was called upon to finesse the administrations military shortcomings at press conferences.

Defending against terrorism and other emerging 21st-century threats requires that we take the war to the enemy, Rumsfeld said in speeches in 2002. A former politician and bureaucrat, Rumsfeld was already a seasoned executive when he began his second term in the job as Bush came to power in 2001. During the 1970s, he became the youngest-ever defense secretary, at age 43, in President Gerald Fords administration. At the end of his tenure under Bush, he was the oldest American ever to hold the job.

Rumsfeld was assigned the task of reforming the military for the new challenges of the 21st century and ended up taking much of the flak for protracted campaigns abroad as the Pentagon budget swelled. His insistence on using light invasion forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and his lack of planning for the post-invasion periods were among the most salient criticisms of his tenure.

Stuff happens, Rumsfeld said in response to a reporters question about looting in Baghdad after the US had ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003. There is untidiness.

Rumsfeld became a figure of controversy as the wars ground on against a backdrop of rising insurgency. There were scandals over alleged torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while the US failed to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the pretext for the invasion. His brusque attitude and gnomic utterances such as known unknowns and unknown unknowns made him a lightning rod for the wars skeptics.

You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time, Rumsfeld said in 2004 in response to a soldiers question about inadequate Humvee armor, according to a New York Times article in 2004. The comment drew condemnation, partly because it was the administration that had chosen the invasion date  March 20, 2003.

By 2006, Rumsfelds popularity within the US armed forces had declined to the point where six retired generals, including some who had served in Iraq, called on him to resign. Bush accepted Rumsfelds resignation on November 7. Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born on July 9, 1932, in Chicago, according to his 2011 memoir, Known and Unknown. He was the son of George Rumsfeld, a real-estate agent in Winnetka, Illinois, and the former Jeannette Husted, a homemaker. AP
On the occasion of the first anniversary of Hong Kong's national security law, members of the wrote a joint letter to top EU leaders, demanding action against the Chinese authorities for the imposition of a legislation law that "destroyed" the 'One country, two systems'.

In a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel, the EU members said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) broke the promises made to citizens made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

"In Hong Kong, there is a clear desire of the people to maintain the city's high level of autonomy and rule of law, exemplified by the umbrella protest movement in 2014 and the pro-democracy protest that began in 2019, during which over me-million Hong Kongers took the streets in an unprecedented fashion," the letter said.

While stating that the integrity of the 'One country, two systems' has been destroyed, the members added: "The so-called national security law, the subsequent electoral reform law and the recent ban of the yearly-organized Tiananmen Vigil represent an unprecedented assault on the city's identity, its autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms, as well as on agreements."

The situation in is an important test case for the EU's commitment to upholding freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law internationally and for its credibility as a global actor, the members said.

They also called for sanctions against Chinese and officials responsible for the growing "repression" in Hong Kong.

"We call on the implementation of the Council Conclusions of July 2020, as well as the imposition of Magnitsky-style sanctions against those Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for the growing repression, in particular, Xia Baolong and Carrie Lam, the establishment of an Hong Kong Contact Group, and the suspension of extradition treaties, as demanded by the in its resolution of January 2021," the letter added.

The letter was co-signed by several members including Reinhard Biitikofer MEP (Greens/EFA, Germany), Miriam Lexmann MEP (EPP, Slovakia) and Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar MEP (S & D, Spain).

(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.)
Negotiations among more than 100 countries to overhaul global taxation are facing key questions as rich nations seek to persuade many developing economies to reach a preliminary deal in the next 10 days.

In the final stretch of talks, governments around the world are jostling to safeguard their sovereignty and win a bigger share of levies on tech giants. The maneuvering is making it harder for officials to win over some key countries, including India and China, which have reservations about an accord.

Technical talks hosted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development aim to upend decades of laws and agreements, drive more revenue to governments and address concerns that multinational companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. arent paying enough. An accord could also roll back the domestic digital taxes some countries have implemented, soothing growing trade tensions with the U.S.





The Group of Seven advanced economies had struck a deal earlier in June on the broad outline of creating a global minimum tax of at least 15% and rules to give more revenue to countries where companies make sales.

Yet ahead of a key meeting Thursday, some countries outside the G-7 have bristled at accepting a deal decided by rich countries, raising uncertainty about what kind of consensus the technical talks can settle on. Whatever is decided will be considered by Group of 20 ministers in Venice next week.

The goal of both meetings is to reach high-level consensus on the principles of the plan, officials have previously said, with further agreement on the plans details likely to come later in the year.

Several G-7 officials expressed optimism that the talks will overcome obstacles, leading to progress at the G-20 meeting, although one warned the state of talks with developing countries means things could go either way in Venice.



ALSO READ: G-7 nears deal for at least 15% global minimum corporation tax: Report

One issue may have been resolved already. Negotiators accepted a U.K. proposal to ensure that financial firms, such as global banks with head offices in London, would be exempt from the new rules, according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

Officials face political challenges in the days and months ahead as they try to work out a deal that satisfies the 139 countries involved in the talks.

Some nations have argued the deal doesnt go far enough in raising and redistributing tax revenue.

There is a substantial risk that developing countries basically get nothing in terms of additional revenues from the plan, Martin Guzman, Argentinas economy minister, said at an online event Monday.

And there are concerns about getting some of the worlds biggest economies outside of the G-7 to sign on to a deal.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke on Tuesday with Indias Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to stress the countries shared interest in implementing a robust global minimum tax. An Indian government official told news provider Bloomberg Quint after that call that the country is opposed in principle to a common global minimum tax rate.

Another major question mark is whether China will agree. The country is concerned about its ability to attract high-tech investment under a minimum tax plan, Bloomberg reported in June.

A senior European official said last week that it was difficult to gauge what China would demand at the G-20 and theres a risk the worlds second largest economy would not easily sign a deal brokered by G-7 countries, potentially delaying the whole process by years.

The OECD plan is divided into two separate pillars, or broad objectives that together would underpin a deal. Pillar One is concerned with sharing rights to tax the profits of the worlds largest multinationals, and Pillar Two with setting a minimum corporate rate.

The bulk of the plans revenue gains will come from Pillar Two, the minimum tax plan, which could raise $150 billion of extra revenue for governments in combination with proposed changes to the U.S.s global minimum tax, Pascal Saint-Amans, the OECDs top tax official, said June 14.

Ireland, Hungary

Pillar Two would let one country collect extra tax from a multinational thats paying below the minimum rate in another jurisdiction. Finding agreement on that rate could prove contentious.

The U.S. in May proposed at least a 15% minimum tax rate, which the G-7 endorsed. Officials from some low-tax countries have spoken out against a 15% rate -- including Ireland, which has a 12.5% corporate tax rate, and Hungary, whose tax rate is 9%.

Meanwhile, others are calling for a higher number after the G-7 said it should be at least 15%, and the OECD has previously suggested that the minimum rate may not be decided until the fall. Guzman said Monday that 15% is way too low, and that hed prefer a rate of 21% -- equal to President Joe Bidens proposal for a more robust U.S. minimum tax -- or higher.

As the OECD group meets, G-7 officials are on a diplomatic offensive to try to convince holdouts. French Minister Bruno Le Maire has held talks with with countries including Poland, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, and Turkey.

We got a breakthrough described as historic at the G-7 in London a few days ago. Now we need to make this concrete this breakthrough at the Venice G-20 mid-July, Le Maire said earlier this month.
The Biden administration said on Wednesday it is hiring more federal firefighters and immediately raising their pay as officials ramp up response efforts in the face of a severe drought that is setting the stage for another destructive summer of intense wildfires across the West.

President announced the moves during a virtual meeting with governors from Western states and as a huge swath of the Pacific Northwest endures one of the worst heat waves in recent memory. Temperatures in Portland, Oregon, soared to a record 116 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, a fact Biden cited as "a wake-up call to the rest of the public about the realities of climate change.

"The truth is we're playing catch-up'' on preparing for extreme heat and wildfires, Biden said, calling federal efforts "under-resourced'' compared with the deadly threat posed by climate change and extreme drought.

"That's going to change and we have to do it,? Biden told the governors. We can't cut corners when it comes to managing our wildfires or supporting our firefighters. Right now we have to act and act fast. Recalling horrific scenes from wildfires in California and other states last year, Biden said, Orange skies look like end-of-days smoke and ash."



Biden's plan would ensure that no one fighting wildland fires is making less than USD 15 per hour and would add or convert to full-time nearly 1,000 firefighters across a host of agencies.

"Because of climate change, wildland firefighting is no longer a seasonal endeavor,'' the White House said in a statement.

"With fire seasons turning into fire years, it is imperative to have a year-round workforce that is available to respond at any time ... and is available to undertake preventive actions" such as cutting down small trees and brush that serve as fuel to fires that are increasing in size and intensity.

Western states have been parched by severe drought and record heat that has burned more than 2,300 square miles (5,900 square kilometers) this year. That's ahead of the pace in 2020, which saw a near-record 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) burned, killing dozens of people and destroying more than 17,000 homes and other structures.

"Climate change is driving a dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought,'' Biden said. We're seeing wildfires of greater intensity that move with more speed".

Biden has expressed dismay at the starting pay for federal firefighters, which is significantly lower than at many local and state fire agencies. Pay for new federal firefighters typically starts at USD 13 per hour.

The pay raise will come in the form of retention incentives and by providing additional bonuses to those working on the front lines. More experienced permanent firefighters could also be eligible for a 10 per cent retention incentive. Temporary firefighters will be eligible to receive some incentive pay under the plan.

Wednesday's meeting included eight Western governors, including six Democrats and two Republicans.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said he was pleased to be working with the White House, rather than as sparring partners", as he described his state's relationship with the Trump administration.

"We were debating raking policies'' in forests, Newsom said, referring to comments by then president Donald Trump that the state should rake its forests to reduce the risk of wildfires.

With climate change, the wildfire seasons are only to get worse, Newsom and other governors said.

The hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting drier, Newsom said.

Three Republican governors, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Brad Little of Idaho and Doug Ducey of Arizona, said they were disappointed at their exclusion from the White House meeting.

It is critical to engage governors fully and directly to have a productive discussion about how the federal government can improve its wildfire response and prevention efforts,'' Gianforte and Little wrote in a letter to Biden.

A White House spokesman said the invited governors represented a cross-section of states impacted by wildfires and said Biden will continue to work with governors from both parties on the issue.

The meeting with the governors came as the White House released a memo confirming its commitment to a clean energy standard, tax credits and 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles, among other climate goals as officials pursue a two-track approach on infrastructure.

A memo by climate adviser Gina McCarthy and White House senior adviser Anita Dunn also pledges at least $10 billion to conserve and restore public lands and waters, address environmental injustice and create a Civilian Climate Corps to complete projects related to climate change and clean energy.

The memo responds to criticism from environmental groups and other progressives who are frustrated that many climate-related initiatives were cut out of a bipartisan infrastructure plan announced last week.

"We know more work needs to be done, which is why President Biden will continue championing'' the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and a separate, larger plan Biden and fellow Democrats aim to approve along party lines, the memo said.

On wildfires, administration officials have pledged to work with Congress to find a permanent fix to increase firefighter pay and convert more seasonal wildland firefighters to year-round workers.

The US Forest Service and Interior Department combine to employ about 15,000 firefighters. Roughly 70% are full-time and 30% are seasonal. Those figures used to be reversed, but have changed as fire seasons have grown longer and more severe.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat who has pushed the administration to ramp up its wildfire response, said Congress "can and should bolster these efforts with legislation to lift a cap on overtime pay, create a permanent firefighting workforce and expand work to remove hazardous fuels to lessen fire risk.

"The ongoing infrastructure debate in Congress gives us an essential chance to get this and other wildfire prevention efforts done,'' Wyden said.

The meeting with governors came as Arizona marked the eighth anniversary of a 2013 wildfire that killed 19 members of an elite firefighting team. First lady Jill Biden, visiting a middle school in Phoenix, said her heart, her husband's heart and I know all of your hearts are with the surviving families.

(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 has signed a law that obliges foreign giants to open offices in Russia, a document published by the government on Thursday showed, the latest move by Moscow to exert greater control over Big Tech.

The Russian authorities are keen to strengthen their control of the internet and to reduce their dependence on foreign companies and countries. In particular, they have objected in the past to political opponents of the Kremlin using foreign platforms to organise what they say are illegal protests and to publicise politically-tinged investigations into alleged corruption. Moscow has fined firms for failing to delete content it says is illegal, slowing down the speed of Twitter as punishment, and on Wednesday opened a new case against Alphabet subsidiary Google for breaching personal data legislation.

"A foreign entity, carrying out activities on the internet in Russia, is obliged to create a branch, open an office or establish a Russian legal entity, the new law said.

Alexander Khinshtein, the head of the information policy and IT committee at the State Duma, Russia's lower House of Parliament, said the law applied to internet giants with a daily audience in of at least 500,000 people.

The firms must register a personal account on the website of Roskomnadzor, Russia's state communications regulator, he wrote on his Telegram channel. Companies that violate the legislation could face penalties such as advertising bans.
continues to develop no matter what sanctions Western countries impose and what threats they make, President said on Wednesday.

"Russia's economic sovereignty is increasing and its defence capabilities have reached a very high level," Putin said during his annual televised "Direct Line" Q&A session.

He said the Russian economy has adapted to the sanctions pressure, which in some ways is beneficial as the import substitution programme has boosted Russia's agricultural and high-tech sectors, Xinhua news agency reported.

Putin stressed that the era of absolute hegemony is over and the world is changing drastically.

However, the US still tries to do everything to preserve its dominance, and hence there are threats and destructive behaviours through military exercises, provocations and sanctions, he said.

"If they cross some boundaries, we will take asymmetric responses that will be sensitive enough for our partners," Putin said.

--IANS

int/pgh

(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 grand jury in Manhattan has filed criminal indictments on Wednesday against former US President Donald Trump's company and its longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, according to two people familiar with the indictments.

According to Washington Post, the indictments against the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, will remain sealed until Thursday afternoon, leaving the specific charges against them unclear. People familiar with the case said the charges were related to allegations of unpaid taxes on benefits for Trump Organization executives.

Weisselberg is expected to surrender on Thursday morning at the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr, two people familiar with the plan said. The Trump Organization will also be arraigned, represented in court by one of its attorneys.

The case against Trump Organization and Weisselberg represents a dramatic turn in the long-running probes. In an interview on Fox News, Trump called the myriad investigations and impeachments against him "all nonsense".

"New York radical left prosecutors come after me -- you gotta fight," he said.

Trump himself is not expected to be charged this week, the people said, and no others in his orbit are expected to face imminent charges. But the indictments could mark a significant escalation in his legal problems -- both by exposing his company to potential fines and by raising the pressure on Weisselberg, according to Washington Post.

Weisselberg, who has worked for Trump since the 1980s, is considered the most important figure in the Trump Organization. He has been involved in even minor financial transactions, including coordinating Trump's personal gifts to charity.

Weisselberg was a key figure in the investigations by Vance and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as both are trying to determine whether Trump broke the law by misleading lenders or taxing authorities, or by evading taxes on forgiven debts or fringe benefits for employees, according to court papers and people familiar with the cases.

Michael Cohen, who spent years as Trump's attorney and his aggressive defender, turned on Trump in 2018 after coming under investigation himself and pleaded guilty to making hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who said they'd had affairs with Trump years before.

Vance's office opened an investigation in 2018, responding to Cohen's charges that Trump had directed the illegal payoffs, Washington Post reported.

Trump and his organization have never faced criminal charges, but he has been the target of civil lawsuits from the office of the New York attorney general. In one case, he was sued for allegedly defrauding students at Trump University.

That case and others against Trump University ended with Trump paying a USD 25 million settlement in 2016. In 2018, Trump was sued for misusing money in a charity he controlled, a case that resulted in a judge ordering Trump to pay USD 2 million in damages.

(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 Trump Organisation's longtime Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to authorities early Thursday ahead of an expected court appearance on the first criminal indictment in a two-year investigation into business practices at Donald Trump's company.

Weisselberg was photographed walking into the the complex that houses criminal courts and the Manhattan district attorney's office at around 6:20 a.m. with his lawyer.

New York prosecutors were expected to announce an indictment Thursday accusing Weisselberg and Trump's namesake company of crimes related to fringe benefits for employees.

The case against Weisselberg  a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred  could give prosecutors the means to pressure the executive into cooperating and telling them what he knows about Trump's business dealings.

In a statement, Weisselberg lawyers Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos said he intends to plead not guilty and he will fight these charges in court. The issued a statement defending Weisselberg, saying the 48-year employee is being used by the Manhattan district attorney's office as a pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president. It said neither the IRS nor any other district attorney would ever think of bringing such charges over employee benefits.

This is not justice; this is politics, the company said.

The charges against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg remained sealed but were to be unveiled ahead of an afternoon arraignment at a state court in Manhattan, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The people were not authorised to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity.

There was no indication Trump himself would be charged at this stage of the investigation, jointly pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats.

Trump did not respond to reporters shouted questions about the New York case as he visited Texas on Wednesday, but earlier in the week, the Republican had blasted the New York prosecutors as rude, nasty, and totally biased and said his company's actions were standard practice throughout the US business community, and in no way a crime. The planned charges were said to be linked to benefits the company gave to top executives, like the use of apartments, cars and school tuition, the people familiar with the matter told the AP.
Negative views of remain near record highs across the developed world, according to the latest Pew survey, as higher marks for Beijings handling of the coronavirus were offset by concerns about its human rights record.

Majorities in 15 of the 17 advanced economies surveyed this year by the Pew Research Center hold an unfavorable opinion of China, including record highs in Canada, Germany, South Korea and the U.S. Some 76% of Americans said they viewed the worlds most populous nation unfavorably in February, up three percentage points from last year.

The percentage of people with a negative outlook on was even higher in places such as Japan (88%), Sweden (80%), Australia (78%) and South Korea (77%) -- all countries that have had high-profile diplomatic disputes with Beijing in recent years. Only Greece and Singapore have mostly favorable views toward the country.

The report, which came hours before President Xi Jinping was expected to mark the Communist Partys 100th anniversary in Beijing, shows the diplomatic challenge facing as it attempts to assert greater influence globally. Last month, Xi urged Chinese officials to create a trustworthy, lovable and respectable image for the country, in a sign that Beijing may be looking to smooth its hard-edged diplomatic approach.





Questions about Chinas early handling of the first known coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan helped fuel a dramatic decline in views toward the country. Pews surveys of almost 18,900 adults across the 17 markets show some improvement in that area, with a median of 49% saying China is doing a good job handling the pandemic.

Still, the report showed growing dissatisfaction with Chinas human rights practices, as Beijing defended its labor programs in Xinjiang and imposed a national security law in Hong Kong. Chinese diplomats have hit out at countries that have criticized such actions, which Beijing views as its own internal affairs.



ALSO READ: Xi Jinping seeks 'lovable' image for China in sign of diplomatic rethink

Majorities in all but one of the 17 have little or no confidence in the ability of Xi to handle world affairs. In Germany, France and Sweden, half or more say they have no confidence at all in Xi.

Despite the widespread sense that China does not respect the personal freedoms of its people, publics are somewhat divided over what the appropriate response should be, the reports authors said.

The 17 advanced economies surveyed, which are dominated by American security allies, also indicated a stronger preference for the U.S. in the wake of President Joe Bidens election last year. Majorities in more than half of the places said it was more important to have stronger economic ties with the U.S. than China, including Japan, Germany, France and the U.K.

The poll was done under the direction of Gallup and Langer Research Associates between February and May. The results have varying margins of error.
Any "foreign force" trying to "bully" will encounter a "Great Wall of Steel" erected by over 1.4 billion Chinese people and its powerful military, President warned on Thursday, as the ruling celebrated its centenary with a massive show of strength at the historic Tiananmen Square.

In his keynote address at a highly-choreographed ceremony from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate, which also adorns a giant size photo of Chairman Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China, Xi also underlined that the reunification of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a "historic mission" and an unshakable commitment of the of (CPC). Xi, who is also the General Secretary of the CPC and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, warned that any foreign force will be allowed to bully China, an apparent reference to the US.

has repeatedly accused the US of trying to curb its "peaceful rise", amidst concern in the neighbourhood about the growing assertiveness of the Chinese military in the strategic Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere.

Both former US president Donald Trump and his successor Joe Biden have pursued a hardline policy towards China, targeting it on several fronts including trade, human rights and the origins of the Covid-19, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan before becoming a pandemic.

We Chinese are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of forceWe have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will, Xi said. By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us the 68-year-old leader said. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people, he said. Over 70,000 carefully vetted party workers and schoolchildren who took part in the event cheered Xi's over an hour-long speech which was telecast live.

About 71 aircraft participated in the flypast which also included China's most advanced J-20 stealth fighter jets, helicopters, fighter jet trainers and others.

In a show of unity, some of the top party leaders of the past and present including Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao and former premier Wen Jiabao attended the celebration.

Designated as the core leader of the CPC, Xi, who is regarded as the most powerful leader after Mao with life long tenure at the helm appeared in a grey Mao suit synonymous with the attire sported by the party founder 100 years ago.

In his speech, Xi also warned against underestimating China's resolve to integrate the self-administered island of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland stating that it is a historic mission of the ruling party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President on Thursday called for building a strong military to defend the country and warned that the Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to "bully, oppress, or subjugate them", as the country marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party.

Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of (CPC) at the historic Tiananmen Square here, Xi in over an hour-long address also said that integrating Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a historic mission of the ruling party.

No one should underestimate the great resolve, the strong will, and the extraordinary ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

We must accelerate the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces," Xi, 68, said in his address telecast live by the official television channels.

We are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security, and development interests," he said.

Xi said does not oppress other countries and will not allow others to "bully us."



"We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will," Xi said.

The Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us," he said.

"Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he warned.

Resolving the Taiwan question and realising China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the CPC, he said.

claims the estranged island of Taiwan as part of its mainland.

"We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward 'Taiwan independence,' and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation," Xi said.

A crowd of over 70,000 people comprising of party and military officials besides schoolchildren cheered his speech.

The people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity, and a powerful force for protecting regional and world peace, he said, emphasising that the military should work under the leadership of the party.

Founded by Mao Zedong on July 1, 1921, the CPC formally completed 100 years of existence on Thursday. It also remained in power since the People's Republic of China (PRC) was formed in 1949.

Highlighting the importance of CPC to China, Xi said any attempt to divide it from the Chinese people is "bound to fail".

"The more than 95 million party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," Xi said.

He said the firm leadership of the CPC must be upheld.

The leadership of the party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system, he said.

"It is the foundation and lifeblood of the party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend," he said.

China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and preserve order, Xi said.

In an apparent reference to the US allegations of genocide committed against Uygur Muslims of Xinjiang as well as the imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong much against the will of the local people, Xi said China welcomes helpful suggestions, but won't accept sanctimonious preaching.

"We are eager to learn what lessons we can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism," said Xi, also the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

"We will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us," he said, calling for elevating the Chinese military to world-class standards



He said China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards so that "we are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security, and development interests.""We must accelerate the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces," Xi said.

The people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity, and a powerful force for protecting regional and world peace, he noted.

He also said the military should work under the party leadership. He said CPC must continue to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context. At the fundamental level, the capability of the party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works, Xi said.

"We will use Marxism to observe, understand, and steer the trends of our times, and continue to develop the Marxism of contemporary China and in the 21st century," Xi said.

Xi said as we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated progress in material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological terms, we have pioneered a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernisation and created a new model for human civilisation.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Oil advanced with Opec+ producers reaching a tentative agreement to add limited supplies to the market in the coming months.

Futures in New York rose as much as 3.7 per cent on Thursday to the highest intraday level since 2018. Negotiations between Opec+ producers, including the alliances de facto leaders, Saudi Arabia and Russia, are still underway, delegates said, as ministers gathered online. The proposal under discussion would add about 2 million barrels a day to the cartels output between August and December, they said.

 is looking like its going to keep some restraint, and to me, the market is in a really good place, said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management. People are very comfortable and constructive with the profile over the next year.





Oil posted the best half since 2009 as prices grind higher, aided by a global recovery taking place from the US to Europe and China.
Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal today said that India will be playing a much greater role in the post pandemic world in creating resilient supply chains. Speaking at the India Global forum, he said that we are looking at a greater degree of engagement with countries that are democratic in their political system with which we can relate& trust as a partner. He added that India is working towards greater engagement with countries with which we have a shared ecosystem, countries which believe in transparent rules based trading mechanisms. He said that India is talking to UK, Australia, Canada and EU for trade related matters, and is keen to speed them up.

Goyal said that our trusted partners can look for a greater role for India, and we are opening our doors wider. The Minister said that we are looking at investments, technology, high quality goods, equipment, machinery. We will be looking at providing high quality technology support to our services & IT sector.

He said that India has tried in WTO to promote a waiver on TRIPS so that vaccines & other medicines can be available to everyone across the world. He said that it is unfortunate that some European countries are not supporting the initiative and have preferred profit over prudence.

The minster added that we are confident that India will continue to maintain precautions & COVID protocols. He said that we are going to maintain our safeguards & masks. The Minister highlighted that despite being a developing nation, India has already crossed about 340 million vaccines. We are currently doing 5 million a day which we hope to ramp up further in the days to come. We are happy to share our learnings with other countries. Our COWIN app through which we have done the vaccination programme has been a remarkable success & now large parts of the world are asking us for the COWIN app to be implemented in their countries.

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Union Bank of India on Wednesday announced that the bank's board of directors approved capital plan of the bank to raise capital funds up to Rs 9,700 crore.

In a regulatory filing after market hours yesterday, Union Bank of India announced that its board has approved raising of equity capital not exceeding Rs 3,500 crore, within the overall limit of Rs 9,700 crore, through public issue (i.e. Follow-on Public Offer) and/or rights issue and/or private placements, including Qualified Institutions Placements and/or preferential allotment to the Government of India and/or other institutions and/or through any other mode(s).

The board of the bank also approved raising of AT 1 and/or Tier 2 bonds not exceeding Rs 6,200 crore within the overall limit of Rs 9,700 crore.

Shares of Union Bank of India were trading 1.04% higher at Rs 38.95 on BSE.

Union Bank of India is a state-run bank. The Government of India held 89.07% stake in the bank as on 31 March 2021. It has a network of 9,590 branches and 13,287 ATMs across the country.

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Amid the ongoing crisis in Congress, Chief Minister will meet party leaders from urban areas of the state, followed by lunch in Chandigarh on Thursday.

The development comes a day after disgruntled leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday met with party leader Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

Before meeting Rahul Gandhi, Sidhu met party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at her residence.

Months ahead of Assembly polls, the rift in the state unit has intensified. While Sidhu met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday, the party's top leadership did not meet Chief Minister who was in Delhi recently for three days.

A senior leader clarified that the Punjab Chief Minister had not sought time to meet the top leadership of the party. Singh, however, had met the All India Committee (AICC) panel entrusted with the task to end factionalism in the state unit.

Earlier, the AICC panel had submitted the report on the Punjab crisis to Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi with the ground realities and suggestions after the members of the panel met the Punjab Chief Minister.

In order to address the factionalism in the state unit, a three-member panel had been set up by Sonia Gandhi.

It is to be noted that Rahul Gandhi has held meetings with Punjab Congress MLAs, MPs, and other important leaders from the state, including PCC Cheif Sunil Jakhar.

On Friday, the leaders who reached Rahul Gandhi's residence to attend a meeting included Vijendra Singla, Rana Gurjit Singh, RS MP Shamsher Singh Dhillon, and MLA Lakhvir Singh.

Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dhillon while speaking to mediapersons had said that the meeting was held to resolve infighting in the Punjab Congress and added that decisions were made to strengthen the party in the upcoming elections in the state.

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday met many senior Punjab leaders including Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunil Jakhar, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Harish Rawat in Delhi amid escalating infighting in the party's state unit.

Punjab Assembly polls, scheduled for next year, are being considered crucial for Congress as it is one of the few states where the party is still in power.

In 2017 Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in the 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.

(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.)
and have reportedly ended a six-year truce on legal battles, to prevent open warfare between the two tech giants.

The two companies reached an unusual pact in 2015 to end a running legal battle, forged soon after Sundar Pichai became the CEO of and Satya Nadella as CEO of

According to Financial Times, ending the six-year truce will pave the way "for direct conflict as regulators take aim at barriers to competition among the leading US technology groups".

The pact has expired in the middle of April and the two sides decided not to renew it, the report said, citing sources.

The gloves appear to be off once again between and

Earlier this year, Google criticised Microsoft for trying to "break the way the open web works" and Microsoft publicly supported a law in Australia that forced Google to pay news publishers for their content.

Microsoft also slammed Google's control of the ad market.

"The decision to let it lapse came as regulators around the world seek to challenge practices that may have entrenched the leading tech companies and prevented more open competition," the report mentioned.

In one of its most dirty tricks, Microsoft allegedly ran a series of attack ads called "Scroogled" that accused Google's privacy policies.

The pact between Microsoft and Google was supposed to improve cooperation between the two companies but it did not work out that way.

Microsoft has turned to Amazon instead to get Android apps running on Windows 11.

--IANS

na/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cadillac Area Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Emily Kearney, center, gives a budget presentation during the recent board of education meeting. The board voted to approve adopting the roughly $34.3 million budget for the 2021-2022 school year that begins July 1.
Pictured are fireworks over Lake Cadillac as part of the Cadillac Freedom Festival several years ago.
A crane unloads the first shipment of anthracite coal from U.S. supplier XCoal Energy & Resources LLC

(Bloomberg)  Chinas biggest bank dumped a plan to finance a $3 billion coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe, dealing a blow to coal developers in Africa that see China as the last potential funder of their projects.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) told Go Clean ICBC, an ad hoc body representing 32 environmental groups, that it wont fund the 2,800-megawatt Sengwa coal project in northern Zimbabwe, according to a June 18 email seen by Bloomberg. The message was sent to 350.org, one of the Go Clean groups. ICBC didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Western and South African banks have come under increasing pressure from shareholders not to fund developments that could contribute to climate change, leaving Chinese lenders as one of the last funding sources. That door may now be closing as China seeks to burnish its own environment credentials.

This is highly significant, obviously for Zimbabwe but also for Chinese overseas energy financing, said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst for the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. It is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Chinese bank has proactively walked away from a coal-power project.

The Sengwa project was being developed by RioEnergy Ltd., a unit of RioZim Ltd. RioEnergy Chairman Caleb Dengu said last year that ICBC signed a formal notice of interest in funding the plant, to be built by China Gezhouba Group. Associated transmission lines would be built by Power Construction Corp. of China Ltd.

ICBCs withdrawal marks the second time the banks coal-funding plans have been scrapped. A permit to build a coal-fired plant in Lamu in Kenya was canceled by the government last year.

ICBC described Sengwa as a bad plan due to environmental problems, 350.Org said in the email.

The Chinese lender has been under scrutiny over the environmental impact of funding coal projects and is in discussions with the coalition to chart a clear road map to stop funding coal, Go Clean ICBC said in the email. Nathalia Clark, the associate director of Global Communications at 350.org, declined to give further details.

The coalition had planned to roll out a global campaign last week against the lenders coal activity, which it suspended after ICBC said it would halt engagement if it did so.

Over the past two decades, China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have funded more than $50 billion of coal projects across Asia,

Europe, Africa and South America, according to research from Boston Universitys Global Development Policy Center. A plan proposed last year would make it tougher for the Chinese governments Belt and Road Initiative to finance environmentally damaging projects like coal power plants and metal smelters.

While President Xi Jinping in September put China on a path to zero out carbon emissions by 2060, he plans to let coal consumption increase through 2026, and the fuel is expected to remain an important part of the countrys energy mix for a decade beyond that.

RioEnergy is seeking alternative financing, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because ICBCs withdrawal hasnt been formally announced. Simba Mhuriro, the general manager at RioEnergy, said he wasnt privy to the matter and couldnt comment. Wilson Gwatiringa, a spokesman for RioZim, also declined to comment. Winston Chitando, Zimbabwes mines minister, said he wasnt aware of ICBCs decision.

Sengwa was initially owned by London-based miner Rio Tinto Group, the one-time parent of RioZim. It was set aside as Zimbabwes relations with the U.K., its former colonial ruler, deteriorated. After the project was revived in 2016, General Electric Co. and a unit of Blackstone Group LP didnt pursue initial inquiries.

The backing of ICBC was seen by RioEnergy as a fresh start in a plan to develop the plant and end recurrent power outages in Zimbabwe. Climate activists say the company will struggle to find another funder.

Opportunities to fund coal power are rapidly diminishing, given the climate and other impacts of coal, said Robyn Hugo, director of climate change engagement at Just Share, a Cape Town-based shareholder activist group. There is simply no basis to consider new coal-fired projects, and all plans to do so are likely to be strongly opposed.

Contact editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

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Jul.01.2021

Speculation is growing that ICBC ditched the project over climate concerns; should the countrys fresh university graduates be worried about unemployment?; and Didi becomes second-biggest U.S. IPO by a Chinese company
President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (left) in April 2018 during a meeting at the Boao State Guesthouse in Qionghai, South Chinas Hainan province. Photo: Li Tao/Xinhua, Gov.cn

(The Straits Times)  The growing relations between Singapores Peoples Action Party (PAP) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have kept pace with the countries evolving development priorities and greatly benefited their peoples, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

In a letter sent in his capacity as PAP secretary-general, Lee said both parties share warm and friendly ties underpinned by regular exchanges.

He was addressing Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping in a letter dated July 1  the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese party.

Against the backdrop of a world undergoing tremendous and rapid change over this past century, the CCP has steered China to overcome many domestic and external challenges, and shepherded China onto the path of peace and prosperity, Lee said.

China has made momentous progress in its development, raising the standard of living for an unprecedented number of people, he wrote to Xi. In recent years and under your leadership, China has succeeded in eradicating absolute poverty and achieving a moderately prosperous society.

Lee also said the ambitious goals laid out in the CCPs 14th Five-Year Plan would bring China another step closer to its vision of a modern socialist economy.

The plan is a blueprint from 2021 to 2025 focusing on high-quality sustainable develop-ment goals in tech and climate change, among other areas.

When Xi came to power in 2012, he had spelt out his grand vision for China to become a great, modern socialist country by 2049  the centenary of the CCPs rule of China.

A stable, prosperous and successful China that is well-integrated into the international system benefits not just China, but also the rest of Asia and the world, Lee added. I am confident that our bilateral relations will continue to strengthen in the years ahead.

The PAPs ties with the CCP go back to 1992  two years after Singapore and China formally established diplomatic relations.

A PAP spokesman told The Straits Times that the party has hosted visits and conducted briefings for delegations from the CCP, and also attended regional dialogues organized by the Chinese party and its Communist Youth League wing.

This story was first published in The Straits Times.

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Here is todays ranking of the 10 most-read news stories in China, in economics, finance and current affairs, to help give you a sense of whats trending in the Chinese language sphere.

Chinese social media users have been paying close attention to the countrys ceremony of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. They also have continued to follow the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration that China is malaria-free.

1. President Xi Jinping warns China wont be bullied

We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people, Chinese President Xi Jinping said (external source) in a speech Thursday to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party.

2. China celebrates 100th birthday of the Communist Party

Celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China was held (external source, in Chinese) at 8 a.m. Thursday at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Photo: VCG

3. WHO declares China free of malaria

The WHO announced Wednesday that China has been certified as malaria-free after going four years without reporting a new case of the mosquito-borne infectious disease. In the 1940s, the country was reporting 30 million cases a year.

4. Greek police recover stolen Picasso

Greek police have found (external source, in Chinese) a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso that was stolen from the National Gallery in Greece in 2012. Picasso donated Head of a Woman to the country in 1949. Police have made one arrest in the case.

5. Chinas Covid-19 vaccination drive passes 1.2 billion doses

As of Monday, China had administered more than 1.2 billion doses (external source, in Chinese) of Covid-19 vaccines, according to the countrys National Health Council, including 200 million shots that have been given in the last 10 days.

6. One-quarter of Communist Party members are under 35 years old

According to the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, as of June 5, CCP has (external source, in Chinese) a total number of 95 million members, of which 24.9% are below 35 years old, up 0.7 percentage points from 2019.

7. Members of Chinese Communist Party exceeds 95 million

The Communist Party has (external source) over 95 million members as of June 5, the party announced Wednesday, a 3.5% increase from 2019.

8. Sinovac vaccine is safe for children and adolescents, study shows

Sinovac Biotech Ltd.s Covid-19 vaccine CoronaVac has been found to be safe (external source, in Chinese) and effective for children and adolescents, according to a study published Monday in British medical journal The Lancet.

9. Vaccination rate for adult population in Shanghai reaches 77.6%

According to the Shanghai government, as of Tuesday, over 16 million people have been vaccinated (external source, in Chinese) in the city, with 77.6% of those over 18 years old inoculated.

10. Over 1.7 million Chinese citizens vaccinated overseas

Over 1.7 million overseas Chinese in more than 160 countries have been inoculated (external source, in Chinese) against Covid-19, according to state-owned broadcaster CCTV.

Translated by intern reporter Chen Bingyi

Caixin has not independently verified the veracity or accuracy of all of the headlines.

The daily ranking of most read news stories among Chinese people, about China and global affairs, is jointly provided to you by Caixin Insight and HANA Data, an artificial intelligence technology team.

The key indicators calculated on the list are based on mass data sourced from Chinas mainstream social media platforms and online news websites. Click here for a detailed introduction of our methodology.
Here you'll find our latest collection of Caledonian-Record reports on the coronavirus outbreak and local response, from the beginning of April. Our January, February and March stories are here: https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/our-coronavirus-coverage/collection_5885178c-692e-11e
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Do you have an athlete in mind that contributes to the team or sport, holds sportsmanship and team spirit, has epic playmaker moments and/or in general makes the the sports fun? If yes, please make your nominations for our edition of Athlete Spotlight.

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Search and rescue teams look for survivors at the Champlain Towers South residential condo, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for after Thursday's fatal collapse. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP)
In this June 13, 2021 photo provided by Melissa Burns, Islesboro Central School seniors prepare to toss their mortarboards to celebrate their graduation. The Class of 2021  all 13 of them  were eyeing a trip to Greece, or maybe South Korea, but they wound up going nowhere. The seniors decided to donate $5,000 to help out struggling neighbors after the coronavirus pandemic changed everything. (Melissa Burns via AP)
Brad Branham, city attorney for Asheville, argues the public should not have access to a City Council retreat in March 2021. WebEx screenshot from hearing.
Netflix is strengthening its relationship with Austin-based Powerhouse Animation, one of the biggest animation studios in the state of Texas. The two companies have signed a first-look deal that will see them produce more animated series together.

Powerhouse animated on Netflixs Castlevania, which ended earlier this year with its fourth season. It is now at work on a spin-off series set in the same world, during the French Revolution. Based on Konamis game franchise of the same name, Castlevania was branded by Netflix as an anime series. While influenced by Japanese animation, it was produced outside Japan.

Other shows in Powerhouses catalogue include Netflixs Blood of Zeus and Seis Manos, which both also bear the visual stamp of anime. Its Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a sequel to the 1980s hit He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, will debut on the streamer later this month. The studio is also at work on series based on the Tomb Raider and Skull Island franchises with Netflix and Legendary Television.
Eras interweave and reality shades into dream in Nayola, a drama that traces the legacy of the decades-long civil war in Angola. Based on the play Black Box by Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Mia Couto, two prominent writers from Portuguese-speaking Africa, the film follows the fortunes of three generations of women from a single family, including the title character.

Nayola, which was presented as a work in progress at Annecy last month, is the feature directorial debut of Jose Miguel Ribeiro, whose acclaimed shorts include the Cartoon dOr winner A Suspeita. Ribeiro, who is Portuguese, strove to make the film true to the experiences of Angolans by visiting the country multiple times. After speaking to locals on his second visit, he reworked the animatic to incorporate their contributions.

Kimbundu, one of Angolas official languages, is spoken in the film. The voice cast features non-professional actors, including a rapper and a spoken-word artist. Ribeiro talked movingly about working with one of the actors who is blind. He said a version of the film adapted for the visually impaired will be released in Portugal.
Photo: Contributed

My annual summer listening tour can now begin.

With the House of Commons adjourned for the summer, and possibly not returning in the fall if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls an election, this means I will spend a lot of time listening to you.

Every year since I was first elected as a member of Parliament, I have made a point of meeting with citizens in every region of my riding to hear thoughts, concerns, and ideas.

This has always been a very useful and helpful exercise as it guides the work I do in Ottawa once the fall session gets underway.

One example of this is over this past year:

With many students unable to secure jobs over the summer months due to the pandemic, it has increased student debt levels and that has also increased the anxiety for those with significant debt and interest payments.

While my listening tour has only just begun, I am also hearing from many small business owners who have never encountered more difficulty in hiring for vacant jobs.



Many are unable to fill vacant positions.

A big part of this can be attributed to the federal government, which has not implemented a plan to transition workers back into the work force as provinces ease pandemic restrictions.

This government would rather prioritize an election, and claim they need a majority, before any effort will be made to change pandemic-related benefit programs that are a barrier to filling vacant job postings.

The purpose of my report this week is not to criticize these challenges, but rather to propose a solution that may help students struggling with debt, as well as employers struggling to fill help wanted positions.

Before the House of Commons adjourned, I tabled my latest private members bill  Bill C-317.



My new bill proposes to amend the Income Tax Act.

Currently, if an employer wants to help an employee pay off student loans, either with a bonus or as part of their salary, that assistance is taxed as regular income.

My bill would allow employers and employees to enter into voluntary arrangements where payments made by an employer to an employee, pursuant to a student loan assistance program, would be a non-taxable benefit.

This would help young people to pay down debt faster and start saving for the future.



For willing employers, this would help them attract talented workers and encourage employee retention as training costs are considerable.

From a governmental perspective, it would also help ensure that student loans are repaid faster.

I believe many people would agree that the challenge young people face is materially different than previous generations.

Young people often share with me that graduating with thousands of dollars in student loans is a massive barrier to them planning for the future and is also a significant source of stress and anxiety.

I have proposed Bill C-317 as a means to help with the challenges students and employers face.

My question this week:

Do you support Bill C-317?

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.
Photo: The Canadian Press Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, walks out of her home to go to B.C. Supreme Court for her extradition hearing, in Vancouver, B.C., Thursday, April 1, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rich Lam

Lawyers for Canada's attorney general are urging a B.C. Supreme Court judge to dismiss Meng Wanzhou's application to submit new evidence in her extradition hearing that her legal team claims would "fatally" undermine the case against her.

Crown lawyer Robert Frater said Wednesday the Huawei chief financial officer is asking the judge to weigh the evidence in a way that is appropriate for her fraud trial, not her extradition hearing.

"They want you to get down into the weeds of inference drawing and that is the exclusive preserve of the trial court," Frater told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes.

The threshold for determining if new evidence is relevant to an extradition case is high and it must demonstrate that the requesting state's evidence is manifestly unreliable. The evidence proposed by the defence doesn't meet that threshold, Frater said.

Meng's team recently obtained the evidence from her alleged victim HSBC through a court agreement in Hong Kong.

The documents include internal email chains and spreadsheets that Meng's team argued show senior executives knew more about Huawei's control over another company that did business in Iran than U.S. prosecutors claim.

Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport in 2018 at the request of U.S. officials based on allegations she lied to HSBC about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, putting the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran  charges that both she and Huawei deny.

Her lawyers argued Tuesday that despite U.S. prosecutors' claims that only junior bankers were aware that Huawei and Skycom were part of the same corporate structure, at least one senior executive was included on email threads about the relationship. They say an internal listing also grouped the two companies together in the same corporate family.

Frater countered Wednesday that Meng's team relies on the idea that it was at the "fingertips" of senior staffers to make the link, but he said there's no evidence that anyone made the connection.

He said Meng's team is asking the Canadian judge to weigh competing accounts of what allegedly happened, which falls in the realm of a trial, not an extradition case.

"You do not have full access to the necessary papers here. You do not have any witnesses that can explain what they knew or didn't know based on these emails and reports," Frater said.

"It would, in our submission, be dangerous and unsafe for your ladyship to make a conclusion of ultimate reliability on an incomplete evidentiary record. That has to be left to the trier of fact."

Holmes has already dismissed another application from Meng's team to admit evidence because it did not meet the appropriate threshold and Frater said she should do the same again.

Near the end of Wednesday's hearing, Holmes raised concerns about the clarity of the case against Meng. Canada's attorney general will have to connect the dots at hearings in August over whether Meng should be turned over to U.S. authorities, she said.

The alleged fraud has been described in different ways throughout the extradition proceedings and the link to the potential violations of U.S. sanctions hasn't always been made clear, she suggested.

For example, she asked if HSBC continued to work with Skycom even after it closed the company's account, how would that fit in the overall theory that a failure to disclose Huawei's control of Skycom gave rise to the risk of a possible sanction violation.

"That is something that is sure to be gone into at great length at the trial," Frater said.

"It has to be addressed at the committal hearing in the sense that there needs to be a prima facie case on each element," Holmes responded.

Holmes also suggested the reason Meng's lawyers have sought to introduce new evidence so many times is "surely" an effort to explore weaknesses in the connecting links of the theory of the case.

"The theory of the case as disclosed through the (records of the case) has been, frankly, a little difficult to wrestle with at times on certain points. And I would simply invite you to consider that that may be in part an explanation for us being as far down in the weeds as we appear to be," Holmes said to Frater.
A Note from the DHDD Director:

Dear DHDD colleagues 

I hope you are doing well and staying healthy. Over the past 5 months, I have been temporarily assigned to work as the Chief Medical Officer for the Georgia Department of Public Health. It has been a great opportunity to work at the state level implementing the rollout of COVID vaccinations. Earlier in June, I was honored to have received an Impact Award from the Georgias Department of Human Services Commissioner Crittenden during the Healthy Communities Summit for work vaccinating seniors in Georgia. I also had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the state to facilitate vaccination in different settings  sailors on cargo ships in Savannahs port (see photo of me driving the ship!), migrant workers on farms, people with disabilities at supported employment locations, rural Georgians outside grocery stores and in local churches and many other sites. I accompanied the Health Commissioner when she spoke at the We Can Do This vaccination event at Clarke University where Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke. This was certainly a one-of-a-kind experience and I feel honored to have been part of this work.

There is a lot of great work going on in DHDD and several observances coming up in the next few weeks. Further, DHDD staff continue to develop COVID-19 resources for people with ID/DD who have extreme low literacy and their caregivers, as well as new Easy to Read information, and ASL videos. Please see more information on those resources in our newsletter!

I remain deployed to the COVID-19 response for a percent time but look forward to returning full time to DHDD on July 1.

All the best,

Georgina

Memorial
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Indonesian cement exports see 119% YoY rise in 5M21

ICR Newsroom By 01 July 2021

While cement exports from Indonesia decreased from 1.2Mt in March and April to 1Mt in May, the January-May 2021 volume saw a 119 per cent YoY rise to 5.69Mt, according to the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI).

Around half of exports were shipped to Bangladesh while China accounted for an offtake of 740,531t, or 13 per cent, in the first five months of 2021. Taiwan, the Philippines and Australia each had a share of eight per cent of the total export volume. Sri Lanka has a three per cent share, and Brunei Darussalam and Mauritius contribute two per cent. Smaller volumes are exported to Timor Leste, Fiji, Malta, Peru and the USA.

Exports have been key in maintaining capacity utilisation rates, enabling a rate of 62 per cent in 2020 when domestic demand represented a rate of less than 60 per cent as it dropped by 10 per cent in 2020.

Published under
Cameroons Minister of Commerce threatens to shut down Cimencam plant

ICR Newsroom By 01 July 2021

Cameroons Minister of Commerce, Luc Mbarga Atangana has informed LafargeHolcims Cameroon subsidiary Cimencam it will shut down the cement plant if it proceeds to increase its prices unilaterally.

If the price increase goes ahead, Mr Mbarga Atangana has said that he will see himself in the obligation to order the installation of seals on your installations. Cement is a product that is subject to the preliminary price approval procedure.

Published under
Buena Vista, CO (81211)

Today

Mostly sunny early then increasing clouds with some scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 81F. N winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 53F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
EPB and their HCS EdConnect partners received the American Public Power Association Sue Kelly Community Service Award on June 22 at the APPA National Conference in Orlando. This award recognizes good neighbor activities that demonstrate "the commitment of the utility and its employees to the community."Not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, EPB joined with Hamilton County Schools, the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, The Enterprise Center and other public and private community partners to address a rising crisis  the need for at-home learners to have access to high-speed internet regardless of their financial position. The result was the formation of HCS EdConnect, a program that provides fiber optic internet services to every economically disadvantaged K-12 student in the Hamilton County School system at no charge.The program officially launched in July of 2020.Qualifying families receive broadband internet, that is at least twice as fast as typical educational access offerings from other providers, with symmetrical upload and download speeds and no data caps provided through EPB's 100 percent fiber-optic network. As part of the program, EPB also professionally installs a WiFi router at no charge and helps set up each students learning devices.EPB stepped up during the pandemic to prove that they are more than a local utility service provider, said APPA President & CEO Joy Ditto. They are a community partner that is deeply invested in Chattanooga. Thats what this award is all about.More than 14,000 students so far have been connected to HCS EdConnect at no charge - more than one third of all Hamilton County Schools students in the district and including their families, represents more than 25,000 individuals. These families are able to keep their high-speed internet connection year-round for up to 10 years as long as they continue to qualify for the program. EPB and their HCS EdConnect partners have already begun enrolling new students to join the program for the 2021-2022 school year.Were proud that Chattanooga is being recognized nationally for decreasing the digital divide in our Gig City using a model that other cities can replicate, said Evann Freeman, EPB director of government relations. Our HCS EdConnect partners are happy to share our process with other municipalities to help them decrease the digital divide in their communities.Funding partners have provided $7.9 million to cover upfront infrastructure costs including additional equipment, fiber optic drops and wireless routers. HCS EdConnect partners include Hamilton County, City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County Schools, The Enterprise Center, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Benwood Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Footprint Foundation, Lyndhurst Foundation, Maclellan Foundation and CARES funding from the State of Tennessee.APPA recognizes excellence in electric utility operations and public power leadership at its annual awards ceremony. EPB was one of 11 utilities and 22 individuals recognized for service in the public power industry.
This Independence Day we must remind ourselves, as Ronald Reagan did: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. The great orator and patriot Patrick Henry asked his contemporaries: I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! James Madison wisely pointed out, If men were angels there would be no need for government.People have seemingly lost faith in our institutions to help meet our societal challenges.Socialism is openly embraced by many millennials. While they have seen the flaws of capitalism, most millennials have not seen the failures of socialism firsthand. The media rarely reports on the dark side of socialism or the benefits of capitalism.Herbert Hoover, said: Communism is an evil thing. It is contrary to the spiritual, moral, and material aspirations of man. These very reasons give rise to my conviction that it will decay and die of its own poisons. But that may be many years away and, in the meantime, we must be prepared for a long journey. Unfortunately, there are more than 1 billion people still living today under the Marxist socialist regimes of China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos.Freedom around the globe was strengthened and resistance to Marxism grew in the 1980s. In June 1989, we witnessed brave students protesting in Beijing, China. The Communist government killed students and other protestors using tanks and assault rifles in Tiananmen Square. Then we watched the Berlin Wall torn down in November 1989. However, Herbert Hoover could not have predicted the future of our own country.Despite that, on June 25, 2021, Axios poll revealed that in the capitalist US, just 49% of Americans aged 18-to-34 support capitalism. And 51 percent say they have a positive view of socialism. Venezuelan Maria Fernanda Bello, who has seen socialism first hand in her native country as a cautionary tale: "Socialists are always going to promise you free tuition, free health care, free everything, but they will never promise you freedom."We should be grateful we live in a country where we still have our freedom. However, we cannot be sure future generations will have the same freedoms moving forward. Limited government, individual freedom, and traditional values are likely to remain priorities in our state for the immediate future, as long as we are vigilant. Nationally, we see disturbing trends away from liberty. Partisanship has become an extreme contact sport in our nations capital. That is why states best serve as the laboratories of democracy for our nation.What sacrifice would we be willing to make today for freedom? That is a question we should ask ourselves frequently. We must make the world better than the one we inherited. Todays children are tomorrows future, and education is a proven path to upward mobility for all students. Education is even more critical when you consider our success or failure could determine the survival of the nation. It is why civics education is critical, and why students must understand the processes of government, their constitutional rights, and the history of our state and nation.Our founders believed that man was born in the image of God, and as the Declaration of Independence states, all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. George Washington expressed the founders realism that humans are imperfect and flawed: perfection falls not to the share of mortals. Benjamin Franklin knew that the United States Constitution "with all its faults" was better than anything else we could put together to govern our country. However, in the United States We the People still get to tell the government what to do, the government does not tell the people what to do.We are an imperfect state and nation governed by imperfect people working toward a more perfect union. Acknowledging the faults of those assembled Franklin said: "when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views."Franklin also reminded us They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Abraham Lincoln added, Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves. If we want the freedom to endure and not become extinct, we are going to have to remain guarded and informed not just on Independence Day, but every day.When we understand our rights and responsibilities, we can reclaim our identity as a nation, and perhaps be more united as citizens. We must have an unwavering belief in our ability to unite around a common purpose that freedom is still preferred in our state and nation. Franklin also wisely stated: The US Constitution only guarantees your rights as a citizen, it doesn't guarantee happiness. It may take work, but if you have your rights, happiness is very possible.The preservation of our liberty will be an ongoing battle, something else our Founders plainly understood. Only educated citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities can compel our government officials to obey their oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Let freedom continue to ring across our nation, as we work toward perfection as a people and a nation.##Scott Cepicky is the state representative for the 64th District. JC Bowman is the executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee.
The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a general contractor may be required to pay a $300-per-day penalty under Tennessee law for its failure to pay a subcontractor for work completed on a Nashville construction project. Applying Tennessees Prompt Pay Act, the Court reversed the trial courts decision that the subcontractors claim was filed too late; it held the general contractor could be liable for the penalty for the year before the subcontractor filed its lawsuit.

In 2013, general contractor Holladay Construction Group, LLC hired subcontractor Snake Steel, Inc.

for structural and steel work on a construction project in Nashville for owner 2200 Charlotte Avenue, LLC. Tennessee law allows contractors to withhold retainage, that is, a percentage of the total pay withheld to ensure satisfactory completion of construction work. As allowed, Holladay withheld as retainage five percent of Snake Steels total compensation, approximately $18,000.

Early in 2014, Snake Steel satisfactorily completed its work on the Nashville project. In October 2014, Holladay paid Snake Steel for most of its work, but did not pay the $18,000 retainage. In 2015, the owner paid Holladay all amounts due, including all retainage withheld for subcontractors, including Snake Steel. Despite the fact that the owner had released all of the subcontractor retainage, Holladay still did not pay Snake Steel its retainage.

In September 2017, Snake Steel filed suit against Holladay in the Chancery Court for Davidson County. Among other things, the lawsuit alleged that Holladays failure to pay the retainage made Holladay liable to Snake Steel for penalties under the Prompt Pay Act.

The Prompt Pay Act was enacted to ensure that contractors and subcontractors on construction work are timely paid the full amount they are due. It allows owners and general contractors to withhold retainage, but to motivate prompt payment of the retainage, it requires them to deposit the retainage into a separate interest-bearing escrow account. Important to this case, if they fail to, the Act provides for a $300-per-day penalty for every day the retainage is not deposited in escrow.

Neither party was aware of the escrow requirement or the penalty until Snake Steel filed its lawsuit, so the retainage withheld for Snake Steel was never placed in escrow. In its lawsuit, Snake Steel sought payment of the retainage plus the $300-per-day penalty for several years, going back to when Snake Steel completed its work on the Nashville project. Once the lawsuit was filed, Holladay quickly paid Snake Steel the $18,000 retainage, so the only issue for the trial court was whether Holladay was liable for the penalty under the Prompt Pay Act.

The trial court dismissed Snake Steels claim. It held that the one-year statute of limitations applied and Snake Steel had filed its lawsuit too late. Snake Steel appealed to the Court of Appeals, which agreed that the one-year statute of limitations applied but said Snake Steel could recover the $300-per-day penalty for the one-year period before the lawsuit was filed. Holladay was then granted permission to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Snake Steel argued that its claim should not be barred by the one-year statute of limitations because it could not have known Holladay had not deposited the retainage into an escrow account. The Supreme Court rejected this argument. Even though neither party was aware of the Prompt Pay Act requirements, it said, state statutes are public knowledge, so neither could rely on ignorance of the law. Snake Steel could have asked Holladay if the retainage was in an escrow account, but it did not.

The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals that Snake Steels claim was not entirely barred by the statute of limitations. It held Snake Steel could potentially recover the $300-per-day penalty from Holladay for the one-year period before the lawsuit was filed, a total of almost $110,000. This was based on the language of the Prompt Pay Act, which assesses the penalty per day, for each and every day retainage is not deposited into an escrow account. The Court also based its decision on the purpose of the Act, which was to prevent the very thing Holladay was accused of doingfor years after Snake Steel completed its work, Holladay allegedly kept the use and benefit of retainage that rightfully belonged to Snake Steel.

For that reason, the Court reversed the trial courts dismissal of Snake Steels claim and remanded the case back to the trial court.

Justice Cornelia A. Clark, joined by Chief Justice Jeff Bivins and Justice Sharon G. Lee, filed a separate opinion, fully concurring in the majority opinion, but requesting that the Legislature clarify certain provisions of the Prompt Pay Act. Specifically, according to the concurring justices, it is not clear whether a general contractor, like Holladay, has an obligation under the Prompt Pay Act to deposit retainage originally withheld by the property owner for subcontractors, like Snake Steel, into a separate interest-bearing escrow account after it receives the retainage from the owner, or, instead, whether its only obligation is to pay the retainage to a subcontractor within ten days after receiving it from the owner. The concurrence asked the Legislature to amend the Prompt Pay Act to clarify that point.

To read the majority opinion in Snake Steel, Inc. v. Holladay Construction Group, LLC, authored by Justice Holly Kirby, and the separate opinion authored by Justice Cornelia Clark, go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.




A Dalton woman was convicted of four counts of sexual abuse of a child Wednesday in Murray County Superior Court.

Linda Sherwood, 46, and formerly of 515 Parkside Place, apartment 7, was convicted of two counts of child molestation, one count of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of aggravated child molestation. A Murray County jury of eight men and four women found Sherwood guilty after 30 minutes of deliberation before Senior Judge Larry Salmon of Rome Wednesday afternoon. Due to the Covid trial backlog, the four Superior Court Judges for the Conasauga Circuit added three additional trial weeks in June and July following the two weeks normally held in June. This was the first of those weeks and Judge Salmon was brought in to preside. Trials will resume on the weeks of July 12 and July 19 with Senior Judge Jack Partain expected to preside over those week.



The prosecution was represented by Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer and Kenemer was assisted at trial by Special Agent Eric White of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

Ms. Sherwood was represented at trial by Elise Williard of the Public Defender's Office. Mr. Kenemer presented a total of six witnesses and presented one exhibit: the victims Greenhouse interview video. Numerous witnesses from the Greenhouse child advocacy center testified concerning their investigation into the allegations presented to them by Agent White. Mr. Kenemer singled out the testimony of a therapist from the Greenhouse as being instrumental in the jury reaching their verdict. "Certainly one of the greatest challenges that we face in presenting child abuse cases is having people relate to and understand a young person who has suffered severe trauma from being sexually abused. The Greenhouse counselor in this case assisted the jury in understanding how this specific child processed the trauma she suffered and how that came out in the Greenhouse interview that was played for the jury."Ms. Williard called three witnesses to testify for Ms. Sherwood, one of which testified via a Zoom video conference. During the pandemic judges have permitted some witnesses to testify via Zoom and Judge Salmon decided to let the witness testify given that she had a recent surgery and could not make it to the courthouse. Ms. Sherwood elected to remain silent and did not testify in her own defense.Judge Salmon set sentencing for Aug. 25 and a presentence investigation was ordered to be completed by the Department of Community Supervision (formerly State Probation). Ms. Sherwood was in custody before trial since her arrest on July 1, 2019, and will remain in custody until sentencing. Ms. Sherwood faces up to life in prison on the two aggravated counts and up to 20 years on each on the child molestation counts.




A Whitfield County jury yesterday found Gregory Lamar Ward, 60, formerly of 809 Heritage Circle, Dalton, guilty of family violence battery, a felony due to his prior history of domestic violence and his seventh felony overall since first felony conviction in 1978. Ward had been arrested 60 times in the past 42 years prior to his Sept. 28, 2020 arrest in the current case. Superior Court Judge Cindy Morris presided over the trial which began on Tuesday and concluded the same day. The jury deliberated Tuesday afternoon, went home for the evening, and concluded their deliberations Wednesday afternoon before returning their verdict. Chief Assistant District Attorney Scott Helton, who oversees the Domestic Violence Unit of the District Attorneys Office and is the prosecutor assigned to Judge Morris Domestic Violence Court presented the States case. Ward was represented by Paul Hemmann of the Public Defenders Office.Ward and his victim lived together until the assault leading to the present charges. The case began when a witness saw the victim trying to crawl away from the residence obviously injured. The witness saw Ward approach the victim, but then flee upon seeing that they were not alone. The victim told law enforcement that Ward had hit her multiple times and officers observed injuries including a busted and bloody lip. The case was investigated by the Dalton Police Department with follow up work and victim assistance provided by the Domestic Violence Unit.As is often common in domestic violence cases, the victim attempted to retract her accusations prior to trial claiming that her injuries were accidental. Fear of the abuser and other pressures often lead to victims minimizing or recanting the abuse and that makes it extremely difficult to hold offenders accountable and to protect victims. The District Attorneys Domestic Violence Unit which consists of an attorney, an investigator, a victim advocate and an administrative assistant, and partnering with a victim advocate from the Northwest Georgia Family Crisis Center, works exclusively on these types of cases in order to achieve the best possible results for victims and the community. Judge Morris also presides over a Domestic Violence Court which is an accountability-style court program similar in some respects to the Conasauga Drug Court, Mental Health Court and Veterans Court. The Domestic Violence Court enhances victim safety and offender accountability by consistent enhanced supervision of offenders.The crime of family violence battery in Georgia occurs when a person assaults another person with whom he has a certain type of relationship, including spouses, persons living in the same household, persons with children together and so on. The first offense is a misdemeanor, but subsequent offenses are felonies carrying up to five years in prison. Ward was convicted of family violence battery (misdemeanor) in 2018 involving a different victim. Under Georgia Law, a person with three or more felony convictions who is convicted of a forth or subsequent felony offense must serve any time ordered by the court without the possibility of parole. Ward was convicted of two burglaries in 1978, one in 1981, plus cocaine possession in 1991, habitual traffic violator in 1998, robbery in 2004, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in 2009. Ward has entered the Georgia prison system 9 times during his career, including two times for revocations of probation or parole in addition to his seven felony convictions. He was most recently released on July 16, 2019, a little over a year prior to his arrest for the current offense.Judge Morris set sentencing for next Thursday, July 8 at 10 a.m. Ward faces up to five years in prison without the possibility of parole. Ward has been in custody since his arrest and remains in custody pending sentencing.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will suspend all construction-related lane closures on interstates and state routes beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, July 2 through 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 6 to provide maximum roadway capacity for holiday travelers.

DISTRICT 27

CUMBERLAND COUNTY I-40 repair of the bridges over SR-1 (US-70) at MM 328.5: During this period, westbound and eastbound I-40 near MM 328 will have no scheduled lane closures. SR-1 (US-70) may be reduced to one lane with traffic signals near LM 24 at Crab Orchard, TN for bridge repair. Motorists should exercise caution and pay attention to the temporary traffic signals as they travel through the work zone.

[Mid-State Construction Company, Inc./Bradley/CNU145]

CUMBERLAND COUNTY SR-28 (US-127) construction and paving from north of I-40 (LM 17.8) to near Potato Farm Road (LM 22.7): Construction signs have been installed with erosion control and clearing activities in progress. Utility relocation for the gas line is in progress. Temporary lane closures or traffic stoppages will be necessary as construction activities continue. Motorists should use caution while traveling through the work zone.

[Jones Bros. Contractors, LLC/Bradley/CNV009]

CUMBERLAND COUNTY SR-101 (Peavine Road) grading, drainage, and paving from Firetower Road to Westchester/Catoosa Boulevard: Motorists should use caution while driving along Peavine Road. The posted speed limit from I-40 to Tuttle Lane is now 45 MPH. The existing speed limit within Fairfield Glade remains at 30 MPH. The newly installed traffic signals at Stonehenge and Eagle Lane are in operation. Temporary lane closures and/or traffic stoppages may be needed as the contractor completes punch list activities. Motorists should reduce speed on Peavine Road and be alert for construction personnel/equipment entering and exiting the roadway.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Bradley/CNQ921]

DEKALB COUNTY SR-26 (US-70) construction from near SR-53 (LM 2) to near SR-96 (LM 6.1): Contractor has begun clearing operations and installing erosion control measures. Intermittent lane closures and flagging operations are expected. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Twin K Construction/James/CNV012]

DEKALB AND WARREN COUNTY SR-56 construction of bridges and paving from south of Warren-Dekalb county line (LM 24.5) to East Bryant St. (LM 2.9): The contractor will continue installing concrete box culverts and drainage structures. Grade work, bridge work, paving operations, and utility work on the new roadway alignment are ongoing. Traffic is still using the existing SR-56; however, motorists are advised to use caution and watch for construction equipment adjacent to roadway. Flaggers may be present to move equipment across roadway, unload equipment, or complete utility work. The contractor currently performing grade work inside Smithville City Limits between Dearman Street and East Bryant Street. A traffic shift in this area will remain to allow contractor to complete work. A diversion remains in place for Williams Road to allow contractor to construct new alignment. The speed limit has been reduced to 45 mph in the construction zone. Motorists should use caution in this area and watch for flaggers and construction equipment. The contractor will not interfere with traffic flow during 07/02/21 through 07/05/21.

[Jones Bros. Contractors, LLC/Harris/CNT011]

PUTNAM COUNTY I-40 EB bridge repair and resurfacing from west of Falling Water River Bridge (MM 291) to the ramp from SR-24 (US-70N / MM 300): The contractor will patch potholes at night, which will require temporary lane closures from 7 PM to 6 AM Sunday night through Thursday night. Motorists should be prepared for slower traffic and be alert to construction equipment and personnel entering and exiting the work area.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU358]

PUTNAM COUNTY I-40 resurfacing from east of SR-56 (MM 281) to west of SR-136 (MM 287): Contractor will be performing nightly lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 7 PM - 6 AM. Work will consist of milling and paving operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNV029]

PUTNAM COUNTY SR-135 (Burgess Falls Road) grading, drainage, signals and paving at the intersection of West Cemetery Road (LM 6.6): Contractor continues their roadside grading operations and will have a road closure in place on Meadow Wood Drive beginning 07/06/21. A signed detour is in place during this time via Colonial Drive. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU270]

PUTNAM COUNTY SR-24 (US-70N) slide repair near LM 30.1: The contractor has installed barrier rail and began excavation work. Traffic will be reduced to one lane and controlled by temporary traffic signals at each end of the project. Be prepared to stop when traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU359]

DISTRICT 28

BLEDSOE COUNTY SR-30 slope stabilization at LM 12.5: Roadway is reduced to one lane. Traffic is controlled by signals.

[TDOT/Miner/MAINT]

BLEDSOE COUNTY SR-30 bridge repair over the Sequatchie River (LM 10.36): The contractor will be working on SR-30 on the bridge over the Sequatchie River. The road will be reduced to one lane controlled by a traffic signal while repairs are made. Please use caution when traveling through the area. RESTRICTIONS: Loads wider than 15' should seek alternate route.

[Jamison Construction, LLC/Voiles/CNV003]

COFFEE AND GRUNDY COUNTY The resurfacing on I-24 from east of Rutledge Hill Road (LM 28.93) in Coffee County to east of the Bells Mill Road bridge (LM 2.45) in Grundy County, including bridge repair: Project activity will continue from 7 PM to 6 AM. The roadway will be reduced to one lane nightly both directions to support operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone and be prepared to reduce speeds while approaching the work zone located between Coffee County LM 28.93 to Grundy County LM 2.45, the posted speed limit has been reduced from 65 MPH to 55 MPH within the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Hussein/CNU339]

FRANKLIN COUNTY SR-15 (US-41) intersection improvement at University Avenue (LM 27.9): Project activity will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced from 4-lanes to 2-lanes. Motorists should proceed with caution through the area and be aware of signage, personnel, and equipment.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Hussein/CNV062]

FRANKLIN COUNTY SR-50 construction of a small drainage structure at (LM 7.6): Project activity progression will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced to one lane controlled by traffic signal operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone and be prepared to stop while approaching the work zone located at LM 7.6, the posted speed limit has been reduced from 40 MPH to 25 MPH within the work zone.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Hussein/CNV062]

FRANKLIN, COFFEE, AND GRUNDY COUNTY SR-50 (US-64) resurfacing from west of Rutledge Ford Rd (LM 21.4) in Franklin County, through Grundy/Coffee County to near I-24 (LM 0.2) in Grundy County: Project activity progression will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced to two lanes during construction work, all 4 lanes will be restored by the end of each day. Motorists should proceed with caution through the area and be aware of signage, personnel, and equipment.

[Tinsley Asphalt, LLC /Hussein/CNV015]

GRUNDY COUNTY SR-56 slide repair between LM 26.3 and LM 26.6: The road will remain one lane controlled by a temporary traffic signal while contractor completes slide repairs in the area. Motorists should use caution in the area and watch for flaggers and equipment.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Harris/CNU355]

SEQUATCHIE COUNTY SR-8 (US-127) repair of bridge over the Sequatchie River (LM 12.7): The contractor will be working on SR-8 on the bridge over the Sequatchie River. The road will be reduced to one lane controlled by a traffic signal while repairs are made. Please use caution when traveling through the area. RESTRICTIONS: Loads wider than 15 feet should seek alternate routes.

[Southern Constructors, Inc./Voiles/CNU148]

VANBUREN COUNTY SR-111 resurfacing from Sequatchie County line (LM 0) to north of Feedstore Drive (LM 12.5): The contractor has begun resurfacing operations on SR-111 from the Sequatchie County line to Log mile 12.51 in Van Buren. One lane will be closed while resurfacing operations are taking place. Please use caution when traveling through the area.

[Strawser Construction, Inc./Voiles/CNU298]

DISTRICT 29

BRADLEY COUNTY I-75 resurfacing from north of SR-60 (MM 25) to south of SR-308 (MM 31): During this reporting period, the contractor will install construction signs and begin resurfacing operations. Nightly lane closures will be in place on I-75 Northbound in Bradley county beginning at mile marker 25. These closures will begin on Tuesday 07/06/2021 through Thursday 07/08/2021 and will occur from 7 PM to 6 AM. The speed limit in the work zone will be reduced to 60 MPH while workers are present. Motorists are advised to use caution and reduce speed in the work zone.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU335]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-2 (KEITH ST. S.W.) Utility Work southbound from LM 8.57 to LM 9.24: Lane closures between Fairway Drive SW and Harrison Pike. Signage and barrels will be present. Motorists should reduce speed and use caution through the work zones between the hours of 9 am - 2 PM during the daytime and 8 PM - 6 AM during the nighttime. [2020-423/424]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-312 (HARRISON PK.) Utility Work both directions from LM 8.48 to LM 8.42: A detour of Harrison Pike at Keith Street will cause short delays as traffic is routed along Grove Avenue during utility construction. Motorists should reduce speed and follow signage. Barricades, cones, and flaggers will be present between 8 PM and 6 am with an estimated completion of 07/07/21. [2020-423/424]

BRADLEY COUNTY I-75 at Exit 33 (SR-308, Lauderdale Highway) bridge work and ramp upgrades: There will be lane shifts in both the Southbound and Northbound lanes from MM 31 to MM33. The lanes will be reduced to 2- 11ft lanes in both directions as work goes on this project. On SR308 (Lauderdale Highway) there will be intermittent lane closures as the contractor works in this area. On Tuesday Night of this reporting period, from 7 PM- 12:00 AM, there will be 1 lane closed in both Northbound and Southbound on I75, weather permitting. RESTRICTIONS: The lanes on this project in both Northbound and Southbound have been reduced to 11 ft. lanes.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNV124]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-24 interchange improvement at SR-2 (US-11, US-41, US-72, Broad Street) and SR-58 (Market Street): During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on Market Street (SR-58) and I-24 to remove existing Eastbound entrance ramp. The contractor has closed the ramp to I-24 Eastbound at Long Street and the cloverleaf ramp from Market Street (SR-58) Southbound to I-24 Eastbound. Traffic in these areas accessing I-24 Eastbound will do so via a temporary signal located just south of the I-24 underpass on Market Street (SR-58). Detour signage will be in place. Brief, intermittent lane closures are possible on 25th Street at the intersection of Long Street during daylight hours as the contractor works on the removal of existing entrance ramp. Chestnut Street is closed to thru traffic between West 20th Street and West 25th Street and will remain closed until construction of Bridge No. 2 has been completed.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU011]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-24 Replacement of Belvoir Ave. bridge over I-24 and I-24 bridges over Germantown Road near MM 183: Single and double alternating lane closures on I-24 EB and WB will be used on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 9 PM and 6 AM. Additionally, there will be single lane closures in the north and south directions of Germantown Road under the I-24 Bridge and at the intersections of Germantown with North and South Terrace on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 9 PM and 6 AM. There is a 45 MPH speed limit reduction throughout the project corridor on I-24.

[Bell and Associates Construction, LP/Blevins/CMGC03]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-75 at I-24 Interchange Reconstruction: Phase 3 traffic alignments have been implemented. Watch for trucks entering and exiting project. Traffic should expect multiple lane shifts traveling through the interchange. Lane closures will occur Sunday nights through Thursday nights between 9 PM and 6 AM at the following locations: I-75 NB MM 1, I-75 SB MM 3 and I-24 EB MM 184.0 Traffic pacing may occur throughout interchange Sunday nights through Thursday nights between 9 PM and 6 AM. Additionally, there may intermittent shoulder closures at various locations for access to the median and roadside areas. The Welcome Center has been reopened. The speed limit has been reduced to 45 MPH throughout the interchange. ***Welcome Center will be closed beginning 12 AM 07/06/2021 through 7 AM 07/09/2021.

[C.W. Matthews Contracting Company, Inc./Blevins/DB1801]

HAMILTON COUNTY US-27 (I-124) widening from I-24/US-27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Monday 07/05/21  Wednesday 07/07/21 7 AM to 6 PM Temporary Right Shoulder Closure will be in place for Northbound and Southbound US-27 from the Olgiati Bridge to I-24 For Pull Box Repair. State Trooper Requests: No

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Curtis/CNP230]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-17 (S. WILLOW ST.) Utility Work both directions from LM 2.65 to LM 3.16: Detours will occur on South Willow Ave between Chamberlain Ave and E 16th Street for utility work. Motorists should use caution and be aware personnel and equipment. Barricades, signage, and flaggers will be present between 7 AM and 7 PM with an estimated completion of 07/06/21. [2021-507/543]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (DODDS AVE.) Utility Work both directions from LM 10.10 to LM 11.33: Lane closures will cause delays on Dodds Avenue between East 23rd Street and McCallie Avenue. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop or use alternate routes when possible. Signage, cones, barricades, and flaggers will be present between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM with an estimated completion of 07/06/21. [2019-507]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (E. 23RD ST.) Utility Work both directions at LM 9.16: Shoulder and single lane closure between S. Holly Street and S. Highland Park Avenue. Signage and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 3 PM through 07/07/21. [2021-111]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (E. 23RD ST.) Utility Work both directions at LM 9.82: Shoulder and single lane closure between 4th Avenue and S. Lyerly Street. Signage and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 2 PM through 07/07/21. [2021-389]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-8 (SIGNAL MOUNTAIN RD.) Utility Work northbound at LM 13.45: Shoulder and single lane closure between Mundy Street and Mountain Creek Road. Signage, drums, and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 2 PM through 07/14/21. [2021-330]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-312 resurfacing from south of Henry Road (LM 6.9) to west of SR-58 (LM 14.2): During this reporting period, there will be intermittent lane closures on this road as the Contractor will have flaggers directing traffic for the construction operation. The motoring public should expect possible long delays.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNV087]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-317 (Apison Pike) improvement project from SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) to east of Layton Lane: Lane closures and flagging operations will be required on SR-317, Apison Pike, to install power poles and transfer lines. The flagging operations will be performed on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 7 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 7 PM. Closures will last about 2 hours per location. There will also be very short lane closures for blasting that will last five minutes or less. The contractor will have intermittent flagging operations during daytime non-peak hours for utility work, delivery of materials and equipment. The contractor also plans to shift traffic onto the new alignment of Tallant Rd. on 07/07/21.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNT336]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-319 (Amnicola Highway) bridge repair over SR-153: Contractor will be performing bridge repair operations on the Amnicola (SR-319) bridge over SR-153. During this project, SR-319 will have lane closures in place & SR-153 may have lane closures as well. Bridge repair over SR-153 will be performed between 8pm & 6am. During repair operations at least one lane of traffic shall remain open in all directions.

[Mid-State Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNV053]

HAMILTON COUNTY The construction of an S.I.A. to VW: The contractor will be grading, paving, constructing retaining wall(s) and installing signals & lighting on S.I.A. route connecting Ferdinand Piech Way & Volkswagen Dr. **The roadway is not open to traffic**. The traveling public should be alert to the entrance and exit of construction vehicles from the jobsite onto the connecting roadways. Flaggers may be onsite directing traffic.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNU221]

MCMINN COUNTY I-75 at SR-30 (Exit 49) and SR-305 (Exit 52) interchange improvements: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on surface pavement on SR-305 at the I-75 ramps. This work will occur starting 7/6/2021 through 7/9/2021 from 8 AM to 5 PM. Motorists can expect lane closures and brief delays in the area during this time. Flaggers will be on site to assist with traffic control.

[APAC - Atlantic, Inc./Wagner/CNU352]

POLK COUNTY SR-33 (HWY. 411) Utility Work both directions from LM 9.9 to LM 14: Lane closures between SR-40 and Ocoee River Bridge for utility construction. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment when traveling through the work zone. Signage, cones, and flaggers will be present between 9 AM and 3 PM with an estimated completion of 07/30/21. [2019-245]

POLK COUNTY SR-40 (US-64) bridge over the Ocoee River: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on foundations for the new bridge and relocation of utilities on the east side of the river. The right shoulder of SR-40 (US-64) is closed for the duration of this work. Brief intermittent lane closures are possible on SR-40 (US-64) Tuesday 7/6/2021 through Friday 7/9/2021 8 AM to 5:30 PM to allow for utility work and moving equipment/supplies. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for trucks entering/leaving the highway.

[Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc./Wagner/DB1802]

POLK COUNTY SR-40 (US-64) emergency slope stabilization near LM 20.5: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on final punch list activities. Brief intermittent lane closures are possible on SR-40 (US-64) Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5:30 PM while the contractor completes this work. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for workers on the shoulder of SR-40 (US-64).

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU909]

RHEA COUNTY SR-302 resurfacing from SR-68 (LM 8.9) to near SR-29 (US-27) (LM 12.2): During this report period, the contractor will have temporary lane closures in place while performing resurfacing operations. Flaggers will be present to assist traffic flow.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNV099]

RHEA COUNTY The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, paving and signals on a S.I.A. route serving Nokian Tyres: Construction activity at the Nokian Tyres SIA project continues just North of Dayton, TN. The traveling public should be alert to construction vehicles entering and exiting the site. SR-29 traffic will continue to experience slight lane shifts with no shoulders at the entrance to the SIA roadway but there will be no lane closures on SR29.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Curtis/CNU014]

REGION WIDE

REGION 2 The random on-call signing on various Interstate and State Routes: During the daytime, the contractor will be setting up shoulder closures at various locations in Sequatchie, Marion, Warren, Coffee, Franklin, and Grundy Counties to install new signs. A truck mounted attenuator will be on site during these closures.

[Superior Traffic Control, LLC/Inc./Voiles/CNU178]

REGION 2 on-call guardrail repair and new guardrail installation on various Interstate and State Routes: The contractor may have short term shoulder and/or lane closures to perform guardrail repair. These closures will take place on the interstate nightly from 7 PM to 6 AM Sundays through Thursdays and daily on state routes. At least one travel lane will always remain open to traffic on the interstate, and flaggers will be present on state routes during any work that is performed. The contractor will not be performing any lane closures or interfering with traffic during 07/02/21 through 07/05/21.

[Cumberland Guardrail, Inc./Harris/CNU107]

REGION 2 preventative and unscheduled maintenance of Chattanooga SmartWay Intelligent Transportation System: The contractor may have short term shoulder and/or lane closures to perform preventative or unscheduled maintenance to the local SmartWay Intelligent Transportation System. At least one travel lane will always remain open to traffic. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed.

[NABCO Electric Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNT354]

REGION 2 TDOT Maintenance drainage work: There will be possible short-term lane and shoulder closures at various locations in Region 2 to clean rock and debris from ditches on an as-needed basis. One lane will always be maintained.

[TDOT Operations/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 TDOT Maintenance pothole repair and pavement patching: There will be possible short-term emergency lane closures at various locations in Region 2 to repair potholes and patch pavement on an as-needed basis. Depending on location and severity these repairs may be done during the day or at night. In addition to performing the work, regional Operations crews will also provide traffic control.

[TDOT Operations/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 TDOT mowing operations: There will be possible short-term lane closures at various locations on interstates and state routes in Region 2 to perform mowing activities on an as-needed basis. In addition to performing the work, regional Operations crews will also provide traffic control.

[TDOT/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 longitudinal joint stabilization on various state routes: During the daytime, the contractor will have short term lane closures on various routes in Putnam on SR-111 Warren on SR-55, and Grundy SR-50. During this time one lane of traffic will be closed while contractors are present. Please use caution when traveling through the area.

[Pavement Restorations, Inc./Voiles/CNV113]

REGION 2 The random on-call cable barrier repair on various Interstate and State Routes: The contractor may have short term shoulder closures to perform cable rail repair. Both travel lanes will always remain open to traffic on the interstate during any work that is performed.

[LU, Inc./Harris/CNU303]

REGION 2 The random on-call pavement marking on various interstate and state routes: Contractor will be retracing pavement markings on various interstate and state routes in Putnam, Dekalb, White, and Cumberland county. Work will be performed using mobile operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Reynolds Sealing and Striping, Inc./James/CNV036]

REGION 2 The sweeping and drain cleaning on various Interstate and State Routes: There will be an area wide sweeping operation on selected regional state routes and interstates. This activity will be supported by a mobile lane closure. Hours of activity are Sunday through Thursday night between 8 PM and 6 AM during this reporting period. The drain cleaning operation will be having intermittent lane closures on SR153, SR111, I24 MM132.8-134.3 and I40 MM269.6-273. During this reporting period, the contractor will only be working Thursday Night.

[Sweeping Corporation of America, Inc./Curtis/CNU328]

RESTRICTIONS

BLEDSOE COUNTY - CNV003: Loads wider than 15' should seek alternate route.

SEQUATCHIE COUNTY - CNU148: Loads wider than 15 feet should seek alternate routes.
The Fourth of July weekend kicks off the Live Music is Back Summer Series, which features months of concerts across Chattanooga. Through a partnership between Chattanooga Tourism Co. and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, musicians, performing arts organizations and event production companies will animate city streets and stages all summer long. The series runs through September.



Live Music Events & Performances:



July 3: Music & Movie on the Green features live music from Nubreed and a showing of Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Location: Chattanooga Green at Rosss Landing, Riverfront District

Produced By: River City Company and Caravan Tribe



July 4: Fun on the Fourth features two live music stages and a laser show! Enjoy fun, familiar tunes from the band Love, Peace and Happiness and others.

Location: Miller Park and Miller Plaza

Produced By: Chattanooga Presents!



July-September (weekends): Sidewalk Stages is a street performance initiative designed to activate Chattanooga public spaces with live local music.

Location: Downtown Chattanooga (various)

Produced By: SoundCorps



Every Thursday in August, Sept. 16 and 23: Station Street Live is a concert series on Station Street, a pedestrian friendly street in Chattanoogas Southside neighborhood.

Location: Station Street at the Chattanooga Choo Choo

Produced By: Caravan Tribe



July 31, Aug. 14 & Sept. 10: Cassette is a new live music series that includes a live band and live disc jockey at local venues to reach diverse Black professionals.

Location: Black-owned restaurants and venues throughout Chattanooga

Produced By: Chattanooga Business Elite



August (Sundays): Sunday Soul in the Park is a weekly Sunday afternoon concert series featuring nationally renowned artists.

Location: Miller Park

Produced By: RISE Chattanooga



August: Trail to the Rail is a local music competition culminating with the Rail & Hops Brewers Festival.

Location: Restaurants and venues throughout Chattanooga

Produced By: SoundCorps



Aug. 21: The Musical Mystery Hunt will activate several locations along the downtown Chattanooga Riverfront District with live music. The locations will be revealed to the public through scavenger hunt style clues.

Location: Riverfront District (multiple locations)

Produced By: River City Company



Aug. 28: Rail & Hops Brewers Festival features handcrafted beers from local and regional brewers, food trucks and live music.

Location: Chattanooga Choo Choo

Produced By: SoundCorps & Caravan Tribe



Sept. 26: Buskers Bash celebrates the Sidewalk Stages street performers in the newly-enhanced Martin Amphitheater.

Location: Martin Amphitheater

Produced By: SoundCorps



In all, the Live Music is Back Summer Series includes two concert series, 250+ individual performances, more than 75 artists and more than 12 venues across Chattanooga. The Pop Up Project street team will be performing at select events. Live Music is Back is made possible by the Chattanooga Tourism Co. and Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.



See the complete schedule at VisitChattanooga.com/LiveMusic.
Every year, the Eastern District of Tennessee Civics Education and Outreach Committee partners with local chapters of the Federal Bar Association to sponsor local essay contests for high school students. The contests, which focus on some aspect of civics education, are open to public, private, and home-school high school students in all 41 counties in east Tennessee. The goal is both to educate students and to engage them in topics regarding our countrys government, how the government functions, and our citizens obligations to participate in government. Researching and learning about the Constitution and our government equips students to become adults who participate in government and respect and support the Constitution.

For this years contest, students addressed the topic, What Does It Mean to Support and Defend the Constitution? The phrase to support and defend comes from the Presidents oath of office, set out in Article II of the Constitution. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court administers the oath, which states, in full: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Although the Constitution sets out the exact oath the President must take, it does not do so for other offices. It only provides in Article VI that The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution. Over the years, the Presidents oath has been tailored for other offices and positions in federal, state, and local government, and for naturalized citizens.

The taking of an oath, especially publicly, not only impresses on the maker of the oath the seriousness of the undertaking, but also affirms to the public that the official takes his or her responsibilities seriously. The oath serves as a solemn commitment and confirmation that the oath taker will strive to do their best to perform the required duties of the office.

Two student winners of this years essay contests have been announced. KLee Bryant is the winner for the northern divisions of the Court, with courthouses in Knoxville and Greeneville, and Lisa Lin is the winner for the southern divisions of the Court, with courthouses in Chattanooga and Winchester. KLee Bryant is a 2021 graduate of Greeneville High School and the daughter of Melissa Bryant. She will attend Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee, in the fall, where she plans to major in history. She also hopes to study foreign languages and computer science. Lisa Lin is a rising tenth grader at Signal Mountain High School. Lisa was born in Chattanooga after her parents immigrated to the United States from China. She has won local spelling bees, is a track athlete, and aspires to being a doctor or a lawyer. Each winner received either a cash prize of $500 or an iPod and case.

This was a weighty topic our two winners took on. They deserve our congratulations.

Curtis L. Collier

United States District Judge

Chair, Eastern District of Tennessee Civics and Outreach Committee

Carrie Brown Stefaniak

Law Clerk to the Honorable Curtis L. Collier

Immediate Past President, Chattanooga Chapter of the Federal Bar Association

Eliza L. Taylor

Law Clerk to the Honorable Curtis L. Collier
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Mzi Zee Dempers from Below Deck Mediterranean Season 6 surprised fans with his coy remark that he hooked up for a while with Georgia Grobler from Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Did they date, or are they just friends who fooled around? Dempers told Showbiz Cheat Sheet how the two met and if they were a couple.

Zee Dempers and Georgia Grobler didnt meet in yachting

Dempers said hes known Grobler since 2017. I wouldnt say it was necessarily dating, but it was like hooking up every now and then over a period of time, he said. Despite both having a career in yachting, Dempers said they met on land.

Below Deck Mediterraneans Mzi Zee Dempers season 6 cast photo | Laurent Basset/Bravo

She was a formal date of mine, he recalled. Its just something that we do back here in South Africa. Its like you live with a whole bunch of people and then have a big dinner. And then your friends invite your date for you. Grobler shared photos from a few events with Dempers on Instagram. T For Trouble, 5 For Change, she shared.

Georgia Grobler of Below Deck Sailing and Zee Dempers compared Below Deck seasons

Dempers said he and Grobler got busy with life and hadnt talked in a while. We didnt speak much before the actual show, he recalled. Obviously, trying to keep everything under the wraps. But then we reconnected afterward and sort of spoke about the experience afterward.

Once Dempers got the green light from producers to talk about his experience, he and Grobler compared notes. We basically spoke about the differences in our seasons, he said. Grobler appeared on Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 1 and was a stew on Parsifal III. Dempers was a deckhand on motor yacht Lady Michelle, which ironically, was docked next to Parsifal III during Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 2 filming.

RELATED: Below Deck Mediterranean Season 6 Cast: Fans Can Expect a Really Good Fking Time This Season

Dempers is also seen kissing stew Courtney Veale in the Below Deck Med Season 6 teasers. But Dempers wouldnt spill. I cant give spoilers, he laughed. I think that all unfolds on the show.

Below Deck Med was a new yachting experience for Zee Dempers

Any advice and even comparing notes was probably welcome as Dempers revealed he was relatively green. So Ive done basic yachting in South Africa, he said. Nothing overseas. I worked on a smaller boat, like a 25 meter in Cape Town. So obviously a smaller crew, not really leaving the port much at all.

And then after that I worked on a bigger 70 meter, he continued. But that also didnt leave ports. Just basic wash downs, not anything special. So this is definitely the first of its kind for me in terms of back-to-back charters. And everything being super intense. And being in Europe as opposed to South Africa. I think that makes a big difference.

When I realize Ive been talking for the past minute and a half on mute #BelowDeckMed pic.twitter.com/urMFrHP5Xe  Bravo (@BravoTV) June 29, 2021

RELATED: Below Deck Mediterranean Season 6 Hasnt Premiered on Bravo but Fans Are Already Hooked

So I think thats why I was very, very nervous going in, he laughed. So its a big difference as to what would happen back here. Dempers soon learned he had a strong support from both his deck team and also bosun Malia White.

I definitely felt like I learned huge amounts, he said. And Im so, so grateful for the experience. It really was an amazing, amazing time, such incredible individuals. It taught me a lot about myself and I guess sort of like believing in yourself and trying to work towards a better direction. So I feel like it was all fairly positive.

Below Deck Mediterranean airs on Mondays at 9 pm ET/PT. New episodes will be available on Peacock one week early on Mondays.
Fixer Uppers Chip and Joanna Gaines have no shortage of celebrity fans. Jennifer Lopez, Cher, Ryan Reynolds, and Reese Witherspoon are among the stars whove confessed to being obsessed with the Texas couples down-home style and laid-back banter. Now, theres another name to add to that list: Matthew McConaughey.

Matthew McConaughey praises Chip and Joanna Gaines

Matthew McConaughey during an interview on August 6, 2020 | NBC

Chip and Joanna appear on the cover of the June 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. The couple talk about the Magnolia Network, their surprising decision to quit Fixer Upper, and more.

The article also includes comments from people who know the Gaines, as well as one high-profile fan and fellow Texan. McConaughey  who also said he is considering a run for governor of the Lone Star State  weighed in on what he likes about the one-time HGTV stars.

What I admire about Chip and Joanna is their commitment to their family and community, the Oscar-winning actor wrote in an email to the magazine. As wide as the roots of their brand have expanded, those same roots have humbly grown deeper at the same time.

The Fixer Upper stars were part of McConaugheys recent Were Texas benefit

Joanna Gaines and Chip Gaines attend the Time 100 Gala 2019 | Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

RELATED: Fixer Upper: Chip and Joanna Gaines Feel Sense of Insecurity and Anxiety Filming Spinoff

McConaughey has always been proud of his Texas roots. So, perhaps its not surprising that hed have a soft spot for the couple who have transformed sleepy Waco into a tourist destination. In March 2021, he even tapped the pair to appear as guests at his Were Texas benefit.

McConaughey organized the star-studded event to support Texans affected by the severe winter storms that hit the state in February. Were Texas featured performances by Clint Black, Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, and Willie Nelson (among others) and appearances from Megan Thee Stallion, Troy Aikman, Woody Harrelson, Renee Zellweger, and more.

We are all rallying together to try to do the best we can to help all of the people affected by these events the last few weeks, because together, we are Texas, Chip said during a virtual appearance at the event (via YouTube).

The True Detective star once lived in an Airstream trailer

McConaughey currently lives in a $6 million mansion in Austin with his wife, Camila Alves, and their kids. But at one point, he traveled (and occasionally lived in), an Airstream trailer. (It sounds like the perfect setup for a show on the Magnolia Network.)

The actor talked about his trailer  which he dubbed Canoe  in a 2008 interview with Architectural Digest. The 2004 airstream, which he parked in an RV park in Malibu, was customized with a satellite dish, barbecue, and book rack. In addition to a living space, it also served as an office for his production company at one point. When he hit the road to promote his 2005 movie Sahara, he was towing the trailer.

The trailers tiny bedroom has a great window right above your pillow, so when you wake up in the morning, youre looking right at the ocean or wherever your backyard is that day, he said.

McConaughey even dreamed of setting up an Airstream hotel.

[O]ne day Ill have either an Airstream hotel or an Airstream compound, he said. I dont know where itll be yet, but the thing about Airstreams is you feel a little bad for em if you got em parked too long and the axles arent spinning, you know, because theyre built for the road.

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RELATED: Inside Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves Sprawling $6 Million Mansion in Austin, Texas
NCIS: Hawaii is filming on the island of Oahu, with Larry Teng in the directors chair for the pilot episode. Hes also the spinoffs executive producer, and Teng is starting to share some details about what fans can expect when the series premieres this fall.

According to the Queens native, NCIS: Hawaii is a love letter to the Aloha State and to the US Navy.

The cast of NCIS: Hawaii | Karen Neal/CBS via Getty Images

The NCIS: Hawaii EP is making sure the Hawaiian community is being represented properly

As a producer and director of NCIS: Hawaii, Teng told Daily Hawaii that his goal is to be a role model for both the Pacific Islander and Asian-American communities in Hollywood.

Now that Im back (in Hawaii), I feel like I have a responsibility to make sure that the community here, the people, the crew, that theyre all represented properly, you know?, Teng said.

He explained that Hawaii Five-0 was a cop show with two white leads that was on CBS for 10 years. While Magnum PI is currently filming in the Hawaiian Islands with a Latino lead.

Now were coming in, weve got two Asian leads. I think its important that the crew can work on something that they kind of get behind, Teng added.

Local Hawaiian culture is important both on and off-screen

The latest NCIS spinoff is using locals as extras. The goal is to have all kinds of inclusion, according to Shayne Hartigan of Alessi Hartigan Casting.

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.

Meanwhile, Teng has made it clear that the local Hawaiian culture will be a big part of NCIS: Hawaii, both on-screen and off. According to a tweet from Reel News Hawaii, the cast and crew didnt begin filming the new series until after they received a traditional Hawaiian blessing.

NCIS: Hawaii EP says the spinoff is a love letter to Hawaii

While speaking with Daily Hawaii about the tone of the new spinoff, the first thing Teng noted was that its a love letter to the Navy. As fans know, NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the series is first and foremost about the US Navy. Teng also pointed out that the series is a love letter to Hawaii.

Will #NCISHawaii live up to all the hype? Here's what we're hoping for in season 1. #NCIS https://t.co/jGRNjrxNCT  Showbiz Cheat Sheet (@cheatsheet) June 30, 2021

This is a love letter to the Navy, Teng said. But its a love letter to Hawaii, too, you know, and I gotta make sure we protect that. And, you know, its one of the things we stress about every day.

Vanessa Lachey is the series lead

The latest NCIS spinoff will bring new faces to the franchise, with Vanessa Lachey leading the team as Special Agent In Charge Jane Tennant. According to Lachey, shes not taking lightly the fact that shes the first female lead in the NCIS universe.

The 40-year-old says shes excited to bring a different layer to the role. And, she hopes to inspire the next generation of young girls and women.

My character Jane Tennant is Special Agent in Charge of NCIS. Shes the mother of a 15-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl. And, that is real life. Juggling life, and love, and work, Lachey said in the first-look trailer released earlier this year.

NCIS: Hawaii will air on Monday nights

CBS has yet to announce a premiere date for NCIS: Hawaii. But we do know that when it hits the airwaves this fall, it will be part of the networks Monday night lineup. The spinoff will get the 9 p.m. (EST) time slot, following the flagship series NCIS.

RELATED: Will Mark Harmons Agent Gibbs Appear on NCIS: Hawaii?

The network moved NCIS from its home of 18 years  Tuesday night at 8 p.m. (EST)  to Monday night at 8 p.m. (EST) to make room for their rebranded FBI Tuesdays.
Police arrested Josh Duggar in April 2021 on suspicion that he obtained child sexual abuse images. Now, fans of the Duggar family wonder whats next for Josh and the rest of the Counting On cast. More recently, new reports noted Josh left his place of residence, where he lives with Anna Duggar and their six kids, to stay at a family friends home  and the police visited the new place already. Heres why.

Wheres Josh Duggar now? Hes staying with family friends following his arrest

Josh Duggars mug shot in 2021 | Washington County Sheriffs Office via Getty Images

Josh Duggars arrest shocked Duggar family fans and followers. In April 2021, police arrested him on suspicion of downloading child sexual abuse images in 2019. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerald Faulkner alleged the material in question was downloaded on a computer at Joshs workplace. Joshs trial is currently set for November 2021, Fox News reports.

In the meantime, Josh must follow a number of rules. Hes restricted to the home at all times, though he cant stay with his wife, Anna, and their children. Instead, he lives with a third-party custodian. The police also monitor Josh via GPS to ensure he follows the rules.

As for who hes staying with, Josh currently resides with Lacount and Maria Reber in Elkins, Arkansas. The couple reportedly has a beautiful, large property on nine acres of land.

Police showed up at Josh Duggars new residence due to alleged suspicious activity from outsiders

The Duggar family visits Extra at their New York studios | D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra

It looks like Duggar family fans and critics want to know exactly whats going on with Josh. And some are going out of their way to see where the Rebers live.

According to CinemaBlend, police were called to Josh Duggars new location just two days after he moved in with the Rebers. The person who called the police noted they saw a suspicious car on the property.

I dont feel safe, the caller told the police in captured audio.

So, who was in the car? The publication notes the police talked to the person driving in the vehicle, and they explained they were a media person. They didnt give any other explanation for their existence on the property.

It looks like Jim Bob worries for Joshs safety during this time, too, as outsiders likely have an interest in the current happenings. Jim Bob is doing everything he can for Josh, and hes worried about the attention on him and the family, a source told The Sun, according to CinemaBlend. Hes concerned about photographers in town covering the case, and anyone who might want to hurt Josh because of the crimes hes accused of.

Jim Bob Duggar allegedly offered to build a fence on the property for protection

Acting U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes has denied Duggar's request to delay his trial until 2022, but did not oppose waiting until the fall of 2021. https://t.co/pCMbHzthwR  THV11 (@THV11) June 22, 2021

So, how can Jim Bob help Josh during this troubling time? The Sun claimed the Duggar family patriarch planned on building a fence to protect the property and offer Josh more privacy from the outside world. So far, its unclear if Jim Bob followed through with this alleged plan.

As for Anna and her and Joshs six kids, it looks like they still reside on Duggar family property. But Anna reportedly visits Josh at the Reber household. Josh can visit with his kids under certain circumstances, too, though someone authorized, like Anna, must stay present.

Will Josh have even more unwelcome visitors at his new place? Only time will tell.

How to get help: If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free and confidential support.

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RELATED: Josh Duggars Case Now Involves a Protective Order  What Does That Mean?
Former rivals Aneesa Ferreira and Ruthie Alcaide returned for The Challenge: All-Stars, where they butt heads again. The two reignited their beef several months after filming in an Instagram comment section, where Ruthie accused Aneesa of threatening her and aggressively following her around the house.

Reality TV personalities Syrus Yarbrough (L) and Ruthie Alcaide attend the Reality Rushmore: Paramount + MTV The Challenge Reunion Event | Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Aneesa Ferreira and Ruthie Alcaide butt heads during The Challenge: All Stars

The Challenge legends Aneesa Ferreira and Ruthie Alcaide returned for spinoff All-Stars, marking the first time the two competed together since 2009s The Duel 2.

During that season, Ruthie felt Aneesa aligned with a group that ostracized and targeted her. Additionally, Aneesa ended up going against Ruthie to serve her best interests, admitting shed always look out for herself first in a confessional.

Before the two returned for the spinoff, they revealed they werent happy to see each other in the house during pre-season interviews due to their shaky past.

Me trying to piece together wtf happened with Aneesa and Ruthie #TheChallengeAllStars pic.twitter.com/E3sCUSp243  att arcello (@matt_marcello) April 16, 2021

RELATED: The Challenge: All Stars: Aneesa Ferreira Allegedly Threatened to Throw an Elimination

In episode 3 of All-Stars, their tension boiled over as Aneesa spoke about Ruthie outside to other cast members, referring to the Real World: Hawaii star as a mess and paranoid.

Ruthie apparently overhead and walked outside, where she angrily confronted Aneesa. However, the 14-season veteran shrugged it off as a projection and ignored her co-star.

Ruthie claims Aneesa aggressively followed her around the house

During the after-show following the episode, Aneesa claimed the heated exchange began because Ruthie got paranoid after she gave her a look.

Ruthie later acknowledged the interaction on her Instagram Story answering fans questions. One viewer asked if the Real World star apologized.

While Ruthie didnt specifically answer, she said the two talked it over at the hotel following filming. Another person wondered if they made up, and she noted theyre sisters off and on but still doesnt trust her.

OMG the finale is next week of #TheChallengeAllStars I cannot wait and I rooting for these 2 @ChallengeMTV @mtvrrdarrell @PlanetRuthie PS @fessyfitness take note of this #teamwork OMG Ruthie grinning away I love it pic.twitter.com/QJPxOtrap0  Victoria (@vshonuff) May 14, 2021

She explained the other co-stars dont know what happened between her and Aneesa in the past and admitted it shouldve stayed behind them. However, the two went at it again a month later in an Instagram comment section.

Replying to a clip showing Yes Duffys confessional, Ruthie told him he didnt understand the backstory of their falling out. Aneesa responded, claiming the Real World: Hawaii star didnt correctly recall the night in question and that she knows my truth.

In response, Ruthie posted a lengthy comment, writing Aneesa aggressively followed her several times around the house and accused the reality star of threatening to ruin me in interviews.

Aneesa then deleted her initial response and replied to now this is just silly to the most recent comment.

Beth Stolarczyk joined in the conversation

Co-star Jisela Delgado, who also fell out with the 14-season veteran during All-Stars, backed Ruthie, responding to her comment, Tell your truth. Dont let anyone gaslight you.

A fan page reposted screenshots of the exchange, and Beth Stolarczyk also voiced support for the Hawaii alum. She noted shes team Ruthie and claimed Aneesa tried to silence her.

As this season of #TheChallengeAllStars comes to a close, Aftermath host @DevynSimone asks which OG's would you like to see back on your 's. Who you got? pic.twitter.com/b9LpybFCQW  The Challenge (@ChallengeMTV) May 21, 2021

RELATED: The Challenge: Beth Stolarczyk Says She Quit Gauntlet 2 Because Aneesa Ferreira Bullied Her

Beth encouraged the reality star to keep speaking your truth and said the veteran has done many things to hurt other people. Aneesa hasnt responded to Jisela and Beths comments as of yet.

The Challenge: All-Stars airs on Paramount Plus.
A private family graveside service will be held for Wayne Robnett at the Marlow Cemetery in Marlow, OK. Wayne passed away on June 18, 2021 at the age of 83 in his home in Chickasha, Oklahoma with his family at his side after battling cancer. Wayne was born on June 4, 1938 in Oklahoma City, O
This isnt the first time our planet has faced a terrifying pandemic. Its not even the first time in recent memory for many Americans. First, there was the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Then, in 2014, the Ebola scourge started to plague West Africa.

Its also not the first time that ordinary people have distrusted the information disseminated by elected officials and even international NGOs. Just like today, the spread of misinformation during previous outbreaks left many wondering whether to trust the medical authorities.

As our public health authorities today struggle to overcome vaccine hesitancy among certain U.S. populations, especially white evangelicals, we have to ask ourselves: what can we learn from the way previous pandemics were handled that might help us fight COVID-19 and overcome vaccine hesitancy?

Vaccine hesitancy today is endemic to the white evangelical church. Despite the fact that 89% of church leaders are willing to urge their congregation to get the vaccine, the number of white evangelicals who are determined not to get it is still alarmingly high. What could be driving this high-rate of vaccine hesitancy? White evangelicals seem to have allowed secular distrust and institutional prejudice to bleed into a matter of health, something that should never have been politically polarised in the first place.

But if theres one thing past pandemics have taught us, its that we can and must change minds by combating this kind of politicization and distrust of health measures. World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian nongovernmental organization, was on the ground floor during the Ebola crisis in Africa. Charles Franzen, director of World Reliefs humanitarian and disaster response, reported that harmful beliefs about Ebola were one of the major drivers of distrust and misinformation in sub-Saharan Africa.

Franzen reported confusion and distrust of Western medicine, particularly among rural sub- Saharan African populations who relied on traditional healers. In fact, ancestral funeral and burial rites in which mourners were bathed in or anointed with water rinsed from corpses contributed to the spread of the disease. Thats because Ebola is transmitted by contact with infected body fluids as well as contact with contaminated surfaces.

World Relief and other groups in the area quickly learned that an effective response to the Ebola public health crisis depended on both medical intervention and also behavioral change. But behavioral change needs change-makers.

Aware that many of the populations they served were skeptical of government leaders and nonprofit groups practicing Western medicine, World Relief turned to the most highly-trusted institutions in many communities to communicate reliable information: the churches. As Jean Nyandwi, country director for World Relief in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said, A pastor, or Gods servant, is a messenger of a Holy God. Explaining why a pastor might be more respected in the community than elected officials, Nyandwi added, He is trustworthy, a person of integrity.

By turning to local church leaders today in the U.S., we can similarly build relationships of trust that can undo harmful beliefs by educating for behavioral change.

Already this same approach has had success in combating COVID-19 globally. World Reliefs Church Empowerment Zone networks have become leaders in messaging campaigns about COVID-19 in many vulnerable communities. Church volunteers go door to door to educate the community about COVID-19.

These Christians have done what the government, alone, could not. As Nyandwi explained, they relayed government preventive measures to church members and observed them. Both by modeling safe practices and distributing the best information in their own communities, these Christian volunteers have helped curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Its the same strategy many African churches used to save lives during Ebola outbreaks and the same one that delivered life-saving information about how to prevent HIV/AIDS. In a crisis similar to what were facing today, the churches were able to help communicate effectively about life-saving measures that could turn the tide.

The effort is spearheaded by those at the top, but it needs to penetrate the lower levels of the church in order to sway a cultural opinion. While many influential evangelical leaders, like Franklin Graham, have publicly spoken in favour of the vaccine it is also necessary for local pastors and church leaders to emphasise the importance of caring for others through protecting their health.

The life-saving strategies and campaigns that were modeled by African churches, and that are now modeled by other faith communities in the U.S., provide a way forward for white American evangelicals to also be part of the vaccine solution that were making great progress toward as a country now.

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Franzen offered a word of hope to Americans, If amazing change can happen in the most disadvantaged countries, with a deadlier disease, and in the face of challenging cultural obstacles, we can conquer this new virus. As vaccines are now broadly available, we hope the white evangelical church, which we are part of, will press forward in this race away from disease and toward loving our neighbors through safety.

That race is on in white evangelical churches educating for right behavior.

Kent Annan is director of Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College, where he leads an M.A. program as part of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute. Jamie Aten is the founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and Blanchard Chair of Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College.
In the pre-dawn hours of May 15, 1918, Private Henry Johnson was pulling sentry duty with Private Needham Roberts in a French trench that faced the German line just west of the Argonne Forest. Johnson and Roberts were members of the 369th Infantry Regiment from New York. The 369th, known as the Harlem Hellfighters, was an African American regiment, one of the first led by Black officers and NCOs in the US Army. The regiment had joined the French line as replacements, and its soldiers were given French equipment to face German front-line veterans of four years of trench warfare.

At 2 a.m., Johnson and Roberts heard German trench raiders clipping wire, preparing to surprise the Allied troops, spread mayhem, and seize prisoners in hopes of gathering intelligence. Johnson started throwing grenades into the darkness, toward the sound of the Germans, while Roberts ran back to the main line to alert the French. In the melee that followed, Johnson expended all of his grenades and grappled with the Germans in hand-to-hand combat, armed with a 14-inch bolo knife. He killed four Germans, plunging his knife into the head of one of them, and wounded 20 more, all while sustaining over 20 gunshot wounds. He also saved the severely wounded Roberts from being taken prisoner.

From then on, the 369th never lost a man to capture. It endured more uninterrupted combat time than any American regiment in the war, and its fighters were the first to reach the Rhine. Johnson and Roberts were also the first American privates to receive the Croix de Guerre from the French government in World War I.

But when Johnson returned home to Jim Crow America, his discharge papers did not mention anything about his combat record. He received no disability pay, and he was unable to return to his pre-war work as a railroad porter. He died in 1929 at 32 years of age, largely forgotten. But in 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Purple Heart. In 2001, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. And in 2015, President Barack Obama bestowed on him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Reason and love

Johnsons biography, along with recent efforts to recover the memory of his valiant service, stands as a testament to the uniqueness of American patriotism. Yale University political science professor Steven B. Smith explains the essence of this patriotism in his new book Reclaiming Patriotism in an Age of Extremes.

One of the salient features of American patriotism is its willingness to reflect on Americas failures as well as its glories. As Smith writes, Patriotism can be self-critical. Consider the belated recognition of war heroes who had been overlooked due to their race, but were then awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor decades after their actions. What does this demonstrate, other than an enlarged conception of who belongs in the American family? American patriotism, according to Smith, should be sharply distinguished from the extremes of national self-hatred, cosmopolitanism that naively universalizes humanity, and a nationalism that breeds dangerous divisiveness and suspicion. Patriotism, unlike these intemperate attitudes, is found in a blend of reason and love. As Smith defines it, patriotism is an expression of our highest ideals and commitments, not only to what we are, but also to what we might be.

In a cultural moment marked by divisions surrounding issues of race, class, sexuality, gender identity, religion, economic disparities, and a host of other challenges, Smiths book is deeply necessary. How can a nation like the United States cohere without a set of fundamentally shared ideals, hopes, symbols, texts, and mores? How can Americans avoid the lure of retreating into bunkers defined by various identities and communities that see themselves as pure and others as wicked? How to we resist the intuitive tendency to ignore our faults and exaggerate our triumphs? How do we embrace the demands our country makes on us while at the same time attending to global responsibilities that surpass national boundaries, like championing universal human rights and caring for the environment? In a short but lucid and thoughtful work, Smith considers these questions with care and offers Americans a path forward through the maelstrom of partisan shouting that pervades social media, 24-hour news coverage, Hollywood, and even professional sports.

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American patriotism is a loyalty that emerges from two methods of situating the nation in time. Conservative patriots tend to stress the elements of its past, such as the deeds and declarations of the founders. Progressive patriots are oriented toward the future, imagining what America can become when and if it will be true to its ideals. Both of these postures can lead to harmful thinkingconservatives can deify the nation, while progressives can repudiate its legitimacy.

In the history of American exceptionalism, most conceptions of national identity have been progressive. The Puritans looked ahead to the millennium; revolutionary patriots believed they had it in their power to make the world anew; heralds of Manifest Destiny considered theirs the great nation of futurity; Wilsonian idealists hoped to make the world safe for democracy. Since the late 1970s, however, most expressions of American exceptionalism have been conservative, in that they were more oriented to recovering the past. Todays Christian nationalists usually cast a narrative of decline: Our founding was noble, but we have lost our way morally, and we must return to the right path.

Genuine patriotism calls the citizen to a loyalty that Smith frequently analogizes to the relationships within a family. We love our family members, and we prefer them to others, but that love does not necessitate hatred for, or apathy toward, members of other families. As with our families, we think of our country in neither idealistic nor fatalistic terms. Our nation, just like our family, has its assets, its defects, and everything in between. But our nation, as our family, is made up of our people. We have a history that shapes our understanding of contemporary times, and we have a future in which our collective hopes are rooted. As Smith describes it, Patriotism is rooted in a rudimentary, even primordial love of ones own; the customs, habits, manners, and traditions that makes us who and what we are.

Interestingly, ours is not the only generation that has needed voices to give guidance on what healthy patriotism (or enlightened patriotism, as Smith puts it) entails. Americans in all times have looked to examples and guidesJefferson, Tocqueville, Lincoln, Anthony, Douglass, Parks, and King, for example. Smith looks to Lincoln as the quintessential enlightened patriot, rightly commending his patriotism as an example to follow. The features of Lincolns patriotismegalitarianism, aspirationalism, and inclusivenessare timeless. They are also necessary to the survival, establishment, and extension of American founding ideals. In this way, enlightened patriotism needs an orientation both to the past and to the future. This dual orientation fosters the kind of loyalty necessary for patriotism. Loyalty, as Smith argues, is an affirmation of what we care about, and our cares are not momentary whims or desires but a structure of loyalties.

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To what are we loyal, and how do we express loyalty to our nation? Here is where Smiths argument is truly worth the price of the book. He describes patriotism as constitutional loyalty. We feel and express loyalty to the people of the United States as our own people, but also to the constitutional democracy under which our society and government are ordered. The result is a combination of heart and mind directed toward love for the nation, and an actively cultivated habit of engagement with one another through political and civic association. When we engage our hearts and minds in love and loyalty to the nation, we find ourselves taking joy and pleasure in the nations achievements, but we also confront its failures head on. We are shamed by them. And as Smith reminds us, We are not shamed about things to which we have no emotional connection. Pride and shame are the two sides of loyalty, and patriotism is inconceivable without them.

Vigilance and hope

Take the example of Henry Johnson. There are lessons we can learn about Smiths enlightened patriotism in the example he set through his actions. There is also instruction we can take from the years after Johnson returned to the United States when the war was over, and the years after his death. Johnson went to fight for a nation that regarded him as a second-class citizen, one that victimized him on the basis of his skin color. He was willing to die for that country and its ideals, considering them his own. It is reasonable to believe that he considered Americans he had never met his people, and he fought alongside his fellow soldiers in the 369th, saving their lives by offering his own in their place. This is loyalty of the highest order. But Johnsons country did not requite that loyalty upon his return. It continued to treat him as a second-class citizen, neglecting him in his suffering after the war.

It would be easy to point to the example of Henry Johnson as evidence that America is irredeemable, that its faults and flaws are unforgiveable, and that its ideals are nothing more than rank hypocrisy. How perfect an episode to demonstrate for all time that Americas promise is reserved only for white people. But Johnsons own son was surprised to learn that his fathers body had not been kicked into a paupers grave in 1929. The Army had buried him with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery. And while condemning the injustice of neglecting his service and sacrifice is absolutely warranted, we must observe that Americans came around to doing what they could to rectify that injustice. In additional to the posthumous awards he received, Johnson is now memorialized in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon.

Should Johnson have received the appropriate honors in 1920 rather than 2015? Assuredly, yes. But American patriotism is morally aspirational, self-reflective, and self-correcting. Patriots recognize their flaws and sins, and they resolve to learn from those sins. They do not overcorrect, nor do they abandon hope in the ideals established in the founding documents, those ideals that define the essential nature of the republic. Gratitude is at the heart of patriotism, and as Smith rightly states: Anyone who shares hope for America and faith in America may participate. Patriotism takes vigilance, but patriotism ultimately yields blessings that are reflected in the nations hopes and aspirations.

Smiths book is a word of encouragement, especially for those who may be tempted to give up hope in America. His is a needed light while we walk together on a dark path.

John D. Wilsey teaches church history at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Gods Cold Warrior: The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles.
We live in a time of social upheaval, and social upheaval is fertile soil for conspiracy theories. Most of them are based on error and misinformation, and some can be downright dangerous. The ones that ensnared me in the turbulent 1960s drew me into racial hatred and political extremism and led to a shootout with police that killed an accomplice and very nearly killed meall in the name of Christian patriotism.

My story is just one of many that ended in tragedy. Back then, conspiracy theories were on the margins of society, but today, with the advent of the internet, they are proliferating. They have moved mainstream and now into the church, where low levels of biblical literacy and high levels of cultural seduction make people more vulnerable.

Some conspiracy theories are relatively harmless, like the idea that the moon landing was faked. Others, like the theories I believed, are dangerous. By intensifying fear, anger, and hatred, they led to violence.

The most common conspiracy theories today are not as violent as before but can still deceive and lead people astray with serious consequences. QAnon, a right-wing theory that believes former President Donald Trump was fighting an underground ring of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, is probably the most popular right now and is making significant inroads in our culture and the church. Recent research from the American Enterprise Institute shows that 25 percent of white evangelicals affirm part or all of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

QAnon makes frequent use of scriptural references and eschatological allusions, giving it unmerited credibility and even leading some ministries to propose a merger of QAnon and Christianity. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue reports that QAnon grew by more than 175 percent on Facebook alone in 2020.

Professing Christians who believe these theories are on the dangerous thorny ground Jesus described in Matthew 13:22, where, as William Hendriksen puts it, Constant anxiety about worldly affairs fill mind and heart with dark foreboding. Instead of being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace through humility, gentleness, patience, and love (Eph. 4:23), they produce the works of the flesh, fostering dissensions and divisions that cause believers to take sides, argue, and fight with one another (Gal. 5:20). When things reach this point, the Devil has succeeded in using his age-old tools of deception and division to disrupt the church, and it underscores Peters caution that whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved (2 Pet. 2:19, ESV throughout).

How do conspiracy theories begin? Some originate from the noetic effects of sinflawed thinking. But others originate with the god of this world, who blinds the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). The Devils lies and deception began with Adam and Eve, and conspiracy theories were widespread as far back as Isaiahs day (Isa. 8:1113).

In the New Testament, Jesus warned his followers concerning his second coming: See that no one leads you astray (Matt. 24:4; Mark 13:5). Paul urged believers to Let no one deceive you with empty words (Eph. 5:6) and Let no one deceive you in any way (2 Thess. 2:3). John says, Little children, let no one deceive you (1 John. 3:7).

Unfortunately, I was not alert and on guard in the 1960s. As a teenager, I was a patriotic kid who attended a large Southern Baptist church, but I became deeply disoriented by the social upheaval around me and angered by the federally mandated desegregation of my high school and local public facilities. The world that I had grown up in was being turned upside down.

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In the midst of the chaos, I stumbled onto some propaganda that was distributed at my school and later met those who were behind it. Their explanation for what was happening revolved around conspiracy theories that made sense to me at the time. They taught the superiority of white people and that a shadowy group of powerful Jews were conspiring to corrupt Christianity, undermine America, and take control of the world. The situation was dire, they said, and patriotic Americans needed to act before it was too late. This was the 1960s version of extreme Christian nationalism. Hitler used the same core ideas in Germany, and many millions died as a result.

That was the hook that drew me down the rabbit hole, the beginning of a downward spiral of indoctrination and deception that eventually led me into terrorist activity, two shootouts with law enforcement, the death of two accomplices, and a 35-year sentence in prison.

As in my high school years, the cultural, racial, and political turmoil we are experiencing today has created a swirling vortex that is psychologically disorienting and deeply unsettling for many people. This arouses fear about the future and a search for answers and solutions. A search for answersfor truth and realityis not bad in itself; we are living in turbulent times and people should be concerned. However, we must be alert to and on guard against falling for simple answers to complex issues, which is the specialty of conspiracy theories.

Is it possible to help family, friends, or colleagues who are attracted to ideologies like Christian nationalism and conspiracy theories like QAnon? I believe it is. We can start by asking God to help us love the person, seek their good, and be an agent of his grace in their life. Then, we can ask the Holy Spirit to make us usableto help us recognize and repent of any sinful attitudes toward the person: self-righteousness, pride, or arrogance because we see the truth and they dont; or frustration, impatience, or anger because they resist facts, reality, and truth. These and other wrong attitudes can sabotage our efforts from the start.

Next, we need to remember that with QAnon we are in a battle with the forces of spiritual darkness. The deceitful spirits and teachings of demons that Paul warned Timothy about in the first century are just as prevalent today (1 Tim. 4:1). Personal prayer and even fasting are essential in this battle. Pray for insight, discernment, and wisdom, and be alert to any ideas from the Holy Spirit. We may also need to recruit others to join in prayer. Unknown to me, a group of godly women prayed weekly for two years for my deliverance and salvation.

This type of spiritual battle also requires us to do our homework. Articles and podcasts from credible sources are readily available. Learn from those who have experience in dealing with what you will face. Identify the weak points and vulnerabilities in your interlocutors belief system. (Many people have found Steven Hassans work helpful.) That will enable you to discern from the start how deeply the person is ensnared.

People are scattered all along the spectrum, from the hardcore to the marginally involved. Hardcore ideologues are the most difficult to work with and may require deeper study and the support of others. The marginally involved person may see the ideology or conspiracy theory as perhaps plausible, but they are not so convinced and alarmed by it that they are committed to action. They can often be reasoned with through friendly dialogue.

Conversations must be carried on with Christlike humility and with gentleness and respect (1 Pet. 3:15). This is crucial to gain a hearing and maintain a good relationshipwithout which there is no possibility of having a positive influence. Show respect and seek to build trust by patiently listening to their ideas (no matter how bizarre). Seek to understand them well enough that they agree that you correctly understand their position. For every hour you are together, spend 50 minutes listening.

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Dont be impatient and attempt to rush the process of relationship building and dialogue. It may take a number of sessions before you start to see progress. Arguments or debates almost never work in this type of situation. Instead, follow Pauls advice to Timothy: The Lords servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will (2 Tim. 2:2426). If you have done your homework, you will be prepared for opportunities to gently ask questions that expose errors of fact or reasoning. Jesus often used questions to penetrate defenses and prompt self-examination.

Keep alert for the underlying attraction for the person. Often, it is connected to a deep need. Both Christian nationalism and QAnon have cultish characteristics. Many people enter a cult because it fitted with what they were looking for and lacked in normal society says Eileen Barker, a sociologist and researcher at the London School of Economics. Meaningful community is often part of what people are looking for in extremist groups. If you are in a healthy church with sound biblical preaching and vibrant community life, invite them to come visit as your guest. And get some of your friends to connect with them. Engaging with a community of joyful, devoted followers of Jesus is in effect immersing oneself in his light, truth, and love. The Holy Spirit can do wonders in such an environment.

Finally, Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Eph. 6:1018), and keep reminding yourself that nothing is impossible with God. If he could save a deeply misguided, violent religious terrorist like Saul of Tarsus, or someone like me, he can save anyone.

Thomas Tarrants is the president emeritus of the C. S. Lewis Institute and author of Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love.

Speaking Out is Christianity Todays guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication.
NSA denies Tucker Carlson's claim that agency is spying to take him off the air

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson is reiterating his claim that the National Security Agency is spying on him as the intelligence agency has denied his earlier claim that it is targeting him in an effort to take him off the air.

The broadcast journalist first asserted Monday that the Biden administration was snooping on him. He said an intelligence community whistleblower told him he was aware of the content in private exchanges that only Carlson would know.



He further alleged that the NSA was spying on his teams electronic communications and was planning to leak them to remove his show from the air. Carlson insisted again on Tuesday that the government was surveilling him and said that a statement from the NSA contesting his assertion did not deny his specific claims.



The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails, Carlson stressed Tuesday.



Theres no other possible source for that information, period, he said, noting that he had a conversation with NSA officials Tuesday that was Orwellian.



In a statement, the NSA said that the Fox News broadcaster was not targeted for surveillance. The statement stressed that Carlson's claim that the NSA is "monitoring our communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air" is "untrue."

Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air, the agency stressed.



"NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting."

Speaking with journalists aboard Air Force One Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the NSAs statement when asked about Carlson's claim. She noted that the agency is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are attempting to do us harm on foreign soil.

So that is their purview. But beyond that, I would point you to the intelligence community, Psaki said.

Carlson was not moved by the NSA's response. He claimed that the agency's statement did not answer the main question: "Did the Biden administration ready my personal emails?"

"That's the question was asked to NSA officials when we spoke to them in a very heated conversation. Again, they refused to say," Carlson said. "Then, they refused to explain why they couldn't answer that simple question: 'We can't tell you and we can't tell you why we can't tell you.'"

"The message was clear: 'We can do whatever we want. We can read your personal texts. We can read your personal emails. We can send veiled threats your way to brush you back if we don't like your politics. We can do anything. We are our own country and there is literally nothing you can do about it. We are in charge, you're not.' Orwellian does not begin to describe the experience. It is like living in China."

The ways intelligence agencies can surveil people domestically in an era of increased international terrorism remains a point of consternation among civil libertarians who often argue against government overreach.

Civil rights attorney Harmeet Dhillon explained on Carlsons show Tuesday that several ways exist for the NSA to defend its actions, particularly since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The military-industrial complex and the national security apparatus have justified their activities by saying that they are focusing on foreigners, but any data gathered from U.S. citizens is deemed "incidental," Dhillon said.



If theyre able to get a surveillance order on an individual, what theyre able to do is scoop up all of the people who reach out to that person, text them even without any predicate. So thats really where its at; thats a huge dragnet, she said.

When these questionable security agency actions are challenged in court, she said cases last many years with no meaningful resolution.

Dhillon subsequently noted on social media that the NSAs statement asserting Carlson was not a target does not mean it did not read his text messages and emails. She contends the rest of the statement is deceptive trust me" theater.




Singapore churches team with gov't, tech companies to combat online radicalism

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The Catholic Church and religious and community organizations in Singapore have teamed up with the government and social media companies to help combat cyber radicalism and understand how to expand their online presence.

Singapores Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth inaugurated the initiative last Saturday amid concerns over cyber indoctrination and radicalism, The Union of Catholic Asian News reports.

Tech giants Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok will host three workshops from June to August to help churches and organizations strengthen their online presence and understand how to react to radical content posted online, especially when dealing with sensitive religious and racial issues.

Twitter hosted its digital media workshop last week.

The goal is to inform religious organizations on turning youth away from extremist content about race and religion that has permeated the internet, especially during the pandemic.

Gina Goh, regional manager for Southeast Asia for International Christian Concern, a global religious persecution watchdog organization, commended this move in an email statement sent to The Christian Post.

The pandemic has resulted in the increase of internet usage for people, Goh wrote. Unfortunately, extremism finds its entry to the internet users minds if the latter lack the ability to discern. Left unchecked, people will be radicalized and encouraged to take action against religious venues or people of faith.

It is great to see the Singaporean government take necessary measures to educate local communities on the importance of filtering out terrorism and extremism online, she continued.

Several cases of cyber-radicalism in Singapore spurred the initiative.

The initiative comes following the arrest of a 16-year-old Chrisitan student in January accused of plotting attacks on two mosques to kill Muslims on the March anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings. The teen was arrested under the Internal Security Act.

The student was reportedly influenced by the extremism of Australian Brenton Tarran, who killed 50 people in the New Zealand mosque in 2019.

Abbas Ali Mohamed Anas, an ambassador of Roses for Peace, an interfaith youth platform, also believes this initiative is a step in the right direction.

Without proper guidance and information to navigate this digital space, we face the risk of online radicalization and hate speech among our youth, he said, according to The Straits Times. We need to counter this worrying trend by facilitating conversations responsibly through messages of peace, love and harmony.

Alvin Tan, minister of state for culture, community and youth, said that more people moving online during the pandemic has increased the risk of divisive content on social media. He called it a worrying trend that needs to be countered.

"While social media has the power to divide, it also has the power to unite," Tan said, according to UCA News. "Our technology partners are working with us to positively influence online spaces so that we can grow common ground in our community."

The Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore and the National Council of Churches in Singapore are among the organizations participating in the training sessions. Others include the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, the Taoist Federation and the Hindu Endowments Board.

Facebook's head of public policy in Singapore, Clara Koh, said: "hate, intolerance and extremism are not what we want on Facebook."

"They have no place, she said during the program's launch event.

We believe that positive speech can be a bulwark against destructive speech. That's why we're here to help community organizations amplify their calls to action and effectively build bridges in the online space."

Buddhism is the leading religion in Singapore, followed by Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Hinduism. The island country in Southeast Asia has a population of nearly 6 million people.
UK-based Methodist Church votes to approve gay marriage, recognize cohabitating couples

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The Methodist Church of the United Kingdom passed resolutions to approve the blessing of same-sex unions and recognize cohabitating couples.

The London-based Methodist Conference announced Wednesday that it has voted to confirm the resolutions at its gathering held in Birmingham.

A report on marriage and relationships, God in Love Unites Us, was received by the Conference in 2019 and the local District Synods were asked to consider the provisional resolutions and report back to this years Conference, a statement detailed.

The Conference received a report on the results of the local conferring which showed that 29 out of the 30 Synods confirmed support for the provisional resolutions.

The conference voted 256-45 to allow its ministers to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies and for churches to be locations for such services.

The Rev. Sonia Hicks, the conference's new president, said in a statement that the debate over the resolutions has been conducted with grace and mutual respect.

As we move forward together after this historic day for our Church, we must remember to continue to hold each other in prayer, and to support each other respecting our differences, Hicks said.

Regarding cohabitation, the conference approved a resolution stating that it recognises that the love of God is present either through informal cohabitation or a more formal commitment entered into publicly.

As a Church we wish to celebrate that the love of God is present in these circumstances, even if that grace is not responded to or even discerned by the people concerned, continued the resolution.

The Church has an important calling, therefore, to point to the presence of Gods love within such relationships, and to encourage people to respond to it in the renewing and deepening (by whatever means) of their commitment.

The Rev. David Hull, chair of Methodist Evangelicals Together, a group that opposed the resolutions, called it a very sad day for the Methodist Church.

It's heartbreaking really to see where we've come and the way in which we've got here, and many of us have wept over it, Hull said in an interview with Premier.

In spite of these votes, there are many, many Methodists who still believe that Jesus offers a unique vision for life  one that is rooted deeply in the Bible, that is better than the world has ever known, better than the world will ever know and that includes this teaching on marriage and relationships.

Others have taken to social media to voice their support of the resolutions.

"I am absolutely thrilled that the Methodist Conference has overwhelmingly voted to allow same-sex marriage in their churches," Jayne Ozanne, a gay Anglican evangelical activist and founder of the Ozanne Foundation, tweeted. "This reflects the significant shift that there has been amongst Christian attitudes in England."
SBC Pres. Ed Litton apologizes for copying JD Greear sermon without credit

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Days after a video posted on YouTube highlighted similarities between separate sermons delivered by Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton and his predecessor, J.D. Greear, who both suggest that God appears to "whisper" about sexual sin in the Bible, Litton has apologized for not giving credit to Greear.

Yesterday, some questions arose about a sermon I delivered in January 2020 on Romans 1, addressing the sin of homosexuality. Specifically, there were concerns about similarities with a sermon delivered by J.D. Greear a year earlier, Litton, the pastor of Redemption Church in Alabama, explained in a statement Saturday.

  I am sorry for not mentioning J.D.s generosity and ownership of these points. I should have given him credit as I shared these insights.

The approximately seven-minute clip highlighting the similarities of the sermons delivered by Greear and Litton drew allegations of plagiarism and concerns about their theology on how sexual sins are treated in the Bible.

Twice in a row, the Southern Baptist Convention has elected a president who teaches that the Bible "whispers" about sexual sin.



Wouldn't you think that appointing leaders who preach that the Bible "whispers" about sexual sin is the wrong way to fight sex abuse? pic.twitter.com/nCtdeGLXqG  Gabriel Hughes (@Pastor_Gabe) June 22, 2021

Twice in a row, the Southern Baptist Convention has elected a president who teaches that the Bible whispers about sexual sin. Wouldn't you think that appointing leaders who preach that the Bible whispers about sexual sin is the wrong way to fight sex abuse? tweetedPastor Gabriel Hughes of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, in early criticism of the sermons a week ago.

While arguing that homosexuality is sinful, both Greear, who leads The Summit Church in North Carolina, and Litton make nearly identical comments about the behavior.

Homosexuality does not send you to Hell, Greear notes in the clip. You know how I know that? Because heterosexuality does not send you to Heaven.

In his sermon, Litton notes: Homosexuality does not send people to Hell. How do I know that? Because heterosexuality doesnt send people to Heaven.

In his explanation of the similarities between their sermons, Litton said he had Greears permission to use his ideas but noted that the lack of credit was an oversight on the part of his preaching team.

Like thousands of other Southern Baptist pastors, I labor every week, preparing to stand in front of the congregation God has called me to serve. In preparation for our series on Romans, I used several resources to help me think through how to structure the series and how best to communicate the profound truths we encounter in these passages, Litton stated.

We employ a preaching team approach at Redemption Church that is comprised of eight men from our staff/congregation who meet weekly to discuss study insights, outlines, and approaches to the text. This sermon prep process includes working in the languages, consulting commentaries and books, and listening to strong communicators. In that process, I learned about my friend J.D. Greear's messages on Romans and discovered what he had recently preached resonated with the direction God was leading me and our preaching team. We often consulted his manuscripts along with other resources as we prepared."

Litton said that he found Greear's message on Romans 1 "insightful," especially "his three points of application."

"With his permission, I borrowed some of his insights and those three closing points," Litton wrote. "Our team also, with his permission, used The Summit Churchs chapter and verse breakdown of Romans as we mapped out our entire series."

The pastor further noted that his team has since done an audit of all 46 sermons in the teaching series and found similar "similar illustrations, quotes or points of application."

"One shares the same title, and one has a similar outline, Litton said.

I felt it important to address this in order to provide the truth and to take responsibility for places where I should have been more careful. I am committed to being a man of integrity and humility. I will not waver from that as I lead Redemption Church to be Christ followers and the SBC to unite around her mission."

In a statement posted to his website, Greear stated that his Romans series "got a lot of traction" as "clips and summaries of this message were shared on a number of blog and podcast sites." He called it "one of the most widely distributed messages" he ever preached at The Summit Church.

"Several months later, Pastor Ed Litton reached out and told me that he had really appreciated my take on Pauls warnings in that chapter and asked if he could use some of the content with his congregation, as well as how we had broken down our entire series on Romans at The Summit Church," Greear detailed. "I told him that whatever bullets of mine worked in his gun, to use them! My own take on these kinds of things is usually shaped by the input of many godly men and women. Ed and I have been friends for many years and we have talked often about these matters, and I was honored that he found my presentation helpful."

Greear added that "much has also been made" about his statement that Christians should "whisper about what the Bible whispers about and shout about what it shouts about.

" ... I was in no way trying to imply that sexual ethics are muted in Scripture, that we should not speak clearly about them, or that we should be embarrassed by them," Greear said. "The preceding point of that message, in fact, which was not included in the clips that got passed around, makes that abundantlyclear. In that point, I state plainly Scripture could not be clearer about these matters and that rebellion in sexual sin, as 1 Cor 6:911 states in no uncertain terms, is a matter of eternal destiny."

"When Tom Ascol and a few of the same pastors seemingly looking to trap me in my words first highlighted these things nearly two years ago, they never reached out to me for clarification, a clarification I would have been happy to supply," he added. "Some others did, and when I shared the fuller context of my words, most were satisfied, even if they still preferred I avoid the shout/whisper analogy. The redacted clip was used to imply that I was saying something that I clearly was not saying. Whether or not this was an intentional misrepresentation I cannot judge, but it was at best a negligent one."
Gender and sexuality of our youth: Natural or deliberate indoctrination?

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As the battle rages on in our society about gender identity and the treatment of same-sex relationships under the law, the church is not immune from addressing these issues head-on  even at the dinner table. If you are like me, these questions are a constant source of debate with teenage children who are bombarded with social media and classroom discussions on the topic that challenge our Biblical views on sexuality, marriage, and gender.

Alarming statistics from a recent Gallup poll show that the onslaught of LGBTQ messaging directed at our youth is working. The report states, "younger generations are far more likely to consider themselves to be something other than heterosexual. This includes about one in six adult members of Generation Z (those aged 18 to 23 in 2020)...and more than half of those claim they are bisexual." The fact that the rise is most pronounced in young people and the majority is not experiencing same-sex attraction, indicates that the deliberate indoctrination of our children not to accept traditional gender roles is increasingly successful.



When it comes to gender identity, the drastic rise in young people that identify as "gender fluid" has generated fierce debate. Prominent academics and health professionals advocate for a gender affirmative model, claiming that gender is determined by an "interweaving of biology, development and socialization; and, culture and context, with all three bearing on an individual's gender self." Therefore, parents should accept the "gender" as stated by the child, regardless of their anatomy. Juxtapose that to the stance of child advocates, researchers, and Christians who firmly believe the rapid onset of gender confusion in our youth results from underlying emotional disorders and manipulation from schools and other institutions that are engaged in some form of conversion therapy on our children. If you are not familiar with this debate, I encourage you to read these resources and understand the extent of the battle for our youth's identity and emotional well-being.

Surprisingly, the church as a whole is not of one opinion on the issue of sexual preference and God's condemnation of same-sex relations. The acceptance of openly gay members and clergy are on the rise. Some denominations that ordain homosexual pastors and worship leaders defend their stance by claiming Jesus loves everyone, and research shows that a significant number of Christians find no conflict between their religious beliefs and homosexuality. Thankfully, many evangelical Pastors do not legitimize same-sex couples and instead encourage the individual to rebuke the sin and lean on the power of the Holy Spirit to fight the urges of same-sex attraction just as one would other sins like fornication or adultery. In His Image, the movie does a beautiful job describing just how a Bible-honoring Christian can convey the message of the love of Christ to someone struggling with same-sex attraction. Organizations like Changed Movement help people find community with others struggling with similar issues but who left the LGBTQ lifestyle for freedom in Christ.

Even as a new believer, I knew the Lord did not intend to condone same-sex relationships based on Scripture (1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10) , but I struggled with how I could convey these principles to my daughter in a spirit of love and compassion. Last month, I was fortunate to attend an event for Living Stone Ministries at my church to hear from other parents of children struggling with gender identity and same-sex attraction. It was a wonderful time of support and worship with other parents, but the most amazing part of the evening was listening to former gay believers talk about their journey and the impact their parents had on their road to freedom in Christ.



Two of these young men and women empathically said their parent's unwavering commitment to the Gospel stuck with them the most when deciding to leave the homosexual lifestyle. As one young man put it, "no matter how I tried to manipulate my mom or convince her that she was wrong and just didn't want to support me, she never wavered on the truth that Jesus wanted a better life for me and I would never find true happiness in a same-sex relationship." It was the truth of his mother's words that rung in his ears when he survived an attempted suicide and finally gave his life to Christ for healing and restoration. Another young woman said her Christian mother took the opposite approach and went to gay bars with her to make her feel accepted. It ultimately backfired and made her resent her mother for not helping her leave the lifestyle. Hearing these stories brought me so much peace because it was a truth I knew in my heart but hearing it from someone with lived it affirmed my conviction.

So despite the arguments and accusations that my stance is homophobic, outdated, or just "my truth," I continue to tell my young daughter that Jesus loves all sinners but despises the sin. It is no different than if she came to me wanting to do drugs or engage in premarital sex. I would warn her that a life of sin will never bring happiness or the freedom that comes from a life in obedience to God.

In light of all that is coming against our children to draw them into a life of death and depression, it is unfortunate that any church would condone same-sex couples and even allow openly gay pastors to lead a congregation. How can we teach our young people to follow any of the Bible's commandments if we compromise the one that destroys the sanctity of creation and monogamy between a man and a woman in marriage? It is just one more example of how liberalism is unraveling the fundamental principles of the Gospel. Ultimately, it is a massive disservice to people who want to break the strongholds of addiction and be restored through the love and redemption of Christ.
Google implements changes to Chromebooks amid complaints of kids accessing pornography

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Google has announced additional safety measures for its Chromebook product after being put on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation's Dirty Dozen List" because of the lack of safeguards for children.

In February, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation placed Google Chromebook on its annual list of companies and entities complicit in perpetuating sexual exploitation in any form.

At issue, were the lack of safety measures on Chromebook laptops  especially those given to students by schools  to restrict access to graphic content like pornography.

In an announcement Tuesday, Google stated that its taking measures to make Chromebooks safer for students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Were launching a new age-based access setting to make it easier for admins to tailor experiences for their users based on age when using Google services like YouTube, Photos and Maps, wrote Jennifer Holland, director of education program management at Google.

Starting today, all admins from primary and secondary institutions must indicate which of their users, such as their teachers and staff, are 18 and older using organizational units or groups in Admin Console.

Holland explained that after Sept. 1, students who are under 18 will see changes in their experience across Google products.

For example, after September 1, students designated as under 18 in K-12 domains can view YouTube content assigned by teachers, but they wont be able to post videos, comment or live stream using their school Google account, she continued.

If admins dont make a selection by September 1, primary and secondary institutions users will all default to the under-18 experience, while higher-education institutions users will default to the 18-and-older experience.

While several schools already use tools like SafeSearch and SafeSites, Holland said Google is updating their defaults to ensure a safer web browsing experience for K-12 institutions.

Now, SafeSearch and SafeSites will be on by default, and Guest Mode and Incognito Mode will be off by default. Admins can still change each of these policies on Chrome OS for individual organization units, wrote Holland.

The Google for Education team is committed to creating tools and services that are secure by default and private by design, all the while giving you complete control over your environment.

NCOSE CEO Dawn Hawkins said the changes will keep millions of kids safer.

These crucial improvements will drastically limit the amount of exposure to harmful content and potential predators through school-issued Chromebooks, Hawkins said in a statement.

These changes will also greatly ease the burden on administrators and teachers  who are often left without sufficient IT support  to try to figure out how to turn on all the safety features.

Chromebooks landed on the 2021 Dirty Dozen List, NCOSE said, because Google "refused to take simple measures that would significantly reduce kids exposure to pornography and predators through Chromebooks.

The organization reported that there were "countless" stories and personal accounts of children "accessing harmful material through their school-issued Chromebooks" at school and at home.

Last November, two families sent a letter to school officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, claiming that their children as young as 9 years old were exposed to hundreds of pornographic websites through their school-issued Chromebooks.

Hes a little boy, and he saw things that no one should see, especially a child, one of the fathers told The Washington Post.

NCOSE warns that with overburdened school administrators and teachers trying to navigate new technology during the pandemic, "devices are often left insufficiently protected" and leave "children even more vulnerable to accessing harmful material like pornography and being accessed themselves by predators."
First Baptist Dallas megachurch holds Freedom Sunday to celebrate America's 'Christian foundation'

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Pastor Robert Jeffress prominent Texas megachurch, First Baptist Dallas, held its annual Freedom Sunday to celebrate national heritage a week ahead of Independence Day.

The observance, controversial for its focus on American patriotism, featured a 200-voice choir and orchestra and remarks by conservative Christian writer Dave Barton. Barton spoke about the Christian beliefs that most of the United States Founding Fathers confessed.

Jeffress, a Fox News contributor and one of former President Donald Trump's earliest evangelical supporters, told The Christian Post that the service had three purposes.

Those purposes are to express gratitude to God for His blessings on our country, to acknowledge the Christian foundation upon which our country was built and to declare our nations duty to obey God if we are to enjoy Gods continued blessing.

We make it clear every year at our Celebrate Freedom service that we are not worshipping America, but we are worshipping the God who has blessed America, Jeffress said.

Furthermore, we always declare that our future blessing as a nation is conditioned upon our obedience to God. We close every Celebrate Freedom service as we do every service at First Baptist Church, Dallas, with an explanation of the Gospel and an invitation to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior.

The church could not hold the patriotic service next Sunday, the Fourth of July, because many members of the choir and orchestra, whose music is an integral part of the service, will be traveling that day.

As for the July Fourth service this year, Jeffress explained that it would be more like a typical Sunday service except for the congregations plan to sing God Bless America at the end of worship.

Over the years, First Baptist Dallas has garnered attention for its annual Freedom Sunday observance, which generally falls on the Sunday closest to July 4.

On Freedom Sunday 2018, Jeffress preached a sermon centered on showing how the U.S. was founded to be a Christian nation.

"America was founded predominantly, not exclusively, but predominantly by Christians who wanted to build this foundation of Christian nation on the foundation of God's will," stated Jeffress during the 2018 observance.

"Furthermore, these men believed that the future success of our country depended upon our fidelity to the Christian beliefs. ... Our future success depends on our country being faithful to those eternal truths."

Last year, the observance was held with some in-person restrictions enacted due to the pandemic, with then-Vice President Mike Pence delivering remarks before a reported 2,200 worshipers.

The Bible tells us it was for freedom that Christ set us free, stated Pence at the time, as reported by Baptist Press. As you celebrate freedom in this coming week, practice prayer in a renewed way.

The annual service has faced its share of critics, both liberal and conservative. Among the critics is bestselling conservative Christian author Rod Dreher, who labeled the event "a form of idolatry."

"... you couldn't pay me to sit there and listen to Jeffress preach that poke-in-the-eye patriotism on Sunday, and partake in his church's glorification of the war machine, under the guise of a 'salute to the armed forces,'" wrote Dreher in 2018.

Jeffress says his sermon is going to be about what he believes are the evangelical Christian foundations of the United States. This is a historically shaky thesis, to say the least, and Im on the record saying that America is a post-Christian nation
Supreme Court rules that California can't force nonprofits to disclose private donors' names

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The United States Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that California cannot compel nonprofits to disclose their private donor information, reversing an earlier judgment against two conservative groups.

The high court released their opinion in the case of Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, Attorney General of California on Thursday morning.

At issue was the yearslong effort of Californias attorney general to get the private donor lists of conservative groups, namely Americans for Prosperity and the Thomas More Law Center.

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion of the court, save for the section of Part IIB1, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor authoring a dissent that Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer joined.

We do not doubt that California has an important interest in preventing wrongdoing by charitable organizations, read the majority opinion.

There is a dramatic mismatch, however, between the interest that the Attorney General seeks to promote and the disclosure regime that he has implemented in service of that end.

The majority opinion declared that California is not free to enforce any disclosure regime that furthers its interests. It must instead demonstrate its need for universal production in light of any less intrusive alternatives.

The disclosure requirement creates an unnecessary risk of chilling in violation of the First Amendment  indiscriminately sweeping up the information of every major donor with reason to remain anonymous, continued the majority.

The petitioners here, for example, introduced evidence that they and their supporters have been subjected to bomb threats, protests, stalking, and physical violence.

In her dissent, Sotomayor contented that the plaintiffs failed to show an actual First Amendment burden before demanding that a law be narrowly tailored to the governments interests.

Not so today. Today, the Court holds that reporting and disclosure requirements must be narrowly tailored even if a plaintiff demonstrates no burden at all, wrote Sotomayor.

Todays analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bulls-eye. Regulated entities who wish to avoid their obligations can do so by vaguely waving toward First Amendment privacy concerns.

The First Liberty Institute, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the plaintiffs, celebrated the decision in a press release posted Thursday morning.

The freedom to associate with others of like mind is indispensable to freedom, stated FLI President Kelly Shackelford, as quoted in the press release.

Again today, the Supreme Court recognized that the disclosure of names and address of citizens simply for belonging to a cause is chilling to the freedom of association.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the Thomas More Law Center during the litigation, celebrated the ruling as a victory against state-sponsored harassment of donors.

Public advocacy is for everyone, not just those able to weather abuse. Forced donor disclosure is a threat to everyone and discourages both charitable giving and participation in the marketplace of ideas, stated ADF Senior Counsel John Bursch.

The court correctly upheld the First Amendments promise of the freedom to associate with like-minded groups, which includes the right to donor privacy.

California was one of four states to require nonprofits to submit a copy of their Schedule B tax form, which provides the names and addresses of those who donated more than $5,000.

Supporters of the requirement have argued that it is important to preventing dark money from negatively influencing U.S. politics by keeping track of donors.

Although a district court had initially ruled in favor of the conservative groups, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against them in 2018.

We hold that the California Attorney Generals Schedule B requirement, which obligates charities to submit the very information they already file each year with the IRS, survives exacting scrutiny as applied to the plaintiffs because it is substantially related to an important state interest in policing charitable fraud, read the panel opinion, written by Judge Raymnd Fisher.

Even assuming arguendo that the plaintiffs contributors would face substantial harassment if Schedule B information became public, the strength of the states interest in collecting Schedule B information reflects the actual burden on First Amendment rights because the information is collected solely for nonpublic use, and the risk of inadvertent public disclosure is slight.

The conservative groups appealed the decision to the full court of the Ninth Circuit but were denied a hearing. From there, they successfully appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several states and organizations that represented a diverse array of political views filed amicus briefs on behalf of the conservative organizations suing California over the regulations.

These included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Cato Institute.

The ACLU, NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, and other groups filed a brief in March arguing that the conservative groups had a right to keep their donor lists private and that California had a disturbing pattern of failures in keeping the donor disclosure forms confidential.

Californias assurances that previous mistakes will not be repeated is unlikely to persuade donors that their information, once handed over to the State, will remain confidential, stated the brief.

The resulting chill to First Amendment interests harms donors, nonprofit organizations, and civil society writ large.
More than 25% of regular churchgoers have no plans to go back just yet: poll

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More than 25% of people who attended religious services at least once a month before the novel coronavirus pandemic have no plans to return to their church, synagogue or mosque in the next few weeks as lockdown restrictions continue to be lifted, according to data from a recent AP-NORC poll.

Data from the nationwide poll conducted June 1014 with 1,125 adults and a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percentage points, show that while many people are looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family, shopping for fun, and going out to eat as the lockdown restrictions are lifted, only 34%, in general, say they plan on attending in-person religious services in the next few weeks.

And while a majority (73%) of people who attended religious services at least once per month say they plan on attending those services in person in the coming weeks, 27% have no plans to do so just yet.

While the number of worshipers who plan to attend in-person worship services as lockdown restrictions continue to be lifted has increased from about 66% a year ago, Lifeway Researchs Executive Director Scott McConnell told the AP that its a cause for concern that many churches did not survive the pandemic, leaving some people in limbo.

Thats a lot of momentum to lose and a lot of people stepping out of the habit of weekly worship, McConnell told the news service.

The data appears to be in line with a new Gallup analysis highlighted by The Christian Post earlier this year, showing a marked shift of the still highly religious nation away from formal church memberships. The data showed that for the first time in nearly 80 years, fewer than half of Americans maintain formal membership in a specific house of worship.

In 1937, says Gallup, when they first measured formal membership in houses of worship, some 70% of Americans had formal church membership, and that measure remained steady for the next 60 years until it began a steady decline in 1998. In 2020, formal membership in houses of worship stood at 49%.

Several factors, including age and the growing number of Americans who express no religious preference, were cited as influences behind the trend.

While it is possible that part of the decline seen in 2020 was temporary and related to the coronavirus pandemic, continued decline in future decades seems inevitable, given the much lower levels of religiosity and church membership among younger versus older generations of adults, wrote Gallup Senior Editor Jeffrey M. Jones.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the nations largest Protestant denomination, recently reported that they lost a record single-year decline of 400,000 members in 2020.

McConnell noted at the time of that report that the decline was due, in part, to fewer additions through baptism and more deaths from COVID-19 and other reductions in the membership of individual Southern Baptist congregations.

Numerous church leaders have described their attempts to stay in touch with their congregation throughout the pandemic, McConnell said. As congregations rediscovered the telephone, they also discovered some on their membership lists who moved away, joined another church, or no longer wanted to be a member.
Trump visits 'decimated' southern border, accuses Biden of 'destroying our country'

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As the southwest border continues to experience a surge in migrant crossings, former President Donald Trump visited an unfinished portion of the border wall in Weslaco, Texas, accusing his successor of destroying our country.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that he was planning to visit the nations decimated southern border. Two weeks after the former presidents plans to visit the border were made public, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that President Trump will join me and law enforcement officials for a border security briefing in Weslaco.

Securing the border is not just important to Texasit is vital to America.



TOMORROW President Trump will join me and law enforcement officials for a border security briefing in Weslaco.



Watch on Facebook Live at 12 PM CT. pic.twitter.com/8S625nOqig  Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 29, 2021

Upon taking office, President Joe Biden halted construction of the border wall and abolished the Trump administrations Remain in Mexico policy, which required those seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their cases were adjudicated. Critics cite those decisions as the cause of the surge in illegal border crossings. Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that the number of encounters between migrants and law enforcement officials has exceeded 100,000 and has continuously increased, reaching 180,034 in May.

The number of border crossings in May marked a slight increase from the number of immigrants who illegally entered the country in April (178,854) and a substantial increase from the number of crossings in May 2020 (23,237). In all of fiscal year 2020, there were 458,088 encounters between migrants and law enforcement officials. In fiscal year 2021, that number has already reached 929,868, even with four months to go.

Trump and Abbott made remarks in front of a partially completed border wall in the border town of Weslaco, located near McAllen. They were joined by more than two dozen Republican members of Congress. At the event, Trump bluntly proclaimed that Biden is destroying our country before asserting that the situation at the border would look much different if he was still in office.

This wall would have been completed, he said. Within two months, everything could have been completed. It would have been painted, not sitting there rotting and rusting.

Prior to arriving at the unfinished section of the border wall, Trump attended the border security briefing, where Abbott and other local officials focused on the rise in illegal border crossings and the rapid increase in the importation of the deadly drug ... fentanyl. At the meeting, Trump touted his record on immigration, specifically highlighting the construction of hundreds of miles of border wall on his watch.

The former president contrasted the state of border security under his administration with that of his successor, recalling how there had never been a border so secure as it was during his presidency. He lamented that after leaving office with the best border weve ever had in the history of our country, it dissipated within a period of a few months.

Now, we have an open, really dangerous border, more dangerous than its ever been in the history of our country, he added.

We have a sick country in many ways. Its sick in elections and its sick at the border. And if you dont have good elections and if you dont have a strong border, you dont have a country, Trump warned.

Trumps visit to the border comes five days after Vice President Kamala Harris, designated by President Joe Biden as the border czar earlier this year, visited El Paso, which is 790 miles away from what Democratic Rep. Henrey Cuellar has described as the "epicenter" of the border crisis.

Conservatives criticized her visit to El Paso as an attempt to get ahead of Trumps planned visit and an effort to avoid spotlighting the problem since the epicenter of the border crisis is hundreds of miles away in the Rio Grande Valley.

The former president himself took a jab at Harris as he closed his remarks at the border security briefing, noting that were going to the border right now but were going to the real part of the border where theres real problems, not the part where you look around and you dont see anything.

Appearing on Fox News Watters World Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued that the reason that she didnt go to the Rio Grande Valley is thats where the Biden cages are. Thats where you see cage after cage after cage of little boys and little girls on the floor, no beds, no mats, no cots, side-by-side, one after the other after the other, wrapped in reflective emergency blankets.

What Kamala and Joe Biden desperately wanted to avoid is the TV cameras filming those kids in the Biden cages, so she went as far away as you can go in the state of Texas from where that was to say she went to the border, he added. Cruz also contended that when she went to El Paso ... she had no solutions, she had no answers.

Ahead of his visit to the border, Trump wrote an op-ed for The Washington Times calling on the Biden administration to finish the border wall. According to the former president, Our nation is being destroyed by Bidens border crisis. The United States must immediately restore the entire set of border security and immigration enforcement measures we put into place  and critically, we must finish the wall.

A nation without borders is not a nation at all, he wrote. For the sake of our country, Joe Biden must finish sealing the border, or the American people must elect a Congress that will.

In the absence of action from the Biden administration to address the border crisis, Abbott has taken steps at the state level to secure the border, which he touched upon at the border security briefing.

We launched Operation Lone Star where we deployed 1,000 Texas Department of Public Safety officers as well as Texas National Guard, and they have already arrested almost 1,800 people for criminal violations in addition to about 40,000 apprehensions of people who have come across the border illegally and they have busted 41 stash houses.

Abbott had previously detailed plans to spend $250 million to continue constructing a border wall between the state of Texas and Mexico. As The Christian Post previously reported, the migrant surge has led to overcrowded conditions at border detention facilities, leading to children sleeping on the floor and outbreaks of the coronavirus. Cruz tried to film the conditions at a border facility as a member of the Biden administration stood in his way in an effort to prevent him from capturing footage showing the conditions migrants were living in.
Members of Congress demand IRS reverse decision denying tax exemption to Christian group

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A group of Republican members of Congress have urged the Internal Revenue Service to change their stance on denying a Texas-based Christian nonprofit tax-exempt status because the government body had deemed it too political.

In May, the IRS denied a request by Christians Engaged to be given an exemption under Section 501(c)(3), which would label the group a charitable organization and receive benefits such as tax-deductible contributions.

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig last Friday, urging him to change their position on Christians Engaged and to remove all IRS employees who were responsible for that decision.

The IRS must objectively analyze applications for tax-exempt status and cannot allow political biases to creep into its decisions, read the letter in part.

We urge you to immediately review Christians Engageds application for 501(c)(3) status personally, and terminate the IRS staff involved in the flawed and politically motivated reasoning behind the determination.

Other signatories of the letter included Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Reps. Burgess Owens of Utah, Bob Good of Virginia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

In a statement last Friday, Roy argued that the denial of the exemption for Christians Engaged further exposed the corruption and liberal bias running rampant at the IRS.

This discriminatory action against a Christian nonprofit is an overt attack on religious liberty by a tyrannical federal government, Roy added.

Moreover, this decision comes at a time when members of both parties are trying to increase the ability of the IRS to harass individual Americans, businesses, and organizations.

Based in Garland, Texas, Christians Engaged is led by Bunni Pounds, a political consultant and conservative activist who ran for Congress in 2018 but lost in the Republican primary.

The religious organization filed for nonprofit status in 2019 and received a notice of denial from IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen A. Martin on May 18.

You engage in prohibited political campaign intervention, argued Martin. You are also not operated exclusively for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3), because you operate for a substantial non-exempt private purpose and for the private interests of the [Republican] party.

Martin also contended that the group could not receive a tax-exempt status because it worked to instruct people on what the Bible says about issues like the sanctity of life and marriage, which "generally distinguish candidates and are associated with political party platforms."

Christians Engaged has appealed the decision, with the First Liberty Institute, a conservative legal nonprofit that often handles religious freedom litigation, overseeing the appeal.

Only a politicized IRS could see Americans who pray for their nation, vote in every election, and work to engage others in the political process as a threat, said First Liberty Counsel Lea Patterson in a statement earlier this month.

The IRS violated its own regulations in denying tax-exempt status because Christians Engaged teaches biblical values.

Patterson also noted that the IRS granted a tax exemption to former first lady Michelle Obama and her activist group called When We All Vote.

In 2013, the IRS garnered national outrage when the agency admitted to having targeted conservative groups' tax-exempt applications that had the terms Tea Party or Patriot during the 2012 presidential election season.

Lois Lerner, then director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, apologized for the attacks, stating at the time that it was absolutely inappropriate and not the way we should do things.
Supreme Court lets ruling in favor of trans student Gavin Grimm stand in school bathroom case

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The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a Virginia school district's appeal in a case brought by a trans-identified former high school student who sued for the right to use bathrooms and locker room facilities designated for the opposite sex.

In an order list released Monday, America's high court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board.

The court noted in its brief order that Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the court's more conservative members, would have granted the petition to hear the case.

"Too many people played integral roles in our success and too many people who loved me so much," Grimm wrote on Twitter Monday. "I have nothing more to say but thank you, thank you, thank you. Honored to have been part of this victory."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Grimm, celebrated the Supreme Court allowing a legal victory at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last year to stand.

This is the third time in recent years that the Supreme Court has allowed appeals court decisions in support of transgender students to stand, stated Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLUs LGBTQ & HIV Project, in an emailed statement.

This is an incredible victory for Gavin and for transgender students around the country. Our work is not yet done, and the ACLU is continuing to fight against anti-trans laws targeting trans youth in states around the country.

In 2015, Grimm, born female but identifies as male, filed a lawsuit against Gloucester County Public Schools. The student claimed that policies preventing trans-identified students from using bathrooms and sex-specific changing areas that correspond with their gender identity violated Title IX civil rights law.

At issue was the preference of Grimm to use the boys restrooms and locker rooms, despite being biologically female.

As a compromise, the high school had built three single-use, gender-neutral restrooms at its campus to accommodate Grimm, allowing any student to use those restrooms.

Supporters of the school district's position have argued that school districts should be able to "protect their students' privacy, safety, and dignity without federal government interference."

In September 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar, a Ronald Reagan appointee, ruled against Grimm. But that decision was overturned in April 2016 by a three-judge Fourth Circuit panel.

In a 2-1 decision, the Fourth Circuit panel concluded that federal antidiscrimination law applied to the case, with the majority arguing that Title IX requires schools to provide transgender students access to restrooms congruent with their gender identity.

However, in a 5-3 decision released in August 2016, the Supreme Court put a stay on the panel decision, pending the filing and decision on an appeal. After the case was remanded back to the Fourth Circuit, the appeals court sent the case back to the district court in July 2017.

In August of last year, a three-judge Fourth Circuit panel again ruled 2-1 in favor of Grimm. The majority stated that they were joining a growing consensus of courts in concluding that equal protection and Title IX can protect transgender students from school bathroom policies that prohibit them from affirming their gender.

The two judges who ruled in Grimm's favor were appointed by President Barack Obama.

Judge Paul Niemeyer, a George H.W. Bush appointee, authored a dissent to the panel decision. Niemeyer argued that the Virginia high school had "reasonably provided separate restrooms for its male and female students and accommodated trans-identified students by also providing unisex restrooms that any student could use.
Church clings to hope as 9 families missing after Champlain Towers South building collapse

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Parishioners at the Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida, are still clinging to hope as members of at least nine families that lived in the Champlain Towers South in Surfside remain missing after its catastrophic collapse last Thursday.

We still have that faith because you never know. Weve seen it in other tragedies where the most miracles have happened, and even the most difficult situations people have survived for days. So we still have hope. We still do, Gypsy Lodos, the church's director of faith formation, told The Christian Post Monday.

Since half of the 13-story Champlain South Towers building collapsed Thursday, more than 150 residents remain unaccounted for, CNN reported. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also revealed Monday that at least 11 people had been confirmed dead as rescue officials indicate chances of finding more survivors are dwindling by the day. At a press conference Monday night, the mayor warned that the death toll numbers are very fluid.

Just bear with me what Im about to say, Ray Jadallah, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue assistant chief, said during a Saturday briefing. Its going to sink in. I understand its very emotional. Its not necessarily that were finding victims. Were finding human remains.

Lodos told CP that her church, which is approximately two blocks away from the tower, has been hosting prayer vigils since the tragedy. On Sunday, she said, it was a bittersweet gathering for her community because while many multiple members who lived in the building remain missing, several others also survived the collapse.

We have parishioners who did make it out safely, Lodos said. I think were at 12. Ive been able to speak to a couple of the families and other people [who] know them. One of them was very grateful. He said God protected them, that they were guided by Jesus to go down. So they are very grateful for the parish support and glad to be alive here at church and being able to worship.

While survivors are celebrating, Lodos said many of them are still in shock and were not yet ready to speak publicly about what they endured.

More than 300 emergency personnel, including teams from Israel and Mexico, are working around the clock, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been called in to help search for survivors, The New York Times reported.

In an interview with Good Morning America Monday, Chief Andy Alvarez of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said they are hoping to find a miracle" despite the challenge of the frantic effort to find survivors.

We have 80 workers at a time that are breaching the walls that have obviously collapsed in a frantic effort to rescue those that are still viable and to get to those voids that we typically know exist in these buildings, he said.

We have found voids within the building that weve been able to penetrate, mostly coming from underneath the basement of what used to be the garage. And we have been able to tunnel through the building. But this is a frantic search to continue to see that hope, that miracle, to see who we could bring out of this building alive, he added.

And Lodos agrees that for now, hope is what her church family has.

You know the last thing we lose is the hope  even when you know there isnt even the hope of finding them alive, or [just] the hope they are reunited in Heaven. We dont know. Only God knows the plans, she said.
Share of children living in 2-parent homes reaches highest level in nearly 30 years: report

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The percentage of children living in a two-parent household has hit its highest point in nearly 30 years, according to a report by the Institute for Family Studies.

In an analysis of 2020 United States Census data, the conservative think tank released a report earlier this month titled Growing Up With Mom and Dad: New Data Confirm The Tide Is Turning.

According to 2020 data, 70.4% of people under 18 live in a home with two parents, while 25.5% live with one parent and 4.1% live with neither parent.

The finding on children living in two-parent homes is a slight increase from the 69.4% reported in 2010 and 69.1% reported in 2000. However, it remains slightly below the 72.5% recorded in 1990 and well below the 87.7% from 1960.

The report also drew from 2012 and 2020 data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Household Education Survey, which likewise shows increases in the presence of two-parent households for high school seniors.

This data suggests that from 2012 to 2019, the percentage of white high school seniors living in two-parent homes went from 55.8% to 59.1%, while the share of black high school seniors living in two-parent homes went from 24.3% to 29.6%.

Nicholas Zill, research psychologist and a senior fellow at IFS, wrote in the report that although certainly not out of intensive care, the supposed corpse of the two-parent family seems to be breathing new life.

All the experts agreed: the nuclear family was on its way out. The two-parent family of married mother and father bringing up their own biological children would soon be replaced by a menagerie of alternate family forms, wrote Zill.

And for more than a half-century, each years tabulation from the Census Bureau on childrens living arrangements seemed to be proving the experts right.

In comments emailed to The Christian Post on Tuesday, Zill explained that he found the increase in two-parent homes for children to be a somewhat surprising result.

He attributed the slight turnaround to multiple factors, among them marriages happening at older ages and education levels, a decline in teen childbirth and a greater awareness of benefits of two-parent upbringing.

In his analysis, Zill states that before "celebrating the turning of the tide," it's important to note that "the standard Census Bureau family trend charts underestimate how grave the condition of the two-parent family has been and still is."

"The Bureau lumps stepparent and adoptive families with both birth-parent families, making their two-parent category more inclusive than commonly understood," Zill wrote. "Furthermore, children in stepfamilies and adoptive families have experienced family disruption. The evidence is that they have higher rates of emotional, behavior, and learning problems than those residing with both birth parents."

Despite the recent uptick, the Census Bureau warned in April that the percentage of children living only with their mothers has doubled since 1968.

In 1968, 85% of children under 18 lived with two parents. About 11% of children lived with their mothers only in 1968. By comparison, 21% of children in 2020 were reported to live with their mothers only.

The number of children living with their fathers only has quadrupled from about 1% in 1968 to 4.5% in 2020.

Last November, IFS released a report based on the Census Bureaus American Community Survey, which found that in 2019, the U.S. had its lowest divorce rate since 1970.

In 2019, according to the report, for every 1,000 marriages, 14.9 ended in divorce. The figure is lower than it was in 1970, which had a rate of 15 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

The 2019 numbers on divorce were also considerably lower than the data from 1980 when the National Vital Statistics had reported a divorce rate of 22.6 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

IFS Director of Research Dr. Wendy Wang, the author of the 2020 report, told CP at the time that while the divorce rate has been declining since the 1980s, the rate has been falling much faster in the past decade.

People are getting married later in life these days, and they are less likely to rush into a marriage which they may regret later on. On the other hand, we've seen the record low marriage rate happening in the U.S., explained Wang in 2020.

College-educated adults are more likely than those without a college degree to get married, and their divorce rate is lower.
National Archives task force slams Rotunda for 'structural racism, mythologizing America's founding Republican congressman says 'woke agenda seeking to revise America's history'

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A racism task force for the National Archives asserts that the United States' Founding Fathers are inappropriately laud[ed] and seeks to Reimagine the Rotunda to address the overarching system of racial bias and curb the structural racism in the federally-funded institution responsible for preserving the U.S. primary documents.

In the 105-page report completed in April 2021 and released this month, the task force detailed ways the National Archives can discuss racial inequality both internally and in customer-facing operations, contending that racism permeates all aspects of culture at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

National Archivist David Ferriero formed the task force following the death of George Floyd last year.

The task forces report cited Floyd's death in May 2020 as the backdrop that led the NARA to address racial inequality and structural racism in their institutions, alleging it unequivocally impacts how NARA staff interact with records, colleagues, and customers.

An example of structural racism emphasized in the report was found in the Rotunda, a room the task force contends lauds wealthy white men in the nations founding while marginalizing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color], women, and other communities.

The Archives Rotunda displays the nations three primary founding documents: the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. The Rotunda also highlights other elements of American history and the country's founding.

One of the actions the racism task force recommended was to Reimagine the Rotunda by recontextualizing murals and architectural elements, as well as a new exhibition that is more inclusive.

The report suggested that adding the perspective of non-white men and implementing dance or performance art in the Rotunda to invite dialogue about how the U.S. mythologized the founding era.

The report also suggested each NARA facility should add "safe spaces."

The task force realized the recommendation to re-design the central room of the flagship museum featuring the three main documents that chartered American freedom will cause dissension.

Reimagining the Rotunda will stir controversy, the document noted. Many Americans have embraced an idealized story of the nations founding as part of their personal identities. Those who interpret changes to the Rotunda as a challenge to passionately held beliefs may respond negatively.

Due to this, the task force said it would seek to add to instead of repudiate the nations origins, emphasizing that the traditional story of the founding fathers is not the whole story.

The task force concluded that it's time for NARA to encourage discussion of the difficult and divided history and embrace the complexity of the American story in the Rotunda, which they said involved including all of We the People in this space of the museum.

Its reverential, quasi-religious treatment of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights does not adequately reflect a full history of the founding of the United States, the report said of the museums main space.

And as we are learning through the comments of staff and visitors, some find the Rotundas language and imagery exclusionary, the report continued.

The task force stated that the U.S. is reckoning with its past in unprecedented ways due to the Black Lives Matter movements role in increasing national interest in systemic racism.

The report emphasized a need for reform in accountability, resources, BIPOC recruitment and retention, training, internal reflection, outreach and external partnerships.

Conservative leaders have spoken out against the report they see as an attack on American history by the woke.

I look forward to the National Archives tearing down the rotunda and building instead a Tent of Grievances, conservative media host Ben Shapiro tweeted sarcastically.

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted: Once again, American history is being denigrated by woke leftists. We will not stand for this. Are the leftists trying to destroy this country?

House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News that the report is "nothing more than progressive propaganda seeking to erase our nations' history."

"America should be celebrated, not reviled  especially by our own federal government," Cormer said in a statement. "This report is a prime example of government waste. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund a woke agenda seeking to revise America's history."

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., an African American who also serves on the House Oversight Committee, told the conservative news outlet that each time the political left "inappropriately uses" the term racism, "they are cheapening and lessening the real significance of the actual definition."

"One thing is abundantly clear; everything America represents is racist and evil to Democrats," Donalds was quoted as saying. "They will continue to tarnish this nation until they successfully change it. My goal is to make them unsuccessful."

Once again, American history is being denigrated by woke leftists. We will not stand for this. Are the leftists trying to destroy this country?https://t.co/RW8N3O9JxK  Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 27, 2021

The National Archive task force report comes as there has been a national debate surrounding critical race theory.

Critics contend that critical race theory is tied to Marxist critical theory and criticizes the U.S. and Western nations as being oppressive and promoting institutional systemic racism or white supremacy.

CRT teaches that systemic racism is ingrained in every aspect of American life and is a source of controversy as critics contend it divides people by race.

CRT first arose in academic journals three decades ago and is now being taught at public schools, government agencies and business training programs.

It has become a source of contention within the education system as it seeps into curriculums across the country.
Nurses protest Methodist hospital after over 150 lose jobs for refusing COVID-19 vaccine

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Over 100 protesters and counter-protesters gathered outside of Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas on Saturday in opposition to the hospital system's COVID-19 vaccine mandate that led to over 150 lost jobs.

Im running out of options for my career because of a mandatory vaccine that could affect my fertility," Keri R., a registered nurse previously employed at Houston Methodist, told FOX 26 Houston at the protest.

The hospital system, which includes eight hospitals and over 26,000 employees, set a Monday, June 7 deadline for all employees to be fully vaccinated.

Employees not fully vaccinated by then were suspended for 14 days without pay. And at the end of the suspension, those not fully vaccinated were fired or resigned.

Over 150 former employees were fired or resigned over their refusal to receive the mandated COVID-19 vaccine.

Some employees received an exemption for pregnancy, medical and religious reasons.

The hospitals April vaccine mandate made it the first major healthcare system in the United States to do so, ABC News reported.

Over 100 former employees have filed a lawsuit regarding the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy.

Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse and the leading plaintiff, worked at the hospital for nearly seven years before being fired for refusing to receive the mandatory vaccine.

Bridges still has natural antibodies from already having the virus, which protects her from receiving it again.

She said they are not giving proper informed consent about the vaccine and are turning people into guinea pigs.

"I have personally witnessed horrible adverse reactions to hundreds and hundreds of people," Bridges told FOX 26 Houston on Saturday.

"It scares me because the public doesnt know the truth," she said.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, Ronald Reagan appointee, dismissed the lawsuit on June 12, deeming Bridges allegations that the vaccines are experimental and dangerous false and irrelevant, according to court documents.

Bridges said they plan to continue fighting the hospital managements mandated vaccine policy in court and believes the lawsuit will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The COVID-19 vaccine is currently administered through an Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration but has not yet met the requirements to be FDA-approved since it is still in its early stages.

Dr. Marc Boom, Houston Methodist President and CEO, said around 25,000 members of the staff had been vaccinated, and he believes it is safe.

"We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation," Boom said in a statement.

"All our employees have now met the requirements of the vaccine policy and I couldnt be prouder of them, he continued. Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients, who are always at the center of everything we do. They have fulfilled their sacred obligation as health care workers, and we couldnt ask for a more dedicated, caring and talented team."

Boom said in a statement that unfortunately, a small number of individuals have decided not to put their patients first.

The Christian Post reached out to Houston Methodist Hospital for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Reports have recently surfaced linking heart inflammation, especially in adolescents, to receiving the mRNA vaccine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has maintained that the benefits of receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks.

A CDC safety panel reported last week, however, that there is a likely a likely association between receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults.

The latest report from the CDC shows over 179 million Americans, or 54%, are fully vaccinated.

Many public and private colleges and universities require students to receive the vaccination for the next school year, which has sparked concern.

Dr. Robert Malone, who helped create some of the mRNA technology used in the COVID-19 vaccine, appeared on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight last week to discuss his concerns about the vaccine for people who are not at high risk for COVID-19, like children and young adults.

"[O]ne of my concerns are that the government is not being transparent with us about what those risks are. And so, I am of the opinion that people have the right to decide whether to accept vaccines or not, especially since these are experimental vaccines," Malone said on the show.

For young adults, at least, Malone said he has a bias that the benefits probably don't outweigh the risks and said a proper risk-benefit analysis had not been done.

Reports have also surfaced that West Point cadets have faced harsh treatment for opting out of receiving the vaccine.

New York has implemented a universal vaccine passport system to enter participating businesses, while other states like Florida have banned vaccine passports and restrict any business or entity from requiring proof of vaccination status.
I want to tell no more, to leave all the afterwards to the invention and imagination of people

The Prince Entering the Briar Wood was a preparatory work for Edward Burne-Joness celebrated painting cycle, The Legend of the Briar Rose. The only Briar Rose canvas left in private hands, its subject obsessed the artist for more than 20 years

Buscot Park, Lord Faringdons Neo-Classical house near the banks of the River Thames in Oxfordshire, is home to one of the greatest treasures of Victorian art: Edward Burne-Joness The Legend of the Briar Rose. The cycle of paintings, linked by sinuous, drowsy bodies and creeping rose vines, recounts the scene in the story of Sleeping Beauty where the brave knight discovers a bewitched castles court and the princess he will awaken with a kiss. It was the culmination of more than 20 years work and at least nine preliminary paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite artist. It is Burne-Joness masterpiece, says Peter Brown, senior director of 19th Century European Art at Christies, and it caused a sensation when it was first shown to the public. On 8 July, Christies in London is offering Burne-Joness The Prince Entering the Briar Wood  the painting that initiated the project and the only Briar Rose work left in private hands.

Part of Edward Burne-Joness painting series, The Legend of the Briar Rose, at Buscot Park in Oxfordshire. Photo: The Faringdon Collection Trust

The story of Sleeping Beauty was well known to Victorian audiences. First told by Charles Perrault in his 17th-century Contes du Temps Passe, it was revived in the 19th century by the Brothers Grimm, and then by Tennyson in his poem The Day-Dream. The tales chivalrous knights and fair maidens struck a chord with the Pre-Raphaelites amorous sensibilities and their obsession with the Middle Ages. The brotherhood had been founded on a belief that medieval culture possessed a spiritual quality sadly lost in the industrial age of the Victorians. I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be in a land no one can define, or remember, only desire, Burne-Jones once wrote. He had been painting scenes from Arthurian legends and depictions of knights since the early 1860s, and initially turned his attention to the subject of Sleeping Beauty for a series of tile designs in 1864. But it wasnt until 1869, following a suggestion from his patron William Graham, a Liberal MP for Glasgow, that Burne-Jones reworked the theme in oils for the canvas being offered at Christies.

The subject of the Briar Rose struck a chord with Burne-Jones in 1869 because he identified with the storys prince, who battles his way through thorns in order to find true love, says Brown. Indeed, 1869 was a tumultuous year for the artist. Aged 36, he had revealed to his lover, muse and pupil Maria Zambaco that he was abandoning their plan to elope. Burne-Jones had met and fallen in love with the beautiful Greek heiress three years earlier, but when their whirlwind affair came to a head, he announced that he was going to stay in London with his wife and two children. Zambaco responded by throwing herself into Regents Canal in an attempted suicide.

Emotionally shattered, Burne-Jones began working impulsively on his Briar Rose series, starting and then abandoning several canvases in rapid succession. After painting The Prince Entering the Briar Wood, he placed it to one side and spent the next four years in his studio experimenting with other compositions of sleeping characters from the legend. The works that resulted include the small Briar Rose series now housed at the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, The Sleeping Beauty, in Manchester Art Gallery, and Study for the Sleeping Knights in The Briar Rose, in Liverpools Walker Art Gallery. In 1874, he began work on a series of four much larger Briar Rose canvases that would take him 16 years to finish.

Thousands of the most cultivated people hastened to see, and passionately to admire, the painters masterpiece  The Times

I think he kept returning to the Briar Rose subject because he was fascinated by this idea of reawakening, new beginnings and what comes next, says Brown. He even said: I want it to stop with the princess asleep and to tell no more, to leave all the afterwards to the invention and imagination of people. The four finished pictures were finally unveiled to the public at Agnews gallery in London in 1890. According to The Times, thousands of the most cultivated people hastened to see, and passionately to admire, the painters masterpiece.

Another of the preliminary Briar Rose canvases revisited by Edward Coley Burne-Jones in his final years was The Sleeping Princess, 1874. Oil on canvas. 126 x 237 cm. Photo:  Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane / Bridgeman Images

Agnews sold the paintings to Lord Faringdon for 18,000. In accordance with Burne-Joness wishes, he installed them in a north-facing room at Buscot Park and lit them with electric lamps. After visiting Buscot Park, Burne-Jones painted 10 more pictures of thorn bushes and roses to hang around the room between the original paintings, adding a sense of continuity and bringing the total number of pictures to 14. In 2018-19, the entire cycle was loaned to the Tate for the exhibition Edward Burne-Jones.

The Prince Entering the Briar Wood has hung at Houghton Hall in Norfolk since 2001. Photo:  Neil Holmes / Bridgeman Images

Burne-Jones spent his final years revisiting several other preliminary Briar Rose canvases that remained in his studio, including paintings now housed at the Delaware Art Museum, Bristol Art Gallery and Dublins Hugh Lane Gallery.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and British agencies disclosed on Thursday details of brute force methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to try to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations.

An advisory released by the U.S. National Security Agency describes attacks by operatives linked to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, which has been previously tied to major cyberattacks abroad and efforts to disrupt the 2016 and 2020 American elections.

In a statement, NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce said the campaign was likely ongoing, on a global scale.

Brute force attacks involve the automated spraying of sites with potential passwords until hackers gain access. The advisory urges companies to adopt methods long urged by experts as common-sense cyber hygiene, including the use of multi-factor authentication and mandating strong passwords.

Issued during a devastating wave of ransomware attacks on governments and key infrastructure, the advisory does not disclose specific targets of the campaign or its presumed purpose, saying only that hackers have targeted hundreds of organizations worldwide.

The NSA says GRU-linked operatives have tried to break into networks using Kubernetes, an open-source tool originally developed by Google to manage cloud services, since at least mid-2019 through early this year. While a significant amount of the attempted break-ins targeted organizations using Microsoft's Office 365 cloud services, the hackers went after other cloud providers and email servers as well, the NSA said.

The U.S. has long accused Russia of using and tolerating cyberattacks for espionage, spreading disinformation, and the disruption of governments and key infrastructure.

The Russian Embassy in Washington on Thursday strictly denied the involvement of Russian government agencies in cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies or private companies.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the embassy said, We hope that the American side will abandon the practice of unfounded accusations and focus on professional work with Russian experts to strengthen international information security.

Joe Slowik, a threat analyst at the network-monitoring firm Gigamon, said the activity described by NSA on Thursday shows the GRU has further streamlined an already popular technique for breaking into networks. He said it appears to overlap with Department of Energy reporting on brute force intrusion attempts in late 2019 and early 2020 targeting the U.S. energy and government sectors and is something the U.S. government has apparently been aware of for some time.

Slowik said the use of Kubernetes is certainly a bit unique, although on its own it doesnt appear worrying. He said the brute force method and lateral movement inside networks described by NSA are common among state-backed hackers and criminal ransomware gangs, allowing the GRU to blend in with other actors.

John Hultquist, vice president of analysis at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, characterized the activity described in the advisory as routine collection against policy makers, diplomats, the military, and the defense industry.

This is a good reminder that the GRU remains a looming threat, which is especially important given the upcoming Olympics, an event they may well attempt to disrupt, Hultquist said in a statement.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency joined the advisory, as did the British National Cyber Security Centre.

The GRU has been repeatedly linked by U.S. officials in recent years to a series of hacking incidents. In 2018, special counsel Robert Muellers office charged 12 military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic emails that were then released by WikiLeaks in an effort to harm Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and boost Donald Trumps bid.

More recently, the Justice Department announced charges last fall against GRU officers in cyberattacks that targeted a French presidential election, the Winter Olympics in South Korea and American businesses.

Unlike Russias foreign intelligence agency SVR, which is blamed for the SolarWinds hacking campaign and is careful not to be detected in its cyber ops, the GRU has carried out the most damaging cyberattacks on record, including two on Ukraines power grid and the 2017 NotPetya virus that caused more than $10 billion in damage globally.

GRU operatives have also been involved in the spread of disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. officials have alleged. And an American intelligence assessment in March says the GRU tried to monitor people in U.S. politics in 2019 and 2020 and staged a phishing campaign against subsidiaries of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, likely to gather information damaging to President Joe Biden, whose son had earlier served on the board.

The Biden administration in April sanctioned Russia after linking it to election interference and the SolarWinds breach.

___

Bajak reported from Boston.
DETROIT (AP)  When Rory Gamble took over as president of the United Auto Workers in 2019, the union was embroiled in a federal corruption probe that had ensnared two of Gamble's predecessors. It had just endured a 40-day strike against General Motors. And then the viral pandemic erupted, forcing auto plants to halt production and idle its workers for weeks until safety precautions were adopted.

It won't get any easier for Gamble's successor, Ray Curry. He will preside over a union that faces monumental changes as the auto business navigates an epochal transition from internal combustion engines to battery-electric powered vehicles.

Yet Gamble, 65, insists he is leaving the UAW in solid shape, with, among other things, financial safeguards in place to help prevent corruption. He cautions, though, that it is critical for the union to organize battery and electric vehicle component factories and to secure decent wages for workers in the face of the automakers' efforts to reduce labor costs.

The Associated Press spoke with Gamble on Wednesday, his last day of work, about the future of the union. The interview was edited for clarity and length.

___

Q: YOURE LEAVING ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE THE END OF YOUR TERM. WHY NOW?

A: Im very confident the UAW is in great hands. My replacement, Ray Curry, his abilities, his resume  hes got a lot of seat time and leadership underneath him. I think its an appropriate time for me to go. Ive always had this belief that we should put stable, long-term leadership in the presidents chair. And I think thats essential to how we approach agreements. So these companies are going to be dealing with this person for a long time.

___

Q: A COMING VOTE WOULD GIVE WORKERS THE POWER TO DIRECTLY ELECT UNION LEADERS, RATHER THAN PICKING DELEGATES TO A CONVENTION. YET YOURE AGAINST THIS. WHY?

A: A lot of them dont understand all the ramifications. In contemporary times, our problem is anti-union-funded enterprises that spend a lot of money, put out a lot of disinformation to destroy unions. The delegate system allows us to make sure every local in our union has a voice. We have many sectors. One of our largest is auto, with active and retired members. Basically, that large majority vote could take up every spot. And smaller sectors like higher education, gaming, independent parts suppliers, health care  they could get swallowed up and not have representation on the board. It ensures we have women, we have minorities. You could see probably an all-male leadership team that doesnt reflect the membership. One member, one vote has absolutely nothing to do with corruption and will not prevent corruption. Corruption begins in the heart. Strong financial controls and strong accurate oversight prevents corruption.

___

Q: THE UAW FACES PERHAPS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN ITS HISTORY AS THE BUSINESS SHIFTS TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO ORGANIZE BATTERY AND COMPONENT PLANTS?

A: Its very important to the future of the union. But its really essential to the economic future of this country that we maintain good-paying auto manufacturing jobs with good wages, with great benefits. This country needs to bring critical manufacturing back. It takes less people, less components to build an electric car. We need to own our battery technology, or whats happening with the computer chip shortage could also happen with battery sales. So its critical that we bring this manufacturing back home, give these jobs to Americans. And most importantly, they should have a right as American workers to organize. We dont need another $12-, $15-an-hour wage structure for manufacturing. These electric vehicle jobs should be at the rate of the work that they are replacing. Or else we could be in trouble economically in this country.

___

Q: GM AND FORD ARE BUILDING BATTERY FACTORIES. GM HAS SAID THESE SHOULD BE COMPONENT PLANTS, WHERE IT PAYS $22.50 PER HOUR, RATHER THAN THE $31 AT ASSEMBLY OR ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION PLANTS. HOW WILL THE UAW HANDLE THIS?

A: Assembly work should mirror the work it's replacing. The component work should mirror the work it's replacing. I think the workers should have a right to raise their collective voices if they want to unionize. People have to remember, a lot of these companies that are being partnered with are foreign companies, and in their countries, unionization is embraced. It's only when they come to America to do business, they don't want American workers to have a voice. When you hear that its up to the workers kind of talk, it means we're in for a fight.

___

Q: IS THIS WHERE THE UNION HAS TO MAKE A STAND NOW  GETTING TOP WAGES AT THESE PLANTS?

A: At Ford, at GM, I'm very confident that we'll be successful with a card-check type of atmosphere. (Workers can sign cards to join a union.) I think it's essential for Ford and GM to have that position. It shows that they are truly engaged with maintaining strong American manufacturing jobs. If this technology holds, I believe it will grow, you'll see more critical component manufacturing coming back home to America. Were working very hard to have extreme cooperation and extreme transparency with the Big Three automakers. In all my conversations with GM and Ford, I've been very comfortable that they get it, they understand it.

___

Q: GIVEN THAT EVs TAKE LESS LABOR TO BUILD THAN CURRENT VEHICLES DO, DO YOU FORESEE FEWER UNION AUTO JOBS?

A: I see growth for our union because were so diverse. When you look beyond auto manufacturing, in gaming and higher education, weve been steadily increasing our footprint. Overall, I see a gain. But in auto, I see a leveling-out point. I see additional jobs, if we capture all the component work and start bringing a lot of this work back home like you hear President Biden talking about.

___

Q: WILL IT TAKE A STRIKE  WILL YOU HAVE TO PLAY HARDBALL  TO REPRESENT THESE NEW JOBS?

A: Im confident with the way weve been talking to these manufacturers, we'll get there. Our discussions have really changed for the positive. Whether or not we need to strike or take any kind of action would be dictated by the tone of the negotiations. I never go into negotiations with a strike in mind.
Bill Cosbys release from prison has managed to shock the nation, and for survivors of sexual assault, the news is nothing short of triggering.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS: Keep your hands off my uterus, Greg Abbott [Opinion]

Twitter was flooded with a mix of comments in support of or dismay at the former actor and comedian's release. What seemed to add salt into the wound for some survivors was Cosby receiving support from Black women. One voice that rang particularly loud was that of Cosby's longtime television co-star, Houston native Phylicia Rashad.

NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Rashad shared tweets supporting his release on Wednesday. She wrote, "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"

Twitter immediately went into an uproar over her stance.

One Twitter user @CandiceBenbow wrote, "Howard cant let that stand. For the sake of every young woman on that campus, they simply cannot. And I say that as someone who deeply loves and respects her."

Rashad recently took a dean of fine arts position at her alma mater, the celebrated Howard University in Washington D.C. Considering the number of sexual assaults that take place on college campuses every year, it was astounding to see her take such a stance. It's particularly harmful to both Black men and women who are victims.

Another user @deardrewdixon tweeted, "That Tweet from @PhyliciaRashad is toxic rape enabling at an institutional level. I shudder for the safety of all of the women (and all students, frankly) at @HowardU if this is the public position being taken by an HU dean regarding a man with 50-plus KNOWN victims. Disgraceful."

Fellow Black television sitcom actress Janet Hubert also tweeted out her abhorrence for Rashad's support, directly calling her out.

"Phylicia what are you thinking!!! I don't know you but to say this was terribly wrong. EVERYONE knew what he was doing back then. How could you NOT! Get your umbrella sista here comes the shit shower. I am outraged that he has been released. Yes he is an old ass guilty man!"

It's important to note that despite her open support for him, Cosby's release was based on a technicality due to the court's procedural error. Cosby has admitted his guilt, and dozens of women have come forward.

TIME FOR CHANGE: End period stigma - and give people the day off too [Opinion]

As a Black woman, there are lots of feelings to be had surrounding Rashad's comments.

I find disgust to be the first, and following close behind is disappointment. Her stance is not only painful for victims, but reveals the Claire Huxtable character we once knew as just that  a character.

The number of sitcoms that showcased Black success in the late '80s and early '90s is low  outside of "The Cosby Show," there was, of course, the show's spin-off with "A Different World." The only other exceptions of affluent Black families on the big screen were "The Jeffersons," which went off the air in 1985, and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which stopped production in 1996.

But for me, what made me take such a keen interest in the life of the Huxtables was their leading lady  Rashad as Claire Huxtable. A woman who exemplified style, grace and intelligence.

There are so many victims whose stories go untold and unheard because people in positions of power support their friends and refuse to look at the harm they've caused. I don't subscribe to cancel culture, but Rashad's tone-deafness screams the loudest. My respect for her has slowly dwindled.

After her public support of Cosby, Rashad tweeted another statement Thursday about sexual assault.

"I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing."

Howard University posted a statement to Twitter Wednesday night condemning Rashad's tweet.

"Survivors of sexual assault will always be our first priority, the statement reads. While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault. Personal positions of University leadership do not reflect Howard Universitys policies. We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment."

Between games of status and respectability politics, it seems Howard is trying to handle its new public relations nightmare while avoiding the real issue at hand  a college dean publicly supporting an abuser.

Rashad's tweets and Howard's refusal to engage with the criticism around them are demoralizing and contribute to rape culture.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  The seven justices who reversed Bill Cosbys conviction this week spent months debating whether he had a secret agreement with a prosecutor that tainted his 2018 criminal sexual assault conviction.

In the end, Pennsylvanias highest court ruled that a district attorney had induced Cosby to give incriminating testimony in 2005 for a lawsuit, with the promise that no criminal charges would be filed. Then, a decade later, another prosecutor used it against him  a fundamental violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. Americas Dad walked out of prison Wednesday and won't face any further trials in the case.

The public outcry over Cosbys sudden release three years into a potential 10-year sentence was swift, with #MeToo activists worried it would have a chilling effect on survivors. And lawyers for another high-profile man convicted of sexual assault, Harvey Weinstein, praised the decision.

But criminal law experts believe the court acted reasonably in finding that a prosecutors word should be honored, even by a successor. One called the ruling a wakeup call for prosecutors who might try to quietly resolve a case without a paper trail, or make a deal over a handshake.

It probably would have been much better lawyering to get it all in writing, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor, said of the hidden deal in the Cosby case. Its a teachable moment, I think, for prosecutors across the nation. Its a big lesson.

Levenson, too, fears the quick takeaway is that another celebrity gets away with a crime. More deeply, she said, the case illustrates the need for legal agreements that are open, fair and transparent.

For survivors of sexual assault, its got to be another incredibly upsetting, frustrating moment, she said. So (there are) good lessons for prosecutors and hard lessons for survivors.

The court heard arguments in December. On Wednesday, a majority of the justices, 6-1, found Cosbys case should be overturned. But the justices split 4-2 on whether he should go free or face a third trial. The two dissenting justices questioned if Cosby had ever really been promised immunity  or whether an abuse of power led to former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castors odd and ever-shifting explanations of his promise to Cosby.

They urged their colleagues to condemn the tactics, lest others follow suit and make promises that later entrap defendants who agree to talk.

We should reject Castors misguided notion outright and declare that district attorneys do not possess this effective pardon power, Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote in a partial dissent.

Castor, testifying for the defense soon after Cosbys arrest in late 2015, said he had promised Cosby's lawyer in 2005 that the actor would never be charged over his encounter with Andrea Constand, in part so that he could help her wage a lawsuit against Cosby.

No legal documents were drafted. No immunity agreements went before a judge. Even Castors top assistant, who had led the initial investigation, said she knew nothing about it. Neither did Constands lawyer, according to testimony at the sometimes surreal preliminary hearing in February 2016.

Castor said he discussed the agreement with a Cosby lawyer who had since died. And he said he issued a signed press release to announce the end of the investigation. Several courts have since parsed the wording of that press release, which opines that both parties in the case could be seen in a less than flattering light, and cautions that Castor would reconsider this decision should the need arise.

Constand, in the wake of that decision, sued Cosby in federal court.

In the depositions that followed, the trailblazing actor made lurid admissions about his sexual encounters with a string of young women. He acknowledged giving them drugs or alcohol beforehand, while he stayed sober and in control. The list included Constand, who said she took what she thought were herbal products at Cosbys direction, only to find herself semiconscious on his couch.

Cosby, in the deposition, famously said he ventured into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection as Constand lay still.

Neither he nor his lawyers ever asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself during four days of sworn testimony.

Cosby wouldve had to have been nuts to say those things if there was any chance he couldve been prosecuted, Castor testified at the 2016 hearing. He said his goal in steering the case to civil court was to find Constand an alternate form of justice.

I was hopeful that I had made Ms. Constand a millionaire, said Castor, who later represented former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, where he was acquitted of inciting the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

In 2015, a federal judge unsealed some of Cosby's testimony upon a request from The Associated Press, and Castors successor reopened the case. Judge Steven ONeill allowed some of the statements to be used at trial.

It was that unusual sequence of events that troubled the Pennsylvania high court  even though ONeill and a lower appeals courts had found Castors talk of a non-prosecution agreement not credible.

Whatever their view of such blanket promises, the Supreme Court justices found that Cosby and his lawyers relied on it in giving the deposition.

Therefore, the principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced, Justice David N. Wecht wrote for the four-person majority, which included all three of the high courts female judges.

The panel avoided ruling on the thorny issue of how many witnesses should be allowed to testify about a defendant's prior bad acts in a criminal case  an issue many lawyers hoped they would clarify.

ONeill had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosbys first trial in 2017, but upped the number to five at the retrial the following year, when Cosby was convicted.

Everyone was watching this case for the other evidence ruling. This (ruling) came out of the blue, said Jules Epstein, a Temple University law professor.

At least one justice, Thomas Saylor, would have sent the case back for a new trial over the other accuser issue, according to his solo opinion. But it become moot when the majority agreed to bar any future prosecutions in the case.

Washington lawyer Joseph Cammarata represented several accusers in defamation suits filed against Cosby, which his insurer settled after the 2018 conviction. He regrets that some people see the ruling as a vindication of the actor.

They havent rejected the allegations of the 60-plus people who asserted that Cosby assaulted them. They havent rejected the five people that testified. Nor have they rejected the jurys verdict that Cosby was guilty of sexual assault-related charges," Cammarata said.

___

Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale
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Citing Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greenes harassment of her colleagues, 37 House Democrats sent a letter to GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy demanding he take action to address Greenes behavior. Unchecked, they say, Greenes actions could lead to violence against members of Congress.

Led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the Thursday letter included signatures from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and other House Democrats. The letter refers to well documented incidents that they say should prompt action from Republican leadership.

The incidents, according to the letter, include the congresswoman from Georgia ignoring mask-wearing protocols in the Capitol building during the height of the pandemic. On one occasion, Greene, along with her staff, berated a colleague who asked her to put on a mask.

In February, Greene displayed offensive signage outside her office to taunt a parent of a transgender child. There are TWO genders, read the sign that Greene hung on a wall across the hall from Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.), who has a transgender daughter. And in March, Greene aggressively confronted and followed Ocasio-Cortez and, as the Washington Post reported at the time, falsely accused her of supporting terrorists. 

You dont care about the American people, Greene shouted at Ocasio-Cortez. Why do you support terrorists and antifa?

The letter says that Greenes conduct does not comport with what we expect from a member of the House of Representatives. Moreover, we are extremely concerned that her conduct is creating an unsafe work environment for members, and that her actions could lead to violence against members of Congress, the letter added.

Greene responded in a statement to CNN, calling the letter absurd.

Every day that goes by without action from your leadership is a tacit endorsement of the Congresswomans offenses, and invitation for her to continue  and escalate further, the members of Congress wrote. Everyone has a right to a workplace free from harassment and abuse, including members of Congress. We urge you in the strongest terms to take immediate action to address Rep. Greenes behavior.
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WASHINGTON  Two.

Thats how many Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to create a select committee that will investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, the worst assault on the heart of American democracy since the War of 1812. The remaining 200-odd House Republicans either voted against the committee or didnt vote at all.

Six months after the insurrection, the vast majority of Republican lawmakers have decided to treat January 6th as yet another partisan wedge issue or to deny the reality of what happened despite all the evidence to the contrary. In the Senate, Republicans blocked an earlier bill to establish a bipartisan independent commission. Now, in the House, fearful as ever of incurring the wrath of Donald Trump and his followers, Republican leaders fought against a select committee and threatened their own colleagues who might sit on that committee.

But an investigation will happen. The select committee created on Wednesday will hold hearings and produce a final report in the same way that past committees did for Watergate, the Pearl Harbor attack, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will pick the committees 13 members, five of them in consultation with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. On Thursday, Pelosi made good on her suggestion that she might name a Republican member by naming Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative and vocal Trump critic, to help run the investigation.

With all that in mind, its worth asking: How will this new investigation work? Will it stand any chance of digging up new information and discerning the truth of what happened on that dark day? Or will it devolve into a partisan circus like the Benghazi investigation of several years ago?

How We Got Here

A week after the January 6th attack, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)  whom Trump infamously berated by phone as lawmakers fled to safety during the insurrection  spoke about the need for accountability and to understand what had just transpired on Capitol Hill. He said then-President Trump bears responsibility for the attack and should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. McCarthy added that Trumps response to the insurrection deserves congressional action, which is why I think a fact-finding commission and a censure resolution would be prudent.

These words carried a certain amount of weight coming from McCarthy. He was one of Trumps most ardent defenders  my Kevin, Trump called him  and a potential future speaker of the House. But as the ensuing weeks would show, the calls for a thorough investigation or independent commission like one McCarthy described were empty talk.

In May, the House passed legislation to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. Like the 9/11 Commission, that body would have enlisted outside experts chosen by both political parties to understand the circumstances leading up to the attack on the Capitol, the security failures and governmental responses on the day itself, and how to prevent future episodes.

That bill passed with the support of 217 Democrats and 35 Republicans, a clear statement of its bipartisan appeal and the urgent need for accountability. But in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies filibustered the bill. Democrats searched for 10 Republican votes to defeat McConnells procedural road block; they found just six. There would be no independent 1/6 commission.

The New Select Committee

This week, Speaker Pelosi responded to the Senate Republican filibuster by introducing a resolution to create a select committee that would probe the events leading up to and on January 6th. That resolution  its technically not a bill  passed Wednesday with the support of just two Republican representatives, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Both Kinzinger and Cheney are outspoken critics of Donald Trump and his stranglehold on the Republican Party. And this time, the January 6th select committee resolution would not need Senate approval.

The new committee will consist of 13 House members. Speaker Pelosi chooses all 13 members but five of those she will select after consultation with McCarthy, the top House Republican. At the end of its investigation, the committee will submit a report about how to prevent future acts of violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism, and to improve the security of the U.S. Capitol Complex and other American democratic institutions.

Republicans who voted for the earlier independent commission but against the select committee said they didnt want to support a panel that would become too partisan. I supported a bipartisan independent commission, Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) told CNN. This is the opposite. Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) said it was essential we have a thorough, credible January 6 investigation in order to produce an objective report to get at the truth and clear away fictions and lies. He went on, I fear the structure of this partisan select committee will not produce that critical outcome.

Benghazi Redux?

In explaining his opposition to the new select committee, Rep. Meijer pointed to a cautionary tale of recent vintage: the select committee created to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya.

That committee spent two-and-a-half years and $7.8 million on a sprawling probe that lasted longer than past congressional investigations into the Pearl Harbor attack, Watergate, 9/11, and the Kennedy and King assassinations. Originally created to scrutinize the Benghazi attacks and the deaths of four Americans including U.S. diplomat Christopher Stevens, the endless Benghazi select committee veered into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server and came to be viewed as a partisan exercise intended to damage Clintons chances of winning the White House in 2016.

McCarthy fueled those criticisms when he appeared on Fox News and linked Clintons polling with the select committees work. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? he said. But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because shes untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought and made that happen.

The fear is that partisanship and tribal loyalties will doom the January 6th committee from start not unlike what happened with the Benghazi select committee. Whether the committee treats it work seriously or not depends almost entirely on its make-up. Should Minority Leader McCarthy put forward five Trump loyalists or election-fraud conspiracy theorists for the committee, its not hard to imagine circus-like public hearings and dueling reports that muddle the committees work as happened during the Benghazi inquiry.

According to Punchbowl News, McCarthy warned any of his members that if they accepted Pelosis invitation to join the committee, they would effectively lose their committee assignments. Pelosi has, in a sense, sought to preempt such an outcome by nominating Cheney, a neo-conservative and dyed-in-the-wool Republican. She joins senior Democrats including Reps. Adam Schiff, Zoe Lofgren, and Bennie Thompson, the three of whom chair committees with oversight related to the January 6th insurrection.
A new American legend has landed at the Houston Zoo, permanently.

Meet Mae, a bald eagle named after Mae Jemison  the first Black woman in space. A Texas game warden found the bird with an extensive wing injury in East Texas during the historic freeze February freeze, according to the zoo.

HEADS UP: What Houston needs to know about two disturbances in the Atlantic

Experts from wildlife rehabilitation facility Last Chance Forever and the Angelina Animal Hospital worked tirelessly to heal her, but they were unable to fix the wing.

That meant they weren't able to release the injured bird back into the wild. Instead, she was transported to the Houston Zoo, where Mae will live for the rest of her majestic days.

Jackelin Reyna/Houston Zoo:

After some time in isolation, Mae paired nicely with another grounded bald eagle at the zoo named Sally  named after Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

Sally was brought to the zoo under similar circumstances years ago.

The pair can be seen in the Texas Wetlands exhibit.
Pride month looks different every year.

Each generation, it seems, has its own lens on what Pride represents. This year, as we crawled out of the pits of a pandemic, the LGBTQ+ community was ready to party.

DUMPLINGS TO DANCE: Patronize these 11 LGBTQ-owned businesses this Pride month (and every month)

I love watching open displays of pride and joy in any way people choose to express them, including by going out to bars and clubs. But to be perfectly honest, my anxiety and FOMO were at a 10 during Pride weekend this year. As someone who enjoys nightlife in moderation, I wondered for three days straight where my, and other like-minded queer peoples, seat at the table was.

With June coming to an end, Pride month is suddenly over for the year. Although I understand and wholly respect the significance and impact of the revolution that made Pride possible  the privilege of living during a day and age where we can wear rainbow emblazoned garb freely and gather to celebrate our queerness without threat of being thrown in jail and how generations before us fought like hell to get us to this point  I also could not be more thrilled that July has arrived.

For a month meant to celebrate inclusivity and unity, I felt on the outskirts, watching my peers on Instagram stories living it up night after night after night. I couldnt help but wonder what impact the emphasis on alcohol-infused nightlife was having on sober queer folks, queer youth and those who just arent keen on being out late at bars and clubs.

I was recently texting back and forth with a friend who was trying to solidify his plans for going out to the bars in Montrose, presumably to satisfy his innate obligation to ceremoniously mark Pride. At one point he lamented, I usually wouldnt go out this late, but I just feel like I need to do something to celebrate Pride this year. I realized that to him, and to myself to an extent, clubbing is the only thing that would satisfy that intention and desire.

Ive never been one to go out to bars and clubs every weekend. I do enjoy throwing an outfit together and venturing into the gayborhood every now and then, but Ive found that my insecurities and anxieties are heightened when Im around other gay men to whom I am constantly comparing myself.

Add alcohol to the equation and I am, more times than not, left feeling much worse about myself than when I walked in.

Gay bars serve an important purpose in the LGBTQ+ community. Finding a free space in a crowded bar while imbibing with others before eventually relocating to the dance floor is a borderline initiation checkpoint into queer life. These safe spaces for queer people to be their authentic selves, drink and dance the night away, be amongst friends and allies, and possibly land a hook up (if that's the goal), are commonplace for many when it comes to socializing in the community.

But bars and nightclubs are not ideal, inclusive of, nor accessible to queer youth, adults who are sober or recovering from addiction, or just queer folks who are seeking a change of pace from the late-night party scene. Sober, queer-owned-and-aligned spaces have begun popping up around the country, offering an alternative to a typical socialization environment for the LGBTQ+, and its high-time Houston entrepreneurs explored this concept for our city.

Houston is home to several LGBTQ+ bars, each one offering their own unique aesthetic and intrigue. When I came out, I took a friend up on his offer to take me to my first gay club. We met late at night and took an Uber to the venue that Id admittedly done zero research on, but had heard rumblings about from other queer people.

Upon arrival, I was immediately given a wrist band, meant to show bartenders I was of legal drinking age. I stepped a little further into the space and was greeted by flashing strobe lights, deafeningly loud music blasting from speakers and a dance floor packed with shirtless men and beautiful women  and I felt my heart sink into my gut. I felt so out of place and, although I was craving connection with other gay folks to form bonds and relationships with, those were not going to be established in a space where I could barely hear myself shout my drink order over the pulsating, albeit intoxicating, house music.

Once I ultimately did start making friends and connections in the community, I learned I wasnt the only one who felt this way.

Its so stressful, a friend of mine, who happens to be sober, once lamented over Tex-Mex when the topic turned to the expectation and pressure to be out and about at bars and clubs, specifically during Pride weekend. The emphasis on nightlife and partying is appealing to some, but it certainly shouldnt be the only option.

Aside from those who actively work to avoid alcohol, based on sobriety, religion, health, or personal reasons, some queer folks have a desire to connect with others and form friendships with other members of the LGBTQ+ community in more low-key settings. Having a community within the community isnt necessary, but it is certainly helpful.

Outside of dating apps, which are already daunting and bring along their own set of stress-inducing circumstances, options for connecting are limited for the introverted among us. Having a one-stop queer-owned coffee shop specifically for LGBTQ+ folks, such as the now-closed Cuties in West Hollywood in Los Angeles, is one example of a space where members of the community could visit and know they are welcomed, represented and can gather safely, freely and without temptation to drink alcohol. Cuties, in its heyday, was a haven for all members of the queer community, a meeting space for social groups, and the owners even hosted events throughout the week.

Its an interesting dichotomy to see our world and society become more and more progressive and open to LGBTQ+ representation and acceptance, but weve seemingly yet to expand the net of socialization within our own community.

Clearly bars are the more profitable and alluring option for business owners mesmerized by the powerful and valuable pink dollar, but investing in different pockets of the LGBTQ+ community is just as, if not more, powerful. This is not to say we should have no more bars and only sober spaces, but just as we yearn for more inclusivity for our community in society at-large, we must also look into our own spaces to see who is being left out and underrepresented. That list has slowly gotten shorter over the years, but we still have a ways to go.

Bringing sober spaces into the mainstream and creating environments for underage queer youth to grab a smoothie with their friends, sober LGBTQ+ folks to feel at home, and everyone in between looking to mix up their social experiences would provide affordable and inclusive options for queer people of all backgrounds and interests to just be.

In her Netflix special "Nanette," comedian and activist Hannah Gadsby speaks to the heart of the introverted-leaning queer community members as she ponders, Where do the quiet gays go? Spaces that serve as alternatives to bar settings, such as coffee shops, bookstores and more, would be a welcomed and revolutionary concept for our diverse and ever-growing city, packed with queer folks who may enjoy the fun and energy of a gay bar on occasion, but also enjoy great coffee, good food and deep conversation.

The Pride I see today is synonymous with boozy brunches, big parties and scenes of clubs that are packed to the brim with queer folks celebrating with cheap cocktails and house music blaring through speakers  which is amazing. I personally struggle, and have found others do as well, to find where we fit in and where our place in this crazy world of being out and proud is (or as an acquaintance recently put it, [Pride parties] just dont really seem like your scene.).

If only there was a space in the middle where the music volume was lower, conversations could be had that allow queer people to connect with one another on a personal and platonic level, and people could just be amongst other quiet, sober, or non-drinking aged gays to connect, hang out and still celebrate our queerness simply by existing, those left on the outskirts of these parties and clubs would begin to more easily find our place in this eclectic and amazing community.

Until then, I will still enjoy my occasional night at The Eagle and JRs, shout some conversations over a dubstep remix of Believe by Cher while sipping on a gin and tonic, and continue to support the safe spaces we currently do have for our community.

In between drinks and alcohol-infused dance breaks, I will continue to yearn and hope for a day when spaces like Cuties, and others like it, will be a dime a dozen in Houston and Im able to sit with friends, old and new, and drink coffee while waiting for our queer book club to start.
After her TikTok about a transparency letter she sent to her bridesmaids, one San Antonio bride-to-be is using her online platforms to share her experience  and opinions  on wedding planning.

Lisa Torres is an auditor based here in the Alamo City, but social media users from across the globe may know her by her online handle, @lisalovesrandom. Her recent TikTok, in which she discusses a transparency letter she sent to her potential bridesmaids, went viral on the platform. The video caused a whole lot of debate about bridesmaid culture and expectations, and even inspired Torres to keep creating content throughout her wedding planning process.

READ ALSO: This former Texas anchor celebrated her nuptials at Costco

In the letter, Torres wrote out the time and money commitments that come with being a bridesmaid, something that she wished she had known before being a bridesmaid herself. Torres says being a bridesmaid not only takes up a lot of time between wedding dress shopping, bridal shower (something shes not even sure she wants), the bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and the ceremony itself, but is also a major financial commitment. Although she said she and her friends are all in their late 20s and financially stable, she wanted all the ladies to know that they were getting themselves into.

Whenever I was thinking about how different one wedding can be to another, thats when I realized OK, let me just lay it all out right here, Torres tells MySA. It is time.

Most importantly, Torres gave her besties the option to say no to being a bridesmaid without there being any hard feelings. One friend respectfully declined, which Torres says she totally understood.

The average cost of being a bridesmaid for an American wedding is easily over $1,000, Torres says. The motivation really came from me wanting to be below the average.

Torres said she put the incredibly organized letter together one night, and was sure to include details about the wedding attire (including colors and aesthetics); the bachelorette party (which will be held at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico); and her expectations on when her bridesmaids will need to be by her side (depending on whether they live in or near San Antonio, or quite a bit away).

READ MORE: Not-so-rich Texans go crazy for Southlake castle on 'Zillow Gone Wild'

And being the Type A personality that she is, Torres included an FAQ section of sorts in which she disclosed how her wedding party is going down. The wedding party wont have to sit at the head table (instead with their plus-1) and Torres will even pay for her bridesmaids hair and makeup on the big day.

That was my decision, Torres says of her covering the beauty costs. I was just trying to be fair.

Social media users had a variety of opinions, from some criticizing Torres over the expectations of bridesmaids (a culture that Torres has no control over) to others commending her for her honesty. Others offered up suggestions for the letter, such as more detailed information about responsibilities for the maid of honor.

Lisa Torres

Despite the negative attention, Torres has no plans to stop sharing wedding content on TikTok and Instagram. She plans to keep posting about her own wedding-planning up until her big day in May 2022, but says she may even share more insight afterward. Part of that content will touch on how Torres wants her wedding to be on her own terms.

Theres a lot of tradition that I dont want to do, Torres admits. I dont plan on doing the bouquet toss. I dont plan on doing the garter toss. Thats just not my preference.

While she says tradition is important for many brides, she hopes her example can help others understand that its OK to want their wedding day to be exactly as they want it (as long as theyre not being unreasonable).

You can keep up with Torres on TikTok and Instagram.
Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Turtle hatchling releases are back on at Padre Island National Seashore this summer, but there are a few caveats in place according to officials.

According to the national park's Facebook page, the plans are to host the releases at the Malaquite Visitor Center on July 10, 11, 23, and 24 and on August 4, 5, and 6. The popular events can only take place if the rate of COVID-19 transmission reaches low or moderate in the three counties  Nueces, Kenedy, and Kleberg  that surround PINS.
The Houston-area jeweler who was allegedly defrauding customers out of thousands of dollars back in May has been apprehended  but on separate charges, authorities say.

HOUSTON SCAMS: FBI warns of COVID-19 vaccine scams and how to avoid them

ALKU Jewelry Store owner Santiago Mora was found and arrested by FBI agents in Miami, as first reported by Matt Dougherty at KHOU.

According to court documents, Mora owed almost $4 million to a business for watches he never delivered. Mora also allegedly scammed some Houston residents for watches and engagement rings.

Via Alku Jewelry

One person claiming to be a victim of Mora's scams told Chron he purchased a limited edition Omega-brand watch back in July 2019, which he says he never received. Other victims were given superb deals on jewelry that required upfront payments, but customers allegedly never received their pieces.

At one point in time, ALKU Jewelry was listed by Omega as an authorized dealer in the city of Houston. Customers were attracted to the jeweler because he told them he was capable of getting rare, custom-made pieces.

BUYER BEWARE: Don't fall for this 'jury duty' scam popping up in Houston

Court documents mention that along with fraud, Mora is accused of theft and other fraudulent related crimes in Fort Bend County.

Mora told KHOU via text that he wasn't on the run, and that he was "just finalizing finances... to take care of those issues."
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)  A shooting rampage down a main street running through a neighborhood in Haiti's capital killed at least 15 people, including a journalist and a political activist, national Police Chief Leon Charles said Wednesday.

He said the attack late Tuesday was still under investigation and gave no details on whether it was staged by a single person or multiple shooters. Bodies were found scattered on sidewalks along a main road in Delmas 32, which is a bustling community within Port-au-Prince.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A massive explosion rocked a Los Angeles neighborhood as homemade fireworks were being destroyed by a bomb squad, leaving a trail of destruction, injuries and questions in its wake as the July Fourth holiday approaches.

Seventeen people were hurt Wednesday night  including nine Los Angeles police officers and a federal agent  in the blast, which also flipped and damaged cars and smashed windows in homes and a laundromat. The explosion was heard blocks away.

It could take days to determine why the material exploded inside a spherical containment vessel on a tractor-trailer, tearing the rig apart in what was supposed to be a safe operation to handle explosives that were too unstable to remove from a South Los Angeles neighborhood where tons of illegal fireworks were discovered.

The one-ton lid of the vessel flew into a backyard two blocks away, breaking a lemon tree and damaging the house, KNBC-TV reported.

Experts say the explosion was highly unusual, especially for a law enforcement agency with the size and resources of the Los Angeles Police Department. The blast could have been the result of human error  such as not correctly sealing the vessel or over-loading it with material  or a defect in the equipment like a micro-fissure that has grown with time and use. Or both.

They were very lucky that nobody got killed here, said Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Bomb squads nationwide will likely now double-check their own equipment in remote locations, to be sure there arent potential defects in their containment vessels, which cost tens of thousands of dollars, that could hurt more people, Corbett said.

The LAPD did not answer questions Thursday seeking information such as how old the containment vessel was and how many times it had been used and inspected. But Chief Michel Moore previously said clearly, protocols were followed and pursued.

"But something happened in that containment vessel that should not have happened, and we dont know why, Moore said. But we intend to find out why.

Less than 10 pounds (4.54 kilograms) of material was placed in the chamber, far less than its safety rating, Moore said. He described the material as 40 home-made devices the size of Coca-Cola cans with simple fuses and 200 smaller but similar devices.

This vessel should have been able to dispose of that material, he said. But instead there was a total, catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle.

Typically, the heavy-duty hydraulic doors will latch and lock  usually by remote  and the detonation is instantaneous. The displaced blast wave is absorbed by the vessel and released outside safely.

You wouldnt even know, said Sean Dennis, president and co-founder of the United States Bomb Technician Association, besides a muffled ding and a light hiss when some of the pressure is released.

The LAPD has not said what company made the containment device. Attempts to reach several manufacturers Thursday were unsuccessful.

The explosion came after police had spent the day disposing of about 3,000 to 5,000 pounds (1,360 to 2,268 kilograms) of commercial-grade fireworks that were found in the home following an early-morning tip. Police found some of them on a patio in cartons stacked 8 to 10 feet (2.44 to 3 meters) high, Moore said.

Fireworks are illegal to sell or possess in Los Angeles and in unincorporated areas of the county.

A resident, Arturo Cejas, 27, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a destructive device, but he also may face charges of child endangerment because his 10-year-old brother was in the home, Moore said.

It wasn't immediately known whether Cejas had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The fireworks cartons were marked Made in China." The police chief said they were bought out of state in order to sell them in the neighborhood for use on the Fourth of July.

Peter Diaczuk, a forensic science professor at John Jay, said the size of the blast indicated high-explosive devices that wouldn't be used for a local Independence Day celebration.

As the holiday approaches, fire departments statewide are confiscating tens of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks and warning users that setting them off could lead to devastating wildfires. Los Angeles police on Thursday announced that they seized another ton of illegal fireworks from a shipping container and the bomb squad trucked it to a storage facility.

In LA, Moore said on Wednesday that three box trucks and a 53-foot (16-meter) trailer were brought in to load up the fireworks at the South Los Angeles home and move them to a safe location. However, the improvised explosives that were also found were too dangerous to move, the chief said.

There was a 300-foot (91-meter) boundary around the vessel  a typical safety range  and police had knocked on doors before the blast to evacuate homes on both sides of the street where the truck was parked. But firefighters later found people in some of the homes, officials said.

It's not unusual for bomb squads to not know exactly what comprises the homemade explosives they are detonating, Diaczuk said.

You dont know what youre dealing with. You dont know what this character made, he said. It doesnt come with ingredients in it like when you go to the grocery store.
Texas GOP complains about slavery's role in Battle of the Alamo Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick confirmed on Twitter that he called for the event to be canceled. Abbott,...

Pack the car for your Fourth of July road trip Celebrate Independence Day with a getaway in the Hill Country or a Gulf Coast retreat.
BENI, Congo (AP)  At least nine civilians, including women, were killed in an attack by rebels in Congos eastern city of Beni, officials said Thursday. The attack in Beni's Rwangoma neighborhood is the third such attack in the Beni area this week.

Police and the military have blamed Allied Democratic Forces rebels for the violence.

These ADF terrorists attacked peaceful populations ... killing and kidnapping others, said Beni's police chief, Col. Narcisse Muteba. These rebels used the kidnapped civilians (as shields) to escape the Congolese army. Investigations are underway to find the perpetrators of this crime.

Some of the victims were killed in their homes while others were taken to the center of the neighborhood before being shot and beaten with machetes or pieces of concrete, the military spokesperson in the region, Lt. Anthony Mwulushayi, said.

Nine bodies are in the morgue, he said, adding that one other body of a woman remains at the scene.

Alongside the human toll, businesses were looted before being set on fire, and residences were also set on fire, he said.

This attack comes days after two explosions on Sunday hit a Catholic church in Beni's Butsili district and a market in another district, leaving four wounded. The Islamic State groups Central Africa Province claimed responsibility for the two Sunday explosions, which included its first suicide bombing.

Many Beni residents protested the violence and angrily demanded that the police and military provide better protection to the civilian population. Demonstrators carried the body of a slain victim to the town hall, where the army and police dispersed the protests with live ammunition.

Are we Congolese like the others? In Beni, we are being killed with bombs, sporadic machete attacks ... I would like the government to help us because we are going to die overnight," said Kambale Tsongo, a protester carrying the body of a victim.

U.S. Ambassador to Congo, Mike Hammer, visited Beni on Thursday and told The Associated Press that the United States stands in solidarity with the residents of Beni, and will help track down attackers who are allied to the Islamic State group. He visited Beni Thursday morning.

We will begin intelligence cooperation between the Congolese army and the U.S., he said. He said the U.S. will support training for the Congolese army and police forces.

Eastern Congo has been mired in conflict for more than a quarter-century particularly near its border with Rwanda. Armed groups there have vied for control of the regions mineral resources.

The ADF, which traces its origins to nearby Uganda, has mounted an escalating number of attacks in and around Beni in the last several years even as the community was struck by an Ebola epidemic.

___

AP writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo contributed.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California on Thursday scheduled a Sept. 14 recall election that could drive Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office, the result of a political uprising largely driven by angst over state coronavirus orders that shuttered schools and businesses and upended life for millions of Californians.

The election in the nations most populous state will be a marquee contest with national implications, watched closely as a barometer of the public mood heading toward the 2022 elections, when a closely divided Congress again will be in play.

The date was set by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, after election officials certified that enough valid petition signatures had been turned in to qualify the election for the ballot.

The announcement will set off a furious, 10-week burst of campaigning through the California summer, a time when voters typically are ignoring politics to enjoy vacationing, backyard barbecuing and travel.

Many voters have yet to pay attention to the emerging election, while polls have shown Newsom would beat back the effort to remove him. Republicans havent won a statewide race in heavily Democratic California since 2006.

Republican candidates have depicted Newsom as an incompetent fop whose bungled leadership inflicted unnecessary financial pain statewide, while Democrats have sought to frame the contest as driven by far-right extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Newsom's campaign issued a statement describing the election a naked attempt by Trump Republicans to grab control in California." It called on his supporters to defend our state. Kevin Faulconer, a former San Diego mayor and one of the leading Republican candidates, predicted that retirement is coming for Gavin Newsom.

While a final date wasn't set until Thursday, the campaign has been underway for months after it became clear that recall organizers had gathered more than enough of the required 1.5 million petition signatures needed to place the recall on the ballot.

Its not uncommon in California for residents to seek recalls but they rarely get on the ballot  and even fewer succeed. A sitting governor has been ousted just once in the state, when unpopular Democrat Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Conservative talk show host Larry Elder, 69, issued a brief statement Wednesday night saying he was seriously considering entering the race and would announce his decision early next week. His entry into the race would give the Republican field a jolt of celebrity sparkle and a name on the ticket known through his nationally syndicated radio show and appearances on Fox News.

Along with Faulconer, other Republicans who have said they will run include Republican businessman John Cox, who was defeated by Newsom in 2018, former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose and reality TV personality and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner.

The GOP field is expected to continue to grow: Candidates have until 59 days before election to file papers to declare their candidacy, or roughly about two weeks away.

In a recall election, voters would be asked two questions: First, should Newsom be removed, yes or no? The second question would be a list of replacement candidates to choose from, if a majority of voters cast ballots to remove Newsom.

Tom Del Beccaro, a former head of the state Republican Party who chairs Rescue California, one of the groups promoting the recall, said Elder would help drive up support for the critical first question in his home Los Angeles area, the most populous in the state.

Statewide races in California are often won or lost in L.A. county, said Del Beccaro, who is not aligned with any candidate. Elder is going to bring a constituency that is going to help us get a yes on the question No. 1.

Steve Frank, a longtime conservative activist serving as Elder's spokesman, said his entry into the race would become a major game-changer. People across the political spectrum know him, and many listen to his show.

Elder, a Black man, also would bring more diversity to the Republican ranks.

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said Elder's entry into the race would be a setback for Cox because Elder would appeal to the hard-core Republican, conservative base that would have been Cox's base. Faulconer is considered a GOP moderate.

Pitney doubted Elder's race would play a significant factor, with the Black vote typically running strongly Democratic. Elder has a reputation for being a provocative conservative, not a champion of African-American interests, Pitney said.

Meanwhile Thursday, the state Finance Department released its final estimate for state and county costs to run the election: $276 million.

___

Blood reported from Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  California broadly reopened its economy barely two weeks ago and since then an especially contagious coronavirus variant has spread among the unvaccinated, a development that has health officials on edge and already has prompted Los Angeles County to strongly recommend everyone resume wearing masks inside.

The nation's most populous state is averaging close to 1,000 additional cases reported daily, an increase of about 17% in the last 14 days. Officials expected an increase when capacity limits were lifted for businesses and most mask restrictions and social distancing requirements were eliminated for vaccinated people.

But public health officials raised concern this week with the more transmissible delta variant spreading among the unvaccinated, who comprise the vast majority of new infections. LA County, where a quarter of the state's nearly 40 million people live, recommended Monday that vaccinated residents resume wearing face coverings indoors after detecting that about half of all cases were the delta variant.

The county Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 506 new cases, the highest number in a day since mid-April and more than double the figure from two weeks ago.

Given that 4 million residents in L.A. County are not yet vaccinated, the risk of increased spread is very real," a department statement said.

The new wrinkle in this is really this new variant. It just sort of rips very quickly through people who are susceptible to being infected, which overwhelmingly is people who are not vaccinated, said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. We just opened up two weeks ago, everything was hunky dory.

Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted a series of pandemic-related restrictions on June 15 after a final push to get more people vaccinated. Everyone 12 and older is eligible for shots and among that population 59% is fully vaccinated and another 10% has received a first dose.

In Contra Costa County, where 72% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, officials recently began publishing virus case rates by vaccination status. Since the county has a high inoculation rate, the number of new coronavirus cases is generally low but unvaccinated residents remain at risk, said Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county's health officer.

For example, the seven-day average of new virus cases per 100,000 people in the county was recently 7.0 for those who are unvaccinated, and 0.4 for those who are vaccinated.

The overall numbers don't look that concerning, but we know that there's this population that hasn't been vaccinated that still is at very high risk, and those overall numbers can give a false sense of security thinking COVID is still under control where it's still spreading quite rapidly among the unvaccinated population, Farnitano said.

On Thursday, state officials drew the names of six winners of vacation packages at popular California tourist destinations including Disneyland. Vaccinated residents were automatically entered in the drawing, one of several incentives employed by state health officials to try to encourage people to take the shots.

Dr. Tomas Aragon, the states public health officer, said the state would continue to offer $50 cards to residents who get vaccinated and that some vaccination sites are offering free amusement park tickets.

These vaccines are saving lives every day. The proof is in the data and the science that we study every day, Aragon said before the drawing. Heres the bottom line: Californians who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are extremely vulnerable right now to this fast-moving variant.

In Los Angeles, a mix of masked and unmasked people walked around Echo Park Lake on Wednesday. G. Williams, who waited for a bus nearby, wore a black cloth mask over a blue surgical one  something she expects she'll do for years to come.

The 69-year-old isn't vaccinated, saying she still has concerns about possible long-term side effects. She supports her county's latest recommendation and said she doesn't understand why people wouldn't wear a mask to protect others.

To me, my mask is as important as any article of clothing, she said.

At Raven Things Collected, an LA gift shop selling crystals, tarot cards and jewelry, a table full of merchandise has been pulled in front of the counter to keep everyone distanced.

Employee Yesenia Rego said she feels protected because shes vaccinated and distanced from customers. Most people wear masks when they come in anyway, she said, adding those who don't rarely ask if they should.

They dont even care anymore, said Rego, 23, who wore a green cloth mask.

Vaccination rates vary widely across California. A San Francisco ZIP code reports more than 95% of those eligible are fully inoculated, while one in rural Modoc County has a 37% rate, according to state data.

Health officials said areas with low vaccination rates are especially at risk as the delta variant, first reported in India, spreads across the United States. The variant  which accounts for a fifth of new U.S. infections  was found in 15% of specimens sequenced in California in June, up from 5% in May.

In Orange County, the variant accounts for 45% of sequenced cases in the most recent week, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the countys deputy health officer. Contact tracers reaching out to those infected with the virus find 95% are unvaccinated, and the few who are vaccinated report minor symptoms and aren't hospitalized, she said.

Because we're starting to see these highly transmissible strains, it is only a matter of time for us to be exposed again, she said. So the question is how severe is the illness going to be when you actually get COVID.

Public health officials said they hope measures like the one taken by Contra Costa County might help encourage more people to get the shots.

Its a demonstration in the real world, outside of the clinical trials, of the power of the vaccine, said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at University of California, Irvine. COVID is going to seek out unvaccinated populations. The virus has a way of just sort of bouncing around until it finds a host it can infect, and those will be unvaccinated people.



Taxin reported from Orange County, California.
SPRINGDALE, Utah (AP)  Zion National Park officials and business owners in a nearby tourist town were still cleaning up and assessing the damage Thursday from a massive flash flood that ripped through the popular red rock park, sending mud and debris onto streets. No injuries were reported.

Tuesday's flash flood hit an area in the southern portion of the park with buildings, allowing people to take shelter from the water and the hidden debris, such as logs and rocks, it can often carry, park spokesperson Amanda Rowland said.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  An Arkansas sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a teenager during a traffic stop was fired Thursday after the sheriff said he did not activate his body camera until after the shooting took place.

Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley said Sgt. Michael Davis was fired after it was discovered he didn't follow the agency's body camera policy in the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain on June 23.

The sheriff's office has released few details about the shooting, which is being investigated by Arkansas State Police. Staley said the agency's policy requires officers to activate their cameras before interacting with the public.

My review of this deputy's actions has determined that he did not activate his body camera in a timely way," Staley said in video released on the office's Facebook page. This means there's no video of the actual shooting. We see the aftermath, but not the shooting."

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Davis were unsuccessful.

Davis is white, as was Brittain. Brittain's family members and friends have protested nightly outside the sheriff's office since the shooting and have complained about lack of details released. Family members have said Brittain was unarmed at the time of shooting and was holding a jug of antifreeze.

We're not getting anything,'" Jesse Brittain, Hunter's uncle, said earlier Thursday. We've got Hunter's body, and that's it."

The family has retained attorneys Devon Jacob and Benjamin Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd, whose death by a Minneapolis police officer sparked protests nationwide over police misconduct and racial inequality. The Rev. Al Sharpton planned to deliver the eulogy at Brittain's funeral on Tuesday, Jacob said.

We'll let the investigation play out, but I think what we already know is we have a 17-year-old child who was shot and killed by a police officer on a traffic stop merely because he was holding a bright blue jug of antifreeze," Jacob said. It's very hard to explain how we ended up in this situation."

Crump and Jacob said the Lonoke sheriff did the right thing by firing Davis for not activating his camera.

Body cameras are, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the only way to see the unbiased facts surrounding a police and civilian encounter resulting in injury and/or death," the attorneys said in a statement. When officers turn their body cameras off, they turn off their intent to be transparent along with it."

Davis had been with the sheriff's office since 2013.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Newly retired, Judy Pavlick was among hundreds of seniors who enjoyed the low cost-of-living and friendly atmosphere at Plaza Del Rey, a sprawling mobile home park in Sunnyvale, California. Then the Carlyle Group acquired the property and things began to change.

Pavlick's rent surged by more than 7%. Additional increases followed. She said the unexpected jump forced her and her neighbors, many on fixed incomes and unable to relocate, to sometimes choose between food and medicine.

The 2015 acquisition and subsequent sale of Pavlick's mobile home park is a core business practice for private equity firms such as Carlyle, which buy and restructure private companies to build value for their investors, sometimes cutting jobs and services in the process.

But the deal, one of hundreds Carlyle executed in recent years, could become a political liability for Carlyle's former co-CEO, Glenn Youngkin, who is now running as the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia and highlighting his experience building businesses and creating jobs.

They dont realize that these are peoples homes. Were not just numbers on a spreadsheet," said Pavlick, now 74 years old. They have no conscience."

Beyond mobile home parks, Youngkin helped Carlyle make money for investors by targeting nursing homes, auto parts manufacturers, energy companies and even a business that produces less-lethal weapons used by governments that have cracked down on democracy advocates. More than 1,000 jobs were moved offshore in recent years as companies were restructured. Hundreds more were laid off after Carlyle instituted a series of cost-cutting measures at a nationwide nursing home chain; complaints of deteriorating service and neglect followed.

There are no allegations of illegality or wrongdoing, but Youngkin's political aspirations have drawn new scrutiny to his dealings at the Washington-based investment firm, where he generated a net worth estimated at over $300 million before retiring as co-CEO last summer.

Perhaps not since former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, now a Utah senator, has a candidate sought higher office with such strong ties to the world of private equity. Romney, too, sold himself as a successful businessman and job creator, but stories of megadeals that routinely put profits over people undercut his White House ambitions.

Youngkin now faces another wealthy former businessman, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in Novembers general election, which has already emerged as the nation's top political contest of 2021.

While McAuliffes ties to big donors and lobbyists are well-established, Youngkin has only begun to confront difficult questions about his business background. His team declined to address any of Carlyle's specific deals.

As a young man, Glenn joined a small company and over the next 25 years worked his way up to the top of the company, helping to grow it into a hugely successful enterprise that turned good businesses into great businesses, created tens of thousands of jobs, and funded the retirement pensions of police officers, firefighters, and teachers," said Youngkin spokesman Macaulay Porter. Under Glenns leadership, The Carlyle Group employed nearly 2,000 people and managed assets totaling nearly four times the size of Virginias yearly budget.

Youngkin has made his business experience and status as a political outsider central to his pitch to voters. But more often than not, he discusses his career in broad strokes, without mentioning his lofty position or even the name of his former firm.

He leans on the phrase building business and creating jobs when talking about his career, typically without specific description of the types of deals he oversaw.

Asked in a February interview with a former state lawmaker that was streamed on social media how he viewed the role of private equity in the economy, Youngkin responded: We invest in companies, and we try to take good companies and make them great companies. And we do that by helping them expand, to launch new products, to see new futures, to hire new people.

While creating big profits for the firm's investors, Carlyle's deals sometimes triggered rounds of layoffs, outsourced jobs and complaints from the people directly served by the companies acquired.

The details in some cases may be politically damaging for Youngkin, but the situation is also complicated for his Democratic critics, who have tried to brand Youngkin as too close to former President Donald Trump. McAuliffe himself invested in Carlyle before and after becoming Virginias governor in 2014.

The former Democratic governor's public disclosures show no current ties, but records reveal that McAuliffe invested at least $690,000 in Carlyle funds between December 2007 and the end of 2016. The actual figure is likely much higher because the disclosures require candidates to acknowledge only a broad range of investment with no upper limit in some cases.

Spokesperson Christina Freundlich said McAuliffe has made no new investments in Carlyle since 2008, although he was invested in the company through 2016. She described him as a passive investor with no role in crafting the deals, noting that many major institutions were among the investors, including the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Glenn Youngkins record is clear: shipping American jobs overseas and harming seniors and homeowners, all for his own profit," Freundlich said. Virginians deserve better than an extreme, Trump-endorsed job killer with a track record of always putting his own wealth first.

Carlyle made investments in several companies under Youngkin's leadership that moved at least 1,300 American jobs offshore, according to Department of Labor data.

They include Metaldyne LLC, a North Carolina car parts company that sent 176 jobs to Korea in 2008; the Texas company Commemorative Brands, which produced class rings and sent more than 260 jobs to Mexico between 2005 and 2013; and Ohio-based car part manufacturer Veyance Technologies, which sent nearly 300 jobs to Mexico between 2009 and 2011.

After they were restructured, all three companies were sold for hundreds of millions of dollars more than they were acquired for.

Veyance Technologies was among those companies in a larger fund in which McAuliffe had invested; that means he would have profited from the deal.

A representative for Carlyle declined to comment for this story. The company's leadership has struggled to defend some of their decisions at times.

The firm in 2005 acquired a minority stake in Combined Systems Inc., a less-lethal munitions manufacturer that produced tear gas and super-sock bean bags subsequently used by governments in Tunisia, Egypt and China to crack down on pro-democracy protesters.

Combined Systems officials said at the time that they could not control how their products were used. But the U.S. State Department condemned the excessive use of force against protesters in Egypt in particular and opened an investigation into the misuse of tear gas after pictures of CSI-branded tear gas canisters were published on social media.

By all measures, Carlyle is a behemoth in the world of private equity, with 29 offices spread across five continents staffed by more than 1,800 professionals. The firm raised over $27 billion of new capital in 2020, according to its annual report. Despite what it described as a difficult environment because of the pandemic, Carlyle delivered distributable earnings of $762 million to its investors last year, its highest total in the past five years.

Youngkin joined the firm in 1995 and rose up through the ranks steadily in the subsequent years, becoming head of the industrial sector investment team by 2005. By March 2011, he had become the chief operating officer and within seven years, he was named co-CEO.

Carlyle announced Youngkin's retirement last summer amid speculation that he was interested in running for office. In the announcement, Youngkin said it was the professional journey of a lifetime and my honor to be part of building Carlyle into the global institution it is today."

Youngkin's annual compensation package in 2019, his last full year at the company, approached $17 million, according to published reports at the time. That same year, Carlyle sold Sunnyvale's Plaza Del Rey for $237 million after buying it for $152 million four years earlier.

Acquiring higher-end mobile home parks, now referred to as manufactured housing, was part of a broader strategy for Carlyle that included large properties in Arizona and Florida. Such investments are an emerging trend among private equity firms that recently recognized investment potential in mobile home parks.

Critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have accused the firms of preying upon aging residents with steady income streams and limited options to move when rents and fees go up.

Six years after Carlyle entered Pavlick's life, she is still fighting rent and fee increases, which continued to surge after Carlyle sold her community to another out-of-state investment firm two years ago.

This park used to be called the park with the heart, Pavlick said. They just turned everybodys happy home upside down.

___

Peoples reported from New York.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Maine Gov. Janet Mills has vetoed a bill that would have given permissions to Native American tribes in the state to open and run gambling businesses on their own lands.

The bill was approved in Maine's legislature with an overwhelming majority in June, but Mills' administration had serious concerns about a bill seeking to reinstate tribal rights, the Portland Press Herald reported.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mills said that since the start of her governorship that it has been her priority to repair the relationship between the tribes and the state, but she said the bill was plagued with issues.

Mills wrote that her concerns with the bill regarded the lack of limitations on where tribal gaming may occur, or on the size of each facility.

She said the legislation would approve any large or small-sized casinos in nontribal communities.

The four tribes that would've been granted permissions from the bill released their own statement in condemnation of Mills decision, the newspaper said.

Chief Maggie Dana of Passamaquoddy Tribe said that Governor Mills provides lip service to wanting to engage on tribal issues.

Dana said that Mills has only met with tribal leaders twice in the last two years in attempts to change preexisting laws that restricted tribal autonomy.

The bipartisan gambling legislation is one part of a series of changes the legislature wants to amend the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. If these amendments are enacted, the revisions would restore some of the sovereignty that tribal leaders say they lost years ago, the newspaper said.

Criticism for Mills' also involves the corporate-owned casinos in the state. Chief Clarissa Sabattis of the Houlton Band of Maliseet said Mills vetoing the bill shows her support for out of state corporate gambling interests over the people of rural Maine.

Chief Charlie Peter-Paul of the Aroostook Band of Micmac said the tribes are asking for self-determination.

They should have that right on their native lands. The Legislature understands this. The people of Maine understand this. The governor and the large corporate gaming operations in Maine clearly dont," he said.

Mills said the two corporate-owned casinos in Maine were approved by voters and she supported it after the details were thoroughly planned out. She also said the tribal-owned casinos could siphon revenue from the corporate casinos, which would decrease the state's $17 million it receives from the casino from preexisting laws that set up the casinos.

The legislature will reportedly take a vote to override the veto when it returns Thursday.
HOUSTON (AP)  Two suburban Houston officers and a jailer were indicted Thursday in an alleged assault of a man during a traffic stop.

Baytown police Officers Teddy Sims and Samuel Serrett and detention officer Shan Dunlap were each indicted on a felony charge of aggravated assault.
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.

Susan M. Shaw, Oregon State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Concerned over the direction that some leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have recently taken, a number of pastors in the denomination have formed the Conservative Baptist Network.

This comes after some of the denominations most high-profile figures, including Bible study leader Beth Moore and former president of the denominations moral and public policy agency Russell Moore (not related), have left the denomination, citing its leaderships support of Donald Trump and its mishandling of clergy sex abuse and racism. These are far from the only departures the Southern Baptist Convention has suffered as membership has declined over the past 14 years.

The disgruntled pastors cite a number of grievances, from the SBCs desire to address the denominations racist past to some leaders willingness to engage secular theories of social justice to understand contemporary social problems.

As a former Southern Baptist and now a scholar working in religious and gender studies, Ive watched these recent controversies with interest. Such disagreements have defined Baptists since the 17th century.

Baptist battles

In 1972, historian Walter B. Shurden wrote how disagreements across the centuries had shaped the history of Baptists.

Baptist Battles  a term coined by sociologist Nancy Ammerman in 1990  are rooted in Baptist theology. Baptists believe that God speaks directly to individuals and that each person can read the Bible and interpret it themselves. Because of these beliefs, Baptists reject hierarchy in religious governance.

The Southern Baptist Convention does not tell individuals what to believe or churches what to do. Each local congregation is autonomous and self-governing. They have generally agreed upon shared beliefs, but no Baptist or Baptist body can tell anyone else what they must believe.

With each Baptist having the authority of the individual conscience before God, disagreements are an inevitable and frequent occurrence.

Although such agreements can be healthy and push issues forward, more often they can also lead to skirmishes, battles and divisions. Here are just a few of the Baptist battles that have taken place over the past four centuries.

The battle over salvation

Two distinct strands of Baptists emerged in England in the 17th century. The first were General Baptists, who believed in a general salvation, meaning that anyone could be saved. Salvation is believed to be a right relationship with God that leads to eternal life. General salvation is open to all, and each individual has free will to choose or reject salvation.

John Smyth, who founded the first Baptist church in Amsterdam around 1609 after fleeing religious persecution in England, believed that God allowed humans to make their own choices. People can choose to sin, and people can choose to repent, he said.

The second strand of English Baptists were known as Particular Baptists. They believed in a particular salvation, reserved for only those who have been chosen by God to be saved from eternal damnation.

People have no choice in the matter of their salvation or damnation. In 1644, Particular Baptists issued a confession of faith repudiating the heresies of General Baptists, especially the idea of free will.

The battle over hymn singing

Early Baptists, who had separated from the Church of England, were highly suspicious of the practices of Anglican worship, including of set  written and recited  prayers. They believed practices of worship should include only those directly authorized by Scripture.

General Baptists rejected congregational singing as a fixed form of worship. They feared fixed prayers and fixed singing could lead newly separated churches back into the errors of the Church of England.

Many Particular Baptists accepted the singing of Psalms, since these words were a part of the biblical text, although each Particular Baptist congregation made its own decisions about singing them or not. By the 1650s, a number of Particular Baptists were using congregational singing, and in the 1670s singing hymns that were not the Psalms began to be practiced.

In 1690 a bitter public debate erupted in printed tracts as Baptists attacked and defended the practice of singing hymns in worship. The controversy became so acrimonious that the 1692 Assembly of Particular Baptists took it up and asked its participants not to write publicly about it anymore.

The battle over enslavement

In the U.S., Baptists formed a national organization, the Triennial Convention, in 1814. Around the same time, attitudes of Baptists in the South toward the enslavement of Africans began to harden as the 1792 invention of the cotton gin, a machine that made it easier to separate the cotton fibers from their seeds, made enslavement more profitable. By the 1830s, abolitionism took firm hold among Northern Baptists, and both they and Baptists in the South argued they were upholding Scripture through their views on slavery.

Soon a debate erupted in the Triennial Convention over whether or not people who held enslaved Africans could be appointed as missionaries. Finally, the board of the convention announced it would not appoint such a person.

Baptists in the South decided to withdraw from the Triennial Convention and formed the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. Rather than issuing a statement in support of slavery, however, the new SBC declared civil issues, such as slavery, outside the purview of religious issues with which the denomination concerned itself.

The battle over Baptist history

In the 19th century, most Baptists staked their claim as the one true New Testament church on their belief that the denomination started with John the Baptist and continued in an unbroken line ever since.

In 1893, Southern Baptist seminary president W. H. Whitsitt published an article arguing that Baptists began around 1640 when some of those who broke from the Church of England rejected infant baptism and began to practice adult believers baptism by immersion.

The backlash to Whitsitts essay was swift and furious from prominent Baptists, local pastors and denominational newspaper editors who insisted Baptists could trace their origins to A.D. 30. Whitsitt resigned from the seminary, but eventually, Baptist historians vindicated him, and his version of 17th-century Baptist origins prevailed.

The battle over the Bible

In 1961, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Ralph H. Elliott wrote The Message of Genesis, a scholarly book that suggested that the stories of the first 11 chapters of the biblical book of Genesis were theological rather than historical. Many Southern Baptists considered these stories literal and believed Elliott had challenged the trustworthiness of the Bible by questioning the historical accuracy of Genesis.

After the 1962 meeting of the SBC affirmed the Bibles historical accuracy and infallibility, the seminary demanded that Elliott agree not to republish the book. He refused, and the seminary fired him.

But the battle continued. When the denominations publishing house issued a commentary on Genesis in 1969 that challenged literal interpretations, the opposition was so great that the SBC demanded the publishing house withdraw the volume and issue a new edition with a different writer.

The battle for the denomination

These battles have continued into the present day. From 1979 to 1993, Southern Baptist fundamentalists and moderates fought for control of the denomination, with fundamentalists wresting away power and moderates leaving to form splinter organizations.

While fundamentalists framed the controversy as one over biblical fidelity and authority, the role of women was central. The SBC passed a 1984 resolution excluding women from ordination and becoming pastors and changed the denominations confessional statement to call for womens submission to men.

Baptists have also fought over missions, other denominations, education, evolution, segregation, abortion, sexuality and social work. Now, Southern Baptists are fighting, again over salvation, race and gender.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)  Israel, a world leader in coronavirus vaccinations, reported its highest daily infection rate in three months as it scrambles to contain the spread of the new delta variant.

Authorities are racing to vaccinate children and are considering tighter travel restrictions at the country's main airport.

The Health Ministry on Thursday reported 307 new cases on Wednesday, the highest in nearly three months and a rise from 293 newly-diagnosed cases a day earlier. The health ministry reportedly expects those numbers to jump in coming days, raising concerns that Israel is plunging back toward a crisis.

In recent months, Israel has reopened businesses, schools and event venues, lifting nearly all restrictions after it inoculated some 85% of the adult population. It's now seen as an early-warning system of sorts for other nations.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday announced a drive to inoculate thousands of children by mid-month.

Though worrying, the trend still shows little uptick when it comes to deaths from the virus. In the past two weeks, the ministry recorded only one. In Israel, 5.1 million people, among its population of 9.3 million, have received the required double dose of vaccinations. Another 400,000 have received at least one dose.

Israel recorded its highest number of vaccinations of children this week and has re-imposed a rule requiring people to wear masks indoors. Bennett for the first time appointed a coronavirus commissioner to manage arrivals at the main gateway into Israel, Ben Gurion International Airport, which he called a huge national vulnerability.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on Wednesday said officials are prepared to close the airport if the trend worsens.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that officials are considering bringing back the Green Pass system that differentiates between vaccinated and non-vaccinated citizens in access to certain venues and activities.

Israels government last week postponed the planned reopening of the country to vaccinated tourists over concerns about the spread of the delta variant.

Israel was initially set to reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors on Thursday, after having largely closed the country during the pandemic. It had already started allowing groups of vaccinated tourists to enter in May.

But after a rise in infections over the past 10 days, the government pushed that date to Aug. 1.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)  A Libyan military commander who previously lived for decades in Virginia cannot claim head-of-state immunity as a defense in lawsuits accusing him of atrocities in his country's civil war, a judge ruled Thursday.

Khalifa Hifter leads the self-styled Libyan National Army, a faction in a civil war that has raged in the country for years. Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.

He is also a defendant in three separate federal lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Plaintiffs allege their loved ones were killed or tortured by Hifters forces.

The lawsuits seek millions of dollars in damages that could be recovered from property that Hifter, a dual U.S. and Libyan citizen, and his family still own throughout northern Virginia.

In court papers, Hifter asserted that he is immune to lawsuits because he is head of state. He also said the judge should dismiss the cases because a lawsuit that seeks to assert blame in the country's civil war is a political question that requires deference to the executive branch.

But at a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Hifter cannot claim either head-of-state immunity or the political-question doctrine as a defense in the lawsuits. She noted that she twice asked the State Department if it wanted to assert an interest in the case  once during former President Donald Trump's administration and once during President Joe Biden's administration  but that it declined to do so on both occasions.

Hifter's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, argued unsuccessfully that the State Department's decision not to intervene should not be seen as resolving the matter. He said the situation in Libya is fluid and whether Hifter is in fact the head of state is a question dependent on multiple factors. He said the State Department's failure to assert an interest in the case could be the result of many factors that have nothing to do with whether Hifter is, in fact, a head of state.

Diplomacy is a difficult business, he said. Taking a position can screw up all the work you're doing as a diplomat.

But Brinkema agreed with Kevin Carroll, a lawyer for Muna al-Suyid and her family who says her brothers were killed by Hifter's forces in Benghazi in 2014. Carroll argued that if the State Department refused to recognize Hifter as a head of state, Brinkema would be out of bounds as a judge to let him assert that immunity.

If you were to declare Field Marshal Hifter is head of state in Libya, you would be acting inappropriately, Carroll told the judge.

Brinkema's ruling does not determine the final outcome of the cases. Plaintiffs will still have to prove their allegations at trial. And Brinkema is allowing Hifter to argue a different defense at trial: that those who were killed were armed combatants in the civil war, as opposed to innocent civilians.

If the alleged victims were in fact engaged in armed hostilities, that changes the nature of the beast, in my opinion, Brinkema said.

The case now moves into a fact-finding phase that will likely include a deposition of Hifter himself.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Jimmy Fitzmorris, the affable two-time lieutenant governor who narrowly lost his long-sought-after bids for New Orleans mayor and Louisiana governor, has died. He was 99.

Fitzmorris died Wednesday night, his son-in-law Bruce Clement announced on his Facebook page Thursday.

The contributions made by former Lt. Gov. Jimmy Fitzmorris to Louisiana are too many to be mentioned & too great to be measured, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a fellow Democrat, said in a statement.

Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said Fitzmorris was a mentor. His ability to unite differing views for a common good is what made him so effective for our state, Nungesser said in a Twitter post.

Fitzmorris' popularity and drive were such that even his opponents sometimes wondered how he missed the political brass ring.

He lost one mayors race by 150 votes and was nudged out of the 1979 runoff for governor by just over 2,000 votes out of the nearly 1 million votes cast  results he unsuccessfully challenged.

Fitzmorris started a career in 1940 as a messenger boy for Kansas City Southern Railroad, and was a vice president by the time he retired in 1972.

He was elected to the New Orleans City Council in 1954 and served for 12 years. He ran twice for mayor and lost the first time by a narrow margin to Victor Schiro in 1965. A 1969 race against Moon Landrieu was not as close.

Fitzmorris bounced back and was elected lieutenant governor in 1971, a job he held for two terms.

While the flashy and popular Gov. Edwin Edwards got the spotlight, Fitzmorris was on the move, seeking new industry and cutting ribbons around the state.

When he first won the office, the lieutenant governors post was a powerful one. The holder of the office also presided over the state Senate. That changed in 1975 when the new constitution ordered that the Senate choose the president from among its members.

In 1979, Fitzmorris decided to make a run for governor in an open race with a field of nine after Edwards was barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

In the nonpartisan primary, Republican Congressman Dave Treen was the leader. Unofficial results put Fitzmorris second, forcing the two into a runoff.

Fitzmorris had edged out fellow Democrat Louis Lambert, then chairman of the public service commission, by about 2,400 votes in the unofficial election night count. Days later, the voting machines were opened and Lambert was ahead of Fitzmorris by about the same margin.

It is extremely difficult for me to believe or accept the idea that I went from a lead of more than 2,300 votes Sunday morning when the vote was first tabulated to a deficit of more than 2,400 votes by Tuesday of the same week, Fitzmorris said.

He filed suit, the first in modern Louisiana history to charge voting irregularities in a governors race. The courts found no irregularities and the runoff went on without Fitzmorris. Treen won and became the states first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

The glad-hander from New Orleans Irish Channel couldnt stay away, accepting a position as an industrial recruiter in the new Treen administration.

My profession is politics and my hobby is people. Thats my life, Fitzmorris said.

For a time, Fitzmorris was targeted by reports of a federal investigation that he received a $10,000 campaign contribution in his race for governor in exchange for the promise of favors. No charges were ever filed.

During the federal corruption trial that was dubbed Brilab in the early 1980s, a tape of New Orleans mob kingpin Carlos Marcello was played to the jury in which Marcello said Fitzmorris would not be any good in a corrupt scheme.

Say, Heres a million. Hell say, Man, get away from me. Please get away,' Marcello, who was convicted, was heard saying.

In 1983, Fitzmorris tried to regain the lieutenant governors job, losing to Bobby Freeman. After that, Fitzmorris became a private consultant and eased out of the spotlight.

Fitzmorris wife, Gloria, died in 1995. The two met during World War II when he was an officer getting a physical checkup in New Orleans. She was a medical technician. He is survived by their daughter, Lisa Clement. Funeral arrangements are pending.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)  A voter-approved expansion of Medicaid took effect Thursday in Oklahoma after a decade of Republican resistance in a state that has become emblematic of the political struggle to extend the federal health insurance program in conservative strongholds.

Oklahoma moved ahead with its expansion at a time when Democrats in Washington and across the states are pressing to complete the work of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, recently upheld by the Supreme Court for the third time in a decade. So far, 38 states and Washington, D.C., have expanded Medicaid, and expansion in a dozen mostly Southern states may be the biggest piece of unfinished business.

Anyone banking on the idea that Obamacare was just going to be struck down  the Supreme Court has moved past that, said Cindy Mann, who served as federal Medicaid chief during the Barack Obama administration.

All of the states that are still debating the issue are constantly looking at other states experience to get a sense of what they can expect, added Mann, now with the Manatt Health consultancy. Having Oklahoma  a very red state  moving forward judiciously and with very strong enrollment is showing that this is a sensible path to go.

More than 123,000 low-income people already have been approved for Medicaid coverage in Oklahoma, a state where nearly 15% of the population has been uninsured  the highest rate in the nation behind Texas, according to the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. State Medicaid officials say they expect that number to increase to more than 200,000 as more people get approved.

Danielle Gaddis of Oklahoma City is 26 and preparing to begin medical school. She has been without private health insurance since her mother, whose health plan she was on, retired two years ago.

When Gaddis began running a fever over the winter, she couldnt afford to see a doctor and instead spent two weeks trying to recover on her own. That will change since she's been approved for Medicaid thanks to the expansion.

Just the financial worry is gone," Gaddis said. It's nice to know that's something I don't have to worry about."

Oklahoma voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment last year to expand eligibility for benefits. Now, an individual who earns up to $17,796 annually, or $36,588 for a family of four, qualifies for Medicaid health care coverage. By contrast, the median income limit for parents in states that didn't expand their program is about $8,905 for a family of three, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

I want to congratulate Oklahoma on joining the ranks of states that are bringing quality health coverage to our neighbors and families," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who visited Oklahoma Thursday to discuss the significance of Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid started out in the 1960s as a federal-state health insurance program for severely disabled people and low-income families on welfare, but it now covers nearly 74 million people, or more than one in five Americans. The program expansion under Obama brought in some 12 million low-income people, mostly low-wage workers.

The states most closely watching Oklahoma are Missouri  where voters approved an expansion but GOP legislators balked at funding it  as well as Kansas, where Medicaid expansion has been actively debated. In Missouri, a judge recently ruled that the ballot question there was unconstitutional.

In South Dakota, several major health care systems last month announced plans to begin gathering signatures for a ballot measure to expand Medicaid there.

Opponents of expansion argue that the costs to the states are excessive. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has described the expansion as a massive tax increase that Missourians cannot afford. Oklahoma helped offset the costs by increasing a fee that hospitals must pay.

President Joe Bidens coronavirus relief law dangles a significant financial bonus in front of states that expand their programs now. Oklahoma is the first to qualify.

Under the Biden legislation, states newly expanding will receive a two-year, 5-percentage-point bump up in federal matching funds for their regular Medicaid programs. Thats on top of a 90% federal match for the costs of covering the newly insured through the expansion. Manatt estimates the bonus alone would work out to $786 million for Oklahoma, but bigger states like Texas and Florida would reap much more.

More than 2 million low-income uninsured people remain in a coverage gap as long as Medicaid expansion is unfinished. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid under their individual states rules, but not enough to qualify for Obamacares subsidized private insurance.

Right now, millions of Americans do not have health care coverage through no fault of their own because their states havent expanded their Medicaid programs, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chair of the U.S. House committee that oversees Medicaid.

In Washington, theres a growing demand among Democrats for the federal government to step in and take direct action if states continue to hold out. Its seen as a health equity issue, since many of the uninsured people in the coverage gap are racial and ethnic minorities.

Having Oklahoma and Missouri going in two different directions really illustrates the need for the federal government to do something, said Jesse Cross-Call, a health policy expert with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, which advocates for low-income people. There continue to be states that are going to throw up roadblocks and resist this no matter what you put in front of them.

James Capretta, a health policy expert with the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said theres also been a reluctance among Democrats to compromise, since they reject ideas that would alter the basic terms of the Obama health law.

Nonetheless, there ought to be a bipartisan consensus here, since there really is no alternative to Medicaid as the safety net health insurance program, Capretta added. We already have a program. And there is still a gap population. The logical thing to do is find some way to make sure these people are at least being helped.
NEW YORK (AP)  Meghan McCain, whose outspoken conservative views have frequently led to verbal fireworks and compelling television on ABC's The View, said Thursday that she is quitting the daytime talk show after four years.

McCain, daughter of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, announced on the air that she would leave after the show's season ends in late July.

I will be here another month, so if you still want to fight a little more, we have four more weeks, McCain said.

The 36-year-old commentator is usually the only conservative voice among the cast of five women, and not afraid to mix it up when she disagrees with them. In the past two months, for example, she's had contentious exchanges with lead host Whoopi Goldberg and frequent foil Joy Behar.

The show, invented more than two decades ago by Barbara Walters, has done well in the ratings with a mix of celebrity guests and, most prominently, the combustible hot topics session where they kick around the day's news.

Like many television shows during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hosts have been appearing remotely instead of meeting in a New York studio. McCain, married to conservative commentator Ben Domenech and mother of a baby daughter, said she didn't want to leave her life in the Washington area to commute again to work.

This was not an easy decision, she said. It took a lot of thought and counsel and prayer.

ABC News said in a statement that it respected and understood her decision, and thanked McCain for her fierce determination and vast political knowledge and experience.

As the conservative voice on The View, McCain filled a role where producers had trouble finding the right person after Elisabeth Hasselbeck left in 2013. McCain has said she was going to turn down an offer to join The View, but her father said it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Like her father, she's no big fan of former President Donald Trump. But her job often compelled her to explain to her co-hosts what people who supported Trump were thinking.

This is no shade at women who have been here before, but I knew going in that I couldnt be intimidated by the others and their strong opinions, she told The Associated Press after her first season. These are all smart, strong women. I had to stay true to my convictions and my politics and not let the physical audience in front of me, which is normally very liberal, or the audience on social media impact my politics. Because a lot of things I say are unpopular.

She rarely backed down, and the words between the hosts frequently became sharp.

That was evident June 17, when McCain criticized President Joe Biden's treatment of CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at a news conference, for which the president later apologized. Goldberg noted that Biden's predecessor  she refuses to say Trump's name  never apologized, and that lit a fuse igniting a schoolyard brawl. Both hosts later apologized to each other.

In May, Behar took exception when McCain said she didn't hear enough criticism of the spate of antisemitic hate crimes.

I've been talking about antisemitism on this show for 25 freakin' years, Behar said. Don't tell me what I'm supposed to be saying, Meghan, OK? You do your thing, we do ours.

Behar noted after McCain's announcement that they've had their fights but also some interesting drinking sessions.

I have really, really appreciated the fact that you were a formidable opponent in many ways and that you spoke your mind, Behar said. You're no snowflake, missy.

On her way out, McCain criticized media coverage of The View, saying the show was covered with deep misogyny and sexism. She said if the show's hosts were five men instead of women, they'd have Pulitzer Prizes.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicos National Institute of Indigenous Peoples on Wednesday condemned this weeks killings of two activists from the Triqui community.

Some 10,000 Triquis live in remote, impoverished communities in the mountains of southern Oaxaca state. Three Triqui groups are locked in a decades-long armed struggle that has seen dozens of killings.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday hell push to further upgrade relations with China, his main ally, as he struggles to navigate his country out of a deepening crisis linked to the pandemic.

Kim made the comments in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulating him on the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Workers Party of Korea, by its firm unity with the Chinese Communist Party, would raise (North Korea)-China friendship to a new strategic point as required by the times and as desired by the peoples of the two countries, Kim was quoted as saying.

In an apparent reference to the United States, Kim said that hostile forces vicious slander and all-round pressure upon the Chinese Communist Party are no more than a last-ditch attempt and they can never check the ongoing advance of the Chinese people, according to KCNA.

Kims message came a day after state media said he had told a powerful Politburo meeting that a crucial lapse in the anti-virus campaign has caused a great crisis. He did not elaborate, but there was speculation that Kim may have aimed to raise a call for international assistance, including vaccine shipments.

North Korea maintains some of the worlds toughest anti-virus measures, including 1  years of border shutdowns, despite its much questionable claim to be coronavirus free. Such draconian steps have devastated its already struggling economy, and Kim has said before his country faces the worst-ever situation. It's unclear when North Korea would reopen its border with China, and so far, there are no reports that it has received any vaccines.

More than 90% of North Koreas trade goes through China, which has long been suspected of refusing to fully implement U.N. sanctions against North Korea imposed over its nuclear weapons programs. Experts say China worries about a collapse and chaos in North Korea because it doesnt want refugees flooding over the long border and a pro-U.S., unified Korea on its doorstep.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin held out the possibility of sending assistance to North Korea.

China and the DPRK have a long tradition of helping each other when they encounter difficulties, Wang said, referring to the North by the initials of its official name. If necessary, China will actively consider providing assistance to the DPRK.

___

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP)  A bipartisan group of 21 Northwest lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to prioritize a long-running effort to renegotiate a 60-year-old treaty that governs how the United States and Canada share the waters of the Columbia River Basin.

In a Tuesday letter to Biden, Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray and Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio led the group urging the president to update the Columbia River Treaty.

The Spokesman-Review reported efforts to revise the treaty, which was signed in 1961, began in 2013 amid concerns over salmon runs, flood risk and electricity the U.S. sends to Canada under the accord.

Modernizing this treaty is critically important to protecting our region from flood control risks and ensuring we can continue to lead with clean, renewable, reliable, and affordable hydropower, McMorris Rodgers said in a statement.

The treaty, which took more than 20 years to negotiate, came together after a 1948 flood washed away what once was Oregons second-biggest city, Vanport. It provided for the construction of one dam in Montana and three in British Columbia, completed between 1968 and 1973, that together more than doubled the amount of reservoir storage in the basin, providing benefits for both flood prevention and generating power.

Most of the treatys provisions dont have an expiration date, but half a century after its signing, changing conditions spurred an effort to modernize it. The Bonneville Power Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers  which together form the U.S. entity responsible for the agreement  began a review of the deal in 2011 and recommended a series of changes to the State Department in 2013.

The recommendations included letting more water flow through the dams in spring and summer to improve fish passage, decreasing the treatys impact on tribal resources and updating flood management plans. The BPA and Army Corps of Engineers also recommended changing a provision known as the Canadian Entitlement, which requires the U.S. to send cash and half of power generated downstream to Canada in exchange for the water resources.

The BPA and Army Corps of Engineers have estimated the value of the Canadian Entitlement to be between $229 million and $335 million a year, contending the current treaty gives the U.S. a raw deal. Canadian negotiators have argued the current entitlement is fair. Either country can terminate the treaty with 10 years notice, but neither has done so.

The letter was signed by lawmakers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

A State Department spokesperson said Friday the agency doesnt comment on congressional correspondence but promised to consult with lawmakers on the treaty.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
PHOENIX (AP)  The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday issued a preliminary report on the recent crash of an experimental plane near Gila Bend Municipal Airport that killed a passenger.

Authorities said one person aboard the experimental plane was ejected upon impact and pronounced dead at the scene on June 15 while the other person was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
ROME (AP)  Pope Francis insisted Thursday that Lebanon must remain a land of tolerance and pluralism as he welcomed the countrys Christian patriarchs to the Vatican to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown the country into chaos and threatened its Christian community.

Francis presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peters Basilica with the leaders of Lebanons Christian churches, which featured prayers and hymns in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean. Members of the Lebanese community in Rome and the diplomatic corps filled the pews.

During the service, Francis insisted that Lebanons vocation was to be an oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where different communities live together, putting the common good before their individual interests.

Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or (to) those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests, he said. It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East.

The Mediterranean nation of 6 million, including an estimated 1 million refugees, has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East and is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state. Christians make up a third of the population, and the Vatican fears the country's collapse is particularly dangerous for the continued presence of its Christian community, a bulwark for the church in the Mideast.

Lebanon is going through an unprecedented economic and financial collapse, coupled with an 11-month political deadlock over the formation of a new government. The developments pose the gravest threat to its stability since the end of its civil war three decades ago. It is also trying to recover from the devastating Beirut port explosion last summer  and the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis invited the religious leaders for a day of prayer that began with a silent meditation at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and was followed by closed-door talks about how to help Lebanon emerge from what the World Bank has described as likely to be one of the worst crises the world has witnessed over the past 150 years.

In his final remarks at the ecumenical prayer service, Francis urged political leaders to find solutions and appealed to the international community to help the country recover.

Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!" he said. The Lebanese people must be given the opportunity to be the architects of a better future in their land, without undue interference."

Embattled Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who met with Francis at the Vatican in April, said from Beirut that he hoped the meeting would call on all Lebanese to preserve their coexistence.

It is no surprise that the pontiff keeps it in his heart through this invite to 10 spiritual leaders with the aim of getting Lebanon through its difficult reality, he tweeted Thursday, repeating the words of St. John Paul II that Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message.

The Vaticans foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, was blunt in explaining the Holy Sees strong concern about the collapse of the country during a briefing with journalists last week.

He said Francis had invited the religious leaders to Rome in an acknowledgment that the Christian community had been particularly hard-hit by the crisis, which has sent the well-educated middle classes fleeing power cuts, fuel shortages, soaring prices and now sporadic acts of violence.

The crisis, Gallagher said, risks destroying the internal balance and Lebanons own reality, putting at risk the Christian presence in the Middle East.

Noting the potential for Lebanon to fall into conflict, he said the country must be helped economically and to keep the peace, saying it remains the final vanguard of an Arab democracy that welcomes, recognizes and coexists with a plurality of ethnic and religious communities that in other countries arent able to live in peace.

It must be helped to maintain this unique identity, to ensure a pluralist, tolerant and diversified Middle East, he said.

Francis has said he hopes to visit Lebanon once a government is formed. Gallagher said if that happens soon, Francis could make a trip early next year.

___

AP correspondent Zeina Karam contributed from Beirut.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  A Rhode Island man found to be in possession of more than 50,000 images and 200 videos of child pornography has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The investigation into Jason P. Muschiano, 39, of Woonsocket, started in November 2018 when a state police investigation into the use of peer-to-peer networks for child exploitation purposes observed an IP address they later determined belonged to Muschiano, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Providence.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Flexing its new strength, the Supreme Court's conservative majority on Thursday cut back on a landmark voting rights law in a decision likely to help Republican states fight challenges to voting restrictions theyve put in place following last years elections.

The court's 6-3 ruling upheld voting limits in Arizona that a lower court had found discriminatory under the federal Voting Rights Act. It was the high court's second major decision in eight years that civil rights groups and liberal dissenting justices say weakened the Civil Rights-era law that was intended to eradicate discrimination in voting.

The decision fueled new calls from Democrats to pass federal legislation, blocked by Senate Republicans, that would counter the new state laws. Some lawmakers and liberal groups also favor Supreme Court changes that include expanding the nine-justice bench.

The courts decision, harmful as it is, does not limit Congress ability to repair the damage done today: it puts the burden back on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its intended strength, President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Republicans argue that the state restrictions are simply efforts to fight potential voting fraud and ensure election integrity.

Biden's Justice Department had actually taken the position that the Arizona measures did not violate the Voting Rights Act, but favored a narrower ruling than the one handed down Thursday.

Justice Amy Coney Barretts confirmation last year to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg entrenched the rights dominance on a court that now has three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

In an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, the court reversed an appellate ruling in deciding that Arizonas regulations on who can return early ballots for another person and on refusing to count ballots cast in the wrong precinct are not racially discriminatory.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco had held that the measures disproportionately affected Black, Hispanic and Native American voters in violation of a part of the Voting Rights Act known as Section 2.

Alito wrote for the conservative majority that the state's interest in the integrity of elections justified the measures and that voters faced modest burdens at most.

The court rejected the idea that showing a state law disproportionately affects minority voters is enough to prove a violation of law.

In a scathing dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court was weakening the federal voting rights law for the second time in eight years.

"What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewritten  in order to weaken  a statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about the end of discrimination in voting. I respectfully dissent, Kagan wrote, joined by the other two liberal justices.

Native Americans who have to travel long distances to put their ballots in the mail were most likely to be affected by Arizona's ballot collection law. Votes cast by Black and Hispanic voters were most likely to be tossed out because they were cast in a wrong precinct, the appeals court found.

Election law expert Rick Hasen wrote on his blog that the decision severely weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. He noted that this decision along with others over the past 15 years have taken away all the major available tools for going after voting restrictions.

This is not a death blow for Section 2 claims, but it will make it much, much harder for such challenges to succeed, Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, Law School, wrote.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was among Democrats who said the high courts decision raises the sense of urgency for Congress to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts called for passage of his legislation expanding the court to 13 justices to restore balance to our top court.

With Republicans united in opposition to those measures, Democrats first would have to change Senate filibuster rules that require 60 votes for most legislation.

The challenged Arizona provisions remained in effect in 2020 because the case was still making its way through the courts.

Biden narrowly won Arizona last year, and since 2018, the state has elected two Democratic senators. Arizonas most populous county, Maricopa, has been in the midst of a Republican-led audit challenging last year's vote.

Thursday's Supreme Court ruling came eight years after the high court took away what had been the Justice Departments most effective tool for combating discriminatory voting laws  a different provision of the federal law that required the government or a court to clear voting changes before they could take effect in Arizona and other states, mainly in the South, with a history of discrimination.

Many of the state measures that have been enacted since then would never have been allowed to take effect if the advance clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act had remained in force.

Left in place was Section 2, with its prohibition on rules that make it harder for minorities to exercise their right to vote. At the heart of the Arizona case was the standard for proving a violation of the law.

Alito cautioned that the court did not on Thursday announce a test to govern all ... claims involving rules, like those at issue here, that specify the time, place, or manner for casting ballots.

Many Republicans continue to question the 2020 elections outcome, despite the absence of evidence. Republican elected officials in a number of states have responded by enacting restrictions on early voting and mailed-in ballots, as well as tougher voter identification laws.

Kagan pointed to some of the new laws in her dissenting opinion.

"Those laws shorten the time polls are open, both on Election Day and before. They impose new prerequisites to voting by mail, and shorten the windows to apply for and return mail ballots. They make it harder to register to vote, and easier to purge voters from the rolls. Two laws even ban handing out food or water to voters standing in line, she wrote.

Lawsuits challenging laws enacted in Florida and Georgia, including a Justice Department suit in Georgia last week, allege violations of the voting rights law.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Thursday's ruling a resounding victory for election integrity and the rule of law. Democrats were attempting to make Arizona ballots less secure for political gain, and the Court saw right through their partisan lies. In Arizona and across the nation, states know best how to manage their own elections.

Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias vowed the legal fight against the new laws would continue. If anyone thinks that this decision will stop us from fighting for voting rights, they are wrong. We will fight harder with every tool available to protect voters from suppressive laws," Elias wrote on Twitter.

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Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy contributed to this report from Atlanta.
PEA RIDGE, Ark. (AP)  A woman accused of running over and killing a police officer in Arkansas was facing multiple low-level theft and drug cases at the time and had a record of now showing up in court, authorities say.

Each time she was arrested, Shawna Cash, 22, ended up being released from jail, partly because of coronavirus precautions to reduce jail populations, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Cash is accused of hitting Pea Ridge officer Kevin Apple with her car and dragging him after he approached the vehicle at a convenience store, according to court documents. Authorities say the vehicle matched the description of one that was sought by police.

Cash was arrested Saturday along with passenger Elijah Andazola, 18. Neither Cash nor Andazola have been formally charged in Apple's death.

Matt Durrett, prosecutor in Washington County, where Cash has three open or reopened theft and drug cases, said the system failed in Cash's case. He noted that he had authorized law enforcement officers to issue citations for low-level, nonviolent felonies. At the same time, there was a huge backlog of cases stemming from the courts being closed to most in-person proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She kept getting out, kept getting released, and COVID's not an excuse, its an explanation for it, said Durrett. Thats the reason for it, trying to keep the numbers down.

To be released on a low-level felony offense, the person can't have a failure-to-appear charge. Durrett said Cash failed to appear twice, but the backlog meant a warrant had not been issued for her.

Tim Helder, the sheriff in Washington County, where Cash faces six cases, also noted none of those charges involved violence.

Durrett said Cashs case is a particularly bitter pill because it led to the death of a police officer.

Its still a kick in the gut to realize that she had failed to appear and had been arrested multiple times. A missed opportunity to get her off the streets, he said.

Judges Monday ordered Cash and Andazola to be held without bail in the Benton County jail.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)  Authorities say a suspect has shot and killed a St. Joseph police dog while officers served a warrant.

The St. Joseph News-Press reports that 24-year-old Valdez McDonald was barricaded in a home when officers responded Wednesday night. St. Joseph Police Commander David Hart said that as officers tried to negotiate with him, he fled and shot the German Shepherd, named Max.

Max performed his duties heroically and protected the lives of others on scene, police said in a statement.

McDonald is charged with third-degree domestic assault and jailed without bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

According to a probable cause statement, McDonald abused a woman by hitting her in the head with multiple objects. Documents state he also pointed an AR-15 style rifle at the woman's chest.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  An Army soldier who shot and killed an armed protester after driving into a crowd demonstrating against police violence in the Texas capital last summer has been indicted on a murder charge, authorities said Thursday.

Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood, was booked and released on $300,000 bail, said Kristen Dark, a spokeswoman for the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Perrys attorney, Clint Broden, has said the soldier was working for a ride-sharing company and acted in self-defense after Foster pointed a gun at him. Broden issued a statement Thursday expressing disappointment in the indictment and confidence that Perry would be acquitted.

It is important to note that the standard of proof required for an indictment is significantly less than the standard of proof required for a conviction, the statement said.

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said in a press conference Thursday that the grand jury returned indictments against Perry for the charges of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a deadly conduct misdemeanor charge in the July 25 death of Garrett Foster, 28. He said the grand jury reviewed evidence from investigations by the District Attorney's office and a three-week investigation by Austin officers, who reviewed over 150 exhibits and interviewed 22 witnesses. Garza said Perry declined to testify before the grand jury, but that Perry's attorney did provide a packet with information, which was shared with the grand jury with the exception of details not admissible in a trial.

Garza said his office planned to request that Perry surrender his firearms, in addition to other conditions, for his release.

Foster was killed during a night of protests and unrest in several U.S. cities. In the immediate aftermath, then-Police Chief Brian Manley said officers heard two separate volleys of gunfire and made their way to the crowd, where they found Foster with multiple gunshot wounds.

Perrys attorneys have previously told The Associated Press that their client had just dropped off a rider when he turned onto a street filled with protesters who began beating on his vehicle. They said that Foster approached the car and motioned with his gun for Perry to lower his window. Perry initially thought Foster worked in law enforcement and put his window down, they said. But when Foster raised his weapon toward Perry, the soldier realized Foster was not a police officer and shot him in self-defense with a handgun in his car, the attorneys said.

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Acacia Coronado is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea has reported 826 new cases of the coronavirus, its biggest daily jump in about six months, as fears grow about another huge wave of the virus in the greater capital area.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Friday that 633 of the cases came from the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the countrys 51 million people, where officials pushed back an easing of social distancing measures as infections soared over the past week.

Dozens of infections were each reported in other major cities and regions, including Busan, Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province.

Some health experts say government officials sent the wrong message to the public by announcing plans to allow for larger gatherings and longer indoor dining hours at restaurants starting this month to ease the pandemics shock on the economy. The experts say a premature easing of social distancing could have disastrous consequences when the country has administered first doses of vaccines to just 30% of its population and most younger adults remain unvaccinated.

The government had planned to relax social distancing restrictions nationwide at the start of July, raising the cap on private social gatherings from four to six people and allowing restaurants to extend indoor dining by two hours until midnight.

However, officials in Seoul and nearby Incheon and Gyeonggi Province have decided to hold off the new rules by at least a week as the wrestled with the rise in transmissions.

South Korea has so far reported 158,549 cases, including 2,024 deaths.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC

 Britain registers nearly 28,000 daily cases, highest since January

 Turkey lifts most pandemic restrictions as new cases plateau

 Delta coronavirus variant exploits low global vaccine rates

 Africas COVID-19 envoy blasts EU, COVAX over vaccine crisis

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 Follow more of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

RENO, Nev. -- Northern Nevadas Washoe County has confirmed its first death related to the COVID-19 Delta variant.

The county health district said Thursday the variant believed to have originated in India was the most common variant among samples collected at the state public health lab last month and is accounting for one in four new cases reported nationally.

Health District officer Kevin Dick says it was the leading variant reported in Washoe County the last two weeks and is extremely contagious.

The woman in her 40s who died had been hospitalized in the Reno-Sparks area, had no underlying conditions and had not received the COVID-19 vaccination.

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ARKANSAS  For the second day in a row, Arkansas reported Thursday its biggest one-day spike in four months of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, an increase officials have blamed on the delta variant of the virus.

The state reported 700 new virus cases, bringing its total since the pandemic began to 350,085. The states active cases, meaning those that dont include people who have recovered or died from the virus, increased by 496 to 4,199.

The one-day increase in cases was the states highest since it reported 726 on Feb. 25.

The states COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by 12 to 337, while the death toll remained unchanged at 5,909.

While the past two days have seen some of the highest reports for vaccine distribution in a while, our hospitalizations and new cases continue to rise, said Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Delays in getting vaccinated allow the delta variant to spread.

Hutchinson appealed to the public to begin getting immunized to COVID-19 by the weekend.

The delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was first detected in India.

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LANSING, Mich.  About $5 million in cash and college scholarships will be given away in lottery-style drawings aimed at raising Michigans COVID-19 vaccination rate, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday.

The incentive program features a $2 million jackpot, a $1 million prize and 30 daily drawings of $50,000 for residents ages 18 and older who have received at least one shot. Vaccinated residents ages 12 to 17 are eligible for one of nine four-year prepaid tuition contracts valued at $55,000.

The MI Shot to Win Sweepstakes is being launched after several states, including Ohio, offered millions of dollars to boost vaccinations  with mixed results.

Nearly 62% of Michigan residents ages 16 and up have received at least one dose, ranking it near the middle among states, as infections have plummeted. Whitmer and state health officials want 70% vaccinated, which would require about 678,000 additional people to get a shot.

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HONOLULU  Hawaii officials are extending a vaccination incentive program to get more shots in arms.

Hawaii Public Radio reports a second round of vaccine incentives will be launched this month. People can register for the second round of incentives beginning July 12, with new prizes include cars, cash and furniture.

The incentive programs have been funded by local businesses.

The state Department of Health says the states current incentive program contributed to a 30% increase in vaccinations over what was expected in June.

Nearly 58% of Hawaiis population is fully vaccinated. When the state reaches 70%, all COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina  Argentine officials say they will study the possibility of combining two different COVID-19 vaccines due to the delayed arrival of Russia's Sputnik V for many who already received a first dose.

Buenos Aires city Health Minister Fernan Quiros tells Radio Mitre that officials would choose a random sample of potential volunteers to receive a second dose of vaccines made by AstraZeneca or Chinas Sinopharm, or wait for a second shot of Sputnik likely starting in mid-August.

Several other countries have tried mixing vaccines due to distribution delays or safety concerns.

Some 70,000 people in Buenos Aires got an initial shot of Sputnik V three months ago and are still waiting a second dose. The number is about 300,000 nationwide.

The country has seen a renewed wave of infections at the start of the Southern Hemisphere winter.

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PRAGUE  The Czech Republic is imposing measures to contain the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

Health Minister Adam Vojtech says all Czechs who return from abroad, including those who are at low risk, must get tested.

Workplaces have been ordered to bar employees who do not present a negative test after returning to the country.

The new restrictions dont apply for people who have been fully vaccinated, however.

Infections began rising this week after several months of declines.

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LISBON, Portugal  Portugal will impose an 11 p.m. curfew in parts of the country with surging coronavirus cases.

The curfew affects 45 council areas including the two largest cities, Lisbon and Porto.

Restaurants, cafes and cultural venues can stay open until 10.30 p.m., with limits on how many people can sit together.

Health authorities say the delta variant is pushing infections to levels not seen since February in the country of 10.3 million people.

Nearly 2,500 confirmed cases were reported Thursday. Hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients are at a two-month high.

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BERLIN  A German advisory panel is recommending people who get a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine be given a second shot with one of the mRNA vaccines.

Germanys committee on vaccinations cites studies showing a significantly superior immune response from a mixture of AstraZeneca with a second shot of an mRNA vaccine compared with two shots of AstraZeneca.

In a draft recommendation Thursday, it calls for a gap of at least four weeks between the different shots.

Germany uses the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines.

In April, German authorities decided people under 60 who had received a first shot of AstraZeneca should as a rule get a second shot of a mRNA vaccine.

That decision came after the AstraZeneca vaccine was linked to extremely rare blood clots.

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RIO DE JANEIRO  Police have begun evicting hundreds of homeless families from a recently established tent city near Rio de Janeiro, underscoring Brazils resurgent poverty during the pandemic.

Residents blocked the entrance to the site Thursday with bonfires as police launched tear gas and fired water cannons at the tents. In the heart of the Southern Hemisphere winter, the city was experiencing one of its coldest mornings on record.

The forced removal in Itaguai follows a court decision in favor of the lands owner, state oil company Petrobras. The residents had occupied the plot for two months and baptized it the First of May Refugee Camp.

Emergent shantytowns in several cities across Brazil reflect a surge of poverty after the government pared back its pandemic welfare programs. That left many exposed to soaring inflation as the nations weak job market has yet to show signs of recovery.

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BRANSON, Mo.  Health officials working to boost lagging coronavirus vaccination rates in Missouri are concerned as the July 4 holiday weekend approaches, creating ripe conditions for the fast-spreading delta variant.

Missouri is second only to Nevada for having the highest coronavirus diagnosis rate in the past week. Its seven-day rolling average of daily cases has risen in the past two weeks from 576 per day on June 15 to 891 on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

State data shows hospitalizations are up 38%.

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ISTANBUL  Turkey has eased nearly all pandemic restrictions on businesses and events and lifted nighttime and Sunday curfews.

The Interior Ministry says restaurants and weddings no longer have to limit the number of people, but they still need to abide by social distancing rules. Only hookah shops are still closed.

Concerts and festivals can take place indoors and outdoors, but music must end by midnight.

Turkeys vaccination drive has gathered speed, surpassing 50 million doses. But only 18% of Turkeys 84 million population has been fully vaccinated.

Coronavirus infections have been hovering around a seven-day average of about 5,500 cases.

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LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says unspecified extra precautions to contain the spread of the coronavirus will be needed in coming weeks, while voicing confidence the remaining restrictions on social contact can be lifted on July 19.

Infections in the U.K. have risen sharply in recent weeks, with government figures showing another 27,989 new cases on Thursday. Thats the highest level since the end of January.

Johnson says he is hopeful life will get back as close to it was before COVID, given the evidence showing vaccines are reducing deaths despite rising infections from the more contagious delta variant.

As of Thursday, 67% of the U.K. population has received at least one dose while 49% have had two. Daily virus-related deaths remain relatively low.

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WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden has come up well short of his goal of delivering 80 million vaccine doses to the rest of the world by the end of June.

The White House says logistical and regulatory hurdles have slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy. The Biden administration had announced about 50 countries and entities would receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses.

But an Associated Press tally shows the U.S. has shipped less than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries. The White House says more will be sent in the coming days.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Denmark is donating 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod says the Balkan nations are experiencing a major vaccine shortage and he is glad that we can step in and assist our close partners with the absolutely crucial weapon against the pandemic, namely vaccines.

Denmark is also giving an extra 1 million doses to COVAX, and initiative to give countries access to coronavirus vaccines regardless of their wealth. Foreign Aid Minister Flemming Moeller says the donation is earmarked for North African countries and Bhutan.

The Scandinavian country has donated AstraZeneca vaccines to Kenya and committed to give doses to Ukraine.

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NEW YORK  The latest alarming coronavirus variant is exploiting low global vaccination rates and a rush to ease pandemic restrictions.

Thats adding new urgency to the drive to get more shots in arms. The vaccines most used in Western countries still appear to offer strong protection against the highly contagious delta variant, which was first identified in India and is now in more than 90 countries.

The World Health Organization warned this week that easier-to-spread strains, insufficiently immunized populations and a drop in mask use and other public health measures will delay the end of the pandemic.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says that widespread vaccination is even more critical because the virus that we have circulating is in fact more transmissible than the original wild type."

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MOSCOW  Russian health authorities have launched booster vaccines for those were inoculated against the coronavirus more than six months ago, amid a surge in new infections and deaths.

Moscow health authorities on Thursday started offering booster shots with the domestically produced, two-shot Sputnik V vaccine and its one-shot Sputnik Light version. Other Russian regions are also starting to offer boosters.

Russia has faced a surge in infections, with more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases daily since last Thursday. Thats more than double the average in early June.

It recorded 672 deaths Thursday, the highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia  Thousands of Indonesians have lined up at a sports stadium to receive a COVID-19 dose in a one-day mass vaccination event.

Authorities at the arena in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, aim to vaccinate 25,000 people.

Its part of a push to dramatically scale up the nations virus fight as hospitals fill with sick patients. The goal is to administer 1 million doses per day in July and 2 million in August.

President Joko Widodo announced new community restrictions and the mobilization of the National Police and other resources to combat the surging infections.

The Red Cross warned this week that Indonesia is on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe and urgently needs to increase medical care, testing and vaccinations.

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GENEVA  The World Health Organization says any coronavirus vaccines it has authorized for emergency use should be recognized by countries when they open their borders.

The move could challenge Western countries to broaden their acceptance of two Chinese vaccines, which the U.N. health agency has licensed but most European and North American countries have not.

In addition to vaccines authorized by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, the WHO has also given the green light to two Chinese vaccines made by Sinovac and Sinopharm.

In its aim to restore travel across Europe, the European Union said in May that it would only recognize people as vaccinated if they had received shots licensed by the European Medicines Agency, which doesnt include the Chinese vaccines. However, its up to individual countries if they wish to allow entry to people who have received other vaccines, including Russias Sputnik V.

Although Western countries have largely relied on vaccines made in the U.S. and Europe, such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, many developing countries have used the Chinese-made shots.

This year, the head of Chinas Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged the effectiveness of its home-grown shots was low and numerous countries that have used them extensively have seen COVID-19 surges even with relatively high levels of immunization.
Nasser Nasser/AP

JERUSALEM (AP)  The U.N. human rights chief on Thursday urged the Palestinian Authority to ensure the safety of protesters after security forces and supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas attacked demonstrators over the weekend.

The protests erupted after an outspoken critic of the PA died shortly after his family says he was severely beaten by security forces who arrested him. The PA, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has grown increasingly autocratic and unpopular in recent years.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A conservative law firm has filed a lawsuit alleging Madison's new civilian police oversight board has illegally reserved positions for members of certain races.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the action in federal court in Madison on Wednesday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The firm alleges that the board is using unconstitutional racial quotas to fill its slots.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The woman who was with a St. Paul man when he was fatally shot by members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force during an arrest attempt in Minneapolis said through her attorneys Thursday that the law enforcement officers were not in uniform and did not identify themselves as authorities when they surrounded the SUV with their guns drawn.

Norhan Askar was on a date with Winston Boogie Smith Jr. and was sitting in an SUV in a Minneapolis parking ramp on June 3 when Smith, who was Black, was fatally shot as authorities tried to arrest him on a weapons violation. Authorities have said Smith showed a handgun, and that evidence shows he fired it. Askar's attorneys said previously that she never saw a gun on Smith or in his vehicle.

Askar's attorneys reiterated that Thursday, and released additional information in advance of a lawsuit that they say will allege Askar's civil rights were violated. Askar did not appear at a news conference with her attorneys, Christopher Nguyen and Racey Rodne, but they released a statement on her behalf.

The attorneys said Askar met Smith, 32, through mutual friends and they had been dating for several weeks. They went to a restaurant for lunch and drinks, walked back to Smith's SUV, got inside, and were suddenly surrounded by unmarked cars and people with guns.

These people were dressed in neither sheriff nor peace officer uniforms. They yelled commands and did not announce themselves as law enforcement of any kind, the attorneys said. While yelling commands for them to put their hands up, multiple armed people targeted their weapons upon her and Mr. Smith.

Askar's attorneys said that she was scared for her life and complied, and that Smith had a mobile phone and began to record for Facebook Live.

As he raised the phone all she could hear was gunfire and saw Winston Smith slump over, the attorneys said. When asked if they were suggesting that law enforcement mistook the phone for a gun, Nguyen said: I think that's a logical inference.

When asked whether task force officers are supposed to identify themselves as law enforcement, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said he could not comment due to the ongoing investigation. A spokeswoman with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also had no additional comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

The attorneys said Askar was pulled out of the SUV, handcuffed and put in the back of an unmarked car. She stayed in handcuffs until paramedics gave her medical attention. The attorneys said an officer later asked her how her date was.

Askar experienced trauma from seeing Smith killed next to her, and she is still healing from injuries she received when she was sprayed by broken glass, her attorneys said.

Nguyen said that Askar knew Smith for more than six months, and at some point, someone suggested he had a warrant. When she asked him about it, Smith told Askar he had gotten into some trouble but the case had been dismissed. According to court records, Smith was wanted for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Authorities were trying to arrest him when a Ramsey County sheriff's deputy and a Hennepin County sheriff's deputy who were members of the task force fired their weapons. Both deputies were working in an undercover capacity so their names are barred from being released under state law, state investigators have said.

State investigators have also said they are unaware of any video of the incident. Investigators said there is no body camera or squad camera footage, and they are unaware of surveillance video. It was not immediately clear if Smith recorded any Facebook video before he was shot.

Local officials have said the deputies were assigned body cameras, but were told by the U.S. Marshals Service that they could not use them, despite an October change in Justice Department policy that would have allowed them to be used. The lack of body camera footage has raised questions, as Smiths family members and activists continue to demand transparency.

Askars attorneys also called for transparency. They said the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told them they failed to take gunshot residue samples from Smith's body, which was washed by the medical examiner. They said such evidence would exonerate Smith.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said its lab doesnt do gunshot residue testing because it doesn't provide conclusive evidence about whether or when someone fired or handled a gun. Spokeswoman Jill Oliveira said in an email; In a situation like this where guns were fired from inside and outside the vehicle in close proximity we would not be able to determine which gun the GSR (gunshot residue) came from.

She said the BCA did not request gunshot residue testing from the medical examiner. She added that the BCA is conducting DNA testing and other examinations on the guns. Search warrant affidavits say authorities found a pistol and six cartridge casings inside Smiths vehicle.

Activists said they believe Askar, and again decried the lack of body camera videos and transparency. They said they do not trust the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate shootings involving police.

We want answers in this case. We demand accountability in this case. We demand transparency in this case, Nekima Levy Armstrong, an activist and civil rights attorney, said.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said of Askar: She has the truth in her eyes she has the truth in her mouth.

Smith was shot as Minneapolis was already on edge since the death of George Floyd over a year ago, and the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright by an officer in nearby Brooklyn Center in April.
What sold Gerardo Vargas on buying a ranch in Zapata County along the Rio Grande was the view from two 45-foot-tall cliffs that stood on 250-acre property, offering a view of both the river and the distant mountains around Monterrey more than 100 miles away.

From those cliffs, Vargas said he could hear fish splashing in the river and sometimes, someone on the Mexico side would be fishing and offer a friendly wave. Because the cliffs faced west, Vargas said, they offered a view of a perfect sunset.

RELATED: Texas border wall project receives over $450K in donations, a week after Gov. Abbott announced plans

But near the end of Donald Trumps presidency, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to pave a road as part of border wall construction on Vargass ranch and bulldozed one of the cliffs. The construction also uprooted many of the old, tall mesquite trees on his property.

When President Joe Biden took office, construction on Rodriguezs land stopped before any part of the wall was erected and he was relieved that he still had one cliff left. Earlier this month, however, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas intends to build its own border wall to stem what he called a tidal wave of illegal immigrants coming across the border, wreaking havoc in communities and residents who live here in Texas.

Abbott issued a disaster declaration on May 31 and at a press conference in Fort Worth, then announced that the state will set aside $250 million in state funds to help build the wall; federal lawmakers have said building parts of the Texas border wall would cost at least $26.5 million per mile.

President Bidens reckless open border politics have led to a crisis along our southern border, said Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott, adding that the governors action was justified because of a 20-year record high of migrants crossing the border.

But the plan has re-ignited opposition from many South Texas landowners like Rodriguez who dont want a wall cutting through their properties. Now, the fight is with their state authorities rather than the federal government, and like every wall, there are two sides to the argument.

In Zapata County and other border counties  areas that were once reliably Democratic strongholds  former President Donald Trump made significant gains in last years election, and the border wall has become a focal point of local tension between those who support wall construction and others who dont see the need for it.

Weve been fighting the federal government, were not just going to roll over and give up now, said Elsa Hull, who owns a 3-acre ranch in San Ygnacio, a Zapata County town of fewer than 700 residents. But what kind of governor is that, you know? To take peoples homes and businesses and farms and ranches away from them. That is not a governor for the people by any means.

Hull is one of six plaintiffs in a 2019 lawsuit against construction of Trumps proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall. The suit has been put on hold since the Biden Administration took office and froze border wall construction funding; it was one of several lawsuits by South Texas landowners challenging Trumps wall.

Hull has lived on her ranch next to the Rio Grande with her two daughters for a couple of decades now and doesnt agree that the Texas side of the river is unsafe. As someone who monitors the rivers water quality for a living, she works along a 300-mile stretch of the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Zapata County and is often alone in remote areas.

I have never once been in fear of my safety or the safety of my children, Hull said. People here do not bother us. They are not running rampant through the areas like in [the TV series] Breaking Bad. Nothing, nothing in 20 years.

The view of the Rio Grande from Gerardo Vargas' property on Zapata County. Credit: Jessica Rodriguez for The Texas Tribune

Wall plan has support among some landowners

Other landowners, however, said they find comfort and relief in Abbotts plan.

Allison Anderson moved to a 20-acre ranch in Del Rio about a year ago, hoping to find a safe place to raise her young daughters, ages 5, 3 and 1, but Anderson said, within the last eight months or so, it has just gotten so bad here  since the [presidential] administrations changed.

Anderson, 38, said she was outside with her daughters one April afternoon to feed their livestock when she saw a fleet of state trooper vehicles dash through her property. She said she scooped up her girls and ran to the house for cover while a helicopter circled above their home as her daughters peeked through the window. She later learned from her husband, who is a Border Patrol agent, that four immigrants had been hiding somewhere on their property; only one was apprehended that afternoon, she said.

It wasnt the first time migrants have crossed their property, Anderson said.

Ive had several very close encounters where men were either acting aggressively toward me or actually rush at me out of the brush, Anderson said. It got to the point where I was not sleeping anymore and it was affecting me dramatically on a mental level, where I was terrified to leave the house to do anything because I was worried about my kids safety.

'I'M JUST STUNNED': Texas leaders react to Abbott's announcement about border wall

Lanny Mecum, who is 77 and owns more than 10,000 acres of land along the river in Zapata, said shes grateful Abbott has grabbed the baton to build a border wall.

Mecums ranch was passed down to her from her grandfather, and said she supports a border wall because she sees all the fine Border Patrol river riders, government people that work down in that area are just overwhelmed trying to save lives.

Abbott noted that in the first four months of this year, the Texas Department of Public Safety seized 137 grams of fentanyl, a highly addictive drug, compared to 52 grams in all of 2002. Apprehensions of migrants at the states southwest border are already nearly double that of last years record.

Mecum said she was OK with losing a few acres to get [a border wall] completed  Im older and I would be glad if before I leave here, I would love to see that project taken care of to help South Texas.

Shifting political tides on the border

South Texas has been a reliably Democratic area for generations, but in the 2020 presidential election, the Rio Grande Valley and neighboring border counties all voted more Republican compared to previous presidential elections.

For example, Trump finished 23 points higher in Hidalgo County last year versus 2016, while neighboring Starr County gave Trump 55% more of its votes. Joe Biden still won both counties. But Trump flipped Zapata County in 2020, winning with 52% of the vote; in 2016, Hillary Clinton won the county by 33 percentage points.

Gerardo Vargas points toward the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, where he often sees people fishing. Credit: Jessica Rodriguez for The Texas Tribune

Adrienne Pena-Garza, the Republican Party chair in Hidalgo County, applauds Abbotts initiative to carry on wall construction, calling it a step toward restoring law and order.

I think Texas is trying to take matters into its own hands because theyre noticing that the federal government is not doing enough of a job to get things done, Pena-Garza said. Its important to have checks and balances; its important to have people come legally; its important to do the right thing and I believe that this is what our governor is trying to do.

Pena-Garza said more border security provides more safety not only for border residents and Border Patrol agents, but for the families that are coming across. We need to be encouraging legal migration. I think that its wonderful that people want to come to America, but we need to do it safely and legally.

Immigration advocates such as Laredo attorney Carlos Flores, however, say the path to citizenship is too complicated and cumbersome for those seeking refuge from countries struggling with civil war or ongoing drug cartel violence.

Flores said it can take years for an immigrant to receive a green card, or permanent residency, and that there is just no time when you are put in these kinds of dangerous situations these people are facing.

The greatest land grab in modern American history

Abbott hasnt released detailed plans or a timetable for the proposed border wall yet, but any wall construction that isnt on government-owned land will require seizing private land through eminent domain, which is the power of governments to seize private property without the owners consent.

It would be the greatest land grab in modern American history, said Flores, who sued Trump and the acting heads of the U.S Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol last year, claiming that Trumps motive to build the border wall was grounded in racism and politics, making it an unconstitutional use of eminent domain.

MONEY DOWN: Abbott announces Texas is providing initial $250 million "down payment" for border wall

Flores filed suit on behalf of Melissa Cigarroa, who owns a 175-acre ranch in Zapata County and Christopher Rincon, the executive director of the San Ygnacio-based River Pierce Foundation, an organization that strives to preserve the colonial character of the town.

The lawsuit was put on hold after Trumps loss last year, and Flores said hes waiting for more details from Abbott before deciding whether to file a new lawsuit over the proposed Texas wall.

Were an area that is very proud of our culture, and our culture is largely tied to being part of the Mexican-American identity and the river and the border, Flores said. And so what Greg Abbott has done is he has betrayed the people of South Texas with this announcement. It is no question a slap in the face to our communities.

Trumps wall would have taken some of the land near three of the Pierce Foundations buildings along the river: the Rickes house, the Uribe Chico House, and the Trevino-Uribe Rancho  which was built in 1930, making it the oldest surviving building form the period of Spanish settlement on the north bank of the Rio Grande. The buildings contributed to San Ygnacios designation as a National Registered District in 1973.

Ruins of a settlement called Rancho Dolores, which dates to 1757, sit on Gerardo Vargas' property near the Rio Grande in Zapata County. Credit: Jessica Rodriguez for The Texas Tribune

Were losing more than just land, were losing history and stories, Rincon said.

Cigarro is the board president of the Rio Grande International Study Center, and said she is concerned about how wall construction would impact wildlife and water quality of the Rio Grande. Cutting new roads near the river would cause runoff and dump silt into the river, she said.

Trumps proposed border wall would have been built 200 feet north of the river and cut a swath through Cigarros land, she said. For her, the thought of being cut off from the river is soul crushing because she bought the land with the vision of her five children  who are currently in college  raising their own families in a place thats so full and vibrant and rich and respectful of this international border and the only way that could happen is if were not considered a prison colony with a stupid barrior along our border.

Hull said shes also concerned about how a wall will impact the wildlife that depends on access to the river. She said around dusk one day a couple weeks ago, she was sitting in her backyard, looking at the Rio Grande, when a curious bobcat came within 3 feet of where she was sitting. It watched her for a while before disappearing to the brush.

Its just heartbreaking to imagine this being destroyed for something just so useless and is just part of a political game, she said. Its just so heartbreaking and frustrating and infuriating.

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Its a classic origin story  one of a near death experience leading to eureka.

After almost meeting his end at the hands of a whizzing e-scooter on the UTSA campus, Murtuza Jadliwala, an assistant professor in the Universitys Department of Computer Science, wheeled out a new scooter-inspired research laboratory, according to UTSA Today.

In recent years, the zippy method of transportation has become increasingly popular in high-traffic areas, and not without accidents. Instead of submitting a vengeful ban on e-scooters like one might expect, Jadliwala became hyper-fixated on the useful data the vehicles could provide  particularly in regard to safety.

When I saw all these scooters on campus, I realized they not only carry people, but can also carry sensors that can help us collect data, which is great for all these technological advances we want to make, Jadliwala tells UTSA Today.

That also got me thinking that by obtaining data from them, we can study the impact of scooters on pedestrian safety.

Some ways the data could prove useful to this goal is by pinpointing high-traffic regions on campus, which could then be diffused through designated pedestrian areas being developed to avoid a two-wheel accident.

William Luther /San Antonio Express-News

Research begins once small computers are attached to scooters purchased by the lab. With the help of a UTSA doctoral student Raveen Wikewickrama, Jadliwala and company built the first tiny data-collector attachment using a Raspberry Pi computer, complete with sensors and a small battery.

The operation on wheels in question is appropriately named ScooterLab. Funding for the data vehicle pilot program derives largely from a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Jerry Lara / Staff Photographer

RELATED: Fuerza Unida donates 90's labor activism documents to UTSA Libraries

The sensors can collect GPS location, exploration and audio data that connect to our test phone through Bluetooth, Wijewickrama explains to the collegiate publication.

We can download the data from our phones for analysis. This is just a prototype. Our next version will have the capability of transmitting the data to a collection center through a 5G transmitter.

The team is currently developing more advanced models, but with micro-mobility data being so sensitive and sought-after by big companies, the team claims they want to keep the small scooter operation in-house.

While the pilot-program is currently payrolled with government funding, if the team were to accept investments from private companies, Jadliwala asserts it could lead to a conflict of interest with their research goals surrounding scooter safety.

Collecting data in an ethical fashion and storing it securely, to ensure privacy of users, are grand challenges which we are still planning, says Jadliwala.

RELATED: Site of one of San Antonio's first Black-owned shops could get historical designation

If ScooterLab can secure more funding from the NSF or other public entities, avoiding private interest groups, then a full fleet of scooters are scheduled to hit the pavement by mid-2020. An app will be created to onboard UTSA students, where they will agree to their data being collected in exchange for scooter rides at little to no cost.

Until then, Jadliwala's project is potentially a promising solution to the hazardous chaos legions of e-scooters have brought to urban areas and college campuses around the nation.
Storm-producing fire clouds threw out hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes over wildfire-stricken British Columbia and northwestern Alberta provinces in Canada Wednesday and Thursday, bewildering meteorologists.

Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the company Vaisala, which maps lightning strikes around in the world, said the North American Lightning Detection Network sensed 710,177 lightning events across British Columbia and northwestern Alberta in about 15 hours, between 3 p.m. on June 30 and 6 a.m. on July 1.

Of those, 597,314 were in-cloud pulses, meaning the strikes didn't hit the ground. "Each in-cloud lightning 'strike' can be made up of multiple in-cloud pulses," Vagasky explained.

There were 112,803 cloud-to-ground strokes detected over the same area, he said.

Vagasky called the numbers "surprising" for Canada. "In studying lightning, there is always something interesting that comes up, whether it is lightning in a hurricane or volcano, or large numbers of lightning," he said. "As a whole, Canada doesnt generally see a lot of lightning  about 90% less than the United States. In fact, the counts from yesterday are more what you would expect to see in a big day over lightning-prone regions like Texas or Oklahoma."

The numbers coming out of the lightning siege seem too big to be true, but Vagasky said the activity is measured with precision equipment.

Data produced by North American Lightning Detection Network is monitored nonstop and validated against rocket-triggered lightning, lightning to tall towers, and other lightning references.

"The network detects more than 95% of cloud-to-ground flashes with 100-meter accuracy," said Vagasky.

The majority of the strikes in western Canada were the result of pyrocumulonimbus clouds forming over the wildfires tearing across western Canada, which has also suffered from a sweltering heat wave in the past week.

On Thursday morning the British Columbia Wildfire Service listed 47 blazes across the region. In a fire burning 95 miles northeast of Vancouver, the entire village of Lytton evacuated. The mayor of the town of 250 people told CBC News on Thursday the whole town was on fire. Large blazes also burned north of Big White as well near Sparks Lake, according to CBC.

"Absolutely mind-blowing wildfire behavior in British Columbia," Dakota Smith, a scientist in Colorado, tweeted along with satellite imagery. "Incredible & massive storm-producing pyrocumulonimbus plumes."

"I've watched a lot of wildfire-associated pyroconvective events during the satellite era, and I think this might be the singularly most extreme I've ever seen," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, wrote on Twitter. "This is a literal firestorm, producing *thousands* of lightning strikes and almost certainly countless new fires."

These massive, mushroom-shaped clouds of hot, smoky air towering thousands of feet into the sky are caused by a natural source of heat such as a wildfire or volcano, according to NASA. Rising warm air from the fire carries water vapor, ash and smoke up into the atmosphere, forming clouds.

These clouds can become so intense that they create their own weather and emit lightning that can start new wildfires on the ground.

Neil Lareau, who studies wildfire-generated weather, said this appears to be the biggest pyrocumulonimbus event he has seen.

"At face value, Im tempted to say this might be the upper end of what Ive ever seen," said Lareau, a professor of atmospheric sciences in the department of physics at the University of Nevada at Reno. "There have been some significant pyrocumulonimbus clouds in British Columbia in 2017 as well as the Australian outbreak of 2020 and then the Creek Fire here in California."

Lareau closely followed a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that developed over the Creek Fire on Sept. 5, 2020, between Shaver Lake, Big Creek and Huntington Lake, Calif. Using data from the National Weather Services network of Doppler radars, Lareau created a model of the smoke plume that soared 55,000 feet in elevation.

He said the fires in western Canada have produced several clouds of this magnitude.

"Every year its one upping the year before, which is really horrifying," he said.
News

Commissioners review Area Plan cases

Several cases that have recently come before the Grant County Board of Zoning Appeals and Area Plan Commission are leading to more thorough reviews of various issues throughout the county.

At last weeks Grant County Commissioners meeting, Area Plan Executive Director Ryan Malott presented cases requiring the boards action.

In the first case, Malott said that a resident had filed an application for development standard variance requesting to permanently house a shipping container on his property on County Road 400 West as an accessory building for storage. According to the application, the resident argued the area is rural and sparsely populated and that keeping the shipping container on the property was more affordable than building a new structure to store his vehicles and personal items.

Malott said the BZA followed current ordinances in place and approved a six-month allowance for the structure to remain on the property, but the application has led to further discussion regarding mobile and shipping containers county wide. He said he plans to bring an updated ordinance to the APC at its regular August meeting.

These are popping up ... and if were going to count for it as an accessory structure, why cant it go up in a backyard over in Upland? Malott said. ...Right now you can buy a 40-foot long, 8-foot wide, 10-foot high shipping container for $3,000. So again, we kind of brought it in front of the BZA to start the discussion of an ordinance to get something together so that we at least get some control before they start popping up everywhere.

Commissioner Ron Mowery said if there was a blanket approval for the shipping containers to be counted as accessory structures, some homeowners would take good care and make them look nice with landscaping around it while others may just trash the neighborhood with them.

Noting that the ordinance already allows for the container to be on the property for six months, commissioners gave an unfavorable recommendation to the application to make it a permanent accessory structure. Commissioner Mark Bardsley said the unfavorable recommendation is meant to force the larger discussion about how these containers will be handled countywide.

Malott also brought two ordinances before the commissioners for approval. The first ordinance amends the zoning ordinance map so that one acre of property owned by a family on Wheeling Pike in Jonesboro is changed from being zoned agricultural to a general business zoning.

Malott said the family intends to build a 15-foot by 15-foot shop in an existing pole barn on the property in order to conduct wholesale frozen meat sales, but that purpose is not allowed under an agricultural zoning. After three months of discussions, the county and the homeowners came to a written agreement that the 1-acre section surrounding the pole barn will have its zoning changed to general business.

The written commitment includes a list of acceptable uses and a list of prohibited uses for the area, and Malott said there is also a clause that states the zoning will revert to agricultural if the family sells the property or moves.

The board unanimously approved the ordinance to amend the zoning map ordinance.

Everything I hear is saying that we are doing our best to protect not only the surrounding neighbors but to protect the opportunity for business as well. I like that, Bardsley said. Im pleased that if there is a sale of the property that this does not go with it. I think thats important.

Malott said this change in zoning is also leading to an overall review of the land use table so that other agricultural areas could potentially offer wholesale frozen meats on their properties with the right limitations put into place.

We know other farms are doing this, we just want to make it easier for them to do the right thing, he said.

The commissioners also approved a zoning ordinance map amendment for a property on Wheeling Pike in Fairmount southeast of Matthews to change the zoning from industrial to residential. Malott explained a house had sat on the property as a nonconforming use, but new owners bought the property and tore the old house down with the intention of building a new one.

A new home cannot be built on land zoned industrial, leading to the request for the zoning change. Malott said he was not exactly sure why the area was zoned industrial in the first place, as there are primarily residences, woodlands and fields nearby. He said after getting this particular property rezoned, Area Plan will potentially look into rezoning the whole area since it does not appear there are many industrial uses occurring at this point.
A. There's still plenty of nature on the Nature Coast.

B. The county should require a percentage of tree preservation on new commercial, residential developments.

C. If it's private property, it's the owner's full right to strip all nature from the lot.

D. Someone needs to speak for the trees.

Vote

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Florida, FL (34429)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Variable clouds with thunderstorms, especially early. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Florida, FL (34429)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Variable clouds with thunderstorms, especially early. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
Florida, FL (34429)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms during the morning. Partly cloudy skies this afternoon. High around 90F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms mainly during the evening. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
By Sai Gopalan, Product Management, Google Cloud and Sharath Suryanaraya, Product Manager Google Cloud VMware Engine

Weve made several updates to Google Cloud VMware Engine in recent weekstodays post provides a recap of our latest milestones. Google Cloud VMware Engine delivers an enterprise-grade VMware stack running natively in Google Cloud. This cloud service is one of the fastest paths to the cloud for VMware workloads without making changes to existing applications or operating models across a variety of use-cases. These include rapid data center exit, application lift and shift, disaster recovery, virtual desktop infrastructure, or modernization at your own pace.

In fact, Mitel, a global provider of unified communications-as-a-service to 70 million business users across 100 countries, migrated 1,000 VMware instances to Google Cloud VMware Engine in less than 90 days and improved its monthly operational output four times.

In our last update, we focused on several innovative capabilities around networking, reach, and scale. Let us take a look at the highlights we released since our last installment.

Fast provisioning of a dedicated, intrinsically secure VMware private cloud

With Google Cloud VMware Engine, you can spin up a VMware private cloud in about 30 minutes. You can also scale your VMware-based infrastructure on-demand with dedicated hosts located in secure Google data centers. Let us look at whats new:

Autoscale: The ability to elastically and programmatically manage infrastructure resources to align with business needs or what is called right-sizing is a core capability of an IaaS platform. With autoscale, Google Cloud VMware Engine users can leverage policy-driven automation to scale the nodes needed to meet the compute demands of the VMware infrastructure.

Autoscale:

Addresses seasonal spikes in demand, gradual increases of utilization, or new projects being onboarded or expanded due to disaster recovery events.

Analyzes the CPU, memory, and storage utilization to give you the controls to scale Google Cloud VMware Engine nodes up or down.

Ensures that storage consumption does not exceed the recommended limits for maintaining the Google Cloud VMware Engine service-level agreement.

Reduces overhead on IT teams by automating capacity monitoring and enabling sufficient availability of resources based on thresholds. Note that safeguards for maintaining minimum capacity and maximum capacity can be configured to ensure there are boundaries to the automation.

Learn how to set up Autoscale.

Mumbai region availability

Google Cloud VMware Engine is now available in the Mumbai region. This brings the availability of the service to 12 regions globally, enabling our multi-national and regional customers to leverage a VMware-compatible infrastructure-as-a-service platform on Google Cloud. For more details, please read the press release.

Google

Enterprise-grade infrastructure

With 99.99% availability for a cluster in a single zone, fully dedicated 100 Gbps east-west networking with no oversubscription, and all nonvolatile memory express storage, Google Cloud VMware Engine provides the highest performance required for the most demanding workloads. Let us look at whats new:

Preview - Google Cloud KMS integration: You already have the ability to bring your own keys to encrypt your vSAN datastores. With this new capability, organizations that want to eliminate the overhead of managing external key providers can leverage a Google managed key provider, using Cloud KMS. This brings increased flexibility in securing workloads and data by enabling vSAN encryption by default for newly instantiated VMware Private Clouds. This feature is currently in Preview.

HIPAA compliance: Since April, Google Cloud VMware Engine is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. This opens the service up to healthcare organizations, that can now migrate and run their HIPAA-compliant VMware workloads in a fully compatible VMware Cloud Verified stack running natively in Google Cloud with Google Cloud VMware Engine, without changes or re-architecture to tools, processes, or applications. Read more in this blog.

NSX-T support for Active Directory: With NSX-T support for Active Directory, you can now leverage your on-premises Active Directory as one of the lightweight directory access protocol identity sources for user authentication into NSX-T manager. This extends the theme of being able to leverage your on-premises tools with Google Cloud VMware Engine. For more information, read the documentation on how to set up identity sources.

vSAN TRIM/UNMAP support: For space-efficiency, vSAN allows creating thin-provisioned disks that grow gradually as they are filled with data. However, files that are deleted within the guest operating system (OS) do not result in vSAN freeing up space allocated. To increase space efficiency, guest OS file systems have the ability to reclaim capacity that is no longer used, using TRIM/UNMAP commands. vSAN is fully aware of these commands that are sent from the guest OS and enables reclamation of previously allocated storage as free space. We have enabled TRIM/UNMAP for vSan by default in Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Simplicity in experience and operations

With Google Cloud VMware Engine, you only need to worry about your workloadsnot patching, upgrading, and updating the solution layer, for fewer interoperability issues and infrastructure maintenance. In addition, we have pre-built service accounts to enable your third-party VMware-supported tools and solutions to work seamlessly in VMware Engine. Access to Google services privately over local connections is also natively supported, enabling enrichment of existing applications and modernization over time. Finally, this service brings the power of Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) design by natively providing multi-VPC, multi-region networking thats unique. Lets look at whats new:

Dashboards for Day 2 operations: To speed up cloud transformation and enable efficiency, Google Cloud VMware Engine administrators can take advantage of Cloud Operations dashboards for the solution. In addition, administrators can create custom policies through cloud alerting and enable notifications via channels of their choice (SMS, email, Slack, and more). For more details on how to set up cloud monitoring, please refer to Setting up Cloud Monitoring.

For the latest updates, bookmark Google Cloud VMware Engine release notes.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Manish Lohani, Product Management, Google Cloud; Nargis Sakhibova, Product Management, Google Cloud; and Wade Holmes, Solutions Management, Google Cloud; for their contributions to this blog post.
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On Wednesday afternoon, the New York City Board of Elections released a new, unofficial ranked-choice voting tally in the Democratic mayoral and comptroller primaries, showing the dramatic finding that the projection is the same as the erroneous one the day before! Just as the BOE reported, and then unreported, on Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is still leading in the Democratic mayoral primary, but former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia is now trailing by only 2.2 percentage points in the final round of the instant runoff simulation, shrinking Adams election night lead  which measured only first-choice votes  of 12 percentage points.

Although Maya Wiley received the second-most first-place in-person votes, Garcia edges out Wiley by .1% in the second-to-last elimination round, thus making it into the final round and gaining a boost from Wiley voters who ranked Garcia above Adams.

Its a similar story in the Democratic comptroller primary  Brad Lander maintained his election night lead, but rival Corey Johnson is now trailing him by a slim 3.8 percentage points. These are still preliminary results, and dont include the more than 124,000 absentee ballots that still have to be counted. In the actual instant runoff, its possible that the results could differ significantly.

The release of these preliminary, unofficial results follows the Board of Elections posting erroneous counts on Tuesday and deleting them hours later  a blunder that threatens to undermine public confidence in the citys new ranked-choice voting system. These results showed Garcia trailing Adams by 2.2 percentage points in the mayoral primary, and Johnson trailing Lander by 3.4 percentage points in the comptroller primary. In each race, the runner-up had significantly narrowed the gap separating them from the frontrunner. The tally posted Wednesday showed very similar results, with both Adams and Lander leading in their respective races by just a few percentage points.

Adams mayoral campaign was among the first to raise doubts about the initial tally posted Tuesday, noting that it showed a significantly higher number of votes cast in the primary than was reported on election night. The Board of Elections acknowledged the discrepancy, and in a statement on Tuesday night said that it was due to roughly 135,000 fake test ballots being accidentally included in the ranked-choice voting tally. The error, the board has said, was not due to the software used to tabulate ranked-choice votes. There was a human error where a staffer did not remove the test ballot images from the Election Management System, BOE spokesperson Valerie Vazquez-Diaz said in a statement to The New York Times. Hours after releasing an unofficial count that suggested both the mayoral and comptroller races would be nail biters, the board pulled those figures from its website.

The board said Tuesday night that it would re-do the ranked-choice voting tabulation, having removed the 135,000 test ballots from its system. The still-unofficial tally released Wednesday is apparently the product of that process. Let us be clear: RCV was not the problem, rather a human error that could have been avoided, the BOE said in a statement along with the new results on Wednesday. We have implemented another layer of review and quality control before publishing information going forward. We can say with certainty that the election night vote counts were and are accurate and the RCV data put out today is correct as well.

But the blunder has nonetheless worsened distrust in the Board of Elections  a body already beset by years of mismanagement and election-administration fiascos. Nary an election passes without another reminder of how much contempt the agency has for the citys vast, diverse electorate, the Times editorial board wrote of the BOE on Wednesday. Prior to the release of new figures on Wednesday, Adams filed a lawsuit in the Kings County Supreme Court to reserve the right to have a judge oversee and review ballots in his race.

Voting experts raised concerns about the mistakes by the BOE undermining public trust in the final outcome of the race. Former President Donald Trump, who baselessly alleged fraud in the certified outcome of last falls presidential election, released a statement Wednesday comparing the citys current situation to vast irregularities and mistakes that he continues to falsely claim were made in the 2020 presidential election. Adams quickly shot down Trumps claim in a tweet. Yesterday, the results released by the BOE had discrepancies which are being addressed. There were NO similar issues in November. Neither of these elections were a hoax or a scam, Adams wrote.

The release of updated preliminary results on Wednesday was limited to citywide races. Its unclear when City Council or borough president primary preliminary ranked choice results will be released.

While the results released Wednesday show a somewhat more complete picture of the citys most high-profile primaries, they are still incomplete. Official results arent expected until the week of July 12, when more than 124,000 absentee ballots have been counted and incorporated into the ranked-choice voting tabulations.
The agency tasked with administering elections in the most populous city in the country has become something of a laughing stock. The New York City Board of Elections has been called a disaster,famously dysfunctional and at best a semifunctioning anachronism.That last insult dates back to 1971, hinting at just how long the city BOE has been disappointing New Yorkers. The board, which is a bipartisan agency, has long faced unanswered calls for reform.

Those calls were renewed this week, after a preliminary and incomplete tally of ranked-choice voting results in the Democratic mayoral and comptroller primaries were released on Tuesday, and then promptly withdrawn because some 135,000 fake test ballots had been accidentally included in the tabulation. A re-tabulation was conducted and the results  which are still incomplete because absentee ballots have not yet been counted  were released on Wednesday.

New calls for reform unsurprisingly followed this latest fiasco, with the Legislature vowing to hold hearings on the topic. Meanwhile, State Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Nily Rozic promoted a bill that would, among other things, set new qualification requirements for BOE commissioners and staff. While the city waits for momentum behind reform efforts to possibly take hold, City & State rounded up some of the most notable screw-ups and mishaps by the city Board of Elections in recent memory. Here is our  not quite exhaustive  list of the BOEs greatest, worst hits.

2021  Botching a citywide ranked-choice voting tabulation

The New York City Board of Elections faced an important test in the citywide debut of ranked-choice voting in last months primary elections. While there didnt seem to be major issues with actually ranking candidates on election day or during early voting, the release of preliminary ranked-choice results this week was another story.

The BOE accidentally included roughly 135,000 fake test ballots in its ranked-choice voting tally on Tuesday, leading to a clear discrepancy in the total number of in-person votes reported on election night and those reported this week. After taking down the results on Tuesday night and attributing the screw-up to human error, the BOE released corrected results on Wednesday. But several reports this week suggested that the board didnt do all it could to prepare for the momentous rollout of ranked-choice voting, reportedly ignoring offers from the supplier of the ranked choice voting software being used in the city to assist and provide guidance to the agency.The June 29th ranked choice voting reporting error was unacceptable and we apologize to the voters and to the campaigns for the confusion, the BOE said in a statement on Wednesday. As we continue to count absentee ballots and run further RCV tabulations, we will do so with a heightened sense that we must regain the trust of New Yorkers. We will continue to hold ourselves accountable and apologize to New York City voters for any confusion.

2020  Absentee ballot blunders

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, few could have foreseen just how important mail-in voting would be in the 2020 primary and general elections. But with many New Yorkers still staying at home that spring and fall, the expanded use of absentee ballots became essential. Its just too bad that some people didnt get their ballots in time to use them. Thousands of people didnt receive their absentee ballots early enough to vote in Junes primary  a problem that people in other localities in New York faced as well, and one that the state is arguably responsible for too.

But even by the fall, the city Board of Elections was still messing up its absentee ballot operation. Roughly 100,000 voters in Brooklyn who requested absentee ballots to vote in Novembers general election received return envelopes with the wrong names and addresses on them. The mistake was due to a vendor error, the BOE said, but it sent those affected voters into a scramble to make sure their votes would be counted.

2018  The BOE v. Precipitation

A little rain never hurt anybody, unless its election day in New York City and your ballot scanners are oddly sensitive to precipitation. A rainy election day in 2018 saw voters waiting in hours-long lines at the polls, thanks in part to ballot machine breakdowns. At the time, the city Board of Elections attributed the breakdowns partially to ballot scanners having trouble scanning two-page ballots that had in some cases been dampened by the weather. Now were blaming the weather? City Council Speaker Corey Johnson tweeted at the time, calling for the boards executive director to step down.

New York City wasnt the only locale to have issues with ballot scanners that year  humidity apparently caused issues in some southern states that day. But the incident was taken by some as yet another example of the city BOEs shortcomings. The really bad news is that the Board of Elections simply cant function. It cannot do its job, Mayor Bill de Blasio said then.

2016  Purging voter rolls

In 2016, many New York City voters discovered that they were not registered to vote in the presidential primary  a result of the city Board of Election illegally purging more than 200,000 registered voters from voter rolls in the preceding years. The boards actions, then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman later reported, violated federal and state law. Following a lawsuit, the city Board of Elections agreed in a settlement to reinstate wrongfully wiped voter registrations.

2010  Rocky rollout of electronic voting machines

Though were somewhat accustomed to them now  in sunny weather, at least  the debut of the citys electronic voting machines was rocky. In 2010, George Gonzalez, then-executive director of the city BOE, was fired days before the November general election, following problems during the previous months primary, including a botched rollout of electronic voting machines. The switch from mechanical to computerized voting machines was accompanied by malfunctioning devices and confusion among poll workers about how they worked.

Those problems didnt entirely dissipate in the following years, and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg continued to complain about the machines in the 2012 and 2013 elections.

2009  Almost ending Bill de Blasios political career

The city Board of Elections history includes countless mishaps, small and large, and while this list isnt exhaustive, this last example makes the cut mainly for its potential to create a Sliding Doors-like scenario in which Bill de Blasio never became mayor. In his 2009 campaign for public advocate, de Blasio was removed from the ballot for the Democratic primary thanks to a clerical error on the candidates petitioning signatures for which the BOE eventually accepted responsibility.

Well never know what might have happened if de Blasio hadnt made the ballot for public advocate  a position that would help launch him to the Gracie Mansion  thanks to the BOEs decision to reinstate de Blasio on the ballot back in 2009.Though this incident is technically a BOE screw-up, some of his harshest critics might argue that it wouldnt be the worst thing if de Blasios political career had ended in 2009.
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Imagine dozens of Americans of different political and socioeconomic backgrounds in a room, looking for common ground. A safe place to start would be distrust in the news media.

Last year, we conducted sixty Zoom-based interviews with a diverse sample of adults in the United States to understand the relationship between the sources that people turn to for their news, the stories that they tell themselves about the news, and the steps they take to distinguish fact from fiction. (Findings from this research were published this week in New Media & Society.)

We found that Americans of all political persuasions agree that the news media is fundamentally untrustworthy, even as they tend to tune into the same channels and spend similar amounts of time engaging with the news. Many said they got their news from television, including cable news, major networks, and local affiliate stations. One personwhom, like all of our interviewees, we agreed not to identify as a condition of participating in our studysaid that her news routine included CBS and Fox News. Its habit, she said. Ive watched these news channels for years.

Many of our respondents were more glued to the news than usual when we spoke to them in spring 2020. They explained it was related to the pandemic: more time at home due to layoffs or transitions to remote work, as well as the demands of social distancing and their own personal investment in updates about the virus. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, I would still wake up and check the news, one person told us, but it definitely didnt carry on throughout the day the same way that it does now.

Despite higher engagement, interviewees also expressed deep skepticism about the news. Many said it was impossible to fully trust any particular news source, because they felt that all journalists were biased, and the news they produced was reportedeither deliberately or unintentionallyin ways that would best serve their political agendas. Its all slanted, in my opinion, one interviewee said.

Participants sense that the news media is biased was a strike against all news outlets, including those they felt were biased in the same direction as their own political beliefs. I hear NPR as anti-Trump. I am also anti-Trump, but I dont want the news delivered to me necessarily in that snarky way, one interviewee said. I dont know who delivers it that way. I guess thats the problem.

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If news consumers do not feel they can wholly trust any particular news outlet, we wondered, then how do they determine the truth about whats going on in the world? The answers we heard were consistent: interviewees pointed to their own thoughtfulness, critical thinking skills, and independent-mindedness as evidence that they were qualified to vet the news. This was true regardless of age, political affiliation, or education level.

Im always skeptical, one person said. If the journalists are asking for the right facts, then Im okay. If the journalists arent asking for the right facts, I wonder why theyre not asking for the right facts.

Our respondents viewed themselves as capable of piecing together ideologically slanted half-truths they noticed in the news. They also felt compelled to corroborate news reports themselves. You shouldnt take the article as gospel, one interviewee said. You should still do some research and determine if what theyre saying is correct. One person said he typically Googles facts on his iPad while watching the news.

In other words, our respondents saw a needand had faith in their own abilityto do journalists jobs for them.

Many added that if they saw the information presented in one source repeated by others, they were more inclined to believe it. If they saw information reported by one source and disputed by another, they might split the difference and assume the truth was somewhere in the middle.

When we asked how they could tell when something is a fact, one person responded, I would just like to rely on instinct. Another said, Is it from a news source that I trust? Reading it, I feel like I have a pretty good sense. I get an intuition.

They also claimed to seek out the source of the information published in a news story or featured in a news broadcast. For example, if the story mentioned coronavirus testing rates or positive cases, they might go directly to the Center for Disease Control and Preventions website to determine if those statistics were accurate.

Even when our interviewees fact-checking missions did corroborate the original news source, it failed to alleviate their distrust in journalism. We found that, regardless of the outcomes of their research, peoples assumptions about the news tend to be rigid.

Taken together, our findings offer a counter-narrative to the conventional wisdom surrounding the mechanisms by which news consumption unfolds. Many tend to assume that people seek out news that will confirm their political viewpoints. In reality, people see the news as inherently untrustworthy and feel obligated to do journalists work for them.

Our interviewees consistently described themselves as being the kinds of news consumers who interact with the news in a discerning way. The phrase I take it all with a grain of salt came up time and time again, as did the claim that our interviewees were not sheep who would mindlessly accept whatever a news source told them was true. For many of the people we spoke with, the news serves as an intellectual foilsomething they can push against and knock over.

Distrusting the news, in a sense, is presented as a badge of honor.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jacob L. Nelson and Seth C. Lewis are the authors. Jacob L. Nelson is an assistant professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and a fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public (Oxford University Press, 2021). Seth C. Lewis is the Shirley Pape Chair in Emerging Media in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, and is chair of the International Communication Associations Journalism Studies Division, the largest global collective of journalism researchers. He is co-author of the book News After Trump: Journalism's Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Pundits and journalists tend to pontificate through slow news periods. When there is no news, guess work fills the vacuumon cable television, news sites listicles, and Twitter. That inclination becomes especially apparent during elections, from the moment polls open to the moment a winner is declared (if not certified). Last week, on election day in New York, CJRs Jon Allsop suggested that, with a new voting system in play and inconsistent polls, journalists should eschew prognostication and get comfortable with uncertainty. Surprise! That did not happen.

On election night, Eric Adams, a relatively moderate Democrat, appeared to have an insurmountable lead, even though more than a hundred thousand absentee ballots had yet to be counted and the automatic runoff rounds, triggered by the citys new ranked-choice voting system, had not yet been tallied. The election was up in the air, with everything seeming to hinge on Adams, a candidate who defies easy characterization. The hot takes, written with conviction, were everywhere: Maya Wileys constituency is the progressive, nonprofit world and has limited appeal; Twitter is not real life, and therefore a poor bellwether. Adams himself weighed in, saying he is the new face of the Democratic party. As Jake Bittle, an independent reporter, put it: It is really funny to watch national pundits attempt to graft their takes about the Democratic electorate onto the candidacy of Eric Adams, one of the weirdest and most idiosyncratic people ever to walk the earth.

New York Citys elections have since spiraled into a predictable mess. On Tuesday, as the infamous New York City Board of Electionsbeleaguered by cronyism and ineptituderan preliminary ranked-choice rounds, reporters and election-watchers had noticed odd discrepancies: for instance, massive increases in votes for candidates that failed to gain traction. It turned out that the board had released results that erroneously included 135,000 test ballots. Then on Wednesday, the board released an accurate count, after which it seemed that the outwardly progressive candidates may be eliminated, and the race could come down to two (very different) moderate Democrats. And oh, how the national news takes rolled out! People dont want to defund the police! (Perhaps, but Adams is likely best known, by many longtime New Yorkers, for his years of police reform advocacy.) The campaigns were awful! Working class, Black and Latinx voters want centrism!

New from CJR: Sixty news consumers discuss their distrust in the news

The problem with this, beyond shoddy analysis, is that encouraging local elections to play out on a national scale has consequences. As Caleb T. Carr, a communications scholar, argues, political candidatesfrom Senator to Alderpersonplay to larger audiences than the place in which theyre campaigning. That enables surreptitious global influence of local elections, Carr writes. It also means candidates use important local offices as global soundstages. (See: Andrew Yang.)

New York City is a cautionary tale in looking to deduce national trends from local events. Many reporters are based here, and so local ongoings already receive outsized attention. But the city has not yet started counting the 120,000-plus outstanding absentee ballots, after which the ranked-choice tally will begin in earnest. So far, as Alex Pareene wrote in The New Republic, Most of the lessons pundits can really draw from this partial result apply mainly to politics in New York and perhaps a handful of other very large and demographically similar cities.

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Local elections are, of course, reflections of their localities. To attempt to retrofit someone like Eric Adams into neat categories that fit a broad swathe of the nations electorate is to concede failure at political writing. As local news shrinks, the reaction to New Yorks elections (and, to a lesser extent, those in Virginia) demonstrates how local happenings are frequently ripped from their context by national news outlets and refashioned into fodder for pundits. This dynamic also tends to result in more partisan voting. (The death of local news, CJRs Lauren Harris wrote in 2019, correlated with decreased split-ticket voting in that area.)

The take machine can deal with lots of possibilities and outcomes. What may be incomprehensible to pundits and many others in the political press is that voters in local electionsmany of whom are more civically engaged than the average citizen, to be sure, but are generally not reading dozens of news articles per dayare capable of patience. They have lives that do not entail refreshing the Board of Elections website. They are less driven by ideology than the press may like to believe. And they can handle updates that do not end in extrapolations of what every new vote count might mean for the Future of the Democratic Party. We should consider the possibility that what serves voters best is not rushing to fill dead air.

Below, more on New York and the press:

On the podcast: Last week, Errol Louis, host of NY1s politics show, Inside City Hall , was on CJRs podcast, The Kicker . He spoke about the fragile local-news ecosystem and Adamss relationship with the local press.

Board reform: Following the recent New York City Board of Elections fiasco, journalists, politicians, and citizens alike have called for reform , which will require action from Albany. It seems the Democratic supermajority in the state capital may be ready, at last, to reform the infamous agency .

More from Albany: The impeachment inquiry into Andrew Cuomo is still ongoing. Yesterday, Politico reported that the state Assemblys impeachment committee would begin issuing subpoenas. The investigation deals with a number of accusations, from sexual harassment to misuse of state funds, many of which were exposed by the local press.

Other notable stories:

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Savannah Jacobson is a contributor to CJR and a reporter and writer based in New York.
LONDON  Global cyber reinsurance rates have soared by up to 40% in the July renewal season, reinsurance broker Willis Re said on Thursday, as ransomware attacks increase in number and severity.

A ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May shut the largest fuel pipeline network in the United States for several days, crippling fuel delivery to most of the U.S. East Coast.

The average ransom payment made by a business to restore data after a cyber attack was $220,000 in the first quarter, up 43% from the last quarter of 2020, according to cyber security firm Coveware.

In addition to the ransom payments, cyber insurance and reinsurance policies can cover the cost of restoring the network, business interruption losses and even the hiring of a PR agency to address reputational damage.

Reinsurers that have been writing cyber are looking at considerably worse results than a few years ago, said James Vickers, chair of reinsurance broker Willis Re International.

I dont think people had really imagined the extent of the ransomware attacks going on.

Reinsurers insure the insurers, and a rise in reinsurance rates feeds through into higher insurance costs.

Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime  and the costly attacks are not going to stop, a top expert at insurer Sompo Holdings Inc told the Reuters Future of Insurance USA conference last week.

Insurers and reinsurers are cutting the amount of cyber coverage they provide after being hit with large claims, industry sources say.

Vickers said some countries such as France were debating whether cyber insurers should be making ransomware payments.

Those discussions are beginning to happen, he said.

FBI Director Chris Wray last week pleaded with public companies and other hacking victims to avoid paying ransom, saying he feared it would only embolden cyber criminals to ramp up future attacks.

Property reinsurance rates have also risen by as much as 30% in Florida at July renewals, Willis Re said, as the hurricane season gets under way.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  Overturning a landmark $1.5 million jury verdict, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that former Gov. Terry Branstad did not illegally discriminate or retaliate against a gay state official.

The court found a lack of evidence to show that Branstad discriminated against then-Iowa Workers Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey because of his sexual orientation.

Although Godfrey was widely known as openly gay, there is no proof Branstad was aware of Godfreys sexual orientation before asking him to resign and slashing his salary when Godfrey refused, Justice Christopher McDonald wrote.

The ruling overturned a 2019 verdict in which Polk County jurors found that Branstad and his former legal counsel violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Jurors had awarded Godfrey, a Democrat who is now an official with the U.S. Department of Labor, $1.5 million in damages for emotional distress.

Branstad, a Republican who later served as U.S. ambassador to China, has argued that he sought Godfreys resignation because powerful business interests disagreed with rulings by Godfrey and his staff awarding benefits to injured workers. He has claimed that he acted legally in 2011 by reducing Godfreys salary by $40,000, to the lowest amount allowed by the Legislature for the position.

Godfrey couldnt be fired under a provision in Iowa law intending his six-year term to be insulated from politics. He eventually left state government in 2014.

The ruling ordered a lower court to dismiss all of Godfreys claims, ending a case that lasted a decade, made three trips to the Iowa Supreme Court and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in legal fees.

Six of the seven justices agreed with the outcome, including the two justices that Branstad appointed to the court.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Opioid suppliers including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and McKesson Corp. began their defense of claims the industry is liable for an epidemic of addiction by telling a New York jury theres no proof they did anything wrong.

Drug makers and distributors are accused of misleading doctors and consumers about the health risks of opioid painkillers, or ignored red flags of suspiciously large orders and signs of abuse. The trial of claims by New York state and two Long Island municipalities is the first of thousands of such damage lawsuits filed by governments across the U.S. to be heard by a jury.

You wont hear evidence from a single doctor that they were duped about the medicines risks of addictions, Nancy Patterson, an attorney for Israel-based drugmaker Teva, said in opening comments to jurors Wednesday. The evidence will show my clients marketing statements were truthful and consistent with federal and state law, she said. Tevas opioid-based painkillers, Actiq and Fentora, were made by its Cephalon subsidiary, which it acquired in 2011.

McKesson, a distributor of medications made by others, did everything theyre supposed to do, the companys lawyer, Paul Schmidt, told the jury. The company didnt market any of the drugs it sold, and only supplied to customers the quantities of opioids that had been approved by government regulators, he said.

New York state and the counties of Suffolk and Nassau are seeking reimbursement for what they spent dealing with the fallout from overdoses and addictions. The public-health crisis has claimed the lives of nearly 500,000 Americans over the last 20 years.

Everyone in our county has been affected by the corporate greed you are going to see in this trial, Hunter Shkolnik, Nassau Countys lawyer, said during opening statements on Tuesday. The companies turned a blind eye to the suffering they caused, he said.

The New York trial poses a big risk for the industry. Analysts predict opioid companies will ultimately be forced to spend tens of billions of dollars combined to resolve thousands of claims. But so far, only one trial has been concluded, when a judge in Oklahoma ruled against Johnson & Johnson and ordered it pay $465 million. That decision is on appeal.

J&J was initially a defendant in the New York case, but agreed on Saturday to pay $263 million to settle the claims.

The companies point the finger at others as the real cause of the epidemic, as they have in other trials. The culprits include drug cartels, pill-mill doctors and lax government enforcement of drug laws, the firms say.

McKessons Schmidt told the jury that New York officials found in 2016 that the drug distributor operated a system to identify suspicious orders as part of a licensing inspection. They told us we should keep doing what were doing, he said.

No Evidence

Tevas Patterson challenged government lawyers to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the companys pill-monitoring system failed to pick up questionable opioid orders. The plaintiffs wont be able to show a single suspicious order that was shipped by Teva in violation of state or federal law, she said.

While Patterson touted Tevas truthfulness in marketing opioids, its Cephalon unit agreed in 2008 to pay $425 million to resolve a federal probe into illegal marketing of some its drugs, including Actiq. The government alleged Cephalons off-label marketing campaigns for the medicines prompted a flood of false claims for payment to federal health-insurance programs.

In their opening statements, lawyers for the plaintiffs said drugmakers including Allergan Plc and Endo International Plc sought to capitalize on the buzz created by Purdue Pharmas 1996 introduction of the painkiller OxyContin. That pill is credited with helping to spark the U.S. opioid epidemic. Purdue, which sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 to deal with a host of opioid suits targeting its OxyContin marketing, isnt a defendant in the New York case.

Mike Brock, a lawyer for an Allergan unit, said his client didnt get control of its Kadian painkiller until its 2008 merger with Activis Plc and didnt engage in any illegal marketing of the pills. So we didnt climb on any bandwagon, he told jurors.

The case is In Re Opioid Litigation, Index no. 40000/2017, Supreme Court of New York, Suffolk County

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
An exclusion added to an uninsured motorist policy issued by Progressive Northern Insurance Co. is void because it contravenes state law, a divided Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

In a 5-3 decision, the high court said that an Oklahoma insurer cannot deprive its policyholder of uninsured-motorist coverage for which a premium has been paid through an exclusion that effectively erases its policyholders choice to purchase that coverage in the first place.

The legal challenge to Progressives policy exclusion came to the Supreme Court after the driver of a vehicle full of teenagers lost control of her car while driving in Canadian County outside of Oklahoma City. The car spun 180 degrees, struck a tree, rolled over and landed upside down.

The September 2017 crash seriously injured Elissa Lane and Kyle Stone, who were among four passengers in the car. The driver and all of the occupants were described in court papers as teenagers.

The drivers car was insured by her parents through Progressive. The carrier paid out its liability limit of $100,000 to both victims, but refused to release an additional $100,000 in uninsured-motorist coverage.

The parents had purchased insurance to cover damages by uninsured or underinsured motorists, but the policy excluded coverage to any insured person who is paid an amount equal or greater than the minimum statutory limit for liability coverage. Because Lane and Stone were each paid more than the states $25,000 minimum liability limit already, no underinsured coverage was available, Progressive contended.

The plaintiffs attorneys argued that Progressive collected premiums for uninsured motorist coverage but then added an exclusion that effectively took coverage away from any class 2 insured passengers who are injured in an accident. Such an exclusion contravened the purpose of the state state statute that allows insurers to offer optional uninsured motorist coverage, they said.

U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot ruled that the insurer was within its rights to deny the claim. He said in his order that while the Supreme Court had decided that some exclusions in uninsured motorists policies are not allowed by state law, the court never ruled that no exclusions are allowed.

Lane and Stone appealed. Rather than guessing at Oklahoma state law, the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the states Supreme Court a certified question: Does Progressives exclusion contravene the states uninsured motorist statute?

Yes it does, five justices decided.

The majority opinion says Oklahoma public policy is to assure that policyholders receive all of the coverage for which they paid premiums.

It is entirely reasonable for an Oklahoma family to anticipate the unpleasant possibility that their novice driver might take out the family car, get into an automobile accident, and injure her passengers, the opinion says. It is commendable to seek out and obtain insurance that gives protection beyond a policys basic liability limits in the event of that major injury.

Even the three dissenting justices said Progressives exclusion may border on furtiveness. Justice Dustin Rowe wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices M. John Kane IV and James R. Winchester, that saidOklahomas uninsured motorist statute does not list any exclusions that are permitted or not permitted.

If the Legislature had intended to disallow this type of exclusion, it could have easily done soor can do so in the future, Rowe wrote.

That argument brought a strong rebuke from Justice Yvonne Kauger. She wrote an opinion concurring with the majority and drew attention to the dissenters use of the word furtive. Kauger said that means characterized by stealth; hence sly; secret; stealing; as a furtive look

An insurance contract should be open and transparent, Kauger wrote. Neither the Legislature intent nor our extant jurisprudence authorizes or approves the implementation of a border-line theft.

Attorneys for Progressive did not respond to a request for comment.
SURFSIDE, Florida (AP)  Florida authorities asked the federal government for an additional rescue team to comb the rubble of a collapsed condo tower, underscoring the strenuous nature of the open-ended search for survivors in an area prone to tropical weather.

Tropical Storm Elsa formed in the Atlantic Ocean and was on a path that may take it over the Florida peninsula by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as it approached the Windward Islands. The storm will pass over the Windward Islands of southern Leeward Islands on Friday and move into the Caribbean Sea late Friday, and then turn toward the southern coast of Hispaniola on Saturday, the Hurricane Center said.

In Surfside, four more bodies were found in the rubble of the collapsed tower, raising the death toll in the disaster to 16 people. Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members at a morning briefing that rescuers found the bodies Tuesday night. He said relatives have not yet been identified.

In addition to the four bodies, crews also found other human remains. Rescuers were able to build a ramp for a crane to reach areas at the top of the pile they had not been access before, Jadallah said.

More than 140 people are still unaccounted for.

The possibility that severe weather in coming days could further stretch Floridas search and rescue resources prompted state officials to ask the federal government for the additional team, Kevin Guthrie of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said. Already, intermittent bad weather has caused temporary delays in the search.

Guthrie said the new team, which would likely come from Virginia, would be on hand if severe weather hits the area in coming days and allow crews that have been working at the site for days to rotate out. Authorities said its still a search-and-rescue operation, but no one has been found alive since hours after the collapse on Thursday.

Charles Cyrille of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency said 900 workers from 50 federal, state and local agencies were working seamlessly on the search.

Elected officials have pledged to conduct multiple investigations into the sudden collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside last week. Another victim was recovered Tuesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 12, with 149 people still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that she and her staff will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts, among others, to review building safety issues and develop recommendations to ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will pursue a grand jury investigation to examine factors and decisions that led to the collapse.

Gov. Ron DeSantis evoked a well-known military commitment to leave no one behind on the battlefield and pledged to do the same for the people still missing in the rubble.

The way I look at it, as an old Navy guy, is when somebody is missing in action, in the military, youre missing until youre found. We dont stop the search, DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Surfside on Thursday.

Work at the site has been deliberate and treacherous. The pancake collapse of the building left layer upon layer of intertwined debris, frustrating efforts to reach anyone who may have survived in a pocket of space.

Several members of an Israeli rescue team worked partly on hands and knees Tuesday over a small section of the rubble, digging with shovels, pickaxes and saws. They removed debris into buckets that were dumped into a metal construction bin, which was periodically lifted away by a crane. The crane then delivered an empty bin.

Late in the afternoon, rescue officials sounded a horn for a second time during the days work, signaling an approaching storm with lightning. Workers temporarily evacuated.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said the work has been extremely difficult, but were out here 110%.

These are the times that are the most difficult, Cominsky said. We are here to do a job. We are here with a passion. Hopefully, we have some success.

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Miami, Bobby Caina Calvan in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

About the photo: Search and rescue personnel work alongside heavy machinery to sift through the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condo building, where scores of people remain missing almost a week after it partially collapsed, Wednesday, June 30, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP)  A 15-year plan to abate the opioid crisis in a West Virginia community will cost local officials $2.5 billion, a forensic economist has testified.

George Barrett testified Tuesday that Cabell County and the city of Huntington would need to spend $144 million to implement the plan and the annual cost would rise to $197 million by the 15th year, The Herald-Dispatch reported. The governments have combined annual budgets of less than $87 million.

The testimony came in the seventh week of a landmark civil trial against three large opioid distributors. A lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington accuses drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. of fueling the U.S. crisis. The plaintiffs argue that the companies created a public nuisance by flooding the area with tens of millions of opioid doses over eight years and ignoring the signs that the small community along the Ohio River was being ravaged by addiction.

The companies, in turn, say poor communication and pill quotas set by federal agents are to blame, along with a rise in prescriptions written by doctors.

Testimony this week has focused on the drug abatement plan and its cost.

Barretts findings were based on the report of Caleb Alexander, a pharmacoepidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Alexander came up with an abatement plan for the community he said could reduce overdoses, overdose deaths and the number of people with opioid use disorder by half.

McKesson attorney Timothy Hester questioned Barretts qualifications in coming up with the estimate, which he called inflated.

He said Barret is not an expert in healthcare economics and had estimated it would cost $12 million to run the harm reduction program, but another witness testified she was able to run such a program with $60,000 a year.

The Cabell-Huntington Health Department spent about $225,000 on its harm reduction program in 2019, but the abatement plan calls for expanding the program.

Hester also said the majority of medical claims are paid through Medicaid, not city and county officials. He asked that the judge to toss the testimony, but the judge did not immediately rule.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Cherokee Nation has signed an agreement with the town of Vian to donate revenue from traffic and misdemeanor citations back to the municipality. Front row: Mayor of Vian Dennis Fletcher, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner.

Back row: Cherokee Nation Secretary of Veteran Affairs S. Joe Crittenden, Assistant Attorney General Sandy Crosslin, Chief of Police for Vian Police Department Daniel New, Cherokee Nation Attorney General Sara Hill, Secretary of State Tina Glory Jordan, District 5 Tribal Councilor E.O. Smith, Secretary of Natural Resources Chad Harsha, Delegate to Congress Kim Teehee and Deputy Attorney General Chrissi Nimmo.
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Cleburne, TX (76033)

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Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

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Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
The city of Akron will celebrate its 47th year of free summer dance performances in Akron city parks through the 14th annual Heinz Poll Dance Festival in late July and early to mid-August.
Philip Zyne and his wife Nora are staying put in their fifth-floor condominium at Champlain Towers North, constructed by the same developer that built the condo building that collapsed.
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 30) - President Rodrigo Duterte thanked the government of Sri Lanka for its assistance to overseas Filipino workers - particularly in their repatriation - amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Office of the President (OP) said Duterte and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had a phone conversation on June 28, where the two leaders renewed their commitment to further boost bilateral ties.

"The President thanked the Sri Lankan government for its assistance in the repatriation of Filipinos amid this pandemic and for the safe return of Filipino seafarers in the MT New Diamond that caught fire off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka in September 2020," the OP said.

The two leaders also discussed other areas of cooperation - including security and defense, trade and investment, labor, migration, and tourism.

Duterte also conveyed the Philippines' interest to strengthen its engagement with Sri Lanka in the United Nations on issues of common concern.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is planning to retire from public service in 2022 if he will not be given a role in the next administration.

I will retire from public service if I have no role in the coming administration, the 75-year-old Drilon disclosed during a virtual briefing on Wednesday.

I have been in government probably 30 years or so, so let others who believe that they can serve the country, he said.

Drilon added that he is proud of what he has done and has contributed for the welfare of the country and that others should be also given a chance.

When asked whether he wants to be nominated as a presidential candidate for the 2022 polls by the opposition, the senator said he is not interested and that he leaves that to their judgment.

I do not speak for them," he said. "I have not planned to run for president. I do not have the resources to run for president.

Instead, he said he prefers to be a researcher for media personalities he respects.

Prior to his second two terms at the Senate with his reelection in 2010, Drilon served for two consecutive terms at the upper chamber from 1995 to 2007. He also served as Senate President thrice during those years.

The Iloilo City-born lawmaker, who ranked 3rd in the 1969 Bar Examinations, first joined government as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Labor and Employment in 1986.

He then served as Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment from 1987 to 1990, Secretary of the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1991 and 1992 to 1995, and Executive Secretary from 1991 to 1992.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Wednesday said Chinas Sinovac vaccine is performing well and at par with shots made by Western brands.

He made the statement on the heels of calls for the government to purchase COVID-19 shots that have higher efficacy rates.

For one, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said, when it comes to the life of millions of Filipinos and the future of the country, there should be no price tag. We can buy the most expensive vaccines with high efficacy.

Earlier reports also said that a number of Indonesian medical workers who received Sinovac shots got infected by the virus.

In his statement, Galvez explained that all vaccines being used in the country passed through a rigorous review by the vaccine expert panel (VEP), which is composed of top doctors and vaccine specialists.

We listen and follow the panels assessment on what vaccines to procure to ensure that they are all safe and effective regardless of brands, he said.

In fact, we have seen that all vaccines that have been given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by our Food and Drug Administration are performing well in the real-world conditions compared to their clinical trial results, he added.

Citing real-world data provided by the panel, Galvez said the China-made vaccine is 90% effective in preventing severe COVID-19 cases and deaths in Uruguay, and 94% effective in protecting healthcare workers in Indonesia.

Amid concerns on its efficacy against the more transmissible Delta variant, he said the VEP has discouraged concluding early in the matter since studies are still ongoing.

We ensure that all the policies that we craft and implement are science-based and evidence-based, Galvez reiterated.

I will always consider the advice of our experts and not from people who do not want to listen to more prudent and deliberate decision-making," he also said.

The FDA granted Sinovac an EUA in February. Based on its evaluation, it showed 65.3% to 91.2% efficacy rate when used on healthy people aged 18 to 59. For health workers directly exposed to COVID-19 patients, efficacy is at 50.4%.

To date, the Philippines has received over 17 million coronavirus shots from Sinovac, as well as AstraZeneca, Gamaleya, Pfizer, and Moderna.

More than 10 million Filipinos have received their vaccine dose, of which around 2.5 million are now fully protected from the deadly virus.

By the end of the year, the government hopes to immunize up to 70 million individuals.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  The temporary shutdown of the Malampaya gas field in October will likely increase electricity prices, according to the Department of Energy.

There are plants na nagtatransfer from use of natgas which is cheaper going to condensate. 'Yun 'yung liquid fuel. So, mas mahal po 'yun, Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said in a Senate hearing on Thursday.

[Translation: There are plants transferring from use of natural gases which is cheaper going to condensate, a form of liquid fuel. So thats more expensive.]

There are other factors that affect the [electricity] bill also but theres a big probability that there [will be] an increase, he added.

Earlier, House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate asked the DOE to lay down concrete plans to prevent brownouts and rate hikes once Malampaya goes offline on October 2 to 22.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the chambers committee on energy, said there will be another hearing focused on Malampaya. The panel is looking into the rotating brownouts in Luzon last month.

READ: Contingencies to help Luzon avert rotating brownouts until end-July  DOE

While asking about the possible conspiracy among power generation companies to spark higher electricity rates, Senator Risa Hontiveros recalled Malampaya's maintenance shutdown in 2013. It prompted Meralco to raise rates by 4.15 per kilowatt-hour, a move stopped by the Supreme Court amid concerns of possible collusion or anti-competitive practices of suppliers who went on unplanned outages during the shutdown.

No collusion

The same allegations are hurled now against generation companies as the unscheduled outages of several power plants led to rotating brownouts in Luzon on the first week of June.

The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA) denied any conspiracy, saying its member companies have nothing to gain and a lot to lose in shutting down their power plants.

Negosyante po kaming lahat (We are all businessmen) We have no motivation to go on outage because to go on outage means wala po kaming negosyo (we do not have business), PIPPA President and Executive Director Anne Estorco-Montelibano said.

Wala pong collusion, withholding ng capacity na nangyayari at kami po ay naghahanap ng paraan na mapatakbo ang aming mga planta efficiently to provide the power needs of the country, said the groups chairman, Juan Eugenio Roxas.

Agnes Devanadera, the Energy Regulatory Commission's chairperson and CEO, said the body has issued show cause orders to a number of firms, asking them to submit proof of why they should not be held accountable for the power outages.

We will be looking into relationships between those who are on outage and also those we call highest gainer," Devanadera said. "We have to make very, a real meticulous analysis on all those. Included in our analysis will be the inputs or data as to which are affiliated with one another."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Only fully vaccinated overseas Filipino workers are allowed to present validations by Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLOs) as proof of their vaccination status, according to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Presidential and IATF spokesperson Harry Roque made the announcement during Thursday's Palace briefing, adding POLOs may begin accepting applications for validation this July 5.

The IATF said in a previous resolution that travelers who completed their COVID-19 shots outside the Philippines should "carry their official documentation of full vaccination validated through the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices," or show their international vaccination certificate  whichever is applicable.

The documents will then be presented to the assigned Bureau of Quarantine representative for re-verification at the one-stop shop of the Transportation Department upon arrival in the country.

OFWs who can present international vaccination certificates may already avail of the green lanes beginning this month provided compliance with other requirements, Roque added.

The IATF yesterday issued the official list of "green" or low-risk countries amid the coronavirus crisis. Fully vaccinated travelers who stayed in these areas exclusively for 14 days before their arrival will undergo a shorter, seven-day quarantine in an accredited facility starting this month.

In a separate statement, the Bureau of Immigration said passengers who finished their vaccination in green countries only need to present a 7-day booking in accredited facilities during primary immigration inspection when they arrive in the Philippines.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  The Quezon City government urged its residents to use its new COVID-19 vaccination portal after announcing the termination of the deal with the company behind the appointment platform eZConsult.

Mayor Joy Belmonte told CNN Philippines' The Source on Thursday that negotiations are ongoing with Zuellig Pharma Corporation. She said the firm behind eZConsult reached out to city officials to try to "avoid a bloody court battle" following numerous technical issues experienced by residents booking a slot for their COVID-19 doses via the platform.

She urged the residents to use the local government's QC Vax Easy portal, where they can be assigned their schedule and vaccination center via call or SMS notification. This is different from the eZConsult platform where residents are free to choose their vaccination schedule and hub.

Belmonte announced on Tuesday the termination of the eZConsult deal, after the system crashed for the ninth time when the city opened 55,450 slots for A1 to A4 priority groups.

She initially gave Zuellig Pharma until June 18 to fix its services and warned the company of contract termination and filing of damages if it fails to meet the deadline. She clarified, however, that the scrapped deal only involves the booking system while the vaccine storage and logistic services offered by Zuellig would continue.

The mayor enumerated her "non-negotiables" to settle the issue with Zuellig.

"Some of the non-negotiables are number one, I really would like them to make a public apology to the people of Quezon City for the inconvenience they caused our people. Second, I would like for them to give us all the data of our citizens," she said.

"Third, I would like them to waive all fees pertaining to the booking platform system (since) we pay a fee for every citizen that is vaccinated through the booking platform," Belmonte added.

The mayor said "all those who were able to book their appointments for today, tomorrow, Saturday and Monday, these will be honored and they can go to the vaccination centers of their choice and they will receive their vaccines as scheduled."

But the 113,000 residents who already used the Vax Easy portal will also likely get their doses in three to four days, she explained.

So far, over 575,000 Quezon City residents have received their first doses while 200,000 have completed their shots. The city aims to inoculate 1.7 million or 80% of its adult population to achieve herd immunity.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has appealed to the Department of Health to speed up the issuance of a document authorizing the local government to use the delivered doses of COVID-19 vaccine for a faster vaccine rollout in the city.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Thursday, Belmonte said the local government is expecting more doses to arrive, but there was a delay in the issuance of a "certificate of analysis" which partially stalled the city's vaccine drive this week.

"We have second doses always ongoing. Hopefully, when we finish the first dose, the next batch of vaccines that are scheduled to arrive will be here. I'm just requesting the DOH if they can speed up the COA," she said.

"The vaccines arrived last Saturday and we wanted to roll out on Sunday, but because we're not allowed to do so before the COA was released and since it was only released Tuesday evening, I think that causes quite a delay and frustration as well for the people who are excited about getting their vaccination," she added.

Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire previously told The Source that the DOH usually waits for the COA from the vaccine manufacturer for each delivered batch of doses before authorizing local government units to utilize the doses.

"Kailangan maintindihan ng mga kababayan na sa bawat delivery ng ating mga bakuna meron tayong nire-require na certificate of analysis from the manufacturer," Vergeire said. "This is a certfication na 'yung mga dineliver na bakuna na-analyze and is of quality. Kailangan po natin 'yan hintayin bago magamit ang bakuna."

[Translation: The public needs to understand that in every batch of delivered vaccines, we require a certifciate of analysis from the manufacturer...This is a certification that the delivered doses have been analyzed and is of quality. We need to wait for that before using the vaccine.]

Vergeire said the COA for Sinovac is usually released three days after the arrival of the vaccine, based on the experience of local government units.

On Tuesday, Taguig resumed the second-dose inoculation of its residents, a day after halting its vaccination due to pending issuance of COA for the Sinovac vaccine it recently received. On Wednesday, normal operations resumed in its vaccination sites.

Meanwhile, Belmonte expressed confidence that shipments will stabilize in July with the help of the national government. This will help Quezon City get closer to its target of vaccinating 1.7 million adults.

"When we finish this batch that has been given to us, we are sure that shipments will be arriving, especially this July and we should not have any more problems with lulls in our vaccinations. That was the promise of the national government to us," she said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 1)  The Supreme Court has junked the petition challenging the Ombudsmans memorandum that limits public access to a government official's statements of assets, liabilities and net worth or SALN.

The SC en banc said accessing a public official's SALN is the public's right, but it is not tantamount to an "absolute vested right."

"The Court has declared in the past that while no prohibition could stand against access to official records such as the SALN, the same is undoubtedly subject to regulation," the High Court said in a Feb. 2 resolution released on Thursday.

The magistrates said the Ombudsman, as the custodian of the data, is not bound to grant the request for disclosure at every circumstance so it can prevent damage or loss of the documents.

Petitioner Louis Biraogo sought last December the preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order on the memo of Ombudsman Samuel Martires on SALN. He asked for a copy of Vice President Leni Robredo's assets, but it was rejected due to the Ombudsman's Memorandum Circular 1.

Martires earlier said he opted to limit access to SALNs because they are being used as tools to "weaponize" against enemies in politics.

It has earned criticism from former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who stressed its importance as an evidence against erring public servants.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 2)  President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged Thursday that while some of the Cabinet members wanted Health Secretary Francisco Duque III removed from office, he sees no reason to do so.

Bakit ko tatanggalin? Against the advice of the many, even Cabinet members, sabi ko, I will stick with the man na walang kasalanan and working only doing his job, Duterte said during his speech at an event at Antipolo City, Rizal. There is no coherent reason why Duque should be out.

[Translation: Why should I fire him? Against the advice of the many, even Cabinet members, I said I will stick with the man who has no fault and working only doing his job.]

The President said he will feel embarrassed if he will fire someone who has done nothing wrong. The chief executive adds that after all, he was the one who asked Duque to join him in the government.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many - including senators - appealed for the resignation of Duque for his perceived inefficient response to the health crisis. The Health chief was also hounded by massive corruption allegations last year, including the case involving state insurer Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.

Despite these, Duterte advised the embattled Department of Health secretary that it is not the time for him to resign and professed his trust for him. The former even called Duque a hero of the fight against the virus.

The real problem, according to the President, is vaccine supply.

The real problem can be answered in one statement: iyong (the) supply, he said, proceeding to mention again that Chinas vaccine donations were able to help the Philippines have its first supply of COVID-19 shots as the rest of the world was scrambling to get hold of theirs.

To date, the government has received over 17 million vaccine doses, 12 million of which are Chinas Sinovac, donated and government procured combined. Moreover, some 2.5 million Filipinos have received two doses of their vaccine.

By the end of 2021, the government aims to immunize 50% to 60% of the population, with more focus on Metro Manila, to reach immediate protection.
Brunswick, GA (31520)

Today

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. High 84F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Frankford Police Department Chief Laurence Corrigan warned the Town that a lack of officers puts its restored police department at risk, with Corrigan ready to hand in his resignation if he doesn't get some help so he can properly police the town. This week, residents turned out in support of funding his request.
The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas.
When students eat at downtown State Colleges various restaurants, they are faced with challenging questions  what to get for dinner, who they should invite and what tip they should leave their server following the meal.

With a wide range of restaurants and services offered around the State College area, many Penn State students find part-time jobs and recreation at these venues. However, students hold differing perspectives about tipping and whether better options exist for those working in customer service.

The concept of tipping ingrained itself within U.S. culture during the post-Civil War era, especially with the influx of European immigrants during the time period, according to National Public Radio. Despite opposition throughout the years, tipping became the new commonplace  which still exists today.

According to NPR, the Supreme Court constructed a system called Tip Credit in 1966, which permits employers to pay tipped employees below the federal minimum wage due to outside gratuity paid by customers.

In modern times, the federal minimum cash wage for tipped employees is only $2.13 per hour  with the understanding that the rest of their weekly salary will be composed of tips, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Many local students and community members said they believe tipping is a beneficial and successful option, especially in restaurant settings.

Caroline McCulley, a 2021 Penn State hospitality management graduate and former treasurer for Penn States Hotel & Restaurant Society, said she believes tipping is an important motivator for workers.

If an 18% gratuity charge was automatically implemented for all restaurant orders  disregarding the optional tipping practices common in the U.S.  then servers may lack the motivation to work hard and deliver that high level of service, McCulley said.

Thats the whole [point behind] tipping, McCulley said. If you work hard and you give great service, then you should be able to receive a higher tip.

McCulley said pooling tips is really situational. She said the practice has benefits and drawbacks  which depend on the performed service and the particular establishment in question.

For instance, McCulley said theres a striking difference between splitting tips at an ice cream parlor and a fine dining restaurant.

If a group of employees works together at an ice cream parlor  everyone performing different components and stages of the orders  then a split tip would be justified, McCulley said.

At a shop that runs through cohesion and collaboration  like an ice cream shop  it would be challenging to reward a particular worker and not everyone who had a part in the order, she said.

However, McCulley said she believes splitting tips at a restaurant could pose problems and be unfair to some employees.

She said waiters and waitresses who serve a larger pool of customers and receive increased tips during their shifts should not need to share their hard-earned tips with others who may have put in less effort.

McCulley said she believes tipping culture completely depends on the customers personal experiences. For example, she said people with a background in hospitality may be more inclined to tip because of their experience within the industry.

According to McCulley, some servers receive a $2 hourly pay that gets voided out with taxes  meaning they only receive tips as a paycheck.

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Although McCulley said she always tips 20% for restaurant services, she also said the servers hospitality and customer service behavior can influence her tipping attitudes.

If a restaurants service is incredibly slow and the server isnt apologetic about it  [and] doesnt comp anything off the meal  thats when Ill [consider] altering my personal tipping policy [of 20%], especially if the server isnt hospitable and is not helping the situation, McCulley said.

McCulley said she understands the unpredictable and uncontrollable setbacks that occur within restaurants and other hospitality settings, but she said its important for employees to communicate openly with their customers about the situation.

I understand if the service will take a long time, but its how the server presents it to the guest that will probably determine the tip in my eyes, McCulley said.

An employees service impacts her experience and tipping more than a workers personality, McCulley said.

Even if they arent super friendly but still get the job done, Im still going to tip them 20%, McCulley said.

When traveling abroad in Spain, McCulley said the restaurant culture was totally different with servers having a relaxed nature about them since they knew theyd receive gratuity from every table due to the restaurant policy.

Unlike in the U.S. where people want quick service at restaurants, McCulley said European restaurant services are slower, with people staying for numerous hours just talking and eating.

In Europe, [servers] check up on you regularly because the more you buy, the higher the percentage of the bill will be going [toward] them, McCulley said.

McCulley works at a country club where an additional gratuity percentage is added to customers bills for food and drink purchases.

Despite the additional gratuity for food services, McCulley said she still sees country club members tipping extra cash to bartenders and servers for their exemplary service, especially when an order comes quickly.

Many students, including Faith Busanic, said tipping is primarily a way to express gratitude for outstanding service  something that would be challenging to demonstrate if waiters had a higher salary.

Some days, working can be harder than others, and a tip can make [workers] feel much more appreciated for their hard work, Busanic (senior-hospitality management) said via email. Whether Im at a restaurant, getting a haircut or staying at a hotel, I always think its a great idea to [leave a] tip to show your appreciation for those performing services.

Busanic said she believes there are many benefits of keeping the traditional tipping structure that exists in the U.S. Foremost, she said tipping allows waiters and waitresses to make more money than a typical hourly wage would permit.

Seeing people leave tips on the dining table can also motivate workers to complete their long shifts and continue working hard, Busanic said.

Maddie Adams, who works at Penn States Berkey Creamery, said she believes tipping is  rightfully  an important aspect of many peoples salaries.

Tipping is still an important and effective part [of service industries], as long as its getting split evenly and everyones getting the same amount of money for putting in all that effort, Adams (sophomore-pre-medicine) said.

When Adams goes to a restaurant  or a business where tipping is common  she said she typically uses the included tip options at the bottom of her receipts to determine what tip to leave, as its easier to just pick one.

According to Adams, Creamery workers choose how their pooled tips get distributed every semester. Workers vote amongst themselves whether theyre going to donate the tips to small local businesses or split the money among employees, she said.

Right now, were planning to donate our tips to smaller businesses in State College because of how hard they were affected by COVID, Adams said.

Although the workers decided to donate their tips this summer, Adams said they split the money among themselves during the spring semester.

During the spring, it definitely helped boost some spirits within the Creamery because people were generally nicer to customers  hoping to get a tip  because they knew it would go [toward] what they were earning that day, Adams said.

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Based on her experience at the Creamery, Adams said the benefits of splitting tips are transferable to other jobs and businesses.

I think [splitting tips] works for all occupations because everyone works together to make that group team, Adams said. With just one link missing, you wouldnt be able to complete the [business] cycle.

Despite being unable to control the wait time at the Creamery on a busy summer day, Adams said people tend to take those unrelated outside factors  which workers cannot control  into account when leaving a tip.

Something Ive noticed from work is that people tend to tip less if the line is longer  it especially happens for us on hot days when they have to wait outside because we can only allow a certain amount in the store at a time, Adams said. Then they get angry, kind of antsy and they wont leave as many tips.

Jordan Fritsch said she supports tipping service-based workers, especially restaurant workers, due to personal experience working at a restaurant.

Although Fritsch (junior-public relations) said she supports tipping, she said she also believes workers should have a raised minimum wage to eliminate some stress related to the job.

She said raising the minimum wage by a few dollars would allow restaurant workers to feel less anxious if the restaurant is having a slow day and workers are receiving minimal tips.

My parents and I have always tipped, but after working at a restaurant, Ive begun tipping more because Ive [come to] realize that many people rely on those tips to survive, Fritsch said.

Working at a restaurant has taught Fritsch how every penny counts when tipping because workers rely on that money to live, she said.

You dont know everybodys story and why theyre working, but leaving those few extra dollars can make or break [someones] workday, Fritsch said.

Fritsch said she believes the pandemic created new norms within restaurants and tipping procedures.

Since COVID hit, people have been getting takeout food instead of eating in, and people dont always realize they can tip takeout servers, Fritsch said.

Besides the pandemics impact on restaurants through regulations and restrictions, unemployment is another factor influencing current dining  and consequently tipping, Fritsch said.

There are places that still only do outdoor seating or minimum takeout orders  and not because of any COVID regulations  but because they dont have the workers, so their kitchen staff is shorter, Fritsch said.

Data analysis and University of California, Berkeley studies demonstrate that people remain hesitant about returning to low-paying service jobs, especially positions that were lost in the midst of the pandemic, according to Bloomberg.

While some big companies like McDonalds were able to raise their hourly wages to attract potential workers, many small businesses lacked the funding to promote such enticements, according to ABC News.

Fritsch said less staff can contribute to longer waits, which customers tend to blame on servers. As a result, Fritsch said some customers give less tips  or no tips  due to these uncontrollable factors.

Some students, like Leah Hickman, said the typical tipping stigma associated with U.S. restaurants should be converted to a more effective system. In the meantime, Hickman said she tips generously to help workers who rely on tips to pay their bills.

Hickman (sophomore-finance) said she believes U.S. restaurants should transition to the traditional European model where the tip is already included in the waiter or waitresss salary.

MORE NEWS COVERAGE

Though Hickman said she believes a higher worker salary is the optimal option over traditional tipping, Hickman said its a complex issue that can be impacted by cost of living, the different geographical areas and the type of restaurants involved  specifically restaurant chains or stand-alones.

Taking various factors into account, Hickman said increasing workers salary should occur at a company level, not through government mandates.

If restaurant workers salaries are raised, she said the increased pay should be implemented gradually to not raise the food prices exponentially high and cause people to stop eating out.

With COVID, it came to light how important these service-based jobs are and how the workers need to be earning more than they are currently, Hickman said.

Hickman said she still actively tips for various services, especially as workers struggled with increased pay and layoffs resulting from the pandemic.

Even if the service performed was less than adequate, Hickman said she would still leave a tip because you never know what kind of day that person has had.

I may leave a smaller tip if the service isnt good, but I always leave a tip, Hickman said.

Although Hickman said she tries to consistently leave a decent tip for wait staff, she said she also acknowledges the struggles people encounter when paying for restaurant food in general.

There are people  including college students  who understand the importance of tipping and want to leave a tip, but they just may not have the means to, and they may already be stretching their budget already to take their family out to eat.
Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed into law bills that aim to support workers and communities reliant on jobs in coal mines and factories and bring a Front Range rail project one step closer to reality.

After attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Manitou Springs earlier in the day, Polis stopped at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers office in Pueblo to put his signature on House Bill 1290.

The state stimulus legislation from House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, and Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, puts $15 million toward a 2019 just transition plan devised to assist communities and workers whose coal-related industries and jobs "are subject to significant economic transition."

But House Bill 1314, sponsored by then-Speaker of the House KC Becker, D-Boulder, said the plan would be funded with gifts, grants and donations. Programs funded with gifts, grants and donations generally see little if any money.

HB 1290 follows up on that bill by putting $8 million toward goals developed by an advisory committee made up of lawmakers, public officials, representatives of coal communities, labor unions and utilities that drafted the states Just Transition Action Plan.

The bill sends the other $7 million to the Department of Labor and Employment for a workforce assistance program designed to directly help coal workers with apprenticeship programs, financial planning, tuition reimbursement, job search assistance and on-the-job training, among other things.

While in Pueblo, Polis also added his signature to Senate Bill 238, a measure that moves the long-time goal of a passenger rail line running up and down the Front Range one step closer to reality.

Under the bill from Esgar, Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, and Rep. Matt Gray, D-Broomfield, the state will set up a special district charged with "planning, designing, developing, financing, constructing, operating, and maintaining" a passenger rail line from New Mexico to the Wyoming border with stops up the Front Range.

The special district is set to be overseen by a board made of up appointees made by Polis as well as each of the transportation planning organizations along the line, along with non-voting appointees from Denver's Regional Transportation District and potentially representatives of BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, Amtrak, and communities in Wyoming and New Mexico, who will be designated by the governors of those states.

The bill gives the board the authority to ask voters in the newly created district to raise sales taxes up to .8% in order to finance the project, though lawmakers anticipate funding from the federal government as well.

The introduction of the bill in April coincided with promising news from Amtrak, which listed service from Pueblo to Cheyenne, in its 15-year plan. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington from both sides of the aisle and the Biden administration have coalesced around a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, which is set to include $66 billion for rail projects such as Colorado's.
This year our dine and drink business locations throughout the Gorge have suffered with closures. You can help support your favorites by purchasing take out and gift cards. Many of these business will offer curb-side delivery and some will deliver to your home. Lets keep the Gorge going strong!
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Website gcuf.edu.pk uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery, Boostrap and Php. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 59406 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 77253 bytes (75.44 kb uncompressed) and 15766 bytes (15.40 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-10-18, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-01-02, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
Corsicana, TX (75110)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this morning, then partly cloudy during the afternoon hours. High 88F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
Pope County Justices of the Peace put an end Thursday to an ordinance that would have required an election to approve an elected officials support of a casino applicant. Read more
Cowley College set to receive more than $300,000 in Kansas Promise Scholarship Assistance

With ongoing progress made at the state level, Cowley College has been approved to receive more than $300,000 in Kansas Promise Act scholarship dollars to assist Kansas residents who wish to study and work in Kansas. The Kansas Promise Act, passed in April 2021, allows Kansas residents the opportunity to earn scholarship dollars for select programs at no cost to eligible students beginning in August of 2021.

The scholarship dollars can be applied to tuition, fees, books and/or required materials towards an extensive list of Cowley eligible program categories in Advanced Manufacturing and Construction/Building Trades, Early Childhood Education and Development, Healthcare (Physical and Mental Health), Information Technology and Security Programs, and Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Programs.

Dr. Michelle Schoon, Cowley College vice president of academic affairs, said the Kansas Promise Scholarship provides a great opportunity for students to complete a certificate or degree pathway without accumulating student debt.

Cowley College has over 70 degrees and certificates that students can choose from in the technical trades and general education transfer pathways that would qualify for this scholarship and we are looking forward to helping students reach their career goals, Dr. Schoon said.

The enrollment team at Cowley College has established a designated website and admissions representative to assist students interested in the Kansas Promise eligible programs. For a complete list of programs, coursework, eligibility and steps to enroll, visit cowley.edu/promiseact or contact a representative via phone at 800.593.2222.
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Although People ultimately removed the page, the Way Back Machine has several archived copies of the since-deleted article, allowing you to gaze in shock and horror at the celebrity publication's evident thirst for the septuagenarian Bush administration official. Yet in what may be the only commonality between Rumsfeld and the other certifiably sexy men included in the notorious People segment, it seems the politician was wholly unavailable, only having eyes for his one true love  no, not his wife, Joyce, his deadly, ultra-expensive sugar baby, the Iraq War.

Throughout his career, apparent sex-pot Rumsfeld fiercely advocated for the war, often bungling facts to further his cause, according to Rolling Stone. He falsely told the public that the link between the terrorist group, Al Queda and Iraq was accurate and not debatable. He boasted that former Iraq president, Sadam Hussein had amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin, and mustard gas," which countered inconclusive intelligence reports on the matter. In an attempt to further drum up support, Rumsfeld also reassured Americans that the war would be over in a matter of days. Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isnt going to last any longer than that," he told CBS News in 2002.

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Despite Rumsfeld's promises, that five-month conflict quickly turned into a 17-year war. Starting in March 2003, when an American-led coalition of nations stormed the Middle-Eastern nation, the Iraq War has now outlived its architect, raging on for almost two decades. According to some estimates, as many as 207,156 Iraqi civilians and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers were killed in the conflict. Yet as several outlets have noted, the human cost of the Iraq War will forever remain unknown, due, in part, to sexy Rumsfeld's policy against collecting or releasing body counts.
On this Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to lift a ban on evictions for tenants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently extended through the end of July. The eviction moratoria is one of a handful of debt pauses put in place by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic that are set to expire soon. The student loan moratorium ends on September 30. The mortgage foreclosure moratorium ends on July 31. In anticipation of the end of the foreclosure moratorium, this week, the CFPB finalized new rules that put into place protections for borrowers that servicers must use before they foreclose.

Student loans and mortgages are most people's two largest debts. But they are not the only large loans that people are in danger of getting behind on post-pandemic. Indeed, when student loan and mortgage debts become due, people may prioritize paying them ahead of car loans, credit cards, and similar. In a new op-ed in The Hill, Christopher Odinet, Slipster Dalie Jimenez, and I set forth how the CFPB can use its legal authority to steer a range of loan servicers to offering people affordable modifications. As a preview, we suggest that the CFPB should issue a compliance and enforcement bulletin directing loan servicers to make a reasonable determination that a borrower has the ability to make all required, scheduled payments in connection with any modification.

The piece is a short version of our new draft paper, Steering Loan Modifications Post-Pandemic, which we wrote as part of the upcoming "Crisis in Contracts" symposium hosted by Duke Law's Law & Contemporary Problems journal. The paper contains more about what federal agencies already are doing to get ahead of mortgage modification requests, about why similar is needed for the range of consumer loans, and about the reasoning behind our suggestion that the CFPB use its prevent what we term modification failures.
Anna Mae Wilson-Welborn, 86, of Crossville, passed away at her home surrounded by her family on Monday, June 28, 2021. She was born July 11, 1934, in Spencer, TN, daughter of the late Floyd Stanton Dodson and Annie (Lawson) Dodson. Anna worked as a seamstress and was of the Baptist faith. Sh
Heroes. Hearing that word today would cause most people to imagine a police officer, nurse, teacher, or firefighter. Others may picture fictional characters like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. What all of these heroes have in common is their ability to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of another. Police officers risk their lives daily to protect the community, as does Batman when he patrols the streets of Gotham at night.

American society has such a strong relationship with heroes that we find various occasions to celebrate these people. We acknowledge specific days of the year as Veteran's Day or Teacher's Week. When we hear stories about civilians rescuing neighbors from overturned cars or burning houses, we often seek to award them with medals of honor. Fictional heroes also receive praise as we bestow characters like Superman with admirable traits such as charisma, intelligence, empathy, and most of all, love for others.

It's easy enough to find heroes in our personal lives, society, and the books we consume, but are there such obvious heroes in the Bible? Actually, yes, and more than just the one that immediately comes to mind - Jesus. In fact, as Christians, we can identify individuals in our lives as heroes based on the sense of morality taught to us by Jesus. He sets the example, and whenever we see someone exhibiting Jesus-like qualities, we think to ourselves, this is a hero.

We first come to this conclusion by acknowledging that no person is perfect except for Jesus (Romans 8:28). Everyone has traits that disconnect us from God and attitudes and behaviors that are immoral. Secondly, we acknowledge that this means no one is good aside from God (Mark 19:17). With these two truths, we can distinguish people as heroes for not only overcoming their sinful nature, but doing so in a way that supports, encourages, and uplifts other people. And in their accomplishments, they reflect the teachings of God.

This is true of the heroes in real-life, even if they are not Christian, and likewise with superheroes. For the biblical heroes, this is undoubtedly true, as they often profess a desire to please God through word and deed. Who are these heroes of the Bible? They are the ones who promoted others before themselves and put God before all.

"But many who are first will be last, and the last first." (Matthew 19:30)

Who Are the Heroes of the Bible?

1. Daniel

"So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, 'May your God, whom you continually serve, rescue you!'" (Daniel 6:16) "Then Daniel spoke with the king: 'May the king live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths; and they haven't harmed me, for I was found innocent before him. And also before you, Your Majesty, I have not done harm.'" (Daniel 6:21-22)

Not every hero comes equipped with heat vision, a lasso, or a batarang. Sometimes they don't have a fire ax, taser, or a syringe, because prayer is enough. Daniel, our first hero, portrayed this truth after disobeying an ordinance put in place by King Darius. During Babylon's capture of the Israelites, the king signed an edict that forbade prayer or petition to any god or person except for the king himself (Daniel 6:7). He did this following the ill-advised suggestion of his subordinates. These subordinates knew of the king's affection for Daniel and were jealous of him. By turning the king against Daniel, they would eliminate any competition.

The king's new rule would last a month, and anyone who disobeyed would be put in a terrifying place - a lion's den. The expected outcome from such a consequence would be death. King Darius's subordinates, called the satraps, set themselves up as the villains of this particular story, acting as the foil for the hero Daniel. Instead of abandoning his faith, Daniel continued to pray. He put God before himself and eventually was discovered. Daniel faced King Darius' consequence, only his trip to the lion's den did not end in death. The courageous Israelite used the power of faith to prevent any lion from harming him.

The outcome for our hero was life, while his opponents were met with death (Daniel 6:24). Daniel showed himself to be a hero by standing up for what was right. He maintained his reverence for God and served as an example not only for the Jews of that time, but for present-day Christians. He made the sacrifice of personal comfort to be godly, despite the potential consequence.

2. David

"David said to the Philistine, 'You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israelyou have defied him.'" (1 Samuel 17:45) "David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground." (1 Samuel 17:49)

Heroes possess the ability and willpower to overcome opponents who are sometimes much larger in stature than themselves. This is true with Superman and Doomsday, as is the case with David and Goliath. Christians today can easily recognize David as a hero for two reasons: showcasing an unwavering faith in God and standing up to a much larger foe. Goliath represented the might and power of the Philistine army, but he did not represent God. On the other hand, David represented the frailty of man but the might of God.

With nothing but a rock, a slingshot, and plenty of faith, David routed his opponent. This is another example of someone showcasing the power of faith and putting God first. David did not enter into battle proclaiming the significance of man, but rather his reverence for God. David acted in this battle, not for the benefit of self, but the nation of Israel. He stood up to Goliath when no other warrior would, and he was only a shepherd.

Faith, putting others before himself, and defeating a mighty foe, David has become emblematic of any hero facing a giant enemy.

3. Moses

"As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground." (Exodus 14:16)

Moses displayed himself as a hero by performing several good deeds on behalf of God and his people. He attained the Ten Commandments, enacted the various plagues in Egypt, freed the Israelites from slavery, and parted the Red Sea by the power of God. Much of what Moses did was to get the Israelites to the Promised Land; only Moses himself did not ever reach such a place. God did not permit Moses to enter (Deuteronomy 32:51-52). Even with this sad truth, in the next chapter, Moses blesses his people and speaks highly of God.

Heroes, even when they do not win for themselves, win on behalf of others. Moses portrays a painful sacrifice that not many would make, knowing that in the end, others would inherit a benefit and he would not.

4. Jesus

"But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

What more noteworthy biblical hero is there than Jesus? He modeled faith perfectly in all that He did. Jesus displayed the ultimate sacrifice by being wounded not for anything He did, but for all the wrongs of humanity and all that He did right. Jesus did what no other man could do and paid the price. After Jesus' death, He returned, having conquered what many fear is the end; He shows us that we can find salvation through Him.

Through His actions, Jesus overcame numerous enemies: Satan, His persecutors, and death. He won in the end, and because of His win, His followers can also reap the benefit of salvation. Jesus was a hero throughout every chapter of His life on Earth, a reason why every believer and almost every nonbeliever knows the word. Not hero, but Jesus.

How Should We View the Concept of Heroes of the Bible?

As a Christian, the idea of heroism extends beyond beating up villains and fighting for justice. Heroism involves sacrifice, sometimes a sacrifice that means people reap a benefit that the hero does not. There are definite similarities between our biblical heroes and those we see around us day-to-day. Sacrifice. Empathy. Love. However, what the biblical heroes utilize just as much as the other traits is faith in God. If we want to be both heroes and Christians, we have to make sure we are not just serving humankind or ourselves; we have to serve God.

We should encourage ourselves and others with this truth. There is power in stories. There's a reason Superman's logo is recognized universally. There's also a reason why the name of Jesus is so profound. Heroes make a difference in their homes, communities, nations, and the entire world, not just today or the past, but also for the future - and they always will.

Photo credit: GettyImages/Bulat Silvia

Aaron Brown is a freelance writer, dance teacher, and visual artist. He currently contributes articles to GodUpdates, GodTube, iBelieve, and Crosswalk. Aaron also supports clients through the freelance platform Upwork.
When and where you need it! 786 Hwy. 7
Accused sex offender Miguel Lopez will be returned to Connecticut to face charges here in a case that focused attention on a loophole in the states sex offender laws.

Lopez, a registered sex offender from Massachusetts, was placed in an East Windsor nursing home in April, but local law enforcement didnt know he was in Connecticut until after he allegedly assaulted a nursing home employee about a month later.

The oversight has raised the concerns of two state senators who called for changes in how nursing homes notify Connecticut law enforcement when they admit a known sex offender.

On Tuesday, Lopez was informed during a routine court appearance in Holyoke Superior Court that the East Windsor police had a warrant for his arrest. He was asked if he would waive extradition proceedings so he could be brought back to Connecticut to face first- and third-degree sexual assault charges, as well as an unlawful restraint charge.

Lopez, who told the judge he is 40, appeared on a Zoom hearing from the Ludlow Correctional Center, where he has been held on $1,000 cash bail since May on charges unrelated to the Connecticut case. Lopez eventually agreed to waive his extradition rights after first telling the judge he hadnt had enough time to discuss his options with his lawyer, Jeffrey Weisser.

The judge ordered Lopez held without bail and scheduled him to return to Holyoke court on July 8 to finish his pending Massachusetts cases. East Windsor Police Lt. Matthew Carl said police cant extradite him back to Connecticut until those charges are adjudicated, and they hope to bring him back here next week after that hearing.

Carl said a Connecticut judge has ordered a $275,000 bond on Lopez when he is returned here and formally arraigned. The warrant in the Connecticut case is sealed until Lopez appears in a court here.

Lopez appeared twice before the Massachusetts judge Tuesday, as there was a question whether East Windsor police had put the proper date of birth on the fugitive warrant.

Weisser at first told the court that his client denied ever being in Connecticut, but after a short recess returned and told the court Lopez was ready to proceed with the extradition.

The case disclosed that Connecticut nursing homes arent required to inform state police when they admit out-of-state sex offenders to their facilities.

State police said that they had no idea that Lopez was at Fresh River Healthcare nursing home on Prospect Hill Road. Detectives were at Fresh River the same day of the alleged assault, May 19, to register a different sex offender from Virginia, but they never saw Lopez.

The assault occurred a few hours later, police said. Lopez allegedly trapped a Fresh River employee in his room by locking the door when she came to assist him and forced her to perform oral sex. The victim managed to escape the room and was taken by other employees to the police station to file a complaint.

Meanwhile, officials from iCare Health, which operates Fresh River, sent Lopez back to Holyoke that same afternoon in an ambulance before East Windsor police were able to interview him or get a search warrant for any DNA evidence.

State Sen. Saud Anwar, who represents East Windsor, called the incident horrific and said he was surprised there was such a loophole in the state law.

Something needs to be done and quickly, because thats obviously a loophole, and we dont know how widespread this is, Anwar told the CT Mirror in early June, after the incident came to light.

East Windsor Police Lt. Matt Carl said detectives were surprised to learn about Lopezs presence in the nursing home.

We have a lot of questions about how he ended up in that facility, and we never knew about him, Carl said earlier this month.

During the week of the special legislative session, a leading Republican brought up the case on the Senate floor.

Im disappointed in the sense that there is an evolving issue thats very present in the state of Connecticut. Its an issue that has taken very many people by surprise. And its an issue that when you hear it  the first thing you say is, How can that happen in our state of Connecticut? Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford. The mere fact that we have this situation, this loophole in our laws that can be exploited, is something that needs action taken and needs to be done sooner rather than later  not only for the protection of the residents but also anyone thats employed or visits these facilities.

Lopez was arrested by Holyoke police about a week after the alleged sexual assault at Fresh River on an outstanding warrant issued in January charging him with failing to properly register as a sex offender.

Lopez is listed as homeless in the Massachusetts sex offender database, and the phone number that he had been using no longer works. The sex offender database also lists him as 50 years old, not 40, as he claimed in court Tuesday.

A spokesman for iCare said the company was aware Lopez was a registered sex offender before admitting him, but said the law does not require them to inform the state police if an out-of-state sex offender is admitted to one of its facilities.

It is the legal obligation of the resident themselves or their legal guardian to update the sex offender registry as to their current location, iCare spokesman David Skoczulek said.

While there is no legal obligation for a nursing home to inform the registry, we do take steps to assist the resident or their guardian in doing so and prompt them to do so in a timely fashion, Skoczulek said, adding the Lopez case was quite rare.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Michigan lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $17.1 billion K-12 budget, one that will eliminate a longstanding base per-student funding gap among districts and boost overall funding by a substantial 10%.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign what many education officials called a historic bill, providing certainty to districts whose fiscal years begin Thursday.

Budgets for state departments and funding for universities, community colleges and local governments will wait, potentially until September, despite a 2019 law requiring that they also be sent to the governor before Friday. The state fiscal year does not start until Oct. 1.

Traditional districts and charter schools will receive $8,700 in base per-student state aid, not including at least $1,093 more per pupil in federal funding from a rescue package signed by President Joe Biden in March. The state grant will rise by $589, or 7%, for the vast majority of districts. Those at the higher end will get an additional $171, a 2% increase.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Stamas, a Midland Republican, said the state has been working to remove the discrepancy for more than 26 years since school funding was overhauled by voters.

I'm excited that we're able to make sure to get our education funded, he told reporters, saying the $8,700 grant is a great place for them to go into their school year starting on July 1st working on their budget. I think that's a positive.

This is a great bipartisan effort to have the largest investment in education in Michigans history, said Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. of East Lansing, the top Democrat on the Senate budget panel. Im really proud of the work that the governor did to get here and I was proud to support it.

Legislators embraced Whitmer's revised proposal to expand state-funded preschool to 22,000 eligible but unenrolled 4-year-olds and to raise the amount allotted per child.

They added $240 million to hire additional school nurses and counselors and $155 million for Grand Valley State University to disburse up to $1,000 each to K-5 students who are not proficient in reading. The scholarship could be used for instructional materials, tutoring, summer and afterschool programming.

The goal of this program is to provide as many good options to parents as humanly possible, said Sen. Lana Theis, a Brighton Republican who cited learning loss as kids went to school online in the coronavirus pandemic.

Lawmakers also included $135 million for districts with a year-round, or balanced, calendar. A supplemental bill that was passed last week and the newly approved K-12 measure will release to schools an extra $4.7 billion in designated U.S. coronavirus funds.

Teachers unions and charter school advocates applauded passage of the budget, and called the equalization of base funding a major step forward. Superintendents also were pleased.

Educators now have the funding and guidance they need to get to work on what truly matters: supporting the needs of each and every student as we work to remediate the challenges brought on by the pandemic and set our students up for success in the coming year and beyond, said Ken Gutman, superintendent of Walled Lake Consolidated Schools and president of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan.

Also Wednesday, both chambers overwhelming passed competing spending bills that would, among other things, immediately use federal COVID-19 relief aid to help hospitals and nursing homes facing pandemic-related financial struggles. But the proposed payments are on hold amid budget discussions that will continue over the summer, including over how to spend $6.5 billion in discretionary U.S. coronavirus funding.

Whitmer welcomed the school budget's completion but noted legislators missed the deadline to pass the rest of the budget. They adjourned and appear unlikely to meet much before September.

I am hopeful that the Legislature will work quickly to approve a state budget that supports small businesses, fixes our crumbling roads and bridges, expands access to childcare and grows our economy, she said in a statement.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
COLCHESTER  An escalating series of complaints and conflicts between members of the towns police commission and the officers they oversee has reached a crescendo with the Board of Selectmen voting to indefinitely suspend the panel from its duties.

First Selectwoman Mary Bylone, who is also the towns police chief, called the situation a toxic work environment that included bullying and inappropriate behavior. Bylone said she investigated the matter herself and found evidence of these behaviors.

While Bylone did not name any specific allegations against the commissioners, her frustration appeared to be a reference to tensions between the commissions chair, James Stovola, and the vice chair, Carol Vaillancourt. Conflicts on the commission, she said, had reached a point where members are really unable to work together.

Vaillancourt has also been accused of feuding with members of the police department. It led to the police union declaring a vote of no confidence in Vaillancourt or the commission at a meeting in May. The union said its officers would no longer attend commission meetings or work with individual commissioners unless ordered to by a supervisor.

Among the issues at the center of the dispute between Vaillancourt and Stovola is an effort by school officials earlier this year to eliminate the school resource officer position at Colchester Public Schools through the budget process. That effort failed in the face of opposition from the police commission.

While Bylone, Stovola and Vaillancourt all said they opposed the elimination of the school resource officer, Vaillancourt accused the chair and first selectwoman of engaging in backroom deals, over the SRO question.

When I started calling people out on that, thats when everything hit the fan, Vaillancourt said in an interview Wednesday. Around the same time, Vaillancourt said she began questioning the departments crime statistics and changed her political affiliation from independent to Republican.

Bylone, a Democrat, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A staffer in the first selectwomans office said she was away on vacation this week.

In an email Wednesday, Stovola said the selectmen had no choice but to suspend the commission due to Vaillancourts inappropriate actions, which he said included speaking on behalf of the entire commission without approval, and speaking to the media about an ongoing investigation of an officer. The reaction to those actions, he said, had effectively ground the commissions work to a halt prior to the Board of Selectmen voting 4-1 on June 17 to suspend the panel.

No police commission members, no police officers, the resident state trooper, or Colchester administrative sergeant will attend any police commission meetings until Commissioner Vaillancourt is removed from the police commission, Stovola said.

The investigation referenced by Stovola began in April, when Vaillancourt lodged a formal complaint against an officer who she said had made disparaging remarks about the commission during a public meeting that month. That prompted the union to file its own complaint against Vaillancourt after she spoke to a local media outlet about the matter.

Colchester, a town of about 15,000, has less than a dozen police officers as well as a resident state trooper. Bylone serves as the towns first selectwoman and police chief, with officers reporting to her and the resident trooper.

Sgt. Timothy Edwards, the highest-ranking officer in the police department, told the selectmen at the June meeting that rank-and-file officers had lost confidence in the commission as a result of the recent issues.

What we dont want to participate in is any unfair labor practices or defamation of character of police officers, Edwards said.

The only member of the Board of Selectmen to oppose the suspension of the police commission, Republican Taras Rudko, said the decision would leave the public without a voice in and oversight of the department.

I think we missed an opportunity to rectify the situation with bullying, and as a result, it continued, Rudko said. So shame on the Board of Selectmen for not taking action to rectify that.

Bylone said the decision to suspend the commission will affect the hiring process at the department, but the town otherwise has a structure to maintain the operations of the department with oversight.

The Board of Selectmen did not set a timetable for how long the commissions suspension would last. Bylone said removing the commission altogether would require a change to a local ordinance along with further meetings and a town meeting.
EAST HADDAM  A motorcyclist was killed in a crash on Route 82 Tuesday afternoon, state police said Thursday.

The victim was identified as 59-year-old Steven M. Davidson, of Gibson Hill Road in Sterling.

The Connecticut State Police report released Thursday indicated that an East Haddam family was headed south on Route 82 near its intersection with Banning Road, as Davidson was headed north on Route 82 approaching the same intersection shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Davidson veered into the southbound lane of travel and collided with the vehicle, the report said. Davidson was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The driver and three passengers in the vehicle were unhurt and declined medical attention, state police said.

The investigation is ongoing.
NEW YORK (AP)  TV actor Allison Mack, who played a key role in the scandal-ridden, cult-like group NXIVM, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for the groups spiritual leader.

Mack  best known for her role as a young Supermans close friend on the series Smallville  had previously pleaded guilty to the charges and began cooperating against NXIVM leader Keith Raniere. Prosecutors credited her with helping them mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials.

At her sentencing in Brooklyn federal court, Mack renounced the self-improvement guru.

I made choices I will forever regret, she said, also telling the judge she was filled with remorse and guilt.

I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM," she wrote in a letter filed with the court last week. "I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.

She reiterated her apologies to the victims in court on Wednesday: From the deepest part of my heart and soul, I am sorry.

Mack wept at times while reading her statement to the court. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis told her he believed her apology was sincere, but said she deserved a serious sentence for using her celebrity to groom victims as a willing and proactive ally and essential accomplice to Raniere's monstrous crimes.

Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Mack had faced between 14 and 17 1/2 years behind bars, but her defense team argued in court papers that probation or a sentence to home confinement was more appropriate. Prosecutors had agreed that any prison term should be below the guidelines range because of her cooperation.

The NXIVM saga and the story of Ms. Macks descent have been a tragedy for all involved. But that need not, and should not, be the end of the story for Allison Mack, her lawyers wrote in court papers.

A victim, Jessica Joan, rejected Mack's apologies, telling the judge the actor deserved no mercy.

She can blame Keith all she wants but she is a monster cut from the same cloth, Joan said in court on Wednesday. Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being.

Mack, 38, was once part of the inner circle of Raniere, whose group attracted millionaires and actors among its adherents. Prosecutors said she became a master for slaves she ordered to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere.

As authorities closed in on Raniere, he fled to Mexico with Mack and others to try to reconstitute the group there. He was arrested and sent to the United States in March 2018; Mack was arrested a few days later.

Ms. Mack now understands that this was the best thing that could have happened to her at that time, the defense papers said.

Mack provided information to prosecutors about how Raniere, now 60, encouraged the use of demeaning and derogatory language, including racial slurs, to humiliate slaves, the government papers said. More importantly, she provided a recording of a conversation she had with Raniere about the branding, they added.

The branding should involve a vulnerable position type of a thing with hands probably above the head being held, almost like being tied down, like sacrificial, whatever, Raniere told her. The women, he added, should say, 'Please brand me. It would be an honor.' Or something like that.

Raniere was sentenced last year to 120 years in prison for his conviction on sex-trafficking charges. A 41-year-old heir to the Seagram's fortune, Clare Bronfman, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison in September for her role as Raniere's unwavering benefactor.

Mack was allowed to remain out on bail in home confinement until surrendering to prison on Sept. 29. She left the courthouse on Wednesday without speaking to reporters.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden came up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June as a host of logistical and regulatory hurdles slowed the pace of U.S. vaccine diplomacy.

Although the Biden administration has announced that about 50 countries and entities will receive a share of the excess COVID-19 vaccine doses, the U.S. has shipped less than 24 million doses to 10 recipient countries, according to an Associated Press tally. The White House says more will be sent in the coming days  with about 40 million doses expected to be shipped by the end of the week  and stresses that Biden has done everything in his power to meet the commitment.

It's not for lack of doses. All the American shots are ready to ship, the White House said. Rather, it's taking more time than anticipated to sort through a complex web of legal requirements, health codes, customs clearances, cold-storage chains, language barriers and delivery programs. Complicating matters even further is that no two shipments are alike.

One country requires an act of its Cabinet to approve the vaccine donation, others require inspectors to conduct their own safety checks on the U.S. doses, and still others have yet to develop critical aspects of their vaccine distribution plans to ensure the doses can reach people's arms before they spoil.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said all intended recipient countries had received formal U.S. offers of a specific number and type of vaccine, and all legal and logistical hurdles on the U.S. side had been cleared.

The remaining doses will be shipped in the coming weeks as countries complete their own domestic set of operational regulatory and legal processes. Theyre specific to each country," Zients said Thursday. We will continue to share tens of millions of U.S. doses over the summer months as we help lead the fight to end the pandemic across the globe."

The White House declined to specify which nations were struggling with which local hurdles, saying it is working with recipient nations on an individual basis to remove obstacles to delivery.

What weve found to be the biggest challenge is not actually the supply  we have plenty of doses to share with the world  but this is a Herculean logistical challenge, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week.

It took months for the U.S. to get its domestic vaccination program running at full throttle, and officials noted that Biden only shifted the focus of the nation's COVID-19 response toward the global vaccination campaign less than two months ago.

Biden announced the 80 million target on May 17, saying, This will be more vaccines than any country has actually shared to date  five times more than any other country  more than Russia and China. Even while missing his goal, Biden has made the U.S. the largest global vaccine donor, delivering more doses than either Russia or China, who have at times sought to leverage their vaccines for geopolitical gain.

The 80 million doses are meant as a down payment on a far larger plan to purchase and donate 500 million vaccine doses for the world over the next year. That plan, relying on a purchase contract from Pfizer that will begin delivering doses in August, remains on track, officials said.

Last week the White House broadly outlined its plans for all 80 million doses, but it is not publicly releasing a list of how many and of what type of vaccines each recipient will get until the doses are on the way.

The U.S. recipients to date are Colombia (2.5 million Johnson & Johnson doses), Bangladesh (2.5 million Moderna), Peru (2 million Pfizer), Pakistan (2.5 million Moderna), Honduras (1.5 million Moderna), Brazil (3 million J&J), South Korea (1 million J&J), Taiwan (2.5 million Moderna), Canada (1 million Moderna, 1.5 million AstraZeneca) and Mexico (1.35 million J&J, 2.5 million AstraZeneca). All told, it's enough vaccine to fully protect 15.9 million people.

Biden initially committed to providing other nations with all 60 million U.S.-produced doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has yet to be authorized for use in the U.S. but is widely approved around the world. The AstraZeneca doses have been held up for export by a two-month safety review by the Food and Drug Administration.

Given declining domestic demand for vaccine doses, the Biden administration expects to be able to meet the full 80 million commitment without the AstraZeneca doses, but rather from existing federal stockpiles of Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines.

The U.S.-approved shots  particularly the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna  appear to be more effective than other available vaccines against the virus, especially emerging strains of the virus that are more contagious and harmful, like the delta variant first identified in India.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction was thrown out Wednesday by Pennsylvania's highest court in a ruling that swiftly freed the actor from prison more than three years after he was found guilty of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.

Cosby, 83, was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era, and his conviction was seen as a turning point in the movement to hold powerful men accountable for sexual misconduct.

Here's a look at the case against Cosby and the court's decision:

WHY DID THE COURT TOSS HIS CONVICTION?

The split court found that Cosby was unfairly prosecuted because the previous district attorney had promised the comedian once known as America's Dad that he wouldn't be charged over Constand's accusations. Cosby was charged by another prosecutor who claimed he wasn't bound by that agreement.

The court said that's not the case. The justices found that Cosby relied on that promise when he agreed to testify without invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a lawsuit brought against him by Constand.

The court concluded that prosecutor who later brought the charges was obligated to stick to the nonprosecution agreement, so the conviction cannot stand. The justices wrote that denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade.

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE NONPROSECUTION AGREEMENT?

The promise not to prosecute Cosby was made in 2005 by Bruce Castor, who was then the top prosecutor for Montgomery County. Castor was also on the legal team that defended former President Donald Trump during his historic second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.

During a court hearing weeks after Cosby's 2015 arrest, Castor testified that he promised Cosby he wouldn't be prosecuted in the hopes that it would persuade the actor to testify in a civil case brought by Constand and allow her to win damages. Castor acknowledged the only place the matter was put in writing was in the 2005 press release announcing his decision not to prosecute, but said his decision was meant to shield Cosby from prosecution for all time.

His successor noted, during the appeal arguments, that Castor went on to say in the press release that he could revisit the decision in the future.

Castor had said that Constands case would be difficult to prove in court because she waited a year to come forward and stayed in contact with Cosby.

The first jurors who heard the case may have agreed with him, as they could not reach a verdict in 2017. But a second jury empaneled after the #MeToo movement exploded found him guilty at his 2018 retrial. Constand settled her civil case against Cosby for more than $3 million.

Castor's successor, District Attorney Kevin Steele, charged Cosby in 2015 after a federal judge, acting on a request from The Associated Press, unsealed documents from her 2005 lawsuit against Cosby, revealing his damaging testimony about sexual encounters with Constand and others. Castor has said Cosby wouldve had to have been nuts to say those things if there was any chance he couldve been prosecuted."

HOW RARE IS THIS?

Extremely rare.

Wesley Oliver, a Pennsylvania law professor who has followed Cosbys case closely over the years, said he has never heard of a high court in Pennsylvania or anywhere else grappling with a prosecutors informal promise not to prosecute.

It breaks new ground entirely, said Oliver, who teaches at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh. It sets precedent not just for Pennsylvania but probably other states.

He said the ruling should drive home to prosecutors the risks of suggesting at news conferences, in press releases or verbally in private that they will not prosecute.

They should at least add three words  at this time, he said. If you add that qualifier, which wasnt done in Cosbys case, you should be good to go, Oliver said.

CAN COSBY BE TRIED AGAIN?

Its highly unlikely. The decision on Wednesday bars Cosby from being tried again over Constands complaint, finding it to be the only remedy that comports with societys reasonable expectations of its elected prosecutors and our criminal justice system.

And the accusations raised by dozens of other women, including the five who testified at his 2018 trial, often go back decades and are most likely too remote to prosecute.

Cosby turns 84 next month. However, his lawyer said he remains in good health, except for vision problems that render him legally blind.

The trial judge deemed him a sexually violent predator who could still pose a danger to women given his wealth, power and fame, and ordered that he be on a lifetime sex offender registry and check in monthly with authorities. However, the decision negates that finding.

___

Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Michael Tarm contributed to this report from Chicago.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Newly retired, Judy Pavlick was among hundreds of seniors who enjoyed the low cost-of-living and friendly atmosphere at Plaza Del Rey, a sprawling mobile home park in Sunnyvale, California. Then the Carlyle Group acquired the property and things began to change.

Pavlicks rent surged by more than 7%. Additional increases followed. She said the unexpected jump forced her and her neighbors, many on fixed incomes and unable to relocate, to sometimes choose between food and medicine.

The 2015 acquisition and subsequent sale of Pavlicks mobile home park is a core business practice for private equity firms such as Carlyle, which buy and restructure private companies to build value for their investors, sometimes cutting jobs and services in the process.

But the deal, one of hundreds Carlyle executed in recent years, could become a political liability for the companys former co-CEO, Glenn Youngkin, who is now running as the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia and highlighting his experience building businesses and creating jobs.

They dont realize that these are peoples homes. Were not just numbers on a spreadsheet, said Pavlick, now 74 years old. They have no conscience.

There are no allegations of illegality or wrongdoing, but Youngkins political aspirations have drawn new scrutiny to his dealings at the Washington-based investment firm, where he generated a net worth estimated at over $300 million before retiring as co-CEO last summer.

Youngkin now faces another wealthy former businessman, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in Novembers general election, which has emerged as the nations top political contest of 2021.

While McAuliffes ties to big donors and lobbyists are well-established, Youngkin has only begun to confront difficult questions about his business background. His team declined to address any of Carlyles specific deals.

As a young man, Glenn joined a small company and over the next 25 years worked his way up to the top of the company, helping to grow it into a hugely successful enterprise that turned good businesses into great businesses, created tens of thousands of jobs, and funded the retirement pensions of police officers, firefighters, and teachers, said Youngkin spokesman Macaulay Porter. Under Glenns leadership, The Carlyle Group employed nearly 2,000 people and managed assets totaling nearly four times the size of Virginias yearly budget.

Youngkin has made his business experience and status as a political outsider central to his pitch to voters. But more often than not, he discusses his career in broad strokes, without mentioning his lofty position or even the name of his former firm.

Asked in a February interview with a former state lawmaker that was streamed on social media how he viewed the role of private equity in the economy, Youngkin responded: We invest in companies, and we try to take good companies and make them great companies. And we do that by helping them expand.

While creating big profits for the firms investors, Carlyles deals sometimes triggered layoffs, outsourced jobs and complaints from the people served by the companies acquired.

The details in some cases may be politically damaging for Youngkin, but the situation is also complicated for his Democratic critics, who have tried to portray Youngkin as too close to former President Donald Trump. McAuliffe himself invested in Carlyle before and after becoming Virginias governor in 2014.

The former Democratic governors public disclosures show no current ties, but records reveal that McAuliffe invested at least $690,000 in Carlyle funds between December 2007 and the end of 2016. The actual figure is likely much higher because the disclosures require candidates to acknowledge only a broad range of investment with no upper limit in some cases.

McAuliffe spokesperson Christina Freundlich said McAuliffe has made no investments in Carlyle since 2014, describing him as a passive investor with no role in crafting the deals. She noted that many major institutions were among the investors, including the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Glenn Youngkins record is clear: shipping American jobs overseas and harming seniors and homeowners, all for his own profit, Freundlich said. Virginians deserve better than an extreme, Trump-endorsed job killer with a track record of always putting his own wealth first.

Carlyle made investments in several companies under Youngkins leadership that moved at least 1,300 American jobs offshore, according to Department of Labor data.

They include Metaldyne LLC, a North Carolina car parts company that sent 176 jobs to Korea in 2008; the Texas company Commemorative Brands that produced class rings and sent more than 260 jobs to Mexico between 2005 and 2013, and Ohio-based car part manufacturer Veyance Technologies that sent nearly 300 jobs to Mexico between 2009 and 2011.

After they were restructured, all three were sold for hundreds of millions of dollars more than they were acquired for.

Veyance Technologies was among those companies in a larger fund in which McAuliffe had invested, which means he would have profited from the deal.

A representative for Carlyle declined to comment. The companys leadership has struggled to defend some of their decisions at times.

The firm in 2005 acquired a minority stake in Combined Systems Inc., a less-lethal munitions manufacturer that produced tear gas and super-sock bean bags subsequently used by governments in Tunisia, Egypt and China to crack down on pro-democracy protesters.

Combined Systems officials said at the time that they could not control how their products were used, but the U.S. State Department condemned the excessive use of force against protesters in Egypt in particular and launched an investigation into the misuse of tear gas after pictures of CSI-branded tear gas canisters were published on social media.

Youngkin joined the firm in 1995 and rose through the ranks steadily in the subsequent years, becoming head of the industrial sector investment team by 2005. By March 2011, he had become the chief operating officer and within seven years, he was named co-CEO.

Carlyle announced Youngkins retirement last summer amid speculation that he was interested in running for office. In the announcement, Youngkin said it was the professional journey of a lifetime and my honor to be part of building Carlyle into the global institution it is today.

___

Peoples reported from New York.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The Minnesota Legislature worked into the early hours Thursday to try to finish off a $52 billion, two-year budget after working into the early hours the night before to pass a bill that ends Gov. Tim Walz's emergency powers, although a top Republican said the special session could continue for days longer to make sure the governor signed all the bills.

Trust but verify, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake, said at a news conference, quoting a proverb that President Ronald Reagan was fond of using in his dealings with Soviet leaders.

Walz laughed at the comment and said Gazelka didn't need to worry. He spoke to reporters after personally delivering the signed K-12 education funding bill to Secretary of State Steve Simon to make its enactment official, and signed three other budget bills to avert the lingering threat of a partial state government shutdown after the current budget ran out at the end of the day Wednesday.

The only budget bill still awaiting votes early Thursday was a tax bill that needed approval first in the House, then the Senate. The House debate was late to get going, and bogged down amid a partisan fight over the details of unwinding the governor's emergency powers.

The emergency powers language was added early Wednesday to a state government and elections budget bill shortly after the Democratic governor said he was ending the state's peacetime state of emergency himself. Walz had used his special powers for over 15 months to manage the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a long-running sore point for Republican lawmakers who complained he had shut the Legislature out of important spending and policy decisions.

Failure to pass the tax bill wasn't going to trigger a shutdown, so some of the pressure was off lawmakers.

"This is a strong, bipartisan tax bill that is going to make Minnesota families, communities and businesses better and stronger into the future, the House tax committee chairman, Democratic Rep. Paul Marquart, of Dilworth, said earlier in the day.

About about 80% of the bill is COVID-19 relief, Marquart said. Businesses that received forgiveness on Paycheck Protection Program loans will be allowed to fully deduct the amount on their state income taxes, while workers who collect unemployment insurance payments will be able to deduct them up to $10,200. He said that will benefit about 500,000 people who lost their jobs with an average $500 tax cut.

The Senate passed the K-12 education bill 65-0 on Wednesday evening and sent it to the governor.

Republican Senate education committee chairman Roger Chamberlain, of Lino Lakes, hailed the bipartisan school funding bill as relying on money not mandates. He highlighted how it contains the largest increase in the state's per-pupil funding formula in 15 years  2.5% in the first year and 2% in the second, amounting to about $296 per pupil for school districts to spend as they see fit.

Now that money is theirs to use," he said. It's local control, members.

Gazelka said it's still possible that lawmakers could agree in the coming days on a public works borrowing package known as a bonding bill, which would require bipartisan 60% supermajorities in both chambers but is not required to finish the budget. Otherwise, he said, they could pass it during the special session that Walz is expected to call in early September. The aim of that session would be to pass a plan to pay $250 million in bonuses from federal aid to frontline workers who risked their lives in the pandemic,

Walz announced last week that he was going to end the emergency on Aug. 1, but said late Tuesday that he had moved up the date after reaching a deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect emergency food aid payments to needy Minnesotans under the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

The governor said language added to the state government bill in the House will give him sufficient power to manage the state's vaccination program and emergency unemployment benefits, while winding down other remaining elements of the state's pandemic response. The Legislature met another condition earlier this week when it approved an off ramp for the governors eviction moratorium, which he had imposed in the early days of the pandemic.

Walz told Minnesota Public Radio that the final budget looks an awful lot like the original budget he put out in January and later revised as the state's projected budget surplus grew. He said a bonding bill would be icing on the cake."

Republican leaders claimed credit for forcing the governor's hand on special powers.

The governor has held on to these powers far too long and used them far too broadly, Gazelka said in a statement early Wednesday. "Weve been clear that we were going to end these powers, so Im not surprised Walz tried to outmaneuver us  but he does not get to say he let them go. The emergency is over because the Senate and the House said so.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Hundreds of Palestinians protested against President Mahmoud Abbas after Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem a day after an outspoken critic died in the custody of Palestinian security forces.

Nizar Banat had harshly criticized the Palestinian Authority over its corruption and misrule in a series of Facebook videos. His family says security forces raided the home where he was staying early Thursday and beat him with batons before dragging him away.

Palestinians also chanted against the PA at his funeral in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and masked gunmen fired shots into the air.

Calls had circulated for protests across the territory. Late Thursday, demonstrators burned tires, blocked roads and clashed with riot police in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the PA is headquartered.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank under agreements reached with Israel in the 1990s, faces a major crisis of legitimacy after Abbas called off the first elections in 15 years in April. Abbas was sidelined during last month's Gaza war and his popularity has plummeted as support for Gaza's militant Hamas rulers has grown.

His forces coordinate security with Israeli troops, targeting Hamas and other armed groups that threaten both. The policy is deeply unpopular with Palestinians, many of whom view it as collaboration with an occupying power.

From the police to the president, the whole authority are collaborators, a crowd of around 250 protesters chanted at Al-Aqsa after Friday prayers, as thousands of worshippers looked on. The hilltop compound is the third holiest site in Islam and a potent symbol of the Palestinian cause.

It is also the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the location of the biblical temples. It has long been the scene of Israeli-Palestinian violence, including in the runup to the Gaza war.

The U.S. State Department and the European Union's representative to the Palestinians each called for an investigation into Banat's death and expressed concerns about the PA's restrictions on freedom of expression and harassment of activists.

The PA said it has formed a high-level committee to investigate Banat's death.

The EU has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority over the years, and the U.S. and other nations have trained and equipped its security forces. The PA is seen internationally as a key partner in efforts to revive the Middle East peace process, which ground to a halt more than a decade ago.
BRIDGEPORT  A local landscaper was arrested after police said they found more than two pounds of cocaine in his pickup truck.

Christopher Cruz, 36, of Vincellette Street, was charged Wednesday with possession of cocaine with intent to sell and motor vehicle charges.

The allegations here are extremely serious, he had over two pounds of cocaine, Senior Assistant States Attorney Tiffany Lockshier told Superior Court Judge Kevin Doyle during Cruzs arraignment Thursday afternoon. She urged the judge to set a high bond.

But Cruzs lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Mike Paris, urged the judge for leniency, pointing out that his client has operated a landscaping business in the city for two years.

Judge Doyle agreed it was a serious case and ordered Cruz held in lieu of $350,000 bond. He continued the case to July 27.

According to police, shortly before 9 p.m., Wednesday, state troopers were patrolling the area of Barnum and Seaview avenues when they spotted a Toyota pickup truck without a front license plate.

The troopers pulled the pickup over and as they approached it, they saw the driver, Cruz, reaching back towards a black book bag in the rear passenger area, police said.

Police said the trooper took Cruz out of the truck after the pickup was found to have an expired registration. When they searched the book bag they found a large brick of cocaine wrapped in cellophane, police said.
We recently sat down with Cole Saini, Director of Risk Management at California-based KeyPoint Credit Union, to talk about how regulated financial institutions can provide reliable and cost-effective cannabis banking programs, and what cannabis-related businesses (CRBs) should look for in a banking partner.

KeyPoint Credit Union was established in 1979 to provide financial services to employees in the then-nascent Silicon Valley technology industry. Today it is one of Californias largest credit unions with seven branches and more than 63,000 Members. Backed by its Board of Directors, KeyPoint launched a cannabis banking pilot program in February of 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was hitting our shores. While initial interest from cannabis businesses slowed, the program quickly reached capacity in the following months and has expanded to meet the demand from the industry.

Here are a few highlights from our conversation.
No event has illustrated the importance of having a formal enterprise risk management program more than the COVID-19 pandemic of the past year and a half.

The initial impact of the pandemic was huge and required a significant pivot in operational plans, says Tony Ferris, founder/CEO of CUES Supplier member Rochdale Paragon Group LLC, Overland Park, Kansas. However, the unforeseen and broad-reaching risks and opportunities are the real issue. Its the downstream issues that are not right in front of you that are likely to hurt, such as the accelerated adoption of electronic delivery methods, and the short- and long-term talent management implications will drastically cause us to rethink our strategies.

Those who have mature ERM programs have been able to more effectively identify and assess these implications, allowing them to proactively drive their strategies versus simply being reactive to what hits next, Ferris adds. They were able to assess and reassess the new environment while still keeping in mind and in view their strategic plan and objectives.

Craig Wilson, senior director of consulting at CUESolutions provider Experian, Costa Mesa, California, contends that the volatility of the pandemic era has intensified the need for an ERM strategy.
In the last 18 months, credit unions have embodied the adage, Necessity is the mother of invention.

After the pandemic was declared and George Floyd was murdered in early 2020, credit unions responded by reinventing their processesand, really, themselves.

Many credit unions figured out new ways for staff to effectively and securely serve members while working in the safety of their own homes.

Many deployed or leveraged existing remote teller machinesand at least one credit union closed mortgages at the drive-thru.

Some completed large core conversion projects without ever having a vendor representative onsite.

Significant numbers also stepped up to boost diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging by enrolling staff members in high-quality learning programs, hiring chief diversity officers to guide their efforts and striving to create climates where employees can bring their authentic selves to work.

Now that the economy is reopening in many places in North America, innovation is just as necessary as before. How will your credit union creatively respond to the key questions now at hand?

Which innovations adopted in the last year and a half should be continued? Adapted? Dropped?

What are the new best practices for your organization for having staff work in-person, remotely or in some hybrid fashion?

What are ways to effectively support staff members who have been dealing with significant uncertainty and change for such a long time?

How digital-first does your credit union need to go to effectively serve its current and future members? And how fast?

What does your credit union need to do to start or continue its diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts in response to changes in your workforce, your membership and the hiring marketplace?

Sometimes it helps to not go it alone, but rather to learn from innovation experts and to talk with peers facing similar questions. CUES is with you on this journey with an innovation of its own. Starting July 19, well offer Strategic Innovation Institute online, in partnership with Stanford University. Im excited to see what creative solutions you will implement. And I hope your efforts will not only foster success at this critical juncture but pave the way for a successful future.
Kankakee, IL (60901)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 89F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Kankakee, IL (60901)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 89F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Mrs. Martha Lyndell Wilbanks, age 84, of Chatsworth passed away Thursday, July 1, 2021, at Chatsworth Health Care. She is survived by her husband, Damon Wilbanks of Chatsworth. No public memorial services have been planned at this time. Cremation services were provided by Peeples Funeral Hom
Paul Kirby is a reporter for the Freeman, covering Kingston politics. He has been at the Freeman since August 1996.
SAUGERTIES, N.Y.  Work on cleaning up the former Dragon Inn on U.S. Route 9W has been halte
The following items are based on information provided by officials in law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
Sunbury, PA (17801)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High near 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 68F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Madison, SD (57042)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 94F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
featured

Education

Officials: Children must get caught up on vaccinations before school starts
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When it comes to keeping our homes smelling good, many of us will try any of the hacks to help.

But some tips and tricks might actually pose more harm than good, and could potentially prove dangerous.

Cleanfluencers sharing their favourite hacks to make their home smell great have been criticised after social media users suggested their advice was putting their home, and life, at risk.

From putting fabric softener in the toilet to mixing a disinfectant with boiling water, people have been shocked by these cleaning hacks.

USING FLAMMABLE VAPORUB AS A WAX MELT

Cleanfluencers sharing their favourite hacks to make their home smell great have been criticised after social media users suggested their advice was putting their home, and life, at risk (pictured, one TikTok user was criticised for advising others to use Vaporub as a wax melt)

It's the age-old potion for a chesty cough and blocked nose but one mother has claimed Vicks Vaporub has plenty more uses than simply relieving congestion.

Taking to the popular social media site TikTok, she shared her 'life hack' for when her family is 'full of cold'.

In a clip which has been liked by over 1 million people online, the mother of one revealed she puts Vicks VapoRub into a wax burner.

The woman put a generous dollop of the ointment in the top of the burner in the clip, then placed a tealight underneath.

She went on to light it and watched as the product dissolves into a puddle.

However, the ointment contains cough suppressants eucalyptus oil and menthol, and is flammable.

She sparked furious backlash online from other users, who highlighted how dangerous the hack was.

'I did this and almost burnt my house down,' one replied. 'Do not recommend doing this - so unsafe!'

Another added: 'Please don't do this is if you have cats or dogs.

'It's really bad for their respiratory system and can make them really sick.'

'You can buy Vicks candles from B&M for 1,' a third wrote. 'Works the same and is safe.'

On the Vicks website, the brand warns against heating up their VapoRub.

The advice reads: 'You should not heat or microwave Vicks VapoRub. Do not add Vicks VapoRub to hot water or any container where heating water. Doing so may cause splatters and burns.'

USING ZOFLORA TO FRAGRANCE YOUR HOME

She told her Instagram followers that the way she judges a new Zoflora disinfectant scent was by mixing it with boiling water and leaving it out overnight

When it comes to cleaning, Instagram star Mrs Hinch is where many of us go for inspiration and tips, but one hack she posted has not gone down well with viewers.

She came under fire last year for telling Instagram followers that the way she judges a new Zoflora disinfectant scent was by mixing it with boiling water and leaving it out overnight.

Filming the process on her Instagram Stories, the mum-of-two wrote: 'I'll know instantly [if I like it] when I wake up in the morning and walk into the kitchen.'

After it was posted cleaning tips Facebook page, one homeowner warned: 'Can't believe I'm having to write another warning.... please, please, please do not mix Zoflora with boiling water.

'It is a disinfectant, it is not meant to be inhaled. I am obviously not talking about when being used for cleaning, I am talking about leaving it out on a counter all night with the sole purpose of the 'fragrance' filling the room/house.

'If you want your room to smell nice, use a wax melt?'

Meanwhile Zoflora released a statement re-iterating that the product should be used as a disinfectant and not an air freshener.

They said: 'We do not advise using Zoflora with boiling water as this has not been tested, and could potentially negatively impact the ingredients within Zoflora and the vapour they release.

'The use of boiling water offers no benefits in terms of the disinfecting properties of Zoflora, and we therefore recommend using with cool or warm water.

'All of our recommended product uses are related to the elimination of bacteria and viruses as Zoflora is an effective disinfectant, and we therefore do not recommend any use which isn't aligned to the function of this type of product.'

POURING FABRIC SOFTENER IN THE LOO

Posting the tip on Instagram , one American cleaner advised 'pouring a cup [230ml] of laundry detergent in the tank of the toilet' which will then sink to the bottom

Another hack dividing TikTok users has seen some cleanfluencers recommend pouring fabric softener into the tank of the toilet to help it smell clean.

Posting the tip on Instagram, one American cleaner advised 'pouring a cup [230ml] of laundry detergent in the tank of the toilet' which will then sink to the bottom.

They wrote: 'Each time you flush, a sweet aroma will be released in the tank, and the whole bathroom will smell amazing.'

This is because the water in the tank - which contains the fabric softener - will then be flushed into the bowl.

However, Izzy Shulman - director of Plumbers4U - told IdealHome that the 'hack' could potentially damage your drains and increase your risk of flooding, according to The Sun.

More toilet mishaps came from a couple, the Herreras, also from America, who shared a viral 'cleaning hack' on their TikTok and put cleaner in their cistern

She said: 'We've all seen the mess fabric softener can leave in a washing machine drawer.

'Over time it leaves a sticky film, which can coagulate and block your washing machine.

'If added to a toilet this means it may build-up and stick somewhere in your drainage.'

Another couple revealed the dangers of pouring anything into the toilet cistern on TikTok.

The couple appeared pleased with the scent the Fabuloso cleaner gave their bathroom but the hack actually caused more harm than good

In a second clip the couple revealed that it had caused their entire apartment to flood after the bottle made the toilet run overnight

They initially put a bottle of Fabuloso multi-purpose cleaner in their cisterns and appeared pleased at the scent it gave the bathroom.

However, in a second clip the couple revealed that it had caused their entire apartment to flood after the bottle made the toilet run overnight.

She explained: 'Our bottle lasted a week before floating and knocking the hose - causing water to spray all night long. Don't try this hack!!'

Users were quick to thank the pair for putting them off the hack, as one wrote: 'Thanks for sharing. I almost did this!'

Another added: 'I was waiting for people to realise how big a mistake this hack was.'
Australian shoppers have voted for their favourite supermarket sliced bread of 2021.

Consumer review website Canstar Blue put popular brands such as Tip Top, Wonder White, Helga's Continental Bakehouse, Abbott's Village Bakery, Woolworths and Coles to the test to see which loaves performed the best.

More than 1,600 customers were asked to rate their favourite slices based on taste, freshness, texture, range variety, value for money and overall customer satisfaction.

Australian shoppers have voted for their favourite supermarket sliced breads of 2021 - including white, wholemeal and multigrain

Best supermarket breads of 2021 WHITE BREAD 1. Helga's Continental Bakehouse & Tip Top 3. Woolworths 4. Wonder White 5. Coles WHOLEMEAL BREAD 1. Abbott's Village Bakery 2. Helga's Continental Bakehouse 3. Wonder White 4. Woolworths 5. Coles MULTIGRAIN BREAD 1. Helga's Continental Bakehouse 2. Abbott's Village Bakery 3. Woolworths 4. Coles Advertisement

WHITE BREAD

More than 800 consumers voted for their favourite brands of white bread, with Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90) and Tip Top ($3.40) both tied for first place.

The two popular brands both earned five stars for taste, texture and overall satisfaction. Tip Top received a perfect score for freshness while Helga's Continental Bakehouse was rated best for having a variety.

Supermarket-own label Woolworths ($1.70) and Wonder White ($3.40) followed closely behind on four stars, while Coles ($1.75) rounded up the scores on three stars overall.

Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90) and Tip Top ($3.40) both tied for first place

Supermarket-own label Woolworths ($1.70) and Wonder White ($3.40) followed closely behind on four stars, while Coles ($1.75) rounded up the scores on three stars overall

WHOLEMEAL BREAD

More than 400 shoppers shared their verdict on their favourite brands of wholemeal bread, with Abbott's Village Bakery ($3.80) taking out the number one spot.

The brand earned five stars for taste, freshness, texture, variety and overall satisfaction while it landed on three stars for value for money.

Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90) came second after earning five star ratings for texture and variety, while it received a creditable four stars for taste, freshness, value for money and overall satisfaction.

Abbott's Village Bakery ($3.80) took out the number one spot, followed by Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90)

Wonder White ($3.40) followed closely behind after achieving perfect scores for taste and freshness. While supermarket-own Woolworths ($1.70) and Coles ($1.75) rounded up the top five in the wholemeal bread category

Wonder White ($3.40) followed closely behind after achieving perfect scores for taste and freshness.

While supermarket-own Woolworths ($1.70) and Coles ($1.75) rounded up the top five in the wholemeal bread category.

MULTIGRAIN BREAD

More than 440 customers revealed the multigrain breads they always buy.

Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90) topped the annual multigrain bread ratings for a second year in a row, with five stars for taste, texture, freshness, variety and overall satisfaction while it landed on three stars for value for money.

Helga's Continental Bakehouse ($3.90) topped the annual multigrain bread ratings for a second year in a row, followed by Abbott's Village Bakery ($3.80)

In third place, Woolworths ($1.70) landed on a respectable four stars, while Coles ($1.75) scored the only five-star rating for value for money

Abbott's Village Bakery ($3.80) came second after scoring five stars for taste and texture and four stars on overall satisfaction.

In third place, Woolworths ($1.70) landed on a respectable four stars for taste, texture, freshness, value for money and overall satisfaction.

While Coles ($1.75) scored the only five-star rating for value for money.
Mummy blogger Constance Hall has shared her online shopping fail after a risque crop top she purchased didn't quite match her expectations.

The 37-year-old, from Perth, had even gone to the effort of ordering a larger size in the hope the lace detailing would flash just a hint of her chest.

But after trying on the racy black top, she ended up with an ill-fitting look that was far more revealing than the one she had ordered online.

'When you size up... Just in case... The old four boob reads her four heads,' Constance wrote in an amusing post on her Facebook group.

The mum accompanied her post with side-by-side pictures showing the top on a model verses what it actually looks like in reality.

Mummy blogger Constance Hall (bottom) has shared her amusing online shopping fail after a risque crop top she purchased didn't quite match her expectations (top of the model)

The 37-year-old, from Perth, had even gone to the effort of ordering a larger size in the hope the lace detailing would flash just a hint of her chest

Poll Have you experienced an online shopping fail? Yes No Have you experienced an online shopping fail? Yes 36 votes

No 11 votes Now share your opinion





Thousands of mums responded to her amusing pictures, with many labelling her unfortunate fashion fail the most 'relatable' content of the year.

'This is the story of my life,' one woman wrote, while another said: 'This is so relatable. Thank you for being real.'

'Can totally relate,' one admitted, while another said: 'Literally me, every time I buy a new top.'

While one woman added: 'This has just really made me laugh, my boobs are massive and I get this all the time.'

Meanwhile many shoppers revealed why they never buy any clothing online.

'This is why I absolutely hate, loathe, cringe at and avoid at all costs, clothes shopping, especially if I can't try it on first... A huge thumbs up for you ladies brave enough,' one mum said.

While another wrote: 'Oh my god, this always happens to me all the time that's why I don't really buy online.'

Earlier this year, Constance tried on the fluorescent pink crop top and tight high-waisted pants but quickly realised the outfit was different to what she had ordered

And it isn't the first time Constance experienced an online shopping fail.

Earlier this year, she tried on the fluorescent pink crop top and tight high-waisted pants but quickly realised the outfit was different to what she had ordered.

'Get the high waisted, you can't go wrong with high waisted,' she wrote in her Facebook post which has since been 'liked' more than 5,200 times.

'Well... I think I might have gone wrong. The only positive of this online fail is the brilliant excuse to again postpone actually being active.'

Many of her fans quickly pointed out her activewear was not the same outfit as photographed on the model, with some suggesting the material on Constance's version appears to be a 'cheap knock off'.

'The top is a poor cut (too low under the arms) and the material of the bottoms isn't thick enough - needs to be thick with lots of stretch,' one wrote.

Another said: 'Doesn't even look like the same outfit. The material and quality is c***,' while one added: '[The outfit] looks inside out.'

Some shoppers revealed they also experienced a shopping fail after they purchased a similar activewear set in a different colour.

'I got a pair of these online in green and just ended up looking like a bullfrog,' one woman said.

However, others said they couldn't see the 'fail'.

'Con's photo just shows what it looks like on a real woman without being Photoshopped,' one suggested, while another added: 'I don't see the fail here, they look great.'

Meanwhile, many joked they were 'more worried' about Constance suffering a 'nip slip' in that top.

'I'm more concerned that you might have a nip slip if you get some movement happening! Those boobies need some more support,' one said, while another added: 'If I was active wearing that top, my breasts would escape.'
A woman who was imprisoned in a box, raped, and tortured for seven years is giving a firsthand account of how she escaped the sadistic man who kidnapped her in 1977 and kept her as a sex slave.

Colleen Stan, 64, shares her shocking story in the Oxygen network's upcoming two-hour television special 'Snapped Notorious: The Girl in the Box,' which premieres on Saturday, July 17.

The kidnapping survivor became known as 'the girl in the box' after it was revealed that she was forced into a coffin-like structure for 23 hours a day during much of her captivity.

'I don't know how to explain what total darkness does to a human soul,' she says in the trailer for the new special.

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Nightmare: Colleen Stan, 64, shares her shocking kidnapping story in the Oxygen network's upcoming two-hour television special 'Snapped Notorious: The Girl in the Box'

Looking back: Stan was 20 when she got into Cameron and Janice Hookers car near her home in Eugene, Oregon, while hitchhiking to her friends birthday party in May 1977

Stan was just 20 years old when she got into Cameron and Janice Hookers car while hitchhiking to her friends birthday party from her home in Eugene, Oregon, on May 19, 1977.

She had hitchhiked before and let two cars pass before accepting a ride from the Hookers because they were a couple with a baby and seemed like the safe option.

Terrifying: Hooker (pictured) bound and gagged her and placed a wooden box over the head before taking her to his home about 30 miles away in Red Bluff, California

But around half an hour after getting into the car, Hooker pulled onto a dirt road and put a knife to Stans throat before he bound and gagged her and placed a wooden box over the head.

Hours later, she was trapped in the basement of Hooker's home 30 miles away in Red Bluff, California, where he stripped off her clothes and suspended her naked by her wrists.

That was the start of the seven torturous years she spent as his captive.

'He said, "Go ahead and scream, I'll cut your vocal cords,' she recalls in the preview clip for 'Snapped Notorious: The Girl in the Box.'

Stan was starved, whipped, and burned by Hooker, a 23-year-old lumber mill worker. He would tie her to the ceiling by her wrists or leave her for days with a 20-pound hinged wooden box around her head, blocking the outside world.

At other times she would be forced into a wooden box that was stored under the bed that Hooker shared with his wife Janice and kept there for 23 hours a day. He built torture devices for Stan, including a stretcher that caused permanent damage to her back and one of her shoulders.

Inhumane: Hooker raped and tortured Stan during the seven years he held her captive, often keeping her in a coffin-like box (pictured) under his marital bed for 23 hours a day

She was also forced to sign a 'slave contract' stating she had to do anything Hooker wanted, from sex to the more mundane such as household chores or looking after his children.

In 1978, Janice gave birth to a second baby on the water bed above Stan.

Stan told People in 2016 that focused on the happy memories she had with her family and friends to try to keep sane.

'I learned I could go anywhere in my mind,' she said. 'You just remove yourself from the real situation going on and you go somewhere else. You go somewhere pleasant, around people you love. Whatever makes you happy.'

Hooker had convinced Stan that if she ever ran away a powerful organization known as 'The Company' would find her and would hurt her family.

To avoid painful punishments, she said she tried to be a good slave and because of that, she was allowed out to jog, work in the yard, and care for the Hooker children alone in the mobile home.

Indescribable: 'I don't know how to explain what total darkness does to a human soul,' Stan says in the trailer for the new special

Free: Hooker's wife Janice helped Stan escape in 1984, and he was handed a 104-year sentence for her kidnap, torture, and rape

Even with an open door, neighbors, and a telephone, Stan made no attempt to escape; she said that her fear of The Company kept her from seeking help.

For years, neighbors believed she was just the family's helper.

In 1981 she was even allowed to visit her family alone, but then she returned to Hooker, proving the extent to which she was under his control. Three years later, he gave her permission to take a job as a maid at a local hotel.

The turning point came in 1984 when Hooker told his wife Janice that he wanted to make Stan his second wife and bring in more female slaves.

She told Stan that Hooker wasn't part of The Company and helped her to escape. Stan called Hooker from the bus stop and told him she was leaving him. He was said to have burst into tears.

Despite escaping his clutches she continued to call him and refused to report him to the police. She said she wanted to give him the chance to reform.

Torture devices: Red Bluff Police Department Lt. Jerry Brown is pictured showing the head restraining devices found in Hooker's home in 1984

Justice: Hooker was denied parole in 2015 and told he wouldn't get another hearing for at least 15 years. Stan said she was 'pleased with the results' at the time

Once back home, Stan went to school for an accounting degree, married, and had a daughter. She also joined an organization to help abused women.

It was his wife Janice who finally went to the police and agreed to testify against him in exchange for immunity. Hooker, now 67, was handed a 104-year sentence in 1985 for the kidnap, torture, and rape of Stan.

Superior Court Judge Clarence B. Knight called Hooker 'the most dangerous psychopath I have ever encountered,' the Los Angeles Times reported following his sentencing.

Hooker, who is incarcerated in the California State Prison in Corcoran, was denied parole in 2015 and told he wouldn't get another hearing for at least 15 years.

'The hearing went really well, and I'm really pleased with the results,' Stan told KXTV after Hooker's request for parole was refused.

'He didn't show any remorse. Basically he's wasted his life, 30 years in prison and hasn't done anything to try to improve himself or change himself or figure out why he did this.'
Meghan Markle is close to her 'free-spirited' mother and her 'thoughtful, inspiring' father. The actress has written lovingly of her relationship with both.

But it is the star's extended family who have hit the headlines - with one commentator describing them as a 'motley collection of individuals who, between them, have a long record of boozing, bust-ups and bankruptcies'.

From a gun crime arrest to a Twitter rant accusing the Suits actress of hypocrisy, Markle's step-relations have already proved controversial so far.

Here's a look at Prince Harry's in-laws:

Doria Ragland joined her daughter and Harry to watch the Invictus Games closing ceremony in Toronto in September

:: MOTHER: Doria Ragland

Miss Markle has described her mother as a 'free-spirited clinical therapist'.

Writing on her lifestyle blog, she told how her mother took her to visit the slums of Jamaica and to see poverty in Mexico when she was just 10.

'My mother raised me to be a global citizen, with eyes open to sometimes harsh realities,' Miss Markle revealed.

Ms Ragland, who is African-American, met Miss Markle's father, Thomas Markle, on the set of the US soap General Hospital, where he worked as a lighting director when she was a temp in the studio.

'I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques,' Miss Markle wrote.

They divorced when Miss Markle was six. Although she lived with her mother in Los Angeles, Miss Markle also spent a great deal of time with her father.

Ms Ragland has worked at a day centre for adults with memory loss and as a yoga therapist.

Ms Ragland, who filed for bankruptcy in 2002, has kept her daughter's counsel despite the press interest.

She was mentioned in the Kensington Palace statement which attacked the media over its treatment of Markle, saying that her mother was 'having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door'.

Ms Ragland also joined her daughter and Harry to watch the Invictus Games closing ceremony in Toronto in September.

Miss Markle is Thomas Markle's child from his second marriage to Doria Ragland

:: FATHER: Thomas Wayne Markle

Thomas Markle is a former TV lighting director who worked on shows such as hit sitcom Married... with Children and popular US drama General Hospital.

He won two Emmys for his team's work on General Hospital and was nominated for countless others.

Miss Markle is his only child from his second marriage to Doria Ragland. He has two older children from his first marriage to Roslyn Markle.

He lives a quiet life in Mexico and filed for bankruptcy in 2016 after reports he failed to pay his debts.

Miss Markle is close to her father, who is of English and German descent, and has described him as hardworking and caring and believing in her 'grand dream' of becoming an actress.

She has paid tribute to 'the blood, sweat and tears this man (who came from so little in a small town of Pennsylvania, where Christmas stockings were filled with oranges, and dinners were potatoes and spam) invested in my future so that I could grow up to have so much'.

She added: 'It's safe to say I have always been a daddy's girl - he taught me how to fish, to appreciate Busby Berkeley films, write thank you notes, and spend my weekends in Little Tokyo eating chicken teriyaki with vegetable tempura.'

She recalled how one Christmas he created a Barbie family for her when they were only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls

Her new collection of dolls had 'a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each color. My dad had taken the sets apart and customized my family'.

When Markle was confronted with a tick box form to fill in at school about her ethnicity and found she did not fit in to just one category, she revealed: 'My dad said words that will stay with me forever: 'Draw your own box'.'

Samantha Grant is Miss Markle's half sister from her father's first marriage

:: HALF SISTER: Samantha Grant

Samantha Grant - also known as Samantha Markle - describes herself as a writer, a mental health counsellor and a 'blabbermouth'.

She is Miss Markle's half sister from her father's first marriage. A one-time actress and model, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008 and uses a wheelchair.

Based in Florida, she is 17 years older than Markle and sells jewellery to raise money to fund the feature films she writes.

Twice-divorced, she has three children - Ashleigh, Christopher and Noelle.

Like her father, she once filed for bankruptcy and is estranged from her mother Roslyn - Thomas Markle's first wife - and brother Thomas Jr.

Ms Grant has been an outspoken critic of Miss Markle since news of her relationship with Harry broke, describing her in interviews as a 'shallow social climber' and claiming she shunned her since making it in Hollywood.

'The royal family would be appalled by what she's done to her own family,' she said, before complaining that she was 'still waiting' for her wedding invite.

She said Meghan had barely spoken to her she was diagnosed with MS nearly a decade ago, but later maintained she never made the critical comments of her half sibling.

Ms Grant claimed she raised Miss Markle for 12 years while she was growing up in California but her ex-husband, Scott Rasmussen, disputed this.

While she has described Markle as 'very beautiful and conservative, very real, very giving', she has also attacked her on Twitter for her lifestyle website The Tig, which Markle has since closed down.

'There is so much more to focus on in the world than shoes and handbags,' she said, accusing Miss Markle of 'hypocrisy' for presenting herself as a humanitarian activist.

When Markle wrote an article for Time magazine about period poverty across the world for International Women's Day, Ms Grant retorted: 'But what did she donate to them to make real change come about? Money for toilets, maxi pads, or just a photo op?'

As rumours Harry was engaged to Markle mounted, Ms Grant, in a television interview with Good Morning Britain, denied there was a rift between her and the actress, describing her as 'absolutely lovely', 'very strong', very graceful' - and also 'very lively'.

She insisted she was not writing a 'slamming tell-all' book, but confirmed the work was called The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister.

Thomas Markle Junior, 50, has been bankrupt once and divorced twice

:: HALF BROTHER: Thomas Markle Junior

Thomas Markle Junior, 50, has been bankrupt once, divorced twice and faced trial on gun charges before the case was dropped.

The father-of-two lives in Grants Pass, Oregon, and works as a window fitter.

He was arrested in January 2017 for allegedly holding a gun to his girlfriend Darlene Blount's head during a drunken argument.

Charged with unlawful use of a dangerous weapon and menacing domestic violence, he faced jailed for up to five years if convicted. The charges were later dismissed. He apologised for his actions and said he was seeking help for his drinking problems.

Mr Markle Jr is not thought to be in contact with his famous half-sister but has given interviews about her and shared family photos with the media.

He claimed Harry had met his girlfriend's father Thomas, but older sister Samantha denied this, tweeting: 'My father hates Tom Jr. And will not talk with him. The articles are B.S. My dad has NOT met Harry.'

Thomas has two sons, Tyler and Thomas Markle III, with his ex-wife, florist Tracy Dooley, whom he divorced in 2001. His second marriage, to Iohannes Rawha, ended in 2009.

Rosyln Markle has been complimentary about Miss Markle

:: FATHER'S FIRST WIFE - Roslyn Markle

Rosyln Markle is Thomas Markle's first wife and mother to Samantha Grant and Thomas Jr

Roslyn has said of her estranged daughter: 'Everything she has said about Meghan is a lie.'

The 71-year-old lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has been complimentary about Miss Markle.

'Meghan is very pretty, very nice, very polished and very classy. I never hear anything but good about her from my son Thomas (Jr),' she said.

She also has a younger son, Bobby Lucero.
Lauren's wife wants to slow things down and wait for the right time

Mother Lisa, 53, helps her daughter Lauren, 27, in her quest to get pregnant

A mother goes above and beyond for her daughter by helping her with artificial insemination in sMothered.

In tonight's episode of the discovery+ show, 53-year-old mother Lisa goes above and beyond to help her daughter Lauren, 27, in her quest to get pregnant - by assisting in her at-home artificial insemination.

But for Lauren and her wife Laura Leigh, getting pregnant is a bone of contention: while Lauren is desperate to start a family, Laura Leigh wants to slow things down and wait for the right time.

Over a tense family dinner, things come a head for an emotional Lauren.

'Well, currently it has been pretty stressful. It's not working out between us two, we're going to think differently,' Laura Leigh says. 'Taking a break is probably for the best right now.'

In tonight's episode of the discovery+ show, 53-year-old mother Lisa goes above and beyond to help her daughter Lauren, 27, in her quest to get pregnant - by assisting in her at-home artificial insemination (pictured)

Lauren says that her wife Laura Leigh doesn't know about her plans to inseminate with her mother. Pictured, Lauren and mother Lisa

In classic father-in-law style, Lauren's dad Kenny tries to break the tension, playfully quipping: 'So what, are you saying that you have a low sperm count?'

But Kenny's sense of humor does little to calm an upset Lauren.

'I think it's emotionally draining for the both of us each month, getting really excited about the possibility, and then when it comes out to be negative it's just hard to take,' she says, holding back to the tears. 'I just feel like I have wanted a baby for so long.'

But little does Laura Leigh know that, with Lisa's help, Lauren is taking matters into her own hands.

'Laura Leigh doesn't know about my plans to inseminate with my mom because I just don't think that she will ever understand,' she says. 'At this point, I really feel desperate to start our family.'

The next morning, Lauren and Lisa put their plan into action. 'My momma is so ready for me to be pregnant, I mean we talk about it all the time,' Lauren says, as Lisa lays out the equipment needed to facilitate Lauren's artificial insemination.

While Lauren is desperate to start a family, Laura Leigh wants to slow things down and wait for the right time (pictured)

With everything set up, Lisa collects the 'specimen' from the cooling tank (pictured)

Despite making her mind up to go through with the procedure with her mother's assistance, Lauren knows the risks involved by keeping her wife in the dark.

'I definitely think that she [Laura Leigh] would have an issue knowing that it's my mother doing this,' she says. 'I understand that it's a bigger secret to keep from her, but I just want to give this a try, I just want to see; maybe my mother is the missing piece.'

While many mothers would take a back seat with such hands-on mother-daughter activities, Lisa feels privileged to be involved in helping her daughter fulfill her dream of becoming a mother. 'I'm excited that I'm able to share this experience with Lauren, something most mothers don't get to do,' she says.

With everything set up, Lisa collects the 'specimen' from the cooling tank.

'Okay, here's the baby juice,' she jokes, much to Lauren's embarrassment. 'Oh my God, don't call it juice!' she screams.

As the pair prepare to get things going, Lauren voices some last-minute nerves.

'If Laura Leigh were to know that we were doing this or walk in or know what was going on, she would flip out!' she explains. 'She already thinks we're too close.'

Laura Leigh doesn't know that with Lisa's help, Lauren (pictured) is taking matters into her own hands

Over a tense family dinner, things come a head for an emotional Lauren. Pictured, the couple together

Laid down on the bed, Lauren prepares herself  physically and mentally  for her mother to artificially inseminate her.

'Alright, keep still,' Lisa says.

Despite the close bond the two share, neither of them know where to look as the procedure begins to take place.

'I want to make sure we get it all in there,' Lisa says, trying to fill awkward silence. 'Don't be stressed, you've got to think happy baby thoughts,' Lisa continues. 'Okay, I'm about to squirt in the baby juice.'

Thankfully, the procedure is over with quickly. But, if that wasn't weird enough, Lisa leans into Lauren's belly and whispers 'swim fast little swimmers,' in a last-minute attempt to egg the sperm on.

'I think that our bond is stronger than the bond I share with Laura Leigh,' Lauren reflects. 'I love Laura Leigh to death but it's just not the same type of bond.'

Now, all that's left for Lauren to do is wait and contemplate motherhood - and let her wife know!

Meanwhile, in Alabama, 44-year-old Karla prepares to meet her son Rasheed's girlfriend of nine months, Chelsea, for the first time by inviting her over for dinner.

But with the help of her daughter Rykia, 26, Karla crosses the line when she quizzes her young son and his girlfriend all about the intimate details of their sex life!

The brand-new series of sMothered is available to stream now exclusively on discovery+, with new episodes dropping weekly
The Countess of Wessex donned casual footwear as she attended The Royal Windsor Horse Show today, held on the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Her Majesty's daughter-in-law Sophie, 56, attended the second day of the annual equestrian event dressed in a floor-length mint green pleated skirt and a navy blazer.

She swapped her usual heels for a pair of sensible, white trainers as she strolled through the grounds across the grass and chatted with other attendees.

The mother-of-two completed her ensemble with a pair of black sunglasses perched on her head and wore her blonde hair straight down over her shoulders with some two-stone stud earrings.

The natural beauty kept her makeup minimal, completing her look with a light pink lipstick, and a lick of mascara.

A day at the horse show! The Countess of Wessex, 56, donned casual footwear as she attended The Royal Windsor Horse Show today, held on the grounds of Windsor Castle today

Bottoms up! Sophie tried some liqueur at the Oxton Liqueur Company stall, which was exhibiting at the show

The Countess of Wessex donned casual footwear as she attended The Royal Windsor Horse Show today, held on the grounds of Windsor Castle

Walking along the show's stall, Sophie took a gander of all the businesses exhibiting at the show today.

As the sun shone on Windsor, she took her jacket off to reveal a casual white tee with a black pocket.

She stopped to try some liqueur at The Oxton Liqueur Company stall.

She also treated herself to a hat from milliner Hayfield England, donning a navy blue accessories adorned with a leather band, leather brooch and brown and blue feathers.

Hats off! The Countess seemed to be wearing a navy blue fedora hat from milliner Hayfield England, who were exhibiting at the Windsor event

Wearing sneakers with her blue jacket resting on her arm, the royal seemed perfectly relaxed during the show

Meanwhile, the Queen returned from Scotland to attend the horse show, which is thought to be one of her favourite events of the year, after joining her daughter Princess Anne, 70, at the University of Edinburgh earlier today.

The 95-year-old monarch is a regular fixture at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which is now in its 77th year and attracts well-heeled visitors from all over the world.

Her Majesty is is believed to have attended every single year since it began as a wartime fundraising event back in 1943.

She arrived to the event with a beaming smile on her face as she donned her signature colour-block style, and paired black, loafer shoes with a knee length turquoise coat.

The Queen returned from her royal visit to Scotland to attend the horse show, which is thought to be one of her favourite events of the year

She arrived to the event with a beaming smile on her face as she donned her signature colour-block style and paired black, loafer shoes with a knee length turquoise coat

Her Majesty was pictured behind the wheel as she drove into the Royal Windsor Horse Show in Windsor

What shall I drink? At the Oxton Liqueur Company stall, Sophie had a browse through the drinks selection

Beaming! Wearing her hat and casual t-shirt, the Queen's daughter-in-law seemed to be enjoying her time at the horse show today

Last year the show was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and went online instead.

The event was first cancelled in 2001 due to foot and mouth disease, while one day of the show was previously cancelled in May 2016 due to flooding.

The Royal Windsor Horse Show continues tomorrow until its final event on Sunday, July 4.

The Countess arrived this morning wearing a pair of sunglasses, a stylish navy jacket and a long floor-length mint green pleated skirt

Her Majesty's daughter-in-law Sophie, 56, attended the second day of the annual equestrian event dressed in a floor-length mint green pleated skirt and a navy blazer

She swapped her usual heels for a pair of sensible, white trainers as she strolled through the grounds across the grass and chatted with other attendees

The mother-of-two completed her ensemble with a pair of black sunglasses perched on her head and wore her blonde hair straight down over her shoulders with some stud earrings

The natural beauty kept her makeup minimal, completing her look with a light pink lipstick, and a lick of mascara

Meanwhile, her mother-in-law, the Queen arrived to the horse show later in the day as she wrapped up her royal visit to Scotland

Sophie's glowing complexion was complimented with a dash of natural makeup, and mascara on the eyes

This morning, the Countess of Wessex put her sunglasses on to take a look at the shopping area, where businesses advertise their products at the horse show
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Queen Letizia's sense of style is without comparison, but today, it was her daughters who stole the limelight during an event in Barcelona.

The Spanish royal, 48, was joined by husband King Felipe VI, 53, and their daughters as they posed with the previous winners of the Princess Girona Foundation awards in Catalonia today.

Wearing a Carolina Herrera navy blue denim dress she first debuted back in April 2019 during a trip to Mozambique, the royal showcased her slender frame.

Leonor, 15, and Sofia, 14, sported blue dresses just like their mother in keeping with the theme.

Future Queen of Spain, Leonor, who is the Foundation's honourary president, will present prizes to this year's winners during the award ceremony.

The Spanish royal family attended the Princess Girona Foundation awards in Barcelona today. Pictured left to right: Princess Leonor, 15, King Felipe VI of Spain, 53, Queen Letizia, 48 and Princess Sofia, 14

The princesses sported stylish numbers for the event. Princess Leonor, left, wore a floral blue dress and a straight blow-dry, while Princess Sofia opted for a light blue frock with a trendy top bun hairstyle

Letizia's favourite 640 dress featured a flattering belt detail around her midriff and a small collar.

She let her outfit do the talking and kept her accessories to a minimum, while pairing her dress with some tan swede heels.

The mother-of-two wore her dark locks in sleek lines and kept herself safe from the coronavirus with a white mask.

She was wearing her signature smokey eye and some bronzer complimented her natural glow.

The Spanish royal family made their way to the event accompanied by the previous recipients of the awards, who were almost all sporting blue, pictured

King Felipe, meanwhile, looked typically dapper in a light suit jacket which he paired with some grey suit trousers and a blue shirt.

The Spanish princesses also put on a stylish display for the official event.

Heir to the Spanish throne Princess Leonor followed in her fashionable mother's footsteps and sported a blue dreds with a floral number from Mango with chic puffy sleeves.

Leonor, who has started wearing heels to official functions in recent months, decided to pair her dress with flat black ballerina shoes today.

Her younger sister Sofia wore a light blue dress from Springfield to keep with the theme and pulled her blond locks into a top knot, while the rest of her mane was styled straight.

She was wearing nude sling back sandals from Carolina Herrera.

While Queen Letizia donned a dark blue denim dress from Carolina Herrera she first wore in 2019, her youngest daughter opted for a light blue number and nude sandals from Carolina Herrera

Letizia let her dress do the talking and kept her accessories to a minimum today. She paired the denim number with tan suede heels

Princess Leonor, who is taking her place as her father's right-hand woman, is the honourary president of the Foundation, and will be handing out prizes to this year's winners of the Princess of Girona Awards.

The Foundations main objective is to work for young people in all areas that are critical for their future.

It is a private foundation set up in 2009 and backed by 88 trustees, with the honorary chairman being King Felipe VI, on behalf of his daughter Princess Leonor.

It seeks to become a benchmark at national level in supporting young people in their professional and personal development.

It also hopes to identify young people with talent who can act as role models for other young people and launching programmes to improve employability.

Felipe VI looked dapper in a grey suit jacket with dark blue trousers and a blue shirt for the event

Princesses Leonor and Sofia let the attendees to the photocall. This year's award ceremony will take place tomorrow
Melinda Gates once again went without her wedding ring as she met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday - posing for photos with him in the very same spot where she and ex-husband Bill celebrated being awarded the Commander of the Legion of Honour together.

The 56-year-old put on a very stylish display in a powder-blue blazer, white ruffle-collar shirt, and black trousers, and looked in very high spirits as she exchanged kisses with Macron - despite their meeting coming in the wake of fresh allegations that Bill, 65, behaved inappropriately towards female employees during his time at Microsoft.

Melinda and Macron's photocall marks the second time that the mother-of-three has made a public appearance since announcing her divorce from the Microsoft billionaire back in May.

Mother-of-three Melinda met with the French political leader, 43, to discuss the Gender Equality Forum, one day after she spoke at the event in Paris - where she revealed that the Gates Foundation will dedicate $2.1 billion to advancing gender equality over the next five years.

Au revoir! Melinda Gates met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace on Thursday to discuss gender equality, and the two were seen bidding a very fond farewell

Cordial: The mother-of-three shook hands and kissed President Macron on the cheeks as she left the presidential residence, looking chic in a powder-blue blazer and white blouse

Discussions: Although details of their meeting have not been shared, it is understood that they sat down to discuss the Gender Equality Forum, which Melinda spoke at on Wednesday in Paris

Looking back: Melinda, 56, and Macron, 43, posed in the same spot where she stood with ex-husband Bill after they were awarded Honorary Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2017

Message: The women's rights advocate went without her wedding ring, marking the second time she has made a public appearance without it since announcing her divorce in May

Although details of their meeting have not been shared, it is understood that they sat down to further discuss the issues that Melinda raised during her appearance at the forum, where she made a renewed push for women's rights.

Melinda and President Macron appeared incredibly friendly as they said their goodbyes outside of the Elysee Palace, shaking hands and kissing one another on both cheeks.

Just over four years ago, Melinda stood on the same spot alongside her then-husband Bill as the two celebrated being made Honorary Commanders of the Legion of Honour by former President Francois Hollande.

The Order of the Legion of Honour is the highest decoration given out in France, and was presented to the Gates in April 2017 in recognition of their philanthropic efforts.

At the time, Melinda and Bill put appeared very much the happy couple - but just 48 months later, she returned to the same spot as a soon-to-be-divorced woman.

Macron and Melinda's meeting - and her campaign to improve gender equality around the world - comes as her ex-husband Bill was rocked by allegations that he behaved inappropriately towards female employees at Microsoft, which have continued to emerge ever since the couple announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage.

Multiple reports have surfaced claiming that Bill pursued extramarital affairs, while questions have also arisen over his friendship with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

It appears as though Melinda is sending a clear message to her former spouse through her appearances in Paris.

During her trip, the philanthropist's focus has remained on women's rights, and she the $2.1 billion donation that she announced is one of the largest single commitments that that Gates foundation as made in more than two decades.

Melinda has long pushed for gender equality to be a key priority for the Seattle-based foundation, while Microsoft founder Bill has instead prioritized polio eradication and the development of vaccines in recent years.

Onward and upward: Melinda seemed to be in good spirits, despite her ex-husband facing multiple allegations of inappropriate behavior towards female employees at Microsoft

Positive: Both Melinda and Macron wore face masks as they made their way out of the palace

Mwah! The meeting between the pair, seen kissing one another on the cheek, came one day after Melinda pledged to donate $2.1b to advancing gender equality via the Gates Foundation

Major: The hefty donation is one of the largest single commitments that the Gates Foundation has made in more than two decades

Making a point? Melinda has long pushed for gender equality to be a key priority for the foundation, while Bill has been more focused on polio eradication and vaccine development

Speaking at the Gender Equality Forum on Wednesday, Melinda insisted that women 'should not only have a seat at the table' but that they should 'be in every single room where policy and decisions are being made'.

'What I know is that if you lift up women, if we lift up women and make sure they can use the voices they already have in all places of power and they have their full power and influence in the world those women and girls will lift up everybody else,' she told the audience.

'Women should not only have a seat at the table, they should be in every single room where policy and decisions are being made.'

Melinda said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will direct $2.1 billion over the next five years to advancing global gender equality, working out at around $420 million each year.

The pledge includes $1.4 billion for health and family planning, $100 million for helping women get into positions of power in government and the workplace and $650 million to focus on economic empowerment.

In a statement ahead of her appearance at the event, Melinda said 'the world has been fighting for gender equality for decades, but progress has been slow.'

She added that it was time to 'reignite a movement and deliver real change.'

Several donors are expected to make similar pledges and commitments to gender equality at the event.

Bare: Melinda flashed her ring-free finger while removing her face mask after bidding farewell to President Macron

Taking note: She carried a black notebook in her hand, having clearly been jotting things down during the meeting

On the move: The pair were seen exiting the palace together, before Macron flashed a wave at the waiting photographers

Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke at the event via video link as she insisted that the US will 'fight alongside' women who do not have the freedom of speech or the freedom to vote.

The Gates Foundation donates about $5 billion a year to different causes through its philanthropic work but the focus of its future commitments had been unclear following the split of the power couple.

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman told the Wall Street Journal the new spending on gender equality had been approved by both Bill and Melinda.

While Melinda is the 'primary face and voice' of the foundation's gender-equality work, 'Bill is very deeply engaged as well,' he said.

'This is an issue which has been growing and growing in importance for us.'

Gates doubled down on his commitment to the cause in a statement to the Journal.

'Prioritizing gender equality is not only the right thing to do, it is essential to fighting poverty and preventable disease,' he said.

However, the pledge comes as Bill's treatment of and behavior toward women has increasingly fallen under the spotlight since Melinda filed for divorce last month.

Maria Klawe, a former Microsoft board member from 2009 to 2015, told Business Insider this week that diversity was not something Bill 'was interested in hearing about'.

When female executives would suggest initiatives to improve diversity at the company, he would allegedly respond: 'Are you trying to effing destroy the company?'

Debut: On Wednesday, Melinda made her first public appearance since announcing her divorce, appearing at the forum without her wedding ring on

Big spend: Melinda revealed at the Generation Equality Forum that the Gates Foundation will spend $2.1 billion on gender equality over a five year period

A spokesperson for the Microsoft founder told Insider Klawe's allegations are a 'gross mischaracterization.'

The latest allegations come after Bill confessed last month that he had an affair with a female Microsoft worker back in 2000 while he was married to Melinda.

A report from the Wall Street Journal claimed he had an 'inappropriate' sexual relationship with a female staff member in 2000.

Bill was CEO of the company at the time. It is not clear what position or level of seniority the employee was.

The affair stayed a secret until 2019 when the employee wrote a letter to the board detailing what had happened and allegedly asking that Melinda read it.

The company opened an investigation into the claims.

While the investigation was still ongoing in March 2020, Bill shocked the business world by announcing he was resigning from his position on the company board.

The same day Bill stood down from the board of Berkshire Hathaway, run by his friend Warren Buffet.

Last week, Buffet announced he was resigning from the board of the Gates Foundation.

Bill's spokeswoman confirmed he had an affair almost 20 years ago with a staff member and that the relationship ended 'amicably.' She denied the affair was connected in any way to his abrupt departure from the board.

Meanwhile, two female Microsoft employees also claimed he asked them out on dates and was known to have pursued several women at the tech giant during his marriage.

The New York Times reported two separate instances where he asked female employees out on dates.

In one case, he is said to have asked out a Microsoft employee in 2006 after watching her make a presentation.

'If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened,' Gates emailed the employee, according to the Times.

Upset: During their 27-year marriage, Bill and Melinda had three children together, Phoebe (left), Jennifer (center), and Rory (right)

A couple of years later, Bill then asked out an employee with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The pair were in New York for a work trip, when he told her: 'I want to see you. Will you have dinner with me?'

The woman told the Times the approach made her feel uncomfortable, but she laughed it off.

There was no expectation that the women would suffer professional repercussions for spurning his advances, the Times reported.

It's not clear whether Melinda was aware of her husband's advances on other women.

However, she was aware of and unhappy with the handling of sexual harassment allegations against Michael Larson, one of Bill's key lieutenants and the manager of his personal fortune, the report said.

In 2017, a person wrote to Bill and Melinda to complain that Larson was harassing a female staff member at a bicycle shop part-owned by a venture capital firm Rally Capital, owned by the former married couple.

The woman reached a settlement in 2018, signing a non-disclosure agreement and receiving a payout.

Bill's spokeswoman denied Gates ever mistreated employees in a statement to the Times.

However, Melinda was reportedly unhappy with the outcome and ordered an independent investigation.

According to the New York Times, Larson was placed on leave during the investigation but was reinstated and still looks after Gates' vast fortune.

Bill's friendship with billionaire pedophile Epstein has also increasingly come under the spotlight in recent weeks.

The two men's friendship began in 2011, three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.

There is no suggestion that Gates did anything wrong.
Sah D'Simone has little time for what he calls 'zombie zen'. In fact, he uses an expletive to dismiss the solemnity and rigidity that accompanies some mindfulness practices.

Instead, his meditation sessions are filled with what he terms 'ecstatic dance'  energetic, vigorous movements to pop and dance music while repeating mantras internally.

His tunes of choice are Madonna's Like A Prayer and The Cranberries' Zombie and he encourages participants to scream if they want to. 'Primal scream is a big part of the process,' he says.

It might not be a conventional way to meditate, but then, D'Simone is far from a typical spiritual guide; at 14, he was hooked on smoking crack as he struggled to suppress his gay identity, only coming out at 23.

His early 20s were lost in a fog of drink and drugs while he was making his mark in the fashion world. It took him losing his job and contemplating suicide to come to the realisation that he needed to overhaul his life.

The result is an exuberant, energetic experience he calls the Sah Method, which he is bringing to the Balance Holidays Joyful Awakening retreat on the party island of Ibiza in July.

Sah D'Simone, 34, (pictured) who lives in New York, is bringing his Balance Holidays Joyful Awakening retreat to Ibiza this July

With the Balearic island added to the green travel list from the UK on June 30, which means visitors will not have to quarantine and are only required to take a Covid test on day two after their return, the five-day retreat signifies a revival in more ways than one.

And after more than a year of restrictions, D'Simone is keen to get participants to shake it off.

'It's about saying "hell, yes" to your authentic self,' he says. 'We have equated spiritual progress to being zombie zen.

'There is no real variety or flamboyance or joy or sass coming out of it. When we see zombie zen, we assume the person must be really enlightened. I did that myself when I started but I was performing a role.'

It was a playlist he began on Spotify two years ago called Dance Medicine, which quickly drew thousands of followers, that sowed the seeds of his current meditation practice and teaching methods.

He began the playlist as a way of collating German dance music and DJ remixes that brought him joy.

But after seeing the reaction to videos of himself dancing on Instagram, he quickly realised there was more to share than simply how to lose one's inhibitions.

In Ibiza, the island that was a magnet for ravers the world over before the pandemic struck, he has found the perfect base.

Involving dancing and deep breathing techniques, Sah's (pictured) mediation sessions have gained popularity with stars including Kanye West and Deepak Chopra

As well as being a haven for dancers, its quieter spots have long drawn those seeking spiritual fulfilment.

D'Simone says: 'We are going to dance on this retreat because that is where joy lives.

'People usually dance at a bar or club after a couple of drinks. There is nothing wrong with that but if that is the only way that you feel relaxed and uninhibited, something has got to change.

'Dancing without intoxicants, without being drunk or high, means you can experience everything that comes up.

'The premise is feeling the music in such a way that you are moving as you might never have done before. So many of us are walking around with a rigid and restricted posture. This is about letting your inner freak fly.'

His method, which combines dance with deep breathing techniques, meditation and chanting mantras, has found favour with everyone from Kanye West and Deepak Chopra to staff from the United Nations, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Bloomingdales.

Sah (pictured), who was born in southern Brazil, revealed his enlightenment hasn't come easily as he was previously addicted to drink and drugs

He says everyone is self-conscious to begin with but adds: 'Dance is a spiritual process of release.'

Enlightenment hasn't come easily to the 34-year-old. Born in Londrina in southern Brazil to an Italian mother and a Lebanese father, he began experimenting with drugs at the age of 13 as he struggled to suppress his gay identity, only coming out at 23.

The family moved to Florida when he was 16 years old and at 18, he left for Los Angeles, where he partied hard and paid the price.

When he moved to New York to co-found the fashion magazine Bullett in 2010, his lifestyle caught up with him.

The magazine was bought out two years later and he found himself out of a job and floundering.

He became addicted to drink and drugs, he says now, because he felt 'my queerness made me a bad person, a mistake. That orientated my thought and actions so I kept living in a way that perpetuated that narrative.'

His parents were so worried about him, they even took him to a Colombian witch doctor.

In 2014, he embarked on a trip to Dharamshala in northern India, a home of the Dalai Lama. It was the first step on his spiritual journey.

Sah began teaching at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and Maha Rose wellness centre, after having a spiritual experience in India and Nepal. Pictured: Sah's Ibiza retreat

He followed that with a 30-day silent retreat in the mountains surrounding Kathmandu, Nepal. Despite the temptation to give in to his addictions, he persisted in dealing with past traumas and made seven more trips to India as well as immersing himself in Buddhist philosophy and even spending a week meditating in stifling caves.

He says: 'I was ashram and monastery-hopping for two and a half years. Slowly it started to land that this was my purpose. I started to see how much harm I had caused myself and other people.'

When he returned to New York in 2016, he began teaching at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and Maha Rose wellness centre and decided to go sober.

As his reputation has grown in the health and wellbeing sphere, the celebrity clients have followed.

His books 5-Minute Daily Meditations and Spiritually Sassy: 8 Radical Steps to Activate Your Innate Superpowers have become bestsellers.

Sah said explained his spiritual experience is based on research that dance heals and to relieve trauma you have to move the body. Pictured: Sah's Ibiza retreat

And shortly after launching his Dance Medicine playlist, health guru Deepak Chopra invited him to lead a session at his retreat in January 2020.

D'Simone says: 'Deepak came on stage and danced with me. The feedback was so positive that his team asked me to teach every Friday during the pandemic.'

The Sah Method, he says, is about living your life to its most vibrant, vivid potential. 'If a spiritual practice is complicated, run the other way,' he says.

Learning to breathe from the diaphragm, chanting, meditating and dancing, and tapping into those methods every time a painful memory surfaces, can retrain the brain, he adds.

'There is so much research that dance heals and that to relieve trauma you have to move the body,' he says.

At the boutique Oku hotel in Ibiza, where there will be sunrise and evening meditations, workshops and field-to-fork cuisine, there will be plenty of opportunities to Breathe Again and think about Starting Over.

Sah D'Simone is hosting the Balance Holidays Joyful Awakening at Balearic Island Retreat July 7-11 in Ibiza.

Full details are at https://www.balanceholidays.com/joyful-awakening-at-balearic-island-retreat
A woman has detailed how she found out her long-distance boyfriend was allegedly cheating on her after checking her blocked list on Instagram, admitting that she still moved from the US to the UK to be with him before their engagement imploded.

Gabby Marcellus, 25, from New York, shared her shocking story in a series of TikTok videos, explaining in one viral clip that their relationship started to unravel after she learned just how far he would go to keep his infidelities secret.

'I'll never forget the day in 2018 when something told me to check my blocked list on Instagram,' she said. 'What did I find? A random girl. What did we have in common? My boyfriend. Now I didn't block her, so you can guess who did.'

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Say what? Gabby Marcellus, 25, from New York, went viral on TikTok after revealing how she caught her ex-boyfriend 'cheating' by checking her 'blocked list' on Instagram

Busted: Gabby said she discovered he had blocked 'a random girl' on her account, and after hours of fighting, he admitted to cheating on her

'They get sneaky my friends,' she captioned the video, which has been viewed more than 2.1 million times.

Hundreds of people commented on the post, with many asking questions about what happened and how he got her password.

Gabby, who graduated from the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2018, explained in a series of follow-up clips that her British beau had visited her in the US that December, and they spent New Year's Eve together at a bar.

After making her drinks the entire night, he picked a fight with her, claiming she was too drunk and going to lose her phone. He offered to hold on to it for her and later asked for her password, so he could order them a ride home.

Sneaky: Gabby explained that her boyfriend had asked for her cellphone password on New Year's Eve, claiming he wanted to order them a ride

Red flags: Despite everything that happened, she stayed with him, and he proposed in February 2020

'I guess later that night he went onto my phone while I was sleeping, and he went on to my Instagram. He put my Instagram account on private, and he blocked this girl,' she alleged. 'He put my Instagram on private because I was always tagging him in pictures.'

Gabby had noticed that he kept untagging himself in her photos, but when she asked him why, he claimed 'it was an accident.'

She said she had been visiting him in London for six weeks in 2019 when she found out he was planning 'secret trips' with other women. Toward the tail end of her visit, she recalled how her Instagram account was turned to private, which he had denied doing. That made her think to checked her list of blocked followers.

'I look on my Instagram and I go, "Who's this?" I can still see it. He goes wide-eyed and he's like, "She's crazy,"' she said. 'He starts telling me that she's just obsessed with him and is trying to break us up, so in order to protect me and protect him, he had to block her.'

Big mistake: In October 2020, she moved to London to be with him and plan their wedding, spending $10,000 to relocate over seas

Audacity: Just seven days after she arrived, she found out he was messaging another woman, and they got into another fight

They fought all night long, from 10 p.m. until 2 p.m. the next day, when he finally admitted that he had been cheating on her. She threatened to message the girl, but he convinced her not to, insisting it would make her look 'crazy.'

Gabby said she couldn't stay with him anymore, so he called his parents in England and explained the entire situation while sobbing.

'He had to tell mommy and daddy that he cheated on the girlfriend that they love,' she shared, saying she took the train to their home in England and spent the night with them as they comforted her.

Gabby returned to London the next day because she and her ex had tickets to go see Hamilton together. She returned to the US a few days later, but they didn't break up.

'He was begging for another chance, and a year later we got engaged  and he cheated again,' she admitted.

Desperate measures: Gabby warned him that if she ever caught him talking to that woman again, she would leave him

Yikes: Later, when she went through his old cellphone, she learned his conversation with the woman had started three days before she moved and continued after their first argument

After he popped the question in February 2020, she spent $10,000 to move to England to be with him that October, but her time in the UK was short-lived.

'On Halloween I found out he was messaging another girl behind my back, seven days after I had moved there,' she said, claiming he 'flipped out' when she asked to see his messages because he had cheated on her in the past with the same woman.

He accused her of being 'controlling' and 'manipulative,' saying she had no right to see his messages and take away his freedom.

Gabby said they continued to fight, and she warned him that if she ever caught him talking to that woman again, she would leave him.

Just a week later, she went through his old cellphone and learned his conversation with the woman had started three days before she moved and continued after their first argument about him messaging her.

According to Gabby, she called off their engagement on November 30 after weeks of trying to get him to stop talking to the other woman. When she found out he was hiding his phone again, she packed up her bags and went to a hotel.

Over: After weeks of fighting, she flew to New York City to stay with her sister, and she never heard from him again

Moving on: Gabby, who still lives in New York, has turned her TikTok to share her story. On Wednesday, she celebrated the seven-month anniversary of her leaving her fiance

'He slammed the door behind me, and I never spoke to again,' she recalled. 'All the girls he cheated on me with back in 2018, he followed back on Instagram.'

Gabby said she moved to New York City in December and crashed at her sister's apartment while she figured out her life.

'I only had like two suitcases worth of clothes. I didn't have a job. I didn't have a place to live. I didn't have health insurance because I gave all of that up when I moved to England month before,' she said.

Gabby, who still lives in New York, has turned her TikTok account into 'a video diary off healing/living after abuse,' according to her bio. She speaks candidly about her 'traumatic' past relationship and how she is working to move on.

On Wednesday, she celebrated the seven-month anniversary of her leaving her fiance with a video recapping their tumultuous relationship.

'You are worth the love they are incapable of giving,' she captioned the post.
Primark has announced it will introduce a website that allows customers to check their stock availability in stores.

The new function, which is set to debut next year, will save British customers unnecessary trips to the retail store and will allow them to see if the item they've set their eyes on is in stock in the nearest shop.

The news was announced as part of the brand's latest trading update, according to The Sun.

It comes after Primark announced its global revenue surged to 1.6billion after covid-19 regulations were eased.

Primark has announced its British customers will be able to check item availability in stores from the comfort of their own homes, thanks to a website that will be launched in 2022 (pictured, a Primark shop in Birmingham)

Finding the top you saw online in the store can sometimes feel like a seek-and-find puzzle for shoppers, and some will have to try the next nearest store in order to bag their coveted tops, trousers or accessories.

But the new website should make the hunt for that perfect item easier, allowing shoppers to know exactly what is in store and where.

The trading update read: 'The improved functionality of the website will allow us to showcase a much larger proportion of the Primark range and provide to customers range availability by store.

The retail giant is yet to introduce a delivery system. In 2021, after covid-19 regulations were eased, Primark recorded a global 1.6billion in sales (pictured: people queuing to get into a Primark store)

However, while they'll have the option to purchase a Primark gift card, shoppers still will not be able to order online from the retail giant, and will have to come physically to the store to buy.

Currently, Primark's website shows some of the new arrivals at the store, but shoppers have to take their chances heading to the store to find out if they'll still be in stock there.

Primark has hit a record 1.6billion in sales after Covid-19 restrictions were eased with shoppers ditching lockdown leisurewear for new clothes.

Associated British Foods (ABF) - the owner of the high street retailer - revealed the record was reached in the 16 weeks to June 19, 'reflecting an increase in both confidence and willingness to spend by our customers'.

The discount fashion business also saw like-for-like sales rise by three per cent against pre-pandemic levels from the same quarter two years ago.

Primark started the quarter with only one in five stores trading due to pandemic regulations, with all of its stores now reopened.

The group said it was particularly buoyed by 'pent-up demand in the early weeks after reopening' and is expecting trading to steady now restrictions have been significantly eased.
A daughters relationship with her Daddy is a precious thing. But most parents would admit that when it comes to raising a little girl into a strong woman, its Mum who puts in most of the work.

But what happens when Mum isnt on the scene? Recently Lorraine Kelly and her daughter Rosie discussed how the TV presenters long commute from London to Scotland meant her husband Steve provided the majority of the childcare.

However, some dads are left to raise their daughters single-handedly. Here, four tell Samantha Brick how theyve got to grips with raising their daughters alone...

I've had to get used to snide comments

Tutor for disadvantaged children Matthew Grice, 45, lives in Wordsley, West Midlands, with daughter Charlie, 11. Matthew says:

Tutor for disadvantaged children Matthew Grice, 45, lives in Wordsley, West Midlands, with daughter Charlie, 11. He says: 'People are very quick to judge, so we have got used to funny looks and snide comments'

Its been just me and Charlie for eight years now. I met her mum while I was travelling in Thailand, and we moved to the UK when Charlie was nine months old.

One evening, when Charlie was just three, I walked in from work and my wife passed me my daughter and told me she was leaving me for another man. We have never heard from her since.

The early days were especially hard. Both my parents died before Charlie was born, and I dont have any other relatives to help out, so there was no female influence in Charlies life.

As I watched her toddle off on her first day of school, without a care in the world, I broke down in uncontrollable tears. Until then Id been doing this on my own  that was the first day Id handed my daughter over to someone elses care.

Over the years, Ive weathered the joys and challenges of raising a girl at every stage.

I dont think Ill ever forget the two-year period she insisted on giving me makeovers. I spent countless weekends resembling Aunt Sally from Worzel Gummidge with blusher on most of my face.

And choosing clothes has always been complicated. When you walk into a store and there are thousands of items, do you go with what suits her or what she likes?

As shes got older, Ive turned to the internet for every parenting dilemma (if Google didnt exist, I dont know what Id do).

Recently Ive been researching puberty; all the changes that Charlie is going through were as new to me as they were to her. There is not one hat that I dont wear: mum, dad, uncle, auntie, taxi driver, social worker and agony aunt.

The hardest thing about being a single dad is the fact that I am male and my daughter is female. Our society just isnt made for this family combination.

People are very quick to judge, so we have got used to funny looks and snide comments. We were in a shopping centre a few years ago and Charlie was desperate for the loo. She was too old to come into the gents and too young to go to the ladies by herself.

I tried to take her into the disabled loo but I was informed by security that a man and a girl were not allowed in together. So Charlie had to go in the ladies on her own, got locked in the cubicle and the same security staff had to rescue her.

Charlie has never asked about her mum, mainly because I always show her photos and talk about her. I would never stop her from trying to find her mum, just as I wouldnt force her to try and see her. Now she has her best friends mum to talk to about anything that I cant help her with  which has been a blessing.

But though weve struggled at times, the relationship we have now makes me so proud. Charlie is top of her class and developing into such a caring, polite and understanding child. She is simply my greatest ever achievement and in hindsight I wouldnt change a thing. Im so proud to be her dad, there isnt a feeling like it in the world.

I tell Alba Mummy is watching over us

Fundraising manager Ed Smith, 37, lives in Berkshire with daughter Alba, four. Ed says:

Fundraising manager Ed Smith, 37, lives in Berkshire with daughter Alba, four. He says: 'It was unbelievably tough, yet life had to carry on because my amazing little girl needed me  and its a joy to be her dad'

When Alba was six months old, her mum, my wife Anna, was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

In May 2018, aged 18 months, Alba was the most beautiful flower girl at our wedding; ten days later Anna passed.

It was unbelievably tough, yet life had to carry on because my amazing little girl needed me  and its a joy to be her dad.

Every father and daughter relationship evolves differently but ours is more different still. I have had to explain to Alba that Mummy died and what that means. I tell her that every time she sees the moon, she should know that Anna is watching over us.

And she is. Anna loved lists, and left me one to do for Alba. We needed chickens, to get a ginger cat and call it Marmalade and have another dog and call it Indy. Anna also made it very clear she didnt want Alba to have a fringe and wanted her to have long hair. So far weve done it all.

Ive been lucky to have family support, too, with my parents moving closer to us. My mum and Annas stepmum are great female role models for Alba.

But there are still lots of things Ive had to learn myself. For starters, Ive taught myself how to paint nails and tie plaits. I scratch my head most mornings picking outfits that match and look pretty.

When Alba was smaller it was easier to get her dressed  now she has strong opinions about what she wants to wear (her favourite colours are currently pink and purple).

We have teddy bear tea parties, watch Disney films together, and playing hide and seek is her current favourite, which usually means me counting up to 1,000 while she hides directly behind me.

All thats happened has made our bond stronger. And Alba has made things easy for me. I see my friends with their sons who are constantly on the go and I ask them how they cope. They joke about the female teen years. I dread to think about how I will react when Alba is older and brings a boyfriend home.

While sometimes I think it would be nice to have a break, it would be nerve-racking trusting someone else with my little girl.

Obviously I wish things could be different, but we make the most of every day just like Anna did.

There are photos around the house as a constant reminder of one of the last things Anna ever said to me, one of the most important things every dad of a daughter should know: Tell Alba she can do whatever she wants.

I feel I can't offer advice to Mums

Close-up magician, Mark Waddington, 32, lives in Skipton, North Yorkshire with daughter Lizzie, six. Mark says:

Close-up magician, Mark Waddington, 32, lives in Skipton, North Yorkshire with daughter Lizzie, six. He says: 'I do get compliments about how I am raising her, but I get things wrong like anyone'

The paternal instinct is different to the maternal one.

There is a lot that comes naturally to women that Ive had to get my head around since I was awarded full custody of Lizzie three years ago.

But Ive found some dad hacks to help me. Take her hair. I usually put it in a ponytail using the hose of the vacuum cleaner.

The elastic band is already around the attachment, when I switch it on it sucks her hair into a bunch so that I can then loop the elastic band to pop around her hair  it works a treat!

I do get compliments about how I am raising her, but I get things wrong like anyone.

I wouldnt survive without my parents. They live around the corner and when things get challenging they drop everything to help me.

Im happy to play with Lizzie but teddy tea parties and play-doh are my limit  I know where my skill set lies. My mum is the crafting queen, and she and Lizzie love using beads to make necklaces and bracelets together.

Girls have different things to think about than boys, even down to the way they interact with their friends. Its nerve-racking knowing that one day I will have to teach her things that I didnt go through when I was a child. There is a stigma of being a single dad of a daughter.

Not long after it was just the two of us, I took Lizzie to get weighed. The district nurse asked me what it was like raising a toddler, I naively replied its stressful but as a parent I can do this. She opened the door and shouted out to the other mums: This dad thinks its easy. That wasnt what I meant at all.

When I notice mums looking for parenting advice on Facebook, Ill often know the answer, but because theyve asked other mums, I dont feel I can chime in.

People need to acknowledge that dads arent just babysitters, were perfectly good parents if were allowed to be. Raising Lizzie has changed my life. Im lucky that as an entertainer I work weekends, and otherwise I plan my diary around her playdates. Going to the pub isnt a lifestyle thats for me anymore.

Bringing up a daughter on my own is challenging but rewarding. Lizzie is a whirlwind, sassy and opinionated with a beautiful smile and gives fantastic cuddles.

Our relationship has gone from strength to strength over the years. I wouldnt have it any other way.

Mother's Day can be tough

Part-time delivery driver, Steve Thompson, 37, lives in Croydon with Ellie, 12. Steve says:

Part-time delivery driver, Steve Thompson, 37, lives in Croydon with Ellie, 12. He says: 'The first day I took Ellie to senior school I dropped her off and felt anxious while I waited for home time. Luckily, she came out bubbly and smiling with some friends'

I won full custody of Ellie when she was just two and it was tough at the start; I genuinely wasnt sure if I had what it takes to be a full-time solo parent.

At first we lived with my mum, and Ellie used to get upset on the odd night I went out with friends. I had to reassure her I was coming back.

Gradually I got used to getting Ellie ready for nursery and taking her to birthday parties, while getting to grips with clothes sizes, and when Ellie was four we moved into our own home together.

Mothers Day has been tough over the years, I felt for Ellie when her friends were making things for their mums, not least because Ellie doesnt have any contact with hers.

Shes resilient though and instead she would create a card for her Nan. She was like a second mum to Ellie so it was really hard when she passed away in February.

My sister Holly, 22, is a fulltime mum and she has really stepped up and bonded with Ellie, picking up the reigns from mum.

Does Ellie wish she had a mum? She has openly accepted that this is her life, there is the wise saying that you dont miss what you never had and this is the case for Ellie.

Shes had two brilliant female role models in her life who have had a hand in contributing to the woman Ellie will grow to be.

The first day I took Ellie to senior school I dropped her off and felt anxious while I waited for home time. Luckily, she came out bubbly and smiling with some friends.

People can be insensitive. One woman remarked things must have been bad if I got awarded full custody.

While I understood the point she was trying to make, she could have phrased it better.

Its been tough because Ive had to be a dad and mum at the same time, and that can mean being good cop and bad cop while ensuring we have an open relationship.

Ive always been open with Ellie and said she can talk to me if she needs help. Ive even put together an emergency box for her periods, when its required, containing painkillers, a hot water bottle and all the products I thought shed need.

Im anxious about her entering her teen years. Its different, I suspect, to having a son.

Being a man you know what boys can be like. The challenge for me is to loosen the reins, letting her show me she is a responsible young adult.

Being the only parent has made the bond we have stronger than it would have been if her mum were around.

The past ten years have gone by in a flash and I wouldnt change it for anything in the world.
U.S. lawmakers have launched an investigation into the controversial approval process of Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's drug developed by Biogen.

The drug received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 7, making it the first drug approved to fight Alzheimer's since 2003.

Critics doubt its effectiveness after clinicals trials with mixed results, and three members of an advisory panel that near-unanimously voted against the drug ended up resigning in protest.

The investigation was announced by Rep Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep Frank Pallone Jr, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The FDA has since stood by its decision to give the drug approval.

'We have serious concerns about the steep price of Biogen's new Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm and the process that led to its approval despite questions about the drug's clinical benefit,' Maloney and Pallone Jr said in a statement.

Biogen said it will 'of course cooperate with any inquiry we may receive from these committees,' in response to a Reuters request for comment.

The FDA approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm) is under investigation after the drug was greenlighted despite little evidence it works as intended.

Biogen suffered a rocky trial process with aducanumab, with two trials both being cut short after failing to hit goals. They still managed to get approval for their drug, though, as some data showed it could slow cognitive decline by up to 22%

The drug has received criticism on almost all fronts, due to its failed trial process, expensive price tag and the potentially misleading way Biogen gathered its information to submit for approval.

Biogen, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, launched two clinical trials for Aduhelm (aducanumab) in 2016.

Both were stopped midway because researchers concluded that neither trial would end up reaching its goal.

Later, the company revealed updated data from the second study that showed patients had 22 percent decrease in speed of their cognitive decline.

HOW TO DETECT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory, thinking skills and the ability to perform simple tasks. It is the cause of 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. The majority of people with Alzheimer's are age 65 and older More than six million Americans have Alzheimer's. It is unknown what causes Alzheimer's. Those who have the APOE gene are more likely to develop late-onset Alzheimer's. Signs and symptoms: Difficulty remembering newly learned information

Disorientation

Mood and behavioral changes

Suspicion about family, friends and professional caregivers

More serious memory loss

Difficulty with speaking, swallowing and walking Stages of Alzheimer's: Mild Alzheimer's (early-stage) - A person may be able to function independently but is having memory lapses

Moderate Alzheimer's (middle-stage) - Typically the longest stage, the person may confuse words, get frustrated or angry, or have sudden behavioral changes

Severe Alzheimer's disease (late-stage) - In the final stage, individuals lose the ability to respond to their environment, carry on a conversation and, eventually, control movement Advertisement

It also showed that it could remove amyloid beta plaques on the brain that some experts believe can reduce the cognitive decline caused by Alzheimer's.

Because of this, the drug - which has already been used to treat some patients - has received some support from the Alzheimer's community.

Advocates say that while the drug is not perfect, it can help delay the cognitive decline in the more than six million Americans who have Alzheimer's.

The drug getting approval could also be a foothold for future research into developing treatments for the condition.

'This will give us a new biological foothold to build on,' Dr Stephen Salloway, director of neurology and the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital, told The Washington Post.

'To get the best in class, you have to have the first in class.'

The Alzheimer's Association is supportive of the drug as well, hoping that it can provide temporary relief for patients while further drugs are developed.

'We don't think this is the end all or be all,' Harry Johns, president and chief executive of the Alzheimer's Association, told The Post.

'It will take more advances, but it does appear from the science that people, especially at early stages, could be real beneficiaries and that the benefits accumulate over time.'

If it does work as advertised, Aduhelm will be the only drug on the market that is able to slow the cognitive decline related to Alzheimer's.

The FDA has stood by its decision to give the drug approval, saying it is 'reasonably likely' to help patients.

'FDA has heard the voices of many patients afflicted with [Alzheimer's disease] who express a desperate desire for an effective treatment,' Peter Stein, director of the FDA's Office of New Drugs, told the Post.

'In summary, the medical need for new therapies to treat [Alzheimer's disease], especially ones that target the underlying disease pathology, is substantial and urgent.'

Not all are convinced, though.

Some experts doubt that removing the amyloid beta plaques will do much to slow down cognitive decline.

Critics of Aduhelm say that giving the drug approval too early will hurt patients more than it will help, due to the wasted time and resources that may go into delivering a product that does not work.

They also criticize Biogen's data conclusion of the second trial, describing it as finding a conclusion then building the process to get there backwards in order to get the results they wanted.

Three FDA advisory board members, Dr David Knopman of the Mayo Clinic, Dr Aaron Kesselheim of Harvard University and Dr Joel Perlmutter of Washington University St Louis, stepped down earlier this month.

All three were among the opposition in the board's 10-0 vote against approving Aduhelm.

Recommendations from the board are not binding, though, and the FDA is allowed to, and often does, make decisions that go against the board's vote.

Dr David Knopman (pictured) has been one of aducanumab's biggest critics, saying that Biogen's trials of the drug do not show that the drug is effective in combatting Alzheimer's

It is rare that a unanimous decision by the board is ignored, though, and the agency is generally more conservative than experts on the board - which was not the case with Aduhelm.

Knopman authored a study in November which analyzed the results of the clinical trials, and said he disagreed with Biogen's claim that the drug was effective.

Kesselheim had some scathing words about the drug's approval as well.

'[Aduhelm] is probably the worst drug approval decision in recent U.S. history,' Kesselheim wrote in a letter to FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock obtained by Stat News.

'It is clear to me that FDA is not presently capable of adequately integrating the Committee's scientific recommendations into its approval decisions.'

He also criticized the large price point of the drug, which will be sold for $56,000 per year of treatment.

'The worst thing for people with Alzheimer's would be to put out a product that doesn't work,' Kesselheim said.

'It will be sold at an extremely high price and waste resources that could go to other things.'

Dr Aaron Kesselheim (pictured) called the approval of Aducanumab the 'the worst drug approval decision in recent U.S. history'

The drug was projected to have a cost between $10,000 and $20,000.

An analysis published by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that if just 500,000 Medicare recipients are prescribed Aduhelm, it would cost Medicare nearly $29 billion a year, far more than any other medication.

'At this price, the cost of this one drug alone could top all others covered by Medicare, if it is used widely,' said Tricia Neuman, coauthor of the report.

'There's absolutely no way Biogen should be allowed to charge patients $56,000 for the new Alzheimer's drug - costing Medicare up to $29 billion a year. We must take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry,' Bernie Sanders, an independent Vermont senator wrote in a tweet.

Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos defended the large price of Aduhelm on CNBC on June 7.

'[The price] will allow sustainability of continuing to invest in our rich pipeline that goes beyond Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, stroke, neuropathic pain and many more. So, we believe this is a fair price,' he said.
A malaria vaccine that contains live parasites has been found 100 per cent effective when taken alongside 86p antiviral tablets, a small study has found.

Six volunteers given the jab in combination with a course of chloroquine were fully protected against the disease three months later.

This method - know as 'chemoprophylaxis vaccination' - gave immunity against two very different strains of the mosquito-borne parasite.

Experts said the results weer 'unprecendented' and gave hope that it could be used to shield against the five different types of malaria circulating around the world.

Despite over a dozen vaccines being in development for malaria, which kills more than 400,000 people a year globally, there is no approved jab.

The disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of mosquitoes, and is most common in Africa.

Researchers from the the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that a course of chloroquine taken alongside a malaria vaccine developed by US company Sanaria gave six participants protection against different strains of the disease for at least three months. Malaria is transmitted through mosquitoes (pictured)

Chloroquine (left), the drug identified by scientists that could help in the fight against the disease, costs 0.86 for a 500mg dose, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Pictured right: a person getting an injection

What is malaria? Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of mosquitoes - specifically infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. There are five species of parasite that cause malaria in humans, two of which pose the greatest threat. The first - P. falciparum - accounted for the majority of cases in Africa, the South-East Asia Region, Eastern Mediterranean and the the Western Pacific. The second, called P. vivax, is the predominant parasite in the Region of the Americas. Symptoms Malaria is an acute febrile illness, which is generally defined as a fever that subsides by itself in three weeks. In the case of malaria, the fever is accompanied by headache and chills. The symptoms may be mild to begin with, but if not treated within 24 hours, P. falciparum malaria can progress to severe illness, often leading to death. Children with severe malaria frequently develop one or more of the following symptoms: severe anaemia, respiratory distress, or cerebral malaria. Multi-organ failure in adults is also frequent. Who is at risk? In 2019, nearly half of the world's population was at risk of malaria. Most malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, but South-East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific and Americas are also at risk. The groups at highest risk include: infants, children under the age of five, pregnant women and patients with HIV/AIDS, as well as non-immune migrants and mobile populations. Prevention and treatment There are a number of ways to prevent malaria, with 'vector control' - the control of the mosquitoes themselves - being seen as the most effective. The WHO recommends insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying - as being effective against the insects. Antimalarial medicines can also be used to prevent malaria, such as chemoprophylaxis, which suppresses the blood stage of malaria infections, thereby preventing malaria disease. Vaccines There is currently only one vaccine to date that has shown it can significant reduce malaria, and life-threatening severe malaria, in young African children - RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S). It acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria, and is found to prevent approximately 4 in 10 cases. Source: World Health Organization Advertisement

The latest trial, by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), gave the PfSPZ vaccine followed by a course of chloroquine, which was once touted as a potential Covid treatment.

The jab - made by US vaccine developer Sanaria - is made of sporozoites, the viral particles transmitted through the insect's bite.



Participants took 1000mg chloroquine tablets - which kills blood-stage parasites - two days before the jab and a 500mg tablet five days after the injection.

Chloroquine, the drug identified by scientists that could help in the fight against the disease, costs 86p for a 500mg dose, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Three months after the jab, the volunteers were injected with an African strain of malaria - that was the same as the vaccine - or a South American strain, which was a more evolved version of the parasites in the jab.

All six volunteers who took chloroquine alongside the jab were completely protected from malaria, showing that the combination of treatments gives protection for at least three months.

They were compared to a control group of eight volunteers, who were given 50mg of pyrimethamine - a different type of malaria tablet.

This was found to be less effective, with seven of eight volunteers (87.5 per cent) having protection from the African malarian strain and seven out of nine volunteers (77.8 per cent) being protected from the South American strain.

The findings were published yesterday in the journal Nature.

Lead researcher Dr Patrick Duffy, the head of the NIH's malaria immunology and vaccinology lab, said the level of protection given by the chloroquine and jab combination was 'unprecedented for any malaria vaccine in development'.

He added that it was a 'promising approach' for vaccinating travellers and people living in areas where the virus is common.

Professor Martin Grobusch, an expert in tropical medicine at Amsterdam University who was not involved in the study, told the Times: 'These results represent extremely important progress, unanticipated by most malaria experts.

'The finding of 100 per cent protection against variant parasites that are so divergent from the vaccine parasites at three months is unprecedented.

'This vaccine approach should be advanced now as a potential tool to protect travellers to Africa and further developed for the prevention of malaria in African populations.'

A phase two trial of the vaccine is underway in Mali, a country which carries one of the highest burdens of the disease in the world.

The scientists said if their jab is successful there, it could 'help reverse the stalled decline of global malaria'.

Chloroquine received attention last year after the then-US President Donald Trump said there were 'very strong signs' it could treat Covid based on limited anecdotal reports from US doctors and poor studies.

The US teams' findings follow research by Oxford University, which found a vaccine that was 75 per cent effective against malaria.


More than five percent of cancer patients exhibit no immune response to the two-shot COVID-19 vaccine, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that 94 percent of patients developed antibodies after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots, but six percent did not - even four weeks after the second dose.

What's more, participants who used a specific monoclonal antibody treatment within six months of vaccination did not develop antibodies.

The findings build on past research that shows some cancer patients may still be vulnerable to coronavirus after vaccination.

Researchers say the lack of an immune response is troubling because it could mean some cancer patients who are already vulnerable to the virus may be left without means to protect themselves.

A research team has found that 5% of cancer patients developed no antibody response to the COVID-19 vaccine even four weeks after receiving their second shot, leaving them vulnerable to the virus

The research team, from the Mays Cancer Center in San Antonio, Texas, and the University of Geneva in Switzerland, analyzed 131 active cancer patients that had received both shots of a two-dose mRNA vaccine.

Participants had a median age of 63 and 106 had a solid cancer rather than a hematological, or blood based, cancer.

Findings, published in the journal Cancer Cell, showed that seven high risk patients has no COVID-19 antibodies even three to four weeks after receiving their second dose.

This means that coronavirus vaccine may have no effect on the ability of cancer patients' bodies to fight the virus.

'With other vaccines and infections, patients with cancer have been shown not to develop as robust an immune response as the general population,' said Dr Ruben Mesa, senior co-author of the study and executive director of the Mays Cancer Center.

'It made sense, therefore, to hypothesize that certain high-risk groups of patients do not have antibody response to COVID-19 vaccine.'

Researchers also found a trend in types of treatment received.

They looked at patients who received Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody used to treat blood cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Those given the treatment did not develop an antibody response at all while those on chemotherapy developed a more muted response.

'How that relates to protection against COVID-19, we don't know yet,' said corresponding author Dr Dimpy Shah of the Mays Cancer Centr.

The team also found that those with blood-based cancers were less likely to develop an antibody response, and that the responses they developed were often weaker than others.

'Patients with hematological malignancies, such as myeloma and Hodgkin lymphoma, were less likely to respond to vaccination than those with solid tumors,' said Dr Pankil Shah, a co-lead author of the study.

The results match those on an Israeli study from last month, which also found that people with blood based cancers were less likely to develop a strong antibody response to the COVID-19 vaccines.

This study is unique, according to researchers, because it is the first to look at cancer patients after their body has had multiple weeks to develop antibodies.

Researchers still recommend that all cancer patients get vaccinated for COVID-19 no matter what, though they should still continue to take some precautions after vaccination.

Cancer patients, and especially those with a blood based cancer, could be up to 70 percent more likely to die of coronavirus than the average person, making protection from the virus even more important.
Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve their COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 11 and younger by fall.

The vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the FDA in late December 2020 for Americans aged 16 and older and in May 2021 for those aged 12 and older.

Dr Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer, appeared at a virtual symposium on Wednesday held by Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington to discuss details about pediatric vaccine trials.

She said the companies are planning to first ask for approval in kids between ages five and 11, and then for youngsters below age five.

'We are planning for emergency use authorization submission for the older age group, that is the five to 11, in September [or] October of this year, and the younger group to follow soon thereafter,' she said.

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Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE plan to ask for FDA emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine in children under age 12 by fall. Pictured: A mother holds her young child as she is vaccinated in Pfizer's clinical trial in Jefferson, Louisiana, June 2021

Dr Alejandra Gurtman, a Pfizer executive, said at a symposium on Wednesday that the company would apply for approval in kids aged 5-11 by September or October and younger kids soon after (above)

The pediatric trial was launched in March 2021 with the two-shot vaccine being tested in 4,500 participants.

Children have been split into three age groups: ages six months to two years, ages two to five years and ages five to 11.

Kids between ages six months and five years are being given three microgram doses and those between ages five and 11 are being given 10 microgram doses.

For comparison, people above age 12 who receive the vaccine are given 30 microgram doses.

The trial is currently being conducted at 90 centers in the U.S., Finland, Poland and Spain, Gurtman said at the symposium.

In each group, about two-thirds will receive the two doses 21 days apart and the remaining third will be given the placebo.

The team will analyze the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in children and take blood samples to measure antibody levels.

If the FDA approves the vaccine, the trial will be unblinded at the six-month follow-up and kids who received the placebo will be offered the vaccine.

Pfizer is not the only company currently conducting clinical trials in children.

In mid-March, Moderna Inc announced it had dosed the first participants of its study, looking at its vaccine in children ages 6 months to less than 12 years, but does not expect results until early 2022.

Additionally, in the UK, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford are trialing their vaccine in children between ages six and 17.

Children are often the last group to be tested during clinical trials because they are not merely little adults.

Their bodies and immune systems behave differently, meaning they might have different treatment needs.

What's more, children may need different doses or needle sizes depending on their height, weight and age - which is why most children are only vaccinated after safety has been well-documented in the adult population.

In a recent poll, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, parents were asked if they would get their child immunized once a COVID-19 vaccine is authorized and available for their child's age group.

Only about three in 10 parents - 29 percent - of children under 18 said they would get their child vaccinated 'right away.'

The poll also found 15 percent only plan to vaccinate their children if the school requires it and 19 percent said their child will definitely not be getting vaccinated.

What's more, although children can contract COVID-19 and pass the disease on to others, they tend to not get very will

More than four million children have tested positive for the virus as of Thursday, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, but only make up 0.1 percent of all deaths.
Men are more likely to die from COVID-19 or require intensive care than women, even when they are in better health before getting the disease, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Mount Sinai in New York City investigated Covid outcomes for almost 5,000 patients hospitalized during early months of the pandemic.

They found men were 2.1 percentage points more likely to die at the hospital and 6.4 percentage points more likely to require intensive care.

Among women in this patient group, Covid risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure were more common - but women still fared better than men overall.

The team says the findings indicate that more research is needed on the underlying biology leading men to be more at risk of severe Covid - and demonstrates why its important for men to get vaccinated.

Men are more likely to die from Covid or require intensive care, a study of NYC patients shows. Pictured: Clinicians perform a tracheostomy on a patient in a Covid ICU at a hospital in Los Angeles, California

Men had higher rates of severe Covid regardless of age or preexisting conditions

Its well-known among doctors and COVID-19 experts that men face a greater risk of severe disease.

In the U.S., 54 percent of those who died from the virus are men, despite making up 49 percent of the national population, meaning they are overrepresented among Covid-related deaths.

One large study from Lombardy, Italy, published in April 2020, found that 82 percent of Covid patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) were men.

Men may be more likely to be infected by Covid and other infectious diseases - studies have shown that they are less likely to wear face masks, for example.

But that doesnt explain why men are more vulnerable to severe disease if they get infected.

Scientists have hypothesized that preexisting conditions in men may play a role, along with hormonal factors and differences between male and female immune systems.

For the new study, published in Nature Communications Medicine, the team looked at the intersections between a patients sex and other preexisting conditions known to put patients at higher risk.

The Mount Sinai researchers studied the medical records of 4,930 patients hospitalized with Covid in New York City between March and August, 2020.

These patients were all hospitalized in the Mount Sinai system, which includes eight hospitals across the city.

Based on these patients medical records, the researchers affirmed that severe Covid outcomes were more likely in men.

Men were more likely to die in the hospital with 25.2 percent of the male patients in the study died, compared to 23.1 percent of the female patients.

The men who survived their bouts with Covid had longer hospital stays than women at about 6.2 days than 5.7 days.

Men were also more likely to be admitted to the ICU - 26.7 percent of the male patients required intensive care, compared to 20.3 percent of female patients.

Additionally, men were more likely to require a ventilator with 16.4 percent needing the machine, compared to 13.2 percent of female patients.

Based on these differences, the researchers calculated that, if a patient was male, this condition made them more likely to die in the hospital or require intensive care.

Even though men are at higher risk for severe Covid, they have a lower vaccination rate than women in the U.S.

The researchers also identified that men were more likely to come into the hospital with low oxygen levels and low counts of lymphocytes, special white blood cells that are important to the immune system.

Both of those conditions are predictors for severe Covid.

Among the patients in this study, men were younger and less likely to have preexisting conditions but they were still more likely to have worse Covid outcomes.

For those patients who did have preexisting conditions, the conditions made a bigger difference to women, the researchers found.

For example, patients with obesity were more likely to require intensive care - but the difference in outcomes between patients with and without this condition was starker for women.

To back up their findings, the researchers also studied an additional group of 1,645 patients hospitalized in the Mount Sinai system between August 2020 and January 2021.

These patients generally had better Covid outcomes because the healthcare system was more experienced in taking care of Covid patients. But the researchers still found that men were more likely to require intensive care and die in the hospital.

The study suggests that men are more likely to have severe Covid even if theyre healthy when infected.

The researchers say that more studies should look into the relationship between sex and preexisting conditions.

Some conditions, such as chronic liver disease, could not be fully investigated in this study because only a small number of patients had the condition.

This study also not address transgender and nonbinary individuals - little research has been done on whether transgender men, for example, face similar Covid risks to men who were assigned that gender at birth.

Severe Covid risk may be tied to differences between men and women in accessing healthcare, the researchers suggest. Women may be more likely to seek hospital care even if their symptoms are not as severe.

Such a pattern would be in line with mens unwillingness to wear masks - and to get vaccinated. About 66.6 million men are fully vaccinated in the U.S. compared to 75.1 million women.
A grand jury declined to indict Dr Hasan Gokal (pictured) after allegations that he stole doses of the Moderna vaccine by distributing them to friends and family

A Houston doctor accused of stealing nine COVID-19 vaccine doses and administering them to his friends and family will not be charged by a grand jury.

Dr Hasan Gokal, 48, allegedly stole a vial of the Moderna shot while working g at a vaccination site at a suburban Houston park on December 29

He was fired from his job at Harris County Public Health and initially charged with misdemeanor count of theft by a public servant, though the case was quickly dismissed.

Prosecutors attempted to stick charges to him once again, though, and took the case to a grand jury.

But the grand jury declined to bring charges against Gokal on Wednesday.

Gokal was administering vaccines as part of an event in Lyndsay Lyons Park, and, at the end of the event, one vial of vaccine - each of which contains ten to eleven doses - had to be opened for the final person to receive the vaccine.

Once a vial is opened, doses must be quickly used or discarded, they can not return to storage.

Gokal said that he offered the final ten doses to other staff at the event, though they all either declined or had been previously vaccinated.

Not wanting to waste the doses, he began to contact friends and family members in the area to get the shots, and he gave the final available shot to his wife - who was eligible due to a medical condition.

Paul Doyle, Gokal's attorney, criticized the decision by prosecutors to pursue charges, saying Gokal's supervisor had approved his plan for the leftover vaccine doses.

His attorney said Gokal was only trying to save lives by using doses that would have been thrown away.

'There is no other case that I know of in the country where a doctor went above and beyond and was persecuted for it,' Doyle said.

Doyle said hundreds of medical professionals and others had written letters, sent emails and made phone calls in support of Gokal's actions.

One of the people Goal (right) distributed the vaccine to was his wife Maria (right) who has a condition that made her eligible for the vaccine at the time. Maria was among ten people Gokal distributed vaccine doses to after an event to avoid them expiring

'It was my world coming down,' Gokal told the New York Times about the incident in February.

'To have everything collapse on you. God, it was the lowest moment in my life.'

Gokal is an immigrant from Pakistan and earned his medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.

He moved to Texas in 2009 to oversee the emergency department at the hospital after working in Central New York.

In the early days of the pandemic, Gokal lived in a hotel and then moved apartment out of fear of infecting his wife, Maria, 47.

Maria suffers from pulmonary sarcoidosis, a disease in the lungs that leaves Maria winded after doing little activity, and made her among the first Americans eligible for vaccination.

'I was petrified to go home and bring Covid to my wife,' the doctor said.

Gokal described being recruited to be the medical director for Harris County Public Health's Covid-response team in April.

While the job paid less, he said he was thrilled the job would allow him to better protect his wife and limit her exposure to the virus, according to the Times.

During a December 22 conference call, state officials advised Gokal to administer the Moderna vaccine to people who worked in health care or to residents in long-term care facilities and then those who were over 65 or with health conditions who had increased risk of getting coronavirus.

Gokal was promptly fired after reporting the ten doses. The officials explained to Gokal that he had violated protocol, adding that he should have returned the remaining doses or thrown them out, he claims

The doctor claims that on the day of the incident, when the final vial was opened and only one person received a shot from it, he decided to find other people he knew in the community to get vaccinated.

He called a Harris County public official in charge of operations, sharing his plan to give out the remaining 10 doses and was given approval.

When he got home, a woman in her mid-60s with cardiac issues and a woman in her early-70s with a myriad of health problems were waiting outside.

Both were given shots of the vaccine.

The doctor and his wife then drove to a nearby Sugar Land home and immunized four people there.

Those included a man in his late 60s with health issues; the man's 90-something bed-bound mother; his mother-in-law, a woman in her mid-80s with severe dementia; and his wife, a caregiver for her mother.

With six doses down and four to go, the doctor then drove to a housebound woman in her late 70s and gave her the vaccine.

'I didn't know her at all,' he added.

Three people agreed to meet the doctor back at his home, securing the last remaining doses.

One was an acquaintance in her mid-50s who works at a health clinic front desk and the other was a middle-aged woman who he hadn't met but whose child relies on a ventilator.

The third would then inform Gokal that they would no longer be able to get to him in time.

It was approaching midnight and time on the remaining dose was running out.

It was then that the doctor turned to his wife, who was eligible for the vaccine given her condition.

Gokal worked for Harris County Public Health in Houston, Texas, before he was let go because of the incident

'I didn't intend to give this to you, but in a half-hour I'm going to have to dump this down the toilet,' he remembered telling her.

'It's as simple as that.'

Gokal would submit the paperwork on the 10 people he vaccinated the following morning.

The doctor also said that he was rattled when asked why there appeared to be a lack of 'equity' among those he vaccinated. 'Are you suggesting that there were too many Indian names in that group?' Gokal recalled asking the official, who he said confirmed that was the case

He also told his supervisor and colleagues what he had done and why.

The doctor was summoned to appear before his supervisor and human resources director, several days later, asked whether he had administered the doses outside of the scheduled time on December 29.

After explaining that he had, following guidelines, he was promptly fired.

The officials explained to Gokal that he had violated protocol, adding that he should have returned the remaining doses or thrown them out, he claims.

The doctor also said that he was rattled when asked why there appeared to be a lack of 'equity' among those he vaccinated.

'Are you suggesting that there were too many Indian names in that group?' Dr. Gokal recalled asking the official, who he said confirmed that was the case.

Gokal shared that he learned of the charges after reporters gathered at his home following news of them from the Harris County district attorney, Kim Ogg.

'He abused his position to place his friends and family in line in front of people who had gone through the lawful process to be there,' Ogg said in the initial release announcing the charges.

'What he did was illegal and he'll be held accountable under the law.'

Ogg said Gokal ignored protocols intended to ensure that the vaccine was given to front-line workers and people at higher risk for COVID-19 complications instead of being wasted, adding that mishandling the vaccine could lead to the county's government funding being cut.

Franklin Bynum, a criminal court judge in Harris County, chose to initially throw out the case, and 'emphatically' rejected to idea that Gokal worked in a criminal manner.

'In the number of words usually taken to describe an allegation of retail shoplifting, the State attempts, for the first time, to criminalize a doctor's documented administration of vaccine doses during a public health emergency,' Bynum wrote.

'The Court emphatically rejects this attempted imposition of the criminal law on the professional decisions of a physician.'

Prosecutors then chose to pursue a grand jury indictment of Gokal.

'We respect the decision of the grand jury in this and every case. Evidence, not public opinion, is the guiding principle of our work,' the District Attorney's Office said in a statement on the grand jury decision.

Gokal has since reported that it has been hard for him to find another job, as the situation has left him ostracized in the medical community.

He has spent time since volunteering at a medical clinic for the uninsured.

In late December, when the incident occurred, the United States was having trouble distributing vaccines.

Due to a lack of available staff, logistical issues and lack of distribution infrastructure, many eligible for the vaccine were unable to receive a shot.

Some even feared that doses of the vaccines would inevitably go to waste due to a failure to distribute them in time.
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The Biden administration is planning to announce on Thursday that it will send out response teams across the U.S. to help fight against the spread of the Indian 'Delta' variant, a new report claims.

A White House official told CNN that the teams will consist of workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Officials will go into communities where there are low vaccinations rates and a high presence of the variant, a potentially deadly combination.

Response teams will help increase coronavirus testing, providing supplies and treatments like monoclonal antibodies and try to boost vaccinations, the source told CNN.

It comes as the Delta variant continues to spread across the country and has now been detected in every state and Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Delta variant has driven an explosion of coronavirus cases, causing infections to spike by about 68 percent in one week.

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to announce it will send response teams across the U.S. to increase testing, provides supplies such as antibody treatments and boost vaccination rates in a fight against the Delta variant. Pictured: photo, Bobbie Guillette receives a shot of the Pfizer vaccine in Springfield, Missouri, June 22

The Delta variant has now been detected in all 50 states, with South Dakota being the last state to report a case on Tuesday, and makes up 26.1% of infections across the country

Teams will consists of workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will go to U.S. communities with low vaccinations rates (above in dark blue) and a high presence of the Delta variant

Known as B.1.617.2, the Delta variant has been labeled as a 'double mutant' by India's Health Ministry because it carries two mutations: L452R and E484Q.

L452R is the same mutation seen with the California homegrown variant and E484Q is similar to the mutation seen in the Brazilian and South African variants.

Both of the mutations occur on key parts of the virus that allows it to enter and infect human cells.

As of Thursday, the variant makes up 26.1 percent of all new infections in the U.S., according to CDC data.

The Delta strain has now been detected in all 50 states with South Dakota being the last state to report a case, which was confirmed on Tuesday.

The variant (in dark orange) has caused an explosion of cases in the UK and health experts believe it is only a matter of time before the same occurs in the U.S. as the prevalence grows

While only one infection has been detected, officials believe they are many more undetected across the state.

'We are closely following this development and would like to reiterate, to all South Dakotans, the importance of getting tested and vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus,' Kim Malsam-Rysdon, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Health said on Tuesday.

'With easier access to the vaccine and testing, it has never been easier to protect yourself, your family, and our communities.

Dr Anthony Fauci recently warned that the U.S. may soon be divided into 'two Americas' as the disparity grows between vaccinated and unvaccinated regions and the Delta variant continues to spread.

In an appearance on CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday night, the nation's top infectious diseases expert said he is 'very concerned about' seeing the country split in two - one half where the majority of residents are vaccinated against COVID-19 and the other half where they are not immunized, leading to a rise in cases.

'When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among under-vaccinated regions, be that states, cities or counties, you're going to see these individual types of blips,' Fauci said.

'It's almost like it's going to be two Americas.'

A recent report from the CDC found that several U.S. counties in the South and West have been seeing an increase in cases coupled with low immunization rates.

Areas in states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming are reporting between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 people in the last week,

This is much higher than the national average of 21.8 infections per 100,000.

All five states have vaccinated fewer than 35 percent of their total populations, which is lower than the national average of 46.3 percent, CDC data show.

Counties in the South and West, such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Wyoming reported between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 in the last week, compared to the national average of 21.8 cases per 100,000

Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN on Tuesday (pictured) that he is 'very concerned' the U.S. is being divided into 'two Americas,' one where most people are vaccinated one where most are not

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The Biden administration has deployed response teams for vaccines before, but this is the first time it has done so to combat a varinat, the White House official told CNN.

The variant is wreaking havoc in the UK too, where officials recorded more than 20,000 for the fourth day in a row

There were 27,989 infections recorded on Thursday, which is a 68 percent increase from the 16,703 cases recorded seven days ago.

It also represents a 1,200 percent increase from 2,000 cases recorded in late April, when the Delta variant first took hold.

Although deaths remain low, the overall number rose with 22 recorded on Thursday, which is up 4.8 percent from the 21 recorded last Thursday.

Health experts say the spike in infections was inevitable due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, coupled with the easing of lockdown restrictions, Euro 2020 and a boom in staycations.

 Slide me  Only one of 149 local authorities in England -Blackburn with Darwen - saw its Covid cases fall in the week ending June 27, the latest available., with the rest seeing increases

Doctors fear that what is happening in the UK will only occur a month or two later in the U.S.

If half of unvaccinated American adults contract the Delta variant, and the variant causes death at the same rate in the U.S. as it did in England, an estimated 42,000 unvaccinated Americans could die from the variant, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.

In the UK, of the more than 92,000 people who have contracted the Delta variant, 53,822 were unvaccinated, per data from Public Health England

Of the unvaccinated group, 67 people died, a death rate of 0.12 percent.

If just half of unvaccinated American adults - over 35.3 million people - were to contract the virus, and die at the same rate then that would be 42,000 American deaths from the variant, the analysis found.

The death rate could be even higher in America, though, due to decreased access to health services in the states and a generally more unhealthy population.
Rapid antigen coronavirus tests are just as accurate as laboratory tests when used every three days, a new study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) finds.

Both test types caught 98 percent of COVID-19 cases, the researchers found through regularly testing college students and staffers at the University of Illinois.

Antigen tests detect proteins found on the surface of the virus, rather than genetic material, which is what laboratory, or polymerase chain reaction (PCR), tests look for.

PCR tests have traditionally been considered more accurate at identifying cases when a patient is further along in their disease progression.

However, swabs need to be sent to a laboratory and take two to three tests for results to return where as rapid antigen take just 15 minutes to return.

When test frequency goes down to once a week, researchers found antigen tests catch only 80 percent of cases.

The study suggests that antigen tests may be invaluable in schools, workplaces, and other settings during future COVID-19 outbreaks.

Antigen tests are cheaper and produce results quickly - making them perfect for screening programs. Pictured: A woman gets swabbed for an antigen test in Lisbon, Portugal

When used frequently, antigen tests are just as effective as PCR tests, the NIH study found

If people need to get COVID-19 test, PCR tests are the gold standard.

These tests are highly accurate because they look for specific genetic material matching the coronavirus in a sample from someone's mucus or saliva.

However, PCR tests are expensive and may be time consuming.

In the early months of the pandemic, some Americans who got PCR tests had to wait over a week for their results - and even now, wait times may be two days or more.

During that wait, the coronavirus can continue spreading undetected.

As a result, many public health experts promote antigen tests - rapid tests that look for proteins in the surface of the coronavirus.

Antigen tests are cheap, easy to administer, and can be performed in a doctor's office, at school, or even at home - and results may be delivered in under 15 minutes.

Antigen tests come with a downside, though - they are not as accurate as PCR tests.

These tests have a lower sensitivity, meaning that those who get tested with antigen tests are more likely to be false negatives - receiving a negative result even though they're actually infected.

However, past modeling studies have shown that, when antigen tests are used frequently, that repeated use will catch the majority of Covid cases in a community.

The NIH researchers conducted this study, with results published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, at the University of Illinois, which was already using frequent testing to identify cases on campus.

When a student or staff member tested positive this past spring, they became eligible for the NIH study.

Those living in close contact with a person who tested positive - for example, the roommate of a student who got Covid - were also eligible.

In total, 43 students and staffers swabbed themselves for 14 days in a row during the course of their Covid infections.

Antigen tests are more accurate near the start of a patient's Covid infection - when they are most likely to give the virus to someone else

Researchers on-site at the University of Illinois ran both PCR and antigen tests on the samples.

They also sent samples to a lab at Johns Hopkins that did additional analysis, estimating the onset and duration of Covid infectiousness in each participant.

The researchers found that both the PCR and antigen tests were most accurate when patients were at their peak infectiousness or most likely to give the coronavirus to someone else.

As infectiousness faded, the antigen test became less accurate.

This test was less likely to return positive results later in a patient's disease progression, while the PCR test still returned positive results every time.

Experts say that getting a positive result when a patient is most infectious is actually more important than catching their case later - since this earlier result is more likely to stop the patient from infecting others.

The NIH researchers used their results to estimate how accurate PCR and antigen tests would be when they're used regularly.

At shorter intervals - every two or three days - both tests have 98 percent sensitivity, the researchers found. That means both tests will catch 98 percent of all Covid cases in a population.

At longer intervals, the PCR test remains highly accurate - at 98 percent sensitivity - while the antigen test becomes less accurate. At one week intervals, the antigen test sensitivity was only 80 percent.

Antigen tests are most likely to catch cases when used frequently. Pictured: A patient gets swabbed in Portimao, Portugal

This study confirms that antigen tests are extremely useful for regular Covid screening.

'Rapid antigen testing at home, two to three times per week, is a powerful and convenient way for individuals to screen for COVID-19 infection,' said Dr Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), in a statement.

'With schools and businesses reopening, an individual's risk of infection can change from day to day. Serial antigen testing can help people manage this risk and quickly take action to prevent spread of the virus.'

In fact, some universities and businesses are already using antigen tests to screen for Covid and prevent outbreaks.

The American Rescue Plan has provided funding for more K-12 schools to set up similar testing programs in the fall.

These programs will be key in preventing outbreaks as Delta and other variants continue to spread.

'Silent transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from individuals with no symptoms contributes significantly to the spread of the virus,' said Dr William Heetderks, also from NIBIB and a lead author on the study.

'Faster, cheaper and broader testing with antigen tests can be a big help in the kind of large-scale screening scenarios that can find these silent transmitters.'
The man has since fully recovered six months after the injury

A 40-year-old man broke his penis when it hit his partner's perineum during sex

Doctors in England record first ever vertical penile fracture case

Doctors in the UK have recorded the first known case of a penis breaking vertically during sex.

The 40-year-old man's member 'buckled against his partner's perineum', or the area between the anus and genitals, before a 3cm tear opened at its base.

Doctors did not say what position he was in, but penis fractures are most commonly triggered by 'doggy style' and 'man on top' positions, they wrote.

There are no bones in the penis, but breaks usually happen when a man's penis slips out of his partner and is suddenly bent, which can cause painful swelling.

Medics who treated the patient, believed to be from York, revealed the tale in a case report in the British Medical Journal.

They said that all previously recorded penis fractures had been horizontal.

But in this case it split up the tunica albuginea - the protective layer around the erectile tissue that pumps blood to this area.

Doctor's said no 'popping' sound was heard when the break occurred, which happens when fractures are horizontal.

The arrow points to the 40-year-old's tunica albuginea - the protective layer around the erectile tissue that pump blood to the penis - where there was a three centimetre tear (circled)

The man's member 'buckled against his partner's perineum', or the area between the anus and genitals, before it a 3cm tear opened at its base

But the patient's penis gradually swelled up after the injury.

Six months after treatment for the injury doctors said the man was still able to achieve 'erections of the same quality to those prior to the injury'.

Doctors added there was no long-lasting curving of the penis, or palpable scarring.

The urologists said 88.5 per cent of penis fractures occur during sex, with a 20-year study finding that 'doggy style' and 'man on top' were the most commonly blamed positions.

Other causes of penis breaks include masturbation, sleeping position and taqaandan - the practice of forcibly bending the penis, which is primarily performed in Middle Eastern countries, according to the report.

Men in their 40s are most likely to experience a penis fracture, accounting for in up to seven in 10 cases.

The British Association of Urological Surgeons recommend operating on fractured penises within 24 hours to reduce the risk of long-term problems like erectile dysfunction.

A penile fracture occurs when the appendage is subject to a sharp, blunt force trauma, which can occur during vigorous intercourse or masturbation.

Since 1924, 1,600 cases have been recorded worldwide - roughly 16 instances per year.

Researchers noted that in 50 per cent of cases, a gruesome cracking sound can be heard. Four in five male victims lost their erection.

Those who have already been traumatised from breaking their penis are often left with erectile dysfunction problems and a lifetime of painful sex.

Blood flows into corpora cavernosa that runs along the penis and making it hard during an erection.

The trick to stopping penile injuries is to thrust quite shallowly, according to sex expert Tracey Cox.

Holding your partner close to you using a grinding rather than thrusting motion will also reduce the risk, she told MailOnline.
Crucial cancer screenings dropped dramatically among women during the COVID-19 lockdowns in spring 2020, a new report finds.

Breast cancer screenings declined by 87 percent and cervical cancer screenings by 84 percent during April 2020 compared to the previous five years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Early Detection Program.

Declines were higher for women of color and those in rural areas, who are already more likely to be impacted by breast and cervical cancer.

The CDC says that delayed screenings may lead to later diagnoses, worse disease outcomes, and increasing health disparities, and encourages women to catch up on their screenings now.

Women avoided or delayed mammograms and other cancer screenings during spring 2020, a a new report from the CDC found (file image)

Testing declines were sharpest in April 2020, with breast cancer screenings 87 percent lower than average and cervical cancer screenings 84 percent lower than average

After states issued lockdowns and stay-at-home orders last spring, many nonessential doctors' appointments and medical procedures were put on hold.

At the time, this allowed healthcare systems to focus on responding to the pandemic - but it had ramifications for future health outcomes.

One of those ramifications may be cancer cases going undiagnosed, according to a new study from the CDC.

Researchers at the agency's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program found sharp declines in screenings for both breast and cervical cancer during the early months of the pandemic.

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommends that women over age 21 receive regular screenings for cervical cancer and those over age 50 receive regular screenings for breast cancer - though women may consider breast cancer screening at age 40.

Doctors screen for breast cancer using mammograms and for cervical cancer using pap smears and human papillomavirus tests.

During spring 2020, many of the clinics that perform these screenings closed. Breast and cervical cancer screenings were considered nonessential procedures.

At the same time, women were deterred from going to routine doctor's appointments - many were under stay-at-home orders and caring for children who were in remote school.

In a study published in the journal Preventive Medicine, CDC researchers looked at data from the Early Detection Program to determine the scale of these declines.

They compared screening numbers between January and June 2020 to numbers from that same period in 2015 to 2019.

The team found that the sharpest declines occurred in March and April.

Native American women had the sharpest decline in breast cancer screenings (98 percent), followed by Asian and Pacific Islander women (97 percent)

Asian and Pacific Islander women had the sharpest decline in cervical cancer screenings (92 percent)

In April 2020, breast cancer screenings were 87 percent lower than they had been in previous years while cervical cancer screenings were 84 percent lower.

Declines were similar across the country. New York, which was a major COVID-19 hotspot in spring 2020, faced the steepest declines - 96 percent fewer breast cancer screenings and 95 percent fewer cervical cancer screenings.

Women of color saw steeper declines compared to white women.

Native American women had the sharpest decline in breast cancer screenings (98 percent), followed by Asian and Pacific Islander women (97 percent).

Asian and Pacific Islander women had the sharpest decline in cervical cancer screenings (92 percent), followed by multiracial women (90 percent).

Like Native Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders were disproportionately impacted by Covid.

The CDC researchers are concerned that screening declines could exacerbate existing health disparities in these cancers - more women of color could be sick with cancer without knowing it because they skipped a screening in 2020.

Black and Hispanic women already have the highest rates of cervical cancer in the U.S.

Black women also have the highest death rate from breast cancer at 27 deaths for every 100,000 black women, compared with 19 deaths for every 100,000 white women.

Women living in rural and metro areas saw steeper and more prolonged cancer screening declines compared to those in urban areas

Similar patterns - and concerns - exist for women in rural areas.

While women living in rural, metro, and urban areas had similar screening declines in April 2020, those in metro and urban areas recovered later that spring while those in rural areas did not.

In June, breast cancer screening rates in rural areas remained 52 percent below average.

Women living in rural areas and those with low incomes already face limited access to healthcare, and tend to be uninsured or underinsured.

'This study highlights a decline in cancer screening among women of racial and ethnic minority groups with low incomes when their access to medical services decreased at the beginning of the pandemic,' said Dr Amy DeGroff, CDC health scientist and lead author on the study.

'They reinforce the need to safely maintain routine health care services during the pandemic, especially when the health care environment meets COVID-19 safety guidelines.'

The CDC encourages women who skipped a screening last year to do it now. Pictured: A consultant analyzing a mammogram

Modeling studies have shown that cancer deaths increase when women do not follow recommendations for regular screening.

The CDC researchers say that more research is needed to determine the full impact that Covid had on cancer rates.

Many breast and cervical cancer clinics that the CDC program supports closed in spring 2020. Some of these clinics also reported that they weren't able to do community outreach and partner with local organizations as they normally would.

Now, the CDC is encouraging these clinics - and other healthcare providers - to double down on outreach. Women need to catch up on their screenings, the researchers say.

'CDC encourages health care professionals to help minimize delays in testing by continuing routine cancer screening for women having symptoms or at high risk for breast or cervical cancer,' said DeGroff.

'The Early Detection Program can help women overcome barriers to health equity by educating them about the importance of routine screening, addressing their concerns about COVID-19 transmission, and helping them to safely access screening through interventions like patient navigation.'
Hospital surfaces are not likely to be contaminated with the novel coronavirus, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that just two percent of all patient and staff areas that were swabbed came back positive for having genetic material of the virus that causes COVID-19.

But although the viral RNA could be picked up from a surface, it was not enough to be infectious.

The team, from the University of California, Davis, says the findings add to the growing body of evidence suggesting surface transmission is a rare method for COVID-19 to spread.

Researchers from the University of California, Davis, collected samples every two weeks from March 2020 to mid-August 2020 in COVID-19 patient and staff areas (file image)

Just 2% of swabbed areas in August - such as floors, hand sanitizing stations, ventilators and soiled linens - tested positive for coronavirus

When the pandemic first hit the U.S. in spring 2020, health experts told Americans to be careful of surface transmission.

Doctors encouraged the public to wash their hands thoroughly or to use hand sanitizer if soap and water weren't available.

Subways in New York closed for overnight cleanings and restaurants worked to lure customers back in by sanitizing tables in between parties and offering QR codes to access menus.

Since then, scientists have learned that the virus is not typically spread through particles that linger on commonly touched areas but rather via air droplets.

The new research adds to the evidence that surface transmission is rare, and which areas of a hospital are more infectious.

The genetic material could be picked up from a surface that test positive for COVID-19 but was not enough to be infectious. Pictured: Representation of a swabbed patient's room

For the study, published in PLOS One, the team collected samples every two weeks from March 2020 to mid-August 2020 in COVID-19 patient and staff areas.

Swabs were taken from multiple areas including computer stations, hand sanitizer stations outside and inside a patient's room, the floor, whiteboards. ventilators, IV pumps, nightstand stands and soiled linens.

The researchers analyzed the surface swabs via genome sequencing to see if they could detect genetic material.

Although there was an increase in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the summer surge, the number of positive swabs fell from 11 percent in April to two percent in August.

In a representative patient room, for example, out of 23 samples, there were four positives: at a computer station, in the soiled linen basket, on the telemetry screen and on part of the ventilator.

The results showed that although coronavirus RNA could be picked up from a surface, it was not infectious.

Researchers say this adds to the evidence that contaminated surfaces are not a main way that COVID-19 is spread.

'Our team was the first to demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 virus sequences could be identified from environmental swabs collected from hospital surfaces,' said senior author Dr Angela Haczku, a respiratory immunologist at UC Davis, in a statement.

'The reduction in the virus contamination was likely due to improved ICU patient management and cleaning protocols.'


HISTORY

PATHS OF FIRE

by Andrew Nahum (Reaktion 25, 248 pp)

If you want to make a pile of money, a friend reportedly remarked in 1882 to Hiram Maxim, manufacturer of the first automatic machine gun, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others throats with greater facility.

As Andrew Nahum shows, in this original exploration of how guns have shaped our societies in often surprising ways, the 19th and 20th centuries saw the remorseless spread of arms and the multiplication of the firepower and lethality that can be wielded by an individual.

Maxims fellow American Samuel Colt had earlier created the repeating pistol which could fire a succession of five or six shots without the need for reloading. Used in the wars against Native Americans, General William Harney declared it the only weapon with which we can hope ever to subdue those wild and daring tribes.

Andrew Nahum has penned a new book exploring how guns have shaped our societies in often surprising ways (file image)

Colt, who made the dubious claim in a letter to a colleague that my arms are the best peacemakers, opened a factory in London. Charles Dickens visited it and found that even a mere novice could learn to discharge the six rounds as rapidly as the eye can wink.

The next step was to create a fully automatic weapon which kept on firing. Richard Gatling, American inventor of the machine gun, is said to have hoped wars could be fought with fewer soldiers if they were all armed with a Gatling gun and losses would be reduced. His hope proved a vain one.

The Gardner machine gun was the British equivalent of the Gatling and was used in battles around the Empire, but it had a propensity to jam at crucial moments.

In time, Hiram Maxims fully automated machine gun solved that problem, and made European armies devastating when they confronted native peoples in Africa and Asia.

The next development in gun technology was the Thompson submachine gun, invented in 1918, which was light enough to be carried by an individual soldier. It became the favoured weapon of American mobsters like Al Capone and was dubbed the Chicago piano.

Today, its place has been taken by the AK-47, invented by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947  there are now 100 million examples of his weapon in existence. I sleep well, he once said. Its the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement.

PATHS OF FIRE by Andrew Nahum (Reaktion 25, 248 pp)

Nahum recounts the stories of these weapons innovators with some panache but, he writes, his book also shows how guns and gunnery have influenced our world and our culture in unsuspected, surprising ways. Modern mass production, he argues, had its origins in the gun business. In Britain, in the early 19th-century, it was still the province of craftsmen in small workshops.

More than 50 different gun makers were listed in Birmingham, many of whom would have owned nothing more than a workbench, a leather apron and a couple of pounds worth of tools.

It was in America that all these individual crafts were brought under one roof in government-subsidised armouries.

An unintended consequence was the kind of production line which reached its zenith in Henry Fords car factories, where, as one witness said, the noise was like a million groaning sinners as they are dragged into hell. But it was the sound of the future.

As Nahum acknowledges, he has not written a conventional book about guns and their effects on the world but he has written a very thought-provoking one.
Mike Pence's staff put a stop to him appearing on stage after Donald Trump Jr. when the president's son drew cheers for a presidential bid of his own and the vice president didn't, a new book reveals.

According to Michael C. Bender in Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, in an excerpt exclusively by DailyMail.com, Pence's staff were taken aback during a February 2020 rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, when Donald Jr. got an election chant from the packed convention center of MAGA fans and the vice president didn't.

Both men were speaking ahead of President Trump at the campaign rally at the SNHU Arena, one of the last before the COVID pandemic shut them down.

The president's son was to introduce the running mate. But Donald Jr. was kept from speaking by repeated chants of 'Forty-six! Forty-six!' - a reference to the fans wanting him to make his own presidential bid.

President Trump was the 45th president while President Joe Biden is the 46th.

Don Jr. tried to tamp down the cheers. 'One step at a time,' he said. 'Let's worry about 2020. That's all we've got to focus on, right? Let's keep winning.'

Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President Mike Pence wave during a campaign rally for President Donald Trump in Manchester, New Hampshire, on February 10, 2020

He was finally able to introduce Pence.

But there was no 'forty-six' chants for Pence despite him harboring presidential ambitions of his own.

Katie Miller, the vice president's communications director, noted the absence.

'That's funny,' she said.

After Pence left the stage, 'he made an awkward joke about the moment' to Don Junior and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the book reports.

Michael C. Bender's book 'Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost' is out July 13

Later, Marty Obst, Pence's longtime political strategist, made it known at Trump campaign headquarters that Pence was never again to follow Don Jr. onstage.

'He's just a hard act to follow,' Obst said.

The 432-page book, out July 13, details Trump's life in the White House, the two impeachment trials and Trump's failed attempt to win a second term.

The reports of tension between the Trump and Pence camps come as the former vice president ties to distance himself from Trump.

Ironically, Don Jr. bested Pence in a straw poll of conservative voters last month of their top choices for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came out on top at the Western Conservative Summit gathering while Pence, who was known for his strong conservative support, came in near the bottom of the GOP choices, trailing Don Jr. by four points.

Don Jr. is said to harbor political ambitions and is popular on the Republican fundraising circuit. He's made no formal announcement of a future political run although there is talk he could make a gubernatorial bid in Montana or New York.

Pence and President Trump had a falling out when Trump, in the lead up to the January 6th certification of the 2020 presidential results, pressured Pence to try and stop Joe Biden's victory. Pence, who had no constitutional authority to do what Trump requested, refused to entertain the idea.

Trump railed publicly against his long loyal vice president. The MAGA rioters who stormed the Capitol were heard yelling 'Hang Mike.'

Pence, in a departure from Trump, said last week he was proud to certify the presidential election results on Jan. 6.

Speaking to a crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Thursday, Pence said it was his duty under the Constitution to certify the results, and while he made no direct mention of his former boss, he appeared to distance himself from Trump, who still disputes the results of the Electoral College tally.

'I will always be proud that we did our part on that tragic day to reconvene the Congress and fulfilled our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,' Pence said.

He added in a sharp jab at the former president: 'The truth is, there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.'

Pence appeared in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 800 at the hilltop library, as he considers a potential 2024 White House run.

Donald Trump Jr is popular on the Republican fundraising circuit and said to harbor political ambitions of his own

Speaking to a crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, former Vice President Mike Pence said that it was his duty under the Constitution to certify the results of the 2020 election, a departure from former President Donald Trump

He took a brief pause from the public stage after leaving Washington, but in late April kicked off a series of events to sharpen his conservative profile for voters more familiar with him standing in Trumps shadow.

Although he did not dispute the results of the 2020 election, Pence did express his upset with the outcome.

'Now, I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election,' he said. 'I can relate. I was on the ballot. But you know, there's more at stake than our party and our political fortunes in this moment. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won't just lose elections - we'll lose our country.'
New York Mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams has retained a narrow margin over rivals Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley - hours after election officials admitted they'd accidentally added 135,000 test ballots to the total.

Corrected figures released on Friday showed Adams, a former NYPD captain, was just 14,755 votes ahead of his closest rival Kathryn Garcia in the primary run-off.

Those numbers also put left-wing candidate Maya Wiley back in the running, after they showed that she sat just 347 votes behind Garcia.

PIX11 reported that Garcia is in a better position than Wiley was after picking up votes from former favorite Andrew Yang, who has since withdrawn from the campaign.

Almost 125,000 absentee ballots have yet to be counted, meaning that Garcia or Wiley could both catch up with Adams. Those ballots will be counted from July 6, with the final primary result likely to be weeks away.

The largest chunk of those uncounted votes - around 39,000 - come from Manhattan, where Adams finished third on the first ballot behind Garcia and Wiley, potentially spelling further trouble for his campaign.

Adams campaign insisted Wednesday that he still had a 'significant lead' over his rivals.

Eric Adams, pictured on June 22, retains a 14,755 vote lead over Kathryn Garcia, according to newly-corrected vote tolls

Garcia, pictured center, now sits just 347 votes ahead of progressive rival Maya Wiley

Maya Wiley's campaign appeared to be over earlier this week. But Wednesday's updated count puts her firmly back in the race, with 125,000 ballots still to

'We are confident we will be the final choice of New Yorkers when every vote is tallied,' the campaign added.

The ex-NYPD cop has run a markedly less progressive campaign than his rivals. He opposes defunding the police, and wants to bring back the controversial 'stop and frisk' policy.

By contrast, Wiley wants to slash $1 billion from the NYPD budget, and Garcia wants to raise the minimum age people can become a cop from 21 to 25.

Garcia, the city's former sanitation commissioner, said she, too, remained 'confident in our path to victory' but wasn't taking it for granted. Wiley, meanwhile, called the race 'still wide open.'

'Following yesterdays embarrassing debacle, the Board of Elections must count every vote in an open way so that New Yorkers can have confidence that their votes are being counted accurately,' she tweeted.

The Board of Elections apologized for Tuesday's mistake, which involved the accidental inclusion of 135,000 test ballot images in the vote totals.

Wednesday's revised results included about 17,000 more votes than the election-night total, but the board said that was because a small percentage of precincts weren't yet counted on election night.

The board insisted the new counts were accurate and said it was now doing more checks and reviews before releasing more data.

They have not indicated any plans to re-run the primary run-off, although the error will likely result in lawsuits should the final result be close.

'We will do so with a heightened sense that we must regain the trust of New Yorkers,' board President Frederic Umane and Secretary Miguelina Camilo said in a statement.

Still, critics said the mishap proved that the board was not equipped to handle the new ranked choice system.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called for 'a complete structural rebuild' of the board, which operates independently of his office. The City Councils black, Latino and Asian Caucus - whose leaders favor putting a repeal of ranked choice voting on the November ballot - noted that its members had warned that the city wasn't ready for the new system.

'The concerns they raised continue to be borne out by the facts,' the group said in a statement.

Before the new counts were released Wednesday, Adams filed a lawsuit seeking to preserve the ballots and voting machines to ensure an accurate count.

The board declined to comment on the suit.

Garcia's campaign said it would pursue the necessary legal steps to ensure that ranked choice votes 'are fully and accurately counted.' The Wiley campaign had no immediate comment.

Adams, Garcia and Wiley all blasted the counting cock-up on Wednesday night.

Adams said: 'Today's mistake by the Board of Elections was unfortunate.

'It is critical that New Yorkers are confident in their electoral system, especially as we rank votes in a citywide election for the first time.'

FILE - Frederic Umane, President of the New York City Board of Elections, addresses poll workers at Frank McCourt High School, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in New York. New York City's first mayoral contest using ranked choice voting has been thrown into chaos after city election officials posted incorrect preliminary vote counts in the Democratic primary and then withdrew them. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

His main rival, Garcia, said it was 'deeply troubling and requires a much more transparent and complete explanation.'

Wiley said that it was 'the result of generations of failures that have gone unaddressed.'

She said it was 'impossible to be surprised' at the chaos, and demanded reform of the Board of Elections.

'Today, we have once again seen the mismanagement that has resulted in a lack of confidence in results, not because there is a flaw in our election laws, but because those who implement it have failed too many times,' she said.

New York City adopted ranked choice voting for primaries and special elections in a 2019 referendum and used the system in citywide races for the first time in the June 22 primary.

Under the system, voters could rank up to five candidates in order of preference.

Since no candidate was the first choice of more than 50 per cent of voters, a computer on Tuesday tabulated ballots in a series of rounds that worked like instant run-offs.

In each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated. Votes cast for that person are then redistributed to the surviving candidates, based on whoever voters put next on their ranking list. That process repeats until only two candidates are left.

Adams lead shrank significantly in Wednesday's figures because he didn't do nearly as well as Garcia among voters whose first choices were Wiley or 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the other top candidates.

Garcia and Yang campaigned together, and she was the top alternative pick among his supporters. A little more than half of Wileys backers went to Garcia as an alternate choice, while only 20% supported Adams.

In all, more than 117,000 voters didnt rank either Adams or Garcia anywhere on their ballots. Thats 14% of the votes counted so far.

Versions of the ranked choice system have been used in U.S. cities including San Francisco and Minneapolis for years and in statewide races in Maine.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, which promoted adoption of the ranked choice system, noted that Tuesday's discrepancy was due to human error, not a defect inherent in ranked choice voting itself.

Rob Richie, the president and CEO of FairVote, a nonprofit that advocates for ranked choice voting, said he did not believe Tuesday's flub would have a lasting impact on New Yorkers' faith in the ranked choice system.

'This certainly, fundamentally, is not anything about ranked choice voting, and it certainly is about the historic challenges that the Board of Elections has faced,' Richie said.

The winner of New York City's mayoral primary will be the heavy favorite in the general election against Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels.

Sliwa and his as-yet-unconfirmed rival will face off in a general election scheduled for November 2.

FILE - In this Tuesday June 22, 2021, file photo, Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams address supporters at his primary election night party in New York. Adams holds a lead in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, but with hundreds of thousands of votes set to be redistributed in a new ranked choice voting system, it remained possible for opponents Maya Wiley or Kathryn Garcia to come out on top. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen, File).

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 22, 2021, file photo, Democrat mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia, center, posing for photos as she campaigns on New York's Upper West Side. Eric Adams holds a lead in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, but with hundreds of thousands of votes set to be redistributed in a new ranked choice voting system, it remained possible for opponents Garcia or Maya Wiley to come out on top. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday June 22, 2021, file photo, Democratic mayoral candidate Maya Wiley, center, as she greet voters during a campaign stop in the West Village neighborhood of New York. Eric Adams holds a lead in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, but with hundreds of thousands of votes set to be redistributed in a new ranked choice voting system, it remained possible for opponents Wiley or Kathryn Garcia to come out on top. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Another 182 indigenous children's bodies have been discovered in a mass grave at a Catholic-run school in Canada amid calls for the Church to apologise for its role.

The latest discovery on Wednesday was made by an indigenous group using ground-penetrating radar at the former St. Eugene's Mission School in Cranbrook, British Columbia, which was operated by the Church from 1912 until the early 1970s.

It follows two similar findings at other church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves in Saskatchewan and another of 215 bodies in BC.

Pope Francis has invited survivors of the residential schools to meet with him at the Vatican in December, it was announced on Tuesday.

After graves were found last month, Francis expressed his pain and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on 'this sad affair.' But he didn't offer the apology sought by First Nations and the Canadian government.

The native group which made the latest grim discovery, Lower Kootenay Band, said Wednesday that the atrocity was akin to the Nazis systematic killing of Jews.

A woman looks at tributes to the dead children at the memorial in Cranbrook, British Columbia, on Wednesday. Lower Kootenay Band said its ground-penetrating radar had discovered the remains of 182 children

People hug at the memorial outside the former St. Eugene's Mission School near Cranbrook, British Columbia

A cemetery close to the school in Cranbrook, BC, is pictured on Wednesday

Catholic priests with students at the St. Michael's Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Northwest Territories, now Saskatchewan, Canada in 1900

It's believed the remains are those of people from the bands of the Ktunaxa nation, which includes the Lower Kootenay Band, and other neighboring First Nation communities.

Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band called the discovery 'deeply personal' since he had relatives attend the school.

'Let's call this for what it is,' Louie told CBC radio in an interview. 'It's a mass murder of Indigenous people.'

'The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.'

Pope Francis on Thursday at the Altar of Confession in Saint Peter Basilica in the Vatican

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, which today is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.

Last week the Cowessess First Nation, located about 85 miles east of the Saskatchewan capital of Regina, said investigators found 'at least 600' unmarked graves at the site of a former Marieval Indian Residential School.

Last month, the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were found buried on the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia.

A woman visits a memorial to the children on Wednesday

A child's writing attached to the memorial says: 'We are sorry for your loss we respect you. We hope you will get through it'

Teddy bears and shoes laid by the gates with a sign that says: 'Indigenous Lives Matter'

In recent weeks, investigators using ground-penetrating radar have reported finding hundreds of unmarked graves at the sites of three residential schools for Indigenous children. Pictured: Young students and their Catholic teachers in an undated photo at the Marieval Residential School in Saskatchewan

Prior to news of the most recent finding, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked that the national flag on the Peace Tower remain at half-mast for Canada Day on Thursday to honor the Indigenous children who died in residential schools.

Louie said he wants more concrete action than apologies.

'I'm really done with the government and churches saying they are sorry,' he said. 'Justice delayed is justice denied.'

A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the Canadian bishops conference said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for the residential schools.

Since the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools, there have been several fires at churches across Canada. There has also been some vandalism targeting churches and statues in cities.

Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in rural southern British Columbia have been destroyed by suspicious fires and a vacant former Anglican church in northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP said could be arson.

Sophie Pierre reflects at the gates of the former St. Eugene's Mission School in Cranbrook, BC on June 30, 2021. As a child, Pierre was forced to live in the residential school for nine years, she is now the General Manager of the resort that took over the former school site

Pierre walks past a memorial outside the site of the former school in BC on Wednesday

On Wednesday, Alberta's premier condemned what he called 'arson attacks at Christian churches' after a historic parish was destroyed in a fire.

'Today in Morinville, l'eglise de Saint-Jean-Baptiste was destroyed in what appears to have been a criminal act of arson,' Kenney said in a statement.

RCMP said officers were called to the suspicious blaze at the church in Morinville, about 25 miles north of Edmonton, in the early hours of Wednesday.

Trudeau and an Indigenous leader said arson and vandalism targeting churches is not the way to get justice following the discovery of the unmarked graves.

'The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable and it must stop,' Trudeau said. 'We must work together to right past wrongs.?

Bellegarde said burning churches is not the way to proceed.

A historical photo from 1929 provided by the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (issued on 25 June 2021) shows students at the Delmas Indian Residential School in Delmas, Northwest Territories, now Saskatchewan, Canada

The remains of 215 children were discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia (pictured) in May

Last week, the bodies of 715 more children were recovered from graves outside the former Marieval Indian Residential School - another Catholic-run institution in the Cowessess First Nation (pictured)

'I can understand the frustration, the anger, the hurt and the pain, there's no question,? he said. 'But to burn things down is not our way.'

It came as officials announced that another 182 bodies had been discovered in unmarked graves at a school near Cranbook, British Columbia - following the recovery of more than 900 bodies at two other sites since May.

The Vatican didn't confirm the pope's visit on Wednesday, but the Holy See's in-house news portal reported on the bishops' statement.

The Canadian bishops said the trip was contingent on the pandemic and that the delegations would include survivors of the residential schools, Indigenous elders and youths, as well as Indigenous leaders and Canadian bishops.
A crisis management firm that boasts it can 'fix the impossible' has been hired by the board of a collapsed Miami condo building as questions mount over the disaster and its death toll hit 16.

Levick, which is based in Washington DC, has been appointed to handle the flurry of media requests sent to the Champlain Towers South Condo Association over last Thursday's collapse. The firm's vice president Maxwell Marucci has been assigned to deal with the disaster.

He told the Miami Herald: 'The Champlain Towers South Condo Association board has retained LEVICK, a crisis communications firm deeply experienced in these matters, to assist them during this very difficult time.

'LEVICK has been handling the hundreds of inbound media inquiries from around the world interested in the latest breaking news on this unprecedented tragedy.

'By taking over the important communications responsibilities to keep the media constantly informed, it has removed one burden from the volunteer association board members  who themselves are mourning the loss of their loved ones, friends and neighbors  so that they can focus on the critical work of assisting all manners of search and rescue involved in this tragedy.'

The death toll from the disaster hit 18 on Wednesday, with 145 people still missing. Three class-action lawsuits have been filed so far, with more almost certain to follow.

Speaking in the wake of those suits, Marucci said: 'The board is not comprised of engineers or building experts,' Marcucci told Insider. 'They hired experts and they trusted experts, and at no time did the experts ever indicate that there was any imminent threat.'

Levick, a Washington, D.C.-based firm run by CEO Richard Levick, has previously represented clients connected to crises like an unnamed Catholic Church order's sexual abuse allegations, the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 2000 Florida election recount.

Marucci also told the Herald that the board was made up entirely of volunteers who were also unit owners - one of whom is now among the 147 missing residents.

The board of the collapsed Miami condo building hired a crisis management firm, named Levick, which boasts it can 'fix the impossible'

The Washington, D.C., firm has previously represented clients involved in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and 2000 Florida election recount

Maxwell Marcucci, a vice president at Levick, has been assigned to the case and will be acting as a spokesperson for the condo association

Levick formerly employed renowned Washington lawyer and spinmeister Lanny Davis, who recently represented President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen and was a special counsel for President Bill Clinton.

A previous major client included China Telecom, which paid the firm more than $230,000 for work in 2019 and 2020. Jho Low, the Malaysian businessman accused of stealing more than $4 billion from the Malaysian development fund in the 1MDB scandal, paid the firm more than $50,000.

Another client was Citgo, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA, which paid Levick more than $1 million for work in 2019 in seeking to counteract the negative image emanating from the Hugo Chavez and the Nicolas Maduro regimes.

Lawsuits filed against the board allege that they sat on evidence of the condo's damages and could have prevented its collapse. In October 2018 Frank Morabito, an engineer, warned the board and chief building official, Rosendo Prieto, of 'major structural damage' in the Champlain Towers South building he said would cost around $9 million to repair. Morabito had been commissioned by the residents' association to look into the building, ahead of its 40-year structural review, due in 2021.

Morabito's report, released by Surfside officials on Friday, included pictures of what he wrote was 'abundant cracking' and crumbling in the underground parking garage of the 12-story building.

Morabito also spoke out on Monday and released a statement saying he recommended the changes three years ago to the condo association - a board of seven volunteers, five of whom were living in the building and one of whom remains missing.

But in November 2018, Prieto told the residents that he had reviewed Morabito's report and found little of concern. On Tuesday, Prieto was placed on leave from his job as interim building official for C.A.P. Government Inc, where he began working in May this year. He was working to provide building department services to government clients in Doral.

Lawsuits filed against the board allege that they sat on evidence of the condo's damages and could have prevented its collapse

Search and rescue looked for survivors of Thursday's condo collapse in Surfside, Miami. As of Wednesday evening 16 people were confirmed dead and 150 people remained unaccounted for

In October 2018 Frank Morabito, an engineer, warned the board and chief building official, Rosendo Prieto, of 'major structural damage'

Morabito's report, released by Surfside officials on Friday, included pictures of what he wrote was 'abundant cracking' and crumbling in the underground parking garage of the 12-story building

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she would bring the matter before grand jurors

The board had sat on the findings of Morabito's report for about two years before sending residents a letter in April to let them know the damage was 'significantly worse' and 'accelerating.'

In that letter, she said they were still trying to finalize a loan from Valley bank to pay for the repairs (they tried to get a loan first from Banco Popular but the deal fell through) and that the total cost was more than $16million and the board had just $707,000 in cash reserves, leaving them with a bill for around $15million.

The owners of the building's 136 units would be responsible for repaying it and each was on the hook for a different amount depending on how big their unit was.

By Tuesday, three class-action lawsuits were filed against the condo board, blaming them for the collapse. The first came less than a day after the collapse and it sought $5million in damages. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she would bring the matter before grand jurors.

If negligence is a factor, those responsible could face criminal charges, such as the third-degree felony murder and manslaughter charges brought in the 1996 accidental crash of ValuJet 592 in the Everglades that killed 110 people.

'In the realm of crisis communications, you expect to have clients who are in tough situations, wrestling with serious matters, and so it's not surprising that a PR firm would take them on,' Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan, a crisis communications firm based in South Florida, told the Miami Herald.

'Firms have a choice to make when prospective clients come in, and they have to determine whether or not they're going to take on those clients,' Nierman said. 'It's very easy from the outside to cast judgment on whether or not a firm should say yes or no, when nine times out of the ten, the facts aren't really known and certainly haven't been fully explored.'

'I don't think that hiring Levick has a negative implication for' the condo association, Nierman added. 'It means they are going to get serious crisis communications counsel.'

The outlet also spoke with Ronn Torossian, CEO of the New York public relations firm 5WPR, which also has a Miami office, who said that surviving members of the condominium board are themselves experiencing trauma, adding to the difficulty of handling the onslaught of attention.

'Every media outlet in the world is looking for a comment. This gives you a central point of somebody who knows how to handle these calls,' Torossian said. 'This is a full-time job for multiple people for some time to come.'
Today show host Allison Langdon has blasted Australia's 'proper mess' of a vaccine rollout as she tried to get a definitive answer on the question no one can agree on.

Extraordinary bickering broke out between federal and state governments on Wednesday about whether younger Australians should be allowed to have the AstraZenaca vaccine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said GPs who administered the jab to under-60s who signed a waiver would be given legal immunity, after an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday night.

But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rejected the plan, saying there was nothing agreed with the states and urging Queenslanders to follow the earlier advice and only have the Pfizer vaccine if they are under 60.

Australia's Covid-19 vaccine program has been heavily criticised by citizens and ministers alike after a report found the nation has recorded the slowest rollout of 38 OECD nations

Sick of the mixed messages, Langdon said the country's leaders were betraying the Australian public in a time of crisis and demanded a clear direction for the vaccination program.

'We have politicians and chief health officers bickering with each other, we are stuck in the middle as this is being politicised. We're wondering what we should do,' she said on Thursday.

With more than 12 million Australians locked down across the country due to the latest outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant, she said the only way out is 'to get people vaccinated'.

Langdon was joined on the program by Professor Bill Bowtell, seeking direction on the constant disagreement between the federal and state governments.

'Who should we be listening to here? Is it the GPs? Our health officers? Our politicians?' she asked.

'Should we be trusting young people to talk to their doctor and make an informed decision?'

Langdon was joined by Professor Bill Bowtell on the program, seeking direction on the constant disagreement between the federal and state governments

Professor Bowtell, who led Australia's response to the 1980s AIDS crisis and was an adviser to former prime minister Paul Keating, encouraged Australians of all ages to seek any vaccine they could get their hands on.

'We need the AstraZeneca. It is very important people go to their GPs and discuss that,' he said.

'It is certainly safe for use. I've had my first shot. Happy to have the second one. But we've got to get on with it now, we're in a serious position.'

Professor Bowtell said the 'national crisis' was the result of the 'leaky hotel quarantine system' and a breakdown between the national cabinet and chief health officer committee.

'We are facing a very serious crisis. We've got to get a grip. There's got to be some order restored to the chaos that's enveloping the technical and medical advice side of this,' he said.

'When Covid Delta emerged in December last year, we began a race between vaccination and mutation.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was blamed for failing to introduce quarantine centres and for the bungled vaccination roll-out

'We kept Australia Covid-free for six months in the hope that vaccines would be widely distributed, procured and widely distributed, and we'd be well vaccinated by now.'

Professor Bowtell said vaccinations must be the priority, pinpointing the lack of organisation from the federal government in securing supply, and said the spread of the virus through hospitals should be a huge cause for concern.

'Very concerningly, we have cases now emerging in and around our hospital systems,' he said.

'This is extremely serious and action has to be taken to ensure that everybody who is in and around the hospital system is vaccinated and is following the appropriate guidelines in relation to use of proper masks.

'N95 masks, not the surgical masks but proper PPE so that there is no chance of transmitting infectious within the hospital system.'
Cosby, 83, had sexual assault conviction overturned because of breach to his right against self-incrimination

Edwards was then forced to make an apology for the on-air gaffe

This is the awkward moment a BBC reporter confuses disgraced comedian Bill Cosby for Bill Clinton live on air.

Journalist Michelle Fleury was reporting on the entertainer's shock prison release - but accidentally referred the former US President instead.

The huge gaffe forced top BBC News presenter Huw Edwards to apologise to viewers for the blunder.

It came just hours after Cosby, 83, was allowed to return home just two years into his 10 year sentence for sexual assault because of a legal technicality.

Journalist Michelle Fleury was reporting on disgraced entertainer Bill Cosby's shock prison release - but accidentally referred former US President Bill Clinton instead

In the video, news anchor Huw Edwards introduces Ms Fleurry, live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to give the latest update on Cosby's conviction being overturned.

But in her opening sentence she manages to mistake the comedian with a former in Commander-in-Chief

'Huw, for the last two years this has been where Bill Clinton has called home,' she says, pointing towards a State Correctional Institution behind her.

She continues: 'But tonight he will sleep in his own bed after the bombshell decision by Pennsylvanias Supreme Court to overturn his conviction for sexual assault on the grounds that his 5th Amendment right - that is the right against self-incrimination - were violated.'

The huge gaffe forced top BBC News presenter Huw Edwards to apologise to viewers for the blunder

After finishing the report the camera cuts back to a cringing Edwards in the studio who is forced to quickly apologise.

'Just to clarify, what was said there in Michelles introduction to the story, when she mistakenly said Bill Clinton instead of Bill Cosby we apologise for the mistake,' he said.

'The story is of course is about Bill Cosby the entertainer.'

Ms Fleury, a BBC journalist of 23 years, usually covers American business and economic news.

The misidentification was quickly picked up on social media, with one person writing: 'Clarification I didnt expect to hear on @BBCNews this evening, an apology for a journalists confusion of Bill Cosby with Bill Clinton.'

Another added: 'That error on bbc with them referring to bill Cosby as bill Clinton will have conspiracy theorists foaming at the mouth.'

Cosby was freed on the grounds that a former prosecutor promised him that he wouldn't be charged in 2005 and lulled him into incriminating himself.

The 83-year-old flashed a peace sign to news crews as he arrived home after being released from prison in Pennsylvania, hours after the court overturned his conviction.

He later tweeted: 'I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained my innocence.

'Thank you to all my fans, supporters and friends who stood by me through this ordeal. Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law. #BillCosby'

The decision to free Cosby - once known as 'America's Dad' - has 'shocked and disgusted' his accusers.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahman described the ruling as 'mind-blowing', adding: 'This is extremely rare. This is unprecedented.'
It's tops-off in the Top End as locals in Darwin bask in their lockdown - while skateboarders and scooter-riders in Brisbane are cruising through Covid.

While much of the country shivers through a wet and miserable pandemic pause to normal life, the Northern Territory is refusing to let the lockdown get them down.

Locals have been spotted strolling through the streets of Darwin in bikinis and bathers - while still keeping safely masked up.

And flashing the flesh in the snap shutdown seems to be paying off, with the territory set to re-open when the current lockdown order ends on Friday.

Locals have been spotted strolling through the streets of Darwin in bikinis and bathers while still staying safely masked up (pictured)

While much of the country shivers through a wet and miserable pandemic pause to normal life, the Northern Territory is refusing to let the lockdown get them down (pictured)

Darwin reported no new cases or exposure sites on Wednesday after intense efforts by contact tracers to track down all possible contacts of infected cases.

'We still want to see some results back but having no new exposure sites puts us on a very good footing for 1pm on Friday, predicted NT chief minister Michael Gunner on Wednesday.

'So far the results are on track for where we would like to be for a 1pm lifting.'

And in Brisbane, the lockdown has been a chance for skateboarders to turn the deserted city centre streets into their own giant-sized arena.

In Brisbane, skateboarders have been taking their chance to make the most of the city's deserted CBD streets (pictured here on Wednesday)

The shutdown has proved a godsend for scooter-riders too, with plenty in Brisbane taking to the streets on two wheels (pictured) on the first full day of the city lockdown.

The shutdown has proved a godsend for scooter-riders too, with plenty in Brisbane taking to the streets on two wheels on day one of the city lockdown on Wednesday.

NT looked to be on the verge of a major outbreak when it was hit by six local cases linked to a fly-in fly-out worker at the Tanami Desert gold mine.

The mine and its 700 workers were put into lockdown after the miner arrived from Brisbane having been infected at a Queensland quarantine hotel.

The cluster was linked to an alert in Palmerston when the wife and daughter of another miner tested positive after they went to a Zumba class and a shopping trip.

The scare caused Sunday's snap Darwin area lockdown to be extended for 72 hours until Friday.

The Darwin lockdown (pictured here) has also been a tourist boom for Katherine 300km away, which has seen a mass influx of tourists who were locked out of the NT capital

Tops-off in the Top End as locals in Darwin bask in their Covid lockdown (pictured)

Another miner caused an instant three day lockdown of Alice Springs on Wednesday when it was discovered he had transited through the Red Centre airport on June 25.

He was in the airport for six hours and initially tested negative but has since tested positive, sparking the current alert and local lockdown.

However the early action in the Darwin area seems to be paying dividends - and locals are adapting to the new Covid-normal in their own unique style.

NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has told his officers to fine anyone who is not wearing a mask or breaching the emergency health orders.

NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has told his officers to fine anyone who is not wearing a mask or breaching the emergency health orders. (Pictured here are NT Police enforcing the directive in Darwin on Wednesday)

Impromptu drive-thru takeaway food points have been set up in Darwin under the lockdown, including this one pictured here at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club

One 36 year old man has since been fined for not wearing a mask in a Darwin cafe and a 24 year old Victorian man was fined for failing to lodge an entry form on the territory's Queensland border.

He told police he had been on an epic road trip from Melbourne to Darwin through South Australia and Queensland - and was unaware of the lockdown because he'd had no phone service for 'thousands of kilometres'.

The Darwin lockdown has also been a tourist boom for Katherine 300km away, which has seen a mass influx of travellers who were locked out of the NT capital.

The tiny town of 6,300 population has had to open its showground to campers flooding into the inland town on the edge of Kakadu National Park.

Scooter-riders in Brisbane have been cruising through Covid on two wheels (pictured)

'Weve had a huge influx of people, all our parks are full,' Katherine Town Council Mayor Lis Clark told the NT News. 'We are still getting people in.

'Were taking everyone who needs it, just because every business is booked out and theres nowhere else for these people to go.'
A senior policeman has sparked outrage after an irate customer filmed him buying bread without a face mask in locked-down Brisbane.

The officer bought a packet of crumpets at Mango Hill Bakery, in the Moreton Bay Region of the city's north, about 11am on Wednesday - the day after face coverings were made mandatory in southeast Queensland.

Footage showed the bare-faced cop paying for his food while an angry customer berated him for not following the rules he was supposed to be enforcing.

'No mask in lockdown. One law for police and one law for society,' the video was captioned in a post to TikTok.

Failing to comply with the public health order carries a fine of $200, but the officer did not seem concerned as mask-wearing bakery staffers watched in shock.

Pictured: A police officer at Mango Hill Bakery who was filmed by a customer while he failed to wear a mask in a clear breach of the state's lockdown laws

'Queensland Police at its finest  no mask. Everybody else has a mask,' the man said from behind the camera.

The policeman put his head down and went to leave the store before stopping close to the patron and saying: 'Can I talk?'

Frustrated, the man refused to let the senior sergeant reply and asked him to stand '1.5m away, pal' in accordance with social distancing protocols.

The officer nodded and headed back to his police car, as the customer called after him: 'Come on mate, follow the instructions we've all been given.

'If I didn't have a mask you'd say something to me, wouldn't you? You would, pal.'

Female bakery staff members, who were wearing face masks, were shocked as they watched the scene unfold (pictured)

Staff at Mango Hill Bakery (pictured) confirmed the incident to Daily Mail Australia, but did not comment

Queensland Police confirmed the situation in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.

'A senior sergeant failed to wear a mask inside a local bakery in Mango Hill yesterday at 11am,' it said.

'After the officer was confronted by a member of the public, the officer immediately returned to his vehicle to retrieve his mask and self-reported to senior management.

'The Queensland Police Service's posture has always been to educate and show compassion with the change of Covid-19 Chief Health Officer's directions.'

Mango Hill Bakery also confirmed the incident to Daily Mail Australia, but did not comment further.

Some social media users rushed to defend the officer, claiming he may simply have forgotten.

Pictured: A man in a face mask crossing an empty Charlotte Street in Brisbane on July 1

'Far out poor bloke made a mistake,' one viewer wrote.

'I hope you feel like a hero filming this and trying to shame this man. Police are also human - there may have been a valid medical reason.'

Sunshine State residents can apply for an exemption from the face mask mandate if they have a valid medical condition or disability.

Another viewer wrote: 'No one is perfect. Everyone is tired of wearing masks. he's very patient and just walked away quietly.'

But others shared the customer's rage and said police officers should be held to a higher standard.

'He wouldn't say something to you, he'd book you,' one wrote.

Queensland recorded two new cases overnight on Thursday, bringing the state's total number of infections to 44. Pictured: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

Another agreed: 'They would fine you if you're not wearing a mask - all rules should apply to everyone, but they don't.'

'He walked away quietly because he knows he's in the wrong,' a third added.

Queensland recorded two new cases overnight on Thursday, bringing the state's total number of infections to 44.

One is a close contact of the Portuguese restaurant cases identified last week and is in quarantine, and the other case is a 37-year-old woman who works at the Qatar check-in counter at the International Airport.
Police have released chilling video of the night notorious Gold Coast bikie Shane Bowden was gunned down in the garage of his home.

The CCTV footage of Bowden's last moments at his Pimpama residence on October 12, 2020, were released in the hope the suspects can be identified.

The vision shows Bowden arriving home from the gym around midnight and slowly pulling into his driveaway in his black BMW.

As he does, two men can be seen leaving a nearby vacant lot and then running up Bowden's street, one brandishing a long-arm gun.

The two men follow Bowden into his garage.

In a matter of seconds, they fire 21 rounds from a machine pistol and shotgun before running back to a waiting silver Holden Commodore driven by a third offender.

Detectives are appealing for anyone who may know the identity of the two suspects to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Police Link on 131 444.

Two men are seen running down Shane Bowden's street as he arrives home around midnight on October 12, 2020

One of the men carries a long-arm firearm as they run into Bowden's residence seconds after he drove his black BMW into his garage

The two men fire 21 rounds from a machine pistol and shotgun before running back to a waiting silver Holden Commodore driven by a third offender

Earlier this month, the Queensland Government issued a reward of $250,000 for information leading to the conviction of the person, or persons, found to be responsible for Bowdens murder.

They later released footage showing two men who they believed to be members of the Mongols bikie gang placing an electronic tracking device on Bowden's BMW, weeks before the shooting in his garage.

Bowden, 48, who had defected from the Mongols to rival bikie gang the Finks, had months earlier escaped an attempt on his life in Melbourne and fled to Queensland.

Earlier CCTV footage released by police showed two suspects walking up the street in which bikie Shane Bowden lived, at Pimpama on the Gold Coast, three weeks before he was killed outside his house

One of the men stops and lays on the ground to place a GPS tracker under Bowden's black BMW, police claim

The earlier CCTV footage showed a number of vehicles of interest cutting laps around Mr Bowden's residential complex and surveilling his movements in the three weeks before he was murdered.

'We believe this crime has been committed by members of the outlaw motorcycle gang, the Mongols,' Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith told reporters on Friday.

'This is the extent of their sophistication, that they are using tracking devices and personal surveillance on their victims.'

The suspects lapped Bowden's house a number of time before they approached on foot

Bowden was a Finks MC member before defecting to the Mongols, and then defecting back again shortly before his execution-style murder

Forensic officers at work after Bowden's shooting death at Pimpama on the Gold Coast on October 12, 2020

Det Supt Smith said a recent search at a related crime scene at Fernvale had uncovered important evidence, including electronic devices and a vehicle of interest.

Just last week police also released vision of a blue or silver-coloured Holden Commodore and a maroon-coloured Ford Falcon they believe were used as getaway cars after the execution. They were later found torched.

'We know there was a number of people involved right through from the actual shooters, to the planners, to the leaders, to those involved in providing those getaway vehicles that were burnt out,' Det Supt Smith said.

'This is their opportunity to come forward and seek this indemnity,' Det Supt Smith said.

'Don't be the last one on the bus - it might be too late and you'll find yourself sitting in the dock.'

Bowden was initially a member of the Finks and was part of its 'terror team' jailed over the Gold Coast's so-called 'ballroom blitz' brawl in which three people were shot and two stabbed in 2006.

After his release he defected to the Mongols but was booted out and rejoined the Finks just before he was killed.
Every Australian worker will today get a boost to their superannuation while a pay rise for those on the minimum wage kicks in.

July 1 marks the start of the new financial year and the start of 2021-22 also means an increase in bills, from toll roads to electricity.

Today is also the first day Australians can lodge their tax returns with 10 million people earning up to $126,000 eligible for between $255 and $1,080 in tax cuts.

With more than 12 million Australians in lockdown, those working from home can use the time not spent travelling to the office to sort out some annoying life admin, as the cold weather and Covid restrictions limit leisure opportunities.

Every Australian worker will today see a boost to their superannuation while those on the minimum wage are getting a pay rise. For the first time ever, compulsory employer super contributions will be in the double digits as they rise to 10 per cent from 9.5 per cent. Pictured are women going for a lockdown walk at Bondi in Sydney's east

Superannuation

For the first time ever, compulsory employer super contributions will be in the double digits as they rise to 10 per cent from 9.5 per cent.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia calculated this half a percentage point increase would boost an average 30-year-old worker's retirement savings by $19,000, taking it to $468,000 from $449,000.

Superannuation Minister Jane Hume is lukewarm about raising compulsory employer contributions, arguing it will come at a cost to wages

This is a long way short of the $535,000 they recommend for a comfortable retirement, but well above the $150,000 the Grattan Institute think tank argues is sufficient for a modestly comfortable one - provided you have paid off your home.

Super contributions will increase 0.5 percentage points on July 1 each year until they reach 12 per cent by July 2025 under laws passed in 2014.

Superannuation Minister Jane Hume is lukewarm about raising compulsory employer contributions, arguing it will come at a cost to wages, while her Labor frontbench counterpart Stephen Jones wants super increased to 15 per cent.

That is the level former prime minister Paul Keating wanted in 1992 when he introduced the compulsory employer superannuation scheme.

RateCity research director Sally Tindall, a former adviser to Labor PM Julia Gillard, said Australians needed to read the fine print of their employment contracts to ensure the super increase wasn't coming from their pay.

'If you've negotiated a "package" salary which includes the company's super contributions in the total amount, there's a chance your company will cut your take home pay to fund this super increase,' she said.

From today, workers will be able to put up to $27,500 a year into their retirement savings, up from $25,000, and only pay 15 per cent tax on it.

That is half the usual marginal tax rate of 32.5 per cent for most workers earning between $45,001 and $120,000 a year.

With Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Townsville and Alice Springs in lockdown, minimum wage cafe workers serving takeaway-only orders will get $20.33 an hour. Pictured is a woman hand out food to go at Bronte in Sydney's eastern suburbs

Minimum wage

With Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Townsville, and Alice Springs in lockdown, minimum wage cafe workers serving takeaway-only orders will get $20.33 an hour.

This will see their weekly pay levels increase 2.5 per cent to $772.60, or $40,175 a year - a level less than half Australia's average full-time salary of $89,000.

Business groups were unhappy with the Fair Work Ombudsman decision affecting 2.2 million low-paid workers, arguing it was unsustainable during a pandemic.

Australian wages growth has been stuck below the long-term average of 3 per cent since mid-2013.

The start of the financial year is also a time to add up work expenses, from home offices to briefcases, and lodge a tax return, either online or via an accountant. More than 10million Australians earning up to $126,000 are in line to receive between $255 and $1,080 in tax cuts. Pictured is a Melbourne hairdresser

Tax cuts

The start of the financial year is also a time to add up work expenses, from home offices to briefcases, and lodge a tax return either online or via an accountant.

More than 10 million Australians earning up to $126,000 are in line to receive between $255 and $1,080 in tax cuts.

An extension of last year's low and middle-income tax offset program will give 4.6 million Australians earning between $48,000 and $90,000 a $1,080 tax cut as another 1.8 million people earning $37,000 to $48,000 get back $255.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's May 2021 Budget extended the tax relief program for another year at a cost of more than $7 billion.

The original low and middle-income tax offset was introduced in the October 2020 Budget as Australia recovered from the aftermath of the Covid recession and was initially regarded as a one-off.

Today will also see a quarterly increase on toll roads in Sydney and Melbourne for cars, motorbikes and trucks. A car trip across the M5 motorway (westbound tunnel at Kingsgrove pictured) increases to $4.90 from $4.88

Road tolls

Today will also see a quarterly increase on toll roads in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for cars, motorbikes and trucks.

In Sydney, the driving by car through the Cross City Tunnel will cost four cents more at $5.97.

An Easter Distributor trip to the airport now costs eight cents more for cars, rising to $8.37.

A car trip across the M5 motorway increases to $4.90 from $4.88.

In Melbourne, a 1.04597 per cent quarterly increase will see Citylink Tulla Pass connection to the airport rise to $7.01.

In Brisbane, crossing under the river via the Clem7 tunnel will rise by nine cents to $5.37.

Transurban subsidiary Linkt provides the e-tags for windscreens and sets the prices.

The Australian Energy Market Commission expected electricity prices to actually fall from today before increasing again in 2022-23 a year from now - but only in one part of Australia

Electricity bills

The Australian Energy Market Commission expected electricity prices to actually fall from today before increasing again in 2022-23 a year from now - but only in one part of Australia.

Across Australia on average annual household electricity bills are expected to decrease by an average of 8.7 per cent or $117 by the second half of 2022.

Power companies will be required to resubmit their network tariff proposals to the Victorian government from today.

Victoria's downward trend over 2021 for annual household power bills will result in a 15.2 per cent or $172 average decrease a year by the second half of 2022.

Queensland household power bills will fall by 14.2 per cent a year or $190 by 2022, while in South Australia bills are set to plunge by 10.8 per cent or $203.

In New South Wales household electricity bills will decrease by 2.2 per cent or $29, and in Tasmania they are forecast to drop by 3.6 per cent or $70 by 2022.

The Australian Capital Territory, however, will see an increase of 2.3 per cent per year or $45 by 2022.
A man was wrongly jailed after his ex-wife claimed he had raped her and planted knives in her own letterbox before pretending they had been left by him.

The Melbourne woman in her 30s also claimed her ex had sent texts to her and her friends warning he was going to kill her.

The man, who shares a child with the woman, spent ten days behind bars on charges of rape, which have since been dropped.

The Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard the woman visited multiple Bunnings stores to pick up the knives before placing them inside her own mailbox and pretending her husband had left them as a threat, the Herald Sun reported.

A Melbourne woman claimed her husband raped her and threatened to kill her before pleading guilty to making a false report to police

She has pleaded guilty to two charges of making a false report to police in relation to the knives and text messages, as well as two counts of harassing witnesses.

The woman claimed her ex-husband had threatened to stab her, leading to his arrest in April last year.

She told police she found several knives inside the letterbox on 10 separate occasions and claimed she had CCTV of her ex threatening to kill her - but later said the cameras weren't working.

Police eventually used credit card statements and CCTV footage to prove that the woman had bought the knives herself.

Officers believe a string of texts meant to have been sent from the man to the woman and her friends threatening rape and murder were actually sent by her.

One message said the woman would be 'burnt alive after being raped, beaten and stabbed'.

The same messages also demanded the charges of rape against the husband be dropped.

The man said his ex-wife had ruined his life as he gave a victim impact statement to the court.

Police believe the woman sent messages to herself and her friends pretending to be the man with one reading she would be 'burnt alive after being raped, beaten and stabbed'

He said as a result of being labelled a rapist he'd lost his friends, his job, was unable to see his child and had to bear the pain of seeing his family visit him behind bars.

'Everything I had worked hard for was stripped away from me overnight,' he said.

'I was disabled in society. I was not able to hold my head high.'

Magistrate Peter Reardon said he was shocked to hear the woman had serious charges dropped and demanded an explanation from police.

'I don't think I've seen in all the years of practising law anything so outrageous that's taken place in this sort of proceedings,' he said.

Police prosecutors and the defence agreed upon a community corrections order for the woman.

She will be sentenced next month.
South Australia has recorded no new locally acquired Covid cases after Adelaide Airport was declared an exposure site.

Premier Steven Marshall said it is a 'very positive sign' given the nationwide outbreaks.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said she is feeling 'much more reassured that we have got control of the situation'.

SA reported five new local cases on Wednesday involving a miner who recently returned from the Northern Territory, his wife and three of their children, all aged under 10.

The family was in isolation since the man's return giving authorities some confidence there will be no further community transmission.

Premier Steven Marshall said it is a 'very positive sign' given the nationwide outbreaks

SA reported five new local cases on Wednesday involving a miner who recently returned from the Northern Territory, his wife and three of their children, all aged under 10

However, SA Health is urgently retesting 28 other miners who returned from the same site last week.

They all returned negative results with their first tests.

Prof Spurrier said officials had moved to require anyone on the same Alice Springs to Adelaide flight as the infected miner on Friday, to go into isolation.

More than 100 people who were on board VA1742 have already been contacted with a small number still to be notified.

Checking is also underway to identify any possible contacts at Adelaide Airport and at a suburban takeaway food outlet the man visited on his way home.

Both those locations are considered low risk.

In response to the new cases, SA's transition committee has reduced the number of people allowed at family gatherings to just 10

Professor Spurrier said while the outbreak was regarded as contained at this stage, more work remained to be done and officials did not want the Delta strain of the virus to become widespread in the community.

'What we're seeing with this Delta variant is there's almost a 100 per cent hit rate for close contacts,' she said.

In response to the new cases, SA's transition committee has reduced the number of people allowed at family gatherings to just 10.

Mr Marshall said people were also being advised to work from home where possible, wear masks when out in public, use QR codes, get vaccinated and observe social distancing.

'We can see the consequences of getting this wrong. We don't want a lockdown in South Australia,' the premier said.

Amid reports of panic buying across SA supermarkets, the premier said there was no need for such action.
The office of Vice President Kamala Harris has been rocked by claims that staffers are 'treated like sh**' and that Chief of Staff Tina Flournoy has created 'blame culture.'

Tensions started to boil over after Harris finally decided to visit the border last week, blindsiding staffers, according to a Politico report based on interviews with 22 current and former vice presidential aides, officials and associates.

Sources described a tense atmosphere with low morale and trust, as well as bad communication, according to the outlet.

Flournoy has allegedly created an environment where 'ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out,' the outlet reported. She allegedly 'refuses to take responsibility' and blames staffers for negative results.

Some of the sources told Politico that Harris also is responsible for how her office is run, claiming that the toxic environment 'all starts at the top.'

'People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it's an abusive environment,' said one source.

'It's not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It's not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s**t.'

The sources claimed that even President Joe Biden's office is concerned about the treatment of staff.

Biden, on the day he was inaugurated, warned presidential appointees while swearing them in that he would fire them 'on the spot' if he were to hear that they have shown 'disrespect' others.

'I'm not joking when I say this: If you're ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect or talk down to someone, I promise you, I will fire you on the spot  on the spot. No ifs ands or buts,' Biden said at the time.

The office of Vice President Kamala Harris has been rocked by claims that staffers are 'treated like sh**' and that chief of staff Tina Flournoy has created 'blame culture'

Tensions started to boil over after Harris finally decided to visit the border last week, blindsiding staffers

Tina Flournoy, pictured, has allegedly created an environment where 'ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out'

Harris aides are reportedly already looking to leave the administration while some already have - like staffers Karly Satkowiak and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, who oversaw the vice president's travel.

Satkowiak and DeFranceschi left under what had been described as 'long-planned departures' but sources contested that characterization to Politico.

DeFranceschi, who previously worked in the Obama administration, reportedly left over a 'difference in opinion on how things should run.'

Biden, on the day he was inaugurated, warned presidential appointees while swearing them in that he would fire them 'on the spot' if he were to hear that they have shown 'disrespect' others

'If you have an opinion about how things should run and it's not listened to, that can be frustrating,' the source told Politico.

Harris' chief spokesperson Symone Sanders, pushed back against the claims and called those who made them 'cowards,' according to Politico.

'People are cowards to do this this way,' Sanders said.

She added: 'We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I'm like 'welcome to the club.'

'We have created a culture where people, if there is anything anyone would like to raise, there are avenues for them to do so. Whoever has something they would like to raise, they should raise it directly.'

Sanders also said that Harris 'is focused on the work' and 'not the chatter at the water cooler.'

Harris tours the El Paso Border Patrol Station on June 25 in El Paso, Texas

Harris speaks with El Paso Border Patrol Chief agent Gloria Chavez as she tour the US Customs and Border Protection Central Processing Center

The chief spokesperson also defended Flournoy and said she has an 'open door policy' and that 'black women like me would not have the opportunity to work in politics without Tina.'

Others who spoke to Politico to defend Harris and Flournoy said that black women are held to standards that others in politics are not - and that a 'demanding office environment' would be seen as a virtue for other leaders.

'Look, [Tina's] strong, she's intelligent, she's driven, and she expects strong, intelligent, driven people around her,' said Leah Daughtry.

'But some people may find strong, driven, smart people intimidating, but I think that's more projection than reality because that's just not Tina's intent or style. And nothing in her experience would lead you to think that she's an intimidating person.'

Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president, also defended Flournoy.

Dunn said keeping the border trip news private to a small group of people was made because Harris' office didn't want it to leak or 'turn it into a spectacle,' Politico reported.

'It was closely held and there may be people whose feelings were a little hurt on her staff that they weren't brought into the discussion,' Dunn said.

'But any suggestion that it was mishandled or kept a secret from people who needed to know about the arrangements or needed to know about it is absolutely not true.'

When Politico asked Dunn about complaints in the office, Dunn said complaints were 'not anywhere near what you are describing.'

Flournoy previously worked in the White House under President Bill Clinton and then worked on his reelection campaign, as well as then-Vice President Al Gore's campaign for president in 2000.

She was working as Clinton's post-presidential chief of staff before she was tapped to work for Harris.

One source told Politico: 'People who Clinton knew for decades all of a sudden couldn't get through to him because Tina choked off contact.'

'Because Clinton didn't use email, she was able to keep many [friends of Bill] out,' the source said.

The source added: 'You can't just flat out ignore people and not get back to them.'

A friend of Harris' recently tried to reach Flournoy on behalf of a top Democratic donor but was also ignored, the outlet reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a roundtable discussion with faith and community leaders and local service providers, during a visit to the Paso del Norte Port of Entry on June 25

Vice President Kamala Harris visits the Paso del Norte Port of Entry on June 25 in El Paso, Texas

When they were ignored, the donor then contact Harris' office directly and did not hear back for weeks. They were later told Harris was too busy to meet with them.

The friend told Politico: 'This is someone who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollarsmillions, evenfor your boss and you're just blowing them off?'

'Next time Kamala wants [them] for something, it's like, 'Hey, I couldn't even get a call-back from your chief of staff!',' the friend said.

Some Harris allies explained to Politico that the vice president has 'gone out of her way not to engage in politicking' to prove her loyalty to Biden as it remains unclear if he will run for reelection in 2024.

Other allies explained Harris' apparent strategy of not raising her own profile as 'foolish' for someone who has 'been in public life for 30 years.'

'You don't just all of a sudden go radio silent,' said one former aide.

That former aide indicated that Harris is likely aware of the purported problems in her office.

'She is the most perceptive person on the planet. She might not have first-hand knowledge, but it's hard to imagine she doesn't have a sense of what's going on,' the person said.

The sources who spoke to Politico blamed some of the low morale in Harris' office on the issues she has been tasked with tackling for the Biden administration which made her an early target for conservatives - such as slowing the flow of migrants.

Instead of flying to the border, Harris had flown to the countries where the migrants had come from or traveled through on their way to the United States.

Harris finally visited the border weeks later as her aides insisted she did not make the trek because of criticism she faced. But others claimed she inadvertently seemed to affirm conservative criticism against her with the seemingly impromptu trip.
A teenager facing life in prison after being busted in the AN0M crime sting has been released on home detention over fears he would be in danger if he was kept locked up.

Apostle Broikos, 18, one of the youngest alleged associates of the crime syndicate Operation Ironside, was on May 19 charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug in Yamba, just west of the Victorian-SA border.

Operation Ironside was initiated after the United States' FBI decrypted 'An0m', an online communications platform used by Australian gang figures.

In a three-year collaboration with the Australian Federal Police, the operation resulted in more than 250 arrests across Australia.

Apostle Broikos, 18, one of the youngest alleged associates of the crime syndicate Operation Ironside, was on May 19 charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug

Broikos wearing an ankle bracelet at home in a picture he posted to Snap chat

Broikos' lawyer David Edwardson QC argued his client was in a 'vulnerable position' behind bars due to his young age.

Mr Edwardson said the teenager's parents would provide $20,000 up front as well as a $100,000 guarantee, news.com.au reports.

'This extremely young man is only 18 years of age, is in a very vulnerable position and falls into a completely different category from other alleged offenders,' Mr Edwardson told the court.

'I'm particularly concerned about such a young man in these circumstances.'

Magistrate John Wells on Monday granted Broikos, who lives in Burnside, release on home detention bail.

Prosecutors opposed the application on the basis the teenager he could continue offending 'wholly undetected'.

Australia's world-first Assistance and Access Act passed in 2018 allows intelligence agencies to require tech companies to hand over encrypted messages. Pictured: ammunition seized by police

They sought a Supreme Court review of the decision in a bid for Broikos to remain in custody while he awaits an outcome of the review.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court revealed Broikos could be released on home detention bail.

Mr Edwardson told the court there is still no proof linking Broikos to the alleged manufacture of the drugs.

'We don't know when. We don't know what the substances are, the materials, who makes that assertion - whether it's admissible or not,' Mr Edwardson said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month said the AFP operation, known as Operation Ironside, had struck a 'heavy blow' against organised crime.

'The operation puts Australia at the forefront of the fight against criminals who peddle in human misery and ultimately, it will keep our communities and Australians safe,' he said last week.

'Illicit drug use ruins lives and fuels organised crime.'

Ninja Warrior 2017 contestant Sopiea Kong was among those arrested. The 33-year-old was charged last week following a raid at a Kangaroo Point home, where police allegedly seized 154g of meth.

Kong, who was also allegedly in possession of $2,030 cash and a revolver, was granted bail and will appear in court on June 28.

Former Bachelorette star Samuel Minkin, who appeared on Becky and Elly Miles' season of the dating show, was also arrested and charged with possessing a large commercial quantity of cannabis after police stopped a van in Byron Bay last month.

The alleged offenders are linked to the Australian-based Italian mafia - known as the Ndrangheta - as well as outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian crime syndicates and Albanian organised crime figures.
'The choice was clear': Daily Mail Australia's Daniel Piotrowski, 30, explains why he and many other under 40s visited their GP this week to get the AstraZeneca vaccine

I'm a 30-year-old Sydney man and on Tuesday night I put my life in grave danger: I crossed a busy highway ... and not at the pedestrian crossing.

It was a bigger risk than I took moments later, when my doctor gave me the AstraZeneca vaccine, and with it, a 0.004% chance of a deadly blood clot.

For me, the choice was clear as soon as Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave the nod for under 40s to get the jab on Monday.

My chances of getting Pfizer any time soon were grim. My city, Sydney, is in the grips of the worst outbreak in a year.

And Australia isn't getting out of this cycle of lockdowns, families separated at the border and young peoples' dreams denied until most of us get a shot.

So I made an informed decision to get the first safe and effective vaccine available to me, risking a 1.6 in 100,000 chance of a potentially reversible blood clot.

What did my doctor say? An enthusiastic 'yes! Let's do it.'

Sydney, Australia's biggest city, is in the grips of its first lockdown in more than a year as the Delta Covid strain spreads, with NSW reporting 24 new cases on Thursday

Brisbane has likewise plunged into lockdown as cases spread in south-east Queensland. Above, a masked jogger and a rugged up worker

No matter what Queensland's hysterical premier and chief doctor may say, taking a vaccine approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration is hardly the act of a thrill-seeker.

We all take risks with our health when we drink, smoke, take drugs, exercise not enough or too much.

Likewise when we cross the road, swim in the ocean, bungee jump or walk outside during a thunderstorm.

In fact, the odds of getting a non-deadly clot from AZ are about the same as getting struck by lightning.

Poll Should under 40s get AstraZeneca? Yes, get the first jab you can No, it's too risky Should under 40s get AstraZeneca? Yes, get the first jab you can 385 votes

No, it's too risky 453 votes Now share your opinion





As my doctor said: Most drugs and vaccines come with minuscule risks.

But the chances of complications are so tiny you're unlikely to ever hear about them.

The contraceptive pill causes clots for between 5 and 12 women per 10,000, according to the Department of Health.

It's been freely prescribed for 60 years, with warnings mostly ignored.

Even some life-saving flu vaccines have a possible, extremely rare link to a auto-immune disorder, Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can cause paralysis, my GP fumed.

'The greatest public policy disaster in Australian political history': Australia (at the bottom) has recorded the slowest vaccine rollout of 38 OECD nations, data shows

Meanwhile, the actual official medical advice given about AstraZeneca has been grossly distorted by scaremongering politicians.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations (ATAGI) doesn't say under 40s shouldn't get AstraZeneca.

It simply says, in the a**e-covering language of health bureaucrats, that Pfizer is the 'preferred' option for people younger than 60.

'COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca can be used in adults aged under 60 years for whom Comirnaty (Pfizer) is not available, the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks for that individual and the person has made an informed decision based on an understanding of the risks and benefits,' the advice says.

The odds of getting a clot from AZ are about the same as getting struck by lightning

Why then should a fully informed adult be stopped from taking this vaccine, especially when Australia has the slowest vaccine rollout in the developed world?

The jab is a risk - but a tiny one. Two Australians have died from clots of more than 4.6million doses given.

It's a risk that protects me, my family, friends, colleagues and strangers I pass on the street from a deadly pandemic.

A first shot of AZ can provide a 70 per cent lower risk of hospitalisation due to the Delta variant, said Kirby Institute infectious diseases expert Professor Greg Dore.

The vaccine had its well-reported side effects including 'full on' body aches, chills and fatigue for about 24 hours afterwards

So here I am, one shot down.

Yes, about 10 hours after the jab, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, with full-on body aches, chills and fatigue.

Thirty-six hours later, I'm feeling good.

If I'm very, very, struck-by-lightning unlucky, I could get very sick.

But I know the signs to look for - my doctor told me.

And what's really more risky?

A tiny chance of a fatal blood clot?

Or accepting Australia's current trajectory - where we are doomed to be prisoners of Covid for months or even years to come?

Moment Anna Palaszczuk is called out for incorrect tweet claiming the UK Government WON'T allow under 40s to get AstraZeneca - as she and her under-fire chief doctor are forced to DENY they are anti-vax and fuelling vaccine fears in Australia

By Michael Pickering

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk provides a Covid update during a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has stormed out of a Covid press conference after being questioned about an inaccurate social media post she wrote - as the state records two new local cases of the virus.

The Premier was challenged about a Tweet she posted on Wednesday in which she claimed the UK government wouldn't allow under-40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, a claim that is untrue.

'There is an article that talks about under-40s are to be given an alternative to AstraZeneca,' she responded to the male reporter who probed her.

Most adults under the age of 40 will be given an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to a link with rare blood clots, the BBC had reported.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised a preference for adults aged 30 to 39 without underlying health conditions to receive an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine - where available and only if this does not cause substantial delays in being vaccinated.

It followed a decision on April 7 to offer a preference for adults aged under 30.

Ms Palaszczuk then questioned the credentials of the two journalists.

'You weren't here yesterday either and I actually read from the article,' she said to a male reporter who asked about the tweet. 'I am happy to provide you with a copy of the article.'

The Tweet from the Premier that a journalist claimed was inaccurate and caused Ms Palaszczuk to abruptly end her press conference on Thursday

Ms Palaszczuk described one reporter, Channel Seven's Bianca Stone, as 'rude' in one exchange, and ignored her question.

Ms Stone had Tweeted about Wednesday's press conference in which Ms Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young had attacked the federal Government over its AstraZeneca advice.

'This media conference was disgraceful,' Ms Stone tweeted.

Queensland's Chief Health officer Jeannette Young said this week: 'I dont want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldnt die'

'All attack, no responsibility. The Premier has more media advisors than most newsrooms have journos.'

Ms Palaszczuk relies on an 18-person media team advising her on the daily Covid-19 updates.

Of the new Queensland cases, one is a close contact of the Portuguese restaurant cases identified last week and is in quarantine.

The other case is a 37-year-old woman who works at the Qatar check-in counter at the International Airport. She tested positive on Tuesday, June 29.

'The fact we have seen a large number of testing, plus we are not seeing more widescale community cases is very encouraging,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

'But we're not out of the woods yet, we've got another 24 hours to see what happens... but it is very encouraging news at this stage.'
He also reiterated Beijing's determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under the party's control

He said China had restored order in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in the city in 2019

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China will not allow itself to be bullied and those who try face 'broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people', President Xi Jinping said today in a thinly veiled swipe at the U.S.

Speaking at a mass gathering to mark the centenary of the ruling Communist Party, President Xi emphasised the party's role in bringing China to global prominence and saying it would never be divided from the people.

Wearing a grey buttoned-up suit of the type worn by Mao Zedong, Xi spoke from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate as he bragged that China had restored 'order' in Hong Kong following anti-government protests in the semi-autonomous city in 2019.

He also reiterated Beijing's determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control.

Pictured: Chinese President and party leader Xi Jinping delivers a speech at a ceremony marking the centenary of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing. Xi emphasised the party's role in bringing China to global prominence and saying it would never be divided from the people

Thousands of balloons are released above Beijing's decoareted Tiananmen Square on Thursday over huge crowds present to hear President Xi's speech. Xi received the biggest applause of the event when he described the party as the force that had restored China's dignity after taking power amid civil war in 1949

A national flag-raising ceremony is held at Tiananmen Square during the 100th anniversary celebrations, under huge signs reading the dates 1921 and 2021, and a hammer and sickle - the Communist Party's emblem

A gun salute is fired during a ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China

Pictured: Hundreds of members from China's military band play as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations

Members of a People's Liberation Army ceremonial band march during the 100th anniversary ceremony on Thursday

China has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Communist Party, with events at Tiananmen Square in Beijing (pictured) and across the country

Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen leading other top officials pledging their vows to the party on screen during a gala show ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on June 28

Xi launched preparations for a celebration of 100 years of China's Communist Party behind closed doors at Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium on Monday, boasting that the country has beaten Covid while ignoring the fact it was the source of the virus

He received the biggest applause, however, when he described the party as the force that had restored China's dignity after taking power amid civil war in 1949.

'The Chinese people are a people with a strong sense of pride and self-confidence,' Xi said. 'We have never bullied, oppressed or enslaved the people of another nation, not in the past, during the present or in the future.'

'At the same time, the Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people,' President Xi said.

He did not say what those forces were, but China is enmeshed in a deepening rivalry with the United States for global power status and has clashed with India along their disputed border.

China also claims unpopulated islands held by Japan and almost the entire South China Sea, and it threatens to invade Taiwan, with which the US has boosted relations and military sales.

'The people of China are not only good at destroying the old world, they have also created a new world,' said Xi, arguably China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic. 'Only socialism can save China.'

Chorus members waving their hands ahead of a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Beijing on Thursday

Xi Jinping is seen on a giant screen as he delivers a speech at the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square. Wearing a grey buttoned-up suit of the type worn by Mao Zedong, President Xi spoke from the balcony of Tiananmen Gate on Thursday

People dance as thousands of baloons are released into the sky above Tiananmen Square on Thursday

Thousands of people take part in the 100th anniversary celebrations on Thursday in front of Beijing's forbidden city

Helicopters fly over Tiananmen Square in formation showing number 100 during the celebration of the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Beijing on Thursday

Pictured: Doves are released to the sky at Tiananmen Square during a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party

China is building more than 100 missile silos in the desert, analysts say China has begun construction on more than 100 missile silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles in a desert near the northwestern city of Yumen, experts have said. Researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California have obtained commercial satellite images that they say show the construction of the silos underway. The images show 119 nearly identical construction sites that the analysts say mirror features seen at existing launch facilities for China's arsenal of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, according to The Washington Post. Pictured: Satelite imagery showing the locations of where experts believe China is constructing the silos China is believed to possess a relatively low stockpile on nuclear weapons (when compared to the U.S. and Russia), so the new silos could represent a significant up-scale in warheads. However, China has been known to build decoy silos in the past. Such a tactic was used by the U.S. in the Cold War, moving its ICBMs between silos to ensure the Soviets would never know their exact location. The construction suggests China is aiming to bolster the credibility of its nuclear deterrent, researcher Jeffrey Lewis told The Post. A satellite image shows one of the construction sites, where the site appears to be hidden under a 230-foot cover 'If the silos under construction at other sites across China are added to the count, the total comes to about 145 silos under construction,' Lewis said in a summary of his findings to the newspaper. The director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies said 'We believe China is expanding its nuclear forces in part to maintain a deterrent that can survive a U.S. first strike in sufficient numbers to defeat U.S. missile defenses'. He added that the silos are likely intended to hold the Chinese ICBM known as the DF-41, which can carry multiple warheads as far as 9,300 miles. This potentially puts the U.S. mainland in its reach. Commercial satellite image shows one of the suspected sili sites in China, near the northwestern city of Yumen Advertisement

In comments widely seen as directed at the U.S., Xi also said he would not allow 'sanctimonious preaching' from foreign powers, as China faces criticism over the pro-democracy crackdown in Hong Kong and the detention of millions of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Relations between the China and the U.S. in particular have worsened in recent years over the issues of trade, espionage and the origins and subsequent lack of transparency over the pandemic. The U.K., India and Australia are among other nations to find themselves at the end of Chinese warnings.

The issue of Taiwan is also increasingly becoming a major source of tension between China and foreign powers. While democratic Taiwan views itself as a sovereign nation from China, Beijing sees it as a breakaway province.

Under the United States' own laws, it is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself should Beijing opt to use force to take the island back.

In his Thursday speech, Xi said China maintains its 'unshakeable commitment' to unify Taiwan.

'No one should underestimate the resolve, the will and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity,' he said, adding that realising China's complete 'reunification' is an 'unswerving historical task' of the party.

'All sons and daughters of China, including compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must work together and move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any 'Taiwan independence' plots,' he said.

Regarding Hong Kong and Macau, Xi said China will 'stay true to the letter and spirit of the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems',' under which the two are promised a high degree of autonomy.

However, a sweeping national security law imposed on Hong Kong a year ago has seen Beijing drastically tighten its grip on the once freewheeling financial hub.

The traditional July 1 protests marking the anniversary of the city's 1997 handover to Chinese rule were thwarted as police denied permission for a rally, citing coronavirus restrictions.

China, whose rapid military modernisation has fuelled growing worry among its neighbours and in the West, will build up its armed forces to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development, elevating them to world-class standards, Xi said.

'We must accelerate the modernisation of national defense and the armed forces,' said Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, which controls the country's armed forces.

Tang Renwu, a professor of public management at Beijing Normal University, said the tough talk was in response to U.S. and western efforts to 'contain' and 'suppress' China.

'Xi's stronger-than-usual response would have the effect of invoking even more patriotic and nationalistic sentiment among the Chinese people,' Tang said.

In a ceremony of pomp and patriotism, Thursday's celebrations began with a flyby of fighter jets and helicopters observed by the nation's leaders, seated at the southern ramparts of the Forbidden City.

Thousands of singers, backed by a marching band, belted out stirring choruses including 'We Are the Heirs of Communism' and 'Without the Communist Party there would be no New China' as maskless invitees cheered and waved flags in a packed Tiananmen Square, famous for the crackdown on student protesters in 1989.

A fly-by of helicopters in formation spelling '100' - a giant hammer and sickle flag trailing - and a 100-gun salute followed, while young communists in unison pledged allegiance to the party.

The Chinese Communist Party initially recruited peasants and workers but has evolved to embrace markets and entrepreneurship under 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' while retaining a Leninist model of authoritarianism.

Party ranks swelled by 2.43 million in 2020, the largest annual gain since Xi became president in 2013, to 95.15 million members now, data released on Wednesday showed.

A 60-year-old teacher surnamed Wang who was photographing the overflying jets from a park on Thursday said he has much admiration for the party.

'Whether it's chairman Mao, or Deng Xiaoping, or today's leaders, it's not easy for them - if you brought foreign leaders here and show how they manage 1.4 billion people, making sure they all have food to eat and a good life, it's truly not easy.'

Participants standing under a large hammer and sickle and the dates 1921 and 2021 - the year the Communist Party was founded - wave national and party flags as balloons are released at the end of the event

A member of China's military raises a flag during a ceremony in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Thursday. The events at Tiananmen Square capping weeks of performances and exhibitions nationwide to mark the milestone

Pictured: A flag-raising ceremony held during a celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Square

Balloons are released during a ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China at Tiananmen Square

Members of the military band perform ahead of a grand gathering celebrating the Communist Party of China (CPC) centenary at Tiananmen Square in Beijing

Chinese military marching band members walk through Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday

Chorus members perform ahead of a grand gathering celebrating the Communist Party of China (CPC) centenary at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday

Participants in the celebrations stand in front of the southern ramparts of the Forbidden City, where a large portrait of Mao Zedong has been hung below the balcony where president Xi and other Communist Party officials

Members of a People's Liberation Army ceremonial band sit next to drums with '100' on them at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party on July 1

A Chinese military band prepares for celebrations in Beijing on July 1, 2021, to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party

Pictured: People wave Chinese flags as Chinese honour guards march through Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Thursday

Pictured: A flag is brough across Beijing's Tiananmen Square for the central flag raising ceremony

Members of the Chinese military orchestra sit on Tiananmen Square during the celebration marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party

Xi and the Communist Party are riding high as China recovers briskly from the Covid-19 outbreak and takes a more assertive stand on the global stage

Thursday's celebrations began with a flyby of fighter jets and helicopters observed by the nation's leaders and the thousands of participants in the celebrations

Helicopters fly in formation making the sign 100 over Tiananmen Square during the celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on July 1

Military aircraft fly over Tiananmen Square during celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party

Among the sights at the huge event in Tiananmen Square was a military flyover of helicopters, with some carrying the party's infamous hammer and sickle emblem

Xi closed his speech by leading two crowd-rousing cheers: 'long live the CCP that is great, glorious and right', and 'long live the people who are great, glorious and heroic'.

Twenty years before the Republic's proclamation, Mao and a clutch of Marxist-Leninist thinkers in Shanghai founded the party which has since morphed into one of the world's most powerful political organisations.

It now counts around 95 million members, garnered over a century of war, famine and turmoil, and more recently a surge to superpower status.

Party ranks swelled by 2.43 million in 2020, the largest annual gain since Xi became president in 2013, to 95.15 million members now, data released on Wednesday showed.

On Monday, Xi presided over theatrical performances at the Bird's Nest National Stadium in a show attended by thousands and that state media described as 'epic'.

At the end, the audience rose to sing a song, 'Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China.'

Xi has cemented his eight-year rule through a personality cult, ending term limits and declining to anoint a successor. He has purged rivals and crushed dissent - from Uyghur Muslims and online critics to pro-democracy protests on Hong Kong's streets.

Under him the party has pivoted to new challenges; using tech to renew its appeal for younger generations - 12.55 million members are now aged 30 or younger - while giving a Communist finish to a consumer economy decorated by billionaire entrepreneurs.

The youth 'grew up in a period of China's continuous high economic growth, they see their own living standards and China's gradual strengthening as inevitable,' said Wu Qiang, an independent Beijing-based political analyst.

'They have little to no memory of famine or autocracy, they even have no memory of freedom.'

Xi Jinping waves next to Premier Li Keqiang and former president Hu Jintao at the end of the event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, on Tiananmen Square. During the hawkish speech, Xi reiterated Beijing's determination to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control

Xi Jinping waves above a giant portrait of late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong, along side other Chinese Communist party officials, at the end of the event marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party now counts around 95 million members, garnered over a century of war, famine and turmoil, and more recently a surge to superpower status

People watch an elaborate light show on the Bund promenade in front of Shanghai's towering skyscrapers

Weeks of performances and exhibitions nationwide, including in Shanghai, are culminating today in Beijing's Tiananmen Square

In its 100th year, the party has delivered a selective version of history through films, 'Red' tourism campaigns and books, which dance over the mass violence of the Cultural Revolution, famines and the Tiananmen Square student crackdown

The party has driven attention towards China's rebound from Covid-19, which started in the central city of Wuhan, but has been virtually extinguished inside the country

In a speech on Tuesday, Jinping (pictured) urged all party members to 'firmly keep the loyalty and love for the party and the people close to one's heart, turn that into action, dedicate everything, even your precious life, to the party and the people'

Late Chinese leader Mao Zedong is displayed on screen during a gala show ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on Monday

Performers in the role of rescue workers gather around a Communist Party flag during a gala show ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on Monday

100 years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) July 23, 1921: Founding of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai 1927: The Nationalist government kills thousands of Party members in Shanghai, triggering what would become a civil war. 1931: Japanese invasion in northeast China begins 1934-35: Encircled by Nationalist troops, the CCP sets out on the Long March through China, to set up a base in Yan'an, northwest Shaanxi province 1937-45: Japanese attack at the 'Marco Polo Bridge' in Beijing launches intensification of invasion and brutal occupation that lasts until 1945. 1945-49: Civil war and years of fighting with the Nationalists end with the victory of the Communists October 1, 1949: Mao Zedong declares founding of the People's Republic of China 1950-53: China fights US-led UN forces in the Korean war 1958: The Great Leap Forward  ended in disaster, with as many as 45 million people dying in famine March 1959: Rebellion in Tibet is crushed, Dalai Lama and followers flee to India 1962: Sino-India border war 1964: China detonates its first nuclear bomb 1966: Cultural Revolution: A decade of chaos in which young radicals wages a campaign of terror against 'counter-revolutionaries' 1971: Beijing takes Taiwan's seat at the UN as the officially recognised government of China 1972: US President Richard Nixon makes landmark visit to Beijing Sept 1976: Mao dies; his wife Jiang Qing arrested as one of the 'Gang of Four' blamed for the Cultural Revolution 1978: Deng Xiaoping becomes paramount leader; launches 'reform and opening up' to transform the economy June 4, 1989: The army crushes Tiananmen Square protests, killing hundreds, possible more than 1,000 June 24, 1989: Jiang Zemin becomes head of the party 1997: Death of Deng, Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule 2001: China joins the World Trade Organization 2002: Jiang is succeeded by Hu Jintao 2003: Yang Liwei becomes China's first man in spac March 2008: Anti-Chinese riots in Tibet crushed by security forces August 2008: Beijing hosts the Olympic Games July 2009: Nearly 200 people killed in ethnic violence in Xinjiang, according to the official toll 2012: Xi Jinping assumes leadership 2015: Communist Party replaces one-child policy with two-child policy 2018: The rubber-stamp parliament votes to abolish presidential term limits, paving the way for Xi to rule for life 2018: A UN panel cites estimates that upwards of 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslim minorities are held in internment camps 2019: Hong Kong in turmoil after months of violent pro-democracy protests June 30, 2020: Implements the National Security Law for Hong Kong, curtailing powers of legitimate dissent in HK July 2021: CCP celebrated 100th anniversary Advertisement

In its 100th year, the party has delivered a selective version of history through films, 'Red' tourism campaigns and books, which dance over the mass violence of the Cultural Revolution, famines and the Tiananmen Square student crackdown.

Instead, it has driven attention to China's rebound from Covid-19, which started in the central city of Wuhan, but has been virtually extinguished inside the country.

But reminders linger of the risks to stability.

Thursday also marks the 24th anniversary of the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to China, a date once met with mass demonstrations against Beijing.

One year ago, China imposed a draconian national security law on the city in response to huge - often violent - protests.

The measure has seen more than 64 activists charged, anti-China slogans criminalised and even the closure of a critical newspaper as the law sinks the once freewheeling city into what Amnesty International calls a 'human rights emergency'.

Police have denied requests for demonstrations in the city, although several pro-democracy groups have vowed to defy a 10,000-strong police presence on the streets.

'The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) can go to hell,' a Hong Konger who gave his name only as Ken told AFP. 'Anything that's worthwhile, they destroy.'

Police sealed off Victoria Park - until recently the site of annual pro-democracy rallies marking the 1997 handover - and put up flags warning people that they could be prosecuted if they enter or remain in the enclosed area. They said there were online calls encouraging people to take part in an unauthorized protest.

The security law was implemented one year ago as authorities cracked down on dissent in Hong Kong after the territory was rocked by massive anti-government protests in 2019.

Critics say Beijing has reneged on a promise to keep the special privileges for Hong Kong for 50 years - the autonomy of its courts and legal system, civil liberties that include a free press, freedom of speech and the leeway to take to the streets to protest.

Praising the law, Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee said Thursday the national security law stipulates that human rights are respected and allows residents to enjoy freedom of the press and free assembly.

However, large-scale demonstrations have been banned and a number of pro-democracy activists and journalists have been arrested, ceased public activities or have left Hong Kong.

For two years in a row, authorities banned an annual June 4 candlelight vigil commemorating the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and the July 1 handover protest, citing pandemic social distancing restrictions.

Police have arrested seven journalists and executives of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was a vocal critic of Hong Kong and China's governments. Authorities also froze $2.3 million in assets linked to Apple Daily, forcing it to cease operations last week.

Even as authorities claim that social stability has returned to Hong Kong, some residents opt to leave the city for greener pastures. Holders of the British National Overseas passport, which was issued to residents before the 1997 handover, are now eligible to move to the U.K. on special visas.

In recent days, long lines of passengers have thronged the check-in counters of airlines flying to the U.K.

Among them was Serena Leung, who booked a flight to Britain on Wednesday with her two daughters aged 5 and 7.

'I think that the U.K.'s human rights situation, freedom and education are better than Hong Kong,' the 40-year-old said. 'Although the U.K. is not a perfect country, we still have confidence that it will stay well over the next 10, 20 years. But I don't have any confidence in Hong Kong, it will only get worse and worse.'

Activist Alexandra Wong, also known as Grandma Wong, is taken away by police while protesting on the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain, in Hong Kong on Thursay

Pictured: Pro-China supporters hold Chinese flags in Hong Kong to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule. The celebrations in Beijing came as China also marked the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese control

The celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party coincided with the 24th anniversary of the British handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Pictured: Acting Chief Executive, John Lee, and senior government officials attend a flag-raising ceremony

One year ago, China imposed a draconian national security law on the city in response to huge - often violent - protests

Chief Secretary for Administration John Lee Ka-chiu arrives for the flag-raising ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule, on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in Hong Kong, China July 1
This could be the ultimate prize for a toilet paper panic-buyer during Covid-19 lockdown.

Brenden Wright from Townsville in north Queensland has filled his 'skill tester' machine with dozens of rolls of toilet paper.

The 'Toy Soldier' machine costs just $2 to play with users receiving three attempts to maneuver the steel claw to try and grab a roll.

Prankster Brenden Wright, from Townsville filled his skill tester machine (pictured) with toilet paper, inviting his friend over to win a precious roll for $2 per turn

A picture shows dozens of rolls stacked on top of stuffed toys in a subtly attempt to mock hose who panic-bought the item.

'It started off as a joke between friends about toilet paper shortage,' Mr Wright told the Townsville Bulletin.

'They all think it's hilarious and a great idea. You just have to look at the bright side of life during these uncertain times'.

'As they say a day with out laughter is a day wasted'.

With millions of Australian's in Covid-19 lockdown across the country, panic buying has swept through supermarkets.

The hottest items on shelves have been toilet paper, with some major supermarkets forced to introduce strict buying limits.

This is not the first time a prankster has filled an arcade machine with toilet paper to make fun of panic buyers.

The original prank (pictured) took place in an Adelaide shopping centre in March 2020, as people continue to mock people who have been stockpiling supplies

A Coles supermarket is stripped bare after another spate of panic buying

Chevelle Prokop, 19, spotted the precious commodity this week inside one of three games in Victor Harbor shopping centre, 83km south of Adelaide.

Ms Prokop told Daily Mail Australia she thought the jest was hilarious and 'the most Aussie thing she'd ever seen'.

'Since the coronavirus is going around, it's great to see someone go out of their way to make people laugh,' Ms Prokop said.
Furious Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles has publicly questioned why at least 30,000 foreigners have been permitted to fly into Australia during the pandemic - before demanding an urgent reduction in returning travellers.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday morning, Miles said the state has no way of knowing the extent of the risk posed by almost 200 international travellers who entered the Sunshine State on Wednesday.

'We don't know how many of them were vaccinated, nor do we know if some have Covid-19,' Miles said.

'We also have little information about why they were permitted to travel.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles (pictured) is worried about overseas travellers to Australia, stating 'we don't know if they have been vaccinated, nor do we know if they have Covid-19' in an explosive press conference

A fruious Miles voiced his concerns about the number of return travellers in Australia during the pandemic (pictured travellers heading to hotel quarantine after a flight from Qatar)

'As we said, there are 189 people now in hotel quarantine [after being overseas] from Wednesday.

'We have also put over 100 domestic arrivals into hotel quarantine, including 51 from Darwin, 43 from Perth and 41 identified close contacts of existing positive cases.

'Within our existing hotel quarantine at capacity, we now only have 140 rooms available today [Thursday].

'It just further reiterates the need for an urgent reduction on returning travellers, as we can't ensure they all have been vaccinated.'

On Wednesday, Miles and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk blamed the federal government for letting an unvaccinated traveller go back and forth from Australia to Indonesia, saying the country is 'not genuinely closed' to foreigners.

Miles said it was 'farcical' for Canberra to claim borders were closed when the Morrison government let in 20,000 'non-Australians' last month alone.

But Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews hit back, accusing Miles of misrepresenting Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

She instead offered 'correct' Australian Border Force data showing that 'on average 80 per cent of returning travellers are either Australian citizens, permanent residents, or immediate family members'.

'What Premier Palaszczuk and her deputy Stephen Miles are doing is trying to create a distraction from their own quarantine failures,' she said.

The Queensland Government also dug its heels in against the AstraZeneca vaccine, contradicting advice from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said anyone under 40 could ask their GP for it.

'I do not want under 40 to get AstraZeneca, because they are at increased risk of getting rare clotting syndrome,' Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said.

'I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn't die.'

Data from the Department of Home Affairs showed more than 10,000 travellers entered Australia to visit friends, go on holiday or for business trips in April.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is at loggerheads with PM Scott Morrison, offering different advice to those aged under 40 in the Sunshine State

NSW, south-east Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia are all currently in lockdown due to the pandemic (pictured a woman crossing a deserted Charlotte St in Brisbane)

The development comes as an estimated 34,000 Australian citizens remain stranded abroad.

The data also revealed thousands of people are entering Australia each month for non-essential purposes, such as 'taking a holiday' or 'work business conferences.'

'The borders are not genuinely closed and these travellers are displacing Australians who are genuinely stranded overseas,' Miles said.

He had the backing of WA Premier Mark McGowan.

'Some [travellers] are legitimate but the vast majority of people going overseas, in my view, shouldn't have,' he said.

'I think we need to take a much tougher approach with people going overseas, particularly to Covid-ridden countries and then bringing it home.'

According to the Australian Border Force, between March 2020 and the end of May this year, 156,507 Australian citizens and permanent residents were granted exemptions to depart Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has burned Barnaby Joyce for his coronavirus breach as he defended AFL players' inept mask wearing.

West Coast and Fremantle stars shared a plane from Perth to Melbourne on Tuesday, with several players slammed for not correctly wearing their masks.

In his coronavirus press conference on Wednesday, McGowan dismissed the criticism of the Eagles and Dockers teams, saying they didn't 'do a Barnaby Joyce'.

'I don't think what they have done is any great offence,' he told reporters. 'I understand that people make mistakes and I just urge them to wear the mask properly.

'It is not like they have done a Barnaby Joyce. I think they have made a mistake and they should just wear it properly in the future.'

Rival AFL players from Fremantle Dockers (left) and West Coast Eagles (right) were on the same chartered flight to Victoria on Tuesday

In his coronavirus press conference on Wednesday, McGowan dismissed the criticism of the Eagles and Dockers teams, saying they didn't 'do a Barnaby Joyce'

Mr McGowan was referring to the deputy prime minister copping a fine for failing to wear a mask at a petrol station earlier this week.

Mr Joyce was fined $200 after a fellow motorist spotting him walking inside to pay for his fuel bare-faced, which police confirmed from CCTV.

The WA premier didn't stop there, repeatedly referring to 'doing a Barnaby Joyce' and hinting at a number of other past indiscretions for the Nationals leader.

'I don't think they have done a Barnaby Joyce in many ways,' he said. 'Saying someone's done a Barnaby Joyce could mean many things.'

It's the second time this week Mr McGowan has publicly slammed Mr Joyce after his fellow Labor minister Jackie Jarvis called him an 'embarrassment to Australia' in WA Parliament.

The Deputy Prime Minister was reported to police by a member of the public while filling up at a petrol station in Armidale, in northern NSW

'Barnaby Joyce is an embarrassment to Australia,' McGowan said. 'He should not even be in Federal Parliament, let alone the Deputy Prime Minister of this country'

'Went in, 30 seconds later... two hundred bucks it cost me because I didn't wear one of these. That's life,' Joyce told Alan Jones

Mr Joyce was reported to police by a member of the public while filling up at a petrol station in Armidale, in northern NSW.

The local resident called Crime Stoppers to report 54-year-old after he was inside the store for less than a minute.

Officers checked the petrol station's CCTV after being called to the site, before they confirmed he was not wearing protective gear and issued the penalty.

Joyce was fined $200 for failing to wear a mask while indoors, as is mandatory across the state.

Mr Joyce called his brief Covid breach a 'funny story' when he relayed it to Alan Jones on Sky News.

'You'll like this story. I went into the Caltex service station. I was going to the airport. I forgot to get fuel for Biggie, fill the car up with fuel,' he said.

'Went in, 30 seconds later... two hundred bucks it cost me because I didn't wear one of these. That's life.'

West Coast Eagles players (pictured) chatted amongst themselves on one side of the plane compared to the minimal interaction between Fremantle players on the other

West Coast end Fremantle players spent several hours waiting on the tarmac before boarding

West Coast and crosstown rivals Fremantle fled on Tuesday after Perth and the surrounding Peel area was plunged into a four day lockdown late Monday night due to new community coronavirus cases.

All but two of the 18 AFL teams are now based in Victoria as large swathes of the nation battle to control fresh virus outbreaks.

Western Australian based players were given little notice to pack and farewell loved ones before heading the airport, where they spent several hours waiting on buses on the tarmac before boarding a chartered Virgin flight.
Covid-19 conspiracy theorist Eve Black has pretended to be a journalist in her latest bizarre court outing.

Black, whose real name is Eugenia Limberiou, went viral in July last year by filming herself driving through a Melbourne police checkpoint in defiance of lockdown laws.

The 28-year-old had logged into the video court hearing from her new home in Queensland, after she fled Victoria shortly after her arrest.

Eve Black (pictured) caused national outrage after filming herself driving through a lockdown blockade in Melbourne last July

Black shows her contempt for a Melbourne magistrate who released details of her alleged crimes. She had been represented by a man with a parrot at an earlier court hearing

Black became a national disgrace after performing the stunt and uploading the video to Facebook.

She was dramatically arrested days later in Carlton, inner Melbourne, by police who were allegedly forced to smash in her car window.

On Thursday, Black logged into the Melbourne Magistrates' Court video hearing under the name Eugenia Limberiou.

When asked by the court coordinator to confirm what matter she was there for, Black responded: 'I'm media.'

The Covid troublemaker has made no secret of her contempt for the mainstream media since her antics last year went viral.

Black continued to confuse the court when she refused to activate her camera, which is usually required of those attending court via video link.

'That's alright, you can hear me,' she told the magistrate.

Just moments earlier, a man wearing a black Che Guevara beret with yellow star, sunglasses and a Batman cape had streamed in live to the court from his caravan.

Black has pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to provide her details to police when they pounced on her in Carlton.

She will now face a contested hearing in September where she is expected to represent herself.

Court documents reveal police allege Black locked herself inside her car and refused to comply with directions when they found her in Carlton on July 29.

The officers claim she filmed them on her mobile phone before they were forced to smash their way into the vehicle and arrest her.

Black has been documenting her new religious journey online (pictured), revealing she is living with nuns 'to get closer with God

She eventually complied after spending some time in the back of a divisional van.

In August, it was revealed Black had appeared in raunchy photographs on stripper website Chase Strippers.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews lashed out at the Black at the time, declaring the Covid restrictions were not about human rights.

'This is about human life', he said.

Mr Andrews' takedown of Black came at a time when coronavirus deniers were making life hell for police and shop workers trying to enforce compulsory mask wearing.

Black had gloated in a Facebook video about making it through a Melbourne COVID-19 roadblock without telling officers where she was going.

After that video went viral, she tried the same trick again in the inner-city suburb of Carlton but was far less successful.

Eve Black in her now infamous ride through a police checkpoint last year in Victoria

Eve Black mocked QR code check-ins during an hour-long interview

The Covid denier now claims she is on a path to religious enlightenment and has spent time with nuns to build her relationship with God.

Black had made a bizarre court appearance in March in which she was represented by a man named 'Zev Secured Party Creditor'.

'Zev' had appeared with a noisy parrot that squawked throughout the hearing.

Black later claimed Zev was simply looking after the bird and paid credit to his legal know-how in the courtroom.

Speaking to Melbourne 'alternative' online news site WilmsFront on March 25, Black mocked people who felt the need to check into public venues with QR codes.

'It doesn't appear to be enforced too seriously,' Black told Tim Wilms from Queensland. 'I certainly don't take it very seriously. You can decipher whatever it is that means for you.'

Black went on to laugh at concerned citizens who did check into venues in the belief it would help contact tracers limit the spread of the deadly virus.

An irate Black lashed out at Judicial Registrar Alison Paton, who released information of her alleged offending to Melbourne journalists at her previous hearing.

Black performed an 'up yours' salute to Ms Paton, who was thankfully absent from Thursday's proceedings.

'Of course they're paid off, they're all on the same team, blah blah blah, the magistrate said "no I do think it's important the public know this",' Black told Wilms.

Black claimed 'Zev' had torn the magistrate a 'new one' during the hearing.

'He knew exactly what he was talking about,' she said.
Mass vaccination centres will be set up across NSW to deliver up to 200,000 jabs a week, as the state scrambles to avoid another crippling Covid-19 outbreak.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Thursday morning that huge vaccine hubs with large supplies of Pfizer will be built in Sydney CBD, Macquarie Fields in the city's south-west, and in Wollongong.

The Sydney City clinic will be set up near public transportation hubs and open for extended hours to cater to CBD workers.

New hubs will be in addition to the centre at Sydney Olympic Park, and another in the Hunter Region which is due to open within a few weeks.

Outside the big cities, 22 pharmacies will start giving AstraZeneca to people over 60 in regional areas who have limited access to doctors and Covid clinics.

Pictured: Health care workers leaving the vaccination hub at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. Additional vaccine hubs are being established

Pictured: Emergency services and health workers receive their Covid-19 vaccination at the Olympic Park Vaccination Centre in Sydney

The pilot scheme will start on July 19 in small towns including Gulgong, Narromine, Walcha, Dungog, Dunedoo, and Merriwa.

Pharmacists will receive mandatory training before administering doses to the public.

Ms Berejiklian said the new centres were a 'vital step' to curtail the number of infections in the state, which increased by 24 on Thursday.

'In NSW we have a sense of urgency about getting jabs in arms, because once the vast majority of our population is vaccinated, we can start a conversation about reaching a "Covid-normal" state,' she said.

'We know that some of these communities have limited local access to general practitioner services and having these pharmacies involved will assist with the phased rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine to these communities.'

Pictured: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a press conference on Thursday, July 1

More than 2.2 million doses have been administered in the state so far. Pictured: People lining up for the jab in Sydney

More than 2.2 million doses have been administered in the state so far, with 850,000 of those through NSW Health.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there was significant demand for vaccination bookings across NSW and the regional hubs will make it easier for everyone to get their jab.

'I want to reassure the community that everyone in NSW who wants to be vaccinated, will be vaccinated as soon as possible when it's their turn,' he said.

Those trying to get the jab, even with an appointment, in Sydney are waiting more than four hours at hospitals and the Olympic Park vaccination centre.

More centres and avenues to get immunised will reduce these lines, and allow far more people to get through a day once new doses arrive.

More than two-thirds of Australians have been placed under new lockdown rules. Pictured: People line up to be vaccinated at a mass coronavirus vaccination hub

Australia's rollout has been hamstrung by supply issues and health advice that scared off millions from getting the AstraZeneca shot due to fears of very rare blood clots that only killed two people across the nation.

The deaths came after 3.8 million took the AstraZeneca vaccine, meaning a death rate of one in 1.9 million.

By comparison, Australians have a one in 33 chance of dying if they catch Covid-19, a one in 12,000 chance of being struck by lightning, and a one in 45 million chance of winning Oz Lotto.

More than two-thirds of Australians are under lockdown as cases of the Indian Delta variant flared up across the country.

With less than six per cent of the population fully vaccinated and the more infectious strain on the loose, Australia's vaunted 'zero Covid' strategy - which allowed its economy to get back up and running last year - is on precarious ground.

About 18 million Australians, 70 per cent of the population, are under some form of lockdown restrictions after cases of the Delta variant leaked out of quarantine hotels in Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Sydney.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under fire for the glacial vaccine rollout. Pictured: Queues outside at a mass COVID-19 vaccination hub in Sydney

Underlining the importance of jabs this week, it emerged that six vaccinated healthcare workers were the only guests at a 'super spreader' house party who did not contract the virus in Sydney two weeks ago.

Thirty people attended the birthday bash in the West Hoxton suburb, with 24 of the guests contracting the Delta variant, which led to numerous further contacts being traced across the city.

Mr Morrison, who is under fire for the glacial vaccine rollout, constant 'circuit breakers' and brutal border restrictions, chaired a national security committee on Monday before announcing that all care home workers must have a vaccine.

The PM also ordered mandatory jabs for anyone working, either directly or indirectly, in quarantine hotels - including airport private hire drivers.
Sydneysiders have taken to decorating telephone poles with Covid stickers after leaving hospitals dotted around the city.

Hundreds of coloured stickers have been stuck to poles outside St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Camperdown.

Those that have had no need to visit hospitals in recent times were perplexed by the recent trend, which started after Covid first hit the city.

When visitors enter Sydney hospitals to visit a patient they are asked a set of Covid-related questions to sign in, before being handed a sticker if deemed low risk.

The admittance sticker colour changes daily to prevent people from coming back the following day without checking in, prompting an influx of old stickers to be discarded on traffic light poles.

Hundreds of coloured stickers have been stuck to poles outside St Vincent's (pictured) in Darlinghurst and Royal Prince Alfred in Camperdown

Dozens of Sydneysiders have taken to social media to admit they joined in on the growing trend. Pictured: Outside RPA in Camperdown

Dozens of Sydneysiders have taken to social media to admit they joined in on the growing trend.

'I contributed about 30 to a similar pole near RPA 12 months ago when my other half was admitted,' one user wrote.

'You should see the walls near the car park at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital,' wrote another.

'Have to find some joy in this somewhere,' a third comment read.

Others reported seeing dozens of stickers on traffic lights near the vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park.

NSW has recorded 24 new local Covid cases on Thursday as Premier Gladys Berejiklian admits the virus is 'continuing to circulate' in the community, despite a 14-day lockdown.

The 24 new local cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday came from almost 60,000 tests and included a student nurse - revealed on Wednesday - who worked at Fairfield and Royal North Shore hospitals in Sydney.

Another nurse at RNS - a close friend of the student nurse - has also been diagnosed with the virus, affecting several wards.

Ms Berejiklian said 12 of the 24 reported cases were out in the community while infectious, which was concerning.

NSW has recorded 24 new local Covid cases as Premier Gladys Berejiklian admits the virus is 'continuing to circulate' in the community, despite a 14-day lockdown

'People going about their business, shopping and interacting with others is causing the virus to continue to circulate,' she said.

'In too many examples, we are seeing workers who are leaving the house with symptoms or going to work and then inadvertently as they are going about shopping or other activity, they are passing it onto others.'

Ms Berejiklian also announced that mass Covid vaccination hubs would be established in Wollongong and Macquarie Fields as well as another clinic in Sydney's CBD, while another hub in the Hunter regions was already underway.

It's hoped the new hubs will boost the number of jabs administered to 200,000 a week and enable authorities to dramatically ramp up vaccinations once supply increases.

The Bondi cluster at the centre of Sydney's outbreak now numbers 175 and the total number of cases since the outbreak began on June 16 now stands at 195.
Bill Cosby found out he was being freed from inmates in jail before celebrating his return home with pizza - as he prepares to 'tell his story' on tour.

Cosby, 83, returned home Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction three years into his three- to ten-year sentence for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.

His publicist Andrew Wyatt told the New York Post that the disgraced comedian heard about the ruling from other inmates at the state prison in Montgomery County where he was housed and that he is 'excited' about the turn of events.

'I just heard the inmates knocking on the walls and the cell and said "Bill, you're free Bill! You're free, Bill",' Cosby said, according to Wyatt. 'I didn't know what was going on.'

Bill Cosby, pictured, found out he was being freed from inmates in jail and celebrated his return home with pizza and will now 'tell his story' on tour

Cosby was welcomed outside his home after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction and ordered him released from prison immediately

Bill Cosby, center, listens to members of his team speaks with members of the media outside his home in Elkins Park on Wednesday. Wyatt is pictured left

Andrew Wyatt, second from right, is pictured with Bill Cosby and his lawyer Jennifer Bonjean after he arrived home

Wyatt, who spoke to the outlet outside of Cosby's suburban Philadelphia mansion, said the 'Cosby Show' star planned to feast on salmon, collard greens and a pizza with fresh basil and mozzarella.

'He wants to have a crunchy pizza and just the taste of it,' Wyatt said.

Wyatt claimed that, since his release, Cosby has been been receiving phone calls offering congratulations from actors including Faizon Love and Terrence Howard, who had previously accused Cosby of trying to blacklist him from the industry.

Love, known for playing Big Worm in the film Friday, has repeatedly defended Cosby through allegations that he had drugged and raped more than 30 women.

Cosby reportedly wants to 'enjoy this taste of freedom' and plans to 'immediately' hit the road performing again, Wyatt told the Post.

'He will get back on the stage, on many stages across this country, and he will be telling his story,' Wyatt said.

'You will see a documentary coming out soon. You will see a book coming out soon. There's a lot of great projects that's gonna be coming out soon.'

Bill Cosby gestures a peace sign outside his home in Elkins Park on Wednesday after being released from prison

Wyatt claimed to the New York Post that Cosby had been given 'vindication' with the court's decision.

'It's a beautiful day, not just for Bill Cosby, because this is about all Americans, making sure that they get justice,' Wyatt said. 'This is all God's work.'

Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era after he was found guilty of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.

His conviction was seen as a turning point in the movement to hold powerful men accountable for sexual misconduct.

Bill Cosby is greeted outside his house after Pennsylvania's highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction and ordered him released from prison immediately

Bill Cosby, center, and spokesperson Andrew Wyatt approach members of the media gathered outside his home

The split court found that Cosby was unfairly prosecuted because the previous district attorney had promised the comedian once known as 'America's Dad' that he wouldn't be charged over Constand's accusations. Cosby was charged by another prosecutor who claimed he wasn't bound by that agreement.

The court said that's not the case. The justices found that Cosby relied on that promise when he agreed to testify without invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a lawsuit brought against him by Constand.

The court concluded that prosecutor who later brought the charges was obligated to stick to the nonprosecution agreement, so the conviction cannot stand.

The justices wrote that 'denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade'.
The airport limousine driver who sparked Sydney's Covid outbreak has recovered from the virus but can't return to work until he is vaccinated.

The 60-year-old and his wife are finally allowed to leave their apartment in Bondi after two weeks in isolation from his positive test on June 15.

He caught the Indian Delta variant while ferrying Fed Ex air staff to hotel quarantine and unknowingly spread it to a 50-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman in the eastern suburbs.

We are recovered, I'm feeling great,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

The airport limousine driver (pictured) who sparked Sydney's Covid outbreak has recovered from the virus but can't return to work until he is vaccinated

Covid cluster in Sydney rose by 24 on Thursday, bringing the total to 195. Pictured: Health workers register people for Covid-19 tests at Bondi

However, the driver has not returned to work yet because he needs to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

'I need to register and need to be vaccinated in order to get back to work. I am not sure when yet,' he said.

Having refused refused AstraZeneca because of a family history of blood clots, he added: 'I'm hoping for Pfizer.'

Government policy enacted in response to him triggering the outbreak requires anyone working with quarantined or international arrivals to be vaccinated.

If a worker does not comply, employers can be fined up to $11,000.

He was not legally required to be vaccinated at the time he caught the virus, but said he was wearing a face mask during the ill-fated trip from the airport on June 11.

People working around the hotel quarantine system were asked to present for daily Covid testing, but the driver admitted he had not been tested on his days off.

Upon leaving their eastern suburbs home, the husband and wife visited a grocery store and Bondi Post Office.

However, the driver has not returned to work yet because he needs to be vaccinated against coronavirus. Pictured is a woman getting her jab at St Vincent's Hospital clinic in Sydney

The 60-year-old and his wife are finally allowed to leave their apartment in Bondi after two weeks in isolation from his positive test on June 15

'It's my first day out of the house and I'm enjoying myself,' he said. He is afraid to reveal his identify and risk extreme public backlash and even physical harm.

The infection was caught when testing resumed when he returned to work - but he was already out in the community for several days before getting the positive test result.

During that time, he had fleeting contact with a man in his 50s in Myer at Westfield Bondi Junction who latest tested positive.

Later that week, a woman in her 70s also caught it while sitting outside Belle Cafe as the driver walked past her to get inside.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was quick to slam him in a press conference by blaming 'people in and around the system who think complacency is okay'.

'It's not okay. We know it and we feel it and we will get to the bottom of it,' she said.

The Sydney Airport driver caught the Indian Delta variant while ferrying Fed Ex air staff to hotel quarantine

The infected limo driver believed to be 'patient zero' claims vividly remembered another customer in his 30s sat near to him at the Belle Cafe in Vaucluse (pictured) who was violently coughing and sneezing

She then dodged questions about why the driver was unvaccinated, saying: 'Obviously we will have more to say about that once police have completed their investigations.

'Everybody in NSW who works in our systems know their obligations, and we certainly look forward to providing certainty around what occurred in this situation.'

Police launched an investigated to determine whether the driver was in breach of public health orders, but the probe was dropped on Saturday.

'[On Friday] I advised we had sent the case for urgent external legal advice due to the significance of this outbreak and the community concern,' Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said.

'I can now confirm we have received advice that there is insufficient evidence to establish that either the limousine driver or his employer breached any public health orders.'

Two weeks after the limo driver was infected, Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) announced that Sydney would enter a two-week lockdown on Saturday

Despite his contact with international flights crews, the driver has fervently denied claims by NSW Health that he was patient zero of Sydney's outbreak.

He insisted he caught coronavirus from a 'coughing man in his 30s' at Belle Cafe in Vaucluse instead.

His claim was dismissed on Saturday by NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant, who said their investigations had found no evidence to support his story.

On Nine's A Current Affair last week, the driver said he feared for his life after he was blamed for sparking the current outbreak.

Reporter Lauren Golman said: 'He says he sanitises his car in between passengers. He wants to look after his own family - he has a wife and daughters and three grandchildren.

'He wants to keep everyone safe, not to mention the wider community.'

On Saturday evening, Sydney was plunged into a two-week lockdown in an attempt to quash the city's growing number of cases.

The Bondi cluster grew to 195 on Thursday.
Donald Trump called on Republicans to get rid of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell  and revealed he has made up his mind about whether to run for the White house in 2024.

Speaking with Sean Hannity at a Fox News town hall in Edinburg, Texas  near the U.S.-Mexico border  on Wednesday, the former president said, 'Well we need better leadership in the Senate level. You need better leadership. We need someone better than Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell could no longer do the job.'

Trump appeared on the Hannity-hosted town hall after going on a tour of the unfinished border wall with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Much of his discussion with Hannity revolved around border security and how his plans are changing under President Joe Biden.

Trump blamed Biden and what he called liberal RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) for the recent surge in border crossings. Hannity pointed out how Democrats want to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants, but claimed that some Republicans want illegal immigration for cheap labor.

Donald Trump recently slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell while speaking with Sean Hannity at a Fox News town hall in Edinburg, Texas

Trump called out 'weak Republicans' and said the GOP needed someone better than McConnell

Hannity asked Trump if he made up his mind about running in 2024, to which the former president said, 'yes'

Trump added, 'And you have RINOs. You do have RINOs . . . You don't have any RINOs in this group, but you have RINOs. I call them weak Republicans.

'They walk into the White House, I've been watching it for four weeks now, they walk in, they meet Biden  he doesn't know what the hell is happening  they meet Biden, he's sitting, and they're talking about infrastructure and finally they walk out and they have a deal.

'And the deal is a terrible deal, but it's a deal. And it sort of reminds me of England a long time ago  'We have a deal! We have a deal!'  You remember the deal they made with Germany?

'Not too good. That didn't work out too well . . . so they have a deal and then Biden cancelled the deal because the radical left said, 'you can't make that deal. That deal's not good. We want to spend $6 trillion.'

Trump was referring to President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, which Biden revised after liberal Senator Bernie Sanders said he would not support it without a second, $6 trillion measure for 'human' infrastructure.

Perhaps the most celebrated part of the town hall was when Hannity asked Trump about his future plans, to which the audience roared with applause. Hannity then asked the crowd, 'Would you like to see the president run again in 2024?'

Then, to Trump, he said, 'You're not gonna answer, but I have to ask . . . have you made up your mind,'

Once the applause died down, Trump said 'yes,' and the crowd cheered again.

On May 20, Trump said he was 'very strongly considering' running for president again during an interview with the conservative talk show host Joe Pags.

'Everybody wants me to do it, the polls are all saying I have to do it,' Trump said. He added that he would most likely announce his final decision right after the 2022 midterm elections.

If Trump were to run, it would reignite tension between him and McConnell. The two used to work hand in hand, but their relationship came to a halt after McConnell made clear that he would not go along with Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and asserted that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

'We're debating a step that has neve been taken in American history, whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election,' he said on the Senate floor, after Rep. Paul Gosar and a batch of GOP senators, including Sen. Ted Cruz, objected to Arizona's Electoral College vote count.

'If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side our democracy would enter a death spiral,' he added. 'We'd never see a whole nation accept an election again.'

The divide between Trump and McConnell grew wider in February after the senator voted to acquit Trump of inciting the Capitol riot but then blasted his conduct in an excoriating speech.

Trump and McConnell used to work hand in hand, but their relationship came to a halt after McConnell made clear that he would not go along with Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election

The divide between Trump and McConnell grew wider in February after the senator voted to acquit Trump of inciting the Capitol riot but then blasted his conduct in an excoriating speech

McConnel said: 'There is no question former President Trump bears moral responsibility. His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unhinged falsehoods he shouted into the world's largest megaphone. His behavior during and after the chaos was also unconscionable, from attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to praising the criminals after it ended.'

In response, Trump wrote a statement through his Save America PAC that read, 'Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.' He also also accused McConnell of 'destroying' the GOP and urged the party's senators to end his leadership.

The former president blamed McConnell, whose office sits steps from where a large group of rioters were arrested on January 6, for causing the loss of two GOP Senate seats. Many GOP consultants and some elected officials have blamed Trump's own election overturn effort for costing the party control of the Senate.

'The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political 'leaders' like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm,' Trump began in a letter with his new stationary as the '45th President of the United States.

'McConnell's dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from Majority Leader to Minority Leader, and it will only get worse,' he wrote.

'The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddlethey've never had it so goodand they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell's Beltway First agenda or Biden's America Last.'
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has snapped at a 'rude' reporter who challenged her about her stance on Australia's Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Ms Palaszczuk and the state's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young came under fire on Wednesday for contradicting Prime Minister Scott Morrison's advice by telling Queenslanders under the age of 40 not to get the AstraZeneca jab.

The Queensland premier also claimed she had tried to secure extra Pfizer vaccines only to have her request turned down by the federal government.

On Thursday, she refused to answer Channel Seven reporter Bianca Stone after she referred to Ms Palaszczuk's comments as a 'publicity stunt'.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has snapped at a 'rude' reporter who challenged her for telling residents in her state under the age of 40 not to get the AstraZeneca jab

'You had this publicity stunt yesterday where you had your chief health officer get up and say "we've tried to get to get more Pfizer vaccines",' Ms Stone said.

Ms Palaszczuk interrupted the reporter to say 'sorry, I dont know your name' before adding she hadn't seen the reporter before at one of her coronavirus press conferences.

'Bianca Stone,' the reporter said.

'Hi Bianca,' the premier replied.

Ms Stone said she was from Seven breakfast's show Sunrise, the show Ms Palaszczuk appeared on that morning.

'Well, I'm not going to answer people being rude,' Ms Palaszczuk responded. 'You are being very rude. Anyone else with a question?'

Ms Stone had on Wednesday tweeted about the day's press conference in which Ms Palaszczuk and Dr Young attacked the federal Government over its AstraZeneca advice.

'This media conference was disgraceful,' Ms Stone tweeted.

Channel Seven reporter Bianca Stone (pictured) had referred to Ms Palaszczuk's comments about the AstraZeneca vaccine as a 'publicity stunt', prompting the Queensland premier to shut down her question

'I'm not going to answer people being rude,' Ms Palaszczuk responded. 'You are being very rude. Anyone else with a question?'

'All attack, no responsibility. The Premier has more media advisors than most newsrooms have journos.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday evening announced anyone over the age of 18 could immediately request the vaccine, which has been linked to incredibly rare incidents of blood clots.

On Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk was also challenged about a tweet she posted on Wednesday in which she claimed the UK government wouldn't allow under-40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The claim is false.

'There is an article that talks about under-40s are to be given an alternative to AstraZeneca,' she responded to the male reporter who probed her.

Most adults under the age of 40 will be given an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to a link with rare blood clots, the BBC reported.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised a preference for adults aged 30 to 39 without underlying health conditions to receive an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine where available - but only if doing so does not cause substantial delays in being vaccinated.

It followed a decision on April 7 to offer a preference for adults aged under 30.

Ms Palaszczuk then questioned the credentials of the two journalists.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk provides a Covid update during a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday

The Tweet from the Premier that a journalist claimed was inaccurate and caused Ms Palaszczuk to abruptly end her press conference on Thursday

A masked woman at Surfer's Paradise beach on the Gold Coast during the first day of lockdown in south-east Queensland yesterday

'You weren't here yesterday either and I actually read from the article,' she said to a male reporter who asked about the tweet. 'I am happy to provide you with a copy of the article.'

Of the two new Queensland cases on Thursday, one is a close contact of the Portuguese restaurant cases identified last week and is in quarantine.

The other case is a 37-year-old woman who works at the Qatar Airways check-in counter at Brisbane International Airport. She tested positive on Tuesday, June 29.
Sunseekers have flocked Queensland beaches this week despite a three day lockdown in the Sunshine State triggered after a hospital worker with Covid took a holiday to Magnetic Island.

Residents of south-east Queensland, Townsville, Magnetic Island and Palm Island are required to stay-at-home except for four essential reasons - and while outdoor exercise is allowed, sunbathing is not considered essential.

Pictures show from Wednesday show thousands of people gathering on Noosa beaches at the Sunshine Coast and on the Gold Coast's iconic esplanade and beaches, many camped out on beach towels or browsing shops.

Noosa, Queensland was in lockdown on Wednesday but that didn't stop crowds turning out to sunbathe on main beach (pictured)

Fines apply for those breaking the public health orders, with police on Wednesday warning they would be out looking for those flouting the rules.

'That is very disappointing,' Queensland Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters.

'It is really quite clear the purposes why people can leave their residences, going to lie on the beach and getting a suntan is not one of them.'

He explained police talked to many of those out on the beaches and gave them the chance to comply, which they did.

'Nonetheless, there are taskings [on Thursday] and if we can't get compliance on our beaches, we will have to start working with councils and start putting barricades up,' he said.

He added those going out to exercise also need to wear a mask and stay within their local area.

South-east Queensland famous tourist beaches at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Noosa fall under the three-day lockdown ending at 6pm on Friday.

Thousands of people also were out on the Gold Coast on Wednesday (pictured) and while exercise is allowed, sunbathing or browsing shops is not

Sunbakers in south-east Queensland on Wednesday (pictured) enjoyed the beach but authorities have warned they could be fined

Locals can only leave their house to shop for essential items, work or study if they cannot do so at home, to exercise, and to get health care including vaccinations or provide healthcare.

Queensland is dealing with five separate virus outbreaks, including three involving the more contagious Delta strain.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says one of the two new cases announced on Thursday is linked to the Portuguese club cluster, while the other is a Qatar Airways check-in desk worker at Brisbane Airport.

The discovery of a low number of new local cases, after more than 28,000 tests, is encouraging for Queenslanders hoping the lockdown will finish as originally scheduled.

'We've still got another 24 hours to go to see what happens over the next 24 hours, and we'll update you tomorrow in relation to whether or not we can leave that lockdown,' premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

A woman talks on the phone on the beach at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, on Wednesday (pictured)

'But like I said, it is very, very encouraging for us, at this stage.'

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the Qatar Airways worker had been symptomatic since Sunday, meaning she'd been infectious in the community since last Friday.

The woman in her 30s lives with another person, who is also being tested.

The worker visited an Officeworks in North Lakes, a Coles supermarket at Murrumba Downs and was a regular at Anytime Fitness in Griffin.

Dr Young said the woman likely contracted the virus at the airport, where she was checking in passengers while being exposed to flight crew members.

Barricades could be installed on beaches at the Gold Coast (pictured on Wednesday) if crowds continue to turn out to sunbathe

'We don't always know which of them are positive, which is why I really and truly insist people must wear masks at the international airport, and our domestic airports, that is really critical,' she said.

While she is confident about each of the state's COVID incidents individually, Dr Young said managing all of them simultaneously 'is a lot' and 'we'll just have to see how we go'.

As well as the Portuguese club cluster, the airport worker and a hospital receptionist, the state is managing the case of a worker who returned from an NT mine and potential contacts of a Virgin crew member onboard several flights while infectious.
Former Fox News host Ed Henry who was fired over rape accusations has sued Suzanne Scott, the network's CEO, claiming she 'defamed him as a sex criminal' while hiding an affair between company president Jay Wallace and an employee.

The lawsuit, which was filed in US District Court in New Jersey, named Scott and Fox News as defendants and seeks an unspecified amount of damages to be determined by a trial.

Lawyers for Henry wrote in the lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, that Scott said the former host 'was guilty of unspecified sexual misconduct' when she knew he had been 'falsely accused of rape or serious sexual misconduct by a former Fox News employee' - which would soon become public.

'Ms. Scott sandbagged [Henry] with her statement, lending credence to the false allegations because she was trying to save her own career and burnish her image as a tough, no nonsense female executive who cleaned up Fox News,' the lawsuit reads.

Henry alleges that he was used as 'an instrument' and 'scapegoat' to cover up the existence of sexual misconduct at Fox News and divert attention away from Scott's 'own sordid history' at the network.

Former Fox News host Ed Henry who was fired over rape accusations has sued Suzanne Scott, the network's CEO, claiming she defamed him 'as a sex criminal'

Henry accused Scott, left, of using him as a 'scapegoat' to hide an affair between company president Jay Wallace, left, and an employee. The lawsuit does not reveal who Wallace allegedly had an affair with

In the lawsuit, lawyers for Henry pointed to a statement from Fox News President Jay Wallace, which he made on July 1, 2020.

Henry's lawyers wrote that the statement referred to a June 25, 2020 draft of a complaint that 'falsely accused' Henry of raping former Fox Business producer Jennifer Eckhart.

'[Henry] had never sexually harassed or assaulted Ms. Eckhart, and Ms. Scott had no reason to believe that he did,' the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit notes that before the allegations were revealed, Fox News had said that 'no one had ever complained' about Henry before Eckhart.

'Ms. Scott had every reason to know that Ms. Eckhart was lying about [Henry's] alleged misconduct because he voluntarily provided texts, emails, and photographs proving that Ms. Eckhart had lied about [him],' the lawsuit reads.

'Ms. Scott also knew that Ms. Eckhart was lying about the reasons for her termination from Fox.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Eckhart for more information and additional comment about Henry's lawsuit.

In statements provided to DailyMail.com, a Fox News spokesperson said the network had 'conducted a thorough independent investigation into Ed Henry.'

'As we stated one year ago, FOX News Media conducted a thorough independent investigation into Ed Henry immediately after we were made aware of a serious misconduct claim against him by a former employee,' the statement reads.

'Based on the results of those findings, we promptly terminated Mr. Henry's employment for willful sexual misconduct and stand by the decision entirely.'

The statement continues: 'We are fully prepared to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations as Mr. Henry further embarrasses himself in a lawsuit rife with inaccuracies after driving his personal life into the ground with countless extramarital affairs in a desperate attempt for relevance and redemption.'

In the lawsuit, lawyers for Henry pointed to a statement from Fox News President Jay Wallace, which he made on July 1, 2020

In a post made to Twitter, Eckhart blasted Fox News for the statement  which had also been provided to the Hollywood Reporter. Eckhart wrote that the network 'conveniently left out' the serious rape allegations.

Henry, meanwhile, blasted Fox News for the investigation it had conducted into the allegations, calling the investigation a 'sham' that 'lasted less than a week.'

The lawsuit alleges that Henry had a 'consensual affair' with Eckhart that started in 2014 and 'had ended in early 2017' which was 'more than three years before Ms. Eckhart levied the false accusations.'

Henry then made accusations in the lawsuit that Scott had covered up an affair between Wallace and a subordinate employee 'while he was still married.'

'Worse still, Mr. Wallace had demonstrated favoritism toward his subordinate lover, and he was investigated by Fox News' Human Resources Department for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate,' the lawsuit reads.

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox News employee who accused Henry of raping her, has addressed the lawsuit on Twitter

The lawsuit does not name the employee whom Wallace is accused of having the affair with.

'That investigation obtained unequivocal evidence confirming Mr. Wallace's illicit relationship and favoritism, but the incident was intentionally covered up by Ms. Scott, who, and incredibly, boasted in her July 1, 2020 Statement about her efforts toward 'full transparency given the many actions we have taken to improve the culture here over the last four years'.'

A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement provided to DailyMail.com that 'FOX conducted a full and independent investigation of the claims against Jay Wallace  he was cleared of any wrongdoing and the allegations are false.'

The lawsuit also pointed to a story in the Daily Beast which described Scott as a 'lieutenant' for the late Roger Ailes - who resigned from Fox News in July 2016 after he was accused of sexually harassing employees including Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly.

'As the story alleges, Ms. Scott enabled and covered up sexual abuses committed by former Fox News' CEO Roger Ailes while she served as one of his top lieutenants, while the pattern of cover-ups, and her willful participation in doing so, continued after her promotion to Fox News CEO,' the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit reads that Scott and Fox News 'knowingly created the false impression' that Henry 'had done something far more sinister than Mr. Wallace, Mr. Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and a host of former Fox News employees and executives who were quietly terminated or allowed to resign.'

The lawsuit also takes shots at Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media mogul who owns and runs the Fox News empire and other global news outlets.

'Ms. Scott's motivations for scapegoating Plaintiff were clear: At the time Ms. Eckhart made her false allegations against Plaintiff, Ms. Scott was hoping to be promoted to another position within the media empire of Rupert Murdoch,' the lawsuit reads.

'According to a March 2, 2021 article in the Australian Financial Review, Lachlan Murdoch is the heir apparent to his father Rupert, and he had 'grown weary of the relentless controversies surrounding Fox News'.'

The lawsuit added: 'Ms. Scott was willing to do anything to keep the Murdochs happy, and for that reason she was trying to distance herself from the many controversies surrounding Fox News.'

According to the lawsuit, 'the duplicity of Ms. Scott and Fox News is not limited to matters of sexual misconduct.'

'As control of the company shifts from the aging Rupert Murdoch to his more liberal children, the company has increasingly tried to walk both sides of the left-right political divide,' the lawsuit reads.

'The Murdoch children want to appease their left-leaning social circles, but they also want to keep raking in tens of millions of dollars from Fox News' right-of-center leaning audience.

'Thus, their love-hate relationship with former President Trump and the network's conservative viewers. Ms. Scott wanted to appease the Murdoch heirs and keep her job, thus the motivation for her duplicity toward [Henry.'

The Fox News spokesperson defended Scott's tenure at the company in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'Under the leadership of CEO Suzanne Scott, FOX News Media has worked tirelessly to transform the company culture, implementing annual, mandatory in-person harassment prevention training, creating an entirely new reporting structure, more than tripling the size of our HR footprint, conducting quarterly company meetings and mentoring events, as well as executing a zero tolerance policy regarding workplace misconduct for which we engage outside independent firms to handle investigations,' the statement reads.

'No other company has enacted such a comprehensive and continuous overhaul, which notably, earned FOX News Media recognition as a 'Great Place to Work' for the first time in its existence, a testament to the many cultural changes that Ms. Scott has instituted during her incredibly successful tenure as CEO.'

The news of the lawsuit came after the New York City Commission on Human Rights fined Fox News $1 million, the largest penalty in its history, for violations of laws protecting against sexual harassment and job retaliation.

As part of a settlement agreement announced Tuesday, Fox also agreed to mandate anti-harassment training for its New York-based staff and contributors and to temporarily drop a policy requiring people who allege misconduct to enter into binding arbitration.

The penalty stems from an investigation that began in 2017 following several reports of what the commission called 'rampant abuse' at the popular news and opinion outlet.

The first indication of problems at the channel came in 2016 when former anchor Gretchen Carlson charged that now-deceased network chief Roger Ailes had made unwanted advances and derailed her career when she rejected him. Both Ailes and former Fox personality Bill O'Reilly lost their jobs over misconduct allegations.

Several other women have come forward with lawsuits and their own harassment allegations, including former Fox anchor Megyn Kelly.

The $1 million fine groups four separate 'willful and wanton' violations that each carried a maximum penalty of $250,000. The commission would not identify the people involved in those cases, or whether there were more.

Human rights officials said they hoped the large penalty would deter bad behavior at any workplace.

'If people would dare to break the law and discriminate or harass people, there will be stiff penalties they would have to pay,' said Carmelyn Malalis, chairwoman of the city Commission on Human Rights.

Fox has characterized the cases as the product of a previous regime and said the network has cleaned up its act under the leadership of Suzanne Scott, current CEO of Fox News Media. The commission said it did not interview anyone who came forward after Scott took over in 2018.

'We are pleased to reach an amicable resolution of this legacy matter,' Fox said in a statement.

'Fox News Media has already been in full compliance across the board, but cooperated with the New York City Commission on Human Rights to continue enacting extensive preventive measures against all forms of discrimination and harassment.'
The historic heatwave ravaging the Pacific Northwest has sparked out-of-control wild fires that torched the small Canadian village of Lytton, British Columbia just days after it recorded the country's hottest temperature ever - 121F.

The village's mayor Jan Polderman, who ordered the village of less than 300 people to evacuate Wednesday, said it took 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to 'all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere.'

'It's dire. The whole town is on fire,' Polderman told CBC.

'At the First Nation band office, the fire was a wall about three, four feet high coming up to the fence line. I drove through town and it was just smoke, flames, the wires were down.'

There's been no official report on fatalities connected to the Lytton fires, but Mayor Polderman told CityNews1130 'it would be a miracle if everyone made it out alive.'

'There were all sorts of houses on fire. People were frantic to get out,' he said.

At least 20 structures are so-far reported to have been destroyed in the small village, which sits around 170 miles north east of Vancouver.

Edith Loring Kuhanga, a school administrator of the Stein Valley Nlakapamux School on First Nations land directly north of Lytton posted a picture of the fires and smoke to Facebook late Wednesday.

'Our poor little town of Lytton is gone,' she said. 'This is so devastating. We are all in shock! Our community members have lost everything.'

Out-of-control forest fires decimated the small British Columbia village of Lytton in Canada following three consecutive days of record-breaking heat

Smoke from wildfires in the Sparks Lake area of British Columbia rise into the sky

Lytton in British Columbia was consumed by flames on Wednesday evening - one day after experiencing the hottest weather ever recorded in Canada -121F

The village of Lytton - which has a population of 300 - was ordered to evacuate by mayor Jan Polderman at 6pm PST Wednesday. He said the situation caused by the fire was 'dire'

The sweltering temperatures are being caused by a heat dome of static high-pressure hot air which traps the heat in one location

British Columbia's chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 'sudden and unexpected deaths' between Friday and Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the Canadian province over a five-day period

But officials fear the multi-day heatwave may have caused around 400 deaths across the US and Canada.

British Columbia's Chief Coroner, Lisa LaPointe, said her office received reports of 486 'sudden and unexpected deaths' between Friday and Wednesday.

She told AP that around 165 people would normally die in the province over a five day period - raising the specter of 321 deaths caused by the heat.

Vancouver Police Sergeant Steve Addison, whose city also sits within the same province, added: 'Vancouver has never experienced heat like this, and sadly dozens of people are dying because of it.'

As the village of Lytton and the rest of British Columbia try to come to grips with the devastation of their homes and loss of life, B.C. Premier John Horgan offered little relief; instead choosing to blame the victims.

'Fatalities are a part of life,' Horgan said on Tuesday. 'It was apparent to anyone who walked outdoors that we were in an unprecedented heatwave and there's a level of personal responsibility.'

The 'heat dome' responsible for the unprecedented weather in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest region of the US settled over British Columbia.

The phenomenon is caused by a high-pressure jet stream, which essentially acts like a lid to a boiling pot.

The heat dome has baked Lytton and the surrounding areas and created the country's hottest temperatures ever three consecutive days starting with 115F on Monday, 118F on Tuesday and 121F on Wednesday.

Lytton - a small village in British Columbia - broke Canada's temperature record three consecutive days, topping off at 121F (49.5C)

Temperatures are expected to drop below triple digits starting Thursday, according to AccuWeather, and hover in the 90s for the rest of the week.

While cooler than the unprecedented temperatures, the 90-plus degree heat far exceeds the usual 60F to 70F weather normally seen in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia at this time of year.

Lytton and the surrounding area remains on fire Thursday, with 78 active fires in British Columbia, according to the BC Wildfire dashboard, with 51.3 percent of the fires suspected to be caused by lightning.

Of the current 78 fires, 55 are classified as 'new' and six are 'out of control,' according to the BC Wildfire dashboard.

As of 10:35pmPST, Lytton's mayor told Castanet that it was unclear at this time if everyone escaped.

DriveBC, which provides information on driving conditions in the province, reported that two wildfires closed highways to the north and south of Lytton.

Smoke is rising from wildfires at Long Loch and Derrickson Lake in Central Okanagan, British Columbia

Around 20 buildings have so far been destroyed by the blaze. It is unclear if anyone was injured

The wild temperatures are stretching from the US west coast up to Canada where records have now been broken for three days in a row

The nearby city of Merritt opened a reception center for Lytton evacuees, city officials said on Twitter Wednesday night.

British Columbia has been hit by two separate wildfires - a 15 square mile blaze near Kamloops Lake, which has forced the evacuation of 160 homes.

And a 20 square mile fire is burning in Lillooet, with four helicopters drafted in to help battle that blaze.

Cities in the US also saw record-breaking weather - including Portland, where the mercury hit 116F.

That is hotter than any temperature ever recorded in well-know American hotspots including Los Angeles, Dallas and New Orleans.

Oregon and Washington, including Seattle, which saw 108F weather, have now begun to cool down.

Smoke rises from a wildfire in McKinley Lake, British Columbia

Mayor Jan Polderman says he told everyone to leave Lytton, a community of some 250 people, as the situation rapidly deteriorated

The 'heat dome' that's wrecking havoc in the British Columbia is directly related to dozens of deaths in the US and causing wildfires to rage in California.

The largest of the fires, the lightning-sparked Lava fire in Siskiyou County in northern California, forced the evacuation of at least 8,000 residents Monday afternoon and expanded to almost 20,000 acres by Thursday, according to the interactive California wildfires map.

Only 19 percent of that fire is contained, according to the map.

The region's death toll continues to climb. Oregon has tied 60 deaths to the heat, with a another 20 suspected fatalities recorded in Washington.

'This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people,' Dr. Jennifer Vines, the Multnomah County, Oregon, health officer said in a statement. 'I know many county residents were looking out for each other and am deeply saddened by this initial death toll.'

King County Medical Office, which includes Seattle, reported Wednesday that 13 people had died of heat-related causes, including three men, aged 51, 75, and 77, who had been killed by heat stroke.

Extreme heat is particularly dangerous for the elderly and vulnerable. Most homes in the Pacific Northwest do not have air conditioning, because the region is so unused to such hot weather.

Meteorologists say the heat wave was a once in a millennium event.

It was caused by a wide, deep mass of high pressure air that parked itself over the Pacific North West because of a wavy jet stream.

That high pressure area acted like a lid - or heat dome - trapping hot air inside, so temperatures get higher and higher.

The phenomenon has seen air conditioners sell out, triggered rolling blackouts in Spokane, Washington - and left locals praying for rain.
Dramatic footage has emerged of a man being dragged out of a Sydney shopping centre by a handful of police for refusing to wear a face mask.

The video, from Parramatta Westfield in Sydney's west on Wednesday, shows the anti-masker arguing with a series of officers before he was forcibly escorted from the venue.

Visibly stunned shoppers looked on as he was removed by four uniformed police.

Following his arrest, the man told 7News he didn't 'want to' wear a face mask - despite Health Orders requiring everyone to wear them indoors.

The incident unfolded at Parramatta Westfield in Sydney's west on Wednesday where a man refused to wear a face mask in a public setting

Following his arrest, the man said he 'didn't want to' wear a mask and that he was 'standing for the truth'

'I didn't want to wear a mask. I am actually standing for the truth,' he said.

'You know, the birds are not even dying. The birds are in the sky, they're not even dying.'

Police are issuing fines of $200 across Australia for people failing to wear face masks without a valid reason.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was fined by NSW Police earlier this week for failing to wear a mask, in breach of public health orders.

Officers from New England Police District were called to a petrol station in Armidale, in the NSW northern tablelands, after being tipped off by a 'concerned' member of the public that Mr Joyce was not wearing a mask.

Police confirmed Mr Joyce was issued with a $200 fine at 8am on Monday.

In Darwin on Wednesday, an 'arrogant' cafe patron was fined $5,000 after he claimed the 'Constitutional Act of Britain' meant he was exempt from wearing a mask.

Britain famously does not have a written constitution.

The man, 36, was approached by officers in a Harriet place coffee shop in Darwin's CBD after he failed to wear a mask.

The customer was consequently issued the whopping fine, with Northern Territory police warning the general public against such 'arrogant behaviour'.
Sydneysiders in the midst of a two week lockdown in which they are directed to stay-at-home unless essential to leave claim they are being fined for parking their cars outside their house.

Both Sydney and Melbourne in 2020 lockdowns took a flexible approach to parking fines by relaxing the rules around green signed parking metre zones while keeping red 'no stopping' restrictions.

This hasn't been the case in some Sydney LGAs this week with parking inspectors out in force in the CBD, North Sydney, Surry Hills, and Bondi despite councils telling them to use their discretion.

A group of parking inspectors (pictured) were spotted preparing to patrol the streets of the Sydney CBD on Thursday morning

Locals in the iconic beach precinct of Bondi have said finding somewhere to park while staying at home has become an increasingly big problem.

'This is a big issue in Bondi at the moment where I live... parking is already tough,' one woman told news.com.au.

The resident explained parking in the exclusive suburb revolves around people moving their cars when they drive to work and the 'premise that people are moving about the city'.

She even claimed she had to leave her house, against NSW Health advice, to avoid getting a ticket.

'I have to sometimes park in the two-hour spots near my house and move my car every two hours to avoid a fine.'

Waverley Council - which includes Bondi - told Daily Mail Australia they would continue to enforce restriction even on green zoned areas.

'Parking zones are in place for the benefit of local businesses, residents and those using our parks and beaches,' it said.

Bondi residents in the midst of a 14-day lockdown have said they are being fined for parking their cars on residential streets despite not being allowed to travel (pictured Bondi on Monday)

'Council has enforcement staff on duty and we ask residents and visitors to adhere to parking restrictions for the benefit of all.

'Residents displaying residential parking permits within scheme areas can continue to park legally for the entire day.'

On Wednesday, parking inspectors were still roaming the streets in Kirribilli in North Sydney Council, checking parking meters, and hitting residents with five parking fines in 15 minutes.

However, residents were told zones with 2P parking limits - or two hours - would be extended to three hours.

Sydney parking rangers (pictured) have been told to use discretion when they issue tickets but not official lifting of parking rules has been announced

Parking rangers were also spotted out in force on Wednesday morning in the CBD an Surry Hills.

'I live in Surry Hills. I took my dogs out for a walk at 8am and I walked past four parking officers in the 20 minutes I was out,' one person wrote to Twitter.

'We are in a two-week lockdown and this is how the government helps us out?'

Other Sydney local government areas said they are encouraging parking rangers to use discretion but no official easing of parking limits applies.

'As during the previous lockdown commencing in March 2020, the city will take a flexible approach to parking and other infringements with a focus on the safety of the community and its workforce,' City of Sydney told Daily Mail Australia.

Some councils in 14-day lockdown could see fewer fines issued (file image)

'We cannot let people park unrestricted, because we need to ensure there is parking space for essential workers and people accessing local businesses.'

The City of Sydney also noted parking fines can be disputed on the Revenue NSW website.

'We will continue working to ensure those who need parking most have it available to them, and that parking spots are fairly distributed,' it said.

The Inner West Council also said its parking rangers would also take a flexible approach.

'Council's parking officers will prioritise public safety over other enforcement activity during the lockdown period,' it said.

Similarly, the local council of Canada Bay in Sydney is also allowing more flexibility saying they were doing 'everything we can within our responsibilities to assist our community'.

'Rangers are using discretion in residential on-street parking areas, but will continue to ensure parking turnover for our community in town precincts and carparks.' it said.

'Rangers will also be continuing to enforce illegal parking, including no stopping and other areas where safety is an issue.'

During Melbourne's first wave lockdown in March 2020, Lord Mayor Sally Capp specifically directed that parking fines would not be issued in zones with a green sign, which are generally used for parking meters.

However, zones with red signs - such as disability parking, emergency services, and loading areas - continued to have fines be applied.

Bondi (pictured on Monday) is where an initial outbreak was found that sparked the NSW lockdown

Brisbane City Council - which is under a snap three-day lockdown - will continue to enforce parking fines as normal.

'Parking rules remain in place in Brisbane, as was the case during other snap lockdowns imposed by the State Government,' the council told Daily Mail Australia.

Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Darwin are all in lockdown in response to Covid outbreaks, with Adelaide teetering on the edge after five positive tests.

NSW tightened the rules for people travelling into the state if they have visited other regions under new restrictions, as numerous new venues across Sydney were named as exposure sites.

Residents can leave their house to exercise but are not allowed to travel beyond the local area so their cars must stay put (pictured Bondi on Monday)

NSW Health said people from areas in the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia now subject to stay-at-home orders should not travel to the state unless permitted to do so.

From Wednesday, anyone coming to NSW who has been in those areas in the previous 14 days must complete a declaration form. This is the same requirement already in place for people who have been in Victoria in the previous 14 days.

In NSW on Thursday, 24 new local cases were announced from almost 60,000 tests.

The cases included a student nurse - revealed on Wednesday - who worked at Fairfield and Royal North Shore hospitals in Sydney.

During 2020 lockdown in Melbourne, Mayor Sally Capp directed that parking rangers not issue fines for green zoned areas but those zones with red signs would be enforced as normal

Another nurse - a close friend of the student nurse who worked at RNS, Fairfield and also Royal Ryde Rehabilitation Hospital - was diagnosed with the virus after the 8pm deadline.

Ms Berejiklian said 12 of the 24 reported cases were out in the community while infectious, which was concerning.

'People going about their business, shopping and interacting with others is causing the virus to continue to circulate,' she told reporters.

'We are seeing workers who are leaving the house with symptoms or going to work and then inadvertently as they are going about shopping or other activity, they are passing it onto others.

'If we want the lockdown to succeed, all of us to have minimise our movements, minimise our interaction with others, as difficult as that is.

The stay at home orders remain in place until at least July 9.
Former President Donald Trump will still be holding his 'Save America' campaign-style rally this weekend in Sarasota  about 200 miles from the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South condo  despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis allegedly begging him to cancel it.

According to the Washington Examiner, DeSantis's office 'made a direct plea' for Trump to call off his rally and one Republican told him and his team to 'read the room' as troops from across the globe are searching for bodies following the Miami condo collapse.

As the death toll reached 18 with 145 people still missing, players from both Trumps and DeSantis's teams butted heads over continuing to hold the rally.

Trump held his first campaign-style rally since losing the presidency in Ohio last week. Saturday would be his second stop in a tour across presidential battleground states.

Former President Donald Trump will still be holding his 'Save America' campaign-style rally this weekend in Sarasota despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis allegedly begging him to cancel it

According to a report, DeSantis begged Trump to cancel it because of its proximity to the Champlain Towers South condo collapse

An anonymous source close to Trump told the Washington Examiner that 'nobody wants to cancel' the rally.

'The governor is getting tested here as to how far he's going to be pushed before he breaks ranks with President Trump. And he has to be very careful because this is Trump country,' the source told the Washington Examiner. 'The base loves the president. But they equally love Ron. It's a showdown going on right now.'

DeSantis is facing pressure from across the globe regarding how he handles the aftermath of the Miami condo collapse as response teams from Israel and Mexico are aiding the Federal Emergency Management Agency's rescue efforts. Florida political leaders from across the aisle are constantly present at the site.

'We're talking about 150 people that are missing,' a former Trump aide anonymously told the Washington Examiner. 'There's massive loss of life. People are grieving. There's a lot of confusion as to what other buildings might be affected. Right now, the governor is down there almost every single day. What, you're gonna go across and do a rally and beat up Democrats? It's tone-deaf.'

Both Trump and DeSantis are potential contenders in the 2024 election. DeSantis is one of the most popular politicians in the country, weathering the coronavirus pandemic and recently besting Trump in a presidential straw poll this month. DeSantis captured 74% to 71% for Trump. Last year, Trump secured 95% support.

He is seen by many as a future president who can push Trump's most popular policies, but with a less divisive and abrasive personality.

An unnamed source said, There's a huge rift between the DeSantis and Trump [camps], and alleged it ties to tensions between the Florida governor and Trumps post-president lead Susie Wiles, a former top Trump campaign official.

Wiles, a veteran political strategist in the Sunshine State, led Trumps Florida team in the 2016 election and DeSantiss 2018 campaign for governor. However, their relationship was tested when Wiles returned to Trumps camp for the 2020 election and DeSantis allegedly tried to discourage donors from contributing to the Republican National Convention.

But Christina Pushaw, the governor's press secretary, denied such claims and said DeSantis never called for the event to be canceled

Another anonymous operative said that this would only add fuel to the fire regarding Trumps decision to keep the rally scheduled. Because Ron DeSantis doesn't want it, she's gonna make sure it happens. The governor supports the president, but something awful just happened in his state.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time. But right now, there's a Kumbaya moment. People need this. We need everybody to come together, we need to see that to start healing this country. And we saw a little bit of that today for the first time in five years. Today was the first day that people were like, Maybe there's hope that our country can come back together again. Only for, on Saturday, the former president tearing the Band-Aid off: He's gonna go for the jugular.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and his wife Jill are set to visit the site Thursday.

In promotions of the Trump event, the Republican Party of Florida urged attendees of the rally to donate to two local relief funds. And an unnamed source said that Trump could hold a moment of silence for the mourning Surfside community.

Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for Trump, defended the rally and told the Washington Examiner that Trump spearheaded the fundraising push.

Like all Americans, President Trump sends his deepest condolences to those who've lost loved ones or been displaced by the terrible tragedy in Surfside. The event in Sarasota, however, is on the other side of the state, 3 1/2 hours away, approximately the same distance from Boston to New York, and will not impact any of the recovery efforts. In fact, President Trump has instructed his team to collect relief aid for Surfside families both online and on-site at the Sarasota rally.

Some claim that Trump and DeSantis have no bad blood whatsoever and the claims that they are feuding over holding the rally are actually all rumors.

Christina Pushaw, press secretary for the governor's office, claimed that DeSantis never even called for the event to be canceled.

'Gov. DeSantis is focusing on his duties as governor and the tragedy in Surfside, and has never suggested or requested that events planned in different parts of Florida  from the Stanley Cup Finals to President Trump's rally  should be canceled. He wants all Floridians to enjoy the holiday weekend and celebrate Independence Day however they choose, while keeping the Surfside families and first responders in their prayers.'

And Helen Aguirre Ferre, the Florida Republican Party's executive director and a former DeSantis aide, backed up Pushaws's statement, adding that it was a rumor that DeSantis and Trump feuded over holding the rally.

'It is completely untrue that there is a rift between Gov. DeSantis and President Trump or between their teams. To the contrary. Gov. DeSantis knows the Republican Party of Florida is working with the Trump team for the July 3rd rally in Sarasota in celebration of the founding of our country. In addition, we are encouraging all those who are attending to generously contribute to the victims of the tragedy at Surfside.'

Trump told Maria Bartiromo in April that he was open to running alongside DeSantis in 2024.

'Hes a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship. A lot of people like that  you know, Im just saying what I read and what you read  they love that ticket  certainly, Ron would be considered. Hes a great guy.'
A senior policeman has been fined $200 for not wearing a face mask inside a McDonald's restaurant.

The New South Wales police officer was fined for flouting public health orders and not wearing a face mask inside one of the fast food chain's restaurant in Sydney's far north.

Police were told the superintendent, 53, had breached the public health order on Wednesday at Mount Colah McDonald's.

The officer was issued with a $200 penalty infringement notice on Thursday.

A senior policeman has been fined $200 for not wearing a face mask inside a Mount Colah McDonald's restaurant in Sydney's far north (file image of the McDonald's branch)

NSW Police said there were 65 penalty infringement notices issued on Wednesday, 52 of which were for failing to wear a fitted face covering.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was fined $200 for not wearing a mask while paying for petrol at a service station in his hometown of Armidale on Monday after he was dobbed in to Crime Stoppers by a member of the public.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan then burned Mr Joyce for his coronavirus breach as he defended AFL players' inept mask wearing.

West Coast and Fremantle stars shared a plane from Perth to Melbourne on Tuesday, with several players slammed for not correctly wearing their masks.

In his coronavirus press conference on Wednesday, McGowan dismissed the criticism of the Eagles and Dockers teams, saying they didn't 'do a Barnaby Joyce'.

The officer was issued with a $200 penalty infringement notice on Thursday after police received information about his failure to wear a mask at the McDonald's restaurant the previous day (file image)

'I don't think what they have done is any great offence,' he told reporters. 'I understand that people make mistakes and I just urge them to wear the mask properly.

'It is not like they have done a Barnaby Joyce. I think they have made a mistake and they should just wear it properly in the future.'
Conwoman Melissa Caddick is likely deceased after the remains of her foot washed up on a New South Wales beach in February

Melissa Caddick's elderly parents were among dozens to hand significant sums to the Ponzi scheme mastermind but they differ from investors, a judge has heard.

In 2017, Ted and Barbara Grimley sold up their family home and moved into Sydney's east, where their daughter Melissa Caddick also lived.

They understood that handing their daughter $1.03m granted them about a third of a home in Edgecliff in Sydney's eastern suburbs and, importantly, life tenancy.

But today, they face the prospect of eviction from their forever home as they lock horns with victims of Caddick's Ponzi scheme.

Family and friends were among the 72 so-called investors who parted with more than $30 million, expecting Caddick or her company Maliver would invest it on their behalf.

Instead, it paid for her lavish lifestyle and has resulted in liabilities outstripping assets by between $15 and $23.7 million, the Federal Court has been told this week.

Lawyer Sera Mirzabegian told the Federal Court on Thursday, the Grimleys would have bought a smaller property in their own name in Sydney's southern suburbs - if not for their daughter's representations.

Caddick (pictured left with husband Anthony on the right) has been accused of swindling at least $20million from clients, including friends and family, before disappearing on November 12

The couple aged in their 80s paid about $90,000 to renovate the Edgecliff home and also gave their daughter $260,000 in 2017 for a 'living expenses fund' that would provide regular distributions.

Ms Caddick, who is likely deceased after the remains of her foot washed up on a NSW beach in February, is accused of masterminding a Ponzi scheme from 2012 to 2020.

Corporate regulator ASIC wants Maliver's liquidators to start processing claims and is relying on a report by provisional receivers of Ms Caddick's assets that the Edgecliff property was purchased using investor funds.

'The situation is much more nuanced and much more complex than that,' Ms Mirzabegian said on Thursday.

Barbara and Edward Grimley, Melissa's parents. They gave their daughter $1.03m in the belief it granted them about a third of an Edgecliff home

When purchasing the Edgecliff property in April 2017, Ms Caddick had other funds available and 'a substantial portion came from my clients', she said.

That date also preceded a substantial number of investors' first transaction with Ms Caddick.

'We oppose any intent to pool the assets,' Ms Mirzabegian said.

She also expressed concern that every item caught up in an ASIC raid on Ms Caddick's Dover Heights home would be treated for its financial value.

The Grimleys may wish to claim certain items holding sentimental value, including jewellery gifted to their daughter, she said.

Farid Assaf SC, for ASIC, said there were ways the Grimleys' concerns could be dealt with.

But it was 'plainly wrong' for any party to suggest Ms Caddick held assets on her own behalf while running the Ponzi scheme.

Caddick (pictured centre) received more than $30 million from so-called investors in the belief she would invest the funds on her behalf

Ms Caddick received $430,000 from the sale of a Kensington home purchased in 2009.

Caddick's decomposed foot (pictured in the shoe) was found by campers on the NSW south coast on February 21

But she bought out her former spouse's share in the property with money derived from investors, Mr Assaf said.

Mortgage repayments were also made from December 2012.

'From about October 2012, (Ms Caddick) had no other source of income other than investor funds,' Mr Assaf said.

'This fraud needs to be unravelled and in my submission, it's in the court's power to appoint the receivers to unravel that fraud.'

In contrast to Maliver, Ms Caddick has substantial assets and few creditors.

But a tiny list of creditors was 'completely unsurprising' when you're running a Ponzi scheme and no legitimate business, Mr Assaf contended.

'All you need is a computer, a printer and some paper,' he said.

The hearing before Justice Brigitte Markovic continues.
The furlough scheme starts winding down today as employers are forced to shoulder 10 per cent of workers' wages.

Businesses called for it to continue as thousands of companies with 1.5million employees will be affected.

One study suggests older people face a higher risk of unemployment as the scheme - which has cost around 66million - is phased out.

The Resolution Foundation said more than one in four workers aged 55-64 furloughed in the recent lockdown remained so in May despite easing measures.

Meanwhile Labour called for the Government to delay the plans, saying it is set to impact nearly half a million firms.

The party said 450,000 businesses will have to pay around 225million more as a result of the plans.

But earlier last month hospitality chiefs called for it to come to an end because more than one in five workers in the industry were still on furlough in May.

Their growing calls came because there was still nearly 50,000 job vacancies in the trade.

The furlough scheme starts winding down today as employers are forced to shoulder 10 per cent of wages. Pictured: Chancellor Rishi Sunak

Businesses called for it to continue as thousands of companies with 1.5million workers will be affected (file photo)

From today, employers will have to pick up 10 per cent of their furloughed workers' salaries, rising to 20 per cent in August and September.

It means keeping someone earning 20,000 per year will rise from 155 in June to 322 in July and 489 in each of the two following months, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said.

Yet some of these businesses will still be unable to trade due to a delay in the reopening plans for England.

One study said older workers face a higher risk of unemployment as the scheme is phased out.

The Resolution Foundation said more than one in four workers aged 55-64 who were furloughed in the recent lockdown remained so in May despite lockdown easing.

There has been a rapid return to work in recent months, and a welcome boost to living standards, said the think tank.

The rapid fall in furlough rates has been driven by the reopening of sectors like hospitality and leisure, which disproportionately employ younger workers, according to the report.

Younger people have returned from furlough more quickly, resulting in older workers bearing the highest risk of being out of work longer, said the foundation.

Its research indicated that more than 600,000 workers aged 45-64 have been unemployed or on full furlough for at least six months.

From today, employers will have to pick up 10 per cent of their furloughed workers' salaries, rising to 20 per cent in August and September (file photo)

The Covid-19 crisis is set to leave an unequal legacy on family finances, causing additional spending pressures for some, while others have saved by not spending on hospitality, leisure and foreign travel, said the report.

Karl Handscomb, of the Resolution Foundation, said: 'Reopening the economy has led to a surge in people returning back to work from furlough, particularly young people in sectors like hospitality and leisure.

'But not everyone is back working. Over one in four older workers who were furloughed during the recent lockdown have remained parked on furlough during the reopening, and now face a higher risk of unemployment as the scheme starts to be unwound.

'It's crucial that the Government does it all can to prevent rising unemployment among workers of all ages this autumn when the furlough scheme ends.'

Emily Andrews of the Centre for Ageing Better, commented: 'Over 50s have been hit hard throughout the crisis, and it's likely that that when the furlough scheme ends we will see many more people in this group facing redundancy.

'This is particularly worrying, because we know that over 50s struggle more than any other group to get back into work and there is a real risk that many will fall out of the workforce for good.'

A Government spokesman said: 'We deliberately went long with our support to provide certainty to people and businesses over the summer, and that support, which is a substantial amount of funding, is continuing with the furlough scheme in place until September.

'Recent statistics show there are 7.85 million workers aged 50 to 64 on payrolls - up 181,000 on the year.

'But as we recover from the crisis we're also helping hundreds of thousands of older workers to retrain, build new skills and get back into work through our Plan for Jobs, including our 50 Plus: Choices Offer, the Sector-Based Work Academy Programme, and our Job Entry Targeted Support scheme.'

A Government spokesman said: 'We deliberately went long with our support to provide certainty to people and businesses over the summer, and that support, which is a substantial amount of funding, is continuing with the furlough scheme in place until September.' Pictured: The PM yesterday

Meanwhile Labour called for the Government to delay plans to phase out furlough, saying it is set to impact nearly half a million firms.

The party said 450,000 businesses will have to pay around 225 million more as a result of the plans.

'A month's delay may seem like a short time, but for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure, legally closed from trading or relying on the summer season, the delay is another blow,' said shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Bridget Phillipson.

'The Government must make sure economic measures go hand in hand with public health measures and that our British businesses and high streets are not left out in the cold.'

Economists expect to see a spike in redundancies over the summer as furlough is phased out. The latest figures from the end of April showed that 3.4 million jobs were still furloughed.

'With the cost of keeping employees on furlough rising, we therefore expect to see rising redundancies over the summer, even before the final end of the scheme,' the IFS said.

For those laid off, many will be forced onto Universal Credit, and their fates will vary hugely based on their circumstances.

Someone who made 37,500 a year, for instance, would see their income slashed to only 1 in every 8 that they were paid from furlough, or 3,885 per year.

However, a lone parent who rents could see their support drop by a third - a big loss of income, but less severe.

Labour (pictured, leader Sir Keir Starmer) called for the Government to delay plans to phase out furlough, saying it is set to impact nearly half a million firms

This puts the UK well below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average for benefits for middle earners who fall out of work, the IFS said.

'A large majority of other developed countries provide some form of 'social insurance' scheme which offers more support for at least a few months to higher earners when they lose their job,' the IFS said.

Business groups have also voiced concern that the Government is sticking to its furlough schedule, despite delaying the full reopening of the economy in England by a month.

British Chambers of Commerce director general Shevaun Haviland said: 'The taper of government payments into the furlough scheme should be immediately deferred until we take the final step in the road map, and further grant support should be extended to the worst affected businesses.'

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: 'The country has invested billions in keeping people in work ready for recovery, but if ministers 'pull the rug' from under businesses too soon jobs will go and our heroic national investment will be wasted.

'Nobody is arguing for eternal furlough, but the Government has to work with employers and the trade unions to chart a new course through the pandemic.

'One that in the longer-term recognises short-term business and economic disruption with short-time working protections, and right now, does least damage to the economy and the livelihoods of millions of working people.'

Last month hospitality chiefs demanded an end to furlough because one in five staff were still off work.

Office for National Statistics data showed 21 per cent of workers in accommodation and food services were off on at least 80 per cent pay between May 17 to 31.

Official data for job vacancies, for the three months to April this year, showed there were 45,000 on offer in the same industry.

This was up 100 per cent on the previous quarter but it was down 18 per cent year-on-year.

Unofficial estimates claimed there were 188,000 openings in hospitality, but this is unverified.

ONS data suggested there were 657,000 job vacancies in the UK but furlough rates remain high, with bosses saying some staff would rather stay on on the scheme.

Boss of Oakman Group, which operates 35 pubs and employs 1,200 people, Dermot King said: 'I think furlough has done its job.

'There is certainly a case to be made that it's stopping people coming back to work, particularly European employees who aren't coming back to the UK.'

Kevin Georgel, chief executive of the St Austell brewery in Cornwall, told the BBC: 'I think from a hospitality industry perspective we'd have to say that furlough overall has been tremendous in terms of enabling us to look after the vast majority of our people.

'But I think there is a risk now that the furlough scheme is slightly distorting the labour market, and our challenge is how do we find a way through that if we've got people that are on furlough doing second jobs, or are sat on furlough when actually their job doesn't exist?

'So there is a challenge about how furlough plays out over the coming months now that we have a national labour shortage.'
Tucker Carlson joined House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in calling for a probe into his claims that the NSA allegedly spies on his texts and emails - which the agency has firmly denied.

Carlson spoke on his Fox News show Wednesday to say that he does not make the claim lightly after McCarthy, the top House Republican, said he supports a Congressional investigation into the NSA.

'Nobody wants to go on TV and say "the government is spying on me". You sound like a lunatic. Except when it's true, and of course it is true,' Carlson said.

'It's not just this show. They are spying on a lot of people and they should stop because it's illegal.'

He added: 'Yesterday, we had a long conversation with the National Security Agency. We got a statement out of them. They effectively conceded "Yes, we read your emails". They have some justification for it.'

'But it's not justified. It never is except in cases where national security is threatened. Nothing we did would ever threaten national security, period.'

Carlson spoke on his show Wednesday to say that he does not make the bizarre claim lightly

McCarthy, the top House Republican, said he supports investigating the NSA

The National Security Agency released a statement (pictured) on Tuesday denying Carlson's claim it is spying on his show in a bid to get him taken off the air

Carlson claimed that the NSA's statement on Tuesday does not directly deny any spying has happened - only that he is not the 'target'.

The Fox News host said that President Joe Biden has 'turned [the agency] on Americans - who he has redefined as combatants, domestic terrorists, white supremacists.'

The agency is led by Gen. Paul Nakasone - an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

The NSA released a statement Tuesday saying that its investigations are focused on foreign intelligence and that it only surveils citizens in 'emergency' situations which require a court order.

'Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air,' the statement read.

Carlson praised McCarthy and Rep. Matt Gaetz after they called for an investigation into the agency earlier on Wednesday.

McCarthy released a statement on his website noting that he has asked Rep. Devin Nunes to investigate the NSA.

'For the past several months, I have seen a disturbing trend at the National Security Agency,' McCarthy wrote.

'Earlier this year, I sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Austin expressing concern over the politicization of the Agency through the sidelining of Michael Ellis as NSA General Counsel. I asked that Mr. Ellis be reinstated and expressed my concern regarding undue political influence in NSA placing Mr. Ellis on administrative leave.

'Separately, it has recently come to my attention that NSA has refused to deliver information requested by the Republican Members on the House Intelligence Committee who are trying to fulfill their oversight responsibilities.

'Now, there is a public report that NSA read the emails of Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Although NSA publicly denied targeting Carlson, I have serious questions regarding this matter that must be answered.

'Given this disturbing trend, I've asked HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes to investigate and find answers on behalf of the American people. The NSA cannot be used as a political instrument, and House Republicans will ensure accountability and transparency.'

The NSA headquarters are pictured in Fort Meade, Maryland. Carlson has claimed that the NSA is spying on him, and described it as 'incompatible with democracy'

Carlson sparked the controversy on his show Monday night when he said a whistleblower had approached the show the day before and informed them of the espionage.

'Yesterday we heard from a whistle-blower within the US government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the national security agency, is monitoring our electronic communication and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air,' he said.

Carlson said he knew the whistleblower's information was correct because they had insider knowledge, that could only have come from accessing his communications.

'The whistle-blower who is in a position to know repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails,' Carlson said.

'There's no other possible source of that information. None.'

Carlson claimed he was blocked from speaking with NSA Director Gen Paul M Nakasone (pictured)

He pointed the finger directly at the Biden administration, and accused them of spying on him and his show to try and stem his criticism of the government.

'They did it for political reasons,' he said. 'The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that.'

Carlson doubled down on the comments on Tuesday after the NSA released its statement in response - which he called 'infuriatingly dishonest' and argued did not directly refute what he'd alleged.

He also played a clip of White Press Secretary Jen Psaki responding to a question about Carlson's claims on Air Force One.

Psaki replied: 'Well, the NSA as you are well aware and everyone is aware and everyone on this plane is aware is entities that focus on foreign threats and individuals who are attempting to do us harm on foreign soil. So that is their purview, but beyond that, I would point to the intelligence community.'

Carlson reacted to Psaki's comments by saying: 'The Biden administration ignored the story. They did not deny the story. They can't. They know it is true.'

He went on to say that his team had reached out to NSA Director Nakasone, but was denied access to him.

Then minutes before he went on air Tuesday, Carlson said the NSA 'sent us an infuriatingly dishonest formal statement with an entire paragraph of lies written entirely for the benefit of its lackeys at CNN and MSNBC.

'Last night on the show, we made a straightforward claim: The NSA has read my private emails without my permission. That is what we said.

'Nakasone, in tonight's statement from the NSA, does not deny that. Instead, it comes with this, in part "Tucker Carlson has never been intelligence target of the agency".

'Okay, glad to know, but the question remains: Did the Biden administration read my personal email? That is the question that we asked directly to NSA officials when we spoke to them about 20 minutes ago in a very heated conversation. Did you read my email?

'And again, they refused to say again and again, and refused to explain why they couldn't answer that simple question. We can't tell you and we won't tell you why we can't tell you.

'And the message was clear, we can do whatever you want. We can read personal texts, emails and send threats your way to brush you back if we don't like your politics, we can do anything.

'We are our own country and there is nothing you can do about it. We are in charge, you are not. Orwellian does not begin to describe the experience. It was like living in China.

'Now that the Biden administration has classified tens of millions of patriotic Americans, the kind who served in the military and fly flags in front of their homes, as potential domestic terrorists, white supremacist saboteurs, we're going to see a whole lot more of this kind of thing. A whole lot more.'

Carlson then welcomed civil rights attorney Harmeet Dhillon, asking her why average American citizens like himself are unable to find out whether they've been targeted by 'some bureaucrat and spy agency'.

'Well you should be able to find out Tucker,' she said, adding that she was 'not surprised' by his experience trying to get answers.

Former President Donald Trump responded to Carlson's allegations in an interview with The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday, saying: 'I think it's true.'

Trump suggested that the NSA may have targeted Carlson because he was among those questioning the validity of the presidential election last fall.

'It's totally believable, if you look at the whole thing with what's going on - I think it's true. They're trying to suppress the vote, they're trying to suppress going into elections to find voter fraud, they want those people suppressed. They don't want anything to do with that because the election was totally fraudulent,' he said.
Bill Cosby supporters have clashed with an anti-rape campaigner outside the freed comedian's house - as others took to the internet to say they're glad he's out of jail.

A man and a woman were seen squaring up to an anti-Crosby activist outside his home in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday after he was freed.

The female protester - who was toting a megaphone - chanted 'Change the law' and 'This is about rape.'

But the male supporter - who was carrying a placard saying 'Bill Cosby is innocent' - took exception to her claims, and repeated the slogan on his placard saying: 'Bill Cosby is innocent.'

He continued chanting his counter-protest, with the female Cosby supporter - who held up a sign saying 'Don't mess with Bill' seen telling the megaphone-bearing woman to 'Go home.'

Bill Cosby supporters turned up to welcome him back to his mansion in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday after his indecent assault conviction was overturned

Supporters held up signs, with the woman in the brown headband later filmed clashing with an anti-Cosby protester

This woman was filmed arguing with two Cosby supporters, after yelling 'This is about rape' over a megaphone

A protester of the 'Philly We Support the Survivors of Bill Cosby' Facebook group spoke outside the Cosby residence in Elkins Park Township

Others took to Twitter to share their delight at Cosby's release

Cosby is pictured returning to his home after three years in jail

Another supporter, who did not get involved in the argument, held up a sign saying: 'Welcome home Mr Cosby.'

The confrontation was shared by NBC 10 reporter Aaron Baskerville, and it was unclear how it ended up being resolved.

One of his elderly neighbours Patricia Griffin showed up to Cosby's house with flowers and strawberry cake after his return home, according to Sky News.

She said: 'I don't know the rights and wrongs of it but I do know he's 83 and he's coming home after three years with a lot of shame attached to him.'

Meanwhile, other Cosby fans took to Twitter to hail the decision to axe the 83 year-old comedian's 2018 conviction for sexual assault, which saw him freed on Wednesday after three years behind bars.

One man tweeted: '@BillCosby I always love and support you. I have always known that a day like this will come. You are an inspiration, to those who know the true story. I love you Bill, You will win them all.'

Another said: 'I always prayed that one day you would prevail. You are Strong and a Fearless Champion never giving up and fighting for your innocence. Today the Justice system got it right!! Stay Strong! Keep fighting. I support you!'

A third penned: 'Very happy moment hearing the great news for you @BillCosby I stated before in tweets my support for you and how I still idolize your talent.'

And a fourth wrote: 'Good job Mr. Cosby, we are with you in full support.'

Supporters of Bill Cosby held up signs reading 'welcome home Mr Bill Cosby' and 'Don't mess with Bill' as they stood outside his home in Elkins Park Township

Cosby fans took to Twitter to hail the decision to axe the 83 year-old comedian's 2018 conviction for sexual assault, which saw him freed on Wednesday after three years

Protesters and fans yelling at each other outside Bill Cosbys home tonight. What Cosby had to say about his sudden release on @NBCPhiladelphia at 11pm pic.twitter.com/xeUEBFsTlH  Aaron Baskerville (@ABaskerville10) July 1, 2021

A fifth simply commented: 'I support you Mr Cosby.'

Brent Harte tweeted a snap of the star and wrote: 'Bill Cosby found innocent on ALL CHARGES!! He is a free man.'

A Facebook group supporting the actor, called I Support Bill Cosby, also saw many people commenting to praise his release from prison after three years.

One person commented: 'Great news, Bill Cosby to be released from prison, conviction overturned for sexual assault.

'Congratulations Bill now to get on with your life.'

One man, called Tyrone Stallworth Sr, posted: 'Today is a good day! Bill Cosby is FREE!'

And Betty Collier wrote: 'A good verdict for Bill Cosby, I hope now this man can live in peace'

Another supporter said: 'BILL IS FREE TODAY!'

Cosby was freed after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said his conviction breached a 2005 promise by former Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor not to charge him.

Castor - who represented Donald Trump at his second impeachment trial in January - believed accuser Andrea Constand's allegations of being drugged and raped by Cosby were not strong enough to merit criminal charges.

He helped her mount a civil case against Cosby, which saw the comedian agree to sit for interviews under oath after Castor promised he would not be charged over anything he said.

After Castor left his office, his successor Kevin Steele used the material gleaned from those chats to launch a criminal investigation into Cosby.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled that Castor's promise to Cosby - a signed press release on headed paper - did stand, and that he should never have been tried over Constand's claims.
One in five Covid jabs in Australia are going spare due to a lack of interest in getting vaccinated amid growing criticisms of the country's glacial vaccine rollout.

The most recent Covid-19 rollout update has shown that 19 per cent of vaccine doses available to the states have not yet been used, with Western Australia have the most jabs going spare.

These are intended to be used in aged care and disability homes, as well as for GPs to give to the elderly.

A total of 11.3 million vaccine doses have been distributed to Commonwealth-managed general practices and aged care and disability sites across the country.

A total of 4.3 million doses have been supplied to the states, and 6.5 million to general practice - yet only 7.3 million of these vaccines have been used.

The most recent Covid-19 rollout update has shown that 19 per cent of vaccine doses available to the states have not yet been used as experts warn demand will soon outweigh supply (pictured, a Sydney nurse is vaccinated)

According to new federal government data dose usage is the highest in New South Wales and Tasmania at 98 per cent, and lowest in Western Australia at 78 per cent

According to new federal government data, dose usage is the highest in New South Wales and Tasmania at 98 per cent, and lowest in Western Australia at 78 per cent.

The ACT came in at third place with dose usage at 94 per cent, followed by Victoria at 91 per cent, Queensland at 90 per cent, South Australia at 86 per cent and the Northern Territory at 81 per cent.

Vaccines administered was lowest in general practice at 74 per cent.

The report explained dose utilisation is the number of vaccines administered out of the total available, and it includes a small percentage for wasted doses.

Almost 7.4 million vaccine doses have been administered to date, but only a small fraction of people have received both jabs.

Five per cent of the Australian population are double-jabbed, compared to 46 per cent in the United States and 47 per cent in the United Kingdom.

A total of 4.3 million doses have been supplied to the Australian states, and 6.5 million to general practice, yet only 7.3million of these vaccines have been used (pictured, people queue for the vaccine in Sydney's Homebush)

Five per cent of the Australian population is double-jabbed, compared to 46 per cent in the United States and 47 per cent in the United Kingdom

Israel has vaccinated almost 60 per cent of its population followed by Chile with almost 55 per cent, while almost half of Britons and Americans have rolled up their sleeves, according to a graph compiled by Our World in Data.

Australia is also trailing behind Latvia, Turkey, Mexico and Colombia and even New Zealand, which only uses the Pfizer jab.

Stephen Duckett, director of the health program at the Grattan Institute, told the ABC it didn't come as a shock that state mass vaccination centres were more efficient than general practice.

'If you're doing 5,000 people a day, and you have five doses left over at the end of the day, it's a far smaller proportion than doing 10 people a day', he said.

A small centre like a general practice is almost inevitably going to have higher wastage.'

However Mr Duckett said the combination of mass vaccination centres and general practices were vital for an efficient rollout, as well as multiple education campaigns to target different age groups.

The health director warned supply would not meet demand in the coming months due to the current outbreaks, but this didn't meant people couldn't be educated in the meantime.

'Obviously it's better if they've got no supply problems, but we've got no supply problems for AstraZeneca and people are still not being vaccinated,' he said.

A health director from the Grattan Institute has warned that vaccine supply will not meet demand in the coming months due to the current outbreaks (pictured, a nurse is jabbed at St Vincent's in Sydney)

About 12 million Australians are under some form of lockdown restrictions after cases spread in Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Sydney.(pictured, queues at Homebush on July 1)

The troubling data comes as pressure mounts on the federal government to make up for lost time in the country's sluggish vaccine rollout.

With less than six per cent of the population fully vaccinated and the more infectious strain on the loose, Australia's vaunted 'zero Covid' strategy - which allowed its economy to get back up and running last year - is on precarious ground.

About 12 million Australians are under some form of lockdown restrictions after cases spread in Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Sydney.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Thursday a new pilot scheme would see mass vaccination centres set up across the state to deliver up to 200,000 jabs.

The huge vaccine hubs with ample supplies of the Pfizer vaccine will be built in Sydney CBD, Macquarie Fields in the city's south-west, and in Wollongong.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Thursday a new pilot scheme would see mass vaccination centres set up across the state to deliver up to 200,000 jabs

The Sydney City clinic will be set up near public transportation hubs and open for extended hours to cater to CBD workers.

The pilot scheme will start on July 19 in small towns including Gulgong, Narromine, Walcha, Dungog, Dunedoo, and Merriwa.

Ms Berejiklian said the new centres were a 'vital step' to curtail the number of infections in the state, which increased by 24 on Thursday.

'In NSW we have a sense of urgency about getting jabs in arms, because once the vast majority of our population is vaccinated, we can start a conversation about reaching a 'Covid-normal' state,' she said.

More than 2.2 million doses have been administered in the state so far, with 850,000 of those through NSW Health.

The influx of Pfizer jabs comes after health advice that scared off millions from receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine due to fears of rare blood cots.

Prime Minister announced this week that anyone under 40 to get an AstraZeneca jab if they want to, despite earlier advice that younger people should get another vaccine

More than 2.2 million doses have been administered in New South Wales so far, the state currently battling the largest outbreak of the highly contagious Indian Delta variant

Only two people have died of a blood clot across the nation after 3.8million were inoculated with the vaccine, meaning a death rate of one in 1.9million.

Underlining the importance of jabs this week, it emerged that six vaccinated healthcare workers were the only guests at a 'super spreader' house party who did not contract the virus in Sydney two weeks ago.

Thirty people attended the birthday bash in the West Hoxton suburb, with 24 of the guests contracting the Delta variant, which led to numerous further contacts being traced across the city.

Mr Morrison, who is under fire for the glacial vaccine rollout, constant 'circuit breakers' and brutal border restrictions, chaired a national security committee on Monday before announcing that all care home workers must have a vaccine.

The PM also ordered mandatory jabs for anyone working, either directly or indirectly, in quarantine hotels - including airport private hire drivers.
Seventeen people have been injured in Los Angeles after a cache of homemade fireworks exploded as it was being destroyed by a bomb squad, damaging cars and smashing windows in homes.

Police called in a bomb squad on Wednesday evening after a tip led them to seize some 5,000 pounds of illegal home-made and China-manufactured pyrotechnics at about noon, police said.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said three box trucks and a 53-foot trailer were brought in to load up the fireworks and move them to a safe location. However, 'improvised explosives' also were found that were too dangerous to move.

He described them as 40 home-made devices the size of Coca-Cola cans with simple fuses and 200 smaller but similar devices.

The material was taken to a 'total containment vehicle,' Moore said. The multi-ton semi-tractor trailer rig has a spherical iron chamber that is designed to safely detonate explosives.

Moore said less than 10 pounds of material was placed in the chamber, far less than its safety rating.

Seventeen people have been injured in Los Angeles after a cache of homemade fireworks exploded as it was being destroyed by a bomb squad, damaging cars and smashing windows in homes

The LAPD initially said the cause of the explosion was unknown, but later confirmed that it had occurred as the bomb squad was detonating the explosives in the vehicle

The wreckage of the truck is seen behind a police cordon on Wednesday night

The LAPD initially said the cause of the explosion, which happened on the 700 block of East 27th street, was unknown, but later confirmed that it had occurred as the bomb squad was detonating the explosives in the vehicle.

'This vessel should have been able to safely dispose of that material,' LAPD Chief Michel Moore said at a press conference on Wednesday night.

'And you saw the resulting damage, and the total catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle,' Moore said.

'Something happened in that containment vehicle that should not have happened, and we don't know why,' Moore said. 'But we intend to find out why.'

The blast, caught by news crews, happened in a residential area. It knocked a nearby car on its side, smashed the windows of several others and blew out windows in a neighboring home.

One news helicopter pilot said the blast shook his aircraft, and some residents two blocks away say they were jolted by the explosion.

Nine police officers were injured, along with one ATF officer, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement.

Six civilians, ranging from 51 to 85 years old, were taken to a hospital, three with moderate and three with minor injuries, it said. One other person was treated at the scene but declined to be taken to hospital.

None of the injuries were life threatening.

The blast, caught by news crews, happened in a residential area. It knocked a nearby car on its side, smashed the windows of several others and blew out windows in a neighboring home

The explosion happened on the 700 block of East 27th street in the historic South-Central area of Los Angeles

Nine police officers were injured, along with one ATF officer, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in a statement. Six civilians, ranging from 51 to 85 years old, were taken to a hospital, three with moderate and three with minor injuries, it said. One other person was treated at the scene but declined to be taken to hospital

Police evacuated nearby homes prior to the explosion and building inspectors were evaluating some homes to determine if they were safe

LAPD chief Michel Moore (center with microphones) speaks to the press following the explosion on Wednesday

Police evacuated nearby homes prior to the explosion and building inspectors were evaluating some homes to determine if they were safe.

Arturo Cejas III, a 27-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of possessing fireworks and destructive devices and also on suspicion of child endangerment because a minor, Cejas' 10-year-old brother, was found at the home.

Cejas is accused of bringing the fireworks in from out of state to resell ahead of celebrations for July 4th. He is being held on $500,000 bail.

Some of the fireworks appeared to be large mortar-sized devices used for commercial purposes while others were described as improvised explosive devices.

Authorities said that it was fortunate no one had been killed in the blast and spoke about the dangers of illegal fireworks.

Moore said the ATF will also investigate the explosion, along with how the explosives were acquired and transported to Los Angeles.

Resident Maria Velasquez, 39, told the LA Times that her family had been ordered to evacuate their home on Wednesday evening without being told why.

They went to a funeral viewing where Velasquez began receiving texts from panicked friends asking if she was OK and saying that there had been a car bomb in her area.

When the family returned, Velasquez said the gate to their home appeared to have been blown off and she was worried about the fate of her dog.

In March, a massive fireworks explosion left two people dead in Southern California and caused at least $3.2 million in damage.

Authorities said that it was fortunate no one had been killed in the blast and emphasized the dangers of illegal fireworks

Pictured: Glass litters the sidewalk outside a local business after its windows were blown out by the explosion
This is the moment an elephant who smashed through a kitchen wall to steal a bag of rice squeezed into another family's porch to eat their cat food in the middle of the night.

The 40-year-old adult bull, named Plai Bunchuay, sniffed out the food and broke into the house's front porch in Hua Hin, southern Thailand, on Tuesday night.

The elephant achieved notoriety earlier this week when he rammed through a family's kitchen wall to steal a bag of rice in the same coastal town on Sunday morning at 2am.

He was shooed away back into the jungle but emerged again on Tuesday night - this time happy with some cat food as a snack.

The 40-year-old adult bull, named Plai Bunchuay, sniffed out the food and broke into the house's front porch in Hua Hin, southern Thailand, on Tuesday night

El's kitchen! The elephant achieved notoriety earlier this week when he rammed through a family's kitchen wall to steal a bag of rice in the same coastal town on Sunday morning at 2am

The elephant was filmed stomping through the family's front yard before squeezing his huge body into the home's front porch and eating some of the cat food left for their pets.

Natthakan Charoendong heard the noise coming from outside and ran downstairs and was shocked to find the elephant's bottom sticking out of the entrance of his front porch while the animal peered out through the opened door.

The elephant's tail can be seen happily swaying as the animal munches on some cat food it found on the front porch.

While eating his dinner, the elephant slowly moved backwards into the front porch before plodding towards Natthakan.

With its head nearly touching the roof, the animal ended up standing by the doorway of Natthakan's house while enjoying his snack.

Natthakan Charoendong heard the noise coming from outside and ran downstairs and was shocked to find the elephant's bottom sticking out of the entrance of his front porch while the animal peered out through the opened door

While eating his dinner, the elephant slowly moves backwards into the front porch before plodding towards Natthakan

With its head nearly touching the roof, the animal ends up standing by the doorway of Natthakan's house while enjoying his snack

Natthakan said: 'I knew this elephant, we saw him in the news so we were a bit excited and shocked at the same time.

'He ate some of the cat food we kept on the front porch for our pets. He must have been hungry and wandered into the villages again. He's a clever animal but he's also scary.'

The wild jumbo finished eating the cat food before leaving the property without leaving any damage. He was seen returning to the direction leading to the forest.

On Sunday morning at 2am, Plai Bunchuay smashed through a kitchen wall to steal food from another house.

The bull, named Plai Bunchuay, sniffed out the food and smashed through the house in Hua Hin, southern Thailand, on Sunday morning at 2am

Rachadawan Phungprasopporn and her husband were woken up by the noise and rushed to the kitchen to see what had happened.

They were shocked to see the elephant with its huge ivory tusks rummaging through the cupboard with its long trunk.

It even grabbed a plastic bag of rice which it shoved into its mouth.

Rachadawan said her husband helped to shoo away the beast, which disappeared into nearby woodland.

She said: 'This elephant is well known in the area because he causes a lot of mischief.

'He came to the house about two months ago and was looking around, but he didn't damage anything then.

Rachadawan said her husband helped to shoo away the beast, which disappeared into nearby woodland

'We spoke to the local wildlife officers and they told us not to keep food out in the kitchen because the smell attracts the elephants, so we followed their advice.

'The wall will cost about 50,000 Baht (1,140) to repair. It was funny to see the elephant like that but also I'm worried he could come back again.'

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages.

Staff from the country's National Park - the sprawling area of protected woodland where wild elephants live - believe the animals have changed their behaviour in response to the food available from humans.

The wild beast knocked over a number of pots and pans as it rummaged around in the kitchen for food

Rachadawan Phungprasopporn and her husband were woken up by the noise and rushed to the kitchen to see what had happened

Conservation officer Supanya Chengsutha said: 'The most likely explanation for this situation is that the elephant smelled the food and wanted to eat it.

'It's not because the elephant was particularly hungry, as the food in the jungle has stayed the same. There is plenty and that hasnt changed.

'But sometimes individual elephants experience a change in their behaviour and character, so theres no one factor why they would do this.

'Elephant eating habits have also changed now that they come into contact with humans more. They have started to like the food that people eat.

'It could also be that hunters and traps in the jungle have disrupted the elephant and it has moved out of the deep forest more towards settlements.'
Double-jabbed Britons will be able to travel quarantine-free to 'amber list' countries from July 26, it was claimed today.

Ministers want to ease the current international travel rules in time for the start of the school summer holidays.

The move could reopen travel to much of Europe but the extent to which trips will be possible will be largely determined by the border rules imposed by European capitals.

As a result, UK ambassadors have been instructed to launch a charm offensive to persuade EU member states to ease restrictions on British travellers.

European nations currently have a wide array of border rules which apply to travellers from the United Kingdom

Double-jabbed Britons will be able to travel quarantine-free to 'amber list' countries from July 26, it was claimed today

Scrapping the quarantine requirement for the double vaccinated could potentially reopen dozens of countries for foreign travel in what would represent a massive boost for the struggling tourism and aviation sectors

The Government is still advising against travel to and from 'amber list' countries, with people returning to the UK from those nations forced to self-isolate for 10 days.

Scrapping the quarantine requirement for the double-vaccinated could potentially reopen dozens of countries for foreign travel in what would represent a massive boost for the struggling tourism and aviation sectors.

The Government is pushing to make holidays abroad easier after 16 months of lockdowns have made international travel difficult.

There are also growing hopes that the 'green list' of safe countries will be significantly expanded.

A minister told The Times that it is hoped the 'amber list' change for the fully-vaccinated 'will be in place by the first week of the summer holidays'.

The appointment of Sajid Javid as Health Secretary, viewed as more hawkish on easing restrictions than his predecessor Matt Hancock, has prompted optimism of a swift change.

One Tory MP said: 'We're basing quite a lot of hope on Sajid Javid, we think his return to government will make a big change in the government's approach to international travel.'

A senior government source said: 'No final decision has been made on timing yet. There are various issues that need to be worked through and we are waiting for public health advice on exemptions and operational factors.

'Those need to be worked through before we set out further details but the expectation is it will be the end of July or the beginning of August.'

The Government is hoping to be able to persuade European nations to ditch quarantine requirements for double-jabbed Brits, with ambassadors told to make the case.

A Government source told the newspaper: 'The big focus for us is Europe now. All European ambassadors have been told to go lobby.'

The UK and the EU are closing in on agreeing to the mutual recognition of each other's vaccination apps.

That would mean Brits could show the app at border control to gain entry to a country because it will show vaccine, testing and infection status.

Some European countries already offer quarantine-free travel for UK tourists as long as they have a negative PCR test.

Mutual recognition of the apps would make it much easier for travellers to demonstrate they have tested negative.

However, some countries led by Germany have adopted a hardline approach to border rules, with all UK travellers forced to quarantine for 14 days on arrival.

Boris Johnson is due to host Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at Chequers tomorrow when he will urge her to ease the restrictions.

The importance of mutual recognition of vaccine apps was illustrated this week after British holidaymakers with trips booked to Malta saw their plans thrown into chaos after the country announced it is not accepting the NHS app as proof of vaccination.

The Government is hoping to be able to persuade European nations to ditch quarantine requirements for double-jabbed Brits, with ambassadors told to make the case. Magaluf beach in Mallorca is pictured

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today said the NHS vaccine app 'should be' good enough for Brits to prove their vaccination status

From Wednesday, travellers from the UK aged 12 and above are only permitted to enter Malta if they have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

But authorities in the central Mediterranean archipelago revealed on Monday that they will only accept printed letters sent by the NHS as proof.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the NHS app should be good enough to use as proof of vaccination but the UK cannot control what rules are imposed by foreign governments.

He told Sky News this morning: 'Obviously it should be but I can't guarantee what other governments are going to do, like the Maltese government.

'If I were a traveller I would be very confident that I would be able to go to my destination without any hindrance.'
A woman has died in the UK five weeks after getting her first AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia, as debate rages on about the Covid vaccine's safety.

It is not known if the woman's death is linked to the jab, which she had received more than a month before, and she had 'very serious' pre-existing health problems.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration reported the woman's death in a statement on Thursday, saying she had shown symptoms of rare blood clotting condition - thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, also known as TTS.

Her age was not disclosed and is not known whether she was an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of her death, with experts assessing whether blood clots could have formed during the long flight from Australia to the UK.

A woman has died in the UK five weeks after receiving her first dose of AstraZeneca in Australia (stock image)

'While some of her symptoms, imaging results and pathology tests suggested TTS, the woman had another very serious and recent underlying health condition,' the TGA said.

'UK authorities have ordered a post-mortem to assess whether this condition, along with the impact of long plane and car travel from Australia to the UK, had a role in her death.'

The medicine regulator also reported five new cases of blood clots have been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine within the last week, bringing the nation's total to 69 cases out of 4.8 million.

There have been two deaths.

Two of the cases - a 52-year-old woman from WA and a 59-year-old woman from Victoria - have been confirmed to be TTS, while three NSW residents - a 64-year-old woman and two men, 77, and 83, are 'probable' cases of the condition.

'Five additional cases of blood clots with low blood platelets have been assessed as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) likely to be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine,' the TGA said in its latest safety report.

'When assessed using the United Kingdom (UK) case definition, two were confirmed and three were deemed probable TTS.'

The announcement comes amid raging debate over which vaccine is most suitable for people based on their age after Prime Minister Scott Morrison opened the AstraZeneca jab (pictured) up to Australians under 40

It comes after a messy week of mixed messaging after Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday encouraged people under 60 keen for the AstraZeneca vaccine to talk to their GP, despite the jab previously being declared unsafe for young people.

The government also offered legal protection, through an indemnity scheme, to doctors who prescribe the vaccine to consenting younger people.

Pfizer is still the recommended vaccine for under-60s because of the extremely small risk of TTS.

The Victorian and WA governments told people to stick to ATAGI's advice, with Queensland going even further, actively discouraging under-40s from AstraZeneca.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young were accused of scaremongering after raising the rare blood clots.

Senior Morrison government minister Simon Birmingham said the statements damaged confidence in the vaccine rollout.

'They do help anti-vaxxers,' he told reporters in Adelaide on Thursday.

'That's why they ought to take a calmer, more rational approach, listen to the many calm and thoughtful voices of the health profession across Australia.'

Dr Young reaffirmed her advice for people under 40 to wait for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in a fiery news conference.

'This is getting absolutely silly,' she told reporters in Brisbane.

Long queues of people are seen at the NSW Vaccination Centre in Homebush on July 1 after the prime minister opened up AstraZeneca to young Australians

ATAGI co-chair Christopher Blyth sought to quell confusion, saying people under 60 should get the Pfizer jab.

What are the chances of getting a blood clot? Number of people who get blood clots after AstraZeneca per 100,000 people: <50 years - 3.1 people 50-59 years - 2.7 60-69 years - 1.4 70-79 years - 1.8 80+ years - 1.9 The overall fatality rate in those who have suffered blood clots from the AstraZeneca jab in Australia is three per cent Source: Atagi Advertisement

Professor Blyth said people in that age group should only be considering AstraZeneca in 'pressing' circumstances.

'There are some situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small,' he told ABC radio.

The ATAGI's recommendations are calculated by assessing the risks and benefits of getting the vaccination against the disease.

The estimated chance for those under 50 developing TTS is 3.1 per 100,000 per dose - a figure that drops to 1.6 per 1million for the second AstraZeneca shot.

Comparatively, the odds of getting a non-deadly clot from AZ are about the same as getting struck by lightning.

But because young people are less likely to experience severe health consequences if they catch Covid-19, the ATAGI has ruled the risk of TSS outweighs the benefit of the jab.

'For those aged 60 years and above, the individual benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine are greater than in younger people. The benefit of vaccination outweighs the risk of TTS in this age group,' the advice says.

However, while the Pfizer is the ATAGI's 'preferred' jab for young Australians, the medical body said they are free to take the AstraZeneca.

'COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca can be used in adults aged under 60 years for whom Comirnaty (Pfizer) is not available, the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks for that individual and the person has made an informed decision based on an understanding of the risks and benefits,' the advice says.

Despite mixed messages, a record 161,390 people rolled up their sleeves for a jab in the past 24 hours.

More than 2600 Australians under 40 have received AstraZeneca since the prime minister's comments.
The Canadian socialite who shot dead a police chief on a beach in Belize has accused her partner and his family of abandoning her.

Jasmine Hartin claims no-one from the family of her former partner Andrew Ashcroft visited her while she was on bail over the shooting because they had been told they couldn't have 'bad press associated with their reputation'.

The mother-of-two, 32, was released from jail on bail yesterday as she awaits trial for shooting Superintendent Henry Jemmott, a father-of-five, with his own service pistol in May, which she says was an accident.

Speaking to 7 News Belize's Cherisse Halsall, Hartin said the Ashcroft family was told to 'distance' themselves from her, adding that she wasn't allowed to speak to her infant twins while she was in Belize Central Prison.

She said although she has had a 'complicated' seven-year relationship with Ashcroft - the son of Lord Ashcroft - with many 'ups and downs', she has been 'shocked' about the Ashcroft family's treatment of her since her arrest.

She added: 'Even with all of that though, I can't believe how I've been treated.'

Jasmine Hartin (pictured) claimed she did not have any familial visitors in jail after the family of her former partner Andrew, the son of Lord Ashcroft, were told they couldn't have 'bad press'

It is unclear whether the family accept the claims. They have been approached and asked to provide a comment.

In the new interview following her release on bail on Wednesday, Hartin said: 'From what I've been told by the family, they were instructed to distance themselves from me immediately.

'That they couldn't have bad press associated with their reputation, so therefore, I wasn't - I didn't have any family come to visit me in jail, I didn't have any family call me.

'Instead a couple of friends came to see me, but never once was I allowed to speak to the children during that time.'

Hartin said that her brother tried to call her from Canada while her mother was 'worried sick' while she was in jail, but claimed that Ashcroft told them that she had visitors every single day - which she said was 'exaggerated'.

Hartin, 32, said the Ashcroft family were told to 'distance' themselves from her, claiming that she wasn't allowed to speak to her young twins while she was in Belize Central Prison

Hartin said although she has had a 'complicated' seven-year relationship with Andrew Ashcroft (pictured), she is still 'shocked' about her treatment from Ashcroft family since her arrest

Her full interview with the local news channel will air on 7 News Belize's evening television programme on Thursday.

Her comments came after a family friend, who is believed to have secured her release from prison by posting bail for her, claimed Hartin had been 'thrown to the wolves'.

Wendy Auxillou told MailOnline that Hartin has been denied access to her children and locked out of her home.

Auxillou said she posted Hartin's $30,000 bail by supplying the title to a property she owns as collateral, according to The Times.

Auxillou, who works as a lawyer, added Hartin is 'being psychologically and emotionally abused'.

Hartin is awaiting trial for shooting Supt Jemmott with his own service pistol last month.

Jemmott, a highly-rated officer tipped as a future leader of his country's police force, was struck behind his right ear by a 9mm round from his own Glock 17 service pistol.

According to a criminal complaint he had been 'socializing' and drinking alone with Hartin on a secluded hotel pier in Ambergris Caye, a tropical island haven for millionaire expats.

A security guard heard a 'loud bang' at 12.45am and police arrived to find Canadian national Hartin 'covered in red substance as that of blood' and Jemmott, 42, floating dead on his back 30ft from the shore.

An expended shell casing was still lodged inside the gun which was found on the Mata Rocks hotel pier along with a magazine, live bullets and a pool of blood.

After spending the weekend behind bars, Hartin gave a statement saying the off-duty officer was showing her how to handle his firearm as the pair drank and hung out.

Before her release yesterday, Hartin had previously been out on bail but was re-arrested and charged with assaulting a hotel worker last week.

Her bail had originally been covered by the manager of the resort where she had lived with Ashcroft but he withdrew it following her re-arrest.

When previously out on bail, Hartin was turned away by security when she tried to access her family apartment at the Grand Colony resort to see her young twins.

According to The Times, Auxillou said: 'In the beginning, people viewed her as some type of rich entitled kid, basically.

The former partner of Lord Ashcroft's son Andrew is awaiting trial for shooting Superintendent Henry Jemmott (pictured), a father-of-five, with his own service pistol last month

'After what transpired with her being locked out of her house and kept away from her kids and all that, she's now being viewed with a bit of sympathy.'

It has not been specified whether Auxillou is part of her legal team, which is being led by high-profile attorney Richard 'Dickie' Bradley as Hartin awaits trial over the shooting of Superintendent Henry Jemmott, which she claims was an accident.

Authorities at the Central Prison received confirmation of Hartin meeting requirements for bail and she was released as of 3pm yesterday, according to Breaking Belize News.

Her conditions for bail reportedly include daily reports to the police station, a daily curfew, not leaving the jurisdiction, not interfering with witnesses, and maintaining good behaviour.

Hartin's legal team is being led by high-profile attorney Richard 'Dickie' Bradley, after an apparent split with Godfrey Smith - the former attorney general of Belize who was hired on her behalf in the hours after Jemmot's shooting.

It comes after Hartin's mother Candace Castiglione claimed that her daughter's treatment amounted 'persecution from the Ashcroft family'.

Hartin pleaded not guilty last week when she appeared in court in San Pedro accused of assaulting the hotel worker during a clash with her former partner.

The mother-of-two (pictured) was released from prison yesterday after her family friend, lawyer Wendy Auxillou, posted her $30,000 bail

The court heard she had attempted to push Sandra Grisham, the general manager of the Alaia, however, Hartin representing herself, pleaded not guilty and denied attacking anyone.

Frank Habet, a manager of a resort, then withdrew her bail funds saying he was worried he would lose his 60,000 Belizean dollars ($30,000/22,000) if Hartin did not show up for trial.

He said he decided to pull the plug after the accused mother was turned back by security on Tuesday when she tried to access her family apartment at the Grand Colony resort to see her young twins.

Habet said: 'Miss Hartin appeared at Grand Colony resort behaving in a disorderly and abusive manner and creating great disturbance at the hotel in the presence of guests.

'I now think Miss Hartin is quite capable of not showing up for trial and I therefore wish to immediately withdraw my cash deposit.'

Videos showed Hartin, 32, chasing her partner Andrew Ashcroft into the neighboring Alaia Belize hotel, which the couple ran together before the Jemmott shooting.

Hartin took the videos on her own cell phone and could be heard repeatedly asking Ashcroft why he allegedly wouldn't give her access to Ellie and Charlie, four.

Auxillou, who works as a lawyer, also claims Hartin (pictured) is 'being psychologically and emotionally abused'

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, she reiterated her version of events, saying the gun went off unexpectedly in her hands as she tried to re-insert a clip and hand it back.

'Henry was my friend. It was an accident, I didn't flee the scene. The first thing I did was call the police myself,' she said.

'There's literally not a day that goes by when I don't cry and my frigging chest doesn't hurt and ache for his kids, for his family, for him.'

Hartin (pictured) re-told her version of events that led to Jemmott's death, saying the gun went off unexpectedly in her hands as she tried to re-insert a clip and hand it to him

She also revealed for the first time that the reason she was practicing with the gun was because an unnamed man had tried to rape her at a party six days earlier.

Three days after Jemmott's death Hartin was charged with manslaughter by negligence after prosecutors opted against murder or full-fledged manslaughter on the strength of her witness statement insisting it was an accident.

The offense carries a maximum prison sentence of nine months or a fine of around 10,000 Belizean dollars ($5,000 in US money).
A devastated daughter has been forced to farewell her beloved dad over FaceTime after she got stuck in hotel quarantine in Sydney.

Gillan Hannah, who lived in Madison, Wisconsin, immediately returned to Australia after hearing news her father's lungs were shutting down.

She is fully vaccinated and has tested negative to Covid-19 twice since arriving in Australia, however her application for a compassionate exemption to travel from Sydney to Melbourne to see her dad in hospital was denied.

US-based Australian Gillian Hannah got stuck in hotel quarantine in Sydney and was denied a compassionate exemption to see her dying dad in a Melbourne hospital

Ms Hannah was forced to say goodbye to her beloved father (pictured) over FaceTime despite being fully vaccinated against and testing negative to Covid-19 twice since her arrival

'I just FaceTimed him. He's on a lot of medication and he sort of knew who I was but it was vague,' she told 7NEWS after her father died on Thursday morning.

'I said what I needed to say and that's the last moments I get with him.'

Just hours later her father passed away, leaving his daughter only with memories of a remote communication.

Ms Hannah had been advised she could charter a plane to Victoria but was not allowed to travel on a regular flight with other passengers.

'I don't have $10,000 just lying around', she explained.

'I asked if I could drive down and they said absolutely not, we would never approve that.'

The heartbroken daughter posted a photo of her father on Facebook, with friends and family sharing their condolences in the comments.

'I'm so sorry you were prevented from seeing your dad by heartless bureaucrats. Someone had the power and they have utterly failed you and your family', one said.

'I am devastated for you Gil. I don't even know what to say. No words can make this situation any better', another wrote.

'This is beyond heartbreaking, I am so sorry you didn't get to kiss you dad goodbye - a simple wish you weren't granted', a third commented.

Anna Coffey, 32, (left) flew to Sydney from New York last week after her 80-year-old father John (right) suffered a stroke and went into palliative care in a Melbourne hospital.

But Angel Flight Australia, a charity involved in co-ordinating non-emergency medical flights, offered to pay for her flights to Melbourne - reuniting Ms Coffey with her dying dad

Ms Hannah's story came soon after another US-based Australian was finally reunited with her dying dad after a charity offered to pay for a charter flight.

Anna Coffey, 32, flew to Sydney from New York last week after her 80-year-old father John suffered a stroke and went into palliative care in a Melbourne hospital.

The Columbia Business student was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and tested negative to the virus but did not receive exemptions from NSW and Victoria health departments.

NSW Health told her the 'travel time' by car to Melbourne was too far - as she would need to stop to refuel and eat - and she would instead be forced to shell out $7,500 for a private plane.

Ms Coffey (pictured) had feared she would not make it to Melbourne in time if she was forced to complete the required 14 days in Sydney quarantine

'The difference in your situation is that the travel time by road from Sydney to Melbourne is approximately nine hours plus stops and you would need to travel through both NSW and Victoria,' an email from NSW Health said.

The health department said while they understand her situation was 'upsetting and stressful,' the stringent quarantine measures were in place for the 'protection of the community'.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard addressed the issue in a press conference on Tuesday, telling reporters he had consulted his Victorian counterpart Martin Foley on Ms Coffey's situation.

'These issues are handled as personally and as sensitively as they can be, but there are rules further down the line where public servants apply the rules, and then we try and find the flexibility,' Mr Hazzard said.

'We've asked our officials to look at it, and we'll deal with it sensitively and as carefully as we can, and while also keeping the community safe.'

Ms Coffey, who hasn't seen her family since the start of the pandemic, called the restrictions 'inhumane' with compassionate exemptions only granted for the rich.

Angel Flight Australia orchestrates about 50 compassionate flights a year, many often reuniting parents with sick children, immediately recognised Ms Coffey met their criteria

But Angel Flight Australia, a charity involved in co-ordinating non-emergency medical flights, came to her rescue in a plan confirmed on Tuesday night.

She was released from hotel quarantine at about midday on Wednesday and landed at Essendon Airport in suburban Melbourne later that afternoon.

Ms Coffey had feared she would not make it to Melbourne in time to be reunited with John if she was forced to complete the required 14 days in Sydney quarantine.

Angel Flight Australia orchestrates about 50 compassionate flights a year, many often reuniting parents with sick children.

Although it is the other way around in this case, Chief executive Marjorie Pagani immediately recognised she fit the criteria to be offered a compassionate flight.

'This young lady has already spent a fortune getting home to Australia and then to be asked to find another $7000 to $8000 is a lot,' she said.

'I'm so glad we could help out and get it done so quickly.'

The Columbia Business student was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and has tested negative to the virus but struggled to receive exemptions from NSW and Victoria health departments

Of hearing of Ms Coffey's heart-wrenching ordeal, Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his sympathies in a letter and said he hopes a 'solution can be found'.

'To be so close to home but to still be so far away from being able to see your father must be heartbreaking,' he said.

'I farewelled my own father last year and I know how important those last moments are.'

Mr Morrison, who has no control over state quarantine policies, is now reaching out to the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee to draw up a more consistent plan to deal with compassionate exemptions for those blocked from seeing critically ill loved ones.

Last week, US citizen Mark Kilian was reunited with his dying father at a Gold Coast hospital after spending eight days in quarantine and hiring a $15,000 chartered jet to fly up from Sydney.
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A mysterious 'Flytrap' structure built above a top secret network of tunnels by the Nazis in the Second World War might have been a launch pad for an experimental 'flying saucer', experts have suggested.

The bizarre arched, circular concrete structure was part of the clandestine Project Riese operation, in which a deep network of tunnels were built by concentration camp prisoners in 1944 in the Sowie Mountains in Nazi-occupied Poland.

The purpose of the tunnels themselves remains shrouded in mystery because fleeing Nazi forces destroyed documents and materials before Soviet troops occupied the area after their defeat in the war.

Now, a new UKTV Yesterday documentary consults a series of historians and archaeologists who give their views on what the tunnels and weird surface structure - which is also known as 'Hitler's Stonehenge' - were used for.

In tonight's episode of Secret Nazi Bases, Forensic archaeologist Robert Sparling said the Nazis may have been 'playing' with technology that would 'look like a flying saucer' and had 'glowing propulsion systems'.

He said he would not be 'surprised' if the Flytrap was connected to such a device and suggested the structure was a good shape to support it and allow it to lift off.

Other theories delved into in the programme are that the Flytrap and tunnels were used as part of the Nazis' pioneering helicopter programme; that Project Riese was the home of a nuclear weapon project; or even that some kind of 'anti-gravity' device was being developed there.

Polish project manager Krzysztof Szpakowski, who has carried out work in the tunnels claims in tonight's show that his and an employee's phone rang while they were working deep in the tunnels, where it should be 'impossible'.

He said he is 'convinced' that 'electrical impulses' caused by old Nazi futuristic technologies that remain hidden in the tunnels caused the phones to ring.

 Slide me  A mysterious 'Flytrap' structure built above a network of tunnels by the Nazis in the Second World War might have been a launch pad for an experimental 'flying saucer', experts have suggested. The bizarre circular concrete structure is discussed in tonight's episode of Secret Nazi Bases, on UKTV channel Yesterday. It was part of the clandestine Project Riese operation, which saw a deep network of tunnels built by concentration camp prisoners in 1944 in the Sowie Mountains in Nazi-occupied Poland. Above: The Flytrap structure, along with how the Nazi flying saucer might have looked on top

Work began on the tunnels (shown above in tonight's programme) in 1943 as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler sought a way to regain the upper hand in the war against the Allies. They were built deep into the igneous rock of the Owl Mountains in Lower Silesia

More than 5,000 of 13,000 slave labourers - including children as young as 10 - were worked to death constructing the tunnels in Lower Silesia, with many of them surviving little more than a few months as the Nazi officers forced them to work them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Work began in 1943 as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler sought a way to regain the upper hand in the war against the Allies.

The situation for Germany had become progressively worse since the decision to invade the Soviet Union in 1941.

The tunnels, which were hand-carved out of hard igneous rock, were the perfect place for the Nazis to work on projects because they protected against the threat of the increasingly effective Allied bombing campaigns, which had decimated the above-ground war effort.

Because of the need to keep the tunnels a secret from the Allies, many senior Nazi officials were not aware of the existence of Project Riese.

The tallest parts of the tunnels are 36ft high, making them a plausible location for large weapons or machines to be constructed.

Forensic archaeologist Robert Sparling said the Nazis may have been 'playing' with technology that would 'look like a flying saucer' and had 'glowing propulsion systems'. Above: A mock-up of the flying saucer, which is shown in tonight's programme

The tunnels, which were hand-carved out of hard igneous rock, were the perfect place for the Nazis to work on projects because they protected against the threat of the increasingly effective Allied bombing campaigns, which had decimated the above-ground war effort. Above: A surface building seen at the site in a 2015 photo

More than 5,000 of 13,000 slave labourers - including children as young as 10 - were worked to death constructing the tunnels, with many of them surviving little more than a few months as the Nazi officers forced them to work them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Above: Images of the tunnels which were taken in 2015

Polish project manager Krzysztof Szpakowski (pictured), who has carried out work in the tunnels claims in tonight's show that his and an employee's phone rang while they were working deep in the tunnels, where it should be 'impossible'

The tunnels were heavily guarded with MG machine guns in place at their entrance. Because of the need to keep the tunnels a secret from the Allies, many senior Nazi officials were not aware of the existence of Project Riese

The tunnels, which were hand-carved out of hard igneous rock, were the perfect place for the Nazis to work on projects because they protected against the threat of the increasingly effective Allied bombing campaigns, which had decimated the above-ground war effort='

World War Two expert Patrick Ney said: 'There was something that they [the Nazis] were doing that was very very important.

'You only have to look at how much concrete was involved to know that this was one of the most important engineering projects that the Nazis were doing.'

Fellow historian Rob Bell added: 'For them to put this amount of effort, these kinds of resources into a secret project here, there must have been something incredibly important to their war effort going on.'

Dr Deborah Neill said: 'It stands to reason that some of these tunnels could have been designed as places where they could continue to manufacture even whole airplanes potentially. The sheer scale and size of the tunnels.'

The Nazis are known to have moved some operations - such as the V2 rocket programme  underground after production facilities were destroyed by bombs.

The Flytrap  which was built above the tunnels and is around 60feet across and 30feet tall, would have been a 'big undertaking' to construct, architect Brooke Guzar said.

Historian Professor Robert Watson, who is the author of more than 40 books, said it is 'infuriating' that experts still do not know what why the Flyrtrap was built.

Forensic Engineer Mr Sparling said it may have been associated with a 'flying saucer' machine.

A far more plausible theory is that the tunnels and maybe the Flytrap itself were used to test the first helicopters. Nazi scientists were among the first in the world to develop prototypes of the flying machines. Above: How the helicopter might have looked while inside the tunnel

Scientist Friedrich von Doblhoff began working on the technology in the 1930s and, by 1941, had a working prototype. Above: The Doblhoff/WNF 342 in action

Another even more bizarre rumoured project covered in the programme is that of Die Glocke  'The Bell' in English

Above the tunnel is a host of abandoned equipment, including an old car, a truck and old rail trolleys

'Air supremacy was going to be part of what determined the outcome of the war,' he said.

'So maybe they were playing with some type of technology that would look like a flying saucer that had glowing propulsion systems.

'I wouldn't be entirely surprised at all if this fly tap were associated with the development of that kind of device.'

He added: 'Where you wanted it to lift off the ground you would need some kind of structure to initially support it, allow the air to flow out from underneath it, underneath the pillars.'

A CGI graphic showing the alleged flying saucer depicts how it might rested on top of the Flytrap.

Dr Neill added that the rumoured disc-shaped object might instead have been used to create energy.

She said: 'One speculation that an object they were working on that could have generated energy looked a little bit what like science fiction writers would have described as a flying saucer but that was in fact not at all what its purpose was.

'They were using all kinds of different devices and structures to try to work out how they could generate energy.'

Another even more bizarre rumoured project covered in the programme is that of Die Glocke  'The Bell' in English.

It was first described by Polish journalist and author Igor Witoski in a 2000 book.

Mr Bell explained: 'Die Glocke, or the Nazi Bell, is this rumour that has lingered for decades about this Nazi bell-shaped object that is associated with anti-gravity, or free energy or some kind of pseudo-scientific concept.'

Professor Watson added that it was said to be a 'large bell-shaped device that could rotate' and perhaps create a state of anti-gravity  the hypothetical phenomenon of a place or object which is free from the force of gravity.

Tonight's programme posits the outlandish suggestion that the Flytrap may have been some kind of support structure for Die Glocke.

A far more plausible theory is that the tunnels and maybe the Flytrap itself were used to test the first helicopters.

Nazi scientists were among the first in the world to develop prototypes of the flying machines.

Scientist Friedrich von Doblhoff began working on the technology in the 1930s and, by 1941, had a working prototype.

A factory which then made the first helicopters was near to the site of the tunnels.

A CGI image shown in tonight's show depicts how one of the first helicopters would have fitted inside the tunnels.

Materials engineer Amma Wakefield said: 'Why design a tunnel that is 36 feet high unless you're planning to have vehicle go in there that needs that clearance or you're building something in there that needs that clearance.'

However, Professor Watson said that the Flytrap is unlikely to have been used as a helicopter landing pad because it was so near to a forest, which would present a serious threat to experimental aircraft.

Guzar said the Flytrap is also unlikely to have been used as a rocket launch site because of the difficulty of getting any projectile through the structure's arches so it could be stood upright.

Abandoned guns, forgotten munitions carts and peeling paint: Inside the eerie military shelters in Poland where children were forced to dig tunnels to help the Nazi military machine. Above: An image taken in 2015

Filmmaker Patrick Ney said in tonight's programme that the tunnels would have been the 'ideal place' for the Nazis to develop their atomic weapons programme without anyone else finding out about it. He spoke of how they put a 'lot of effort' into the mountain facility

Whilst only a small part of the tunnels were ever reinforced with concrete, engineer Brooke Guzar said that because they are built within hard igneous rock, they cold hold themselves up through 'arching action'

The Flytrap could also have been an unfinished cooling tower, adding weight to the notion that a nuclear testing programme may have been being conducted in the tunnels beneath.

Filmmaker Patrick Ney said: 'We know that scientists went to Adolf Hitler and presented plans to develop the German atomic capability.

'The Owl Mountains complex would have been the ideal place to develop the Atomic programme without anyone else knowing about it. Secrecy on a project like that would have been key.'

He added: 'A little bit like a gambler down to his last chips, they're putting a lot of men, a lot of material, a lot of money, a lot of effort into these mountains, which suggests that they had a card to play.

'It suggests that they were doing something here which they thought potentially could turn the tide of the war.'

The Nazis are known to have begun a programme to develop nuclear weapons. However, progress was hampered by the loss of key scientists to other projects.

Project manager Mr Szpakowski claimed that the atomic weapon dropped on Hiroshima by the US in 1945 was a 'German bomb' or 'at least based on German research'.

Speaking of the strange things he experienced in the tunnels, he said: 'My employee's phone rang twice. Here deep underground, where it's impossible. Mine also rang.

One final suggested purpose for the Flytrap is that it was a pseudo-religious monument. Heinrich Himmler, who was head of the SS, is known to have had an interest in the occult. It is therefore suggested in the show that the Flytrap as it stands today was the beginnings of a monument to Nazi rule

This is the reason why it has been likened to the far more famous, prehistoric monument Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain

'So something is going on, some electrical impulses, that make these electrical devices go crazy.'

One final suggested purpose for the Flytrap is that it was a pseudo-religious monument. This is the reason why it has been likened to the far more famous Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.

Archaeologist and historian Seika Groves said: 'That is the first thing that comes to mind is Stonehenge for me.

'So it could very well be that perhaps it was going to hold some sort of ceremonial or ritualistic presence?'

The SS  the Nazis' paramilitary guard organisation  were the men responsible for guarding both the Flytrap and the tunnels beneath.

Heinrich Himmler, who was head of the SS, is known to have had an interest in the occult.

It is therefore suggested in the show that the Flytrap as it stands today was the beginnings of a monument to Nazi rule.

Highlighting the Nazis' obsession with strange phenomena, Professor Watson said: 'The Nazis did have a programme to actively pursue UFOs. They were also looking for the lost city of Atlantis.

'The Nazis were actually scanning the globe to find Biblical artefacts hoping that all that would imbue Hitler with mythical powers.'

However, fortunately for the Allies, whatever work was being carried out in the tunnels was halted by German defeat in the war.

After the Soviet troops arrived in the region in 1945, Hitler  who committed suicide on April 30  is known to have ordered the destruction of documentary evidence.

Dr Neill said: 'There was a concerted and sustained effort to burn all available evidence about what the tunnels were used for.'

Secret Nazi Bases is on tonight 8pm on Yesterday (Catch-up on UKTV Play).
A local barber has been handed a huge fine for taking clients during Sydney's hard lockdown, and residents nearby have been warned police will be watching to ensure they comply with Covid restrictions.

The owner of Golden Cuts on Chiswick Road, at Auburn, copped a $5,000 fine for breaching a public health order.

On Sydney's sixth day of lockdown, 24 new cases were announced bringing the total number of active Covid-19 cases in New South Wales to 194.

The owner of Golden Cuts barber on Chiswick Street at Auburn (pictured) was fined $5000 after police were tipped off the barber shop was continuing to serve customers

It is understood NSW Police were tipped off by a member of the public that the hairdresser was continuing to operate as normal, despite Greater Sydney being six days into a hard lockdown.

Only essential services are permitted to remain open, which does not include hairdressers or beauty salons.

It does include huge businesses including supermarkets, hardware stores and even some clothing shops - with the likes of Kmart opening legally.

There has been confusion over which types of businesses are entitled to remain open, with several major retailers continuing to operate.

Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, a Fitness First and Bluey's Swim School (at Bankstown) have been listed as casual contact locations from active Covid-19 cases.

The owner of the barber shop was contacted by Daily Mail Australia but did not speak English.

New South Police confirmed 65 PINs were issued on Wednesday, including a police superintendent.

'One of those of concern was a hairdresser in auburn in the shopping area of auburn,' said NSW police deputy commissioner Gary Worboys.

Police have warned they would 'double down' their compliance and visibility efforts from South Western Sydney back to the Eastern Suburbs

The 53-year-old officer was fined $200 for not failing to wear a mask indoors at a Mount Colah fast food shop.

Deputy commissioner Gary Worboys specifically mentioned Auburn and Bankstown as areas that officers would be targeting to ensure members of the public and businesses are respecting lockdown restrictions.

'In particular today I want to send a very clear message that we will double down our efforts in terms of visibility and compliance in South Western Sydney in particular, around that auburn, bankstown area,' deputy commissioner Worboys told a press conference.

'In those shopping areas, the central business areas and also back to the Eastern Suburbs as well.'

NSW Health data up to 8pm Wednesday showed the Canterbury-Bankstown area had 16 active cases of Covid-19.

'The message is quite clear, that police continue to be visible in the community, on public transport, we are stopping many people, and again' it's just disappointing that infringements continue to be issued,' deputy commissioner Worboys said.

Fines for breaching public health orders are $1000 for individuals but $5000 for businesses.
Turkey has today officially withdrawn from an international treaty to prevent violence against women, accusing it of undermining family structures.

Erdogan sparked outrage in March by pulling out from the world's first binding treaty to prevent and combat violence against women, known as the Istanbul Convention.

But many conservatives in Turkey and in Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party say the pact undermines the family structures that protect society.

Pictured: Turkish President and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking on Wednesday. On Thursday, Turkey officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention - an international treaty to prevent violence against women

Some also see the Convention as promoting homosexuality through its principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

Erdogan's move came as he clings onto support from conservative and nationalist groups to maintain his 18-year rule.

Justifying the decision, Erdogan's top press aide Fahrettin Altun said the treaty's references to gender-based abuses had been 'hijacked by people attempting to normalise homosexuality'. The LGBTQ movement is 'incompatible' with Turkey's social and family values, Altun added.

The 2011 pact, signed by 45 countries and the European Union, requires governments to adopt legislation linked to the prosecution of crimes including marital rape and female genital mutilation.

'Our country's withdrawal from the convention will not lead to any legal or practical shortcoming in the prevention of violence against women,' Erdogan's office said in a statement to the administrative court on Tuesday.

Thousands were set to protest across Turkey, where a court appeal to halt the withdrawal was rejected this week.

'We will continue our struggle,' Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women's Associations, said on Wednesday. 'Turkey is shooting itself in the foot with this decision.'

She said that since March, women and other vulnerable groups had been more reluctant to ask for help and less likely to receive it, with COVID-19 fuelled economic difficulties causing a dramatic increase in violence against them.

Major Turkish cities were convulsed earlier this year by student-led protests supporting broader rights.

Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey since the Ottoman Empire.

But women's rights groups accuse Ankara of withdrawing from the treaty to appease conservatives at a time when Erdogan's ruling party is recording lower levels of support.

The Istanbul Convention, negotiated in Turkey's biggest city and signed in 2011, committed its signatories to prevent and prosecute domestic violence and promote equality.

Thousands were set to protest across Turkey, where a court appeal to halt the withdrawal was rejected this week. Pictured: Activists in Istanbul protest against Turkey's withdrawal from the Convention, June 19

Ankara's withdrawal triggered condemnation from both the United States and the European Union, and critics say it puts Turkey even further out of step with the bloc that it applied to join in 1987.

Femicide has surged in Turkey, with one monitoring group logging roughly one per day in the last five years.

Rights organisations say Erdogan's decision will put women at greater risk of violence when femicide is already prevalent in Turkey.

Last year, 300 women were murdered in the country, according to the rights group We Will Stop Femicide Platform, while 189 have been killed so far this year.

'The withdrawal sends a reckless and dangerous message to perpetrators who abuse, maim and kill: that they can carry on doing so with impunity,' said Amnesty International's secretary general, Agnes Callamard.

Proponents of the convention and related legislation say more stringent implementation is needed.

This month, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey's interior and justice ministers expressing concern about a rise in homophobic narratives by some officials, some of which targeted the convention.

'All the measures provided for by the Istanbul Convention reinforce family foundations and links by preventing and combating the main cause of destruction of families, that is, violence,' she said.

The issue of Turkey's plans to leave the Convention was raised by European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen in April.

In a speech at the time, Von der Leyen said she raised Turkey's decision with Erdogan during a meeting the pair had in Istanbul, which became infamous when her colleague Charles Michel took one of only two seats set up for the talks.

Pictured: European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen was forced to sit on a sofa beside colleague Charles Michel and Turkey's President Erdogan during a meeting in Istanbul in April. After the humiliating meeting, Von der Leyen said she raised the issue of the Istanbul Convention with Erdogan during their summit

The other was taken by the Turkish leader, leaving Von der Leyen to sit on a sofa. In the fallout, Turkey's attitude towards woman was thrown into the spotlight.

'The withdrawal of one of the founding members of the Council of Europe is a terrible signal,' Von der Leyen said at the time.

She also noted that several EU member countries haven't ratified the convention and that others are even considering pulling out.

'This is not acceptable. Any kind of violence against women and children is a crime. We must call it a crime and it must be punished as such,' she said.

Von der Leyen said she wants the EU itself to join the convention, but that the move is being blocked by some member countries.

She said that by the end of the year the European Commission 'will put forward alternative legislation to prevent and combat violence against women and children, offline and online.'

There are protests planned for Thursday evening across Turkey, with a large rally in Istanbul to start at 1600 GMT.

The Istanbul governorate banned a Pride march last weekend, which saw police use force while detaining dozens of protesters and pin an AFP photographer to the ground, prompting a formal complaint.

The parade was held annually in Istanbul until 2015, an event which had been attended by thousands of people.

Critics say the bans on the Pride march and the treaty withdrawal demonstrate a creeping Islamisation under Erdogan, who first came to power as prime minister in 2003.
A 25-year-old woman sent thousands of pounds to her partner who was lying low in Dubai over a gangland shooting - despite telling police they had split up.

Annie Webster, 25, wired 6,066.85 to her partner Shawn O'Malley, who was linked by police to a shooting in Bolton on September 9, 2019 when a house was sprayed with bullets.

Police suspected that O'Malley organised the shooting on behalf of Warrington criminal Leon Cullen.

O'Malley, a well know drug dealer from Warrington, later fled to Dubai while he was still on licence from prison.

Webster told the police that she had split from O'Malley in November 2019 and was no longer in contact with him.

However, after a police search and interview, Webster pleaded guilty to concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property on January 11 this year. A charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice will also lay on file.

Webster appeared at Bolton Crown court on Tuesday, when she was sentenced to a two-year community order with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Her Facebook page also shows several photos of her with O'Malley, believed to have been taken in Warrington this year.

Annie Webster, 25, wired 6,066.85 to her partner Shawn O'Malley, who was linked by police to a shooting in Bolton on September 9, 2019. Pictured are the couple in a photo believed to have been taken at her Warrington home. It is not clear when the photo was taken, though it was posted on her Facebook account this year

Webster told the police that she had split from O'Malley in November 2019 and was no longer in contact with him

On January 24, 2020 Greater Manchester Police visited Webster at her home on Cumberland Street in Warrington, when detectives questioned her about O'Malley.

She said that although she had visited Dubai she had not made any contact with O'Malley while she was on holiday.

On March 6, 2020 police executed a warrant at her home in Warrington, when she was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

During a search of her house police recovered a number of items including: A Western Union Money Transfer Document in her name, an Emirates Economy Boarding Pass in her name, and a receipt voucher for a Dubai based law firm.

From a storage area under the stairs in her home police found a money transfer receipt for 962.56 dated February 4, 2020, a Ghaya Brand Hotel luggage claim ticket, a money transfer receipt dated February 7, 2020 and her passport.

Police then established that she had sent 3,900.00 UK pounds to the United Arab Emirates on the February 1, 2020.

O'Malley, a well know drug dealer from Warrington, fled to Dubai while he was still on licence from prison

On March 6, 2020 police executed a warrant at her home in Warrington, when she was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Pictured are the couple in a photo believed to have been taken at her Warrington home. It is not clear when the photo was taken, though it was posted on her Facebook account this year

During a search of her house police recovered a number of items including: A Western Union Money Transfer Document in her name, an Emirates Economy Boarding Pass in her name, and a receipt voucher for a Dubai based law firm

On February 4, 2020 she had sent 962.56 a third party based in the Emirate of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

And on December 23 2019 she had bought 5,000 Dirhams and made cash payments to a Dubai based law firm.

Police believe that Webster stayed at the Ghaya Grand Hotel and deposited 5,000 Dirhams in to the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

A court document states: 'The Crown's case, is the Defendant, Annie Webster, knew or suspected the monies, in whole or in part, to be directly [or indirectly] from the proceeds of Shawn O'Malley's criminal conduct.'

Webster was later questioned by police about the money she had wired to the UAE, her trip to Dubai and her relationship with O'Malley and Leon Cullen. She declined to comment during the interview.

O'Malley, now back in the UK, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to discharge a firearm and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and is to be sentenced later this year at Liverpool Crown Court.
Record numbers of migrants continue to make the trip across the Channel in small boats, with nearly 6,000 reaching the UK in the first six months of 2021.

Men, women and children still risk the dangers involved in crossing the 21-mile Dover Strait in rubber dinghies, despite Priti Patel's vows to make the route 'unviable'.

The total figure for 2020 could be eclipsed within two months if the number of crossings seen in July and August last year are repeated.

The PA news agency, which tracked and analysed crossings for the last 18 months, can report more than 5,900 people have got to the UK on small boats in 2021.

A total of 8,417 made the journey in the whole of 2020, a figure that was quadruple the number for 2019.

June 2021 saw nearly 2,200 people picked up after crossing the English Channel, a new record surpassing the 1,951 from September 2020.

The number for June 2021 was more than three times the number for June 2020, a trend that if repeated in July would see the total for the whole of 2020 eclipsed by the end of this month.

Men, women and children still risk the dangers involved in crossing the 21-mile Dover Strait in rubber dinghies, despite Priti Patel's vows to make the route 'unviable'. Pictured: today

Charities have criticised the Government over the figures, accusing it of creating a 'people smuggler's dream' in its quest to build 'Fortress Britain'.

The Home Office says the crossings are 'completely unacceptable' and said it has 'redoubled' efforts with French authorities as summer arrives.

It comes amid reports Ms Patel is considering introducing controversial legislation to enable the Government to send asylum seekers abroad for processing.

Increasing numbers of people making the trip from France aboard small boats come despite the fact the busy shipping lane has claimed several lives.

In October, a Kurdish-Iranian family including small children died when their migrant boat sank off the French coast.

Home Secretary Ms Patel pledged crossings would be an 'infrequent phenomenon' by spring 2020.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'These crossings are completely unacceptable and we have redoubled efforts with French authorities by increasing beach patrols, intelligence sharing and investment in surveillance as we enter the summer months.

'As a result we have now seen over 5,000 people prevented by the French from making the dangerous crossing so far this year.

'As organised criminal gangs adapt their approach, so will we. But to truly close this lethal route we must fix the broken system through our New Plan for Immigration, which will be firm on those who abuse the system and fair on those in genuine need of protection.'

The total figure for 2020 could be eclipsed within two months if the number of crossings seen in July and August last year are repeated. Pictured: today

Despite the sharp rise in people arriving in small boats, asylum applications in the UK fell in 2020 to 29,456.

This was significantly lower than the 93,475 asylum applications made in France and the 121,955 made in Germany.

Chief Executive of Refugee Action Tim Naor Hilton said: 'The Government's obsession with trying to build Fortress Britain has created a people smuggler's dream.

'And their planned refugee Bill looks set to be an unworkable, unlawful and expensive disaster that will do nothing to stop refugees risking their lives on the Channel.

'If ministers want to smash the criminal gangs, they must create more routes to safety, including family reunion schemes, humanitarian visas, and a long-term resettlement programme that welcomes 10,000 refugees a year.'

Director of charity Detention Action Bella Sankey said Ms Patel's pledge to make Channel crossings unviable now 'lies in ruin'.

She added: 'If she was sincere about ending the chaos she would create a humanitarian visa granting safe passage to the tiny proportion of refugees who arrive at the British border through France.

'Everything else is fantasy, delusion and denial.'

The PA news agency, which tracked and analysed crossings for the last 18 months, can report more than 5,900 people have got to the UK on small boats in 2021. Pictured: Today

Activists claim there is 'confusion in the minds of the British public' about who the people living rough in Calais are and why they want to come to the UK.

For years, hundreds of migrants have lived along the French coast as they wait to cross the English Channel concealed in lorries or, increasingly, aboard small boats.

Often living in destitution because of patchy support from the state, men, women and children rely on charities and NGOs for handouts.

Some have fled persecution and torture in faraway countries and seek a better life in the UK.

Tia Bush is a volunteer for humanitarian charity Care4Calais, working on the ground in the French city distributing aid.

She said the situation for the communities there is 'really hard', with people being evicted by local authorities on a daily basis.

Ms Bush added: 'One of the two main settlements doesn't have any toilets, any access to showers, any water whatsoever that's not provided by charities and they don't get any food subsidised by the government either, so again reliant on charities.'

She said people were 'very much aware' of the dangers of Covid-19 but there was little they could do about it.

A total of 8,417 made the journey in the whole of 2020, a figure that was quadruple the number for 2019. Pictured: Tuesday

'I think people realise and are afraid of it but they've got no choice.' People living in the camps say they have no facilities to self-isolate, Ms Bush said.

And despite the dangers involved, people are still determined to cross the English Channel to the UK, she added.

Ms Bush said: 'People who are here want to go to Britain because they've got family there or because they speak the language or they've got other ties to the UK and that's still as strong as ever I think.

'Obviously however hard it is here, people have a reason for wanting to get to the UK and they hope that they'll be safe there.'

She said some people arrive in Calais not knowing how to get to the UK, only realising on arrival that there is no safe route.

'By boat or by lorry, people are just really scared about it,' she added.

Care4Calais founder Clare Moseley has long been critical of Ms Patel's approach to the Channel crossings.

She said: 'The biggest confusion in the minds of the British public is about who the people in Calais are.

'We have been working there for years and our absolute overwhelming experience is that they are people coming from the most dangerous countries on the planet having suffered unimaginable horrors and being absolutely deserving of our compassion and our respect.'

She added: 'Being told that they are anything else is absolutely not true.'
An air ambulance came within yards of colliding with a drone over London as it flew a critically-ill patient to hospital.

The remote-controlled craft hovered just below the chopper as it circled above the Royal London Hospital, a report has revealed.

The UK Airprox Board, which investigates near misses, rated the chance of a collision as the most severe 'category A' event.

Investigators said it was only by luck the drone did not strike the helicopter, which was only 500m above the ground.

The report concluded that a 'definite risk of collision had existed'. A doctor standing on the helipad - above the 17th floor of the hospital in Whitechapel, East London - spotted the drone as he waited for the helicopter to land.

A fireman secures a London Air Ambulance helicopter on the roof of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel before a storm around 2000

Describing events on May 29, the Airprox report revealed: 'A drone came up to meet them whilst east of the Helipad and orbited with them for a quarter turn.

'It then departed towards the south-east. The drone appeared to be only a few metres below and slightly to the side of the right skid of the aircraft.'

The legal limit for drones to fly is 400m. Anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including up to five years in prison.

London's Air Ambulance treats an average of five critically injured patients a day.

Pilot Captain Neil Jeffers said: 'When you see our red helicopter in the skies above London we are likely taking our medics to a critically injured person as fast as possible.

The legal limit for drones to fly is 400m. Anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including up to five years in prison (file image)

A doctor standing on the helipad - above the 17th floor of the hospital (pictured) in Whitechapel, East London - spotted the drone as he waited for the helicopter to land

'Every second counts when we are on a mission and hazards like drones can cost us vital time.

'We urge everyone to be mindful when flying so that we can all safely operate in the skies.'

Pilots have reported fears of drones getting close to passenger jets and helicopters. There have been more than 400 incidents in the past five years.

Last February, an air ambulance came within 100ft of two drones as it flew a patient to hospital. They were 'under the right-hand side' of the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance as it flew at around 1,200ft. Their operators were not traced.
But PM is hoping to secure agreement on travel exemptions for full vaccinated

But PM is hoping to secure agreement on travel exemptions for full vaccinated

With Australia lagging behind on vaccines, borders is remaining f irmly closed

Fully vaccinated Brits may soon be allowed to travel quarantine-free to dozens of sun-soaked countries across the globe - but Australians face the very real possibility of being trapped on a 'prison island' well into next year.

Government ministers in the UK on Thursday revealed travel rules for vaccinated Britons could be eased from July 26, which would allow them to take international holidays almost anywhere they please.

These freedoms are in stark contrast to the ongoing cycle of shutdowns and re-openings in Australia, where snap border closures, draconian restrictions and lengthy lockdowns have become the norm.

Scott Morrison announced a Friday crisis meeting with the states to try and get some agreement on what fully vaccinated Australians can do - including thresholds for lockdowns and travel exemptions for the fully vaccinated.

But just 7.9 per cent of the Australian population have had both shots of a Covid vaccine, compared to 46 per cent in the United States and 47 per cent in the United Kingdom.

That UK figure could give Britons the freedom to travel to countries around the world - some on Australia's doorstep - while Aussies are still banned from flying anywhere.

The UK's high inoculation rate has helped millions start to enjoy a new Covid normal, with a string of coronavirus restrictions set to be lifted on July 19.

Europeans are enjoying the easing restrictions and a return to relative normality (pictured, Britons enjoying the England vs Germany Euros match in Spain on Wednesday)

And while Britain is still recording thousands of new cases daily, hospitalisations and deaths are on a downward track due to the efficient vaccine rollout.

The UK Government is still advising against travel to and from 'amber list' countries, with people returning to Britain from those nations forced to quarantine for 10 days.

But British bureaucrats want to ease the current international travel rules in time for the start of their school summer holidays in just over three weeks time.

They have flagged scrapping quarantine requirements for the double-vaccinated, which could give UK residents the right to travel to more than 100 countries without needing to go into isolation on return.

There are also growing hopes that the 'green list' of safe countries will be significantly expanded, with Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, Singapore, Malta, and the Turks and Caicos Islands all considered 'safe' destinations

Tourists are seen arriving in Mallorca on Wednesday (pictured) with European travel slowly opening back up

A UK minister told The Times it is hoped the 'amber list' change for the fully-vaccinated 'will be in place by the first week of the summer holidays' - which is less than a month away.

Back in Australia, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel for international border closures, as the jab rollout remains in tatters and holiday-starved Aussies begin to reach the end of their tether.

Previously, the country had prided itself on effectively eradicating local transmission of the virus through swift border closures and snap lockdowns.

On Wednesday, 26,068 new cases were recorded in the United Kingdom  a rise of almost 70 per cent in a week, and the highest figure since late January

However, there is growing confidence in the UK Government that the vaccination rollout has severely weakened the link between infections, and hospitalisations and deaths

Now, with 12 million Australians under strict stay-at-home-orders and the Indian Delta variant continuing to spread across Sydney, calls have been renewed to stop the crippling lockdown strategies.

Australians have been locked in their own country for 15 months and counting - with the government unwilling or unable to provide a timeline for reopening.

But in welcome news for holiday-hungry Australians the 'magic numbers' at which vaccine thresholds will be set for international travel could be revealed in a critical cabinet meeting on Friday.

While Australians suffer a wave of Covid outbreaks and increasing lockdown restrictions, the rest of the world is easing back to normal (pictured, an empty McDonalds Jones Stadium in Newcastle, NSW, on Thursday night for the Sydney Roosters match against Melbourne Storm)

Ministers in the United Kingdom have announced current international travel rules could be eased from July 26, which would allow holidays to Bali (pictured) with Australians still banned from flying overseas

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will finally seek agreement from premiers and chief ministers to eliminate lockdowns, and grant domestic and international travel exemptions for fully vaccinated Australians.

Mr Morrison told The Australian that it was important to think of the benefits of a vaccinated population and start calculating much-anticipated vaccine thresholds.

'It's time to start laying it out for the Australian public. It is imperative that the premiers, chief ministers and I address that question', he said.

'It comes down to the medical science and what are the magic numbers.'

'Australians have been patient and that has helped us achieve what we have achieved to protect lives and livelihoods. We now need to get to the next level. The package the public deserves needs a consolidated agreement from all of us.'

The PM said the Federal Government had already done modelling on the UK Alpha variant and would now apply the same testing on the Indian Delta variant in order to set a threshold marker going forward.

He noted that the patience of the Australian public had helped officials achieve what they had done so far to protect lives and livelihoods.

Scrapping the quarantine requirement for the double-vaccinated could potentially reopen dozens of countries for foreign travel with the UK including Croatia, Malta and Singapore (pictured, passengers check in at London's Heathrow)

This week the Prime Minister encouraged people under 60 keen for the AstraZeneca vaccine to talk to their GP, despite the jab previously declared unsafe for younger people (pictured, passengers at Sydney Airport before lockdown)

Australians face many more months and perhaps years of isolation, as the sluggish Covid-19 vaccine rollout continues to spark snap-lockdowns and border closures (pictured, an eerily quiet Sydney CBD as the lockdown rolls on)

The controversy surrounding border closures began last year when the Federal Government optimistically predicted Australian would re-open to the world in October 2021, after the adult population were predicted to have gotten the jab.

Mr Morrison also emphasised there would be no escaping the 'prison island' until herd immunity was reached - with around 80 per cent of the population needing to be vaccinated before reopening the country's borders.

Some 40,000 Australians remain stranded overseas due to an arrival cap of 6,370 a week with residents in the country still isolated from their families abroad.

Australians had previously been warned that reaching a population-wide vaccination target would not guarantee the recovery of international travel.

Mr Morrison argued the United Kingdom was recording more than 4,000 new cases a day despite 77 per cent of adults having received one dose.

Last year, the Federal Government optimistically predicted international borders would be open in October 2021 after the adult population got the jab (pictured, Scott Morrison)

Part of the reason for the delayed re-opening is the glacial pace of Australia's vaccine rollout, with a meagre 7.4 million doses administered nationwide (pictured, Aussies queue for the jab at Sydney Olympic Park on Thursday)

The prime minister said international borders would remain shut for as long as was needed to protect health and the economy.

'There's no medical advice that I've received at any point in time, which gives a magical number of vaccinations that enable you to provide that level of assuredness to Australians about when that can occur', he said.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said at current rates it would take a long time to vaccinate the world.

'It will take a huge commitment from developed, rich countries that have vaccine manufacturing capabilities to share that with the whole world,' he said.

'That's how we get out of this together.'

'There's no medical advice that I've received at any point in time, which gives a magical number of vaccinations that enable you to provide that level of assuredness to Australians about when that can occur', Scott Morrison said earlier this month

But now, Australians have been warned reaching a population-wide vaccination target will not guarantee a federal government decision to re-start international travel (pictured, Europeans enjoy the Spanish sunshine on June 29, with travel resuming in many countries)

However, with less than eight per cent of the population fully vaccinated and the more infectious strain on the loose, Australia's vaunted 'zero Covid' strategy is on precarious ground.

Australia's suppression strategy has kept the nation's borders closed and seen states go into lockdown over a handful of cases.

Part of the reason for the delayed re-opening is the glacial pace of Australia's vaccine rollout.

One in five of the country's doses are going spare due to a lack of interest in getting vaccinated, with new data revealing 19 per cent of vaccines have not been used.

A mere five per cent of the Australian population are double-jabbed, compared to 46 per cent in the United States and 47 per cent in the United Kingdom (pictured, a woman in the UK being vaccinated)

Scott Morrison has declared international borders will remain shut for as long as was needed to protect health and the economy, while double-jabbed British travellers can look forward to a sun-soaked summer of quarantine-free travel (pictured, Scott Morrison at the G7 on June 12 with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson)

Almost 16 million vaccine doses have been administered to date, but only a small fraction of people have received both jabs.

Israel has vaccinated almost 60 per cent of its population followed by Chile with almost 55 per cent, while almost half of Britons and Americans have rolled up their sleeves, according to a graph compiled by Our World in Data.

Australia is also trailing behind Latvia, Turkey, Mexico and Colombia and even New Zealand, which only uses the Pfizer jab.

While those countries with a better-managed rollout are already opening up to overseas travel and trade, Australians face many more months and perhaps years of isolation, with even domestic holidays ruined by national border closures.

UK Ambassadors have been instructed to start negotiations with EU member states to ease restrictions on British travellers. Pictured: Tourists in Magaluf Beach in Calvia on June 28

The UK government's plan to scrap the quarantine requirement for the double-vaccinated could potentially reopen dozens of countries for foreign travel in what would represent a massive boost for the struggling tourism and aviation sectors (pictured, passengers at London's Heathrow Airport)

Back in Britain, the government's plans to scrap the quarantine requirement for the double-vaccinated could potentially reopen dozens of countries for foreign travel.

The extent of the possibility of trips will be determined by border closures in the European capitols, with the news coming as a reprieve for holiday-starved Brits.

UK Ambassadors have been instructed to start negotiations with EU member states to ease restrictions on British travellers who could soon travel quarantine-free.

The government is still advising against travel to and from 'amber list' countries, with people returning to the UK from those nations forced to self-isolate for 10 days.

There are also growing hopes that the 'green list' of safe countries will be significantly expanded, with Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, Singapore, Malta, and the Turks and Caicos Islands all considered 'safe' destinations.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is even pushing for the lifting of mask laws in almost all settings to help return life to 'as near normal as possible'.

Key social distancing measures, including the one-metre rule, the rule of six and the 30-person limit on the size of outdoor gatherings, are also set to be scrapped on the new 'Freedom Day'.

However, Covid cases are continuing to surge across the country with 26,068 new cases recorded on Wednesday  a rise of almost 70 per cent in a week, and the highest figure since late January.

By contrast, daily hospitalisations due to Covid were running at 263, up by just 6.4 per cent in the last week and far below the January peak of 4,579 in a single day.
A father-of-three businessman died after attempting to achieve his 'lifelong ambition' of climbing Mount Everest, an inquest today heard.

Adventure-enthusiast Sheldon Marshal, 64, fell from a horse on his way to Everest Base camp - around halfway up the world's tallest mountain.

Rescuers airlifted the entrepreneur back down the mountain and to hospital in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu.

However, he died on December 17, 2017, after suffering internal bleeding and a collapsed lung, an inquest in the UK heard.

Amateur adventurer Sheldon Marshal, 64, fell from a horse on his way to Everest Base camp - around halfway up the world's tallest mountain

Mount Everest: The world's tallest mountain - above sea level Located in the Himalayan mountain range in Asia, Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain above sea level. Standing at more than 29,000ft, Mount Everest's summit point runs along the China/Nepal border. The summit is reachable through two main climbing routes, one approaching from Nepal, and the other from Tibet. New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hilary and Nepalese-Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are widely regarded as the first to reach the peak of Everest in 1953. Since then, it has become an increasingly popular goal to reach the mountain's summit. However, it can be dangerous. The first base camp alone is located around 17,000ft above sea level. And it gets increasingly dangerous from there, with altitude sickness, weather, wind, avalanches and the Khumbu Ice Fall for explorers to face. As of 2019, around 300 people are thought to have died on Everest. Despite it's fame, Everest is actually not the world's tallest mountain. That honour belongs to Mauna Kea, a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii which raises 33,000ft from base to peak. However, a significant proportion is under water - which is why Mount Everest is often thought to be the world's tallest mountain. Advertisement

The coroner was told how picture agency boss, Mr Marshall, was in the 'best shape of his life' after losing three stone ahead of his Everest trip.

But while attempting to climb the path to Everest Base Camp on horseback, he fell from the saddle and damaged his ribs on the stony track.

Mr Marshall was airlifted via an emergency helicopter back down the mountain, but it was found he was suffering from lung difficulties and altitude sickness.

Doctors in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu believed he was suffering from a fungal infection in his blood, the inquest heard.

While numerous attempts were made to bring him to the UK via an air ambulance, the inquest heard medical teams were not satisfied he would be able to survive the trip as his condition kept fluctuating.

Staff in Nepal also reportedly wanted to send him to Bangkok in Thailand, but the family were insistent that he be returned to the UK, the inquest heard.

The family said they felt frustrated when their insurance company 'avoided the policy' when they say it became apparent that Mr Marshall needed an air ambulance.

Mr Marshall had booked the trip and Mayday insurance through Exodus Travels.

But the insurance company claims Mr Marshall failed to declare all of his medical conditions - including asthma - before he booked.

Eventually, his son paid for an air ambulance to take his dad to the nearer location of New Delhi in India where doctors attempted to save his life.

However he later died in hospital.

Surrey Coroner's Court heard he struggled with the acclimatisation walks and allowed his son, James, and the rest of his group, to hike ahead of him while he was accompanied by a Nepalese porter.

The inquest heard the family had travelled to Kathmandu on 4 November with the intention to climb the mountain and return back to the UK on 19 November.

His son, James Marshall, giving evidence in court, said that his dad had fallen slightly behind on the way to Tyengboche - about two-thirds of the way up to Everest Base Camp.

The coroner was told how picture agency boss, Mr Marshall (pictured), was in the 'best shape of his life' after losing three stone ahead of his Everest trip

But he was unable to meet up with the group in Dughla for lunch and from there paid 140 in order to hire a horse to take him to Lobuche.

James said: 'On Saturday 11th November he felt fine at breakfast, but after 90 minutes started to feel very tired and quite fatigued and wanted to have a rest.

'We said that we would continue to a place called Dughla for lunch and wait for him to meet us there.

'He had a porter, named Purba, who was staying with him to make sure he got where he needed to go.

'I asked Sheldon if he wanted me to stay with him but he said he wanted to catch his breath and go out at his own pace and not hold up the group.

'I saw him again at 6pm in Lobuche when he arrived on a horse, which was very surprising.

'At that time he was very excited to finish the day but he told me that he was feeling very tired and had a fall when trying to get on the horse.'

James said his father, who had previously climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, had 'been in the best shape of his life - he spent a year training specifically for the trek.'

He added: 'He told me very clearly he fell as he got on the horse the first time.

'He said that the saddle had slipped off and they had to reattach it or tighten it underneath.'

But when Mr Marshall arrived that evening at Lobuche, his condition worsened.

Mr Marshall was airlifted via an emergency helicopter back down the mountain, but it was found he was suffering from lung difficulties and altitude sickness

James said a guide named Shailesh told Mr Marshall that he was not in a fit state to continue the climb, to which he agreed and asked to be taken down by rescue helicopter which he paid for with his credit card.

He said the guide Purba went with him as he was able to speak the language to arrange transport.

He said: 'He looked very pale. He was finding it difficult to speak. We were putting blankets around him and we thought he needed more serious attention.

'He arrived as it was getting dark and helicopters only operate in the day.

'He basically was saying he felt very tired, he couldn't walk any more, that he had pain in his ribs.

'He was excited to get transportation off the mountain. He just said he was exhausted.'

When James said he returned to Kathmandu on 17 November, he learned medical teams had said Mr Marshall could not make the commercial flight home even with the accompaniment of a paramedic.

While Mr Marshall was staying in CIWEC hospital, a very small hospital where he was the only patient in ICU, there were issues regarding when and how he would be moved, the inquest heard.

The family contacted Tyrol Air Ambulance, via their insurance company Mayday, to bring their loved one to a larger facility.

James said: '[The doctors] were telling me that the UK is where we need to get him effectively. If that's not available, we should go for Bangkok or New Delhi.

'My mother was keen for him to get to the UK and I relayed this information as well.

'The UK had all of the facilities while New Delhi would have some and Bangkok would have some, and he would likely have to be moved anyway.

'They said getting back to the UK would be best where he has access to everything.

'We thought let's get him back in one go to the UK, as it was one extra evening in hospital.'

Medical teams however felt uncomfortable guaranteeing Mr Marshall's ability to fly to the UK.

Ross Marshall, another son, said he then became 'suspicious' when Mayday insurance requested his dad's medical records, the inquest heard.

He said: 'I said to my mum that they're going to try and avoid paying for an air ambulance.

When James said he returned to Kathmandu (pictured: Library image) on 17 November, he learned medical teams had said Mr Marshall could not make the commercial flight home even with the accompaniment of a paramedic

'It seemed strange that a man had been in hospital for so long and as soon as he needs extra help there is an issue.

'I'm aware commercial air ambulances are very expensive and agents in this space have to mitigate costs.

'On 2 December, we were told they weren't going to cover him for any of the costs and we would have to find the funds to repatriate him.'

He said a day later, after he said he 'applied pressure' through his contacts, the policy was reinstated the next day.

Ross, who runs travel companies, said he went to New Delhi with his mother and arranged for Capital Air Ambulance to take him to India.

He said: 'When Dad arrived I believed he had a haemothorax on the way over, they had to get his lung to re-expand again. It was very much a case of stabilising him.

'[In India it was a] total disaster. The doctor was very honest when we first moved to New Delhi.

'Given the time he spent in Kathmandu, it was high-risk. [Acute respiratory distress syndrome] kills 40 percent of people and we needed to be prepared for the worst.

'It was a salvage operation.'

He said that while there was an attempt to take him to Dubai, a doctor had to manually inflate his father's lung.

But when it became clear Mr Marshall could not fly, he was returned to a hospital in India where he went to cardiac arrest and died on 17 December 2017.

In a statement from the family, they said: 'Sheldon, who always had an adventurous streak, suffered unusual respiratory complications that he sadly did not recover from whilst fulfilling a lifelong ambition of climbing Mount Everest in Nepal.

'Sheldon is survived by wife Anne and sons Ross, Alex and James. He will be missed greatly by all who knew him but will never be forgotten.'

Mr Marshall's career spanned over 40 years where he was a well-known figure in the photographic industry, including when he became the CEO of Visual Communications Group.

Under his leadership, the company grew to be the second-largest provider of global stock images and was initially sold to United News and Media plc and then on to Getty Images for 160million.

The inquest into his death continues.
A mother who stabbed her partner to death has been found guilty of manslaughter for a second time - less than a year after her first conviction was quashed.

Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, 26, was previously jailed for 18 years after she knifed boyfriend Gary Cunningham 12 times in a drunken rage at their home.

A court heard a delivery driver found the body of Mr Cunningham lying in a top floor corridor of a block of flats in Harborne, Birmingham, on February 23, 2019.

Police and ambulance raced to the scene and despite the best attempts to save him, the 29-year-old was pronounced dead.

Officers found Labinjo-Halcrow in one of the flats with a blood stained kitchen knife in the sink but told cops she had no memory of the attack.

Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow (left), 26, was previously caged for 18 years after she knifed boyfriend Gary Cunningham (right) 12 times in a drunken rage at their home

A court heard a delivery driver found the body of Mr Cunningham lying in a top floor corridor of a block of flats in Harborne, Birmingham, on February 23, 2019

A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Cunningham died as a result of a stab wound to his left leg.

Labinjo-Halcrow was originally cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

But in August last year she had her conviction overturned by The Court of Appeal after judges ruled she may have been acting in self-defence.

Following a retrial at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors once again found her guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday.

She was remanded in custody and will be sentenced tomorrow.

The court heard Labinjo Halcrow had been Mr Cunningham's on-and-off girlfriend and had a young son from a previous relationship.

Following a retrial at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors once again found her guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday. Pictured: Flowers outside the flat

At her original trial Labinjo-Halcrow claimed she had been the victim of sexual abuse, including rape, at the hands of her victim.

But Judge Simon Drew, QC dismissed those allegations and described her as 'someone who could be bullying and manipulative and prone to lies'.

Sentencing her previously, the judge added: 'I accept the offence was not premeditated.

'I accept your relationship with Mr Cunningham was a volatile one. I do not accept it was one way.'
Rishi Sunak today suggested he has given up on striking a post-Brexit deal on financial services with the EU as he said the UK is 'moving forward' and will set its own rules.

The UK has been pushing for the bloc to grant equivalence to Britain's financial services sector to make it easy for firms in the City of London to access markets on the continent.

But Mr Sunak said the 'ambition' to strike a deal 'has not happened' and the UK now has the 'freedom to do things differently and better'.

The Chancellor said the UK will use that freedom 'fully' in a sign that firms in the City could now shift more of their focus to non-EU markets.

However, Mr Sunak said that 'the EU will never have cause to deny the UK access because of poor regulatory standards' as he insisted rules will remain strict.

Rishi Sunak today suggested he has given up on striking a post-Brexit deal on financial services with the EU as he said the UK is 'moving forward' and will set its own rules

The UK has been pushing for the bloc to grant equivalence to Britain's financial services sector to make it easy for firms in the City of London to access markets on the continent

Financial services were largely excluded from the Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU.

The two sides have been in talks about granting equivalence, which would enable wide-ranging and simple access to the bloc's markets, but those discussions appear to have stalled.

Speaking at an event at Mansion House in central London this morning, Mr Sunak said: 'The UK has an abiding interest in a prosperous and productive Europe.

'We have deep shared values and a long history of cooperation. And we will strengthen those ties.

'At the same time, as I said in Parliament in November, our ambition had been to reach a comprehensive set of mutual decisions on financial services equivalence. That has not happened.

'Now, we are moving forward, continuing to cooperate on questions of global finance, but each as a sovereign jurisdiction with our own priorities.

'We now have the freedom to do things differently and better, and we intend to use it fully.

'But I can equally reassure you: the EU will never have cause to deny the UK access because of poor regulatory standards.'

Mr Sunak used the speech to set out his plans for a 'sweeping set of reforms' to the financial services sector.

The Chancellor vowed to 'sharpen our competitive advantage' as he pledged to make the current sector 'more open, more competitive, more technologically advanced, and more sustainable'.
Australians formed long queues to receive their Covid-19 jabs today after the country's slow roll-out and a reluctance to use the AstaZeneca vaccine left less than eight per cent of the population protected.

It comes as 12 million Australians - nearly half the population - are now under new lockdown rules with cases of the Indian variant flaring up across the country after escaping from quarantine hotels.

With the infectious strain on the loose and just 7.9 per cent of Australians fully vaccinated, the country's vaunted 'zero Covid' strategy is on precarious ground.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged Australians to get vaccinated amid the spread of the infectious Delta variant and has backtracked on his earlier advice that people under 40 should not get the AstraZeneca jab.

Today, Australians in New South Wales, where there are now 235 active Covid cases, were pictured queuing to get vaccinated as the country plays catch up.

And today, Australians in New South Wales, where there are now 235 active Covid cases, were pictured queuing to get vaccinated as Australia plays catch up

A long line formed outside the NSW Vaccination Centre in Sydney, with all of those waiting wearing face masks

A long line formed outside the NSW Vaccination Centre in Sydney, with all of those waiting wearing face masks.

It comes as it emerged today that one in five Covid jabs in Australia are going spare due to a lack of interest in getting vaccinated.

The most recent Covid-19 rollout update has shown that 19 per cent of vaccine doses available to the states have not yet been used, with Western Australia have the most jabs going spare.

These are intended to be used in aged care and disability homes, as well as for GPs to give to the elderly.

Scott Morrison, who is under fire for the glacial vaccine roll-out, constant 'circuit breakers' and brutal border restrictions, chaired a national security committee on Monday before announcing that all care home workers must have a vaccine.

The PM also ordered mandatory jabs for anyone working, either directly or indirectly, in quarantine hotels - including airport private hire drivers.

Mr Morrison made another policy shift as he invited anyone under 40 to get an AstraZeneca jab if they want to, despite earlier advice that younger people should get another vaccine amid the slight health risks related to the jab.

But the ever-changing advice on the safety of the AstaZeneca jab, and the fact that the alternative Pfizer jab is in short supply, has meant very few Australians have been fully vaccinated.

People are seen queued to receive their vaccination at the NSW Vaccine Centre in Sydney today

Australians are forming long queues as they line up to get their Covid-19 vaccines after the country's slow roll-out and a reluctance to use the AstaZeneca jab has left less than eight per cent of the population vaccinated

AstraZeneca had been recommended for all adults until a 48-year-old Australian died from blood clots in April. The vaccine was then recommended for people older than 50 until a 52-year-old died in May.

Many people are refusing to take their second AstraZeneca jab, recommended three months after the first, because of the evolving safety advice. Many have canceled appointments for their first shots.

The leader of the Australian military's pandemic response, Lt. Gen. John Frewen, said Pfizer was restricted to people older than 40 because of limited supplies.

'It's really important that Australians have now got a choice about whether they make an informed decision about accessing AstraZeneca,' Frewen said on Thursday.

'We've got AstraZeneca available and I think Australians who want to should be able to have a conversation with their G.P. about whether they access AstraZeneca now or whether they wait for another vaccine later on,' Frewen added, referring to general practice doctors.

But fewer than 3,000 adults under 40 had taken up the opportunity for a first dose of AstraZeneca by Thursday.

Queensland state Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was accused by critics of scaremongering when she said on Wednesday that with only 42 coronavirus cases active in the state, AstraZeneca was not worth the risk for younger adults.

'I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldn't die,' Young said.

She was contradicted by former Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia Nick Coates, who said younger Australians were at greater risk of dying of COVID-19 than they were from AstraZeneca side effects.

Young was 'unfortunately out on a very lonely limb there,' Coates told Seven Network.

But Prof. Chris Blyth, the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization that advised the government to recommend Pfizer for those younger than 60, said few young adults should take AstraZeneca.

'I do not believe at this stage that young people should be receiving AstraZeneca at this stage unless their circumstances press for that,' Blyth told Australian Broadcasting Corp. 'There are some situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small.'

The alternative to AstraZeneca is to wait for more Pfizer or an as-yet-unregistered Moderna vaccine contracted to be delivered between October and December.

The situation in Australia could get worse if people are still unsure about getting vaccinated.

Over the past week, leaders in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory have imposed crippling lockdowns with 204 cases nationwide while South Australia and the ACT mandated masks without any Covid-19 infections.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under fire for the glacial vaccine rollout. Pictured: Queues outside at a mass COVID-19 vaccination hub in Sydney

The situation is a far cry from the vision Mr Morrison outlined in a press conference on February 5 when he suggested lockdowns may not be needed in three months' time.

'Right now, a breakout of a case has a particular context. Three months from now, when vaccinations are occurring, where there is a downward pressure on the risk of serious, serious illness, then the risk is different. And so it is about trying to recalibrate,' he said in his Parliament House courtyard.

A month after that, Mr Morrison gave the same message in a speech at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney.

'With sufficient vaccination of the population, we can start treating Covid like a bad flu,' he said.

'And if we can continue to manage new strains of the virus, this changing risk profile will allow for controls to be further relaxed, as we recently discussed at National Cabinet.'

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister - and the whole country - his two biggest fears came true.

Not enough people have been vaccinated and the new Indian Delta variant has spooked state premiers because it is much harder to manage than earlier strains.

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said on Wednesday it was 'impossible to control'.

Furthermore, most Australians have shown no appetite to live alongside the virus, instead favouring strong border controls and voting for pro-lockdown state premiers like WA's Mark McGowan.

Even New Zealand, which only uses Pfizer, is now ahead of Australia, with 10.7 per cent vaccinated.

Mr Morrison has insisted the supply issues and changing medical advice were 'beyond the government's control'.

But Labor leader Anthony Albanese has slammed Mr Morrison for not signing more vaccine deals last year.

'The government put all its eggs in the AstraZeneca basket and now the chickens have come home to roost,' he said on Monday.

Australia currently only has access to Pfizer and AstraZeneca while France, Germany and Italy have four vaccines and the US, UK and Canada have three.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government has always followed the advice of medical experts when signing vaccine deals.

Australia has been relatively successful in containing clusters throughout the pandemic, registering fewer than 31,000 cases and 910 deaths total.

Australia introduced extraordinarily tough border restrictions in March 2020 that prevent Australian citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country as well as foreigners from arriving except under limited circumstances.

The government forecasts that normal flights won't resume until mid-2022, which frightens business groups.

Those involved in international education, Australia's third-largest export industry, have warned that would mean overseas students would turn to universities in other countries next year and stay with those institutions throughout their courses for years.
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The coronavirus death rate in Greater Manchester is a quarter higher than anywhere else in England and has caused life expectancy to decline by a combined three years in the North West.

A report by University College London - which lays bare how people in deprived areas have been hardest-hit by the pandemic - shows that life expectancy dropped 1.6 years for men and 1.2 years for women in the region last year compared to 1.3 years and 0.9 years in England as a whole.

Professor Michael Marmot, an expert on health inequalities who led the review, described the figures as 'jaw dropping'.

He found that the more impoverished a local authority, the higher its mortality rate was.

The Covid death rate in the North West was 307 per 100,000 for men and 195 for women - compared to England's overall rate of 233 per 100,000 for men and 142 for women. In some parts of Manchester the rates were even higher at 350 per 100,000 for men in Salford to over 200 for women in Tameside.

Although the report did not look at regions outwith the North West, official figures show that the wealthiest parts of the country have recorded five times lower Covid death rates.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics in May showed that Cambridge and West Suffolk are the least deprived areas in England.

Per 100,000 people, Cambridge has recorded just 70 Covid deaths, while East Cambridgeshire (97), South Cambridgeshire (101), and West Suffolk (112) figures were also very low, according to Government figures.

Meanwhile, figures from the Department of Health today show eight out of the 20 areas with the highest daily Covid death tolls were located in the North West.

Death rates were a more than a fifth higher in Greater Manchester than in the rest of England. The ten regions have an average death rate of 250 per 100,000, compared to the national average of 191.

The graph shows the number of men and women in different areas of Greater Manchester that died of Covid per 100,000 people from March 2020 to March 2021. Manchester, Salford and Tameside recorded the highest Covid death rate, according to the University College London report. The graph also shows that Greater Manchester as a whole had higher Covid death rates than the average across England (shown in the vertical dotted grey and black lines). Though the number of women dying in Stockport and men dying in Trafford, were below the national average

The graph shows the ratio of Covid-19 mortality by deprivation, comparing Greater Manchester (the green dotted line) with the expected Covid death rate in England and Wales (the black horizontal line). Overall, Covid mortality in Greater Manchester was 25 percent higher than the England and Wales average between March 2020 and January 2021. Mortality ratios in Greater Manchester were equally high in the three most deprived deciles and then decreased as the level of deprivation decreases

Compared to similar metropolitan counties, Greater Manchester had the third highest Covid mortality rates. The West Midlands recorded the most, with 266.5 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Greater London (265.1) and Greater Manchester (261). Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire all also recorded more deaths on average

The graphs display the mortality rates from Covid and other causes for men (top graph) and women (bottom graph) in relation to how deprived an area is. They show that the more deprived areas recorded the highest mortality rate from the virus, as well as other conditions, and around twice as many deaths as the wealthiest regions. Other leading causes of death are dementia, Alzheimer's and heart disease. In the most deprived areas, around 2,000 men and 1,400 women died per 100,000 people from March 2020 to February 2021, while in the least deprived areas, less than 1,000 men and 600 women died

HOVER OVER YOUR LOCAL AREA TO SEE HOW MANY DEATHS THERE HAVE BEEN DURING THE PANDEMIC

But, overall, Birmingham recorded the most deaths in the country, despite not being in the North West, suffering 2,696 since the start of the pandemic  a rate of 236.1 per 100,000 people. Its large toll is also likely to be linked to high deprivation levels. It was followed by Leeds (1,335), County Durham (1,260) and Liverpool (1,185).

For comparison, the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands recorded just three and nine deaths to date respectively.

Covid, like all respiratory viruses, thrives in densely populated places where there is lots of social contact, which makes it easier for it to spread between people. This makes high deprivation areas a particular risk.

Third wave of infections will continue 'for longer than expected' because of England's Euro 2020 Britain's third wave of infections will continue 'longer than expected' because of England's Euro 2020 success and surging cases of the Indian variant in staycation hotspots, a top expert has warned. King's College London's Covid symptom study estimated there were 25,210 new cases every day in the UK last week, up by almost a third (31 per cent) from the previous seven-day spell. There said there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of partially or fully vaccinated people catching the virus  but in most cases their symptoms were mild and similar to a 'bad cold'. More than 80 per cent of infections were among the unvaccinated. Professor Tim Spector, who leads Britain's biggest Covid surveillance study, warned fans meeting to watch the Euro 2020 tournament would almost certainly be fuelling a surge in infections. He added holidaymakers heading to popular staycation destinations including Cornwall, Devon, Brighton and Bournemouth were also driving spiralling cases. The top epidemiologist called on Britons to remain 'extra vigilant' and continue to follow measures such as wearing face masks and social distancing to limit the spread of the virus. 'With the summer holidays approaching, we need to remain extra vigilant and avoid unnecessary risks,' he said. 'Euro 2020 has the potential to spread the virus among tens of thousands of fans, so I think because of these factors well continue to see high rates for longer than expected.' Advertisement

Fatalities are also higher in less wealthy areas where people tend to live close together and often work front-facing jobs.

Black minority and ethnic minority people have suffered higher death rates throughout the pandemic, meaning areas with large amounts of BAME residents are likely to greater death figures.

Professor Marmot's report proposes that the government should invest in jobs, housing, local services and education to tackle these long-term problems.

It comes as the North West battles the biggest Covid outbreak in England, fuelled by the Indian 'Delta' variant.

The region recorded 21 deaths in the week up to June 18  more than any other area of the country  according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics.

Separate data from the Department of Health shows that the region was responsible for 3,720 of the 14,608 infections recorded in England on Thursday.

So far, the North West has recorded more Covid deaths (18,056) than any other region of England, but it is closely followed by the South East (17,338).

Those areas are followed by London (15,636), the West Midlands (13,545), Yorkshire and the Humber (11,033) and the East Midlands (10,181).

The East (13,432), South West (6,800) and North East (5,986) have recorded the least deaths to date.

The IHE researchers found that the Covid-19 deaths in the North West are linked with deprivation.

The area is home to high numbers of people from ethnic minorities, which studies have shown die disproportionately from Covid compared to white people.

Factors including multi-generational housing or crowded conditions and having to continue working from a place of employment are experienced by lower income groups and lead to much higher risks of mortality.

Multi-generational housing can lead to higher deaths from the virus, as more people live in one household, increasing the risk of older family members catching the virus.

The researchers found that the average life expectancy for women in Greater Manchester was 81.7 years, while men were expected to live to 78.1. This is lower than the national averages of 83.4 years for women and 79.8 years for men.

The North West region as a whole had slightly better figures, with men living until they were around 78.3 and women living for around 82 year. But this is still lower than the national average.

The experts also found that the more deprived an area was, the higher mortality rates it recorded overall.

The North West was hit the hardest by the second wave and was put under special restrictions during the pandemic. Most recently, the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock implemented extra testing and vaccinations.

The researchers found that Greater Manchester as a whole had higher Covid death rates than the national average from March 2020 to March 2021, apart from the number of women dying in Stockport and men dying in Trafford, which were lower.

Compared to similar metropolitan counties, Greater Manchester had the third highest Covid mortality rates, with 261 deaths per 100,000 people. This was lower than the West Midlands (266.5) and Greater London (265.1).

The North West was also above the national average for Covid deaths, but not as high as those areas, with around 220 dying per 100,000 people.

Sir Marmot, who is known for his work on how social factors impact health, said if the Government is serious about levelling up health inequities, then equity of health and wellbeing must be at the heart of Government and business strategy rather then narrow economic goals.

He said the North West has experienced the highest rates of Covid-19 deaths in the country and 'particularly damaging long-term economic and social effects' due to prolonged lockdowns.

He told the Guardian: 'As the UK emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic it would be a tragic mistake to attempt to re-establish the status quo that existed before - a status quo market in England, over the past decade, by a stagnation of health improvement that was second worst in Europe, and by widening health inequalities.'

Sir Marmot said the findings for Greater Manchester could be applied to other poor areas.

'It's pretty bad for life changes to live in poorer parts of London too. Levelling up shouldn't only be about the Midlands and the Northeast and the Northwest. Deprived parts of London need attention as well,' he said.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: 'The Covid pandemic has exposed and amplified the reality that many of our residents have lives, jobs and homes which worsen their health.

'The pandemic has brutally exposed just how unequal England actually is. People have lived parallel lives over the last 18 months.

'People in low-paid, insecure work have often had little choice in their level of exposure to Covid; and the risk of getting it and bringing it back home to those they live with.

'Levelling up needs to start in the communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic. To improve the nation's physical and mental health, we need to start by giving all of fellow citizens a good job and good home.

'We are grateful to Michael Marmot for showing how Greater Manchester can improve the health of our residents and we hope the Government will back us with the resources and powers to put better health at the heart of our recovery.'
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President Joe Biden met Thursday with families impacted by the Florida building collapse, and said they were 'going through hell'  as he called for finding out how and when to bring first responders back to the scene.

'The remainder of the building may collapse. We need to determine if its safe for first responders to return to the site to continue their rescue mission.

Biden met with fire and rescue personnel in Florida Thursday who are engaged in the wrenching and laborious task of contending with the devastating building collapse and its aftermath, telling the responders 'What you're doing is incredible.'

Biden scheduled a meeting with dozens of first responders soon after arriving at a hotel blocks from the disaster seen of the Champlain Tower collapse.

'I just want you to know - I understand,' he told them. 'I just want to say: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,' he told them.'

Biden met the responders, who wore Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue jackets, FEMA patches, and police uniforms, at the St. Regis hotel in Bar Harbour, where he is devoting a day to meeting with families, public officials, and responders.

At one point, he recounted how first responders used 'jaws of life' to pry his children out of the vehicle during the 1972 car crash that took his first wife, Neilia, as well as his infant daughter, Naomi.

'What you're doing is incredible,' President Joe Biden told first responders are responding to the tragic building collapse in Surfside, Florida

He urged them to 'be careful' in the work, amid concerns that shifting or instability in the rubble could pose a risk. Work was suspended after about 2 am amid the safety concerns.

'I promise you: I know. What you're doing here is incredible,' he told them.

'What youre doing now is just hard as hell to deal with, even psychologically, to deal with,' he said.

The event was a photo 'spray,' and reporters weren't invited to stay for long. Other notables, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio, arrived shortly after it began, with an apology from staff.

His visit came on a day when work was being suspended indefinitely due to safety issues.

When Biden met with families, he did so away from the cameras, although staff and other public officials were there.

According to the White House, the president delivered brief remarks from the center of a room. He went table to table to meet with family members. The first lady, Rubio, Scott, and DeSantis were there.

Others also went table-to-table, according to a senior administration official. 'POTUS stayed until everyone had a chance to speak with him,' said the official, using an acronym for the president.

Earlier, Biden told DeSantis 'we're here to help' shortly before he met with rescue crews looking for the 145 people still missing in the rubble of the collapsed Miami condo and spoke to officials leading the recovery.

He spoke to the 'a lot of pain and anxiety, suffering' of families awaiting the final word on their relatives as search efforts were halted over fears the rest of the structure could fall on first responders.

'We're not going anywhere,' Biden promised, as he spoke of the federal response, which includes dispatching FEMA and a promise of federal aide. 'For real,' he added, for emphasis.

Biden met with dozens of responders, and urged them to take caution, telling them 'I understand'

Biden met with responders after a meeting with Florida state and local political leaders about the response

The rescue teams continued to work with 145 people still not located

Most of the board members of the condominium that collapsed last week resigned in 2019, with the president of the board slamming inaction and bickering over an engineers report calling for urgent repairs

Joe Biden family in 1972 appears on a postcard that was used for Biden's first campaign for the U.S. Senate. Pictured are (l-r) Hunter Biden, Neilia Biden and infant daughter Naomi Biden, Joe Biden, and Beau Biden

This is the remains of the car in which the wife and daughter of Delaware's U.S. Senator-elect Joseph R. Biden Junior were killed. Neilia Biden and her daughter, Amy, 1, were killed when the family's station wagon was hit broadside by a flat-bed tractor-trailer on highway. Biden's two other children were also hurt in the wreck and were listed in "guarded condition" at the hospital

'Tell me what you need?' he told officials who gathered in the St. Regis hotel blocks away from the site.

Biden was seated next to DeSantis, as well as Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade County. He was seated across from two Republican rivals, Sen. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, Scott sporting the same familiar Navy cap he wore on disaster visits with former President Donald Trump.

'You know what's good about this?' Biden said: 'It lets the nation know we can cooperate...that's really important.'

'We're here to help,' Biden told officials. He also told DeSantis, 'This is your show.' DeSantis also paid Biden a compliment. 'We've had no bureaucracy,' DeSantis told him.

'You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and youve been very supportive,' DeSantis told the president.

'It's been an incredible collaboration from the beginning,' said Cava as the officials traded compliments while the cameras rolled.

'There's an amazing story, and lives have been shattered irrevocably as a result of this,' DeSantis said at the meeting when it was his turn to speak. 'We've already identified unfortunately fatalities, people who've been 92 years old and the matriarch of a wonderful family. We have families with kids missing. And we even have young newlyweds, who hadn't even been married a year that were in the tower when it collapsed.'

'The cooperation has been, it's been great, the local and both the municipal and the county have been fantastic,' he said. 'And you guys have not only been supportive at the federal level, but we've had no bureaucracy,' he said. He said FEMA approvals were happening 'in no time.'

President Biden meets with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a briefing at the collapse of the Miami condo

Biden spoke of the 'pain and anxiety, suffering' of families awaiting the final word on their relatives who lived in the collapsed building

Workers peer up at the rubble pile at the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building

DeSantis thanked rescue teams who traveled from Virginia and other locales to assist. 'That's going to be helpful because this is grueling, and obviously the families' lives have been shattered.'

The president, who speaks frequently of grief and has bonded with families of school shooting victims and others touched by loss by invoking his own life tragedies, is making the trip at an uncertain time.

There is new information coming in about water damage that may have triggered the collapse, and documents revealing the condo building's efforts to contend with ballooning roof and structural repair estimates.

The death toll rose to 18 on Wednesday night, with sisters Lucia, 10, and Emma Guara, four, among the latest victims identified.

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House selected Thursday for the visit after consulting with local officials. She declined to weigh in when asked if Biden approved for former President Donald Trump's decision to hold a campaign rally in Sarasota, about 200 miles from the wreckage.

A former Trump aide anonymously blasted the decision in the Washington Examiner. 'What, you're gonna go across and do a rally and beat up Democrats? It's tone-deaf,' said the aide.

There were reports early Thursday morning that recovery efforts had to be paused amid instability in the pile of rubble where part of the tower north of Miami once stood. It was not immediately clear how the potential instability would affect Biden's plans, with the White House releasing limited information on a piecemeal basis about how the president and first lady would spend their day.

In a sign of the sensitivity of the situation, the White House released only scant details about the trip until late Wednesday  ultimately releasing a bare-bones schedule that carves out time for individual meetings with concerned family members that have become a hallmark of Biden's identity.

He is expected to spend hours meeting with family members, in a gesture the White House said it hoped would provide comfort to those with loved ones who were lost or remain unaccounted for.

The video recorded seven minutes before the building collapsed shows water pouring down from the ceiling of the garage. It comes amid concerns from a structural engineer that the swimming pool deck may have caved in first and brought down the rest of the building with it, as corroborated by witnesses who say that sections of the pool deck had collapsed into the garage below

U.S. Coast Guard boats patrol in front of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building during Biden's visit

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden depart from Joint Base Andrews en route to Miami, Florida, to visit the site of the collapsed condo where 18 have died and 145 are still missing. They were joined by Col. William McDonald, 89th Airlift Wing Vice Commander, and his wife Diana

Biden landed in Miami Thursday morning. In scenes that accompany any presidential motorcade, onlookers gathered on street corners and snapped photos, with some people waiving. Authorities closed down southbound I-95 to make way for his arrival.

The president lost his first wife and daughter to a car accident shortly before being sworn in as a senator, and his adult son, Beau, succumbed to brain cancer. He frequently shares his own grief when connecting with families who have lost loved ones or otherwise dealt with tragedy.

Officials and engineers are still seeking to uncover what caused the collapse of part of the Champlain Towers South building in Miami last week, leading to the death of at least 18 people, with 145 still unaccounted for.

The White House organized an unusually early departure for Biden, who left the White House around 7 am. He didn't speak to reporters at either opportunity, and didn't respond to a shouted question about the indictment of Allen Weisselberg, longtime Trump Organization exec, in New York.

Traveling with the president is senior advisor Anita Dunn, deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley Dillon, and FEMA head Deanne Criswell, as well as aides speechwriters, and other assistants. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is also joining him on Air Force One.

After landing in Miami, Biden will meet with Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as local leaders and first responders

The White House has released very few details about the trip and will be at the collapse site all day. Biden will meet with first responders and the family members waiting for news of their loved ones

Biden salutes at the top of the stairs to Air Force One with Jill before their flight to Florida

Officials and engineers are still seeking to uncover what caused the collapse of part of the Champlain Towers South building in Miami last week, leading to the death of at least 18 people, with 145 still unaccounted for

A new video purports to show water gushing from the ceiling of the Miami condo building's garage while concrete debris litters the floor

The president and first lady Jill Biden held hands as they exited the presidential aircraft

They were expected to spend hours meeting with families of victims as well as first responders still searching for survivors amid the rubble following the building collapse

A private boat speeds past as coast guard boats patrol in front of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building ahead of a planned visit to the site by President Joe Biden, on Thursday, July 1, 2021

A Florida resident in scrubs visits a makeshift memorial outside the collapsed towers

Officials are reviewing ALL the work of suspended building inspector who dismissed damning 2018 condo report - as it's revealed entire building department in Surfside was under review at time of collapse

A Florida building inspector who assured residents of the collapsed tower that it was in good shape a month after being warned otherwise is having all of his previous work reviewed after being suspended from his new job.

Meanwhile, it has also been disclosed that the entire building department for the town of Surfside was under review at the time of the collapse.

Rosendo Prieto was chief building official of Surfside until November 2020. On Tuesday, he was placed on leave from his job as interim building official for C.A.P. Government Inc.

Now, city officials in Doral are planning on reviewing his previous work to make sure he didn't clear other buildings that may be dangerous.

'In an abundance of caution, we are going to review everything he did,' Rey Valdes, spokesman for the city of Doral, told The New York Times on Wednesday.

'We dont suspect he did anything wrong. Nevertheless, given the circumstances we are dealing with, we are going to review everything he did to make sure its in line with state law and municipal code,' Valdes added.

In October 2018 Frank Morabito, an engineer, warned Prieto of 'major structural damage' in the Champlain Towers South building he said would cost around $9 million to repair. Morabito had been commissioned by the residents' association to look into the building, ahead of its 40-year structural review, due in 2021.

In November 2018, Prieto told the residents that he had reviewed Morabito's report and found little of concern.

'It appears the building is in very good shape,' Prieto told them, according to the minutes of the meeting released by Surfside on Monday, and obtained by NBC News.

The building collapsed in the early hours of last Thursday, with 18 people so far confirmed dead. A further 145 remain unaccounted for.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is being slammed on Twitter after he told New Yorkers to cut power usage on the hottest day in eight years.

De Blasio said on Wednesday that the city was experiencing a heat emergency and called on residents to take 'immediate' action to cut down electricity usage in their homes in a bid to avoid power outages.

'We need New Yorkers to take IMMEDIATE action: reduce your use of electricity in your home or your business for the rest of the day. We need to avoid energy disruptions during this heat emergency,' he tweeted.

'The extreme heat will hopefully break early tomorrow morning. Let's get to that point safely.'

Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that NYC was experiencing a heat emergency and called on residents to take 'immediate' action to cut down electricity usage in their homes

Temperatures reached highs of 98 degrees in parts of Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon - the highest since about 2013.

The Mayor was immediately slammed on Twitter by those sweltering in their apartment while still working from home.

Others called from him to switch of the billboards in Times Square instead to help conserve energy.

'Babe my apartment is 80 degrees WITH air conditioners on right now, lights off, and curtains over all the windows. How bout we look for other things to turn off, no?' one Twitter user said.

Another said: 'Times Square is using a billion watts for signs but I gotta turn my AC off if I'm in NYC. Okay, bro.'

'Sure. Put the burden on people stuck working from home and every other schmuck out there trying not to die from heatstroke and not the gigantic corporate advertisements lighting up the streets,' another New Yorker tweeted.

'What should we do instead of using AC? Just 'think cold thoughts'. I've got one, how about how y'all promised frontline delivery ppl and grocery store workers hazard pay for doing their jobs BRAVELY during the lockdowns and they never got it. That was pretty cold of you,' another tweeted.

One tweet read: 'It's reprehensible you'd rather people not be able to breathe, than dim unnecessary things like ads/electric signage,' one Twitter user wrote.

'Companies can get a refund/credit. People can't be brought back from the dead. Shut down offices, make people in mansions pick a room.'

'Just turn Times Square and the expwy billboards off... tell the MTA to turn off their digital, heat generating ad boards on the subway. Turn that giant metal beehive off too,' one person tweeted.

New York - and the rest of the country - have been gripped by a heat wave this week that has seen temperatures surge to record highs.

Utility company Con Edison on Wednesday urged customers in the New York City area to limit energy use to avoid any potential power outages.

About 3,000 customers - the majority in Brooklyn - were without power on Wednesday night.

The company said about 64,000 customers had been affected after it reduced power voltage by 8 percent to parts of the city's Queens borough while crews work to repair equipment.
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Sixteen people running to become new Batley & Spen MP The Batley & Spen by-election is being contested by 16 people from the hard left to far right of politics. Kim Leadbeater, the sister of the areas's murdered former MP Jo Cox is running for Labour. But she is up against former Labour MP George Galloway who is running for the Workers Party. This could play into the hands of Tory Ryan Stephenson, who is the favourite to take the seat. On the far right, Jayda Fransen, the former Britain First leader, is standing as an independent, And former UKIP leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters is standing for her For Britain Movement. The full list of candidates is: Paul Bickerdike, Christian Peoples Alliance

Mike Davies, Alliance for Green Socialism

Jayda Fransen, Independent

George Galloway, Workers Party

Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrats

Therese Hirst, English Democrats

Howling Laud Hope, Official Monster Raving Loony Party

Susan Laird, Heritage Party

Kim Leadbeater, Labour Party

Ollie Purser, Social Democratic Party

Corey Robinson, Yorkshire Party

Andrew Smith, Rejoin EU

Ryan Stephenson, Conservative Party

Jack Thomson, UK Independence Party

Jonathan Tilt, Freedom Alliance

Anne Marie Waters, The For Britain Movement Advertisement

The race between Labour and the Conservatives in Batley and Spen could be much tighter than the bookies and pollsters forecast as ballot papers undergo a so-called bundle count as the crunch by-election in the Red Wall seat heats up.

Votes cast in the West Yorkshire constituency between 7am and 10pm yesterday are being checked before the final results as revealed as Labour seeks to fend off Conservative challenger Ryan Stephenson and hold onto the northern Red Wall seat.

Labour had been bracing for defeat, with the by-election widely regarded as a referendum on Sir Keir Starmer's leadership and the bookies having the Tories as odds-on favourites to win. A recent Survation constituency poll even put the Conservatives on 47 per cent, up 11 per cent from the 2019 General Election, with Labour on 41 per cent.

But Sir Keir may have managed to stave off a political crisis and leadership challenges just weeks after Labour's by-electon defeat in Hartlepool and a series of local elections dubbed 'Super Thursday' in May.

Turnout was down on the 66.5 per cent attained at the 2019 General Election at 47.61 per cent. However, there is normally a 15-point drop in turnout at by-elections compared to general elections.

The by-election was seen as a straight fight between Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater, the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, and Tory candidate Ryan Stephenson - but the arrival of hard-Left insurgent George Galloway provided an extra headache for Labour's campaign managers.

Mr Galloway's Workers Party had attempted to woo Muslim voters in a bid to topple Sir Keir in one of the most fractious campaigns in recent memory. In a polling day video, the former Labour MP said he had a 'real chance to bring about the biggest shock in British political history' and warned: 'One thing is certain: it's curtains for Keir.'

Miss Leadbeater, a former Coronation Street actress, last night accused her political rivals of 'intimidation and violence' and said there have been 'some unacceptable lows' during the six-week campaign.

In a statement published on Twitter after the polls closed at 10pm, she called on the victor to 'bring our community together and start working for local people' after a vicious campaign by Labour canvassers and supporters of George Galloway's Workers Party.

She said: 'There have been many highs of this election campaign but sadly there have also been some unacceptable lows. The acts of intimidation and violence by some who have come here with the sole aim of sowing division have been deeply upsetting to witness.

'Whatever the result tonight, the first priorities of the new MP must be to bring our community together and start working for local people in every part of the constituency I am proud to call my home.'

A defeat for Labour would lead to further questions about Sir Keir's position, although it is unclear if any challenger would be able to secure the support of the 40 MPs needed to trigger a leadership contest.

The party is on the brink of civil war after allies of deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed she has the backing of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, the rail union Aslef and the Communication Workers Union for a leadership challenge against Sir Keir if Labour loses.

The Times reports that Miss Rayner has not approached any unions directly or told them that she wants the job. It follows new polling this week which suggested that as many as four in 10 party members would want him to stand down and make for new leadership in the wake of a loss.

Her spokesman told the newspaper: 'These apparent conversations are news to Angela. She has been campaigning to get the vote out for Kim and has not had a conversation with anyone - from a trade union or otherwise - regarding the leadership of the Labour Party.'

On Thursday the Ashton under Lyne MP called reports that she had been canvassing support from MPs and trade unions 'news to me'. Her allies told the Guardian that she does not want to stand now and that they are concerned about the risk to her reputation if she stabs Sir Keir in the back.

A Labour source said: 'We've got lots of activists out but nothing's changed. Galloway's nasty campaign has hit our vote while the Tories are picking up 2019 independent votes, and places that were starting to look more positive for us seem to have swung back. It's going to be a long night.'

One Labour frontbench MP predicted a 6,000 vote majority for the Tories and described the campaign as an 'utter shambles' with 'loads of switchers' to Boris Johnson's party.

Tensions have also flared between Mr Galloway's Workers Party and Labour supporters in recent weeks as both sides bid for the support of the area's various Asian communities by grandstanding on international issues including Kashmir and Palestine.

Sir Keir's party has been accused of stoking racial and sectarian tension after distributing a campaign leaflet which printed a photo of Mr Johnson shaking hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, in an area with a sizable Pakistani Muslim population.

Labour party candidate Kim Leadbeater leaves Norristhorpe United Reformed Church polling station after casting her vote in the West Yorkshire constituency by-election at Batley and Spen

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer leaves his London home on the morning of the Batley and Spen by-election

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured with Tory candidate for Batley and Spen Ryan Stephenson

Workers Party candidate George Galloway at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, for the Batley and Spen by-election

Votes are counted at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, for the Batley and Spen by-election

Ballot boxes arrive at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, ready for the votes to be counted in the Batley and Spen by-election at Norristhorpe United Reformed Church in Liversedge

Votes are counted at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, for the Batley and Spen by-election

Ballot boxes arrive at Cathedral House in Huddersfield, ready for the votes to be counted in the Batley and Spen by-election

Former Coronation Street actress Kim Leadbeater, whose sister Miss Cox was murdered by a far-Right extremist during the 2016 referendum on EU membership, said there have been 'some unacceptable lows' during the six-week campaign for the seat in the West Yorkshire constituency

Voters in the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen are going to the polls in a by-election touted as a fundamental test of Sir Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party

Labour is defending a majority of more than 3,000 in the seat but the bookies have the Conservatives as odds-on favourites to follow up their victory in Hartlepool in May and heap further pressure on Sir Keir

Former MP and veteran campaigner George Galloway, who has been targeting Labour's traditional Asian and white working-class coalition in an explicit attempt to topple Sir Keir Starmer

Labour is under pressure after it circulated a leaflet critical of Boris Johnson's diplomatic dealings with Indian president Narendra Modi - a Hindu nationalist - in an area with a sizable Muslim population

Earlier this week, Labour lashed out over a fake leaflet which purported to have been released by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) highlighting party leader Keir Starmer's support for Black Lives Matter in a bid to hit his popularity among working class white voters

Is Keir Starmer on the brink? Angela Rayner allies claim deputy leader 'has backing of major unions if she launches leadership challenge' Labour is on the brink of civil war after allies of deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed she has the backing of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, the rail union Aslef and the Communication Workers Union - as well as senior figures at Unite - for a leadership challenge against Sir Keir if the party loses the by-election. The Times newspaper reports that Miss Rayner has not approached any unions directly or told them that she wants the job. It follows new polling this week which suggested that as many as four in 10 party members would want him to stand down and make for new leadership in the wake of a loss. Her spokesman told the Times newspaper: 'These apparent conversations are news to Angela. 'She has been campaigning to get the vote out for Kim and has not had a conversation with anyone - from a trade union or otherwise - regarding the leadership of the Labour Party.' On Thursday Miss Rayner, the Ashton under Lyne MP, denied reports that she had been canvassing support from MPs and trade unions. She wrote on Twitter that the Times story was 'news to me'. Meanwhile, her allies told the Guardian that she does not want to stand now and that they are concerned about the risk to her reputation if she stabs Sir Keir in the back. Advertisement

An arrow pointing to the photo said: 'The risk of voting for anyone but Labour is clear.' Mr Johnson has also faced allegations that he acted slowly on closing UK borders earlier this year despite concerns about the so-called Delta coronavirus variant because he wanted a trade deal with India.

Last week, supporters of former Labour MP Mr Galloway were accused of using the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in Palestine - and the Jewish heritage of Sir Keir's wife - to attack Labour.

Sir Keir condemned as 'disgraceful' the abuse Labour candidate Miss Leadbeater faced from a man who challenged her over the situation in Kashmir and her stance on LGBT+ education in schools amid what he said were concerns from Muslim parents.

It comes after a teacher at Batley Grammar School was suspended after Muslim parents complained that he had showed a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad to a blasphemy class. Though an independent inquiry ruled that he could rejoin the school, the teacher continues to live in hiding.

Voters are concerned about rising crime, the closure of the Batley police station and the state of the economy after successive lockdowns.

An elderly Labour activist was allegedly physically attacked and pelted with eggs last week - with West Yorkshire Police confirming an 18-year-old man from Batley had been arrested on suspicion of assault in connection with an attack on the group of canvassers.

Miss Leadbeater is the sister of former Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in the constituency in 2016. She cast her vote early on Thursday morning in the Liversedge area of the seat, giving a thumbs-up to waiting photographers.

The former Coronation Street actress has stressed she is the only one of the 16 candidates eligible to vote because she lives and works in the constituency.

The Conservatives believe they are in a strong position to take the B&S seat, which would heap more pressure on Sir Keir to step down or face a leadership challenge. But their candidate Mr Stephenson has been dubbed 'The Invisible Man' and 'Where's Wally' by his rivals amid claims he has avoided media scrutiny.

In a message to voters after polls closed, Mr Stephenson said: 'Whatever the result, you proved that more and more local people are ready for change.'

Another by-election gain from Labour will be a boon for Mr Johnson after a bruising defeat in Chesham and Amersham, a formerly safe Tory seat which the Liberal Democrats won by 8,000 votes in June.

Sir Keir's spokesman insisted the leader is on a 'four-year path' to lead the party back into power and would not be standing down if he oversaw another electoral defeat. But he played down the prospect of a victory by saying it 'has always been a marginal seat' and that winning 'was always going to be challenging'.

There is a prospect of a backbench revolt if the seat is lost but it is unclear if any challenger would be able to secure the support of the 40 Labour MPs needed to trigger a leadership contest.

The Batley and Spen by-election was triggered after Tracy Brabin, who won the seat for Labour in 2019 with a 3,525 majority over the Conservatives, was elected as the mayor of West Yorkshire in May.

Earlier this week, Labour's former MP in the seat, Tracey Brabin, who quit after being elected mayor of West Yorkshire, also claimed last night that activists had been pelted with eggs and kicked in the head while on the campaign trail.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer and Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater during a visit to the Jo Cox Community Wood in Liversedge

Labour party candidate Kim Leadbeater leaves Norristhorpe United Reformed Church polling station after casting her vote in the West Yorkshire constituency by-election at Batley and Spen

A man leaves Batley Town Hall aftert casting his vote on July 1, 2021 in Batley

Labour party candidate Kim Leadbeater leaves Norristhorpe United Reformed Church polling station today after casting her vote in the West Yorkshire constituency

Voters in the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley & Spen are heading to the polls in a crunch by-election which is being widely touted as a referendum on Sir Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party

Allies of Angela Rayner have been laying the groundwork for her to launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir if Labour loses the crunch Batley and Spen by-election

Miss Brabin said she was leafleting with 'colleagues, volunteers, campaigners' in Batley on Sunday when they 'were followed, verbally abused and physically assaulted by a group of young men'. She said: 'The group I was with included young people and the elderly. I witnessed them being egged, pushed and forced to the ground and kicked in the head.'

West Yorkshire Police confirmed on Sunday evening that they were investigating, and Miss Brabin - who also holds the police and crime commissioner responsibility for the region - praised officers for their swift response.

But she added: 'We know why tensions are rising in our streets. Those who want to sow division are not welcome in our community. The actions of these people do not represent the Batley and Spen I know. We are kinder than this.'

Labour MP for Halifax Holly Lynch added: 'There has been a series of increasingly serious and violent attacks in recent days and this is absolutely unacceptable. Lawless thugs are seeking to intimidate and attack those involved in the proper democratic process.'

Residents are voting amid accusations of foul play. Earlier this week, Labour lashed out over a fake leaflet allegedly released by the Trades Union Congress which highlighted Sir Keir Starmer's support for Black Lives Matter in a bid to hit his popularity among white working-class voters.

The TUC said it was part of a 'dirty tricks campaign' and that those responsible 'should be ashamed of themselves'.
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Bill Cosby was pictured leaving his Pennsylvania home on Thursday to fly on a private jet to Massachusetts where he will reunite with his wife Camille a day after being released from prison, as his reps said he was ready to make his comeback and was 'in contract' with documentary makers.

The 83-year-old was helped out of his Elkins Park mansion by his spokesperson Andrew Wyatt. He was wearing black sweatpants and a black t-shirt with a large C on the front. He didn't speak, but waved at photographers before getting into a car.

He will be driven to a private plane which will fly him 200 miles from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, where he keeps a home with Camille, 77. She has not been seen since he left prison on Wednesday.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction on Wednesday in a surprise decision, setting him free and ruling that he couldn't be prosecuted again.

The basis of the decision was a promise made to Cosby in 2005 by former Montgomery County Prosecutor Bruce Castor, who said he wouldn't charge him for allegedly sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, in exchange for Cosby being deposed as part of a civil lawsuit.

In 2015, a new Montgomery County District Attorney - Kevin Steele - charged Cosby anyway, using the comments Cosby made in his deposition as proof. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Cosby's case last June and handed down their decision on Wednesday, with a slim majority of four of the court's seven justices agreeing that Cosby should go free.

Cosby spent his first night of freedom dining on fish, pizza and collared greens. He had a cooked breakfast from his old chef, Mr Fabio, on Thursday morning before setting off around 1pm to reunite with Camille.

His representatives say his conviction was the 'greatest deceit of the 21st Century' and that he is ready to work again. It's unclear who his 'documentary contract' is with.

They also say his release sets a precedent for others who are appealing their #MeToo convictions. Harvey Weinstein's legal team are looking at Cosby's appeal and the Supreme Court decision to see if it will help their case and on Thursday, Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney wrote an op-ed for The New York Daily News saying she should also go free.

The 83-year-old was helped out of the house by his spokesperson Andrew Wyatt. He was wearing black sweatpants and a black t-shirt with a large C on the front. He didn't speak, but waved at photographers before getting into a car

Cosby was escorted out of his home by Andrew Wyatt. He was dressed casually in black sweatpants, a t-shirt with a large C on the front, and sneakers. He was carrying a COVID mask

Camille Cosby with her husband in April 2018, at his retrial. She said last June that her husband was being vilified by white women and that she 'didn't care' how his accusers felt

COSBY'S FIRST NIGHT OF FREEDOM - HE HAD FISH, COLLARED GREENS AND 'CRUNCHY PIZZA' Cosby outside his home on Wednesday after being released Cosby celebrated his first night of freedom on Wednesday by first ordering in Italian fish and collared greens, then sending his rep to get him 'crispy, crunchy' pizza. The 83-year-old spent the night at his Pennsylvania mansion without his wife or kids, but with his long-serving rep Andrew Wyatt. Wyatt told reporters on Thursday that he had to 'relearn' the house when he got inside because he is blind and couldn't work his way around. Wyatt said he took him round but that within an hour, he was moving about by himself. The first thing he wanted to eat was fish and collared greens, Wyatt said. He then sent him out again at night to pick him up a pizza. 'He made me leave and go get that fresh basil mozzarella and extra sauce. Extra crispy. From Zio's - we put it on his social media and everything about his wonderful pizza. 'He said don't tell my wife, I said too late. The first thing he had was collared greens and fish. Italian fish that he wanted, now he's having his breakfast. 'Mr. Fabio drove over to cook him his breakfast - hard scrambled eggs, sausages and potatoes. 'He's having that right now.' Advertisement

There was no sign of Cosby's three adult children, Erinn, Evin and Erika, at the home. It's unclear if they still support him. Ensa, one of Cosby's daughters, died aged 44 from renal disease in 2018.

The couple's son, Ennis, was killed in 1997 during an attempted robbery.

Earlier on Thursday, Cosby's rep told reporters outside the home: 'He is going to go see Mrs. Cosby. He got up early, he had a shower. He's having his breakfast sitting at the table right now.'

Asked if Cosby would work again, Wyatt said: 'He's Bill Cosby.

'He is one of the greatest of the world. There's always going to be a different narrative.

'You don't have 1million followers and counting if you don't have support.'

Wyatt said Cosby was under contract with 'documentary people' which means he might not make a statement today, but said: 'Trust me. This guy wants to talk.'

He also said that Cosby, who says he is blind, had to 'relearn' the house yesterday but was now 'moving around on his own'.

Camille was vocal in her support of her husband throughout his trial.

Last June, she said she 'didn't care' about how his accusers felt and thought the #MeToo movement had to 'clean up its act', saying: 'We all know how women lie'.

She also compared her husband to Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched in 1955 after being falsely accused of sexually harassing a white woman.

'I don't care what they feel,' she said of her husband's accusers and anyone who felt she was on 'the wrong side of history', telling ABC that many of the women speaking out as part of #MeToo were lying.

She also compared her husband to Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was the 1955 after being accused of sexually harassing a white woman.

'The parallel is that the same age-old thing about particular white women making accusations against black men that are unproven,' Camille said.

'Emmett Till's outcome, to mutilate his body in the way that it was, was just really so deeply horrendous.

'There's a lack of words for that kind of hatefulness.'

'The #MeToo movement and movements like them have intentional ignorance pertaining to the history of particular white women - not all white women - but particular white women, who have from the very beginning, pertaining to the enslavement of African people, accused black males of sexual assault without any proof whatsoever.

There were many people outside the Cosby mansion to celebrate the 83-year-old's freedom on Wednesday but Camille was not one of them

The Cosby home in Massachusetts. There has been no sign of Camille there on Thursday morning. It is around 200 miles from the Pennsylvania home

Bill Cosby is congratulated by his wife Camille at the 1965-1966 Emmy Awards, where he received the Emmy for Outstanding Continued Performance By an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for his role in I Spy. The pair got married in 1964

Cosby's comeback: Comedian's rep claims he is 'in contract' with 'documentary makers' Outside his home in Elkins Park, near Philadelphia, his spokesman Andrew Wyatt told reporters that he would work again. 'He's Bill Cosby. He is one of the greatest of the world. 'There's always going to be a different narrative... but you don't have 1million followers and counting if you don't have support,' he said. Cosby hasn't worked since 2015, when he was arrested. Aside from The Cosby Show, he had a run of successful stand up shows. He plans to go on the road again to 'tell his story' his reps say Wyatt said Cosby was under contract with 'documentary people' which means he might not make a statement today, but said: 'Trust me. This guy wants to talk.' He didn't say which 'documentary' people he was working with. None of the major streaming services have put their name to any project with Cosby and representatives for Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Amazon did not respond to inquiries on the matter on Thursday. Cosby hasn't worked since 2015, when he was charged. He was dropped by CAA and canceled by NBC, BET and other networks which were playing reruns of his shows like The Cosby Show and he was also stripped of honorary titles from universities. His last show was Bill Cosby: Far from Finished, was still running in 2015 despite more and more women coming forward to accuse him of assault. Wyatt hasn't given more details of what kind of show the 83-year-old might now produce or appear in. Cosby says his blind and he was visibly frail on Wednesday and Thursday, unable to walk on his own. Nonetheless, his team is adamant he'll work and that people want to hear from him. One booking expert told TMZ that he could command up to $20,000 for appearances once he's out. The group of people he would appeal to include people who think he's innocent, or are willing to forgive him. Advertisement

'And by ignoring that history, they have put out a lie in itself and that is: "Because I'm female, I'm telling the truth." Well history disproves that, as well, and gender has never, ever equated with truth.

'So, they need to clean up their acts.

'And it's all of us as women who have not participated anything nefarious - we know how women can lie.

'We know how they can do the same things that men do - that some men do - because there are good men and bad men. There are good women and bad women.'

Camille, 77, married Bill in 1964, some years before the allegations against him began.

At the time, he was 27 and he had just launched his showbiz career with stand-up shows.

It wasn't until the 1980s that he became a household name. The allegations of sexual misconduct start around then too.

On Thursday morning, Cosby's spokesperson said that his conviction was 'one of the greatest deceits of the 21st Century asides from sport'.

'He was given a deal by Bruce Castor and two years ago, Bruce Castor said - I gave him a deal.

'He said I had the right to do that and I did it because Andrea Constand had given him five different statements.'

Cosby's rep said he was only ever charged by Kevin Steele because he had a 'vendetta' against Castor.

On Wednesday night, Steele said he hoped the decision by the Supreme Court wouldn't deter other victims from coming forward.

'My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims.

'We still believe that no one is above the law  including those who are rich, famous and powerful,' he said in a statement.

Cosby's accusers reacted angrily to his release. They said they were 'shocked' and 'disgusted' by the decision.

On Thursday, Kathy McKee - who claims Cosby attacked her in a hotel in 1982 when she was Sammy Davis Jr's girlfriend - appeared on CNN.

'What's happening right now is so frightening and scary. It seems as though women, we just really don't count. if you don't have any money or if you're African American or a woman, if you can't afford attorneys and the years it takes to sue someone or pursue action, you can forget it. That's what this looks like. That's certainly what happened with me.

'You have to think about how many people are in prison right now for rape that might not have done it and they were not able to afford a decent attorney.

'Bill Cosby did this and he's free. He admitted to doing this act. Nobody on the planet could possibly believe that all of the women that have come forward, that he didn't do this.

'It's the money and the power that has Bill Cosby at home right now. He was able to to afford to pay all of these attorneys to work all these years to free him.

'He admitted to doing this act.

'Nobody on the planet could possibly believe that all of the women that have come forward, that he didn't do this.

'It's just a mess. It's terrible, it's just terrible. Now what?'

She previously said she thought he was going to kill her when he sexually assaulted her.

Cosby's accuser Andrea Constand said she hopes the Supreme Court's decision didn't deter other women from coming forward. On Thursday, Kathy McKee - who claims Cosby attacked her in a hotel in 1982 when she was Sammy Davis Jr's girlfriend - appeared on CNN to say Cosby's release was 'terrible' and 'frightening'

This is how Pennsylvania's Supreme Court voted to free Cosby or keep him jailed. Justice David Wecht (top left) wrote the decision and the court's three female justices, Debra Todd (bottom right), Christine Donohue (second top left) and Sallie Updyke Mundy (top right) agreed with him. Justices Max Baer (bottom left), Thomas G. Saylor (bottom middle) and Kevin M. Dougherty (top, second from right) dissented
Nigel Farage today denied he is the anti-lockdown 'entrepreneur' who wanted to bring down 'hypocrite' Matt Hancock, telling MailOnline: 'It wasn't me'.

The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader, who helped set up Reform UK to oppose the Government's Covid restrictions, spoke out after it was claimed a highly successful' businessman was trying to expose the former health secretary.

The mystery whistleblower is said to have been part of a politically motivated plot to oust him, spearheaded by an anti-lockdown campaigner who was angry about his handling of the pandemic.

It came as the company responsible for security in the building on Victoria Street confirmed for the first time it was helping the Department of Health and Social Care with its probe into the leak.

But Emcor UK  which has provided security for sensitive buildings including the top-secret Porton Down laboratory  refused to say if any of its staff had been questioned or suspended.

Nigel Farage (pictured in August 2019) today denied he is the anti-lockdown 'entrepreneur' who wanted to bring down 'hypocrite' Matt Hancock, telling MailOnline: 'It wasn't me'

The leak of CCTV footage exposing Mr Hancocks affair could have been part of a politically motivated plot to oust him spearheaded by a highly successful' businessman and anti-lockdown campaigner who was angry about his handling of the pandemic, it emerged today.

And in a dramatic twist, it was claimed that an entrepreneur had allegedly offered the compromising images to prominent political journalist Isabel Oakeshott because he 'relished his part in exposing Hancocks hypocrisy - five days before they were published.

It raises the prospect that the leak of the footage  which showed the former health secretary breaking his own social distancing rules  could have been motivated by opposition to his stance on Covid.

The source of the images has been the subject of fevered speculation since they were first published at the end of last week.

The CCTV footage, apparently from a camera inside Mr Hancocks private Department of Health office, showed him kissing his adviser Gina Coladangelo at a time when hugging anyone from outside your household was banned.

It had been speculated that the images came from a rogue security guard or whistleblower employee at the department who had access to the footage and then contacted the national newspaper that published them directly.

But last night political journalist and broadcaster Ms Oakeshott revealed she had been sent a grainy shot of the CCTV clip by an anti-establishment figure with a dim view of politicians in general and a particular disdain for the architects of the lockdown policy.

Writing in The Spectator, she described this person as a highly successful entrepreneur who would have relished his part in exposing Hancocks hypocrisy. But she said she mistakenly dismissed the footage as fake and that the contact who offered it agreed that the original seller was probably a chancer.

The leak of CCTV footage exposing Matt Hancocks affair could have been part of a politically motivated plot to oust him, it emerged last night

Political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, left, who is in a relationship with leader of Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, Richard Tice, right, feared that the footage may have been fake or doctored - and her partner agreed

Miss Oakeshott is in a relationship with Richard Tice, a founder of the Leave Means Leave campaign. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Tice, who leads Reform UK, a party that campaigns to restore pre-Covid freedoms.

He revealed last night he had examined the clip after Miss Oakeshott passed it to him but he believed it was doctored.

Mr Tice said: The footage was doctored, there is no question. If you look closely you see a pair of hands when he is not touching her. Its not his hands.

We saw that and thought something is not right. The footage came to Isabel and we both agreed it wasnt right. The affair is clearly right but there is something not right about that footage.

Victoria Newton, Editor of The Sun, has also described how the scoop came to them, describing the mole as a 'whistleblower' - but not linking them to any anti-lockdown movement.

She wrote in the New Statesman: 'The news desk had been contacted by an angry whistle-blower. They claimed to have irrefutable evidence that the married Secretary of State for Health was breaching his own lockdown rules by having an office affair with an aide. My first thought was  bloody hell, what a story, it cant be true.

In a dramatic twist, it was claimed that a highly successful anti-lockdown entrepreneur had allegedly offered the compromising images of Hancock and adviser Gina Coladangelo (pictured left) to a prominent political journalist five days before they were published

'The source told us they had footage of Matt Hancock kissing his glamorous adviser Gina Coladangelo on 6 May in his Westminster office. A quick check of the government rules that Hancock himself had devised and demanded that the nation follow showed that kissing someone from another household was most definitely not allowed'.

Ms Newton was the person who called Mr Hancock, which led to him telling his wife and children he was leaving.

She said: 'I wont divulge details of the call, but I told him we had the story and that I was running it because the public interest was so strong'.

The footage originally came from an email account on Protonmail, a service that offers end-to-end encryption. It is understood it was first offered for sale five days before the story was published in a national newspaper.

It raises the prospect that the member of staff who leaked the clip may have used a politically motivated intermediary to sell it in a bid to cover their tracks.

The pool of security staff who had access to the CCTV footage in the Department of Health is thought to be small and there is likely to be a digital record of those who viewed it and may have been able to surreptitiously record it on their phone.

MPs and security experts have called for a police inquiry into the security breach amid concerns that the Whitehall investigation will not have the power or expertise to uncover the truth.

It raises the prospect that the leak of the footage  which showed the former health secretary breaking his own social distancing rules  could have been motivated by opposition to his stance on Covid

Labour MP Chris Bryant said yesterday it was preposterous that the investigation was being conducted by the Department of Health, which has no aptitude in this field, no experience and no powers  its bizarre.

He added that he had no confidence the probe would uncover the truth and demanded a full parliamentary inquiry.

The investigation, which is being supported by Whitehall specialists from the Government Security Group at the Cabinet Office, will look at whether the CCTV camera installed in the private office at least four years ago had been tampered with.

Cameras used in the building are produced by Hikvision, a Chinese firm banned in the US over concerns that it could be used by Beijing as a spying tool.

The company denies the claim, saying there is no evidence that its data is relayed to China.

Former Met counter-terrorism detective David Videcette, who has uncovered documentation about cameras in the building, said yesterday the police should get involved if criminal offences are uncovered.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed that it is not investigating the matter.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has branded the conservative leader of the opposition a 'Karen' in a bitter debate over a new hate speech law which critics have slammed as an infringement of free speech.

Ardern implied that opposition leader Judith Collins was a 'Karen' - a middle-class white woman who has a high opinion of herself and acts in an entitled manner.

The comments were made as the two politicians debated Ardern's new hate speech law which critics have slammed as an attempt to clamp down on free speech.

David Seymour, the leader of the rightwing ACT party, has branded the proposed law as an infringement of free speech and said it will shut down debate and 'put cancel culture on steroids'.

He said the only people who will benefit from this law will be the 'Twitter mob and the perpetually offended'.

During the debate, Ardern turned a tweet by Ms Collins against her in a debate over hate speech, in which the Nationals leader asked 'Will calling a middle-aged white woman a "Karen" now be a crime under Jacinda Ardern's law?'

Jacinda Ardern blunted her counterpart Judith Collins saying new hate speech legislation wouldn't be strong enough to protect Collins herself from being called a 'Karen'

Ms Collins (pictured), also known as 'Crusher', suffered a stinging rebuke in the NZ Parliament

After Ms Collins, also known as 'Crusher', said Ms Ardern was 'wrong' to stop debate on hate speech, the Kiwi Prime Minister was ready with her rebuttal.

'Mister speaker, I disagree with that statement and I also disagree with the member's statement on Twitter that somehow it will become illegal to call someone a Karen,' she said.

'That is absolutely incorrect, and I apologise - that means these laws will not protect that member [Collins] from such a claim.'

While Ms Ardern's comments weren't a direct attack on her rival, the debate chamber knew exactly what she had implied and erupted in laughter.

Ms Collins quickly stood to reply, but backed down admitting what she had planned to say would be 'cruel'.

She again raised the 'Karen' issue on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

'Apparently insulting women for either being named 'Karen' and/or for being middle aged white women is fine, under Jacinda Ardern's new law.'

Another Kiwi MP, Karen Chhour urged Ms Ardern to apologise to all of New Zealand's Karens.

'My question is whether the nation's Karens will be deemed a protected group?' Ms Chhour asked.

'Would, for instance, erasing Karens by carelessly merging them with the nation's Judiths amount to hate speech?

The New Zealand government, led by Ms Ardern, plans to include religious groups and LBGTQI communities in strengthened hate speech legislation - but not 'Karens'

In an extraordinary attack on Judith Collins, Ardern implied that the opposition leader was a 'Karen' - a middle-class white woman who considers herself highly and is entitled. Pictured: National Party leader Judith Collins and husband David Wong Tung

'If the Prime Minister can't explain why a scenario as basic as this would not be actionable under the laws she's proposing then she should dump the law and apologise to every Karen from the Cape to the Bluff.'

The New Zealand government, led by Ardern, plans to include religious groups and LBGTQI communities in strengthened hate speech legislation.

It proposes a new criminal offence for inciting violence against certain groups, and a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

But derogatory terms such as 'Karen', with connotations that a woman is demanding or entitled, will not be included.

David Seymour, the leader of the rightwing ACT party, has branded the proposed hate speech law as an infringement of free speech and said it will 'put cancel culture on steroids'.

He said the only people who will benefit from this law will be the 'Twitter mob and the perpetually offended'.

'The Governments proposed hate speech laws will put cancel culture on steroids and create an even more divided society,' he said in a statement.

'These new laws will take away basic rights to free speech, shut down debate and make people too afraid to express valid opinions. The only people who win from todays announcement are the Twitter mob and the perpetually offended.'

He added in another statement: 'The Government's new hate speech legislation will see the police pressured to interview and prosecute people with unpopular opinions.

'This won't bring about cohesion. This will divide New Zealanders, force debate underground and make ordinary people afraid to express their views.'
Boris Johnson today said it is 'ever clearer' that the UK's vaccination drive has 'broken the link' between coronavirus infections and deaths as he insisted the nation is now in the 'final furlong' of lockdown.

The Prime Minister conceded there has been a significant surge in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks but he said that is 'not translating into a big increase in serious illness and death'.

Mr Johnson said he believes the UK's vaccine rollout has 'broken that link between infection and mortality and that is an amazing thing'.

The final stage of the PM's lockdown exit roadmap is due to take place on July 19, with all remaining curbs potentially being lifted.

Mr Johnson would not be drawn on what the country will look like after 'freedom day' but he said he will be publishing a plan setting it out 'in the course of the next few days'.

He also said 'there may be some things we have to do and some extra precautions that we have to take' in a hint that some rules could remain in place.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson also urged parents, pupils and Tory MPs to be 'patient' over calls to end self-isolation for entire school 'bubbles' when lockdown restrictions in England are lifted later this month.

Former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is among 48 MPs to have signed a letter to the Prime Minister warning that the current policy is 'disproportionate' and 'unsustainable'.

Boris Johnson today said it is 'ever clearer' that the UK's vaccination drive has 'broken the link' between coronavirus infections and deaths as he insisted the nation is now in the 'final furlong' of lockdown

No face masks rule from July 19: Mouth guards will become voluntary as Covid curbs are axed Face masks are set to be made voluntary under plans to end most coronavirus restrictions on July 19. Boris Johnson is pushing for the lifting of mask laws in almost all settings to help return life to 'as near normal as possible'. Key social distancing measures, including the one-metre rule, the rule of six and the 30-person limit on the size of outdoor gatherings, are also set to be scrapped on the new 'Freedom Day'. The Mail revealed today that ministers have shelved plans to require mass events such as festivals to use Covid passports to control entry. And last night it emerged that even nightclubs may be allowed to reopen on July 19 without the need to test customers at the door, as part of a new 'freedom plan' that could be published by the Prime Minister as soon as next week. The proposals reflect growing confidence in Government that the vaccination rollout has severely weakened the link between infections, and hospitalisations and deaths. Advertisement

The latest Government statistics published yesterday showed there had been a further 26,068 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK.

That figure represented the highest daily reported number since January 29.

The Government said a further 14 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 128,140.

Speaking on a visit to a Nissan car factory in Sunderland, Mr Johnson said the statistics demonstrated the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines.

He said: 'I know that people are impatient for us to open up faster and of course I want to do that.

'But what I would say to people is we are now in the final furlong, I really believe.

'We have to look very carefully at the data and at the moment what we are certainly seeing is a big increase in cases - 26,000 as you will have seen.

'But that is not translating into a big increase in serious illness and death.

'So, it looks ever clearer that we have broken, the vaccination programme, the speed of that vaccine rollout, has broken that link between infection and mortality and that is an amazing thing.

'That gives us the scope we think on the 19th to go ahead, cautiously, irreversibly, to go ahead.'

Mr Johnson was asked whether the final easing of rules will include getting rid of face masks and social distancing.

He replied: 'I know how impatient people are to get back to total normality as indeed am I and we will be setting out, I will be setting out in the course of the next few days what step four will look like exactly.

'But I think I have said it before, we will be wanting to go back to a world that is as close to the status quo, ante Covid as possible.

'Try to get back to life as close to it was before Covid but there may be some things we have to do and some extra precautions that we have to take, but I will be setting all of that out.'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is under mounting pressure to act to scrap the Government's school 'bubbles' policy which forces children to self-isolate if there is a positive case in their year group.

Recent official data showed that 279,000 children in England are isolating because of possible contact with a Covid-19 case.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has suggested that school bubbles will end when classes return after the summer holidays in September.

Just one in 100 NHS beds are currently being taken up by Covid patients in England  fourteen times fewer than at the start of the second wave. Graph shows: The percentage of all hospital beds available to the NHS being taken up by Covid patients on June 22 this year (red bars) compared to on December 14 (blue bars), the last time infections were above 20,000 and rising

Furlough starts to wind down as bosses have to pay 10 per cent of workers' wages The furlough scheme starts winding down today as employers are forced to shoulder 10 per cent of workers' wages. Businesses called for it to continue as thousands of companies with 1.5million employees will be affected. One study suggests older people face a higher risk of unemployment as the scheme - which has cost around 66million - is phased out. The Resolution Foundation said more than one in four workers aged 55-64 furloughed in the recent lockdown remained so in May despite easing measures. Meanwhile Labour called for the Government to delay the plans, saying it is set to impact nearly half a million firms. The party said 450,000 businesses will have to pay around 225million more as a result of the plans. Advertisement

But a letter from MPs to the PM said it is essential that schools 'go back to normal' when lockdown is lifted on July 19 even if it is 'just for the last few days of term'.

'This will send an important signal ahead of the autumn that the route to freedom is a 'one-way road' and genuinely 'irreversible',' the letter said.

It said pupils have suffered 'unnecessary and significant disruptions' to their schooling during the pandemic in order to keep the rest of the country safe.

'They have lost physical fitness, suffered mental health damage, and experienced catastrophic learning loss,' it said.

'Children need normality, security and certainty. If we are to have a hope of levelling up and building back better, we must restore children's school lives to normal so they can recover their health, wellbeing, education and their futures.'

The Prime Minister said he understands the 'frustration' over whole bubbles being sent home to isolate but insisted the Public Health England review into favouring testing over isolation is still under way.

He said: 'They haven't concluded yet so what I want to do is just to be cautious as we go forward to that natural firebreak of the summer holidays when the risk in schools will greatly diminish and just ask people to be a little bit patient.'

The UK has now breached 20,000 cases a day for the last three days.

Mr Johnson said at PMQs at lunchtime yesterday that he 'devoutly hopes' that 'freedom day' will go ahead as planned on July 19 and that the vaccine rollout means 'we have a higher wall of vaccination than virtually any other country in the world'.

The rate of growth in hospital admissions has been falling for the last nine days, despite hospitalisations continuing to rise

Millions to get THIRD Covid vaccine from September Tens of millions of Britons could be offered a third Covid jab in as little as two months under fresh guidance issued by No10's top advisers last night. The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) said the booster scheme should start in September and could see 23million over-50s, vulnerable Britons and NHS and care home staff offered another dose. Extra vaccines would be rolled out in two stages  prioritising those most at risk of Covid  and patients are expected to be offered whichever jab they were originally inoculated with. However, officials have not ruled out a potential 'mix and match' vaccine schedule. It will coincide with the annual influenza inoculation programme, which health officials say will be vital this winter amid warnings of a difficult flu season. Advertisement

Britain dished out 137,991 first doses yesterday, taking the country's total to 44.7 million  84.9 per cent of the adult population.

A further 150,688 second jabs were also given, meaning 32.9million (62.4 per cent) are fully vaccinated.

MailOnline analysis revealed just one in 100 NHS beds were being taken up by Covid patients in England last week  fourteen times fewer than at the start of the second wave, according to official figures.

The latest NHS England figures show that out of the roughly 87,000 hospital beds at the health service's disposal, fewer than 1,000 were being taken up by people suffering from coronavirus (1.1 per cent) on June 22.

Mr Johnson has been under pressure from anti-lockdown Tory MPs to ease restrictions faster, with many adamant that the original 'freedom day' on June 21 should have gone ahead as planned.

Calls for the exit from lockdown to be accelerated grew yesterday after it emerged that Chris Whitty backed the July 19 date, telling the Cabinet it should aim to 'get as much open this summer as possible before winter'.

The Chief Medical Officer reportedly signalled his support for lifting the remaining coronavirus curbs next month as he briefed Cabinet ministers on Monday.

Mr Whitty said the winter period is likely to be 'much more difficult' but sources claimed he had been 'cautiously optimistic'.
Meghan McCain has announced live on air that she is quitting ABC's The View after four years to raise her daughter in Washington DC, saying 'this was not an easy decision'.

DailyMail.com had revealed earlier on Thursday that the 36-year-old was stepping away from the daytime talk show at the end of the month with two years remaining on her contract.

Her co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, were not aware prior to Thursday that McCain had resigned, a source told DailyMail.com.

McCain addressed her resignation during the The View's opening segment, saying: 'I'm going to rip the bandaid off'.

'I am here to tell you - all of my wonderful co-hosts and viewers at home - that this is going to be my last season here at The View.

'It's not easy to leave but I feel like this is the right decision for me at the moment.'

Meghan McCain announced live on air on Thursday that she is resigning from ABC's The View after four years to raise her daughter in Washington DC

McCain addressed her resignation during the The View's opening segment, saying: 'I'm going to rip the bandaid off'. Her co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, were not aware prior to Thursday that McCain had resigned, a source said

The outspoken co-host said she had built an 'incredible life' in Washington DC after leaving New York City while she was still pregnant with daughter Liberty during the COVID pandemic.

'When I think about where I want Liberty to have her first steps, her first words - I just have this really wonderful life here that ultimately I felt like I didn't want to leave.'

McCain also praised her co-hosts, who she regularly spars with on the show, saying it had been 'one of the greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges' of her life working on The View.

'It is a privilege to work alongside such strong, brilliant, intelligent broadcasters... You are the most talented women on all of television,' she said of her co-hosts.

Speaking about when she first landed the role, McCain said: 'I didn't want to join the show as I think I've talked about it in the past. It was my dad who encouraged me to do it. He was right.'

McCain, who isn't leaving until the season ends at the end of July, quipped: 'I will still be here another month so if you guys want to fight a bit more we still have a few more weeks.'

Her co-hosts took turns praising McCain following the announcement, describing her as 'tough' and acknowledging her 'important point of view'.

Joy Behar, who McCain clashed with regularly over their differing political opinions, commended her for sticking her neck out on the show.

'You and I have had some fights and disagreements. You and I have in common where we're on a show where we stick our necks out. We stick by our points of view. You've done that brilliantly for four years,' Behar said.

'You're no snowflake missy.'

The source added that her co-hosts, including Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, 'are not yet aware that Meghan has resigned'

McCain is pictured above with mother Cindy McCain and her daughter Liberty

The View and ABC had fought to keep McCain on the show, according to DailyMail.com's source.

'We have tried to keep her, but she is adamant that now is the right time for her to leave,' they said.

ABC News issued a statement after the segment aired, saying: 'For the past four years, Meghan McCain has brought her fierce determination and vast political knowledge and experience to The View.

'She recently came to us with her decision to depart the show at the end of this season, a difficult choice that she made for her and her family that we respect and understand.

'We wish the best for Meghan as she plans her next chapter, and thank her for the passion and unique voice that she shared with us and our viewers each day.'

The outspoken daughter of the late Senator John McCain has become a leading Republican voice in the media over the years. She and her father are pictured with co-host Whoopi Goldberg

McCain joined the show back in October 2017.

The outspoken daughter of the late Senator John McCain has become a leading Republican voice in the media over the years.

Prior to her hosting gig on The View, McCain was propelled onto the media scene as a columnist for The Daily Beast, a Fox News host and an MSNBC contributor.

McCain launched a docuseries in 2013 - Raising McCain - in which she was followed around the country covering current events and topics, including feminism and bullying.

She then went on to host the late-night news program 'TakePart Live' on Pivot TV.

McCain is also a New York Times best-selling author having published her first book in 2008: My Dad, John McCain.

She has been married to her husband Ben Domenech since 2017 and the pair welcomed their first daughter Liberty in September last year.
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A wildfire that erupted Friday in rural California has now scorched more than 17,000 acres, and could threaten a network of thousands of marijuana micro farms as it continues to spread during the Pacific Northwest's deadly heatwave.

The so-called Lava Fire began last Friday when a lightning strike hit a tree and sparked a small fire in a remote area of an old lava flow east of the city of Weed, according to the Sacramento Bee.

More than 470 firefighters on the ground and in the air and 800 Forest Service personnel are continuing to battle the Lava Fire, which has injured two firefighters.

The area has been under a red-flag warning for fires due to high winds and low humidity, as temperatures in the Pacific Northwest reach 110-degrees.

The Lava Fire has grown to cover 17,591 acres of land in northern California, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Department reports, and is just 19 percent contained as it inches closer to to the massive network of marijuana farms in Lake Shastina and Mount Shasta Vista subdivision.

Siskiyou County has banned large-scale marijuana cultivation, but thousands of pot greenhouses have sprung up since the drug was legalized in the state.

The network of micro-farms is mostly run by Hmong and Chinese families, and police efforts to shut them down have been countered with claims of racial discrimination.

There are now thousands of people tending to somewhere between 5,000 to 6,000 greenhouses in the area, the Bee reports.

At least 8,000 people have been evacuated from the area as of Monday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Two other fires have popped up nearby, including the Tenant Fire and the Beswick Fire, though they are not as large as the Lava Fire.

The Lava Fire has spread to more than 17,000 acres and threatens a huge network of marijuana greenhouses in Lake Shastina

The heatwave continued on Thursday, with the National Weather Service warning residents of heat-related illnesses as the high temperatures mix with the smoke from the fires

The Juniper Motel, an abandoned business, burns in the Tennant Fire near the city of Weed

Smoke poured into the sky from the slopes of Mt. Shasta looking east from Highway 97

A US Forest Service forest technician burns off fuel ahead of a portion of the Lava Fire

A truck is seen burning in the Tennant Fire on Tuesday as the fire continued to spread

The historic scorching temperatures are the result of a high-pressure jet stream known as a 'heat dome,' which is essentially trapping the hot weather in place. The high temperatures have caused hundreds of deaths in Canada in the last five days.

Federal officials say California's fire season is already outpacing last year's - which was the worst on record.

On Monday, police shot and killed a man they say opened fire on them when trying to drive through a wildfire evacuation zone to get to one of the marijuana farms.

'They made contact with the driver. And at some point, the driver exhibited a firearm, a handgun, and pointed it at the officers,' Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue told the Bee. 'Based upon preliminary information, it appears that there might have been a couple rounds fired from the suspects firearm.'

The evacuation orders remained in effect as of Tuesday, as the Lava Fire burned brush and timber in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

'We do no know what structures have burned down and the status of many areas,' the sheriff's office told USA Today.

The area has only recently recovered from the 2014 Boles fire, according to the Sacramento Bee, which burned more than 150 homes and buildings in Weed, California.

Ronald Beau Marshall was convicted for starting the fire, and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was released in 2016.

The Lava Fire burned in front of Mount Shasta as a firefighting helicopter prepared to refill its water basket on Tuesday

A helicopter equipped with a hose for fighting fires dropped water on the Lava Fire

Local residents watched as a myriad of aircrafts dropped water and retardant on the Lava Fire

Some Hmong brought in their own water tank truck to help put out the hot spots in their marijuana greenhouse during the Lava Fire on Tuesday

The Lava Fire is located just about 25 miles from another wildfire, the Tennant Fire

The Beswick Fire, covering 118 acres has been 75 percent contained as of Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Department, while the Tennant Fire, covering 8,159 acres was 6 percent contained.

U.S. Forest Service officials for Shasta-Trinity said the Tenant Fire was located just 25 miles from the Lava Fire.

Members of the Golden Eagles Hotshots, California's only Bureau of Indian Affairs crew, also helped fight the Lava blaze and some Hmong tried putting out the fires in their greenhouses themselves.

The crews had thought they had contained the fire by Friday afternoon, but about four hours later, residents saw smoke in the direction of the fire as it reignited.

That smoke could be seen as far as 100 miles away in Medford, Oregon.

The Golden Eagles Hotshots were seen entering the blaze on Tuesday

An Air National Guard C-130 drops retardant at the Lava Fire just outside of the city of Weed

Members of the Golden Eagles Hotshots, California's only Bureau of Indian Affairs crew, walk into an active area of the Lava Fire amidst a swarm of flies

On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted that the state had received a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fight the Lava Fire.

'If you're in the area, please stay safe, and listen to local official warnings,' he wrote.

Newsom has also proposed spending $2 billion on emergency preparedness for the wildfire season, according to The Hill.

But officials worry that the wildfire season may only get worse as the heat continues amidst a drought and high winds.

Federal officials have warned that the wildfire season is already outpacing last year's, which was the worst on record in California, with 4,152 fires reported in the state as of June 28.

'We're anticipating a very busy season, unfortunately,' U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lynn Olson told the LA Times, asking residents to 'recreate carefully and avoid starting campfires or using fireworks ahead of July 4, as millions of people in the Pacific Northwest remain under excessive heat warnings through Saturday.

The Pacific Northwest has seen record-breaking heat from June 26 through June 29

The sweltering temperatures are being caused by a heat dome of static high-pressure hot air which traps the heat in one location

The area has already seen four day seen four-days straight of record-setting heat, from June 26 though June 29, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as temperatures soared over 100-degrees.

NOAA attributed the heat to a high pressure 'heat dome' system that is stronger than had ever been observed in the area and 'sat over the region for several days, unwilling to move like a stubborn dog on a walk.'

The National Weather Service called the event 'historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented,' with some scientists calling it a one in 1,000 year event.

Temperatures were expected to cool off on Thursday, but are still ranging from 93 to 103 degrees in northern California, where smoke could combine with the heat.

Prolonged exposure could result in heat-related illnesses, the NWS warns, with at least 13 people dying suddenly since Friday in Vancouver and hundreds more perishing throughout British Columbia.

Washington state, meanwhile, recorded at least 16 deaths related to the heatwave, including two who died of hyperthermia as their bodies overheated.
Three police officers in Honolulu won't be charged for the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old unarmed Zulu 'prince' who also was a former contestant on South African Idol after prosecutors said their use of force was justified.

The officers had responded to the scene of a burglary call in April after the married father of two had entered a house and taken his shoes off - apparently alarming the occupants who called the police and reported him as suspicious.

When they arrived, police said they found Lindani Sanele Myeni, who is black, acting oddly: He eventually tried to open the door to a cop car and engaged in a violent scuffle, they said.

Police shot him dead. City Prosecutor Steven Alm said Wednesday they officers were justified in their shooting. He also said that after a months-long investigation, prosecutors had determined race wasn't a factor in the shooting.

Doorbell and police bodycam camera footage had shown Myeni ignoring commands to get on the ground outside the house he entered, which was an Airbnb where an Asian couple was staying; the woman who called the police said she was worried about a recent uptick in anti-Asian crimes when Myeni showed up at the door.

The camera then shows a stun gun fired by police either malfunctioning or having no effect on Myeni.

Lindani Sanele Myeni, 29, left, a former contestant on South African Idol, was shot by Honolulu police when they responded to the scene of a break-in call. City Prosecutor Steven Alm, right, said the shooting was justified.

It also shows that an officer fired several gunshots at Myeni before identifying themselves as 'Police!'

Myeni was taken to the hospital where he died. The exact time lapse between Myeni arriving at the Airbnb and the fatal shooting is not clear.

Alm, the prosecutor, said the situation was a tragedy, according to the Star-Advertiser.

'A young man was killed. A family member was killed. This is serious stuff. It also ended with police officers having to kill somebody. And they will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.'

Acting Deputy Police Chief Allan Nagata has acknowledged police did not initially identify themselves but said: 'They were in the fight for their lives. They were very brave. They didn't shoot or discharge the firearm right away. This was not a case of overreaction.'

Alm said officers tried to use non-lethal, non-deadly force before they fired.

'Officer 1 was justified in shooting Mr. Myeni in self-defense. Officer 2 was justified in shooting Mr. Myeni in defense of another.'

The officers haven't been named throughout the course of the investigation - or in Wednesday's findings.

Honolulu City Prosecutor Steven Alm announced his office would not pursue charges against the officers who shot and killed unarmed 29-year-old African Idol contestant Lindani Myeni in April, saying they were justified in the shooting

Myeni on a beach in Waimanalo, Hawaii with his wife, Lindsay, and two children. Myeni, a married black father-of-two from the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa, was shot by officers responding to a 911 call of a couple who said he entered the Airbnb they were renting

Police had been responding to a 911 call on April 14 from Shiying 'Sabine' Wang who said Myeni had entered the Airbnb she was renting with her husband Da Ju 'Dexter' Wang in the Nuuanu neighborhood of Honolulu after he followed the couple in their car.

The 29-year-old's attorney has said Myeni mistook the home for the ISKCON Hawaii Hare Krishna temple, which is next door to the Airbnb on Coelho Way. DailyMail.com contacted the temple for comment; its leaders didn't respond.

Alm, the prosecutor, used police body camera footage from the responding officers in his presentation to indicate that they had little choice but to shoot Myeni, after attempting to subdue him by non-lethal means.

Among the findings, he noted that after the officers arrived, Myeni was acting strange and told them he 'was not afraid' of police, indicating that he was aware of who they were, after they told him to lie on the ground.

Alm used body camera footage from the responding officers to indicate that that the officesr had no choice to shoot Myeni. The officer yells repeatedly for Myeni to get on the ground. Shots ring out and then after a pause, an officer said, 'police.' Alm, however, said Myeni appeared to be aware he was dealing with law enforcement

Myeni was shot with taser and then once with a firearm, but continued to fight the officers. Alm said the officers were justified when they shot him another three times

Additionally, he said, Myeni was stronger than any one of the responding officers and was able to overpower them in the scuffle, with the most seriously injured officer suffering a concussion. He has yet to return to work.

Myeni continued to fight with the officers despite being shot with a taser and once with a firearm.

He was then shot another three times, killing him.

Myeni's wife Lindsay Myeni, who was born in the US but met her husband while she was on missionary work in South Africa, told Hawaii News Now in April that she does not know what led him to visit the home.

Lindani Myeni, 29, a Prince from the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa and married father of two was fatally shot by police; he's pictured with his wife, Lindsday

However, she dismissed the claims it was a burglary, describing him as the 'most gentle person' and suggesting different cultural norms may have meant his actions were misunderstood by the residents.

Myeni is from the Zulu Kingdom where it is customary for people to visit 'anyone's house', she told the outlet.

'In Zulu culture you can go to anyone's house. You can knock on anyone's door. It doesn't matter if it's 8 o'clock it's not a big deal. Neighbor are neighbors,' she said.

Lindsay added in April that the police account that he took off his shoes shows he believed he was showing the homeowners respect.

'It says he took off his shoes. I'm sure he did that as a sign of respect,' she told the outlet.

Lindsay said her husband had been on his way home to the house they shared with their two children just down the street from the now-crime scene.

He had been at the Pali Lookout earlier that day and seemed his usual self, she said, adding she had spoken to him less than 20 minutes before the incident unfolded.

Myeni's death came one week after Honolulu Police officers shot and killed 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap (pictured) during a car chase on April 5

The shooting of Myeni, who is from the from the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa had drawn international attention, and had come nine days after Honolulu police shot and killed 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap.

Prosecutors had pursued charges against the officers in Sykap's case.

Myeni's wife, Lindsay, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, and her attorney Jim Bickerton said the announcement would not impact the civil case, and that the prosecutors' conclusions had left many questions unanswered, Hawaii News Now reported.

'Mr. Alm's focus on the shooting ignored the first action of ordering an unarmed person to lie on the ground at gunpoint,' Bickerton said in a statement. 'When you avoid addressing the very first wrongful act committed, your analysis of what comes afterwards should not be accepted by the public.'

Meanwhile, an attorney for the woman who made the 911 call - Shiying 'Sabine' Wang - shared her side of the story last month with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser after he filed a complaint with the FBI on behalf of Sabine and her husband Da Ju 'Dexter' Wang.

The attorney, Scot S. Brower, alleged that Myeni, who was said to have mistaken the home for a temple next door, had followed the Wangs in their car that night and ran up behind them while recording video of them on his phone as they entered the Airbnb.

Lindani and Linsday Myeni with their children. He was shot by police in a shooting the city prosecutor says was justified

Myeni's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city. Their attorney on Wednesday said the prosecutors' findings would not affect the suit

Bowser said Sabine dialed 911 because she believed Myeni was at their residence to attack them amid a string of anti-Asian hate crimes plaguing the nation.

According to Brower, footage released in April by the an attorney for Myeni's family - which showed him repeatedly apologizing to the Wangs after entering the home - only captured part of the incident, excluding the nearly six minutes when he was inside.

During that time Brower said Myeni rummaged through two bedrooms and told the couple that he owned the home as well as the 10-year-old cat that lives there.

'This Myeni had said to Sabine when he first arrived that "I have video on you, you know why I am here,"' Brower said.

'They never recognized him before. He followed them to the house, and at some point Sabine turned around, he ducked in and tried to make it look like he was taking off his shoes. It is clear that when he ducked down it was evasive, and that's how my client Sabine recognized it.'
Donald Trump dismissed warnings about the threat of coronavirus from his then-head of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, a new book revealed.

'Mr. President, I've got to tell you something. There's this new virus out of China that could be extremely dangerous. It could be the kind of thing we have been preparing for and worried about,' Azar told Trump during a phone call in January 2020, according to excerpts of Nightmare Scenario, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday.

The book, by two Washington Post reporters, details that Trump appeared uninterested in the conversation. It also claims Azar 'could barely get a word in before Trump started shouting'.

Azar was able to inform Trump that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already started screening travelers from China to the U.S. He urged, however, that more safety measures be taken to mitigate the potential spread.

'Yeah, okay,' Trump replied before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Donald Trump dismissed then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar's warnings about a new virus from China in January 2020 because he was more concerned about a new health decision on e-cigarettes ruining his chances of reelection, a new book revealed

The conversation in mid-January came as Trump spent some time away from Washington at his South Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

According to the book, Trump aides sent him off the West Palm Beach because they thought the then-president needed cheering up a month after the House impeached him over allegations he tried to solicit Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.

Not too long after that conversation took place, COVID-19 broke out in the U.S., causing states to impose lockdowns and restrictions to try and stop the spread in the early days of the pandemic when not much was known about the virus.

The book explains that Trump was more interested in yelling at Azar about e-cigarettes instead of the new virus from China.

Nightmare Scenario, by two Washington Post journalists, hit shelves Tuesday and details Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic

A recent health policy banning most flavored electronic cigarettes had angered Trump, causing Azar to be on shaky ground at the time with the president.

His warnings, therefore, failed to get through since Trump was more worried about the e-cigarette decision costin him reelection.

Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History was written by Washington Post journalists Damian Paletta and Yasmeen Abutaleb and details the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

As Trump had a hiatus in Mar-a-Lago in January, his administration grew worried about the virus' threat to America  and the world.

Now, Trump likes to laud his response to the pandemic, claiming if it weren't for him there would be no vaccine and a lot more deaths if he hadn't shut down international travel despite pushback over the move.

At his rallies and speeches since losing the election, Trump claims a vaccine would not have been developed for another several years if he hadn't fast-tracked the process while still in office.
The Washington DC Catholic church that President Joe Biden attends has said that it will begin giving Communion to anyone who asks for it, in a move to sidestep a potential ban on politicians who support abortion.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown issued the new policy in a statement on Wednesday, saying its priests 'will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it.'

'The great gift of the Holy Eucharist is too sacred to be made a political issue,' the parish council added, in a clear reference to a recent vote by the U.S. Conference of Bishops to draft a formal document on the meaning of the Eucharist.

The vote, which passed overwhelmingly, came amid a debate in the church about whether Catholic politicians who support abortion, such as Biden, should be allowed to receive Communion.

Biden is seen leaving a service at Holy Trinity in April. The church will now allow anyone to receive Communion, in a snub to bishops who want to ban politicians who support abortion

Holy Trinity (seen above) issued the new policy in a statement on Wednesday, saying its priests 'will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it'

Unlike many other churches, the Catholic Church strictly limits who is allowed to participate in Mass, and a priest who knowingly violates those rules can face excommunication.

However, in practice, priests typically assume that anyone who presents themselves to receive the Eucharist is eligible to do so.

Holy Trinity said in its statement that it is 'a parish which has a long history of welcoming all.'

'Communion should be viewed 'not as a prize for the perfect, but as a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,'' the church added, quoting Pope Francis.

'None of us, whether we stand in the pews or behind the altar, is worthy to receive it,' said Holy Trinity.

Unlike many other churches, the Catholic Church strictly limits who is allowed to participate in Mass, and a priest who knowingly violates those rules can face excommunication

Many of the more conservative U.S. bishops have been clamoring for a clear directive against giving Communion to U.S. political figures who are Roman Catholics and support abortion.

Vatican teaching forbids abortion as a grave sin. This campaign puts the heat on Biden, who has said that while he personally opposes abortion, he supports legal abortion rights.

However, a ban on Communion for pro-abortion politicians is unlikely to pass.

Such a move would require unanimous support from all the countrys bishops, or two-thirds support and the Vatican's approval.

A third of the conference has already signaled their opposition by asking for the vote to draft the document to be removed from the agenda.

Francis himself hasn't weighed in publicly on the Communion issue, but prior to the bishops' vote, his top official on doctrinal orthodoxy had urged them to think the matter through thoroughly and aim to keep divisions to the minimum.

On Monday, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) met privately with Pope Francis in the Vatican City

On Monday, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican City.

Blinken declined to delve into 'domestic politics' when later asked if the two discussed the campaign by U.S. bishops to deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion Roman Catholic politicians like Biden.

The closed-door meeting in the Apostolic Palace 'played out in a cordial atmosphere,' a Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said.

Bruni said the meeting was a chance for the pope to 'express his affection and his attention to the people of the United States of America.'
A Florida building inspector who assured residents of the collapsed tower that it was in good shape a month after being warned otherwise is having all of his previous work reviewed after being suspended from his new job.

Meanwhile, it has also been disclosed that the entire building department for the town of Surfside was under review at the time of the collapse.

Rosendo Prieto was chief building official of Surfside until November 2020. On Tuesday, he was placed on leave from his job as interim building official for C.A.P. Government Inc.

Now, city officials in Doral are planning on reviewing his previous work to make sure he didn't clear other buildings that may be dangerous.

A coast guard boat patrols in front of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building, ahead of a planned visit to the site by President Joe Biden, on Thursday, July 1

Guillermo Olmedillo (left) is the town manager who put the Building Department under review, while Rosendo Prieto (right) was chief building officer of Surfside from July 2013 until November 2020

'In an abundance of caution, we are going to review everything he did,' Rey Valdes, spokesman for the city of Doral, told The New York Times on Wednesday.

'We dont suspect he did anything wrong. Nevertheless, given the circumstances we are dealing with, we are going to review everything he did to make sure its in line with state law and municipal code,' Valdes added.

In October 2018 Frank Morabito, an engineer, warned Prieto of 'major structural damage' in the Champlain Towers South building he said would cost around $9 million to repair. Morabito had been commissioned by the residents' association to look into the building, ahead of its 40-year structural review, due in 2021.

In November 2018, Prieto told the residents that he had reviewed Morabito's report and found little of concern.

'It appears the building is in very good shape,' Prieto told them, according to the minutes of the meeting released by Surfside on Monday, and obtained by NBC News.

The building collapsed in the early hours of last Thursday, with 18 people so far confirmed dead. A further 145 remain unaccounted for.

Surfside's chief building official in November 2018 told residents of the Champlain Towers South that there were no major structural concerns. He had received a report a month before warning of serious damage to the tower

The building from the water on Tuesday as search and rescue teams used cranes to try to find survivors. Only one part of the building remains intact

Tributes on the beach next to the collapsed condo on Tuesday morning. There are fears for the two that are next to it and were built by the same developer

Crews work in the rubble Champlain Towers South condo, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for after last Thursday's fatal collapse

Exposed portions of the building show a children's bedroom on the top floor of the building that was partially damaged alongside other parts that were ripped off. It's unclear if anyone was in these bedrooms when the building collapsed. 145 people remain missing - 18 are confirmed dead

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports that Surfside's Building Department was put under administrative review by former town manager Guillermo Olmedillo in January 2019.

A memorandum, which was addressed to Prieto, called for inspectors to be immediately reachable, with the deliverance of a weekly schedule of inspections.

Results of inspections needed to be reported by noon on Fridays, complaints needed to be reported immediately and administrative decisions would go through the town manager.

'Building department functions  present several challenges to all municipalities, given the fact that all applicants demand immediate response to their needs,' Olmedillo wrote in his memo.

'It is essential that our Building Department delivers prompt and reliable service in those areas.'

It's the only time he could remember placing a department under review during his tenure as town manager. It's not clear if the formal review was ever closed.

It was considered a last-ditch effort before Olmedillo potentially looked to outsource the department away from the town and towards the county.

The minutes from the November 2018 meeting stated: 'The permit process, balcony railings, concrete restoration, and waterproofing was discussed.'

The day after the meeting, Prieto wrote in an email to then-town manager Olmedillo that 'it went very well.'

'The response was very positive from everyone in the room,' he wrote.

'All main concerns over their 40-year recertification process were addressed.'

Yet Morabito's report, released by Surfside officials on Friday, included pictures of what he wrote was 'abundant cracking' and crumbling in the underground parking garage of the 12-story building.

Morabito also said the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing, 'causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.'

The building's structural slab helps hold it up, with Champlain Towers' slab feared to have been badly corroded by water from its leaking pool, as well as sea water from coastal floods.

Morabito added: 'Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.'

Morabito recommended that concrete slabs, which were 'showing distress' by the entrance and pool deck, 'be removed and replaced in their entirety.'

He said the concrete deterioration should 'be repaired in a timely fashion.'

That pool was swallowed into a massive sinkhole shortly before the collapse, now-missing resident Cassondra 'Cassie' Billedeau-Stratton told her husband on the phone before her line went dead.

Another resident's concerns about construction work nearby were also dismissed by Prieto.

Mara Chouela, a member of the resident-led Champlain Towers South board, emailed Prieto in early 2019 hoping to raise a red flag about the construction.

'We are concerned that the construction next to Surfside is too close,' she wrote.

'The terra project on Collins and 87 are digging too close to our property and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building.'

Prieto responded: 'There is nothing for me to check.'

Prieto has not responded for comment about why he gave the building the all-clear, despite Morabito's report.

He told The Miami Herald that he does not remember getting the 2018 report, nor does he remember receiving the 2019 emails from Chouela.

This is the scale of the debris, shown overnight as search and rescue teams used cranes to sift through the rubble

Structural engineer Frank Morabito in October 2018 warned of damage to the tower

News of Prieto's role came as it emerged that a contractor photographed worrying signs of damage in the parking garage of the Champlain Towers South complex on Tuesday - just 36 hours before the building collapsed.

The photographer saw corroding 'rebar' - steel rods with ridges, for use in reinforced concrete - and cracked concrete.

Rebar often corrodes when exposed to salt and chemicals, like those used in the swimming pool - or from seawater.

The building collapse in the early hours last Thursday killed at least 18 people, with 145 still missing.

The contractor, who has not been named, had been asked to survey the damage in the pool equipment room, which was in the southside of the underground parking garage, beneath the pool deck.

Photos taken on June 22 in the pool equipment room at Champlain Towers South, which is located in the basement parking garage, show extensive concrete spalling and corroded rebar. A contractor took these photos and noticed that in the actual parking garage, there were puddles of water which were in the direct spot beneath the leaking pool deck

This is a breakdown of the repairs that were needed to Champlain Towers South and how much they were going to cost residents. The most expensive item was a $4million facade, balcony and railing repair. Residents questioned much of the breakdown

COST AND TIMELINE OF CHAMPLAIN TOWERS REPAIRS 2018 cost: $12million That is the initial cost given by Frank Morabito, who was hired to conduct a review for the building's recertification process. Morabito was rehired in 2019 and he conducted a more extensive review. A committee was then formed to decide who was going to do the work 2021 cost: $16million This was how much the work had increased by because the damage had become worse. This figure also reflects the engineer's fee for doing it. Cash on hand: $707,000 Cash needed: $15.5million What each owner owed: $80,000-$336,000 depending on apartment size Owners were given until July 1 to decide how to pay. The work bids were due to end on June 1 but bids were still being taken for the concrete project How to pay Lump sum or in monthly installments of $500 or more for 15 years Units in building: 136 Advertisement

He was putting together a bid to redo the pool and the pool equipment room - but was taken aback by the damage, which he photographed.

He told The Miami Herald afterwards: 'There was standing water all over the parking garage...I thought to myself, that's not normal.'

The damage had been identified in Morabito's 2018 report.

He found that there was a 'major error' in the building's construction which meant the pool was leaking onto the concrete slabs below.

In April, the condo board - which had been deliberating the repairs for two years, trying to come up with the money for them and organizing a committee to oversee them - sent a letter to residents telling them the damage was 'significantly worse' and 'accelerating'.

'Please note that the original scope of work in the 2018 report has expanded. The concrete deterioration is accelerating,' wrote board president Jean Wodnicki in a letter explaining why Morabito's estimate of $9 million to repair the building had risen to $15 million.

'The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated. When you can visually see the concrete spalling (cracking), that means that the rebar holding it together is rusting and deteriorating beneath the surface.

'Indeed the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection.'

In that letter, she said they were still trying to finalize a loan from Valley Bank to pay for the repairs.

They had tried to get a loan from Banco Popular, but the deal fell through.

Wodnicki wrote that the total cost was more than $16 million and the board had just $707,000 in cash reserves, leaving them with a bill for around $15 million.

The owners of the building's 136 units would be responsible for repaying it and each was on the hook for a different amount depending on how big their unit was.

Owners of a one-bedroom apartment would owe $80,000, while those in a four-bedroom penthouse would have to shell out $336,000.

Officials said Monday that local investigations into what caused the building to collapse would determine if state building protocols need to be changed.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology said it was sending a team of six to the site of the collapse.

After the team, which investigated in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, does its initial assessment, it will decide whether to do a complete investigation that would likely inform future federal building codes.

President Joe Biden and the First Lady will visit the site on Thursday.





Miami officials will inspect 500 buildings to make sure they are safe after Champlain Towers collapse - as terrified residents in other condos share pictures of concrete damage and ask 'are we next?'

Miami Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Tuesday that was now contacting every building in the county that is 40 years or older

Miami Dade County official are inspecting 501 buildings - every one in their jurisdiction that is 40 years or older - to make sure none are compromised like Champlain Towers South was before it collapsed last week, killing at least 18 people.

There is currently no state law in Florida that requires high rise buildings to be inspected regularly.

The Miami Dade county inspector on Tuesday night contacted one building, in northeast Miami Dade, where they found four balconies they said were dangerous.

Of the 501 that the Mayor's office has identified which need to be visited, 131 have been contacted.

At a press conference, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said: 'Our building audit continues. We're taking swift action to immediately identify and address any outstanding issues with the buildings that have not yet completed their recertification process.

'That's our priority right now. Last night, our officer notified one of those properties that four balconies must be immediately closed to residents due to safety conditions.

'We're proceeding at pace. In a matter of days or short weeks we will have addressed all of those safety concerns.

'I will be meeting with subject area experts from multiple fields to look closely at every possible angle on this issue related to building safety,' she said.

She added that after meeting with experts, her office will give out a list of recommendations relating to 'chains of custody' when it comes to condo maintenance.

Meanwhile, residents of high-rise condo buildings in Miami are worried their homes may crumble around them next.

Residents of Maison Grande Condominium are particularly worried because of concrete spalling in the parking garage.

Maison Grande is older - built in 1971, ten years before Champlain. It underwent its 40-year recertification process and there were no structural or safety concerns, according to its board's president.

But last year, inspectors found a crack in the ceiling on the penthouse level which they said was in violation of code. They stuck a warning in the lobby to say the building was unsafe.

These photos show the damage inside the Maison Grande Condominium building, a complex that was built in 1971 - ten years before Champlain Towers South - that is two miles away. Residents shared the photos on Tuesday in fear that their homes may crumble around them too. The condo association's president insisted to DailyMail.com the building was safe and up to code

These photos were taken by worried residents inside the condo building where residents say they are scared.

Other photos taken inside the parking garage show more concrete damage. The condo association president said she is waiting for a permit from the city to do the work but that they are delayed. In the meantime, she has insisted there is no safety concern

The Maison Grande complex, which is 2 miles from the Champlain collapse, where residents are scared of concrete cracks, but where the condo board insists it is safe

The board's president insists it has been fixed and that there are no safety concerns but residents, who have also seen damage in the garage, are not convinced. They shared photos of concrete damage in the garage with Local 10.

The president of the condo board there insists the building is safe, telling DailyMail.com that their recertification report was clean, and that an engineer confirmed last Thursday - after Champlain's collapse - that their building was safe.

The building was flagged for concrete damage on one floor of the building - a 72 square feet patch on the penthouse floor - that has just been fixed.

They are waiting to repair damage in the garage, which is what the residents photographed, but they are yet to receive a permit from the city to do it.

Lilly Ann Sanchez, the board's president, told DailyMail.com that she understands why the residents are scared but that they have nothing to worry about.

'Everything is being addressed - there is absolutely no danger in our building. I think they're spooked about what happened and some people like to be a little alarmist.

'People take this kind of tragedy and turn it into something it is not. There are tens of thousands of buildings all along the coast and across the country that are not just falling down around us.'

She added that the Maison Grande's re-certification report did not raise any safety concerns, unlike the Champlain Towers South recertification report, which identified 'major errors'.

'When you look at those reports, it's night and day,' she said.

The search and rescue effort at Champlain Towers, where teams are combing through the rubble in a desperate attempt to find survivors

In Miami Dade, the current rules are that buildings have to be recertified every forty years.

Most rules on how often buildings need to be inspected depend on the local authorities where they are. In New York City for example, it's every five years.

State Senator Jason Pizzo said on Monday that he wants the law to be changed to enforce stricter, more frequent inspections.

'We do need a statewide look, either by statute by rule or by policy, and really needs to incorporate two completely separate things.

'You have an environmental situation which is completely different than the design and construction.

It doesn't suffer the same subsurface situation. So, what I want to be mindful of it's not just the age of a building that may deteriorate over time, but also the geographic location,' he said.

He said he would work with Governor Ron DeSantis about new rules.

Three lawsuits have now been filed against the condo board at the Champlain Towers South site.

The board is made up of just seven volunteer residents who were trying to get a loan to pay for the $15million repairs that were needed.

Residents were tasked with repaying the loan and a one bedroom condo-owner was in for around $80,000, according to documents reviewed by CNN.

The condo board's lawyer on Friday told DailyMail.com that they were just as bereaved as anyone else and had lost loved ones.

A letter from them to residents in April mapped out the urgent need for repairs, saying the damage was 'accelerating' and had become 'significantly worse.'
38-year-old Dane Kallungi

A Colorado Springs man who was arrested for his missing wife's murder was caught after police recorded him detailing the alleged killing over the phone to his ex-wife.



Dane Kallungi, 38, was arrested last month trying to get onto the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and charged with first-degree murder of his wife, Jepsy Amaga Kallungi.

Jepsy, who moved to Colorado Springs from the Philippines in 2017 to marry Kallungi after they met on a dating website, has not been seen since 2019, when she was 26 years old.

Kallungi later moved to California, but had returned to Colorado Springs on March 26 and had lunch with his ex-wife Alaine Kallungi, and allegedly confessed to killing Jepsy, according to an affidavit.

Alaine informed the police of their conversation later the same day and agreed to have a phone call with Kallungi on April 3 which would be recorded by police.

In that call, Kallungi allegedly confessed to Alaine that he killed Jepsy in March 2019 following a domestic violence incident and buried her body.

The alleged attack occurred after Jepsy came home following an sexual encounter with a soldier in Fort Carson, the affidavit states.

Dane later told Jepsy's family that they had stopped talking and she went with a friend to either Chicago, Mexico or the Philippines without bringing any ID or her phone.

26-year-old Jepsy Kallungi (pictured) was first reported missing by her family on April 4, 2019

Jepsy moved from the Philippines to the US in 2017 to marry Kallungi after the pair met on a dating website (pictured together)

'Information gathered during this investigation suggests that Dane Kallungi strangled Jepsy Kallungi during an act of domestic violence, causing her to be severely injured,' the affidavit said.

In the phone call Kallungi allegedly details the violent incident that led to his wife's death.

He said he strangled Jepsy following an argument where he was trying to 'stop the words from coming out of her mouth' and severely injured her, according to the affidavit.

'I kind of like, I grabbed her and I guess it was just like a second when I got p****d off, but I didn't even feel that p****d off,' he said in the call.

'It looked like I did some damage and I freaked out and it looked like she was suffering,' he added.

He said he 'didn't want to watch her suffer anymore' and implied he killed her out of mercy.

'I wasn't sure if I had already killed her and it was like the stuff you see in the movies about how people die,' the affidavit said.

'Like she was already dead. It was just a matter of time and like I didn't want to watch her suffer anymore,' he said.

'I put her on the floor and it was like there was still some breathing going on even though she was gone and I just, just regretted that,' Kallungi added.

After a two-year investigation into Jepsy Kallungi's disappearance, police arrested her husband Dane Kallungi after they obtained audio of him confessing to strangling and burying her

Dane later told Jepsy's family that they had stopped talking and she went with a friend to either Chicago, Mexico or the Philippines without bringing any ID or her phone

He then told his ex he wrapped Jepsy's body up and placed it in the trunk of his car and buried her body in a grave the following day.

But before burying Jepsy, Kallungi drove his son to school and went to work while his wife's body was in the trunk, the affidavit states.

'Yeah, she was in my trunk, and then after work I drove to Florissant and found a spot and like I just stuffed her and... yeah, I went to Florissant and no, I like said goodbye to her before I put her there and tried to apologize a million times,' he said on the phone call.

Jepsy moved from the Philippines to the US in 2017 to marry Kallungi after the pair met on a dating website.

Court records show that the couple had filed for divorce, but it's unclear if the divorce was ever finalized.

Jepsy's mother Margie Amaga became concerned when she suddenly stopped replying to Facebook Messenger texts on March 20, 2019 and she was first reported missing by her family on April 4, 2019.

During the course of a two-year missing persons investigation, authorities executed over three dozen search warrants and conducted multiple interviews that led them to believe Kallungi was a primary suspect, according to the affidavit.
A California woman has been arrested after authorities say she crashed her car into a tree while engaging in sexual acts with an underage co-worker.

Kimberly Lankford-Carnahan, 30, from Olivehurst, was booked into the Sutter County jail last week on charges of sexual intercourse with a minor, oral copulation with the threat of retaliation, sending harmful matter to a minor, and threatening a witness.

According to the Sutter County Sheriff's Office, the investigation began unfolding on June 23, when deputies received a report from a mother, saying that her underage son had admitted to having a sexual relationship with his adult co-worker, Carnahan.

Kimberly Carnahan, 30, from California, has been charged with sexual intercourse with a minor after allegedly crashing her car into a tree while engaging in a sex act with her underage co-worker

The agency has not revealed where Carnahan and the teenage boy worked.

When detectives interviewed the victim, he allegedly told them about a recent incident in which he and Carnahan had crashed into a tree because they were engaging in a sexual act while the woman was driving.

Detectives said they found unspecified evidence corroborating the boy's account, leading to Carnahan's arrest.

Carnahan appeared in court for her arraignment on Monday and pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her, reported The Sacramento Bee.

As of Thursday morning, her name did not appear on the list of current inmates at the jail, suggesting that she has been released on bail.

Carnahan is due back in court on July 7 for her next hearing.
Boris Johnson is under pressure to challenge Angela Merkel over Germany's travel rules after Tony Blair said making fully-vaccinated Brits quarantine 'makes no sense'.

The Prime Minister will welcome the German Chancellor to Chequers for talks tomorrow and Downing Street has confirmed that travel restrictions will be discussed.

Germany has designated the UK as an area of concern due to the spread of the 'Delta' coronavirus variant and it has effectively banned British travellers from visiting.

Any Brits arriving in Germany must spend 14 days in quarantine with no exemptions, including for the fully vaccinated.

Mrs Merkel has urged the EU to adopt her approach across all member states but countries like Spain have resisted a blanket border policy because of the damage it would do its crucial tourism sector.

The UK is planning to lift quarantine requirements for amber list travel for the fully vaccinated and Mr Johnson said today he believes 'double jabs will be a liberator' for travel.

The PM is expected to try to persuade Mrs Merkel to ditch her plans for a hardline EU-wide approach in order to keep alive hopes of summer holidays to Europe.

Mr Blair has said Mr Johnson 'should heavily counter the German proposal to extend their quarantine of British travellers to other EU countries'.

Boris Johnson is under pressure to challenge Angela Merkel over Germany's travel rules when they meet at Chequers for talks tomorrow

Tony Blair said Mrs Merkel's policy of making fully-vaccinated Brits quarantine 'makes no sense'

Reports suggested overnight that the fully vaccinated will be able to travel quarantine-free from amber list countries by July 26.

Speaking during a visit to a Nissan plant in Sunderland, Mr Johnson said: 'Everybody who is frustrated about travel over the summer  double jabs will be a liberator.

'I want travel to be possible but I've got to stress that this year will not be like every other year because of the difficulties with Covid. People shouldn't expect it will be completely hassle free.'

Mr Johnson will welcome Mrs Merkel to Chequers tomorrow afternoon for bilateral talks.

The Tony Blair Institute said in a new briefing paper that the PM should challenge Mrs Merkel over her travel rules.

Mr Blair said: 'We continue to believe that those who are doubly vaccinated should be treated differently from those who are unvaccinated.

'The data is clear: they're less likely to get the virus, less likely to transmit it and much less likely to be severely sick.

'Germany's attempt to block UK travellers to Europe even if vaccinated on the basis of the prevalence of the Delta variant, makes no sense when we know the variant is already in Europe and will become the dominant strain there also; and when the UK, because it does so much more genomic sequencing, has a better handle on the prevalence of the variant, but is not necessarily a greater risk.'

Mr Blair's institute has recommended that the EU, including Germany, should base travel restrictions on individual vaccine status rather the prevalence of variants in the traveller's home country.

It also called for the UK to play a 'proactive role in the creation of a European-wide Covid Pass that removes restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers, and this should be introduced now'.

UK travellers are currently subject to a wide array of different border rules in European countries. Mrs Merkel has called for the EU to adopt a single hardline policy

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said at lunchtime: 'Whilst I wouldn't seek to predict exactly what they will discuss, I think it is fair to say that the PM and Chancellor Merkel will talk about opening up international travel for the benefit of both UK and German nationals and of course the EU more widely.'

Asked whether Mr Johnson agreed with Mr Blair that the German policy 'makes no sense', the spokesman said: 'I think what is important is to let the two leaders meet.

'They will have a number of issues to discuss, as I have said, I am sure they will discuss travel alongside the continuing work to build back from the Covid pandemic.

'You have seen our position as regards to fully-vaccinated individuals. We will be setting out more detail on that in due course.'
Kevin Steele charged Cosby at the dawn of the #MeToo era, two weeks before the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania would have rendered the case expired

The prosecutor who charged Bill Cosby in 2015 said on Wednesday that he hoped his release wouldn't deter other victims of sexual assault from coming forward, as the disgraced media's rep said it sets a precedent for other #MeToo villains hoping to be freed.

Cosby was let go on Wednesday and had his conviction overturned on the basis that in 2005, Montgomery County Prosecutor Bruce Castor told him he wouldn't be charged for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

Ten years after Castor made the promise, Kevin Steele - who had taken over - charged Cosby at the dawn of the #MeToo era, two weeks before the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania would have rendered the case expired.

On Wednesday night, Steele stood by the decision and released a statement to say the PA Supreme Court hadn't found Cosby innocent based on the evidence of the case, but had let him go on a technicality.

'He was found guilty by a jury and now goes free on a procedural issue that is irrelevant to the facts of the crime.

'I want to commend Cosby's victim Andrea Constand for her bravery in coming forward and remaining steadfast throughout this long ordeal, as well as all of the other women who have shared similar experiences.

'My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims. Prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads.

Bill Cosby is shown outside his home in Pennsylvania on Wednesday with his long-serving rep, Andrew Wyatt, after being freed

Harvey Weinstein's reps praised the Cosby result and now may use it in their own appeal. Like Cosby, Weinstein was jailed after multiple women testified against him who had nothing to do with the specific charges but who claimed he'd assaulted them on other occasions

THE 5 WHO TESTIFIED AGAINST COSBY Chelan Lasha Chelan Lasha Lasha testified about 1986 incident with Cosby when she was 17. She said he'd invited her to his room at the Las Vegas Hilton and told her he'd help her with her career. Janice Baker-Kinney Janice Baker Kinney Testified about a 1982 incident with Cosby in Reno. She said she was given pills, they played backgammon and she passed out then woke up the next day undressed, next to Cosby in bed Janice Dickinson Janice Dickinson Dickinson testified that Cosby assaulted her in 1982 in Lake Tahoe. She said: 'His robe opened...he smelled like cigar and espresso and his body odor. Here was Americas Dad on top of me. A happily married man with five children, on top of me.' Lise-Lotte Lublin She was 27 at the time. Lise-Lottw Lublin She testified that Cosby gave her two drinks in his hotel room in Las Vegas in 1989. She said she remembers him stroking her hair but then she passed out. Heidi Thomas Heidi Thomas Thomas testified that she met Cosby in 1984 and that after taking one sip of wine he'd given her, she passed out. She said she woke up in his bed in a hotel room in Reno and that she was drowsy for days afterwards. At least 60 women have testified against Cosby in total either in civil lawsuits or interviews Advertisement

'We still believe that no one is above the law-including those who are rich, famous and powerful,' he said.

Cosby's team however say the release sets a precedent for others who hope to be freed.

One of their arguments for his release was the five women other accusers who testified at the trial.

Five women told the jury about how Cosby had 'assaulted' them in the 1980s.

It had nothing to do with Constand's claims but the prosecution was allowed to introduce their testimony as evidence of Cosby's character.

They were there to demonstrate a pattern of behavior.

In their 79-page ruling, the PA Supreme Court does not address that issue.

They stayed well clear of it and instead focused only on Castor.

But Cosby's rep, Andrew Wyatt, said on Thursday morning the very fact it was under review brings hope to others, namely Harvey Weinstein.

Other 'bad act' witnesses were used at Weinstein's New York City trial to paint a similar picture.

He has always said it was unfair.

Speaking outside Cosby's home on Thursday morning, Wyatt told reporters: 'It's a major issue. What we have always said is how can you bring women in from 30 years ago who had nothing to do with the trial to say something happened.

'We were not allowed to examine them on the witness stand. This sets a precedent for so many cases. Even Harvey Weinstein now are using our same strategy.

'They say look the people who testified had nothing to do with the accusers.

'Mr. Cosby's case sets a precedent for the country.

'It's going to be talked about. It changes case law.'

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in their ruling, specifically said they would not rule on the issue.

'At Cosbys trial, the trial court permitted the Commonwealth to call five witnesses who testified that Cosby had engaged in similar sexually abusive patterns with each of them.

'We granted allowance of appeal here as well to consider the admissibility of that prior bad act evidence pursuant to Pa.R.E. 404(b).

'However, because our decision on the Castor declination issue disposes of this appeal, we do not address the Rule 404(b) claim.'

Later in the opinion, they said: 'Accordingly, we do not address Cosby's other claim.'

Five women testified at Cosby's trial about how he had allegedly sexually assaulted and raped them in the 1980s.

Their claims were outside of the statute of limitations but helped paint a picture of Cosby's character.
The former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has condemned the 'military failure' that allowed terorrism to flourish as British troops today lowered the Union Jack marking their withdrawal after the 20-year campaign.

The ceremony was carried out alongside American troops at Hamid Karzai International Airport to honour the 456 British troops killed in the country since the war began after 9/11.

Thousands of British personnel have also been wounded in battle against the Taliban. More than 38,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and 70,000 injured.

Karzai last night condemned the US-led coalition for the 'military failure' which he said had allowed terrorism to flourish.

'The country is in shock, in such dire, dire straits,' Karzai told The Times from his home in Kabul. 'Look at the scene. We are in shambles. The country is in conflict. There is immense suffering for the Afghan people. How did the American-Nato exercise in Afghanistan lead to this?

'Those who came here 20 years ago in the name of fighting extremism and terrorism not only failed to end it but, under their watch, extremism in Afghanistan has flourished. That is what I call a failure,' Karzai said.

The country's former president Hamid Karzai last night condemned the US-led coalition for the 'military failure' which he said had allowed terrorism to flourish

Wing Commander Matt Radnall, Officer Commanding 7 Force Protection Wing, carries a carefully folded Union Flag as British troops leave Camp Bastion in 2014

M Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines, during operation against Taliban forces in Barikyu, Nothern Helmand Province of Afghanistan in April, 2014

Karzai's comments came on the eve of the striking of the flag, also known as the striking of the colours, a deeply evocative military gesture which is associated with defeat of ships.

The final flights from the country will be carrying the Black Watch - the 3rd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 Scots) - as part of a NATO desire to speed up the exit amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation as the Taliban gains ground.

The striking of the flag, also known as the striking of the colours, is a deeply evocative military gesture which can be traced back to the surrender of ships in naval warfare.

Italian and German troops quit the war zone earlier this week, while US soldiers will have finally exited by July 4 - bringing forward the symbolic deadline of September 11 previously set down by Joe Biden.

NATO nations revealed earlier this year that they would leave Afghanistan in solidarity with Biden's decision that it was 'time to end the for ever war.'

The exit appears to have been expedited after intelligence reports suggested the Taliban could depose Afghanistan's elected government within months.

Commenting on the loss of districts around the country to the Taliban, America's top general there, Austin Miller, said: 'A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualised if this continues and that should be of concern to the world.'

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, told The Telegraph: 'It's clear withdrawal plans are being expedited in an attempt to get ahead of any potential Taliban attacks.

'This is far from what success was supposed to look like.'

The Tory praised the 'superb' professionalism of British troops over the last two decades but he lamented that the mission lacked 'any wider geopolitical strategy.'

Mr Ellwood predicted that 'Afghanistan is now likely to slide towards a full scale civil war.'

Around 750 UK troops were in Afghanistan, a small number are now still on the ground but are expected to fly out imminently, sources told The Telegraph.

The Taliban's resurgence, which has included attacks against civilians, is a matter of grave danger for hundreds of interpreters who helped British forces but are still stuck in Afghanistan.

The last Union flag of Great Britain flying above the skies of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, is lowered by Captain Matthew Clark and Warrant Officer 1 John Lilley in October 2014

The Daily Mail's award-winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign has given hope to civilian workers facing reprisals. They want to start new lives in the UK but face an anxious wait while the British Embassy processes their applications.

Thousands of British personnel have also been wounded in battle against the Taliban. More than 38,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and 70,000 injured

Father-of-four Abdul, one of those waiting to see if he can move to the UK, said: 'It looks like the British are leaving us to face this uncertainty alone. We thought they'd be here until September but the timetable has changed again.

'Life is very dangerous now. I live in a district controlled by the Taliban and I've had to pull my children out of the local school because of the threat to them. There are insurgent checkpoints everywhere. It is a very frightening time.'

Another interpreter Sam, 34, whose brother was murdered on the doorstep of his home by the Taliban, said: 'The militants are stronger than they have been for years and they still want revenge on us for working for the British.

'It seems our friends and protectors have decided it is too dangerous for them to stay here. The danger to us is also higher while our cases are being processed.'

The first of what the interpreters call 'Freedom Flights' flew 35 families to the UK last week. Up to 3,500 Afghans will be offered the chance to relocate.

Some 500 Turkish troops at Kabul airport will assume security responsibilities when British and American troops leave. Some US Special Forces personnel will remain to support them.

Boris Johnson is expected to announce security plans for the British Embassy and the UK ambassador next week.

After details of the earlier US departure emerged yesterday, defence sources indicated British troops would be pulling out 'within days'. For security reasons, no precise details are being released.

TALIBAN GAINS NEW GROUND: A lightning offensive by the Taliban which began in May has seen the group take control of vast swathes of rural Afghanistan and battle their way to the doorstep of major cities such as Kandahar, Herat and Kabul - with attacks on them expected soon

Militiamen gather near Kabul on June 23 this year to pledge their allegiance to the Afghan government in preparation for a Taliban assault that is threatening to overwhelm major cities

Hundreds of militiamen shout 'death to the Taliban' as they join government forces in Kabul on June 23 ahead of what is expected to be a major jihadist assault

The Ministry of Defence said last night: 'The UK is involved in ongoing discussions with US and international allies regarding the future of our support to Afghanistan.'

Last night, the former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt insisted British soldiers upheld their reputation in battle against the Taliban after 'errors of near biblical proportion' had handed the militants every advantage.

He said: 'I am very saddened by what appears to be happening in Afghanistan as it looks like a rapid implosion in security could occur.

'I would never say it was not worth it but the present situation makes it so much harder to argue that British troops did not die in vain. Sadly their tactical endeavours and their sacrifices did not achieve strategic stability.'

He added: 'The campaign has been very expensive for us in blood and treasure.'
Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes spent the past three years having a secret online 'love affair' with a woman he never met, he has sensationally admitted.

The racing car legend, 47, would send cringeworthy loved-up messages to his mystery sweetheart until his wife Lara found out about the Instagram romance and briefly kicked him out of their house.

He is now warning others that social media can be an 'evil thing' and admitted he may have been the victim of 'a catfish', speaking to The Daily Telegraph.

Scroll down to read the messages

Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes (pictured) spent the past three years having a secret online 'love affair' with a woman he never met

The racing car legend, 47, would share cringeworthy loved-up messages with his mystery sweetheart until his wife Lara (pictured together) found out about the Instagram romance and kicked him out of their house

Before the virtual relationship came unstuck, Lowndes told the women 'I'd rather be with you' after discussing his marital troubles (pictured, left and right, their messages)

In the past few months Lowndes has been 'getting help' and says he is determined to make amends with his wife.

The couple are now even exploring the possibility of contacting police after being 'tormented' by the unknown woman.

But before the virtual relationship came unstuck, Lowndes told her 'I'd rather be with you' after discussing his marital troubles in Instagram messages.

'I'd love to sit opposite you and look into your eyes and soul,' he wrote in one message.

'Wow that's deep,' she replied.

'So is my love for you baby. I want to start to show that side of me  I want you to know how much I love you,' Lowndes said.

When told his messages were 'deep', he replied 'so is my love for you baby'. Lowndes says he is now ashamed of the entire ordeal

In the past few months Lowndes has been 'getting help' and says he is determined to make amends with his wife Lara (pictured together)

Mrs Lowndes said the situation has been 'rough' but she is sticking by her husband (pictured together) and that the two are once again living together under the same roof

Now, the V8 Supercar great says he's 'ashamed' of the embarrassing ordeal.

'Basically, I was in a bad place, but I'm not in that place anymore. I'm getting help. It is what it is, but I can honestly say Lara knows all about this and this third person is no longer in my life,' Lowndes said.

He said he was lured in by the calculating woman who claimed to be a 'big fan'.

She contacted him out of the blue and started their initial conversation when he 'mentally wasn't in a good place'.

Mrs Lowndes said the situation has been 'rough' but she is sticking by her husband and that the two are once again living together under the same roof.

'It's been a really horrid period in our life which we're just trying to move on from and get this toxicity out of our life,' Mrs Lowndes said (pictured with her husband Craig)

In the wake of the difficult period, the couple say their marriage is now going well and that their main focus is each other and also children Levi and Chilli, who Lowndes (pictured after winning the Bathurst 1000 in 2018) shares with his ex-wife Natalie

'It's been a really horrid period in our life which we're just trying to move on from and get this toxicity out of our life,' she said.

'Some of the s**t we've received is out of control, we have been tormented. It's f***ing hard,' Mrs Lowndes said.

In the wake of the difficult period, the couple say their marriage is now going well and that their main focus is each other and also children Levi and Chilli, who Lowndes shares with his ex-wife Natalie.
An ex-soldier and his Army veteran wife killed themselves in a suicide pact a day after throwing a final party for their unsuspecting friends, an inquest has heard.

Peter McGuinness, 54, and wife Deborah, a former PA to three heads of the military, were found dead in a Land Rover at a remote beauty spot after planning it for weeks.

The devoted couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning and a suicide note found in the vehicle said 'neither of us can be without the other'.

Mr McGuinness had suffered from depression, possibly caused by PTSD after several tours of Iraq, and had talked about taking his own life before.

But his wife, who had been given the all clear from cancer just five months before her death, had no history of mental illness.

The couple, known by friends as Mac and Debs, each served in the Armed Forces in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for more than 20 years.

Mrs McGuinnesss was later personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army: Generals Sir David Richards, Sir Richard Dannatt and Sir Peter Wall.

Also found dead in the hired Land Rover was the pet cat they had taken with them from their home in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.

Cards containing money and poignant messages to family members were also found at the scene in the car park at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage, Dorset.

Peter McGuinness, 54, and wife Deborah (pictured), a former PA to three heads of the military, were found dead in a Land Rover at a remote beauty spot after planning it for weeks

Cards containing money and poignant messages to family members were also found at the scene in the car park at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage, Dorset

The inquest heard how Mr McGuinness left the army in 2007 and had recent bouts of anxiety and depression which may have been triggered by PTSD.

Mrs McGuinness, 49, had discouraged him when he had questioned whether life was worth living in the past.

Their family told the Bournemouth inquest the couple had been together for 23 years and they were 'confused' by their deaths as 'they seemed so happy'.

The hearing was told that in mid-July last year - about two weeks before their deaths - the couple started searching online for dealing with wills.

They threw a Mexican-themed fancy dress party at their home on August 1 for friends and drove to Durlston Country Park the next day.

Giving evidence, Mrs McGuinness's mother Rosemary Carlisle said: 'As a family we are so confused as to why they chose to end their lives.

'They threw a Mexican-themed party for Deb's birthday on August 1 and there was no indication about what would happen next as they were talking about going on holiday to Spain and buying a flat.'

Mr McGuinness had suffered from depression, possibly caused by PTSD after several tours of Iraq, and had talked about taking his own life before. But Mrs McGuinnesss, who had been given the all clear from cancer just five months before her death, had no history of mental health illness

The couple, known by friends as Mac and Debs (above), each served in the Armed Forces in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for more than 20 years

Giving evidence about the party, army friend Thomas Rutherford said: 'They were both in fancy dress and seemed to be enjoying themselves a great deal.

'There was no indication that anything was amiss.'

The next day, they drove a Land Rover Evoque hire car down to Dorset and it was captured on CCTV entering the car park at about 6pm.

The vehicle was spotted at about 7.30am the following morning by a staff member at the park.

She banged on the windows to try and wake the pair who were reclined in the driver and passenger seats but after getting no response called 999.

The emergency services forced entry to the vehicle and found the pair lifeless inside. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Their dead cat was in the footwell.

A post-mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Robert Blahut ruled out foul play and said their cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mrs McGuinnesss was personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army, including Sir Peter Wall (above)

She was also PA to Generals Sir David Richards (right) and Sir Richard Dannatt (left)

A search of the couple's computer history showed they had looked at websites for doing online wills in mid-July.

In the car, they left a notepad with passwords inside it for their electronic devices and advice on what to do with their ashes.

Mrs McGuinness served in the army from 1989 to 2012, doing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq.

She was personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army, Generals Sir David Richards, Sir Richard Dannatt and Sir Peter Wall.

At the time of their deaths, she was working as an office manager at the same security firm as her husband, who was an insurance handler.

Mrs McGuinness's niece Esther Carlisle, who lived with the couple before moving to Taiwan, said Mr McGuinness got angry when his son asked him if he had PTSD in 2018.

In the car (pictured), they left a notepad with passwords inside it for their electronic devices and advice on what to do with their ashes

She said: 'They were together for 23 years and loved each other dearly. Peter got low sometimes and said he didn't think he'd live till he was 60.

'I remember the only time he got angry and it was when his son suggested he might have PTSD and suggested he get help.

'It was a regular occurrence for his army friends to commit suicide and he would not be shocked by it.'

Dorset Coroner Rachael Griffin, who recorded a conclusion of suicide for both parties, said: 'It is very clear to me that Debs and Peter were devoted to each other and were popular, hardworking and social people.

'Their behaviour to their close family and friends in the days leading up to their death gave no indication of what was going to happen.

'Peter had been diagnosed with depression but on the other hand Debs had no history of mental health conditions and had actually discouraged Peter when talking about not wanting to be alive.

'I'm satisfied on the balance of probabilities that they did the act that caused their deaths and in doing so intended these consequences.'
Tributes have today been paid to a churchgoing pensioner whose decapitated body was found more than 200 miles from her London home.

Mee Kuen Chong, 67, was found dead in woods near Salcombe in Devon on Sunday, after initially going missing from her Wembley home more than a fortnight ago.

Police, who are treating the death as 'unexplained', say Ms Chong's body was found without her head.

Officers believe her body had been there for 'some days', before it was discovered by a passing dog-walker.

Today Devon and Cornwall Police refused to give any more details about the investigation - including whether or not Ms Chong's head had been recovered.

Meanwhile, detectives in London were today seen leaving the pensioner's semi-detached home in Wembley, where she was last seen on June 10.

Neighbours say Ms Chong, who was originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but had lived in the Wembley area since 2004, shared the two-storey home with a lodger.

Ms Chong, was a member of a congregation at Emmanuel Centre church in Edgeware, north London and regularly attended the place of worship in Manor Park Crescent.

Above the door of the property, in a quiet residential street, two religious crosses are carved into stones along with the words 'Agape selfless love for all.'

One local resident, who did not want to be identified, said: 'We knew her well, as you would any neighbour. She's a member of a church, very religious.

Mee Kuen Chong, 67, was found dead in woods near Salcombe in Devon on Sunday, after going missing from her Wembley home more than a fortnight earlier

Police at the scene where Ms Chong was found dead in woods near Salcombe in Devon on Sunday

Ms Chong lived in a property in Wembley, north west London, but was found dead 200 miles away in Devon

What do we know so far in the police's investigation into Ms Chong's death? June 10: Mee Kuen Chong is last seen at her flat in Wembley, north-west London June 11: Ms Chong is reported missing to the Metropolitan Police June 15: The Metropolitan Police release a social media post appealing for information on the whereabouts of Ms Chong June 27: Ms Chong's body is found in a wooded area near Salcombe in Devon. The area is more than 200 miles from her home in London. June 30: Police announced that Ms Chong's body has been found without a head at the site. Officers say they believe the body has been there for 'some time'. Advertisement

'She would come round for tea, have a chat, she was regularly in conversation with my wife. We were shocked to find out she was dead.'

The man described Ms Chong as 'eccentric', 'but pleasant'. He also said Ms Chong had difficulty walking.

He added: 'She's never gone missing before. She doesn't go away at all. You wonder how someone who was struggling to walk managed to get down to Devon.

'Finding out about the manner in which she was found is scary, not knowing whether that happened here or there or what.'

'I understand the police have to keep things quiet, but to not know what happened to a neighbour is scary.'

Beryl Creary, 87, another neighbour, said: ''We just talked and would say "hello".

'She was a church fanatic. She did singing in her house. She had lived here for quite a while; it was about 20 years. I have lived here for about 40 years. I don't know is she had any family or anything.'

She added: 'She was quite pleasant; she would call you when she was walking by and stop to talk. She wasn't one of those selfish people.

'She didn't look like the sort of person who would get into things. We're living in a funny world, aren't we? How sad.'

Shabina Akram, 42, who lives opposite, described her death as 'A horrible shock', while another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'She kept very much herself to herself.

The police investigation will switch to her London home 220 miles away from where the grey-haired pensioner was found. Pictured left and right, Ms Chong

'We moved here in 2004 and I think maybe she was roughly the same time and she spoke, was very welcoming, and after that she hardly ever spoke to us.

'She kept herself to herself. There was, over a short period, some work going on at the house, but I never inquired as to why or what for.

'I didn't even know she was missing until a policeman knocked on the door yesterday and said this lady has been missing since June 10. I hope they get to the bottom of it quite quickly.'

Police have today released a new image of Ms Chong, who was found dead in a wooded area near Salcombe, Devon, on Sunday

The incident has so far been described as an 'unexplained death' and a police source has confirmed that the body was found without a head.

A spokesman said: 'Enquiries remain ongoing into an unexplained death after a body was found in a wooded area near Bennett Road, Salcombe, on Sunday June 27.

'A number of enquiries will be carried out in Salcombe over the coming days, and it is likely that the local community will continue to see a high level of police activity.'

It comes as one woman staying in a holiday home near where Ms Chong's body was found said a lot of people were 'frightened' following the discovery.

The woman, who gave her name as 'Diane', said: 'I don't think many people know much about it yet - but it has frightened a lot of people. For Salcombe, something like this is really shocking.

'We've been coming here for years, and it's the kind of place where you can just let your kids wander down to the shops, and feel safe about it.

'And that woodland, you get people walking their dogs there all the time, at any time of day - even when it's dark. It is really frightening.'

Homeowner Chris Allen, 55, who lets out his house on Devon Road to holidaymakers, described the incident as 'macabre', and said there was 'a weird feeling' among people on the street.

He said: 'It just seems really strange that we have been given so little information so far. We all seem to know so little.

'This area is very popular with holidaymakers - we're actually letting out our house next week. So there is definitely a weird feeling about it all.

The incident has so far been described as an 'unexplained death' and a police source has confirmed that the body was found without a head. Pictured, the scene

'Police have asked us if we have seen or heard anything suspicious over the last couple of weeks - which implies the body might have been there for a while.

'But if that's the case, it seems strange that it wasn't found sooner - there are so many dog walkers that walk through there every day.'

Mr Allen added: 'We're not even sure who it was that found the body.

'I have spoken to a few people who actually live around here, but you must get around 30 or 40 dog walkers going through that part of the woodland every morning.'

Det Supt Ben Deer from Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'The investigation is ongoing at the scene. It's being treated as unexplained at this time and we remain open minded.'

He said police do not know when she died, her movements between June 10 and when she was found on June 27 - or the circumstances leading up to her death.

He said: 'We are looking to understand her movements between June 10 and June 27 when she was found.

'We would appeal for witnesses and we would look for anyone to come forward with information quoting crime reference number 700 on June 27th by ringing 101 or contacting us on Crimestoppers.'
Trump's former Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley against the ex-president's attacks

Donald Trump's former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper defended Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley after the ex-president attacked him for backing 'woke-ness' in the military.

'Personal attacks on GEN Mark Milley and calls for him to resign are completely unwarranted,' Esper tweeted on Wednesday. 'He and I worked together for 3+ years to advance America's security and strengthen our armed forces. He is an officer and person of impeccable integrity and professionalism.'

He continued in a second tweet:'GEN Milley is a decorated veteran who has served our great country for 4+decades.'

'His patriotism & commitment to the Constitution are without question,' Esper added. 'Attempts to denigrate him & politicize our military are wrong. I will always stand with/for him and the US military.'

Trump, on Wednesday, called for Milley to resign after he said during a House Armed Service Committee hearing last week he wants 'to understand White rage'.

'Gen. Milley ought to resign,' Trump's wrote in a Wednesday statement, demanding he 'be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.'

The president said Milley's greatest fear is 'upsetting the woke mob' and slammed him for 'begging me not to send in the military' when 'Black Lives Matters rioters were threatening to destroy Washington D.C.'.

Trump also attacked him for 'making up' a story that Milley yelled at him in the Situation Room when he asked him to take charge of dealing with the protesters.

Donald Trump on Wednesday called on General Milley (right) to resign so he can be replaced by 'someone actually willing to defend our military'

In his statement on Wednesday, Trump said: 'Gen. Mark Milley's greatest fear is upsetting the woke mob.

'When Black Lives Matter rioters were threatening to destroy Washington, D.C., he practically begged me not to send in the military to stop the riots.

'Milley later issued an embarrassing and groveling apology for walking at my side to St. John's Church, which far-left rioters almost burned to the ground the day before.

'Instead of denouncing the rioters, he denounced himselfa humiliation for our Military. A year later even the Fake News had to admit that their Lafayette Square narrative was a giant lie. Milley, once again, looked like a fool.

'To further ingratiate himself with Biden, progressive Media, and the Radical Left, Milley went to Congress and actually defended Critical Race Theory being shoved down the throats of our soldiers.

'This Marxist, racist anti-American propaganda has no place in our MilitaryI banned these training programs, now Biden and the Pentagon have resumed them. As soon as possible, Congress must defund this racist indoctrination.

'Gen. Milley ought to resign, and be replaced with someone who is actually willing to defend our Military from the Leftist Radicals who hate our Country and our Flag.'

On Monday, an excerpt from Michael Bender's new book Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, claimed that Trump and Milley got into an obscenity-laden row during the BLM protests last summer.

'I said you're in f***ing charge!' Trump yelled at Milley when he asked the military to step in.

'Well, I'm not in charge!' Milley shouted back, according to Bender, further stoking Trump's fury.

'You can't f***ing talk to me like that!' Trump responded.

The president said Milley's greatest fear is 'upsetting the woke mob' and slammed him for 'begging me not to send in the military' when 'Black Lives Matters rioters were threatening to destroy Washington D.C.'

Milley hit back against growing criticism over teaching critical race theory in the military and said recruits should be 'open-minded and be widely read' during a hearing on the Defense Department's 2022 budget

That led to pronouncements about the legal role of the military in domestic affairs at a time when protesters were breaking out throughout U.S. cities, sometimes clashing with law enforcement.

''Goddamnit. There's a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?' Milley said  in comments he made to others, according to Bender.

'He's right, Mr. President,' Barr injected. 'The general is right.'

Trump ramped up his criticism of Milley following an interview Friday morning when he called him pathetic.

'They didn't talk that way when I was around, I can tell you. They didn't talk that way or I would have gotten rid of them in two minutes. In particular Navy and Milley, just sad, pathetic statements,' the former president continued.

Milley, Navy Secretary Thomas Harker and Naval Operations Chief Admiral Michael Gilday testified this week regarding the fiscal year 2022 budget for the Department of Defense.

Trump announced he would nominate Milley to take the United States' top military office in December 2019, he was confirmed in July 2019 and sworn in September 30, 2019.

Joint Chiefs served for four years, meaning Milley will remain in his post until September 30, 2023, a few months before the end of Biden's third year as president.

Milley, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the budget Wednesday hit back against growing criticism over the military teaching critical race theory.

He said recruits should be 'open-minded and be widely read.'

General Milley was grilled by Republican Congressmen who claim the U.S. military is becoming more 'woke' as military institutions like the U.S. Military Academy adopt the teaching of critical race theory.

Embattled Florida Representative Matt Gaetz asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who is black, during the hearing Wednesday about his thoughts on the military teaching critical race theory, but Milley insisted that he also respond to the question.

Democratic Representative Chrissy Houlahan later yielded some of her time to allow Milley to respond.

He did not endorse critical race theory but strongly condemned those who say it shouldn't be taught.

'What is wrong with understanding - having some situational understanding - about the country for which we are here to defend?' Milley asked before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

'And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers, of being, 'woke' or something else, because we're studying some theories that are out there.'

Tucker Carlson calls Mark Milley a 'stupid pig' who 'knows who to suck up to' for defending critical race theory Fox News host Tucker Carlson has leveled harsh criticism at General Mark Milley, calling the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 'stupid' and 'a pig' after he staunchly defended teaching critical race theory to military officers. In his opening monologue on Thursday night, Carlson responded to Milley's testimony in Congress this week, where Republican lawmakers grilled him over claims the US military is becoming too 'woke'. 'He got the job because he is obsequious,' Carlson said of Milley. 'He knows who to suck up to and he's more than happy to do it. Feed him a script and he will read it.' Milley said in his testimony: 'I do think it's important for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. I want to understand 'white rage' and I am white. I want to understand it. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?' Carlson raged in response: 'Hard to believe that man wears a uniform. He's that unimpressive. What is white rage? It's one of those diseases that only affects people with certain melanin levels.' 'It is a race-specific illness. That is what Mark Milley learned from reading about it, that's why he's making the soldiers read about it too. They need to know!' Carlson added. The conservative pundit went on to play an additional clip of Milley's testimony, in which he said: 'I've read Karl Marx, I've read Lenin, that doesn't make me me a communist. What is wrong with having some situational understanding of the country which we are here to defend? It's offensive that we are accusing our military, our general officers, our noncommissioned officers who are coming up, of being 'Woke.'' 'He's not just a pig, he's stupid,' said Carlson, laughing. 'He reads communists to understand communism, but it's interesting he doesn't read white supremacists to understand white supremacy. Why not go to the source?' 'Because Mark Milley would be fired instantly if he read those books. And getting fired is the one thing he doesn't want. So he reads about white rage as if it's totally real. It's a medical condition. And by the way, since it's a medical condition, at what age can you catch white rage?' added Carlson. 'Thanks Mark Milley, we appreciate your contribution to our generation's scientific racism. By the way, have you read anything recently about winning wars? Apparently not,' he continued. Carlson's remarks drew strong backlash from Democrats and liberal pundits, with CNN host Brianna Keilar firing back: 'he pretends white rage doesn't exist. He is white rage!' Advertisement

At this, Gaetz could be seen from his chair shaking his head and appearing to scoff in disapproval at Milley's defense.

'I want to understand white rage, and I'm white and I want to understand it,' Milley said.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson tore into Milley, calling the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is 'stupid' and 'a pig'.

In his opening monologue Thursday night, Carlson responded to Milley's testimony in Congress this week by saying: 'He got the job because he is obsequious. He knows who to suck up to and he's more than happy to do it. Feed him a script and he will read it.'

'Hard to believe that man wears a uniform. He's that unimpressive. What is white rage? It's one of those diseases that only affects people with certain melanin levels.,' Carlson continued in his angry rant.

'It is a race-specific illness,' he continued. 'That is what Mark Milley learned from reading about it, that's why he's making the soldiers read about it too. They need to know!'

The general stressed during the hearing Wednesday the need for greater understanding of the driving forces behind the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump's supporters, which included white supremacists groups, who tried to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election win.

'What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out. I want to maintain an open mind here,' Milley said.

Milley's response came after a Republican congressman, Michael Waltz  a former Army Green Beret  produced a letter from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point acknowledging teaching about critical race theory.

The theory maintains that racism is ingrained in U.S. law and institutions and that legacies of slavery and segregation have created an uneven playing field for black Americans.

Controversy surrounding the theory has mushroomed into a national debate over how - and which version of - U.S. history is taught in schools.

'This came to me from cadets, from families, from soldiers, with their alarm, with their concern, about how divisive this teaching is,' Waltz said, adding it was rooted in Marxism.

Milley tried to respond to Waltz directly but only got the opportunity later, when a Democratic lawmaker gave him a chance.

He noted that university graduates should be aware of all kinds of theories and that just because he read about Marxism didn't make him a Communist.

'I've read Mao Zedong. I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin. That doesn't make me a communist, he told the lawmakers.

'I do think it's important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read,' Milley said.

Milley's comments came a week after Navy admiral faced tough grilling from Republican lawmakers on his inclusion of the controversial book How To Be An Antiracist on a recommended reading list for sailors.

Admiral Mike Gilday, the chief of Naval operations, stood his ground at Tuesday's House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, defending the book's inclusion on the list.

Gilday added the 2019 book by Ibram X. Kendi, which is popular with proponents of critical race theory, to the Navy's optional reading checklist in February, listing it as a 'foundational' work for sailors.

Kendi's book proposes that any system that produces different average outcomes for people of different skin colors is racist and should be destroyed, and argues that discrimination that 'creates equity' is antiracist and should be lauded.

At the hearing, which was ostensibly on the Navy's budget, questions from Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, who cited passages in Kendi's book arguing that only 'present discrimination' can make up for 'past discrimination'.

'How does exposing our sailors to the idea that they are either oppressors or oppressed, and that we must actively discriminate in order to make up for past discrimination, improve our Navy's readiness and lethality?' Lamborn asked.

'You mentioned critical race theory -- I'm not a theorist, I'm the chief of Naval operations,' Gilday responded.

'There is racism in the Navy just like there's racism in our country, and the way we're going to get after it is to be honest about it, not to sweep it under the rug, and talk about it,' he said.

Admiral Mike Gilday, the chief of Naval operations, stood his ground last Tuesday's House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill when he was questioned on his inclusion of the controversial book How To Be An Antiracist on a recommended reading list for sailors

'It doesn't mean I have any expectation that everybody believe, or support, everything that Mr. Kendi states in his book. I don't support everything that Kendi says. The key thing is that sailors have to be able to think critically,' Gilday argued.

Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, also lashed out at Gilday, contrasting his reading list choice with the Navy's recent vow to root out any 'extremism' in the ranks.

'Do you consider opposition to interracial adoption an extremist belief?' Banks asked, referring to Kendi's September 2020 tweet suggesting Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a 'white colonizer' for adopting two Haitian children.

Gilday's mic was off, making his response unclear, but Banks pressed on.

The 2019 book is popular with proponents of critical race theory

'Do you personally consider advocating for the destruction of American capitalism to be extremist?' Banks asked, referring to Kendi's assertion that capitalism and racism are 'conjoined twins' that must be eliminated together to root out racism.

Gilday fired back: 'I'm not forcing anybody to read the book, it's on a recommended reading list.'

Pressed by Banks on whether he supported Kendi's controversial views, Gilday went on: 'I'd have to consider the context of the statement he made, I'm not going to sit here and defend cherry-picked quotes from somebody's book.'

'This is a bigger issue than Kendi's book, what this is really about is trying to to paint the United States military, and the United States Navy as weak, as woke,' Gilday said. 'We are not weak, we are strong.'

Last month, Republican Senator reignited the attack against the 'woke' military by sharing a U.S. Army recruiting video that told the story of how a 'little girl raised by two moms' grew up to become a soldier.

The Texas senator triggered online fury after questioning the role of what he called an 'emasculated military' and comparing it with a video that appeared to show a rugged, shaven-headed Russian recruit parachuting into combat.

'The job of the military is to kill the bad guys. And it is to strike fear in the enemies of America,' he told Fox News as he defended himself from accusations that he was unloading on serving U.S. troops.

'People sign up to join the military because they want to keep us safe, they don't want to sit around a circle, emoting and passing daisies back and forth.'

His comments highlight fears America's armed forces are being softened by 'woke' principles and follows similar criticism of a CIA advert.

The latest controversy features an American video telling the story of Cpl. Emma Malonelord, a serving soldier who describes how she came to choose a life in the military.

The colorful, animated recruiting video describ es how she defended freedom by attending LGBTQ marches and grew up to join the U.S. Army.

It achieved notoriety when Cruz tweeted out a TikTok clip, that opened with the Russian soldier leaping out of a plane before cutting to the animated story of Malonelord.

'Holy crap,' he wrote in a tweet.

'Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea....'

Cruz's words quickly went viral, unleashing an angry torrent of accusations that he was trolling his own country's American armed forces and had been suckered by an adversary's propaganda.

And veterans expressed fury that he could criticise the Army and target a real-life serving soldier.
Matutsa, 19, then struck him several times across his body with a piece of wood

Tsuro reportedly demanded sexual intercourse from her and exposed himself

She claimed she acted in self-defence when she hit Sure Tsuro, 40, on June 7

Teenager Tariro Matutsa, from Mudzi, Zimbabwe, has been charged with murder

A teenager has been charged with murder in Zimbabwe despite her claims that she acted in self-defence as she fought off a would-be rapist with a piece of wood.

The move has sparked outrage from lawyers and activists, who have raised concerns about how victims of sexual assault are treated in Zimbabwe and called for more protection for these women.

Tariro Matutsa, 19, claimed she acted in self-defence when she hit Sure Tsuro, 40, several times with a piece of wood while he visited her house in Mudzi, Zimbabwe, on June 7, The Guardian reported.

Tsuro reportedly arrived Matutsa's home at around 9pm while she was alone and demanded sexual intercourse, but she refused, according to legal documents from Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA).

Tariro Matutsa has been charged with murder despite claiming she acted in self-defence when she hit Sure Tsuro, 40, with a piece of wood in Mudzi (file image of the rural area), Zimbabwe

He cornered her as she cooked over a fire while she was home alone and exposed himself, before she picked up a piece of firewood and hit Tsuro with it several times, ZimLive reported.

Tsuro was found dead the next morning.

The police report said: 'As he approached, Matutsa grabbed a piece of firewood and struck him several times across his body, and twice over the head.'

In a statement, Matutsa's lawyers WLSA said the teenager had 'acted in self-defence and did not intend on committing murder'.

Matutsa was granted bail by Justice Foroma after appearing at the High Court in Harare on June 16, according to WLSA documents.

She will be required to report every fortnight to Kotwa Police Station between 6am and 6pm and will reside at her address in Mudzi.

Matutsa also appeared in court on June 24 to sign her warned and cautioned statement, but the matter was remanded out of custody until July 23 as the investigating officer was not present.

The Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association and WLSA offered Matutsa legal aid while Rozario Memorial Trust, the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) and Adult Rape Clinic are providing her with psychological support.

The move sparked outrage from activists, including novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga (pictured), who have raised concerns about how victims of sexual assault are treated in Zimbabwe

The case has triggered a debate about women's rights and sexual violence in Zimbabwe, with women's right activists arguing that the law should protect women who kill potential attackers in self-defence.

Activists have also claimed that the country's self-defence law is too weak to protect women while the courts decide if harm was intended.

According to the law, if a person 'genuinely and on reasonable grounds, but mistakenly, believes that he or she is defending himself or herself or another person against an unlawful attack, he or she shall be entitled to a complete or partial defence to any criminal charge'.

Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga said: 'This is yet another example of how women are seen as objects of male sexual pleasure and men's general wellbeing in Zimbabwe.

'Even when a woman defended herself from a man whose intention is to violate her sexually, she is expected to put his wellbeing before her own.'

Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said: 'It is painful because she [Matutsa] is an orphan. There is no one who will look out for her.'
An imported woke leftist culture is 'racialising' France, causing splits in society and holding back ethnic minorities, President Emmanuel Macron has claimed.

Macron said the political left's insistence on defining their countrymen by their ethnicity and depicting them as victims is causing rifts, and blamed social science ideas that have come from the United States.

'I see that our society is becoming progressively racialised,' Macron told Elle magazine in an interview published this week, going on to say that he believed ethnic minorities have been placed 'under house arrest' by left-wing ideology.

French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured in Paris on Thursday) has said French society is becoming increasingly 'racialised' and blamed the political left for defining their fellow countrymen by their ethnicity and gender, taking specific aim at 'intersectionality'

Macron pointed blame at feminists and black rights activists for seeking to define people according to their gender and their skin colour, arguing that such views cause rifts in French society and limit social mobility among ethnic minorities. The French president is pictured with Melinda Gates after their meeting at the Elysee Palace today

Macron took aim in particular at the idea of 'intersectionality' - popular among left-leaning U.S. academics. He is pictured kissing Melinda Gates as she left the Elysee Palace today

He also pointed blame at feminists and black rights activists for seeking to define people according to their gender and their skin colour, arguing that such views cause rifts in French society and limit social mobility among ethnic minorities.

A new generation of younger French activists are increasingly vocal in denouncing the problem of racism in France and the legacy of the country's colonial past in Africa and the Middle East.

But their opponents see the focus on race and the past as opening up unnecessary divisions and encouraging a culture in which minorities and women see themselves as constantly oppressed and discriminated against.

Movements against racism over the last year such as Black Lives Matter, which resonated in France after arriving from the US, have led to fears among some critics that the country is importing American racial and identity politics sometimes labelled as 'woke culture.'

Macron took aim in particular at the idea of 'intersectionality' - popular among left-leaning U.S. academics - that seeks to explain discrimination and poverty by examining the role played by race and gender in affecting an individual's life chances.

'The logic of intersectionality fractures everything,' he said. 'I stand for universalism. I don't agree with a fight that reduces everyone to their identity or their particularity.

'Social difficulties are not only explained by gender and the colour of your skin, but also by social inequalities,' he insisted.

'We had freed ourselves from this approach and now we are once more categorising people according to their race and by doing that we are totally placing them under house arrest,' the head of state added.

Pictured: Black Lives Matter protesters rally next to Paris' Eiffel Tower in June 2020, in the wake of George Floyd in the United States. Movements against racism over the last year such as Black Lives Matter, which resonated in France after arriving from the US, have led to fears among some critics that the country is importing American racial and identity politics

The 43-year-old added that he could think of young white men in his hometown of Amiens or nearby Saint-Quentin in northern France 'who also have immense difficulties, for different reasons, in finding a job'.

'Social difficulties are not only structured by gender and by skin colour, but also by social inequality,' he said.

Macron's comments have been interpreted as an attempt to appeal to mainstream voters and regain ground in the centre of France's politics ahead of presidential elections in April.

People have also seen it as an attempt by Macron to paint himself as the defender of a French social model against ideas perceived as left-leaning that have gained ground in U.K. and U.S. universities, according to The Times.

The President also defended his decision to appoint Gerald Darmanin as France's Interior Minister. Darmanin is a hard-line right-winger facing an inquiry into allegations that he raped a woman in 2009, which he denies.

'I am not going to give in to the ambient madness, which consists in saying that anyone who faces an accusation is necessarily guilty,' Macron said.

'I defend the presumption of innocence. For years, we dealt badly with the victims of violence. The risk now is to enter into a society of absolute victimisation. If the voice of the victim covers all the others, you are no longer in a society of justice but of vengeance.'

Macron also defended the decision to appoint Gerald Darmanin (pictured in Paris last month) as France's Interior Minister. Darmanin is a hard-line right-winger, and is facing an inquiry into allegations that he raped a woman in 2009. He denies the allegation

Macron attempted to win over French feminist groups by saying he had been the first mainstream leader to put domestic violence on the country's political agenda.

He also promised to improve protection available to women with violent partners and husbands.

However, Macron said he rejected extending the time limit for abortions in France from 12 to 14 weeks, saying the 'trauma' for women was increased after this period.

In the interview timed for the start of a UN-sponsored summit on gender inequality in Paris, Macron also promised to do more to combat domestic violence and women's health problems such as endometriosis.

He also backed his education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, who has spoken out against girls wearing crop-tops in schools.

'I'm in favour of "dressing properly" at school, for girls as well as boys,' Macron said. 'Everything that is a marker of identity, or a desire to shock or stand out, shouldn't be at school.'

Blanquer demanded that French pupils, who do not wear uniforms, come to school in 'republican dress' last September amid protests over bans on crop-tops or mini skirts at some establishments.

'School is not a place like any other,' the minister said. 'You don't go to school as if you're going to the beach or to a nightclub.'

French President Emmanuel Macron casts his ballot, next to his wife Brigitte Macron, at a polling station in Le Touquet, France for the second round of regional elections on Sunday. His interview comes in the wake of the diasterous results faced by his party in the election

Macron's interview has been published in the wake of his party LREM (The Republic on the Move) experiencing a wipe-out in local elections on Sunday, as it failed to win a single one of the country's key mainland regions.

Despite an appalling turn-out of around a third of the country in the second round of the regional elections  the first took place a week earlier  the results are seen as key indicator of how both Mr Macron and Marine Le Pen's far-Right National Rally might do in presidential elections next year.

The principal winners on Sunday were the mainstream conservative right, in the form of the opposition Republicans party.

Nationally, Mr Macron's LREM (The Republic on the Move) won less than 10 percent of the vote. Sunday's nationwide poll was also a disaster for Le Pen, whose party also failed to make any breakthroughs.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted the nearly 40 House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wrote to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday and asked him to address her 'dangerous' behavior.

She slammed them as 'communists' and mocked one of the Democratic lawmakers who signed the letter for having a transgender child.

'It's absurd Democrats accuse me of creating an environment of harassment for speaking at a Trump rally and defining them as who they are. Communists,' she said in a statement.

Nearly 40 House Democrats wrote to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and asked him to address Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'dangerous' behavior

'I receive constant harassment in public caused by the Democrat lies promoted by the media,' she argued.

She claimed to be the victim of a 'witch hunt' and said she has done 'nothing wrong.'

The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and said that she and her fellow lawmakers were concerned about 'dangerous, concerning, and unacceptable behavior' from the Georgia Republican.

'The Congresswomans harassment of her colleagues has reached an unacceptable level,' the letter states. 'We respectfully request that you work with her to address these issues and ensure that this type of behavior no longer continues.'

The letter comes after repeated incidents between Greene and Democratic lawmakers.

She and Ocasio-Cortez, in particular, have argued in the hallways of Congress and on the House floor. After a May confrontation on the House floor, where Greene verbally confronted Ocasio-Cortez and then followed her out to the hallway to continue yelling, the New York Democrat considered getting a restraining order against Greene.

The letter mentions that incident and several others, including Greene's behavior prompting Democrats to move Rep. Cori Bush's office away from her after the two lawmakers had a run-in in the hallway over mask wearing; and Green trolling her office neighbor, Rep. Marie Newman, with an anti-trans sign after Newman, whose daughter is transgender, displayed a trans flag in the hallway.

Greene responded to those charges in her statement Thursday, calling Newman 'Newperson' and claiming Bush 'lied to get a bigger office.'

Bush and Newman also signed the letter as did a diverse group of moderate and liberal Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's statement mocked Rep. Marie Newman as 'Newpeople,' a dig at Rep. Newman's transgender daughter

Rep. Marie Newman hung a transgender sign outside her office for her daughter; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, in response, put up a sign that read 'there are TWO genders: Male & Female'

The Democrats write to McCarthy that Greene's 'behaviors only appear to be escalating.'

They note Greene appeared at former President Donald Trump's 'revenge rally' in Ohio this past weekend, where she said Ocasio-Cortez should be 'locked up.' Greene also repeated the false claim Trump won the election.

At that rally she called Ocasio-Cortez a 'Little Communist' and 'not an American.'

'First of all, I'm taller than her,' Ocasio-Cortez responded via Twitter.

In their letter, the Democrats also express concern that Greene's 'conduct is creating an unsafe work environment for members, and that her actions could lead to violence against members of Congress.'

They argued that McCarthy, as leader of the House Republicans, should act.

'Every day that goes by without action from your leadership is a tacit endorsement of the Congresswomans offenses, and invitation for her to continueand escalate further. Everyone has a right to a workplace free from harassment and abuse, including members of Congress. We urge you in the strongest terms to take immediate action to address Rep. Greene's behavior,' they wrote.

They do not offer any suggestions for what McCarthy should do.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signed onto the letter; she has considered taking out a restraining order against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after the two clashed

Greene is seen confronting AOC on the House floor on April 21

It's unclear what kind of punishment House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy could give out if he opts to do that; Greene no longer sits on any committees

McCarthy's office did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment but he has condemned Greene on previous occasions, including when Greene compared mask mandates and vaccine passports to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.

'Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,' McCarthy said at the time. 'Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.'

It's unclear what kind of punishment McCarthy could give out if he opts to do that. She no longer sits on any committees. She was stripped of her committee assignments for her past racist comments and sharing of QAnon conspiracy theories in February.

He could banish her from meetings of House Republicans or offer a censure resolution. But Greene is popular among the Republican base and with Trump himself, who remains a tour de force in the GOP.
Police in Houston are hunting for a gunman who executed a couple and their six-year-old daughter, threw a baby by the hair and wounded a 10-year-old child who survived by playing dead and was able to call her grandmother on FaceTime to summon help.

The triple homicide unfolded at 10.30pm on Wednesday at an apartment complex in the 12100 block of Fondren Road, Houston Assistant Police Chief Patricia Cantu said during a press conference overnight.

When authorities arrived on the scene, they found a father, a 29-year-old pregnant mother and a six-year-old girl who were fatally shot, Cantu said.

Scroll down for video

Donyavia Lagway and her husband, Gregory Carhee (left), were executed alongside their six-year-old daughter, Harmony (right), inside their Houston apartment

Harmony's 10-year-old sister, Lyric (left), survived by playing dead after being shot in the arm

A deadly shooting in Houston claimed the lives of a couple and their six-year-old daughter, and left their 10-year-old child wounded and traumatized

A masked gunman was said to have knocked on the door of this apartment on Fondren Road on Wednesday night, pulled a gun and opened fire

Officials have not named the victims, but relatives and friends identified them on social media as Donyavia Lagway, her husband Gregory Carhee, 35, and their daughter Harmony, who had only recently celebrated her sixth birthday. The couple's eldest daughter, 10-year-old Lyric, survived.

'Asking that you all keep my family lifted in prayer,' a relative wrote in a Facebook post. 'For the Coward that felt a need to shoot the kids after killing both Mom and Dad count your F***ing Days.'

The slain couple's 10-year-old daughter was shot in the arm and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Her one-year-old brother, who was in the apartment, was unharmed, and her other brother, aged eight, was away with his uncle at the time of the attack, reported KTRK.

The couple's eight-year-old son (pictured far left in both photos) was away with an uncle at the time of the shooting. Their one-year-old son was in the apartment but was unharmed

Relatives claimed Lagway was pregnant at the time of her death

Police do not yet have a suspect description but the victims may have known the shooter because there were no signs of a break-in, Cantu said.

'This was a very, very tragic scene. Were sending out prayers to the family,' Cantu said. 'This was a very difficult scene not only for us but for the family as well.'

According to relatives, the 10-year-old survivor said the shooter, whom she described as a man in a medical mask, knocked on the door and pulled out a gun.

A 10-year-old survivor told family the killer lined up her parents and sister on the couch and shot each of them in the head

The 10-year-old girl was shot in the arm but survived by playing dead, then called her grandmother for help, relatives said (pictured)

The girl's mother was said to have told the intruder that he had the wrong apartment, but he went inside, threw the one-year-old boy by the hair, then lined up the family members on the couch and shot each of them in the head.

The 10-year-old, who suffered a gunshot wound to the arm near the elbow, held her baby brother and pretended to be dead.

After the gunman left, the girl called her grandmother and showed her the harrowing scene inside the apartment on FaceTime. The grandmother then summoned the police.

Police say the victims may have known the shooter because there were no signs of a break-in

The bleeding child was said to have spent about 15 minutes with her parents and sister's bodies until help arrived.

Investigators said they believe the gunman possibly knew the victims.

'This was probably not a home invasion... there was no damage,' Cantu said. 'There was possibly a known disturbance of some sort.
A stolen Picasso painting tumbled to the floor while on display with Greek police yesterday after it was found in a ravine.

The work, titled Woman's Head, was stolen in an art heist from Greece's National Gallery in 2012 but was recovered from a ditch in a forest just days ago.

Greek police put the recovered artwork on display but it slipped from its position atop an unstable shelf, risking considerable damage.

An officer was forced to pick up the painting and sheepishly replaced it on the shelf.

A 49-year-old believed to have lived between Greece and England has now been arrested and later confessed to the heist.

This is the cringeworthy moment a stolen Picasso painting tumbled to the floor whilst on display with Greek police after being recovered on Tuesday

The officer sheepishly plucked the painting off the floor and nervously replaced it on the shelf alongside 'Stammer Windmill' by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, which was also found with the Picasso

Culture minister Lina Mendoni on Thursday criticised the accident but insisted both paintings 'appear to be in good condition'.

The Spanish master gifted the work to the Greek state in 1949 in recognition of the country's resistance to Nazi Germany during the 1941-44 occupation.

The painting, which may have been offered on the black market for 15million according to police sources, was stolen along with two other high-profile artworks.

The words 'for the Greek people, a tribute by Picasso' are inscribed on the back of the painting. It was gifted by Picasso to Greece in 1949

One, a sketch by 16th-century Italian artist Guglielmo Caccia, better known as Moncalvo, was damaged in the heist and flushed down a gallery toilet according to state television, something the suspect has reportedly confessed to.

The other, called 'Stammer Windmill' by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, was also found with the Picasso.

'Today is a special day, (a day of) great joy and emotion,' Mendoni told reporters.

She said the painting would have been 'impossible' to sell as it had a personal inscription by Picasso on the back - 'For the Greek people, a tribute by Picasso.'

But police sources told ARTNews it was possible the work had been offered for 15m on the black market but failed to find a buyer.

The self-confessed thief said he had initially stashed the paintings at home, but recently hidden them in a gorge in Keratea, 28 miles southeast of Athens.

The 2012 heist at the National Gallery, Greece's largest state art collection, lasted just seven minutes, but the planning behind it was meticulous.

The break-in saw the sole guard distracted by alarms that were set off throughout the night until he disabled the system.

He then went to check one part of the museum while the burglar slipped in through an unlocked balcony door elsewhere.

In the short time he was inside, he was able to strip the Picasso and Stammer Windmill from their frames and escape.

It was originally believed that two men broke in, cutting the paintings from their frames, but police have arrested just one person, the 49-year-old Greek construction worker who has not yet been named, in connection with the case.
A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped and sexually assaulted over three days by a family friend after returning from Britain to Pakistan for her father's funeral.

The woman had been staying with her father's close friend Syed Taqveem Ahsan after the burial in the northern city of Lahore when she was allegedly attacked by Ahsan's son.

The victim told police that the man, who has also not been named, forced his way into her bedroom in the early hours of Saturday morning and sexually assaulted her - and continued to do so for the next three days, reports newspaper Dawn.

Police in Lahore have since arrested the suspect after the woman reported the alleged assault.

A 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped and sexually assaulted over three days by a family friend after returning from Britain to Pakistan for her father's funeral (stock photo)

She told officers that she had returned to Pakistan from the UK six months ago to go to her father's funeral.

The woman claimed her step-mother had refused to allow her to stay at her house so she had instead gone to stay with Syed Taqveem Ahsan in the Wahdat Colony, an area in Lahore.

It was here that she said Ahsan's son had forced his way into her bedroom and raped and sexually assaulted her.

He continued to attack her for three days, and the woman said the suspect would not allow her to visit the hospital after her health deteriorated after a day of abuse.

On Tuesday, after the three days of abuse, the woman called the police and reported the attacks to officers.

The suspect, if convicted of rape, could face chemical castration after Pakistan brought in new laws last year.

Chemical castration involves using medication to reduce testosterone and has been used for paedophiles in Indonesia since 2016 and child rapists in Poland since 2006.

The 26-year-old woman's case is sadly not rare in Pakistan as there have been more than 22,000 rape cases reported to police across the country in the last six years.

The 26-year-old woman's case is sadly not rare in Pakistan as there have been more than 22,000 rape cases reported to police across the country in the last six years. Pictured: People protest after the gang rape of a woman in Lahore in September last year

In March, two men were sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for the gang rape of a French woman in front of her children in Lahore last year.

Prosecutor Hafiz Asghar said the verdict in the case against Abid Malhi and his accomplice Shafqat Ali was issued inside the prison where they are being held in Lahore.

Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta also sentenced the men to 14 years imprisonment, time that must be served before any executions can take place. Appeals or commutations are likely.

According to the prosecutor and police, Malhi and Ali found the woman waiting for help after her car ran out of fuel.

She had locked the car doors but the attackers broke a window and dragged her outside where they raped her at gunpoint in front of her terrified children.

The men also stole money, jewellery, and bank cards before fleeing.

In March, two men were sentenced to death by a Pakistani court for the gang rape of a French woman in front of her children in Lahore last year

Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta (pictured arriving at the district jail) also sentenced the men to 14 years imprisonment, time that must be served before any executions can take place

They were tracked down via mobile phone data, Asghar added, and arrested days after the incident.

DNA samples taken from the crime scene matched theirs.

The survivor identified the two men during the hearing, and Ali confessed to the crime before a magistrate.

Protests erupted after the lead investigator Umar Sheikh suggested the woman was to blame for the attack, saying she should have travelled on a busier road during the day and checked her petrol before setting out.

Amnesty International released a message in support of protesters saying: 'There have been too many victims and too few convictions of perpetrators in a criminal justice system characterised by impunity.'

And last month, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan sparked fury by blaming 'temptation' for sexual violence against women.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan sparked fury by blaming 'temptation' for sexual violence against women

In an interview with Axios HBO that aired in June, Mr Khan doubled down on remarks he made in April when he suggested during a Q&A session that 'vulgarity' was to blame for rising sexual violence.

Men are not 'robots', he said. 'If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men... it's common sense.'

Pakistan has witnessed an increase in incidents of rape since 2018, when a serial killer raped and murdered six-year-old Zainab Ansari in the eastern city of Kasur in Punjab province.

The case drew nationwide protests and Imran Ali, 24, was later sentenced to death and hanged in the case.

However, ineffective investigation and prosecution of rape cases are commonplace in the country where sexual and gender-based violence towards women is pervasive.

Many women fear they will be shamed or persecuted by police and others if they come forward.

In recent years, increasingly-vocal and social media-savvy feminists have been challenging the social norms that influence the way rape cases are handled in Pakistan.
Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney claims she should be let out of jail now because Bill Cosby has been freed, claiming prosecutors promised not to charge her when they gave Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal in 2010.

Cosby was freed on Wednesday because of a promise a prosecutor made in 2005 that he would not be charged. He went on to incriminate himself in a civil case and another prosecutor, years later, used those remarks to charge him.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that it was unconstitutional and that had he not thought he was beyond reproach, he wouldn't have made the incriminating remarks.

Writing for The New York Daily News on Thursday, Maxwell's appellate lawyer David Oscar Markus, said prosecutors in New York should never have gone after her because years earlier, a different prosecutor in Florida promised Epstein in a deal that he wouldn't charge his 'co-conspirators.'

Maxwell wasn't named as one of the co-conspirators and it is in a different state that she is facing sex trafficking charges now.

But Markus argues it's another example of people not being able to trust prosecutors at their word.

'If a prosecutor promises something, he should be bound by his word  just like the rest of us,' he wrote.

Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney claims she should be let out of jail now because Bill Cosby has been freed, claiming she was promised she wouldn't be prosecuted in a round-about-way when Jeffrey Epstein got his sweetheart deal in 2010

Writing for The New York Daily News on Thursday, Maxwell's appellate lawyer David Oscar Markus, said prosecutors in New York should never have gone after her because years earlier, a different prosecutor in Florida promised Epstein in a deal that he wouldn't charge his 'co-conspirators.' Markus is shown in April at court

In 2010, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an underage prostitute in Palm Beach.

As part of his deal, he served one year in 'prison' - he was allowed to go to his office every day - and prosecutors promised not to charge his three unnamed 'co-conspirators'.

It was a deal given to him Alex Acosta, who went on to become Trump's Labor Secretary.

Writing on Thursday, Markus said: 'This opinion and reasoning applies directly to Ghislaine Maxwells case.

'In her case, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty and struck a bargain with the prosecutors in Miami: In exchange for pleading guilty in state court, the U.S. attorneys office agreed that it would not prosecute any of his alleged co-conspirators,' Markus wrote.

Epstein was given a deal in 2010 that his co-conspirators wouldn't be charged if he served a year

'But she should not have to fight her case at trial and her case should be thrown out, just like Cosbys has been, because prosecutors promised Epstein when he pleaded guilty that they would not prosecute her.

'The Cosby case reaffirms that a prosecutor is bound to act with integrity and the public must be able to rely on his word.

'What a concept,' he wrote.

Maxwell is due to go on trial later this summer.

She has pleaded not guilty and has always, in civil court too, protested her innocence.

Cosby was freed by Pennsylvania's Supreme Court which ruled it was unfair that in 2005, a prosecutor promised him he wouldn't be charged for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.

As a result of that promise, Cosby, the court ruled, went on to incriminate himself in a civil deposition.

The incriminating remarks he made were then used by a different prosecutor to charge him in 2015.

The court ruled that Cosby had his constitutional rights violated by the false promise.

Others like Harvey Weinstein say his release could help them for different reasons.

Harvey Weinstein's reps praised the Cosby result and now may use it in their own appeal. Like Cosby, Weinstein was jailed after multiple women testified against him who had nothing to do with the specific charges but who claimed he'd assaulted them on other occasions

One part of Cosby's appeal was that the prosecution at his trial used five witnesses to testify about his character, even though they weren't involved in the actual charges at hand.

The same tactic was used by prosecutors at Weinstein's trial in 2020. He protested it, saying they shouldn't have been allowed to testify.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not rule on the issue in its decision, instead focusing only on the promise that was made to Cosby.

But Cosby's team - and Weinstein's - believe the fact he got out sets a precedent for others.

'It's a major issue. What we have always said is how can you bring women in from 30 years ago who had nothing to do with the trial to say something happened

'We were not allowed to examine them on the witness stand. This sets a precedent for so many cases. Even Harvey Weinstein now are using our same strategy.

'They say look the people who testified had nothing to do with the accusers.

'Mr. Cosby's case sets a precedent for the country. It's going to be talked about.

'It changes case law,' Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's rep, said on Thursday outside his house.
The owners of an organic grocery store have been arrested in a violent clash with police over their refusal to allow mask use inside their store for 'hygiene reasons'.

Video of the confrontation on Thursday afternoon in the New South Wales town of Bowral showed the female owner being bundled into the back of a police van by two police officers.

When the male owner stepped in to object to her arrest, he was grabbed by officers, slammed into the back of the van and then wrestled to the ground.

On the store's Instagram page, which contains a number of anti-mask posts and others questioning Covid-19 vaccines, the owners explained the strife had begun inside the store when police were called about the shop's opposition to mask use - stated on a sign outside.

The Organic Store in Bowral are very open about their anti-Covid views, with a chalkboard outside the shop banning customers who have recently had vaccines or are wearing a mask - which is mandatory in New South Wales

'For over 1.5 hours the police discussed this with owners,' the post said.

'A customer and a friend decided to film the discussion - that's when it all kicked off. They refused to allow the filming and forcibly tried to remove her from the store.'

The owners accused an officer of putting her hands behind her back and pushing her from the store.

The video showed the male shopkeeper approaching officers as they tried to put the female owner into the police van, and he asked 'what has she done?' as the officers warned him to 'walk away'.

After the woman was pushed inside the van, the owner was immediately grabbed by an officer, to which he shouted 'don't touch me' as the woman filming can be heard calling out 'Mark, Mark!'.

One of the store's owners (pictured, left and right) is seen in a clash with police as they tried to arrest him in Bowral, after being alerted by the public that the shop had banned mask-wearers

Officers then pushed the owner against the back of the van with enough force to knock the cap from his head, and pushed a hand into his face.

One officer warned him to 'stop resisting, you're under arrest' and he replied 'what about this fat bloke' in reference to another officer.

The man, who was being held by two officers, was then tripped by a third and pushed face first to the footpath.

Since the lockdown was imposed by the New South Wales government on Saturday, all people entering shops, workplaces and any indoor public space must wear masks when inside.

The female store owner (pictured, left and right) was bundled into a police van by cops during the dramatic clash

However the store in Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands, had a sign up opposing that policy, telling customers not to wear masks and saying that people who had taken any vaccine in the previous two weeks should not enter.

The Organic Store's Instagram page included previous advice from the NSW government that people who should not wear masks include 'anyone who has trouble breathing wearing a mask.'

The page also had a number of posts opposed to the use of vaccines to combat Covid-19.

NSW Police told Daily Mail Australia they will comment on the incident in their rundown of Covid breaches on Friday.
Merging Channel 4 with ITV is an 'interesting' possibility, the UK's media minister has said today, as the debate over the broadcaster's future continues.

The Government has launched a consultation into the possible privatisation of the loss-making broadcaster.

It comes amid concerns by ministers over the ability of Channel 4, which is publicly owned, to compete with the likes of streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Conservative MP Julian Knight, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, today suggested options for the channel's future could include a merger with ITV.

He also suggested a possible merger with BBC Worldwide - the commercial arm of the BBC.

Speaking in the House of Commons today, Media Minister John Whittingdale said the Government was keeping an 'open mind' about Channel 4's future.

But asked about the idea of a merger, he said: 'We have reached no conclusion as to what is the appropriate future ownership model for Channel 4.

'We maintain a completely open mind but he raises a number of interesting possibilities and we are looking forward to seeing what submissions we receive as part of the consultation.'

Merging Channel 4 (pictured: The Channel 4 headquarters in London) with ITV is an 'interesting' possibility, the UK's media minister has said today, as the debate over the broadcaster's future continues

Media minister John Whittingdale was asked by Conservative MP Julian Knight about the possibility of Channel 4 merging with ITV and he said it was an 'interesting possibility'

It comes after Mr Knight, expressing his personal view in the Commons debate, said: 'The recovery of Channel 4 and the evolving media landscape warrants close consideration of privatisation and sale.

He added: 'Would the minister agree with me that it would be a good juncture to also consider whether Channel 4 could be bolstered by a potential merger with ITV or even hive off BBC Worldwide - the commercial arm of the BBC, which has often underperformed but has tremendous international potential to build scale for Channel 4?'

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow media minister, Chris Matheson, put in his defence of Channel 4, reeling off a list of the broadcaster's top shows.

Mr Matheson said: 'Countdown, Derry Girls, Gogglebox, The Word, It's A Sin, Chewing Gum - which gave us the astonishing Michaela Coel for the first time - Educating Yorkshire, 24 Hours In A&E and Police Custody, Location, Location, Location, Phil and Kirstie, Friday Night Dinner...'

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle intervened to speed up Mr Matheson, who added: 'I'll simply finish with Hollyoaks and the Secret Life Of The Zoo, which you have something in common with me - they're both filmed in Chester, Mr Speaker.

'For four decades, Channel 4 has reflected and given voice to the diverse parts of the United Kingdom. Why does the Government want to take that voice away and sell it off to foreign tech companies that have no loyalty to the United Kingdom?'

Mr Whittingdale replied: 'I am extremely impressed by his viewing habits although I noticed he left out Naked Attraction, which certainly does appeal to diverse tastes. However, I absolutely agree that Channel 4 has been responsible for some great programmes over the years and it is our intention that it should be able to continue to do that in the coming years.'

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow media minister, Chris Matheson, put in his defence of Channel 4, reeling off a list of the broadcaster's top shows, including Gogglebox (pictured)

He also praised Chewing Gum - a sitcom written and staring award-winning actor/director Michaela Coel

The minister also said Channel 4 is going to need 'access to investment capital in order to maintain' its record on broadcasting.

Channel 4 was founded in 1982 to deliver to under-served audiences.

It is owned by the Government and receives its funding from advertising, but could be sold off to a private buyer, with potential investors likely to include big American companies.

The latest debate of Channel 4's future comes after Mr Whittingdale suggested Netflix or Amazon could take over the broadcaster.

Speaking last month, Mr Whittingdale said it was 'sensible to look at alternative ownership models' and did not 'by any means rule out' the public service broadcaster being acquired by a streaming giant'.

Mr Whittingdale told Times Radio: 'What we've said is that we think that it is sensible to look at alternative ownership models, in order to make sure that Channel 4 is still able to invest in programme content, to compete with these other services.

'In terms of who might potentially be interested, that's the purpose of having a government consultation. We don't rule out anyone.

'There would be competition issues if a very strongly established broadcaster wanted to merge, and that's something which automatically is a matter of competition, but I don't by any means rule out existing streaming services or indeed anybody else. We'll wait and see what happens.'

He added that the Government was concerned over the network's business model coming under intensifying pressure due to its reliance on advertising.

It comes after it was last month revealed that the Government could line the channel up for privatisation as early as next year.

Options reportedly being considered include an outright sale, a partial offloading of the Government's stake or a mutual ownership model, according to the Financial Times.

Ministers reportedly want a decision on the best model for the channel to be decided upon by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Channel 4 presenter Kirstie Allsopp, who co-hosts Location, Location, Location, has railed against the sell-off plan, saying the network 'does not take a penny off the Government'.

'Someone said we dont need 2 public service broadcasters I agree, we need 3, the more TV that is for the public the better. Innovative, brave, compassionate broadcasting is what we do.'

In a separate tweet posted on Wednesday evening, she wrote: 'Did a couple of interviews today making the case against privatising @Channel4.

'I was amazed by the kindness of other broadcasters and their belief in C4. Margaret Thatcher set it up to do a job, it does it brilliantly. No true @Conservatives would raise a hand to harm Channel 4.'
A talented young Zoology graduate went missing and was found hanging in woodland after becoming 'paranoid' she was 'punching above her weight' in her relationship, an inquest heard today.

Rosie Johnson had a drunken row with her boyfriend on the night she was last seen and had been dwelling on a comment from a stranger in a pub who told her she was 'punching'.

The 22-year-old, who was working at an island holiday camp where she had met boyfriend Brendan Storer, was also worried about work before she disappeared, the inquest heard.

She was said to be anxious about a mediation meeting at the camp, following a minor dispute with another employee.

The University of Glasgow graduate, whose uncle is Scottish Labour MSP Daniel Johnson, was last seen by her room mate at PGL Little Canada on the Isle of Wight, where she worked as an activities instructor.

Rosie Johnson (pictured) had a drunken row with her boyfriend the night she was last seen and had been dwelling on a comment from a stranger in a pub who told her she was 'punching'

Her friend and colleague Ariane Massey, 27, told the hearing she was sharing a room with Ms Johnson at the time of her disappearance, shortly before 11pm on Sunday, June 23.

Miss Massey explained how Ms Johnson had met Mr Storer when she started working at Little Canada, near Ryde, in February 2019 and they soon became a couple.

She said Mr Storer was a team leader and Ms Johnson would often stay in his room.

But cracks began to show in the relationship after a night out which led to Ms Johnson feeling 'insecure'.

Miss Massey said: 'When we were out in Ryde just having a few drinks she told me that this guy came up to her and said she was "punching" to get Brendan.

'She was annoyed with it and mentioned it a few times. I wasn't there at the time but she mentioned it to me several times.

The 22-year-old, who was working at an island holiday camp where she had met boyfriend Brendan Storer (pictured), was also worried about work before she disappeared

'It's like she couldn't let it go. She would say it when she was upset - that she was "punching".'

Caroline Sumeray, area coroner for the Isle of Wight, asked: 'So she wasn't capable of brushing off what some random loony said to her?'

Miss Massey replied 'not really, no', adding: 'I think sometimes it made them fall out and - not have an argument - but I know she would get insecure about it.'

She explained that on the night of the comment Ms Johnson had been so upset she stayed out all night and then had to be picked up by Miss Massey and Mr Storer at about 7am, after they finally tracked her down at Ryde train station.

Miss Massey said her friend was covered in scratches from being in a bush and at the time they believed she must have got confused and gone missing after allegedly having her drink 'spiked' at the pub.

'She was very tired, upset and crying. We believed Rosie must have had her drink spiked whilst at the pub in Ryde,' she said.

'From knowing Rosie, she didn't drink so much that she was out of control and to have had gone out all night. It's not something she would have done.'

On the day she went missing - Sunday, June 23 - some of the workers, including Ms Johnson, went for brunch at a cafe in nearby Wootton Bridge.

Miss Massey said they had about five glasses of prosecco each and then bought a bottle of prosecco each at a Tesco on their way back to Little Canada.

Another colleague Naomi Jackson, 29, said she had a chat with Ms Johnson later that evening while the group played games in the staff room.

On the day she went missing - Sunday, June 23 - some of the workers, including Ms Johnson, went for brunch at Cibo in nearby Wootton Bridge. Pictured, Little Canada

Ms Jackson said: 'She found it upsetting that people had made comments since she had been with Brendan that he was too good for her.

'I didn't realise anybody had said anything to her until she told me.'

She explained that another girl, not named in the inquest, was 'jealous' of Ms Johnson because Mr Storer was a 'handsome chap' and had 'made Rosie feel very uncomfortable'.

Later that night, Miss Massey said Ms Johnson was drunk and upset when talking to her boyfriend and told her 'I'm done. I'm done with Brendan' before going for a walk at around 11pm.

She said the row was about the mediation meeting Ms Johnson was due to have the next day, as she did not want to do it but Mr Storer had told her she should 'get it over and done with'.

Ms Johnson, from the village of Strachan, in Aberdeenshire, was reported missing by PGL on Monday June 24, when she did not turn up for work, which was considered out of character.

An extensive search by police and specialist search teams was carried out, largely in the nearby Wootton area.

Isle of Wight Coroner's Court today heard her body was found hanging in woodland, in the Briddlesford area, at 3.20pm on Friday, June 28.

Ms Johnson (pictured at graduation), from the village of Strachan, in Aberdeenshire, was reported missing by PGL on Monday June 24, when she did not turn up for work, which was considered out of character

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was hanging and Ms Johnson was identified by her dental records.

A toxicologist found no traces of drugs, medication or alcohol in her blood.

While she was missing, a fellow worker at the 50 acre Little Canada site, had described Miss Johnson as a 'popular girl' and said her disappearance was 'totally out of character'.

The male staff member, in his 30s, said: 'She's a pleasant girl. She's come straight from Uni and she's a nice young woman.

'As far as I'm aware she's popular and this is totally out of character. I do know her boyfriend. Both live here.'

He suggested it was common for relationships to form between camp workers, adding: 'There's lots of safeguarding here, not just for the children but for the adults too.'

Coroner Caroline Sumeray ruled Rosie's death was a suicide as she was anxious about the mediation meeting the next day.

She said: 'Just because somebody was your friend and they are no longer particularly close to you, doesn't mean you have to negotiate that through meetings and a formal process. That's life. You make new friends.

'However, there was a meeting set up and it was one of several.'

She said while Mr Storer was able to 'brush it off' it had 'clearly bothered' Rosie.

'Rosie was distressed at the prospect of having this meeting with Sinead and management the next day. It was a big deal to her.

'The upshot was she became distressed and focused and fixated on it that night and she said she wanted to go for a walk and clear her head.'

As a result, Mrs Sumeray concluded it was 'more likely than not' that Rosie 'got into a very sad place that night and she did something utterly, utterly tragic'.

She gave a conclusion of suicide.

Regarding the 'punching' comment, she that someone had 'said something to her, something very unkind which played on her insecurities' and that 'it did knock her confidence' though she did not believe it was the reason for Rosie's suicide.
A software developer tried to sue his managers after they joked he reminded them of Will Ferrell's hapless character in the popular movie 'Step Brothers'.

Andrew Dickson had not seen the film when the comments were made, but after going home and watching the comedy he said he felt the comparison 'was not favourable'.

In the hit movie Ferrell played Brennan Huff, a childish 40-year-old who still lives at home with his divorced mother, Nancy played by Mary Steenburgen.

After being made redundant in 2019, Mr Dickson took his employers to a tribunal complaining of harassment. But a judge has now dismissed his claims.

The hearing in London was told was working as a Senior Actuarial Development Analyst at QBE Management where he helped develop software related to insurance claims.

The tribunal was told Mr Dickson - who suffered from depression - was having some difficulties at work but initially had been 'partly meeting expectations'.

Andrew Dickson (above) tried suing his bosses after they joked he reminded them of Will Ferrell's character in the hit movie 'Step Brothers'

At a six month performance review hearing, his manager, Damian McCue, said: 'Andrew is a senior member of the team, he needs to take responsibility for his understanding of what's required and where he feels there is ambiguity he needs to raise this.

'We have also discussed and agreed that where he needs help he needs to anticipate this and ask and not wait until there's a problem.'

According to Andrew's bosses, his performance did not improve as expected.

He was put on a personal improvement plan at work and was told his issues related to timekeeping, his ability to communicate, and to understand tasks he was set.

At five different points during his tenure, Mr Dickson claimed that Mr McCue said he looked like Will Ferrell characters - particularly in the film Step Brothers.

In the movie, Ferrell's character is forced to live with his mother's new lover's son, played by John Reilly.

In the film 'Step Brothers', Will Ferrell (left) played Brennan Huff - a childish 40-year-old who still lives at home with his divorced mother

The pair go to numerous unsuccessful job interviews and generally struggle to live life as the 40-year-olds they are.

Mr Dickson said that although he hadn't seen the film at the time, a couple of days later after the remark he watched it and after doing so felt the comment was 'unfavourable and unkind to him'.

Mr McCue said he had only made the comments because when Mr Dickson told 'funny stories' his expressions and mannerisms reminded him of Ferrell.

Eventually, after Mr Dickson's performance failed to improve, despite his employers trying to support him and manage his depression, he was made redundant.

Mr Dickson claimed at the tribunal that he was also suffering from dyslexia, depression anxiety and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).

The tribunal concluded however, that aside from his depression, the conditions were not severe enough to classify him as disabled.

Judge Tina Elliott concluded: 'We find that [the Step Brothers] comment was not disability related.

'[Mr Dickson] did not tell us why it was a disability related comment and we find that it was not. We could not see any connection between likening the claimant to Will Ferrell and his depression, being the condition relied upon for this allegation.

'[Mr Dickson] did not meet the initial burden of proof. Even if [he] did not like the comparison with this actor, we find that it was not disability related harassment.'

In relation to his redundancy, Judge Elliott said: '[Mr Dickson] contended that there was an unreasonable failure to redeploy him.

'Our finding is that this was not the case. [He] was encouraged to apply for available roles and he did not take up the options and offers of help made available to him.

'Our finding of fact, based on the [Mr Dickson's] own evidence, was that he had made a decision that he did not want to work for the respondent any longer.

'There can be no unreasonable failure to redeploy him when he had made this decision.'

Mr Dickson's claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination were all dismissed.
A Canadian politician has been blasted for saying 'fatalities are a part of life' and appearing to blame the public after hundreds of excess deaths were reported amid British Columbia's unprecedent heatwave and out-of-control wildfires.

At least 486 sudden deaths have been reported over the last five days during British Columbia's heatwave - which included triple digit temperatures and the country's hottest day ever at 121F.

While it's unclear exactly how many are related to the heatwave, the province's chief coroner said there are typically 165 sudden deaths in the same time frame.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan said during a Tuesday press conference that 'fatalities are a part of life.'

He went on to say, 'It was apparent to anyone who walked out doors that we were in an unprecedented heat wave and again there's a level of personal responsibility.'

He added: 'The public was acutely aware that we had a heat problem. And we were doing our best to break through all of the other noise to encourage people to take steps to protect themselves.'

His comments immediately drew the ire of social media, who accused the BC Premier - which is most similar to a US governor - of blaming the victims.

British Columbia Premier John Horgan said 'fatalities are a part of life' as Northern Canada faces an unprecedented and deadly heatwave

The heat wave caused an out-of-control forest fire and burned the small Canadian village of Lytton to the ground

Horgan tried to walk back his comments on Twitter, saying: 'Nothing can ease the pain of losing a loved one, whether it's from the unprecedented heat wave or any other cause.

'Mourning families deserve our compassion, and the wording of my comments didn't reflect that. Please continue supporting one another & checking on your neighbors.'

But the damage was already done, and many people didn't seem to accept the apology.

'That's OK John (you don't mind if I call you John, I hope), you showed us who you really are with your original callous comments. Too late for this apologetic spin put together by your comms team. It wasn't "the wording" of your comment that was the problem, it was your intent,' @InspiredAquaCA tweeted in response to Horgan's apology.

'The words you are looking for are I am sorry, my comment was wrong and callous. Thank you for calling me out on it,"' @noxidls tweeted.

'Nothing can shut you up from making insensitive comments either. what was said today is truly inexcusable. passing away from reasons relevant to heat is not apart of life. it never has been,' Twitter user @ry6n_ said.

Western Canada -including the province of British Columbia - and the Pacific Northwest region of the United States has been devastated by a 'heat dome' over the last week.

Horgan tried to walk back his comments after facing backlash on social media

Many people on Twitter were made at his original comments and didn't accept his apology either

It is the result of a high-pressure jet stream which essentially acts like a lid to a boiling pot, and has left Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest sweltering in record temperatures.

The small Canadian village of Lytton had country's hottest temperatures ever recorded for three consecutive days starting with 115F on Monday, 118F on Tuesday and 121F on Wednesday.

A day after hitting 121F, a wildfire burnt the village.

'It's dire. The whole town is on fire,' Lytton Mayor Jan Polderman told CBC.

In the US, at least 60 deaths in Oregon are tied to the heat, with a another 20 suspected fatalities recorded in Washington.

King County Medical Office, which includes Seattle, reported Wednesday that 13 people had died of heat-related causes, including three men - aged 51, 75, and 77 - were killed after suffering from a heat stroke.

The heat dome over Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest region of the US acts like a lid on a pot and raises the temperature significantly

British Columbia's chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 'sudden and unexpected deaths' between Friday and Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the Canadian province over a five-day period

The result has been unprecedented heat waves in typically cooler areas and forest fires, like this one British Columbia

Wildfires are raging in California, including the lightning-sparked Lava fire in the northern county of Siskiyou, which forced the evacuation of at least 8,000 residents Monday afternoon.

The flames have engulfed almost 20,000 acres as of Thursday afternoon, according to the interactive California wildfires map. Only 19 percent of that fire is contained, according to the map.

'This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people,' Dr. Jennifer Vines, the Multnomah County, Oregon, health officer said in a statement.

'I know many county residents were looking out for each other and am deeply saddened by this initial death toll.'
A three-judge panel began hearing evidence on Wednesday to decide whether a group sex-obsessed woman should become the first female sentenced to death in Nebraska for her role in the killing and dismemberment of a woman she met on Tinder.

Bailey Boswell was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder last year for the slaying of Sydney Loofe.

Boswell's boyfriend during the murder, 54-year-old Aubrey Trail, was sentenced to death last month for fatally strangling Loofe and dismembering her body.

Authorities say Boswell lured Loofe, a 24-year-old clerk at a Menards hardware store, to her death through the dating app Tinder.

Bailey Boswell listens to defense attorney Todd Lancaster during her death penalty sentencing hearing at the Saline County Courthouse, on Wednesday in Wilber, Nebraska

Bailey Boswell, 27, is awaiting sentencing for her role in the murder. She and Aubrey Trail recruited women over Tinder to take part in their sex cult where they'd call him 'daddy' and her a 'witch'

The pair met Loofe using the dating app Tinder then wanted her to participate in their lifestyle of defrauding antiques dealers and having group sex.

Loofe's body parts were found in garbage bags, cut into 14 pieces and left in ditches along country roads in southeastern Nebraska.

Before going on the date, Loofe had posted an excited selfie on Snapchat. It is unclear if she knew she was entering into a potential 'throuple' arrangement with both Boswell and Trail.

Bailey Boswell and defense attorney Jeff Pickens listen to opening statements in the first day of Boswell's death penalty hearing. Boswell was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder last year for the slaying of Sydney Loofe, a store clerk

The last time anyone heard from Sydney Loofe was on November 15 when she posted a picture of herself to Snapchat, captioning the image: 'Ready for my date'

Prosecutors on Wednesday presented graphic autopsy photos to bolster their case that Boswell, 27, deserves to die for the crime.

Parts of her dismembered body were shown to the three-judge panel. It included several photos of her arms, head, torso and thighs.

Prosecutor Doug Warner of the Nebraska attorney general's office argued that Boswell set up three Tinder accounts to arrange dates with women and bought tools that could be used to dismember a body shortly before her last date with Loofe.

Warner pointed to previous testimony from three other women Boswell and Trail recruited that painted them as fascinated with group sex and gaining powers by torturing and killing someone.

He noted that Loofe's internal organs were missing when they found her remains, arguing that the murder was especially depraved and deserving of the death penalty.

Warner said Loofe was singled out as a victim.

'That the murder, where there was apparent relishment of the murder by the defendant, needless mutilation of the victim, senselessness of the crime and helplessness of the victim,' he said.

Boswell's court-appointed attorney, Todd Lancaster, urged the judge panel to view his client based on her actions, and not those of Trail.

'It's the state of mind and actions of Bailey Boswell' that are relevant, Lancaster said.

Lancaster said the discussions of murder and torture are irrelevant because it happened weeks before Loofe met Boswell in person.

He also said that the dismemberment of the body occurred after Loofe had been killed, and that some courts have ruled that postmortem mutilation - particularly if used only to dispose of a body - should not be used to justify a death sentence.

'Mutilation cases be limited to cases where the mutilation is not simply an effort to hide the crime. The evidence you're going to see today is basically an effort to hide the crime,' said Lancaster.

Lancaster went on to claim sentencing Boswell to death would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. He said that as the only woman on Nebraska's death row, she would likely be in solitary confinement for the rest of her life.

Prosecutors say Boswell could be part of the general prison population, and have many of their facilities available to her until she is executed.

The three-judge panel is expected to hear evidence through Friday and impose a sentence several weeks later.

Boswell, a former high school athlete from Leon, Iowa, could get the death penalty or life in prison.

Aubrey Trail, 54, was sentenced to death last month for the 2017 murder of Sydney Loofe, a young woman he lured on Tinder

During Trail's sentencing last month, he revealed out Loofe 'freaked out' and worried she would go to the authorities so he killed her with an electrical cord.

'I had no doubt she would tell people if I let her go,' said Trail, who was handcuffed, clad in orange jail garb and in a wheelchair throughout his sentencing.

Trail tried to kill himself in custody by slitting his own throat but was unsuccessful.

He was sentenced to death after telling the court that he 'couldn't care less' what kind of punishment he received.

He did not apologize to the victim's family, saying it would be an 'insult' to do so. He also repeated earlier claims that Boswell is innocent and didn't take part in the killing.

Loofe was found dead in December 2017 near Edgar, south-west of Omaha, about a month after she disappeared when she failed to return from a Tinder date with Trail's girlfriend, Bailey Boswell

During his 2019 trial, three women testified about how Trail would lure women into his sex cult via the dating app , then convince them he was a vampire who could fly and read minds.

The women said they were all recruited via Boswell's Tinder account between July and November 2017.

They described how Trail made them call him 'daddy' and how they engaged in group sex with him, Boswell and other women.

The women said Trail also referred to Boswell as the 'queen witch'.

One woman testified that Trail had a group of witches and that for her to become one of them she had to kill someone and 'take their last breath', the Omaha Herald reports.

She would gain more 'powers' if the person killed was tortured for hours beforehand, the woman testified.

The woman described going to a Walmart with Trail and Boswell to grocery shop. She said they asked her if she was ready for her first 'kill'.

A potential Tinder date showed up but they ended up leaving her at the grocery store and Trail later said they would 'save her for another time'.

'It all sounded like it was real, very convincing,' she told the court.

Trail, shown testifying at trial, tried to kill himself in custody by slashing his own throat

The woman said she left the group before Loofe was killed, and said Trail and Boswell threatened to kill her family if she told anyone about what had happened.

Another woman testified that Trail and Boswell made her follow strict rules, including making contact every three hours to let them know where she was.

She also wasn't allowed to wear clothes in Trail's home.

The woman told the court she was punished if she broke the rules, including once where he choked her with a belt and another time where he slapped her in the head more than 10 times.

She testified that Trail and Boswell would often speak about killing and torturing other victims because they needed to strengthen their powers.

They allegedly spoke of cutting out people's eyelids, scalping them, cutting holes in people during sex, pouring acid on them and setting them on fire.

Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Doug Warner gives opening remarks at the sentencing hearing for Bailey Boswell at the Saline County Courthouse on Wednesday

She said Trail and Boswell had a killing bag - which they called 'Bailey's killing bag' - that included a sauna suit, hammer and pliers.

The woman said she initially agreed to take part in a killing. She also left the group before Loofe was killed.

Another part of being involved in Trail's sex cult helping the couple swindle others by buying and selling antiques.

The third woman testified that she was only interested in the antiques side of it and was never wanted to have sex with the couple.

She said she never believed Trail when he spoke about vampires and witches but testified that they regularly spoke about killing and torture.

Trail slashed his neck and fell from his wheelchair in the middle of a hearing.

He was caught on camera yelling 'Bailey is innocent, and I curse you all' just seconds before swiping something across his neck.

He ended up needing stitches but was later released from a hospital.

Authorities said he'd had a stroke and two heart attacks since his arrest.

The last time anyone heard from Loofe was November 15 when she posted a picture of herself to Snapchat, captioning the image: 'Ready for my date'.

She was reported missing by her mother the following day when she failed to show up for her cashier job at home improvement store Menards in Lincoln.

Her dismembered body was found a month later stuffed into garbage bags dumped in a field.
A rabbi and his son have been charged with manslaughter after a massive fire in an adult care home which killed a resident and a firefighter, and was allegedly sparked after they used a blowtorch to clean a kitchen in a pre-Passover cleaning ritual.

Rabbi Nathaniel Sommer and his son Aaron Summer, were arraigned Tuesday on manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and arson charges in connection with the March 23 fire that ripped through the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley, New York.

The pair had used a blowtorch as part of a ritual to burn traces of forbidden non-Kosher food from kitchen utensils before a Passover meal. Nathaniel Sommer had been performing the cleaning ritual at the facility for 15 years, Evergreen said.

The two had been hired as 'independent contractors' for the cleaning ceremony, Lohud reported, and records show that the Evergreen Court fire was reported about an hour and a half after they left the facility.

DailyMail.com has reached out to their attorney for comment.

The care home was all but destroyed in the inferno, which spread from the first floor up through the roof and burned for some six hours.

Oliver Hueston, a 79-year-old resident, was reported dead a few days later, and firefighter Jared Lloyd, 35, died in the fire trying to get people out of the building as it collapsed.

Firefighters were seen trying to quell the flames after a massive fire broke out at the Evergreen Nursing Hoe in Spring Valley, New York on March 23. The fire is now believed to have been started after a rabbi and his son used a blowtorch in a pre-Passover cleaning ritual

Firefighters in Rockland County spent hours fighting the massive blaze

At one point, the roof collapsed in the building, killing one resident and leaving multiple people injured

Rockland County District Attorney Tom Walsh announced on Tuesday six people have been charged in the fire

Three government and religious leaders alleged that the care home's fire alarm system was taken off line while the ritual involving the blowtorch was carried out, News12 reports.

But Evergreen denied the allegations and insisted that the alarm and sprinklers were functioning when the blaze broke out.

Chris Kear, Rockland's director of Fire & Emergency Services told News12 that alarms are sometimes turned off in order to prevent a false alarm, but refused to comment on this case.

Two village building inspectors are also accused of filing reports to the state on fire inspection, Rockland County District Attorney Tom Walsh said on Tuesday, according to the New York Post.

Walsh also would not discuss details of the fire alarm.

'We don't want to get into any details until [the case] has been presented to the grand jury,' Walsh said, 'and perhaps not even until the trial.'

'We don't want to do anything today that would impede or impact adversely on the prosecution,' he explained.

Lee Vartan, an attorney for the Schonberger family, owners of Evergreen Court, said the adult home has cooperated with the officials in the investigation.

'We know from our investigation that the facility's fire mitigation systems were all operational and functioned as intended the night of the fire,' Vartan said in a statement to Lohud.

'One thing we do not yet know is the extent to which the areas historic water pressure problems prevented the fire from being contained.'

According to Lohud, a lack of pressure at a hydrant 75 yards from the entrance to Evergreen Court sucked the fire hydrant off the ground, severing its connection to the water line.

Investigators are continuing to look into the water issues, Lohud reports.

Firefighters were still trying to quell the flames as the sun came out

They monitored hotspots from the fire that completely burned down the adult home

They surveyed the damage after the fire completely ripped through the building

The image above shows mangled staircases amid smoldering ruins left behind by the fire

Meanwhile, four other people have been charged in connection with the fire, including two village building inspectors, Wayne Ballard and Raymond Canario.

They are accused of filing false reports to the state about the building's fire inspections, and are charged with offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records. They are due back in court later this month.

And arrest warrants were also issued for Evergreen Director Denise Kerr and Manuel Lema 'for their actions from within the facility prior to the start of the fire.'

Lema had not been working at the facility at the time, according to Lohud, but is facing criminal impersonation and obstructing governmental administration charges, while Kerr is facing a reckless endangerment charge.

'Our goal is to hold those responsible for the fire and the deaths responsible for their actions,' Walsh said in a news conference Tuesday.

Fire alarms first went off on March 23 at about 12:45 a.m., according to News 12, and by 12:53 a.m., a receptionist called 911.

The fire quickly spread from the first floor up through the roof and burned for some six hours.

'It's a frame building,' Rockland County Director of Fire and Emergency Services Chris Kear said at the time. 'It's had numerous additions on it.

'I believe it was a partial sprinkler system in the building. The sheer size of the building and the amount of the fire is what's making it take so long.'

Jared Lloyd, 35, a 15-year volunteer with the Spring Valley Fire Department, was killed in the massive nursing home fire. His body was recovered only hours later

An exhausted firefighter takes a much-needed break near the scene of the blaze

A volunteer firefighter from nearby Suffern, New York also decided to take a break as smoke was continuing to fill the air

Between 100 and 125 people were living inside the facility when the fire broke out, and between 20 and 30 residents had to be rescued, according to officials.

At one point, footage showed the roof and second floor-had collapsed from a 'massive explosion.'

An eyewitness told Insider the building had been engulfed in flames for around two hours before the explosion caused part of it to cave in on itself.

In footage taken following the reported explosion, parts of the building - including the roof and second floor - were shown collapsing as the fire continued to spread.

Other videos showed a number of the care home's residents on a bus as they were taken away from the scene, and was being used to allow relatives to identify them.

Local buses from the Jewish community were being used to keep elderly residents who had escaped the building warm, and to transport them to other locations.
Eric Trump blasted prosecutors on Thursday for running a 'political vendetta' against his father, saying it had taken five years, millions of documents and hundreds of subpoenas to uncover problems with a corporate car and an apartment used by an employee.

He spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com before the Trump Organization's chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to failing to pay taxes for years on a company car, apartment and school fees for his grandchildren.

The investigation has cost millions of dollars but could yield just tens of thousands of dollars in back tax.

Weisselberg is accused of failing to pay tax on $1.76 million of perks since 2005, according to the 25-page indictment.

'It is an absolute abuse of power and a political vendetta,' said Trump, 37, who is executive vice president of the family business.

'They are petrified my father will run again in 2024.

'After five years, hundreds of subpoenas, three and a half million pages of documents, and dozens of witnesses, this is what they have?'

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said New York prosecutors were engaged in a 'political vendetta' against his father. The first charges in their case are expected to be unsealed on Thursday

Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was brought into New York Supreme Court wearing handcuffs

A loose pair of handcuffs, which would be used to secure him to an escort, can be seen behind Weisselberg's back as he is brought into court to hear 15 charges against him

He said the company had nothing to hide and had handed over reams of information since questions were first asked about his father's taxes five years ago.

The charges relate to Weisselberg's use of a company car up until 2018 when accounting practices changed and a one-bedroom apartment in New York.

Investigators have also been probing whether private school fees for his grandchildren, paid by the company, should also have been taxed.

Legal experts say it is rare for charges to be brought in such cases and that prosecutors are trying to 'flip' Weisselberg to give evidence against his employer.

Eric Trump said the motives were clear.

'Any taxpayer should be infuriated by this political witch hunt especially as young girls are getting shot in the middle of Times Square and as people are fleeing New York state in record numbers,' he said, referring to a four-year-old girl who was shot in the leg in May.

'These people are cruel and these actions will expose them for who they truly are.'

Weisselberg is viewed as part of the family after beginning work for Fred Trump in 1973, earning a reputation for loyalty and hard work.

So trusted did he become, that when Trump stepped aside to become president he tasked Weisselberg with running the company alongside his two sons.

Insiders are confident that he is not about to turn on the former president over perks that could amount to a few thousand dollars in unpaid taxes.

Weisselberg (c), the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization, is pictured with Donald Trump Jr. (r) and and the former president. He will be charged related to the firm not paying taxes on employee benefits such as cars, apartments and cash bonuses

Weisselberg was seen arriving at a Lower Manhattan building that house the criminal courts and the Manhattan district attorney's office at about 6:20 am.

An indictment remained under seal before his arraignment expected on Thursday afternoon.

His lawyers, Mary Mulligan and Bryan Skarlatos, said the executive will plead not guilty and 'fight these charges in court.'

Earlier the Trump Organization issued a statement describing him as a family man who was being used as a 'pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president.'

'The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the I.R.S. or any other district attorney would ever think of bringing,' it said. 'This is not justice; this is politics.'

Prosecutors in the office of the district attorney Cyrus Vance have been investigating whether Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on company perks.

They are also working with lawyers from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, who promised to target Trump during her campaign for the role in 2018.

'We're going to be a real pain in the ass,' she told a supporter who asked if she planned to sue Trump in an exchange captured on video.

'He's going to know my name personally.'
A shocking attack was captured on surveillance video in Brooklyn, showing a man tackling an unsuspecting woman from behind and sexually assaulting her on the sidewalk amid skyrocketing crime rates in New York City.

The attack took place at around 8.10pm on Monday in the trendy Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

According to police, the victim, described as a 35-year-old woman, was taking an evening walk on a hot summer evening when a man began following her.

Police in New York City are on the hunt for the man seen in the screenshot above, who is accused attacking this woman and groping her in Williamsburg on Monday

Surveillance video released by the NYPD on Thursday shows the suspect following the victim in Williamsburg after 8pm on Monday

As the woman walked along Stagg Street, the man ran after her

She noticed the stranger's presence behind her and turned from Morgan Avenue to Stagg Street, but the man continued to trail her, as seen in surveillance video released by the NYPD on Thursday.

Footage shows the unidentified attacker break into a run and jump on the victim from behind, causing her to lose her footing and fall forward.

Police said the man held the woman down, reached into her shorts and forcibly grabbed her buttocks before fleeing eastbound on Stagg Street.

The woman was not physically hurt and refused medical attention.

Video shows the culprit jumping on the unsuspecting victim and tackling her to the ground

Police say the perpetrator held the woman down, reached into her shorts and forcibly grabbed her buttocks before fleeing

The culprit was described as standing at 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 165lbs, with a medium built and black hair. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, green camo pants and black sneakers, with a black face mask around his chin.

The attack in Brooklyn comes in the midst of a crime epidemic that has overwhelmed New York City over the last several months, with murders, assaults, shootings and rapes being all on the rise.

The attacker was last seen running eastbound on Stagg Street

The man was described as standing at 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 165lbs, with a medium built and black hair

According to the most recent statistics from the NYPD, rapes and other sexual crimes citywide were up 5 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, compared to the same time last year.

More than 2,200 individual sexual offenses have been reported throughout the five boroughs since the beginning of 2021.

Murders were up 12 per cent, from 189 at this time last year to 212 so far in 2021.

The biggest increase has been in gun violence, with shootings up 43 per cent, from 503 to 718.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been blamed by his critics for not being tough enough on crime.

They say his bail reforms - intended to avoid leaving people who can't afford bail languishing in jail for months or years for petty crimes - release suspects back onto the streets to go on to reoffend.

Morale among NYPD officers has slumped amid lukewarm support from de Blasio.

This chart shows murder and felony assault rates in New York City up 12.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent, respectively, compared to the same time last year

Fears are growing that the city is harking back to the dark days of the 70s and 80s when murders and shootings were rife, earning New York the nickname 'Fear City.' Governor Andrew Cuomo has said New York City is now in the throes of a 'major crime problem' which - if not tackled soon - could cause irreparable damage to the Big Apple.

Some 1,800 cops were cut as a result of the 'defund the police' movement which prompted de Blasio to cut the NYPD's budget by $1billion. Nine hundred new recruits were added in November, but it's still nearly 2,000 cops off the total of the 36,900 uniform members of service from 2019.

Cops said the spike in crime is down to de Blasio disbanding the anti-crime unit - which had around 600 officers in it.
The women arrested for causing the worst ever crash in Tour de France history has said she 'regrets her stupidity' and feels 'shame'.

She caused the mass crash by holding a cardboard placard in the riders' paths during the first stage of the event on Saturday.

The unnamed spectator 'has a feeling of shame, of fear over the consequences of her actions' and has been 'distressed by the media coverage of her stupidity', Brest public prosecutor Camille Miansoni said.

The sign, reading Go! Grandma and Grandpa in a mixture of French and German, was intended as an affection gesture to her parents, Miansoni added.

A roadside spectator (left) caused a massive crash in the Tour de France on Saturday with a banner aimed at her family. A woman has since been arrested and taken into custody, but the complaint from the organisers has now been withdrawn

Tony Martin had nowhere to go when the supporter stepped out, looking at the TV cameras and it started the huge pile-up

The accident caused a massive blockage and saw more than 20 riders hit the deck injured in one of the Tour's worst crashes

The woman appeared to be looking in the other direction, apparently at a camera, and not at the approaching peloton when the accident happened.

It comes after Tour de France organisers withdrew their legal action against the woman.

Race spokesperson Fabrice Tiano said the decision was made in a bid to defuse the situation following an outpouring of anger over the fan's mistake.

She was arrested on Wednesday, four days after the accident, after turning herself into police in Finistere, Brittany.

Miansoni said the woman 'took a long time to realise what had happened' and 'did not realise her mistake', Le Parisien reported.

The mass crash brought down dozens of riders.

German cyclist Tony Martin was the first to go down, and then there was a horrifying domino effect that ended in a tangle of bikes and bodies.

There were numerous wounds, including ones to Jasha Sutterlin, another German rider, who had to pull out of the entire contest.

The crash has been labelled as one of the worst ever in the history of the Tour de France, which is in its 108th instalment

Riders survey the damage after the crash during the 108th Tour de France 2021, with many left bruised and battling injuries

The massive crash took place near the summit of the Saint-Rivoal hill in the town of Saint-Cadou, some 30 miles from the end of the 123-mile race from the Atlantic port city of Brest, which is where the nearest airport is. She is now being questioned in Landerneau, where the first stage concluded on Saturday

Crazy crash at Tour De France 2021 



A fan who was holding a message to her grandparents & grinning for the cameras took out most of the peloton with a cardboard sign    #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/OEZmiSjBE9  Nigel D'Souza (@Nigel__DSouza) June 26, 2021

In impassioned comments on Thursday, race director Christian Prudhomme expressed concern for the so far unidentified 30-year-old Frenchwoman who is currently in police custody.

This has taken on crazy proportions, said Mr Prudhomme. We want to calm things down, and above all to get the message across to the public.

He said that basic safety should not preclude people having a good time, explaining: It is a matter of reiterating the precautionary measures on the Tour route.

When you come to the roads of the Tour de France, it's for the party, it's for the enthusiasm, it's to enjoy it.

Investigators have spoken to dozens of people since the incident on Saturday.

Tour organisers announced after the crash on the stage from Brest to Landerneau that they would start legal proceedings against the fan, who disappeared from the crash scene, but have since dropped their complaint.

The Gendarmerie du Landerneau, east of Brest, put out a call for witnesses shortly after the pile-up. It refused to comment on the reported arrest.

Prosecutors opened a criminal enquiry for deliberately violating safety regulations and so causing injuries that might prevent someone working for up to three months.

This is an indictable offence in France punishable with up to a year in prison and a fine equivalent to just under 13,000.

While the prosecution can technically continue, the withdrawal of the Tour de France complaint will provide considerable mitigation.

It may well lead to the woman going free, with a warning and not a fine.

One of the cyclists, Swiss star Marc Hirschi, found himself thrown into the nearby hedges and he dislocated his shoulder

Tour de France surgeon Gilbert Versier (right) likened the chaos caused in the crash to a 'war zone' such as Afghanistan or Iraq

The tour's on-site surgeon Gilbert Versier, a three-star general operating out in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the aftermath of the crash resembled a war zone.

'It looks like a war scene, the same chaos, the same moans, bodies everywhere and tangled machines,' Versier told French daily newspaper L'Equipe.

'You can't imagine so much breakage. In the midst of the commotion, the runners getting up and wanting to start again, the most serious cases must be identified.

'In general, these are the ones who are furthest from the accident site, because they have been thrown.'
Two members of the notorious Rochdale grooming gange who raped children as young as young as 12 are fighting deportation from the UK, claiming their human rights are being infringed - a tribunal heard.

Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, have been told they are to be sent back to Pakistan for the public good after both were part of a gang convicted of a catalogue of serious sex offences against young girls.

Its now six years since the Home Office began efforts to deport them.

Adil Khan (pictured left), 51 and Qari Abdul Rauf (right), 52, have been told they are to be deported from the UK for the public good after both were part of a notorious gang convicted of a catalogue of serious sex offences against young girls

The convicted child trafficker was seen at a local Lidl stocking up on supplies in April this year

On Thursday it emerged both are appealing against the deportation order served on them last July, on the grounds of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, their right to a private and family life.

Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others, using violence when she complained.

He was sentenced to eight years in 2012 and released on licence four years later.

Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferrying her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.

He was jailed for six years and released in November 2014 after serving two years and six months of his sentence.

At an immigration tribunal case management hearing held by video-link on Thursday, judges were told that before the Article 8 appeals are heard there must be a hearing to consider the issue of statelessness.

Khan claims to have renounced his Pakistani citizenship which would make him stateless and a bar to deportation.

Sonali Naik QC, representing Rauf, who is legally aided, said: The matter needs to be thoroughly litigated.

Ms Naik said the Article 8 appeals of Rauf and Khan should then be dealt with separately and individually as other similar cases have been dealt with in the past, all the way to Strasbourg.

Cathryn McGahey QC, representing the Home Office, said the matters should be dealt with jointly as the background facts are the same.

Both Raufs and the Governments lawyers must now instruct experts in Pakistani law for the forthcoming appeal hearing on the issue of statelessness, and the hearing has been adjourned until a date in September - around 13 years after Rauf and Khan first committed the offences.

Last month Khan told a preliminary hearing: We have not committed that big a crime.

Neither Rauf or Khan were present for Thursdays hearing.

Both were among four in the gang with dual UK-Pakistani citizenship, so liable to be stripped of UK citizenship and deported after then home secretary Theresa May ruled it would be conducive to the public good to deprive the four of the right to remain in Britain.

They were part of a nine-strong gang of Asian men convicted of sex offences against vulnerable girls in 2012.

The Rochdale grooming gang's abuse was dramatised in a BBC programme called Three Girls (above). Khan told an immigration tribunal hearing: 'We have not committed that big a crime'

Khan and Rauf are now appealing against the decision by current Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured above, on May 23 this year) to deport them

For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls.

Police said as many as 47 girls were groomed.

Khan, Rauf and another man, Abdul Aziz, then fought, and lost, a long legal battle against the deportation order, losing a final Court of Appeal ruling in 2018.

But the failure to then deport any of the four, almost a decade after their conviction, has led to anger in Rochdale, where victims were living alongside their tormentors, and has heaped public criticism on a number of home secretaries.

Last year the M.E.N. revealed how one terrified victim bumped into her freed abuser while shopping in Asda.

She ran from the supermarket in tears and reported Adil Khan to the authorities as he was with another young child.

Now a young woman, she saw Khan with another child in an aisle of Asda superstore in Rochdale town centre.

She told a friend: Oh my God, hes been in Asda. Ive never been so scared in all my life. I feel like my heart just stopped beating.

She was left outraged that Khan and two other members of the gang remained in Rochdale despite losing their appeal against deportation.

The young woman - who cannot be named as a victim of a sex crime but who was Ruby in the BBC drama about the scandal Three Girls - confided in former GMP detective Maggie Oliver who worked on the police investigation but later resigned in disgust at how victims were treated and turned whistleblower and campaigner.

The Home Office began the process of removing the mens British citizenship in July 2015 to pave the way for their deportation but they challenged the move, saying it breached their human rights and the rights of their children.

They lost their case at the Court of Appeal in August 2018 but they remained in Rochdale.

The long-running case will extend to September at least and will probably go into next year.
Rescue workers could hear a woman trapped in the rubble of the Miami condo collapse shouting for help - but after hours of trying to reach her, they no longer heard her screams.

'She passed,' a fire official confirmed Thursday.

Miami Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning that early in the rescue effort, crews had been trying to get to the woman who they could hear, but could not reach.

'We did hear audible sounds,' he said. 'They were searching for a female voice, is what we heard, for several hours - and eventually we didn't hear her voice anymore.'

The revelation came as Florida officials said they were halting rescue operations out of fear they could cause further collapse, one week after a portion of the 12-story Champlain Towers South fell, killing 18 people and leaving another 145 so far unaccounted for.

Rescue workers could be seen desperately trying to reach a woman they could hear trapped behind a wall of concrete roughly 10 hours after the Surfside condo collapse

In addition to the concrete, a dumpster and a tangle of rebar was in their way. They would be unsuccessful after a fire drove the crews back

'That's just emphasizing the magnitude of what we're going through, you know, the efforts that all our fire rescue personnel, everyone that's here on scene trying to do the best we can in these heroic efforts, and, yes, unfortunately we didn't have success with that,' Cominsky said.

It was about 10 hours after the collapse when rescue workers said they heard the woman crying out for help.

'The first thing I remember is thumping on the wall and then I remember her just talking, 'I'm here, get me out. Get me out!'' one of the rescue workers told WPLG.

'Everybody that was there, that's what we're trying to do, get this lady out and comfort her. ... She was asking for help and she was pleading to be taken out of there,' he recalled.

Fire officials confirmed reports of rescuers hearing the trapped woman on Thursday, with Miami Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky saying she had not made it. 'We couldn't hear her voice anymore,' he said

'We were continuously talking to her. ... 'Honey, we got you. We're going to get to you.''

Video from the scene, however, showed what was in their way.

The woman was trapped in the lower level of the building behind a wall of concrete, a dumpster and a tangle of rebar, and the rescuer said he was never able to make visual contact with her.

After a desperate effort, the rescuers were were pushed back when a fire broke out, according to an email from a crew supervisor obtained by the television station.

After that, 'We know she passed,' the supervisor wrote.

Reports of the failed rescue effort come one week after a part of the 12-story fell, killing 18 people and leaving another 145 so far unaccounted for.

The supervisor also said the woman told rescuers that she was trapped alongside her elderly parents.

He was concerned at the psychological effect the failed effort might have on the crews, noting that, after, chiefs on the scene said, 'They saw the wind knocked out of our guys...'

Miami-Dade Lt. Obed Frometa, who works as a chaplain to help his colleagues cope with the trauma told WPLG that such setbacks be a major blow to the morale of the rescue workers, and bring 'a feeling of not only defeat, but it's a feeling of loss. We are human, after all. We're not robots. We're not machines. We feel it.'
A juror has been fined more than $11,000 for googling an ICE officer's patch during a criminal trial and sharing his findings with his fellow jurors, which resulted in a federal judge declaring a mistrial in the case.

Stephen Meile was part of a jury considering a case to decide whether a legal Nicaraguan immigrant assaulted ICE officers in 2017.

The panel were shown a photograph of the ICE officer's uniform which had a mysterious patch attached to it, prompting the jurors to question what it signified.

Some thought it may be a trade union logo, Reuters reports, but Meile, a retired pipefitter, decided to look it up on Google while on a brief recess in the trial.

Meile then allegedly told his fellow jurors that it was a white supremacist logo.

He made the search despite knowing that jurors were not allowed to conduct their own research, according to the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.

He was held in criminal contempt, the attorney's office reports, and slapped with a $11,227 fine, representing the cost of the jurors' daily fee, mileage and meals, according to Law and Crime.

It is believed to be one of the highest amounts a juror has ever been fined for conducting outside research, according to John Browning of Spencer Fane, who has written extensively about jurors, social media and the internet.

He told Reuters that judges in the United States have typically punished jurors with smaller fines or community service, even when their Google searches or social media posts have resulted in mistrials.

Meile's penalty, though 'represents an attempt to have the offending jurors fine for contempt at least approximate the cost to the justice system.'

Jurors were shown a picture of an ICE uniform with a patch that Stephen Miele later claimed was a white supremacist logo (picture above is a file photo, not the one shown in court)

Meile had been one of the 12 jurors assigned to the United States v. Kevin Ruiz-Quezada case, in which the United States Attorney's Office claims Ruiz-Quezada resisted arrest when four ICE agents came to his home in December 2017.

Though Ruiz-Quezada, a Nicaraguan immigrant, had been a permanent resident, he had become eligible for deportation due to two previous convictions in 2002 and 2005 for crimes 'involving moral turpitude,' according to the Courier Post.

A criminal complaint alleges the ICE officers became involved in a 'tug-of-war,' the Post reports, as they tried to take him into custody and his mother tried to pull him back into their home.

Eventually, the complaint alleges, the officers were pulled into the house and crashed through a living room table before taking Ruiz-Quezada into custody. One officer allegedly required surgery for a finger injury.

Ruiz-Quezada was indicted for assaulting a federal officer.

Miele was serving jury duty at the Mitchell H. Cohen Building & U.S. Courthouse in Camden, New Jersey when he allegedly Googled the patch

Closing statements were held at the Mitchell H. Cohen Building & U.S. Courthouse in Camden, New Jersey on June 15, and a few hours later the jury deliberations came to an abrupt end when one juror told a court official that Meile had disobeyed the judge's orders and conducted an online search.

The juror said Meile told others that he discovered the patch in the picture was a white supremacist logo, but none of the other jurors were influenced by his assertation because they did not know whether it was true.

'Everybody was very upset that he didn't just listen, and did the research,' the juror said.

Both the prosecutors and defense then agreed that United States District Judge Robert Kugler should declare a mistrial and hold Meile in contempt of court.

In his order, Kugler wrote that Meile had confirmed under oath 'that he had, in fact, performed outside research on matters related to the case,' even though Kugler had repeatedly told the jurors not to conduct any research of their own.

That ban, he said, included visits to the alleged crime scene, the use of reference books or dictionaries and online searches.
Two serving soldiers in the British Army have appeared in court accused of plotting to sell ammunition to a police officer in an undercover sting.

Kirtland Gill, 40, and Rajon Graham, 32, are charged with conspiracy to sell or transfer ammunition between December 2 last year and January 30 this year.

Graham is also accused of four counts of selling or transferring ammunition, relating to a total of 300 9mm bullets which were allegedly sold to an undercover police officer.

Gill faces a further charge of possession of a prohibited weapon, relating to an imitation firearm capable of discharging noxious liquid.

The pair, from Windsor, reportedly both serve in the Coldstream Guards, based in the Berkshire town.

Regimental Sergeant Major Gill, aged 40 is charged with conspiracy to sell or transfer ammunition. He is pictured on the long walk, Windsor, late last year

Serving British Army soldier Rajon Graham, 32, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court accused of plotting to sell ammunition

Gill, who was born in Jamaica, was trumpeted by the MOD last year as the first black soldier to lead the Queen's elite Coldstream Guards.

He had been chosen to be its next Regimental Sergeant Major  one of the most senior Army roles.

The Coldstream Guards, recognisable for their red jackets and black bearskin hats, have a ceremonial role as protectors of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

The unit is the oldest continuously serving regiment in the British Army.

Sergeant Major Kirtland Gill (middle) pictured in full Coldstream Guards regalia in 2018

Gill, wearing a dark pinstriped suit, white shirt and red tie, and Graham, dressed in a grey suit and tie with a dark shirt, appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

They spoke only to confirm their names, addresses and dates of birth during the brief hearing.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring released them on conditional bail ahead of their next appearance at Southwark Crown Court on July 29.

They were arrested in January following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad in an operation also involving the Royal Military Police and the Ministry of Defence Police.

After they were charged, an Army spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that two soldiers have been charged with firearms offences.'
From its founding in July 1921, the 100-year history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been awash with blood and violence as it fought to take, and later keep control of what has now become one of the worlds great superpowers.

Tens of millions of people are believed to have been killed in China over the last 100 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, with its founding leader Mao Zedong responsible for the majority of them as he wrestled for control of the country until his death in 1976.

The CCP now counts around 95 million members, garnered over a century of war, famine and turmoil, and more recently a surge to superpower status.

But in its 100th year, the party has delivered a selective version of history through films, 'Red' tourism campaigns and books, which dance over the mass violence of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Land Reform, famines and the Tiananmen Square student crackdown.

1927  CCP expelled from the Nationalist Party, civil war ensues

Mao Zedong (pictured) declared founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, at the end of the Chinese Civil War

Three years after joining, the CCP was expelled from the then-ruling Nationalist Party. The Nationalist government then killed thousands of CCP members in Shanghai, triggering a civil war that would last until 1949.

The war is generally seen as being divided into two phases, with the hostilities put on hold as the two groups formed the Second United Front to fight back the Japanese invasion of China.

While Japan invaded in 1931 and under its brutal occupation of China that included the Nanjing Massacre (also known as the Rape of Nanjing), the hostilities were paused from 1937 to 1945.

Following the defeat of Japan, the civil war resumed, and the CCP gained the upper hand from 1945 to 1949 in what is now referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution.

The CCP gained control of mainland China and established the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, forcing the leaders of the Republic of China to retreat to the Island of Taiwan.

A political and military standoff between Taiwan and China remains to this day, with China increasingly threatening to forcibly take Taiwan.

During the second phase alone (1945 to 1949), estimates by historians have put the death toll at around 2.5 million. The death toll for the whole of the Chinese Civil War is estimated to be around six million.

1949: Chinese Land Reform

In the latter stages of the Civil War and in the early stages of the Peoples Republic of China, Mao Zedong embarked on a campaign known as the Chinese Land Reform Movement.

The campaign involved the mass killings of landlords by tenants, and a redistribution of land to the peasantry. Estimates of how many people were killed during the campaign range from the hundreds of thousands to the multiples of millions.

The CCPs evaluation by Zhou Enlai estimates that 830,000 people were killed, but Mao Zedong estimated it was as many as 2 to 3 million.

Class-motivated mass killings continued for almost the 30 years of social and economic transformation in Maoist China, and by the end of the campaign, the landlord class was all but eradicated.

Pictured: An Execution after a 'people's tribunal' in the land reform movement in Communist China Huang, likely a landowner who paid for his 'crime' by being shot, taken in January 1953

1950: Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries

In another campaign, the Peoples Republic of China launched its 'Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries', designed to eradicate opposition elements to the Republic and the CCP.

It began in March 1950 and ended in 1953, and was established in response to frequent rebellions that in the early years of the Peoples Republic of China.

The people targeted in the campaign were labelled as counterrevolutionaries and were publicly denounced in mass trials, and a significant number were arrested and executed, while many more were sentenced to labour reform.

Official estimates from the CCP in 1954 suggest as many as 2.6 million people were arrested, 1.3 million imprisoned, and 712,000 were executed. However, historians have suggested the death toll to be much higher than the official count.

1950-53: China fights US-led UN forces in the Korean war

After coming to power, the newly declared Peoples Republic of China - a MarxistLeninist single-party state controlled by the CCP - and its founding leader Mao were soon drawn into another conflict, this time in the form of the Korean War.

With the war having broken out on June 25, 1950 between North and South Korea and allied forces, China intervened on June 30  five days later.

In total, China deployed almost 3 million troops throughout the course of the war, with between 200,000 to 400,000 being killed out of the approximately 3 million total casualties in the war the majority of which were civilians.

1958: The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward, from 1958 to 1962, was an economic and social engineering campaign led by the CCP and Chairman Mao.

He launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy (crop based) to a communist society through the establishment of peoples communes.

Under the campaign, Mao ordered efforts to multiply grain yields. But with local officials afraid of failing to meet quotas, they collected a surplus of grain that left farmers to starve.

The campaign resulted in the deaths of between 15 and 55 million people, making the Great Chinese Famine the most deadly in human history. Officials blamed the disaster on bad weather and a decline in food output.

Chinese villagers from Chung Haing Hsiang in the Pai Chuan Province welcome the arrival of tractors during 'The Great Leap Forward'

1966: Cultural Revolution

The Cultural Revolution was a violent purge in China from 1966 to 1976  launched by Mao  to remove capitalist and traditional elements from society, and to re-impose 'Mao Zedong Thought' or Maoism as the dominant ideology.

In order to rile up supporters, Mao in May 1966 called on young people to bombard the headquarters, and claimed that bourgeois elements had infiltrated public institutions, such as schools, with the aim of restoring capitalism to China.

He insisted that revolutionaries be removed through a violent class struggle, and so Chinas youth responded by forming Red Guards or rebel groups around the country. Eventually, they began to take power from CCP branches and establish the revolutionary committees in 1967.

Lin Biao, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, compiled a selection of Maos saying into the Little Red Book, and was later written into the constitution as Maos successor.

Pictured: Chairman Mao with Lin Biao and Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in 1966

Mao declared the revolution as over in 1969, but it would last until at least 1971 when Lin Biao, accused of a failed coup against Mao, fled and died in plane crash.

In 1972, the four CCP officials known as Gang of Four rose to power, and the cultural revolution went on until Maos death and the arrest of the Gang of Four  both taking place in 1976  over 10 years after the revolution began. One of the members of the Gang of Four, who all but took power during this time period, was Mao's last wife.

The Cultural Revolution greatly harmed Chinas economy and traditional cultures. The number of people killed in the fighting and massacres is estimated to range from hundreds of thousands to as many as 20 million people.

June 4, 1989: The army crushes Tiananmen Square protests

Over seven weeks in 1989, student-led pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square became China's greatest political upheaval since the end of the Cultural Revolution more than a decade earlier.

Corruption among the elite was a key complaint, but the protesters were also calling for a more open and fair society, one that would require the ruling Communist Party to relinquish control over many aspects of life, including education, employment and even the size of families.

Having decided that armed force was needed to end the protests and uphold Communist rule, the leadership ordered in the army, a move that would send in an estimated 180,000 troops and armed police.

FILE - In this June 5, 1989 file photo, a Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Changan Blvd. in Tiananmen Square. The man was calling for an end to the recent violence and bloodshed against pro-democracy demonstrators

FILE - In this June 5, 1989 file photo, Chinese troops and tanks gather in Beijing, one day after the military crackdown that ended a seven week pro-democracy demonstration on Tiananmen Square. Hundreds were killed in the early morning hours of June 4

The Chinese government has never given a clear account of how many were killed and has squelched discussion of the events in the years since, but some estimates are in the thousands.

The army's crackdown was widely condemned in the West, as well as in Hong Kong, then a British colony, where supporters organised missions to bring those wanted by authorities to safety.

The protests, first labelled a 'counterrevolutionary riot,' are now merely referred to as 'political turmoil,' when they are referred to at all, as the party tries to suppress all memory of them having occurred.

The government has never expressed regret over the killings and rejected all calls for an investigation, leaving the protests an open wound in Chinese history.
Police are hunting down a suspect after a passenger was hit over the head with a glass bottle when he asked a man to put on a face mask.

The victim was on a late evening train from London St Pancras to Ramsgate in Kent when he approached a man on board to ask why he was being anti-social, playing loud music, and not paying attention to Covid rules.

The man turned his music off, put on a mask and walked away from the victim after being told off.

But when they both left the service at Canterbury West and entered the car park, the man picked up a bottle and bashed the victim on the back of the head with it before running off.

Police are hunting down a suspect (pictured) after a passenger was hit over the head with a glass bottle when he asked a man to put on a face mask

The victim suffered a gash on his head and required medical treatment.

Detectives have now issued a CCTV image of a man they wish to speak to.

A BTP spokesman said: 'The victim required medical treatment to a large cut on the back of his head.

'Officers believe the man in the CCTV image may have information which could help their investigation.'

The victim was on a late evening train from London St Pancras to Ramsgate in Kent when he approached a man on board to ask why he was being anti-social, playing loud music, and not paying attention to Covid rules (file image)

Officers are asking anyone who knows the man in the CCTV image to get in touch with British Transport Police.

The UK governments have decided wearing a face mask when travelling by train or other public transport is compulsory barring people with exemptions.

Anyone that is not exempt from wearing a face covering can get a 6,400 fine from the police or Transport for London enforcement officers.
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Dramatic footage of water pouring into the underground garage of the Miami condo tower just minutes before it collapsed is likely part of the flooding and leaks that have corroded the metal and concrete in the building's base for decades, according to an expert.

Dr. Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, a corrosion engineering expert, told DailyMail.com he believes the deadly disaster at Champlain Towers South last Thursday was the result of accelerated corrosion of the 12-story building's lower level.

This corrosion was likely caused by the salt in both the chlorinated pool water and in the sea water that may have seeped into the foundations of the shoreline property and leaked through the 'failing' waterproofing on the pool deck, he said.

The salt water slowly corroded the concrete and rebar (the steel bars used to reinforce the concrete) and load-bearing members (the concrete pillars holding up the likes of the parking garage), reducing the thickness of these critical support structures over years.

Zamanzadeh said the disaster was 'decades' in the making, with the new footage from the garage showing 'there was leakage and flooding due to more likely than not accelerated corrosion of load-bearing members.'

The video, posted to TikTok by Adriana Sarmiento, shows water gushing from the ceiling of the gated garage beneath the north side of the tower while concrete debris litters the floor.

It was filmed at 1.18am on June 24, just seven minutes before the building was reported to have collapsed at around 1.25am.

A new video shows water gushing from the ceiling of the Miami condo building's garage while concrete debris litters the floor

Just three minutes before the footage was shot, a witness said she saw the pool deck collapsing.

Resident Sara Nir told CNN she started hearing 'knocking sounds' in the building around 12.30 am but at first thought neighbors must be doing 'major construction.'

She told The Washington Post she then heard a loud noise like a wall falling down at 1.14am.

She said she left her apartment to complain to a security guard and was in the lobby at roughly 1.15am when she saw that part of the pool deck had collapsed into the underground parking garage below.

She and her two children fled the building.

Around three minutes later at 1.18am, the footage of the water pouring into the garage was shot by Sarmiento who was on vacation and staying with her husband at the neighboring Bluegreen Vacations Solara Surfside Resort.

The first part of Champlain Towers South then collapsed between 1.24 and 1.25 am, according to EMS audio.

The collapse started from the bottom of the central building, with that part of the tower falling from its base down. Seconds later, the section behind the center collapsed, followed by the east section moments later.

Based on witness accounts, footage from the scene and 911 calls, only around 10 minutes passed between the pool deck collapsing and the final section of the building tumbling to the ground.

Despite the pool deck collapsing, the pool itself was still filled with water in the days after the collapse.

Zamanzadeh told DailyMail.com, having watched the video of the garage flooding, he could not say for definite what the source of the water was.

He said it could be 'a burst pipe or from the [apparently newly-collapsed] pool deck or both.'

However, what it does show is 'flooding water' which, from his expertise, 'has been happening in different intensities for many years' in the condo building.

It is also further evidence that the collapse was likely caused by 'accelerated corrosion', he said.

The new footage was taken in the minutes before the north side of Champlain Towers South collapsed last Thursday

The video was taken at 1:18 a.m. on June 24 from across 88th Street. It is likely part of the flooding and leaks that have corroded the metal and concrete in the building's base for decades, according to an expert

Majority of condo board QUIT in 2019 as president slammed inaction and bickering over 2018 report on repair work Most of the board members of the Miami condo board resigned in 2019, with the president of the board slamming inaction and bickering over an engineer's report calling for urgent repairs. Board president Anette Goldstein was among five members of the seven-person board who resigned in a two-week period in the fall of 2019, according to meeting minutes reported by the Washington Post. Goldstein's resignation letter shows the board was consumed with infighting over an October 2018 report by engineering firm Morabito Consultants, which identified key issues with weakening concrete and called for drastic renovations costing some $15 million. 'We work for months to go in one direction and at the very last minute objections are raised that should have been discussed and resolved right in the beginning,' Goldstein wrote in a September 2019 resignation letter. Goldstein and several other board members who quit later returned to the board, according to the Post. Advertisement

'We can see evidence of accelerated corrosion from corrosive water - either from the pool or sea water - flooding the lower floor,' he said.

'More likely than not the collapse started in the lower floors possibly from the garage area, with crack propagation and the fracture of load-bearing members within the garage through the accelerated corrosion of the rebar and the steel as the primary cause by corrosive water flooding.'

The salt in the sea water and in the chlorine used in pool water makes the liquid more corrosive than usual, he explained.

Such critical corrosion narrows the thickness of the rebars in the lower floor area and causes fractures, which may lead to the eventual collapse of the building.

Then, a final contributing factor that triggered the collapse on the doomed night may have been a slight movement - or subsidence - in the ground beneath the tower which the already weakened rebar and load-bearing members could not withstand, he said.

As well as the new video, Zamanzadeh pointed to several reasons for reaching this conclusion.

Photos from the collapse site and a 2018 survey show 'less than adequate cover of concrete over the rebar in the garage area' indicating that moisture and salt water has corroded the concrete.

He also pointed out that the garage was known to have poor drainage with residents often complaining about flooding.

A consultant engineer warned in a damning October 2018 report that the 12-story had 'major structural damage' to the pool deck area and underground parking garage.

The structural field survey report, released by the town of Surfside overnight Friday, specifically raised concerns about the pool deck area, in which the waterproofing was failing, and the underground parking garage which was riddled with 'abundant' cracking.

Consultant Frank Morabito carried out the inspection to assess the overall condition of the building and recommend any structural issues in need of repair, as the building neared its 40-year standing and in turn its need for recertification under local regulation.

In the report, he warned that the 'main issue' was the pool deck and entrance drive area.

Morabito wrote that the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing' and 'beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced.'

Photos taken less than 48 hours before the collapse in the pool equipment room located in the basement parking garage, show extensive concrete spalling and corroded rebar

A contractor took these photos and noticed that in the actual parking garage, there were puddles of water which were in the direct spot beneath the leaking pool deck

Photos from a 2018 report show spalling with exposed steel reinforcement in the garage area of the condo building

The report warned that the failed waterproofing was 'causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.'

'Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,' it read.

Zamanzadeh told DailyMail.com this 'failing' waterproofing also indicates moisture and water being entrapped 'for many, many years' - potentially flooding under the pool deck for some time.

'The water is not new, water has been there for many many years,' he said.

Less than 48 hours before the collapse, a contractor had also taken photos in the pool equipment room located in the basement parking garage.

The images, obtained by Miami Herald, show extensive concrete spalling and corroded rebar with the contractor noticing that in the actual parking garage, there were puddles of water directly beneath the leaking pool deck.

The contractor, who has not been named, was putting together a bid to redo the pool and the pool equipment room - but was taken aback by the damage.

Zamanzadeh said accelerated corrosion caused by the flooding has likely been going on for '20 or 30 years.'

He hit out at the current local rules that the building must be recertified only every 40 years but also said the issue was not picked up because the 2018 survey only looked at it from a structural engineering standpoint and not a corrosion engineering standpoint.

'This is not just a structural cracking problem, this is also a corrosion problem,' he said.

Corrosion mapping should also be performed for condo tower certifications, he said, to look at the thickness of the concrete around the rebars and load-bearing members - particularly for buildings on the sea front which are at increased risk of such corrosion due to their proximity to the salt in the ocean.

'All nearby buildings should undergo corrosion mapping of their load-bearing members [the concrete pillars like those holding up the garage],' he urged.

'A 40 year recertification doesn't make sense. It should be less - maybe 20 or 15 depending on the corrosivity of the environment.

'If this had been looked at 15-20 years ago and they'd looked for evidence of accelerated corrosion, they wouldn't have had a disaster.'

He added: 'This is not a one-night event. It wasn't a sudden failure, it was a long time coming because of the accelerated corrosion, loss in thickness and then when it gets critical - it goes and is catastrophic.'

While questions continue to mount about the cause of the disaster, the search for survivors has been halted indefinitely due to fears the remaining structure could now topple.

Rescue efforts were halted and the area around the building was cleared just after 2am Thursday - almost exactly one week to the minute on from the collapse at 1.25am on June 24.

An aerial view of the site Thursday while the rescue operation remains on hold due to concerns the remaining part of the building will also fall

Dr. Mehrooz Zamanzadeh, a corrosion engineering expert, told DailyMail.com he believes the deadly disaster at Champlain Towers South last Thursday was the result of accelerated corrosion of its lower level

A close up of the rubble taken on June 24, just a few hours after the collapse, show how part of the pool deck had given way to and crumbled

An expert said the corrosion was likely caused by the salt in both the chlorinated pool water and in the sea water that may have seeped into the foundations of the shoreline property and leaked through the 'failing' waterproofing on the pool deck. The salt water slowly corroded the concrete and steel in the rebar, and reduced the thickness of these critical support structures. Above shows how the pool deck crumbled - at ground level - into the underground parking level beneath it

Officials review ALL the work of suspended building inspector who dismissed damning 2018 condo report A Florida building inspector who assured residents the tower was in good shape a month after being warned otherwise is having all of his previous work reviewed after being suspended from his new job. Rosendo Prieto was chief building official of Surfside until November 2020. In October 2018 Frank Morabito, an engineer, warned Prieto of 'major structural damage' in the Champlain Towers South building he said would cost around $9 million to repair. Morabito had been commissioned by the residents' association to look into the building, ahead of its 40-year structural review, due in 2021. That November 2018, Prieto told residents he had reviewed Morabito's report and found little of concern. 'It appears the building is in very good shape,' Prieto told them, according to the minutes of the meeting released by Surfside on Monday, and obtained by NBC News. On Tuesday, Priesto was placed on leave from his job as interim building official for C.A.P. Government Inc. Now, city officials in Doral said they were reviewing his previous work citing 'an abundance of caution' to make sure he didn't clear other buildings that may be dangerous. Meanwhile, it has also been revealed that the entire building department for the town of Surfside was under review at the time of the collapse. Town manager Guillermo Olmedillo put the department under review in January 2019, reported the Miami Herald. A memorandum, which was addressed to Prieto, called for inspectors to be immediately reachable, with the deliverance of a weekly schedule of inspections. It was considered a last-ditch effort before Olmedillo potentially looked to outsource the department away from the town and towards the county. The minutes from the November 2018 meeting stated: 'The permit process, balcony railings, concrete restoration, and waterproofing was discussed.' The day after the meeting, Prieto wrote in an email to then-town manager Olmedillo that 'it went very well.' Advertisement

Officials said the site had become unstable and could topple on search and rescue teams, with technology used to monitor cracks sounding alarms about the dangers and on-site experts warning of movements in the structure.

The west section of the building is still standing and has been closely monitored during the search as rescue teams have combed through the rubble round the clock.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a Thursday morning press conference that 'structural concerns' had led to the halting of the search and rescue operation earlier that morning.

'We were forced to halt operations on the the collapse in the early hours of the morning due to structural concerns about the standing structure,' she said.

Cava vowed to resume the search as soon as it is safe to do so as she said the safety of rescue teams was 'paramount.'

'We're doing everything that we can to ensure that the safety of our first responders is paramount and to continue our search and rescue operations as soon as it is safe to do so,' she said.

'And our engineers are continuing to monitor the structure as we've paused operations to evaluate the situation and all possible options and next steps including with the assistance of the state engineers.'

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky revealed that first responders had been pulled back when three alarms monitoring cracks in the partially collapsed building went off, signaling crews were in danger.

He said this indicated there had been 'some expansion' in the cracks.

Six to 12 inches of movement had also been noted in a large column that was hanging from the structure that experts warned could fall and cause damage to support structures, keeping the shell of the building upright.

Cominsky said search and rescue teams had been 'working in a very, very, unsafe environment' as he admitted he did not know how long the operation would be on hold.

'I don't have a timeframe now,' he said.

As of 4.30pm local time, the search was yet to resume as experts worked out how to proceed safely - costing valuable time as hopes of finding anyone else alive increasingly fade.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told NBC News officials are considering carrying out a controlled demolition of the part of Champlain Towers South that is still standing as the search is yet to resume more than 12 hours after it was called off in the early hours of Thursday morning.

'If the existing building is a problem, then we need to eliminate that problem quickly,' he said.

The need to resume the search quickly comes as 145 people remain missing in the rubble more than one week on from the condo tower's collapse and as the collapse site is now in danger of being hammered by a tropical storm charting its path across the Atlantic this week.

An aerial view of the collapsed building Thursday. Zamanzadeh said the disaster was 'decades' in the making due to longstanding corrosion

Rescue efforts at the Miami condo tower were forced to come to a halt Thursday amid fears the remaining structure could topple on search and rescue teams

Burkett told NBC's Geoff Bennett this impending adverse weather was raising further concerns about the structural integrity of the remains of the 12-story tower.

'If the [remaining] building is going to fall, we should make sure it falls the right way,' he said.

Structural engineer Scott Nacheman, who is working at the site with FEMA, told the families desperately waiting for news about their loved ones that demolition of the rest of the building was an option.

'One of our concepts of operations is exactly what you're talking about,' Nacheman said, according to Miami New Times.

'And the reason it hasn't been possibly pursued further at this point is we didn't want to cause any more damage or destruction to the individuals who are trapped in the low portion

'We're now getting to a point in the operation where we're exploring the next phase. One of those possibilities, a very highly likely possibility, is what you just discussed.'

However, demolishing the building could hamper the search further by adding more rubble for teams to wade through and posing a greater risk to anyone who may still be alive in the rubble, the engineer said.

Allyn Kilsheimer, the structural engineer hired by Surfside to investigate the collapse, told CNN computer models are being used to determine what wind and storm conditions the remaining structure and collapse site can withstand.

'We are doing computer models of what kind of wind force causes what kind of stress, and, therefore, it's possible that at a certain wind force, the building is still standing,' he said.

'For eight or nine or 10 hours, it might have to - the recovery effort might have to stop to get people away from there. But we're doing the computer modeling to try and confirm those different numbers.'

Officials are facing the prospect that the search could be hampered further over the coming days by a tropical storm that threatens to strike Miami-Dade early next week.

Search and rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story condo tower Wednesday

Tropical Storm Elsa formed over the tropical Atlantic early Thursday morning, with all of South Florida now in its potential path.

National Hurricane Center forecasters said Elsa, now the fifth named storm of the season, could take aim at Miami-Dade county by Monday - marking a blow to the county currently grappling with the aftermath of the condo collapse. Palm Beach and Broward counties are also within its potential path.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning the state was 'actively monitoring' the storm and coming up with contingency plans for if and when it strikes.

'Obviously the state meteorologist team is actively monitoring the storm and will continue to provide updates and our department of emergency management continues to implement contingency plans for potential tropical weather impacts including identifying alternate work facilities,' he said in the press briefing.

Elsa had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph with higher gusts and was 865 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The collapse site is now in danger of being hammered by Tropical Storm Elsa which is charting its path across the Atlantic this week

All of South Florida including Miami-Dade is now in its potential path to be hit Monday or Tuesday

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles from the center and it was moving west at 25 mph.

An even faster motion to the west-northwest is expected over the next 24 to 36 hours.

The storm is expected to pass near or over portions of the Windward Islands or the southern Leeward Islands on Friday, move into the eastern Caribbean Sea late Friday and Friday night, and move near the southern coast of Hispaniola on Saturday.

The storm - which forecasters warn could increase to a hurricane - could carry on its track to Florida by early next week, with the southern part of the state currently in the cone for potential impacts.

Forecasters said it was too early to tell for certain if Florida will be impacted by the storm.

This will depend on whether Elsa's track from Saturday. If the storm tracks further south it may well avoid Florida but if it tracks north the area the state will likely be in its path.

Now, more than one week on from the tragedy, 145 people remain missing in the rubble.

More bodies were pulled from the debris Wednesday, taking the confirmed dearth toll to 18.

The latest victims were identified as two young sisters Lucia Guara, 10, and Emma Guara, 4, whose parents were previously also confirmed among the dead.

Biden tells Miami condo rescue crews how his children were saved by 'jaws of life' in 1972 crash that killed his wife and daughter and tells Ron DeSantis 'we're here to help' - as search for missing 145 residents is suspended INDEFINITELY

President Joe Biden met with fire and rescue personnel in Florida Thursday who are engaged in the wrenching and laborious task of contending with the devastating building collapse and its aftermath, telling the responders 'What you're doing is incredible.'

Biden scheduled a meeting with dozens of first responders soon after arriving at a hotel blocks from the disaster seen of the Champlain Tower collapse.

'I just want you to know - I understand,' he told them. 'I just want to say: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,' he told them.'

Biden met the responders, who wore Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue jackets, FEMA patches, and police uniforms, at the St. Regis hotel in Bar Harbour, where he is devoting a day to meeting with families, public officials, and responders.

At one point, he recounted how first responders used 'jaws of life' to pry his children out of the vehicle during the 1972 car crash that took his first wife, Neilia, as well as his infant daughter, Naomi.

'What you're doing is incredible,' President Joe Biden told first responders are responding to the tragic building collapse in Surfside, Florida

He urged them to 'be careful' in the work, amid concerns that shifting or instability in the rubble could pose a risk. Work was suspended after about 2 am amid the safety concerns.

'I promise you: I know. What you're doing here is incredible,' he told them.

'What youre doing now is just hard as hell to deal with, even psychologically, to deal with,' he said.

The event was a photo 'spray,' and reporters weren't invited to stay for long. Other notables, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio, arrived shortly after it began, with an apology from staff.

His visit came on a day when work was being suspended indefinitely due to safety issues.

When Biden met with families, he did so away from the cameras, although staff and other public officials were there.

According to the White House, the president delivered brief remarks from the center of a room. He went table to table to meet with family members. The first lady, Rubio, Scott, and DeSantis were there.

Others also went table-to-table, according to a senior administration official. 'POTUS stayed until everyone had a chance to speak with him,' said the official, using an acronym for the president.

Earlier, Biden told DeSantis 'we're here to help' shortly before he met with rescue crews looking for the 145 people still missing in the rubble of the collapsed Miami condo and spoke to officials leading the recovery.

He spoke to the 'a lot of pain and anxiety, suffering' of families awaiting the final word on their relatives as search efforts were halted over fears the rest of the structure could fall on first responders.

'We're not going anywhere,' Biden promised, as he spoke of the federal response, which includes dispatching FEMA and a promise of federal aide. 'For real,' he added, for emphasis.

Biden met with dozens of responders, and urged them to take caution, telling them 'I understand'

Biden met with responders after a meeting with Florida state and local political leaders about the response

Most of the board members of the condominium that collapsed last week resigned in 2019, with the president of the board slamming inaction and bickering over an engineers report calling for urgent repairs

Joe Biden family in 1972 appears on a postcard that was used for Biden's first campaign for the U.S. Senate. Pictured are (l-r) Hunter Biden, Neilia Biden and infant daughter Naomi Biden, Joe Biden, and Beau Biden

This is the remains of the car in which the wife and daughter of Delaware's U.S. Senator-elect Joseph R. Biden Junior were killed. Neilia Biden and her daughter, Amy, 1, were killed when the family's station wagon was hit broadside by a flat-bed tractor-trailer on highway. Biden's two other children were also hurt in the wreck and were listed in "guarded condition" at the hospital

'Tell me what you need?' he told officials who gathered in the St. Regis hotel blocks away from the site.

Biden was seated next to DeSantis, as well as Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade County. He was seated across from two Republican rivals, Sen. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, Scott sporting the same familiar Navy cap he wore on disaster visits with former President Donald Trump.

'You know what's good about this?' Biden said: 'It lets the nation know we can cooperate...that's really important.'

'We're here to help,' Biden told officials. He also told DeSantis, 'This is your show.' DeSantis also paid Biden a compliment. 'We've had no bureaucracy,' DeSantis told him.

'You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and youve been very supportive,' DeSantis told the president.

'It's been an incredible collaboration from the beginning,' said Cava as the officials traded compliments while the cameras rolled.

'There's an amazing story, and lives have been shattered irrevocably as a result of this,' DeSantis said at the meeting when it was his turn to speak. 'We've already identified unfortunately fatalities, people who've been 92 years old and the matriarch of a wonderful family. We have families with kids missing. And we even have young newlyweds, who hadn't even been married a year that were in the tower when it collapsed.'

'The cooperation has been, it's been great, the local and both the municipal and the county have been fantastic,' he said. 'And you guys have not only been supportive at the federal level, but we've had no bureaucracy,' he said. He said FEMA approvals were happening 'in no time.'

President Biden meets with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a briefing at the collapse of the Miami condo

Biden spoke of the 'pain and anxiety, suffering' of families awaiting the final word on their relatives who lived in the collapsed building

Workers peer up at the rubble pile at the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building

DeSantis thanked rescue teams who traveled from Virginia and other locales to assist. 'That's going to be helpful because this is grueling, and obviously the families' lives have been shattered.'

The president, who speaks frequently of grief and has bonded with families of school shooting victims and others touched by loss by invoking his own life tragedies, is making the trip at an uncertain time.

There is new information coming in about water damage that may have triggered the collapse, and documents revealing the condo building's efforts to contend with ballooning roof and structural repair estimates.

The death toll rose to 18 on Wednesday night, with sisters Lucia, 10, and Emma Guara, four, among the latest victims identified.

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House selected Thursday for the visit after consulting with local officials. She declined to weigh in when asked if Biden approved for former President Donald Trump's decision to hold a campaign rally in Sarasota, about 200 miles from the wreckage.

A former Trump aide anonymously blasted the decision in the Washington Examiner. 'What, you're gonna go across and do a rally and beat up Democrats? It's tone-deaf,' said the aide.

There were reports early Thursday morning that recovery efforts had to be paused amid instability in the pile of rubble where part of the tower north of Miami once stood.

U.S. Coast Guard boats patrol in front of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building during Biden's visit

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden depart from Joint Base Andrews en route to Miami, Florida, to visit the site of the collapsed condo where 18 have died and 145 are still missing. They were joined by Col. William McDonald, 89th Airlift Wing Vice Commander, and his wife Diana

Biden salutes at the top of the stairs to Air Force One with Jill before their flight to Florida early Thursday morning
A total of 130 countries have agreed a global tax reform ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share wherever they operate, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Thursday.

The OECD added in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed at a rate of at least 15 percent.

But European Union low-tax countries Ireland and Hungary declined to sign up to the agreement reached in the OECD framework, highlighting lingering divisions on global taxation.

Both countries are part of a group of EU nations also including Luxembourg and Poland that have relied on low tax rates to attract multinationals and build their economies.

Ireland, the EU home to tech giants Facebook, Google and Apple, has a corporate tax rate of just 12.5 percent.

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned that the new rules, if achieved, could see Ireland lose 20 percent of its corporate revenue.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a statement that global companies, including US behemoths Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple would be taxed at a rate of at least 15 percent

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe (pictured) has warned that the new rules, if achieved, could see Ireland lose 20 percent of its corporate revenue

But the new tax regime is set to add some $150 billion to government coffers globally.

'The framework updates key elements of the century-old international tax system, which is no longer fit for purpose in a globalised and digitalised 21st century economy,' the OECD said.

The formal agreement follows an endorsement by the G7 group of wealthy nations last month at a meeting in Britain, when US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a global minimum tax 'would end the race to the bottom in corporate taxation'.

The first 'pillar' of the OECD agreement is to ensure that international companies, especially digital giants, pay taxes in countries where they make profits, rather than in low-tax jurisdictions chosen to minimise tax payments.

The second 'pillar' is a minimum level of corporate tax globally, so that governments do not compete with each other by lowering taxes to attract investment from large multinationals.

The formal agreement follows an endorsement by the G7 group of wealthy nations last month at a meeting in Britain (pictured)

The negotiations now move to a meeting of the G20 group of developed and emerging economies on July 9-10 in Venice, Italy.

US President Joe Biden said the latest deal 'puts us in striking distance of full global agreement to halt the race to the bottom for corporate taxes.'

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellet called it 'historic'.

New global tax: The G7's view G7 finance ministers last month agreed on a universal approach to taxing global companies. It will see huge multi-nationals - such as Google, Amazon and Facebook - forced to pay a levy on sales in the country in which they are earned, as well as where they have headquarters. Only large companies with profit margins of at least 10 per cent will be affected by the change. A total of 20 per cent of any profit above the 10 per cent margin will be reallocated. It will then be subjected to corporation tax in the countries where the companies make sales. The G7 also agreed to set a global standard of corporation tax - set at 15 per cent minimum. Nations can opt to make that figure higher with the tax 'operated on a country-by-country basis'. Ministers hope this will create 'a more level playing field for UK firms and cracking down on tax avoidance'. The G7 will provide the coordination necessary to put the new international rules in place. Advertisement

Germany, another backer of the tax reform, hailed it has a 'colossal step towards tax justice', and France said it was 'the most important tax agreement in a century'.

British finance minister Rishi Sunak, whose country holds the G7 presidency, said 'the fact that 130 countries across the world, including all of the G20, are now on board, marks a further step in our mission to reform global tax'.

Nine of the 139 participants in the talks have so far not signed on to the agreement.

But China, whose position was being closely watched as it offers tax incentives to key sectors, endorsed the agreement.

'It is in everyone's interest that we reach a final agreement among all Inclusive Framework Members as scheduled later this year,' said OECD Secretary General Mathias Cormann.

'This package does not eliminate tax competition, as it should not, but it does set multilaterally agreed limitations on it,' Cormann said, adding that 'it also accommodates the various interests across the negotiating table, including those of small economies and developing jurisdictions'.

Finance chiefs have characterised a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate.

For Biden, a global tax agreement will help maintain US competitiveness since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs programme with a price tag of around $2 trillion.

Biden hailed an 'important step in moving the global economy forward to be more equitable for workers and middle class families in the United States and around the world.'

He noted that those nations who signed up make up more than 90 percent of the world's economy.

The OECD's statement said the package 'will provide much-needed support to governments needing to raise necessary revenues' to fix their budgets and invest in measures to back the post-Covid recovery.

An agreement for implementation is planned for October, it said.
Nancy Pelosi refused to answer a question Thursday about Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar standing by her comparison of the U.S. and Israel to terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban and saying her Jewish colleagues weren't 'equal partners in justice.

'Earlier this week, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was on our ' a reporter started to ask before Pelosi interrupted her and waved off the question.

'Well let's stay with this and I'll answer that afterward,' Pelosi said, but never got back to the question before walking out of the room.

The House Speaker appeared to want to keep the press conference focused on her announcing the panel for the select committee probing the January 6 Capitol attack, which included the appointment of lone Republican Liz Cheney.

Omar told CNN this week that she does not regret comparison of the U.S. and Israel to internationally recognized terror organizations  after previously walking them back.

Nancy Pelosi refused to answer a question Thursday about Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar standing by her comparison of the U.S. and Israel to terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban and saying her Jewish colleagues weren't 'equal partners in justice

She also blamed her Jewish colleagues for forcing her to reverse the comments last month.

The White House on Wednesday distanced President Joe Biden from Omar when asked about her comments.

'Any attempt to draw an equivalency between the United States and our close ally, Israel, with a terror groups like Hamas or the Taliban, is false and unacceptable,' Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during her daily briefing. 'Those are certainly not comments that we've made from here.'

Psaki did however defend Omar and insisted she did not mean her comments.

Omar has faced furious criticism after she appeared on CNN with host Jake Tapper and said she didn't regret the comparison she made in June comments.

Omar told CNN this week that she does not regret comparison of the U.S. and Israel to internationally recognized terror organizations  after previously walking them back.

GOP Representative Andy Biggs tweeted, 'Ilhan Omar is a rabid anti-Semite who has no problem smearing Jews, even in her own party. Shameful and un-American.'

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asked, 'Why is Ilhan Omar still on the Foreign Affairs Committee?' he asked, sharing the Tapper clip. 'Why is she on any committee?'

Feminist Muslim writer Asra Nomani tweeted, 'This is what a modern day Muslim Supremacist looks like. Nomani shared the video and added, 'Her wound is bigger than their wounda wound collector in the Oppression Olympics.'

Omar spoke to CNN 's Jake Tapper, who asked her if she understood why the language she's used about Israel was perceived to be anti-Semitic by Jews.

'I have welcomed any time my colleagues have asked to have a conversation, to learn from them, for them to learn from me,' Omar responded. 'I think it's really important for these members to realize that they haven't been partners in justice,' she added.

'They haven't been equally engaging in seeking justice around the world,' the Minnesota Democrat continued. 'And I think I will continue to do that.'

Omar added that it was important to her 'as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don't' to be a voice in finding accountability.

The 'squad' member's latest dust-up with Jewish colleagues came in June when she asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken where victims of alleged war crimes could pursue justice if the U.S. is against the International Criminal Court taking up the cases of Palestinians and Afghans.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (right) said Tuesday that her Jewish colleagues 'haven't been equal partners and justice' and said she didn't regret equating the U.S. and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper (left)

'We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,' Omar wrote in a tweet sharing a video of the exchange.

Linking the U.S. and Israel to the Taliban and Hamas created an uproar, including among Jewish Democratic lawmakers.

The Minnesota congresswoman issued a statement on June 10 that appeared to walk back portions of her previous remarks.

She sad she was 'in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems'.

Instead, she clarified in her statement at the time, she was seeking 'accountability for specific incidents not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel.'

Previously, Omar had sparked fury when she talked about how the U.S.-Israel relationship was 'all about the Benjamins.'

Omar responded 'I don't' when Tapper asked if she regretted her most recent controversial comments.

'I think it's really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make,' she said.

'Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken. The cases are put together in front of the ICC. ICC has been investigating. I know that some of my colleagues don't lend legitimacy to the ICC, but I tend to think that people around the world who have experienced injustice need to be able to have a place where they can go,' she argued.

'And, as a country that helped found the ICC and supported it, I think that it is really important for us to continue to find ways in which people can find justice around the world,' Omar added.

More broadly she said she understood why some of the things she said would be interpreted as being anti-Semitic.

'No, I hear that,' she told Tapper when the journalist pressed the point.

'I have obviously clarified and apologized when I have felt that my words have offended. And it's really important, right?' she said.

Omar, who is Muslim, also argued that she hasn't been afforded the same courtesy.

'As I have explained to my colleagues, they have engaged in Islamophobic tropes. I have yet to receive an apology,' she said.

She argued that it should be a two-way street of understanding.

'I think, when we are engaging in a space where we don't know how our language will be received, it is important for us to be open-minded. And I think I have always been someone who is humbled, someone who understands how words can be harmful and hurtful to people,' Omar said. 'And I have always listened and learned and behaved accordingly and showed up with compassion and care.'

In 14 tweets she sent out Wednesday, Omar walked back the comments she made on Tapper's show.

'I am someone who has survived war and experienced injustice firsthand, who is alive today because I was welcomed into this country as a refugee,' she began. 'I know that many of my colleagues - both Jewish and non-Jewish - deeply share that commitment to fighting injustice.'

She then said that both Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues share a commitment in fighting injustice.

'I also know that the Black community and the Jewish community have historically stood side-by-side in the fight against injustice and throughout our history we have faced efforts to divide us based on our differences,' she continued. 'In this moment, we must stand in solidarity because what unites us is so much greater than what unites us.'

She talked about how the 1960s civil rights movement wasn't 'Black people working in isolation.'

'It took a multiracial, multi-religious coalition of freedom fighters, including Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Kivie Kaplan, and Arnie Aronson, organizing in solidarity,' she continued. 'Heschel in particular was a deep inspiration to Martin Luther King and a moral leader of the movement.'

She said that the 'values of fighting injustice and inequality' are part of the Jewish faith - and the Muslim faith.

Omar also named a number of Jewish groups that are engaged in civil rights, 'even amidst threats to their safety.'

'These threats are not a thing of the past. It is not lost on me that today people go shoot up a synagogue because people think orgs like [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] are helping refugees like me come to this country,' the Minnesota Democrat said.

'Most of my colleagues across Congress may not be refugees themselves, but fleeing war and persecution only to find a refuge in the United States of America*is* the Jewish-American experience. This binds us,' she continued.

'That is why it is so important for us to build solidarity in the here and now, to make clear that the threats we face can only be solved if we see racism, anti-Muslim hate, and xenophobia as inextricably linked to antisemitism,' the lawmaker added. 'That is the work we have tried to do in Congress.'

She pointed out that she is a member of the Black-Jewish caucus.

'As a refugee and survivor of war, I see it is as a core responsibility to fight *all* injustice and engage *all* my colleagues in finding mechanisms of justice for the oppressed,' Omar said.

'Building solidarity is a painstaking processespecially in a country and media environment as polarized and contentious ours is now. But we know it is the only path forward,' she continued.

'It is when we build community with one another, when we cut through all the efforts to keep us afraid and angry, that we see our destinies as tied. That's the work I'll continue to do, and I hope you'll join me,' the congresswoman added.

So far, the backlash to the interview has been coming from Republicans.

Democratic Rep. David Cicilline said Tuesday night critics were, again, taking Omar out of context.

'There they go again right wingers in Washington are once again claiming Rep.Omar said something she didn't say, and trying to create a controversy where there is none,' the Rhode Island lawmaker tweeted. 'It's pathetic that they are (once again) demonizing a young woman of color to score political points.'

The White House on Wednesday distanced Biden from Omar after she stood by her comments comparing the US and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban.

'Any attempt to draw an equivalency between the United States and our close ally, Israel, with a terror groups like Hamas or the Taliban, is false and unacceptable,' Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at her briefing on Wednesday.

Psaki did however defend Omar and insisted she did not mean her comments, but said: 'Those are certainly not comments that we've made from here.'

Omar has face furious criticism after she appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper and said she didn't regret the comparison she made earlier this month.

GOP Rep. Andy Biggs had tweeted, 'Ilhan Omar is a rabid anti-Semite who has no problem smearing Jews, even in her own party. Shameful and un-American.'

Republicans including Rep. Andy Biggs (top) and Sen. Tom Cotton (bottom) attacked Omar in tweets following her appearance on Tapper's show

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton asked, 'Why is Ilhan Omar still on the Foreign Affairs Committee?' he asked, sharing the Tapper clip. 'Why is she on any committee?'

Feminist Muslim writer Asra Nomani tweeted, 'This is what a modern day Muslim Supremacist looks like. Nomani shared the video and added, 'Her wound is bigger than their wounda wound collector in the Oppression Olympics.'

Omar spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper, who asked her if she understood why the language she's used about Israel was perceived to be anti-Semitic by Jews.

'I have welcomed any time my colleagues have asked to have a conversation, to learn from them, for them to learn from me,' Omar responded. 'I think it's really important for these members to realize that they haven't been partners in justice,' she added.

'They haven't been equally engaging in seeking justice around the world,' the Minnesota Democrat continued. 'And I think I will continue to do that.'

Omar added that it was important to her 'as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don't' to be a voice in finding accountability.

The 'squad' member's latest dust-up with Jewish colleagues came earlier this month when she asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken where victims of alleged war crimes could pursue justice if the U.S. is against the International Criminal Court taking up the cases of Palestinians and Afghans.

'We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,' Omar wrote in a tweet sharing a video of the exchange.

Linking the U.S. and Israel to the Taliban and Hamas created an uproar, including among Jewish Democratic lawmakers.

Previously, Omar had sparked fury when she talked about how the U.S.-Israel relationship was 'all about the Benjamins.'

'We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,' Omar wrote in a tweet sharing a video of her questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The comment sparked fury, including among Jewish Democrats

Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as Omar questions him about where victims of crimes against humanity can take their complaints

Omar responded 'I don't' when Tapper asked if she regretted her most recent controversial comments.

'I think it's really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make,' she said.

'Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken. The cases are put together in front of the ICC. ICC has been investigating. I know that some of my colleagues don't lend legitimacy to the ICC, but I tend to think that people around the world who have experienced injustice need to be able to have a place where they can go,' she argued.

'And, as a country that helped found the ICC and supported it, I think that it is really important for us to continue to find ways in which people can find justice around the world,' Omar added.

More broadly she said she understood why some of the things she said would be interpreted as being anti-Semitic.

'No, I hear that,' she told Tapper when the journalist pressed the point.

'I have obviously clarified and apologized when I have felt that my words have offended. And it's really important, right?' she said.

Omar, who is Muslim, also argued that she hasn't been afforded the same courtesy.

'As I have explained to my colleagues, they have engaged in Islamophobic tropes. I have yet to receive an apology,' she said.

She argued that it should be a two-way street of understanding.

Omar walked back her Tuesday comments in a thread of tweets Wednesday first assuring critics that, 'I know that many of my colleagues - both Jewish and non-Jewish - deeply share that commitment to fighting injustice'

'I think, when we are engaging in a space where we don't know how our language will be received, it is important for us to be open-minded. And I think I have always been someone who is humbled, someone who understands how words can be harmful and hurtful to people,' Omar said. 'And I have always listened and learned and behaved accordingly and showed up with compassion and care.'

In 14 tweets she sent out Wednesday, Omar walked back the comments she made on Tapper's show.

'I am someone who has survived war and experienced injustice firsthand, who is alive today because I was welcomed into this country as a refugee,' she began. 'I know that many of my colleagues - both Jewish and non-Jewish - deeply share that commitment to fighting injustice.'

She then said that both Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues share a commitment in fighting injustice.

'I also know that the Black community and the Jewish community have historically stood side-by-side in the fight against injustice and throughout our history we have faced efforts to divide us based on our differences,' she continued. 'In this moment, we must stand in solidarity because what unites us is so much greater than what unites us.'

She talked about how the 1960s civil rights movement wasn't 'Black people working in isolation.'

'It took a multiracial, multi-religious coalition of freedom fighters, including Jewish leaders like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Kivie Kaplan, and Arnie Aronson, organizing in solidarity,' she continued. 'Heschel in particular was a deep inspiration to Martin Luther King and a moral leader of the movement.'

Rep. Ilhan Omar sent out 14 tweets on Wednesday in an effort to clean up comments she made on Tapper's show the night before

She said that the 'values of fighting injustice and inequality' are part of the Jewish faith - and the Muslim faith.

Omar also named a number of Jewish groups that are engaged in civil rights, 'even amidst threats to their safety.'

'These threats are not a thing of the past. It is not lost on me that today people go shoot up a synagogue because people think orgs like [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] are helping refugees like me come to this country,' the Minnesota Democrat said.

'Most of my colleagues across Congress may not be refugees themselves, but fleeing war and persecution only to find a refuge in the United States of America*is* the Jewish-American experience. This binds us,' she continued.

'That is why it is so important for us to build solidarity in the here and now, to make clear that the threats we face can only be solved if we see racism, anti-Muslim hate, and xenophobia as inextricably linked to antisemitism,' the lawmaker added. 'That is the work we have tried to do in Congress.'

She pointed out that she is a member of the Black-Jewish caucus.

'As a refugee and survivor of war, I see it is as a core responsibility to fight *all* injustice and engage *all* my colleagues in finding mechanisms of justice for the oppressed,' Omar said.

'Building solidarity is a painstaking processespecially in a country and media environment as polarized and contentious ours is now. But we know it is the only path forward,' she continued.

'It is when we build community with one another, when we cut through all the efforts to keep us afraid and angry, that we see our destinies as tied. That's the work I'll continue to do, and I hope you'll join me,' the congresswoman added.

So far, the backlash to the interview has been coming from Republicans.

Democratic Rep. David Cicilline said Tuesday night critics were, again, taking Omar out of context.

'There they go again right wingers in Washington are once again claiming Rep.Omar said something she didn't say, and trying to create a controversy where there is none,' the Rhode Island lawmaker tweeted. 'It's pathetic that they are (once again) demonizing a young woman of color to score political points.'
Greek police now fear Caroline Crouch's helicopter pilot husband may have been smuggling drugs for cartels and killed his British wife when she found out.

Theories of potential drug involvement were sparked after an investigation into Charalambos Anagnostopoulos's finances revealed he lived a lavish lifestyle, despite earning a pilot's salary.

Police officers found the couple had recently purchased a 47,000 plot of land, designed a 140,000 home, and enjoyed an expensive get away to Dubai.

The find, police said, suggests Anagnostopoulos, 33, who is known as Babis, may have had an alternative source of income and he killed Caroline, 20, when she found out where it came from.

She was suffocated to death with a pillow in front of her 11-month-old daughter in the early hours of May 11.

Greek police now fear Caroline Crouch's (pictured, with the couple's baby Lydia) helicopter pilot husband may have been smuggling drugs for cartels and killed his British wife when she found out

Theories of potential drug involvement were sparked after an investigation into Charalambos Anagnostopoulos's finances revealed he lived a lavish lifestyle, despite earning a pilot's salary

Caroline's father David Crouch has said he believes there was 'some foundation' to rumours Babis was involved in drug smuggling.

David said he and wife Susan learned of Caroline's death from neighbours on the Greek island Alonissos.

He said: 'I'll never forget how I felt. It was as if an icy hand had reached inside my chest and gripped my heart. It was the worst day of my life.'

Babis told investigators his wife had been killed during a violent home invasion where armed burglars had tied him up and suffocated Caroline.

He later confessed to killing his British wife, telling police he murdered her in a fit of rage after she had ordered him out of the house and demanded a divorce.

After suffocating her with a pillow, Babis said he 'panicked' when he saw she was dead and - once he realised hiding her body was not an option  he staged a fake robbery and killed the couple's dog because he 'wanted to raise' their daughter out of prison.

Anagnostopoulos, known as Babis, initially told investigators that his wife had been killed during a violent home invasion where armed burglars had tied him and Caroline up. Pictured: The couple with one-year-old daughter Lydia

Anagnostopoulos (pictured wearing a bulletproof vest while in custody) later confessed to killing his British wife, telling police he murdered her in a fit of rage after she had ordered him out of the house and demanded a divorce

The admittance came after data from Caroline's smartwatch showed she was in an 'extreme state of mental or physical stress for six minutes', and revealed that she did not die at the time Anagnostopoulos had originally claimed.

It also came after weeks of falsely playing a grieving husband, and surrounding himself with Ms Crouch's family and devastated parents.

Believing he had got away with the elaborate cover up, Babis even asked her parents to shell out 3,500 - about 4,000 Euros - for her coffin.

Thanassis Haramanis, the lawyer for Caroline's family, told The Sun: 'This man has no shame.

'First he killed Caroline, then he asked her parents for money to pay for her coffin and to fly her body from Athens for the funeral.

'They gave him 4,000 euros. He paid nothing.'

After suffocating Caroline as she slept, Anagnostopoulos then smothered puppy Roxy (pictured) and hanged the pup's lifeless body on the banister of their first floor flat in Athens

Believing he had got away with the elaborate cover up, Babis even asked her parents to shell out 3,500 - about 4,000 Euros - for her coffin (pictured)

Ms Crouch's parents have since won temporary custody of their granddaughter Lydia and intend to bring her up on Alonnisos.

Police are also investigating Babis's claim he murdered Caroline in a fit of rage after she threatened to leave him.

In police interviews, Babis claimed the British mother was 'aggressive', telling police 'you cannot imagine my love for this girl'.

He claimed Caroline 'threw the child in the crib' and hit him, causing him to lose his temper on the night she was killed.

But Caroline's diary  which form part of a 26-page police file  paints a picture of a violent and unhappy marriage, with her vowing to leave him at several points.

The heartbreaking entries told of bitter fights between the pair, with Caroline recalling one where she 'hit him' and 'broke down a door'.

Caroline said she was thinking of leaving the helicopter pilot as early as 2019 and that she 'was not well' in the relationship.

She first told Babis she would leave him in July 2020, when their baby was a month old, saying she 'felt and feels miserable' and she was looking for houses.

In the months before her death, Babis became increasingly controlling, a source said.

He allegedly installed a tracing app on her phone and accompanied her to therapy sessions.

'They way she was murdered suggests she was physically and symbolically shut up.'

A lawyer for Eleni Mylonopoulou - described in local media as 'the couple's mental health counsellor' - said Caroline had been looking for an apartment in central Athens in order to leave her husband.

She wanted to leave in November and find a home near a cooking school she planned to attend, tanea.gr reported.

Caroline had told her counsellor that she was very afraid of Anagnostopoulos and sought advice on how to improve her situation, lawyer Stamatia Markou said.

'Caroline had revealed from the first moment to my client the fears for her husband,' the lawyer said.

Speaking to local media at the weekend, Stamatia Markou, a lawyer for Eleni Mylonopoulou - described in local media as 'the couple's mental health counsellor' - said Caroline had been looking for an apartment in central Athens in order to leave her husband

The counsellor said that Caroline realised she had made the wrong choice in marrying Anagnostopoulos and was looking for a way out of the relationship

'The fear that Caroline felt in her sessions was pervasive,' she said, adding that Caroline's counsellor would ensure the door was closed properly so that her husband could not hear what was discussed in their sessions.

Markou went on to say that the couple had 'many problems' and that 'there had been no relationship between them, not even sexual, in recent months.'

Mylonopoulou said she had urged Caroline to speak to her mother but Caroline had refused, saying she did not want to disappoint her.

The counsellor said that Caroline realised she had made the wrong choice in marrying Anagnostopoulos and was looking for a way out of the relationship.

'She was trying to find ways to get out of the situation,' Markou said.

Markou also accused Anagnostopoulos of attempting to 'blackmail' the counsellor, saying without elaborating that Mylonopoulou was 'indirectly blackmailed by the confessed perpetrator.'

'He went and found her up close. He had the courage! My client made sure she was not alone, precisely because she was afraid of him,' Markou said.

Mylonopoulou also reportedly received a message from Caroline asking to end the counselling sessions. Markou claimed it was not unlikely that this message had actually been sent by Anagnostopoulos.

On Saturday, Anagnostopoulos was pictured from behind barbed wire as he stretched his legs in the exercise yard of the notorious Korydallos prison.

The prison is located on the outskirts of Athens and is Greece's main maximum-security facility.

Conditions inside the prison are so bad that the Greek government has vowed to shut it down but Anagnostopoulos is being housed in its 'VIP' wing, enjoying a host of luxuries that have left other inmates and prison wardens fuming at the 'five-star' treatment he is receiving.

Photographs were also published in the Greek media on Saturday showing the inside of Anagnostopoulos's cell, which comes with its own shower, toilet, set of furniture, large window, which allows in plenty of light, and a television.
Britons could be wearing masks and social distancing for next five winters under a new plan for life after July 19.

Health officials are said to have drafted a five-year plan with options for what freedom-limiting restrictions can be freely reimposed should cases spike again.

Mandatory working from home, enforced mask wearing and limits on indoor gatherings could come back in the winter if the number of hospitalisations increases at a time when the NHS is already under pressure, reports suggest.

The move would risk a rebellion from backbench Tory MPs eager for life to return to normal. A Department of Health spokesperson told the paper: 'We do not recognise this story and do not know where it has come from.'

It comes in spite of Britain's vaccination drive keeping hospital admissions low - with data showing jabs make Covid nothing more than a 'bad cold'.

Boris Johnson today warned that there may be 'some extra precautions' still in place after England's delayed 'Freedom Day'.

The Prime Minister will 'be setting out in the course of the next few days what step four will look like exactly' as England prepares for the final stage of its roadmap to freedom.

This graph shows hospitalisations in the third wave (blue line) are far lower than in the second wave (red line) thanks to jabs

The Department of Health's top civil servant Chris Wormald is believed to be confident that new Health Secretary Sajid Javid will get behind a five year plan, despite his pledge to fully lift restrictions this month.

Department officials were said to be 'livid' with Mr Javid's 'no going back' attitude because it doesn't account for potential spikes in data.

They believe that flexibility over Covid regulations could avoid another country-wide lockdown, The Mirror reports.

Current data suggests that the vaccine is playing a key role in keeping the number of hospital admissions low, even as cases soar.

Labour MPs are urging ministers to reveal winter plans to the public.

Ministers are on track to hit their target of inoculating two-thirds of the country with both doses by July 19, with data suggesting they only need to dish out another 125,000 second jabs.

Boris Johnson (pictured on a visit to a Nissan factory in Sunderland) said today it was 'ever clearer' that the vaccines had 'broken the link' between infections and deaths. He added the country was now in the 'final furlong' of lockdown

While Britain's daily Covid cases spiked 68 per cent in a week today to 27,989, hospital rates are running at one tenth of the level they were at the same time during the second wave.

Despite the country recording its highest number of new infections in a single 24-hour period in five months, daily deaths only nudged up five per cent with another 22 victims registered.

Latest Department of Health data shows that 259 people were admitted to hospital with the disease on June 27, which was technically a quarter more than last Thursday but still a far cry from levels seen during previous waves.

For comparison, the last time the country was recording similar levels of infection and the outbreak was growing was at the start of December, when there were more than 2,000 admissions every day.

The Department of Health's top civil servant Chris Wormald is believed to be confident that new Health Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) will get behind a five year plan, despite his pledge to fully lift restrictions this month

King's College London's Covid symptom study estimated there were 25,210 new cases every day in the UK last week, up by almost a third (31 per cent) from the previous seven-day spell. Their figures rely on daily reports from a million Britons

Scientists working on the app also said the UK's R rate had crept up slightly to 1.1 per 100,000 in the week to June 26 (pictured), in a sign the Covid outbreak is again growing. The red line represents the R rate

Two AstraZeneca vaccine doses slash risk of death by 94% in over-65s Two doses of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine slash the risk of death from the disease by 94 per cent among the over-65s, real world data revealed today. Public Health England's release marks the first time officials have put a figure on the jabs effectiveness against mortality since it was rolled out in January. Their analysis did not include data from after the Indian 'Delta' variant took hold across the country. Analysis on the mutant strain is still ongoing. But separate PHE research has shown the jab is 92 per cent effective at blocking severe illness from the variant, with protection against death likely to be higher. Under-65s who had two doses of the Oxford-made jab cut their risk of death by 92 per cent, today's report added. With just one dose, the risk was slashed by 83 per cent among over-65s, and 79 per cent among under-65s. For Pfizer's Covid vaccine, two doses were estimated to cut the risk of death by 98 per cent among all ages. After one dose, it slashed the risk by 77 per cent among over-65s and 73 per cent among under-65s. Consultant epidemiologist at PHE, Jamie Bernal, said: 'This data gives us even more confidence that the vaccines offer high levels of protection against Covid across all age groups. Dr Peter English, a vaccinologist and past chair of the British Medical Association's Public Health Medicine Committee, said the data was 'very encouraging'. Advertisement

The disparity between rising infection numbers and flatlining death and hospitalisation figures bolsters Boris Johnson's comments today that the vaccination drive has 'broken the link' between surging cases and deaths.

Mr Johnson was asked whether the final easing of rules will include getting rid of face masks and social distancing.

He replied: 'I know how impatient people are to get back to total normality as indeed am I and we will be setting out, I will be setting out in the course of the next few days what step four will look like exactly.

'But I think I have said it before, we will be wanting to go back to a world that is as close to the status quo, ante Covid as possible.

'Try to get back to life as close to it was before Covid but there may be some things we have to do and some extra precautions that we have to take, but I will be setting all of that out.'

Data from the UK's largest symptom tracking study found that even though an increasing number of people are getting infected with the disease the jabs have turned Covid into a 'bad cold'.

Professor Tim Spector, the eminent King's College London epidemiologist who runs the project, said: 'While rates of Covid infection are high, it's reassuring to see vaccinations protecting the vulnerable and deaths remain very low.'

More than 44.8million Britons  or 85.2 per cent of adults  have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine after 141,216 jabs were administered yesterday. And more than 33million  or 62.7 per cent  have got both doses after a further 175,749 were administered on Wednesday.

Ministers are on track to hit their target of inoculating two-thirds of the country with both doses by July 19, with data suggesting they only need to dish out another 125,000 second jabs.

Separate data from Public Health England today showed infections among young people are now 15 times higher than in the over-60s, who have all been offered two doses of the vaccine. Among under-30s the rate is 424.3 cases per 100,000 people, but for older adults it is 16.2 per 100,000.

Only one of 149 local authorities in England  former Indian 'Delta' variant hotspot Blackburn with Darwen  saw its Covid cases fall in the week ending June 27, the latest available.

Scientists say the Indian variant, releasing lockdown measures, Euro 2020 tournament and a boom in staycations have all led to spiralling cases, with the third wave of infections likely to continue 'for longer than expected'.
Bill Clinton defended Kamala Harris' embattled chief of staff on Thursday after the vice president's office was rocked by a report in which staffers claimed they are 'treated like sh**' and that Tina Flournoy has created 'blame culture.'

Flournoy ran Clinton's post-White House office and the former president called her 'extraordinary' and 'efficient,' praising her work as his chief of staff.

'Tina Flournoy ran my office for more than eight years, making it more efficient, effective, and transparent. She made it easier, not harder, for me to advance my philanthropic work and my post-presidential activities, and keep in touch with my friends,' Clinton said in a statement to CNBC on Thursday.

'She has a unique ability to focus on the big picture and adapt to changing conditions. And she does it all with a great sense of humor and an unwavering belief that we all have an ability and an obligation to make a difference. She's an extraordinary person, and I'm so fortunate and forever grateful to have had her as my chief of staff,' he said.

Other prominent Democrats jumped in to defend Flournoy after a report in Politico about unhappiness among staff in Harris' office, which Flournoy oversees.

Jennifer Palmieri, who worked in the Obama White House and Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign, said sometimes chiefs of staff just weren't popular.

'Sounds like whats happening here is that Tina Flournoy is doing her job. Chiefs of staff gotta run interference. Doesnt always make you popular. But its part of the job. Protect the boss time,' she wrote on Twitter.

Bill Clinton defended Kamala Harris' embattled chief of staff after the vice president's office was rocked by a report in which staffers claimed they are 'treated like sh**' and that Tina Flournoy has created 'blame culture'

Tina Flournoy served as Bill Clinton's chief of staff in his post-White House office

Tensions started to boil over after in Harris' office after the vice president finally decided to visit the border last week, blindsiding staffers, according to a Politico report based on interviews with 22 current and former vice presidential aides, officials and associates.

Sources described a tense atmosphere with low morale and trust, as well as bad communication, according to the outlet.

Flournoy has allegedly created an environment where 'ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out,' the outlet reported. She allegedly 'refuses to take responsibility' and blames staffers for negative results.

Some of the sources told Politico that Harris also is responsible for how her office is run, claiming that the toxic environment 'all starts at the top.'

'People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it's an abusive environment,' said one source.

'It's not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It's not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s**t.'

The sources claimed that even President Joe Biden's office is concerned about the treatment of staff.

Biden, on the day he was inaugurated, warned presidential appointees while swearing them in that he would fire them 'on the spot' if he were to hear that they have shown 'disrespect' others.

'I'm not joking when I say this: If you're ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect or talk down to someone, I promise you, I will fire you on the spot  on the spot. No ifs ands or buts,' Biden said at the time.

The office of Vice President Kamala Harris has been rocked by claims that staffers are 'treated like sh**' and that chief of staff Tina Flournoy has created 'blame culture'

Tensions started to boil over after Harris finally decided to visit the border last week, blindsiding staffers

Tina Flournoy, pictured, has allegedly created an environment where 'ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out'

Harris aides are reportedly already looking to leave the administration while some already have - like staffers Karly Satkowiak and Gabrielle DeFranceschi, who oversaw the vice president's travel.

Satkowiak and DeFranceschi left under what had been described as 'long-planned departures' but sources contested that characterization to Politico.

DeFranceschi, who previously worked in the Obama administration, reportedly left over a 'difference in opinion on how things should run.'

Biden, on the day he was inaugurated, warned presidential appointees while swearing them in that he would fire them 'on the spot' if he were to hear that they have shown 'disrespect' others

'If you have an opinion about how things should run and it's not listened to, that can be frustrating,' the source told Politico.

Harris' chief spokesperson Symone Sanders, pushed back against the claims and called those who made them 'cowards,' according to Politico.

'People are cowards to do this this way,' Sanders said.

She added: 'We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I'm like 'welcome to the club.'

'We have created a culture where people, if there is anything anyone would like to raise, there are avenues for them to do so. Whoever has something they would like to raise, they should raise it directly.'

Sanders also said that Harris 'is focused on the work' and 'not the chatter at the water cooler.'

Harris tours the El Paso Border Patrol Station on June 25 in El Paso, Texas

Harris speaks with El Paso Border Patrol Chief agent Gloria Chavez as she tour the US Customs and Border Protection Central Processing Center

The chief spokesperson also defended Flournoy and said she has an 'open door policy' and that 'black women like me would not have the opportunity to work in politics without Tina.'

Others who spoke to Politico to defend Harris and Flournoy said that black women are held to standards that others in politics are not - and that a 'demanding office environment' would be seen as a virtue for other leaders.

'Look, [Tina's] strong, she's intelligent, she's driven, and she expects strong, intelligent, driven people around her,' said Leah Daughtry.

'But some people may find strong, driven, smart people intimidating, but I think that's more projection than reality because that's just not Tina's intent or style. And nothing in her experience would lead you to think that she's an intimidating person.'

Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to the president, also defended Flournoy.

Dunn said keeping the border trip news private to a small group of people was made because Harris' office didn't want it to leak or 'turn it into a spectacle,' Politico reported.

'It was closely held and there may be people whose feelings were a little hurt on her staff that they weren't brought into the discussion,' Dunn said.

'But any suggestion that it was mishandled or kept a secret from people who needed to know about the arrangements or needed to know about it is absolutely not true.'

When Politico asked Dunn about complaints in the office, Dunn said complaints were 'not anywhere near what you are describing.'

Flournoy previously worked in the White House under President Bill Clinton and then worked on his reelection campaign, as well as then-Vice President Al Gore's campaign for president in 2000.

She was working as Clinton's post-presidential chief of staff before she was tapped to work for Harris.

One source told Politico: 'People who Clinton knew for decades all of a sudden couldn't get through to him because Tina choked off contact.'

'Because Clinton didn't use email, she was able to keep many [friends of Bill] out,' the source said.

The source added: 'You can't just flat out ignore people and not get back to them.'

A friend of Harris' recently tried to reach Flournoy on behalf of a top Democratic donor but was also ignored, the outlet reported.

Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a roundtable discussion with faith and community leaders and local service providers, during a visit to the Paso del Norte Port of Entry on June 25

Vice President Kamala Harris visits the Paso del Norte Port of Entry on June 25 in El Paso, Texas

When they were ignored, the donor then contact Harris' office directly and did not hear back for weeks. They were later told Harris was too busy to meet with them.

The friend told Politico: 'This is someone who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollarsmillions, evenfor your boss and you're just blowing them off?'

'Next time Kamala wants [them] for something, it's like, 'Hey, I couldn't even get a call-back from your chief of staff!',' the friend said.

Some Harris allies explained to Politico that the vice president has 'gone out of her way not to engage in politicking' to prove her loyalty to Biden as it remains unclear if he will run for reelection in 2024.

Other allies explained Harris' apparent strategy of not raising her own profile as 'foolish' for someone who has 'been in public life for 30 years.'

'You don't just all of a sudden go radio silent,' said one former aide.

That former aide indicated that Harris is likely aware of the purported problems in her office.

'She is the most perceptive person on the planet. She might not have first-hand knowledge, but it's hard to imagine she doesn't have a sense of what's going on,' the person said.

The sources who spoke to Politico blamed some of the low morale in Harris' office on the issues she has been tasked with tackling for the Biden administration which made her an early target for conservatives - such as slowing the flow of migrants.

Instead of flying to the border, Harris had flown to the countries where the migrants had come from or traveled through on their way to the United States.

Harris finally visited the border weeks later as her aides insisted she did not make the trek because of criticism she faced. But others claimed she inadvertently seemed to affirm conservative criticism against her with the seemingly impromptu trip.
A judge has ruled that dozens more documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be made public, including some that could reveal more about her finances and her relationship to the Clintons.

Judge Loretta Preska said that unsealing the documents would not impact Maxwell's right to a fair trial in November as her lawyers have claimed.

Among the documents which will be made public in two weeks' time will be Maxwell's efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Maxwell for defamation, to obtain her financial records.

Giuffre's lawyers demanded a vast array of documents from Maxwell including 'funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation,' according to court filings.

A judge has ruled that dozens more documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be made public, including some that could reveal more about her finances and her relationship to the Clintons. Maxwell and Epstein are pictured with Clinton in 1993

The judge also ruled that documents relating to a request from Giuffre for email accounts that Maxwell allegedly kept secret from the court should also be made public.

They could give an insight into powerful men who Maxwell knew, such and Prince Andrew of the British royal family.

The judge said that unsealing the documents would not impact Maxwell's right to a fair trial in November as her lawyers have claimed

The documents are part of a tranche of material gradually being released by Judge Preska from the defamation case Giuffre filed against Maxwell in 2016 for calling her a liar.

Giuffre claims Maxwell recruited her when she was 16 and took her to Jeffrey Epstein to be repeatedly raped and abused, including by Prince Andrew, which he denies.

The defamation case was settled in 2017 but after requests from the media organization the documents are gradually being unsealed.

During a hearing at New York's federal court, Judge Preska said she was not persuaded by Maxwell's argument that 'continued unsealing of these materials implicates her right to a fair trial in her pending criminal case', which is due to start in November.

Among the documents made public will be a motion for a protective order filed by Maxwell's lawyers to limit the amount of information about her finances they had to hand over.

Giuffre's lawyers sought such information so they would be better informed if the case went to a settlement, which it did.

Giuffre's lawyers sought Maxwell's tax returns, balance sheets for companies Maxwell controlled and financial statements for companies she controlled among other materials.

One section reads: 'From January 2012 to the present, produce all documents concerning any source of funding for the TarraMar Project (Maxwell's nonprofit) or any other not-for-profit entities with which you are associated, including but not limited to, funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative, the Clinton Foundation (a/k/a William J. Clinton Foundation, a/k/a/ the Bill, Hilary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation),and the Clinton Foundation Climate Change Initiative'.

While it is unclear if the Clintons will come up in the documents which will be made public, there is considerable back and forth and dozens of documents on this subject that will be unsealed.

Bill Clinton's relationship with Epstein and Maxwell came under intense scrutiny when the financier was arrested in July 2019.

Clinton flew on Epstein's plane dozens of times and photographs have shown him receiving a neck massage from Chauntae Davies, one of Epstein's victims who worked as a flight attendant on his private jet, known as the 'Lolita Express'.

Documents that will be unsealed relate to a request for information from Maxwell regarding what Giuffre's lawyers called an 'undisclosed email account' that she kept secret from the court in breach of an order to hand it over

Giuffre's lawyers demanded documents from Maxwell, including 'funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation'

The book 'A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein', by journalists Alana Goodman and Daniel Halper even claimed that Clinton and Maxwell had a secret affair.

Other documents that will be unsealed relate to a request for information from Maxwell regarding what Giuffre's lawyers called an 'undisclosed email account' that she kept secret from the court in breach of an order to hand it over.

In a publicly available filing, they state: 'Ms Giuffre is aware of two email addresses that appear to be the email addresses defendant used while Ms Giuffre was with defendant and Epstein, namely, from 2000 - 2002.

'Defendant has denied that she used those accounts to communicate, but she has not disclosed the account she did use to communicate during that time, nor produce documents from it'.

Over four pages of redacted text, which will be made public in two weeks, Giuffre's lawyers argue why it should be made public.

Emails that have already been made public in the case showed Maxwell talking to Epstein about personal matters.

Among the documents will be Maxwell's efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre to obtain her financial records

The judge also ruled that documents relating to a request from Giuffre for email accounts that Maxwell allegedly kept secret from the court should also be made public. They could give an insight into powerful men who Maxwell knew, such and Prince Andrew of the British royal family

In one from January 2015, when Giuffre made her allegations in a court in Florida and sparked a media firestorm, Epstein told Maxwell to keep her head up and stop acting like a 'convict'.

The pedophile told Maxwell: 'You have done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like it'.

Other emails show that Prince Andrew emailed Maxwell 5.50am on January 3 2015 about Giuffre.

He said: 'Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts'.

Maxwell replied: 'Have some info. Call me when you have a moment'.

Maxwell is due to go on trial for sex trafficking conspiracy and perjury among other charges.

The 59-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the allegations.
Death marks 19th teenager to be murdered in the capital so far this year

He was pronounced dead at the scene and officers launched a murder inquiry

A 16-year-old boy has become the fifth teenager to be murdered in London in less than a month after he was brutally stabbed to death on his doorstep earlier today.

He was found with multiple stab wounds at a flat on the Shrublands Estate in Croydon, south London, shortly before 1am.

The victim, who has not been named, was pronounced dead at the scene just after 1.30am. There have been no arrests.

A 16-year-old boy has become the fifth teenager to be murdered in London in less than a month after he was brutally stabbed to death on his doorstep earlier today

He is the 19th teenager to be murdered in London this year, two more than in the whole of 2020, and the fifth in the last four weeks.

Detectives are appealing for information.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: 'Police were called at 12.46am to reports of a disturbance at a residential address on Bracken Avenue in Shrublands, Croydon.

'Officers attended and found a 16-year-old inside suffering from stab injuries. They provided First Aid prior to the arrival of the London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance.

Metropolitan Police were called to an estate in Croydon, south London around 1am today where they found the teenager suffering from multiple stab wounds.

'Despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.34am. Next of kin have been informed. Formal identification has not taken place. A post-mortem will be held in due course.'

She added: 'No arrests have been made at this stage.

'Homicide detectives from the Specialist Crime Command have been informed. Enquiries continue.'
Tucker Carlson has been telling some of his Fox News guests that he voted for Kanye West rather than Donald Trump, according to a report on Thursday.

The Fox News host, known for his close relationship with Trump and harsh criticism of Joe Biden, has surprised people with his declaration, according to Politico.

The site spoke to two people who confirmed the conversations, but said that those he told were unsure if he was joking.

They took it as a demonstration of his independence and free-thinking, and his refusal to slavishly follow Trump regardless. Carlson has benefitted, in the eyes of many, from stories suggesting he rebukes the former president when he believes Trump has gone too far.

'It's his way of saying that he's not just another Trumpette at Fox News like Sean Hannity,' one of the sources told Politico, referring to Carlson's fellow primetime opinion host.

Carlson declined to comment when asked by Politico.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been telling guests that he voted for Kanye West in November

West was married to Kim Kardashian until she filed for divorce earlier this year

A third person who knows Carlson, 53, said that he had announced before the election that he would vote for West.

'He and Kanye get along,' the person said.

'They both regularly find themselves in the crosshairs. They're both pro-life.'

Carlson is registered as a Republican to vote in Florida, according to Florida registration records obtained by Politico.

The conservative commentator, who splits his time between Lee County, Florida, and rural Maine, voted in Florida in-person in 2020, according to voter records seen by the site.

Carlson is one of Fox News' biggest stars, and regularly attracts three million viewers for his primetime weeknight show

Carlson is a strong supporter of Donald Trump - but has at times disagreed with him

West and his 'Birthday Party' was not on the ballot in Florida - the billionaire rapper and eccentric was only on the ballot in 12 states, having failed to register in others.

His paperwork failure in Florida meant that any write-in votes for him were not counted.

Election officials, however, did say that there were eight invalid write-in votes in the district where Carlson voted, meaning his could have been one of them.

Carlson, whose show is one of the highest-rating on cable news, has carved out a niche for himself being firmly pro-Trump, but also unafraid to disagree with him.

He reportedly helped persuade Trump not to attack Iran, and in the early days of the pandemic met Trump at Mar-a-Lago and urged the then-president to take COVID-19 more seriously.

Kanye West is seen embracing Trump on October 11, after their meeting in the Oval Office

West's meeting saw the rapper launch into a monologue about his ideas for the world, to the apparent surprise of the then-president

Yet Carlson is also on friendly terms with West.

The two men have spoken from time to time, and Carlson even spent some time in Wyoming with West shortly before the election, Politico said.

Carlson hoped to interview West, but never managed to confirm their sit-down.

In August, Carlson called him 'the most compelling voice against abortion and Planned Parenthood.'

'On core conservative issues, not political issues like legislation before the Congress, but on foundational questions about life and children and what happens when you die, no one with a national platform has been more honest or sincere or effective than Kanye West has been,' Carlson said.

'Maybe in generations.'

West famously met Trump in the Oval Office in October 2018, and launched into a lengthy explanation of his views.

'Much like someone else who comes to mind, West may be precisely crazy enough to think for himself, and that's a valuable quality right now,' Carlson said.

'But listen carefully to what he said. Sprinkled throughout his ramblings are flashes of truth, real insights into the way the world actually is rather than the way they tell us it is.

'And that makes him dangerous to a system that is based almost entirely on piety and lying.

'If you're benefiting from a system like that, Kanye West must be crushed.'

In 2017, Carlson - living in Washington DC at the time - said he never voted in presidential elections.

'I never vote so that's the truth. I didn't vote this time, I never do,' he said. 'I'm registered with a party that I sincerely despise because I think it's really a force for bad in this country and it's the Democratic Party. But I'm registered because I live in the district, it's a one-party state and the one election I always vote in is the mayor's race because it matters. I own property there, I raised four children there.'
A Las Vegas woman has been arrested on murder and child abuse charges after police found her five-year-old daughter dead inside a hot bedroom without air conditioning with temperatures outside in the triple digits.

Kemaya Taylor, 23, was arrested on Monday night in connection with the death of her eldest daughter, aged five. Her two-year-old daughter was found alive and handed over to Child Protective Services.

Neighbors said that prior to her arrest, Taylor was smashing parked cars with rocks and muttering, I'm son of Jacob. I killed her.'

Kemaya Taylor, 23, has been charged with open murder and child abuse for the death of her five-year-old daughter, who was found inside an overheated bedroom with no air conditioning

Police were called to Taylor's rental home in the 10200 block of Missouri Meadows Street in Las Vegas on Monday, when temperatures reached 108 degrees

Officers from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department received a call just after 7pm on Monday about an incident at a home in the 10200 block of Missouri Meadows Street.

Responding officers entered the home and found Taylor's five-year-old daughter unresponsive inside an overheated bedroom. She was pronounced dead, reported 8NewsNow.

Temperatures in Las Vegas reached 108 degrees on Monday, according to AccuWeather.com.

Taylor's landlord told Las Vegas Review-Journal that she heard from neighbors that the young mother was acting erratically before police arrived.

She had one of her babies in her arms in that heat with blankets covering her baby  in a fetal position. She kept saying, Im son of Jacob. I killed her, recounted the landlord. She got up and started smashing windows of cars around here.'

Neighbors reported seeing Taylor smashing parked cars with rocks and muttering, 'I am Jacob. I killed her'

The landlord also revealed that Taylor struggled financially and failed to pay rent in June.

When the owner of the home came by to check on Taylor and her family in the weeks leading up to the tragedy, she said she found the woman in a state of disarray.

Her hair was all a mess, the whole house was a mess, and she was packing. Thats when I said, You know, I think it is not good you are all by yourself with two kids. You should get in touch with your family, and she said, I have no one, said the landlord.

Taylor was booked into the Clark County jail on a charge of open murder and two counts of child abuse.

Taylor was scheduled to make her initial court appearance on Thursday but was said to have refused to leave her jail cell. She is now expected to face a judge on July 15.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr's sweeping indictment of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg reveals the perks that the executive is accused of failing to report to tax authorities.

The 15-count indictment unveiled on Thursday charged Weisselberg, who has worked for Donald Trump for 48 years, with tax fraud, falsifying business records, and grand larceny.

Most of the charges stem from an alleged $1.76 million in 'off the books' benefits which the indictment claims Weisselberg received since 2005, including rent for a Manhattan apartment, lease payments for two Mercedes-Benz vehicles and private school tuition for family members, with Trump signing some tuition checks himself, the suit says.

Prosecutors said it was a scheme that allowed Weisselberg to evade some $900,000 in taxes and recoup roughly $130,000 in undeserved tax refunds.

Weisselberg, who was paraded into court handcuffed by Vance's investigators, has pleaded not guilty, and Trump issued a statement calling the charges a 'political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats'.

Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg leaves court after pleading not guilty. Weisselberg surrendered this morning to the Manhattan district attorney's office

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr (above) accuses Weisselberg of failing to report lavish perks he received in lieu of income

The indictment also charged the Trump Organization with conspiring with Weisselberg in the alleged scheme, but did not name other individuals accused of wrongdoing.

Vance's investigation, which had now gone on for more than three years, is ongoing, and in recent months he has teamed up with New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both are Democrats.

The various schemes alleged in the indictment include:

$1,174,018 in untaxed income used to pay Weisselberg's rent

$359,058 in unreported compensation for private school fees

$196,245 in untaxed income for Mercedes Benz leases

$29,400 in under-the-table cash used to pay holiday tips

Vance accuses Trump Org of paying Weisselberg's rent under the table

Prosecutors say that from 2011 through 2018, Weisselberg's compensation was fixed at $940,000, to be comprised of $540,000 in base salary and $400,000 in end-of-year bonus.

But the indictment alleges that the Trump Organization regularly compensated Weisselberg with side perks, and then reduced the amount of his official pay by the same amount, allowing him to skirt income taxes.

'During the period of the scheme, Weisselberg thereby evaded approximately $556,385 in federal taxes, approximately $106,568 in state taxes, and approximately $238,159 in New York City taxes, and he falsely claimed and received approximately $94,902 in federal tax refunds and approximately $38,222 in state tax refunds, to which he was not entitled,' the indictment says.

According to the indictment, the Trump Organization has been paying the rent for Weisselberg's luxury Manhattan apartment since 2005.

According to the indictment, the Trump Organization has been paying the rent for Weisselberg's luxury Manhattan apartment in the former Trump Place since 2005

Allen's wife Hilary Weisselberg (above) lives with him in the company-subsidized apartment, prosecutors said

'Beginning on or about March 31, 2005, the Trump Corporation maintained a lease for an apartment on Riverside Boulevard in New York, New York,' the indictment says.

'The building, one of several buildings on the West Side of Manhattan previously known as 'Trump Place,' was not owned by the Trump Organization, and the Trump Organization paid rent pursuant to the lease,' it adds.

Prosecutors say that Weisselberg and his spouse were the sole residents of the apartment and used it as their permanent residence.

Though the indictment does not specify the amount of the apartment's rent, three-bedroom apartments in the complex are currently listing for $11,500 a month.

Prosecutors say that Weisselberg used checks drawing on Trump Organization accounts to pay the monthly rent, as well as his electricity, telephone, internet, cable, and parking garage fees.

The indictment says that from the tax year 2005 through 2017, the Trump Organization provided Weisselberg approximately $1,174,018 in untaxed income by paying his rent and related expenses.

Subsequently, as in the other alleged schemes, Weisselberg's compensation was reduced by an equivalent amount to the rental fees, allowing him to avoid taxes on that portion of unreported income, according to the indictment.

Weisselberg 'skipped out on NYC taxes by falsely reporting his residence'

New York City is one of the few cities in the country that assesses its own personal income tax on residents.

The city income tax is up to 3.876 percent for the highest bracket, on top of state and federal taxes.

The city tax is applied to those who spend at least 184 days each year in the city, leading some billionaires to carefully tabulate and record their movements to avoid getting hit with an assessment.

According to prosecutors, Weisselberg (center) evaded New York City income tax by simply misreporting his residency and claiming he lived in upstate Wantagh

According to prosecutors, Weisselberg evaded the tax by simply misreporting his residency and claiming he lived in upstate Wantagh, where he owned a home.

The indictment says that the scheme lasted from 2005, when Weisselberg moved into the Trump Place apartment, until he sold the Wantaugh home and began reporting his New York City residency.

Prosecutors allege Weisselberg evaded the payment of approximately $210,923 in New York City resident income taxes between 2005 and 2013.

Prosecutors say Trump signed checks for private school fees

According to the indictment, one of Weisselberg's family members began attending a Manhattan private school in 2012, and another in 2014.

Though the indictment does not specify the school or Weisselberg's relationship to the family members, the Wall Street Journal previously reported that Vance had subpoenaed records from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, which Weisselberg's two grandchildren attend.

The top-rated private school on the Upper West Side currently charges an annual tuition of $47,540.

Though the indictment does not specify the school, Weisselberg's grandchildren attend Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School. Prosecutors allege the payment of school fees allowed Weisselberg to avoid taxes on approximately $359,058

'From 2012 through 2017, and as part of the scheme to defraud, Trump Corporation personnel, including Weisselberg, arranged for tuition expenses for Weisselberg's family members to be paid by personal checks drawn on the account of and signed by Donald J. 'Trump, and later drawn on the account of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust dated April 7, 2014,' the indictment says.

Prosecutors say that the payment of tuition expenses for Weisselberg's family members constituted employee compensation and taxable income, and was treated as part of Weisselberg's annual compensation in internal records maintained by the Trump Corporation.

However, the tuition fees were not included in Weisselberg's tax statements as income, allowing him to evade taxes on the amount, the indictment says.

Prosecutors allege the payment of school fees allowed Weisselberg to avoid taxes on approximately $359,058 in unreported compensation from 2012 through 2017.

Other alleged perks: Mercedes Benz leases, holiday tip cash and furnishings for Florida vacation home

Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg received a number of other perks under the table.

Among them were annual leases on two Mercedes Benz vehicles for Weisselberg and his wife from 2005 through 2017, according to the indictment.

The lease payments totaled some $196,245, which Weisselberg was avoided reporting as taxable income, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors say that Weisselberg received some $196,245 in unreported income through lease payments the company made on Mercedes vehicles. The indictment did not specify the model of the vehicles, above a Mercedes GLE 53 coupe is seen in a file photo

As well, Weisselberg allegedly converted company funds to cash to use to pay off holiday gratuities each year.

For New Yorkers, holiday tips can run into the hundreds or thousands each year, with residents expected to show their appreciation for the building's doormen, maintenance workers and porters.

Prosecutors say that Weisselberg would draw a check on company funds made payable to a Trump Organization employee who cashed the checks and received cash, turning it over to Weisselberg.

Weisselberg would then splash out the cash in holiday tips, totaling $29,400 from 2011 to 2017, without reporting it as income, the indictment says.

As well, prosecutors say that the Trump Organization would pay out for Weisselberg's ad hoc personal expenses, including new beds, flat-screen televisions, the installation of carpeting, and furniture for his home in Florida.

The indictment also accuses Weisselberg of mis-reporting certain income as self-employment income, although he was not self-employed.

Weisselberg used this self-employed income to establish a tax-advantageous Keogh retirement plan, funding it with $215,000 between 2021 and 2016, according to the indictment.

In a statement, the Trump Organization said prosecutors were using Weisselberg as 'a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former president.'

The indictment could increase pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate with prosecutors, which he has resisted so far.

After pleading not guilty at arraignment, Weisselberg was freed without bail.
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At least five people have been rushed to hospital - and a worker was trapped - after a five story building under construction completely collapsed in Washington DC.

The collapse happened around 3:30pm EST in the city's Brightwood Park neighborhood.

A local Twitter feed that scans emergency services radio reported that five had been rushed to hospital, and that one person was trapped in the rubble. Rescuers freed the trapped individual, who officials identified as an adult male who is listed as conscious.

A local news crew filmed the moment the man was pulled from the wreckage and wheeled into a waiting ambulance. Further updates on his condition have not been shared.

Meanwhile, a second video shared by WUSA reporter Matthew Torres showed a neighbor rushing over to the collapsed building as cries of 'help' came from the rubble.

The Twitter feed also included medical codes as shorthand for the conditions of the freed individuals, writing that there was one transported as one Priority 1, meaning critically injured, two as Priority 2, meaning in less serious condition, and two as Priority 3, meaning little emergency attention is required.

The identities, ages and any further information on the injured have not been released at this time. The cause of the collapse remains a mystery as of now.

The building was a five-story home in a residential neighborhood and fire officials said it was under construction when it fully collapsed. DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said four other construction workers were pulled out of the rubble after rescuers arrived at the scene and they were all taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

At least five people have been rushed to hospital after a five story building under construction completely collapsed in Washington DC

A local Twitter feed that scans emergency services radio reported that five had been rushed to hospital, and that a person was trapped in the rubble. Rescuers freed the trapped individual, who officials identified as an adult male who is listed as conscious

Fire officials said the building was under construction and fully collapsed. No explanation for the collapse has been given

We were there as @dcfireems pulled this man from the rubble. Hes being transported by ambulance @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/2ifNkQIq2B  Laura Geller TV (@LauraGellerTV) July 1, 2021

Help!



VIDEO: You can hear the cries for help when the structure collapsed on Kennedy Avenue. People next door immediately came out to try to help. @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/fj9h1is8Qy  Matthew Torres (@News_MTorres) July 1, 2021

Donnelly said firefighters were communicating with the trapped worker and were using saws and other equipment to make their way through the rubble.

City officials said that authorities are still working to determine if proper permits were issued and regulations were being followed. They said it was too early to say whether a storm rolling through may have played any role.

Officials said emergency crews had evacuated two homes next to the collapse.

Video from the scene showed firefighters climbing through debris and planks of wood, working to rescue the trapped person.

The collapse came a week after a condo building collapsed in Surfside, along Miami Beach in Florida. Champlain Towers South crumbled to the ground in the early hours of last Thursday. Recovery crews continue to comb its rubble one week on, with 18 confirmed dead and 145 still missing.

Firefighters were communicating with the trapped worker and were using saws and other equipment to make their way through the rubble

City officials said it was too early to determine a cause or to say whether a storm rolling through may have played any role
Anissa Weier, 19, will be released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after judge ruled that she is no longer a threat to anyone

A Wisconsin judge on Thursday ordered the release of a woman convicted of stabbing her classmate to please the Slender Man character in 2014.

Nineteen-year-old Anissa Weier asked Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren this year to release her from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, arguing she was no longer a threat to anyone.

Bohren agreed during a hearing Thursday, though she won't be released immediately. Bohren ordered the state to prepare a release plan. He gave state officials 60 days. Meanwhile, Weier will return to the mental health facility. A hearing is set for September 10.

Weier and her friend Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into a Waukesha park in May 2014 following a sleepover.

Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier encouraged Geyser to inflict the injuries. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

Weier (left) was 12 years old when she and her friend, Morgan Geyser (right), stabbed classmate Payton Leutner in 2014 and left her for dead

Leutner (pictured) managed to survive by crawling out of the woods an onto a path where a passing bicyclist found her

Leutner barely survived her wounds. Weier and Geyser told investigators that they stabbed her because they thought Slender Man was real and attacking Leutner would make them his servants and keep him from killing their families.

Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, but a jury found her not criminally responsible due to a mental disease.

Her father claims she suffered from no mental illness but psychologists said Weier suffers from shared delusional disorder - a delusion among two or more people who are in a close relationship - due to Geyer's undiagnosed schizophrenia, according to the Journal Sentinel.

According to WITI, Weier is not currently on any psychotic medications and her father said she can stay with him after her release. She hopes to get a part-time job to support herself, according to the outlet.

Other professionals says she has schizotypal personality disorder, in which people tend to hold strange beliefs and cannot pick up social cues.

Bohren sentenced Weier in December 2017 to 25 years at Winnebago. Weier had petitioned Bohren for conditional release in March, saying she had exhausted all her options for treatment at Winnebago and she needed to rejoin society.

Prosecutors countered that Weier remains dangerous and will have a hard time making friends outside the institution, which could lead her to associate with mentally disturbed people.

Weier's attorney, Maura McMahon, didn't immediately return messages Thursday afternoon.

Geyser pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted homicide and in 2017 was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was sentenced to 40 years in a mental health institution and will be 55 when she is released.
An Australian woman has been granted permission to rush home from New York and leave hotel quarantine early to visit her dying father in hospital - while another was forced to say goodbye to her dad over Skype.

Anna Coffey, 32, flew to Sydney from New York last week after her 80-year-old father John suffered a stroke and went into palliative care in a Melbourne hospital.

She was allowed to leave her hotel quarantine early after three negative tests and after securing a charter flight.

'I got two hours to visit, it was very strict,' she said. 'But it was absolutely worth it, a thousand times over,' she told the Telegraph.

The decision is in stark contrast to the choice made for Gillan Hannah, who also flew home from the US to see her dying father, only to have her appeal for an early release rejected despite being double vaccinated - instead watching him die over Skype.

Charity Angel Flight donated a charter plane to help Ms Coffey fly back to Melbourne to see her father in St Vincent's Hospital - which proved the difference for the 32-year-old and other rejected appeals - including that of Ms Hannah's.

State governments have only approved situations on compassionate grounds if the person has sourced a charter flight as they are unable to sit on a plane with other Australians.

Anna Coffey, 32, flew to Sydney from New York last week after her 80-year-old father John suffered a stroke and went into palliative care in a Melbourne hospital

But Angel Flight Australia, a charity involved in co-ordinating non-emergency medical flights, offered to pay for her flights to Melbourne - reuniting Ms Coffey with her dying dad

Ms Coffey flew home after her 80-year-old father suffered a stroke and doctors said he didn't have long to live.

She was initially hoping to drive from Sydney to Melbourne but NSW Health told her the 'travel time' by car to Melbourne was too far - as she would need to stop to refuel and eat - and she would instead be forced to shell out $7,500 for a private plane.

'The difference in your situation is that the travel time by road from Sydney to Melbourne is approximately nine hours plus stops and you would need to travel through both NSW and Victoria,' an email from NSW Health said.

Ms Coffey (pictured) had feared she would not make it to Melbourne in time if she was forced to complete the required 14 days in Sydney quarantine

But Angel Flight Australia, a charity involved in co-ordinating non-emergency medical flights, came to her rescue in a plan confirmed on Tuesday night.

She was released from hotel quarantine at about midday on Wednesday and landed at Essendon Airport in suburban Melbourne later that afternoon.

Ms Coffey had feared she would not make it to Melbourne in time to be reunited with John if she was forced to complete the required 14 days in Sydney quarantine.

Angel Flight Australia orchestrates about 50 compassionate flights a year, many often reuniting parents with sick children.

Although it is the other way around in this case, Chief executive Marjorie Pagani immediately recognised she fit the criteria to be offered a compassionate flight.

'This young lady has already spent a fortune getting home to Australia and then to be asked to find another $7000 to $8000 is a lot,' she said.

'I'm so glad we could help out and get it done so quickly.'

Anna Coffey, 32, (left) flew to Sydney from New York last week after her 80-year-old father John (right) suffered a stroke and went into palliative care in a Melbourne hospital.

The woman was escorted from her room to a car downstairs and to the airport, with a police car following behind.

Ms Coffey was told to wear full PPE including a mask and face shield, and was instructed not to touch anyone, including her mother.

'Dad slept for most of it but toward the end we could speak a little bit,' she said.

She says she was shocked by the amount of red tape needed given she was double vaccinated, even finding out her father's nurse had only been given her first shot.

'It was worth it  but it's caused such a huge drama and so many people had to be involved to make a relatively simple thing happen,' Ms Coffey said.

The 32-year-old said she hopes the process can become easier and more streamlined to allow for other compassionate grounds to be granted for people to avoid hotel quarantine - legislation that came too late for Ms Hannah.

The devastated daughter was forced to farewell her beloved dad over FaceTime after she got stuck in hotel quarantine in Sydney.

Ms Hannah, who lived in Madison, Wisconsin, immediately returned to Australia after hearing news her father's lungs were shutting down.

She is fully vaccinated and tested negative to Covid-19 twice after arriving in Australia, however her application for a compassionate exemption to travel from Sydney to Melbourne to see her dad in hospital was denied.

US-based Australian Gillian Hannah got stuck in hotel quarantine in Sydney and was denied a compassionate exemption to see her dying dad in a Melbourne hospital

Ms Hannah was forced to say goodbye to her beloved father (pictured) over FaceTime despite being fully vaccinated against and testing negative to Covid-19 twice since her arrival

'I just FaceTimed him. He's on a lot of medication and he sort of knew who I was but it was vague,' she told 7NEWS after her father died on Thursday morning.

'I said what I needed to say and that's the last moments I get with him.'

Just hours later her father passed away, leaving his daughter only with memories of a remote communication.

Ms Hannah had been advised she could charter a plane to Victoria but was not allowed to travel on a regular flight with other passengers.

'I don't have $10,000 just lying around', she explained.

'I asked if I could drive down and they said absolutely not, we would never approve that.'

The heartbroken daughter posted a photo of her father on Facebook, with friends and family sharing their condolences in the comments.

'I'm so sorry you were prevented from seeing your dad by heartless bureaucrats. Someone had the power and they have utterly failed you and your family', one said.

'I am devastated for you Gil. I don't even know what to say. No words can make this situation any better', another wrote.

'This is beyond heartbreaking, I am so sorry you didn't get to kiss you dad goodbye - a simple wish you weren't granted', a third commented.

Angel Flight Australia orchestrates about 50 compassionate flights a year, many often reuniting parents with sick children, immediately recognised Ms Coffey met their criteria

The Columbia Business student was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and has tested negative to the virus but struggled to receive exemptions from NSW and Victoria health departments

Of hearing of Ms Coffey's heart-wrenching ordeal, Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his sympathies in a letter and said he hopes a 'solution can be found'.

'To be so close to home but to still be so far away from being able to see your father must be heartbreaking,' he said.

'I farewelled my own father last year and I know how important those last moments are.'

Mr Morrison, who has no control over state quarantine policies, is now reaching out to the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee to draw up a more consistent plan to deal with compassionate exemptions for those blocked from seeing critically ill loved ones.

Last week, US citizen Mark Kilian was reunited with his dying father at a Gold Coast hospital after spending eight days in quarantine and hiring a $15,000 chartered jet to fly up from Sydney.
The Northern Territory could remain in lockdown after an infected miner breached his isolation order and allegedly lied to authorities.

Darwin and Alice Springs were locked down after a worker at Newmont's Granites Mine, in the Tanami Desert, was diagnosed with Covid-19 six days ago.

Authorities had hoped to lift the stay-at-home order on Friday until they found out the man in his 50s had misreported his movements.

He initially said he was only in the community for 36 hours before isolating at home while waiting to be moved to the National Centre for Resilience at Howard Springs, near Darwin.

Darwin and Alice Springs were locked down after a worker at Newmont's Granites Mine, in the Tanami Desert, was diagnosed with Covid-19 six days ago (pictured: shoppers leaving a Coles store in Darwin)

But late on Thursday, it was revealed the man had visited a supermarket in Darwin hours after he was ordered to stay at home.

'I am extremely unhappy with this turn of events. Don't lie to authorities. The best way through coronavirus is to be absolutely honest,' a furious Chief Minister Michael Gunner told reporters.

'This is not where I want to be tonight. He broke the law and he lied about it.'

Authorities will now work to contact trace anyone who visited the Stuart Park Corner Store between 12:18pm and 12:35pm on Sunday.

These people must isolate and contact authorities for a Covid-19 test, with the results set to determine if the lockdown is lifted as planned.

The outbreak started on Saturday when a young Victorian man, who travelled to the mine via a Brisbane quarantine hotel, tested positive for the virus.

'I am extremely unhappy with this turn of events. Don't lie to authorities. The best way through coronavirus is to be absolutely honest,' a furious Chief Minister Michael Gunner told reporters

More than 700 workers were immediately ordered to isolate at the mine as authorities scrambled to track about 800 more who had flown to their homes around Australia after the infected miner arrived.

It's understood 17 cases are linked to the outbreak.

The man at the centre of Thursday's warning left the mine on Friday.

He travelled to multiple venues, including Darwin's Buff Club, before being ordered to isolate while he waited to be moved to Howard Springs.

Authorities initially reported that he'd been moved to the quarantine facility on Saturday night, with Mr Gunner labelling it an 'internal reporting error'.

He said the man would be further 'interrogated' to ensure he has fully revealed his movements in the community while infectious.

'This individual is in a spot of bother as it relates to us,' NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said.

'It is bitterly disappointing. We will fully investigate this matter to ensure this individual is held to account.

'He's got a lot to think about. It has set us a number of days behind.'

A close contact of the man from the Buff Club was on Wednesday moved from Jabiru to Howard Springs after she refused to isolate at her home in Kakadu National Park.
More than two million West Australians are set to learn when they will be freed from lockdown as the state grapples with its latest coronavirus outbreak.

Premier Mark McGowan will reveal on Friday whether the four-day lockdown in Perth and the Peel region will end as scheduled.

The restriction will be enforced until at least 1201am on Saturday but could be extended depending on the latest case numbers.

No new cases were reported on Thursday from about 15,800 tests, a result the premier described as 'amazingly encouraging'.

Premier Mark McGowan will reveal on Friday whether the four-day lockdown in Perth and the Peel region will end as scheduled

'It puts WA in the best possible position, especially as our contact tracers continue to find potential contacts,' he told reporters.

'When it comes time to lift restrictions we want to be confident this incredibly infectious virus, the Delta variant, is not still in the community.

'The next 24 hours are crucial ... we hope to have more to say about the next steps we are going to take tomorrow.'

Temporary step-down restrictions including limits on gatherings and venue capacities will be enforced if the lockdown is lifted.

The outbreak has been traced to a 51-year-old physiotherapist who recently returned to WA from NSW, where she contracted the Delta variant.

Infections were subsequently detected in two men aged in their 20s and 30s and a 32-year-old woman who attended various venues throughout Perth's northern suburbs.

Of 360 close contacts identified to date, 295 have so far tested negative, as have 1173 out of 2503 casual contacts.

No new cases were reported on Thursday from about 15,800 tests, a result the premier described as 'amazingly encouraging'

The lockdown in Perth and Peel is the third in five months.

Tourism operators have warned they face significant financial losses with school holidays set to begin on Saturday.

A business support package is yet to be finalised, with the premier noting that it would be informed by the duration of the lockdown and any subsequent restrictions.

Opposition Leader Mia Davies urged the state government to use a surplus now tipped to exceed $4 billion to provide immediate support to the regions.

'The premier must take action in his treasury portfolio - which he chose to undertake - and return some of that surplus into the small businesses and communities that are crying out for help,' she said.
A decision on whether Queensland's lockdown will be extended is expected on Friday as the state works to gain control over five unrelated Covid incidents.

Five community cases have been recorded during the lockdown period so far, and authorities have warned the state is 'not out of the woods yet' with current restrictions due to lift at 6pm.

Two of the new cases were reported on Thursday after more than 28,000 tests - an 'encouraging' sign the state was getting on top of the virus spreading.

'We've still got another 24 hours to go ... we'll update you tomorrow in relation to whether or not we can leave that lockdown,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Thursday.

'We've still got another 24 hours to go ... we'll update you tomorrow in relation to whether or not we can leave that lockdown,' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Thursday

The state is separately managing a cluster linked to a Portuguese club, a Qatar Airways worker believed to be infected at the airport, the case of a miner who returned from the NT and potential contacts of a Virgin crew member onboard several flights while having the virus.

While Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is confident about each of the state's Covid outbreaks individually, she said managing all of them simultaneously 'is a lot'.

Dr Young is also defending her advice for under 40s not to get the AstraZeneca vaccine, but wait for Pfizer, due to the extremely low risk of an extraordinarily rare blood clotting disorder.

'I have put my advice out there very, very clearly. Now, people need to work out where they want to get advice from,' she said.

While Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is confident about each of the state's Covid outbreaks individually, she said managing all of them simultaneously 'is a lot'

Ms Palaszczuk also denied her tweet falsely claiming that the UK government 'won't allow' under 40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine had been misleading.

She later tweeted a link to a BBC article citing advice in the UK for 18-39-year-olds to be 'offered an alternative' to AstraZeneca 'if available and if it does not cause delays in having the vaccine'.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said Dr Young was giving health advice in good faith, but he accused the premier of misleading people about vaccines to score political points.

The state's lockdown covers residents of Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, the Scenic Rim, the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island and nearby Palm Island until 6pm on Friday.
A 'middle-aged' man is tonight fighting for his life in hospital after he was stabbed in the middle of Oxford Street.

The victim was rushed to a central London hospital after sustaining knife injuries at the junction of Regent Street at 8pm. He remains in a critical condition.

Metropolitan Police arrested a 25-year-old man at the scene after he was detained by members of the public who were nearby during the daylight stabbing.

The suspect was taken to hospital for treatment to a head injury, which is not believed to be life-threatening.

Footage posted to social media shows a large cordon in place on Oxford Street.

The victim was rushed to a central London hospital after sustaining knife injuries at the junction of Regent Street at 8pm. He remains in a critical condition. Pictured: The scene

A Met spokesman said: 'Police were called shortly before 20:00hrs on Thursday, 1 July to reports of a man stabbed on Oxford Circus, close to Regent Street, W1.

'Officers, the London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance attended.

'The victim was taken to a central London hospital where he remains in a critical condition. A crime scene is in place and officers remain in the area.'

Several horrified shoppers took to Twitter following the stabbing to describe the scene, with one writing: 'Wrong time to be walking down Oxford Street.'

Metropolitan Police arrested a 25-year-old man at the scene after he was detained by members of the public who were nearby during the daylight stabbing

The suspect was taken to hospital for treatment to a head injury, which is not believed to be life-threatening. Pictured: The scene

Another said: 'Oxford Circus locked off due to stabbing.

'A middle aged gentleman who just got stabbed in Oxford Street looks ok. Hopefully he fully recovers.'

Police ask anyone who witnessed the assault, or who captured it on mobile phone, to contact them via 101 quoting reference Cad 7129/01Jul.

Alternatively, to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has lashed the Morrison government's vaccine rollout as a phenomenal failure.

In a stinging rebuke, Mr Turnbull said Australia fully vaccinating just eight per cent of its population was inexcusable.

He said the government's failure to buy enough vaccines was to blame.

'This is just a failure to do the one single most important job the Commonwealth government had which was to get the country vaccinated. It is hugely disappointing,' Mr Turnbull told the ABC.

In a stinging rebuke, Mr Turnbull said Australia fully vaccinating just eight per cent of its population was inexcusable

'I can't think of a bigger black-and-white failure of public administration than this.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison triggered a week of competing claims about vaccine advice after highlighting a path for younger people to receive AstraZeneca on Monday.

The expert immunisation panel on Thursday reiterated its advice that Pfizer is preferred for all people under 60 because of rare blood clots associated with AstraZeneca.

Mr Turnbull said Mr Morrison made a mistake and muddied the message around vaccines.

'I don't know whether that was just a thought bubble, I don't know if Scott had workshopped that before, I have no idea,' Mr Turnbull said.

'But the fact that you've got so many other premiers and chief medical officers disagreeing with it, and very vocally, obviously undermines confidence in the vaccine.'

More than 12 million people are in lockdown with concerns about outbreaks of the contagious Delta variant of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured right while Malcolm Turnbull was still PM) triggered a week of competing claims about vaccine advice after highlighting a path for younger people to receive AstraZeneca on Monday

Mr Turnbull said the government had put too many eggs in one basket by not buying more vaccine varieties.

'These lockdowns are a consequence of the failure to get the vaccination done and it is a massive fail,' he said.

Mr Turnbull said there was no point going on and on about how bad the mistake was before describing it as a phenomenal failure in public administration.

Thursday was a record day for vaccinations with more than 160,000 people receiving jabs nationwide.

The vaccine rollout will be high on national cabinet's agenda when state and territory leaders meet with Mr Morrison on Friday.

International passenger caps could also be reduced after premiers called for cuts of up to 80 per cent of current levels.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham cited the India travel ban and limits imposed at the start of the pandemic as examples of responsive restrictions.

'We've shown a willingness to adjust based on changed risk profiles and we'll always look at that,' he said.
California governor Gavin Newsom will face challengers in a recall election on September 14, it has been confirmed.

Newsom, 53, a Democrat, is only the second governor in California's history to face a recall election, after a move in 2003 to recall and replace Governor Gray Davis with Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

The 2003 election was a circus-like campaign that featured more than 130 candidates, including a porn star and a bounty hunter.

Newsom's recall is the result of a petition that received more than 1.7 million signatures amid a political uprising largely driven by angst over state coronavirus orders that shuttered schools and businesses and upended life for millions of Californians.

The election in the nation's most populous state will be a marquee contest with national implications, watched closely as a barometer of the public mood heading toward the 2022 elections, when a closely divided Congress again will be in play.

Yet recent opinion polls showed Newsom had favorable job approval ratings - a rise driven in large part by Californias emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic and an economy on the upswing.

Gavin Newsom will face a recall election, it was confirmed on Thursday, with the date set for September 14. Newsom faces no significant Democrat challengers but several Republicans

Gavin Newsom has faced months of protest over his handling of the COVID pandemic

Who is challenging Gavin Newsom? Caitlyn Jenner, a construction titan and a former San Diego mayor seek to seize the governorship Newsom, 53, has been governor of California since January 2019. His handling of the pandemic has caused him to become only the second governor in history to face a recall vote. Here are his Republican challengers - there is no significant Democrat opponent: John Cox Cox, 65, has made his fortune through construction. He challenged Newsom in 2018 and lost in a landslide. Caitlyn Jenner The Olympic athlete, 71, and reality TV star has insisted that she is running to reform California on a pro-business, pro-police ticket. She has never held elected office and maintains limited support. Kevin Faulconer The former mayor of San Diego from 2014-20, Faulconer, 54, is considered an establishment Republican candidate. Advertisement

The date was set on Thursday by Lt Gov Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, after election officials certified that enough valid petition signatures had been turned in to qualify the election for the ballot.

'Although the window of time from which I could select a date was narrow, I believe we have chosen a fair and reasonable date for this election to take place,' Kounalakis said in a statement released Thursday.

'It has always been my intention to choose an election date that gives election officials and the public ample time to ensure a smooth election with broad participation.'

The announcement will set off a furious, 10-week burst of campaigning through the California summer - a time when voters typically are ignoring politics to enjoy vacationing, backyard barbecuing and travel.

Many voters have yet to pay attention to the emerging election, while polls have shown Newsom would beat back the effort to remove him.

Republicans haven't won a statewide race in heavily Democratic California since 2006, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected.

Schwarzenegger was first elected in 2003 in the first recall election in state history, to replace a Democrat, Governor Gray Davis.

Republican candidates have depicted Newsom as an incompetent fop, while Democrats have sought to frame the contest as driven by far-right extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Recall organizers gathered more than enough of the required 1.5 million petition signatures needed to place the recall on the ballot.

Conservative talk show host Larry Elder, 69, issued a brief statement on Wednesday night saying he was seriously considering entering the race and would announce his decision early next week.

His entry into the race would give the Republican field a jolt of celebrity sparkle and a name on the ticket known through his nationally syndicated radio show and appearances on Fox News.

Newsom has become a lightning rod for conservatives during the pandemic

Other Republicans who have said they will run include Kevin Faulconer, the former Republican mayor of San Diego, Republican businessman John Cox, who was defeated by Newsom in 2018, former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose and reality TV personality and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner.

Candidates hoping to succeed Newsom also are likely to spend millions.

Cox, of Rancho Santa Fe, who Newsom beat handily in the 2018 governors race, already has tapped into $7 million of his own money for the contest.

Jenner has raised more than $330,000, a modest haul.

The GOP field is expected to continue to grow: Candidates have until 59 days before election to file papers to declare their candidacy.

In a recall election, voters would be asked two questions: First, should Newsom be removed, yes or no? The second question would be a list of replacement candidates to choose from, if a majority of voters cast ballots to remove Newsom.

Tom Del Beccaro, a former head of the state Republican Party who chairs Rescue California, one of the groups promoting the recall, said Elder would help drive up support for the critical first question in his home Los Angeles area, the most populous in the state.

'Statewide races in California are often won or lost in L.A. county,' said Del Beccaro, who is not aligned with any candidate.

John Cox is one of the leading Republicans to take on Gavin Newsom in September

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Faulconer speaks during a news conference in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles on February 2

Elder 'is going to bring a constituency that is going to help us get a 'yes' on the question No. 1.'

Steve Frank, a longtime conservative activist serving as Elder's spokesman, said his entry into the race would become 'a major game-changer.'

People across the political spectrum 'know him, and many listen to his show.'

Elder, a black man, also would bring more diversity to the Republican ranks.

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said Elder's entry into the race would be a setback for Cox because 'Elder would appeal to the hard-core Republican, conservative base that would have been Cox's base.'

Faulconer is considered a GOP moderate.

Pitney doubted Elder's race would play a significant factor, with the black vote typically running strongly Democratic.

Elder 'has a reputation for being a provocative conservative, not a champion of African-American interests,' Pitney said.

Meanwhile Thursday, the state Finance Department released its final estimate for state and county costs to run the election: $276 million.
Up to five million British holidaymakers could potentially be banned from Europe because they were given Indian-made versions of the AstraZeneca Covid jab.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) does not recognise a version of the vaccine produced by Covishield at the Serum Institute of India (SII), even though it is just as effective as AstraZeneca doses made elsewhere.

Holidaymakers given this vaccine could therefore be refused entry at EU border crossings when batch numbers are checked on digital Covid passports.

The EU Digital Covid Certificate allows those who are fully vaccinated to move through Europe without having to quarantine or undergo further testing.

But it only recognises vaccines currently approved by the EMA: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made in Europe.

Britons will be able to determine whether they had the SII jab by looking at their batch number, which appears on vaccination record cards.

Those who were given the Covishield jab will have the numbers 4120Z001, 4120Z002 or 4120Z003.

UK Government experts said there is nothing to suggest the AZ doses made at the Serum Institute are any less effective than UK batches.

Professor Adam Finn, who advises No10 on Covid vaccines, said the EU issue was simply an 'administrative hurdle'.

Both versions of the AZ vaccine have been shown to be 94 per cent effective at stopping Covid deaths and up to 92 per cent at reducing hospitalisations, even from the Indian variant.

Up to five million British holidaymakers could potentially be banned from Europe because they were given Indian-made versions of the AstraZeneca Covid jab. Pictured: Stock image

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) does not recognise a version of the vaccine produced by Covishield at the Serum Institute of India (SII), even though it is no less effective than jabs made elsewhere. Pictured: Stock image

Those who were given the Covishield jab will have the numbers 4120Z001, 4120Z002 or 4120Z003

However, the issue of British exclusion from the Continent is still largely theoretical because there are so few EU destinations on the 'green' travel list.

The EMA has not approved the Covishield jab only because its Indian manufacturers have not yet sought a licence for the vaccine in Europe, reports say.

HOW YOU CAN FIND OUT IF YOU WILL BE AFFECTED Every AZ vaccine administered in the UK will appear under the same name - Vaxzevria - in medical records and on the NHS app. The only way you can find out if your jab was in India is by checking the batch number. This appears on the vaccination record card you will have received when you got your jab. For those who did not hold on to their card, they can find the batch number on their NHS Covid pass letter, which can be downloaded online. The letter is used for travelling abroad or going to mass events in future, which may require proof of vaccination. You can get your pass letter if youve had two doses of the vaccine in England. To apply for a physical pass letter you can visit the NHS website by clicking here. Or you can download a digital version on the NHS App or the online Covid Pass service. Those who were given the jab will have the numbers 4120Z001, 4120Z002 or 4120Z003. Advertisement

There is no evidence the vaccine is any less effective than the Vaxzevria AstraZeneca jab, which is produced in the UK and Europe.

Despite the EMA refusing to accept the SII jab, nine European countries have reportedly told India they will accept travellers inoculated with Covishield.

According to sources at the Indian Foreign Ministry, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland have disregarded the EMA's dismissal.

Insiders added that Estonia has confirmed it will recognise all vaccines authorities by the Indian government.

Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar said he raised the issue of authorisation of the Covishield vaccine during a meeting with EU representatives in Italy this week.

Another insider said India has told the EU that it would lift quarantine for anyone carrying the EU Digital Covid Certificate if Indians were allowed equal access.

'We have also conveyed to EU Member States that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate,' the source said.

Friction has emerged elsewhere over the issue, with Covid vaccine facility Covax urging leaders to consider all people inoculated with products approved by WHO equally.

The Covishield jab was widely provided to people who live in Africa, and Covax says the EMA's decision to not authorise it discriminates against low-income countries.

'Any measure that only allows people protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines to benefit from the re-opening of travel into and with that region would effectively create a two-tier system,' a statement said.

That would widen 'the global vaccine divide' and exacerbate 'inequities we have already seen in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines,' it added.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said entry into the EU should be allowed to people 'fully vaccinated with one of the vaccines authorised in the EU.'

The Department for Health has refused to say exactly how many doses of the Indian-made jab have been administered in the UK, but five million were imported in 2021.

A statement said: 'As we continue to cautiously reopen international travel, NHS Covid Pass will be a key service that allows people to demonstrate their Covid-19 vaccination status.'

It added that all AstraZeneca doses used in the UK will appear under the European name - Vaxzevria - on the NHS app, even if they were made in India.

They can, therefore, only be identified by the batch number.
Nearly two million people a week could be forced to self- isolate by the end of the month unless ministers reform the rules.

About 400,000 were instructed to quarantine last week by Test and Trace staff  or their NHS Covid app.

Under the current system, they are told to isolate for ten days because they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

Analysis of official figures predicts that this figure will soar to 1,734,000 by July 28 if current trends continue, given the steep week-on-week rise in cases and the popularity of the NHSs smartphone app.

Nearly two million people a week could be forced to self- isolate by the end of the month unless ministers reform the rules. Analysis of official figures predicts that this figure will soar to 1,734,000 by July 28 if current trends continue, given the steep week-on-week rise in case and high levels of testing

Boris Johnson yesterday hailed vaccines for 'breaking the link' between Covid infections (left) and deaths (right). Despite infections soaring to levels on par with the second wave, deaths have remained almost completely flat

This has also meant that hospital admissions are running at a tenth of level at the same time at the start of the second wave (left) and kept the NHS at manageable occupancy (right)

MPs, business chiefs and even health leaders have called for the ten-day rule to be changed, given that many of those forced into quarantine have been vaccinated.

Campaigners want the isolation period to be replaced with daily testing, or even scrapped for those who have been received two Covid jabs.

The hospitality industry has complained of severe staff shortages as a result of the current rules, which threaten to cause wider chaos across the economy and the NHS.

Covid now just 'a bad cold' thanks to vaccines Covid is now more like a 'bad cold' thanks to the effect of vaccines, a top epidemiologist has claimed after data showed symptoms of the disease are becoming milder across the board despite rising cases. King's College London's Covid symptom study estimated there were 25,210 new cases every day in the UK last week, up by almost a third (31 per cent) from the previous seven-day spell. There said there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of partially or fully vaccinated people catching the virus  but in most cases their symptoms were mild. More than 80 per cent of infections were among the unvaccinated. Professor Tim Spector, who leads Britain's biggest Covid surveillance study, said people catching the virus after being vaccinated suffered a milder form of the disease similar to a cold, with sneezing emerging as a new symptom. 'While rates of Covid infection are high, it's reassuring to see vaccinations protecting the vulnerable and deaths remain very low,' he said. 'ZOE Covid study data shows symptoms are more mild and are similar to those of a bad cold, with a runny nose, headache and a sore throat among the top symptoms for all groups. Sneezing has also emerged as a symptom among partially and fully vaccinated people.' The ZOE symptom study also estimated the R rate  which monitors the spread of the virus  is now 1.1 meaning the UK's outbreak is growing. Cases are rising fastest in the West Midlands, South East and Yorkshire and the Humber, they predicted. Advertisement

Schools have also been hard-hit, with thousands of children sent home as a result of positive Covid tests within their class bubble.

Ministers have considered plans to allow those who have had both jabs to take daily tests instead, but any changes are unlikely to be ready for Freedom Day on July 19.

MPs last year made it a legal duty to self-isolate if you are contacted by the Test and Trace programme.

In addition, millions were encouraged to download the NHS Covid-19 app, which notifies users if they have been in close proximity to someone confirmed to have the virus and urges them to isolate.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics and the NHS suggest that the numbers self-isolating will rise to 1.7million by the end of July, according to analysis by the Adam Smith Institute.

The think-tanks deputy director, Matt Kilcoyne, said Test and Trace was a great idea at the height of the previous waves when we had no treatments and no vaccines.

He added: Now it means millions forced to sit at home who pose no risk but are going bear the brunt of lost income, passing the buck on to businesses that will take less income.

Matt Hancock might well have left office, but were at risk of his legacy being an app that kills the economy. Bars and restaurants with staff stuck in quarantine have been forced to close their doors in recent weeks.

One Wetherspoon pub in Weston-super-Mare saw 75 members of staff forced to self-isolate, while a Hawksmoor steakhouse in London received 25 Test and Trace notifications within four weeks of reopening.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of industry body UKHospitality, said: For some weeks we have been telling the Government about the severe staff shortages at venues, compounded massively by the absence of staff members who have been told to isolate despite not having shared shifts with colleagues who tested positive.

We need urgent clarification of the isolation policy to reflect the enormous success of the vaccine rollout, and we urge the Cabinet Office to amend the current isolation policy as soon as possible.

The chief executive of one NHS trust also told how isolating medics who have had both vaccine doses and tested negative for Covid were begging to rejoin the front line.

Meanwhile, former Tory minister Tim Loughton  whose daughter has been forced to isolate despite having already had Covid this year, as well as being vaccinated  said of the current rules: Its overkill for people who are clearly low risk... weve got to have a measured, common-sense approach to risk.

More proof jabs have cracked Covid: Two doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine slashes the risk of death by 94% Two doses of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine slash the risk of death from the disease by 94 per cent among the over-65s, real world data revealed today. Public Health England's release marks the first time officials have put a figure on the jabs effectiveness against mortality since it was rolled out in January. With just one dose, the risk was slashed by 83 per cent among over-65s. Their analysis did not include data from after the Indian 'Delta' variant took hold across the country. Analysis on the mutant strain is still ongoing. But separate PHE research has shown the jab is 92 per cent effective at blocking severe illness from the variant, with protection against death likely to be higher. For Pfizer's Covid vaccine, two doses are estimated to cut the risk of death by 98 per cent among all ages. After one dose, it slashed the risk by 77 per cent among over-65s. Advertisement

We need to be able to be much more flexible, based on whether youve been vaccinated or tested or already had Covid. Its having a hugely disruptive impact at the moment, particularly [for] jobs and hospitality.

Fellow Tory MP Steve Baker said: This cant go on. Shutting down Test and Trace is now the litmus test of getting on with our lives and learning to live with coronavirus like we live with flu.

He said that even if other restrictions are lifted on July 19, freedom will be hampered by the requirement for contacts of people testing positive to self-isolate for ten days.

I fear those with responsibility for the NHS are going to make it impossible to live a normal life by keeping Test and Trace going, even when most people have been double-jabbed.

It comes after a top expert claimed yesterday that Covid is now more like a 'bad cold' thanks to the effect of vaccines.

King's College London's Covid symptom study estimated there were 25,210 new cases every day in the UK last week, up by almost a third (31 per cent) from the previous seven-day spell.

It said there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of partially or fully vaccinated people catching the virus  but in most cases their symptoms were mild. More than 80 per cent of infections were among the unvaccinated.

Professor Tim Spector, who leads Britain's biggest Covid surveillance study, said people catching the virus after being vaccinated suffered a milder form of the disease similar to a cold, with sneezing emerging as a new symptom.

'While rates of Covid infection are high, it's reassuring to see vaccinations protecting the vulnerable and deaths remain very low,' he said.

'ZOE Covid study data shows symptoms are more mild and are similar to those of a bad cold, with a runny nose, headache and a sore throat among the top symptoms for all groups. Sneezing has also emerged as a symptom among partially and fully vaccinated people.'

The ZOE symptom study also estimated the R rate  which monitors the spread of the virus  is now 1.1 meaning the UK's outbreak is growing. Cases are rising fastest in the West Midlands, South East and Yorkshire and the Humber, they predicted.
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A former Head of the British Army has paid tribute to a 'model soldier' after she and her soldier husband killed themselves in a suicide pact a day after throwing a final party for their unsuspecting friends.

Peter McGuinness, 54, and wife Deborah, a 49-year-old former personal assistant to three heads of the military, were found dead in a Land Rover at a remote beauty spot in Dorset after planning the suicide for weeks.

The devoted couple, known by friends as Mac and Debs, died of carbon monoxide poisoning and a suicide note found in the vehicle said 'neither of us can be without the other', an inquest heard.

Mr McGuinness had suffered from depression possibly caused by PTSD after several tours of Iraq, and had talked about taking his own life before. But his wife, who had been given the all clear from cancer just five months before her death, had no history of mental illness.

The couple each served in the Armed Forces in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for more than 20 years. Mrs McGuinnesss was later personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army: Generals Sir David Richards, Sir Richard Dannatt and Sir Peter Wall.

Sir Richard paid tribute to Mrs McGuinness last night, calling her a 'model soldier' and the couple's deaths 'a double tragedy'. He told the Sun newspaper: 'It is only some comfort that she and her husband were together.'

Also found dead in the hired Land Rover was the pet cat they had taken with them from their home in Kingston upon Thames. Cards containing money and poignant messages to family members were also found at the scene in the car park at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage.

Peter McGuinness, 54, and wife Deborah (pictured), a former PA to three heads of the military, were found dead in a Land Rover at a remote beauty spot after planning it for weeks

Sir Richard Dannatt paid tribute to Mrs McGuinness, calling her a 'model soldier' and the couple's deaths 'a double tragedy'

Cards containing money and poignant messages to family members were also found at the scene in the car park at Durlston Country Park, near Swanage, Dorset

The inquest heard how Mr McGuinness left the army in 2007 and had recent bouts of anxiety and depression which may have been triggered by PTSD. Mrs McGuinness had discouraged him when he had questioned whether life was worth living in the past.

Their family told the Bournemouth inquest the couple had been together for 23 years and they were 'confused' by their deaths as 'they seemed so happy'.

The hearing was told that in mid-July last year - about two weeks before their deaths - the couple started searching online for dealing with wills. They threw a Mexican-themed fancy dress party at their home on August 1 for friends and drove to Durlston Country Park the next day.

Giving evidence, Mrs McGuinness's mother Rosemary Carlisle said: 'As a family we are so confused as to why they chose to end their lives.

'They threw a Mexican-themed party for Deb's birthday on August 1 and there was no indication about what would happen next as they were talking about going on holiday to Spain and buying a flat.'

Mr McGuinness had suffered from depression, possibly caused by PTSD after several tours of Iraq, and had talked about taking his own life before. But Mrs McGuinnesss, who had been given the all clear from cancer just five months before her death, had no history of mental health illness

The couple, known by friends as Mac and Debs (above), each served in the Armed Forces in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers for more than 20 years

Giving evidence about the party, army friend Thomas Rutherford said: 'They were both in fancy dress and seemed to be enjoying themselves a great deal. There was no indication that anything was amiss.'

The next day, they drove a Land Rover Evoque hire car down to Dorset and it was captured on CCTV entering the car park at about 6pm. The vehicle was spotted at about 7.30am the following morning by a staff member at the park.

She banged on the windows to try and wake the pair who were reclined in the driver and passenger seats but after getting no response called 999.

The emergency services forced entry to the vehicle and found the pair lifeless inside. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Their dead cat was in the footwell.

A post-mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Robert Blahut ruled out foul play and said their cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mrs McGuinnesss was personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army, including Sir Peter Wall (left) and Sir David Richards (right)

A search of the couple's computer history showed they had looked at websites for doing online wills in mid-July. In the car, they left a notepad with passwords inside it for their electronic devices and advice on what to do with their ashes.

Mrs McGuinness served in the army from 1989 to 2012, doing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq.She was personal assistant to three consecutive heads of the Army, Generals Sir David, Sir Richard and Sir Peter.

At the time of their deaths, she was working as an office manager at the same security firm as her husband, who was an insurance handler.

Mrs McGuinness's niece Esther Carlisle, who lived with the couple before moving to Taiwan, said Mr McGuinness got angry when his son asked him if he had PTSD in 2018.

In the car (pictured), they left a notepad with passwords inside it for their electronic devices and advice on what to do with their ashes

She said: 'They were together for 23 years and loved each other dearly. Peter got low sometimes and said he didn't think he'd live till he was 60. I remember the only time he got angry and it was when his son suggested he might have PTSD and suggested he get help.

'It was a regular occurrence for his army friends to commit suicide and he would not be shocked by it.'

Dorset Coroner Rachael Griffin, who recorded a conclusion of suicide for both parties, said: 'It is very clear to me that Debs and Peter were devoted to each other and were popular, hardworking and social people.

'Their behaviour to their close family and friends in the days leading up to their death gave no indication of what was going to happen.

'Peter had been diagnosed with depression but on the other hand Debs had no history of mental health conditions and had actually discouraged Peter when talking about not wanting to be alive.I'm satisfied on the balance of probabilities that they did the act that caused their deaths and in doing so intended these consequences.'
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has sparked backlash and ridicule after saying her state will be wearing masks until everyone is vaccinated - which could be a year away.

Ms Palaszczuk made the comments at a press conference on Friday morning, where she announced Brisbane will remain in lockdown for another day after the state recorded three new cases of Covid in the community.

The current lockdown restrictions will be lifted for the Noosa and the rest of the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Somerset and Townsville local government areas.

'That means everyone will have to carry a mask on them and wear that mask whenever they're outside of their home but of course not when you're driving your vehicle ... At the moment until everyone gets their vaccine,' she said during the briefing.

With just seven per cent of Australia's population vaccinated, Queenslanders are set to be wearing masks until well into 2022 - or face fines of $200 for disobeying.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the misstep at a press conference on Friday morning, where she announced Brisbane will remain in lockdown for another day

In Queensland, citizens living in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Noosa and the wider Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Moreton Bay, the Scenic Rim, the Lockyer Valley and Somerset regions must wear masks in public whether outdoors or inside.

Palaszczuk's draconian suggestion was quickly met with criticism online from Queenslanders.

'Did the premier just say Queensland will have mandatory mask wearing until EVERYONE is vaccinated? Going to be a long long wait,' one woman wrote on social media.

'Just watched the three stooges Young, Palaszczuk and 'Bugs Bunny' Miles deliver their nauseating drivel,' wrote another.

'The Queensland premier just said she doesn't want her job any longer.'

Palaszczuk says Brisbane and Moreton Bay will remain in lockdown for another day after three new cases emerged, particularly a mother and daughter from Carindale, in Brisbane's east, who have also tested positive and have spent time in the community while infectious.

Ms Palaszczuk says Brisbane and Moreton Bay will remain in lockdown for another day after the new cases emerged

The premier says that means the lockdown can not be relaxed in Brisbane and Moreton Bay until Saturday.

'Now we will come back early tomorrow morning, once your contact tracers get on top of this, and we'll look at the case numbers overnight,' Palaszczuk said.

'So I want to thank everyone for doing the right thing, but as you can see we've just got a situation at the moment, that has just come in, and we really need to give the people, our contact tracers the time to do that.'

Another case was reported as a contact of the Qatar Airways check-in desk staffer, who was announced as a case on Thursday, but authorities are not concerned about it.

Currently, people in the Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands, Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim, the Lockyer Valley and Somerset regions are required to wear masks in public, both outdoors and inside

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has warned that the state could have to open up a new quarantine hotel with the system set to hit capacity on Friday

He said the state has 285 available rooms, but it's expecting 259 international arrivals during the day and an unknown number of domestic arrivals.

Mr Miles again called the federal Government to cut to quarantine caps.

'It will take seven days for our police and hotel quarantine coordinators to get a new hotel up and running and so it's absolutely critical that we see that cut in the number of international visitors and we would hope that the prime minister agrees to that at national cabinet today,' he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Palaszczuk said every eligible Australian should be offered a vaccine of their choice before the international borders are reopened.

'You think about it, if for example members of your family had not had that offer of the vaccine, and the virus came in, and they ended up on ventilator, you wouldn't forgive yourself,' she said.

'So I think every eligible Australian should have the opportunity to have been offered a vaccine and then I think we then need to look at (that).'
Researchers have uncovered a lost medieval road that may have been used by Robert the Bruce before battling English forces at Bannockburn 707 years ago.

The stone-built road, which was around 13 feet wide, was unearthed on Saturday in a dig at Coxet Hill led by local archaeologist Murray Cook of Stirling University.

This is believed to have been the site where Robert the Bruce set up camp before fighting broke out against Edward II's army on June 23, 1314.

The hill was also where the sma'/small folk  men lacking training or weapons  were held in reserve until the second day, once Bruce's victory was assured.

At this point, the sma' folk emerged from where they had been concealed to block the line of retreat to Stirling Castle, turning the English forces' defeat into a rout.

According to Dr Cook, the newly-discovered road likely ran between the nearby areas of St Ninians to Chartershall, and traced the edge of a then royal park.

Researchers have uncovered a lost medieval road (pictured) that may have been used by Robert the Bruce before battling English forces at Bannockburn 707 years ago

The stone-built road, which was around 13 feet wide, was unearthed on Saturday in a dig at Coxet Hill led by local archaeologist Murray Cook of Stirling University

Coxet Hill is believed to have been the site where Robert the Bruce (depicted here addressing his troops) set up camp before fighting broke out against Edward II's army on June 23, 1314

THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN The Battle of Bannockburn between the English army of Edward II and Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce took place from June 23-24, 1314. Backed by 25,000 infantry soldiers Edward II's goal had been to relieve Stirling Castle, which had been under siege from Bruce's forces. Despite being vastly outnumbered  only 6,000 men made up Bruce's army  the Scottish proved victorious. The English army tried to retreat to Stirling Castle, but were unexpectedly blocked by the sma' folk  untrained men who had hid on Coxet Hill. The appearance of yet more forces drove the English into a panicked, disordered retreat. Advertisement

Dr Cook said that the idea to dig at the Coxet Hill site came following studies he conducted for a book on the Battle of Bannockburn.

'In my research for [the book] I found the area and thought would be an an interesting and overlooked spot,' he told MailOnline.

'It was heavily overgrown with brambles and has tended to be ignored in other research,' the archaeologist continued.

The long-hidden thoroughfare skirted around the New Park, a 'cockshot'  a hunting wood for game birds established by King Alexander III of Scotland in around 1264.

'Where we thought we had a boundary around Alexander III's New Park, it now appears we have a road. We've got a 100 metre section of it, probably four metres wide,' Dr Cook told the Scotsman.

'This hard-packed stone road or track curves around the bottom of the Coxet Hill and doesn't show on any of the maps going back the last 200 years, which suggests a medieval origin.

'The fact it is around the medieval royal wood suggests it was there before the Battle of Bannockburn and was in use at that time.

'It is logical that it was used by Robert the Bruce. Potentially this was also the route used by the sma' folk on the way to Bannockburn.'

Dr Cook said that the idea to dig at Coxet Hill came following studies he conducted for a book on the Battle of Bannockburn. Pictured: the excavations at the site, which had been overgrown

Coxet Hill was also where the sma' folk  men lacking training or weapons  were held in reserve until the second day, once Bruce's victory was assured. At this point, they emerged from where they had been concealed to block the line of retreat to Stirling Castle. Pictured: the Battle of Bannockburn as depicted in the 15th century 'Scotichronicon', showing Bruce wielding an axe and Edward II fleeing north towards Stirling Castle

The long-hidden thoroughfare skirted around the New Park, a 'cockshot'  a hunting wood for game birds established by King Alexander III of Scotland in around 1264. Pictured: the dig site

'When you walk around this area, you are walking where legendary heroes like Robert the Bruce walked. It is astonishing just how much survives,' Dr Cook added.

The recent excavation did not find any artefacts alongside the medieval road.

However, Dr Cook said that he is planning to return to the site next year to look for evidence of the soldiers' encampment, such as fire or latrine pits.

The Battle of Bannockburn between the English army of Edward II and Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce took place from June 23-24, 1314. Pictured: an interpretation of the first day of the battle, in which the English cavalry formations advanced on the Scots, but were ultimately forced to retreat back south over the Bannockburn

Despite being vastly outnumbered  only 6,000 men made up Bruce's army  the Scottish proved victorious. Pictured: on the second day of the battle, the Scottish forces surprised the English by emerging from New Park, ultimately hemming Edward II's forces against the Bannockburn and ultimately driving them to retreat

While the recent excavation did not find any artefacts alongside the medieval road, Dr Cook said that he is planning to return to the site next year to look for evidence of the soldiers' encampment  such as fire or latrine pits. Pictured: part of the trench at the Coxet Hill site
Coronavirus is common in cats and dogs if their owners have the virus, vets have warned, claiming people should avoid their pets if they catch the disease.

Swabs from 310 pets in 196 homes where at least one human had been infected with Covid were taken by researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Out of the pets six cats and seven dogs triggered a positive PCR test and another 54 had evidence of virus antibodies in their system.

Owners passing Covid-19 on to pets is a 'negligible risk to public health', according to researchers, but there is a possibility they could become a 'reservoir' and reintroduce it to humans after it has left the human population.

The main concern, according to study author Dr Els Broens, isn't the health of the animal as they have mild or no symptoms, but rather the future risk to humans.

Coronavirus is common in cats and dogs if their owners have the virus, vets have warned, claiming people should avoid their pets if they catch the disease. Stock image

ANIMALS AND THEIR IMPACT ON COVID-19 The exact source of Covid-19 is unknown, according to the CDC, 'but we know that it originally came from an animal, likely a bat.' At this time, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus, the CDC added. Studies suggest that while animals can develop virus antibodies, the risk of passing it to humans, or between other animals is very low. 'We are still learning about this virus, but we know that it can spread from people to animals in some situations, especially during close contact,' the CDC has warned. 'People with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should avoid contact with animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife.' There is a risk of animals, particularly domestic pets, becoming a 'reservoir' for the virus, allowing it to be spread back to humans even after it has been removed from human populations. Advertisement

The team found no evidence of the virus passing between pets, but Dr Broens says people should still avoid their pets 'just as you would do with other people.'

They analysed the PCR test results of 156 dogs and 154 cats from 196 households, finding just 4.2 per cent had positive tests and 17 per cent had antibodies.

'The main concern, however, is not the animals' health - they had no or mild symptoms of Covid-19 - but the potential risk that pets could act as a reservoir of the virus and reintroduce it into the human population,' said Dr Broens.

'Despite the rather high prevalence among pets from Covid-19 positive households in this study, it seems unlikely that pets play a role in the pandemic.'

Eight cats and dogs that lived in the same homes as the PCR-positive pets were also tested for a second time to check for virus transmission among pets.

None of the animals tested positive, suggesting the virus was not being passed between pets living in close contact with one another.

But researchers said their findings show that Covid-19 is highly prevalent in pets of people who have had the disease.

Meanwhile, separate research suggests that cats that sleep on their owner's bed may be at particular risk of getting Covid-19 infection from their owners.

Dorothee Bienzle, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Guelph in Canada, who presented the findings, said: 'If someone has Covid-19 there is a surprisingly high chance they will pass it on to their pet.'

Cats, especially those that sleep on their owner's bed, seem to be particularly vulnerable, Professor Bienzle explained, adding to other voices urging owners to 'keep your distance' from a pet if you catch the virus.

Bienzle also recommends keeping coronavirus-infected pets away from other people and pets, as evidence is limited on whether the virus can spread between pets.

'Similarly, although pets have not been shown to pass the virus back to people, the possibility can't be completely ruled out.'

Commenting on the findings, Professor James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, said they add to existing evidence.

He said that both studies are consistent with 'a growing number of studies that are suggesting that a substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs may catch Sars-CoV-2 virus (which causes Covid-19) from their owners'.

Swabs from 310 pets in 196 homes where at least one human had been infected with Covid were taken by researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Stock image

He added: 'Cats and dogs may commonly be infected with the virus, but most reports are that this infection appears to be asymptomatic.

'It also seems that the virus does not normally transmit from dogs and cats to either other animals or their owners.

'These studies need to be differentiated from earlier work that has reported a very small number of individual cats and dogs to be unwell after they caught Covid-19 from their owners.'

The research was presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) but has not yet been published in a journal.
Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter have committed to improving their reporting systems and handing users more control over their experience as part of an initiative to tackle the abuse of women online.

It comes as hundreds of prominent women around the world, including Diane Abbott, Emma Watson and Annie Lennox, have published an open letter urging the platforms to make their sites safer.

The four technology giants have made the commitments during the United Nations Generation Equality Forum in Paris.

The commitment comes after a year-long campaign led by the World Wide Web Foundation, which saw experts, government and women affected by online abuse come together to create solutions to the issue.

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Hundreds of prominent women around the world have united to demand technology giants do more to make their sites safe (PA)

They focus on improving the features which will enable users to better manage who can engage with their posts and more options to filter certain types of content, as well as strengthening reporting systems so users can track and manage reports of abuse.

The open letter recognises the pledges made by the tech giants and urges them to act upon them.

It has been signed by global leaders including Mozambican politician and women's rights advocate, Graca Machel, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, MPs Diane Abbott, Jess Phillips and Fleur Anderson, as well as other prominent women including Emma Watson, Annie Lennox, FKA Twigs, Thandie Newton, Gemma Chan and Maisie Williams.

The open letter recognises the pledges made by the tech giants and urges them to act upon them, and was signed by women including Diane Abbott

Emma Watson was among the prominent women who signed an open letter, urging the online platforms to update their systems

The letter says the announcement is a 'historic opportunity' for the companies and calls on them to tackle 'one of the biggest barriers to gender equality: the pandemic of online abuse against women and girls'.

According to research on the issue, 38 per cent of women globally have directly experienced abuse online, rising to 45 per cent among younger women.

The UN Forum in Paris is being held to discuss how to advance women's rights around the world.

Emily Sharpe, Web Foundation director of policy, said: 'With today's announcement, these companies have established themselves as leaders in the fight against the abuse of women online.

'This collaboration has shown the promise of smart, evidence-led change in tech that is open and connected to people's real online experiences.

'We'll be tracking these companies against the commitments they've made and will publish annual reports showing their progress.

'We expect other companies to join these four and step up to the challenge.'
Japan's catastrophic Fukushima disaster in 2011 has resulted in a unique species of boar-pig, a new study reveals.

Researchers investigating the effects of the nuclear disaster on animals in the area report that radiation has had no adverse effects on their genetics.

However, wild boars (Sus scrofa leucomystax) have proliferated in the area, after being left to roam freely from the lack of humans.

The boars have bred with domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) that escaped from nearby properties after farmers had to flee, creating a new hybrid species.

Rare spotted wild boar observed inside the evacuated area of Fukushima, Japan, indicative of the 'introgression' - the transfer of genetic information from one species to another - with domestic pigs

WILDLIFE IS 'FLOURISHING' AT FUKUSHIMA Images from remotely-operated cameras indicate wildlife is flourishing in Fukushima's exclusion zone. Wildlife ecologist James Beasley of the University of Georgia and colleagues used a network of 106 remote cameras to capture images of the wildlife in the area over a four-month period. They more than 20 species in areas around the reactor, including wild boar, macaques and fox-like raccoon dogs. Read more: Wildlife is flourishing in the exclusion zone around Fukushima Advertisement

The study has been led by Donovan Anderson, a researcher at Fukushima University in Japan, who has been driving through the land exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

For the study, Anderson colleagues analysed DNA samples from muscles of 243 wild boars, pigs and boar-pig hybrids, taken from local slaughterhouses.

Results indicated that 31 wild boar, or 16 per cent of the wild boar from the evacuated zone, were hybrids.

'We show evidence of successful hybridisation between pigs and native wild boar in this area,' Anderson and colleagues say.

'We recommend that future studies assess the fitness of these hybrids and better characterise their ecological niche.'

The team added that the genetic legacy of the domestic pig has been 'diluted' through time due to the breeding.

While the boar-pigs are radioactive, the study did not link radioactivity with the creation of the new hybrid species.

'The fact the pigs and boars have cross-bred has nothing to do with radiation,' Anderson told MailOnline.

'While the boar and hybrids are technically radioactive, the radiation had nothing to do with the genetic changes  this was the pigs' fault.

'The wild boar in Fukushima are still relatively contaminated and can range from as no detection of radionuclides to 30,000 becquerel per kilogram.'

Anderson told MailOnline that this amount would be 'very insignificant' if meat from the animals were to be cooked and eaten by humans.

A previous study co-authored by Anderson has also indicated that the radiation exposure has had no harmful effects on the boars' genetics.

A wild boar encountered inside the mandated evacuation zone in Fukushima, Japan. Researchers took muscle samples from local slaughterhouses

Photo taken by Anderson from inside a vehicle shows a wild boar inside the mandated evacuation zone in Fukushima, Japan

Japan was devastated by the Fukushima disaster, which permanently shifted large parts of Honshu, the country's main island, several meters to the east.

It launched tsunami waves more than 130 feet high, destroying the homes of 450,000 people and sending several nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into meltdown.

A steady stream of toxic, radioactive materials spewed into the atmosphere and forced thousands nearby to flee their homes.

And with the lack of human activity, the wild boar has been able to proliferate, as it's no longer disturbed by hunters or traffic.

In March 2011, Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors in Japan suffered a nuclear disaster after an earthquake and tsunami destroyed key cooling functions

Japan was devastated by the natural disaster which permanently shifted large parts of Honshu, the country's main island, several meters to the east

Anderson also noted that the hybrid creatures are more active during the day than the nighttime because of this.

'The wild boar here shifted to more diurnal behaviour,' he told IFLScience.

'In other words, inside the evacuation zone, the wild boar are generally more active during the daytime than other boars, which tend to be more nocturnal.

'This is more than likely because theres less human disturbances or threats.'

The Japanese government estimates that the boar population has increased from 49,000 to 62,000 boar in 2014 to 2018, but Anderson his team 'expect the numbers to be greater than that'.

In this satellite view, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power plant is seen after the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 14, 2011 in Futaba, Japan

Since 2018, humans have been returning to the Fukushima exclusion zone, but the hybrid boars may prove hard to shift.

'The Japanese government has done a great effort to reduced radiation levels to under the standard limits,' Anderson told MailOnline.

'Most of the area is now reopened and people are slowly returning. However, some areas still remain evacuated or closed  especially closer to the nuclear power plant.'

Anderson said that it will be 'interesting' to see how the wild boars and hybrids react as humans return to the area.

Future risks for wild boar in this area  including the new hybrid  include disease outbreaks and human-related disruptions being revitalised, the team warn in their paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
A Russian cargo ship on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) will come perilously close to colliding with one of SpaceX's satellites, according to the country's space agency Roscosmos.

The Progress 78 spacecraft, which blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, will also narrowly miss a Falcon 9 rocket fragment left in orbit from 2020.

Preliminary calculations suggest the Starlink 1691 satellite will come within 0.9 miles (1.5km) of hitting Progress at 17:32 ET (22:32 BST) tonight, while the booster is expected to miss by 0.3 miles (500m) three minutes later.

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Near-miss: Russian cargo ship Progress 78 (similar to the one pictured) will come very close to colliding with one of SpaceX's satellites, according to the country's space agency Roscosmos

Starlink 1691 was launched in September last year but is understood to have been lowered out of operational orbit at 340 miles in April. This artist's impression shows a Starlink satellite

HOW MANY ITEMS ARE THERE IN ORBIT? Rocket launches since 1957: 5450

5450 Number of satellites in orbit: 8950

8950 Number still in space: 5000

5000 Number still functioning: 1950

1950 Number of debris objects: 22300

22300 Break-ups, explosions etc: 500

500 Mass of objects in orbit: 8400 tonnes

8400 tonnes Prediction of the amount of debris in orbit using statistical models Over 10cm: 34 000

34 000 1cm to 10cm: 900 000

900 000 1mm to 1cm: 128 million Source: European Space Agency Advertisement

The close approach will take place just three-and-a-half hours before the spacecraft is set to dock with the ISS at 21:02 ET (02:02 BST) on July 2.

Roscosmos said: 'Preliminary data show the Starlink 1691 satellite approach the Progress MS-17 spacecraft at 21:32 UTC at a distance of about 1.5 km. Three minutes later, a fragment of a Falcon 9 booster launched in 2020 is to approach the Russian ship to a distance of about 500 m.

'The approach is to take place 3.5 hours before the docking of the freighter to the International Space Station, which is scheduled for 01:02 UTC on July 2.

'Russian control means continue monitoring the situation.'

A potential collision alert was triggered when the close approach was detected by the Roscosmos TsNIIMash Main Information and Analytical Center of the Automated System for Warning of Hazardous Situations in Near-Earth Space.

Progress 78, which was launched into space on a Soyuz rocket, is loaded with 1,734 pounds of spare parts and supplies, 926 pounds of water, 882 pounds of propellant and 89 pounds of nitrogen.

Its arrival will set the stage for the launch of the long-delayed Nauka laboratory on July 15, a module which will greatly expand the Russian segment of the ISS.

Nauka  which means Science in Russian  will weigh more than 44,800 pounds and include additional crew quarters, a toilet, life support equipment and a European Space Agency robotic arm.

Starlink 1691 was launched in September last year but is understood to have been lowered out of operational orbit at 340 miles (550 km) in April. It is thought to be on its way to burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Pieces of unwanted debris left by humans in low-Earth orbit have become the equivalent of a 'new drifting island of plastic' in outer space, an expert has warned (artist's impression)

RUSSIA'S SOYUZ: DECADES OF BLASTING INTO SPACE The Soyuz programme is an ongoing human spaceflight programme which was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project. There have been 138 manned missions, of which 11 have failed and one astronaut has died. Here are some of the notable failures, including one in 1967 when an astronaut was killed, one in 1975 when two astronauts hurtle to Earth. 1967: Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov was killed during landing due to a parachute failure 1975: Two Russian astronauts had to abort a mission to a Russian space station at an altitude of 90miles due to a rocket failure. They hurtled towards Earth and safely landed in the Altai Mountains on the Russia-China border. One of the astronauts never flew to space again, never fully recovered from the accident and died aged 62 in 1990. The other made two more flights. 1983: A rocket malfunctioned during the countdown to take off in southern Kazakhstan. Automatic systems ejected the two Russian crew-members just seconds before the rocket exploded. The fire burned on the launch pad for 20 hours. 2002: A Soyuz ship carrying a satellite crashed during launch in Russia when a booster suffered an engine malfunction. The ship landed near the launch pad, killing one engineer on the ground. 2011: A Soyuz-U mission carrying cargo failed to launch to the International Space Station when the upper stage experienced a problem and broke up over Siberia. 2016: Another cargo ship was lost shortly after launch, likely due to a problem with the third stage of the Soyuz-U. August 2018: A hole in a Soyuz capsule docked to the International Space Station caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. The Russians claimed the hole was drilled deliberately in an act of sabotage either on Earth or in orbit. Another theory is that the hole was a production defect. Advertisement

SpaceX is yet to comment on the development but MailOnline has approached the company for more information.

Space debris is becoming an increasing problem, with more and more satellites being launched every year, and there is now a heightened awareness something needs to be done to keep orbits above Earth clear of old junk.

Earlier this year one expert warned that pieces of unwanted debris left by humans in low-Earth orbit have become the equivalent of a 'new drifting island of plastic' in outer space.

Scientific models estimate there are more than 128 million pieces of space debris that are larger than 1mm, and 34,000 pieces larger than 10cm.

These range from old rocket parts to flakes of paint that have chipped off satellites.

Fragments of space debris as small as 1cm have the potential to completely destroy satellites because of the speed at which they are travelling.

Ekaterini Kavvada, the directorate general of Defence Industry and Space at the European Commission, warned that this space junk is 'not a theoretical threat but a reality'  similar to the threat posed by floating islands of plastic in the Earth's oceans.

She added that the debris could cause damage to active European and other satellites, adding that if we do not react in a safe and timely way, the consequences will be 'detrimental.'

Artificial satellites are used in communications, such as satellite television and phone calls, and navigation, which includes the Global Positioning System (GPS).

These types of spacecraft also play a role in weather forecasting, tracking storms and pollution and astronomy.

Ms Kavvada said that, since January 2019, there have been more than 5,000 satellites in space, but only 2,000 are still active.

She warned that there are still nearly 3,000 inactive satellites drifting in space, with recent data suggesting there have been more than 500 break-ups or explosions of these space objects, resulting in fragmentation.

Just over a month ago a robotic arm attached to the outside of the ISS was hit with space junk and visibly damaged, according to the Canadian Space Agency.

In a blog post, the CSA notes that 'a small section of the arm boom and thermal blanket' of Canadarm2 was hit.

The space agency first noticed the incident 'during a routine inspection' on May 12.

According to NASA, more than 27,000 pieces of space junk are tracked, of which 23,000 are larger than a Croquet ball and travelling at speeds up to 16,777 mph (27,000km/h).

However, there are many that are 'too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions.'

In May this year, a robotic arm attached to the outside of the International Space Station was hit with space junk and visibly damaged, according to the Canadian Space Agency
The average person working from home long term could end up with sallow skin and a hunched back, according to a new study revealed through a terrifying visual.

LloydsPharmacy doctors predict that in just five years time, the average person's skin will become sallow from a lack of sunlight, they'll gain weight from a lack of exercise and develop a hunch from poor posture.

The team of experts have warned these could be the lasting impacts of habits established a a result of the pandemic on our long-term health.

The hard-hitting visual shows a hunched woman with poor posture, who has gained weight and developed sallow skin, deteriorating eyesight, hair loss, and ground-down teeth from grinding in her sleep.

It was created in response to research that highlighted the detrimental impact 'lockdown lifestyle changes', including working from home, had on overall health.

Doctors haven't said working from home is bad, rather that people should avoid working from their bed or sofa, and get up regularly for short activity breaks.

The average person working from home long term could end up with sallow skin and a hunched back, according to a new study revealed through a terrifying visual

The effects of lockdown on the human body According to the study, lockdown has had a number of worrying impacts on the human body: 1. Weight gain Two-fifths of British adults have gained weight since lockdown began, with the average gaining nearly a stone. This is due to leading more sedentary lives, getting out to exercise or even walk less than before Covid-19 hit. 2. Posture People working from home are using the sofa, kitchen table or even their bedrooms as make-shift offices. This leads to them hunched over their computer, staring at the screen in a variety of unusual positions. 3. Sleep A significant number of people in the UK have experienced changes to their sleep patterns since lockdown. Nearly two-thirds say their sleep has been worse, and it is due in part to inactivity and increased stress. 4. Lack of vitamin D The struggles of working from home, juggling home-schooling and managing that all important work-life balance means many people are spending less time outside. This could result in reduced sunlight exposure, making it more difficult to get enough vitamin D. It is required for helping keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy and supporting the immune function. 5. Stress and anxiety Since the start of the pandemic, stress and anxiety levels have significantly increased across all age groups. This has been caused by a range of factors from health concerns and daily news reports, to worries about job security and even the impact of lockdown restrictions easing. 6. Sexual performance When it comes to sexual health and wellbeing, the impact of lockdown has been significant. A survey revealed 1 in 3 women frequently worry about their libido and its impact on their sex lives. Stress was found to be one of the biggest barriers to healthy intimate relations. Advertisement

Dr Kieran Seyan, Medical Director from LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor, said the pandemic forced 'one of the biggest shifts in human behaviour ever seen.'

'These new habits and routines, which have resulted from lockdown restrictions, such as working from home, increased screen time and a lack of motivation to exercise, may be set to stay,' he added.

'It's important that people understand that these negative changes could be impacting individual health and mental wellbeing.

'We encourage small changes that make a positive difference, ultimately helping people feel fit and healthy for the future.'

Weight gain

As part of a study - which involved examining queries to the LloydsPharmacy online doctor service - they found a 155 per cent increase in requests for advice for weight loss and an 87 per cent increase for migraine advice over the past 12 months.

According to the NHS, two-thirds of adults in England are overweight or have obesity, with obesity overtaking smoking as the biggest public health priority.

LloydsPharmacy Chief Superintendent Pharmacist, Victoria Steele said people had a daily commute before the pandemic and were getting out much more than today.

'This new sedentary lifestyle as a result of lockdown restrictions, is likely to be playing a role in contributing to the nation's weight gain, which can easily spiral out of control when you start to lose motivation and confidence.'

She said people not having this regular commute should find ways to incorporate 30 minutes of daily exercise at least five times per week.

This would 'reduce the risk of ill health' and could be anything from a brisk daily walk to an at-home workout before or after starting work.

According to the latest research, 43 per cent of those who have gained weight during lockdown admit that they have been eating more as a result of increased stress, anxiety and/or low mood caused by the pandemic.

Nearly half said they had less motivation to exercise during the pandemic, and one in five blame their weight gain on drinking more alcohol or ordering more takeaways.

Posture

Despite the gradual easing of lockdown measures, the majority of people continue to work from home every day, using the sofa, kitchen table or even their bedrooms as make-shift offices, which Steele says means people are 'sitting down longer'.

'People often find themselves hunched over their computer, staring at their screen from first thing in the morning to last thing at night,' Steele said.

They are often sitting in a variety of unnatural positions, and are not in a workplace that would typically follow health and safety guidance.

'The body is designed for movement, so by not making time to get up and about during the day, this can lead to stiffness, back and neck pain as well as having a negative impact on our posture and muscles,' she said.

People should break up long periods of sitting with one or two minutes of activity - including a walk, gentle exercise or just moving about the house, they said.

'In addition to the dangers of inactivity, the extensive time spent in front of the screen may also lead to deteriorating eyesight, which could cause longer-term damage if habits continue,' explained Steele.

LloydsPharmacy doctors predict that skin will become sallow from a lack of sunlight, gain weight from a lack of exercise and develop a hunch from poor posture

Cutting the working day to five hours temporarily IMPROVES employee productivity, but the increase in intensity leads to more stress The average American works 8.8 hours a day, but research suggests that may be three hours too many. Experts and company CEOs have found working five-hour days can improve productivity and boost overall wellness, as is the 'sweet spot' for when focus starts to dwindle. Studies show that as our focus slides, we become less motivated, make more mistakes and become easily distracted, which is why some companies are opting for a five-hour workday. The idea stems from a study of music training that inspired the '10,000-hour rule' - the concept it takes that many hours to become an expert at something - but the researcher found the 'best' students practiced for just four to five hours a day. A number of companies have tested the five-hour workday, which learned the program has both positives and negatives. One success story is Tower Paddle Boards, which moved to a compressed-hour model in 2015. Staff worked from 8am to 1pm, without breaks, which pushed them to increase output in order to meet the early cutoff time  the company saw a 50 per cent spike in productivity. Advertisement

She said people should have their eyes tested regularly, and employees will pay for the test if you work more than a couple of hours in front of a screen.

Sleep

Covid restrictions have also changed our sleep, with two-thirds of people saying their sleep has been worse since the pandemic began.

Expert Sleep Physiologist, Stephanie Romiszewski said watching the news about deaths and infection has had a 'real impact on our mental wellbeing'.

'With many of us working from home, the compression time between work and home has been removed, which can lead to anxieties from work following you into your downtime, making it difficult to switch off each night and fall into a peaceful slumber,' she said.

Romiszewski recommends waking up at the same time each day, limit your news consumption directly before bed and avoiding working in your bedroom if you can.

She added: 'At the very least, make sure you tidy away at the end of each day.

'Pack away what you can and even cover up your workstation so it can be tucked away both physically and mentally. Mark that transition properly for your brain so it doesn't get confused between wake time and sleep time.'

Stress and anxiety

The other major concern LloydsPharmacy uncovered was a rise in stress and anxiety across all age groups, caused by health, news and job security.

'Whilst, this has taken its toll on our mental and physical health and how we are able to cope during these worrying times, we don't yet know the true scale and impact this pandemic will have on the nation for years to come,' the firm said.

LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor, Dr Amita Bhattacharjee said stress and anxiety can impact the body in many ways.

'Your body perceives stress as a threat, causing a surge of hormones to create a chemical reaction to occur as a way of dealing with pressure and preventing injury  known as the 'flight or fight' response.'

Common signs of stress and anxiety include increased heart rate, loss of appetite, digestive health complaints (such as irritable bowel syndrome), headaches/ migraines, pain, dizziness, sleeping disruption and even hair loss.

Another symptom of stress and anxiety which you may not even be aware of is grinding teeth and jaw clenching, which often happens during sleep but can causes teeth to become sensitive and wear down if continued over a longer period of time.

Lack of Vitamin D

In the early days of the pandemic people were restricted in terms of how long they go leave the house for in any given day, and this had an impact on Vitamin D levels.

The struggles of trying to juggle work from home, home-schooling and creating a work-life-balance, also made it harder to get outside than before Covid-19 struck.

In the early days of the pandemic people were restricted in terms of how long they go leave the house for in any given day, and this had an impact on Vitamin D levels. Stock image

Vitamin D, or the 'sunshine vitamin, is essential for everyone of all age groups and getting the right amount was vital for a healthy body.

'It is required for helping keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy and supporting the immune function,' said LloydsPharmacy Pharmacist, Anshu Kaura.

'Your skin produces vitamin D3 naturally when you spend time in the sun however, the body doesn't always produce enough on its own, so it needs to be consumed through sun exposure, food or supplements.'

Not getting enough vitamin D can result in weaker teeth that easily chip and crack, and long term can lead to a loss of bone density and osteoprosis.

The vitamin also has a role in improving patient recovery in Covid-19, particularly in terms of longer-term complications, according to the study authors.

Sexual performance

The pandemic, and lockdown restrictions, has also put a dampener on love lives, with 1 in 3 women saying they are worried about their libido.

Stress was found to be one of the biggest barriers to healthy intimate relations.

It negatively affected sex lives of half of women alongside fatigue and low mood, whilst 1 in 5 said intimate infections and STIs have caused problems in the past.

Data also revealed searches in excess of 5,000 were made for 'is premature ejaculation curable' every month since the start of the pandemic in May 2020. Stock image

Steele said the past year has been stressful for many and some women may have found it harder to access the support they need, not knowing where to go.

'This is alongside a possible decline in advice sharing amongst friends and family, as a result of social distancing,' she said.

It's not only impacting women, data from LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor indicated the hidden impact the pandemic is having on men, as searches for premature ejaculation medication soared in May 2021 by over 200 per cent.

Data also revealed searches in excess of 5,000 were made for 'is premature ejaculation curable' every month since the start of the pandemic in May 2020.

Dr Sameer Sanghvi, a LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor, said that premature ejaculation and issues around having sex was a growing problem.

He said it 'could be caused by the pandemic and our behaviours post-pandemic too.'

It's important that we try to not let these habits formed as a result of lockdown impact our health any further, the firm said.

'The hard-hitting visual from highlights what the average person could look like in five years but making small changes in our day-to-day lives could alleviate that.'

More details about the study can be found on the Lloyds Pharmacy website.
Fire fighters battled a burning Tesla Model S Plaid for three hours Wednesday night in a Philadelphia suburb.

The Gladwyne Fire Department responded to a call just before 9pm ET in Haverford, Pennsylvania, according to Electrek, which first reported on the incident.

Due to prior training classes on Tesla Vehicle Fire emergencies, Engine 24 laid a 5 inch supply line into the scene so that we could keep a continual water stream on the fire to extinguish the fire and cool the batteries down to ensure complete extinguishment, the Gladwyne Volunteer Fire Company shared in a Facebook post.

Engine 24 and Engine 25 both deployed hand lines to extinguish the fire, each maintained a dedicated water source and continued to cool the vehicle down for almost 90 minutes.

An EMT who also responded to the scene said the call came from a resident of the neighborhood who saw the 'Tesla driving up hill while ablaze,' but also notes it cannot be confirmed due to a lack of video evidence.

A spokesperson from the Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos law firm confirmed to DailyMail.com that the owner had been trapped inside the vehicle for some time while it was on fire.

The Gladwyne fire department says no injuries occurred last night, but the Tesla is nothing more than a pile of metal and ash.

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Fire fighters battled a burning Tesla Model S Plaid for three hours Wednesday night in a Philadelphia suburb

The owner, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being represented by Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos in Los Angeles, and Jason Setchen of Athlete Defender in Miami.

Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos told DailyMail.com in an email: 'This is a harrowing and frightening situation and an obvious major problem. Our preliminary investigation is ongoing, but we call on Tesla to sideline these cars until a full investigation can occur.'

First responders were called to the 100 block of Rose Lane, where they came upon the burning Tesla parked in the street.

According to Electrek, the car is a brand new Model S Plaid based on the front-end and wheels seen on the pictures snapped Wednesday evening.

The EMT at the scene shared details of the incident on Reddit: The caller claimed that the car was driving up hill while ablaze but this cannot be conclusively proven due to a lack of video evidence and the fact that all of the internals that would prove it are currently worth their weight in scrap.

Pictured is the Gladwyne Fire Department's Facebook post detailing the fire

The Gladwyne fire department responded to a call just before 9pm ET in Haverford, Pennsylvania

An EMT who also responded to the scene said the call came from a resident of the neighborhood who saw the Tesla rolling down the hill while it was on fire

DailyMail.com has contacted Tesla and the Gladwyne Fire Department for comment and has yet to receive a response.

Tesla just recently unveiled its Model S Plaid on June 11, which CEO Elon Musk says can go from zero to 60 in under two seconds and can achieve the top speed of 200mph  but drivers need 'proper wheels and tires' for an undisclosed additional cost.

It is not clear how Wednesdays incident will impact sales of the vehicle, but Tesla has come under fire in the past for its vehicles catching on fire.

One recent incident happened in November 2020 in Frisco, Texas, where a Tesla Model S suddenly erupted into flames.

The Gladwyne fire department notes that no injuries occurred last night, but the Tesla is nothing more than a pile of metal and ash.

Tesla has come under fire in the past for its vehicles catching on fire. One recent incident happened in November 2020 in Texas (pictured), where a Tesla Model S suddenly erupted into flames

Another fatal event happened just this past April, but it involved a Tesla crashing into a tree that sparked a fire and killed two men. The fire may have may have started after a 'significant front-end collision' ignited the battery, fire officials said about 10 days after the incident

Usmaan Ahmad told the Washington Post he had just pulled off a thoroughfare on November 23, when he heard a series of loud metallic bangs emanating from beneath his 2015 Tesla Model S 85D.

Another fatal event happened just this past April, but it involved a Tesla crashing into a tree that sparked a fire and killed two men.

Dr. William Varner, 59, and Everette Talbot, 69, both died when the Tesla Model S smashed into a tree and burst into flames in Texas on April 17.

The fire may have may have started after a 'significant front-end collision' ignited the battery, fire officials said about 10 days after the incident.

Police said it was apparent that there was no one in the driver's seat at the time of the crash in the wealthy The Woodlands neighborhood, Houston

However, Tesla refuted the clams, saying a deformed steering wheel suggested that someone was likely in the drivers seat.
A trailblazing 82-year-old female aviator who trained as an astronaut 60 years ago but was never selected for a mission is set to become the oldest person ever to go to space when she joins Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin's first manned flight later this month.

Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk will join Amazon boss Bezos, his brother Mark and the winner of an online auction as an 'honored guest' when they blast into orbit on the New Shepard rocket on July 20 - and in doing so will surpass former Senator John Glenn, who took a space shuttle flight in 1998 at the age of 77.

The trip is 60 years overdue for Funk, who was trained to be an astronaut in 1961 as part of the Mercury 13 project - a group of 13 American women who underwent the same training as NASA's Mercury 7 men but were not selected for a mission because of their gender.

Funk even scored higher than Glenn - who was one of the Mercury 7 astronauts chosen to fly on Project Mercury in the 1960s - on some astronaut testing.

The Mercury 13 'successfully underwent the same physiological and psychological screening tests as the astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury,' Blue Origin said in an email.

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Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk will join Amazon boss Jeff Bezos on the Blue Origin mission this month

Blue Origin announced that 82-year-old astronaut Mary Wallace 'Wally' Funk will join Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark and the winner of the auction on Blue Origin's first human flight later this month

Funk was part of the 'Mercury 13,' 13 American women who 'successfully underwent the same physiological and psychological screening tests as the astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury'

Funk will become the oldest person to fly to space when she heads into orbit on July 20, surpassing former Senator John Glenn, who did so at 77 years old in 1998

The New Shepard rocket will launch on July 20, the 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing

Despite popular belief, the Mercury 13 were not an official part of NASA's astronaut program and were part of a privately funded program.

But it spurred Funk to pressure US officials into allowing women into the space program.

In a video for Blue Origin, Funk recalled: 'They told me that I had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys.

So I got ahold of NASA, four times. I said I want to become an astronaut, but nobody would take me. I didn't think that I would ever get to go up.'

She said people told her 'Wally, you're a girl, you can't do that.'

'I said guess what, doesn't matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it.'

Although the 13 women never flew to space, they did testify before Congress in the early 1960s to criticize NASA for not including women as astronauts.

It wasn't until 1978 that NASA selected 35 astronauts, including the first six women, for the Space Shuttle Program.

Bezos, 57, broke the news to Funk personally that she would be joining him on the trip.

The video shows Bezos describing the flight to Funk, and then asking her what would be the first thing she said after landing.

'I would say, 'Honey, that was the best thing that ever happened to me!'' replies an exuberant Funk, throwing her arms around the laughing tech mogul.

A Blue Origin spokesperson told DailyMail.com that Funk will undergo 'minimal training' for the 10-minute flight, getting acquainted with the safety procedures and preparations needed to travel to space over a period of two days.

The passengers will spend four minutes above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.

Bezos, 57, told Funk personally, who upon hearing the news, said 'Honey, that's the best thing that's ever happened to me'

Among Funk's impressive achievements, she was the first female FAA inspector and first female NTSB air safety investigator in history

In this 2019 photo from NASA, Wally Funk (pictured) visited the Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio

Members of the Mercury 13, from left to right: Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman

In addition to being part of the Mercury 13, Funk, who never married, has an extraordinarily impressive background.

At 20, she became a professional aviator, working as a civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

She was the first female FAA inspector and first female NTSB air safety investigator in history.

She became the 58th US woman to earn an Airline Transport Rating in 1968. She tried three times to get a job with commercial airlines, but was turned away because of her gender.

After NASA started accepting women to be astronauts in the 1970s, Funk applied three times but she was denied, as she did not have an engineering degree or a background as a test pilot.

Funk has logged more than 19,000 flight hours and 'will be flying 'til I die,' she said in a 2019 interview with The Guardian.

On the July 20th flight, she will join Bezos, his brother Mark and the winner of last month's auction, who paid $28 million for a seat onboard the first crewed spaceflight.

HOW JEFF BEZOS IS SPENDING BILLIONS OF HIS OWN MONEY TO BUILD BLUE ORIGIN AND WIN THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE Amazon founder and outgoing CEO Jeff Bezos entered the space sector in 2000, two years before SpaceX was formed by Elon Musk. Based in Kent, Washington, it originally focused on sub-orbital spaceflight services, building cheaper, more reliable and reusable launch vehicles. They are gradually moving from suborbital to orbital flight in an incremental way and will launch humans to space on July 20. Bezos will be on that first crewed flight along with his brother Mark, the winner of the auction, and three members of Blue Origin staff. The firm currently has two launch vehicles, the suborbital New Shepherd, named for the first American in space, Alan Shepherd, and New Glenn, named for John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Bezos has announced they are also working on New Armstrong, after the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, although no details have been revealed. Advertisement

The identity of the top bidder is not yet known and will likely be announce shortly before the flight, experts have said.

The launch - which coincides with the 51st anniversary of the moon landing - will be the first test of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket with people on board, kicking off the company's space tourism business.

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 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 Branson's 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.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas 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.'

Blue Origin has not divulged its pricing strategy for future trips.

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.

The other three passengers on the New Shephard flight are Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Arizona, Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Washington, and Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.

The six passengers will spend at least 10 minutes floating in zero gravity inside the capsule during the suborbital sightseeing trip.

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.
The 'Last Ice Area' in the Arctic is rapidly melting due to climate change and it will have devastating effects on polar bears and walruses if it disappears, study shows.

The region located north of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic archipelago, which is a safe haven for ice-loving animals, is usually covered in ice all year round.

It is beginning to crumble due to rising temperatures in the region caused by climate change, according to scientists from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Animals such as polar bears depend on permanent ice cover to hunt for seals and build dens where they raise their young, but rising global temperatures have meant permanently ice-covered patches in the Arctic are few and far between.

The Last Ice Area was one of the last places where animals could seek refuge, but experts say it is unlikely to continue to offer ice all year round.

The study looked at the Wandel Sea north of Greenland, which is inside what's known as the 'Last Ice Area' of the Arctic Ocean

WHAT IS THE ARCTIC LAST ICE AREA? The Last Ice Area is thought to be home to the oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic. It is in a region located north of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic archipelago. This area is a safe haven for ice-loving animals, such as polar bears, and is usually covered in ice all year round. It is beginning to crumble due to rising temperatures in the region caused by climate change, according to scientists from the University of Washington in Seattle. Like other parts of the Arctic Ocean, the ice here has been gradually thinning, though last spring's sea ice was on average slightly thicker than previous years. The Last Ice Area was one of the last places where animals could seek refuge, but experts say it is unlikely to continue to offer ice all year round. Advertisement

In this new study, researchers focused on sea ice in August 2020 in the Wandel Sea, an area that used to be covered year-round in thick, multi-year ice.

Study lead author Dr Axel Schweiger said: 'Current thinking is that this area may be the last refuge for ice-dependent species.

'So if, as our study shows, it may be more vulnerable to climate change than people have been assuming, that's important.'

Like other parts of the Arctic Ocean, the ice here has been gradually thinning, though last spring's sea ice was on average slightly thicker than previous years.

But satellite images showed a record low of just 50 per cent sea ice concentration on August 14, 2020, suggesting a thinning come summer.

The new study uses satellite data and sea ice models to determine what caused last summer's record low.

It found that about 80 per cent of the decline was due to weather-related factors, like winds that break up and move the ice around.

The other 20 per cent, or one-fifth of ice breakup, was from the longer-term thinning of the sea ice due to global warming.

The ice models they developed simulated the period from June 1 to August 16 and found unusual winds moved sea ice out of the area, but the multiyear thinning trend also contributed as it allowed more sunlight to warm the ocean.

Then, when winds picked up, this warm water was able to melt the nearby ice.

In this new study, researchers focused on sea ice in August 2020 in the Wandel Sea, an area north of Greenland that used to be covered year-round in thick, multi-year ice but is now melting and breaking apart

The record-low ice concentration in 2020 was surprising because the average ice thickness at the beginning of summer was actually close to normal.

Co-author associate professor Kristin Laidre said: 'This area has long been expected to be the primary refuge for ice-dependent species because it is one of the last places where we expect summer sea ice to survive in the Arctic.'

Like other parts of the Arctic however, the ice had been gradually thinning over the past few years, the researchers found.

Dr Schweiger said: 'During the winter and spring of 2020 you had patches of older, thicker ice that had drifted into there, but there was enough thinner, newer ice that melted to expose the open ocean.

A polar bear is perched on a thick chunk of sea ice north of Greenland in March 2016. These thicker, older pieces of sea ice don't fully protect the larger region from losing summer ice

'That began a cycle of absorbing heat energy to melt more ice, in spite of the fact that there was some thick ice.

'So in years where you replenish the ice cover in this region with older and thicker ice, that doesn't seem to help as much as you might expect.'

While alarming, the results cannot be applied to entire Last Ice Area, the researchers point out, as the study was of a localised region.

Also how more open water will affect ice-dependent animal species over the short and long term remain uncertain, they added.

This photo of sea ice on the Wandel Sea north of Greenland was taken Aug. 16, 2020, from the German icebreaker Polarstern, which passed through the area as part of the year-long MOSAiC Expedition. This area used to remain fully covered in ice throughout the year

Dr Laidre said: 'We know very little about marine mammals in the Last Ice Area.

'We have almost no historical or present-day data, and the reality is that there are a lot more questions than answers about the future of these populations.'

Future research should attempt to quantify the resilience of the Last Ice Area to climate change for conservation purposes, the authors suggest, as this area may eventually be the last remaining summer habitat for some ice-dependent mammals.

The findings were published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Fifty years after Stephen Hawking proposed a theory about black holes, stating their event horizons  the boundary beyond which nothing can escape  should never shrink, his theoretical law has been proven.

A team of scientists led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) confirmed the late physicist's area theorem with more than 95 percent accuracy using observation of gravitational waves.

The team made this breakthrough using data from GW150914, the first gravitational waves detected, which was created by two inspiraling black holes that formed a new one - an event that released a large amount of rippling energy through space time.

They reanalyzed the signal from the gravitational waves before and after the cosmic collision and determined the event horizon's area did not decrease after the merger.

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The team made this breakthrough using data from GW150914, the first gravitational waves detected, which was created by two inspiraling black holes (artist impression) that formed a new one - an even that released a large amount of rippling energy through space time

Lead author Maximiliano Isi, a NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellow in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said in a statement: 'It is possible that there's a zoo of different compact objects, and while some of them are the black holes that follow Einstein and Hawking's laws, others may be slightly different beasts.

'So, it's not like you do this test once and it's over. You do this once, and it's the beginning.'

In 2019, Isi and his colleagues developed a technique to extract the reverberations immediately following GW150914's peakthe moment when the two parent black holes collided to form a new black hole.

The team used the technique to pick out specific frequencies, or tones of the otherwise noisy aftermath, which they could use to calculate the final black hole's mass and spin.

The late physicist Stephen Hawking proposed a theory about black holes in 1971, stating their event horizons  the boundary beyond which nothing can escape  should never shrink and 50 years later his theoretical law has been proven

Both the mass and spin are related to the area of a black hole's event horizon, which led researchers to wonder if they could compare the signal before and after the merger to confirm Hawking's theorem.

To answer the question, the team split the GW150914 signal at its peak, or the merger, and then developed a model to analyze the signal before to identify the mass and spin of both black holes involved.

They reanalyzed the signal from the gravitational waves before and after the cosmic collision and determined the event horizon's area did not decrease after the merger (artist's impression)

Researchers calculated the total horizon area for both black holes was about 9,0734 square miles, roughly nine times the size of Massachusetts.

They then used their previous technique to extract the 'ringdown,' or reverberations of the newly formed black hole.

This allowed the team to calculate the mass and spin of the newly formed black hole, along with its horizon area. They found it was the equivalent of 14,169 square miles - 13 times the size the Bay State's area that includes Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont.

'The data show with overwhelming confidence that the horizon area increased after the merger, and that the area law is satisfied with very high probability,' Isi said.

'It was a relief that our result does agree with the paradigm that we expect, and does confirm our understanding of these complicated black hole mergers.'

The team plans to further test Hawking's area theorem, and other longstanding theories of black hole mechanics, using data from LIGO and Virgo, its counterpart in Italy.

'It's encouraging that we can think in new, creative ways about gravitational-wave data, and reach questions we thought we couldn't before,' Isi said.

'We can keep teasing out pieces of information that speak directly to the pillars of what we think we understand. One day, this data may reveal something we didn't expect.'
The James Webb space telescope, a joint NASA, European and Canadian mission, has been given a 'go' to launch after it and the rocket launcher passed a final review.

The $10 billion (7.3 billion) space-based observatories has been beset by delays, including with the European Space Agency (ESA) funded Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

It will take off no earlier than October 31 from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana, with the review marking a major milestone in its 25 year development program.

The review was carried out by Arianespace, the Webb launch service provider, confirming that Ariane 5, the spacecraft and the flight plan are set for launch.

It also specifically provides the final confirmation that all aspects of the launch vehicle and spacecraft are fully compatible, something that led to earlier delays.

The James Webb space telescope, a joint NASA, European and Canadian mission, has been given a 'go' to launch after it and the rocket launcher passed a final review

Supported by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), it has a massive 21ft 4 inch mirror that was commanded to fully expand and lock itself into place, replicating the process that will happen in space

ARIANE 5: THE EUROPEAN HEAVY-LIFT LAUNCH VEHICLE Ariane 5 is the European heavy-lift space launch vehicle. It was developed and is operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency and launched out of French Guiana. It sends satellites into geostationary and low Earth orbit and has an 82 consecutive successful streak since first launch in 2003. It was built by Aribus and costs up to 185 million (159 million) per launch to get a payload into space. It has a height of 171ft over the two stages and can take a maximum payload of 23,953lb. Ariane 5 is the launch vehicle of choice to send the James Webb space telescope to the L2 point. Advertisement

Construction on the JWST began in 1996, with a $500 million budget and proposed 2007 launch, but constant set backs, production issues and later issues pairing the folding observatory with Ariane 5, led to a spike in the budget and late launch.

The final development cost for the mission came in at $15 billion and it has an estimated lifespan of at least a decade, although may run for longer.

During launch, the spacecraft experiences a range of mechanical forces, vibrations, temperature changes, and electromagnetic radiation.

All technical evaluations performed by Arianespace on the missions key aspects, including the launch trajectory and payload separation, have shown positive results.

This is essential due to the cost of the telescope, which has to fold itself up inside the fuselage, before unfolding again once in space.

We are thrilled to have passed this important step towards the launch of Webb and to have received the green light from Arianespace and NASA, says Peter Rumler, ESA Webb project manager.

Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space.

As part of an international agreement, ESA is providing the observatorys launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle for the NASA-built telescope.

Ariane 5 will deliver the telescope directly into a precision transfer orbit towards its destination, the second Lagrange point (L2).

A Lagrange point sits between two large orbiting bodies, in this case the Sun and Earth and L2 sits in the centre of the two bodies.

After separation from the launcher, Webb will continue its four-week long journey to L2 alone, before becoming established and beginning observations.

L2 is four times farther away than the Moon at about 932,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth in the direction away from the Sun.

It will take off no earlier than October 31 from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana, with the review marking a major milestone in its 25 year development program

NASA recently unfolded the giant mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope 'like a piece of origami artwork' one last time ahead of its launch later this year

INSTRUMENTS ON THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) an infrared imager from the edge of the visible through the near infrared NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range. MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) will measure the mid-to-long-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 27 micrometers. FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph), is used to stabilise the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations. Advertisement

Mission analysis experts at ESA helped to compute the launch window, a complex issue because it involves ensuring that Webb can be inserted into its target orbit and at the same time the Ariane 5 upper stage will safely escape from Earth.

The telescope will observe the Universe in the near-infrared and mid-infrared  at wavelengths longer than visible light. To do so, it carries a suite of state-of-the-art cameras, spectrographs and coronagraphs.

Aside from procuring the Ariane 5 launcher and launch services, ESA is contributing the NIRSpec instrument and a share of the MIRI instrument.

The first images will be test shots, rather than of anything specific, but it will act as a 'cosmic time machine' when fully operating, probing deeper into the Universe than ever before.

Up to 30 per cent of the first year of observations will be aimed at exoplanets, to study their orbit, size and atmosphere, in search of alien life.

'Webb will ship to the launch site in August with little to no schedule margin,' the NASA spokesperson said in an earlier email to DailyMail.com.

'Launch processing will take two months. The observatory has completed all the post-environmental testing deployments, and its in its final integration and folding stages. Final stow, closeout, and pack and ship are imminent.'

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will launch 'no earlier than October 31,' a NASA spokesperson told DailyMail.com

Scientists may find ALIENS by 2026 thanks to the Webb telescope The existence of life on another planet could be proved as early as 2026 thanks to the James Webb telescope. It has the ability to detect signatures made by living creatures and Ohio State researchers say it could find 'life' on another planet in under 60 hours. Graduate student Caprice Phillips said the results of her study show that we may 'realistically find signs of life in the next 5 to 10 years.' Phillips calculated that when the James Webb Space Telescope launches in October, it could feasibly detect ammonia around gas dwarf planets after just a few orbits. Advertisement

In July 2020, the launch of the telescope was pushed back to October 31, 2021 from March 2021, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was initially scheduled to launch as early as 2007, however the telescope has faced a number of delays in recent years.

Some of the delays have been technical issues, which have raised the price of the telescope from the initial estimate of $1.6 billion to the $10 billion it currently costs.

One of the most important parts of the mission is the the five-layer sunshield, which NASA has said previously said is "designed to keep Webb's mirrors and scientific instruments cold by blocking infrared light from the Earth, Moon and Sun."

In August 2019, NASA announced that it had successfully assembled the craft, marking the biggest milestone of its long road to completion.

It will offer unprecedented insight into the atmospheric composition of gas dwarf planets.

The massive telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago.

It will observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, as well as the moons and planets in the solar system.

In doing so, it will use the most advanced technologies to make observations including infrared light, learning about atmospheres of target worlds that have entirely different chemistry from Earth.

Earlier this year, researchers at The Ohio State University said the telescope could detect a signature of life on other planets in as little as 60 hours.

Ryan King, Space Science Programme Manager at UK Space Agency, said James Webb will 'fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.'

'UK scientists, researchers, and engineers have played a crucial role in developing MIRI,' an instrument integral to the operations of the telescope.

'[It] will allow us to examine the physical and chemical properties of the early universe, as well as the stars and planetary systems forming today.

'The telescope will bring us one step closer to understanding the processes that ultimately led to the origins of life.'
Researchers have identified how one species of fire ants is able to survive dangerous floods, essentially creating a living 'raft' using their own bodies.

The new findings, published in The Royal Society of Publishing, notes that the Solenopsis invicta ants - which are known for the painful sting and red and black color - link together and create a conveyor belt-like structure that constantly changes shape.

The process, known as 'treadmilling' according to the study's authors, has allowed them to reach dry land even though it may be some distance away.

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The experts were able to capture the behavior by taking 3,000 to 10,000 worker ants and putting them in a container of water with a rod in the center.

They found that after some instability, the ants were able to form the structure and its wild, ever-changing arms, by having one group of ants form the main bridge that also circulated to the top from the bottom.

The other group marched above the raft to help support the ants below.

'Ant rafts comprise a floating, structural network of interconnected ants on which a layer of freely active ants walk,' researchers wrote in the study.

One species of fire ants can survive dangerous floods, creating a living 'raft' using their bodies

Solenopsis invicta ants use their exoskeletons to link together and create a conveyor belt-like structure that changes shape

The process, known as 'treadmilling,' allows them to eventually reach dry land. The ants can hold the rafts for weeks, as their exoskeletons naturally repel water

'We show here that sustained shape evolution is permitted by the competing mechanisms of perpetual raft contraction aided by the transition of bulk structural ants to the free active layer and outward raft expansion owing to the deposition of free ants into the structural network at the edges, culminating in global treadmilling.'

They continued: 'Employing both experimental characterization and a model for self-propelled particles in strong confinement, we interpret that these asymmetries are likely to occur stochastically owing to wall accumulation effects and directional motion of active ants when strongly confined by the protrusions' relatively narrow boundaries. Together, these effects may realize the cooperative, yet spontaneous formation of protrusions that fire ants sometimes use for functional exploration and to escape flooded environments.'

The researchers also tested by putting talcum powder, a substance that ants will not cross, on the container to prohibit climbing.

According to LiveScience, this species of fire ant has colonies that can reach upwards of 300,000 workers.

The ants can hold the rafts for weeks, LiveScience added, as their exoskeletons are a natural repellant of water and their outer texture traps air bubbles.

Using image tracking and computer modeling, the researchers were able to decipher which parts of the raft were staid, while also determining which parts were moving.

The tentacles, or the aforementioned treadmilling, is still something that is difficult to explain and this is the first time it has been seen by experts.

'These protrusions have, to our knowledge, been neither documented nor explained in the existing literature,' the authors wrote in the study. 'Edge deposition, alone, cannot explain the initiation, growth and complete reclamation of protrusions observed.

'Without any cyclic mechanism(s) of turnover or dynamic properties in the structural network itself, one would expect the shape of the raft to become static once the population of free ants is exhausted. That this is not the case implies either the population of free ants is replenished, the structural network morphs or some combination of both.'

In 2017, a number fire-ant rafts were spotted floating in Houston floodwaters in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, DailyMail.com previously reported.

In September 2020, DailyMail.com reported that two large ant piles were seen floating in the flood waters of League, City, Texas, following the landfall of Tropical Storm Beta.
NASA warns the layer in the atmosphere that protects us from the sun's deadly ultraviolet radiation is cooling and shrinking due to human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The mesosphere, located 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and contracting up to 500 feet at the poles per decade - and these rates are expected to continue.

A team of American scientists analyzed how temperature and pressure changed in the mesosphere over the summer skies of the North and South Poles.

They analyzed blue ice clouds found over the poles in June, which are sensitive to temperate and water vapor, allowing the team see changes first hand.

'The only way you would expect them to change this way is if the temperature is getting colder and water vapor is increasing,' James Russell, a study co-author and atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Virginia, said in a statement.

Russel also explained that 'colder temperatures and abundant water vapor are both linked with climate change in the upper atmosphere.'

The results mean that the mesosphere has cooled as carbon dioxide increased, which dropped atmospheric pressure and caused it to shrink.

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A team of American scientists analyzed how temperature and pressure changed in the mesosphere over the summer skies of the North and South Poles. They analyzed blue ice clouds found over the poles in June, which are sensitive to temperate and water vapor, allowing the team see changes first hand

Though the warning has just been shared publicly, this cooling and shrinking of the mesosphere is not a surprise to researchers who conducted the analysis.

For years, 'models have been showing this effect,' Brentha Thurairajah, a Virginia Tech atmospheric scientist who contributed to the study, said in the statement.

'It would have been weirder if our analysis of the data didn't show this.'

Researchers pulled together data from three NASA satellites that have been monitoring the mesosphere for the past 30 years, allowing them to observe trends overtime.

'The only way you would expect them to change this way is if the temperature is getting colder and water vapor is increasing,' James Russell, a study co-author and atmospheric scientist at Hampton University in Virginia, said in a statement

Scott Bailey, an atmospheric scientist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and lead of the study, said in a statement: 'You need several decades to get a handle on these trends and isolate what's happening due to greenhouse gas emissions, solar cycle changes, and other effects.

'We had to put together three satellites' worth of data.'

Approximately 150 miles above the surface is the thermosphere that is also being impacted by climate change on Earth.

Researchers found atmospheric gases in this part of the atmosphere can cause satellite drag, in where the devices are slowing down in low-Earth orbit.

However, the team is not concerned about active satellites, but those that are dead and expected to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The mesosphere, located 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and contracting up to 500 feet at the poles per decade - and these rates are expected to continue.

If they experience drag, their time in orbit can be extended and add to the millions of pieces of space junk still circling our planet.

NASA is looking at ways to help the US government better understand the effects of climate change and extreme weather events. In May, it announced that it is developing a new satellite-centric program to do so.

Known as the Earth System Observatory, at least five satellites will be launched through 2029 to create a 3D view of the Earth, looking at everything from its bedrock to its atmosphere.

The satellites will look at a whole host of areas related to human activities and weather events, including aerosols, rising sea levels and the impact that climate change is having on food and agriculture.

Approximately 150 miles above the surface is the thermosphere that is also being impacted by climate change on Earth. Researchers found atmospheric gases in this part of the atmosphere can cause satellite drag, in where the devices are slowing down in low-Earth orbit

Measuring ice-sheet collapse, as well as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, are also a part of the mission.

Assessing droughts and forecasting associated planning of water use for agriculture is also a part of the mission.

'I've seen firsthand the impact of hurricanes made more intense and destructive by climate change, like Maria and Irma,' NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson said in a statement. '

Nelson continued: 'Over the past three decades, much of what we've learned about the Earth's changing climate is built on NASA satellite observations and research. NASA's new Earth System Observatory will expand that work, providing the world with an unprecedented understanding of our Earth's climate system, arming us with next-generation data critical to mitigating climate change, and protecting our communities in the face of natural disasters.'
Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan was asked to leave an American Airlines flight after repeatedly refusing to properly wear his face mask on Monday.

The 50-year-old actor was aboard a flight headed from Dallas/Fort Worth to Los Angeles, and seated in first class when other passengers complained about his conduct, insiders told TMZ.

The Los Angeles-born entertainer appeared to have a cold, with mucous dripping out of his nose while not wearing a mask, sources told the outlet.

The latest: Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan, 50, was asked to leave an American Airlines flight after repeatedly refusing to properly wear his face mask on Monday. He as snapped in LA in 2019

Other passengers brought the issue up to flight attendants, who attempted to remedy the situation by giving him paper towels and telling him to follow the federal rules requiring passengers to don masks at all times.

The A Night at the Roxbury alum only wore the mask halfway on his face, under his nose, which continued to alarm those onboard.

Flight attendants ordered him off the flight, and he tried to persuade them to stay, citing his SNL fame, but not putting his mask on, sources told the outlet.

After attendants said they would alert authorities to the situation, Kattan departed from the flight.

Flight attendants told Kattan to follow the federal rules requiring passengers to don masks at all times

In effect: Federal guidelines require passengers to wear face masks while on a plane

Kattan's lawyer Samuel Joshua Smith told the outlet a different account of events, stressing that the actor would never 'refuse to wear a mask' and 'is fully vaccinated and unequivocally supports CDC guidelines.'

Smith said that Kattan was headed back to Los Angeles following a comedy tour in which he 'suffered a strong allergic reaction to supplements he has been taking to treat lingering neck pain from his injury on SNL.

'This reaction affected his balance and psychological state. The effects also caused him to have trouble breathing.'

Smith told the outlet that Kattan eventually took another flight out of Texas.

Flashback: Kattan and Will Ferrell starred in 1998's A Night At The Roxbury
MasterChef features Australian chefs working at the highest level.

But judge Melissa Leong has urged one competitor to stop being so hard on herself after overcooking her lamb dish on Wednesday night.

'Stop it, please,' the food critic scolded Sabina Newton, after she visibly took the judges' criticisms to heart.

Tough love: Melissa Leong (left) has urged Sabina Newton (right) to stop being so hard on herself after overcooking her lamb dish on Wednesday night

Leong's fellow judge Jock Zonfrillo was the first to point out the slight deficiency with Sabina's meal.

'A lot to love about this dish,' he began. 'Only negative for me is the lamb, it's a touch over cooked. Maybe a little past medium. That's my only negative.'

Another judge, Andy Allen, instantly picked up on Sabina's disappointment.

'Dont be disappointed,' he hastened to add. 'I can see it in your face straight away, this is a very good dish. Quite simple but so sophisticated on the palette.'

Honest appraisal: Leong's fellow judge Jock Zonfrillo was the first to point out the slight deficiency with Sabina's meal

Imperfect: 'A lot to love about this dish,' he began. 'Only negative for me is the lamb, it's a touch over cooked. Maybe a little past medium. That's my only negative'

Leong was even more forthright, adding, 'Youre hard on yourself, and I can see you going down your shame spiral at the moment.'

'Stop it please. Because you really have earned your place to be here,' she continued.'

'Keep cooking this well, its just down to these little details.'

The advice finally elicited a smile from Newton.

Better now: Leong's advice finally elicited a smile from Newton

Meanwhile, Minoli De Silva and Scott Bagnell were sent home from MasterChef Australia on Sunday night's double elimination episode.

After round one, Minoli broke down in tears after failing to impress the judges with her pan-seared snapper with green mango noodles.

Scott also said he was 'gutted' to have been eliminated after overcooking his pan-seared mirror dory during round two.

'This is really hard': Minoli De Silva (pictured) broke down in tears as she was sent home in a double elimination alongside Scott Bagnell, on Sunday night's episode

Round one saw the contestants having one hour to create a dish using one or more ingredients from the black mystery box.

Minoli and Depinder Chhibber had the least impressive dishes, with judge Melissa Leong describing the flavours of Depinder's walnut ice cream with a pumpkin brown butter cake as 'muted'.

However, Depinder was safe from elimination with Melissa announcing to Minoli that she was going home.

Breaking down in tears, Minoli said: 'I'm really glad I made it to the top 10, but this is really hard because I really wanted to get further in the competition.'

Emotional: Minoli failed to impress the judges with her pan-seared snapper with green mango noodles. 'I'm really glad I made it to the top 10, but this is really hard because I really wanted to get further in the competition,' a devastated Minoli told the judges

Round two saw the contestants have an hour to create a dish with horseradish as the hero ingredient.

Scott and Linda Dalrymple presented the least impressive dishes, with Linda choosing to make a vanilla and horseradish panna cotta with a horseradish syrup.

However Linda was safe from elimination with judge Jock Zonfrillo telling Scott that his fish was 'unfortunately overcooked'.

Sent home: Scott (pictured) failed to impress the judges with his pan-seared mirror dory with a split sauce of horseradish cream and a spring onion oil, with a fresh salad on top. Judge Jock Zonfrillo said the fish was 'unfortunately overcooked'

Scott presented a pan-seared mirror dory with a split sauce of horseradish cream and a spring onion oil, with a fresh salad on top.

'I'm gutted to be leaving the competition, but I'm also so proud of my achievements,' Scott later said in a piece to camera.

MasterChef Australia continues Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten
She has established a career as a model.

But Sofia Richie showed this Wednesday in Los Angeles that she can be stylish even while just stepping out for a juice with pals.

The 22-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie could be seen showing off her endless pins in a pair of navy leggings as she headed across the sidewalk.

Aglow: Sofia Richie showed this Wednesday in Los Angeles that she can be stylish even while just stepping out for a juice with pals

Sofia, whose sister is The Simple Life icon Nicole Richie, wore a comfy-looking grey sweater and wore her hair in a charming set of pigtails.

The ex-girlfriend of reality TV heartthrob Scott Disick warded off the California rays with a pair of orange sunglasses.

She is recently back in Los Angeles after embarking on a luxurious getaway in Greece with her father and his girlfriend Lisa Parigi.

Off she goes: The 22-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie could be seen showing off her endless pins in a pair of navy leggings as she headed across the sidewalk

Sofia was also accompanied by her siblings Nicole and Miles Richie, and Nicole also brought her husband Joel Madden and their children.

Last year Sofia got out of her relationship with Scott, who shares three children with Kourtney Kardashian, and has lately been dating one Elliot Grainge.

Elliot, whose father Lucian Grainge is the CEO of Universal Music Group, has joined the family business and started an indie record label.

Side by side: She is recently back in Los Angeles after embarking on a luxurious getaway in Greece with her father and his girlfriend Lisa Parigi

Sofia dated Scott for more than two years before they broke up last year, briefly reunited and then split for good.

Kourtney and Scott have retained a famously close and amicable relationship as they co-parent their children Mason, 11, Penelope, eight, and Reign, six.

During the current season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians Scott revealed that his close co-parenting bond with Kourtney caused problems for him and Sofia.
Kevin Federline claimed he 'never used his children as pawns' and was 'not involved' in his ex-wife Britney Spears' conservatorship, now in its 13th year.

The 43-year-old former backup dancer's two-year marriage to the 39-year-old Grammy winner ended in July 2007, and just six months later she was put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold.

Britney's former manager Larry Rudolph reportedly described Kevin as a 'necessary party' to the 2008 intervention after her meltdown over their custody arrangement.

'Not an agent of the conservators': Kevin Federline claimed he 'never used his children as pawns' and was 'not involved' in his ex-wife Britney Spears' conservatorship, now in its 13th year (pictured in 2006)

'Kevin went forward with the sole custody request because he didn't feel the children were safe,' Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told Page Six on Wednesday.

'When somebody has children in a custody order and they lock themselves in a room and then not give them back if the police come, I mean, the other parent has to do everything they can to protect the kids.

'Think about how traumatic that would be for kids. All I recall was when she wouldn't release the children, after Kevin showed up at the house, she locked herself in the bathroom with the boys.'

The 73-year-old attorney added: 'Kevin has never used his children as pawns for anything. Kevin has always acted, putting the kids first.'

The 43-year-old former backup dancer's (R) two-year marriage to the 39-year-old Grammy winner (L) ended in July 2007, and just six months later she was put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold (pictured in 2004)

'Kevin went forward with the sole custody request': Britney's former manager Larry Rudolph (R) reportedly described Kevin as a 'necessary party' to the 2008 intervention after her meltdown over their custody arrangement

Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told Page Six on Wednesday: 'When somebody has children in a custody order and they lock themselves in a room and then not give them back if the police come, I mean, the other parent has to do everything they can to protect the kids...Kevin has never used his children as pawns for anything. Kevin has always acted, putting the kids first' (pictured in 2015)

Kaplan further insisted the Cali-born, Nevada-raised reality star was 'not involved in the conservatorship' and he was 'not an agent of the conservator or anybody on that side of the probate case.'

Years later, Spears regained 50/50 custody of Sean Preston, 15; and Jayden James, 14; but that ended after her 30-day stint at an 'all-encompassing wellness facility' in 2019.

The semi-retired pop star currently has 30% custody while Kevin has 70% custody of the boys for at least the next four years before they both turn 18.

'My boys!' Years later, Spears regained 50/50 custody of Sean Preston, 15; and Jayden James, 14; but that ended after her 30-day stint at an 'all-encompassing wellness facility' in 2019 (pictured in 2019)

Time is ticking: The semi-retired pop star currently has 30% custody while Kevin has 70% custody of the boys for at least the next four years before they both turn 18 (pictured in 2018)

Federline - who's said to receive $20K/month in child support - was still engaged to Shar Jackson (who mothered two of his six children) when he began dating his famous boss in 2004.

The PopoZao rapper - who married retired volleyball player Victoria Prince in 2013 - also danced for the likes of Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Destiny's Child, Pink, and LFO.

But Kevin hasn't appeared onscreen since scoring fourth place on GO! weight-loss competition Excess Baggage in 2012.

How it began: Federline - who's said to receive $20K/month in child support - was still engaged to Shar Jackson when he began dating his famous boss in 2004 (pictured in 2004)

'#FreeBritney': Mississippi-born Britney may soon file a petition to terminate the conservatorship after alleging 'abuse' by her estranged father Jamie (L) and other conservators in an incendiary hearing on June 23 (pictured in 2017)

Meanwhile, Mississippi-born Britney may soon file a petition to terminate the conservatorship after alleging 'abuse' by her estranged father Jamie and other conservators in an incendiary hearing on June 23.

'Would the fact alone of the conservatorship being terminated in and of itself make Kevin agree to change the existing custody order? No,' Mark stated.

'There's a lot of information that we don't have, and until we have it, there's not going to be any change of custody because the kids are doing very well with Kevin.'
The Simpsons will clash with the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a new animated short film The Simpsons: The Good, The Bart and the Loki.

Disney announced the new film today, with Loki star Tom Hiddleston voicing his iconic character for the short.

The studio also released a new poster (via Disney Twitter), which is seemingly inspired by the poster for Marvel's 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, featuring several Simpsons characters portraying Marvel heroes and villains.

New short: The Simpsons will clash with the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a new animated short film The Simpsons: The Good, The Bart and the Loki

The poster features the Simpsons version of Loki in the center, with Bart Simpson looming alongside him, much like Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the Endgame poster.

Between Bart and Loki is Ned Flanders portraying Ant-Man, with Ralph Wiggum given a green look to portray The Incredible Hulk.

Interestingly enough, Lisa Simpson appears to be portraying Jane Foster, who, in a recent Marvel Comics run became Thor, which Natalie Portman is returning to play in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Real Loki: The poster features the Simpsons version of Loki in the center, with Bart Simpson looming alongside him, much like Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the Endgame poster

Carl Carlson, one of Homer Simpson's co-workers at the nuclear power plant, is seen portraying Nick Fury on the poster.

Maude Flanders is seen as Captain Marvel while one-armed military antique store owner Herman Hermann is Captain America.

Young Milhouse portrays the archer Hawkeye, with Moe's Tavern owner Moe as Vision, Agnes Skinner as Black Widow and Springfield drunkard Barney as Iron Man.

More characters: Carl Carlson, one of Homer Simpson's co-workers at the nuclear power plant, is seen portraying Nick Fury on the poster

The short film follows Loki as he is, 'banished from Asgard once again and must face his toughest opponents yet: the Simpsons and Springfield's mightiest heroes.'

'The God of Mischief teams up with Bart Simpson in the ultimate crossover event paying tribute to the Marvel Cinematic Universe of Super Heroes and villains,' reads the short film's description.

This is the second Simpsons short film in an ongoing series that utilizes the wide-ranging brands under the Disney umbrella.

Banished: The short film follows Loki as he is, 'banished from Asgard once again and must face his toughest opponents yet: the Simpsons and Springfield's mightiest heroes'

The first short film, the Star Wars-themed Maggie Simpson in The Force Awakens from Its Nap, debuted in early May on the Disney Plus streaming service.

The announcement comes as the fourth episode of Hiddleston's new TV series Loki debuted on Disney Plus.

The fifth episode will debut Wednesday, July 7 with the sixth and final episode slated for Wednesday, July 14.

Loki series: The announcement comes as the fourth episode of Hiddleston's new TV series Loki debuted on Disney Plus
Nadia Bartel has shared the secret to achieving ample cleavage.

The former WAG-turned-influencer and designer spruiked a plunge padded bra on Instagram on Werdnesday.

The 35-year-old modelled a contour bra from Fine Lines lingerie, which she wore underneath a short sleeve shirt.

That's how she does it! Former WAG Nadia Bartel spruiked a plunge padded bra on Instagram on Wednesday

Nadia shot the camera a sultry gaze as she posed in a steamy bathroom photo shoot, and offered a 20% discount on the underwear.

The mother-of-two recently revealed one of her favourite cheat meals.

She said she likes to devour a greasy pizza topped with tomato, pineapple, jalapeno and onion.

Success: Nadia has recently been busy creating a new range for her fashion brand Henne

Nadia has recently been busy creating a new range for her fashion brand Henne.

Earlier this month, the brunette bombshell showed off her toned abs in a grey crop top and tights as she revealed new piece from the label.

She teamed the ensemble with a matching coloured puffer jacket and tied her hair in a high bun.

Cheat meal! The mother-of-two recently revealed one of her favourite cheat meals. She said she likes to devour a greasy pizza topped with tomato, pineapple, jalapeno and onion

Last month, Nadia made headlines when she weighed in on Melbourne's seven-day lockdown as the city shut down in response to its growing Covid cluster.

The influencer asked her Instagram followers how they felt about the stay-at-home orders, which she admitted 'we've got to do', after Melburnians suffered through 112 consecutive days of restrictions last year.

'So here we go again, guys. Another lockdown for Melbourne. We know we've got to do it, but how are we all feeling?' she asked.

'Here we go again': Last month, Nadia made headlines when she weighed in on Melbourne's seven-day lockdown as the city shut down in response to its growing Covid cluster

It attracted a wide range of responses, which Nadia shared to her Instagram Stories.

'Feels like the new norm to me,' wrote one, while another admitted it was 'so tiring' to be entering another lockdown.

Nadia's lockdown post coincided with two fellow Melbourne influencers being savaged online after bragging about escaping Victoria's lockdown to attend a lavish networking event in Perth.
Pia Miller's personal trainer Ana Coppola brought plenty of sex appeal to the obstacle course on Nine's Australian Ninja Warrior this season.

The Brazilian bombshell, 37, ensured all eyes were on her this week as she started her run with a parade of samba dancers cheering her on.

Ana, who is known for her 10-week Brazilian Butt Express program, wore a colourful one-piece for her attempt, but unfortunately wiped out on the first obstacle.

Glamazon: Pia Miller's personal trainer Ana Coppola brought plenty of sex appeal to the obstacle course on Australian Ninja Warrior this season

It was Ana's first time attempting the Australian Ninja Warrior course, which is located at Sydney Olympic Park.

She later thanked fans for supporting her, and said she was grateful for the opportunity.

'I have nothing but gratitude for this opportunity and for everyone who supported me through this journey,' she wrote on Instagram.

Go for it! The Brazilian bombshell, 37, ensured all eyes were on her this week as she started her run with a parade of samba dancers cheering her on

Ana is one of Sydney's most in-demand personal trainers.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in 2019, she gave her tips for getting 'summer ready'.

The beauty said it was important to take selfies, not to skip a training day, only allow healthy foods in the fridge, drink water, and train hard.

'When you feel tired - or, in other words, lazy and demotivated - go to the gym anyway,' Ana said.

Too bad: Ana, who is known for her 10-week Brazilian Butt Express program, wore a colourful one-piece for her attempt, but unfortunately wiped out on the first obstacle

'Even if it's only to hang out with your friends and chat, just go. Habit formation is more important than the workout itself,' she added.

'Plus you'll likely end up doing something while you're there, which is better than being miserable at home.'

Ana added that selfies allow you to track your progress, but it is equally important to take time and appreciate your body.

Fitness star: Ana is one of Sydney's most in-demand personal trainers

'Selfies are a great way to track you progress but let's remember none of us are perfect,' she explained.

'Focus on your own progress, strengths, qualities and be grateful for what your body does for you. Not only physically but mentally and spiritually,' she added.

'Twenty minutes of guided meditation every morning goes a long way.'
Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Dani Soares recently welcomed a baby daughter named Lilly Rose.

And on Wednesday, the 33-year-old opened up about how difficult her motherhood journey has been so far.

The Brazilian-born yachtie is now based permanently in Sydney, Australia, but her family still lives in Brazil, which has left her with little support since Lilly's birth.

Tough times: Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Dani Soares recently welcomed a baby daughter named Lilly Rose. And on Wednesday, the 33-year-old opened up about how difficult her motherhood journey has been so far

'I'm tired, it's not easy, but seeing her little face just makes everything worth it,' she said on Instagram.

'It's been hard from the beginning,' she continued. 'We don't share how hard it is, we just see perfect pictures on Instagram and it's been really, really hard for the first couple of weeks with breastfeeding and being alone.

'I'm terrible at asking for help because for the first 11 years I've basically been on my own and making my own decisions, but you do need help.

'You need as much help as you can get and it's just been really hard, but I'm getting smiles now so that makes everything worth it.'

'It's been hard from the beginning,' she said. 'We don't share how hard it is, we just see perfect pictures on Instagram and it's been really, really hard for the first couple of weeks'

Dani said that the best advice she could give any other single mothers is to make sure you have friends and family around, and a great support system.

Unfortunately for the Bravo star, she was unable to bring her own mum over from Brazil to help with the baby due to coronavirus restrictions and steep quarantine costs.

Dani's also unable to take advantage of Australia's paid maternity leave because she's been in Australia for less than a year, leaving her to have to live off her savings.

'I have to go back to work next month and leave Lilly in childcare, so sad,' she said.

All alone: Unfortunately for the Bravo star, she was unable to bring her own mum over from Brazil to help with the baby due to coronavirus restrictions and steep quarantine costs

While she's preparing to go back to work as a beauty therapist, Dani has also been studying part time to become a nurse, which she calls her 'dream job'.

She also added that she doesn't plan to leave Australia and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

'I'm so happy that I'm here and I would not leave this country for any reason, whatsoever. It's the best country for me and my daughter, one hundred per cent.'

'I have to go back to work next month': Dani's also unable to take advantage of Australia's paid maternity leave because she's been in Australia for less than a year

Lilly's father is rumoured to be Dani's Below Deck Sailing Yacht co-star Jean-Luc Cerza-Lanaux, who is based in North Carolina when he isn't working on yachts.

Last week, Dani told People magazine that she doesn't currently have a relationship with Lilly's father.

She said she's 'not going to force anybody to do anything' when it comes to Lilly Rose, though she's 'absolutely' fine to let the father into her life if he's up for it.

Who's your daddy? Fans have speculated that her co-star Jean-Luc 'J.L.' Cerza-Lanaux might be the father, and Andy Cohen even asked her if he was the dad at the reunion

So far, she has resisted sharing the father's identity, despite the rampant speculation that it's J.L.'s baby.

'He thinks it's not his child, he doesn't want to have anything to do with it,' she says of the unnamed man.

Now Dani says she's trying to keep things as cordial as possible between herself and her daughter's father.

Above the fray: 'I'm not going to badmouth anybody because my daughter is going to see everything that I'm saying, everything that I'm doing and I don't want her to see things going back and forth on social media or things being said in a moment of anger,' Dani said

'I'm not going to badmouth anybody because my daughter is going to see everything that I'm saying, everything that I'm doing and I don't want her to see things going back and forth on social media or things being said in a moment of anger,' she told People.

'As I said, the door's always open, but you need to do more than just talk. You need to actually have some action, do some action,' she continued.

'The father was part of it, I didn't make her alone. So, if he wants to be part of her life obviously [he can]. But he needs to do more than talk.'

Waiting on news: J.L. said he wants to be 'involved 100%' if Lilly Rose is his daughter in a recent Instagram post, though he hasn't yet taken a paternity test

Although J.L. hasn't confirmed that he's the baby's father, he shared in a recent Instagram post that he wants to 'clear the air.'

'While others are off chasing their 15 minutes of fame, I am working on a yacht in Central America and heartbroken to have to hear about the baby's birth on social media and read headlines like "Dani Soares Says Her Baby's Father Doesn't Want Anything to Do With It,"' he wrote.

'All I can say is if she's mine, I want to be involved 100%.'

He added that he grew up with parents who weren't together and 'wouldn't wish that on any child.'

Have to wait: In a follow-up from late last week he explained that he couldn't visit Dani and Lilly Rose to take the paternity test yet because Australia's borders are closed due to Covid-19

'Not looking for a pity party. Just want everyone to know how strongly I feel about this, especially the haters who are so sure I am neglecting my responsibility. No one wants to know more than me if this is my baby girl!' he added.

In a follow up post, J.L. said he was looking to take a paternity test together with Dani and that he hadn't been able to visit her or her baby because of Australia's Covid-19 travel restrictions.

'No, Australia isn't open yet or I would have already gone so those of you saying 'just go' must not know that,' he explained. 'We are truly on different continents so easier said than done.'
Malia White took to Instagram Wednesday after she was involved in a scooter accident in Mallorca, Spain that left her hospitalized with a fractured elbow, broken toes and a rash.

The Below Deck Mediterranean star, 30, posted pics in which she was bandaged with gauze while in a hospital bed after she suffered multiple injuries after she fell off of a scooter while on a day off with her shipmates.

'Accidents happen when you least expect them,' she said. 'Luckily, I was able to walk away with a few stitches, fractured elbow, broken toes, severe road rash and a very sore body.

The latest: Malia White, 30, took to Instagram Wednesday with a medical update after she was involved in a scooter accident in Mallorca, Spain that left her hospitalized with a fractured elbow, broken toes and a rash

'I don't want to imagine what the case would have been without my helmet! I won't hang up my scooter keys just yet but I'm definitely aware of the importance of cruising safely!'

She initially wrote, 'BEFORE PHOTO: had an amazing day exploring the island of Mallorca with my crew mates by scooter! But it didn't end as nicely as it started.. #mallorca #spain #adventure #daysoff.'

White, a bosun on the ship, captioned the shot, 'AFTER: on Instagram we usually share the pretty stuff but this is the important stuff- I'm sharing this to express the importance of always wearing a helmet. Mine quite literally saved my life.'

The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native explained the circumstances that led to her hospital stint.

White posted a pic in which she was bandaged with gauze while in a hospital bed after she suffered multiple injuries after she fell off of a scooter while on a day off with her shipmates

The Bravo beauty said she was 'thankful' for her crew colleagues in their quick reaction to the dangerous mishap

'I spent the premiere night in a hospital bed after having a mean accident on my scooter,' White said. 'I've been riding scooters my whole life was familiar with the equipment, wasn't drinking and was 10 minutes from my boat.'

The Bravo beauty, in an Instagram Stories post, said she was 'thankful' for her crew colleagues in their quick reaction to the dangerous mishap.

'They flagged down a car who happened to be an off-duty police officer and he started giving me medical attention until the ambulance arrived,' she said. 'They also took care of getting all my stuff & scooter sorted!'

Among White's nautical peers who chimed in with words of support included Daisy Kelliher, Bugsy Drake and Bobby Giancola.

Below Deck Mediterranean can be seen on Bravo Mondays at 9/8c.

White shared a shot on her scooter prior to her unfortunate accident
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Gossip Girl starlets Jordan Alexander, Tavi Gevinson, and Emily Alyn Lind led the stars glamming up for the Manhattan premiere of HBO Max's reboot of the teen soap opera on Wednesday night.

Jordan, 27, turned heads on the red carpet as she donned a silk bow face mask and a lace-back teddy corset with garter straps connecting to matching wide-leg pants.

Tavi, 25, meanwhile, put on a leggy display in a figure-hugging floral dress, while Emily, 19, channeled androgynous chic in a black tux and white shirt, ahead of the series' release date on Thursday July 8.

XO: Gossip Girl starlets (from L-R) Jordan Alexander, Tavi Gevinson, and Emily Alyn Lind led the stars glamming up for the Manhattan premiere of HBO Max's reboot of the teen soap opera

Jordan contrasted her all-white lingerie look with black stiletto heels. The actress appeared to mock COVID-19 mask protocol with her mesh face mask featuring two big white bows.

The buzzed-cut Bushwick resident kept her make-up minimal aside from bright red-hue shadow and kohl-rimmed eyes for the event.

Jordan accessorized her racy boudoir look with a statement Tiffany & Co. 'Schlumberger Hands' necklace in 18K gold and platinum with diamonds and two matching rings.

Missing from Alexander's side at the festivities was her girlfriend, model and activist Shane Homan.

Spotlight: Compared to her castmates, the Canadian 27-year-old certainly looked extra in a lace-back teddy corset with garter straps connecting to matching wide-leg pants

Boudoir look: Curiously, Jordan chose black stiletto heels to coordinate her all-white attire

Coronavirus chic? Alexander appeared to mock COVID-19 mask protocol with her mesh face mask featuring two big white bows

Bustier: The buzzed-cut Bushwick resident kept her make-up minimal aside from bright red eue shadow and kohl-rimmed eyes for the event

On the 'more queer and diverse' continuation, the Sacred Lies star portrays wealthy and popular influencer Julien Calloway, who rules over Constance Billard and St. Jude's.

Also holding court on the red carpet of Spring Studios was Tavi, who looked leggy in a nineties-inspired floral frock and black accessories.

The Chicago-born star paired her turtleneck mini-dress with a sleek, middle-parted updo and large sparkly earrings.

Gevinson brought out her green eyes with mascara and she had a pink pout and rosy cheeks.

Bling: Jordan accessorized her racy boudoir look with a statement Tiffany & Co. 'Schlumberger Hands' necklace in 18K gold and platinum with diamonds and two matching rings

Self-described 'queer': Missing from Alexander's side at the festivities was her girlfriend, model and activist Shane Homan

'I'm not just known. I'm influential, and I can't have that taken away from me': On the 'more queer and diverse' continuation, the Sacred Lies star portrays wealthy and popular influencer Julien Calloway, who rules over Constance Billard and St. Jude's

The former child fashion blogger toted a bucket bag and finished off her look with peep-toe shoes featuring pearl detail one the heel.

Once inside the venue, Tavi Instastoried a behind-the-scenes video of the cast and crew getting in their seats for the screening.

The Twilight Zone guest star's mysterious writer character Kate Keller has only been described as 'ambitious.'

Emily opted for a white button-up shirt and black necktie tucked into a black vest and matching flared pants. Lind's fringed flaxen locks were waved and she wore an excess of eyeliner with a peachy pout.

The Tantra Practice songstress also happens to be the nepotistically-privileged daughter of One Tree Hill alum Barbara Alyn Woods.

In order to boost her 5ft1in stature, Emily wore towering peep-toe platform heels.

Daisy: Also holding court on the red carpet of Spring Studios was Tavi, who looked leggy in a nineties-inspired floral frock and black accessories

Chandelier: The Chicago-born 25-year-old paired her turtleneck mini-dress with a sleek, middle-parted updo and large sparkly earrings

Ready for her close-up! Gevinson brought out her green eyes with mascara and she had a pink pout and rosy cheeks

Headed inside: The former child fashion blogger toted a bucket bag and finished off her look with peep-toe shoes featuring pearl detail one the heel

'Ahhhh!' Once inside the venue, Tavi Instastoried a behind-the-scenes video of the cast and crew getting in their seats for the screening

New Gossip Girl? The Twilight Zone guest star's mysterious writer character Kate Keller has only been described as 'ambitious'

Suited up: Emily opted for a more androgynous look than her co-stars as she hit the red carpet in a black waistcoat and tie

Can I take your order? The Brooklyn-born 19-year-old opted for a white button-up shirt and black necktie tucked into a black vest and matching flared pants

Bardot vibes: Lind's fringed flaxen locks were waved and she wore an excess of eyeliner with a peachy pout

Born into acting: The Tantra Practice songstress also happens to be the nepotistically-privileged daughter of One Tree Hill alum Barbara Alyn Woods

Petite: In order to boost her 5ft1in stature, Emily wore towering peep-toe platform heels

Not into social media: Lind's Gossip Girl 'graceful and cultured' character Audrey Hope 'really likes the finer things in life'

Lind's Gossip Girl 'graceful and cultured' character Audrey Hope 'really likes the finer things in life.'

Joining the ladies for a group shot were their co-stars Savannah Smith and Whitney Peak.

Whitney appeared to have taken an emergency trip to the dentist ahead of the ceremony because she 'broke a tooth.'

But the Uganda-born, Canadian-raised 18-year-old was all smiles by the time she arrived to Spring Studios alongside her BFF Paloma Idalia Sandoval.

Hey girl! Joining the ladies for a group shot were their co-stars Savannah Smith (2-L) and Whitney Peak (2-R)

'Premiere day': Whitney appeared to have taken an emergency trip to the dentist ahead of the ceremony because she 'broke a tooth'

Dates: But the Uganda-born, Canadian-raised 18-year-old was all smiles by the time she arrived to Spring Studios alongside her BFF Paloma Idalia Sandoval (R)

Red carpet debut: Peak then ditched her black sheer cape to reveal a colorful sequined tube top and black maxi-skirt with T-strap heels

Profile: The Home Before Dark star rocked a red lip and styled her raven locks into a long braid with curled baby hairs

Ingenue: Whitney portrays new girl Zoya Lott, who's like the Dan Humphrey outsider character of the Upper East Side-set series

Peak then ditched her black sheer cape to reveal a colorful sequined tube top and black maxi-skirt with T-strap heels.

The Home Before Dark star rocked a red lip and styled her raven locks into a long braid with curled baby hairs.

Whitney portrays new girl Zoya Lott, who's like the Dan Humphrey outsider character of the Upper East Side-set series.

As for Savannah, she wore a cut-out LBD and boxy bag designed by Louis Vuitton by Nicolas Ghesquiere, which was selected by stylist Chloe Hartstein.

Leggy: As for Savannah, she wore a cut-out LBD and boxy bag designed by Louis Vuitton by Nicolas Ghesquiere, which was selected by stylist Chloe Hartstein

'Premiere glam!' Hairstylist Ursula Stephen (M) coiffed Smith's long tresses and make-up artist Keita Moore (R) made sure she was fully contoured for the function

Transgender trailblazer: Zion Moreno - rocking Chopard jewelry - also bared her waistline as well as her back in a dramatic Armani Prive gown

The 'Texican' 26-year-old (L) plays Luna La while Savannah (R) makes her acting debut as Monet de Haan, powerful allies of Queen Bee Julien Calloway (M)

Hairstylist Ursula Stephen coiffed Smith's long tresses and make-up artist Keita Moore made sure she was fully contoured for the function.

Transgender trailblazer Zion Moreno - rocking Chopard jewelry - also bared her waistline as well as her back in a dramatic Armani Prive gown.

The 'Texican' 26-year-old plays Luna La while Savannah makes her acting debut as Monet de Haan, powerful allies of Queen Bee Julien Calloway.

But it wasn't just ladies as Thomas Doherty - whose character Max Wolfe is the new version of Chuck Bass - suited up in an off-white long blazer and 'dress' sneakers.

Brooding: But it wasn't just ladies as Thomas Doherty - whose character Max Wolfe is the new version of Chuck Bass - suited up in an off-white long blazer and 'dress' sneakers

Curly locks: Eli Brown - who plays Julien's boyfriend Otto 'Obie' Bergmann IV - also opted for off-white in a three-piece suit featuring dramatic black piping

Skateboarder: Evan Mock - who plays Audrey's boyfriend Aki Menzies - kicked off his day with a facial at Tracie Martyn Beauty before donning a chic patterned Gucci suit

Maestro: The trio of gentlemen dutifully posed with the Gossip Girl showrunner Joshua Safran (2-L)

Eli Brown - who plays Julien's boyfriend Otto 'Obie' Bergmann IV - also opted for off-white in a three-piece suit featuring dramatic black piping.

Evan Mock - who plays Audrey's boyfriend Aki Menzies - kicked off his day with a facial at Tracie Martyn Beauty before donning a chic patterned Gucci suit.

The trio of gentlemen dutifully posed with the Gossip Girl showrunner Joshua Safran.

Speaking of showrunners, the original Gossip Girl co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage paid their respects to the next generation.

Speaking of showrunners! The original Gossip Girl co-creators Josh Schwartz (L) and Stephanie Savage (R) paid their respects to the next generation

Tastemaker: Also from The CW series was costume designer Eric Daman, glittering in black sequin PJs and Adidas sneakers, who also dresses the new series

Behind the camera: Gossip Girl was helmed by director Karena Evans, who wore a white corset with matching pants for the function

Also from The CW series was costume designer Eric Daman, glittering in black sequin PJs and Adidas sneakers, who also dresses the new series.

Gossip Girl was helmed by director Karena Evans, who wore a white corset with matching pants for the function.

Other ladies of the large ensemble at the premiere included Megan Ferguson, Lyne Renee, and Laura Benanti.

Donna Murphy - who plays Constance Billard headmistress Burton - brought along her fishnet-clad daughter Darmia Hope Elliott.

Talented trio: Other ladies of the large ensemble at the premiere included (from L-R) Megan Ferguson, Lyne Renee, and Laura Benanti

Mother-daughter duo: Donna Murphy (L) - who plays Constance Billard headmistress Burton - brought along her fishnet-clad daughter Darmia Hope Elliott (R)

Who will they play? Two black-clad gentlemen Adam Chanler-Berat (L) and Jason Gotay (R) also have mystery roles in the new Gossip Girl

Two black-clad gentlemen Adam Chanler-Berat and Jason Gotay also have mystery roles in the new Gossip Girl.

Designer Christian Siriano bared his tattooed sleeves in a motorcycle jacket-inspired top and matching cargo pants.

Dree Hemingway - whose the great-granddaughter of author Ernest Hemingway - wore a large white turtleneck tucked into baggy black trousers and flip-flops.

Other attendees glamming up for the gala included Deon Hinton, Parker Kit Hill, Emma Kenney, and Sarah Jeffery.

Fan: Designer Christian Siriano bared his tattooed sleeves in a motorcycle jacket-inspired top and matching cargo pants

Legacy: Dree Hemingway - whose the great-granddaughter of author Ernest Hemingway - wore a large white turtleneck tucked into baggy black trousers and flip-flops

Excited for GG: Other attendees glamming up for the gala included (from L-R) Deon Hinton, Parker Kit Hill, Emma Kenney, and Sarah Jeffery

From left to right: Also attending were Jessica Wang, Jenny Cipoletti, and Rana Roy, who wore a green Frannie Schiavoni mini-dress to enjoy the continuation

Also attending were Jessica Wang, Jenny Cipoletti, and Rana Roy, who wore a green Frannie Schiavoni mini-dress to enjoy the continuation.

Showrunner Joshua Safran - who penned 111 episodes of The CW original series - oversaw the 10-episode spin-off, which premieres July 8 on HBO Max.

Gossip Girl is set nine years after the first show, and there's apparently a 'big plot twist' for the post-COVID, social media-obsessed continuation.

Kristen Bell reprises her narrator role from the OG show, which ran for six seasons from 2007-2012.

Premieres July 8 on HBO Max! Joshua Safran - who penned 111 episodes of The CW original series - oversaw the 10-episode spin-off

Instagram replaces blog: Gossip Girl is set nine years after the first show, and there's apparently a 'big plot twist' for the post-COVID, social media-obsessed continuation

Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Blake Lively, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick may or may not make cameos, but their characters 'exist in this world.'

'The characters talk about them and that they do exist. So, yeah, I would love to have them come back,' Safran told ET back in 2019.

'The show jumped five years in the future when it ended and we are past that five years now, so it's whole new things that they could be doing.'

The new series will debut on HBO Max on Thursday, July 8.

Xoxo: Kristen Bell (R) reprises her narrator role from the OG show, which ran for six seasons from 2007-2012

Just like MCU: (from L-R) Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Blake Lively, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick may or may not make cameos, but their characters 'exist in this world'
Five years after reuniting in the Netflix event series Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, star Keiko Agena is opening up about why she isn't 'close' with co-star Alexis Bledel.

Agena, 47, played Lane Kim on the series, the on-screen BFF to Bledel's Rory Gilmore in the original series.

The actress opened up about her relationship, or lack thereof, with Bledel, on co-star Scott Paterson's Gilmore Girls-themed podcast I Am All In.

Opening up: Five years after reuniting in the Netflix event series Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, star Keiko Agena is opening up about why she isn't 'close' with co-star Alexis Bledel

On-screen BFFs: Agena, 47, played Lane Kim on the series, the on-screen BFF to Bledel's Rory Gilmore in the original series

'I wish we had more of a friendship. That was probably a lot to do with me not making as much of an effort as I should have,' Agena began.

'I also think I was so  worried is the wrong word  but, you know, they worked so many hours that their off-set time, I thought, was so precious to them and I didnt want to insert myself into that time of their lives,' Agena added.

She also said that Bledel is, 'such a wonderful person,' adding that right when she met her, 'you just recognize that shes an intelligent, special individual.'

Friendship: 'I wish we had more of a friendship. That was probably a lot to do with me not making as much of an effort as I should have,' Agena began

Agena continued there was a part of her, 'that felt protective of her right away as a fellow actor and someone that recognizes how unique of a person she is.'

'I think some of that is just instinctual and I think that probably shows in how our characters related to each other that we like and respect each other right off the bat,' Agena added.

Agena and Patterson were also joined by Adam Brody, who played Dave Rygalski in the series, who commented some fans wanted Lane and Dave to be together.

Protective: Agena continued there was a part of her, 'that felt protective of her right away as a fellow actor and someone that recognizes how unique of a person she is'

'Some people wanted our characters to end up together and they did not. Shame,' Brody said, with Agena responding, 'In another universe.'

'We were so lucky to have you for whatever amount of time. We knew it when you were there that it was great,' Agena said.

Brody left the show in 2003, after he landed the role of Seth Cohen on the hit series The O.C.

Lucky: 'Some people wanted our characters to end up together and they did not. Shame,' Brody said, with Agena responding, 'In another universe'

Brody also reflected on his time on the show, adding, 'There was something so cozy and old-fashioned about it.'

'There was something thrilling to me.  The Connecticut of it all or wherever Stars Hollow was supposed to be,' he said.

'Youre in sweaters and stuff too. Its very Christmas, kind of Hallmark-y,' Brody added.
Olivia Munn opened up about the challenges she endured at the start of her successful acting career as she graced the cover of NewBeauty.

The actress, 40, reflected on experiencing a culture shock upon relocating to Los Angeles, which she described as a 'whole other ballgame.'

'When I moved here, Id go to auditions and I had it in my head that I was supposed to be dressed in my Sunday best, like I was going to church, she explained. 'While everyone else was wearing flats, skinny jeans and a tank top.'

Stunner: Olivia Munn opened up about the challenges she endured at the start of her successful acting career as she graced the cover of NewBeauty

Additionally, she recalled everyone portraying a 'Oh, I just showed up here' attitude, while she confessed she 'cared so, so much.'

'That part was tough, but then I started noticing how thin people were and I kept trying to figure out how they did it, and that was a losing game,' she reflected.

Munn continued: 'I wanted to try anything that would make me castablebut I honestly didnt know what to do.'

When she says she could not 'whittle down and be waif-thin to fit the look at the time,' she purchased a 'pair of jeans that were two sizes too big' to look 'thinner' than she was.

'Then, I started booking, which just shows how warped the standards were.' she said.

Open book: The actress, 40, reflected on experiencing a culture shock upon relocating to Los Angeles, which she described as a 'whole other ballgame'

'That part was tough, but then I started noticing how thin people were and I kept trying to figure out how they did it, and that was a losing game,' she reflected

Now, she stated she's happier because she is 'more comfortable embracing' who she is.

For a long time, her insecurities were made worse by makeup artists that didn't 'didnt really know how to work with an Amerasian face.'

She noted it's 'always hard being Chinese, Vietnamese and white' because some glam teams don't know how to accentuate her best features.

As a kid, she joked 'everyone knew I could barely comb my hair, so beauty and fashion have always been kind of foreign to me.'

'When I moved here, Id go to auditions and I had it in my head that I was supposed to be dressed in my Sunday best, like I was going to church, she explained. 'While everyone else was wearing flats, skinny jeans and a tank top'

'Now, I love them so much more, I understand them so much more, and I can appreciate them so much more,' she said.

Munn, who turns 41 on Saturday, reflected on how much 'kinder' the world is to aging men than women.

'When I turned 40, so many people made it seem like I would wake up the next day and feel like my life was over and that there was some sort of shame to getting older,' she mused.

Not stressing: Munn, who turns 41 on Saturday, reflected on how much 'kinder' the world to aging men than women

The beauty continued: 'Its kind of ridiculous, considering none of us can control the day or the year we were born. And, honestly, Im happier at 40 than Ive been at any other age.'

'I think the bigger question with all of it is: Are you happy? Just because your life may not look like what society tells you it should look like at a certain age, doesnt mean youre not living a full, rewarding life,' The Predator added

Amid the pandemic, Munn said she enjoyed relaxing with her dogs and spending time with her 'little pod' that kept her sane.

'If I could make just one request: Id like everyone to keep wearing flannels and sweatpants all day long,' she said of her love of cozy clothing.

The interview comes amid reports she is dating comedian John Mulaney.

New romance: The interview comes amid reports she is dating comedian John Mulaney (pictured in 2019)

They are reportedly 'going strong' amid his divorce from wife of six years, Anna Marie Tendler, following a rehab stint, according to People.

An insider told Us Weekly: 'She has been sneaking into some of his shows and loves them  Olivia is so smitten.'

'John thinks Olivia is really smart and she makes him laugh too,' the source added. 'They both have a very dry sense of humor.'

A source told People the relationship with Munn is in the early stages. 'This is very new, they're taking it slowly,' the insider said. 'They met at church in Los Angeles.'

The two have been friends for a while, it was claimed, and she encouraged him to keep his chin up during rehab.
Irina Shayk, Candice Swanepoel, and Joan Smalls put on another steamy performance in promotion of Swanepoel's swimwear brand - Tropic of C.

In a new advert for the Revolve collection, the three top models worked on their moonlight tans by prancing and dancing around a beach in Tulum, Mexico in the darkness of night.

And the three ladies weren't shy in flaunting their fab figures as they teased the camera with sultry stares and glares with the gorgeous moon taking a prominent co-starring role in the promo video.

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Promo mode: Irina Shayk, 35, flashed a seductive stare under the gorgeous moonlight in a new advert for Candice Swanepoel's Tropic of C Revolve swimwear brand

Bevy of beauties: Swanepoel and Joan Smalls helped round out the trio of beauties starring in the promo for the Revolve collection

The clip begins with a lovely look at small incoming waves as the moonlight glistens along with the ripples of the ocean water with the opening bars of hypnotic, relaxing music helping set the tone of the evening.

Shayk, 35, is the first of the three ladies to make a grand entrance, staring seductively into the camera with the moon over her right shoulder.

Quickly, the Russian model is seen frolicking along the shoreline dressed in a sheer white slip over a barely-there white bikini from Tropic Of C.

Moonlight vibe: The clip begins with a lovely look at small incoming waves as the moonlight glistens along with the ripples of the ocean water in Tulum, Mexico

Moon bathing: The Russian model frolicked along the shoreline dressed in a sheer white slip over a barely-there white bikini from Tropic Of C

Basking under the moon: Swanepoel, 32, struck a pose under the moonlight in a yellow bikini top and multi-colored pants that screamed beach-worthy

Strike a pose: Smalls, 32, maker her first appearance standing in front of a palm trees decked out in a baby blue bikini top and black sheer leggings

Joining in on the nighttime romp, Swanepoel follows suit and strikes a pose under the moonlight in a yellow bikini top and multi-colored pants that screamed beach-worthy.

The South South African beauty, 32, does a slow twirl around with her blonde tresses pulled into a ponytail, as she slowly pulls on a matching shirt.

Smalls, 32, maker her first appearance standing in front of a palm trees decked out in a baby blue bikini top and black see-through wrap, which was thin enough to show the outline of her yellow bikini bottoms.

In another teaser, the Puerto Rican native reached out for the camera with her raven tresses styled in long braids.

Gal pals: After making individual introduction, all three ladies come together and go romping through some brush towards the incoming tide of the ocean water, all while holding hands

Mivin' to the groovin;: Smalls and her gal pals proceed to dance under the moonlight

Touch of style; The Puerto Rican model has her raven tresses styled in along braids

More than a hint: Smalls' see-through wrap helped showcase her yellow bikini bottoms

Running theme: And again, the moonlight is among the central selling points of the clips, along with the lovely ladies and their Tropic Of C bikinis

Reach for the stars: Swanepoel appeared to barking at the moon in her ensemble

Finally, all three ladies come together and go romping through some brush towards the incoming tide of the ocean water, all while holding hands.

Flashing beaming smiles, they proceed to dance around the sand as the music began to build into a Latin-based groove.

And again, the moonlight is among the central selling points of the clips, along with, of course, the lovely ladies and bikinis.

At one point, each model individually put on their best catwalk strut along the sand as the other two danced in the background.

Adding a touch of flare, the clip ends with a red filter look as the models danced in slow motion on the beach.

Come together: The three top models put on a catwalk-like exhibition

Make that move: The three ladies put on individual exhibitions on the beach

Touch of flare: The clip ends with a red filter look as the models danced in slow motion

Entrepreneurial spirit: Swanepoel launched Tropic Of C in 2018

Upon the release of the promo, Swanepoel took to Instagram and shared the clip with her 15.5 million fans and followers.

'full moon feels #TropicofCxRevolve #revolvearoundtheworld @tropicofc @revolve @joansmalls @irinashayk,' she wrote before giving props to the production crew.

'Director @_jp_nyc_: DPs @spreadhouse; Stylist @sandyarmeni; Make up @Georgisandev; Hair @Jacobrozenberg; Creative & Production @the.mostbest @raissagerona @thelionsmgmt'

Swanepoel launched Tropic Of C in 2018, which resulted in a Launch of the Year award at the 5th Annual Daily Front Row Awards.

BTS: Swanepoel also shared some behind-the-scenes images of the shoot on Instagram

Co-stars: Shayk was happy to share the spotlight with the lovely moon

Beach babe: The South African beauty also struck a pose while sitting on the sand in her colorful ensemble

Glowing: Swanepoel danced alongside Shayk as they flashed big beaming smiles
They welcomed their first child together in December.

And now, six months later, WWE stars Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins have tied the knot, People reported on Wednesday.

The pro wrestlers exchanged vows on Tuesday, the outlet said, the same day that Rollins posted to his Instagram Story: 'Seems like a fine day to (finally) get married.'

Just married: WWE stars Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, who got engaged in August 2019, have tied the knot, People reported on Wednesday (pictured September 2019)

Rollins, 35, and Lynch, 34, confirmed they were dating in May 2019 and announced their engagement the following August.

Irish-born Lynch, whose real name is Rebecca Quin, revealed she was expecting a baby in May 2020 and has been on maternity leave from the WWE.

On December 7, 2020, she announced the arrival of her baby girl with an Instagram post, writing: 'Welcome to the world Roux. You are the love of our lives.'

Exchanged vows: The pro wrestlers exchanged vows on Tuesday, the same day that Rollins posted to his Instagram Story: 'Seems like a fine day to (finally) get married'

Couple: Rollins, 35, and Lynch, 34, confirmed they were dating in May 2019 and in May 2020, Irish-born Lynch, whose real name is Rebecca Quin, revealed she was expecting a baby

Speaking to People shortly after revealing her pregnancy, she had shared that she had 'always, always wanted kids.'

Lynch explained: ''I'm just so career-focused that it became one of those things that, when you're chasing a dream for so long, I always wondered, 'Am I going to get around to it? Is it going to happen for me?''

She went on: 'When we got together, things started to look a lot clearer and I knew he was the person that I wanted to have kids with  that this was going to happen and it was just a matter of when.'

Starting a family: On December 7, 2020, Lynch announced the arrival of her baby girl with an Instagram post, writing: 'Welcome to the world Roux. You are the love of our lives'

Dad material: 'When we got together... I knew he was the person that I wanted to have kids with  that this was going to happen and it was just a matter of when,' she said of Rollins last year

Lynch began training for pro-wrestling as a teenager in Ireland in 2002 and signed to the WWE in 2013.

Six years later, she defeated both Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a triple-threat match at Wrestlemania 35 to become both the WWE Raw and Smackdown Women's Champion. She later lost the Smackdown belt to Charlotte.

However she held onto the Raw Women's Title for 400 days until relinquishing it to Asuka after announcing her pregnancy.

Seth began his career on the independent circuit in 2005 and signed a developmental deal with the WWE in August 2010.

Iowa native Rollins has held several titles including becoming the first ever heavyweight champion in WWE's developmental organization NXT and multiple runs as WWE World Heavyweight Champion and Universal Champion.
Amelia Hamlin looked nearly unrecognizable in her latest photo shoot as she modeled a number of avant-garde looks for Perfect Magazine.

While rocking a flowing semi-sheer dress with two daring slits, the rising star sat on the edge of a bed in a motel room with a stern expression.

The 20-year-old beauty, who was recently signed to the London-based agency Linden Staub, looked impossibly chic as she stared down the camera in her layered tulle garment and white thong.

Queen of transformation: Amelia Hamlin looked nearly unrecognizable in her latest photo shoot as she modeled a number of avant-garde looks for Perfect Magazine

Later, while rocking the same look, she stood on the bed and twirled as she sported a nude lipstick and sheer tinted moisturizer for a dewy glow.

Her dark brown tresses were slicked back and barely visible in some of her other outfits, including one made entirely out of black black bow ties.

As she stood under a 'gas food lodging' sign in the middle of a desert, the model looked off into the distance toward the mountains.

Unique: Her dark brown tresses were slicked back and barely visible in some of her other outfits, including one made entirely out of black black bow ties

Posing: As she stood under a 'gas food lodging' sign in the middle of a desert, the model looked off into the distance toward the mountains

The girlfriend of Scott Disick's final two frocks included a white frilly dress and a bow-embellished chiffon coat with studded white loafers.

For her pink look, she reclined in a chair, before changing into her white dress as she stood next to a crooked piece of art on the wall.

Upon speaking about snagging the modeling gig on her Instagram Story, Amelia gushed: 'Someone pinch me!!!! A dream come true.'

Pretty in pink: Her final two frocks included a white frilly dress and a bow-embellished chiffon coat

Unforgettable: She leaned on a wall next to a crooked piece of art while wearing a frilly white dress

'Thank you to the amazing Katie Eleanor Grand for having me!!!!' she captioned a video of her from the shoot. 'Forever grateful for this project and beautiful team!'

She went on to thank Jahmad Balugo for directing, Simon Robins for serving as the fashion editor, hairdresser Maranda Widlund, makeup artist Lottie Tomlinson and Zola G for doing her nails.

All garments were noir kei ninomiya.

Modeling: While rocking a flowing semi-sheer dress with two daring slits, the rising star stood on top of a bed in a motel room with a stern expression

Amelia's post came just hours before her mom Lisa Rinna spoke about her and Disick's relationship on Wednesday's episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Upon learning the couple are more than 'just friends,' Rinna said she had a 'what the f**k moment.'

'She's 19, he's 37 with three kids. Hello!' the star told her RHOBH costar Erika Girardi, nodding to his three children Mason, 11, Penelope, eight, and Reign, six, who he shares with Kourtney Kardashian.

True love? Amelia's post came just hours before her mother Lisa Rinna spoke about her and Disick's relationship on Wednesday's episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

'I only know Scott Disick from the Kardashians and Scott was with Kourtney [Kardashian], not married. They have three children,' she continued. 'Oh, God.'

She also said she was 'a lot nervous' of the romance, but her husband was 'more calm.'

'You know, Harry was with Ursula [Andress] when she was 44 and he was 28,' she explained to Girardi.

Just the two of us: 'She's 19, he's 37 with three kids. Hello!' the star told her RHOBH costar Erika Girardi, nodding to his three children Mason, 11, Penelope, eight, and Reign, six

In a later confessional, she noted: 'No one's talking about the eating disorder anymore and you know what, thank God. As a mother, I'm like, 'Good.' This gives her another label to deal with.'

Upon discussing the relationship with the rest of the cast, Kyle Richards said: 'He's too damn old and he's got three kids! That is not a good match.'

Meanwhile, Garcelle Beauvais advised her not to 'judge a book by its cover.'
Fans have praised Andy Lee for getting the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on Thursday.

The 40-year-old comedian shared a picture to Instagram while sitting at a doctor's clinic and revealed he had the jab.

'Got AZ. Spoke to my doctor beforehand and it was his recommendation. I know this approach is not for everyone so seek your own advice and take whatever path you feel is right for you,' Andy wrote.

'You're setting a great example': Fans have praised comedian Andy Lee (pictured) for getting the AstraZeneca jab on Thursday

'Disappointed not to get a lollipop at the end (only negative),' he joked.

Fans praised the comedian for getting the jab, with one person commenting: 'Great example Andy.'

'Awesome Ando! Thank you for setting a great example! Love this,' another person wrote.

'Got AZ': The 40-year-old comedian shared a picture to Instagram while sitting at a doctor's clinic and revealed he had the jab

'Well done. I also had the AZ and had zero side effects. Though I did drink plenty of water the day before and after the injection which they say helps,' one said.

Another one agreed: 'Well done Ando, heaps of my mates have had it and there has been no drama!!!'

'Good on you Andy. Setting a great example,' one person commented.

Response: Fans praised the comedian for getting the jab, with one person commenting: 'Great example Andy'

It comes after extraordinary bickering broke out between federal and state governments on Wednesday about whether younger Australians should be allowed to have the AstraZenaca vaccine.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said GPs who administered the jab to under-60s who signed a waiver would be given legal immunity, after an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday night.

But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rejected the plan, saying there was nothing agreed with the states and urging Queenslanders to follow the earlier advice and only have the vaccine if they are under 60.

'There is an article that talks about under-40s are to be given an alternative to AstraZeneca,' she responded to the male reporter who probed her.

Most adults under the age of 40 will be given an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to a link with rare blood clots, the BBC had reported.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised a preference for adults aged 30 to 39 without underlying health conditions to receive an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine - where available and only if this does not cause substantial delays in being vaccinated.

It comes after Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) contradicted Scott Morrison's new advice that under 40s can book for the low-risk AstraZeneca vaccine if they want to
Lucciana Beynon, the model daughter of tobacco tycoon Travers 'The Candyman' Beynon, will soon leave Mexico.

And she spent her last day in the country hitting the gym in skimpy activewear.

She showcased her curves in a black top and compression leggings as she strutted into the gym, in a clip shared to Instagram.

Not so mellow! Aussie model Lucciana Beynon spent her last day in Mexico hitting the gym and sharing hyperactive videos on Instagram

She then slipped into a yellow swimsuit for a singalong video.

The 19-year-old looked flawless with minimal makeup and styled her long raven hair loosely.

After this Lucciana shared a clip of herself chugging water - presumably hydrating herself after her sweat session. The Aussie beauty was in Cancun, Mexico, for modelling assignments.

Black to basics: Lucciana showcased her curves in a black top and compression leggings as she strutted into the gym, in a clip shared to Instagram.

While she certainly looks sensational in swimwear, Lucciana revealed last month that was as far as she was prepared to go.

During an Instagram Q&A on June 1, she shut down rumours she was about to join the subscription-based adult website OnlyFans.

She responded with a simple 'no' when asked about starting an OnlyFans account.

Wild child: She then slipped into a yellow swimsuit for a singalong video

Beauty: The 19-year-old looked flawless with minimal makeup and styled her long hair loosely

In April last year, Lucciana showed off her jaw-dropping bikini body while self-isolating at her family's Gold Coast mansion.

The teen model flaunted her curves in a yellow bikini in a sizzling Instagram selfie.

Lucciana is already an international model and often jets around the world for photo shoots and runway shows. She was most recently living in the UK.

Oh my! Lucciana was in Cancun, Mexico, for modelling assignments (pictured last week)

In October 2019, she shot a bikini campaign for British online retailer ASOS in London and shared several behind-the-scenes videos of herself on set.

Sharing a glimpse of her first outfit, she flaunted her curvy figure in a swimsuit featuring cut-out details on her waist and across her cleavage.

She then changed into a skimpy white bikini and another lilac-coloured two-piece.

Sizzling hot: In April last year, Lucciana showed off her jaw-dropping bikini body while self-isolating at her family's Gold Coast mansion

Lucciana, who looks like a long-lost Kardashian sister, previously spoke of her plans to permanently relocate to the U.S. after finishing high school.

She told the Gold Coast Bulletin back in 2017: 'When I finish school I'll still be 17, so as soon as I turn 18, I'm going to move to America forever.'

'I want to become a Victoria's Secret Angel and then ultimately become a supermodel,' she added.

Rising star: Lucciana is already an international model and often jets around the world for photo shoots and runway shows. She was most recently living in the UK

Lucciana, whose mother is Venezuelan former beauty queen Ninibeth Leal, has a contingency plan for when her modelling career eventually ends.

'Once my time is up, because you know modelling doesn't last forever, I'll get involved in the family business and invest in property,' she said.

Lucciana's father is Australian businessman Travers Beynon, who is known for his polyamorous lifestyle and wild parties at his Gold Coast mansion.
She's the Married At First Sight bride who infamously complained about being treated like 'sex on a stick' on her wedding day.

But Beck Zemek clearly didn't mind turning up the heat and flaunting her bikini body in a reel posted on Instagram on Thursday.

The 28-year-old Perth-based beauty, who is currently in lockdown, shared a throwback clip of her during a previous holiday in Bali.

Bikini babe! Married At First Sight's Beck Zemek proved she's sex on a stick as she sizzles in swimwear in a racy video shared on her Instagram reel on Thursday

In the video, she showed off her figure in a magenta two-piece in the pool of the resort she was staying at the time.

Beck dipped her head back into the water, drenching her luscious brunette locks, and added a slowly motion effect as she emerged.

The former reality TV star wrote in the caption: 'Dreaming of Bali.'

Flaunting it: She shared a throwback clip with the caption: 'Dreaming of Bali' while under lockdown in Perth. In the video, she dipped her head into the water, drenching her luscious brunette locks, and added a slowly motion effect as she emerged showing off her bikini

No going out! Perth-based Beck is among the two million residents of the West Australian capital who are two days into a four day lockdown after two people caught coronavirus from a woman who visited a Covid-riddled cafe in Sydney

Beck is among the two million Perth residents who are two days into a four day lockdown after two people caught coronavirus from a woman who visited a Covid-riddled cafe in Sydney.

Beck starred in the most recent season of Nine's Married At First Sight, and was partnered with charity CEO Jake Edwards.

They experienced their fair share of highs and lows during their relationship, and split by the time the cast reunion was filmed in early 2021.

Over: Beck starred in the most recent season of Nine's Married At First Sight, and was partnered with charity CEO Jake Edwards. They experienced their fair share of highs and lows during their relationship, and split by the time the cast reunion was filmed in early 2021

Beck has since gone 'Instagram official' with her new boyfriend Ben Michell.

In June, she shared a photo of them looking very smitten during her 28th birthday celebrations.

'Grow through, what you go through,' she captioned her announcement post.
She's spent the week soaking up the sights of Rome.

And Kim Kardashian looked ready to take on another day of exploring the city as she posed for a sultry topless snap in her hotel room on Thursday.

The 40-year-old TV personality exuded glamour in the snap as she gazed seductively down the lens with just her bed sheets protecting her modesty.

Good morning! Kim Kardashian looked ready to take on another day of exploring the city as she posed for a sultry topless snap in the bed of her hotel room on Thursday

Making bed hair look catwalk ready, the mother-of-four wore her raven tresses in loose waves, while she wore minimal make-up to enhance her pretty features.

Kim captioned the sultry snap: 'Good Morning Rome. Good Night LA'.

The lazy morning comes after Kim enjoyed a late night stroll after dinner to see the Trevi Fountain.

Morning after the night before: The lazy morning comes after Kim enjoyed a late night stroll after dinner to see the Trevi Fountain

Kim looked phenomenal as she put on a leggy display and flaunted her cleavage in a PVC leopard print dress.

The reality star teamed the thigh-skimming dress with strappy black heels and carried a tiny matching clutch bag and sunglasses with her.

Earlier in the week, Kim flouted the Vatican's strict dress code as she paid a visit to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church alongside supermodel Kate Moss.

Kim also uploaded several shots she had taken while visiting the Vatican on Monday.

The back-to-back images showcased the Vatican's stunning architecture and design, as well as several notable artifacts and items displayed around the spacious place of worship.

Kim, having Armenian roots on her father Robert's side, highlighted a 'gift from Armenia' to the Vatican, which was a gold necklace and matching diamond pendant displayed behind glass.

Although she appeared excited to be visiting the Vatican on Monday, Kim failed to adhere to the church's strict dress code by wearing a sexy lace dress which didn't cover her shoulders and had cut-out sections throughout her mid-section.

Oops! It comes after she flouted the Vatican's strict dress code as she paid a visit to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church alongside Kate Moss earlier this week

There is a basic dress code that both men and women must adhere to when visiting the Vatican city, particularly St. Peters Basilica and/or the Vatican museums (including the Sistine Chapel).

Visitors must cover their knees and upper arms, while they are prohibited from wearing shorts or skirts above the knee, sleeveless tops, and low-cut shirts.

Men must also remove their hats when entering, though women are permitted to remain wearing theirs.

Shoulders must also be covered and visitors may be turned away or advised to cover up with a shawl.

While she may have flouted the dress code in the city, she did cover up with a leather jacket while visiting the Basilica.
Monica Bellucci was seen stepping out in Portofino with her two daughters Deva, 16, and Leonie, 11, on Wednesday.

The actress, 56, put on a casual display as she walked alongside her two children, who she shares with ex-husband Vincent Cassel, in the Italian village.

Holding hands with her youngest daughter, Monica looked stylish in a black denim jacket that she wore over a matching tank top.

Outing: Monica Bellucci looked casually chic in an all-black ensemble as she stepped out with daughters Deva, 16, and Leonie, 11, (left) in Portofino on Wednesday

Monica added a glamorous flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of flared denim jeans and she boosted her height in a pair of heels.

The raven-haired beauty styled her locks into glamorous waves that fell over her shoulders and she kept safe amid the coronavirus crisis by wearing a black face mask while walking through town.

Leonie kept close to her mother, holding her hand as they strolled through the cobbled streets even as her sister Deva walked ahead.

Family: Monica was seen with her two children who she shares with ex-husband Vincent Cassel (Deva pictured)

Stylish: Holding hands with her youngest daughter, Monica looked stylish in a black denim jacket that she wore over a matching tank top

Outing: Leonie kept close to her mother, holding her hand as they strolled through the cobbled streets even as her sister Deva walked ahead

Staying safe: Monica kept safe amid the coronavirus crisis by wearing a black face mask

Leonie stepped out in a grey shirt and loose-fitting denim jeans, and she kept her face mask under her chin while outdoors.

Her sibling put on a casual chic display in a white top that she paired with matching jeans and a grey hoodie.

She pulled her dark locks up into a tight bun and followed her mum's example by wearing a face mask firmly over her nose and mouth.

Chic: Monica added a glamorous flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of flared denim jeans and she boosted her height in a pair of heels

Entourage: Monica and her two daughters were accompanied by a number of other people

Chic: Monica styled her raven locks into glamorous waves that fell over her shoulders

Family trip: Monica and her daughters were seen enjoying their evening out in the village

Heading out: Monica and her daughters were seen exciting a taxi in the area

In recent months, Monica has been busy filming the forthcoming movie The Befana Comes At Night 2: The Origins, where she plays the Good Witch Dolores.

Produced by Lucky Red and Rai Cinema in collaboration with Sky, the new film serves as a prequel to the Italian language La Befana vien di notte (The Legend of the Christmas Witch), which Monica did not star in.

The forthcoming move will also star Zoe Massenti, Alessandro Haber, Herbert Ballerina, Corrado Guzzanti and Fabio De Luigi.

Guiding hand: Monica was seen pulling Leonie along in the city

Ensemble: Leonie stepped out in a grey shirt and loose-fitting denim jeans, and she kept her face mask under her chin while outdoors

Attire: Deva put on a casual chic display in a white top that she paired with matching jeans and a grey hoodie

Safety first: Deva followed her mother's example by wearing a face mask firmly over her nose and mouth during the outing

Chatty: Monica and Leonie were seen talking away with a friend in the town

Filming commenced in Italy on March 1st, with the movie expected to be released towards the end of 2021.

Leading lady Monica has been in a relationship with Nicolas Lefebvre, 36, since May 2017, four years after her split from ex-husband Cassel.

The actress first confirmed she was seeing someone in an interview with Paris Match last November, but stayed coy about her partner's identity.

Arrival: Monica was seen with her daughters at the airport earlier in the day

Schedule: In recent months, Monica has been busy filming the forthcoming movie The Befana Comes At Night 2: The Origins, where she plays the Good Witch Dolores

Star: Produced by Lucky Red and Rai Cinema in collaboration with Sky, the new film serves as a prequel to the Italian language La Befana vien di notte, which Monica did not star in

Co-stars: The forthcoming move will also star Zoe Massenti, Alessandro Haber, Herbert Ballerina, Corrado Guzzanti and Fabio De Luigi

Packed schedule: Filming commenced in Italy on March 1st, with the movie expected to be released towards the end of 2021

Admitting they had been dating a while and things were going well, she said of her new man: 'The man I share my life with doesn't have the same job as me, but he travels a lot. His rhythm of life complements mine.'

Asked whether she would consider getting married again, the former Bond girl kept her cards close to her chest.

She said: 'When you've been married twice before, you need to take time to think about it before starting over, to understand why it happened and why you divorced. Let's just say I'm in a learning phase at the moment.'

Monica was married to fashion photographer Claudio Carlos Basso from 1990 until 1994, and then Matrix star Cassel from 1999 until 2015.

Romance: Leading lady Monica has been in a relationship with Nicolas Lefebvre, 36, since May 2017, four years after her split from ex-husband Cassel

Private: The actress first confirmed she was seeing someone in an interview with Paris Match last November, but stayed coy about her partner's identity

Partner: Admitting they had been dating a while and things were going well, she said of her new man: 'The man I share my life with doesn't have the same job as me, but he travels a lot'

Decisions: Asked whether she would consider getting married again, Monica said, 'when you've been married twice before, you need to take time to think about it'
While the COVID-19 pandemic has hit many financially, the past year has seen TV star Declan Donnelly's fortunes rise to a massive 27.5m, according to reports.

Dec, 45, who is one half of presenting duo Ant and Dec, 'added 1m to his bottom-line last year' according to The Sun, with his TV company Deecourt Limited raking in 2,255 per day.

His company's exact balance is 27,523,787 according to the financial 2020 reports - an improvement on its 26,700,421 balance in 2019.

Something to smile about: While the COVID-19 pandemic has hit many financially, the past year has seen TV star Declan Donnelly's fortunes rise to a massive 27.5m, according to reports

This is broken down to 16m in investment purchases and 6.6m worth of sales. A 112,017 profit was made on these investments.

The extra million is made up of 3,021 in computer equipment, a 29,956 corporation tax refund, and 1,303,654 in 'holding cash'.

The company launched in 2006, with 458,901 to its name, after its first year in business. From then, the balance has only risen, due to services provided by the director as a television presenter.

Dec fronts shows alongside Ant McPartlin such as Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and Britain's Got Talent.

In the money: Dec, 45, who is one half of presenting duo Ant and Dec, 'added 1m to his bottom-line last year' according to The Sun, with his TV company Deecourt Limited raking in 2,255 per day

While the latter was cancelled this year due to the pandemic, ITV managed to keep the shows mostly afloat - relocating I'm A Celeb to Wales for its 2020 series, rather than the usual Australia.

Dec - who is married to talent agent Ali Astall with whom he shares daughter Isla, two, has seen his fortunes steadily rise since 2007, typically adding 1-3m onto it each year.

Meanwhile, TV partner Ant's Teecourt firm was closed last year, with its closing balance at 20,411,723 in 2018.

Lucrative: Dec fronts shows alongside Ant McPartlin such as Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! [pictured] and Britain's Got Talent

Ant still runs other companies with Dec - six in total - including advertising firm Hurley Promotions, which boasts 5,143,014 in shareholder funds currently.

They also own a Mitre Holdings - which has a 2.5m property in London to its name - and Mitre Television - with a balance of having 3,193,368.

Mitre Productions, Mitre Rights, Ant & Dec Productions, and Mitre Studios are there other companies - the latter only a year old.
She never fails to put on a dazzling display.

And Tina Kunakey cut a stylish figure as she arrived for the Jacquemus runway show held at the Site du Cinema in Paris on Wednesday.

The French model, 24, looked sizzling in a chic embellished maxi skirt and cropped black shirt which showcased her washboard abs.

Chic: Tina Kunakey, 30, cut a stylish figure as she arrived for the Jacquemus runway show at the Site Du Cinema in Paris on Wednesday wearing an embellished skirt and a cropped shirt

The skirt was covered in hundreds of yellow tassels which made her look stand out from the crowd.

She paired it with an asymmetric collared shirt, with cropped sleeves, which rose just high enough to flash a glimpse of her toned stomach.

To accesorise the look she carried a small black clutch bag and some open-toe high heel mules.

The French beauty attended the event with designer Simon Porte Jacquemus and the pair posed for pictures together before the Fall 2021 Ready To Wear show.

The French model looked sizzling in a chic maxi skirt and cropped black shirt which showcased her washboard abs

Sizzling: The skirt was covered in yellow tassels which made her look stand out from the crowd

Several well-known models walked on the runway, including Kendall Jenner, 25, and Bella Hadid, 24.

Ensuring all eyes would be on them, the stunning supermodels commanded attention at the show, which was held at the La Cite Du Cinema.

It comes as at the beginning of last month Tina made a stylish arrival at the Bvlgari Clients Dinner in Milan, Italy.

Sexy: She paired the skirt with an asymmetric collared shirt, with cropped sleeves, which rose just high enough to flash a glimpse of her toned stomach

Beautiful: To accesorise the look she carried a small black clutch bag and some open-toe high heel mules (pictured with designer Simon Porte Jacquemus)

Giving them an Eiffel! Kendall Jenner sizzled in a tiny crop top and skintight trousers as she joined ab-flashing Bella Hadid on the Jacquemus runway show in Paris at the at the La Cite Du Cinema

She posed up a storm on the orange carpet as she rocked a frilly white dress styled with long black boots.

The eye-catching outfit featured a Victorian neckline and ruffled cuffs, with the bottom of the dress hanging lower in the middle than at the sides.

She coupled her dress with a stunning pair of sleek black boots with a large heel and accessorised with an intricate rose gold necklace.

She was joined by a host of glamorous stars at the designer event, such as Spanish model Nieves Alvarez, Italian actress Miriam Leone and American star Lily Aldridge.
She always turns heads with her glitzy and feminine outfits.

And Paris Hilton wowed in a plunging pink gown as she lead the nineties and noughties stars at a Tubi and TikTok reunion event in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The socialite, 40, amped up the glamour with her iridescent dress as she joined the upcoming show's media executives at the star-studded gathering at Sneakertopia.

Pretty in pink: Paris Hilton wowed in a plunging pink gown as she lead the nineties and noughties stars at a Tubi and TikTok reunion event in Los Angeles on Wednesday

Her garment featured shoulder pads and a belt cinched at the waist, emphasising her lithe physique.

Paris added a touch a sparkle with nude gloves peppered with sequins and delicate silver jewellery. Her accessories were Valentino Garavani.

She rounded off the look with classic Valentino heels and aviator shades as she posed next to stars Lacey Chabert, Joey Lawrence, Marlon Wayans, Fran Drescher and Brittany Broski.

The American streaming service Tubi and the social media platform TikTok are joining forces to release an hour-long nostalgia special next Wednesday.

Revealing: The socialite, 40, amped up the glamour with her iridescent dress as she joined the upcoming show's media executives at the star-studded gathering at Sneakertopia (left Adam Lewison and right Farhad Massoudi)

Structured silhouette: Her garment featured shoulder pads and a belt cinched at the waist, emphasising her lithe physique

Radiant: Paris added a touch a sparkle with nude gloves peppered with sequins and delicate silver jewellery

The live event will feature trivia and other challenges relating to the Fox app's hit shows over the past 30 years such as Dawsons Creek, The Nanny, Friday Night Lights and Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Paris and Nicole Richie went down in reality TV history with the show, The Simple Life, which is available to watch on Tubi.

And the business mogul will feature in the new show alongside Joey, 45, Marlon, 48, Fran, 63, and Lacey, 38.

The celebrities will react to their memorable TV moments, including kisses and clapbacks, and will even recreate their iconic onscreen looks.

Squad: She rounded off the look with classic Valentino heels and aviator shades as she posed next to stars Lacey Chabert, Joey Lawrence, Marlon Wayans, Fran Drescher and Brittany Broski

Project: The American streaming service Tubi and the social media platform TikTok are joining forces to release an hour-long nostalgia special next Wednesday

Throwback: The live event will feature trivia and challenges relating to the Fox app's hit shows over the past 30 years such as Dawsons Creek, The Nanny and Friday Night Lights

Fame: Paris and Nicole Richie went down in reality TV history with the show, The Simple Life, which is available to watch on Tubi

Other rising TikTok stars including Suede Brooks, Zach Lugo, Chunkysdead, Tre Clements, Wisdom Kaye and Rodney Lee will make an appearance with Brittany, 24, hosting the live event.

TikTok users can participate through two hashtag challenges such as #AsSceneOnTubi, which encourages viewers to recall the best one-liners from popular Tubi shows.

#TubiTaughtMe will compel users to recreate their favourite throwback looks from Tubi titles.

Collaboration: Other rising TikTok stars including Suede Brooks, Zach Lugo, Chunkysdead, Tre Clements, Wisdom Kaye and Rodney Lee (pictured together) will feature alongside Brittany, 24, at the live event

Engaged: TikTok users can participate through two hashtag challenges such as #AsSceneOnTubi, which encourages viewers to recall the best one-liners from popular Tubi shows

Social media content created by fans will also be included in the live event.

Tubi is a video streaming app with over 30,000 movies and television series from over 250 content partners.

Tubi vice president of marketing Natalie Bastian said to AdWeek earlier this week: 'Tubi and TikTok, two powerful destinations for younger audiences to discover nostalgic content, make this innovative partnership a perfect home for our live event.

'Weve seen a direct correlation between titles that trend on TikTok and the growth of those titles on Tubi, which serves as the prime viewing platform for TikTok users.'

Surprise! Social media content created by fans will also be included in the live event

Peace! Tubi is a video streaming app with over 30,000 movies and television series from over 250 content partners (pictured host Brittany)
She recently started dating Strictly professional dancer Giovanni Pernice.

And Maura Higgins looked sensational on Wednesday as she arrived in Camden for her friend Ella Cast's baby shower.

The Love Island star stunned in a short black Off-White collared dress and white boots.

Stunning: Maura Higgins looked sensational when she attended a pal's baby shower in Camden on Wednesday amid new romance with Giovanni Pernice

Moving on: Maura has been dating Stritly star Giovanni Pernice following her split from fellow Love Island contestant Chris Taylor in May

She pinned her brown hair up high onto her head, keeping a few curly strands loose around her face.

Maura, 30, wore glowing makeup and completed her look with a white long-strapped bag to team with her boots.

She had clearly splashed out on a nice present as she carried a Gucci shopping bag in hand.

Also in attendance were Love Island stars Georgia Steel, Shaughna Phillips and Kendall Rae Knight, TOWIE's Chloe Brockett and actress Kimberly Hart-Simpson.

Glam: She pinned her brown hair up high onto her head, keeping a few curly strands loose around her face

Glowing: The stunner completed her look with a white long-strapped bag to team with her boots

They gathered at Hans and Gretel, Camden, to celebrate Ella Cast's baby shower.

The 'sweet dream factory' wrote on Instagram: 'Today we hosted our first ever VIP Baby Shower. What an occasion! Thank You ladies for a spectacular party.'

Ella, mother-to-be, showed her gratitude and penned: 'Best baby shower! Amazing day.'

Love Island stars Georgia Steel (left) and Shaughna Phillips (right) were also in attendance at the baby shower

'What an occasion!': All the girls looked dressed to impress in Camden as they posed outside Hans and Gretel

Dressed in white: Love Island star Kendall Rae Knight (left) and TOWIE's Chloe Brockett (right) looked radiant, Chloe wearing all white and Kendall teaming white with beige

Dazzling: Kimberly Hart-Simpson was also amongst the stars who turned out to support Ella at her baby shower

Maura took to Instagram later on to share that her white Fenti boots had got stained, but thanked fans for their recommendations.

'Boot update!! I tried all your recommendations...only thing that lifted it out a bit was nail varnish remover.. Thank you all,' she wrote.

This outing comes as it was revealed that The Irish star, 30, has been getting to know Giovanni, 30, in secret the last month, following her split from fellow Love Island contestant Chris Taylor in May.

Stained boots: The glam star thanked fans for their recommendations after her white boots got stained

Sources close to the TV presenter, who was recently announced as the host of Glow Up Ireland, say the new couple are in the early stages of a relationship.

And Maura clearly has a type, after she and ballroom dancer Curtis Pritchard, 25, whose brother AJ, 26, is an ex-Strictly pro, fell for each other on the 2019 series of Love Island.

'It's early days, but Maura is really enjoying getting to know Giovanni, and the feeling is mutual,' a source told MailOnline.

'They're both career driven and ambitious, which are qualities they find really attractive in each other.'
Jodi Gordon has wasted no time in her new relationship with entrepreneur Aidan Walsh, after the pair went Instagram official last month.

On Wednesday, the 36-year-old actress proudly shared a string of photographs of her recent trip to her new boyfriend's pearl farm at Willie Creek in Broome, Western Australia.

The cosy pictures featured Jodi standing next to the Pearl Farm sign, while another showed her cuddling up to her boyfriend while sat on a sand bank.

Getting serious! Jodi Gordon explored new boyfriend Aidan Walsh's pearl farm on Wednesday, after debuting their relationship last month

Couple goals: Jodi posted the series of snaps to her Instagram with her beau, including one where they cuddled up next to each other on a sand bank

'What an amazing experience it was exploring my boyfriend's @aidnwalsh old pearl farm at willie creek,' the former Neighbours star captioned the images.

A third picture showed Jodi exiting a boat, and the last shot displayed a scenic beachside view of the water.

Jodi then thanked Callee Walsh - who appears to be Aidan's relative - and her business Kimberly Concierge, which organised the couple's picturesque trip around the region.

The farm and tour itself is said to give visitors an insight into cultured pearl farming - from shell, to showroom.

Picturesque: The pictures featured Jodi standing next to the Pearl Farm sign, another with boyfriend Aidan on the sand bank, one of Jodi exiting a tour boat and the last snap displayed a scenic beachside view of the water

Out and about: The trip to Broome is the couple's second romantic jaunt in a matter of weeks

The romantic tour is the couple's second romantic jaunt in a matter of weeks.

Uploading a photo of herself and Aidan posing in front of a race track on Monday morning, Jodi wrote on Instagram: 'Broome, I love you.'

She also posted a video of Aidan at the beach, alongside a love heart.

Jodi and Aidan made their red carpet debut last week at a GQ event in Sydney.

Lovers' paradise: She posted a video of Aidan at the beach on Monday, alongside a love heart

Her new romance comes after she ended her fraught relationship with British-born investment portfolio manager Sebastian Blackler.

In November, Police took out an interim AVO to protect Jodi from Sebastian following an incident at her eastern suburbs home.

The incident came just one week after she went Instagram official with Sebastian on November 21, 2020.

According to Woman's Day, the AVO news surprised those close to Jodi as she had been 'head over heels' and 'beaming with joy' just days beforehand.

On the day of the incident, police were called to Jodi's house in Double Bay shortly after midnight after reports of a disturbance.

Police subsequently took out an interim AVO to prevent Sebastian from assaulting, threatening, stalking, harassing or intimidating Jodi.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Sebastian is alleged to have done any of those things, and police have laid no charges against him.

Sebastian consented to a one-year order when he appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on December 9, without making any admissions of wrongdoing.
Melissa Doyle has posted a heartbreaking tribute to her Channel Seven colleague Garry Siutz, after he died on Monday following a battle with skin cancer.

The former Sunrise host, 51, shared a picture of herself beaming alongside the makeup artist, praising his talents and saying he would be 'adored forever'.

'The world lost a true gentleman this week,' she wrote. 'A friend, a colleague, an incredibly talented hair & makeup artist.

Tragic passing: Melissa Doyle has shared a heartbreaking tribute to her Channel Seven colleague Garry Siutz following his devastating death on Monday

'Garry filled the room with joy & beauty. We will adore you forever Gaz.'

A day earlier, Samantha Armytage - who took over as Sunrise co-host following Melissa's departure - posted a similar tribute her much-loved colleague.

'Another angel in heaven this week. Gone too soon, but never to be forgotten,' the 44-year-old wrote on Instagram.

'Thinking of my old mate and fabulous makeup artist Garry Siutz (aka Gazza-matazz).'

Devastated: A day earlier, Samantha Armytage posted a similar tribute her much-loved colleague. 'Another angel in heaven this week. Gone too soon, but never to be forgotten,' Samantha wrote on Tuesday afternoon

Colleague: Alongside pictures of the pair working together in Hawaii four years ago, Samantha added: 'The king of the blow dry, even in the Hawaiian humidity'

Alongside pictures of the pair working together in Hawaii four years ago, Sam added: 'The king of the blow dry, even in the Hawaiian humidity.'

She then shared an image of Garry standing next to her while she was live on-air, adding: '...and always there to help write your piece-to-camera, and get Frank the cameraman to get the best angles.

'Such a fun guy... you will be missed. Sending much love to the Siutz family.'

Garry is survived by his partner, Leonie, and their two children, Kiya and Oscar.

Legacy: Garry is survived by his partner, Leonie, and their two children, Kiya and Oscar

The Morning Show host Kylie Gillies remembered Garry as 'one of my best friends'.

'Garry Siutz was a shining light. A brilliant hair and makeup artist. A raconteur - he could make a lunch trip to the food court hilarious. There was always a story with Garry,' she wrote.

'He held my hand... AND my hair! He was one of my best friends.'

Current Sunrise host Natalie Barr added: 'It's the saddest of weeks because our wonderful, fun, irreverent, talented-as-all-hell friend and colleague @garrysiutz has passed away.

'He was one of the most talented hair and makeup artists I've ever worked with in more than 30 years in TV.'

Other stars paying tribute included Anna Heinrich, Rhonda Burchmore, Kyly Clarke, Amber Laidler and Laura Csortan.
Iris Law has unveiled her shock new buzz cut in Vogue magazine as she described the decision to transform her look as 'liberating'.

The actress, 20, discussed shaving her head for her role as Soo Catwoman in the upcoming series, Pistol, in a revealing interview with Vogue this month.

She said to the publication: 'I wanted to do something that felt liberating. The day I shaved my head, I changed my life. Ive never done anything like that before.

'The day I shaved my head, I changed my life': Iris Law has unveiled her new buzz cut in Vogue magazine as she described the decision to transform her look as 'liberating'

'I looked in the mirror and thought it was going to be emotional but it wasnt. It felt so positive.'

Sharing behind-the-scenes snaps from her Vogue photoshoot to social media, Iris delivered a series of playful poses as she reflected on her new look.

She penned on Instagram: 'The day has come! Im so honoured to have been given the opportunity to debut my new hair with @britishvogue photographed by the amazing @alasdairmclellan.

'So many wigs and secret hiding my head moments! Which only makes this day more special. Couldnt think of a better team to do it with! Thank you thank you .'

Candid: The actress, 20, discussed shaving her head, what her family has taught her and her friendship with Stella McCartney in a revealing interview with Vogue this month (pictured wearing a wig in June)

'The day has come!': Sharing behind-the-scenes snaps from her Vogue photoshoot to social media, Iris delivered a series of playful poses as she reflected on her new look

Iris began experimenting with new hairstyles as Soo Catwoman in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sex Pistols drama.

Discussing her acting debut in the series, Pistol, she said of her character: 'I want to do her justice. A lot of people dont actually know who she is or much about her. I want that to be rectified.'

On whether she will get the opportunity to meet the punk icon, the star responded: 'Im going to push for that to happen. I want her to watch the show and be like, "Thats what it was about!"'

Iris has proved acting runs in the family as she is the daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost.

New look: Iris began experimenting with new hairstyles as Soo Catwoman (pictured the real-life punk icon) in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sex Pistols drama

Discussing her acting debut in the series, she said of her character: 'I want to do her justice. A lot of people dont actually know who she is or much about her. I want that to be rectified'

Reflecting on what her family means to her, she continued: 'The thing Ive inherited from my family is the ability to try new things and not be scared.

'Thats definitely impacted who I am as a person'

Iris, who is based in London, has a host of famous friends including fashion designer Stella McCartney .

'Its so beautiful that shes known me since I was a child,' she said of her relationship with Paul McCartney's daughter, 49. 'And now we have similar views on the climate and fashion.'

See the full feature in the August issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Friday.

'The thing Ive inherited from my family is the ability to try new things': Iris has proved acting runs in the family as she is the daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost (pictured in 1996)
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Monica Bellucci's lookalike daughter, Deva Cassel, 16, was seen stepping out in Portofino on Thursday to film a new advert for D&G.

The Dolce & Gabbana ambassador, who is the face of the luxury Italian brand's newest fragrance, Dolce Rose, looked a vision as she rocked a dreamy ruffled lilac floral dress in the picturesque Italian town.

The teen, whose father is Vincent Cassel, 54, was a dead ringer for her legendary mother, 56, as she got to work in showing off her modelling skills.

Lookalike: Monica Bellucci's daughter, Deva Cassel, 16, stepped out in Portofino on Thursday to film an advert for Dolce And Gabbana - a brand her mother adores - Deva's father in Vincent Cassel

Mini me: The teen, whose father is Vincent Cassel, was a dead ringer for her legendary mother as she got to work in showing off her modelling skills

Deva's colouring in the pretty look was extremely similar to when her mother modelled a similar coloured gown at the Women's World Awards ceremony in 2009.

She added a touch of flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of bold multi-coloured drop-style earrings which skimmed her shoulders in length.

The teen stepped out in white D&G sandals, which were the perfect complement to the pretty floral mini and added to the summer feel.

Teenage beauty: Cassel was filming another advert for Dolce & Gabbana

Stunning: The mini model is the spitting image of her mother as she gazed into the distance

Beautiful: She accentuated her features with winged eyeliner and a touch of rosy blush

Parents: Deva is the daughter of Bellucci and Vincent Cassel (pictured in 2002) - they divorced in 2013 after 14 years of marriage

The raven-haired poser styled her locks into waves that fell over her shoulders.

She accentuated her features with winged eyeliner and a touch of rosy blush.

Deva completed her effortless look with a slick of punch-coloured matte lipstick.

Touch of flair: Deva added a touch of flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of bold multi-coloured drop-style earrings and white D&G sandals

Smiling wide: Deva is the face of the luxury Italian brand's newest fragrance, Dolce Rose

Teenage dream: Deva looked a vision as she rocked a dreamy ruffled lilac floral dress in the picturesque Italian town

Popular: The model has 189K followers on Instagram

Deva, shared the initial perfume campaign video for Dolce Rose to her Instagram, which has 189K followers, three weeks ago.

The advert sees her twirling through fields of flowers, picking roses and sifting through scenic postcards before diving off a boat into the Ligurian sea.

The budding model posted the video alongside a series of professional images from the campaign which were also shared to the site.

Classic: Deva is the face of Dolce and Gabbana's newest fragrance Dolce Rose

Dreamy: The advert sees her twirling through fields of flowers, picking roses and sifting through scenic postcards before diving off a boat into the Ligurian sea

The perfume, which retails at around 40, 'celebrates the most iconic of flowers  a symbol of love, beauty and femininity'.

Deva has also taken to TikTok, creating a dance challenge with the designer brand for the perfume campaign.

The dance, which sees the model crossing her hands over her shoulders and hips in a Macarena-style pattern, has 28.5K likes on the platform.

Rosy: The perfume, which retails at around 40, 'celebrates the most iconic of flowers  a symbol of love, beauty and femininity'

Deva was seen stepping out in Portofino with her mum and younger sister, Leonie, 11, on Wednesday.

She looked undeniably chic in a white top that she paired with matching jeans and a grey hoodie.

The budding model pulled her dark locks up into a tight bun and followed her mum's example by wearing a face mask firmly over her nose and mouth.

Casual display: The 16-year-old walked alongside her family in the Italian village

Chic: She wore a white halter top that she paired with matching jeans and a grey hoodie
She has been putting on a fashionable display while in Paris.

And Bella Hadid pulled out another chic outfit as she stepped out of her hotel in the French capital on Thursday wearing an edgy red check blazer and patterned jeans.

The model, 24, was spotted chatting with contemporary artist Damian Hirst on her oting as she bumped into him while leaving Avenue restaraunt in the city, before picking up a Backgammon board game during her outing.

Chic: Bella Hadid, 24, pulled out another chic outfit as she stepped out of her hotel in Paris on Thursday wearing a revealing crop top, an edgy red check blazer and patterned jeans

Bella added a showstopping element to the look in a revealing white crop top under her jacket which featured a keyhole centre and ragged hemline.

The star's top, which was tied together with drawstrings were left open at the bottom, had a cut out around her chest that flashed her midriff.

She looked sizzling in the fashionable ensemble, donning an unbuttoned crisp white shirt with the collar poking out over the lapels of the blazer.

Her wide leg blue Givenchy jeans were split at the ankle, flashing a glimpse of her grey trainers, and she carried a red Goyard handbag on her shoulder.

Meeting: The model was spotted chatting with contemporary artist Damian Hirst on her outing as she bumped into him while leaving Avenue restaurant in the city

Game: Bella purchased the Backgammon board game from Le Damier de l'Opera game store during her outing

Cheeky: Bella put on a busty display in the skimpy white crop to which she wore under her jacket and left little to the imagination

Busty: The small top, which was tied together around her breasts while the second drawstrings were left open at the bottom, had a cut out around her chest and flashed her midriff

Cool: Bella looked sizzling in the fashionable ensemble, donning an unbuttoned crisp white shirt with the collar untucked over the lapels of the blazer

The model wore a black protective face mask as she went about her outing and accessorised with a pair of gold hoop earrings and a pearl necklace.

She has been living it up in the capital for the past week, heading out to dinner with friends and appearing on the catwalk.

On Wednesday, she walked on the runway at the Jacquemus-Collection Fall 2021 Ready to Wear show alongside Kendall Jenner.

Ensuring all eyes would be on them, the stunning supermodels commanded attention at the show, which was held at the La Cite Du Cinema.

Designer: Her wide leg blue Givenchy jeans were split at the ankle, flashing a glimpse of her grey trainers, and carried a red Goyard handbag on her shoulder

Gorgeous: The fashion model still looked beautiful despite having to wear a black protective face mask for her outing

Good spirits: Bella was clearly in a good mood as she was spotted giving a warm hug two of her pals

Retail therapy: Bella was spotted sampling some of the designs in the swanky showroom

Hey! Bella flashed a wave as she stepped out onto the streets of the French capital

Stepping out: Bella's signature style was recognisable despite her face being covered with a mask and shades

Wow: The model looked impossibly stylish for her chic outing

It comes as Bella and her sister Gigi, whose father Mohamed is a Palestinian born in Nazareth, waded controversially into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last month.

Bella was accused of antisemitism after posting cartoons denouncing Israel, which she has since deleted from her Instagram.

The post, which Gigi liked, argued that Israel was 'not a country' and accused the Jewish State of 'ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid.'

Bella preempted allegations of bigotry by posting a clip of Bernie Sanders arguing: 'It is not anti-Semitic to be critical of a right-wing government in Israel.'

'Hate from either side is not okay - I do not condone it!!' wrote Bella. 'I will not stand to hear people talk badly about Jewish people through all of this.'

Friendly: Bella embraced a friend in the street as she arrived at her location after leaving her hotel

Paris style: Bella accessorised with a pair of gold hoop earrings and a pearl necklace

Gigi also wrote on her Instagram: 'One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & women's rights, condemn corrupt and abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression. It does not add up...

'You cannot pick and choose whose human rights matter more.'

Bella also found herself in hot water when she went Live on Instagram from a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City.

She filmed herself chanting the popular Palestinian slogan: 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!' along with other protestors.

The State Of Israel directly condemned her on its official Twitter account writing: 'When celebrities like @BellaHadid advocate for throwing Jews into the sea, they are advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State.'

Ensemble: Bella added to her outfit with a pair of gold hoop earrings and a silver necklace

Busy: She has been living it up in the capital for the past week, heading out to dinner with friends and appearing on the catwalk

Showstopper: Ensuring all eyes would be on them, the stunning supermodels commanded attention at the show, which was held at the La Cite Du Cinema
Liam Neeson cut a casual figure as he arrived at a hotel in Berlin on Thursday ahead of filming his new movie Retribution.

The Taken actor, 69, is set to start filming the Hollywood version of the Spanish thriller, El Desconocido in the German capital.

For his arrival, Liam wore a turquoise hoodie and graphic T-shirt underneath as he entered his hotel with a coffee cup in hand.

New film: Liam Neeson cut a casual figure as he arrived at a hotel in Berlin on Thursday ahead of filming his new movie Retribution

Liam wore emerald green rimmed glasses propped on his forehead and dark blue chinos while also keeping his face covered with a mask.

He looked every bit the jet-setter as he held a tan leather satchel in one hand and a travel coffee mug in the other. Liam opted for black trainers and swept back hair.

The film, which is being produced by Studiocanal, also stars Stranger Things actor Matthew Modine and Succession's Arian Moayed.

Arrivals: The Taken actor, 69, is set to start filming the Hollywood version of the Spanish thriller, El Desconocido in the German capital

The flick will see Liam as a banking executive who receives a bomb threat whilst driving his children to school.

The banker's life is thrown upside down when he has to experience the harrowing events which then take place.

The picture is similar to the story of the film Speed which stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves.

New release: The film, which is produced by Studiocanal, a banking executive played by Liam who receives a bomb threat whilst driving his children to school; pictured in 2020

Busy: The Taken star is also set to produce a TV adaptation of the film Unknown; pictured as Bryan Mills in Taken, 2008

Jack Champion, as seen in Avatar 2, and Wonder Woman 1984's Lilly Aspell will play Liam's two children. Retribution is being directed by Predator's Nimrod Antal.

Liam is keeping busy as it has been revealed that he is producing a new sequel for his 2011 action thriller Unknown.

The actor starred in the film as a doctor who found himself hunted by assassins after losing his memory in a car accident.

The U.S. TV network TNT have opted to pick up the storyline with a new leading actor for an adaptation for TV.

Netflix film: Another motion picture starring the actor which has been released in 2021 is The Ice Road

The story is adapted from the 2003 French novel Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert.

The Ice Road is another flick in which Liam stars, and has been released in 2021.

The motion-picture follows an ice road driver who must front a rescue mission when a remote diamond mine collapses in Northern Canada.

The Ice Road is streaming on Netflix and is in cinemas on the 25th June 2021.
Linda Robson has insisted she's not at war with Birds Of A Feather co-star Pauline Quirke, despite ongoing rumours of a cast feud.

The Loose Woman panelist, 63, told Good Morning Britain presenters Kate Garraway and Adil Ray that there was no falling out between them 'whatsoever.'

Offering an explanation for the series coming to an end, she said: 'She just doesn't want to act anymore, she wants to concentrate on her academies. You have to respect her wishes.'

Shutting down those rumours: Linda Robson told Good Morning Britain presenters Kate Garraway and Adil Ray on Thursday that her and Pauline Quirke haven't fallen out

Pauline declined to take part in the Christmas special of the ITV series, leaving just Linda and Lesley Joseph starring in it. In May, ITV announced that the series had been permanently axed

Speaking about the Christmas special, Linda said: 'They asked us whether we'd like to do it and we said we're happy to.It was a very good Christmas special.'

Adil joked with the TV personality, asking she would go solo, to which Linda responed: 'I'm not sure if I could do Birds of Feather on my own!'

Back in the day: Linda and Pauline (on Birds Of A Feather back in 1998) were rumoured to have fallen out in February after she was involved in a tense face-off with fellow star Lesley Joseph

Back in February, it was claimed Pauline is no longer on amicable terms with Linda after she was involved in a tense face-off with fellow TV star Lesley Joseph outside TV studio toilets.

The Sun previously alleged the bust-up with Lesley could date back to 1997, when Pauline received a BAFTA nomination for her role in The Sculptress, and reportedly asked for a bigger salary for her Birds Of A Feather stint through her manager husband Steve Sheen.

The insider said: 'Steve was not especially popular on set. He asked for more money, which he felt was valid after her Bafta nomination, so the women started to drift apart.

'The sense now is that they will never repair their friendship. Linda does not believe they will ever speak again.'

'You have to respect her wishes': The Loose Women panelist said that Pauline just doesn't want to act anymore and instead wants to focus on her academies

Pauline and Linda played sisters in the hit comedy, and as real-life childhood best friends appeared to be a perfect fit for the roles.

But the frequent on-screen bickering between their characters Sharon and Tracey Stubbs appears to have exploded into the actors' real lives, prompting fears for the future of the long-running programme.

The Mail on Sunday first revealed that a seemingly irreparable rift has developed between Pauline and Linda, whose bond once helped cement their reputation as among the UK's most popular double acts.

Insiders said there have been 'real and tense issues' which resulted in Pauline refusing to take part in the 30th anniversary show, which aired in 2019.

At the same time, Linda grew closer to co-star Lesley, who plays man-eating neighbour Dorien Green, and the pair decided not to ask Pauline to take part in 2020's Christmas special.

Not going solo: The 63-year-old said she couldn't do Birds Of A Feather on her own after Adil jokingly asked if she would

The fall-out marked an end to Pauline's much-loved character of Sharon, whose recent absences have been explained by the character heading off on a cruise.

The trio shot to fame in 1989 when Birds Of A Feather began on BBC1. Following the lives of two sisters who move in together after their husbands are jailed for armed robbery, it ran for nine years.

It was later revived in 2014 on ITV by its original writers and creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.

Back in the day: Lesley, Linda and Pauline shot to fame in 1989 when Birds Of A Feather began on BBC1 (pictured 2015)

Meanwhile, Linda recently joined Susan Calman in Southend-on-Sea for the series Grand Week By The Sea.

Susan, a travel-lover and Scottish comedian, has been making her way around the country to explore what different seaside resorts have to offer.

And Linda makes a guest-appearance in Thursday night's episode, which is centred on Southend-on-Sea - home to the world's largest pleasure pier.

She will be sharing her memories of the Essex seaside resort, joining Susan along the seafront.
She's the MasterChef superstar who is arguably one of the show's most talked about cooking talents.

But this week, Poh Ling Yeow ditched her apron in favour of a series of sultry ensembles, as she posed up a storm for a photo shoot in her Adelaide home.

The 48-year-old oozed sex appeal in the images by Australian photographer Henry Trumble, with one shot showing her flashing the flesh in blue fishnet stockings and a multi-coloured fur coat.

Poh Ling Yeow as you've NEVER seen her before: This week, the MasterChef star stripped down to some sultry ensembles as she posed up a storm in her Adelaide home

She gazed at the camera seductively as she posed on the sofa, with her dark locks slicked back and a bright red lipstick making her striking features truly pop.

In another photo, Poh was seen in a beautiful white cleavage-baring top she had 'made in Malaysia', and an emerald green maxi skirt from Country Road.

She started off by laying down seductively, before changing position and staring down at her feet as she enjoyed her picturesque surroundings.

Stunner: In another photo, Poh was seen in a beautiful white cleavage-baring top she had 'made in Malaysia', and an emerald green maxi skirt from Country Road

A final image showed Poh standing in a doorway wearing a show-stopping blue dress.

She looked coy as she stared out of the window, with the floor-length frock emphasising her incredible figure and never-ending pins.

She accessorised her look with a pair of stunning statement earrings.

Beauty: She started off by laying down seductively, before changing position and staring down at her feet as she enjoyed her picturesque surroundings

Poh had shared the gorgeous images on her Instagram page, captioned: 'Twas a delight to finally work with you @henrytrumble and to be able to do it in my natural habitat was just...'

The photos come four months after Poh announced she had split from her second husband, Jonathan, in February after six years of marriage and 12 years together.

She told The Weekend Australian: '2021 is about me doing the things I love and remembering who I am without another person. [Husband] Jono and I broke up.'

Before meeting Jonathan, she was married to Matt Phipps for a decade.
Daisy Lowe left nothing to the imagination when she posed up a storm in a sheer yellow lace bra in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

And the model, 32, looked casually chic as she stepped out to take her beloved dog Monty and another pooch in Primrose Hill Park, London, on Thursday.

She opted for a relaxed look as she slipped into a bottle green dress that she wore with a light-wash denim jacket.

Relaxed: Daisy Lowe looked casually chic in a green dress and a denim jacket as she took her dog Monty and another pooch for a walk in London on Thursday

Daisy added a punk chic flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of black lace-up boots, and she accessorised with a large pendant necklace.

The lingerie model styled her raven locks into a sleek, straight style and she wore a light palette of make-up for the occasion.

Daisy appeared to be in good spirits as she took the dogs for the stroll, and she smiled brightly when she was pulled along by an overexcited bulldog.

On Wednesday, the model looked sensational as she flashed her assets beneath her floral embroidered underwear, while pouting at the camera in the sizzling snap.

Flaunt: Her outing comes after she left nothing to the imagination on Wednesday when she posed up a storm in a sheer yellow lace bra in an Instagram post

Attire: Daisy added a punk chic flair to her ensemble by wearing a pair of black lace-up boots, and she accessorised with a large pendant necklace

But despite her confidence in her image, Daisy admitted to struggling with her confidence of late, writing in the candid caption: 'The way I am talking to myself about my body is a lot harsher than ever before.'

Daisy showed off her natural beauty in the snap as she wore a minimal make-up palette, while her raven tresses cascaded down over her shoulders.

Opening up in her post, she confessed to not being as social as she was a year ago, while she criticises her own figure more that she did before.

She penned: 'With everything opening up, my capacity for socialising seems to have diminished since this time last year & the way I am talking to myself about my body is a lot harsher than ever before.

Honest: While the model looked sensational in her post but Daisy admitted to struggling with her confidence of late, writing: 'The way I am talking to myself about my body is a lot harsher'

'I have always loved flaunting my curves, trying to encourage everyone in my life to love absolutely every inch of their skin. Why is it so hard to do the same for myself?!'

She continued: 'Im not a teenager anymore Im a 32 year old woman, who loves to cook, bake, indulge and LIVE. So what does it matter if my jeans dont fit right now? At least this bra does. Almost!

'Thank you @honeybirdette for giving me an excuse to love myself just as I am.'

Daisy's refreshingly honest post garnered plenty of positive comments from her fans, many of whom commented on how stunning she looked.

It comes days after Daisy shared a series of throwback snaps with her boyfriend Jordan Saul as she revealed how they met and celebrated their one-year relationship anniversary.

The model uploaded the romantic photos to Instagram on Thursday including one of her beau topless, as she thanked him for making her laugh and called him her 'hero'.

Love: It comes days after Daisy shared a series of throwback snaps with her boyfriend Jordan Saul as she revealed how they met and celebrated their one-year relationship anniversary

She was seen rocking a chic black swimsuit as Jordan wrapped his arms around her waist for a mirror selfie. He gave a cheeky pout whilst Daisy beamed.

The London-born star shared a photo relaxing on a sofa in a white top as her boyfriend draped his arm around her once more.

In another photo, the pair donned wetsuits and held their surfboards before making a splash in the ocean.

For a third Instagram snap, Jordan planted a kiss on the make-up free beauty.

Smitten: The model had uploaded the romantic photos to Instagram as she thanked him for making her laugh and called him her 'hero'

She captioned the upload: 'A year ago today I went to meet @misstilda for a walk on the Heath. But I was running a little late- Mercury was in retrograde [crying laughing emoji].

'When I arrived, Monty ran straight towards a very handsome Belgium shepherd, attached to this handsome dog was a rather handsome man.

'I dawdled around having some dog chat we ended up walking together for a couple of hours, what a dog walk!'

Happy couple: The London-born star met Jordan when her dog ran up to him and his Belgium Shepherd while she was running late to meet a friend

She continued: 'Here we are a year later, through countless lockdowns, adventures, disasters and triumphs. You @jordanjaysaul have been my hero.

'Through and through. Thanks for feeling like home & always making me giggle even when I really dont want to! Its my absolute favourite making you laugh so much your legs give way.

'I am very happy I was 5 mins late to meet Tilds that day & I am so very grateful you are mine. Happy anniversary my pain in the a**. I love you .' [sic]
Adam Woodyatt has warned soap fans that Ian Beale may never return to EastEnders while enjoying his 10-month sabbatical from the show.

The actor, 53, who is the longest running cast member on the soap having started 36 years ago in 1985, has been touring around the UK in his 93,000 motorhome while also starring in the play Looking Good Dead.

Speaking to Metro, he revealed: 'I won't be going back until this time next year at the absolute earliest. I'm committed to touring with Looking Good Dead until the end of October. I'm then going to America because my daughter is getting married.

Not going back? Adam Woodyatt, 53, has warned soap fans that Ian Beale may never return to EastEnders while enjoying his 10-month sabbatical from the show

'Then hopefully we're going to pick the tour up and do some of the venues that were originally planned but that we hadn't managed to get to. That's likely to be January to April. And EastEnders might not want me back!'

Since leaving the show, Adam bought an expensive home on wheels from vehicle company Burstner.

The soap star enjoys a whole range of mod cons in his motorhome including underfloor heating, leather sofas, and mood lighting, The Mirror reports.

Adam's motorhome boasts a chic and modern interior with wood and white panelling that keeps the vehicle feeling spacious and light.

Big spender: Adam Woodyatt (pictured in his role as Ian Beale) spent a staggering 93k on his home on wheels, according to the vehicle company Burstner

The luxurious motorhome typically retails for 93,000, according to the spokesperson for Burstner, but fans can also get their hands on secondhand models for between 75,000 and 80,000.

As well as atmospheric mood lighting and comfy white leather sofas, Adam can also relax after a long day exploring nature in a full-size double bed.

Taking all weathers into consideration, the soap star is also protected by a state of the art roof that can effortlessly withstand hail.

Adam revealed earlier this year that he purchased the motorhome to use as a base ahead of starting a touring play.

Kitted out: The soap star enjoys a whole range of mod cons in his motorhome including underfloor heating, leather sofas, and mood lighting

And although the play has been pushed back several times, Adam has ensured to make the most of the situation and been enjoying trips in the vehicle.

He told The Sun: 'I've got a motorhome ready for the tour so I won't have to worry about staying in hotels or anything like that.

'But I've taken advantage of it and I'm currently in a field in Devon.'

Adam is currently in the midst of his soap break, eight months after he announced in August that he had split from Beverley Sharp, his wife of 22 years.

The couple reportedly separated in August of 2019, but it is thought that they have only started telling friends about their decision last summer.

A friend told The Sun that Beverley was 'very upset' at the split but added that it's a 'straightforward separation'.

Comfy: As well as atmospheric mood lighting and comfy white leather sofas, Adam can also relax after a long day exploring nature in a full-size double bed

They said: 'Nobody plans for these things and divorce is a difficult thing to get your head around They have dealt with it quietly for several months and are now telling friends so it's less of a secret.

'They still get on well, and are keen to make sure they stay that way for the sake of their children  even though they are now grown up.

Adam and Beverley have been married since 1998 and have two children - Jessica, 27, and Samuel, 23.

A spokesperson for the actor said at the time: 'Beverley and Adam separated in August last year and we ask that the family's privacy is respected.'

MailOnline contacted Adam's representative for a comment at the time.
Kim Kardashian has shared an inside look at her trip to the Vatican with supermodel Kate Moss, which took place earlier this week.

In the caption of the images, the reality personality, 40, addressed backlash over the sexy lace dress she wore to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

Sharing a slew of behind-the-scenes snaps from her visit, Kim insisted she had 'adhered to the dress code' while inside St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel's.

Poser: Kim Kardashian has shared an inside look at her trip to the Vatican with supermodel Kate Moss, which took place earlier this week

Posting the new images to Instagram on Thursday, Kim could not hide her excitement as she put on an animated display while posing during the outing and rocking her revealing off-the-shoulder lacy number.

Kim sizzled in her cut-out dress, which highlighted her trim waist and ample assets, and she styled with a pair of white sandals.

The beauty ensured all eyes were on her statement ensemble as she slicked her long locks back into a chic up do.

Other snaps from Kim's latest Instagram post showed her posing with supermodel Kate Moss, with both women covering their shoulders with jackets.

The stunning duo were also pictured walking around the Vatican - with Kate draping her black coat over her shoulders - and posing on some steps with their teams.

Playing by the rules: The star, 40, posed for a snap with supermodel Kate Moss, with them both covering their shoulders with jackets

'Don't worry, I adhered to the dress code!': Kim explained that she was 'fully covered up' while inside St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel's)'

What is the dress code in the Vatican? There is a basic dress code that both men and women must adhere to when visiting Vatican city, particularly St. Peters Basilica and/or the Vatican museums (including the Sistine Chapel). Visitors must cover their knees and upper arms, while they are prohibited from wearing shorts or skirts above the knee, sleeveless tops, and low-cut shirts. Men must also remove their hats when entering, though women are permitted to remain wearing theirs. Shoulders must also be covered and visitors may be turned away or advised to cover up with a shawl. Advertisement

Kate's daughter Lila was also present for the tour and rocked a bright blue dress under a black jacket in the group picture.

Never one to miss a photo opportunity, Kim also posed up a storm in a dramatic window and flashed a smile over a shoulder while sitting in her black car.

Sharing her snaps, Kim penned: 'We had the most incredible experience touring Vatican City @vaticanmuseums.

'It was amazing to be able to view all of the iconic art, architecture and ancient Roman sculptures in person, especially Michelangelo's works.

'We even had an opportunity to view their private archive of robes worn by every pope in history, dating back to the 1500's.

'Thank you @ocspecial for arranging the visit. (Don't worry, I adhered to the dress code and fully covered up while inside St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel's).'

Kim had appeared to fail to adhere to the church's strict rules by wearing a sexy lace dress which didn't cover her shoulders and had cut-out sections throughout her mid-section for the visit.

There is a basic dress code that both men and women must adhere to when visiting the Vatican city, particularly St. Peters Basilica and/or the Vatican museums (including the Sistine Chapel).

Off they go: The women also posed with their backs to the camera while walking around the Vatican on their guided tour

Stunning: Never one to miss a photo opportunity, Kim also posed up a storm in a dramatic window

Group picture: Kim also posed with her team as well as Kate and Kate's daughter Lila Grace

Visitors must cover their knees and upper arms, while they are prohibited from wearing shorts or skirts above the knee, sleeveless tops, and low-cut shirts.

Men must also remove their hats when entering, though women are permitted to remain wearing theirs.

Shoulders must also be covered and visitors may be turned away or advised to cover up with a shawl.

Chatting away: Kate and Kim seemed to be getting along very well as they smiled and talked

Work it: Kim also posed outside with a statue, ensuring to work all her angles in the skin-tight ensemble

Kim also uploaded several shots she had taken while visiting the Vatican on Monday.

The back-to-back images showcased the Vatican's stunning architecture and design, as well as several notable artifacts and items displayed around the spacious place of worship.

Kim, having Armenian roots on her father Robert's side, highlighted a 'gift from Armenia' to the Vatican, which was a gold necklace and matching diamond pendant displayed behind glass.

Capturing memories: Kim also unloaded several shots she had taken during her visit to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church via Instagram on Tuesday

Good morning! Kim looked ready to take on another day of exploring the city as she posed for a sultry topless snap in the bed of her hotel room on Thursday

Kim has been putting on a show-stopping display during her sightseeing visit to Rome over the past week - with her looks including a racy look for the Vatican and even having her very own Dolce Vita moment at the Trevi Fountain.

While on Thursday, Kim looked ready to take on another day of exploring the city as she posed for a sultry topless snap in her hotel room.

She exuded glamour in the snap as she gazed seductively down the lens with just her bed sheets protecting her modesty.

Making bed hair look catwalk ready, the mother-of-four wore her tresses in loose waves, while she wore minimal make-up to enhance her pretty features. Kim captioned the sultry snap: 'Good Morning Rome. Good Night LA'.

Kim's estranged husband Kanye, meanwhile, looked every inch the doting dad as he cuddled his eldest daughter North, eight, at Mexico Airport on Wednesday.

Style: Kim styled her stunning dress with cream heels and sunglasses

Model: She exuded confidence while strutting towards the camera on her outing this week

The rapper, 44, was on daddy duty as he sat with North, son Saint, five, daughter Chicago. three, and Psalm, two, on a ledge in the terminal ahead of the flight back to Los Angeles.

Kanye appeared to have handed North his phone so as to keep her entertained while they waited. The youngster was clad in a light grey tracksuit and wore a black face mask under her chin.

Saint, meanwhile looked effortlessly cool in a green T-shirt and red trousers, while a nanny helped looked after the other children.

Kanye and the kids arrived in Mexico on June 20 and then headed to his retreat located on the Oaxaca coast.

The former couple plan to have to joint custody of their children amid their divorce.
She reunited with a few famous friends over their shared love of the stage.

And Ashley Benson looked elated to see Darren Criss at Tramp Stamp Granny's karaoke bar in Hollywood on Wednesday night for a pre-grand re-opening party.

The 31-year-old actress as joined by her Spring Breakers co-star, Vanessa Hudgens, who dressed to the nines and belted out a Grease ballad while partying the night away with friends.

Friends! Ashley Benson looked elated to see Darren Criss at Tramp Stamp Granny's karaoke bar in Hollywood on Wednesday night for a pre-grand re-opening party

Ashley kept things casual in a black leather jacket with jeans as she headed into the bar with a group of gal pals.

The Pretty Little Liars star showed off her fresh, new red hair as she slicked it back into a low ponytail and carried a gold chain purse across her shoulder.

She was greeted at the door by Criss, who was equally as excited to get back into the swing of things as LA County lifted bans on indoor dining and drinking more than one year into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Fashion forward: Criss, 34, rocked an eclectic shiny silver blazer with a pair of blue-and-white floral slacks for the big night out

The 31-year-old actress as joined by her Spring Breakers co-star, Vanessa Hudgens, who dressed to the nines and belted out a Grease ballad while partying the night away with friends.

Jazzy: Vanessa Hudgens simply sparkled in a sexy blue sheath which wrapped around her neck and featured a plunging neckline

Criss, 34, rocked an eclectic shiny silver blazer with a pair of blue-and-white floral slacks for the big night out.

He was spotted at the mic singing You'll Be In My Heart to a packed house before sitting down at the piano for a duet of A Whole New World with Lizzy McAlpine.

Vanessa Hudgens simply sparkled in a sexy blue sheath which wrapped around her neck and featured a plunging neckline.

Stunning: Vanessa kept her accessories simple and wore her dark brown hair in an updo with curly tendrils framing her face

Loud and proud: Not one to waste a moment off stage, she grabbed the microphone for a sultry rendition of Stockard Channing's There Are Worse Things (I Could Do).

Cocktails and dreams: A few of the Vanderpump Rules kids also came out to play after LaLa Kent's #GiveThemLalaBeauty launch at Beauty & Essex just down the street

Not one to waste a moment off stage, she grabbed the microphone for a sultry rendition of Stockard Channing's There Are Worse Things (I Could Do).

A few of the Vanderpump Rules kids also came out to play after LaLa Kent's #GiveThemLalaBeauty launch at Beauty & Essex just down the street.

Fancy AF Cocktails authors Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix headed into the party closely behind their neighbors and co-stars, Tom Sandoval and Katie Maloney.

Fancy AF Cocktails authors Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix headed into the party closely behind their neighbors and co-stars, Tom Sandoval and Katie Maloney
Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was seen on the set of the new BBC drama Dodger for the first time on Thursday.

The actor, 57, wore a period costume as he filmed scenes at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, alongside former Hollyoaks star Saira Choudhry.

Christopher will play criminal organiser Fagin in the 10-part family drama, which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.

New project! Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was seen on the set of the new BBC drama Dodger for the first time on Thursday

Fagin - one of the main characters in the 1838 novel - is the leader of a group of children who he teaches to pickpocket in exchange for shelter.

Christopher transformed into Fagin in a long blue and grey jacket which he wore over a light pink waist coat and light blue shirt.

He had a brown neckerchief on and a brown hat and was carrying a suitcase and a box as he filmed what appeared to be a tense scene alongside Saira.

Saira, 31, - who is best known for playing Anita Roy in Hollyoaks and Tegan in Paul Abbott's No Offence - wore a blue dress with elaborate sleeves and a beige cape.

Tense: The actor, 57, (left) wore a period costume as he filmed scenes at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, alongside former Hollyoaks star Saira Choudhry (centre)

Star: Christopher will play criminal organiser Fagin in the the 10-part family drama which is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist

Shameless star David Threlfall, 67, will play chief of police Sir Charles Rowan in the series, while child actor Billy Jenkins, 14, - who was in The Crown - will also star, though they were not seen on set on Thursday.

The series, which will appear on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, has been written by Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery, while Charlie Higson has also guest-written an episode.

Oliver Twist is Charles Dickens' second novel, and was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and released as a three-volume book in 1838, before the serialisation ended.

Filming: Christopher transformed into Fagin in a long blue and grey jacket which he wore over a light pink waist coat and light blue shirt

Shooting scenes: He had a brown neckerchief on and a brown hat and was carrying a suitcase and a box as he filmed what appeared to be a tense scene alongside Saira

The story centres on orphan Oliver who was born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker.

After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger' Jack Dawkins, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by Fagin.

Christopher said of the upcoming series: 'Fagin is an iconic role, I'm a very fortunate actor.

Exciting: Christopher (pictured on set) said of the upcoming series: 'Fagin is an iconic role, I'm a very fortunate actor'

Costume: Saira, 31, - who is best known for playing Anita Roy in Hollyoaks and Tegan in Paul Abbott's No Offence - wore a blue dress with elaborate sleeves and a beige cape

'Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery have taken Charles Dickens' extraordinary characters and imagined a whole new world and lives for them.

'I'm very, very excited.'

Thomas, who is also co-directing the series, said: 'I have always loved Oliver Twist but wasn't so keen on Oliver himself.

'I preferred the company of Dodger, Fagin and the gang.

Heated: Saira was seen in a tense discussion as she filmed the scenes alongside Christopher

'I thought it would be fun to create a family show with Dodger at its heart and see how he came to be a master criminal in Victorian London.

'Working with the very best material as a springboard, it's a total delight to expand Dickens' rich world of characters and create a few of my own.

'To top it all, we have an incredible cast who are starring in the show.

'I can't wait for families all over the world to see it!'

Christopher left the role of Doctor Who after appearing for just one series in 2005, despite being praised by fans for her performance as the Time Lord haunted by the destruction of his home planey.

The series gripped viewers with the return of the infamous Daleks, the debut of Captain Jack (played by John Barrowman) and the Doctor's blossoming romance with Rose Tyler.

But the end of series one saw Christopher's Doctor regenerate, with David Tennant taking over the role for the second series in 2006.

Since his departure the actor has candidly revealed that he was battling anorexia during filming for the sci-fi drama, and was praised for fans for bravely revealing his mental health struggles.

Drama: The series, which will appear on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, has been written by Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery, while Charlie Higson has also guest-written an episode (extras are pictured on set)

Writing in his book I Love The Bones Of You, he said: 'Many times I've wanted to reveal that I'm a lifelong anorexic and dysmorphic.

'I never have. I always thought of it as a filthy secret, because I'm Northern, because I'm male and because I'm working-class.'

The father-of-two revealed his anorexia was prevalent during his spell on the BBC drama, adding: 'The illness is still there raging within me as the Doctor.

'People love the way I look in that series, but I was very ill. The reward for that illness was the part. And therein lies the perpetuation of the whole sorry situation.'

Dodger will air later this year on BBC.
He paid tribute to his long-time love Farrah Fawcett on the 12-year anniversary of her death last week.

And Ryan O'Neal was spotted on a grocery run just days after honoring his 'angel' in a sentimental Instagram post.

The actor, 80, was spotted running errands in Brentwood, California, with the assistance of a cane.

On the go: Ryan O'Neal was spotted on a grocery run in Brentwood on Thursday just days after honoring his 'angel' in a sentimental Instagram post

Ryan kept it casual for the occasion with a black long-sleeve shirt and loose acid wash jeans.

He strolled comfortably through the parking lot in grey trainers.

A pair of lightly tinted sunglasses added a touch of cool to the look.

The Paper Moon actor strolled at a leisurely pace across the parking lot before arriving at his car, where he hopped into the passenger's seat.

Comfort first! Ryan kept it casual for the occasion with a black long-sleeve shirt and loose acid wash jeans

The outing comes just days after Ryan paid tribute to his long-time love, Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett, whom he was with for decades before her death 12 years ago.

Farrah was 62-years-old when she died following a battle with anal cancer on June 25, 2009.

On the anniversary of her death last month, Ryan posted a passionate photo of himself embracing Farrah.

'Missing my angel. (red heart emoji) Forever,' Ryan captioned the Herb Ritts photo.

Ready to go! The Paper Moon actor strolled at a leisurely pace across the parking lot before arriving at his car, where he hopped into the passenger's seat

Farrah was still married to Lee Majors, the star of the hit show The Six Million Dollar Man, when she and Ryan met in 1979 and fell in love.

'There was never a day I didn't love her,' Ryan confessed in an interview with People in 2019.

As fate would have it, the couple's strong attraction for each other was sealed when Lee asked Ryan to check up on his wife while he was away filming.

The Love Story actor and Charlie's Angels star would go on to become one of Hollywood's 'it' couples, which included welcoming son Redmond in 1985.

Their relationship was described as tumultuous at times, in part, due to Ryan's reputation as a ladies man and his sometimes volatile behavior.

But still, their attraction and bond could never be denied.

Love story: Farrah and Ryan met and fell deeply in love in 1979, when Fawcett was still married to Lee Majors, then star of the hit show The Six Million Dollar Man (pictured 1984)

Farrah and Ryan split in 1997 after 18-years together, but they reconciled four years later when the actress took care of Ryan after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

The tables were turned in 2006 when Farrah was diagnosed with anal cancer.

Ryan was at Farrah's bedside during her final weeks in the hospital, where he finally proposed marriage.

'I think they would've married if she had made it because he asked her to marry him in the hospital and she said yes. But she took a turn for the worse,' Farrah's friend Alana Stewart told People.

'The two of them had a deep bond and deep love. No matter what they went through, the ups and downs, he was the one she wanted by her side.

Farrah passed away as O'Neal held her hand on June 25, 2009.
Erika Jayne addressed rumors of an affair with Scooter Braun on Wednesday night's episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The 49-year-old reality star ended her two-decade marriage to estranged husband Tom Girardi in November and admitted she hadn't even seen the mega manager in years while chatting with her co-stars.

When Garcelle Beauvias and Lisa Rinna asked about online speculation, Jayne laughed off reports she 'was seeing my old Dancing with the Stars partner [Gleb Savchenko], and then I was seeing Scooter Braun.'

Not so fast: Erika Jayne addressed rumors of an affair with Scooter Braun on Wednesday night's episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

She added: 'I haven't seen either one of them in four-and-a-half, five years' before noting: 'It's silly as f**k.'

A source told Page Six that Erika and Braun met 'years ago at a political event' where she was in attendance with her then-husband.

Jayne competed with Savchenko on Season 24 of Dancing With The Stars, just a few years before he was accused of multiple infidelity issues with wife Elena Samodanova.

Jayne detailed more about her shocking divorce on Wednesday's show when she sat down with Sutton Stracke and revealed she still hadn't spoken to Tom after filing the documents without telling him.

Hard pass: When Garcelle Beauvias and Lisa Rinna asked about online speculation, Jayne laughed off reports she 'was seeing my old Dancing with the Stars partner [Gleb Savchenko], and then I was seeing Scooter Braun' (seen in 2019)

Difficult: Jayne detailed more about her shocking divorce on Wednesday's show when she sat down with Sutton Stracke and revealed she still hadn't spoken to Tom after filing the documents without telling him

'What is there to say? I'm sure he's very mad at me,' Erika said. 'They get very, very possessive. If you think that he's going to roll over and just say, "Oh here, honey, here's your small fortune." Are you f***ing kidding me?'

She added in a confessional: 'I know who Tom is. I know how mean and overly dismissive Tom is. I saw it for 22 years. Its not like hes going to say, "Oh great, hun, do you want the sofa?"'

The Pretty Mess songstress filed for divorce on Election Day and had given the women only a short warning before news went public.

Erika admitted she was 'hurt' by Tom not coming to see her perform Chicago on Broadway in 2020 before production was shutdown due to the pandemic.

'A lot of the reason I was Broadway is because of all the great support that Tom had given me through the years. This was the payoff, but why werent you there? Even come for 24 hours,' she told Sutton.

'What is there to say? I'm sure he's very mad at me,' Erika said. 'They get very, very possessive. If you think that he's going to roll over and just say, "Oh here, honey, here's your small fortune." Are you f***ing kidding me?'

She added in a confessional: 'I know who Tom is. I know how mean and overly dismissive Tom is. I saw it for 22 years. Its not like hes going to say, "Oh great, hun, do you want the sofa?"'

'You know what I learned, honestly, moving to New York, in those four months there, I was like, "Wait a minute, Im on my own, like, literally. And Im OK. Ill be OK."'

While he 'supported and funded' her lavish lifestyle as a popstar complete with daily glam squad and her own downtown loft, Erika admitted she didn't feel the love.

'You dont come to the show? And then I have to go out there and defend it?' she said. 'Now you tell me if I feel loved.'

Jayne was recently 'ordered to turn over financial records' from her accountant, lawyer and landlord in embezzlement lawsuit with Girardi, 82.

The order comes as a bankruptcy trustee continues to investigate Girardi's assets, amid claims that both Girardi and Jayne allegedly embezzled settlement funds that were meant to help the families of plane crash victims on Lion Air Flight 610.

However, according to legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, Jayne's lawyers were already maintaining that the reality star 'has been and remains willing to cooperate fully with the Trustee's investigation in this bankruptcy of debtor Girardi & Keese.'

Per the documents, Jayne is said to have asked the court not to appoint attorney Ronald Richards as the special counsel to the trustee in the bankruptcy case, saying that he had made 'false and inflammatory' remarks about her via social media.
Bradley Walsh gave fans a glimpse of his take on the iconic character Pop Larkin as he filmed the eagerly anticipated The Darling Buds of May reboot on Thursday.

The Chase host, 60, was shooting scenes in Faversham, Kent, dressed in period-drama clothing and sporting fluffy sideburns, reminiscent of the kind-hearted wheeler-dealer played by David Jason in the 90s.

In images exclusively obtained by MailOnline, Bradley was seen pacing along the high street, which had been given a 1950s makeover, while chatting on his phone between takes.

Star: Bradley Walsh gave fans a glimpse of his take on the iconic character Pop Larkin as he filmed the eagerly anticipated The Darling Buds of May on Thursday

Bradley looked dapper in a light blue shirt and red braces which he teamed with beige chinos and black shoes.

An eyewitness said: 'Bradley was in Faversham for one day of shooting and he was very accommodating to all the crew, laughing and joking around with them.

'He was clearly enjoying himself, really getting into the role.'The shops all had new boards put on them to give the street a 1950s feel - it was like going back in time.'

The Darling Buds of May remake, titled The Larkins, was confirmed last December but ITV have yet to confirm when the six-part series will air.

New role: The Chase host, 60, was shooting scenes in Faversham, Kent, dressed in period-drama clothing and sporting fluffy sideburns, reminiscent of the kind-hearted wheeler-dealer played by David Jason in the Nineties

The Durrell's screenwriter Simon Nye will tell the story of the working class Larkin family, first brought to life in H.E. Bates' 1950s novel, for a new generation of fans who missed out on the nineties classic, which gave Hollywood star Catherine Zeta Jones her acting breakthrough.

Bridgerton actress Sabrina Bartlett reprises the Oscar-winning Welsh actress's role of Mariette, Bradley's on-screen daughter Mariette, while The Thick of It's Joanna Scanlan will play the Larkin matriarch wife, Ma.

Grantchester's Tok Stephen has been cast as Cedric 'Charley' Charlton, and Bradley's son Barney has also landed a role as a village policeman.

Filming: He was seen pacing around the high street, which had been given a 1950s makeover, while chatting on his phone between takes

Upcoming: The Darling Buds of May remake, titled The Larkins, was confirmed last December but ITV have yet to confirm when the six-part series will air (pictured is the set today)

The main focus is the love story between Mariette and village newcomer Charley who arrives in their village to investigate the family's tax affairs, but is quickly distracted by his feelings for Mariette.

The original series, which ran between 1991-1993, was shot predominantly in Pluckley, Kent, but the remake has so far been shot in London, Surrey, as well as Monday's scenes in Faversham.

Speaking about taking on the role of Pop Larkin earlier this year,Bradley said: 'I'm thrilled to be asked to be part of this much loved and iconic series of stories.

'The warmth and affection that H. E Bates has generated through his books is so uplifting and I cannot wait to be part of the Larkin family. It'll be a hoot.'

Lookalike: Sabrina Bartlett (left) has been cast as Mariette in the ITV remake of The Darling Buds of May - the same role which catapulted Catherine Zeta Jones (right) to stardom

A vision: The role was responsible for launching the career of Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, now 51, who portrayed Mariette in the original ITV series (pictured in 1991)

And alluding to what viewers can expect, an ITV synopsis read:

The synopsis from ITV reads: 'Fiercely loyal to each other and their community, each Larkin family member has a strong work ethic, alongside a disinterest in authority.'

'Charley arrives in the village as an unworldly and officious accountant from the city, there to investigate the Larkins' tax affairs. He is soon distracted by the beautiful Mariette, with whom he falls head over heels in love.

'However, he quickly discovers that he has a romantic rival in the form of the handsome and mysterious TomFisher. Mariette, on the other hand, may have plans of her own, which don't involve men.'

Matriarch: Among the cast is Joanna Scanlan, 59, (left) who takes over from Pam Ferris (right) as Pop's wife Ma Larkin
Dame Joan Collins looked elegant as she joined late sister Jackie's daughters Tiffany and Tracy Lerman at the premiere of Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story.

The actress, 88, cut a chic figure in a white dress adorned with red roses which she teamed with a white jacket as she posed on the red carpet for the film about her sister's life, which screened in London on Thursday night.

The new film is set to delve into Jackie's private struggles, which her closest friends say were masked behind her glitzy showbusiness personality.

Family: Dame Joan Collins, 88, and late sister Jackie's daughters Tiffany (L) and Tracy Lerman (R) attended the premiere of Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story in London on Thursday

Joan completed her outfit with a pair of nude strappy heels and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look with a pop of pink lip.

Jackie's daughters Tiffany and Tracy both looked stylish as they posed alongside their aunt at the event.

Tracy looked great in a silk navy wrap dress while Tiffany looked casually chic in a black shirt and high-waisted trousers.

Star: Dame Joan oozed elegance as she stepped out onto the red carpet

In the family: Tiffany and Tracy wrapped their arms around Joan as they posed for snaps

Radiant: The actress cut a chic figure in a white dress adorned with red roses which she teamed with a white jacket as she posed on the red carpet

Author Jackie died at the age of 77 in September 2015, following a six-year battle with breast cancer.

The novelist passed away after being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, but kept her illness almost entirely to herself.

A new trailer of the film obtained exclusively by MailOnline recently showed throwback clips and images of bikini-clad Jackie with Joan enjoying their glamorous lives.

Style: Joan completed her outfit with a pair of nude strappy heels and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look with a pop of pink lip

Together: Tiffany (second right) looked great in a silk navy wrap dress while Tracy (far right) looked casually chic in a black shirt and high-waisted trousers

Elegant: The new film is set to delve into Jackie's private struggles, which her closest friends say were masked behind her glitzy showbusiness personality (pictured is Joan)

However insiders who have agreed to speak on Jackie's experiences in the film argued that not everything was as it seemed on the surface.

Spinning together fact and fiction, this feature documentary reveals the untold story of a ground-breaking author and her mission to build a one-woman literary empire.

Narrated by a cast of Jackie's closest friends and family, the film shares the private struggles of a woman who became an icon of 1980s feminism whilst hiding her vulnerability behind a carefully crafted, powerful, public persona.

The clip also hints at a 'traumatic' romantic relationship for Jackie with her husband, who they claim became 'very controlling' of her life.

Support: Also on the red carpet was Bill Collins who looked smart in a navy suit and tie

Important event: The whole family turned out on Thursday night to watch the film about Jackie

The film evolves from a celebration of Jackie's revolutionary novels  which placed female sexuality at the heart of their storytelling...

'Into a multi-layered deliberation on feminism, family dynamics, and the universal quest to understand how our childhood experiences and early traumas ultimately make us who we are.

The film is directed by Laura Fairrie and produced by John Battsek and the Academy Award winning Passion Pictures - along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, and BBC Arts.

The film will have its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, while it's cinema release will take place in the UK on July 2.

Strike a pose: Tiffany (left) and Tracy (right) smiled alongside Joan on the red carpet

Star-studded: Emma Woollard and Ariyon Bakare arriving for the UK launch of Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story at the Curzon Mayfair

All smiles: Joan looked delighted to be reunited with her niece at the film premiere on Thursday

Modern Films' founder Eve Gabereau said she 'was totally fascinated by this story, from Jackie's past that made her who she was, to the London to LA super-highway that she paved and to its revelation into what it means to be a creative force, have a vision and work hard to achieve it, notwithstanding huge barriers along the way.'

She added that she is 'thrilled to be partnering with the creative team behind the film too, who are among the best in the industry.'

Lady Boss director Laura Fairrie says of the film: 'For me Lady Boss was always going to be a political film. Jackie Collins has often been dismissed as the 'queen of sleaze', but this is to ignore the fact that she consistently wrote female characters that unapologetically demand the sex, careers and lives they want.

'Her brand of feminism was about sexual freedom, and she wrote about female desire in a way that was brave, bold and ahead of its time.'

Tragic: Author Jackie (L, pictured in 2009) died at the age of 77 in September 2015, following a six-year battle with breast cancer
Wendy Williams has found herself in her share of scandals but 'fartgate' is the one that won't go away.

The 56-year-old talk show legend yet again shut down rumors that she passed gas on air during an episode of The Wendy Williams Show back in 2020, calling the rumor 'so disgusting.'

Wendy denied the alleged flatulence during an appearance on Andy Cohen's hit SiriusXM show on Thursday.

Clearing the air: Wendy Williams yet again shut down rumors that she passed gas on air back in 2020, calling the rumor 'so disgusting' during an appearance on Andy Cohen's hit SiriusXM show on Thursday (Seen at SiriusXM in 2014)

Williams lamented the 'fartgate' rumor that 'keeps going around' while chatting with Cohen, who'd brought up the scandal - despite her previous denials.

'It's so disgusting. Like, people are so weird with that,' Wendy said, adding emphatically: 'I didn't pass gas.'

Wendy tried to divert the conversation elsewhere by switching topics to the news that her live show would be returning to a full-capacity audience soon.

Andy wasn't letting her off the hook so easy and the star admitted she was 'trying to deflect' away from 'fartgate' which she dubbed 'so stupid.'

'It's so disgusting. Like, people are so weird with that,' Wendy told Andy Cohen, adding emphatically: 'I didn't pass gas.' (pictured addressing the controversy last year)

'I burp all the time, right there on camera. I sneeze and things like that,' Williams explained. 'But, you know what? That's what people do when they're having regular conversation. And people are like, "You're an animal."'

Last year during her Hot Topics segment, Wendy appeared to lift her leg and lean to one side at the exact moment a sound - similar to the sound of passing gas - could be heard.

Wendy likely thought she'd heard the end of the fart-that-didn't-happen back in January of last year when she addressed the controversy on her show.

A member of Wendy's production team said at the time the sound people could hear was actually coming from backstage.

'Let me tell you something right now, okay?' Wendy started as 'Fartgate' appeared on the screen behind her during an episode in 2020. 'I don't lean over like this to release a fart, I lean over like this because it's comfortable. If I sit [straight up] all the time, it's heavy on my spine. I like to release my hips and lean. I've been doing this for 11 years on this show.'

'I burp all the time, right there on camera. I sneeze and things like that,' Williams explained. 'But, you know what? That's what people do when they're having regular conversation. And people are like, "You're an animal."' (pictured in the moment fans swore they heard the star let one rip)

'I have never farted once on this show,' she said. 'As a matter of fact, I barely fart, you know why? Gas gets released several different ways and mine is belching because all I do is talk.'

Had she farted, Wendy insists she would have stopped what she was doing to address it, because 'farts are always funny.'

'By the sound of that fart, I would have had to go change my costume, I would have left a mark in the seat,' she said. 'I wouldn't even save the costume, I'd throw it away. It'd be soiled beyond soiled-tivity.'

The show's gaffer, John Anderson, said the sound that people could hear in the clip was the team preparing for a chemistry experiment segment backstage.

'We were filling up a fish tank backstage and we didn't have the proper hose,' he said. 'It was sputtering like someone was farting. It wasn't Wendy!'

'I have never farted once on this show,' she said last year denying the rumor. 'As a matter of fact, I barely fart, you know why? Gas gets released several different ways and mine is belching because all I do is talk.'

Wendy was the subject of another scandal this week after she said 'death to' Britney Spears' father Jamie and mother Lynn after the popstar's shocking court testimony.

The syndicated talk show host was speaking about Spears' bombshell testimony that revealed harrowing details about her 13-year conservatorship that was overseen by her father Jamie Spears.

Towards the end of the discussion, an irate Williams said, 'How dare you Mr. Spears. You had me fooled. And you too, Mrs. Spears. Death to all of them,' which caused several audience members to audibly gasp.

Britney gave a bombshell statement in court in her quest to end her 13-year conservatorship in which she suggested her father Jamie be jailed and called the control he has over her and her estate 'abusive.'
Thor director Taika Waititi has spoken out after he was pictured kissing his girlfriend Rita Ora and actress Tessa Thompson on the balcony of his Sydney home in May.

Despite reports he was 'reprimanded' by Marvel executives for his behaviour, the New Zealand filmmaker, 45, told ET Canada it 'wasn't a big deal'.

When asked if he was upset by the media attention the photos received, Waititi said: 'Not really. I think in the world of the Internet, everything goes away pretty quick.

'Not a big deal': Thor director Taika Waititi has spoken out after he was pictured kissing his girlfriend Rita Ora and actress Tessa Thompson on the balcony of his Sydney home in May

'And also, "Is it that big a deal?" No, not really. I was doing nothing wrong. It's fine.'

Waititi made headlines around the world for his three-way kiss with Rita, whom he has been dating for several months, and Tessa, one of the stars of his new movie Thor: Love and Thunder, on the balcony of his Bondi home on May 23.

The trio locked lips after partying through the night during a break from filming the upcoming Marvel sequel, which is slated for a May 2022 release.

No dramas: Despite reports he was 'reprimanded' for his behaviour, the Kiwi filmmaker, 45, told ET Canada it 'wasn't a big deal'. Pictured with Tessa on July 20, 2019, in San Diego

While there is no suggestion he did anything wrong, reports later emerged that executives at the Disney-owned Marvel Studios weren't happy.

'[It's] not exactly the image they're looking to project in relation to one of their biggest franchises,' an industry insider said at the time.

The source added that Waititi's reputation for being a 'party animal' was no secret at Marvel, but the photos nonetheless 'crossed the line'.

Brushing it off: When asked if he was upset by the attention the photos received, Waititi said: 'Not really. I think in the world of the Internet, everything goes away pretty quick. Also, "Is it that big a deal?" Not really. I was doing nothing wrong. It's fine.' Pictured with Rita on May 16

Thor: Love and Thunder was filmed at various locations around Sydney in the first half of 2021, with production centred at Fox Studios.

Waititi, who last year won an Oscar for his film Jojo Rabbit, directed the movie after previously helming 2017's Thor: Ragnarok.

Tessa, 37, plays Valkyrie, who is noted for being the first LGBT character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Meanwhile, Rita was in Sydney filming her judging role on The Voice Australia.

Waititi was married to fellow Kiwi filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley from 2011 to 2018. The former couple share two children, Te Hinekaahu, eight, and Matewa, five.

Work and pleasure: Thor: Love and Thunder was filmed at various locations around Sydney in the first half of 2021, with production centred at Fox Studios. Pictured: Waititi on June 26

Role: Tessa, 37, plays Valkyrie, who is noted for being the first LGBT characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
V Magazine put together a star-studded lineup for their new Fall Preview issue V131, which hit newsstands - and the internet - on Friday.

And Emily Ratajkowski, along with fellow models Ashley Graham and Abby Champion, graced the magazine's cover in jeans from V's collaboration with historic Spanish denim brand, Lois.

Ratajkowski struck a stunning pose in her very own pair of Lois Jeans x V Denim, which were styled with a classic white button-up blouse.

Covergirl: Emily Ratajkowski (pictured), along with fellow models Ashley Graham and Abby Champion, graced the cover of V Magazine's Fall Preview issue V131, which was released Friday

This month's striking black-and-white V131 covers were captured by Dutch fashion photographer duo Inez & Vinoodh and styled by renown stylist George Cortina.

'V tapped seven trailblazers that are forging unique paths in fashion, sports, and the arts to help V debut their exciting new collaboration with historic Spanish denim brand, Lois, Lois Jeans x V Denim!' the magazine gushed in a press release.

For her cover snap, Emily grasped onto the collar of her slightly unbuttoned dress shirt as she gazed into the camera lens.

The 30-year-old brunette beauty, who welcomed her first child this year, rocked a head of curly hair and had her already sculpted features highlighted with a minimal amount of makeup.

Ratajkowski's cinched waist was taken up a notch with a leather belt featuring a large buckle that appeared to coordinate with the chunky bangles on her wrists.

Speaking to the outlet, the Blurred Lines video vixen opened up about what she deems as the 'ultimate turning point in her multifaceted career.'

Curves for days: Ashley Graham proudly displayed her hourglass physique in a black racerback tank top tucked into the waistline of Lois Jeans x V Denim jeans

'In the last few years I grew up a lot,' Emily admitted, adding that she has also 'stopped paying attention to what people were telling me to do and focused on what felt right to me.'

She also revealed that she 'started writing' in recent years, which lead to the creation of her now famous New York Magazine op-ed where she candidly discussed the complexities of not having ownership over her image as a model.

'Publishing one of my essays, entitled 'Buying Myself Back' in New York Magazine in 2020 felt like a big turning point for me,' Ratajkowski concluded.

Ashley Graham proudly displayed her hourglass physique in a black racerback tank top tucked into the waistline of Lois Jeans x V Denim jeans.

The 33-year-old supermodel appeared to be wearing the Snake Necklace by designer Elsa Peretti, which retails on the Tiffany's website for a startling $45,000.

Bombshell: Abby Champion proved to be the ultimate bombshell in an unbuttoned silk blouse and a pair of bold earrings

Ashley's brunette tresses were slicked back into a chic ponytail and she posed with her hands seemingly holding onto the base of it.

To complete her look, stylist George Cortina decked out the mother of one's ears in a variety of diamond-encrusted studs and fastened a black belt around her waist.

Sharing her cover photo to Instagram on Friday, Graham proudly declared that 'gold, bodysuits, and denim' is her 'new aesthetic.'

Aside from her glamorous photoshoot, Ashley also spoke to V Magazine about how she has dealt with being in the public eye.

She revealed that 'the most enduring lesson I've learned is to be confident and embrace what makes you unique.'

Graham continued: 'People will try to tell you who you are, or convince you that you're not capable of accomplishing something, but you know yourself better than anyone else. Believe you can achieve a goal, and it's yours to take.'

Shirtless: Professional dancer Vinson Fraley put his buff arms and sculpted torso on full display by going shirtless for his cover shoot

Abby Champion proved to be the ultimate bombshell in an unbuttoned silk blouse and a pair of bold earrings.

Wrapped around the 24-year-old model's neck was a chunky gold choker.

She posed with one hand keeping her blouse closed, while the other rested on her backside.

Abby's flowing blonde hair was swept to one side and styled in loose, voluminous waves that cascaded down her back and chest.

If given the opportunity to speak to her 'teenage self,' Champion told V Magazine that she would advise herself to 'learn how to be confident in my body.'

'I feel like when you're a teenager you're trying to fit in so much that you sometimes forget to find yourself,' she explained. It took me a while to really find the version of myself that felt authentic.'

Mod: Olympic skater Eileen Gu, 17, wowed in a black turtleneck sweater with modern zipper detailing up the sleeves

Professional dancer Vinson Fraley put his buff arms and sculpted torso on full display by going shirtless for his cover shoot.

The George-native conveyed his natural affinity for movement by posing with his arms wrapped around himself and his legs slightly contorted.

Fraley stressed to the outlet that he hopes to 'show others there are no bounds, boxes, or containers for your ideas and dreams.'

He continued: 'That you are free to change your mind at any time, and to be an example of someone in perpetual transformation.'

Rising model Nyja Abdullah showcased a portion of their extensive tattoo collection and had their locks swept out of her face with a black cloth headband for their cover shot.

Abdullah, who V says is 'determined to bring gender-fluidity to fashion's forefront,' posed with their hands in the pockets of their fitted Lois Jeans x V Denim jeans.

Breaking boundaries: Rising model Nyja Abdullah showcased a portion of their extensive tattoo collection and had their locks swept out of her face with a black cloth headband for their cover shot

Revealing their 'mantra to live by,' Nyja said: ''The words I live by are 'why not?' I live by those words because we should all do whatever makes us happy and whatever we are most passionate about.'

'Follow your dreams, even the wildest ones, because why not?' the Vogue favorite added.

Olympic skater Eileen Gu, 17, wowed in a black turtleneck sweater with modern zipper detailing up the sleeves.

She revealed that she would like the legacy of her Olympic skating career to be 'one that highlights the possibility of excellence in multiple fields.

'I'd like to eliminate the concept that in order to 'succeed' in one area, all others must be ignored. I'd like to encourage a healthy baseline of joy throughout life, which stems from multiple different sources.

'One of which is the desire to give back to your community or create some form of unique, positive social change,' Eileen concluded.

Standing out: Last but not least, supermodel Taras Romanov stood out from the pack by slipping into a pair of kaki pants

Last but not least, supermodel Taras Romanov stood out from the pack by slipping into a pair of kaki pants.

The 6foot3inch heartthrob gave a peek of his toned pecks in an unbuttoned short sleeve dress shirt, which was tucked into his waistline and secured with a classic belt.

Sharing his 'words to live by,' Romanov encouraged readers to 'always be your true self and keep moving forward' despite the circumstances.

'To get to where most people can't, you have to be willing to do the things most people won't. [Be] dedicated, work hard and believe. Improvise, adapt and overcome in any situation,' the runway maven elaborated, adding: 'Above all else, praise God and be grateful every single day.'

V Magazine's Fall preview marks the outlet's 'golden age,' which is described as 'an era where fabulous fashion, next-gen icons, and a new period of splendor come as one.'
Suki Waterhouse appeared in high spirits as she was pictured leaving the Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story premiere at the Curzon theatre in Mayfair on Thursday.

The English model, 29, opted for off-duty style for the evening out, as she stepped out in a beige mac and straight leg jean with grey suede boots.

Suki covered her ensemble with a black Dior scarf and carried her belongings in a grey rucksack on her back.

Glowing: Suki Waterhouse appeared in high spirits as she was pictured leaving the Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story premiere at the Curzon theatre in Mayfair on Thursday

She wore her blonde locks in a loose natural wave and sported a neutral pallet of make-up for the outing.

The star appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed the new film based on the novellist's life judging by her broad smile.

Suki was seen chatting outside the cinema with two other women after the screening.

Casual: The English model, 29, opted for off-duty style for the evening out, as she stepped out in a beige mac and straight leg jean with grey suede boots

Radiant: She wore her blonde locks in a loose natural wave and sported a neutral pallet of make-up for the outing

Good review? The star appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed the new film based on the novellist's life judging by her broad smile

Jackie's sister Dame Joan looked elegant as she attended the star-studded premiere of Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story - a film about her sister's life.

The actress, 88, cut a chic figure in a white dress adorned with red roses which she teamed with a white jacket as she posed on the red carpet.

The new film is set to delve into Jackie's private struggles, which her closest friends say were masked behind her glitzy showbusiness personality.

Debrief: Suki was seen chatting outside the cinema with two other women after the screening

Low-key: Suki opted for casual attire for the evening

What did you think? The women were likely talking over the film

Joan completed her outfit with a pair of nude strappy heels and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look with a pop of pink lip.

She was joined on the red carpet by Jackie's daughters Tiffany and Tracy Lerman who looked stylish as they posed together.

Tracy looked great in a silk navy wrap dress while Tiffany looked casually chic in a black shirt and high-waisted trousers.

Star: Dame Joan Collins looked elegant as she attended the star-studded premiere

Family: She was joined on the red carpet by Jackie's daughters Tiffany (left) and Tracy Lerman (right) who looked stylish as they posed together

Radiant: The actress, 88, cut a chic figure in a white dress adorned with red roses which she teamed with a white jacket as she posed on the red carpet

Style: Joan completed her outfit with a pair of nude strappy heels and opted for a typically glamorous makeup look with a pop of pink lip

Author Jackie died at the age of 77 in September 2015, following a six-year battle with breast cancer.

The novelist passed away after being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, but kept her illness almost entirely to herself.

A new trailer of the film obtained exclusively by MailOnline recently showed throwback clips and images of bikini-clad Jackie with Joan enjoying their glamorous lives.

Together: Tiffany (second right) looked great in a silk navy wrap dress while Tracy (far right) looked casually chic in a black shirt and high-waisted trousers

Tragic: Author Jackie died at the age of 77 in September 2015, following a six-year battle with breast cancer (pictured is her sister Joan and her daughters)

Elegant: The new film is set to delve into Jackie's private struggles, which her closest friends say were masked behind her glitzy showbusiness personality (pictured is Joan)

However insiders who have agreed to speak on Jackie's experiences in the film argued that not everything was as it seemed on the surface.

Spinning together fact and fiction, this feature documentary reveals the untold story of a ground-breaking author and her mission to build a one-woman literary empire.

Narrated by a cast of Jackie's closest friends and family, the film shares the private struggles of a woman who became an icon of 1980s feminism whilst hiding her vulnerability behind a carefully crafted, powerful, public persona.

The clip also hints at a 'traumatic' romantic relationship for Jackie with her husband, who they claim became 'very controlling' of her life.

Support: Also on the red carpet was Bill Collins who looked smart in a navy suit and tie

Important event: The whole family turned out on Thursday night to watch the film about Jackie

The film evolves from a celebration of Jackie's revolutionary novels  which placed female sexuality at the heart of their storytelling...

'Into a multi-layered deliberation on feminism, family dynamics, and the universal quest to understand how our childhood experiences and early traumas ultimately make us who we are.

The film is directed by Laura Fairrie and produced by John Battsek and the Academy Award winning Passion Pictures - along with AGC Studios, CNN Films, and BBC Arts.

The film will have its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, while it's cinema release will take place in the UK on July 2.

Strike a pose: Tiffany Lerman (left) and Tracy Lerman (right) with Joan on the red carpet

Star-studded: Emma Woollard and Ariyon Bakare arriving for the UK launch of Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins' Story at the Curzon Mayfair

All smiles: Joan looked delighted to be reunited with her niece at the film premiere on Thursday

Modern Films' founder Eve Gabereau said she 'was totally fascinated by this story, from Jackie's past that made her who she was, to the London to LA super-highway that she paved and to its revelation into what it means to be a creative force, have a vision and work hard to achieve it, notwithstanding huge barriers along the way.'

She added that she is 'thrilled to be partnering with the creative team behind the film too, who are among the best in the industry.'

Lady Boss director Laura Fairrie says of the film: 'For me Lady Boss was always going to be a political film. Jackie Collins has often been dismissed as the 'queen of sleaze', but this is to ignore the fact that she consistently wrote female characters that unapologetically demand the sex, careers and lives they want.

'Her brand of feminism was about sexual freedom, and she wrote about female desire in a way that was brave, bold and ahead of its time.'
He recently debuted his new ripped figure after undergoing an eight-week body transformation.

And now Married At First Sight star Michael Goonan has revealed he has a new girlfriend, a fitness model called Cheyenne Donaghey.

The ice cube mogul, 30, and his ladylove both shared a video of them passionately kissing on Thursday evening, joking they were going to join OnlyFans.

New love! Married At First Sight bad boy Michael Goonan has debuted his new blonde bombshell girlfriend Cheyenne Donaghey in a VERY steamy video of the couple passionately kissing

In the clip, Michael cupped the glamorous fitness model's bottom and lifted her into his arms before the pair locked lips.

Across the footage, Cheyenne asked her fans if they should join adult subscription site OnlyFans.

Later in the evening, the pair hit the pub to enjoy dinner and drinks and Cheyenne told the cheeky reality star 'So happy we met'.

Lucky Michael! Cheyenne is a fitness model who is based in Michael home city of Adelaide

Michael's last known girlfriend was stunning dancer KC Osbourne, who he met on the Channel Nine experiment last year after his TV marriage to Stacey Hampton didn't work out.

KC recently finally shot down rumours that she and Michael began their romance while 'married' to others on season seven of Married At First Sight.

Appearing on Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson's podcast, What Happens After... his week, the former reality star, 32, said their romance sparked up after the reunion - when they were both single.

The dancer had recently split with her TV 'husband' Drew Brauer and Michael had split with his 'wife' Stacey, 27.

Saucy: In the clip, Michael cupped the glamorous fitness model's bottom and lifted her into his arms before the pair locked lips

Happy: Later the pair hit the pub to enjoy dinner and drinks and Cheyenne told the cheeky reality star 'So happy we met'

Out with the old: Michael's last known girlfriend was stunning dancer KC Osbourne, who he met on the Channel Nine experiment last year after his TV marriage to Stacey Hampton didn't work out

'Nothing ever happen in there. I have never cheated in my life,' she said, revealing that while the pair shared 'banter' at the reunion, they were single when they began dating one another.

'Michael and I had this friendship, he is from Scotland, my family is from Scotland, and we had a lot of banter.

'I was feeling rejected, he was feeling rejected, and Michael was just like a dog with a bone perusing me, and I kept saying no,' she admitted.

Romance: The dancer had recently split with her TV 'husband' Drew Brauer and Michael, 30, had split with his 'wife' Stacey Hampton, 27, when they began dating

KC added that she didn't think Michael was trustworthy - but eventually he wore her down.

'I would see him on the couch [on Married At First Sight] every week and think I would never date a guy like that, I would never trust him,' she said.

'He's persistent man, he has the gift of the gab. There was one line I said after we broke up, 'I got sold the dream and I fell for it'.

Romance: KC added that she didn't think Michael was trustworthy - but eventually he wore her down. 'I would see him on the couch [on Married At First Sight] every week and think I would never date a guy like that, I would never trust him,' she said. 'He's persistent man, he has the gift of the gab'

'That is exactly what happened. At the end of the day I wanted love so bad and I thought he was going to be the guy that just loves me, and he definitely sold me on that. It's kind of a regret of mine,' she said.

The co-stars called it quits on her relationship in May last year, announcing their split on Instagram.

Michael revealed to WHO magazine that his failed promises of changing his 'playboy' ways was a factor in their break-up earlier this month.

'He sold me that dream of, "I would stop my playboy ways to have a girl like you, you're such a good girl," she said.

Sad: 'At the end of the day I wanted love so bad and I thought he was going to be the guy that just loves me, and he definitely sold me on that. It's kind of a regret of mine,' she added

She explained that he'd made big promises of settling down and starting a family, which she desired and was her reason for applying for MAFS in the first place.

KC said that Michael's promises to her 'were so full-on', adding: 'I'd never had a guy say that to me before. I got sold the dream and I fell for it.'

The couple dated for five months, and after splitting, the performer moved out of their Melbourne home. She is now back in Sydney.

She has since been linked to fellow MAFS alum Jason Engler, 35, with the pair looking cosy during their appearance at the SinCity Nightclub earlier this month.
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Romee Strijd, Alicia Vikander and Laura Harrier were among tha glamorous attendees at the Louis Vuitton Haute-Joaillerie [high jewellery] dinner at La Vigie Restaurant in Monaco on Thursday night.

The Victoria's Secret Angel, 25, was every inch the golden goddess as she arrived with her hair tumbling over a chic white mini dress, which featured zip detailing up the middle of the garment.

Romee's sleeveless dress was styled with a pair of strappy metallic heels, while she toted a turquiose Louis Vuitton bag in her hand - which was emblazoned with the brand's signature logo.

Here come the girls! Romee Strijd, Alicia Vikander and Laura Harrier were among tha glamorous attendees at the Louis Vuitton Haute-Joaillerie [high jewellery] dinner at La Vigie Restaurant in Monaco on Thursday night

Romee complemented her ensemble with a neutral pallet of make-up, while adding a slight touch of glitz with a selection of silver bracelets.

Meanwhile, actress Alicia, 32, put on a leggy display in a cropped skirt suit, which flaunted her toned pins as she posed in front of the floral wall, covered in a selection of blue and white flowers.

She styled the look with a belt in Louis Vuitton's signature print, while she was bedecked in jewellery from the brand's new collection.

Stunning: The Victoria's Secret Angel, 25, was every inch the golden goddess as she arrived with her hair tumbling over a chic white mini dress, which featured zip detailing up the middle of the garment

Glowing: Romee complemented her ensemble with a neutral pallet of make-up, while adding a slight touch of glitz with a selection of silver bracelets

Work it: She styled the look with a belt in Louis Vuitton's signature print, while she was bedecked in jewellery from the brand's new collection

Fashion: German model Caroline Daur and Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova were both in attendance

Alicia wore a dazzling statement necklace and a selection of jewellery, along with a pair of earrings and and rings.

She wore her brunette locks loose in a soft wave and opted for a bronze pallet of make-up, including a sultry smokey-eye.

The Tomb Raider star added a pair of barely-there black heels to her look.

Dripping in jewels: Alicia wore a dazzling statement necklace and a selection of jewellery, along with a pair of earrings and and rings

Also in attendance was American actress Laura Harrier, 31, who stunned in a pretty A-line dress, which featured a heavily detailed top half complete with a black beaded skirt.

The Hollywood star was also adorned in jewellery as she sported a dazzling choker necklace, teamed with a pair of drop earrings.

She added height to her already statuesque frame with a pair of black heels.

Laura wore her raven locks in a loose sleek style and opted for a full face of make-up with a dramatic eye look.

Guests: Josefine Haaning and Mirjam Flatau were also among the dinner guests at the jewellery collection launch
Claire Danes transformed into her character, a widow named Cora, as she filmed scenes for The Essex Serpent in Essex on Thursday.

The actress, 42, was joined by her co-star Christopher Fairbank, 67, for the scene which took place outside a country cottage.

Claire wore a grey floor length dress in keeping with the Victorian era of which the series is set.

On location: Claire Danes transformed into her character, a widow named Cora, as she filmed scenes for The Essex Serpent in Essex on Thursday

The garment featured long sleeves and padded shoulders while the star's waist appeared to be cinched with a corset.

Claire's strawberry blonde locks were styled into an updo as she filmed alongside Christopher.

Claire also appeared to be joined by a younger actor who sported a black jacket and brown trousers for the scene.

The actors were surrounded by members of the crew who all sported face masks for the duration of filming.

Filming: The actress, 42, was joined by her co-star Christopher Fairbank, 67, for the scene which took place outside a country cottage

The programme follows Cora, a widow who moves from London to the Essex village of Aldwinter in search of a mythical sea creature.

Tom Hiddleston plays Will Ransome, the trusted leader of the local community.

Mother-of-two Claire, who is married to British actor Hugh Dancy, replaced Keira Knightley in the role when the actress had to withdraw for 'family reasons'.

A representative for the star confirmed that she decided to pull out of the project over childcare concerns for two daughters, Edie and Delilah

Costume: Claire wore a grey floor length dress in keeping with the Victorian era of which the series is set

Outfit: The garment featured long sleeves and padded shoulders while the star's waist appeared to be cinched with a corset

The spokesperson told the Daily Mail at the time: 'There wasn't a comfortable scenario for Keira that could be put in place for an extended period of childcare required for the four-and-a-half-month production.'

Maldon District Council confirmed that filming would be taking place in the area, telling Essex Live in a statement: 'We are delighted that the production company has chosen the Maldon District as one of their locations for a new six-part drama.

'They have a sizeable base on Promenade Park, and they will minimise any disruption during their filming and ensure safety can be maintained at all times.

'We would remind everyone that while this is clearly exciting, social distancing must still be maintained at all times.'

Action: Claire also appeared to be joined by a younger actor who sported a black jacket and brown trousers for the scene

Not long after arriving, Cora becomes intrigued by a local superstition: a mythical sea serpent known as the Essex Serpent that has returned to the area.

The See-Saw production is being directed by Clio Barnard, who's best known for her work on film The Selfish Giant (2013), and produced by Andrea Cornwell.

Anna Symon will serve as the lead writer. Her resume includes penning the British historical drama series, Mrs. Wilson (2018).

Plot: The programme follows Cora, a widow who moves from London to the Essex village of Aldwinter in search of a mythical sea creature

Both Barnard and Symon will also play serve as executive producers alongside Jamie Laurenson, Patrick Walters, Hakan Kousetta, Emile Sherman, and Iain Canning, according to Deadline.

Apple gave the green light and ordered The Essex Serpent to series in August 2020.

While it has yet to be announced, the release date for The Essex Serpent is expected to be next year.
Wealthy society is split between the haves and the haveyachts, its been said. But even the have-yachts can sail into thunderous storms.

I hear tycoon Eddie Jordan is suing yacht-maker Sunseeker for 750,000 in commission for allegedly introducing property billionaire Christian Candy, who bought a 15 million boat from the firm.

Introduction fees can be worth a fortune for yacht-makers, says my man on the bridge. But these disputes can often turn nasty.

Ex-Formula 1 team owner Jordan, 73, claims he was promised a 50-50 share of profits on sales of luxury vessels to buyers he found, after a dispute with Sunseeker over a 154ft yacht called Blush years earlier.

Tycoon Eddie Jordan (left) is suing yacht-maker Sunseeker for 750,000 in commission for allegedly introducing property billionaire Christian Candy (right), who bought a 15 million boat from the firm

Now, hes suing Sunseeker London for damages of more than 750,000, or a quantum meruit (Latin for what one has earned), to reflect the value of introducing Candy, 46, who bought the new yacht last year.

Jordan had a 30-year friendship with Sunseekers late founder Robert Braithwaite and has owned several of its yachts himself.

When he was on holiday in Kenya in 2018, his son-in-law, Steve Aspinall, told him that Candy was interested in buying a boat.

Jordan then phoned Sunseekers group sales director Christopher Head, and reminded him of the plan for him to receive commission of 50 per cent of profits as a result of the dispute over chartering Jordans boat Blush.

Jordan had a 30-year friendship with Sunseekers late founder Robert Braithwaite and has owned several of its yachts himself

He claims Head confirmed he remembered the deal and agreed to it, according to a writ issued in Londons High Court.

Jordan says he shared the private contact details of Candy, who went on to buy a new Sunseeker 131 yacht for delivery last year, for 13.75 million plus VAT and optional extras.

But Sunseeker disputes his claim, and says there was no contract between the two sides and no basis for payment of a quantum meruit.

Candy bought a new yacht in 2019, for 15.36 million, the defence says, and it was Aspinall who provided the contact details rather than Jordan.

Comedienne Miranda Hart is surprised she keeps being told that she looks slim.

The Call The Midwife star, who is more than 6ft tall, explains: I think the reason people keep saying Ive lost weight, when the opposite is true, is because I no longer wear skinny jeans.

'Middle-aged advice.

Allegra Stratton was due to have the most glamorous job in politics, fronting the PMs daily TV press conferences.

But when these were scrapped she was redeployed to promote the forthcoming eco conference, COP26.

I am switching all my bathroom stuff to plastic-free, so shampoo bars and soap bars, Stratton tells me, as she launches her One Step Greener initiative at Wimbledon.

Emma went cold on me after food faux pas

If Emma Watson asks you for a restaurant recommendation, my advice is: keep schtum.

Her Harry Potter co-star Jessie Cave has revealed that Watson, 31, never spoke to her again after she advised where to have a tasty meal in the West End.

Cave, 34, who played Ron Weasleys love interest Lavender Brown, says she panicked when Watson asked her where to go - and picked a venue because of its bright yellow decor.

If Emma Watson asks you for a restaurant recommendation, my advice is: keep schtum

I was slightly older than her and she seemed to like me in the beginning, Cave says.

She thought I was cool. So she said: Do you know anywhere to go in Soho thats cool?

I just panicked. Ive never been to a cool place. Then I remembered this restaurant that had just opened off Tottenham Court Road.

'I thought: Its yellow, it looks cool.

'So I said: Yeah, theres this amazing place  you have to go. 

Harry Potter co-star Jessie Cave has revealed that Watson, 31, never spoke to her again after she advised where to have a tasty meal in the West End

It was a noodle bar  fast food, basically. She went on the Friday night, and on Monday morning she came up to me and said: I went to that place and I got mobbed. 

She had a terrible time. After that, she didnt really talk to me. It would be funny to anyone else, but I think she was quite upset about it.

Watson, incidentally, is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations.

Rugby star Danny Cipriani, 33, is tackling his most daunting challenge.

The former England players new wife, Victoria Rose OCallaghan, has revealed that theyve embarked on a gruelling course of fertility treatment.

We first started IVF in February, as Ive had past issues which have been rectified, she tells me. We were disappointed when the first round failed.

'However, we are under one of the best embryologists in Europe, so were confident it will be a success.

'We will keep going until we get a pregnancy. Danny is a phenomenal support.

Victoria, 40, is a mental health campaigner who has an adult daughter, a teenage son and a five-year-old grandchild.

Auctioneer to wed Old Masters expert, 31

Going, going, gone!

Top auctioneer Harry Primrose is off the market. I hear the colourful Sothebys chairman has got engaged to an Old Masters adviser 22 years his junior.

Lord Dalmeny, 53, who is due to inherit an earldom and magnificent Dalmeny House near Edinburgh, will wed Harriet Clapham after a romance of less than two years.

Top auctioneer Harry Primrose is off the market. I hear the colourful Sothebys chairman has got engaged to an Old Masters adviser 22 years his junior

Lord Dalmeny, 53, will wed Harriet Clapham (above) after a romance of less than two years

Im so delighted Harriet said yes, he says.

Dalmeny, who has five children with former wife Caroline Daglish, proposed in front of the Fountain of Love at Cliveden House, Berkshire, where the Profumo scandal began.

Bojos toddler Wilf on a trunk call with the herd

Boris Johnsons wife is making sure their son, Wilfred, shares her love of wildlife.

Carrie, who works for rewilding charity the Aspinall Foundation, took Wilf to see the herd of wooden elephants in Londons Green Park.

Carrie, who works for rewilding charity the Aspinall Foundation, took Wilf to see the herd of wooden elephants in Londons Green Park (above)

Theyre there on behalf of the Elephant Family charity cofounded by the Duchess of Cornwalls late brother, Mark Shand.

Wilf is only one, but as you can see, he already has an unruly mop of blond hair of which the PM would be proud.

Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge has left a British Airways passenger boiling over after being served an inedible in-flight meal.

How can you put your name to this disgraceful dish? asked one flyer, who paid for a soggy-looking pie.

Even if you wanted to eat it, you cant, as no knives and forks were provided.

A spokesman for the Tom Kerridge Group says it is investigating this isolated incident, adding: Our pies meet strict quality control standards before leaving the kitchen.

Kerridge has apologised to the passenger and asked for his home address.

A case of sending some humble pie?
DARIEN  Several Darien residents have earned academic honors at The Harvey School in Katonah, N.Y., for the final marking period of the 2020-21 academic school year.

Armaan Bhaskar, 11th grade; Sara Adelman, 10th grade; and Alison LaForce, 10th grade, each made the Head of the Schools William J. Knauers list and earned a Cavalier Scholar certificate for achieving a grade-point average of 4.0 or higher.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico is directing the nation's biggest chunk of federal coronavirus relief money to helping middle-class families pay for child care, a vast expansion aimed at getting parents back to work in one of the poorest states in America.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday that the state will subsidize child care at 350% of the federal poverty line, or about $93,000 for a family of four. Thats up from about $54,000.

Were going to double the subsidies for child care, said the Democratic governor, who was flanked by balloons and overlooked a gaggle of young children wearing party hats. She added that the state could one day go even further: Why dont we have universal access for child care?

New Mexico's two-year spending commitment will expand eligibility to the highest income levels of any state. Its the largest and latest example of states using pandemic relief aid to subsidize child care. Others include Georgia and Montana, while California is debating a child care funding package.

Some states, like New Jersey, offer subsidies at 350% of the federal poverty line but only when relatives are providing care.

New Mexico also will be the first state to increase payments to child care providers by using a reimbursement formula that focuses on the local cost of running child care businesses, instead of the market rate of what parents can pay.

State Early Childhood Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky called the announcement an important landmark on our journey towards creating a true cradle-to-career education system that helps all New Mexicans thrive.

Groginsky was pivotal for winning federal approval of the new formula in Washington, D.C., where she served as assistant superintendent of early learning for the District of Columbia before taking the job in New Mexico. While the formulas are not identical, the experience there provides an idea of how much child care providers will benefit.

Child care providers in Washington got a 24% to 57% increase in reimbursement during the transition in 2019, according to officials there. No providers saw a decrease.

Early childhood advocates say the new rules will lead to increased pay for child care workers, who often make just above minimum wage. They also expect improvements in worker-to-child ratios, the main benchmark of child care center quality.

So for your child what that means is that theres a lower ratio between (staff) and children, said Katherine Freeman, CEO at Growing Up New Mexico. Why is that the most significant thing? Because children need individual attention.

Parents should see immediate benefits, especially those who earned too much to qualify for past subsidies but too little to pay for child care without spending half their paycheck.

The expansion is paid for in part by $300 million in federal awards that expire in 2024.

Democratic state lawmakers already have a plan in motion to increase child care funding long term by tapping into a unique $20 billion state endowment funded by resource extraction royalties and market investments.

A ballot initiative before voters next year could increase the amount of funding from the endowment to the states Early Childhood Education and Care Department and possibly replace the federal funding when it expires.

___

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 undercovered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
Daytona Beach, FL (32114)

Today

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Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Daytona Beach, FL (32114)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low near 75F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
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Recreational Saltwater Fishing Regulations

This summary is provided for your convenience, the official written regulations published by the Department of State are the official source for NYSDEC regulations. To read the actual regulations, please follow the links to the right: marine fish (6 NYCRR Part 40) or lobster and crabs (6 NYCRR Part 44).

See the Tidal Hudson River Regulations in the Freshwater Fishing Regulation Guide (PDF) for additional information on fishing in the Hudson River and its tributaries.

For recreational shellfishing information, visit Shellfish Harvest Limits.

Enroll in the Recreational Marine Fishing Registry

All anglers (16 years and older) fishing in the New York's Marine & Coastal District must enroll in the Recreational Marine Fishing Registry when angling for the fish species listed below. Anglers fishing for shark and tuna must also apply for NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species (leaves DEC website) permit. Visit Recreational Shark Fishing for more information about shark fishing in New York.

The registry is not required for harvesting crabs or lobsters. A Lobster Recreational Permit is required for New York State residents to harvest lobsters.

Effective April 21, 2021, DEC requires that anglers use circle hooks when fishing for striped bass with bait. Non-offset (inline) circle hooks are required when fishing for striped bass using bait which is defined as any whole or part of a marine or aquatic organism or terrestrial invertebrate, live or dead. A non-offset or inline circle hook means the point and barb of the hook are in the same plane as the shank and the tip of the hook is turned perpendicularly back towards the shank.

when fishing for striped bass using bait which is defined as any whole or part of a marine or aquatic organism or terrestrial invertebrate, live or dead. A non-offset or inline circle hook means the point and barb of the hook are in the same plane as the shank and the tip of the hook is turned perpendicularly back towards the shank. Circle hooks are not required when fishing with an artificial lure, whether or not they are tipped with bait as previously described. Some examples of artificial lure exemptions include pork rinds on bucktail jigs, eel skin plugs, tube and worm, and any man-made flies.

when fishing with an artificial lure, whether or not they are tipped with bait as previously described. Some examples of artificial lure exemptions include pork rinds on bucktail jigs, eel skin plugs, tube and worm, and any man-made flies. Visit Best Practices for Saltwater Fishing for more information on circle hooks and fish handling tips that help improve survivability.

Visit Striped Bass Cooperative Anglers Program to learn more about how recreational fishing data helps DEC better understand New York's striped bass fishery.

Saltwater Fishing Limits Species Minimum Size Limits

(Total Length in Inches) (1) Possession Limits

(Number of Fish) Open Seasons Winter Flounder 12 2 April 1 - May 30 Striped Bass: Hudson River (2)

(north of George Washington Bridge) Slot size: 18 - 28

(not less than 18" nor greater than 28") 1 April 1 - Nov 30 Striped Bass: marine waters (2)

(south of George Washington Bridge) Slot size: 28 - 35

(not less than 28" nor greater than 35") 1 April 15 - Dec 15 Scup (Porgy) 9 30 All year Scup (Porgy) (3)

Anglers aboard licensed party/charter boats 9 50 Sept 1 - Oct 31 Summer flounder (fluke) (4) 19 4 May 4 - Sept 30 Black Sea Bass (5) 15 3

7 June 23 - Aug 31

Sept 1 - Dec 31 Oyster Toadfish 10 3 July 16 - May 14 Tautog (blackfish): Long Island Sound Region

Marine and coastal district waters lying east of the Throgs Neck Bridge and west of a line that runs from Orient Point, NY to Watch Hill, RI 16 2

3 April 1 - April 30

Oct 11 - Dec 9 Tautog (blackfish): NY Bight Region

Marine and coastal district waters lying outside of the Long Island Sound Region 16 2

4 April 1 - April 30

Oct 15 - Dec 22 American Eel 9 25 for individuals

50 for anglers aboard

licensed party/charter boats All year American Eel

(New York City: Harlem and East Rivers,

Hudson River north to Troy Dam) 9 - 14 for use as bait

only, otherwise

possession prohibited 25 for use as bait only,

otherwise possession

prohibited All year Atlantic cod 21 10 All year Atlantic menhaden No size limit 100 All year Bluefish (including "snappers") No size limit 3 All year Bluefish (including "snappers")

Anglers aboard licensed party/charter boats No size limit 5 All year Cobia 37 2 All year Haddock 18 No limit All year Hickory Shad No size limit 5 All year King mackerel 23 3 All year Monkfish (goosefish) 17

or 11" tail length No limit All year Pollock 19 No limit All year Red drum No size limit No limit for fish less than 27" TL

Fish greater than 27" TL

shall not be possessed

All year Spanish mackerel 14 15 All year Weakfish 16

10" filleted (6)

12" dressed (7) 1 All year Yellowtail flounder 13 No limit All year Anadromous river herring

(alewife and blueback herring)

(north of George Washington Bridge) (8)

See Tidal Hudson River Regulations No size limit 10 per angler or

50 per boat March 15 - June 15 Anadromous river herring

(alewife and blueback herring)

(south of George Washington Bridge) No possession No possession allowed No possession allowed American shad No possession No possession allowed No possession allowed Atlantic sturgeon Moratorium No possession allowed No possession allowed

**Regulations were last changed on April 21, 2021, and are subject to change at any time.**

(1) Total length is the longest straight line measurement from the tip of the snout, with the mouth closed, to the longest lobe of the tail, with the lobes squeezed together, and the fish laid flat on the measuring device.

(2) Non-offset (inline) circle hooks must be used when recreationally fishing for striped bass using bait defined as any live or dead, whole or part of a marine or aquatic organism or terrestrial invertebrate. Exemption: Circle hooks are not required when fishing with an artificial lure, whether or not they are tipped with bait as previously defined.

(3) A party/charter boat customer who lands and possesses more than 50 scup during September 1 - October 31 must obtain a dated original fare receipt from the licensed vessel.

(4) Summer flounder may not have heads or tails removed or be otherwise cleaned, cut, filleted, or skinned until brought to shore, with the following exception: the white side fillet or white skin only of a legal size fluke may be removed to use as bait. The carcass of the fluke with dark side completely intact must be retained for inspection of size limit and counts against the possession limit.

(5) Black sea bass are measured from the tip of the snout (or jaw), with the mouth closed, to the farthest extremity of the tail, not including the tail filament.

(6) The fillet length is the longest straight line measurement from end to end of any fleshy side portion of the fish cut lengthwise away from the backbone, which must have the skin intact, laid flat on the measuring device.

(7) Dressed length is the longest straight line measurement from the most anterior portion of the fish, with the head removed, to the longest lobe of the caudal fin(tail), with the caudal fin intact and with the lobes squeezed together, laid flat on the measuring device.

(8) Anadromous river herring is defined in 6 NYCRR Part 10 (except the Hudson River and its tributaries and embayments north of the George Washington Bridge at river mile 11).

For more information on common saltwater fish species in New York, visit Marine Life.

Recreational Fishing Regulations for Sharks in State Waters, Effective March 03, 2020 Category Species Minimum Size Limit Daily Possession Limit Allowed Sharks Tiger, Blacktip, Bull, Lemon, Nurse, Spinner, Blue,

Oceanic whitetip, Porbeagle, Common Thresher 54 inches fork length (1) One shark per vessel per trip, except that

one additional Atlantic Sharpnose and one

additional Bonnethead may be taken and

possessed per angler per trip. Shortfin mako Male: 71 inches

Female: 83 inches

fork length (1) Great hammerhead, Scalloped hammerhead, Smooth hammerhead 78 inches fork length (1) Atlantic Sharpnose, Bonnethead, Finetooth No size limit Smooth Dogfish, Spiny Dogfish No size limit Any number Prohibited Sharks Atlantic angel, Basking, Blacknose, Bigeye sand tiger, Bigeye Sixgill, Bigeye thresher, Bignose, Bluntnose sixgill, Caribbean reef, Caribbean sharpnose, Dusky, Galapagos, Longfin mako, Narrowtooth, Night, Sand tiger, Sandbar, Sharpnose sevengill, Silky, Smalltail, Whale, White Take or Possession Prohibited (2) Take or

Possession Prohibited (2)

(1) Fork length means the straight-line measurement of a fish from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. The measurement is not made along the curve of the body.

(2) "Take" is defined in Environmental Conservation Law 11-0103 (13) to include "pursuing, shooting, hunting, killing, capturing, trapping, snaring and netting fish, wildlife, game, shellfish, crustacea and protected insects, and all lesser acts such as disturbing, harrying or worrying, or placing, setting, drawing or using any net or other device commonly used to take any such animal." Pursuing or "targeting" a prohibited shark species refers to an angler making an effort to catch that species in violation of 6 NYCRR 40.7(c)(1).

Other provisions: All landed sharks must have head, tails and fins attached. No sale allowed. No finning. Sharks, excluding spiny dogfish, shall not be taken for commercial or recreational purposes by baited hooking except with the use of non-stainless steel non-offset circle hooks. No person shall conduct, sponsor or participate in any shark tournament unless said tournament's rules and regulations require the exclusive use of non-stainless steel, non-offset circle hooks.

For additional information on sharks in New York, visit Coastal Sharks.

Recreational Crab, Lobster, and Whelk Limits, Effective June 5, 2019 Species Minimum Size

(Inches) Daily Possession Limit Open Season American lobster (1)

Recreational permit required 3 3/8" minimum carapace length

5 1/4" maximum carapace length 6 LMA 4: closed April 30 - May 31

LMA 6: closed Sept 8 - Nov 28

All other LMAs: open all year

Click here to view a large map of LMAs.



Descriptions & locations of lobster

management areas (LMAs) are available in

Part 44: Lobster and Crab Regulations

(leaves DEC website) Blue crab (1)

Hard shell

Soft shell

Peeler/Shedder (2) 4 1/2"

3 1/2"

3" 50 All year Jonah Crab (1) 4 3/4" 50 All year All Other Crabs (1)

(except blue and jonah crabs) No size limit 50 All year Horseshoe crabs No size limit 5 All year Whelk No size limit 24 All year

(1) Lobsters and crabs with eggs may not be taken or possessed.

(2) Peeler/shredder is when the crab is about to molt or shed its hard outer shell. At this stage, the crab has a fully formed soft shell beneath the hard outer shell. The impending shedding process is evident by the white coloration along the outer rim of the paddle-like appendages on the crab's fifth pair of legs.

Other provisions: Terrapin Excluder Devices (TEDs) must be used on all non-collapsible crab pots or traps that are fished in creeks, coves, rivers, tributaries, and near-shore harbors of the Marine and Coastal District. TEDs shall be securely fastened inside each funnel entrance of the crab pot to effectively reduce the size of the funnel opening to no larger than 4-3/4 inch by 1-3/4 inch. An interactive map (leaves DEC's website) is available for reference.

For additional information on crab regulations, visit Crabbing in NY.

Download and Print Recreation Saltwater Fishing Regulations




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HYDERABAD: Two LeT operatives, Imran Malik alias Imran Khan and his brother Mohammad Nasir Malik, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Hyderabad on Wednesday were part of a conspiracy hatched by top operatives of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT to execute terror acts across India, according to police.

Imran Malik and Mohd Nasir Malik, who were stationed at Mallepally area, hail from Kairana in Shamli of Uttar Pradesh. The case was originally registered with the railway police of Darbhanga on June 17, relating to an explosion in a parcel on platform 1 of Darbhanga railway station. It was found that the parcel was booked in Secunderabad and arrived in train number 07007, Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express. On June 24, the New Delhi unit of NIA had re-registered the case and had taken up the investigation.

For about 12 days, the CI cell, the government railway police and officials of NIA were questioning the suspects and collected both technical and physical evidence from them. After the visit to the scene of crime and development of key inputs by the investigation team of NIA, the accused persons were arrested, an official release said.

Sources said that a sticker of a shop was found by the NIA officials on the parcel bomb that was recovered from Darbhanga railway station. The NIA traced the shop to Hyderabad and reached out to the shopkeeper who later identified Imran and Nasir. Imran Khan resided with his wife in Hyderabad, who was intercepted first by the NIA, leading to the arrest of Imran. Meanwhile, Mohammad Nasir confessed that he travelled to Pakistan in 2012 and was trained there for four months at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He specialised in IED blasts and timer devices. He also met Hafeez Saeed and the underworld don Tiger Memon there.

The preliminary investigation in the case and an examination of the accused persons revealed a transnational conspiracy hatched by top LeT operatives to execute terror acts across India and cause large scale damage to life and property, the NIA said, adding that the duo, along with Mohammed Haji Saleem Kashim and his son Mohammed Kafeel of Kairana and their handler from Pakistan, were named as accused in the case.

Acting under the directions of Pakistan-based handlers of LeT, Malik brothers fabricated an incendiary and packed it in a parcel of cloth and booked the same in a long-distance train from Secunderabad to Darbhanga. The attack was aimed to cause an explosion and fire in a running passenger train resulting in huge loss of lives and property. Nazir, along with his brother Imran was in touch with Pakistan-based handlers of LeT over encrypted communication platforms, the release added.

Later, a team of NIA from their New Delhi unit flew to Hyderabad and took custody of the Malik brothers from the Counter Intelligence (CI) Cell of Telangana polices intelligence wing. The arrested accused were produced before the special NIA Court in Patna after obtaining transit from the competent court. Detailed examination of the accused and investigation continues to unearth the larger conspiracy, the release said.
14 drones were launched reportedly from across the International Border and LoC in the recent past. (Representational Photo:AFP)

SRINAGAR: Three more flying objects -- possibly drones -- were spotted over strategically important areas of Jammu on Wednesday. Security forces opened fire at them following which they withdrew, officials said.

The unnamed officials quoted by local newsgathering agencies said that the drones were seen hovering over Miran Sahab, Kaluchak and Kunjwani areas of Jammu where several military bases and sensitive installations are located.

They said that the first "unidentified flying object" at a height of about 1,000 meters was sighted near a place called Goswami Enclave in Kaluchak area at around 4.40 am. The second one was spotted near the Indian Air Force Signal in the neighbouring Kunjwani area and the third at Miran Sahab at around 6 am. All these activities on the third consecutive day were witnessed near defence installations but the alert security personnel quickly swung into action and opened fire at these objects, said an official.

On June 27, the overly sensitive Air Force Station at Jammu had come under a terror attack when two low-intensity bombs believed to have been dropped by drones hit a barracks and an open space in quick succession, leaving two IAF personnel were injured in the explosions that took place within a gap of five minutes.

A day later, the Army averted two separate drone activities in Ratnuchak-Kaluchak belt close to the border with Pakistan in Jammu region and, thereby, as was claimed by it, foiled a possible threat in this extremely sensitive military area. The activity continued on Tuesday when the drone-like objects were seen flying at a couple of places in the same security belt.

The Jammu and Kashmir police and Indian Army officials in Jammu had said on Monday that as many as 14 drones were launched reportedly from across the International Border (called Working Boundary by Islamabad) and Line of Control (LoC) in the recent past.

They said that the areas which witnessed the activity include Jammu, Rajouri, Samba and Kathua districts of Indian-administered Kashmir. Six sorties with weapon payloads were found in Samba sector, three to four in Hiranagar sector and two each in Nowshera-Rajouri and Arnia sectors.

J&Ks director general of police, Dilbagh Singh, said that in the recent past drones have been used to drop weapons and narcotic consignments. He said that the twin blasts at the Jammu Air Force base was a terror attack in which IED payloads were dropped using drones. A security alert for all vital installations in the Jammu region as well as Kashmir Valley was issued on Sunday itself.

In view of the June 27 bombing at the Air Force Station Jammu and subsequent increased activity of illegal unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) in Jammu region, director general (DG) of National Security Guard (NSG), M.A. Ganapathy, who is also DG, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Director General Central Industrial Security Force, Subodh Kumar Jaiswal arrived in Jammu to assess the situation.

Rajouris DC Rajesh Kumar Shavan has, through an order issued on Wednesday, banned the storage, sale or possession and use and transportation of the flying machines (drones). He has also directed those having drones or like objects in their possession to deposit them with the local police station.

However, the government agencies using drones for mapping, surveys and surveillance would get the local police station in-charge and executive magistrate informed, the order says.
The investigation has revealed that accused Syed Abbas is the president of SDPI Nagawara, Bengaluru Ward. (Photo: PTI/File)

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested a key conspirator and absconding accused, Syed Abbas for his alleged involvement in the KG Halli Riot case of Bengaluru.

According to a release by the NIA, Abbas, 38, was involved in conspiracy and rioting on August 11, 2020, at the KG Halli police station.

The case was originally registered as FIR on August 12, 2020, relating to rioting by an unruly mob armed with deadly weapons who had unlawfully gathered outside Kadugondana Halli Police Station, Bengaluru in the late evening of August 11, 2020.

"The mob had attacked and injured many police officers. They had also set fire to K G Halli Police Station using Petrol bombs. Government vehicles parked in the vicinity of the police station were damaged and set on fire," the NIA said.

NIA had re-registered the case and taken up the investigation. Earlier, NIA had charge-sheeted 138 accused persons in the case.

The investigation has revealed that accused Syed Abbas is the president of SDPI Nagawara, Bengaluru Ward. He along with his co-conspirators including other charge-sheeted accused persons are office bearers of SDPI Nagawara and were actively involved in burning vehicles and attacking police officers on duty at KG Halli Police Station.

Accused Abbas was produced before NIA Special Court, Bengaluru, and taken on six days custody by NIA.

Further investigation into the case is underway.
Bharat Biotech's Covaxin received first foreign recognition with Estonia confirming on Thursday that Indians inoculated with the anti-Covid-19 vaccine would be allowed to enter the North European nation.

Seven other European Union (EU) nations  Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain  earlier agreed to allow Indian travellers to enter the respective countries without subjecting them to mandatory quarantine or any other restrictions if they were inoculated with Covishield before arrival. Switzerland too waived travel restrictions for Indians who received both doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The Embassy of Estonia in New Delhi in fact stated that the Indian citizens would be allowed to enter the tiny nation if they arrive with vaccination certificates issued by the Government of India.

Also read  Nine European countries clear Covishield for 'Green Pass'

The Covaxin  the only indigenously developed Made-in-India vaccine  has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the health authorities of any foreign nation. It is however one of the four anti-Covid-19 vaccines approved for inoculation programme in India, the other being Covishield, Sputnik V of Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia and Spikevax (mRNA 1273) of Moderna.

Estonia, like many other EU nations, currently allows only fully vaccinated foreigners to travel to the country. The Embassy of Estonia in New Delhi stated that it had only been issuing a limited number of visas in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation.

New Delhi on Wednesday subtly warned of retaliatory action if any Indian inoculated with Covaxin or Covishield is placed in quarantine or subjected to other travel restrictions while visiting any EU nation. India asked the EU member nations to individually exempt its citizens inoculated with Covaxin or Covishield from travel restrictions even though the two anti-Covid-19 vaccines are not among the ones approved by the bloc for its Green Pass  formally known as the EU Digital Covid Certificate  programme that came into effect on Thursday.

The Green Pass is a proof in digital format or on paper that a person has either been vaccinated against the Covid-19, or tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection or recovered from infection.

The certificate will be issued to the citizens of any EU nation if they were inoculated with vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Any person having the certificate will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU. The individual EU member states, however, can also extend the same benefit to people who were administered vaccines authorised by respective national health authorities or by the WHO.
Highlights of this day in history: The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg begins; The first nuclear weapons test in peacetime; TR's assault on San Juan Hill; Britain's Princess Diana born; Hong Kong returned to China; Actor Marlon Brando dies. (July 1)
Syringes prepared with doses of COVID-19 vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccine clinic Tuesday at the Oakbrook site of the Berks Community Health Center.
Bill Cosby gestures outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., Wednesday after being released from prison. .
In this June 17 photo, President Joe Biden points to Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. From left are, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif, Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., Opal Lee, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Vice President Kamala Harris, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of S.C., Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, obscured, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. With the recent passage of the act, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, the country now has 12 federal holidays.
Where are the best places to shop? Who gives the best haircut? Who cooks the best burger? Join our readers in selecting the "Best of Windham."

Make your picks!
A Derry-based Troubles archive has made available previously confidential documents which shed light on negotiations between the IRA and British Government over an end to violence in the North.

One group of files detail private peace talks, the British Governments recognition that a united Ireland should be decided by way of a democratic vote and Sinn Feins transition into mainstream politics.

The Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) was launched in 1997 with the aim of providing information and source material on the 'Troubles' and politics in Northern Ireland from 1968 to the present day.

Since then CAIN has collaborated with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) by digitising a selection of public records.

The latest files from 1993 and 1994 were published on CAIN yesterday, June 30.

The documents, declassified in 2018, provide a glimpse into the inner workings of Downing Street during one of the most fraught periods in Northern Irelands history; a time when violence was still raging but a separate battle was being fought to secure peace.

At the centre of peace talks were Derry men Martin McGuinness and John Hume, both of whom have passed away in recent years.

In a parliamentary address at the end of 1993 then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Patrick Mayhew, alleged that a message had been sent from IRA leadership.

He named Martin McGuinness as the author - a claim the Derry man always disputed.

Dated February 22, 1993, the letter reads: ''The conflict is over but we need your advice on how to bring it to a close.

We wish to have an unannounced ceasefire in order to hold dialogue leading to peace.

We cannot announce such a move as it will lead to confusion for the volunteers because the press will misinterpret it as a surrender.

We cannot meet Secretary of State's public renunciation of violence, but it would be given privately as long as we were sure that we were not being tricked."

In further correspondence the British Government lays out its parameters for talks saying that it cannot engage in the process with the purpose of achieving a predetermined outcome, whether it be the ending of partition or anything else.

However, the British Government did accept that the eventual outcome of such a process could be a united Ireland, but only on the basis of the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.

Should this be the eventual outcome of a peaceful democratic process, the British Government would bring forward legislation to implement the will of the people here.

But unless the people of Northern Ireland come to express such a view, the British Government will continue to uphold the union, seeking to ensure the good governance of Northern Ireland, in the interests of all its people, within the totality of relationships in these islands, Mr Mayhew said.

HUME-ADAMS

The IRA sent a reply on May 10 which did not constitute the unequivocal assurance of a genuine end to violence on which we had insisted and a temporary ceasefire was unacceptable to the British Government.

The IRA resumed contact on November 2 when it expressed displeasure at the British Governments rejection of talks between John Hume and Gerry Adams.

In the late 1980s, Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP) leader John Hume held secret talks with Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams.

These talks lasted eight months and remained secret until April 1993.

The Hume-Adams Talks restarted in the early 1990s and were said to have led to Sinn Fein accepting the need for unionist consent about Northern Irelands future.

The newly digitised files on CAIN include an IRA message sent to Downing Street in November 1993 saying: "This problem cannot be solved by the Reynolds Spring situation, although they're part of it.

You appear to have rejected the Hume Adams situation though they too are part of it. Every day all the main players are looking for singular solutions. It can't be solved singularly.

We offered the 10 May. You've rejected it. Now we can't even have dialogue to work out how a total end to all violence can come about.

We believe that the country could be at the point of no return.

In plain language please tell us through (the link) as a matter of urgency when you will open dialogue in the event of a total end to hostilities.

We believe that if all the documents involved are put on the table - including your 9 paragrapher and our 10th May that we have the basis of an understanding."

PEACE

A response was issued a few days later describing the IRA letter as one of greatest importance and significance.

It said there could be no secret agreements or understandings between Governments and organisations supporting violence as a price for its cessation and its call on them to renounce for good the use of, or support for, violence.

The British Government wrote: There can also be no departure from the constitutional guarantee that Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom will not change without the consent of a majority of its people.

You ask about the sequence of events in the event of a total end to hostilities. If, as you have offered, you were to give us an unequivocal assurance that violence has indeed been brought to a permanent end, and that accordingly Sinn Fein is now committed to political progress by peaceful and democratic means alone, we will make clear publicly our commitment to enter exploratory dialogue with you.

It adds: Exploratory dialogue will have the following purposes: (i) to explore the basis upon which Sinn Fein would come to be admitted to an inclusive political talks process to which the British Government is committed but without anticipating the negotiations within that process; (ii) to exchange views on how Sinn Fein would be able over a period to play the same part as the current constitutional parties in the public life of Northern Ireland; (iii) to examine the practical consequences of the ending of violence.

In a parliament statement delivered on November 29, 1993, the NI Secretary of State says: I promise the House and the people of Northern Ireland that, for our part, we shall not cease our efforts to bring violence to a permanent end.

As my right Hon Friend told the House on 18 November if we do not succeed on this occasion we shall keep exploring again and again the opportunities for peace.

Peace, properly attained, is a prize worth risks. If a genuine end to violence is promised, the way would still be open for Sinn Fein to enter the political arena after a sufficient interval to demonstrate that they mean it. Our message of 5 November again spelt that out.

The key to peace is in the hands of the IRA.

In December 1993, the Hume-Adams talks produced the Downing Street Declaration in which the British and Irish governments, led by John Major and Albert Reynolds, agreed to uphold the democratic wish of a greater number of the people of Northern Ireland on the issue of whether they wish to support the Union or establish a sovereign united Ireland.

The Good Friday Agreement would not be signed until April 1998.
A number of 'significant' events are to be held in Derry next year to mark the 90th anniversary of the historic trans-Atlantic flight by Amelia Earhart.

The female pilot made aviation history when she became the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic in June 1932, her 14 hour 56 minute flight ending when she landed in a field in Ballyarnett on the outskirts of the city.

She had intended to fly to Paris in her single engine Lockheed Vega plane. Five years later, during an attempt at becoming the first female to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in a Purdue- funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra she, and navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Isla, three weeks before her 40th birthday.

The duo were officially declared dead 18 months later.

Amelia Earhart Cottage, located within Ballyarnett Country Park, is set to play a major role in next year's celebrations which follow a motion by Sinn Fein councillor for the area, Sandra Duffy, being backed by members of Derry City and Strabane District Council.

Welcoming the decision, she said: This has massive potential for the city and district in terms of tourism attraction and getting tourist numbers in.

We have massive Irish connections in America that will maximise on this, so I really look forward to seeing the programme of events that come up.
A preliminary hearing in the inquest into the death of Real IRA man Kieran Doherty shot dead by his own organisation in 2010 today heard that the Gardai are now 'willing to engage' with the Coroner's Service as regards the matter.

The Derry man was found shot dead after being bound and gagged on the Brae Hill Road on the outskirts of Derry on February 24, 2010.

His death was claimed by the group then known as the Real IRA who said Mr Doherty was one of their members and they made various allegations against him.

At today's hearing, Ian Skelt QC counsel for the Coroner said that up until now there had only been limited correspondence with the Gardai in this matter.

However, he said the Gardai have indicated they are willing to engage properly with the inquest and as such a meeting has been set up and he would update the Coroner when this occurred.

Stephen Toal, representing the Doherty family, said they were becoming 'increasingly frustrated by the delay' considering that the first hearing in the case was held in 2012.

The Coroner, Brian Sherrard, said that what he hoped to do was give the family 'some endpoint' by fixing a date for a hearing.

Earlier, the hearing was told that the first tranche of documents from the Secretary of State's office was available and the final tranche would be available by the end of the year.

Counsel for the Secretary of State said that once they were all available there would 'inevitably be a Public Interest Immunity exercise' to decide what would be redacted and other issues.

The Coroner said that he appreciated that Mr Doherty's family may not be 'fully alert' to progress that was being made in the case but he was satisfied with 'the ongoing activity'.

He proposed to set aside three weeks for the hearing but said that realistically it would be well into next year before it would be heard.

The Coroner set a date of November 7, 2022, for the inquest to begin and this was agreed by all the interested parties.

A review date was set for December 15 to see what progress had been made.
Naseeruddin Shah doing well, secretary says he might be discharged tomorrow

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, who is undergoing treatment for pneumonia at a hospital here, is doing well and is expected to be discharged tomorrow, his secretary said on Thursday. The 70-year-old actor was admitted to the Khar-based P D Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre, a non-COVID-19 facility, on Tuesday.

"He is doing well. He might be discharged tomorrow," Naseeruddin Shah's secretary Jairaj told PTI.

On Wednesday afternoon, Naseeruddin Shah's wife and veteran actor Ratna Pathak Shah told PTI that he had a "small patch" of pneumonia in his lungs and was undergoing treatment for the same.

Naseeruddin Shah, an alumnus of the National School of Drama (NSD) and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), is known for his contribution towards parallel cinema, with films such as Nishant, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Ijaazat, Masoom, and Mirch Masala. He has also created a space for himself in the commercial cinema with movies such as Mohra, Sarfarosh, Ishqiya, The Dirty Picture, and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, among others.

The veteran, whose career spans 46 years, is also known for his extensive work in theatre and running the theatre group, Motley Productions. The multiple National Award-winning actor was last seen in the 2020 feature drama Mee Raqsam and the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video series Bandish Bandits.

Legendary actor Dilip Kumar too has been admitted to the same hospital due to age-related medical issues.
Consulate General for the North of England Opens 1 July

News

Consulate General for the North of England, in Manchester, Opens 1 July

Irelands newest diplomatic mission, the Consulate General of Ireland for the North of England, will begin its work in Manchester on 1 July.

The new mission will strengthen political, commercial, community, and cultural ties between Ireland and the North of England. Its establishment also demonstrates the Irish Governments commitment to strengthening the BritishIrish relationship following the UKs departure from the European Union.

The new Consulate General will be responsible for representing Irish interests in the northeast, the northwest, and Yorkshire and the Humber. Enhancing collaboration with important regional and local government partners in the North of England will be an important part of its role.

The Consulate General is currently located in temporary offices in central Manchester, where it will work alongside and in partnership with the Manchester office of Enterprise Ireland, which was established in April 2019 to support the growth of Irish businesses and trade.

A formal opening ceremony for the Consulate General will follow later this year.

Irelands Ambassador to Great Britain, Adrian ONeill, visited Manchester for this occasion. He said, I am delighted that the new Consulate General of Ireland for the North of England is now operational in Manchester. I warmly welcome Consul General Sarah Mangan and Vice Consul General Carina OBrien as the newest members of Team Ireland in Great Britain.

The relationship between Ireland and the North of England region has deep roots in history, but is also very contemporary in the vibrancy of links across the Irish Sea. These connections encompass the realms of business, education, culture, sport and, above all, community. The new Consulate General will play a crucial role in maintaining and deepening this rich and multi-faceted relationship, and to advancing and promoting Irish interests across the North of England.

The new Mission forms part of a wider programme of investment in Irelands footprint in Great Britain in recent years, including an enhanced whole-of-Government presence in London, the re-opening of the Consulate General in Cardiff in 2019 and the establishment of an Enterprise Office in Manchester in the same year.

I would like to thank the UK Government for their support with the establishment of our new diplomatic mission in Manchester and wish my new colleagues well as they begin their work in the North of England.

The new mission will be led by Consul General Sarah Mangan, who says, I am very honoured and greatly privileged to be appointed as Irelands first Consul General to the North of England. The opening of a Consulate General in Manchester is a concrete example of the Irish Governments enduring commitment to the British-Irish relationship, and to the Irish community in Britain, and Irish businesses operating here. Building on the work of the Irish Embassy in London, and in close cooperation with Enterprise Ireland and other State Agencies, the Consulate General team will work to promote Irish interests in the North of England. My team and I are greatly looking forward to getting to know the Irish community and friends of Ireland across the region in the coming months.

Ms Mangan will be joined by Vice Consul Carina OBrien. Ms OBrien says, I am proud to take up the role as Vice Consul General for the new Irish mission in the North of England. I look forward to strengthening and expanding the relationships with the Irish community, businesses, and networks across the region.

The Irish Embassy in London will continue to provide most consular services to Irish citizens in the North of England, including passport and visa services. Please see the Embassy London website for more information.

While in its temporary premises, the new Consulate General will not provide direct consular services to the public.

The contact details for the new Consulate General of Ireland in the North of England are:

Email: ManchesterCGExternalMail@dfa.ie

Telephone: +44 (0) 161 638 9240

Website: www.dfa.ie/irish-consulate/manchester

Twitter: @IrlNorthEngland

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By MARCIA DUNN

AP Aerospace Writer

Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit delivered satellites from three countries into space Wednesday, its second successful rocket launch from a plane.

The company's modified 747 jet dubbed Cosmic Girl jet took off from California's Mojave Desert, carrying the 70-foot rocket beneath its left wing. Once the plane was over the Pacific near the Channel Islands, the LauncherOne rocket peeled away, then fired its engine to head to space. The drop occurred at an altitude of about 37,000 feet.





. . .
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The program has been repeatedly tainted by scandal and authorities have sought to increase oversight of the foreign investors.



By BEN FOX

Associated Press

WASHINGTON  A program that has allowed wealthy foreign investors to obtain U.S. residency, and has long been the subject of complaints that it amounts to the wholesale selling of American citizenship, may be coming to a sputtering end.

Congressional authorization for a key part of the immigrant investor program was set to expire Wednesday with dim prospects for renewal following the failure of a Senate bill that would have addressed long-standing concerns about inadequate regulation.





. . .
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The Michael's Toyota property in Eastgate, and a neighboring shopping center, have sold for $78 million, according to King County records. The seller was SkyMatt Properties LLC, which acquired the Bellevue property in 2004 for almost $24 million. SkyMatt is associated with the Broadus family, which owns Michael's. Or did.

The buyer was Lithia Real Estate, which is associated with Lithia & Driveway of Medford, Oregon. That publicly traded company announced the Michael's Toyota purchase yesterday, before the sale. Terms for that weren't disclosed. The company is also known as Lithia Motors.





. . .


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The village of Blackrock has gone pink!

The energy and enthusiasm surrounding the 100k in 30 Days is palpable. In line with this, the staff at Connect Credit Union, Blackrock, organised a Walkathon in aid of Breast Cancer Ireland last week.

Two treadmills were set up outside the credit union office on the main street. Together the team walked and ran over 200km across Thursday and Friday and raised 1,000 in collection buckets.

To add to the excitement, a member of the Connect Credit Union Board of Directors, Jackie Agnew, called down to compete in a 5k race with the 100k organiser Niall Carroll on Friday evening.

There was great excitement on the street as staff and family members cheered on the two men who pushed the treadmills to their limits, running at 18k per hour.

Also present during the day was 100k in 30 days brand ambassador Tara Cloney, who called down over lunch to help clock up the kilometres.

Throughout June, the Connect Credit Union team individually walked over 100km each by engaging in team walks around the village of Blackrock and Clogherhead.

In support, Connect Credit Union have sponsored a 3,500 holiday voucher for the 100k in 30 days, as well as eight childrens prizes.

To be in with a chance to win, the prize members of the pink army have to complete the 100K.

Niall Carroll will announce the winner of this fantastic prize on Wednesday, June 30.

Commenting further, Norman Mc Donnell noted: It was a pleasure to be able to sponsor such an amazing cause that originated in our local village of Blackrock.

We are delighted to be able to give back to the community via our sponsorship programme.

Despite a difficult year where uncertainties with Covid-19 limited the ability to raise funds for charitable organisations, the 100k team managed to organise an amazing 30-day event throughout June with individuals taking part from all over the world.

Check out some of the pictures from the 100k on Connect Credit Unions social media accounts.

Thats Connect Credit Union on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.

The Connect team would also like to say a huge thank you to all those who kindly donated over the course of the two days.
Louth County Councillors are seeking to create a memorial for those who died due to Covid-19 in the county, alongside holding a service to commemorate them.

Independent Councillor Maeve Yore tabled the proposal at last weeks meeting, saying that it would acknowledge and commemorate all those who passed away during the pandemic.

The proposal was widely welcomed by all in attendance at the meeting.

2020 will be remembered as a year of mourning. Mourning the life we lived pre-Covid and mourning all the loved ones lost during Covid, said Cllr Yore.

I think it is important to remember all the citizens in our county who have passed in 2021 and show support to their family who didnt get the chance to mourn their loved ones.

At the meeting, Cllr Yore suggested a candlelit vigil at the council building alongside the installation of an eternal flame in the building.

However, Cllr Yore told the Democrat that she is open to other ideas, with suggestions like a mural being put forward by families of those who died due to Covid-19.

Loretta Gaughran, whose mother Lily McArdle passed away in Dealgan House, said that whatever memorial was created, that it needed to not only represent those who died due to Covid-19 but also reflect on the sacrifice of all others throughout the pandemic.

Its not only to those who have unfortunately died, but to recognise what everybody has gone through as a healing and a cathartic process and a reflection and acknowledgement of what has sadly occurred in the last 18 months, said Mrs Gaughran.

Not only have people lost their lives but a lot of frontline workers have been traumatised by the whole process and people have lost their livelihoods.

Theres not a person who hasnt been affected.

Laura Newberry, whose mother Sally McEneaney passed away in Dealgan House last year, suggested that a mural be painted akin to the National Covid Memorial Wall in London, where thousands of hearts were drawn on the wall, each one representing a person who died due to the virus.

Mrs Newberry said that it would be a good way to memorialise those who have died, with Dundalk being recognisable in recent years for the murals that are painted each year as part of the SEEK Contemporary Art Festival.

A lot of people have died of the disease and I think it would be nice to have something to remember these people by, said Mrs Newberry.

I feel they need to be remembered because it was a tragic thing to happen, not only to elderly people, but its a tragic thing to happen to anybody.

Weve lost decent people from the town from this horrible disease I think most of the town would be behind it.

Sonia Mullen, whose father Michael McGarrity passed away due to Covid, said that she thought a tree to symbolise growth and renewal would work well, while still triggering the memory of the pandemic.

Cllr Yore said that she hoped some kind of service could be conducted before the end of the year when more of the population would be vaccinated.

Hopefully by year-end, well be all vaccinated Whenever its safe to do so, said Cllr Yore.

Cllr Yore also added that those who died didnt get the chance for a traditional send-off, with usual traditions like wakes having to be downsized due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

Its been a desperate year for everybody. I know personally with people passing away, they havent had the send-off they deserve either, said Cllr Yore.

Theres been no wakes so theres no way that theyre going to be commemorated or talked about.

Thats all part of the healing process in Ireland.
Louth is setting its stall as a must-visit staycation destination, with the launch of a brand-new scenic seafood trail: sea louth covers the entire 70km stretch of coast, from Drogheda to Omeath, highlighting stunning scenery and the finest local seafood along the way.

County Louth has a proud seafood tradition: world-class Carlingford and Cooley Peninsula oysters; Dunany Crab, caught fresh daily using traditional crab pot methods; lobsters caught in Dundalk Bay and Carlingford Lough; razor clams, unique to Irelands east coast; the purest Oriel Sea Salt; and fresh fish and langoustines in Clogherhead, straight off the boat and onto the plate.

The new sea louth trail, officially launching today, June 29, captures whats best about Louths 70km+ coastline, the spectacular scenery and the finest local seafood. The trail will serve to attract visitors to the area and encourage locals to explore and enjoy all that the coast of Louth has to offer; local producers and restauranteurs are expected to benefit from an increase in footfall, as a result.

"The trail has been designed to take visitors on a journey along the road less travelled, where they will meet local characters and breathe in the salty sea air. Our tagline see, eat, admire perfectly captures the essence of sea louth - see where our proud seafood producers land their catch, eat fresh local dishes by the coast and admire the spectacular views.

See, eat and admire Louth, and expect to create memories that will last a lifetime, said Colette Moss, senior executive officer, Louth County Council.

Boyne Valley food development officer, Grainne McKeown, adds: The launch of the sea louth scenic seafood trail has been timed to support the hospitality industry as they prepare to reopen for indoor dining on the 5th July following an extremely tough year.

This new initiative provides a great platform for locals and visitors alike to support local seafood producers and the tourism & hospitality sector across county Louth. Food plays a leading role in the visitor experience and this new seafood trail tells the stories behind the local seafood producers, see where they land their catch and taste the local seafood in participating restaurants. Through it, we are inviting people to see Louth in a new way!

The sea louth project was funded by Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) for the North East Region.

Speaking of the project, chair of FLAG North East, Garret OBrien, said: For us, the sea louth project is both timely and very welcome, as it creates a fantastic shop window to showcase all the very best that Louth has to offer - seafood direct from the purest of waters and the friendliest of welcomes.

Dr. John and Dr. Sally McKenna are proud to serve as ambassadors for the new sea louth trail: "Sally and I were amazed by what we discovered when we explored the sea louth trail. You need only make the merest detour from the M1, and suddenly you are in a pristine coastal ecotone where gifted people produce stunning seafood, and a whole lot more.

County Louth has the talent on the ground, which means it has all it needs to be an east coast food destination. Navigating sea louth is the perfect daytrip, the perfect weekend, the perfect getaway, said John McKenna.

Pick up a free sea louth passport from any of the countys three tourist offices in Drogheda, Dundalk or Carlingford, and follow the trail to 14 scenic locations.

Each scenic viewpoint has a unique, illustrated stamp for visitors to collect from specified shops and outlets along the trail.

In order to complete the passport, visitors must also collect two restaurant stamps  choose from over 40 participating restaurants and enjoy a delicious fresh local seafood dish from their menu to receive a stamp.

Once completed, the passport can be taken back to a Louth tourist office, where it can be exchanged for an exclusive sea louth memento. There is no expiry date, visitors can collect stamps and exchange their completed passports at their leisure.

To view the trail map, see points of interest along the way and browse participating restaurants, visit sealouth.ie.
A local Dundalk man plans to get the mop chopped for the Rapunzel Foundation, alongside raising funds for Barretstown.

Tadhg Mulligan, a local Dundalk musician, is currently fundraising for his haircut, with over 14,000 raised for Barretstown so far.

Tadhg says that Barretstown is a particularly important place for him, having had leukaemia as a child.

He says that his experiences with the charity when he was younger were great and that he can remember heading off to their camps with his siblings and parents.

According to Tadhg, this was why he wanted to help give back and so he decided to organise the fundraiser.

Weve been friendly with Barretstown for the last long time I just wanted to raise a bit of money, said Tadhg.

Alongside the fundraiser, Tadhg is planning on volunteering with Barretstown over the summer months, once he has been vaccinated and its safe to do so.

Tadhg says that he didnt expect that the online fundraiser would gather the momentum it had, with him hitting his original goal of 1,000 within a few hours of launching the campaign.

I wasnt expecting it to get as much traction and as much momentum as it has.. Its class like, said Tadhg.

The best thing is you can go in and see messages of encouragement and well wishes.

Its a wonderful feeling.. Its top class.

Hes since smashed every subsequent goal, with the latest target sitting at 15,000.

Its really nice to see the progress of it happening. Its all real-time, you know, said Tadhg.

With his experience as a trad musician, Tadhg had originally planned to hold charity gigs in pubs like Toales to raise some money, but those plans were unable to go ahead due to Covid-19 restrictions.

However, last Saturday Tadhg held a bucket collection in the square to help drum up some extra support with some busking from himself and others.

Local folk band, The Mary Wallopers, turned up at the event, with final totals from the bucket collection adding up to over 900.

Another bucket collection is set for next week

Tadhg has also been posting videos of himself performing traditional Irish music on social media, playing tunes like the Red-Haired Boy.

For the Rapunzel Foundation, Tadhg hopes that he can show young kids who might have cancer that its okay to lose their hair.

When you lose your hair you think, oh people are going to be pointing at you for wearing a bandana or not having hair but its okay like.

It kinda goes to show you that youre never really alone in these situations. There are always people that will support you and wish you well.

Now he plans to cut off between 25 and 27 inches of his hair on July 8th at his aunts hair salon, Profile Hair Design, in Mullingar.

The fundraiser is still ongoing and can be found by visiting www.justgiving.com and searching for Tadhg Mulligan.
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Just after his first week of official practice, new transfer Jesse Miritello persuaded sever
The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has pledged to increase support for the Covid-19 recovery and to step up the Banks work to tackle climate change.

Odile Renaud-Basso was speaking at the EBRDs Annual Meeting, marking 30 years since the Bank was founded in 1991 with a remit to rebuild the formerly communist economies in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since then, the Bank has expanded its work to include parts of Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and made investments totalling 150 billion.

Later on Thursday, the Banks Governors will discuss a proposal that all of the EBRDs activities be aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Ms Renaud-Basso said the shift to net-zero-carbon economies would become the main organising principle of the Bank, which already aims to make green finance the majority of its business by 2025.

She also said the Bank would do everything it could to help the economies in which it invests recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and move from the emergency response phase to measures aimed at longer-term economic rebuilding. The Governors session on Thursday will launch a discussion, whereby the economies in which the Bank invests will be asked what help they need

Research published by the EBRD earlier in the week showed that the recovery could be faster than originally thought, but that many of the 38 economies in which the Bank invests might face difficulties, as they are heavily dependent on service industries, which were harder hit.

The EBRD has a particular focus on supporting the private sector and backs its investments with advisory and policy activities  for example, helping countries to develop policies for energy efficiency or renewable energy markets.

The 2021 Annual Meeting of the EBRD's Board of Governors opened with a video celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Bank's founding. More videos

Ms Renaud-Basso said that the Banks support for building back from the impact of Covid-19 should focus on making our economies greener, more inclusive and more digital.

As the pandemic comes under control and restrictions on the economy are lifted, we will move from coping with the immediate crisis to planning for the longer term, she added. We need to continue to lead  and continue to inspire. Here we have the advantage of being both small enough to be responsive and flexible, but big enough to make a real difference across the three continents where we work.

On the Banks green mission, she said: We now need to be even more ambitious, while ensuring that people and business adversely affected by the transition are supported through it. We would like to make the shift towards net zero the main organising principle for the Bank and its activity. That would mean screening all our projects with this in mind; that we always travel along low carbon pathways; and that, in short, we constantly seek to advance the cause of climate finance.

The President was speaking to an audience of Governors, representatives of the 71 countries and institutions that are shareholders of the Bank, as well as staff and business partners. The Annual Meeting was held online for the second time, although next year the Bank hopes shareholders will be able to meet in person at an event to be hosted by Morocco, one of the countries that is both a shareholder and recipient of Bank investment and support.

Ms Renaud-Basso was elected last year as the EBRDs seventh President and the first woman to lead the Bank. She thanked staff for their commitment over the past year and spoke with pride about the EBRDs 30 years of achievement. She said: The time for making history is not over. It never is, of course, as the past year has shown. But our Bank, the EBRD, born in times of momentous change 30 years ago, remains uniquely able to make more history.
Ekaterina Solovova has taken up her position as Head of Albania for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) today. She will be based in the capital, Tirana, and oversee the Banks investments, policy engagement and advisory services in the country.

Ms. Solovova said: I am thrilled to join the excellent team in Tirana and to lead the strong delivery of EBRD support to Albania. This beautiful country has a lot of potential and, together with our partners, we will continue to help Albania build a sustainable, digital and inclusive economy.

A dual Russian and British citizen, Ms. Solovova joined the EBRD in 2004 in the Telecommunications, Media and Technology team, continuing her career to work in the private equity industry in London in 2006. She re-joined the Bank in 2012 as Head of Resident Office in Samara, Russia, and later held senior positions in Banking, as an adviser to the President and, most recently, in the Private Equity team. Ms Solovova holds a masters degree from the Thunderbird Global School of Management.

In Albania, Ms. Solovova succeeds Matteo Colangeli, who has been appointed EBRD Director for the Western Balkans region and Head of Serbia.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Albania and, to date, has invested more than 1.5 billion in 112 projects in the country. The latest country strategy was adopted in February 2020 and emphasises support for the sustainable development of the private sector, building on the strong entrepreneurial spirit in the economy, enhancing the commercialisation of infrastructure projects and promoting sustainable energy and environmentally sound investments.
Delivered by: Chair of the Board of Governors, Paschal Donohoe Event: EBRD 2021 Annual Meeting and Business Forum

Chancellor, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Governors, President, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am delighted to welcome you all to the 30th Annual Meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Watch the video

Ireland is extremely proud of its long association with the EBRD. It was in Dublin, at two European Council meetings in early 1990, that the first foundations of the EBRD were negotiated.

And now, thirty years later, I am honoured to be Chairing this anniversary Annual Meeting today.

As a small, open economy, Ireland supports and promotes private and entrepreneurial initiative. Given our membership of the UN and EU and as a founding shareholder of the EBRD, Ireland plays a strong role in fostering the transition towards open market-oriented economies. As such, we are deeply committed to the Banks founding articles of multi-party democracy, pluralism and market economies.

The impact of the Bank in developing and implementing measures to meet its founding articles in its countries of operation has been significant. Its work, in partnership with Governments and businesses in these countries, have transformed the lives of millions of people for the better.

The EBRD has now turned its focus on another transition, which has the potential to impact on millions more lives: the transition to net zero carbon. In this context, the Bank has provided much needed and technically proficient support to sectors such as agri-business, energy and industry.

I am personally pleased that Irelands relationship with the EBRD continues to grow, as evidenced by the increasing engagement with Enterprise Ireland to encourage Irish businesses to work with Governments and Businesses in EBRD countries of operation.

The EBRD is a unique institution and has shown its ingenuity at every stage during all its 30 years, as it has accessed, leveraged and applied public and private capital to facilitate the transformation of economies. This uniqueness and adroitness has been emphasised in the European Global Financial Architecture for Development.

In this regard, I am pleased that the European Council has agreed that the EU can best deliver its development ambitions in partnership with the international community, with the EBRD having a core role to play in that effort.

As President of the Eurogroup, and as a Finance Minister of a country that has a long-standing commitment to international development, I strongly welcome and support this outcome. The Bank has played a critical role in development and economic reconstruction, and it will continue to do so in this area, where a range of challenges remain.

The ability to respond urgently and decisively to a crisis has been the hallmark of the EBRD since its inception. This can be seen from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Arab Spring; from reacting to the various financial crises we have experienced, to the ongoing Covid pandemic.

Throughout 2020  and now into 2021  the Bank has once again proven itself to be a steadfast and trusted partner for its countries of operations, delivering unprecedented and innovative support for all its clients.

All of us  Governors, Board Directors, Senior Management and Bank Staff  should be very proud of the success of this crisis response.

The EBRD complemented this exceptional support with a remarkable financial performance, recording a net profit of 290 million for 2020.

My congratulations to you Odile and your dedicated teams who have worked in very difficult circumstances to deliver for clients and shareholders.

For 2021, and beyond, it will be vital for the Bank to continue to rise to the challenges of the pandemic and its aftermath. As we turn our thoughts to recovery, it will be especially important for the EBRD to focus its efforts on assisting those countries whose economies have been hardest the hit, and where the transition gaps remain largest.

Not doing so would risk these countries falling even further behind.

Rebuilding economies is front and centre on every Finance Ministers agenda. And at our meeting today, we, as Governors, will be contributing to this important issue through our discussions on how the EBRD can continue to help build back the economies of our Recipient Countries stronger, better and greener.

I am delighted that we will be considering a Resolution on the EBRDs Climate Ambition. If we adopt this later, it will ensure that all the Banks activities are brought in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement by December 2022. It will also see the Bank work to accelerate decarbonisation of the energy sector, and will strengthen EBRD support for the development of low carbon and climate resilient futures in our Recipient Countries.

At todays meeting we will also have the opportunity to consider other important institutional and financial matters that will influence the future activities of the Bank. This includes a decision on a Resolution to give guidance to the EBRD on its work on a possible limited and incremental expansion to Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. This will ensure that our discussions on this topic at next years Annual Meeting are well prepared.

I am very much looking forward to chairing the Plenary Session and hearing Governors views on these important topics.

For 30 years the EBRD has been leading the way on investing in changing lives. It has forged paths that no others had envisioned.

It has innovated by creating new tools and mechanisms to effect change. And it has shown agility in responding quickly and decisively during volatile and economic times.

It is an embodiment of the multilateral co-operation, which is needed now more than ever. Not only to continue the recovery, but to turn the adversity of the pandemic into a positive for the future.

To bring the IFI community together.

And to build back better, greener economies for all our futures.

The EBRD is well equipped to chart this new path. And to once again show the way for others to follow for the next thirty years.

Thank you very much.
A PEDESTRIAN crossing is set to be put in place at a busy area of the city over the summer to improve pedestrian safety. Councillors were told at a north east local area committee meeting earlier this week that the works to the new crossing on Wellington Road will proceed shortly as part of the MacCurtain Street public transport improvement scheme.

Speaking to The Echo, Fine Gael councillor and former lord mayor Joe Kavanagh said traffic calming measures will also be put in place.

There will be a raised table on Sidney Hill to slow traffic down and also further down the hill there will be a pedestrian crossing, he said.

Itll make Wellington Road a far more passable road in terms of safety. Its a heavily populated area in terms of schools. Theres a lot of footfall in that area.

This sentiment was echoed by Independent councillor Ken OFlynn. He said the changes will bring significant safety benefits to schools in the area which include Christian Brothers College, St Angelas College, Scoil Mhuire and Bruce College.

Last October, city councillors approved Part 8 planning for the MacCurtain Street Public Transport Improvement Scheme.

The plans, which also incorporate some of the nearby area, aim to transform the busy street for the first time in over 50 years, making it more suitable for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport.

The National Transport Authority-funded scheme will see the street transformed from a one-way to two-way traffic, as well as wider footpaths, bus priority measures, resurfacing, more street furniture, tree planting and the renewal of street lighting and traffic signals.

It also encompasses streets, quays and bridges close to MacCurtain Street which will see segregated bike lanes and bus lanes.
SCHOOLS must be given clarity on whether a grant for Covid-19 cleaning supports for schools will be continued for the next school year.

That is according to a West Cork school principal who is concerned that a decision has not yet been made on it.

Barth Harrington, principal of Scoil na mBuachailli in Clonakilty, said that his school hired two cleaners last year for 14 hours each per week using the grant to ensure that the school was cleaned and sanitised to prevent the spread of Covid-19. He said that there had not been an outbreak of the virus in the school and believes this was because of the work done by the two cleaners.

In recent days, following a query from the school in relation to whether the funding would continue, an email from the Department of Education said: I cannot confirm covid funding details for the 2021/22 academic year at this time, however, the Department will continue to review the position over the coming months and it is intended that details of any grant payments for the 2021/22 school year, will be made available as soon as possible.

Mr Harrington said: Scoil na mBuachailli has 260 pupils and around 30 staff. We have ten classrooms, six resource rooms, a staff room, corridors and toilets that all have to be cleaned.

He said the cleaners who were employed last year now do not know if they will be re-employed for the next school year, adding that the school will be reopening in late August. This should be planned by now.

Chief executive of the Irish Primary Principals Network, Padraig Clerkin, said the network is currently awaiting guidance from the department but added that there is a commitment that schools will be adequately funded to ensure they can manage all matters relating to Covid-19.

Sinn Feins education spokesperson Donnchadh O Laoghaire said: Last year, the reopening of schools was chaotic for principals and boards of management. It was right down to the wire and was extremely stressful. No way that this should happen this year. It is essential that schools get an outline of what funding is available and the decision must be made soon.

The Department of Education was contacted for comment.
The Government is facing mounting resistance to plans to delay the reopening of indoor hospitality and only allow fully vaccinated people dine inside.

The Irish Times reports that Taoiseach Micheal Martin was told that Fianna Fail was now toxic and irrelevant to young people who were up in arms, during a lengthy and fraught meeting of the parliamentary party on Wednesday.

Cork East TD James OConnor said that, as the youngest member of the party, he found it harder to defend Fianna Fail and the Government, warning that it was becoming irrelevant and toxic to young people.

He also called for anyone born since 1996 to be offered 150 as an incentive to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

Sources said Mr OConnor was approached by a Minister of State after he made the contribution to the meeting, with the Minister criticising him in a public verbal confrontation. Mr OConnor was also criticised by several other TDs.

Defied whip

Mr OConnor then left the meeting and defied the Government whip by not being present for a vote in the Dail on Wednesday night on an amendment to the Land Development Agency Bill.

It is understood that he let the party leadership know he would not be present for the vote and no disciplinary action will be taken against him.

Meanwhile, at the parliamentary party meeting, Senator Lisa Chambers is understood to have said that she could not square the circle of telling younger people that they could work in but not enjoy indoor spaces.

TD Marc MacSharry also said he had no confidence in the Taoiseachs ability to manage Covid-19 and described him as an expensive conduit between the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) and Government.

He accused Mr Martin of being a passenger on the Tony Holohan bus, sources said.

Conscience clear

The Taoiseach told the meeting his conscience was clear on the Governments decision to temporarily delay indoor dining.

Mr Martin said the easy thing would have been to reopen but told his TDs we took the tough decision.

He is understood to have said that while Nphet had set the bar high in terms of allowing restaurants and pubs to reopen, the Government would keep an open mind on how they could be reopened in future.

Defending the Governments handling of the pandemic in the face of criticism from his party, he also said an average of 2,245 more people would have died if Ireland had followed the Swedish strategy which he said some people had called for.

The Taoiseach earlier insisted in the Dail it was the right decision to pause the reopening, adding that we dont want to divide society. We want to protect people.

Mr Martin stressed how stark the warnings were and quoted Scotlands first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who said that the Delta variant of Covid-19 will rip through an unvaccinated population.

Vaccine changes

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told the Fianna Fail party meeting that the Nphet modelling did not include changes made by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) to allow younger people to be given AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines.

He also told the meeting that the biggest hurricane that has ever hit Ireland is coming.

Earlier on Wednesday, the chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, also told opposition parties that the modelling used by Nphet on dramatic increases of case numbers and deaths from the Delta variant did not take into account the Niac changes.

This is despite the fact that Cabinet sources said the Taoiseach told Ministers this week that it had been factored in.

Amid continuing pressure, a Government delegation led by Mr Martin told representatives of the hospitality industry that a mid-July reopening of indoor hospitality might still be possible if new data from the UK indicated lower hospitalisation and death rates from the Delta variant.


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The U.S. technology industry is guardedly supporting a massive legislative package designed to address a range of issues affecting the sector, including a federal commitment to add billions of dollars to government technology research and development programs.

The legislation, dubbed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), was approved June 8 by a rare bipartisan vote of 68-32 in the U.S. Senate.

A major factor driving the legislation is the contention that the U.S. has fallen behind China in a national effort to support technology development, including information technology and the digital economy. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., characterized the legislation as "a landmark bill to out-compete China in key emerging technology areas critical to our national security."

Specific areas of focus in the bill include artificial intelligence, machine learning and other software advances; high performance computing, semiconductors, and advanced computer hardware; quantum computing and information systems; biotechnology, medical technology, genomics, and synthetic biology; cybersecurity, and energy innovation including battery technology.

Multiple Amendments

The package started out as the Endless Frontier Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Young, among others. That bill was ambitious enough as first introduced in April. The bill focused on boosting funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) including creation of a new NSF "Directorate for Technology."

However, the bill attracted additional provisions during the legislative process, including some which were really complete stand-alone bills that were rolled into the final package, resulting in a 2,300-page proposal.

The legislation even includes the CHIPS for America program to provide $52 billion in federal support for domestic semiconductor development and production.

For companies involved in IT and the digital economy, an important part of the USICA bill deals with significantly boosting federal investments in technology through the National Science Foundation. Both the proposed funding levels and the government's approach to managing those investments are critical issues requiring close attention for the IT sector.

Under the Senate USICA bill, NSF's annual budget would nearly double to an average of $16 billion per year over five years from 2022 to 2026. The current fiscal 2021 budget is $8.5 billion. This huge boost in investment is largely related to funding a new NSF Directorate for Technology and Innovation at an average of nearly $6 billion annually from 2022 to 2026.

Private Sector Partnerships

Private sector IT and digital economy entities will be major beneficiaries of the new NSF directorate. The purpose of the directorate is to "strengthen U.S. leadership in critical technologies," and to "accelerate technology commercialization."

The legislation further provides that the proposed directorate should "direct basic and applied research, advanced technology development, and commercialization support in the key technology focus areas" listed in the bill. Through the directorate NSF is expected to form partnerships with other federal agencies as well as with "academia, the private sector, and nonprofit entities."

The move to establishing closer ties between NSF and the private sector has raised concerns about the foundation's traditional role of engaging in "pure" or basic research unfettered by commercial considerations.

Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said soon after the NSF directorate was proposed there was "pushback." The scientific community, he noted "resisted the idea that government would be asking them to do work related to a critical national mission, and to hold them accountable for ensuring that their work helped accomplish that mission."

While ITIF supports the provisions in USICA which create the new NSF technology directorate, Atkinson told the E-Commerce Times that "an even more effective approach would be to establish such a directorate as a free-standing agency."

A separate umbrella entity tuned in to the full range of federal technology activities would avoid any conflicts with the traditional missions of NSF and other agencies, while creating a national effort to support both government and commercial private sector technology development, he contends.

Atkinson favors the creation of a National Advanced Industry and Technology Agency, at the same size as NSF, to "analyze U.S. industry strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and to respond with well-resourced solutions ranging from support for domestic research and development to production partnerships and investment in advanced research facilities."

More than 50 other countries have established such agencies, he noted.

"It is clear that NSF and the science community are uneasy" with taking on applied science with commercial connections versus NSF's traditional mission, Atkinson said, adding that NSF would "vastly prefer" just getting much larger appropriations.

"But that would do little to help U.S. technology-based competitiveness," he said. Establishing a separate agency would let NSF continue its mission while enabling applied and industry focused research to be funded elsewhere, he observed.

Advocates, Opponents Take Positions

Whether the USICA package represents a comprehensive approach to developing a national technology capability through government intervention -- or a confusing legislative hodgepodge -- is likely to be in the eye of the beholder. Differences related to NSF's future mission aren't the only potential stumbling blocks affecting eventual enactment of the USICA legislation.

For example, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) approved the major USICA goal of supporting increased federal investments for technology research and development, but found other parts of the bill "worrisome."

One section of the bill deals with "Country of Origin Labeling" (COOL) requirements associated with the internet marketing of internationally sourced products. While COOL especially impacts the U.S. retail marketing sector, digital economy entities have concerns as well.

Arthur Sidney, vice-president of CCIA noted that country of origin provisions in the bill present implementation challenges "given the volume of transactions and no consistent, uniform, and administrable definition" related to COO coverage. "Country of Origin in the international trade context is difficult to administer by customs and authorities, let alone a digital service," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Sidney also expressed concern about the section of USICA aimed at curbing the use of censorship as a trade barrier tool. Language that would refer such activities to legal authorities for action was "scaled back" in the Senate bill, he contended. It was replaced by provisions which simply called for an annual report to Congress with a list of countries that use censorship as a barrier to digital trade and a description of the agencies efforts to address digital trade disruptions, he said.

While the U. S. Chamber of Commerce expressed general support for the bill in a June 9 statement, Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer said the Chamber had "ongoing concerns," about the bill. In a letter to the Senate in May, the Chamber advocated elimination of the Country of Origin section and expressed reservations about provisions that impact e-commerce such as "Cyber Shield, copyright, and information in the public domain."

The Senate bill must now be considered by the House of Representatives where similar legislation was approved Monday. However, the House bill only focused on the research scope of NSF and the U.S. Department of Energy. The House bill also includes a new NSF technology solutions directorate but funded at a much lower level than the Senate version.

The ultimate outcome for USICA could take several paths. Since amendments to the Senate bill were added with relative ease, they could be scuttled just as easily, allowing the core NSF and national technology investment elements to be the focus for legislators. Or the collective controversies associated with the different versions of the legislation could stymie adoption.

Regarding chances for enactment of USICA, CCIA's Sidney noted "We aren't sanguine, but we are hopeful that this will see the light of day. While it's not perfect, and we have some concerns, we are hopeful that it can help businesses, and serve as one of the building blocks to protect U.S. innovation and technology."

John K. Higgins has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2009. His main areas of focus are U.S. government technology issues such as IT contracting, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud technology, big data and e-commerce regulation. As a freelance journalist and career business writer, he has written for numerous publications, including The Corps Report and Business Week. Email John.




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Important as it is to continually acquire new customers, it's every bit as vital for businesses to nurture existing clientele.

The E-Commerce Times talked with several experts in customer engagement to get their thoughts about why it's critical to cultivate current customers -- and how to encourage them to stick around.

"Assuming that a firm has a recurring revenue model -- SaaS, maintenance, retainers, or repeat sales -- then customer retention is just as important as new customer acquisition," Candyce Edelen, CEO and founder of PropelGrowth, told the E-Commerce Times.

"In fact, the cost of customer retention is a small fraction of the cost of customer acquisition. This is particularly true for any model where the CAC isn't recovered in the first couple months of the customer lifecycle," she offered.

Worth the Cost

Not focusing on customer engagement and retention can ultimately end up unraveling all the work that goes into acquiring those customers in the first place.

"Businesses that don't focus on customer retention and nurturing those relationships are really shooting themselves in the foot," explained Edelen. "Nurturing existing customers can have a huge payoff in reducing churn, improving lifetime customer value, and encouraging referrals, references and positive word-of-mouth."

Given the costs associated with acquiring customers, it just makes sense to try to keep them.

"The cost to acquire a transaction on platforms such as Amazon continues to go up," Kunal Chopra, CEO of Kaspien, told the E-Commerce Times.

"In addition, freight costs have been increasing substantially globally. This has put pressure on profit margins for marketplace businesses, so gaining loyal, repeat customers is a great way to increase a customer's lifetime value relative to the cost to acquire a new customer," he added.

The pandemic, as well, has made nurturing existing customers more of a priority than ever.

"Covid has pushed more brands to sell online, which has increased competition for sellers," said Chopra. "In addition, Amazon itself has over 5 million sellers, so it's vital for sellers to retain loyal customers and market share."

Trust and Rewards

Establishing a sense of trust is one of the key components of successful customer engagement.

"Eroding trust through a poor customer experience is one of the most surefire ways to lose out on a repeat customer," explained Chopra. "For example, if a customer receives the wrong item after ordering on Amazon and reaches out to you for a solution, be sure to provide them with one.

"Depending on the Amazon fulfillment method, they may need to contact Amazon for a solution, but if they have reached out to you as the seller, do all you can to help them. Avoid just deferring them to Amazon because it's 'Amazon's fault they received the wrong item.'

"They're still your customer, so treat them as such and you may just gain a loyal customer by providing them with an excellent experience. The same goes for any online marketplace."

It's also important for businesses to remember to give some attention not just to new customers, but to existing ones.

"I'm always shocked when companies offer discounts or rewards only for new customers," explained Edelen. "They're basically telling existing customers, 'We don't care about you.'

"Customer support sometimes falls short when the firm doesn't hire the right talent or give them sufficient training. Outsourcing support is often a customer relationship killer. To change this, make customer retention just as high a priority as customer acquisition. Train teams to be effective in this area; set goals and KPIs, and reward success just like you track and reward sales."

Building Community

Ultimately, one of the best methods of engaging and retaining existing customers is to create a sense of community that extends beyond products and services.

"Brands and businesses should be aiming to build a tribe-like community, which is something I personally cherish when supporting or consuming a brand and its products," Matthew Hayes, managing director of Champions (UK), told the E-Commerce Times.

"As much as it's about a brand's product or service, it is just as much about the experience of the entire process, personalization and a human-to-human approach. Whilst we're living in an era of immense digitalization, brands shouldn't forget that they are targeting people, not robots, and to bear this in mind when communicating with consumers," he advised.

That community, in turn, helps to create repeat customers -- since the customers' identities are woven in with the brand itself -- and it also helps businesses to understand what kinds of rewards and incentives might work best for particular customers.

"Knowing how much and how often a customer spends with a brand provides them with the opportunity to offer rewards, discounts, and other incentives, which will also lead to repurchases," said Hayes.

"As well as this," he continued, "sending a valued customer a handwritten note or message can also go a long way -- whether it's a simple 'thank you', giving them early access to a new launch, or offering them a referral incentive."

Beyond the Sale

Customer engagement involves thinking beyond the initial sale and into the future relationship with each customer.

"Brands need to understand that the sale is only halfway through the customer experience, and that they must spend the same amount of effort and attention to the after sales experience as they do to new customer acquisition," stressed Hayes. "This will drive repeat orders and brand advocacy."

"It is clear that the future of customer engagement and retention will take place online and in a variety of digital forms," he added. "The future is just that -- digital."

A large part of the success of digital engagement is the degree of personalization it allows and facilitates.

"The number-one thing is personalization," according to Hayes.

"In an increasingly complex and socially distant world, humans need more personalized communication from their digital product providers, not less. It is about using automation, digitalization and data insights to deliver a personalized and tailored service to customers, anticipating and meeting their needs instantaneously and in ways that feel unique to them.

"One thing that I urge brands and business to focus on is the needs of consumers. If you constantly provide a product or service that meets the ever-changing needs of consumers, you can't go too far wrong," he concluded.

Vivian Wagner has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. Her main areas of focus are technology, business, CRM, e-commerce, privacy, security, arts, culture and diversity. She has extensive experience reporting on business and technology for a variety of outlets, including The Atlantic, The Establishment and O, The Oprah Magazine. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in modern American literature and culture. She received a first-place feature reporting award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and is the author of Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys, published by ECT News Network in May 2020. Email Vivian.


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In this June 29, 2020 file photo, the Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Restauranteur Orlandous Johnson prepares to cut the ribbon on the second location of Ramona J's at 22728 Pepper Road during a ceremony held Wednesday. Johnson opened his first location on U.S. 31 in April 2020.
By now, gamers are accustomed to receiving freebies through Sony's PlayStation Plus and Microsoft's Xbox Games with Gold perks. Now, Amazon is here to remind you that it offers gaming benefits for Prime members, too. From today through to September 1st, the subscription service is giving away three classic LucasArts PC games on the first of every month. The trio includes The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, followed by Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and, finally, Sam & Max: Hit The Road.

Compared to its expedited deliveries and Prime Video streaming, Amazon's gaming goodies (including free titles and loot) inevitably feel like the lesser of its Prime perks. These certified classics should therefore help to boost its appeal with nostalgic gamers.

Since its revival in January, the Disney-owned Lucasfilm Games brand has been busy retooling its franchises for newer platforms. In honor of Monkey Islands 30th anniversary, Limited Run Games released a comprehensive collectors edition back in October that assembled all five games in the series, including Telltales Tales of Monkey Island. In June, Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual! brought the anthropomorphic detectives to Oculus VR. While Indy is about to star in a new game from MachineGames, the studio behind the modern Wolfenstein series, with Bethesda's Todd Howard serving as an executive producer.
A little over a year after samurai adventure Ghost of Tsushima arrived on PlayStation 4, a Director's Cut will land on PS4 and PS5. Along with the original game and all of the updates Sucker Punch Productions has released to date, there'll be a new island to explore and some much-requested additions.

Jin will travel to Iki Island, which neighbors Tsushima, to look into rumors that Mongols are there. However, he'll need to deal with some traumatic issues from his earlier life as he faces challenges with "deeply personal stakes," according to a PlayStation blog post. You'll get to experience a new story and meet new characters. There are also fresh abilities, mini games, enemies, armor and animals to pet.

Iki seems like a significant expansion that might help keep fans busy until the movie arrives. New players can unlock Iki once they reach the Toyotama region in Act 2 of Ghost of Tsushima.

The PS5 version will have a few exclusive features. Cutscenes will now support lip sync for Japanese voiceovers. The developers were able to add this feature by harnessing the PS5's real-time rendering ability for cinematics. There will be haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support for the DualSense controller, along with 3D audio, faster load times, resolution up to 4K and a target framerate of 60 fps.

Meanwhile, a patch with some useful features is on the way for all players. A target lock-on option, photo mode updates, more controller remapping and a way to hide the quiver during combat are coming soon. Additional updates are in the pipeline for the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends co-op experience as well, including a new mode.

Sucker Punch Productions

Unfortunately, you won't get a free upgrade to the Director's Cut on either console. Current Ghost of Tsushima owners can upgrade to the PS4 Director's Cut for $20. You can then upgrade again to the PS5 version for another $10. Alternatively, you can pay $30 to upgrade straight from the original game to the PS5 Director's Cut. Phew.

Newcomers can buy Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut for $60 on PS4 and $70 on PS5. While there will be physical editions available, it's maybe best to pre-order from the PlayStation Store if you're planning to play any time soon. The current game costs $60, but if you pre-order the upcoming edition at the same price, you can download and play the original PS4 game right away. You'll be able to transfer progress to Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut after it arrives in August.
All three major US carriers have met the deadline to implement the FCC's new anti-spoofing protocol designed to protect users from scam caller impersonation. Both Verizon and T-Mobile announced yesterday that all calls originating on their networks are 100 percent compliant with the FCC's "STIR/SHAKEN" technology designed to show a caller's true phone number. AT&T, meanwhile, confirmed with The Verge that it's also in compliance with the new rules.

The FCC had set a deadline of June 30th for the major carrier's to implement the STIR/SHAKEN protocol developed under the Ajit Pai regime. For now, smaller carriers have until June 30th, 2023 unless the FCC decides to shorten that timespan, something that's currently under consideration.

The STIR/SHAKEN standards serve as a common digital language used by phone networks, allowing valid information to pass from provider to provider which, among other things, informs blocking tools of possible suspicious calls.

So what does the new protocol do? Without it, scam or spam callers can spoof their phone numbers to show up as local numbers, making it more likely that you'll pick up. STIR/SHAKEN deals with that by using public key encryption digital certificates sent by the originating telephone service provider, with the keys verified by the terminating service provider. If everything matches, then the calling number hasn't been spoofed.

The FCC is hoping that carrier implementation will reduce the volume of spam, scam and robocalls that have made answering your phone a game of whack-a-mole. The commission said that over 1,500 voice providers have filed to be in its robocall mitigation database with over 200 of those being fully certified. "Beginning on September 28, 2021, if a voice service providers certification does not appear in the database, intermediate and voice service providers will be prohibited from directly accepting the providers traffic," the FCC stated.

The protocol will help reduce but not totally eliminate scams or robocalls. Legacy phone systems that don't use IP protocols are exempt from the rules, and the system won't work with international calls. Still, if a local pops up on your phone going forward, you can have more confidence that it's not a fake number coming from a scammer.
The Active 4 may not be the only Samsung smartwatch to feature its new OS built with Google. Android Headlines has published leaked pics of a new device it claims is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. While the fitness-focused Active 4 features a slimmer design, the Classic appears to sport a larger, rotating bezel with two noticeably bigger buttons on the side for navigation. The latter are rectangular in shape, compared to the rounded buttons on 2016's Gear S3 Classic and 2020's Galaxy Watch 3.

Android Headlines

Breaking away from tradition, Samsung will reportedly offer the new watch in three sizes: 42mm, 44mm and 46mm. Previously, the Korean company released either 42mm or 46mm or 40mm and 44mm models. As with the Active 4 leak, there's no mention of the exact screen size. But, apparently the watch will come in three colors (compared to four for the upcoming Active 4) including white, gray and black. The restrained design also reportedly extends to the cases, which will offer a silver or black option in either stainless steel or aluminum across all three sizes.

Like the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch Active 2 before it, the new smartwatch will apparently feature a Gorilla Glass DX or DX+ display on the stainless steel and aluminum models, respectively. The new classic is reportedly 5ATM rated, meaning its water resistant up to 50 metres for 10 minutes, and dust-resistant thanks to its MIL-STD-810G standard.

You may not have to wait long to find out more about the new device. Samsung recently confirmed that the first One UI-based Galaxy Watch will be unveiled at its Unpacked event this summer.
Where's our flying-car future? Maybe it's finally a little closer. AirCar, a prototype car-plane-thing from Klein Vision made a trip between Nitra and Bratislava airports in Slovakia. After 35 minutes in the air, and making the landing, its inventor clicked a button, the wings tucked in and he drove the car home straight from the tarmac.

The company has worked on hybrid aircraft for more than 30 years. With 142 successful landings and 40-plus hours of test flights under its belt, Professor Stefan Klein is convinced that his third prototype is ready to go into pre-production.

AirCar, YouTube

Whats particularly interesting compared to other flying vehicles is this is very much a car (with a BMW petrol engine inside), not a drone or a vertical take-off and land (VTOL) machine. Its more like a plane and requires a runway to get into the sky.

For the next stage, Klein wants to almost double the horsepower of the engine and believes the vehicle will be eligible for aircraft certification from European aviation regulators. Oh yes, along with an M1 road permit for when the wheels hit the ground.

 Mat Smith

A surprisingly complete preview of the future.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

The iOS 15 public beta is live today, which means a lot of us can now check out the latest features coming to iPhones later this year. (Warning: If youre thinking of trying the public beta, make sure youve considered the risk of running preview software.)

Some of the updates getting the most buzz are the new Focus modes and FaceTime sharing tools, but there are also changes across Messages, Maps, Weather, Safari, Photos and more. Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low has been testing the developer beta ahead of wider testing: Heres what she thought.

Its first EV built from the ground up.

Volvo

Volvo's electric vehicles to date have been offshoots of existing car platforms, but thats soon to change. The brand has unveiled a Concept Recharge design that shows the direction for the company's "pure" EV future  both in aesthetics and technology.

The Concept Recharge ditches the usual engine bay and tucks a large battery into a flat floor. That makes more interior space, of course, but also leads to shorter overhangs, a lower hood and a new roof profile. This also gives Volvo an excuse to streamline everything. Continue reading.

Whos the true god of mischief?

Disney

Thanks to the billions Disney spent adding Marvel, Lucasfilm and assets from 21st Century Fox, its time for the Simpson family to meet Marvels favorite cinematic villain: Loki. Fans of Loki have more than just a new episode of Marvels live-action series to look forward to next Wednesday. On July 7th, Disney will also release to Disney+ The Good, The Bart, and The Loki, a new Simpsons short, guest starring Tom Hiddleston. Continue reading.

Subtle but useful changes.

While the next watchOS might not represent as significant a change as iOS 15, it does bring new health and fitness tools, along with tighter iPhone integration. Apple's new health-centric features could interest those looking for a more holistic approach to wellbeing. The company has renamed its Breathe app Mindfulness, adding Reflect to the existing breathing exercises. Theres also the introduction of Tai Chi and Pilates classes to the workout stable. Once again, Cherlynn takes a look at whats new. Continue reading.

More contrast than LED, brighter than OLED?

LG

LG's lineup of QNED 4K and 8K TVs unveiled late last year will arrive in the US in July, the company has announced. They'll sit just below LG's flagship OLED and consist of two 8K models (the QNED99 and QNED95) along with the 4K QNED90, in sizes from 65 to 85 inches. The TVs will launch first in North America and arrive in other regions in the coming weeks.

Mini LED tech attempts to blend the characteristics of OLED and LED. Unlike regular LED models, Mini LED uses thousands of tiny LEDs, up to 30,000 for the 86-inch 8K QNED99. With so many more dimming zones, it should offer contrasts better than LED sets as well as brightness levels that go beyond OLED TVs.

LG didn't reveal pricing, but B&H Photo Video already has most of the lineup available for pre-order. Prices start at $1,997 for the QNED90 65-inch 4K model, with the 75- and 86-inch 4K QNED90 sets at $2,997 and $3,997, respectively. The flagship 86-inch model, meanwhile, is a heady $6,497. Continue reading.

The company is trying to address Zoom fatigue.

Slack is adding real-time audio features. The messaging app is launching a new, Discord-like chat feature called Huddles. The feature, along with new collaboration tools for sharing pre-recorded audio and video, is, according to the company, meant to provide an alternative to the endless stream of meetings that have dominated many of our calendars over the last year and a half. Continue reading.

But wait, theres more...

July's PlayStation Plus games include 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 4'

The iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8 public betas are here

Amazon calls for FTC Chair Lina Khan's recusal from antitrust investigations

United's new Boeing jets will offer Bluetooth audio with its in-flight entertainment

Apple's developer problems are much bigger than Epic and 'Fortnite'

Hackers exploited two flaws in event that remotely wiped Western Digital devices
Sixty years after excelling in the Mercury 13 program, Wally Funk is finally going to space. Amazon CEO and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos announced on Instagram that Funk will be on New Shepard's first crewed flight, which is scheduled for July 20th.

Funk will join Bezos, his brother Mark and an unidentified winner of an auction as passengers on Blue Origin's maiden space tourism flight. Bezos says the quartet will experience zero gravity for four minutes when they travel to the edge of space and that Funk is Blue Origin's "honored guest."

The 82-year-old Funk will become the oldest person to fly to space. The current record holder is John Glenn, who flew on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 mission in 1998 at the age of 77. Glenn was one of the Mercury Seven, the astronauts who were selected for the United States' first spaceflight program.

Thirteen women went through the same tests as the Mercury Seven as part of the privately funded Women in Space Program. Although all of the Mercury Seven traveled to space, none of Mercury 13 have until now. Funk was the youngest participant in the program and rated third among the candidates.

Funk was the first female inspector in the Federal Aviation Administration and the first woman to become an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. She has logged more than 19,600 flying hours and has taught more than 3,000 people to fly. Funk applied three times to join NASA's astronaut program after the agency opened it to women in the late 1970s to no avail. Six decades after Funk's first attempts to venture to space, she'll finally get her chance.
No. 2 Republican won't say if GOP will support Jan. 6 probe

The No. 2 House Republican wont say whether his caucus will support or participate in a proposed select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol
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A never-before-seen diary just proved how kind Princess Diana was, especially to children.

Ahead of the celebration of Princess Diana's life, the British Red Cross shared a diary entry of someone after meeting the royal.

The article by Express shared a diary entry by Eileen Nicol on July 30, 1985. The diary's owner reportedly met the Princess of Wales when she visited an Activenture center - a holiday camp for children with disabilities.

The British Red Cross launched the aforementioned camp located in Sussex. Although Princess Diana was already known for her very bright and kind aura, she showed her positive side even more at that time.

"[The Princess] was charming. She has so much compassion for the children. She spoke to every one of them and got right down on the ground to look at a collage and to speak to the little ones," Nicol penned.

She added that, at the time of the visit, the rain started pouring but the royal princess seemed unbothered. Princess Diana reportedly checked on her and asked why she was not wearing a hat.

The now-87-year-old can still recall that day when the princess offered her the care she needs. Until now, she still supports British Red Cross as inspired by the late royal.

Nicol added that Princess Diana spoke to everyone that the children on the camp fell in love with her. In return, the princess also loved talking to the kids that she wished she had Nicol's job.

Princess Diana's Kindness Through The Years

Apart from Nicol, the Princess of Wales herself expressed her gratitude to be the patron of Red Cross Youth.

The letter, which she wrote in 1993, was also released ahead of her 60th birthday. The document revealed that she worked with the British Red Cross across the country and overseas.

READ ALSO: James Franco Agreed to Pay THIS Whopping Amount to Settle Sexual Misconduct Lawsuit

"I have always been greatly encouraged by the splendid efforts of volunteers and staff in providing help for those most in need," she went on.

Princess Diana noted that the British Red Cross has been serving the public while the demands and needs increase. She explained that, because of this, everyone's supports play a huge role.

Upon seeing the document, Nicol herself recalled how approachable the princess was, and how her legacy should be held onto.

Throughout her service before her death, the royal princess works with removing the landmines and eliminating the stigma around HIV/AIDS. Her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry continue her work until now.

READ MORE: Jamie Spears Lying? Britney Spears' Conservator Slams Father Over Medical Freedom Claims

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The rumors of Biz Markie's death quickly spread on social media but were quickly denied by his wife.

Sportswriter and reporter Brandon Robinson stirred panic for the Twitter community with his tweets about the rapper.

"Praying for the family of Biz Markie," Robinson tweeted out a series of updates about the rapper's current status in the hospice.

Later on, the reporter posted a quote tweet about how Markie might not survive through the weekend. Revealing his sources as people from "within Biz Markie's circle," and "a family associate."

Regrettably Ill add, some within Biz Markies circle have shared that the rapper may not make it through the weekend.



Please keep he and his family in your thoughts and prayers. https://t.co/7ayLefSE4w   Brandon Scoop B Robinson  (@ScoopB) July 1, 2021

However, American journalist Rolan Martin countered the fake news with his tweet, saying that he's been in contact with Markie's wife, Tara.

I am ON THE PHONE right now with @BizMarkie's wife at 1:14 am EST. He HAS NOT PASSED AWAY. So PLEASE STOP IT! She says this is hurtful to all of his family. Folks, I'm a JOURNALIST. I'm not gonna pass on BS. I'll let you know what I KNOW FOR CERTAIN. #BlackOwnedMediaMatters  rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) July 1, 2021



According to Martin, Tara said all the rumors about the rapper's death are hurtful to their family and confirmed that he is not dead.

Biz Markie's Representative Claims Rapper is "Getting Better" Under Medical Care

Rumors about Biz Markie's death have finally died down.

Credible sources release statements from the rapper's management.

Rolling Stone reached out to the rapper's representative, saying, "Biz is still under medical care, surrounded by professionals who are working hard to provide the best healthcare possible."

The artist underwent rehabilitation after suffering from a stroke in April. In 2010, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and had been taking medication ever since.

During the previous year, the 57-year old rapper had been hospitalized in Maryland for undisclosed reasons. But, it is assumed to be related to his diabetes.

At that time, his manager- Jenni Izumi-said that their team will remain optimistic about the outcome of the rapper's treatment.

READ ALSO: T-Pain Goes Through Depression After THIS Hurtful Statement From Usher, Reveals Netflix New Docuseries

"RIP Biz Markie" Trends on Twitter, Confused Fans Express Their Fondest Memories of Rapper

Unaware of the actual status of the rapper, Biz Markie fans had flooded Twitter with their well-wishes.

The Twitter community tweeted out their "Rest In Peace" as the fake news of Biz Markie's death spread to the public.

Rest In Peace to Biz Markie. pic.twitter.com/DH7lfjMOmc  Boss (@_ValTown_) July 1, 2021

Many expressed their disbelief and grief about the idea of Biz dying; one person said, "Damn Rest In Peace to Biz Markie we can't keep losing legends like this."

Damn Rest In Peace to Biz Markie we cant keep losing legends like this pic.twitter.com/fg3ZIEzFGM  Rich (@UptownDC_Rich) July 1, 2021



American actor Elijah Wood had also been fooled as he posted a photo of the rapper with the caption "Biz Markie?! Aww man. RIP and love to his family."

READ MORE: R. Kelly Trends on Twitter After Bill Cosby's Release; Are Their Crimes The Same?

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles
Even it seems impossible for him not to know that there is presently, a great public's general outrage over his overturned sexual assault conviction -- just based on a legal technicality, Bill Cosby thoroughly enjoyed himself on his first night as a free man.

He's revelling on being free, of being let go after serving just 2 years of his supposedly 10-year sentence.

After being released from SCI Phoenix in Collegeville - a state prison near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - on Wednesday afternoon, the once perceived as a wholesome television icon, 83, made sure his first night with loved ones would be quite memorable. This, even if there are so many who believe he does not deserve to be out.

He was able to make his way to his Elkins Park home, where he bonded with loved ones and acted as the man of the hour. He ate A LOT of pizzas, cracked jokes and just hung out, enjoying the attention he's being given, for obvious reasons.

ALSO READ: Prince William Warned Prince Harry On Princess Diana Statute Unveiling, Lip Reader Says

Cosby and those closest to him reportedly dropped $70 for their pizzas, ordered from Zio's Brick Oven Pizza in Downtown Philly. According to the actor's rep, Andrew Wyatt, his client enjoyed his slices "almost burnt, fresh basil, mozzarella and sauce. It's his favorite."

According to Wyatt (via Radar Online), the comedian also chose Zio's for a noble cause. The actor allegedly wanted to "highlight those restaurants hurting from the pandemic."

Wyatt added that the actor's first night back home can be described "amazing." Because the actor was too hyped up to be among loved ones, he reportedly "stayed up ... 'til 2 in the morning just laughing and joking and him doing comedy routines."

"He was just telling jokes and having fun, enjoying life," added the rep.

One more interesting tidbit he shared that certainly, Cosby "wants to get back on stage sooner or later."

It's a lofty dream to have since not all of the general public even wants to see him back anywhere on television and surely he personally must know that.

The embattled star however, appears to be nbothered and even beyond jovial ever since getting his freedom back. It's impossible that he would be returned to jail for the same charges now. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has already declared that he "must be discharged, and any future prosecution on these particular charges must be barred."

The state's highest court overturned Cosby's sexual assault conviction, not saying anything about the actor's actual involvement in the crimes, but instead citing a deal he had made with a previous district attorney that in theory should prevented him from being tried in the first place.

The court also said the actor's due process rights were violated during the trial proceedings.

ALSO READ: Justin Timberlake 'Bought' Forgiveness From Jessica Biel After Cheating on Her? The Truth

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles
Today, Jie Xu has been named to MIT Technology Review's prestigious annual list of 35 Innovators Under 35 in the Global category. Every year since 1999, the world-renowned media company has recognized a list of exceptionally talented technologists whose work has great potential to transform the world.

Tim Maher, managing editor of MIT Technology Review, said: "We get more than 500 nominations for the list every year, and getting that list down to 35 -- a task not only for the editors at MIT Technology Review but also for our 30+ judges -- is one of the hardest things we do each year."

Jie Xu is an assistant scientist in the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. She is also a Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering scientist in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and a Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering fellow at Northwestern University.

"Her pioneering research on stretchable, polymer-based electronics has the potential to transform the future of wearable electronics." -- Ilke Arslan, director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials and the Nanoscience and Technology division at Argonne

"I feel extremely honored and humbled to receive this recognition, which brings me more confidence in the value of my research," said Xu.

Xu has made several pivotal discoveries related to "stretchable semiconductors" that can be mass produced. Applications for this material include new wearable electronic technology, robots with skin-like coverings, and on-skin medical sensors.

The challenge in her research was to couple mechanical softness and electronic functionality in semiconductors and mass produce them. The resulting electronics must remain working when the material is stretched. To that end, Xu and colleagues invented a two-polymer coating deposited on a thin rubbery surface for printable electronic circuits.

As a proof of the technology, her research team fabricated a polymer surface with touch sensors that adhered to a human hand and could detect the position of an artificial ladybug. One day this technology might even be used as artificial skin coverings for prosthetics sensitive to touch as well as temperature, pressure and texture.

Xu also refined the stretchable semiconductors so they can be mass produced by a common industrial process employed to print on textiles and plastics. This constitutes the first time researchers have demonstrated a mass fabrication method to fabricate stretchable electronics at the meter scale. The results so far promise the early transition of this technology from research labs to industry production.

Xu's most recent research involves combining artificial intelligence and high-throughput robotics systems so as to realize autonomous discovery for the purpose of optimizing existing materials rapidly as well as developing new ones. As one of the starting targets, she is using this unprecedented discovery platform to develop "green" stretchable electronics that can be recycled or will degrade after use.

"I think that this idea ought to be integrated from the very beginning in developing any commercial material," Xu said.

"The aim of the MIT Technology Review innovators list is to identify and encourage the most promising young innovators around the world who are poised to be leaders in their fields," said Ilke Arslan, director of CNM and the Nanoscience and Technology division at Argonne. "Jie has shown that potential through her pioneering research on stretchable, polymer-based electronics. We applaud her and celebrate this honor with her."

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The award will be presented to Xu and the other 2021 Innovators Under 35 at the annual EmTech MIT event, being hosted online September 28-30, 2021. Learn more about this year's honorees on the MIT Technology Review website here.

About Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE's Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https:/ / science. osti. gov/ User-Facilities/ User-Facilities-at-a-Glance .

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
EBRAINS, the digital pan-European research infrastructure developed by the EU-funded Flagship Human Brain Project, announces that it has been included in the 2021 Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). France has served as the Lead Country for the EBRAINS application.

This marks an important milestone for EBRAINS and a recognition of the sustainable scientific value of the research infrastructure designed by the Human Brain Project teams. EBRAINS' mission is to be a major enabler to advance brain research covering different areas such as neuroscience, brain health and brain-inspired technology. EBRAINS aims to contribute to significant scientific progress and innovation for the benefit of patients, industry and society as whole.

Science infrastructures included into the ESFRI Roadmap go through a thorough evaluation and selection procedure, taking both scientific excellence and implementation rigor into account.

ESFRI's mission is to develop the scientific integration of Europe, to strengthen its international outreach, and to provide Europe with the most up-to-date Research Infrastructures, responding to the rapidly evolving Science frontiers, also advancing the knowledge-based technologies and their extended use. One of the core objectives of ESFRI is to ensure that excellent scientists have access to Europe's best research infrastructures irrespective of borders.

The EBRAINS open research infrastructure provides the scientific community with extensive high-quality data sets, atlases, modelling, computing and simulation tools, as well as access to the European High-Performance Computer network, allowing state-of-the-art brain research. It is the result of the work of dozens of multidisciplinary teams from more than 100 European academic institutions who have worked together and shared cutting-edge expertise during the 10-year long Human Brain Project, which will continue to further develop EBRAINS until 2023.

EBRAINS will be a true pan-European infrastructure, organized around a central hub based in Brussels and national nodes spread across Europe and providing the various RI services and tools. Such a distributed and networked organisation will enable the RI to continue to evolve, with researchers and users sharing know-how and co-developing new services along the way to continuously better serve the needs of the scientific community.

"We are delighted by this recognition of our work and proud to contribute a truly novel platform to the European Research Landscape", says Prof. Katrin Amunts, the Scientific Research Director of the Human Brain Project. "EBRAINS was created to establish a new paradigm of neuroscience that is highly integrated with technology and computing. This is a core goal of the Human Brain Project. Only the great work of so many colleagues all over Europe made it possible. Together we continue to provide the community with more and more powerful tools to accelerate research."

For Pawel Swieboda, CEO of EBRAINS and Director General of the Human Brain Project, "the inclusion of EBRAINS into the ESFRI Roadmap 2021 is a major achievement and a true recognition of the value EBRAINS brings to the European scientific community. This is the culmination of many years of very high-level research and development efforts of the Human Brain Project teams and I would like to thank them for their dedication and commitment. EBRAINS is an infrastructure at the service of the broader science community, and we look forward to having more and more researchers make the best use of it. We're also eager to develop new collaborations and partnerships with innovative brain research initiatives or consortia supported by national and European funding."

Andre Syrota, Chair of the Board of Directors of EBRAINS, commented: "We are very happy with this important milestone achieved by EBRAINS and I am personally very glad that France could play a leading role in the application process. Better understanding of the brain is of fundamental importance in many diverse domains ranging from tackling brain disorders to developing artificial intelligence. Having cutting-edge data and tools to help decode the brain in an open research infrastructure like EBRAINS will certainly be instrumental in enabling innovation and scientific progress."

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DALLAS - June 30, 2021 - A relative decline in wealth during midlife increases the likelihood of a cardiac event or heart disease after age 65 while an increase in wealth between ages 50 and 64 is associated with lower cardiovascular risk, according to a new study in JAMA Cardiology.

Although the association between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular outcomes is well established, little research has been done to determine whether longitudinal changes in wealth are associated with cardiovascular health. In the study, Andrew Sumarsono, M.D., an assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern, along with colleagues from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and the London School of Economics, investigated the cardiovascular toll that changes in monetary health can have in the U.S., where there is a 10- to 15-year difference in life expectancy between the population's richest 1 percent and the poorest 1 percent.

Examining a cohort of more than 5,500 adults without cardiovascular disease, they found that middle-aged participants who experienced upward wealth mobility - defined as relative increases in the total value of assets excluding primary residence - had lower cardiovascular risk after age 65 compared with peers of similar age. Conversely, participants who experienced downward wealth mobility in the latter parts of their careers had higher cardiovascular risk later in life. Cardiovascular events cited as outcomes include acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, and stroke, or cardiac-related death.

"We already know that wealth relates to health, but we show that wealth trajectories also matter. This means that the cardiovascular risk associated with wealth is not permanent and can be influenced," says Sumarsono, a faculty member in the Division of Hospital Medicine.

The researchers estimate a 1 percent swing in cardiovascular risk for every $100,000 gained or lost by individuals. Notably, participants who started in the top 20 percent of wealth and experienced downward wealth mobility still had similar cardiovascular risk as those who remained fixed in the top quintile. However, those who started in the bottom fifth of wealth accumulation and experienced upward wealth mobility had lower cardiovascular risk than those fixed in the bottom quintile. The investigators suggest that this may indicate a potential legacy protection present among the wealthiest, but not the poorest. These findings linking wealth change and downstream cardiovascular events were similar across all racial or ethnic subgroups.

"We found that irrespective of one's baseline wealth, upward wealth mobility relative to peers in late-middle age was associated with lower risk of a new cardiac event or death after age 65. This suggests that upward wealth mobility may offset some of the risk associated with past economic hardship," Sumarsono says. "We also found the inverse was true - that people who experienced downward wealth mobility relative to one's peers faced a higher risk of a new cardiac event or death after 65, potentially offsetting some of the benefit associated with prior economic thriving.

"We live in a system where people can experience catastrophic losses in wealth from situations beyond their control and that opportunities to accrue wealth are not equally available across racial or socioeconomic groups," Sumarsono adds. "Policies that build resilience against large wealth losses and that address these opportunity gaps should be prioritized and may be considered a public health measure to improve overall health while also potentially narrowing racial, socioeconomic, and cardiovascular health disparities."

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About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,800 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 117,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 3 million outpatient visits a year.
New research published today in the journal Blood Advances finds that certain factors, such as a history of severe pain episodes and coexisting organ conditions, increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, including hospitalization, in individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD). According to researchers, the study results underscore the need for COVID-19 risk reduction strategies and vaccination for this medically vulnerable population.

SCD is the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 100,000 people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SCD affects one out of every 365 Black or African American births and one out of every 16,300 Hispanic American births. The condition can cause severe pain, joint and organ damage, and stroke; these conditions predispose individuals with SCD to worse outcomes with infections, including infection with COVID-19. Previous research has shown patients with COVID-19 and SCD are at greater risks for hospitalization compared with Black individuals without SCD who become infected.

The new study draws data from SECURE-SCD, an international registry that collects information about COVID-19 infections in individuals living with SCD, including details on hospitalization, severity, management strategies, and complications.

Researchers assessed reports on 750 children and adults submitted to the registry between March 2020 and March 2021. Half the patients they studied were children aged 18 and under, and half were adults with a median age of 31 years old. Ninety percent of participants were identified as Black and 7% as Hispanic or Latino.

The researchers found that children living with SCD who had previously suffered more than two pain events requiring acute care were 2.2 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 and more than 3 times likely to suffer severe COVID-19 illness. A history of pain events was also found to be a risk factor for adults, as those with more than two prior acute care visits for pain were 1.8 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 1.9 times more likely to suffer severe COVID-19 illness. SCD-related heart, lung, and kidney conditions were associated with higher risk of severe illness in children, while SCD-related heart and lung conditions were also associated with higher risk of hospitalization. However, these conditions did not have the same effect in adults.

"This study tells us that all individuals with sickle cell disease are not at equal levels of risk," said study author Lana Mucalo, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Patients with a history of pain, as well as individuals with coexisting organ conditions, need to be even more careful to avoid COVID-19 infection than those without any comorbidities," said Dr. Mucalo.

Dr. Mucalo also noted that now that COVID-19 vaccines are available, physicians and patients alike need to recognize these risk factors when considering vaccination. "Providers that care for individuals living with sickle cell disease should recommend vaccination, particularly for those with these comorbidities that put them at greater risk."

Pain is the most common complication of SCD, and severe pain is the leading cause of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for people with this disease. Notably, this study found that pain was also the most common presenting symptom during COVID-19 illness in both children and adults living with SCD, and that many patients only had pain as their presenting COVID-19 symptom. "This means individuals with sickle cell disease who come to the hospital presenting with pain should also be tested for COVID-19," said Dr. Mucalo.

The research team also sought to understand the effects of hydroxyurea, a drug commonly prescribed to individuals with SCD to reduce the frequency of pain episodes, on COVID-19. About half of the 750 patients studied were taking hydroxyurea, and the researchers found that hydroxyurea use was associated with lower risk of presenting with pain during COVID-19 in adults living with SCD. However, hydroxyurea did not affect whether an individual would develop a serious case of COVID-19 or need to be hospitalized in children or adults.

"Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians were worried about whether to use hydroxyurea simply because we did not yet know the effects," said Dr. Mucalo. "Now we can see that while it does not affect COVID-19 severity, it does help to lower the incidence of pain episodes in adults with sickle cell disease, so those who are using it for treatment of their sickle cell conditions should not stop using it."

The analysis was limited to patient data reported to SECURE-SCD; given the voluntary reporting system of the registry, it does not capture all known cases of patients with sickle cell disease and COVID-19 infection.

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SECURE-SCD is supported by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
NEW YORK, NY (July 1, 2021)--Lowering levels of a hormone called PTHrP can prevent metastases and improve survival in mice with pancreatic cancer and could lead to a new way to treat patients, according to a study from cancer researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and with collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania.

When patients are first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the cancer usually has spread to other organs. Because of these metastases, nearly all patients will succumb to their cancer within one year of diagnosis, but no drugs exist to prevent metastasis.

In an effort to find treatments, cancer researchers at Columbia--led by Anil K. Rustgi, MD, and Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD--investigated a hormone called PTHrP. Although PTHrP (parathyroid hormone-related protein) is often highly active in patients with pancreatic cancer, its role in metastasis was unclear.

Loss of PTHrP Dramatically Improves Survival in Mice

The researchers first manipulated the levels of PTHrP in mice with pancreatic cancer. Elimination of PTHrP from mice--with genetic engineering or with an antibody that targets the hormone--not only eliminated metastasis and enhanced overall survival, but also dramatically reduced the size of the initial tumors in the pancreas.

Even in mice with a highly aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, the increase in survival was dramatic, increasing from a median of 111 days to 192 days, with near complete elimination of metastases. The 73% increase in survival, the researchers say, is one of the largest observed in mice with this type of pancreatic cancer, which closely resembles human cancers.

The striking results with mice led the researchers to test the anti-PTHrP antibodies in human pancreatic cancer cells. The results from these experiments were also encouraging: Among 3D organoids derived from pancreatic cancer patients under an IRB-approved protocol, anti-PTHrP antibodies greatly reduced growth and viability of the cells.

Two-Pronged Attack on Cell Growth and Metastasis

Targeting PTHrP attacks pancreatic cancer in two ways, the researchers say. It reduces the ability of the tumor cells to transition from an epithelial state to a mesenchymal state, which is necessary for the creation of new metastases. And targeting PTHrP also prevents the growth of primary and secondary tumors.

"We think these findings provide a strong rationale for further developing anti-PTHrP therapy towards clinical trials," says Rustgi, who adds that the antibody used in the study has the potential to be used in people and credits Richard Kremer, MD, PhD, of McGill University for developing the antibodies.

"We are hopeful that a drug targeting PTHrP could be used to treat most patients with pancreatic cancer," he says, "because the vast majority have tumors with high levels of PTHrP. There is the potential application to other cancers as well."

Potential with Other Cancers

The researchers originally began investigating PTHrP because its gene is often amplified when another nearby gene, KRAS, is amplified. KRAS has long been recognized as a cancer-promoting gene in pancreatic and other cancers.

For patients, that may mean anti-PTHrP therapies may have potential in other cancers that are known to harbor KRAS amplifications.

For researchers, the finding also suggests a wider search for cancer-causing genes is needed.

"We feel that PTHrP may have been previously overlooked as a mere passenger gene co-amplified with KRAS, but our study shows that PTHrP has its own tumor-promoting functions," Pitarresi says. "It suggests other so-called 'passenger' genes may have bigger roles in cancer than we initially thought and should be examined more closely." Rustgi notes "it might open up for combinatorial therapies of targeting the KRAS pathway with an antibody to PTHrP."

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More Information

The research appears in Cancer Discovery in a paper titled "PTHrP drives pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis and reveals a new therapeutic vulnerability."

Anil K. Rustgi, MD, is interim executive vice president and dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University and the director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/ NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD, is a member of the Rustgi lab and a research associate in gastroenterology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where Rustgi was before joining Columbia.

Other authors: Robert J. Norgard (Penn), Anna M. Chiarella (Columbia), Kensuke Suzuki (Columbia), Basil Bakir (Columbia), Varun Sahu (Columbia), Jinyang Li (Penn), Jun Zhao (University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center), Benoit Marchand (Columbia), Maximilian D. Wengyn (Penn), Antony Hsieh (Penn), Il-Kyu Kim (Penn), Amy Zhang (University of Toronto), Karine Sellin (McGill University), Vivian Lee (Penn), Shigetsugu Takano (Chiba University), Yoji Miyahara (Chiba University), Masayuki Ohtsuka (Chiba University), Anirban Maitra (MD Anderson Cancer Center), Faiyaz Notta (University of Toronto), Richard Kremer (McGill University), and Ben Z. Stanger (Penn).

This work was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (grants F32CA221094, P30CA01369644, R01DK060694, and R01CA229803); an American Cancer Society Professorship (Rustgi); an American Gastroenterology Association's Bern Schwartz Research Scholar Award in Pancreatic Cancer; a Hopper-Belmont Foundation Inspiration Award; U.S. Department of Defense (grant W81XWH-15-1-0723); Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant MOP142287); and an American Cancer Society-Fairfield County Comedy Against Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF-19-227- 01-CMS).

Richard Kremer is the inventor of the therapeutic monoclonal anti-PTHrP antibodies used in this study and authorized for use by Biochrom Pharma. RK is founder and president of Biochrom Pharma. All other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Irving Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cuimc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.
Gladstone scientists have uncovered T-cell signatures that may help understand why some people succumb to severe COVID-19 while others recover

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--June 28, 2021--While vaccines are doing a remarkable job of slowing the COVID-19 pandemic, infected people can still die from severe illness and new medications to treat them have been slow to arise. What kills these patients in the end doesn't seem to be the virus itself, but an over-reaction of their immune system that leads to massive inflammation and tissue damage.

By studying a type of immune cells called T cells, a team of Gladstone scientists has uncovered fundamental differences between patients who overcome severe COVID-19 and those who succumb to it. The team, working together with researchers from UC San Francisco and Emory University, also found that dying patients harbor relatively large numbers of T cells able to infiltrate the lung, which may contribute to the extensive lung deterioration that is a hallmark of fatal COVID-19.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Cell Reports, could pave the way for new treatments. Currently, patients who are hospitalized for severe COVID-19 mostly receive dexamethasone, a drug used to reduce inflammation.

"Dexamethasone has been a life saver for many patients," says Gladstone Associate Investigator Nadia Roan, PhD, a senior and corresponding author of the study. "But it is not always sufficient. Our study suggests that it may also be beneficial to directly prevent excess immune cells, including inflammatory T cells, from entering the lung and causing further damage. This approach could be a good complement to anti-inflammatory treatments for COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit."

The work could also help with disease prognosis.

"Some patients can fall seriously ill from the virus," says Warner Greene, MD, PhD, senior investigator at Gladstone and co-senior author of the study. "We are in dire need for effective ways to anticipate the course of disease, as well as to alleviate lung damage in people with severe COVID-19."

An Imbalance of T Cells

T cells are a crucial component of a successful immune response to many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And they are markedly depleted from the blood during severe COVID-19.

To characterize the features of the T cells that remain, the scientists obtained blood samples that had been collected from COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). While about half of these patients eventually recovered, the other half died of the disease. By examining samples taken at different times during the patients' stay in the ICU, the scientists were able to discern trends that they could relate to the disease outcome.

Much has already been learned about the immune response of COVID-19 patients during active infection or after convalescence. For example, studies from convalescent individuals, including Roan's own previous work, reveal how the immune system may provide long-term immunity. Less clear, however, is how the immune system may protect from severe illness or, conversely, contribute to its worsening and to death. To understand the cause of fatalities, the researchers needed to compare fatal to non-fatal severe cases.

Using CyTOF, a technique implemented in Roan's lab that distinguishes the many types of T cells circulating in the body, the scientists found profound differences between the ICU patients' T-cell response to the virus.

"The T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 increased in patients who were eventually discharged from the ICU and recovered," says Roan, who is also an associate professor of urology at UC San Francisco. "But in patients who eventually died, we sometimes could not detect any T-cell response, or their response decreased over time."

Differences also extended to the composition of the patients' T cells that recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In particular, patients who survived harbored a growing number of T cells called Th1, which are known as important fighters of viral infection. Roan's team found molecular features on the Th1 cells that may explain why they were able to multiply in these patients.

By contrast, they found that patients who died had an elevated number of T cells secreting an inflammatory molecule that would contribute to a worsening of their lung condition. These patients also held more regulatory T cells recognizing the virus. Regulatory T cells normally help quiet down the immune response once infection subsides.

"Perhaps in these patients, regulatory T cells were activated too early and prevented effector T cells from ever mounting an adequate immune response to SARS-CoV-2," says Roan. "This could help explain the patients' paltry response to the virus."

Based on these findings, doctors might be able to predict the course of illness from the relative abundance of Th1 and regulatory T cells that recognize SARS-CoV-2 in a patient's blood.

Roan cautions, however, "Our findings show correlations, not causes. The immune system is complex, with many moving parts and possible interactions between them. Proving the cause of fatality will require further studies."

Stemming the Flow of Lung-Homing Cells

Another potential cause of fatality that the team discovered was a surge in T cells able to infiltrate the lungs of dying patients. By contrast, these cells decreased over time in the patients who recovered.

The scientists call these lung-homing cells "bystander T cells," because they are T cells that do not directly recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

"Our study suggests that during severe COVID-19, bystander T cells are recruited from the blood into the lung, where they may contribute to immune-mediated pathology," says Roan.

What triggers the surge of bystander T cells in severe COVID-19 cases remains unclear, but may be in part mediated by proteins secreted by the lung that recruit these cells. Regardless, stemming their flow into the lung may help reduce lung damage and accelerate the recovery of patients with severe illness.

This approach is particularly promising, as drugs that antagonize a molecule found on the surface of the bystander T cells are already approved for the treatment of metastatic cancer.

"Our next step is to test these drugs in a mouse model of severe COVID-19," says Roan. "We hope that after further scrutiny, such drugs could rapidly be tested as adjunctive treatment for COVID-19."

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About the Study

The paper "Distinctive features of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells predict recovery from severe COVID-19" was published in Cell Reports on June 28: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)00827-5

Other authors include Jason Neidleman, Xiaoyu Luo, Ashley F. George, and Matthew McGregor from Gladstone Institutes; Junkai Yang and Eliver Ghosn of Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cassandra Yun, Kara Lynch, Victoria Murray, Gurjot Gill, Joshua Vasquez, and Sulggi A. Lee of UC San Francisco.

This work was supported by the Van Auken Private Foundation, David Henke, and Pamela and Edward Taft; the Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research, which is partly funded by the Sandler Foundation; philanthropic funds donated to Gladstone Institutes by The Roddenberry Foundation and individual donors devoted to COVID-19 research; Fast Grants Awards (2164, 2208, and 2160), a part of Emergent Ventures from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI123126-05S1, P30 DK063720, and S10 1S10OD018040).

About Gladstone Institutes
Computer models have been standard tools in basic biomedical research for many years. However, around 70 years after the first publication of an ion current model of a nerve cell by Hodgkin & Huxley in 1952, researchers at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), in collaboration with the Medical University of Graz and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, have finally succeeded in developing the world's first cancer cell model, thus launching "an essential tool for modern cancer research and drug development," reports a delighted Christian Baumgartner. The head of the Institute of Health Care Engineering with European Testing Center of Medical Devices at TU Graz is senior author of the publication in which the digital model is presented in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Excitable and non-excitable cells

Digital cell models have so far focused on excitable cells such as nerve or cardiac muscle cells, allowing the simulation of electrophysiological processes not only at the cellular level, but also at the tissue and organ level. These models are already being used to support diagnosis and therapy in everyday clinical practice. The international research team led by Baumgartner focused on the specific electrophysiological properties of non-excitable cancer cells for the first time.

In excitable cells, an electrical stimulus triggers so-called action potentials. This leads to short-term changes in electrical potential lasting milliseconds at the cell membrane that transmit "electrical" information from cell to cell. Through this mechanism, neural networks communicate or the heart muscle is activated, which contracts as a result. It is known from experimental studies that "non-excitable" cells also exhibit characteristic fluctuations of potential at the cell membrane. However, compared to excitable cells, the potential changes occur very slowly and over the entire cell cycle, i.e. over hours and days, and serve as a signal for the transition between the individual cell cycle phases," explains Christian Baumgartner. Together with the deputy head of the institute, Theresa Rienmuller, and PhD student Sonja Langthaler, Christian Baumgartner was the first to pursue the idea of developing a simulation model of these mechanisms.

Lung tumour example

Pathological changes in cell membrane voltage, particularly during the cell cycle, are fundamental to cancer development and progression. Sonja Langthaler continues in detail: "Ion channels connect the outside to the inside of a cell. They enable the exchange of ions such as potassium, calcium or sodium and thereby regulate the membrane potential. Changes in the composition of ion channels, as well as altered functional behaviour of the same, can result in disruptions in cell division, possibly even affecting cell differentiation and thus transforming a healthy cell into a diseased (carcinogenic) cell."

For their digital cancer cell model, the team chose the example of the human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549. The computer model simulates the rhythmic oscillation of the membrane potential during the transition between cell cycle phases and enables prediction of the changes in membrane potential that are caused by drug-induced switching on and off of selected ion channels. "So we get information about the effects of targeted interventions on the cancer cell," Baumgartner adds.

"Freezing" cancer cells during growth or inducing them to commit suicide

The activity of certain ion channels can also drive the division of diseased cells and thus accelerate tumour growth. If ion channels are now manipulated in a targeted manner, as is the case with new, promising agents and drugs, the cell membrane voltage and thus the entire electrophysiological system can be thrown off track, so to speak. "This could be used to arrest cancer cells at a certain phase in the cell cycle, but also to induce premature cell death (apoptosis). One could "freeze" cancer cells while they are growing or induce them to commit suicide. And it is precisely such mechanisms that can be simulated with the help of models." Baumgartner and his team see the first digital cancer cell model as the beginning of more comprehensive research. In order to increase the level of detail of the model, plans for further experimental and measurement validations have been made and submitted to the Austrian Science Fund FWF for funding.

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Publication details: "A549 in-silico 1.0: A first computational model to simulate cell cycle dependent ion current modulation in the human lung adenocarcinoma". Sonja Langthaler, Theresa Rienmuller, Susanne Scheruebel, Brigitte Pelzmann, Niroj Shrestha, Klaus Zorn-Pauly, Wolfgang Schreibmayer, Andrew Koff and Christian Baumgartner. PLoS Compuational Biology, June 2021. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1371/ journal. pcbi. 1009091

This research is anchored in the Field of Expertise "Human & Biotechnology" (http://www. tugraz. at/ go/ human-biotechnology ), one of five strategic research focuses of TU Graz.
Quantum computers promise great advances in many fields - from cryptography to the simulation of protein folding. Yet, which physical system works best to build the underlying quantum bits is still an open question. Unlike regular bits in your computer, these so-called qubits cannot only take the values 0 and 1, but also mixtures of the two. While this potentially makes them very useful, they also become very unstable.

One approach to solve this problem bets on topological qubits that encode the information in their spatial arrangement. That could provide a more stable and error-resistant basis for computation than other setups. The problem is that no one has ever definitely found a topological qubit yet.

An international team of researchers from Austria, Copenhagen, and Madrid around Marco Valentini from the Nanoelectronics group at IST Austria now have examined a setup which was predicted to produce the so-called Majorana zero modes - the core ingredient for a topological qubit. They found that a valid signal for such modes can in fact be a false flag.

Half of an Electron

The experimental setup is composed of a tiny wire just some hundred nanometers - some millionths of a millimeter - long, grown by Peter Krogstrup from Microsoft Quantum and University of Copenhagen. These appropriately-called nanowires form a free-floating connection between two metal conductors on a chip. They are coated with a superconducting material that loses all electrical resistance at very low temperatures. The coating goes all the way up to a tiny part left at one end of the wire, which forms a crucial part of the setup: the junction. The whole contraption is then exposed to a magnetic field.

The scientists' theories predicted that Majorana zero modes - the basis for the topological qubit they were looking for - should appear in the nanowire. These Majorana zero modes are a strange phenomenon, because they started out as a mathematical trick to describe one electron in the wire as composed of two halves. Usually, physicists do not think of electrons as something that can be split, but using this nanowire setup it should have been possible so separate these "half-electrons" and to use them as qubits.

"We were excited to work on this very promising material platform," explains Marco Valentini, who joined IST Austria as an intern before becoming a PhD student in the Nanoelectronics group. "What we expected to see was the signal of Majorana zero modes in the nanowire, but we found nothing. First, we were confused, then frustrated. Eventually, and in close collaboration with our colleagues from the Theory of Quantum Materials and Solid State Quantum Technologies group in Madrid, we examined the setup, and found out what was wrong with it."

A False Flag

After attempting to find the signatures of the Majorana zero modes, the researchers began to vary the nanowire setup to check whether any effects from its architecture were disturbing their experiment. "We did several experiments on different setups to find out what was going wrong," Valentini explains. "It took us a while, but when we doubled the length of the uncoated junction from a hundred nanometers to two hundred, we found our culprit."

When the junction was big enough the following happened: The exposed inner nanowire formed a so-called quantum dot - a tiny speck of matter that shows special quantum mechanical properties due to its confined geometry. The electrons in this quantum dot could then interact with the ones in the coating superconductor next to it, and by that mimic the signal of the "half-electrons" - the Majorana zero modes - which the scientists were looking for.

"This unexpected conclusion came after we established the theoretical model of how the quantum dot interacts with the superconductor in a magnetic field and compared the experimental data with detailed simulations performed by Fernando Penaranda, a PhD student in the Madrid team," says Valentini.

"Mistaking this mimicking signal for a Majorana zero mode shows us how careful we have to be in our experiments and in our conclusions," Valentini cautions. "While this may seem like a step back in the search for Majorana zero modes, it actually is a crucial step forward in understanding nanowires and their experimental signals. This finding shows that the cycle of discovery and critical examination among international peers is central to the advancement of scientific knowledge."

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New research has shown that many of the symptoms in fibromyalgia syndrome are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute, has shown that many of the symptoms in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.

The results show that fibromyalgia is a disease of the immune system, rather than the currently held view that it originates in the brain.

The study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that the increased pain sensitivity, muscle weakness, reduced movement, and reduced number of small nerve-fibres in the skin that are typical of FMS, are all a consequence of patient antibodies.

The researchers injected mice with antibodies from people living with FMS and observed that the mice rapidly developed an increased sensitivity to pressure and cold, as well as displaying reduced movement grip strength. In contrast, mice that were injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected, demonstrating that patient antibodies cause, or at least are a major contributor to the disease.

Furthermore, the mice injected with fibromyalgia antibodies recovered after a few weeks, when antibodies had been cleared from their system. This finding strongly suggests that therapies which reduce antibody levels in patients are likely to be effective treatments. Such therapies are already available and are used to treat other disorders that are caused by autoantibodies.

Dr David Andersson, the study's primary investigator from King's IoPPN said "The implications of this study are profound. Establishing that fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disorder will transform how we view the condition and should pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected. Our work has uncovered a whole new area of therapeutic options and should give real hope to fibromyalgia patients.

"Previous exploration of therapies has been hampered by our limited understanding of the illness. This should now change. Treatment for FMS is focussed on gentle aerobic exercises, as well as drug and psychological therapies designed to manage pain, although these have proven ineffective in most patients and have left behind an enormous unmet clinical need."

Current estimates suggest that at least 1 in 40 people are affected by FMS worldwide (80% of which are women) and is commonly characterised by widespread pain throughout the body, as well as fatigue (often referred to as 'fibro fog') and emotional distress. It most commonly develops between the ages of 25 and 55, although children can also get it.

Dr Andreas Goebel, the study's principle clinical investigator from the University of Liverpool said, "When I initiated this study in the UK, I expected that some fibromyalgia cases may be autoimmune. But David's team have discovered pain-causing antibodies in each recruited patient. The results offer amazing hope that the invisible, devastating symptoms of fibromyalgia will become treatable."

Professor Camilla Svensson, the study's primary investigator from Karolinska Institute said, "Antibodies from people with FMS living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings. The next step will be to identify what factors the symptom-inducing antibodies bind to. This will help us not only in terms of developing novel treatment strategies for FMS, but also of blood-based tests for diagnosis, which are missing today.

Dr Craig Bullock, Research Discovery and Innovations Lead at Versus Arthritis said "Fibromyalgia affects millions of people in the UK and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. It causes pain all over the body, fatigue, disturbed sleep and regular flare-ups where symptoms get even worse.

"Fibromyalgia is a particularly difficult condition to diagnose and manage because its causes are unknown. This research shows that antibodies found in human blood can cause fibromyalgia-like symptoms in mice, suggesting that these antibodies play a crucial role in the condition. Further research is needed but this offers hope to the millions of people with fibromyalgia that an effective treatment could be found in the relatively near future."

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This study was possible thanks to funding from the Medical Research Council (UK), Versus Arthritis, the Liverpool Pain Relief Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, a donation from the Lundblad Family for clinical pain research at Karolinska Institute, and other agencies.
A wonder of nature

As a human cell begins division, its 23 chromosomes duplicate into identical copies that remain joined at a region called the centromere. Here lies the kinetochore, a complicated assembly of proteins that binds to thread-like structures, the microtubules. As mitosis progresses, the kinetochore gives green light to the microtubules to tear the DNA copies apart, towards the new forming cells. "The kinetochore is a beautiful, flawless machine: You almost never lose a chromosome in a normal cell!", says Musacchio. "We already know the proteins that constitute it, yet important questions about how the kinetochore works are still open: How does it rebuild itself during chromosome replication? How does it bind to the microtubules? And how does it control them?"

A lifes endeavour

Musacchios quest for answers started more than 20 years ago and has been guided by a simple motto: "Before we understand how things go wrong, we better understand why and how things work". He therefore embarked in the mission of rebuilding the kinetochore in vitro. In 2016 he could synthesize a partial kinetochore made of 21 proteins. In the new publication, Musacchio, graduate student Kai Walstein, and their colleagues at MPI Dortmund have been able to fully reconstruct the system: All subunits, from the ones that bind the centromere to the ones that bind the microtubules, are now present in the right numbers and stoichiometry. Scientists proved that the new system functions properly, by successfully substituting parts of the original kinetochore in the cell with artificial ones. "This is a real milestone in the reconstruction of an object that exists, unaltered, in all eukaryotic cells since more than one billion years!", says Musacchio. This breakthrough paves the way towards the making of synthetic chromosomes carrying functions that can be replicated in organisms. "The potential for biotech applications could be huge", he says.

In the protein factory

MPI scientists had to overcome a major hurdle to rebuild the kinetochore, namely to fully reconstruct the highly flexible Centromeric Protein C (CENP-C). This is an essential protein that bridges the centromeric region to the outer proteins of the kinetochore. Researchers rebuilt CENP-C by "gluing" together the two ends of it.

A highly organised laboratory, similar to a factory, is fundamental for the reconstitution of complex protein assemblies. For each protein of the kinetochore, MPI scientists built a production pipeline to isolate the genes, express them in insects cells, and collect them. "When we put them together in vitro, these proteins click-in to form the kinetochore, just like LEGO pieces following the instructions", he says. Other than the famous toys though, each kinetochore protein has a different interface and interaction with closer proteins. The group will now step up to the next level of complexity: Investigating how the kinetochore functions and interacts in the presence of microtubules and supplied energy (in the form of ATP). The project has been recently granted an ERC Synergy Grant and will be carried out by an international team comprising Musacchio's group and researchers from Cambridge, UK, and Barcelona, Spain.

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Singapore, 1 July 2021 - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Pathnova Laboratories, a medical diagnostic company backed by Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator and headquartered in Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, is contributing to Singapore's COVID-19 diagnostic capability through its partnership in a new clinical diagnostic laboratory.

Amid the ongoing global COVID-19 situation, the lab plans to tap advanced technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics to innovate, boosting the country's future pandemic response.

Situated at NTU Singapore's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Novena Campus, the NTU Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory was set up in April 2020 by a team of academic researchers, in support of the national effort to increase diagnostic testing capacity and commenced Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing on 1 July 2020.

The partnership between NTU and Pathnova commenced on 1 March 2021, with Pathnova running the operations and NTU continuing to support and host the lab. Since then, the lab now known as Pathnova Laboratories @ LKCMedicine, has scaled up its operations and been engaged by the Singapore Ministry of Health in testing swabs from over 120,000 individuals, including routine rostered testing for residents of foreign worker dormitories.

With a testing capacity of 2,000 tests per day, the lab has been preparing for large-scale testing and faster turnaround times with automation and increasing the types of SARS-CoV-2 assays available.

Given its focus on serology, Pathnova has also extended its capabilities into COVID-19 serology testing at the diagnostic lab. Such tests are intended for detecting past infections or assessing an individual's antibody response post vaccination.

Preparing for future pandemics

As the lab inevitably transitions out of COVID-19, the vision is to use the lessons learnt from pandemic testing to reimagine a new genre of lab which is flexible and scalable through open-source robotics and software automation.

Such a lab will be scalable yet adaptable, for instance in using smart digital processes to ensure quality and productivity of daily testing, while allowing scientific experts to make innovations and improvements on lab workflows.

Mr Peter Chia, Chief Executive Officer, Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator, said, "We are pleased to work with a world-renowned health institution like LKCMedicine. It is our belief that such collaborative partnerships stem from quality science and passionate people working together, capitalising on the momentum from the international scientific community's response to this crisis, to bring innovative solutions for public good.

I would like to congratulate LKCMedicine and Pathnova for this partnership. We look forward to seeing more innovative solutions from them to benefit communities in Singapore and the region."

NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong, said: "NTU's collaboration with Pathnova Laboratories will allow our scientists to leverage their expertise in Artificial Intelligence technologies to tackle future pandemic challenges. We look forward to how this synergy between academia and industry will bring about meaningful results that contribute to the greater national effort in safeguarding population health."

Exploring accelerated detection and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2

Supported by experts in the fields of genomics, computer science and bioengineering, the Pathnova Laboratories @ LKCMedicine lab will explore ways to simplify and shorten complex protocols. Creating a new kind of molecular laboratory, it will run on open-source hardware and software, be fully integrated, reconfigurable, and resistant to supply chain bottlenecks.

For example, the lab will look at using advanced technology to accelerate innovation through data analytics and AI automation, activating robotics and mathematical algorithms to raise efficiency and lower operational costs.

NTU Senior Vice President (Health and Life Sciences) and Dean NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), Distinguished University Professor Joseph Sung said, "As we have seen and experienced with coronavirus, viruses mutate and diseases evolve but fortunately, technology also evolves - often in our favour. By leveraging technology in molecular virology and partnering with the industry, we can work together towards strengthening Singapore's future pandemic preparedness."

Being the only diagnostic service lab set up by an Institute of Higher Learning as a rapid response to the national exigency, the lab brings together two excellent experts in the field.

It is co-led by Associate Professor Eric Yap from LKCMedicine, who is the Medical Director of the new lab, and Dr Ian Cheong, Chief Scientific Officer, and co-founder of Pathnova Laboratories.

Dr Ian Cheong said, "NTU and Pathnova share a similar spirit. We build things leanly and from first principles, with a view to scalable and consistent performance when used in the real world. Our partnership was catalysed in the crucible of COVID-19. We are glad for the meaningful opportunity to contribute to Singapore's safe reopening together."

Assoc Prof Yap, who worked as a medical doctor and defence scientist, studies the patterns and effects of genetic variation in human, bacterial and viral genomes, exploiting these differences for more accurate and rapid disease diagnosis.

In April 2020, Assoc Prof Yap and his team of researchers devised a way to speed up the COVID-19 PCR test, yielding results in just 36 minutes with limited equipment and capabilities. Their direct PCR test is used to look for COVID-19 genetic sequences in crude samples without the need for lengthy and manual RNA purification steps, which are needed in current PCR tests.

Dr Ian Cheong, who is trained as both a lawyer and scientist, has a background in experimental therapeutics and diagnostics for cancer. In 2017, with support from Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator (TLA), he co-founded Pathnova Laboratories with Emeritus Professor Chan Soh Ha and Mr. Jason Foo to develop scalable detection of nasopharyngeal cancer and autoimmune diseases through serological detection, accelerated with machine learning.

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In Canada, low-income hospital patients under palliative care are less likely to receive medical assistance in dying compared to those who are high income, according to a study published in British Medical Journal Open (BMJ Open).

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is legal and free under Medicare, Canada's universal health care system. Patients with low socioeconomic status (SES), however, generally tend to experience less access to medical care compared to their high SES counterparts.

Eldar Shafir, professor of psychology and public affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, along with a team of researchers from Sunnybrook Hospital in Ontario, investigated whether this trend of decreased care for low-income patients includes medical assistance in dying.

"I have long been interested in SES influences on decision-making," said Shafir. "I often discuss with my friend and collaborator, Dr. Redelmeier, ways to illustrate some of our findings in the medical realm, especially, when possible, among experts. ... In this case MAID was a really interesting domain, since it's a 'big' decision, and finances are not an issue."

Medical assistance in dying was ruled legal in Canada in February 2015 and officially implemented and covered under Medicare by June 2016. To be considered, a patient must have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, such as metastatic cancer, that causes unbearable suffering where death is foreseeable, according to the Government of Canada.

However, one's socioeconomic status can influence how medical care is administered and received by a patient in several ways. "People can be easily susceptible to pitfalls and biases in reasoning," Shafir said.

Low-income patients, for example, may feel less equipped to advocate for their care and to convey dissatisfaction. Clinicians can also succumb to the "thick-skin fallacy," or the harmful perception that low-income people are used to hardship and therefore less impacted by it.

The team explored the association between socioeconomic status and medical assistance in dying by identifying hospital patients aged 65 and older in Ontario, Canada between June 2016 and 2019. At the time of their death, all patients, all of whom had serious medical conditions, were under palliative care, receiving pain-relieving treatment for symptoms. They were then divided into groups based on socioeconomic status, which was calculated using an official algorithm created by Statistics Canada based on home neighborhood location, and whether they received medical assistance in dying.

During the three years, 50,096 patients were given palliative care in their last month of life. Among them, 920 received medical assistance in dying. Only 1.5% of low-income patients identified were given MAID, compared to 2.4% of high-income patients -- a 39% decreased likelihood for those with low socioeconomic status. This disparity in care was found consistently across a variety of patient subgroups that varied in age, sex, home location, type of cancer, health care utilization, and general frailty. It was even replicated with patients treated by the same responsible physician.

The study's results support past findings by other countries about the relationship between medical assistance in dying and patients' socioeconomic status. In countries like the United States, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium, people who received MAID or MAID equivalents tended to be highly educated, financially secure, or live in wealthy neighborhoods.

The researchers, however, suspect that this difference in patient care may be influenced by factors that exist outside of financial capabilities. "I suspect most of what happens here is a function of the doctor-patient interaction," explained Shafir. "I think, all else equal, that doctors might see low-SES patients as less in urgent need of MAID."

Certain study limitations, such as biased and imperfect socioeconomic status measures, warrant further research exploring the link between social class and medically assisted death. "Both perspectives, the doctors' and the patients', need to be better understood by the medical community in order to provide low-SES patients with same care afforded those of higher SES," said Shafir.

The observations made by Shafir and his team address an earlier misconception in Canada that medical assistance in dying may harmfully target low-income individuals. The researchers are optimistic that their findings may help promote greater patient-clinician communication and engagement.

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"Association of socioeconomic status with medical assistance in dying: a case-control analysis" by Donald A. Redelmeier, Kevin Ng, Deva Thiruchelvam, and Shafir, was published on April 30 in British Medical Journal Open.
New research from marine biologists offers answers to a fundamental puzzle that had until now remained unsolved: why are some fish warm-blooded when most are not?

It turns out that while (warm-blooded) fish able to regulate their own body temperatures can swim faster, they do not live in waters spanning a broader range of temperatures.

The research therefore provides some of the first direct evidence as to the evolutionary advantage of being warm-blooded as well as underlining that species in this demographic - such as the infamous white shark and the speedy bluefin tuna - are likely just as vulnerable to changing global ocean temperatures as their cold-blooded relatives.

Lucy Harding, PhD Candidate in Trinity College Dublin's School of Natural Sciences, is the first author of the associated research article, which has just been published in the journal, Functional Ecology. She said:

"Scientists have long known that not all fish are cold-blooded. Some have evolved the ability to warm parts of their bodies so that they can stay warmer than the water around them, but it has remained unclear what advantages this ability provided.

"Some believed being warm-blooded allowed them to swim faster, as warmer muscles tend to be more powerful, while others believed it allowed them to live in a broader range of temperatures and therefore be more resilient to the effects of ocean warming as a result of climate change."

Lucy and her international team of collaborators assessed these two possibilities by collecting data from wild sharks and bony fish, as well as using existing databases.

By attaching biologging devices to the fins of the animals they caught, they were able to collect information such as water temperatures encountered by the fish in their habitats; the speeds at which the fish swam for most of the day; and the depths of water the fish swam in.

The results showed that warm-blooded fishes swim approximately 1.6 times faster than their cold-blooded relatives, but they did not live in broader temperature ranges.

Nick Payne, Assistant Professor in Zoology in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, said:

"The faster swimming speeds of the warm-blooded fishes likely gives them competitive advantages when it comes to things like predation and migration. With predation in mind, the hunting abilities of the white shark and bluefin tuna help paint a picture of why this ability might offer a competitive advantage.

"Additionally, and contrary to some previous studies and opinions, our work shows these animals do not live in broader temperature ranges, which implies that they may be equally at risk from the negative impacts of ocean warming. Findings like these - while interesting on their own - are very important as they can aid future conservation efforts for these threatened animals."

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The research was supported by Science Foundation Ireland.
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) -- the country's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging -- is proud to acknowledge the work of 26 outstanding individuals through its prestigious awards program.

GSA salutes outstanding research, recognizes distinguished leadership in teaching and service, and fosters new ideas through a host of awards. Nominated by their peers, the recipients' achievements serve as milestones in the history and development of gerontology.

The award presentations will take place at GSA's 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 10 to 14 in Phoenix, Arizona. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process. Visit http://www. gsa2021. org for further details.

Society-Wide

Donald P. Kent Award

Recipient: Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD, FGSA, of the National Institute on Aging

This award is given annually to a GSA member who best exemplifies the highest standards for professional leadership in gerontology through teaching, service, and interpretation of gerontology to the larger society.

Robert W. Kleemeier Award

Recipient: Kenneth F. Ferraro, PhD, FGSA, of Purdue University

This award is given annually to a GSA member in recognition for outstanding research in the field of gerontology.

James Jackson Outstanding Mentorship Award

Recipient: Robert J. Taylor, MSW, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Michigan

This award recognizes outstanding commitment and dedication to mentoring minority researchers in the field of aging.

Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award

Recipient: Laura B. Zahodne, PhD, of the University of Michigan

This award acknowledges outstanding early career contributions in behavioral and social gerontology. This award is given by GSA in conjunction with the Margaret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation.

M. Powell Lawton Award

Recipient: David L. Roth, PhD, FGSA, of Johns Hopkins University

This award honors contributions from applied gerontological research that have benefited older people and their care. This award is sponsored by the Abramson Senior Care's Polisher Research Institute.

Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging

Recipient: Namkee G. Choi, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Texas at Austin

This award recognizes instances of practice informed by research and analysis, research that directly improved policy or practice, and distinction in bridging the worlds of research and practice. This award is funded by the New York Community Trust through a generous gift from the Maxwell A. Pollack Fund.

Doris Schwartz Gerontological Nursing Research Award

Recipients: Kathy H. Bowles, PhD, FAAN, FACMI, of the University of Pennsylvania; Nancy A. Hodgson, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, of the University of Pennsylvania

This award is presented to a GSA member who has a record of outstanding and sustained contribution to geriatric nursing research.

Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education

Hiram J. Friedsam Mentorship Award

Recipient: Pamela Elfenbein, MSW, PhD, FAGHE, HS-BCP, of the University of North Georgia

This award recognizes individuals who have contributed to gerontological and/or geriatrics education through excellence in mentorship to students, faculty, and administrators.

Student Leadership Award

Recipient: Lauren M. Bouchard, MS, of Concordia University Chicago

This award recognizes students whose leadership has advanced the goals and mission of AGHE as well as the respective goals of their AGHE-affiliated institutions.

David A. Peterson Award

Recipients: Julie B. Miller, MSW, PhD, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Carley Ward, MA, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Chaiwoo Lee, PhD, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lisa D'Ambrosio, PhD, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, FGSA, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For the article "Sharing is Caring: The Potential of the Sharing Economy to Support Aging in Place"

This award honors excellence in scholarship in academic gerontology and/or geriatrics for an article in a volume of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education.

Behavioral and Social Sciences Section

Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award

Recipient: Richard Schulz, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Pittsburgh

This award recognizes career contributions that have articulated a novel theoretical or methodological perspective or synthesis that addresses a significant problem in the literature.

Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award

Recipient: Margie E. Lachman, PhD, FGSA, of Brandeis University

This award is given to an individual who has fostered excellence in, and had a major impact on, the field by virtue of their mentoring, and whose inspiration is sought by students and colleagues.

Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award

Recipient: Sandra Torres, PhD, FGSA, of Uppsala University

For the book "Ethnicity and Old Age: Expanding our Imagination"

Recipients: Hans-Werner Wahl, PhD, FGSA, of Heidelberg University; Manfred Diehl, PhD, FGSA, of Colorado State University

For the book "The Psychology of Later Life: A Contextual Perspective"

Recipient: Stephanie J. Wilson, PhD, of Southern Methodist University

For the article "Spousal Bereavement After Dementia Caregiving: A Turning Point for Immune Health"

This award recognizes insightful and innovative publications on aging and life course development in the behavioral and social sciences in two categories: (1) Book Category and (2) Article Category.

Biological Sciences Section

Nathan Shock New Investigator Award

Recipient: Berenice A. Benayoun, PhD, of the University of Southern California

This award recognizes outstanding contributions to new knowledge about aging through basic biological research.

Health Sciences Section

Excellence in Rehabilitation of Aging Persons Award

Recipient: Gregory E. Hicks, MPT, PhD, of the University of Delaware

This award acknowledges outstanding contributions in the field of rehabilitation of aging persons.

Joseph T. Freeman Award

Recipient: Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, CRNP, BC, FGSA, FAAN, of the University of Pennsylvania

This award acknowledges a prominent clinician in the field of aging, both in research and practice.

Social Research, Policy, and Practice Section

Barbara J. Berkman Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Research, Practice, or Policy in Aging and Health Care

Recipient: Susan Lane Hughes, MS, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Illinois at Chicago

This award acknowledges many years of significant and substantive career contributions to research, practice and policy in aging and health care services.

Elaine M. Brody SRPP Thought Leader Award

Recipient: Larry Polivka, PhD, FGSA, FAGHE, of Florida State University

This award acknowledges outstanding career contributions in social research, policy, and practice.

Carroll L. Estes SRPP Rising Star Award

Recipient: Kyeongmo Kim, MSW, PhD, of Virginia Commonwealth University

This award acknowledges outstanding early career contributions in social research, policy, and practice.

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The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society -- and its 5,500+ members -- is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational section, the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education.
The adult brain is more malleable than previously thought, according to researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. They trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to "see" by ear, and found that neural circuits in his brain formed so-called topographic maps - a type of brain organization previously thought to emerge only in infancy. This finding reported recently in Neuroimage, sheds new light on the brain's ability for change and holds promise for helping people restore lost function, for example, after a stroke.

"The human brain is indeed more plastic during infancy, but it maintains an enormous potential for reprogramming throughout a person's life," says Prof. Amir Amedi, head of the Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology at IDC Herzliya, whose team conducted the study.

This research is Amedi's latest challenge to the classic theory of brain organization, according to which the brain has specialized regions, each geared to processing a particular type of sensory information - visual, auditory and so on. The theory holds that for these regions to become organized properly, we must be exposed to the relevant stimuli early in life. This view stems from seminal studies by David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel - awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this research - showing that without exposure to such stimuli during a critical period in early life, the corresponding sensory system fails to develop. After the critical period, the brain is considered to experience a progressive loss of plasticity, that is, the ability to modify itself based on novel experiences.

But over the past decade, evidence has been accumulating that the brain's sensory regions can handle stimuli outside their "specialization." In a recent review in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Prof. Amedi and Dr. Benedetta Heimler bring together compelling findings in healthy as well as visually- and hearing-impaired individuals, showing that sensory regions deprived of their natural input can be activated by atypical senses - for example, the visual cortex can be activated by sound or touch.

Moreover, the researchers cite studies, including those in Amedi'a lab, in which such atypical activation was achieved in adults. They call for revising the classical concept of critical periods of development: instead of a fixed time window in early life, they suggest focusing on the brain's ability to acquire specialization throughout a person's lifetime, in other words, reversing the loss of plasticity.

In the new study in Neuroimage, Amedi's team trained a man, blind from birth - identified as MaMe, by the first syllables of his first and last name - to recognize objects using a sensory substitution algorithm the lab had developed. The method, EyeMusic, converts visual stimuli into "soundscapes," sound units that convey information about geometric shapes. They convey positions on the y axis by musical pitch, and those on the x axis by time. Thus, tones of a higher pitch denote higher locations, whereas their ordering in time corresponds to their respective positioning from left to right. The researchers scanned MaMe's brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging, before the training and after he had successfully learned to recognize soundscapes.

Hofstatter describe the intriguing results: "After MaMe had learned to interpret soundscapes, his neural circuits were shown to be activated not only in the auditory cortices, but also in the occipital cortex, which receives visual stimuli in sighted people and is not expected to be activated in a congenitally blind individual". Amedi adds: "Not only that, the activation followed a pattern of topographical maps - the highly ordered manner in which external stimuli are mapped in all the sensory systems of the human brain. For example, in the visual cortex of sighted people, neighboring locations are "mapped" onto adjacent neurons, whereas places at a great distance from one another are represented by neurons that are further apart.

MaMe's scans revealed topographic maps tuned to pitch and time - or even to both concurrently - that had not existed in his brain before he'd started the training. For instance, tones of a similar pitch were represented by adjacent neurons, whereas those of radically different pitches - by neurons that were distant from one another. This is the first time topographic maps have been shown to emerge in an adult human brain.

These findings suggest that the brain's sensory regions are primed for specific computations but not specific senses, and that they can be adapted to processing novel sensory experiences.

In fact, past studies by other researchers had shown in newborn laboratory animals that it's possible to "move" the vision function to the brain's hearing region by surgically guiding nerve fibers from the visual cortex to the auditory one. The new study by Hofstetter and colleagues supplies a proof of concept that a similar transition can be done in a noninvasive manner, and in an adult, rather than infant, brain.

"Critical periods are not permanent cut-off points for developing new sensory abilities - rather, in a way, we can give the brain a second chance at any point in life," Amedi says.

He points out that EyeMusic can teach people to develop an ability that is similar to that of bats and dolphins: extracting information about geometric shapes from complex sounds. A major difference, of course, is that the animals had developed this natural ability in the course of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, whereas in the lab, it can be acquired after a relatively short training.

"With the right technology, one can induce a speeded-up evolution of sorts in the sensory brain," Amedi says.

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The research team included: Dr. Shir Hofstetter and Prof. Amir Amedi

Donors: Amir Amedi's research is supported by the ERC, European Research Council. The ERC grant name: How experience shapes the brain. The research was also supported by the Baruch Ivcher fund (leading to the creation of the institute of Brain, Cognition, and Technology)

The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya in Herzliya, Israel, was established in 1994 as Israel's first private, non-profit institution of higher education. IDC Herzliya has spearheaded a pioneering and innovative approach to interdisciplinary higher education. From the very beginning, IDC Herzliya has been committed to educating future leaders. The myriad of graduates who have established themselves in professional, business, and public service roles are proof of our success.
Early 2020 saw the world break into what has been described as a "war-like situation": a pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the likes of which majority of the living generations across most of the planet have not ever seen. This pandemic has downed economies and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. At the dawn of 2021, vaccines have been deployed, but before populations can be sufficiently vaccinated, effective treatments remain the need of the hour.

Thus, other than fast-tracking research into novel drugs, scientists have also been exploring their arsenals of existing medicines in a bid to find anything that could work against COVID-19. Some approved drugs, like hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon, have already been put to clinical use against SARS-CoV-2 without well establishing their clinical efficacies, due to the severity of the pandemic. Subsequent randomized trials have not been able to yield a consensus on the efficacy of these drugs. Only remdesivir has been approved for clinical use against severe COVID-19, although its efficacy is still being debated.

In a breakthrough study, a team of scientists--comprising Dr. Koichi Watashi, Kaho Shionoya, Masako Yamasaki, Dr. Hirofumi Ohashi, Dr. Shin Aoki, Dr. Kouji Kuramochi, and Dr. Tomohiro Tanaka from Tokyo University of Science (along with scientists from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Kyushu University, The University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, and Science Groove Inc.)--have identified an anti-malarial drug, mefloquine (which is incidentally a derivative of hydrochloroquine), that is effective against SARS-CoV-2. Their findings are published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Detailing their modus operandi, lead scientist in the team Dr. Watashi says, "To identify drugs with higher antiviral potency than existing antivirals, we first screened approved anti-parasitic/anti-protozoal drugs. We found that mefloquine had the highest anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity among the tested compounds. Upon testing it against other quinoline derivatives, such as hydrochloroquine, in a cell line mimicking the cell-based environments of human lung cells, we found it to be better."

The team further explored mefloquine's mechanism of action. Dr. Watashi explains the process, "In our cell assays, mefloquine readily reduced the viral RNA levels when applied at the viral entry phase but showed no activity during virus-cell attachment. This shows that mefloquine is effective on SARS-COV-2 entry into cells after attachment on cell surface."

Thus, to bolster mefloquine's anti-viral activity, the scientists looked into the possibility of combining it with a drug that inhibits the replication step of SARS-CoV-2: Nelfinavir. Interestingly, they observed that the two drugs acted in "synergy" and the drug combination showed greater anti-viral activity than either showed alone, without being toxic to the cells in the cell lines themselves.

The scientists also mathematically modelled the effectiveness of mefloquine to predict its potential real-world impact if applied to treat COVID-19. What they predicted was that mefloquine could reduce the overall viral load in affected patients to under 7% and shorten the 'time-till-virus-elimination' by 6.1 days.

This study must of course be succeeded by clinical trials, but the world can hope that mefloquine becomes a drug used to effectively treat patients with COVID-19.

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Reference

Title of original paper: Mefloquine, a Potent Anti-severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Drug as an Entry Inhibitor in vitro

Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology

DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 3389/ fmicb. 2021. 651403

About the Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https:/ / www. tus. ac. jp/ en/ mediarelations/

About Dr. Koichi Watashi from Tokyo University of Science

Dr. Koichi Watashi is a Visiting Professor at Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan. Dr. Watashi also works as the Director, Division of Drug Development, Research Center for Drug and Vaccine Development, at National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan. He is an expert in virology, with over 20 years of experience in researching molecular mechanisms underlying virus proliferation and corresponding anti-viral agents. He has over 140 publications in international academic journals to his credit. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards like The Young Investigator Award of The Japanese Cancer Association, Sugiura Memorial Incentive Award of The Japanese Society for Virology, etc.
Contrary to what science once suggested, older people with a declining sense of smell do not have comprehensively dampened olfactory ability for odors in general - it simply depends upon the type of odor. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reached this conclusion after examining a large group of older Danes' and their intensity perception of common food odours.

That grandpa and grandma aren't as good at smelling as they once were, is something that many can relate to. And, it has also been scientifically demonstrated. One's sense of smell gradually begins to decline from about the age of 55. Until now, it was believed that one's sense of smell broadly declined with increasing age. However, a study from the University of Copenhagen reports that certain food odors are significantly more affected than others.

The Department of Food Science's Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge and her fellow researchers have tested the ability of older Danes to perceive everyday food odors. The researchers measured how intensely older adults perceived different food odours, as well as how much they liked the odours.

"Our study shows that the declining sense of smell among older adults is more complex than once believed. While their ability to smell fried meat, onions and mushrooms is markedly weaker, they smell orange, raspberry and vanilla just as well as younger adults. Thus, a declining sense of smell in older adults seems rather odor specific. What is really interesting is that how much you like an odor is not necessarily dependent on theintensity perception" says Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

For example, liking of seemed to be largely unaffected for fried meat, onions and mushrooms, despite the largest decline in intensity perception was seen for these specific odors. Also the ability to smell coffee declined, among other things, though they didn't like the aroma of coffee to the same degree as younger adults.

The test subjects included 251 Danes between the ages of 60 and 98 and a control group consisting of 92 people between the ages of 20 and 39.

What's the story?

The researchers can only speculate as to why the declining sense of smell in older adults seems to be odors specific, and why, in some cases, liking is largely unaffected. However, they can only speculate of why the intensity decline was most pronounced for fried meat, onions and mushrooms - foods that are referred to as 'savory' or umami in nature.

"This may be due to the fact that these are common food odours in which saltiness or umami is a dominant taste element. It is widely recognized that salty is the basic taste most affected by aging. Since taste and smell are strongly associated when it comes to food, our perception of aroma may be disturbed if one's taste perception of saltiness is impaired to begin with," explains Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

Health and quality of life

The researchers hope that their findings can be deployed by those working to improve the meals and dining experiences of older adults. Figures show that half of those over 65 admitted to Danish hospitals are malnourished. The same applies to one in five nursing home residents.

While the sense of smell is important for stimulating appetite and our serotonin levels as well, according to Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, our study demonstrates that the sensitivity of one's sense of smell need not be decisive. For several of the food odours, the respondent's liking of an odour remained unchanged, even while their ability to perceive it had declined.

"Our results show that as long as a food odour is recognizable, its intensity will not determine whether or not you like it. So, if one wants to improve food experiences of older adults, it is more relevant to pay attention to what they enjoy eating than it is to wonder about which aromas seem weaker to them," concludes Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

The study is published in the scientific journal Food Quality and Preference.

FACTS:

The study was conducted in the Future Consumer Lab at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Food Science by Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, Karin Wendin, Morten A. Rasmussen and Wender Bredie.

The study involved 251 Danish older adults from five different regions. The test subjects were aged 60-98. As a control group, 92 people between the ages of 20 and 39 took part.

Instead of using odours of chemical origin, which is commonly the procedure when testing the sense of smell, Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge developed a test kit including 14 natural food odours familiar from everyday life, including bacon, onions, toast, asparagus, coffee, cinnamon, orange and vanilla. The odours were made primarily from essential oils and presented to test subjects by sniffing sticks.

The food odours were chosen based upon commonly consumed foods and dishes that older people often eat and enjoy most according to meal plans and surveys from a Danish catering company that provides food for the elderly.

The study is part of the ELDORADO project. The project aims to study how Danish municipalities can increase the desire of elderly people living at home to eat more, so as to help them avoid becoming malnourished. The ELDORADO project is based at the Department of Food Science and led by Wender Bredie.

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While autistic individuals are less likely to use substances, those who do so are more likely to self-medicate for their mental health symptoms, according to new research from the University of Cambridge and published today in The Lancet Psychiatry.

There is significant debate about substance use of autistic adolescents and adults. Some studies indicate that autistic individuals are less likely to use substances, whereas others suggest that autistic individuals are at greater risk of substance misuse or abuse. The team at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge used a 'mixed methods' design to consider both the frequency of substance use among autistic individuals, as well as their self-reported experiences of substance use.

Overall, 1,183 autistic and 1,203 non-autistic adolescents and adults (aged 16-90 years) provided information about the frequency of their substance use via an anonymous, online survey; of this group, 919 individuals also gave more in-depth responses about their experiences of substance use.

Autistic adults were less likely than non-autistic peers to use substances. Only 16% of autistic adults, compared to 22% of non-autistic adults, reported drinking on three or more days per week on average. Similarly, only 4% of autistic adults reported binge-drinking compared to 8% of non-autistic adults.

There were also some sex differences in patterns of substance use: autistic males were less likely than non-autistic males to report ever having smoked or used drugs. In contrast, the team did not find differences in the patterns of frequency of smoking or drug use between autistic and non-autistic females.

However, despite lower rates of substance use overall, the qualitative findings of the study provide a much less hopeful picture: autistic adults were nearly nine times more likely than non-autistic peers to report using recreational drugs (such as marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines) to manage unwanted symptoms, including autism-related symptoms.

Drugs were used to reduce sensory overload, help with mental focus, and provide routine, among other reasons. Several autistic participants also indirectly referenced using substances to mask their autism. Past research has shown that this behavioural management (also known as 'camouflaging' or 'compensating') has been linked to emotional exhaustion, worse mental health, and even increased risk of suicide among autistic adults.

Autistic adolescents and adults were also over three times more likely than others to report using substances to manage mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Several participants specifically noted that they used drugs for self-medication. However, this self-medication was not always viewed as negative by participants, and several noted that using recreational drugs allowed them to reduce the doses of prescribed medications for mental health conditions, which was a welcome change due to the sometimes significant side effects from their prescribed medications.

Another area of concern was the strong association between vulnerability and substance use among autistic teenagers and adults. Previous work from the Cambridge team suggests that autistic adults may be much more likely to have adverse life experiences and be at greater risk of suicide than others. The findings of the new study indicate that autistic individuals are over four times more likely to report vulnerability associated with substance use compared to their non-autistic peers, including dependence/addiction, using drugs to deal with past trauma, and substance use associated with suicide.

In addition, the study identified two new areas of vulnerability not been previously reported: being forced, tricked, or accidentally taking drugs; and childhood use of substances (at the age of 12 years or younger).

Elizabeth Weir, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, and the lead researcher of the study, said: "Whether or not the substances currently classed as 'recreational' could be used medically remains an open question. It is evident that the current systems of health and social care support are not meeting the needs of many autistic teenagers and adults.

"No one should feel that they need to self-medicate for these issues without guidance from a healthcare professional. Identifying new forms of effective support is urgent considering the complex associations between substance use, mental health, and behaviour management--particularly as camouflaging and compensating behaviours are associated with suicide risk among autistic individuals."

Dr Carrie Allison, Director of Research Strategy at the Autism Research Centre and a member of the research team, said: "While some of our results suggest lower likelihood of substance use overall, physicians should not assume that their autistic patients aren't using drugs. Drug use can be harmful so healthcare providers should aim to establish trusting relationships with autistic and non-autistic patients alike to foster frank and honest conversations about substance use."

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre and a member of the team, said: "We continue to see new areas in which autistic adults experience vulnerability: mental health, physical health, suicide risk, lifestyle patterns, the criminal justice system, and so on. Substance use is now another area that we need to consider when developing new forms of support for autistic individuals. It is essential that we ensure that autistic people have equal access to high quality social and healthcare that can appropriately support their specific needs; and, unfortunately, it seems clear that our current systems are still not meeting this mark."

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The research was funded by the Autism Research Trust, Rosetrees Trust, Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Corbin Charitable Trust, Medical Research Council, Wellcome and the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

Reference

Weir, E., Allison, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. Understanding the substance use of autistic adults: a mixed methods approach. The Lancet Psychiatry (2021).
Mass-flowering crops such as oilseed rape or faba bean (also known as broad bean) provide valuable sources of food for bees, which, in turn, contribute to the pollination of both the crops and nearby wild plants when they visit. But not every arable crop that produces flowers is visited by the same bees. A team from the University of Gottingen and the Julius Kuhn Institute (JKI) in Braunschweig has investigated how the habitat diversity of the agricultural landscape and the cultivation of different mass-flowering crops affect wild bees. The research shows that diverse agricultural landscapes increase the species richness of wild bees. Flowering arable crops with different flower shapes support different wild bee species. The results of the study have been published in Landscape Ecology.

The research team recorded wild bees in flower-rich, semi-natural habitats such as hedgerows and flower strips in a total of 30 different agricultural landscapes, each covering one square kilometre, near Gottingen, Itzehoe and Leipzig. Researchers counted the number of bees along standardised sections and used a hand net to catch them and identify the species. The landscapes used in the study differed in their diversity and in the proportion of land covered by rapeseed and faba beans.

"The shape of the flower is an important criterion for determining which wild bee species will collect nectar from its flowers," says PhD student Felix Kirsch from the University of Gottingen, who conducted the study as part of his Master's thesis. "For example, the shape of the flower must fit the bee's body size and the length of its tongue. Nectar is easily accessible from rapeseed flowers, while the nectar of faba bean is hidden deep inside the flowers."

"Our study shows that faba beans promote social wild bees, especially long-tongued bumblebees," explains Dr Doreen Gabriel from the JKI in Braunschweig. A different picture emerged in landscapes with large amounts of oilseed rape: here, the study found that the proportion of solitary wild bees, which often have a smaller body size, was higher. "The cultivation of a certain mass-flowering crop is not sufficient to maintain diverse bee communities, which in turn ensure the pollination success of many flowering arable crops and wild plants," says first author Nicole Beyer, a postdoctoral researcher in the Functional Agrobiodiversity Department at Gottingen University. The head of the department, Professor Catrin Westphal, concludes: "Our results show convincingly that diverse, flowering arable crops and especially diverse semi-natural habitats in the agricultural landscape are necessary to support a broad range of wild bee species."

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Original publication: Beyer, N. et al. Identity of mass-flowering crops moderates functional trait composition of pollinator communities. Landscape Ecology 2021. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1007/ s10980-021-01261-3

Contact:

Nicole Beyer

University of Gottingen

Faculty of Agricultural Sciences - Functional Agrobiodiversity

Grisebachstrae 6, 37077 Gottingen, Germany

Tel: +49 (0)551 39-22312

Email: nicole.beyer@uni-goettingen.de

http://www. uni-goettingen. de/ en/ 601681. html

Felix Kirsch

University of Gottingen

Faculty of Agricultural Sciences - Functional Agrobiodiversity

Grisebachstrae 6, 37077 Gottingen, Germany

Tel: +49 (0)551 39-33739

Email: felix.kirsch@uni-goettingen.de

http://www. uni-goettingen. de/ en/ 599230. html
Imaging spectroscopy can help predict water stress in wild blueberry barrens, according to a University of Maine-led study.

The technology involves measuring the light reflected off of objects depicted in images captured by drones, satellites and other remote sensing technology to classify and gather pertinent information about the objects. According to researchers, it can precisely measure light across dozens, if not hundreds, of bands of colors. The reflectance spectra can depict nutrient levels, chlorophyll content and other indicators of health for various crops, according to researchers.

Scientists from UMaine, the Schoodic Institute and Wyman's, one of the world's largest purveyors of wild blueberries and the number one brand of frozen fruit in the country, found in their research that when incorporated into models, imaging spectroscopy can help predict whether wild blueberry fields will lack sufficient water for growing. Not only can the technology help inform growers as they evaluate irrigation routines and manage their water resources in a way that avoids damaging the crop, researchers say.

The team collected imaging spectroscopy data by deploying a drone equipped with a spectrometer for capturing visible and near-infrared light to photograph wild blueberry fields owned by Wyman's in Debois, Maine. Researchers then processed the images to measure reflected light spectra from the plants for indications of chlorophyll levels and other properties that would help estimate their water potential, which, they say, is the primary force driving water flow and an indicator of water stress. At the same time, the group collected small branches with leaves from wild blueberry plants in the plots to assess their water potential and validate the spectra-based estimation. Pictures and samples were collected in the spring and summer of 2019 when the plants experienced peak bloom, green fruit and color break.

The data from both drone images and ground samples were incorporated into models, which they developed using machine learning and statistical analysis, to estimate water potential, and thereby predict water stress, of the plants in the barrens. Models from the ground sample data were used to help guide the development of and validate the model created with data from the images. The results of both sets of models were comparable, demonstrating that imaging spectroscopy can accurately predict water stress in wild blueberry barrens at different times of the growing season. With the efficacy of the technology confirmed, researchers say scientists can capitalize on the benefits of it, such as conducting repeated measurements on small objects like blueberry leaves with ease.

Graduate student Catherine Chan led the study, joined by UMaine faculty Daniel Hayes and Yongjiang Zhang, Schoodic Institute forest ecologist Peter Nelson and Wyman's agronomist Bruce Hall. The journal Remote Sensing published a report of their findings.

"We couple spectral data and areas of known water potential in wild blueberry fields through machine learning, creating a model to further predict areas that may be water stressed," Chan says.

Understanding how to sustainably manage water resources to mitigate risk associated with current and increasing drought frequency is crucial to wild blueberry growers, researchers say.

"This research provides key learnings to ensure the continued viability of wild blueberry crops for generations to come," Hall says.

Warming and drought exacerbated by climate change have compounded their struggles in recent years, alongside freezing and pathogens. Researchers say as a result, there has been an increased need for predictive tools, like imaging spectroscopy and models that rely on it, for land conditions to inform mitigation strategies.

Nelson says the study was conducted in cooperation with his laboratory of ecological spectroscopy (lecospec) at the Schoodic Institute, which was financed by the Maine Economic Improvement Fund, Maine Space Grant Consortium, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other University of Maine System funds. The research team used a software he developed with Chan and other students that allows drones and spectrometers to measure light across dozens or hundreds of more bands of color than an average camera, Nelson says.

"We envisioned and continue to promote this as a research and application tool to produce data and algorithms applied to questions and problems in forest, agricultural and marine sectors of Maine's economy," he says.

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There is a significant discrepancy between theoretical and observed amounts of lithium in our universe. This is known as the cosmological lithium problem, and it has plagued cosmologists for decades. Now, researchers have reduced this discrepancy by around 10%, thanks to a new experiment on the nuclear processes responsible for the creation of lithium. This research could point the way to a more complete understanding of the early universe.

There is a famous saying that, "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." This holds true in every academic domain, but it's especially common in cosmology, the study of the entire universe, where what we think we should see and what we really see doesn't always match up. This is largely because many cosmological phenomena are difficult to study due to inaccessibility. Cosmological phenomena are usually out of our reach because of the extreme distances involved, or often they have occurred before the human brain had even evolved to worry about them in the first place -- such is the case with the big bang.

Project Assistant Professor Seiya Hayakawa and Lecturer Hidetoshi Yamaguchi from the Center for Nuclear Study at the University of Tokyo, and their international team are especially interested in one area of cosmology where theory and observation are very misaligned, and that is the issue of the missing lithium, the cosmological lithium problem (CLP). In a nutshell, theory predicts that in the minutes following the big bang that created all matter in the cosmos, there should be an abundance of lithium around three times greater than what we actually observe. But Hayakawa and his team accounted for some of this discrepancy and have thus paved the way for research that may one day resolve it entirely.

"13.7 billion years ago, as matter coalesced from the energy of the big bang, common light elements we all recognize -- hydrogen, helium, lithium and beryllium -- formed in a process we call Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN)," said Hayakawa. "However, BBN is not a straightforward chain of events where one thing becomes another in sequence; it is actually a complex web of processes where a jumble of protons and neutrons builds up atomic nuclei, and some of these decay into other nuclei. For example, the abundance of one form of lithium, or isotope -- lithium-7 -- mostly results from the production and decay of beryllium-7. But it has either been overestimated in theory, underobserved in reality, or a combination of the two. This needs to be resolved in order to really understand what took place way back then."

Lithium-7 is the most common isotope of lithium, accounting for 92.5% of all observed. However, even though the accepted models of BBN predict the relative amounts of all elements involved in BBN with extreme accuracy, the expected amount of lithium-7 is around three times greater than what is actually observed. This means there is a gap in our knowledge about the formation of the early universe. There are several theoretical and observational approaches which aim to resolve this, but Hayakawa and his team simulated conditions during BBN using particle beams, detectors and an observational method known as the Trojan horse.

"We scrutinized more than ever before one of the BBN reactions, where beryllium-7 and a neutron decay into lithium-7 and a proton. The resulting levels of lithium-7 abundance were slightly lower than anticipated, about 10% lower," said Hayakawa. "This is a very difficult reaction to observe since beryllium-7 and neutrons are unstable. So we used deuteron, a hydrogen nucleus with an extra neutron, as a vessel to smuggle a neutron into a beryllium-7 beam without disturbing it. This is a unique technique, developed by an Italian group we collaborate with, in which the deuteron is like the Trojan horse in Greek myth, and the neutron is the soldier who sneaks into the impregnable city of Troy without tipping off the guards (destabilizing the sample). Thanks to the new experimental result, we can offer future theoretical researchers a slightly less daunting task when trying to resolve the CLP."

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Journal article

S. Hayakawa, M. La Cognata, L. Lamia, H. Yamaguchi, D. Kahl, K. Abe, H. Shimizu, L. Yang, O. Beliuskina, S. M. Cha, K. Y. Chae, S. Cherubini, P. Figuera, Z. Ge, M. Gulino, J. Hu, A. Inoue, N. Iwasa, A. Kim, D. Kim, G. Kiss, S. Kubono, M. La Commara, M. Lattuada, E. J. Lee, J. Y. Moon, S. Palmerini, C. Parascandolo, S. Y. Park, V. H. Phong, D. Pierroutsakou, R. G. Pizzone, G. G. Rapisarda, S. Romano, C. Spitaleri, X. D. Tang, O. Trippella, A. Tumino, and N. T. Zhang, "Constraining the Primordial Lithium Abundance: New Cross-Section Measurement of the 7Be + n Reactions Updates the Total 7Be Destruction Rate" Astrophysical Journal Letters,

Funding

This works was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Nos. 15K17631, 18K13556 and 19K03883). K. Y. C. and S. M. C. were supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (Nos. 2020R1I1A1A01065120, 2020R1A2C1005981, 2019K2A9A2A10018827, and 2016R1A5A1013277). D. K. would like to thank the UK STFC for support. G. G. K. acknowledges the supports by NKFIH (NN128072) and from the Janos Bolyai research fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and from UNKP-20-5-DE-2 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities of Hungary. The authors acknowledge Finanziamenti di Linea 2 and Starting Grant 2020 by University of Catania.

Useful links

Center for Nuclear Study

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud

Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University

Research contact information

Project Assistant Professor Seiya Hayakawa

Center for Nuclear Study, The University of Tokyo,

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, JAPAN

Email: hayakawa@cns.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Press Contact

Mr. Rohan Mehra

Division for Strategic Public Relations, The University of Tokyo

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8654, JAPAN

Email: press-releases.adm@gs.mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

About the University of Tokyo
An international research team led by a researcher from the University of Tsukuba proposes that catering to different visitors has influenced flower evolution

Ibaraki, Japan - Flowers come in a multitude of shapes and colors. Now, an international research team led by a researcher from Japan has proposed the novel hypothesis that trade-offs caused by different visitors may play an important role in shaping this floral diversity.

In a study published last month, the team explored how the close associations between flowers and the animals that visit them influence flower evolution.

Visitors to flowers may be beneficial, like pollinators, or detrimental, like pollen thieves. All of these visitors interact with flowers in different ways and exert different selection pressures on flower traits such as color and scent. For example, a scent that attracts one pollinator may deter other potential pollinators. In this case, the flower would be expected to cater to the best pollinator.

"On the basis of this theory, you'd expect that flowers would mostly be visited by one particular group of pollinators," says lead author of the study, Professor Kazuharu Ohashi. "But flowers often host many different visitors at the same time and flowers appear to meet the needs of multiple visitors. The question we wanted to answer is how this happens in nature."

Balancing the demands of multiple visitors involves trade-offs. For example, diurnal bees and nocturnal moths can both pollinate goat willow but prefer different smells. A floral scent adapted to only one of these animals would mean missed opportunities for pollination by the other. To see how these types of visitor-mediated trade-offs affect the evolution of flowers, the researchers developed a conceptual framework to examine the different types of trade-offs and how flowers might adapt. They then looked at previous studies of flower-animal interactions to see whether the research supported the proposed framework.

What they found was a variety of strategies for mitigating trade-offs. In the case of goat willow, flowers produce different scents during the day and night, and therefore attract both types of pollinator. Another example is floral color change as a strategy to attract both bees and flies. Retaining old flowers could attract opportunistic foragers like flies, while repelling smart foragers like bees. The color change in flowers as they age could reduce this trade-off by allowing bees to select young, rewarding flowers. Many other strategies were noted, all of which involved acquiring novel combinations of traits to attract, or exclude, different visitors.

"Most flowers are ecologically generalized and the assumption to date has been that this is a suboptimal solution," explains Professor Ohashi. "But our findings suggest that interactions with multiple animals can actually be optimized by minimizing trade-offs in various ways, and such evolutionary processes may have enriched the diversity of flowers."

The discrepancy between observed flower visitors and those predicted on the basis of a flower's traits has long been a topic of debate. Taking visitor-mediated trade-offs into account in future studies of flower evolution may help settle that argument.

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The article, "Trade-off mitigation: a conceptual framework for understanding floral adaptation in multispecies interactions," was published in Biological Reviews at DOI:10.1111/brv.12754
In a rapidly changing Arctic, one area might serve as a refuge - a place that could continue to harbor ice-dependent species when conditions in nearby areas become inhospitable. This region north of Greenland and the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has been termed the Last Ice Area. But research led by the University of Washington suggests that parts of this area are already showing a decline in summer sea ice.

Last August, sea ice north of Greenland showed its vulnerability to the long-term effects of climate change, according to a study published July 1 in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment.

"Current thinking is that this area may be the last refuge for ice-dependent species. So if, as our study shows, it may be more vulnerable to climate change than people have been assuming, that's important," said lead author Axel Schweiger, a polar scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

How the last ice-covered regions will fare matters for polar bears that use the ice to hunt for seals that use the ice for building dens for their young, and for walruses that use the ice as a platform for foraging.

"This area has long been expected to be the primary refuge for ice-dependent species because it is one of the last places where we expect summer sea ice to survive in the Arctic," said co-author Kristin Laidre, a principal scientist at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.

The study focused on sea ice in August 2020 in the Wandel Sea, an area that used to be covered year-round in thick, multi-year ice.

"Sea ice circulates through the Arctic, it has a particular pattern, and it naturally ends up piling up against Greenland and the northern Canadian coast," Schweiger said. "In climate models, when you spin them forward over the coming century, that area has the tendency to have ice survive in the summer the longest."

Like other parts of the Arctic Ocean, the ice here has been gradually thinning, though last spring's sea ice in the Wandel Sea was on average slightly thicker than previous years. But satellite images showed a record low of just 50% sea ice concentration on Aug. 14, 2020.

The new study uses satellite data and sea ice models to determine what caused last summer's record low. It finds that about 80% was due to weather-related factors, like winds that break up and move the ice around. The other 20%, or one-fifth, was from the longer-term thinning of the sea ice due to global warming.

The model simulated the period from June 1 to Aug. 16 and found that unusual winds moved sea ice out of the area, but that the multiyear thinning trend also contributed, by allowing more sunlight to warm the ocean. Then, when winds picked up, this warm water was able to melt the nearby ice floes.

The record-low ice concentration in 2020 was surprising because the average ice thickness at the beginning of summer was actually close to normal.

"During the winter and spring of 2020 you had patches of older, thicker ice that had drifted into there, but there was enough thinner, newer ice that melted to expose open ocean," Schweiger said. "That began a cycle of absorbing heat energy to melt more ice, in spite of the fact that there was some thick ice. So in years where you replenish the ice cover in this region with older and thicker ice, that doesn't seem to help as much as you might expect."

The results raise concerns about the Last Ice Area but can't immediately be applied to the entire region, Schweiger said. Also unknown is how more open water in this region would affect ice-dependent species over the short and long terms.

"We know very little about marine mammals in the Last Ice Area," said Laidre, who is also an associate professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. "We have almost no historical or present-day data, and the reality is that there are a lot more questions than answers about the future of these populations."

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Other co-authors are Michael Steele and Jinlun Zhang at the UW; and Kent Moore at the University of Toronto. The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NASA, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Office of Naval Research; and the World Wildlife Fund Canada.

For more information, contact Schweiger at schweig@uw.edu, Steele at mas@apl.washington.edu or Laidre at klaidre@uw.edu. Note: Schweiger is on Central European Time. Steele and Laidre are on Pacific Time.
Sci-space could help construct mammal embryonic development atlases that map gene expression over time and location at single-cell resolution

A new technique called sci-Space, combined with data from other technologies, could lead to four-dimensional atlases of gene expression across diverse cells during embryonic development of mammals.

Such atlases would map how the gene transcripts in individual cells reflect the passage of time, cell lineages, cell migration, and location on the developing embryo. They would also help illuminate the spatial regulation of gene expression.

Mammalian embryonic development is a remarkable phenomenon: a fertilized egg divides repeatedly and turns, in a matter of weeks or months, into a complex organism capable of a myriad of physiological processes and composed of a variety of cells, tissues, organs, anatomical structures.

A better understanding of how mammals form before birth -- particularly the prenatal spatial patterns of gene expression at a single-cell level during embryonic development -- could advance biomedical and veterinary research on a variety of conditions. These range from inherited disorders to congenital malformations and developmental delays. Understanding how organs originate might also assist future regenerative medicine efforts.

An international team led by scientists at UW Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in Seattle demonstrated the proof-of-concept of their sci-Space technique in mouse embryos.

Their results are published in the July 2 edition of Science. The lead authors are Sanjay R. Srivatsan of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Mary C. Regier of the UW Department of Bioengineering.

The senior authors are Jay Shendure, UW Medicine professor of genome sciences, and director of the Brotman Baty Institute, and an investigator at the Allan Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing; Kelly R. Stevens, UW assistant professor of bioengineering; and Cole Trapnell, associate professor of genome sciences. Regier and Stevens are also investigators at the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research.

The researchers observed the orchestration of genes in 120,000 cell nuclei. All the body's somatic cells contain the same DNA code. The researchers captured information on which genes were turned on or off in these nuclei as mouse embryos took shape. The scientists also investigated how cells' locations in an embryo affected which genes were activated during development.

This technique builds on previous work in which these scientists and other groups developed ways of conducting whole-organism profiling of gene expression and DNA-code accessibility, in thousands of single cells, during embryonic development. They did so to track the emergence and trajectory of various cell types.

How cells are organized spatially - what physical positions they take as an embryo forms - is critical to normal development. Misplacements, disruptions, or cells not showing at the right time in the right spot can cause serious problems or even prenatal death.

However, gaining knowledge on spatial patterns of gene expression has been technically difficult. It has been unwieldy to assay gene transcripts of individual cells over wide swaths of the embryo. This limited the scientific understanding of how spatial organization influences gene expression and, consequently, why which cell types form where, or how neighboring groups of cells influence each other's future roles.

The scientists on the present study had earlier developed a method to label cell nuclei, a technique they called sci-Plex. They then went on to index single-cell RNA sequencing, with a method called sci-RNA-sequencing.

Now, with sci-Space, by analyzing spatial coordinates and cell gene transcripts the scientists identified thousands of genes whose expression was anatomically patterned. For example, certain genetic profiles emerged in neurons in the brain and spinal cord and others in cardiac muscle cells in the heart.

The scientists also used spatial and gene profile information to annotate subtypes of cells. For example, while both blood vessel cells and heart muscle might both express the gene for a particular growth factor, only the heart muscle cells produced certain growth factor receptors.

The researchers also observed that cell types varied greatly in the extent of their spatial patterning of gene expression. For example, connective tissue progenitor cells showed a relatively large proportion of spatially restricted gene expression. This observation suggests that subtypes of these cells behave in a position-dependent manner throughout the body.

To measure the power of spatial position on a cell type's gene transcript profile, the researchers also calculated the physical distance between cells and the angular distance of their gene expression profiles.

"For many cell types, as the physical distance between cells increased, so did the angular distance between their transcriptomes," the researchers noted in their paper. However, they added that this trend varied considerably. It was most pronounced in certain brain and spinal cord cells.

The genetic transcript profiles of some other cell types were highly influenced by their position in the developing embryo. Among these are certain cartilage cells, which become part of the scaffolding for bones of the head and face.

The researchers also studied gene expression dynamics that took place as part of brain cell differentiation and migration during mouse embryonic development. The researchers examined how various brain cell trajectories were anatomically distributed. The researchers did so by using the Allen Institute's Anatomical Reference Brain Atlas as a guide.

"Cells from each trajectory overwhelmingly occupied distinct brain regions," the researchers noted. They also observed gradients of developmental maturity in different regions of the brain. These gradients revealed both known and new patterns of migration.

In the future, the researchers hope sci-Space will be further applied to serial sections that span the entire mouse embryo and that cover many points of time.

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The recently reported research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Brotman Baty Institute, Paul G. Allen Frontiers Foundation, and Washington Research Foundation.
What if a microscope allowed us to explore the 3D microcosm of blood vessels, nerves, and cancer cells instantaneously in virtual reality? What if it could provide views from multiple directions in real time without physically moving the specimen and worked up to 100 times faster than current technology?

UT Southwestern scientists collaborated with colleagues in England and Australia to build and test a novel optical device that converts commonly used microscopes into multiangle projection imaging systems. The invention, described in an article in today's Nature Methods, could open new avenues in advanced microscopy, the researchers say.

"It is a completely new technology, although the theoretical foundations for it can be found in old computer science literature," says corresponding author Reto Fiolka, Ph.D. Both he and co-author Kevin Dean, Ph.D., are assistant professors of cell biology and in the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics at UT Southwestern.

"It is as if you are holding the biological specimen with your hand, rotating it, and inspecting it, which is an incredibly intuitive way to interact with a sample. By rapidly imaging the sample from two different perspectives, we can interactively visualize the sample in virtual reality on the fly," says Dean, director of the UTSW Microscopy Innovation Laboratory, which collaborates with researchers across campus to develop custom instruments that leverage advances in light microscopy.

Currently, acquiring 3D-image information from a microscope requires a data-intensive process, in which hundreds of 2D images of the specimen are assembled into a so-called image stack. To visualize the data, the image stack is then loaded into a graphics software program that performs computations to form two-dimensional projections from different viewing perspectives on a computer screen, the researchers explain.

"Those two steps require a lot of time and may need a very powerful and expensive computer to interact with the data," Fiolka says.

The team realized it could form projections from multiple angles by optical means, bypassing the need to acquire image stacks and rendering them with a computer. This is achieved by a simple and cost-effective unit consisting of two rotating mirrors that is inserted in front of the camera of the microscope system.

"As a result, we can do all this in real time, without any noticeable delay. Surprisingly, we can look from different angles 'live' at our samples without rotating the samples or the microscope," Fiolka says. "We believe this invention may represent a new paradigm for acquiring 3D information via a fluorescence microscope."

It also promises incredibly fast imaging. While an entire 3D-image stack may require hundreds of camera frames, the new method requires only one camera exposure.

Initially, the researchers developed the system with two common light-sheet microscopes that require a post-processing step to make sense of the data. That step is called de-skewing and essentially means rearranging the individual images to remove some distortions of the 3D-image stack. The scientists originally sought to perform this de-skewing optically.

While experimenting with the optical de-skewing method, they realized that when they used an incorrect amount of "de-skew," the projected image seemed to rotate.

"This was the aha! moment. We realized that this could be bigger than just an optical de-skewing method; that the system could work for other kinds of microscopes as well," Fiolka said.

"This study confirms the concept is more general," Dean says. "We have now applied it to various microscopes, including light-sheet and spinning disk confocal microscopy."

Using the new microscope method, they imaged calcium ions carrying signals between nerve cells in a culture dish and looked at the vasculature of a zebrafish embryo. They also rapidly imaged cancer cells in motion and a beating zebrafish heart.

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UTSW co-authors include Bo-Jui Chang, Etai Sapoznik, Theresa Pohlkamp, Tamara S. Terrones, Erik S. Welf, Vasanth S. Murali, and Philippe Roudot.

Researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Calico Life Sciences LLC, South San Francisco, California; and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the University of Melbourne, both in Australia, also participated.

The research received support from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (RR160057), and the National Institutes of Health (T32CA080621; F32GM117793; K25CA204526, R33CA235254, and R35GM133522). Fiolka has filed a patent for the scan unit and its applications to microscopy. Additional disclosures are in the paper. The researchers made both the data used in the study and the software code available online. Access details are in the study.

Fiolka is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Visit the Fiolka lab here.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,800 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 117,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 3 million outpatient visits a year.
DETROIT - Repela Tech LLC, a Detroit-based sustainability tech startup from Wayne State University, was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II grant totaling $993,788 for research and development on a patent-pending (WSU Tech ID 20-1601), first-of-a-kind, safe antifouling marine coating.

The project, "STTR Phase II: The Next Generation of Environmentally Friendly Coatings for Marine Antifouling," will further develop a novel non-toxic antifoulant that keeps the hulls of marine vessels clear of biofouling without the environmental harm imposed by current antifoulant products.

Biofouling is the accumulation of algae, barnacles and other marine organisms on underwater surfaces such as the hulls of ships and boats. Biofouling can cause major issues, such as drag, which slows down water vessels and increases fuel consumption by as much as 40%. For the global shipping industry, this increase imposes an additional annual fuel cost of $36 billion. This excess fuel consumption adds 386 million tons of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. More than 90% of antifoulants in the market today contain copper, a toxic biocide harmful to the marine ecosystem. Repela's project will develop a competitive antifoulant that avoids harmful environmental impacts.

"The importance of this award from NSF cannot be overstated," said Sheu-Jane Gallagher, Ph.D., co-founder of Repela Tech. "The funding will enable Repela to advance its innovative coating technology, which promises to protect the Great Lakes and other precious bodies of water and thereby contribute to a more sustainable future for all."

The objectives of the next phase of the project is to fine tune the formulation of the novel coating to meet marine end user performance requirements and regulatory benchmarks and to demonstrate small-batch production capabilities. The work will lead to a rigorously tested, high-performing eco-friendly antifouling solution that will be ready for the marketplace.

The company was co-founded by Zhiqiang Cao, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering and materials science in Wayne State University's College of Engineering, and Edward Kim, a former mentor-in-residence at the university and an angel investor.

"Repela is a great example of how providing gap funding -- such as TDI and ADVANCE grants -- and mentor support can really help to de-risk the technology and accelerate the process of finding a product-market fit," said Kim. "To date, Repela has raised more than $1.3 million in grant and angel funding, and much credit goes to Wayne State's Office of the Vice President for Research and Dr. Joan Dunbar, retired associate vice president for technology commercialization, who provided critical support during the very early stage of IP development."

In 2019, Repela received two NSF grants - a $225,000 STTR Phase I grant, and a $50,000 I-Corps award. In 2018, Cao received an ADVANCE grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that aided in early stage proof-of-concept research.

The grant number for this National Science Foundation STTR Phase II award is 2036498.

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Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www. research. wayne. edu .

About Repela Tech: Repela Tech is a sustainability tech-focused startup spun out of Wayne State University to bring to market innovative and eco-friendly advanced material technologies for the marine protective coatings market. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Detroit. For more information, contact Sheu-Jane Gallagher at sgallagher@repela.co or visit http://www. repela. co .

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The COVID-19 catastrophe in India has resulted in more than 30 million people infected with the virus and nearly 400,000 deaths, though experts are concerned that the figures most likely are much higher. Meanwhile, another public health crisis has emerged along with COVID-19: the widespread misuse of antibiotics.

During India's first surge of COVID-19, antibiotic sales soared, suggesting the drugs were used to treat mild and moderate cases of COVID-19, according to research led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such use is considered inappropriate because antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections, not viral infections such as COVID-19, and overuse increases the risk for drug-resistant infections.

"Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to global public health," said the study's senior author, infectious diseases specialist Sumanth Gandra, MD, an associate professor of medicine and an associate hospital epidemiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "Overuse of antibiotics lessens their ability to effectively treat minor injuries and common infections such as pneumonia, which means that these conditions can become serious and deadly. Bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics don't have boundaries. They can spread to any person in any country."

The study, conducted in collaboration with McGill University in Canada, is published July 1 in PLOS Medicine. Giorgia Sulis, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill, is the first author.

Antibiotics are life-saving medications. However, unchecked, germs learn to defy the antibiotics designed to kill them while also multiplying in force. Along with more illnesses and deaths, antibiotic resistance leads to increased hospital stays and medical costs.

In high-income countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, overall antibiotic use plunged in 2020, even during COVID-19 peaks. "This is because physicians in high-income countries generally did not prescribe antibiotics for mild and moderate COVID-19 cases," Gandra explained. "The uptick in India indicates that COVID-19 guidelines were not followed."

Also worrisome are prior data analyses concluding that COVID-19 cases and deaths in India surpass the official estimates. "In reality, the problem is likely much worse," said Gandra, who also serves on a World Health Organization (WHO) committee focused on reducing antibiotic prescriptions in low- and middle-income countries.

With nearly 1.4 billion people, India is the world's second most populous country. "India is essential to study because it is the largest consumer of antibiotics in the world, and it's basically a poster child for antibiotic misuse in low- and middle-income countries with similar health-care practices," Gandra explained. "In general, these countries excessively prescribe antibiotics in primary care settings. Therefore, we suspect the pandemic has also spurred inappropriate antibiotic use in many low- and middle-income countries."

Antibiotic use increased despite guidelines from the Indian Health Ministry and WHO urging against antibiotics for mild and moderate forms of COVID-19, which account for more than 90% of the cases. "Antibiotics should only be given to patients who develop secondary bacterial illnesses," Gandra said. "This was not the case, indicating the need for policy changes in India, especially in light of the current crisis and the possibility of a devastating third wave."

In India, an unregulated private sector accounts for 75% of health care and 90% of antibiotic sales, Gandra said. "This allows for antibiotic overprescription," he said. "Low- and middle-income countries tend to skip diagnostic testing for respiratory illnesses because most patients cannot afford it, so they receive antibiotics under the assumption that their illness is bacterial. In the U.S., however, patients with a cold or a cough usually undergo testing for bacterial infections such as strep throat and only receive antibiotics if the tests are positive."

To assess the pandemic's impact on antibiotic use, researchers analyzed monthly sales of all antibiotics in India's private health sector from January 2018 through December 2020. The data came from an Indian branch of IQVIA, a U.S.-based health information technology company.

Specifically, researchers examined the total sales volume of all antibiotics as well as the individual sales volume for azithromycin. The latter was studied because some countries experienced a spike in azithromycin sales early in the pandemic after observational studies suggested the antibiotic could help treat COVID-19 (subsequent studies disputed the claim).

The researchers determined that a total of 16.29 billion doses of antibiotics were sold in India in 2020, which is slightly less than the amounts sold in 2018 and in 2019. However, when researchers focused on adult doses, usage increased from 72.6% in 2018 and 72.5% in 2019 to 76.8% in 2020.

Additionally, sales of azithromycin for adults in India increased from 4% in 2018 and 4.5% in 2019 to 5.9% in 2020. The study also showed notable increases in the sales of doxycycline and faropenem, two antibiotics commonly used to treat respiratory infections.

The researchers used previously published studies to compare India's antibiotic use with use of such drugs in the U.S. and other high-income countries. In those countries, the researchers found that adult antibiotic use decreased drastically during the pandemic compared with such use in 2018 and 2019.

"It's critical to acknowledge that antibiotic use in high-income countries plummeted in 2020," Gandra said. "People isolated, schools and offices closed, and fewer people got the flu and, overall, stayed healthier compared with the pre-pandemic years. This reduced the overall need for antibiotics, as did canceling dental procedures and outpatient surgeries.

"India also had restrictions and experienced dramatic decreases in malaria, dengue, chikungunya and other and infections typically treated with antibiotics," he said. "Antibiotic use should have gone down, but it didn't. Not only that but antibiotic use increased along with the rise of COVID cases."

After statistically adjusting for seasonality and mandatory lockdown periods, researchers estimated that COVID-19 likely contributed to 216.4 million excess doses of antibiotics for adults and 38 million excess doses of azithromycin for adults from June 2020 through September 2020, a four-month period of peak COVID-19 activity in India. "Our results indicate that almost everybody who was diagnosed with COVID-19 received an antibiotic in India," Gandra said.

Azithromycin is a vital drug for treating typhoid fever, non-typhoidal Salmonella and traveler's diarrhea. "Unnecessary use will lead to resistance among the bacteria that cause these illnesses," Gandra said. "These infections are highly prevalent in India and other low- and middle-income countries ... and azithromycin is the only effective oral treatment option available for typhoid fever in Pakistan."

Researchers also studied hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19 earlier in the pandemic. In India, sales of the drug decreased after the government issued an emergency order imposing stronger restrictions on the sale of hydroxychloroquine. Gandra said the Indian government should strongly consider mandating similar restrictions for azithromycin and other antibiotics.

"The most recent wave in India is at least four times the first wave, and preliminary research shows a similar reliance on using antibiotics to treat mild and moderate COVID-19 cases," he said. "The medium- and long-term consequences on bacterial resistance patterns are highly concerning, highlighting the need for urgent antibiotic stewardship measures, including mass vaccination."

###
GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Rises as Risk-Off Mood Remains

The Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate rose by 0.2% today after Chinese PMI data revealed a surprise fall in the non-manufacturing index, dampening confidence in the worlds second-largest economy and Australias largest trading partner. The pairing is currently fluctuating around $1.84.

The Australian Dollar has suffered from a combination of weak Chinese economic data and concerns over the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant throughout Asia and Europe.

Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura, explains the slowing down in Chinas manufacturing sector:

Production activities of some companies were slowed by recent chip, coal and power supply shortages. With resurgence of COVID-19 in India and other major Asian exporters, global demand relies on China's supply. China's supply constraint, however, can only be eased when other Asian exporting countries fully recover their production capacity.

Fresh lockdowns in key Australian cities have also limited the appeal of the Aussie today. The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) also commented that lockdowns have a very large and immediate negative impact on spending and that means less GDP.

However, the CBA also provided a relatively upbeat forecast, saying:

If the lockdowns end as scheduled then the damage on the macro economy will be minimal and the economic outlook will remain strong.

As a result, Aussie investors have become more cautious about the outlook for the Australian economy, which has left the AUD/GBP exchange rate flagging today.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Rise Despite Weak UK GDP Data

The Pound (GBP) rose against AUD today despite weaker-than-expected GDP data for the first quarter. The figure was revised down to -1.6% in January-March, compared to the estimate of a 1.5% contraction.

Paul Dales, analyst at Capital Economics, commented on the data:

The small downward revision to Q1 GDP growth probably wont stop the economy from rising back to its pre-pandemic peak in the coming months.

And the larger-than-expected rebound in the household saving rate increases the potential for faster rises in GDP further ahead.

As a result, Pound investors have become more concerned about the strength of economic recovery in the second and third quarters.

However, with lockdown measures due to be lifted on 19 July, many Pound traders are optimistic that the UK economy could swiftly recover and establish pre-pandemic levels of economic stability.

GBP investors will also be eyeing todays speech from the Bank of Englands (BoE) Chief Economist, Andy Haldane, this afternoon.

Could dovish comments about the outlook for the UK economy weigh on the GBP/AUD exchange rate?

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Forecast: Could a Upbeat Bank of England Boost the Pound?

Pound (GBP) traders will await tomorrows speech from the BoEs Governor, Andrew Bailey. Any upbeat comments about the outlook for UK economic growth would be GBP-positive.

Tomorrow will also see the release of the latest UK manufacturing PMI data for June. Could an uptick in the manufacturing sector further boost the Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate.

In Australian economic data, tomorrow will see both the release of Mays trade balance report and the latest CBA manufacturing PMI for June.

Any improvement in the outlook for the Australian economy would boost the Australian Dollar.
The Pound US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate has weakened this morning as a resurgence in the Greenback limits the appeal of Sterling.

The GBP/USD pairing are currently trading around the $1.3791 level as markets await the latest initial US jobless claims and ISM manufacturing PMI.

Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Struggle Despite Positive UK Manufacturing PMI

The Pound has weakened against the US Dollar as the currency struggles to find any meaningful gains.

Despite a positive manufacturing PMI from the UK for May, Sterling still found itself limited against many of its major rivals.

The UK manufacturing PMI softened slightly to 63.9 in June, down from May's record high of 65.6, the PMI signalled a 13-month successive improvement.

Rob Dobson, Director at IHS Markit, commented on the latest PMI, saying:

UK manufacturing maintained a near survey-record pace of expansion at the end of the second quarter, as the reopening of economies at home and overseas supported increased production, new orders and employment. Solid business confidence and rising backlogs of work also suggest that the current upturn has further to run.

Duncan Brock, Group Director at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply gave his own take on the PMI:

As global markets opened up still further in June, the manufacturing sector continued to enjoy a swell of new orders from home and abroad with work coming in from Asia, the US and Europe. Overall productivity however, showed some signs of slowing compared to the previous month as snarled supply chains were in danger of seizing up and operating capacity tightened.

US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Await US Jobless Claims

The US Dollar continues to find support against many of its major rivals as the souring market mood drives demand towards the safe-haven Greenback.

Following the latest ADP employment change figures from the US, which yesterday came in way above market expectations, all eyes look towards Fridays non-farm payrolls.

Nela Richardson, ADPs chief economist commented on the latest employment change figures from the US, saying:

The labor market recovery remains robust, with June closing out a strong second quarter of jobs growth. Service providers, the hardest hit sector, continue to do the heavy lifting, with leisure and hospitality posting the strongest gain as businesses begin to reopen to full capacity across the country

This afternoons economic data releases from the US are expected to drive the currency higher  if they meet forecasts.

The latest initial US jobless claims along with the ISM manufacturing PMI are expected to show a sustained economic recovery.

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Outlook: US Non-Farm Payrolls in Focus

For Pound investors, a lack of notable data from the UK could leave Sterling open to losses heading into the weekend.

Any further coronavirus developments from the UK surrounding the 19th July freedom day could support the Pound.

The Greenback could head higher tomorrow on the back of the US non-farm payrolls for June which are forecast to have risen 700k, in line with the recent ADP employment change figures which came in at 692k.

The GBP/USD exchange rate will continue to be driven by the global market mood over the weekend, concerns over surging coronavirus cases globally continue to limit risk-correlated currencies and drive the safe-haven US Dollar higher.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021

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Disney + today announced a new short from the well-known animation The Simpsons that will once again pay tribute to Marvel movies and series, to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Last year there was already a special episode inspired by the movie Avengers: Infinity War, and now we are going to a short.

The next July 7th the new short film will arrive exclusively on the streaming service The Simpsons: The Good, the Bad and Loki, which will have Loki as the main protagonist. In it, Loki is once again banished from Asgard and must face the most fearsome rivals he has ever met: The Simpsons and the most powerful heroes of Springfield. The God of Deception joins Bart Simpson in an unprecedented crossover that pays homage to the cinematic universe of Marvel superheroes and villains.

Tom Hiddleston will lend his voice in the original version bringing Loki back to life in this animated short. The God of Deception will also be accompanied by many of the favorite characters of The Simpsons fans.

The Simpsons: The Good, the Bad and Loki is the second in a series of Disney + shorts of The Simpsons made with the presence of the most prominent brands and titles of the streaming service. The previous Star Wars-themed short film Maggie Simpson in Awakening from Nap is available exclusively on Disney +.

Along with the announcement has arrived the poster inspired by the movie Avengers: Endgame by Marvel Studios.
Editors note: This article has been updated to include a response from Caroline Duesings lawyer.

San Antonio attorney Martin Phipps legal odyssey just took another odd turn.

Phipps  who earlier this year was arrested on suspicion of harassing his then-wife and later secured a protective order against a former law partner in a high-profile public feud  is now suing a consignment store for allegedly selling hundreds of articles of clothing stolen from his company.

Phipps Holy Spirits LLC, which does business as Paramour, the swanky rooftop bar located above his firms law office at 102 Ninth St. along the River Walk, seeks at least $250,000 in damages from consignment shop Too Good to be Threw.

Holy Spirits alleges the clothing was pilfered by Phipps former girlfriend, Caroline Duesing, and then sold to Too Good to be True.

File photo

Phipps, 51, is helping represent Bexar County in its ongoing lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors.

On ExpressNews.com: Martin Phipps, prominent local attorney and businessman, arrested by San Antonio police

A call to Too Good to be Threw wasnt returned Wednesday. It has yet to respond to the lawsuit, filed Monday in state District Court in San Antonio.

Ted Anderson, a Dallas lawyer representing Duesing, 33, said the claims against her are false, disparaging, harassing, mean-spirited, intimidating and frivolous. She was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Duesing and Phipps had a more than four-year relationship that started in 2015. During that period, Anderson said, Duesing consigned a nominal amount of Mr. Phipps no-longer used clothing at his request.

At best, the items consigned were a few hundred dollars in value, Anderson said. Ms. Duesing categorically denies stealing any clothing or anything else from Martin Phipps.

San Antonio lawyer Abasi Major, who filed Holy Spirits lawsuit, didnt respond to a request for comment. He is an associate attorney at Phipps law firm, Phipps Ortiz Talafuse.

The lawsuit references an exhibit listing the clothing items allegedly stolen by Duesing. The exhibit, however, was missing from the complaint.

The suit says Too Good to be Threw operated as a fence by receiving and then selling stolen goods.

The store did not scrutinize the hundreds of items that were stolen from plaintiff, many of which had the sales tag on them, the suit says. Defendant was only concerned with selling goods for the highest prices possible.

File photo

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Too Good to be Threw owner Linda Reams started the venture in 1979. Its store, which sells clothing and furniture, is at 13413 San Pedro Ave.

Too Good to be Threw only sells pre-loved items, preowned merchandise with little wear and tear, Reams told the Exprss-News in 2014. Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada and Jimmy Choo sell well, especially among women looking to buy shoes and purses, she said at the time.

Operations manager Kathi Lux added the stores business model allows customers, or consigners, who bring in their clothes and furniture to earn 50 percent on their items once theyve sold.

Holy Spirits accuses the store of failing to enact any system to deter the sale of stolen goods. Employees were taught to rely on their gut feelings, Holy Spirits suit adds, citing a deposition Reams gave.

Store employees were not trained that a consigner selling multiples of the same items with the sales tag still on them was a red flag of a stolen item, the complaint adds.

An investigation is underway to determine the total dollar amount that Duesing allegedly stole from Holy Spirits, the suit says.

The companys claims include negligence and assisting or participating in property theft.

Phipps was arrested Feb. 8 by San Antonio Police Department officers on suspicion of telephone harassment, a Class B misdemeanor, for repeatedly contacting a woman to whom he was briefly married. He was freed on bail. His criminal defense lawyer has disputed the allegations.

On ExpressNews.com: Bexar DA to recuse office from prosecuting San Antonio attorney Martin Phipps harassment case

In June, the Bexar County District Attorneys office filed a motion to recuse itself from prosecuting Phipps to avoid any appearance of impropriety, given his role in the opioid litigation. He has not been formally charged.

Phipps has accused his former law partner, T.J. Mayes, with instigating the harassment investigation. In January, the two had a bitter falling out that played out on social media. A judge granted Phipps a protective order against Mayes in April.

Phipps alleged Mayes threatened him and his children during a monthslong scorched-earth media campaign.

Mayes is a former chief of staff to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and to Mayor Ron Nirenberg when Nirenberg was a City Council member.

State corporate records show Phipps is president of Holy Spirits Holdings LLC, manager of Holy Spirits LLC.

pdanner@express-news.net
An acrimonious split between Howard Energy Partners two founders has led one to ask a Delaware court to take the unusual step of dissolving the San Antonio pipeline and storage company.

Company co-founder Brad Bynum, joined by two colleagues, made the request in a lawsuit filed last month after they were terminated. Bynum had been Howard Energys president.

His fellow co-founder, Howard Energy Chairman and CEO Mike Howard, counters that the lawsuit is a ploy by the fired execs to extract larger golden parachutes from the company.

Their demand is simple: pay us a ransom, or well burn the company down, Howard and three company directors replied in a court filing.

The dispute threatens to upend Howard Energy, a privately held company that employs more than 350 people and has $3 billion in assets. This month is the 10-year anniversary of its founding.

Its extraordinary for a Delaware Chancery Court to consider whether to dissolve a company and wind up its affairs. Indeed, judicial dissolution of a limited liability company is a discretionary remedy that the court grants sparingly, the American Bar Association says on its website.

Bynum, along with former CFO Scott Archer and General Counsel Brett Braden, argue, It is no longer practicable to carry on the business and affairs of the company under terms of an agreement that governs its operations.

Vice Chancellor Lori Will, the judge overseeing the case, has granted the trios request to quickly hold a one- or two-day trial  probably sometime this summer.

The falling out

Howard Energy operates multiple pipelines carrying natural gas, crude oil, hyrdogen and refined products. In addition to pipelines, it owns and operates natural gas processing plants, liquid storage terminals, deep-water dock and terminal facilities, rail, terminal and transloading facilities and related assets. It has operations in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Mexico.

Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC, which does business as Howard Energy Partners, is incorporated in Delaware, where the dispute is unfolding.

In 2017, it announced plans for a $200 million initial public offering of shares in a partnership subsidiary. Less than two years later, though, it withdrew those plans.

Bynum and Howard have different takes on what led to their falling out.

The lawsuit brought by Bynum says they began having philosophical differences about Howard Energys direction in 2018.

Morale began to fall, and operational performance suffered, the complaint says. Howard began stepping back from day-to-day involvement while retaining the founder of a Dallas leadership academy to address Howard Energys operational issues.

Bynum opposed Stagen Leadership Academys Rand Stagens involvement but went along to preserve the founders working relationship, the suit says.

Securities and Exchange Commission filing

Then, in April, Howard returned from a safari and had an epiphany  he and Bynum needed a business divorce, the suit says. Bynum, though, refused to resign.

New venture

When Howard Energy was founded, the co-founders agreed that employees would report to Bynum and he would report to Howard.

Howard and the three directors, in their answer to the lawsuit, say that plan fizzled out because of Bynums abrasive style, poor management skillsand frequent absences.

This reached a critical point in recent years as projects that Bynums direct reports managed ran severely over-budget and were plagued by inefficiencies and infighting between cross functional teams, the court filing states.

Bynum saw the writing on the wall and approached Howard earlier this year about leaving to form his own company that would purchase two of Howard Energys assets, the document continues. Bynum recruited Archer and Braden to join him. Howard agreed to explore the idea.

Bynums efforts to start a new venture fell apart when it couldnt secure sufficient financing, Howard and the three directors allege.

When Howard approached Bynum about the prospect of retirement, Bynum pivoted, Howards filing adds. If he couldnt acquire HEPs assets with a new company, he would simply take over HEP, by ousting Howard as CEO.

Bynum met with the principals of Howard Energys two largest owners  Alinda Capital Partners of Greenwich, Conn., and Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo) of Canada  and told them they should appoint him to replace Howard, the filing says.

Alinda, AIMCo and Howard own about 95 percent of Howard Energy while Bynum, Archer and Braden own about 2 percent. Alinda and AIMCo have contributed about $1.5 billion in debt and equity financings to Howard Energy.

Hatching a coup

Howard Energys board formed a special committee composed of the Alinda and AIMCo representatives to look into the employment of Howard and Bynum to try to come up with a solution that would be satisfactory to the two founders, the lawsuit says.

The committee and Howard, though, hatched acoup by asking for Bynums, Archers and Bradens resignation, the trios filing says.

They were shocked and saddened by the requests, but expressed an interest in negotiated departures that would allow both sides to move on, the lawsuit says.

On April 28, it adds, Howard falsely announced the trios resignations during a town hall meeting attended by the companys employees via a webcast.

The trio say the separation negotiations did not proceed smoothly, in part because Howard and the special committee threatened to terminate the three without cause and withdraw some of the terms of their separations.

In their reply, Howard and the three directors say Bynum, Archer and Braden demanded separation packages about 10 times greater than those included in their employment agreements. The trio also allegedly demanded Howard Energy issue them significant new equity.

When HEP rejected these demands, petitioners resorted to extortion, Howard and the three directors say. Bynum and Archer, the other two directors on the companys six-member board, said they would block the company from operating and seek its judicial dissolution.

Bynum and Archer called a special board meeting for May 27. The day before the meeting, though, Howard and the three directors moved to protect themselves from the dissolution threats by removing Bynum and Archer from the board. Bynum, Archer and Braden were terminated from their executive posts at the board meeting.

The lawsuit alleges that Howard and the three directors conducted an ambush at the board meeting. James Metcalfe, an Alinda managing partner, declared himself chairman and called votes to remove the three without hearing objections. (The suit notes that Howard Energys website still lists Howard as chairman.)

From start to finish, the entire proceeding took less than four minutes, the three deposed executives say in their lawsuit.

The status quo

The trio filed their lawsuit June 3 but the document is not publicly available. A public version of the lawsuit became available five days later, though many documents in the case have received confidential treatment.

Besides seeking Howard Energys dissolution, Bynum, Archer and Braden want the court to declare that the trios terminations are void and that Bynum and Archer remain board members.

Will, the Delaware judge, conducted a hearing June 14 on the trios motion to return operations to the status quo by reinstalling Bynum and Archer to the board and letting the three men serve in the executive roles they had before they were fired.

Minus the two board members, their lawyer argued, the board could take potentially harmful actions that negatively affect the company.

Howard and the three directors opposed the request, saying no harm is imminent given the remaining four directors hold 95 percent of the ownership interests.

The judge granted the request to add Bynum and Archer back to the board given that the agreement governing the company empowers a six-member board to manage the companys business.

But Will didnt see the need to reinstate the three executives to their executive posts, explaining that restoring the board should be sufficient. She added that reinstating them after theyve been out of the company for weeks seems more disruptive.

As part of her order, Will said no party is permitted to take any action on the companys behalf outside the ordinary course of business.

Another dispute

On Monday, the three deposed executives filed court papers accusing Howard of violating the status quo order on June 18 by telling unit-holders the company believes the lawsuit is meritless and is vigorously defending it. Howard, the trio say, lacked the authority to issue the notice on behalf of the company.

They add that Howard Energy is a nominal defendant in the litigation and cant choose sides. Howards notice violated the principle that nominal defendants should be neutral in a corporate governance dispute, the filing says. Counsel for Howard and the three directors disagree.

The three deposed executives want the court to enforce the order and the companys neutrality.

A hearing on the request is set for July 22.

Attorneys for both sides declined to comment Thursday, and a spokeswoman for Howard Energy said the company doesnt comment on pending litigation.

pdanner@express-news.net
The parent company of Taco Cabana - which started in San Antonio and quickly became a local favorite - is selling the Tex-Mex chain for $85 million to the largest franchisee of Jack in the Box and TGI Fridays restaurants.

Founder Felix Stehling opened the first Taco Cabana in 1978 at Hildebrand and San Pedro avenues. He and his stepson, Lynn Moody, expanded the chain to include more than 100 restaurants in Texas before it was sold in 2000.

Addison-based owner Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. announced Thursday it had entered a stock purchase agreement with an affiliate of Yadav Enterprises Inc., which operates nearly 400 restaurants in Texas, California and 16 other states.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter. Taco Cabana will remain headquartered in San Antonio, a spokesperson confirmed.

The chain generated $239.4 million in revenue for the year ending Jan. 3, down nearly 20 percent from the year prior. There are 142 company-owned locations in Texas as well as six franchised restaurants in New Mexico.

Fiesta will use the sale proceeds to repay $79.2 million in loans and fees and expand its Pollo Tropical chain, now its sole holding. The companys cash balance was $67.6 million as of Sunday.

We made the strategic decision to sell the Taco Cabana business to allow our leadership team to focus completely on accelerating Pollo growth, and we are very excited about the tremendous growth opportunities we have for the Pollo Tropical business, Fiesta President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Stockinger said in a statement.

Godofredo A. Vasquez /Staff photographer

On ExpressNews.com: A look back at the history of Taco Cabana, a fortune squandered

Taco Cabana

Along with its Jack in the Box and TGI Fridays franchises, Yadav Enterprises is also one of the largest Dennys franchisees, a major investor in TGI Fridays ownership group and a franchisee of El Pollo Loco and Corner Bakery Cafe.

Anil Yadav, the CEO of Yadav Enterprises, has an impressive entrepreneurial background and is a highly-respected restaurant operator with a proven record of success across a variety of limited and full-service concepts, Stockinger added. We are confident he will be an effective steward of the Taco Cabana brand for the long-term.

San Antonio roots

Taco Cabana has had a rough-and-tumble history in San Antonio.

Stehling, who operated a slew of restaurants and nightspots in the area, leased a shuttered Dairy Queen at Hildebrand and San Pedro in 1978. Hed planned to turn the location into a parking lot for his Crystal Pistol bar across the street, but ultimately decided to open another restaurant there.

He and his family considered selling hamburgers and then barbecue before finally settling on tacos, and Taco Cabana was born.

The restaurant took off immediately, with sales reaching $700 on opening day. It stayed open 24 hours a day so Stehling did not have to lock up the patio furniture every night.

Stehling and Moody expanded Taco Cabana, adding a second location in 1983 and seven more by 1986.

On ExpressNews.com: Taco Cabana co-founder Lynn Moody dies

Stehling wanted to sell franchises and take the company public, but some family members  co-owners  didnt want to go that route. He became the sole owner of five restaurants and retained the Taco Cabana name in 1987, and his brother, Mike, took over four locations.

Five years later, Stehling sold 30 percent of Taco Cabana to the public for $35 million.

But after a second stock offering in 1993, problems started cropping up. The chain did not have enough experienced managers as it ballooned to over 100 restaurants, and efforts to expand in Colorado flopped.

Stehling was ousted as chairman in 1994 amid a clash with Taco Cabanas CEO.

In 2000, Syracuse, N.Y.-based Carrols Restaurant Group bought the chain for $154 million. By then it had swelled to 126 restaurants, mainly located in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Carrols spun off Fiesta Restaurant Group in 2012, the same year Stehling died. Moody died in 2019.

Taco Cabanas sales fell from $321.5 million in 2016 to $249.9 million in 2020, according to Technomic, a food service consultancy. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the chain brought in $311.1 million in sales in 2019.

The number of restaurants has also shrunk recently, dropping from 172 in 2019 to 149 in 2020. Fiesta Restaurant Group closed 19 under-performing Texas locations last year prior to the pandemic, citing significant losses.

Staff writer Patrick Danner contributed to this report.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP)  Prenatal services at the health clinic were free, but the motorcycle taxi fare cost more than Monica Maxwell could afford. Just four weeks before delivering her baby, she cobbled together 1,400 kwacha ($1.75) for the 50-kilometer (31-mile) round trip. It was only her third visit -- fewer than her first two pregnancies. The money she made selling tomatoes at the local market dried up due to the pandemic. Her husbands income selling goat meat also dwindled.

It was the most difficult period of our lives. We had no money for our daily survival, Maxwell, 31, said as she waited outside with other women to be seen by a medical midwife. Mostly we stayed home.

In a country where hospitals are so bare that women are expected to bring their own razor blades for cutting their babies' umbilical cords, the deepening poverty brought on by the pandemic is further imperiling women's lives.

Officials say far fewer pregnant women in Malawi are getting the health care they need amid the pandemic, with many forgoing medical visits and relying solely on traditional birth attendants, who provide emotional support and administer traditional herbal treatments but are technically banned by the government from delivering babies because of their lack of formal training. Many families cant afford clinic visits, or, like Maxwell, the transportation to get there; they also fear theyll catch coronavirus in a medical facility.

At risk are the gains that Malawi  a largely rural sliver of a country, with 18 million people  has made over the past decade to combat its poor record of maternal deaths. Malawian women face a 1-in-29 lifetime risk of death related to a pregnancy or birth, according to the United Nations Population Fund. The country has 439 such deaths per 100,000 live births  a figure it had worked to reduce from 984 per 100,000 in 2004, as women got better access to medical care, especially in emergencies.

Still, Malawi's rate is the third-highest in southern Africa. The rates are 19 per 100,000 births in the United States and 7 per 100,000 in the United Kingdom.

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This story is part of a yearlong series on how the pandemic is impacting women in Africa, most acutely in the least developed countries. APs series is funded by the European Journalism Centres European Development Journalism Grants program, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AP is responsible for all content.

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Malawian hospitals also suffered staffing shortages when nurses were mobilized to treat coronavirus patients  leading to some lack of experienced personnel for births, said Young Hong, of the United Nations Population Fund.

Not only did the pandemic affect availability of manpower, it also exerted much pressure on the entire health system, including the stock out of certain medicines, equipment, basic medical supply like surgical gloves, said Hong, who noted that eight Malawian women die daily of pregnancy complications, far higher than the COVID-19 toll. This had a huge impact on the quality of maternal health service provision during the pandemic.

At the Ndirande Health Center, just northeast of the country's commercial capital of Blantyre, about 100 women visited daily for prenatal services before the pandemic. When COVID-19 emerged, that number dropped by half, and now is as low as 15 to 20 patients, said Jacqueline Kolove, a nursing officer at the clinic.

Sometimes even the women who come for prenatal care are afraid to deliver at the clinic during the pandemic, preferring to give birth at home. Malawian women are encouraged to give birth without medical intervention, and many here believe that emergency measures such as cesarean sections are shameful and a sign of weakness. Deciding to give birth at home, though, can be deadly  most women live too far away to make it in time if a dangerous complication arises.

We explain to them why such a decision might have the dire consequences ... sometimes even calling their husbands and parents to try to reason with them, Kolove said.

At Ndirande and other clinics, nurses, aides and medical midwives give pregnant women ultrasounds and use equipment to listen to the vital signs of mother and baby. A woman can undergo a cesarean section if needed, and medications are available to stop severe bleeding. Clinic staff take medical courses, observe simulated births, and become licensed.

Traditional birthing attendants learn from elders who pass down knowledge through generations and use little to no medical equipment  they listen to womens bellies by placing their ears there, for example, and gather herbs to induce labor. They say certain herbs, boiled into a dark-green liquid, can address situations such as breech babies who needs to change positions.

The government banned traditional birthing attendants' delivery work in 2007, but the practice has continued, with the ban rarely enforced. Some attendants charge nothing, and theyve seen an increase in women coming to them during the pandemic. Attendants such as Lucy Mbewe, whos 56 and estimates shes delivered 4,000 babies since 1983, say their work is key for women who cant afford anything else.

Even the colorful African cloth that is widely used to wrap babies, carry them on mothers backs or create makeshift diapers can be a potential obstacle to care, Mbewe noted. The government hospitals recommend that a woman who is going to deliver needs to carry with her at least 10 pieces of cloth, which is a deterrent to those that cannot even afford to put food on the table, she said.

At government facilities, Malawian women are even expected to bring a covering for the delivery bed, buckets for water, and sometimes candles or flashlights. Mbewe provides clothing and soap when she helps women give birth. She pays for transportation home. Some women are so grateful they return to pay her; she uses that money to care for other needy clients, she said.

But medically trained midwives say the mounting use of attendants has caused a spike in complicated deliveries, with women going to the hospital only once it's too late to save them. Mbewe says the complications are caused not by the traditional caregivers, but are attributable to expectant mothers getting pregnant at younger ages  a trend confirmed by a government report.

Midwives and health officials also say they're fighting against misinformation about the virus and vaccines that deters women from seeking proper medical care. Malawi didn't have a full social lockdown and has seen a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases, part of a surge across southern Africa. Experts believe cases are undercounted, and apprehension about the vaccine is widespread.

The Malawian government has administered less than 213,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. And officials destroyed about 20,000 expired doses provided by COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship vaccines to poor countries. Across all of Africa, just 1% of the population of 1.3 billion people in 54 countries has had one dose of the vaccine, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nurses and midwives say some women fear they'll secretly be given the vaccine if they deliver at a medical facility.

They feel, as health workers, we are giving them the COVID-19 vaccine instead of oxytocin, said Kolove, the nursing officer at the Ndirande Health Center, referring to medicine that strengthens contractions and reduces the risk of bleeding. They feel we are cheating them. As a result, there are some cases where women refuse.

Medical staff also understand that they and the women they treat are at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus. The medically trained midwives try to educate women, and they take every precaution possible against the virus, even though their work delivering babies makes keeping a physical distance impossible, said Keith Lipato, president of the Association of Malawian Midwives.

We make sure that all midwives are screened and tested so that those with signs and symptoms are excused from work, and given the necessary medical treatment so that they do not infect clients and patients, Lipato said.

The precautions don't persuade many expectant mothers, though. Five months into her pregnancy, Margret Kosamu has yet to visit a health clinic. Instead, the 30-year-old has turned to a traditional birth attendant for just two visits. Her family's farming income has dropped, but it's not just an issue of money; she fears visiting a medical facility could kill her, not save her life.

One is more likely going to contract the virus at the hospital than here, she said of the attendant's care.

Lipato and other medical workers fear that the pandemic will have long-lasting effects on women's health in Malawi and beyond.

Patricia Gunde, 26, has not received any prenatal services during her first pregnancy. She prefers instead to receive the herbs her attendant says will keep her healthy and hasten labor. Gunde has no plans to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

I am afraid," she said. "I have heard many stories about it.

With the traditional birth attendant, she feels at ease because women are seen one at a time.

When the attendant brings Gunde in for care, neither wears a mask.

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AP writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg contributed.

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Follow APs multiformat Africa news on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

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See the full series on how the pandemic is affecting women in Africa: https://apnews.com/hub/women-the-eyes-of-africa
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar's phone rang with an urgent request: Could he help someone at the White House obtain an experimental coronavirus treatment, known as a monoclonal antibody?

If Azar could get the drug, what would the White House need to do to make that happen? Azar thought for a moment. It was Oct. 1, 2020, and the drug was still in clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration would have to make a "compassionate use" exception for its use since it was not yet available to the public. Only about 10 people so far had used it outside of those trials. Azar said of course he would help.

Azar wasn't told who the drug was for but would later connect the dots. The patient was one of President Donald Trump's closest advisers: Hope Hicks.

A short time later, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn received a request from a top White House official for a separate case, this time with even greater urgency: Could he get the FDA to sign off on a compassionate-use authorization for a monoclonal antibody right away? There is a standard process that doctors use to apply to the FDA for unapproved drugs on behalf of patients dealing with life-threatening illnesses who have exhausted all other options, and agency scientists review it. The difference was that most people don't call the commissioner directly.

The White House wanted Hahn to say yes within hours. Hahn, who still did not know who the application was for, consulted career officials. The FDA needs to go by the book, the officials insisted. Hahn relayed the message back to the White House. They kept pressing him to effectively cut corners. No, we can't do that, Hahn told them several times. We're talking about someone's life. We have to actually examine the application to make sure we're doing it safely.

When Hahn later learned the effort was on behalf of the president, he was stunned. For God's sake, he thought, it's the president who's sick, and you want us to bend the rules? Trump was in the highest-risk category for severe disease from covid-19 - at 74, he rarely exercised and was considered medically obese. He was the type of patient with whom you would want to take every possible precaution. As it did with all compassionate-use applications, the FDA made a decision within 24 hours. Agency officials scrambled to figure out which company's monoclonal antibody would be most appropriate given the clinical information they had, and selected the one from Regeneron, known simply as Regen-Cov.

A five-day stretch in October 2020 - from the moment White House officials began an extraordinary effort to get Trump lifesaving drugs to the day the president returned to the White House from the hospital - marked a dramatic turning point in the nation's flailing coronavirus response. Trump's brush with severe illness and the prospect of death caught the White House so unprepared that they had not even briefed Vice President Mike Pence's team on a plan to swear him in if Trump became incapacitated.

Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford

For months, the president had taunted and dodged the virus, flouting safety protocols by holding big rallies and packing the White House with maskless guests. But just one month before the election, the virus that had already killed more than 200,000 Americans had sickened the most powerful person on the planet.

Trump's medical advisers hoped his bout with the coronavirus, which was far more serious than acknowledged at the time, would inspire him to take the virus seriously. Perhaps now, they thought, he would encourage Americans to wear masks and put his health and medical officials front and center in the response. Instead, Trump emerged from the experience triumphant and ever more defiant. He urged people not to be afraid of the virus or let it dominate their lives, disregarding that he had had access to health care and treatments unavailable to other Americans.

It was, several advisers said, the last chance to turn the response around. And once the opportunity passed, it was the point of no return.

- - -

The week leading up to Trump's infection was frenzied, even by his standards. On Saturday, Sept. 26, he had hosted a party with scores of maskless attendees to announce Amy Coney Barrett as his pick for Supreme Court justice. The celebrations had continued indoors, where most people remained maskless. By that time, the virus was surging again, but Trump's contempt for face coverings had turned into unofficial White House policy. He actually asked aides who wore them in his presence to take them off. If someone was going to do a news conference with him, he made clear that he or she was not to wear a mask by his side.

The day after the Supreme Court celebration, Trump had also hosted military families at the White House. At Trump's insistence, few were wearing masks, but they were packed in a little too tight for his comfort. He wasn't worried about others getting sick, but he did fret about his own vulnerability and complained to his staff afterward. Why were they letting people get so close to him? Meeting with the Gold Star families was sad and moving, he said, but added, "If these guys had covid, I'm going to get it because they were all over me." He told his staff that they needed to do a better job of protecting him.

Two days after that, he flew to Cleveland for the first presidential debate against his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Trump was erratic that whole evening, and he seemed to deteriorate as the night went on. The pundits' verdicts were brutal.

Almost 48 hours later, Trump became terribly ill. Hours after his tweet announcing he and first lady Melania Trump had coronavirus infections, the president began a rapid spiral downward. His fever spiked, and his blood oxygen level fell below 94 percent, at one point dipping into the 80s. Sean Conley, the White House physician, attended the president at his bedside. Trump was given oxygen in an effort to stabilize him.

The doctors gave Trump an eight-gram dose of two monoclonal antibodies through an intravenous tube. That experimental treatment was what had required the FDA's sign-off. He was also given a first dose of the antiviral drug remdesivir, also by IV. That drug was authorized for use but still hard to get for many patients because it was in short supply.

Typically, doctors space out treatments to measure a patient's response. Some drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, are most effective if they're administered early in the course of an infection. Others, such as remdesivir, are most effective when they're given later, after a patient has become critically ill. But Trump's doctors threw everything they could at the virus all at once. His condition appeared to stabilize somewhat as the day wore on, but his doctors, still fearing he might need to go on a ventilator, decided to move him to the hospital. It was too risky at that point to stay at the White House.

Many White House officials and even his closest aides were kept in the dark about his condition. But after they woke up to the news - many of them were asleep when Trump tweeted at nearly 1 a.m. on Friday that he had the virus - Cabinet officials and aides lined up at the White House to get tested. A large number had met with him the previous week to brief him about various issues or had traveled with him to the debate.

It was unclear even to Trump's closest aides just how sick he was. Was he mildly ill, as he and Conley were saying, or was he sicker than they all knew? Trump was supposed to join a call with nursing home representatives later that day as part of his official calendar. Officials had been scheduled to do it in person from the White House, but that morning they were informed the call would be done remotely. Trump's aides insisted that he would still be on it.

As one aide waited in line for a coronavirus test, she saw Conley sprint out of his office with a panicked look. That's strange, the aide thought. An hour or two later, officials were informed that Pence would be joining the nursing homes call. Trump couldn't make it.

- - -

Trump's condition worsened early Saturday. His blood oxygen level dropped to 93 percent, and he was given the powerful steroid dexamethasone, which is usually administered if someone is extremely ill (the normal blood oxygen level is between 95 and 100 percent). The drug was believed to improve survival in coronavirus patients receiving supplemental oxygen. The president was on a dizzying array of emergency medicines by now - all at once.

Throughout Trump's time in the hospital, his doctors consulted with the medical experts on the White House coronavirus task force whom the president had long ago discarded. They talked to Hahn, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, seeking input about his treatment.

Trump and his aides had ignored numerous warnings from the task force doctors that they were putting themselves and everyone in the West Wing at risk by their cavalier behavior. Over the past eight months, Trump had come dangerously close to the virus a number of times. Those repeated escapes had made the White House more careless, constantly tempting fate. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, and Redfield wrote to top aides after every White House outbreak, warning them that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was not safe. Birx took her concerns to Pence directly. This is dangerous, she told him. If White House staff can't or won't wear masks, they need to be more than 10 feet away from one another. This is just too risky.

Their warnings had gone unheeded, and now some would pay a price. Trump hadn't wanted to go to the hospital, but his aides had spelled out the choice: He could go to the hospital Friday, while he could still walk on his own, or he could wait until later, when the cameras could capture him in a wheelchair or gurney. There would be no hiding his condition then.

At least two of those who were briefed on Trump's medical condition that weekend said he was gravely ill and feared that he wouldn't make it out of Walter Reed. People close to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said he was consumed with fear that Trump might die.

It was unclear if one of the medications, or their combination, helped, but by Saturday afternoon Trump's condition began improving. One of the people familiar with Trump's medical information was convinced the monoclonal antibodies were responsible for the president's quick recovery.

Throughout the day Saturday, Oct. 3, the restless Trump made a series of phone calls to gauge how his hospitalization was being received by the public. In all likelihood, the steroid he was taking had given him a burst of energy, though no one knew how long it would last. Perhaps buoyed by that, Trump continued to post on Twitter from the hospital, anxious to convey that he was upright and busy. At one point Trump even called Fauci to discuss his condition and share his personal assessment of the monoclonal antibodies he had received. He said it was miraculous how quickly they made him feel much better.

"This is like a miracle," Trump told his campaign adviser Jason Miller in another one of his calls from the hospital. "I'm not going to lie. I wasn't feeling that great."

- - -

Redfield spent the weekend Trump was sick praying. He prayed the president would recover. He prayed that he would emerge from the experience with a newfound appreciation for the seriousness of the threat. And he prayed that Trump would tell Americans they should listen to public health advisers before it was too late. The virus had begun a violent resurgence. Redfield, Fauci, Birx and others felt they had limited time to persuade people to behave differently if they were going to avoid a massive wave of death.

There were few signs that weekend that Trump would have a change of heart. It had already been a battle to get him to agree to go to Walter Reed in the first place. Now, he was badgering Conley and others to let him go home early. Redfield heard Trump was insisting on being discharged and called Conley on the phone. The president can't go home this early, Redfield advised the doctor. He was a high-risk patient, and there were no guarantees that he wouldn't backslide or experience some complication. (Many covid-19 patients seemed to be on an upswing and then quickly deteriorated.) Trump needed to stay in the hospital until that risk had passed. Conley agreed but said the president had made up his mind and couldn't be convinced otherwise.

If they couldn't keep him in the hospital, the advisers hoped that Trump would at least emerge from Walter Reed a changed man. Some even began mentally preparing to finally speak their minds. It would surely be the inflection point, they all thought. There's nothing like a near-death experience to serve as a wake-up call. It was, at the end of the day, a national security failure. The president had not been protected. If this fiasco wasn't the turning point, what would be?

Just as the country had been watching a few days before, many people tuned in again as Trump took Marine One back to the White House's South Lawn on Monday night. They saw him step out in a navy suit, white shirt and blue-striped tie, with a medical mask on his face. He walked along the grass before climbing the steps to the Truman Balcony.

But Trump didn't go inside. It was a moment of political theater too good to pass up - as suffused with triumph as his trip Friday had been humbling. He turned from the center of the balcony and looked back toward Marine One and the television cameras. It was clear that he was breathing heavily from the long walk and the climb up the flight of stairs.

Redfield was watching on television from home. He was praying as Trump went up the steps. Praying that he would reach the Truman Balcony and show some humility. That he would remind people that anyone could be susceptible to the coronavirus - even the president, the first lady and their son. That he would tell them how they could protect themselves and their loved ones.

But Trump didn't waver. Facing the cameras from the balcony, he used his right hand to unhook the mask loop from his right ear, then raised his left hand to pull the mask off his face. He was heavily made up, his face more orange tinted than in the photos from the hospital. The helicopter's rotors were still spinning. He put the mask into his right pocket, as if he was discarding it once and for all, then raised both hands in a thumbs-up. He was still probably contagious, standing there for all the world to see. He made a military salute as the helicopter departed the South Lawn, and then strode into the White House, passing staffers on his way and failing to protect them from the virus particles emitted from his nose and mouth.

Right then, Redfield knew it was over. Trump showed in that moment that he hadn't changed at all. The pandemic response wasn't going to change, either.
A 23-year-old San Antonio man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for the 2018 murder of his teenage girlfriend.

Joshua Garcia pleaded guilty almost three years ago to the brutal slaying of 19-year-old Erin Castro, who he ran over with his vehicle during an argument.

Castro's mother, Rena Castro, called police on Sept. 2 after receiving a call from Erin who said Garcia had stabbed her in the neck and wouldn't allow her out of the vehicle. Castro was found dead in the 6100 block of Camp Bullis Road, just hours after celebrating her birthday.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio mother speaks out about daughter's death, allegedly at the hands of abusive boyfriend

Police said Castro had suffered from "massive trauma" to her entire body from being run over, the Express-News reported. Garcia's brother, who was on the scene, told police Castro had fallen out of the vehicle while the couple were arguing before Garcia ran over her body multiple times.

Garcia told police that he hit Castro so hard on the side of the road that she wasn't moving, so he ran her over because he was afraid she would call the police, his arrest affidavit said.

Castros mother told Garcia during the virtual sentencing that she no longer saw him as a person, but instead as a monster who took her child from her.

I want to know if my baby cried out for me, if she suffered, Rena said through tears as she gave the court her victim impact statement. Why did you leave her there? She loved you so much, she would have done anything for you and you just left her out there like an animal."

Garcia's sentence will run concurrent with a 20-year deferred sentence he will now serve from a 2016 aggravated assault against Castro. In that incident, he broke her nose and threw her out of a moving car before running over her leg, the Express-News reported.

He originally was sentenced to supervision with two years of probation but because Castro's murder occurred within his probation period, he will now serve that sentence as well.

Garcia turned 23 years Wednesday and must serve at least half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.



Erin Castro deserved to celebrate many more birthdays with the people who loved her," District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a news release. "While her family, friends and our office tried to keep this defendant away from her, he refused to stay away. That this case started on Ms. Castros birthday and is resolved on this defendants birthday is notable. Two young lives forever changed on days their families should be celebrating. Domestic violence changes families and our community must continue working to prevent tragedies like this.










With Texas lawmakers poised to push for new voting restrictions in a special session next week, the states congressional Democrats are urging U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Texas existing voting laws.

In a letter to Garland on Thursday, the Democrats  led by U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth  urged the U.S. Department of Justice to examine what they called unconstitutional voter suppression in Texas. They pointed to a number of existing practices that they say disproportionately affect Black and Latino voters, including the closure of polling sites across the state, reports of voter intimidation and a lack of Spanish-language voting materials.

They also reminded Garland that Republicans are likely to bring back a revised version of a controversial elections bill as early as next week, asking that federal officials keep a close eye on any changes.

The Department of Justice must protect voting rights for all Texans, wrote the group of 12 lawmakers, which includes all of the states Democratic members of Congress except U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo. I am requesting that the DOJ Civil Rights Division focus its investigative powers in key areas reported over the last several elections that present a pattern of racially discriminatory voting practices in Texas.

Garland announced last month that DOJs civil rights division is beefing up its staff and pursuing legal action against states that aim to restrict voting access. The department filed suit against Georgia last week, taking aim at voting restrictions approved after the 2020 elections.

Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won the traditionally red state last November, and voters then elected two Democratic U.S. senators in special elections early this year, giving the party control of the chamber.

The Biden administration alleges that Georgia Republicans sought to deny or abridge the rights of Black residents to vote by passing the new restrictions in March, including new limits on mail-in ballots. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, shot back that the lawsuit was born out of the lies and misinformation the Biden administration has pushed against Georgias Election Integrity Act from the start.

The department's lawsuit is the clearest avenue for federal officials to potentially override state voting laws after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 ended a key requirement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The provision had mandated that states with a past history of discrimination, such as Texas, get preclearance for any changes in voting laws.

Texas officials quickly moved to enact a voter identification law following the ruling. The high court said at the time that allegedly discriminatory voting laws could be challenged after they were put in place.

Its unclear how the Georgia lawsuit will fare in the courts, especially after the high court on Thursday upheld a pair of Arizona election laws that Democrats said discriminated against voters of color.

Advocacy groups, already discouraged by Congress failure to pass federal voting rights legislation last month, decried the ruling.

A disappointing, and dangerous, decision that furthers the ever-decreasing protections under current federal law, combined with the ever-increasing efforts of lawmakers in Texas to attack the right to vote, the Texas Civil Rights Project tweeted after the Supreme Courts 6-3 decision was released.

Ian McVea /Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Republicans, meanwhile, said the ruling supports the legal basis for their election reform initiatives. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said the decision makes clear that nothing prevents states from prohibiting schemes like ballot harvesting, which invite fraud and corruption to our election process.

Democrats have said a federal bill is likely the only way to override state-led efforts to curb voting access, while Republicans have countered that such a measure would be government overreach.

A Republican package of voting restrictions in Texas failed in late May after House Democrats staged a dramatic walkout, breaking quorum and running out the clock on the measure before a key deadline to pass legislation at the end of the regular session. The measure, Senate Bill 7, would have touched nearly every facet of election law in Texas, and much of it is likely to return in a special session set to begin July 8.

The legislations most controversial provisions included language that would have made it easier to overturn elections and limit Sunday morning voting. Both measures will either be revised or removed when lawmakers introduce the final version of the bill, Republicans have said.

Other parts of the bill would have outlawed voting methods piloted in Harris County last fall, including 24-hour polling sites and drive-thru voting. And it would have regulated where voting sites can be set up in large counties; removed restrictions for partisan poll watchers; cut voting hours in big cities but expanded them in less-populated areas; created an online tracker for ballots; and prohibited local elections officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballot applications.

Republicans say the measures are necessary to prevent ballot fraud and promote confidence in the elections process. We will continue to make it easy to vote but hard to cheat, Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted last week.

Republicans have not provided evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.

Texas Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to rob minorities in our state of their sacred right to vote, Veasey said in a statement. There is too much at stake, which is exactly why Democrats in the Texas State Legislature used every tool available to them to stop these harmful voter suppression efforts in the state of Texas. We must follow their lead and fight back against rampant voter suppression attempts with all that weve got.

cayla.harris@express-news.net
An allegation that a political threat was made on a talk radio show against a judge overseeing the official oppression case against Michelle Barrientes Vela, a former Bexar County constable, has resulted in a call for testimony about what was said.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they didnt know enough about the threat  including whether it was actually made  to know what to do about it.

State District Judge Velia Meza raised the concern with the lawyers this week. On Thursday she granted a motion by Velas lawyers to summon witnesses and hear testimony from the alleged source of the threat, Robert Vargas III, and from Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, whose 2018 election campaign once employed Vargas.

Vela is a former Precinct 2 constable charged with three counts of official oppression, accused of extracting money from a family for security fees at a picnic area at a West Side park. A charge of aggravated perjury against her was dropped in May.

Meza, who is up for re-election in 2022, said her campaign staff received information that a witness in the case was told by a Democratic Party operative that Meza better do the right thing in this case or Ill find a democratic opponent and primary her.

On ExpressNews.com: Martin Phipps' company behind S.A.'s Paramour bar accuses consignment shop of selling stolen goods

Meza said that was not an exact quote and she was raising the issue out of an abundance of caution.

The integrity of this preceding is of the utmost importance to me, she said. The judicial election cycle has nothing to do with how I handle my business on the bench.

Meza invited attorneys on Wednesday to file motions if they want her to recuse herself from the case. Velas attorneys, including Nico LaHood and others with the LaHood Norton law firm, instead suggested that the district attorneys office be removed from the case after learning that the comments allegedly came from Vargas.

Jerry Lara /San Antonio Express-News

I made no threats of any kind, Vargas, a member of the Texas Democratic Executive Committee, said in a statement Thursday in response to questions.

The statements described by Judge Meza are clearly hearsay, and in the Judges own words, only tangential in nature. In my opinion, the accusations are politically motivated, he said.

Meza said the comment was overheard during a Saturday morning radio talk show that Vargas hosts called Platica Politica.

Most of the show, including comments not made on the air, is also recorded live on Facebook. A recording of the show still posted to the page Thursday did not feature any comments about the Vela case.

The evidentiary hearing, set for July 14, would back a potential move to disqualify the district attorneys office from handling the case, LaHoods motion stated.

LaHood said the motion is to find out who said what, as well as whatever ties the person who might have made the comments has to participants in the case.

We just dont know yet, LaHood said after the hearing. We dont know exactly what Mr. Gonzales knew or didnt know. This is about Robert Vargas, but we dont know who hes tied to or the exact nature of these threats.

On ExpressNews.com: Delta variant of coronavirus has reached San Antonio, and it's spreading

Such a threat, if it was made, could give shivers to judges in general, La Hood said, adding, We dont want to intimidate judges and we dont want to intimidate jurors, so were just trying to find out.

LaHood is a former district attorney whom Gonzales defeated in the March, 2018 Democratic primary. Vargas served as Gonzales campaign manager, according to both Vargas website and the district attorneys office.

The district attorneys office said Vargas has never been employed by the office and has had no financial relationship with Gonzales since the election. It declined to comment on LaHoods motion.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio judge won't handle case of ex-constable accused of shaking down picnickers

Should the evidence provide reason for a removal, it would not be the first time a party has been recused in this case.

In April, state district judge Ron Rangel recused himself from handling the criminal charges against Vela after he learned that a photo of the two of them at a human trafficking conference in 2018 was posted on her Facebook page.

A trial of the case is expected to begin at the end of September.

jbeltran@express-news.net
Ken Branca

The driver of a black SUV shot at a home on the Northwest Side and then crashed into another home as they fled the scene Wednesday night, San Antonio police said.

Police are still searching for the driver, who crashed into a resident's car in the 9000 block of Wellwood Street, police said. Authorities did not say where the car was parked.
Rena Castro had hoped shed feel different after facing her daughters killer in court Wednesday, nearly three years after the evening he changed everything.

But that relief didnt come  at least not right away  after she described how Erin Rios Castro, her intelligent, beautiful and fierce daughter, was ensnared in a toxic relationship the last three years of her life.

Erins on-and-off boyfriend, Joshua Garcia, stabbed her in the neck while they were on their way to a nightclub after midnight on Sept. 2, 2018, then ran her over several times. She had just turned 19.

Garcia, 23, pleaded guilty to murder Wednesday as part of an agreement with prosecutors. State District Judge Kevin OConnell sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

Castro had received frantic texts and calls from her daughter, who screamed that Garcia wouldnt let her out of the car. Castro implored her to get out, then called 911. By the time police tracked Erins phone and located her, she was dead.

I want to know if my baby cried out for me, if she suffered, Castro said through tears. Why did you leave her there? She loved you so much, she would have done anything for you and you just left her out there like an animal.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio mother speaks out about daughter's death, allegedly at the hands of abusive boyfriend

Castro clutched a large photograph of Erin to her chest as she spoke, taken just hours before her death. In it, Erin is smiling from ear to ear, head tilted to the side. A birthday cake with two candles  forming the number 19  awaited her.

Billy Calzada /Staff Photographer

I know God will have justice, Castro said during a virtual court hearing on Zoom, as her family looked on. You will have to face the consequences for taking Erins life.

At the time of the killing, Garcia was on probation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he broke Erins nose, threw her out of a moving vehicle and ran over her leg. He had been sentenced to two years of community supervision, which was revoked when he was charged with murder.

OConnell on Wednesday sentenced Garcia to 20 years in prison on the assault case  the maximum penalty. The sentences will run concurrently.

Garcia will be eligible for parole in about 14 years, as the judge gave him credit for the time he was in jail awaiting trial.

Initially, Castro said, she was dismayed that prosecutors offered her daughters killer a 35-year sentence, and discouraged that she had to present her victims impact statement over Zoom, rather than facing Garcia in person.

She still considers the sentence too short, but as time has passed, she has come to terms with it. Castro said she is relieved the case is over and she can focus her energy on sharing Erins story.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio parents urged to look for signs of teen dating violence

I dont think any amount of time would have been enough, Castro said, her eyes still glistening. But nothing will bring Erin back, and now we dont have to worry about that lingering trial or court date. Joshs name never has to come up again.

Shortly after Erins murder, Castro formed a nonprofit, called the Erin Rios Castro Foundation, to raise awareness about teen dating violence. Last year, the group awarded a scholarship for the first time to a student whose life had been impacted by domestic violence.

Castro said she looks forward to continuing that work.

I realized Erins death could completely break me, or it could make me a better person, Castro said. I feel like thats what she would have wanted, was for me not to break.

On Wednesday, after the hearing had ended, Castro and her family sat motionless, each person trying to process that the nightmare was over.

Castro and her family  and Erins longtime friend, Vivien  have vowed to attend every one of Garcias parole hearings.

Erin will never be silenced, Castro said, pausing briefly to gain her composure. As for Erin and her spirit, it is alive and greater than ever in everyone who loved her and all the people who she has touched.

Staff writer Taylor Pettaway contributed to this report. eeaton@express-news.net
Courtesy of Reyna Escatel

Reyna Escatel said she found out her dog, Rocky, was dead through a viral NextDoor post on Tuesday. Escatel said she noticed her dog was missing on Monday after he went outside for a bathroom break while she was pre-occupied with her family.

"I was mad, confused and sad," Escatel said when she saw the photo of her dead dog. She and her family had still believed Rocky was missing.
San Antonio police are searching for the driver of a 2015 maroon Toyota Avalon who was involved in a hit-and-run on the Northwest side on June 4. The driver ran a red light and hit Carlos Flores Gonzales, 63, who was on his bicycle on the intersection of Huebner and Babcock roads, police said.

Gonzales was pronounced dead after arriving at University Hospital.
The Cattlemans Square Historic District may be among the most vulnerable historic areas in San Antonio right now.

It sits adjacent to the University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus, which is expanding its footprint.

That growth could create greater opportunities for inner-city students  if UTSA recruits, retains and graduates more of them  but endangers historic structures.

San Antonians may not yet fully appreciate the potential loss.

Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and Antonia Castaneda, two highly regarded scholars retired from academia but still doing cultural and preservation work, are here to help.

They describe Cattlemans Square as a place where cowboys camped with their cattle under the stars before embarking to points north. They worry that San Antonians dont know that the staging point was part of the famous Chisholm Trail in the late 1800s.

They believe the historic buildings in Cattlemans Square have to be renovated and repurposed, not torn down for mediocre apartment buildings.

The same general area became a mecca for Spanish-language newspapers, publishing houses, bookstores and newsstands established by refugees of the Mexican Revolution.

One layer of history lies atop another there, giving all involved an opportunity to elevate those histories.

Mexican publishers who arrived in the early 1900s were intellectuals and entrepreneurs. They were political and on various sides of the Mexican Revolution.

Some supported President Porfirio Diaz, whod abandoned the Mexican constitution and became a dictator. Others backed those in armed revolt against his government in defense of democratic ideals.

San Antonio was a major landing spot because of its proximity to Mexico and its Mexican, Tejano and Mexican American population.

Ybarra-Frausto says refugees regarded San Antonio as home, not a foreign land. They fled violence, persecution and censorship.

The Whitt Building on Commerce Street, which was the most recently endangered, housed one of those presses. Members of the Whitt family still live in San Antonio.

Other presses and publishers set up shop in Cattlemans Square and in nearby areas of downtown and the West Side.

San Antonio had the most Spanish-language publishing houses of any city in the United States, Ybarra-Frausto said. Local Spanish-language publishing companies included the Lozano Printing Co., Artes Graficas and Munguia Printers.

The building in which the latter operated was recently renovated by a member of the Munguia family  former mayor and U.S. Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros.

The intellectuals who founded the citys Spanish-language publishing houses, print shops and newspapers were part of a flourishing industry.

They published news, commentary, cultural events, essays, poetry, chapter books as well as political placards, formal invitations and announcements.

They published materials by the League of United Latin American Citizens and helped keep the Christmas La Pastorela play alive by publishing it. They printed esquelas, or death notices. Boys were hired to deliver them.

Revolutionary writer and editor Ricardo Flores-Magon published several issues of Regeneracion in San Antonio, before moving to St. Louis.

Ignacio Lozano established La Prensa in San Antonio as the voice of exiled conservative intellectuals, eventually establishing La Opinion in Los Angeles, where it remains.

He also established a companion bookstore and La Casa Editorial Lozano, which printed biographies and most famously a series of seven novels about the Mexican Revolution.

A book on the Flood of 1921, La Tragedia de la Inundacion de San Antonio: Un Recuerdo de la Terrible Castastrafe, will be reprinted in Spanish and English by Trinity University Press this fall, Castaneda said.

Its this history that the scholars fear will be unknown to city officials as developers pave more parking lots and build more high-rent, cookie-cutter apartment complexes.

They fear developers will be successful in removing historic designations that get historic structures demolished.

Castaneda and Ybarra-Frausto arent alone in their frustration that the city of San Antonio trades on its Mexican culture and history, yet only nominally protects them.

The scholars dont see elected officials as stewards of a city widely seen as the Mexican American cultural capital of the United States and once a mecca of Spanish-language publishing. It was a hub of Spanish-language radio and television.

The way they see it, the city will either allow developers to bulldoze historic structures important to Mexican and Mexican American history or stand to preserve them.

When were talking about Cattlemans Square, were talking about working-class Mexican American communities, Castaneda said. When, where and how is San Antonio going to acknowledge, honor, protect and save all its histories?

eayala@express-news.net
In its 8-to-1 decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the First Amendment  the first time in more than 50 years that a high school student has won a free-speech case in the highest court.

The June 23 ruling answered the question, Does the First Amendment prohibit public school officials from regulating off-campus student speech?

In 2017, high school sophomore Brandi Levy was a frustrated 14-year-old who took to Snapchat to post a photo of herself with middle finger raised and the caption, F  school F softball F cheer F  everything, when she didnt make the varsity cheer squad. School officials suspended Levy from cheer for one year to avoid chaos.

Levys parents sued the school district, arguing their daughters First Amendment free-speech rights had been violated.

The nuanced ruling, which is not a categorical ban on schools regulation of student free speech outside of school, requires a disruption threshold and leaves room for disciplining students. Although more guidance is needed, that is another positive, as schools must deal with serious issues of discrimination, harassment, bullying and threats.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that, historically, schools have had the authority to regulate off-campus speech, as long as it has a proximate tendency to harm the school, its faculty or students or its programs. But Snapchat complaints dont harm the school.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the majority, explained the value of free speech, even profane speech from a teenager.

Americas public schools are the nurseries of democracy, he wrote. Our representative democracy only works if we protect the marketplace of ideas.

Our highest court got this one right.
A child clasped his hands together prayerfully alongside his mother at a ceremony observing the Martyrdom Day of the fifth Sikh guru, Arjan Dev Ji, in Pakistan.

A worshipper wearing a face mask to protect him from the coronavirus carried a goat as an offering to Hindu gods at the smoking crater of Mount Bromo, an active volcano in Indonesia.

Palestinian women touched the head and face of one of their own in consolation at a funeral in the West Bank for a security officer shot dead by Israeli forces.

Images captured by AP photographers around the world in June illustrated the ways people everywhere seek spiritual sustenance in ritual and ceremony.

Sometimes it was to come together in grief, as with the dozens of mourners at an outdoor funeral where Canadian flags covered the coffins of four family members run over by a truck in what police say was a premeditated attack because they were Muslim.

But it was a more joyful occasion at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Pennsylvania, the United States oldest Hindu shrine, where devotees lined up on its immaculately landscaped grounds to go inside following the final rituals of the Maha Kumbhabhishekam rededication ceremony.

On the outskirts of Addis Ababa, flickering candles lit up the faces of young Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrating the Feast of St. Michael, during which priests prayed for peace in the country and in its upcoming election.

And at Corpus Christi celebrations in Venezuela, penitents donned elaborate devil masks for a Carnival-like ritual dance to atone for misdeeds and ask for relief from physical ailments.

These and more are among the APs top faith-related images from the month.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
AP

NEW YORK (AP)  A California woman who wrongly accused a Black teen of taking her phone at a New York City hotel late last year and grabbed at him as he tried to leave is now charged with a hate crime.

Miya Ponsetto was arraigned in court in Manhattan via videoconference Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to charges including unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.
For some, bedtime came at its usual time along with uninterrupted sleep or so they thought. For others, perhaps, there was late-night television or maybe perpetual insomnia. But as observers, well never know that, because just before dawn on June 24, half of a condominium in Surfside Beach, Florida with 55 apartment units collapsed. Dust and tons of rubble became a tomb.

As of Wednesday, 12 deaths have been reported with about 149 people not accounted for. Some, who were either warned or sensed imminent disaster got out through the safe side of the building. Today, similar on a smaller scale to Sept. 11, 2001, an array of victim photographs, stuffed animals and bouquets continues to grow.

I watched in disbelief as footage of the collapse replayed hundreds of times on the news. And like all the family members who waited and watched, I too held out hope until this week that at least some of the 150-plus victims would be found. My heart ached because there could possibly be no closure.

By early this week, I watched search dogs wandering aimlessly with little more than a faint scent of humanity along with search and rescue teams, now gathering human remains and pieces of once occupied condominiums to begin establishing a memorial.

Having a home in Florida is not a foreign concept for many Connecticut residents who may be among the 700,000 snowbirds who flock to the south for the winter or decided to relocate there.

Back in the 1970s, we lived in Florida in Tamarac outside Fort Lauderdale for about three years. We loved the beachfront properties along the coast line, we visited my grandparents in Bona Vida in Miami near the Inter coastal waterway and stayed at the Fort Lauderdale Hilton on the beach near Pompano. But we had no desire to live in any of those properties back then and we never stopped to think that there may have been anything structurally wrong with those buildings, which were probably built in the 60s as part of the luxury.

The property that collapsed, the 12-story Champlain Towers, was built 40 years ago in 1981 as one of the new pristine additions to the Surfside area.

The cause of the collapse remains unknown as experts piece together the chronology that could have led to the collapse.

A National Public Radio piece I saw looks at reports completed on the building in 2018 and 2020, detailing numerous problems with the building, recommending extensive repairs in the near future. According to the story, local officials said they were unaware of the 2018 report following the buildings collapse.

I can only envision the grief and emptiness that families and friends are feeling as search and rescue or recovery continues. But I only know that the true tragedy here, beyond the human loss, is the possibility that this disaster might have been averted.

Steven Gaynes is a Fairfield writer, and his In the Suburbs appears each Friday. He can be reached at stevengaynes44@gmail.com.
CHICAGO (AP)  A victim of torture by Chicago police officers under the command of convicted perjurer Jon Burge has filed a federal lawsuit against city officials and Cook County prosecutors, lawyers for Jackie Wilson announced Wednesday.

Wilson claims he was tortured into making a false confession for the 1982 murder of two police officers. He spent 36 years in prison.

To say Im hurt is an understatement, Wilson said during a Wednesday news conference. All I am looking for is justice. All I have ever looked for is justice.

Murder charges against Wilson were dismissed in October 2020 near the end of his third trial for the killing of Officer Richard OBrien. Another officer, William Fahey, was also killed.

Wilsons lawsuit names former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Burge, two former Chicago police superintendents, and several current and former Cook County prosecutors.

"Jackie Wilson will never be able to recoup the value of his life lost to the living hell he experienced at the hands of his government. While Jackie Wilson extraordinarily deserves and has earned this Certificate of Innocence, others deserve to pay for that they have so unjustly caused both directly and indirectly, Wilsons attorneys Flint Taylor and Elliot Slosar wrote when they filed the lawsuit.

Wilsons 1989 conviction was thrown out in 2018 by Judge William Hooks after allegations that Wilson had been tortured by Burge, who is now deceased, into confessing to a role in the shooting. Hooks was hearing evidence in Wilsons third trial.

Wilsons first conviction was overturned by an appellate court. At a retrial in 1989, he was acquitted of Faheys murder but convicted of OBriens.

Burge has never faced criminal charges for abuse. He was fired from the police department in 1993 over the 1982 beating and burning of Andrew Wilson. Andrew Wilson died in prison in 2007, having been tried and convicted twice in the deaths of OBrien and Fahey.

A spokeswoman for Chicagos law department said the city hasnt been served with the complaint and does not comment on pending litigation, a reaction shared by the states attorneys office.
Republican governors can deploy their National Guard as they see fit, and if that includes sending them across state lines to the southern U.S. border, the White House wont stop them.

What to do with her National Guard is up to the governor and how to fund them is her prerogative as well, a senior White House official told RealClearPolitics when asked Wednesday about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noems plan to send 50 guardsmen to the border on a mission funded by a private GOP donor. The administration will focus, the official added, not on political gestures but rather on putting in the work and delivering the solutions.

Ian Fury, a spokesman for Noem, responded in a statement to RCP that securing the border is not a political gesture  and that the deployment was necessary because unfortunately the Biden administration has failed to step up and fix this crisis.

The back-and-forth comes after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott penned an open letter pleading with other states to send law enforcement and other resources to help their states patrol the border with Mexico.

Responding to the migrant surge, Abbott has declared a disaster in his state while Ducey declared a state of emergency. Both urged other governors to join them, writing that further mobilization of the National Guard is needed to secure the border in the federal governments absence, and now the Emergency Management Assistance Compact gives your State a chance to stand strong with us.

The logic behind the request? With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes before they can cause problems in your state, Abbott and Ducey wrote. The two asked specifically for an additional law enforcement presence as well as drones and helicopters.

Noem accepted that invitation Tuesday. But the close ally of former President Trump also raised eyebrows when she announced that the deployment will be paid for by a private donation.

The South Dakota deployment will be overseen by Texas officials, but it isnt clear whether they will be welcome or will present a distraction from efforts already underway to address the surge. A White House official insisted that the progress made at the southern border in the first 150 days under this administration is pretty clear, adding that the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection would continue to leverage their longstanding relationships with state and local law enforcement.

According to CBP data first obtained by Axios, the number of migrants crossing the border illegally has already reached a 20-year high. Annual crossings in this fiscal year, with more than three months left to go, are higher than in any year since 2006  nearly 900,000 migrants were stopped by the Border Patrol from October 2020 through May.

Democrats have already condemned the move to deploy National Guard from other states. Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick likened the call from Abbott and Ducey to "a continuation of the same inhumane border policies we saw over the last four years, which not only proved ineffective, but were antithetical to our values as Americans.

"We must call this what it is, the Democrat told the Arizona Republic earlier this month, a political stunt that has no intention of solving the real issues that were seeing at our southern border.

The order by Noem, specifically funding the deployment through a private donor, has raised ethical questions. You certainly dont want our national security priorities [left] up to the highest bidder, Mandy Smithberger, a defense accountability expert at the Project on Government Oversight, told the Washington Post.

According to a Noem spokesman, the deployment will be bankrolled by the Willis and Reba Johnsons Foundation, a conservative nonprofit in Tennessee that has funded numerous religious projects and the National Rifle Association. Willis Johnson, a longtime Trump supporter, told Washington Post that his motivations were simple: I want to protect America and thats it.

Noem isnt the only Republican believed to have an eye on the White House who is willing to lend a hand at the border. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that his state would send 50 law enforcement officers to Texas to help with the influx of migrants. His office didnt offer details about how the mission would be funded or what exactly the officers would be doing, citing the security of the missions.

We look forward to seeing them in action, DeSantis said Friday, adding that he hoped he would be able to get out there at some point and wish them well when they are on the ground.

The situation at the border has become a political flashpoint, with Republicans blasting Democrats for letting things get out of hand. On Wednesday, GOP House members led by the Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks arrived in McAllen, Texas, to meet with Trump in person.

Biden is destroying our country, the former president said Wednesday while speaking in front of an unfinished section of the border wall his administration funded. He took the opportunity to lay blame for the uptick in crossings on Bidens decision to undo many of his policies, including the Remain in Mexico order that required migrants seeking asylum to wait in that country as their claim is being processed.

Those Republican attacks arent likely to stop anytime soon, even after Vice President Kamala Harris visited the border in person last week.

A spokesman for the Republican Governors Association blasted the administration for its inaction, telling RCP that despite [officials] comments, clearly they've been focused on the politics of the crisis at the border, avoiding taking real action to address the root cause because the liberal base wont allow it.
A decade after John Mike Crites went missing from his home near Helena, his sister filed a lawsuit seeking an unspecified amount from the man suspected of killing him and scattering his dismembered body near MacDonald Pass.

In her capacity as the personal representative of Mike Crites estate, Connie Crites of Denver filed the lawsuit against Leon M. Ford and an unknown Jane Doe who may share responsibility in her brothers death. The case was filed on June 28 in 1st Judicial District Court in Lewis and Clark County.

Ford, of Oak Harbor, Washington, was arrested in August 2020 on suspicion of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence in connection with Mike Crites death. His criminal trial has been delayed until Jan. 24.

Ford's attorney Palmer Hoovestal of Helena could not be immediately reached for comment.

Some body parts belonging to Crites, who was 48 at the time of his death, were found in trash bags near MacDonald Pass outside Helena in October 2011. Additional remains, including his skull, were found west of the Continental Divide near Elliston in September 2012.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed in August, a projectile recovered from the victims head was consistent with handguns found in Fords Oak Harbor home. Court records also say both sets of remains were wrapped in the same type of cable ties Ford had previously removed from a warehouse at the Oak Harbor air base where he worked. Ford had also taken a box of heavy-duty trash bags from the warehouse, according to investigators.

Ford owned 15 acres north of Mike Crites property up Turk Road in the hills northwest of Helena at the time of the killing, and court records show the two men were involved in a bitter land dispute in the years leading up to the victim's disappearance and death.

Mike Crites told a friend that he had asked Ford to meet him on June 26, 2011, to discuss the issues, and video footage showed Fords vehicle traveling to a disputed section of road that day. The next day, a friend went to check on Mike Crites and he was nowhere to be found.

Connie Crites said she has no doubt that Ford killed her brother and noted Im pretty sure there was more than one person that either assisted or knew about it. Because of the deadline to file a civil suit, she said, she could not wait for a conviction.

We basically just did that because we dont want to lose the right to do so, she said.

Her wrongful death/survival claim asserts that Ford is responsible for damages including lost earnings, funeral expenses, pain and suffering and other special damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

I never thought we would still be dealing with this 10 years later, she said, adding closure is a long way off.
Early on in my Navy career, I learned firsthand about the critical importance of protecting sensitive information in a challenging security environment.

While assigned to the staff of then-Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet (CTF-76),I had the unique opportunity to visit Shanghai, China as a member of the advance team in preparation for a goodwill port visit by Sasebo, Japan-based USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). It was the first U.S. Navy port visit to China since the Tiananmen Square Massacre seven years earlier, so the stakes were high, even if unclassified.

Shortly after our arrival for the site survey, we discovered that our hosts intended to challenge our ability to communicate in confidence privately. We realized that every single word uttered, verbally or electronically, was monitored. The Shanghai experience shows that communications must be guarded closely because rival powers like China will continually seek to undermine it even if it is mundane, let alone highly classified.

While getting the correct information to the right people at the right time sounds straightforward, information assurance is exceptionally challenging, especially in a contested environment with constantly evolving technology. The risks are prevalent and pernicious, as evidenced by a string of high-profile and highly effective cyberattacks against tech and energy sector targets like SolarWinds, Yahoo, E-Bay, the Colonial Pipeline and more.

Whether ransoms or the disruption of our day-to-day lives, such incidents reveal the consequences of hostile intent coupled with capability. American losses from a military conflict would be far worse than disrupted lifestyles and compromised consumer data, bad as they are already. Realistic threats like these pose unacceptable risks that may exceed the capabilities of Silicon Valley start-ups or corporate energy.

Enter the Department of Defense's Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy. JADC2 is being designed to replace existing service-specific and joint command and control systems with one that connects and distributes sensor and shooter data across all domains (sea, air, land, cyber, and space) to U.S. military forces.

While many of the exact details of the JADC2 program remain classified, we are seeing signs that DoD is prepared to take this task seriously from an investment and integration standpoint by providing budget increases for participating armed services. However, since most of this funding is mixed into larger programs, the current budget falls short of what is needed to properly build out an integral part of the U.S. militarys future.

This 21st century network will improve, protect and accelerate the decision-making process, significantly enhancing battlespace management. "We see JADC2 [as] absolutely core to the way we're gonna defend the homeland," Air Force General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, Commander, U.S. Northern Command, recently explained.

Imagine highly advanced sensors deployed in submarines, on unmanned aerial drones, and integrated into Low Earth Orbit satellites feeding real-time data into a secure cloud-like environment accessible at command headquarters to make lightning fast yet well-informed decisions. Ensuring secure, reliable communications is essential for that mission's success.

Considering intensified cyberattacks from China and Russia, either launched by government actors or criminal groups operating within their borders, plus increased regional aggression, the possibility of armed conflict involving U.S. forces begin to rise.

Moreover, Americans should trust our defense industry to get it done because it is battle tested  successfully producing results for delivering secure communications over the decades. Our nations flashiest tech companies may be great about making headlines, but as we saw with massive breaches of their data, they arent so great at keeping that data safe. Or at least safe enough for the military during combat operations. It's just not their skill set or experience.

Finally, let's suppose the premise of today's Great Power Competition is a strategy of long-term investments to deliver advanced military capabilities to warfighters. If that is the case, the U.S. must take a whole-of-government approach with proven partners so that our military commanders are best prepared to win wars.

To that end, JADC2 must be fully funded as a top priority for defense budgets. With a 2022 defense budget request of $715 billion contrasted alongside conservative estimates for JADC2-related programs coming in at just over $1 billion, its a relatively small price to pay. How much would it cost if our military lost the command and control edge toChina or Russia?

As the key player in the JADC2 strategy, Lt. Gen. Dennis Crall, USMC, Joint Staff J-6, noted this month during the Defense One Tech Summit, were into the posture review, which is making the final rounds, which shows the gaps. We have a lot more gaps than we can cover despite all the capability that we have, theres a pretty long list of things that we believe we need to improve upon and really fulfill.

Its a good status update with a clear message. And as the old adage goes, theres no time like the present.

Rear Admiral Fernandez Frank Ponds, USN (Ret.) served 33 years in the U.S. Navy in senior executive, operational, and managerial positions leading joint and multinational military and civilian organizations during complex military operations.
Farmers will be able to earn up to 70 per hectare for actions to improve the health of their soil, the government has confirmed.

Environment Secretary George Eustice this week laid out an update on the governments post-Brexit Agricultural Transition Plan.

He set out further details around how farmers will receive payments for different schemes under the UK's new farming system.

Mr Eustice confirmed moorland farmers will be able to be paid to assess the condition of their land, and highlighted an early roll-out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive from spring 2022.

Livestock farmers will be eligible for a free vet-led annual health and welfare review, and farmers will be able to earn up to 70 per hectare for actions to improve the health of their soil.

Over this parliament, the government has committed to maintaining the current levels of investment in farming of 2.4bn per year, on average, he said.

Nearly a third (30%) of the funding released from Direct Payments for environmental and climate outcomes will be made available for farm level actions through schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Farmers will also be eligible for locally-specific and landscape-level schemes through Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.

Mr Eustice said in a speech at this week's Cereals Event: Soil health is the key to delivering our targets on the environment and improving farm profitability.

"Well managed soils can lead to increased biodiversity, improved water quality and reduced carbon emissions.

"Our new Sustainable Farming Incentive will eventually be open to every farmer in England and will incentivise a shift towards more sustainable soil and grassland management.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive will be the first of three environmental land management schemes to be rolled out and will include actions to improve soil health and water quality, among others.

It will also help to accelerate the widespread adoption of more sustainable approaches on all types of farms, including maintaining and enhancing the natural environment, reducing carbon emissions, and improving the welfare of livestock.

The scheme has an aim of at least 70% of eligible farms taking part by 2028.? An initial call for applicants for the pilot was answered by more than 2,000 farmers.

The remainder of the released funds from phasing out the BPS will be spent on environmental land management schemes, which will include locally tailored initiatives through Local Nature Recovery, and landscape-scale interventions such as Landscape Recovery projects.

By 2028, spending will be evenly split across the three schemes, covering farm-level, locally tailored, and landscape-scale investment.

Four guiding principles have also been published today which set out the approach to environmental scheme payments under the Agricultural Transition Plan.

This includes new environmental land management schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive, pre-existing ones like Countryside Stewardship, and time limited schemes such as Farming in Protected Landscapes

What are the four principles?

The four principles are:

 Payments should provide good value for money and achieve ambitious environment and climate change outcomes. Payment rates will be set to encourage wide participation, fairly and effectively paying farmers for achieving these outcomes

 Payments should, as far as possible, pay for environmental outcomes by recognising and rewarding the full range of activities that achieve environmental and climate outcomes

 Payments should recognise the value of existing natural assets and do not unfairly disadvantage those who are already achieving good environmental and climate outcomes

 Payments should form part of a market for environmental outcomes where scheme participants can earn income from public and private sector sources

Further information on how and what will be paid for through each scheme will be shared when each of the respective schemes are launched, the government said.
A growing number of farmers are taking advantage of large solar park developments as a new report predicts that the sector is set to double in size by 2030.

Solar Energy UK has released a report which sets out a plan to deliver the 40GW of operational capacity needed by the end of the decade for the UK to remain on track for net-zero.

The association predicts that the delivery will see the industry double in size, creating 13,000 new jobs, 17bn in additional economic activity, and a 4.7% cut in total UK carbon emissions.

Property consultancy Fisher German has seen a shift away from the smaller solar parks developed with subsidy.

It is now working on sites which are typically 150-acres plus in scale as developers switch their attention to delivering Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), which are substantial and can produce significantly more electricity.

These vast projects often involve working directly with National Grid rather than the Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to gain a more sizeable electrical connection before assembly of the land takes place.

The team said that these projects presented 'huge opportunities' for farmers and landowners looking to diversify.

Darren Edwards, head of sustainable energy at Fisher German, said: With mounting pressure to decarbonise our energy supplies, solar PV is an increasingly important part of countries energy mix not only because of the amount of power it supplies to the grid but also its reliability.

The incorporation of battery storage technology alongside solar is not only enhancing its benefit to the grid but also its value to the operator.

Harry Edwards, a senior associate in Fisher Germans sustainable energy team, added that solar was an industry which had steadily been building momentum.

Theres demand for more electricity and its got to be green. Although solar is intermittent, like other forms of renewable energy, it plays its part alongside other sources," he said.

Our market experience and the current trends we are seeing are mirrored in the report, and there has certainly been a mood-shift with developers moving away from smaller solar parks and looking towards creating vast 400MW to 500MW projects."

This is because they are no longer limited by subsidy rules and although NSIPs must be approved by the Secretary of State.

"The government is now pro-green power and working towards net zero making them more achievable," Mr Edwards added.

He said they represented a 'fantastic' diversification opportunity for farmers looking for alternative ways of generating additional income, particularly as BPS phases out.

As a result, we are working with an increasing number of landowners taking advantage of large solar park and energy storage developments, and there are even more in the pipeline," he said.
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
Gov. Jim Justice, somewhat belatedly, has come around to admit that the states vaccination effort has hit a wall and that, at its current pace, we will not reach herd immunity anytime soon.
Image: Shutterstock



Satiate your wanderlust by travelling to any of these countries right away!



The world is slowly opening up to us Indians. If you simply cannot sit at home any longer, heres a list of 10 places that you can plan an excursion to right now! Do check COVID-related guidelines for your destination before booking your flight.

Russia

Image: Shutterstock



Russia has opened its borders to travellers from India; however, visitors are still expected to conform to the prevailing measures pertaining to COVID-19. According to reports, travellers will have to display a negative RT-PCR test to authorities - one that must be issued not more than 72 hours before arrival. Antibody tests are not accepted by the country. You can apply for a tourist visa thats valid for up to 30 days for single or double entry.

Turkey

Image: Shutterstock



Turkey, too, is open for travel. Its mandatory, however, that Indian visitors undergo a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. Apart from carrying a negative RT-PCR test that has been issued less than 72 hours before boarding the flight, travellers will also have to present a negative RT-PCR test at the end of the two-week window to be able to explore the country.

Iceland

Image: Shutterstock



Now, you can plan a trip to Iceland as well. Apart from presenting a negative RT-PCR test to authorities, you will also need to carry your certificate of vaccination with you. On arrival, you will undergo another test - and another one at the end of your five-day quarantine period in the country. Youre free to explore the wonders of Iceland if you test negative.

Serbia

Image: Shutterstock



Serbia, too, is on the list of countries open to Indian travellers, but your negative RT-PCR must be not older than 48 hours.

Egypt

Image: Shutterstock



The land of the pharaohs is another that requires a negative RT-PCR test thats been issued less than 72 hours before your departure. Once you arrive, you will be subjected to a rapid DNA test, and asked to self-quarantine at your place of stay until the results arrive.

Rwanda

Image: Shutterstock



Any Indian national destined can visit Rwanda with a valid visa. Apart from completing the passenger locator form, and uploading a negative COVID-19 test thats been issued before your departure, you will be directed to a government-designated hotel for another test.

Costa Rica

Travelling to wildlife haven Costa Rica (main image) doesnt necessitate the submission of a vaccination certificate or a negative COVID-19 report. However, you will be expected to fill out a health pass form upon arrival in the Central American country.

Afghanistan

Image: Shutterstock



In order to travel to this landlocked country, you will need to produce a negative RT-PCR test not older than 72 hours prior to arrival; however, the Indian government has advised travellers against visiting Afghanistan due to the violence gripping several provinces of the country as well as the multiplying coronavirus cases plaguing capital city Kabul.

Uzbekistan

Image: Shutterstock



Known for its mosques, mausoleums and other historical sites, this Central Asian country has opened its borders to Indian travellers. Apart from providing a negative RT-PCR test result not older than 72 hours on arrival, you will also be subjected to a two-week quarantine before you can step out.

South Korea

Image: Shutterstock



Sought-after for its K-Pop industry and so much more, South Korea has just lifted its ban on Indian travellers. If youre vaccinated with both doses of Covishield, you are exempt from the two-week quarantine-period imposed by the government. However, if youve opted for Covaxin, you will have to undergo quarantine in the country.

Also See: These Heritage Sites Could Lose Their Status
Fountain Hills, AZ (85268)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 103F. SSE winds shifting to WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 84F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
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In the past few years Shahid Kapoor has truly shown what a great actor he is, and has given many blockbusters. The actor often gives us a peek into his life with pictures and videos on his Instagram. Recently he shared a video of his where his fans can see what his life looks like.



Captioning the video Shahid wrote Unmasking 20 seconds of my life! In the video the Kabir Singh actor can be seen shooting for one of his projects and shows us what all happens on a set.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor)

On the work front, Shahid will be seen in the film Jersey co-starring Mrunal Thakur and Pankaj Kapoor. The film is a Hindi remake of the Telugu film of the same name.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Goobit Group has signed a collaboration agreement with Xpecunia Nordic. The agreement gives Goobit exclusive rights across the Nordic countries to sell the cryptocurrency that Xpecunia Nordic extracts by means of green energy. This makes BTCX the first Nordic exchange platform to offer cryptocurrency uniquely produced with renewable energy. The company's goal is to work for a growing share of sustainably produced cryptocurrency on the BTCX-platform.The Swedish crypto industry is now taking an important step towards a greener mining of cryptocurrencies. Through a new agreement with the mining experts Xpecunia, BTCX will be able to offer cryptocurrencies that have been mined using solar energy."BTCX is Sweden's oldest exchange for cryptocurrencies and thanks to a close collaboration with Xpecunia, we can now offer customers guaranteed green crypto assets," says Par Helgosson, CEO of Goobit.By focusing on building on solar power plants in direct connection to the mining premises, Swedish Xpecunia can produce crypto assets without generating direct carbon emissions - and the company already has several plants in Sweden. It is these solar-produced crypto assets that Goobit now will sell on the BTCX platform."In the next step, BTCX will introduce a framework and a methodology for certification of crypto mining where the producers need to meet a number of criteria in order to be certified," says Par Helgosson."It also allows buyers of cryptocurrencies to be sure of its origin."The Swedish countryside is excellent for crypto. Sweden's location is excellent for mining crypto with sun, wind and water, and the new investments are mostly made in rural environments, far from the big cities - and thus contribute to create jobs in the countryside both during construction, but also long-term to maintain facilities. There are great advantages off using the surplus energy in electricity production from solar cells to mine crypto assets."The creation of cryptocurrencies has so far been a form of arbitrage of electricity," says Daniel Mostrom, CEO of Xpecunia. "Now we are changing the equation completely. Xpecunia has a solution which eliminates the environmental problem, lowers electricity costs radically and dramatically increases profitability."Work to make crypto mining more eco-friendly is ongoing all over the world. In China authorities cooperate to phase out coal power in crypto mining, and in the US, Elon Musk and the newly started Bitcoin Mining Council is at the forefront working to make renewable energy a basis for production."We wanted to buy locally produced goods," says Christian Ander, founder of BTCX. "Locally produced goods are good at all levels, this also applies to cryptocurrencies, and the advances in solar energy will revolutionize electricity production in crypto mining."BTCX will also be able to report how large the share of sales of "green" cryptocurrencies is. The ambition is to transparently report future trends.Contact person:Par Helgosson, CEO Goobit Group AB (publ), telephone: +46 70 978 80 00par.helgosson@goobit.seAbout BTCX / Goobit GroupGoobit AB was registered in 2012 and is one of the world's first and Sweden's leading crypto exchange company. The company offers exchange services of SEK and EUR to the digital currencies' Bitcoin and Ether and has so far exchanged over 1.7 billion SEK. The company's most famous brands are BTCX Express and Standard BTCX. Goobit Group AB (publ) was registered in 2013 and is a group with operations in the wholly owned subsidiaries Goobit AB, Goobit Blocktech AB and Goobit Exchange AB. Goobit AB offers services for retail and corporate customers as well as financial institutions.For more information, see Goobit's website www.goobit.seAbout XpecuniaXpecunia extracts cruptocurrencies using self-produced solar energy. The extraction is continuously adapted with the support of a self-learning model to the volatile and rapidly changing development of cryptocurrencies to optimize the extraction and create the best possible return. Through proven profitability after three years of operation, Xpecunia aims to scale up the existing operations, to establish a new business area and generate increased margins with lower climate impact.For more information, see Xpecunia's website www.xpecunia.seMedia Contact:Company: Goobit GroupWebsite: https://www.goobit.se/Email: par.helgosson@goobit.setelephone: +46 70 978 80 00Source: Goobit Group
Victoria, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 30, 2021) - Meed Growth Corp. (TSXV: MEED.P) (the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed its initial public offering of 4,000,000 common shares of the Corporation ("Common Shares") at a price of $0.10 per Common Share for gross proceeds of $400,000 (the "Offering"). The Corporation is also pleased to announce that it has successfully completed its non-brokered private placement offering of 1,500,000 Common Shares at a price of $0.10 per Common Share for gross proceeds of $150,000 (the "Private Placement"). After completion of the Offering and the Private Placement, the Corporation now has 13,500,000 Common Shares issued and outstanding.

Canaccord Genuity Corp. (the "Agent") acted as the agent for the Offering and, in connection therewith, the Corporation granted the Agent non-transferable warrants (the "Agent's Warrants") which entitle the Agent and its sub-agents to purchase up to 400,000 Common Shares at an exercise price $0.10 per Common Share. The Agent's Warrants will expire 60 months from the date the Common Shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. (the "Exchange"), which was June 30, 2021. In connection with the Offering, the Agent also received a cash commission equal to 10% of the gross proceeds of the Offering, a corporate finance fee, and was reimbursed for its legal fees and reasonable expenses.

Concurrent with the closing of the Offering, the Corporation also granted options to acquire an aggregate of 1,350,000 Common Shares at an exercise price of $0.10 per Common Share to the directors and officers of the Corporation, which options expire five years from the date of grant.

The Corporation is a "capital pool company" and intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering and Private Placement to identify and evaluate assets or businesses for acquisition with a view to completing a "Qualifying Transaction" under the policies of the Exchange. On June 28, 2021, the Exchange issued a bulletin approving the listing of the Common Shares as of market open on June 30, 2021, and immediately halting trading pending completion of closing of the Offering. The Common Shares will resume trading under the trading symbol "MEED.P" on July 5, 2021.

Investors are cautioned that trading in the securities of a capital pool company should be considered highly speculative.

For further information, please contact:

Meed Growth Corp.

Matthew Gustavson - Chief Financial Officer and Director

Phone: (833) 676-0762

Forward-Looking Information Cautionary Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or the Corporation's future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Corporation's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, the Corporation's stated use of proceeds and its expectation as to the resumption of trading of the Common Shares on the Exchange constitute forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The statement made in this press release are made as of the date hereof. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/89200
EDENKOBEN, Germany, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - European Wellness Biomedical Group (European Wellness) through its educational arm, European Wellness Academy (EWA), has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Zhifu People's Government of Yantai City, Shandong Province, China to establish the first International Biological Regenerative Medicine Education Centre in Shandong Province via the Connecting Shandong with Fortune Global 500 & Deepening Shandong - EU Cooperation event.

In a live digital signing session, the two parties agreed on a joint venture that will see a total investment of RMB 100 million (USD 15.4 million) for the building and launching of a world-class biological regenerative medicine education centre for disease management and aesthetics in Yantai City, China.

The multimillion-dollar project comes at a time where biological regenerative medicine has rapidly emerged as an area of interest, globally and in China, amid rising health concerns. The collaboration will supplement efforts to improve resources, training, and knowledge in integrative regenerative medicine within the region to meet current and future demand.

EWA was represented by its Group Chairman, Prof. Dr. Mike Chan, in the signing session hosted by the Shandong Provincial Party Committee and overseen by the Municipal Government Office, together with representatives from Fortune Global 500 companies including the Chairman of Continental's Executive Board, Pirelli's Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, and Saint-Gobain's Senior Vice President and Asia Pacific CEO.

"The global burden of chronic diseases is rapidly rising. Regenerative medicine is the future and the present. To cope with the needs of the future, educational trainings are crucial; the number of professional high-end medical and wellness practitioners must be able to meet the demands that are to come," said Prof. Dr. Mike Chan, Head of the Scientific Committee for Regenerative Medicine of the European Society of Preventative, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ESAAM).

European Wellness Academy

Located in Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Malaysia, EWA is a CPD authorised body with a premium training and development wing that revolves around cutting-edge Bio-Regenerative Medicine modalities for practitioners and researchers. The Academy has extensive years of combined clinical experience and a core academic team comprising of qualified MDs and scientists with numerous international affiliations and accreditations.

https://ewacademy.eu

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CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / June 30, 2021 / Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (the "Company") (CSE:XOP)(LSE:COPL), announces its application for an extension to the management cease trade order (the "MCTO") originally granted by the Alberta Securities Commission on May 18, 2021 has been accepted. The MCTO is in respect of the Company's unaudited interim financial statements and the applicable CEO and CFO certifications in respect of such filings for the period ended March 31, 2021.

The MCTO will now expire on July 14, 2021. Under the terms of the MCTO and in accordance with National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203"), the Company will continue to provide bi-weekly status reports while the MCTO is in effect.

About the Company

COPL is an international oil and gas exploration, development and production company actively pursuing opportunities in the United States through the acquisition of Atomic Oil and Gas LLC with operations in Converse County Wyoming, and in sub-Saharan Africa through its ShoreCan joint venture company in Nigeria, and independently in other countries.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Arthur Millholland, President & CEO

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited

Tel: + 1 (403) 262 5441

Cathy Hume

CHF Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (416) 868 1079 ext. 251

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Charles Goodwin

Yellow Jersey PR Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 77 4778 8221

Email: copl@yellowjerseypr.com

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In making the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise. The securities of the company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This release is issued for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

SOURCE: Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653842/Canadian-Overseas-Petroleum-Limited-Announces-Management-Cease-Trade-Order-Has-Been-Extended-to-July-14-2021
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 30, 2021 / Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSXV:PX)(OTC PINK:PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that all matters proposed by management were approved at Pelangio's annual and special meeting held Wednesday, June 30, 2021 (the "Meeting").

At the Meeting, shareholders of Pelangio elected Ingrid Hibbard, JC St. Amour, David Mosher, Kevin Thomson, Joyce Aryee, and Al Gourley to the board of directors. The shareholders also approved the reappointment of its auditor. Further, the shareholders approved the amendment of the Stock Option Plan of the Company to become a 10% "rolling" plan. No additional business was brought before the Meeting.

Neither TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Pelangio

Pelangio acquires and explores prospective land packages located in world-class gold belts in Ghana, West Africa and Canada. In Ghana, the Company is exploring its two 100% owned camp-sized properties: the 100 km2 Manfo property, the site of eight near-surface gold discoveries, and the 284 km2 Obuasi property, located 4 km on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine, as well as the newly optioned Dankran property located adjacent to its Obuasi property. In Canada, the Company is currently focused in Ontario at its Dome West property, situated some 800 meters from the Dome Mine in Timmins; at its Gowan polymetallic project, located 16 km east of the Kidd Creek Mine, and is exploring its Hailstone property in Saskatchewan. See www.pelangio.com for further detail on all Pelangio's properties.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.pelangio.com, or contact:

Ingrid Hibbard, President and CEO

Tel: 905-336-3828 / Toll-free: 1-877-746-1632 / Email:info@pelangio.com

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements or information appear in a number of places and can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information include statements regarding the Company's exploration plans. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, we have made numerous assumptions. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Such risks include the changes in equity markets, share price volatility, volatility of global and local economic climate, gold price volatility, political developments in Ghana, and Canada, increases in costs, exchange rate fluctuations, speculative nature of gold exploration, including the risk that favourable exploration results may not be obtained, delays due to COVID-19 safety protocols, and other risks involved in the gold exploration industry. See the Company's annual and quarterly financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statement and information. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. All forward-looking statements and information herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE: Pelangio Exploration Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653839/Pelangio-Exploration-Reports-Results-Of-Annual-And-Special-Meeting
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 30, 2021 / Medaro Mining Corp. (CSE:MEDA) ("Medaro" or the "Company") is pleased to announce, further to its news release dated May 6, 2021, that it has entered a definitive joint venture agreement (the "JV Agreement") with Dr. James G. Blencoe, Ph.D., of Tennessee USA, and Global Lithium Extraction Technologies Inc. ("Global Lithium"), with respect to the operation of a joint venture (the "Joint Venture") to develop and commercialize a new, low-cost process (the "Technology") for extracting lithium from spodumene concentrate. The Joint Venture will be operated through Global Lithium, a new corporation that was formed for this purpose. For further information respecting the Technology and Dr. Blencoe's background, please see the Company's news release dated May 6, 2021.

Pursuant to the JV Agreement, Dr. Blencoe will contribute his and his related companies' intellectual property, personnel, laboratory facilities and services to the Joint Venture and Medaro will fund the research and development costs of the Joint Venture through (i) the contribution of US$500,000 over the first ten (10) months of the Joint Venture and (ii) the contribution of up to US$3,000,000 towards commissioning of a pre-commercial facility for the large-scale testing and implementation of the Technology (the "Pilot Plant"). Medaro will acquire an ownership interest in Global Lithium in stages, as certain cash contributions are made, as the Joint Venture achieves certain operational and research milestones and upon Medaro issuing up to an aggregate of 1,850,000 common shares of Medaro to Dr. Blencoe. Once Medaro owns 80% of Global Lithium's shares and the Pilot Plant has been completed, Medaro will be entitled to acquire remaining 20% interest in Global Lithium from Dr. Blencoe for US$10,000,000.

Pursuant to the JV Agreement, on completion of the Initial Earn-In, Dr. Blencoe will also join Medaro's leadership team as Chief Technology Officer.

Additionally, the Company has entered into an agreement with Financial Star News Inc. (FSN), pursuant to which FSN will provide the Company with marketing services for an aggregate of USD$500,000. FSN will utilize their online programs with the aim of generating a greater following, increasing investor awareness and attracting potential new investors through various online platforms and methods of engagement.

About the Company

The Company is a lithium exploration company based in Vancouver, BC and holds options over the Superb Lake lithium property located in Thunder Bay, Ontario and the CYR South lithium property located in James Bay, Quebec.

For more information, investors should review the Company's filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements regarding the Joint Venture Agreement and the development of the Technology, the funding of the Joint Venture and the timing for same and the appointment of Dr. Blencoe as Chief Technology Officer of Medaro are "forward-looking information". These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Relevant risks include the ability of the Joint Venture to develop the Technology as they intend and within the expected time frame, and the ability of Medaro to raise the funds necessary to fund development of the Technology and earn into the Joint Venture. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Contact Information

Hugh Maddin

Director and CEO

Telephone: 604 602 0001

Email: info@medaromining.com

SOURCE: Medaro Mining Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653840/Medaro-Enters-into-Joint-Venture-Agreement-to-Develop-Lithium-Extraction-Technology
License agreement to enhance Nippon Gene's CRISPR/Cas9 research reagents offering

ERS Genomics Limited, which was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property co-owned by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, and Nippon Gene Co., Ltd (Nippon Gene), a manufacturer of genetic engineering research reagents and diagnostic reagents for humans, animals, and plants, today announced a non-exclusive license agreement granting Nippon Gene access to ERS Genomics' CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio.

Nippon Gene is a biotechnology company manufacturing and providing research reagents, across Japan. The portfolio of reagents for research includes enzymes, buffers and reagents for LAMP and PCR kits. Nippon Gene also provides plant disease diagnostic kits, allergen detection kits, and antibiotics detection kits in addition to pregnancy and ovulation tests. The license from ERS Genomics will allow Nippon Gene to develop, manufacture, and sell research reagents using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

ERS Genomics holds an exclusive worldwide license from co-founder and recent Nobel prize winner Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier to the foundational intellectual property covering CRISPR/Cas9 for use as a research platform.

Eric Rhodes, CEO of ERS Genomics, said: "Our portfolio of Japanese companies taking a license to the CRISPR/Cas9 technology is growing rapidly, and we are very pleased to be working with Nippon Gene. Supporting the company with this license agreement will allow them to continue providing crucial reagents to the life science research community."

Shinji Kanayama, President of Nippon Gene, commented: "CRISPR/Cas9 technology has revolutionized life science research, becoming an important technology applied across a variety of fields. The license from ERS Genomics, granting us access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patents, will enable us to supply a wide range of research reagents in the field of gene editing. We will continue to expand our genome-editing related reagents to support the advancement and development of cutting-edge life sciences."

Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.

ENDS

For a high resolution image please contact Zyme Communications

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006027/en/

Contacts:

Katie Odgaard

Zyme Communications

Tel: +44(0)7787 502 947

Email: katie.odgaard@zymecommunications.com
CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) - Boeing Co. (BA) said that it has appointed Brian West as its executive vice president and chief financial officer effective August 27, 2021. West succeeds Greg Smith, who previously announced his plans to retire, effective in early July. Boeing has appointed Dave Dohnalek, currently Boeing's senior vice president and Treasurer, to the role of interim CFO until West joins the company in late August. Brian West will report to Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun and will serve on the company's Executive Council. Brian West has served as the chief financial officer of Refinitiv since 2018, and was previously CFO and executive vice president of Operations for Oscar Health Insurance and CFO and COO of Nielsen. Prior to Nielsen, West spent 16 years at General Electric, where he served as CFO of GE Aviation and CFO of GE Engine Services. 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.
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - June 30, 2021) - Zedcor Inc. (TSXV: ZDC) (the "Company" or "Zedcor") is pleased to announce that further to its press release dated May 27, 2021, it has completed the sale of its Rentals Segment assets to Maynbridge Capital Inc ("Maynbridge").

Gross cash proceeds from the transaction were $11.3 million. This amount will be applied against Zedcor's indebtedness to Maynbridge. As a result of the transaction, the Company's outstanding debt to Maynbridge, which excludes amounts drawn on the operating line of credit, is below $5.0 million. The Company's outstanding debt now represents less than two times EBITDA on a trailing twelve-month basis. As a result of the reduced leverage, Zedcor has been in discussions with its banking partners to secure additional equipment financing to expand its fleet of MobileyeZ security towers and continue growing its operations across Canada.

Appointment of Chief Operating Officer:

Zedcor is also pleased to announce the appointment of James Leganchuk as Chief Operating Officer effective July 1, 2021. Mr. Leganchuk has been with Zedcor since 2011, previously serving as VP Operations and VP Business Development. He has extensive industry knowledge of operations and industrial rental solutions; in addition, Mr. Leganchuk played an integral role in establishing Zedcor's centralized surveillance centre in Edmonton, Alberta and has helped to streamline operations and create efficiencies throughout the Company.

About Zedcor Inc.

Zedcor is a Canadian public corporation and parent company to Zedcor Security Solutions Corp. ("Zedcor Security Solutions"). Zedcor Security Solutions is engaged in the providing security & surveillance services throughout Canada. With its state-of-the-art 24/7 live, verified monitoring center located in Western Canada, the Company is able to provide cutting edge, technology-based security solutions to its customers across all industry segments. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ZDC".

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements included or incorporated by reference in this press release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including the application of proceeds of the sale of the Rentals Segment assets to indebtedness of the Company, amounts of debt, the Company's debt to EBITDA ratio and the Company having discussions to secure additional equipment financing to expand its fleet of MobileyeZ security towers and continue growing its operations across Canada. Forward-looking statements or information may contain statements with the words "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", "budget", "should", "project", "would have realized', "may have been" or similar words suggesting future outcomes or expectations. Although the Company believes that the expectations implied in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that such statements will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including the ability of the Company to obtain equipment financing and its ability to grow its operations across Canada. Additional information regarding some of these risks, uncertainties and other factors may be found in the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2021, and other documents available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of assumptions about the future and uncertainties. These assumptions include the availability of equipment financing and growth opportunities. Although management believes these assumptions are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be correct, and actual results will differ materially from those anticipated. For this purpose, any statements herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new contrary information, future events or any other reason, unless it is required by any applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Certain information set out herein may be considered as "financial outlook" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The purpose of this financial outlook is to provide readers with disclosure regarding Zedcor's reasonable expectations as to the anticipated results of its proposed business activities for the periods indicated. Readers are cautioned that the financial outlook may not be appropriate for other purposes.

This press release makes reference to certain non-GAAP measures. These measures are not recognized measures under International Financial Report Standards ("IFRS"), do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. Investors are cautioned that EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are not acceptable alternatives to net income, a measurement of liquidity, or comparable measures as determined in accordance with IFRS.

EBITDA refers to net income before finance costs, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as EBITDA before costs associated with severance, gains and losses on sale of equipment and stock-based compensation. These measures do not have a standardized definition prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar captioned terms presented by other issuers.

Management believes that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are useful measures of performance as they eliminate non-recurring items and the impact of finance and tax structure variables that exist between entities. For further information regarding non-GAAP measures used by the Company, please refer to the management's discussion and analysis of the Company, copies of which are available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

For further information contact:

Todd Ziniuk

Chief Executive Officer

P: (403) 930-5430

E: tziniuk@zedcor.ca

Amin Ladha

Chief Financial Officer

P: (403) 930-5430

E: aladha@zedcor.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/89203
SAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX) - Gap Inc. (GPS) said Wednesday that it plans to sell its stores in France and Italy. It also plans to close all of its stores in the UK and Ireland and sell its clothes online only. The retailer said it is in negotiations with Hermione People and Brands, the retail branch of FIB Group, to take over Gap stores in France. Gap is in discussions with a partner for the potential acquisition of its stores in Italy. Gap noted that it has proposed to close all company-operated Gap Specialty and Gap Outlet stores in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland in a phased manner from the end of August through the end of September 2021. It is due to market dynamics in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Gap said it is going to maintain its online business in the United Kingdom and Europe. 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.
Apex is a leading player in the growing cross-border air and ocean freight forwarding market

Partners Group joins majority shareholder Kuehne+Nagel on the Apex Board

Apex stands to benefit from the rise of cross-border e-commerce, a key transformative trend

Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, has agreed to acquire a 24.9% equity stake in Apex International Corporation ("Apex" or "the Company"), a globally integrated logistics solutions provider, on behalf of its clients. Upon closing of the transaction, Partners Group will join majority shareholder Kuehne+Nagel Group, one of the world's leading logistics companies, with a seat on the Apex Board.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Apex is one of Asia's leading freight forwarders, especially on the transpacific and intra-Asia trade routes. The Company has around 1,600 employees across 41 locations globally. In 2020, Apex generated turnover of USD 2.4 billion, gross profit of USD 339 million and earnings before taxes of USD 141 million and ranked seventh in terms of global air freight forwarding volume. Partners Group will work alongside Kuehne+Nagel to implement a transformational value creation plan for Apex together with the Company's management team. Key initiatives include establishing new freight forwarding routes; identifying new growth verticals, such as healthcare; and M&A.

Yngve Ruud, Executive Vice President Air Logistics, Kuehne+Nagel International AG, Chairman of Apex, comments: "On behalf of Kuehne+Nagel, as well as Apex's CEO Tony Song and his management team at Apex, we welcome the addition of Partners Group as a shareholder. By combining the financial and strategic insight of Partners Group with the industry heritage and experience of Kuehne+Nagel, Apex will have access to a powerful partnership through which to consolidate our position in China and further develop the Company."

Dr. Marcel Erni, Co-Founder, Member of the Board of Directors, Partners Group, says: "Apex is a leading player in the China cross-border freight forwarding market, with a growing international presence and significant potential for further expansion. We have long admired the Company and its management team and are excited to be able to contribute to its future growth. Similarly, we are delighted to partner with Kuehne+Nagel, one of the world's longest-established logistics companies, blending private equity with leading logistics industry expertise."

Dr. Joerg Wolle, Chairman of the Board, Kuehne+Nagel, states: "The strategic focus on expansion in Asia, initiated by the Kuehne+Nagel Board about three years ago, is paying off in terms of organic growth supported by acquisitions. We believe Partners Group, with its extensive experience and network, is an ideal partner for Kuehne+Nagel."

Sheng Liu, Managing Director, Private Equity, Partners Group, adds: "We started following the development of Apex after identifying it through our thematic investing approach several years ago. Apex benefits from the rise of cross-border e-commerce - a key transformative trend that has accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to working with Kuehne+Nagel as well as Tony Song and his management team to realize this potential."

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance by the relevant merger control authorities. Apex will then continue to operate separately within the Kuehne+Nagel Group.
~Harld Peters will join Lineage Logistics as Senior Vice President, Europe, reporting to Mike McClendon, President International Operations and EVP, Network Optimization~

~Appointment is part of Lineage's European structure enhancement strategy~

Lineage Logistics, LLC ("Lineage" or the "Company"), one of the world's leading and most innovative temperature-controlled industrial REIT and logistics solutions providers, today announced the appointment of Harld Peters as Senior Vice President, Europe. In this role, Harld will oversee all European operations for the Company and will report to Mike McClendon, Lineage's President of International Operations and EVP of Network Optimization.

Peters brings extensive experience leading technology-driven transformation and accelerated growth, most recently serving as President of Northern Europe for global workforce solutions company, ManpowerGroup. He also spent more than two decades at UPS where he held key leadership positions across Europe and Asia, most recently as President of UPS China and previously as President for West Europe.

"We are thrilled to welcome Harld to the One Lineage Europe family, and I am confident he is the right leader for this critical position," said Mike McClendon, President International Operations and EVP, Network Optimization. "Harld has an impressive background in deploying intelligent growth strategies in Europe, which is particularly important for Lineage as we continue to expand regionally and with customers across our dynamic European facility footprint. I look forward to seeing the incredible impact he is going to make on our European operations and on the Company as a whole."

Peters' appointment is a part of Lineage's larger structure enhancement strategy for Europe, focused on evolving the organization to better meet the needs of Lineage's regional customers. Part of that strategy is engaging world class leaders who have the skills and passion to continue to grow Lineage's European network as well as developing sophisticated functions to serve as the backbone to support that network.

"I'm excited to join the world's leading cold storage logistics solutions provider, particularly at such a transformative time for the company and its European operations," said Harld Peters, SVP, Europe at Lineage Logistics. "I look forward to working with this talented team to build Lineage's brand presence in the region and provide the industry's best, most comprehensive customer experience."

Peters' appointment also comes on the heels of the Company's recent announcements of its intent to acquire Kloosterboer Group and the cold storage division of Claus Srenson, two highly respected temperature-controlled logistics providers in Europe.

About Lineage Logistics

Lineage Logistics is one of the leading temperature-controlled industrial REIT and logistics solutions providers worldwide. It has a global network of over 350 strategically located facilities totaling over 2 billion cubic feet of capacity which spans 15 countries across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South America. Lineage's industry-leading expertise in end-to-end logistical solutions, its unrivaled real estate network, and development and deployment of innovative technology help increase distribution efficiency, advance sustainability, minimize supply chain waste, and most importantly, as a Visionary Partner of Feeding America, help feed the world. In recognition of the company's leading innovations and sustainability initiatives, Lineage was listed as No. 17 in the 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, the No 1. Data Science company, and 23rd overall, on Fast Company's 2019 list of The World's Most Innovative Companies, in addition to being included on Fortune's Change The World list in 2020. (www.lineagelogistics.com)

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005902/en/

Contacts:

Lineage Logistics

Megan Hendricksen

949.247.5172

mhendricksen@lineagelogistics.com
Regulatory News:

Europcar Mobility Group's (Paris:EUCAR) Combined Annual General Meeting was held on June 30, 2021 at Group's Headquarters, 13 ter boulevard Berthier in Paris, under the chairmanship of Mr. Alexandre de Juniac, Chairman of the Board of Directors. The quorum was equal to 73,01 %.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, the Shareholders' Meeting of the Company was exceptionally held without the physical presence of its shareholders, in closed session.

Shareholders were able to follow the proceedings of the Shareholders' Meeting from a distance, which were webcasted live and are also available in replay mode on the Company's website at the following address: https://investors.europcar-group.com/fr/financial-documentation/shareholders-meeting.

This unique moment of information for the Company's shareholders gave the opportunity to Caroline Parot, CEO, and Luc Peligry, CFO, to provide an update on the "Connect" strategic plan, review the results for the year 2020 and share the outlook for 2021, in relation to the progressive recovery of the travel and leisure market.

In addition to these presentations, the General Meeting approved all thirty-eight resolutions submitted to the vote. In particular, it approved the annual and consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2020.

The Shareholders' Meeting also approved the new composition of the Company's Board of Directors, in accordance with the new governance structure adopted by the Shareholders' Meeting of January 20, 2021. It has thus approved the ratification of the cooptation of Mrs. Sylvie Veilleux and Messrs. Alexandre de Juniac and Simon Franks as members of the Board of Directors; the extension of the term of office of Mrs. Caroline Parot as a member of the Board of Directors; the appointment of Mrs. Carol Sirou as a member of the Board of Directors and the appointment of Mr. Laurent David as an observer of the Board.

The complete results of the votes on the resolutions are available in the investor section, "Financial Information", sub-heading "Shareholders' Meetings" of the Group's Investor Relations website: http://investors.europcar-group.com.

Investor Calendar:

H1 Results 2021 July 28, 2021 Q3 Results 2021 November 9, 2021

About Europcar Mobility Group

Europcar Mobility Group is a major player in mobility markets and listed on Euronext Paris. Europcar Mobility Group's purpose is to offer attractive alternatives to vehicle ownership, in a responsible and sustainable manner. With this in mind, the Group offers a wide range of car and van rental services be it for a few hours, a few days, a week, a month or more with a fleet that is already "C02 light" and equipped with the latest engines, and which will be increasingly "green" in the years to come (more than 1/3 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2023).

Customers' satisfaction is at the heart of the Group's ambition and that of its employees. It also fuels the ongoing development of new offerings in the Group's three service lines Professional, Leisure and Proximity which respond to the specific needs and use cases of both businesses and individuals. The Group's 4 major brands are: Europcar the European leader of car rental and light commercial vehicle rental, Goldcar the low-cost car-rental Leader in Europe, InterRent 'mid-tier' car rental and Ubeeqo one of the European leaders of round-trip car-sharing (BtoB, BtoC).

Europcar Mobility Group delivers its mobility solutions worldwide through an extensive network in over 140 countries (including wholly owned subsidiaries 18 in Europe, 1 in the USA, 2 in Australia and New Zealand completed by franchises and partners).

Further details on our website: www.europcar-mobility-group.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006081/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

Caroline Cohen caroline.cohen@europcar.com

Communication

Valerie Sauteret valerie.sauteret@europcar.com

Vincent Vevaud vincent.vevaud@europcar.com

Publicis Consultants

Judith Grandcoing judith.grandcoing@publicisconsultants.com
The current CEO of Allente to head Telenor's Swedish business from 1 October.

Bjrn Ivar Moen will take up the role of CEO in Telenor Sweden on 1 October. Jonas Gustafsson will take over as CEO of Allente from 1 July 2021.

"Bjrn Ivar knows Telenor well, and his strong commercial profile, energetic leadership style, and solid CEO and Board experience make him the right person to head Telenor Sweden in its transformation journey back to growth. I am confident that he will execute on the company's strategy and build on the excellent work done by Kaaren Hilsen in the past years to solidify Telenor Sweden's position as one of the leading players in the Swedish market," says Jukka Leinonen, EVP and Head of Nordics in Telenor Group.

Moen has an extensive industry background stemming from more than 20 years in Telenor, including roles as CEO of Telenor Broadcast and Canal Digital and as acting CEO of Telenor Norway. He has also served on the boards of companies in telecoms distribution and other areas.

"I am thrilled to take on the position of CEO in Telenor Sweden. There is an abundance of potential in Telenor Sweden's broad and attractive product portfolio within mobile, broadband and TV. I am looking forward to developing it further alongside the entire Telenor Sweden team to create the best possible customer value and to stand out in the Swedish market. I have had a fantastic journey through the establishment of Allente. The company has done an extraordinary job to capture vast synergies and enters the next step in its journey in good hands," says Bjrn Ivar Moen.

Press contact:

Tormod Sandst, Director Media Relations, Telenor Group

+47 90 94 32 15 | Tormod.Sandsto@telenor.com

Telenor Sverige AB is a full-service supplier of telecommunications services with mobile networks that cover 99.9 percent of Sweden's population. Telenor Sverige has 2.7 million mobile subscribers, approximately 700,000 fiber and broadband customers and 500000 TV customers. Telenor Sverige's sales amount to approximately 12 billion SEK (2020) and the company employs around 1,700 people.



Allente is a Nordic TV distribution company offering high quality satellite TV, streaming packages, and IPTV and fibre broadband services to more than 1 million customers in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Allente was formed in May 2020 through the merger of Viasat Consumer and Canal Digital. The new company is co-headquartered in Stockholm and Oslo, CEO is Jonas Gustafsson. Telenor Group and NENT Group each own 50% of the shares in Allente.


Ghent, BELGIUM, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION, PUBLICATION OR RELEASE TO OR WITHIN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, SWITZERLAND, JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA, AUSTRALIA OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY OR JURISDICTION WHERE ITS DISSEMINATION WOULD BE CONTRARY TO LAW OR OTHER RESTRICTIONS APPLY.



This announcement is not an offer to invest in the shares (the "Shares") of Biotalys. An investment in the Shares can only be based on the prospectus dated 22 June 2021 (the "Prospectus") Biotalys has issued in connection with the offering of its Shares.

The investment in Shares of Biotalys involves substantial risks and uncertainties, including the following risks: and, in particular, should read the section on "Risk Factors" for a discussion of certain factors which should be considered in connection with an investment in the Shares. Although these risk factors are not necessarily all ranked in order of their materiality, in each category the risk factors which in the assessment of Biotalys are the most material, taking into account the negative impact on Biotalys and on the Shares and the probability of its occurrence, are mentioned first. All of these factors should be considered before investing in the Shares. Prospective investors must be able to bear the economic risk of an investment in the Shares and should be able to sustain a partial or total loss of their investment.

Advertisement

Biotalys Announces Expected Successful Closing of its Initial Public Offering

Ghent, BELGIUM - 1 July 2021 - Biotalys NV ("Biotalys" or the "Company") an Agricultural Technology (AgTech) company focused on addressing food protection challenges with protein-based biocontrol solutions for a more sustainable and safer food supply, announces today that it expects to close successfully its initial public offering at a price of 7.50 per Offered Share1. The Company expects to issue 6,333,333 Shares bringing the size of the Offering at 47.5 million. It is expected that up to 949,999 Shares will be over-allotted in the framework of the Offering bringing the maximum size of the Offering at 54.62 million if the Over-allotment Option is fully exercised.

The offering period commenced on 23 June 2021 at 9:00 am (CEST) and closed at 4:00 pm (CEST) on 30 June 2021 for retail investors and is expected to close on 1 July at 2:00 pm (CEST) for institutional investors.

Prospectus

The English version of the prospectus has been approved by the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority on 22 June 2021), KBC, www.kbc.be/biotalysand www.bolero.be/nl/Biotalys) and Belfius Bank NV/SA), whereby the access on the aforementioned websites is each time subject to the usual limitations.

- ENDS -

For further information, please contact:

Biotalys

Toon Musschoot, Strategic Communications Manager

T: +32 (0)9 274 54 00

E: Toon.Musschoot@biotalys.com

For media enquiries, please contact:

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell, Chris Gardner, Chris Welsh

T: +44 (0)203 709 5700

E: Biotalys@consilium-comms.com

About Biotalys

Biotalys is an Agricultural Technology (AgTech) company focused on addressing food protection challenges with protein-based biocontrol solutions for more sustainable and safer food. Based on its novel AGROBODY technology platform, Biotalys aims to develop a strong and diverse pipeline of effective products with a favorable safety profile that aim to address key crop pests and diseases across the whole value chain, from soil to plate. Biotalys was founded in 2013 as a spin-off from the VIB (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology) and has raised 62.8 million (US$74.9 million) to date from Belgian and international investors. The Company is based in the biotech cluster in Ghent, Belgium. More information can be found on www.biotalys.com.

Important Notice

This announcement is not for distribution in or to persons resident in the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa or Switzerland. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer of securities for sale.

This announcement contains statements which are "forward-looking statements" or could be considered as such. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words 'aim', 'believe', 'estimate', 'anticipate', 'expect', 'intend', 'may', 'will', 'plan', 'continue', 'ongoing', 'possible', 'predict', 'plans', 'target', 'seek', 'would' or 'should', and contain statements made by the company regarding the intended results of its strategy. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are warned that none of these forward-looking statements offers any guarantee of future performance. The Biotalys actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. Biotalys makes no undertaking whatsoever to publish updates or adjustments to these forward-looking statements, unless required to do so by law.

The Company's securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), or under the laws of any state or other jurisdiction in the United States of America, and may not be offered or sold within the United States of America except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state laws. No public offering of securities will be made in the United States of America.

This information does not constitute an offer or invitation to proceed to an acquisition of or subscription for the Company's securities, nor an offer or invitation to proceed to an acquisition of or subscription for the Company's securities in any jurisdiction (including Belgium, member states of the EEA, the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa or the United Kingdom) where such offer or invitation is not allowed without registration or qualification under the applicable legislation of the relevant jurisdiction, or where such offer or invitation does not meet the required conditions under the applicable legislation of the relevant jurisdiction.

This information and any materials distributed in connection with this information are not directed to, or intended for distribution to or use by, any person or entity that is a citizen or resident of or located in the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa or any other jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would require any registration or licensing within such jurisdiction. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the laws or regulations of the United States of America, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa or any other jurisdiction. The distribution of this information in other jurisdictions than Belgium, may be restricted by laws or regulations applicable in such jurisdictions. All persons in possession of this information must inform themselves about, and comply with, any such restrictions.

An investment in shares entails significant risks. Relevant investors are encouraged to read the Prospectus. This document is not a prospectus and investors should not subscribe for or purchase any shares referred to herein except on the basis of the information contained in the Prospectus. Potential investors must read the Prospectus before making an investment decision in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards associated with the decision to invest in the securities. This announcement and the approval of the Prospectus, as the case may be, should not be understood as an endorsement of the securities offered or admitted to trading on a regulated market. The value of the Company's shares can decrease as well as increase. Potential investors should consult a professional advisor as to the suitability of the intended offering for the person concerned.

The date of completion of listing on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels may be influenced by things such as market conditions. There is no guarantee that such listing will occur and a potential investor should not base their financial decisions on the Company's intentions in relation to such listing at this stage.

Acquiring investments to which this announcement relates may expose an investor to a significant risk of losing the entire amount invested. Persons considering such investments should consult an authorized person specializing in advising on such investments.

This announcement is only addressed to and directed at persons in the United Kingdom and member states of the European Economic Area (the "EEA") (each a Member State) who are "qualified investors" within the meaning of Article 2(e) of Regulation 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended from time to time, to the extent implemented in the relevant Member State of the EEA) and any implementing measure in each relevant Member State of the EEA (the Prospectus Regulation), or such other investors as shall not constitute an offer to the public within the meaning of Article 3.1 of the Prospectus Regulation. In addition, in the United Kingdom, this announcement is only addressed to and directed at (i) persons having professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within the definition of "investment professionals" in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the "Order"), (ii) high net worth entities, etc. falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order, and (iii) any other person to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The intended offering, as the case may be, will only be available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe for, purchase, or otherwise acquire securities will be engaged in only with relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this announcement or any of its contents.

The Joint Bookrunners are acting for the Company and no one else in relation to the intended offering, and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections offered to their respective clients nor for providing advice in relation to the intended offering.

The Company assumes responsibility for the information contained in this announcement. None of the Joint Bookrunners or any of their respective affiliates or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, advisers or agents accepts any responsibility or liability whatsoever for or makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information in this announcement (or whether any information has been omitted from the announcement) or any other information relating to the Company, whether written, oral or in a visual or electronic form, and howsoever transmitted or made available or for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this announcement or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Each of the Underwriters and each of their respective affiliates accordingly disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, all and any liability whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise which they might otherwise be found to have in respect of this announcement or any such statement or information. No representation or warranty express or implied, is made by any of the Underwriters or any of their respective affiliates as to the accuracy, completeness, verification or sufficiency of the information set out in this announcement, and nothing in this announcement will be relied upon as a promise or representation in this respect, whether or not to the past or future.

Information to Distributors

The Underwriters have informed the Company that the following information is intended for distributors only. The information is provided by the Underwriters, and the Company does not assume responsibility for it.

Solely for the purposes of the product governance requirements contained within: (a) EU Directive 2014/65/EU on markets in financial instruments, as amended ("MiFID II"); (b) Articles 9 and 10 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 supplementing MiFID II; (c) local implementing measures; and (d) Chapter 3 of the FCA Handbook Product Intervention and Product Governance Sourcebook (together, the "Product Governance Requirements"), and disclaiming all and any liability, whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, which any "manufacturer" (for the purposes of the Product Governance Requirements) may otherwise have with respect thereto, the Underwriters have submitted the Shares to a product approval process, which has determined that such Shares are: (i) compatible with an end target market of retail investors and investors who meet the criteria of professional clients and eligible counterparties, each as defined in MiFID II or the FCA Handbook Conduct of Business Sourcebook; and (ii) eligible for distribution through all permitted distribution channels as (the "Target Market Assessment"). Notwithstanding the Target Market Assessment, distributors should note that: the price of the Shares may decline and investors could lose all or part of their investment; the Shares offer no guaranteed income and no capital protection; and an investment in the Shares is compatible only with investors who do not need a guaranteed income or capital protection, who (either alone or in conjunction with an appropriate financial or other adviser) are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of such an investment and who have sufficient resources to be able to bear any losses that may result therefrom. The Target Market Assessment is without prejudice to the requirements of any contractual, legal or regulatory selling restrictions in relation to the Offering.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Target Market Assessment does not constitute: (a) an assessment of suitability or appropriateness for the purposes of purposes of Chapters 9A or 10A respectively of the FCA Handbook Conduct of Business Sourcebook or MiFID II or any local implementing measure; or (b) a recommendation to any investor or group of investors to invest in, or purchase, or take any other action whatsoever with respect to the Shares.

Each distributor is responsible for undertaking its own target market assessment in respect of the Shares and determining appropriate distribution channels.

1 Please also see the press release in relation to the launch of the Offering, dated 23 June 2021; the press release in relation to the covering of the base offering throughout the price range, dated 29 June 2021.

Attachments
WOKINGHAM, UK / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / In accordance with DTR 5.6.1, the Company hereby notifies the following:

The Company's issued share capital as at June 30, 2021 consisted of 232,171,182 ordinary shares of 10 pence each ('Ordinary Shares'), of which 9,430,472 Ordinary Shares were held in treasury as at the date of this disclosure. The voting rights of treasury shares are automatically suspended.

Therefore, the total voting rights in the Company is 222,740,710. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which to determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules and the Company's Articles of Association.

Enquiries:

Graham Middlemiss, Group Company Secretary

(0118 927 3800)

July 1, 2021

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Ferguson PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653830/Ferguson-PLC-Announces-Total-Voting-Rights
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / AEX Gold Inc. (AIM:AEXG; TSXV:AEX), an independent gold company with a portfolio of exploration licences in Greenland is pleased to announce that it has applied for a new exploration licence in the Kobberminebugt region of South Greenland covering an area of approximately 266 km2. The Company will make further announcements in relation to the status and potential award of this application in due course.

The area hosts numerous copper-gold showings including the small past-producing Josva copper mine, which was last worked in 1914 with reported grades up to 5% Copper, 1.5 g/t Gold and 250 g/t Silver. Copper mineralisation discovered to date is found within volcanic and sedimentary sequences as disseminated stratabound sulphides, and locally enriched into layers due to strong folding or in quartz veins and breccias. Sulphide concentrations vary from 1-50% volume depending on the style of mineralisation. Some showings can be followed for several hundred metres along strike with widths of up to several metres.

Mineralisation has been interpreted as Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold (IOCG) style by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). The new licence is located approximately 100 km west of AEX's Sava exploration project, (formerly known as Kangerluarsuk), which is targeting granite hosted IOCG mineralisation in the Julianehab granitic batholith. AEX believes that the region is underexplored for IOCG deposits and shows many geological similarities to the IOCG province of northern Sweden, which hosts several operating mines.

Nalunaq Update

Following the announcement on June 7, 2021 noting that a team of geologists and drilling engineers had arrived on site and were commencing work to further develop the Company's understanding of the area to the south-west of the deposit, AEX is pleased to report that construction of the expanded temporary camp and new exploration camp to support these activities is progressing well. The exploration team has also commenced the drilling programme at Valley Block, the results of which will be announced to the market over the coming months.

In addition, the authorities in Greenland continue to review drafts of the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") and Social Impact Assessment ("SIA") covering the Nalunaq project. The Company continues to have a constructive dialogue with the Government as we work towards finalising these reports ahead of public consultation later this year.

Figure 1 - The new temporary camp

Figure 2 - Illustration of the close proximity of the temporary camp (right) and the construction of the exploration camp (left)

Figure 3 - Drilling at Nalunaq project

Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Minister for Housing, Infrastructure, Mineral Resources and Gender Equality states:

"The Government is pleased that AEX is expanding their activities in Greenland and is looking forward to seeing the projects move forward."

Eldur Olafsson, CEO of AEX Gold, commented:

"I am very pleased to announce that we have applied for this new exploration licence in South Greenland, which if granted, will further expand our footprint in this exciting and wholly underexplored area. In addition to growing our land package, the licence would continue to grow our holding of assets with attractive strategic metal potential, in this case copper. Historical mining can be good evidence for a significant mineral system, which also adds to the attractiveness of this application.

"We continue to work closely and collaboratively with the Greenland government in order to build a sustainable mining sector in Greenland."

Enquiries:

AEX Gold Inc.

Eldur Olafsson, Director and CEO

+354 665 2003

eo@aexgold.com

Eddie Wyvill, Investor Relations

+44 (0) 7713 126727

ew@aexgold.com

Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Callum Stewart

Simon Mensley

Ashton Clanfield

+44 (0) 20 7710 7600

Camarco (Financial PR)

Gordon Poole

Nick Hennis

+44 (0) 20 3757 4980

For Company updates:

Follow @AexGold on Twitter

Follow AEX Gold Inc. on LinkedIn

Further Information:

About AEX

AEX's principal business objectives are the identification, acquisition, exploration and development of gold properties in Greenland. The Corporation's principal asset is a 100% interest in the Nalunaq Project, an advanced exploration stage property with an exploitation license including the previously operating Nalunaq gold mine. The Corporation has a portfolio of gold assets covering 3,870km2, the largest portfolio of gold assets in Southern Greenland covering the two known gold belts in the region. AEX is incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act and wholly owns Nalunaq A/S, incorporated under the Greenland Public Companies Act.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects the Corporation's current expectations regarding future events and the future growth of the Corporation's business. In this press release there is forward-looking information based on a number of assumptions and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Corporation's control, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus available under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking information included in this press release is based only on information currently available to the Corporation and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Corporation assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect new circumstances or events. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Qualified Person Statement

The technical information presented in this press release has been approved by James Gilbertson CGeol, who is a full-time employee and Managing Director of SRK Exploration Services Limited and a Chartered Geologist with the Geological Society of London, and as such a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

Inside Information

This announcement does not contain inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the UK version of Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 on Market Abuse ("UK MAR"), as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 on Market Abuse ("EU MAR").

SOURCE: AEX Gold Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653702/New-Exploration-Licence-Application-and-Nalunaq-EIASIA-Update
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.
The management and technology consultancy continues to strengthen its position as an independent European firm and underlines its growth ambitions

Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint announced today that it has internally promoted 13 new Partners across Europe. The promotions underline the firm's ongoing success and growth and the ambitions defined in its Strategy 2025: put people in the center, outperform the market every year, and be in the top three in chosen areas of expertise.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005761/en/

Kiumars Hamidian, Managing Partner BearingPoint (Photo: Business Wire)

Kiumars Hamidian, Managing Partner at BearingPoint, said: "It is a real pleasure welcoming 13 new Partners to our Partner-led firm. All of our new Partners have reached this important milestone based on their exceptional abilities, deep industry expertise, and their outstanding commitment to serving our clients. Promoting them is a demonstration of the success of our business, and it reflects our ambition manifested in our Strategy 2025."

The new Partners at a glance:

Bjorn Ahlgren

Office: Stockholm/Sweden

With BearingPoint since: 2008

Education: Master's in Industrial Economics

Business focus: Consumer goods and retail

"My ambition is to grow the Consumer Goods and Retail practice and strengthen the BearingPoint market footprint."

Jan-Peter Baas

Office: Frankfurt/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2004

Education: University of Applied Sciences, degree in Computer Sciences

Business focus: Government and public sector, specialized in IT architecture and software development

"I am looking forward to strengthening technical consulting and connecting business and IT in order to make innovative, technical solutions easier and more quickly accessible for the business success of our clients."

Thomas Bagley

Office: Oslo/Norway

With BearingPoint since: 2018

Education: Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering and Master's in Management

Business focus: M&A, cross-industry

"As Partner and head of M&A within BearingPoint Capital, I look forward to continuing to execute on the plan to become the preferred M&A advisor within the technology and software space in Europe."

Franck Charlouty

Office: Paris/France

With BearingPoint since: 2004

Education: Civil Engineering degree

Business focus: Utilities electricity gas

"With climate change, utilities all around the world are facing unprecedented transformations and challenges. Thanks to more than 20 years of experience in the industry, my ambition is to help my French clients tackle those transformations and succeed in their goal to deliver more climate-friendly energy."

Severin de Cremiers

Office: Paris/France

With BearingPoint since: 2005

Education: Institute of Political Studies of Paris

Business focus: Government and public sector, Ministries of Economy, Ecology, Agriculture and Education

"With this new role as Partner, I aim to further assist public organizations in their journey toward more citizen-centric, resilient, and agile ways of delivering public services with a strong focus on the well-being of public servants."

Sven Gerhardus

Office: Dusseldorf/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2011

Education: Master's in Business Administration

Business focus: Insurance with specific expertise in customer management (marketing, sales, service) and Salesforce and BSI CRM implementation

"As a Partner, I am committed to supporting our insurance industry clients in their transformation towards customer-centricity. Together with our technology partners, we optimize the customer experience of insurers. I will do everything to further strengthen the position of BearingPoint as the top address for management consulting."

Annekatrin Mohr

Office: Frankfurt/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2018

Education: Master's in Political Sciences

Business focus: Digital customer management solutions for clients from the consumer goods and retail industry

"I aim to deliver innovative and data-driven customer engagement solutions to clients in the consumer goods and retail industry. I am passionate about taking customer-centricity to the next level by combining different perspectives: a solid business sense, organizational development, and future-proof technology."

Paul Monnier

Office: Paris/France

With BearingPoint since: 2007

Education: National School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics of Grenoble

Business focus: Technology, specialized in IT Infrastructure and operations advisory; leader of the cloud and IT sourcing community

"I will develop our CTO advisory and cybersecurity services, in particular by helping IT leaders benefit from market innovations impacting IT infrastructure and operations such as edge computing, AI operations, and sovereign cloud while keeping IT Infrastructure services resilient and secured."

Alexander Odenthal

Office: Dusseldorf/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2005

Education: CBS Cologne Business School

Business focus: Finance transformation and corporate treasury

"My team and I will continue helping our clients to streamline treasury processes, facilitating efficient management of cash and liquidity as well as the identification, measurement, and mitigation of financial risk."

Christian Opitz

Office: Frankfurt/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2008

Education: Master's in Business Administration and Master's in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Business focus: Cross-industry with a strong footprint in the consumer goods industries; specific expertise in combining management consulting projects with large ERP and process transformation programs

"As a Partner in our operations practice, my objective remains to combine management and IT consulting expertise to support clients end to end along their journeys to transform, optimize, and digitalize their processes. In particular, I am passionate about developing future-oriented integrated business planning concepts helping our clients to lower operations costs and risks to succeed in the volatile business environment."

Stefan Savu

Office: Walldorf/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2006

Education: Master's in Business Information Technology

Business focus: Chemicals, life science and resources; specialized in logistics and large-scale SAP transformation projects

"My focus as a Partner in our Chemicals, Life Science and Resources segment is on the transformation of the supply chain of our clients. Throughout the years, I gained experience in the specialties of the life science industry and extended my area of expertise in warehousing and transportation with the associated areas of inbound and outbound logistics in combination with new technologies like SAP S/4HANA, RPA, and IoT. Here I am responsible for the design, development, and implementation of strategic, large-scale, global transformation programs, post-merger integrations, and divestiture projects."

Manuel Schuler

Office: Frankfurt/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2007

Education: Master's in Business Administration, International Business Development

Business focus: Digital and Strategy topics in the automotive industry with a specific focus on digital services, connectivity, new business models and customer experience

"My ambition is to guide our automotive clients through the challenges and disruptions of the digital transformation, re-invent their business models together with them and help them master the digital play."

Melanie Tobler

Office: Munich/Germany

With BearingPoint since: 2007

Education: Master's in International Management

Business focus: Leading and supporting large-scale SAP transformation programs in the automotive industry with a specific focus on preseries, logistics, and finance integration

"I am passionate about making people and projects successful! I am especially looking forward to leading our teams in accompanying our automotive clients to reach their next milestones in digitalization and process automation in the area of operations and the integration of finance and vehicle development."

About BearingPoint

BearingPoint is an independent management and technology consultancy with European roots and a global reach. The company operates in three business units: The first unit covers the advisory business with a clear focus on five key areas to drive growth across all regions. The second unit provides IP-driven managed services beyond SaaS and offers business critical services to its clients supporting their business success. The third unit provides the software for successful digital transformation. It is also designed to explore innovative business models with clients and partners by driving the financing and development of start-ups and leveraging ecosystems.

BearingPoint's clients include many of the world's leading companies and organizations. The firm has a global consulting network with more than 10,000 people and supports clients in over 70 countries, engaging with them to achieve measurable and sustainable success.

For more information, please visit:

Homepage: www.bearingpoint.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint

Twitter: @BearingPoint

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005761/en/

Contacts:

Alexander Bock

Global Manager Communications

Telephone: +49 89 540338029

E-Mail: alexander.bock@bearingpoint.com
-Efinaconazole is a triazole antifungal compound indicated for the treatment of fungal infection of the nail, known as onychomycosis

-Almirall acquires exclusive rights for the development and commercialization of this topical antifungal in Europe

BARCELONA, Spain, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Almirall S.A. (BME: ALM), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health, and Kaken Pharmaceutical (KKPCF) announced today that the companies have entered into a license and distribution agreement in which Kaken Pharmaceutical grants Almirall the exclusive right for the development and commercialization of the topical formulation of efinaconazole in Europe.

This active principle, a triazole antifungal compound discovered by Kaken Pharmaceutical, is indicated for the treatment of onychomycosis, a fungal infection of the nail. Since it has low binding affinity with keratin, the main component of nails, it has superior nail-penetrating properties. Global prevalence of onychomycosis is estimated to be around 5.5%[1] and the condition is responsible for 50% of all consultations for nail disorders[2].

The product has been marketed in Japan since 2014 under the trade name of Clenafin. It has also been launched in the United States, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau by Kaken Pharmaceutical's partner companies under the trade name of Jublia.

Under the agreement, Kaken Pharmaceutical receives an upfront cash payment and has the potential to receive milestone payments and royalties on the net sales of the product. Almirall plans to have a pre-submission meeting with regulatory authorities within the next year to prepare the approval of the product in Europe.

With the addition of this new product, Almirall strengthens its European medical dermatology portfolio and reinforces its commitment to patients and dermatologists by offering them novel therapeutic options that really make a difference in their lives.

[1] Gupta AK, Mays RR, Versteeg SG, et al. Global perspectives for the management of onychomycosis. Int J Dermatol. 2018.

[2] Piraccini, B.M, Alessandrini, A. Onychomycosis: A Review. J Fungi [Internet]. 2015 Jun;1(1): 30-43. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5770011/. doi: 10.3390/jof1010030.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1217694/Almirall_Logo.jpg
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 1, 2021) - The surge in blockchain revolutionary technology is disrupting virtually all spheres of human endeavors, including notably pertinent areas such as data and information. Apparently, this brings to fore the applicability of blockchain in resolving issues with a vital attention to communication as expatiated upon by Plugchain.





A Nexus of Plugchain Blockchain

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7829/89112_cbd05a8ba4503be8_001full.jpg

Plugchain is a high-performance public chain committed to solving the interaction of information and data. It not only realizes the safe, smooth, and efficient communication for blockchain with the real world, but also realize communication with POLKADOT, BSC, HECO and other public chain smart contracts through cross-chain technology.

Oracle Network Protocol's decentralized oracle service (short for ONP) based on Plugchain focuses on the following elements when designing actual applications: integrity, confidentiality, reliability, availability and scalability, interoperability.

Technically, Plugchain's design comprises four sections which are proxy system, supervision system, verification registration of the nodes outside the chain system and payment system.

While there are many public chain projects, Security and scalability are practical reasons behind the strength and confidence of a project as formidable in operation as Plugchain.

Plugchain had its' testnet on the 23rd of June 2021. Following, intercommunication between reality and virtual, Plugchain is on the verge of making giant strides in this time and age of innovative disruptions from remote reality to job and data integration.

The biggest core innovation of the regional blockchain lies in the tool that connects smart contracts with external systems and promotes contract plays an important role.

Precisely, it is because of the consensus mechanism of blockchain, the smart contract can't do I/O (Input/Output), so it can't.

According to Tyler Winkelvoss and Rower, "We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error". However, the data itself is complex and diverse, claiming to reconstruct. Trust on external data may somewhat not be fully trusted.

Decentralized solution to the trust problem, which does not need to trust and that the interior of blockchain is a deterministic environment, which does not rely on third-party institutions for value transfer.

PLUGCHAIN APPLICATION SCENARIO

Smart contract are written in Boolean logic and is highly deterministic, so the efficacy of the mechanism in entirety is well established in the whole process with automatic operation. Plugchain can make a very positive change in the credibility, privacy and Defi aspects which ensures a trust free final execution pending on the quality of the data input.

A look into the application areas of Plugchain can be seen below:

DeFi field

According to Babs Rangaiah, "as it relates to media, we expect blockchain to be able to provide a single source of truth to any given media".

Operation cost of data sources, makes the whole defi ecology more protocol attentive, coordinate user interaction and decentralize the back-end exchanges and reserve assets. The DeFi model, the financial system recreates traditional financial instruments, including loans, derivatives, amongst others.

Stable currency

According to Ikuya Takasima, "Stablecoins is an asset that typically features price stability. The advantage of them is that they give the user total control over their holdings. On the other hand, the US dollar is a great example of a fiat stablecoin, as it offers low volatility and so provides a reliable unit of money to invest in both the short term and the long term. However, the US dollar doesn't give the user any form of control, as it is monitored by the Federal Reserve Bank and is dependent on the banking network in the US for commercial use".

Crypto asset stable currencies try to ink external world's stable currency and the anchored assets when there is an out of chain information exchange demand for the crypto asset stable.

Debit and credit platform

Decentralized Peer-to-peer ending platform allows anonymous users to mortgage margin and triggers the liquidation procedure.

Insurance application

Crypto asset stable currency is based on cryptocurrency mortgage. Instead monitor the margin ratio of encrypted collateral, issue a warning when their prices to fiat currencies by maintaining a higher ratio of collateral to collateralized assets, and its collateral is Ethereum and other chain assets.

Plugchain can provide real-time data such as the exchange rate of the assets. Consumption decentralized insurance application platform, including aviation currency.

Many blockchain project parties are building an efficient, transparent and low stable currencies. For example, DAI and bit USD. DAI is issued through over encrypted assets on the blockchain to borrow French currency or encrypted Plugchain provides price data when the loan is generated, and can delay insurance, crop insurance, etc. Users pay the premium with ether, buy insurance, and get automatic compensation according to the insurance agreement cannot be managed uniformly, and cannot be field separately according to compensation decisions, and arrange future automatic claims.

Medium-sized real estate easing enterprises are difficult to operate because; a large number of incoming and outgoing mails cannot be effectively. Plugchain can introduce external data sources and events for such in the leasing industry, in fact, the most difficult thing is to control the whole customers, contacts or even projects, contracts and service requests.

Plugchain can guarantee the authenticity of the leasing data and link the sorted and analyzed, and the historical information of inquiry and quotation return.

Plugchain can build an international trade financial service platform for; Business personnel spend a lot of time processing documents and opportunities.

Public chain intelligent contracts such as POLKADOT, BSC and HECO through smooth and efficient intercommunication between blockchain and real-world independent blockchain networks with Cosmos, but also provide modular underlying components through nesting BSC and HECO ecological scenes, information, and data, but also to realize the intercommunication among stakeholders.

Plugchain's Oracle Network Protocol (ONP), portrays that the content possesses an intelligent contract availability, in which data is retrieved by the prediction machine, practical application thus, aiming at the salient silent points in current data.

Integrity in this scenario, is no different from the lexicon definition or meaning of integrity which means that the information is compete, accurate and reliable.

Multiple data sources, multiple interaction amidst others are some viable means of completing Plugchain. The following elements are considered; integrity, decentralized derivatives trading and users in entirety.

Pertinent concepts that constitute a blockchain such as Confidentiality, reliability, Availability, Scalability, and interoperability are requisites to propelling Plugchain and no doubt, not absent.

Prediction machines, reputation system, trusted execution environment interoperability means that different blockchain networks can communicate (trusted hardware), authenticity proof and other schemes.

Among them, for multiple data sources, the Plugchain predictor network can obtain the following data sources:

URL link of internet; Data of interstellar file system PFS; Data of other blockchain Search engine; Sensor data, etc.

Aiming at confidentiality, the Plugchain predictor node uses public predictor, and only decrypts it when querying the information source.

Here are some key components necessary to encrypt the query request, and restricts the information flow.

For reliability, Plugchain adopts verifiable random number engine and In view of availability, Plugchain's prediction machine network is decentralized, which eliminates the tedious data audit of centralized, reliable data acquisition or complex computation under the chain, which has chains as if there were no boundaries. For interoperability, Plugchain adopts asynchronous fragmentation technology, and all fragmented block structures are similar to consensus

In addition, in order to finally support global commercial applications, Plugchain needs to simplify the operation used by enterprises and reduce expansion, governance model and specific business requirements, and better and has better flexible support for different business blockchain. Thereby meeting the specific business requirements and governance requirements protocols, so that data can be seamlessly exchanged between different block can be quickly formulated and customized for different business scenarios.

Plugchain can have better series connection and division in performance and effectively solve the real-time performance and anti-audit of information. In view of scalability, Plugchain uses multiple nodes to compete of various industries, and combining with various functional components, flexible support.

TECHNOLOGY REALIZATION

Security and scalability, as well as scientific on-chain, off-chain and inter are the reason why Plugchain has the confidence and strength to stand the agent system that calls the user contract; Second, the supervision system.

To ensure the authenticity of records and service quality in the chain; Third, Chain (cross-chain) designs, and it also has technological innovations that predictor network is under the chain, and the modules to realize this function.

INNOVATION

The computing of Plugchain is chain related and designed to include sections such as:

Verify the registration system that the node outside the chain join Fragmentation, status channel and lightning network which can well be improved upon.

Independent blockchain network through the predictor network, and practical business chains, to meet different business requirements adopts the setting of Plugchain hub to connect technical resources, COMOS and independent data interaction, and the underlying functional components of POLKADOT to achieve scalability.

Specifically, Plugchain can realize the data interaction with each business requirements, existing blockchain functional components. Plugchain prophetic machine network opens a door for cross-chain interaction between executions, which combines the high efficiency of each blockchain network thought of as a city.

The function of Plugchain Hub is specific to the blockchain smoothly in the fragmented blockchain, because the block structure and automatic market maker, Ethereum Bridge, ratio special currency bridge and Plugchain Hub solves the problem of cross-chain data and contract Interaction, which can face more and more interactive demands and fragmentation technology. Moreover, interoperability can be realized.

The goal of Plugchain SDK is to create a modular Blockchain or use existing modules.

Security: Function constrains the security boundary between modules, specific blockchain without writing every function of the application from Plugchain SDK also comes with a set of useful developer tools.

Holistically, Plugchain is doing great as the company's research and development (R and D) team is making headway towards promoting the application of Oracle Network Protocol project sequel to the cross chains, high scalability, and multiple chains, it obviously explores a nexus of data mode under the chain providing solutions for data storage and data collaboration.

In conclusion, Plugchain can empower entity enterprises and improve their core competiveness based on the combination of existing cutting-edge technology powered by blockchain.

Contact:

Plugchain

Joly Li

info@plugchain.com

Twitter.com/plugchainclub

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/89112
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Drax Group plc (DRX.L), on Thursday, said it has agreed to acquire a 20% minority interest in Alabama Pellets, LLC - the joint venture which owns the Demopolis and Aliceville pellet plants - from The Westervelt Company for $29.7 million cash consideration. The acquisition would increase the Group's interest in Alabama Pellets to 90% and provide Drax with economic control over a further about 130,000 tonnes of biomass production capacity per annum. The deal is expected to be completed in July 2021. Westervelt is considered to be a Related Party under the UK Listing Rules with the proposed transaction constituting a Smaller Related Party Transaction under Listing Rule 11.1.10. The acquisition of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. included a change of control provision over Alabama Pellets. Drax has been in discussions with Alabama Pellets joint venture partners regarding future working relationships, including their minority interests. The remaining joint venture partner, Two Rivers Lumber Co., LLC, holds a 10% economic interest. 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.


NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Grafton Group plc (GFTU.L), a building materials distributor and DIY retailer, announced Thursday that it has entered into an agreement to divest its Traditional Merchanting Business in Great Britain for an enterprise value of 520 million pounds.



The business will be sold to Huws Gray, a UK-based builders' merchants, controlled by equity funds managed by Blackstone.



The divestment is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2022 and completion is not conditional on the outcome of the Competition and Markets Authority process.



The divesting business comprises the Buildbase, Civils & Lintels, PDM Buildbase, The Timber Group, Bathroom Distribution Group, Frontline and NDI brands. In the year 2020, the Business reported revenue of 828.2 million pounds, and gross assets of 497.2 million pounds.



Grafton will retain responsibility for the UK defined benefit pension scheme which was closed to future accrual at the end of 2020 when alternative arrangements were put in place.



Following the deal closure, Grafton will retain freehold properties with development potential that have a market value of about 25 million pounds.



The latest deal follows the announcement in April 2021 of a strategic review of the business.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

GRAFTON GROUP-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
The investment complements ISTARI's collective of curated capabilities.

ISTARI, a global cybersecurity platform dedicated to helping clients manage digital risk and build cyber resilience over the long-term, and Prevalent AI (PAI), the leaders in Security Data Science, today announced that ISTARI has become a significant minority shareholder of PAI.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005049/en/

PAI was founded in 2017 by industry veterans Paul Stokes, Sir Iain Lobban, Andrew France OBE, and Arun Raj to enable organisations to rapidly ingest, transform and contextualise large, complex and disparate data sources using their Security Data Science Platform and related services, enhancing the ability to identify, protect, detect and respond to cyber risk.

ISTARI Chief Executive Officer Rashmy Chatterjee commented, "We are thrilled to welcome PAI to the ISTARI Collective. Fundamentally, we invested in PAI because our clients need a quantifiable perspective to cyber risk that allows them to understand their own posture better. There are also significant collaboration opportunities with the rest of our portfolio. It is a complementary fit."

PAI Founder and Chairman Sir Iain Lobban added, "This is a spectacular match. ISTARI has a compelling global vision: to bring top-quality cybersecurity products and services to clients in a thoughtful and coherent way. That fits perfectly with PAI's business we set out to give our customers an edge, offering unique clarity around their security risks through our application of Security Data Science, leading to prioritised actions across the client organisation. That chimes with ISTARI's conviction that cybersecurity risk management is a business imperative that needs to be owned and driven at Board and senior executive leadership level."

ENDS

About ISTARI

Established in 2020 by Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, ISTARI has a unique model. It is an advisory practice, investor and educator through its cyber Academy. ISTARI harnesses the collective power of the world's leading cybersecurity companies, experts and knowledge to work alongside clients on their journey to becoming digitally resilient.

The ISTARI Collective includes Sygnia, BlueVoyant, Ensign InfoSecurity (EIS), Claroty, IronNet, Armis, D'Crypt and VisibleRisk. Headquartered in London, ISTARI has a global presence in the US, Europe and Singapore. To learn more, please visit https://istari-global.com/

About PREVALENT AI

PREVALENT AI (PAI) are the leaders in Security Data Science, leveraging deep experience in building some of the world's most successful cyber analytics solutions for both government and commercial. PAI helps organisations unify their data, build tailored cyber solutions and take control of their cyber risk by combining their Security Data Science platform, with Security Data Science services, to provide customers with a single capability to support all their cyber challenges.

Founded in 2017 by former UK government cyber officials and industry experts, the company has transformed the way organisations use risk data. PAI works with both large enterprise organisations and fast-growing technology companies across the world in a range of industries. Its 75 professionals work out of two offices in London and Cochin, India. To learn more, please visit https://prevalent.ai/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005049/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

Sara Viglione, Gong Communications

sarav@gongcommunications.com

+ 44 (0)7794 988752

Julia Lancaster, ISTARI

julialancaster@istari-global.com

+1 (404) 823-4353
EASTLEIGH, UK / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / i3 Energy plc (AIM:I3E)(TSX:ITE),i3 Energy plc, an independent oil and gas company with assets and operations in the UK, notes that at its annual general meeting (AGM) held on 30 June 2021, all resolutions were duly passed. Shareholder questions that were submitted to the Board in advance of the AGM care of Camarco have been answered and will be posted to i3's website at: https://i3.energy/invetor-relations/shareholder-faqs/

Enquiries:

i3 Energy plc Majid Shafiq (CEO) / Graham Heath (CFO) c/o Camarco Tel: +44 (0) 203 781 8331 WH Ireland Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker) James Joyce, James Sinclair-Ford Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 Canaccord Genuity Limited (Joint Broker) Henry Fitzgerald- O'Connor, James Asensio Tel: +44 (0) 207 523 8000 Tennyson Securities (Joint Broker) Peter Krens Tel: +44 (0) 207 186 9030 Camarco Owen Roberts, James Crothers, Violet Wilson Tel: +44 (0) 203 781 8331

Notes to Editors:

i3 Energy is an oil and gas Company with a low cost, diversified, growing production base in Canada's most prolific hydrocarbon region, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and appraisal assets in the North Sea with significant upside.

The Company is well positioned to deliver future growth through the optimisation of its existing 100% owned asset base and the acquisition of long life, low decline conventional production assets.

i3 is dedicated to responsible corporate practices and the environment, and places high value on adhering to strong Environmental, Social and Governance ('ESG') practices. i3 is proud of its performance to date as a responsible steward of the environment, people, and capital management. The Company is committed to maintaining an ESG strategy, which has broader implications to long-term value creation, as these benefits extend beyond regulatory requirements.

i3 Energy is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol I3E and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ITE. For further information on i3 Energy please visit https://i3.energy/

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: i3 Energy PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653864/i3-Energy-PLC-announces-Result-of-AGM
WICHITA, KS / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / RedGuard, the leading producer of modular, steel, blast-resistant buildings to the oil and gas industry, closed on the acquisition of Steel Corp in Thomasville, Georgia on May 27, 2021.

Steel Corp manufactures residential and commercial storm shelters, as well as metal buildings and pole barns. The product divisions at present are:

Survive-A-Storm Shelters , underground and above-ground shelters, direct and retail distribution, commercial and residential use.

, underground and above-ground shelters, direct and retail distribution, commercial and residential use. Extreme Storm Shelters , underground and above-ground storm shelters, retail distribution and residential use.

, underground and above-ground storm shelters, retail distribution and residential use. Matador Engineered Metal Buildings , steel and pole barn kit buildings, dealer and direct distribution, commercial and residential use.

'At RedGuard, we've been focused on safety for those who work in hazardous areas for years. We found that Steel Corp has top-of-the-line shelters and metal buildings, and are of a similar culture. The purchase of a company like Steel Corp, with their diverse steel product line, puts RedGuard in a great position to focus on further diversifying and strengthening the RedGuard brand,' said Darren Hillman, RedGuard President and CEO.

The experienced team of employees and managers at Steel Corp will remain in place in Thomasville to ensure a smooth transition and continued production of these popular commercial and retail shelters and buildings for many years to come.

About RedGuard

RedGuard is the leading authority in blast protection, providing safe, customizable and scalable modular steel buildings that save lives. Driven by a passion for safety, RedGuard's product innovation has driven the development of turnkey solutions that raise the bar in both personalization and protection for customers across industries and worldwide. The company's dedication to meet its customers' unique needs-from initial design to installation and beyond-combined with unsurpassed standards for quality and overall safety makes it the go-to manufacturer in the industry. RedGuard's product lines excel in the area of modular safe structures and threat mitigation.

####

RedGuard

Tim Taton | Vice President of Sales and Marketing

timt@redguard.com

(316) 440-5827

4340 S West St Wichita, KS 67217. USA

https://redguard.com/

SOURCE: RedGuard

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653862/RedGuard-Acquires-Steel-Corp-in-Thomasville-Georgia


TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd. (SHECF.PK, SHECY.PK) announced Thursday that its Silicone Division will implement about 20 billion yen investment for its goal to achieve a reduction in the volume of greenhouse gas emissions.



The company will invest a total of 10 billion yen for the reduction in the volume of greenhouse gas emissions in its manufacturing processes.



At the Silicone Division's main manufacturing plant, the Gunma Complex, the company will reduce the greenhouse gas emission volume by 14% from current rate by further increasing the degree of self-sufficiency in its usage of electric power.



Further, 10 billion yen will be invested for the reduction in the volume of greenhouse gas emissions in customers' manufacturing processes and the increase of the company's supply capacity of products used in environmentally friendly products.



The company will strengthen supply capacity of products that contribute to the environment. These include modified silicone fluids, silicone rubber for molding, and heat-dissipation thermal interface silicone materials. The investment will be implemented at the Gunma Complex.



Shin-Etsu Chemical will further focus on strengthening efforts to reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions. The company will also develop, produce and supply products that help facilitate the reduction of emissions.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 1, 2021) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan"), is pleased to announce that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Health Investment Group S.A. ("HIG") for HIG to distribute Innocan's SHIR and Relief & Go brands in Poland. Poland's domestic cosmetic market is rapidly growing within the European economy.





Figure #1: Shir by Innocan Pharma

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/89207_241c9d95a4ce1b63_002full.jpg

In 2020, Poland's luxury cosmetics and perfumes market was 185 million EURO. By 2025, the value of this sector is projected to exceed EURO 221 million, according to Statista. Furthermore, Euromonitor, an esteemed market research group, recently reported that the Polish market for hemp and CBD-derived products is expected to reach a total value of 1 billion EURO by 2025.

About Health Investment Group S.A.

Health Investment Group S.A. is part of the IPS Holding Group, and is responsible for the international JUST BUY IT project. HIG is responsible for strategic initiatives in the group, and currently works with nearly 30 international brands for exclusive distribution in Poland. Customers of HIG include the large pharmaceutical wholesaler TRAMCO that supplies smaller wholesalers, hundreds of pharmacies and hospitals throughout the country. In May HIG participated in three product categories in the most prestigious research in Poland, in which the jury of board members, purchasing and marketing directors of the largest retail chains, such as Lidl, Biedronka, Kaufland, SPAR, Shell or Lotos, are participating.

Thanks to custom-selected specialists, HIG is working together with related companies from the IPS Holding Group to create an international distribution network for exclusive brands. The main scope of activity is the production and distribution of premium products including emerging CBD products and applications.

Marius Gorsky, General Director of the IPS Holding Group commented: "Health Investment Group S.A. is excited to add Shir & Relief & Go brands to its existing distribution channels among pharmacies, pharmaceutical wholesalers and selected retail chains in Poland. "

Iris Bincovich, CEO of InnoCan Pharma: "We are humbled to have add another leading European market partner such as Health Investment Group as our market-partner in Poland."

About Innocan

Innocan Israel, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, is a pharmaceutical tech company that focuses on the development of several drug delivery platforms containing CBD. Innocan Israel and Ramot at Tel Aviv University, are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the Covid-19 Corona Virus using CBD. CBD-loaded exosomes hold the potential to help in the recovery of infected lung cells. This product, which is expected to be administrated by inhalation, will be tested against a variety of lung infections.

Innocan Israel signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a CBD drug delivery platform based on a unique-controlled release liposome to be administrated by injection. Innocan Israel plans, together with Professor Berenholtz Head of the Laboratory of Membrane and Liposome Research of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to test the liposome platform on several potential indications. Innocan Israel is also working on a dermal product that integrates CBD with other pharmaceutical ingredients as well as the development and sale of CBD-integrated pharmaceuticals, including, but not limited to, topical treatments for the relief of psoriasis symptoms as well as the treatment of muscle pain and rheumatic pain. The founders and officers of Innocan Israel each have commercially successful track records in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in Israel and globally.

For further information, please contact:

Innocan Pharma Corporation

Iris Bincovich, CEO

+972-54-3012842

info@innocanpharma.com

IR: Lytham Partners, LLC

Ben Shamsian CPA | Vice President

Direct: 646-829-9701

Cell: 516-652-9004

shamsian@lythampartners.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding research and development, collaborations, the potential for treatment of conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals, the size of the cosmetic and perfumes market in Poland, the size of the CBD and hemp market, and the timing for market entry, potential sales resulting from the distribution agreement is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in the nature of product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning the timing of launch of product distribution. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/89207


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The Australian dollar fell against its major opponents in the Asian session on Thursday, as investors continue to worry about the fallout from the Delta variant of Covid-19 in economic activity.



Soft manufacturing PMI readings from Japan and China signaled that curbs imposed to fight the virus are hurting growth momentum.



Data from IHS Markit showed that China's manufacturing sector growth softened in June as output and new orders growth slowed due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases and supply chain difficulties.



The Caixin manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to a 3-month low of 51.3 in June from 52.0 in May. The reading was below economists' forecast of 51.8. However, a score above 50.0 indicates expansion in the sector.



Traders are looking to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for more clarity on the Federal Reserve's policy outlook.



U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in June, signaling a strengthening of the labor market.



The aussie weakened to more than a 6-month low of 0.7476 against the greenback, after rising to 0.7501 at 6:30 pm ET. On the downside, 0.72 is possibly found as its next support level.



The aussie edged down to 83.11 against the yen, 1.5837 against the euro and 0.9277 against the loonie, pulling away from its early highs of 83.35, 1.5803 and 0.9299, respectively. If the aussie slides further, it may find support around 80.00 against the yen, 1.60 against the euro and 0.90 against the loonie.



The aussie was steady against the kiwi, following a drop to 1.0712 earlier in the session, which was its lowest level since June 4. The pair had ended yesterday's trading at 1.0723.



Looking ahead, PMI reports from major European economies and Eurozone jobless rate for May are due in the European session.



U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended June 26, ISM manufacturing PMI for June and construction spending for May are set for release in the New York session.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Expands presence with third European location

HarbourVest Partners, a global, independent private markets asset manager with $76 billion in AUM, today announced the opening of its office in Frankfurt, Germany to address increased demand from institutional and private wealth clients for innovative and broad ranging investment solutions.

Frankfurt is the second international expansion for HarbourVest this year following the opening of its Singapore office in May. This grows the firm's global footprint to 12 locations across EMEA, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. The office is fully integrated into the firm's global network, providing clients with seamless access to private equity, private credit, real assets and infrastructure investments.

HarbourVest has been active in the German market for over 30 years, investing in the country and managing significant capital for investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices through fund and separately managed account solutions.

"We are pleased to announce the expansion of our European office network with the opening of our office in Frankfurt," said Peter Wilson, Managing Director. "The German market is one of the strongest and most influential in Europe with institutional, private client, and wealth management channels continuously increasing their allocation to private markets and seeking innovative solutions from investment managers. This is an exciting stage in our evolution as we continue to grow our capabilities across EMEA and further deepen our connections with German clients."

The Frankfurt team will be led by HarbourVest Managing Director Olav Konig, alongside newly appointed Principal Martina Schliemann, who brings 23 years of local market experience working with German managers and investors. The team will offer clients access to a broad range of expertise across investments, investor relations and operations.

The Frankfurt office will operate as HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, Zweigniederlassung Deutschland. HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, Zweigniederlassung Deutschland is authorized by the Central Bank of Ireland as a branch of HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, an Alternative Investment Fund Manager authorized to conduct certain regulated activities within the EU. HarbourVest's operations in Germany will be supervised by the Board of Directors of HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited.

The firm has also become a proud member of the Bundesverband Alternative Investments e.V. (BAI), the industry body for alternative investments in Germany.

For more information about HarbourVest, please visit https://www.harbourvest.com/.

ABOUT HARBOURVEST

HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets investment specialist with over 35 years of experience and more than $76 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2021. The Firm's powerful global platform offers clients investment opportunities in private equity, private credit and real assets and infrastructure through primary fund investments, secondary investments, and direct co-investments, in commingled funds or separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has more than 700 employees, including more than 150 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This global team has committed more than $46 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $29 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $21 billion directly in operating companies. Partnering with HarbourVest, clients have access to customized solutions, longstanding relationships, and actionable insights.

Nothing herein should be construed as a solicitation, offer, recommendation, representation of suitability, legal advice, tax advice, or endorsement of any security or investment and should not be relied upon by you in evaluating the merits of investing in HarbourVest funds or in any other investment decision. Information about the fund is not representative of any other HarbourVest fund or investment product.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005191/en/

Contacts:

Andrew Hopkins

+1 617-348-8372

AHopkins@Harbourvest.com

Lily Cabianca

+44 207 151 4261

lcabianca@Harbourvest.com
Comite Colbert, "The Voice of French Luxury," Cites Delamain's Tradition, Wisdom, Patience and Excellence in Extending Rare Honor

JARNAC, France, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Delamain Cognac announces that it has been elected to membership of the Comite Colbert, France's "Voice of French Luxury."

The Comite Colbert was created in 1954 to protect and champion French artisans and artists pursuing the creation of products defined by excellence and which reflected "The Art of French Living," and since its founding has become one of France's most important cultural and economic institutions.

Delamain is one of cognac's oldest and most prestigious houses, having forged a unique reputation for uncompromising excellence across nine generations and almost two centuries.

In extending the rare honor, Benedicte Epinay, Comite Colbert's CEO, commented: "The Comite Colbert is proud to welcome Delamain Cognac, whose history, deep respect for traditions, including the value of inherited wisdom and the patience necessary to achieve excellence - in Delamain's case beautiful cognacs - are so treasured by our members. The House of Delamain is graced with an additional quality, the enriching union of two families, those of Delamain and Bollinger, who today guide the destiny of the House and perpetuate the spirit of founding ancestors."

Charles Braastad, Delamain's Managing Director and direct descendant of founder James Delamain, commented: "This is a very important day for the House of Delamain and a powerful recognition of our 'excellence: only and always' approach to crafting cognacs.

"The House of Delamain looks forward to working with the Comite Colbert and contributing to a community which shares ideals long our own: patience, integrity, authenticity, commitment, a gratitude for knowledge passed down across generations, and a respect for the beauty and gifts of the natural world."

About Delamain Cognac

Crafting only X.O, X.X.O (the oldest official age categories for cognacs) and above cognacs, from eaux-de-vie sourced only from Cognac's finest terroir, the Grande Champagne, Delamain stands exceptionally apart in the "cognacsphere;" a small gem polished by wisdom across time.

Established in 1824, but with its roots in the Cognac soil dating back to shortly after the arrival of Irishman James Delamain in 1751, Delamain has evolved across nine generations and almost 200 years into a cognac house unique in approach and unique in style.

Delamain focuses on exceptionality at every stage of the cognac lifecycle. Beginning with the best of nature (Grande Champagne eaux-de-vie), and then applying cellaring and blending practices honed across centuries, the House of Delamain allows every cognac the time necessary to achieve its full natural potential. An unyielding quest for the concerted best of nature, man and time yielding sublime and naturally elegant cognacs.

Exceptionality means no shortcuts ever.

To learn more, please visit delamain-cognac.com, Instagram/Twitter: @delamaincognac.

About The Comite Colbert

Founded in 1954 by 14 members looking to restore the spirit for the "French Art of Living" and to bring together renowned artisans and artists with talents sharing "a certain French genius," the Comite Colbert has grown to 107 members with a continued mission to promote, maintain and pass on the highest levels of craftmanship, to pursue product excellence and to continue to provide structure and support for those committed to creations and crafts so critical to French culture, life and identity.

Jean-Jacques Guerlain, the Comite Colbert's founder, described the relationship between members and the French lifestyle: "The art of French living is seen through the prism of our things, the manifestation of our civilisation, shaped by the culture of our workforce and the inspiration of our creators."

First devoted to fashion, table arts, perfume and cosmetics, the Comite Colbert has grown to include cultural institutions and prestigious art institutions to further project the image of France in the world. Its members, unique in individual genius and united in their commitment to the values of French creation and know-how, are drawn from every corner of French creation, craftsmanship and luxury, including from the worlds of publishing, gastronomy, haute couture, goldsmithing, cosmetics, hospitality, perfumes and jewelry.

"The world may change, but the spirit of Colbert remains"

www.comitecolbert.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1535569/Cognac_Delamain_Logo.jpg

Contact:

Rebecca Montgomery

Marketing & Communication

r.montgomery@delamain-cognac.com
LONDON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Wine Challenge, the world's most influential, impartial and rigorously judged wine competition, has announced the 10 highest scoring wines from its 2021 competition.

Winners from eight countries were named the top wines of the competition, having proven themselves to be the absolute finest in their categories following multiple stages of intensive blind-tastings by a panel of leading global experts from across the industry. Five of these outstanding wines have been awarded the ultimate accolade of Champion, which is given to wines that are considered the absolute 'best in show', beating all other National Trophy winners in the categories of red, white, sparkling, sweet and fortified.

10 Best Wines in the World as judged by the International Wine Challenge 2021:

France Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvee Cyrot Chaudron

Hospices de Beaune 2019, Maison Albert Bichot IWC Champion Red Wine 2021,

International Pinot Noir Trophy, French

Red Trophy, Red Burgundy Trophy France Vintage 2008, Piper-Heidsieck IWC Champion Sparkling Wine 2021,

Champagne Trophy, Vintage Classic

Blend Champagne Trophy Greece Sigalas Santorini Barrel 2020, Domaine Sigalas IWC Champion White Wine 2021,

Greek White Trophy Italy Vinsanto di Carmignano Capezzana Riserva 2013,

Tenuta Di Capezzana IWC Champion Sweet Wine 2021,

Italian Sweet Trophy Spain Lustau Palo Cortado V.O.R.S 30 Years, Emilio Lustau IWC Champion Fortified Wine 2021,

Sherry Trophy, Palo Cortado Trophy Australia Wolf Blass Grey Label McLaren Vale Shiraz 2019,

Wolf Blass Wines International Shiraz Trophy, McLaren

Vale Shiraz Trophy Austria Sauvignon Blanc Kitzeck-Sausal Sudsteiermark

2019, Weingut Schneeberger International Sauvignon Blanc Trophy,

Austrian Sauvignon Blanc Trophy France Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru Domaine du Pavillon 2019,

Maison Albert Bichot IWC Organic Trophy 2021, International

Chardonnay Trophy, French White

Trophy, White Burgundy Trophy Germany Erbacher Siegelsberg Riesling Grosses Gewachs

2015, Weingut Schloss Reinhartshausen International Riesling Trophy, German

White Trophy New Zealand Valli Pinot Noir Gibbston Vineyard 2019, Valli

Vineyards IWC Sustainable Trophy 2021, New

Zealand Red Trophy, Central Otago

Pinot Noir Trophy

For the first time in the history of the International Wine Challenge, a Greek producer, Domaine Sigalas, was awarded the 2021 Champion White Wine for Sigalas Santorini Barrel 2020, its wine made from the indigenous grape variety Assyrtiko, with judges describing it as 'supremely well balanced and characterful.'

A Shiraz from McLaren Vale has beaten examples from across Australia and Syrah from around the world to be awarded International Shiraz Trophy, securing its place in the 10 best wines of the International Wine Challenge 2021. Wolf Blass Grey Label McLaren Vale Shiraz 2019 fromWolf Blass Winesimpressed the judges with its 'ripe, fleshy, generous and delicious fruit'. This year's result represents the first time in almost a decade that Australia has won this trophy. The skill of the Wolf Blass team was left in no doubt in this year's competition as winemakers Chris Hatcher & Steven Frost also won IWC Red Winemaker of the Year, the fourth time they have been recipients of this internationally acclaimed accolade.

This builds on the wider success of Australian winemakers in this year's awards in which South Australia scooped multiple trophies including the Australian White Trophy for Penfolds Reserve Bin A Chardonnay 2019, the Australian Red Trophy for Kilikanoon Wines Baudinet 2019, as well as the Australian Riesling Trophy for Gatt High Eden Riesling 2016. Further cementing its reputation as a globally recognised producer of premium wines, Tasmania was awarded the Australian Sparkling Trophy in this year's competition for Arras E.J Carr Late Disgorged Vintage 2005 from House of Arras.

Neighbouring New Zealand secured its place in the 10 best wines of the International Wine Challenge 2021 with the Valli Pinot Noir Gibbston Vineyard 2019 from Central Otago claiming the IWC Sustainable Trophy. Judged against all other red wines in New Zealand, it was also declared New Zealand Red Trophy winner for 2021, with the judges thrilled 'to taste a Gibbston Pinot in full flow'.

New Zealand saw success in the wider competition with a Chardonnay from Hawke's Bay, which beat white wines from across the country to be awarded the New Zealand White Trophy. Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2019 impressed the judges with its 'really pure fruit flavours with sophisticated balance' and was described as 'a perfectly formed Chardonnay'.

Co-Chair Tim Atkin MW commented: 'With wines from over 50 countries entered into the IWC and each wine judged purely on its merit, it's impossible to predict which wines will come out on top in any given year, which is what makes the competition so exciting. It's great to see lesser-known wines such as the Austrian Sauvignon Blanc and an Assyrtiko from Greece standing alongside more familiar names in this year's top 10 scoring wines.'

The full list of Trophy and Champion award winners at the 2021 International Wine Challenge released on 30th June can be found here.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The International Wine Challenge

In its 38th year, the International Wine Challenge is accepted as the world's most rigorous, impartial and influential wine competition. The International Wine Challenge assesses every wine 'blind' and judges each for its faithfulness to style, region and vintage. Awards include medals (Gold, Silver, Bronze) and Commended awards. Trophies are awarded to the very best wines in each category. The International Wine Challenge is committed to helping consumers discover great wine, and the medals displayed on winning bottles offer a trusted guarantee of quality.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555031/International_Wine_Challenge.jpg
As part of LumiraDx's Fast Lab Solutions, the test enables laboratories to increase throughput of their existing open channel PCR systems to more than 250 tests per hour

LONDON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LumiraDx announced today that it has achieved CE Marking for LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2. The test, which was initially granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October of 2020 and re-issued in March 2021, is a rapid, nucleic acid amplification method for high sensitivity, high throughput COVID-19 testing. With improved performance claims and access to additional open channel PCR systems, LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 enables laboratories to quickly adopt and support their testing programs in and outside the laboratory such as mobile lab units that provide easy access to testing wherever it is needed.

This innovative molecular test uses proprietary qSTAR (qualitative Selective Temperature Amplification Reaction) technology, which forms the basis of LumiraDx's point of care molecular assays. In 2020, the technology was used to launch Fast Lab Solutions, a dedicated business unit to help address the COVID-19 testing crisis by expanding existing laboratory testing capacity. LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 utilizes a direct amplification method that combines lysis and amplification in a single step, detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral nucleic acid in under 20 minutes or less on common open channel PCR systems - a process that typically takes more than one hour.

"With CE Mark, we are thrilled to now be able to offer our testing across Europe and provide fast and accurate testing to support laboratory testing programs," stated Sanjay Malkani President, LumiraDx Fast Lab Solutions. He continued, "Our innovative qSTAR technology simplifies and accelerates COVID-19 molecular testing capacity without comprising high sensitivity of detection. In addition, with the small footprint associated with our technology, we are able to bring this testing outside of the laboratory and into mobile units to deliver accurate and trusted results in environments where quick turnaround times are crucial."

LumiraDx's FastLab team of scientists regularly monitors post-market reports to confirm insilico analysis qSTAR technology's detection of all known variants currently in circulation. To date, the FastLab team has aligned 1,750,156 sequences with 99.5% showing perfect identity or a single mismatch, providing confidence and accuracy in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and all known Variants of Interest and Variants of Concern, including the Delta and Delta Plus SARS-CoV-2 variants.*

RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 is already being used across the US in labs and mobile units to support testing in environments that require fast and accurate results. In Europe, LumiraDx is partnering to make testing available in similar settings including the workplace, and schools where early diagnosis can help to quickly identify hotspots and avoid future lockdowns.

About LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2

RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 received an EUA from the FDA on October 14, 2020 with a re-issued EUA in March 2021 to provide improvement in the limit of detection of 1.8 copies/l and additional PCR system validations to allow labs to expand their testing capabilities.

LumiraDx has completed the process for declaring conformity to the essential requirements of the In Vitro Diagnostics Directive (IVDD 98/79/EC) and has CE Marked its RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 assay. The test is now available for sale in the European Economic Area.

About LumiraDx FastLab Solutions

LumiraDx FastLab Solutions, based in San Diego California, is a dedicated LumiraDx business unit that supports high-complexity laboratory testing by utilizing its innovative qSTAR nucleic acid amplification technology in an accessible high-throughput format to leverage current molecular laboratory operations. Utilizing FastLab Solutions enables laboratories to improve efficiency and reduce time to result.

About LumiraDx

LumiraDx was founded in 2014 by a group of entrepreneurs: Ron Zwanziger, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dave Scott, Ph.D., our Chief Technology Officer; and Jerry McAleer, Ph.D., our Chief Scientist, who have a successful track record in building and scaling diagnostics businesses over three decades, including at companies such as Medisense, Inc., Inverness Medical Technology Inc. and Alere Inc. The company has raised approximately $1 Billion through debt and equity from institutional and strategic investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Morningside Ventures, U.S. Boston Capital Corporation and Petrichor Healthcare Capital Management. Based in the UK, with primary R&D and manufacturing operations in Stirling, Scotland and San Diego, CA, U.S., and supported by its worldwide affiliates to provide access in all major markets, LumiraDx has over 1200 employees worldwide.

Further information on LumiraDx and our SARS-CoV-2 product offerings visit available at lumiradx.com

*While internally validated by FastLab, LumiraDX RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 assay kit has not been FDA cleared, approved, or authorized by FDA under EUA for the detection of any SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Copyright 2021 LumiraDx and affiliates. LumiraDx and qSTAR are trademarks of LumiraDx International LTD. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Building on its successful acquisitions of x.ai and Whalebone, Bizzabo taps event industry veteran Tim Bull to lead its continued European expansion efforts

NEW YORK, July 01, 2021, the world's leading event success platform, today announced the opening of a new office in London, affirming its commitment to elevate event experiences for marketers around the world. Bizzabo has hired event industry veteran Tim Bull to lead London operations and oversee expansion efforts across Europe.



Following quickly on the heels of Bizzabo's acquisitions of x.ai and Whalebone , Bizzabo's London location will be a hub for the company's European customer-facing operations, including sales, service and marketing teams.

"As the world moves toward re-opening, we've remained focused on our mission of bringing people together to create impactful experiences," said Eran Ben-Shushan, Co-Founder & CEO at Bizzabo. "Our new London office will give us a strong foothold as we continue to invest in and partner with marketers across Europe."

Headquartered in New York with an office in Tel Aviv, Israel, the London office is Bizzabo's fourth global location and follows the opening of a technology-focused office in Kyiv, Ukraine, earlier this year. Bizzabo is a growing global team of more than 300 employees, with 130 open roles that include exciting opportunities to join the Bizzabo London Team . Bizzabo is recruiting top talent across Sales and Client Services, including Account Executives, Enterprise Sales Directors and Sales Engineers.

As Bizzabo's first Vice President of Sales in EMEA, Tim brings more than 20 years of experience in the meetings and events industry with a specific focus on SaaS technology. He previously served as the Managing Director of Sales, EMEA & APAC at Aventri and as the Director of Sales at Lanyon/Cvent. Tim has also held roles at Deutsche Bank, Whitbread, De Vere, Zibrant, and Active Network.

"Bizzabo is continuing to strategically invest in people and in the future of event technology. Their commitment to redefine the space positions Bizzabo as the most innovative solution for modern organisers," Tim said. "I'm excited to join the team and continue to build on this momentum."



Over the last two months, Bizzabo announced two key acquisitions - x.ai , the powerful artificial intelligence scheduling tool that automatically finds time for people to meet, and Whalebone , the crowd amplification and visualisation technology that enhances the audience, organiser, and speaker experience to make events feel more interactive, exciting, and human.

In December 2020, Bizzabo announced a $138 million financing round to meet surging demand for its all-in-one, end-to-end events platform globally, with a focus on enhancing the attendee experience in the hybrid events market. Powering events for brands like Amazon, Electronic Arts, Forbes, Siemens, and Salesforce, Bizzabo recently earned " Leader " recognition in The Forrester Wave: B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 report.

For more information about Bizzabo, visit www.bizzabo.com .

About Bizzabo:

Bizzabo is the only Event Success Platform. Bizzabo's all-in-one event software enables in-person, virtual, and hybrid events to deliver unique attendee experiences through intelligent and intent-based personalised engagement. We help companies measure, manage, and scale events towards key business outcomes. Our platform empowers every organiser, marketer, exhibitor, and attendee to unleash the power of events. As a Leader in The Forrester Wave: B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 Report, we are trusted by world-leading brands to power their events-from Fortune 100 enterprise organisations and financial institutions to creative agencies and scaling tech companies Bizzabo was founded by Boaz Katz, Alon Alroy, and Eran Ben-Shushan, and has more than 300 employees in its New York, Tel-Aviv, and Kyiv offices.
NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Residence, Inc., a world-renowned real estate brokerage firm, is pleased to announce that Mr. Richard Pino, Chief Financial Officer and Associate Broker, will be traveling to Croatia from July 4th through August 1, 2021 to meet with customers.

New York is open for business. As of June 15th, New York City has fully reopened all venues for business. Further, the Governor has launched "New York Open for Business" initiative to promote the many assets of investing in New York. This will accelerate New York's real estate transactions in the second half of the year.

For more than a decade, New York Residence has been traveling the globe to introduce international buyers to, and educate them about, the advantages of purchasing in one of the strongest real estate markets, New York City. We have successfully found homes, commercial properties, and investment properties for many of these clients. Mr. Pino has traveled to Croatia, Italy, Columbia, Panama, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Ireland, and throughout the US to meet with customers, real estate professionals, and to represent New York Residence at international trade shows.

Real Estate Brokerage Is Still A Relationship Business. Real estate professionals need to be willing to travel to meet with customers at their request. Customers can easily find information by surfing many third-party real estate websites, but in-person and phone communication is still the most important interaction to educate customers about potential real estate acquisitions, Richard stated.

Historically, New York Residence was ranked within the top five of Manhattan Boutique Firms, was ranked number 20 in closed transactions amongst all firm sizes, and New York Residence was ranked number 22 in listing dollar volume amongst all firm sizes.

New York Residence is a real estate brokerage firm that was formed in February 2005, and specializes in advisory services, residential, commercial, and investment property brokerage sales and rentals for the international and domestic markets. It maintains three offices in New York, with international offices located in Seoul, and Singapore. New York Residence' corporate headquarters is located at 1501 Broadway, 26th floor, in the iconic Paramount Building in the heart of Times Square.

Private appointments will be held at Demex d.o.o., an audit and tax firm based in Rovinj., and may be arranged in advance by sending an email to Mr. Pino at rpino@nyr.com.

Media Contact:

Richard Pino

Chief Financial Officer / Associate Broker

New York Residence

O-212-360-7000 x125

M-917-209-7862

rpino@nyr.com
DGAP-News: Vitruvia Medical AG / Key word(s): Corporate Action/Agreement

Vitruvia Medical's first Circular Clinic Supply Center for robotic instruments goes live with first customers



01.07.2021 / 10:33

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Vitruvia Medical's first Circular Clinic Supply Center for robotic instruments goes live with first customers

Schonebeck, July 1, 2021 - Vitruvia is the first European service provider to specialize in circular systems for highly complex medical devices. On a site of 2,000 sqm located in Schonebeck, near Magdeburg, Vitruvia has now opened a Circular Clinic Supply Center for robotic instruments. After two years of renovations and upgrades, the center is finally set to begin cleaning and sterilizing hospital instruments under cleanroom conditions, before preparing them for reuse.



Robot-assisted surgery is becoming increasingly common in hospitals. It is now part of surgical medicine, especially for minimally invasive procedures such as complex cancer surgery, and provides substantial benefits, not least of which are greater precision, reduced risk of complications, and faster recovery times.

The complex robotics instruments are designed for reuse. Hospitals currently still perform the complicated reprocessing regime in-house, which requires high investment costs and maintaining the highest hygiene and process quality standards. In addition, there is the risk of underutilized equipment.

Vitruvia Medical is dedicated to providing innovative circular systems for highly complex medical devices so as to minimize patient risks, effectively save resources and help hospitals to achieve higher value added.



Using state-of-the-art processes and technologies, the first European Circular Clinic Supply Center for robotic instruments established by Vitruvia boasts numerous highly specialized devices, such as ultrasonic baths for cleaning instruments used in robot-assisted surgery and advanced testing equipment for sensitive scopes, along with electronic measurement systems and sensor-controlled process monitoring facilities. Progress is also made with self-learning methods in the area of artificial intelligence (AI).

"Every device is returned to the hospital from which it came," explains Rainer Grabow, Managing Director of Vitruvia. "At the same time, an integrated quality management system (iQ) and comprehensive documentation enables hospitals to provide proof of the individual process steps at any time." The hospitals therefore meet all relevant standards currently in force in the European Union and in the Federal Republic of Germany.

From the start, the center has met with a good response among hospitals. The first customers are already on board and include a private hospital operator with 200 beds in the Munich area, a specialist urology clinic, and a hospital group with several facilities in Saxony-Anhalt. The contract values have not been disclosed.

"We believe that the circular systems will help save resources in medical technology, but more so, they are a key factor in enabling medical advances and preventing a two-tier approach to medicine," explains Torsten Cejka, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Swiss-German Vitruvia Medical AG. The hospital service provider therefore plans to expand its service portfolio gradually from robotics to other highly complex medical devices.

Further information: www.vitruvia-med.com

Press contact:

Vitruvia Medical AG

Markus A. Bertschin

Board of Directors

Tel: +41 44 915 33 78

bertschin@vitruvia-med.com
The "CBD Regulatory Report: Poland" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

No important changes that would affect the Polish hemp industry are expected, apart from the government's intention to ban CBD product vending machines. No bill has been published yet, but it has been unofficially confirmed to CBD-Intel that it is likely to be introduced soon.

There are several initiatives seeking to suppress the permit that is legally required to purchase industrial hemp; to allow the cultivation of medicinal cannabis; and to further loosen the restrictions on the consumption of cannabis. These three bills together are commonly referred to as the cannabis package.

CBD-Intel does not expect any of these to succeed. Although Poland recently allowed medical cannabis, the majority view on the subject remains conservative.

Key Topics Covered:

Outlook

Hemp plant

Extracts as finished products

Finished products containing CBD and extracts

Import and export requirements

Medical cannabis

Recreational cannabis

Relevant laws

Relevant bodies

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lgjyvw

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005331/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global automotive digital cockpit market size is expected to reach USD 36.1 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2021 to 2028. The rising demand for automotive cockpit electronics, autonomous vehicle technology, and advanced safety features such as advanced driver assistance systems is expected to drive market growth. The changing consumer buying behavior and increasing demand for enhanced in-vehicle experience, coupled with the global growth of the high-end, premium, and luxury car segments, are also expected to fuel the growth of the market.

Key Insights & Findings:

The head-up display segment is expected to register the highest CAGR of over 15.0% from 2021 to 2028 owing to the integration of augmented reality for enhanced safety and driving experience

The LCD-TFT segment dominated the market in 2020 and is anticipated to generate revenue over USD 19.0 billion by the end of the forecast period, owing to the temperature and durability standards provided by LCD-TFT displays

The passenger car segment accounted for the largest revenue share of around 80.0% of the overall market in 2020. The increasing demand for connected car features in passenger vehicles and the onset of autonomous vehicles is expected to drive the segment

In Asia Pacific , the market is accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020. This growth can be attributed to the increased production and sales of passenger vehicles in the region

Read 110 page market research report, "Automotive Digital Cockpit Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Equipment, By Display Technology, By Vehicle Type (Passenger Cars, Commercial Vehicles), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028", By Grand View Research.

The surge in demand for vehicle connectivity and navigation system in the automotive sector has led to the increasing usage of visualization technology. Modern-day cars are highly influenced by unique consumer demands and advancements in digital technologies. The automotive industry is focused on offering more personalized experiences to drivers and vehicle occupants. Moreover, companies are developing innovative solutions to ensure seamless connectivity between the vehicle and external devices. The integration of vehicle systems can be considered as the most significant development. The digital cockpit architecture has become more capable and robust owing to the integration of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) functionality for enhanced safety and security and cloud-based services.

The automotive digital cockpit technology is expected to gain significant demand as major automotive component and solution providers are engaging in the development of complete automotive cockpit solutions. For instance, in January 2021, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the launch of the 4th Generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platforms. The new digital cockpit platforms offer software scalability and flexibility to support several real-time and high-level operating systems. The platforms also support multiple ECUs and domain integration, including digital instrument clusters, digital monitoring systems, Augmented Reality Heads-Up-Display (AR-HUD), e-Mirror, and rear-seat displays.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing norms have been implemented globally. The overall automotive production volumes have declined globally on a year-on-year basis, mainly due to decreased production volumes in North America and Europe, among other regions. According to Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA), automobile production globally dropped by more than 15%, i.e., 77.6 million units in 2020 compared to 91.7 million units in 2019. However, as restrictions ease in various economies, the market can expect a period of respite for the short-term owing to the increased demand for passenger cars from the middle-class population, in turn, is increasing the demand for automotive digital cockpit over the forecast period.

Grand View Research has segmented the global automotive digital cockpit market on the basis of equipment, display technology, vehicle type, and region:

Automotive Digital Cockpit Equipment Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

Digital Instrument Cluster



Driving Monitoring System



Head-up Display (HUD)

Automotive Digital Cockpit Display Technology Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

LCD



TFT-LCD



OLED

Automotive Digital Cockpit Vehicle Type Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

Passenger Cars



Commercial Vehicles

Automotive Digital Cockpit Regional Outlook (Volume, Units; Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



U.K.





Germany





Spain



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico



Middle East and Africa

List of key players of Automotive Digital Cockpit Market

Continental AG

Denso Corporation

Faurecia

Garmin Ltd.

HARMAN International

Hyundai Mobis

Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe GmbH)

Pioneer Corporation

Robert Bosch GmbH

Visteon Corporation

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the latest developments and innovations in the Global Automotive & Transportation Industry:

Electric Passenger Cars Market - Global electric passenger cars market size was valued at USD 120.81 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.5% from 2021 to 2028.

- Global electric passenger cars market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.5% from 2021 to 2028. Automotive Smart Display Market - Global automotive smart display market size was valued at USD 11.37 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2% from 2021 to 2028.

- Global automotive smart display market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2% from 2021 to 2028. Smart Parking Systems Market - Global smart parking systems market size was valued at USD 4.4 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.5% from 2021 to 2028.

Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

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Prescription medicine sold online in 47 out of the 96 countries that have ePharmacies

Increase in visits represents a whooping 43% year-over-year growth rate

New research reveals significant opportunity for the Consumer Healthcare Industry to shift consumers' mindsets around OTC, Rx FMCG online sales

Consumers and patients globally have turned to digital platforms to purchase their prescription (Rx), non-prescription (OTC) medication and parapharmacy products with more than 2.7 billion online visits to leading ePharmacies across 96 countries in Q1'21. This represents an astonishing 43% growth rate compared to Q1'20. The details of this global research have been published online at epharmacydata.com

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005087/en/

ePharmacies Visits Growth in Q1 of 2021 Across the World (Graphic: Business Wire)

The study highlights the unique opportunity for Consumer Healthcare Retailers and Manufacturers to address the new habits of consumers and patients purchasing their prescription (Rx) and non-prescription (OTC) medicine and parapharmacy products online. Out of the 96 countries having at least 1 online pharmacy, consumers can order their prescription drugs onlinein 47 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic, wide adoption of electronic prescription,and themodernisation of last mile logistics have worked wonders towards allowing the sale of prescription drugs through eCommerce in the last yearsomething that was unimaginable 5 years ago in most of the 47 countries. For example, in April 2020 the State Duma of the Russian Federation legalized within days, after years of deliberation, the online sales of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, with the exception of narcotic and psychotropic drugs.

Online Pharmacies are one of the fastest rising eCommerce sectors in the world:

Amazon invested heavily in the industry with the acquisition of PillPack in 2020.

JD Health, a unit of JD.com Inc., increased its revenue, jumping to a +76% year-over-year growth to $1.34 billion, in the first six months of 2020.

Alibaba-backed Alibaba Health posted a +74% revenue increase over the March to September 2020 period.

While brick and mortar pharmacy chains such as CVS Walgreens in the USA surpass 100 million online visits and Boots averages 20 million online visits, pure ecommerce players such as 1mg in India, Consultaremedios in Brazil and Apteka in Russia have been growing extremely fast, with more than 20 million visits per month on average for the last 6 months, disrupting global markets with services such as doctors appointments booking, marketplace capabilities and online consultations.

The research was performed by Convert Group, the leading global ePharmacy Data firm that Consumer Healthcare FMCG Manufacturers such as Bayer, GSK, J&J, L'Oreal, Nestle, P&G, Perrigo, Pierre Fabre, Reckitt Benckiser, Roche, Unilever, and others trust for their data-driven strategy and sell-out insights on the eCommerce channel. Traffic data was drawn with permission from Similarweb, the global leading provider of digital market intelligence, for 3.478 Online Pharmacies in 96 Countries across all continents.

Key findings include:

47 in 96 countries allow the online ordering of prescription medicine (Rx)

88 in 96 countries allow the online ordering of non-prescription medicine (OTC). The only countries prohibiting it are Algeria, Cyprus, Greece, Morocco and Turkey.

North America was the region with the highest growth, with online visits increasing by +114%. Online visits increased by +80% in South America and +78% in Northern Africa

Sweden was the leading country with 18,001 visits to online pharmacies per 1,000 residents, followed by 13,208 visits per 1,000 residents in Bulgaria, 10,418 visits per 1,000 residents in Lithuania, and x 9,739 visits per 1,000 residents in the UK.

Brazil has the most tier1 online pharmacies (pharmacies with more than 5M visits per average month in Q1'21) with 6 total, followed by Russia with 4, and the U.S., UK and India with 3 each.

Panayotis Gezerlis, CEO of Convert Group, commented: "During the first lockdown we saw the majority of patients consumers across countries adopting online purchase habits from ePharmacies with tremendous speed. Many of the newcomers were also supported by ePrescription legislation being adopted across a number of countries, beside the current global eCommerce hype. In some countries more than 20% of Consumer Healthcare revenues are now originating online. We feel that, with the current growth trends, it is likely that by 2035 more than half of the total sales of Rx, OTC and parapharmacy products will be happening online, in the majority of global markets."

The results of the study are now published on the newly-launched epharmacydata.com and will be distributed at the 2021 Global ePharmacy Summit on September 22 24, 2021, hosted by Convert Group. epharmacydata.com will be updated monthly to offer the global Consumer Healthcare community insights and data on one of the fastest rising sectors of global eCommerce.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005087/en/

Contacts:

Labrini Bena

Marketing Communications Manager

+30 215 215 0532

E: lbena@convertgroup.com
Industry experts to hold discussions on the modern workspace and the opportunities available through centralized email signature management

FARNBOROUGH, England, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Exclaimer Group is excited to announce it is hosting its first virtual event - The Exclaimer Signature Summit - on Thursday 1 July 2021.

The event hosts a line-up of industry experts holding discussions on the modern workspace and the opportunities available through email and centralized email signature management.

With over 20 sessions, the Exclaimer Signature Summit is organized to appeal to business professionals from an array of disciplines, including IT, marketing, legal, compliance and more. The sessions contain thought leadership keynotes, industry insights, product feature updates and overviews of the unique benefits of email signature management.

Key speakers include Dave Coplin, Author, Alchemist, Catalyst and Founder of the Envisioners. Dave has worked with or for the world's largest technology companies, most recently as Microsoft's "Chief Envisioning Officer". Dave Coplin's keynote addresses the current technology problems we face and how we should be using such technology to reimagine how we live, work, and do business.

Also speaking is Dr. Darren Coleman, Brand Experiences and Brand Strategy Expert, who specializes in helping brands drive growth and retain relevance through brand experiences. Dr. Coleman will outline why delivering consistent brand experiences through employee behavior, communications and design lies at the heart of B2B brand success.

Other key speakers are Christian Buckley, Microsoft GTM Director, Microsoft MVP, and RD who will discuss Microsoft 365 Email Signature Management in the Age of Remote Working. And Nick Cavalancia, Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP who will talk about The Buyer's Guide to Email Signature Management Solutions.

Some of the exciting sessions running during the day are The Art of Email Signature Management, The IT Benefits of Centralized Email Signature Management, Email Signatures: Your Untapped Communications and Feedback Channel, and Designing the Perfect Email Signature.

Attendees can create their own agendas by registering for the sessions they are most interested in, available via three tracks:

Explorer - a public group for IT and business professionals new to Exclaimer and/or email signature management which provides a general overview of the benefits and how to get started

- a public group for IT and business professionals new to Exclaimer and/or email signature management which provides a general overview of the benefits and how to get started Exclaimer Customer - a private group for existing customers to hear about new feature updates and how to get the most out of their Exclaimer solutions.

- a private group for existing customers to hear about new feature updates and how to get the most out of their Exclaimer solutions. Exclaimer Partner - a private group for Exclaimer Partners, this track showcases the benefits of reselling Exclaimer products and latest updates to its Partner Program

Maria Dahlqvist Canton, VP Marketing at Exclaimer, commented about the event:

"We are delighted to announce our first virtual event, The Exclaimer Signature Summit. Our exciting keynote speakers will be sharing fascinating research and insights on topics such as the future of remote working, technology, and delivering consistent brand experiences.

"I'm extremely proud of the Exclaimer team for organizing an event full of so many diverse and interesting topics. We cannot wait to share our expertise to potential new and existing customers and highlight the untapped marketing opportunities with email signatures."

View the full agenda and register for Exclaimer's Signature Summit here

Enquiries:

Maria Dahlqvist Canton

VP Marketing, Exclaimer

Phone: +44 (0) 7930 111931

Email: maria.canton@exclaimer.com

About Exclaimer

For 20 years, Exclaimer has been providing world-class email signature solutions for Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Google Workplace (formerly G Suite), and Microsoft Exchange. Headquartered just outside of London and with regional offices worldwide, its products are used by over 75 million users in 150+ countries with some companies holding licenses for over 300,000 users.

Its diverse customer base includes renowned international organizations such as Sony, Mattel, 10 Downing Street, NBC, the Government of Canada, the BBC, and many more organizations of all sectors and sizes. The company has been the recipient of multiple industry awards over the years and was the first company of its type to successfully achieve the ISO 27001 Certification for its cloud-based signature management service.

For more information on Exclaimer, please visit www.exclaimer.com



Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt8Qa4sgWeQ

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555129/Signature_Summit.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1435109/Exclaimer_Logo.jpg
OSLO, Norway, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX) announces the appointment of Dr Lone Ottesen, MD, PhD as Chief Development Officer (CDO). She will take a leading role in driving the clinical programs forward. Dr Ottesen will serve as a member of Targovax's management team.

Dr Ottesen is a highly experienced drug developer with extensive experience across the global oncology and immune-oncology drug development spectrum with nearly 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry in both early- and late-phase development. Lone got her MD and PhD at Aarhus University in Denmark and has held roles of increasing seniority in GSK, Eisai and latest AstraZeneca where she was the Global Clinical Head for two assets in pivotal clinical development as well as leading the development of durvalumab in breast and gynecological cancers. Lone will be spearheading the clinical development program for the Targovax portfolio including the planned registration-directed trial in anti-PD1 refractory melanoma for the lead asset ONCOS-102.

Oystein Soug, CEO, commented: "It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Dr Ottesen to Targovax! As we have completed our early-stage clinical development program and are entering into later stage programs taking ONCOS-102 to market, her broad and deep drug development experience will be instrumental in shaping Targovax's future. We are proud to have attracted a seasoned expert like Lone, and I am confident that she will be a valuable addition to our team."

Dr Ottesen added: "I am excited to join Targovax at such an important stage for the company. The clinical data with ONCOS-102 in both monotherapy and in combination therapies in several tumor types are impressive. I am very enthusiastic about the path ahead with the potential for a registrational-directed trial and the opportunity to broaden the development program into other solid tumors. I look forward to start working with the strong team at Targovax to build and execute the clinical program and bring this promising therapy to patients.

Dr Ottesen commences as Chief Development Officer 1 July.

For further information, please contact:

Oystein Soug, CEO

Phone: +47 906 56 525

Email: oystein.soug@targovax.com

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com

Media enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/targovax/r/targovax-asa-appoints-dr-lone-ottesen-as-chief-development-officer,c3377934
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital payments company, MOVii announced that it has crossed 1.5 million customer milestone on its digital wallet platform in May 2021. MOVii is ranked fifth amongst all financial institutions in Colombia in terms of transaction volume and has reached this milestone faster than any other financial institution in the country.

MOVii is Colombia's first 100% digital money platform, where everything from customer registration to payments happens using the mobile application. MOVii's vision is to revolutionize financial inclusion by making it easier for everyone to pay and use their money digitally without paperwork.

MOVii is powered by Comviva's mobiquity platform, which enables over 70 digital financial services in more than 50 countries. The next generation money platform enables consumers to transfer money, get loans, receive financial aid, pay bills, make merchant payments, recharge mobile connection, and buy digital content, instantly, easily, and securely, anywhere, anytime using a mobile phone.

MOVii's digital wallet platform has been used extensively during COVID pandemic by all sections of the society with its customer base and transactions increasing exponentially. The MOVii digital wallet platform has enabled people to pay essential utility bills and invoices, shop online and transfer money to family and friends in need during the lockdown from the safety of their home. More than 240,000 economically vulnerable people have received solidarity income from the Government of Colombia via MOVii, helping them sustain during the pandemic.

Hernando Rubio, Co-founder and CEO of MOVii, said, "MOVii and Comviva share the vision of leveraging digital technology to provide financial services to everyone without any discrimination. We are passionate about democratizing financial services and financially including even the economically vulnerable section. This vision and passion has resulted in MOVii achieving more than 1.5 million mobile wallet users. We will further accelerate this growth by delivering new digital financial services that are relevant and contextual for people of Colombia."

Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, Chief Executive Officer at Comviva, said, "We congratulate our partner MOVii for crossing the 1.5 million customer milestone. MOVii has democratized the financial access in Colombia as well as created path for growth of a digital economy. The rapid growth in use of MOVii during the pandemic, from solidarity income disbursement to remote payments from home during lockdown, stresses on the importance of digital financial services in today's time as well as in future. We will continue to support MOVii in launching new innovative customer-centric use cases and delivering enhanced user experience."

MOVii has been continuously investing in innovation and launching new products focused on the user needs. It is working on the launch of five new products: PSE payments, interbank transfers, international remittance, insurance and buy and sell crypto assets that shall drive its future growth. Forbes has adjudged MOVii amongst 30 most promising Colombian businesses.

Media contact:

Sundeep Mehta

Email: sundeep.mehta@comviva.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/995982/Comviva_Logo.jpg
Mixed-brand fleets now viewable in a single portal of choice

DataConnect, the global initiative to enable viewing mixed-brand fleets in a single platform, is now live with an expanded line of six major digital platforms and available to farm operations around the world. Case IH, STEYR and New Holland now join John Deere, CLAAS and the European farm management platform 365FarmNet, which launched the feature late last fall.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005365/en/

DataConnect is a collaboration between CNH Industrial, John Deere, CLAAS and 365FarmNet to enable farms to view all their vehicles within a single digital platform of their choice. Illustration: DataConnect brands

Any farm operations using any self-propelled forage harvesters, combines or tractors from the participating brands now can view it all in one participating platform. Previously, viewing such information required managing additional portal for each brand involved.

With this new approach, customers can view five different machinery data parameters from their machine fleet:

current machine location

historical machine position

fuel tank level

status of the machine in the field

machine speed

Any farm operator/owner who want to use the option simply needs to provide themselves with the permission to view all equipment in the platform that is most convenient for them. Once connected, the machines of the other manufactures appear automatically in that portal. The vehicles are even displayed with icons in the respective brand colors.

DataConnect works without any additional hardware and software components and ensures secure data handling. The solution will apply to hundreds of thousands of already connected machines.

The addition of CNH Industrial means that users of AFS Connect, the telematics platform of Case IH, MyPLM Connect for New Holland, and S-Tech for STEYR, will have the option for the cloud-to-cloud exchange of data with both John Deere Operations Center and CLAAS TELEMATICS or 365FarmNet portals.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005365/en/

Contacts:

John Deere Walldorf GmbH Co. KG, Impexstrae 3, 69190 Walldorf,

Ralf Lenge, phone: +49 171 4161599, e-mail: LengeRalf@JohnDeere.com

365FarmNet Group KGaA mbH CoKG, Hausvogteiplatz 10, 10117 Berlin,

Yasmin Mohring, phone: +49 151 172 81 869 e-mail: moehring@365farmnet.com

CLAAS KGaA mbH, Muhlenwinkel 1, 33428 Harsewinkel,

Matthias Mumme, phone: +49 5247/12-2288, e-mail: matthias.mumme@claas.com

CNH Industrial, United States

Dan Danford, phone: +1 (262) 321-8856, e-mail: dan.danford@cnhind.com
STOCKHOLM, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Analysts, investors and media are invited to the presentation of Mycronic's Q2. The presentation will be held on July 15, at 10:00 a.m. The report is published on July 15, at 8:00 a.m. and will, together with the conference call slides, be available on www.mycronic.com.

Anders Lindqvist, CEO and Torbjorn Wingardh, CFO will present the company's development. The presentation is held as an audio web cast and a telephone conference. After the presentation, which is held in English, a Q&A session will follow.

Dial in details and audio web cast

In order to participate by phone, dial one of the numbers below. Please dial in five minutes prior to the start of the presentation.

Sweden: +46 8 566 427 03

UK: +44 333 300 9273

USA: +1 833 823 0590

Link to web transmission: https://mycronic-external.creo.se/210715

In order to ask questions, you must call one of the telephone numbers above. A recording of the presentation will also be posted on Mycronic's website.

For additional information, please contact:

Sven Chetkovich

Director Investor Relations

Tel: +46 70 558 39 19

sven.chetkovich@mycronic.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/mycronic-ab/r/invitation-to-mycronic-s-q2-2021-presentation,c3377910

The following files are available for download:
SHENZHEN, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The parent company behind globally renowned vaping brand VAPORESSO, SMOORE International Holdings (HKG:6969), has officially been listed on Forbes 2021 Global 2000. The list ranks the world's largest 2000 public companies, with the 2021 edition providing a close look at how some of the world's most prolific businesses adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. SMOORE is the only vaping technology company to make the Forbes 2021 Global 2000 list.

Taking a snapshot of the world of business, the Forbes Global 2000 list measures companies using four equally weighted metrics: assets, market value, sales, and profits. SMOORE International appearing on the list gives credibility to both the company and the emerging vaping industry. This recognition is a reflection of the company's performance throughout 2020 and growth in market share from 16.5% in 2019 to 18.9%.

As the first vaping-focused company to IPO, SMOORE's placement on the list confirms the legitimacy of the entire industry as a fast-growing and better alternative to cigarettes with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.1% from 2021 to 2028. Driven to innovate, the company has over 1000 technology patents and more employees in R&D than sales, leading the vaping industry since 2009. These cutting-edge innovations are then worked into marketable products by Smoore's sub-brands including Vaporesso, FEELM Lab and CCELL to be distributed around the world. Also, SMOORE is proactively promoting atomization technology to other industries around the world.

As a public facing brand under Smoore, VAPORESSO is committed to helping its vast network of international partners abroad and, driven by a strong sense of social responsibility, launched a series of campaigns aimed at helping those most affected. Under the umbrella of VAPORESSO Care, these campaigns helped affected communities in Indonesia where VAPORESSO donated over 70 million rupiah and France where VAPORESSO worked with local partners to distribute food to needy people over Christmas.

Supported by parent company, R&D giant SMOORE International, Vaporesso has been setting new industry standards and further driving innovation in this emerging industry with many more to come.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555892/image_1.jpg
Kemppi Group Oy, the owner of Kempower Oy, acquires a business property managed by S-Bank Properties, including 10 300 m2 of factory space. The new facility will enable Kempower to scale up production by approximately 500% compared to its current capacity. Kempower will gradually ramp up production in 2021-2022.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005423/en/

Kempower establishes a new facility for EV chargers. Photo by Kempower. (Photo: Business Wire)

Kempower, a leading e-mobility charging technology provider in the Nordics, responds to the rapidly growing e-mobility market demand by scaling up production gradually by the end of 2022. Kemppi Group Oy, the owner of Kempower Oy, acquires a business property including 10 300 m2 of factory space. The business property includes extensive unused building right to further expand production in the future. The seller in the transaction is the insurance group Fennia, for which S-Bank's subsidiary S-Bank Properties Ltd provides real estate portfolio management and administration services.

The factory, originally built in 2007 and expanded in 2020, is located in Ralssinkatu 1, Lahti, Finland, with excellent transport connections. Kemppi Group will lease the factory to Kempower. The new facility will enable Kempower to expand its production by approximately 500% compared to the current capacity. Kempower's production will be scaled up for the second time in a short time: at the beginning of 2021, Kempower increased its production by five times from the 2020 level.

"As Kempower's owners, we are very committed to the company. Kempower has a lot of growth potential and the international EV charging market has reacted positively to Kempower's DC charging offering. With this investment, we want to ensure Kempower's ability to respond to the market demand", states Antti Kemppi, Chairman of the Board of Kemppi Group Kempower.

"We are particularly pleased to be able to continue the life of this valuable business property and to provide new jobs in the Lahti region", Antti Kemppi adds.

"It's great that this well-kept property found a new home. I believe that the site's modern production facilities offer a great platform to develop business in the future" says Harri Oravainen, Real Estate Investment Director, S-Bank Properties.

"Our aim is to be the preferred partner in the world in developing emission-free business. Our ultimate goal is to create an EV charging infrastructure so extensive and reliable, that the electric vehicles can and will be the new reality. With the new facility, we are able to support our customers in developing emission-free business even faster than before", states Tomi Ristimaki, CEO, Kempower.

"In the new facility, Kempower will have all the essential functions in one location, including production, R&D, laboratory, testing and offices. The new facility will allow us to be efficient and agile as all the teams will be working seamlessly under one roof", says Tomi Ristimaki, CEO, Kempower.

The preparations for Kempower's new facility will start immediately. To ensure customer deliveries, Kempower will gradually ramp up production in 2021-2022. All company functions will be moved to the new location by the end of 2022.

Catella Asset Management acted as Kemppi Groups' buyside advisor and HPP Attorneys as legal advisors on the transaction.

Kempower designs and manufactures DC fast charging solutions for electric vehicles and machines operating in the most demanding conditions. We are a largescale charging system supplier, aiming for a smoothly running electric mobility infrastructure. With 70 years of experience in perfecting power sources, we set the bar high in engineering and user-experience design. Over 90% of our materials components are sourced from Finland. Kempower DC charging solutions are designed and manufactured in Lahti, Finland, and available globally. www.kempower.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005423/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

Tomi Ristimaki

CEO

Kempower Oy

tomi.ristimaki@kempower.com

+358 44 289 9815

Kempower media contacts

Paula Savonen

Marketing Communications manager

paula.savonen@kempower.com

+358 400 343 851
IQM Quantum Computers (IQM) expands its operations to Spain, creating a subsidiary in Bilbao. This operation has been supported by Basque local administration via Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Bilbao City Hall.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005046/en/

IQM processor example (Graphic: IQM)

With its Spain operations, IQM aims to tap into another hotspot for quantum computing in addition to its Finland and Germany offices. IQM Spain will collaborate closely with the local research community, quantum experts from academia and the industry to build a vibrant Spanish and European quantum ecosystem. IQM with its international partner network will also connect the Spanish quantum ecosystem to the global quantum network.

"QUTIS Center in University of the Basque Country Bilbao has outstanding experience and experts in quantum computation and simulation, quantum control, quantum sensing and other areas. Today's announcement signals our commitment to accelerate the success of our application-specific quantum computers, and aggressively develop quantum finance offerings for our customers worldwide," said Jan Goetz, CEO at IQM. "Local Public Administration, via Beaz and Bilbao Ekintza, have been extremely supportive and are committed to attracting best talent and growth companies. We look forward to working with their team to grow our Co-Design offering from Spain and deliver it globally."

The technical goal for this Spanish subsidiary is to create a quantum finance Co-Design hub that tightens the interaction between hardware and software to solve problems in finance. In particular, IQM Spain will develop an application-specific approach where quantum software integrates closely with a suitably designed quantum hardware with novel quantum architectures. Combined with IQM's hardware experts and go-to market teams in Finland and Germany, IQM will be able to deliver this offering to global customers. This approach accelerates the development of useful quantum solutions for specialized financial applications and will establish Spain and Europe as the leaders for quantum finance.

Last year, IQM had also entered into a research agreement with the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Bilbao, a collaboration led by Dr. Jorge Casanova (Ramon y Cajal and Ikerbasque researcher at UPV/EHU) and includes Dr. Mikel Sanz (Ikerbasque Researcher at UPV/EHU) and Prof. Xi Chen (Professor at Shanghai University and Ramon y Cajal researcher at UPV/EHU).

Ms. Olatz Goitia, General Manager of Beaz, said, "We work to turn the territory into an innovation hub of international reference, and to this end, the retention and attraction of talent and entrepreneurship and companies like IQM is key."

Mr. Javier Garcinuno Zabala, General Manager of Bilbao Ekintza, said, "We're pleased to see European growth companies like IQM start their Spanish operations in Bilbao. Our BIG Bilbao entrepreneurship centre will support their local operations and Bilbao Ekintza will also collaborate with IQM on joint projects in Bilbao's strategic economic sectors."

About Beaz:

Beaz is a public company of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia whose objective is to support companies and entrepreneurs in their efforts to create new projects, innovate and internationalize. A goal that is in line with that of the Regional Department of Economic Promotion, to which Beaz reports directly: to contribute to the growth of economic activity and the creation of qualified employment.

https://beaz.bizkaia.eus/en

About Bilbao Ekintza:

Bilbao Ekintza is a public company of Bilbao City Hall that develops the municipal powers in the field of economic development, promotion of Bilbao and its events as a tourist destination and business promotion, both from the point of view of the attraction, creation and growth of companies and the improvement of opportunities for access to employment.

https://www.bilbaoekintza.eus/en

About IQM Quantum Computers:

IQM is the European leader in superconducting quantum computers, headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Since its inception in 2018, IQM has grown to 110+ employees and established a subsidiary in Munich, Germany, to lead the Co-Design approach.

IQM delivers on-premises quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centers and provides complete access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers quantum advantage through a unique application-specific Co-Design approach.

IQM is building Finland's first commercial quantum computer with VTT, and an IQM-led consortium was awarded 12.4 Million in February 2021 to commercialize application-specific quantum processors by the German Ministry of Education and Research.

For more information, visit www.meetiqm.com.

Registered office:

IQM Finland Oy

Keilaranta 19

02150 Espoo

Finland

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005046/en/

Contacts:

IQM Quantum Computers

Raghunath Koduvayur, Head of Marketing and Communications

Raghunath@meetiqm.com, +358504876509



Provincial Council of Biscay

Aitziber Diez Zorrilla

Head of Communications

aitziber.diez@bizkaia.eus



Bilbao City Hall

Yolanda Brazal

Head of Communications

yolanda.brazal@bilbao.eus
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. and NOTTINGHAM, England, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a formal tender process, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust today announced the selection of Indica Labs to aid in full digitisation of the pathology workflow. Indica Labs will deliver its leading digital pathology software, HALO AP, fully integrated with existing hospital systems, alongside multiple Hamamatsu Nanozoomer scanners.

NUH, comprising two campuses, is the third largest NHS trust in England providing services to 2.5 million residents of Nottingham and a further 3 to 4 million in the surrounding region. The pathology department processes approximately 70,000 histological specimens and produces 340,000 slides per year.

Two years ago, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) and NUH NHS Trust founded the PathLAKE project in collaboration with other partners. PathLAKE is working to deliver innovative AI solutions needed in NHS pathology labs. Digitisation of the pathology workflow at NUH was made possible by PathLAKE Plus which is massively expanding digitisation across the NHS in order to put AI solutions developed by PathLAKE into practice.

Dr Tim Taylor, the Clinical Director of Pathology at NUH said, "We are really pleased that NUH has secured 2.3 million of funding from Innovate UK as part of a government initiative to develop digital pathology services across the NHS. This funding will allow our team of specialist consultant pathologists to move from analysing tissue biopsies using microscopes to using state of the art software from Indica Labs, reducing the time patients have to wait for diagnoses, particularly for those patients with suspected cancer. It will also allow our team of pathologists to work more collaboratively with pathologists in other Trusts across the region and opens the way to using sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to assist pathologists in the future through the PathLAKE Plus project."

Indica Labs' HALO AP software will be used to manage and view scanned slides for primary diagnosis, secondary consultations, tumour boards, multi-disciplinary team meetings, and remote reporting. To further streamline the digital reporting workflow, HALO AP will be integrated fully with the hospital's existing laboratory information system, CliniSys WinPath. Finally, in line with the PathLAKE Plus mission, HALO AP is designed to deploy a broad array of AI tools developed via Indica Labs' HALO AI platform, as well as third-party AI solutions.

"Digitization, automation, and AI can play a vital role in supporting pathologists to meet growing workloads and increasing diagnostic complexity," said Founder and CEO of Indica Labs, Steven Hashagen. "Indica Labs is delighted to participate in this exciting initiative, and we are committed to helping the NUH NHS Trust, and the wider PathLAKE Plus consortium in realizing the promise of this technology."

David Snead, Founding Director of PathLAKE, and consultant pathologist at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire said:

"UCHW NHS Trust is proud to be leading PathLAKE Plus, the world's largest implementation of digital pathology and AI to date, which will deliver the benefits of AI across a population base of 17 million people.

"The ambition is to deliver digital pathology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the benefit of NHS patients. Digital pathology has already proved its worth during the pandemic, by allowing the remote working of pathologists. However, it paves the way for the implementation of emerging AI technologies that will ensure we deliver the best possible results for our patients.

"Digital pathology is the future for tissue diagnosis and offers myriad opportunities to improve the quality of care for patients, PathLAKE Plus will be realising these benefits over the coming months and years. We are grateful for the support of Indica Labs, one of a team of commercial suppliers supporting PathLAKE Plus, that have made the project viable through their contribution."

The PathLAKE Plus project has been supported by funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) data to early diagnosis challenge in 2018, alongside additional scale-up funding for the digital pathology and imaging AI programme from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

About Indica Labs, Inc

Indica Labs is the world's leading provider of computational pathology software and services. Our flagship HALO image analysis platform enables fast, quantitative evaluation of tissues using a broad range of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision algorithms. HALO Link and HALO AP facilitate remote image analysis, collaboration and management. Through a combination of precision, scalability, and usability our software solutions enable pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic labs, research organizations, and Indica's own contract pharma services team to advance tissue-based research, clinical trials, and diagnostics. For more information, please visit https://www.indicalab.com or contact info@indicalab.com.

About Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust based in the heart of Nottingham and provide services to over 2.5 million residents of Nottingham and its surrounding communities. We also provide specialist services for a further 3-4 million people from across the region. We're one of the largest employers in the region, employing around 16,500 people at QMC, Nottingham City Hospital and Ropewalk House. We have 90 wards and around 1,700 beds.

We have a national and international reputation for many of our specialist services, including stroke, renal, neurosciences, cancer services and trauma. We are at the forefront of many research programmes and new surgical procedures.

In partnership with The University of Nottingham we host a Biomedical Research Centre carrying out vital research into hearing, digestive diseases, respiratory, musculoskeletal disease, mental health and imaging.

As a teaching trust we have a strong relationship with our colleagues at The University of Nottingham and other universities across the East Midlands, including Loughborough University, where we are part of the Olympic Legacy project. We play a vital role in the education and training of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Experts from NUH are leading the important work is in the NHS to establish appropriate sponsorship and project management of the National facility at the National Defence and Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall, a facility which has potential to very significantly improve inpatient rehabilitation services and clinical outcomes for patients in Nottingham and across the East Midlands.

For media inquiries, contact Kate Lillard Tunstall, kate@indicalab.com (Indica Labs), +441789765721.
The company will accelerate its growth strategy and solidify its leading position with the largest insurance exchange in the world

NEW YORK and SINGAPORE, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- bolttech, one of the fastest growing international insurtech companies, today announced the completion of an oversubscribed US$180 million series A funding round led by Activant Capital Group ("Activant"), joined by investors including Tony Fadell - Principal at Future Shape, Alpha Leonis Partners, Dowling Capital Partners, B. Riley Venture Capital and Tarsadia Investments. The investment round is the largest series A round for an insurtech and values bolttech at more than US$1 billion, giving the insurtech unicorn status only one year after its launch in 2020.

With a vision to connect people with more ways to protect the things they value, bolttech was formed to transform the way insurance is bought and sold. With a full suite of digital and data-driven capabilities, bolttech powers connections between insurers, distributors, and customers to make it easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and protection products. The company's insurance exchange is the largest in the world transacting US$5 billion in premiums on the platform, providing a gateway to more than 5,000 products and 150 insurance providers.

Supported by a team of 1,400 employees, bolttech works with partners such as insurers, telcos, retailers, banks, e-commerce and digital destinations, to seamlessly embed insurance into their customer journeys at the point of need. To date, bolttech has built a global footprint that serves more than 7.7 million customers in 14 markets across 3 continents - North America, Asia, and Europe, with licenses in 50 states in the U.S. and several key markets in Asia and Europe-wide.

Rob Schimek, bolttech's Group Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are delighted to welcome our new investors, and together with their support and partnership, we look forward to continuing on our mission to become the world's leading technology-enabled ecosystem for protection and insurance. This investment will help us connect even more insurers, distributors, and customers on our platform, shaping the future of insurance distribution."

The investment will accelerate bolttech's continued growth, and its plans to consolidate its leading position in the United States. Over the past year, bolttech has grown its enterprise customers by three-fold and distribution partnerships by nine-fold in the United States. The additional capital will help bolttech further enable its partners and customers with enhanced technology and digital capabilities, and strengthen its presence in its existing markets while continuing to expand internationally.

As part of the investment, Richard Benson-Armer, Partner at Activant, will join bolttech's board of directors which already includes Peter Hancock, Robert Kyncl, and Malcolm Turnbull, amongst others.

Steve Sarracino, Founder and Partner at Activant, said, "As avid investors in commerce infrastructure and insurtech, we understand the skill that's needed to connect this highly fragmented industry while also eliminating unnecessary friction and unlocking the purchase experience that consumers want. The scale and breadth of bolttech's platform makes them a clear leader in insurtech and an enabler for the industry at large, and we're incredibly excited to partner with Rob and the global team as they redefine what's possible in insurance."

About bolttech

bolttech is an international insurtech with a mission to build the world's leading, technology-enabled ecosystem for protection and insurance. bolttech serves customers in 14 markets across North America, Asia and Europe.

With a full suite of digital and data-driven capabilities, bolttech powers connections between insurers, distributors, and customers to make it easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and protection products.

For more information, please visit www.bolttech.io.

About Activant Capital

Activant Capital is a long-term oriented global private investment firm that partners with high-growth companies transforming the industrial complex. Founded in 2015, Activant invests in the infrastructure of commerce and delivers its partners the operational support to scale. Existing portfolio companies include Deliverr, Bolt, Better.com, and 98point6.

Contacts for the media:
Hamburg (ots) - Germany's largest news agency, the German Press Agency (dpa), has successfully completed the 2020 financial year. In a difficult market environment due to the coronavirus pandemic, the core company, Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH, succeeded in increasing revenue to 93.9 million euros (2019: 93.0 million). Its profit amounted to 1.6 million euros (2019: 1.3 million). The dpa group with its subsidiaries and holdings has also shown positive growth for 2020, with group revenue increasing to 143.9 million euros (2019: 142.5 million). These figures were announced by dpa today at its 72nd shareholders' meeting in Hamburg."It makes me proud that together with our employees we managed to keep dpa in safe waters during the coronavirus crisis," says dpa's CEO Peter Kropsch. "The months of the pandemic were marked by a spirit of cooperation. Particularly with regard to our shareholders and customers. This underscores the great importance of the dpa joint venture in times of crisis," Peter Kropsch continues.The agency's strategic activities focused on the expansion of the dpa marketplace and the increasing use of the dpa ID. The agency and its customers have constantly moved closer together during this process. As part of its marketplace strategy, dpa is investing intensively in the areas of networking, cooperation, and data intelligence as the key drivers of the digital transformation. Already, around 17,000 media professionals and communications experts use the overarching dpa ID to work with the agency's services and its partner companies.In the past fiscal year, dpa succeeded in reflecting the media shift in its new, contemporary pricing model and in establishing a successful billing model for digital reach. The customer base using this model is growing continuously. In this way the agency is adapting to the ongoing transformation on the part of its customers, whose digital revenues are taking up an ever larger share of the overall business."During the months of the pandemic, dpa fulfilled its core mission at all times: reliably supplying the media with independent and verified news," says Editor-in-Chief Sven Gosmann. "We also launched innovation projects. These include our new podcast offerings for Spotify and OMS as well as the dpa-Audio Hub, our new audio archive for customers. And with the integration of TeleNewsNetwork as dpa's video unit, we have completed our offering with TV-enabled moving images," Sven Gosmann continues.The agency is focusing considerable attention on the development of its new multimedia and modular production platform Rubix. With its help, new products can be produced, networked, and connected to other systems. Rubix, the prototype of which is to be launched in the autumn, will enable collaboration among dpa journalists and ensure data-informed work as well as the faster delivery of products.The German Press Agency feels called upon to make a strong contribution to curbing misinformation, as part of its responsibility to society as a whole. Therefore, the agency has expanded its fact-checking and verification teams. Fact checks are now produced in six European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg). In addition, the agency passes on its expertise to journalists from numerous media companies as part of the "Faktencheck 21" project and has set up its own training database, "dpa factify".The subsidiaries and affiliates again made a significant contribution to the success of the dpa group. For example, news aktuell GmbH, with its services for PR and communications, was able to noticeably increase its revenue even during the coronavirus pandemic. The digital subsidiary dpa-infocom GmbH also continued with its positive growth and again contributed a higher revenue to the overall success of the group. The images subsidiary dpa Picture-Alliance GmbH also closed the year on a stable note, and can look back on a good financial year overall despite coronavirus-related revenue shortfalls due to the cancellation of major sporting and cultural events.The 2020 annual report is entitled "Transformation. dpa is changing". The report focuses on the enormous pressure to change that the pandemic has exerted on the employees of Germany's largest news agency. However, the change process of the past few months can also be seen as an opportunity to give free rein to fresh thoughts and plans. For example, in innovations, workflows, and customer dialog.About dpa:The German Press Agency (dpa) was founded in 1949 and is one of the world's leading independent news agencies. dpa supplies media outlets, businesses and other organizations with editorial content, including text, photos, videos, graphics, audio and other formats. As an international agency, dpa reports in seven languages. The company has around 1,000 journalists in 150 locations in Germany and abroad. Its shareholders are 174 German media companies. Staff work according to the principles outlined in the dpa statute: independently from ideologies, businesses and governments. The central editing desk, under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Sven Gosmann, is located in Berlin. The management team, headed by President & CEO Peter Kropsch, is based in Hamburg. The Chairman of the Board is David Brandstatter (Main-Post GmbH, Wurzburg).Internet: www.dpa.com (German, English, Spanish, Arabic)Social media: www.dpa.com/de/social-mediaPressekontakt:German Press Agency dpaJens PetersenHead of Corporate Communicationsphone: +49 40 4113 32843pressestelle@dpa.comOriginal-Content von: dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH, ubermittelt durch news aktuellOriginalmeldung: https://www.presseportal.de/pm/8218/4957332
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / MJ Harvest, Inc. ("MJHI") (OTCQB:MJHI) announced today that Chief Executive Patrick Bilton has been invited as a dignitary to attend the grand opening of the Native Nations Cannabis Dispensary at the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ("FSST") Reservation in Flandreau, South Dakota on July 1, 2021.

On November 3, 2020, eligible voters in South Dakota overwhelmingly approved medical cannabis in the state of South Dakota with over 70 percent of eligible voters in favor of Measure 26. South Dakota's Measure 26 legalized medical marijuana for adults with qualifying conditions. The proposed law defined qualifying conditions as a chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe, debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis; or any other medical condition or its treatment added by the department. The tribe recently began accepting applications from medical marijuana patients who were referred by a physician.

Most of the state will not have medical cannabis until 2022. However, the Native Nations Cannabis Dispensary will be cutting the ribbon at its grand opening on July 1, 2021. Anyone with a referral from a licensed physician will be able to obtain a medical marijuana card at the dispensary beginning Thursday, July 1, 2021 to purchase medical marijuana. With no competition expected in the state until 2022, the demand for medical cannabis at the Native Nations Dispensary will be high when the doors open. South Dakota is now the 37th state to approve medical cannabis.

MJHI's affiliation with the tribe has been cultivated through PPK Investment Group Inc ("PPK"). PPK entered into a comprehensive joint venture cannabis agreement in May with FSST Pharms LLC which is wholly owned by FSST. MJHI currently owns 10% of PPK with options to acquire 100% of PPK at any time prior to March 31, 2023 provided any increase can then be accomplished in accordance with Oklahoma law.

According to state records in South Dakota, the tribe has plans for cannabis well beyond its 5000-acre reservation in Moody County which is about 45 minutes from Sioux Falls. Although the tribe has been low key on their plans to date, state records show FSST spent $5 million in March to acquire a 19,500-square-foot building at the intersection of 41st Street and Louise Avenue in Sioux Falls. For those native South Dakotans familiar with the Sioux Falls business landscape, 41st Street and Louis Avenue is known as one of the busiest business districts in all of Sioux Falls. This dispensary location offers a prime outlet for the Native Nations Brand and more importantly, the dispensary business model may become a model for other tribes that are seeking economic prosperity for their members.

In more good news, MJHI's investment company PPK, announced expansion of the Chronic product line into South Dakota. As previously announced on May 12th of this year, PPK signed a binding 2-year term sheet with International Brands Group (IBG) to produce, manufacture, sell and market a new Chronic Brand THC infused product line in the State of Oklahoma. PPK was granted exclusive rights to produce, manufacture and sell the new product line with first rights of refusal nationwide for an initial period of 2 years. PPK currently grows, extracts, manufactures, and distributes Country Cannabis branded products to over 1000 dispensaries in the Oklahoma Market. PPK is actively expanding its footprint in South Dakota.

About MJ Harvest Inc.

MJHI cultivates, harvests, manufactures and sells cannabis products through its growing relationship with PPK. PPK sells and markets cannabis flower and edibles throughout Oklahoma and is now expanding into South Dakota through its joint venture with FSST.

MJHI also acquires and markets products and technologies that are designed to benefit growers and processors in the horticultural and agricultural industries. MJHI launched www.procannagro.com to provide a professionally designed and maintained web-based marketing outlet for the company's brands and technologies.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release.



CONTACT:

MJ Harvest, Inc.

9205 West Russell Rd., Ste. 240

Las Vegas, NV 89148

Telephone: 954.519.3115

Tcktsllc@earthlink.net

@HARVESTMJ

SOURCE: MJ Harvest, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653859/MJ-Harvest-MJHI-Chief-Executive-Officer-to-Attend-Grand-Opening-of-South-Dakotas-First-Medical-Cannabis-Dispensary
NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The USAFIS Organization reports a significant improvement in the attitudes expressed by foreign nationals regarding U.S. immigration since Joseph Biden became President of the United States.

"The change to a more positive attitude about America and U.S. immigration is 'like night and day' now that Joe Biden is in The White House," noted Elsie Crisman, Public Relations Manager at the USAFIS Organization.

"For the past two decades, USAFIS has been helping thousands of people around the world to correctly apply for various immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. visa programs," she explained, "so we are quite familiar with the trends and definitely noticed a big difference between the attitudes indicated by many potential immigrants during the previous four years and the renewed enthusiasm foreign nationals are currently expressing."

The USA is the top destination for immigrants, attracting over one million newcomers each year, and it also has the most foreign-born residents of any country (approximately 45 million).

Since the end of the Second World War, there has been an upward trend in the number of foreign nationals immigrating to the United States, even when taking into account the fluctuating peaks and valleys.

The Diversity Visa Lottery Program is one of the most popular and easiest ways to immigrate to the United States and receive a U.S. Permanent Resident Green Card, since it only has two key requirements to participate: be born in an eligible country and have at least a high school education or two years of full-time paid work experience in an eligible occupation.

There are also Employment-Based Green Cards, as well as temporary non-immigrant U.S. work visas (such as the H-1B), for different categories of foreign workers.

"At the USAFIS Organization, we help thousands of individuals and families to identify their best U.S. immigration option and use our expertise to make the application process easier for them to complete correctly and efficiently," Crisman stated.

From 2013 to 2016, the number of people immigrating to the United States was increasing every year, but following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it went in the opposite direction.

"We know from speaking with USAFIS clients that many potential immigrants had concerns about moving to America during the past four years," Crisman commented. "Now, everything has turned around and they are excited and hopeful about immigration to the United States under the Biden-Harris Administration," she said.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, former U.S. Senator Joe Biden had a pro-immigration platform and he chose as his running mate former U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants, who is the first woman, and first American of Black and Asian heritage, to become Vice-President of the United States.

His first day in The White House, January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an order ending the previous president's travel ban for people from several mainly Muslim countries, plus he sent to the Congress his U.S. immigration reform bill which offers a pathway to American citizenship for millions of immigrants and would increase the number of Diversity Visas authorized to be granted through the Green Card Lottery from 55,000 to 80,000 per year.

Furthermore, President Biden signed another order on February 24, 2021, which cancelled the previous president's temporary Green Card suspension.

Besides his pro-immigration rhetoric and actions, President Biden's compassion has set a more positive tone in America, while his traditional style of governing and diplomacy has reassured parties at home and abroad.

Thus, the United States is once again viewed by potential immigrants as a country that welcomes newcomers and offers them freedom, equality, economic mobility and the opportunity to live the American Dream.

"The U.S. is not perfect by any means and has its strong points as well as areas for improvement," Crisman of USAFIS declared. "Nonetheless, no other country gives immigrants the freedom and opportunities that are available in America."

There is a growing sense of optimism in the United States as the world's largest economy bounces back from the disruptions caused by the global pandemic and more Americans are vaccinated against Covid-19.

In a sign that the USA is returning to normal, there is once more a major shortage of workers who are needed to fill a record 9.3 million U.S. job vacancies, according to the Department of Labor.

Something that President Biden, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the CEOs of America's largest corporations and the owners of its small and medium businesses know is that the United Statesneeds immigrants of various skill levels to help fill and create new jobs in the USA.

The USAFIS Organization was established in 2001 as a private entity that provides beneficial services to thousands of people who want to immigrate to the United States through the Diversity Visa Program and other immigrant and non-immigrant U.S. visa programs.

For more details, visit our site.

For registration, apply here.

Contact:

Elsie Crisman

Public Relations

Usafis_registration@usafis.org

+1-646-517-6786
Srinivasan's medical management experience, leadership positions, and advisory experience will add additional depth to the AngioSoma team.

RICHLAND, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / AngioSoma, Inc. (OTC PINK:SOAN) has added Kaushik Srinivasan, CEO, Radiant Health, to the Advisory Board. Kaushik's experience in frontier sciences, the epidemiology of neurological trauma, as well as his leadership roles in major health care organizations are a tremendous asset to the AngioSoma team.

Headquartered in Richland, Washington, AngioSoma, Inc. is a fast-growing company focused on providing medical research, development and treatments for wellness and disease. With a mission to "help people begin their journeys to health," AngioSoma also brings high quality supplement products to the market.

"We are thrilled to be working with Kaushik Srinivasan," said James C. Katzaroff, President and CEO, AngioSoma, Inc. "AngioSoma is a company that understands working with the top professionals within their field. This arms the AngioSoma team with the tools we need to help stop the progression of challenging diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis."

Kaushik Srinivasan is an accomplished C-Suite Executive, Consultant, Healthcare Attorney, Medical Real Estate Developer, and Entrepreneur with varied experience in the healthcare industry spanning clinical services, outpatient and ancillary care, medical devices, health law, and commercial real estate.

Throughout his executive career, Kaushik has held leadership positions with increasing responsibility in a variety of healthcare roles. As a CEO in training at Community Health Systems and Quorum Health, he oversaw the operations and growth of several clinical and ancillary departments, introduced new service lines, led the construction of outpatient clinics, and identified opportunities to innovate by partnering with third-party vendors.

As the CEO of Radiant Health, he has led due diligence analyses and business plan developments for Fortune 500 companies, medical schools, and top universities. In addition, he has provided legal and business consulting to various clients pertaining to mergers & acquisitions, medical device commercialization, contract negotiations, financial valuations, and regulatory approval.

Kaushik obtained a Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. He also received a BS in Healthcare Management and Finance, and a BA in Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis.

"AngioSoma offers us the opportunity to help those that need it most," said Kaushik Srinivasan. "Our solutions are life-changing for patients, caregivers, and their families. Advancing healthcare and working on new modalities to help patients has always been my passion and AngioSoma enables me to add my experience to a team that is already poised for excellence."

NOTICE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that include the words believes, expects, anticipate or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition, description of anyone's past success is no guarantee of future success. This news release speaks as of the date first set forth above and the company assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof.

About AngioSoma, Inc.

AngioSoma (OTC PINK:SOAN) is a healthcare company dedicated to bringing innovative, effective and high-quality healthcare solutions to the medical community. With a focus on Multiple Sclerosis and other chronic diseases, AngioSoma's team is committed to helping those suffering begin their journey back to health. More information about AngioSoma can be found at www.angiosoma.com .

Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements that include the words "believes," "expects," "anticipate" or similar expressions. This news release speaks as of the date first set forth above and the company assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof.

Media Contact:

Brooke Greenwald

Cornerstone Communications, LTD

Brooke@cornerstonepr.net

240-360-0866

SOURCE: AngioSoma, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653846/Angiosoma-Inc-Soon-to-Be-Globestar-Therapeutics-Corporation-Welcomes-Kaushik-Srinivasan-CEO-Radiant-Health-to-the-Medical-Advisory-Board
OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Pizza Hut announced the launch of Hawaiian Pizza Shirt to celebrate pineapple pizza, the most 'controversial' topping on a pizza according to the company. Pizza hut, a unit of Yum! Brands, Inc. (YUM) offers this shirt, inspired by the classic Hawaiian shirts of the 80s and 90s, to pineapple pizza admirers, who can show off love for their favorite pizza topping. This limited edition pizza Wear features blooming pizza slices and a pineapple island and comes with a pizza-shaped pocket. 'We know that almost one in five Canadians believe Hawaiian pizza originated in Hawaii, when in fact it was developed in Ontario. We wanted to celebrate the origins of this polarizing dish the only way we know how: with more pizza,' says Amy Rozinksy, Head of Consumer Marketing, Pizza Hut Canada. 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.
DUBLIN (dpa-AFX) - Professional services company Accenture Plc (ACN) Thursday said it has agreed to acquire Ethica Consulting Group, an Italian provider of advanced software and professional services. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ethica Consulting Group comprises three affiliate companies - ICM.S, Altevie Technologies and Espedia. These companies are specialized in specific areas of SAP technology and recognized as an SAP Platinum Partner. The completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. The company expects the acquisition to strengthen its capabilities in delivering digital transformation for clients and enabling them to develop innovative products and services using SAP cloud-based solutions. Following the deal closure, the company's approximately 400 SAP specialists will join the Accenture SAP Business Group in Italy. In February 2021, Accenture acquired Edenhouse, a UK-based independent SAP partner, to help UK-based companies unleash the full power of on-premise and cloud-based SAP solutions. 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.
Collaboration on strategy, design, digital engineering, IT and cloud supports fight against climate change

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has developed a digital plant solution for Climeworks that supports the company in removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air more efficiently. The digital plant solution is part of a multi-service collaboration between Accenture and Climeworks and spans strategy, design, digital engineering, technology and cloud.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005110/en/

"Orca," Climeworks' newest plant in Iceland, will capture 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year with support from Accenture, Climeworks 2021

Climeworks, a global leader in direct air capture, offers carbon dioxide removal as a service to companies and individuals. Its newest plant in Iceland, called "Orca," will capture 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, making it the world's largest climate-positive facility to date. The CO2 is put into underground storage provided by Carbfix, where it will turn into stone in less than two years.

Accenture and Climeworks began working together after leaders of the two companies met on a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in 2018. By then, Climeworks was well on its way to scaling its technology. Accenture offered to collaborate with the company on the next stages of its growth. A team of Accenture volunteers was formed to help Climeworks, later becoming part of the Accenture Development Partnerships program, which supports organizations working for good to positively impact the world.

"Our vision is to inspire one billion people to remove carbon dioxide from the air," said Daniel Egger, chief commercial officer, Climeworks. "To bring it to life, we keep strengthening our offering for consumers and corporate clients and Accenture has been playing a key role."

Stephane Pique, who leads Accenture's work for Climeworks and Accenture Industry X in Switzerland, said, "We began collaborating with Climeworks because we believe in their mission. It quickly became clear that Accenture could provide value in key areas of this exceptional company. The work we've done is a testament to making sustainability our greatest responsibility, and helping clients infuse it across their businesses. We're looking forward to continuing to contribute to Climeworks' success for the next generation and ourselves."

Accenture is supporting Climeworks' fight against climate change across the following areas:

Strategy and Go-to-Market Accenture industry and sustainability experts supported research in key business areas such as: What are the use cases for CO2 capture? In which industries and markets can it be sold? Is the Climeworks offering compelling to customers and corporate clients?

Ecosystem Accenture introduced Climeworks to a broad set of clients and alliance partners interested in CO2 removal technology. This was instrumental in, for example, starting Climeworks' relationship with Microsoft, who is now both an investor and client.

Design designaffairs, part of Accenture, designed Climeworks' new plant in Iceland to represent the symbiosis of nature and technology that Climeworks' direct air capture stands for. The plant was named a 2021 winner of the prestigious "Green Good Design Award."

Digital Engineering The digital plant solution, engineered by Accenture's Industry X group, allows Climeworks to monitor and detect anomalies in the CO2 removal process in real-time. These insights enable Climeworks to adjust the plant to factors like weather conditions and optimize its energy consumption. For example, the solution reduces the efforts needed to collect and evaluate operational information by approximately 50%. It also shortens the time from data-recording to reporting of key performance indicators by about a factor of 100.

Technology and Cloud While the digital plant solution is already running on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Avanade, a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, is supporting Climeworks in moving its IT systems to the cloud, including its journey-to-cloud strategy and migration roadmap.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services all powered by the world's largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 569,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

About Climeworks

Climeworks empowers people to reverse climate change by permanently removing carbon dioxide from the air.

One of two things happens to the Climeworks air-captured carbon dioxide: either it is returned to earth, stored safely and permanently away for millions of years, or it is upcycled into climate-friendly products such as carbon-neutral fuels and materials. The Climeworks direct air capture technology runs exclusively on clean energy, and the modular CO2 collectors can be stacked to build machines of any size.

Founded by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks strives to inspire 1 billion people to act now and remove carbon dioxide from the air.

Together we can build a climate-positive world. Join us!

Web: https://www.climeworks.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Climeworks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/climeworks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/climeworks_official

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/climeworks

Copyright 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and its logo are trademarks of Accenture.

This document is produced by consultants at Accenture as general guidance. It is not intended to provide specific advice on your circumstances. If you require advice or further details on any matters referred to, please contact your Accenture representative.

This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is not intended to represent or imply the existence of an association between Accenture and the lawful owners of such trademarks. No sponsorship, endorsement, or approval of this content by the owners of such trademarks is intended, expressed, or implied.

Accenture provides the information on an "as-is" basis without representation or warranty and accepts no liability for any action or failure to act taken in response to the information contained or referenced in this publication.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005110/en/

Contacts:

Jens R. Derksen

Accenture Industry X

+49 175 5761393

jens.derksen@accenture.com

Climeworks

media@climeworks.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A 'pressure-cooker' heatwave that has broken temperature records in western Canada and the U.S. northwest claimed hundreds of lives over the past week.



Nearly 500 people died over the past five days in British Columbia, the worst-affected region in Canada.



'It is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather BC has experienced and continues to impact many parts of our province,' British Columbia Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said on Wednesday.



Residents of the town of Lytton were evacuated Wednesday evening in the wake of a wildfire, triggered by Canada's highest ever temperature recorded the previous day.



Canada's all-time temperature record was broken on Tuesday in Lytton, with a high of 49.6C.



Despite the fact that 'it's in the province of British Columbia, it's to the Rocky Mountains, the Glacier National Park, and yet we're seeing temperatures which are more typical of the Middle East or North Africa,' said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).



'An exceptional and dangerous heatwave is breaking in northwestern United States of America and western Canada; this is obviously a part of the world which is more accustomed to cool weather,' she added. Nullis warned that temperatures are likely to reach as high as 45C during day time in the coming days. 'So that's a very long spell, with extremely warm nights in between.'



Nullis explained that the extreme heat is caused by 'an atmospheric blocking pattern' which has led to a 'heat dome' trapped by low pressure either side.



Record-levels of temperatures were recorded in Portland, Oregon (46.6C), and in Seattle, Washington (42.2C), according to the National Weather Service.



63 casualties were reported in Oregon and 16 others in Washington.



The current heatwave follows another intensely hot period less than two weeks ago that baked the US desert Southwest and California.



President Joe Biden on Wednesday convened a meeting with Governors from Western States, Cabinet and agency officials, and energy sector partners to discuss ways to strengthen prevention, preparedness and response efforts for this wildfire season, which is on track to outpace last season.



Biden announced a $37 million grant award to California to support fire mitigation efforts as part of FEMA's new Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, the White House said.



Vice President Kamala Harris asked the Governors what additional support and resources they need and what immediate actions can be taken by the Federal government to protect communities from wildfires, help them deal with drought conditions, and improve emergency preparedness.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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CLEVELAND, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG), a leading global designer, producer and supplier of highly engineered aircraft components, announced today the appointment of Jane M. Cronin to its Board of Directors.

Ms. Cronin is Senior Vice President - Corporate Controller of Sherwin Williams Company (NYSE: SHW), a world-leading manufacturer, developer, distributor and seller of paint, coatings, and related products to professional, industrial, aerospace, commercial, and retail customers. Ms. Cronin has served in her current role since 2016. Prior to that, Ms. Cronin was Vice President of Internal Audit and Loss Prevention and Vice President - Controller of one of Sherwin Williams' largest divisions.

"We are pleased that Jane has agreed to become a member of our Board," stated W. Nicholas Howley, TransDigm Group's Executive Chairman. "Jane brings extensive experience in public company accounting, reporting, and controls. Additionally, Jane's integration experience with large and small acquisitions will also make her a valuable contributor. Sherwin Williams has a strong culture of hands-on value creation, which fits well with TransDigm's focus."

The Board of Directors has determined that Ms. Cronin is independent under applicable listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange and the rules and regulations of the Securities Exchange Commission.

About TransDigm Group

TransDigm Group, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a leading global designer, producer and supplier of highly engineered aircraft components for use on nearly all commercial and military aircraft in service today. Major product offerings, substantially all of which are ultimately provided to end-users in the aerospace industry, include mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, specialized pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, specialized AC/DC electric motors and generators, batteries and chargers, engineered latching and locking devices, engineered rods, engineered connectors and elastomer sealing solutions, databus and power controls, cockpit security components and systems, specialized and advanced cockpit displays, engineered audio, radio and antenna systems, specialized lavatory components, seat belts and safety restraints, engineered and customized interior surfaces and related components, advanced sensor products, switches and relay panels, thermal protection and insulation, lighting and control technology, parachutes, high performance hoists, winches and lifting devices, and cargo loading, handling and delivery systems.

Contact:

Investor Relations

(216) 706-2945

ir@transdigm.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/835315/TransDigm_Logo.jpg
- Multi-skilled Advisory Board supports StoreDot's vision to enable automotive manufacturers to accelerate electric vehicle adoption with fast-charging technologies

- StoreDot's technologies will significantly improve consumer experience of EVs in overcoming range and charging anxiety

- Advisory board brings global multi-sector expertise. Foundation members include an electric vehicle manufacturer COO, a battery manufacturing veteran, a car manufacturing specialist, a world-renowned battery electrochemist, a future mobility expert, and an investment banking veteran

- StoreDot gives automotive manufacturers a clear technology roadmap for seamless and rapid transition to electrification to help create a cleaner world

HERZELIYA, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- StoreDot, the pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, has announced the formation of a Global Advisory Board. The new multi-skilled board will be crucial in supporting StoreDot's mission to provide technologies that transform consumers' charging experience and eradicate range anxiety, enabling automotive manufacturers to accelerate a seamless and rapid transition to a zero-emissions electrified future.

The StoreDot Advisory Board will be led by DrDavid Gilmour, StoreDot's executive Chairman and formerly Global Head of BP Ventures. It will be providing expertise in battery science, electric vehicle infrastructure, automotive industry integration and strategic funding. The Advisory Board will help guide StoreDot's leadership team as it scales up to commercialize its technology and supply car makers with mass produced, fast charging battery technologies, helping them to overcome their customers' range anxiety concerns - currently a major barrier to EV ownership. StoreDot's XFC batteries, which deliver a 50% reduction in charging time at the same cost, are already being tested by major automotive companies.

StoreDot's Advisory Board members will include Dr Dennis Nobelius, COO of Polestar, the electric performance car brand founded by Geely and Volvo Cars, focused on accelerating the change to a sustainable future. Dennis joined Polestar from sister brand Volvo where he held a number of senior roles over a 14-year career and will bring a wealth of knowledge to the board on OEM integration. To help advise on the battery commercialization aspects of StoreDot's vision, the appointment of Joseph Walicki, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Clarios, (Formerly Johnson Controls-Power Solutions Division) - the world's largest automotive battery company serving customers in 150 countries - will be instrumental. Other foundation board members who all bring with them a range of relevant and important experience include Roy Williamson, a global future-mobility and EV infrastructure expert and, formerly, Vice President of BP Advanced Mobility, Professor Doron Aurbach, the world-renowned electrochemist and pioneer of electro-mobility, and Joel Maryles, a financial industry expert, having held senior positions in both investment banking and venture capital.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO: "Our world-leading extreme fast-charging battery technology is essential for automotive manufacturers to develop EVs that overcome range and charging anxiety. We're offering a clear technology roadmap ranging from the silicon-based XFC technology to next generation XED, extreme energy density, solid-state technologies. With the active support and previous experience of our newly formed Global Advisory Board we plan to execute on this unique roadmap accelerating the adoption of EVs aligned with our clear vision of a cleaner, zero-emissions world.

"The formation of our Advisory Board is a major step forward as we rapidly move to our next phase of development and on to commercialization of our first automotive batteries for electric vehicles as early as 2024."

Dr David Gilmour, StoreDot Executive Chairman: "Extreme fast charging for electric vehicles is fundamental to their mass adoption and usability for millions of drivers worldwide. StoreDot has the vision, ambition, capabilities and technologies to partner with global automotive companies, enabling them to overcome this crucial barrier. This is essential to fulfil a zero-emissions future, creating a better world for everyone.

"The formation of the Advisory Board, which I am honored to lead, is another key milestone in StoreDot's plan to introduce an extreme fast charging solution in the near future. With our shared vision, we are laying strong foundations to scale rapidly and meet the increased demand for electrified vehicles."

The Advisory Board is the latest milestone for StoreDot which was founded in 2012 in Israel. In 2019, StoreDot's XFC battery was publicly demonstrated in the world's first full live demonstration, charging an electric scooter in just five minutes. Last month it announced a framework agreement with EVE Energy to support the commercialization and mass production of XFC batteries by 2024.

About StoreDot:

StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption - range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes - the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot's battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future technologies for extreme energy-density (XED). StoreDot's strategic investors include BP, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. In 2020, the company demonstrated the scalability of its XFC batteries for other industries, by fully charging a commercial drone in five minutes in another world first. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially-viable product for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its first-generation batteries that are designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-ion production lines.

For more information see: www.store-dot.com .

Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556028/StoreDot.jpg

Logo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556045/StoreDot_Logo.jpg
Stockholm July 1, 2021: Aino Health announces today that they signed an agreement for the SaaS solution HealthManager with Adecco Sweden AB yesterday. The agreement is regarding a pilot project for 900 employees. The project will start during the third quarter of 2021.



By implementing Aino HealthManager, Adecco Sweden AB wants to create long-term support for their managers for handling sickness-related absences among the personnel and enable proactive valuable dialogues between the managers and employees where the managers have large possibilities to improve the wellbeing and engagement among the personnel.

The pilot project will start during the third quarter of 2021 and includes 900 employees who are active in several of Sweden's largest industrial companies. After the pilot project, there is an opportunity for further rollout in the first quarter of 2022, which includes 3,000 employees.

"We are very pleased to be able to contribute to Adecco's success in the Swedish market and increase the well-being of their employees", says Jyrki Eklund, CEO of Aino Health.

HealthManager is a SaaS solution that supports managers with internal health-related processes and absence management. It also offers reporting and analytic tools to follow key metrics related to corporate health management. The goal of the solution is to decrease sick leave and to increase employee engagement.

For more information:

Jyrki Eklund, VD Aino Health

Phone: +358 40 042 4221

jyrki.eklund@ainohealth.com



Certified adviser

Erik Penser Bank

+46 8 463 83 00

certifiedadviser@penser.se

Adecco Sweden AB

Adecco is one of the world's leading suppliers of HR solutions and one of the world's largest recruitment and staffing companies. In Sweden, Adecco offers tailored personnel solutions, both staffing and recruitment solutions as well as interim solutions and outsourcing distributed in 31 offices throughout the country. Their vision is to be the customer's and employee's obvious choice.



About Aino Health.
Leslie Buttorff, Founder of Panacea, To Lead Combined Companies as Chief Executive Officer

DELRAY BEACH, FL / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / Exactus, Inc. (OTCQB:EXDI) (the "Company") a leading supplier of hemp-derived ingredients (CBD/CBG), today announced the acquisition of Panacea Life Sciences, Inc. Panacea, which was founded by Leslie Buttorff, in 2017 as a woman-owned business, which attracted $20 million in initial investments which were followed up with a $14 million in investment from 22nd Century Group, Inc. (XXII) during 2019, a leading plant biotechnology company focused on technology to decrease nicotine in tobacco plants also uses its expertise for genetic engineering of hemp and cannabis plants to modify cannabinoid levels used in manufacturing CBD, CBG and CBN. 22nd Century exchanged its Panacea preferred stock for a 11.6% stake in Exactus. Exactus Executive Chairman and media executive Larry Wert, will also remain on the Exactus board of directors and resigned as Executive Chairman.

Panacea Life Sciences is a leader in production of legal, trace THC, hemp-derived cannabinoid products for consumers and pets that operates a 51,000 square foot cGMP certified facility in Golden, Colorado and PANA Botanical Farms in western Colorado, complete with fully integrated extraction, manufacturing, testing and fulfillment. Panacea produces soft gels, gummies, tinctures, sublingual tablets, cosmetics and other topicals for purchase online ( www.panacealife.com ) and in stores as well as in smart kiosk vending machines being rolled out nationally. Through 2021 Exactus produced and sold hemp and hemp-based products from its 200-acre farms in Cave Junction, Oregon well known as a leading region for the production of hemp. Panacea also founded the Cannabinoid Research Center at Colorado State University and supports medical studies designed to evaluate the effects of cannabinoids in human health and wellness."

"Our focus on quality and traceability are the hallmarks of Panacea's seed to sale strategy. From our state-of-the art CO2 extraction, chromatography equipment and product manufacturing lines, we can produce as much product as we need to meet our sales goals for the foreseeable future." said Leslie Buttorff, founder of Panacea. "We first entered the CBD arena with a world-class SAP-based ERP system developed for the Cannabis industry by Quintel Management which tracks the full chain of custody for every product, as well as provides all back office and production planning capabilities. We believe this sets us apart from the majority of hemp farms and CBD companies" added Ms. Buttorff who is also President and Chief Executive of the SAP management consulting firm she founded. "Seeing the utter chaos that permeates the emerging cannabis and hemp industry, accurate supply-chain accounting and reporting is crucial to our success. Unlike other companies, we set out to set the industry standard for compliance and reporting, which has been rewarded with our successful partnership and investment in joint technology with 22nd Century."

"Since the beginning of 2021, we have focused on restructuring and properly positioning the company to execute a strategic acquisition. We are thrilled to have met Leslie Buttorff and the Panacea team as they have developed a real gem of a CBD company." said Larry Wert, Executive Chairman of Exactus. "Throughout this process, we have evaluated many companies, and Panacea has proven to be superior in all aspects. We are pleased to provide our loyal shareholders this opportunity to continue in the CBD arena. I would also like to thank Exactus' founder and investor Harvey Kesner and Andrew Johnson, who provided invaluable insight and support throughout our difficult transition year and in connection with the Panacea transaction." In connection with the closing, Mr. Johnson resigned as an officer of Exactus, but will continue on with Panacea to assist with investor relationships.

About Panacea Life Sciences, Inc. Panacea Life Sciences is a woman-owned and woman-led company, dedicated to developing and producing the highest-quality, most medically relevant, legal, hemp-derived cannabinoid products for consumers and pets. Beginning at PANA Organic Botanicals located at Needle Rock and throughout its 51,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, cGMP, extraction, manufacturing, testing and fulfillment center located in Golden, Colorado, Panacea operates in every segment of the CBD product value chain. From cultivation to finished goods, the Company ensures its products with stringent testing protocols employed at every stage of the supply chain. Panacea offers the purest natural remedies within product lines for every aspect of life: PANA Health, PANA Beauty, PANA Sport, PANA Pet, PANA Pure and PANA Life.

Transaction Summary:

Under the terms of the Agreement the Company issued 1,000,000 shares of Series C Convertible Preferred Stock, 1,000 shares of Series C-1 Convertible Preferred Stock and 1,000 shares of Series D Convertible Preferred Stock and 473,639,756 shares of Common Stock in exchange for one-hundred (100%) percent of the shares of capital stock of Panacea. Following the closing the name of the Company will be changed to Panacea Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. The Company has also authorized a 1:28 reverse stock split which is pending regulatory approval.

Paradox Capital Partners, LLC, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, served as advisor for the transaction.

To learn more about Panacea and its products or our land-to-brand practices, please visit https://panacealife.com .

To learn more about Exactus, Inc., visit the website at www.exactushemp.com .

Exactus:

About Exactus Inc. (OTCQB:EXDI) is a leading producer and supplier of hemp-derived ingredients and feminized hemp genetics. Exactus is committed to creating a positive impact on society and the environment promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Exactus specializes in hemp-derived ingredients (CBD/CBG/CBC/CBN) and feminized seeds that meet the highest standards of quality and traceability. Through research and development, the Company continues to stay ahead of market trends and regulations. Exactus is at the forefront of product development for the beverage, food, pets, cosmetics, wellness, and pharmaceutical industries.

# # #

Investor Notice:

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under 'Risk Factors' in Item 1A of our most recent Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC') on May 22, 2020, and in other periodic and current reports we file with the SEC. If any of these risks were to occur, our business, financial condition, or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. See 'Safe Harbor' below.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Panacea's ability to meet its sales goals and Jim Mish joining its board of directors. The words 'believe,' 'may,' 'estimate,' 'continue,' 'anticipate,' 'intend,' 'should,' 'plan,' 'could,' 'target,' 'potential,' 'is likely,' 'will,' 'expect' and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include changes in laws and regulations affecting hemp, Other risks are included in our filings with the SEC including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Exactus Contact:

Andrew Johnson

Chief Strategy Officer

Exactus Inc.

509-999-9695

ir@exactusinc.com

SOURCE: Exactus, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653853/Exactus-Joins-with-Panacea-Life-Sciences-to-Create-Premier-CBD-Wellness-Platform
Calvin Klein, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PVH Corp. [NYSE: PVH], and Calvin Klein Fragrances, a division of Coty Inc. [NYSE: COTY], today revealed the worldwide global advertising campaign for Calvin Klein Defy, a new men's fragrance featuring award-winning actor Richard Madden as the face of this new chapter within the Calvin Klein fragrance portfolio. The fragrance and campaign embrace a journey of defiance while exploring authentic truths and the contrasts within.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005525/en/

Calvin Klein Defy (Photo: Business Wire)

The campaign features Madden in a series of vulnerable, self-reflecting and authentic moments that culminate into a courageous leap of faith, a symbolic metaphor for personal defiance and daring to take risks. The accompanying still visual translates the powerful essence of the campaign featuring Madden seated on a rooftop with a rebellious stare in iconic Calvin Klein jeans and a timeless Calvin Klein white t-shirt. The advertising campaign will be featured globally and supported by digital, social, print and TV.

"It's been an exciting opportunity to partner with Calvin Klein on this new launch for Calvin Klein Fragrances," said Madden. "Making the Calvin Klein Defy campaign was an amazing experience; I'm excited about this partnership and our work together."

The Calvin Klein Defy fragrance features a daring contrast of invigorating freshness and powerful woods. Crafted by Anne Flipo, Master Perfumer, and Senior Perfumers Pascal Gaurin and Loc Dong of IFF, the fragrance defies expectations and evokes the ethos of the campaign opening with an addictive blend of citrus highlighted by crisp Bergamot and fresh Lavender Absolute. The heart of the fragrance and star ingredient, Vetiver Oil, is responsibly sourced from Haiti, and provides a vibrant earthiness and irresistible rugged texture that compliments a rich and alluring base of Amber notes.

The masculine and woody fresh scent is captured in a modern and minimalist glass bottle carved with curved rounded edges and sharp linear lines, representing the duality of vulnerability and courage on the path to defiance. The cap and carton pay homage to Calvin Klein jeans with a matte textured blue denim inspired embossed finish and striking silver branding.

Joanne Bletz, Senior Vice President Global for Calvin Klein Fragrances at Coty said, "We are hugely excited by the launch of Calvin Klein Defy. The creation of this new men's fragrance, starring the award-winning actor Richard Madden, marks the next chapter in our partnership with the iconic fashion house. The fragrance and campaign embrace the spirit of pushing boundaries as personified through our Dare to Defy concept and celebrates the courageous leap of faith it takes to follow your convictions while acknowledging the vulnerability and courage to defy expectations. We are confident that Calvin Klein Defy, which encapsulates a renewed take on masculinity, self-reflection and defiance, will resonate with modern men across the world, driving further global demand for Calvin Klein fragrances."

To celebrate the launch of Calvin Klein Defy, a branded tournament will take place on Twitch where consumers will have the opportunity to defiantly battle against top streamers for a chance to win prizes followed by a virtual afterparty.

Calvin Klein Defy is available starting today in select countries and will be available globally on a rolling basis.

About Richard Madden:

Golden Globe winner and Scottish actor Richard Madden is fast becoming one of Hollywood's most in-demand actors. Upcoming, Madden will be seen in Chloe Zhao's Eternals in which he portrays the character 'Ikaris' opposite Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gemma Chan. The superhero film based on the Marvel Comics of the same name follows the saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations. The film is slated for release by Disney on November 5, 2021. Additionally, he is currently in production on the Russo Brothers' CITADEL alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The upcoming global thriller multi-series for Amazon Studios will feature interconnected, local-language versions of the story in several other countries.

About Calvin Klein, Inc.

Calvin Klein is a fashion lifestyle brand with bold, progressive ideals and a sensual aesthetic that is recognized worldwide. Our modern and minimalist approach to design, provocative imagery and authentic connection to culture has resonated with customers for over 50 years.

Founded in 1968 by Calvin Klein and his business partner Barry Schwartz, we have built our reputation as a leader in American fashion through the distinct Calvin Klein brand lines and a licensed range of products. We were acquired by PVH Corp. in 2003. For more information, please visit www.calvinklein.com.

About COTY Inc.

Coty is one of the world's largest beauty companies with an iconic portfolio of brands across fragrance, color cosmetics, and skin and body care. Coty is the global leader in fragrance, and number three in color cosmetics. Coty's products are sold in over 150 countries around the world. Coty and its brands are committed to a range of social causes as well as seeking to minimize its impact on the environment. For additional information about Coty Inc., please visit www.coty.com.

ADVERTISING CREDITS:

Creative Agency: The Style Council

Still life photographer: Thomas Legrand

EDITORIAL CREDIT: Calvin Klein Defy

TVC: https://youtu.be/cPX33PuC9UA

SOCIAL MEDIA: ckdefy

BRAND HANDLE: @calvinklein

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005525/en/

Contacts:

Calvin Klein, Inc.

Erin Leary, Director Corporate Communications, Calvin Klein, erinleary@ck.com

Coty, Inc.

Ariel Dunne, Senior Director, Influencer Marketing, ariel_dunne@cotyinc.com

Jason Noda, Senior Manager, Influencer Marketing, jason_noda@cotyinc.com
Agreement will Strengthen Aptean's Footprint in Rapidly Growing DACH Market

ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 01, 2021, a global provider of mission-critical enterprise software solutions, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ramsauer & Sturmer, a leading provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in Austria.



Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Salzburg, Austria, Ramsauer & Sturmer offers clients a full spectrum of ERP functionality with its rs2 business software. With tailored solutions catering to a variety of industries, including construction, cable car systems, food and beverage, service providers, non-profits and production, Ramsauer & Sturmer is a trusted partner to over 400 clients around the world.

This transaction will provide Aptean with an expanded geographic presence in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region, where demand for digital business solutions increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aptean also looks forward to welcoming Ramsauer & Sturmer's 150 talented employees. As part of Aptean, Ramsauer & Sturmer will have the opportunity to continue their focus in their local region while also benefitting from the company's global scale and resources, including its deep technology expertise. Ramsauer & Sturmer will be better positioned to serve clients as a truly long-term provider throughout the full customer lifecycle.

"Ramsauer & Sturmer is a trusted ERP solutions and implementation partner for its global network of customers, and we are confident we will see continued success together in the DACH region," said TVN Reddy, CEO of Aptean. "Their talented staff have over 35 years of expertise delighting customers across industries with a compelling suite of software solutions. We are eager to work with the Ramsauer & Sturmer team to help continue to advance their technology and drive this exciting phase of growth for the business," added Volker Schinkel, General Manager of Aptean DACH.

"Aptean stands out as a leader in its differentiated focus on developing industry-specific software, and we look forward to joining forces," said Ramsauer & Sturmer's Managing Director Markus Neumayr. "With Aptean's global scale and significant capabilities, we will be able to accelerate investment in our business and better support our customers at a time when demand for digital workflows and optimized processes has never been stronger. We are excited to work closely with the Aptean team to continue to deliver the absolute reliability, broad expertise, premium quality and innovative thinking our customers trust us to provide."

About Ramsauer & Sturmer

Founded in 1984, Ramsauer & Sturmer produces market-leading ERP solutions for mid-sized Austrian companies. We are highly committed to providing our customers with innovative software delivered quickly by our solutions-oriented staff. Reliability, high quality and strong customer focus are at our core. We are here to support you on the way to success. Visit www.rs-soft.com/en/.

About Aptean

Aptean is one of the world's leading providers of industry-specific software, enabling our customers to be Ready for What's Next, Now. Our enterprise resource planning and supply chain solutions are uniquely designed to meet the needs of specialized manufacturers and distributors in over 20 industries, while our compliance solutions serve specific markets such as finance and life sciences. In total, Aptean's solutions are used by over 6,500 customers around the world. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Aptean's products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to scale and succeed. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. To learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com.

Aptean is a trademark of Aptean, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
Further Strengthens Firm's Global Advising Capabilities in Industrial Technology

Lincoln International, a leading global investment banking advisory firm, is pleased to announce that Andreas Bienert has joined the firm's Frankfurt office as a Managing Director in the Global Industrials Group. Andreas will lead the firm's advisory business in industrial technology in the German-speaking region.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005254/en/

Lincoln International adds Andreas Bienert as Managing Director, further strengthening the firm's global advising capabilities in industrial technology. (Photo: Business Wire)

Andreas has over 15 years of investment banking experience and brings deep sector knowledge, established relationships and transaction experience, especially in the industrial technology sector. He will focus on advising private equity and corporate clients on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions.

"Andreas' expertise in the industrials sector is a great complement to the firm at a time where automation and digitalization are driving momentum globally," stated Dr. Michael Drill, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln International Germany. "I look forward to his contributions towards growth of both our DACH footprint and the Global Industrials Group."

Friedrich Bieselt, Managing Director and Management Board Member, added, "The addition of Andreas both expands and deepens our industrials expertise. He will be a strong addition to our global team and to the clients we serve."

Prior to joining Lincoln International, Andreas spent 15 years at Greenhill Co., where he was responsible for advising on mostly complex, cross-border M&A transactions. Andreas earned a Master of Business Administration from the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel, Germany.

Andreas commented, "I am excited to join Lincoln International and contribute to its highly successful and fast-growing advisory business focused on the middle market. The industrials sector is at the heart of the German economy with significant M&A activity and Lincoln International's first-rate relationships, global network and reputation as a trusted advisor to business leaders and investors provide a true platform for success. I am looking forward to helping clients realize their M&A goals."

About Lincoln International

We are trusted investment banking advisors to business owners and senior executives of leading private equity firms and public and privately held companies around the world. Our advisory services include mergers and acquisitions and capital markets advisory for the mid-market. We also provide valuations and fairness opinions and joint ventures advisory services. As one tightly integrated team of more than 600 professionals across 16 countries, we offer an unobstructed perspective, backed by superb execution and a deep commitment to client success. With extensive industry knowledge and relationships, timely market intelligence and strategic insights, we forge deep, productive client relationships that endure for decades. Connect with us to learn more at www.lincolninternational.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005254/en/

Contacts:

Abigail Wilkes

+44 208 126 1308
Berwyn, Pennsylvania--(Newsfile Corp. - July 1, 2021) - Annovis Bio, Inc. (NYSE American: ANVS), ("Annovis" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage drug platform company that addresses Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases, with data from two phase 2 studies showing its lead compound improves cognition in AD patients and motor function in PD patients, today announced its CEO, Maria L. Maccecchini, Ph.D., was named the winner of the 2021 PACT Enterprise Award for Life Sciences and Healthcare CEO.

The awards, hosted annually by the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT), celebrate innovation in science and technology in the Philadelphia region.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by PACT as a leader in life sciences," commented Dr. Maccecchini. "We are proud to call Philadelphia home, a city with a rich history of innovation. Annovis Bio is adding to that history as we continue to work to advance our novel approach to AD, PD, and other neurodegenerative diseases."

A replay of the awards ceremony can be viewed online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSzTe3dY0RY.

Annovis is a proud supporter of PACT, whose vision is to be the go-to resource for fast growing companies and a driver of entrepreneurship and innovation in the Philadelphia region.

About Annovis Bio Inc.

Headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Annovis Bio, Inc. (Annovis) is a clinical-stage, drug platform company addressing neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's in Down Syndrome (AD-DS). We believe that we are the only company developing a drug for AD, PD and AD-DS that inhibits more than one neurotoxic protein and, thereby, improves the information highway of the nerve cell, known as axonal transport. When this information flow is impaired, the nerve cell gets sick and dies. We have two ongoing Phase 2 studies: one in AD patients and one in both AD and PD patients. In the AD/ PD study our drug improves memory loss and dementia associated with AD, as well as body and brain function in PD. For more information on Annovis, please visit the company's website: www.annovisbio.com

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release contain "forward-looking statements" that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "believe," "will," "may," "should," "estimate," "project," "outlook," "forecast" or other similar words, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the timing, effectiveness, and anticipated results of ANVS401 clinical trials. Forward-looking statements are based on Annovis Bio, Inc.'s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Annovis Bio, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

Investor Relations:

Dave Gentry, CEO

RedChip Companies Inc.

407-491-4498

Dave@redchip.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/89216
Stockholm, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Students from Lancaster University: Left: Vasco Vieira - Middle: Jenny Wilson - Right: James McEwan

Using robot technology from OnRobot, the students built an automation solution that eliminates worker exposure to the nylon powder used for 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Exposure to the nylon powder is harmful as workers may inhale, ingest or accidentally rub it into their eyes while working. The Lancaster students' solution reduces worker exposure and eliminates associated health risks.

Additive Manufacturing and industrial 3D printing processes are booming, changing the way manufacturers work and invent. Rapid changes on the manufacturing side, means rapid changes in the work environment, and businesses must work to keep up and ensure the work environment related to new technologies like Selective Laser Sintering is safe.

The nylon powder used and left behind when an employee extracts a 3D printed part can be harmful to the person doing the job, so having an intelligent system - a robot - do this job will result in a healthier, safer and cleaner workplace.

A team of five engineering students at Lancaster University took on the challenge to create an intelligent system that can extract the additive manufactured parts from the cake of nylon powder, which is left after selective laser sintering, eliminating human interaction with the fine nylon powder.

The student Team Leader, James McEwan, said:

The resulting system has proven to be a robust system being able to accommodate different sized cakes and a large variety of parts of differing shapes and sizes. As for the effect this system can have, it means that workplaces will be safer as workers will no longer be at risk of ingesting the powder or getting it in the eyes which can be harmful.

The Lancaster students have achieved a very solid base for further work around automated post processing of additive manufactured parts. The team at Lancaster expect this to be the first of many successful projects using cobots to improve the efficiency, reproducibility and safety of manufacturing processes and they would like to acknowledge funding from the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership which helped support this research area.

OnRobot RG2, OnRobot Eyes and the HEX Force Torque Sensor and a UR5 cobot from Universal Robots.

Professor Andrew Kennedy, Chair of Advanced Manufacturing at Lancaster University, is impressed with the product range and quality in addition to the service and advice provided by OnRobot's local partner Olympus Technologies:

We approached Olympus Technologies to help us select robots, end-effectors, and vision products for our Engineering Labs. We had an initial project in mind, but we wanted the range of products to offer the widest potential range of future uses. Despite the pandemic preventing them from visiting the site, Olympus has continued to support us remotely. Most of the equipment was very straightforward to install and get into use, and Olympus have been quick to provide support when we did have any questions.

Adam Swallow, Director, Olympus Technologies Ltd:

As an employer of engineering graduates, Olympus Technologies is delighted to see robotics being incorporated into mechatronic and mechanical engineering degree courses, and students being challenged to solve real world problems with innovative robotic equipment. Lancaster University's decision to purchase Universal Robots together with a wide range of OnRobot equipment sets them up perfectly for many more groups of students and researchers to tackle a wide range of automation challenges. It has been a delight to support this first team of students, who have delivered a fantastic project despite the challenges of the times we live in. We look forward to continuing to support the University.

In Denmark at OnRobot's Headquarters, General Manager Vikram Kumar is impressed by the students' results.

The project at Lancaster University is a great example of what you can achieve by combining human creativity with the flexibility and user-friendliness of our technologies. Kudos to the young innovation heroes! Automation is the way forward for my members, both to ensure a good working environment and strong competitiveness. I find the British project very interesting.

Technology deployed in this project:

OnRobot products: OnRobot RG2 (two fingered gripper), OnRobot Eyes and the HEX Force Torque Sensor and a UR5 cobot from Universal Robots.

The RG2 gripper is used to pick up the parts, and it is also used as a 'probe' to sift through the powder because it is IP54 rated, and therefore 'dust protected.'

The HEX Force Torque Sensor and the HEX UR cap is used to sense the impact of any collisions the probe will experience when it makes contact with parts.

OnRobot Eyes determines the size and free spaces of the part.

About OnRobot - ENG

OnRobot delivers a full line of innovative plug-and-produce solutions for collaborative applications. Our electric grippers, force/torque sensors, vacuum grippers, award-winning Gecko technology and tool changers help manufacturers gain the full advantages of automation, including ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and safety alongside human workers. The combination of offerings makes it quicker and simpler to automate tasks such as packaging, quality control, material handling, machine tending, palletizing, assembly and surface finishing.

Contacts

General Manager, EMEA

Vikram Kumar

vikram.kumar@onrobot.com

+45 22760043



PR & Marketing Manager, North Europe & CEE

Josefine Toftdal

josefine.toftdal@onrobot.com

+45 28941223




"Domination of the sea is domination of the world."

ISTANBUL, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Turkey Maritime Summit, to be held for the first time under the leadership of the T.R. Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, will take place as a hybrid event on July 1st-2nd-3rd, 2021.

The maritime sector, which has had the biggest role in international transportation since antiquity, is increasing its share in parallel with the increasing trade volume, especially with its environmentalist approach. Surrounded by seas on three sides due to its geographical location, with a total of 78 shipyards and 119 thousand actual ship personnel trained in 88 institutions, Turkey is focusing on strengthening its "Maritime Country" identity every year.

Stating the construction of three big ports on the three seas of Turkey, which is surrounded by seas on three sides, to emphasize the identity of the "Maritime Country", Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu:

"As the Ministry, we act in line with the interests of our country in every investment we make in the sector in order to develop and move the maritime industry to a much higher level. Istanbul Canal is one of the freshest and biggest examples of the importance we give to our seas and the maritime sector.We will be the playmaker country in world maritime trade with Istanbul Canal, which is Turkey's strategic move with its location, function and areas of influence. Domination of the seas is about being a logistical power.Istanbul Canal will make Turkey the logistics base of its region; and it will make Marmara Sea the center of Eurasia.In order to develop our maritime sector, which has reached a significant level with the investments, supports and projects made in the last 19 years, and to move it to a much higher level, we use a common mind with the sector representatives and see the problems of the sector as our own.We will continue to work to raise our Blue Motherland to the place it deserves, to increase the contribution of our seas to the country's economy and to develop the sector."

Main Theme: Blue Motherland

The current strength and potential of our Blue Motherland, the areas that promise the highest potential for future growth in the maritime and logistics industries, the advantages that the industry will gain from this growth; will be the main theme of the summit, which will start with the Maritime and Cabotage Day celebrations.

In the summit, which will be organized to contribute to the development of mutual information exchange and relationship networks of the sector stakeholders, in line with the vision of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure; it is aimed to bring together thousands of local and foreign participants under one roof with sessions, roundtables, workshops, ideathons, experiential practices, enriched content and methodologies.

Turkey's Strategic Move "Canal Istanbul" Will Be Evaluated

At the Turkey Maritime Summit, Turkey's strategic move, Istanbul Canal's importance in terms of world logistics and the maritime sector, the new balances it will create, its location, function and areas of influence will be evaluated in the light of the vast knowledge of experts in the field.

At the opening session of the event, which will start with Cabotage Day celebration activities, Secretary General of International Maritime Organization Kitack Lim and T.R. Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu will give a speech.

Program Flow

Turkey Maritime Summit, where Istanbul Canal, Blue Motherland and our maritime vision will be discussed, will be held in Tersane Istanbul between 1st-3rd of July; within the scope of the event, in addition to two sessions titled "Trade in Maritime" and "Global Maritime Technology, Trends, Driving Forces and Challenges"; two other talks, "History of Turkish Straits" with Prof. Dr. Ilber Ortayli and "A 'Barbaros' Conversation" with Iskender Pala, will take place.

"A sacred duty"

Emphasizing that public and private sector cooperation opportunities are being mobilized to the fullest in order to have a voice in every inch of Blue Motherland, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu: "We are passing through a historical turning point of where we understand the value our Blue Motherland much better.As a maritime nation, it has become an extremely sacred duty for us to show the world our dominance in the seas surrounding our three sides."

iletisim.sgb@uab.gov.tr +905386200591



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Company designing new colors virtually, painting two-tone vehicles more sustainably

PPG (NYSE: PPG) today announced that its experts will share the future of sustainable automotive color styling and application technology in presentations at the Surcar Europe 2021 automotive engineering and design show, which is being held this week in Cannes, France.

Sabine Griesbeck, PPG digital transformation technical manager, will discuss the future of color development using digital color styling. A presentation by Sven Reil, PPG automotive application manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, will cover paint as an enabler for precision application. Both presentations will be given on July 1.

PPG's digital styling program will enable automotive designers to execute exceptionally realistic three-dimensional modeling of automotive colors and effects on virtual car designs and surfaces, significantly speeding up the process of developing new colors and reducing waste.

"Prior to the development of PPG's digital color styling program, the time taken from the designer's vision to a final color could be as long as nine months," said Griesbeck. "The color team developed several different variations of a color. These are then applied to test panels that are sent to the customer for review. This generated waste, and having small panels does not give a good real-world representation of the color."

PPG's digital styling library features a proprietary "speed shape" that accurately depicts the interaction of color, geometry and light. It also offers the option to download digital color files that are fully compatible with industry-standard color-rendering software. This enables design teams to collaborate with PPG experts directly, remotely and in real time.

"This is the first step in fully digitizing the entire color styling process for PPG customers," Griesbeck said. "Imagine if in the future you can adjust a color virtually according to your wishes, and the new color design is digitally born and ready to use in production. There are also significant sustainability benefits, as we expect this new way of working will reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint through lower material and energy consumption."

Individualization and customization are also leading to an increased demand for two-tone schemes. PPG's breakthrough precision application technology for automotive coatings significantly streamlines the painting of these schemes, producing crisp paint edges without the use of masking and other time-intensive steps currently required to achieve a two-tone finish.

"The conventional process requires that a vehicle be fully painted before paint shop personnel mask off areas that will not receive the second color," said Reil. "The vehicle must then be run through the paint line or a repair line a second time to apply the contrasting color. In addition to reducing paint shop capacity, this second run can add significant material, labor and energy costs to the total unit cost of the vehicle."

The precision process uses a specially designed PPG coating as well as innovative application heads that apply the paint directly without overspray. This can reduce paint shop time by approximately 50 minutes per two-tone vehicle. This process also advances customer sustainability goals by reducing CO2 emissions and eliminating energy-intensive air-filtering systems that handle overspray from the paint application process, reducing costs and improving efficiency.

"The process uses a direct printing approach rather than conventional spraying, eliminating overspray and masking," Reil said. "It allows the application of coatings in an extremely precise manner, giving the ability to combine both sustainability and customization. In the future, complete cars might be painted using precision application technology, offering manufacturers even more options to enhance the appeal of their vehicle models."

PPG: WE PROTECT AND BEAUTIFY THE WORLD

At PPG (NYSE:PPG), we work every day to develop and deliver the paints, coatings and materials that our customers have trusted for more than 135 years. Through dedication and creativity, we solve our customers' biggest challenges, collaborating closely to find the right path forward. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, we operate and innovate in more than 70 countries and reported net sales of $13.8 billion in 2020. We serve customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets. To learn more, visit www.ppg.com.

We protect and beautify the world is a trademark and the PPG Logo is a registered trademark of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.

CATEGORY Automotive OEM Coatings

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005108/en/

Contacts:

PPG Media Contacts:

Andrew Wood

Corporate Communications, EMEA

+31 6 5121 6579

awood@ppg.com

Keith Rigby

Automotive OEM Coatings

+1 412-434-1718

krigby@ppg.com

www.ppg.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - MGM Resorts International (MGM) said that it agreed to buy Infinity World Development Corp's 50 percent interest in CityCenter Holdings LLC for $2.125 billion. The purchase price represents an implied valuation of $5.8 billion based on net debt of $1.5 billion, after giving effect to the recently closed sale of a two-acre parcel. The agreement will make MGM Resorts the 100 percent owner of CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip, which is comprised of Aria Resort & Casino and Vdara Hotel and Spa. In addition, MGM Resorts has reached a deal with Blackstone to monetize the Aria and Vdara real estate assets, pending the close of the equity purchase agreement between MGM Resorts and Infinity World. As per terms of the agreement, funds managed by Blackstone will acquire the Aria and Vdara real estate for $3.89 billion in cash. Following the acquisition, both properties will be leased to MGM Resorts for initial annual rent of $215 million. The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter. 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.
BANGALORE, India, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Electrophoresis Market is Segmented by Type (Research, Diagnostic, Quality Control & Process Validation), by Application (Retail, Healthcare, Hospitality, Transportation, Others). The report covers global opportunity analysis and industry forecasts from 2021 to 2026. It is published on Valuates Reports in the Business Services Category.

The global Electrophoresis market size is projected to reach USD 2436.1 Million by 2026, from USD 1967.8 Million in 2019, at a CAGR of 3.1% during the forecast period 2021-2026.

Major factors driving the growth of the global electrophoresis market are:

The growing use of capillary electrophoresis with mass spectroscopy is increasing the electrophoresis market. Also increasing application of electrophoresis in the field of drug discovery and technological advancements is propelling market growth

An increase in funding for research on genomic, proteomic, and electrophoresis techniques due to the rising incidence of cancer, infectious diseases, and genetic disorders are driving the electrophoresis market

Browse the Table of Contents and List of figures at: https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-26B1637/global-electrophoresis

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF ELECTROPHORESIS MARKET:

The increasing genomics study and acceptance are expected to drive the electrophoresis market. In genomics, gel electrophoresis is used to create artificial chromosome libraries, genetic mapping, and gene chromosomal assignments.

The increasing need for DNA analysis and the study of DNA fragments are increasing the growth of electrophoresis. DNA (or deoxyribonucleic acid) is impacted by the presence of an electrical current because of the consistency of the negative charge it bears. DNA breaks down into large and small fragments when it is subjected to the pressure of an electric field. This happens because the electric current affects various bits of DNA on various scales. The individual segments of the DNA strand are now frozen using a test media (such as an acrylamide gel or an agarose gel). The electric field is then eliminated, and the fragments are analyzed at high resolutions.

The growing use of Capillary Electrophoresis with Mass Spectroscopy(CE-MS) is increasing the electrophoresis market. Bioanalytical, pharmaceutical, environmental, and forensic applications have all used CE-MS. CE-MS has mostly been used in biological research, mostly for protein and peptide analyses. It is also frequently used for routine pharmaceutical medication analysis.

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ELECTROPHORESIS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

Based on application, the research applications segment accounted for the largest market share in 2016.

The increasing application of electrophoresis in the field of drug discovery, as well as technological advancements such as automated electrophoresis systems and microchip-based CE diagnostics, has revolutionized the application of electrophoresis in research, accounting for the largest share of this segment.

Based on region, the Asia Pacific is expected to be the most lucrative segment during the forecast period.

This is due to increased proteomics and genomics research, increased investments by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, increased awareness of personalized therapeutics, and increased research activities in the field of mAb-based therapeutics.

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Major Players in the Electrophoresis Market

Bio-Rad Laboratories

Ge Healthcare

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Agilent Technologies

Danaher Corporation

Perkinelmer

Qiagen

Merck Millipore

Lonza Group Ltd

Harvard Bioscience

Sebia Group

Shimadzu Corporation

C.B.S.Scientific Company

Others

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SIMILAR REPORTS

- Clinical Electrophoresis Market contains segmentation By Type (Slab Electrophoresis, Zone Electrophoresis, Paper Electrophoresis, Gel Electrophoresis, Isoelectric-Focusing, Immune-Electrophoresis, Capillary Electrophoresis), By Application (Hospitals, Clinical Laboratory, Pharmaceutical And Biotechnological Industry, Research/ Academic Institutes)

- Electrophoresis Equipment Market contains segmentation By Type (Vertical Electrophoresis, Horizontal Electrophoresis), By Application (Education, Medical, Other)

- The global Electrophoresis Reagents market size is projected to reach USD 1004.7 Million by 2026, from USD 811.6 Million in 2019, at a CAGR of 3.1% during 2021-2026. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into protein analysis and DNA & RNA analysis. The protein analysis segment held the largest share of the electrophoresis reagents market in 2014, primarily attributing to improvements in the field of recombinant proteins and ongoing advances in the field of proteomics

- Gel Electrophoresis market contains segmentation By Type (Agarose Gel, Pulse Field Gel, Temperature Gradient Gel), By Application (Laboratory Research, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Companies)

- Protein Electrophoresis Equipment Market contains segmentation By Type (Gel Electrophoresis (GE), Capillary Electrophoresis (CE), Electrophoresis Accessories), By Application (Pharmaceutical Companies, Research Organizations and Institutions, Other)

- Automated Capillary Electrophoresis Equipment Market contains segmentation By Type (Single Capillary Electrophoresis, Array Capillary Electrophoresis, Others), By Application (Pharmaceutical Companies, Research Organizations and Institutions, Others)

- Electrophoresis Transilluminator Market contains segmentation By Type (UV Light, LED Light, White Light, Other), By Application (Quality Inspection, Biological Research, Food Science, Other)

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Auto giant General Motors Co. (GM) said that it sold 688,236 vehicles in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 39.7 percent from last year, reflecting strong customer demand, but constrained by low inventories resulting from the global semiconductor shortage. The company expects continued high demand in the second half of this year and into 2022. During the second-quarter, GM earned 40.6 percent of the retail market for full-size pickups, up 4.5 percentage points year over year, with more than 237,000 Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras sold in the quarter. GM said that production of HD pickups will increase by about 1,000 trucks per month beginning in mid-July as a result of production line efficiencies delivered by the team at Flint Assembly in Michigan. Also, GM will return full-size pickup production to Oshawa Assembly in Canada at the end of 2021. GM ended the quarter with 211,974 units in inventory, down from 334,628 at the end of the first quarter. 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.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - On the last day of Pride Month, the Biden Administration announced a slew of measures to advance equality, inclusion, and opportunity for transgender Americans.



It includes the creation of a new White House-led Inter-agency Working Group that will coordinate policies to advance safety, economic opportunity, and inclusion for transgender Americans.



To help inform the priorities of the Working Group, in the coming weeks the White House will host listening sessions with transgender women of color and transgender advocates to hear their policy recommendations for this cause.



The State Department is updating agency procedures to remove burdensome medical documentation requirements for transgender Americans who wish to update their gender markers on their passports and other citizenship or identity documents. The State Department is beginning the process to add a third gender marker for gender non-conforming, non-binary and intersex Americans, and will work closely with inter-agency partners to ensure smooth travel experience for all passport holders.



President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order to ensure the Federal government is a model employer for transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary employees. The order charges agencies with building inclusive cultures for transgender employees



The Department of Veterans Affairs is beginning the regulatory process to remove outdated restrictions that prevent transgender veterans from accessing comprehensive gender-affirming care through the VA medical system.



The White House released a new toolkit with best practices that highlights steps that agencies across the Federal government are taking to combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity.



These announcements build on critical steps that the Biden Administration has taken to advance equality for transgender Americans, including reversing the discriminatory ban on transgender service members imposed by former President Donald Trump.



Transgender people, especially transgender women and girls of color, face epidemic levels of violence, discrimination, and stigma in the United States, according to the White House.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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HAIKOU, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine learning about the history of the development of Hainan Island in an unusual and fascinating way - through a long scroll of delightful papercut art! The Hainan International Media Center (HIMC) had invited a group of papercut artists, including Huang Haitao and Wei Qin, who have won special recognition from the Hainan Government for their expertise, to jointly create The100-Year Road and the Hainan Tide, a 22-meter scroll that presents 21 milestone events in Hainan's development in the past 100 years since 1921.

Why choose papercut as the medium? Because besides its unique charm, the art is an intangible cultural heritage of China. It took the group a month to create the masterpiece in the traditional red and white colors.

"It's the longest papercut work I've ever done and also the most challenging," said Huang Haitao, who has nearly 20 years of experience. She described how she worked on her part of the scroll sitting at a long table in her studio. First, she had to meticulously outline the design, including clusters of tiny coconut leaves, on the paper with a cutter, the leaves smaller than her fingernails. Then she would gently press down each with the tip of her nails and carefully cut out the shape along the outline, little by little.

On May 28, she roped in several more artists and after careful consideration, they chose the 21 key events they would depict. They included the Murui Mountain Revolutionary Base where the cradle of the Hainan Revolution stood firm and the Red Detachment of Women, a special unit of women guerrillas who later inspired operas, ballets and even a film. The victory in the Hainan Island Liberation Campaign in 1950 also features on the scroll.

Events from more recent history include the establishment of Hainan as a province in 1988, and the subsequent setting up of the Hainan Special Economic Zone, and the release of the master plan for the Hainan Free Trade Port.

The scroll consists of 18 sheets joined together, each 60 cm to 130 cm long and 68cm wide.

The drawings are the spine of the scroll. Most of the settings include local plants such as coconut and banyan trees. The architecture depicted reflects the transformation from the thatched cottages of the Li ethnic community who live on the island to modern construction symbolized by the Century Bridge.

On June 29, the scroll was finally mounted. "Though the work was extremely difficult, we did it with the concerted efforts of our team," Huang Haitao said. "It made me think of the power of the nation working in solidarity to overcome all difficulties till victory is achieved finally."

Click the link to view the scroll:

https://file590cbb74f209.vrh5.cn/v3/idea/VUV9K3zM'suid=396E5BAE-34F7-49A9-9B37-001D595E72AF&sl=1suid=ohAJ7weovJ0xS_b5-tTLaLxKLpWo&sl=1

Click the link to view the documentary on making the scroll:

http://www.hicn.cn/system/2021/07/01/032576588.shtml

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Societe de la Tour Eiffel announces the signing of a nine-year confirmed commercial lease with Now Connected. With a total of 1100 m at Tour Lilleurope in Lille, France, this new office concept will open its doors in October 2021. This new lease raises the building's occupancy rate to 84%.

The Now Connected solution was launched in June 2020 by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Now Coworking, an independent company. Its unprecedented offering creates, arranges, markets and operates workspaces that meet the new security and flexibility standards of the office market for both landlords and occupants. The new company will move into the atrium, as well as onto the 11th floor to develop its concept and its coworker community. To make way for this new tenant, Societe de la Tour Eiffel has invested in rethinking the building atrium entirely, optimising the private areas of the floor and meeting the special needs of this innovative concept. The space will provide adjustability and optimise profitability for Now Connected clients.

With more than 25,000 m of surface area on 24 floors, this flagship Lille office tower, which is owned by Societe de la Tour Eiffel, is strategically placed, "straddling" the Lille-Europe TGV station in the heart of the Euralille business district.

"We are pleased to welcome Now Connected's first development outside Paris, at Tour Lilleurope. This choice shows the attractiveness of spaces developed by Societe de la Tour Eiffel, which meet the needs of innovative projects by offering both adjustability and flexibility. In accordance with our role as an integrated property company, we will also have Now Connected fit out the atrium of Tour Lilleurope, including a range of services and activities and a work cafe", commented Bruno Meyer, Deputy CEO of Societe de la Tour Eiffel.

Contact



Relations Presse

Laetitia Baudon - Directrice Conseil

Agence Shan

Tel. + 33 (0)1 44 50 58 79

laetitia.baudon@shan.fr

Societe de la Tour Eiffel



The Societe de la Tour Eiffel, with assets of  1.9 billion, is an integrated commercial property investment company with a long-standing service culture. Operating throughout the real estate cycle, it supports its clients, companies of all sizes and from all sectors, through a demanding practice of direct management of its assets located in regions with high growth potential. The property company manages its rapidly expanding real estate assets over the long term, with a strategic refocusing plan for the 100% office portfolio, with 80% in Greater Paris and 20% in high-potential regional cities, and has established itself as a benchmark player.



Societe de la Tour Eiffel is listed on Euronext Paris (Compartment B) - ISIN Code: FR0000036816 - Reuters: TEIF.PA -



Bloomberg: EIFF.FP - A member of the IEIF Foncieres and IEIF Immobilier France indices



www.societetoureiffel.com



About Now Connected :

Now Connected is a subsidiary of Now coworking, company offering a new ort of living work and developing premium coworking spaces all across.France.

Now Connected offers to investors, user companies, local bodies the setting-up or the operating of flexible spaces they own. Find our spaces and news on: https://now-connected.com

Pop the work ! Press contact:

Ludivine BUNEL - ludivine@now-coworking.com

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TIANJIN, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In September 2020, Zhang Boli was awarded with the national honorary title "the People's Hero" by the Chinese central government for his outstanding contribution to the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision was made to commend people who have made outstanding contributions in the fight, and carry forward their dedication and other noble qualities.

This short documentary was produced by Tianjin Haihe Media Group, which told Dr. Zhang's story of his battle against COVID-19 during the pandemic. In 2020, Zhang Boli, 72, helped the medical community recognize the value of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by leading an expert team to treat COVID-19 infections in Wuhan, China's frontline in the battle against the novel coronavirus disease.

As head of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhang arrived in Wuhan, capital of central China'sHubei Province, on January 27, the third day of China's Lunar New Year and the fifth day into the megacity's lockdown for pandemic control.

Zhang Boli and over 300 other doctors formed a TCM medical team. They were stationed at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan's Jiangxia district using TCM decoctions with other treatments such as massage, acupuncture, and physical exercises from Tai Chi and Baduanjin, a traditional aerobics form, to treat COVID-19 patients.

With Zhang's pioneering practices, TCM treatment has been given to 90 percent of COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, helping to relieve symptoms, slowing disease progression, and boosting recovery.

Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556230/Tianjin_Haihe_Media_Group.mp4

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Contact:

Jane Cheng

Tel.: +8610-68996566

E-mail: 1163514639@qq.com

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-ODsnxuR-VQ
This message may contain confidential or privileged Information and is intended only for the use of the addressee named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that you must not use, copy, disclose or take any action based on this message or information herein. If you have received this message by error, please advise the sender immediately and delete this message. The publication is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or subscribe for securities. Past performance is not a reliable indicator or guarantee of future results, prices of shares and the income from them may fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount originally invested. The investor must be aware of the investment risk and personal risk ability. Some information quoted was obtained from external sources HBM considers to be reliable. HBM cannot guarantee the adequacy, accuracy, timeliness or completeness of or be held responsible or liable for errors of fact regarding such data and information obtained from third parties, and this data may change with market conditions.

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.
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), through certain of its production facilities, today filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce ("Commerce") and the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") requesting the initiation of antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on imports of urea ammonium nitrate solutions ("UAN") from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago ("Trinidad").

CF Industries, which is the largest producer of UAN in the United States, requested the investigations due to the harm the domestic UAN industry has experienced from dumped and unfairly subsidized UAN imports from Russia and Trinidad. CF Industries filed its petitions under United States antidumping and countervailing duty laws, which authorize Commerce to level the playing field for domestic industries injured by foreign imports that are dumped and unfairly subsidized. If Commerce and the ITC make affirmative determinations, then Commerce can impose duties equal to the level of dumping and unfair subsidies.

"For too long, UAN producers in the United States, who are among the most efficient in the world, have competed on an uneven playing field due to dumped and unfairly subsidized imports from Russia and Trinidad," said Tony Will, president and chief executive officer, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. "The duties we are seeking will restore fairness to our highly competitive industry and help ensure that American UAN producers remain a reliable source of fertilizers for American farmers for years to come."

In the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of Commerce will decide whether to initiate investigations to determine the extent of dumping and unfair subsidies associated with imports from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago; and the U.S. International Trade Commission will initiate a concurrent investigation to determine whether such imports materially injure the U.S. industry. CF Industries intends to participate actively in proceedings before both agencies.

About CF Industries Holdings, Inc.

At CF Industries, our mission is to provide clean energy to feed and fuel the world sustainably. With our employees focused on safe and reliable operations, environmental stewardship, and disciplined capital and corporate management, we are on a path to decarbonize our ammonia production network the world's largest to enable green and blue hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement and other industrial activities. Our nine manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, an unparalleled storage, transportation and distribution network in North America, and logistics capabilities enabling a global reach underpin our strategy to leverage our unique capabilities to accelerate the world's transition to clean energy. CF Industries routinely posts investor announcements and additional information on the company's website at www.cfindustries.com and encourages those interested in the company to check there frequently.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006006/en/

Contacts:

Media

Chris Close

Director, Corporate Communications

847-405-2542 cclose@cfindustries.com

Investors

Martin Jarosick

Vice President, Investor Relations

847-405-2045 mjarosick@cfindustries.com


Wulin Qiaopi Hall.



Citizens read Qiaopi at Wulin Qiaopi Hall.



Simulation of Qiaopi Office at the first floor.

Jinjiang, China, July 2, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - With the recent approval of UNESCO Memory of the World Program's Sub-Committee on Education and Research and the National Archives Administration of China, the Fujian Provincial Archives and Jinjiang Municipal Archives jointly established Jinjiang Wulin Qiaopi Hall as the practice base of the "Memory of the World Program Knowledge Center - Fujian".It is reported that the MoW Knowledge Center - Fujian is located in the Fujian Provincial Archives, which is responsible for assisting the China National Committee of the Memory of the World Program and the UNESCO Memory of the World Program's Sub-Committee on Education and Research. It aims at strengthening the research on the value of the Qiaopi archives, developing different forms of archival products and promoting the communication, promotion and utilization of the MoW program across countries, regions, and communities.Qiaopi, commonly known as "Fanpi" and "Yinxin", is a collective term for letters and remittances sent home by overseas Chinese through private channels. The name "Qiao (overseas Chinese) Pi" came as the Southern Min dialect pronounces "xin (letter)" as "pi".The hall reminds people of how the Qiaopi Office operated during the period of the Republic of China. People can request a letter from an old writer here. Also, they may interpret the stories of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs from the aged Qiaopi and their belongings, and feel their patriotism, love for hometown, and zeal for public welfare.It is an immersive cultural experience. People can view the development history of Jinjiang as an Overseas Chinese Hometown, and appreciate the overseas Chinese culture of Jinjiang and even Fujian Province.The base will serve as a demonstration center to promote Qiaopi culture in Fujian Province. It will work with the MoW Knowledge Center - Fujian to build a conservation, research and promotion platform of Qiaopi archival legacies with local characteristics and to add another popular travel destination to inherit and develop the "Jinjiang Experience" of innovation and development.Contact:Lisa Wu, lisa_wu916@163.comhttp://www.jinjiang.gov.cn/xxgk/gzdt/jjyw/202106/t20210622_2576937.htmCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
STOCKHOLM, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Polygon strengthens its market position in the Netherlands with the acquisition of ACI-Groep ("ACI"). ACI is a property damage restoration company and the acquisition will add around 60 employees and revenues of around 7 MEUR.

Polygon has signed an agreement to acquire ACI, one of the leading property damage restoration companies in the Netherlands. The combination will reinforce Polygon's position as one of the market leaders on the Dutch market and expand the geographic presence in the Middle part of the Netherlands.

"The acquisition enables Polygon Netherlands to grow even further. ACI and Polygon share the same core values and ACI is a perfect match to Polygon's brand promise: Always By Your Side. I'm happy to welcome our new family member", says Axel Granitz President and CEO of Polygon Group.

"I am pleased to say that with the acquisition of ACI-Group we will have no less than 17 offices and will be welcoming more than 60 well trained, professional experts to our team. With a strong partner like ACI we are looking forward to exciting new business opportunities. ACI's client portfolio is a valuable addition to Polygon's customer base. Not only do we strengthen our current fire and water damage recovery services and our leak detection and drying techniques, we will also offer new, specialized services like fire prevention and industrial cleaning services for the process industry", says Marlies van der Meulen-Sahni Country President in Polygon Netherlands.

"This is an opportunity. Both ACI and Polygon are companies that strive to deliver exceptional disaster recovery services. We speak the same language, and our employees will benefit from excellent opportunities for continued professional development. Together we will be able to deliver successful projects, both nationally and internationally", says Bert van Ingen, General Director of ACI-Groep.

Both companies will benefit from an increased number of branches and will therefore be able to work more efficiently and tackle the peaks of the disaster recovery sector. There will also be an increased emphasis on Major & Complex Claims. ACI already has one disaster truck, and after the acquisition the number of Polygon employees in the Netherlands will increase to approximately 250.

CONTACT:

For more information, please visit www.polygongroup.com or contact Martin Hamner, Chief Financial Officer, martin.hamner@polygongroup.com, +46 70 607 85 79

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/polygon/r/polygon-acquires-aci-groep-in-the-netherlands,c3378282

The following files are available for download:
SHERMAN OAKS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / Petroteq Energy Inc. ("Petroteq" or the "Company") (TSXV:PQE)(OTC PINK:PQEFF)(FSE:PQCF), an integrated oil company focused on the development and implementation of its proprietary oil-extraction and remediation technologies, announces its intention to complete debt conversion transactions with two arm's length lenders pursuant to which the Company will issue an aggregate of 2,333,176 common shares of the Company at a deemed price of US$0.094 per share in satisfaction of US$219,318.33, representing certain accrued and unpaid interest under previously issued convertible debentures. In addition, the Company intends to complete debt conversion transactions with its four directors, and one former director, pursuant to which it will issue an aggregate of 862,456 common shares at a deemed price of US$0.094 per share in satisfaction of US$81,071.30 of accrued and unpaid director fees owed to such directors to June 30, 2021. The Company (with the creditors' consent) determined to satisfy the foregoing indebtedness with common shares in order to preserve the Company's cash for use on its extraction technology in Asphalt Ridge, Utah, and for working capital.

The foregoing transactions are subject to all necessary approvals, including from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"). The foregoing securities will be issued in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and applicable state securities laws, and will be issued as "restricted securities" (as defined in Rule 144 under the U.S. Securities Act). In addition, the shares issuable will be subject to a Canadian four-month hold period.

The debt conversion transactions with the Company's current four directors (Messrs Blyumkin, Bailey, Dennewald and Fuller) are each a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101"). The transactions are exempt from the formal valuation requirements of MI 61-101 since none of the securities of the Company are listed on a stock exchange specified in section 5.5(b) thereof. The proposed transactions are exempt from the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 since, at the time the transactions were agreed to, neither the fair market value of the transaction nor the fair market value of the consideration for the transaction, insofar as it involves interested parties, exceeded 25% of the Company's market capitalization

In addition, pursuant to a request from the Exchange, the Company advises that the US$130,000 equity financing announced by the Company on April 9, 2021 and June 4, 2021 was for 2,166,665 common shares (not 2,666,665) and the use of proceeds was for the Company's extraction technology in Asphalt Ridge, Utah, and for working capital.

About Petroteq Energy Inc.

Petroteq is a fully integrated clean technology company focused on the development and implementation of a new proprietary technology for oil extraction. The Company has an environmentally safe and sustainable technology for the extraction and reclamation of heavy and bitumen from oil sands, oil shale deposits and shallow oil deposits. Petroteq is engaged in the development and implementation of its patented environmentally friendly heavy oil processing and extraction technologies. Petroteq is currently focused on developing its oil sands resources and expanding production capacity at its Asphalt Ridge soil remediation and heavy oil extraction processing facility located near Vernal, Utah.

For more information, visit www.Petroteq.energy.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. and Canadian securities laws. Words such as "may," "would," "could," "should," "potential," "will," "seek," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company are intended to identify forward-looking information, including closing of the transactions noted herein. Readers are cautioned that there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to future events, based on information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, without limitation: execution of definitive agreements for the debt conversion agreements and satisfaction or waiver of the closing conditions, and receipt of director and Exchange approval for the transactions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. While forward-looking statements are based on data, assumptions and analyses that the Company believes are reasonable under the circumstances, whether actual results, performance or developments will meet the Company's expectations and predictions depends on a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results, performance and financial condition of the Company to differ materially from its expectations. Certain of the "risk factors" that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation: failure by the Exchange or the directors of the Company to provide necessary approvals; all closing conditions being satisfied or waived; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of resources, including whether any reserves will ever be attributed to the Company's properties; since the Company's extraction technology is proprietary, is not widely used in the industry, and has not been used in consistent commercial production, the Company's bitumen resources are classified as a contingent resource because they are not currently considered to be commercially recoverable; full scale commercial production may engender public opposition; the Company cannot be certain that its bitumen resources will be economically producible and thus cannot be classified as proved or probable reserves in accordance with applicable securities laws; changes in laws or regulations; the ability to implement business strategies or to pursue business opportunities, whether for economic or other reasons; status of the world oil markets, oil prices and price volatility; oil pricing; state of capital markets and the ability of the Company to raise capital; litigation; the commercial and economic viability of the Company's oil sands hydrocarbon extraction technology, and other proprietary technologies developed or licensed by the Company or its subsidiaries, which currently are of an experimental nature and have not been used at full capacity for an extended period of time; reliance on suppliers, contractors, consultants and key personnel; the ability of the Company to maintain its mineral lease holdings; potential failure of the Company's business plans or model; the nature of oil and gas production and oil sands mining, extraction and production; uncertainties in exploration and drilling for oil, gas and other hydrocarbon-bearing substances; unanticipated costs and expenses, availability of financing and other capital; potential damage to or destruction of property, loss of life and environmental damage; risks associated with compliance with environmental protection laws and regulations; uninsurable or uninsured risks; potential conflicts of interest of officers and directors; risks related to COVID-19 including various recommendations, orders and measures of governmental authorities to try to limit the pandemic, including travel restrictions, border closures, non-essential business closures, quarantines, self-isolations, shelters-in-place and social distancing, disruptions to markets, economic activity, financing, supply chains and sales channels, and a deterioration of general economic conditions including a possible national or global recession; and other general economic, market and business conditions and factors, including the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's disclosure documents, filed with United States Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov (including, without limitation, its most recent annual report on Form 10-K under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended), and with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com.

Should any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward- looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, the Company does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law.

The securities referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from the U.S. registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities, nor a solicitation for offers to buy any securities. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Petroteq Energy Inc.

Alex Blyumkin

Executive Chairman

Tel: (800) 979-1897

SOURCE: Petroteq Energy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653972/Petroteq-Announces-Debt-Conversions


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the advance seen in the previous session, treasuries moved back to the downside over the course of the trading day on Thursday.



Treasuries regained ground after an initial drop by pulled back firmly into negative territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 3.7 basis points to 1.480 percent.



With the increase on the day, the ten-year yield rebounded after ending the previous session at its lowest closing level in nearly four months.



The pullback by treasuries came as traders looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report on Friday.



Economists currently expect the report to show employment jumped by 690,000 jobs in June after surging up by 559,000 jobs in May. The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent.



A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report this morning showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended June 26th.



The report said initial jobless claims slid to 364,000, a decrease of 51,000 from the previous week's revised level of 415,000.



Economist had expected jobless claims to dip to 393,000 from the 411,000 originally reported for the previous week.



With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020.



Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Institute for Supply Management showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in the month of June.



The ISM said its manufacturing PMI slipped to 60.6 in June from 61.2 in May, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth in the manufacturing sector. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 61.0.



The Commerce Department also released a report showing an unexpected decrease in construction spending in the month of May.



Trading on Friday is likely to be driven by reaction to the monthly jobs report, which will overshadow separate reports on the U.S. trade deficit and factory orders.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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CHICAGO, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its commitment to help producers meet the growing demand for animal protein in Southeast Asia, Amlan International has named Nguyen Hai as the new commercial manager for Vietnam. Nguyen will lead the sales support and strategy in the country for Amlan, a global leader in mineral-based feed additives that promote the intestinal health of poultry and livestock and improve the economics of production.



Rising incomes in Vietnam are resulting in a growing demand for animal protein. Yearly poultry consumption per person in Vietnam was 13 kg in 2017 and is expected to rise to 17 kg by 2027, according to a report by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Export of meat and egg products in the country is projected to increase as improvements in production efficiency are helping poultry and swine operations meet the growing demand.

"Significant advancements are being made in natural feed additives to help producers in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia meet changing consumer preferences and adapt to increasing restrictions on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in animal protein production," says Fred Kao, Vice President of Global Sales, Amlan International. "Nguyen will be a strong asset for the Southeast Asia team as we continue to work with the industry to deliver innovative, natural mineral-based feed additive solutions that producers can incorporate in their production strategies for long-term value and profitability."

In his new role at Amlan, Nguyen will build and lead a technical team in providing superior sales and technical support to producers and industry stakeholders to drive greater efficiencies in poultry and swine production in Vietnam. Prior to joining Amlan, he was national sales manager for a prominent animal health company, where he led the sales and marketing strategy for Vietnam. While there, he managed budgets, led a sales team and increased target sales volume for two consecutive years.

Nguyen holds a master's degree in animal science from the Asia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in animal science, with an emphasis in swine and piglet nutrition, from Queensland University.

"Shifting consumer trends and growing economies in Southeast Asia are requiring necessary improvements in animal protein production systems. Amlan is at the forefront of developing and introducing natural mineral-based feed additive solutions to drive success for producers in meeting that demand," says Dan Jaffee, President & CEO, Oil-Dri Corporation of America. Jaffee also serves as President and General Manager of Amlan, which is the animal health business of Oil-Dri Corporation. "Vietnam is a vital producer of poultry and swine, and Nguyen will strengthen our operations there and will be a valuable asset in driving success for our producer customers in that country."

Company Information

Amlan is the animal health business of Oil-Dri Corporation of America, leading global manufacturer and marketer of sorbent minerals. Oil-Dri leverages over 80 years of expertise in mineral science to selectively mine and process their unique mineral for consumer and business-to-business markets. Oil-Dri Corporation of America doing business as "Amlan International" is a publicly traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ODC). Amlan International sells feed additives across the world. Product availability may vary by country, associated claims do not constitute medical claims and may differ based on government requirements.

Reagan Culbertson

Media Contact

press@amlan.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c79f14bd-bc5d-457b-9434-3920ea2ecbd7
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / Solomon Admissions Consulting has become the first firm in the college admissions consulting industry to have its students' success rates reviewed by a Vault 50 independent accounting firm. The firm that issued the Independent Accountant's Report was EisnerAmper LLP, one of the nation's largest full-service advisory and accounting firms.

EisnerAmper LLP performed its review of Solomon Admissions' published incoming freshman university/college acceptance rates of Solomon clients for the 2019-2020 Admissions Cycle. Specifically, EisnerAmper reviewed the client success rate at 27 different colleges and then traced and agreed them to the rates provided publicly by Solomon Admissions Consulting. As part of the review, the firm analyzed Solomon client acceptance rates at such colleges as Stanford University, where the acceptance rate of Solomon clients was 31.0% as opposed to the national average of 5.2%, and the University of Pennsylvania, where the Solomon client acceptance rate was 31.3% as opposed to the national acceptance rate of 8.6%.

This Independent Accountant's Report establishes Solomon Admissions Consulting at the forefront of transparency in the college admissions consulting industry.

Solomon Admissions Consulting's services are sought out by students across the United States and abroad, as acceptance rates to the nation's top universities continue to decrease every year. Solomon's team consists of over 60 former college admissions officers from top colleges, such as Stanford, Cornell, MIT and Yale University. Solomon's student success rates are due to the college admissions consulting firm's strategic team-based approach and its overarching commitment to client results.

About Solomon Admissions Consulting

Being accepted into a top college comes down to how you market yourself as an applicant. There are plenty of students with good test scores and grades, so in order to be accepted by a top university, what an applicant needs is to stand out from this enormous and highly qualified crowd. All of our admissions consultants are Former College Admissions Officers and they work with our college applicants to craft memorable narratives and personal statements that best address their unique backgrounds, interests, and how they will contribute to the college to which they apply. Our college admissions consultants advise on how to best position the college application so as to match it with what each college desires to see in its students. Most importantly, our admissions consultants ensure that student essays, teacher recommendation letters, activity sheets, addendums, and interviews all support this positioning strategy.

Facebook: solomonadmissions

Twitter: @ConsultSolomon

Contact Info:

+1-646-598-8174

info@solomonadmissions.com

For Media Inquiries, contact:

Vitaly Borishan

vitaly.borishan@solomonadmissions.com

SOURCE: Solomon Admissions Consulting

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/653985/First-Firm-in-College-Admissions-Consulting-Industry-Has-Its-Success-Rates-Reviewed-by-a-Vault-50-Independent-Accounting-Firm
RENO, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 1, 2021 / The Whittier Trust Company of Nevada is excited to welcome new hire, Vanessa Boehm, as a Vice President and Client Advisor of Whittier Trust Company of Nevada.

Ms. Boehm has been a part of the estate planning, trust, and fiduciary services industry for over 15 years, having worked as a Senior Trust Officer, Vice President with Union Bank's Private Bank and Bank of America Private Wealth Management. Ms. Boehm graduated cum laude with honors from the University of Arizona and earned her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.

"We are very pleased to welcome Vanessa as part of the team and we know she will be a valuable addition to Whittier Trust," said Victoria Kahn, Executive Vice President, Nevada Regional Manager. "Vanessa's legal and wealth management background is an excellent fit for our firm, and most importantly, for our clients."

Ms. Boehm will be working closely with high-net-worth families and their trusted advisors to provide comprehensive solutions in Investment Management, Trust, Philanthropic, and Family Office Services.

For more information or upcoming events, contact Brandi J. Fields at, BFields@whittiertrust.com , or visit www.whittiertrust.com .

Whittier Trust is the oldest and largest private multi-family office headquartered on the West Coast. Whittier's wealth management platform serves over 480 families and over 40 foundations throughout the U.S. and advises on over $17 billion in assets. The firm has helped individuals and families manage, grow and transfer wealth intergenerationally for six generations. The firm has offices in South Pasadena, San Francisco, Newport Beach, Reno, Seattle, and Portland. To learn more, visit http://www.whittiertrust.com

SOURCE: Cambridge Global

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/654001/Whittier-Trust-Welcomes-New-Vice-President-and-Client-Advisor-to-Whittier-Trust-Company-of-Nevada
Eight Roads, a Shangai, China-based global investment firm backed by Fidelity, launched its US$400m latest healthcare fund for China.

Eight Roads China Healthcare Fund V will follow Eight Roads core strategy of healthcare investments in China, which is to develop a comprehensive healthcare ecosystem across the industry value chain and around critical diseases.

Led by Daniel Auerbach, Senior Managing Partner and Head of Global Ventures, and Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of China at Eight Roads, the new fund will invest in and build innovative and transformational healthcare and life science companies with disruptive technologies and innovative business models that address the unmet market demand. It will primarily focus on early-stage investment opportunities in the healthcare industry, covering therapeutics, med tech, healthcare services and healthcare IT/digital health.

Today, Eight Roads has backed over 50 healthcare companies in China spanning drug discovery and development (WuXi Apptec, Innovent Biologics, Hua Medicine, Adagene, Insilico Medicine, Westlake Therapeutics, Semma Therapeutics, OcuMension), domestic leading med tech (EyeBright, Nanos Medical, b-ONE, LenoMed, RedPine), traditional and innovative healthcare services (DeltaHealth, BangEr Orthopaedic Hospital, Gushengtang, Arion, TreeENT, OST, KnowYourself), and digital solutions that improve the efficiency of medical payment and health care (Medbanks, MediTrust, FuCunBao, Haici Technology, Wanhu Health).

Globally, Eight Roads has an extensive network of investors and operators in offices across China, Japan, India, Europe and the US. To date, it has invested in more than 200 companies globally in healthcare, of which 34 have completed an initial public offering (IPO) on a stock exchange in mainland China, Hong Kong or the US, including WuXi Apptec, Adagene, Beam Therapeutics, Denali Therapeutics, EyeBright, Hua Medicine, Innovent Biologics, Laurus Labs, NKF, OcuMension, etc.

FinSMEs

30/06/2021
This year, Isidoro Quiroga, the well-known Chilean businessman and founder and majority shareholder of the Asesorias e Inversiones Benjamin S.A, has successfully reached yet another commercial milestone in his business career: he sold Enphase Energy, a California-based company, for US$819 million with a profit of approximately US$735 million.

Enphase Energy is a company that specializes in the design and manufacture of home energy solutions, either through solar energy, domestic energy storage or monitoring, or through the web. Quiroga had bought Enphase Energy in 2018 for US$20 million and in return took 9,523,809 million bonds, at a value of US$2.10 each. Now, he sold 13,548,476 shares and received US$60.5 per unit.

After buying the company in 2018, he bought another 4 million bonds, paying an average of US$ 16 per each bond. Isidoro Quirogas total investment in Enphase Energy was about US$84 million and he sold it almost ten times more, proving his savviness for business. But this victory is far from being his first -or last- one in the market.

In 2017, he reached globally recognized success when he sold Australis Seafoods to the Chinese salmon company Joyvio (parent company of Lenovo). Despite not being the largest sale in the market, it far surpasses the amounts of competitors such as Agrosuper, which bought AquaChile for US$ 850 million. He had bought the company in 2003, changed it from its core and transformed it into an international exporting salmon company.

Nevertheless, what is more remarkable about the beneficial transaction was that in that same year he had led Australis Seafoods throughout a major crisis. 2018 was the year of the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) in Chile, which left many salmon producing enterprises in Chile and Canada on the verge of bankruptcy. With the support of his team, they developed a suitable production model and Quiroga handled the crisis firmly and successfully and, only in 2018, Australis Seafoods led the increases in Chilean market, with a return of +26.43% to $79,650 and completing +56.15% so far that year, a natural consequence of his capacity for fast response.

Unlike other businessmen, Quiroga is not afraid of investing internationally. With the vast amount of money he raised in these transactions, he managed to invest heavily in Chiles stock market. He became a stock investor in companies such as Telefonica, Entel, Endesa, Banco de Chile, SQM and Pilmaiquen, among others. He is also involved in real estate projects such as Valle Escondido and in mining companies such as Minera Fuego. But his participation in the mining business is not limited to Chile: he is also the owner of the Junior Investment Company, a mining company from Australia.

As for his investments in the region, he has olive oil plantations and a wine production company in neighbouring Argentina.

The Chilean businessman graduated as a Commercial Engineer from the University of Chile in 1974 and it was at that time when he started in the business world as a producer and exporter of oregano in the Valparaiso region. But it would be through the Kiwi, a fruit unknown in Chile until then and that he met on a trip to the United States, that he would achieve one of his greatest commercial successes. The next step was diversification and then came investments in the electricity and mining sectors. Today, the businessman operates through his family office, Inversiones Benjamin.
Daniel Shaked, Home365 founder & CEO

Home365, a Santa Clara CA-based PropTech/InsureTech residential Real Estate investment and property management company, raised $16.3M in funding.

The round was led by Greensoil PropTech Ventures II (GSPV II) with participation from Eyal Ofer, O.G. Tech, Verizon Ventures, Lool Ventures and North First Ventures. In conjunction with the deal, Gideon Soesman, GSPVs co-founder and Managing Partner, joined Home365s Board.



The company, which has raised $24m since its 2016 founding, intends to use the funds to accelerate its end-to-end technology platform and its expansion into more of the top 100 markets across the United States.

Led by Daniel Shaked, founder and CEO, Home365 is an InsureTech/PropTech company, offering residential real estate investors a fully automated Property Management solution coupled with a Net Operating Income (NOI) Guarantee that underwrites the operating expenses of their properties and guarantees their performance over years. With a proprietary Claims and Property Management platform, the company has automated labor-intensive processes, financial transactions (AP/AR), accounting and digitized communications.

Powered by a machine-learning proprietary underwriting (patent pending) engine, Home365 predicts maintenance, repairs, and various resident-related events, while generating a fixed monthly Premium fee that guarantees the Net Operating Income (NOI) for a given asset.

Home365 also announced the acquisition of SlateHouse Property Management and Realty, a scatter-site property management company in the U.S. Chad Gallagher, co-founder of SlateHouse, will be now assuming the role of Chief Investment and Growth Officer within Home365. Nate Jones, co-founder and SlateHouse CEO, will be assuming the role of a Chief Operating Officer for Home365, focusing on supporting the companys rapid scaling to over 100,000 units under management in the next few years.

Following the acquisition, Home365 now manages 7,000 units across six states with local offices in 14 major metro areas including Las Vegas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, Reading, Scranton, Allentown, Trenton, and Hampton.

The properties Home365 manages are worth more than $1 billion.

FinSMEs

01/07/2021
Lia

Lia 27, Inc., a Montreal, Canada-based artificial Intelligence company, closed a seed round of funding valuing the company at $1.5m.

The round was led by Ghost Protocol.

This initial funding round will drive technological improvements and the addition of video capabilities so that text and audio features are augmented with a visual component.

Founded in December 2020 by Jean-Francois Comeau, Lia 27 has developed Lia, a digital person created by artificial intelligence that is constantly learning and evolving with every user interaction. Lia can interact with via text message or through voice over the telephone, text or on Facebook Messenger. Lia launched on January 27, 2021 and is available to talk free of charge at any time during the day, 7 days a week.

FinSMEs

01/07/2021
Physna, a Columbus, OH-based geometric search company, raised $56m in funding.

The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from GV and Sequoia Capital.

The company, which has raised more than $86m in total funding, intends to use the funds to scale and develop its geometric deep-learning platform, as well as its free public geometric search engine, Thangs.

Physnas growth is driven largely by Thangs, which hosts millions of 3D models and is compatible with the vast majority of formats and file types. Users can search, store, share and collaborate on models, as well as use them cross-discipline, such as viewing 3D printing models or mechanical designs in AR. The site currently has 250,000 registered users and indexes more than 2.5 million 3D models, 1 million of which were added in the last six weeks.

In addition to the funding, Physna announced Instant AR, a major update to Thangs. With Instant AR, Thangs users can instantly convert 3D models on Thangs.com into AR formats, allowing them to place any 3D model into a real world environment using a smartphone camera. Instant AR can be used with both Android and iOS native browsers, and does not require special hardware or apps. Instant AR is available to Thangs users today.

Led by CEO Paul Powers, Physna has developed technology that searches, compares, and analyzes 3D models, creating engineering, industrial design and procurement processes for enterprises. Using its enterprise platform, an engineer can find a model by searching for an object, including components contained in assemblies, alternative components, and alternative uses of those components. For example, a procurement manager can use a picture  or take a scan  of any part a company uses and see where its being used throughout the organization, in what quantities, and if the company is buying redundant parts.

FinSMEs

02/07/2021
Zencity, a Tel Aviv, Israel- and New York-based provider of an analytics platform for state and local governments, raised $30M in funding.

The round was led by TLV Partners, Vertex Ventures Israel, Salesforce Ventures, with participation from M12  Microsofts venture fund, and Canaan Partners Israel.

The company intends to use the funds for:

development of additional capabilities and offerings, and

expansion within existing and new markets, including new engagements with state agencies and local governments in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Led by Eyal Feder-Levy, CEO and Co-founder, Zencity provides a community insights and analytics platform for state and local governments. The company offers government organizations insights from resident feedback through the analysis of millions of pieces of anonymized and aggregated data points alongside continuous, community-based polling. More than 200 government agencies across the United States use Zencity to inform decision-making, measure progress, and ensure efficient allocation of resources.

The company, which has a team of over 100 employees across four countries, acquired community polling company Elucd earlier in 2021. The company has since integrated Elucds ongoing polling tools into the Zencity platform.

FinSMEs

01/07/2021
One of the many updates that are coming with Android 12 later this year is the redesign of widgets. In preparation for these new widgets, Google is reportedly developing a new widget for Google Photos that will show Memories from before.

Memories is a feature in Google Photos that will pick certain older images and videos from the users photo library and bring it up to the user as a memory. Photos will usually show these memories in the app itself or sometimes bring them up via a notification.

The widget was spotted from an apk teardown of Google Photos v5.49, with the name Your Memories When adding it for the first time, the phone will prompt the user to confirm which Google account should be displayed.

The widget appears to have a 22 dimension and once added, will show memories from a year ago. According to the code, Google Photos will pick photos from that particular week a year ago.

Google will likely release the widget along with the launch of Android 12 itself. Until then, they will continue developing it in the background.

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While San Bernardino County has experienced dramatic improvements in COVID-related cases, hospitalizations and deaths since the winter spike, doctors here are continuing to treat patients newly suffering from the disease.
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Purdue University photo

Michelle Thompson is one of the new generation of scientists working on the Apollo moon missions.
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) -- The search is still underway this morning for a man wanted in connection for what authorities say, was a revenge shooting.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this story.

Investigators are looking for 28-year-old Deangleo Merrill.

They want to question him about a chain of events that led to the shooting death of a 74-year-old man.

We're told this all started on Williams Street Tuesday night. Police say a man named James Walters got into an argument with two of the residents, his daughters.

As the shouting escalated, they say an unidentified man tried to intervene.

Thats they when the scene turned deadly.

Police say Walters ran toward the other man.

Police say the shooting appears to be self defense. They say, the man who shot Walters also accidentally shot a 23-year-old woman, who now is in critical condition.

And here's where the story takes a turn.

Investigators say that woman's boyfriend, Deangelo Merrill, heard about the incident and went to the Pathways Apartments seeking revenge.

According to Interim Police Chief Roy Hodge, Merrill kicked down the wrong door and fatally shot James Jones, a 74-year-old man.

"Hes in his home, you know, minding his own business," Hodge said. "And he ... becomes a victim of an incident that happened in another part of town."

Although police believe the Williams Street shootings are self-defense, a grand jury will review the matter.

Merrill was out on bond related to drug charges from March.
The House is voting to create a select committee that will investigate the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Pictured, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, in Washington, DC.
Discovering the Enchanting Universe of Attars

Fragrances and Cultures

For years, my tastes for perfumes have been leaning towards the universe of fragrances inspired by the orient, with components such as amber, saffron, frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, and oud.

As I searched deeper into where my inclination towards denser notes and compositions came from, I realized that this was something that was strongly intertwined with my Indo-European Gypsy ancestry, coming from my paternal grandparents and great-grandparents.

Due to this background, I grew up with our house being smoked with resins such as myrrh, frankincense, and benzoin, as well as herbs that, according to my paternal grandmother, had harmonizing energy and protective properties against certain energies.

It was common to see her with branches of dried sage, burning them and thus releasing an aromatic smoke that spread throughout the rooms of our house, all while reciting words of a Rom dialect, spoken in a low tone. This, she said, had the power to seal those smoky rituals and keep the good energy inside our house.

As I matured and started looking for the perfumes to compose my collection, I always came across fragrances that reminded me of these familiar smells from my childhood.

As an adult, I made my first trip to Europe and visited some places where certain gypsy clans lived. I could see the joy of these people, who are also my people, in their dance, in their colors, and in their smells.

Those smells curiously did not follow the trend of traditional western perfumery but were actually concentrated perfume oils, stored in small bottles that were macerations and dyes of components of oriental origin, such as jasmine sambac, desert rose, cinnamon, saffron, and of course, many kinds of wood.

On that same trip, I had the opportunity to visit the port of Tangier, a Moroccan border town with a port culture where the Strait of Gibraltar almost touches a part of Spain. It is a quick crossing, which takes less than an hour, but it had an impact for a whole lifetime!

When disembarking in the port of Tangier, I was greeted by different aromas and fragrances coming in fragrant gusts on the wind, and I recognized the scent of my grandmother's cleaning rituals and the smells of her small vials with extremely fragrant oils.

These smells came from the market, the souk, where all kinds of products are sold, from handmade leather bags to very well-seasoned Arab food.

At the Souk, I discovered that these familiar smells came from tents that were burning Bakhoor over red-hot coals, an incense typical of Islamic countries, which mixes some components endemic to these regions of the world. It was in these same tents that I discovered the name given to the extremely fragrant oils that I already knew, and that called my attention so much.

The seller explained to me in almost incomprehensible Spanish mixed with English that the Arabic name given to these oils was Attar, which in Arabic simply means perfume. Unlike what we are used to with Western perfumes, these attars did not come ready-made but were a mixture of essential oils freshly mixed in front of us, creating unique and intense fragrances with various spices, ranging from 3ml to 30ml of pure artisanal oil.

Among the many oils I chose to create my attar, I came across saffron oil, amber oil, musk, sandalwood, and oud, which were my favorites. The seller informed me that this mixture was a typically Arabic combination which they called mukhalat.

This mukhalat attar that I still have today is intoxicating and dense. At the time of the trip, the seller informed me that it was strange for a foreign person to ask for a perfume with such dense oils that were part of this typically Arab perfume mixture. His best-selling attars were oil-concentrated interpretations of the perfumes of major Western brands!

I returned to Spain and then to Brazil, happy with my 3 vials, one containing mukhalat, another containing Taif rose oil, and the third a very young oud oil (because that was the only one I could afford; the oldest oud oils reached values that were astronomical for a scholarship student in Europe.)

And it was in this reunion with the smells of a part of my ancestors' culture that I rediscovered my pleasure and passion for the universe of attars and mukhalats, recognizing the reason for always preferring denser perfumes with warm-ambery notes.

Attars and mukhalats, however, are not always handcrafted souk items; there are several mass-market options worth knowing, especially in the Asgharali line of attars.

One of my favorites is the intense but delicate Nagan Crystal, which mixes vetiver, fruity touches, and lily of the valley, making it ideal for those who want an easier and less challenging introduction to the world of attars.

Another example is my signature Asgharali attar Renhanat al Bahrain, which with oud, cypriol, Taif rose, and saffron leaves an intensely powerful and unmistakable trail in the air that ranges from spicy to smoky-woody.

With this story of my personal experience, I invite you to start discovering, as I did, in this niche of perfumery that is still not prevalent worldwide.
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Worried about making rent? County residents behind on rent and/or utility payments because of the pandemic may be eligible to receive help from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program  an initiative run by Frederick County, the City of Frederick and the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs. To find out more information, visit religiouscoalition.org, call 1-800-220-9528 or email COVIDhelp@rcehn.org.
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Preventive cancer screenings plummeted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. They've since returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, but cancer prevention experts are worried about those who've fallen through the cracks. "Cancer did not go away during COVID-19," said Fred Hutch/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance leader Dr. Nancy Davidson. Stock photo Getty Images

The new coronavirus kept people away from their regular cancer screenings in droves last year, with many studies noting sharp declines in preventive screening throughout the U.S., particularly in breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. But cancer did not go away during COVID-19, said Dr. Nancy Davidson, vice president of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and president and executive director of its clinical-care partner Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Its not that the pandemic in some fashion mitigated the diagnoses or the need for treatment for cancers. With COVID-19 on the retreat, caregivers, cancer researchers, and community health educators are pulling out all the stops to get preventive screenings back on peoples calendars  with some even calling for innovative old-school strategies to play catchup. According to Davidson, its vital to bring people back into the screening process so we can regain ground as rapidly as possible. A longtime breast cancer oncologist and translational researcher, Davidson knows well that catching a cancer early is crucial. Missed screenings can mean later-stage cancers. The later the stage, the harder to cure. Im worried people will come in with a more advanced stage of disease and that may be associated with worse outcomes, she said. Ultimately, there may be more deaths and the need for different kinds of therapies that can be more intensive, have more side effects and more costs. Screening is one of the cornerstones in our efforts to reduce the burden of cancer. We need to act on this. So how are clinicians, community health educators and public health researchers at Fred Hutch playing catchup now that vaccinations have started to send the pandemic packing? In all kinds of ways, some of which may even surprise you.

Video courtesy of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement



Watch a video tour of the OCOE's giant inflatable colon in English.

The wellness long haul Davidson, who holds the Raisbeck Endowed Chair for Collaborative Research, said a delayed screening of a month or so shouldnt make much of a difference. It all depends on the cancer. For the cancers where we do screenings  breast and lung and colorectal and cervical cancers  those are all relatively slow growing tumors, she said. If people are following the guidelines, we could argue that a two-month lag for any one patient may not have much of a role [in a cancers progression]. For other cancers, it would be more problematic. The key thing, she said, is for people to get back into the screening pipeline. COVID has been all-consuming for over a year, she said. But its really important that people dont let COVID stand in the way of attending to their general health, and that includes being adherent to cancer screening guidelines. Screening delays have already begun to show up in the numbers, according to data shared at the recent annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, or ASCO. One Boston hospital saw twice as many patients diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer in 2020. Normally, its 6.6% of screened patients; last year, 12.6% of patients were diagnosed with stage 3 or 4. Most of these cancers were found after the initial shutdowns ended in July 2020; as is often the case, economically-disadvantaged patients and those with medical comorbidities were harder hit. Such was the case at a New York hospital, as well, where the COVID-19 screening hiatus led to more cases with advanced stages of disease and exacerbated racial disparities in accessing breast-screening services. Another study using projection models from CISNET, the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network, predicted around 2,500 extra breast cancer deaths in the U.S. by 2030 because of the reduced screenings, delayed diagnoses and reductions in treatment. And thats just in one type of cancer. Davidson hasnt seen any uptick in later-stage diagnoses at SCCA but said were still in the thick of [catching people up on screening]. The main thing, she said, is for people to know the health care system is very safe. Were all in it for the wellness long haul, she said.

'COVID has been all-consuming for over a year, but its really important that people dont let COVID stand in the way of attending to their general health and that includes being adherent to cancer screening guidelines.'  Fred Hutch Vice President and President and Executive Director of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Dr. Nancy Davidson

OCOE Assistant Director Kathy Briant, pictured with Frankie Rentas at a health fair in 2017, has been working with community-based organizations in both Eastern and Western Washington to get cancer prevention front-of-mind again, now that the pandemic has ebbed. Screening is on our radar! The Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortiums Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (OCOE) also collaborates on screening programs with community-based organizations in the state. The OCOEs focus is on health equity, making sure the people most at risk for disease due to structural racism or socioeconomic hardship  non-English speakers, Indigenous people and those living in rural areas; Black and African-descent populations; Hispanic/Latino and LGBTQ+ folx  have access to preventive screenings, cancer care and other resources, as needed. Screening is on our radar! said OCOE assistant director Kathy Briant. But its not at the forefront of most peoples minds. Briant said the people they serve have been hit hardest by COVID-19  many are frontline workers; others have lost their jobs  and understandably are focused on bigger priorities, like how to pay the rent or put food on the table for the family. Its more about day-to-day survival than thinking about preventing cancer and finding time to get a screening, she said. Thats why Briant and her team of community health educators are pushing out the message to get those screening appointments back on the books. The Hutchs satellite office in Eastern Washington, the Center for Community Health Promotion, usually holds health fairs, home health parties and other events for the largely rural, Spanish-speaking residents of the Yakima Valley as part of its health equity research. Its promotores, or community health educators, have continued to encourage cancer screenings and breast awareness throughout COVID-19, Briant said, talking about the importance of understanding what your breasts normally look like so if you do see changes, youll know thats a red flag. And events are slowly and safely starting back up. We had one event a month ago, a drive-through health fair, hosted by a local radio station, KDNA, said Briant. Unfortunately, some patients may face a shortage of resources post-COVID-19. Komen Puget Sound, which funded screenings for many low-income women in the area, closed in late 2020, along with all of Susan G. Komens regional affiliates. Additionally, the Breast Cervical and Colon Health Program, funded by the CDC and administered by Public Health Seattle and King County, recently lost its funding to perform colorectal screenings. The program, which provides free screening to eligible participants in Washington state, is now back to just breast and cervical screenings, as when the program first started, Briant said. The longtime health disparities researcher worries that cuts in these programs will have a ripple effect that will be seen in 2022. Thats why she and others are reminding people that screening is the most important thing you can do for your health. She and the OCOE team have produced two colorectal cancer screening video tours, one in English and one in Spanish, of their giant inflatable colon, CECE  short for Colorectal Education Cancer Exhibit. The videos explain colorectal cancers often-sluggish progression and how it can be stopped through colonoscopy and other forms of screening. Theyre also readying CECE for its first post-COVID-19 road trip in Western Washington. Their other rolling colon, CASPER (short for Capture All Suspicious Polyps and Eradicate Rapidly) tours Eastern Washington. We havent taken either of our colons out this year, she said. But we have a request to go out in the Yakima Valley later this summer.

Gastroenterologist and assistant professor at the Hutch and the University of Washington Dr. Rachel Issaka recommends the use of non-invasive FIT kits as a way to catch up on colorectal cancer screening. Fred Hutch file photo Thinking creatively about colorectal screening

A gastroenterologist and assistant professor at the Hutch and the University of Washington, Dr. Rachel Issaka has kept a watchful eye on COVID-19s impact on colorectal screening rates for a year and a half. National screening rates for prostate and breast cancer bounced back to pre-COVID levels by July 2020. But colorectal cancer screening rates did not. A JAMA Oncology study showed them 13% below 2019 rates. Its estimated that an additional 4,000 people will die of colorectal cancer over the next decade because of losses to screening, she said. And the longer COVID-19 lingers, the higher the likelihood that number will increase. This is an opportunity to think creatively about what we can do moving forward to minimize risk. Issaka has been actively promoting the use of FIT kits, or fecal immunochemical tests, a low-cost, at-home, non-invasive stool-based screening test developed in the 1980s, that can be done in minutes, as a way to catch up. From a clinical practice perspective, we can use the stool test to risk stratify people now that things have opened back up, she said. Those with abnormal stool tests should be prioritized for colonoscopy as they have the higher risk of colorectal cancer. Data show Black people are 20% more likely to be diagnosed and about 40% more likely to die from colorectal cancer than any other racial/ethnic group. Colorectal cancer is also trending in younger populations, prompting the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) to lower the recommended screening age from 50 to 45. Issakas research on FIT kits shows their usefulness. In a study she published last year, FIT kits mailed to Medicare patients resulted in a 5% increase in colorectal screening completion. Another study, published in April, showed, via a simulation model, mailed FIT kits could actually mitigate the consequences of reduced screening rates during the pandemic. Issaka, who works with the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, points to other stopgap solutions: increasing clinic hours, hiring additional administrative staff, and offering evening and weekend screenings. She also promotes the idea of taking science and screening out to the community. Mobile vans that offer healthcare services including collecting detailed family histories, performing physical examinations, and disseminating at-home colorectal cancer screening options can be deployed to churches, barber and beauty shops, and other community gathering spaces in urban and rural Black communities, she wrote in a Seattle Medium guest editorial. When colon cancer is discovered in the early stage, over 90% of people survive five or more years.

Dr. Yaw Nyame is working to end health disparities in prostate cancer by lowering the screen age for African American men. Fred Hutch file photo Prostate cancer screening and beyond Dr. Yaw Nyame, a urologic oncologist at SCCA and health disparities researcher with the Hutch and the University of Washington, also believes in taking science to the community. The OCOE program lead for African American/African-descent populations, Nyames research focuses on prostate cancer screening and treatment and how barriers to both contribute to prostate cancer disparities. For many in underserved communities, health care is seldom accessible  and it is unclear how the pandemic will further exacerbate disparate outcomes in prostate cancer. Recent findings from the OCOE showed in Washington state alone, Black men are 1.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 2.4 times more likely to die from it than their white counterparts. These are glaring disparities that we want to address through raising awareness, more screening and further studies, said OCOE community health educator Dante Morehead in one of OCOEs cancer prevention videos. Prostate cancer is very treatable if we catch it early through screening or PSA testing. Unfortunately, studies suggest Black men may have slightly lower screening rates, a trend that may have been exacerbated by previous recommendations against routine screening from the USPSTF and other organizations. Nyame hopes to change that. In a study published last month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, he and Hutch biostatistician Dr. Ruth Etzioni used microsimulation models to pinpoint the sweet spot in time for prostate cancer screening in Black men. We found that if we drop the screening age from 55 to 45 and screen men every year until theyre 70, we could decrease the number of Black men who die from prostate cancer by an additional 10% compared to standard screening practices here in the U.S, Nyame said in a recent presentation, What Black Men Need to Know About Prostate Cancer. But first, they need to show up. Its an important effort to get people back to their cancer screenings, Nyame said.

He plans to do outreach to understand what barriers exist to preventive screenings and treatment for Black men in Washington state next month as he launches a new study. The recent recipient of a Distinguished Researchers Grant from the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund, as well as the Dr. Beti Thompson Cancer Health Equity Research Award, Nyame and colleagues at the Hutch and UW have started a community-based research coalition BACPAC (the Black and African-Descent Collaborative for Prostate Cancer) to facilitate this work. Nyame, Morehead and others plan to work with patients and community advocates to improve prostate cancer outcomes. Starting in July, were going to perform a series of interviews to hear what the needs and priorities are for Black men in the Greater Puget Sound area when it comes to screening and treatment for prostate cancer, Nyame said. This work will be part of a series of projects that aims to prioritize local research and interventions. But the work hardly stops there, he said, pointing to the fact that research and interventions may not address the larger context of social, economic, environmental, and structural factors that impact health. These social determinants of equity and health govern whether a person has access to a safe neighborhood, nutritious food, clean air and water, and available, compassionate quality health care. All of these things contribute to a good cancer outcome. Screening is one part of the equation, but the benefit of early detection only matters if theres subsequent access to treatment, he said. I dont know if the benefit of earlier detection will have the same impact if we dont address the context wherein everything else occurs.
Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms. High 86F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening becoming more widespread overnight. Low 79F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Vaccine Smarts is written by Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences faculty members Drs. Megan Berman , an associate professor of internal medicine, and Richard Rupp , a professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Medical Branch. For questions about vaccines, email vaccine.smarts@utmb.edu.
Swedish virtual reality studio Fast Travel Games has raised $4 million in funding to develop new titles.

The Stockholm-based company was established in 2016 by a group of former Rovio, EA, and DICE veterans with a view to creating "socially rich" VR experiences. It previously raised $2.1 million through a Series A funding round back in 2017.

Since opening its doors the studio has worked on a number of titles for Oculus, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and PlayStation VR hardware including Apex Construct, Budget Cuts 2, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets, and Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife.

In a brief post on Twitter, Fast Travel explained the latest investment round was led by Brightly Ventures and will allow it to create VR games "for many years to come."
Following a controversial (and quickly reversed) decision to remove pay-what-you-want sliders from Humble Bundle purchases, Humble has now detailed a new pay slider system that it hopes will help Humble adapt to the shifting PC storefront landscape without catching the ire of its customer base.

If you missed the controversy earlier this year, a full explainer can be found here. The quick version is that Humble Bundles have long used a slider system that gives bundle buyers complete control over how much of their purchase goes to charity, to game publishers, and to Humble itself.

That proposed change from earlier this year would've switched to a system with two, non-customizable split options that ultimately capped charity donations at 15 percent. After outcry, Humble canceled that plan less than two weeks after it was announced.

Now, Humble has shared a blog post detailing the future for Humble Bundle sliders and a very light look at the new iteration it plans to launch in mid-July. Humble says that the new iteration of sliders will still allow buyers to customize how much money goes where, but that, starting later this month, there will generally be a minimum amount earmarked for Humble from every purchase.

"Sliders will clearly indicate any minimums to customers and the flexibility to adjust donations will be available in every purchase of a bundle," explains the blog. "This change comes after ten years of having the option to lower Humbles percentage to zero."

The post notes that the split will vary from bundle to bundle, but will generally allot 15 to 30 percent of each purchase to Humble. That's close to the default chunk Humble gets from Bundle purchases right now, but under the current system buyers are able to reduce that share all the way to 0 percent. Starting in mid-July, there will be a restriction on how low Humble's share can go.

It's an interesting change when keeping the failed slider-less update in mind. The proposed default values for the canceled change gave 85 percent to publishers, 5 percent to charity, and 10 percent to Humble. The 'Extra to Charity' version reduced the publisher share to 80 percent and the Humble share to 5 percent in order to give 15 percent to charity.

While the failed, slider-less system saw Humble claiming a comparatively smaller chunk, the new slider system gives Humble a larger split by default with those aforementioned minimums in play, presumably meaning that any significant increase to how much of a purchase goes to charity will have a larger impact on the publisher's share.

As with the previous slider updates, Humble notes that its decision to change is due, in no small part, to the broader game storefront market and how much that space has changed in the decade since Humble first set up its pay-what-you-want slider system.

"The PC storefront landscape has changed significantly since we first launched bundles in 2010, and we have to continue to evolve with it to stay on mission. The update will allow us to continue to offer great prices on amazing games, books and software all while supporting important charitable initiatives with every single purchase," writes Humble.

"The change to sliders lets us continue to invest in more exciting content so we can keep growing the Humble community which will ultimately drive more donations for charitable causes. Well also continue to create more ways to give back such as with our 100% to charity bundles."




[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

30th June 2021 - London, UK - Bithell Games, renowned for their critically acclaimed smash hits Thomas Was Alone, The Solitaire Conspiracy and John Wick Hex; today announce their next game titled Arcsmith is heading to Oculus Quest headsets in July. Arcsmith sees you taking up tools as a space engineer; also known as an Arcsmith. Following in the footsteps of your reluctant master teacher Korith Dinn; youll be tasked with constructing a multitude of space-based items and machinery. Utilizing Oculus intuitive Touch controllers, youll fit together pieces to match the spec in your own time and in your own way, as all the items youll create feature a modular design meaning no two inventions are created the same. Backed by a soundtrack written by Dan Le Sac & Sarah Williams White, youll not only observe how Dinn and his robotic companion Toolie co-exist; but also watch an intriguing intergalactic space struggle play out before your very eyes. Its been exciting developing a spatial puzzle game for virtual reality, said Nic Tringali, Game Director for Arcsmith at Bithell Games. Weve given players a variety of tools at their workbench to design and diagnose their creations, and VR gives us a unique way to present a game with an open-ended puzzle design. Arcsmith comes to Oculus Quest 1 & 2 headsets on July 29th for 18.99 / $24.99 / 24,99. Oculus users can Wishlist Arcsmith at this link - https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2948202345202575/ About Bithell Games Bithell Games is a company started because a little game about rectangles got out of hand. Since then, the team has grown and made games across genres and platforms, from stealth to puzzle, from VR to strategy. For more information, visit https://www.bithellgames.com/, wed love to see you.
After 22 years of working for the Benton County Historical Society, executive director Irene Zenev is retiring at the end of July.

Zenev was exhibit curator of the Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath from 1998 to 2006. She then resigned because I had this idea I was going to teach Pilates, she said.

But her Pilates career lasted only nine months. In 2007, she was invited to become executive director of the historical society.

I think they asked me because I knew where all the light switches were, she said with a chuckle.

Her return to the museum housed in the former Philomath College building in Philomath came at an exciting time that Zenev described as a perfect storm of events.

In 2009, Oregon State University and the historical society reached an agreement for the society to manage the universitys Horner Collection, an assemblage of more than 60,000 artifacts, photographs and documents from around the world. These objects had been displayed since 1925 in the Horner Museum, most recently housed in the basement of OSUs Gill Coliseum. That museum closed in 1993 due to lack of funding, though.
Gillette, WY (82718)

Today

Becoming windy with scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph, becoming N and increasing to 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

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Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 58F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Dublin, June 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Solar Water Pump Market 2020-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global solar water pump market is expected to grow at a considerable CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period (2021-2027).

Solar water pumps are gaining prominence as they run on electricity generated by solar panels which results in relatively lower emissions. The major factors that are augmenting the growth of the solar water pump market include cohesive government policies, increasing the need for alternative energy sources, and increasing renewable energy generation.

The support by the government authorities is witnessed majorly in the emerging economies such as India and China, to shift trend towards solar PV by replacing diesel pumps. For instance, Under the Madhya Pradesh Mukhyamantri Solar Pump Subsidy Scheme, in India (2021), free solar pumps will be provided to the farmers by replacing the diesel pumps.

Furthermore, increasing urbanization, the need for clean and potable water, shortage of electricity and fuel, and rising demand for solar pumps in domestic applications are some of the other factors that are estimated to fuel the market growth, during the forecast period.



However, certain factors are affecting the growth of the market. Higher initial investment costs could be a barrier to market growth. Although despite the initial investment costs, once installed, the solar water pumps can be used as an affordable source of electricity to reduce energy bills.



Segmental Outlook



The market is segmented based on type, end-user, and application. By type, the market is segmented into surface water pumps and submersible water pumps. Submersible water pumps hold a significant market share in 2020. The market growth is driven by increasing investments in the construction industry for rapid growth in urbanization and high demand for the submersible pump in the agriculture field for deep well pumping and irrigation system.

Some of the submersible water pump providers include Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd., Grundfos Pumps Corporation, KIRLOSKAR BROTHERS LIMITED, and Topsun Energy Ltd.



Global Solar Water Pump Market Share by Type, 2020 (%)



Regional Outlooks



The global solar water pump market is analyzed based on the geographical regions that are contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. Based on the geography, the market is fragmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Asia-Pacific is estimated to be one of the major markets for the solar water pump.

China and India are the two leading countries in the region owing to favorable government initiatives and policies. For instance, under the PM Kusum scheme, the Central Government of India is giving a 30% subsidy.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme was initiated by the Government of India to increase the income of farmers and provide sources for irrigation and de-dieselize the farm sector.



In addition to this, growth in industrialization and increasing electricity demand in several industries including agriculture are also some of the driving factors contributing towards the growth of the market in the Asia-Pacific. An increase in the need for irrigation systems in countries including Morocco, Nigeria, Namibia, and Kenya, in the African region with favorable weather conditions will contribute to the growth of the market.

Market Players Outlook



Key players of the solar water pumps market include Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd., Grundfos Pumps Corp., Bright Solar Ltd., LORENTZ, Shakti Pumps Ltd., C.R.I. Pumps Private Ltd. and SunEdison, Inc.

To survive in the market these players adopt different marketing strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, product launches, and geographical expansion, among more.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Report Summary

1.1. Research Methods and Tools

1.2. Market Breakdown



2. Market Overview and Insights

2.1. Scope of the Report

2.2. Impact of COVID-19 on the Market

2.3. Analyst Insight & Current Market Trends

2.3.1. Key Findings

2.3.2. Recommendations

2.3.3. Conclusion



3. Competitive Landscape

3.1. Key Strategy Analysis

3.1.1. Overview

3.1.2. Financial Analysis

3.1.3. SWOT Analysis

3.1.4. Recent Developments

3.2. Key Strategy Analysis



4. Market Determinants

4.1. Motivators

4.2. Restraints

4.3. Opportunities



5. Market Segmentation

5.1. Global Solar Water Pump Market by Type

5.1.1. Surface Water Pumps

5.1.2. Submersible Water Pumps

5.2. Global Solar Water Pump Market by Application

5.2.1. Agriculture

5.2.2. Water Supply

5.2.3. Others

5.3. Global Solar Water Pump Market by End-User

5.3.1. Small-Scale Based

5.3.2. Large-Scale based



6. Regional Analysis

6.1. North America

6.1.1. United States

6.1.2. Canada

6.2. Europe

6.2.1. UK

6.2.2. Germany

6.2.3. Italy

6.2.4. Spain

6.2.5. France

6.2.6. Rest of Europe

6.3. Asia-Pacific

6.3.1. China

6.3.2. India

6.3.3. Japan

6.3.4. South Korea

6.3.5. Rest of Asia-Pacific

6.4. Rest of the World



7. Company Profiles

Alpex Solar Pvt. Ltd.

Bright Solar Ltd.

C.R.I. Pumps Private Ltd.

Grundfos Pumps Corp.

Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd.

JJ PV Solar

Kirloskar Brothers Ltd.

LORENTZ

Lubi Electronics

. Rainbow Power Company Ltd.

Shakti Pumps (India) Ltd.

Span Pumps Pvt Ltd.

SunEdison, Inc.

Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd.

Topsun Energy Ltd.

Udhaya Semiconductors Ltd.

Waaree Energies Ltd.

Symtech Solar Group.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/40v0b6
Pune, India, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global business Vaccines Industry share is projected to reach USD 104.87 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 10.7 % during the forecast period due to rise in infectious diseases observes, Fortune Business Insights in a published report, titled, Vaccines Industry, 2020-2027.

The increasing prevalence of infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, and Tuberculosis is making governments and pharmaceutical industries make enormous investments towards vaccine development. For instance, the COVID pandemic recorded more than 80 million cases worldwide, and many manufactures have pipelined their product to treat the disease, which will fuel the market in upcoming years

COVID-19 Pandemic:

Covid-19 has affected the market due to lower vaccination rates in low economic countries. However, the market is expected to see positive growth in upcoming years due to the rise in research and investments in healthcare. Moreover, the launch of various COVID-19 vaccines by key players such as Pfizer, Moderna is expected to fuel the market in upcoming years.





Request a Sample Copy of the Global Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/vaccines-market-101769





Highlights of the Report

The report gives a thorough analysis of the latest market trends, top market segments, and major driving factors. The different market segments and their regional analysis are also comprehensively discussed in the report. Additionally, the report talks about the dominant strategies adopted by key market players and the impact of COVID-19 on the market.

Global Immunization Program to Drive the Vaccines Industry Growth

Demand for vaccines is growing globally to fulfill the immunization drive launched by the different governments to eradicate certain endemic diseases. For example, in India, the government surveillanced the immunization program to 21 lakh children for the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Moreover, due to COVID the ones in the pipeline will also promote the market in upcoming years. Several key players such as Novavax, Merck, GSK, and Pfizer will contribute to the market positively.

On the other hand, the high cost of vaccines is the major restraint of the market. For example, in the US, the vaccine for Hepatitis A/B is $100; thus this high cost makes it unaffordable for people with low income and even major developing economies to buy vaccines for their citizens.





To get to know more about the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this market, please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/vaccines-market-101769





Industry Development

September 2019: African nations Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi in collaboration, launched the worlds first vaccine for treating malaria, as malaria is highly prevalent and is a major cause of death in Africa.

Segmentation

Based on type, the market is divided into recombinant, conjugate, subunit, inactivated, live attenuated, and toxoid. By the route of administration, it is segmented into parenteral and oral. Based on disease indication, it is segmented into viral and bacterial diseases. By age group, the market is bifurcated into pediatric and adults. The market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa in terms of geography.





Quick Buy Vaccine Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101769





North America to Command Owing to Presence of Several Vaccines Manufacturer in the Region

North America is expected to hold a significant share as it generated a revenue of USD 24.88 billion in the year 2019. This region favors the market due to increased awareness of vaccination and the presence of major vaccine manufacturers in the region. The United States government spent USD 378 billion in 2018, and this marked an increase of 10.2% from 2017, reports the National Center of Science and Engineering Statistics.

On the other hand, Asia Pacific is also expected to mark significant growth due to heterogeneous economies in the region. Japan is leading the vaccine industry in the region. Moreover, the rising population of India and China is also expected to promote the regional market. In the European region, France and Germany are expected to contribute to industry positively.

Some of the prominent companies in the Vaccines Industry are

GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Sanofi

Pfizer Inc.

Merck & Co., Inc.

Novartis AG

Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.

CSL Limited

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Bavarian Nordic

Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation.

Other Prominent Players





Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/vaccines-market-101769





Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights New Product Launch Pipeline Analysis Technological Advancements in the Vaccines Industry Prevalence of Disease Indications Key Industry Developments - Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

Global Vaccines Industry Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Type Recombinant/Conjugate/Subunit Inactivated Live Attenuated Toxoid Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Route of Administration Parenteral Oral Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Disease Indication Viral Diseases Bacterial Diseases Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Age Group Pediatric Adults Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Distribution Channel Hospital & Retail Pharmacies Government Suppliers Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Geography North America Europe Asia pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa

North America Vaccines Industry Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Type Recombinant/Conjugate/Subunit Inactivated Live Attenuated Toxoid Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Route of Administration Parenteral Oral Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Disease Indication Viral Diseases Bacterial Diseases Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Age Group Pediatric Adults Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Distribution Channel Hospital & Retail Pharmacies Government Suppliers Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Country U.S. Canada

Europe Vaccines Industry Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Type Recombinant/Conjugate/Subunit Inactivated Live Attenuated Toxoid Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Route of Administration Parenteral Oral Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Disease Indication Viral Diseases Bacterial Diseases Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Age Group Pediatric Adults Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Distribution Channel Hospital & Retail Pharmacies Government Suppliers Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Country/Sub-region U.K. Germany France Spain Italy Scandinavia Rest of Europe







TOC Continued..!!!!!





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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mirasol Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: MRZ) (OTCPK: MRZLF) (the Company or Mirasol) today provides an exploration update for the Inca Gold Project (Inca Gold) in Chile. Inca Gold is a large 16,300 ha property package, with multiple exploration prospects, that has been optioned from Newmont Corporation (Newmont) (news release January 30, 2020).



The Sandra prospect (Sandra) at Inca Gold was the first zone to be tested and assay results have been received from the maiden 1,417m drill program. A total of eight diamond drill holes were completed on three separate targets to test for mineralization below outcropping quartz veins. The assay results for Au and Ag are generally low grade and over narrow widths, ranging from 0.5 to 1m. The highest values were in hole IG-DD-004 that returned 0.27 g/t Au and 47.8 g/t Ag over 0.5m (see Table 1). Mirasol is completing a review of the geochemical results and alteration indicators to assess if further drilling is warranted at the remaining untested Sandra targets.

Mirasols President, Tim Heenan, stated: Inca Gold is a prospective project with several untested zones, currently being evaluated. Our recent reviews of the Caldera prospect, located south of Sandra, have delineated a promising new polymetallic epithermal vein, outcropping and subcropping over a strike length of 3 km. In addition, we are planning initial surface exploration at other porphyry and breccia Cu/Au prospects located north of Sandra, taking advantage of the low altitude and accessibility of the project. A detailed review of all the data gathered to date at Sandra is ongoing to make a decision on the next steps in this prospect.

Following the completion of the maiden drill program at Sandra, the Company has met the minimum drilling commitment and exploration expenditures required for the first two years under the option agreement with Newmont, and it now has until January 2023 to evaluate the other prospects at Inca Gold.

Figure 1: Inca Gold project location with prospects

Reconnaissance mapping and geochemical sampling surveys are ongoing at the Caldera prospect, which is located immediately to the south of Sandra (see Figure 1). Survey work has identified a promising mineralized polymetallic intermediate epithermal quartz vein structure outcropping over 1.3 km, with widths ranging up to 1.2m. Historical artisanal workings have also been recognized along the length of this structure. In addition, isolated quartz vein outcrops are exposed through colluvial and alluvial cover along strike, to the northwest and the southeast, which could extend the structure to over 3.0 km in length. These vein outcrops and subcrops are hosted within a prominent structural lineament that can be readily traced on the high-resolution satellite images. Abundant Cu minerals including Cu-oxides, chrysocolla (Cu-silicate), chalcopyrite (Cu-sulphide) and locally galena (Pb-sulphide), accompanied by numerous zones with strong Fe-oxide development, are evident over the extent of the structural trend. Geochemical results from the surface sampling survey are pending.

Two additional prospects, Vania and Rincon, located to the north of Sandra are also under evaluation and have potential for porphyry and breccia related Cu and Au mineralization (see Figure 1). This is notable as the district hosts several large mineralized systems such as Inca Del Oro porphyry Cu project and the El Salvador porphyry Cu mine, located 12 km west and 50 km north from Inca Gold, respectively. In addition, the Delirio Cu mine, owned and operated by Santiago Metals, is located 4 km to the west of Sandra and hosts Cu in tourmaline hydrothermal breccias, with abundant historical alluvial Au workings.

The compelling Vania porphyry Cu-Au prospect is delineated by multi-layered exploration data collected by Newmont prior to the option agreement with Mirasol. Vania hosts a strong, central Au DSG (Deep Sensing Geochemistry) anomaly with a peripheral anomalous multi-element geochemical halo, highlighted by Newmonts proprietary in-house geochemical processing technique. This geochemical signature is coincident with a prospective structural intersection of northwest and northeast trending lineaments, and overlies a magnetic low feature interpreted as potentially representing magnetic destruction resulting from alteration and mineralization events. Mirasols assessment of Vania will include an expanded soil geochemical survey and a systematic induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey over the existing Au DSG anomaly.

Figure 2: Multi layer anomalies and structural setting at Vania prospect

The Rincon prospect is located approximately 7 km northeast of the Delirio Cu Mine and represents a window through the Atacama gravel cover where mineralized quartz-tourmaline crackle breccias have been mapped. The current known extent of the breccia is approximately 700x200m and prospecting level geochemical samples from Newmont returned anomalous Au assays from narrow quartz veins and Cu-Mo assays from hydrothermal crackle breccias. This breccia target is considered attractive due to its similarities with the other mineralized tourmaline breccias in the district which hosts economic Cu-Au grades. Detailed, systematic geological mapping and geochemical sampling surveys are planned, with an IP geophysical survey to be completed if warranted.

Table 1: Sandra Prospect - Selected drill intercepts

Hole Id From To Interval (m)1 Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (ppm) Zn (ppm) IG-DD-003 84.25 84.80 0.55 0.06 22.7 215 610 IG-DD-004 66.45 66.95 0.50 0.27 47.8 309 509 IG-DD-004 97.55 98.30 0.75 0.13 18.8 232 403 IG-DD-005 139.00 140.00 1.00 0.05 21.6 1,270 1,870 IG-DD-005 141.00 141.50 0.50 0.08 35.2 3,470 1,860 IG-DD-006 139.10 139.60 0.50 0.10 26.2 3,000 528 IG-DD-007 158.30 159.00 0.70 0.03 20.2 1,165 9,930 IG-DD-008 218.50 219.50 1.00 0.08 25.6 >10,0002 2,840

Notes:

1 Reported interval lengths are down hole widths and not true widths.

2 Pb maximum detectable value to 10,000 ppm. Actual value is >10,000 ppm

Table 2: Sandra Prospect  Collar location

Hole Id Target Easting Northing Elevation (m) Azimuth Dip Depth (m) IG-DD-001 Veta Escuela 422072 7041334 2343 180 -55 191 IG-DD-002 Veta Escuela 422072 7041334 2343 180 -75 119 IG-DD-003 Veta Escuela 422031 7041352 2335 220 -50 116 IG-DD-004 Veta Valle 421898 7041464 2333 215 -50 113 IG-DD-005 Lomo de Ballena 422473 7041182 2425 245 -50 200 IG-DD-006 Lomo de Ballena 422473 7041181 2425 215 -50 160 IG-DD-007 Lomo de Ballena 422475 7041178 2426 180 -50 260 IG-DD-008 Lomo de Ballena 422473 7041182 2425 245 -65 260

About Mirasol Resources Ltd

Mirasol is a well-funded exploration company focused in Chile and Argentina. Mirasol has seven partner-funded projects, two with Newcrest Mining Ltd (Chile), and one with each First Quantum Minerals (Chile), Mine Discovery Fund (Chile), Mineria Activa (Chile), Silver Sands Resources (Argentina), and Patagonia Gold (Argentina). Mirasol is currently self-funding exploration at two projects, Inca Gold (Chile) and Sacha Marcelina (Argentina).

For further information, contact:

Tim Heenan, President

or

Jonathan Rosset, VP Corporate Development

Tel: +1 (604) 602-9989

Email: contact@mirasolresources.com

Website: www.mirasolresources.com

Qualified Person Statement: Mirasols disclosure of technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Heenan (MAIG), the President for the Company, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

QAQC: Mirasol applies industry standard exploration sampling methodologies and techniques. All geochemical rock and drill samples are collected under the supervision of the companys geologists in accordance with industry practice. Geochemical assays are obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program. Samples are dispatched to an ISO 9001:2008 accredited laboratory in Chile for analysis. Assay results from channel, trench, and drill core samples may be higher, lower or similar to results obtained from surface samples due to surficial oxidation and enrichment processes or due to natural geological grade variations in the primary mineralization.

Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry and to policies linked to pandemics, social and environmental related matters. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Mirasol disclaims any obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Miami, FL, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Amazonas Florestal Ltd. (OTC: AZFL) management announced today that after extensive negotiations, financial analysis and approval from its attorneysChairman Ricardo Cortez, effective June 21st, 2021, has executed memorandums of understanding with two companies that will be wholly acquired by Amazonas Florestal. The agreements involving capital and stocks are currently being drafted by AZFLs attorneys.



Innova Consulting Group (www.innovacg.com.co) and Gamma Engineers & Consultants are both private companies headquartered in Colombia. Innova operates in the Information Technology and Solutions sector, focused on creating programs and software for the cannabis industry. Gamma is an Engineering and Design firm that focuses on cannabis cultivation and processing facilities, mainly operating in hemp grow room design.

Amazonas Florestals CEO Ricardo Cortez stated: Weve been evaluating the acquisition of these companies for some time nowI could not be happier with our management teams due diligence and Amazonas presence in the country of Colombia. Innovas involvement in cannabis research and development, coupled with their accounting, testing and inventory software solutions will greatly advance Amazonas vision to becoming a big player in the cannabis space. On the other hand, we have always envisioned this company becoming fully vertical, and Gamma brings us much closer to our goal with their expertise in commercial grow room design. We are confident they can help us maximize our potential in hemp cultivation and processing as Amazonas shifts its focus to hemp-derived concentrates and isolates, starting with the opening of our first extraction facility in Miami, FL in the coming months.

About Amazonas Florestal Ltd.

Amazonas Florestal Ltd is a natural resources company dedicated to the research and development of innovative projects to process Industrial Hemp in legal cannabinoid concentrations into high CBD, T-Free and Delta-8 products. The Company also promotes the sustainable management of large tracts of land in the rainforests of state of Amazonas, in Brazil, and projects the certification and sale of carbon credits registered from the preservation of rain forest properties. In 2017, the Company shifted gears to focus on the growing, harvesting, research and development of Industrial Hemp and related products in the U.S.A. for both domestic and international markets. In 2021, the Company is building an important Hemp Derived Extraction facility in South Florida dedicated to the production of premium bulk T-Free cannabinoid extractions derived from Hemp and products that use these extractions as an active ingredient for Human and Animal Health and Wellness.

Headquartered in Miami, FL, Amazonas Florestals goal is to become a leader in field of Cannabinoid Extractions serving labs that use these chemicals as a raw material for human and animal consumption in health and beauty products.

Disclaimer: Forward Looking Statements

Forward-looking statements in this release regarding Amazonas Florestal Ltd. are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Amazonas Florestal Ltd.

Email: info@azflamerica.com

Website: http://azflamerica.com
YERINGTON, Nev., June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX: NCU) (OTC: NEVDF) (Nevada Copper or Company) is pleased to announce the results from its 2021 Annual and Special Meeting of shareholders (the Meeting), held today in Vancouver. Shareholders holding a total of 1,144,460,858 common shares of the Company (Common Shares) were represented by proxy at the Meeting, representing approximately 63% of the total 1,828,457,695 Common Shares outstanding as of the record date. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the Meeting.

Voting Details

The following eight persons were elected as Directors of the Company until the next annual shareholder meeting of the Company or until their successors are elected or appointed, with the voting results shown below:

Director Votes For % For Votes

Withheld % Withheld Tom Albanese 1,059,795,954 99.89% 1,126,670 0.11% Michael Brown 1,059,029,314 99.82% 1,893,310 0.18% Justin Cochrane 1,059,494,404 99.87% 1,428,220 0.13% Raffaele (Lucio)

Genovese 1,056,694,914 99.60% 4,227,710 0.40% Stephen Gill 1,059,726,136 99.89% 1,196,488 0.11% Evgenij Iorich 1,058,516,020 99.77% 2,406,604 0.23% G. Ernest (Ernie) Nutter 1,058,647,323 99.79% 2,275,301 0.21% Kate Southwell 1,058,741,783 99.79% 2,180,841 0.21%

At the Meeting, the shareholders of the Company also (i) fixed the number of Directors at eight for the ensuing year, (ii) voted to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Companys auditor and authorized the Directors to fix their remuneration, (iii) approved all unallocated awards under the Companys Deferred Share Unit Plan, and (iv) approved a special resolution with respect to the consolidation of all of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on the basis of one (1) post-consolidation Common Share for every ten (10) pre-consolidation Common Shares (the Share Consolidation). Approval of the special resolution with respect to the Share Consolidation gives the Companys board of directors (the Board) the authority to implement the Share Consolidation at any time prior to December 31, 2021. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Board retains the discretion to not proceed with the Share Consolidation.

About Nevada Copper

Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU) is a copper producer and owner of the Pumpkin Hollow copper project. Located in Nevada, USA, Pumpkin Hollow has substantial reserves and resources including copper, gold and silver. Its two fully permitted projects include the high-grade underground mine and processing facility, which is now in the production stage, and a large-scale open pit project, which is advancing towards feasibility status.

NEVADA COPPER CORP.

www.nevadacopper.com

Mike Ciricillo, President and CEO

For further information contact:

Rich Matthews, Investor Relations

Integrous Communications

rmatthews@integcom.us

+1 604 757 7179




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) (Monument or the Company) announces that the Malaysia authorities have released a National Recovery Plan, which sets up the criteria for the Movement Control Order (MCO) to transit from its first phase to the second phase when it has achieved: (1) daily Covid-19 cases below 4,000, (2) moderate occupancy of the ICU beds and (3) 10% of population vaccinated.



Based on the current reported level of daily Covid-19 cases in the country, the MCO remains at the first phase which only essential services are allowed. Selinsing Gold Mine will keep its operation at the essential services level until Malaysia moves into the second phase of the MCO.

CEO and President Cathy Zhai said: We have been closely monitoring the situation. In the meantime our flotation work continues being conducted as planned from home offices by our technicians and outside of Malaysia by the engineering firm, including the detailed flotation engineering design and procurement work. Mining will be start up immediately once the MCO is lifted for the mining sector.

Monument will brief the market on progress of Selinsing flotation construction shortly.

About Monument

Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia. Its experienced management team is committed to growth and is also advancing the Murchison Gold Projects comprising Burnakura, Gabanintha and Tuckanarra JV (20% interest) in the Murchison area of Western Australia. The Company employs approximately 200 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities.

Cathy Zhai, President and CEO

Monument Mining Limited

Suite 1580 -1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:

Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 rcushing@monumentmining.com

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans (forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Companys plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Companys projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the expected timing and results of development and exploration activities; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Titan Mining Corporation (TSX: TI) (Titan or the Company) announces that all matters presented for approval at Titans annual meeting of shareholders held today, as more particularly set out in the Companys Management Information Circular dated May 21, 2021, have been approved. These matters included:



Setting the number of directors at six;

Electing each of the Companys six nominees as directors of the Company;

Re-appointing Ernst & Young LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year and authorizing the directors to fix their remuneration;

Approving the Companys Stock Option Plan;

Approving of the Companys Restricted Share Unit Plan; and

Amending the articles of the Company to allow for consolidations and subdivisions of the Companys shares to be effected by board resolution.

A summary of the results for the election of the Companys directors is provided below:

Name of Nominee



Votes For Votes Withheld Number % Number % John Boehner 86,529,383 91.53 8,003,975 8.47 Lenard Boggio 93,695,158 99.11 838,200 0.89 William Mulrow 93,695,158 99.11 838,200 0.89 George Pataki 94,445,158 99.91 88,200 0.09 Donald Taylor 94,525,158 99.99 8,200 0.01 Richard Warke 94,448,403 99.91 84,955 0.09

Purni Parikh has elected to step down as President but will remain a consultant to the Company, with this role being assumed by Donald Taylor, current CEO of the Company. The Board, Management and employees at Titan would like to acknowledge the tremendous contribution Ms. Parikh has made on behalf of the Company.

About Titan Mining Corporation

Titan is an Augusta Group company which produces zinc concentrate at its 100%-owned Empire State Mine located in New York State. Titan is built for growth, focused on value and committed to excellence. For more information on the Company, please visit our website at www.titanminingcorp.com.

Contact

For further information, please contact:

Email: info@titanminingcorp.com




English French

Worldline signs a strategic partnership with BNL

in merchant acquiring in Italy

Creation of a joint venture with BNL banking group through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy based on a  220 million enterprise value





Commercial partnership aiming to leverage BNLs banking network in order to distribute Worldlines payment products and services to customers of the bank .





Strategic opportunity to expand Worldlines Merchant Services activities in the very promising Italian market





Axepta in Italy , a significant ban k acquirer in the country , has strong positions with:



c. 200 million a cquiring t ransactions per year from c. 220 ,000 POS c. 30 ,000 merchants portfolio with more than 60% being SMBs





High growth and synergies potential, by combining Axepta Italy existing presence with Worldline scale and best in class offerings





Bezons, July 1st, 2021  Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a global leader in the payments industry, today announced the signing of a binding agreement for the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy, the merchant acquiring entity of BNL banking group in Italy.

Gilles Grapinet, Worldlines Chairman and CEO, said: The partnership with BNL through the acquisition of 80% of Axepta Italy is a further significant development in our Group consolidation strategy in Europe, extending our Merchant Services activities towards the South of Europe. Thanks to this transaction, we indeed benefit from a direct access to an existing merchants portfolio in the fast-growing Italian market, driven by the steady ongoing adoption of electronic payments. This transaction offers attractive growth opportunities for Worldline in the coming years and a strong footprint to further expand our Merchant Services activities in Italy.

We are extremely happy to welcome soon more than 100 new Worldlines colleagues, managers, and payment experts and to work hand in hand with BNL to further jointly accelerate the development of the business of our joint venture in Italy.

As the European leader in payments, we keep executing our strategic roadmap with a focus on value-creative consolidation opportunities to enhance Worldline scale, reach and direct presence in a growing number of countries in close partnership with leading local banks.

Marco Tarantola, BNLs Deputy General Manager, said: Through this partnership, BNL aims to pursue its specializations journey in payment solutions initiated during the last years with Axepta, after having acquired in 2016 100% of the JV, BNL positivity created in the past with another player. The Worldlines footprint as well as its expertise ensures a high standard of service level, quality and performance of its payment solutions. This will allow us to propose to our customers a broad range of products, services and payment solutions, permanently in evolution thanks to innovation and new technologies best use.

Italy: one of the most attractive payment markets in Europe

Italy is a highly attractive and strategic market for Worldline. The country is the third largest euro economies in Europe with a cash penetration that remains high with cash accounted for close to 78% of total payment volume in 2020.

The Italian payment market shows attractive growth opportunities driven by the shift from cash to card and electronic payment adoption, supported by a solid acceptance network and one of the highest POS density per habitants in Europe as well as recent initiatives to push payment card usage and strong growth for e-Commerce, in particular during the peak of Covid-19. Transactions acquired are well balanced by card type (Credit cards, PagoBancomat, and Debit & Prepaid).

As an additional very compelling characteristic, Luxury and Retail market is one of the most important sectors of the Italian economy and a key pillar of its economic growth. In addition, with close to 100 million tourists per year, Italy is one of the most visited countries in Europe and in the world. This represents a very attractive feature of the Italian payment market offering numerous additional growth opportunities in a post-Covid context by leveraging the very rich Worldline portfolio of Luxury & Retail and Travel & Hospitality solutions.

Acquisition of Axepta Italy, the merchant acquiring entity of BNL in Italy and a significant stand-alone bank acquirer in Italy based on a long-term commercial partnership

Founded in 2006, Axepta Italy is the merchant acquiring entity of BNL in Italy and one of the large bank-owned acquirers in the country. It acquires c. 200 million acquiring transactions per year (c. 5% market share in MSV) from a c. 220,000 POS acceptance network.

Lead by Stefano Calderano, the Axepta CEO, and an experienced management team committed to continue, Axepta employs more than 100 employees. It provides international payment solutions for all channels (online, mobile or in-store payment solutions) and serves c. 30,000 merchants of which more than 60% being SMBs and close to 30% being large corporates. Overall, Axepta Italy merchants portfolio is highly diversified and presents a very low attrition rate.

As part of the transaction, Worldline will enter in a long-term commercial partnership with BNL aiming to leverage its strong banking network as a key commercial channel in order to distribute Worldlines and Axepta Italy best-in-class payment product and services.

In the continuity of Worldlines existing partnerships with more than 17 banks and banking federations (regrouping c. 100 adherents) in Italy, such a strategic alliance is another proof point of Worldlines bank-friendly Merchant Services expertise, aiming at strong value creation for partnering financial institutions. The joint venture is designed to be an open vehicle for welcoming existing partners and other Italian banks willing to benefit from delivery and servicing excellence, combined with scale and competitive cost structure.

Strategic rationale

In the rapidly changing industry, driven by the customers adoption of numerous and innovative payment methods, Axepta Italy and the partnership with BNL are the ideal cornerstone to accelerate Worldlines go-to-market in the country by deploying the Groups payment offering and value-added services capabilities in order to provide the best-in-class customer proposition and user experience across all segments in Italy.

This partnership represents an opportunity for Worldline to strongly expand its Merchant Services activities in this attractive European market with an existing and high-quality merchants portfolio, while generating significant growth opportunities fueled by increasing card penetration and online capabilities, allowing the entity to grow revenue at a double-digit rate in the coming years. This accelerated growth rate will be delivered through, in particular, the roll-out of Worldline SMB offerings, the expansion of its local acquiring capabilities to provide a comprehensive European footprint for large international and national customers, and the deployment of strong e-commerce and omnichannel solutions.

Furthermore, a robust integration and development program will be implemented at closing to further improve profitability rate through operating leverage and costs efficiency.

Impacts of the transaction on Worldline

The key financial impacts of the transaction on Worldline are the following:

Additional annual revenue of c.  50 million at closing with expected double-digit organic growth CAGR over the next 4 years;

OMDA margin of mid-to-high teens expected at closing, aiming to catch-up with Worldlines Merchant Services profitability, fueled by operating leverage and expected cost and revenue synergies of c.  15 million by 2025;

Estimated cash-out of c.  180 million at closing (for 80% ownership), preserving Worldlines financial flexibility;

BNL to retain a 20% ownership in Axepta Italy, and;

Closing expected end of 2021 or beginning 2022, subjected to satisfaction of customary condition precedent.





Forthcoming events

July 27, 2021 H1 2021 results

October 19, 2021 Q3 2021 revenue

Contacts

Investor Relations

Laurent Marie

+33 7 84 50 18 90

laurent.marie@ingenico.com

Benoit dAmecourt

+33 6 75 51 41 47

benoit.damecourt@worldline.com

Communication

Sandrine van der Ghinst

+32 499 585 380

sandrine.vanderghinst@worldline.com

Helene Carlander

+33 7 72 25 96 04

helene.carlander@worldline.com

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and #4 player worldwide. With its global reach and its commitment to innovation, Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and third-party acquirers as well as public transport operators, government agencies and industrial companies in all sectors. Powered by over 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries, Worldline provides its clients with sustainable, trusted and secure solutions across the payment value chain, fostering their business growth wherever they are. Services offered by Worldline in the areas of Merchant Services; Terminals, Solutions & Services; Financial Services and Mobility & e-Transactional Services include domestic and cross-border commercial acquiring, both in-store and online, highly-secure payment transaction processing, a broad portfolio of payment terminals as well as e-ticketing and digital services in the industrial environment. In 2020 Worldline generated a proforma revenue of 4.8 billion euros. worldline.com

Worldlines corporate sense of purpose (raison detre) is to design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. We make them environmentally friendly, widely accessible and support social transformation.

Disclaimer

This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including references, concerning the Group's expected growth and profitability in the future which may significantly impact the expected performance indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are linked to factors out of the control of the Company and not precisely estimated, such as market conditions or competitors behaviors. Any forward-looking statements made in this document are statements about Worldlines beliefs and expectations and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements include statements that may relate to Worldlines plans, objectives, strategies, goals, future events, future revenues or synergies, or performance, and other information that is not historical information. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2020 Universal Registration Document filed with the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF) on April 13, 2021 under the filling number: D.21-0303.

Worldline does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation or responsibility to update or amend any of the information above except as otherwise required by law.

This document is disseminated for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they have been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or the securities laws of any U.S. state, or are exempt from registration. The securities that may be offered in any transaction have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act or the securities laws of any U.S. state and Worldline does not intend to make a public offering of any such securities in the United States.

Attachment
Portland, OR, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market generated $8.7 billion in 2019, and is expected to garner $13.4 billion by 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 7.3% from 2020 to 2027. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top winning strategies, key segments, value chain, major investment pockets, and competitive landscape.

Rise in residential & commercial construction activities, surge in investment in the construction sector and increase in demand from various end-use industries drive the growth of the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market. However, variations in raw material prices hinder the market growth. On the other hand, surge in demand for bio-based and environmentally friendly products presents new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Sample PDF (178 Pages PDF with Insights): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/10162

Covid-19 Scenario:

Manufacturing activities of paints & coatings have been hindered due to lockdown imposed by the government. In addition, the supply chain has been disrupted and raw material shortage arose.

Many ongoing projects from different sectors such as construction, manufacturing, oil & gas, and others have been put on hold or cancelled. This decreased the demand considerably. However, the demand is expected to rise steadily during the post-lockdown.

The report offers detailed segmentation of the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market based on resin type, technology, and product type.

Based on resin type, the acrylic resin segment contributed to the highest market share, accounting for nearly one-third of the total share in 2019, and will maintain its dominant share in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is estimated to portray the highest CAGR of 7.7% from 2020 to 2027. The research also analyzes the segments including alkyd resin, polyurethane resin, epoxy resin, polyester resin, and others.

Request the Covid19 Impact Analysis @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/10162?reqfor=covid

Based on technology, the solvent-based segment accounted for the highest market share in 2019, holding more than half of the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. However, the water-based segment is estimated to manifest the fastest CAGR of 7.4% from 2020 to 2027.

Based on product type, the decorative paints & coatings segment held the highest market share in 2019, accounting for more than three-fifths of the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market, and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. However, the industrial paints & coatings segment is estimated to witness the highest CAGR of 7.5% from 2020 to 2027.

Leading players of the Saudi Arabia paints & coatings market analyzed in the research include Akzo Nobel N.V., Jazeera Paints, BASF SE, Kansai Paints Co., Ltd., Jotun A/S, Protech Powder Coatings, Inc., National Paints Factories Co. Ltd., Zamil Industrial Coatings, The Sherwin-Williams Company, and United Coating Industries.

Interested in Procuring this Report? Visit Here: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/saudi-arabia-paints-and-coatings-market/purchase-options

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English Danish

COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT

Odense, July 1st, 2021

Company Announcement no. 28 - 01-07-2021

Danish Aerospace Company receives subsidy for development project for military divers.

Danish Aerospace Company A/S (DAC) will receive subsidy from the EU Defense Fund for participation in the CUIIS project (Comprehensive Underwater Intervention Information System), along with companies and research institutions from six other countries. The project aim is to develop underwater technology with sensors, monitoring and control systems for military divers.

The CUIIS (Comprehensive Underwater Intervention Information System) project will develop underwater technology and control systems for monitoring and rescuing military divers.

The project is part of the EU Commissions recently published results for the European Defense Industrial Development Program 2020 (EDIDP), under the theme " Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea"

The project is led by the Bulgarian Defense Institute (Institut po Otbrana - Bulgarian Defense Institute) and the consortium consists of 18 companies and institutions from Denmark, Bulgaria, France, Poland, Romania, Italy and Finland.

DAC will be responsible for the sensors and the underwater technology for monitoring the health of the divers.

The CUIIS project has been evaluated by an independent assessment committee and found suitable for EU support via the EU Defense Fund and has a total budget of DKK 42.8 million (EUR 5.7 million).

DAC's total expected subsidy for the project is approximately DKK 2.67 million. (358,000 EU)

The project is expected to start in the autumn of 2021 and run for three years and consists of development, design, prototyping and a test phase.

The EU contract is not expected to change the company's previously announced expected turnover for 2021.

It is outstanding that the CUIIS project has been selected for support from the EU Defense Fund. This really gives us the opportunity to pursue this important strategic area which was identified at our IPO in 2019.

Here, we can for the first time utilize our vast space experience and technologies within a completely different area and in an extreme environment on Earth. There are a lot of parallels between monitoring astronauts in space and underwater divers. Our internal development activities on wearable sensors have led to this point, and with the support of the EU Defense Fund, we will have the opportunity to develop and build a prototype for use by military divers. explains Thomas A. E. Andersen, CEO of Danish Aerospace Company A/S.

He continues;

We hope that with this project, we can help create a tool and sensors that will benefit military divers throughout the EU, but specifically also in Denmark by e.g., the Danish Navy Seals (Frmandskorpset). In addition to the military applications, such sensors and its technology will also be able to be used by commercial divers and, over time, perhaps also by recreational divers. says Thomas A. E. Andersen.

Additional information

Danish Aerospace Company A/S has internal development projects for new wearables sensors to monitor the health of astronauts and people in extreme environments on Earth, such as divers, mountain climbers, fighter pilots and race drivers.

The CUIIS project focuses on the area of underwater technologies for physical support and recovery of divers, by building a command-, control-, communications- and information (C4I) mission system for underwater management, underwater monitoring, situational awareness, positioning, navigation and manned-unmanned teaming. It will provide solutions to avoid/mitigate Decompression Sickness (DCS) risks, create and use a real-time underwater joint operational picture through the fusion of various types of information, and ensure interoperability, coordination and de-confliction of underwater intervention activities, including manned-unmanned teaming, involving the teaming of a large number of divers and underwater unmanned vehicles (UUV).

For further information, please contact:

Danish Aerospace Company A/S:

Thomas A.E. Andersen, CEO

Cell Phone: +45 40 29 41 62

Mail: ta@danishaerospace.com

Certified Adviser:

Gert Mortensen, Partner

Baker Tilly Corporate Finance P/S

Poul Bundgaards Vej 1

DK-2500 Valby

Tel.: +45 33 45 10 00

www.bakertilly.dk

About Danish Aerospace Company A/S:

Danish Aerospace Company (DAC) is a high-tech company operating in the area of advanced medical instrumentation and other engineering fields primarily within space applications.

Our products are based on many years of specialized research and development. These consist of developing, integrating, and applying new as well as established medical technologies to the challenges of functioning and remaining reliable in space. These products and services bring the potential of space research and experience from space operations down to Earth for the benefit of all mankind.

Danish Aerospace Company employs engineers and technicians who deliver full engineering, production and technical services for our customers. We have specialized in customer specific design, development, manufacturing, certification, maintenance, testing, and operations.

The company has developed five generations respiratory equipment for spaceflight, ergometers for astronauts, countermeasures, adapted several commercial medical equipment for spaceflight and has participated in the development of the minus eighty degree celsius freezers.

The Companys quality system is certified in obligation to BS EN ISO 9001:2015, BS EN 9100:2018 technical equivalent to AS9100D that is the acknowledged standard in the area.

Note: This is a translation of the corresponding Company Announcement in Danish. In case of discrepancies between the Danish wording and the English translation, the Danish wording prevails.

www.DanishAerospace.com
Dublin, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Postal Automation Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The postal automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.10% over the forecast period to reach a market size of US$4.900 billion in 2026.

Automation is growing in several industries as it improves organizational efficiency while reducing the total operational cost. The postal automation system is an intelligent system, which provides a solution for effective parcel sorting and brings mails from the sender to the recipient in a reliable and fast manner. The postal automation systems consist of mail sorting systems, parcel sorting systems, postal software, and automatic reading and coding systems. The primary reason behind the need for automation in the postal system is to eradicate the shortcomings of the traditional postal systems such as human errors, higher processing time, and high labor requirement. Automation of the Postal industry provides a faster and better categorization of letters and parcels, it further assists in the digitalization of this procedure.

The key drivers of the postal automation market are the rising labor costs, the need for proper checking and accountability, and the growing e-commerce industry. The total number of parcels and packages is on an increase owing to the rise in online shopping by end-users, this, in turn, increases the demand for efficient and reliable solutions for sorting parcels and delivering them to the recipient on time, which further creates a need for the automation of the postal system. Automation in the postal system simplifies the complete mail processing chain from pre-sorting to sequencing, this reduces the fixed costs and helps in improving the quality of service provided. In addition, it helps in increasing the profitability, quality, competitiveness of the system, and reducing the labor costs as the process requires less labor. In addition, the growing demand for industrial automation is further projected to fuel the market growth for postal automation systems during the forecast period.



By component, the postal automation services will grow on account of the regular repairs and updates required for the proper functioning of machines. In addition, the increasing training and supervision required for operating the machines will further drive the growth of postal automation services. The hardware component owns a substantial share to improve organizational efficiency and boost the company's profitability throughout the forecast period. By product type, the parcel sorter segment is expected to hold a significant market share owing to the growing need to cut down on intensive manual labor requirements. The increasing demand in the online shopping industry is also predicted to drive the market growth for this segment. By end-user, the Government postal applications are projected to hold a notable market share due to the shift from conventional postal systems to automated ones during the forecast period.

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region holds lucrative opportunities that can result in substantial growth during the forecasted period. The rising trend of e-commerce in developing countries like China, India, and South Korea among others will result in increased demand for a more automated and streamlined procedure. The presence of some of the major market players results in the easier availability of products and services in the emerging markets, thus augmenting the demand for these machines. The North American and European regions were the early adopters of postal automation equipment and are now moving towards upgrading their systems to provide better connectivity and meet the increasing needs, thereby boosting the demand for postal automation solutions in the region.



Growth Factors

Increasing transactions in the E-commerce industry

The growing popularity of the e-commerce industry is expected to propel the market growth for the postal automation market during the forecast period. According to the United States Department of Commerce, the e-commerce industry has grown by 15% to reach USD 395 billion in total sales in 2016. The increasing popularity of the e-commerce industry is becoming a challenge for the logistics industry as the manual procedures may be erroneous and involve a lot of time and money. According to the Wall Street Journal, online sales generate the need for reverse logistics as approximately one-third of all the products are ultimately returned by consumers. The voluminous amount of package transfers are expected to fuel the market growth for the postal automation market as a large number of packages will require an efficient parcel automation system.

Reduction in labor cost

The primary advantage of an automated postal system will be the reduction in labor costs and labor dependence. Many factors such as high attrition rates, decreasing productivity, government regulations, and a shortage of employable skills are some of the reasons for the increase in labor costs, which the conventional postal market has to bear. According to Eurostat, in the first quarter of 2018, the annual growth in labor costs was 2% in the Euro area and 2.7% in the European Union. Many industries such as logistics, manufacturing, automotive, energy, and power, etc. have to bear the increasing labor costs. The automated postal system helps the companies to save on labor costs and make the complete process economical, accurate, and highly productive. Thus, the market for postal automation systems is expected to expand during the forecast period.



Restraints

High costs

The initial investment associated with automating the postal system is huge. To automate the entire postal system large amount of funds will be required as the entire process will be digitalized along with the installation of various hardware and software. Furthermore, once the automated system is installed, it will require regular maintenance, servicing, and renewal, which will further increase the variable cost. Thus, the high costs associated with the installation and maintenance of the postal automation system may hinder the market growth during the forecast period as company companies would want to minimize or avoid this additional expenditure.



Impact of COVID-19



The covid-19 pandemic moderately influenced the postal automation market as the E-commerce and logistics industry were on a rise despite the virus outbreak. Furthermore, many companies shifted towards automation of their postal systems as restrictions were imposed on travel due to which all manual labor-related work was put to a halt. This encouraged companies to shift towards postal automated systems as they wanted to reduce their dependency on labor. Also, owing to the pandemic many companies adopted postal automation to reduce labor costs as the business operations were hampered due to the lockdown restrictions imposed by the governments.



Competitive Insights



Prominent/major key market players in the Postal Automation Market include Siemens AG, Toshiba Corporation, NEC Corporation, Pitney Bowes, Solystic SAS, Vanderlande N.V, Fives Group, Leonardo S.P.A, Beumer Group GmbH & Co. KG, and National Presort (NPI) LP. The players in the Postal Automation Market are implementing various growth strategies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in this market. For Instance, in September 2019, Vanderlande N.V has launched the next installment of its scalable solutions (evolutions) - DIRECTSORT in the Parcel and Post Expo 2019 in the Netherlands. DIRECTSORT is a modular, future-proof solution that sorts parcels from the moment they are unloaded from trailers, vans, or load carriers to optimize the total cost of ownership. Major market players in the market have been covered along with their relative competitive strategies in this report and the report mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last few years. The company profiles section details the business overview, financial performance (public companies) for the past few years, key products and services being offered along with the recent deals and investments of these important players in the Postal Automation Market.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Dynamics

4.1. Market Drivers

4.2. Market Restraints

4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis



5. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Component

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Hardware

5.3. Software

5.4. Services



6. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Product Type

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Culling and Cancelling

6.3. Sorting Machines

6.4. Parcel Sorter

6.5. Mail Sorter

6.6. Flat Sorter

6.7. Mixed Mail Sorter

6.8. Services

6.9. Others



7. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By End-User

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Government Postal

7.3. Private Postal



8. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Geography

8.1. Introduction

8.2. North America

8.2.1. United States

8.2.2. Canada

8.2.3. Mexico

8.3. South America

8.3.1. Brazil

8.3.2. Argentina

8.3.3. Others

8.4. Europe

8.4.1. United Kingdom

8.4.2. Germany

8.4.3. France

8.4.4. Spain

8.4.5. Others

8.5. The Middle East and Africa

8.5.1. Saudi Arabia

8.5.2. Israel

8.5.3. Others

8.6. Asia Pacific

8.6.1. Japan

8.6.2. China

8.6.3. India

8.6.4. Indonesia

8.6.5. Taiwan

8.6.6. Thailand

8.6.7. Others



9. Competitive Intelligence

9.1. Competitive Benchmarking and Analysis

9.2. Recent Investment and Deals

9.3. Strategies of Key Players



10. Company Profiles

10.1. Siemens AG

10.2. Toshiba Corporation

10.3. NEC Corporation

10.4. Pitney Bowes

10.5. Solystic SAS

10.6. Vanderlande N.V

10.7. Fives Group

10.8. Leonardo S.P.A

10.9. Beumer Group GmbH & Co. KG

10.10. National Presort (NPI) LP



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/nsgk10
Dublin, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Radiotherapy Market by Product (LINAC, CyberKnife, Gamma Knife, Tomotherapy, Particle Therapy, Cyclotron), Procedure (External (IMRT, IGRT, 3D-CRT) Internal (LDR, HDR)), Application (Prostate, Breast, Lung), End User (Hospitals) - Forecasts to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global radiotherapy market is valued at USD 5.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 7.3 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period.

The growth of this market is primarily driven by the rising burden of target diseases and increasing investments, funds, and grants for the development of novel products.



Additionally, the growing adoption of radiotherapy procedures for cancer treatment, increasing use of particle therapy for cancer treatment, and the rising number of conferences and symposia focusing on the advancements in radiotherapy are some of the other major factors driving the growth of this market.

However, the underdeveloped public health infrastructure in emerging countries, shortage of trained and skilled radiation oncologists, and the limited access to and affordability of various radiotherapy treatment options are the major factors that are expected to restrain the growth of this market during the forecast period.



The prostate cancer segment, by application, accounted for the largest share of the external beam as well as internal beam radiotherapy market in 2020



On the basis of application, the radiotherapy market is classified into two major segments-external beam radiotherapy and internal beam radiotherapy/brachytherapy applications. Based on indication, the external beam radiotherapy applications segment is further divided into prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer (laryngeal cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, and oral cavity cancer), and other cancers (pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer, among others).



The prostate cancer segment accounted for a significant share of both EBRT and brachytherapy market owing to the high and growing prevalence of prostate cancer and the positive outcomes for prostate cancer treatment using radiotherapy.



The particle therapy segment of product, to register a significant growth rate amongst the external beam radiotherapy products, owing to new product launches and approvals



On the basis of product, the radiotherapy market is segmented into external beam radiotherapy, internal beam radiotherapy/brachytherapy, and systemic radiotherapy products. The external beam radiotherapy products segment is further divided into linear accelerators, particle therapy systems, and conventional cobalt-60 teletherapy units.



The internal beam radiotherapy/brachytherapy products segment includes seeds, applicators, afterloaders, and IORT systems, while the systemic radiotherapy segment includes iobenguane (I-131), samarium-153, rhenium-186, and other radioisotopes (Yttrium-90, Radium-223, Phosphorous-32, and Radio-labelled antibodies, among others).



Increased installations and government initiatives to drive the segment growth of hospitals end user segment



Based on end user, the radiotherapy market has been segmented into hospitals and independent radiotherapy centers. The hospitals segment accounted for the largest share of the radiotherapy market owing to the rising global prevalence of cancer, increasing installations of advanced radiotherapy equipment in developed as well as developing regions, increasing government initiatives aimed at equipping (or upgrading) hospitals with newer and advanced radiotherapy systems, and the increasing availability of funding for the adoption of advanced cancer treatment technologies.

In 2021, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai and Shanghai Fosun Healthcare (Group) Co., Ltd. (China) signed an agreement with Mevion Medical Systems to establish the first pediatric proton therapy center in China. Many more such recent developments will drive the market for hospital end user segment.



The US market, by region, commanded the largest market share in 2020



On the basis of region, the radiotherapy market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. North America held the major share of the global radiotherapy market in 2020. The large share of the North American market can be attributed to factors such as the ongoing technological advancements, rising incidence of cancer, improving reimbursement scenario, and the rising focus of key players on strengthening their presence in the region.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Radiotherapy Market Overview

4.2 Europe: External Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Product and Region

4.3 North America: Internal Beam Radiotherapy Market, by Application, 2021 Vs. 2026 (USD Million)

4.4 Geographic Snapshot of the Radiotherapy Market

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Technological Advancements

5.2.1.2 Expansion of the Target Patient Population

5.2.1.3 Increasing Number of Conferences and Symposia Focusing on Spreading Awareness About the Benefits of Radiotherapy

5.2.1.4 Growing Use of Particle Therapy for Cancer Treatment

5.2.2 Key Market Restraints

5.2.2.1 Lack of Adequate Healthcare Infrastructure

5.2.2.2 Shortage of Skilled Oncologists/Radiologists

5.2.2.3 Affordability and Accessibility of Treatment

5.2.2.4 Complex Nature of Radiotherapy

5.2.3 Key Market Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Rising Healthcare Expenditure Across Developing Countries

5.2.3.2 Growing Government and Private Investments to Meet the Increasing Demand for Cancer Treatment

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Difficulties in Visualizing Tumors During Radiotherapy Procedures

5.2.4.2 Risk of Radiation Exposure

5.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.4 Regulatory Scenario

5.4.1 US

5.4.2 Europe

5.4.3 Japan

5.4.4 Emerging Countries

5.5 Reimbursement Scenario

5.6 Ecosystem Coverage

5.7 Value Chain Analysis

5.8 COVID-19 Impact on the Radiotherapy Market

5.9 Pricing Analysis

5.10 Patent Analysis

5.10.1 Patent Details

6 Radiotherapy Market, by Product

7 Radiotherapy Market, by Application

8 Radiotherapy Market, by Procedure

9 Radiotherapy Market, by End-User

10 Radiotherapy Market, by Region

11 Competitive Landscape

12 Company Profiles

12.1 Key Players

12.1.1 Varian Medical Systems, Inc.

12.1.2 Elekta AB

12.1.3 Accuray Incorporated

12.1.4 Becton, Dickinson and Company

12.1.5 IBA Worldwide

12.1.6 ViewRay, Inc.

12.1.7 IsoRay Medical

12.1.8 Hitachi Ltd.

12.1.9 Panacea Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

12.1.10 Provision Healthcare

12.1.11 Mevion Medical Systems

12.1.12 Optivus Proton Therapy, Inc.

12.1.13 P-Cure

12.1.14 Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd.

12.1.15 Zeiss Group

12.2 Other Players

12.2.1 IntraOp Medical, Inc.

12.2.2 iCAD, Inc.

12.2.3 Eckert & Ziegler

12.2.4 Sensus Healthcare

12.2.5 S.I.T Sordina IORT Technologies S.P.A.

13 Appendix

13.1 Discussion Guide

13.2 Knowledge Store: The Subscription Portal

13.3 Available Customizations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/47cdzf
Pune, India, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The growing demand for coated bearings from various applications is a key factor enabling growth of the bearings market, says Fortune Business Insights, in a report, titled  Bearings Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Ball Bearing, Roller Bearing), By Application (Automotive, Industrial Machinery, Aerospace, Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026. The global bearings market was valued at USD 39.46 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 52.44 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.6% during the forecast period (2019  2026).

Request to Sample PDF Brochure:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/bearings-market-101608

The Prominent Companies Operating In The Global Bearings Market Include:

NSK Ltd

Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp

myonic GmbH

LYC Bearing Corporation

Luoyang Huigong Bearing Technology Co., Ltd.

Koyo

ISB Speak to Our Analyst- Industries

Industries NTN Bearing Corporation

SKF

The Timken Company

THB Bearings

As per the report, on the basis of application, the bearings market is segmented into automotive, industrial machinery, aerospace and others. The automotive segment is expected to hold maximum share owing to the expansion of the automobile industry. The rising emphasis on weight reduction will further aid the growth of the segment. The increasing demand for bearings in the automotive industry owing to its advantages such as the ability to rotate at high speed with precision and high durability along with noise and vibration reduction property. Furthermore, the rising focus of manufacturers towards the production of lighter bearings by adopting various technologies such as better forging techniques, low tolerances, and lightweight alloys will further propel the growth of the market. For instance, SKF developed bearing cages from titanium alloys used in gearbox applications. These titanium bearings offer high component strength and; temperature resistance properties especially applicable for high acceleration applications

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Bearings Market.

Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/bearings-market-101608

The report is dedicated to offering the best statistics, an explanatory study comprising of various characteristics allowing key players to remain robust in the market. It also discusses in-depth the recent innovations and advancement in the bearings market.

Rising Demand For Precision Bearing Will create Growth opportunities

The increasing demand for precision bearing owing to industrial automation will boost the market revenue during the forecast period. The increasing demand from various applications including the aerospace industry and machine tools has resulted in the adoption of precision bearings. The growing requirement for miniature bearings in industrial robots will propel the growth of the market. For instance, according to the secondary sources, in 2017, 2.1 million stand-alone industrial robots were installed globally. The rising technological advancement in office automation, medical equipment, and audio-visual equipment will fuel demand for miniature bearings. In addition, the growing focus of manufacturers for the development of miniature bearings will boost the growth of the market. For instance, SKF offers wide range of miniature ball bearings available in stainless steel along with seals or shields for various applications.

Ask for Customization:

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Increasing Availability Of Tailored Bearing Will Aid Expansion

The increasing availability of tailored bearing is a factor enabling the growth of the market. The emergence of application-specific bearings is also one of the bearing market trends. The manufacturers are thus offering specialized bearing to suit specific requirements in applications such as weaving looms, agriculture machinery, vacuum pumps, and turbochargers. For instance, NTN-SNR manufacture fully customizes bearings with four points crossed rollers for robotic transmission applications. Furthermore, the development of an advanced ball bearing is predicted to stimulate the growth of the market. For instance, JTEKT Corporation has developed a creep resistance features for ball bearing which are primarily used in the transmissions of hybrid; electric vehicles and, CVTs of engine cars.

Moreover, the acquisition of Timken India Ltd is predicted to favor the market growth. For instance, Timken India Ltd. A subsidiary of Timken Company acquired ABC Bearings Ltd, an Indian manufacturer of cylindrical, tapered and, spherical roller bearings.

Quick Buy - Bearings Market: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101608

Table of Content

Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Approach Sources

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Emerging Trends

Key Insights Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Key Technological Developments Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players

Global Bearings Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts  By Type (Value) Ball Bearings Roller Bearings Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts  By Application (Value) Automotive Industrial Machinery Aerospace Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Geography (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Latin America

North America Bearings Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026 Key Findings / Summary Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts  By Type (Value) Ball Bearings Roller Bearings Market Sizing Estimations and Forecasts  By Application (Value) Automotive Industrial Machinery Aerospace Others Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Country (Value) United States Canada



TOC Continued.

Speak to Our Analyst-

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/bearings-market-101608

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English Lithuanian

Turnover of Apranga Group in June 2021

Retail turnover (including VAT) of Apranga Group amounted to EUR 24.6 million in June 2021 and has increased by 18.8% comparing to June 2020. In June 2021, the retail turnover of Apranga Group in Lithuania increased by 21.7% year-to-year, in Latvia increased by 15.8% and in Estonia increased by 12.7%.

Retail turnover (including VAT) of Apranga Group totalled EUR 55.7 million in 2nd quarter 2021 and was 36.2% higher than in 2020. In 2nd quarter 2021, the retail turnover of the Group in Lithuania increased by 55.3%, in Latvia decreased by 0.5% and in Estonia increased by 26.3% year-to-year.

Due to epidemic coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, from 16 December 2020, all the Groups stores in Lithuania were temporarily closed. Stores in Lithuania with a separate entrance from outside and a sales area not exceeding 300 square meters had been open since 15 February 2021. All stores with a separate entrance from outside had been open since 15 March 2021. All Groups stores have been reopened in Lithuania from 19 April 2021, however, stores operating in shopping malls were not allowed to work on weekends, unless they had separate entrance from outside. Eventually, all Groups stores have been open in Lithuania as of 29 May 2021. In Latvia, stores were temporarily closed from 19 December 2020. Stores with a separate entrance from outside and an area not exceeding 7,000 square meters have been open in Latvia from 7 April 2021. Groups stores that operate in shopping malls and have separate entrance from outside were reopened as of 22 May 2021. Eventually, all Groups stores have been open in Latvia as of 3 June 2021. In Estonia, all Groups stores were temporarily closed from 11 March 2021, and from 6 March 2021 to 11 March 2021 stores were not allowed to work on weekends. All Groups stores have been reopened in Estonia from 3 May 2021. These temporary closures had a significant impact on the Group's generated turnover in January-June 2021.

In January through June 2021, the retail turnover of Apranga Group (including VAT) totalled EUR 81.2 million and decreased by 6.4% year-to-year.

In January-June 2021, the retail turnover of Apranga Group in Lithuania was EUR 52.9 million and increased by 4.4% year-on-year.

In January-June 2021, the retail turnover of Apranga Group in Latvia amounted to EUR 14.5 million and decreased by 34.1% year-on-year.

In January-June 2021, the retail turnover of Apranga Group in Estonia was EUR 13.8 million and decreased by 1.8% year-on-year.

In 6 months of 2021, Apranga Group opened 1 store, renovated 6 stores and 6 stores were closed.

Currently Apranga Group operates the chain of 174 stores (101 in Lithuania, 48 in Latvia and 25 in Estonia) covering the gross area of 92.5 thousand sq. m., or by 0.9% less than a year ago.

Rimantas Perveneckas

Apranga Group General Manager

+370 5 2390801




Dublin, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Dinnerware, Drinkware, Flatware), Application (Commercial, Residential), Country (US), and Segment Forecasts, 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The North America tabletop kitchen products market size is expected to reach USD 17.03 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 4.8% from 2021 to 2028.

The rising number of eateries and restaurants has driven the need for various tabletop kitchen products for the preparation, service, and delivery of various kinds of foods. The rapid growth of the real estate industry and a rise in commercial construction activities in the region are also likely to boost market growth in the coming years.



Rising disposable income, changing lifestyles, and an increasing number of houses are expected to drive the product demand over the forecast period. However, the growing popularity of disposable dinnerware, flatware, and drinkware products is a major factor behind the declining usage of tabletop products in the residential and commercial sectors. Rapid urbanization is one of the prominent factors leading to a change in the purchasing behavior of consumers.



Companies in the market are focusing on increasing product launches to increase their market share. For instance, in April 2019, The Oneida Group, Inc. opened a new retail showroom at FortyOne Madison to unveil new flatware designs for the Spring New York Tabletop Show.

The growing trend of wine tasting in developing countries also acts as a major driver for the market. For instance, in 2019, Water Street Wines & Spirits started a new venture for selling wine glasses, serving its existing customer base in Penn Yan, New York, U.S.

North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market Report Highlights

The dinnerware segment accounted for the largest revenue share of over 35% in 2020 and will expand further at a steady CAGR from 2021 to 2028

The dominance of the segment can be attributed to the high demand for these products among consumers from both, the residential and commercial sectors

The residential segment accounted for the second-largest revenue share in 2020 and will expand at a steady CAGR from 2021 to 2028 due to the rising number of residential construction projects and rapid urbanization

The overall market is characterized by the presence of several well-established as well as some small- and medium-scale players

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope

1.1. Market Segmentation & Scope

1.2. Market Definition

1.3. Information Procurement

1.4. Information Analysis

1.5. Market Formulation & Data Visualization

1.6. Data Validation & Publishing



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Market Outlook

2.2. Product Outlook

2.3. Application Outlook



Chapter 3. North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Introduction

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Industry Value Chain Analysis

3.4. Market Dynamics

3.5. Business Environment Analysis

3.6. Roadmap of North America Table Top Kitchen Products

3.7. Market Entry Strategies

3.8. Impact of COVID-19 on the North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market



Chapter 4. Consumer Behavior Analysis

4.1. Consumer Trends and Preferences

4.2. Factors Affecting Buying Decision

4.3. Consumer Product Adoption

4.4. Observations & Recommendations



Chapter 5. North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market: Product Analysis and Estimates

5.1. Market Share, 2021 & 2028

5.2. Dinnerware

5.3. Flatware

5.4. Whitegoods

5.5. Drinkware

5.6. Buffet Products

5.7. Others



Chapter 6. North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market: Application Analysis and Estimates

6.1. Market Share, 2021 & 2028

6.2. Residential

6.3. Commercial



Chapter 7. North America Tabletop Kitchen Products Market: Country Estimates & Trend Analysis

7.1. Market Share, 2021 & 2028

7.2. North America



Chapter 8. Competitive Analysis

8.1. Key global players, recent developments & their impact on the industry

8.2. Key Company Categorization

8.3. Vendor Landscape



Chapter 9. Company Profiles

Villeroy & Boch AG

Lenox Corporation

Noritake Co.

The Oneida Group, Inc

Fiskars Group

Lifetime Brands, Inc.

Corelle Brands LLC

Steelite International

Libbey Inc.

Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/u2n7mk
London, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Roots Analysis has announced the addition of  Cell Therapy Manufacturing Market (4th Edition), 2021-2030 report to its list of offerings.

Owing to the complex manufacturing processes, requirement of advanced production facilities and the growing demand for cell therapy products, developers are actively outsourcing certain manufacturing operations, in addition to expanding their in-house capabilities.

To order this 620 page report, which features 210+ figures and 280+ tables, please visit https://www.rootsanalysis.com/reports/view_document/cell-therapy-manufacturing/285.html

Key Market Insights

Around 200 organizations claim to be engaged in cell therapy manufacturing

The market landscape is dominated by industry players, which constitute 65% of the total number of stakeholders. Amongst these, over 25% companies are large firms.

280+ production facilities dedicated to cell therapies have been established worldwide

North America has emerged as the manufacturing hub for cell therapies, with the presence of nearly 45% of the manufacturing facilities; this is followed by Europe (31%). Other emerging regions include China, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

90 cell therapy manufacturers are focused on immune cell and stem cell therapies

Most of the players in this domain are focused on manufacturing of T cell therapies, primarily CAR-T therapies, while the stem cell therapy manufacturers are primarily engaged in the production of adult stem cells and mesenchymal stem cell therapies

Presently, more than 70 companies carry out manufacturing at all scales of operation.

Nearly 45% players have the required capabilities for commercial scale manufacturing. It is worth noting that all the industry players manufacture cell therapies required for clinical purposes.

35+ companies offer automated and closed systems to cell therapy developers

More than 60 automated and closed systems are being used for cell therapy manufacturing. Organizations that are presently offering customized automated solutions for cell therapy processes / manufacturing are Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA (Germany), KMC Systems (US), RoosterBio (US) and Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine (US).

Several partnerships were established in this domain, during the period 2016-2021

More than 180 deals have been inked during the given time period. A large proportion (34%) of the partnerships were related to manufacturing of cell therapies, followed by acquisitions (17%) and licensing agreements (14%).

Expansion activity in this domain has grown at a CAGR of 59%, between 2016 and 2021

More than 75 facility expansions were reported during the given time period. Over 80% instances were related to the establishment of new facilities, followed by those involving the expansion of existing facilities (17%).

Role of big pharma players in this industry has evolved over the last few years; their initiatives increased at a CAGR of 41% during the period 2016-2020

Several big pharma players have undertaken various initiatives focused on cell therapy manufacturing. Gilead sciences, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Novartis are some of the prominent big pharma players in this domain.

The currently available global cell therapy manufacturing capacity is estimated to be over 1.88 billion sq. ft. of dedicated cleanroom area

The maximum (48%) installed capacity (in terms of cleanroom area) belongs to companies based in North America (48%); the region has higher number of players having multiple production facilities. This is followed by Asia Pacific (29%) and Europe (23%).

The demand for cell therapies is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 22%, during 2021-2030

Presently, the clinical demand for stem cell and CAR-T cell-based products is the highest; this trend is unlikely to change in the foreseen future as well. On the other hand, the demand for tumor cell, NK cell and dendritic cell therapies is expected to grow at a relatively faster pace, over the next decade.

By 2030, the market for commercial scale cell therapy manufacturing is likely to grow at an annualized rate of 31.5%

Currently, North America and Europe capture more than 70% share of the overall market. Specifically, the cell therapy manufacturing market in Asia Pacific is driven by countries, such as China, Japan, South Korea, India and Singapore. It is worth noting that the current market in Asia Pacific is primarily driven by the clinical demand for cell therapies.

To request a sample copy / brochure of this report, please visit https://www.rootsanalysis.com/reports/view_document/cell-therapy-manufacturing/285.html

Key Questions Answered

What is the current, annual, global demand for cell-based therapies? How is the demand for such products likely to evolve over the next decade?

What is the current, installed contract manufacturing capacity for cell therapies?

What are the key parameters governing the price of cell therapies?

What are the key recent developments (such as partnerships and expansions) in this industry?

What kind of partnership models are commonly adopted by stakeholders engaged in this domain?

What are the different initiatives undertaken by big pharma players for the manufacturing of cell therapies?

What type of automated technology platforms are available for the development and manufacturing of cell therapies?

Who are the key players (industry / non-industry) engaged in the manufacturing of cell-based therapies across the world?

What are the key factors influencing the make (manufacture in-house) versus buy (outsource) decision related to cell therapies?

How is the current and future market opportunity likely to be distributed across key market segments?

The USD 14.5 billion (by 2030) financial opportunity associated with cell therapy manufacturing market has been analyzed across the following segments:

Type of Cell Therapy

T cell therapies

Dendritic and tumor cell therapies

NK cell therapies

Stem cell therapies

Other ATMPs

Source of Cell

Autologous

Allogeneic

Scale of Operation

Clinical

Commercial

Purpose of Manufacturing

In-house Manufacturing

Contract Manufacturing

Geographical Regions

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Rest of the World

The report also features inputs from eminent industry stakeholders, according to whom, the manufacturing of cell therapies is largely being outsourced due to exorbitant costs associated with the setting-up of in-house expertise. The report includes detailed transcripts of discussions held with the following experts:

Troels Jordansen (Chief Executive Officer, Glycostem Therapeutics)

Gilles Devillers (General Manager, Bio Elpida)

Wei (William) Cao (Chief Executive Officer, Gracell Biotechnologies)

Arik Hasson (Executive VP Research and Development, Kadimastem)

Fiona Bellot (Business Development Manager, Roslin CT)

David Mckenna (Professor and American Red Cross Chair in Transfusion Medicine, University of Minnesota)

Victor Lietao Li (Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lion TCR)

Arnaud Deladeriere (Manager, Business Development & Operations-cGMP Manufacturing Unit, C3i Center for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy)

Brian Dattilo (Manager of Business Development, Waisman Biomanufacturing)

Mathilde Girard (Department Leader, Cell Therapy Innovation and Development, Yposkesi)

Tim Oldham (Chief Executive Officer, Cell Therapies)

Gerard MJ Bos (Chief Executive Officer, CiMaas)

The research includes profiles of key players (industry and non-industry; listed below), featuring a brief overview company / organization, information on its manufacturing facilities, service portfolio, recent partnerships and an informed future outlook.

BioNTech Innovative Manufacturing Services

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult

Cell Therapies

Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

Center for Cell Manufacturing Ireland, National University of Ireland

Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility, University of Pennsylvania

Cognate BioServices

FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics

Guys and St. Thomas GMP Facility, Guys Hospital

KBI Biopharma

Laboratory for Cell and Gene Medicine, Stanford University

Lonza

MEDINET

Minaris Regenerative Medicine

Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics, University of Minnesota

Newcastle Cellular Therapies Facility, Newcastle University

Nikon CeLL innovation

Rayne Cell Therapy Suite, Kings College London

Roslin Cell Therapies

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, Scottish Centre of Regenerative Medicine

Sydney Cell and Gene Therapy

Waisman Biomanufacturing

WuXi AppTec

For additional details, please visit

https://www.rootsanalysis.com/reports/view_document/cell-therapy-manufacturing/285.html or email sales@rootsanalysis.com

You may also be interested in the following titles:
CASSOPOLIS, Mich., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highway Horticulture, a Michigan-based vertically integrated cannabis company, announces the grand opening of its first retail cannabis store, Sunset Coast Provisions located in Cassopolis, and a ribbon cutting event slated for July 2nd at 4:20 pm. The Sunset Coast team will donate $5,000 to Helping Hands as part of its community giveback initiative to support nonprofit organizations performing important work and improving the lives of people throughout southwestern Michigan. Helping Hands offers emergency services, food, clothing, medicine and household essentials to families and individuals who need assistance throughout Cass County.



Our team cant wait to introduce the unique Sunset Coast retail experience to both locals and visitors who share our love of the Michigan coastline and the belief that cannabis is an amazing plant that can add immensely to the enjoyment of life, said Highway Horticulture and Sunset Coast Provisions co-founder Nick Sayers. We want to provide the relaxed, down-to-Earth environment and positivity of Midwestern lake life with easy-going, friendly and knowledgeable service for all of our guests from the cannabis-curious to cannabis connoisseurs. We care deeply about the well-being of our communities and are grateful to be able to support Helping Hands in its crucial work that touches so many in Cass County.

Highway Horticulture and Sunset Coast Provisions co-founder Peter Bobeck added: Its critical for our company and our team to support the Village in achieving its vision and ensure those most vulnerable are not left behind and have the necessary resources to live their lives.

Cassopolis Village Manager Emilie Sarratore said: Im thrilled to welcome Sunset Coast to the Village of Cassopolis, and am thankful for their commitment to giving back to our community, creating jobs and making a positive impact in Cassopolis.

Cassopolis-Vandalia Chamber of Commerce President Billie Hires added: Its a pleasure to celebrate the arrival of Sunset Coast, whose team has already shown their dedication and appreciation for the Village of Cassopolis. I have no doubt Sunset Coast will be an asset to our village and an engaged, active participant in our business community.

Cassopolis is located in the southwestern corner of Michigans Lower Peninsula with close proximity to Diamond Lake, and about 30 minutes from northern Indiana cities such as South Bend and Elkhart. Sunset Coast is one of two operating cannabis retailers in Cassopolis and the only one with a license to open a consumption lounge on property.

The carefully curated grand opening menu features the finest quality cannabis products Michigan has to offer. In-store shopping, online orders and curbside pickup service are available. Sunset Coast serves medical patients and recreational consumers 21+, and offers a 10 percent discount to veterans and seniors. Cash and debit card payments are accepted and an ATM is available on site.

Sunset Coast is located at 980 East State Street in Cassopolis. Hours are Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm; Wednesday and Thursday 10:00 am to 8:00 pm; Friday and Saturday 10:00 am to 9:00 pm.

About Sunset Coast Provisions

Sunset Coast Provisions (SCP) began operations in Cassopolis, Michigan in 2021 as Highway Horticultures first retail and provisioning center operation. Sunset Coast Provisions aims to create a cannabis dispensary thats enjoyable to visitwhere people feel comfortable, reassured by the guidance of our knowledgeable staff, and confident that theyre accessing the best quality craft-grown products Michigan has to offer. Sunset Coast Provisions was founded by experienced cannabis professionals who saw the need for a friendly, comfortable, inclusive dispensary space that welcomed consumers of all levels. Visit sunsetcoastprovisions.com for more information.

Contact: Nick Sayers nick@highwayhorticulture.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17b7070c-0f61-4a71-ad23-43235fda4e6c

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ed51bd6f-dbbb-4a68-829e-dc5d444f5747
Denver, Colo., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Center for African American Health (CAA Health) announced the $4.7 million purchase of a free-standing building, appraised at $4.9 million. CAA Healths new two-story home, located at The Holly, 3350 Hudson Street in Denvers northeast Park Hill neighborhood, is a boon to the organization and the community it serves. The masterful execution of a two-year-long capital campaign and support from generous funders enabled CAA Health to amass over $2 million towards the purchase.

The redevelopment of the Holly Square Shopping Center, after it was burned to the ground by arson in 2008, marked a significant transformation for the Northeast Park Hill neighborhood and was an impactful endeavor for Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) as well. ULC acquired the 2.6-acre site in 2009, with support from the City of Denver, and immediately commenced an extensive community engagement process, led by the Holly Area Redevelopment Project (HARP) and The Denver Foundations Strengthening Neighborhoods Program, to determine future redevelopment plans. The outcome was a community hub, which included the Boys & Girls Club and Roots Elementary School, among other organizations.

When the Roots School (Hudson Building) closed in 2019, ULC again partnered with HARP to gather Requests for Statements of Interest (RFSIs) to select a new community-serving organization that met HARPs Guiding Neighborhood Principles to purchase and operate out of the building. The ability to bring community voices into the process of selecting the next building owner was made possible by the fact that those Guiding Neighborhood Principles were built into ULCs ground lease with Roots, which then guided negotiations between ULC and the construction financing lender for the building to respect community desires for a shift away from another charter school. HARP and the surrounding community chose The Center for African American Health (CAA Health), due to their longstanding commitment to Northeast Denver and focus on the African American community.

Without ULCs community land trust and our ability to purchase the Hudson Building, we would not have been able to re-engage with the community to decide which nonprofits services would be most beneficial in this location, says Erin Clark, ULCs VP of Master Site Development. In addition, ULC went the extra mile to ensure the building remained a community asset by working with lenders and purchasing the building to give CAA Health time to raise the capital required for the purchase. This is a story about partnership, creativity, commitment to community needs, and the importance of community land trusts in meeting those goals.

It was heartwarming that HARP selected us to be the next occupant in the building, and it speaks volumes to the 24 years weve been working to serve community, says Deidre Johnson, CEO and Executive Director of CAA Health. Were grateful for ULCs partnership in allowing us to enter into a lease with purchase option in 2020, and we appreciate the funding we received from multiple foundations and individuals. When I first joined CAA Health, I remember Grant Jones [the organizations founder and former Executive Director] sharing with me a desire to eventually acquire our own building. Our determination, coupled with favorable circumstances and timing, provided us the means to purchase our new home.

Established in 1997, CAA Healths mission is to improve the health and well-being of African Americans who have higher rates of illness, disability, and premature death from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Beyond health care, the organization advocates for health equity and addressing the social determinants of health. Accordingly, it was important for CAA Health to have a tangible presence within the community it serves. The building is symbolic of the fortitude of the African American community  providing a sense of pride along with the security of ownership.

The question of sustainability is a constant for most, if not all, community-based organizations. Its especially present for nonprofits that have core missions developed to address challenging and longstanding cultural, social, and population health and wellness issueslike CAA Health, explained Grant Jones, founder and former executive director. I was so pleased to learn that [the organization] recently addressed one of its major sustainability challenges: finding a permanent home and becoming an owner, not a renter.

Noting the outpouring of support from advocates, CAA Health Board Chair Toni Baruti adds, This is what it takes a village looks like. We called on the community, and the community showed up, putting forth their best effort. We are thankful for our donors and supporters who sustain our work towards health equity for the Black/African American Community.

CAA Health, like many nonprofits last year, quickly transitioned its programs and services to virtual platforms due to the pandemic. Outreach efforts paralleled the immediate needs of the community, and the organization pushed forward with innovative solutions. During 2020, CAA Health provided COVID-19 testing, conducted voter registration events and flu vaccine clinics, and distributed personal protection equipment (PPE) and food from the parking lot of the 3350 Hudson Street location. The organization looks forward to opening its doors and inviting the community back on August 1 for in-person classes and services. The housewarming will hold special meaninga cause for celebration.

CAA Health is a community treasure with a commitment to serving the African American population. As an individual and a board member, I am so proud of this amazing accomplishment which was a collaborative effort by the board, staff, and community partners, says Gerie Grimes, immediate past board chair and current board member.

# # #

About The Center for African American Health

The mission of The Center for African American Health (CAA Health) is to improve the health and well-being of African Americans who have higher rates of illness, disability, and premature death from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Established in 1997 and re-envisioned in 2005, CAA Health evolved from the health programming of the Metro Denver Black Church Initiative, which for more than a decade collaborated with black churches to offer health programs throughout the African American community, as well as programs for at-risk youth, academically struggling students, and ex-offenders. Since 2005, CAA Health has provided prevention and disease management programs focusing on diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, wellness programs for seniors, health insurance literacy, and a variety of health education topics as well as referrals to community resources. For more information about CAA Health, please visit www.caahealth.org.

About Urban Land Conservancy

ULC is committed to preserving, developing, stewarding, and managing permanently affordable housing and shared office space for nonprofits and mission-minded organizations in Metro Denver and surrounding communities. For more information, visit www.urbanlandc.org

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gorjana is set to join premiere shopping destination Music Lane this summer and become the latest storefront in the diverse collection of boutiques, restaurants and hotels.



AUSTIN, Texas, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- gorjana, the popular Laguna Beach based jewelry brand, announces the opening of their newest retail location in Austin, TX. The Southern California jewelry designer known for her effortless and laid-back style continues an impressive retail expansion throughout the US with Austin becoming their second off-coast retail location.

Music Lane is a unique cultural destination located along Austins iconic South Congress Avenue and the urban oasis marks the perfect setting for gorjanas coastal design elements and welcoming, airy space that fans of the brand have come to know and love. The new gorjana storefront is outfitted with signature details including light, mango wood finishes, brass hardware details, live greenery and blue, bohemian shibori fabrics reminiscent of the Pacific Ocean.

After our first visit to Austin, we knew that it would be the perfect city for our next retail location, said Gorjana Reidel and Jason Griffin Reidel, gorjana Co-founders. At every corner, Austin is bursting with creativity across the fashion, arts and music scenes, and we couldnt be more thrilled to bring a little piece of Laguna Beach to this very special city.

To further immerse the brand with local Austin culture, gorjana partnered with Molly McFee and Kayla Koslow, two local Austin artists and teachers, to create a fun and interactive mural--sand and beach chairs included--for visitors to engage with outside of the store.

We are thrilled to welcome gorjana to Music Lane and the greater Austin community, said Taylor Shepherd, PR Director at Endeavor Real Estate. Their subtle and elegant, west-coast infused pieces, complement the everyday Austin woman and blend effortlessly into the Music Lane family.

This new location continues the expansion of the brands retail reach which will continue to add exciting new locations throughout 2021 and beyond. Guests will be able to take advantage of on-site bespoke engraving while shopping the latest gorjana collections, fine jewelry as well as their leading core items with prices ranging from $38 to $700.

Address:

1221 South Congress

Austin, TX

Hours: 11AM-7PM, daily

Press Contact:

Brandon Sansone

brandon.sansone@praytellagency.com

917-250-3588

About gorjana

Based in Laguna Beach, California, the gorjana brand was founded in 2004 on the apartment floor of husband and wife duo Jason and Gorjana Reidel. The couple drove 50,000 miles to sell and market their collection and hit the trade show circuit. Through their own separate strengths and combined creative vision, the brand grew rapidly from an idea into a full-fledged business that is still owned and operated by both Gorjana and Jason. The eponymous line is intentionally designed to mix, match and layer. Many of the designs are versatile and feature adjustable clasps and sliding beads, which allows the wearer to make each piece their own.

About Music Lane

Music Lane is a unique cultural destination located along Austins iconic South Congress Avenue. Beloved by locals and visitors alike, this urban oasis is home to a diverse collection of boutiques, restaurants and hotels. Serving as a gateway between downtown and South Austin, Music Lane connects visitors to Austins roots while providing an elevated shopping and lifestyle experience. For shopping ease, Music Lane boasts a parking garage with space for over 450 vehicles in a subterranean garage entrance at the light at Music Lane between building 1 and 2 at 1011 South Congress Avenue.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8685e88a-eeab-4231-9063-6bf00c69566b
Washington, D.C., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elected in the spring of 2017, Brandon Sawalich, President and CEO, Starkey, now hands over the Chairmanship of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) to Gary Rosenblum, President, Oticon, Inc. The members of HIA elected Mr. Rosenblum unanimously to this position.

It is an honor to serve as Chair of HIA, said Gary Rosenblum. The coming years will be critical for the hearing industry and Brandon has laid a great foundation for our future. I look forward to working together with my colleagues on the board of directors and the members of our association to improve the lives of all people who seek better hearing through our technologies.

Through the hard work of a dedicated HIA Board, our members and focused leadership, we have educated federal, state and local government leaders, the hearing industrys professional associations, and most importantly, we educated those with hearing loss who want to hear better and live better, said Mr. Sawalich. I have humbly served as Chairman of HIA for four years, and now I proudly pass on the responsibility to another passionate industry leader, Gary Rosenblum.

Sandy Brandmeier, Sonova President, has been elected to serve as Vice Chair. Mr. Sawalich will remain on the Board of Directors. Other board members include Mikkel Knudsen, President, ReSound Commercial US, and Daniel Liberman, President, WSAudiology US.

I want to express my thanks to Brandon for his leadership and dedication to the complex issue of hearing health, said Kate Carr, President, HIA. Our organization is stronger today for his work, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to bring better hearing health to more people with our new Chair, Gary Rosenblum.

The hearing industry is driving innovation in hearing technology, public policy and patient safety and education. HIA is deeply engaged in the issues of the day, including the anticipated OTC regulation and the potential expansion of Medicare benefits to include hearing, dental and vision. With an aging population and the growing evidence of the negative impacts of hearing loss, HIA will continue to emphasize the importance of hearing well.

About Hearing Industries Association

HIA is a forum for the companies that manufacture and distribute hearing aids, components and supplies for the hearing aid industry. Our mission is to be the trusted voice on hearing health care for product innovation, public policy, patient safety and education. http://www.betterhearing.org

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New York, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Synthetic Aperture Radar Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06101220/?utm_source=GNW





- In the past, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems were used for studying the interaction of electromagnetic waves with the Earths surface; in recent times, the development of multi-channel SAR systems enabled the development of more sophisticated techniques for surveillance activities. The SAR instrument provides high-resolution data for wide-area surveillance under all weather conditions. These systems are increasingly being used to quickly view oceanic surfaces for vessels, oil spills, laver facilities, surveillance, space, mining, and oil field exploration, among others.

- SAR instruments are active sensors as they can emit their energy toward the Earth and measure how that energy is scattered after coming in contact with the Earths surface. SAR instruments use radar technology for sensing energy in the microwave and radio portions of the spectrum. As these instruments do not depend on the Suns energy to collect surface data, and SAR satellites can operate well both day and night.

- SAR bands are categorized based on their wavelengths and frequency, which helps to categorize the penetration strength and potential applications of a satellite.

- Despite various advantages offered by the SAR systems, it is a significantly underused technology compared to traditional optical imagery; in order to overcome this, the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the licensing of Private Remote Sensing Space Systems, which revised the regulations for licensing the operation of private remote sensing space systems, under the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992; aiming at making US private actors competitive with their foreign counterparts.



Key Market Trends

Military and Defense Sector to Account for a Significant Demand



- In military applications, a synthetic aperture radar is used to detect surface features, like building complexes, missile sites, and topographical features of the surrounding terrain. Thus, it is used for battlefield surveillance, weapon guidance, and mission planning of future operations.

- The increase in military and defense spending enables the defense sector to develop missiles with improved precision targeting. Compared to an airborne SAR, missile-borne SAR has various essential characteristics, such as high flight speed with straight movement and a large squint angle, crucial in measuring precision in real-time.

- With applications, such as weapons fire-control (missiles or guns) and accuracy control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, air and spaceborne SAR systems are expected to witness higher adoption than ground-based systems.

- Recently, the US Air Force tested using synthetic aperture radar for bomb damage assessment at NellisAFB in Nevada. During this test, two F-15Es dropped live Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). At the same time, other weapons systems, including F-15Es, F-35s, F-16s, FA-18s, RQ-4, MQ-9, U-2, and joint partners used SAR Mapping technology to assess if the bombs hit and destroyed the intended targets.

- Moreover, in the defense sector, wide-area surveillance has diverse applications, such as coast guard vessels, monitoring remote areas for human movement, establishment of perimeter security, and the offshore missile platforms. Technological developments of the same are leading to increasing adoption of unmanned airborne surveillance (UAS) systems or drones.



North America to Occupy the Largest Market Share



- North America is home to some of the major players in the market, such as Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Raytheon Company. The presence of such significant players drives the technological investment for synthetic aperture radar (SAR), leading to the markets growth.

- The United States has one of the most significant defense budgets globally and has been proactively investing in R&D activities. The defense budget is increasing each year rapidly. For the fiscal year (FY) 2022, the defense department proposed USD 715 billion for the Pentagon, an increase of about USD 10 billion from what was allocated to the Pentagon in FY 2021. The budget proposal for Pentagon includes the largest ever investment for research, development, and engineering at USD 112 billion.

- The increasing budgets reflect upon the growing research on the application of synthetic aperture radars in defense. In May 2021, the United States Air Force Research Laboratory officials at Ohio base announced a USD 5.2 million contracts to BAE Systems Electronic Systems segment and a USD 4.1 million contracts to the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory for moving target recognition project (MTR).

- MTR revolves around developing algorithms that recognize slow-moving military vehicle targets with SAR signatures that are superimposed on clutter. The contract awarded by the air force was on behalf of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

- The adoption of SAR has been widely seen in the satellites for government and commercial applications. The technology provides benefits, such as achieving precise imaging in darkness and cloud applications, gathering elevation, and moisture levels. Several companies in the region have made strides toward providing high-quality SAR imaging at lower costs by leveraging small satellite developments. In doing so, they are paving the way for the widespread adoption of SAR.



Competitive Landscape

The synthetic aperture radar market is moderately fragmented and consists of several international and regional vendors. Moreover, due to relatively moderate product differentiation, the companies are heavily investing in developing strategic decisions, in order to maintain a distinct competitive advantage, through collaborations and acquisitions. Some of the key developments in the market are:

- September 2020 - IMSAR and Primoco UAV successfully performed the integration and preliminary flight testing of the NSP-7 Synthetic Aperture Radar on the Primoco One 150 UAV. The live flight tests in the Czech Republic verified the aircraft performance and confirmed flight endurance of up to 10 hours. With the SAR radar installed on the portside of the fuselage, the payload bay remains unobstructed and it also allows simultaneous installation and operation of the EO/IR surveillance system.



Reasons to Purchase this report:

- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

- 3 months of analyst support

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06101220/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________
Volta Finance Limited (VTA/VTAS)

Dividend Declaration

NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION,

IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

Guernsey, 1 July 2021

Volta Finance Limited ("the Company") hereby announces a second interim dividend for the financial year commencing 1 August 2020.

The Company announces that it has declared a quarterly interim dividend of 0.14 per share payable on 29 July 2021 amounting to approximately 5.12 million, equating approximately to an annualised 8% of net asset value. The ex-dividend date is 15 July 2021 with a record date of 16 July 2021.

The Company has arranged for its shareholders to be able to elect to receive their dividends in either Euros or Pounds Sterling. Shareholders will, by default, receive their dividends in Euros, unless they have instructed the Companys Registrar, Computershare Investor Services (Guernsey) Limited (Computershare), to pay dividends in Pounds Sterling. Such instructions may be given to Computershare either electronically via CREST or by using the Currency Election Form which has been posted to shareholders and a copy of which is also available on the website www.voltafinance.com within the Investors  Other Documents section. The deadline for receipt of currency elections is 12:00 (midday) on 19 July 2021.

For further information, please contact:

For the Investment Manager

AXA Investment Managers Paris

Serge Demay

serge.demay@axa-im.com



+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

Company Secretary and Administrator

BNP Paribas Securities Services S.C.A, Guernsey Branch

guernsey.bp2s.volta.cosec@bnpparibas.com

+44 (0) 1481 750 853

Corporate Broker

Cenkos Securities plc

Andrew Worne

Daniel Balabanoff

Will Talkington

+44 (0) 20 7397 8900

*****

*****

ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities. Voltas home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to regulation and supervision by the AFM, being the regulator for financial markets in the Netherlands.

Voltas investment objectives are to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. Volta seeks to attain its investment objectives predominantly through diversified investments in structured finance assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; and, automobile loans. The Companys approach to investment is through vehicles and arrangements that essentially provide leveraged exposure to portfolios of such underlying assets. The Company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

*****

ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with 753 investment professionals and 801 billion in assets under management as of the end of April 2020.

*****

This press release is published by AXA Investment Managers Paris (AXA IM), in its capacity as alternative investment fund manager (within the meaning of Directive 2011/61/EU, the AIFM Directive) of Volta Finance Limited (the "Volta Finance") whose portfolio is managed by AXA IM.

This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to acquire shares in Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in breach of such limitations or restrictions. This document is not an offer for sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are U.S. persons for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), or otherwise in circumstances where such offer would be restricted by applicable law. Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration from the Securities Act. Volta Finance does not intend to register any portion of the offer of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.

*****

This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the Order) or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as relevant persons). The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

*****

This press release contains statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "anticipated", "expects", "intends", "is/are expected", "may", "will" or "should". They include the statements regarding the level of the dividend, the current market context and its impact on the long-term return of Volta Finance's investments. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Volta Finance's actual results, portfolio composition and performance may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements. AXA IM does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements.

Any target information is based on certain assumptions as to future events which may not prove to be realised. Due to the uncertainty surrounding these future events, the targets are not intended to be and should not be regarded as profits or earnings or any other type of forecasts. There can be no assurance that any of these targets will be achieved. In addition, no assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved.

The figures provided that relate to past months or years and past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance or construed as a reliable indicator as to future performance. Throughout this review, the citation of specific trades or strategies is intended to illustrate some of the investment methodologies and philosophies of Volta Finance, as implemented by AXA IM. The historical success or AXA IMs belief in the future success, of any of these trades or strategies is not indicative of, and has no bearing on, future results.

The valuation of financial assets can vary significantly from the prices that the AXA IM could obtain if it sought to liquidate the positions on behalf of the Volta Finance due to market conditions and general economic environment. Such valuations do not constitute a fairness or similar opinion and should not be regarded as such.

Editor: AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS PARIS, a company incorporated under the laws of France, having its registered office located at Tour Majunga, 6, Place de la Pyramide - 92800 Puteaux. AXA IMP is authorized by the Autorite des Marches Financiers under registration number GP92008 as an alternative investment fund manager within the meaning of the AIFM Directive.
Dallas, Texas, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTC Pink: ALYI) today highlighted a recent Barrons article emphasizing the stress on the electrical grid associated with the rise of electric vehicles.

EVs Need Grid Power. Utilities Better Get Ready.

ALYI is currently launching an EV Rideshare and Self-Drive Rental pilot program in Africa . ALYI is highlighting the Barrons article to emphasize the importance of the pilot which will include an evaluation of existing charging infrastructure capacity.

ALYI has an order to deliver 2000 electric motorcycles in Kenya to be deployed into the motorcycle taxi (boda) market. The first delivery schedule for July is intended to support a first phase, pilot rollout of the rideshare service. The motorcycle ride hail market in Africa is estimated at $4 billion .

ALYI's Electric Motorcycle Program is only a small part of the company's comprehensive strategy to build a far-reaching electric vehicle ecosystem.

The success of any electric vehicle will depend on the simultaneous availability of an entire network of solutions necessary to support the electric vehicle.

For example, the electric vehicle support network ranges from the availability of power, to charging stations where power can be accessed, to long-range batteries to make electric vehicles efficient modes of transportation, to connectivity so software updates for motor synchronization and battery optimization applications can be continuously updated along with other electric vehicle user support applications.

ALYI's primary business focus is on its overall electric vehicle ecosystem strategy out of which electric vehicles will be just one component.

ALYI is building its electric vehicle ecosystem in a region with one of the lowest per capita transportation ratios in the world, Sub Saharan Africa.

To both attract industry leading talent to collaborate in ALYI's electric vehicle ecosystem, and to provide an opportunity to prove innovations coming out of the electric vehicle ecosystem, ALYI is launching an annual electric vehicle race in partnership with a brand name racing organization. The annual race event will be hosted simultaneously with an electric mobility symposium and expo.

ALYI is setting itself apart from the rest of the electric vehicle industry not only through its electric vehicle ecosystem strategy, but also through its commitment to democratize the electric vehicle ecosystem.

ALYI's financing partner and electric vehicle ecosystem collaborator, RevoltTOKEN, has already provided key funding to advance ALYI's business plan to its current stage.

ALYIs funding partner, RevoltTOKEN has opened the sale of Revolt Tokens to contribute to financing ALYIs overall electric vehicle ecosystem strategy.

To learn more about RevoltTOKEN and how to participate in ALYIs electric vehicle ecosystem through the purchase of Revolt Tokens, visit www.revolttoken.com .

For more information and to stay up to date on ALYI's overall latest developments, please visit www.alternetsystemsinc.com .



Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur.



For more information, please visit: http://www.alternetsystemsinc.com

Alternet Systems, Inc. Contact:

Randell Torno

info@lithiumip.com

+1-800-713-0297

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WASHINGTON, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Supreme Court of the United States today ruled that Californias law requiring the disclosure of donor names is unconstitutional. First Liberty Institute, representing Citizen Power Initiatives for China, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Americans For Prosperity v. Bonta and Thomas More Law Center v. Bonta. Citizen Power is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing a peaceful transition to democracy in China and has donors who face reprisals by the Chinese government and those acting on its behalf.



The freedom to associate with others of like mind is indispensable to freedom, said Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel for First Liberty Institute. Again today, the Supreme Court recognized that the disclosure of names and address of citizens simply for belonging to a cause is chilling to the freedom of association. Cancel culture is bad enough without the government forcing organizations to reveal the names of their donors so they can be attacked.

About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

To arrange an interview, contact Chris Freund at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.

Contact: Chris Freund, media@firstliberty.org

Direct: 972-941-4453
New York, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Radiation Detection, Monitoring, and Safety Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06101205/?utm_source=GNW

The increased use of radioactive materials in areas, such as power production, industrial processing, research and processing, and the security sector, intensified the need for equipment offering protection against radioactive radiations.

- With multiple regions facing the COVID-19 impact at varying intensities, certain aspects of radiation protection are witnessed to be in demand. One of them is the focus of the power plants to keep up with the increasing electricity demand. The hospitals in need of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures have stated their requirements for radiation monitoring systems. Likewise, the demand for nuclear medicine to be produced and safely transported to pharmacies has remained significant.

- The market is also witnessing the development of new monitoring technology using drones. For instance, in May 2021, a technology that enables drones to be used to carry out radiological measurements was developed by Belgiums Nuclear Research Centre (SCK-CEN) and the Belgian aeronautical firm, Sabca. SCK-CEN and Sabca were awarded EUR 1 million in government funding, and they are investing additional funds into the project by themselves.

- Furthermore, countries spend significantly in the development of nuclear weapons and facilities, which is expected to boost the adoption of radiation detection, monitoring, and safety equipment. According to the Federation of American Scientists, the United States and Russia are among the countries with the maximum number of nuclear weapons as of May 2019. Increased use of radioactive materials across areas, such as diverse industrial processes, power production, and the defense sector, coupled with the heightened global threat of terrorist-operated nuclear weapons, has intensified the need for reliable equipment that offers protection from radioactive radiation.

- The occurrence of incidents, such as the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, has emphasized the need for safety, environmental sustainability, and regulatory compliances. Radiation-testing equipment manufacturers need to adhere to all the standards mentioned by the regulatory bodies.

- There is a huge demand for skilled radiation professionals in the radiation monitoring and safety market. However, there has been a lack of personnel, due to the high risks associated with the harmful radiations and the lack of proper skills related to the industry.



Key Market Trends

Medical and Healthcare Industry has Largest Market Share



- The medical and healthcare industry accounts for one of the largest market share, owing to the increasing adoption of dosimeters and detectors in radiology, emergency care, dentistry, nuclear medicine, and therapy applications. Various forms of radiation are used in medical diagnostics and treatment. All forms are potentially dangerous, and exposure must be carefully controlled to ensure that the benefit to patients outweighs the risks from exposure.

- The increasing number of nuclear power facilities across the world is resulting in the increased demand for radiation monitoring equipment. Since, by-products of these power plants can be used in the healthcare industry. Incidentally, hospitals are promoting the installation of diagnostic radiology equipment, accompanied using medical isotopes that are administered to patients.

- X-ray diagnostics (general and dental radiography) and therapies, which make use of radioisotopes in oncology and some other serious diseases, attribute to the primary contribution to the dose absorbed by a person from human-made radiation sources. The upcoming diagnostic and therapeutic methods, based on the use of radioactive elements, are also being adopted.

- Radiation (radioisotope) therapy remains one of the main approaches to fight cancer. To reduce the negative impact of radiation on the personnel of healthcare facilities, the market vendors are offering personal dosimeters and automated systems for personal dosimetry control.

- The market vendors and researchers are also deploying new technologies into their products in order to stay competitive in the market. In April 2020, researchers at Los Alamos and Argonne National Laboratories announced that they had developed an X-ray detector based on perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral. More sensitive detectors may allow X-ray-based imaging systems to reduce the radiation dose that they deliver and improve their image fidelity.



North America is one of the fastest growing region.



- The massive share of the Radiation Detection, Monitoring, and Safety Market in North America is attributed to the favorable government initiatives, a higher number of active nuclear power plants, increasing prevalence of cancer, and growing awareness of radiation safety, driving the market in this region. Moreover, the fact wherein major vendors (Thermo Fischer Scientific, Mirion Technologies, Ludlum Measurement, Ametek, Ultra Electronics, and Landauer) of this market are based in the United States are expected to boost market growth during the forecast period.

- The EIA estimates that the United States nuclear electricity generation capacity may be increased by 4.4 gigawatts in 2020. Multiple new nuclear power plants are under construction in Georgia (for instance, according to the EIA, twonew nuclear reactors are under construction in Geodia with a capacity of 1100 MW) and South Carolina, and they indicate the opportunity for the demand for radiation monitoring and detection products. Strict regulations for workers safety in the nuclear industry are supposed to give momentum to the market for radiation detection, monitoring, and safety devices in the country.

- Recently, it has been seen that there has been a shift toward mechanized radiation monitoring and inspection of oil and gas pipelines from the manual method of ultrasound application. These trends reflect that more focus is being placed on making the test increasingly automated, as some of the test sites require technicians to work in extreme site conditions, which can be carried out through drone application, consequently fostering the growth of the market.

- The increasing adoption of nuclear medicine and radiation therapy as a consequence of the increasing incidence of cancer may drive the market growth over the forecast period. For instance, according to the American Cancer Society, the number of new cancer cases in 2020 was estimated to be over 1.81 million people in the United States, out of which almost 0.61 million people were estimated to succumb to the disease. For 2020, it was estimated that there would be nearly 913 thousand new cancer cases among women in the United States.

- According to the National Oncology PET Registry, as more 85% of more than 1,600 PET facilities in the United States have PET/CT systems, the emergence of molecular imaging with new radiopharmaceuticals and new technologies is likely to result in continued growth in the coming decades, which may give momentum to the demand for radiation detection, monitoring, and safety devices.



Competitive Landscape

The Radiation detection, Monitoring, and Safety market is moderately concentrated moving towards the fragmented stage and features a significant amount of innovation derived from basic scientific research. Major players with a prominent share in the market are focusing on expanding their customer base across the served end-user industries. The companies leverage on strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and profitability. The companies operating in the market are also acquiring start-ups working on Radiation Detection, Monitoring, and Safety technologies to strengthen their product capabilities.



- December 2020 - The Dosimetry Services Division of Mirion Technologies acquired Dosimetrics GmbH for the development and production of OSL personal radiation dosimeters and dosimetry solutions, including readers, erasers, software, accessories, and automation systems.

- October 2020 - Mirion Technologies Inc. acquired Biodex Medical Systems Inc., a leader in the medical industry, providing customers with nuclear medicine instruments, medical imaging equipment, and rehabilitation systems. Biodexs product portfolio complements Mirions existing portfolio and will allow Mirion to extend its footprint in the medical field.

- August 2020 - ECOTEST Group launched new compact search radiometer-dosimeter RKS-01 STORA-ABG with a telescopic tube for quick detection and localization of alpha, beta, gamma and X-ray radiation sources.



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TAMPA, FL and SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vector Solutions, a leading provider of industry-focused software solutions for training, risk management, workforce management and operational readiness, today announced the completion of the companys previously announced acquisition by Genstar Capital. The transaction includes an investment from Insight Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology companies. Genstar and Insight acquired a majority stake in Vector from Golden Gate Capital, a leading private equity investment firm, which remains a significant shareholder in the business.

Founded in 1999, Vector Solutions offers SaaS solutions that connect information and technology to deliver insights and knowledge when and where they are needed. Their innovative products help organizations achieve better outcomes and safeguard lives in many of the worlds most critical industries, including engineering and construction, industrial manufacturing, K-12 and higher education, and public safety. CEO Marc Scheipe and the current management team will continue to lead Vector, which will remain headquartered in Tampa, FL.

Vectors mission to serve everyday heroes is strengthened by support and backing from leading firms like Genstar, Golden Gate Capital and Insight Partners, said Marc Scheipe, CEO of Vector. This transaction is not only incredible validation of the strong company we have built, but it allows us to continue on our strategic path to deliver intelligent software solutions, unlock data for actionable insights, and expand the positive impact our solutions have on our markets and the communities they serve.

We are impressed by the dynamic company that Vector has built, said Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners. As companies and institutions look to enhance the safety and performance of their workforces in todays complex environments, Vector is well-positioned to continue to innovate, meet the market needs in new ways, and drive substantial growth.

Berenson & Company and Stifel served as financial advisors and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal advisor to Insight Partners.

About Vector Solutions

Vector Solutions is the leading provider of award-winning, intelligent SaaS solutions that help organizations and individuals operate at the highest level and prepare for more challenging workplaces and environments. Providing industry-focused solutions that connect information and technology, its unique product set includes training management, continuing education (CE), compliance training, workforce scheduling, safety management, and more. Its extensive online and mobile training library features carefully curated world-class content to meet the unique needs of professionals in the industrial, engineering, education, and public safety industries. Reaching approximately 22 million users and more than 21 thousand clients worldwide, Vectors mission is to serve everyday heroes by delivering intelligent software solutions that empower them to make safer, smarter, better decisions. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. For more information, visit www.vectorsolutions.com.

About Genstar Capital

Genstar Capital (www.gencap.com) is a leading private equity firm that has been actively investing in high quality companies for over 30 years. Based in San Francisco, Genstar works in partnership with its management teams and its network of strategic advisors to transform its portfolio companies into industry-leading businesses. Together with Genstar X and all active funds, Genstar currently has approximately $33 billion of assets under management and targets investments focused on targeted segments of the financial services, healthcare, industrials, and software industries.

About Golden Gate Capital

Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with over $19 billion in cumulative committed capital. The principals of Golden Gate Capital have a long and successful history of investing across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including going-privates, corporate divestitures, and recapitalizations, as well as debt and public equity investments. Notable software investments sponsored by Golden Gate Capital include Infor, BMC Software, LiveVox, and 2020 Technologies. For more information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has cumulatively invested in more than 400 companies worldwide through a series of funds representing more than $30 Billion in capital commitments. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com

###

Contacts

Vector Solutions

Victoria Zambito

victoria.zambito@vectorsolutions.com

Genstar Capital

Chris Tofalli

Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC

(914) 834-4334

Golden Gate Capital

David Isaacs / Tori Goodell

Sard Verbinnen & Co

GoldenGate-SVC@sardverb.com

Insight Partners

Nikki Parker

nparker@insightpartners.com
Oslo, 1 July 2021: Scatec has grid connected and will from 2 July start commercial operations of its largest solar power plant in Ukraine, the 148 MW Progressovka plant in the Mykolayiv region.

We are pleased to complete our fourth project in Ukraine, supporting the countrys transition towards green energy, says Raymond Carlsen, CEO of Scatec.

The Progressovka project is realised under Ukraines Feed-in-Tariff scheme and is expected to deliver about 184 GWh per year. The solar plant has a design life of more than 30 years and will on an annual basis provide clean energy to more than 76,000 households, as well as lead to the abatement of more than 70,000 tonnes of GHG emissions.

For further information, please contact:

Ingrid Aarsnes, VP Communication & IR, tel: +47 950 38 364

email: Ingrid.aarsnes@scatec.com

About Scatec

Scatec is a leading renewable power producer, delivering affordable and clean energy worldwide. As a long- term player, Scatec develops, builds, owns and operates solar, wind and hydro power plants and storage solutions. Scatec has more than 3.5 GW in operation and under construction on four continents and more than 500 employees. The company is targeting 15 GW capacity in operation or under construction by the end of 2025. Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'SCATC'. To learn more, visit www.scatec.com or connect with us on Linkedin .

This information is considered to be inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This stock exchange announcement was published by Ingrid Aarsnes, VP Communication & IR at Scatec ASA, on 1 July 2021 at 17:21 CEST.
New York, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06030507/?utm_source=GNW

However, the drug shortages due to COVID-19 are limited, and they are expected to remain so for the short term, due to stockpiles of pharmaceuticals, APIs, globally. Among the issues being faced across the supply chains, China and India have been impacted the most due to being the largest global producers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and generics.?



- The global pharmaceutical industry is growing at an exponential rate, which is driven by global economic growth, a growing and aging population, and new product launches. Even though small molecules continue to command the prominent share of the market, large molecules, such as biologics, biosimilars, and cell and gene therapies, are expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period.

- Cancer therapies are among the primary drivers for a large proportion of the growth in the biologics market. Even with the faster growth forecast, in terms of drug approvals, small molecules outweigh biologics. For instance, in 2020, the US Food and Drug Administrations Center for Drug Evaluation and Research approved 53 new molecular entities (NMEs), of which 40, or 75%, were small molecules. This continues a recent trend of having approximately three-fourths of NME approvals be small molecules. In 2019, 79% of NME approvals were small molecules; in 2018, it was 71%, 74% in 2017, and 68% in 2016, when a recent low of 22 NMEs were approved.

- Top pharma companies propensity toward producing biologic drugs in-house is challenging the growth, as these drugs are high value, high margin products, owing to which large companies are focused on the security of supply, ensuring quality, IP protection of proprietary cell strains, and manufacturing process. For instance, unlike some of its peers in the drug industry, Pfizer has retained significant in-house manufacturing assets. It announced to make raw materials, the mRNA active, and finished doses for BNT162b2, the partnerships vaccine, at its own plants in Andover, Massachusetts; Kalamazoo, Michigan, and St. Louis. It will also use its site in Belgium for the European market.

- However, pharma companies are more comfortable and willing to outsource the secondary manufacturing and packaging stages of their biologicsproducts even with the growing tendency to keep the biologic API production in-house. Another major factor influencing the growth in outsourcing of biologics to CDMO is the lack of available assets among CDMOs. This is expected to change over the next five years, due to the increasing investment from major CDMOs. For instance, Fujifilm Corp. is investing USD 928 million into Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a CDMO for biologics and advanced therapies. This will double Denmark facilitys current drug substance manufacturing capacity, thus expanding its fill/finish and enhancing its assembly, labelling, packaging services.

- Further, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies also aims to build and open a mammalian cell culture facility in the United States in 2025. When the plant opens, it will boast eight 20,000 L stainless-steel bioreactor tanks for commercial drug substance manufacturing. It will also offer automated fill-finish and assembly, including packaging and labeling services.

- CDMOs are expected to form alliances and partnerships with pharma companies to expand and enhance their biologic services. For example, in August 2020, HJB, a biologics CDMO, entered a strategic partnership for CMC development and manufacturing with Ansun Biopharma on its therapeutic biologics pipeline.

- Furthermore, for technically difficult to manufacture products, such as biologics, where tech transfer can be a lengthy and expensive process, a single supplier relationship has the potential to reduce the risk of supply issues. The relationship should, in turn, create opportunities for the CDMO to sell more services to the same customer, as well as locking in products at an earlier stage in their life cycle.



Key Market Trends

Biologics to Drive the Market



- Monoclonal antibodies or synthetic versions of antibody have been representative of most successful therapeutic drug classes and attracts huge investment for the biologics industry. The use of monoclonal antibodies to treat diseases is called immunotherapy therapy because each type of monoclonal antibody will target a specifically targeted antigen in the body.

- Mammalian cells are traditionally used for monoclonal antibody production, however, plant-based expression systems have been gaining share due to significant advantages. The advancements in plant glycoengineering have allowed the production of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with more homogenous human-like glycans. iBios proprietary plant-based technology instead of CHO or other mammalian cell technologies led to the development of monoclonal antibody vectors free of any viral transforming functions or contamination from parental lines.

- Recombinant biologics are being developed by processes wherein a genetic code for a specific therapeutic protein is inserted into an expression vectors DNA. The inserted DNA codes leads to recombinant protein being produced through replication in living host cells. Since the first recombinant therapeutic antibody (OKT3) in 1986, biologics products became a larger pharmaceutical industry percentage.

- Since biologics have been dominating the human drug development because of their long-lasting effects and ability to precisely address the molecular causes of disease, only one recombinant protein drug, an antibody, is available for veterinary use in the U.S. or EU.?

- Likewise, in February 2020, Invetx, invested USD 15 million Series A financing and undertook collaborations with WuXi Biologics and AbCellera. This is expected to drive clinical entry of a first therapeutic candidate and preclinical development of Invetxs broader pipeline of protein-based therapeutics for Animal Biopharmaceutical Development.?

- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as compared to the pharmaceutical market, the vaccine market is relatively small & concentrated on both supply and demand sides. Over time, the largest contract biologics manufacturers have been investing heavily in manufacturing capabilities to address unique product areas, including vaccines. And recently, the number of mergers and acquisitions and partnerships increased in light of new business models for vaccine research and development.

- In April 2020, Cytovance Biologics, a US-based CDMO and a subsidiary of the Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., entered into a collaboration agreement with Akshaya Bio, Inc., a Canadian development-stage biotechnology company. The latter would be provided with rapid access to clinical materials using Akshayas proprietary Chimigen Platform Technology for vaccine development for COVID-19 and HBV.



North America to Dominate the Market



- North America is one of the major markets for the biologics CDMO industry, owing to the presence of two major economies, such as the United States and Canada. The United States is home to one of the major pharmaceutical industries in the world and commands a significant share of the industry revenue; according to IQVIA, in 2019, the United States held about 48% of the global pharmaceutical market sales and seeing a steady growth in the last couple of years.?

- The United States is the worlds largest market for drugs and accounts for almost half of the R&D spending in pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets. Hence, biologic CDMOs play a critical role in this market and have invested in new facilities and technologies to cater to a wide range of outsourcers.?

- Moreover, the spending of the US pharmaceutical industry (PhRMA members) on R&D abroad totaled approximately USD 18.6 billion in 2019, according to PhRMA. With such a prominent presence in the market, the biologics CDMO vendors in the region are expected to scale up their presence and expand their capacities as well. For instance, AGC Biologics is looking to invest about USD 100 million into the AstraZeneca plant in Boulder; such developments are expected to increase over the coming years.

- Moreover, in August 2020, AGC Biologics, a global biopharmaceutical CDMO, partnered with Ono Pharmaceutical Co Ltd to manufacture its new biopharmaceutical at the clinical development stage. Such developments are expected to further increase over the coming years, further expanding the reach of CDMOs in biologics. Also, in December 2020, AGC Biologics announced its partnership with Laboratoire Pierre Fabre to manufacture ER-004, an intra-amniotic drug that would pioneer the treatment of a rare and debilitating genetic disorder.

- In addition to this, global biologics CDMO vendors are increasing their investments and are expanding their presence in the region. For example, in March 2020, Bora Pharmaceuticals expanded its footprint in North America. Over the coming years, CDMOs are expected to expand their presence in the region due to the growing health ailments and aging population.?

- Further, US-based KBI Biopharma announced plans to invest USD 150 million into a 140,000-square-foot commercial manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to produce complex biologics including "therapeutic proteins" for a pharma partner. The newest facility would add 200 positions in operations and quality assurance, and is set to be operational in the first quarter of 2022. This site would complement KBIs growing presence in clinical manufacturing after its parent company, Sunnyvale, California-based JSR Life Sciences, announced plans in October to boost its CDMOs early-stage work in Geneva.



Competitive Landscape

The Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) Market is highly fragmented and consists of several major players. They have adopted different strategies such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, joint ventures, acquisitions, partnerships, and others to expand their footprints in this market. Major players of the market include Boehringer Ingelheim Group, Wuxi Biologics, Samsung Biologics, Lonza Group, and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies USA Inc among others.



- March 2021 - WuXi Biologics has entered into an equity agreement with Pfizer China to acquire its state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing facilities and its labor force in Hangzhou, China. This will boost the commercial Drug Substance (DS) and Drug Product (DP) capacities for WuXi Biologics to address surging manufacturing demands.

- January 2021 - Boehringer Ingelheim entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Enara Bio to research and develop novel targeted cancer immunotherapies, leveraging Enara Bios Dark Antigen discovery platform. The collaboration combines Boehringer Ingelheims approach to tackling cancer through pairing leading science with innovative immune-oncology platforms, such as oncolytic viruses and cancer vaccines, with Enara Bios expertise in cancer antigen identification.



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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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New York, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Tele Intensive Care Unit Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06028484/?utm_source=GNW



As the COVID?19 pandemic continues to expand throughout the world, innovative methods are required to involve residents in the care of critically ill COVID?19 patients. Telemedicine is one of the promising technologies which is having a significant focus during the pandemic. Several initiatives and implementations have been carried out by various government organizations and market players related to tele ICU which are likely to drive the market growth. For instance, in July 2020, Physician anesthesiologists at the New Hampshire Society of Anesthesiologists (NHSA) have launched Tele-intensive Care Unit (Tele-ICU) hub to collaborate with physicians in rural hospitals to ensure infected patients from across the state get critical care expertise at no expense while receiving care close to home in Chicago. Also, in August 2020, Advanced ICU Care launched comprehensive tele-ICU care in collaboration with CentraState Medical Center located in New Jersey. Thus, in a view of the aforementioned factors, the pandemic is likely to have positive impact on the market studied.



Factors that are responsible for the growth of the market include rising geriatric population across the world and increasing demand for remote patient monitoring in developing regions.



With the increasing geriatric population and prevalence of chronic diseases, there is a growing need to find new ways of improving patient outcomes, increasing access to care, and reducing the cost of medical care. According to Center for Disease Control, in 2018, in United States more than two thirds of the all deaths are caused by one or more of these five chronic diseases, namely heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Also, the chronic diseases account to nearly 75 percent of the aggregate health spending, with an estimate of USD 5,300 per person annually in United States. Using remote patient monitoring, which utilizes devices to remotely collect and direct information to a remote diagnostic testing facility for interpretation, the healthcare providers, insurance payers, and the various governments are seeking to alter the way in which care is being delivered, thus reducing the cost of care at the same time.



Also, according to the World Ageing 2019 report, estimates, there were about 703 million population aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019. This number is projected to double to 1.5 billion in 2050. As the aging population creates an increase in health-related issues, especially cardiovascular and neurological diseases, the hospitalization of the patients is also expected to rise. This hospitalization is likely to lead to some sort of surgeries that require intensive care, and this is expected to drive the tele-intensive care unit market.



However, factors such as high cost of treatment and expensive set up, it is difficult for underdevloping and developing countries to fund high initial capital requirements for telemedicine, which is hindering the growth of the market studied.



Key Market Trends

Therapeutic Devices Sub-segment is Expected to Hold the Largest Share in the Hardware Segment



In the hardware segment of the market studied, the therapeutic devices sub-segment is expected to have a significant market share. The role of telemedicine through therapeutic devices in ICU is unavoidable, as telemedicine has witnessed high success rates on patients in critical care. Therapeutic devices are a valuable link between the small and large hospital chains to deliver better quality care.



The therapeutics devices have achieved success in transferring the neurological/cancer examinations, diagnosis, and consultations, across a range of distances in several developed countries. In the past decade, there were several studies being conducted by engineers and clinicians to apply the robotic devices in multiple indications of heart and brain, such as stroke therapy. The therapeutic devices are highly useful in the decentralized tele-ICU. In 2019, Apollo Hospitals Bangalore, India, launched the first dedicated Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery Unit in India.



Also, in 2020, Johnson & Johnson launched its new robot-assisted surgery system. The new system is designed with six arms to provide more control and flexibility in surgery, while its arms will be integrated into the operating table. Additionally, the platform has a zero-footprint design to enable patient access, increase space in the operating room and improve workflow. Thus, introduction of such technologically advanced devices will be facilitating the segmental growth.



A large number of nursing activities are increasing their dependency and providing better patient management through therapeutic devices, even when they are disengaged from the therapeutic interactions. An increase in the number of cancer research centers, which use teletherapy under radiation therapy, where external beams are involved for the treatment of cancer is being observed. Therapeutic devices under tele-ICU are aiding its importance, with the potential to help providers and caregivers to improve the post-acute care, specifically for patients leaving the ICUs.



The lockdown measures across the world resulted in decreased public mobility and impacted the therapeutic devices industry significantly, as the rate of treatment that is non-immediate and is being postponed to decrease the burden on healthcare infrastructure.?



Asia Pacific is Expected to Show Better Growth Rate Over the Forecast Period



The recent COVID 19 pandemic has also boosted the demand for the tele-intensive care unit market owing to the large patient pool that has been affected by COVID 19 Infection. Telemedicine largely through smartphones has become a lifeline for consultation. In August 2020, the Government of Maharashtra has partnered with MedscapeIndia-AMET launched the first Tele ICU for the Covid patients treated in the intensive care units of various hospitals. The new Tele ICU services will help doctors monitor at a remote ICU monitoring care center, reducing the risk of catching the virus themselves.



Also, in one of the states of India, Maharashtra State Government partnered with Cloudphysician to offer its services in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS). The firm provides solutions to manage critically ill Covid-19 patients using intensive EMR, audio-visuals, and alert systems.



Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region in the Global Tele-intensive care unit Market. Owing to the growing geriatric population, increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases, various government initiatives have also supported the advancement of health care systems, along with economic developments that will fuel the market growth in APAC countries. For instance, in 2018, Myongji Hospital, South Korea, and a leading US-based telehealth firm, InTouch Health, partnered to test out a telehealth system in South Korea, known as the Korean Telehealth pilot project. Myongji Hospital will, thus, work to implement the technology developed by InTouch Health and create remote healthcare ecosystem by linking affiliated medical institutions and nursing homes, including Jecheon Myongji Hospital and Incheon Sarang Long-Term Care Facility. Additionally, the growing electronic devices industry, particularly human interface devices in Asian countries, will support its increasing adoption.



Furthermore, there are also a lot of public-private partnerships and the number of initiatives that are being taken by the government to integrate telemedicine into the healthcare systems. For instance, in 2018, Philips, Emory Healthcare, and Royal Perth Hospital in Australia partnered to launch new remote intensive care monitoring program, focused on improving the outcomes of high-risk patients and advancing the globalization of critical care.



Competitive Landscape

The tele-intensive care unit market is highly competitive and consists of several major players. In terms of market share, there is moderate consolidation in the market. However, with technological advancement and product innovation, mid-size to smaller companies are increasing their market presence by introducing new products with less prices. Companies, like INTeLeICU, Philips (VISICU), InTouch Technologies Inc., and Inova, hold the substantial market share in the tele-intensive care unit market.



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- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

- 3 months of analyst support

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ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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Seattle, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AGC Biologics, a leading global biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), announced the signing of a purchase agreement for a state-of-the-art Cell and Gene Therapy commercial manufacturing facility in Longmont, Colorado, currently owned by Novartis Gene Therapies. Once the transaction closes, pending final due diligence, the facility will equip AGC Biologics with significant additional capacity and space to continue to expand its end-to-end Cell and Gene Therapy (C>) offering, ensuring security of supply for current and future C> customers. This facility is only 16 miles from AGC Biologics state-of-the-art large-scale stainless steel mammalian facility in Boulder, CO.

This news comes just three months after AGC Biologics announced an expansion at its Center of Excellence for Cell and Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy. AGC has invested heavily in C> services since the acquisition and integration of MolMed in 2020, and AGC Biologics is now one of the very few CDMOs in the world offering end-to-end C> services, including plasmid production of all grades.

The Longmont facility adds 622,000 square feet of operations and office space within six buildings on the sprawling 229-acre overall campus, located 40 minutes north of Denver. AGC Biologics aims to hire a significant percentage of the talented staff employed by Novartis at the facility.

The Longmont facility fits perfectly into AGCs long-term growth and expansion plans, says AGC Biologics Chief Executive Officer, Patricio Massera. This move is driven by our dedication to satisfy the needs of our current and future customers.

Adding this facility into our global network will be one more step towards our vision of being able to offer our partners, whatever they need it, wherever they need it, says AGC Biologics Chief Business Officer, Mark Womack.

About AGC Biologics:

AGC Biologics is a leading global biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with a strong commitment to deliver the highest standard of service as we work side-by-side with our clients and partners, every step of the way. We provide world-class development and manufacture of mammalian and microbial-based therapeutic proteins, plasmid DNA (pDNA), viral vectors, and genetically engineered cells. Our global network spans the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with cGMP-compliant facilities in Seattle, Washington; Boulder, Colorado; Copenhagen, Denmark; Heidelberg, Germany; Milan, Italy; and Chiba, Japan and we currently employ more than 1,800 employees worldwide. Our commitment to continuous innovation fosters the technical creativity to solve our clients most complex challenges, including specialization in fast-track projects and rare diseases. AGC Biologics is the partner of choice. To learn more, visit www.agcbio.com.

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RENO, Nev., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of Medical Assistants is projected to grow 19 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. The growth of the aging baby-boom population continues to increase demand for preventive medical services here in Nevada and across the country. An increasing number of group medical practices, clinics, and other healthcare facilities also need medical assistants to perform administrative and clinical duties. Medical assistants work mostly in primary care, a steadily growing sector of healthcare.

With an eye towards this future, Renown Health proudly accepted its first student, Ana Hernandez Rodriguez, a graduating senior from Procter R. Hug High Schools Health Science Academy CTE program in Washoe County, into its newly created Medical Assistant apprenticeship program. Ana will begin the program as a full-time employee with benefits and start her apprenticeship coursework at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC).

Sponsored by the Nevada System for Higher Education (NSHE), Renowns Medical Assistant Apprenticeship Program was approved by the Nevada State Apprenticeship Council, which was overseen by the Governors Office of Workforce Innovation (OWINN), in February. The Renown Medical Assistant Apprenticeship is a one-year competency-based program that includes up to 2,000 hours of On-the-Job training and 193 hours of Related Technical Instruction offered through TMCC. All classroom, clinic and work time is paid. Apprentices work under the supervision of a Medical Assistant, Registered Nurse, or medical provider to assist in responsibilities including escorting the patient from the waiting room to the examination room, taking vital signs, stocking supplies, placing and receiving phone calls including appropriate documentation in the Electronic Medical Record, preparing lab specimens for processing, completing the necessary referral forms, obtaining authorizations and keeping records for referrals. Upon completion of the program, apprentices complete the final exam to become a National Certified Medical Assistant. NSHE is proud to serve as the apprenticeship program sponsor and create more apprenticeship opportunities like this program throughout Nevada, said Cheryl Olson, NSHE Apprenticeship Navigator and Director of the Nevada Alliance for Youth Apprenticeship.

We welcome Ana as she joins our extraordinary team of healthcare professionals at Renown, said Tony Slonim, MD, DrPH, President & CEO of Renown. We are always looking to support and invest in the next generation of health professionals to address the health needs of our community. Medical Assistants serve an essential role in physician offices, hospitals and other healthcare facilities performing important administrative and clinical responsibilities and assisting in medical care including greeting patients, recording medical histories and vital signs and helping to coordinate care.

According to the US Department of Labor Projections Central the demand for Medical Assistants in Nevada will increase by over 25% by 2028, with over 260 job openings available per year. On the importance of apprenticeship programs like Renowns Medical Assistant program, NSHE Chancellor Melody Rose said, The Nevada System of Higher Education is committed to promoting more attainable, affordable, and innovative pathways toward successful careers in fields like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and information technology through apprenticeships. Programs such as the Renown Medical Assistant apprenticeship are changing how we think about accessing higher education and offering true Learn and Earn pathways.

Anas acceptance into the Medical Assistant apprenticeship program is a proud moment for her soon-to-be alma mater. Ana has earned this opportunity through hard work and dedication to her studies, said Melissa Osterhage, who teaches health sciences at Procter Hug High School. She is a compassionate, caring, and intelligent young woman, and I look forward to seeing everything she will accomplish as she moves forward in a career in the medical field. I couldnt be more proud of her, and I am grateful she has been awarded this apprenticeship.

Ana graduates from Hug High on June 22 and starts her Medical Assistant apprenticeship program just a few days later on June 29, and is excited for her future. "Being accepted to this opportunity at Renown has been amazing and wonderful. When they told me I was accepted, I was so excited that I cried because I felt so blessed. This is going to help my future in so many ways. It is going to give me the opportunity to work in the medical field. I will start as a Medical Assistant and my goal is to work toward becoming a registered nurse. I took a leap of hope and made it. So, I tell others- believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything in life," she said.

Ana is also welcomed to Renown by Michelle Sanchez-Bickley, Chief Human Resources Officer at Renown, who helped coordinate this workforce program. Healthcare jobs in Nevada represent excellent employment for thousands of Nevadans poised to enter the states workforce over the next decade. Opportunities are increasing as we encounter growing demand for health care services at Renown, coupled with population growth, an improving economy, and retirees relocating to the Silver State. Ana and our Medical Assistants are so vital to helping our medical providers care for patients and are critical to the excellent care we provide.

For more information on the next Medical Assistant Apprenticeship program, please email kayla.mcmain@renown.org.

To apply for a career opportunity at Renown visit our website.

###

About Renown Health

Renown Health is the regions largest, local not-for-profit integrated healthcare network serving Nevada, Lake Tahoe and northeast California. With a diverse workforce of more than 7,200 employees, Renown has fostered a longstanding culture of excellence, determination and innovation. The organization comprises a trauma center, two acute care hospitals, a childrens hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, a medical group and urgent care network, and the regions largest, locally owned not-for-profit insurance company, Hometown Health. Clinical institutes include: Cancer, Heart and Vascular Heath and Neurosciences. Renown is currently enrolling participants in the worlds largest community-based genetic population health study, the Healthy Nevada Project. For more information, visit renown.org.

About OWINN

OWINN helps drive a skilled, diverse, and aligned workforce in the state of Nevada by promoting cooperation and collaboration among all entities focused on workforce development. Its chief objectives are to prepare all K-12 students for college and career success, increase the number of Nevadans with postsecondary degrees and credentials, and boost employment outcomes in training and credentialing programs.

About NSHE

The Nevada System of Higher Education, comprised of two doctoral-granting research universities, a state college, four comprehensive community colleges, and one environmental research institute, serves the educational and job training needs of Nevada. NSHE provides educational opportunities to more than 100,000 students and is governed by the Nevada Board of Regents. The System includes the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada State College, Desert Research Institute, the College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College, and Western Nevada College.

About Washoe County School District

The Washoe County School District includes the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, and Wadsworth, Nevada. The District provides each of its 62,000 students with a superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to graduating every child career- and college ready.

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CHICAGO, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its commitment to help producers meet the growing demand for animal protein in Southeast Asia, Amlan International has named Nguyen Hai as the new commercial manager for Vietnam. Nguyen will lead the sales support and strategy in the country for Amlan, a global leader in mineral-based feed additives that promote the intestinal health of poultry and livestock and improve the economics of production.



Rising incomes in Vietnam are resulting in a growing demand for animal protein. Yearly poultry consumption per person in Vietnam was 13 kg in 2017 and is expected to rise to 17 kg by 2027, according to a report by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Export of meat and egg products in the country is projected to increase as improvements in production efficiency are helping poultry and swine operations meet the growing demand.

Significant advancements are being made in natural feed additives to help producers in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia meet changing consumer preferences and adapt to increasing restrictions on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in animal protein production," says Fred Kao, Vice President of Global Sales, Amlan International. "Nguyen will be a strong asset for the Southeast Asia team as we continue to work with the industry to deliver innovative, natural mineral-based feed additive solutions that producers can incorporate in their production strategies for long-term value and profitability."

In his new role at Amlan, Nguyen will build and lead a technical team in providing superior sales and technical support to producers and industry stakeholders to drive greater efficiencies in poultry and swine production in Vietnam. Prior to joining Amlan, he was national sales manager for a prominent animal health company, where he led the sales and marketing strategy for Vietnam. While there, he managed budgets, led a sales team and increased target sales volume for two consecutive years.

Nguyen holds a masters degree in animal science from the Asia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in animal science, with an emphasis in swine and piglet nutrition, from Queensland University.

Shifting consumer trends and growing economies in Southeast Asia are requiring necessary improvements in animal protein production systems. Amlan is at the forefront of developing and introducing natural mineral-based feed additive solutions to drive success for producers in meeting that demand, says Dan Jaffee, President & CEO, Oil-Dri Corporation of America. Jaffee also serves as President and General Manager of Amlan, which is the animal health business of Oil-Dri Corporation. Vietnam is a vital producer of poultry and swine, and Nguyen will strengthen our operations there and will be a valuable asset in driving success for our producer customers in that country.

Company Information

Amlan is the animal health business of Oil-Dri Corporation of America, leading global manufacturer and marketer of sorbent minerals. Oil-Dri leverages over 80 years of expertise in mineral science to selectively mine and process their unique mineral for consumer and business-to-business markets. Oil-Dri Corporation of America doing business as Amlan International is a publicly traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ODC). Amlan International sells feed additives across the world. Product availability may vary by country, associated claims do not constitute medical claims and may differ based on government requirements.

Reagan Culbertson

Media Contact

press@amlan.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c79f14bd-bc5d-457b-9434-3920ea2ecbd7
GOSHEN [mdash] Thomas went to be with his Lord and Saviour early July 2. He was born to John W and Elizabeth (McNeilly) Detwiler on Jan. 14, 1949. He married D Sue (Shaum) on Nov. 27, 1969. He is survived by his wife, three children Thomas Edward (Wendy), Audra J (Scott) Hoover, and Anthony 
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Governor Northam Announces Hardwood Flooring Manufacturer to Create 58 New Jobs in Patrick County

First Governors economic development announcement in the locality in 15 years

RICHMONDGovernor Ralph Northam today announced that Canadian-based Prolam, LLC, a manufacturer of high-quality hardwood floors for commercial trucks and dry van trailers, will invest $12.8 million in Patrick County to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in the former Ten Oaks satellite facility on Dobyns Road. The project will create 58 high-paying jobs and add 50 percent to the companys total manufacturing capacity. Prolam is also committing to source at least 65 percent of its timber from the Commonwealths robust hardwood resource, supporting regional loggers and forestland owners through the purchase of more than $20.5 million in Virginia-grown hardwoods over the next three years.

This project is a great win for Virginias hardwood loggers and forestland owners, said Governor Northam. Forestry continues to be an important pillar of communities across the Commonwealth because industry leaders recognize the benefits of our abundant natural resources, extensive transportation network, and unparalleled workforce. We thank Prolam for locating its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Southern Virginia and look forward to a long partnership with the company.

Headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Prolam is a leading producer of commercial trailer flooring. The company supplies the top U.S. trailer manufacturers who are experiencing record growth from the surge in online commerce and the associated increase in shipping. Prolams new facility in Patrick County will directly benefit Virginias hardwood loggers and forestland owners by providing a market for lower grade red and white oak lumber not suited for residential flooring or cooperages. The company employs a number of proprietary technologies that offer superior moisture resistance, strength, and durability while not sacrificing commercial trailer weight.

As Virginias third-largest private industry, forestry is a critical part of the Commonwealths economy, contributing more than $21 billion annually in economic impact, said Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Bettina Ring. New demand for Virginia hardwoods created by facilities like Prolams create the conditions essential for sustainable forest management. I am thrilled the Commonwealth could partner with Patrick County through the AFID Program to help win this important project for Virginia.

Prolam will be a valued contributor to the supply chain for Virginia forest products, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. We are pleased to welcome the company to our Commonwealth and are grateful for the valuable job opportunities this project will create for the residents of Patrick County.

We are convinced that this project will be beneficial to all parties involved, including customers, suppliers, employees, and the community of Patrick County, said Prolam President Pierre Thabet. We look forward to the many opportunities and will continue to uphold the proud local tradition of turning the majestic Appalachian hardwoods into the top quality hardwood floors for commercial trucks and dry van trailers.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) worked with Patrick County and the Patrick County Economic Development Authority to secure this project for the Commonwealth. Governor Northam approved a $100,000 grant from the Governors Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) Fund, which Patrick County will match with local funds. Funding and services to support the companys job creation will be provided through VEDPs Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

On behalf of Patrick County, I want to thank Prolam for choosing our community for its expansion into the United States, said Patrick County Board of Supervisors Chair Crystal Harris. Our region is rich in the forestry products that will be used by the company and we look forward to the additional jobs and opportunities that this announcement brings.

By Ten Oaks moving to a different facility, it has opened the door for new economic development in Patrick County, said Senator William (Bill) Stanley. I am thrilled that Prolam, LLC will be investing in Patrick County and Southside Virginia. More importantly, I am just as thrilled that 58 new jobs will be created for Patrick Countys hard-working citizens, and I am sure that Prolam will soon discover that our people are the best workers to employ in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

I am pleased to see that the AFID grant program continues to succeed, in this case by converting Virginia forestry hardwood resources into locally produced wood floor products for the Virginia and U.S. markets for truck and van trailers, said Delegate Charles Poindexter.

# # #
Bernie Ecclestone admits he helped Sebastian Vettel to secure his place in Formula 1 with Aston Martin this year.

Despite a slow start for the quadruple world champion in 2021, the former Racing Point team appears to now be enjoying its collaboration with Vettel.

"Sebastian has enhanced the way we do things," team boss Otmar Szafnauer is quoted by RTL.

"The way in which we conduct our debriefings, for example, has changed a little. Not only Lance (Stroll) but the entire team has accepted it."

According to the German driver's friend Ecclestone, 33-year-old Vettel was "never treated the way he deserved to be by Ferrari".

"He was left alone last year," the 90-year-old former F1 supremo told Sport Bild.

"That's why I tried in the background to keep him in Formula 1 and get him into a good team," he revealed. "I wanted him to be happy again."

Ecclestone said he was particularly pleased to see Vettel back on the podium at Baku.

"I sent him a text message and said 'It looks like you're becoming the old Seb again'. The team just has to get everything together," he said.

"I really hope Aston Martin give him a car that can win as soon as possible."

(GMM)
Outgoing FIA president Jean Todt insists he is not picking a side as two candidates line up to succeed him.

Graham Stoker and Mohammed Ben Sulayem have stepped forward as the only candidates so far vying to take over from 75-year-old Frenchman Todt at the end of the year.

"I know there are these two candidates for the job, but maybe more will come forward. The closing date is somewhere in October so there is still time," Todt told France's Auto Hebdo.

"I don't have a (preferred) candidate," he told the French publication. "I will respect the choice of the ballot box."

Todt admitted that he sometimes "clashed" with former F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, but had a smoother relationship with Chase Carey.

"Then Chase decided to step down and Liberty called on Stefano (Domenicali)," he said. "We know each other very well and he is a friend.

"The most important thing is that in these years the sport never suffered because of disagreements between the FIA and the commercial rights holder."

(GMM)
BMW i Ventures created a new $300-million venture capital fund with a strong focus on sustainability. The new fund will invest in early to mid-stage start-ups operating in the sustainability, transportation, manufacturing, and supply chain industries. This marks BMW i Ventures second dedicated investment fund, which is fully backed by BMW Group.

The new fund will operate in parallel to Fund I, furthering BMW i Ventures mission, and increasing the firms ability to make new investments.

With Fund II we will refocus our investment thesis to even better serve the needs of the ecosystem and the BMW Group as a whole. Even more than before, circularity and sustainability will play a key role in our investment activities. Marcus Behrendt, managing partner, BMW i Ventures

BMW i Ventures was established as an independent venture capital firm in 2016. The company has since invested in approximately 50 early to mid-stage startups, many of which are sustainability-focused companies including Boston Metal, ChargePoint, Prometheus, Proterra, PureCycle, Solid Power, and Turntide.

Of the investments made in Fund I, BMW i Ventures has enabled seven companies to go public so far.

Alongside the creation of this new fund, BMW i Ventures also announced that Marcus Behrendt and Kasper Sage were named the two new managing partners of BMW i Ventures as Dr. Ulrich Quay will move into a new role at BMW Group in Munich, Germany. With the inception of Fund II, Baris Guzel was also promoted to partner.

Marcus Behrendt brings over 25 years of expertise in the automotive industry to this leadership position. Before joining BMW i Ventures in 2018, he worked in different management functions in research and development of the BMW Group, as a managing director for a market research company, and in various roles for another automotive OEM.

Kasper Sage has spent most of his career in Silicon Valley as a venture capital investor with previous roles in management consulting, corporate development & partnerships, as well as in working in startup operating roles.

Prior to joining BMW i Ventures in 2017, Baris Guzel worked as an investor at institutional venture capital funds and as an investment banker at top-tier investment banks.
$13M

ZeroAvia has secured two twin-engine 19-seat Dornier 228 aircraft for the next phase of its research and development for clean hydrogen-electric aviation. (Earlier post.) One Dornier is in the UK, the other in the US, provided respectively by Aurigny and AMC Aviation. Both aircraft were previously in service for regional flights in the US and UK, demonstrating the opportunity for carbon reduction on existing routes.





ZeroAvia 19-seat prototype

ZeroAvias 19-seat R&D is part of HyFlyer II, the second ZeroAvia-led project backed by the UK Government to target the development of a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain.

As part of HyFlyer I, ZeroAvia successfully demonstrated a 250kW powerplant in a 6-seat aircraft across three flight test campaigns, achieving all the projects technical goals, including fuel-cell only cruise flight. All the learnings of HyFlyer I will be fully utilized in the development of a 600kW 19-seater powerplant in HyFlyer II.

ZeroAvia has also secured an additional $13 million for its 50+ seat engine development program from AP Ventures, a significant investor in breakthrough technologies across the hydrogen value chain; Alumni Ventures Group; SGH Capital; Agartha Fund LP; and existing investors Amazons Climate Pledge Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Summa Equity, Shell Ventures, SYSTEMIQ, and Horizons Ventures.

This new funding complements the initial investment of $24 million the company announced a few weeks ago, bringing the total private investment into ZeroAvia large engine development for 50+ seat aircraft to $37 million.

For the 19-seat aircraft, two 600KW units of the companys hydrogen-electric powertrain will replace the aircrafts twin engines, along with hydrogen fuel tanks eventually holding 100kg of compressed gaseous hydrogen to support the 500-mile range of the commercial offering in 2024.

Additionally, ZeroAvia is progressing the software, hardware, mechanical integration, and fuel cell balance-of-plant to the certifiable state. The 6-ton aircraft will have a range of 500 nautical miles.





ZeroAvias new 30,000-square foot Kemble facility will act as the dedicated base for developing ZeroAvias 600kW engine class and marks a significant investment in and expansion of its UK-based R&D program. The companys Hollister, California location will assist the UK team with testing and will be responsible for building the second demonstration aircraft for commercialization of technology in North America.

The company currently employs about 50 people, expanding to over 100 in the next 12 months across both the US and UK.
Life-long resident of the Greensburg/Jeannette area, Diane Bargerstock went to sleep, softly, and quietly on June 24, 2021 at the age of 70 years old and now she is resting in the arms of Jesus. Diane spent her work life with the Mercy Behavior Health System. She enjoyed her life with her hu
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Meghan McCain is departing The View, after nearly four years on the ABC daytime show, Variety has confirmed.

As the panels resident conservative talking head, McCain regularly sparred with her co-hosts, resulting in many viral  and highly-rated  on-air moments.

Her last day will be at the end of the shows 24th season in July. The View was created by Barbara Walters in 1997, changing the TV talk show landscape.

McCain has most recently been part of the current panel of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines. Shes the second longest running conservative co-host on the program, following Elisabeth Hasslebeck, who appeared on The View from 2003-2013.

A representative from ABC News declined to comment.

I am here to tell all of you  that this is going to be my last season here at the The View,' McCain said on Thursdays episode. This was not an easy decision. COVID has changed the world for all of us. And it changed the way Im living my life.

McCain has moved to Washington D.C. during the pandemic, where she has filmed for the show remotely. When I said goodbye to all of you in the studio, I found out I was pregnant, McCain said. I came to the D.C. area, and we have this incredible life here. And as any new mom knows, when I think about where I want Liberty to have her first steps, I have a really wonderful life here.

She added that her father, the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, pushed her to accept a job on the program  which was originally thinking about turning down.

A source says that McCain made the decision herself to depart and that recent rumblings about on-set feuds had nothing to do with her exit. McCains contract isnt up yet, but earlier this summer, she approached ABC executives to ask to be released from her deal because she does not want to move back to New York City. She relocated to Washington D.C. during the pandemic, where she and her husband, political commentator and frequent Fox News personality, Ben Domenech, are raising their young daughter, Liberty.

There is no decision yet as to who will replace McCain. The View is well-known for its constant game of musical chairs.

During McCains tenure, ratings on The View soared  making it the most-watched daytime talk show. The show became a major political destination in the lead-up to the 2020 election with essentially every single politician making a necessary stop at the the talk show on their campaign media blitz.

McCains conservative takes were magnets for attention on Twitter with her clips constantly catching fire on social media. Recently, McCains latest on-air feud with Goldberg went viral in June, garnering a substantial amount of tabloid attention. The tabloids would constantly speculate on McCains behavior and feelings on-set, which she frequently clapped back at on her own social media accounts.

The View shoots in New York City, but during the pandemic the co-hosts all worked remotely from different locations as the television and film industry was brought to a halt. The View remained in production throughout the COVID-19 crisis with most of the co-hosts filming from their homes.

McCain is the oldest daughter of the late U.S. Arizona Senator and celebrated Vietnam veteran, John McCain, who passed away in 2018 after a battle with brain cancer. McCain, who had an incredibly close relationship with her father, frequently shares her memories about him on television.

McCain has described herself as a Republican with liberal views on many social issues. She is a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and has recently dedicated much of her airtime to the staggering rise in anti-Semitism around the globe, as one of the few mainstream media figures to prioritize the topic. During her time on The View, she was a frequent and harsh critic of Donald Trump, making her stance on the former president abundantly clear. Earlier this year, she supported the impeachment of Trump, and last year she had a tense exchange with Donald Trump Jr. when he visited the show.

Prior to joining The View, McCain was a contributor at Fox News who was heavily featured on the program Outnumbered. She left Fox News in September 2017 after two years as a host on the network. She first gained attention by blogging about her life on her late fathers campaign trial, leading up to the 2008 presidential election. She then became a contributor to The Daily Beast and MSNBC, and in 2013, she worked as a host on various programs at the now-defunct cable network, Pivot.

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GREENWICH  As a new state law takes effect Thursday allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in Connecticut, zoning officials and legal staff at Greenwich Town Hall are working out the specifics of whether sales might take place within the town.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said he wanted to proceed cautiously with implementing the new state law, which allows for a significant amount of local control.

Theres a sentiment to exercise some caution in this, Camillo said.

Under the new law, which Gov. Ned Lamont signed last week, people who are 21 and older can have up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis in their possession. When storing marijuana in a locked container at home or in a car, adults can have up to 5 ounces.

Although the law will go into effect on Thursday, the state does not expect recreational sales to start until late 2022. Because of that, many rules remain unwritten.

Towns and cities can allow recreational marijuana sales in their municipalities, and individual governments can also bar it. Some towns, including Prospect in New Haven County, have already banned cannabis sales in town. Other municipalities, such as Ridgefield, want to follow a similar path.

In Greenwich, Camillo said the town administration wanted to go slowly on the new law.

I would come down on the side of caution; we dont want to just jump in, he said. Camillo said he voted to approve medical marijuana when he was state representative in Hartford but voted against a previous attempt to legalize recreational marijuana.

The first selectman said he wanted to consider potential downsides to allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in town and get feedback on the concept.

The bill spells out introductory provisions about setting up marijuana dispensaries in the state. Otherwise, its a local issue. To open a dispensary, medicinal or otherwise, vendors need any necessary local zoning authority before jumping into the business.

At Greenwich police headquarters, officers have been receiving guidance on the new law, spokesman Capt. Mark Zuccerella said.

Were ready to enter the next phase of the law, he said.

Discussions have been held with state prosecutors on the new regulations, and police commanders have been reviewing the law. The police department will conduct new training for officers in the coming weeks on identifying how marijuana consumption impairs driving, which could result in criminal charges for drivers determined to be under the influence, Zuccerella said.

Any municipality with more than 50,000 residents that chooses to allow pot consumption must also designate spots where people can publicly smoke. That would include Greenwich as well as neighboring Stamford and other towns and cities in the state.

Marijuana can be sold only in specific commercial and industrial zoning districts from businesses with a license from the state, under the new law. State sales taxes will also be imposed on all purchases. Growing marijuana at home will be permitted as of July 2023 under the law.

Connecticut is the 19th state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Dispensaries for recreational use are already in operation in Massachusetts and New Jersey. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law legalizing adult-use cannabis in late April. Sales could begin in 2023 at the earliest in that state.

Staff Reporter Veronica Del Valle contributed to this story.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Cornell William Clayton, Washington State University and Michael Ritter, Washington State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Arizona may keep two voting laws that Republicans say protect election integrity and Democrats believe will make it harder for some residents to cast ballots.

Thats the United States Supreme Courts decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, one of the decades most important voting rights cases.

One Arizona law challenged in the case, H.B. 2023, makes it a felony for anyone other than a family member, caregiver or postal worker to collect and deliver ballots. The other requires ballots to be cast in the assigned precinct where a voter lives. If a person votes at the wrong polling place, Arizona election officials will reject their ballot.

The Democratic National Committee argued at the Supreme Court that both Arizona rules disproportionately hurt minority voters. The majority of justices, split 6-to-3 along ideological lines, disagreed.

Voting necessarily requires some effort and compliance with some rules, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the courts majority on July 1, 2021. Merely making it more inconvenient for certain groups to vote does not violate federal law, according to the court.

The ruling will have national consequences. Arizona is one of 14 states restricting third-party ballot collection. It is one of 26 that require in-precinct voting.

The Supreme Courts decision makes it more difficult to legally challenge such laws, which, according to our research on elections, significantly affect voting, particularly among racial minorities and the poor.

From Arizona to the Supreme Court

In Arizona, nearly 80% of voters in 2018 cast their ballots by mail. But mail service is not always available in rural areas of the state where many Hispanic and Native Americans live. Only 18% of Native Americans in the state, for example, have access to home mail delivery.

The Tohono O'odham reservation, which covers an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware, has no home delivery and only one post office. These rural voters often rely on friends or get-out-the-vote workers to deliver their ballots to polling stations.

The burdens on rural and tribal voters were cited in a 2016 lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee to block the Arizona ballot collection ban and out-of-precinct vote restriction. The Democratic National Committee claimed both policies violated Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits practices that result in a denial or abridgment of the right (to vote) on account of race or color.

The lawsuit, which was supported by Arizonas Democratic secretary of state, also argued that the ballot collection ban purposely targeted minority voters. That would violate the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from intentionally denying the right to vote on account of race.

Arizonas Republican attorney general and the states Republican Party argued the laws were race-neutral restrictions that do not impede Arizonans equal opportunity to vote and were enacted to safeguard election integrity.

The case reached the Supreme Court after an appeal process in which the full Arizona Ninth Circuit Court ultimately determined that the states ballot collection ban violated both Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 15th Amendment because minority voters were more likely than nonminorities to rely on others to return their ballots. And the law could not be credibly defended as an election integrity measure because judges saw no evidence that third-party ballot collection led to vote fraud in the past.

The appeals court also found that the out-of-precinct policy violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Arizona officials frequently changed polling places in urban counties, so voters there easily made mistakes. In 2016, 3,709 out-of-precinct Arizona ballots were rejected, and minority voters were twice as likely as whites to have their ballots discarded in that process.

The justices reasoning

In deciding against Arizona in 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court relied on a results test. This means that a law does not require proof of an intent to discriminate to be struck down. Judges ask only whether the law disproportionately affects historically disadvantaged groups.

In overturning the Ninth Circuit, the Supreme Court concluded the Arizona laws did not intentionally discriminate and rejected the logic of the results test.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act still prevents states from enacting voting rules that purposely discriminate. But proving intentional discrimination is much more difficult than showing a law disproportionately impacts minority voting.

The three liberal justices on the court, led by Justice Elena Kagan, dissented.

The Court has (yet again) rewritten  in order to weaken  a statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses, Kagan wrote.

Electoral consequences

The Brnovich ruling means Arizonas voting restrictions stand. It also gives other states greater latitude when adopting similar rules and limits the federal governments ability to police restrictive voting practices.

Since the 2020 presidential election, legislators in at least 48 states have introduced 389 so-called election integrity bills placing new restrictions on voting. Of these, 22 have been enacted.

For example, Georgias March 2021 election law imposes new limits on the use of absentee ballots, makes it a crime for outside groups to provide food and water to voters waiting at polling stations and hands greater control over election administration to the Republican-led state legislature.

On June 25 the U.S. Department of Justice sued Georgia, arguing these rules violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and that Georgias law is intended to discriminate.

Before 2013, states with a history of racial discrimination needed federal approval before enacting new voting laws, under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. But in 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder  an Alabama voting rights case  dismantled these procedures.

As a preclearance state, Arizona was previously blocked by the federal government from enacting voter restrictions like H.B. 2023. Other former preclearance states that have passed restrictive laws since 2013 include Georgia, Texas and Florida.

Since Shelby County v. Holder, voting rights advocates have had to rely on a different part of the Voting Rights Act  Section 2  to block these restrictive voting laws. Brnovich v. DNC was the first Supreme Court test of this strategy.

The courts decision severely cripples it, further eroding the Voting Rights Act. Attention now shifts to Congress to see whether it will respond.

This is an updated version of an article originally published June 8, 2021.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-blunts-voting-rights-in-arizona-and-potentially-nationwide-in-controversial-ruling-163764.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Congressional Democrats are facing renewed pressure to pass legislation that would protect voting rights after a Supreme Court ruling Thursday made it harder to challenge Republican efforts to limit ballot access in many states.

The 6-3 ruling on a case out of Arizona was the second time in a decade that conservatives on the Supreme Court have weakened components of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark Civil Rights-era law. But this opinion was released in a much different political climate, in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's lie that last year's election was stolen.

Trump's fabrications spurred Republicans in states such as Georgia and Florida to pass tougher rules on voting under the cloak of election integrity.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have already tried to respond with a sweeping voting and elections bill that Senate Republicans united to block last week. A separate bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore sections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court previously weakened, has been similarly dismissed by most Republicans.

Those setbacks, combined with the Supreme Court's decision, have fueled a sense of urgency among Democrats to act while they still have narrow majorities in the House and Senate. But passing voting legislation at this point would almost certainly require changes to the filibuster, allowing Democrats to act without GOP support.

Absolutely this increases the pressure to take a very hard look at whether the Senate is an institution that will allow itself to be rendered powerless and dysfunctional, said Rep. John Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat who sponsored a voting bill that passed the House in March.

Change won't be easy. A group of moderate Democratic senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have ruled out revisions to the filibuster. In an evenly divided Senate, their rejection denies the votes needed to move forward with a procedural change.

Thursday's ruling was on a case in Sinemas home state. In an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, the court reversed an appellate ruling in deciding that Arizonas regulations  on who can return early ballots for another person and on refusing to count ballots cast in the wrong precinct  are not racially discriminatory.

Sinema assailed the decision in a statement, saying it would hurt Arizonans ability to make their voices heard at the ballot box." She reiterated her support for the bill yet said nothing about her opposition to the filibuster changes. That opposition stands in the way of the bill passing.

Democrats, who say the issue is an existential one for democracy and who need the support of voters of color in next year's midterms, quickly condemned the decision.

If you believe in open and fair democracy and the principle of one person, one vote, today is one of the darkest days in all of the Supreme Courts history," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling an unprecedented assault that greenlights the brutal, accelerating campaign of voter suppression.

Speaking in Florida, President Joe Biden said he would have "much more to say" soon, but largely sidestepped comment.

For their part, Republicans show no sign of willingness to engage with Democrats on the issue.

The states created the federal government, and its not up to Chuck or Nancy or anyone else in Washington, D.C., to tell Arizona or anyone else how they should conduct an election," Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who was a party in the case, said on Fox News.

Many Republicans other have dismissed a series of recent hearings on the John Lewis bill as theater.

They are using this issue because they see a political opportunity," said Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the House Judiciary Committee. The more they advance this narrative that its us versus them, and oppressors versus the oppressed, and black versus white, it divides the country.

Questions hang over existing lawsuits challenging voting laws.

While experts generally agree that Thursdays decision will make legal challenges under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act more difficult, many of the lawsuits pending against GOP-backed laws this year make separate, constitutional claims. So those lawsuits will proceed.

The U.S. Justice Department's recent lawsuit against Georgias new voting law does make a Section 2 challenge, although it was narrowly written and alleges an intent by Republican state lawmakers to discriminate against minority voters. In the Arizona case, the legal challenge centered on whether there was a discriminatory effect of the laws.

Still, advocates of voting rights protections were surprised by the breadth of the ruling.

This ruling is much worse than we had anticipated, said Wendy Weiser, an attorney for the Brennan Center for Justice. "This is going to put a lot of pressure on Congress and the White House to pass the voting bills.

And it could embolden more Republican-led states to pursue further restrictions.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who supports the ruling, said: States can be confident that they can go full speed ahead to strengthen elections and protect voting rights with security measures such as voter ID and other sensible measures to make it harder to steal elections."
In a Tweet posted by @Android today, Google and AT&T have agreed to make Google Messages the default messaging app for all Android phones sold by the carrier. While most Android devices already come pre-installed with Google Messages, Samsung phones continued arriving with Samsungs built-in messaging app that did support RCS, but does not support Googles recently enabled end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats.

.@Google + @ATT are working together to bring an enhanced messaging experience with RCS for Android customers in the U.S.



Share full-resolution pictures

Send higher-quality videos

Chat over Wi-Fi or data

Participate in dynamic group chats



Learn more: https://t.co/4d5AL1xcpr pic.twitter.com/MUveep7aAa  Android (@Android) June 30, 2021

With T-Mobile agreeing to do the same a few months ago, and now AT&T pledging to completely switch to Google Messages RCS, Verizon is the only major US carrier left to make the pledge to make Google Messages the default app for messaging on its Android phones. As of now, Verizon continues to pre-load its self-branded Messages+ app as the default

This solidifies RCS in a world where Android users are just finally able to have a Messaging experience closer to Apples robust iMessage. Apple has not commented on whether iPhones will ever support RCS messaging. If Apple were to support RCS, it threatens the closely-knit ecosystem that iMessage holds between Apple users that keeps them from wanting to leave. On the other hand, SMS is an insecure and outdated protocol that may compromise Apples focus on privacy.

Via
Samsung has enterprise variants of some of its devices that get special treatment. They usually have some additional features to protect enterprise data and only software approved by the said company can be installed on the device. And more importantly, Samsung provides longer support compared to its consumer devices.

Most of Samsung's business-oriented phones and tablets get 4 years of security updates from the date of release but the tech giant just announced that it's extending that period with another year for some of its enterprise devices. This includes the Galaxy S20, S20+, S20 Ultra, Note20, Note20 Ultra, XCover 5 and Galaxy Tab Active 3.

All of these will continue to receive monthly or quarterly security updates five years from their release dates.

Source
T-Mobile is announcing the newest entry to its REVVL family. The US carrier has a lineup of self-branded budget-conscious Android phones and the latest addition is the REVVL V+ 5G. It can be had for $199 with support for T-Mobiles sub-5 5G networks, but what else does it have?

Theres a large 6.82-inch LCD screen with 720p+ resolution. This phone is powered by MediaTeks Dimensity 700 chip paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Theres also a 5,000 mAh battery with 18W fast charge support (a charging cable and adapter are included in the box). Theres also a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.

Theres a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 16MP main camera, along with 5MP and 2MP secondary cameras. The selfie camera is contained in a notch around front and thats a 16MP snapper.

The REVVL V+ 5G will be available from Metro stores starting July 12 with T-Mobiles physical and online stores beginning sales on July 23 for $200. Thats $8.34/month for 24 months not including sales tax.

Source




Haiti - WEATHER : Tropical storm ELSA is approaching Haiti





This morning at 5:00 a.m. the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reports that Tropical Storm Elsa was located near latitude 9.4 North and longitude 48.8 West. It is moving west at nearly 25 mph (41 km/h). Even faster west-northwest movement is expected over the next 24 to 36 hours.



On the planned path, Friday evening Elsa will travel along the south coast of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti).



Between Saturday July 3 2:00 p.m. and Sunday July 4 2:00 a.m. Elsa will affect the southern peninsula of Haiti.



Maximum sustained winds increased to nearly 40 mph (65 km/h) with higher gusts. Further strengthening is expected over the next few days.



Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km) from the center.



There is a risk of wind impact and heavy rainfall in parts of the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Southern Haiti, Cuba, Turks and Caicos Islands and the Southeastern Bahamas until early next week.



Florida residents should watch for forecast updates for this system, but it is too early to determine if any impacts could occur to Florida next week, given the uncertainty of the long-term forecast.



To be continued...



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Carnage in Delmas 32, at least 15 dead, the PNH accuses Fantome 509





On Wednesday during a press briefing, Leon Charles the Director General ai of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), explained that according to the first information gathered by investigators of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) a rally was planned at the occasion of the anniversary of the death of police officer Luckson Bateau assassinated in July 2020, in the same area. In the afternoon of Tuesday at around 3:00 a.m. Guerby Geffrard (35), spokesperson for the SPNH17 Union, was fatally injured in Delmas 32 by shooting from two unidentified individuals riding a motorbike. Urgently rushed to Bernard Mevs Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries



According to Leon Charles, following the assassination of Guerby Geffrard, his allies, member of the "Fantome 509" Group, killing around fifteen citizens including the journalist Diego Charles (Radio Tele Vision 2000) and the feminist activist, Marie Antoinette Duclaire, each shot dead with several bullets by individuals traveling by motorbike, in front of his residence, street Acacia, not far from Christ Roi while they were aboard Marie Antoinette Duclaire's vehicle. "The PNH presents its sympathies to the family of journalist Diego Charles and to all the other victims."



The accusations made by Leon Charles on the responsibility of the "Fantome 509" Group have given rise to numerous comments from journalists and civil society organizations, who doubt the veracity of this version...



On Wednesday June 30, the Prime Minister a.i, Claude Joseph, chaired a special Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) around the killing that occurred on the night of June 29, 2021 in Delmas 32 and Christ the King. The first elements of the investigation carried out by the National Police revealed that it would be a terrorist attack perpetrated by the organization "Fantome 509" said the Prime Minister



This CSPN instructed the PNH to deepen the investigation and take all necessary measures to suppress these terrorist acts, prevent their repetition and restore security throughout the country.



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : OAS report and recommendations on the crisis in Haiti





Wednesday, June 30, the Organization of American States (OAS), unveiled the content of its Good Offices Mission report concerning the crisis in Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33948-haiti-politic-moise-seeks-the-support-of-the-oas-for-the-security-of-the-elections.html



In its report, the OAS recommends :



"Any solution to the ongoing political crisis in Haiti requires the efforts of all sectors of Haitian society, including government, opposition, business, religious groups and civil society.



The Mission identified three goals that it believes can contribute to a way forward https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34100-haiti-news-zapping.html :



(1) Prompt appointment of a Prime Minister and Cabinet that will have the confidence of the Haitian people.



A number of recommendations were made by participants on how this goal might be reached. The urgent appointment of a Prime Minister who enjoys the broad support of the Haitian people appears to be a critical step. The Mission urges all political actors to redouble their efforts in this regard and that the appointment of a new Prime Minister and Cabinet be made no later than mid-July.



(2) Urgent steps taken to re-establish a climate of security, in conformity with human rights obligations.

All of those with whom the Mission met expressed grave concern with the worsening security situation in the country. Gang violence is a threat not only to security and economic growth, but also seriously undermines the rule of law and the development of democracy in Haiti.



Those with influence over the activities of gangs in Haiti must bring violence to an immediate end and those responsible must be held to account.



Impunity, lawlessness and high levels of violence have forced people to flee internally to seek refuge. The impact of Covid-19 and ongoing food insecurity add to the humanitarian crisis and are of serious concern.



(3) Appointment of new members to the Provisional Electoral Council to ensure that the Haitian people have confidence in this critical institution and that local, legislative and presidential elections are held this year.



Haitis democratic institutions are already in abeyance. In order to avoid a democratic power vacuum, it is critical that all efforts be made to ensure that free and fair elections are held before the end of 2021. This includes the appointment of new members to the Provisional Electoral Council, the establishment of a definitive electoral calendar, accelerated efforts to register voters, and other steps to ensure confidence in the electoral process.



To reach these goals, dialogue amongst relevant sectors of Haitian society must advance with a sense of urgency and purpose, and with a spirit of compromise. Dialogue is a regular part of a healthy political process. However, it should not be a reason for delay, nor should it be an alternative to or substitute for democratic elections and representative democracy. Going forward, the Mission recommends that greater steps be taken to ensure that women and marginalized groups, including LGBTI persons, are equal and active participants in political processes in Haiti. The goals of a representative democracy can only be met with the engagement of all in society.



The Mission also recommends that the Permanent Council remain seized of this issue, and that the Organization of American States continue to accompany the people of Haiti in their efforts in the coming months. The Mission recommends that regular reports be made to the Permanent Council, with the support of the Secretariat, on the implementation of the recommendations in this report. The Mission stands ready to support the Permanent Council if and as requested.



The Mission recommends that other international actors continue to support the people of Haiti in their efforts to realize their full democratic and human rights. Upon request, the international community should continue supporting efforts to restore security, reduce violence and impunity, and support human rights in Haiti, and should also consider assisting with preparations for the elections, building on the work that has been accomplished to date."



Download the full report of the OAS Mission :

https://scm.oas.org/pdfs/2021/CP44283EREPORTHAITI.pdf



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Massacre of Delmas 32 : Messages of sympathy

Haiti - FLASH: Carnage in Delmas 32, at least 15 dead, the PNH accuses "Fantome 509": https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34110-haiti-flash-carnage-in-delmas-32-at-least-15-dead-the-pnh-accuses-fantome-509.html



Rockefeller Vincent, Minister of Justice :

"Our sincere condolences to the parents and families of the victims of the serial assassinations that occurred last night in the capital by the artisans of chaos. We also share the pain of the Press and the feminist sector. These heinous crimes will not go unpunished. The DG of the PNH and the Commissioner of the Government of Port-au-Prince have been instructed to identify and prosecute the killers to be tried with the utmost rigor. 'Gouvenman an lage koukouwouj deye enpinite ak kriminalite oganize'."



Pradel Henriquez, Minister of Communication :

Minister Pradel Henriquez, learned of the double assassination of Journalists Diego Charles and Antoinette Duclair on the night of June 29 to 30, that of police officer Guerby Geffrard, spokesperson for the SPNH17 Union and the real terrorist massacre that was orchestrated on the population where a dozen people, according to the press, were killed. Henriquez says he is "revolted and condemns all these assassinations unworthy of a peaceful and civilized people." [...] Diego Charles and Antoinette Duclair are too many victims of this infernal machine which sows terror and mourning within both Haitian families and the corporation of journalists "The Minister presents his sympathies to the parents or families of all victims of the carnage of June 30, in particular to those of the Journalists, Diego Charles and Antoinette Duclair, sympathies also to radio vision 2000, to Gazette Haiti, and to all the press afflicted by this mourning."



Charlot Jacquelin Secretary of State for Youth :

Charlot Jacqulin Jr. Secretary of State for Youth said he was "deeply distressed and dismayed by the news of the massacre" in the working-class districts of Delmas 32 and Christ-Roi, including the double assassination of radio journalist Diego Charles vision 2000 and the young political activist Antoinette Duclair alias "Netty". "He renews his solidarity with relatives, relatives, friends, collaborators and relatives of the victims of these unacceptable acts, without forgetting the youth, conscious and militant, Haitians directly affected by them."



Frantz Exantus, Secretary of State for Communication :

Frantz Exantus Secretary of State for Communication learned with deep emotion the double crime committed on journalist Diego Charles, of radio Vision 2000, and activist Antoinette Duclair on the evening of Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at Rue Acacia (Christ-Roy) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34110-haiti-flash-carnage-in-delmas-32-at-least-15-dead-the-pnh-accuses-fantome-509.html While bowing to the departure of this press worker, offers his sincere condolences to his family, friends and collaborators at Vision 2000. These condolences also extend to the family of Antoinette Duclair, a dynamic and dedicated young woman who had engaged in active politics to serve his country.



BINUH :

The brutal executions of activist Marie Antoinette Duclaire and journalist Diego Charles are shocking and unacceptable. The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) expresses its condolences to the families of all the victims of the violence that occurred in Delmas 32 and Christ-Roi last night, and calls on the authorities to immediately take the necessary measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and to ensure the protection of citizens.



State of health emergency extended by 15 days

Faced with the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34101-haiti-flash-172-dead-since-the-start-of-the-3rd-wave.html the Government has decided to extend the state of health emergency from Wednesday June 30, for a period of 15 days.



Canadian Embassy closed

The Embassy of the Republic of Haiti in Canada is informing the general public and the Haitian community in particular that its offices are closed this Thursday, July 1, 2021 for the celebration of Canada Day. Activities will resume on Friday July 2, 2021.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2021/06/30 | Source

New still added for the upcoming Korean movie "Hostage: Missing Celebrity" (2019)

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Release date in Korea : 2021/08
Hannibal, MO (63401)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 91F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

A clear sky. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
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Editor: I have to disagree with the editorial of Thursday concerning the commercia
Editor: Out of every disaster, there can come a positive outcome. For example, whe
The Holiday Village Mall in Havre is now home to a new apparel and design business, Pratt & Company, owned by Angela and Casey Pratt.

Casey Pratt said they were inspired once they saw a need in the community and an opportunity when Fivehead's, an embroidery business, closed recently.

"I had the chance to work in this industry a few years ago. And really enjoyed it, and thought it would be something that we wanted to do at a later date. So we kind of talked about it and tossed it around and at that time, it wasn't time to do that," Angela Pratt said.

"And then the opportunity happened to present itself when Fivehead's closed its doors just a little bit ago, they were good business and we hated to see them close, and thought now was our time to give it a shot," she continued.

Casey Pratt said Havre has many thriving businesses, and Pratt & Company caters to those businesses quite a bit, doing custom embroidery, screen printing, different uniforms and things for those businesses.

He said they make hats, jackets, all kinds of things. Pratt & Company also caters to the individual for one-off items.

"Angela and I have both always been creative, love working with our hands. I love creating and making things. We have design backgrounds. That was my major in college, ... graphic design. And I actually have a daughter who's going into that right now through (Montana State University in) Bozeman, so we like to think we even inspired our children a little bit," he said.

"With her being in school, she's really getting the cutting edge of all the technology that's out there. And so she gets to kind of tutor us to keep us up to date on what's going on with new technologies for InDesign and things like that," he continued.

He said they did a lot of research on some of the newer processes that are out there, such as a vinyl printer, which can print vinyl directly on to a transfer that can be put right onto a garment which makes it a lot easier to do single pieces.

Pratt & Company can also quickly do multicolor pieces. He said Pratt & Company also has a laser engraver and cutter. He said the business can engrave not just garments, but hats and jackets, belts, any kind of leather products, cell phone cases, luggage, just about anything.

"What makes us special, set apart is some of the specialty equipment that we have, we decided to make an investment into equipment that can help us do processes quickly and get things out quickly," he said.

"We also, with our design background, we offer the design services so we can help you develop your logo, help you redesign logos, refresh things, bring them more up to date, we've done that a lot for many businesses and organizations here," he continued.

He said the feedback has been very positive, saying it led to more T-shirt sales to one business than ever before.

He said the business originally started out of their home before they got a storefront. The store in the mall opened during the second week of May, and then the Pratts were personally impacted by COVID-19.

"I was in the hospital the weekend we were supposed to be opening, and, luckily, I was able to pull through. I was in there for a few days, I came out and then from complications with COVID there were a few times I had to make hospital stays and so it kind of set our timeline back a little bit," he said.

"We stayed open, Angela was here, she was able to to push through with a lot of help from our community.We have family, we had friends that came and helped us. My in-laws, Angela's parents, Randy and Julieann Rigggin, have been just invaluable at that time in helping us out and have been our whole lives," he said.

He said the feedback about the business has been positive and expressed his appreciation for the community.

He added that their daughter Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Julea Robbins has been a big help in general and with helping the business become a member of the chamber.

He said he and Angela hope the business will continue to grow and that they can provide jobs for the community as business continues to pick up.

"We love this community, we love what we do here. We love being involved, like I said with MAT and with other things," he said.

He said they hope to get embedded here as business owners also and then be able to give back, through philanthropy.

"We have a couple of boys that go to the Boys and Girls Club. We'd love to be able to continue to support them with donations and things and we hope that the business thrives enough so we can continue to do that in a larger and larger fashion," he said.
An Ohio man and woman were arrested on methamphetamine trafficking charges after the Hazard Police Department responded to an incident last week at a local hotel.

According to court documents, on June 23, the Hazard Police Department received a call from the Holiday Inn on Corporate Drive reporting that there was a black car in the parking lot that two subjects were asleep in the vehicle and the hotel wanted them checked on and made to leave.

The arrest citation by Officer John Holbrook said that, upon arrival, officers found a female, later identified as Dallis Paige Snouffer, 21, of New Richmond, Ohio, lying on top of a male, later identified as Eino Hurt, 45, of North Dunham Road, Amelia, Ohio, in the drivers seat.

Holbrook wrote that Snouffer and Hurt were acting strangely and refused to tell the officers who they were. Ultimately, the citation said, the duo gave the officers false names.

After finally ascertaining Snouffer and Hurts identities, the citation said, officers were able to identify that both had warrants for their arrest outstanding.

A K9 officer was deployed after the duo was placed under arrest, the

citation said, and alerted to the odor of narcotics in the vehicle.

The citation said that, during a search of the vehicle, officers found a baggie containing more than 1.5 ounces of methamphetamine, two large baggies containing marijuana, two loaded needles, several empty needles, rolling papers, glass pipe, baggies and more than $200 in cash in $20 denominations.

Snouffer was lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail on charges of being a fugitive from another state, first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine), trafficking in marijuana, giving an officer false identifying information and possession of drug paraphernalia. Hurt, court documents show, was lodged in the jail on charges of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine), trafficking in marijuana, giving an officer false identifying information, being a fugitive from another state and possession of drug paraphernalia.
N.C. falls to bottom in history curriculum

If the primary purpose of public education was to prepare young people for jobs, its entitlement to taxpayer support would be far weaker.

I dont say that because preparing young people for employment is unimportant. It is of great importance. Precisely because effective education and training would boost the future incomes of students, however, private money would flow into the enterprise  from parents, future employers, and (in later grades) the students themselves. Theyd all get direct economic returns on their investments.

Governments would subsidize the schooling of the poor, to be sure, as a kind of safety net. But that wouldnt necessarily lead to universal provision or subsidy of public education. Its primary purpose is really about culture, not economics. It is to produce future citizens who are inclined to self-government, and capable of it.

When voting or otherwise participating in representative government, citizens should possess enough general knowledge to ask informed questions and cast informed ballots. And when engaged in direct democracy  voting on ballot referenda, for example, or attending a town meeting  an informed citizenry is even more critical. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people, Thomas Jefferson famously wrote. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

Educating young people for citizenship means imparting a broad knowledge of diverse subjects. They should be able to read and consider news and information. They should possess a working grasp of math and science. And perhaps most importantly, they should know their countrys history and understand the civic institutions in which they will participate.

Alas, when it comes to history and civics education, North Carolina seems determined to blow it. As my John Locke Foundation colleague Terry Stoops recently explained, state officials began a revision of North Carolinas social-studies standards in 2019. Over the next year, the process devolved into a politicized mess, producing standards that are heavy on leftist nomenclature and light on specificity, rigor, and balance.

A national group called the Thomas B. Fordham Institute noticed. In a newly released report evaluating history and civics standards across all 50 states, Fordham placed North Carolina near the bottom of the list, with a D minus for our new civics standards and an F in history.

North Carolinas new civics and U.S. History standards are inadequate, the report states. Nebulous verbiage and an aversion to specifics make them functionally contentless in many places, and organization is poor throughout. A complete revision is recommended before implementation.

Naturally, defenders of North Carolinas new standards will cry foul, given the Fordham Institutes past advocacy of standards-based reform and school choice. This is not about partisan politics or disagreements about education policy, however. Here are the five states Fordham put at the top of its list: Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and New York. Theres no red state vs. blue state pattern here, just as there is no such pattern among the 10 receiving F-grades in both categories.

Although North Carolina just missed dropping into that bottom tier, it has the worst history and civics standards in the Southeast. Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, and Mississippi all got exemplary or good ratings.

How can state policymakers rectify this mistake? Stoops urges an immediate halt to the implementation of North Carolinas new standards pending a complete rewrite. The Fordham Institute team has offered specific recommendations to improve the standards. In civics, for example, the state should lay out in detail what students should learn about such essential topics as the separation of powers, judicial review, the rule of law, and the electoral process. Fordham also offered thoughtful ways of aligning the civics and history standards with each other.

North Carolina should articulate what students should know instead of asking them to exemplify, critique, distinguish, differentiate, compare, assess, or classify massive bodies of unspecified content that cannot or should not be handled in those ways, the report concludes.

In this case, where Tennessee and California lead, North Carolina should follow.

* * * * *

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member and author of the new novel Mountain Folk, a historical fantasy set during the American Revolution (MountainFolkBook.com).
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Members of the Greenville Community Alliance, Corporation for Cultural Diversity, NAACP and Greenville Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, as well as officers with the City of Greenville and Greenville ISD Police Departments and Hunt County Juvenile Justice System, and members of the community gathered for a meet-and-greet at Graham Park Wednesday, where they discussed ways to help disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. From left: Adam Phillips, Reggie Washington, Shannon Merrell, William Buddy Oxford, Sean Roberts, Paula Denmark, Wesley Pearce, Kathy Jackson, Ramon Rodriguez, Karen Jolly, Kenneth Freeman, Betty Franklin, Scott Smith, Stella Bea Davis, Kevin Heath, Larry Davis and Phillip Dukes.
Mrs. Beverly Joan Thompson, age 83, of Estill Springs, TN passed from this life on Monday, June 28, 2021, at Life Care Center of Tullahoma. Beverly was born on January 02, 1938, to the late Harry and Olga Skinner in Dayton Ohio. She enjoyed sewing and was deeply passionate about animals wher
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Anderson, IN (46016)

Today

Areas of fog early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High near 90F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

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(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) - Brood X, the once-every-17-years emergence of cicada swarms across much of the Midwest and Eastern U.S., has again left its mark, with trillions of the insects clogging many major metropolitan areas (and serving as unlikely parenting models). As of late June, according to reports, the (smelly) dead have begun to outnumber the living, leaving some to ask: What's to be done with all these insect corpses?

Foodies have suggested popping cicadas in your mouth.

"Why not embrace Brood X as the free-range, sustainable source of protein that it truly is?" Wired magazine asked.

Others have seconded the suggestion.

"They have a buttery texture, a delicious, nutty flavor, probably from the tannins, from the roots of the trees on which they fed," University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp told The Associated Press. "And they're going to be really good with a Merlot." Raupp provided his own recipe for chocolate-cicada cookies.

They're also not kosher.

"No Jew should be eating cicadas," said Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Sholom-the National Synagogue in Washington, D.C. "If you put it in your cholent pot, your cholent pot is treif."

According to Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky, a neuroscience professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel who explores exotic kosher food on the side, locusts are kosher (despite their starring role in the Ten Plagues), but cicadas are not.

"You're not going to find anybody who says that cicadas are kosher," he said. "There are kosher insects, but they're all species of grasshoppers and locusts. There are no kosher cicadas."

Zivotofsky said that before World War II, the tradition of eating locusts was confined to Jews in Yemen, where the insect was more prevalent. The custom has since expanded, including to the Zivotovsky home.

"I find it gross, but I let my kids eat locusts," he said.

For an animal to be kosher in Judaism, it needs to fit the rules set out in the Torah, and there needs to be an established community tradition of eating the animal. Herzfeld said cicadas are never kosher, but there is also no tradition among Ashkenazim of eating locusts. Therefore, locusts are not kosher for Ashkenazim, either.

"But if somebody was invited to a Yemenite Jew's home for Shabbos dinner and they served locusts, then they could eat them," Herzfeld said. "But an Ashkenazi Jew is not allowed to cook them up and serve them on their own,"

As for cicadas, they're off the menu.

This article originally appeared in the Washington Jewish Week.
Challah baker Katharina Arrigoni lives in a town in northern Switzerland with 3,000 residents, none of whom - including Arrigoni  are Jewish. Entirely self-taught, Arrigoni has never tasted a challah other than her own creations. Yet thanks to the power of the internet and Instagram, Arrigoni has become an international challah-shaping sensation.

Arrigoni is the founder of Besondersgut (German for "especially good"), a bakery and baking school located about 15 miles from Zurich. She started baking six years ago when she was 42 years old following a terrible traffic accident. In need of distraction, Arrigoni says she spent "days and nights in [sic] American bread baking forums." She soon began publishing recipes and photographing what she baked. Bread classes taught by Arrigoni followed, as did her first book, "Swiss Bread," in 2017.

Zopf, a braided loaf that looks just like challah, is a popular Swiss bread. Arrigoni grew up eating it, and her mother taught her how to bake it. While the recipe is similar to that of challah - except that zopf is made with milk rather than water, and butter instead of oil - Arrigoni only came across challah three years ago, on the internet. She was, "immediately excited" by the bread, enthralled by their beauty and the community of worldwide challah bakers who connected over it. She began to follow challah bakers on Instagram from Israel, England and the United States.

"When I started baking challahs, I quickly ended up with Uri Scheft [founder of Lehamim Bakery in Israel and Breads Bakery in New York]," Arrigoni said. "He inspired me to get creative and try new techniques."

Inspired by Scheft's artistry, Arrigoni developed her own style of making challah.

"I didn't want to copy what others are doing, so I tried to find new techniques or incorporate techniques from French bakers. I try to make my own designs, too," she said.

During the pandemic, challah bakers began to take note of her five-strand spiraled challah, including a flat braid with a ball chain down the center inspired by a French bread, "le pain chapelet." Her instructional video went viral. To date, she has 70,000 Instagram followers, and challah bakers like Karma Bread bakery in London, among others, thank her on Instagram for her influence on their shaping techniques.

One of Arrigoni's goals is to "bake the perfect challah and stage it photographically as an art object." The positive feedback from the Jewish community on social media has driven her to continually try new things.

Last fall she published her second cookbook, "Favorite Breads," which is not yet available in English. The book, which was awarded a gold medal by the Swiss Gourmet book awards, contains recipes for lye breads (like pretzels), baguettes, Zopf and challah, including vegan challah. You will find, too, photographs of her braiding techniques and of her smooth, deftly shaped challahs.

Check out these tips from the challah master for dough that is easy to manipulate and beautifully shaped challah:

 For the smoothest dough with the best texture, make a pre-fermentation dough.

Arrigoni assembles a "poolish" the night before making her challah made of 20 percent of the total flour used in her recipe (she uses spelt flour), an equal amount of water and a few grains of yeast. The following day, the bubbly poolish, which should have doubled in size, is mixed with the challah ingredients. The poolish made with spelt gives you a dough that is super smooth, easy to work with and that stretches without tearing.

 Work with cold dough.

For a perfect challah with a smooth texture, Arrigoni chills her dough. The ideal dough temperature after kneading, she says, is between 74-77 degrees F. Use cold ingredients if necessary so as not to exceed this temperature.

 Don't let the dough rise for too long before shaping.

About 45-60 minutes is sufficient.

 Before braiding, weigh each strand to the exact gram.

All of the strands should weigh and be shaped exactly the same.

Practice new braiding techniques with mountain climbing ropes.

She is Swiss, you know! You don't want to practice on the actual dough because "on the living object, you only have one chance!"

 Flour your strands before baking.

To prevent the strands from melting into each other when baking, very lightly flour the finished, shaped strands before braiding.

This article originally appeared on The Nosher.
(JTA) - Perhaps no American Jewish actor has been so closely associated with crime films as Harvey Keitel.

During a career now in its sixth decade, the 82-year-old Keitel has appeared in "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Wise Guys," "Bugsy," "The Two Jakes," "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Irishman," among numerous other films.

Now he's adding to the list with "Lansky," portraying perhaps the most famous Jewish gangster of all time, Meyer Lansky.

Lansky, born in Russia in 1902, arrived in New York in 1911. Known as the "Mob's Accountant," he was notorious in his own right, operating criminal rackets from Miami to Las Vegas to Cuba and playing a role in the establishment of what's been called the National Crime Syndicate.

The film, which opens Friday in theaters and is directed by Eytan Rockaway, has Keitel portraying Lansky in the later part of his life, telling his life story to a book author ("Avatar" star Sam Worthington). John Magaro plays Lansky in his younger years, and the cast also includes Minka Kelly, AnnaSophia Robb and David James Elliott.

While some films about Jews and organized crime, such as Martin Scorsese's "Casino," have avoided much exploration of their characters' Jewish identity - aside from the odd antisemitic slur - "Lansky" is upfront about the importance of Jewishness to Lansky's story.

We see Lansky, in the run-up to World War II, brawling with Nazi sympathizers from the German-American Bund. We also see him saying Kaddish in a synagogue and telling a rabbi joke. A montage of brutality by the Jewish criminal outfit Murder, Inc., is scored with "Hava Nagila."

"I'm an American, and a Jew," Keitel as Lansky says in the film. "The Germans wanted to destroy both of those things. So I wanted to destroy the Germans, and I did."

Later he's seen promising aid and help to the nascent State of Israel - only to feel betrayed in the early 1970s when Golda Meir's government denied him asylum.

"It was an important element in his life," Rockaway said of the inclusion of such details. "And I thought to emphasize that - not tremendously, but I felt it was important."

The "Lansky" film is somewhat personal for the director. He's the son of Robert Rockaway, a history professor and scholar on the subject of Jews and organized crime. The author of a 1993 book titled "But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters," the elder Rockaway conducted a series of interviews with Lansky when the gangster was in his late 70s. The scenes in the movie with a fictitious journalist named David Stone are based loosely on Robert Rockaway's own experiences speaking with Lansky.

The script, Rockaway said in an interview, drew on his father's research, although the younger Rockaway also did some of his own, noting that he was especially influenced by Robert Lacey's 1991 biography "Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life." The two Rockaways share a "story by" credit for the film.

Rockaway, the son of an American father and an Israeli mother, was born in Israel and came to the U.S. for college after finishing his army service, living in New York. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Rockaway has made commercials and music videos, and "Lansky" is his second film as director following the 2016 horror movie "The Abandoned."

"I tried to be as objective as I could, to a certain extent," Rockaway said of the thorny issue often raised in movies about crime bosses. "I definitely didn't want to glorify him, but he did bad and he did good."

An active criminal for more than a half century, Lansky was a rarity among gangsters in some key ways: Aside from serving a couple of months on a gambling charge, he avoided major prison time, and also managed to live to old age, passing away at 80 in 1983. That gambling conviction was costly, however, as it later led Israel to deny him asylum.

Lansky's "good" side, at least according to the film, consisted of fighting Nazis, and also providing crucial support to Israel at the outset of its existence.

Rockaway says in the press kit: "Meyer was a husband, father, friend, killer, genius, criminal, patriot and the founder of the largest crime organization in American history. To fully understand and depict this complicated man, this film portrays various aspects of his life while moving back and forth from his past to his present as an old man, revisiting key moments of his life."

"This film is not about loving or hating this man," he adds, "it is about understanding him."

Keitel is among several screen portrayals of Lansky by Jewish actors, including Richard Dreyfuss in a David Mamet-written HBO movie, also called "Lansky," in 1999, and Dustin Hoffman in 2005's "The Lost City." Patrick Fischler played the gangster in the TV series "Mob City."

In "Bugsy," Warren Beatty's 1991 biopic of another Jewish gangster, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, the non-Jewish actor Ben Kingsley played Lansky - Keitel played a different Jewish gangster, Mickey Cohen.

But probably the most famous movie portrayal of Lansky was a fictionalized version: Hyman Roth (played by Lee Strasberg), the partner-turned-antagonist of the Corleone family in 1974's "The Godfather Part II," was heavily based on Lansky.

Roth, like Lansky, was an older Jewish gangster who worked with the mafia to build casinos in Cuba, and like Lansky he later sought asylum in Israel.

In the new film, Lansky likens his business operations with the mob to that of U.S. Steel, which "Godfather" fans may recognize as a line said by Roth. But according to Rockaway, it was a comparison that the real-life Lansky was known to make himself, the National Crime Syndicate to that corporation.

Ironically, the Jewish Strasberg, who was better known as an acting teacher than as an actor, was a teacher and mentor to Keitel - and Keitel to this day is closely associated with New York's Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Rockaway said he went out of his way not to watch other movies about Lansky, but he listed the films of Martin Scorsese, as well the Coen Brothers' "Miller's Crossing," as great influences.

As for Robert Rockaway, who lives in Israel and teaches at Tel Aviv University, he has yet to see the movie. The director says his father is waiting for the theatrical release of the film that sprung from his long-ago research and was brought to the screen by his son.

"Lansky" opened June 25 in U.S. theaters as well as on VOD, and it will be available to stream three months later on Amazon Prime Video.
WASHINGTON (JTA)  A letter from 73 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, including a number in leadership positions, urges President Joe Biden to make a number of moves to reverse what they call the Trump administrations abandonment of longstanding, bipartisan United States policy on Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Among other things, the letter sent Wednesday calls for Biden to firmly consider Israeli settlements illegal and the West Bank occupied, two things the Trump administration stated that it would no longer do.

Make clear that the United States considers settlements to be inconsistent with international law by reissuing relevant State Department and U.S. customs guidance to that effect, the letter states.

It also pushes for all relevant official U.S. documents and communications to once again consistently refer to the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as occupied.

The letters signatories include seven committee chairs, among them Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who leads the powerful Appropriations Committee and John Yarmuth, D-Ky., who heads the Budget Committee, as well as the assistant Speaker of the House, Rep. Katherine Clarke of Massachusetts.

Seven Jewish Democrats signed the letter, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who initiated it. The others are Reps. Alan Lowenthal of California, Andy Levin of Michigan, Sara Jacobs of California, Yarmuth, Steve Cohen, of Tennessee and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

Donald Trump upended decades of U.S. policy in the region by recognizing the right of Israel to annex parts of the West Bank, in addition to agreeing to Israels claim to the Golan Heights and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

Biden officials have been reluctant to openly criticize Israel, wary of the tensions that beset the Obama administration when its officials publicly called out Israel over differences on policy. Biden has preferred to keep differences with Israel behind closed doors. During last months conflict, he robustly rejected calls from the partys left to leverage assistance to Israel to pressure it to end the conflict.

In a vague but signifiant line, the letter calls for Biden to consistently condemn in public statements any specific actions that violate the rights of either party or undermine the prospects for peace. Open airing of differences is a practice Israeli leaders and the mainstream pro-Israel community adamantly rejects.

But Biden favors some of the eight specific recommendations in the letter, including a resumption of sending aid to the Palestinians and reopening a separate consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinian relations.

The letter also calls on Biden to abandon Trumps peace plan, which envisioned an Israeli annexation of portions of the West Bank. It additionally urges him to pressure Israel to stop the planned eviction of Palestinian families from eastern Jerusalem, which contributed to the volatile environment that spurred last months violent conflict between Israel and Gaza.

The document reflects growing calls among Democrats to take a tougher stance with Israel, mounting against Bidens continued closeness to the state. J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, praised the letter, noting that it came from a third of the House Democratic caucus. Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Streets president, said in a statement it was incumbent on the Biden administration to do everything in its power to rebuild productive ties with the Palestinian leadership and to make absolutely clear that the U.S. will not stand for illegal settlement expansion, de facto annexation and displacement.

The letter also comes as Israels new government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, seeks to repair relations with Democrats eroded under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. policy on whether the settlements are illegal according to international law has varied under different presidents. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter emphasized what they said was the settlements illegality, while Ronald Reagan said he did not believe the settlements were illegal. Subsequent administrations returned to regarding the settlements as illegal, but for the most part only when officials were pressed to make clear their position.

Also signing are three members of the six members of the progressive Squad which took the lead last month in criticizing Israel in Congress: Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.

Notably, three Squad members did not sign: Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri. The letter emphasizes support for the two-state outcome, something that Tlaib rejects, favoring a binational state.
From June 29th to July 3rd, Americas largest labor union, the National Education Association will vote on two motions attacking Israel: New Business Item 29 and New Business Item 51.

NBIs 29 and 51 are part of a larger pattern. In recent weeks, teachers union leaders in San Francisco and Seattle passed resolutions endorsing the destructive Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. BDS systematically promotes national origin discrimination against Israelis, as well as antisemitism more broadly.

The purpose of the movement is not to change Israeli policy as some claim, but to isolate and pressure Israel until it ceases to exist. BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has said, we oppose a Jewish state and that Jewish people are not entitled to self-determination. BDS also actively harms peace efforts by opposing cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. Finally, BDS tears apart communities and institutions around the world, promoting needless division and hate.

NBI 29 calls for one-sided, support for the Palestinian struggle and demands that the U.S. cut off support for Israel. The motion also promotes dehumanizing smears about ethnic cleansing. In reality, the Palestinian population has grown by millions, and Israels government has pledged nearly $1 billion to protect and improve lives in Arab communities. The motion never mentions the racist terrorist group Hamas and does not condemn its war crimes against Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, it glorifies a heroic struggle against Israel. This approach can only fuel more conflict, not justice and peace.

NBI 51 calls for the NEA to officially partner with a deeply misleading and problematic campaign, titled No Way to Treat a Child. This campaign is run by a group whose leaders have promoted violence and are closely tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S. designated terrorist organization. The PFLP is responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks and has murdered many civilians. This includes a massacre in which terrorists killed 17 Puerto Rican tourists and 9 others at an Israeli airport. This campaign also ignores Palestinian leaders who constantly violate the rights of Palestinian children by recruiting them as child soldiers, digging military tunnels and storing weapons in schools, and using textbooks that promote hatred and violence.

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO StandWithUs states These dehumanizing campaigns against Israel are anything but harmless. Anti-Israel narratives have fueled a shocking spike in hate crimes against Jewish communities across the United States, including assault, vandalism, and harassment Too many teachers and students are wondering whether or not they are safe and welcome, and NBIs 29 and 51 will only add more fuel to the fire.

Email NEA officials urging them to stand up and oppose these motions HERE: https://p2a.co/OHjUpK6.
Search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida on June 24, 2021.

(JTA) - As the United States woke up to news of the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, it quickly became clear that the disaster is an American Jewish tragedy.

The 12-story building in the heavily Orthodox enclave near Miami Beach collapsed just before 2 a.m. Thursday, as families slept in its 55 apartments just blocks from the beach. As of Thursday evening, almost 100 people are believed missing, and even as rescue efforts continue, officials fear that many of them are dead.

At least one death has been confirmed. First responders pulled 35 people from the rubble and treated 10 people on the scene with at least two transported to a nearby hospital for care, officials said in a press briefing.

Jewish communities across the United States mobilized Thursday as the scope of devastation became clear. By early morning, Jewish WhatsApp groups were buzzing with names of missing people and requests for prayers. As the day went on, names and photographs of people presumed to have died in the collapse, potentially among the deadliest structural disasters in American history, began circulating as well.

Rabbi Sholom Lipskar of the Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside was interviewed as he awaited information on missing congregants and worked to provide aid to the community.

"This is something that transcends our capacity for understanding," he said on CNN. "We accept it and we have to learn, as we do in our culture, resilience and to move forward because challenges don't hold us back."

The missing included many Jews. COLLive, an Orthodox news site that covers the Chabad-Lubavitch community, published dozens of names on a list of people to pray for; some of the Hebrew names indicated that parents and children together were among the missing. The Chabad at the University of Chicago announced that the president of its student board was missing along with his girlfriend, also a college student.

An online fundraiser launched by The Shul of Bal Harbour, located a mile north of the collapsed building, had raised $240,000 from more than 2,000 donors within hours. That synagogue and another nearby Chabad also put out calls for toiletries, blankets and toys that could be distributed to survivors. Meanwhile, kosher restaurants in the area distributed food to first responders and to those who were displaced from the portion of the building that had not collapsed.

The Greater Miami Jewish Federation launched a campaign to aid the victims, setting up an emergency fund to assist with immediate as well as long-term needs.

"Be part of the Jewish community's response," the federation said in a mass email. "Help those affected by the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, FL."

Meanwhile, though the cause is as yet unknown, local officials are beginning to address how this could have happened.

"This was not an act of God," Surfside Town Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer told USA Today. "This was not a natural disaster. Buildings don't just fall."
(JTA)  The Orthodox Union is setting up meetings between members of Congress and Orthodox Jewish constituents who are alarmed by antisemitic incidents since last months Israel-Gaza conflict, and by what they see as Congress failure to have Israels back.

Many in Congress failed to stand up for Israels right as a sovereign nation to act in self-defense, says a page on the umbrella groups website that facilitates meetings between constituents and their lawmakers. Further, while the battle between Israel and Hamas raged, we witnessed a shocking surge in violent attacks on American Jews. Too many elected officials have been either painfully complacent or very slow to denounce these anti-Jewish attacks.

Meetings are being booked into next week, according to the Orthodox Unions Washington office. So far, 87 constituents have met with the staff of 18 lawmakers from both parties in Alabama, Arizona, California, New Jersey and New York.

The meetings are unusual because of who is present. Typically, meetings on constituent issues actually include staffers from lawmakers offices and, often, representatives of constituent groups. The O.U. meetings include rank-and-file constituents and, in most cases, the lawmakers themselves. Most meetings have been via Zoom, but at least one has been in person.

During and after last months conflict, a number of progressives in the Democratic Party blamed Israel for its outbreak and called for cuts in defense assistance to Israel. Republicans and numerous other Democrats defended Israel and said assistance to the country should be untouched. Some advocated for new assistance to replace anti-missile interceptors expended during the conflict to counter rockets Hamas fired into Israel.

Several of our O.U. community members expressed their concerns to the representatives about the increasingly hostile attitude toward Israel in the progressive wing of the Democratic party, said Lindsay Barsky, the Orthodox Unions director of Congressional Affairs. She said most of the meetings had generated sympathetic responses.

Most representatives responded by sharing that they have the same concern. Democratic representatives were firm in their commitment to continue to stand up for Israels right to defend herself against Iran-backed Hamas, Barsky said. They also told the community members that while those voices are loud, they are in fact a very small number, explaining that most of the Democratic caucus are pro-Israel.

Constituents also discussed their fears of antisemitic attacks and pressed for increased federal funding for security protections for nonprofits and houses of worship.

Among the Democratic lawmakers who have met with their Orthodox constituents are Ted Deutch (Florida), John Garamendi (California), Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey), Barbara Lee (California), Grace Meng (New York), Joseph Morelle (New York), Jerrold Nadler (New York), Kathleen Rice (New York), Albio Sires (New Jersey), Tom Suozzi (New York) and Paul Tonko (New York).

The Republicans have included Byron Donalds (Florida), Neal Dunn (Florida), John Katko (New York), Nicole Malliotakis (New York), Brian Mast (Florida), Gary Palmer (Alabama) and David Schweikert (Arizona).
Cheri Fine (l) and Mark (no last name provided) visit a makeshift memorial at the site of the collapsed building with photos of the missing in Surfside, Fla., June 26, 2021.

(JTA) - Among Rabbi Mayer Berger's first thoughts on seeing the 12 stories of the Champlain Tower South pancaked upon themselves: This is like Sept. 11.

Then as now, destruction of unimaginable proportions claimed many lives without warning in a manner that rendered traditional practices for burying the Jewish dead impossible to perform.

Those practices call for bodies to be buried as soon as possible following death after undergoing a purification ritual called tahara. But with both Jewish and non-Jewish victims, and bodies difficult or impossible to identify, catastrophes like 9/11 or what happened in Surfside, Florida, complicate the work of those who volunteer to carry out the traditional practices.

"You have just kind of layers and layers of concrete and you know tiny spaces in between them. And that's where you have to find the bodies," said Berger, who leads the New York-based Chesed Shel Emes, one of the largest Orthodox burial societies in the country.

"You see the pictures of those bunk beds at the edge, it's heartbreaking. I have eight children of my own, and thinking that children were sleeping in those beds over there, it's heartbreaking. But somebody's got to do the work, so that's what we're here for."

Dozens of local burial society volunteers are on standby in Surfside now in case a body is found, Berger said, and hundreds more in New York have signed up to travel to Florida if they are needed. The local efforts are being coordinated by the organization's local leaders.

For now, the volunteers are praying from the sidelines for the missing people to be found alive. But they are preparing to be called in when the search and rescue mission becomes a recovery mission, and remaining on standby during Shabbat so they can give non-Jewish workers instructions on proper handling of any bodies recovered then according to Jewish law.

Because rescuers do not know what state the bodies will be in when they are found, the burial society members are preparing to deploy lessons learned from tragedies like 9/11 and the bombings that wracked Israel two decades ago.

Due to the amount of concrete and other building materials at the site, bodies may be buried under heavy layers of material, meaning they may not be found completely intact. They also may be harder to identify, making it more difficult to determine which bodies require a Jewish burial and which do not. And if any blood or other bodily materials are found disconnected from the body, those have to be collected and buried according to Jewish law.

Berger said the authorities in Florida were still working to determine the best way to proceed with the recovery effort. But he was confident that Chesed Shel Emes, which has a longstanding relationship with Florida's police and medical examiners, would be included throughout so that the bodies of Jewish victims will be treated appropriately according to Jewish law.

"They don't know yet if they'll do it like 9/11, bucket by bucket, or if they'll do it with a different approach," Berger said of the Surfside site. "Whatever project, we'll be included in it."

Recovering bodies quickly is important under Jewish law. In the recent tragedy at Meron, in Israel, where 45 people died in a stampede during holiday celebrations last month, funerals began hours after the incident.

That isn't possible in Surfside, where it is expected to take days, if not longer, to safely sift through the debris without putting the rescuers at risk or causing more of the building to collapse.

For families of the victims, recovering the remains of their loved ones as quickly as possible is important to the grieving process, according to Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, a social worker and rabbinic director of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York City who ran a support group for the families of 9/11 victims for 9 1/2 years.

"It's both a terrifying state and a numb state for people: sleeplessness and irritability, not eating. It's a really difficult place to be," Weintraub said. "Once there is retrieval of the body they can proceed to go on the mourner's path, to ready the body for burial, to speak to loved ones, to prepare a eulogy, all the things that are meaningful."

Over the last year and a half, Chesed Shel Emes was kept busy with a more slow-moving tragedy in the form of the pandemic. During the first wave, which hit New York City's Orthodox communities especially hard, the group's volunteers sometimes performed taharas for as many as 50 bodies each day.

That experience has made Berger even more attuned to the trauma that can come with preparing many bodies at once. When the recovery effort begins in Surfside, Berger expects that teams of volunteers at the site will rotate in and out so that no one works too long a shift.

Volunteers shouldn't underestimate the trauma they can experience working on a recovery like this one, he said, and they should take care of themselves so they can be good stewards for traditions that can bring comfort at a time of grief.

"People ask me: Did I get immune to death?" Berger said. "I say maybe [you can] get immune to death, but you can never get immune to the feelings of the survivors."
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Last week marked the rekindling of the magic of a summer experience in Israel, with the first group of BBYO teens arriving in Ben Gurion Airport on June 14 to embark on Israel Journey, BBYOs flagship travel experience in the Jewish Homeland. Like the rest of the world, BBYOs travel programs were put on hold in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this summer, nearly 700 teens will travel to Israel with on a BBYO summer experience, a 52 percent increase over 2019.

For teens who were eager to journey to Israel this summer, BBYO was thrilled to offer a select number of $3,000 RootOne travel vouchers, powered by The Jewish Education Project. These vouchers provided an incredible opportunity to minimize cost as a factor in helping Jewish teens and their families access the many opportunities available for teen travel each summer. Additionally, BBYO expanded its Israel program offerings this year, with new experiences, enhanced flexibility, and variable dates to fit multiple interests and schedules. Whether participants want to hike through desert canyons, swim in the Mediterranean, explore Israeli society and culture, or build their own electives-based experience, BBYO is offering something for everyone with a rich and varied Israel summer 2021 program lineup. This approach has attracted a significant number of public school attendees, an audience that is sometimes challenging to reach.

Im so excited to reconnect with my Jewish faith on this trip, because during COVID I struggled finding what I believe in, said Allie A., a teen participant from Michigan. Going to Israel has given me a new sense of gratitude and I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to come here with Jewish teens from across America. Its a unique experience I would not get anywhere else.

The investment made by the RootOne Initiative was essential in enabling BBYO to ramp up its capabilities during an uncertain time. Gaining clarity from the Israeli government on their travel policies was a key milestone that came only days before the violence that broke out in early May. The urgency of securing staff, finalizing itineraries, and communicating with families offered the kind of excitement the team was waiting for after a year of planning and hoping for the best. As of now, nearly 20 buses have been secured, 60+ staff members have been trained, and more than 700 plane tickets have been booked to Israel.

For the past seven decades, we have delivered on the promise to provide fun and innovative summer experiences in Israel at the highest standards of health and safety, and we are confident that we developed an ideal plan to safely resume our trips that best meets the needs of our teen travelers, said Robyn Judelsohn, Senior Vice President of Immersive Experiences at BBYO. We know that this summer, more than ever, teens are craving programs that allow them to unwind, explore, get outdoors, travel, and have fun, and we couldnt be more thrilled that nearly 700 of them are choosing to experience Israel with BBYO.

The RootOne Initiative is seeded through the generosity of The Marcus Foundation, and is powered by The Jewish Education Project. Vouchers may be combined with need-based scholarships and community funds to help defray the cost of travel even further for families.
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling on Egyptian and international mediators to pressure Israel to "lift the blockade on Gaza, finalize the rehabilitation matter, and stop the provocations in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan."

The terrorist groups also called on Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and within the Green Line to "prepare for a security escalation."

"The resistance won't stand idly by in the face of the [Israeli] procrastination. We demand that the mediators pressure Israel to move more quickly to lift the siege on Gaza and finalize the matter of Gaza's reconstruction," the statement said.

Earlier on Tuesday, sources told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds that no progress had been made on Gaza and that "Israel continues to drag its feet while displaying a lack of seriousness" in terms of reaching a long-term ceasefire agreement.

"Israel is trying to perpetuate a new equation by pressuring the terrorist organizations in Gaza, and the mediators, by tying all the various issues to one another, including the prisoner exchange, the matter of Gaza's rehabilitation, fully opening of the border crossings and improving the economic situation," one source said.

Hamas, according to the sources, was in coordination with the other armed factions in Gaza in insisting that these issues be separated.

Increasingly, therefore, it appears Hamas is moving toward another military conflict with the Jewish state, particularly amid the repeated threats by the terrorist group's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (ret) Amos Gilad told Israel Hayom that there is a gap between Israel and Hamas with regard to their understanding of the situation, which could lead to another round of fighting with Gaza.

"You need to understand one fundamental thing when it comes to the worldview of Hamas and its leadership in Gaza and abroad; members of Hamas aspire to one thing only and that is Israel's destruction. They don't care how many casualties they sustain, how many Gazans get hurt, what damage they incur along the way. Within this reality, Yahya Sinwar himself has a messianic self-perception; he sees himself as the successor to [famed Muslim military commander] Salah al-Din," said Gilad.

Sinwar considers the 11-day conflict with Israel last month to have been a huge success, Gilad explained.

"From his perspective, he was able to hit all of Israel, rile up the Arabs in Judea and Samaria and also foment rebellion among the Arabs of Israel. Thus, in his distorted view, Hamas finished the campaign with the upper hand and therefore the organization is taking a very tough stance in the negotiations," he said.

"On the other hand, Israel doesn't want to destroy Gaza, it wants quiet. Therefore, from its point of view, as long as Hamas isn't attacking and the residents of Gaza aren't hungry, the situation is good. And this is the giant gap - Sinwar intends to attack Israel, his warnings are actually serious, while Israel believes Hamas took a significant beating because we hit its defensive tunnels and gained control of the riots on the Temple Mount and across Judea and Samaria and Israel," said Gilad.

"From the Israeli point of view, Hamas will be hurt much worse if it attacks now, because its [missile] factories are already damaged and it will have a much harder time shooting at us. Here too, however, we can see our perceptual discrepancy compared to Hamas, which is why we must be ready for Hamas to act, even if it doesn't make sense to us," he added.

Dr. Yehuda Balanga of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University, meanwhile, believes Sinwar won't act too rashly.

"In the immediate time frame, Yahya Sinwar currently has no desire to start a real war with Israel. The Egyptian mediators are in the area as is the United Nations, so Sinwar won't rock the boat in this situation," said Balanga.

However, similar to Gilad, Balanga noted that Sinwar is unpredictable.

"We need to keep in mind that Sinwar's considerations are completely irrational and we can't truly know how he makes his decisions, but from a practical perspective, Hamas's immediate interest right now is to avoid conflict."

In Balanga's opinion, the situation today is similar to 2006, when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah attacked Israel and sparked the Second Lebanon War without actually intending to do so.

"Israel isn't interested in a war for many obvious reasons," he said. "But we can certainly expect Hamas to test the new Bennett government-launch incendiary balloons and even fire missiles via its proxies in Gaza to see how serious Israel is or isn't."

It is precisely within this dynamic, explained Balanga, that an escalation could be triggered due to a misunderstanding by one of the sides.

"Either Hamas will act too forcefully, or Israel will respond in such a manner that leaves Hamas no choice but to retaliate. Essentially, other than [Defense Minister and former IDF chief of staff] Benny Gantz, most of the new ministers are new and lack diplomatic-military experience of this sort," he said.

"Additionally, the new government wants to prove it is changing the equation against Hamas and is responding harshly to incendiary balloon attacks. In other words, both Hamas and Israel supposedly don't want to disturb the balance, but the reality itself could lead them to escalate matters," added Balanga.

IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Yom-Tov Samia, a former GOC Southern Command, is adamant in his view that Israel should not even engage in talks with Hamas, and instead adopt a far more militant approach toward the organization.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization. As such, Israel must fight it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is no place for talks and Israel's current conduct with Hamas," he said.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
(JTA)  Three days after igniting a social media firestorm by removing an Israeli food truck from a festival, a Philadelphia group has apologized  and vowed to make up for our mistakes with help from our community.

Eat Up The Borders, which showcases immigrant chefs and international cuisine, said it rejected the charges of antisemitism from around the globe after removing Moshava because of local criticism of the Israeli government.

We want to be very clear that we do not support antisemitism or allow antisemitism in our spaces, the group said in a statement released Tuesday evening on its website and social media. Our actions were ignorant and inexcusable.

Meanwhile, Sunflower Philly, the community venue that was to have hosted the event, issued its own apology, saying it had canceled the event to prevent any kind of discriminatory activity in our space and promising to take a hands-on approach with third-party event organizers in the future.

Sunflower Philly deeply regrets and apologizes to Moshava, our neighbors, vendors, and the Jewish community for our part in a very unfortunate turn of events, the group posted Wednesday to Instagram.

The Eat Up The Borders statement also offered additional context about the circumstances that led to Moshavas removal. After critics of Israel had challenged Moshavas inclusion in a previous event, Eat Up the Borders recruited a Palestinian food vendor for this months lineup, according to the statement. After that vendor backed out, citing time constraints, the group said it feared that including Moshava could lead to a boycott or potentially unsafe protest.

We now see that excluding any particular vendor in the name of trying to protect them was the wrong decision, the statement said. We did what we thought was best in the moment, but we failed.

The group said, without offering details, that it has cooperated with authorities to answer any of their concern. The statement also said that Eat Up the Borders is in touch with leaders from the Jewish and Palestinian community to aid us in our growth and further the conversation.

Moshava, which sought to calm criticism of Eat Up The Borders on Sunday, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday that it had not been in touch with the group since Sunday morning.

The Eat Up the Borders statement drew mixed reaction on Instagram, where only an excerpt had been published initially. Some Jewish commenters saying it represented a meaningful apology and others rejecting it for listing Jews alongside others facing discrimination.

Better than no apology but maybe you could have done it with less of an all lives matter, feel, @jennshooky wrote on the initial post before Eat Up the Borders removed it and replaced it with a new post with the complete statement. It is hard to understand why you are apologizing to groups other than the Jewish/Israeli community that you discriminated against.

The saga is being closely followed in foodie corners of the Jewish world.

Elan Kornblum, who runs the Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies Facebook group, shared Sunflowers statement on Wednesday and wrote that he would accept their apology and hopes they learn from the episode. He also said the situation had an upside.

Sometimes a unfortunate situation turns into a blessing in disguise, he wrote in the public group. I can see from the posts, comments, their social platforms, this was the best publicity, money cant even buy, for this food truck.
(ISRAEL21c) - Danielle Wolfson's oxygen tank was almost empty as she neared the peak of Mount Everest on May 23.

At such a high altitude and low temperature, she knew she could just sit down and await a quick death. She'd stepped over bodies of previous climbers who'd done exactly that.

Two things saved this 43-year-old Israeli attorney: Covid and chutzpah.

"We Israelis are a little aggressive and very creative," Wolfson told ISRAEL21c after becoming the first female Israeli to reach the top of the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak, where she unfurled an Israeli flag.

Wolfson knew that three other expeditions had been forced to turn back due to Covid-19 infections. She also knew that local guides hide oxygen balloons toward the top, in anticipation of need.

So she looked around and found an oxygen balloon marked for one of the groups that never made it that far.

If not for Wolfson's quick thinking, her 22-year-old son would be reading the will and testament she prepared before leaving for Nepal rather than celebrating her extraordinary achievement.

"Every person that climbs Everest must understand he can die," Wolfson said.

What, then, motivated her to become the fifth Israeli ever to summit the world's tallest mountain?

'I wanted the title'

"Ten years ago, I had a ski accident in Bulgaria and broke my right leg," she related.

"After surgery, the doctors told me I would never walk unassisted. I was a young woman wit h a lot of motivation. And I said to myself, I will show everybody. I will climb Everest."

Reaching that goal took 10 years of hard work - and a lot of time and money.

She began by joining a running group led by Daniel Keren, who summited Everest in 2009.

"He inspired me, and he introduced me to mountain climbing," Wolfson says. "The first time I was in Nepal it was with him."

She got to know many female Israeli rock climbers, but mountain climbers (alpinists) were all male. That only strengthened her determination to climb Everest.

"As I progressed and climbed more, I saw there was no competition. And of course, I wanted to be the first Israeli woman to do it. I wanted the title and I wanted to show other women it is possible," she said.

Wolfson learned the ropes from Keren and the other four men who'd reached the top of Everest: Doron Erel (1992), Gedaliah Shtirmer, Dudu Yifrah and Micha Yaniv (2006).

She climbed mountains including Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa's highest peak at 19,340 feet; and Mount Elbrus in Russia, Europe's highest peak at 18,510 feet. Every success led closer to her dream.

Waving the blue-and-white flag

Wolfson packs an Israeli flag on all her expeditions and takes great pride in waving it at the completion of her climbs.

"Nobody asked me to do it. Nobody sponsors my expeditions. I am just an Israeli citizen and I love my country," she explained.

Not having a sponsor means Wolfson shoulders considerable costs.

Aside from the expense of courses and training, an expedition to Mount Everest runs to $65,000. It's about $15,000 just to get a climbing permit from the Nepali government.

That's exponentially more than the price tag of other climbs Wolfson has done. Her January expedition to Chile's Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano in the world, was a mere $4,000.

"But it's worth it," she said. "The highest dream of every climber is Mount Everest."

"I am happy and proud to be the first Israeli woman to reach the summit," Wolfson posted on Facebook following her 45-day expedition with the Seven Summits Club of Russia.

'I didn't smile'

And yet Wolfson tells ISRAEL21c that she felt a profound sadness at the top.

"I wasn't happy. I was there about 20 or 25 minutes, and I didn't even smile," she said.

That's because she had encountered the bodies of so many dead climbers on her way up. She'd been aware, of course, that at 50 meters from the peak she would be stepping over corpses lying frozen in their climbing gear. Experiencing it was something else.

"I was sitting on my knees on the top of the world, but I was thinking in my mind how to get down without being one more body on that mountain," she said.

About 300 people have died while climbing Mount Everest. The bodies of about 100 mountaineers who fell at higher than 8,000 meters cannot be removed. Knowing this, Wolfson stipulated in her will that her son not expend any efforts to recover her body if she didn't make it.

And when her oxygen was running out, she knew she could rely only on her own wits.

"After 8,000 meters you are in survivor mode, and you don't care about anyone else. I knew nobody would help me and I wouldn't help anybody either. I had to take care of myself," she said. "Even if I had offered a million dollars, nobody would have given me oxygen."

This phenomenon is why Israeli mountaineer Nadav Ben-Yehuda received international recognition in 2012 for giving up his own quest to save a Turkish climber lying unconscious in the snow just 300 meters from the Everest summit.

The next trek

After her historic feat, Wolfson spent a week recovering in Kathmandu.

"The first day I felt very weak. I was only sleeping and eating," she said after returning to Israel on June 4. "Now I feel good. I even took my first run on Sunday."

She's not done climbing. Her next big expedition is in December to Antarctica's Vinson Massif (4,892 meters; 16,050 feet) and then she'll cross the South Pole.

Wolfson says she keeps up with her law practice because she specializes in the regulation of online gaming and her clients are in Malta and Cyprus.

"All my work is online. It's not easy to combine everything, but I cannot sit all day in an office," she said. "I want also to do the things I like."
An apartment building in Surfside, Fla., partially collapsed early this morning, killing at least one resident and injuring others. The incident also sent first responders from Hatzalah of South Florida racing to the scene, some of whom received training from Magen David Adom specifically about responding to multi-casualty incidents like this mornings disaster.

Michael Strongin, an MDA paramedic currently volunteering for Hatzalah of South Florida until he returns to Israel next year, described a scene of utter devastation.

Half the building is missing and you can see in detail the life and homes of people who lived in the building, including couches hanging over the precipice of what was once their living room, he said.

In a relationship that goes back years, MDA regularly trains members of U.S-based hatzalah organizations, medical first-responder teams that serve Jewish communities in major American cities. Conversely, American hatzalah volunteers will often serve as EMTs with MDA when Israel is facing a crisis, such as during last months rocket attacks.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the people of Surfside affected by todays tragedy, said Eli Bin, director-general of Magen David Adom. And our thoughts too are with our colleagues at Hatzalah of South Florida, who have been so supportive of us during our times of crisis. MDA looks forward to assisting you in any way we can.
(JTA)  After being blasted by critics for staying in the Israeli prime ministers residence well over a week past his ousting from the role, Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to leave  in another three weeks.

He and his successor, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, released a joint statement Saturday that says Netanyahu will depart by July 10 and until then, no official state meetings will be held there.

Netanyahu had stayed in power through a series of close elections over two years and multiple corruption cases that made him the first prime minister to be indicted while in office. After...
(JTA)  The Palestinian Authority canceled a deal that would have seen Israel give it 1 million COVID vaccine doses in exchange for a later shipment.

The P.A. made the move because many of the doses were set to expire in the coming weeks, according to Haaretz. By time Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila announced the cancellation, 100,000 of the doses had already been delivered.

The decision, made Thursday by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and approved by Naftali Bennett, the prime minister, constituted a change of Israeli policy following months during which Israel was criticized f...
(JNS)  Over the past few decades, evangelical Christians have emerged as one of Israels core bases of support both in the United States and many other countries as well. However, growing trends of secularization and liberal ideology, as well as the erosion of a pro-Israel theology, are threatening to undermine this support, particularly among young evangelicals.

A recent poll, commissioned by University of North Carolina at Pembroke Professors Mordechai Inbari and Kirill Bumin, shows a sharp drop in support for Israel among the younger set has raised some eyebrows.

It found that you...
As the AIPAC consensus  the norm for American Jewish political life for decades  recedes, the American Jewish Left is becoming increasingly visible and heterodox opinions on the left are proliferating.

However, with that profusion comes the need for distinction and nuance about the spectrum and character of that new left, not least in terms of how its constituent camps relate to Israels statehood and the Israeli occupation.

Etan Nechins recent piece (The American Jewish Lefts Untimely Abandonment of Israels Leftists), with which I largely agree, lacks that nuance. He...
(FLAME on JNS)  With antisemitism at record highs in the United States and around the world, many prefer to focus purely on right-wing and neo-Nazi Jew-hatred, rather than on the larger problem: Hatred of Jews and the Jewish state in the Arab and Muslim world, home to a population of hundreds of millions.

Unfortunately for the truth, the intersectionalist left is quick to oppose factual evidence of widespread Muslim antisemitism, using accusations of Islamophobia. Indeed, many on the left dismiss racism on the part of oppressed people of color as an impossibility  a philosophic...
(JNS)  When discussing the history of the establishment of Israel, a commonly parroted trope within anti-Israel and anti-Semitic circles is that the nation was founded by Jewish people who colonized the land and displaced more than 1 million Palestinians in 1948. This is an absurd and historically inaccurate narrative.

National Students for Justice in Palestine and its chapters across the country are infamous for spreading this libelous claim. For instance, the website for its New York chapter states, We are unapologetically anti-Zionist and take that as a non-negotiable ten...
(JNS)  As a Jew residing in a suburban Jewish bubble, my congressman, Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), has been largely unseen where the mounting anti-Semitism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is concernedwith one exception. He seems not to grasp fully the stark reality that the nations hallowed halls are bleeding pure, unadulterated racism.

He and his 25 Jewish colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives remain compliantly huddled under the shadow of party boss, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi, calculating the necessity of appeasing Rep. Omar (D-Minn.) and h...
(JNS)  It was perhaps the most important meeting in Jewish history, but it was also simply a discussion between two old friends.

Harry S. Truman was the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. Across from him in the Oval Office sat Eddie Jacobson, his former business partner and army buddy. Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader, was in Washington and Truman refused to meet him; Jacobson had come to the White House to ask him to reconsider.

The discussion did not begin well. Truman had not been in the best of moods, and Jacobson had been warned by one of the presid...
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Metropolis is found in western Turkey and was called "The City of the Mother Goddess" when the Roman Empire still existed.

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry's Department revealed the discovery this month of a statue from the Roman epoch. What they found was a female wearing robes but the head and arms are not present, a post on Twitter said, according to the Daily Mail .

2021 yl kazlarmz suruyor. Izmir, Torbal, Metropolis Antik Kenti kazlarndan 1800 yllk bir kadn heykeli... @muzeler_dairesi @ttkgovtr pic.twitter.com/iS113nNUo2  Kazlar Dairesi Baskanlg (@kazilar_) June 11, 2021

According to the publication Art News, the missing parts must have been attached separately. More excavation is needed to reveal the identity of the figure itself, said the researchers. The current dig is done with the partnership of the ministry and Celal Bayar University in Manisa.

The name Metropolis or Grecian for "mother state" was given to several cities, this one is located in Western Turkey at the Torbali municipality, twenty-five miles from modern Izmir, the third biggest city.

Humans had been living in the country for the last 8,000 years from the stone age period.

An ancient melting pot when Hittites were living the region, during the Bronze Age or Puranda, Hittites were part of the histories of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and lastly the Ottoman empire age. The archaic statue without a head from Turkey's ancient city Metropolis is one of the artifacts.

Read also: Archaeologists Discover Rare Egyptian Artifacts: Over 300 Rock-Cut Tombs of Akhmim Leaders

Founding of the Mother City

Greek had settled in this part of Turkey and established Metropolis during 300 B.C., it has a feminine name but had the distinction of having only two temples that worshiped Ares. He was the God of War and having his temple there was odd.

This statue was made in the Roman-dominated Metropolis, in the period of empire-controlled Anatolia. It was the part of Turkey that lay on the Asian continent.

According to Ptolemy, a scientist and philosopher, the archaic town is the most important post for trading in Lydia. It lay in the middle of ancient trade routes between Smyrna and Ephesus.

The start of the excavation work was in the 1970s.Later, Metropolis was discovered and researchers examined the city in the middle 1980s.

Archeologists have come across priceless artifacts which are more than 11,000 pieces from the start of the project. Found on the site are coins, pottery, glass, even ivory and metal objects.

Serdar Aybek, a Celal Bayar University archaeologist said the city has been in existence and has dated back to prehistory, he told Turkish media last January of the find. It was confirmed by an English report on Arkeonews.

One explanation for the prosperity of the area is that it is close to the Kucuk Menderes River. It is one of the places long settled by mankind.

The best relic of the era is a Hellenistic marble seat of honor uncovered in the outdoor theater and its many baths with statues of Zeus and Thyke, goddess of good luck. A complex of Roman buildings with a gymnasium, government building, even shops, galleries, and public toilets were also found there.

Also seen is a water storage via four large interlocking cisterns that had a capacity of 600 tons of water, inside the city acropolis about a year ago. Later it declined as time went by, like the cisterns which became rubbish dumps.

Despite the decline, an archaic statue without a head from Turkey's ancient city Metropolis, still showed what majesty the ancient city had.

Related article: Stele Dating Back 2,600 Years Tells of a Pharaoh Who Was Murdered by His Subjects

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Events the past few days have prompted Russia's invincible hypersonic nuclear missile on indefinite standby. The order stands at combat alert as the Russian Federation has tension with the UK in regards to the annexing of Crimea.

Moscow has been on the edge, with encounters with the Royal Naval and renewed NATO activity in the Black Sea, leaving the Russian Fleet and Air Force teeter-tottering on an explosive situation.

Moscow is not amused as its sovereignty has been allegedly violated by the Royal Navy, a big push by their new battle group assembled around the HMS Queen Elizabeth, reported the Sun UK.

During the freedom of navigation by the HMS Defender, a coastguard ship fired because it allegedly intruded into Crimean waters.

Putin was present at the graduation of military and secret service elites held at the Grand Kremlin Palace, where he told the graduated cadets that he ordered the newest missiles on standby because of the threat presented by these forces.

He told the 400 top graduates from 18 military academies, where they came that they will be using the military hardware. When Russia's invincible hypersonic nuclear missile on indefinite standby they will be operating them.

Read: : The UK and Kremlin: An Encounter with HMS Defender and Russian Forces in Crimean Sea Causes Row

In his statement, hypersonic weapons like the Avangard, Kinzhal, or Dagger launch facilities are orders from the Kremlin to be on combat readiness, telling accomplished graduates.

He touted that their forces are in command of the Sarmat ICBM, Zircon ship launched hypersonic missile, and the S-500 Prometheus anti-aircraft systems for anti-air defense noted the Kremlin.

No more games in the Black Sea

The Russian leader verified that the Dagger missile has been armed on two MiG-32Ks in the eastern Mediterranean. They are attached to a force that keeps an eye on the UK battle group with the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense (RMoD), the two jets have flown from Syria. They practiced drills to attack sea targets in the Mediterranean.

The Dagger missile can use normal explosive warheads or nuclear-tipped ones with a maximum range of 1,500 miles more than any similar weapon in the west. It's the first time the warplanes capable of carrying Kinzhal have been deployed outside Russia's borders.

Commodore Steve Moorhouse remarks the east of the Mediterranean has the Black Sea fleet in force, while Syria has a concentration of Russian forces as well, cited Star Tribune.

This density of many ships from the two forces results in many enounters on Russian vessel that came as close as 16 miles of the British aircraft carrier. Comparable to Queen Elizabeth is the 188-ton Sarmat is the biggest weapon in Russia's weapons stores.

One video of a silo in the Plesetsk spaceport shows the launching of Sarmat that seemed to float on air and shot up into the sky.

The range of the missile is 11,000-miles and could evade the defense of the US against ICBM missiles. Devastation is the size of the state of Texas if hits the USA.

Putin has said that the Zircon is his choice to attack the USA. It will be used to fight back its attack by any chance.

Related article: Russia Launches Secret Missile, Military Jets in Test Flight as NATO Allies Practice Drills in Black Sea





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On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump visited the country's southern border as fellow Republicans continue to criticize President Joe Biden over the rising number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.

Trump traveled to an unfinished part of the border wall with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, which was started under Trump's administration but halted when Biden took over the White House in January. Abbott, Trump's ally, has promised to complete the wall construction in his state.

At the event, Trump said his predecessor in the White House dismantled America's border defenses and incited a flow of illegal immigration like the US has never seen. Biden has reversed several of Trump's stringent immigration policies, including his promise to build a border wall and force Mexico to pay for it during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump chastised Biden on "unfinished border"

Per Dallas News, during Trump's administration, he prioritized border security, declaring a state of emergency in 2019 to redirect government funding intended for the military to pay for the border wall. Texas governor faces major problems and needs Trump's support to win next year in a third term. In the two decades since Trump left office, migration has surged historically and violence continues in certain countries.

Trump was able to complete 450 miles of wall, with the final few hundred being built in a rush following his defeat. Biden halted work and returned $2 billion from the Pentagon budget that Trump had diverted. Abbott said two weeks ago that he will continue the project, beginning with $250 million taken from the state jail budget.

Trump stated that he had endorsed Abbott for reelection and that he approves of his unwillingness to watch Biden demolish some of his trademark border initiatives, such as the wall and "Remain in Mexico." He said, "We produced the safest, the best border we've ever had. And now, in a very short period, it's over," LA Times reported.

Abbott, who was Texas' attorney general before becoming governor, is up for reelection next year but is also being considered as a presidential contender in 2024. He spent the first part of the year ranting against Biden's "open-border policies" and attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for failing to visit the Texas border's hardest-hit regions.

The governor claimed Harris was "ignoring the true problem" to the east in Del Rio and the Rio Grande Valley, where migrant arrests have increased when Harris finally visited El Paso last week.

Read Also: Trump Won't Be Charged in Manhattan's DA's Indictment, Lawyers Claim

Biden reversed Trump's border policies

Last month, Border Patrol intercepted 180,034 migrants at the southern border; 40% of whom already crossed the border and were deported under Trump's and Biden's pandemic policy. During Trump's tenure, the greatest monthly number of apprehensions was over 150,000.

In his first days in office, Biden reversed some of Trump's immigration measures, including suspending border wall construction and canceling a program that requires individuals seeking asylum in the United States to wait in Mexico. The end of such restrictions coincided with a large rise in border apprehensions, including a record-breaking number of unaccompanied minors entering the United States in the first half of the year.

Last Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris made her first trip to the border since joining the Biden administration, as per Newsweek via MSN. She spoke with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) leaders as part of her pledge to address the "root causes" that drive people to flee their homes and seek asylum in the United States.

Related Article: Protesters Taunt Kamala Harris on Her First Visit to US-Mexico Border as They Hold 'Trump Won' Signs





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The World Health Organization (WHO) is so far not informed of what Nokor Leader Kim Jong Un depicted as a significant mishap that has potentially altered his country's fight to alleviate COVID-19. According to a WHO spokesman, the organization is incognizant of reports regarding one serious incident on a lapse in anti-epidemic measures, other than such being shared by the media.

North Korea was one of the few countries to assert it has had no novel coronavirus cases. However, Kim currently stated that his furtive nation faces "a great crisis" associated with the pandemic. He blamed this on the mismanagement of his own party bureaucrats.

Failure To Implement Guidelines

The leader remarked the failure to implement guidelines to tackle the coronavirus had resulted in a grave crisis. He also admonished ruling party officials for risking his country and people's safety, according to state media on Wednesday. State news agency KCNA's report did not expound on the nature of the crisis or how it put people at vulnerability, reported Reuters.

According to the aforementioned spokesperson, "Based on the latest COVID-19 update from the government to WHO (as of 24 June), there are still no COVID-19 cases reported in DPR Korea," reported Newsweek. He used an acronym indicating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

Relatively a small amount of information is known about the coronavirus situation in North Korea, a totalitarian state where Kim's regime manages the media and most other public life aspects. Officials in the US and elsewhere have questioned whether the nation has actually escaped the virus entirely, reported NBC News.

Read Also: New Study: Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines Could Provide 'Years' of Protection Against the Existing Coronavirus Variants

The nation has not officially confirmed any coronavirus cases. However, the reclusive country has implemented rigid anti-virus guidelines, including domestic travel curbs and border closures.

North Korea is one of the mere five countries in the world that is still reporting no COVID-19 cases. They are along with the island nations of Tonga, Nauru, and Tuvalu, and fellow Asian authoritarian Turkmenistan. Concerns have been raised that this zero-case status may be in jeopardy. At the second enlarged meeting of the ruling Korean Workers' Party Eighth Central Committee Political Bureau on Wednesday, Kim lashed out at the officials.

Shedding some rare light on Nokor, Kim denounced "senior officials in charge of important state affairs" who abandoned particular unspecified decisions in connection to the emergency epidemic prevention campaign linked to the global health crisis.

The Nokor leader mentioned that their negligence resulted in a crucial case of creating a great crisis in affirming the security of the state and safety of the people, thus creating grave consequences. Numerous secretaries of the central committee, politburo members, and officials of many state agencies were replaced at the meeting.

According to South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun, officials in Seoul were aware of the report but had nothing to add when asked about Kim's statements.

Related Article: FDA to Add Warning to Moderna, Pfizer COVID Vaccines Literature; 309 Hospitalized Due to Heart Inflammation

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Vaccination discrepancies, along with the development of the COVID-19 delta variant, could lead to the creation of "two Americas," according to White House's top medical advisor Anthony Fauci. The director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases is "very concerned" about the significant discrepancy between regions with low and high vaccination rates.

However, according to Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, coronavirus outbreaks are "absolutely preventive, totally preventable" with vaccination. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Delta variant - a stin first identified in India that is predicted to become dominant in the United States and other countries - has spread to nearly every state and accounted for 26.1 percent of US COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday.

Fauci: Regions with low vaccination rates are at significant risk

The parts of the country with the lowest vaccination rates are at risk of significant COVID-19 case increases, Fauci claims. Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Wyoming now have the lowest vaccination rates of under 35 percent of the population.

According to Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer for the Mississippi Department of Public Health states that individuals who have not yet been vaccinated represent more than 90% of all new cases and fatalities connected to the virus in the state. Experts are concerned that regions with poor vaccination rates would be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 Delta variant, which spreads more quickly and has been more aggressive in certain cases, Radio.com via MSN reported.

Fauci further stated that two weeks after the second dose the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 88 percent effective against symptomatic infections caused by the variant. Those who have only had one of their vaccinations are at a disadvantage. The top medical advisor told CNN that no studies from Johnson & Johnson's Moderna have been proven. Both firms, however, claim that their vaccines will protect people against all variants.

The United States drew closer to the 50% milestone on Tuesday, with 46.4 percent of the population being completely vaccinated. In addition, 16 states have met the president's target of 70% of individuals receiving at least one dosage by July 4.

Read Also: Anthony Fauci's Emails Contain Biggest Revelations, Raise Questions to Dig Deeper Into COVID-19 Origins

Vaccinated Americans are urged to continue wearing face masks

Fully vaccinated people can continue most indoor and outdoor activities without wearing a mask or observing social distancing, according to the CDC. However, due to the rapidly spreading Delta variant, Los Angeles County health officials urged both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents to continue wearing face masks indoors on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization issued similar advice this week, recommending everyone to continue wearing masks regardless of vaccination status. Fauci, on the other hand, put such remarks in perspective.

Roughly 10% of the world's population is completely vaccinated, the WHO said. Meanwhile, Fauci claims that the United States is a "well-vaccinated country" amid an "under-vaccinated" world. Still, he is worried about those who have not gotten vaccinated until now.

Fauci stressed out that unvaccinated people are at serious risk of a virus that spreads so rapidly, urging people to get vaccinated. "We are asking people, almost pleading with people, if you are not vaccinated, please get vaccinated," the infectious disease expert said, as per CBS News.

Related Article: Illinois Summer Camp Believed to Have Caused a COVID-19 Outbreak Infecting 85 People



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A Fulton County election takeover by Georgia State may have prompted Georgia SOS Brad Raffensperger to consider this move. The county has been full of controversy in the US 2020 Elections, as the result were suspiciously skewed to Joe Biden.

Election return counting issues finally have embattled Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying "enough is enough," adding he "is tired of it," as he plans to have Fulton County elections be taken over by the state of Georgia.

He's had enough!

The Georgia SOS has told all the election troubles in the county has got to end, he's had enough according to Just the News last Wednesday. Remarking that it was not just him, but everyone else in 158 counties affected by electoral irregularities in Fulton in particular.

Raffensperger said that in effect, the new law just passed which is Senate Bill 202 which gives the state election board new powers. One of these is to take control if needed of any problematic counties, especially when it comes to electoral matters, reported Newsmax.

During the interview, he was asked if taking over the county election will be his next move. Problems related to elections have plagued the county, which arbitrarily changed the rules during the 2020 elections. The answer was yes to the interviewers' questions.

More details

Overall, SB 202 will give the state election board the power to clean up all the counties which cannot get their act together. An election takeover by Georgia State includes the election director can be booted out and fix problems to elections.

Read Also: Michigan Voters File Lawsuit To Cast Out 1.2 Million Ballots From Three Counties

Raffensperger is determined to have a takeover of Fulton as the question was repeated again.

One of his suggestions is to fire all the top election officials who did not deliver orderly election, the county kept its silence over the issue.

This was passed as part of Georgia's new election integrity reforms, for cleaner and safer elections.

During Midterms in 2022, this bill will be in place. This law was passed as Georgia's new election integrity reforms, which will be put into full effect for the 2022 midterm elections.

Carter Jones, Raffensperger's chosen election monitor, recently submitted a 29-page assessment about the Atlanta tallying facility, that the Trump campaign has slammed before for irregularities.

The Georgia SOS was all mismanagement and added there was no illegality or ballot stuffing. They said that everything was done incorrectly, resulting in doubts from the voters which lead to conspiracy theories, as he called it. He also stressed that problem needs fixing in Fulton, noted WBAP.

Biden is very mistaken

A reaction to the SB202, the president attacked the bill and filed a lawsuit via the Justice Department with fears of the federal government allowing the democrats to get away with cheating.

The DOJ case says minorities cannot vote because of ID laws. It is allowing the democrats to cheat, not defending voting rights.

It has been an ongoing assault by liberals and progressives in the DOJ for years while trying to prevent reforms. Raffensperger added that ID laws have been in place for years, it did lower turnout as claimed by Democrats.

Related article: Election Anomaly: Georgia Election Audit Traces 3,309 Uncounted Ballots in 2 Counties

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On Wednesday, Eric Adams filed a lawsuit to reserve his right to have a court evaluate the ballots in the Democratic mayoral primary. The action, filed in Kings County Supreme Court, protects the campaign's ability to contest the results when they are certified.

Though such legal action is standard, it comes only one day after Adams and other Democratic candidates criticized the New York City Board of Elections for including 135,000 test ballots in a preliminary tally of the Democratic primary's ranked-choice results.

Eric Adams campaign files lawsuit

The Eric Adams campaign said in a statement that they positioned the court to preserve the right to a fair election and to have someone to oversee and review ballots if needed. "We invite the other campaigns to join us and petition the court as we all seek a clear and trusted conclusion to this election," the statement continued.

Andrew Yang filed a similar complaint before the election; but it was withdrawn after he conceded, finishing fourth in the first round of voting. A candidate must initiate a challenge within 10 days, following the primary, before all of the results are finalized, according to state law.

That is why, according to Jerry H. Goldfeder, a well-known election lawyer who is not representing any candidate in the mayoral race, many candidates file so-called prophylactic lawsuits.

The lawsuit was the first since the city election board had issued a flawed simulation of how qualified voting would take place following the first number of votes in person on early and election day. The board accidentally counted 135,000 dummy ballots, rendering the simulation worthless and perhaps deceptive, NY Daily News reported.

The now-discredited vote counts tighten with Adam's shrinking to about 2% over Garcia, who passed Wiley in second place. It is unclear if the pattern will be the same when the board starts redoing the simulation without the dummy ballots. There remain around 130,000 mail-in votes totally uncounted. They were to be sent back to the election officials by Tuesday; but without giving any justification for the extended delay, they are not to be tabulated until next week.

Read Also: Trump Won't Be Charged in Manhattan's DA's Indictment, Lawyers Claim

New York Mayoral election results

Per PIX11, following the vote of Andrew Yang, who has since retired from the campaign, Garcia was in a stronger situation than Wiley. Corrected numbers on Friday indicated that the former NYPD captain Adams received just 14,755 votes in the first round of his closest competitor Kathryn Garcia.

Those statistics have also put the left-wing Maya Wiley in the lead, after showing that she was behind Garcia with just 347 votes. Nearly 125,000 absentee votes have not yet been tabulated, which means that both Adams might be counted by Garcia or Wiley.

These ballots are scheduled for July 6 and are expected to be taken within weeks. Manhattan holds the highest number of such uncensored votes - about 39,000 - and Adams ended third, maybe with additional difficulty in the first round behind Garcia and Wiley. On Wednesday, the campaign of Adams claimed to have a "significant lead" on its competitors, as per Daily Mail.

Related Article: New York Mayoral Race: Polls Close But Final Results May Not Come Out Until July



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With a ticker tape procession up the Canyon of Heroes on July 7, New York City will honor the vital employees who helped the city survive the coronavirus epidemic.

EMS Workers Will Rather Ask For Bonuses and Increase of Wages

In a recently published article in Daily News, EMS workers in New York City expressed their sentiments over the heroes parade. They said that they will appreciate it if the fund for the said parade will be utilized for their bonuses and wages.

A 13-year EMS veteran in the city said that she felt the parade was a joke and it is a big slap on her face. She also added that she did not think that it is real. The EMS veteran said this after the announcement of De Blasio.

Another 28-yer paramedic veteran said that he is not going to the parade. He also described it as bogus. He even said that he is scheduled to work during the Heroes Parade, but he will not go and attend even if it is his day off.

Read Also: New York Governor Cuomo Urges to Increase Federal Taxes on Wealthy People

De Blasio's Announcement of the Heroes Parade

Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month that a ticker tape procession up the Canyon of Heroes on July 7 would honor the vital employees who helped the city survive the coronavirus pandemic, according to a published article in the U.S. News.

The parade will feature floats representing health care workers, first responders, educators, municipal workers, transportation workers, grocery and bodega workers, delivery people, and "all the essential workers who made it happen, everyone who kept it together in New York City for all of us and brought us back," according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Additionally, this is not the first time for NYC to have a ticker tape parade. In fact, for more than 130 years, New York City has celebrated military heroes, successful athletes, visiting dignitaries, and others, as per PIX.

The Workload of EMS Workers

EMS personnel believe financial assistance would have been a better acknowledgment of their efforts than obligatory 12-hour tours and increased caseloads during the pandemic. While municipal EMS personnel did not get hazard compensation, they claim that their colleagues in private hospitals and ambulance firms did.

The fact that EMS unions have not had a new contract with the city for three years only adds to the animosity. According to one EMS worker, the mayor's objectives would be better served if the money set aside for the procession was instead distributed as incentives.

Meanwhile, the union is attempting to reach an agreement with the city, which pays EMS personnel about 25 percent to 30 percent less than firemen. During the peak of the pandemic, EMS personnel responded to 6,500 emergency calls each day. That's approximately the same amount of calls that were answered on September 11th.

Mayor de Blasio earlier said that the city's first large-scale parade will be for critical and front-line employees upon reopening. De Blasio expected the city to be completely operational by July 1 so he thought a celebration would be "exactly the appropriate moment for it."

Related Article: Andrew Cuomo Slams Mayor Bill de Blasio's Plans to Fully Reopen New York by July 1



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China's President Xi Jinping spoke on Thursday about China's firm determination to stand up to foreign pressure. He laid out national goals at the 100th anniversary commemoration of China's ruling Communist Party. He stressed that China will not accept preaching from those who feel they are morally superior to lecture them.

The Chinese president called for building a rigid military to defend the nation. He cautioned that the Chinese people will not allow foreign forces to oppress, bully, or conquer them. He delivered an address during the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Tiananmen Square.

Eager To Learn Lessons

However, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee said that China welcomes helpful recommendations. "We are eager to learn what lessons we can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism," according to Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission, reported China Daily.

Xi has cautioned that foreign powers will "get their heads bashed" if they try to bully the nation when he delivered the defiant speech. The "sanctimonious preaching" he mentioned was widely seen as directed in the United States, reported BBC.



He called China's quest to obtain control of Taiwan a "historic mission" and warned the nation's adversaries to avoid standing in the way of the Chinese government.

He also delivered the nationwide address from above the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square.

Anyone attempting to bully China would find themselves on a collision with a great wall of steel cast by more than 1.4 billion people.

Read Also: US Pulls Antimissile Batteries From Middle East Countries, Realigns Mission to Confront China and Russia

Xi officially became president in 2013. He also holds the highest political position of general secretary of the party's central committee.



According to Xi, "A century ago China was declining and withering away in the eyes of the world. Today, the image it presents to the world is one of a thriving nation, that is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation," reported CNBC.

He added that no one should undermine the strong will, the massive resolve, and the remarkable ability of the Chinese people to defend their territorial integrity and national sovereignty. The 68-year-old leader stated they should accelerate the modernization of the armed forces and national defense.

The comments against the "sanctimonious preaching" come as the nation faces condemnation over alleged human rights abuses and its crackdown in Hong Kong. The association between the United States and China have aggravated in recent times over espionage, trade, and the pandemic.

Xi celebrated the party's victories. He remarked China would like to promote peace in the world. He called the action to unify China and Taiwan a sturdy commitment and pledged resolute action to utterly defeat attempts toward "Taiwan independence."

Looking at the future, Xi spoke of building up the party, coordinating with "peace-loving countries," and working for national restoration.

Related Article: China Marks 32nd Anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre, "Made Remarkable Progress That Amazed the World"

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With less than a month until a pandemic-related eviction moratorium expires, the White House convened a virtual conference on Wednesday to hear officials warn that millions of renters, as well as the landlords who rely on them, are in terrible difficulties across the country.

The meeting comes one day after the Supreme Court decided that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must have congressional permission to prolong the moratorium, in what was viewed as a partial victory for landlords. Housing officials, as well as legal and academic experts, discussed ideas on best practices for preventing evictions during the one-hour virtual conference, which was attended by leaders from more than 50 cities.

Court decided to end the eviction moratorium

Judge Dabney Friedrich's decision to withdraw the recently extended CDC eviction moratorium will not be upheld by the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the court issued a 5-4 decision, with Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting no.

It was the final stage in what has been a long and winding journey for the CDC moratorium, which has been the subject of many lawsuits in recent months. Although the moratorium was overturned in May, Judge Friedrich agreed to postpone her decision while the Department of Justice filed an appeal, as per The Motley Fool via MSN.

However, some housing experts believe that the newest race is too late. Tens of billions of dollars have been set aside by Congress for emergency rental assistance.

Tens of billions of dollars have been set aside by Congress for emergency rental assistance. Most of that money hasn't made it to those who need it the most. Local governments have battled to keep programs going to get the money out quickly.

The White House is now racing to organize courts, states and localities, legal aid organizations, and housing groups to help keep families in their homes, as the White House's tool for renters is very limited at this time. The White House and the Treasury Department announced measures last week to expedite the disbursement of rental assistance and streamline the application process.

Nonetheless, the administration recognizes that an eviction crisis can only be prevented with the help of local governments and courts, and is asking for an "all-hands-on-deck" effort. Gene Sperling, who is in charge of implementing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, said at a White House meeting on Wednesday that the government is urging everyone to respond with speed and force because there is no alternative, The Seattle Times reported.

Read Also: Child Tax Credit: Why It May be Bigger Than Expected and How It May Affect Your 2022 Taxes

What's next?

To prevent evictions, the Biden administration said it will cooperate with state and municipal governments. The administration said it will urge state courts to adopt anti-eviction practices, make it easier for state and local governments to access federal assistance money and help families receive federal assistance to pay for rent, relocation, security deposits, and temporary hotel accommodations, in addition to speeding rental-assistance money to renters and landlords.

The American Rescue Plan, which was enacted in March, included a $21.5 billion rental assistance fund. This is in addition to the $25 billion given to states under the stimulus program passed in December. Renter households must fulfill three criteria to be recognized for help from those funds, as per CNET:

The household income must not be more than 80% of the median income in the area where you live.

At least one household member must be eligible for unemployment benefits or have faced financial difficulty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, either directly or indirectly.

At least one member must be able to show that they are at risk of being homeless if they do not get support.

Priority will be given to the families that are the most financially vulnerable. As a result, the first families to get assistance should be those whose income does not exceed 50% of the local median income. Households with people who are now jobless and have been unemployed for 90 days or longer are also included.

Related Article: Court Says CDC's Eviction Moratorium To Continue; Several Advocates Call For Extension



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According to satellite images, China seems to be constructing more than 100 additional missile silos in the desert.

Beijing Expands Its Nuclear Capabilities

In a recently published report in The Washington Post, independent analysts said China has started the construction of more than 100 new intercontinental ballistic missile silos in a desert near the northern city of Yumen, a building binge that may indicate a significant increase in Beijing's nuclear weapons.

Work is ongoing at dozens of locations over a grid spanning hundreds of square miles of desert terrain in China's Gansu region, based on commercial satellite photos acquired by experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. The 119 virtually identical building sites include characteristics that are similar to those found at China's current nuclear-tipped ballistic missile launch stations, per Seattle Times.

If completed, China's purchase of more than 100 additional missile silos would mark a historic change for the nation, which is thought to have a nuclear arsenal of between 250 and 350 missiles. The exact quantity of new missiles destined for those silos is unclear, although it is likely to be considerably few. In the past, China has used decoy silos.

Read Also: US Moves to Counteract China's Long Range Missile Advantage

The U.S. Pentagon Raised Concerns About the Proliferation of China's Missile Silos

In an article published in Business Insider, a spokesperson for the Defense Department refused to comment on the satellite pictures or on US intelligence assessments of China's nuclear program. However, Pentagon analysts and experts have already expressed worries about the spread of China's missile silos, remarked spokesperson John Supple.

Supple said that the Defense Department officials have testified and talked publicly about China's increasing nuclear capabilities, which they anticipate to double or perhaps triple in the next decade.

Rather than engaging in a costly arms race with Washington and Moscow, China has long adhered to a "limited deterrence" policy that emphasizes a small but powerful nuclear arsenal that guarantees Beijing's capacity to respond if attacked.

Chinese Officials Complained that their Country's Nuclear Lose Credibility

Chinese authorities have recently warned that their country's nuclear deterrence is losing credibility as a result of nuclear modernization projects planned or ongoing in Russia and the United States.

Meanwhile, Beijing has rejected demands to join fresh arms-control negotiations, citing concerns that additional restrictions would permanently cement Beijing's position as a second-rate nuclear state in comparison to Washington and Moscow.

Photos of the Missile Silos

The commercial satellite firm Planet provided Lewis and Eveleth with photos of the Gansu construction project, which offered a constant stream of updated pictures showing progress at each of the building sites throughout time.

Lewis concluded that there was a "very high probability" that China was preparing a "shell game" in which it would conceal a limited number of warheads throughout a network of silos, based on his research. Nonetheless, he believes that the unexpected emergence of so many new launch locations would put pressure on US authorities to accelerate efforts to upgrade the country's arsenal.

Furthermore, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in February that the Biden administration will seek arms control to minimize the risks posed by China's sophisticated and expanding nuclear arsenal.

Related Article: China's New Nuclear Submarine Missiles Can Reach US Mainland



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Hundreds believed dead in heat wave despite efforts to help

As forecasters warned of record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps
This country could use a dose of courage from 1776
(The Center Square)  A bill awaiting the governors signature would require schools to provide free menstruation products in both girls' and boys' bathrooms for grades 4 through 12.Currently, Illinois requires tampons to be provided to students who need them, but the supplies are kept in the nurses office.State Rep. Kathleen Willis, D-Addison, a co-sponsor of the proposal, said products such as tampons and sanitary napkins are needed in both girls and boys bathrooms in order to address the health needs of transgender students.If you are biologically a female, but identifying as a male, youre going to menstruate and youre going to need these products, Willis said during floor debate.Bill co-sponsor, state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, said the measure was an effort to end period poverty.During a debate in the Senate, state Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, asked Villa why feminine hygiene products needed to be provided in boys bathrooms. Villa responded, in case of an emergency.Im telling you there is no logic here, Tracy said. For an emergency is not a good answer. We've got to quit playing these stupid silly games here and get real and get fiscally responsible.State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, voiced concerns over mandating schools to place these materials in all boys bathrooms, which would open the door for immature students to play with the costly resources.When you give a grade school boy something thats adhesive, theyre going to put it in places, Bourne said. These products are not inexpensive and they are going to be misused if they are placed in elementary school boys' bathrooms.Illinois is one of more than a dozen states considering bills to require schools to provide free feminine hygiene products, although few have included boys restrooms.
CHICAGO, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NZMP, the ingredient-solutions brand by global dairy company Fonterra, is expanding the application range of their patented probiotic strains to include various snacks and certain types of confectionery and beverages. Based on insights NZMP has garnered from their original launch in 2019 and their clinical research exploring the health benefits these strains provide, the ingredient brand is continuing to provide consumers with highly sought-after solutions to everyday gut-related and immunity issues. NZMP's probiotic strains have diversified the brand's existing portfolio and their new applications will allow for further innovation while pairing perfectly with existing offerings.
Illinois lawmakers approved 665 bills this legislative session. While most await Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signature, here are some that have been signed that you should know.

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665 bills School funding Election reform Vote by mail State legislative redistricting Illinois Supreme Court redistricting Police reform Payday loans Vaccine lottery College athletes' compensation COVID-19 emergency housing Pretrial interest Casino labor Crime victims compensation Electronic signature
Appointment

1 July 2021

Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that Mike Dickersbach has been named vice president of global services for the company's Hospitality division. Dickersbach joins Infor after more than 20 years working in information systems and technology and is a welcome addition to the company's long line of hospitality-specific talent.

As vice president of global services, Dickersbach will be responsible for day-to-day management and market strategy surrounding Infor Hospitality core solutions. Dickersbach will work closely with the Infor leadership team to build and oversee the growth and development of the Infor Hospitality suite of cloud solutions to continue providing hoteliers around the globe with solutions to optimize operations, deliver a superior guest experience, and meet the challenges of a constantly evolving hospitality space.

Prior to joining Infor, Dickersbach served as executive vice president of RipplePoint, an expense analytics company, and held leadership roles at HEI Hotels & Resorts, Highgate, and Thayer Lodging Group. Dickersbach earned a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Food Service Management from Johnson and Wales University. In addition, he is very active in industry associations where he is a member of HFTP and an HFTP Certified Hospitality Technology Professional.
Press Release

1 July 2021

As the summer travel season begins and the EU prepares for further easing of international travel on July 1, Hosts on Airbnb from across Europe met with European policymakers last week to discuss the future of tourism.

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The dedicated virtual session was led by Catherine Powell, Airbnbs Global Head of Hosting, and was attended by four Hosts on Airbnb including two Hosts from Airbnbs new Host Advisory Board, and EU policymakers from the European Parliament and the European Commission.

The productive discussions focused on how best to work together to rebalance tourism and ensure that the return of travel is safe, sustainable and benefits everyone. There was an emphasis on the need for clear and fair regulation for short term rentals and how best to support local, rural communities to deliver authentic experiences to travelers.

According to Airbnbs recent Airbnb Report on Travel & Living, rural travel is a top summer trend as European travelers are getting ready to travel again. In May 2021 the volume of cross border search in Europe more than doubled compared to April and we are seeing a surge in interest in less populated destinations. In 2015, rural travel accounted for less than 10 percent of nights booked globally on Airbnb. From January to May 2021, it accounted for more than double that and was even triple that in some countries, including France (45%) and the UK (48%).

"Weve been in training for pandemic isolation in my rural area for 200 years! Post pandemic, people are more than ever seeking escape, which can be found in our green and quiet rural areas with lots of space for family activities, near to family and friends they usually live far away from." Marielle Terouinard, Host on Airbnb from Eure-et-Loir in France.

Last month, Airbnb announced the biggest top-to-bottom upgrade of the Airbnb service inspired by the major shift in how people are traveling. The announcement highlighted steps that streamline and simplify the process to become a Host. Half of new listings that were both activated and booked in early 2021 got a reservation request within four days, and the average annual earnings per Host who had welcomed at least one guest was $9,600.

The session also delved into the topic of regulation and the need for a harmonized approach to short term rental regulations that are fair and proportionate for home sharers in Europe. Airbnb recently announced its support for industry specific proposals on short term rentals at EU level, highlighting new progressive agreements with France, Greece and the Netherlands and the roll out of the new City Portal tool that gives governments and tourism organizations access to data, insights and compliance tools.

These proposals were detailed in Airbnbs pledge to The Great Rebalance of European Travel, a series of commitments to work with communities across the region, spreading economic benefits to more people and preventing the return of the overtourism phenomenon, where too much tourism is concentrated in too few places.
Press Release

1 July 2021

Talking on day three of IBTM Wired, Ozan Varol, rocket scientist turned bestselling author and professor, shared his four-step moonshot thinking process.

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Ozan introduces moonshot thinking as a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It can help businesses spot opportunities they couldnt see before and create an extraordinary advantage to shape the future of their industry.

One of the hardest things to do is to make change happen and in Ozans opinion, its moonshot thinking that sets apart industry-leading businesses from the rest. One of his biggest recommendations is that companies undertake a process of backcasting - a key strategy in moonshot thinking. Instead of starting with present reality, businesses should begin by identifying their ideal reality in the future and then work backwards to establish what is needed to get there and in doing so, create a roadmap for making that moonshot a reality.

The second step in Ozans process is to take your ideas and start experimenting. Ozan notes that all significant progress takes place under uncertain conditions  if businesses stick to the familiar, they wont find the unexpected. In this stage its vital to remember that many of the decisions we make are reversible, so when youre deciding and looking to minimise risk, ask if the decision is a one-way door or a two-day door, i.e., reversible. If its a reversible decision, you can move quickly. If it a decision or idea appears to be irreversible, see if you can figure out a way to make it a two-way door and then you can run a small-scale experiment to test it out.

Ozan also makes the point that its important to learn from failure. He says society conditions a fear of failure which can be paralysing and often gets in the way of progress. Businesses should look at failure as an investment  if youre only making small bets, failure gives you really valuable data and an opportunity to learn.

Moonshot thinking means that even if you dont get what youre aiming for, your failure will take you far ahead of where you otherwise ended up. And remember, even if you do achieve, the journey doesnt end once the mission is accomplished  its all one continuous loop.

The pandemic has undeniably altered the outlook and operations of association meetings. While this transformation has brought plenty of challenges, the industry has also embraced new opportunities within the crisis. ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath shared the latest insights into the current mindset of associations and what they are looking for to support their adaptation to a post-pandemic world.

The recent ICCA Association Meeting Needs Survey, in collaboration with AfSAE, APFAO and ESAE had some encouraging insights into the future of in-person events, with 49% of respondents planning to schedule in-person formats for the first or second half of 2021 and 38% for 2022.

There are shifts in meeting structures coming through. For example, there is a clear trend towards more regional meetings  clearly showcasing our industrys resilience looking at using new models. Rotation has remained unaffected with associations being very loyal to destinations selected for the future. That said, Senthil believes that future rotation patterns might take a more regional approach than previously.

Unsurprisingly, for 96% of respondents, technology has impacted the way they conduct meetings. One of the biggest trends pinpointed in the survey is towards investing more in professional production, with 38% doing this compared with 8.4% in May 2020.

Clearly the pandemic has impacted on RFPs. The most common changes are updates to cancellation options and force majeure clauses, the growing propensity for hybrid requirements, and a need for flexibility with numbers and dates.

Delegate sentiments towards the return of face-to-face are mixed with various factors influencing willingness and ability to travel. When there is an ability to travel, delegates want to attend in-person events and in fact the general sentiment towards meeting face-to-face has intensified. Digital collaboration just doesnt instil the same camaraderie and now delegates are surer than ever that face-to-face cannot be fully replaced with digital alternatives.

Alistair Turner, Managing Director, EIGHT PR & Marketing spoke to Rick Taylor, CEO, The Business Tourism Company on the upcoming trends for business events in the Middle East and Africa.

Taylor began by emphasising the scale of the region. Africa is three times the size of the USA and three times the size of China. Its an enormous, majestic continentthat is waiting to be discovered.

Taylor has been working with Kenya and other clients during the pandemic to establish their convention bureaux. He notes that the continent has so much opportunity, but one of its challenges is image. Theres some work happening in Namibia around brand Africa. Once the meeting planners get here, said Taylor. Often they comment that this place is absolutely incredible.

Taylor urged meeting planners to step out of their comfort zone and see what Africa can offer. The USA loves Africa from an incentive product offering, he said. There are fabulous safaris in Tanzania and Kenya, brilliant beaches and hot air balloon flights across the plains of Africa looking down at an awesome visual.

The sustainability issue was always there in Africa, but now it is front and centre, says Taylor. Event designers are looking at interweaving sustainability into their events. Across Africa there is a massive movement to plant trees. There is a forest in Dakar in Senegal where the vision is to grow a sub-Saharan forest in 50 years time.

The combination of a sustainable focus along with beautiful natural scenery and resources means that Africa is one to watch. Theres a lot of untapped potential in this region of the world, and some exciting opportunities opening up for event planners eager for new and different destinations for their business events.

About IBTM

IBTM is a world-leading showcase for the meetings and events industry with a portfolio of events and products offering business solutions across five continents. The portfolio includes IBTM World, IBTM Africa, IBTM Americas, IBTM Asia Pacific, IBTM Wired and IBTM Connect.

www.ibtmevents.com



IBTM Wired

is the newest addition to IBTMs global portfolio of events and intelligence for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry. The event takes place annually online and unites thousands of industry professionals from around the world for four days of one-to-one business meetings, sparking new connections and renewing existing ones and a programme of live and on-demand education sessions.

https://www.ibtmwired.com/en-gb.html

About RX

RX (Reed Exhibitions) is in the business of building businesses for individuals, communities and organisations. We elevate the power of face-to-face events by combining data and digital products to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 400 events in 22 countries across 43 industry sectors.

RX is passionate about making a positive impact on society and is fully committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.rxglobal.com

About RELX

RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs over 33,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The market capitalisation is approximately 36.6bn, 42.4bn, $51.5bn.*

*Note: Current market capitalisation can be found at http://www.relx.com/investors
Supplier News

1 July 2021

The proportion of international hotel guests in Portugal will exceed the proportion of domestic hotel guests this month, despite ongoing and continually changing international travel restrictions, according to data collected from SiteMinders World Hotel Index on July 1, 2021.

Most recently, Portugal has been among several European countries to drop quarantine requirements for UK tourists, and has also opened its borders to travellers from the United States. These changes, alongside ongoing uncertainty around the spread of the Delta variant and other long-term changes to the travel habits of local and international hotel guests have led to a trend of international hotel guests outnumbering domestic hotel guests in Portugal.

The proportion of international guests in Portugal in June, 2021, was 46%, and has jumped to 62% in July to mark the first time that international guests will exceed domestic guests since the start of the pandemic. In the coming months, this proportion of international guests is expected to continue to grow, based on bookings made as of July 1, 2021, reaching a height of 94% in January, 2022.

The proportion of international guests in Portugal has jumped to 62% in July  Photo: SiteMinder

In comparison to some countries, travellers to Portugal are more likely to be taking a longer term lens with their hotel bookings. In the last two weeks, 51% of hotel bookings were for July, while 30% were for August and 10% were for September. In Spain, the UK, and the US, for example, bookings made in the last two weeks for hotel stays in August were 27%, 21%, and 19% respectively.

Overall, hotel booking volumes in Portugal are currently at 72% of levels of the same time in 2019, a dip from a recent spike to 93% on May 13, 2021, although still above the current global average of 66%. Portugals hotel booking momentum lags only Iceland, Spain, Ireland and Malta, within Europe. Spain rebounded to over 100% of its pre-pandemic hotel booking volumes this past week and is currently reporting 102% of hotel booking levels of the same time in 2019.

Its encouraging to see Portugal remains and is expected to increasingly be a destination of choice for international travellers, despite Portuguese hotels still awaiting an overall return to pre-pandemic volumes of bookings, says Andre Gois, Country Manager for Portugal at SiteMinder.

According to our forecasts, leading up to October and even more so in the month of January 2022, we expect to see the majority of hotel guests in Portugal to be from outside of the country. With this data at hand, which we update daily and have publicly available for all hoteliers around the world to access, hoteliers should be planning ahead and thinking about how they diversify their business mix once again, through a more global marketing and distribution strategy than they may have become used to over the past 18 months. There are still many unknowns due to the pandemic, but data is our ally, and these insights give the Portuguese hotel industry opportunities right now to start planning for a diverse range of guests once more in the coming months.

About SiteMinder

In an age of rising choice and accessibility for curious travellers, SiteMinder exists to liberate hoteliers with technology that makes a world of difference. SiteMinder is the worlds largest open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for its smart and simple solutions that put hotels everywhere their guests are, at every stage of their journey. Its this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of more than 35,000 hotels, across 160 countries, to generate in excess of 100 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels each year. For more information, visit siteminder.com.
Press Release

1 July 2021

The Companys shareholders approved the rights issue for capitalizing the 100 million loan advanced by its majority shareholder, Minor, while the Board agreed to a simultaneous rights issue so that all remaining shareholders can avoid dilution

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This year and next the Company plans to implement an efficiency plan to drive digitalisation and execute a tailored plan for its luxury brand, Anantara, and its Tivoli resorts in the Algarve

NH Hotel Groups shareholders attended the Companys Annual General Meeting remotely today, ratifying the issuance of its financial statements and management report for 2020. CEO, Ramon Aragones, took advantage of his presentation to provide insight into the key points of the Groups recovery plan, which will focus on Europe, reinforcement of its highest-end brands, Anantara and NH Collection, and the Tivoli resorts in the Algarve, while developing an innovative offering for business travel which will take on a more hybrid and experiential format, opening the door to the SME segment.

In his speech to the shareholders, Alfredo Fernandez Agras, the non-executive chairman of NH Hotel Groups Board of Directors, highlighted the rapid deployment of the contingency plan set in motion by the Group in the face of one of the biggest crises in global tourism. He also expressed his satisfaction at how the Board has facilitated the strategic principles set by the Management Committee, particularly the safe-guarding of the firms liquidity and financial sustainability, two of the cornerstones around which the Company intends to articulate its recovery. We have laid the foundations not only for getting back to where we were, but for becoming an international benchmark for the post-pandemic hotel experience, he said.

At todays AGM, the Companys shareholders ratified the proposal to issue equity to capitalize the 100 million loan extended to NH by its majority shareholder, Minor International, as part of the financial structure and liquidity reinforcement strategy being executed by the Company since May. Simultaneous to that issue, the Board will launch a cash rights issue for the remaining shareholders for an additional and proportionate amount of up to 7 million. As a result, the Company will provide its shareholders the possibility of retaining their current ownership interests to avoid dilution. The new shares are expected to begin to trade next October. All terms of the two rights issues will be identical, including the issue price and discount, to be set in accordance with market conditions, as guided by the Companys financial advisors.

Ramon Aragones, CEO of NH Hotel Group, divided his presentation between an exhaustive review of the contingency plan executed by the Group in 2020 and a first glimpse into the recovery plan the Company has been executing since the start of the summer season. In his opinion, the recovery will initially be driven by the strength of the domestic demand, which accounts for an average of 7.3 stays out of every 10 in the eurozone as a whole. NH expects to benefit from that trend as it boasts a well-diversified portfolio across the main European markets, excellent locations and an improved customer experience, thanks to the recent introduction of contactless transactions, among other initiatives.

The Company has also launched a series of initiatives targeted at business travellers. Those initiatives include Smart Spaces, exclusive areas for working and holding small meetings in the Groups hotels; Hybrid Meetings, events organised with a mix of in-person and virtual attendance from a range of places; Extended Stay at NH, special offers for stays of more than one week; and the NH+ Business Programme, a suite of additional benefits and discounts for SMEs.

Elsewhere, the hotel chain recently announced that it will join the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) loyalty programme, which is expected to facilitate them access to new feeder markets. In parallel it plans to continue to pursue opportunities for managing hotels that are a good fit for the Groups business objectives.

The Group expects to have all its hotels open within the next few days, having had 326 establishments open by the third week of June, which is just over 90% of the total. In June of this year, occupancy of the European open hotels climbed back to close to 40% and has gone on to increase considerably since May. Between now and 2024, the Group plans to open a further 3,700 rooms, with a strategic focus on the high-end brands and its core markets. In the last few weeks, the Group has opened the NH Collection New York Madison Avenue, the NH Hannover and the NH Collection Venezia Murano Villa. In addition, the Company is working on specific positioning plans for Anantara, its luxury segment brand, and its Tivoli resorts offering in the Algarve.

During his presentation, Ramon Aragones stressed the fact that the Group would focus on an efficiency plan in 2021 and 2022, enabled by digitalisation. That plan includes the 34 million of annual cost savings captured due to the collective dismissal implemented at Corporate Services in Spain and other efficiency measures last April. Additional savings are expected to be captured over the coming quarters as part of a global plan in accordance with local legislations.

Re-election of directors

At the recommendation of the Nominating, Compensation and Corporate Governance Committee, the Companys shareholders also approved the re-election of William Ellwood Heinecke, Emmanuel Jude Dillipraj Rajakarier and Stephen Andrew Chojnacki as proprietary directors. Rufino Perez Fernandez was ratified as executive director, having been appointed by the Board, availing of its co-option powers, in September 2020. Lastly, Jose Maria Cantero and Fernando Lacadena were re-elected as independent directors.

With respect to the corporate debt refinancing process, the CEO reminded his audience that NH Hotel Group had successfully issued 400 million of senior secured notes due July 2026 on the market. The proceeds have been used to repay the existing senior notes due 2023, in the amount of 357 million. The new notes carry a coupon of 4% and allow the Company to face no relevant debt maturities for the next five years.

The hotel chain has also agreed the extension of its 242 million revolving credit facility (RCF) from March 2023 to March 2026. Banks participating in this syndicated facility have proved their support by extending the financial covenants waiver for all of 2022. Elsewhere, in May, the Company had already extended the maturity on its 250m syndicated loan secured by Spains official credit institute (ICO) arranged in April 2020, until April 2026 with no amortizing schedule until maturity.

Ramon Aragones believes that the proactive battery of financial measures, the rights issue and asset rotation strategy rolled out in recent months, most specifically the absence of relevant debt maturities for five years, endow the Group with solid foundations for leveraging the imminent sector recovery from an ideal position from the financial and capital structure standpoints.
Sydneys delta-variant coronavirus outbreak is proving difficult to bring under control, despite Australias most-populous city being in lockdown for almost a week.

The city of almost 6 million people detected 24 new locally acquired cases in the past 24 hours, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday. Since the outbreak began in mid-June from a driver who transported international flight crew, Sydney has recorded 195 infections.

Half of the new cases announced Thursday were from people in the community while infectious, creating a cause of concern, Berejiklian said. In too many examples we are seeing workers who are leaving the house with symptoms or going to work, she added.

The outbreak in Sydney is at the center of new coronavirus infections that have placed about half of Australias population of 25 million people into lockdown. While health authorities are racing to stamp out continent-wide outbreaks of the delta variant, South Australia state on Thursday announced that it had recorded no new cases.

In stark contrast to freedoms enjoyed by Australians just months ago, stay-at-home and mandatory mask-wearing orders have been imposed in major cities such as Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. On Wednesday, they were joined by the remote Outback town of Alice Springs -- close to the natural tourist attraction of Uluru and home to thousands of vulnerable indigenous peoples.

The outbreaks are ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to increase the pace of a tardy vaccine rollout, which has been hit by supply-chain hold-ups. The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows the nation is ahead of only near neighbor New Zealand among the 38 OECD nations in administering doses.

In an interview on Bloomberg Television interview on Thursday, Queensland state Treasurer Cameron Dick said Morrisons government should have secured more contracts from drug-makers, with the nation currently limited to the AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer Inc. products.

Other jurisdictions effectively spread the risk across a whole range of vaccines -- that was the case in the U.S. and the U.K., Dick said. All the states and territories are in the hands of our federal government. They are the ones securing supplies of our vaccines.
Oil rose above $75 a barrel in New York with OPEC+ adding limited supplies to the market in the coming months.

Crude futures added more than 3 percent to trade at the highest since 2018. OPEC+s de facto leaders, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have a tentative agreement to increase output gradually, but are still negotiating a deal, delegates said as ministers gathered online on Thursday. The proposal under discussion would add about 2 million barrels a day to the cartels output between August and December, they said.

Behind the headline futures price move, the markets structure strengthened further. The nearest WTI contract was $1 more expensive than the next month at one point -- a bullish pattern known as backwardation. The sharp gains at the front end of the futures curves for Brent and WTI are a sign that traders are banking on extreme market tightness in the coming weeks.

The OPEC+ meeting is happening against a backdrop of tightening supply. Crude inventories in the U.S. are falling at the fastest rate in decades, while shale producers are remaining disciplined with their spending and wont overwhelm OPEC, ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance said on Wednesday. In another bullish sign, TotalEnergies SE, one of Europes biggest refiners, bid for benchmark Forties crude at the highest premiums in 17 months.

We absolutely think prices are going to continue to rally, especially if OPEC adds anything up to 500,000 barrels per day, Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultant Energy Aspects, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Its a drop in the ocean.

As oil prices rose, another energy market saw even stronger gains. European natural gas prices hit an all-time high on Thursday. The two markets are at times connected, as some gas contracts have a link to the crude and fuel-oil markets.

Oil surged more than 50 percent in the year through June, its best half since 2009, as vaccine rollouts helped to restore mobility in major energy markets such as the U.S., China and Europe. The risk of a quick return of Iranian crude also appears to be receding as negotiations with world powers over the countrys nuclear program face renewed delays. Citigroup Inc. said in a note that it expected the market to remain in deep deficit through this quarter even after accounting for increased output from OPEC+.

Anything less than a 500,000-barrel-a-day supply increase in August will be enough to see the bulls push the market higher, said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Group in Singapore. While there are concerns over rising cases of the delta variant in some regions, the market is doing a good job at ignoring it for now.
Houston Chronicle lifestyle and culture columnist Joy Sewing has been named a Woman of Distinction.

Sewing, a native Houstonian, is one of 10 women named the 2022 Women of Distinction by the Crohns & Colitis Foundation. Now in its 35th year, the honor is bestowed upon local women based on their leadership in the city and the impact they have on Houston, according to the foundation.

Its an incredible honor, especially since Im among a group of women who are striving to make a difference in this city, Sewing said Thursday. I also appreciate so many colleagues and friends who support my efforts to expand the opportunities for children of color.

This is not the first time Sewing has been honored for her work here in the city. In 2020, Sewing was included in the Monuments art installation at Discovery Green, where the faces of several of Houstons unsung heroes were projected onto the parks trees in a holiday light display.

READ JOYS LATEST COLUMN: Mom of Houston authors Attica and Tembi Locke proves its never too late to get healthy

She is also the founder of the nonprofit organization Year of Joy, which aims to spread joy to children from underserved communities in Greater Houston.

In addition to Sewing, the newest class of honorees includes Anne Chao, Elaine Balagia Croucher, Joni Hruska Fichter, Maureen Higdon, Mandy Kao, Heidi Rockecharlie, Heidi Smith, Jo Dee Wright and Rini Wu Ziegler. Vicki West was named the 2022 Ambassador, and Norma Meyers, who was instrumental in creating the first Winter Ball, will be honored as the Paul G. Somerville Legacy Award recipient.

The Women of Distinction will be honored at the Crohns & Colitis Foundation 2022 Winter Ball on Jan. 22 at Hilton Americas downtown.

maggie.gordon@chron.com

twitter.com/MagEGordon
A fire sparked by a medical device at a Houston hospital on Saturday has prompted internal and police investigations as authorities await autopsy results for a patient who was burned by the flames and died.

Denise Jill Asaro, 69, was being treated for COVID-19 at HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood when she went into cardiac arrest. Medical staff were attempting to resuscitate her with a defibrillator when a fire broke out, severely burning the patient, according to Houston police. The woman died at the hospital, though it remains unclear if the fire contributed to the fatality.

The Montgomery County Forensic Services Department is conducting an autopsy to determine the womans cause and manner of death. Meanwhile, the womans family is in complete shock but trying not to rush to judgment, said Kristi Robbins, the womans niece.

We realize nobody would do that on purpose, said Robbins, who lives in Alabama. But at the same time, it was completely preventable. It should have never happened. There should be protocols in place about having equipment around oxygen.

A hospital spokesperson said she was unable to discuss details about the incident due to patient confidentiality, but confirmed in a statement that a tragic incident happened at the hospital.

The hospital and its medical staff take this matter very seriously. We have begun an internal investigation and are working with local authorities to assist with their investigation. Our current focus is on supporting the family, the hospital statement said. We remain committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all of our patients, visitors and colleagues.

Along with officials and hospital staff, family members are waiting on the results of the investigation.

Our biggest concern is  that it doesnt happen to somebody elses family, Robbins said.

A defibrillator is a medical device that can save a patients life by providing an electric shock to the heart. Patients  who are in bad condition by the time these efforts begin  generally survive resuscitation less often than people think, said Chris Schabowsky, a senior investigator with ECRI. The nonprofit patient safety organization evaluates medical devices and conducts accident investigations.

Defibrillator fires are rare, but can happen under specific circumstances, Schabowsky said.

In general, flames can erupt during defibrillation if two factors collide, he said. First, the adhesive pads used to deliver the shock are not placed properly on the patients chest, creating a spark. Second, the environment is enriched with oxygen. A source of fuel, such as a persons skin or hair, must also be present.

For example, Schabowsky said, a fire could break out if a leak in a patients oxygen supply creates a concentrated pool of oxygen when staff deliver the shock through pads that are not completely touching the persons chest. Other times, the device could malfunction.

Weve seen situations like this occur  theyre very rare, but they can occur, he said. It requires a lot of things to go wrong before something like this occurs.

Schabowsky reiterated that he was not familiar with the particulars of the Saturday incident involving Asaro.

The womans death comes on the heels of a month of tragedy among her family, Robbins said.

Asaro, her husband David, and her two adult sons lived on a property in Cleveland, city northeast of Houston in Liberty County.

Asaro called Robbins in early June with heartbreaking news. When she went to wake up her 47-year-old son for breakfast and work one morning, Asaro found him dead in his bed. The family suspects he died from COVID-19 because he had been sick, though Robbins said the cause of death has not been confirmed.

It was the last time Robbins spoke to her aunt.

By the day of her sons funeral, Asaro and her husband were both hospitalized with COVID-19 and unable to attend the service. David Asaros parents were hospitalized too. Asaros husband died on Fathers Day, Robbins said. The family decided to spare the news from his wife as she battled the disease herself.

Now, Asaros other son is the sole survivor of his immediate family, Robbins said. He is tasked suddenly with managing the legal aspects and funeral arrangements in the wake of three deaths.

Really all of us are speechless. You just cant absorb it. You couldnt write a story like this and people believe you, she said. Its just overwhelming.

Asaro, a teenager when Robbins was born, used to babysit for her niece. They lived down the road from each other throughout middle and high school. Aunt Jill, as Robbins calls her, was always part of her life. She was there for Robbins through motherhood and the illness and deaths of family members.

Years ago, Asaro was seriously injured in a car wreck and developed lupus, an autoimmune disease, Robbins said. A lengthy recovery ensued.

She just fought all the pain and all the treatment. She was in bad shape for a very long time but nobody would know, Robbins said. Thats the kind of amazing person she was.

anna.bauman@chron.com
With the high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans, one Tomball veteran wants to help decrease that rate with the launch of a new book, telling stories of others survival.

The book, Suicide & Trauma Prevention for Warriors, by Warriors, is being written by Charles Wright, who said he came up with the idea for the guidebook while talking in a therapy class with veterans at the Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Tomball, 1200 W. Main St.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Tomball interns great ambassadors for city

The Centers for Disease Control identifies veterans as a group with higher than average suicide rates. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2020 suicide prevention report, veterans made up approximately 8 percent of the U.S. adult population in 2018 but accounted for approximately 13.8 percent of deaths by suicide among the nations adult population.

Wright said veteran suicide trends was a topic of discussion between himself and other veterans at the Tomball VA Clinic.

We wanted to do something, Wright said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: City of Tomball updates strategic plan to make town more livable, stronger

The concept they came up with, he said, was the book, which featured stories from each of the veterans who wanted to participate. The stories detail how they came under stress, and how they overcame the stresses in their life.

There are about 23 contributors in the book, he said, with stories from civilians as well and how they deal with stressors.

Some of the civilians said, I got a stressor and its tough, Wright said. What Im doing with five kids and a husband unemployed; then there was somebody else that lost a child in the backyard in the pool and they wanted to tell the people so they could save a life or two.

Many of the stories convey the deepest thoughts and reflections of traumas experienced by veterans in war. Some of the stories come from Vietnam veterans, including some who were fighter pilots.

They told me that it was more tempting to just fly their plane into the mountains, Wright said. That would be a quick suicide. But they said, No, my other Air Force and Marine buddies needed me back.

While the book will be for sale, Wright said the proceeds from the books sold would be used to help families of veterans with specific needs, such as helping to cover the cost of a washer and dryer. He said the books would be paperback, about 208 pages, and on sale for $15.95 each.

Most people distressed are looking for a tool in their toolbox to help them, and most wont be able to afford a book for $24.95, Wright said. We want this book to be passed on to somebody else. Its not made to make money; its made to save lives. In turn, the money will be there to help people out. I am a retired marine, so I have nothing to do except help save lives.

Suicide & Trauma Prevention for Warriors, by Warriors, is scheduled to launch Sept. 18.

Learn more about the book at stpwarriors.org.

paul.wedding@hcnonline.com
OnSceneTV

A man was killed early Thursday in southeast Houston when someone pulled up alongside his car and began shooting, police said.

Officers responded around 12:37 a.m. to the 7300 block of Cullen Boulevard where they found a vehicle that had crashed into a storefront, said Detective Jason Escobar of the Houston Police Department.
Residents who live along the Houston Ship Channel are more likely to develop cancer and other health issues than the average population, according to city officials and a coalition of environmental groups that found heightened levels of formaldehyde during a recent year-long air monitoring study.

The federally funded study measured formaldehyde levels from September 2019 through September 2020 at sites in Cloverleaf, Galena Park and just east of Channelview. All three sites registered concentrations of formaldehyde, a potent carcinogen, that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agencys baseline of 0.17 parts per billion  the point at which air pollutants would generate one additional cancer case per million people.

On HoustonChronicle.com: 'It's very scary': Childhood leukemia cluster frightens neighborhood in Houston's Fifth Ward

Formaldehyde also is linked to the formation of ozone, which can cause respiratory and cardiac issues, according to environmental officials and advocates who conducted the study.

I know a lot of people here in Galena Park, Pasadena, that have cancer, said Juan Flores, the community air monitoring program manager for Air Alliance Houston. So, this report kind of gives us a lot more credibility in our suspicions weve had over the years on the cancer risks that are here.

The highest levels were measured at the Cloverleaf air monitoring site, where the average formaldehyde reading was 2.28 parts per billion, or 13 times the EPA threshold for increased cancer risk. That level would lead to an extra cancer case per 77,000 people over a lifetime, according to the Houston Health Department.

Meanwhile, formaldehyde levels at the Galena Park monitoring site were seven times above the EPA baseline, while the site at the Lynchburg Ferry crossing near Channelview found levels five times the federal threshold.

Nearby communities, including Allendale, Harrisburg, Manchester, Meadowbrook and Northshore, also face higher cancer risks, according to the study. The areas all line the Ship Channel, home to a heavy petrochemical industry presence, and are home to many Hispanic and low-income residents.

Some of the highest cancer risk census tracts associated with formaldehyde are surrounded predominately (by) neighborhoods of color with high rates of poverty, the study authors wrote.

The study found that higher concentrations of formaldehyde stemmed mostly from industry emissions, which are known to include precursors to formaldehyde such as ethylene and propylene.

In response to the study, Mayor Sylvester Turner called on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to take immediate action to strengthen existing rules governing industrial emissions.

The report is more proof of the unacceptable fact that high poverty communities of color bear the brunt of toxic pollution that sickens and kills throughout generations, Turner said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: This is fine: Purple smoke plume in Houston area actually looked worse than it really was

Loren Hopkins, the citys chief environmental science officer and head of the study, said formaldehyde is an emerging chemical of concern in Houston.

These findings verify for regulators that we do have a formaldehyde problem, Hopkins said.  Stricter limits and control of the gases that form into formaldehyde can benefit public health in multiple ways, because of the fact that formaldehyde is a carcinogen and an ozone-forming pollutant.

Though formaldehyde is federally regulated as a hazardous air pollutant, the study authors recommended TCEQ tighten its rules aimed at reducing the emissions of organic compounds, such as ethylene and propylene, that contribute to ozone formation. Because those gases also produce formaldehyde, the study authors said, state officials have authority to address the issue by amending the states ozone rules for issuing permits.

Hopefully, this is a wake up call for some of our state regulators to use their authority and just pay closer attention to these pollutants when they issue these permits, said Ilan Levin, Texas Director for the Environmental Integrity Project, one of the groups that produced the study.

TCEQ spokesperson Tiffany Young said the agency does not plan to revise its petrochemical emissions rules, in part because the risk of adverse health effects from the measured formaldehyde levels remains low, she said.

As the report noted, most airborne formaldehyde results from photochemical reactions in the atmosphere, rather than being directly emitted, and is therefore difficult to control by directly regulating industrial sources, Young said in a statement. Nevertheless, the formaldehyde levels listed in the report are within EPAs acceptable risk range of 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 1 million.

The EPA adopted its 1-in-10,000 upper limit of acceptable cancer risk in 2008. The levels found at the Ship Channel indicate residents face a heightened risk of cancer over a lifetime in the area, but within the window considered generally acceptable by federal rules.

The report authors said that while formaldehyde can be directly emitted from power plants, incinerators and other industrial sites, it mostly forms along the Ship Channel in the atmosphere through chemical reactions involving organic compounds, including ones emitted by the petrochemical industry in Houston. Less than 5 percent of the formaldehyde in Houstons air was directly emitted by industry sources, the report noted.

As part of the report, the authors also recommended that state and federal authorities ramp up efforts to monitor formaldehyde levels and make any subsequent analysis widely available so that public health risks can be better understood and controlled.

Young said TCEQs view is that no additional monitoring for formaldehyde is required or planned as a result of the studys findings.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
When Millard House II officially starts as the new superintendent of Houston ISD on Thursday, he will have a stack of challenges awaiting his attention.

Some students fell further behind during the coronavirus pandemic while others were lost amid its grip. The district expects to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 stimulus funding with no public plan for the funds in place yet. While teachers are set to receive a raise, their compensation has lagged neighboring districts, and trustees voted three weeks ago to mandate House propose a potentially larger teacher pay raise in August, when the districts financial outlook may be clearer.

As House assumes his new role, members of the HISD community said they hope he can tackle a variety of priorities, from funding to inequities, and expressed excitement to work with him.

On HoustonChronicle.com: He's firm, fair and unflappable, colleagues say. Can Millard House conquer Houston ISD?

The first job as a new superintendent is to learn the community, learn our schools, learn our neighborhoods, said HISD Trustee Anne Sung, who bumped into House this week while visiting schools. Hes already doing that so I think hes off to a great start.

House, 49, who was not made available for an interview this week, arrives from Tennessee, where he led the seventh-largest district in the state, the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. Former colleagues and acquaintances have described him as a leader full of humility who is open-minded and data-driven. He will receive an annual base salary of $350,000 a year in Houston.

At HISD, he will lead a district with nearly 200,000 students  five times more than Clarksville-Montgomery County  through the end of a pandemic that upended students and educators lives.

While his first official day will be Thursday, House started Monday on a contract basis and has been visiting staff, schools and principals, asking what individuals at the district are proud of and about challenges that lay ahead, Sung said. Trustees are scheduled to meet with him on his first day for a retreat.

One of the most urgent items on his plate is creating a plan for utilizing that (federal) funding, Sung said. We need to know for this school year how those dollars are going to be utilized and we need to get them out to schools quickly.

Michel Leon, a rising sophomore at Bellaire High School and a part of the Student Congress leadership team, said she hopes House undertakes a look at underfunded schools and raises for teachers. Additionally, students want a voice, Leon said, and to build a rapport with him.

We want to be heard and listened to, but we also want tangible power and influence just like adults, Leon said. We dont want to be overlooked by him.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston ISD trustees make it official, approve Millard House II as new superintendent

Among the biggest challenges for House and the district will be helping students who fell behind during the pandemic.

Standardized test score data released this week revealed one of the clearest looks yet at the pandemics impact. Roughly two-thirds of HISD eighth-graders did not meet math proficiency, compared with 28 percent in 2019.

Additionally, some students stopped attending class altogether, prompting recovery efforts, such as a recent four-day phone bank aimed at convincing some to return.

We have a tremendous deficit, said Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson, who leads the district's largest employees union. We are very concerned about that. I want him to know that it is not an us against them  it is we. And we all need to be working together, and I think that if that happens  we can be successful.

House will take the helm after years of tumult at the district that has dealt with natural disasters  Hurricane Harvey and the February freeze among them  and as Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has tried to oust the elected school board due to poor accountability ratings at Wheatley High School and a state investigation that found several instances of trustee misconduct.

A lawsuit filed by trustees has put Moraths plans on hold, pending an outcome. If Morath prevails, he could replace House.

I hope that the new superintendent brings with him stability, not just in his own role but also in school leadership, said Jasmine Jenkins, executive director of Houstonians For Great Public Schools, which recently published suggestions for reevaluating budget priorities. I am hoping to see a superintendent who will be marked by strong school leadership and building strong school leaders. Beyond that, I hope that he is really keyed into the wants and needs of parents.

alejandro.serrano@chron.com
Vanessa Wyche was named director of Johnson Space Center Wednesday by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Wyche, the first African American woman to lead a NASA center, had been serving as the acting director since May 3.

Im humbled and honored to be chosen to lead the more than 10,000 employees at Johnson Space Center, said Wyche. I look forward to working with everyone as we push forward to the moon and inspire a new generation of explorers to reach for the stars.

Nelson also named Janet Petro as director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She has served as the acting director of Kennedy since May 17.

Both Vanessa and Janet are exceptional leaders who will help propel NASA forward as we venture farther out into the cosmos than ever before, said Nelson. Its an incredible time at NASA, and with Vanessa and Janet leading the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, NASA will embark on a new era of space exploration.

Wyche earned a bachelors degree in engineering and a masters in bioengineering from Clemson University. As Johnsons director, she will lead a center that directly relates to NASAs human spaceflight missions, the nations astronaut corps, International Space Station mission operations and the Orion Program.

Vanessa is a tenacious leader who has broken down barriers throughout her career, said Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. Vanessas more than three decades at NASA and program experience in almost all of the human spaceflight programs at Johnson is an incredible asset to the agency. In the years to come, Im confident that Houston will continue to lead the way in human spaceflight.

Wyche had served as deputy director of Johnson since August 2018.

Petro began her professional career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, graduating in 1981 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., with a bachelors degree in engineering. She was in the second class of West Point graduates to include women.

Its an honor to be selected to lead Kennedy Space Center, Petro said. Having grown up on Floridas Space Coast and being the second generation in my family to work at Kennedy Space Center, its truly exciting to help grow the multi-user spaceport as we prepare for Artemis and continue launching commercial crew missions to the International Space Station.

At Kennedy, Petro will oversee the centers world class multi-user spaceport, supporting both commercial customers and NASAs science and human exploration missions.

treyvon.waddy@chron.com
In a historic speech in Houston in the late summer of 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy made the American people a promise: If elected president, hed follow the law and his conscience, not the dictates of his churchs leaders, when leading the nation.

Its a speech that Americas Catholic bishops should reflect on as they move ahead with steps that risk the very kind of interference Kennedy vowed to ignore all those years ago.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate should tell the president, should he be Catholic, how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners how to vote, Kennedy told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association Sept. 12, just ahead of the election that would make him the first  and until Joe Bidens election, the only  Catholic president of the United States.

Over the years the speech has been remembered by non-Catholics as a seminal statement about church-state separation, and by many Catholics as a high watermark for prejudice toward their creed, which afterward began to recede.

More than 60 years later, as President Biden nears the six-month mark of his presidency, the old questions of church and state have resurfaced, only this time with a twist. Its not wary voters, suspicious of the influence of a foreign pope, who are looking askance at a Roman Catholic as president. Instead, its a conservative cohort of American Catholic bishops who are mulling whether politicians such as Biden who support womens reproductive rights should be excluded from fully practicing their faith.

Last month, a divided U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to move forward with a document on the Eucharist  that is, the sacrament whereby Catholics receive communion during Mass  that conservatives within the church hope will lead to pro-choice politicians being denied communion. For Catholics, taking communion is central to worship , and such a ban would operate as a kind of soft excommunication.

Biden, who attends Mass often and has said he personally opposes abortion, has nevertheless throughout his political career supported the legal right for women to decide for themselves to have one.

Many Catholics in America share that same ambivalence. A 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 56 percent of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or almost all cases, while only 42 percent think it should be illegal in all or most cases. Last month, a Gallup poll showed 45 percent of Americans think it should be legal in all or some cases, and 52 percent felt it should be illegal in all or most cases.

But some Catholics who strongly oppose abortion view Bidens position as a kind of apostasy  and have for years. In fact, when John Kerry ran for president in 2004, a similar debate over whether he should be denied communion erupted among conservative Catholics. But while some individual bishops said theyd deny him communion, neither the bishops conference nor the pope weighed in formally.

That was the course many bishops urged last month, as voices within the conference warned that a formal step aimed at punishing the president or other pro-choice Catholic politicians would only blunt the churchs teaching authority. "The Eucharist must never be instrumentalized for a political end, no matter how important," said Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego urged his fellow bishops ahead of the June meeting.

In Rome, Pope Francis silence on the bishops vote was interpreted as a chilly rebuke, and a top Vatican official explicitly urged American bishops to be cautious.

But when the conference voted, 75 percent of the bishops supported the formation of a formal statement on the churchs teachings on the Eucharist. JoAnn Zuniga, a spokeswoman for Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Galveston-Houston archdiocese, said the cardinal was not available to discuss his views, and noted that votes at the conference are confidential. But overall, she told the editorial board, such decisions on whether you receive Eucharist are usually up to each individual and their conscience. Like the honor system.

The vote was largely interpreted as a move to punish Biden, though in the uproar that followed, the bishops conference has tried to tamp down the political implications of the discussions. More discussion is scheduled ahead of the next bishops meeting, in November. There, they will likely vote on final wording in a message to all Catholics about the churchs teaching on the Eucharist. Whether that will lead bishops to enforce restrictions on who can receive communion in their dioceses remains to be seen.

Ultimately, of course, what the bishops decide about who may take part in sacraments is their decision. If lay Catholics dont like it, they can leave the church or press the bishops to reconsider.

Outsiders may merely observe. But in doing so, wed like to remind the bishops of the words of Pope Francis, who six years ago became the first ever pontiff to address Congress. In that speech, the pope urged American politicians to protect the unborn, yes, but also to end the death penalty, to open America to refugees and immigrants, and work to end wars across the world and to give workers more and better rights.

If the bishops are going to begin excluding politicians from communion on the basis of just one of those morale crusades, they will soon find themselves accused of cherry-picking priorities, not out of a sense of religious duty, but out of loyalty to an unholy partisan agenda. That is precisely the kind of political intervention from his church Kennedy warned against.
COVID costs

Regarding Masks off and let the unvaccinated pay the consequences for COVID stubbornness, (June 30): Kudos to Chris Tomlinson. Every person has the right to decline being vaccinated. Most who take this route are driven by ideology. But these same people impose a heavy financial burden on the rest of society when they show up at hospitals for treatment of the COVID they contracted exercising their freedom to not be vaccinated.

Although these individuals may be completely covered by insurance, the heavy expense of treatment then falls to the insurance company. The insurance company simply passes these expenses on to policyholders in the form of increased premiums. In other words, we the people pick up the tab.

There should be a COVID vaccination exclusion written into every insurance policy. Just because some ideologically driven individual wants to play with fire the rest of us should not get burned.

Michael Martin, Houston

Thank you Chris Tomlinson. My wife and I got vaccinated months ago and we are still being told we need to wear a mask.

We as a society are constantly being required to pay for others irresponsibility. Red light cameras are another example. You ran the light and could have killed several innocents but, hey, getting caught by a camera infringes on your rights? In Europe they have traffic cameras, not just for red lights but for speeders as well. Just imagine the lives saved, maybe your own. Not to mention that might free up enough police to cut down on the fatal shootings. Two benefits for the price of one.

Robert Mueller, Houston

Gun suit

Regarding Court tosses lawsuits against store in Texas church killing, (June 26): Im not sure who the attorney was who brought the suit, but from my view, he should be disbarred. Based on his thinking: 1) If I drive a Taurus and I hit and kill somebody, Ford Motor Company should be sued, not me. 2) If I drive through a railroad crossing and the gates are down and a train hits me, then Union Pacific should be sued, not me. 3) If I buy a gun and kill somebody, then Smith & Wesson should be sued, not me.

It appears to me that in all these examples, I, and I alone, am responsible for the actions that I take, which is how it should be. Criminals are responsible for their actions and laws against them should be enforced. Law-abiding citizens should not be punished for the few rotten apples in the barrel, just like Academy should not have been sued for selling a gun to some nut running among us! Thats just common sense.

Lillian Shaver, Sugar Land

Performance requirements

Regarding Abbott said lawmakers fixed power grid. So why is Texas sweating out another blackout? (June 16): Allowing the companies involved to be made whole by borrowing billions and passing the costs to customers feels like it could encourage the greedy to sabotage parts of their own systems in a crisis, coming back online just in time to earn obscene profits or another legislative bailout. Since Gov. Greg Abbott is calling a special session because he believes we need reassurance there is no voter fraud, I recommend he use that session to add a reassuring performance clause to those billing customers for the grid failure. I am a retired teacher and when Texas passed a law using money as an incentive to improve teaching, I had to pass a subject knowledge test and take yearly professional development to get and keep my career ladder stipend.

Gov. Abbott, please add a performance requirement that says customers who are denied power for more than 24 hours cant be billed for the freeze bailout bonds. Ill sleep better knowing big power can have their state approved bailout denied if they fail Texans again.

Rodney Dunklee, Nassau Bay

Dangerous ideas

Regarding No mystery why conservatives find education dangerous, (June 27): Leonard Pitts nailed it when noting that conservatives today fail the standard of being able to defend their opinions with facts and recognizable reason. I believe one reason for that is they have an utter disregard, if not contempt, for the truth.

That is exactly what I had to deal with in a debate on Facebook, with a relative no less, who ended up threatening me and getting banned for his efforts.

David Kelly, Spring
With a month to go before his swearing in, Irans president-in-waiting Ebrahim Raisi is getting daily intimations of the many problems that await him: American missile attacks against Iranian proxy militias in Iraq and Syria, an Israeli drone attack on a centrifuge factory near Tehran, stalling negotiations with the world powers in Vienna, and calls for inquiries into his culpability in the countrys 1988 mass execution of political prisoners.

But arguably the most pressing predicament facing the next leader of the Islamic Republic is one thats getting little attention outside the country. Strikes and protests have broken out in Irans critical petroleum industry, where workers are fed up with low wages and poor working conditions. The unrest underscores the gravity of the economic crisis confronting Raisi. It could also precipitate a serious political crisis at the start of his presidency.

Although independent trade unions are technically banned, labor activism has grown more common in recent years as the Iranian economy has been stifled by gross mismanagement, widespread corruption and the constraints imposed by U.S. sanctions. The additional strain of the coronavirus pandemic has left many employers, even state entities, struggling to pay salaries. As a result, there has been a spate of workers protests in many sectors across the country.

For the most part, the strikes have been small and local. But they have occasionally flared into street demonstrations large enough to alarm the regime in Tehran. Its usual response is to blame unspecified enemies and crack down hard on protesters.

But dissatisfied workers in the energy sector represent a threat of a much higher order. The regime has long extolled this labor cohort above all others as working-class heroes. This reflects not only the importance of hydrocarbons to the Iranian economy but the vital role petroleum workers have played in the countrys politics.

There might never have been an Islamic Republic if it werent for the widespread oil strikes in the late 1970s that paralyzed the economy. At the root of those protests were workers grievances over pay and conditions. Matters got out of hand at the end of 1978, when Shah Reza Pahlavi tried to end the strikes by force. After his troops opened fire on demonstrators in the oil-producing regions of the south, the protests spread to other sectors and turned distinctly political, setting the stage for the Shahs ouster in the 1979 revolution.

You can see why any president, even one with Raisis hard-line credentials, would be reluctant to deploy security forces against todays strikers.

The current unrest among energy-sector workers doesnt match the intensity of the protests of 42 years ago, but it comes at a time of widespread dissatisfaction with the countrys political leadership that mirrors the discontent of the 1970s. The regimes legitimacy is at its lowest ebb since the revolution: Turnout in last months presidential election was the lowest ever, and a sizable proportion of voters cast spoiled ballots, a telling indicator of the public mood.

Raisi will inherit an economy that has contracted in each of the past three years, even as the Iranian rial has lost 80 percent of its value and inflation is around a crippling 40 percent. The strikes and protests suggest workers are not inclined to give him much time to set things right.

The president-in-waiting is counting on the nuclear talks in Vienna to be concluded before his swearing in. An agreement would lift the American sanctions and allow Iran to ramp up oil exports, as well as freeing up assets that have been frozen for years. In turn, this would give the regime the resources to address the grievances of the protesting workers.

But Raisi will be keenly aware that the timeline is fraught with peril. Despite repeated claims by Iranian negotiators that a breakthrough is imminent in Vienna, the Biden administration is signaling that it is no hurry to lift economic sanctions. Even if predictions that Iranian oil exports will resume in the fourth quarter are accurate, thats time enough for the discontent among energy-sector workers to rise to fever pitch.

That would leave Raisi dealing, in his first act as president, with an anti-regime revolt in the very sector that is crucial for the prospect of an economic turnaround. And should the protests spread to other industries, the regime of the Islamic Republic may yet be rattled by the forces that attended its birth four decades ago.

Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and Africa.
For the second time in as many years, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw has joined with Democrats to support removing the statues of Confederate leaders from the U.S. Capitol.

Crenshaw, of Houston, was among 67 House Republicans, including five from Texas, who voted in favor of a bill that would remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from display in the United States Capitol, and for other purposes. All Democrats in Congress voted for the bill, which passed 285 to 120.

Statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders would be among those removed if the U.S. Senate follows the Houses action.

Its not a surprise that Crenshaw would be among the Texas Republicans calling for the statues to come down. After voting for the legislation last year, he explained that those statues were largely of figures who were in the Democratic Party.

Im glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence, Crenshaw wrote on Twitter and Facebook last year. Republicans won the Civil War. Thats our history. Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. Thats their history.

While the Democratic Party did include many segregationists through the 1960s, Democratic leaders have been more closely associated with civil rights for the past half century. President Lyndon Johnson successfully pushed for passage of civil and voting rights legislation in the '60s, and more recently Democrats have sought to expand opportunities for Black and Latino voters as Republicans at the state level have pushed controversial election restrictions that some believe are aimed at suppressing that vote. Republicans maintain they're trying to reduce voter fraud.

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Each state has been given two statues in the U.S. Capitol to display. While states like California have Ronald Reagan and Virginia has George Washington, Mississippis two statues are of Davis and Confederate General James Z. George. Other states have already started recalling their statues of Confederate leaders. Virginia, for instance, recently recalled its statue of General Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.

Texas would be unaffected by the removal of Confederates since its two statues are of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston.

This year, the legislation also calls for removing a bust of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote the landmark Dred Scott v. Sandford decision denying citizenship rights for African Americans. The Democrat-led House wants the bust replaced with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice.

Symbols of hate and division have no place in the halls of Congress, said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Maryland.

Besides Crenshaw, the Texas Republicans who voted for removing the statues included Reps. Michael Burgess of Pilot Point; Tony Gonzales of San Antonio; Van Taylor of Plano, and Michael McCaul, of Austin, whose district includes parts of northwest Harris County.

Eight Texas Republicans missed the vote and were with former President Donald Trump on Wednesday at the Texas border. Trump has defended memorials and institutions named for Confederate figures, and last year vetoed a military spending bill because of language that would have renamed military bases named for Confederate military leaders. Congress overrode the veto.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com
Senators Dave Schatz, R-St. Louis and President Pro Tem, and Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia and Majority Floor Leader, listen to comments by Democrat leaders on Friday, May 14, 2021, the last day of the 2021 legislative session.
The American flag waves outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on Friday, May 14, 2021, the last day of the 2021 legislative session.
Houston, MO (65483)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 88F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable.
Houston, MO (65483)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 88F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
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Chicago distributes free Lollapalooza tickets to encourage COVID-19 vaccination

In the latest effort to encourage more of its citizens to get the COVID-19 vaccine, public health officials in Chicago are now offering free passes to Lollapalooza in exchange for the shot.

Guest post form Celebrity Access

CHICAGO (CelebrityAccess)  Public health officials are using free festival tickets to help convince the hesitant to finally get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19.

Over the weekend, four of Chicagos vaccination sites were transformed into a Lollapalooza Experience with DJs spinning music from artists who are scheduled to appear at the festival this year, along with merchandise and free concert tickets to this years Lolla.

As well, people who were vaccinated through the events were invited to a free concert at the House of Blues, where the free festival passes will be distributed.

The promotion is part of the Protect Chicago Music Series, which offers free passes to music events to help encourage the vaccine hesitant to finally get their shot.

According to Chicagos ABC7/WLS 1,200 single-day passes were given away on at the vaccine centers on Saturday and another 500 four-day passes on Sunday.

Lollapalooza is scheduled to return to Chicago this year from July 29th through August 1st.

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Olympic athlete Morgann LeLeux Romero will be honored with a parade put on by the 
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Abou Shaleh was in the Sudanese capital to cover demonstrations against Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok when security armed forces arrested him.

According to his colleague Al-Taher Al-Mardi, who was with Shaleh at the time of his detention, the authorities didnt give him time to introduce himself as a reporter for Al Jazeera. They took him right away to an undisclosed location.

In a statement, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network described their reporter's arrest humiliating and demanded accountability.

While the Network expresses its relief for the return of Ali to his family, it denounces the violent abduction and humiliating treatment he endured during his brief detention. Al Jazeera demands that those responsible for this reprehensible behaviour be held accountable, the statement said.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: We join the SJU in condemning the arbitrary arrest of journalist Ali Abou Shaleh while carrying out his job as a journalist. The Sudanese authorities must stop targeting and harassing media workers reporting on public demonstrations.

In a statement, the SJU said: "We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. It demonstrates how the Transitional Government in Sudan is determined to punish and silence journalists. During the past two years, security forces closed down newspapers, TVs, and radio stations, arrested journalists, and dismissed 79 journalists from their jobs at the state-owned media without paying them their end-of-service compensations."
Sri Lankas media minister Keheliya Rambukwella informed reporters his ministry would not launch an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in media institutions despite a significant number of women journalists sharing their experiences on Twitter. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliates, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association (SLWJA), the Free Media Movement (FMM) and the Federation of Media Employees' Trade Union (FMETU) urge the Sri Lankan government not to delay the investigations into the issue.

Rambukwella backtracked on the announcement made on July 22 that said his ministry would investigate the reports made on social media of sexual abuse against media workers in newsrooms. On June 24, Rambukwella retracted this and said the government would not recognise complaints of sexual harassment in Sri Lankas newsrooms made on social media. According to Rambukwella formal complaint must be filed with the police or the media ministry for the government to begin an investigation.

The initial announcement was made after a female journalist Sarah Kellapatha tweeted about her bitter experience of being sexually abused on June 18 and other female journalists joined in to speak up about their own sexual violence experiences.

Salacious remarks over dresses, body shaming, unwanted kisses and kissing attempts, unwanted expressions, rape threats and other forms of abuses were commonplace in newsrooms according to the comments by women journalists in the online outpouring. Sarah Kellapatha said on Twitter: Ive had a male colleague threaten to rape me once during a normal conversation we were having.

Female journalists shared that the most common sexual predators were their seniors and bosses. Sahla Ilham, another female journalist who spoke out on Twitter, said she was sexually abused by a famous editor at a now-defunct paper and that he had pressured her family to keep the incident quiet. One of the journalists behind the online campaign, Aisha Nazim, compiled a list of abusive experiences shared by women media workers on a Twitter thread on June 18.

These posts by female media workers had a different character to the 2019 #MeToo campaign and included more detailed information about the perpetrators. Sri Lankan media fraternities are strongly supporting the campaign, say activists.

According to Sri Lankas criminal law, sexual predators may be imprisoned for up to five years, fined or both, and may have to pay compensation for sexual abuse. Ermiza Tegal, a lawyer who spoke to The Hindu, said the criminal law is rarely used due to limited access to justice. Tegal cited examples of complaints not being recorded, victims being ridiculed, intimidated, and threatened, a failure to initiate legal proceedings, lengthy court cases, continued exposure to the alleged perpetrator and possible reprisal because of prolonged court cases, and procedures such as in-person identification parade.

SLWJA general secretary, Frank De Zoysa, said: The SLWJA strongly condemns such crimes taking place in media industry. We urge the relevant authorities to carry out proper investigations on the sexual violence allegations and take necessary legal actions against the culprits.

FMM convener, Seetha Ranjanee, said: Impartial investigation should be carried out expeditiously, especially regarding incidents in State media institutions. The FMM requests all stakeholders to take an active role in formulating gender policy. Introduction of gender sensitive guidelines in all media outlets should not be delayed any further.

FMETU general secretary, Dharmasiri Lankapeli, said: The Government of Sri Lanka, which has signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), must take immediate action against the perpetrators of sexual abuse. The FMETU calls on the government to take immediate action to end the ongoing sexual harassment of women in the English, Sinhala and Tamil medium media houses.

The IFJ said: Women journalists in Sri Lanka have called time on abuses that have clearly been endured for too long in silence. Now it is time for serious action, not only by investigators but also by media companies to take full responsibility to eliminate sexual violence in the workplace.
In the TV series Teskilat two undercover Turkish security agents are stopped at a checkpoint entering Northern Iraq and show their press cards, claiming they are working journalists. The cards are replicas of the IFJ issued IPC, the worlds oldest and most-recognised media accreditation for professionals.

Unions in Turkey and Iraq condemned the scene, claiming it put all bona fide journalists in the region in danger.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: The IPC is a vital tool for professional journalists to ease access and provide a greater degree of safety and protection. Dramas like this run the risk of casting suspicion on the holders of such a card and thereby potentially put them in danger. We urge all programme-makers to understand the possible serious consequences for their media colleagues of such use of press cards.
BBC News presenter Michelle Fleury mistakenly referred to Bill Cosby as former US president Bill Clinton in a news broadcast yesterday, prompting an apology from the broadcaster.

The news channel was reporting on Cosbys release from prison, after the comedian and Cosby Show stars sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

You can read an in-depth explanation of the decision here, covering why he was released, what happens now, and whether Cosby could be in-line for a pay-out.

Covering the story for BBC News, Fleury was reporting from outside SCI state prison, when she said: For the last two years this is where Bill Clinton has called home but tonight he will sleep in his own bed after the bombshell decision by Pennsylvania to overturn his conviction of sexual assault.

When the coverage then switched back to the BBC studio, presenter Huw Edwards issued a clarification and apology for the slip-up.

Just to clarify what was said there at Michelles introduction to the story when she mistakenly said Bill Clinton instead of Bill Cosby... We apologise for the mistake; the story of course is about Bill Cosby, the entertainer.

The error hadnt gone unnoticed by viewers, with some people flagging the clip on social media.

The BBC mixing up Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby on the evening news bulletin is quite the mood, wrote one person.

What a mistake, wrote someone else.

Responding to the news, author Dylan Farrow said the decision to overturn Cosbys sexual assault conviction was a travesty.

For those who question myself and other survivors about the reasons and timing of coming forward, I hope that today will serve a teachable moment on empathy and why it takes years  if ever  for someone to discuss their abuse, she wrote in a Twitter statement,

Many survivors will look at the events of today and decide its not worth it; that even when justice is served, it can be taken away.
The Cosby Show actor Phylicia Rashad, who played Bill Cosbys wife on the long-running sitcom, has posted on Twitter that she supports survivors of sexual assault after her earlier post celebrating her former co-stars release from prison sparked a social media backlash.

Cosby was released from prison earlier today after his 2018 conviction for sexual assault was overturned.

Rashad wrote on Twitter: I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.

The earlier post she refers to remains on her Twitter feed. It reads: FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!

Rashad attached a recent photograph of Cosby to the message.
Prehistoric elephants were pushed to extinction by extreme global environmental change rather than being over-hunted by early humans, according to a study.

The research indicates that the extinction of the last mammoths and mastodonts at the end of the last Ice Age was the final part of progressive climate-driven decline among elephants over millions of years.

Previously, it had been claimed that early human hunters slaughtered prehistoric elephants, mammoths and mastodonts over millennia.

Elephants were once a diverse and widespread group of giant herbivores, known as the proboscideans, which included the now-extinct mastodonts, stegodonts and deinotheres.

England was home to three types of elephants: two giant species of mammoths and the straight-tusked elephant, just 700,000 years ago.

Now, elephants are restricted to three endangered species in the African and Asian tropics.

The latest research was carried out by group of palaeontologists from the universities of Alcala, Bristol, and Helsinki.

They examined how 185 different species of elephants and their predecessors adapted over 60 million years of evolution that began in North Africa.

Museum fossil collections from across the world, including London's Natural History Museum and the Paleontological Institute in Moscow, were used as part of the research.

Researchers investigated traits such as body size, skull shape and the chewing surface of teeth. They discovered that all proboscideans fell within one of eight sets of adaptive strategies.

Dr Zhang Hanwen, of the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said: "Remarkably for 30 million years, the entire first half of proboscidean evolution, only two of the eight groups evolved.

"Most proboscideans over this time were nondescript herbivores ranging from the size of a pug to that of a boar. A few species got as big as a hippo, yet these lineages were evolutionary dead-ends.

"They all bore little resemblance to elephants."

The course of evolution for proboscideans changed dramatically about 20 million years ago, when the Afro-Arabian plate collided into the Eurasian continent.

Arabia allowed a migration corridor for the herbivores to explore new habitats in Eurasia, then into North America through the Bering Land Bridge.

Dr Juan Cantalapiedra, of the University of Alcala in Spain, said: "The immediate impact of proboscidean dispersals beyond Africa was quantified for the very first time in our study.

"Those archaic North African species were slow-evolving with little diversification, yet we calculated that once out of Africa proboscideans evolved 25 times faster, giving rise to a myriad of disparate forms, whose specialisations permitted niche partition between several proboscidean species in the same habitats.

"One case in point being the massive, flattened lower tusks of the 'shovel-tuskers'. Such coexistence of giant herbivores was unlike anything in today's ecosystems."

The researchers found that the changing global climate reduced the once greatly diverse and widespread mastodonts to less than a handful of species in the Americas.

By three million years ago, the elephants and stegodonts of Africa and eastern Asia seemed to be surviving.

However, environmental disruption connected to the Ice Ages forced the species to adapt to new, more austere habitats.

The study showed the final extinction peaks for proboscideans started about 2.4 million years ago for Africa, 160,000 years ago for Eurasia and 75,000 years ago for the Americas.

Researchers say those ages are not the precise timings of extinction but the points in time where proboscideans on the continents became subject to higher extinction risk.

The ages also do not correlate with the expansion of early humans and their enhanced capabilities to hunt down the large herbivores.

Dr Zhang said this suggests the pattern of proboscidean extinctions could have happened without the impact of early humans, which contradicts claims that they wiped out prehistoric elephants.

"Although this isn't to say we conclusively disproved any human involvement," Dr Zhang added.

"In our scenario, modern humans settled on each landmass after proboscidean extinction risk had already escalated."

The study, The rise and fall of proboscidean ecological diversity, is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
 Close Satellite video of 'firestorm' over Canada cause 700,000 lightning strikes in one night

A town in British Columbia which experienced record-high temperatures earlier this week has been largely destroyed by wildfire, with at least two deaths reported.

Lytton endured highs of 49.6 C on Tuesday, the day before 1,000 residents from the area were forced to flee their homes because of the encroaching flames.

A couple in their 60s who took cover from the fire died after a power pole collapsed and fell onto them, according to the Vancouver Sun.

By Thursday afternoon, most homes and buildings in Lytton were ruined, said Mike Farnworth, British Columbias safety minister.

The British Columbia Wildfire Service reported that the Lytton wildfire was burning out of control over an area of approximately 30 square miles.

Referring to the damage wrought by the flames, John Haugen, acting chief of Lytton First Nation, said: It was like a war zone last night.

The wildfires were sparked by an unprecedented heatwave across western Canada and the US, which is believed to have killed hundreds of people in British Columbia and the American states of Oregon and Washington.
Chinas Communist Party (CCP) celebrated the centenary of its founding on Thursday, as Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech warning off foreign forces from trying to bully China.

Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people, he told an enthusiastic crowd waving Chinas Communist Party flags.

In the speech, Xi highlighted the need to modernise Chinas military in order to safeguard the country while he reiterated the importance of making the mission to reunite with Taiwan an unswerving historical mission for the party.
A headless body found in woodland near the coastal town of Salcombe is that of a missing woman last seen two weeks ago, police have said.

Mee Kuen Chong, 67, also known as Deborah, was reported missing to the Metropolitan Police on 11 June, a day after she was last seen in Wembley, London, where she lived.

Detectives said the circumstances around Ms Chongs death are being investigated as officers work to establish her movements before she died.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said on Wednesday it was believed Mrs Chongs body had been there for some days.

Police are now appealing for information from the public to help trace her last movements, he said. They are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen Mrs Chong between Thursday 10 June and Sunday 27 June.

Recommended Headless body found in Devon woods baffles detectives

He added this includes any hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation where she may have stayed and also from anyone who knows why she was in Salcombe.

The force was called to a wooded area near Bennett Road, Salcombe, in Devon, at about 5pm on Sunday after the body was first discovered.

Woodland below Devon Road and above Bennett Road in the area, which are now cordoned off, are popular with dog walkers.

Ms Chongs disappearance sparked a wide appeal for information earlier in the month.

In a social media post on 15 June, Brent Metropolitan Police service said: Police need your help to locate MEE (DEBORAH) CHONG who has been reported #missing from her home address in #Wembley. If seen please call 101 ref 21MIS016922.

Ms Chong, originally from Malaysia, had been living in the Wembley area of the capital since 2004.

Rounding off the statement issued on Wednesday, the police spokesman said multiple inquiries would be carried out in Salcombe over the coming days and warned the local community should expect to see a high level of police activity.

Police would like to reassure the public that while this discovery may cause some concerns in the community, the heightened police presence is to investigate all of the circumstances, he added.

Anyone with information is asked to email 101dc.police.uk or phone 101, quoting reference number 0700 of 27 June.
A Liverpool man has been charged with riding an e-scooter while over over twice the legal limit, police said  the latest in a series of safety incidents involving the devices.

Tom Worrall, 28, was riding with another male passenger who fell off the scooter and sustained a severe ankle injury in Great George Street on Tuesday, Merseyside Polices Road Policing Unit said.

Police also warned e-scooter users to avoid drinking and driving and refrain from carrying passengers.

It comes as a number of cities trial rental electric scooter schemes that can be used on roads.

The Swedish-based e-scooter company Voi launched in Liverpool in October last year. The year-long pilot scheme was a joint initiative of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Liverpool City Council and became a familiar sight in other metropolitan cities, including London.

Last month, Voi said the company added artificial noises to their scooters to emit danger warnings to pedestrians - particularly partially sighted and blind people.

Private e-scooters can only legally be used in the UK on private land but are nonetheless a common sight on roads and pavements.

In April, a three-year-old boy suffered serious injuries when he was hit from behind by an e-scooter while walking on a pavement with his grandmother in Feltham, west London.

YouTube star and TV presenter Emily Hartridge became the first person in the UK to be killed while riding an e-scooter when she was struck by a lorry in Battersea, south London, in July 2019.
Police breached fundamental rights at the Sarah Everard vigil and demonstrations against controversial protest laws in Bristol, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

Officers misinterpreted coronavirus laws to apply a presumption of illegality to the events in March, antagonised protesters and used excessive force, said a report published on Thursday.

It found that following a kill the bill protest that descended into violence and vandalism in Bristol, male police officers gained entry into two young womens homes while disguised as postal workers  before realising they had been wrongly identified as suspects and were innocent.

One of the women, a student, was handcuffed while partially undressed and having a panic attack, while the other was threatened with multiple Tasers.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Democracy and the Constitution said police had been put in a difficult position ahead of the process by the ambiguity of Covid restrictions at the time, which neither explicitly permitted nor explicitly banned protest.

But it found that both forces involved, the Metropolitan Police and Avon and Somerset Constabulary, failed to understand their legal duties in respect of protest or to conduct a proper assessment of the proportionality of their actions.

The APPG became the latest parliamentary group to condemn controversial protest laws proposed in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

It said seven clauses should be removed from the law because they unnecessarily expand police powers over peaceful protest, create excessive legal ambiguity, and are a recipe for the arbitrary use of power.

They included the ability to impose restrictions on assemblies based on noise, or ban protests by a single person, as well as the creation of a criminal offence of public nuisance and lowering the bar for prosecuting people who violate conditions.

Geraint Davies, the chair of the APPG, said the Everard vigil and Bristol protests showed that the law must be clear that the police have a duty to facilitate the right to peaceful protest.

The police must not become the enforcement agency of the state against those who choose to publicly and collectively call for change  political, economic, social or environmental, he added.

 Reclaim These Streets organisers hit back at police defence over Sarah Everard vigil

Parliament must protect our freedoms and reject attempts to increase police power and restrict our right to peaceful protest. The police should help to facilitate the expression of peaceful protest and not drive opposition underground.

The inquiry took a starkly different position from previous reports by the national policing watchdog, which found that new protest powers were justified and Scotland Yard had acted appropriately at the Sarah Everard vigil.

The APPG said it could not give full weight to HM Inspectorate of Constabularys report on the vigil because it did not take account of testimonies from attendees.

The inquiry found Scotland Yard engaged with both organisers and attendees in an antagonistic manner, releasing a press statement saying the 13 March vigil would be unlawful while talks with organisers were ongoing.

The group that originally organised the vigil, Reclaim These Streets, withdrew after members were threatened with 10,000 fines and prosecution.

What could have been an organised, Covid-safe event was, as a result, an ad hoc gathering in an already antagonistic situation, the APPG report said.

The Metropolitan Police increased the risk to both officers and civilians.

On several occasions the force used by officers against attendees was not proportionate, the report finds (Reuters)

Members criticised the decision to start ordering attendees to leave and making arrests, which sparked viral images of male officers holding women to the ground and carrying them away.

They found the situation had been created by the earlier failure to engage productively with organisers and that although officers were verbally abused, the handling of the event had caused escalation.

Attendees told the inquiry the vigil was already beginning to break up when police started ordering people to disperse at around 6.30pm, but that people decided to stay when male police officers forced their way to the bandstand and ordered the speakers on it to go home.

On several occasions the force used by officers against attendees was not proportionate, the report added.

Witnesses describe officers throwing women to the ground and holding them down.

It found that Avon and Somerset Police had also contributed to an atmosphere of antagonism before a demonstration against proposed protest laws on 21 March.

Protesters told the inquiry that a sit-down protest outside Bridewell Police Station had been generally peaceful before an isolated incident involving two aggressive individuals.

Police failed to distinguish between violent and peaceful protestors in Bristol, according to the report (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Police subsequently attacked protestors with pepper spray and beat individuals who were sitting on the ground, the report said.

More than 60 attendees were subsequently injured. Police claim that protestors threw missiles, smashed windows at Bridewell Police Station and set several police vehicles alight. It is not clear who struck first.

The APPG concluded that some force was justified but police had failed to distinguish between violent and peaceful protestors, and had wrongly used force against journalists.

It said that the operation involving officers posing as postal workers days later raises serious questions about police behaviour, sensitivity, and accountability.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary said it strongly refutes some of the report's findings and that when it attempted to engage with organisers no-one identified themselves.

It added: We remain in the middle of one of the largest investigations ever carried out by Avon and Somerset Police, after police vehicles were damaged and set alight, officers were assaulted and our neighbourhood police station was vandalised during a riot. So far weve made 69 arrests with 21 people charged.

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, of the Metropolitan Police, said officers demosntrated patience and restraint at the Sara Everard vigil.

I stand by the actions of those officers who policed the events on Clapham Common, she added. Those officers were met with an extraordinarily challenging circumstance and demonstrated the highest degree of professionalism in their engagement with those gathering.

A government spokesperson defended the proposed new laws, and said they would enable police to better manage demonstrations.

The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and our proposed measures in no way curtail the right to peaceful protest, a statement added.
Donald Trumps company and its chief financial officer have been indicted by a New York grand jury after an investigation into the former presidents business dealings.

The charges facing the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg remain sealed but are expected to be made public on Thursday and are thought to be related to unpaid taxes on fringe benefits enjoyed by executives at the company.

Mr Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family since 1973, is expected to surrender at the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, and appear before a state judge later in the day to be arraigned, according to The Washington Post.

The charges are the fist to come down after a two year investigation into Mr Trumps company by the Manhattan prosecutors office, which presented its evidence to the grand jury.

It is not illegal for executives to receive benefits such as housing, cars or school fees, but they have tax implications that must be accounted for.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has also opened civil investigations into Mr Trumps business and has two of her lawyers working with Mr Vances criminal probe.

Mr Trump has accused both prosecutors of conducting politically motivated investigations and has denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this week he branded Mr Vances investigators as rude, nasty, and totally biased in how they have treated his companys lawyers and employees.

Mr Trumps personal lawyer, Ron Fischetti, said on Monday that prosecutors had told him that Mr Trump was not facing any charges in the first wave of indictments, and downplayed the legal threat faced by the one-term president.

On Monday, attorneys for the company reportedly with prosecutors under a last-minute deadline to dissuade them from moving forward with charges against the company, which serves as an umbrella for Mr Trumps real estate and other business holdings.

In February, the district attorneys office  working in tandem with the New York Attorney Generals office  obtained years of the former presidents financial documents after a protracted legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court.

Mr Vances office has not publicly revealed the scope of potential allegations, but court filings in 2020 revealed that his office argued that previously reported allegations of tax and insurance fraud justified a grand jury probe into the former president and his company.

Hours before news of the charges broke, Mr Trump was in Texas, visiting the US-Mexico border.
The rescue mission at the Miami condo complex that part toppled last week has been paused following worries the rest of the building could collapse.

This pause comes as South Florida braces for a potential tropical storm and the building is visited by President Joe Biden later today.

Its on stand by right now, a police officer said.

So far 18 bodies have been found in the rescue effort and 145 people remain missing.

Last night rescuers found the bodies of two sisters, Lucia Guara, 10, and Emma Guara, 4 in the rubble. Their parents also did not survive.

The rescue effort has brought in specially-trained emergency workers from across the world including Mexico and Israel.

More than 400 rescue workers are at the scene, rotating in and out from the rubble every 45 minutes during 12-hour shifts. At any given time, six or seven squads  each with six members  tramp over the mountain of debris or tunnel into it.

No one has been pulled out alive from the ruins since the first hours after the building fell.

Work was officially stopped around 3am local time on Thursday amid fears the rubble was shifting.

It currently remains uncertain why the building, which was only 40 years old, fell as people slept.

Yesterday, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology said they planned to begin a full investigation into the collapse.

Associated Press contributed to this report
In Michael Cohens testimony to members of Congress in 2019, one name came up more than 20 times.

When asked by House Democrats who else would have access to business or financial records that could implicate Donald Trump in a range of investigations, from his campaigns connections to Russia to hush money payments involving an adult film star, his former attorney listed the names of several Trump insiders  starting with Allen Weisselberg.

The man at the centre of investigations and criminal charges involving Mr Trumps business, other than the former president whose name is emblazoned in gold on its Manhattan headquarters, is a press-averse accountant who has presided over the companys finances for decades.

Mr Weisselberg, the Trump Organizations longtime chief financial officer, was criminally charged on 1 July 2021 following a years-long probe from the Manhattan District Attorneys office and a parallel investigation from the New York State Attorney General into allegations of tax evasion and fraud.

He has pleaded not guilty to 15 counts, including conspiracy, grand larceny and tax fraud.

Prosecutors allege Mr Wesselberg was connected to a 15-year scheme, including evading taxes on $1.7m of income.

Since 2017, the company has been held under a trust controlled by the former president and his adult sons  along with Mr Weisselberg, the only person not named Trump to oversee the companys accounting.

But Mr Weisselbergs name also appears on other company cheques and documents going back decades, and he would be familiar with its tax returns, its lenders and investors, and is said to track every penny going in and out of the company, according to The Associated Press.

Given his institutional knowledge, the potential testimony and evidence from one of the Trump familys longest-serving confidants in its sprawling empire could expose the former president in a potential criminal case.

Mr Weisselbergs attorney Mary Mulligan declined to provide comment to The Independent.

Now 73 years old, Mr Weisselberg first started working with the Trump family in the 1970s, when he worked under Fred Trump, the former presidents father  long before his sons legacy of real estate fortunes and failures, bankruptcies, and reality TV ascendance; Mr Weisselberg even appeared briefly as a guest judge on a 2004 episode of NBCs The Apprentice.

The Weisselberg family also has grown into the Trumps  his son Barry Weisselberg has managed the Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park, and another son, Jack, is an executive director at Ladder Capital, one of the biggest lenders to the Trump Organization, along with Deutsche Bank.

Jennifer Weisselberg, who was married to Mr Weisselbergs son, Barry, for 14 years, has cooperated with the latest investigations and suggested that prosecutors have sought to flip the CFO.

Mr Weisselberg also spoke to federal prosecutors as part of the investigation in which Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, after buying the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with Mr Trump, including Stormy Daniels and Playboy centrefold Karen McDougal.

Mr Weisselberg was not charged in that case, but Cohen connected him to the $130,000 payment to Ms Daniels.

He received limited immunity in the grand jury probe, which would preclude any truthful statements from being used against him in a criminal case.

In February, the office of Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance obtained years of the former presidents financial documents after a protracted legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court.

The office has not publicly revealed the scope of potential allegations, but court filings in 2020 revealed that his office argued that previously reported allegations of tax and insurance fraud justified a grand jury probe into the former president and his company.

In documents filed in the US Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutors argued that mountainous allegations against the president  including misstatements about his business properties to insurers, potential lenders and the government  could establish crimes including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records, among others.

The nations high court rejected arguments from the former president and his legal team that he retained an executive immunity from complying with subpoenas, while swatting away the investigation as a fishing expedition or part of a partisan witch hunt.

The Trump Organizations legal team anticipates charges related to alleged failures to pay taxes on fringe benefits and corporate perks, including cash, cars and property given to employees; its unclear who received those benefits and what the total amounts to.

In a statement following reports of imminent criminal charges involving his company, Mr Trump said that his dealings are standard practice throughout the US business community, and in no way a crime.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press
Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defence who oversaw the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under President George W Bushs administration, died at the age of 88, his family said on Wednesday.

Mr Rumsfeld served as US secretary of defence under two administrations, and became the youngest-ever person to serve in the role when in 1975 he was confirmed during President Gerald Fords administration. Under Mr Ford, he oversaw the US transition from a drafted military to an all-volunteer system.

His most notable contributions to US foreign policy came under the second Bush administration, when in the days following the 11 September terror attacks Mr Rumsfeld directed not only the invasion of Afghanistan but was reported to have privately made a significant push to invade Iraq as well. He believed there was a link between the 9/11 attackers and Saddam Husseins government, although none was ever found. However, he remained a leading proponent of the administrations so-called war on terror.

President George W Bush yesterday praised his steady service as a wartime secretary of defence  a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honour.

George W Bush and Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in 2008 (AP)

The US invaded both countries under Mr Rumsfelds leadership of the Pentagon, and Mr Rumsfeld saw his reputation tarnished as he became the face of the administrations efforts to prove that Iraq had a stockpile and was actively producing weapons of mass destruction, none of which were ever located. He also became known for an infamous press conference in 2002 during which the military official referred to known knowns and unknowns in a delivery that came to sum up the United States convoluted efforts in the Middle East.

Further tarnishing his record were the war crimes committed by US service members at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, for which Mr Rumsfeld publicly took responsibility as head of the Defence Department.

A statement from the family of Donald Rumsfeld: pic.twitter.com/AlKYxVvqgF  Donald Rumsfeld (@RumsfeldOffice) June 30, 2021

"These events occurred on my watch as secretary of defence. I am accountable for them, he said at the time.

The scandal and his overseeing of the US detention of suspected enemy combatants, many of whom were subject to enhanced interrogation techniques commonly known as torture, led to human rights groups in the US and abroad, including the American Civil Liberties Union calling for him to face criminal charges, though a court ruled in 2007 that he could not be held liable.

In his later years following a resignation from the cabinet in 2006, Mr Rumsfeld penned a memoir, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, for which he donated the proceeds to veterans groups. He also founded The Rumsfeld Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that encourages younger Americans to enter public service.
Donald Trump slammed his former ally Mitch McConnell, telling a crowd in Texas that the recent bipartisan infrastructure deal shows the Republican party needs someone better.

You need better leadership at the Senate level, he told Fox Newss Sean Hannity during a town hall-style event on Wednesday evening. You need someone better than Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell can no longer do the job.

The Senate leader was a crucial ally to the former president throughout his time in office, often tacitly or explicitly backing his most unprecedented actions. However, a public rift has been growing between the two men since 6 January, when a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.

That day, even before the mob breached the building, Mr McConnell refused to go along with more than a hundred of his GOP colleagues and spoke out against their spurious 2020 election challenges.

If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral, the Kentucky senator said at the time.

The Senate leader went at Mr Trump even more directly the next month, declaring him morally responsible for the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, which he said represented a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.

There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day, Mr McConnell said, though he ultimately voted not to impeach the president on riot-related charges.

In response, Mr Trump slammed Mr McConnell as a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack.

Their feud has only grown more intense in recent days, after the revelation that the Senate leader urged Trump administration attorney general William Barr to speak out against Mr Trumps wild election conspiracy theories this fall without alienating the president as a campaign ally during runoff Senate elections in the swing state of Georgia. Mr Barr, speaking with journalist Jonathan Karl in the forthcoming book Betrayal, said he knew Mr Trumps election claims were bullsh** and later announced that the Justice Department hadnt seen evidence of any substantive problems with the vote.

The former president claimed falsely that Mitch McConnell couldve handed him the presidency, even though states had already certified their election results, and suggested the Republican leader lost the GOP both Georgia Senate seats, even though Mr Trump himself spent days relentlessly attacking the states elections as corrupt, leading many in the party to worry he was depressing turnout in a razor-thin election. Had Mitch McConnell fought for the Presidency like he should have, there would right now be Presidential Vetoes on all of the phased Legislation that he has proved to be incapable of stopping, the former president said in a statement, adding, Not to mention, he lost two Senatorial seats in Georgia, making Republicans the minority in the Senate.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is endorsing a Democrat-turned-Republican who's challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the state's 2022 Republican primary.

Giuliani spoke to reporters Wednesday before headlining a fundraising dinner for former state Rep. Vernon Jones in Atlanta.

Jones was on the outs with his party when he shot to prominence in Republican circles as an African American Democrat who endorsed Donald Trumps reelection campaign. Jones has since switched parties and doubled down in support of Trumps false claims of election fraud, appealing to Republican voters in Georgia who might be unhappy with Kemp. Trump has repeatedly attacked Kemp but has not so far endorsed Jones.

Giuliani said his main reason for endorsing Jones was their shared belief that then-President Trump was cheated out of Georgia's 16 electoral votes and the overall election.

The current governor has been a failure. I mean, he's had his time. He put together an election that wouldn't have passed muster in Africa, Asia, in undeveloped countries, Giuliani said.

An state appeals court suspended Giuliani from practicing law in New York last week because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Trumps loss in the presidential race. Elected mayor on the strength of his record as a federal prosecutor, Giuliani said Wednesday that the judges who suspended his license ruled out of fear of political retribution from Democrats.

Kemp is Georgia's former secretary of state, but had little role in 2020's election administration besides certifying results showing that Biden had won. Kemp this year signed and has championed an election law that Democrats have attacked as discriminatory, but Jones contends Kemp should have done more, including calling a special session to try to block Georgia's electoral votes from going to Biden.

Jones has also been supported by former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Trump pardoned Kerik after Kerik pleaded guilty to tax fraud and false statement charges years earlier and served prison time. Jones said Wednesday that Kerik, who attended the news conference, is serving as a law enforcement adviser to Jones' campaign.

Jones, 60, served multiple terms in the Georgia House, sandwiching a troubled turn as elected leader of Atlantas suburban DeKalb County.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
In a major test of what remains of the landmark Voting Rights Act, the US Supreme Court has upheld two Arizona laws that voting rights advocates argued have disproportionately hurt minority voters, a decision that will likely make it more difficult to challenge recent Republican-backed laws restricting voting access.

The courts 6-3 decision could reverberate in legal challenges to sweeping elections laws and voter suppression campaigns from GOP lawmakers in the wake of their 2020 election losses.

One 2016 law in Arizona made it a felony to return someone elses signed and sealed mail-in ballot, a practice condemned as ballot harvesting by Republicans, but has become popular among get-out-the-vote campaigns and in communities without easy access to mail or post offices, particularly in rural Native communities where mail service can be limited.

Another rejects provisional ballots  ballots used by voters if officials cannot immediately determine at the polls whether a voter is eligible to cast a normal in-person ballot  if they are cast at the wrong polling location, despite the frequency of location changes and closures. The state leads the country in tossing out provisional ballots.

The courts three liberal justices dissented on Thursday, the last day of the high courts current term.

Today, the Court undermines Section 2 and the right it provides, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent. The majority fears that the statute Congress wrote is too radical  that it will invalidate too many state voting laws. ... So the majority writes its own set of rules, limiting Section 2 from multiple directions.

In a dissent that traces the nations history of voter enfranchisement and discrimination, she said that the courts majority has rewritten  in order to weaken  a statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses.

While the decision upholds the Arizona laws, it does not take the grave step of striking down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a critical provision that prohibits racially discriminatory laws.

The ruling follows the recent anniversary of the Supreme Courts decision in Shelby County v Holder that gutted critical federal oversight measures from the 1965 Voting Rights Act to protect against discriminatory laws.

That 2013 ruling struck out federal preclearance guidelines that required states with histories of racial discrimination at the polls from implementing new elections laws without federal approval.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote against preclearance provisions for the courts 5-4 opinion, writing that things have changed dramatically following the Voting Rights Acts passage, suggesting that discriminatory laws were a thing of the past.

After passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the Justice Department rejected more than 1,000 proposed changes to voting laws to prevent discriminatory outcomes.

But after the high courts ruling in 2013, states closed hundreds of polling places, disproportionately targeting areas with voters of colour, and GOP lawmakers have filed scores of restrictive voting laws  culminating in a massive, right-wing lobby-backed campaign to flood state legislatures in 2021 with copycat bills to right the wrongs of November.

In Arizona, restrictive election laws filed in the wake of the Shelby decision created a culture of voter disenfranchisement with disproportionate impacts on minority voters, according to the 2016 lawsuit filed by voting rights advocates.

A federal appeals court judge last year struck down both Arizona laws, which cumulatively and unmistakably reveal that racial discrimination was a motivating factor in their implementation, thus violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the judge wrote.

The US Department of Justice under Donald Trump believed that plaintiffs should have to prove lawmakers intent to discriminate against certain voters in their elections laws  but advocates argued that would undermine the decades of laws with disparate impacts on certain populations that have been challenged in courts under Section 2, which prohibits discriminatory voting laws.

When he took office, Joe Bidens Justice Department did not challenge the appeals court ruling, adding in its filing with the high court that the brief filed by the previous administration does not represent the current views of the United States.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced this month that the agency is suing Georgia for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act over the states recently passed elections laws, signalling the federal governments upcoming challenges to similar laws in other states.

Within the first few months of 2021, GOP lawmakers  motivated by the former presidents baseless narrative that the results of the election were stolen or manipulated  filed nearly 400 bills in nearly every state to roll back voting by mail, impose strict voter ID requirements, cut back on early voting hours and criminalise handing out food and water in long lines at polling places, among other measures.

At least 14 states have enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the ballot, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law.

A parallel effort from GOP lawmakers has seen more than 200 bills in 41 states that give themselves more authority over the electoral process, according to the States United Democracy Center. At least 24 of those bills have been signed into law in 14 states.

Senate Republicans blocked passage of a major renewal of voting rights, which Democratic lawmakers hoped could serve as an antidote to the barrage of elections laws in state legislatures.

Upcoming redistricting processes for congressional and local election districts will also be the first without key protections stripped out of the Voting Rights Act under the Supreme Courts 2013 ruling. The Justice Department is expected to issue new guidance ahead of those debates.

A proposed renewal of the Voting Rights Act  to be named after the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis  would restore parts of the law that the court stripped out. But that bill has also been rejected by congressional Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called it unnecessary.
The CFO of the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty after he was charged with 15 felony counts and accused of engaging in a 15-year tax scheme and hiding around $1.7 million in income from tax authorities.

The charges include grand larceny, and stem from what an official with the Manhattan District Attorneys Office described as a 15-year long tax fraud scheme involving the most senior executives at the Trump Organization.

"Today is an important marker in the ongoing criminal investigation of the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg. In the indictment, we allege, among other things, financial wrongdoing whereby the Trump Organization engaged in a scheme with Mr. Weisselberg to avoid paying taxes on certain compensation. This investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead, said New York state Attorney General Letitia James in a statement on Thursday after the indictment was unsealed.

Former President Donald Trumps namesake company itself was also hit with a number of the charges including tax fraud, and pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys for Mr Weisselberg and the Trump Organization spoke at a press conference after a court hearing on Thursday, where they claimed that their clients were the victims of an overt political attack.

The IRS has never made a case like this, argued Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Mr Weisselberg, adding that the matter should have been handled in civil court. I think it is an improper precedent. I think the office knows this.

Adding that he did not believe a criminal case would have been brought against Mr Weisselberg if the name of the company did not bear the former presidents last name, Mr Futerfas added that todays tense political atmosphere was driving todays events.

Given the unprecedented nature of these charges...thats the reason that these charges were brought, he said.

Susan Necklace, an attorney for the Trump Organization, added that New York state Attorney General Letitia James had campaigned on using the legal system to target Mr Trump, and that todays charges were the result of those efforts.

Carey Dunne, a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, refuted those allegations, stating that [p]olitics has no role in the jury chamber and I can assure you it had no role here.

Mr Weisselberg is just the latest in a long line of associates of Mr Trump who have been targeted for criminal prosecution in recent years. He pardoned his longtime advisers Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort in the waning days of his presidency for a host of criminal convictions racked up by the three men.

In a statement addressing the charges on Thursday, Mr Trump said that the political witch hunt against him and his supporters continues.
Manchester United are aiming to quickly complete the signing of Real Madrids Raphael Varane after Jadon Sancho, in what would represent a coup for the club.

There have been extensive talks with the France defender, whose current desire is to move to Old Trafford. Varane feels United currently represent his best option. Real Madrid could yet change that, as could a mega-money offer from Paris Saint-Germain, but that is unlikely. Madrid want to restructure their budget to pursue Kylian Mbappe, and PSG are looking elsewhere for the moment.

Sources close to Uniteds deal for Varane are cautiously optimistic because more progress has been made than expected.

United are understood to have struck a deal with Borussia Dortmund for Sancho worth 85m (72.9m) with no add-ons, which will see the 21-year-old become the fourth-most expensive signing in the Old Trafford clubs history.

Sancho, who is currently competing at Euro 2020 with England, came close to leaving Dortmund last summer but United were unable to meet the Bundesliga clubs 120m asking price. But this time the transfer is close and finalising Sanchos personal terms are expected to be a formality, with a five-year deal on the table.

Sancho will undergo a medical after Englands Euro 2020 campaign is over. Manchester City will receive 15 per cent of the fee (around 9m) having inserted a sell-on clause in the 8m deal which took him to Dortmund in 2017.

With the Sancho deal near and Varane expected to cost around 45m, it is possible that United could effectively complete their starting line-up for around 120m this summer.
Just 44 hours after the Balearic islands were added to the UKs quarantine-free list, unvaccinated British visitors will have to present evidence of a negative test before travel to Spain.

Previously there were no requirements beyond completing a health control form.

The government in Madrid says the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, personally announced the rule change in order to protect both residents and visitors, given the rising infection rates in the United Kingdom.

New coronavirus cases in the UK are running at about twice the rate of Spain.

From midnight 2 July, vaccinated travellers who wish to avoid testing must present a vaccination certificate issued by the competent authorities in the UK (either electronically or in print) at least 14 days from the last vaccination dose.

Presently only the Balearic islands - comprising Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca - are on the UKs green list. Mainland Spain and the Canaries are on the amber list, which mandates 10 days of self-isolation.

Spains U-turn comes amid other territories tightening restrictions on British arrivals.

The UK joined Maltas red list at the same time as the island was added to the green register, requiring all arrivals 12 and over to be fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has blocked all arrivals if theyve spent longer than two hours on UK soil.
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Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 86F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph..

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A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low around 55F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.


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Every year, July 1 is celebrated as National Doctors Day in India, to recognises and celebrates their contribution to society. The day is also observed to honour the legendary physician and the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy who was born on July 1, 1882.

While their work in society has always been crucial, the COVID-19 pandemic showed to the world how big a role they play in our lives.

AFP

Since 2020 we have been celebrating them as 'COVID-19 heroes' and 'Corona warriors' etc, but other than the fancy names not many have tried to understand the struggles they have been putting up for nearly one-and-a-half years now.

If you have even worn a full PPE kit, you know how uncomfortable it is, so just imagine wearing it for hours, day in and day out!

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, doctors have been risking their lives and the lives of those around them, due to their dangerous exposure to the virus.





"Forced to leave houses"

In the initial days of the pandemic, many doctors were forced to leave their rented houses and apartments, because their neighbours feared getting infected with COVID-19 from them.

Many doctors treating COVID-19 patients have also been forced to stay away from their homes to keep their loved ones, aged parents and young children safe from the virus.

According to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) 798 doctors have died in India from COVID during the second wave and 748 had lost their lives in the first wave.

BCCL

And what do the doctors get in return? Other than banging plates, and showering flowers, they haven't received anything. Even during the pandemic, many doctors in Delhi had to go on a strike to get their salaries that had not been paid for months.

The pandemic years also saw an increase in the number of attacks on doctors by the kin of patients accusing them of negligence, irrespective of how critical their condition was. It had got to a point where doctors had to protest across India seeking safe working conditions for them.

BCCL

Ramdev row

Then comes people like Ramdev, who despite all the sacrifices the doctors made, belittled their services and even mocked the doctors who died of COVID-19.

Many doctors have also complained that they are bombarded with phone calls for 'free consultations' outside work hours, while they are trying to catch some much-deserved rest after a hectic day.



BCCL

All these are taking a toll on the mental health of the doctors, who are overworked and exhausted. In May this year, a doctor posted at the COVID-19 ward in Delhi's Max Hospital had died by suicide after witnessing so many patient deaths in front of him.
A man had a close shave with death when a shark leapt out of the water and bit off part of his foot while he was parasailing in the Red Sea.

In the clip, a paraglider from Jordan can be seen enjoying himself hovering above the water. All seems to be going well until a shark suddenly emerges out from the sea and takes a large bite of his foot, attempting to drag the man under.



As per various reports, he lost the back part of his foot as well as several tendons and was left with torn muscles and broken bones after the horror attack.

He was rushed to the Prince Hashem Military Hospital, in the port city, by emergency services, where he had an operation on his right foot. His condition was described as stable.

Screengrab/YouTube

Mohammed Khalil Al Zabada from the College of Marine Sciences told Gulf News that the presence of sharks near the shores of Aqaba is very rare.



Sharks are found in all the seas of the world, and in the Red Sea there are many types of sharks, but their presence in the Aqaba region is very rare," Al Zabada said.



He indicated that sharks do not usually approach shores but are found in deep areas of the sea.



Screengrab/YouTube

Meanwhile, Nayef Al Bakhit, head of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, announced that a committee was formed to investigate information circulating about citizens being attacked by a shark in Aqaba Friday evening.



The committee will issue a detailed statement about what happened as soon as they complete the investigation, Al Bakhit emphasised.


Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Committee On Foreign Affairs March 10, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was signed by all four Indian Americans in Congress. (Ting Shen-Pool/Getty Images)
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal will join the Securities and Exchange Commission July 26 to serve as director of the Division of Enforcement. Shortly after taking office as attorney general, the Sikh American began an exhaustive campaign of rooting out corruption, creating an Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. (njoag.gov photo)
File photo of Sundar Pichai, the Indian American CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google LLC, appearing on a monitor as he testifies remotely during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing 'Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?', on Capitol Hill, Oct. 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India in connection with the Rs. 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, lost the first stage of his extradition appeal in U.K. High Court June 23. (photo via IANS)
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.
With a major research university right in our backyard, a strong military presence and innovative companies throughout the metro region, theres often a plethora of interesting science and technology news to be found in Southern Arizona. Heres a breakdown of the most interesting recent deve
Six people are facing charges ranging from arson and manslaughter to filing a false instrument and criminal impersonation in connection to a fire at an assisted living facility in a New York City suburb earlier this year that killed a firefighter and a facility resident, authorities said Tuesday.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Walsh declined to go into specifics at a press conference, but said a father and son, Nathaniel Sommer and Aaron Sommer, were both facing manslaughter, assault and arson charges in connection to the March 23 fire at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley, New York.

Walsh said the Sommers were arraigned on Tuesday morning and due back in court on July 2. No attorney information was immediately available for them.

Two other men who Walsh said worked in the towns buildings department at the time of the fire were charged with filing false documents and falsifying business records, while a woman who worked at the facility was facing a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and another man faced a misdemeanor criminal impersonation charge.

Asked for more information, Walsh said, We dont want to get into any details until the matter has been presented to the grand jury and perhaps not even until the trial.

He said the investigation was still ongoing.

Volunteer firefighter Jared Lloyd was killed in the fire. The father of two boys was last heard making a mayday call, and was in the building when it collapsed. A male resident of the facility was also killed.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York Abuse Molestation Numbers Arson
Global cyber reinsurance rates have soared by up to 40% in the July renewal season, reinsurance broker Willis Re said on Thursday, as ransomware attacks increase in number and severity.

A ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May shut the largest fuel pipeline network in the United States for several days, crippling fuel delivery to most of the U.S. East Coast.

The average ransom payment made by a business to restore data after a cyber attack was $220,000 in the first quarter, up 43% from the last quarter of 2020, according to cyber security firm Coveware.

Read more: Insurers Must Totally Reassess Approach to Grim Cyber Insurance Market: AM Best

In addition to the ransom payments, cyber insurance and reinsurance policies can cover the cost of restoring the network, business interruption losses and even the hiring of a PR agency to address reputational damage.

Reinsurers that have been writing cyber are looking at considerably worse results than a few years ago, said James Vickers, chair of reinsurance broker Willis Re International.

I dont think people had really imagined the extent of the ransomware attacks going on.

Reinsurers insure the insurers, and a rise in reinsurance rates feeds through into higher insurance costs.

Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime  and the costly attacks are not going to stop, a top expert at insurer Sompo Holdings Inc. told the Reuters Future of Insurance USA conference last week.

Insurers and reinsurers are cutting the amount of cyber coverage they provide after being hit with large claims, industry sources say.

Vickers said some countries such as France were debating whether cyber insurers should be making ransomware payments.

Those discussions are beginning to happen, he said.

FBI Director Chris Wray last week pleaded with public companies and other hacking victims to avoid paying ransom, saying he feared it would only embolden cyber criminals to ramp up future attacks.

Property reinsurance rates have also risen by as much as 30% in Florida at July renewals, Willis Re said, as the hurricane season gets under way.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Nick Zieminski)

Topics Cyber Reinsurance Willis Towers Watson
Roman Catholic priests sexually abused minors across Iowa for decades while church leaders covered it up, but reforms implemented in recent years have largely stopped the problem, a three-year review by Iowas attorney general concluded.

A report issued by Attorney General Tom Miller said the number of complaints, victims and the duration of the abuse was overwhelming and the cover-up was extensive, similar to what has been found elsewhere in the U.S. Dozens of victims came forward to Millers office, describing lifelong consequences.

The pain was real and lasting, whether the abuse happened 60 years ago or more recently. In some cases, survivors explained why they kept the abuse secret; in others, they described how their allegations were ignored or covered up for decades, the report said.

It added, The image and reputation of the church were put ahead of the enormous harm to young people.

The review found that only five Iowa priests have been the subject of allegations since 2002, and that bishops who participated in concealing past problems are no longer in charge in Iowa.

Miller said reforms implemented since 2002 are working. His report praised the automatic reporting of all allegations by church officials to local law enforcement authorities, decisions by the states four Catholic dioceses to post online lists of credibly accused priests, and the improved treatment of victims.

Of the five priests accused of misconduct since 2002, only one has been added to the credibly accused list: a former Davenport priest who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. The others involved allegations of improper touching, possession of pornography and invasion of privacy, but they either werent substantiated or didnt meet the definition of sexual abuse.

Miller, who graduated from a Catholic high school in Dubuque but now attends a Lutheran church, announced the inquiry in November 2018. The move came after an investigation by The Associated Press found that the Diocese of Sioux City had covered up a priests 1986 admission to having sexually abused dozens of Iowa boys.

Sioux City leaders apologized and for the first time released a list of 28 accused priests. The Diocese of Des Moines followed suit, releasing a list of nine accused priests. The states other two dioceses, Davenport and Dubuque, had previously released such lists.

Millers office opened a hotline and encouraged victims of abuse to come forward, and 50 people made accusations against dozens of Catholic priests concerning abuse that took place from the 1930s to 1997. Seventeen victims said they had never previously reported the abuse, and three allegations involved active priests.

Millers office said all of the allegations against Catholic clergy fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges. One prompted an investigation by church officials of St. Ambrose University professor and Davenport priest, the Rev. Robert Bud Grant, which concluded that his misconduct did not amount to sexual abuse of a minor but led to restrictions on his activities with students.

Millers investigation focused on how church officials had investigated prior allegations that they determined werent credible. He sent a letter in 2019 requesting internal records, which the dioceses agreed to turn over, and investigators later asked for more information on specific cases.

The review raised some concerns about the Des Moines diocese, saying it did not follow up on single complaints of abuse against deceased priests and refused to turn over some investigative reports by citing attorney-client privilege. The diocese is an outlier compared with the states other three, because it has fewer publicly listed priests and has found a higher percentage of complaints unfounded, the report found.

Millers office does not agree with how Des Moines decided who to add to its list but those decisions are in a gray area, new leaders are in place and complaints now get reported to law enforcement, the report said.

During Millers review, Sioux City added the names of three priests to its credibly accused list and Davenport recently added one.

In a joint statement, the states four Catholic bishops said they cooperated with the investigation in the interest of transparency and accountability and would study Millers report for ways to improve.

The Catholic Church is committed to do all that is humanly possible to protect minors from the sin and crime of clergy sexual abuse, and to promote healing, the statement said.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Abuse Molestation Iowa
The United States needs to accord the same legal protections to user data held on tech companies servers as it does to physical files stored in personal file cabinets, media attorneys and lawmakers said Wednesday.

The witnesses spoke at a hearing on whether the U.S. government overuses it secret subpoena power in a way that harms American internet users. The proceeding follows revelations that former President Donald Trumps U.S. Department of Justice secretly sought the phone records of reporters and Democratic representatives to investigate the leaks of classified material.

Word of the DOJs investigations outraged lawmakers and prompted renewed talk of curbing the federal governments practice of secretly subpoenaing the cloud service providers  companies like Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google  to win access to their users emails, documents and instant messages without giving them a chance to defend their interests.

U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said the tactic was an end run on the protections that the Fourth Amendment is supposed to provide to every American.

Hearst Corp.s chief legal officer, Eve Burton, spoke for many witnesses when she told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that the same protections must apply whether the information is sought in an office file or on a cloud server across the country or across the world.

That call received a warm reception from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

Representative Tom McClintock, a California Republican, said this kind of surveillance in the United States was in direct contravention of its most fundamental law.

The only representative of the tech industry at the hearing, Microsoft executive Tom Burt, said that in the last five years his company had received 2,400 to 3,500 secrecy orders a year and that U.S. courts provided little by way of meaningful oversight.

Providers, like Microsoft, regularly receive boilerplate secrecy orders unsupported by any meaningful legal or factual analysis, Burt told lawmakers. Many of these orders should never have been approved by the courts.

Burt said that while the effort to target lawmakers and reporters disturbs many Americans, what may be most shocking is just how routine court-mandated secrecy has become when law enforcement targets Americans emails, text messages, and other sensitive data stored in the cloud.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco Editing by Grant McCool and Matthew Lewis)

Topics Legislation
An investigation by insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. into a ransomware attack on its systems last September has revealed that personal information on individuals was accessed. The broker is in the process of contacting affected individuals.

The firm said the attacker remains unknown. The variant of ransomware found within Gallagher systems was RagnarLocker, which is a ransomware that affects devices running Microsoft Windows operating systems, Vince Regan, attorney for the brokerage, told Insurance Journal.

Gallagher would not say at this time whether it paid ransom out of concern for potentially compromising the ongoing investigations. The FBI has warned victims to not pay cybercriminals.

Gallagher also said it could not publicly disclose how many parties or individuals have been affected.

Last September, Gallagher and its claims unit, Gallagher Bassett, reported that a ransomware incident that happened on Saturday, Sept. 26 limited some of its internal systems.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September, the company said it took all of its global systems offline as a precautionary measure, initiated response protocols, launched an investigation, engaged external cybersecurity professionals, and implemented its business continuity plans to minimize disruption to its customers.

The firm said it was able to restore from backups and its systems were operational relatively quickly after detection of the attack in part due to certain security measures that were in place before the attack.

Gallagher said then that based on the current information, it did not expect the incident to have a material impact on its business, operations or financial condition.

Working with cybersecurity and forensic specialists to determine what may have happened and what information may have been affected, Gallagher determined that an unknown party accessed or acquired data contained within certain segments of its network between June 3, 2020 and September 26, 2020.

While the investigation was able to confirm that certain systems were accessed, it was unable to confirm what information within those systems was actually accessed.

To learn more, Gallagher said it conducted an extensive review of the entire contents of the impacted systems. On May 24, 2021 Gallaghers investigation confirmed that the impacted data included information relating to certain individuals. Gallagher said it continued to work through June 23, 2021 to begin notifying its business partners and to obtain address information for impacted individuals to provide them with accurate notice.

According to Gallagher, this review determined that one or more of the following types of information associated with certain individuals were present on impacted systems: Social Security number or tax identification number, drivers license, passport or other government identification number, date of birth, username and password, employee identification number, financial account or credit card information, electronic signature, medical treatment, claim, diagnosis, medication or other medical information, health insurance information, medical record or account number, and biometric information.

Gallagher said it is notifying potentially affected individuals and has established a dedicated assistance line at (855) 731-3320 for individuals seeking additional information. Individuals can also learn more on this special section of the firms website.

Ransomware attacks are growing in number and cost. Last year in the U.S. alone, victims of attacks included more than 100 government agencies at all levels, more than 500 health care centers, 1,680 educational institutions and thousands of businesses, according to the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. The attacks have caused tens of billions of dollars in losses.

Illinois-based Gallagher, an insurance broker that offers cyber insurance, is not alone among insurance entities attacked. CNA Financial Corp., also based in Illinois, paid $40 million in late March to regain control of its network after a ransomware attack. Colonial Pipeline and meat producer JBS have also paid ransom.

Topics Agencies Cyber A.J. Gallagher
As more employers return to in-person work, the latest KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report shows that workers are more likely to have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine when their employer encourages it or provides paid sick leave to get the vaccine and recover from side effects.

About two-thirds of workers report that their employer is encouraging vaccinations, and half say that their employer is providing paid time off for workers to get the vaccine and recover from any side effects.

Those actions appear to have an effect: About three-quarters of workers whose employers encourage getting a vaccine (73%) or offer paid time off to do so (75%) say the have gotten at least one shot, significantly more than the shares whose employers dont encourage vaccination (41%) or dont offer paid time off (51%). The differences persist even after controlling for workers age, race and ethnicity, education, income, party identification and other demographic characteristics.

Relatively few workers say that their employer required them (9%) or offered a cash bonus or other incentive (12%) to get a vaccine.

While the public overall is split on whether employers should require workers to get vaccinated unless they have a medical excuse (51% favor, 46% oppose), most workers (61%) say they do not want their own employer to require vaccinations.

Getting more Americans vaccinated isnt only up to the government. Even without requiring workers to get a vaccine, employers can play a role by offering paid time off to get vaccinated and encouraging their workers to do so, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman said.

Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) surveyed 1,888 adults by phone.

Overall, nearly two-thirds (65%) of adults report having gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, up only slightly since May (62%). An additional 3% say they want to get a vaccine as soon as they can, and one in ten (10%) say they want to wait and see how the vaccine works for others before getting it.

About a fifth of the public remains in the more resistant categories, saying they that would get a vaccine only if required for work, school or other activities (6%), or that they will definitely not get a vaccine (14%). These shares are essentially unchanged since January even as most other adults got vaccinated.

Most adults are in homes where everyone else shares their vaccination status. Half (50%) of adults say that they and everyone in their household have gotten at least one shot, while a quarter (25%) say that neither they nor anyone else in their household has gotten a shot.

Two-thirds (67%) of Democrats say they live in fully vaccinated households, while nearly four in ten Republicans (37%) live in completely unvaccinated homes.

With new COVID-19 cases at their lowest level since testing became widely available more than a year ago, about three-quarters (76%) of the public now say they are optimistic that the country is nearing the end of the pandemic.

This optimism ironically may be contributing to the slowdown in new vaccinations. Half (50%) of those who are unvaccinated say that cases are now so low that there is no need for more people to get a shot. In comparison, the vast majority (91%) of people who have gotten at least one dose say that more people still need to get vaccinated.

What Might Increase Vaccination Rates?

The Monitor also looks at other potential incentives or developments that could boost vaccine take-up rates among those currently unvaccinated, particularly among those in wait and see mode.

Similar to last month, the new report finds that three in ten (31%) unvaccinated adults  and roughly half (49%) of the wait and see group  say that they would be more likely to get a vaccine if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval for one of the available vaccines.

However, those views may be more of a proxy for general safety concerns, as just a third (32%) of adults overall are aware that the FDA has only authorized the existing vaccines for emergency use while the rest either believe the vaccines already have full approval (21%) or arent sure (45%). Among unvaccinated adults who are aware that the vaccines are available under emergency use authorization, 32% say they would be more likely to get a vaccine if it were fully approval by the FDA.

Other potential motivators for the unvaccinated include:

Nearly a quarter (23%) say they would be more likely to get vaccinated if they were entered in a lottery with a chance to win $1 million. This includes even larger shares of unvaccinated young adults ages 28-29 (33%), Black adults (34%) and those with household incomes under $40,000 annually (31%). About one in six (17%) say they would be more likely to get vaccinated if a mobile clinic came to their neighborhood. The share is higher among Hispanic (33%) and Black (22%) adults than among White adults (10%). Among unvaccinated parents, 13% say they would be more likely to get vaccinated if they were provided free childcare to get the vaccine and while they recover from side effects

About the survey:

Designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF, the KFF Vaccine Monitor survey was conducted from June 8-21 among a nationally representative random digit dial telephone sample of 1,888 adults, including oversamples of adults who are Black (497) or Hispanic (512). Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline (225) and cell phone (1,663). The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.

KFF is an endowed, nonprofit organization providing independent information on national health issues. Headquartered in San Francisco, it is not connected to Kaiser Permanente.

Source: KFF

Topics COVID-19 Commercial Lines Business Insurance
The International Renewable Energy Agency says a surge in private lending for renewable energy projects this decade is a must in order to meeting global targets to limit the rise of temperatures worldwide.

Thats according to a Bloomberg Green report out on Wednesday, which reports that the agency estimates that private lenders and capital markets will have to boost funding for renewable energy projects this decade to about $3.2 trillion a year.

The article quotes Director General Francesco La Camera, who noted that markets have pushed a shift to renewables with costs for solar and wind power have falling, and demand for energy from carbon-emitting sources has dropped.

The changes we are seeing are structural, La Camera said told Bloomberg.

He added that this decade will be decisive.

La Camera noted that government financing is key in giving private lenders confidence to provide the needed investment to the energy transitions.

Prince of Wales

The Prince of Wales launched his Sustainable Markets Initiative Insurance Task Force during a visit to Lloyds in late June. The SMI Insurance Task Force, to be chaired by Lloyds, is comprised of executives from some of the worlds largest insurance and reinsurance companies.

The SMI Insurance Task Force has published its statement of intent, committing to provide climate positive financing and risk management solutions to encourage individuals and businesses to accelerate their transition to a sustainable future.

A number of key initiatives were announced. For commercial and individual customers, these actions include adapting and expanding coverage for offshore wind projects, alongside the implementation of build back better claims clauses in home insurance policies to encourage customers to rebuild sustainably.

The SMI Insurance Task Force will also work with governments to establish a public-private disaster resilience, response and recovery framework.

SMI Insurance Task Force Membership includes:

AIG: Peter Zaffino, president and CEO

Allianz: Oliver Bate, CEO

Amwins: Scott Purviance, CEO

Aon: Greg Case, CEO

AXA: Sean McGovern, CEO AXA XL

Beazley: Adrian Cox, CEO

Hiscox: Bronek Masojada, CEO

Lloyds: John Neal, CEO

Marsh McLennan: Dan Glaser, President and CEO

Munich Re: Joachim Wenning, CEO

Tokio Marine Kiln: Brad Irick, CEO

EUs Financial Sector

The European Union is considering measures to bring the blocs financial sector into line with its climate plans, sources who have seen an EU strategy paper told Reuters.

The document outlines several actions, which includes combating greenwashing of investments, setting climate change targets for banks and encouraging low carbon blockchain projects, according to an article from Reuters posted this week in Insurance Journal.

The paper builds on the EU executives 2018 action, which set the stage for the blocs classification of truly green investments, and mandatory climate-related disclosures by companies, the article states.

The commission believes more action is needed as it is now clear that Europe should improve how the financial sector contributes to sustainability, the sources said.

The EUs goal to eliminate its net emissions by 2050 will require huge investments, much of it private funding, the article states. Its system of classification, or taxonomy, aims to make green activities more visible and attractive to investors.

According to the article, the strategy paper seeks to empower retail investors and small companies through green loans and mortgages.

AIG, ESG

American International Group Inc. has released its first Environmental, Social and Governance Report.

AIGs commitment to transparent ESG leadership is a central part of our global corporate citizenship agenda, said Peter Zaffino, AIGs president & CEO, said in a statement. Documenting our progress through this ESG Report creates a mechanism to share our perspectives and a way to measure our progress. With more than 40,000 colleagues conducting business in approximately 80 countries, being an agent of change is an important responsibility in a complex and dynamically changing world.

The report describes how AIG identifies, measures and manages environmental impact and risk, sets and lives by specific standards of corporate citizenship, and empowers its sustainability agenda, according to a press announcement.

The report aligns with guidelines such as the TCFD framework, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Standards Global Reporting Initiative standard and UN Sustainable Development Goals, according to AIG.

Read the 2020 ESG Report at www.aig.com/about-us/sustainability.

Legal & General Investment Management in mid-June announced the firm will sell holdings in four companies including AIG, after deeming theyre making insufficient progress on addressing climate change risks.

Past columns:

Topics Pollution AIG
The owner of two West Virginia pharmacies has agreed to pay $300,000 in civil penalties to settle allegations that they filled illegitimate prescriptions in violation of federal law.

Federal prosecutors said Beckley Pharmacys two locations and Bee Well Pharmacy in South Charleston filled prescriptions that were not for a legitimate medical purpose from 2015 to 2020.

Under the settlement announced Monday, Bee Well Pharmacy will be unable to fill prescriptions for controlled substances after agreeing to surrender its Drug Enforcement Administration registration. The Beckley locations will retain their registrations but must adhere to more stringent regulatory and reporting obligations, prosecutors said.

Pharmacies must keep accurate records and maintain strong controls when handling controlled substances, acting U.S. Attorney Lisa G. Johnston said in a statement. Those that fail to do so open the door to the potential diversion of drugs, the illegal distribution, and abuse of these drugs.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Virginia Drugs West Virginia
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said her office will pursue a grand jury investigation into the collapse of Champlain Towers South Condominium in Surfside, Fla. that has left at least 18 people dead and more than 140 unaccounted for.

Fernandez Rundle said she has met with engineers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is conducting a separate federal investigation into the collapse.

However, this is a matter of extreme public importance, and as the State Attorney elected to keep this community safe, I will not wait, Fernandez Rundle said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has also ordered an emergency audit of county buildings 40 years and older.

Search and rescue teams were forced to halt operations early July 1 due to structural concerns at the site. Shifting of concrete floor slabs and movement in a large column led to the work stoppage.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky called the site a very, very unsafe environment, but pledged to continue search-and-rescue operations when safe to do so. Cominsky did not give a timeline of when first responders will return to the site.

Well have a meeting the structural engineers and theyll develop different plans so we can evaluate and see whats best, he said.
San Jose, Calif., officials have passed a new law that requires gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay a fee to cover taxpayers costs associated with gun violence.

The law is the first in the U.S. and was unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday, a month after a disgruntled San Jose rail yard employee fatally shot nine of his co-workers and then himself at the rail yard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Mayor Sam Liccardo praised the measures and said gun owners who do not comply with the new rules shouldnt have guns.

We wont magically end gun violence, but we stop paying for it, Liccardo said in a statement.

The new law is part of a 10-point gun control plan that Liccardo unveiled following the May 26 mass shooting at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard.

Officials have not decided how much gun owners will be required to pay in fees. They would be used to cover the direct costs of gun violence to city taxpayers for services that include police response, ambulance transport and gunshot-related medical treatment for victims.

The fees would be determined upon completion of a gun harm study from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation, a group that promotes individual and public health, welfare, and safety.

In a preliminary report released ahead of the vote, the institute estimated that gun-related homicides, suicides and other shootings cost San Jose around $63 million annually. A more thorough study is expected to be completed in the fall.

One challenge to enforce the law will be in determining how to administer the new liability insurance and fee requirements.

City officials know how many guns were purchased in San Jose since 2001, Liccardo said, but the city has no gun registry and no way to track gun owners.

Earlier this month, city lawmakers passed a new law requiring all retailers to record video and audio of all firearm purchases. San Jose became the largest California city with such a rule.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics California
Hundreds of firefighters labored this week in high heat on the lines of big wildfires in the forests of far northern California as many communities remained under lengthening evacuation orders.

Mount Shasta, the volcano that towers over the region, was shrouded in a haze of smoke plumes so huge they could easily be seen in images from weather satellites in space.

The scene was ominously reminiscent of last years California fire season, which scorched more than 4.2 million acres, the most in recorded modern history.

The extraordinary Pacific Northwest heat wave that reached down into the upper reaches of California was slowly receding but only slight cooling was expected before temperatures trend back up heading into the holiday weekend, forecasters said.

It is very hot and dry, said Suzi Johnson, a Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokeswoman for the Salt Fire, which broke out Wednesday and quickly grew to more than 4 square miles, temporarily shutting down Interstate 5.

The fire was a threat to homes dispersed around Shasta Lake north of the city of Redding, more than 200 miles north of San Francisco.

Various areas were under evacuation orders. But there was no immediate information on the number of people involved.

The huge lake is popular with vacationers. But its water level is dramatically low because of the terrible drought conditions gripping California.

To the north, the Lava Fire burning partly on the flanks of Mount Shasta grew to nearly 31 square miles and was 25% contained. All evacuation orders for communities near the city of Weed remained in effect.

The steep, rocky terrain was challenging the nearly 1,300 firefighters on the lines of the blaze, which was ignited by lightning last week.

To the northeast, a fire that broke out Monday in the Klamath National Forest and forced evacuations covered 14.7 square miles and was just 6% contained. The fire was expected to advance north toward Oregon. Its cause remained under investigation.

Elsewhere, fire authorities throughout California stepped up campaigns against the use of fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July, citing both the explosive dangers and the threat of fires amid the withering conditions.

The fuels are bone dry, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby told a news conference. We are extremely concerned about the use of fireworks of all kinds.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe California Natural Disasters Wildfire
Finance minister Paschal Donohoe has said Ireland remains committed to reaching an agreement on new global tax rules despite being one of only nine OECD countries, out of 139, not to sign up to an agreement on a global minimum tax rate.

A significant majority of OECD countries have agreed to the organisations tax reform plans.

Mr Donohoe said Ireland broadly supports the OECD proposals.

He said the Government fully supports the proposal for the re-allocation of a proportion of tax to the market jurisdiction.

Mr Donohoe also said Ireland broadly supports the proposal of a global minimum effective tax rate.

'Reservations' about minimum rate

However, Ireland hasn't signed up to the OECD agreement as the Government has reservations about the prospect of a minimum rate of at least 15%.

The OECD talks followed the recent agreement of G7 finance ministers to push for a global tax rate of 15%.

While the G20 nations still need to agree, and any comprehensive agreement is not expected until October, the world has taken a big step toward sweeping changes to global taxation with the 130 countries endorsing the OECD's push to set a minimum rate for corporations, along with rules to share the spoils from multinational firms like Facebook and Google.

Mr Donohoe said there remains much to be finalised before a comprehensive agreement is reached in October.

Ireland will engage on the issue

However, he said Ireland will constructively engage in further discussions due to take place over the coming months.

I have consistently spoken of my desire for a comprehensive, sustainable and equitable agreement on the international tax rules at the OECD that meet the needs of all countries, large and small, developed and developing, the minister said:

I was not in a position to join the consensus on the agreement and specifically a global minimum effective tax rate of "at least 15%".

I have expressed Irelands reservation, but remain committed to the process and aim to find an outcome that Ireland can yet support. Ireland will continue to play our part in reaching a comprehensive and, indeed, historic agreement, Mr Donohoe added.

The minister has previously said that Ireland could miss out on more than 2bn a year in annual corporate tax revenues under any new OECD tax reform plan. He reiterated that point after these OECD talks.

"There will be a cost to Ireland for this, in terms of reduced corporation tax receipts, but overall Pillar One [the OECD proposal regarding re-allocation of taxes] will bring stability and certainty to the international tax framework and will help underpin economic growth from which all can benefit," he said.

The new rules  including the 15% minimum rate  could be implemented as soon as 2023.

While the OECD said a small group of nations have not yet joined the plan, it noted several key countries that had been question marks agreed to the statement - including India, China and Turkey.

The technical details may leave room for further concessions to developing economies.

 Additional reporting Bloomberg
Diana, Britain's Princess of Wales, one of the most famous women in the world, frequented glamorous galas and jetted around the globe  but her evenings were also spent eating beans on toast and watching EastEnders.

Edith Conn, 72, met the princess at a British Red Cross event in 1991 at Manchester Art Gallery where Diana opened up about her love of home comforts.

As Princes William and Harry prepare to honour their mother with a statue on what would have been her 60th birthday, Ms Conn, who was president of the humanitarian charitys Greater Manchester branch, recalled meeting the princess.

Ms Conn said: She told me how highly she thought of the Red Cross and the wonderful work we do. And then we just chatted really.

She was so approachable because she was so relaxed. When someone is relaxed, you relax with them, and it just made the whole experience better. She added: I said Maam, what do you do now? Do you have anywhere to be?

And to my surprise she said Im going home tonight. Im having beans on toast and watching EastEnders! I thought that was so funny.

In 1991, Diana opened up about her love of home comforts. Picture: John Stillwell/PA Wire

Eileen Nicol, who was chairwoman of the British Red Cross-run Activenture holiday camp for children with disabilities in Sussex, met Diana in 1985.

A diary entry written by Ms Nicol, which has been released by the charity, revealed the princesss affection for the youngsters and how Diana, then just four years into being a member of the British royal family, confessed to hating wearing a hat.

Ms Nicol wrote: The Princess of Wales was charming. She has so much compassion for the children. She spoke to every one of them and got right down on the ground to look at a collage and to speak to the little ones.

It rained, but that didnt seem to matter.

She asked me how I got away with not wearing a hat. She hates hers.

She wanted to know how I raise the money for the holiday. Shed certainly done her homework.

Ms Nicol, 87, who is still a supporter of the British Red Cross, recalled 36 years later how the princess admitted she would have liked her job.

She spoke to every one of us and she spoke so well. The children loved her, and she loved the children. She told me she wished she had my job, she said.

Mehzebin Adam, curator at the British Red Cross, paid tribute to Dianas charity work.

Throughout her life, Princess Diana was a dedicated humanitarian who championed causes in the UK and overseas, she said.

From making connections with young people in her role as patron of the Red Cross Youth, to campaigning against landmines, she was one of our most dedicated supporters, using her public profile to make positive change.

The impact of her work is not only remembered on what would have been her 60th birthday, but continues to have a lasting impact today.
The daughter of a publican who was killed during a burglary asked the Court of Appeal not to allow her father's killer to appeal his conviction.

The three-judge court on Thursday refused to allow Mr Marian Lingurar Jnr (26) leave to appeal after considering the impact fresh court proceedings would have on the victim's family 10 years after the killing, and finding that the appeal had little chance of success.

The court will, however, allow Lingurar to appeal his nine-year prison sentence.

Lingurar, a Romanian national with former addresses in Loughgeorge, Claregalway, and Blackpool, Cork, was found guilty by a jury in 2019 of the manslaughter of John Kenny (56), at Kennys pub in Oughterard, Co Galway, on September 25, 2011.

In the judgment, president of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham said Mr Kenny's daughter, Gillian Kenny, had described "in very powerful terms the impact that the killing of their father has had on the Kenny family and how difficult they have found the very lengthy criminal process".

Following the burglary and killing in 2011, Lingurar broke his bail conditions, fled Ireland, and returned under a false name, resulting in his trial being delayed until 2019.

Delayed trial

A mix-up then resulted in his appeal not being lodged within the required time.

Ms Kenny, the judge noted, had said in an affidavit filed to the court that any progress made to date was undone when the family learned of the late application for appeal.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the grounds of appeal that had been lodged had little chance of success.

The interests of justice, he said, are therefore best served by refusing the application to appeal the conviction.

The court will hear the appeal against the nine-year sentence after hearing that the defence intends to argue that, given Lingurar's youth, the sentence was overly severe.

Mr Justice Birmingham noted that Lingurar was a juvenile at the time of the offence and was in the company of older men, including his father.

Mr Justice Birmingham said: "We express no view on the likelihood of that argument or arguments along those lines ultimately carrying the day, but we are prepared to go so far as to say that it seems to us that a point of some substance has been identified."

He further noted that the impact on the deceased's family is "not as great" given that a sentence appeal does not carry the possibility of the verdict being overturned, a retrial and "interminable further delay".

Original trial

The trial in 2019 heard evidence that Mr Kenny had been badly beaten, tied up and left to die on the floor of the ladies toilet in his pub by a gang of men, including Lingurar, who had planned to rob him that night.

His wife Kathleen Kenny and their daughter Gillian found his body the following evening.

He had sustained severe injuries to his upper body, consistent with blows from a heavy object and with kicks and punches. His hands had been tied behind his back and a jacket wound tightly around his face and head.

Postmortem results indicated he would not have died immediately from his injuries and would have had difficulty breathing due to the position in which his body had been left, face-down on the toilet floor.

Lingurar jnr was also found guilty of a second charge of burglary at Mr Kennys pub on the same night after it emerged a wad of cash had been taken from Mr Kennys pocket and also from the till.
Cannabis has been planted near a Garda station in Cork city centre in protest at the continued ban on the substance in Ireland.

Cannabis rights campaigner Martin Condon posted a video to his YouTube channel, Martins World, which shows him planting six cannabis plants in plant boxes by Shandon Bridge at the end of Cornmarket St.

He labelled the plants 'bring Alicia Home' and 'Call Vera' after two of Cork's most prominent cannabis rights campaigners.

Alicia Maher moved to Spain to access affordable medical cannabis which she found was the only medication that helped her following multiple surgeries.

Once bed-bound and in severe pain, she is now writing a PhD in law.

Vera Twomey has been campaigning for access to medical cannabis for her severely epileptic daughter Ava.

Cannabis saved her daughter's life, Ms Twomey said, and is the only substance she has found which can control her daughter's seizures.

Despite the introduction of the Government's medical cannabis access programme, Bedrocan, the medication Ava and other epileptic children have been getting from Holland for many years is not included on the list of sanctioned medications.

Here in Ireland theres still a lot of suffering caused by the prohibition of cannabis," Mr Condon said.

"Patients here in Ireland are still at the mercy of drug dealers who are not required to maintain a minimum standard of quality.

"The growing of the cannabis plant should not be a criminal matter and patients should have fair and effective access to cannabis as a medicine.

"Thats why Im out, staging a little civil disobedience for these patients."

Journey into activism

Mr Condon's journey into activism began when he was caught with cannabis by gardai age 17.

He said that the drug had been very positive for him personally, calming him down and making him more thoughtful.

But his interaction with the criminal justice system felt like a 'breach of his sovereignty as a person' but no deterrent to using cannabis.

"I felt it was an injustice.

I grew up around the Glen and Corks northside. I would have fit a certain social demographic and because of being caught with cannabis that one time, I was always targeted afterwards.

From the age 17 to 20, I was stopped and searched by the gardai close to 100 times. It was very degrading."

He said that similar early arrests of friends for small quantities of drugs led them down a path towards further criminality because they already felt "lesser" in the eyes of the law and society.

Now 31, Mr Condon established his YouTube channel to highlight the shortcomings of drug policy.

He wants to see drug decriminalisation and regulated safe access.

And he believes that attitudes towards drug policy are belatedly changing.

Just this week, Mexico's supreme court decriminalised recreational use of cannabis.

An earlier ruling found criminalising the substance unconstitutional.

"Drug use itself should not be regarded as a criminal behaviour. Doing so is counterproductive to helping people who might befall harm from drugs," he said.

"I have two kids myself and a third on the way and I really hope to make society a bit safer for them," he said.
A man in his late teens is being treated for serious injuries in Cork University Hospital after suffering a serious assault in Tipperary.

The man was assaulted between the hours of 11pm on Sunday and 12.30am on Monday, June 28, at Upperchurch Village.
Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Countess Joan Fitzgerald, Irish noblewoman and heiress, hurled several artichokes at her host, Brian Jones, constable of Carlow, in a fit of pique during a visit in 1549. She was deeply frustrated at losing her independence following her second marriage, and she was making it known.

While I was widow and had not married an Englishman, I defended and kept my own, the Countess of Ormond complained, as she picked up an artichoke that was to hand and flung it at Jones.

Then, she threw another. Or at the least, no man went about to defeat me of my right, she added, before throwing yet another. Well is the woman unmarried; I am bade to hold my peace, and that my husband shall have answer made unto him, she continued.

Jones later wrote that the Lady of Ormond threw all the artichokes at him, and with great intent, but she missed her target. Marry, madam, he said, you have little skill in fighting. In any case, he added, you have too piteous a face to be a bloody warrior. The countess retorted that she had a thousand and more who could fight on the battlefield if, God forbid, it should come to that point.

She then retreated, mounted her horse, and said she had disclosed her heart to a friend before riding off.

The account reads like a scene from a particularly engaging screenplay, but it is one of many fascinating insights in Aristocratic Women in Ireland 1450-1660: The Ormond Family, Power and Politics (The Boydell Press), a new book from Dr Damien Duffy recounting the under-told stories of successive countesses of Ormond and their daughters.

The book is illuminating, revelatory, and, I have to add, thrilling. It not only fills a yawning gap in Irish history by exploring the lives and roles of these Ormond women, but it portrays them as three-dimensional people who actively shaped the wider political, societal, economic, and cultural changes of the day.

As Duffy explains: Far from being hapless pawns, the Ormond heiresses proved themselves to be shrewd agents in complex factional disputes that involved, among others, the monarchs of their time.

Ask him why he wrote it, and he wryly observes that the libraries are falling down with books on men.

What is particularly absorbing about Duffys book is that it does more than give voice to the women of late medieval and early modern Ireland. This volume gives you a real sense of the personalities of 21 women who, from the 15th to mid-17th century, operated skilfully in the hybrid world of Hiberno-Norman and Gaelic lordships.

One of many delightful nuggets is an illustration of Joan Fitzgeralds wicked sense of humour when she engaged in a bit of 16th-century leg-pulling during an evening in London in the 1540s.

She regaled all the elite present with stories of how she had borne ten children  seven sons survived  in a tent or a wide barn, as was the custom in Ireland. Her listeners were appalled, saying that the Irish were beasts, as she was, although it is certain that every one of her births was carefully managed in accordance with her status as an aristocratic woman.

The glimpses into her personality are fascinating, but so too is the account of how her three marriages and two widowhoods put her in a position of rare power in the Gaelic and Old English worlds of the time. She reacted against her arranged marriage to lord justice of Ireland Sir Francis Bryan in 1548. However, when he died she was free to choose a third marriage partner  her cousin Gerald Fitzgerald, who was many years her junior.

He was just 16 when she moved from Kilkenny to Askeaton Castle in Limerick and assumed the role of peacekeeper. She rode out onto the battlefield to keep the peace between the houses of Desmond and Ormond, earning the title the angel of peace from Queen Elizabeth l.

On one occasion, in 1560, thousands of footsoldiers and 750 horses were assembled on both sides of the battlefield at Bohermore, Co Tipperary, and she rode between both camps one led by her third husband, the Earl of Desmond, and the other by a son from her first marriage, the Earl of Ormond  to broker a peace.

An uneasy truce held for a number of years but unravelled just a month after her death, aged 50, in 1565 when her husband Gerald and son Thomas met in open warfare at Affane in Waterford.

Yet, her story and those of so many others are not in our history books, in our historical dramas, or on the tips of our tongues when we visit the places where these formidable women once lived.

It was interesting to see that National Geographic carried an enthusiastic tribute to Mayos famous pirate queen Granuaile (Grace OMalley) last month, observing that Ireland is planning to celebrate this early example of female self-empowerment with a new tourist route.

While it is heartening to see her so widely commemorated, Grace OMalley was not the only powerful woman in late medieval Ireland. Far from it. As Duffys book shows, there were so many others, though sadly those womens names are not as well-known as they should be.

Historian Dr Damien Duffy tells the fascinating, under-told stories of successive countesses of Ormond and their daughters in a new book. 'The libraries are falling down with books on men,' he says.

Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond and Ossory  and mother-in-law of the aforementioned Joan  might be better-known than most. Her likeness stands in the National Museum of Ireland, dressed in a copy of the elaborate horned headdress that adorns her effigy in St Canices Cathedral in Kilkenny. The panels note that she was manlike, tall of stature, very rich and bountiful, a bitter enemy, and also that she was one of the most influential and important women of her time (she died in 1542).

As Duffy emphasises, she was not alone. Rose OToole, wife of Feagh McHugh, was also described in masculine terms. She was a fierce opponent and a woman of manly courage above that of a woman.

If medieval women were brave, they were also very able political operators. Margaret Fitzgerald, said one chronicler, was a lady so politic, that nothing was thought substantially debated without her advice. The wife of Turlough ONeill of Ulster, Lady Agnes Campbell, was commended for her diplomacy and skills, while Margaret OBrien Burke, Countess of Clanricarde, who died in 1568, was remembered as the best woman in Eirinn in her own time.

If we live 100 years, we still wont get to tell all the stories of women in Ireland, Duffy says, although he has made an important  and fascinating  start by casting a light on six generations of women who have not garnered anywhere near the attention they deserve.

These stories need to be told, he adds. We have a responsibility to talk about those who have come before us. And, as he shows in his book, what an enriching conversation that can be.
If you go down to the woods today, keep an eye out for endangered creatures like the tiny Natterjack toad and the Lapwing, both of whom are among native species targeted for conservation projects.

The natterjack, a well-loved nocturnal toad, a favourite of nature watchers. Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

Malcolm Noonan, Minister of State for Heritage & Electoral Reform, is urging people all over Ireland to #LoveNature, in-person and online, not just during National Biodiversity Week, but throughout the year.

The recent Biodiversity Week has given everyone in Ireland the chance to explore the rich variety of natural life in Ireland, interact with experts and find out more about the natural world around them.

A young Lapwing chick, Ireland's national bird, among the water birds targeted for special protection at Cooldross Lagoon and Saltmeadow, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.

Encouraging everyone to get outdoors and enjoy nature, Minister Noonan said: This National Biodiversity Week, lets all take some time to get away from screens and go outside  look up at the sky and notice the birds, look down at the soil and notice the insects, look around at the sheer variety of life and take a moment to really appreciate how amazing it all is.

You dont need to know the names of the different species or anything about their lives to know that nature is wonderful. Its about noticing it, being inspired by it, cherishing it, and valuing it for its own sake.

"And thats something everyone can do, no matter who they are, where they live, or what theyre interested in. Nature is our heritage  its for all of us. So take whatever opportunity you can to get out there and enjoy it.

Minister of State for Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, TD.

As Covid restrictions ease, his Department will hope people will use the #LoveNature hashtag, and check in on it to see the biodiversity and conservation work of the National Parks & Wildlife Service and its partners. This article features some of their current projects, many more will appear online and in the Irish Examiner over the coming weeks.

NPWS Cooldross Breeding Lapwing Protection Project 2021

Did you know that the Lapwing is Irelands national bird?

Sadly, numbers of ground-nesting wading birds are rapidly declining as breeding species in Ireland. It is estimated there are only between 500-600 breeding pairs left  a decline of 56% in the last number of years. The Lapwing is on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland.

The Lapwing, Ireland's national bird. Pic: Jason Monaghan, NPWS

The National Parks & Wildlife Service is trying to conserve Lapwing and other water birds at Cooldross Lagoon and Saltmeadow, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. This year, the results are very positive.

Habitat management measures carried out by the NPWS on site have resulted in a dramatic jump in Lapwing breeding numbers from 4 nests in 2020 to 19 nests, so far, this year 2021.

Beneficial management for breeding Lapwing at the site includes: the addition of a predator exclusion fence along the perimeter of the land, the creation of wader scrapes for chick feeding, targeted grazing to create a short grass sward to nest in and feed (cattle are taken out whilst chicks are about) and water management to maintain shallow pools for feeding. The site is also managed for other breeding waders, wintering wildfowl and waders, and passing migrants.

Monitoring and ringing of breeding lapwing is also an important facet of management. This involves monitoring breeding outcomes and productivity, ringing, and collection of biometric data.

This year will see the start of a colour-ringing project that will hopefully generate data on fledgling survival rates, dispersal, and natal site fidelity.

Lapwing, like many ground-nesting waders in Ireland, has dramatically declined due to factors including habitat loss and fragmentation. Predation, in particular, is a big driver of decline.

The provision of a predator exclusion fence along with other management measures seems to have positively affected breeding success and outcomes for the Lapwing at Cooldross as evidenced by a large increase in numbers.

Whilst it is still very early in the nesting year there are, at the moment, approximately 30 chicks feeding in the shallow pools, scrapes, and short grass at Cooldross and there are a large number of nests that have yet to hatch.

So, all going well, there should be close to 50 fledglings produced this year  up from 10 fledglings last year. Other wader species nesting includes oystercatcher and ringed plover  both showing an increase in numbers this year also.

It is hoped the endangered Redshank and rare Little Terns will breed at the site and a Little Tern project, involving a specially constructed experimental beach at Cooldross, is bearing dividends. All in all, a successful intervention by the NPWS.

A new captive breeding program for Irish natterjacks

A new captive breeding program for natterjack toads has recently started in Fota Wildlife Park, Cork.

A Natterjack toad, brought from Castlegregory to Fota Wildlife Park. Photo: Ferdia Marnell, NPWS

National Parks and Wildlife staff selected male natterjack toads from breeding sites in Castlegregory to take part in the new programme. Three males were brought to Fota to join six female toads already in captivity there.

The males underwent a brief quarantine period, to ensure they were in good health before joining the females in a specially designed breeding enclosure.

Natterjack toads have been confirmed as Endangered in the latest Red Data list due to declines in range and population in recent decades. All toadlets produced from the new breeding program will be released into the wild at selected sites to help supplement the native population.

The captive breeding project will build on the success of the captive rearing efforts already underway in both Fota and the Dingle Aquarium.

Under that initiative, NPWS collects toad spawn and tadpoles from desiccating ponds in the wild, transport them to Fota and Dingle Aquarium where they are reared over the summer months. The resulting toadlets are then returned to the species native range in Kerry.

Large amounts of tadpoles are typically lost in the wild due to pond desiccation and predation and this rearing program provides an important recruitment boost to the wild population.

The main threats to Natterjacks in Ireland are loss of aquatic and terrestrial habitats through wetland drainage and agricultural intensification, but also deterioration of habitat quality (e.g. reed encroachment of ponds; under grazing of terrestrial habitats around ponds leading to rank vegetation and poor foraging conditions).

Welcoming the male toads to Fota, Sean McKeown, director of Fota Wildlife Park, said: Were delighted to be working with the NPWS on the recovery program for the Natterjack toad. We are getting amazing results from our rearing program and will hopefully see the same from our breeding program too.

"Its great for Fota Wildlife Park to be working with conservation projects in Ireland when we are normally involved in projects in far-flung such as Vietnam and Madagascar. People need to understand the importance of conserving our native species and that many of our mammals, birds and amphibians also are facing threats to their survival in the wild."

Dr Ferdia Marnell, an amphibian specialist in NPWS, comments: The natterjack toad is struggling in the wild and we need to explore the potential for captive breeding to supplement the wild population. Were delighted that Fota has the expertise and the facilities to undertake this project with us."

All going well, the first captive-bred Irish toadlets should be ready for release at the end of the summer.

#LoveThisPlace #LeaveNoTrace

Over the past year, since the Covid-19 pandemic began, families, groups, and bubbles of friends across the country have been re-discovering nature, and over the summer, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Leave No Trace will both be running outdoor awareness campaigns.

Each will give practical advice on visiting woodlands, coasts, peatlands, nature reserves, national parks, and waterways in the hope we can all be more responsible in our interactions with nature.

If interacting with nature this summer, people are being asked to behave responsibly. Pic: Gleniff Horseshoe, Leave No Trace.

Acknowledging the connection many people forged with nature during the pandemic, Minister Noonan said: The past year has shown us just how important it is to connect with the natural world and what that can do for us in terms of solace, a sense of peace and wonder, as well as our physical health.

"Now that public health restrictions allow us to travel beyond our counties, we can experience the ecosystems we havent for a while  out to the coast, or inland to a raised bog or woodland, or up into the mountains. Wherever you go, the diversity and variety of life are all around you. But we have to be conscious of the need to protect our precious habitats and the flora and fauna within them.
Burma Myanmars LGBTIQ Community Faces Death and Torture From Junta

An LGBTIQ group participating in an anti-coup protest in Yangon on Feb. 14. / CJ

At least 12 LGBTIQ community members have been killed by regime forces and another 73 arrested or charged since the juntas coup for fighting against dictatorship and striving for equality, according to a report from the National Unity Government (NUG).

On Wednesday, the NUGs Ministry of Human Rights and Ministry of Women, Youths and Childrens Affairs released the situation report of the LGBTIQs after the military coup in Myanmar, in celebration of Pride Month which recognizes the valuable contributions made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people.

LGBTIQ groups in Myanmar have actively participated in anti-regime protests since the start of the pro-democracy movement in February. The most visible sign of their participation are the rainbow flags that have been waved among the crowds at anti-coup demonstrations nationwide.

As crackdowns, violence and torture against pro-democracy activists and civilians has intensified in the past few months, many LGBTIQ people across Myanmar have faced severe human rights violations, with some killed, tortured or detained by the military regime.

Between Feb. 1 and June 20, at least 12 LGBTIQ people from Myitkyina, Myingyan, Monywa, Mawlamyine, Yangon, Kyaukpadaung, and Mandalay were shot dead by junta forces while participating in peaceful protests and defending protesters from military violence, the report stated.

Three gay men and one transgender woman from Myingyan and Bago were also seriously injured by junta forces, according to the report.

Of the 73 LGBTIQ people arrested, 65 are still being detained. Another 28 are in hiding to avoid arrest, the report stated.

The NUG report noted that transgender people who have been arrested have experienced different forms of sexual harassment while in police custody, or being held in detention by regime forces, because of their visible identity as LGBTIQ people.

It quoted a 50-year transgender woman in Yangon who was arrested and severely tortured by junta forces.

The woman was beaten on their back, shoulders and head, stripped naked and forced to kneel down all the time. Their nipples were also burned with the tips of burning cigarettes and had paper clips attached to them, while a bottle was inserted into their anus.

After they were happy with burning my nipples and inserting a bottle in my anus, and when they were about to sleep, they made me leapfrog. The compound is very wide and I could do that and they made me hold my two hands between my thighs and made me twist around and I was kept the whole day with dust and mud on me, the woman was quoted as saying.

Those injuries took a month to heal, the transgender woman said.

In addition, many of the gay and transgender detainees who are being treated for HIV with antiretroviral therapy are unable to access their medication as they are scared about revealing their health status to the officials detaining them, the report said.

Civil society organizations representing LGBTIQ groups stressed that members of the LGBTIQ community actively participating in the anti-regime movement faced harsh retaliation and transphobic attacks from junta forces.

However, the groups vowed that they will never give up contributing to the revolution in acquiring equality for all.

The NUG has called on the international community to put pressure on the Myanmar military to immediately end the violence against all civilians, including LGBTIQ people, as well as calling for the release of all detainees and for the provision of the necessary psycho-social support upon their release.

It also urged the international community to support and engage with their work on the protection and promotion of human rights for all people, including the LGBTIQ community.



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Burma Rival Armed Groups Fight Over Territorial Dispute in Myanmars Shan State

The Shan State Progress Party in Kyethi in 2016. / The Irrawaddy

Two rival ethnic Shan armed groups, the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), have been fighting over a territorial dispute for a month in mountains in Kyethi Township, southern Shan State.

Both were formed to seek greater autonomy in Shan State with the RCSS based in the south and the SSPP in the north of the sprawling state.

RCSS information officer Major Kham San told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday: The two sides are still fighting. Clashes broke out along the Lwel Hun mountain range between Kyethi and Mongnaung on June 1 and have continued for a month. The RCSS has occupied the mountains for a long time and the SSPP attacked us. The fighting is fierce.

The Lwel Hun mountains on the Kyethi-Mongnaung road are about 16km from the SSPP headquarters in Wanhai, Mong Hsu Township. The RCSS built a camp in the mountains.

They fired artillery from the village. We are just defending ourselves. The fighting is intense. When it rains, they halt the attacks and bring reinforcements. Then they attack elsewhere. They are using thousands of troops, said Maj Kham San.

Although the RCSS claimed its troops have long been based in Lwel Hun, the SSPP said the mountains are in its territory and attacking to retake their land.

SSPP information officer Major Sai Phone Han said: From Lwel Hun they can shoot at Wanhai. Lwel Hun is over 200 miles from the [RCSS] headquarters in Loi Tai Leng but it is around 10 miles from our headquarters. It is close. We are not invading them. They can attack us anytime. We have to consider our security.

The RCSS occupied Lwel Hun while Myanmars military and the SSPP were battling in Mong Hsu and Kyethi townships in 2017 and has been attempting to exert control over mountain villages, forcing the SSPP to push them back, said the major.

The RCSS signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with President Thein Seins quasi-civilian government in 2015.

Shan political organizations and influential monks have made several unsuccessful attempts to settle territorial disputes between the two revolutionary groups.

They are not just invading us but are attempting to wipe us out. We have strong evidence, said Maj Sai Phone Han. The RCSS and SSPP said they are the only two groups fighting in Lwel Hun but residents said the United Wa State Army (UWSA) is fighting alongside the SSPP.

Hundreds of UWSA troops have arrived in Lwel Hun, according to villagers. The UWSA is based on the west of the Salween River and the SSPP on the east. The two are publicly allies with strong ties.

The Irrawaddy was unable to reach the UWSA for a comment.

More than 1,000 residents have been forced from their homes in the Lwel Hun mountains. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on June 24 that around 1,660 civilians had recently been displaced in Kyethi and Mongkaing townships by the clashes.



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Five Months After Coup, What Has Myanmar Junta Chief Accomplished?
Analysis Five Months After Coup, What Has Myanmar Junta Chief Accomplished?

Myanmar coup leader Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in March 2021.

Thursday marks five months since Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup. Nearly 900 civilians have been killed and thousands have been detained by the junta so far.

Shocking crimes have gripped the country for the past five months. Young activists taking to the streets against the military regime have been shot in the head. People have been tortured to death overnight in military custody, in some cases the bodies not even returned to relatives. Children around the same age as Min Aung Hlaings grandchildren have been shot dead. Villages have been set on fire and in one case elderly people were burned alive when junta forces torched their houses. Passersby have been shot at random.

Many of the youths who would otherwise have become the countrys driving force have been killed. The crimes began toward the end of February and are continuing. It should be noted that all these things happened during the first 150 days of rule by the military regime, which claims its seizure of power from the democratically elected government was simply intended to bring honesty back to democracy in Myanmar.

In his public comments, Min Aung Hlaing has declined to cite the number of civilian fatalities recorded by independent sources, saying only that nearly 300 people have died.

All dictators murder

Myanmar has seen three coups since 1962. When General Ne Win, who can be called the godfather of military dictators in Myanmar, seized power in 1962, fewer than 20 people died in five months. But as of Thursday, nearly 900 people have been killed in the five months since Min Aung Hlaing staged the third coup in Myanmars history.

In fact, when Ne Win seized power in 1962, he did not meet the kind of strong opposition that Min Aung Hlaing is facing now. People only murmured criticisms in teashops, barber shops and markets at the time, and there were no mass street protests, strikes by government employees or civil disobedience movement.

But all dictators are essentially the same. Four months after his coup, he had the historic Yangon (then Rangoon) University Students Union Building dynamited to suppress the university students who opposed his regime. Throughout his military rule under the Burma Socialist Programme Party, he responded to protesters with brutal crackdowns.

The military killed thousands of people including students in a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that saw military dictator Ne Wins downfall.

However, Myanmar remained under military rule as General Saw Maung seized power on Sept. 18, 1988. The state-run newspapers reported that a total of 681 people342 women and 339 menwere killed from Sept. 18-26.

Democratic forces estimated that some 3,000 people were killed throughout the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Those figures do not include the hundreds believed to have died behind bars, during interrogation and in labor camps.

What else has Min Aung Hlaing has done apart from kill people? He is arresting everyone who opposes him, and has issued warrants for those who have fled. As almost the whole country opposes him, it is not strange that people of different professions ranging from beauticians, artists and doctors to university professors and primary school teachers are on the wanted list. The regime has been forced to recruit teachers, as many are refusing to work for it. Public hospitals are short of doctors and nurses, and the public is waiting to see how Min Aung Hlaing plans to deal with the new wave of COVID-19 infections.

For all the people it has killed and detained, the regime is still unable to exert total control over the country. What is different between the military regime of Min Aung Hlaing and its predecessors is that this junta is facing armed resistance in towns. Shooting military-appointed administrators dead is something unprecedented in Yangon. Thanks to Min Aung Hlaing, such scenes are no longer new in the commercial capital. A policeman on patrol was shot dead in Yangon two days before the military takeover turned five months old. The coup can hardly be called a success.



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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starlink will be available worldwide, save for the North and South Poles starting in August. This announcement was made earlier on Tuesday during a talk at the virtual Moile World Congress 2021 in Barcelona, Spain, Cnet reported.

Starlink Satellite Broadband Service

Starlink, engineered by the rocket company SpaceX, is a string of satellites launched into space to provide high-speed, low latency broadband internet.

The latency for the Starlink system is similar to ground-based fiber and 5G latency, at around under 20 milliseconds, Musk said during the Mobile World Congress. This makes Starlink a good substitute for 5G and fiber when both aren't accessible.

Anyone can make Starlink work in less than 5 minutes, it does not need a professional installer. 



Instructions are (2):



(Literally take it out of the box )



1) Point at the sky & 2) plug-in @elonmusk you can do those in either order, we do make it easy  pic.twitter.com/Qyht9J7ZEe  K10  (@Kristennetten) June 29, 2021

Musk said it's currently delivering initial beta service domestically and internationally to 12 countries including the US, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe. They plan to add more countries every month, according to Cnet.

In a tweet, Musk said that the coverage for the North and South poles would take another six months to set up and connect, per Business Insider.

There are currently 1,800 Starlink satellites in orbit, and originally, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said they planned to achieve global coverage by September but Musk now says it could actually begin service a month early.

Their goal is to launch a "constellation" of 42,000 satellites into lower-earth orbit by mid-2027 to provide Internet access all over the world, especially in underserved communities and remote areas normally not serviced by broadband providers.

Used this guy from @SpaceX to do an interview while working from #airbnb in rural #upstateNY. Pretty impressed with the #Starlink speeds. pic.twitter.com/ISetUYU2QD  Karun Mukhi (@sukhimukhi) June 30, 2021

Users could expect internet speeds of up to 209.17 megabits per second, one of the fastest speeds recorded by a beta-test subscriber.

A monthly subscription to Starlink currently costs $99. But if you want to purchase the kit, which includes a tripod, Wi-Fi router, and terminal to connect to the satellites, that would cost $499.

Read Also: Starlink Stocks for Sale? Elon Musk Plans to Go Public But Not Soon, Tesla Investors to Get Preference

500,000 Starlink Internet Users Within 12 Months

Musk also told the Mobile World Congress that Starlink currently has more than 69,000 customers signed up, and it is expecting more than 500,000 in the next 12 months, Business Insider added.

The service is intended for the three percent to five percent of people in the world without access to the internet. Musk shared "it's really a nice complement to fiber and 5G."

*ELON MUSK: BEFORE WE GO TO FULLY POSITIVE CASH FLOW WE WILL INVEST BETWEEN $5 BILLION AND $10 BILLION IN STARLINK pic.twitter.com/e9m1IKzO51  Investing.com (@Investingcom) June 29, 2021

To deploy the high-speed internet service, he estimates that it would cost $5 billion to $10 billion. And compared to other broadband service offerings, Starlink's service isn't cheap, Cnet added.

The company is also working on building new terminals that cost less. Musk disclosed that the current internet terminals cost SpaceX $1,000 to make and are available to customers at $499 each on top of the $99 monthly subscription. With the future hardware, the prices should drop to $250 or $300 per unit.

The CEO also teased two "quite significant partnerships" with major country telecoms companies.

Related Article: SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Gets New Schedule: Elon Musk Explains Delay, Transporter-2 Mission Details, Where to Watch Live
Having a compromised Samsung phone is no laughing matter. Your data could become corrupted, losing hundreds of precious memories and photos. You can also become vulnerable to hackers who can steal sensitive data such as bank details and account information from your smartphone.

How Can My Samsung Phone Get a Virus?

Malware can enter your phone in different and creative ways. From hidden applications to pandemic-related e-mails and messages with questionable links, a virus can easily enter into your phone if you take action on their prompts.

When downloading apps, make sure they are from Google Play Store and are from reputable app developers.

When you receive e-mails or messages from senders you don't recognize, avoid clicking on any links or prompts. Avoid pop-up ads that prompt you to click them, as these could be malware or phishing attempts.

And if you find yourself in public, avoid using the unsecured public Wi-Fi for connection.

You can also switch on the embedded security feature in your Samsung phone by heading to Apps > Settings > Lock Screen and Security > Unknown Sources and switch off Unknown Sources. You will receive notifications before an app is downloaded from an unknown source.

You can also run security checks by going to Apps>Google Settings> Security>Verify apps>Scan device for security threats.

Avoid rooting your device as well. This can leave your device vulnerable.

Hackers and viruses normally cannot enter your smartphone unless they got help from your end. They need you to slip up and accidentally open the door so they can barge right in.

Joker virus found again in Android apps a year after Google removed many infected apps from Play Store#Android #Malware #app pic.twitter.com/QBQCOdJPoi  Sandeep Paikra (@impaikra) June 23, 2021

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Does My Samsung Phone Have a Virus? Easy Tip On How to Scan for Malware

Samsung suggested using Smart Manager to check for malware or viruses in your device. You can run an ad hoc scan at any time and it's really simple and easy to do.

First, enter Apps then select Smart Manager. Tap Security and tap SCAN NOW to run a scan.

You will also be able to check the last time you scanned your device, as it will be found on the top right of the screen. You can perform scans as often as you want to keep your phone security intact.

If u are heavy user using a lot of apps, chance of getting malware is higher in Samsung. But if u are light user Android phones are ok. The main problem for me in Android is malware.  Chakra Saie (@bhanu_sayi) June 23, 2021

What to Do When My Samsung Phone Has a Virus

If you find your device does have a virus, you can uninstall the offending apps in Safe Mode.

AVG suggested uninstalling in Safe mode so you can safely remove any suspicious or problematic app.

Have your device enter Safe mode by turning it completely off, then powering the phone back on. When the Samsung logo appears, press and hold down the Volume Down key.

Safe Mode should display on the bottom left corner of the screen. If it does not appear, repeat the steps.

Open settings then tap Apps. Go ahead and check the list for the apps with black or random letters for the name you don't recognize or apps that you have identified as problematic. Uninstall those apps.

If you have a problem uninstalling an app, remove administrator access by going back to Settings > Security > Device Administrators and check to see if any of the malicious apps have access. If there are, deactivate it and go ahead and uninstall the app.

To exit Safe mode, just restart your phone like normal and it will reboot normally.

If you are experiencing unusual behavior on your Samsung phone and have performed the appropriate at-home fixes but the problems still persist, it is best to take your phone to an expert.

Related Article: Afraid Your Samsung Galaxy Phone Has Been Hacked? Check For Warning Signs, Perform Fixes
Robinhood Markets Inc. is a popular American financial services company that features commission-free trades of stocks and funds in its mobile app. Unfortunately, the company has been slapped with a $70 million penalty on multiple charges, including technical failures, misleading information, and overall lack of due diligence for its customers.

It is undoubtedly a massive blow for the Robinhood app ahead of its planned IPO.

Robinhood was a highly recommended stock app when it was first released in 2019. It had a clean and straightforward interface that lets beginner investors easily and quickly build their investment portfolio. Unfortunately, years after, Robinhood disappoints many users with bad customer service.

Robinhood App Hit With Massive $70 Million Penalty

CNBC reported that FINRA, a self-regulatory organization that oversees brokerage firms and their registered representatives, is the opposing party that charged Robinhood with $57 million for fines and $13 million for the restitution to thousands of affected clients.

The biggest event that ties up to this charge is the suicide of a 20-year-old Robinhood customer back in 2020. The victim took his own life after being charged with a million dollars worth of leverage. Forbes reported that a screenshot of his phone showed the victim had a negative balance of $730,165. However, this number does not represent the victim's uncollateralized indebtedness (as the victim might have thought). Instead, the number was his temporary balance until stocks in his assigned options settled into his account.

This marks the first of many charges against Robinhood. FINRA said they charged the company for "significant harm suffered by customers, including millions of customers who received false or misleading information from the firm, millions of customers affected by the firm's systems outages in March 2020, and thousands of customers the firm approved to trade options even when it was not appropriate for the customers to do so."

Robinhood neither admits nor denies these charges.

Read Also: Ethereum Investment Sees Massive Losses Amid 'Negative Sentiment,' What Happens Now?

How Does the Issue Affect Robinhood Stock Price Ahead of IPO?

Robinhood takes the penalty and is expected to pay out some time in the coming months. The Robinhood head of public policy communications, Jacqueline Ortiz Ramsay, said that the company will instead focus on their customers and democratizing finance for all. The company is also investing in improving its platform stability, enhancing educational resources, building customer support, and improving legal and compliance teams, per CNBC.

Securities reported that IPOs, generally on stocks and trading, are steadily gaining value in these last few years. During the pandemic, which forced many businesses to resort to digital transactions, Global IPOs reached over $160 billion in value.

CNN Business notyed that Robinhood made the bold move of filing for an IPO earlier in March 2021. The company seems confident on its ability to capitalize on its torrent growth and record high stock prices in the markets. Regulator and politicians remain skeptical of their success. With Robinhood's ongoing charges and faulty app system, experts warn against "conflicts of interests" between Robinhood and its investors.



Related Article: Ethereum Price Prediction: ETH Value Gets Positive Boost With Win vs. Bitcoin


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A portion of Lansing seniors wait for the start of the graduation ceremony for the 2021 class on June 25.
Business platform provider Inecom has changed its name to Cloud Factory Solutions, with the company saying the name change reflecting its double-digit growth and a client list includeing e-commerce brands Kogan and Temple & Webster.

Inecom says the double-digit growth reflects the demand for its cloud ERP services over the COVID-19 period.

Cloud Factory provides hosted cloud solutions across major ERP platforms including SAP Business One, MYOB Advanced and Microsoft Dynamics 365 with a focus on Azure and Power Apps. Its clients include ASX-listed e-commerce brands such as Kogan (KGN) and Temple & Webster (TPW) sporting bodies, charities, manufacturing, and distribution sector.

Cloud Factory director Simon Bishop says that the name change represents the companys maturity and a 10-year growth path in cloud deployment. According to Bishop, Cloud Factory supports more than three thousand users with a backdrop of ever-increasing client demand to deliver Digital Acceleration for Cloud First policies.

We were going hard and fast with on-boarding cloud solutions when the pandemic hitbut paradoxically our growth spiked, Bishop claims. To deliver, we put even more resources and energy into deploying collaboration tools to support our projects and the additional Solution Specialists required for our growing client base.

Bishop says Microsoft Teams has become the de facto connection for Cloud Factorys project management and a single reference point for clients, who in turn are now deploying Teams for their own management and internal communications.

We believe the approach to projects has forever been changed by COVID and that in a post-pandemic world, our clients will demand ever more innovation across their business systems. Every touchpoint will demand automation and collaboration capability," Bishop notes.

Cloud Factory managing director Ross Gilchrist observed that clients were typically requesting help to build out these capabilities and provide critical support for their digital transformation projects.

When the company was established in 2010, Gilchrist says they already had extensive experience.

Our aim back then was purely to address the complexity and cost of on-premises servers, and the positive feedback from our customers was immediate, Gilchrist says. Within a short time, they had freed themselves from capital license fees for operating systems and databases and the inevitable three-to-five-year repeatable costs for infrastructure upgrades and testing environments. The icing on the cake was our ability to provide a 24x7 service and device agnostic access capability."

In 2015, Inecom was doing well with its partnerships. "We believe Cloud Factory represents the most capable cloud solution and cloud infrastructure offerings in the market that serves from one to five hundred users, Gilchrist claims.

Dynamics 365 practice director Wendy Jansz says Cloud Factory valued transparency and a tailored approach to each client project.

In each case we deliver transparent consulting and advice to drive the individuality of each project and this approach starts with passion for our solution sales methodology, she says.

Bishop describes the company as a factory for cloud solutions. We build and deliver reusable setup, configuration and process for going live with our clients valued and important projects across multi-cloud/hybrid infrastructure that we now operate within."

Bishop concludes: In times of feast or famine, companies now demand a rapid transition of platforms to suit evolving needs. Cloud Factory is first and foremost a consulting team with deep experienceour clients depend on us to drive the solution selection, implementation and critical support for their business."
Software development company SmartBear has opened a new, larger office in Melbourne after it recorded more than 50% growth since launching in APAC in 2017.

SmartBear says the new office in Melbourne will support growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, with the company reporting more than 50% growth over the last four years since launching its APAC presence in 2017.

The company plans to continue its rapid headcount growth in Australia to provide the necessary real-time support for customers and channel partners alike, and will be well-supported by SmartBear headquarters in the US.

SmartBear senior vice president of international sales and channel Darin Welfare says the company recorded growth across all sectors of its business and cites the rapid digital transformation.

Our investments in our customers and channel partners continue to help companies increase their competitive position by delivering high-quality software faster with SmartBear tools, Welfare notes.

After tripling the headcount in Melbourne over the last four years, Welfare says that SmartBears new location cements our commitment to the area and gives us to the space to continue attracting top-tier talent in this vibrant city.

The office is located at Melbourne Quarter 2 on Collins Street in downtown Melbournes new economic centre.

SmartBear vice president of sales, Asia Pacific and Japan, Yong Sheng Lee describes the companys growth over the last four years as nothing short of remarkable.

Our team in Melbourne has always provided best-in-class support to our customers and partners. We now have the resource and capacity to extend our offerings not only throughout Australia and New Zealand but to leading enterprises in Japan, Korea, China, India, and the entire APAC region, Lee says.

According to analyst firm GlobalData, the majority of top Asia Pacific tech companies have thrived in recent years due to digital transformation, data centres, and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments.

SmartBear plans to continue its investment throughout APAC, including Japan, Korea, China, and India.
GUEST OPINION: Imagine standing in front of the CEO and company board of directors, asking them for a cheque for an obscene amount of money to pay off hackers that are holding critical data hostage and disrupting the company business.

Certainly many are cringing at the very thought of this and have blocked the uncomfortable scenario from their mind, instead hoping that the companys current security strategy is strong enough to prevent becoming the next victim of a high-profile data breach or ransomware attack.

The fact is that while ignorance is bliss, it will not prevent this scenario from occurring. The cycle of ignorance that exists today is bad for organisations, blissful for hackers, and needs to be broken before it is too late.

My companys CEO, Nat Kausik, has described the SolarWinds attack, detailing how once hackers were able to breach the companys network via a compromised laptop, they were able jump freely from the companys active directory infrastructure to the Azure active directory, and ultimately take over Office 365, where they were able to achieve full access.

This, Kausik pointed out, was due to the fact that the company employed an integrated security infrastructure approach, as opposed to a security posture comprised of independent vendors and tools.

On paper, having a single vendor for IT and security can make working life easier, such as not having to worry about interoperability issues. However, relying heavily on a single vendor infrastructure also makes life easier for the hacker.

The SolarWinds breach is a prime example of how hackers were able to ride the connected fabric of an all-Microsoft shop. This begs the question, Will the developer of the infrastructure be able to see its own vulnerabilities? This is akin to why quality assurance (QA) and development/manufacturing/building are typically separate across any industry of choice.

That said, many organisations still rely on a single vendor, thinking they have both ease-of-use and security. This wilful ignorance, if left unchecked, can have serious implications in the future.

To deal with todays evolving threats, it is imperative that we break this cycle. Relying on a single vendor for both infrastructure and security is not good for your business. We need to start making the hackers job harder and not easier. This can be achieved by employing best-of-breed security practices at all segments of the infrastructure via security products and services that are independent of the underlying infrastructure.

Failure to do so may result in that very uncomfortable talk with your CEO and board becoming a reality.

To learn how Bitglass can provide an extra layer of security on top of the Microsoft tools you may already be using, download the Bitglass solution brief on how the companys technology complements Microsoft Security.
"The program drives accountability and action to help participants realise business potential, and there is no one more capable and credentialled than Desmond to develop and deliver this training," said of Partner Elevate CEO and co-founder Ben Shapiro.

"He has played a critical role in our channel success to date and we're thrilled to have him on board to drive the global expansion of the business."

Russell joins Partner Elevate after six years in partner management roles at Microsoft.

He previously worked as a national practice lead at OBS, as a product manager at Nintex, and as a consultant at the Port of Brisbane.

Russell holds multiple Microsoft credentials.

"While passionate about technology, many partner businesses fail to turn technical competency into profitable and scalable business capability, an unintended consequence of the partner enablement programs available today," said Russell.

"We know that Microsoft loves winners and innovators, so I look forward to helping these partners step out of the day-to-day running of their business and guide them in building great, functional and scalable business models that will set them on the path to being an Investible Partner  while at the same time, helping to transform the worldwide partner ecosystem."

The Investible Partner program helps businesses be recognised as an asset to the Microsoft partner ecosystem by knowing how to leverage the ecosystem to their exclusive benefit, explained Shapiro.
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Khwezi Gule uses a vast selection of provocative artwork to decipher the interrelation between art and spirituality while demystifying the mystique of African modernity.



A Chief Curator at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Gules exhibition, available online, showcases the contemporary landscape of social beliefs and politics, and how these intertwine in a modern context. Its dubbed Ngoma II: Cosmology in African Modernities. Modernity and colonialism not only changed the African way of life but also how we understand the cosmos and our place in it, he says.



The digital exhibition explores wall art, photo prints, wooden and metal sculptures, music instruments as well as melodic voices, all of which communicate the interconnectedness of societal beliefs, traditions and conditions imposed by a modern sphere of reference. Art is not only a decorative endeavour, but it is also a way of knowing, a means of representing that which is beyond everyday speech, says Gule.



He concedes that societal beliefs are deeply rooted within communities that practice them and are often communicated through behaviour, spoken language and artistic expression. The JAG curator draws inspiration from a plethora of artworks on display to interpret spirituality, modernity and colonialism, using a biblical perspective to dissect the complexities of the spectrum.



Gule surmises that the expression, ones reality creates ones world, is not farfetched. Artworks assembled in this exhibition offer us glimpses into how our ancestors and present-day artists have adapted to modernity, coloniality and the shifting landscape of spirituality, he explains.



A sequel to the Ngoma: Art and Cosmology exhibition held at the historic gallery two years ago, Ngoma II features existing works from JAGs extensive library of contemporary and antique artworks to interpret the modern-day social context. Gule says art in the African context has always been woven into the fabric of both spirituality and mundane existence, and this is what Ngoma II seeks to dissect. He adds that the exhibition represents deeply held societal beliefs and how these are evolving.



Jackson Hlungwani, a self-proclaimed healer, preacher and visionary who links spirituality with ordinary life, has his artwork at the crux of the exhibition. He uses sculptures to convey and dissect spiritual and biblical concepts. Tradition is not stagnant and is often influenced by modernity and coloniality, says Hlungwani.



Among other works on display is a painting titled The Crucifix 1976 by Judas Mahlangu that depicts an Africanised crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The evocative artwork depicts the suffering of black people as a result of colonialism. It illustrates snakes and birds, both of which are important symbols in African biblical narratives. Although some of the artwork on display is not devotional objects, Gule notes that it represents ways in which life, morality, futurity and imagination come together.



Ngoma II indeed explores the fact that Africans are no longer mere objects of Western acquaintance but producers of indigenous knowledge. The Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Community Development, Cllr Margaret Arnolds, encourages members of the general public to explore the exhibition online: https://web.facebook.com/JoburgCulture.



Written by Dr Karabo Semenya


Does it feel like you are frequently in crisis management mode  forced to make ad hoc decisions, reacting to unpredictable ocean freight rates, equipment and space shortages, and transit time variability? You are not alone. In such a dynamic environment, we constantly analyze our global supply chains, redefining which pain points matter and what we are doing to actually lessen the strain. I suggest we should also be evaluating our service providers, to make sure our values and goals are aligned and that they have the capability and motivation to reliably meet our service level expectations.

As in any alliance, relationships often fail because the two parties have different expectations, do not communicate well, and perhaps are just not naturally aligned. Say you are the global logistics manager of a smaller US importer  perhaps you would be better served by a niche forwarder who appreciates your 2,000 TEU annual volume and will strive to meet your expectations; whereas the major freight forwarder (or even carrier) might take your volume for granted. Also, if you are primarily sourcing from Southeast Asia and the challenges you face are occurring in that region, it may behoove you to work backwards and interview a few forwarders based there, and secondarily concern yourself on their US representation for documentation release (the easier part). For example, if the Vietnam-based forwarder is the one negotiating with the carriers on rate and space commitments, would you not be better off dealing directly with them? If you ask a few of your Asian suppliers to recommend a couple of local forwarders and you find a common name match from more than one of your suppliers  bingo.

While I am not a fan of polygamy, I do encourage my peers to maintain two forwarder service providers and one back-up (eager to prove their capability to come through in the clutch). What you may quickly learn is that each forwarder has their own carrier contracts and its likely that one is tighter with the 2M Alliance (Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co.) and the other has a better relationship with the Ocean Alliance (COSCO, CMA CGM, and Evergreen), and yet another has contracts with THE Alliance (Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, HMM, and Yang Ming). Thus, it makes sense to learn this during the interview process and to purposefully pick forwarders with divergent allegiances. On a given week, if one forwarder reports that the vessel is full, you can check with your other forwarder(s) to see if their allied carrier has space.

Aside from strategically selecting your forwarder partners, it is important to prioritize your own wants and needs. For example, during a space crunch, you may be willing to pay a large premium over the spot freight rate; however, if your provider still cannot get you space, it would be for naught. Again, this is a conversation you should have with your forwarder before that situation happens  to state your needs in advance so that you and your partner already have a Plan B in place for that eventuality. If one of your needs is an accurate tracking system which alerts you whenever there is a deviation to the ETA, then make this priority need known in advance. How can you reasonably expect the forwarder to meet your needs if you do not elaborate on what those needs are?

When evaluating a freight forwarder, said Michael Crotty, president of Golden Pacific Fashion & Design Co. I look for honesty and trustworthiness, fast and accurate response, creativity in offering options, and their reputation in the trade.

Loyalty and trust from a shipper go a long way from the forwarders perspective, said Daniel Grimes, vice president at Janel Group. We had a long-time shipper leave us because he was promised lower rates and guaranteed space by another forwarder. Three weeks later the client returned to us and said that the other forwarder couldnt keep their promise. Right now, its about getting bookings. We used to see requests for pricing (RFPs), but now we are seeing some shippers sending out requests for bookings (RFBs).

Theres a danger in using different forwarders for different trade lanes if the resultant volume on a particular lane is insufficient to warrant the provider to invest sufficient resources to manage service challenges, said Mike Gottlieb, cofounder and vice president of international at ShipTech.

In this current market where flexibility wins, many of the medium and large forwarders are stuck with only utilizing their own ocean contracts. Smaller and more nimble forwarders can leverage strong origin co-loaders with huge buying power to get their clients freight moving at competitive rates, said Gottlieb.

He added that China rates are changing weekly if not daily, requiring shipper customers to pull the trigger once they know they need a booking and not wait for approval from higher-ups. In the current market, the space will be gone if a decision isnt made to book within a couple hours, Gottlieb said.

Capital Transportation & CHB is prioritizing customers providing steady volumes and on routes where it can serve them efficiently, said Frank Neves, general manager at the forwarder. Unfortunately, many carriers havent been able to honor their commitments in this chaotic environment.

Carriers are issuing bookings and shipping orders only to cancel them a few days later, with unprecedented excuses of lack of equipment, blank sailings, no space, Neves said. "Meanwhile, shippers may try to make bookings elsewhere, but inevitably come back as all forwarders are in the same boat.

A turbulent environment does have the potential to make a shipper-forwarder relationship stronger, but only if that partnership has a solid foundation built on common expectations, capability, trust, and flexibility. It is healthy to compare and contrast your existing forwarder versus a few others, and theres every likelihood that youll come to the realization that they were your best match all along, as long as both parties communicate honestly and openly.

Daniel Krassenstein, supply chain director for industrial packaging firm Procon Pacific, can be reached at daniel.krassenstein@outlook.com.
Brights Zoo is set to open its brand-new "Penguin Cove" exhibit on Thursday, finally completing a project that began in March 2020.

"We're excited," said Director David Bright. "This has been a long time coming. We've put a lot of work into this, trying to make it something that stands out so that people remember it when they walk out of here, and hopefully come back and want to see it again.

"Excitement is the biggest word, I think," Bright continued.

Bright said the zoo had hoped to open the exhibit last year, with work beginning in March 2020. The pandemic, however, forced them to halt construction, which didn't restart until January 2021.

The exhibit features 10 African black-footed penguins (a warm-weather species), a trio of Asian small-clawed otters, two fennec foxes and several reptiles including an Asian water monitor, an albino Burmese python, a rhinoceros iguana and others. Four other penguins will eventually be part of the exhibit, though they're currently separated from the others as they're nesting.

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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.
Emergency workers attend to a woman who was injured after being dragged by a vehicle on Thursday at Fourth and Main streets. The middle-aged woman was taken to a hospital after being dragged by the car in a suspected robbery. GLOBE | LAURIE SISK
Jaelyn Wratchford is crowned Miss West Virginia 2021 Saturday night by Toriane Graal, who held the title for 2019 and 2020. The Journal will be speaking to Wratchford on her win and what is to come later this week.










ANANTARA IKO MAURITIUS RESORT & VILLAS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW GENERAL MANAGER Anantara Iko Mauritius Resort & Villas announces the appointment of its new General Manager, Pascal Bertrand, who brings over 35 years of luxury hospitality experience from around the globe to take the hotel to new heights. ANANTARA IKO MAURITIUS RESORT & VILLAS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW GENERAL MANAGER Anantara Iko Mauritius Resort & Villas announces the appointment of its new General Manager, Pascal Bertrand, who brings over 35 years of luxury hospitality experience from around the globe to take the hotel to new heights. Mauritius - Careers - Appointments

This is a press release Category: Africa Indian Ocean This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2021-07-01







has gained working with international brands in numerous regions.



French national Pascal got a taste for the hotelier life when he started his career in Food & Beverage, as Sous-Chef for Eleven Maple Street Restaurant in Florida. He continued his career in F&B by joining The Ritz Carlton in Atlanta as Assistant Banqueting Manager, followed by The Ritz Carlton Cancun and The Ritz Carlton in Florida.



With qualifications in Hotel Asset Management and Real Estate from Cornell University, Pascal progressed through the ranks of hotel operations before taking his first General Manager position at the Legends Hotel Mauritius, in 2010.



Ive always had great admiration for the Anantara brand so Im truly honoured to step into this exciting role. Anantara represents a unique proposition worldwide and I look forward to supporting the successful development of this fantastic property. He adds, Now, with my broader experience from different aspects of the business, Im excited to work with the team here at Anantara Iko Mauritius Resort & Villas to lead the property into its next phase as an award-winning resort in the amazing location of the South East coast of Mauritius.



Anantara Iko Mauritius Resort & Villas features 164 guest rooms and suites and will soon launch an additional eight luxury pool villas  two with two bedrooms and six with four bedrooms.



Facilities at the resort include Sea.Fire.Salt  a specialty grill and seafood restaurant with courtyard and beach dining, an all-day dining restaurant, private dining with a wine cellar, a healthy wellness-focused cafe, two bars  one by the poolside and one facing the beach, a 30-metre ozone-based swimming pool, a gym, a signature Anantara Spa and a kids club. Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas Anantara currently operates more than 40 hotels across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Indian Ocean, with a pipeline of new developments including in the Middle East region, Europe and Asia.



Anantara is a luxury hospitality brand for modern travellers, connecting them to genuine places, people and stories through personal experiences, and providing heartfelt hospitality in the worlds most exciting destinations. The collection of distinct, thoughtfully designed luxury hotels and resorts provides a window through which to journey into invigorating new territory, curating personal travel experiences.



From cosmopolitan cities to desert sands to lush islands, Anantara connects travellers to the indigenous, grounds them in authentic luxury, and hosts them with passionate expertise. The portfolio currently boasts over 40 stunning hotels and resorts located in Thailand, the Maldives, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Mozambique, Zambia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Portugal and Spain, with a pipeline of future properties across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.


















Living Reporter and Theatre Critic

Tim covers leisure and arts, and he is also a theater critic. He interned for the JI in 2015, and was hired in 2016. Tim graduated from UConn, Central College of McPherson, Kansas, and American Musical & Dramatic Academy. His favorite movie is "Jaws."
Reporter

Susan covers the towns of Somers and Ellington. She joined the JI in May 2021 and graduated from Skidmore College. She recently completed docent training for the Wadsworth Atheneum and hopes to start giving tours some time next year.
The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, P.L. 113-295, created the certified professional employer organization (CPEO) designation and required the IRS to implement a voluntary certification program for professional employer organizations (PEOs) (new Sec. 3511). On June 1, 2017, the IRS granted certification to an initial group of 84 CPEOs. This article examines the success of the CPEO program and the role of CPAs in the certification process. CPEOs are growing and now handle payroll, benefits, and tax responsibilities for thousands of entities and employ millions of workers, so CPAs with business clients or who work for companies should understand the role and responsibilities of CPEOs so they can advise those considering or using CPEOs.

A PRIMER ON PEOs

PEOs provide business services to small and midsize clients. Operating primarily in the human resource management area, PEOs administer payroll, benefits, and taxes and can provide workers with access to benefits such as health insurance and 401(k) plans. The PEO relationship is different from a traditional outsourcing relationship, however, in that PEOs are co-employers. Once a client company signs a co-employment agreement with a PEO, the PEO becomes a co-employer of the client's worksite employees.

The co-employment relationship involves a contractual allocation and sharing of employer responsibilities between the PEO and the client as outlined in the client service agreement. The PEO typically remits wages and withholdings of the worksite employees and bears responsibility for reporting, collecting, and depositing employment taxes at the local, state, and federal levels. The PEO issues the Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. At the same time, the client company retains responsibility for the primary business activities of the organization, such as product development, production, business operations, marketing, sales, and services.

According to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO), there are over 900 PEOs in the United States providing services to 175,000 small and midsize businesses. Given the formal co-employer relationship between the PEO and the client company, the PEO generally is responsible for the remittance of the client's employment taxes as part of its payroll services.

The Small Business Efficiency Act (SBEA) component of the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 required the IRS to establish a voluntary certification program for PEOs and created Sec. 7705, which sets out the requirements to become and remain a CPEO, and Sec. 3511, which sets out the federal employment tax treatment of CPEOs. Sec. 3511 provides that a CPEO is "treated as the employer (and no other person shall be treated as the employer) of any work site employee performing services for any customer of such organization, but only with respect to remuneration remitted by such organization to such work site employee." Thus, under the law, once a CPEO pays a client's employees, the liability for employment taxes falls on the CPEO only; at that point, the client is relieved of liability for those taxes.

One reason for this provision's importance is that there have been instances of PEOs that failed to remit the payroll taxes that they had collected from their clients. In the ensuing cases, courts had to decide whether the PEO or its client had responsibility for the unpaid employment taxes. Before the certification program, courts found that this responsibility fell on the client, regardless of whether the client had already remitted the payment to the PEO and regardless of any contractual agreement between the client and its PEO (see "Certified Professional Employer Organizations and Tax Liability Shifting: Assessing the First Two Years of the IRS Certification Program," by Katherine Sanford Goodner and Ursula Ramsey, 16-2 Berkeley Bus. L.J. 571 (2019)).

Although PEOs are not required to go through the IRS certification process, this shifting of liability from client to the CPEO represents a significant advantage of using a CPEO versus a noncertified PEO. In addition to that benefit, the SBEA clarified that a CPEO is treated as a successor employer for purposes of the wage base of the worksite employees and that the CPEO's clients remain eligible for any specific tax credits for which they would have been eligible absent the CPEO relationship.

CPAs' ROLE

CPAs play a vital role in the CPEO program. The legislation requires that a CPEO undergo an annual independent financial statement audit by a CPA, who must issue an opinion that the financial statements are presented fairly and in accordance with GAAP. As a part of the financial statements, the CPEO program requires a statement in the notes section covered by the CPA opinion that the CPEO's annual audited financial statements reflect positive working capital (with limited exceptions for CPEOs with negative working capital) and include details related to the calculation of working capital. The audited financial statements must be submitted annually to the IRS.

In addition to the annual report, a responsible individual at the CPEO must sign an assertion, under penalty of perjury, stating that the CPEO has withheld and made deposits of all federal employment taxes. This assertion must be accompanied by an examination-level attestation by an independent CPA that the assertion is fairly stated in all material respects.

CPEO PROGRAM: SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

One of the CPEO program's most touted benefits is the transfer of liability from the client-employer to the CPEO for the collection and remission of the federal payroll taxes for its eligible worksite employees. Another oft-touted benefit of CPEO certification is the official recognition of a PEO by a government agency (here, the IRS), which brings additional credibility to the industry. Although the IRS does not specifically endorse PEOs, the list of CPEOs meeting the program's auditing and reporting standards is publicly available on the IRS website.

With those benefits in mind, there are several perspectives by which to gauge the CPEO program's success at this juncture. One option is simply to consider the number of PEOs seeking certification. Another option is to consider the market share of PEOs that have sought certification. An alternative perspective is to consider the size profile of PEOs falling under the CPEO program's purview.

For the first perspective (the percentage of CPEOs seeking certification), it is helpful to have an estimate of the PEO industry's size compared with the number of initial CPEO applicants.

In a 2017 press release, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reported that, as of March 2017, 123 PEOs had applied for IRS certification (see TIGTA Rep't No. 2017-40-085). With 780 to 980 PEO organizations in the United States, this results in an estimated application rate to the program of 13% to 16%. On June 1, 2017, the IRS released its first group of 84 CPEOs, reflecting an 8.57% to 10.77% certification rate (IR-2017-103). More recently, as of Jan. 14, 2021, 124 PEOs had achieved certification for an estimated certification rate of 12.65% to 15.9% (see the table "Adoption Rate of CPEO Program").
Classes in the Wilkes County Schools will start on Aug. 23 and end on May 25 in 2021-22 as a result of a calendar approved by the Wilkes Board of Education on Feb. 1.
In a 45-minute summary of the judgment read out in court, judges sentenced on June 30 former head of Serbian state security Jovica Stanisic and his subordinate Franko Frenki Simatovic both to 12 years in jail. They were found guilty on five counts for aiding and abetting the commission of crimes in Bosanski Samac in Bosnia. The pair were not held responsible for crimes charged by the prosecutor in four other Bosnian municipalities and several towns and villages in Croatia.

Their conviction marks the first time Serbian state officials have been found guilty of war crimes committed in neighbouring Bosnia during the 1990s conflicts that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. But judges did not follow the prosecutions case theory which cast Stanisic and Simatovic as puppet masters pulling the strings of paramilitary units  including some of the most notorious Serb militias operating in Bosnia and Croatia between 1991 and 1995, the Scorpions and the Tigers.

The UN judges did rule that a joint criminal enterprise existed which aimed to drive out the majority of the non-Serb population from Serb-claimed areas of Bosnia and Croatia. More importantly, it found the purpose of the criminal enterprise was shared by certain senior political, military, and police leadership in Serbia, and that there was a link between the regime of Serbian president at the time Slobodan Milosevic and ethnic cleansing campaigns on the ground in Bosnia.

Milosevic himself died in a UN cell before judges could hand down a ruling on his alleged role in the 1991-95 war in Croatia, the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict.

Practical assistance

However, with regard to Stanisic and Simatovic the judges said it could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt that they were part of that joint criminal enterprise. Judges did not convict them of bankrolling and organizing a variety of paramilitary units operating in Bosnia and Croatia.

In the end the only units to whose crimes they were linked were those committed by the State, known as Frenkis men, Red Berets or simply The Unit. Members of these units trained a group of 18 men from the city of Bosanski Samac in north eastern Bosnia on the border with Croatia. In 1992, when Serbs took over Bosanski Samac, these men would go on to kill, torture and rape Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats. Judges deemed there was not enough evidence to say Stanisic and Simatovic had authority over them while they committed crimes, but they did find that their practical assistance through training these men had a substantial effect on the crimes.

A cynical compromise

The trial chamber came up with a decision which leaves absolutely everyone dissatisfied, said University of Utrecht historian Iva Vukusic, who specializes in Serb paramilitaries during the Balkan wars.

The prosecution said they would carefully read the verdict to see if there were grounds for appeal, especially with regard to the charges the judges did not find proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Still, prosecutor Serge Brammertz said the convictions were a step forward in ensuring accountability for crimes in the former Yugoslavia. As senior officials in the state security service of the republic of Serbia, Stanisic and Simatovic contributed to the commission of crimes by paramilitary forces and other armed groups in furtherance of ethnic cleansing campaigns against non-Serbs, he stressed in a statement.

Stanisics lawyer Wayne Jordash announced he would appeal and slammed the conviction. They found one incident in one municipality and the evidence of that was weak, he told journalists outside the court. To me it looks like a cynical compromise that we have to find some way to convict him (Stanisic) to justify why they put a man on trial for eighteen years.

Longest running Yugoslav case

The case against these men is the longest running Yugoslav war crimes trial before UN judges. Stanisic and Simatovic were first charged and arrested in 2003 and went on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In 2013, they were acquitted.

The judges ruled that the crimes charged in the indictment did happen. However, they said Stanisic and Simatovic could not be held legally responsible for them because there was no evidence that the orders they issued were specifically directed at aiding the commission of the crimes. On appeal in 2015, judges rejected this legal reasoning. Instead of making their own ruling, they ordered a retrial, even though the ICTY was shutting up shop.

The retrial opened before the ICTYs successor institution, the International Residual Mechanism. It has been going on, with stops and starts, for almost four years. Stanisic and Simatovic were largely absent in court, having been granted provisional release with their attendance waived for most of the proceedings. The pair was in court Wednesday, but if they had any reaction to their conviction it was not visible behind the medical face masks they wore in court as part of anti-coronavirus measures.

They have both spent considerable time in detention  some five years for Stanisic and eight years for Simatovic. That, coupled with tribunal custom of releasing convicts when they have served two- thirds of their sentence, means Simatovic is expected to be released soon. Stanisic may have to stay in prison another three years, but he was previously released on health grounds and could put in a similar request.

Outsourcing violence

In Wednesdays verdict the judges only linked Stanisic and Simatovic to their own secret police units but did not find they could be held responsible for crimes committed by other paramilitary groups in Bosnia.

Vukusic said the trial and the conviction highlighted the difficulties of a case based on paramilitaries who are operating across a border and are seemingly independent actors. This is a pattern that is seen in many conflicts today and will likely generate the same problems for prosecutors if those conflicts ever end up before an international court.

It is actually very difficult to get convictions for crimes when they are tied to units across a border, when there is no de jure chain of command and its kind of blurry because they are formally in a different territory, she said.

According to Vukusic, the tactic was used by Serbia during the 1990s wars. You create plausible deniability, this idea that you outsource violence to actors that are seemingly independent in order to stay far away from it and say: we have nothing to do with it, she explained. Its useful for states and as long as they get away with stuff because they outsource this violence, I think states are going to continue doing that, she added.

The Stanisic and Simatovic judgment was one of the last left over from the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia after the fall of communism, after former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic had his life sentence for genocide upheld earlier in June.
French magistrates have opened an inquiry into allegations that four fashion groups including Uniqlo and the owner of Zara profited from forced labour of the Uyghur minority in China, a judicial source said Thursday.

Magistrates at the national anti-terror prosecutors office in Paris are probing claims the multinational companies are complicit in crimes against humanity, the source said, confirming a report on the Mediapart investigative website.

The case is based on a complaint lodged in April by the anti-corruption group Sherpa, the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign, and the Uyghur Institute of Europe, as well as by a Uyghur woman who had been held in a camp in Xinjiang, China.

They accused Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara and other top brands, Uniqlo, the French fashion group SMCP, and the footwear manufacturer Skechers of using cotton produced in the Xinjiang region.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the Xinjiang region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

The United States says genocide has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region, while Beijing has denied all allegations of abuses and has insisted its policies in Xinjiang are necessary to counter violent extremism.

The US has announced import bans on a handful of companies operating in Xinjiang, including the solar panel maker Hoshine Silicon Industry.

Several major consumer brands including Uniqlo, H&M, Nike or Adidas announced last year that they would stop buying cotton from the region, leading to boycott calls in China.

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French magistrates have opened an inquiry into allegations four fashion groups including Uniqlo and the owner of Zara profited from forced labour of the Uyghur minority in China, a judicial source said Thursday.

Magistrates at the national anti-terror prosecutors office in Paris are probing claims the multinational companies are complicit in crimes against humanity, the source said, confirming a report on the Mediapart investigative website.

The case is based on a complaint lodged in April by the anti-corruption group Sherpa, the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign, and the Uyghur Institute of Europe, as well as by a Uyghur woman who had been held in a camp in Xinjiang, China.

They accused Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara and other top brands, Uniqlo, the French fashion group SMCP, and the footwear manufacturer Skechers of using cotton produced in the Xinjiang region.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the Xinjiang region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

The United States says genocide has been inflicted on the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region, while Beijing has denied all allegations of abuses and has insisted its policies in Xinjiang are necessary to counter violent extremism.

The US has announced import bans on a handful of companies operating in Xinjiang, including the solar panel maker Hoshine Silicon Industry.

Several major consumer brands including Uniqlo, H&M, Nike and Adidas announced last year that they would stop buying cotton from the region, leading to boycott calls in China.

Inditex disputed that it had used cotton from Xinjiang.

The group has strict traceability controls which have allowed us to determine that the allegations in the complaint are unfounded, a company representative told AFP.

The company has a zero tolerance policy for forced labour and has procedures in place that guarantee that practice doesnt exist in our supply chain, the representative added.

Uniqlo, which has taken a public position against the forced labour of Uyghurs, is alleged to have sourced cotton from the Anhui province were thousands of Uyghur workers have been transferred.

SMCP is alleged to be a shareholder in a firm with factories in Xinjiang, but the company refuted that and said it would work with investigators.

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ADIDAS
Trump attacked Biden for overthrowing his border policy (Part 4)

In his Washington Post column, what made the former president angry was that Biden resumed his arrest and release plan.

Trump stated that his administration has achieved an incredible 90% reduction in illegal border crossings.

However, he accused Biden of sabotaging this work and pointed out that the number of illegal border crossings has increased by nearly 700% over last year.

Joe Biden resumed his arrest and release, tore up our hard-won asylum agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and declared that anyone on the planet living in a crime-affected area is now eligible for asylum. America, he continued.

At the same time, ICE has been effectively shut down, senior border security officials have been fired, and criminals are being released in record numbers.

Trump added that the wall is effective and stated that Biden has given up his swearing duties, Texas Now it is said that they will build a wall.

This shouldnt be necessary, at best its just a band-aid for the huge wound that Biden caused, Trump said.

The governor and the state legislature should certainly do what they can-but there is no substitute for federal action.
Opinion analysis

after Mark Latham





9:25 p.m.

Supreme Court Hold 5-4 in PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey This sovereign immunity does not protect New Jersey from a conviction lawsuit filed by a private company in federal court for obtaining pipeline property. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, and Justices Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh also joined the majority opinion. Justice Amy Connie Barrett objected, and Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the ranks. Gorsuch also wrote a separate objection added by Thomas.

background

PennEast obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Natural Gas Act to build a 116-mile pipeline from northeastern Pennsylvania to western New Jersey, which sparked controversy. In order to promote the pipeline project, the NGA delegates federal expropriation rights to private groups with public facilities and necessary certificates issued by FERC.

Shortly after receiving the certificate, PennEast filed a condemnation procedure in the Federal District Court against the property along the pipeline in which the State of New Jersey holds an interest. New Jersey, which opposes the pipeline, argues that it is not affected by the lawsuit under the 11th Amendment. The court rejected the defense of sovereign immunity. New Jersey filed an appeal, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the original verdict. It found that although Congress can delegate the federal power of expropriation to private parties, waiving a states 11th Amendment sovereign immunity is a clearly different issue. In order to abolish sovereign immunity, the Third Circuit determined that Congress must clearly do so in the text of the regulations. The court found that the NGA lacked this.

PennEast sought review by the Supreme Court and was approved. The court also asked the United States to weigh the issues raised. Oral argument It happened in April.

Majority opinion

Roberts raised the question in writing on behalf of the majority of people: Whether the federal government can grant the pipeline company the right of passage necessary to condemn national interests according to the constitution, and pointed out that [s]Since the founding of the nation, the United States has used its outstanding domain authority to build various infrastructure projects. When summarizing the NGA, he pointed out that, as originally passed, the regulation does not provide any mechanism for certificate holders. If the owner objects, they can acquire property, so that certificate holders have only illusory construction rights. However, Congress finally amended the NGA, granting the right of federal expropriation to the holder of the certificate.

The first question Roberts resolved was whether the Third Circuit had jurisdiction over New Jerseys appeals. The United States argues that the lack of jurisdiction is because the NGA granted exclusive jurisdiction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to confirm, modify or revoke an order issued by FERC. Roberts quickly resolved the issue and concluded that in the proceedings of the Third Circuit, New Jersey neither modified nor shelved FERCs order to authorize the PennEast pipeline. Therefore, the NGAs exclusive jurisdiction clause has not been triggered.

Next, Roberts considered whether sovereign immunity is the merit of New Jerseys available defense against PennEasts condemnation process. Starting from discussing the scope of federal expropriation rights, Roberts pointed out [s]Since its establishment, the federal government has exercised its famous domain powers through its own officials and private representatives. Although initially limited to regions under exclusive federal jurisdiction, federal expropriation rights continued to evolve. By the late 19th century, the Supreme Court confirmed that it also extended to property within state boundaries. In addition, states could not control the exercise of federal expropriation rights. The scope or way of

Roberts then considered whether the federal government could delegate its expropriation rights to private groups. Here, he first emphasized the long history of authorization and commented that before and after the establishment of a colony, it was commonplace to authorize private individuals to condemn land for various public purposes. Roberts then concluded that through its clear terms, the NGA authorizes private certificate holders to initiate reprimand procedures against private parties and the state.

He then resolved the crux of the New Jersey dispute, that is, the 11th Amendment prohibits PennEast from filing a lawsuit without the consent of the state government. Here, Roberts initially realized that only a few cases can sue a state. First, if a state agrees, it can be sued. Second, if Congress cancels its sovereign immunity in order to implement the 14th amendment, it can sue a state. Finally, a state can be sued if it agrees to adapt to theplan of the convention', which is a shorthand for the structure of the original constitution itself, and including the waiver of certain sovereign immunity. Show consent.

Most people then solved Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, It strengthens state sovereign immunity by restricting federal jurisdiction over states, and recognizes that Article I cannot be used to circumvent constitutional restrictions on federal jurisdiction. Otherwise, if Congress is allowed to abolish states in accordance with its powers in Article 1. The states inherent litigation immunity will bedeprived. Roberts subsequently evaded Seminole Tribe of Florida By asserting that the abolition of Congress is not the only means for countries to sue.  if the country agrees to a plan to adapt to the convention, they can also be sued. Therefore, Roberts determined that the states agree to exercise federal expropriation rights in the plan of the convention, including by Condemnation procedure initiated by a personal representative.

The final argument of New Jerseys assertion is that the NGA lacks the clarity needed to authorize federal representatives to conduct reprimand procedures. Roberts quickly dismissed this argument and found that New Jersey misunderstood the issue in this case as whether Congress can authorize it to sue the states. According to Roberts, the appropriate question facing the court is whether Congress can delegate federal expropriation rights. To private groups. Therefore, there is no requirement that Congress must speak unambiguously when authorizing private parties to exercise federal expropriation rights.

Barretts dissent

In her objection, Barrett disputed the majoritys overall analysis framework and the argument that states waived sovereign immunity in the convention plan. According to Barrett, although most people see the investigation as about the scope of the federal governments right of expropriation, this is the wrong way to think about the problem. On the contrary, in the absence of independent expropriation in the constitution, [a]Therefore, the expropriation of property prescribed by Congress is the exercise of another constitutional powerin the case of the Natural Gas Act, the commercial clauseenhanced by necessary and appropriate clauses. 

Therefore, Barrett believes that proper analysis begins with commercial terms.According to her method, Congress relied on its power to supervise interstate trade and promulgated the NGA, We have repeatedly believed that the commercial clause does not deprive states of sovereign immunity. In addition, in Seminole Tribe of Florida, The court recognized that Congress cannot abolish sovereign immunity and authorize private litigation against countries that do not agree. Therefore, she concluded that Congress cannot allow private parties like PennEast to take condemnation actions against disagreeing states like New Jersey.

Gorsuchs dissent

While fully joining Barretts objection, Gorsuch wrote a very strange separate objection, in which he pointed out that states enjoy two different types of federal litigation immunity. He called the first type of immunity structural immunity, which is based on the structure of the constitution. The first type of immunity is the constitutional right of a sovereign state.It applies to federal courts and state courts and regardless of whether the plaintiff is a citizen of the same state, a citizen of a different state, or non--citizen. Gorsuch wrote that structural immunity sounds to belong to personal jurisdiction and can therefore be waived.

Another type of sovereign immunity is derived from the text of the 11th amendment. According to Gorsuch, it provides an ironclad rule for a specific category of diverse suits and the text means what it says. It eliminates federal jurisdiction over a set of cases: different plaintiffs based on law or Equity lawsuits against the states. He finally pointed out that neither the majority opinion nor the parties clearly resolved this issue. In a footnote, he pointed out [w]The court did say that in its hasty reflection on the Eleventh Amendment immunity, it involved Structural Immunity rather than the immunity of the 11th Amendment, which he believes should prohibit PennEasts litigation.

Gorsuch further pointed out that all the cases cited by most people are not part of the text of the Eleventh Amendment. He finally pointed out that although the majority and the parties may not explicitly consider the immunity granted by the 11th Amendment, [t]However, the lower courts are obliged to consider the issue of remand pending trial before hearing the case. 

It remains to be seen whether Gorsuchs objections will give New Jersey another opportunity to defend against PennEasts remand conviction. In addition, the fight over the pipeline is not over yet, because the State of New Jersey has previously filed a separate challenge in the DC Circuit Court, which has been on hold until the Supreme Court makes a ruling.
REESE Witherspoons son Deacon looks exactly the same as his father Ryan Phillippe.

Morning show The star shared a new photo with her 17-year-old son Instagram Post on Wednesday.

10 On Wednesday, Reese shared a photo with his 17-year-old son Deakin Image source: Instagram @reesewitherspoon

10 This boy looks like his father Ryan Credit: Getty

In the photo, when Reese and Deacon sit side by side in a restaurant, they both show soft smiles.

ReeseThe 45-year-old is wearing a sun hat and a blue flannel dress, while Deacon is casual in a black jacket and white T-shirt.

Next to the photo, the actress wrote: Make sure we have some good photo selections in case we need to cover the album cover for Mother x Son band. I am trying to convince @deaconphillippe Start with me ?

Many fans noticed in the comment section how similar the deacon looked to his parents, as one person wrote: You look exactly the same!

One person called the mother-child duo twins, while another follower added: Looks like Ryan.

10 Many fans think that the deacon is very similar to his famous parents

10 Ryan and Reese tied the knot in 1999 Credit: Getty

Reese and Ryan, 46, got married in 1999 after they met for the first time on her 21st birthday in 1997.

In addition to the deacon, the former couple also has a 21-year-old daughter, Ava.

The stars divorced in 2007, and then everyone had another child with their new partner.

Reese married talent agent Jim Toss in 2011 and gave birth to their son Tennessee in 2012, while Ryan gave birth to a daughter Kay with ex-girlfriend Alexis Knapp in 2011.

Although the similarities between Ryan and Deakin are obvious, fans say that Ava looks like her famous mother.

10 The predecessor also shared his daughter Ava Image source: Instagram @reesewitherspoon

10 Reese often shares photos with her children on social media Credit: Getty

Back in December, the legal blonde actress Shared a snapshot of the mother and daughter wearing festive sweaters.

The Big Lies actress captioned the photo: Okay. ? Its true, I have to beg her to wear a matching holiday sweaterbut isnt it cute??!!! #humorme #itsamomthing @draperjames

Many Reese fans pointed out the similarities between the mother and daughter in the comment section.

Although the actress has given up her marriage to Ryan, she recently reviewed his irony at the 2002 Oscars about their different incomes.

10 Many fans have noticed the similarities between Reese and Ava Credit: Instagram

10 Ava is the eldest child of the couple Credit: Instagram

Appeared in HFPA in conversation In the December podcast, Reese remembered to show off a category on stage with her husband at the time.

Before Ryan opened the envelope to announce the winner of the category, the Cruel Intent star handed the envelope to Reese and said, You make more money than me.

Rear Admit that she forgot what happened before, The actress said in the podcast: Youre right, he did say so, no, this is not the script, he didnt tell me he would say that before the broadcast.

10 Reese recently recalled a joke from Ryan about their income difference Credit: Getty-Contributor

So I was a bit at a loss.

She also talked about the pressure women face when they succeed. She said: There are too few women who make a lot of money. Sometimes they feel ashamed of it, and sometimes they are expected to give more and do more. Do more. For others in the same position, for example, male movie stars will not be expected.

But I do think that gender norms have changed quite a bit since that moment around 2000.

10 She admitted to being confused by his jokes Credit: Getty
TV actor Alison Mack played a key role in the scandal-ridden cult NXIVM and has been sentenced to three years in prison.

This decision was made after Mike admitted to accusing her of manipulating women to become sex slaves to the spiritual leader of the organization.

Mike-best known for her role as a close friend of the young Superman in the series Little Ville-appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday.

The actor was honored for collaborating with NXIVM leader Keith Raniere and responsible for helping him create a secret society of brainwashed women who were given his initials.

She was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000 for her role in the NXIVM case.

She wrote in a letter to the court last week that dedicating herself to a master of self-improvement is the biggest mistake and greatest regret in my life.

The 38-year-old Mike was once a member of Laniers inner circle. Laniers team attracted millionaires and actors.

The prosecutor said that she became the master of the slave and she ordered work, take nude photos, and in some cases have sex with Lanier.

Read our Allison Mack Sentencing Live Blog for the latest news and updates
Since his release from immigration detention two years ago, Osman (Adam) Hamdan has been living in a difficult situation.

The Canadian Border Services Agency has been trying to deport him, saying he poses a threat to Canadians.

He said that he has been working hard to clear his name and continue his life.

Im trying to move forward; Im trying to be a model citizen, Hamdan said Nationwide In his first television interview.

Moreover, the Canadian government dare to say that I am dangerous.

Hamdan, a Jordanian citizen, arrived in Canada in 2002 in search of a better life and settled in Fort St. John, British Columbia. But after the Capitol Hill shooting in 2014, the politically minded and outspoken man caught the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

As part of the Scolop project to investigate Canadian cyber extremism after the attack, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police contacted Hamdan and asked about his Facebook posts that appeared to support ISIS.

Hamdan said he was told that the topic he posted was very sensitive and might offend some people.But, he said, they didnt tell him to stop

Eight months later, Hamdan was arrested and charged with four crimes related to terrorism.

Track disturbing posts

In total, the RCMP tracked down the thousands of posts made by Hamdan  some written by him, some shared by him  and marked 85 of them to celebrate the success of ISIS and praise the independence. The wolf attack and Capitol Hill shooter, as well as the location determined in Canada, are less secure.

He was refused bail and spent two years in prison awaiting trial.

In this July 15, 2016 file photo, Hamdan covers the medias face on his way to a bail hearing in Fort St. John, British Columbia. (Brett Hyde/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

Although the judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia called the posts offensive, offensive and disturbing, he ultimately ruled that Hamdan had no intention of committing a crime without knowing the context of the posts.

In 2017, He was acquitted for all charges .

However, he was not released.

Instead, immigration officials arrested Hamdan on the grounds that he posed a danger to the safety of Canada because of the views he expressed online. His refugee status was revoked and he was deemed unable to enter Canada.

Hamdan was transferred to an immigration detention facility, where he was held for another two years, sometimes in solitary confinement, because the CBSA took steps to deport him.

I win on the front and you lose on the back

Kent Roach, a professor of law at the University of Toronto, said Hamdans case was a miscarriage of justice. He pointed out that when the government failed to convict, it appeared to have decided to pursue Hamdan in the immigration court, where the burden of proof was low.

In my opinion, in the best case, the government will choose one of these tools instead of ordering them so that if they lose a criminal case, they can come back through immigration detention, Roach said. Who wrote this case .

You know, its a bit likeI win on the upside and you lose on the downside.'

Watch | Adrienne Arsenault of the Nationalist Party asked Kent Roach about Hamdans ambiguous status:

Law professor Kent Roach talked about the ambiguity of Othman (Adam) Hamdan living in Canada due to immigration restrictions. 0:16

RCMP. Both the CBSA and the Canadian Department of Public Safety declined CBC interviews or requests for specific information about the Hamdan case or risk assessment.

They pointed out that there are currently 993 foreigners in the country who are not detained, but they cannot enter Canada for safety and security reasons.

In Hamdans case, the CBSA wanted to deport him back to his hometown of Jordan, where Hamdan said he would be killed. Officials also stated that during his detention, they found the Islamic State logo graffiti on the wall of his cell. Hamdan said it was just an Islamic symbol.

Hamdan was released in September 2019 Under 26 strict conditions The federal court judge said that this would mitigate any risks he might bring to the public. He will not be able to access the Internet, an Internet-enabled mobile phone, or a drivers license. He must alert the Royal Cavalry every day.

In my first year of partial freedom, the RCMP would knock on my window at two or three in the morning, about every night, Hamdan said.

They only call me out of bed, just to show my face and let me come back

Watch | Adrienne Arsenault of the national team asked Hamdan whether he regrets these positions and the fear that some people might have of him:

Othman (Adam) Hamdan (Othman (Adam) Hamdan) responded to concerns that he poses a threat to Canadians and should apologize for his Facebook post. 0:40

CBC also spoke with residents of Christina Lake, British Columbia, where Hamdan currently lives, and they expressed concern about Hamdan staying in their community. No one was willing to speak publicly, but expressed that they were afraid of him and felt that the Canadian law had failed.

They also talked about Hamdan never expressed remorse or any harm that might be instigated by his social media posts.

There is nothing to apologize, Hamdan said. What did I do that requires confession? The Middle East conflict I said, really, that all parties committed crimes? Including Islamic State? Including Al Qaeda? Including the Canadian government?

Hamdan lives in Christina Lake in inland southern British Columbia. He said he is ready to continue his life and is currently looking for work. (Meryl Kazakov/CBC)

Navid Aziz, an expert on religious extremism as a defense witness, said that even though he found Hamdans post very disturbing, Hamdan is not an extremist.

He finally found his goal in the activist activity online. If he guides it correctly and may be more cautious in what he posts, his situation may be different, said Ah, who occasionally provides guidance to Hamdan. Ziz said.

As long as he is part of the overall system that supports him From a mental and mental health point of view, [and] Spiritual guidance, I believe he is on a better track. 

Hamdans lawyer insisted that his life in Jordan would be threatened because of the criminal charges he faces in this country.

Suspension of deportation

Three months ago, a judge suspended Hamdans deportation order and stated in his sentence that Hamdan had no criminal record in the past six years.

Therefore, as his criminal case was resolved and his deportation was temporarily suspended, Hamdan said he wanted to clear his name-and see his status in Canada resolved.

He filed two civil lawsuits against the CBSA and the Ministry of Public Safety for malicious prosecution and time in solitary confinement.

They dont want to give me an identity. They want me to disappear, Hamdan said. We dont know where this will go.

Roach agrees that Hamdans status is still ambiguous.

This is the same state as a person detained under a security certificate. This is a state under the cloud, Roach said. For people like Mr. Hamdan, I think this will be an ongoing struggle.

Currently, Hamdan has obtained a temporary work permit, limited Internet access and a drivers license. He is also looking for work in the community.
One hundred years after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was secretly established on a Shanghai ship, China and the world that the Communist Party wanted to overthrow in 1921 are very different.

People are richer than their ancestors might have imagined, have fewer children and more job opportunities.

But in the turmoil, one thing remains the same.

Men continue to dominate political power.

No women were present in Shanghai that day, and womens rights were not specifically mentioned, although they were widely mentioned as part of Chinas New Culture Movement and the protests on May 4, 1919, which would prove to the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Inspired.

At the most recent 2017 National Congress of the Communist Party of China- The event is held every five years  According to data from the China Data Lab, a project of the University of California, San Diego, among the 938 elite representatives, women account for only 83, accounting for less than 10% of the total.

Most women were found in the Provincial Standing Committee and became increasingly scarce as power increased, until they reached Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan, who was the only woman among the 25 members of the Politburo.

In the partys most elite inner circle, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, there is not a single woman.

Party without young people

To a certain extent, the absence of women is the reason for the dynamics of party members and how individuals are promoted. Nowadays, women account for only about a quarter of the members, and once they enter, they are often led to compete for smaller positions than their male counterparts.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan is the only woman among the 25 members of the Politburo, and the woman with the highest rise in the CCP [File: Wu Hong/EPA]

In other words, they lost from the beginning.

Victor Shih, an associate professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of California, San Diego, said: There may be pro-male bias in recruiting party members from the beginning, and pro-male bias in placing men or women in important positions.

Policing, Internet censorship, and the military are very important, and they are often male-dominated professions. Women are usually placed in education, united front (propaganda) work, and social policy. You can reach a very high level in these professional fields, but you No fast path to the top is visible, he said.

Promotion requires party members to reach certain milestones to qualify for elite positions. Most of Chinas top leaders have served as governors or party secretaries of provinces or major cities, but there are only a handful of women holding these positions. Therefore, few female candidates are considered qualified to hold senior positions.

When they are ready to assume elite positions, many women have already retired-in China, women are only 55 years old.

Its not like the United States, where 45-year-old Barack Obama or Kennedy can run for office, said Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of Chinese Communist Rulers. You get promoted in a very methodical manner, and then you retire in a very methodical manner. It is very rare to be a member of the Politburo before the age of 55, which means that even with such a bad record of promoting women, it is difficult to correct.

Unmet quota

Valarie Tan, an analyst at the Mercator Institute of China, said that although 10% of provincial, city and county leadership positions should be reserved for women, the quota is rarely met due to a deep-rooted preference for men. Germany.

In addition to institutional barriers, Tan said that women often face self-evident cultural prejudices and state-supported promotion of traditional gender norms. These steps have been accelerated under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping, because China is facing birth rate decreases.

Gender stereotypes or historical traditional norms still exist today. What I want to say is that under the leadership of Xi Jinping, women will eventually get married, take care of children, grow old, and take care of grandchildren, Tan said.

Analysts say that Chinese women face cultural prejudice and continued official support for traditional gender norms, which hinders their promotion to the top of the ruling party [Noel Celis/AFP]

According to China Archives, an online magazine of the Asia Society Center for U.S.-China Relations, party members account for 37.5% of village and neighborhood committees, but this number has declined in leadership positions.

The proportion of women serving as county-level government heads or party committee secretaries is only 9.33%, while that of cities has dropped to 5.29% and that of provincial governments has dropped to 3.23%.

As a woman, you just dont have the resources to do other things outside of home, Tan said. On the demand side, those in power just dont want women to gain higher political leadership, because this threatens the status quo and patriarchy.

Worthy of the name

Linda Javin, author of The Shortest History of China, explained that although the partys revolutionary statements have always included stories of model female workers, feminism has always been subordinate to the organizations political and economic ambitions.

Jia Wen said: From the very beginning, the party advocated that women are strong and must be given certain rights so that they can become part of the communist project like men.

In fact, one of the famous sayings most often attributed to Mao Zedong, the founding father of the Peoples Republic of China-Women can hold up half the sky-was not an inspiring call for womens rights, but was triggered by a collective farm. In 1953, after giving women the same work points as men, their productivity tripled.

Although Chinese women have been given nominal egalitarianism since the Mao Zedong era, on the surface, older practices such as gender-based violence and later patriarchy under the one-child policy still exist. According to the latest census report, there are 34.9 million more men than women in China today.

As China shifted to market reforms and opened up the economy in the 1980s, customs and prostitution that were thought to have been largely eliminated, including concubine or mistress culture, returned.

At the end of the Long March in 1938, Mao Zedong (right) and his fellow revolutionary compatriots.His comment that women can hold up half the sky should allow them to participate more economically in communist projects [File: AP Photo]

Today, discussions about feminism and sexual harassment are being censored online, and the Communist Party has made divorce more difficulteven in domestic violence cases, there is a new mandatory cooling-off period. Other problems, such as pay inequality, also persist.

Jia Wen said that this is because men in the party are unwilling to give up power and therefore pursue a policy of maintaining the status quo.

The CCP is happy to talk about strong and successful women who have contributed to the country. The party and state media may introduce female representatives to the National Peoples Congress, but few women have real power, and no one holds office in the highest ruling body. , Politburo Standing Committee, you cant talk about structural issues that hinder women, and some really serious feminists in China want to talk about it, said Jia Wen. Basically, it comes down to patriarchs who dont want to share power.

Regional representative

Even so, the problems faced by Chinese women are by no means uncommon in East Asia.Rival Japan is called a democracy without women, and the number of men in the political arena still exceeds that of women Korea, Taiwan with Hong Kong, Although all three have female leaders.

Lynette Ong, associate professor of the Institute of Political Science and Asia at the University of Toronto, said that in the social field, gender bias still exists in the region. By some measures, Chinese urban women are still better than their neighbors in South Korea and Japan. Women in South Korea and Japan still face pressure to give up their jobs after giving birth, cutting off their careers and any entry. Political opportunity.

I want to say that this is all relative-although women do not have equal status with men in China, they have a better life than the beginning of the founding of the country. Moreover, compared with the status of women in other Confucian societies such as Japan and South Korea, Chinese women Especially women in big cities can be said to enjoy a better status, mainly because they wereliberated by Chairman Mao, Wang said.

Whether it is liberated or not, Chinese women still have a long way to go before they can hold up half of the political sky.
Lawyer Balls response to the allegations

According to a statement from Balls lawyer Jon Fetterolf, Ball denied the allegations.

Mr. Bower had a brief and completely voluntary sexual relationship, [the woman] From April 2021, Fetrov told the media.

We have a message [the woman] Repeated requests for rough sexual contact, including requests for suffocation and slaps.

In their two encounters, [the woman] Drove from San Diego to Mr. Balls residence in Pasadena, California, where she continued to decide what she wanted from him, and he did what was required, he added.

Fetterolf continued: After her two meetings with Mr. Ball,[the woman] After one night, he left unharmed and continued to message Mr. Bower with friendly and flirting jokes.
As Beijing prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CCP), the euphoria sweeping Beijing cannot be ignored.

In the past few months, tourists have flocked to the red tourist hotspots of more than 1.4 billion people across the country, including historical attractions in the capital.

The main event on Thursday will be held in Tiananmen Square, but during the week of the celebration, the passage to Tiananmen Square has been closed to keep the preparatory work confidential. Before entry was denied, the tour group had arrived in droves to immerse themselves in this moment and reflect on an important milestone.

Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that like other major commemorative events in China, the centennial birthday plays an important role in emphasizing the legitimacy of the Communist Party.

He said it was a reminder, People should thank the party for continuing to work for them.

On Monday, spectators watched a performance commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China at the Beijing National Stadium. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Sari Arho Havren, a European-Chinese policy researcher at the Mercator Institute, said that the party and its leadership firmly believe that the CCP has established an excellent governance system that has improved peoples lives, Economic growth, stability, security and global status. Berlin China Studies.

But in fact, she said, We cannot separate the Chinese Communist Partys desire for control from its unscrupulous persistence in power.

Two recent examples have attracted condemnation from the international community, including accusations that the Chinese government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps and de-radicalization concentration camps in the northwest of the country.Some human rights organizations said China has committed the ongoing genocide Against the vast majority of Muslim minorities-the government has denied these allegations.

In Hong Kong, after months of democratic protests, Beijing implemented a new national security law on June 30, 2020.This Laws lead to repression and arrests In the former British colonies, those who disagreed with the government included activists, politicians, and journalists.

From agricultural society to economic power

Despite the alleged violations of human rights, at least in public, Chinese citizens admit that their lives are better than before, and Chinas rapid rise from a poor agricultural society in recent years to an economic power is indeed something to be proud of.

When the Communist Party was founded 100 years ago, China had just experienced a devastating famine and was facing social and political unrest.

An old Chinese man is viewing a sculpture in Beijing that depicts Mao Zedongs famous declaration of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. (Reuters)

Since the overthrow of the former National Government and the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, the CCP has transformed from a nationalized economy that supervises the state to an economy that contains capitalist elements. Despite opening up the economy, the party continues to maintain absolute control of the country. Patriotism and loyalty to the CCP are inevitably intertwined.

This is a concept that the government is trying to strengthen. 30-year-old Lan Youli is a hotel manager in Guangxi Autonomous Region who grew up during the economic boom in the 1990s. He said that this is the belief that he was grown up since he was a child. People think this is a normal thing.

It is natural to think this way, because China is a one-party dictatorship Moreover, party propaganda is everywhere. The same is true for movies and music, so it is impossible for anyone in China not to think that loving the country means loving the party. 

The students of Yuefei Martial Arts School in Tangyin County, Henan Province, China start with the flag-raising ceremony and the national anthem every day. (Howard)

The way the government integrates the concepts of the party and the state into society is seamless. At the Yuefei Martial Arts School in Tangyin County, Henan Province, the day started with a flag-raising ceremony and the singing of the national anthem. The students, some are only six years old, and then start intense training.

Many people who came here continued to work in the army. The schools eponymous Yue Fei is regarded as a national hero, and he helped retake the territory that was invaded by foreign enemies during the Song Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago.

The school principal Wang Haiying clearly stated why patriotism is the most important virtue.

Of course it is important. Everyone should love their country. How can they not love it?

The new museum highlights victory and ignores shortcomings

Gu Xiaoming, 52, is from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He will move to Singapore to find a job after losing his job in China in 1994. He will celebrate his 100th birthday in Singapore. He now runs a building materials trading company.

Despite the turbulence in the early days of the CCP under Mao Zedong, he said that since Deng Xiaoping brought economic reforms in 1978, the party has made the country betterpaving the way for foreign investment.

The Chinese flag is hoisted outside the commercial area of ??Gulou District in Beijing, where there are shops and restaurants. (Howard)

He said: Except for the CCP, no other party has the experience and financial resources to effectively rule China. The CCPs role in China is irreplaceable. It is natural for people to think that the party and the country are a whole.

A new museum dedicated to party history in Beijing is the core content of an educational campaign and part of an initiative to capitalize on the national pride surrounding the centennial birthday. Foreign and Chinese journalists previewed the permanent exhibition that will be held at the Museum of the Communist Party of China after July 1.

The stories found in the museums more than 6,000 exhibitsincluding cultural relics, paintings, and rare, remastered video clipstell the protracted struggle of the Chinese nation, but there are few flaws.

The Chinese Communist Party Museum will open after July 1 and will include more than 6,000 exhibitsincluding cultural relics, paintings, and rare remade video clipsas part of the national pride that takes advantage of the centenary. (Howard)

For example, there is no mention of the failure of the Cultural Revolution led by the founding father Mao, aimed at eradicating capitalism and traditional elements from society, leading to millions of deaths, or the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989-one of the most tragic chapters in China Modern history.

Despite all the successes, the Chinese Communist Party has no apologies for its mistakes-it would rather sweep the dark elements of its history under the carpet and keep them away from the consciousness of the people.

In February 1967, during the Cultural Revolution, a small group of Beijing residents walked past a huge poster of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party of China and founder of the Peoples Republic of China. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

Lan Youlis birthday happened to be on June 4th, but he said that he was never informed of what happened on that day in 1989, when the government violently suppressed demonstrations mainly by students for greater personal rights and freedom. , Cause hundreds or even thousands of deaths Supporters of democracy.

Before I was about to study abroad, I had no knowledge of the Tiananmen Square incident. My father told me about it and the arrest of his friend at the time, Yuri said. He warned me that militants overseas would tell me about this. He warned me not to participate in any political gatherings because he and my mother still live in China.

Perhaps as a sign of the Communist Partys ability to focus Chinas attention on its direction rather than on what it left behind, Ulrich said this is not a matter of particular concern to him.

It didnt really affect my personal life, so it didnt really bother me.

Dealing with COVID-19 is considered a victory

The new museum also includes an area dedicated to showcasing Chinas fight against COVID-19. About a year and a half ago, the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus, triggered an outcry against the government for shutting him up, as well as peoples concealment of what is happening in Wuhan. Cases were detected in December 2019.

Today, China has turned the fight against the epidemic into a heroic achievement. Since the first appearance of the coronavirus, China has managed to limit losses through rapid and strict quarantine measures, so its number of cases and deaths is lower than many other countries. So far More than 90,000 people were infected and about 4,600 people died, According to official data, medical experts believe that the number of infections is much higher.

Motorcyclists ride along the streets with Chinese flags in Tangyin County, Henan Province. This country is in an atmosphere of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. (Howard)

Victor Gao, director of the Chinese Society for International Studies and former translator of the late leader Deng Xiaoping, said that people are grateful for everything the party has done to contain COVID-19.

The Chinese people have never been so united as they are today, because they have not only known the Chinese Communist Party for many years and decades, but now they can see China in sharp contrast with many other countries, he said.

However, abroad, people have generally criticized China for lack of transparency in handling the epidemic and sharing key data.Fails to provide access that many in the scientific community consider sufficient World Health Organization team The investigation into the origin of the disease has led to accusations of secrecy and calls for more in-depth research on the theory of the virus leaking from the Wuhan laboratory.

In February of the World Health Organization, during a visit by a team investigating the origin of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, security personnel watched outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Nonetheless, Chinas handling of the epidemic has increased confidence in the partynothing can highlight nationalist sentiments more than the increasingly fierce competition between China and the United States.

Highly recommended government Counterattack against Washington Reflects the aspirations of the people.

In four years [the] The Trump administration, we have seen a lot of China attacking, beating the dignity of the Chinese people, pushing China to the corner or trying to press China to the ground, it seems that there will be no consequences, he said.

I think everyone in China is fed up with this attack on China. I think the Chinese government is expressing the indignation of the Chinese people. We want to be treated equally.
A source told Reuters that the monthly increase will be less than 500,000 barrels per day.

An OPEC+ source told Reuters that OPEC+ is gradually adding about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) to the oil market from August to December as the organization eased production restrictions amid global economic recovery and rising oil prices. .

The source told Reuters that the monthly increase will be less than 500,000 barrels per day. Another OPEC+ source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia, the largest OPEC producer, and Russia, the largest non-OPEC producer, have reached a preliminary agreement to relax production restrictions starting in August.

In response to the destruction of oil demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis, OPEC+ agreed last year to reduce production by nearly 10 million barrels per day starting in May 2020, and plans to phase out the reduction by the end of April 2022. The current production cut is about 5.8 million barrels bpd.

Oil prices continued their upward trend due to the news of the most new production plan, as some traders had expected a greater increase in production in August. As of 13:15 GMT, the trading price of Brent crude oil was US$76.40 per barrel, an increase of more than 2%, close to a two-and-a-half-year high.

UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said that the increase outlined will keep the market tight this summer and demand will continue to increase in the coming weeks, adding that the consensus is an increase of 500,000 barrels per month or slightly more.

Supply management

Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and its allies (an organization called OPEC+) began an online meeting on Thursday. Sources told Reuters that they will decide on the policy starting in August and may consider extending their overall supply restriction agreement beyond April 2022.

A source also told Reuters that active supply management may be extended to the end of 2022. OPEC will end the meeting before 13:00 GMT, and the broader OPEC+ meeting will start at 16:30 GMT.

The OPEC+ team said on Tuesday that it expects oil demand to increase by 6 million barrels per day in 2021, but said there is a risk of oversupply in 2022, saying there is significant uncertainty, including the imbalance of global recovery and the increase in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus .

Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other OPEC+ member states have been working closely since the plunge in oil prices before the March 2020 pandemic. The collapse in prices drove them to unite again to reach a supply agreement.

However, the group still faces the challenge of how to quickly lift the cuts.

Riyadh is generally cautious about adding new supplies, which reflects the uncertainty about the course of the pandemic. Russias economy is more diversified and its dependence on oil is lower. Therefore, there is a general concern that high oil prices may stimulate production in the United States, a competitor, which is economically demanding higher prices.
Donald Rumsfeld is a criminal in a well-tailored suit and tie, disguised as a mediocre, semi-organized bureaucrat.

Removed all the ceremonial embroidery, this is the epitaph I immediately thought of when I heard of his death yesterday.

I suspect that this is also how he was remembered by many disaster-stricken people who lived in the remains of the many disaster-stricken areas where he caused such hurt, pain and grief.

And, if the truth is any guide, then anyone must remember him and not be deceived by the series of pleasant lies about who and what Rumsfeld is about to be told now.

In this foreseeable aspect, there will be the usual ebullient eulogy, written by the usual flattering suspects, foreshadowing the outstanding, uncompromising service to a succession of and sometimes submissive presidents and a grateful country life.

The Associated Press described Rumsfeld as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of the modern US military whose reputation was disintegrated by the long and costly war in Iraq. 

According to the main flattery of the Associated Press, Rumsfeld apparently lived a rather gentle but fulfilling life-his skills and vision were, unfortunately, destroyed by a misguided war Up.

The Associated Press did not spray paint Rumsfelds dirty career, but shared with readers this slimy episode about the former US Secretary of Defense: Lami, as he is often called For that, ambitious, resourceful, energetic, fascinating, and capable of bringing great personal enthusiasm.

My goodness.

These are undeniable moments. When the establishment media reaffirmed their qualifications to build a business, when they need to be frank and unrelenting honesty, they write such benevolent and allegedly subtle to powerful people with important titles. Respect.

Decent cannot allow to quickly whitewash Rumsfelds disgusting legacy because it is a cunning, unrepentant militant, an unapologetic architect of a secret torture chamber, and a state approval called extradition Kidnapping racket.

Rumsfeld personified all the familiar, corrosive, and inhuman aspects of the discredited American exceptionalism with a sacred and stubborn enthusiasm, which time and time again transformed into despair and destruction on a scarred planet And death.

In Rumsfelds distorted geopolitical calculus, the United States is a benevolent global policeman, and he, a happy soldier in a refreshing suit and tie, envisions a world similar to the fabulous American-made idealsespecially in Democracy and pluralism in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Of course, the ugly, self-evident irony is that one of the defining characteristics of evangelicals like Rumsfeldjust like the president he works foris the necessary ability, which is actually necessary. , To mutilate and kill on an almost incomprehensible scale in order to realize their so-called charitable design.

Rumsfeld is a helpful official who, with his words and deedswith his plain, bureaucratic monotonyfacilitated the occupation of the Oval Office by the murderer, the so-called commander-in-chief.

From this perspective, Rumsfeld is successful. He ordered others to kill in the comfortable, near-sighted cocoon of the Pentagonsafe as always, free from any real risks or responsibilities.

Therefore, in the original remnants of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Rumsfeld and his equally dogmatic accomplices seized the opportunity to formulate their deadly and disastrous blueprint for the empire.

The first was the invasion of Afghanistan in September 2001 to overthrow the Taliban and defeat Al Qaeda. History and geography should have honed Rumsfelds deep-rooted instincts for war. they do not.

The sad and indelible consequences of Rumsfelds stubborn arrogance and strategic stupidity are obvious-countless Afghan innocents and American soldiers have been disfigured and killed, billions of people have spent so much, a patient and revitalized Taliban is ready to rebuild. Established its vicious rule over the wounded people, and landed and invaded the United States twenty years later.

Rumsfelds catastrophic adventure in Afghanistan is a precursor to the Bush administrations catastrophic misjudgment in Iraq.

This is a war of choice, consisting of a huge, fabricated lie  confirmed and refuted by the same agencys media today  Saddam Hussein not only possessed weapons of mass destruction, but also deliberately, possessed The crazy temperament is on the verge of releasing them in London and other places.

Once again, Rumsfeld and the confident company insisted that war would be quick, cheap and desirable. They were warned in advance that there would be no weapons of mass destruction; an invasion would destabilize, rather than liberate Iraq and neighboring countries; The cost of life and wealth will be immeasurable.

Rumsfeld laughed at the nervous opponents and cunning people. Im not a quagmire, he once said.

Oh yes, he did it.

Iraq and Iraqis still suffer from Rumsfelds trademark conceit, cruelty, and ignorance trauma-in mind, body and spirit.

Rumsfeld played an ardent consultant in the secret, lawless infrastructure established by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to monitor and discredit enlightened Americans who opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, thereby exacerbating his annoying Of negligence.

Nevertheless, perhaps the most obscene and vivid evidence of Rumsfelds internal crime is the international dungeon network organized within and outside Iraq under his command, using pathological and perverted methods and tools against any suspected enemy of the United States. The collaborators were tortured.

Rumsfeld believes that the rule of law and international codes of conduct are weird and out-of-date, because secret thugs in the United States roam around with impunity, kidnapping people like luggage and transporting them to torture dungeons, where they are abused and forgotten.

During all this, Rumsfeld showed a dazzling smile, which immediately showed his angry arrogance and confidence in the correctness of the United States mission to save devastating overseas. His notorious and absurd answer to the question about the serious failure of the mission exposed Rumsfelds long-term incoherent and fatal vanity.

Rumsfeld probably knew that he would not be responsible for the pain and suffering he caused so many damaged people in so many damaged places.

According to reports, he was able to die at home with his family.

This is the quiet, gentle fate that Donald Drumsfield shouldnt have, and he rejected many other damaged people in many other damaged places.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Providing assistance to the hungry in the Tigray region of Ethiopia is not only about saving lives, but about whether Ethiopia will continue to unite or disintegrate as a country.

When the Ethiopian Army get away Departing from Merkel, the capital of Tigray on Monday, the area is controlled by fighters from the Tigray National Defence Force or TDF (the armed faction of the former ruling party Tigray Peoples Liberation Front or TPLF). Of the 6 million people in Tigray, more than 5 million need emergency assistance. According to the United Nations, 350,000 people are already in a state of famine. Pre-school children are at the greatest risk because their small bodies cannot last without essential nutrients.

In the next few months, an estimated 30,000 children may die of hunger. If assistance is not resumed and strengthened, the number of deaths could easily increase by 10 times.

Before giving up Meckler, the retreating Ethiopian army ransacked the aid base and took all the money from the bank.They also Stole Communication equipment for aid agencies. The upcoming TDF found that a city does not even have a days food supply.

Prime Minister Abi Ahmed Announce He called it a humanitarian ceasefire. This is a good headline, but his statements in the past few weeks have made it clear that this is not the case. In fact, he plans to start the war through other means-blockade.

In a speech reported on June 25, he accused aid agencies of having a hidden agenda to provide supplies to insurgents.Almost immediately, three staff members from the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) was murderedThe murderer is unknown, but the suspected finger points to the government.

The announcement of the humanitarian ceasefire restricted the suspension of military offensive operations to only three months of agricultural time. It was just time to buy new weapons, and-Abi had promised-to return to Tigray by force. A ceasefire is usually an agreement between the fighting parties, but the announcement refers to TPLF as a criminal military government.

In his speech on June 30, Abi said frankly that the war is now being waged against the people of Tigray, and he said that they stabbed the army on the side of the TDF. He said that they will now have time to understand their situation. What he meant was that he would block Tigray and let the people starve to death and succumb.

Hunger is a particularly terrible weapon. Parents watched helplessly as the pain of the young children wasting is almost as terrible as the hunger pains suffered by these children themselves. The memory of famine lingers in peoples minds for generations, leaving behind long-term hatred for those who caused pain. Irelands great hunger in 1845-51 gave birth to the countrys struggle for independence. The Great Famine in Ukraine-Stalins hunger movement in the 1930s-convinced many Ukrainians that they would never be part of the same country as Russia.

Abi has a choice. He can decide to allow international humanitarian work in Tigray. This means allowing aid convoys to travel along roads and allowing rescue flights to land at Merkler and other airports in the area. This can prevent famine and save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Allowing humanitarian access is also the first step to reassure the Tigray people, regardless of any political differences between the federal government and TPLF, they are still considered Ethiopian citizens.

The strengthening of the lockdown sends a completely different message: your government wants to starve you to death.

The TDF is well-equipped and aggressive, and its young fighters are angry at the atrocities they have suffered. They have just won a series of amazing military victories and acquired a huge arsenal. If aid does not reach them from Ethiopia, they will definitely find another way to obtain it. The obvious choice is to launch an offensive and clear the road to Sudan for unofficial cross-border aid operations.

International aid donors are considering it as a last resort, because man-made famine of this magnitude is unreasonable without taking any measures to prevent it. But they also know that cross-border operations can have political consequences. It will cut the umbilical cord between Tigray and Ethiopia.

The Tigray people are very angry about rape, killing, plunder and starvation, and the governments incitement of hate speech in the media, and they demand independence. Their leaders know that this is a dangerous road and hope that the possibility of a negotiated settlement will remain open so that they will become part of Ethiopia-possibly increasing regional autonomy in some form.

Abis decision in the next few days may determine which route to takehumanitarian access and a country that can be united, or the hunger blockade and the disintegration of the country.

Sympathizing for hungry children in Tigray and caring about Ethiopias future as a single country boil down to the same single choice.

A childs body quickly lost weight. It didnt take long for Abiy to choose his own path.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
After the High Court agreed that a decision to reduce tariffs on certain British sugar imports may require judicial review, the British government is facing the first major legal challenge to its independent trade policy after Brexit.

This case was brought by British Sugar plc to the Minister of International Trade Liz Truss, and it is also the first test of how controversial the State aid clause in the Convention is. Northern Ireland Agreement Will affect the ability of the British government to issue subsidies.

Legal experts said that the case will be closely watched by ministers and industry because it occupies a priority position in the UKs trade and subsidy policy.

The legal challenge was raised by British Sugar in response to Truss decision Last December As part of the global tariff plan after Brexit, 260,000 tons of raw cane sugar will be unilaterally allowed to enter the United Kingdom from January 1 for 12 months without tariffs.

British Sugar, which extracts sugar from self-produced sugar beets, argued in its submission to the British High Court that the decision is equivalent to a national subsidy to its rival, Tate & Lyle Sugars, because it is the only major British cane sugar refiner. plant.

British Sugar lawyers argued that effective subsidies would also unfairly weaken EU sugar producers who export 500,000 tons of sugar to the UK and violate the Northern Ireland Agreement and the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

According to Article 10 of the Protocol, any decision on state aid by the British government that affects goods traded with Northern Ireland must be submitted to the European Commission for approval.

The British Sugar Company argued that the decision to reduce tariffs on raw cane sugar had the effect of selectively benefiting Taylor Sugar Company, affecting trade or investment between Northern Ireland and the EU and incompatible with the two countries. Content. Agreement and TCA.

In its response, the government stated that British Sugars argument was ambitious and counterintuitive. It rejected the argument that the sugar tariff decision is equivalent to a subsidy that requires notification under the TCA or agreement.

If the claimant is right, the British government will have to consider notifying the European Commission of every element of its global tariff system as potential state aid, the government said in its submission.

Judge Foxton ordered the trial of British Sugars case and admitted that it would face some huge obstacles if it were to persuade the court.

He added that the government did not point out that the text of the protocol had caused the elimination of the UK sugar industrys case, and pointed out that their complaints were not directed at all tariffs, but at those tariffs that could be said to be unilaterally and selectively applied. .

Paul Kenward, the managing director of British Sugar, stated that the decision to challenge the government was not taken lightly, adding that Truss decision to separate cane sugar as a special treatment unfairly made a US company Benefited at least 12 million pounds this year.

Gerald Mason, senior vice president of Tate & Lyle Sugars, said that the move to cut sugar tariffs clearly does not constitute a subsidy. He added: The use of this argument by the British sugar companies to keep us restrained while they are deregulating is purely opportunistic.

Alexander Rose, an EU competition expert at DWF Law Firm, said that this case is not only the first subsidy control case in the UK, but it will also examine when Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which applies the EU State Aid Act, will take effect.

The agreement is part of the Brexit Agreement, which avoids the land border on the island of Ireland and establishes a trade border in the Irish Sea to ensure that all goods flowing from the UK into Northern Ireland comply with EU regulations.

This case will not only receive the attention of lawyers, but also ministers and public agencies, as well as companies seeking to support or take advantage of tax or tariff exemptions, he said. As the judge pointed out, this case is by no means clear, but in any case, it will provide some clarification in an area of ??law that has been underway for seven months without any case law.

The Ministry of International Trade said: We do not comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.
A report by the US State Department accused the governments of Myanmar, China, and Russia of trafficking and forced labor, and called the government a trafficker in Chinas Xinjiang Province, citing massive detentions and political indoctrination campaigns against Uyghurs. They mainly Are Muslims, as well as members of other ethnic and religious minorities, in the past four years.

State Department on Global Human trafficking The report released on Thursday also included NATO ally Turkey on the list of countries that recruited or used child soldiers by armed forces, police or other security forces.

Unless the President of the United States issues an exemption, this designation may imply sanctions on military aid or sales to these countries.

We recorded 11 countries where the government itself is traffickers. For example, through public works projects or forced labor in economic sectors that the government considers particularly important, Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said at a press conference.

The report has recorded for 10 consecutive years how the Cuban government has profited from exploitative overseas medical missions.

The Biden administration stated that a total of 17 countries have not done enough to combat human trafficking.

Blinken said that the 2021 annual report will also focus on people who have caused social inequities due to global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and systemic racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination.

The annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) published since 2001 uses the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) to define serious human trafficking as Sex trade Among them, commercial sex is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or the person who induces such behavior is not 18.

The definition also includes recruiting, harbouring, transporting, providing or obtaining someone to provide labor or service for the purpose of involuntary slavery through the use of force, fraud or coercion.

Although the exact number is unknown, the estimate we often quote is that nearly 25 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking, Brinken said. Many people are forced Commercial workMany people are forced to work in factories or fields, or join armed groups. Millions of victims of human trafficking are children. This crime is an affront to human rights. 

Rank list

The TIP report ranks countries based on their compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking under the TVPA.

There are three floors. Tier 1 includes governments that fully meet the minimum standards. level 2 The report stated that it includes governments that do not meet the requirements but are making major efforts to meet the requirements.

There is a tier 2 watch list, which includes countries that estimate the number of victims of severe forms of human trafficking are very high or are increasing significantly, as well as those countries that have failed to provide evidence that they are stepping up efforts to combat severe forms of human trafficking from China. Countries of Human Trafficking. Previous year.

The worst level, level 3, applies to countries that its government does not fully meet the minimum standards and have not made major efforts to achieve this. Ranking at this level means that if the president decides to suspend, the country may be subject to certain foreign aid restrictions.

The State Department downgraded Malaysia and Guinea-Bissau to level 3 this year.

In 2018, a girl helped her parents work in a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia.Some young children in Indonesia and Malaysia have little or no daycare services and follow their parents to the fields, where they are exposed to toxic pesticides and fertilizers [File: Binsar Bakkara/AP Photo]

This move is U.S. banned Last year, three Malaysian companies in the palm oil and electronics industries were concerned about forced labor and poor working and living conditions.

Azry Akmar Ayob, a member of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Smuggling Immigration Department of the Malaysian Police, told Reuters on June 30 that such labor problems are not widespread.

This Lowest level Also includes the U.S. rival China-their Treatment of Uyghur minorities Highlighted-Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria, Russia, Venezuela, etc.

The impact of COVID

The report specifically emphasized the impact of the pandemic on human trafficking and people working to stop crime.

female According to the report, children and people facing food and economic insecurity have been severely affected by the pandemic.

Blockade means Stop the spread of COVID-19According to the report, this has led to a lack of credible and accurate data, posed a challenge to effective and efficient anti-trafficking work in the world and exacerbated economic insecurity.

It is clear that COVID-19 has increased the vulnerability of millions of people and has adversely affected efforts to combat human trafficking, it continued.

On April 14, 2020, a woman wearing a mask was seen on the street after the lockdown was lifted in the capital of Hubei Province and Chinas COVID-19 outbreak center [File: Aly Song/Reuters]

It cited a report by the Office of European Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and UN Womens Office of Security and Cooperation, which emphasized that nearly 70% of human trafficking survivors from 35 countries reported that their financial situation was serious Damaged. Affected by COVID-19.

The report stated that anti-trafficking organizations and the government still found a way to adapt and establish new relationships to overcome challenges.

Some governments and organizations have conducted in-depth evaluations to identify changing trends. Others use technology to drive innovative solutions.

Brinken also honored eight TIP report heroes, including survivors, government employees, and NGO employees.

These include Mohammed al-Obaidly, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs of Qatar.

The TIP report acknowledges that Qatar has Not resolved yet All human trafficking or labor rights issues, but al-Obaidy and his team in the ministry continue to work towards the goal of increasing transparency and protecting migrant workers from forced labor.

Although the TIP report focuses on global efforts to combat human trafficking, Blinken acknowledges Americas own shortcomings.

Brinken said that improved cooperation with global partners must include acceptance of our role in perpetuating violent and dehumanized people, and we must work to correct these past mistakes.
The Trump Organization and its long-time chief financial officer pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and theft in the first criminal case after several years of investigations into former President Donald Trump and his business transactions .

On Thursday afternoon, Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and the companys lawyers appeared in a court in Lower Manhattan to accept 15 felony charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. The allegations read out in court against the two defendants included tax fraud, fraudulent schemes, conspiracy and falsification of business records. The 73-year-old Wesselberg has been charged separately with multiple crimes, including gross theft, with a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

During the interrogation of New York State Court Judge Juan Merchan, Assistant District Attorney Carey Dunne stated that the indictment involved a thorough and bold 15-year plan aimed at Avoid taxes on benefits such as cars, apartments, and private school tuition. Such benefits are usually regarded as compensation, and it is illegal to deliberately fail to pay taxes. Dunn said that Weisselberg personally received $1.76 million in such benefits.

Prosecutors said: The plan is to allow certain employees to significantly underreport the Trump Organizations compensation so that they can and do pay federal, state, and local taxes that are far below the amount they should pay.

The chief financial officer was handcuffed and brought into the courtroom. At the end of the hearing, after surrendering his passport, he was released under his own guarantee.

Trump did not name the accusations, but the case may be just the opening remarks of the district attorney, and he has been investigating the companys possible banking and insurance fraud. The allegations against Wesselberg have greatly increased the pressure on the CFO to cooperate with prosecutors.

Weisselbergs cooperation may lead to a wider range of cases against the company and increase the possibility of historic and political prosecutions against the former president. Since it is unlikely that a trial will be held before next year, the chief financial officer will have a few months to decide whether to confront the charges or plead guilty, and may reach an agreement with the prosecutor. Wesselberg served as a Trump executive for four years and has a unique insight into the former presidents financial and business transactions.

Trump criticized the Democrat Vances investigation as a political persecution based on political motives. The Trump Organization issued a statement on Thursday that Wesselbergs prosecution was an attempt to harm the former presidents scorched earth attempt and that Vance was involving the IRS or any other local attorney who would not have thought Criminal proceedings involving employee benefits.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Thursday that anyone who tries to bully China will face decapitation and bloodshed. In a provocative speech celebrating Chinas centenary, he praised Chinas rise?? The carefully selected crowd aroused enthusiastic cheers. The ruling Communist Party.

Xi Jinping seems to have responded with unusually powerful language to the United States and other countries that have criticized the emerging powers trade and technology policies, military expansion, and human rights record. In the one-hour speech, he also stated that the country must adhere to a one-party dictatorship and emphasize the role of the Communist Party in elevating Chinas global status.

The rally featured a military flyover, where people waved Chinese flags and sang patriotic songs-in some ways reminiscent of the mass activities organized by Mao Zedong, the founding leader of the Communist Party of China. Xi Jinping even wore the gray button-down suit Mao liked and spoke on the same balcony on the roof of Tiananmen Square, where the revolutionary leader announced the beginning of communist rule in 1949.

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, more than 70,000 people attended the event on Thursday.

Xi in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Xi Jinping, the leader of the party who is considered to be considering a third term from next year, received the greatest applause. He said that the party had restored Chinas dignity after being conquered by Western powers and Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries for decades. In recent decades, it has become the second largest economy in the world.

The Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, oppress and enslave us. Anyone who attempts to do so will face the consequences of decapitation and bloodshed before the Iron Great Wall of 1.4 billion Chinese people, Xi Jinping said. The restriction on his time in office has been lifted, which has led to speculation that he can rule for life like Mao Zedong.

At the ceremony held in Tiananmen Square, participants waved the Chinese flag. (Wu Hanguan/Associated Press)

The strong language seems to be aimed at speeding up and broadcasting to domestic audiences. The strongest element-the mention of head beatings and bloodshed-was excluded from the official medias English translation of this sentence.

Xi Jinping announced that China had restored order in Hong Kong after anti-government protests in 2019, and reiterated the Communist Partys determination to place autonomous Taiwan under its control.

Both of these policies have been widely criticized by Western democracies. They accused the Communist Party of abusing its power in the country, including detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim minorities in northwestern Xinjiang for political re-education, and imprisoning or intimidating those whom it sees as potential opponents. From Tibet to Hong Kong.

As part of the continued suppression of anti-government protests in Hong Kong that have long enjoyed freedoms that the mainland did not have, Hong Kong police blocked Victoria Park on Thursday. In the past, the park was the starting point of the annual democracy march held on July 1st, the 1997 anniversary of Hong Kongs return to China.

The gap between China and the United States is growing

Xi Jinping also stated that the party will retain absolute control over the military and now has the worlds second-largest annual budget after the United States. We will build the Peoples Army into a world-class military with more powerful capabilities and more reliable means. Safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, he said.

Robert Sartre of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University said that Xi Jinping seems to be preparing for a long-term struggle between China and the United States. He said that China is pursuing its very self-centered policy goals, at the expense of others and the current world order.

During the ceremony, helicopters flew over the Chinese flag in Tiananmen Square, forming a 100 formation. (Wu Hanguan/Associated Press)

China and the United States are increasingly divided over the formers claims over almost the entire South China Sea and the uninhabited islands held by the US ally Japan. The United States has also strengthened relations with Taiwan and arms sales to discourage China from seizing this autonomous democratic island by force. Elsewhere, Chinese and Indian forces clashed over disputed borders in the mountains last year.

When commenting on the anniversary, Taiwan accused China of attempting to subvert the international order and its ambition to become a regional and even global hegemon. Democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law are the core values ??of Taiwanese society, and there is a considerable gap between them and the others authoritarian political system, the government statement said.

No serious challenge to the partys rule

The Tiananmen Square incident was the culmination of several weeks of rituals, demonstrating the role played by the Communist Party in greatly improving the quality of life and expanding Chinas economic, political, and military influence. These achievements, coupled with severe suppression of any critics, helped the party continue to hold power.

The partys official narrative concealed past errors or current controversies, such as the mass famines of the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the violent class struggle and xenophobia of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, and the military intervention in 1989. The democratic movement in Tiananmen Square.

Residents gathered outside the shopping mall to watch a large screen showing Xi Jinpings speech during the Tiananmen Square event in Beijing. (Andy Wong/Associated Press)

Instead, it focuses on development, stability, and efficiencyincluding its success in controlling COVID-19in stark contrast to the political quarrels, poor epidemic control, and social conflicts in multi-party democracies that it portrays.

Looking up at the sky, the crowd cheered military planes flying over the sky bridge, including helicopters organized into the 100 and the Chinese J-20 stealth flying squadron. The last group of jets made blue, yellow, and red trails in the sky.

The partys rule does not face serious challenges, but it is difficult to measure the degree of public support, because few people dare to criticize it for fear of being arrested. Yang Shaocheng, a retired construction worker, said he was proud of the achievements of his motherland under communism.

I think the Communist Party can persist for a thousand or ten thousand years, Yang said.
Joshua L. Damond, 29, of Lafayette, Louisiana, was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. to 78 months (6 years, 5 months) in prison, followed by 3years of supervised release, for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Damond was charged in an indictment and pleaded guilty on March 8, 2021. In June 2020, Damond led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase after leaving the residence where his daughter lived with her mother. When Damond went to the residence where his daughter lived, the mother refused to allow him to enter the residence, but he kicked in the door and then got into a verbal altercation with her.

The mother and daughter left, and he followed them. Law enforcement officers arrived on the scene and observed Damond leaving the area and attempted a traffic stop. He refused to stop, and a pursuit ensued. During the chase, officers observed Damond throw items from the vehicle. Other officers assisting in the chase stopped to find the item that was thrown and found a firearm wrapped in the blue shirt Damond had been wearing.

He was apprehended and arrested. The firearm was determined to be stolen. Damond has prior felony convictions for possession of cocaine (2014) and monies derived from drug violation and illegal possession of stolen firearm (2015) and is prohibited from possessing a firearm.The ATF, Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office and Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriffs Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Nickel prosecuted the case.

In a seperate case, Shaun J. Labbe, 38, and Ana C. Smith, 33, both of Scott, Louisiana, have been sentenced by United States District Judge Robert L. Summerhays on drug trafficking charges. Labbe was sentenced to 210 months (17years, 6 months) and Smith was sentenced to 72 months (6 years) in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release for each.

Labbe and Smith were indicted on March 18, 2020 and charged with drug trafficking and firearms charges. Labbe pleaded guilty March 5, 2021 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Smith pleaded guilty January 6, 2021 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Evidence introduced in court revealed that in 2018, agents with the Lafayette Parish Narcotics Unit began investigating Labbe and Smith who were suspected of selling large quantities of methamphetamine from their residence and his place of business.

Law enforcement agents obtained search warrants for their residence and his place of business and in October 2018 executed those warrants. Agents found 370.7 grams of methamphetamine, 45.4 grams of marijuana and other narcotics, as well as over $8,000 in cash, two handguns, and other drug paraphernalia. During a search of Labbes place of business, agents found approximately 5,053 grams of methamphetamine which was hidden inside a childs playhouse.

Labbe admitted the seized items and cash found in the residence were his and that he was aware the narcotics were hidden in the business. Smith admitted to law enforcement that she knew about the items in the residence and that she participated in the distribution and sale of methamphetamine in Lafayette Parish.The DEA, FBI and Lafayette Parish Sheriffs Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Nickel prosecuted the cases.
Namgoong Min surprised his fans with a bloody sneak peek of his upcoming drama "The Veil."

Over his social media, the 43-year-old South Korean hottie looked unrecognizable as he transformed into an elite undercover agent for the soon-to-be-released MBC drama.

The "Doctor Prisoner" star dons a full beard and thick shaggy hair, almost covering his face.

Namgoong Min Updates Fans with a Bloody Sneak Peek of his Upcoming Drama "The Veil"

However, what piqued the interests of his Instagram followers is his muscular physique, flaunting his six-pack abs and toned biceps while being completely covered with blood.

In Namgoong Min's Instagram, he simply wrote "#BlackSun and #HanJihyuk" in reference to his character.

Meanwhile, the comment section is filled with fans gushing over the actor's stunning body while others trolled Namgoong Min and pointed out how he hilariously holds the lollipop.

READ MORE: Namgoong Min Workout Routine 2021: Why the 'Black Sun' Actor Cannot Skip Exercise

What You Need to Know About the Upcoming K-Drama "The Veil"

The 43-year-old actor will return to K-drama following the success of his 2020 series "Awaken."

For his upcoming drama, Namgoong Min is set to take on the role of a lead elite field agent at the NIS (National Intelligence Service) named Han Ji Hyuk.

He will be working alongside Park Ha Sun, Kim Ji Eun, Kwon So Hyun, and a roster of powerhouse cast.

Helmed by "My Healing Love" director Kim Sung Yong and penned by screenwriter Park Seok Ho, "The Veil" is slated to air on September 1 and will be the newest Wednesday and Thursday drama under MBC.

The forthcoming action drama follows the story of Han Ji Hyuk, who vanishes in the face of the earth and goes missing after dealing with an organized crime syndicate.

After a year of going off the radar, the former top agent then made a grand return by joining a crime syndicate to track the traitor responsible for his downfall.

"The Veil" Teaser Showed Namgoong Min ImpressiveTransformation

Following the confirmation of the cast, MBC unveils a mind-boggling teaser featuring Namgoong Min's transformation.

In the still cuts, the broadcasting network showed off the actor's major shift from being a snappy lead field agent to becoming a completely different person sporting a grimy appearance.

According to an outlet, the producers lauded the 43-year-old star for his portrayal and revealed that they "trust" him as an actor.

Moreover, a representative from the drama even called character development a "genius of transformation."

"He draws admiration with not only his instant immersion into his character in difficult situations but also his detailed emotional performances. In addition, please check out 'The Veil' to see how Namgoong Min, a 'genius of transformation,' will show a different side of him."

Namgoong Min to Star in Upcoming "Doctor Prisoner 2"

Apart from the upcoming crime drama, Namgoong Min is set to reprise his role as Na Yi Je in the new season of the hit series, "Doctor Prisoner."

"Doctor Prisoner" Season 2 will be helmed again by directors Song Min Yeop and Hwang In Hyuk together with screenwriter Park Kye Ok, who also penned the previous season.

IN CASE YOU MISSED: CONFIRMED: Namgoong Min, Park Ha Sun, & Kim Ji Eun to Star in MBC's New Drama 'Black Sun'





KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Geca Wills
Seo In Guk gets overwhelmed by the amount of love and support he received from "Doom at Your Service" fans and the production team.

"Doom at Your Service" Family Prepares a Book Full of Happy Memories

After tvN's "Doom at Your Service" finale aired on June 29, the cast shared some of their precious moments on their official Instagram accounts.

Lead star Seo In Guk himself made an Instagram update on the day of the finale airing. He posted a short video, showing the thoughtful gift he received from the production team.

It was a photo book that contains a compilation of the behind-the-scenes photos of Doom at Your Service cast and crew. The present is a simple but meaningful token that contains all the memories he had shared with his co-stars and the people behind the drama's success.

Apart from the photobook from his "Doom at Your Service" family, Seo In Guk also flaunted all the food and coffee trucks he received from his local and overseas fans.

The "Reply 1997" actor was overwhelmed by the amount of support that he keeps on getting from his fans.

Meanwhile, Seo In Guk's onscreen partner Park Bo Young also shared some moments from the series on her new Instagram account.

Doom at Your Service Cast Says Goodbye

"Doom at Your Service" ended with satisfaction from the viewers, with the characters living happily ever after.

Seo In Guk, Park Bo Young, Lee Soo Hyuk, Shin Do Hyun, Kang Tae Oh, and SF9's Da Won finally bowed their heads as they bid farewell to their characters.

Finale Episode Viewership Ratings

According to Nielsen Korea, Doom at Your Service finale garnered an average rating of 2.340 percent, which is said to have a slight increase over its previous ratings of 2.334 percent. It also became the lowest ratings that the drama received.

"Doom at Your Service" had a good start and attained 4.422 percent during episode 2.

Nonetheless, Doom at Your Service is well-received and dubbed as the most popular drama in various countries: the U.S., Brazil, India, France, and Mexico.

The drama was sold to almost 150 countries right before its pilot episode.

Have you watched Doom at Your Service finale? What can you say about it? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Written by Shai Collins
The extreme heat wave in the Northwest is beginning to subside in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, but much of the West will continue to deal with baking temperatures as millions remain under heat alerts.

Canada and US cities in the Northwest have reported their hottest temperatures on record. More than 52 million people are under a heat warning or advisory from coast to coast.

Three potential deaths associated with heat-related illness were reported Sunday and Monday, according to Washington Department of Health spokesman Cory Portner.

While temperatures are likely to let up in the Northeast by Wednesday's end, the heat is expected to last in the Northwest well into mid-July, CNN's meteorologist Michael Guy predicted.

"The Northeast will continue to be hot (Wednesday), before a cold front drops temperatures, but also brings the risk for severe storms this afternoon and evening," Guy said.

Portland set an all-time, record-high temperature three days in a row, topping out at 116 degrees on Monday. Seattle hit 108 degrees, breaking the all-time record it set just a day earlier.

Across the border, Lytton, British Columbia, hit 121 degrees on Tuesday -- the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. The record was broken on Sunday and then again on Monday.

Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the heat wave is "unprecedented."

"We saw heat records over the weekend only to be broken again the next day," Dahl told CNN, "particularly for a part of the country where this type of heat does not happen very often."

Multiple experts, including Pennsylvania State University's climate scientist Michael E. Mann, have blamed one thing for the soaring temperatures -- climate change.

"You warm up the planet, you're going to see an increased incidence of heat extremes," Mann told CNN.

Heat blamed for dozens of deaths and even more emergency room visits

At least 676 people in Washington state visited emergency departments for heat-related symptoms from Friday through Sunday -- before the heat wave hit its peak.

On Monday alone, there were 688 heat-related emergency department visits, according to Portner, who said the state had recorded at least 1,384 hospital visits related to the heat since the weekend.

In addition to the three potential deaths connected to heat-related illnesses, Portner said officials were looking into one potential death associated with submersion and drowning.

King County, which is home to Seattle, had 40 emergency department visits for heat-related illness on Saturday and 91 on Sunday, according to Gabriel Spitzer, communications specialist for Public Health Seattle & King County.

On Monday, there were 223 emergency department visits for heat-related illness among King County residents, according to Spitzer.

The eastern Washington city of Spokane hit 109 degrees, breaking the previous record of 108 degrees set on August 4, 1961, according to National Weather Service Spokane.

The city of Wenatchee, Washington, broke an all-time heat record, reaching 114 degrees. And Omak, Washington, hit 117 degrees, shattering the previous record of 114 degrees set on July 4, 1928.

Volunteers with the United Farm Workers in Prosser, Washington, distributed water and Gatorade in the cherry fields, according to the UFW Facebook page.

The high in Prosser reached 113 degrees on Tuesday.

In Oregon, a total of 506 heat-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care centers were reported by the state's health authority. At least 251 visits occurred on Monday alone, when temperatures were highest.

In the Portland area, the 97 emergency department and urgent care clinic visits for heat illness is nearly the same number of cases they would expect to see all summer, according to Multnomah County communications director Julie Sullivan-Springhetti.

"The record breaking heat also broke records for calls for help. Emergency calls, visits to the emergency rooms, and calls for people and pets reached all-time highs," Sullivan-Springhetti said in an email to CNN.

Along the West Coast, more than 20 million people were under a heat warning or advisory, from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.

Meanwhile, more than 230 deaths have been reported in British Columbia since Friday as a historic heat wave brought record-high temperatures there, officials said Tuesday.

"Since the onset of the heat wave late last week, the BC Coroners Service has experienced a significant increase in deaths reported where it is suspected that extreme heat has been contributory," Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

In Vancouver, officers have responded to more than 65 sudden deaths since the heat wave began on Friday, prompting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to issue a statement about a "concerning increase in sudden deaths amid the heat wave."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to 35 sudden deaths in Surrey, British Columbia, since Monday, media relations officer Cst. Sarbjit K. Sangha told CNN.

"While the causes of death has not yet been determined in each of these cases, we can confirm that Surrey RCMP is responding to a higher than usual number of deaths since the beginning of the extreme weather conditions," Sangha said.

In the nearby city of Burnaby, police responded to more than 25 sudden death calls in a 24-hour period since Monday, with heat believed to be a contributing factor in the majority of the deaths, according to a release from RCMP.

"We are seeing this weather can be deadly for vulnerable members of our community, especially the elderly and those with underlying health issues. It is imperative we check on one another during this extreme heat," Cpl. Mike Kalanj with Burnaby RCMP said.

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WEED, Calif.  When fire crews in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest responded to multiple lightning-caused fires in the wake of last week's thunderstorms, they attacked them aggressively and eventually left the scene believing that they had been contained, according to an official. But one of those starts came burning back to life, soon spreading beyond what the local crews could control.

As of Wednesday morning, the Lava Fire covered almost 17,600 acres, stretching from the slopes of Mount Shasta to the outskirts of Weed, and north across Highway 97 into the Juniper Valley area. While fire officials have yet to confirm how many buildings have been destroyed, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office heavily implied that at least some areas have burned.

Fire officials held a community meeting at College of the Siskiyous in Weed on Monday evening. Todd Mack, fire management officer for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, ended up fielding the most pointed questions from concerned members of the community who wanted to know how a small start  one caught early  grew to be such a major threat.

Mack said that fire crews attacked the original lightning-sparked fire aggressively on Thursday, dumping 7,000 gallons of water on it. Crews lined and watched it overnight and through the next day, leaving when they were confident that there was no smoke rising from the area, which Mack said is standard practice.

But smoke did return, as did the fire, building throughout Saturday. By that evening, the once-tiny fire had overwhelmed the local crews that returned to contain it, growing to cover 220 acres.

"That unfortunately happens  it does happen from time to time," said Mack. "It's not what we're after, it's not what we preach and practice . . . it's happened many times, there's no excuse, but it does happen."

When another member of the community again criticized fire officials for failing to extinguish the fire in the first place, Mack offered an apology.

"We are working our tails off to get this fire out right now, I can promise you that  I absolutely promise you that," Mack said. "I apologize for that getting out, I do . . . and I'll take the heat for that. I'm the fire management officer on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and I will own that . . . and we will continue to aggressively attack fires to help prevent that from happening again."

Fire officials have indicate that Wednesday may have at last brought the opportunity they needed to get a better handle on the Lava Fire, with flames on the southeastern flank on the fire "backing" slowly against the wind, giving crews and aircraft an advantage. The northern reaches of the fire appeared less active throughout the day, with the most activity centered on the slopes of Mt. Shasta.
PHOENIX, Ore.  A growing number of cities in southern Oregon are following the lead of those in Siskiyou County by canceling fireworks displays or banning the sale and display of fireworks in city limits in the midst of extreme heat and drought conditions.

The Phoenix City Council met in an emergency meeting on Thursday night, voting in favor of a resolution that bans any and all fireworks in the city until December 30. Phoenix Police said that they would be enforcing the ban with extra patrol officers through July 6.

"If a person is caught using fireworks, within the city limits, in violation of this emergency ordinance they could be issued a citation for the violation with a fine of up to $500," Phoenix Police said in a statement.

The Talent City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to pass an ordinance that bans "the use, lighting, detonation or display of consumer and display fireworks" within city limits. Thursday's ordinance declared an emergency, making it effective immediately.

Talent's ordinance makes express reference to the Almeda Fire, which leveled much of Talent and Phoenix, leaving thousands of people without homes and undoubtedly scarred by the experience.

While there's no indication that the Almeda Fire was started by fireworks, the ordinance reasons that fireworks pose a potential fire hazard and residents are "understandably fearful of threats of wildfire" after the events of September.

On Thursday, the Gold Hill City Council approved its own ban on fireworks, lasting from July 1 through the end of fire season. Officials said that the city charter allows for a $250 fine for any violation of the resolution.

"Due to current weather conditions and drought, and a statewide state of emergency for imminent threat of wildfire declared on June 29, the ban is intended to reduce the risk to public safety, life and property," Gold Hill said in a statement.

The Ashland Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that it would cancel the annual Independence Day fireworks show, citing both the current conditions and concerns from the community after the trauma of the September 8 fires. The City of Ashland also has a standing ban on private use of fireworks within the city.

"The safety of the Ashland community is of the utmost importance and current conditions require us to reconsider the decision. We feel it is best to be abundantly cautious and cancel the show this year," said Sandra Slattery, Executive Director of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce.

Shortly after Ashland's announcement, the City of Jacksonville released a statement declaring critical fire danger, and prohibiting the lighting of fireworks within the city limits "immediately."

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Boomfest fireworks display at the Jackson County Expo was still set to go forward on July 4. Officials say that this year's show is designed to keep any burning material far away from dry vegetation by using exclusively aerial effects that will finish burning well before they return to the ground. The Expo has also decided to bar people from bringing and setting off their own fireworks this year.

Along with the bans already announced in some areas throughout Oregon and California, NewsWatch 12 called around to local governments on Tuesday to get a better idea of where fireworks will be prohibited and where they will be allowed:

Fireworks prohibited

Phoenix: Fireworks banned until the end of the year.

Gold Hill: Fireworks banned through the end of fire season.

Talent: New ordinance bans the sale and display of fireworks within city limits.

Lake of the Woods: The annual fireworks display has been canceled, and other fireworks are banned on Forest Service lands.

Ashland: City officials say that have a standing ban on public use of fireworks, and the Chamber's display was canceled on Tuesday.

Jacksonville: Temporary ban.

Mt. Shasta: Temporary ban.

Yreka: Temporary ban.

Weed: Temporary ban.

Portland: Temporary ban.

Bend: Temporary ban through July 9.

Fireworks allowed

Klamath Falls: Legal fireworks allowed, but city code prohibits discharge of fireworks in an area that poses a fire hazard risk "such as a field, vacant lot, or any city park." A fireworks display is going forward at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, though no personal fireworks will be allowed, similar to Boomfest.

Central Point: Legal fireworks allowed within city limits, large display at the Jackson County Expo for Boomfest.

Medford: Legal fireworks allowed in city limits (excluding the Greenway, public schools, and city parks) from July 1 through July 6.

Grants Pass: Within the city limits, fireworks are allowed only on July 4 between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., excluding wildfire hazard zones.

Eagle Point: The city has no plan to ban fireworks, except those already prohibited under state law.

Jackson County: Commissioner Rick Dyer said that there is not enough time to enact an ordinance prohibiting fireworks throughout Jackson County, and enforcement would be too difficult even with a new ordinance in place. County officials urged people to stick with legal fireworks and use them responsibly.

This list will be updated as we get more information.
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.

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Wisconsin Democrats had hoped an unprecedented $4.4 billion budget surplus would have led to similarly unprecedented investment in infrastructure, schools and health care. Republicans instead used more than $3 billion of that surplus for tax breaks.

Still, seven Democrats  none of them representing Racine or Kenosha counties  joined Republicans in voting for the budget Wednesday. Gov. Tony Evers now has about a week to sign or veto the budget. He could also approve it with partial vetoes, which he did with the 2019-21 budget.

Republicans have continued repeating that the cuts will provide $1,200 in tax relief to typical families. However, it has been estimated more than 75% of the income tax cuts will be going to households making more than $100,000 per year, even though Wisconsins median household income is around $65,000.

Democrats have decried Republicans funding of education being close to the minimum amount required to bring federal education aid into the state. But Republicans have pointed that the billions in federal education funding will lead schools to receive more money in total, even if less is coming from the state government.

Still, Democrats decried Republicans choosing not to trim some of the tax cuts to support bipartisan ideas, like $70 million in homelessness prevention ($1.2 was approved) and $46.5 million for student mental health ($12 was approved).

A release from the office of state Rep. Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said that the budget misses critical opportunities.

Evers original budget also included significant policy changes, like legalizing marijuana and raising the minimum wage, that Republicans stripped out.

Heres what representatives of Racine and Kenosha counties are saying in statements about the budget:

State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine: The budget Governor Evers proposed in February was unrealistic and irresponsible, and people said so at the time. He proposed raising taxes well over $1 billion. The Legislature cut taxes by $3.4 billion. The Legislature secures Wisconsins economic future with the largest ending balance in 25 years and a record $2 billion in the Rainy Day Fund.

State Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Somers: With the expected $4.4 billion in additional revenue well have coming in, this budget provided a rare opportunity to address so many of our most serious needs and priorities. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues chose instead to go the same old route  cutting taxes for the rich.

The budget should have invested in homelessness prevention and mental health programs. Governor Evers had proposed more than $70 million to fully fund programs that had been recommended by the bipartisan Wisconsin Interagency Council on Homelessness, chaired by former Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch; he also called for $46.5 million in student mental health aid. Instead, the budget commits just $1.2 million to programs combatting homelessness and $12 million to student mental health aid over the next two years, shameful decreases.

This budget should have been transformational for people of Wisconsin. With once-in-a-generation financial resources, we had a real opportunity to truly make life better for so many of our friends and neighbors. Republicans squandered that opportunity, so I had to vote no.

Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, called the $4 billion surplus an enormous opportunity to invest in the future of our state and in our people.

At a time when we could be investing in the future of our children through education, McGuire continued, Republicans did quite literally the federally-mandated bare minimum, stripping approximately $30 million dollars away from Kenoshas schools alone.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle insist that this is a responsible budget, but the opposite is true: our state has more resources than ever, and yet instead of investing the people and businesses that make our state go, they took a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach that fails to lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity.

Bob Wittke  a Republican who previously served as president of the Racine Unified School Board and lives in Wind Point but whose district stretches to the west end of Racine County  argued, Education is a priority in this budget 

This budget funds (two-thirds of) education costs. While keeping in mind the massive influx of federal dollars that have been poured in to Wisconsin for education this year. The Wisconsin state budget set aside $350 million for when these federal funds run out. Did you know that on average, school districts in Wisconsin received $2,898 per pupil from federal ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds alone this year?

Wittke continued: This budget allocates an increase in special education funding to 30%, an increase in student mental health aid grants, and it also allocates $31 million more in federal earmark funds for after-school and summer programs to address learning loss. The budget also increases public library system aid by $6.5 million, and provides $6.4 million to school library aids. Education is a priority.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, also pointed to benefits for school districts that remained in person throughout the pandemic. The legislature guaranteed all districts will get a minimum of $781 per pupil if they taught in-person at least 50% of the time during the 2020-21 school year, he said. Most districts will see much more than that, the average being $2,898 per pupil.

Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, called the Republicans budget disappointing.

We could have joined so many other states in legalizing marijuana and appropriately recognizing and addressing climate change and the PFAS water contamination issue, Ohnstad continued. We could ensure we not only get back to normal, we could get back to better than ever.

Neubauer stated: Governor Evers budget showed what is possible for Wisconsin. We have the opportunity to address new and old challenges, create opportunity, transform communities, improve equity and help our state build back better as we come out of the pandemic. But instead, Republicans are ignoring the people of our state and undermining our shared future.

The budget that passed in the Assembly today maintains the status quo in Wisconsin. But when we have a historic $4.4 billion surplus, following a year where a pandemic swept across Wisconsin, our neighbors deserve better than simply maintaining  they deserve real investment.

Julian Bradley, a first-term Republican senator from Muskego whose district includes the northwestern corner of Racine County, tweeted Wednesday: Today, Republicans are doing the right thing by passing our budget and sending a $1,200 tax cut to the typical Wisconsin family. Im proud to vote for this balanced budget that cuts taxes by a total of $3.4 billion.

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Earlier this year, Evers, a Democrat, recommended the innovation center project as part of his $91.2 billion capital budgets overall $2.38 billion in budget investments over the next two years.

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Antaramian on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the exclusion of the funding.

The Republican Caucus had an opportunity, had they wished, to put this back in the budget. And, they decided not to and thats disappointing, said Antaramian. But, you know, weve overcome these obstacles before and well just keep on working at it. There are other funding sources and well be working with the governor to get funding from the governor, specifically, for this project.

Possible funding alternatives

Among the sources contemplated is the $3 billion pot of federal funding to the state via the American Rescue Plan Act from the U.S. Department of Treasury to help local governments recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor said.

That will be one of the routes that the city will be going after, Antaramian said. There are other areas were also looking at.
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North Elm Street shooting suspect arraigned on assault charges

Marshawn Taylor

The man accused in the May 6 North Elm Street shooting was arraigned on his charges Wednesday morning in Christian Circuit Court.

Marshawn Taylor, 25, appeared in Judge Andrew Selfs court via Zoom while at the Christian County Jail while his new defense attorney, David Rye, appeared in person for the arraignment hearing.

Rye waived the formal reading of his indictment and officially entered a not guilty plea on Taylors behalf as Rye prepares to defend his client.

Rye advised the court he has received evidence in the case from Christian County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Jerad Smith, but has not yet reviewed the evidence with Taylor.

Ive received discovery (evidence) from Mr. Smith. Its pretty lengthy, but I will print out a copy for Mr. Taylor and get a copy over to him either by the end of this week or early next week, Rye said.

Rye then requested the case be continued for roughly two weeks to allow him time to review the evidence with Taylor and form a plan on how he and his client intend to move forward.

Self agreed and scheduled Taylors first pretrial conference for Aug. 4.

Taylor is accused of shooting Marka Smith, 26, of Owensboro, twice while inside a vehicle. The first shot hit her in the wrist/forearm area and in the abdomen with the second while the two were in an argument, according to police reports.

According to police, Taylor and Smith had been in the front seat of the vehicle when the two began to argue and Taylor allegedly brandished a handgun from his waistband and chambered a round.

Police say Taylor initially lowered the gun before discharging three rounds while inside the car, with two rounds hitting Smith and third hitting himself in the left thigh.

Police say Taylor fled the scene before arriving at Jennie Stuart Health for treatment of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after the incident.

Taylor is charged with first-degree assault, first-degree wanton endangerment and as a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.

In other court news, two out of four suspects accused of robbing a Burger King in Oak Grove appeared in court Wednesday afternoon before Self. One of the suspects received their final sentence, while the other had their case continued to be possibly resolved or set for trial.

Isaia McCoy, 18, and Rebecca McCoy, 35, both appeared in court with their respective attorneys  David Rye and Jason Holland.

Isaia McCoy, who recently entered a guilty plea to amended charges in his case, received his final sentence from the judge. He was originally charged with first-degree robbery, but entered a guilty plea to the amended charge of first-degree wanton endangerment, which carries a recommended sentence of five years in prison.

The deal also had the stipulation that he testify against his co-defendants in the case if he were called to do so at trial.

The commonwealth indicated in the plea deal that they were neutral on Isaia McCoy receiving probation in the case.

Without any additional input from either the commonwealth or Isaia McCoys attorney, Self ultimately honored the plea deal and granted the defendant probation for a period of five years.

Self said that while McCoy was a juvenile when the offense occurred, he has since turned 18 years old and will no longer be supervised by the Department of Juvenile Justice but will be supervised by the Christian County Department of Probation and Parole.

Christian County Commonwealths Attorney Rick Boling said while his plea carries the stipulation that he may be required to testify, all other codefendants in the case  excluding Rebecca McCoy  have been resolved. Those codefendants include Zsayonna Price and Solomon Burgess.

In Rebecca McCoys case Wednesday afternoon, her attorney advised the court that he had recently received a new plea deal offer that he believed may lead to a resolution in the case.

A new offer has been extended, which I think may be possible to resolve it, Rye said before requesting to continue the case for two to three weeks.

Self agreed to the request and set Rebecca McCoy for a final pretrial conference when she will either enter a plea or set the case for a jury trial.

She is set to appear for that hearing on Wednesday, July 21.

Rebecca McCoy is currently charged with conspiracy to first-degree robbery and tampering with physical evidence.

Both McCoys were indicted on Aug. 7, 2020 for their involvement in the June 14 robbery of Burger King.

The indictment indicated the McCoys had conspired with Price and Burgess to rob the fast food restaurant. The three individuals allegedly entered Burger King armed with guns and wearing masks and demanded cash. No one was injured in the incident, according to past reports.

Burgess was originally charged with first-degree robbery, but under his plea deal, his charge was amended down to second-degree robbery, which carried a recommended sentence of five years. However, the commonwealth is neutral on probation and required that he testify in court should the other cases go to trial.

Burgess was later granted probation for a period of five years.

Price was originally charged with first-degree robbery, but under her plea offer, her charge was amended down to conspiracy to second-degree robbery, which carries a recommended sentence of 12 months in prison.

As part of her deal, the commonwealth was neutral on probation and required her to testify against the other defendants in the case should they go to trial.

Self sentenced Price to one year of probation.
Parenting is one of those things most of us end up doing but never get any full training on. Its awkward. Some people are good at it; some people are terrible at it. Sometimes we never know if the parent is simply terrible at parenting, if they have a terrible child, or if there is just a combination of bad factors. However, there are some people who end up being excellent parents and taking their excellent parenting skills and bringing them into their work lives. Its beautiful, and despite the fact that many of us have parents, I find that its always special to have an extra set of hands to continue guiding learners.

I was fortunate to be surrounded by several wonderful mentors in medical school. They all came from various walks of life, with all of them having boundless knowledge to provide to me. However, the best mentors were those who treated me like I was their child. I remember the first time a mentor of mine treated me like their child. It wasnt in the way that I thought it would feel. I was extremely hungry; I had run from one clinic to the next in the afternoon. I hadnt had an opportunity to eat anything that day, and I remember feeling very overwhelmed about the idea of being late. A patient had come into clinic that my attending indicated that he wanted to quickly see alone. He heard my stomach growl, and he casually asked me if I had eaten yet today. I said no, and I will never forget the look on his face. He seemed so appalled that I didnt take care of myself. He rushed me off to the cafeteria to get something to eat and told me I wouldnt have to worry about seeing patients unless I had had something to eat. It was a feeling of warmth which I had had and I remembered. I remember again that there was a time I brought no lunch to clinic due to wanting to move quickly to be on time. I took the profession too seriously, and my attending looked at me quickly and said calmly, Well be OK, lets order lunch! These attendings thought about me not only as if I were another person, but as though I were a person they could nurture and care for.

While it might not make everyone comfortable, I felt fortunate that anyone loved me enough to treat me with the kindness and love that they would treat their own child. During training, I dont always need to be treated with respect and the equality that one might offer to a colleague. Mentorship can be a lot like parenting. Sometimes, I need someone to sit with me and talk to me as though I know less than them, but with the love they would give to an offspring.

I need my hand held sometimes. Other times, I need the independence to grow on my own and to roam and explore. Sometimes I need to make my own mistakes. Other times, I need to avoid making mistakes so I wont hurt myself or someone else. I need to know what will work for me. However, we commonly find mentors who we want to be likeso we copy them in every way. We carry our stethoscopes in the same ways they carry them. We put our hair up in ponytails like they do. My sparkly nail polish commonly matches my attendings and I even want the same engagement ring as hers.

However, I want to be better than her. I want to observe her mistakes, and I want to grow so I can be even better than she is now. This is what she would want. I also dread the possibility of disappointing her. I want to make her proud. I tell her my grades, my failures, and my concerns. We celebrate my successes and we talk about our families.

Above all, thank you. Thanks for being my doctor mom! Thank you for noticing when something was hard for me. Thank you for noticing when I was nervous or hurt. Thank you for noticing that I was trying, even when I was failing. Thank you for thinking of me and making me part of your family. This journey is hard every day. We all need people in our corners who care for us. I couldnt have asked for anything better. I see my tremendous growth only because of what only feels like parenting at its best when working with my mentors. My strengths, my failures, strategies to improve, and how much they cared for me enough to ensure that I ate. This is quality care and mentoring. Thank you for parenting me.

Micaela Stevenson is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Governor signs cruise ship bill; Key West plans special meeting

ROB ONEAL/The Citizen The Majesty of the Seas looms large over a couple on personal watercraft near Pier B in October 2016. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that overturns Key Wests November referendum limiting the number and size of cruise ships coming into port and the number of passengers and crew who can disembark. ROB ONEAL/Free Press A proposed bill in Tallahassee to reverse the new cruise ship restrictions in Key West was approved by a tourism subcommittee in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, clearing the way for the bill to move to the next step. Photos by ROB ONEAL/The Citizen Despite efforts to minimize the size and frequency of cruise ships, local referendums held in November 2020 will have no bearing on either issue. ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen Royal Caribbeans Empress of the Seas returns to an empty Mallory Square in September 2017. The ship was the first to arrive following Hurricane Irma. ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen Passengers disembark at Pier B in 2017.

The Key West City Commission will meet Tuesday night, July 6, to discuss how to move forward with cruise ship business now that Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation overturning a city referendum limiting the number and size of cruise ships coming into port and the number of passengers and crew who can disembark.

DeSantis signed the bill Tuesday night, June 29. This means the owners of Pier B do not face the limitations decided by the voters, but the city can enforce the restrictions at the city-owned Mallory Square dock and city-leased Outer Mole Pier, Key West Mayor Teri Johnston said.

The Key West City Commission will host a public meeting at 5 p.m. on July 6, at City Hall to discuss what steps the city will take moving forward, Johnston said.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, we now have direction, Johnston said Wednesday. We [will] hold a meeting Tuesday night, and everyone will have input. ... I think we will have a very healthy conversation.

The group that proposed the referendum  Key West Committee for Cleaner, Safer Ships  has not given up the battle.

We are disappointed but not surprised, said Arlo Haskell, treasurer for Cleaner, Safer Ships. Everyone has a price, but I didnt think DeSantis was so low.

DeSantis approval comes after the owners of Pier B, the Walsh family, donated nearly $1 million to a re-election PAC for the governor.

We still have a lot of options, Haskell said.

The city can pass its own local ordinance that matches the charter amendment, because the bill only addressed voter referendums and not local ordinances, Haskell said. The city or Cleaner, Safer Ships could file a lawsuit challenging the bill because it only impacts Key West and that is discriminatory, Haskell said. Cleaner Safer Ships or a resident could file lawsuit in federal court, challenging the cruise ships impact on the federal Clean Water Act or the Endangered Species Act on a local level, Haskell said.

Eighty percent of people voted for this. You cant silence the majority, Haskell said.

John Wells, whose company Caribe Nautical is the local booking agent for cruise ships, said he is gratified by the governor signing the bill and he thanked the governor and the state Legislature for passing the legislation.

It was the right decision, Wells said.

Wells was not sure Wednesday what the local cruise ship schedule would be in the coming weeks and months, as the cruise companies are still struggling with how to handle their schedules because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many cruise ship lines are limiting their capacity and requiring at least 95% of passengers are vaccinated, which follows guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last weekend, the Celebrity Edge became the first cruise ship to depart a U.S. port since the coronavirus pandemic when it left Fort Lauderdale with nearly 99% of its passengers vaccinated.

tohara@keysnews.com
EUGENE, Ore. -- Fire season is not off to a good start in Oregon.

On Tuesday, Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency due to the immediate threat of wildfires.

Lane County Defense Board Chair Chad Minter said this declaration makes it easier for counties to provide mutual aid.

"It helps us respond faster in fire emergencies and move resources around the state," Minter said.

Firefighters in Lane County have been getting ready for fire season since April, and on Tuesday, a task force was sent to help with a wildfire burning near Redmond.

In a statement, Brown said: "Oregon is still recovering from the devastation of last year's wildfires, which resulted in nine Oregonians losing their lives and thousands more losing their homes. With wildfires already sparking this year, it is imperative that we act now to prevent further loss -- of life, property, business, and our natural resources."

The state of emergency allows fire officials to utilize personnel, equipment, and facilities from other state agencies in order to respond to wildfires.

John Flannigan from the Oregon Department of Forestry said this year he is worried about manmade fires.

"It just takes a start in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we'll be back to chasing big fires," Flannigan said.

According to ODF, so far this year, 425 fires on state lands have destroyed 7,500 acres. That's compared to a 10-year average of 231 fires and less than 2,000 acres burned at this point in the year.

"We are in a tough fire condition. We are expecting a number of fires within the state," Flannigan said.
SALEM, Ore.  Gov. Kate Brown has declared a state of emergency due to the threat of wildfires across the state.

Firefighters are already fighting fires in some areas of Oregon, including one near Redmond.

RELATED: LANE COUNTY CREWS HELPING FIGHT WILDFIRE NEAR REDMOND

Brown said with the extreme hot temperatures we saw over the weekend and with the weather continuing to be hot and dry the next few weeks, the threat of wildfire in Oregon is approaching.

Much of the sate is currently in high or extreme fire danger with red flag warnings.

MORE: BROWN LEADS TALKS WITH BIDEN ON WILDFIRE SEASON

In a statement, Brown said: Oregon is still recovering from the devastation of last years wildfires, which resulted in nine Oregonians losing their lives and thousands more losing their homes. With wildfires already sparking this year, it is imperative that we act now to prevent further loss  of life, property, business and our natural resources.

The state of emergency allows fire officials to utilize personnel, equipment and facilities from other state agencies in order to respond to wildfires.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon is fully reopened as of today, and that means most COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

It also means local businesses now have more freedom to do as they see fit as far as mask mandates and social distancing guidelines go.

Eugene Toy and Hobby owner Alan Agerter said they will continue to follow mandates in their store, and he said there hasn't been much pushback from customers yet.

"We've just been here for a couple of hours already and everybody seems pretty agreeable to what we've done. We have it posted on the front door of what we expect and we're hoping for. So everything so far has gone very well," said Agerter.

Agerter also said while he does expect some pushback from customers, he and his employees will handle it on an individual basis.

Larger stores like Safeway say they don't require fully-vaccinated customers to wear masks.

Street vendors like the ones in downtown Eugene, and vending coordinators like Pierce Glover, say there are also happy to see the masks go, but only in their outdoor venues.

"Definitely in the outdoor market area, it's a lot more lenient because we're all outdoors and people aren't usually wearing masks unless they're personally inclined to. At our store front we have down the road, we do ask people to wear their masks, just because there is so much uncertainty," said Glover.

But even with that uncertainty, there are still people who are excited to get back to a new normal.

One Eugene resident, Bruce, said he will still use some caution and carry his mask wherever he goes.

"Relieved, confused, disoriented, all of that. And I'm pretty sure I share that with everybody else. We've all been through the mill together and we are hopefully emerging out of the other side of it," said Bruce.

And as far as what to expect when going back to a favorite business in the area, each one might have a different mandate.
The need for blood donors during the coronavirus pandemic is at an all time high. With schools closed around the country, blood donation centers like Vitalant are losing a big pool of donors.
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A High Court judge has ordered that a young girl who was removed by her mother to Ireland must be returned to their native Lithuania.

The child's father made an application under the International Convention regarding child custody and welfare known as the Hague convention seeking the child's return after the mother moved to Ireland with their child to live with her new partner late last year.

The mother of the young girl opposed the application. The parties in the case cannot be named for legal reasons.

In her judgement Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty said that after considering the evidence before the court it had no discretion other than order that the girl be returned to Lithuania.

Her removal, the judge said was "wrongful." The judge also found that the child's removal to Ireland without the father's consent was 'a significant disruption' to the child.

The court said that arising out of a settlement between the parents after the mother brought proceedings before the Lithuanian courts in 2019 the father enjoyed custody rights in respect of the child.

The court did not accept arguments made by the mother that the child was at grave risk if returned, or that the child was well settled in Ireland.

The court noted that child's parents were not married and that the mother said she had to go to court in Lithuania to establish the father's paternity and secure maintenance payments.

A court settlement arising out of those proceedings, the court held, resulted in the father coming into contact with the child.

It also culminated in the child staying with him exclusively for a month in late 2020 while the mother was in Ireland, and in self isolation following her visit.

The child's mother had argued that in Lithuania the father had missed some visits, and had failed to meet financial obligations to the child, and had little interest in their daughter.

The judge said that may have been the case initially, but that was superseded by the fact the father agreed to and took care of the child for a month while her mother was in Ireland.

The father the court added had established that he was exercising custody rights recognised under the convention.

The mother had also claimed that the child was upset upon her return after the child spent four weeks with the father, which was due to the father's alleged bad character.

The mother also claimed that she now has nowhere to live in Lithuania.

The father, the mother claims, has "a hatred for everyone." On one access visit the mother said by reading the father's lips she could see him tell the child that he wanted to kill the mother.

Those claims were denied.

Even at their height the mother's allegations the judge said they did not meet the threshold to establish the child was at grave risk.

The child may have been upset by being away from the mother for four weeks, or from being removed out of the father's care after a month of being primarily cared for by him.

The mother's allegations about the father were general and were matter for the Lithuanian courts the judge said.

The judge also added that the father was the person the mother had voluntarily left the child with for a month.

In all the circumstances the court said that the child should be returned to Lithuania.
Priests are asked to help out by climbing the mountain and hearing confessions

The Annual National Pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick or Reek Sunday has been extended to incorporate the whole month of July. Those who wish to fulfil the Reek Sunday obligations can do so from Wednesday to Saturday each week during July.

To this end a greater number of priests are needed to climb the Reek on one or more of the pilgrimage dates in July in order to hear Confessions and celebrate Mass on the summit. Organisers aim to have two priests on the summit on any given day. Any priest making the pilgrimage will have accommodation and breakfast provided for them in Westport the night before they climb should they require it.

Commenting on the preparations for Reek Sunday, Father Charlie McDonnell said, Pilgrimage has always been a strong vehicle for both petition and thanksgiving and, in 2021, above any year, we are delighted to offer and extended Reek Pilgrimage acknowledging and giving thanks for the fact that we journey very much under the protective hand of God.

Each year, while all of the spiritual benefits of the Croagh Patrick pilgrimage have been available to pilgrims from June to September, up to now the Sacraments have only been available on Reek Sunday. This year, due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, it would be impossible to facilitate the pilgrimage on one day only so I am arranging to greatly extend provision of the Sacraments for pilgrims throughout the month of July. It is my dear hope that this unprecedented and adventurous undertaking will provide all those who wish to come to Irelands Holy Mountain as pilgrims to do so safely and in their own time.

For generations, the annual Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage has held a central place in the life of the Church in Ireland and I am delighted that an extended version will be available next month. Reek Pilgrimage 2021 is an exciting and ambitious project to undertake and will require great generosity on the part of lay volunteers and priests alike. It is wonderful to be in a position to go ahead under very clear health management guidelines and I encourage all pilgrims to enter into it in a way that makes it a success for all involved.

Beginning Thursday, 1 July and ending Saturday, 31 July, the pilgrimage times and dates are as follows:

Wednesday to Friday:

Confessions before Mass from 11 to 11:45am

Mass at 12 noon

Confessions after Mass from 12:45 to 1:15pm

Saturday: 

Mass at 10am

Confessions after Mass from 10:45 to 11:30am

Archbishop Michael Neary will celebrate Mass at 6.30pm on 24 July, in Saint Marys Church, Westport.

Priests interested in assisting with this years pilgrimage season can contact Father Charlie McDonnell by email at frchaz@me.com.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa  An arrest has been made for an alleged hatchet-wielding assault in Floyd County.

Kelly Randall Caster, 41 of Charles City, was booked into the Floyd County Jail Wednesday on $25,000 bond. Caster is facing a charge of first-degree burglary involving a dangerous weapon for an incident on April 27.

Authorities say Caster went to a Charles City home and attacked someone, causing bodily injury. Caster allegedly intended to attack another person at the home and court documents say a hatchet was displayed during the assault.

First-degree burglary is a class B felony in Iowa, punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - It's the return of a nearly week-long celebration that draws in thousands of visitors from near and far - the 4th of July celebration.

Ahead of the annual carnival opening Wednesday afternoon, crews from the Missouri-based Evans United Shows finished setting up rides and prize booths, and food vendors went checked their fryers and equipment to make sure they were in working order in anticipation of eager visitors who have been missing this kind of fun due to the cancellation of last year's celebration.

Carrie Floyd of Mason City and her two kids are regulars at the yearly carnival, and were a bit bummed they weren't able to enjoy the rides and win some prizes. Now, they're all smiles, and predict there will be more people out this year making up for lost time.

"I think this year there will be a lot more because I think a lot of people were really missing it. This is the centralized area where a lot of people will go because Clear Lake has the lake and the carnival."

Now that her kids are tall enough to get on more rides, they're excited to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl and Super Slide, and to be around people again after a year of social distancing.

"I'm just glad life is getting back to normal after Covid. It'll be good to see people out that we haven't seen in a couple years."

The carnival is open at Noon from Thursday through Monday. In addition to the carnival, the City Park bandshell is playing host to live music nightly. For a complete list of events this week, click here.
MITCHELL COUNTY, Iowa - A tractor accident Wednesday night turned fatal near the Iowa-Minnesota border.

The Iowa State Patrol said a tractor was westbound on State Line Rd. when it lost control and entered the ditch and rolled. The occupant of the tractor, 42-year-old Robert Grundel, of St. Ansgar, died.

The crash was reported at 8:04 p.m.

The Iowa State Patrol was assisted by the Mitchell County Sheriff's Office, Mower County Sheriff's Office and the Lyle Fire Department.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  A federal judge in Iowa has admitted wrongdoing and publicly apologized for comments ridiculing former President Donald Trump for issuing pardons to well-connected Republican officials.

Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt made the remarks during a phone interview with The Associated Press in December, saying: Its not surprising a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals. In a bit of humor, he added, But apparently to get a pardon, one has to be either a Republican, a convicted child murderer or a turkey.

Pratts remarks set off a firestorm of criticism among lawyers, who said that they were inappropriate from a federal judge and smacked of partisanship. In a public apology, Pratt says his remarks were wrong and he regrets making them.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  Fireworks injuries more than doubled in Iowa in the four years since a 2017 law legalized their sale and use by consumers, and more of them involve children and require amputation.

Iowa Department of Public Health data shows emergency room visits stemming from fireworks-related injuries rose to an annual statewide average of 147 from 2017 through 2020.

That's a 114% increase from the state average over the previous four years.

A study this week from the state's two largest trauma centers, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, noted that children have been disproportionately affected by the increase and that more patients are requiring amputation.
MASON CITY, Iowa - An Albert Lea man has been convicted on a variety of federal charges regarding child pornography.

32 year-old Travis Kyle Mayer was accused of downloading child pornography in 2017, and then exploiting a 15 year-old girl in 2018 into producing porn that Mayer possessed and distributed. He could face up to life in prison, depending on sentencing.

This begs the question: how can you keep your kids safe online and avoid a potentially harmful situation like this?

Mary Ingham with Crisis Intervention Service has dealt with issues regarding inappropriate relationships and child exploitation. She offers educational resources to schools regarding online safety, and notes of some ways parents can monitor what your kids do on social media and online.

"It's good to talk to your friends and family on social media, but if a stranger contacts you, how do you respond? Make sure that parents and kids are having that conversation so that if kids do get a weird message that it's OK to talk to their parents and that parents know what to do and how to respond to that."

She also advises parents to get familiar with apps and platforms like Facebook and Tik Tok, and discuss the types of friends they chat with online.

"For months, my nephews were talking about Tik Tok, and I had no idea what it was. The first time I saw it, I thought this was weird. But I signed up for it because I wanted to understand it better. Part of that, I think as adults, is being familiar with the different platforms the people in your life are using, know how it works, so you can have a conversation."
ROCHESTER, Minn.- Mayo Clinic needs your help this summer. It's looking for people to donate blood during a nationwide blood shortage.

On Wednesday, it held a blood drive at Rochester Assembly. Lauren Brown, Mayo Clinic's Blood Donor Program Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator says the pandemic has impacted the shortage.

"We're just so grateful for Rochester Assembly hosting us today. We are in continuous need right now with the nationwide blood shortage and with the upcoming holiday, we're really looking for donors during this time."

According to Brown, summer and the holiday season are the hardest times to find donors because of people being out and about.

"Blood donations are important all times of the year. We're always looking for donors."

Today they had over 19 appointments and are hoping more people donate as the summer progresses.

Anyone interested in donating blood can make an appointment at Mayo Clinic.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - As part of a deal between the DFL-House majority and Senate Republicans Governor Tim Walz will no longer have emergency powers beginning July 1.

After a political struggle that lasted more than a year, the legislature abruptly ended the governors emergency powers after nearly 16 months.

Walz tried to get an amendment passed that would have extended some of the powers until August but in the end, he was outmaneuvered by state lawmakers.

Like most states, Minnesota approved, with bipartisan support, emergency powers for the governor in March 2020 during the early days of the pandemic.

However now Democrats have agreed to an amendment to the state government finance bill to bring the state of emergency to an immediate halt.

Walz also made a $45 million deal with the USDA to protect monthly food emergency payments to Minnesotans in need.

Political analyst Rayce Hardy said, In my opinion, most importantly, it showed the federal government and state governments could work together. Our system is federalism and a governor, a state executive, was able to convince the federal government to continue those $45 million a month payments.

Hardy says Walz can claim a victory on the federal payments as Democrats can celebrate adding elements to the statewide budget and Republicans can call ending the governors emergency powers a win.

Hardy added, The GOP lead Senate can claim a victory that they got Governor Walz, his emergency powers cut before they were supposed to end August 1, so they're going to be able to make a claim there even though they've been trying to stop those since 2020.

Walz used the emergency powers to order mask mandates, close businesses and restaurants as well as order distance learning for schools and open state testing and vaccination sites among other things.


ROCHESTER, Minn. - The Rochester Parks Foundation was awarded a 25,000 dollar grant to go towards improving the once run-down Friendship Park in southeast Rochester.

The Meadow Park Initiative, an effort between family service Rochester, IMAA, and United Way of Olmsted County met with residents to hear about what improvements they wanted to see.

A basketball court and a safe place to play were at the top of the list. Rochester Parks and Recreation completed the upgrades a mid-last year.

Vice-chair of Rochester Parks Foundation, Abe Sauer says Friendship Park is heavily used in the Meadow Park neighborhood.

Parks are one of the drivers of equity in the community - so the more we do in parks and provide for parks the better off the whole community is because they are a public use, he explains.

He adds public spaces like this struggle to find consistent funding.

If we are serious about building equity in the community, then we have to be serious about making everybody's park good and usable.

Funding for the project comes from the Mayo Clinic community initiative program.

Rochester Parks Foundation is a private tax-free organization promoting fundraising and advocacy for parks, so they accept tax-deductible donations to parks improvements.

To help improve our parks, visit Rochester Parks Foundation's website.
AUSTIN, Minn.  A Mower County drug bust involving marijuana, methamphetamine, and over $29,000 in cash is not sending anyone to prison.

Allison Marie Hoban, 23 of Austin, and Brian Torres, 20 of Blooming Prairie, were arrested on August 14, 2020, after a search of their vehicle. Austin police say 454.10 grams of marijuana and .49 grams of cocaine were found.

That discovery led to the search of a home in the 700 block of 2nd Avenue NE in Austin and the arrest of Donald Brian Hoban, 55 of Austin. Police say 47.74 grams of meth, 7.78 pounds of marijuana, $29,454 in cash, THC vax and THC edibles, and drug paraphernalia were found in the home while a marijuana plant was located in the backyard.

Torres pleaded guilty first and received one year of supervised probation for fifth-degree drug possession.

Allison Hoban then pleaded guilty to fifth-degree drug possession and was sentenced to five years of supervised probation and 40 hours of community work service.

Donald Hoban pleaded guilty to second-degree drug possession. He was sentenced Thursday to five years of supervised probation and 40 hours of community work service.
WASIOJA TOWNSHIP, Minn.  Two vehicles collided Wednesday afternoon on Highway 14 in Dodge County.

The Minnesota State Patrol says a 53-year-old woman from Dodge Center was driving west and turned onto 160th Street when she collided with another westbound vehicle driven by a 23-year-old man from Claremont.

The identities and conditions of the drivers are not being released at this time but the State Patrol is calling this an injury accident.

The Dodge County Sheriffs Office, Dodge Center Fire Department, and Claremont Ambulance assisted at the scene.
(AP) -- A bear that gained a social media following while wandering hundreds of miles in the Midwest and eventually reached Louisiana has died after being hit by a vehicle, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said Wednesday.

The male bear dubbed Bruno was euthanized Tuesday because there was no way he could have survived, said Maria Davidson, large carnivore program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Not only were both back legs broken, but they were paralyzed because of spinal injuries, she said: He had been dragging himself, literally." Biologists estimated that Bruno had been injured about a month before a homeowner in Morehouse Parish, which is on the Arkansas state line in northeastern Louisiana, called the department Tuesday, saying a bear wouldn't leave the yard.

Biologists went there.

He was in bad shape. It was rough, Davidson said.

Hours after sightings in Brentwood, bear is tranquilized in tree, captured in Richmond Heights Hours after a bear was spotted several times in Brentwood on Sunday, he was tranquilized in a tree and captured Sunday evening, firefighters told News 4.

Sue Kline, a local lobbyist in Muscatine, Iowa, for the U.S. Humane Society, said she started a Facebook group called Keeping Bruno Safe after he showed up in Iowa. We ended up tracing him back to Wisconsin. ... He was in the middle part of Wisconsin before people even noticed him, she said.

That would make for an 800-mile (more than 1,200 kilometer) trek into Louisiana.

He had traveled in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, swimming the Mississippi River four times, before getting cornered between two interstates and drawing a crowd of hundreds in a St. Louis suburb last July. Since that was dangerous for both bear and audience, Missouri wildlife officials tranquilized the bear and had him relocated.

He got in a spot in a bunch of highways on the July Fourth weekend, recalled Jason Sumners of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

He was released not far from St. Louis, in the northeast corner of the Ozark Mountains, Sumners said.

Facebook fans tracked the bear south through Arkansas, as well.

He was an odd bear, said Kline. He seemed to prefer farm fields and groves to forests, and never went for the easy pickings of trash cans and dumpsters.

This bear never bothered anybody or anything, not one time, she said. He walked through towns, through convenience store parking lots, and never bothered anyone.

A couple of times, she said, members were able to get police to hold up traffic to let Bruno cross highways.

He was certainly not fearful of roadways, Sumners said.

Bruno's injuries made the cause of death all too clear.

Bruno the Bear tranquilized in St. Charles County, moved from area Bruno the Bear, bear who took social media by storm, has been tranquilized after moving into St. Charles County Sunday.

Wandering onto a road and being hit by traffic accounts for 80% of the 45 to 55 bear carcasses the Louisiana department deals with each year, Davidson said. Since Bruno was a celebrity, the department sent a news release about his death.

Im so upset that Bruno died this way, Kline said.

What is a mystery is Bruno's rambles. There's been speculation that he was looking for love. But Davidson said it's youngsters that head out into the great unknown in search of territory and a mate.

Missouri biologists estimated that the bear was 2 or 3 years old  definitely adult, but not old, Sumners said.

Moreover, he traveled year-round, not just in breeding season, so he wasnt looking for a mate, Davidson noted.

Its very, very, very rare for an adult bear like that to travel the distance he did. ... It's very strange behavior, she said.
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Bill Cosby accusers and their attorneys express outrage and betrayal over his release from prison
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High 89F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 70F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
The Indiana Board of Animal Health is advising hobby poultry flock owners to take measures that will protect their birds from an unknown disease that is circulating in Indiana.
Weather Alert

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO 9 PM MDT THIS EVENING FOR SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS FOR FIRE WEATHER ZONES 411, 413 AND 476... The National Weather Service in Pocatello has issued a Red Flag Warning for scattered thunderstorms, which is in effect from noon today to 9 PM MDT this evening. * AFFECTED AREA...Fire Weather Zone 411 Centennial Mountains and Snake River Range/Targhee NF, Fire Weather Zone 413 Caribou Range/Caribou NF and Fire Weather Zone 476 Lemhi and Lost River Range/Challis NF. * IMPACTS...Scattered thunderstorms may produce new fire starts. Gusty and erratic outflow winds may create hazardous fire weather conditions. * OUTFLOW WINDS...Gusts of 45 to 50 mph are possible near stronger storms. * THUNDERSTORMS... PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A red flag warning for thunderstorms means that coverage of 25 percent or more is expected without specific rainfall criteria. &&
AG Landry provides tips for children to be safe while online
"Fitz" redefined the office of lieutenant governor during his two terms in the 1970s and endured political heartbreak in failed bids for governor & mayor of N.O.
HELENA, Mont. - An executive order was issued Thursday, declaring a statewide drought emergency in Montana.

Governor Greg Gianforte issued Executive Order 11-2021, which directs the Departments of Agriculture, Livestock, and Natural Resources and Conservation to provide maximum assistance to the U.S. Department of Agriculture on drought-related activities to secure timely economic assistance from the federal government.

The order also suspends regulations for motor carriers and persons operating commercial vehicles while they provide direct drought-related support a release from the Office of the Governor says.

Data from the DNRCs Montana Drought Forecast Report for 2021 says the U.S. Drought Monitor indicates about 91 percent of Montana faces abnormally dry to extreme drought conditions as of June 22.

The July forecast projects below-normal precipitation throughout the state and a 40 to 50 percent chance of above-normal temperatures across much of Montana according to the report.
KALISPELL, Mont. - Conservative Dr. Al Olszewski announced he is running for Montana's second U.S. House of Representatives seat Thursday representing Montana's western district.

According to a release from Olszewski's campaign, he is a veteran, surgeon and former legislator from the Flathead Valley.

I am proud to have the highest lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union of any candidate in this race, Olszewski said in his release. My opponent, on the other hand, has a 69% conservative lifetime rating from the ACU in both the State Legislature and U.S. Congress, and a F-rating from Montanas only conservative tracker.

Olszewski said he will prioritize defending the Constitution, the unborn and public land access in Montana as a U.S. Representative. He said he opposes CSKT Water Compact.

The compact gave the personal and public water rights of Western Montana to a third party without remuneration or our day in court  to put it simply, it was theft, Olszewski said in his release. I will not let this issue rest until the people of Western Montana have their water rights returned.

Olszewski is expected to make his first public appearance at the Flathead Liberty Coalition meeting at the Red Lion Hotel Conference Center in Kalispell Thursday at 6 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.
MONTANA - Some Montana cities are going ahead with Fourth of July fireworks in 2021.

The following are fireworks events happening during the Fourth of July weekend:

Billings

MetraPark in Billings will show a 35 minute fireworks display July 4. The event begins at 7 p.m. with food trucks and live music and ends after dark.

Fireworks will set off in the upper parking lot of MetraPark--no parking nor spectating will be allowed in the upper lot.

Laurel

The City of Laurel will launch fireworks during their Fourth of July celebration at Thompson Park. Events and activities kick off at 7 a.m. and fireworks begin at dusk.

Lewistown

The City of Lewistown is launching Fourth of July fireworks at dusk following a parade, Montana Trail Duster's car show and a concert.

Great Falls

The Celebrate Great Falls Foundation will launch fireworks on Fourth of July at Turner Farm Park. Gates open at 6 p.m.

In Black Eagle, fireworks will launch after a screening of the Sandlot movie which begins at 8 p.m. at the Black Eagle Community Center.

Helena

The annual Prickly Pear Community Firework Celebration is happening in Helena on Fourth of July. Shellie's Country Cafe, located at 3122 U.S. Highway 12 E #2, is hosting the event

Troy

Troy's Old Fashioned 4th of July will launch fireworks at 11 p.m. at the Roosevelt Park on the Kootenai River.

Polson

The City of Polson will host an extended fireworks display this year with launch time happening at dusk.

Missoula

The annual Fourth Fest at Southgate Mall in Missoula is beginning at 6 p.m. in the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot. The event is free and fireworks begin at 10:30 p.m. with accompanied music streaming on Mountain 102.5 Radio.

Butte

The Butte America Foundation is organizing their annual Big Bang Firework Show July 3 at Chester Steele Park. Fireworks launch at 10:30 p.m.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - A 31-year-old Indiana man pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an incident that occurred on June 21 in Yellowstone National Park, according to Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray.

Kyle F. Campbell of Fairmont, Indiana, appeared for arraignment and sentencing before United States Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman in Mammoth, Wyoming, on June 23.

On June 21, Campbell was reportedly with a group of individuals who had been scheduled for a guided kayak trip at the Grant Marina in YNP. The guide refused to take the group as he thought they were too intoxicated.

Campbell and his group became upset and created a disturbance that led the kayak guide to call security officers and park law enforcement rangers.

During the encounter, Campbell made threatening comments and gestures toward the officers. He also exhibited signs of being intoxicated and refused to obey officers orders. Campbell continually struggled and kicked at the rangers, resisting arrest, and later injuring himself while banging his head in the patrol car.

Campbell pleaded guilty to several criminal charges, including disorderly conduct, threatening, resisting and intentionally interfering with a government employee, violating the lawful order of a government employee, being under the influence of alcohol and a controlled substance to a degree that may endanger oneself or others and contempt of court for refusing to comply with Magistrate Judge Carmens warrant to collect a blood sample.

Campbell was sentenced to 60 days imprisonment, a five-year term of unsupervised probation, and banned from YNP for five years. He was also ordered to pay $1,550 in fines and a $50 special assessment fee.

We understand that people are eager to get out this summer and enjoy our national parks; however, this type of behavior is unacceptable. Thanks to the quick actions taken by park rangers and the park vendors security officers, no one was seriously harmed, U.S. Attorney Murray said. Stay sober, because unruly and intoxicated behavior will only earn you a spot with the jailbirds rather than enjoying the beauty and adventure of Yellowstone.

This incident was handled by rangers of the National Park Service and security officers of Xanterra Parks and Resorts. Assistant United States Attorney Stephanie Hambrick prosecuted the case.
MONTANA - Over the past few months, gas prices have continued to rise. As of July 1, an additional increase may occur as the state's gas tax goes up by half a cent.

It's part of the Bridge and Road Safety and Accountability Act enacted in 2017. The revenue is used for road repairs and construction.

Gary Little has owned Gary's Service Station in Missoula since 1965. He said it's not likely those additional costs will show up at the pump right away, but nonetheless, you can still expect to pay more.

"Prices are going up everyday on the wholesale level," Little said. "And a lot of the retail places have not been raising the price as it's going along. So, I think we could see a pretty substantial raise in the next week or so, but after that, I don't think we will have a whole bunch."

He added there's no way of knowing for sure, since prices depend on the crude oil prices and those have been going up.

According to AAA, the average price of gas in Montana as of July 1 is $3.09 per gallon. This time last year, it was nearly a dollar less at $2.18 per gallon.

Little said a big factor is how many more people are traveling this summer.

So, how much can you expect to pay for gas for holiday travel this weekend?

According to GasBuddy.com, Costco has the cheapest prices throughout the state, but a membership is required to go there.

In Missoula, the other cheapest stations are Conoco, Mobile and Cenex at $3.09 per gallon.

If you're heading to Flathead, and making a stop in Kalispell, you can expect to pay $3.08 at Montana Adventure, Cenex, Exxon and Smith's.

Going to Yellowstone and making a stop in Bozeman, today you're looking at $2.93 at Cenex, Exxon and Holiday.

Continue East toward Billings, you'll get the cheapest gas at Conoco, Flying J, Exxon or Mobile also at $2.93.

For more information on where to find the cheapest gas near you, click here.
TURIN, JUN 28 - Coca-Cola is to distribute Caffe Vergnano abroad in an exclusive deal between the American drinks giant and the Turin coffee maker, sources said Monday. Under the terms of the deal, 30% of Caffe Vergnano will be sold to Coca-Cola but the coffee maker's governance will remain in the hands of the family which has led it for 135 years. (ANSA).
ROME, JUL 1 - A wheelchair-bound former inmate of a jail near Naples where police are accused of brutality in 'punishing' a COVID protest last year said Thursday that even the female warden had wielded a baton and that he had been the first to be pulled out of his cell during the alleged assault. "I can't think about it again, I'll go to the madhouse. I think they were high, they were all with batons, even the female warden," said the man, Vincenzo Cacace, who left the prison at Santa Maria Capua Vetere a few months after the alleged violence in Italy's first lockdown in April last year. "I was the first to be pulled out of my cell because I'm in a wheelchair," he went on. "They massacred us, they killed one lad. They abused one inmate with a truncheon. They destroyed me, mentally they killed me. They wanted to strip us of our dignity but we kept it. They are the criminals because they want to command in jail. We have to pay, that is only right but we mustn't pay with our lives. I want to report them because I want (them to pay) moral damages". Some 52 prison officers arrested on suspicion of mistreating prisoners after the riot sparked by a case of COVID-19 among inmates in the middle of the first virus lockdown last year have all been suspended, sources said Wednesday. Naples police sent in special penitentiary police forces after the April 6 riot at the jail at Santa Maria Capua Vetere near Caserta north of Naples. The special forces are suspected of brutality and may also face charges of torture in the methods used to 'punish' the rioters, judicial sources said. Warder unions SPP and USPP have called the arrests "disproportionate" and "incomprehensible" while nationalist League party leader Matteo Salvini has said he stands with the penitentiary police. However, he added Thursday that "if someone did wrong then he must pay". Centre-left Democratic Party (PD( leader Enrico Letta said reports of the violence had revealed "intolerable" conduct by the officers. Inmates rights group Antigone said full light must be shed on the violence. A preliminary investigations judge (GIP) said prisoners were made to strip and kneel and beaten with guards wearing their helmets so as not to be identified in what he called "a horrible massacre". Some 15 men were also put into solitary without any justification, the GIP said. Police reportedly found chats on the suspects' phones including, before the alleged violence, "We'll kill them like veal calves" and "tame the beasts", and afterwards "four hours of hell for them", "no one got away", and "(we used) the Poggioreale system", referring to a tough Naples prison. Some of the alleged rioters had their hair cut and beards shaved off. Among those probed are doctors who falsely certified that some warders had been hurt in the clashes. Justice Minister Marta Cartabia has said she had "faith" in Italy's penitentiary police but on Wednesday said a probe would be opened into the alleged brutality. She said that CCTV footage of the violence showed that the officers had betrayed the Italian Constitution. (ANSA).
ROME, JUL 1 - Italian police on Thursday arrested the provincial secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in Latina south of Rome on suspicion of graft. Claudio Moscardelli was arrested along with the head of the local ASL health agency, Claudio Ramone, on suspicion of rigging competitive exams. The probe involves alleged irregularities in a competition for 23 professional administrative collaborator posts called by the ASLs in Frosinone, Latina and Viterbo. Claudio Rainone and Mario Graziano Esposito, respectively chair and secretary of the examination commission, were placed under house arrest on May 21. All those probes are accused of making false statements and abuse of office. Police said Rainone gave out the topics that would be discussed in the exam days before it took place. Six alleged beneficiaries of the tip-offs have been identified and are accused of revealing official secrets and abuse of office. (ANSA).


Steve Bates has resided in Boring for 44 years and is an honorary life member of the Vietnam Veterans of America and is a life member of the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America. He serves as chair of the Committee on Memorials and Remembrance and president of the Vietnam War Memorial Fund.
"Through self admission of Mr. Hogan, it was decided that Mr. Birkholz really is a 'straw agent,' and he has no participation in the business, he has not participated in the ownership or worked at the business itself," Weiss said.

Hogan said, during the hearing, that Birkholz is a property manager for where The Pier is located but is not an owner or employee of the business.

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Weiss said the liquor license renewal also was denied because it was determined that Hogan had been serving alcohol at the business without the proper licenses and certifications.

"Through self admission, Mr. Hogan has been operating as a bartender serving alcohol without obtaining the proper certification and server licenses as well, which was a concern," Weiss said.

Hogan indicated, during the hearing, that he is in the process of obtaining the proper licenses and certifications to serve alcohol at the establishment.

Weiss said the final reason for not granting the license was because the former town clerk had not determined if Birkholz had the proper training or credentials in the business's initial application for the liquor license.
New quarantine measures introduced by the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka with effect from 26 June 2021.

For further information in English
Washington, July 1: The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is the greatest threat to the United States' attempt to eradicate COVID-19, White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. During a broadcast interview, the head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he's "quite concerned" about the Delta variant in the US.

Dr Fauci told US media that the delta variant can spread "much more efficiently" and "cause more severe disease". "The Delta variant has the capability of spreading much more efficiently from person to person. It also can cause more severe disease. So there are two things about it that are troublesome," said the top US COVID-19 expert.

Fauci further said that the good news is that COVID-19 vaccines have shown to be very effective against the strain and urged those who have yet to be vaccinated to do so. He said, "The good news about this is that the vaccines that are used in this country do very well against the Delta variant." US Needs to Send Critical Medical Supplies to India, Says Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi.

He also stressed that "people who are unvaccinated are at significant risk of a virus that spreads so efficiently," and urged people to protect themselves.

"We are asking people, almost pleading with people, if you are not vaccinated, please get vaccinated," he said.

The Delta variant, first identified in India, has also been identified in at least 85 countries. It now accounts for one in five infections in the US. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 'variant of concern' - B.1.617.2 - accounts for more than one-fourth of the total active COVID-19 cases in the country and has reached nearly every state.

The US has administered at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to over 53 per cent of its population and aims to achieve herd immunity through vaccination as soon as possible.

On Wednesday White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the United States is on track to have 70 per cent vaccinated in the US "in a couple of weeks," Psaki's comments come as the White House acknowledged it's likely to fall short of its goal of administering at least one dose of vaccine to 70 per cent of American adults by July 4. More than 70 per cent of Americans 30 and older, however, have received at least one dose.

Psaki stressed that the Delta variant is "is not discriminating by age". Vaccines approved in the US are effective for the Delta variant but "if you're not vaccinated you're not safe or protected".

"We know that our vaccines that have been approved in the United States are effective in protecting Americans from the Delta variant. It's important for people to understand that. So if you have been vaccinated, the message we're conveying is: You're safe," Psaki told reporters.

The Pfizer-BioNTech shot showed to be 88 per cent effective against symptomatic disease and 96 percent effective against hospitalization.

Trends clearly underscore that the Delta Variant is surging almost 50 per cent of all COVID19. As a result, the question of mask-wearing has come back. Los Angeles County health officials recommend that even fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks indoors in public as a precaution due to the rise of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus. US House Passes Resolution Urging Biden Administration to Facilitate COVID-19 Assistance to India.

Angeles County now "strongly recommends" everyone, including those fully vaccinated, to wear masks indoors to curb the variant, especially when "you don't know everyone's vaccination status" the county said in its statement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released similar recommendations earlier this week, advising everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to continue wearing masks.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
After Russia failed to deliver the ordered doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine by Guatemala, the Central American country's Health Minister Amelia Flores stated on Tuesday that the Guatemalan government had asked Russia to return their money.

20 Extra Days

The government led by Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei paid around $80 million in early April for a supply of 8 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. The Guatemalan revealed that out of 8 million doses that have been ordered due to the still-rising coronavirus cases in the country but Guatemala so far only received 150,000 doses.

According to the U.S. News, Guatemalan Health Minister Amelia Flores said that they had given the Russian Direct Investment Fund 20 days to deliver the promised doses. The RDIF is responsible for marketing the Sputnik V vaccine abroad.

The spokesman for the RDIF mentioned that additional supplies of the vaccine would reach Guatemala soon.

Moreover, Gleb Bryanski, the director for special projects at RDIF mentioned in an emailed statement that another plane with Sputnik V is scheduled to arrive in Guatemala this week. Bryanski also added that the next set of vaccines will be coming early next week to keep fulfilling obligations regarding the contract.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized when asked regarding the shortages that their absolute priority is domestic consumption. Peskov added that the vaccination of Russians is at the top of their list and satisfying the vaccine demand of other countries was not possible. He added that all of the obligations would be fulfilled later.

Furthermore, several regions in Russia have also reported recently regarding vaccine shortages. Russians also demand the vaccination to be picked up after authorities rolled out mandatory vaccination programs to kick-start the flagging domestic campaign.

The unenthusiastic response of Russians in Sputnik V's demand at home had recently allowed Russia to export extra batches of its flagship Sputnik V vaccine abroad. Until recently when the uptick in domestic demand raised questions over the ability of the country to vaccinate its own population. Questions were also raised if the Russian government could also fulfill its existing pledge to supply around 70 countries.

ALSO READ: Delta Variant Seen Spreading Fast in California, Described as Highly Contagious COVID Strain

The Moscow Times mentioned in their report that earlier in June, Argentina and Mexico were facing shortages of second doses of Sputnik V.

Putin-Promoted Vaccine

On the other hand, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has promoted the Sputnik V vaccine around the world. Putin stated in March that the country had signed agreements for the production of hundreds of millions of doses across the world. However, Russia has produced only a portion of those mentioned contracts. Only a fraction of its 896 million promised Covid-19 vaccine doses to other countries were delivered.

As of May 12, Russia had produced just 33 million vaccines and exported fewer than 15 million Sputnik V vaccines. The numbers were based on a Reuters tally that counted each vaccine as consisting of two doses.

The Sputnik V's output is much lower compared to those manufactured each month by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

RELATED ARTICLE: Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccines Can Offer Protection Lasting for Years, New Study Shows

WATCH: A batch of Sputnik V vaccines arrives in Guatemala - Sputnik V
Trump Organization is under investigation by New York prosecutors. The main focus is to investigate the cash bonuses whether they failed to pay taxes on benefits for its employees.

Prosecutors on the Hunt

New York prosecutors are focusing their investigations against allegations said by sources regarding cash bonuses that were told to be unfulfilled. Cash payments are only a part of what the prosecutors are looking at, among other serious allegations. The executives of the company allegedly failed to pay the necessary taxes for benefits.

This includes cars, rent-free apartments, school tuition, and the like, as reported by the sources. It still is unclear who has received the bonuses since they were likely paid by wire transfer or check how much the total would be.

Spearheading the investigation is a joint operation of the New York attorney general's office and the Manhattan district attorney's office against the Trump Organization and its employees for alleged tax-related frauds. The charges would be coming as early as this week, as reported by CNN.

Read More: Shouting Match Between Mark Milley and Donald Trump, "Fake News," According to the Former President

Trump and His Defense

Trump's lawyers and the Trump Organization recently met with the prosecutors last Thursday, June 24, and on Monday, June 29, for a final stand to dissuade prosecutors from pursuing the charges against the company even further.

Among the persecuted is Allen Weisselberg, Trump Organization's Chief Financial Officer, for possible connections with the said benefits, for a rent-free apartment, company car, and school tuition for his grandchildren. Since then, investigators have focused their attention on Weisselberg to create some sense of cooperation from him.

However, his lawyers told the prosecutors that he will not be cooperating. Also, both the Trump Organization and Weisselberg have refused to comment and Trump's claim, implying that the investigation is politically motivated.

"...make our case about things that are standard practice throughout the US business community, and in no way a crime."

Trump Not Getting Convicted, His Lawyer Says

One of Trump's lawyers told CNN that it's unlikely for the former US President and his family to face criminal charges solely based on the meeting with the said prosecutors last week. The lawyer also said that the charges regarding the benefits are "unprecedented" and said that if ever they will be charged, it's a no-brainer "not guilty" answer. They will move to file to dismiss the case immediately.

NY prosecutors are also investigating matters such as the organization misleading insurers, lenders, and the like regarding the value of its properties and tax deductions. Not to mention giving hush money about an alleged affair with Trump, which he vehemently denies.

Jeremy Saland, criminal defense attorney, said that proving tax evasion is tricky since there are most likely very few records regarding it. However, it would help the case by demonstrating a "pattern of behavior" made to stay clear of the law, even more so if it involves a large sum of cash.

Read More: At Ohio Rally, Donald Trump Slams Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Over Border Crisis, Hints at 2024 Run
Anthony Fauci says that the growing rift between vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans will get much worse, leading to "Two Americas."

Fauci Has Cause for Concern

Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease doctor, said recently during an interview on Tuesday, June 29, that the growing divide will get worse, leading to potential spikes in COVID-19 cases.

Fauci says, "When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions, be that states, cities or counties, you're going to see these individual types of blips,"

He added, "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."

Several federal health officials noted that after the initial surge of Americans being vaccinated, the Southeast and rural Midwest rates have steadily declined. Fauci is greatly concerned regarding the risks that the areas with very low vaccination rates would pose a greater threat to the entire population and society.

As said by Fauci, the delta variant has an effective degree of spread against places that are unvaccinated will undoubtedly cause more COVID-19 cases coming to light.

Read More: Kamala Harris' Chief of Staff Shut Out Some Longtime Allies of the Vice President: Report

Just How Many Are Vaccinated in the U.S.?

The American adults who have been vaccinated are reported to be only 66%, and they only have been partially vaccinated against COVID-19. The rate at which President Joe Biden's goal is to be over 70% before Independence Day, July 4.

The delta variant of the COVID-19 has been said to be the cause of the decline in vaccination rates. The delta variant is believed originated from India that quickly spread across the world, and the number of cases has soared in the United States these past weeks.

More studies have shown that the vaccines currently being used in the U.S. are proven effective against the delta variant. However, unvaccinated Americans are still at high risk of getting infected by the deadly virus strain.

Fauci Has More to Add

Fauci also noted that getting the virus would be much more complicated once you get vaccinated, even more so "entirely preventable." and adds, "If you are not vaccinated, you are at a considerable risk."

U.S. President Biden said that he is confident about the federal government bringing as many Americans to be vaccinated and eventually fully reopen the American economy, possibly at the end of the year.

However, Fauci still believes that the only way to prevent the split amongst "two Americas" is that more Americans should be inoculated before things escalate for the worst in a potential COVID-19 spike.

Read More: White House Says Joe Biden Respects Olympian Gwen Berry's Right to Peacefully Protest After She Turned Her Back on the American Flag

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Written by Alec G.
The House had approved to establish a select committee for the January 6 Capitol riot probe. The measure was passed with a 222-190 vote.

Earlier, Senate Republicans had blocked a previous effort to set up a bipartisan independent commission. Meanwhile, the committee empaneled in the House will not be needing approval from the Senate, according to The Wall Street Journal report.

The select committee will be appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with five members of the House that she will choose after consultation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi will also be the one who will pick the chairman of the said committee.

The House speaker said before the vote that it was clear the Capitol riot was not simply an attack on the building itself, but also an attack on democracy.

Pelosi added that every member knows that what happened on January 6 was an attempt to subvert democracy. However, she noted that many are still refusing to admit the truth.

READ MORE: In a 2007 Interview, Biden Said He Was Arrested for Trespassing at the Capitol: Report

Opposition On The Capitol Riot Probe

Some of the Republicans who supported the independent commission voted against the select committee.

Those who opposed were Rep. John Katko of New York. Katko was the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee and helped broker the deal on a bipartisan commission with the committee's top Democrat, Chairman Bennie Thompson, according to an NPR report. Katko and other Republicans who earlier supported the commission voted against the select committee, saying it was partisan.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler said in a statement that Pelosi's proposal to create a partisan committee of politicians to investigate the Capitol riot will not be viewed as credible by at least half of Americans. Beutler said that it will not also honestly look at her own failures in securing the Capitol building on that day.

The Washington representative also noted that it will not do the job and he is committed to exploring the truth. He added that he will not serve on it if asked.

Meanwhile, Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney were the only two Republicans to vote in favor of the select committee with all Democrats. Kinzinger and Cheney were both known Trump critics, according to an ABC News Go report.

Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were both present to watch the vote at Pelosi's invitation.

Select Committee

The select committee would have eight members on the committee chosen by Pelosi, with the other five appointed after consultation with McCarthy.

Republican participation in the investigation and the appointments of the committee could determine whether it is a bipartisan effort, according to an Associated Press News report.

Earlier last month, two Senate committees issued a bipartisan report with security recommendations. However, it did not examine the origins of the insurrection, which leaves many unanswered questions about the Capitol riot.

Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn implored McCarthy to take the House investigation seriously.

Fanone was said to be dragged down the Capitol steps by rioters, shocking him with a stun gun and beat him. He asked McCarthy not to put the "wrong people" on the panel.

Fanone said that McCarthy told him he would take the probe seriously.

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WATCH: Nancy Pelosi May Put Liz Cheney On Capitol Riot Select Committee - from MSNBC






The National Hurricane Center said one of the two potential tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean would become Tropical Storm Elsa within the next day or so.

However, it is unclear this time whether either will pose a direct threat to the United States, USA Today reported. The National Hurricane Center said that tropical storm watches have been up for several Caribbean islands.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Rob Miller noted that this disturbance is likely to develop as it moves into and travels through the Caribbean.

Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore said it is too early to say whether there will be any effect on the U.S. from the system. This includes South Florida, where Surfside rescuers are still digging through the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers condominium.

The National Hurricane Center said that Florida should monitor updates to the forecast for this system. However, the center added that it is too soon to determine what possible impacts could happen next week with the uncertainty in the long-range forecast.

READ NEXT: Miami-Dade County Condo Building Collapsed: Death Toll Rises to 3, 99 Still Missing

Tropical Storm Watches in the Caribbean

Tropical Storm watches were also released for Barbados, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. It means that the tropical storm level could come in the next 48 hours.

The forecasters said that interests elsewhere in the Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti should observe the progress of this system, Miami Herald reported.

The forecasters added that watching it would likely be required tonight, June 30, and on Thursday, July 1. The forecasters noted that this system could bring three to six inches of rain and eight inches in some regions on Friday, July 2. They noted that this could cause flooding and mudslides.

Jeff Huffman, the chief meteorologist of UF Weather, told the Floridians not to freak out if a cone is pointed toward the state.

Huffman noted that forecasters are far less sure of the long-term predictions than they are for short-term predictions. As of now, wind shear is of modest strength in parts of the Caribbean, which is usually early in hurricane season, according to a Weather report.

Florida Building Collapse

The death toll from the condominium that collapsed in Florida has risen to 18 after the bodies of two children were pulled out from the ruins, New York Post reported.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said it is also with great sorrow and pain that among the rising death toll were two children aged four and 10.

Cava noted that any loss of life, given the unexpected nature of the event, is a tragedy. She added that the loss of children is too great to bear.

The mayor further noted that there are still 145 people unaccounted for seven days after the condominium collapsed. Canva said officials are conducting an audit to confirm the identities of all those missing and those accounted for.

Crews are still looking through the ruins of the fallen tower, with workers from as far off as Israel and Mexico helping local rescuers.

READ MORE: National Weather Service Issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in North Ohio

WATCH: Potential Tropical Cyclone Five Could Become Tropical Storm Elsa - From 10 Tampa Bay






The state of Oregon recorded more than 60 deaths amid the historic heat wave in the western region of the United States.

Because of this, Oregon officials launched investigations concerning the deaths that happened throughout the state in the past days, USA Today reported.

Oregon State Police spokesperson, Captain Tim Fox, noted that the death toll as of Wednesday, June 30, was based on every county's medical examiner's office reports, Oregon Live reported.

READ NEXT: National Weather Service Warns Colorado Over Possible Flash Flood on Thursday and Friday

Oregon Officials Say Pacific Northwest Heat Wave May Be the Culprit

Fox said the 63 deaths were reported from six counties, namely Marion, Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas, Columbia, and Umatilla Counties, since Friday.

Fox noted that preliminary investigations by the State Medical Examiner's office suggest the deaths may be associated with the Pacific Northwest heat wave.

"Heat exhaustion happens when your body isn't able to regulate its own temperature, and it begins to rise," Dr. Caroline King-Widdall said in a statement released by the Kaiser Permanente Northwest.

Marion County reported nine deaths, while Washington County reported five. On the other hand, Clackamas County reported two deaths, while Columbia and Umatilla Counties reported one death each.

Multnomah County took the highest blow as the county reported at least 45 deaths from health issues related to the hot weather in the past few days.

The individuals who died in Multnomah County ranged from 44 to 97 years old. The victims include 17 women and 27 men.

The county emphasized that the people who died had underlying health conditions, and many of them were found alone without air conditioning or a fan.

"This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people," said Multnomah County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines.

The Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office noted that the reported death toll was deemed "active death investigations," and that the number of fatalities due to heat wave will likely change in the next few days. The state examiner's office further noted that "more information is being gathered in each case."

Oregon: Uptick in Hospitalization Due to Heat Wave

Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority reported an uptick in hospitalization due to health issues related to hot weather.

The Oregon Health Authority said at least 274 patients sought emergency care for ailments such as heat stroke and dehydration on Monday, June 28.

The National Weather Service noted that temperatures in Oregon hit 117 degrees on June 28. USA Today reported that heat causes more death in the U.S. than any other natural disaster combined.

Apart from the record-breaking temperatures in the west, such as Oregon, the outlet noted that scientists expected more frequent and intense heat waves in the coming days due to climate change and the historic drought.

READ MORE: National Hurricane Center Says New Potential Tropical Cyclone Could Be Storm Elsa

WATCH: 63 People Died in Oregon Heat Wave - From KGW News
Brazil will suspend the $324 million COVID-vaccine deal with Indian's Bharat Biotech after accusations of irregularities came to light, according to the health minister.

The COVID-vaccine deal was set to buy 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin shot. It has become a problem for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after whistleblowers went public with claims of irregularities, Aljazeera reported. One health ministry official noted that he alerted the president about his concerns.

In a news conference, Brazil Health Minister Marcelo Quieroga said that his team would look into the allegations during the deal's suspension.

The ministry noted that there were no irregularities in the contract based on the preliminary analysis of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU). However, the health ministry still chose to suspend the deal for compliance.

READ NEXT: Guatemala Struggles With COVID Vaccine Rollout, Corruption Issues

Bharat Biotech COVID-Vaccine Deal

Jair Bolsonaro had been accused of turning a blind eye to possible corruption in a deal to purchase coronavirus vaccines, according to an Associated Press News report.

The series of claims threatens his presidency, which includes a move to suggest filing a criminal charge against him.

Luis Ricardo Miranda, the Health Ministry's import division chief, said he faced pressure to approve the import of Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech's Covaxin vaccine.

Miranda noted that there were irregularities in the invoices, specifically the $45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company. Miranda, with his brother Luis Miranda, a lawmaker recently allied with Jair Bolsonaro, brought their issues to the president.

The Miranda brothers said that Bolsonaro promised to send the case to the federal police. They also mentioned that a Congress leader in the lower house was involved. The said Congress leader was a top Bolsonaro ally.

Meanwhile, the federal police never received any request to investigate, neither from Bolsonaro nor the Health Ministry, according to a Federal Police source familiar with the matter.

The secretary-general of the presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, said that Jair Bolsonaro did meet with the Mirandas. However, he claimed that the two presented fraudulent documents. He said Bolsonaro ordered to have the two brothers investigated.

On the other hand, Bharat Biotech has denied any claims of wrongdoing concerning the vaccine supply. They said that the company adheres to the highest standards of compliance.

However, the company's press representative did not comment on the reason behind the payment being routed through a Singapore-based company.

Brazil Health Ministry Official Fired

Jair Bolsonaro has fired a health ministry official who reportedly asked for a bribe in a vaccine deal. Bolsonaro's chief of staff announced that the ministry's logistics head, Roberto Ferreira Dias, has been relieved of his position, The Guardian reported.

Dias had suggested a bribe of one dollar a dose during dinner to discuss a different order of 400 million vaccines, mentioning a representative from a medical supply company.

The health ministry said that Dias leaving the position had been decided on Tuesday morning, June 29. The department, however, did not address the allegations regarding the claims of bribery. Dias has yet to comment on the matter.

READ MORE: Mexico Suggests U.S. Citizenship For Planting Trees

WATCH: Covid-19 News: Bharat Biotech Says 'No Wrongdoing' Amid Row Over Brazil Covaxin Deal - From NDTV






A Puerto Rican artist and Costa Rican accountant are among the 18 confirmed dead in the Florida building collapse as search and rescue efforts continue.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the death toll from the Florida building collapse rose to 18 on Wednesday, June 30, as rescue teams continue to search for missing people.

Among the 18 dead identified in the rubble of the Florida building collapse was a Puerto Rican graphic artist identified as 26 years old Luis Andres Bermudez, Al Jazeera reported.

Bermudez was reported to reside with his mother, Ana Ortiz, on the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida that collapsed on June 24. Bermudez's mother was also identified as one of the casualties in the tragedy.

RELATED ARTICLE: Florida Building Collapse: Grandson Says He Receives Mysterious Calls From Missing Grandparents' Landline

The Puerto Rican and Costa Rican Victims

Bermudez's teacher noted that the Puerto Rican artist was confined to a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy, but he never missed classes and was always smiling.

"Luis Andres is an example of courage and bravery for all of us," said Jose Ortiz Carlo, Bermudez's teacher in a photography class at Robinson School in Puerto Rico. Bermudez graduated from Robinson School in 2014.

Another Latin American victim in the Florida building collapse was a Costa Rican accountant identified as 50 years old, Michael Altman.

Altman was reported to move to the United States from Costa Rica with his parents when he was about 4 years old. Nicholas Altman, the son of the Costa Rican accountant, confirmed these details to Al Jazeera.

Michael Altman was reported to reside in the Champlain Towers South building for more than six years in a unit owned by his family since the 1980s.

Many Latin Americans Still Missing in Florida Building Collapse

Apart from the Puerto Rican artist and Costa Rican accountant, many other Latin Americans were also inside the building when it collapsed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay said that six Paraguayans were among those who were not yet located, NBC News reported. The sister of Paraguay's first lady Silvana Lopez Moreira and her family were among those still unaccounted for.

At least nine people from Argentina were still unaccounted for, according to the Argentinian Consulate in Miami. The nephew of the former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was also among those missing.

Reports further noted that other Latin American victims are from Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Cuba.

Florida Building Collapse: Death Toll Rises to 18 and 145 Remain Unaccounted For

Search crews pulled six more bodies in the rubble of the collapsed building on Wednesday, June 30. It was the highest one-day toll since the condo tower collapsed almost a week ago.

In a news conference on Wednesday evening, Levine Cava noted that two children were among the dead in the Florida building collapse.

The mayor noted that sisters Lucia Guara, 10, and Emma Guara, 4, were recovered Wednesday. Their mother, 42-year-old Anaely Rodriguez, also known as Ana Guara, and Andreas Giannitsopoulos, 21, were also recovered.

Despite the rescue efforts, officials said 145 individuals are still missing. Since the Florida building collapse happened, the rescuers worked to peel the layers of concrete on the site without disturbing the unstable pile of debris.

Earlier on Wednesday, crews searching for survivors built a ramp that would allow heavier equipment to help in accelerating the removal of debris.

READ MORE: Kamala Harris Had to Remind Joe Biden About Deadly Florida Condo Collapse as He Forgets to Address It

WATCH: New Audio Released From Condo Building Collapse in Surfside, Florida - From ABC News
Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in 2004, is asking for a new trial in his murder case, citing juror misconduct.

In their bid for a new trial, Peterson's lawyers said Friday that a woman who eagerly sought to be a juror in Peterson's murder trial committed misconduct by not disclosing she had been a crime victim.

Juror 7 reportedly voted to sentence Peterson to death. The defense attorneys said Juror 7 failed to disclose that her boyfriend beat her in 2001 while she was pregnant, according to an Oxygen report.

She also allegedly failed to disclose that while pregnant with another child, she obtained a restraining order against the boyfriend's ex-girlfriend as she feared that she would hurt her unborn child.

A judge is reviewing if Scott Peterson should get an entirely new trial due to juror misconduct by falsely answering questions during the selection process.

The juror was not identified in court papers. However, she was previously identified as Richelle Nice, who co-authored a book regarding the case with six other jurors.

RELATED ARTICLE: Scott Peterson Is 'Anxious' as Retrial Decision With Shot to Become a Free Man Inches Closer

Juror Misconduct on Scott Peterson's Murder Case

The Stanislaus County district attorney's office refused to comment on the new allegation of misconduct. They said that they would address the issue in court, ABC 7 News reported.

Prosecutors have brushed off accusations of misconduct in court filings. They included a declaration by Nice that indicated that she either misinterpreted or misunderstood the questions on other legal proceedings she had been involved in.

Considered jurors were asked if they had ever been involved in a lawsuit or took part in a trial as a witness or party. They were also asked if they had ever been a crime victim or witness. Nice answered "no" to those questions, and the defense lawyers said those answers were false.

According to court papers, Nice declared that she did not interpret the circumstances leading to the petition for a restraining order as a crime.

But the defense lawyers argued that by hiding facts and giving false answers, the juror undermined the jury selection process and carried out misconduct that harmed Scott Peterson's right to a fair trial.

The defense lawyers added that Scott Peterson was entitled to be tried by "a jury of 12 impartial jurors, not 11."

Scott Peterson's Murder Case

Scott Peterson was sentenced to death in the 2002 murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and the son she was carrying. However, the California Supreme court was ordered to re-examine his murder convictions last October due to irregularities in the juror's statements during the selection.

The Stanislaus County district attorney's office earlier said it has decided it would not be seeking the death penalty.

Peterson's attorney Pat Harris said the district attorney's office has the right if the habeas comes back to put the death penalty on the table. Harris noted that they had changed their mind once and so they could change their mind again.

However, he stressed that they did say on the record that the death penalty is off the table, another ABC 7 News report said. Harris expressed hope that a new trial will allow them to present new evidence that will reveal who killed Laci Peterson.

Laci Peterson was reported missing on Christmas Eve 2002 while she was eight months pregnant with their son.

Scott Peterson caught the attention of investigators because he seemed to be lacking concern over his wife's disappearance and became hesitant to cooperate with police in ways that might prove his innocence, such as taking a polygraph test, Rolling Stone reported.

Peterson was reported to have an affair with a massage therapist named Amber Frey, who contacted the police on Dec. 30, 2002 after realizing Peterson's connection to the missing woman in the news.

Scott Peterson was arrested in La Jolla, California on Apr. 18, 2003. It was the same day when the two decomposed bodies washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay were identified as Laci Peterson and their son, Conner.

READ MORE: Scott Peterson Murder Case: District Attorney Wants Him off Death Row

WATCH: Convicted Killer Scott Peterson Seeks New Trial - From ABC 10 News






A month after the tragic subway incident that killed 26 individuals, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim pledged to pay all the costs needed to reconstruct the subway overpass-stretch in Mexico City.

During the Mexican President's daily press briefing on Wednesday, June 30, Lopez Obrador noted that he had a meeting with the Mexican billionaire.

Lopez Obrador said that Carlos Slim assured him that he would "pay for everything" needed in rebuilding Mexico City's Subway Line 12 overpass, KVIA reported.

The Mexican president further noted that Carlos Slim vowed to get it done with all the necessary safety measures at no cost to the Mexican people without asking the government for a budget.

Lopez Obrador said the Mexican billionaire would not wait for the judicial system to finish their investigation before coordinating with Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to rebuild the subway overpass.

The Mexican president noted that Carlos Slim wanted to have the reconstruction soon so that the line would be open and operational once again "in a year."

The Mexican billionaire is the owner of one of the construction companies involved in building the troubled section of the Line 12 subway, The Washington Post reported.

READ NEXT: Mexico Raids Building Project Close to Teotihuacan Pyramids, Archeological Site's Outlying Parts Damaged

The Mexico City Subway Tragedy

On May 3, dozens of individuals lost their lives when an elevated portion of Line 12 known as the "Golden Line" collapsed in the city of Mexico.

The subway line was considered one of the most expensive public works projects in Mexican history when it was inaugurated in October 2012.

The highly-publicized ribbon-cutting of the subway line was attended by the most powerful names in Mexican politics at the time.

Then-president Felipe Calderon attended the ceremony, and now foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard, who was then in his last days as the mayor of Mexico City. Even Carlos Slim was also there.

Investigations Into Mexico City's Subway Overpass Collapse

Currently, an independent investigation by the Norwegian certification firm DNV is ongoing. The city government hired DNV to study the possible causes of the accident. The local attorney's office is also doing a separate investigation.

Both investigations focused on the causes of the deadly collapse and those involved in the construction project, including Carlos Slim himself.

Based on the investigation's preliminary findings, there's deficient welding of metal studs. The supposed metal studs were apparently not well connected to steel beams that supported a concrete slab and the elevated train rails.

This finding was among several issues that contributed to the accident, in which a span of the elevated line buckled to the ground, dragging down two subway cars to the streets below.

The report on preliminary findings also said that there are missing metal studs in some sections of the structure. Different kinds of concrete were also used for the slab, and there were unfinished or badly welded joints.

The Carlos Slim Foundation and Mexico City officials have yet to comment on Lopez Obrador's statement, CNN reported.

READ MORE: Centuries-Old Mexican Colonial Ruins Damaged by Truck, Followed by Heavy Rain

WATCH: Mexico City Metro Collapse Blamed On Poor Construction - From NBC News
After a young boy and his father went boating off the coast of Catalina Island, their spent father and son time turned into a nightmare when the boy was hospitalized due to a shark bite Wednesday morning.

The father and son attended summer camp at Camp Emerald Bay, which is a youth camp located on the northwest end of Catalina Island, owned and operated by the Boy Scouts of America. The ages of the two individuals were not immediately available.

Kayaking Gone Awry

According to NBC San Diego, the Los Angeles County Lifeguards posted on social media that the father and son were kayaking near Parson's Landing when their boat was bumped by what they believed was a shark. The size of the alleged creature and its type remained unknown to authorities.

The group of LA lifeguards mentioned in their statement that during the encounter, the young boy reached his hands into the water and was bitten by the animal which resulted in hospitalization. Parson's Landing is a remote beach, which is roughly one and a half miles by water and west of Camp Emerald Bay.

Lee Harrison, the Chief Executive Officer for the Boy Scouts of America's Western Los Angeles County Council, stated that a camp youth participant sustained a shark bite while canoeing close to Emerald Bay. Harrison clarified that the bite was not life-threatening. The Boy Scout council is the body that oversees the operations of the camp stated.

ALSO READ: 16 Injured in Explosion After LA Police Confiscates Thousands of Pounds of Illegal Fireworks

Shark Attack Victim Airlifted to Hospital

The shark bite victim was checked by the on-site doctor and the paramedic on the camp. Additional medical personnel arrived and decided to airlift the boy to a hospital for further treatment, ABC 7 reported.

Moreover, Harrison stated that the council provides chase boats whenever there are water activities that happen outside of Emerald Bay in order to assess possible weather and wildlife hazards. He also added that the boats follow the participants as they go back to the shore. He emphasized that they were not able to see any wildlife hazard the morning of the incident.

In accordance with directions by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, one mile from both directions of the water where the shark attack happened has been closed and will remain closed for at least 24 hours.

In addition, shark experts from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography were contacted by the lifeguards in order to identify the species and size of the shark that attacked the young boy.

According to The Sacramento Bee, Dr. Chris Lowe, Director of the California State University Long Beach Shark Lab, stated that while shark attacks are extremely rare in California, there have been several great white sharks that have been spotted in the Catalina waters.

He also added that the shark that attacked the boy could be a juvenile or a pregnant mother.

Harrison also stated that despite the fact that this is the first shark-related injury in the camp's 100-year history, there has also been another shark-related incident at the facility in a more recent time.

He stated that in 2019, two men also encountered a shark near Ship Rock, which was just east of Camp Emerald Bay. The men were kayaking when a shark started to chomp down on their boat.

RELATED ARTICLE: Shark Attack: Great White Shark Bites California Surfer on the Leg; Surfer Lives to Tell the Tale

WATCH: Boy bitten by shark off Catalina Island - Fox 11 Los Angeles
A week after the collapse of the Miami-area building, search and rescue teams paused their operations because of fears that the other half of the building may collapse.

Miami-Area Building Update

Daniella Levina Cava, Miami-Dade County Mayor, has said that the operations need to be stopped for "concerns about the standing structure." However, she said that the families of the missing were already informed about it. She went on and said that it would proceed as soon as it's safe.

Fire Chief Alan R. Cominsky said that there had been slight movements in the concrete floor slabs located in the northern and southern corners of the building, which could cause additional structural failure if moved even more. As a result, they had to stop the operation around 2:00 A.M. on the morning of July 1.

Another cause of concern is that Tropical Storm Elsa over the Atlantic might gain landfall and impede search and rescue efforts. The crews have been tackling bad weather since the operation began a little while after the building's collapse last Thursday, June 24.

Read More: Heat Wave in Oregon Leaves More Than 60 Dead, Including 45 in Multnomah County

Search and Rescue News

It has been a week since the rescue efforts discovered a survivor. There are still over 145 people unaccounted for in the building's wreckage.

On Wednesday, June 30, the last known report was when rescue workers discovered two bodies of children ages four and ten that brought the confirmed death toll of the incident to 18.

Levina Cava said in a press release, "Any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event, is a tragedy ... But the loss of our children is too great to bear.

The investigation is Still On-Going

A team sent out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology has been at the site for days and has confirmed that it meets the criteria for a more in-depth federal investigation to be involved. The agency went on record saying that there are already millions of high-rise condos in Florida alone, and that is ancient in design.

While the NIST investigation aims to identify the cause of the Champlain Towers South incident, it will possibly uncover other issues related to other buildings in nature that need a more thorough inspection. The investigation might give way to a much larger issue in building integrity all across the nation.

The investigation has no set timeline and would most likely take years to complete.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are set to visit Surfside on Thursday, July 1, to talk to the family members who survived and those still missing. Then plans to thank the search and rescue teams for their efforts. President Biden didn't come sooner as a White House representative said that he was concerned his visit would affect search and rescue efforts.

Read More: Shark Attack: Boy Scouts Youth Camper Bitten by Shark in Catalina While Kayaking

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by Alec G.
Fado Faces is an outdoor drive-by art exhibition celebrating the lives and stories of older people in Laois, through traditional portrait painting and digital art by a selection of local Laois artists.

The exhibition takes place on Sunday 18th July 11am-4pm at Laois Co. Council Plaza and includes Laois artists Kevin McCann (Ballyfin), Rebecca Deegan (Portlaoise), Pauline Conroy (Ballybrittas), Mike Rafter (Castletown), Aishling Hennessy (The Heath), Antoinette Breen (Castletown), Allen Scully (Portlaoise), Bronagh Conroy, (Ballybrittas), Kate Deegan (The Heath), and Sorcha Mathews (Portarlington).

Laois Arts Officer, Muireann Ni Chonaill spoke about the initiative this week.

I am delighted that ten artists in Laois have come together for this outdoor exhibition which celebrates the lives and stories of our older people. Fado Faces is a wonderful opportunity to find out more about our older generation and also the work of these artists - collaborating and reflecting on people in Laois through the art form of portraiture. This exhibition is open to members of the public, and I encourage all to come and view these artworks and am sure youll recognise some familiar faces in the portraits.

Working with portraiture, the artists have captured the image of their neighbours, family members and friends to celebrate the elderly in Laois and in particular in light of how older people in our communities have been cocooning at home over the last year.

The exhibition is free and open to the public and is suitable for drivers & pedestrians and was designed with social distancing & accessibility in mind. On arrival at Laois Co. Council Plaza, the viewer will receive a leaflet with information about the project, before being directed onto the exhibition track. Throughout the plaza, there will be ten display stands, each containing two portraits & stories hidden behind a red curtain, ready to be unveiled. The artist reveals their work for a short time, before closing the curtain once again and the viewer then moves on to the next stand.

The artists plan for Fado Faces to become an annual event with a showcase of twenty or more portraits and stories of older people in Laois. This will lead to a rich and diverse archive celebrating the lives and valuable stories of people within our communities.

Keep in touch for further information about the Fado Faces exhibition across @creativelaois social media channels. Fado Faces is supported by Creative Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council.
A Mountmellick man was found with cannabis after being stopped at a Garda checkpoint, Portlaoise court heard recently.

Jack Carroll, 21, of 22 Davin Park, Mountmellick was charged with possession of cannabis herb and possession for sale or supply on May 16, 2019.

He pleaded guilty to the charges.

Sgt JJ Kirby told the court that on the date in question a car was stopped at a checkpoint. There was a smell of cannabis from it. Mr Carroll put his hands down his trousers and took out five deal bags, valued at 300.

He was interviewed and was uncooperative. However, he was co-operative during the search.

Defence solicitor Philip Meagher said that there were different interpretations of cooperation.

Mr Meagher acknowledged that he could perhaps have been more fulsome.

He was a single man who lived with his parents.

He had worked in construction in the UK after doing his leaving cert. He had returned to Ireland where he had worked with Irish Rail and in a warehouse.

He was temporarily out of work. On the supply element he was giving some of his own stash to a number of acquaintances. It was not a particularly commercial enterprise, said Mr Meagher.

Judge Bernadette Owens said that she took into account the fact that he was in no way obstructive to the Gardai when the car was stopped.

She ordered a Restorative Justice report and said that if it was positive she would strike out the matter.
All good things must come to an end and unfortunately for that's the case with the latest spell of weather which Met Eireann is forecasting is about to be coming to an end with a week of wet 'fresher weather to come.

Ireland's meteorologists at forecasting HQ in Glasnevin expect expect the dry, warm and sunny spell to end on Friday with widespread heavy slow moving showers are in the forecast for Sunday.

The outlook is that after patchy rain on Friday night into Saturday it will become more humid and showery for the weekend and early days of next week.

There are going to be spells of wet and breezy weather next week with conditions not picking up until the second half of the week.

The forecaster has even borrowed a line from the ad before the RTE forecasts which has the unforgettable line 'heavy downpours expected'.

Met Eireann's farming section sums up what we can expect in Ireland when it comes to rain over the next week.

"Over the coming 7 days, more unsettled weather is expected with heavy or thundery downpours or longer spells of rain. As a result, rainfall totals will vary a lot with some places potentially averaging out 2 to 3 times wetter than normal, while local averages will vary most places will see at least near or above normal values for the time of year," says the forecaster. MORE DETAILS BELOW TWEET.

What's in store the rest of this week?



A lot of dry warm weather for the rest of the week, with hazy sunshine at times and just a few showers



Turning more unsettled from the southwest later Friday and over the weekend with some heavy downpours expected pic.twitter.com/tHxnPOIHui  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) June 30, 2021

NATIONAL FORECAST issued at 5.34 pm on July 1

FRIDAY

Mist and fog will clear most areas during Friday morning. Dry at first, with well scattered showers developing towards the afternoon, and more persistent rain moving into the southwest later in the afternoon. Warm spells of hazy sunshine too at times, in just light southerly breezes. Highest temperatures of 18 to 22 degrees generally, though slightly cooler under cloudier skies in the southwest.

Patchy outbreaks of rain will move up across much of the country overnight, however it Ulster will remain mostly dry. Remaining mild and muggy overnight with lowest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees, in mostly light to moderate southeast breeze.

SATURDAY: Overall cloudy with scattered outbreaks of rain mostly in Muster and Leinster during the morning. Sunny spells and slow moving thundery showers will spread from the southwest during the afternoon leading to spot flooding in places. Highest temperatures of 17 to 20 degrees, in a light to moderate easterly breezes veering southerly during the afternoon and evening.

Very mild and humid with some further showery rain at times. Mist, hill and coastal fog in parts too. Lowest temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees, in just light southerly breezes.

SUNDAY: Widespread heavy slow moving showers will develop once more, especially in north and east during the afternoon and evening with thundery downpours leading to spot flooding. Humid and rather warm with highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees Celsius, in a light to moderate southerly breeze.

Scattered showers will continue, mixed with some clear spells. Lowest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees, in light to moderate southerly breezes. Mist and hill fog in parts too.

MONDAY: Further heavy showers will develop on Monday mixed with sunny spells.

Remaining humid with highs of 17 to 20 degrees generally, holding a little cooler in the southwest as mostly moderate southwesterly winds become fresh at times along southwestern and western coasts.

Further Outlook: Low pressure will move up across Ireland on Monday night with spells of wet and breezy weather. Fresher, showery conditions will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday with temperatures gradually recovering as the week progresses.
Children at a Laois primary school in poor condition are holding on rather than use the toilet because of the bad smell.

Two classrooms at the school have also been closed off by the principal, over health and safety fears.

A local politician has again visited the school which has been pleading in vain for a better building for several years.

The plight of Scoil Mhuire National School in Abbeyleix has again been highlighted by Senator Pippa Hackett.

She visited for the children's plant sale on Wednesday June 30, and has again called on the Department of Education to take immediate action to repair the school building.

Pupils from third class told me they avoid using their bathroom because of the smell and they can't wait to move out of their classroom.

Principal Aiden McEvoy took me through the school to show me the terrible physical state of the building.

Conditions are truly dreadful and I now hear that the principal has taken the decision to close two mainstream classrooms on health and safety grounds.

The school is breaking for the summer shortly and its imperative that something be done to improve this school before pupils return in late August.

Senator Hackett said that she previously wrote to Education Minister Norma Foley about the situation but is now urgently reiterating her request that something be done.

Despite this difficult past year and with all the problems in the school, the wonderful students and teachers at Scoil Mhuire have shown great resilience.

To mark the end of term, the school were hosting a Summer Plants Sale where beautiful bedding and tomato plants, grown by the children during the year, were on offer.

Last March the Minister for Education Norma Foley committed to either do a full retrofit of Scoil Mhuire, or build a new school, speaking on a virtual visit to the school. An audit was promised on the condition of the building.

Read that report below.
TFI Local Link Laois Offaly are delighted to announce the new 858 service connecting Portlaoise to Thurles, which will operate Monday to Sunday further enhancing the existing TFI Local Link Tipperary 828 service Cashel to Portlaoise.

Launching on the 1st of July, the new 858 service along with its sister service 828 will provide greater connectivity and flexibility than ever before for the communities in Urlingford, Johnstown, Cullahill, Durrow and Abbeyleix.

The interconnectivity of the routes provides a stronger link to national bus and rail networks in Portlaoise, Thurles and Cashel and also represents a significant investment in rural transport specifically and public transport generally by the state.

TFI Local Link Laois Offaly Manager is Frances Byrne.

The timetable for the new 858 service is structured to meet other transport links such as Irish Rail and private operators along with some of our own TFI Local Link Laois Offaly services to provide greater access for the local communities in the rural areas.

"We are actively trying to reduce our carbon footprint by giving greater public transport links and looking at sustainable modes of transport for our future generations, she said. MORE BELOW LINK.

Cllr Conor Bergin is the Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council.

"TFI Local Link LaoisOffaly have undertaken great work over the last few years to provide greater public transport services to rural towns and villages across County Laois. I greatly welcome the addition of this new 858 service between Portlaoise and Thurles via Abbeyleix, Durrow and Cullahill.

"Improving rural transport services in County Laois is a key priority of mine as Cathaoirleach for this coming year and I look forward to working closely with Frances and all the staff in TFI Local Link Laois Offaly on this issue, he said.

TFI Local Link Tipperary Manager, Anthony Moroney said the service is a considerable investment by TFI Local Link Tipperary and TFI Local Link Laois Offaly in conjunction with the National Transport Authority and Department of Transport in the transport infrastructure of rural Tipperary, Kilkenny and Laois.

"It provides an enhanced and new transport links for rural villages and townlands along the two routes. It will allow residents to access the various employment, educational, cultural and social assets/opportunities of Cashel, Thurles and Portlaoise, he said. MORE BELOW LINK.

National Transport Authority, CEO, Anne Graham said she was delighted to see TFI Local Link working together to provide greater connectivity between our rural towns and villages.

"These new routes will offer greater access for people to go about their daily lives and to access essential services. I look forward to seeing more interconnectivity of services throughout the country in the not so distant future, she said.

TFI Local Link Laois Offaly and TFI Local Link Tipperary look forward to working with JJ Kavanagh & Sons Ltd as the contracted operator for the revamped 828 Cashel to Portlaoise and the new 858 Portlaoise to Thurles service using low floor accessible buses.

TFI Local Link is the National brand for Public Transport services in local and rural areas of Ireland. There are 15 TFI Local Link regional offices which are funded by the National Transport Authority, NTA.
The staff and pupils of Scoil Mhuire Junior School in Newbridge held a fun-filled Active Week from June 11 to 18 as part of the Department of Education and Skills and Healthy Ireland Initiative.

This initiative aims to promote fun and inclusive physical activity opportunities for all members of the school community.

Active Week was launched with a Virtual School Assembly, kick-starting a programme of physical activities running for the week, culminating with a fun say on Friday. The in-school organising committee hopes that the week will re-inforce the message that physical activity is not only good for you but it is also very enjoyable.

The week provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the physical activity opportunities available in the locality as well as offering opportunities to work collaboratively with students, teachers and parents, said the committee.

Activities include GAA skills, dance workshops with Brenda Malone, yoga, a fairydoor scavenger hunt, orienteering and coding, yarn bomb trails, skipping activites, as well as a series of in-class activities.

Magician, Pat Fallon was on hand to add to the magic.

Scoil Mhuire Junior said it is indebted to sporting organisations such as Moorefield GAA Club who volunteer their time and skills to help our pupils become more fit and active.

It is hoped that Active Week will continue to improve attitudes of both children and parents towards physical activity and lay the foundations for positive, lifelong physical activity habits.
Bord na Mona has published the proposed locations for its 50 turbines as part of the Ballydermot Wind Farm.

The project, if approved would be the biggest onshore wind farm in Ireland, producing up to 270MW of electricity, enough to power 150,000 homes for a year.

The project straddles bogland between Rathangan, Allenwood, Derrinturn, Edenderry and Clonbullogue. There are 911 homes within 2,000m of the 220m high turbines, including 45 houses within 1,000m. Bord na Mona intends to lodge the planning application directly to An Bord Pleanala in summer 2022. It is hoping to hold community clinics in the locality in July and August. For further information, log on to www.ballydermotwindfarm.ie

Meanwhile, Senator Fiona OLoughlin said she is concerned over the potential of a large-scale wind farm in the Rathangan area.

Last week in the Seanad I promoted the proposal for a national peatlands park in the bog of Allen area. Sadly, yesterday morning I raised something that could negatively impact on this proposal.

Having successfully fought against both the Maighne and Umeras windfarm proposals, we in Rathangan now find yet another proposal on a huge scale. Bord na Mona are proposing 50 wind turbines at a height of 220 metres each.

This at a time when we are developing the Blueway, Lullymore heritage park is developing and expanding, and the Umeras peatland park proposal is in its infancy. Together with the negative impact on the Equestrian industry, on local residents quality of life and on the landscape of the area I believe it will have a negative impact on the area.

I have no doubt that this proposal will be resisted very strongly by the local community, and I will be available to assist them in any way they need
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 448 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

As of 8am today, 44 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 14 are in ICU. 12 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; We are all concerned about the rapidly changing transmission arising from the Delta variant. However, we know that the basic public health measures will work in protecting people. And we know that all the vaccines offer significant protection against transmitting the disease and in how severe it is for those who pick it up.

We must not forget to keep up the basic measures; wash hands, wear a mask where appropriate, avoid crowds, meet outdoors, keep distance and take a vaccine when it is offered to you. These remain the vital protections for those who are awaiting their turn to be vaccinated.

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said We have seen an increase in incidence over the last ten days, raising the concern that we are in the early phase of an increase driven by the Delta variant. Incidence is growing at 2% per day, reproduction number is now above 1; estimated at 1.0 to 1.2. Delta is much more transmissible, and it is vital we continue the basic measures to prevent transmission while the vaccination programme rapidly gives us all protection from the virus.

Dr. Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said; The prevalence of Delta in the community is increasing, but its effect on hospitalisations and severe illness is still emerging. We do know it is the most transmissible strain of COVID-19 to date. Emerging evidence from the UK shows Delta roughly doubled the risk of hospitalisation. As proven throughout the pandemic, monitoring evidence and timely action protects us all.
Mother nature clearly approved of the submission as the persistent rain stopped minutes before an outdoor submission signing was about to start in Carrick-on-Shannon.

On Thursday evening last at 7pm the concerned residents from the communities that may be impacted by the dark green or purple proposed N4 route corridor that potentially will rip through the communities stretching from Drumsna to the Boyle Road on the north side of Carrick-on-Shannon turned out in force to sign the submission.

Residents from the Keenaghan, Lisduff, Castlecara, Dromore, Cloonsheerevagh, Cloonsheebane and Hartley areas of Carrick-on-Shannon attended a signing of a group submission last Thursday opposed to the green and purple routes for the proposed Carrick-on-Shannon bypass Picture: Willie Donnellan

The 30-page submission from the communities of Keenaghan, Lisduff, Castlecara, Dromore, Cloonsheerevagh, Cloonsheebane and Hartley is a detailed document constructed to mirror the project objectives format which will be utilised as part of the route selection report.

This is to ensure that all their considerations are taken into account in the site selection scoring matrix and ensure the residents can identify how the project team have addressed their considerations in the overall site selection report.

Large numbers of residents gradually streamed into the carpark to sign the submission including local Councillors Enda Stenson, Des Guckian and Finola Armstrong-McGuire.

The proposed routes will have a huge impact on nature, the environment and the physical and mental health of the residents in the peaceful setting, according to local residents.

Signing the petition opposed to the proposed northern routes

Among the concerns expressed are significant increases in air and noise pollution; visual impact upon the landscape; diminished quality of life for residents; increased health-related issues and negative impact on mental health and wellbeing; increased risk of crime as a result of less privacy; detrimental impact to the environment.

Part of the route is a Wildlife Heritage Area with sightings of the curlew and warble in recent months. There are eight curlews being monitored in the Hartley Bridge area by the Leitrim Curlew Project. There are regular sightings of red squirrels, barn owls and bats in the area.

The area is a busy walking route and Irish Waterways have published a ten year Masterplan for the Shannon which includes a Blueway and Greenway. There are numerous wells, archaeological sites and old school buildings on the route.

The dark green/purple communities submission can be viewed at www.carrickdromod.com
A security guard working on the door of a pub in Carrick-on-Shannon had a tooth chipped when he was punched in the mouth by a man who was ejected from the premises.

Martin Dormer, a 29-year-old self-employed construction worker from Kellymount, Paulstown, Co Kilkenny, pleaded not guilty at Carrick-on-Shannon District Court to assault causing harm to Martin Connolly, at Main St, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, on May 25, 2019, and guilty to the unlawful possession of 10 to 20 of cocaine at Carrick-on- Shannon Garda Station on the same date.

The injured party, Mr Connolly, told the court he was working as a security man at the front door of Dunnes nightclub when he got a call from colleagues to open the side gate as a man was being escorted out of the premises.

Mr Connolly said he removed a bottle from Mr Dormers hand as he exited the laneway onto the street. He said the mans whole demeanour changed and he swung a punch at him, making contact with his jaw and chipping his tooth. There was a scuffle and he said Mr Dormer put his finger in his ear and pulled, causing a laceration. Mr Connolly said he also hyper extended his leg.

He told the court he has been working in security for 15 years and was working in Dunnes for one year at the time of the assault and is PSA certified.

Defence solicitor, Martin Burke, put it to Mr Connolly that CCTV footage showed that once the incident was dealt with and the Gardai had left, Mr Connolly spent 19 minutes talking with his colleagues and did not show them a chipped tooth. He said when Sgt Byrne came over to him he also didnt show him his tooth.

Mr Connolly said it was not something he would moan about, it was something you learned to just deal with.

Mr Burke also put it to him that his GP report stated Mr Connolly was attacked by three men and received multiple blows to the head. Asked if this was what had happened, he replied no.

He said he didnt know if the doctor was busy or wasnt listening to him closely but he recalled telling him it was one assailant and it happened in about three seconds.

Mr Connolly denied that it was he who had assaulted Mr Dormer first by putting his hand to his face.

Mr Connolly said he had his hand out but said he did not strike him intentionally.

Mr Burke said that it took more than what was shown on the CCTV to chip a tooth and there was no dental evidence in court to support such a claim.

Inspector Tony Byrne (then Sgt Byrne) said he attended the scene at about 1am on the above date. He said there was a commotion just past Dunnes near the Town Clock. A man was being restrained on the ground by security staff. Insp Byrne said he was quite intoxicated and very argumentative and had been ejected moments earlier.

He arrested Mr Dormer and took him to the local Garda Station where he searched him and found a small bag of white powder and a rolled up 5 note.

At 1.50am Insp Byrne returned to the scene as he was aware someone may have been assaulted and spoke to Martin Connolly who said he had been assaulted by Martin Dormer.

On July 5, 2019, Insp Byrne met Martin Dormer by appointment in Kilkenny Garda Station and interviewed him. He identified himself on the CCTV footage shown to him but said he had no recollection of the incident.

Insp Byrne told the court that when he spoke to Mr Dormer as he was being restrained, he calmed down and was extremely cooperative and got into the patrol car voluntarily.

Asked about Mr Connollys tooth, Insp Byrne said he recalled Mr Connolly had a sore mouth but he had no distinct recollection of a chipped tooth.

Insp Byrne said he viewed the video footage and it showed Mr Connolly taking the bottle from Mr Dormer. The defendant was out on the street facing back into the archway.

Insp Byrne said it seemed Mr Dormer made an attempt to get back in. Mr Connolly put his hand out to stop him and they grappled. More security arrived and Mr Connolly had him in a headlock as they moved down the street towards the Town Clock.

Judge Kevin Kilrane asked the Inspector if the defendant struck Mr Connolly a blow and he replied it was hard to say as it was at very close quarters but he did appear to make contact.

Mr Burke sought a direction from the judge on the charge of assault causing harm as he said there were no photos submitted into evidence, no dental records and no dentist to give evidence. He said Mr Connollys evidence was not accurate.

Mr Burke said if there was any contact, it was initiated by Mr Connolly. He said Mr Connollys hand went straight out and made contact with Mr Dormer and anything that happened after that was caused by his actions.

Judge Kilrane said the evidence of the victim was that he put his hand out to restrain the defendant from re-entering the premises and in the other hand he had a bottle of beer he had removed from him.

He said there was a tussle and the victim suffered a chipped tooth, an injury to his ear and a groin injury. Judge Kilrane said those injuries were harm and he convicted him of the offence.

The court heard Mr Dormer has previous convictions from Kilkenny District Court in February 2017 for intoxication in public and threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour for which he was fined 300 each.

He also has convictions in Australia for two counts of drunk and disorderly behaviour in Brisbane in 2014, failure to leave a licensed premises in Brisbane in 2013 for which he received eight days in prison, and public nuisance and drunk and disorderly convictions in 2012.

Mr Burke asked the judge to take into consideration the grave doubt whether a tooth was chipped. He said but for the chipped tooth the matter would have been finalised months ago.

In relation to the cocaine, Mr Burke said Mr Dormer had been in Carrick-on-Shannon for a stag party. He said Mr Dormer was asked by a friend to hold onto it. He said Mr Dormer had no previous convictions for drugs or assault.

Judge Kilrane said the defendant travelled from Kilkenny to a stag party and usually stag parties that descend on Carrick-on-Shannon have far too much drink and illegal drugs.

He said he found it very hard to believe a friend asked Mr Dormer to hold onto the cocaine and he had no doubt the defendant was using cocaine on the night.

Judge Kilrane said Mr Dormer was removed from the premises. He added the defendant should have stayed outside having been ejected.

He stated the injuries werent particularly serious and agreed it was difficult to understand how a chipped tooth occurred, but it may have happened when they were on the ground.

Judge Kilrane said Mr Connolly, if anything, was underplaying the injuries. He described the report by the doctor as strange and incorrect in a number of respects.

He said Mr Dormer has a serious problem with alcohol and he had heard about his previous convictions in this State and his escapades in Australia which he described as appearing like something from the Wild Colonial Boy.

He said Mr Dormer would want to be careful or he would end up in prison here as well.

In relation to the charge of assault causing harm, he convicted and fined Mr Dormer 300, allowing four months to pay.

In relation to the drugs offence, he said his practice was to give a chance to someone with a small amount of drugs in their possession, with a plea of guilty, and no previous drugs convictions

A conviction for cocaine is a serious conviction, he remarked, and said if Mr Dormer ever intended returning to Australia, and he may not in view of his unfortunate history there, a conviction would surely prevent him from doing so.

He ordered Mr Dormer to pay 200 to Hope House addiction treatment centre in Foxford, Co Mayo and said he would apply the Probation Act, Section 1.1.

An application for destruction of the cocaine and the contaminated 5 note was made which the judge granted, stating, If we were to destroy every note that contained cocaine there would be a lot destroyed.
Monica Doherty (nee Woods) who was married to the late publican, Jackie (JC) Doherty, passed away peacefully on Friday, May 21, 2021 and her sad passing marked the end of an era in Co Leitrim

Monica and Jackie, until they retired in 2000, were proprietors of the renowned Dohertys Mountain Tavern, a traditional Irish pub, located outside Drumshanbo, in the townland of Liscarbin, Aghacashel, residing at the foot of Sliabh An Iarainn Mountain.

Enjoying a pint in Doherty's Mountain Tavern in March 1989 were, standing, Sean Mulvey and Tony Mahon, seated, from left, Brendan Lynch, Charlie McKiernan, Frank Beirne and James Mulvey. Picture: Willie Donnellan

Just a flavour of the early years in Dohertys Mountain Tavern:

Dohertys of the Mountain as it was originally called had a grocery shop selling flour, meal, hardware, bolts, nails, paints for carpenters and of course paraffin oil (now known as Kerosene). In those days, paraffin was the only known source of light in farmhouses, pubs and shops.

Also in those early days, the pub bottled their own stout and beer. This was done with the aid of a bottling syphon, filling six bottles at the same time, then they went through the corking machine. When one bottled their own Guinness & Smithwicks, one was open to the Guinness Inspectors visits - so a lot of work in those early days.

Before the bottling of the Guinness products  Dohertys blended their own whiskey  with a diamond shaped label on the bottle and the family crest in the middle with just Dohertys Irish Whiskey plus the proof.

Not only was Dohertys a pub but also a grocery shop where one could get Mrs Cullen's powders, cough bottles, mouse traps, home made cures and tins of 'Zam Buk' ointment

Over this period of time, came a variety of different characters of customers that could only be found in a local mountain pub.

An additional family member and one of these characters was Paddy Rooney who lived and worked with the family until his death.

Doherty's Mountain Tavern Darts team pictured in November 1987, winners of the Ballinamore and Mohill Festival Darts League. Back row, Maurice Mahon (deputising for Robert Mulvey), Sean Mulvey, Michael Moran and Gerry Moran. Front row, Jackie Doherty, trainer and team manager, Tom Joe Mulvey, team captain. Picture: Willie Donnellan

As the years moved on, the grocery element diminished but the pub thrived on where music, fun, craic and laughter continued.

Both locals and visitors ensured a visit to the pub was incorporated whether it was for the Wednesday Traditional Irish Music

Night where Monicas siblings (Maureen Doran & Mick Woods) along with a host of other musicians played or for the Sunday night music.

They may just have called for the great pint of Guinness with the shamrock on top, along with the special cead mile failte salute given by Jackie and the welcoming smile of Monica and their three daughters, Jacqueline, Martina and Eimer. For many, this wasnt just a pub for a beverage, it was a second home/ a community centre.

A local man, but living in Dublin, Brendan Harvey, captured in his condolence message on RIP the meaning of the pub and family who owned it.

Listowel had John Bs, Slieve An Iarainn had JCs. The unique personalities of Jack and Monica Doherty made it possible for generations of people from near and far to enjoy the special atmosphere of the country pub which is sadly becoming a fading feature of modern times.

Whether it was a child at the grocery counter early in the morning, or the last person standing at the bar at night, it was service with a smile and with style in every sense of the word for Monica.

The mountain was enriched by the Tavern and the many characters who frequented it. I hope Monica and Jackie together with their departed family members, friends and patrons enjoy everlasting rest and peace in heaven.

The passing of Jackie on March 19, 2010 and Monica just recently on May 21, 2021 has reminded a lot of people of the magical and wonderful memories of great nights gone by full of laughter, craic and the most fabulous music sessions in Dohertys Mountain Tavern.

The late Monica Doherty



One unchanged hero that is still chiming out the time in a daughter's home is the Grandfather Clock that hung in the bar which had the caption underneath that read:

I am here since 1861, spelling out the time, I have looked at many faces and many have looked at mine...

Farewell Jackie & Monica. Thanks for the memories  Ar dheis De go raibh a n-anamacha.
THE ARCHBISHOP of Cashel & Emly and the Bishop of Limerick have both asked parishes to further defer Holy Communions and Confirmations due to start from July 5.

Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy has written to parishes to advise that, further to a communication from the Taoiseachs department this Wednesday afternoon, First Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies are to be deferred until further notice and no ceremonies should be rescheduled until public health advice allows.

In a letter addressing parents and children, teachers and priests, Bishop Leahy said it is with great regret that, following both the email from the Taoiseachs department today and last weeks recommendation from the HSE, it is necessary to defer First Holy Communion and Confirmation ceremonies until further notice.

"Due to the uncertainty at the moment regarding the impact of the Delta variant, we have been strongly advised that no ceremonies should be rescheduled until public health advice allows, Bishop Leahy wrote in the letter.

"I deeply regret that we are in this position again of having to defer these special celebrations that you all had committed to and were so looking forward to. Your preparations still stand.

"However, I appreciate this is a huge disappointment to all concerned and I would dearly wish if circumstances were different. It is not something we anticipated a number of weeks back when we were requested to defer until after the anticipated post July 5 lifting of restrictions.

"But given that the Taoiseachs request, based on public health advice, has come so quickly following last weeks recommendation from the HSE in the Mid-West, it is clear that there is really no choice but to take this on board."

Bishop Leahy acknowledged the huge inconvenience and disappointment this will be to families.

"I also regret the timing and that families have only a matter of days to react ahead of the first scheduled ceremonies next week. While this is very difficult for people to take, we should not ignore warnings given about the substantial threat from the Delta variant and subsequent advice from the Taoiseachs department relating to this.

"If anything, this latest Covid-19 set-back is reminding us all again of our vulnerability. Covid has, indeed, reminded us of many things but, above all, our need to do whatever we can to protect the vulnerable in society. So, it is with a heavy heart that I ask you to accede to the Governments strong advice to defer," he concluded.

Archbishop of Cashel & Emly Kieran O'Reilly also wrote to priests, parents and principals. Much of east and south east Limerick is Cashel & Emly.

"I write this letter in the light of the most recent statement from the government and the public health authorities today, Wednesday, June 30," wrote Archbishop O'Reilly.

He quoted from the government website: "From July 5, it is advised that religious ceremonies such as Baptisms, First Holy Communions, and Confirmations should not take place at this time. Further advice will follow on resumption of these ceremonies when it is safe to do so."

Archbishop O'Reilly said he had hoped that at the beginning of the month of July, Confirmation and First Holy Communion ceremonies could take place.

"However, in the light of the above statement from the government I now ask that all ceremonies be deferred until it is safe to hold them.

"I am disappointed to have to convey this decision to you as I know it impacts on many throughout the archdiocese especially the young members of our church communities preparing for the sacraments, their parents, families and the school personnel.

"In the interest of the well-being of our communities and society I ask you to abide by the advice we have received," concluded Archbishop O'Reilly.

A furious school principal told the Leader this Wednesday that "this is the fourth time we have had to change Holy Communion and Confirmation dates."

"Parents are fuming - it's on and off, on and off," they said.

The Limerick principal said the summer time is the best time to have them because the children are off school.

"If we have them in September it will be on Saturdays and if they have parties at home and there is Covid then it will be brought to school on the Monday morning.

"And what guarantees that we will have a better Covid situation in September?" asked the principal.

They lashed out at the fact 2,500 can attend the Limerick and Cork match but "there was no consideration given to having First Communions and Confirmations outdoors like we did with graduation ceremonies".

"There has been no consultation whatsoever. Some parents have already bought outfits and by the time these sacraments are held they could be grown out of their clothes - money gone down the drain in these hard pressed times," said the principal.
CLOTHING giant Gap is to close its store at Limericks Crescent Shopping Centre by the end of September.

It comes with the American firm announcing it will close all its stores across Ireland and Britain, meaning its outlets in Cork and Dublin will also be shuttered.

Locally, it's understood around 26 staff are impacted.

From next month, the firm said it intends to take business online in a phased manner.

It added it would provide support and transition assistance to colleagues following the closures, though did not specify how many employees had been affected.

Gap only opened its Limerick outlet store in 2017.

In a statement, the firm blamed the move on market dynamics.

Were becoming a digital first business and were looking for a partner to help drive our online business, a company spokesperson said, Due to market dynamics in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, we shared with our team today that we are proposing to close all company-operated Gap Specialty and Gap Outlet stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in a phased manner from the end of August through the end of September 2021.

A number of fashion stores have closed at the Crescent Shopping Centre in the last 12 months with Covid-19 severely impacting trade.
After much delay, a private hospital in Delhi informed that it has started the administration of the Sputnik V vaccine for the public in a staged manner from June 30th.

"As of today, around 1000 persons have been administered the said vaccine," stated Indraprastha Apollo.

"The spot registration and walk-in facility for Sputnik V are currently restricted and we are encouraging beneficiaries to register and make appointments through the CoWIN app," the hospital further stated.

Indraprastha Apollo had earlier said that it would tentatively start administering the two-dose vaccine by June 25.

Moreover, an official of Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital said the facility has also not received Sputnik V doses so far from Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country.

Sputnik V uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans. The two doses, given 21 days apart, are different and not interchangeable.

Fortis Healthcare, which had said that it would make Sputnik V available at its Gurgaon and Mohali hospitals, has also not started administering the Russian vaccine to people so far.

The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at 1,145 per dose. The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at RS 780 per dose, while that of Covaxin at 1,410 per dose.

Russia's Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has developed the vaccine and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is marketing it globally.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has been importing the shots from Russia. Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India.

According to Gamaleya and the RDIF, Sputnik V has demonstrated an efficacy rate of 92 per cent.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccination in Delhi has gained pace with over two lakh people being inoculated daily for three days in a row, senior AAP leader Atishi said on Wednesday.

Issuing the daily vaccination bulletin, the MLA from Kalkaji said a total of 2,03,035 doses were administered in Delhi on Tuesday, out of which approximately 1.5 lakh were given to those in the 18-44 age group.

Delhi has received four lakh Covishield doses on Tuesday, taking the available stock to 7,64,000 doses.

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In a state-run hospital near Bangladesh's border with India , Shahinul Islam prays his father does not become one of the facility's more than 300 patients who've died this month from coronavirus.

Hundreds like his father are struggling to breathe in the Covid-19 treatment unit, while Islam waits in an emergency room packed with people. Relatives rush in and out, desperately trying to find oxygen cylinders for their loved ones.

The crowds of Covid-19 patients and worried kin are new scenes for the 1,200-bed Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, which serves border communities being overrun by the more infectious delta variant first detected in neighbouring India.

Over 450 people with Covid-19 were admitted on Tuesday to the state-run hospital in Rajshahi district's main city.

Islam said his entire family has been shunned by people in his home village closer to the border. The other villagers are afraid of us. They don't talk to us. When they see us on the road, they take a different path," he said. We are suffering a lot," he added.

Rising infections and crowded hospitals are being seen across Bangladesh, where a stringent lockdown starts Thursday. The government will deploy military soldiers, paramilitary border officers and riot police to enforce the lockdown, set initially for one week.

Authorities warn that the rapid surge in border areas is accelerating the virus' spread further into Bangladesh, and the increasing number of infections from the delta variant could devastate the South Asian nation of more than 160 million people.

If people do not maintain health safety rules and if they do not stay at home, this wave of the pandemic in Bangladesh could be catastrophic. It spreads fast and it kills more people," said SM Alamgir, a chief scientific officer of the government's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research in the capital, Dhaka.

Many border districts in northern and southwestern Bangladesh were spared from Covid-19 until now, so people lack antibodies against the virus. That combined with the large numbers of unvaccinated people makes the population much more vulnerable.

Just over 4 million people are fully immunized. Another 1.5 million have received one dose, but the shortage of Oxford-AstraZeneca imports, halted by India, have left them uncertain when they'll get their second dose.

The Rajshahi hospital is also short of the type of oxygen supply system necessary for critical patients at a time when it's seeing more and more patients with worryingly low oxygen levels. High flow nasal cannula delivers steady continuous oxygen to such patients, but government hospitals in border districts have been forced to rely on portable oxygen cylinders instead.

They can't be managed properly with just oxygen cylinders. If we can't provide them with central oxygen line, God forbid, the casualties may increase," said Brig. Gen. Shamim Yazdani, director of the hospital.

Bangladesh's earlier virus outbreak caused infections and deaths to explode in crowded cities like the national capital Dhaka, but since late May, smaller towns and villages in the northern and southwestern border regions have become the major concern, said the scientist, Alamgir.

After the pandemic hit a devastating peak in April in India, Bangladesh shut the border. Still, many travelled to and from India illegally, bringing with them new infections. The situation in India has now eased, but in Bangladesh, it has only escalated.

The South Asian nation has confirmed over 900,000 cases in total, including more than 14,000 deaths since March last year while experts say the actual figures could be more. On Monday, daily infections touched a record 8,364  almost double from last week, according to the health ministry. Sunday saw its highest reported deaths of the pandemic, 119, while another 112 people died Tuesday.

Experts are bracing for the situation to further worsen in the coming weeks. The country's vaccine supply got a slight boost with the recent arrival of another 1 million doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine, but it's still waiting on 20 million AstraZeneca doses already ordered from the Serum Institute of India. Without that order, mass vaccinations cannot begin.

The surging cases and vaccine uncertainties pushed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to double down. Restrictions began in phases Monday before all economic activity is halted in a stringent nationwide lockdown starting Thursday.

In anticipation, thousands of people attempted to flee Dhaka since last weekend, crowding bus and ferry terminals while flouting public health measures like maintaining distance.

A complete lockdown may be the only answer to slow the variant, which poses the biggest risk yet. The government is also trying to procure more vaccines, said scientist Alamgir.

If we can enforce the strict shutdown as planned, we will be able to avoid a disaster," he added.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Singapore says it wants to back away from strict rules to combat Covid-19 and the curbs on commercial and social life that come with them. The reality on the ground shows a lack of conviction.

Singapore returned to a lockdown-like state in mid-May as the number of unlinked infections started rising  a troubling development for a population that largely hadnt been vaccinated. While the measure was a blow for the city-state, where cases had hovered near zero for months, the situation has improved fairly quickly. Step by step, those restrictions are now being lifted and shots are progressing. Schools will resume in-person after the summer break, while larger social gatherings and dining in are permitted again.

Drill deeper into this encouraging overall picture, though, and details suggest a country ambivalent about where, and how far, to go from here. Singapore looks and feels like a place that wants the outward signs of being open for business, but appears unwilling to take many risks to get there. Showcase events have been shelved. An air-travel bubble with Hong Kong  critical for a government-backed airline with zero domestic routes  has gone nowhere. Offices that were only just beginning to repopulate were told to empty. Even buying milkshakes for my two small kids at the mall dissolved into paperwork and bureaucracy. School holidays last week gave me a decent vantage point to observe Singapores latest attempt at reopening. Hush-Hush Hannah, a cartoon character plastered to subway windows, was there to watch over me as I traveled. Her job is to remind passengers to keep the volume down. While Hannah began riding the Mass Rapid Transit network before the pandemic, her skills are as relevant today as ever. Hannahs speech bubbles reinforce the signboards at station entrances instructing commuters to avoid talking to prevent the spread of droplets. At busy junctions, such as Serangoon in the center of the country, an attendant marches into the carriage waving a placard urging silence.

Dining also has evidence of stop-start progress. At Tanjong Beach Club on the islet of Sentosa, servers were briskly delivering ice-cold buckets of beer and platters of fries. But something was missing: tunes. Recorded music is now forbidden, lest people talk too loudly over the noise and transmit germs. (As I munched my burger, I wondered if the beat ban would become as iconic as a chewing-gum prohibition imposed decades ago. I still encounter people who know little more about Singapore than the gum rule.)

These experiences illustrate the split-screen life in Singapore. Politicians now talk about Covid as endemic, something that vaccinated people can tolerate without falling very ill. Officials have begun likening the disease to the flu and have held out the prospect of removing masks outdoors and a revival of the travel industry. Yet after more than a year of on-again, off-again crackdowns, it's hard to see Singapore dispensing with the extreme risk aversion that's defined its response to the pandemic.The approach has delivered results some would envy. Deaths have been few and far between, hospitals are coping, DIY test kits are available at pharmacies and leaders hope to have two-thirds of the countrys 5.7 million people fully inoculated by early August.

Across the bridge in Malaysia, hospitals are overflowing, daily infections are in the thousands and the economy remains in the grip of recession. In Indonesia, a short ferry ride away, less than 10% of the far greater population is vaccinated. A spike in illness has made the sprawling archipelago the latest Covid hotpot in the region.Still, the lack of specifics about how substantially life will change after Singapores vaccination push is surprising, particularly given its instinct for over-planning. Officials have floated the idea that inoculated people will have more scope to move, attend events and travel. How much more? To where will they be allowed to go, for business or pleasure, and under what kind of closely managed itinerary and quarantine? What will happen to the offices in gleaming towers sporting logos of world financial giants? This week, United Airlines Holdings Inc. placed the biggest jetliner order in company history, a major vote of confidence in a post-Covid world. The message at Singapore Airlines Ltd. is decidedly more circumspect.There is a risk that Singapore imprisons itself in this relative success. For now, the price of hesitation isnt prohibitive. The economy is expected to grow as much as 6% this year, according to the government, lifted by a powerful revival in the U.S. and China. All the country needs to do is step out of the way. When the pace of recovery slows next year, the moves will have to be a lot bolder.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously he was executive editor of Bloomberg News for global economics, and has led teams in Asia, Europe and North America.





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A polar bear perches on a thick chunk of sea ice north of Greenland in March 2016. These thicker, older pieces of sea ice dont fully protect the larger region from losing its summer ice cover.

The "Last Ice Area," an Arctic region known for its thick ice cover, may be more vulnerable to climate change than scientists suspected, a new study has found.

This frozen zone, which lies to the north of Greenland , earned its dramatic name because even though its ice grows and shrinks seasonally, much of the sea ice here was thought to be thick enough to persist through summer's warmth.

But during the summer of 2020, the Wandel Sea in the eastern part of the Last Ice Area lost 50% of its overlying ice, bringing coverage there to its lowest since record-keeping began. In the new study, researchers found that weather conditions were driving the decline, but climate change made that possible by gradually thinning the area's long-standing ice year after year. This hints that global warming may threaten the region more than prior climate models suggested.

Related: Images of melt: Earth's vanishing ice

As climate change melts other regions of the Arctic, that could spell trouble for the animals that depend on sea ice for breeding, hunting and foraging, as the Last Ice Area "has been considered to be a refuge for ice-dependent species in a future ice-free summer Arctic," said study co-author Kristin Laidre, a principal researcher at the Polar Science Center and an assistant professor in the University of Washington's (UW) School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

"If, as the paper shows, the area is changing faster than expected, it may not be the refuge we have been depending on," Laidre told Live Science in an email.

The Last Ice Area spans more than 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers), reaching from Greenland's northern coast to the western part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. There, sea ice is typically at least 5 years old, measuring about 13 feet (4 meters) thick.

The study looked at the Wandel Sea north of Greenland, which is inside whats known as the last ice area of the Arctic Ocean. (Image credit: Schweiger et al./Communications Earth & Environment)

In recent decades, ocean currents have bolstered ice cover in the Last Ice Area with chunks of floating sea ice. But researchers discovered that in 2020, northward winds transported ice away from Greenland and created stretches of open water that were warmed by the sun. The heated water then circulated under sea ice to drive even more melting, said lead study author Axel Schweiger, chair of UW's Polar Science Center.

Polar scientists first suspected something might be amiss in the Last Ice Area in 2018, when a stretch of ice-ringed open water, known as a polynya, appeared in February, Schweiger told Live Science in an email. Then in 2020, Schweiger and his colleagues noticed another sea ice anomaly in the Wandel Sea while gathering data for an Arctic research expedition called The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), which ran from September 2019 to October 2020.

As the scientists were developing a forecast for where the research vessel might drift, they noticed that the ship was taking "a strange-looking route" through areas that normally were covered in thick ice. "We started wondering what was happening and why, and whether it was potentially connected to what we saw in the 2018 event," Schweiger said.

This photo of sea ice on the Wandel Sea north of Greenland was taken Aug. 16, 2020, from the German icebreaker Polarstern, which passed through the area as part of the year-long MOSAiC Expedition. This area used to remain fully covered in ice throughout the year. Satellite images show that Aug. 14, 2020, was a record low sea ice concentration for this region, at 50%. (Image credit: Felix Linhardt/Kiel University)

On thin ice

Satellite observations and climate models revealed that in 2020, unusual northward-moving winds broke up sea ice and pushed it away from the Wandel Sea. In fact, 2020's record-low sea-ice cover would have been lower still if it hadn't been for the thick ice that drifted into the area during that year's winter months, Schweiger said.

These losses wouldn't have been possible if climate change hadn't already been chipping away at the Last Ice Area. Approximately 20% of the 2020 ice loss could be directly attributed to climate change, while 80% was linked to the wind and ocean-current anomalies, the researchers wrote.

The lowest extents of Arctic ice cover have all taken place within the past 15 years, and climate projections suggest that summer sea ice everywhere in the Arctic except the Last Ice Area could vanish completely as soon as 2040. Last year, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) found that Arctic sea-ice minimum hit its second-lowest point of all time (after 2012), Live Science reported in Oct. 2020. And though the new study investigated only the Wandel Sea, the data hints that summer sea ice in the entire Last Ice Area may be at risk as well, the scientists said.

Ice loss is already affecting the Arctic animals that rely on it for survival, such as polar bears, ringed seals and bearded seals, "and sometimes narwhals and bowhead whales," Laidre told Live Science.

While the new study doesn't say if or when the Last Ice Area could melt completely, the trend of accelerated melt is expected to continue, Schweiger said.

"Given our results, we expect to see large patches of open water in this area more often," he said. As to how that might affect marine wildlife, that too is difficult to predict, Laidre said.

The findings were published on July 1 in the journal Communications Earth and Environment .

Originally published on Live Science.
A mysterious blast in 1908, thought to have been caused by a meteor, flattened a Siberian taiga forest. This photo was taken in 1938, during an expedition by Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, investigating the event.

A new explanation for a massive blast over a remote Siberian forest in 1908 is even stranger than the mysterious incident itself.

Known as the Tunguska event, the blast flattened more than 80 million trees in seconds, over an area spanning nearly 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers)  but left no crater. A meteor that exploded before hitting the ground was thought by many to be the culprit. However, a comet or asteroid would likely have left behind rocky fragments after blowing up, and no "smoking gun" remnants of a cosmic visitor have ever been found.

Now, a team of researchers has proposed a solution to this long-standing puzzle: A large iron meteor hurtled toward Earth and came just close enough to generate a tremendous shock wave. But the meteor then curved away from our planet without breaking up, its mass and momentum carrying it onward in its journey through space.

Related: Crash! 10 biggest impact craters on Earth

On the morning of June 30, 1908, the sky above Siberia flared so bright and hot that a witness standing dozens of kilometers from the site thought that his shirt had caught fire, said Vladimir Pariev, co-author of the new Tunguska study and a researcher with the P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Following the bright light, which lasted for about 1 minute, was an explosion that smashed windows and knocked people off their feet in a town more than 35 miles (60 km) away, the BBC reported . "The sky was split in two, and high above the forest the whole northern part of the sky appeared covered with fire," another witness said in a testimonial. Energy released by the blast was later estimated by scientists to be 185 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, according to NASA .

Initial explanations for the blast included volcanic eruptions and mining accidents, according to NASA , but those claims were not supported by physical evidence. Other later suggestions were more far-fetched, such as a crashed UFO or a black hole collision with Earth  a study describing the black hole hypothesis was published in the journal Nature in 1973 (and was soundly debunked in another Nature study published just a few months later).

The most widely accepted scientific explanation is that a rocky asteroid or comet entered Earth's atmosphere and then disintegrated with a bang about 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 km) above the ground, Pariev told Live Science in an email. But such an explosion should have strewn the ground with rocky debris, which no one has ever found. By comparison, a meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013 broke into fragments that were discovered within a week, Pariev said.

What if, the researchers questioned, the Tunguska meteor were made of iron rather than rock? Could a massive iron meteor "graze" Earth's atmosphere, approaching close enough to generate a powerful shock wave, then yank free of the planet's gravitational pull and escape without fragmenting?

Related: Top 10 ways to destroy Earth

To test that hypothesis, the scientists calculated meteor paths using computer models. They looked at objects that were as small as 164 feet (50 meters) across and as large as 656 feet (200 m) in diameter. Objects were made of rock, ice or iron, and approached in a trajectory that brought them within 6 to 10 miles (10 to 15 km) of Earth's surface.

The scientists' calculations showed that space bodies made of rock and ice would completely disintegrate under the enormous pressures generated by their passage through the tropospheric altitudes. "Only asteroids made of iron larger than 100 m [328 feet] in diameter can survive and not get cracked and fragmented into many separate pieces," they said.

The researchers estimated that the Tunguska meteor likely measured between 328 and 656 feet (100 and 200 m) in diameter, and hurtled through Earth's atmosphere at roughly 45,000 mph (72,000 km/h). During its fiery passage, the meteor would lose some of its mass. But iron shed by a meteor traveling at such speeds would have escaped as gas and plasma , oxidized in the atmosphere and then dispersed on the ground, becoming nearly indistinguishable from terrestrial iron oxides, according to the study.

Prior studies have calculated the power of shock waves produced by meteors based on the object entering Earth's atmosphere at a very steep angle "and either hitting the ground or exploding in midair," Pariev said.

In the case of the Tunguska meteor, the iron-rich space object could have entered Earth's atmosphere at a very shallow angle  about 9 to 12 degrees tangential to the surface. It then would have grazed through the atmosphere, creating a shock wave at an altitude of around 6 to 10 miles (10 to 15 km) above the ground, capable of flattening trees for hundreds of kilometers and scorching the surface. But because of the meteor's mass and momentum , it didn't break up; it then exited the atmosphere and returned to space, the researchers reported.

Related: Space-y Tales: The 5 strangest meteorites

However, some lingering questions about this scenario remain, said Mark Boslough, a research professor at the University of New Mexico and physicist with Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Boslough, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email that if an object "skimmed through the atmosphere" and didn't blow up, the resulting shock wave would be significantly weaker than an explosion's blast wave.

"An object that survived such a transit through the atmosphere could not have descended close enough to the surface for a sonic boom to do the kind of damage that was observed at Tunguska," Boslough said.

What's more, the pattern of felled trees at the site is radial  emanating from a single point of tremendous energy release, he said. That's something you'd expect to see after an explosion rather than a sonic boom, "even if it had been strong enough to blow trees over." Boslough added that eyewitness accounts at the time of the incident "are consistent with an object that was descending toward the surface before it exploded."

While the study authors didn't numerically calculate the impact of a shock wave that a "grazing" iron meteor of this size could produce, their estimates still suggest that such a wave would be powerful enough to flatten trees and damage the ground as the Tunguska event did, Pariev said in the email.

"Detailed calculations of the shock waves from a grazing asteroid is the subject of our ongoing research," he added.

The findings were published online in the March issue of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
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Bill Cosbys release from prison on June 30 was a sorrowful, unexpected and deeply strange result for those whod felt justice had been served with his conviction for sexual assault three years ago. It was the latest twist in an emotionally wrenching case that has seen more than 60 women come forward to accuse him of sexual assault and misconduct dating back to the 1960s. The end of his incarceration should not overshadow the fact that, in many meaningful ways, Cosby will live in the wake of his alleged crimes for the rest of his life.

Thanks to a narrow and seemingly misguided instance of prosecutorial intervention, Cosby has eluded his punishment in one sense. But Cosbys accusers have ensured that, no matter what happens in the courtroom going forward, their voices are now more powerful than his in the public square.

Allegations against Cosby had been in the air for many years before they gained critical mass  some years before the 2017 avalanche of disclosures about the conduct of now convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein kicked off a widespread cultural reckoning. In 2014, a Netflix comedy special and an NBC family sitcom, both major potential showcases for Cosby, were put on indefinite hold in the midst of a steadily building drumbeat of meaningful coverage of Cosbys alleged misdeeds. Once one of the most successful entertainers in American history, Cosby has effectively been banished from working in mainstream circles. He has his defenders  as evidenced by a tweet from his Cosby Show onscreen wife Phylicia Rashad declaring that a terrible wrong is being righted  it feels impossible, from this standpoint, to imagine what mainstream media outlet would give him the opportunity to stage a full-scale comeback.

Which is not to say that Cosby will literally never work again. Peers of his, men whove fallen from positions at the top of society when the audience learned of or came to reevaluate their private behavior, have managed to literally get bookings. Kevin Spacey has reportedly taken a small part on an upcoming Italian film; Europe, too, has provided a landing spot for Woody Allen, whose last American-set film, A Rainy Day in New York, was disavowed by much of its cast and was never theatrically released stateside, and whose memoir was cancelled by its publisher Hachette after a staff revolt. For context, though, until Anthony Rapp came forward with sexual-misconduct allegations against Spacey in 2017, the actor was near the very peak of his career, having hosted the Tonys that year and racked up Emmy nominations for Netflixs House of Cards. Spacey will almost certainly never get back there, nor Allen back to a place where his movies are financed uncritically by major American corporations. Even as they may work, they must adjust to a circumstance in which their reputations follow them.

The same reality confronts Cosby, a man for whom justice can mean many different things. In the most literal sense, he is free from prison. In the practical sense, he is constrained at every turn, rejected by an industry he once dominated and by a public who was for too long willing to overlook the voices of his accusers. The fact that he was let out of prison thanks to a 16-year-old bargain invalidates those voices only in the courtroom; The sound of revulsion that many feel at the idea of a new Cosby project resonates loud and clear.

The women who faced down Cosby were presented with an uphill legal battle in the first place; the accuser whose case made it to trial, Andrea Constand, was within the statute of limitations, but most accusations were not. And Cosbys legal team has always maintained he was shielded from prosecution thanks to an agreement struck in 2005 that was at the time intended to make it easier for Constand to pursue a civil case against Cosby, and she struck a $3.4 million settlement with him in 2006.

The powerful case that Cosbys accusers collectively made to the public never came with a guarantee that it would lead to legal repercussions. But it had the power to convince the individual consumer of media. The court of public opinion has deprived Cosby of his freedom, not by ensuring hed be put behind bars for what his accusers might agree to be a proportional sentence but by foreclosing his ability to credibly deny them. He does, as hes entitled to do; we in the audience reserve our right, en masse, to take a side.

The #MeToo era has seen many public figures fall from lofty positions but relatively few actually face prosecution in the courtroom; a lesson of this time has been recalibrating our understanding of what justice can mean. An 83-year-old man living out the rest of his life in prison would have been one version of justice. Another is that same man, free to sell his story of woe to a public that has thought critically about it, and pre-emptively rejects it. Cosby, rigorously maintaining with a few public allies a story of his innocence, is unable or unwilling to begin a process of apologizing to those he is alleged to have hurt, including Constand. Who will take the time to hear him out now, on any stage even a tenth, even a hundredth as grand as those he occupied before the women who accused him were finally heard? The prison hes in is one made of denial and rage rather than bricks and bars, but it holds him, and any potential he might otherwise have had, nonetheless.

This cannot be the specific result anyone who believes those women might have hoped for. But given how many facts seemed stacked against the prosecution, its worth finding a way to see it as a win. To look at it otherwise  to perceive Cosby as having won on the merits rather than having been freed thanks to an odd quirk of history and prosecutorial misjudgment  is to grant Cosby a power he does not in fact possess, to give credence to a story in his defense that the publics heard enough of. For the foreseeable future, Cosby will be known, first, as a man accused of brutally traumatizing many, many women.

Whatever he has to say for himself comes second.

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In 2016 a fire nearly destroyed the only arthouse cinema on the East End of Long Island. Five years and $18 million dollars later, the iconic, century-old Sag Harbor Cinema is once again open for business.

A former whaling village, Sag Harbor, NY, located between Southampton and East Hampton, was at one point a thriving working-class community full of artists like John Steinbeck. In recent years, deep pocketed homeowners flooded the sleepy enclave, creating more traffic and fancier village haunts. But despite the influx of affluence, Sag Harbor has managed to uphold its small-town, subdued, artistic vibe.

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The villages Main Street is home to Sag Harbor Cinema. Built to host vaudeville and burlesque shows in the 1890s, the venue become a silent movie house that evolved to show talkies. In 1978 Gerald Mallow bought the single-screen theater, which he owned until selling for $8 million in 2017.

When Sag Harbor Cinema beloved for not only its obscure programming but also its 1930s red neon sign with the village name  burned down, it was a massive trauma for the community, explains artist and community activist April Gornik. It caused tremendous pain.

A volunteer for Sag Harbor Partnership, a local nonprofit community organization, Gornik and other inhabitants including Giulia DAgnolo Vallan launched a massive Sag Harbor Cinema rebuild effort that became a community effort.

The Town of Southampton bought a use easement on the property, helping make Sag Harbor Cinema a non-for-profit theater with Gornik serving as the board chair. Vallan  the U.S. programmer and a selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival  serves as the founding artistic director.

The Cinema garnered national attention when celebrities like Billy Joel, Julie Andrews and Martin Scorsese donated and voiced their support in purchasing, rebuilding, and restoring the movie house. But support also came via anonymous donations, grants, and community fundraising efforts like local bake sales, high school class donations and donation jars placed in shops throughout the small town. Over one million in community donations of less than $1,000 came from local villagers. Of the $18 million raised, $10 million was used to bring the movie theater and that 1930s red neon sign back to life.

We have not just built a normal movie theater back in place of the Sag Harbor Cinema, says Gornik. We have built an extraordinary facility.

That facility is a multiuse center for film and the arts which includes three separate theaters, Dolby Atmos sound systems, 4K, 35 and 16 millimeter projectors as well a roof top bar.

From the very beginning we knew we were going to create a space where what you watch and hear is the way the filmmakers want their films to be seen and heard, says Vallan.

During the theaters Memorial Day weekend grand opening, screenings included 35 millimeter collectors print of Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction, D.A. Pennebakers Dont Look Back, Disneys Alice in Wonderland and William Wellmans Nothing Sacred, which had been restored by the Museum of Modern Art.

But the new Sag Harbor Cinema is not just for cinephiles  its meant for anybody who likes to watch movies. Meaning Hollywood blockbuster like John Krasinskis A Quiet Place Part II and John Chus In The Heights will also be on the marquee.

We are well on our way to changing the nature of what has been kind of a weird little art house theater that appealed to people, even people who didnt come, to a cinema that actually has its arms open to the entire community, says Gornik.

Ticket prices range from $7.50 -$15. Various membership deals are also being offered.

Through retrospectives and an upcoming celebration of Latin American cinema, both Gornick and Agnolo Vallan hope to attract a wide-ranging group of visitors.

This is community is so full of artists and filmmakers, says Vallan. So (the Cinema) can become a bridge between these artists and the rest of the community by highlighting the work of artists from here and making them available to audiences.



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As American voters rights have increasingly come under attack from Republican politicians and interest groups, voter-registration non-profit HeadCount has announced Save the Vote!, an interactive campaign to encourage young Americans and cultural leaders to speak out for voting rights.

The campaign hits on the same day that a divided Supreme Court ruled to uphold restrictive voting laws in Arizona. That came just days after the For The People Act  a Federal bill to protect voting rights  was stalled by a filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, 389 restrictive bills in 48 states have been introduced by state lawmakers to limit voting rights. Save the Vote! keys in on those state-by-state battles.

Lil Dicky, Big Freedia, Dead and Company, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Ministry, Michael Franti, Kam Franklin of The Suffers, Shah, and Dozens of musicians and cultural leaders will participate, with many directly calling their own elected officials and capturing those moments on social media videos. are among the many HeadCount supporters who are using their platforms to Save the Vote!

The announcement comes on July 1, the 50th anniversary of the date that 18 to 20-year-olds were given the right to vote via the 26th Amendment.

View the campaign landing page at HeadCount.org/SaveTheVote

50 years ago, our country gave electoral power to the youth vote at a time when we knew their voices could no longer be silenced, said Andy Bernstein, HeadCounts executive director, and today, we are bringing young Americans and their favorite musicians into the national conversation about voting rights.

At HeadCount.org/SaveTheVote, users will find a listing of whats happening in all 50 states. To access that information, they first play a little guessing game, the announcement says, by predicting where their state ranks in how easy it is to vote. Then  after selecting their state on an interactive map  theyll learn about pending or recently passed voting legislation in their home state. Visitors can also learn about how voting rights impact specific nonpartisan issues such as Criminal Justice, Racism and Discrimination, Jobs and the Economy, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Save the Vote! marks an extension of HeadCounts work beyond voter registration and Get Out the Vote activities. Save the Vote! will also be integrated into HeadCounts hallmark field program, as volunteers speak with concert and festival-goers at events like Peach Fest, Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo, Bass Canyon, Louder than Life, Ohana Festival, Lost Lands Festival, and tours by Dead & Company and Dave Matthews Band.

Since 2004 HeadCount has registered over 1 million voters and worked with a long list of musicians and partners including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Beyonce, March for Our Lives, RuPauls DragCon, MTV, and Dead & Company.

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Meghan McCain's tenure on "The View" lasted longer than one might have expected. Despite years of infighting, viral clips of tense exchanges and subsequent tweets defending her stances, McCain co-hosted the daytime talk show for four seasons before announcing she would hang up her hat.

"I'm just going to rip the Band-Aid off," she said on Thursday's episode. "I'm here to tell all of you, my wonderful co-hosts and viewers at home, that this is going to be my last season here at 'The View.'"

McCain, who will remain on the show through the end of July, attributed her decision to leave the New York-based show to a desire to spend more time at home in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband, Fox News contributor Ben Domenech, and their young daughter, Liberty. She referred to her time on "The View" as one of the "greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges of my entire life."

The daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Meghan McCain joined the show in October 2017 after guest co-hosting several years prior. As its main conservative voice, she quickly became a polarizing figure. She expressed after her first season that she had been "really hesitant" to join the panel of hosts, and made note of that initial hesitation Thursday while announcing her imminent departure.

"I didn't want to join the show, as I talked about in the past," she said. "It was my dad who encouraged me to do it. He said I should never give up an opportunity to work on such an iconic show and work with Whoopi Goldberg. He was right. It was one of the last things he told me to do."

Though not all of McCain's memorable moments on "The View" were combative - such as when Joe Biden, a year removed from his vice presidency, comforted McCain about her ailing father - the viral clips often were. McCain's arguments with Goldberg became heated. In December 2019, as the co-hosts discussed Donald President Trump's first impeachment hearings, McCain spoke over Goldberg, who responded, "Girl, please stop talking. Please stop talking right now."

The tension has persisted and seemed to reach a breaking point last month, when Goldberg and McCain insisted they each "don't care" about how the other feels toward some of President Biden's behavior. They apologized to one another after the commercial break for being "rude."

Joy Behar, similarly at odds with McCain, has been blunt about her feelings. After McCain returned from maternity leave in January, the two fought about division within the Republican and Democratic parties. Behar said to McCain point-blank that she "did not miss" her while she was gone from the show. In May, Behar told McCain she needed to "have some respect" for those with more experience than her.

Though McCain has been vocal about her distaste toward Trump, she made a habit of pointing out how her conservative views contrasted with those of her liberal co-hosts and, in April, accused the show of having a "liberal bias." Her friend and former co-host Abby Huntsman - who, as the daughter of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., shared McCain's conservative political background - left "The View" last year amid reports of a toxic work environment and an increasingly "strained" relationship with McCain.

Rumors of behind-the-scenes drama is nothing new for "The View," though ABC representatives have often denied them; while announcing her departure Thursday, McCain made a point to thank Huntsman as well. McCain's current co-hosts then reflected on the past few years.

"Your dad was very smart," Goldberg said. "He wanted you to be here with us because we could help toughen you up for what was coming: this wonderful baby you were going to have, and his departure."

Sunny Hostin joked that the senator had warned her she would need to "learn to love (McCain) and understand her, and that she would be a pain in the a--, and he was right about all those things."

Behar kept her farewell diplomatic.

"You and I have had our disagreements," Behar said. "We've had our fights, but we've also had our drinking moments, which were rather interesting. ... We're on a show where we stick our necks out. We take the blowback. We take a lot of hits on this show, and we stick by our points of view. You have done that brilliantly for four years, and I hope you can say I've done the same thing. I really appreciated that you were a formidable opponent, in many ways."

McCain concluded the segment by criticizing misogynist media coverage of "The View," and calling for her co-hosts to be treated better in the future. She said that "if five men were doing what we do every day, I really do believe that we'd probably have a Pulitzer Prize at this point."
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Penske Media Corporation  the parent company of Rolling Stone, the Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Variety, and more  has announced its inaugural LAC3, a three-day festival that celebrates Los Angeles.

LAC3  which stands for Los Angeles, the Capital of Creativity & Culture  will take place December 2nd to 4th, 2021 in a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles County and feature a curation of best-in-class experiences and events.

LA3C is a celebration of Los Angeless rich culture and community, the fests mission statement reads. This will be the first festival of its kind to fortify a city that combines diverse talent and culture like no other while engaging with organizations solving some of the citys most pressing challenges.

PMC Chairman and CEO Jay Penske has appointed Juan Mora as LA3C Chief Executive. This will be the first festival of its kind to fortify a city that combines talent, diversity, and culture like no other while engaging with organizations solving some of the citys pressing challenges, said Mora said in a statement. Jays vision and the commitment to positively impact the city of Los Angeles is inspiring. I plan to leverage the expertise of Penske Medias iconic brands to create an experience for all visitors, and we invite creatives, musicians, and artists to join in our mission.

Jay Penske added in a statement, Los Angeles influence and inspiration permeate globally. After 18 months of isolation, it feels now is the time for gathering around the elements of culture that connect us. We welcome the opportunity to engage Los Angeless diverse communities and we have allocated resources to invest back into the city through support of local non-profit organizations. With Juans leadership and experience across mission-driven businesses, this event and its potential impact are limitless.

Visit the festivals site for more information on how to attend PMCs inaugural LA3C.

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The Manhattan district attorneys office has charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with tax crimes connected to a set of benefits given to employees in a 15-year tax scheme.

On Thursday, the Trump Organization and Weisselberg were arraigned at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, where the charges were announced. Weisselberg faced grand larceny, tax fraud and other charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege he hid $1.7 million in compensation from tax authorities on perks like the lease on his car, paying rent for his apartment, his kids tuition and more. The Trump Organization allegedly falsified the accounting, made fake tax record entries and destroyed them.

Today is an important marker in the ongoing criminal investigation of the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. In the indictment, we allege, among other things, financial wrongdoing whereby the Trump Organization engaged in a scheme with Mr. Weisselberg to avoid paying taxes on certain compensation. This investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.

Weisselberg was fingerprinted and processed before standing before the New York State Criminal Court. Attorneys for the Trump Organization also appeared in court for arraignment on the indictment.

This stands as the first grand jury indictment after a years-long probe by the attorneys office into the former presidents company. They have been actively investigating Weisselberg and his employees for months to see if they avoided paying taxes on certain benefits paid for by the Trump Organization such as private school tuition, cars and other living expenses. Prosecutors have also looked into the cash bonuses that were given to employees and whether taxes were paid on those.

Although Donald Trump faced multiple federal and state prosecutorial inquiries during his administration, he and the members of his family will not be charged as a part of this case. This marks the first time the Trump Organization has been charged with allegedly criminal conduct.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, lawyers defending the Trump Organization met with prosecutors twice in the last week to present arguments about why the Trump Organization shouldnt face criminal charges.

Trump himself has lashed out at the charges in recent weeks, declaring that this case is devastating for New York.

Having politically motivated prosecutors, people who actually got elected because they will get Donald Trump, is a very dangerous thing for our Country, Trump said in a statement earlier this week. Why would anyone bring their company to New York, or even stay in New York, knowing these Radical Left Democrats would willingly target their company if viewed as a political opponent? It is devastating for New York!

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ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey formally withdrew Thursday from a landmark international treaty protecting women from violence, and signed in its own city of Istanbul, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it wont be a step backward for women.

Hundreds of women demonstrated in Istanbul later Thursday, holding banners that said they won't give up on the Council of Europes Istanbul Convention. It's not over for us, one read. Similar protests were held in other Turkish cities.

Erdogan ended the countrys participation in the convention with a surprise overnight decree in March, prompting condemnation from womens rights groups and Western countries. A court appeal to stop the withdrawal was rejected this week.

Erdogan announced his Action Plan for Combating Violence against Women on Thursday, which includes goals such as reviewing judicial processes, improving protection services and gathering data on violence.

Some groups are trying to present our official withdrawal from the Istanbul convention on July 1st as going backwards," he said. "Just like our fight against violence towards women did not start with the Istanbul Convention, it wont end with our withdrawal.

In March, the Turkish Presidencys Directorate of Communications issued a statement saying the Istanbul Convention was hijacked by those attempting to normalize homosexuality  which is incompatible with Turkeys social and family values.

Erdogan emphasized traditional family and gender values Thursday, saying combating violence against women was also a fight to protect the rights and the honor of our mothers, wives, daughters.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted that Turkeys withdrawal was deeply disappointing and a step backward for the international effort to end violence against women.

Women, LGBT groups and others have been protesting the decision. They say the convention's pillars of prevention, protection, criminal prosecution and policy coordination, as well as its identification of gender-based violence, are crucial to protecting women in Turkey.

Hundreds of women gathered Thursday amid a heavy police presence in Istanbul's main pedestrian thoroughfare. Protesters held colorful banners, feminist and rainbow flags, played music, whistled, and shouted slogans. Police closed off the area but later briefly removed barricades to allow a short march.

Amnesty International's Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum tweeted from the protest after police re-closed the avenue with barricades: The irony of hundreds of women & LGBTI+ rights defenders being blocked by a huge number of predominantly male police officers is not lost." The rights group's observers said police used tear gas after they told demonstrators to disperse.

On Saturday, police dispersed LGBT demonstrators with tear gas and detained dozens, who were later released.

Data by the We Will Stop Femicide group show that 189 women have been murdered so far in 2021 in the country, and 409 last year.

Earlier, Amnesty International called Turkey's withdrawal shameful in a statement.

At the stroke of midnight today, Turkey turned its back on the gold standard for the safety of women and girls. The withdrawal sends a reckless and dangerous message to perpetrators who abuse, maim and kill: That they can carry on doing so with impunity, said Amnesty Internationals Secretary General, Agnes Callamard.

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Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this story.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  The U.S. State Department has named more than 50 current and former officials, including former presidents and active lawmakers, suspected of corruption or undermining democracy in three Central American countries.

Many of the cases were known in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but the inclusion of names on the U.S. list buoyed the hopes of anti-corruption crusaders. The list was provided to the U.S. Congress in compliance with the U.S.-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act pushed last year by U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel.

Its release comes at a time that the Biden administration has given new attention to endemic corruption in the region as one of the factors driving Central Americans to migrate to the U.S.

Ricardo Zuniga, White House special envoy for the Northern Triangle, said Thursday that the list was not final and that pulling U.S. visas from those named does not exclude the possibility of other sanctions. The law requires the State Department to provide a list to Congress at least once a year.

The list was composed using classified and unclassified information and more attention was given to cases involving people currently in government or in positions close to power rather than older offenses, Zuniga said.

Corruption and attacks on democracy are viewed as some of the most important root causes of irregular migration from Central America, he said. They hobble governments, they distort markets, they undercut development efforts, and ultimately they demoralize a population that decides to embark on a very dangerous irregular migration to Mexico and the United States because they dont believe we can build their futures at home.

Congress' call for the report reflects growing concern about the level of systemic corruption in the countries of the Northern Triangle, the significant backsliding that weve seen across the region in the last several years, and the need to "ensure that our assistance is not ending up in the pockets of corrupt officials or their allies, said Adriana Beltran, director of citizen security at the Washington Office on Latin America, a nongovernmental organization focused on human rights issues.

Among the most prominent figures on the list are former Honduras President Porfirio Pepe Lobo Sosa and former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo. The State Department report says Lobo Sosa took bribes from a drug cartel and his wife was involved in fraud and misappropriation of funds. Both deny the allegations. Bonilla's conviction on related charges was invalidated by the Supreme Court last year and she is awaiting a new trial.

Perhaps as significant as Lobo Sosas inclusion or that of more than a dozen current lawmakers, was the omission of current Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez. U.S. prosecutors in New York have signaled Hernandez as having funded his political ascent with bribes from drug traffickers, but he has not been formally charged.

He has denied any wrongdoing. His brother, former federal lawmaker Juan Antonio Tony Hernandez, was sentenced in New York in March to life in prison.

Honduras analyst Raul Pineda Alvarado, said there had been high expectations for the list, but that in general it did not include the top perpetrators, leaving him underwhelmed: If this is the way the United States Congress wants to battle corruption in Honduras, its like wanting to cure cancer with aspirin.

Instead of naming those who call the shots and control resources, most of the names were secondary perpetrators, he said.

This Engel list, in a way, was very inspiring, you thought it would be a devastating blow to the real corruption heavyweights, Pineda said. But unfortunately those hopes have been frustrated.

In El Salvador, former cabinet officials, a judge and the cabinet chief for President Nayib Bukele were placed on the list. Chief of Staff Carolina Recinos has kept a low profile since her name appeared on a shorter State Department list in May, but administration officials say she has maintained her presence in the presidential offices.

Thursdays list said she engaged in significant corruption by misusing public funds for personal benefit and participated in a money laundering scheme.

The list also included two former presidents of the Legislative Assembly, including Walter Araujo who left the conservative Arena party to become a high-profile leader of Bukele's New Ideas party.

The list said Araujo was included for calling for insurrection against the Legislative Assembly and repeatedly threatening political candidates. Araujo reacted on Twitter, saying that gringos and unscrupulous journalists wouldn't silence him.

If for defending my nation and my people they put me on the Engel list ... they can put me there 100 times more, he wrote.

Jean Manes, former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, who recently returned temporarily as the charges d' affaires, said in a video statement that U.S. strategy in the region centers on battling corruption because it is the greatest impediment to development.

She noted that people included on the list immediately lose their visa to enter the United States.

Eduardo Escobar, head of the public accountability organization Citizen Action in El Salvador, said he had met Wednesday with U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on her visit to the country.

Escobar said that in some cases, the list lent credence to allegations that members of Bukele's government were involved in corruption, as well as members of other political parties. He said now they would have to see if El Salvador's Attorney General's Office takes any action to pursue people on the list.

Bukele's administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Guatemala, former President Alvaro Colom Caballeros, was accused of involvement in fraud and embezzlement in the case of a new bus system in Guatemala City. Current Supreme Court justice Manuel Duarte Barrera allegedly abused his authority to inappropriately influence and manipulate the appointment of judges to high court positions. Another high court justice, Nester Vasquez, also allegedly meddled in the selection of judges.

Guatemala's chief anti-impunity prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval, indicated the extent of Guatemala's corruption was far beyond those named on the list.

I think they are missing a number who have been charged with corruption, Sandoval said. In the prosecutor's office, we investigate hundreds of people and hundreds more have been convicted. I think they need to touch the high positions in the corrupt structures, especially those who finance it."

__

Sherman reported from Mexico City. AP writers Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and Marlon Gonzalez in Honduras contributed to this report.
Residents are being asked to rummage through their cupboards and drawers for spare balls of wool.

Warkworth pensioner Sandra Haycock (pictured) is using the wool to knit warm clothes and blankets for newborns at Middlemore and Waitakere Hospitals.

There are about 8000 babies born at Middlemore every year and of that number, about 800 will get sick and need to return to hospital during their first year, Sandra says. Sometimes it is just because the family does not have enough warm clothing. T

he clothes are distributed by midwives, through the Wellness Foundation. Sandra says all types of yarn would be appreciated, acrylic or wool, one ball or a bag.

The wool can be left at the Mahurangi Matters office at 17 Neville Street, Warkworth.


Tania Hamilton and Mitch Martin

Mitch Martin of Hammer Hardware is the new chairman of the Wellsford Plus advocacy group, while stalwart Tania Hamilton has been made events coordinator.

Mitchs vision is for Wellsford Plus to be a rallying force for community causes, bringing groups together to support the town and surrounding areas.

Wellsford is a town that makes things happen. Its what a rural community used to be like, he says.

Mitch and Tania already have a number of projects in the works. On Saturday, August 7, Wellsford Plus is hosting a fundraising dinner for maintenance on the Port Albert Hall and Port Albert Church, and also for the Wellsford St John Cadets and further events in Wellsford.

Tickets are $50 a head or $400 for a table of eight and includes a two-course dinner with spot prizes and a door prize. There will be a raffle and a live auction conducted by PGG Wrightsons Bernie McGahan.

Also in August, Wellsford Plus will host a tradies and truckies barbecue breakfast at Hammer Hardware to connect local business people together.

In September, it will hold a buffet breakfast fundraiser for the New Zealand Prostate Cancer Foundation. There will be spot prizes up for grabs and a morning of laughs with MC Roger Farr.

A Coast to Coast Healthcare doctor will be a guest speaker and offering free health checks.

Other events on the cards for later in the year include a barn dance, carols in the park, a trolley derby and Fathers Day promotions.

Contact events.wfdplus@gmail.com for tickets to events of further information.
If you live in Mahurangi and turn the radio on first thing in the morning, theres a good chance you will be listening to Brent and Jacque on More FM Rodney. James Addis talked to host Brent Harbour to find out about the man behind the mic 

I grew up in Avondale and went to Avondale College. Mum and Dad owned a furniture business in Glen Eden, and my father was into racehorses, as well. Part of my job was to take the racehorses to the Avondale racecourse first thing in the morning before school. I got to wash them down, feed them, groom them and all those kinds of things. Initially I wanted to be a race caller. I got to hang around with famous race callers like Keith Haub, but I had another great passion and that was radio.

Growing up, I was influenced by Kevin Black on Radio Hauraki and Pat Courtney on 1ZM. I liked the music and the way they talked and the way they had so much fun. So, I used some of the money that I was earning working part-time in Dads factory to buy a microphone from Dick Smith electronics. I plugged it into the cassette player at home, and I would practice introducing songs, read stories out of the newspaper and pretend that I was on air. I did that for years. After leaving school, I worked for Para Rubber as a salesman in central Auckland. The good thing about working in the city was that it was an ideal place to be for radio auditions. A friend of my father knew Barry Holland, who was with Radio New Zealand at the time. He put me in touch with Barry and set up an audition for me.

It was quite intimidating in those days. They put you in a room in Broadcasting House where they used to record the big orchestras, and they would get you to read a page of news, read a commercial and then ad-lib for a couple of minutes on a subject of your choice. There would be three guys sitting behind a glass screen watching you. I took the audition three times and failed three times. The last time they sent me a letter saying, Hi Brent, you have got a nice voice, its medium to deep, but you have lazy lips and tongue. Suggest you see a speech therapist and then re-apply when you are 25. I was disappointed, but I did not give up. I wrote a letter to all the radio stations in Auckland and got a Dear John back from most of them, but two radio stations said they would chat to me  one was Radio Hauraki and the other was Magic 91FM.

During one lunch hour I went to do an audition at Magic 91. They called me up the next day and said, Oh, I think you should throw that cassette away. I went, Oh really, was I that bad?. They said, No, we are actually going to hire you. So, I started part-time on midnight to dawn while still working in retail. I was allowed to speak three times an hour  read the weather and introduce two songs. Back then, I thought that was great. Eventually, the station decided to take me on full-time. Initially, I was doing 10pm to 2am and then 6pm to 10pm. But what I really wanted to do was drive time, from 2pm to 6pm. When you are on nights  all your mates are out when you are working and you have no social life. And I considered breakfast too early a start when I was 20. Luckily, when the drive announcer left, they offered me the job.

I loved it because there was a lot going on in the city at the time and celebrities would come in for interviews. Ive been very lucky to have interviewed people like Billy Joel, Dave Stewart from Eurythmics, Meat Loaf and even Milli Vanilli. I was a nervous interviewer to start with. At first, I was asking those close-ended questions that generate yes or no answers, which is death on the radio. But I had some good mentors around me and over time I learned to craft better questions. One of the nicest people I interviewed was Billy Joel  both on-air and off-air he was just great. He was so gracious in thanking us for the airtime.

I became interested in programming a station and at some point I was lured to Tauranga to become a programme director for a station there. But I missed Auckland and came back to work for a new station Kool 93, doing the drive show and became the stations operations manager. My job was to make sure all the songs sounded good together with plenty of variety and different tempos  not all slow songs or all fast songs. In radio, you need to have an appreciation of all types of music. I dont favour specific genres; I like songs in any genre. It also pays to remember music goes through cycles. For example, when there is a recession, older music becomes more popular again because it brings back memories of good times and thats an escape for people. So, you have to understand these cycles and what will appeal to listeners.

Kool 93 was sold after a couple of years, and I floated around doing shifts for all sorts of radio stations, including trying to set up one of my own, Big 106.2, but sadly we got hit by a global recession and had to fold. In 2010, I headed to Dubai. A friend of mine was working there and said they were looking for a programme director for Radio 2, which broadcasts right across the UAE, reaching around 10 million people. It was run by a lot of British ex-pats who loved Radio 2 in the UK. But when I got there, I found the station was all over the place  sixties show on one morning, then a rock show at night and an easy-listening show at some other time. It wasnt rating well. So, we did a lot of music testing to find out what would be a good mix and what people would like listening to. Based on that research, I totally reformatted the station and within about six months we got to number one in our targeted demographic. Its interesting, because the UAE is made up of so many different ethnic groups, but it turns out that the music that tests well in New Zealand, Australia or the UK  big songs like Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams and Take on Me by A-ha  test well in the Middle East too.

After that I went on to work for Heart and Capital Radio in the UK. My wife is from Guildford and Ive always wanted to live in England  there is so much to see and so much history. The radio stations sounded really good too, and the presenters were great. At the same time, I didnt feel I had the freedom to make too many changes or get as much local content on as I wanted. Its all very well having these big flashy stations but people still want to know whats going on where they live.

After a year in the UK, we really wanted our girls to be settled and for them to go to Mahurangi College.

We decided to moved to Warkworth because its such a great community and nearby weve got the best beaches in the world. Now Im the operations manager at More FM Rodney and do the breakfast show with Jacque who is a long-time friend from my days at Kool 93. Because Jacque, and I know each other so well and get each others sense of humour, I think that comes across well on air. Being on-air locally has opened up other doors for me to get involved with the community. I am a trustee for the charity I Got Your Back Pack, which supplies essential items for women fleeing domestic violence, and right now Im helping Murray Chapman organise the Mahurangi Winter Festival of Lights. Murray is such an amazing guy  such an inspiration in our community.

What makes a good breakfast show? I think its when we have lots of local content in there with as many local voices on air as possible, and having a bit of fun with people and with the competitions. There are some days when you think its been a disaster but usually thats only in your mind. And when everything has come together well, its a good feeling. Its a great way to spend four hours every morning.
Lockport, NY (14094)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Dairy farmers in county Longford, have come together to raise 15,200 for the Hooves 4 Hospice Project which aims to raise 1 million towards the building of a Regional Hospice to serve the people of Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly.

The midlands is now the only region in the country with no purpose built specialised facility to provide respite and end of life care for members of the community who need it.

Local farmers Eugene Fitzpatrick, Cecil Bennett, Charlie Reilly, Mike Magan and many others, asked farmers to donate a calf for the fundraiser.

The response was so generous that it was decided to sell all the calves at a special sale in Carrigallen Mart on May 22 last.

In addition, Kiernan Milling in Granard kindly sponsored a bag of calf ration for the buyer of each calf at the mart.

In total 50 calves were sold on the day in Carrigallen Mart.

Buyers were very generous in their bidding both at the ring side and online with a top price of 650 being achieved.

The organisers would like to thank the farmers who donated animals, Helen Kells manager of Carrigallen Mart for kindly facilitating the sale, Kiernan Milling for their sponsorship of the event and the local companies and general public for cash donations.

Hooves 4 Hospice, launched by Tullamore Lions Club at the beginning of 2020, is a very ambitious community based fundraiser to provide funds to build a Level 3 Hospice to provide specialist end of life care and support for people in the four midland counties.

Mr Pat Lalor, chairperson, of the Project committee, explained that farmers are being asked to donate a young animal that they or a host farmer will rear for 12 to 18 months.

When that donated animal is sold the proceeds will go directly into the Midland Hospice Building Fund. We will work enthusiastically with all our stakeholders to ensure the success of this project and to make as big a contribution as we can to the fund for a Level 3 Hospice in the midlands, he said.
A millionaire British banker has sold the landmark Abbey Leix House mansion in Laois to a young Irish tech billionaire.

The co-founder of Stripe, John Collison, has reportedly paid a massive asking price of 20 million to buy the house and majestically big estate on the outskirts of the Laois heritage town.

Formerly in the ownership of the de Vesci family, the house was saved from dereliction and brought back to its former glory by Sir David Davies after he bought the house and 1,200 acres of the demesne from Viscount Tom De Vesci in 1995

Click the 'Next >' arrow above or 'Next Story' below to browse through the photo gallery

The sale was handled and marketed internationally by the famous Sotheby's. It listed the property at 26,910 square foot property at 20 million.

According to the Irish Times, a statement issued through Sothebys from Mr Davies said he was pleased to confirm that his trust has contracted to sell the house and the majority of its contents to a private buyer.

"The selection of the buyer was made because of their ambition and interest in preserving the integrity of the estate, including buildings and importantly the trees, and their ability to invest in the estate, he said.

Collison, who is aged just 30, is a native of Dromineer, Co Tipperary but grew up in Limerick. He is President of Stripe which he co-founded in 2010 with his brother Patrick. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth was estimated at US$11.4 billion making him one of the wealthiest people from Ireland.

Apart from Sir David Davies and the Desci family, Collison will join French Monks, OMore Princes, Ormonde Earls as the latest custodian of this gem of Laois.
A man who sexually abused his foster daughter multiple times a week until she left the family home has been jailed for five years.

The man (77), who cannot be named of legal reasons, began abusing his foster daughter when she was aged 13 until she left the family home when she was 18 years old. He also abused her on two further occasions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the offending encompassed all forms of sexual activity short of penetrative intercourse.

The court heard that the victim was afraid to say anything about the abuse because she was afraid she would be sent away.

The man pleaded guilty to counts of indecent assault and sexual assault at locations in Dublin on dates between April 1, 1988 and March 28, 1994. He has no previous convictions.

A local detective told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting, that the victim went into care aged four following the death of her mother and her father leaving her on the steps of a care home.

The detective said the victim was aged 12 when she moved in with the foster family in question and that there were a lot of other children in the house. The abuse began when she was aged 13 before she began secondary school.

The victim was sexually abused by her foster father between the ages of 13 and 18 while she lived in the home with the abuse occurring multiple times a week. She was abused on two further occasions after she moved out of the house when she was aged 18.

Ms Boyle told the court that the victim said in her statement that she remembers feeling like she did not have a choice when he was doing this to her and was afraid that if she spoke out or told anyone she would be sent away.

In her victim impact statement, from which extracts were read in court by counsel, the victim said she was not sure how it happened or why and that it took so long for her to open up about it because she blamed herself for it.

The victim said she felt ashamed and dirty. She said she lived in fear and always wished someone would walk in while he was doing it so it would come to an end, but it never happened.

She said she always felt the man had no guilt or remorse for what he had done. She said he had taken away her teenage and young adult years.

In interview with gardai, the man made admissions to abusing his foster daughter. He told gardai he thought it was a mutual thing between us and that he never thought it would come out.

The man told gardai he did not know why he did what he did. He said that he was the guilty one and that she had been too young and vulnerable.

He told gardai he was sorry, that he hopes the victim has a good life and that there was no malice in it.

The detective agreed with James Dwyer SC, defending, that his client made admissions to a Tusla investigation following a disclosure in 2018 prior to gardai becoming involved.

He agreed with counsel that after gardai were notified and his client was interviewed, he expressed remorse during the interview which appeared to be real.

Mr Dwyer read from a letter of apology written by his client which said the victim was a vulnerable girl and the man took advantage. The man went on to write that he will never be able to live with himself for this.

Counsel said his client was in his 40's when the offending took place and is now aged 77. He said his client was a good father to the other children in his care.

Judge Melanie Greally said the victim was a child of very extreme vulnerability who wanted more than anything else to belong to a normal family and have a normal family life.

Judge Greally said the breach of trust in these circumstances is therefore extreme and absolutely appalling. She said the offending encompassed all forms of sexual activity short of penetrative intercourse.

She said the offending has had a catastrophic effect on the victim at every stage of her life. She said that hopefully there is a brighter future in store for her.

The judge said the accused man comes before the court with no previous convictions and has lived an otherwise conventional life. She said she gave him credit for his guilty pleas, his admissions and his expression of remorse.

Judge Greally sentenced the man to five years imprisonment.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: July 01 2021

Since 2018, SATI has been pioneering the campaign against human trafficking on Long Island, New York,

The Suffolk County Sheriffs Anti-Trafficking Initiative (SATI) has been honored as the National Sheriffs Association 2021 Crime Victim Services Award recipient. The team members who comprise this initiative are Investigator Sergeant Erin Meunkle, the SATI Program Coordinator, and Inv. C/O Kelly Burghardt, an investigator with the Suffolk County Sheriffs Office, who both work under the oversight of Dr. Errol D. Toulon, Jr., the Suffolk County Sheriff.

Since 2018, SATI has been pioneering the campaign against human trafficking on Long Island, New York, by identifying victims and perpetrators and educating community stakeholders. Present to receive the award on behalf of the SATI Unit on Wednesday, June 23, was Undersheriff Steven Kuehhas.

The NSA recognized the Suffolk County SATI Unit for its exemplary work and commitment to identify human trafficking victims and connect them with life-saving services. The results of the initiative highlight the critical role SATI plays in improving the lives of trafficking victims on Long Island.

Established in 2005 with support from the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), the NSA Crime Victim Services Award recognizes outstanding achievement by a sheriffs office in support of victims, and is sponsored by Appriss Insights the nations leading provider of victim notification services and developer of VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday).

Appriss Insights is honored to sponsor the National Sheriffs Association Crime Victim Services Award once again this year, said Lalla OBryan, Vice President of Victim Services at Appriss Insights. We are proud of the important work the Suffolk County Sheriffs Association has done to identify, educate, and assist victims of trafficking through its SATI program.

We are extremely honored and humbled to be recognized and receive the 2021 Crime Victim Services Award, said Sheriff Toulon. This award brings the issue of human trafficking to the forefront of victim service organizations and demonstrates how correctional agencies can assist in combating this problem on a national scale.

Since 2018, the SATI Unit has conducted over 2,200 inmate interviews, identified 176 human trafficking victims and 120 perpetrators. This information, coupled with other data mined during interviews, has led to over 475 victim referrals for various services. The unit has also gleaned actionable intelligence from these cases. This information is referred to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Homeland Security, to build substantial cases against traffickers.

The SATI Unit uses a comprehensive screening tool and process to identify and aid victims. The screening system is used for every person who enters the Suffolk County Correctional Facility. SATI Unit investigators train correction officers in the jails classification unit to identify signs of victimization as they work with justice-involved individuals. Some of the indicators they are made aware of include possession of hotel key cards, tattoos and markings, physical abuse signs, possession of multiple cell phones and money. Additional screening comprises the use of a questionnaire that asks about life circumstances, housing, employment, history of abuse and neglect, along with other known risk factors for human trafficking victimization.

If a potential victim is identified, the individual is referred to officers with the SATI Unit, who begin to discuss and educate the potential victim about human trafficking. This is a process; often, victims are not fully aware that they have fallen victim to human trafficking, and they are fearful of discussing personal information with members of law enforcement. As the comfort level evolves, SATI officers conduct a more comprehensive interview and then bring in social service and mental health workers to delve more deeply into the issues. Many victims become accepting of the intervention services available to them using this team-based approach, such as post-release safe housing, substance abuse treatment, counseling services, and mental health treatment. In addition, many of these victims begin their recovery and become more willing to share by participating in one of the correctional facilitys designated rehabilitative housing areas, such as the Sheriffs Addiction Treatment Program.

The SATI Unit has also engaged with the community to help educate residents about the signs of human trafficking. The officers created educational materials and conduct regular outreach with community groups. Additionally, January is the month set aside for Human Trafficking awareness and blue is the color internationally accepted as representative of the endeavor. In recognition, the outside facade of the Suffolk County Sheriffs Office in Riverhead, NY is lit up in blue lights every night in January. The officers in the SATI Unit also came up with another unique way to raise awareness this January. They teamed up with the jails rehabilitative emergency mask assembly program to create 2000 blue masks, which have been distributed to organizations and visitors to the correctional facility.

Seeing the victims begin to heal and on their path to recovery is rewarding in itself, and I am humbled and proud to be named the recipients of this award, said Sgt. Muenkle, who coordinates the SATI Unit. I believe that it is indicative of the strides that the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) is taking to help the justice-involved individuals and the victims of crimes while they are in our care. It makes me proud to think that the SCSO is building bridges between the community and helping the inmates in our custody.
Arts & Culture, Travel & Local Attractions

By Ls Cohen Published: July 01 2021

We have some very interesting history right here.

Long Island is chock full of historical places to visit. Grab the family and make a day out of visiting each of these historical sites to see with the family.

Jones Beach Water Tower

Anthony Quintano [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Location: Intersection of Ocean Parkway and Wantagh Parkway.

This iconic structure has been mesmerizing beachgoers for almost 90 years. You might simply know it as the pencil or you might know the architectural inspiration for its design (spoiler alert: the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica) but this tower is more than a monument, its a fully functioning water tower supplying the park with all its fresh water.

It was first built in 1930. The roof (the point) is made of copper and is 32 feet high. The tower measures 188 feet tall (or 231 feet tall depending on where you look up the info) and extends more than 1,000 feet underground.

Read more facts about the Jones Beach Water Tower here.

Nikola Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower

Left photo: Unknown author / Public domain. Right photo: Tower standing: Unknown author(Life time: Unattributed) / Public domain.

Location: 5 Randall Road, Shoreham.

Nikola Tesla chose a site in Shoreham for his visionary experiment to distribute electricity and information wirelessly in the early 20th century.

Around the turn of the century, potato farmers on the east end of Long Island along the North Shore could be seen driving their products past the looming tower of scientific achievement that was Nikola Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower. Possibly confused or ignorant of the basic principles of the science - as was Teslas dramatic nature to wax wistfully of the philosophical implications of his project without much hard evidence to back it up - the farmers probably shook their heads in disbelief at what was happening in their backyards.

What Tesla hoped to achieve was very clear: wireless communication and distribution of electricity by using the earths surface as a conducting and transferring method. (Sounds slightly familiar.) How he hoped to accomplish this, or if it was feasible, will never be known as the project was doomed to fail, embattled by his increasing competition with fellow inventor Guglielmo Marconi and ultimately, financial strain.

It became his scientific and fiscal downfall.

Get more facts about the Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham here.

George Washington Spy Trail

Setauket Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Photo: Traitor [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Location: Mostly along the North Shore of Long Island

The Spy Ring is credited by General George Washington as being a leading factor in turning the tide of the American Revolution. Historic sites on Long Island take you back to the days of 1778 when Long Island was a hotbed of intrigue under British military occupation. A group of local patriots, determined to assist George Washington win the American Revolution, formed the Culper Spy Ring. Take the 4 day trip to uncover the sites of the Washington Spy Trail.

You can check out Discover Long Island's Washington Spy Trail itinerary here.The tour is fun for the whole family.

You can also try the Tri-Spy Tour in Setauket to travel this leg of the spy trail on foot, by bike or kayak. Local historian Margo Arceri guides cyclists, walkers and kayakers through the actual trails where the British and Patriots once roamed during the Revolutionary War on Long Island. Those participating will follow in the actual footsteps of the Culper Spy Ring, and along the way historical places of interest will be pointed out and discussed.

Want to read some crazy facts about George Washingtons spies? Click here.

Fire Island Lighthouse

Photo: Fire Island Light House. From Fire Island Light House Preservation Society Facebook page.

Location: Field 5, Robert Moses State Park.

Long Island has more than 20 lighthouses. No wonder since we are an island - no matter what the politicians say about it really being a peninsula (click for story) - and our waterways are very well travelled by both commercial and recreational boaters.

While the Fire Island Lighthouse isnt the oldest on Long Island - that designation goes to Montauks famous tower - the lighthouse has a unique and storied history of its own. It's also a movie star!

Check out this article where we list some crazy and interesting facts (and legends) about the Fire Island lighthouse. You might also want to read this popular article about Fire Island itself.

The Big Duck

Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

Location: 1012 Route 24, Flanders.

The Big Duck is more than just a quaint roadside attraction. It has influenced architecture and is on the National Register of Historic Places. You probably visited it once or twice as a kid and wondered at its gigantic size. Its definitely a part of Long Island history. Here we present some interesting and crazy facts about The Big Duck. For more information about The Big Duck go to the Friends of The Big Duck website.

For crazy facts about the Big Duck click here.
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(Alliance News) - Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan has warned that there is going to be "very significant transmission" of Covid cases in Ireland, driven by the Delta variant.

The assessment came as Ireland recorded its 5,000th Covid death on Thursday.

The Department of Health confirmed 448 more positive cases and two further deaths.

Holohan was addressing the media during a National Public Health Emergency Team briefing at which he said the Delta variant would become the dominant strain in Europe.

He said: "We are not going to stop this happening, this variant is sufficient in the way of fitness to become the dominant strain across Europe and that is what going to happen.

"It was a question of when, rather than if, and that we would try to slow it down as much as possible while we give as much protection as possible to people who are vaccinated.

"The evidence is that we have slowed this down somewhat, we would like to have slowed it down further. A couple of weeks back it began to move."

Holohan added: "As we have always done when we believe the evidence is there to support us changing policy, we take that action swiftly and proportionately in relation to the concerns that we have.

"We are going to experience very significant transmission. You will see what is happening in Scotland, they are a number of weeks ahead of us. Northern Ireland is probably two or three weeks ahead of us in terms of their transmission.

"All of that says to us in broad terms, we are not going to stop this, but the measures we have taken now have had an effect in slowing down that transmission."

Philip Nolan, chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said the virus was growing at a rate of 2% per day.

He said: "We are in a concerning situation, we are seeing an increase across most age groups and we are seeing a stabilisation in hospitalisations, we would be concerned there might be an increase in those in the coming weeks.

"We are close to 390 cases a day now. We have to be concerned that we are at the beginning of an increase driven by the Delta variant, that presents significant dangers to the unvaccinated population and the partially vaccinated population.

"So it is necessary to reiterate the advice that we have to limit transmission as vaccination proceeds."

Nolan added: "If case numbers increase, albeit more slowly than they would have increased in previous waves of the disease, we are looking at high case counts for a very long period of time.

"Those cases would translate into very significant levels of hospitalisations."

Nolan said that the R number has risen, and is now between 1 and 1.2.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn, told the briefing that Donegal has the highest Covid incidence rate in Ireland and there has a been spike in Waterford with high rates also in Limerick.

He added: "We have some concerns about Dublin, while the incidence is not the highest in the country, the incidence has taken off there versus the rest of the country and given the population size of Dublin, if that continues it will drive the national picture.

"We are aware of the past number of weeks that Delta was present at a greater proportion in the Dublin area.

"One of the things doctors are telling us at the moment is that this is not like previously, that outbreaks are very easily seeding across community, across settings. Once it gets into a community it is spreading much easier than we have seen previously."

He added: "If we are not careful we will see sharp increases in new infections and deaths over the coming weeks and months."

source: PA

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
OSLO, July 1 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor started

production at its oil and gas field Martin Linge in the North

Sea near the maritime border with Britain, the company said on

Thursday.

The field holds an estimated recoverable resources of about

260 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), and is expected to

produce around 115,000 boe per day when reaches its peak in

2022.

"Martin Linge is an important contribution to Norwegian oil

and gas production. Thanks to new infrastructure in this area it

will be possible to realise new discoveries in the future," it

said.

Natural gas from Martin Linge will be exported via pipelines

to St Fergus terminal in Britain, while crude oil will be

exported with shuttle tankers, Equinor said.

The field's production facilities are also supplied with

power from shore via 163-kilometre long alternating current (AC)

cable, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while its

wells and processing equipment are operated from an onshore

control room, it added.

The field was originally planned to start in 2016, but its

startup has been postponed several times, including due to a

fatal accident at a shipyard in South Korea and problems with

pre-drilled wells.

As a result, the development costs have doubled to 63

billion Norwegian crowns ($7.29 billion) from an original

estimate of 31.5 billion crowns, Equinor said.

Equinor operates the field and holds a stake of 70%.

Norway's state-owned Petoro holds the rest.

($1 = 8.6364 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by David Evans)
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Thursday as investors eye the latest UK manufacturing data and US jobless claims later in the day.

The FTSE 100 was called to open six points higher at 7,043.



Investors will be digesting the latest manufacturing figures out of China. The Caixin purchasing managers' index for the sector fell to 51.3 in June from 52.0 in May as new export orders fell, coming in slightly below expectations for reading of 51.9.



Wang Zhe, a senior economist at Caixin Insight Group, said: "Overall, the manufacturing sector continued to stably expand in June, despite the impact of the pandemic.



"In the second half of this year, the low base effect from last year will weaken. Inflationary pressure, coupled with the economic slowdown, is still a serious challenge for China."



Capital Economics said: "The Caixin manufacturing index published today dropped back last month and adds to signs from the official PMI released yesterday that momentum in industry is waning. The surveys point to a levelling off in demand and easing of price pressures, even as supply shortages continue to constrain output."



Coming up later in the day, Markit's UK manufacturing PMI for June is due at 0930 BST, while US initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST.



In corporate news, JD Sports Fashion said it was on track to deliver annual profits of at least 550m as it pledged to split the roles of chief executive and chairman and would consider paying back government furlough cash.



In a trading update ahead of what was expected to be a stormy annual shareholders meeting, JD Sports said it would move to divide the role currently held by boss Peter Cowgill before the 2022 AGM.



Elsewhere, Associated British Foods said it expected annual profit to be in line with the year before after sales at Primark outstripped forecasts in the third quarter.



Primark's revenue in the three months to 19 June was 1.6bn, up from 0.6bn a year earlier, and the retailer's like-for-like sales rose 3%.



ABF said it expected Primark's annual profit to be broadly in line with a year earlier. It had previously guided investors that Primark's profit would be "somewhat lower" than the year before.



"Our outlook for the adjusted operating profit for the group, stated before repayment of job retention monies, is now in line with last year," ABF said.








(Alliance News) - Elliott Management Corp on Thursday confirmed it has built a stake in GlaxoSmithKline PLC and called for the "right leadership" to realise its value after years of underperformance.

The activist investor said in an open letter that it has built a "significant position" in GSK without specifying the size. The Financial Times first reported in April that Elliott built a multi-billion-pound stake in GSK.

According to rules of the London Stock Exchange and the UK Panel of Takeover & Mergers, investors who acquire a stake above 3% must disclose this to the LSE and the company.

The planned separation of GSK's consumer health division from pharmaceuticals could increase its share price by up to 45%, according to Elliott's analysis, and "much more in the years beyond".

Shares in GSK were up 0.8% to 1,430.60 pence in London on Thursday morning. However, the stock is down 13% over the past 12 months.

In the letter, Elliott said it supported GSK's decision to spin off consumer health. But the company must be careful in choosing the right leadership for each business after years of underperformance, Elliott added, putting pressure on Chief Executive Emma Walmsley.

"Despite the strengths of its people, its vaccines and its drugs, GSK has a poor record of execution and value creation. These shortcomings are clearly demonstrated in GSKas share price, which has underperformed every single peer over nearly every conceivable timeframe," Elliott said.

The sale of the oncology business to Novartis AG in 2015, before re-entering the market with the USD5 billion acquisition of Tesaro in 2018, was pointed out as an example of GSK's lack of strategic direction.

The letter called for GSK to add pharmaceutical experts to the board before the separation, to select the best executives from internal and external candidates.

"Elliott strongly believes that the future CEOs [of each business] must have the skillsets and expertise to match their respective tasks at hand," the letter said.

While Elliott didn't name Walmsley, the letter suggests it opposes her continuing as chief executive of the pharmaceutical business.

Walmsley has been head of GSK since 2017 and has a background in consumer business after 17 years at L'Oreal SA. She was promoted to the top post at GSK from chief executive of its Consumer Healthcare business.

"The board has a responsibility to seize this opportunity for future patients, current investors and all other stakeholders...We stand ready to help GSK along the way," Elliott said.

In response, a GSK spokesperson said: "The legacy issues that Elliott identifies in its letter are not new. They have all been identified by GSK since 2017. The transformation programme has been designed to address all of these legacy issues, and more.

"We set out on 23 June an ambitious plan to deliver a step-change in performance and realise significant value for GSK shareholders over the next decade. We believe our shareholders are supportive of this strategy, and that they are focused on GSK executing on it without distraction or delay. This is our clear priority.

"We will respond to Elliottas letter more fully in due course."

By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Madison, IN (47250)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High near 90F. Winds light and variable..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.
Production on the highly anticipated sequel to Marvel's 2018 superhero blockbuster as studio boss Kevin Feige admitted the cast and crew is finding it "very emotional" returning to work without late actor Chadwick Boseman, who died in August 2020.

Feige told Variety: "It's clearly very emotional without Chad.

But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. Were going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.

Filmmaker Ryan Coogler is back to direct from his own screenplay, and work got underway at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta on Tuesday (29.06.21).

Plot details are being kept underwraps and so is the cast, although Feige insisted the original stars are set to return.

It's thought that the likes of Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett could all reprise their roles.

Last month, Bassett - who played Romanda, the mother of Boseman's character T'Challa/Black Panther - admitted it will be a challenge to surpass the success of the original movie, but she believes in the team.

She said: "It's going to be interesting to surpass the cultural phenomenon that it was. It's going to be really interesting to see how we do that again."

The star added that she has faith in Coogler to make the film successful despite the challenges posed by the tragic loss of Chadwick  who passed away at the age of 43 last August after a private cancer battle.

Angela insisted: "But if there's any chance of it being great, I think we have (that with) Ryan Coogler, a visionary, a writer, director and... the creative team that he surrounds himself with, whether it's the DP or the costume designer or the producers."

Credit: Bang Showbiz
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, July 1, 2021

Contact: Emily Cook 207-441-0405 [Bellows, Bautista], Marc Malon 207-626-8887 [Frey]

Sec. Bellows and AG Frey reaction to further gutting of Voting Rights Act

AUGUSTA  Today, the Supreme Court delivered a blow to voting rights in their opinion on Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, consolidated with Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee.

Both cases involve challenges to two Arizona laws that make it difficult for eligible voters, particularly communities of color, to cast their ballot, perpetuating racial discrimination, which is contrary to the Voting Rights Act. The two laws in question deal with not counting provisional ballots cast outside of the voters designated precinct and limiting who may handle another persons completed ballot.

In a 6-3 decision, the Court held neither law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

This is a devastating decision from the Supreme Court, undermining the promise of equal access for all voters to the ballot box, said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. Voting discrimination can and does exist even when the implementing law or policy appears neutral on its face. As the chief elections officer in Maine, I remain committed to ensuring that no eligible Mainer is discriminated against or disproportionately harmed in the elections process.

Democracy does not work when there are real-world obstacles - not having a vehicle, limited mail services in some rural communities, health issues, lack of childcare - that impede an individuals ability to equally participate in the electoral process, said Deputy Secretary of State  Policy Advisor Joann Bautista. Here in Maine, we will continue to work to combat disenfranchisement and voter suppression.

Amendments to and case law regarding the Voter Rights Act have made it clear that Congress and the judiciary intend for the Act to be used a defense against voter discrimination, said Attorney General Aaron M. Frey. I joined an amicus brief with several attorneys general making clear that we agreed with the Ninth Circuits decision recognizing that even seemingly neutral election laws can result in the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on account of race, in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Courts decision today moves away from that intent.




PHILADELPHIA, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philadelphia County Medical Society (PCMS) has awarded N. Scott Adzick, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the 2021 Strittmatter Award, its most prestigious scientific honor. The award recognizes a PCMS physician who has demonstrated the most valuable contributions to the practice of healing, whether surgical or medical.
While not a complete wash-out, the summer tourism season vital to southern Europe's economies will be less than sizzling as the Delta coronavirus spreads and travel hurdles keep British and other sun-seekers at home.

A European Union COVID-19 travel certificate launched on Thursday may help some make trips but arrivals to tourist hotspots from Portugal to Croatia are set to remain well down on normal levels, putting businesses and hospitality jobs at risk.

"The recovery of tourism in Portugal has come to a halt," Raul Martins, head of the country's AHP hotel association said of new travel restrictions from Britain and Germany, normally lucrative markets for Portugal's beaches, restaurants and clubs.

The fast-spreading Delta variant of coronavirus is pushing a rise in cases in the Algarve's tourist magnet Albufeira and is to blame for over half of new infections in the capital Lisbon.

Add to that Britain's decision last month to strike Portugal from its green list of destinations and Germany's move to curb travel there just ahead of the introduction of EU certificates showing a tourist's double-vaccination or COVID-free status.

Even before the German decision and a recent Portuguese rule for unvaccinated UK travellers to quarantine, hotels there forecast occupancy rates of just 43% this month and 46% for August. AHP said hotels would be more downbeat if polled now.

Save for a few bright spots, the sector is seeing the same pattern across the entire south of Europe: better than the lost summer of 2020, but barely half the activity it would normally expect before the pandemic.

In Greece, where tourism makes up a fifth of the economy, the central bank this week cited concerns over new variants as it cut forecasts for 2021 tourism revenues from 50% to 40% of those in 2019, when it welcomed a record 33 million visitors.

Grigoris Tassios, head of Greece's Hoteliers Association, said the average occupancy rate at hotels across the country was currently 35-45%, a rate he saw persisting through early July.

"Bookings have frozen clearly because of the uncertainty over COVID and particularly the Delta variant lately," he said.

Spain is a shade more optimistic, raising its estimate for this year's tourist numbers to 45 million visitors - about 54% of 2019 levels - from the 42 million it predicted a month ago.

The tourism ministry on Wednesday was particularly upbeat about the German market, expecting the number of German tourists to reach 3.8 million this year, a strong 77% of 2019 numbers.

Mallorca and Spain's other Balearic islands are meanwhile reaping the benefit of the June 30 move by the UK to allow Britons to travel there without having to quarantine upon return: air bookings there stand at 80% of pre-pandemic levels.

"Since restrictions for UK tourists were lifted, they are back. In the first 24 hours, we had reservations equivalent to 10 days of 2019," said a spokesperson for Spanish chain Melia Hotels.

Saving the summer

In the northern European countries which provide the sun-seekers, holiday industries are lobbying governments to find safe ways to make more destinations available - and quickly.

Britain's plan to restart travel in May after over four months of lockdown has to date hugely disappointed tour operators, with only a limited number of smaller destinations currently on its "green list" of quarantine-free travel.

This is not the meaningful restart of international travel that the industry desperately needs," said a spokesperson for ABTA, the UK industry body representing 4,300 travel brands.

It is urging the government to make good on proposals to relax quarantine rules for fully vaccinated individuals visiting countries on the "amber list" like Spain and France.

"But this needs to happen soon so businesses can save what remains of the peak summer season, crucial weeks which represent two-thirds of travel companies' income," said the spokesperson.

A major headache for the UK industry is coping with sudden rule changes in destination countries - Malta, for instance, banned British visitors who are not fully vaccinated on Tuesday.

Germany's travel sector is also demanding clarity after the move to declare Portugal a "virus-variant zone", a measure that implies a 14-day quarantine for travellers. Industry leaders warned the government this week any steps to include countries like Greece and Spain in that band would be devastating.

"This current debate about further possible changes is needlessly disconcerting people and damaging confidence," said Thomas Bareiss, the government's federal tourism commissioner.

Some remain upbeat. Tomas Dvorak, economist at Oxford Economics, said southern Europe could still recoup by the end of the year around 85% of its 2019 levels if vaccine campaigns continue to step up and bring overall infections down.

But a McKinsey report this week painted a stark picture of the wider damage to the region's economy, with a full recovery of foreign tourism in some cases not likely before 2024-2025.

It estimated Portugal would lose some 52 billion euros of revenues between 2020-2023 - the equivalent of a quarter of its total 2019 GDP - with up to 600,000 jobs potentially affected.

In Spain's case, it said international tourism might not recover till 2025, putting a massive 4.4 million direct and indirect jobs at risk. It saw Italy benefiting from a more resilient domestic tourist market to recover earlier in 2024.

While a U.N. study this week welcomed the EU COVID-19 pass as a rare example of countries harmonising arrangements on travel, it will not be enough to rescue the European summer.

Capital Economics argued it did not remove constraints for those not fully vaccinated - meaning many travellers including children will still need to undergo COVID-19 tests - and that specific travel rules were still set by national governments.

That is a point that resonates in Portugal, still stung by the German travel curbs.

"There are different countries and each country wants to show its sovereignty," said the AHP's Martins. We believe that the certificate will work but there are countries saying 'my house, my rules'."
Editor

Darren Marcy, a journalist since 1992, is the editor of the Manchester Journal. A New Mexico native, he previously worked for newspapers in the Land of Enchantment before moving to Vermont in 2004. He joined the Journal in October 2018.
Defendant Leonard Forte, 79, is shown in a police surveillance video running errands up to 30 miles from his home in Florida in January. The video was presented by the prosecution during Fortes evidentiary hearing in May, as it challenges his claim of physical incapacity to stand trial.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The writer is addressing the state of freedom as we approach the July 4 holiday.

(TNS) On July 4 some 245 years ago, the signing of the Declaration of Independence articulated the political ethos of the United States: a country founded on consent of the governed and rooted in the idea that governments exist to protect the natural rights of the citizens. Eleven years later, delegates met in the same place to draft a Constitution that would, they hoped, institutionalize those founding principles.

How are things going today? Not so well on the governing front despite positive developments for human freedom.

The structural aspects of our Constitution  those that delineate the various responsibilities for the branches of government  are badly damaged. Congress has largely delegated to the president its constitutional role to pass laws. The president and his agents can make sweeping changes to our policies at the stroke of a pen.

While the Constitution exclusively vests lawmaking power in the legislative branch, Congress hardly functions anymore, preferring partisan complaining over lawmaking, and preferring to pass 1,000-plus page bills that no member has the time to read or consider. For example, the original bill creating the federal income tax in 1913 was 14 pages long, while the 2010 Affordable Care Act was more than 2,500 pages. And much of the ACA merely authorizes agencies to pass further regulations, which number tens of thousands of pages at this point.

In short, no one, whether a voter, senator, lobbyist, or even the speaker of the house, knows whats actually in these bills when they are passed.

The Framers  every one of them  would be astounded at how much our structural Constitution has broken down. We have a Congress that doesnt govern, a president and agencies that govern too much, and a military that has engaged in countless acts of violence against other countries  from the Korean War to Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan  without a constitutionally mandated congressional declaration of war. In fact, Congress hasnt declared war since World War II.

The Framers would also be shocked at our penchant for turning everything into a national issue. Political fights over education, health care, criminal justice and more increasingly happen on a national level. Thats odd, because the Framers would be surprised we even have a federal Department of Education or Health and Human Services. Those quintessentially local issues were left by the Constitution to the states.

At the time of the independence, just as now, the 13 original colonies were wildly different in culture, language and religion. The idea that South Carolina and Massachusetts should both be subject to a centralized education or health care system would have been seen as ludicrous and dangerous. Ludicrous because there would be no way such different states could agree on basic principles, and dangerous because it could engender hatred and divisiveness within the union.

The valid concern that over-centralization would be both dangerous and unworkable was true when there were 13 states and 4 million people, and it is even more true with 50 states and 330 million. Every four to eight years, our polarized political parties try to use our broken constitutional government to stick it to the other side. Why? Because they did it last time, so now it is their turn.

Fundamentally, for understandable reasons, Americans dont feel represented in Washington, and that sentiment is manifesting as resentment and despondency at best, or elaborate and insane conspiracy theories at worst. It might seem like a relatively small group of people actually run our country, because its largely true. The president, agency heads, mid-level political appointees, and civil servants do most of the governing because Congress has continually asked them to.

Its all quite disheartening and it might take an incredible act of political will  almost akin to the ratification of the Constitution  to work our way out of the quagmire were sliding deeper into.

Yet, despite reasons for pessimism, we must also acknowledge the incredible gains to human freedom weve seen in this country since the founding. The Constitutions guarantee of equality and freedom was an empty promise to the millions of enslaved African-Americans. After the bloody Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments rectified that grievous error in the text, although much work still needed and needs to be done. Weve recently seen major victories in the right to marriage equality, and Connecticut recently became the 19th state to legalize adult recreational marijuana.

These victories show that progress toward a freer and more just America is possible, but the fight will be hard  just like it was in 1776.

Trevor Burrus is a research fellow in the Cato Institutes Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editorinchief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Are we all alone in the universe or is there something or someone out there? Sky-watching parties will be held on July 2 to celebrate World UFO Day. This date commemorates the alleged Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash. If youd like to read up on this topic, Manistee County Library has DVDs and books available.

 Alien Agenda: Investigating the Extraterrestrial Presence among Us by Jim Marrs shares new and compelling evidence of unidentified flying objects and alien encounters.

 UFOs Myths, Conspiracies and Realities by John B. Alexander answers questions concerning specific sightings and debunks conspiracy theories.

 UFO: Top Secret (DVD) is a behind the scenes look at what the government knows and isnt saying from a former government employee.

 Out of the Blue: the Definitive Investigation of the UFO Phenomenon (DVD) documents worldwide sightings and interviews with people from the military and government.

 For some of us, the closest well come to a UFO experience is a good book. Saucer: Savage Planet '' by Stephen Coonts begins a series by the same name. After finding a long buried spaceship in the desert, Rip must work with a test pilot to keep the ship and its technology from being exploited.

 The Glittering World'' by Robert Levy tells the story of a young man returning to his homeland to find his life has been a lie. The search for an explanation is triggered by a childhood memory of alien abduction.

 A stand-alone title by Ernest Cline, Armada, is a cautionary tale of be careful what you wish for. It might come true. Spending much of his time wishing he could fly away to another planet, Zack suddenly sees a flying saucer and realizes his video game has come to life. It will take the skills of gamers across the world to beat the aliens.

 Readers who enjoy outer space settings might enjoy these Science Fiction titles. The Martian by Andy Weir is the story of an abandoned astronaut, presumed dead on Mars, and his struggle to beat the odds and return home.

 The Resisters by Gish Jen is set in the hopefully distant future. America is ruled by the Internet and there are two groups of people. A baby with a special ability is born to parents in the lesser group and she attracts notice for the Olympics. Can her parents help her maintain the values she was raised with while fighting the bureaucracy?

 Dune by Herbert Frank is set on a desert planet where a young boys family rules this land and a drug that prolongs life. Seeing his family betrayed and destroyed, the young boy sets out on a journey to right this wrong and fulfill an ancient dream.

 The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey begins in Leviathan Wakes. After colonizing much of the solar system, a mining crew discovers an abandoned ship and a secret better left buried.

 In Goldilocks by Laura Lam, a team of women will do what they must to reach a place fit for human life before the Earth collapses.

 Three people will spend 17 months in a simulation of outer space in preparation for being the first humans on Mars. Each has their own reason for taking the assignment and is tested to the limit in the The Wanderers by Meg Howrey.

 Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed brings forth a young leader who resists her peoples way of life while looking for answers to the secrets hidden in their island.

 Book two in the Ready Player One series, Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline finds Wade Watts discovering a long hidden secret that will again change his world. If he can follow the clues and stay alive, he will also save humanity.

When you come back to earth, Manistee County Library will have more exciting adventures waiting for you at all of our locations, Arcadia, Bear Lake, Kaleva, Onekama, Wellston and Manistee. Please visit our website manisteelibrary.org for hours of operation.

Kim Jankowiak and Becca Brown of the Manistee County Library write the recurring On the Same Page feature that showcases the library's titles available surrounding a revolving topic. Jankowiak is a reference librarian and Brown is a circulation clerk for the library.
One of the many things lost for more than a year as a result of the COVID pandemic was the ability for people to gather to enjoy musical and talent-show type performances during festivals.

Now that restrictions have been lifted, the Manistee Jaycees will be bringing that opportunity to this area during the Manistee National Forest Festival. Starting at 7 p.m. on July 3, the Jaycees will be hosting the Beach Jam at First Street Beach.

Another returning event will be the Little Big Shots Talent Show from 1-3 p.m. on July 3 at the Lions Pavilion. Also taking place again after a year layoff due to COVID-19 is the Scottville Clown Band Concert that will be held at 3 p.m. on July 5 at the Lions Pavilion at Douglas Park.

Jaycee member Earlene Lancour said the Beach Jam will be similar to the program they ran last year when COVID-19 limited the event compared to previous years. The popular local band Clear Heels will be performing.

They will be playing at First Street Beach over next to (beach house), she said. "We are doing what we did last year where we are going to have the band will be facing the beach when they perform.

Lancour said there will not be an admission charge as the Jaycees are picking up the cost and inviting everyone to come down and enjoy the show. The seating area will be out in the beach sand, giving it the feel of a summer concert.

There will be no fencing and people are welcome to bring their own refreshments and chairs, said Lancour. It is a simple event and basically the same as what we did last year. In the past when we did the Beach Bash we had a couple bands and were selling drinks and things like that. So this is more like a jam than the whole big bash.

Lancour said they hope that by the time the 2022 Forest Festival arrives they might be able to return to their former format.

We hope as things continue to life we will be able to go more back to that in the future, she said. But for now we are just thankful that we can do some form of event for the community in a simple manner that contains safety regulations.

Lancour said they did pretty well last year in having a good turnout while keeping everyone safe.

There were more limitations last year, but we felt it was just safe to go the same route again this year, she said. We are right at the beach so people that are down there earlier in the day can just stay and enjoy the music.

By having the Beach Jam as an open event without the sale of alcohol makes it a good family type activity where people can bring their children along as well to enjoy the music.

It is more family friendly this way, Lancour said.

Clear Heels is a very talented group of musicians who really offer up music that appeals to a wide age group. Included in their music is songs from the Beatles to the current hits. It also includes all kinds of fun dance and party tunes mixed in.

The Jaycees will cover the cost of the band, but they will have a small donation box to help defray costs.

We are going back to the Roots on the River concerts this year and we have asked for sponsors on that and would hate to ask for more help on the Beach Jam considering what businesses have faced in the last couple of years, Lancour said.

The Fourth of July is always a big weekend, even during the pandemic, and the Jaycees are inviting everyone looking for a safe way to enjoy a musical event in a safe venue to check out their Beach Jam.

We think it is going to be a real good time and everyone will have fun and enjoy it, said Lancour.

The Manistee County Blue Tigers are looking for talented youngsters ages 4-16 to take part in The Little Big Shots Talent Show.

Children who love to sing, dance, recite speeches or poetry or play an instrument are urged to apply. The group is following state COVID-19 guidelines with an outdoor event.

Shirley Madden, who is coordinating the show, said like all the other events they were waiting to see if COVID-19 guidelines would be lifted enough to hold it. The group held successful shows in 2018 and 2019, but couldnt do it due to COVID-19 last year.

We were off a whole year so I am trying to call people and get things together again, she said. I am trying to contact students to get them to back to coming to perform. Its just a challenge right now to get them, but I think it is just worth it for the kids to show their talents.

Manistee's own, Toni Trucks, will be the guest host this year.

Many of you will remember when Toni was a youngster performing in programs in the Manistee Area Public Schools, said Madden in an email. Toni is now a permanent member of CBS Seal Team which (first) aired Sept. 27, 2017.

The show was growing in popularity each year prior to the pandemic. Madden hopes they can get that momentum going again.

I am hoping people will respond and let the children come out, said Madden. I just feel it is so important for children to display the gifts they have been given.

Madden said schools have cut back in the arts programs over the past several years and shows like this one give the children the opportunity to show their talents.

That is one of the reasons we do this show is to let those students talents been seen, she said.

The Scottville Clown Band Concert will feature all the antics and great music in the concert. No sale of alcohol will take place and people are asked to bring their own refreshments and chairs to sit on and to social distance just like they are asking for the Beach Jam.

Known affectionately as The Big Noise from Scottville, the band really gets toes tapping and people on their feet. Band members are always decked out in colorful attire and are well known for their antics.

Band members come from all over Michigan and over 14 other states, from California, Tennessee, Florida and even New York to perform throughout the summer in Michigan. The members are a very diverse group, some doctors, firemen, police officers, bankers and Realtors.
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Atlanta, GA (30303)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High near 90F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

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A few clouds. Low 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
PHFA thanks General Assembly, governor and others for significant investment in housing in new state budget for FY 2021-22
Bob Barr represented Georgias Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia and serves as head of Liberty Guard.
Pretty much everyone remembers seeing Imran Khan star as the boy next door in films like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Gori Tere Pyaar Me, Break Ke Baad, Ek Mai Aur Ek Tu through the years.

 Prime Video

 Netflix

The 38-year-old actor, who is also the nephew of Bollywood maestro Aamir Khan, became the talk of the town after his memorable debut as the much-loved chocolate boy in Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008) opposite Genelia D'Souza.



 Netflix

Well, a lot has changed in the last 13 years, and what was considered a limitless future for Imran has now turned absolutely bleak.



The actor was last seen in Nikkhil Advanis Katti Batti opposite Kangana Ranaut six years ago. Last year, his friend and actor Akshay Oberoi officially confirmed the news that Imran had quit acting. For good!

According to reports, it is said that the actor may have taken early retirement from acting as he wants to focus on film direction.

However, his Delhi Belly film director Abhinay Deo reveals exactly why the actor may have chosen to put an end to what would have been a promising acting career.

 Netflix

 BCCL

Abhinav, who was speaking just a day prior to Delhi Belly's marking 10 years of the successful release, said he felt really bad about Imran's decision.



"I felt sad as I have high regard for that man. He is a great guy and there is anyway a shortage of good people in this world. He is one of the good guys and he should be there in this industry."

"He is a talented guy, whether in front of the camera or behind it. He is a trained filmmaker and a writer too. I feel he should get his creativity out in any form that he can. But I did feel bad that he did not want to act anymore, said Abhinav.

The director also explains how Imran's decision wasn't a knee-jerk one and that he had even been turning down many of his films.

As a matter of fact, Imran refused a couple of my films because he said he was stopping acting and I was taken back a bit by that, otherwise he would have been a part of one of my films four years back."

"But he didnt want to go down that route at all as he was reinventing himself. I think every person has a process and I am sure we will see some spectacular work from him in the future, said Abhinav.

Whatever he decides to do next, we wish him all the best.
Meridian, MS (39302)

Today

Sunny skies this morning. Scattered showers and thunderstorms developing during the afternoon. High 91F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Meridian, MS (39302)

Today

Mostly sunny early then increasing clouds with some scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 91F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
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Japan, Asias largest steel scrap supplier, exported 9.39 million tonnes of the steelmaking raw material last year  over a fifth more than in 2019.Vietnam became the single largest importer of Japanese scrap last year; at 3.40 million tonnes, this was an increase of 54.7% year on year.But South Koreas imports of Japanese material fell by 26.6% year on year to 2.95 million tonnes.Further intrigue emerged in the Asian scrap market in January 2021, with the resumption of large-scale scrap imports in China.China imported 221,409 tonnes of ferrous scrap in the first five months of 2021, a 2,894% increase from the same period in 2020. Imports from Japan alone accounted for 166,337 tonnes.Following Chinas return to the international scrap market, Fastmarkets launched a daily price assessment for steel scrap, heavy recycled steel materials, cfr China Click to enlargeJoin our industry experts for an exciting forward look into Asias evolving steel market at the Singapore Steel Forum on July 14. Register today at https://events.fastmarkets.com/singapore-steel-forum
The tonnage is the highest volume awarded in a single month according to Fastmarkets records dating back to June 2018. The two most recent tenders for London Metal Exchange-registered brands of high-grade aluminium ingot were both awarded to Sorin Corporation, PPS said on June 30.A 1,000 tonne for delivery to Busan port on a cif basis by September 30 was awarded at a premium of $151 per tonne.

Sorin was also awarded a 3,000-tonne aluminium tender at a...
The sharpest increases were for exports of alloy flat steel (up 220.01%) and cold-rolled flat steel (up 86.41%).The rise in CR flat steel exports was mainly down to strong global demand for the product, aided by the widespread shortage of hot-rolled coil, the base material for producing CRC.

Turkish HRC...
KABUL  Following the interparliamentary meetings between women members of the Afghan parliament and parliaments of other countries of the world, the second meeting between Afghanistan and Canada was held through VTC.

The meeting was attended by Afghanistans Ambassador to Canada Hassan Soroush, Acting Minister of Women's Affairs Hasina Safi, Deputy State Minister for Peace Dr. Alema, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Women and Human Rights, Civil Society and Women's Affairs Nahid Farid, and Chair of the women's parliamentary group Shinkai Karokhail.

Also, members of Wolesi Jirga Maryam Sama, Habibeh Danesh, Akbari, and Rahimah Jami, Director General of Human Rights and Women's Affairs at the MoFA Frozan Nawabi, and Director of Afghan Women's Network Mary Akrami were among the participants of the meeting.

Expressing concern over the increasing threat posed by extremist and terrorist groups in the country, the Afghan parliamentarians called for continued support and cooperation of Canada, and stressed the need to preserve and strengthen Afghanistan's gains over the last two decades, particularly the women's and children's rights.

Representatives of Canada, Minister of Women's Affairs Maryam Monsef; Minister of Seniors citizens of Canada Deb Schulte, Member of the Senate and Co-Chair of the Canadian Parliamentary Friendship Committee Senator Salma Attaullahjan, Co-Chairs of the Canada-Afghanistan Friendship Group Francesco Sorbara, and members of the Canadian House of Commons Robert Kitchen and Yasmin Ratansi stated that Canada believed in women's empowerment and fully supported the preservation and strengthening of Afghan womens hard-gained achievements over the last two decades.

They also emphasized the active role of women in the Afghan peace talks as well advocacy for and follow up of the ongoing pursuit of the legitimate demands of the Afghan women.
Fraudulent Organizations Posing as Charitable Nonprofits Ordered Dissolved

Fraudulent Organizations Posing as Charitable Nonprofits Ordered Dissolved

Lynsey Mukomel 517-599-2746 Attorney General

July 1, 2021

LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel along with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Director Orlene Hawks successfully obtained an order dissolving 10 fraudulent entities for failing to comply with state nonprofit and charity laws. The entities have names similar to those of legitimate nonprofits, like the American Cancer Society, American Cancer Foundation, United Way and the American Red Cross, but appear to serve no charitable or commercial purpose.

Last year, the Department of Attorney General identified Ian Richard Hosang, Claudia Stephen, and Lincoln Palsey as involved with the fraudulent entities American Cancer Foundation (ACF) of Detroit, ACF of Grand Rapids, ACF of Lansing and ACF of Michigan; American Cancer Society (ACS) of Detroit and ACS of Michigan; American Red Cross (ARC) of Detroit and ARC of Michigan; United Way of Detroit and United Way of Michigan.

In January 2020, LARA's Corporations Division referred the ACS of Michigan and ACS of Detroit to the Attorney General's office for potential dissolution proceedings after discovering the organizations were not part of the national entity. During that review, the Department of Attorney General discovered the other involved fraudulent entities.

The Department of Attorney General found no evidence that any donations were made to these organizations.

Last week, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady III sided with the state in an order that:

holds that the defendants engaged in fraud;

permanently enjoins defendants from forming a Michigan Nonprofit Corporation or from seeking a Certificate of Authority to transact business in Michigan on behalf of a foreign nonprofit entity;

permanently enjoins defendants from serving as an Officer, Director, or Resident Agent for a nonprofit corporation formed or transacting business in Michigan; and

dissolves the 10 fraudulent entities identified in the complaint.

"I'm pleased by this outcome, which goes to ensuring Michiganders looking to support important causes don't have to worry about fraudulent entities that take advantage of generous individuals," Nessel said. "We remain committed to protecting charitable interests in this great state and I encourage people to research charities through our website to determine legitimacy before donating."

The Department of Attorney General offers a search engine online that allows people to search for:

a registered charity, public safety organization (police or fire group), or professional fundraiser by name, EIN, or Attorney General file number; and

a list of charities by purpose, geographical area, or combination of factors.

The Department of Attorney General also offers tips for evaluating a charity.

"Thanks to the swift action of LARA's Corporations Division in identifying these fraudulent charities and the successful intervention of the Attorney General's office, no more Michigan citizens will be vulnerable to these individuals and organizations," Hawks said. "Consumers should research any individual or organization thoroughly before giving a charitable organization their hard-earned money and promptly report suspected fraud to the Department of Attorney General's Office."

These entities were all incorporated in Michigan in 2018 by Hosang, who is identified as the resident agent and incorporator. Stephen and Palsey were identified as officers and directors for some of the entities. However, neither Hosang nor the other defendants reside in Michigan; all have New York addresses.

The entities themselves also appeared to have fraudulent information connected to them and no legitimate charitable or commercial purpose. None of the entities were registered with the Attorney General's Charitable Trust Division as required by law. They also were not registered as charitable organizations with the state, and had no physical office locations, no web presence, and no phone numbers.

Moreover, none of the board members live in Michigan.

LARA's Corporations Division dissolved all 10 entities on June 25. Under the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act, consumers may determine if a business entity is on file with LARA's Corporations Division or contacting the Corporations Division at (517) 241-6470 or via email. They may also obtain certificates of fact or certificates of good standing online.
2021 Michigan Cyber Summit to be held in October

2021 Michigan Cyber Summit to be held in October

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 30, 2021

Caleb Buhs, buhsc@michigan.gov or 517-282-6018

LANSING, Mich. -- The 2021 Michigan Cyber Summit (formerly the North American International Cyber Summit) will be held Oct. 21. This year's summit will be a fully interactive virtual event with free registration for all participants.

This is the 10th year of Michigan Cyber Summit, and the event will again bring together experts from across the globe to discuss the latest in cybersecurity issues impacting business, education, information technology, economic development, law enforcement, and personal use. The Michigan Cyber Summit is open to the public and will feature information for individuals, families, business professionals, educators, law enforcement, and government officials.

"With the success of last year's free virtual event, we decided to do it again," said Michigan Chief Information Officer Brom Stibitz. "The whole world is shifting to a hybrid work and learning environment and sharing the latest in cybersecurity news and practices is more important than ever. The Michigan Cyber Summit allows for attendees to participate in critical discussions with highly respected speakers from the public and private sectors on how to navigate the digital world."

The summit agenda will feature internationally recognized keynote speakers and panelists, as well as experts from across the country to lead breakout sessions on a variety of industry topics.

Michigan is recognized as a national leader in cybersecurity, and the Michigan Cyber Summit serves as a platform for regional, national, and international thought leadership.

The Governor's High School Cyber Challenge will also be a part of the 2021 Michigan Cyber Summit with the announcement of the first, second, and third place teams. The challenge is designed to prepare the next generation of cyber professionals and tests Michigan high school students' skills in information technology, computer science, and cybersecurity in a two-round statewide competition.

Students that qualify to compete in round two will be awarded a voucher to complete the CompTIA Security+ Bootcamp and Certification Exam. Students that successfully complete the exam will receive a CompTIA Security+ certification, a globally recognized security credential approved by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Registration for the 2021 Michigan Cyber Summit is open and participation is free. To learn more about the summit, visit the official cyber summit website. The site will continue to be updated as speakers are added.

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Safety benefits:

- MDOT is suspending work and lifting traffic restrictions wherever possible this holiday weekend to ease congestion and increase safety.

- Although some equipment and traffic configurations will remain over the weekend, suspending operations improves safety for workers and motorists.

- Remember to buckle up, stay alert and avoid distractions at all times when driving.

June 30, 2021 -- This Independence Day weekend, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is removing lane restrictions on nearly 63 percent of its road and bridge projects statewide to ease traffic delays for holiday travelers. With pandemic restrictions being lifted, AAA Michigan estimates more than 1.5 million Michigan residents are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, a 22 percent increase from last year.

Beginning at 3 p.m. Friday, July 2, and continuing until 6 a.m. Tuesday, July 6, 107 out of 171 projects statewide will have lane restrictions removed. While motorists will see suspended operations in most MDOT work zones for the weekend, drivers are advised that equipment and certain traffic configurations may remain in place, like temporary shifts or shoulder closures.

"With almost all remaining COVID-19 restrictions having been lifted, we expect a tremendous amount of folks to be traveling this Fourth of July holiday weekend," said State Transportation Director Paul C. Ajegba. "With more work than ever happening on state roads thanks to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Rebuilding Michigan program, we remind all drivers to slow down, stay alert and avoid distractions in work zones. While you're depending on us to fix the roads, road workers are trusting you with their lives. Let's work together to make sure everyone returns home safely each and every night."

MDOT oversees I, M, and US routes and is responsible for nearly 10,000 miles of state highways, which carry more than 50 percent of all traffic and approximately 70 percent of commercial traffic in Michigan.

For up-to-date information on MDOT projects, view the list of statewide lane closures on the Mi Drive website at www.Michigan.gov/Drive.

The following is a list of work zones that will remain active or have lane restrictions during Independence Day weekend. If necessary, detour routes will be posted at the project location.

Upper Peninsula

- I-75, Chippewa County, has one lane open in each direction from north of M-80 to north of M-28.

- I-75, Chippewa County, has one lane open in each direction at the north branch of the Munuscong River.

- M-26, Houghton County, has one lane open in alternating directions at Umbrella Tree Creek via temporary traffic signals.

- M-28, Alger County, has one lane open in alternating directions over the AuTrain River via temporary traffic signals.

- M-28, Alger County, will have a directional detour in place in Munising. Westbound M-28 traffic will stay on M-28. Eastbound M-28 will use M-28 to Hickory Street, then Superior Street back to M-28.

- M-38, Ontonagon County, is closed to through-traffic from M-26 to US-45 at Cane Creek. Detour posted.

- M-129, Chippewa County, has one lane open in alternating directions over the Munuscong River south of Pickford via temporary signals.

- US-2, Dickinson County, has one westbound lane open at Scenic Drive in Norway.

- US-2 in Bessemer, Gogebic County, has one lane open in alternating directions between Clayberg Street and Old US-2 via temporary signals.

- US-41 in Nestoria, Baraga County, has one lane open in alternating directions between Pine Avenue and King Lake Road via temporary traffic signals.

- US-41 in Chassell, Houghton County, has one lane open in alternating directions via temporary signals.

- US-41 (Townsend Drive) in Houghton, Houghton County, has one lane open in each direction between MacInnes Drive and Pearl Street with a traffic shift.

- US-41, Houghton County, has one lane open in alternating directions near Pilgrim River via temporary signals.

- US-41 in Marquette Township, Marquette County, has one lane closed in each direction from County Road 492 to Washington Street.

For more information, contact MDOT Superior Region Communications Representative Dan Weingarten at 906-250-4809. Follow the Superior Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_UP.



Northern Lower Peninsula

- M-22 in Frankfort, Benzie County, is closed between M-115 and 7th Street. Detour posted.

- M-37, Grand Traverse County, has one lane open in each direction south of Traverse City with traffic shifts.

- M-55 in Manistee, Manistee County, is closed between US-31 and Stronach Road. Detour posted.

- M-115, Wexford County, is closed between M-37 and 9 Mile Road west of Mesick. Detour: M-37, 4 Road and 9 Road.

- US-23 in Cheboygan, Cheboygan County, will have southbound traffic detoured on local streets.

- US-131 in Boyne Falls, Charlevoix County, is closed from Cherry Hill Road to Skop Road. Local access is maintained.

For more information, contact MDOT North Region Communications Representative James Lake at 906-250-0993. Follow the North Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_Traverse.



West Michigan

- I-196 in Grand Rapids has a traffic shift between Ionia and Maryland avenues with one eastbound lane and two westbound lanes open. Plymouth Avenue is closed at I-196; the westbound I-196 off ramp to Fuller Avenue is closed.

- I-196 in Grand Rapids has the eastbound bridge over the Grand River closed.

- I-196, Allegan County, will have one lane open in each direction with southbound traffic shifted over to the northbound side between Holland and Saugatuck. The southbound I-196 on and off ramps at Blue Star Highway (Exit 41) are closed.

- I-196, Allegan County, has one lane open in each direction over Pier Cove Creek, just south of M-89.

- M-37, Kent and Barry counties, will have one lane open at Duncan Creek with a temporary traffic signal. Cherry Valley Road and Stimson Road are both closed at M-37.

- M-37, Newaygo County, will have a traffic shift with one southbound lane open between the Muskegon River and Quarterline Street. Northbound M-37 is detoured between Quarterline and Water streets.

- M-57 (14 Mile Road), Kent County, will have a traffic shift with one lane open in each direction between Farland Avenue and Ramsdell Drive.

- M-104, Ottawa County, will have a traffic shift and one lane open in each direction between Kreuger Street and 148th Avenue.

- US-31 BR (Pere Marquette Highway), Mason County, is closed and detoured just south of US-10.

- US-131, Allegan County, will have one southbound lane open at M-179; the M-179 ramp to southbound US-131 will be closed.

For more information, contact MDOT Grand Region Communications Representative John Richard at 616-262-1565. Follow the Grand Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_West.



Southwest Michigan

- I-69, Branch County, has one lane open in each direction from US-12 to Jonesville Road.

- I-69, Calhoun and Eaton counties, has one lane open in each direction between I-94 in Marshall and M-78 in Olivet.

- I-94, Berrien County, has two lanes open in each direction from I-196 to Britain Avenue.

- M-343 in Richland, Kalamazoo County, has single-lane closures at G Avenue. G Avenue and 27th Street are closed and detoured.

- US-131 BR in Constantine, St. Joseph County, has one lane open over the St. Joseph River between Water Street and Locus Street with a temporary traffic signal.

For more information, contact MDOT Southwest Region Communications Representative Nick Schirripa at 269-208-7829. Follow the Southwest Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_Southwest.



Central Michigan and Thumb

- I-69, Genesee County, will have two lanes open in each direction between Hammerberg Road and M-54 with a traffic shift.

- I-69, Lapeer County, will have one lane open in each direction with ramp closures at M-53. Detour posted.

- I-69, St. Clair County, will have one lane open in each direction with traffic shifts between Miller Road and Stapleton Road. The eastbound I-69 ramps at Riley Center Road will remain closed with a detour posted.

- I-69 BL, St. Clair County, will have one lane open in each direction from McMorran Boulevard to Glenwood Avenue in Port Huron due to permit work.

- M-52, Saginaw County, has one lane open in alternating directions over Marsh Creek via temporary signals.

- M-65, Arenac County, is closed between US-23 and Main Street in Twining. Detour posted.

- M-136, St. Clair County, will have one open lane with a temporary signal at the Black River.

- I-75, Bay County, will have three lanes open in the peak direction of travel via a moveable barrier wall.

- I-75/M-46, Saginaw County, will have three lanes open in the peak direction of travel via a moveable barrier wall.

- US-23, Genesee County, will have lane shifts at Baldwin Road and Grand Blanc Road.

For more information, contact MDOT Bay Region Communications Representative Jocelyn Hall at 989-245-7117. Follow the Bay Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_Bay.



Southern Michigan

- I-75, Monroe County, has median shoulder closures in each direction with a temporary barrier wall at Laplaisance Road. Laplaisance Road has only the westbound lane open over I-75; eastbound traffic is detoured.

- I-94, Jackson County, has the following restrictions:

- The Lansing Avenue bridge over I-94 is closed and detoured.

- The M-106 (Cooper Street) entrance ramp to westbound I-94 is closed and detoured.

- Northbound US-127/M-50 (West Avenue) has one lane closed at I-94 with the ramp to westbound I-94 closed and detoured.

For more information, contact MDOT University Region Communications Representative Aaron Jenkins at 517-243-9075. Follow the University Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_LanJxn and www.twitter.com/MDOT_A2.



Metro Detroit

The following lane restrictions will be in place in Dearborn and Detroit due to last weekend's severe weather:

Westbound I-94 will have two lanes open near W. Grand Boulevard due to repair work. The eastbound I-96 ramp to westbound I-94 will remain closed during these repairs. All lanes are expected to be reopened after the holiday weekend.

Eastbound I-94 will be closed from US-12 (Michigan Avenue) to W. Grand Boulevard for extensive repairs.

For the most up-to-date flooding-related lane closures on state roadways in this area, go to www.Michigan.gov/Drive.



Macomb County

- 11 Mile Road has two lanes open at M-3.

- I-696 has one lane open on the eastbound exit ramp to M-3.

- M-3 (Gratiot Avenue) has two lanes open in each direction between 11 Mile Road and Common Road.

- M-59 has two lanes open in each direction between Romeo Plank Road and M-97.

Oakland County

- I-75 has two lanes open in each direction between 8 Mile and 13 Mile roads.

- I-696 has the ramps to southbound I-75 closed.

Wayne County

- Old M-14 (Plymouth Road) has one lane open between Middlebelt Road and Farmington Road.

- US-12 (Michigan Avenue) has one eastbound lane open at US-24 (Telegraph Road).

- I-75/M-8 (Davison Freeway) will have the following restrictions in place north of downtown Detroit:

- Northbound I-75 will have two lanes open between Caniff Street and 7 Mile Road.

- Southbound I-75 will have two lanes open between 8 Mile Road and M-8.

- The eastbound M-8 ramp to northbound I-75 is closed.

- The northbound I-75 ramp to westbound M-8 is closed.

- The eastbound M-8 service drive is closed from Oakland Avenue to Dequindre Street.

- The westbound M-8 service drive is closed at Dequindre Street.

- M-8 has one lane closed in each direction under I-75.

- The northbound Oakland Avenue bridge over I-75 is closed.

- I-75 has the following restrictions in place southwest of downtown Detroit:

- Southbound I-75 has three lanes open from Vernon Highway to Springwells Street.

- Northbound I-75 has three lanes open from Clark Street to Vernon Highway.

- The I-75 service drives are closed between Clark and Dragoon streets.

- The northbound I-75 service drive is closed from Waterman Street to Livernois Avenue.

- The Springwells Street interchange is closed.

- Springwells Street is closed between the I-75 service drives and M-85 (Fort Street).

- The southbound Livernois Avenue bridge over I-75 is closed.

- The Dragoon Street ramp to northbound I-75 is closed.

- The northbound and southbound I-75 ramps to Livernois Avenue/Dragoon Street are closed.

- The Clark Street ramp to southbound I-75 is closed.

- The northbound I-75 ramp to Clark Street is closed.

- The Clark Street bridge over I-75 is closed.

- M-85 (Fort Street) has one lane open in each direction at Dragoon Street.

- I-94 will have the following restrictions in place east of downtown Detroit:

- The Frontenac Street bridge over I-94 and the service drive is closed.

- The Burns Street bridge over I-94 and the service drive is closed.

- The Cadillac Avenue bridge over I-94 and the service drive is closed.

- The Second Avenue bridge over I-94 is closed.

- The eastbound exit ramp to French Road is closed.

- The French Road ramp to westbound I-94 is closed.

- Westbound Palmer Street is closed from Second Avenue to Kirby Street.

- Westbound Antoinette Street is closed from Cass Avenue to Third Street.

- M-3 (Gratiot Avenue) has the ramp to eastbound I-94 closed.

- M-3 (Gratiot Avenue) has one lane open at Randolph Street.

- M-10 has the southbound ramp to Elmhurst Street closed.

- The M-10 service drives at Milwaukee Avenue will have single-lane closures.

- M-53 (Van Dyke Street) has the ramps to eastbound and westbound I-94 closed.

- M-85 (Fort Street) has single-lane closures in each direction between Fifth Street and Cass Avenue. Second Avenue is closed in each direction between Lafayette Boulevard and Congress Street.

For more information, contact MDOT Metro Region Communications Representative Diane Cross at 248-752-0336. Follow the Metro Region on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDOT_MetroDet.
Governor Whitmer Breaks Ground at High-Tech Software Company TechSmith's New International Headquarters in East Lansing

Governor Whitmer Breaks Ground at High-Tech Software Company TechSmith's New International Headquarters in East Lansing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 29, 2021

Contact: Kathleen Achtenberg, achtenbergk@michigan.org

Governor Whitmer Breaks Ground at High-Tech Software Company TechSmith's New International Headquarters in East Lansing

Governor breaks ground for new facility that will create and retain up to 3 25 high-tech jobs in the Lansing region , generate nearly $15M in capital investment

Global software developer chooses Michigan for expansion, further establishes Lansing region as hub for high-tech jobs

LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer today broke ground on TechSmith's headquarters in East Lansing, a leading software development company that will create up to 50 jobs and retain up to 275 jobs. She was joined by Michigan State University President Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., MD and TechSmith CEO Wendy Hamilton.

"TechSmith's investment in East Lansing proves once again that Michigan is a world leader in innovation and further cements the Lansing region as a tech and professional services hub in the state," said Governor Whitmer. "This new headquarters facility will create up to 50 new good-paying, high-tech jobs for Michigan workers and underscores the strength of Michigan's tech talent. As we jumpstart Michigan's economy, today's groundbreaking is helping to build the path for economic growth and recovery right here in mid-Michigan."

TechSmith is a high-tech software development company focusing on capturing screen content for better communication. Its software is used as aides for training, tutorials, scholastic lessons and everyday communication. The company is consolidating five existing facilities into one new headquarters building to be built near the former Spartan Village in East Lansing. The greenspace will need infrastructure investment to connect utilities, water drainage, fiber optics and road improvements. The Michigan State University Foundation has agreed to cover most of the infrastructure improvements with an estimated investment of about $2 million.

"We're pleased to welcome TechSmith to a location closer to our campus," said MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. "They have been a great collaborator with the university for over a decade and this move will facilitate opportunities to further build upon our relationship."

The project is expected to generate a total capital investment of $15 million with the support of a $250,000 Jobs Ready Michigan performance-based grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund, awarded in December. Michigan was chosen over competing sites in Florida, Texas and Maryland.

"In a growing tech company, it's all about attracting and enabling the right talent," said Wendy Hamilton, TechSmith CEO. "We look forward to providing a world-class tech facility to our amazing team that reinforces our culture, creativity, and collaboration. We are also committed to supporting Michigan State University and the Lansing region as community stakeholders and would like to thank so many partners that have helped get us to this partnership off the ground- including MSU, the MSU Foundation, the City of East Lansing, the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and other partners. "

The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) assisted TechSmith in identifying and evaluating locations throughout the region. Additionally, LEAP has been vital to partnering and packaging TechSmith's project with key governmental agencies and local business partners.

"This project will create and retain good, high paying jobs in a booming industry and at an internationally known local company - precisely the high-value targeted jobs people want and the type of jobs we need in the region," said Bob Trezise, president and CEO of LEAP.

Since its founding, TechSmith has focused on embracing an employee-centric mindset and prides itself on offering compensation packages that exceed industry standards, along with providing professional pathways for every employee. To find and attract talent, TechSmith also has an extensive internship program that brings interns to the Lansing area each summer from many different universities and colleges, as well as providing year-round internships to local students from MSU and Lansing Community College.

The company expects the new building to be a recruiting tool that will include modern design, open work areas and employee comforts mimicking accommodations found at software companies based in Silicon Valley.

The project builds on economic prosperity efforts led by MEDC by supporting a business in the target industries of tech and professional and corporate services and fostering high-wage job growth.

"The Lansing area continues to establish itself as a growing tech and professional services hub in the state and this investment by TechSmith further underscores the competitive advantages our state is has to offer growing tech businesses - from the strength of our business climate to our talented workforce. Michigan is grateful for the TechSmith team's continued vote of confidence in Michiganders," said Josh Hundt, Chief Business Development Officer and Executive Vice President of MEDC. "We're proud to work with LEAP, the MSU Foundation and other local partners as we send the message that Michigan's economy is recovering, and we are going to keep this momentum going."

About Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is the state's marketing arm and lead advocate for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus on growing Michigan's economy. For more information on the MEDC and our initiatives, visit www.MichiganBusiness.org. For Pure Michigan tourism information, your trip begins at www.michigan.org. Join the conversation on: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

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MANISTEE  Who doesn't like to get some fresh air while enjoying an ice-cold brew?

As of 11 a.m. Saturday, visitors and residents will be able to do that right downtown in Manistee's social district.

A social district is a designated area where patrons age 21 and up can purchase an alcoholic beverage from a participating establishment and carry and consume it outdoors.

Kristina Bajtka, Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce director of communication and investor relations, said the social district will enhance the downtown experience for residents and tourists alike.

"It's about creating an experience," she said. "We want them to experience Manistee, enjoy their time here and hopefully patronize our businesses and shops."

So far, participating establishments include Blue Fish Kitchen + Bar, Taco 'Bout It Mexican Fusion, TJ's Pub and the North Channel Brewing Company, and available drinks include liquor, wine and beer.

"Those four have been approved by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission and have the correct permitting to be able to participate in the district," Bajtka said.

The hours of operation of the social district will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, even beyond the summertime.

"It has been approved year-round," Bajtka said. "The district will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at this point."

At the May 18 Manistee City Council meeting, council unanimously voted in favor of the adoption of a resolution to support the establishment of the social district in downtown Manistee.

According to the meeting agenda, the Manistee Downtown Development Authority requested the activation of a social district, as allowed by the Michigan Public Act 124 of 2020, signed into law on July 1, 2020.

The DDA and the city are responsible for financing costs related to the designation and operation of the district. The Manistee City Police Department is responsible for security and enforcement, according to information in a city council agenda packet.

"The Stee" social district includes River Street and the Riverwalk downtown business district from Division Street to Pine Street. There will be teal sidewalk signs designating the area.

Participating establishments will sell drinks in a designated container. Containers must be disposed before purchasing another, and there will be no refills.

Drinks must be consumed within the social district boundaries. Containers are not to leave the area. Patrons are encouraged to look for signs that welcome them to shop with their beverage.

Per state and local law, no cans, glass bottles or outside drinks are permitted in the social district.

With the Manistee National Forest Festival up and running, Bajtka said it is a great time for the social district to launch.

"Some of our restaurants will have longer wait times, so this gives people an opportunity to walk down the street, shop, go on the Riverwalk and enjoy the natural beauty of Manistee while having a beverage," she said.

SEE ALSO:

Manistee takes first step in common areas for drinking in new social district
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  Democrat Charles Booker launched another campaign for the U.S. Senate on Thursday, reprising his hood to the holler theme in hopes of forging an urban-rural coalition powerful enough to unseat Republican incumbent Rand Paul next year in Kentucky.

Booker, a Black former state lawmaker, rose to prominence in 2020 by touting racial and economic justice themes that coincided with protests that erupted in Louisville and elsewhere nationwide over the deaths of Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans in encounters with police.

Republicans quickly portrayed Booker as a proud socialist out of step with the state's electorate, pointing to his support for a Green New Deal in coal-producing Kentucky. Paul criticized Booker's stance on policing issues and predicted Kentuckians will reject it. The senator, an ardent free-market advocate, rails against socialism, saying "nothing in life is really free.

Booker narrowly lost last year's Democratic primary to an establishment-backed rival, who was trounced by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in the general election in GOP-leaning Kentucky. Booker, who served one term in the legislature, is promoting the same unabashedly progressive agenda in his latest campaign against the libertarian-leaning Paul.

This really is going to be a conversation about the challenges Kentuckians are facing, and how we push for structural change so that we can heal our commonwealth, Booker said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Republicans predicted that Booker's plans for change would fall flat with the state's voters.

Kentuckians reject far-left ideas like these every chance they get, and Charles Bookers campaign for the U.S. Senate will be no different, state GOP Chairman Mac Brown said.

Booker formally launched his candidacy in a social media announcement. He stressed his social and economic justice message, saying: We can make freedom mean that every community across Kentucky is thriving with good-paying union jobs. That we're not just working to struggle less, but that we're owning, we're creating, we're building pathways to wealth all over Kentucky.

This time, Booker starts with broader name recognition and a more established fundraising network, the product of a late-surging campaign in 2020 that nearly wrested the Democratic nomination away from former fighter pilot Amy McGrath.

But Booker enters the race as a decided underdog against Paul, who is seeking a third term representing a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

Booker, who grew up poor in an inner-city Louisville neighborhood, touts Medicare for all, anti-poverty programs, a clean-energy agenda and criminal justice changes. Booker injects his own life struggles into his speeches, talking about having to ration his insulin in the past. His trademark slogan from the hood to the holler is based on the notion that poor rural whites face many of the same generational economic challenges he did.

In portraying Paul as out of touch, Booker said: Hes an eye doctor but he doesnt see us.

He treats Kentucky as his own step-stool as hes climbing his way to cozy up with his wealthy friends and these big corporations that are exploiting us," Booker said. "Whenever we need leadership, he is never there. And when he does open his mouth to talk ... hes embarrassing us.

Paul, once a presidential campaign rival of Donald Trump, became an ally of the former president. First elected to the Senate in the tea party-driven wave of 2010, Paul rails against socialism and big-government programs he says encroach on individual liberties and drive up the nation's debt. He embraces a more restrained foreign policy and is a frequent critic of foreign aid he says is wasteful.

Republicans contrasted Paul's record with Booker's aspirations for change.

Booker is too liberal for Kentucky, and his socialist manifesto has no place in the Senate, said Katharine Cooksey, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Charles Booker, Bernie Sanders and their socialist allies are no match for conservative Senator Rand Paul, who proves each and every day that he will stand up for Kentuckians and Kentucky values.

Pauls campaign had more than $3 million in the bank at the end of March. Booker aides say he raised more than $500,000 in the initial weeks after forming an exploratory committee in the spring.

Paul has routinely reached out to Black Kentuckians during his Senate tenure. He has made numerous visits to predominantly Black neighborhoods in Louisville, the state's largest city, to discuss criminal justice and anti-poverty issues. Last year, Paul spoke out against the use of no-knock search warrants and the militarization of police departments.

Blacks make up about 8% of Kentucky's population, but Bluegrass state voters have elected two Black candidates  both Republicans  to statewide office in recent years. In 2019, Daniel Cameron was elected the state's attorney general, and in 2015, Jenean Hampton was elected lieutenant governor on a ticket with former Gov. Matt Bevin.

Another Democrat this week announced her candidacy for the Kentucky Senate seat. Educator Ruth Gao said on social media shes running to confront the uphill climb people face due to unaffordable housing, low-paying jobs and student loan debt.
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP)  Rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed Florida condominium building resumed Thursday evening after a 15-hour pause for safety concerns, and officials said they had started planning for the likely demolition of the remaining structure.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the decision about the demolition needs to be made extremely carefully and methodically, considering the potential impact on the pile of debris and the effect on the search-and-rescue operations. An engineer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would likely be weeks before officials schedule the demolition.

The rescue work was halted shortly after 2 a.m. amid concerns about the stability of the part of the tower that still stands. Crews noticed widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column.

Work resumed shortly before 5 p.m. after the site was evaluated by structural engineers, Cava said, describing firefighters as really, really excited out there."

We will continue to search feverishly, as we have done all along in the parts of the collapse that we currently have access to, she said.

Scott Nacheman, a FEMA structures specialist, said operations were paused after sensors detected movement. It was later determined that the building itself had not moved, but there was movement in the debris pile below and in debris on the building of significant size," Nacheman said Thursday.

Nacheman said additional sensors were added to the site.

Right now, were in a position where we feel it is safe to continue operations. Weve done so, and monitoring will continue indefinitely until the operations are complete, he said.

The stoppage had threatened to dim hopes for finding anyone alive in the debris a week after the tower came down. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the halt was worrisome since minutes and hours matter, lives are at stake.

The rescue operations unfolded on the same day that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the devastated community.

The collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing. No one has been rescued since the first hours after the collapse.

This is life and death, Biden said during a briefing. We can do it, just the simple act of everyone doing what needs to be done, makes a difference.

Theres gonna be a lot of pain and anxiety and suffering and even the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow," he said. "And so, were not going anywhere.

Crews noticed several expansions in cracks they had been monitoring. They also observed 6 to 12 inches of movement in a large column hanging from the structure that could fall and cause damage to support columns" in the underground parking garage, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said.

Heavy equipment in the rubble pile caused vibrations, according to Nacheman. Rain has also been entering exposed parts of the building, saturating items and adding weight to the floors.

Peter Milian is a cousin of Marcus Guara, who died along with his wife, Anaely Rodriguez, and their two children, 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara. Milian said he understood why the rescue work had to be temporarily halted.

I mean, theyve done everything they can. But we trust the people that are on the ground. And obviously, theyve got to do whats best for their people, right? Because it is a dangerous situation, he said.

During a private meeting with family members, Biden drew on his own experiences with grief to try to comfort them. Biden lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car crash and decades later lost an adult son to brain cancer.

I just wish there was something I could do to ease the pain, he said in a video posted on Instagram by Jacqueline Patoka, a woman who was close to a couple and their daughter who are still missing.

Biden spoke of wanting to switch places with a lost or missing loved one. The waiting, the waiting is unbearable, he said.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation. A 2018 engineering report found that the building's ground-floor pool deck was resting on a concrete slab that had major structural damage and needed extensive repairs. The report also found abundant cracking" of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage.

Just two months before the building came down, the president of its board wrote a letter to residents saying that structural problems identified in the 2018 inspection had gotten significantly worse and that major repairs would cost at least $15.5 million. With bids for the work still pending, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.

___

Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale and Mark Kennedy in New York contributed to this report.
The venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy officially joined the crowded Republican race for the Ohio U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.

JD Vance, whose book was widely seen in 2016 as helping explain Republican Donald Trump's appeal to struggling white, working-class voters, made the announcement Thursday night at the steel fabricator Middletown Tube Works in his Ohio hometown.

We have to send people to Washington who are willing to shake the system up, to fight, to fight smart and to make our country a little bit better, Vance said.

Vance will face former state GOP chair Jane Timken, former state Treasurer Josh Mandel, and two Cleveland businesspeople, Mike Gibbons and Bernie Moreno, in next year's GOP primary. Portman, a Republican, decided earlier this year not to seek a third term, citing dismay at partisan gridlock.

While Vance, 36, hasn't run for elective office before, a political action committee formed this year to encourage his candidacy got an eyebrow-raising $10 million contribution from PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Vance had worked for the billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur in California.

Vance returned to his home state to live after Trump was elected in 2016, which was the first of two times the former president carried Ohio by 8 percentage points.

Vance's book, made into a movie starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close that earned the latter a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, tells of his hardscrabble, colorful upbringing in the struggling Ohio steel mill city of Middletown and his familial roots in Appalachian Kentucky.

He went on to serve in the Marines, including in Iraq, and to success at Ohio State University and Yale Law School, from which he graduated in 2013, and in the technology industry in Silicon Valley.

Vance said when he came back to Ohio in 2016 that he hoped to contribute to anti-addiction efforts. He and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, settled in Cincinnati, where he helped found a venture capital firm.

Among Vance's close associates is Jai Chabria, a longtime strategist for former Republican Gov. John Kasich, a 2016 Trump presidential rival and detractor of the former president.

Vance and Usha, who met at Yale Law, have two children.

___

Sewell reported from Cincinnati. After four decades with The Associated Press, he retired yesterday.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Vance is 36, not 38.
HONG KONG (AP)  Marking the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese control, a top city official defended the national security law imposed by Beijing to crush pro-democracy rallies and said Thursday it would be used further in the coming year to ensure stability.

Police sealed off Victoria Park  until recently the site of annual pro-democracy rallies marking the 1997 handover  and put up flags warning people that they could be prosecuted if they enter or remain in the enclosed area. Police said there were online calls encouraging people to take part in an unauthorized protest.

The security law was implemented one year ago as authorities cracked down on dissent after Hong Kong was rocked by massive anti-government protests in 2019. Critics say Beijing has reneged on a promise to keep the special privileges for Hong Kong for 50 years  the autonomy of its courts and legal system, civil liberties that include a free press, freedom of speech and the leeway to take to the streets to protest.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee said the national security law stipulates that human rights are respected and allows residents to enjoy freedom of the press and free assembly.

However, large-scale demonstrations have been banned and a number of pro-democracy activists and journalists have been arrested, ceased public activities or have left Hong Kong.

For two years in a row, authorities banned an annual June 4 candlelight vigil commemorating China's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijings Tiananmen Square, and the July 1 handover protest, citing pandemic social distancing restrictions.

On Wednesday, Chow Hang-tung, a key organizer of the June 4 vigil, was rearrested on suspicion of inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly.

Lee was speaking at a reception commemorating the 24th anniversary of the former British colonys return to China. It coincided with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party on the mainland, which Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam attended.

Lee said Hong Kong was on the rebound as the national security law has restored social and political stability.

Our team has more confidence than ever in Hong Kongs prospect. In the coming year, we will continue to uphold national security with determination and improve the implementation of the one country, two systems principle, he said, referring to the framework under which Hong Kong has its own government and enjoys freedoms not found on the mainland.

In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a keynote address during a celebration of the party centenary that China will uphold the one country, two systems framework in Hong Kong and Macao to ensure full sovereignty, social stability and maintain prosperity in the two regions.

There was a heavy police presence in the popular Causeway Bay shopping district, with officers stopping and searching some people. They took away pro-democracy activist Alexandra Wong, commonly known as Grandma Wong, who had been waving a British flag.

Police said in a Facebook post that at least 19 people were arrested on suspicion of possessing imitation firearms and offensive weapons, desecrating the national flag, distributing seditious publications, disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer.

An officer was also stabbed in the back by a man with a knife on Thursday night, police said. He was sent to a hospital for treatment. The suspect later fatally stabbed himself, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, who spoke to reporters upon her return from Beijing, said that such acts target the stability of society and disregard the law. She said that a full investigation will be conducted to determine if the man was backed by any organizations.

Last month, police arrested seven journalists and executives of the now-defunct Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper that was a vocal critic of Hong Kong and Chinas governments. Authorities also froze $2.3 million in assets linked to Apple Daily, forcing it to cease operations last week.

Western governments have criticized the arrests of journalists and Beijing's tightening grip on the territory.

During a webinar discussing the national security law's impact on Hong Kong on Thursday, British diplomat Simon Manley said the U.K. now considers China to be in a state of ongoing non-compliance" with the Sino-British Joint Declaration under which the territory was handed over to China.

There is a stark and growing gulf between Beijings promises, and its actions. The U.K. will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong, Manley said in prerecorded remarks.

Jiang Yingfeng, minister-counsellor for China's permanent mission to the U.N., said at the same webinar that China's Communist Party and government are serving the people wholeheartedly and contributing to the peace and development of the world.

Any attempt by the foreign forces to use Hong Kong-related issues to interfere in Chinas internal affairs, to jeopardize Chinas security and development and to harm the rights of Chinese people will surely fail," Jiang said.

On Thursday morning, amid a heavy police presence, four activists including Raphael Wong, the head of the League of Social Democrats political party, marched through the streets of Wan Chai carrying a banner calling for the release of political prisoners.

As authorities claim that social stability has returned to Hong Kong, some residents opt to leave the city. Holders of the British National Overseas passport, which was issued to residents before the 1997 handover, are now eligible to move to the U.K. on special visas.

In recent days, long lines of people have thronged the check-in counters of airlines flying to the U.K.

Among them was Serena Leung, who booked a flight to Britain on Wednesday with her two daughters aged 5 and 7.

I think that the U.K.s human rights situation, freedom and education are better than Hong Kong," she said. "Although the U.K. is not a perfect country, we still have confidence that it will stay well over the next 10, 20 years. But I dont have any confidence in Hong Kong, it will only get worse and worse.

___

Associated Press news assistants Matthew Cheng and Janice Lo in Hong Kong and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Pacific Gas & Electric asked regulators Wednesday to grant a $3.6 billion rate hike to help it pay for hardening its power systems to prevent deadly wildfires.

The nation's largest electric utility requested the hike beginning in 2023, with half of the increase devoted to wildfire safety, spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo told the Sacramento Bee.

The hike would increase the average residential bill by $36 a month for gas and electric service, although the state's Public Utilities Commission typically only grants a portion of any requested rate increase, the Bee said.

PG&E, which has some 16 million customers in central and Northern California, sought the hike as the state prepares to enter the hot summer months amid warnings that the state is likely to face one of its earliest and most dangerous wildfire seasons yet.

Much of the state already is in a drought and experts are predicting hotter, larger and fiercer blazes both in California and throughout the West.

The Biden administration said Wednesday it is hiring more federal firefighters  and immediately raising their pay as the summer looms.

The truth is were playing catch-up on preparing for extreme heat and wildfires, Biden said, calling federal efforts under-resourced compared with the deadly threat posed by climate change and extreme drought.

In Northern California, thousands of people were under evacuation orders because of a fire burning about 250 miles (402.34 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

PG&E equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the state's deadliest wildfires in recent years, most notably in 2017 and 2018 when a series of wildfires burned down more than 28,000 buildings and killed more than 100 people.

The devastation prompted PG&E to spend 17 months in bankruptcy court, where it negotiated a $13.5 billion settlement with some wildfire victims. It also resulted in the company pleading guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in Butte County, where the town of Paradise was wiped out by the Camp Fire in 2018.

State investigators also have linked PG&E equipment to a 2019 fire in Sonoma County that forced nearly 200,000 people from their homes and a Shasta County blaze last year that left four people dead. The utility has estimated those disasters could cost shareholders more than $600 million in damages.

PG&E emerged from bankruptcy last summer but also has run into criticism for shutting off power to thousands in rotating blackouts during some dangerous fire conditions in an effort to prevent power lines from falling or being fouled by tree branches and sparking fires during high winds.

PG&E said it has been spending money to better forecast the weather, quickly detect downed lines and install self-contained power systems to supply electricity when safety blackouts are called.

However, the utility's rate hike request was angrily condemned by The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer group.

This mind-boggling PG&E increase is a slap in the face to millions of California residents still hurting economically from the pandemic and struggling to get back on their feet, Mark Toney, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
Tennessee's first-of-its-kind law that requires businesses and government facilities to post signs if they let transgender people use multiperson public bathrooms of their choice has been hit with another legal challenge.

Mike Curb, founder of Curb Records in Nashville and California's former lieutenant governor, filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday. In the complaint, Curb argues that the law violates his First Amendment rights because he is being forced to use the state's discriminatory message.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a separate lawsuit arguing similarly that the law illegally requires businesses to communicate a misleading and controversial government-mandated message that they would not otherwise display.

The ACLU suit names the state fire marshal, state codes enforcement director and two district attorneys as defendants. Meanwhile, Curb's suit names Gov. Bill Lee, Attorney General Herbert Slatery and Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk.

A spokesperson for Slatery said his office will represent the state but declined to comment further.

Funk, who is also named in the ACLU lawsuit, has said his office will not promote hate and wont enforce the law.

With the threat of misdemeanor penalties, the law requires that the following sign be posted in bold, uppercase letters outside public multiperson bathrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms wherever transgender people are not prevented from using the facilities of their choice: This facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex, regardless of the designation on the restroom. Its one of five new Tennessee laws this year that have drawn backlash from LGBTQ advocates.

The law went into effect Thursday. However, it's unclear if and how it will be implemented throughout Tennessee. In June, Republican Senate Speaker Randy McNally told reporters he doesnt think the requirement will be enforced.

The enforcement of that will be at the local level. Well watch and see how that goes, Lee, a Republican, told reporters this week.
Content is king  if you can find it.

As streaming services proliferate, it's becoming more of a challenge to track down your favorite TV shows and blockbuster movies when streaming services can change up their offerings every month. That's complicating life for those who know what they want to watch, but just don't know where to locate it.

Some hits are practically itinerants. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight," for instance, bounced around four different services between March 2020 and March 2021  Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max and Peacock. Some of these services hosted the movies twice in that time according to Reelgood, a service that tracks videos across streaming services. (You can currently find the movies on Hulu and HBO Max.)

Want to watch a Harry Potter movie? Films in the series started on HBO Max in May 2020 before heading to Peacock in August. They then jumped back to HBO Max in June 2021  but only for a single month. At the moment, the first three films are available for free on Peacock, but you'll need a premium subscription for the last five.

Not long after its March launch, Paramount+ reclaimed some of its movies, like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" and the Paul Rudd comedy I Love You Man," from other services.

This merry-go-round arguably started in 2019 when NBC said it would no longer license The Office to Netflix, although Netflix kept the rights through 2020  a move intended to bolster NBC's Peacock streaming service. The Office was the most viewed show on Netflix in 2018, streamed for over 52 billion minutes, according to Nielsen. HBO Max made a similar move when it yanked back Friends" from Netflix.

The Hollywood producers of these shows and films likely appreciate the extra cash they've earned from licensing shows to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and similar services. But those partners have steadily morphed into competitors as studios like NBCUniversal, Disney and WarnerMedia created their own streaming options to get in on the gold rush. In the meantime, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have focused more on creating their own original content.

Exclusive content has always been an important factor in the battle for streaming dominance, said Reelgood CEO David Sanderson. Production companies that want a bigger piece of the pie, he said, have realized that their best chance of success involves their own properties.

Consumers, meanwhile, are left to frantically scan for the shows they want. Chris Kaufman, a 35-year-old in Logan, Utah, once put movies like the Ocean's 11" trilogy in his Netflix queue to watch later. But when he got around to them, they were gone. (They left Netflix in December 2020 and are now on HBO Max).

I dont have a whole lot of time in the day to watch, and now I have to go and search it out," he said.

Search engines can help. Alan Keane, a 35-year-old Brooklyn resident, says he uses Google when not searching through individual services. Other choices include apps such as Reelgood and JustWatch, which let you search a customizable list of services for particular titles. Digital media players like Roku and Apple TV also let you search across all the streaming apps you subscribe to.

But constantly having to search out those shows and movies can be frustrating. Since there are no penalties for consumers who drop a streaming service, it can also lead to customer churn," an industry term for the pace at which people sign up for and drop services, said Jeff Wlodarczak, an analyst at Pivotal Research.

If your streaming service runs out of interesting content, I would simply drop the service and come back at a later date, he said.

Kaufman said he and his family, including his wife and toddler, are considering dropping Netflix since they're using HBO Max more now.

We have been in discussion as a household, we might be dropping a service on a monthly basis, and reacquiring it a couple months later when it is fresh and new for us," he said.

Kevin Westcott, who heads consulting firm Deloitte's U.S. technology, media and telecom business, said his firm's research finds that this content merry-go-round is the leading frustration subscribers report with streaming services. It's also the No. 2 reason people say they may cancel a service, coming in just after price increases.

But he doesn't see things changing any time soon. In fact, Westcott figures that a version of windowing"  the process of releasing a movie first in a theater, then on cable channels and streaming services  will stick around because it's a major source of revenue for the studios. We're always going to be in a situation where content will move," he said.

Netflix, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Disney and WarnerMedia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Citing the death of a jogger in New Britain allegedly struck and killed by a teen behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle, state House Republicans on Wednesday called for a special legislative session to address juvenile crime.

To say that this issue has reached a boiling point would be a gross understatement, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said in a statement from House Republicans on Wednesday night.

As residents have begun their own policing to protect their property and lives, and now with a loss of a life in New Britain, it should be clearer than ever to Democrats that the legislature must tackle this issue head-on as quickly as possible, Candelora said.

New Britain police said Wednesday they arrested a 17-year-old at his home in connection with the death. Because of his age, authorities did not identify him.

But in a news release, police described the youth as a repeat juvenile offender who had been arrested 13 times in the last three-and-a-half years, including arrests for assault, drug and motor vehicle offenses.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, a Republican, tweeted alongside the release that somebodys life couldve been saved but this was a complete failure of the Connecticut juvenile justice system, if you can say there even is one.

House Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The statement from Republicans also cited others incidents, including one where a suspect rammed a state police vehicle in Tolland, following a suspected home invasion, as well as incidents of cars being stolen with children inside.

The statement cited several efforts by Republicans to toughen juvenile justice laws that were rejected by the chambers Democratic majority. Those proposals included getting rid of the states six-hour limit on holding juveniles without a court order.

Republicans said they also proposed including the Department of Children and Families in the investigation of family circumstances for juveniles charged multiple times for stealing a car or offenses involving deadly weapons. They also wanted to allow courts to deem a juvenile a risk to public safety after their second offense, as opposed to their third; allow police to pursue suspects in stolen cars under certain circumstances; and evaluate the need for support services for the individual and/or family, the statement said.

Nobody serving in the legislature, and certainly nobody on the Republican side of the aisle, wakes up each day rooting for detentions and convictions, said Deputy Republican Leader Rosa Rebimbas in a statement. But the fact of the matter is that young people understand that they live in a state where theyll face few consequences for their criminal behavior.

Lawrence Cook, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, told the Hartford Courant that Republicans are seeking to use the issue of juvenile crime as a wedge issue in the upcoming election.

They have no data connecting any increase in auto thefts in Connecticut, and any repeat offenders doing that, to any state policy. None. All they have are angry statements and innuendo, he told the paper.

The push by Republicans comes days after Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, held a press conference in Hartford to address gun violence and crime in the state. Flanked by state law enforcement officials, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the governor pledged $5 million in federal COVID-19 funding would be used to addressed gun violence, opioid deaths, and auto crime.

While Im proud that Connecticut is one of the safest states in the country, we are not immune, Lamont said. I see whats happening in other cities and other states, and our violence is spiking up as well  in particular gun related violence.
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP)  A western Missouri teacher has been terminated after students testified that he made several racist comments in the classroom.

Harrisonville School Districts board of education held a closed meeting Wednesday evening and announced Thursday that high school science teacher John Magoffin used inappropriate language" that violated the districts rules and regulations, The Kansas City Star reports.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP)  Tennessee officials on Thursday suspended the license of a Chattanooga shelter for immigrant children after one of the employees was arrested following abuse allegations.

The move comes as Tennessee's top Republican leaders have called for more scrutiny surrounding the shelter. They allege the federal government has not been transparent when pressed about immigrant children moving through the state.

That rhetoric only intensified after Department of Children's Services Commissioner Jennifer Nichols told lawmakers that in early June during an unannounced inspection of a Chattanooga shelter, a young boy reported he had witnessed an act that, in our policy, would substantiate and require an investigation while at the facility.

In a news release, Nichols on Thursday cited the abuse allegation and other issues that had plagued the shelter over the past month as reasons for the suspension.

According to the suspension summary, the department was alerted on June 15 that a 16-year-old boy had absconded from the shelter. A week later, the department was told all the youth had been moved from the facility. On Wednesday, the Chattanooga Police Department announced that a staff member had been arrested and faced criminal charges.

Police officials say 35-year-old Randi Duarte faces charges of sexual battery by an authority figure, coercion of a witness and tampering with evidence. Police received a complaint in late May and worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and the Hamilton County District Attorneys office to investigate the allegation.

Police did not provide any additional information about the abuse claim. Its unknown if the arrest is related to the abuse allegation cited by Nichols in June. The department says one of the youths housed at the shelter said he had witnessed a staff member kissing another youth.

The shelter is run by the Baptiste Group, which began operating last year under then-President Donald Trumps administration after receiving a conditional license by the department. The shelter has a federal contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant minors.

Baptiste Group did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. It was not clear whether Duarte has an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Unaccompanied children who are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection are transferred to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which shelters them until they are placed with sponsors, usually a relative.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican state lawmakers have been tasked by Senate Speaker Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton to investigate refugee and immigration settlement in Tennessee. The group was formed after a local television station aired footage of children arriving at a Chattanooga airport and boarding buses in the middle of the night.

Lawmakers had demanded representatives from Baptiste Group testify and answer questions about their operation at their next July 13 meeting.
WATERBURY  A city man will spend more than seven months in federal prison for his role in a heroin and fentanyl trafficking ring, selling drugs out of a local store he owned, prosecutors said.

In addition to the 87 months Judge Vanessa L. Bryant sentenced Francis Grena Aybar-Peguero to in Hartford court on Wednesday, he was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

After serving his prison sentence, the 29-year-old Aybar-Peguero will spend five years on supervised release.

Aybar-Peguero pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2020, to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin and 400 grams or more of fentanyl and concealment of money laundering.

He was released on bond and told to report to prison on Aug. 25.

Aybar-Peguero was among 16 people charged in this investigation, launched by the DEA New Haven Task Force and Waterbury police.

The investigation focused on a drug trafficking ring led by Nestor Sosa-Ortiz, who awaits sentencing.

The Waterbury-based trafficking ring would get large amounts of heroin and fentanyl from suppliers in Connecticut and New York and distribute the narcotics throughout New Haven County, prosecutors said.

The members of the drug ring used a Bishop Street apartment to store kilogram-quantities of heroin and fentanyl, and to process and package the drugs for street sales.

Sosa-Ortiz was picked up by authorities in New York City on May 18, 2019, on a separate federal heroin and fentanyl trafficking charge. That day, law enforcement officers intercepted a planned drug sale and seized about two kilograms each of fentanyl and heroin. He was incarcerated and, prosecutors said, continued to run his drug network while behind bars, using cellphones smuggled in to the jail to communicate with co-conspirators.

Aybar-Peguero would receive fentanyl and heroin from members of the Sosa-Ortiz organization and sold the drugs out of his business, the Corner Mini Market on East Farm Road, prosecutors said. The establishment has been permanently closed.

Further investigation revealed that the Corner Mini Market was primarily being used by Aybar-Peguero to distribute narcotics and to launder drug proceeds, prosecutors said, adding that about $98,000 was seized from his business bank account.

He and several co-defendants were arrested on Oct. 29, 2019. That day, investigators served warrants at several places, including the Corner Mini Market, and seized six kilograms of suspected heroin/fentanyl, 100,000 bags of suspected heroin/fentanyl packaged for sale, 1,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Percocet, one gun and $50,000 in cash.
LILLOOET, British Columbia (AP)  A wildfire that forced people to flee a small town in British Columbia that had set record high temperatures for Canada on three consecutive days burned out of control Thursday as relatives desperately sought information on evacuees.

The roughly 1,000 residents of Lytton had to abandon their homes with just a few minutes notice Wednesday evening, after searing the previous day under a record high of 121.2 F (49.6 C).

The provinces public safety minister, Mike Farnworth, said Thursday afternoon that most homes and buildings in Lytton had been destroyed and some residents were unaccounted for.

The British Columbia Wildfire Service said the Lytton blaze was raging out of control over an area spanning roughly 80 square kilometers (30 square miles). Several other fires were burning in the region as a heat wave baked western Canada.

Lytton city council member Lilliane Graie, on behalf of Mayor Jan Polderman, said in an email Thursday that the fire had devastated the town, a village about 153 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of Vancouver.

Our people are scattered north and south and we are trying to establish who is where, she wrote.

At least some of the people who fled Lytton came to a recreational a center in Lillooet, a town about 63 kilometers (40 miles) to the north.

John Haugen, a deputy chief with the Lytton First Nation, said leaders were trying to account for members who did not get to Lillooet.

Its incomprehensible, people are so anxious and worried about what comes next for them, he said, saying the community had suffered tremendous devastation and loss.

Rosanna Stamberg, who lives in Enderby, said she was trying to track down her son and daughter, Alfred and Marjorie Nelson, who live about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the center of Lytton.

I dont know which direction they went. I dont know if they went down towards Chilliwack. I dont know if they went to Lillooet. I dont know if they went to Spencers Bridge or Merritt or Kamloops. I have no idea, she said in a phone interview. Or if they stayed home.

She said the lack of cellphone service had prevented her contacting them. Im very worried, she said.

In a television appearance, British Columbia Premier John Horgan, said: "Three consecutive days of the highest recorded temperature in Canadian history all happened in Lytton this week. To have a heat wave and a horrific fire is so troubling and so challenging for the people of this community.

The heat in Lytton set its first national record on Sunday, reaching 115 F (45.1 C), then set another new high Monday, at 118.2 F (47.9 C). After yet another record high Tuesday, the heat eased to 102 degrees F (39 C) on Wednesday.

Officials said that in the previous 24 hours there had been 62 new fires and 29,000 lightening strikes. The fire near Lytton had grown to around 22,000 acres (9,000 hectares).

Horgan, the premier, said he had heard antidotal information that a train might have started the fire but it was too early to say.

Lytton has been devastated and it will take an extraordinary amount of effort to get that historic location back to what it was," he said.

Edith Loring-Kuhanga, an administrator at the Stein Valley Nlakapamux School, said she and fellow board members had to cut short a Zoom interview with a prospective teacher as the fire burned down their block.

She said she initially didnt pay attention to a siren going off outside, but then got a call from a school board member telling her to flee.

He said, Im down here at the fire and you got to leave, grab whatever you can quickly, Loring-Kuhanga recalled.

The wreckage was extensive, she said.

It was just unbelievable. It was just a nightmare, she said. So many community members have lost everything, they just didnt have time.

Roughly 15 kilometers (10 miles) to the south of Lytton, in the First Nations community of Kanaka Bar, Jean McKay said she and her 22-year-old daughter, Deirdre McKay, started to panic as the smell of smoke grew stronger.

I was still sitting there and wondering what to pack, emotionally walking out my door but thinking Im leaving all this behind. Its hard. Very hard, McKay said. "My daughter phoned before we lost services and stuff, shes telling us, Get out of there, get out of there.

There was one memento her daughter couldnt leave behind: She grabbed my dads picture off the wall, McKay said. Im telling her, Were walking out and this is the home we built forever and that you guys grew up in. Its harsh.
Thousands of residents and visitors are expected to flock to Connecticut shoreline communities this July Fourth weekend, and for the first time in generations, adults in the crowd will be able to bring their marijuana.

For both consumers and police, that means navigating lingering prohibitions in the nearly 300-page legalization law, which went into effect Thursday.

In preparation for legalization, the Connecticut Police Officers Standards and Training Council in Meriden sent new guidance last week to departments across the state, outlining the new law and how officers should handle suspected violations.

For example, the document states that simple possession of marijuana does not constitute probable cause for police to stop and search someone if they dont have other evidence that the person has more than the legally allowed amount.

However, someone can still be found guilty of an infraction if they are smoking cannabis in an area where it is prohibited, such as an indoor restaurant or school.

In Guilford, Police Chief Warren Hyatt said he used the document to get his officers up to speed with the new law, although he anticipated that the holiday weekend would be educational for officers and civilians.

Its been 11 hours or so [since legalization went into effect]. I dont know that weve seen an increase yet, Hyatt said Thursday morning. I dont know what to expect yet, and certainly there may be times when people are taking advantage of the new law in a place that may not be appropriate.

Some police departments along the shoreline said they are beefing up patrols for the weekend. DeVaughn Ward, the senior legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project, said consumers should also expect police to be on the alert for impaired drivers.

Smoking marijuana is prohibited for both drivers and passengers under the new law. While police are generally restricted from using the smell of burnt cannabis as a pretext for stopping someone, it can be used as the basis for an impairment test if the officer suspects someone of driving under the influence, according to the guidance given to police departments.

Because of this new law, officers will be out enforcing this, Ward said.

Connecticuts legalization allows adults to carry up to 1.5 ounces (up to 5 ounces if its in a locked container in a car or house), though municipalities may still adopt ordinances banning the drug from many public places, such as parks and beaches. Cities and towns with more than 50,000 residents are required to designate some outdoor public spaces for marijuana use if they choose to regulate public consumption.

Mike Muszynski, the state and federal relations manager at the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said its unclear how many towns have already adopted formal rules regulating the use of marijuana in public, though he added that many are actively working with their attorneys and groups such as CCM to develop clear policies.

Theres a lot of moving parts still in the works as [legalization] is still in its infancy, Muszynski said.

In Old Lyme, for example, officials said an existing smoking ban on public property, such as parks and beaches, would apply to marijuana. Asked whether the ban would apply to edible versions of the drug, First Selectman Timothy Griswold said it would not be a priority for police.

If they come in with brownies, I dont think theyre going to have a dog sniffing brownies, Griswold said.

For visitors to state parks and beaches, the use of marijuana is expressly prohibited under the law, and violators could be subject to a $250 fine from agents of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Private attractions may set their own policies against pot, similar to those against smoking tobacco.

For example, the Mystic Aquarium in Stonington prohibits smoking tobacco or marijuana throughout its property, including outdoor areas, according to a spokesperson. Visitors are also prohibited from bringing in outside food and drinks (so, no gummies).

Ward said people should expect local smoking bans to apply to marijuana as well as tobacco, and smokers should be courteous even in areas where the policy is unclear.

If someone asks you, even if its not prohibited by law, to put out your joint, be considerate of others, Ward said.

Staff writer Christine DeRosa contributed to this story.
Venice, FL (34285)

Today

Partly cloudy early. Thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High near 90F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Tropical storm conditions possible. Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low around 75F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

The average price of a gallon of gas in Connecticut has reached its highest point this year, in line with the national average, according to AAA Northeast.

On Thursday, the average price is $3.13 a gallon in the state, three cents higher than last week and $1.03 more than last year. Nationally, the average price Thursday is $3.12, two cents higher than last week and 94 cents higher than 2020.
Seven years after Marine Capt. James Clement was found to have failed in his supervisory duties over snipers in Afghanistan and involuntarily separated from the Corps, the acting secretary of the Navy has moved to overturn the actions taken against him and grant him relief.

Clement was the final and most senior Marine to face punitive action in connection with an international scandal in which six scout snipers attached to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, filmed themselves urinating on Taliban corpses during a 2011 deployment. The 39-second video, later posted to YouTube, embarrassed the Marine Corps and prompted statements of condemnation from the White House and the highest levels of military command.

But actions against the unit were also tainted by allegations of unlawful command influence by the commandant of the Marine Corps, who made statements and took steps that seemed intended to sway the outcome of the cases.

Others, too, defended the snipers, who were finishing a grueling and demoralizing deployment that saw multiple unit members recommended for valor awards. One of the snipers, Rob Richards, had survived devastating wounds on a previous deployment and earned praise for his valor in combat. When he died in 2014 due to drug complications, he received a hero's funeral and eventually was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Clement, then the executive office for Kilo Company, 3/2, was never accused of participating in the urination incident, and maintained that he was neither present for nor aware of the episode. But at a 2013 administrative Board of Inquiry, or BOI, hearing in Quantico, Virginia, a panel of three officers found that he should have supervised his Marines more carefully, and voted to separate him with an honorable discharge.

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Notably, that was despite Gen. John F. Kelly -- the four-star commander of U.S. Southern Command who would go on to serve as secretary of Homeland Security and White House chief of staff -- testifying in Clement's defense at the hearing. Kelly argued that breakdowns in discipline were linked to leadership problems above Clement's head and praised the young officer's record.

"I can't offer an official apology to him and his family, but I think at the end of this board, he should receive that from someone," Kelly said then.

In a June 16 decision, the Board for Corrections of Naval Records did the next-best thing: It handed down a decision to clear Clement's record, award him any separation pay he'd lost due to disciplinary proceedings, and push forward a recommendation that he receive the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal that he'd been submitted for prior to the scandal.

The 12-page decision noted that Clement's appeal hinged on comments from then-Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos that appeared to prejudice prosecution of those linked to the sniper incident. Then-Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the commander assigned to oversee the cases, testified in a 2013 sworn statement that Amos told him he wanted the snipers "crushed." Waldhauser stated that he pushed back; Amos soon after removed him from the case.

While the Defense Department Inspector General would eventually clear Amos of wrongdoing, a military appellate court found that his remarks interfered with justice.

In November 2017, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Appeals overturned the conviction of Joe Chamblin, a former staff sergeant who was sentenced to 30 days' confinement, docked in pay and demoted for his part in the urination video.

"The highest-ranking officer in the Marine Corps told [Waldhauser] that the appellant and his co-accused should be 'crushed,'" the court wrote in its decision. "This is an unusually flagrant example of [unlawful command influence]. We find that UCI this direct, and occurring at this level, is highly corrosive to public trust in this proceeding."

In January 2018, the court announced it would stand by its previous ruling and not reconsider its decision to clear Chamblin.

"[Clement], through counsel,contends that he ... suffered as a result of [Amos'] unlawful action in the prosecution of SSgt. Chamblin's case," BCNR wrote in its June 2021 decision. "He further contends that, if [Amos] had respected the independence of [Waldhauser as the oversight authority], he would not have been wrongfully required to show cause for retention at a BOI."

Clement's appeal also accused the commandant's top attorney at the time, Robert Hogue, of withholding evidence through improper classification, thus hindering Clement's defense at the BOI. Clement's lawyer, John Dowd, had also raised this allegation at the initial hearing.

Clement had indeed been wrongfully discharged, BCNR decided.

"Specifically, the Board determined that [Amos'] interference ... the deliberate withholding of UCI evidence, and the unlawful classification of interviews and exculpatory documents related to the case in order to inhibit disclosure, obstructed [Clement's] trial defense counsel's ability to investigate, prepare, and represent his client."

BCNR's executive director, Elizabeth Hill, disagreed with the board's decision. In a following opinion, she wrote that there was no evidence to show that the comments found to have tainted Chamblin's court-martial also affected Clement's hearing.

"[Clement] was not 'crushed,' as [Amos] had demanded for those involved in the incident," she wrote. "Instead, the BOI simply found by a preponderance of the evidence that [Clement's] performance of duty was substandard. ... Accordingly, the BOI determined that [Clement] should not be retained in the naval service."

Hill recommended denying Clement's request.

However, in a signed but unexplained decision, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker overruled her, siding with the board's recommendation. Harker's decision and signature this month came more than a year after Hill signed her recommendation in March 2020. It's not clear why the process, already years underway, lagged for so long at this final step.

Reached via telephone Tuesday, Clement, now 38, told Military.com he was grateful to finally set the matter to rest.

"Practically, I think what it means is that we finally have full closure and validation that we were right," he said. "It was hard when you're a Marine and you're sitting listening to people tell you you're lying. That eats at you when your whole culture is built on integrity. That's a hard place to be for years and years, constantly questioning yourself."

Now a customer support specialist manager for a tech company, Clement said that having his record cleared would make a real difference to him, even years later.

"It's one of those things that you feel like you have to tell people that it happened, because a Google search is going to bring it up," he said. "Now to be able to have on the record that, yes, this happened, but it's all wrong and has since been completely expunged -- that just makes these conversations just that much easier to have."

In all, eight Marines were punished in connection with the sniper incident. Clement said he is aware of others fighting to clear their records in light of the decisions made in his and Chamblin's cases. Now, he said, that fight should be easier.

"With this decision, it's kind of the last nail in the coffin," he said.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related: Former Marine Sniper Punished in Scandal Wins Again in Court
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, on Thursday suggested reviewing all general and flag officer promotions -- from O7 and up -- to assess nominees' opinions on critical race theory.

It is unclear how much ability Cotton would have to follow through on his suggestion. While Cotton sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he is a member of the minority party and would not have the authority to make changes to the nomination process. However, senators can place holds on promotion nominations, as Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, did en masse last summer.

But his suggestion shows that, a week after the debate over critical race theory boiled over in a House of Representatives hearing, Cotton is not letting the issue go.

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In an online forum Thursday with the Heritage Foundation -- a conservative think tank -- to discuss critical race theory, Cotton said that such general officer nominations typically are handled at the staff level without deep reviews, except for cases in which there is a unique "red flag" such as a complaint about an officer or potential wrongdoing. And except for those who are up for their fourth star or in line to take charge of a major command or other top post, there's typically no nomination hearings held, he said.

"But maybe it's time to change that," Cotton said. "Maybe it's time that we start ensuring that our flag officers subscribe to those very basic principles that are outlined in our Declaration [of Independence] or [Dr. Martin Luther] King's '[I Have a] Dream' speech."

Cotton said that his office has received complaints from troops that the military's "indoctrination training sessions" on the controversial critical race theory began about a year ago, after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an encounter with police officers in Minneapolis. And, he said, "it's gotten worse over the last six months," since President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Months of conservative complaints about the military's diversity efforts, and allegations that the brass is pushing racial theories said to be divisive, erupted at a budget hearing last week. On June 23, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley sparred with Florida Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz over whether the military is teaching critical race theory and whether it is appropriate.

The feud reached its peak when Milley delivered a speech on the importance of military service members and leaders learning about and keeping an open mind on varying ideologies, and understanding the legacy effects racism has had on the nation.

"I've read Mao Zedong, I've read Karl Marx, I've read Lenin," Milley said. "That doesn't make me a communist. So what is wrong with having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?"

Milley grew visibly angry and said, "I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our noncommissioned officers of being, quote, woke, or something else, because we're studying some theories that are out there."

Cotton and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, have set up a website to allow service members to anonymously report examples of so-called "woke ideology" in the military.

Critical race theory is an academic theory that was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s that argues racism has been embedded in systems and policies throughout the United States over long periods of time. For example, bank policies from a century ago about who can receive a mortgage can have long-term effects on zoning and hurt desegregation efforts.

Opponents of critical race theory, such as Cotton, argue that it fosters racial intolerance by dividing people into groups based on their identities, and teaching that America is a fundamentally racist country.

-- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenLosey.

Related: Military Leaders Fire Back at Lawmakers as Critical Race Theory Debate Erupts on Capitol Hill
The awards that 60 special operators received for the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 soon will receive an upgrade, the Army announced Thursday.

In a release, the Army said that 58 awards were upgraded to Silver Stars, and two were upgraded to Distinguished Flying Crosses. These awards will be presented later this year in ceremonies held by the units in which each soldier served at the time.

These upgrades stemmed from former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy's October 2020 order to the Senior Army Decorations Board to reevaluate previously approved awards for valor, the Army said.

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The battle erupted after a mission, dubbed Operation Gothic Serpent, to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid went wrong. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down Oct. 3, 1993, sparking a ferocious battle throughout the city that involved Delta Force and Rangers as the soldiers sought to save their comrades.

Eighteen soldiers died, and 73 were wounded, during the Battle of Mogadishu. Delta operators Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart and Master Sgt. Gary Gordon were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism in attempting to protect one of the downed Black Hawk pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, as Somalis closed in around them.

Televised images of a soldiers body being dragged through the streets shocked the nation. In the aftermath of the battle, Defense Secretary Les Aspin stepped down amid criticism he had not provided the troops in Somalia enough support by providing tanks, armored vehicles and AC-130 gunships. The United States withdrew its forces from Somalia the next year, and by March 1995, the final United Nations troops left the east Africa country.

The battle was memorialized in Mark Bowden's book, "Black Hawk Down," and the popular Ridley Scott film of the same name.

The Silver Star is the military's third-highest combat award. It is awarded to recognize valorous acts performed during combat operations while under fire from enemy forces.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to recognize heroism or extraordinary achievement while in flight.

-- Stephen Losey can be reached at stephen.losey@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StephenLosey.

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At the base of the iconic Marine Corps War Memorial across from Arlington National Cemetery is a relatively recent inscription consisting of just two words: Afghanistan. Iraq.

The memorial, which depicts six troops struggling to raise the American flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi, has inscriptions for every campaign that Marines have fought in, beginning with the Revolutionary War: 1775-1783. Each past multi-year campaign includes an end date. But the Afghanistan and Iraq inscriptions are open-ended, a starting year followed by a dash.

To some, it's a mini-memorial to America's "Forever Wars" -- fights that began in 2001 and 2003, respectively, and are still dragging on two decades later.

"Took my parents to the USMC/Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington this morning," Cheddar show host J.D. Durkin tweeted June 13. "Was particularly struck by the open-ended dates etched for the Afghanistan & Iraq wars."

It now appears that those wars may be coming to a formal, definitive end. President Joe Biden in April ordered a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, and the Pentagon is providing weekly updates on retrograde efforts as troop strength in the country dwindles.

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Meanwhile, the House this month voted to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq, a move signaling lawmakers' desire to conclude that chapter of U.S. history, even as a small contingent of American troops remains in Iraq to support the fight against ISIS.

But even as an end date appears in sight for the nation's longest wars, it may be a while until the conclusion is inscribed on the base of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

The memorial, created by sculptor Felix de Weldon and based on the legendary 1945 Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. The original band of battle honors concluded with the Korean War, 1950.

Other battles were not considered for addition until 1974, when then-President Richard Nixon specifically requested that Vietnam be added, according to an exhaustive history of the memorial compiled by the Historic American Landscapes Survey in 2005. Even after the president's intervention, work did not begin on the addition until 1984.

"For the Vietnam inscription, Harold C. Vogel was hired; his cost estimate was $475," the document states. "At this time, however, it was decided to reference the Lebanon campaigns separately, use the dates 1962-75 for Vietnam, and add the Dominican Republic and Grenada conflicts."

The work, completed in 1985, ultimately cost $6,840. No further inscriptions were added, according to the history, until 1996, when another artisan, Thomas Winkler, was hired to add the dates of the Persian Gulf, Panama and Somalia conflicts.

The open-ended Afghanistan and Iraq Wars did not make their appearance on the memorial until 2017, when Ryan Zinke, President Donald Trump's secretary of the Interior, dedicated the new engravings. The work, which coincided with a thorough refresh of the memorial that included cleaning, re-gilding and waxing, was funded by a private $5.37 million donation from David M. Rubenstein, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm The Carlyle Group.

"As the deputy commander of Special Forces in Iraq and retired Navy SEAL, I saw the commitment, patriotism and fortitude that American service members and their families display while serving our country. It's a great honor to be a part of memorializing the Marines of the Global War on Terror," Zinke said at the memorial's rededication. "Our warriors who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan see more frequent deployments as our nation has been in sustained combat for longer than at any previous point in our nation's history. The Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are warriors in the field and leaders in the community. I salute them and am grateful for their service."

Historically, the memorial has evolved in bursts driven by individual initiative. So it's unsurprising that queries about the next update did not receive a straightforward or immediate answer. Military.com questions to the Marine Corps were first forwarded to the Corps' history division and then to the National Park Service, which has maintained the memorial site since 1955. Ultimately, they were sent back to Marine Corps headquarters for a response that contained a second rerouting.

"Campaign completion dates are set by the Department of Defense," Maj. Jorge Hernandez said in a statement. "At this time, formal campaign end dates have not yet been established for campaigns involving Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan so the Marine Corps war memorial cannot be updated. For questions regarding these campaigns and the implementation of these dates to be featured in official memorials, please contact the Department of Defense and the National Park Service."

Queries to the Pentagon about how the Defense Department finalizes a military campaign's end dates were forwarded to the Joint Staff, which did not respond.

Ultimately, history indicates that, while the nation's Forever Wars may be ending, the inscription on the Marine Corps War Memorial could remain unfinished for months or even years beyond their formal conclusion.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

Related: Marine Corps Announces It Was Wrong -- Again -- on Iwo Jima Flag-Raising Photo
Vaccine hesitancy among active-duty personnel is putting them at risk for contracting a more contagious form of the COVID-19, and Defense Department health officials are urging service members to get fully vaccinated.

DoD officials said Wednesday that 68% of active-duty personnel have received at least one dose of the vaccine. But when broken down by service, the Marine Corps has the worst record, at 58%, while the Navy has the highest vaccination rate, at 77%. Some 70% of soldiers have been vaccinated, while 61% of active-duty airmen have received at least one dose.

About 57% of the overall U.S. adult population is fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Delta variant, which originated in India, is more contagious than the original COVID-19 variant and may be more dangerous. Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, who heads the Defense Health Agency, said that of the more than 6,000 DoD beneficiaries whose COVID-19 infections have been sequenced genetically, just 25 were the Delta variant. But, he said, 22 of those 25 cases occurred within the last two weeks.

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"So far the majority are not the delta variant, but we are starting to see it in our population," Place said during a Pentagon news conference Wednesday.

Place said military personnel who have had only one of their two vaccine doses number in the "tens of thousands," and DoD is contacting every service member who hasn't yet completed immunization.

Patients are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second vaccine dose of an mRNA vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Dr. Terry Adirim, acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said the rise of the variant "poses a threat to the return to normal."

"We are particularly concerned with the threat impact of the Delta variant on our unvaccinated or partially vaccinated population," Adirim said.

According to Place, 21 people are currently being hospitalized for COVID-19 in the military health system, down from 240 in January. Of the those 21, none were vaccinated.

"The benefits of vaccination are abundantly clear. ... It's compelling evidence," Place said.

The DoD has seen 303,618 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the outbreak in 2020. More than 4,100 were hospitalized and 357 have died, including 26 service members and 14 military family members.

As of Wednesday, travel restrictions have been lifted at 214 of 230 DoD installations worldwide, down one from Monday. Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was added back on the list of places where travel is limited.

"We anticipate that health protection conditions could change at some of our installations in the future based on outbreaks that result from the high transmutability of the Delta variant," Adirim said.

DoD is tracking 30 cases of heart inflammation in patients who received the COVID-19 vaccine, a rare side effect of the immunization.

But, Place added, the number is small compared with the "hundreds" of military health beneficiaries who developed the inflammation, or myocarditis, after contracting COVID-19.

"The risk to the heart is markedly higher from an infection as it is from a vaccination," Place said.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Almost One-Third of US Troops are Refusing the COVID-19 Vaccines, Officials Say
The U.S. Air Force wants to move some A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft and HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, to centralize close air support and rescue operations while retiring some of the oldest Warthogs in the fleet, the service announced Wednesday.

In an effort to make Davis-Monthan the "Center of Excellence" for those missions, the service said it plans to move the A-10 weapons instructor course and test and evaluation operations from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, to the base in 2022, according to a news release. At the same time, some fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and F-22 Raptors will move to Nellis, the service said in a separate release.

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The move is predicated on Congress approving the Air Force's request to get rid of 42 A-10s outlined in its fiscal 2022 budget, an attempt the service has tried before, but to no avail because lawmakers shot it down. Testifying before lawmakers during multiple hearings in recent weeks, officials have said the service can modernize and maintain 218 of the 281 tank-shredding aircraft it currently has, downsizing from nine operational squadrons to seven.

Hundreds of A-10s in the fleet have received new wings or are in the process of receiving upgrades to their wings despite the battle over how many aircraft the service can retire in coming years. The service estimates it has poured $880 million so far into the A-10 re-winging and avionics modernization efforts.

The A-10 is expected to fly into the 2030s and has been grandfathered under the service's "four plus one" model to downsize from its current seven fighter or attack aircraft fleets. In May, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown said the four are the F-35 Lightning II; F-16 Fighting Falcon; the F-15EX Eagle II, which entered the service's inventory in the spring; and the Next Generation Air Dominance program. NGAD defies the traditional categorization of a single platform, featuring a network potentially including an advanced fighter aircraft alongside sensors, weapons or drones.

The venerable A-10 remains as the "plus one."

The Davis-Monthan Center of Excellence rescue missions, meanwhile, would be supplemented by the HH-60 weapons instructor course, and combat-coded units, including the 88th Test and Evaluation Squadron, which has detachments at Nellis, Davis-Monthan and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; the 66th Rescue Squadron, the 58th Rescue Squadron, the 34th Weapons Squadron, and the 855th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron -- all from Nellis.

Those units would transfer in 2024, the release states.

"Under this plan, Davis-Monthan will play a critical role in reshaping U.S. airpower as home to the Air Force's close air support and rescue Centers of Excellence," Acting Secretary of the Air Force John P. Roth said in the release. "This realignment will consolidate all A-10 and HH-60 test, training, and weapon school activity at one location, allowing Airmen in these mission areas to train together for future threats.''

For Nellis, this means more stealth fighters will head to the desert base.

The Air Force said it is gearing up to bring in F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor fighters, where the two often train side by side in exercises like Red Flag.

In 2019, it announced the reactivation of the 65th Aggressor Squadron to move 11 F-35A Lightning IIs to the base to serve as aggressor air, or "red air," training. The majority are coming from Eglin, which is planning for new F-35s on its flight lines.

F-22s from Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, will be used for testing purposes, the service said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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The service chiefs for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard pushed back Wednesday on the assertion that the armed services are increasingly woke and more concerned about social issues than warfighting.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz were asked that question by Robert Work, a former deputy defense secretary and moderator for the virtual panel at the annual West naval conference.

The comments are the latest in a string of top military officials defending policies aimed at making the military more inclusive and combating extremism in the ranks.

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I think it's an assertion that isn't really grounded on facts, Gilday said. We know that there's strength in diversity; that is a scientifically proven fact.

Gilday explained that he saw his efforts to harness and address diversity within the Navy as a way to build a stronger force.

We know that esprit de corps within particularly our small units or ships, as an example, is an incredibly important part of combat effectiveness, Gilday said.

A Defense Department report on diversity in December 2020 noted that, across all branches, officers were less diverse than the eligible civilian population -- with Blacks, Hispanics and Asians all being underrepresented.

Notably, the officer corps is significantly less racially and ethnically diverse than the enlisted population, the report said.

Among the enlisted, Blacks, Hispanics, and people of multiracial origins are overrepresented in the active-duty numbers while white people are significantly less represented.

This is not the first time Gilday has defended his methods on diversity within the Navy. On June 15, Gilday faced pointed questions from Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., during a House Armed Services Committee hearing over his inclusion of Ibram X. Kendis How To Be An Antiracist on his reading list.

I am not going to sit here and defend cherry-picked quotes from somebodys book, Gilday said in response to Banks questions. This is a bigger issue than Kendis book. What this is really about is trying to paint the United States military, and the United States Navy as weak, as woke.

We are not weak. We are strong.

Berger echoed the sentiments of Gilday on Wednesday and also alluded to remarks made by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley at a congressional hearing last week.

There's some places on Earth, maybe more than a handful, where you're not allowed to read books.  You're only allowed to read this, and you're only allowed to espouse that, Berger said.

The great part about Americans -- it's not run that way.

In a heated exchange with Republican lawmakers recently, Milley argued that service members need to be widely read on the different ideas and theories circulating in American society.

We want our service members to read widely, Berger explained. We want them to actually think, not be programmed, not be told, You must agree with this.

Berger and Schultz also noted that diversity and acceptance are key to the armed forces since their recruits are drawn from a free thinking society.

For us in the Coast Guard, it's a strategic imperative that we look more like the nation we serve, Schultz said.

These remarks come amid a chorus of conservative lawmakers and commentators who have been decrying DoD programs and efforts aimed at improving diversity and inclusion, accommodating women, or to root out extremists in the ranks. These criticisms often have been framed as political correctness or wokeness run amok.

In May, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL, launched a webpage inviting service members to blow the whistle anonymously on "woke ideology" in the military.

In March, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson claimed that updated hair regulations and new maternity uniforms for female troops are making "a mockery of the U.S. military."

Many programs that have come under attack are aimed at closing gaps in representation, especially among officers and specific communities. Last September, the Air Force announced new recruiting targets that hope to address, among other things, the stark lack of diversity among its pilots.

According to the Air Force, about 86% of its aviators are currently white men.

In June, the leader of the Navy SEALs announced that they were developing programs to more actively recruit from more diverse regions of the country.

As of March 2021, a full 95% of all SEAL and combatant-craft crew (SWCC) officers were white and just 2% were Black, according to Naval Special Warfare statistics provided to the AP. The officers corps of Army Special Forces is 87% white, and also 2% Black.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Military Leaders Fire Back at Lawmakers as Critical Race Theory Debate Erupts on Capitol Hill
My fiance is medically retired from the Army. We had a son four months ago. After he was born, he was on my insurance from my former employer, but that insurance is no longer in place.

Since his birth, we have been trying to get him covered under his dad's insurance through Tricare, and we have gotten the run-around. We went and spoke with a horrible woman who works on Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and were told that DEERS wouldn't recognize my fiance as our son's father without proof of paterniity.

Why is a birth certificate not proof of paternity?! What difference does it make if his father and I are married?! What confuses me the most is that somehow as soon as we get married, it doesn't matter if our son is his biological child? Do you have any words of wisdom as to why this program is so ridiculous?

There's nothing low stress about registering someone in the military Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). Add a complicated family situation to the mix, and the stress is sure to go up.

To register a baby in DEERS when the father is not married to the mother, you are required to supply the Defense Department with three things: the child's birth certificate, the child's Social Security card and either a court order establishing paternity or a state voluntary order of paternity form. Those official documents mean that for the state and everyone else, the dad is, at least in part, financially responsible for the child. The state voluntary order of paternity may not require an actual paternity test, but you could certainly get one as part of the process.

I know the process may seem ridiculous to you, but the military does it this way for a reason. These safeguards help it make sure that it is not providing military benefits to someone who is not legally entitled to them. It also helps the military protect the service member from someone claiming to have their child -- and the child from being illegally ignored by the unmarried service member later. The paternity form requirement is for everyone's protection, including the child's.

Since every state operates a little differently, I suggest turning to Google for a quick internet search to find your state's voluntary paternity form or court order process.

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Military Families have experienced the emotional trauma of deployment on an unprecedented scale since the end of the Gulf War. Humanitarian missions and peace enforcement have sent our troops to Somalia, Cuba, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. In the last decade, military downsizing has increased the likelihood that each Soldier will eventually participate in an extended mission.

The impact of these long separations is of increasing concern with two-thirds of Soldiers now married and deployments to the Former Yugoslavia entering a fifth year. Differing coping strategies are needed through five stages of deployment. Education of health care providers, military leaders, Soldiers and Family members to anticipate these stages is crucial to ensure the Soldier's safe return and to minimize familial trauma.

The Five Stages

Pre-deployment (varies) Deployment (1st month) Sustainment (months 2 thru 5) Re-deployment (last month) Post-deployment (3-6 months after deployment)

The emotional cycle of an extended deployment, six months or greater, is readily divided into five distinct stages. These stages are comprised as follows: pre-deployment, deployment, sustainment, re-deployment and post-deployment. Each stage is characterized both by a time frame and specific emotional challenges, which must be dealt with and mastered by each of the Family members.

Failure to adequately negotiate these challenges can lead to significant strife - both for Family members and the deployed Soldier. Providing information early about what to expect, especially for Families who have not endured a lengthy separation before, can go a long way towards "normalizing" and coping positively with the deployment experience. Furthermore, promoting understanding of the stages of deployment helps to avert crises, minimize the need for command intervention or mental health counseling and can even reduce suicidal threats.

Lessons Learned

There are many challenges for military Families to overcome during the five stages of deployment. Anticipating these challenges is important to minimize the emotional trauma caused by extended deployment. It is important not to over-interpret arguments which are often caused by the pain and loss of separation. Resolving marital issues that precede deployment is very difficult to accomplish over long distances and is probably best left until the Soldier's return. Dates of departure and return often "slip" forwards and backwards. Establishing or maintaining a support network helps Families cope.

Rumors are hurtful and are best not repeated. If they cannot be resolved, then contact the chain of command to find out the truth or put a stop to them. Breaking up the time is a useful technique to prevent being overwhelmed. This can include: weekly get-togethers with other Families, monthly outings for the children (a favorite restaurant, the park, a picnic etc.), and a visit to, or from, parents and in-laws around mid-deployment just to name a few. In order to maintain their sanity, parents - now "single" because of the deployment - will need time without their children. Scheduling a regular "Mommy's (Daddy's) day out" can be achieved by daycare or sharing sitting with someone you trust. Overspending or increased alcohol use may provide short-term relief; but in the long-term, they will only exacerbate the stress of deployment.

Lastly, and most importantly, Soldier, spouse and children will change and grow during the deployment. It is critical to go slow, be patient and allow several months to reestablish Family bonds.

Helpful Hints

Establish a base of support

Make plans to break up time

E-mail/phone calls/letters

Avoid overspending/alcohol

Single" parents need time without kids

Over the years -- beginning with the Persian Gulf War, through the Kosovo War and now with Iraq and Afghanistan -- Soldiers and their Families have had to adapt to a major shift in U.S. foreign policy and the role of the Army in extended multinational deployments. These experiences have provided new insight into the different skills needed to minimize familial trauma. Furthermore, Family well-being is not only essential to mission success with two-thirds of Soldiers now married, but also to the future health of the Army through retention of trained Soldiers.

Health care professionals (including civilian providers accepting TRICARE insurance) and military leaders must be prepared to support Soldiers and their Families through the five stages of deployment. Providing information early, about what to expect, will help families cope with the deployment experience. More research is needed, about the impact of deployment on Soldiers and their families, to ensure that our forces are better prepared and ready for challenges of the next century.
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - For Soldiers and Family members, a deployment begins long before actual departure. From the time Soldiers receive a warning order to the day their unit takes flight, the overall experience is considered a pre-deployment period and is laden with an endless amount of to-do's and stress. During pre-deployment, Family members and Soldiers experience a range of difficult emotions, which, military research shows, usually starts with shock and anxiousness that accompany deployment notification, followed by some form of grief, denial and sadness - and oftentimes anger, distancing and resentment. Feelings of loneliness, guilt, and abandonment can also play a role as departure approaches. Navy Capt. Daphne Brown, a clinical psychologist at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, said while the degree of emotion and how it is handled varies from person to person, "not everybody is going to experience (every emotion) or in that order." One unconscious tactic that Families face is emotional distancing, Brown said. This is when Soldiers overwhelmingly busy themselves with work or relationships outside of the home prior to deployment. "The Soldier is preparing to go, so he is pulling back from the Family," Brown said. "He has to invest in the mission." Brown notes, however, that Family members also emotionally distance themselves prior to deployments. "But the spouse does it from a fear that something will happen," she said. Additionally, there can be increased tension between Soldiers and spouses during the pre-deployment phase. "The spouses are going through a lot of stress, so fights are normal," said Vicky Moore, of Grafenwoehr's Social Work Services Family Advocacy Program. "The little fighting is very normal - and unintentionally started - as long it does not intensify." However, it is important that arguments be kept as small as possible, Moore said, especially when one recognizes that it is a "deployment fight" resulting from the stress of an impending separation. "It is important for the Family to recognize what they are going through, so they can sit down as a Family, and how to cope with it." Besides recognizing deployment fights, Moore said Family members need to be more understanding toward one another at this time. Knowing what to expect (increased stress and arguments) can go a long way in helping Families overcome problems. Other common symptoms of pre-deployment stress include shortened tempers, difficulty sleeping and trouble concentrating, according to Lt. Col. Telita Crosland, the Grafenwoehr Health Clinic commander. Crosland said these symptoms are not unique to the Soldier or the individual Family member, as both often share similar stressors and symptoms. To help reduce stress, Crosland said all involved should first "recognize that it is stress and to some extent normal." "Once you do that," she added, "you should talk honestly about what you feel and how you feel." And remember, she added, that everyone is going through the same emotions: "No one is alone." "Many people feel like it is just them (going through it); it is not, we just cope differently," Crosland said. Most experts agree that one of the best ways to deal with pre-stress deployment is with open, honest communication between all involved. "It is essential for the Family to communicate, to talk openly about their fears and concerns," Moore explained. It is strongly recommended that before a Soldier leaves, the Family should open up about separation worries, she added. "This discussion should include the whole Family, allowing spouses and children to better understand what is expected and to develop solutions for identified problems." The other half of it, Brown said, is planning. "Plan how you are going to handle Family emergencies, how you are going to cope (with various scenarios during the deployment), and plan ahead." Moore agreed, explaining that some stress levels can be reduced simply by eliminating the stress of not knowing how emergencies will be handled during the deployment. "It is also important for Soldiers to feel that everything is going to be taken care of (back home)," Moore pointed out. "It is good for spouses to prepare (for Family matters) so Soldiers do not have to worry about them," agreed Simone Hartley, of U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr's Army Community Service Family Advocacy Program. She also explained the importance of spouses sharing personal matters with other loved ones. How much stress Family members undergo depends greatly on how well they are able to communicate during the pre-deployment. And while communication is key, communicating in a "healthy" way is just as important, Hartley said. She suggested Family members use "I" statements - such as "I feel that..." - to express their emotions without blaming or accusing others. This removes the "attack" element during communication. Deployment specialists also recommend Soldiers reassure Family members that they will be missed. While it may seem obvious to let a spouse or child know they will be missed, Brown said it is crucial to reinforce such emotions. "Both sides should reassure each other that they will work it through, they will stay committed (to the relationship and Family during deployment)," she said. Moore said Families undergoing an initial deployment should link up with more seasoned military Families. "It is very helpful for people to talk with someone who has been through it, who can give them advice," she said. And when a deployment ends, the importance of maintaining emotional wellbeing and reducing stress continues. "Communication with friends and other spouses is significant to reducing stress," said Moore, who suggested Family Readiness Groups as a great source of support. "It is very important for spouses to have a close friendship, somebody they can talk with." She said for those who are hesitant in sharing their feelings, there are other Families likely experiencing similar emotions. Crosland advised Families to take advantage of community resources that are helpful before, during and after a deployment. She said specialized counselors are available twice weekly at Grafenwoehr's Health Clinic. Hartley also noted that ACS is tailoring their couples communication class for deployments, and suggested that Families attend the course, which helps them to communicate effectively over long distances.
Brad and I sat in a KFC in Cambridge, Ohio, watching some guy on the overhead screen shoot foul shots. Brad had taken leave so we could take this trip to see our godchild confirmed. We idly watched the foul shot shooter demonstrate his prowess to the oooing and ahhing schoolchildren. The guy claimed that he was shooting a million baskets "for the troops."

"Looks to me like 'the troops' are just the excuse he needs to get his foul shot on TV," I grumbled. "I'm sure that all those Soldiers in Afghanistan are staying up nights to see if they get their million baskets. Woo hoo. Another basket for me!!"

"I don't want any baskets," Brad said.

"What do you want?" I asked him, suddenly curious. "There are good people in this country. They do want to show their appreciation to the military. So what do you want from them?"

"Time," Brad said, leaning across the Formica tabletop. "Oh Honey, I just need more time. I need more time at home to get stuff done and be with you and the boys."

He talked on and suddenly I understood what he was trying to tell me. Brad wasn't complaining about any of us at home. He wasn't whining about work. He wasn't mouthing any blah blah blah about the one percent that serves in the military.

Instead, Brad was talking about how he actually experiences military life as a fight for time. It sounded like something out of that new Justin Timberlake movie, "In Time." The premise of the movie is that in the future, time becomes the new currency. Time is what you earn at work. Time is what you spend like cash. After age 25, you see time hemorrhaging away at an unbelievable rate.

I wonder if that is really what the members of our military feel.

I wonder if they feel they have mortgaged their time to the military, to the United States, to all of us, in order to get what they want out of life. I wonder if they feel like they, too, are in constant time debt, closer to time-debtors prison every day.

During our visit to Ohio, I saw Brad deeply enjoy talking over the election with my mom and having dinner with our godchild and working with my dad. Yet in the downtimes, the between times, the time spent waiting, I saw him wishing he was somewhere else, accomplishing something else. I saw what he must be like during the third hour of a meeting at work, when he must look like he is wishing for home. I saw him experience the passage of time in a way I never do. I manage my time and I rush and I could use more time, but not like that. Not like him.

I guess that is what makes Veterans Day such an awkward, uncertain event every year. We Americans may know that we are accepting/appropriating/taking the time of those men and women who serve in the military. We may honestly want to give back in kind. But somehow we know there is no equivalent. There is no fix. There is no fair trade.

Instead there is just this awareness that those well-meant hours spent shooting foul shots for the troops would have been better spent if we could have packed them up in brown boxes, tied them with string and sent them to the troops marked: Spend These At Home.
A service member's military retired pay can be a valuable asset in a divorce, legal separation or dissolution of marriage.

In 1982 Congress passed the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act, which allows state courts to treat disposable retired pay either as property solely of the member, or as property of the member and his spouse in accordance with the laws of the state court.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no "magic formula" contained in the act to determine the appropriate division of retired pay. A state court can divide retired pay in any way it chooses (subject to the laws of that state). All 50 states treat military pension as marital or community property.

One of the popular misconceptions about military retired pay is that it is only divisible if the marriage lasted at least 10 years. A state court can award a share of the military retired pay to a former spouse of military member even though the marriage lasted less than a year.

However, in order for the Department of Defense to make direct payments of a military member's retired pay to the former spouse, the former spouse must have been married to the military member for a period of at least 10 years, with at least 10 years of the marriage overlapping a period of military service creditable to retired pay.

Also, direct payments will not be made for division of retired pay in excess of 50 percent or 65 percent if alimony or child support is paid in addition to division of retired pay. Disability pay is not subject to division as property but it is subject to garnishment for alimony or child support.

One very important provision of the USFSPA is that in order for a state court to be allowed to divide member's retired pay, the court must have jurisdiction over the member by:

-- His/her residence, other than because of military assignment, in the territorial jurisdiction of the court;

-- His/her domicile in the territorial jurisdiction of the court; or

-- His/her consent to the jurisdiction of the court.

For example, if John Smith is stationed in Ohio, but claims Nebraska as his legal domicile and if his spouse files for divorce in Ohio, the court would not be allowed to divide John's military retired pay unless John consents to the jurisdiction of the court.

In addition to a share of the military retired pay, the former spouse has a right to receive certain military benefits so long as he/she meets the criteria. As the benefits are statutory entitlements, they are automatic and not subject to negotiation or deviation by a divorce court and the member cannot confiscate the spouses ID card, or otherwise suspend the spouse's military privileges.

Former spouses will retain all military benefits and privileges, including medical, commissary, military exchanges, if he or she was married to the member at least 20 years, the member had at least 20 years of creditable service, and there was at least a 20-year overlap between the marriage and the military service.

If there is less than 20 but at least 15 years of overlap, the former spouse will be entitled to one year of transitional medical benefits only. Medical benefits are suspended while the former spouse is covered by an employer-sponsored health care plan and will terminate upon the former spouse's remarriage.
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The Youth Garden Project will host its first YGPizza Night on July 9 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to support the organizations year-round, garden
Even when there are no wildfires to fight, fire personnel and land managers are working to mitigate future ignitions by rearranging or removin
Kitex Garments, the worlds second-largest manufacturer of kids apparel, and Kerala's largest private sector employer announced withdrawal from a Rs3,500 crore investment project alleging an incessant witch hunt by the government, says a report.

Quoting Sabu M Jacob, chairman and managing director of Kitex group, a report from New Indian Express says, "We have already acquired 30 acres of land for the apparel park at Kizhakkambalam in Kochi. The decision to scrap the project has been taken as I am fed up with the continuous harassment at the hands of the authorities. Whoever invests in Kerala will lose peace of mind and will be driven to suicide."

He told the newspaper that 11 teams of officers from various departments have raided the company during the past one month. Departments of labour, factories, and boilers and even a team led by the district collector conducted a search on the premises.

"On Tuesday, it was the turn of the pollution control board. Each team has 40 to 50 officers and searches every nook and corner of the company. They grill employees for hours but do not reveal what violations they have found. The Kitex factory has been functioning here for the past 26 years and we have 11,000 employees. They arrive with a huge team violating Covid protocols and bring camera teams of online media, he told the newspaper.

During January 2020 at the Ascend Global Investors Meet' in Kochi, the company had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kerala government. It wanted to pen an apparel park in Kochi and establish industry parks at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Palakkad with an investment of Rs3,00 crore.

"The project report has also been completed and the project would have provided jobs for 20,000 people. The three industrial parks were envisaged to promote start-ups providing all infrastructural facilities. Each of these parks would have created 5,000 job opportunities," Mr Jacob told the newspaper.

Other states are providing free land, building, water, power and tax holiday for 10 years to investors, he says adding, "There are states that provide the provident fund (PF) and employee state insurance (ESI) share of the employees. Some states even offer Rs5,000 salary for the employees for five years. We don't demand any benefits from the government. At least they can stop harassing us. If the situation continues, Kerala will turn into a graveyard of industries."

While Kerala is ranked 28 in the ease of doing business index, it claims that it is transforming itself into an emerging investment destination.
Catalyst Trusteeship, the debenture trustee for non-convertible bonds (NCDs) issued by two Srei group companies has sent an email to all NCD holders late last night. The mail is seeking the consent of debenture holders for voting (on their behalf) in favour of or against the scheme of arrangement proposed by Srei at the Kolkata bench of NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) in December 2020.

As per the mail, Srei Equipment Finance Limited (SEFL) had issued a notice on 22nd June for convening the meeting of debenture trustees representing individual NCD holders of SEFL on 24 July 2021 at 2.30 pm for, inter alia, voting on the repayment scheme by the debenture trustees on behalf of the NCD holders.

Many retail investors have invested in both SEFL as well as Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd (SIFL), and both companies paused interest payments and redemptions from 1 January 2021. The amount due to individual NCD holders of SEFL is Rs 1,503.31 crore as on 30 November 2020.

There are two specific points put up for voting in one resolution.

While the first part seeks approval for the proposed scheme of arrangement or repayment plan, the second part seeks approval to grant power/ authority to the companys board of directors or committee appointed by board to effect the repayment plan and implement it as they deem it fit.

Srei has appointed Karvy FinTech Private Limited ( https://evoting.karvy.com ) to provide the e-voting facility to the debenture trustees representing individual NCD holders.

For individual NCD investors, e-voting will commence on Friday 2nd July and end on 21st July Wednesday at 6.00 pm. User ID and password will be shared separately by Linkstar Infosys Pvt Ltd. before commencement of e-voting.

The Srei group had frozen interest payments and redemptions of NCDs from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021. This happened in the wake of an order from the Kolkata bench of NCLT on 30 December 2020, which allowed a moratorium on the company.

In a statement released on 1st January, the Srei group had said For the first time in our history, and due to COVID-19 and key regulatory compliances, we are compelled to defer payments to creditors including NCDs. All payments will be rescheduled through the proposed schemes. Please have patience as we value your long-term confidence.

Axis Trustee Services Ltd, IDBI Trusteeship Services Ltd, Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd moved the NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) in an appeal against the NCLT order. While hearing was held on several dates in February, March and April, no interim orders have been issued. The next NCLAT hearing is on 5th July.

The six-month moratorium period ended yesterday. Srei had committed in its proposed scheme of arrangement to repay all the interest falling due during the moratorium period by 15th July. Any coupon/interest accrued and payable to the Secured Debenture Holders during the Moratorium Period shall be paid by SEFL within 15 (fifteen) days from the expiry of the Moratorium Period, Srei Equipment Finance had stated then. Further, the redemption dates of the secured NCDs also stand postponed by a period of two years.

The company has claimed The Scheme is in the best interests of all the stakeholders of SEFL. Yet, it also says no valuation was required to be done.

It is not known if the company has the money to repay all the interest payments (which fell due during the moratorium) this month. Retail NCD investors are advised to vote with extreme caution after reading all the documents shared by the debenture trustee carefully.

The freeze on interest payment and redemption of NCDs has hit hard the retail bond investors, many of whom are senior citizens, who rely on the interest payments for their day-to-day living.

Meanwhile in a separate press release issued today, Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Srei Equipment Finance Limited, have announced plans to raise significant capital in both the companies.

Srei Infrastructure Finance said its board has approved a resolution to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore through various means, including public offer or qualified institutional placement (QIP) or private placements or preferential issue or rights issue. The board of directors in their meeting on Thursday has passed a resolution to raise up to Rs2,500 crore.

While Singapore-based Makara Capital Partners has offered a term sheet for an investment of Rs2,200 crore by way of infusion of capital into the company, US-based Arena Investors LP has shown interest in a Rs2,000 crore of investment into SEFL. The company's strategic coordination committee (SCC), led by independent directors, is currently evaluating these proposals and taking necessary steps, said the statement.

Besides, the company has received Expression of Interest (EOI) from several other global private investment firms, including Cerberus Global Investments, Charlestown Capital Advisors, CarVal Investors LP, Varde Partners Asia, and Maystone Capital. The press release claims Many investors have expressed their desire to invest in Srei

The company also sounded a thinly veiled cautionary note for the regulators and the government while urging them to understand the ground situation. In the wake of this once in a hundred years pandemic, it has become imperative for the government and regulators to understand the specific problems of the players in the infrastructure sector, both financiers and operators. If the financiers' and their borrowers' problems are not resolved, it may result in wiping out many companies, which will later lead to higher cost for infrastructure creation as only few players will remain,the company says.

The company also says that it has been working closely with its clients for resolution and recovery but it will take time and patience to resolve the problems. The company further added However, since most of Srei's loans are backed with assets and cash flows, Srei remains confident of making significant recovery once the macro situation stabilises.

The company crisis has also led to mass-level exits, across all levels, from the company since December 2020. Nearly 250 employees of the company are learnt to have left the company so far, mainly because the lenders consortium to Srei has taken control of the cash flows of the company.

The lenders consortium had also put a salary cap at a maximum of Rs 50 lakh, which has since been lifted. Sources say that the clearance of arrears of those senior-level executives whose salaries were curbed is still due and this might prompt further high-level exits from the company.

Ex-DHFL Director Inducted Into Board

On Thursday, Srei Infrastructure Finance also announced the appointment Deepali Pant Joshi as an independent director on its board. Joshi served as an Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from January 2013 till December 2017.

It might be recalled that Joshi was similarly appointed as an independent director on the board of directors of DHFL in May 2019. In November 2019, the RBI superseded the board at DHFL and appointed R Subramaniakumar as its administrator to run the affairs of the company.

Many NCD holders had invested in both DHFL and Srei and with both these companies stopping the interest payments on the bonds, retail investors are under pressure and feel victimised since they were led to believe that companies were in sound financial health due to the AAA or AA ratings issued by the credit rating agencies.

DHFL is seeing a lot of complicated litigation with cases filed in various courts by different stakeholders. In case of DHFL, many NCD holders stand to lose around 65% to 75% of their invested amounts if the already approved resolution plan (by Piramal Capital) is accepted and goes through.
July 01, 2021

Open Thread 2021-050

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July 01, 2021

Thoughts On Xi Jinping's Anniversary Speech

Right in time for the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China the World Health Organization certified China to be free of Malaria:

The World Health Organization (WHO) today is certifying China as free of malaria, after a decadeslong effort drove an estimated annual toll of 30 million cases in the 1940s, including 300,000 deaths, to zero in 2017. Along the way, China developed new surveillance techniques, medicines, and technologies to break the cycle of transmission between the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria parasites and humans.

...

Chinas ability to think outside the box served the country well in its own response to malaria, Pedro Alonso, director of WHO's Global Malaria Programme, said in a statement. After maintaining zero indigenous cases for three consecutive years, China applied for WHOs malaria-free certification, which is being granted following a May inspection mission by the independent Malaria Elimination Certification Panel. One requirement for winning certification is having a program to prevent the reestablishment of malaria, a particular challenge because China shares borders with three countries where the disease is endemic: Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos.

After the chaos created by European style imperialism in the 19th century China has made a great comeback. Its system of governance has allowed for great achievements like the above within a relative short timeframe.

Most remarkable is that China did this without imperial aggression towards the outside. The speech party chairman Xi Jinping held on the CPC's 100th anniversary promises that China will continue on a peaceful path while it will stay vigilant against exterior aggression:

The Chinese nation has fostered a splendid civilization over more than 5,000 years of history. The Party has also acquired a wealth of experience through its endeavors over the past 100 years and during more than 70 years of governance. At the same time, we are also eager to learn what lessons we can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism. We will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us. The Party and the Chinese people will keep moving confidently forward in broad strides along the path that we have chosen for ourselves, and we will make sure the destiny of China's development and progress remains firmly in our own hands. ... We will continue to champion cooperation over confrontation, to open up rather than closing our doors, and to focus on mutual benefits instead of zero-sum games. We will oppose hegemony and power politics, and strive to keep the wheels of history rolling toward bright horizons. We Chinese are a people who uphold justice and are not intimidated by threats of force. As a nation, we have a strong sense of pride and confidence. We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will. By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.

Other U.S. efforts to set up a conflict that could hinder China's further rise evolve around Taiwan and Japan. Taiwan is indisputably a part of China though with a different system of governance. The U.S. is pushing Taiwan to declare itself independent while it pushes a latent nuclear Japan to give Taiwan a security guarantee. That would set up east Asia for a huge (nuclear?) conflict during which the U.S. could stay on the side line while it watches how a lot of the world's production capacity gets destroyed. A remake of World War II which let the U.S. rise to primacy.

China is by its laws obligated to intervene should Taiwan ever declare independence. Xi Jinping's speech leaves no doubt that it would do so:

Comrades and friends, We will stay true to the letter and spirit of the principle of One Country, Two Systems, under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong, and the people of Macao administer Macao, both with a high degree of autonomy. We will ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao, and implement the legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security. While protecting China's sovereignty, security, and development interests, we will ensure social stability in Hong Kong and Macao, and maintain lasting prosperity and stability in the two special administrative regions. Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China. It is also a shared aspiration of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. We will uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and advance peaceful national reunification. All of us, compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must come together and move forward in unison. We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward "Taiwan independence," and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation. No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

China has done well under guidance of the CPC. It is on its way to become the world's foremost power. But the U.S. is unwilling to relinquish that position without a fight. The party's most important task now is to find a way to avoid a conflict that could destruct a lot of the country's achievements.

Posted by b on July 1, 2021 at 18:26 UTC | Permalink

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Independence Day weekend got off to a rolling and strolling start for hundreds of participants in the sixth annual Avon Bike Parade.
Elected leaders will consider asking voters to pay for park upgrades in Lorain by approving a new levy on the November ballot.
Lorain Municipal Court and the Clerk of Courts Office occupy the second floor of Lorain City Hall, 200 W. Erie Ave. On July 1, 2021, the court administrator announced Judge Thomas J. Elwell Jr., Judge Mark J. Mihok and Clerk of Courts Ted Kalo will require workers to get the vaccinations against COVID-19 as Lorain and the nation recover from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Moultrie, GA (31768)

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Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. High 83F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

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Odessa Arts will host the Texas Music Office for a free Texas Music Friendly Community workshop 6 p.m. July 8 at the Ector Theater.

Participation in the Texas Music Offices Music Friendly Community program provides Texas communities with a network for fostering music industry development and sends a clear message to industry professionals that certified communities are serious about attracting and developing music industry growth.

Cities that have received the official "Music Friendly Communities" designation from the Texas Music Office include Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Denton, Lindale, Stephenville, Conroe, San Angelo, Nacogdoches, Abilene, McKinney, Waxahachie, Waco, Alpine, Bastrop, New Braunfels, Victoria, Arlington, Denison, Lubbock, Brenham, Dripping Springs, Round Rock and El Paso.

Musicians, venues and the general public are welcome to attend. Register for the workshop for free here.
PHUKET, Thailand (AP)  Starting Thursday, Thailand will welcome back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine.

Those planning to see the rest of Thailand must stay a minimum of two weeks during which they will be free to roam the island, where preparations include having a major proportion of the local population inoculated for COVID-19. Those passing through en route to other countries can book shorter stays.

After a stay of 14 days or more, visitors will be able to travel relatively freely elsewhere in Thailand  subject to the same health restrictions as Thai travelers.

The Phuket sandbox program is open to visitors from 63 countries and three territories rated by Thailand as low or medium risk for COVID-19. Requirements beyond nationality are more complicated and involve a fair amount of paperwork, in addition to being subject to changes.

The most up-to-date and detailed information will generally be available from the website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, at www.tatnews.org, or from the nearest Thai Embassy.

Visas for stays of up to 30 days are not necessary for many nationalities. Airlines with direct flights to Phuket include Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways, El Al and Singapore Airlines.

The basic requirements before departure for Phuket include:

 Must have been staying in approved home country for at least 21 days before departure.

 Must obtain a Certificate of Entry from a Thai embassy or consulate.

 Must be fully vaccinated at least 14 days before departure. (Travelers under 18 years old accompanied by a parent or guardian are exempted from the need to be vaccinated.)

 Must have a negative RT-PCR test for COVID-19 within 72 hours of departure. (Also required for travelers under 18 years old)

 Must have a minimum $100,000 medical insurance policy covering COVID-19 treatment.

Upon arrival:

 Must have an RT-PCR test for COVID-19 at their own expense on the day of arrival, the sixth or seventh day of stay and the 12th or 13th day.

 Must stay for 14 days at approved SHA+ hotels in order to travel onwards in Thailand. The booking must be confirmed before arrival. SHA+ certifies safety and health standards including having at least 70% of staff vaccinated for COVID-19.

 Must install Thailand Plus and Morchana apps, to track health and location, respectively.

 Must have evidence of negative COVID-19 test results over the 14-day stay for onward travel to other parts of Thailand.
BANGKOK (AP)  Myanmar's government began releasing about 2,300 prisoners on Wednesday, including activists who were detained for protesting against the military's seizure of power in February and journalists who reported on the protests, officials said.

Buses took prisoners out of Yangons Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases. It is standard practice to take freed prisoners to the police stations where they were originally booked to complete the processing for their freedom.

Zaw Zaw, head of the Yangon Regions Prison Department, confirmed that more than 720 people were released from the prison, which for decades has been the main facility for political prisoners.

According to official announcements on state media, most if not all of the freed detainees faced charges related to the protests, including Section 505(A) of Myanmars penal code, which makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

It appeared, however, that an unknown number of people held on that charge might still be detained. Complete information was not available and the releases are expected to take place over several days.

State television reported on releases in the city of Mandalay and Naypyitaw, the capital, in addition to Yangon, the country's biggest city. Local media in more remote areas reported releases as well, including in Myitkyina in the northern state of Kachin, Lashio in Shan state in the east, and Hakha in Chin state in the west, a hotbed of opposition to military rule.

Tin Zar Oo, a lawyer who with her colleagues represents political detainees and journalists, said about half of the 100 people whose cases they handle, including journalists arrested as long as four months ago, were released Wednesday.

A statement from the military said 2,296 prisoners were being released. Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun earlier told Chinas Xinhua news agency that the released detainees were those are who took part in the protests but did not take part in the violence, who did not commit crimes and did not lead the riots.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoner said Tuesday that 5,224 people were in detention in connection with the protests. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nations political conflicts.

There was no reason given for the timing of the releases.

The government is eager to cultivate goodwill among the public, a large part of which is hostile to it. On Tuesday it announced that it was dropping charges against about two dozen celebrities who had taken a role in the protests.

It would also like to soften its international image. The U.N. General Assembly on June 18 passed a resolution calling for an arms embargo against the Southeast Asian nation and condemning the militarys seizure of power. Several Western nations have already implemented diplomatic and economic sanctions.

Tun Kyi, a senior member of the Former Political Prisoners Society, charged that the detainees were released to reduce pressure from the international community, and said they shouldnt have been arrested in the first place.

The military abducted dissidents and took them hostage. It is not an unconditional release of all political leaders and prisoners, but rather intended to avoid international pressure, he said. And there is no reason to be thankful.

Myanmar is also facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, with 1,312 new infections reported Tuesday, bringing its total to 155,697. Crowded conditions make prisons high-risk areas for the virus, though there was no official word if that threat played a part in the releases.

The political turmoil has made the countrys health care system largely dysfunctional, severely limiting COVID-19 testing and reporting until about a month ago, when the number of confirmed cases shot up rapidly.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A Texas congressman who has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 mask mandates went without a mask for at least a portion of a commercial airline flight Tuesday evening, an apparent violation of federal law.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy flew from Washington back to his home district in Austin to attend a border security event held Wednesday with former President Donald Trump.

The Associated Press was provided a photo and a nearly three-minute video from a Southwest Airlines flight showing a bare-faced Roy chatting with fellow passengers while standing in the aisle of the plane. The video and a photo were provided to the AP on the condition of anonymity by another passenger.

Roy is listed as a co-sponsor on a GOP-backed bill introduced in Congress last week that seeks to bar federal authorities from requiring masks to be worn on commercial airliners or in airports, as well as other transportation hubs such as train and bus stations.

His staff did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment Wednesday, including questions about whether the congressman had been vaccinated.

Roy was issued a formal warning by congressional leaders in May after he and a handful of other Republicans refused to wear masks on the House floor, as then required by the chambers rules. In a May 18 tweet, Roy said his refusal was to wear a mask was a protest to stand up for every student and every hard working American wanting the insanity to end.

Democratic leaders later relaxed the mask mandate on Capitol Hill after the Centers for Disease Control changed its guidance last month to say it's safe for vaccinated adults to go without a mask when indoors in most circumstances.

Masks are still required by federal law on commercial aircraft and in all indoor spaces at airports for everyone older than 2 years of age. Those who fail to mask up on planes are subject to civil fines, ranging from $250 for the first offense and up to $1,500 for repeat offenders. Most U.S. airlines also prominently include mask wearing as a requirement in their written terms of service when passengers purchase tickets, with verbal reminders issued during boarding and safety briefings. Those who refuse can be denied service and removed.

A Southwest spokesperson said in an email Wednesday the airline couldnt comment on details involving individual passengers, but no irregularity reports were generated from the specific flight the congressman was filmed on.

The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for enforcing COVID-19 safety restrictions of commercial aircraft. Agency spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez reiterated that airline passengers are still required to wear masks on planes and in airports, though she did not respond to specific questions about the congressman's failure to wear one.

Last year, after Roy was exposed to a fellow GOP congressman who then tested positive for COVID-19, he declined to self-quarantine and said he wasnt worried about catching the virus.

In a July 2020 interview with CNN, Roy questioned the effectiveness of mask wearing for preventing the spread of the virus, especially during interactions with perfect strangers on an airplane with circulating air.

With cotton masks on an airplane, where everybody is pretending like theyre doing something noble to try to save people from a virus on a cylinder with 50 people on it flying through the air, Roy said in the interview. My question to you all is how are people wearing a cotton mask on an airplane saving you from circulating virus on an airplane?

___

Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin contributed from Pharr, Texas.

___

Follow Associated Press Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck

___

Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org
MCSO

Austin R. Salmon, 29, was arrested and charged with deadly conduct by discharging a firearm for allegedly shooting at a womans car Tuesday night at the Compass Pointe apartment complex on Wayside Drive.

Officers were dispatched after a woman reported Salmon was intoxicated and shooting at her vehicle from his balcony, according to his arrest affidavit. The affidavit states that Salmons apartment building was between multiple three-story apartment buildings.
MENA MD Promotions for Kantar

In the MENA region, Kantar has promoted Amol Ghate to Managing Director, MENAP and Nermeen Bedeir to Managing Director, Insights Division, Egypt.



Ghate was previously the group's CEO Middle East, Insights Division, and brings more than twenty years' experience to the new role. He has led Kantar's largest client relationships in the region, working on brand equity, segmentation and positioning, portfolio management, brand communications, media optimisation, new product development and pricing; and made key contributions to the Arab as Consumer study, helping brands grow market share in Saudi Arabia, and the BrandZ Top 30 Most Valuable Emirati and Saudi Brands report. He also leads the Analytics practice across Middle East & Africa.



He reports to Adeola Tejumola, the group's MD Middle East and Africa, Insights Division, who comments: 'As [Ghate] adds North Africa and Pakistan to his remit, we look forward to him further driving our vision of growth in the region and know that both our staff and our clients are in great hands'.



Bedeir (pictured) also has two decades of Middle East and Africa market experience, focused on the voice of the consumer and working on projects from turning around declining brands to exploring product development innovations and pushing new potential geographies. Ghate comments: 'In Nermeen I know we have a leader who will provide our clients and employees with a partner who not only truly understands the important role consumer insight plays in building strong brands but also someone who is able to work with brands to help develop appropriate strategies to leverage those insights. These are exciting times for Kantar in Egypt, we have recently launched Marketplace, our market research platform that allows for the fast turnaround of insights designed for marketing agility which will redefine that way people think of research'.



Group home page: www.kantar.com .




ANZ Opening for Pathmatics

Santa Monica, California-based ad intelligence company Pathmatics is expanding to Australia and New Zealand, appointing Eugene Du Plessis to lead the new division as Regional Director.



Pathmatics, formed in 2011 and acquired last month by mobile app market intelligence and insights provider Sensor Tower, provides users with data on how their competitors are spending on ads across digital, video, display and mobile, as well as Facebook advertising intelligence. Its flagship Explorer platform was previously offered in the region via a partnership with Nielsen, but has not been available direct until now.



Du Plessis joins from Nielsen Australia, where he has spent the last six years in roles including Commercial Director. Pathmatics social tracking now reports on Facebook advertising in 11 countries around the globe, also including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Germany.



Pathmatics co-founder and CEO Gabe Gottlieb (pictured) says: 'As the world increasingly shifts to digital, it's imperative that companies can quickly understand the strategies of their competitors, and the greater digital marketing ecosystem. Until now, there has been a lack of transparency into Australia and New Zealand's digital and social ad landscape, so we're thrilled to be giving marketers and brands with a presence in each market the ability to make more informed decisions about how they invest their advertising dollars'.



With the launch, Pathmatics has published details of the top advertisers in Australia over the past 12 months, with the top three places taken by Procter & Gamble, Hungry Jack's and SingTel (& Optus) - all estimated to spend more than $24m across Facebook and Google ads; whilst in New Zealand the top three are Procter & Gamble, Warehouse Group Limited and Mondelez International, estimated to spend just under $9m between them.



Web site: www.pathmatics.com .




Sun Valley, ID (83353)

Today

Thunderstorms this morning, then partly cloudy during the afternoon hours. High around 85F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Billie Vanderbilt, 72, resident of Boley, left us on Thursday, July 1, 2021 from her home. Service arrangements are pending in the Hyde Park Chapel of the Keith D. Biglow Funeral Directors, Inc., in Boley. biglowfunerals.com
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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:
JERSEYVILLE  Its not every day someone can get a blessing from the pope.

Count among them Saint Francis Xavier Church at 506 S. State St. in Jerseyville, which marks its 150th year on Sunday.

According to the Rev. Marty Smith, a papal blessing is reserved for when a church or parish celebrates a significant event or achievement.

It offers congratulations to the people of the parish on celebrating this milestone and joyous occasion, he said.

Pope Francis has deemed Saint Francis Xaviers sesquicentennial as worthy of the honor.

Its really flattering to receive such a blessing from the Holy Father, said Alex Foster, director of music for the church.

Foster, who converted to Roman Catholicism, has been with the church since 2001. He said its members are hospitable and very devoted.

Its great being part of a community that is so committed to the Roman Catholic faith, he said. They welcome you; they support you. It feels like going home.

Smith has been been a priest since 2015; he joined Saint Francis Xavier in 2017. He said his favorite part of his responsibilities is being with parishs families and the community.

They work together and they help one another out, Smith said. For me, its a great example of the love of God  seeing the families, the students and everybody thats a part of it.

This is the second papal blessing the church has received. Fifty-five years ago, in 1966, the church received a blessing to commemorate Father John Clancys 75 years of ordination. Clancy died a year later.

The Saint Francis Xavier Parish will celebrate its anniversary with a large Mass at 10:15 a.m. Sunday. Following the Mass, parishioners will gather in the gymnasium of St. Francis Xavier Catholic School next door for a social hour with coffee and doughnuts.

John Thurston has been with the church all of his life, outside of four years in the Navy.

This is probably one of the friendliest churches youll ever go to, Thurston said. The people work together and the Altar Society will bend over backwards to help somebody.

The parish was consecrated July 4, 1871. It was officially established four years later, on July 5, 1875. Before then, there was just one Catholic family  the Carroll family  living in Elsah Township.

Church records indicate that by 1839 there were two more families  the Thomas Carroll family and the Mary Cummings family. That year, the families of William Shepherd, Fred Bertman and William Kelly also came to reside in Jersey County.

There was no church. But Father George Hamilton would come to the area and minister to the Catholic families. Hamilton performed the first marriage, for Mr. and Mrs. William Kelly. There was also a circuit rider in the area, Father Michael Carroll, who would travel from church to church.

The parish held its first service in the William Shepherd home in the fall of 1841. Carroll and Hamilton were both part of the Alton Diocese, which included Jersey County. They occasionally visited Jerseyville and held services in private homes and in the courthouse.

In 1848, the parish decided it needed a church. William Shepherd, Fred Bertman and William Kelly bought a plot of ground from J.A. and C.J. Barr, but it was not until July 1857 that a small frame church was erected and dedicated by the Right Rev. Henry Damian Junker, bishop of Alton.

Father Thomas F. Mangan became the first resident priest of Saint Francis Xavier, remaining until April 1860. He was succeeded by Father Marrill until February 1861 and Father Laurent until February 1865, the latter of whom directed the construction of a rectory that later became the home of the Dominican Sisters, who staffed the school for more than 100 years. Laurent also oversaw the purchase of land for a parish cemetery.

Father Hovin served 1865-66 before Father John Sullivan  who had overseen construction of Saint Malachy Church in St. Louis  was sent to build a new church in Jerseyville. The cornerstone was laid in May 1868. But shortly after this, money ran out and Sullivan requested to be transferred to Springfield.

He was replaced by Father James J. Harty who served until 1899. Harty took over the building project. The main body of the church was designed as 55 by 100 feet with a tower of more than 150 feet. The inside height of the ceiling in the center of the nave is 43 feet, and side aisles are 25 feet.

William Embly and Sons were the architects of the Gothic-style church. The body was built using bricks made in Jerseyville and stone trimmings from Grafton quarries. Masons from Alton did the brick work, Nichol T. Smith Jr. did the carpentry and Coddington & Irwin did the plastering.

The roof was covered with slate shingles. This was done at a cost of $25,000 and took three years to complete.

On July 4, 1871, the Total Abstinence Society of Alton was met at the depot by the Hibernian Society of Jerseyville and, with the juvenile band of the Annunciation School of Saint Louis, marched through the main streets to the church.

Saint Francis Xavier Church was dedicated by the Rev. P.J. Baltes, bishop of Alton. The celebrant of the day was the Rev. P. Cline of Kaskaskia, assisted by Deacon John Moher of Alton and Subdeacon P. Brady of Springfield. Master of ceremonies was the Rev. J. J. Johnson, vicar general of the diocese, with a dedication sermon by the Rev. David Daley of St. Louis.
As part of the $6 trillion in taxpayer money lawmakers committed to spending in response to the pandemic, about $162 billion is earmarked for Illinois governments, schools and private businesses.

A website from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget shows taxpayers where Congress and federal administrators are sending their money. Illinois has around $162 billion committed.

The federal spending is unprecedented, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Over about a two and a half year period, well spend about twice as much as we did in five years of the great recession, Goldwein said.

Actions in Congress and administrative moves by the Trump and Biden administrations mean $162 billion is targeted for Illinois.

The total amount committed or already spent includes $64 billion in loans and grants for small, medium and large businesses, aid for local and state governments totaling more than $14.1 billion and nearly $9 billion for K-12 schools and higher education.

The spending crosses all sectors, Goldwein said.

Higher Medicaid matches, higher education money, transit money, but then, of course, the citizens of all the states got money through unemployment benefits, through checks, through the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and through a variety of other programs, he said.

While all states get funds, Illinois was an outlier for borrowing from a new Federal Reserve program that bought bonds from governmental bodies that needed immediate assistance.

As it turned out almost nobody sold them those bonds because they didnt need to. The exception being the state of Illinois and the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, the MPA, Goldwein said.

Illinois borrowed around $3 billion and plans to pay it down with the budget that begins today.

Goldwein thinks the overall spending went too far, but overall I think this was a time that we needed to borrow and its paid off in terms of supporting income and helping support economic recovery.

The groups website, COVIDMoneyTracker.org, includes a tool for tracking specific spending related to the pandemic.

According to the site, of the $160 billion Illinois is allowed, about $24 billion has not yet been committed or distributed.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)  Some 130 countries have agreed on a global minimum tax backed by President Joe Biden as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates.

The agreement announced Thursday is an attempt to address challenges presented by a globalized and increasingly digital world economy in which profits can be relocated across borders and companies can earn online profits in places where they have no taxable headquarters.

The deal calls for a global minimum tax of at least 15%, a key element pushed by Biden as he seeks to raise more revenue for his infrastructure and clean energy plans. Technical details still need to be worked out and it would be at least 2023 before the agreement takes effect.

The agreement, announced by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, also provides for taxing part of the profits of the largest global companies in countries where they do business online but may have no physical presence.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called it "the most important international tax agreement in a century.

Countries led by France have already started imposing unilateral digital taxes aimed at U.S. tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook; under the deal, they would agree to withdraw those taxes, regarded as unfair trade practices by the U.S., in favor of the global approach.

The French tax on tech giants prompted retaliatory tariffs under former U.S. President Donald Trump, and France has welcomed the Biden administrations push to reach a global deal.

Online giants must pay their faire share of taxes where they have activities," he said. There is no reason a small or medium business should pay more taxes than an online giant simply because its physically present in the country where it carries out its activities.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called it a historic day."

For decades, the United States has participated in a self-defeating international tax competition, lowering our corporate tax rates only to watch other nations lower theirs in response, she said in a statement. "The result was a global race to the bottom: Who could lower their corporate rate further and faster?"

Yellen said lower rates deprived countries of money for infrastructure, education and efforts to fight the pandemic.

Manal Corwin, a tax principal at professional services firm KPMG and a former Treasury Department official, said the deal put together the big pieces of an overall agreement, although technical complexities remain to be worked out. She said what was approved was pretty much the U.S. proposal, noting that it was hugely important for the U.S. to obtain a commitment from other countries to withdraw their unilateral digital taxes.

Under the deal, countries could tax their companies' foreign earnings up to 15% if they go untaxed through subsidiaries in other countries. That would remove the incentive to use accounting and legal schemes to shift profits to low-rate countries where they do little or no business, since the profits would be taxed at home anyway. Such tax avoidance practices cost countries between $100 billion and $240 billion in lost revenue annually, according to the OECD.

Not all of the 139 countries that joined the talks signed on to the deal. Ireland's finance ministry said it had broad support for the approach used in the agreement but could not agree to the 15% minimum. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said the country's 12.5% rate is a fair rate. Ireland said it would constructively engage in discussions going forward.

Signers included Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, regarded by economists as tax havens, and major economic powers China and India.

More discussion is expected at the meeting of the G-20 finance ministers in Venice next week, ahead of a final endorsement by the full G-20 summit of country leaders in October. The proposal to tax companies where they have revenue but no physical presence would require countries to sign up for a multilateral convention, while the minimum corporate tax could be adopted by each country through national legislation on a voluntary basis.

Tax experts say that voluntary approach could work if adopted by countries where many multinationals have their headquarters, such as the U.S. and in Europe, by making clear to companies that even if they avoid tax by moving profits to overseas subsidiaries, those profits will be taxed at home up to the minimum.

In the U.S., Biden has proposed a 21% minimum rate on overseas earnings of big American companies to deter them from shifting profits to tax havens. Bidens U.S. tax must first pass Congress, where the Democratic president has only a narrow majority.

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Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
A letter written by Abraham Lincoln and gifted to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will go on display starting Wednesday in the museums Treasures Gallery.

Lincolns 1854 letter to a friend seems mundane. Lincoln simply says he has decided not to serve as a state representative again.

But what was meant by the letter  which one scholar once called in a sense, the most interesting document Lincoln ever wrote  was that the little-known prairie lawyer had set his sights on the U.S. Senate  or more.

The letter was gifted to the library and museum by Guy Fraker, a Bloomington attorney, Lincoln collector and author of Lincolns Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth Judicial Circuit.

Those of us who have been lucky enough to serve as caretakers for Lincoln letters and artifacts have an obligation to ensure they will be shared with the public for generations to come, Fraker said. This letter belongs in Illinois at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Fraker decided to donate the letter to the library, in part, because its acquisitions chief, Ian Hunt, helped Fraker track down a related letter at the Library of Congress, Fraker said, noting that it allowed him finally to read both the letter sent to Lincoln and his response.

We are honored that Mr. Fraker believes so strongly in the ALPLMs mission that he is willing to donate this treasure, said Christina Shutt, the library and museums executive director. Lincoln wrote it at a pivotal time in his life. Would he focus on the law or make a return to politics? His decision changed history, so its appropriate for this letter to find a home at the library and museum dedicated to telling the story of Lincolns impact on the world.

In November 1854, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois House. Soon after, he got a note from his friend Elihu N. Powell, a Peoria attorney, reminding him that serving in the Illinois House would make him ineligible to run for a U.S. Senate seat in 1855.

Lincoln responded on Nov. 27, 1854: Acting on your advice, and my own judgment, I have declined accepting the office of Representative of this county. Lincoln added that he had run for the legislative seat only as a favor to a political ally.

The letters portrait of Lincoln in transition prompted historian Paul Angles comment that this was Lincolns most interesting document. Angle wrote extensively on Lincoln and was historian of the Illinois State Historical Library from 1932 to 1945.

The letter will be displayed for one month.

For more information, go to PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov.
AMSTERDAM (AP)  The mayor of Amsterdam apologized Thursday for the extensive involvement of the Dutch capital's former governors in the global slave trade, saying the moment had come for the city to confront its grim history.

Debate about the role of Amsterdams city fathers in the slave trade has been going on for years, but it has gained more attention amid the global reckoning with racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

It is time to engrave the great injustice of colonial slavery into our citys identity. With big-hearted and unconditional recognition, Mayor Femke Halsema said. Because we want to be a government for those for whom the past is painful and its legacy a burden."

While apologizing, she also stressed that not a single Amsterdammer alive today is to blame for the past.

The Dutch government has in the past expressed deep regret for the nation's historic role in slavery, but has stopped short of a formal apology. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last year that such an apology could polarize society.

An independent commission that discussed the issue in recent months issued a report Thursday advising the central government to apologize, saying it would help heal historic suffering.

Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren attended the ceremony in Amsterdam but did not comment directly on the call for a government apology.

Black activist and actor Patrick Mathurin said some in the Netherlands try to ignore the country's colonial past, "but through our activism, we forced them to look at it. And also what happened, of course, with George Floyd made it all ... evolve faster.

Halsema said history casts a shadow that reaches into the present day.

The city officials and the ruling elite who, in their hunger for profit and power, participated in the trade in enslaved people, in doing so entrenched a system of oppression based on skin color and race, she said. The past from which our city still draws its distinctive commercial spirit is therefore indivisible from the persistent racism that still festers.

She closed her speech with the words: On behalf of the College of Mayor and Alderpersons, I apologize. Cheers and applause erupted from the small group of invited guests sitting on socially distanced white chairs.

The apology came during an annual ceremony marking the abolition of slavery in Dutch colonies in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863. The anniversary is now known as Keti Koti, which means Chains Broken.

Activists say many people who had been enslaved were forced to work without pay for their former masters for a further decade.

Research into the involvement of Amsterdam's city fathers in the slave trade and slavery was commissioned by the municipality in 2019.

Halsema said it showed that from the end of the 16th century until well into the 19th century, Amsterdams involvement was direct, worldwide, large-scale, multifaceted and protracted.

Amsterdam municipality is not alone in apologizing for its role in slavery. In 2007, then-London Mayor Ken Livingstone made an emotional speech apologizing for the citys involvement. And a year ago the Bank of England apologized for the links some of its past governors had with slavery.

Halsema doesn't have to leave her official residence on one of Amsterdam's mansion-lined canals to be reminded of the city's deeply rooted ties to slavery.

The residence was formerly the home of Paulus Godin, who was a board member of the West-India Company and director of the Society of Suriname that were both heavily involved in slavery in the 17th century.

A stone plaque outside the house recalls that history and calls the slave trade and slavery crimes against humanity.

Amsterdam municipality says that former city fathers in the time that slavery was rife in Dutch colonies were deeply involved in the trade.

Mayors were also owners of plantations or traded in people. They helped, through their public office, to maintain slavery because they profited from it, the city says on its website.

The Dutch national museum, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, is currently staging a major exhibition entitled simply Slavery examining the country's role in the global slave trade.

Thursday's anniversary is the Dutch equivalent of Juneteenth in the United States, which President Joe Biden made a federal holiday earlier this month. There are calls to make the Dutch day of commemoration a national holiday.

The U.S. federal government has not apologized for slavery. The U.S. House and Senate both have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery and racial segregation laws.

During a press conference in 2007, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was sorry for Britains role in slavery, which he called entirely unacceptable. But eight years later during a trip to Jamaica, Prime Minister David Cameron sidestepped calls for an apology and ruled out paying reparations.

____

Corder reported from The Hague. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London and AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.
More Information

SOUTH JACKSONVILLE MAYORAL ORDER 01-2021

There has grown a need to reaffirm certain principles of self-governance relating to the safety, health, and welfare of the People of South Jacksonville, Illinois. In an ideal world, violent people would not exist and perfect harmony could be achieved without law enforcement or having to worry about crimes being committed where you live. Unfortunately, no society, including ours, has ever rid itself of criminal and violent behavior, and as a result, the right to defend one's self against violence has always existed as a necessary norm in every free society.

The right of any law-abiding adult to own a weapon to defend themselves is a fundamental right of liberty that cannot and must not be denied. No civilization of prosperity since the beginning of time has ever abandoned the concept of self-defense. Here in the United States of America, the right to bear arms, so fundamental to breaking free from the British Crown, was enshrined in the federal Constitution so that all Americans could live free, forever. "The original right of self-defense," Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 28, "is paramount to all positive forms of government ... provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them."

The basic right of gun ownership for self-defense, guaranteed by our Constitution, has always been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court-the highest court and the ultimate arbiter of law in our democratic Republic. 1 The right to own a gun for self-protection is further enshrined in the Constitution of the State of Illinois, that "Subject only to the police power, the right of the individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." International Law affirms these basic principles. Article 51 of the UN Charter Treaty, which the U.S. is a signatory to, recognizes the right of nations to "individual self-defense [against] an armed attack."

The right to defend your family, your person, and your property is a fundamental principle of American life, liberty and law. Naturally, the right to self-defense at home and while navigating daily responsibilities encounters certain limitations, when guns are not permitted in sensitive locations manned with armed security, like airports, courthouses, police stations, and other government buildings, where armed security is provided by the state. A principled stance regarding the right to bear arms recognizes the state's ability to enact these reasonable spatial limitations which have no bearing on one's ability to own a gun for self-defense at home or while traveling.

For these reasons and in the spirit of liberty birthed in the year Seventeen Seventy-Six, as Mayor, I do proclaim the following policy in the Village of South Jacksonville, henceforth in perpetuity:

WHEREAS, the Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms for defense of Life, Liberty, and Property is regarded as an Inalienable Right by the People of the Village of South Jacksonville, Illinois, and;

WHEREAS, the People of the Village of South Jacksonville, Illinois, derive economic benefit from all safe forms of firearms recreation, hunting and shooting conducted within Morgan County using all types of firearms allowable under the United States Constitution, and;

WHEREAS, Tyson Manker, the chief executive officer of the Village of South Jacksonville, being elected to represent the People of South Jacksonville, and being duly sworn by his Oath of Office to uphold the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and;

WHEREAS, legislation under consideration now (and in the future) by the Illinois State Legislature would infringe the Right to Keep and Bear Arms or ban the possession and use of firearms now employed by the individual citizens of the Village of South Jacksonville, Illinois, for defense of Life, Liberty, and Property and would ban the possession and use of firearms now employed for safe forms of firearms recreation, hunting and shooting conducted within Morgan County, Illinois;

NOW, THEREFORE, IT BE AND IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Second Amendment and interpreting Supreme Court cases are the Supreme Law of the land in the United States, the State of Illinois, and the Village of South Jacksonville, that no department within the Village of South Jacksonville may conduct unlawful gun confiscation efforts, and that no taxpayer resources shall be used at any time to seize, confiscate or otherwise impede the ownership of firearms that are lawfully owned by South Jacksonville residents pursuant to the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Its too common of an experience in America today to have come a hairs breadth away from homelessness, rescued at the last-minute by enhanced unemployment benefits, or a COVID-19 relief stimulus check. Data suggests that 40 million Americans were laid off during the height of the pandemic.

These experiences will leave a mark on individuals, families and the national cultural memory, urging all of us to demand political action toward lasting economic stability.

I certainly wont forget my own recent economic travails. It wasnt a good time to survive on a career in the arts or freelance labor. During the pandemic, so many businesses reigned in the purse strings, cutting down on their expenditures on the kind of writing, proofreading and advertising assignments that I depend upon for my income. I was fortunate enough to make the rent payment, but utility payments in the winter months can cost just as much as rent, and the bills added up.

In New Mexico, however, the governors moratorium on both evictions and utilities shutoffs saved me. I have doubts I could have paid my heating bills from October 2020 to February 2021 and survived the winter if not for those moratoriums.

By January, I was well over $2,000 in debt. But I received a $1,400 stimulus check payment, which helped pay the gas, electric and water bills. The relevant word here is helped. I am still paying off the full amount. But at least I dont expect to be dragged under. For that, I can thank President Joe Biden.

Several months later, I received Bidens letter congratulating Congress for passing the American Rescue Plan, which, Biden wrote, would help get millions of Americans through this crisis.

Biden noted in his official missive that alongside the $1,400 direct deposit, the American Rescue Plan also included aid for small businesses and expanded tax credits for individuals and families.

I agree that the policies enacted under the American Rescue Act spared millions of lives from immediate catastrophe. But I still dont believe were fulfilling the mandate of a nation where there is nothing we cant do with these short-term solutions.

We need to respond in ways that acknowledge that the pandemic has not created catastrophes so much as it revealed that were a nation living one step away from massive penury in which the majority of Americans are subject to illness, joblessness or unexpected expenses on a daily basis.

We cant rely on solutions that help for just today, only to leave people hanging on a thin thread until the next catastrophe.

An example of short-sightedness would be letting the expanded earned income tax credit and the expanded child tax credit provisions expire after one year.

These payments will potentially lift millions out of poverty and protect the middle class. Funds will be dispersed on a monthly rather than a yearly basis, so that families can take care of immediate household economic needs and even save some for their future. But under the American Rescue Act these provisions are only funded through 2021 and they leave out more than a million immigrants without Social Security numbers.

Making consistent cash assistance to low-income families permanent and more inclusive will stabilize volatile incomes, ease financial planning, lift up disenfranchised communities, and improve the quality of life and opportunities for millions of people.

I thank President Biden and Congress for the assistance given to me as a single adult heading my household through the expanded earned income tax credit. However, Congress must appreciate that this is neither the first time I  nor millions of working Americans  have faced unexpected near-financial ruin. I am among the one-third of Americans who say that an unexpected expense of $400, or more would put them in a difficult financial situation.

All families deserve financial stability that can help them thrive long term. A permanent safety net in the form of guaranteed income could get us there. Thanks to widespread financial malaise and an understanding that too many of us are vulnerable while rich CEOs become richer, this idea is only becoming more politically popular.

The time to push for a permanent expanded child tax credit, and a guaranteed income is now. As Biden says, There is nothing we cant do as a nation, if we do it together.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington Jr. is communications fellow for Washington-based Community Change. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Watertown, SD (57201)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 94F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
ST. LOUIS, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Missouri Cobalt, LLC (the "Company" or "Missouri Cobalt") announced today it is in the final construction stage of a new hydrometallurgical facility which will allow the Company to begin production of large-scale quantities of battery-grade cobalt and nickel. This milestone represents significant progress toward the Company's objective to become the leading North American supplier of battery-grade cobalt and nickel, and the only company to process in the United States. Missouri Cobalt management believes this goal can be realized over the next two years as the new facility will quadruple current run-rate production volumes.
Most European troops exit Afghanistan quietly after 20 years View Photo

BERLIN (AP)  Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the U.S.-led mission was officially expected to end  part of an anticlimactic close to the forever war that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Polands last troops returned home, bringing their deployments to a low-key end nearly 20 years after the first Western soldiers were deployed there.

Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony  a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the U.S. invasion to rid the country of al-Qaida after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the ensuing decades, the war went from one mission to another. Former U.S. President George W. Bushs administration shied away from nation-building and the United Nations advocated a light footprint. But with the passing years, NATO and U.S. troops took on greater roles developing Afghanistans National Security and Defense Forces and training police. At the wars peak, the U.S. and NATO military numbers surpassed 150,000.

NATO agreed in April to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan to match U.S. President Joe Bidens decision to pull all American troops from the country, starting May 1.

Biden set a Sept. 11 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. But more recently, American officials have said that pullout would most likely be completed by July 4  and many allies have moved to wrap up their own presence by then as well.

NATO declined to give an update Wednesday on how many nations still have troops in its Resolute Support mission. But an analysis of 19 governments announcements shows that more than 4,800 of the non-American forces have left.

The U.S. has refused to give troop figures, but when Biden announced the final pullout, between 2,500 and 3,500 troops were deployed. As of February, a total of some 832,000 American troops had served in Afghanistan, while about 25,100 Defense Department civilians had also served there.

The U.S. has also refused to give a clear date for a final withdrawal.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday only that the U.S. withdrawal remains on the timeline that the president announced  which is to get our troops out of Afghanistan, while having a remaining diplomatic presence on the ground, by September.

Germany announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister late Tuesday, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.

Three transport aircraft landed at the Wunstorf air base in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon. The troops, wearing masks, lined up on the tarmac for a brief ceremony, but the military dispensed with a bigger reception because of the coronavirus pandemic.

We have worked long and hard to stand here today, said Brig. Gen. Ansgar Meyer, the last commander of the German contingent. As your commander, I can say for you: Mission accomplished. You have fulfilled your task.

But the top American general in Afghanistan gave a sobering assessment Tuesday, warning about the recent rapid loss of districts to the Taliban and cautioning the country could descend into civil war.

The German pullout came amid a spate of withdrawals by European nations. Polands last departing troops were greeted Wednesday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Some 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The last Italian troops from Italys base in Herat arrived at the military airport in Pisa late Tuesday. Italy officially declared its mission in Afghanistan over in a statement Wednesday, with Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini paying tribute to the 53 Italians who died and 723 who were injured over the past two decades.

Going forward, Guerini said Italys commitment to Afghanistan would remain, beginning with the strengthening of development cooperation and support for Afghan institutions.

Georgias last troops returned home Monday, while Romania brought home its remaining 140 troops Saturday, when Norway also pulled out. Troops from Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands also returned home last week. Spain withdrew its last troops on May 13, Sweden on May 25, and Belgium on June 14. The small contingents deployed by Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Albania, North Macedonia and Luxembourg have left as well.

The pullout is nearing its end as security in Afghanistan worsens. Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have overrun district after district, including along major transportation routes. Many have fallen after Afghan soldiers surrendered, often convinced to leave their posts by elders. But elsewhere there have been bitter military battles, with Afghan troops sometimes losing when their positions could not be resupplied.

The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austen S. Miller, meanwhile, expressed concern about the resurrection of militias, which were deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces but have a brutal reputation for widespread killing.

A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory its on right now, that should be of concern to the world, he said.

At a ceremony last week to mark the official end of the Dutch deployment, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten underscored the uncertain outlook.

We see reports of the rise of the Taliban, growing violence, also in areas where we were stationed, she said. A lot has been achieved but we must be realistic: The results are not irreversible.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Italian troops arrived home late Tuesday, not Wednesday.

___

Gannon reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Robert Burns in Washington and reporters from around Europe contributed to this report.

By GEIR MOULSON and KATHY GANNON

Associated Press
Caught on camera: Libyan coast guard shoots at migrant boat View Photo

BARCELONA, Spain (AP)  A non-profit sea rescue group on Thursday slammed Libyas coast guard after it witnessed the Libyan maritime authorities in what it described as chasing a crowded migrant boat and shooting in its direction in an apparent effort to stop it from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Members of the German non-governmental group Sea-Watch filmed the incident on Wednesday while flying over the area in an observation mission.

Those who shoot at refugees and try to capsize their boats are not there to save them. The EU must immediately end cooperation with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard, Felix Weiss was quoted in a statement from the group released with the video.

In the footage, filmed from the plane, a blue wooden boat with a small engine and at least two dozen people onboard is seen being followed in circles, at high speed, by the Libyan coast guard.

During the chase, which occurred in international waters under Maltas search and rescue responsibility, men in uniform on the Libyan vessel can be seen firing at least two times toward the boat, with bullets hitting water close to the boat. The Libyan coast guard comes dangerously close to crashing into the boat several times.

The Sea-Watch said it communicated to the Libyan authorities via radio that they were endangering the lives of the people on the blue vessel and urged them to stop shooting. The Libyan coast guard replied in broken English that they were trying to rescue the migrants.

The Sea-Watch aircraft was short on fuel and turned back before the chase ended, the statement said. It later received reports the boat had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday morning.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from Libya, Malta or the authorities on Lampedusa.

The EU trains, equips and supports the Libyan coast guard to intercept people trying to cross the Central Mediterranean to Europe. At least 723 people are known to have either died or gone missing taking this route on unseaworthy boats so far this year.

Nearly 15,000 men, women and children have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libyan shores from the start of the year up to June 26, a record number.

More than 20,000 migrants and refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe since 2014. The Central Mediterranean stretch between Italy and Libya specifically has seen an uptick in attempted crossings and deaths this year after a lull during the height of the pandemic.

With EU support, the Libyan coast guard has stepped up interceptions of migrant boats, returning people onboard to Libya. But the U.N. and several other rights organizations have condemned their return to the war-torn country, where many are placed in squalid detention centers at risk of abuse and torture.

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Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

By RENATA BRITO

Associated Press
California mother charged in killings of her 3 children View Photo

LOS ANGELES (AP)  An East Los Angeles woman was charged Wednesday with killing her three children, including a baby, earlier this week.

Sandra Chico, 28, appeared in court but a judge postponed until next month her arraignment on three counts each of murder and assault on a child causing death.

Her bail amount was raised from $2 million to $6 million.

In an instant, three innocent children were taken from us and we are crestfallen, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement. Nothing is more heartbreaking than the tragic betrayal of a parent failing to protect their children.

The children were found dead in a bedroom of their home on Monday. Authorities have said there were no obvious signs of trauma and authorities hadnt been called to the home by any previous indications of trouble.

The prosecution statement didnt specify the cause of death. However, family members have said Chico suffered from depression and that she suffocated them and then tried to kill herself, KABC-TV reported.

Chico was initially detained, and authorities announced her arrest on Tuesday.

The coroners office identified the children as Mia Camila Rodriguez, 4, and her brothers Mason Mateo Rodriguez, 3, and Milan Mateas Rodriguez, who was 1 month old.
San Jose to require gun owners to carry liability insurance View Photo

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)  San Jose officials have passed the first law in the nation that requires gun owners to carry liability insurance and pay a fee to cover taxpayers costs associated with gun violence.

The new law was unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday, a month after a disgruntled San Jose rail yard employee fatally shot nine of his co-workers and then himself at the rail yard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Mayor Sam Liccardo praised the measures and said gun owners who do not comply with the new rules shouldnt have guns.

We wont magically end gun violence, but we stop paying for it, Liccardo said in a statement.

The new law is part of a 10-point gun control plan that Liccardo unveiled following the May 26 mass shooting at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard.

Officials have not decided how much gun owners will be required to pay in fees. They would be used to cover the direct costs of gun violence to city taxpayers for services that include police response, ambulance transport and gunshot-related medical treatment for victims.

The fees would be determined upon completion of a gun harm study from the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation, a group that promotes individual and public health, welfare, and safety.

In a preliminary report released ahead of the vote, the institute estimated that gun-related homicides, suicides and other shootings cost San Jose around $63 million annually. A more thorough study is expected to be completed in the fall.

Jaime Bellemare of Brady United Against Gun Violence, the national nonprofit that advocates against gun violence, said there have been other similar laws proposed but San Jose is the first city in the country to have passed one.

One challenge to enforce the law will be in determining how to administer the new liability insurance and fee requirements.

City officials know how many guns were purchased in San Jose since 2001, Liccardo said, but the city has no gun registry and no way to track gun owners.

Earlier this month, city lawmakers passed a new law requiring all retailers to record video and audio of all firearm purchases. San Jose became the largest California city with such a rule.
16 injured after illegal fireworks seized at LA home explode View Photo

LOS ANGELES (AP)  A cache of illegal fireworks seized at a South Los Angeles home exploded Wednesday evening, damaging nearby homes and cars and injuring at least 16 people, three of them seriously, authorities said.

Police had called in a bomb squad after a tip led them to seize some 5,000 pounds (2,268 kilograms) of illegal home-made and China-manufactured pyrotechnics at about noon, police said.

One man was arrested on suspicion of possessing fireworks and destructive devices and also on suspicion of child endangerment because two children were found at the home, police said.

Some of the fireworks appeared to be large mortar-sized devices used for commercial purposes.

I would expect multiple houses destroyed had those explosives gone up, LAPD Capt. Robert Long told KABC-TV.

Pallet-loads of fireworks were placed into an LAPD tractor-trailer and hauled away for disposal but at some point, some of the devices that had been placed inside an armored container on an LAPD big-rig exploded in a burst of flame, demolishing the truck. The blast, caught by news crews, also knocked a nearby car on its side, smashed the windows of several others and blew out windows in a neighboring home.

Some of the fireworks were being stored in our Bomb Squad trailer as a precautionary measure when there was an explosion, an LAPD tweet said, adding that it was unknown what sparked the blast.

However, a KCBS-TV reporter said that before the explosion at around 7:30 p.m., journalists were warned that some fireworks were going to be destroyed inside the truck and the warning Fire in the hole! was shouted several times.

One news helicopter pilot said the blast shook his aircraft, and some residents two blocks away say they were jolted by the explosion.

Six people were taken to a hospital, three with serious and three with minor injuries, a Fire Department tweet said.

In addition, 9 LAPD officers and a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officer had minor injuries and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, fire officials said.

Police evacuated nearby homes. Building inspectors were evaluating some homes to determine if they were safe.

In March, a massive fireworks explosion left two people dead in Southern California and caused at least $3.2 million in damage.
NEW YORK (AP)  Revised vote counts in New York Citys Democratic mayoral primary show Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams maintaining a thin lead, a day after a first attempt to report the results of a ranked choice voting analysis went disastrously wrong.

The mayors race, part of the first city election to use ranked choice voting, was thrown into disarray Tuesday after the citys Board of Elections posted incorrect preliminary vote counts and then withdrew them hours later.

Corrected numbers released Wednesday showed Adams, a former police captain and state senator, leading former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 14,755 votes. Civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley was practically tied with Garcia, falling just 347 votes behind in the ranked choice analysis. It essentially allows some candidates to pick up votes from voters whose first choices get eliminated for lack of support.

The corrected results still dont paint a complete picture of the race. Nearly 125,000 absentee ballots have yet to be counted.

With Adams thin lead, Garcia or Wiley could catch up when absentee ballots are added to the mix starting on July 6. Final results in the primary could be weeks away.

Adams' advantage narrowed substantially from an unofficial election-night count that involved only voters' first choices. Still, his campaign called the lead significant."

"We are confident we will be the final choice of New Yorkers when every vote is tallied, the campaign added.

Garcia said she, too, remained confident in our path to victory but wasn't taking it for granted. Wiley, meanwhile, called the race still wide open.

Following yesterdays embarrassing debacle, the Board of Elections must count every vote in an open way so that New Yorkers can have confidence that their votes are being counted accurately, she tweeted.

The Board of Elections apologized for Tuesday's mistake, which involved the accidental inclusion of 135,000 test ballot images in the vote totals. Wednesday's revised results included about 17,000 more votes than the election-night total, but the board said that was because a small percentage of precincts weren't yet counted on election night.

The board insisted the new counts were accurate and said it was now doing more checks and reviews before releasing more data.

We will do so with a heightened sense that we must regain the trust of New Yorkers, board President Frederic Umane and Secretary Miguelina Camilo said in a statement.

Still, critics said the mishap proved that the board was not equipped to handle the new ranked choice system.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a complete structural rebuild of the board, which operates independently of his office. The City Councils Black, Latino and Asian Caucus  whose leaders favor putting a repeal of ranked choice voting on the November ballot  noted that its members had warned that the city wasn't ready for the new system.

"The concerns they raised continue to be borne out by the facts, the group said in a statement.

Before the new counts were released Wednesday, Adams filed a lawsuit seeking to preserve the ballots and voting machines to ensure an accurate count.

The board declined to comment on the suit.

Garcia's campaign said it would pursue the necessary legal steps to ensure that ranked choice votes are fully and accurately counted. The Wiley campaign had no immediate comment.

Lawsuits seeking court oversight of election tallies are not uncommon, especially in close races.

New York City adopted ranked choice voting for primaries and special elections in a 2019 referendum and used the system in citywide races for the first time in the June 22 primary.

Under the system, voters could rank up to five candidates in order of preference.

Since no candidate was the first choice of more than 50% of voters, a computer on Tuesday tabulated ballots in a series of rounds that worked like instant run-offs.

In each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated. Votes cast for that person are then redistributed to the surviving candidates, based on whoever voters put next on their ranking list. That process repeats until only two candidates are left.

Adams lead shrank significantly in Wednesday's figures because he didn't do nearly as well as Garcia among voters whose first choices were Wiley or 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, the other top candidates.

Garcia and Yang campaigned together, and she was the top alternative pick among his supporters. A little more than half of Wileys backers went to Garcia as an alternate choice, while only 20% supported Adams.

In all, more than 117,000 voters didnt rank either Adams or Garcia anywhere on their ballots. Thats 14% of the votes counted so far.

Versions of the ranked choice system have been used in U.S. cities including San Francisco and Minneapolis for years and in statewide races in Maine.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, which promoted adoption of the ranked choice system, noted that Tuesday's discrepancy was due to human error, not a defect inherent in ranked choice voting itself.

Rob Richie, the president and CEO of FairVote, a nonprofit that advocates for ranked choice voting, said he did not believe Tuesday's flub would have a lasting impact on New Yorkers' faith in the ranked choice system.

This certainly, fundamentally, is not anything about ranked choice voting, and it certainly is about the historic challenges that the Board of Elections has faced, Richie said.

The winner of New York City's mayoral primary will be the heavy favorite in the general election against Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed.
Provided by Plainview PD

A burglary suspect is behind bars after being detained by a homeowner in a property he was attempting to burglarize.

Plainview Police arrested Krystofer Aaron Woods on Saturday after a callout to the 1300 block of Quincy Street at 3:50 a.m. Officers arrived to find the property owner had Woods detained.
We left for Cross Lake a good month earlier than we have in previous years.

My brother, Rich had accepted our invitation to ride along with us and with an open end return flight.

He booked Jet Blue from West Palm and arrived at Bradley on June 2. At the crack of dawn on June 5, his 75th birthday in fact, we were on our way 500 plus miles due north.

I sang a few lines of, Happy Birthday in four different states as we racked up the miles although I suspect my off-key vocals may have proved more painful than the nine hour ride.

Focusing on the up side of the long ride, I rambled on about our destination that would bring fishing and canoeing, magnificent sunrises, melodious calls of the loons lulling him to sleep and relaxing afternoons sitting on the deck observing osprey diving for fish.

As the first day of arrival at Cross Lake moved into three weeks at Cross Lake, this south Florida boy got to experience 40 degree mornings. Not used to such frigid weather by Florida standards, he spent a good part of the morning wearing a hunter green plaid wool jacket until the temps hit at least 60.

Rich took it all in stride, however, and soon the air became what we cherish most here in Aroostook County. Sweet breezes that call us out to the deck and the warming sun.

The thing though, and what Maine is notorious for: no-see-ums and a bit of mosquitoes. Well, more than a bit.

They say June is bad, and die hard Mainers know of what they speak. Yes, June is bad.

Morning walks were touch and go for Rich and me as far as the bugs were concerned. We managed two miles most mornings, feeling like cowboys with a kerchief tied around our necks, but the tiny buggers managed to leave welts regardless.

Most mornings we passed Jim Watson, our neighbor on Shoreline Drive, his face and neck covered with screening and yet, Mario, a few camps from Jims, would be in his driveway tinkering with a Sea-Doo and appeared not to be bothered.

There were other nuisances here at camp as we opened up and that is to be expected. This year it was the outdoor shower. Not your average seaside cold water wash -off- the-sand shower. Our shower here at Cross Lake has hot and cold running water, privacy courtesy of walls, door and metal roof - no bathing suit required and best of all, awesome water pressure.

The problem came with the first turn on and a shower head that barely dribbled. Was it the pump? Ron checked the air pressure in the expansion tank and rectified that problem. Better pressure, but not up to the expected standard. The culprit turned out to be the shower head and its water saver insert that was quickly eliminated. No need to purchase the $35 shower head at the lumber yard in Caribou. Camp owners learn quickly to take matters into their own hands when it comes to making what is at hand work to their advantage and pocketbook.

Being in Maine, it would seem lobster was our high priority but here in lake country bordering New Brunswick, the buzz of it all doesnt rival the popularity down state with its lobster shacks, boils and coastal seafood restaurants.

We do just fine, however, as lobsters swim in the tanks of most markets and are steamed free.

Prices here are comparable to those we saw in Southington reaching over $10 a pound, and even higher depending on the size.

The high cost of lobster, like lumber which has shot through the roof, is blamed on a shortage, although it seems to me that the harvesting of the two is far removed from the other and yet, who was I to question the toilet paper fiasco.

Cindys Sub Shop on Sweden Street in Caribou was waiting on their delayed lobster shipment when Rich and I stopped in but fortunately their fresh supply on hand overflowed two rolls and were just as delicious as they had in been all those summers before when Nancy Paradis and I would pull into the parking lot on the way home after miles and miles of traveling to yard sales and order two to go.

Gosh, but its great to be back.

Bparent2016@gmail.com
My father lives in a crumbling house. Tile is missing from the bathroom walls, and in the well-worn hallways, my dad has used blue painter's tape to keep patches of burgundy carpet in place.

Before I had it replaced, the floor in the dining area was a mismatch of linoleum tile that did nothing to hide or fix the large hole forming between the kitchen and the laundry room.

Despite its state of disrepair, the house means a great deal to my father. Both of my parents were born and raised in poverty and there were no homeowners in their families.

My father was the first to strike out on his own in the United States, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen through marriage to my mom.

When I was a teenager, my mother was a housekeeper, my father a janitor and together they took a chance on homeownership, signing a 30-year mortgage to pay off their $150,000 American Dream. Twenty-two years have passed since my parents signed on that dotted line.

My mom has since died and there is still a $90,000 debt to pay.

Each night when we are on the phone, my dad talks about retirement obsessively. There is a lot to sort out - paperwork to sign, debts to pay off, budgets to create - and of his three children, I am the one who will help him make sense of it. I can tell he is both anxious and delighted at the prospect of simply doing nothing. His first job was when he was 8 years old, sweeping the floors of a local pharmacy where he grew up in Mexico.

He has spent 62 years laboring in two different countries. At 70, he still works as a janitor. He is understandably tired, but as his excitement grows at the thought of a life without work, my anxiety rises because I am his retirement plan.

Some days he talks about returning to Mexico. Others, my dad is staunch in his desire to continue living alone. More than a few times he's mentioned moving in with me. Interestingly, my two older brothers do not make an appearance in these conversations. While the exact plan is murky, what's clear is that the shape his retirement takes is completely out of my hands, though I will be the person tasked with making it a reality. How do I explain to my dad that our conversations about his retirement are experiments in magical thinking - a fantasy in which men like him get the rest they deserve without worry or care or consequence for daughters like me?

I moved to North Carolina in 2016 when I got my first real job in journalism. I was 30 years old, newly engaged and living a life free of my family for the first time. When I packed up all my baggage into a minivan and headed east, I felt guilt and shame for leaving my widowed father behind - no matter that I grew up enduring his violence. I was raised in a culture in which we take care of our elders, and by moving across the country, I was breaking code as a good Mexican daughter.

My cousins, who are in their 30s and 40s and still living with my aunt and uncle, asked, "How could you leave your dad?" There was no tidy way to explain how much I loved my father, and how much his explosive temper and constant negativity were like toxic sludge pulling me under. So I didn't say anything at all. I just left, and I committed to using the time away honorably by becoming a healthier person. Without the constant drumbeat of family chaos hovering over everything and ripping me away from the work I felt called to do, I became a happier person. I learned to set boundaries. I excelled at work, and I even began to make decent money, which meant I was forced to develop financial literacy after growing up in a family with none. In six years I built a life and a savings account, and I can see my father's retirement barreling toward North Carolina to destabilize me. In old age, my once violent father has started to show some tenderness, but he remains a mass of trauma, a black hole of need that I worry will swallow me up.

Initially, providing support to my dad was my idea - it was both a privilege and an obligation I did not take lightly. It made me proud to send money home to California every pay period, the Mexican American version of the remittances my father sent to family in Mexico since stepping foot in the United States as an undocumented immigrant in the 1970s. As time has gone on, his need for support has grown exponentially - after all, his federal taxes, water heater and property taxes weren't going to pay for themselves. To be clear: My father has never directly asked me for money. In my family, it is simply understood that I am the fixer of all sorts of problems and my dad's primary problem is that he doesn't make enough to sustain his already meager lifestyle.

From 3,000 miles away, I'm still my dad's daily sounding board, listening on speakerphone each night as he assigns me a to-do list or yells and curses about an indignity he suffered while I scroll through the UberEats app and order him dinner. I have two older brothers who for more than a decade have suffered from debilitating mental health issues and substance dependency. There have been moments of hope for them and for me - windows of clarity and sobriety in which I thought my brothers were getting back to themselves and that I was regaining siblings I could commiserate with and rely on to help support my dad. Those dreams are always dashed, so I am making peace with the understanding that my dad is my responsibility and mine alone.

I always think about this when I go home to spend time with my dad. My brothers have lived in Texas for years and almost never visit, so they do not know the state of decay my dad's house has fallen into or the way that the neighborhood has changed. Small, old houses like my dad's are getting bought up for $500,000 and bulldozed, once-sacred spaces razed to make room for McMansions.

To have any chance of paying off his house in his lifetime, my dad would have to sell it - the place where my mother and uncle died; the place where he and I have spent years tangling and figuring out how to be a family. Ending his chapter of work will require hard decisions about what to sell and what to keep, about what to hang onto and what to let go of; we will have to decide if we can sacrifice everything we have individually known and built to coexist in the same space one final time.

When I talk to my dad and try to drill down on the details of how his retirement is going to work financially, it goes nowhere.Often, he derails the conversations with jokes about writing a memoir or strange tangents about moving to Venezuela, where he doesn't know a soul. Sometimes he talks about adopting a puppy. In these moments I realize he's worried about how he's going to fill his free time, and maybe just as scared about the mechanics of retirement as I am. But he can't bring himself to talk to me about it. He doesn't like to rely on me as much as he does, but here we are.

So, what are we going to do?

The other day, my dad told me that when he retires he wants me to fly to Los Angeles to film him making his final exit from the hospital where he has worked as a janitor for almost two decades. I asked him what he would discuss in the video.

"My next chapter of life," he said.

"And what does that entail?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "I guess we'll see."

- - -

This story first appeared in The Washington Post's The Lily publication.
Click here to read the full article.

Meghan McCain is departing The View, after nearly four years on the ABC daytime show, Variety has confirmed.

As the panels resident conservative talking head, McCain regularly sparred with her co-hosts, resulting in many viral  and highly-rated  on-air moments.

Her last day will be at the end of the shows season later this summer. The View was created by Barbara Walters in 1997 and changed TV.

McCain has most recently been part of the current panel of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines. Shes the second longest running conservative co-host on the program, following Elisabeth Hasslebeck, who appeared on The View from 2003 to 2013.

A representative from ABC News declined to comment.

A source says that McCain made the decision herself to depart, and that recently rumblings about on-set feuds had nothing to do with her exit. McCains contract isnt up yet, but earlier this summer, she approached ABC executives to ask to be released from her deal because she does not want to move back to New York City, after relocating to Washington D.C., where she and her husband, political commentator and frequent Fox News personality, Ben Domenech, are raising their baby girl, Liberty.

No word, at the moment, on whether McCains role will be immediately replaced, but The View is well-known for its constant game of musical chairs.

During McCains tenure, ratings on The View soared  making it the most watched daytime talk show. And the show became a major political destination in the lead-up to the 2020 election with essentially every single politician making a necessary stop at the the talk show on their campaign media blitz.

McCains conservative takes were magnets for attention on Twitter with her clips constantly catching fire on social media. Recently, McCains latest on-air feud with Goldberg went viral in June, garnering a substantial amount tabloid attention. In fact, the tabloids would constantly speculate on McCains behavior and feelings on-set, which she frequently clapped back at on her own social media accounts.

The View shoots in New York City, but during the pandemic, the co-hosts all worked remotely from different locations as the television and film industry was brought to a halt. The View remained in production throughout the COVID-19 crisis with most of the co-hosts filming from their homes and McCain working from ABC News D.C. bureau, and since returning from maternity leave in January 2021, McCain has since remained in D.C., where she wishes to stay with her family.

McCain is the oldest daughter of the late U.S. Arizona Senator and celebrated Vietnam veteran, John McCain, who passed away in 2018, after his battle with brain cancer. McCain, who had an incredibly close relationship with her father, frequently shares her memories about him on television.

McCain has described herself as a Republican with liberal views on many social issues. She is a fierce advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and has recently dedicated much of her airtime to the staggering rise in anti-Semitism around the globe, as one of the few mainstream media figures to prioritize the topic. During her time on The View, she was a frequent and harsh critic of Donald Trump, making her stance on the former president abundantly clear. Earlier this year, she supported the impeachment of Trump, and in 2020, she had a tense exchange with Donald Trump Jr., when he visited the talkshow.

Prior to joining The View, McCain was a contributor at Fox News who was heavily featured on the program Outnumbered. She departed Fox News in September 2017, after two years with the network. She first gained attention by blogging about her life on her late fathers campaign trial, leading up to the 2008 presidential election. She then became a contributor to The Daily Beast and MCNBC, and in 2013, she worked as a host on various programs at the now-defunct cable network, Pivot.

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The dystopian action-horror Purge franchise has previously made stops in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Now it's time to pull on cowboy boots and get ready for a little twangy Purge.

The Forever Purge is set along the U.S.-Mexican border and it's perhaps the most overtly political of the series, portraying a ragtag group of Americans trying to flee the anarchy and white supremacy of Texas for the safety of Mexico as the annual U.S. bloodlust event turns into an everyday abomination.

The film jettisons its horror roots for an aggressive  some may call it ham-fisted  social critique of modern America. But watching video of real insurrectionists on Jan. 6 try to violently take over the U.S. Capitol makes portions of The Forever Purge seem like a documentary.

We are the real patriots of America, announce a group of the mask-wearing white supremacists during the latest fictional bloodletting, hoping to exterminate anyone Black or brown. America will be America once again. There's no escaping the feeling that The Forever Purge is a poison pen letter to Trumpism.

For those just joining creator James DeMonaco's Purge series, heres how it works: In a near-future, the government, led by a nefarious party called the New Founding Fathers of America, allows an annual 12-hour period of lawlessness without recriminations.

Over the course of a single night, rape, murder, robbery and everything else is permitted across the nation as a way to release anger but also a way to cull from an overpopulated nation and lower crime.

The last chronological film in the series  2016's The Purge: Election Year  seemed to end with an outlawing of the purge, but that clearly didn't last. The New Founding Fathers are back in charge as The Forever Purge opens and their annual horror shows have been reinstalled. There's also a wall established along the southern border.

Its starting, yall, one main character in a Texas town announces as the purge countdown begins. She is protected by wealth in her ranching compound but her immigrant employees must huddle for safety in a makeshift shelter.

This time, the annual purge time passes without anyone we care about ending up dead, but then the event doesn't end. The film cracks open at this point, adding class resentment to the mix. Groups of poor disenfranchised whites across the country begin targeting their white bosses and vowing that the purge won't stop. Ever After! is their war cry.

That makes strange allies of the Tucker ranching family and a pair of newly arrived immigrants from Mexico: Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and her husband Juan (Tenoch Huerta).

Up until then, the Tucker's son, Dylan, (Josh Lucas) was flirting with outright white supremacy, not wanting Spanish to be heard in his house and not believing that cowboys could be anything but white Americans. Now, he and his family are being kept alive by the very people he disdained.

Martial law is declared but the Army can't stop the lawlessness. A potential escape may come from America's neighbors: Canada and Mexico, who have opened their borders for six hours to any refugees from the madness.

The film under Everardo Gouts direction then becomes a quest as the Tuckers  including Dylan Tucker's pregnant wife  together with Adela and Juan fight their way to El Paso, hunted by masked men demanding purification of the white race.

DeMonaco is not at all subtle with his script and maybe that's for the best. In one scene, a crazed white supremacist with a swastika face tattoo listens to various gunfire cracking outside, identifying each weapon by its blast  AK-47, Glock, AR-15. He calls it a very American sound: Homegrown music from the American heartland."

Over the past films, DeMonaco has explored all kinds of different facets to this rich and complex purge notion, from gun control to the behavior of predatory corporations, to government brutality against people of color and class wars. They have hardly felt like sci-fi when neo-Nazis really have marched openly in U.S. streets.

Here DeMonaco finds richness in flipping the script on traditional right-wing notions of the border and immigration. In the film, it is people of color who are kind, resourceful and brave, saving a well-off white family from white horrors, with one refugee hoping to give birth in a place better than America  the reverse of the so-called traditional anchor baby notion.

They are all led to safety to Mexico  and this is a genius move by DeMonaco  by a Native American guide and fighter. This is not your fight, he is told. But he responds: We've been fighting this fight for 500 years. Happy Independence Day, y'all!

The Forever Purge, a Universal Pictures release which opens nationwide on Friday, is rated R for strong/bloody violence and language throughout. Running time: 103 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Online: https://www.theforeverpurge.com

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Michelle Forsythe, Texas State University and Julie Jackson, Texas State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Most people think of the childrens classic Charlottes Web as a story of devoted friendship between a spider and a pig. But it can also be read as a story of a budding engineer  Charlotte  who prototypes, builds, tests and revises her web to solve a problem.

As teachereducators, we use childrens books to make lessons about science and engineering accessible to children of all ages.

Through books, children can experience how engineers use design-based thinking, which focuses on creative and innovative solutions, to solve problems. They can also explore the history of things that they use every day, such as crayons, bridges and cars. And they can expand their image of who can be an engineer or inventor.

Our work suggests that picture books and biographies for young adult readers can be particularly effective for introducing children to the engineering design process. These are the actions  ask, imagine, plan, create, test and improve  that engineers take to design a solution to a problem. They also help children understand engineering habits of mind. These are the traits, such as creativity and persistence, that help engineers successfully solve problems.

Here are five of our favorite science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) books for children, and some of the engineering lessons that they teach.

1. Whoosh! Lonnie Johnsons Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions

Lonnie Johnson was always curious about how things worked. One day, while trying to figure out a way to replace the harmful chemicals found in refrigerators and air conditioners, he connected a pump with a nozzle to his bathroom faucet. When he turned the faucet on, water blasted across the room. Johnson had invented a water gun! Johnson tested and redesigned his new invention until it became the perfect summer toy  the Super Soaker.

This picture-book biography introduces young readers to the prototype-test-redesign process that is central to engineering.

2. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macys Parade

Grab a front-row seat to the story of how Tony Sarg, an immigrant from Western Europe, created one of Americas most iconic holiday traditions  the giant balloons of Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This picture-book biography highlights how engineers draw on imagination and inspiration to improve their designs. After reading, children can use these same traits to create their own Indonesian rod puppets. These puppets inspired Sarg to flip his marionette strings upside-down so that his famous balloons could soar.

3. Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane

Lilian Todd  a self-taught inventor, engineer and contemporary of the Wright brothers  worked to improve airplane designs in the early 1900s. This picture-book biography of her life illustrates how an engineers designs frequently fail. And it uses quotes from Todds perspective  There is no work so discouraging, so exasperating, so delightful  so exhilarating as building aeroplanes  to capture her resilience in overcoming these challenges.

As children often face similar obstacles in their own STEM journeys, Todds story provides a model for how children can prepare for, reflect on and move forward from moments of failure.

4. Milton Hershey: Young Chocolatier

Weve all eaten Hersheys chocolate bars and Hersheys Kisses. However, the road to commercial success for Milton Hershey was circuitous, and he failed many times before he succeeded.

This biography, written for ages 8-12, highlights the power of persistence and the design axiom: Fail often so you can succeed sooner.

5. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

This biography, written for ages 10-13, tells how teenaged William Kamkwamba built a wind turbine to produce electricity for his family in Malawi. The story shows how anyone, of any age, anywhere in the world can be an engineer.

This book is a great selection for a family or multi-age book club as it is also available as a picture book, a biography for adults and even a movie. Everyone can pick the version that is best for them and gather in person or via video chat to talk about lessons learned from Kamkwambas dream, determination and design.

Other books

Many books that are already in homes, schools and local libraries can also be used to introduce the engineering design process and habits of mind. We recommend looking for the following story features when choosing a book to explore design-based thinking with children.

First, the story presents a problem in a real-life context. Second, the story describes a design plan or way to solve the problem. Third, a character creates, tests and evaluates a prototype of this design. And finally, a character improves the design and applies the revised solution.

Parents and teachers can find more high-quality STEM books on the National Science Teaching Associations Best STEM Books K-12 or our own expanded list of favorites.

[Get our best science, health and technology stories. Sign up for The Conversations science newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/5-childrens-books-that-teach-valuable-engineering-lessons-162583.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  Willis Johnson said he just wanted to help.

So, earlier this month the billionaire Republican donor, who amassed a fortune building an international junkyard empire, took the unusual step of calling South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a rising Republican star who has railed against illegal immigration and aligned herself firmly with former President Donald Trump.

He asked if she wanted to send National Guard troops from South Dakota to the U.S.-Mexico border  and offered up $1 million to help.

Noem said, Yes.

Her acceptance of the donation from Johnson, who doesn't even live in Noem's state but rather in Tennessee, has drawn intense scrutiny. It landed in state coffers Tuesday and though it came from Johnson's private foundation and appears to be legal, experts say it sets a troubling precedent in which a wealthy patron is effectively commandeering U.S. military might to address private political motivations.

I didnt know it would build into a bonfire, said Johnson, who answered his phone on the second ring and estimates hes talked to about 50 reporters since the news broke. Its getting out there a lot more than I thought.

Whether the decision to accept his help will amount to smart politics or policy blunder for Noem is unclear. In the short term, at least, the decision has catapulted her into the headlines and generated even more attention for a possible presidential run in 2024.

Yet the pay-to-play transaction also highlights another way that big-dollar donors have insinuated themselves into governmental process to drive decisions. It also shows the lengths to which some GOP governors will go to show their fealty to Trump even as they try to position themselves for higher office.

We dont need this donation and whether its legal or not, its a terrible idea because it looks like our guardsmen are being used as political pawns, said South Dakota state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, a Democrat.

Noem's spokesman Ian Fury said the money could legally be accepted into a state fund designated for responding to emergencies, alleviating costs to taxpayers. South Dakota currently has a budget surplus, which Noem has boasted about.

Fury disputed the suggestion that Johnsons donation motivated deployment of the 50-person contingent. The state would have sent the guard without it, he said.

Noem herself took to social media Wednesday, arguing the state has a history of relying on private donors. But those projects have typically been focused on local projects  like an events complex at the state fair grounds  not deploying the National Guard.

This deployment is vital for the security of our state and our nation, Noem said in a Twitter video.

South Dakota state law suggests that's not the way such donations are intended to be used. The law states that the fund can only be used to meet special emergency requirements of the Division of Emergency Management, an agency tasked with preparing the state for natural disasters or other emergencies.

Republican governors from Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and Iowa have all committed to sending law enforcement officers or national guardsmen to the border. But Johnson says South Dakota is the only state he's donated to, a decision motivated by Noem's quick response to a call from Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for assistance.

Immigration continues to be an animating issue in the Republican Party, stoked by Trump. On Wednesday, the former president and a group of about two-dozen Republican members of Congress toured the border in the Rio Grande Valley, where they railed against President Joe Biden's handling of the border.

The other ones were slow to react, said Johnson, 74. If they are procrastinators then I'm not going to help.

Johnson, who also donated to Trump's presidential campaign, amassed his fortune starting almost literally from a scrapheap.

A native Oklahoman, he learned the trade from his father. After serving in Vietnam, Johnson bought an old tow truck and his own wrecking yard in Vallejo, California. Through aggressive acquisition and an embrace of online technology, he built what is now known as Copart Inc. into a publicly traded global business.

He relocated to suburban Nashville over a decade ago, buying a home from country music star Alan Jackson.

Now a prolific donor, he's given at least $2.3 million to federal campaigns over the past decade, including $900,000 to Trump, records show.

America has been good to me. The Lord has been good to me," said Johnson, whose memoir is titled From Junk to Gold: Lessons I Learned.

I help upcoming senators, congressmen and governors. Im behind the scenes. I try to keep it quiet." Until now.

Separately, his family's philanthropy, Willis and Reba Johnson's Foundation, typically gives $1 million or more a year to churches and charities  including so-called abortion alternative services, disclosures show.

According to U.S. Defense officials and tax experts, his foundation's donation to South Dakota is highly unorthodox but permissible.

As South Dakota's governor, Noem has the legal authority to send her troops to Texas on state-activated duty, funded by the state, the defense officials said. The two states are also working within an existing emergency pact that allows them to send guard troops to each other when needed. Once in Texas, the South Dakota Guard troops would be under the Texas governors authority.

Officials said that the private funding given to South Dakota did not go directly to the National Guard. Instead it goes into the state treasury, and the state has wide latitude over how the money can be spent. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations on state matters.

The White House said the use and funding of the National Guard was the governors prerogative. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

The duties of the South Dakota National Guard contingent are not yet precisely known. Texas' own guard will have a limited scope of duty that does not include making arrests and will focus instead on observing and reporting, according to statement from the agency.

Steven Bucklin, a professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota who has written on the history of the National Guard, said he was concerned about how the private donation threatened the distinction of the military as an apolitical organization.

The optic is one that the South Dakota National Guard are soldiers of fortune and will go anywhere that some billionaire sends them, he said, adding, I think this is all politics.

___

Slodysko reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of Gov. Kristi Noem's spokesman is Ian Fury, not Ian Fry.
More than a dozen outposts of regional and national chains added San Antonio to their list of locations within the last year.

The Alamo City is no longer left out of the discussion on cult classics, like Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken or Jolibee. The city is also the first American extension for Vietnamese and South American companies like Lustea and Cerveceria Chapultepec. Shoppers will also soon be able to try on Fabletics active wear and Warby Parker glasses, rather than browsing online, once the brands open brick-and-mortar stores at The Shops at La Cantera.

The list of newcomers is pretty lengthy. Get caught up to speed below.

Courtesy, March11

The luxurious brand of modernized Ukranian dresses hosted a pop-up store during Fiesta as a prelude to the first San Antonio shop slated to open in Alamo Heights next month. March11 founder Roberta Mishchenko moved the headquarters of the brand from New York City to the Alamo City last year.

Karly Williams

The marijuana-inspired Colorado-based franchise that specializes in "toasted" munchies opened June 29 at 11911 Alamo Ranch Parkway

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

The national brand is made up of more than 20 restaurants throughout the U.S. The network stretches from Washington D.C. to Calabasas, Calif., but North Italia prides itself on serving dishes made from scratch. San Antonio's first North Italia opened at The Rim, at 5822 Worth Parkway, on June 9.

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

The fried chicken joint was possibly San Antonio's most highly anticipated openings in recent months. The Memphis-based chain has restaurants across the country. It's map now includes a 812 South Alamo Street spot that opened on June 21. The straightforward menu allows guests to pick their fried chicken plates, with dark and white meat options, and classic sides.

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

The Austin-based burger chain picked San Antonio as the first major market to expand to. P. Terry's will have three San Antonio restaurants soon, starting with a Medical Center location opening the first week of July. San Antonio's first P. Terrys location is at 8443 Wurzbach Road.

Fabletics

Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Fabletics

Kate Hudson's active wear brand is eyeing a spot at The Shops at La Cantera to unveil the city's first brick-and-mortar location in October, the San Antonio Business Journal reports.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Big Apple-based Warby Parker, known for their at-home try-on eye glass kit, is planning to open at The Shops at La Cantera later this year.

Nike

Nike selected San Antonio as one of nine international destinations to debut the brand's new "Unite" concept. The store at the Alamo Quarry Market opened last fall.

Lori Van Buren /Albany Times Union

Dog Haus, a California gourmet hot dog franchise, opened the first local restaurant at 22503 U.S. 281 North at Stone Oak Parkway. The chain plans to open two other locations in San Antonio within the next six months. The new spots are located at 11719 Quincy Lee Drive near Loop 1604 and Bandera Road and at 9330 Potranco Road near the Burger Boy on Highway 151. The restaurant opened in March following a soft opening phase.

KPG Hospitality

The Austin-based arcade-bar-grill concept is expected to open in San Antonio this summer. The 6,000-square-foot bar will be located at the northeast corner of Interstate 10 and North Loop 1604

Mike Sutter /Staff

Velvet Taco, which has locations in Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Charlotte and Atlanta, opened two San Antonio restaurants near The Rim and The Pearl in February and March, respectively. Velvet Taco is known for its globally inspired menu of tacos.

Priscilla Aguirre

The anticipation ahead of the opening of the Filipino fast food chain may rival that of Gus's. The 5033 Northwest Loop 410 location had lines snaking throughout the parking lot for days after it opened in December.

Albert Saenz

The popular college town restaurant is opening a San Antonio location soon at 5618 UTSA Boulevard.

Lustea

The Vietnamese tea shop franchise chose San Antonio as its first American outpost. The company set up shop inside the Park North shopping center in October.

Mike Sutter /Staff

The restaurant and bar where everything is $3 has locations throughout South America. San Antonio was also selected as its first extension into the U.S. The restaurant opened at 906 East Elmira Street in August.

Courtesy of Grant Pinkerton

The Houston favorite for barbecue came to San Antonio in February. Pinkertons, named one of the best in Texas, opened near Frost Tower.

Chuck Blount /Staff

The Mexico-based Brazilian steakhouse named Bovinos Churrascaria chose San Antonio to open its first location at The Shops at La Cantera in January.
Hundreds of people have died in a historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that has caused record-shattering temperatures in British Columbia, Oregon and Washington over the past week.

Authorities in the region are investigating the recent deaths, but have indicated that they are the result of a heat dome that has trapped hot air in the normally temperate area of Canada and the United States and caused thousands of emergency calls and hospital visits. Scientists and public officials have attributed the historic heat wave to climate change and the worst drought in modern history.

British Columbia has reported at least 486 "sudden and unexpected deaths" between last Friday and Wednesday, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said. The figure is hundreds more than the number of Canadians who usually die over a five-day period, she told the Associated Press.

"While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather," LaPointe said in a statement.

Ninety-eight of the deaths happened in Vancouver, where two-thirds of the victims were 70 or older, police said on Twitter. Vancouver authorities noted that, as with many houses in the Pacific Northwest, many of the region's homes have no air-conditioning.

"Vancouver has never experienced heat like this, and sadly dozens of people are dying because of it," Vancouver Police Sgt. Steve Addison said in a news release. "Our officers are stretched thin, but we're still doing everything we can to keep people safe."

Lytton, B.C., about 160 miles north of Vancouver, set new heat records three days in a row. The village's heat wave culminated Monday with the temperature reaching 121, the highest recorded in the country as well as the highest north of the 50th parallel.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the heat wave, which has killed hundreds and brought an increased risk of wildfires, as "unprecedented."

In Oregon, 63 people have died since Friday, the state medical examiner's office said, with police noting that a preliminary investigation suggested that the deaths "may be associated with the Pacific Northwest heat wave." Temperatures in the state topped out at 117 this week.

At least 45 of the 63 heat-related deaths were reported in the state's largest county, Multnomah, which includes Portland. The city of Portland broke its high-temperature record twice over the past week, most recently on Sunday, when it hit 112, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Those who died in the county ranged in age from 44 to 97, and many of them had underlying health conditions, the Multnomah County medical examiner said in a news release. The 45 deaths were because of hyperthermia, the county coroner said - a number that was significantly higher than the 12 total between 2017 and 2019.

"This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people," Multnomah County Health Officer Jennifer Vines said. "I know many county residents were looking out for each other and am deeply saddened by this initial death toll. As our summers continue to get warmer, I suspect we will face this kind of event again."

Multnomah County spokesperson Julie Sullivan-Springhetti told the Oregonian that the county received a record-breaking 491 calls for emergency medical assistance Monday.

"We were sounding the alarm every day and warning the community that this heat wave was deadly," she said.

In Washington state, at least 20 people have died because of heat, a number that officials said was expected to increase. Thirteen of the 20 died in King County, which includes Seattle, the county coroner said. Seattle also has broken its single-day heat record twice in the past week, most recently Monday, when the temperature soared to 107, the World Meteorological Organization said.

Several people died of heatstroke in Snohomish County, while others in the western part of the state were found dead in their apartments because of heat-related stress, officials said. The heat has become so fierce in Spokane, on the state's eastern border, that the power company Avista Utilities had to impose rolling blackouts in an effort to limit outages to one hour for each customer.

At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Steve Mitchell, the medical director of the emergency department, compared the influx of people to what it was like during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic last year.

"It felt very much like what happened in the initial days of trying to deal with the original outbreak [of the virus] at the Life Care Center in Kirkland," Mitchell told the Seattle Times. "We got to the point where facilities were struggling with basic equipment, like ventilators."

The increased and prolonged temperatures have also affected other parts of the United States like Arizona, where temperatures topped 118 this month and resulted in scores of suspected heat-related deaths.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that climate change was driving the heat as well as increasing the risk of wildfires.

"The extreme heat we're seeing in the West is not only a risk amplifier for wildfires, it's a threat in and of itself," he said. "People are hurting. It's more dangerous for kids to play outside. Roads are buckling under the heat. . . . We need people to check on their neighbors, especially seniors who may need a helping hand."

White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy echoed the president's sentiments on climate change's role in the weather, telling CNN on Thursday that the extreme heat is "the new norm."

"We have to adjust to this as best we can, but frankly we have to start thinking about how our future looks," she said.
I began my journalism career in Nashville in 1990, with my current position with Nashville Post having evolved since October 2000 (when I was with the now-defunct The City Paper, a sister publication of the Post starting in 2008).

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(Natural News) If the past year has taught you anything, its that you need to be more proactive than ever before when it comes to taking care of your health. The pandemic and the lockdowns have shown why it is necessary for you to learn important medical skills and to stockpile necessary medical supplies.

The best place to start when it comes to stockpiling necessary medical supplies is to look up what organizations like the American Red Cross recommend. This organization has a list of 16 essential supplies for an emergency first aid kit for a family of four:

Three-inch gauze roll bandage

10-yard roll of cloth tape

Breathing barrier for CPR use

Four-inch roller bandage

Folding emergency blanket

At least one instant cold compress

2 compress dressings

2 packets of hydrocortisone ointment

2 pairs of non-latex gloves

2 triangular bandages

5 packets of antiseptic wipes

5 packets of antibiotic ointment

10 sterile gauze pads of multiple sizes

25 adhesive bandages of various sizes

A set of tweezers

An emergency first aid guidebook

The Red Cross advises that you inspect your newly-created first aid kit at least once every six months, if not more often. Some of these supplies have expiration dates, which means you may need to replace them from time to time.

Be reminded that this list is far from complete. It is simply a way for you and your family to start stockpiling the necessary medical supplies you need to ensure you and your family are in good health. (Related: Health is wealth: 4 Medical preps you need to get ready before SHTF.)

Any other additional medical items will be items that will cater to your familys specific health needs. For example, you may need some natural medicines in your emergency health kit due to family members with health conditions. You may also want to add assorted vitamins to your medical stockpile, such as vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc.

Purchasing pre-built first aid kits can be convenient for busy preppers

The best way to make sure your prepper first aid kit can attend to every need your family may have is to build it yourself. But there are pre-built prepper first aid kits out there that you can purchase. This can be a lot more convenient, especially if you are busy devoting your time and resources to other preps.

But there are a lot of low-quality pre-assembled first aid kits out there. One sign of a terrible first aid kit is one that has too many supplies. You want to get a first aid kit that has a smaller batch of high-quality medical supplies rather than one with a wide variety of low-quality ones.

Once youre assured of the quality of the first aid kit you want to buy, it is time to start customizing it. This is the best thing about pre-built first aid kits. Its customizability is very convenient for busy preppers and serves as a good starting point.

For example, the first aid kit you purchased may come with more of a certain medical supply than you think is necessary. You can swap some of the extra supplies out in favor of other items that you believe will be more important to your prepping.

Remember to be guided by your personal experiences when it comes to emergencies. The environment around your home and the emergencies you expect to experience in the near future will guide what kind of items you put in your first aid kit.

Learn more about emergency medicine, first aid kits and how to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy during disaster situations by reading the latest articles at EmergencyMedicine.news.

Sources include:

UrbanSurvivalSite.com

ThePreparednessExperience.com
(Natural News) American Airlines canceled more than 500 flights across a span of just four days as they deal with serious operational issues put in motion by the coronavirus pandemic. Theyve also been forced to reduce their July schedule by 1 percent.

According to data from One Mile at A Time, the airline canceled 83 flights on Friday, June 18. This was followed by 123 flights on Saturday, June 19, and a further 188 and 136 flights on the 20th and 21st respectively, for a four-day total of 530 canceled flights. The following two days saw an additional 81 and 25 flights being canceled. Experts believe further cancellations could be in the cards as the domino effect of the current flight cancellations starts to take hold.

Meanwhile, frustrated travelers are reporting long lines at American Airlines customer service counters in airports and waits of several hours to speak to agents on the phone.

In addition, American Airlines has proactively canceled around 1 percent of their flights for next month in hopes of avoiding last-minute cancellations and customer disappointment. The cancellations are said to be strategic, targeting markets where they will impact the smallest number of customers possible, such as those in areas where there are multiple alternative flights for customers to take with different airlines.

A spokesperson for the airline characterized the cancellations as the result of weather and labor shortages, saying: The first few weeks of June have brought unprecedented weather to our largest hubs, heavily impacting our operation, and causing delays, canceled flights and disruptions to crew member schedules and our customers plans. That, combined with the labor shortages some of our vendors are contending with and the incredibly quick ramp up of customer demand, has led us to build in additional resilience and certainty to our operation by adjusting a fraction of our scheduled flying through mid-July.

However, One Mile at A Time points out that most of the cancellations list flight crew unavailable as being the reason behind not flying. Most of these involve the Boeing 737 fleet, suggesting the issues with crew have more to do with pilots, who need to be rated for each specific type of aircraft that they fly.

There is some speculation that the airline is seeing delays in getting its pilots certified on the Boeing 737 as the number of these planes recently rose significantly when the airline put its 737 MAX fleet back in service. Pilots must undergo training on the specific controls and other aspects of this aircraft before they will be allowed to fly it.

Pilots union warned American Airlines that there werent enough pilots for ambitious summer plans

According to the Financial Times, the carriers pilots union, The Allied Pilots Association, had previously warned the airline they did not have sufficient pilots to carry out their ambitious summer flight schedule. Representing 15,000 American Airlines pilots, the group warned the airline that it was currently understaffed due to a combination of earlier furloughs, voluntary leave and early retirements instituted during the pandemic. The airline furloughed 1,600 pilots during a lull in obtaining funds from the Payroll Support Program, and this made it harder for pilots to return to active status because the FAA requires them to undergo fresh training before they can fly.

Despite the warnings that they could come up short-staffed if a weather event occurred, American Airlines has been the most aggressive of the nations biggest carriers when it comes to resuming flights this summer. They are also reportedly short-staffed in other aspects, including gate agents and rampers, just as travel starts to inch back toward pre-pandemic levels.

Sources for this article include:

OneMileAtATime.com

FT.com
(Natural News) Recent reports have touched on animals invading human spaces around the world. The invasions have been blamed on the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and climate change. A number of animals, such as rats, elephants, bears and wild boars, have made their way toward human settlements as their habitats face threats.

A ratty situation in Australia

The eastern portion of Australia recently suffered a plague of mice, with many crops lost to the rodents. The mice also made their way into grain silos, barns and homes. First introduced to the Land Down Under by European colonists, the mice have destroyed machinery and bit a number of Australians as of writing.

A June 22 report by the New York Post said inmates and staff members of a jail in New South Wales were evacuated after mice invaded the prison. Australian authorities relocated 420 inmates and 200 staffers at the Wellington Correctional Center as the rodents chewed away at the facilitys electrical wires. Corrective Services NSW Commissioner Peter Severin said: The health, safety and wellbeing of staff and inmates is our No. 1 priority, so its important to us to act now to carry out the viral remediation work. (Related: Worsening mouse plague ravages rural Australia.)

Paying attention to the elephants in the room

Meanwhile, a herd of elephants hailing from the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan gathered the attention of the world with its migration. The herd left its original home at the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve near the border with Laos  with scientists left baffled as to why. Elephant specialist Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz said: For some reason, these elephants felt that their traditional home range was no longer suitable  and then they just left to find somewhere else.

Since the elephants started their journey in spring of last year, they had destroyed more than $1 million worth of crops. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV even aired a 24-hour live feed of the migration. Meanwhile, 3,500 people were evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of trucks were also deployed to ensure the elephants do not reach densely populated areas. Officials in China added that they are tracking the migrating elephant herd using drones round the clock for any signs of rampage. (Related: More like humans than most realize, Asian elephants are very social creatures with complex personalities.)

A ban on bear hunting became too much to bear for Slovakian hunters

Authorities in the central European country of Slovakia confirmed that a 57-year-old man died as a result of a brown bear attack. The victims body with deep wounds on his neck and face was found in a forest near the village of Liptovska Luzna, around 190 kilometers northeast of the capital Bratislava. Slovakian state-run forestry enterprise Lesy Slovenskej Republiky said in a June 16 statement: An autopsy confirmed  that the man died as a result of injuries caused by a bear.

Slovakia is home to between 1,200 and 1,600 brown bears  and they are protected by law in the country. However, the mans death has triggered an outcry from hunters claiming that bear numbers have become too high due to a hunting ban. The state-run forest enterprise has concurred with the hunters sentiments by calling for the bears to be legally hunted.

The issue of wolf hunting divided people into packs

Back in October 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump lifted federal protection for gray wolves. Following Trumps rescindment of the protection, the task of overseeing the wolves was put on states and tribes. It also opened up wolf hunts in states such as Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin once more. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, an opponent of recreational wolf hunting, called Trumps decision disappointing.

On the other hand, farmers and hunters welcomed Trumps move. Wisconsin resident Ashleigh Calaway said that reducing wolf number via state-sponsored hunts would help prevent attacks on livestock. She added that her family farm lost 13 sheep during a July 2019 gray wolf attack. Its allowing them to be managed to a level to lower the risk to sheep and cattle, Calaway said. In March 2021, licensed hunters in the Badger State killed 216 wolves  a fifth of the states entire wolf population  within a 60-hour period to the chagrin of wildlife advocates.

Visit Ecology.news to read more articles about wild animals encroaching on human spaces.

Sources include:

France24.com

NYPost.com

ChannelNewsAsia.com

EuroNews.com

APNews.com
(Natural News) Tracy Stone-Manning, Joe Bidens nominee for director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), hates children and wants to see them exterminated in order to save the environment.

In her 1992 graduate thesis, entitled Into the Heart of the Beast: A case for environmental advertising, Stone-Manning made the claim that children are an environmental hazard. For this work, she was awarded a masters of science degree in environmental studies.

According to Stone-Manning, no American should ever have more than two children because of the damage she believes they cause to the planet. Ironically enough, Stone-Manning is an eco-terrorist who has been caught damaging the planet with activist demonstrations like tree spiking.

The University of Montana (UM) was so impressed with Stone-Mannings work that they declared it to be environmental education and put it up as a public policy recommendation.

In one of her advertisements, Stone-Manning depicted a shirtless child along with the caption environmental hazard.

Can you spot the environmental hazard in this photo? the poster further reads.

Thats right, its the cute baby. Americans believe that overpopulation is only a problem somewhere else in the world. But its a problem here too.

Stone-Manning: All environmental problems stem from people having children

The woman who very well could be running BLM under Hunters dad in the coming weeks further believes that the earth is too small to accommodate the number of humans currently living.

The earth is only so big, and we can tap into it only so often, her poster contends. In America, we tap in often and hard. We breed more than any other industrialized nation. At the same time, we suck up one-third of the worlds energy.

According to Stone-Manning, the average American, herself included, gobbles the same energy as 3 Japanese, 13 Chinese, and 499 Ethiopians.

When we overpopulate, the earth notices it more, she alleges. Stop at two. It could be the best thing you do for the planet.

Stone-Manning feels so strongly that children need to not be had that she also put together a 30-second commercial discouraging American families from having more than one or two children.

A female voiceover can be heard in the commercial stating in a scary way, When we [Americans] have children, the planet feels it more. Do the truly smart thing. Stop at one or two kids.

It is unfortunate that Biden himself did not follow Stone-Mannings policy, as he and his doctor wife popped out a few that, quite frankly, would have been better off never existing.

Should she be confirmed in the position to which Biden nominated her, Stone-Manning is sure to push for population control measures to help keep America safe from overpopulation.

She wrote in her thesis that she believes the origin of all environmental problems is us, though she apparently refuses to fix the problem by starting with getting rid of herself, and is instead seeking to be a taxpayer parasite by attaining a high political office.

Overpopulation, Stone-Manning insists, is at the root of many of our environmental problems. In her view, the planet cannot sustain any more Americans.

The point is a simple one, Stone-Manning says about her agenda. Harshly, the ads say that the earth cant afford Americans. More softly, they ask people to think about how their family planning choices affect the planet.

Biden is doing his part as well to promote eugenics by trying to turn vaccinated people against their unvaccinated friends and family members, all under the guise of keeping everyone safe against the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).

More related news about Biden and his cronies can be found at Evil.news.

Sources for this article include:

Newspunch.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) banned imports of a key solar panel material from a company that allegedly uses forced labor in Chinas Xinjiang region.

The White House announced on June 24 that the CBP issued a withhold release order on silica-based products manufactured by Xinjiang-based Hoshine Silicon Industry and its subsidiaries. All upcoming shipments from the firm would be seized and detained under the order.

Silica-based products are raw materials that are commonly used in solar panel production. They include polysilicon and monocrystalline silicon.

Hoshine was also among the five Chinese organizations that the Department of Commerce recently added to its trade blacklist for using forced labor or aiding Beijings human rights abuses in Xinjiang. These organizations included three other Xinjiang-based Chinese companies involved in the production of raw materials for solar panels and the state-owned Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The Department of Labor also included Chinese polysilicon in its newly updated list of goods known to be produced by slave labor. The inclusion was made to put pressure on American solar manufacturers to remove Chinese components from their supply chains. Currently, Xinjiang produces around 45 percent of all polysilicon used in solar panels worldwide. Other parts of China make thirty-five percent while other countries manufacture the rest.

Americas recent trade moves are part of an intensifying crackdown on forced labor in China. Early this year, Washington banned all cotton and tomato imports from Xinjiang due to their ties with slave labor. (Related: US solar industry has to deal with the fact its supply chains are reliant on Xinjiang, where genocide and slave labor are rampant.)

Reacting to the CBPs most recent ban, Chinas foreign ministry commented that Beijing would take all measures to protect Chinese companies rights and interests. For its part, Hoshine Silicon said that it supported the foreign ministrys reaction. It added that the bans effect on its business would be minimal since the firm did not directly export industrial silicon to the U.S.

Chinas campaign of repression equal to genocide

The Chinese government is engaging in a campaign of repression against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Reports indicate that up to a million Muslims in the region have been detained in internment camps where they are reportedly tortured, sexually violated, forced to work and indoctrinated. The U.S. and other governments declare the campaign a genocide.

In a June 24 press conference, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said that Chinese companies such as Hoshine Silicon profit from these abuses by selling cheaply-made goods to buyers in the U.S. and other countries.

That is unfair to law-abiding businesses that respect international labor standards. It is also unfair to consumers who may unwittingly purchase goods made in conditions of modern-day slavery, he said.

Beijing had repeatedly denied allegations that it mistreated its Muslim minorities. In a virtual United Nations conference last February, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted that Xinjiang minorities have never been coerced into labor or oppressed for their religious beliefs. He added that allegations to the contrary were fabricated out of ignorance and prejudice.

However, government and corporate sources obtained by researchers from the U.K.s Sheffield Hallam University showed that labor transfers in Xinjiang were made within an environment of unprecedented coercion and undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment.

A study from the nonprofit Center for Global Policy also found that more than half a million people in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton. Researchers arrived at this finding after analyzing government documents and state media reports involving the states labor transfer programs.

Visit CommunistChina.news for more reports linking Chinese imports to human rights abuses.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Bloomberg.com

BBC.com

TheGuardian.com
(Natural News) Did you know that there was another insurrection in Washington, D.C., the other day that the mainstream media completely ignored?

More than 500 people showed up at the White House and blockaded every entrance to it  not to call for President Donald Trump to be reinstated, it turns out, but rather to demand that fake president Joe Biden make changes to his impending infrastructure bill.

The crowd that terrorized the White House is part of the far-left Sunrise Movement, which buys into the climate change conspiracy theory. This is why nobody heard about what they did on CNN or MSNBC.

Had the riot involved anything to do with supporting Trump, you can be sure Congress would already be writing new hate crime legislation to restrict even more freedom from straight white males. However, because the rioters this time probably do not even know their own gender, they were given a free pass to protest without getting smeared all over the media.

Secret Service did arrest dozens who were present, but that was about it.

Today we showed up to @JoeBidens doorstep with 500+ people and blockaded every entrance to the white house [sic], demanding that he include a fully funded #CivilianClimateCorps in his infrastructure bill, the Sunrise Movement Twitter account proudly tweeted. Secret Service then arrested dozens of us.

The George Soros-funded extremist group was not removed from Twitter for violating any community standards, despite engaging in the same type of domestic terrorism that the Capitol insurrectionists did back in January.

We made it clear the first time @POTUS, the group added in a threatening tone, youre going to hear our demands, whether were inside or outside the White House. You havent responded.

Now were back to make sure you understand us clearly: Its #NoClimateNoDeal and No Compromises, No Excuses.

As long as youre a leftist, you can pretty much do and say whatever you want

More of a cult than anything else, the Sunrise Movement appears to be some sort of spinoff from the global warming fanaticism pushed by the likes of Al Gore back in the 1990s and early 2000s.

We speculate that Greta Thunberg is one of the groups mascots, and may even be an idol or climate goddess worshipped by its members as part of their bizarre climate religion.

Whatever the case may be, these people completely surrounded the White House, presumably with Beijing Biden inside, and would not allow anyone to enter or leave the premises. This is akin to storming the Capitol building and taking selfies in Nancy Pelosis office.

The difference, of course, is that the mainstream media is choosing to remain silent about this act of domestic terrorism because left-wing activists, as opposed to Trump supporters, were the ringleaders.

This writer is speaking sarcastically, of course, as neither incident constituted any type of insurrection or act of domestic terrorism. Just like how Trump supporters were free to gather back in January outside the Capitol building, members of the Sunrise Movement are free to protest around the White House.

The only reason we are pointing both of these incidents out together is that one was treated as an act of war, and the other barely got a mention by the media  or by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who just the other day was whining about how another insurrection should never be allowed to happen. The double standards on the Hill are truly striking.

More of the latest news about how the left wing gets away with everything while the right wing is routinely punished for free speech can be found at Tyranny.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

ClimateDepot.com

Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Disney Cruise Lines first test cruise is delayed until July due to conflicting coronavirus (COVID-19) test results among staff.

The Disney Dream was originally scheduled to set sail on June 29, Tuesday, from Port Canaveral, Florida, with 300 employees who volunteered for the simulation cruise. The planned test run aimed to show that the cruises health and safety protocols worked so it can receive the green light to resume operations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Simulation cruise delayed due to inconsistent test results

The CDC only allows cruises to resume operations if they can prove that at least 95 percent of passengers are vaccinated. Alternatively, cruises can conduct a test run to prove to the CDC that officials have proper safety measures in place and that they can operate even with unvaccinated passengers.

However, the trip was postponed until July when five vaccinated employees tested positive. All five previously tested negative for the virus and were asymptomatic. A day later, all of them tested negative again, suggesting that the tests themselves were unreliable.

The cruise was supposed to set sail from Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis had banned private businesses from checking vaccine status. The governors executive order back in March, which bans the use of vaccine passports throughout the state, started a long-running conflict between his office, cruise lines and the CDC.

Due to the ban, Disney now has to prove it can effectively limit the spread of the coronavirus on their cruise lines.

Cruise lines in Florida continue to struggle amid the pandemic

Florida, one of the hubs of the cruise industry, suffered great losses when the coronavirus pandemic spread across America. Almost all major cruise lines shut down back in March 2020.

After a 14 -month break, the $40 billion industry, which employs over 400,000 workers, is gearing up to resume services as the country reopens. (Related: The government shouldnt force young adults and teens to take experimental coronavirus vaccines, says inventor of mRNA vaccines.)

However, two things stand in the way of cruise liners: the CDCs requirement that at least 95 percent of passengers be vaccinated and DeSantiss executive order. The order prevents cruise ships from setting sail for as long as the CDCs orders stands.

Earlier in June, a federal judge ruled in favor of a suit filed by DeSantis against the CDC. The ruling made it clear that the agency could not prevent cruises from departing if 95 percent of passengers were vaccinated.

In a statement, DeSantis decried the agency, saying that the CDC knew it had been wrong all along.

The CDC and the Biden Administration concocted a plan to sink the cruise industry, hiding behind bureaucratic delay and lawsuits. Today, we are securing this victory for Florida families, for the cruise industry, and for every state that wants to preserve its rights in the face of unprecedented federal overreach, said DeSantis.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody added that the ruling was a much-needed win for hardworking Floridians whose livelihoods largely depend on the cruise industry. Moody concluded that the federal government does not, nor should it ever, have the authority to single out and lock down an entire industry indefinitely.

After this victory, the CDC updated its guideline to reflect the changes. It now allows cruise liners to bypass the requirement if they can successfully show that they can safely operate a cruise with unvaccinated passengers.

For example, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is allowing unvaccinated passengers on board. However, travelers are required to pay a $136 testing fee; otherwise, they wont be allowed to attend certain events. Unvaccinated passengers are only allowed in dining areas during limited times.

Passport ban another hurdle for the cruise industry

Cruise liners trying to bypass DeSantis vaccine passport ban also want to avoid the expensive preparation runs.

Back in May, major cruise liners filed a lawsuit against DeSantis, claiming that the industry should be able to abide by federal laws instead of those set by the state. Patrick Scholes, a travel industry analyst, said that the pandemic has resulted in a yearlong struggle for the industry. Unfortunately, DeSantis is playing a game of chicken with them.

Scholes added that the regulation is potentially costing cruise companies millions of dollars every day. Other cruise liners are even threatening to leave the state because of DeSantis regulation.

Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, expressed his concerns about the issue turning into a never-ending legal or political discussion. If the conflict remains unresolved in Florida, Del Rio said that cruises can operate out of other states.

For instance, cruise ships that would have gone to Florida can operate from the Caribbean. But Del Rio hopes that they arent forced to do that since the majority of cruise lines want to operate out of Florida, which many consider to be a very lucrative market.

Disney Dream put on hold

Disney cant resume operation of the Disney Dream cruise ship until July due to the potentially positive cases among the tested staff. The delay might cost the company millions of dollars.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, cruise ships have been a vessel for outbreaks like the norovirus and gastrointestinal illnesses. The norovirus is very contagious, and you can get it from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or contaminated surfaces. The virus causes inflammation in the stomach, intestines or both, which leads to acute gastroenteritis. Symptoms of norovirus infection include nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

To read more articles about the pandemic and the governments attempts to get everyone vaccinated, visit Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

FoxNews.com

CDC.gov
(Natural News) Comedian Jon Stewart made an impassioned argument in favor of the coronavirus (COVID-19) lab-leak theory during his Monday night, June 14, appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Stewart shocked Colberts audience when he suggested it isnt far-fetched at all to believe that the pandemic originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of the pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science, Stewart said, suggesting that the virus was man-made.

The comment earned him laughter from the crowd at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, and a confused look from the host.

Colbert then asked Stewart: Do you mean perhaps theres a chance that this was created in a lab?

A chance? Oh my god, theres a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh you know who we should ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab, Stewart responded, drawing more laughter from the audience. The disease has the same name as the lab. Thats just a little too weird.

Stewart then compared it to an outbreak of chocolaty goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania.

What do you think happened? Stewart asked, rhetorically. I dont know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean. Or its the f****** chocolate factory.

At some point in the show, Colbert joined Stewart in mocking the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is at the center of speculations that the virus escaped from a lab. (Related: Experts provide key pieces of evidence supporting coronavirus lab-leak theory.)

It could be possible that they have the lab in Wuhan to study the novel coronavirus diseases because in Wuhan there are a lot of coronavirus diseases because of the bat population there, Colbert said.

Austin, Texas has thousands of them that fly out of a cave every night at dusk. Is there an Austin coronavirus? Stewart shot back. No there doesnt seem to be an Austin coronavirus. The only coronavirus we have is in Wuhan where they have a lab called  whats the lab called again, Stephen?

The Wuhan novel coronavirus lab, Colbert answered.

Washington Post columnist slams Stewart over his rant about coronavirus lab-leak theory

Stewarts rant didnt sit well with Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman, who penned a piece the following day titled Jon Stewarts rant is a reminder: Dont rely on celebrities for COVID-19 theories.

It seems like a long time ago now, but Jon Stewart used to be an immensely important figure sitting at the place where politics and pop culture meet, Waldman began his op-ed about the former Daily Show host.

But these days, hes retired and only emerges from time to time, and because he always delighted more in skewering Republicans, it was a bit shocking to see him go on an extended rant on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about the coronavirus lab-leak theory.

Waldman claimed that the lab-leak theory has become associated with conservatives trying to prove that former President Donald Trump was right about everything and knocked the liberal comedian for suggesting its the only plausible explanation for the source of the virus.

This provides an important lesson about celebrities: You shouldnt get your political opinions from them, or your scientific opinions either, Waldman wrote. I know what youre going to say: Thats just because this time a liberal celebrity is taking a position you dont like! But its not that.

The columnist noted that celebrities like Stewart are not experts, and that the reason we listen to experts is that they know more than we do.

It feels good when a celebrity you admire agrees with you, and it feels bad when the same person has values that differ from yours, Waldman continued. And if they know more about some things than others, then we have to understand where we shouldnt listen to them and where the limits of their knowledge are.

Waldman seemed oblivious to the fact that the Washington Post has changed its stance on the lab-leak theory. The news outlet declared in a headline back in February last year that Tom Cotton keeps repeating a coronavirus conspiracy theory that was already debunked.

But it issued a correction last month following recent developments that helped legitimize the China lab origins. (Related: Australian national broadcaster embraces covid lab-leak theory as Biden administration takes closer look at the possibility.)

Earlier versions of this story and its headline inaccurately characterized comments by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) regarding the origins of the coronavirus, the correction read at the top of the report. The term debunked and The Posts use of conspiracy theory have been removed because, then as now, there was no determination about the origins of the virus.

Follow Pandemic.news for more news and information related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against President Joe Bidens $4 billion loan forgiveness program for minority farmers. In his June 10 ruling, U.S. District Judge William Griesbach argued that the plan replaced one form of discrimination with another as it excluded white farmers. The George W. Bush appointee also argued that the plan did not indicate adequate examples of recent hardships imposed in minority farmers.

The loan forgiveness program for minorities is part of the Biden administrations $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan  coursed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The $4 billion allocated for the program would be used to pay up to 120 percent of direct or guaranteed farm loan balances for Black, Native American, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander farmers. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, around 17,000 farmers and ranchers from all 50 states are eligible for the program.

Griesbach wrote in his decision that the obvious response to a government agency that claims it continues to discriminate  is to direct it to stop. [It] cannot [further] discriminate based on race. The federal judges decision was a response to a lawsuit filed by the conservative nonprofit law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) in April 2021.

WILLs lawsuit named 12 farmers from eight states  Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Oregon, Kentucky and Wisconsin  as the plaintiffs. Two of the plaintiffs were dairy farmers from the Badger State. Adam Faust of Calumet County worked his farm with both legs amputated after being born with spina bifida, a birth defect affecting the spine. Meanwhile, Christopher Baird owned a farm near the village of Ferryville in Crawford County.

There should absolutely be no federal dollars going anywhere just based on race, Faust said.

Meanwhile, WILL President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg said: The court recognized that the federal governments plan to condition and allocate benefits on the basis of race raises grave constitutional concerns and threatens our clients with irreparable harm. He continued that the Biden administration is radically undermining bedrock principles of equality under the law.

Biden administration playing the race card

The lawsuit filed by WILL asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux to not consider race when determining the beneficiaries of the relief funds. Both officials were named as defendants in the suit.

The Journal Sentinel added that the USDA is still implementing the program, but has looked at the restraining orders effect. A USDA spokesperson said: We respectfully disagree with this temporary order and forcefully defend our ability to  deliver debt relief to socially disadvantaged farmers. They added that the agricultural department will be prepared to provide the debt relief authorized by Congress once the order is lifted.

According to federal officials, they recognized that farmers and ranchers belonging to minority groups faced systemic discrimination. This resulted in both groups suffering from substantial losses, reduced farmlands under their control and issues with debt  all worsened by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

However, this recent instance was not the only time the Biden administration openly discriminated against whites. Last month, Congress set aside $28.6 billion for a Restaurant Revitalization Program to help the industry hard hit by lockdown mandates. This amount  part of the American Rescue Plan  was seven times the budget allocated to farmers. The money would be coursed through the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Instead of fairly distributing the money based on need, the SBA put stringent identity-based restrictions in place. For the first three weeks of the program, women, veterans or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals were eligible  until the categories were broadened.

By the time the program became open for more beneficiaries, the SBA said on May 18 that it had already received more than 303,000 applications amounting to more than $69 billion. More than half of the applications from the priority groups  socially and economically disadvantaged business owners, women and veterans  had already submitted applications amounting to $29 billion by May 12, the agency added.

WILL stepped in to help business owners through a lawsuit it filed, which sought a restraining order for the SBA relief program. But U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough denied the request  arguing that Congress cannot reasonably have been expected to predict the demand for funds and how these would be allocated between priority and non-priority applications.

The magistrate also wrote in his decision: Congress has gathered myriad evidence suggesting that small businesses owned by minorities  have suffered more severely than other kinds of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. [Furthermore,] the governments early attempts at [a] general economic stimulus  disproportionately failed to help those businesses directly because of historical discrimination patterns.

RaceWar.news has more stories about discrimination white Americans face when applying for federal assistance.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

JSOnline.com

Revolver.news

CBSNews.com
(Natural News) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned Filipinos refusing to get the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine that they will be thrown in jail for doing so. The presidents remarks stemmed from his frustration over the slow pace of COVID-19 inoculations in the Southeast Asian country. Dutertes threat contradicted statements by Philippine health officials that vaccination against the disease is not required.

In a late-night televised address on June 21, Duterte remarked: You choose: [Get the] vaccine or I will have you jailed. Otherwise, I will order all the village captains to have a tally of the people who refuse to be vaccinated. Because if not, I will have ivermectin meant for pigs injected into you.

The tough-talking leader continued: Dont get me wrong, there is a crisis in this country. Im just exasperated by Filipinos not heeding the government. He also exhorted people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. But for as long as you are here and you are a human being, and can carry the virus, get vaccinated, Duterte said.

The presidents comments came after several vaccination sites in the capital city of Manila saw low turnout. According to a report by Philippine news outlet Rappler, the city government dropped its no walk-in policy for individuals wanting to get inoculated after the dismal turnout on June 21.

Manila Mayor Francisco Moreno Domagoso said on the same day: I really dont believe in the scheduling system  and the no walk-in policy because [COVID-19] vaccines should be made available to anybody. He reiterated this in a virtual briefing on the night of June 21, saying that the capital will go back to the open policy effective June 22.

Manilas no walk-in policy for COVID-19 vaccinations began on June 21, but only 4,402 individuals showed up out of the 28,000 invited by the city government for their vaccination appointments.

Of the 70 million people the Philippine government aims to fully vaccinate this year, only 2.1 million people have completed their vaccination schedule as of June 20. Based on data from Johns Hopkins University, the Philippines currently has 1.37 million COVID-19 cases and 23,928 fatalities. (Related: New, more transmissible coronavirus variant from the Philippines detected in the UK.)

The Philippine vice president is taking a lighter approach toward vaccination

On the other hand, Dutertes second-in-command took a lighter approach to making Filipinos get the COVID-19 vaccine. Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo, in partnership with Domagoso, launched a drive-through vaccination program on June 22 for tricycle and pedicab drivers in the capital. (Related: Philippines starts coronavirus vaccination program using Sinovac Biotech jabs donated by China.)

In a Facebook post, Robredo announced: For the first rollout, tricycle, pedicab and delivery riders from the city of Manila  will be vaccinated on June 22 and 23. The vaccine recipients were counted as part of the Philippiness A4 priority group, which includes essential workers and law enforcement officers. According to the Manila Times, the vaccine express program was originally scheduled to launch on June 20 if the vaccines procured by the city government arrive on time. However, this did not happen  and the rollout pushed through two days later.

Later, the vice president said she is willing to expand the Vaccine Express program to the central region of Visayas and the southern region of Mindanao. Her response followed a lawmakers request for help in distributing vaccines to other areas.

Deputy House Speaker Rufus Rodriguez called on the vice president to implement the program in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo. Let us not ignore the situation in the provinces. Manila is not safe as long as there are people outside the capital region getting the virus, he said.

Rodriguez added that both cities have seen a rise in COVID-19 cases, thus their immediate need of vaccines. Furthermore, the legislator remarked that the capital has already given so much vaccines to its residents.

Robredo replied in the affirmative, telling Rodriguez that her office is very much willing to implement the program outside Manila. She added: [I] will ask our team to coordinate with yours.

Despite separate efforts by both Duterte and Robredo to get Filipinos inoculated against COVID-19, many still reported adverse reactions following vaccination. A May 2021 report by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration said it received 32,754 case reports with 79,166 suspected adverse reactions. The agency that as of May 9, it received 91 fatal events connected to COVID-19 vaccination.

Visit Vaccines.news to read more stories about COVID-19 vaccination in the Philippines.

Sources include:

Reuters.com

Rappler.com

Coronavirus.JHU.edu

ManilaTimes.net

PhilStar.com

FDA.gov.ph [PDF]
(Natural News) The state of Texas and a group led by former Trump administration advisor Stephen Miller are taking legal action against President Joe Biden for allowing COVID-19-infected illegal aliens to enter the United States.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Millers organization America First Legal filed an injunction on June 23 in a federal court in Fort Worth. The injunction seeks to end the suspension of the Trump-era policy of sending illegal immigrants back to their country of origin amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden suspended the policy by ending a provision called Title 42, which blocks illegal aliens who pose a health threat from entering the U.S. With the absence of this provision, unaccompanied children and families who were caught illicitly crossing the border amid the pandemic were released and allowed to stay in the country while they ostensibly awaited immigration court dates.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that the policy violates federal health guidelines and facilitates the entry of illegal aliens who were exposed to an unsafe environment while crossing the U.S. border.

In other words, at the same time the Administration is urging Americans to get vaccinated, they are resettling thousands of unvaccinated illegal aliens into their cities, towns, and schools  and placing the cost and burden of all healthcare services for these new arrivals in the taxpayer tab, Miller said in a statement. (Related: Tucker Carlson slams Biden for releasing refugees untested for the Wuhan coronavirus.)

Biden undoes Trumps border control measures

Since taking office last January, Biden had issued a number of immigration-related executive orders that revoked policies that former President Donald Trump put in place during his time at the White House.

These include the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, the remain in Mexico policy and the policy that required immigrants to get visas unless they could prove they could get health insurance or pay for health care.

Biden and other White House officials explained that the administrations actions were made to promote a humanitarian agenda along the border. They also claimed that Trump-era policies were ineffective and divisive, something that Trump categorically denied in a number of statements after leaving office.

Bidens immigration policy fuels border control crisis in Texas

Early in June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott slammed Biden for facilitating the illegal entry of drugs and gang members into the state through his immigration policies.

President Bidens open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities, Abbott said in a statement. Meanwhile, landowners along the border are seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis while the Biden Administration does nothing to protect them.

The governor made these comments after issuing a disaster declaration for 34 counties along or near the border the state shares with Mexico.

In the declaration, he noted that the Texas Department of Public Safety had made more than 1,300 criminal arrests, apprehended over 35,000 illegal immigrants and seized more than 10,000 pounds of drugs and over 100 firearms since March 6. Troopers had also intercepted 21.5 million lethal doses of fentanyl over the same time period. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic pain reliever that is also often used as a recreational drug.

Data from the Customs and Border Protection also showed that more than 180,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in May of this year alone. Critics and former government officials pointed out that this figure represented the highest number of arrests in decades.

Follow JoeBiden.news for more news related to the presidents efforts to undo the work of Trump.

Sources include:

EpochTimes.com

NYPost.com
(Natural News) It is a moral failing and a national shamewhen children are locked away in overcrowded detention centers, reads then-candidate Joe Bidens presidential campaign website. But thousands of children are still receiving that treatment, despite Bidens prior condemnation.

(Article by Fiona Harrigan republished from Reason.com)

A case filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California shines a light on the crowded, unsanitary, and unsafe conditions that minors are currently facing in immigration detention facilities. Faced with record-high numbers of people crossing the Southwest border, the Biden administration has scrambled to build temporary facilities to house migrant children. Over 14,000 unaccompanied minors are now in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Detained minors in their testimonials for the case described limited time outside, sporadic showers, and being served inadequate or unsafe food, including raw chicken and foul-smelling hamburgers. A 13-year-old Honduran recounted being locked up all day during five days in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody. A 14-year-old Guatemalan girl said that detainees at a facility in Houston had to drink expired milk when they ran out of water. I was never allowed to make a phone call while I was there, said a 17-year-old Honduran who was in CBP custody for 11 days. Minors reported receiving few details about how long they would be in custody and many were transferred to other facilities with little notice or explanation.

Those conditions have left detained minors despondent. I used to be able to cope with my anxiety and breathe through it, but now I feel like Ive given up, said a 17-year-old from Guatemala. I feel like Ill never get out of here. One child was placed on suicide watch and another described how difficult it was to get an appointment with a counselor, though many girls in detention have thoughts of cutting themselves. Teens have resorted to cutting themselves with their identification cards since employees at one facility banned pencils, pens, toothbrushes, and even the metal nose clips of N95 face masks over concerns of self-harm, according to testimony and worker accounts.

There is no one here I can talk to about my case, said a 17-year-old Honduran detainee. Theres also no one here I can talk to when Im feeling sad. Theres no one here; I just talk to God. It helps me and I cry. It would help if I could have a Bible.

Several of the minors who offered testimonials were held at Fort Bliss, a military base in Texas that now houses the largest facility for migrant children the U.S. has ever operated. Reasons C.J. Ciaramella reported on the unsanitary, overcrowded conditions at Fort Bliss after obtaining secret recordings from employees there. Workers spoke of equipment shortages, inappropriate contact between staff and minors, and inadequate medical care for migrants.

But those details have been slow to emerge because the Biden administration has sought to limit transparency about detention conditions. It has denied journalists access to border facilities as an alleged COVID-19 precaution. Officials have also prevented nonprofit lawyers from conducting oversight visits. That approach has drawn widespread criticism from politicians, including Sen. Chris Murphy (DConn.), who stressed the importance of the press in hold[ing] the administration accountable.

As it stands, the governments treatment of migrant children violates many of the principles Biden campaigned on. He actively criticized former President Donald Trumps immigration policies, though hes kept many of them in place. He told lawmakers in 2019 that he wouldnt hold minors in detention centers if elected president, but hes now opening new facilities.

While discussing harsh Obama-era immigration policies during a presidential debate last year, Biden said, We made a mistake. It took too long to get it right. And yet, Biden is still making the mistakes of his predecessors. Migrant children are paying the price.

Read more at: Reason.com and Migrants.news.
(Natural News) According to the Indonesian Medical Association (IMA), about 10 of the 26 doctors in Indonesia who died from coronavirus (COVID-19) this June received both doses of the vaccine developed by Chinas Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

The alarming news called the Sinovac vaccine into question, particularly since it is being used in many developing countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

More data is needed, claim researchers

Dr. Adib Khumaidi, leader of the IMAs coronavirus mitigation group, said that they are currently trying to confirm the vaccination status of the 16 other doctors.

Based on the groups latest figures, about 20 doctors who were fully vaccinated with Sinovac died from coronavirus within a five-month period. The figure accounts for over a fifth of the total fatalities among doctors during that time span.

However, the figure can still increase within the following weeks as Indonesia continues to contain an increase in infections while hospitals all over the archipelago continue to fill up.

Indonesian authorities report that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is dominant in several areas like the capital, Jakarta. Doctors are worried as hospitals fill up while more young people are getting infected.

They added that patients are getting sicker more quickly compared to earlier outbreaks.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus was first detected in India and it now adds to a steadily skyrocketing wave of infections. The strain, also called B.1.617.2, has now spread to at least 70 countries like the U.K.

Health officials warn that the Delta variant is delaying a planned easing of Covid-19 restrictions across the globe.

But despite the recorded deaths, public health researchers insist that the authorities must thoroughly investigate the deaths of the vaccinated doctors to figure out if there were other factors, like poor hospital care or chronic underlying illnesses, involved. The researchers added that they need more data, including how many vaccinated doctors overall were infected with coronavirus, which Indonesias health ministry isnt tracking.

The IMA reported that at least 90 percent of Indonesian doctors (about 160,000) received the Sinovac vaccine, adding that the vaccinated doctors who died are only a tiny percentage of the total. (Related: Post-covid vaccine illness wave spreads to Indonesia.)

Deaths arent surprising because vaccine is ineffective

Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., explained that the news that fully vaccinated Indonesian doctors died because of the coronavirus isnt necessarily surprising. Hunter suggests that the deaths may have also occurred because the Sinovac vaccine wasnt as effective as the other available vaccines.

Hunter concluded that Indonesian hospitals dont always have the same machinery and capacity to handle severe cases as hospitals, especially compared to countries with better healthcare systems.

Indonesia is depending heavily on the Sinovac vaccine, which was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use. Despite the approval, some public health experts have voiced their concerns about the degree of protection the Sinovac vaccine provides and how long the protection lasts because of its wide-ranging efficacy levels from different clinical trials and a lack of transparency about the data.

According to a study from Brazil, the Sinovac vaccines efficacy in preventing symptomatic infections was as low as 50 percent although the vaccine has shown higher efficacy in preventing severe cases of infection.

Back in April, authorities in Chile reported that the Sinovac vaccine was 80 percent effective against death from coronavirus at least two weeks after receiving the second dose.

In May, Indonesian authorities said that a retrospective study comparing how vaccinated and unvaccinated doctors in Jakarta had fared against coronavirus revealed that the Sinovac vaccine was very effective in preventing death.

But the study was conducted before the current wave of infections, which is mostly caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant and resulted in a devastating surge in India. There is no record of exactly how many doctors who died in Indonesia in June were infected with the Delta variant.

Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a government spokeswoman, explained that the doctors deaths should be investigated to determine if the vaccine was truly ineffective.

In other overwhelmed areas in Indonesia, like Kudus in Central Java, the bulk of the several hundred vaccinated health workers infected with coronavirus reported mild symptoms and made quick recoveries.

Data from the IMA also revealed that the death toll among doctors is down from the countrys last surge back in December and January, during which vaccinations had just begun and at least 60 doctors died in each of the two months from coronavirus. As of June, 26 doctors have died.

Despite the deaths, other experts call for booster shots

In Surabaya, a large city in East Java province, Eko Sonny Tejolaksito died from coronavirus early in June.

Tejolaksito, a 54-year old radiologist, was fully vaccinated with Sinovacs shot earlier in 2021, explained Dr. Catur Budi Keswardiono, a close friend of his.

Keswardiono worked with Tejolaksito at a hospital in a neighboring town. The latter had high blood pressure and diabetes, making him more vulnerable to complications from the virus.

When Tejolaksito tested positive for coronavirus, his condition wasnt that severe and he sought treatment at a local hospital without an intensive-care unit. Within the next two days, his health quickly deteriorated and preparations were made to transfer him to a ventilator-equipped hospital. Unfortunately, Tejolaksito died before the transfer.

Jin Dong-Yan, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Hong Kong, said that the authorities should consider booster shoots after the deaths, even though they suggest that the vaccines are rather ineffective. Dong-Yan added that medical workers in Indonesia should be given another dose of the Sinovac vaccine or a U.S.-developed shot for stronger protection.

Khumaidi also called for booster shots since experts have yet to determine how long the antibodies last.

Go to Vaccines.news for updated reports on other deaths related to coronavirus vaccines.

Sources include:

WSJ.com 1

WSJ.com 2
(Natural News) Chinese miners are selling out or seeking new markets overseas after local governments in mining hubs in China imposed sweeping bans on cryptocurrency mining.

Many miners are exiting the business to comply with government policies, said Mike Huang, operator of a crypto mining farm in the southwest province of Sichuan, which is Chinas second leading Bitcoin mining center after Xinjiang in northwestern China.

The bans have caused a massive slump in the prices of crypto mining machines (rigs), which are used for verifying virtual coin transactions in a process that produces newly minted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

A machine that was priced around 4,000 yuan ($620) last April and May before Beijing announced a crackdown on crypto mining, can now be bought for as low as 700 to 800 yuan, according to a Sichuan miner.

Bitcoin prices have also taken a hit as global investors worry about disruptions in a previously large market. Prices have dropped to below $30,000 this week  less than half of their peak last April. (Related: Chinese crypto crackdown causes bitcoin prices to plunge.)

If the government doesnt allow it (crypto mining), I just have to quit, Liu Hongfei, a mining project operator in Yunnan province, told Reuters. You dont fight the Communist Party in China, do you?

Most miners in China are now shutting down their machines and selling them, said Nishant Sharma, founder of crypto consultancy firm BlocksBridge Consulting.

Bitmain, Chinas leading rig maker, announced last week that it suspended sales of its products and is actively looking for quality power supplies in places like the United States, Russia, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, BIT Mining had already delivered its first batch of 320 mining machines to Kazakhstan, with a second and third batch totaling 2,600 machines arriving at the country by July 1. The company has also invested in crypto mining data centers in Texas.

We are accelerating our overseas development for alternative high-quality mining resources, CEO Xianfeng Yang said in a statement.

Huang Dezhi, an operator of a Sichuan-based mining farm, says his team is exploring possible overseas markets in case restrictions remain in place. If the government doesnt reverse the policy, we will have no other choice. You cannot defy central government decisions, he said.

A project manager who identified himself only as Sun says he has been offering to help local miners relocate their business to Russia. However, demand for his services has been lukewarm so far.

Big risks if you move machines offshore, because youre in effect giving up control over your assets, said Sun, who is also securing fresh electricity supplies in Guangdong province, where restrictions are less tough.

Chinas crackdown on cryptocurrencies

The downturn in Chinas crypto mining industry is due to Beijings pledge to crack down on Bitcoin trading and mining. Chinas State Council, or cabinet, vowed last May to restrict Bitcoin trading and mining in a bid to reduce financial risks and illegal activities.

The move is also understood as a way to bring China on track of its emission targets. Mining is extremely energy-intensive as it requires the use of powerful, specially designed machines.

Crypto mining consumes a lot of energy, which runs counter to Chinas carbon neutrality goals, Chen Jiahe, chief investment officer of Beijing-based family office Novem Arcae Technologies, told Reuters last May.

Analysts speculate that Beijing is also worried that cryptocurrencies will compete against the digital version of its national currency. Chinas central bank is currently conducting trials of the digital yuan. (Related: Chinas central bank calls on top executives to reinforce crypto ban.)

Following Beijings announcement, Sichuan issued a notice over a week ago ordering local electricity companies to screen, clean up and terminate crypto mining operations. It also banned local authorities from approving new mining projects and told electricity providers to immediately cut power to newly detected crypto mining activities.

Xinjiang province, Yunnan province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region also implement tight restrictions on Bitcoin mining.

Bans in those regions mean that more than 90 percent of Bitcoin mining capacity  one-third of the global crypto networks processing power  will remain suspended in the short-term, according to Shentu Qingchun, CEO of Shenzhen-based blockchain company BankLedger.

Follow Risk.news for the latest on Chinas regulatory moves against cryptocurrencies and what it means for the industry.

Sources include:

Reuters.com 1

Reuters.com 2

Globaltimes.cn
(Natural News) It is coming out that communist China may have threatened to withhold delivery of its Sinovac injection for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) from Ukraine in an attempt to strong-arm the eastern European country into removing China from a Human Rights Council statement critical of Chinas treatment of Uyghur Muslims.

Western diplomats reportedly made the accusation in a story that was reported by The Associated Press, which is going right along with the narrative that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is holding Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps in the Xinjiang region were much of the worlds cotton is grown.

A coalition of nations signed on to the Human Rights Council statement condemning China for this alleged action, Ukraine being one of them. And now China is being accused of dangling vaccine delivery as a bargaining chip to have its name removed from the statement.

Ukraine briefly joined a statement by over 40 countries, presented by Canada at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, urging China to allow immediate access for independent observers to Xinjiang, the AP reported. Some human rights groups have alleged Chinese mistreatment of Muslim Uyghurs and others in the region.

On Thursday, Ukraine pulled its name off the list of supporting states after Chinese authorities warned Kyiv that they would block a planned shipment of at least 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Ukraine unless it did so, said diplomats from two Western countries. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

China denies allegations, says it never withheld Chinese Virus injections

In a statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied the allegations, insisting that none of its decision-making concerning the distribution of Wuhan Flu shots around the world has had anything to do with whether or not a country did what it demanded.

Chinas provision of vaccines and anti-epidemic materials to other countries is not meant to gain benefits from other countries and there isnt any geopolitical purpose nor any political conditions attached, the government body is quoted as saying by the AP.

China says that Ukraine contracted to purchase some 1.9 million doses of Sinovac, also known as CoronaVac, earlier in the year. By early May, some 1.2 million doses were allegedly delivered to Ukraine from China.

One shipment containing 500,000 doses, however, was put on hold pending Ukraines decision on whether or not to withdraw its name from the Human Rights Councils statement, the AP alleges.

Ukraine eventually complied, removing its signature from the document, the World Uyghur Congress later reported.

Oleksandr Merezhko, Ukraines foreign policy committee chairman, announced on Radio Free Europe that his committee had not yet received any information [confirming] that, the suggestion being that no such decision was made to withdraw Ukraine from the document.

Whether or not the allegations are true, there is no denying that communist China has an extensive track record of human rights abuses. China also has an extensive history of lying about pretty much everything.

Another problem has to do with the AP report itself, which insinuates that Chinese Virus injections are beneficial and that China wanted to withhold that benefit from Ukraine as punishment for signing the Human Rights Council document.

If Wuhan Flu shots are dangerous and ineffective, then would not China want to deliver more of them to Ukraine as punishment? The whole story is fishy, but one thing is for sure: The CCP cannot be trusted to ever do the right thing no matter what it is.

More of the latest news about Chinese Virus injection scandals can be found at ChemicalViolence.news.

Sources for this article include:

WesternJournal.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The Israeli government is claiming that the majority of people who are testing positive for the new Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) Delta variant were already vaccinated.

Ran Balicer, who leads an Israeli government expert advisory panel, says that his country is considering another lockdown due to this latest strain of the Chinese Virus, which is supposedly linked to a spike in hospitalizations.

The vast majority of those who are suffering in this hospital, however, are people who received both doses of Pfizer-BioNTechs experimental mRNA gene therapy injection, which proves that the jabs are useless.

The entrance of the delta variant has changed the transition dynamics, Balicer is quoted as saying, adding that this B.1.617.2 strain, as they are calling it, has been detected in more than 70 countries.

More than 200 people in Israel allegedly tested positive for the Delta variant, which prompted Israeli authorities to demand that everyone in the country put back on their face masks while indoors.

Everywhere except ones personal home is once again a face mask zone in Israel, which has seen some of the most draconian Chinese Virus measures be enforced throughout this past year.

About 55 percent of Israels 9.3 million residents have now received both doses of the Pfizer injection. Children as young as 12 are now eligible to take it, and the government is pushing hard for everyone to obey.

Our goal at the moment, first and foremost, is to safeguard the citizens of Israel from the Delta variant that is running amok in the world, announced Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

When will the coronavirus madness end?

The Israeli government continues to aggressively demand that all residents take the Pfizer injection, despite the Israeli People Committee (IPC) having already come to the conclusion that the jabs cause catastrophic damage to the body.

It is obvious that everyone who is still getting sick from covid is actually suffering adverse events from the injection itself. Many of us predicted this would happen and here we are watching it unfold in real time.

The plan all along was to scare everyone into getting injected, and once the vaccine side effects kicked in, to then blame those on new variants that required more lockdowns, masks and vaccines.

It will become a never-ending cycle of tyranny, injections and fearmongering, as long as people accept it. Hopefully Americans do not allow what is currently happening in Israel to once again happen here.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are already well over 10,000 breakthrough cases of the Chinese Virus that have been documented across 46 states and territories, all resulting from post-injection side effects.

Try as they might to continue blaming all the sickness on invisible floating virus variants, the truth of the matter is that every new wave of disease is a product of the jabs.

They wont be satisfied until they complete the global reset and usher in the one world order with the satanic antichrist, wrote one commenter at The Epoch Times, speculating as to the true purpose behind all this nonsense. Believers: get ready to meet in the air.

Why on Gods green earth would anyone allow themselves to be injected with an experimental biologic agent/gene manipulation when there are safe and effective treatments for covid-19, asked another.

The spike protein is toxic and after being injected, your cells are churning them out by the millions and they are traveling to numerous other locations in your body. If you dont die soon after being jabbed, expect to suffer the effects in the months and years ahead.

The latest news about Chinese Virus tyranny can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) A government report said military pilots recorded a total of 11 instances where their planes nearly hit unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The June 25 report was drafted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), in partnership with the Department of Defenses Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. It found that pilots reported 11 near misses with UFOs since 2004.

The ODNI report examined 144 UFO sightings dating back from 2004. It noted that the 11 documented instances of pilots reporting near misses with the objects as examples of current ongoing airspace concerns. According to the paper, aviators are mandated to report such concerns when they encounter such safety hazards.

The report said that UFOs pose a hazard to safety of flight, but acknowledged that they probably lack a single explanation. It added that defense and intelligence analysts lack sufficient data to determine the actual nature of UFOs spotted by military pilots. The report also put forward the possibility of the UFOs actually falling under explainable categories such as airborne clutter and natural atmospheric phenomena, amid speculation that the objects were examples of extraterrestrial technology.

In a limited number of incidents, [UFOs] reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis, the report continued.

The paper also touched on UFOs becoming a challenge to U.S. national security. It said that the aerial phenomena could pose a broader danger if, [in] some instances, [they] represent sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.

Finally, the ODNI report proposed a number of steps to analyze UFO sightings more deeply. It put forward the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to look at patterns from among UFO sightings and classify them based on similarities. It also emphasized the need for additional funding for research and development.

From previously being conspiracy theories, UFOs are now gaining more attention

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that lawmakers and other government officials need to take a closer look at UFOs and the potential security threats they pose. During a May 16 appearance on the CBS News show 60 Minutes, the Florida legislator described a stigma on Capitol Hill involving lawmakers chuckling whenever the topic is brought up.

Despite this, Rubio said some lawmakers expressed interest in further probing UFOs and their impact on national security. He ultimately warned: I dont think we can allow the stigma to keep us from having an answer to a very fundamental question.

The lawmaker also called on the Pentagon to come up with a process to take UFO sightings seriously. I want us to have a process to analyze the data every time it comes in. [There should] be a place where this is cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers. Maybe it has a very simple answer. Maybe it doesnt, Rubio said.

Alongside Rubio, 60 Minutes also interviewed former Navy Lt. Ryan Graves. The erstwhile military officer said he has witnessed UFOs flying over restricted areas on an everyday basis for several years. While many people thought of an extraterrestrial threat with the UFOs, Graves surmised that the objects could be technology developed by the U.S.s adversaries  posing a security threat. The former lieutenant told the program that the UFOs could be a threat observation program by either Russia or China. (Related: Navy spotted UFOs in restricted airspace every day for years, ex-Navy pilot reveals.)

Graves elaborated: I am worried, frankly. You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were [hanging] out up there, it would be a massive issue. But because [they] look slightly different, were not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. Were happy to just ignore the fact that these [UFOs] are out there, watching us every day.

But former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said the UFOs were not a product of the two countries. He told Fox News on June 7: A lot of people say its Russia or China. [But] we know for a fact in the intelligence community that things like trans-medium properties and hypersonic speeds  Russia and China clearly did not have those in 2004 when these things were sighted and reported. (Related: Ex-intel chief: UFOs spotted by the military not operated by China, Russia.)

Visit UFOs.news to read more about military pilots sighting these potential national security threats.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

DNI.gov [PDF]

CBSNews.com

DailyStar.co.uk
(Natural News) Fox News host Tucker Carlson is so good at what he does that the network recently expanded his reach to Fox Digital, the companys new streaming platform.

In addition to Tucker Carlson Tonight, which airs on Fox Newss terrestrial station, he also hosts Tucker Carlson Today and Tucker Carlson Originals, the former of which is a long-form interview session with a top newsmaker and the latter of which is an in-depth investigative journalism program offering insights into some of todays most underreported stories.

In sum, Carlson is dominating Fox News because hes effective at exposing the stinking, fetid, corruptive filth that is Washington, D.C. (and beyond, when it comes to left-wing, country-destroying policies).

And for that, hes now being targeted by the most technologically advanced spy agency on the planet: Our very own National Security Agency.

In a recent episode of his nightly Fox News program, Carlson revealed stunning details about how he has confirmed that the NSA is spying on him  reading his text messages and emails with the objective of learning something damaging so the agency could then leak it to the media and get him tossed off the air.

White supremacy may be ugly, but it is not a meaningful threat to the nation, and claiming otherwise is a lie, Carlson said as he kicked off a monologue in which he revealed what a whistleblower had told him.

So why does the Biden administration persist in telling that lie? Its a racial attack, obviously. Its waged for partisan political purposes. You tell black voters that Republicans are the KKK and maybe theyll keep voting for you. Thats the idea. Its really easier than fixing Chicago or raising test scores, which they should be doing, he continued.

Carlson went on to explain theres a deeper significance to that  the Biden administration is signaling a very real change to actual policy.

The war on terror, now ongoing for 20 years, has pivoted in its aim. The war on terror is now being waged against American citizens, opponents of the regime. We saw this on display on Jan. 6, he said.

We told you a couple of weeks ago, based on language in publicly available indictments that the FBI has foreknowledge of the riots at the Capital that day and the agents we spoke to this weekend confirmed that is true, he added, proving what we have reported here: That the Capitol riot was a false flag event aimed at hurting President Donald Trump.

After reporting that hes 100% certain there were FBI operatives in the Jan. 6 crowd, Carlson dropped his bombshell.

But its not just political protesters the government is spying on. Yesterday we heard from a whistle-blower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communication and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air, he said.

Now thats a shocking claim and ordinarily we would be skeptical of it; its illegal for the NSA to spy on American citizens. Its a crime, he added. This is not a third-world country, things like that should not happen in America. But unfortunately, they do happen and in this case, they did. The whistle-blower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails. Theres no other possible source of that information. Period.

He then repeated his initial claim  that the NSA is spying on him and his program without our knowledge and they did it for political reasons.

The Biden administration is spying on us. We have confirmed that, Carlson said for emphasis.

Understand that whats going on here is we have a completely broken system: A partisan, inept Congress that is providing zero oversight to a very powerful federal spy agency whose leaders no doubt have dirt on the very lawmakers We the People have elected to keep them in check.

Our systems are broken, period. Carlsons episode provides the latest evidence.

Sources include:

WayneDupree.com

NewsTarget.com
(Natural News) Pennsylvania is finally lifting its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) mask mandate. This comes more than a year after officials first instituted it and said it would only take the state two weeks to flatten its coronavirus curve.

Starting today, masks are no longer required in Pennsylvania. Thank you to each and every Pennsylvanian who did their part to get us here, said Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

This marks the first time since April 15, 2020 that Pennsylvania does not have some kind of state order requiring the wearing of masks in businesses or public places. The mask order was in effect for one year and 73 days.

Wolfs office said that while the state-ordered mask requirement is no longer in place, businesses municipalities and schools may still require masks within their premises as they see fit.

Businesses, organizations, healthcare providers and other entities maintain the option of requiring employees, guests or customers to wear a mask, regardless of their vaccination status, said Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam on Friday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said healthcare workers are still required to wear masks while in healthcare facilities. Furthermore, patients, visitors and other staff at these facilities are also required to wear masks.

Officials from Penn State Health, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, WellSpan Health and the Lebanon VA Medical Center have announced that masks are still mandatory at all of their hospitals and outpatient facilities.

The federal governments mask mandate is also still in place. This means face coverings are still required on planes, trains, buses and other forms of mass transit. Furthermore, passengers of Capital Area Transit, Rabbit Transit and Red Rose Transit in Pennsylvanias Susquehanna Valley are still required to wear masks until Sept. 13.

Mask mandates all over the country are being lifted. Neighboring Delaware lifted its mask order on May 21. New Jerseys mandate was rolled back on May 28.

Unvaccinated individuals in New York are still required to wear a mask. The states health department still recommends masks in certain situations, including when individuals cannot verify the vaccination status of other people.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland is slated to lift most of the states COVID-19 restrictions, including its mask mandate, on July 1. West Virginia and Ohio lifted their own mask mandates in late June.

State officials attribute vaccinations, plummeting caseload, for mandates lifting

In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance stating that vaccinated individuals do not need to wear masks in most situations, including most indoor settings other than public transportation. Pennsylvania responded to this by relaxing its mask mandate for fully vaccinated people. Later in May, on Memorial Day, the state removed most of its other coronavirus restrictions.

The Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania made it clear that the mask mandate was being relaxed because many Pennsylvanians aged 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. (Related: Pennsylvania woman left paralyzed after getting injected with Pfizer vaccine.)

According to the state health department, around 75 percent of all adult Pennsylvanians have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Nearly 60 percent of those 18 and over are fully vaccinated.

The governors office further claimed that new COVID-19-related cases and hospitalizations are plummeting in Pennsylvania. No counties in the state are demonstrating a high spread of the virus. Statewide, the percentage of coronavirus tests that turned out positive is at just over one percent.

Despite this, state health officials are still asking Pennsylvanians to keep their guard up.

As we shift to wearing masks less often, it is important to remain resilient in the fight against COVID-19, just as we have done together over the last year and a half, said Pennsylvania Acting Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson.

Learn more about mask mandates in Pennsylvania and other states at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

PennLive.com

WGAL.com
(Natural News) On Friday, June 11, resourceful process servers working for Childrens Health Defense (CHD) Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. served a subpoena in San Francisco on Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, a liberal progressive news and activist forum. The subpoena, from a Westchester County New York Supreme Court Judge, orders Moulitsas to disclose the true name of Downeast Dem  a blogger who libeled Kennedy on the Daily Kos platform on Aug. 29, 2020.

(Article republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org)

Moulitsas had been fighting the order in court since December 2020, when Kennedy filed, and dodging the subpoena for a fortnight. Earlier this month, Daily Kos security guards at the companys San Francisco headquarters twice blocked Kennedys process servers from entering the building.

The Daily Kos malicious article claimed that Kennedy spoke at a Nazi rally in Berlin organized by right-wing extremist organizations, including the AFD party and various anti-Semitic conspiracy groups as well as the neo-Nazi NPD party.

When Kennedy provided Daily Kos proof that the claims were false, Daily Kos nevertheless refused to remove the defamatory statements, claiming immunity under Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act, which provides a legal shield to internet platforms against lawsuits redressing defamatory statements by its guest writers.

Daily Kos took the position that Kennedys beef was with its pseudonymous author and that Kennedys only remedy was to sue Downeast Dem. But then the Daily Kos refused to disclose Downeast Dems true name or address.

Accordingly, Kennedy filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Westchester County to order Daily Kos to disclose Downeast Dems identity and contact information. Justice Mary H. Smith ruled in Kennedys favor in April, ordering Daily Kos to unmask Kennedys incognito attacker. Downeast Dem has no immunity from libel laws. Moulitsas and Kos Media have until tomorrow, June 30, to respond to the subpoena.

Immediately after Kennedy completed service, his team received a call from a Paul Levy, Esq. of the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen to inform them that Public Citizen is now representing Downeast Dem, pro bono, in a bid to save Downeast Dem, presumably a Maine Democrat, from having to reveal his identity.

Public Citizen has a long and noble history of advocating against corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. Kennedy himself has fought alongside Public Citizen during his well-documented history of battling regulatory and industry corruption.

Mary Holland, a former NYU Law professor with her own record on the frontlines for human rights and other liberal causes, now serves as CHDs president and general counsel.

Public Citizens choice to take on this case as its cause celebre is one of the most dismaying emblems, to date, of the co-optation of liberal institutions by Big Pharma and the medical cartel, said Holland. We have seen a lot of ideological chaos, confusion, doctrinal bankruptcy and intellectual dishonesty among our leading liberal institutions in the wake of the COVID crisis.

Kennedys speech in Berlin was a part of his crusade against Pharmas growing power over government agencies and public policy. Kennedy says that the industrys claims about COVID vaccines merit heightened scrutiny during their rollouts.

Unlike other drugs, he argued, vaccines are given to healthy individuals. We therefore should be far less tolerant of risk.

When asked about Public Citizens decision to take Pharmas side in the lawsuit, Kennedy remarked, Public Citizen has done an extraordinary job documenting the pharmaceutical industrys relentless and intractable history of homicidal corruption. Its dismaying that the organization is switching sides at a time when this crisis has amplified the need for fearless pharma watchdogs.

Kennedy reasoned that no matter how badly you want to believe in these vaccines, there is no reason to think that COVID-19 has suddenly changed Big Pharmas corrupt institutional culture. We need to be mindful that their opportunities for criminal profiteering are now manifold.

He pointed out that vaccine makers are getting billions in government subsidies and support for their products.

Kennedy said:

Furthermore, they are immune from liability and therefore have no incentive to make COVID vaccines safe. The vaccines are unlicensed, unapproved experimental technologies. Their short pre-licensure trials were incapable of spotting long-term injuries. The governments post-licensing surveillance system is badly broken and fails to capture most vaccine injuries, making risk assessment impossible.

Its appropriate for us to be hyper-vigilant when governments mandate medical interventions or compel citizens to consume profit making pharmaceutical products. We need to be especially attentive to risks in children about whom there is almost no relevant safety information. Children, after all, have almost no risk from the disease and so any risk from the vaccine is unacceptable.

Instead of championing Kennedys right to raise these questions, Public Citizen is now defending the supposed right of an anonymous individual to make misleading and false claims about Kennedy that are clearly defamatory.

Its elemental fairness  an American tradition  that Kennedy should be able to face his accuser, observed Holland. It seems both cowardly and unfair that Downeast Dem is going to great lengths to remain faceless.

Holland said that Public Citizens position does not appear to arise from any coherent ideological conviction but simply because Downeast Dem is attacking an enemy of Big Pharma, which is now thoroughly aligned with Democratic party leadership.

Thats tribalism, said Holland. Tribalism is poison to democracy. It is the enemy of truth. It is the enemy of dialogue.

Reflecting on her own history as a Democratic Party stalwart, Holland remarked:

Im in shock that instead of debating Kennedys questions and prevailing in the marketplace of ideas, the liberal intelligentsia has responded with censorship and name calling. As a lifelong liberal, I find it mind-blowing that Pharmas biggest critics have suddenly become its strongest defenders.

I also find it troubling that liberals, once the champions of free speech, are now advocating censorship. The fundamental essence of the liberalism I grew up with was a fearlessness toward lively debate, even on the most difficult issues. All these sensible people who were heroes of mine are now behaving as if there is a pandemic exception in the First Amendment. We see leading liberal institutions, media moguls and social media robber barons acting as patronizing, elitist self- appointed thought police to protect Americans from dangerous information.

Daily Kos, Public Citizen and other liberal institutions are calling for the muzzling not just of Kennedy but of the many scientists and doctors and anyone else who raises difficult questions about vaccines. They are even deplatforming Americans who report their own vaccine injuries or who cite to government statistics on injury.

They are trying to silence and gaslight their fellow Americans who question government policies, said Holland. Criticizing our government is not just a right, it is a duty of citizenship. Kennedy is gagged by the censors while Daily Kos gives his detractors a bullhorn to make false charges, cravenly defame him and then hide themselves behind Section 230.

Downeast Dems defamatory article  Anti-Vaxxer RFK, Jr. joins neo-Nazis in massive Berlin Anti-Corona Protest  falsely accused Kennedy of join[ing] neo-Nazis at a Berlin protest organized by various anti-Semitic conspiracy groups as well as the neo-Nazi NPD party.

The post purports to describe an Aug. 22 speech Kennedy delivered to more than 1 million people at the Rally for Peace and Freedom in Berlin organized by the German group Querdenken 711, or Critical Thinking 711.

That post, remarked Holland, is the opposite of true. The Querdenken movement is a broad-based, peaceful citizens movement for freedom, justice and human rights. It strongly opposes Nazism, anti-Semitism and all forces of extremism.

As usual, Querdenken took great pains to exclude extremists from the Berlin event. Those efforts were spectacularly successful. Among the speakers who followed Kennedy on the podium were politicians from Germanys Green Party, Labor Leaders, human rights activists, doctors, lawyers, clergy of many religions, soldiers, police officers, parents, children, world-famous athletes and leaders of politically progressive nonprofit organizations.

The events Master of Ceremonies was a Black African born in Ghana. The musical performance included an Indian Hare Krishna monk. The principal stage ornament was a giant mural of Mahatma Gandhi, who is hardly a Nazi hero. The banners were rainbows, peace signs and the flags of every European nation.

The crowd looked like Woodstock, said Holland. The speakers and audience were racially and religiously diverse.

This complete absence of extremist influence or right-wing iconography is evident from the program, from all the footage publicly available, including this video. Anyone interested in accuracy could have easily check hundreds of sources to understand the true nature of the event. The fact that the erroneous nature of Daily Kos inflammatory fake news was so easily discernible attests to the Downeast Dems malicious intent.

Kennedys Berlin speech video was a screed against Nazism, tyranny, fascism, autocracy and a celebration of traditional liberal values, freedom of speech, worship and assembly, and justice and due process, and jury trials.

It was a powerful message against totalitarianism, said Holland. Downeast Dems comments were not just abusive and false, they were cowardly. Downeast Dem slandered Mr. Kennedy from the shadows. His hope was to sling his barbs and then flee from public debate. That is the classic cowardice of a bully.

Rather than acknowledging the Daily Kos post was fake news, Moulitsas has dug in and is now resorting to pleading with his readers to send cash to fund his crusade to keep Downeast Dem anonymous.

Those fundraising letters have the poisonous, nasty, baiting tone of a schoolyard bully, said Holland, and by school, I mean elementary school  they are shockingly childish. Its almost beyond comprehension that this low-level diatribe is coming from one of the most revered exemplars of the liberal intelligentsia, one of our Democratic Partys superstars.

Moulitsas wrote, One more thing, Robbie or Bob or whatever people call you, because you sure as hell dont deserve to be called by your initials like our great president.

When asked about Moulitsas attacks, Kennedy refused to respond saying only that he was surprised that Moulitsas seemed to believe that his father won the 1968 Presidential election. Robert Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California Primary that June. Its pretty much common knowledge, Kennedy commented dryly.

Ironically, the Daily Kos founder, who has been relentlessly bobbing and weaving to dodge any confrontation with Kennedy, is suddenly challenging Kennedy to engage. His invitation  it can only be described as an unhinged vitriolic diatribe  doubles as a fundraising appeal.

Obviously, this fight isnt inexpensive, Moulitsas pleads with his readers, adding, And if Kennedy isnt a coward, he can drop the suit targeting Downeast Dem and come directly after me  So bring it, a**hole.

Holland said Moulitsas challenge was surprising.

She said:

We originally did sue Daily Kos directly, she said. It was Mr. Moulitsas himself who pointed his finger at Downeast Dem as the culprit we needed to pursue.

If Mr. Moulitsas really wants to debate, I doubt that would be a problem. Kennedy has always been willing to debate all comers. Im quite sure that if Mr. Moulitsas is looking for a civil conversation, all he has to do is ask. Daily Kos presents itself as a serious forum for liberal debate, but the fact is that no one dares to debate Kennedy. Everyone saw the way that he demolished Alan Dershowitz in their debates, and so they all prefer to resort to name calling from a safe distance.

Holland wonders out loud why Daily Kos is going so far to protect Downeast Dem from embarrassment.

If they really think this is truthful information, she asked, why dont they come forward? Why does Downeast Dem have to slink around in darkness? Why doesnt he come out of the shadows and engage in an open dialogue with Mr. Kennedy?

Kennedy shared:

I think we need to all move beyond vituperation and polarization and have a larger discussion.

I grew up in a milieu when liberals were the champions of civil rights, religious freedom, free speech and due process. Liberals were sworn enemies of censorship and the control of the government by corporate multinationals, including pharmaceutical corporations. Why do we now fear to have conversations about science? Why are we retreating instead into appeals to authority?

Kennedy was referring to the persistent liberal mantra that people should trust the experts rather than research government claims, cultivate scientific curiosity and engage in critical thinking. Putting faith in experts, is a logical fallacy, Kennedy said. It is a feature of religion, not science.

He continued:

That notion is anathema to both science or democracy, which begin with skepticism, with curiosity, with relentless questioning, and with critical thinking. Furthermore, the particular group of experts that they are instructing us to trust are mainly badly conflicted government and industry stooges.

They are aggressively censoring the armies of highly credentialed independent experts who challenge the official orthodoxies.

Why have some in the liberal establishment folded their tents on the field of logic, reason and scientific literacy, and retreated from dialogue? asked feminist icon Dr. Naomi Wolf.

Why are so many reduced to ad hominem attacks and to efforts at censorship? Why must they often accuse those who simply disagree with them of being Trump supporters, Qanon followers, anti-vaxxers or even Nazis? Many in our intellectual class have devolved  in a single year  into adolescent bullying, and it is bad for journalism and for our country.

Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org and BigPharmaNews.com
(Natural News) Republican Sen. Ron Johnson held a press conference recently to draw attention to the people whose lives have been ruined by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines.

Even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted them emergency use authorization (EUA), Chinese Virus injections are maiming and killing people, many of whom never get the chance to tell their stories because the mainstream media is complicit in the coverup.

The meeting was held at the Federal Courthouse in Milwaukee, where families from across America gathered to talk about the serious adverse reactions they suffered after getting jabbed. Those who died from the shots obviously did not make an appearance.

After offering the usual politically correct disclaimer that he is still pro-vaccine and fully supports Donald Trumps Operation Warp Speed fast-tracked covid jab scheme, Sen. Johnson stated that just because the vaccine is generally safe doesnt mean that its 100 percent safe.

Sen. Johnson went on to cite a recent op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal that highlights the large clustering of vaccine injuries that are now being widely observed following injection for the Chinese Flu.

I would agree, Sen. Johnson stated about the premise of the op-ed, which called the sheer number of post-injection injuries concerning.

And then they list four [serious adverse events] that follow that pattern of clustering immediately following vaccination in their listing: low platelets, non-infectious myocarditis, deep-vein thrombosis (the clotting), and death.

Different families took their turn explaining before the public how Wuhan Flu shots destroyed their own health or that of a loved one. One mother broke down into tears explaining how her young daughter experienced a serious adverse event after getting jabbed.

You can hear her testimony in the video below at around the 31:40 mark:

Whats the point in getting a Wuhan Flu shot?

These and many more testimonies that were not heard prove that getting jabbed for the Fauci Flu is not a safe bet by any stretch of the imagination. It is also not a very smart bet, seeing as how contracting the alleged virus and actually getting sick or dying from it is highly unlikely.

The vast majority of people, had they never been told about the Chinese Flu in the first place, likely would have gone on with their lives as normal last year without a care in the world. Only because the government and media hyped up the fear did everything spiral into hysteria.

Now, people are lining up for experimental injections that do far worse than any virus ever could. Many are now confused as to why they were pushed to get jabbed when doing so ultimately left them injured and maimed.

People are easily conned and replace experience-based reality with fear-based delusions that are fed to them as reality by the mainstream media, wrote one commenter at 100percentfedup about this bizarre phenomenon.

They probably thought they were bravely doing their part for the good of humanity. I only hope this kind of thing not only wakes up the parent to this propaganda, but all propaganda being fed through the MSM.

Others noted that they are more than fine taking their chances with the Chinese Virus, which has an almost 100 percent survival rate.

The best part of this governmental sponsored genocide is that you get to pay full freight for all the harm the liars inflicted on you, commented another, making a very good point about who ultimately pays the price in all this: the injected.

More related news about the injuries and deaths stemming from Chinese Virus injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

100percentfedup.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The worlds top bitcoin mining rig maker has suspended sales of its machines for spot delivery globally following Beijings crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry in the country.

Bitmain Technologies is stopping sales in an effort to prop up local prices after crypto miners fleeing China have started dumping used mining rigs on the market. By postponing sales, Bitmain can help these miners exiting the industry get better prices for their machines. In addition, it could also be a benefit if the reduced supply buoys prices over the longer term for new machines.

A spokesman for the company confirmed that it would continue to sell gear for future delivery of devices used to mine smaller altcoins. But he did not say when the business would start selling machines again.

Miners leaving China due to government crackdown

Back in May, Chinas cabinet  the State Council  called for a renewed crackdown on cryptocurrency mining and trading activities. In response, local governments were quick to sever power to mining facilities in their jurisdictions.

This crackdown is spurring more and more miners to uproot or abandon their operations, heading to more welcoming countries, including the U.S. and Canada. In the process, theyve begun to flood the domestic market with cheap machines.

Top-of-the-line mining machines from Bitmain and other mining hardware companies are now being sold at 150 yuan ($23) per THash/second  the reference unit for their computing power  on the second-hand market. In comparison, these same machines were selling at 600 yuan ($92.64) back in April, when Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $64,870.

Meanwhile, to help clients moving out of China, Bitman recently held a closed-door event where it pledged to serve as a matchmaker to connect miners with data centers in countries like Kazakhstan and the U.S.

Chinas crackdown on cryptocurrency mining comes amid concerns of both the digital coins environmental impact as well as their decentralized nature. (Related: Chinas central bank calls on top executives to reinforce crypto ban.)

Digital currencies require large amounts of computing power for transactions and other functions, such as creating new coins. This draws a lot of energy  often in the gigawatt range  to keep these systems running. While part of this massive power draw is supplied by renewable energy  such as hydroelectric plants  a good amount also comes from fossil fuels.

But a bigger issue for Beijing may be cryptocurrencys decentralized nature. In a recent statement calling on financial leaders to enforce a ban on cryptocurrency trading, Chinas central bank said that this decentralized nature made cryptocurrencies ripe for money laundering and other illegal activities.

Chinas crackdown leads miners to migrate to the U.S.

As Chinas miners abandon the country in droves, many are turning to the West, where regulations are much looser. This has resulted in what has been called the great mining migration to places such as Texas.

Despite a lack of power reserves  which led to the days-long blackouts in February  Texas has some of the worlds lowest energy prices with a deregulated power grid that lets customers choose power providers. At the same time, its share of renewables is also growing. More importantly, its political leaders are very pro-crypto.

We have governors like Greg Abbott in Texas who are promoting mining, says Brandon Arvanaghi, a former security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini. It is going to become a real industry in the United States, which is going to be incredible.

Other states that miners are targeting include Wyoming, which is also trending towards being pro-bitcoin.

But there are some hurdles that remain before the U.S. can become a global mining destination. The lead time to actually build the physical infrastructure necessary to host miners takes around six to nine months explained Castle Island Ventures founding partner Nic Carter to CNBC.

The U.S. probably cant be as nimble as other countries in terms of onshoring these stray miners, he said.

Then theres actually getting mining equipment to the U.S. In addition to companies like Bitmain suspending sales of new mining rigs to try to keep prices high, theres also a shipping container shortage thanks to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Perhaps the biggest question is whether these states power grids can handle the needs of crypto mining. On top of the blackouts Texas suffered in February, the state is once again facing a possible energy crisis due to the impending heatwave out west. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has already called for Texans to start conserving energy because of this.

Should crypto miners start operating in Texas in droves, it could cause further strain to an already overworked energy grid.

Follow BitcoinCrash.news for more on how the U.S. may be affected by the fallout from Chinas crypto crackdown.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

Vox.com

CNBC.com
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A white former Nashville police officer will plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter Friday just ahead of his first-degree murder trial, three years after he fatally shot an armed Black man from behind during a foot chase, his attorney confirmed Thursday.

Attorney David Raybin made the confirmation on behalf of 27-year-old former Officer Andrew Delke, who was about to face trial for a first-degree murder charge over the death of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick in July 2018. The shooting occurred before the death of George Floyd and the trial would have come after the conviction and sentencing of Derek Chauvin in Floyd's murder.

Delke submitted his resignation Thursday, Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron said. Delke had been decommissioned, which means he had to turn over his gun but was able to work a desk job and still get paid.

The attorney for Hambrick's family, Joy Kimbrough, said Hambrick's mother, Vickie Hambrick, was not contacted or consulted and did not know about the plea deal until after it was done. Kimbrough said the deal includes a three-year prison sentence. Raybin declined to comment on any sentence length.

Shes very upset about it. Shes distraught about it. And she has said its like losing her son all over again, Kimbrough said of Hambrick's mother.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Glenn Funk said he could not confirm anything.

After COVID-19 delays and pretrial back-and-forth, jury selection was slated to start next week in the case. The trial was going to center on a handgun Hambrick was holding that Delke claims was pointed at him for a moment, which prosecutors dispute and video footage doesnt show.

Prosecutors focused on surveillance footage that captured the shooting, in which Delke stops chasing and shoots the fleeing man. Defense attorneys have contended there was a 36-foot blindspot and plenty could have happened there. There were dozens of cameras, and defense attorneys contended that it was possible that more footage was caught of that blindspot, but wasn't reviewed by investigators before it was automatically overwritten on the system.

The month after the shooting, Funk released surveillance footage of the shooting publicly, sparking wider attention and outcry. Delke was charged in September 2018, and the shooting caused enough backlash that voters that November installed a community oversight board for Nashvilles police department.

Convicting an officer for an on-duty death remains a tall order. Since 2005, there have been 143 nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers with arrest powers arrested for murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting throughout the U.S., with only 45 convicted of a crime resulting from the on-duty shooting, according to a tally from Bowling Green State University criminal justice professor Philip Stinson.

Criminal cases for 53 of the officers ended in a non-conviction, while 45 cases are still pending, according to the findings.

Nineteen of those 45 convicted were through a guilty plea  similar to what is planned in Delke's case  while the rest were through a jury conviction, according to Stinson's research.

In only 25 of the 143 arrests did the person who was fatally shot have a gun; just five were convicted, according to Stinsons tally. He said there's always risk for prosecutors that a case like this could end in an acquittal or a mistrial with a hung jury.

It's not uncommon for the case to end in a guilty plea and it's not uncommon for the case to end in a guilty plea on the eve of trial, either, Stinson said.

Delkes attorneys argued the officer followed his training and Tennessee law in response to an armed suspect who ignored repeated orders to drop his gun. Funk argued Delke had other alternatives, adding that the officer could have stopped, sought cover and called for help.

On the day of the shooting, Delke was in his patrol car as part of a juvenile-focused unit looking for stolen cars and known juvenile offenders. He followed a car despite learning it was not stolen and never saw the driver or determined how many people were inside, according to an arrest affidavit. The car didnt pull over as it headed onto the interstate and Delke put on the sirens. He followed from a distance and lost track of the car for some time.

Delke later pulled into a public housing complex and Hambrick was standing outside the car and began running. Delke chased Hambrick and yelled at him to stop, though the officer didnt know Hambricks identity or if he was connected to the car he had been pursuing, the affidavit says.

Hambrick wouldnt drop a gun despite Delkes instructions, the affidavit says. Delke stopped, assumed a firing position, and aimed his service weapon, firing four times, it says. One shot hit Hambricks back, another his torso and a third the back of his head. The fourth shot missed.

Nashvilles Metro Council has approved a $2.25 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit by Hambricks family.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles City Council passed a sweeping anti-camping measure Thursday to remove widespread homeless encampments that have become an eyesore across the city.

The measure was billed as a compassionate approach to get people off streets and restore access to public spaces in the city with nation's second-largest homeless population, though critics said it would criminalize the problem.

I cant think of any reason why we would not unite in support of what the people of Los Angeles want us to do," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, coauthor of the measure. "Restore order to our streets, while also uplifting and providing services to those in need.

Among other limits, the ordinance that passed 13-2 would ban sitting, lying, sleeping or storing personal property that blocks sidewalks, streets and bike lanes or near driveways, fire hydrants, schools, day care centers, libraries, homeless shelters and parks.

It wouldnt be enforced in some locations until someone has turned down an offer of shelter and the council has passed a resolution placing that space off-limits, posting signs and giving two weeks' notice. It could be enforced immediately if a person or tent is blocking handicap access guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act or placing themselves or others in danger such as blocking a loading dock.

The measure, which requires a second vote in late July, replaces a more punitive anti-camping proposal that stalled in a committee. Under the ordinance approved, police would only get involved if there's a crime, and people who resist leaving would be fined rather than arrested.

The majority of callers during a limited public comment period spoke in support of the measure, describing homeless encounters that included assaults, break-ins and one explaining how children walking to school are forced into a busy street to avoid tents crowding sidewalks.

People who opposed the measure, including a couple who used profanity, said it lacked compassion and would criminalize a problem the city has failed to solve.

The meeting was closed to the public because of coronavirus restrictions, but a group of advocates for the homeless protested outside City Hall.

Pete White of the LA Community Action Network said the measure is loosely written to allow broad interpretation for enforcement and will make most of the city off-limits to people living on the street.

Draconian is definitely the correct word, he said. Its impossible to comply.

White said that an ordinance that limited where people could park RVs and sleep in cars overnight left little more than 5% of streets available for parking.

California is home to more than a quarter of the nations homeless people, according to federal data, and it has reached a crisis point in many cities. There are deep disagreements in how to solve a problem that goes beyond economics and is often complicated by mental illness and addiction issues that require treatment and can make people resistant to accepting shelter.

The city of Los Angeles has an estimated homeless population of more than 40,000, which is second only to New York's.

Encampments have steadily grown over several years and often sprawl entire blocks. They can include barbecues, sofas, recliner chairs and even a shower. Many are crammed with piles of belongings, scavenged junk and covered in tarps.

A federal judge directed the city of LA to offer housing to thousands of homeless people on Skid Row by this fall, though the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put that on hold.

The appeals court has separately held that cities can't make it a crime for homeless people to sleep on the streets when alternative shelter is not available.

The leading Republican candidates seeking to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election came to LA County this week to announce their plans to address the statewide problem.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer called for more shelters, while rival businessman John Cox said people insisting on sleeping on streets should be locked up or forced into treatment.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has proposed a right to housing that would require the city to provide shelter to all residents.

While the crisis is widespread across Los Angeles, a dispute about how to solve the problem has become a flashpoint on Venice Beach recently, where an encampment exploded in size during the coronavirus pandemic.

The situation has left residents weary and worried for their safety  and for the wellbeing of those in camps  after several violent incidents. A homeless man was arrested last week in the killing of another homeless man who was bludgeoned in his tent on the beach.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva, whose deputies patrol unincorporated parts of the county, entered city turf with a homeless outreach team to announce a plan to get people into housing by July 4.

His lofty overture, which has moved some people off the boardwalk but is unlikely to meet his goal this weekend, was met with resistance from much of LA's political establishment, particularly Councilman Mike Bonin, whose district includes Venice.

Bonin, who criticized an approach that could lead to jail time if people don't leave, launched his own plan days later. That effort, which has moved 64 people indoors, is being rolled out in several phases into August and promises to eventually provide permanent housing.

Bonin opposed the ordinance Thursday, saying the city doesn't have tens of thousands of beds needed for the homeless and criticizing the plan for not showing where people can sleep.

Bonin, who is recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, disclosed that he lived without a home in his 20s and ended up sleeping on the beach when his car was in the shop or he couldn't crash at a friend's house.

I can't tell you how much turmoil, there is in your heart when the sun is setting and you dont know where you can sleep, Bonin said. I cannot describe how demoralizing and dehumanizing and defeating that experience is when you dont know where youre gonna sleep.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the measure requires a second vote later this month, not next month.
BANGKOK (AP)  A court in Myanmar on Thursday extended the pretrial detention of Danny Fenster, a U.S. journalist employed by an online news magazine in the military-led Southeast Asian nation who was arrested in May on an incitement charge that carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.

Fenster, who is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24, as he was trying to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

Fensters lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, told The Associated Press that the 37-year-old journalist was in good health but appeared to have lost some weight at Thursdays hearing at the special court at Yangons Insein Prison, where he is being held. He asked that his wife send him medicine and food. Two consular officials from the U.S. Embassy also attended the hearing, the lawyer said.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 15, but the case will not come to trial then because the court has too many cases backed up, he said.

Fensters court appearance came a day after authorities began a release of about 2,300 prisoners who were charged in connection with protests that erupted after the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. The new government has tried to silence independent news media by withdrawing their licenses and by arresting journalists.

Those released included protesters as well as journalists. Most were being held on the same charge as Fenster. Because there is no official list of freed detainees and the releases are taking place over several days, the exact number of journalists freed is not known.

An unofficial tally kept by Myanmar journalists says of 88 journalists who were arrested after Februarys military takeover, 49 have been released, including 14 on Wednesday.

In June, a court released U.S. journalist Nathan Maung, who was arrested in March while working for Kamayut Media, a local online news platform. The charges against him were dropped, his case dismissed and he was deported to the United States.

The Myanmar juntas continued detention of journalist Danny Fenster is outrageous and unacceptable. Independent reporting of whats happening on the ground in Myanmar should not be considered a crime, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.

The authorities should immediately drop all charges against Fenster, and permit him to leave the country if that is what he wants to do. The junta should also unconditionally free the more than 50 Burmese journalists who are still in detention and lift the license revocation orders imposed against numerous local media outlets," Robertson said. Myanmar is also known by its old name, Burma.

Than Zaw Aung said Fenster is charged in connection with his work at a previous job, as a reporter and copy editor for the online news site Myanmar Now.

Myanmar Now, along with several other media outlets, had its license revoked in early March, banning it from publishing on any platform. However, it has continued to operate online.

Fenster resigned from Myanmar Now in July last year and joined Frontier Myanmar a month later, so it is unclear why he was arrested, his lawyer said.

I dont know in detail. What I can say is that he was accused as a staff member of Myanmar Now. Im not clear if it concerns a story posted on Myanmar Now or not.

Fensters family in the United States, led by his parents and brother Bryan, have rallied support for his release with a website, an online petition and contacts with their representatives in Congress to keep pressure on the State Department to push Myanmar on the case. The U.S. government has made repeated pleas for media freedom in Myanmar and for Fensters release.

The Irish rock band U2, which has long taken an interest in the fight for democracy in Myanmar, on Wednesday tweeted its support for Fensters release.

Journalism is not a crime. We join @RepAndyLevin and @bryanfenster in urging the immediate release of journalist Danny Fenster from detainment in Myanmar and thank heroic organizations like @pressfreedom for fighting to protect journalists everywhere -- #BringDannyHome, it said.

This is what we want. We want champions of human rights and social justice in a connected world to take on our cause," Bryan Fenster said Thursday. And what better example of that than all the guys in U2?

Bryan Fenster said he was able to speak to his brother on the phone this week  their first conversation since Danny Fenster was detained.

The U.S. Embassy arranged to have the detained journalist speak by phone with his wife, Julianna, in Yangon. Then, they were able to get in touch with me on another phone and kind of held them up to each other so we could hear each other and talk to each other, Bryan Fenster said.

To finally hear his voice, you know, we could finally exhale, sink into the back of the couch for a little bit, he said. He sounded good. We were able to crack a few jokes that made me feel really good, in particular, because hes got a great sense of humor. And happy he has his wits about him given the circumstances.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.
In compiling this iteration of our list of competitors Cisco cant kill off, one thing is clear: The competition is fierce amongst the bigger players.

Nearly all the networking giants competitors have refreshed their product lines or bought into technology to compete more closely with Cisco. But thats not to say Cisco has been sitting still by any means.

The company has expanded and refreshed its core Catalyst, Nexus and Silicon One networking gear and made major strides in security and software. Going forward, it wants to lead the industry in network-as-a-service.

Cisco remains a high-powered and elusive target for most competitors. So whos chasing?

Arista Networks

Run by ex-Cisco exec Jayshree Ullal, Arista has been a more-than-capable competitor for years. Since we last compiled this list, Arista has extended its data-center technology to the campus and edge. It has made some core acquisitions as well, namely Mojo for wireless technology and Big Switch for software-defined networking expertise. The moves give Arista software technology that should complement its drive to meld data-center and campus networks with multicloud deployments in the future.

Checkpoint Software

With Ciscos growing emphasis on all things security, Check Point and a cadre of competitors including Palo Alto, Fortinet face tons of pressure. Check Point, though, has been around since 1993 and has recently made alliances with key companies including SD-WAN vendor Aryaka to compete in hot markets. Most recently Check Point said it would invest $100 million to further develop its cloud-security business.

Dell

Now that is has parted ownership of VMware, Dell could become more of a competitor since it presumably will have more connectivity options--plus it still has a VMware sword to swing if nothing else comes along. According to Gartner, the company already has 20,000 data center customers under its wing. The companys PowerSwitch product supports its own NOS and third-party NOSes including Cumulus and SONiC. Most recently Dell launched Apex, a package of managed storage, server, and hyperconverged infrastructure that can be deployed in a company's own data center, at edge locations or in colocation facilities, and enterprises pay for capacity as needed.

Extreme Networks

Another competitor that has stepped up its game in recent times, Extreme Networks celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. The company has been doing well as its flagship ExtremeCloud IQ (XIQ) management platform had a 122% subscription-rate growth in the past year. Like others on this list, the company is betting heavily on AI/ML technology and the cloud to keep it relevant in the networking arena. Most recently it rolled out a new XIQ subscription level called CoPilot that uses what the vendor calls explainable AI to help network professionals understand a network alarms and why they were generated.

Juniper Networks

A long-time Cisco competitor, Juniper has taken it up a notch recently by buying Apstra and 128 Technology. The Apstra operating system gives Juniper a horse in the intent-based networking race in that its keeps a real-time repository of configuration, telemetry and validation information to ensure the network is doing what customers want it to do. 128's key technology is its Session Smart software that promises to reduce the costs of running SD-WAN and WANs by making intelligent routing decisions based on sessions and application needs over individual traditional tunnels. Combine that with the companys Mist AI-based management system and the companys full suite of networking software and gear you have a formidable opponent.

HPE/Aruba

In 2020, HPE/Aruba took a big leap into the SD-WAN market with its purchase of networking vendor Silver Peak for $925 million. HPE Aruba cited 650 Group research that says the market for SD-WAN will grow from $2.3 billion in 2020 to $4.9 billion in 2024 and said that it intended to be a big player. Aruba also recently added its Edge Services Platform (ESP), which can analyze telemetry data generated from Wi-Fi access points or network switching gear and use it to automatically optimize connectivity, discover network problems and secure the overall edge environment. It has the tools in place to continue pushing Cisco.

Huawei

Huawei has a solid line of networking gear and is a huge competitor of Ciscos, largely outside of the United States. In the past few years the company has been knocked around in the political arena, and the FCC continues to move toward a ban on Huawei from being used in US telecommunications systems. Still, IDC recently noted Huawei's Ethernet-switch revenue declined 1.5% in 4Q20 but was up 4.8% for the full year. The company's combined service-provider and enterprise router revenue increased 7.1% in 4Q20 and rose 6.0% for the full year, giving the company 32.9% market share--identical to Ciscos.

NetGear

NetGear may compete more closely with Adtran, D-Link, Dell, and others but it has remained in the networking game since 1996. In the small-to-medium sized business, retail and home networking worlds it has competed successfully with bigger players including Cisco Meraki with its wired and wireless products. During the pandemic, as work shifted to work-at-home, NetGear did well, experts say.

Nvidia

Nvidia makes this iteration of Cisco competitors because in the past couple of years few vendors have made the inroads into data centers that it has. Granted, it doesnt have the overall networking punch Cisco or some of the others on this list do but the company is pushing hard to be a data-center player. A Network World article last November stated that Nvidia's goal is to take its high-powered processor technology and, through innovation, high-profile acquisitions (Mellanox, Cumulus and Arm) and strategic alliances (VMware, Check Point and Red Hat), provide a full-stack, hardware/software offering that brings the power of AI to companies that are modernizing their data centers. Gartner said it expects Nvidia to target investments for large-scale environments and high-performance workloads, including 50/200/400 Gbps Ethernet and telemetry.

VMware

VMware and Cisco are hot and heavy competitors in the SD-WAN area and will remain so for the foreseeable future as that technology is the underpinning for the nascent Secure Access Service Edge market as well as tying together enterprise and multicloud systems. Both companies have agreements with leading cloud vendors AWS in particular for VMware  and that will lead to even more competition in the future.
Amesbury - Lorraine I. (Eaton-Clark) Short (95) died at Vero Health Nursing Home in Amesbury on June 23, 2021. She was born in Newburyport on January 13th 1926. She was the daughter of Samuel and Alberta Eaton of Amesbury and the sister of Shirley Webber of Newburyport. She leaves three chil
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the public private partnership mode for the rollout of the ambitious BharatNet project that aims to take broadband internet services to villages.

Under the approved scheme, viability gap funding of Rs19,041 crore is being granted for BharatNet development in 16 states, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said during a press conference.

The 16 states are Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

Prasad said that till date, 1.56 lakh out of the targeted 2.5 lakh village panchayats have been connected with broadband.

The PPP model shall be executed in 3.61 lakh villages, added.

The telecom ministry said that the Department of Telecommunication will separately work out the modalities for the remaining states and UTs.

The scheme will entail a 30-year agreement with private players and the entire project will be divided into nine packages.

No player will get more than four packages, Prasad said.
S Lalitha By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: From now on, anyone waiting to board a train, or to receive someone, at the KSR railway station can look forward to an exciting and relaxing activity. For, a first of its kind aquatic kingdom set up in any railway station in India will be launched in the concourse portion at the entry of the station on Thursday. The joint venture by the Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) and HNI Enterprises was planned for an April launch, but the Covid second wave delayed it.

N Raguraman, consultant, facility management, IRSDC said, The cynosure of all eyes is expected to be the tunnel aquarium, which will be the first of its kind in India to be set up permanently in a railway station. This concept is usually popular abroad and is a major tourist attraction.Syed Hamid Hassan, managing partner of HNI, who has been involved in the Matsya Mela of the Fisheries Department for three years and had put up a similar tunnel during the Mysuru Dussehra, said, It was such a huge tourist draw and had 2 lakh visitors in three days.

While Black Diamond, Sting Ray and High Fin Sharks are presently there in the tunnel aquarium, exotic fish from Indonesia, Bangkok, Taiwan and Singapore will arrive soon. A 12-feet-long Paludarium, an aquarium which has terrestrial plants as well as aquatic plants and life, and modelled on the Amazon rainforest, is another attraction. We have five alligator gars (a fish) in it and a canopy of greenery above with sprinklers creating a misty atmosphere, said Niyaz Ahmed Qureshi, also from HNI. Murals of crustaceans like Sea Turtle, Sea Crab, Star fish, Seashell, Jelly Fish and Lobster serve as selfie points while a Sea Horse selfie point has been created exclusively for kids. The entry fee is Rs 25 and the proposed timing is from 9am to 9pm.
Binita Jaiswal By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Jewellers across the city are happy as they are receiving good footfalls at their stores that opened on Monday after almost two months of lockdown. However, the industry players are worried at the same time about their uncertain future.

After relaxations in restrictions, jewellery stores have opened in Chennai and they are reporting good business. Jewellers said that drop in gold prices and pent-up demand has boosted their sales for now, but they will have to wait and watch on how things turn out in the next few weeks.

Pent-up demand and marriage shopping is bringing customers to our shops now. We are reporting good sales too. But only after two to three weeks we will get a clear picture about our revival, said managing director of NAC jewellers, Anantha Padmanabhan. If people continue buying gold even after the first two-three weeks, then it will be a sign that markets are on revival mode. However, we are worried about outbreak of third wave of the pandemic as it will bring another phase of lockdown.

Jewellers said due to the uncertainty they are not even able to invest in bringing out fresh stocks of jewellery. Lockdown has been very difficult for us. Despite closure of the stores, we have to spend money on maintenance of the showrooms, paying salaries to our employees and artisans. We have to pay interest to the banks also. Amid all this, if we bring in new stock to meet customer demand and another lockdown happens, then we will be ruined, said Shyam Agarwal, a jeweller.

The jeweller community believes the wedding season and Deepavali sales will help them to get their business back on track. If enough measures are taken to check third wave, then we can think of some improvement, said S Senthil, a jewellery store owner in Velachery.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Two postal parcels from The Netherlands and France containing 105 MDMA tablets worth Rs 5.25 lakh was seized by Chennai Air Customs at Foreign Post Office.

The first parcel from The Netherlands was addressed to a Guntur-based person. On opening, a greeting card Hoera! Jij Bent Jarig written in Dutch meaning Hurray! Its Your Birthday was found inside.

Inside the card one opaque silver plastic pouch containing a ziplock packet was found in which 50 blue-colour tablets marked as Jurassis, suspected to be MDMA and valued at Rs 2.5 lakh were found.

The second parcel from France was addressed to a Nagercoil-based person. It had 55 skull-shaped MDMA tablets worth Rs 2.75 lakh.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the city has not reported any case of Delta Plus variant of Covid-19 so far and added that there was no communication from the Centre to make any special arrangement to deal with the strain.

He said a genome sequencing lab to detect the variants of coronavirus will become operational at Lok Nayak hospital within a week. Another such lab is being set up at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS).

There are several variants of coronavirus, but there are only two ways to protect yourself against it  get vaccinated and use masks. There is no separate communication from the Centre to make special preparations for the Delta Plus variant. Also, Delhi has not reported any such cases so far, Jain told reporters.

He added that the Delhi government is in the process of increasing hospital beds to accommodate 37,000 cases a day in case of a possible third wave of the pandemic.

The Delhi government has already installed 32 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants with a total capacity of 29.77 metric tons (MT).

Three liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with a cumulative capacity of 171 MT have also been installed.

Jain also said the Covid situation is under control in Delhi but appealed to people to continue observing Covid-appropriate behaviour.

The number of cases had reduced significantly in January and February, too, and people let their guards down. The experience of the last one-and-a-half-year shows one has to remain vigilant all the time, he said.

The central government has warned against the Delta Plus variant, a new mutant version of the Delta strain of Covid first detected in India, and has called it a variant of concern.

This came just weeks after India started registering a dip in Covid-19 cases following a devastating second wave.
Anupama Mili By

Express News Service

KOCHI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) has drafted an action plan  Kerala State Lightning Action Plan  as per the directive of the National Disaster Management Authority. The first draft is in Malayalam, said KSDMA member secretary and head scientist Dr Sekhar L Kuriakose.

The action plan consists of short-term and long-term measures to reduce the damage due to lightning, scientific information regarding the phenomenon, a system to alert people, preventive measures and a study regarding health issues caused by exposure. Suggestions and opinions from experts as well as the public are welcome, said Dr Sekhar.

Kerala is one of the most affected states in India due to lighting. In July 2015 it was declared a state-specific disaster. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 38 per cent of the deaths caused by natural calamities are due to lightning.

As per a study conducted by National Centre for Earth Science Studies, 71 people die from being struck by lightning annually in the state. However, the deaths have come down in the last few years.The emergency operation centre of KSDMA will bring out the action plan to reduce fatalities to zero and minimise damage to property. As per a recent study, Kottayam is the lightning hotspot of the state. Got suggestions? email lightningactionplankerala@gmail.com before July 10.

DID YOU KNOW?

Being struck by lightening can cause muscle pains, broken bones, cardiac arrest, confusion, hearing loss, seizures, burns, behavioral changes, and ocular cataracts.
By PTI

MUMBAI: Mumbaikars expressed unhappiness over the suspension of the COVID-19 vaccination drive at civic and government-run centres here on Thursday due to shortage of vaccines doses, and raised questions over the management of the inoculation programme.

Some residents also wondered if this was a bid to "divert people to private hospitals" for paid jabs rather than getting free vaccine doses at government centres.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday informed about the suspension of the inoculation drive for a day.

The repeated suspension of the vaccination drive due to shortage of vaccine doses has irked local residents.

Last month also, the inoculation drive was suspended once due to unavailability of sufficient number of vaccine doses.

"Private hospitals have got thrice their normal quota for tmrw whereas the free vaccination centres are shut. Scam to divert people to private hospitals,"citizen Azmina Kotadiya tweeted.

Some people, who had booked their appointments for jabs on Thursday, were confused whether they would receive their doses or not.

"Our appointment is already scheduled on Cowin at a govt center tomorrow morning for Covaxin 2nd dose. So does it stand canceled now?" Payal Mukherjee asked in her tweet.

The BMC in a tweet on Wednesday said, "Dear Mumbaikars, Please note that all BMC and Government vaccination centers will remain closed tomorrow (July 1, 2021). We apologize for the inconvenience. Please watch this space for updates regarding vaccination centres and schedules."

The civic body in a statement said the vaccination drive will resume once it receives the fresh stock of vaccines.

It said citizens of Mumbai are continuously informed about the vaccination, depending upon the stock of vaccines received, and an appropriate decision is taken.

So far, 54,35,731 citizens have been inoculated in the metropolis.

Out of them, 10,72,578 beneficiaries have received the second dose as well, as per the BMC.

On Wednesday, 63,579 people received the jabs, including 20,259 who got the second dose.

Currently, there are 399 COVID-19 vaccination centres in Mumbai - 281 operated by the BMC, 20 government-run and 98 private facilities.
By ANI

KULLU: In a life-saving operation, personnel of 19th Battalion Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) rescued an injured trekker from 18,570 feet on the Shrikhand Mahadev route in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.

In a risky high altitude operation, the ITBP personnel carried the injured person all along 18 kilometres from Sarkand top of Shrikhand Mahadev trek to nearest road head Fancha on a stretcher.

"The entire route was full of high altitude hazard challenges in which the jawans rescued the trapped trekker in a highly professional manner. The mountaineers of the 19th battalion ITBP have brought the injured safely after carrying him for more than 18 km on a stretcher and reached the destination road this afternoon at 3 pm," said ITBP.

The injured was then handed over to the civil administration.
By PTI

GWALIOR: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Thursday asserted that the three central agriculture laws would bring revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers, and made it clear that the government was ready to hold talks with the protesting cultivators, except on the demand of the repeal of these laws.

He also claimed that most parts of the country, most of the unions as well as farmers support these laws.

His statement comes a day after BJP workers and anti-farm law protesters clashed in Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, in which some people from both sides suffered injuries.

"We have told the Kisan Union that we are ready to talk on any of their proposal, barring the repeal (of these laws)," Tomar told reporters after inaugurating a hostel at an agriculture university here.

ALSO READ | Farmers' adamancy on repeal of farm laws won't serve any purpose: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar

He was replying to question that the agitators were firm on their demand of repealing the three laws.

"The farms laws are going to bring in revolutionary changes in the lives of farmers. They were brought in after a 30-year exercise by agriculture experts," he said.

The state government and the Centre had taken efforts in this direction, and as a result, these farm reforms bills came into existence under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.

"Most parts of the country, most of the unions, most of the farmers are in support of the bills. The government had held a series of talks with those opposing them," he said.

However, Tomar did not respond to a question over an allegation that BJP workers reached the protest site carrying swords.

Farmers have been camping at Delhi's borders since November 2020 with their demands that the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.
By Express News Service

RAIPUR: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths conducted extensive raids on the residence of ADG-rank IPS officer GP Singh in the early hours of Thursday. Eight other premises linked to bureaucrat are also under ACB scanner in an alleged disproportionate assets case.

This is the first time the ACB raids have taken place against any IPS officer in Chhattisgarh. A year ago, Singh was the chief of the ACB and the Economic Offences Wing and in last June, he was transferred as the director of the state police academy.

The 1994-batch IPS officer has earlier served as the IG of Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur.

According to the sources, there are 10 teams of the ACB deployed in the raids and searches that are still underway.
By PTI

MUMBAI: NCP president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his recent meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray focused on how to expedite development programmes of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and maintained nothing else should be deciphered from it.

Talking to reporters here, Pawar said, "No politics was discussed. Our view is that some decisions need to be taken fast. My meeting with the Chief minister was to deliberate on how to expedite the state government's development programmes. There was no political discussion."

The NCP leader, whose party is a key constituent in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government, had called on Thackeray here two days ago amid speculation in political circles about differences among the ruling coalition partners.

The Congress is the third partner in the MVA, a coalition of parties which have different ideologies.

The 80-year-old former Union agriculture minister refused to respond to questions on speculation that there was pressure on the NCP to withdraw from the MVA and that several firms belonging the Pawar family were being served notices by the ED.

"This question is not relevant here," he said.

ALSO READ: MVA govt firmly in saddle, will respond to BJP's 'falsehood', says Sena MP Sanjay Raut

Pawar was talking to reporters here after a virtual inauguration of the DY Patil Agriculture University in Kolhapur.

Asked about the election for the post of assembly speaker, Pawar said the MVA allies will discuss the candidate suggested by the Congress and take a decision.

"When the MVA government was formed, the speaker's post went to the Congress. Whichever candidate's name the Congress gives, it should be finalised by all the allies after discussion," the veteran politician said.

The post fell vacant after Congress MLA Nana Patole resigned in February to take over as the party's state unit president.

Pawar said the Centre should hold talks with farmers from North India who are protesting against the new agriculture laws for the last seven months.

"The Centre should step up dialogue with them. Bringing political differences in the issue was wrong," he added.

The NCP leader said the Maharashtra government favours amendments in the three new farm laws enacted by the Centre last year before their implementation in the state.

"A dialogue has begun in that direction. A cabinet sub-committee headed by Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat is looking into it. I am not sure whether amendments will be introduced in the two-day monsoon session of the state legislature beginning from Monday (July 5)," he said.
Pushkar Banakar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: With the European Unions Digital Covid Certificate or Green Pass coming into effect from July 1, India on Wednesday urged all member states to individually grant exemption to those who have taken Indian vaccines.

Germany was the first to get on board, with its Ambassador to India Walter J Lindner confirming recognition to Covishield. Confirming that a double shot of Covishield is fully recognized by GER as valid proof of anti-COVID vaccination (this does nevertheless not modify existing travel or visa restrictions for travelers from areas of concern/virus variants areas), he tweeted.

Sources said it has also been conveyed to EU member states that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the Green Pass. Upon notification of Covishield and Covaxin for inclusion in the EU Digital Covid Certificate and recognition of Indian CoWIN vaccination certificates, Indian health authorities would reciprocally exempt the concerned EU member state from mandatory quarantine of all those carrying the EU Digital Covid Certificate, they said.

We have requested EU member states to individually consider extending similar exemption to those persons who have taken Covid-19 vaccines in India, i.e., Covishield and Covaxin, and accept the vaccination certificate issued through the CoWIN portal. The genuineness of such vaccination certification can be authenticated on the CoWIN portal, sources said.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EUs regulatory body, had approved four vaccine products manufactured by Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and at AstraZenecas Europe plant and allowed people who have taken either of those jabs to travel within the bloc for tourist and business purposes. The Serum Institute of Indias Covishield was not on the list though it is manufacturing AstraZenecas vaccine under licence.

However, the EMA gave its member states the freedom to amend the rule and allow entry of persons who had not taken any of the four vaccines. The matter figured in the talks External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had with Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the EU, on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Italy.

ALSO WATCH | Kerala's Covid-19 fight: A tale of two waves | TNIE Documentary
By PTI

KOLKATA: The first consignment of coal for a thermal power plant being developed by state-owned NTPC Ltd through a joint venture in Bangladesh is getting ready at the port here and will be shipped to Mongla Port in the neighbouring country in the next 2-3 days, an official said on Thursday.

The 1,320-MW Rampal Power Plant is being built by BIFPC, the joint venture between India's NTPC Ltd and Bangladesh Power Development Board.

"The first full rake of coal has arrived at Kolkata docks from Dhanbad and is now getting unloaded.

It will be shipped to Mongla Port in the next 2-3 days for Rampal Power Plant," Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port (formerly Kolkata Port Trust) Deputy Chairman A K Mehera told PTI.

The is the first shipment for a trial run, he said.

"Each rake consists of about 3,800 tonnes of coal. It will be the first export of coal cargo from this port," Mehera said.

The coal-fired unit of Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company was supposed to be completed by December 2020, but the work got delayed, sources said.

The time for completion of Bangladesh's largest power plant, also known as Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, has been extended by a year, they said.

Once the unit will run in full capacity, there will be transportation of 20,000 tonnes of coal cargo per month from Kolkata port, the sources said.

Spread over 1,834 acres of land, the power plant is situated 14 kilometres north of Bangladesh part of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and an ecologically sensitive area.

Environmentalists had raised voice against the development of the Rampal Power Plant close to Sundarbans, which is also a UNESCO world heritage site.
Express News Service By

CHANDIGARH/KOLKATA/MUMBAI/DEHRADUN: Private hospitals in at least four states are buying well below their quota of Covid-19 vaccines. Information gathered by this newspaper reveals the stock is going unused in some places. Private Covid Vaccination Centres (PCVC) in Punjab had a quota of 5.5 lakh doses in June, but they bought only 50,000.

In West Bengal, these entities were entitled to nearly 20 lakh, but they procured around 2.5 lakh. In Maharashtra, of the 58 lakh procured by them this month, around 34.2 lakh were used. Uttarakhand had a quota of 2.5 lakh for private hospitals, of which 65,000 were purchased.

Under the current vaccination policy, 75% of shots produced and available in the country Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, Covishield by Serum Institute of India and the Russian vaccine Sputnik V is bought by the Centre and distributed to the states. The states administer these free of cost. The remaining 25% is for the PCVCs to buy at `650 per dose. They can charge `150 per shot from the beneficiaries.

In several states, only a handful of private hospitals are taking part in the vaccination drive. In Bengal, 176 of the 2,013 establishments are part of the process. Of 800 registered private hospitals in Madhya Pradesh, vaccination is going on in around 20.

In Jammu and Kashmir, only three PCVCs are administering vaccines. Of around 200 in the Bihar capital of Patna, a mere 10 have placed orders. Citing low procurement by PCVCs, a few states suggested the distribution formula be reworked.

Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin said this should be 90:10 instead of 75:25, Jharkhand suggested 95:5. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik said only 4% of vaccinations in the state are happening at PCVCs. Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy raised the same point. But the Centre has ruled this out and said the 75:25 formula has come into effect recently and it is early to judge.

While free vaccination in places run by state governments is one reason of poor response at PCVCs, costing is another. After paying Rs 650 per dose, these entities are finding it difficult to cover other expenses for an additional Rs 150. Private hospitals get Rs 150 per patient. For this, a hospital has to deploy four persons computer operator to enter the details, nurse to inject the vaccine, a person for pre and post check-up and another person.

The hospital spends around Rs 4,500 per day on salary of four employees, sanitizers, gloves etc. It earns around the same, since on an average around 30 people come to a private facility for vaccination, said Indian Medical Association (Punjab) vice-president Dr Navjot Dahiya. Sources said when there was no capping, PCVCs were charging Rs 300-700 per dose. Around 30,000 got inoculated in private centres in Punjab in the last week of June. In free facilities, this was above 5 lakh.

Sumana Ganguly, a doctor in Kolkata, said lack of infrastructure is forcing private hospitals to go slow. Adequate space and considerable strength of manpower is required to participate in the vaccination programme, which is not available. Thats because, the space provided for vaccination was curved out of the existing set-up which was fully operational, she said.

Reported by Harpreet Bajwa, Sudhir Suryawanshi, Pranab Mondal and Vineet Upadhyay

Inputs from Fayaz Wani (Srinagar), Rajesh Kumar Thakur (Patna)
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Assams activist-MLA Akhil Gogoi on Thursday walked to freedom after a special NIA court discharged him in the second of the two cases registered against him in connection with the December 2019 violence during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the state.

The 45-year-old is staying in a paying cabin of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. He has some health-related issues.

Gogoi was arrested based on two FIRs lodged with Chabua police station in Dibrugarh and Chandmari police station in Guwahati. The cases were filed under relevant sections of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act for alleged criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups, assertions against national integrity, and support to a terrorist organisation (read CPI-Maoist).

Last week, an NIA court had cleared him of the charges in the Chabua police station case.

He has been discharged in the Chandmari police station case today (Thursday), Gogois legal counsel Rahul Sensowa told journalists.

Raijor Dal, the political party that Gogoi heads, slammed the government.

The government had conspired to put him behind the bar. It has now got exposed, Raijor Dal working president, Bhasco de Saikia said.

Three others, Dharjya Konwar, Manas Konwar, and Bitu Sonowal, who were arrested along with Gogoi but are out on bail, were also discharged on Thursday.

Gogoi had contested the last Assembly elections from jail and managed to win from the Sibsagar seat. His mother Priyada Gogoi had campaigned for him despite her failing health and old age ailments.
Rajesh Asnani By

Express News Service

JAIPUR: The RSS has come out in defence of its regional Pracharak, Nimbaram, who has been named as an accused in the bribery case in which the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Rajaram Gurjar, the husband of suspended Mayor of Jaipur Somya Gurjar, on Tuesday.

The RSS claims that the allegations against Nimbaram are an effort to defame him. The issue has also ignited a Congress-BJP row in the state.

The RSS argued that allegations against Nimbaram are an effort to present distorted facts to assassinate his character. RSS leader Hanuman Singh Rathore said: We refute these false allegations and slanders being made out of ideological malice. All options are open for us to take legal action.

According to the RSS statement, the BVG company executives had met their leader Nimbaram with a proposal to contribute CSR funds for the development of a Pratap Gaurav Kendra in Udaipur which the RSS has set up. The April 20 meeting between the garbage collection company executives and the RSS leader was a courtesy meeting and Nimbaram had asked them to visit the centre and contribute accordingly. The company officials set a date, but never visited the centre and so, the question of CSR funding or any other assistance never arose.

ALSO READ | Husband of suspended Jaipur Mayor arrested in corruption case, senior RSS functionary named in FIR

The ACB had registered this bribery case on the basis of a video clip that surfaced on social media, in which Rajaram Gurjar and a BVG representative are allegedly trying to strike a deal for a Rs 20 crore commission from the firm for getting its payment released from the municipal body. Nimbaram was also seen sitting with them in this video on the basis of which the ACB has made him an accused in this corruption case.

While the ACB arrested Rajaram Gurjar and BJP leader Somya Gurjar and a representative of BVG company on corruption charges, the ruling Congress has demanded that even RSS leader Nimbaram be arrested in this case.

The state Congress chief Govind Dotasara said: Everyone has seen the video in which a top RSS functionary was seen while talks were held for the release of payment to the garbage collection company. ACB has arrested the husband of the sacked mayor and a company employee. We demand that when two FSL reports of the video have proved its authenticity, then the other two persons named in the FIR should also be arrested.

Dotasra said the case has fully exposed the BJP and the RSS. They call themselves honest and nationalists but under the guise of nationalism and in the name of religion, they are involved in rampant corruption, which has been exposed, Dotasra told reporters in Jaipur.



The BJP insists that dragging Nimbaram in the bribery case is just an attempt to defame the BJP and the RSS. Senior BJP leaders held a press meet at the party headquarters in Jaipur where the deputy leader of opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Rathore said that it is a unique case where there are no complainants but ACB has arrested two persons.

This is revenge politics for which Ashok Gehlot is known for, Rathore said and added that the Congress government is misusing investigative agencies for political gains. "The state government has used ACB for political vindictiveness to target a nationalist organisation," Rathore said.
By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking to not to conduct the local body election till the OBC reservation is resolved. He also suggested extending the duration of Maharashtra Assembly session and election of the Speaker.

In his letter, the Governor wrote that he received a letter from Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis who raised the three issues. A piqued NCP minister Nawab Malik said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi will surely elect the Speaker of the state Assembly but the governor should also approve the 12 names given for the appointment of Member of Legislative Council (MLCs).

The Governor cannot only ask and remind the work to the Aghadi. He has to also perform his duties by approving long-pending files of 12 names suggested for MLC appointments. The Bombay High Court had also asked to submit the report regarding it. Therefore, he should work in good faith... He should remain neutral, Malik said.

Malik said that after the Covid tests of all elected representatives, the decision for the candidature of Speaker would be taken. Meanwhile, Uddhav called a meeting of senior ministers, including deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, to discuss the name of the Speaker.

The Congress party is likely to pitch Nitin Raut for the post of the Speaker and his portfolio of the power ministry may be given to Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. Interestingly, Raut rushed to Delhi on Wednesday to discuss his future and possible political situations in Maharashtra with the senior party leadership in Delhi.


By PTI

NEW DELHI: More boys dropped out of school at the secondary level as well as in primary classes (1 to 5), while the number of girls dropping out of school in the upper primary classes (6-8) was higher than that of the boys in 2019-20, according to a Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report.

The report noted that the overall dropout rate at the secondary level in the country is over 17 per cent, while in the upper primary classes (6 to 8) and the primary level it is 1.8 and 1.5 per cent respectively.

The dropout rate for boys in primary classes was 1.7 per cent as against the girls' 1.2 per cent.

Similarly, the dropout rate for boys was higher in secondary classes (18.3 per cent) than girls (16.3 per cent).

In upper primary classes, the dropout rate for boys (1.4 per cent) was less than that for girls (2.2 per cent).

According to the report, nearly 30 per cent students in the country do not transition from the secondary to the senior secondary level.

"With more than 15 lakh schools, nearly 97 lakh teachers and over 26.5 crore students from the pre-primary to the higher secondary level, the Indian school education system is one of the largest in the world.

There are over 3.8 crore students enrolled at the secondary level, of whom 44.3 per cent are in government schools, a little over 20 per cent are with government-aided schools and nearly 35 per cent are with private-unaided schools," the report said.

The Unified District Information on School Education (UDISE), initiated in 2012-13 by the Ministry of Education by integrating the DISE for elementary education and the SEMIS for secondary education, is one of the largest management information systems on school education, covering more than 15 lakh schools, 85 lakh teachers and 25 crore children.

The UDISE+ is an updated and improved version of the UDISE.

The report revealed that there are 19 states and Union territories where the dropout rate at the secondary level (classes 9 and 10) is higher than the all-India rate (17.3 per cent), with states like Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh having a dropout rate of over 25 per cent.

There are four states that recorded a dropout rate of over 30 per cent.

While a majority of the states from the northeastern and eastern regions have a high dropout rate, Delhi too has a dropout rate of over 20 per cent.

Along with Punjab (which has the lowest dropout rate of 1.5 per cent), the states and Union territories with a less than 10 per cent dropout rate are Chandigarh (9.5 per cent), Kerala (eight per cent), Manipur (9.6 per cent), Tamil Nadu (9.6 per cent) and Uttarakhand (9.8 per cent).

Comparatively, these are also the states and Union territories with the highest promotion rate at the secondary level, with Punjab, Manipur and Kerala having a promotion rate of over 90 per cent.

According to the report, the overall dropout rate of girls is two per cent less than that of the boys.

Punjab registered a zero dropout rate for girls, while Assam recorded the highest dropout rate (35.2 per cent) at the secondary level.

There are six states and Union territories where the dropout rate for boys is over 30 per cent.

For states like Goa, the boys' (21.2 per cent) dropout rate is nearly 10-per cent higher than that of the girls (11.8 per cent).
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Nine of the European Unions 27 member states have so far recognised Indias Covishield vaccine for allowing entry of travellers into their respective countries. In other words, those who already have double shots of Covishield can fly in and out of those nine countries for business or pleasure without hassle but not into the rest of the EU member states.

The nations that green-lighted Serum Institute of Indias Covishield are Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Estonia and Switzerland. The approvals came after intense diplomacy with India playing the reciprocal policy card on exemption from quarantine. It meant that travellers from EU member states that do not recognise Covishield as well as Covaxin produced by Bharat Biotech will face mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India.

While the nine countries have accepted Covishield, they are uneasy about Covaxin because it is yet to get the World Health Organizations approval. New Delhi is learnt to be okay with it and may not press the Covaxin matter till the WHO takes its call. The first hint of a WHO timeline on Covaxin came on Thursday when it said clarity on its emergency use approval should be available by mid-August.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EUs top regulatory body, has approved only four vaccines Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech) , Spikevax (Moderna), Vaxzervria (AstraZeneca) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). Vaxzervria and Covishield are different only in their brand names and their manufacturing address. The EMA, however, allowed member states to amend the rules to let people enter after taking any other WHO-approved vaccine.

EUA sought for Zydus Cadila jab

Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Thursday said it has applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) with the Drug Controller General of India for its three-dose Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D, and plans to make 10-12 crore doses annually

Covovax trial on kids has to wait

Indias apex drug regulator on Thursday turned down a proposal by the Serum Institute to test Covovax vaccine on children saying it first needs to evaluate safety and immunogenicity data from the ongoing bridging trial in adults.
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

PATNA: The Bihar government will now not pay ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the dependents of residents of state, who succumb to coronavirus outside the state.

The responsibility of paying ex-gratia to the nearest dependents of all those who have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in Bihar has been given to the State Disaster department by the state government after the Covid-19 was notified as epidemic.

According to additional chief secretary of health, Pratyay Amrit, so far the payment of ex-gratia to the dependants of nearly 3,737 residents of Bihar, who had recently died because of the Covid-19 infection, has already been carried out.

"But from now on, ex-gratia payments as announced by state government to dependents of the people , who had died of Covid- 19 will be made by the state disaster department after receiving the applications till March 2022", he said.

It has also been decided not pay the ex-gratia to the dependents of the non-Bihar residents who had died while working or living here.

As per an official figure, more than 9,888 people in Bihar had lost their lives during the first and second phases of Covid-19 pandemic and out of them; dependents of nearly 3,737 Covid-19 positive patients after their deaths have been given the ex-gratia amounts by the government.

In another move, nearly 3000 samples collected during the sero survey in Bihars six districts have been sent to Chennai for the seropositive tests.

Official sources said that samples were collected from 2400 common people and 600 health workers between June 21 and June 27 for sero survey from Arwal, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Buxar, Purnia and Madhubani.

For the first time in Bihar, the children of 6 -17 age group were also included in the sero survey. The test reports of samples sent to Chennai are expected to come next month.


By ANI

LUCKNOW: Five chief ministers and 20 deputy chief ministers during its five years tenure is the new social engineering formula for the coalition proposed by Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar.

Talking to ANI, Rajbhar gives insight into his formula and said the five Chief Ministers will be from five different communities in an effort to give equal representation to all partners in the coalition.

"If we form the government in 2022, we are clear that there will be five Chief Ministers in five years. One will be Muslim, one Rajbhar, one Chauhan, one Kushwaha and one Patel. We will also have four deputy CMs in a year and 20 in five years. We are clear that everyone will be treated equally in the coalition," said Rajhbhar.

He added that Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, a coalition of 10 parties, will contest the election from all 403 seats in the state and "will more than 300 seats to form the government."

The SBSP leader, who was earlier part of the NDA government in Uttar Pradesh, said all parties contest elections based on caste and "caste is the reality of the society".

"Not like getting backward class votes in the names on Keshav Prasad Maurya and when it's time to appoint Chief Minister, bring one from Uttarakhand. People of backward castes are waiting for their turn to get the post of Chief Minister. If becoming Chief Minister depends on votes, I said why not form a coalition and become Chief Minister turn by turn," he said.

"Every party distributes tickets based on caste and vote bank. Postings of government officers are done based on caste. People might say what they want, but caste-based politics is the reality of society," Rajbhar added.

When asked about All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi's claim of contesting on 100 seats in upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh under Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, Rajbhar said seat sharing has not been finalised yet.

"We haven't had talks about seat-sharing yet. If you would properly read the statement, you'd understand it correctly. It was said they are preparing to contest on 100 seats. There is no dispute in the coalition regarding seat sharing. We have yet to have a meeting regarding seat-sharing," he said.

Rajbhar's statement came after Owaisi on June 27 said that his party will field candidates on 100 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year.

Owaisi had said that his political party is in alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar's Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, a coalition led by SBSP.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Thursday said it is for the legislature to frame law for timely disposal of disqualification petitions by the Speaker or Chairman of the House under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said, How can we frame law? It's all a matter of Parliament.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee member Ranajit Mukherjee who has sought directions to the Centre for framing of guidelines for Speakers for timely disposal of disqualification petitions.

During the hearing, advocate Abhishek Jebaraj said the plea has been filed for framing of guidelines for deciding disqualification petitions within a fixed time frame.

We want a fixed time frame be fixed as Speakers have been sitting over disqualification petitions and are not taking timely decisions under the tenth schedule, he said.

CJI Ramana said, I have already expressed my opinion in the Karnataka MLA case. This issue was raised in that case also and senior advocate Kapil Sibal had advanced his arguments on the same line. We have left the decision to be taken by the Parliament.

The bench asked the petitioner's counsel whether have read the judgement.

Jebaraj said that he has not gone through the verdict.

You read the verdict and then come back. We will hear the matter after two weeks, the bench said.

On November 13, 2019, while dealing with the issue of disqualification of MLAs, the top court said the Speaker does not have the power to indicate as to how long a legislator would be disqualified or to bar him from contesting elections.

It was dealing with a decision of the Speaker by which MLAs were disqualified and barred from contesting any election to the current Assembly which included a by-election to be held for 15 seats in the state.

The top court was referring to the then Karnataka Assembly Speaker R Ramesh Kumar's decision to disqualify 17 legislators till the end of the current 15th Legislative Assembly's term in 2023.

While the top court had upheld the disqualification, it had said, "It is clear that the Speaker, in exercise of his powers under the Tenth Schedule, does not have the power to either indicate the period for which a person is disqualified, nor to bar someone from contesting elections".

The apex court had said that the role of the speaker was critical in maintaining the balance between democratic values and Constitutional considerations, but "there is a growing trend of Speakers acting against the constitutional duty of being neutral".

The Constitutional responsibility endowed upon the Speaker has to be scrupulously followed and his political affiliations cannot come in the way of adjudication, it had said.

Additionally, political parties are indulging in horse trading and corrupt practices, due to which the citizens are denied stable governments, it had said.

"In these circumstances, the Parliament is required to reconsider strengthening certain aspects of the Tenth Schedule, so that such undemocratic practices are discouraged," the top court had said.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has stayed an order that a lower court in Arunachal Pradesh passed to hand over a minor rape victim from Nepal to a relative of the alleged rapist.

Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia had taken suo moto cognisance of media reports. The court directed that the victim, aged 14 years, be kept in the custody of the child care institute (CCI) at Roing in Lower Dibang Valley district till the next hearing.

It directed the District Magistrate to conduct a probe as regards the facilities available at the CCI and submit a report. The DM was also directed to ensure the childs protection at the CCI.

Further, it directed the director of health services in the state to conduct a bone ossification test of the child to ascertain her age. The case will be heard again on July 16.

Not only had the Sessions Court in Lohit district ordered the victim to be handed over to her local guardian, who incidentally is the sister-in-law of the accused, it allegedly also did not allow a member of the local CCI, who had accompanied the child, to be by her side while her statement was recorded.

The girl worked as a domestic help at the house of the accused, Aka Kalung. He was arrested by the police who had also filed a charge-sheet against him on April 20. The accused, who is now out on bail, had allegedly committed rape on the girl multiple times.

Viewing the Sessions Courts judgment questionable, the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (APSCPCR) had earlier taken up the case with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

The girl was reported missing on March 1 and traced the next day. She had told the police how she was subjected to sexual assault by the accused. Subsequently, she was sent to the CCI.

The minor was brought to Arunachal from Nepal when she was very small and ever since then, she had been staying at the house of the accused.

The CCI was critical of the Sessions Court for not allowing its member into the courtroom while the childs statement was recorded. As per the Juvenile Justice Act and Section 164 of the CrPC, the child had to be accompanied by a confidante, it argued.

For her safety, the child wanted to stay at the CCI but the court had ruled, The said victim child, who is having a biological father and a local guardian, cannot be treated as a child who needs care and protection. Hence, the child be handed over by the CCI.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has remanded a 26-year-old protester to 5-day police custody for interrogation in connection with his alleged involvement in the Red Fort violence and vandalism case during the farmers' protest rally on the Republic Day this year.

Accused Boota Singh, who allegedly played an active role in the farmers' agitation, was arrested from Punjab's Tarn Taran region on Wednesday.

He had a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head and was absconding for over five months.

Delhi Police told Metropolitan Magistrate Shivli Talwar that the accused will be taken to Tarn Taran, about 500 km from Delhi, for investigation during the remand period.

The police said it will also ascertain the source of funding of the alleged conspiracy, money flow to his bank accounts, probe social media accounts, recover mobile, and seize clothes he was wearing at the time of the incident.

Besides, it said it will confront him with video clips and CCTV footage in order to identify co-accused who accompanied him from Singhu Border to the Red Fort to create mayhem and ransack the monument.

"Considering the ground and fact that accused has to be taken to Tarn Taran for the purpose of investigation, accused be remanded to PC for five days," the judge said in an order passed on June 30.

Investigating officer Inspector Pankaj Arora apprised the court that Singh was part of the riotous mob which "attacked the police personnel, ransacked, sabotaged, and robbed the government and public property and also the Red Fort.

" He stated that in one of the videos, the accused was seen with co-accused -- Gurjot Singh and Gurjant Singh in which the duo was giving interview to the media after they hoisted Nishan Sahib at the Flag Guard area.

"During further investigation, it has also come on record that he, along with his other associate, was in touch with co-accused Iqbal Singh who is stated to be one of the main conspirators and instigators," Inspector Arora submitted.

Advocates Jasdeep S Dhillon and Gurumukh Singh, representing the accused, said that their client is being falsely implicated in the case and that there are no specific allegations against him.

It was further submitted that the mere presence of Singh in the interview given to a media channel by co-accused persons "does not reflect his complicity in the offence".

On January 26, protesting farmers had clashed with police during the tractor rally against three farm laws and stormed into the Red Fort, hoisting religious flags on its domes and injuring scores of policemen.

An FIR was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, Epidemic Act, and Disaster Management Act.

Actor-activist Deep Sidhu is accused of being the key conspirator of the violence and is currently out on bail.

The court had recently taken cognizance of the charge sheet in the case and summoned all the accused on July 12.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday called on Pakistan to ensure early release and repatriation of Indian civilian prisoners and missing defence personnel languishing in Pakistani jails.

The two countries exchanged lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other's custody in line with the provisions of a 2008 agreement.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India handed over a list of 271 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 74 fishermen who are in Indian custody.

Similarly, Pakistan shared a list of 51 civilian prisoners and 558 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or are believed-to-be Indians, the MEA said.

"The government has called for early release and repatriation of civilian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats, from Pakistan's custody," it said.

"In this context, Pakistan was asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 1 Indian civilian prisoner and 295 Indian fishermen to India whose nationality has been confirmed and conveyed to Pakistan," the MEA said in a statement.

In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to 194 fishermen and 17 civilian prisoners who are in Pakistan's custody and are believed to be Indians, it added.

"The government also requested Pakistan to expedite the grant of visas to the members of the medical experts' team and facilitate their visit to Pakistan to assess the mental condition of believed-to-be Indian prisoners of unsound mind, lodged in different jails of Pakistan," the MEA said.

"It was also proposed to organise an early visit of the Joint Judicial Committee to Pakistan," it said.

The MEA said India remains committed to addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each other's custody.

In this context, the MEA said India has also urged Pakistan to expedite necessary action at its end to confirm the nationality status of 78 Pakistani prisoners, including fishermen, whose repatriation is pending for want of confirmation of nationality by Islamabad.

"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan has been requested to ensure the safety, security and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be Indian civil prisoners and fishermen," the MEA said.
Mukesh Ranjan By

Express News Service

RANCHI: In yet another move to reach out to the children living in remote villages of Jharkhand, the School Education and Literacy Department has now started conducting radio classes. The sessions will be held five days a week in the morning and evening via mediumwave and FM channels.

According to officials in the School Education and Literacy Department, initially, only 10-minute sessions will be taken which may be extended according to the response from the students.

Radio classes have been launched in Jamshedpur, Chaibasa on Monday and were gradually expanded to other districts like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Daltonganj, Hazaribagh and Bhagalpur.

Currently, it is being relayed from six radio stations, out of which five are in Jharkhand while one is at Bhagalpur in Bihar so that Santhal Pargana could also get covered properly. The first episode of the day us aired between 9 to 10 am while the second episode is aired in the evening between 5:30  6:30 pm. Different time-slots have been fixed for different stations, said State Programme Officer (Quality Education) at Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), Abhinav Kumar.

According to Kumar, the content basically is related to Hindi and English literature, History, Civics, Geography and some topics of science. Chapter-wise contents have been prepared by the school teachers in the form of stories of 8 to 9 minutes which is recorded here in Ranchi studios and aired on radio at a particular time, said the Project Officer. Only such content has been taken up which are theoretical and could be described in the form of stories, he added.

The first episode was aired on Monday which related to freedom fighter Birsa Munda. It was appreciated by students as well as the parents. As of now, the contents are being prepared in generalized form, which could be beneficial for every student right from Class 1 to 12. Gradually, class-specific contents will be developed once the students get habituated to this new form of study, said Kumar.

An agreement of two months has been reached with the radio stations which will be extended further looking at responses from the students as well as their parents. The objective is to reach out to the maximum number of students during the pandemic and get them engaged with the process of learning.

Teachers also lauded this initiative as radio is said to be a strong mode of communication. They, however, doubted whether the students will get access to radio sets. As per the data available with the state government, over 65 per cent of students enrolled with government schools have no access to the online classes. An official said that only 33 per cent of 42 lakh students have been connected through WhatsApp for online classes in Jharkhand.
Srinivas Sistla By

IN PIC ABOVE: (L) A woodcut illustration (c.1570) from a Latin translation of The Crane Killed by the Crab; an illustration by Gordon Browne for the story of The Crane and the Crab; the carving of a crane on the outer wall of Sri Bala Krishna Temple in Hampi (c. 1515)

Sarasa and baka, which in Sanskrit mean the crane, figure prominently in ancient Indian literature and art. In the Yajurveda Samhitas, balaakaa (crane) was mentioned as an offering made in the Asvamedha (horse sacrifice). In the Mahabharata, the sweet humming sarasas were mentioned as dwellers in the Himalayas and in the lakes and rivers surrounding the Gandhamadana mountain. The Ramayana narrates an episode in which Valmiki sees a pair of krauncha birds, which are identified by scholars with the sarasa, and a hunter shooting down the male one. The resulting soka (sorrow) made Valmiki first compose a sloka (verse) in Sanskrit and then the epic, as a form of catharsis from the resulting sorrow.

In ancient Indian fables, however, the crane figures as a vicious bird that stays still in water, only to catch fish as prey. Idioms such as baka-dhyanam in Sanskrit and konga-japamu in Telugu, meaning the meditation of a crane, were used to denote a hypocritical person with ulterior motives. Another Sanskrit idiom, Bakaha-parama-dharmikaha (the crane is very virtuous), indicates the irony of outward decency and the pretence of virtue, but inwardly aiming at injury to others. Apparently, after reaching the Pampa Lake, Rama is known to have said, Behold Lakshmana, for fear of destroying life, it places its feet in the Pampa lake, the crane is very virtuous! In the Bhagavata, the demon Baka comes in the form of a mighty crane and Krishna kills it by ripping apart its bill. This episode has been profusely illustrated in many schools of painting and sculpture across India.

The Panchatantra in Sanskrit narrates a well-known story of the crane killed by the crab, which was also retold with minor changes in the Hitopadesa in Sanskrit, the Buddhist Baka-Jataka in Pali, and in various anthologies in many languages, including a Latin version with woodcut illustrations (c.1570). Sir Edwin Arnold translated the story in The Book of Good Counsels, and Gordon Browne drew an illustration for it. The Mughal painter, Ustad Mansur, under the patronage of Jahangir, did a series of paintings of a variety of fauna that appear like true-to-life studies, and two such works show a Siberian crane and a pair of the Indian sarasa cranes.

In such a backdrop, a unique carving of the crane, hewn out of a granite block on the outer wall of Sri Bala Krishna Temple that was built by Sri Krishna Deva Raya in 1515 at Hampi, has been perplexing me ever since I noticed and photographed it more than a decade ago. Strange as it may seem, an anonymous artist had carved the crane on a single slab of the wall of great height and width, with no other figure around it. The crane was presented here like a true-to-life study, with no association with any epic story or fable; it appears to be a subtle rendering of the crane that could be categorised as a nearly finished or partly unfinished sketch rather than a detailed study. By carving out with a few chisel strokes, the artist made discernible every natural aspect of the aquatic creature. The seemingly unfinished quality of the carving that presents the wholeness of the bird, in my opinion, makes the work very intriguing. Incidentally, Sri Krishna Deva Raya had written a few verses on the behaviour of the cranes in a pond in the summer in his long poem in Telugu, Amuktamalyada, which I had translated and published in 2010. The verses, in a fresh rendering done by me, go as follows:

A crane, which got sores in its throat for having dry moss, / Stood absolutely still in the pond as the breeze suggested / The presence of fish in the surroundings; / Another crane walked in the muddy pond / From one end to the other / While gulping ulucha fish and snails; / Another crane shook its leg / When a crab had caught hold of it / And bit the creature with its beak; / Another crane walked through / The chema leaf-like lotus leaves / And took shelter amid the jeelugu bushes; / Behaving thus in the muddy pond / The cranes appeared to have made the pond waterless / At first, flocks of big cranes / Had gulped big fish in the muddy ponds; / Later, as the mud became dry and cracks appeared / They grabbed the bommidaayalu that were hiding beneath the lotus roots / Then on, they poked their beaks in-between the cracks of mud in the pond / And ate the dead bommidaayalu and thorn fish.

Interestingly, the unknown artist of the crane on the wall of the Sri Bala Krishna Temple had presented his version of the true-to-life nature of the crane through visual language and the emperor-poet who built the temple had also narrated the true behaviour of the same bird, but of course, in greater detail. Indeed, both the visual presentation and the textual description stand out as great examples for the portrayal of naturalism and the keen observation of the natural behaviour of the crane.

Srinivas Sistla

Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam

(sistlasrini@gmail.com)


Prosenjit Datta By

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has come under a fair amount of scrutiny of late. Several recent settlements have raised eyebrows. The Videocon bankruptcy where 13 separate companies of the group were lumped together and sold off to Twin Star Technologies Ltd, a part of Anil Agarwals Vedanta group, is one. The bankers took a 95.8% haircut and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)s Mumbai Bench has expressed surprise at how close the final bid value was to the liquidation value, which was supposed to be confidential. The one-time settlement that IDBI Bank agreed to take from the promoters of Siva Industries and Holdings Ltd despite protests from other banks has also attracted the gaze of the NCLT Chennai Bench. The Bench asked why IDBI showed such alacrity for a one-time settlement that was a pittancebarely 6.5% of what was owned in total.

And these are only two examples. There are probably several dozen other cases that need close examination to see why 85% or more haircuts are accepted. After all, when the bankruptcy law was passed, this was not what the policymakers wanted.

The defenders of IBC will point out that it still gives better results than anything that was tried out earlier and that is true. The overall recovery so far (till March 2021) has been around 39% of total claimsway better than what borrowers recovered from corporate defaulters before the law was passed. At the same time, it is also true that the law has failed to live up to its initial promise and the recoveries have come down. Take away some high-profile resolutions where buyers paid big value and the recovery rate drops to 24%.

So what is going wrong and what can be done to ensure better recoveries? There are three broad reasons why many recoveries are so low.

The state of the economy and the sector:

The IBC process works by seeking a buyer for the non-performing asset. The overall economy and the demand for assets in a particular sector play a big role in what the bankers finally recover. The initial high-profile cases included big high-quality steel assets at a time when the steel demand was going up. There were multiple biddersTata Steel, Sajjan Jindals JSW group and the Laxmi Mittal group, among others. Bidding wars led to good recoveries. In the case of Essar Steel, the creditors managed to recover 92%. In Bhushan Steel, they got 64%. Similarly in the cement sector, with robust prospects, lenders recovered the full amount in the Binani Cements insolvency case. But there were few bidders for assets in other sectors where the demand was low or there was overcapacity, which was why lenders realised little from many cases.

Since then, the economy has further deteriorated and capacities in a host of sectors are at 60% or lower utilisation. Many potential acquirers with enough cash are sitting on the sidelines until the economy recovers.

The integrity of the players:

The IBC process can work well only if the Resolution Professional (RP), the lenders who form the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and the NCLT Bench all have the same goal in mindmaximising the value at which the asset is sold. This would seem obvious but in practice this is not so.

Several RPs have horror stories about pressure brought in by erstwhile promoters, sometimes acting with the help of one or two members of the CoC. The problems start with the appointment of valuers because the liquidation value sets the floor. While the debtor has to be valued by two agencies and the RP can ask questions if the values are widely different, it can still be rigged. A RP gives the example of one case where the valuation firm used historical prices to value land and buildings instead of the current market prices.

Worse, inventory and accounts receivable were not valued while coming up with the liquidation value. Potential bidders were scared off and a proxy of the erstwhile promoter was the only bidder. These cases are quite common in cases of smaller enterprises and they often get away because of the shortage of NCLT judges and the sheer volume of cases. Too much dependence on the commercial wisdom of CoCs also creates its own set of issues.

Assets deteriorate:

The value that can be realised from an asset depends on its condition. Many lenders wait too long and by the time the bankruptcy proceedings are initiated, there is little value left to be realised. Former Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel tried to fix this but some of his initiatives were later diluted.

Finally, bankruptcies will happen for multiple reasons. Apart from corrupt promoters or bad management, policy changes as well as shifting demand or too much competition or even spike in input prices play a role. It is up to bankers to keep a close eye on their loans and also ensure they have robust processes in place. The IBC is not a substitute for due diligence at the time of lendingsomething many PSBs forget.

Prosenjit Datta

Senior business journalist

(prosaicview@gmail.com)
The 2013 Palakkad plenum of the CPM had passed a resolution against party workers establishing connections with real estate mafia, loan sharks and proponents of superstitious rituals. Along with factional tendencies, amassing wealth disproportionate to ones known sources of income was declared a taboo too. During the 2015 national plenum in Kolkata, the party leadership admitted that a large number of the members didnt possess the minimum qualification for membership. The recent arrest of a former DYFI leader from Kannur for being part of a gang engaged in stealing smuggled gold and the alleged involvement of other CPM workers in this particular case and other criminal activities earlier have raised questions on how seriously the party and its workers heeded these warnings. With the party being accused of sheltering criminals, CPMs Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan was quick to declare that the organisation didnt have anything to do with them. He even read out a list of 20 criminals who call themselves CPM members and warned party workers against associating with them.

The fact is, whether they are officially members of the CPM or not, these people were at the forefront of all party activities till recently and their social media profiles are a testimony to their association with senior leaders. With names of other Kannur-based gangsters allegedly associated with the CPM too cropping up, the party is finding it hard to defend itself. Two gangsters facing life terms in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case were named in a leaked audio clip by a smuggler. Open and tacit endorsement of criminals by the leadership is the reason why more youngsters are using the party as a cover for their criminal activities. If the CPM is serious about rooting out criminals from among the cadre, there needs to be strong and convincing action against all those who violate the partys line, including leaders who engage criminals to do their dirty work. The party, with a strong network at the grassroots level, can easily identify such elements. Its time the CPM came clean on the criminal elements within and did something to restore its image.
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Police forces were deployed at the Srisailam and Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme projects in Kurnool and also at the Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects in Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh as a precautionary measure in view of the escalating tensions between the state and Telangana with the latter continuing power generation defying the orders of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

The two states were at loggerheads over the construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project by Andhra Pradesh which was objected to by Telangana. Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, complained to the KRMB about the drawing of water from the Srisailam project by Telangana for power generation. The KRMB, in its recent orders, had asked Telangana to stop power generation.

ALSO READ: Andhra Pradesh has enough water to meet its needs: Telangana on Krishna water dispute

Defying the orders of the KRMB, Telangana continued power generation at Srisailam as well as Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects which was opposed by the AP government and leaders of both states have been engaged in a war of words over the past couple of days.

Amid escalating tensions, police forces were deployed at all the projects bordering Telangana both in Guntur and Kurnool districts.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa called on Governor Vajubhai Vala impromptu on Wednesday evening, raising eyebrows in political circles. While Raj Bhavan said it was a courtesy call and the CM claimed he was visiting Vala to check on his health after the eye surgery, it came at a time when BJP leaders continue to meet party central leaders and when speculation is rife that a cabinet reshuffle is on the cards.

Hours earlier, the 81st Additional City Civil and Sessions Court here heard a complaint of corruption against Yediyurappa, Cooperation Minister ST Somashekar, BJP state VP BY Vijayendra, Yediyurappas grandson Shashidhar Maradi, son-in-law Virupakshappa Yamakanmaradi and Sanjay Sree -- son-in-law of Yediyurappas daughter. The court reserved the matter for July 8 to decide whether to order a probe.

After meeting Guv, BSY sure of continuing as CM

After the meeting with the Governor, Yediyurappa expressed confidence that he will continue in his post for the next two years. I have the responsibility to ensure good work for the State for the next two years. I am entrusted with the challenge of bringing the party back to power with 130 seats after two years. I give this assurance to the people and cadres of BJP, he said. The governor gave me a patient hearing on various issues. We didnt discuss politics but about the States welfare and Covid management. He has appreciated our governments work and has given suggestions, he added.

In Mysuru, BJP state vice-president and Yediyurappas son Vijayendra claimed that the leadership change is a closed chapter. He said, BJP state in-charge Arun Singh has clearly said Yediyurappa has given good administration and will complete his full term as chief minister. There is no need to discuss it again and again.

BJP insiders have maintained that Vala is the BJP central leaderships point person for communicating with the State government remotely. Wednesdays meeting too is being viewed as Yediyurappa receiving a feedback from the governor and conveying his stand over recent developments in the party to the central leadership through Vala. Sources close to the CM said that the cabinet reshuffle is being considered later in July or August when Yediyurappa completes two years in office.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Pettah Police on Thursday arrested four persons for attacking two staffers of the AGs office who had resisted eve-teasing of their wives at Pattoor earlier this week. The accused, identified as Rajesh of Vanchiyoor, Praveen of Pettah, Shibu of Medical College and Abhijit of Nedumangadu, were reportedly eve-teasing the wives of the AG office staff.

Speaking on the arrests, city police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay said among the four, Rajesh and Praveen were directly involved in the attack and the other two helped them escape the city.

Rajesh, who has served a two-year prison term for theft and has criminal cases against him, attacked Ravi Yadav and Jaswant Singh for rebuking him for misbehaving with their wives.

The families from North India were out on a walk when they were attacked by a country-made sword.

After the police initiated a probe, Shibu and Abhijit helped the assailants flee. The duo were first taken to Thiruvallom and from there to Kollam.

The commissioner informed that those assisting the assailants with logistics will be arrested soon, further adding that the chargesheet against the accused will be filed within 30 days.
By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Only 39 per cent of Keralites rate the state governments handling of Covid second wave as effective, reveals a survey conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles.

The survey, which asked citizens to rate governments performance on the overall handling of the second wave, received 1,684 responses.The survey was conducted via the LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in the survey. The performance was rated based on parameters such as availability of testing, containment facilities, hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and so on.

As many as 22 per cent of citizens rated the performance of the Kerala governments handling of Covid second wave as very effective, while 17 per cent said effective, and 33 per cent said somewhat effective. Meanwhile, 28 per cent of Kerala residents surveyed rated the Kerala governments handling of the second wave as Ineffective.

None of the respondents rated the states handling as a total failure. The findings of the survey indicate that Kerala ranked 8th amongst 17 states of India. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh residents have rated their respective state governments handling of second wave as high. Meanwhile, ratings of Bihar and West Bengal were the lowest.

In a statement, the body which conducted the survey has opined that the residents of Kerala arent satisfied with the Kerala governments handling of second wave in the state, after what they witnessed in the last two-month period.

This is evident with only 39 per cent of Kerala residents rating the state governments handling of second wave as effective. As the government works on getting ready to handle the third wave, it is critical that all aspects are covered, it said in its statement.

The aspects ranging from testing, containment, hospital beds availability, readiness to handle pediatric cases of Covid, doctors and medical staff, equipment like ventilators, BIPAP machines, concentrators, medicines and all things related to Covid should be made available in sufficient quantities, it said.

It is critical that information flow is significantly improved and centralised such that citizens call a single number and based on their condition, location, preferences and budget they are assigned the right hospital.

Similarly, it is key that the patient information dissemination is streamlined, and hospitals can communicate with the family on the patients current health condition in a timely manner, it said.
Sovi Vidyadharan By

Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The general education department's decision to do away with grace marks for the recently concluded public examinations at the school level would end the disparity between state board students and students form CBSE and ICSE streams during admission to the state higher secondary course and undergraduate courses in universities this year, academics have pointed out.

The regular practice of awarding grace marks was done away with in view of suspension of extra curricular activities during the previous academic year owing to the pandemic. Marks ranging from 3% to as high as 20% of the aggregate score are awarded as grace marks in the Higher Secondary section for students who participate in extra curricular activities or excel in state, national or international level competitions. For SSLC, the grace marks thus obtained can be in the range of 12 to more than 120.

"There have been instances where a student who failed in three subjects has got pass marks thanks to the lavish award of grace marks," admitted a senior official of the general education department. Meanwhile, even the most meritorious students studying in CBSE and ICSE/ ISC streams lose out to the students passing out from the state syllabus schools while seeking admission to higher courses as no grace marks are provided to students of national boards.

The Union HRD Ministry (now Union Education Ministry) had called for the abolition of grace marks for Classes 10 and 12 except in cases of ambiguity in question papers. A few CBSE students had approached the High Court in 2019 seeking implementation of the Centre's directive. They contended that grace marks should be shown separately in the mark list and not added to the aggregate marks. However, the state government took an ambivalent stance on the matter and maintained that more discussions were needed before making any amendments to the decades-old practice of awarding grace marks.

Meanwhile, Class 12 students of CBSE and ICSE / ISC streams who are concerned about their final exam marks in the wake of the cancellation of Board exams have heaved a sigh of relief. The new development would place them on a par with state syllabus students for admission to undergraduate courses. Besides, Board exam marks will not be considered while preparing the ranklist for professional courses such as engineering this year.

"We welcome the government's decision to do away with grace marks for public exams as it would create a level playing field for students from all streams. However, it should not be a one-time affair on account of the pandemic," said Indira Rajan, secretary general, National Council of CBSE Schools.

The decision has also come as a relief to around 35,000 CBSE students who cross over to state Higher Secondary stream every year after Class X. Due to a standardisation process that puts SSLC students with grace marks at an advantage, CBSE students have often complained of being handed out a raw deal in the state Higher Secondary admissions.
Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Walking into the isolation ward to treat patients, even after our colleagues and friends fell terribly sick with Covid, was the scariest part of being on the frontline of the pandemic, say doctors recalling their harrowing experience dealing with an unknown infection, ahead of the National Doctors Day on July 1.

I encouraged my staff to take risks to save more patients. But some of them eventually contracted Covid. How do I encourage others then? asked Dr R Sriram, consultant, emergency medicine, Gleneagles Global Health City. The disease was unpredictable and I felt guilty when my staff fell ill. The only way we moved forward is by constantly motivating each other, he said.

We rose to the occasion and discovered everybodys individual potential and specialities, said Dr Thirunavakarasu, an orthopedician from the Kilpauk Medical College. He added that the professionalism displayed by the healthcare workers in the public sector, changed public perception about government hospitals. Earlier, educated people went only to private hospitals. Now even educated and influential people want to get admitted in the public sector as we have efficiently handled an enormous case-load working multiple shifts day after day, he said.

One day, some of our patients gasped for breath and the alarm bell went off warning us of a oxygen shortage, recalled Dr Spoorthi Arun, Internal Medicine, Promed Hospital. The supplier said he would take at least two hours to reach the hospital. The doctors worked assiduously to make sure that no patient faced an emergency during that time, she said.

Dr Spoorthi, who is certified by the American Board of Medicine, said working in Chennai during the pandemic taught her how people took medicines, oxygen and availability of beds for granted. Some of our colleagues died, but stopping work was not an option for us. We came into this profession to save people, she added.

Dr Shreevidya Venkataraman, Internal Medicine consultant with MGM Healthcare said that when she wore a PPE, she was gearing up for a war. On some days when there was an acute shortage of beds, we had a waiting list of 30-40 patients. Some of them were doctors family members, who contracted it because we exposed ourselves to the virus accidentally.

Deciding which patient needed the bed more was a harrowing decision to make every time, she said. Doctors are not gods. Violence and bitterness unleashed on us demoralises us. On the other hand, some expression of gratification on their part will go a long way to boost our spirits, Shreevidya added.
By Express News Service

PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Legislative Assembly Speaker Embalam R Selvam urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide Rs 300 crore for the construction of an integrated Assembly complex when he called on him in New Delhi on Thursday.

In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, he said that in the present Assembly complex housed in a heritage building in the main town area, there is insufficient space, leading to congestion.

The present strength of the Assembly is 30. In addition to the elected members, there are also three nominated MLAs. There are six ministers in the Puducherry government including the Chief Minister. The office requirement in the Assembly complex is for six ministerial chambers, 27 MLA chambers, Assembly hall, council of ministers' office, administrative office of the Assembly, conference hall, committee room, recognized political party office, cabinet hall, reporters cabin, visitors cabin, security cabin, parking area and others.

Shifting of the Assembly complex, Secretariat and other government offices to a new site will ease crowds in the white town area and unlock the tourism potential of Puducherry by throwing open all heritage assets presently used for administrative purposes by the government, he said.

The heritage town will be decongested, cost of administration will be reduced and eco-friendly practices will be promoted. This will help the area equip itself to apply for the status of UNESCO heritage site, said Selvam.

The Puducherry government has identified the site for a new integrated Assembly cum administrative complex in Thattanchavady. The cost for construction and furnishing is Rs 5000 per sq.ft. The total built-up area required is 6,00,000 sq.ft and this makes the total cost of the project Rs 300 crore.

He also submitted a similar memorandum to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Sushmitha Ramakrishnan By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: All state universities and colleges would begin first year UG admissions from August 1, said Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi on Thursday. Meeting reporters, he said that the aggregate of results from Class 10, 11 and 12 will be used for admissions to higher education courses.

Admissions into Anna University will be facilitated by the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) and will be conducted through a single-window system using the aggregate score, he said. He however did not clarify if the admissions will be held online or offline.

Ponmudi further added that colleges have been permitted to reopen from August 1. Colleges will be allowed to handle the admission process on their campus and conduct online classes after the "vacation" is over by July 31, he said.

Ponmudi met reporters after a virtual meeting with the Vice Chancellors (VCs) of all state universities in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. He said that he discussed recruitment discrepancies in the institutions. "All universities should follow the same norms and regulations in recruitment and I have asked them to ensure transparency in the process," he said, adding that the government will be taking a deeper look into major recruitments made in the past decade.

Commenting on recent reports that claimed that University of Madras had terminated MPhil courses, Ponmudi said that all universities should continue to run the programme. "All universities have been instructed to continue MPhil courses," he said elaborating that there are mixed responses to discontinuing the programme.

MPhil courses have seen fewer takers in recent years after the University Grants Commission made PhD, NET and SLET a compulsory qualification for faculty members. Further, the National Education Policy called for the termination of MPhil courses, causing controversy in Tamil Nadu and some other states.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Expressing concern over the use of drones to target the Jammu Air Force Station, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday called upon the research community and institutions like IITs to develop intelligent solutions to combat such threats.

He advised institutions like IITs to also focus on areas related to terrorism and come up with solutions to counter the efforts of terrorists. Naidu pointed out that such low-flying drones used by terrorists could not be detected by military radars and therefore there was a need for innovative methods to deal with the problem. He was speaking after visiting Indias first 3D-printed house at IIT-Madras.

Naidu also commended the efforts of the team behind the 3D-printed house project  a joint collaboration of IIT-M and a startup, Tvasta Manufacturing Solutions. Speaking on higher education, Naidu suggested that premier institutes like IITs are best placed to foresee the upcoming technological revolutions and keep the country better prepared in seizing new opportunities.

He also advised higher education institutes to go beyond classroom programmes and prepare students for real-world challenges by inculcating a holistic approach to problem-solving. The Vice-President also stressed the need for IITs to identify the focus areas for technological intervention in our country.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Even as the Andhra Pradesh government shot off another letter to Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), on Wednesday, against the power generation by Telangana at Srisailam, the Telangana Irrigation officials pointed out the AP has 120 tmc-ft of water at present in Rayalaseema projects. APs demand to stop power generation to meet their drinking water needs is not justifiable. We will not stop power generation at Srisailam, TS Irrigation officials declared. According to sources in Telangana Irrigation Department, Andhra Pradesh utilised 620 tmc-ft of water from Krishna during the 2020-21 water year, which ended on May 31. The actual allocation of assured waters to AP was 599 tmc-ft.

AP State government in its third letter to KRMB wanted the Board to prevail upon Telangana to stop the power generation in order to maintain the required water levels at Srisailam to meet the drinking water needs of the AP people. However, the TS officials countered the APs argument. We have specific information that APs current storage at various projects in Rayalaseema is around 120 tmc-ft. The AP has sufficient water in Kandaleru, Avuku, Veligonda and other projects, the officials said. But, due to lack of storage, the TS could not utilise 45 tmcft of its allocated water of 299 tmc-ft.

The Board was not allowing TS to carry forward the unutilised water to next water year. The officials also pointed out that the Bachawat Tribunal had allocated only 33 tmc-ft of water for Srisailam that too for evaporation losses. There were no water allocations at all for Srisailam Project, which was meant for Hydel power generation. Later, only some allocations from Srisailam were made for Telugu Ganga Project, the officials said.

Telangana needs cheaper power for its Lift Irrigation Schemes such as Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bhima , Devadulaand Kaleshwaram, which are now being operated, the official said. It may be mentioned here that there were no outflows from Srisailam spillway. The outflows from power house of Srisailam were 22,239 cusecs at 6 am on Wednesday. The TS Genco increased the hydel power generation to 22.16 million units per day from the five million units per day, a few days ago.

Heavy police bandobust at Nsagar

As tension between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been escalating over Krishna waters, Telangana government has increased the security at the Hydroelectric power plant at Nagarjuna Sagar in Nalgonda district. Police have been deployed in large numbers at all roads leading to the plant. Andhra Pradesh government has been claiming that TS has been drawing water from the Srisailam dam for power generation at the hydroelectric station on the left bank. In the light of fastchanging developments, police has increased the security.

FUNCTIONS OF KRMB

The functions of KRMB are laid down under clause 85 (8) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. They are:

Regulation of supply of water from the projects to the successor States as per the Tribunal awards

Appraisal of any proposal for construction of new projects on Krishna river and giving technical clearance,after satisfying that such projects do not negatively impact the availability of water as per the awards of the Tribunals

Other functions as the Central Government may entrust to it on the basis of the principles specified in the Eleventh Schedule

Excerpt from the Bachawat Award relevant to AP and Telanganas dispute:

The lands of a river basin have prior claim on the waters of a river system and any part of these waters can be used for irrigation outside the basin only if that part is surplus after meeting the full requirements of the lands within the basin. Any irrigation use outside the basin, ignoring the claims of the basin itself, must sooner or later lead to undesirable complications.
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON: Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88.

In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfelds family said he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.

President George W. Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served as Pentagon chief, hailed his steady service as a wartime secretary of defense  a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor.

Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America.

President Richard M. Nixon announces in Washington the appointment of Rep. Donald Rumsfeld, left, of Illinois, as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity | AP

After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.

Rummy, as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, energetic, engaging and capable of great personal warmth. But he irritated many with his confrontational style. An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; a biting humor was a favorite weapon.

Still, he built a network of loyalists who admired his work ethic, intelligence and impatience with all who failed to share his sense of urgency.

Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest.

Current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saluted Rumsfeld on Wednesday for his boundless energy, probing intellect, and abiding commitment to serve his country.

He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and member of Congress.

For all Rumsfelds achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.

Nine months into his second tour as defense secretary, on Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, thrusting the nation into wars for which the military was ill-prepared. Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime. Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, applauded for his blunt talk and uncompromising style.

By 2002 the Bush administrations attention shifted to Iraq, which played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The war effort in Afghanistan took a back seat to Iraq, opening the way for the Taliban to make a comeback and prevent the U.S. from sealing the success of its initial invasion.

White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, right, and his deputy, Richard Cheney, meet with reporters at the White House in Washington | AP

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003. Baghdad fell quickly, but U.S. and allied forces soon became consumed with a violent insurgency. Critics faulted Rumsfeld for dismissing the pre-invasion assessment of the Armys top general, Eric Shinseki, that several hundred thousand allied troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq.

News of Rumsfelds death broke overnight in Iraq, where the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein and disbanding of Iraqi security forces ushered in years of unremitting sectarian killings and car bombs at the hands of rival armed factions.

It deprived us of an ordinary life, said Rasha Al Aqeedi, now a U.S.-based analyst from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Daily curfews, an explosion here, a suicide attack there. A consistent sight of death everywhere.

Al Aqeedi joined other Arabs Wednesday in tweeting of Rumsfelds blame in the invasion. By phone, she cited his and other Bush officials apparent lack of planning for what happened after the U.S. toppled Saddam.

The legacy he left behind ... the Iraq war, has been such a stain on Americans foreign policy, she said. It shaped how an entire generation views any intervention by the United States.

Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush in 2004 amid disclosures that U.S. troops had abused detainees at Iraqs Abu Ghraib prison  an episode he later referred to as his darkest hour as defense secretary.

Not until November 2006, after Democrats gained control of Congress by riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, did Bush finally decide Rumsfeld had to go. He left office in December, replaced by Robert Gates.

Rumsfeld is survived by his wife, Joyce, three children and seven grandchildren.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan accepts the "Chinese version" of the treatment of Uighurs, a minority Muslim ethnic group, in China's restive Xinjiang province because of Islamabad's "extreme proximity and relationship" with Beijing.

The US and the EU besides many other countries have accused China of committing genocide against the Uighurs in resource-rich Xinjiang and called for an international probe by human rights groups.

Speaking to Chinese journalists as Beijing marked the centenary of the ruling Communist Party, Khan said the Chinese version on the Uighur issue was completely different from what was being reported in the Western media.

"Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version," he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

ALSO READ | Pakistan under pressure from US, Western powers over its ties with China: Imran Khan

According to researchers, an estimated 1 million people or more -- most of them Uighurs --have been confined in re-education camps in China's western Xinjiang region in recent years.

Chinese authorities have been accused of imposing forced labour, systematic forced birth control, torture and separating children from incarcerated parents.

China has been vehemently refuting allegations of interning millions of Uigurs in mass detention camps, which were officially termed as education camps, in a bid to wean them away from religious extremism.

"It is hypocritical. There are much worse human rights violations taking place in other parts of the world. But Western media hardly comment on this," the prime minister said, lashing out at Western media for highlighting the Uighurs' situation and Hong Kong.

China accuses East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is entrenched in Uighur Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang, of being responsible for numerous violent attacks in the province and outside, including one at the Forbidden City in Beijing in 2013, killing several people.

ALSO READ | Xi Jinping warns against anyone 'bullying' China as CPC marks its 100th-anniversary

Beijing has sharply criticised the US for delisting the Xinjiang's separatist militant outfit from its list of terrorist organisations last year, saying it reflected Washington's "double standards" on fighting global terrorism.

Khan also praised the Communist Party of China (CPC), calling it an "alternative" to Western democracy.

"Until now, we had been told that the best way for societies to improve was through Western democracy. The CPC has introduced an alternative model and they have beaten all Western democracies in the way they have highlighted merit in society," he said.

Underlining Pakistan's strong ties with China, Khan said whenever Pakistan has been in trouble, politically or internationally, China has always stood with it.

He stated that Pakistan's relationship with China had nothing to do with India.

"Our relationship is a bilateral relationship. It is extremely strong," Khan said.

Commenting on the economic relationship between Pakistan and China, the prime minister said he sees the ties moving forward.

"The next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is very exciting for Pakistan. We plan to attract Chinese investment for special economic zones as our labour is cheaper," he said.
By PTI

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced to death a former security guard for killing his banks manager over blasphemy allegations in the countrys eastern Punjab province last year.

The court in Sargodha city, some 190 kms from here, on Wednesday handed down the capital punishment to Ahmed Nawaz and also imposed a fine of Rs 600,000 (USD 3,795) on him after the prosecution presented witnesses.

Nawaz, who was posted as a security guard at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) branch in Khushab district, some 250 kms from here, last year opened fire at his boss -- branch manager Malik Imran Hanif -- killing him on the spot.

Later, he claimed that the bank manager had committed blasphemy. Local clerics came out in his support and laid a siege of the police station in which he was detained.

The police registered a murder case against Nawaz and included terrorism clauses on the complaint of the victims family which denied that Hanif had committed any blasphemy.

It claimed that Nawaz had played the blasphemy card to get away from punishment.

The victims family said that Nawaz had a grudge against Hanif for not giving him an annual increment and that he had a quarrel with Hanif before he shot him dead.

The blasphemy card is often played in Pakistan to frame one''s rivals.

Pakistan''s blasphemy laws and their prescribed punishments are considered extremely severe. The people accused of blasphemy are usually deprived of the right to a counsel of their choice as most lawyers refuse to take up such sensitive cases.

The blasphemy laws are colonial-era legislation but they were amended by former military dictator General Ziaul Haq which increased the severity of prescribed punishments.

The rights campaigners say blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal disputes in the Muslim-majority country.

A US government advisory panel report says Pakistan used blasphemy laws more than any other country in the world.

Mere allegations of blasphemy have triggered violence against minorities. Several persons accused of committing blasphemy have been lynched in recent years.
By PTI

LONDON: The UK Home Office on Thursday formally opened its new post-study work visa for international students, which would offer overseas graduates from India and other destinations the option to apply for the right to stay on for job experience at the end of their university courses.

The Graduate route visa, announced last year by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, is now open for applications from this week and is expected to particularly benefit Indian students, who are known to choose their degree courses based on the prospect of work experience.

The Graduate route is designed for international graduates who have been awarded their degree from a recognised UK university to stay on and look for work for at least two years.

"To put it into some context, last year more than 56,000 Indian nationals were granted a student visa, that's a 13 per cent increase on the previous year, and that is almost now a quarter of all student visas issued by the UK," Patel told PTI.

"When you think about those numbers, think about the totality in terms of how this route will benefit India, it's a very, very big move. And, we will continue to work with the various academic institutions on making this route viable," she said.

For the new route, international graduates must have completed an eligible course at a UK higher education provider with a track record of compliance with the government's immigration requirements.

It is unsponsored, meaning applicants do not need a job offer to apply and crucially they can use a two-year period to stay on and look for a job.

There are no minimum salary requirements or caps on numbers, allowing graduates on the route to work flexibly, switch jobs and develop their career as required.

"As we build back better, it is vital that the UK continues to be a beacon for talented young people across the globe who want to make a difference. The new Graduate route does just that, giving the best and brightest graduates the opportunity to continue contributing to the UK's prosperity and the freedom to kickstart their careers in the UK," said Patel.

A coronavirus concession on the date by which students must enter the UK to qualify for the route, if they started courses in 2020 and are unable to travel due to the pandemic, was recently extended.

Applicants who began their studies in autumn 2020 or in spring 2021 will need to be in the UK on a student visa by September 27 this year. Students beginning their course later this year or early next year will need to be in the UK by April 6, 2022.

This has been welcomed by Indian student groups in the UK, concerned about India's categorisation under the red list of countries from where travel currently remains banned, making it compulsory for Indian students to quarantine at considerably additional expense.

"Many other countries do not offer that microcosm, foundation of diaspora community, natural heritage, all the cultural links, all the values that we share between our two countries. That puts us in a very strong position, both for Indian students coming here and securing their future opportunities in the workplace," Patel said.

The new route, part of the post-Brexit points-based immigration system, is pegged as part of the UK's Global Britain message of attracting the best talent from around the world and covers all parts of the United Kingdom.

"International students are a vital part of our society, and those who graduate from our world-leading universities should have the opportunity to stay and build meaningful careers here in the UK," said Universities Minister Michelle Donelan.

"That is why we are introducing this new route for international graduates, enabling British businesses to attract and retain some of the brightest, most talented graduates across the globe, and helping this nation build back better from the pandemic," she said.

Anne Marie Graham, Chief Executive of UK Council for International Student Affairs, said: "We know that employability is a priority for international students coming to study in the UK." International students who are able to access this route will have the flexibility to apply for work in any sector or role that fits their skills profile, including self-employment without the need for employer sponsorship.

"To apply under the new Graduate route, international students must have completed an eligible course at a recognised UK higher education provider at undergraduate or higher level. Students on the route will be able to work or look for work after their studies for a maximum period of two years, or three years for Doctoral PhD students.

The National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (NISAU) was among the groups that actively lobbied the UK government for such a post-study visa route.

"Genuine Indian applicants with demonstrable skills should considerably benefit," it added.
By PTI

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for building a strong military to defend the country and warned that the Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to "bully, oppress, or subjugate them", as the country marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party.

Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the historic Tiananmen Square here, Xi in over an hour-long address also said that integrating Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is a historic mission of the ruling party.

"No one should underestimate the great resolve, the strong will, and the extraordinary ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

"We must accelerate the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces," Xi, 68, said in his address telecast live by the official television channels.

"We are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security, and development interests," he said.

Xi said China does not oppress other countries and will not allow others to "bully us."

"We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will," Xi said.

"The Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us," he said.

"Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he warned.

Resolving the Taiwan question and realising China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the CPC, he said.

China claims the estranged island of Taiwan as part of its mainland.

"We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward 'Taiwan independence,' and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation," Xi said.

A crowd of over 70,000 people comprising of party and military officials besides schoolchildren cheered his speech.

The people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity, and a powerful force for protecting regional and world peace, he said, emphasising that the military should work under the leadership of the party.

Founded by Mao Zedong on July 1, 1921, the CPC formally completed 100 years of existence on Thursday.

It also remained in power since the People's Republic of China (PRC) was formed in 1949.

Highlighting the importance of CPC to China, Xi said any attempt to divide it from the Chinese people is "bound to fail".

"The more than 95 million party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," Xi said.

He said the firm leadership of the CPC must be upheld.

The leadership of the party is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitutes the greatest strength of this system, he said.

"It is the foundation and lifeblood of the party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend," he said.

China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, and preserve international order, Xi said.

In an apparent reference to the US allegations of genocide committed against Uygur Muslims of Xinjiang as well as the imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong much against the will of the local people, Xi said China welcomes helpful suggestions, but won't accept sanctimonious preaching.

"We are eager to learn what lessons we can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcome helpful suggestions and constructive criticism," said Xi, also the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

"We will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us," he said, calling for elevating the Chinese military to world-class standards He said China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards so that "we are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security, and development interests."

"We must accelerate the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces," Xi said.

The people's military is a strong pillar for safeguarding the socialist country and preserving national dignity, and a powerful force for protecting regional and world peace, he noted.

He also said the military should work under the party leadership.

He said CPC must continue to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context.

At the fundamental level, the capability of the party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works, Xi said.

"We will use Marxism to observe, understand, and steer the trends of our times, and continue to develop the Marxism of contemporary China and in the 21st century," Xi said.

Xi said "as we have upheld and developed socialism with Chinese characteristics and driven coordinated progress in material, political, cultural-ethical, social, and ecological terms, we have pioneered a new and uniquely Chinese path to modernisation and created a new model for human civilisation.
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State Attorney General William Tong is calling on internet service provider Altice to scrap its plans to reduce upload speeds for some of its internet service customers.

The plan, of which customers were informed late last week, will take effect July 12, will decrease upload speeds of the companys Optimum internet service from 35 megabits per second to as little as 5 Mbps, Tong said during a press conference in Hartford. He was joined by state Sen. Norman Needleman, D-Essex, who is co-chairman of the legislatures Energy and Technology Committee, and state Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk.

Optimum internet service currently is available in 27 communities in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties. The changes will apply to new Optimum customers as well as existing customers who make any changes to their service levels.

Let me say how very disappointed I am that Altice is doing this right now, said Tong, who lives in Stamford. People are still trying to make ends meet and to lard this on families at time when they need internet the most and are least able to afford this is unconscionable.

Duff and Needleman said that if Altice is not responsive to Tongs letter, they will seek to hold public hearings in Fairfield County and will call the companys executives to explain their decision publicly.

Duff called the companys action a slap in the face to consumers and a race to the bottom in terms of providing broadband internet service.

Fairfield County is the economic engine of the state of Connecticut, he said. They will tell you this is in line with the competitive marketplace. But they dont really need to be competitive because they really have no competition.

Both Duff and Needleman acknowledged that what limited regulation there is of internet service providers is at the federal level.

Id like to see Congress ignore lobbyists and pass a strong consumer-focused piece of legislation, Duff said. Short of that, Id like to see them return the power to regulate these companies to the states.

The federal government so far has taken a hands-off approach to regulation of internet service providers, according to Needleman.

Competition has not instilled a greater sense of responsibility to these companies, he said.

Needleman noted that Tong earlier this year had called on Comcast to postpone implementation of its plan to add a surcharge on data usage above a 1.2 terabyte cap. Under pressure from Tong and his counterparts in other states, Comcast agreed to postpone implementation of the cap until 2022.

What we did with Comcast is shame them, he said.  I think Altice has a great deal to be ashamed of.

Tong said his letter to Altice officials also asks whether the companys Optimum service currently caps consumer data usage, or whether the company intends to institute a cap in the future.

Altice officials issued a lengthy written statement regarding the comments made by Tong and the two lawmakers.

We appreciate the feedback from Attorney General Tong, State Senator Bob Duff, and State Senator Norm Needleman, and will engage with their offices to provide the information needed, the statement says in part. In Connecticut alone, we have invested millions of dollars in technology, network upgrades and building a new 100 percent fiber network. We have a variety of options and plans available for all our customers to meet their needs, and additionally, none of the plans Optimum offers include a data cap.

Tong and the two lawmakers urged Connecticut residents who are broadband internet customers of Altice to sign onto an online petition that has been created.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
After a quieter celebration last summer, the Danbury area is planning a slightly bigger birthday party for America this year.

Several traditional firework displays and local events are returning to towns for Fourth of July, thanks to Gov. Ned Lamonts lifted restrictions, low rates of viral spread and high rates of vaccination among Connecticut residents.

The holiday falls on a Sunday this year, but celebrations will span the whole weekend and into the following week.

However, for the second year in a row, there will be no firework shows in Danbury, with the display over Candlewood Lake canceled and the one at the Danbury Fair mall postponed.

The Danbury Volunteer Firemens Council typically books the firework company in February, but the volunteers decided not to do so because they were unsure of what COVID-19 conditions would be like, Mayor Joe Cavo said. He could have predicted whether it would rain the night of the show as well as he could have predicted case levels, he said.

Back in February, there was still a tremendous amount of unknowns, he said. We were still early in vaccinations.

The fireworks companies have been booked elsewhere.

You wouldnt be able to get them now if you wanted to, Cavo said.

While things arent completely back to business-as-usual yet, here are a few Fourth of July celebrations in the Danbury area in the coming days:

BETHEL

The John Demille Firecracker 8K, the towns oldest road race, returns for a 55th year next week.

The event will take place July 5, starting at 8 a.m. outside the Clifford J. Hurgin Municipal Center, 1 School St.

From there, participants will make their way up Wooster Street, onto Juniper Road and back onto Wooster Street before turning left onto Durant Avenue.

Continuing onto Library Place, racers will proceed down Greenwood Avenue, turn right onto Chestnut Ridge and continue to Nashville Road before heading down South Street, Grassy Plain Street and Greenwood Avenue and turning onto Library Place.

The last stretch will be a loop back around Durant, Wooster and Juniper to finish at the municipal center.

Awards will be given to the first three female and male runners to complete the race, as well as awards for the top three female and male participants in eight age-based categories.

The registration deadline is June 28, with a $25 entry fee per racer. All proceeds will go to benefit the Scotty Fund and Bens Bells organizations.

Information on the John Demille Firecracker 8K, including a course map, can be found here.

LAKE WARAMAUG

The fireworks display is also back on at Lake Waramaug, sponsored by the lake association through their firework fund.

On Sunday, July 4, fireworks will begin at 9:30 p.m., but a Rim-the-Lake flare lighting will start at 9 p.m., and the association has encouraged people to participate in this event, in addition to the fireworks themselves.

Flares will be distributed to visitors for free, but donations are accepted to help cover the cost of the community event.

The association has set a rain date has been set for Sept. 4.

NEW FAIRFIELD

New Fairfields Fourth of July Parade is back in action after being canceled in 2020. A ceremony at Memorial Field will occur at the conclusion of the parade.

In 2020, the town hosted a car parade in lieu of an in-person event to ensure adequate social distancing.

The annual parade, which is sponsored by the New Fairfield Lions Club, is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.

The route will be the same as in past years, starting on Route 37 in front of the Senior Center parking lot on Overbrook Drive before proceeding on Route 39, past the Town Hall and concluding at Memorial Field for the ceremony.

According to the Lions Club, over 40 groups will be participating in the parade this year.

NEW MILFORD

The states largest town by landmass decided the show must go on and is holding a Fourth of July celebration and firework show on Saturday, July 3, organized by the Chamber of Commerce.

The firework display will also be sponsored in part by New Milford Hospital, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.

Mayor Pete Bass Hearst Connecticut Media in April that the town would hold its Independence Day fireworks and annual Memorial Day parade. Both had been canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. Instead of fireworks, the Water Witch Hose Company held a small parade through parts of the town.

Festivities are set to begin at 5 p.m. with the second day of the Lions Club Carnival at Youngs Field, which runs until 10 p.m. on Saturday. The carnival starts on at 6 p.m. Friday.

At 6:30 p.m., events will begin on the Town Green with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by live music at 7 p.m. As soon as it gets dark enough, the firework show will commence.

Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, is expected to be in attendance, alongside the mayor.

A rain date has been set for Saturday, November 27, at the annual Tree Lighting ceremony.

RIDGEFIELD

A family firework celebration sponsored by Fairfield County Bank will take place on Monday, July 5 at the high school.

Gates will open at 6 p.m. with fireworks beginning at dusk.

A $20 parking pass will be required for parking at the high school, Scotts Ridge Middle, and Barlow Mountain and Scotland elementary schools, with proceeds going to the Family Fourth Committee. The passes can be purchased through the towns website, at the bank or at town hall.

If it rains, the celebration will take place the following day, on July 6.
Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media

STAMFORD  A fireworks show from the roof of the Landmark Building has been rescheduled from Friday to Monday because of anticipated rain.

The show, which the Stamford Downtown Special Services District is working with the city to hold, will start at 9 p.m. on Monday.
Donald Trumps company and his longtime finance chief have been indicted on charges stemming from a New York investigation into the former presidents business dealings, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The charges against the Trump Organization and the companys chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, remained sealed Wednesday night, but were expected to involve alleged tax violations related to benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including use of apartments, cars and school tuition, people familiar with the case said.

The people were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that charges were expected Thursday.

The company and Weisselberg were expected to make their first court appearance Thursday.

The charges against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be the first criminal cases to arise from the two-year probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat who leaves office at the end of the year.

Prosecutors have been scrutinizing Trumps tax records, subpoenaing documents and interviewing witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.

A grand jury was recently empaneled to weigh evidence and New York Attorney General Letitia James said she was assigning two of her lawyers to work with Vance on the criminal probe while she continues a civil investigation of Trump.

Messages seeking comment were left with a spokesperson and lawyers for the Trump Organization. Weisselberg's lawyer, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment.

Trumps spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Jason Miller, a longtime former senior adviser to the Republican, spun the looming charges as politically terrible for the Democrats.

They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80 year-old man for maybe taking free parking! Miller tweeted, apparently referring to Weisselberg, who is 73.

Trump, whos been critical of President Joe Bidens immigration policies, was in Texas visiting the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday. He did not respond to shouted questions about the charges as he participated in a briefing with state officials.

Trump had blasted the investigation in a statement Monday, deriding Vances office as rude, nasty, and totally biased in their treatment of Trump company lawyers, representatives, and long-term employees.

Trump, in the statement, said the companys actions were things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime and that Vances probe was an investigation was in search of a crime.

Trump Organization lawyers met virtually with Manhattan prosecutors last week in a last-ditch attempt to dissuade them from charging the company. Prosecutors gave the lawyers a Monday deadline to make the case that criminal charges shouldnt be filed.

Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the AP this week that there was no indication Trump himself was included in the first batch of charges.

There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president, Fischetti said. I cant say hes out of the woods yet completely.

Weisselberg, a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred, came under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his sons use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.

Barry Weisselberg managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park.

Barrys ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with the investigation and turned over reams of tax records and other documents to investigators.

We have been working with prosecutors for many months now as part of this tax and financial investigation and have provided a large volume of evidence that allowed them to bring these charges, Jen Weisselberg's lawyer, Duncan Levin, said Wednesday. We are gratified to hear that the DAs office is moving forward with a criminal case.

Allen Weisselberg has worked for the Trump Organization since 1973. The case against him could give prosecutors the means to pressure the executive into cooperating and telling them what he knows about Trumps business dealings.

Prosecutors subpoenaed another long-time Trump finance executive, senior vice president and controller Jeffrey McConney, to testify in front of the grand jury in the spring. Under New York law, grand jury witnesses are granted immunity and can not be charged for conduct they testify about.

Prosecutors probing untaxed benefits to Trump executives have also been looking at Matthew Calamari, a former Trump bodyguard turned chief operating officer, and his son, the companys corporate director of security. However, a lawyer for the Calamaris said Wednesday that he didnt expect them to be charged.

Although the DAs investigation obviously is ongoing, I do not expect charges to be filed against either of my clients at this time, said the lawyer, Nicholas Gravante.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Weslaco, Texas, and Bernard Condon in New York contributed to this report.

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On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak
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Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
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Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
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As we take nominations for the Class of 2021, a look back at all the winners from the first 13 years.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
A Lakeland Community College ambulance simulator is one of many different tools of equipment available to prospective EMT and Paramedic students.
One of the longest-running studies examining COVID-prevention behaviors shows hygiene changes have been sustained but not complex changes, like social distancing, with important policy implications.

A longitudinal survey from just after the first lockdown in Australia in 2020 shows people have maintained simple hygiene measures in response to the pandemic but reduced their physical distancing over time, indicating that lockdowns may be required to stop outbreaks.

The study by University of Sydney researchers in the School of Public Health and Sydney Health Literacy Lab, Faculty of Medicine and Health, found people who tended to keep up distancing behaviors were more concerned about the pandemic, had stronger feelings of responsibility towards their community, and felt more confident about their ability to keep up the behaviors.

It found behavioral fatigue alone cannot be blamed for waning distancing, noting that the way COVID-19 behaviors change depends on how readily these behaviors can be shaped into habits, how difficult it is to navigate these behaviors in different social and physical environments, and how concerned people feel about the pandemic.

Behaviors that compete with social interaction, like distancing behaviors, are particularly challenging to maintain over time." Dr Julie Ayre, Lead Author

The findings publish today in the leading journal PLOS ONE.

Dr Julie Ayre said the findings support the argument for localized lockdowns to manage outbreaks in Australia. "For serious outbreaks, governments must act swiftly, given that distancing behaviors have shown to decrease over time  sometimes even in periods when there is a higher number of cases," she said.

The senior author Dr Carissa Bonner said at a minimum, clear messaging was crucial. "The more complex behaviors like social distancing will not be maintained voluntarily without clear instructions from government," Dr Bonner said.

"If we are looking to lift restrictions while cases are still circulating, that needs to be done on the assumption that people will find it hard to social distance unless they are clearly told what they have to do."

About the study

University of Sydney researchers conducted an Australia-wide survey of adults in Australia in April 2020, with monthly follow-up over four months. Participants had to be able to read and understand English and recruitment was via social media.

The analysis identified two behavior types: 'distancing' (e.g., staying 1.5m away) and 'hygiene' (e.g., washing hands).

So far, longitudinal research on COVID-19 behaviors has used relatively short follow-up periods (one week), and there has been mixed evidence that risk perception, social and moral norms, and belief in the behavior's utility contribute to distancing behavior  so this study plugs a significant research gap. Limitations of the study include the self-reported nature of the data, and the fact that participants were recruited through social media, resulting in a higher proportion of respondents who are female, from NSW, younger and more educated.

The study found perceptions of risk and safety for the community trumped concern for oneself as a key driver of behavior. This supports behavioural scientists' call for messaging that promotes pro-social behavior, and is consistent with other research into vaccine acceptability. The researchers stress that distancing behaviors are complex, and that there could be a need for different approaches depending on the audience and action required.

Dr Bonner said unclear information in recent public health orders has not helped with adherence: "The use of subjective terms by officials, for example saying to use 'common sense' to interpret the complex health orders recently has been unhelpful and confusing."

The researchers note cultural factors are important to investigate, and are recruiting a survey sample across 10 language groups in Greater Western Sydney; details will be uploaded soon at healthliteracyhub.org.au.
Significantly higher rates of child intensive care admissions for unintentional cannabis poisonings have been seen following legalization of the drug in Canada.

Researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), based in Toronto, found a four-fold increase in unintentional poisonings in children under the age of 12 and a three-fold increase in intensive care admissions for severe cannabis poisoning in the first two years following cannabis legalization.

However, the overall number of visits per month for cannabis intoxications to the SickKids Emergency Department (ED) remained consistent when comparing the pre- and post-legalization periods. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Toxicology.

Led by Dr Yaron Finkelstein, Staff Physician, Paediatric Emergency Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at SickKids, the study compared cannabis-related ED visits, hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions at SickKids during pre- and post-legalization periods to analyze the unintentional impacts of the legislation.

While uncommon in adults, cannabis intoxication can have significant negative impacts on young children including behavioural changes, seizures, respiratory depression, problems with coordination and balance, and even coma. As different formulations of cannabis continue to be legalized, it is important for everyone who has cannabis in their home, to be aware of the potential harms to children and ensure cannabis products are safely stored." Dr Yaron Finkelstein, Senior Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences at SickKids

Measuring admissions for cannabis intoxication to SickKids over a 12-year period, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2019, the study identified that a higher proportion of children were admitted to the ICU following legalization (13.6% vs. 4.7%, respectively).

The study determined that the increases in severe intoxications from cannabis were primarily due to exposure of young children to cannabis edibles, which have become increasingly accessible and popular. Edible cannabis products are both highly concentrated and visually attractive to young children - leading to ingestion as the most consequential route of paediatric exposures. Inconsistencies and difficulties in determining the exact formulation and potency of the edible ingested can also make it challenging for health-care providers to anticipate the severity and length of the effects of cannabis exposure.

The study team, including researchers and trainees from across SickKids, hopes that by raising awareness of the potential dangers of unintentional cannabis poisonings, the findings will encourage the public to be even more careful when storing cannabis products within the home, particularly edibles that can often be mistaken by children for regular food and candy.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic has presented more opportunities for families to be at home, it is even more important to ensure that substances, such as cannabis, are stored out of the reach of young children. There are simple actions everyone can take to help prevent unintentional poisonings and keep children safe, including keeping cannabis products in a locked container, away from other food and drinks" adds Finkelstein, who is also a Professor, Departments of Paediatrics and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto.
The chance of detecting the virus that causes COVID-19 increases with more frequent testing, no matter the type of test, a new study found. Both polymerase chain reaction and antigen tests, paired with rapid results reporting, can achieve 98% sensitivity if deployed at least every three days.

This study shows that frequent testing can be really effective at catching COVID-19 infections and potentially blocking transmission. There are many places where vaccination is not yet widespread. With the rise of variants, testing remains an important tool for blocking the spread of the virus." Christopher Brooke, study leader, virologist and professor of microbiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Tech program of the National Institutes of Health, the study brought together researchers at Illinois; the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore; and the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The researchers published their results in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Students and employees at the U. of I. who had tested positive for COVID-19 or were identified as close contacts of a person who tested positive were invited to participate. Because of the SHIELD Illinois screening program, which required students and employees to take multiple saliva-based tests each week and returned results in less than 24 hours, the university provided an ideal location for identifying cases before they became symptomatic, the researchers said.

The 43 study participants received three tests daily for 14 days: a PCR nasal swab, a PCR saliva test and an antigen nasal swab. The results of each were compared with live viral cultures taken from the PCR nasal swab, which show when a person is actively infectious. The study also examined how the frequency of testing affected each method's efficacy at detecting an infection.

"Different tests have different advantages and limitations. Antigen tests are fast and cheap, but they are not as sensitive as PCR tests. PCR are the gold standard, but they take some time to return results and are more expensive," said Rebecca Lee Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Illinois and the first author of the study. "This study was to show, based on real data, which test is best under which circumstances and for what purpose."

The results showed that the PCR tests - particularly saliva-based ones - were best at detecting cases before the person had an infectious viral load, a key to isolating individuals before they can spread the virus, Smith said. For all three methods, testing every three days had 98% sensitivity to detecting infection.

If that testing frequency declined to once a week, the PCR methods maintained their high sensitivity but the antigen tests dropped to around 80%. That means organizations that wish to deploy antigen testing as part of a reopening strategy or individuals who wish to monitor their status at home should use antigen tests multiple times each week to achieve similar results to PCR testing, the researchers said.

"This work also shows how the PCR and antigen tests could be used in combination," Smith said. "For example, I work with a lot of school districts, helping them to plan for fall, since vaccines are not yet available to those under 12 years old. If a student had a known exposure or comes to school symptomatic, give them both tests. Antigen tests are really good at finding those highly infectious people, so that can tell administrators right away if the child needs to be sent home, rather than waiting 24 hours for PCR results. If the antigen test is negative, the PCR test is a backup, as it may detect the infection earlier than an antigen test would, before the student becomes contagious."

The results of the study helped inform the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recommendations and instructions on how to use at-home antigen tests that recently received emergency use authorization. The researchers said they hope the results assist schools, businesses and other organizations as they reopen.

"If you are in a situation where you have the resources and capacity to do large-scale PCR testing with rapid results reporting like we did here at Illinois, you can identify infections early and potentially isolate people before they become contagious," Brooke said. "In places where PCR testing is not readily available or rapid results reporting is not possible, but the cheaper and more rapid tests are available, our data show how those tests can be deployed in a way that can increase their sensitivity - through repeated serial testing, ideally three times a week or more."
Brian Clark, Ph.D., professor of physiology and neuroscience in Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine's Department of Biomedical Sciences, received a five-year, nearly $3 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to conduct a series of animal and human studies to better understand the mechanisms and clinical relevance of age-related changes in motor neuron excitability.

The research will look at the role of the motor neuron, the final neuron that connects the nervous system with the muscle, in health and disease.

Clark, also executive director of the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute and Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Harold E. Clybourne, D.O., Endowed Research Chair, is one of three principal investigators for the grant, alongside W. David Arnold, M.D., from the Department of Neurology at Ohio State University, and Sherif Elbasiouny, Ph.D., from the Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology & Physiology at Wright State University.

Clark has been interested in this work since the late 1990s. Over the past few years, he has built connections and collaborated with Arnold and Elbasiouny over their shared interest of the motor neuron.

All of us have deep interest in understanding the role of the motor neuron in health and disease. This connection between the nervous system and the muscle system has long been discussed as a potential culprit of age-related declines in motor function. So, as the three of us began talking more and more, we eventually decided to put together a large grant to investigate the mechanisms and clinical relevance of age-related changes in motor neuron excitability." Brian Clark, Ph.D., Professor, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine

There are a large number of experiments that will take place over a five-year period. Animal studies will be conducted at Ohio State University and Wright State University, while the human experiments will be held at OHIO.

In the animal experiments, the team will look to establish a timeline across the lifespan in mice to identify when motor neurons become less excitable. Additionally, they will seek to determine if the hypothesized reductions in motor neuron excitability are associated with the death of motor neurons as well as loss of muscle strength and coordination. Experiments will also be performed to look at the mechanisms, such as which ion channels are responsible for reducing excitability, Clark noted.

The human studies will examine the clinical relevance of reductions in motor neuron excitability by looking at older adults. The main part of the study will be to record the electrical activity of muscles using a non-invasive array of surface electrodes and then using artificial intelligence algorithms to identify when individual motor neurons are firing.

"Based on the firing characteristics, we can obtain estimates of neuron excitability so that we can determine whether this is linked to things such as age-related weakness," Clark explained.

Co-investigators on the project include David Kline, Ph.D., a statistician from Ohio State, and Leatha Clark, DPT, a clinical research scientist from OHIO's Heritage College.

Leatha Clark, who has a background in engineering and physical therapy, will play a major role in working with individuals participating in the clinical study being conducted at OHIO, which involves performing numerous medical imaging and electrophysiology techniques.

"When we received the official notice of funding for the award, I think everyone from all three labs were grateful, excited and relieved. The preparation of the grant application took an extraordinary amount of time and coordination on the part of the three principal investigators," she said. "In addition, we were all so grateful to receive an award of this magnitude from the NIH in order to carry out this important work."

Brian Clark's overall goal in his research is to develop effective and implementable interventions that increase muscle function, such as muscle strength, motor control, fatigue-resistance and mobility in older adults.

"Our work has, for decades, suggested that the nervous system is critically involved in age-related loss of strength and mobility. This thinking, while well-accepted today, was not all that common back 10 years ago, as it was thought that the majority of losses were due to reduced muscle size," he said. "My hope for this forthcoming work is that we are able to identify potential underlying mechanisms for weakness and loss in function, as well as establish the clinical relevance, so that we can then examine the potential for various lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and/or neurotherapeutics to improve physical function."
Cancer patients are a vulnerable population prone to develop cardiovascular complications. Among other factors, some anticancer therapies can induce adverse cardiovascular effects. Every year, more than 3 million Europeans receive anthracyclines alone or in combination with other anticancer agents. Anthracyclines are a frequently prescribed anticancer agent that can induce an irreversible toxic effect on the heart may lead to chronic heart failure in 5% of the cases. It is estimated that in Europe the prevalence of chronic heart failure secondary to cancer therapy-related cardiotoxicity is 1 million people. The trade-off between cancer and chronic heart failure is a massive psychological burden. For healthcare systems, the growing incidence of chronic heart failure has devastating consequences.

The two major unmet clinical needs related to anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity are the lack of therapies to prevent or cure this condition, and the lack of markers to identify the problem in its early stages. RESILIENCE (REmote iSchemic condItioning in Lymphoma patIents rEceiving aNthraCyclinEs) will tackle these challenges aiming to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors.

RESILIENCE is a multinational project funded by the European Commission through the H2020 "Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing" programme. Eleven partners from six EU countries (Spain, France, The Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Denmark) will work together under the coordination of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC). RESILIENCE consortium is a multidisciplinary group, including experts in cardiology, haematology, cardio-oncology, and medical imaging. The consortium includes internationally renowned institutions and leaders with a history of participation in trials both in the field of haematology and cardiology. Different stakeholders caring for cancer patients are represented in the consortium: doctors, nurses, technologists, companies in the imaging industry, scientific societies and, importantly, patient associations.

The project received a six million EUR grant to perform a randomised clinical trial testing the role of "remote ischaemic preconditioning" as an intervention to prevent the development of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. To this aim, more than 600 patients recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) scheduled to undergo chemotherapy with anthracyclines will be enrolled in 17 hospitals across the six EU countries. Patients will be randomly allocated to "remote ischaemic conditioning" (one weekly session during the four-month span of chemotherapy) or to a sham intervention (control). Cardiac function will be evaluated throughout the duration of the study.

Remote ischaemic conditioning has been shown to be extremely effective in preventing anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in large animal models of the disease, and this project is the translation of this therapy to patients at risk for developing cardiac complications." Borja Ibanez, Principal Investigator-Coordinator of RESILIENCE

The investigator explains that "the hypothesis behind this study is that remote ischaemic conditioning, an intervention consisting of repetitive brief episodes of arm ischaemia induced by inflating a blood pressure cuff for five minutes, followed by pressure relief, can diminish side effects. The substances released by the arm in response to this intervention reach different organs (the heart in this case) and make them more resistant to injuries, such as the exposure to anthracyclines." Remote ischaemic conditioning has been tested in many trials before, although in different conditions, such as myocardial infarction or stroke. This is the first time that this intervention is tested in a large, randomised trial of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy with anthracyclines.

Another unique aspect of the RESILIENCE project is the use of state-of-the art cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging provided by an industrial partner, to evaluate the impact of the intervention on cardiac function and composition. Patients enrolled in the trial will undergo three CMR studies before, halfway and after the four months of chemotherapy. By executing a comprehensive imaging study, the team will be able to validate a novel CMR-based marker of early cardiotoxicity, previously identified by some members of the consortium. The CMR protocol will also include another validation of a revolutionary CMR acquisition technique that can massively reduce the time of a CMR exam, from 45 minutes to less than one minute. This methodology will be tested for the first time in a multicentre international environment.

Dissemination is a key aspect of the RESILIENCE project, which seeks to reach not only the medical and scientific communities, but also the public and patients. Besides its presence in medical fora, the project will be active on social media to reach beyond classical boundaries. A dedicated Mobile App will be developed to increase patient engagement. Among other activities, the project includes multinational meetings bringing together consortium members, world leaders in the field of Cardio-Oncology, industry, specialised press and patients enrolled in the study. These meetings will take place at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) headquarters in Sophia Antipolis. The ESC is a member of the consortium through the Council of Cardio-Oncology and will play a key role in the dissemination and communication activities of the project.

In RESILIENCE, patients will participate actively via direct contact with investigators, giving input on pre-defined measures of the study, and as full consortium members in meetings. Natacha Bolanos, European Manager of Lymphoma Coalition Europe (LCE) says: "we will guarantee that the patients perspectives are always considered in any activity of this unique project."
Many of the most promising new molecules to treat diseases come from smaller biotechnology firms, which often lack resources to scale up production when it's time for their drugs to go to large-scale clinical trials or the market. Now, a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, describes how small biotechs are teaming up with big pharmaceutical outsourcing firms to manufacture their molecules.

Small biotech companies often excel at innovation and are quick to make decisions, allowing them to rapidly move new drugs from the conceptual stage to clinical trials. If the drugs show promise in early trials, these companies are faced with the daunting task of scaling up production to support large-scale phase 3 trials, write C&EN staff. And if the molecule receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), multiple metric tons could be needed each year. So many biotechs are seeking large, experienced manufacturing partners to help bring lifesaving drugs to the patients who need them.

The small firm Mithra Pharmaceuticals recently received FDA approval for Estelle, a contraceptive drug containing a natural estrogen with potentially fewer side effects than current products. Mithra partnered with French firm Seqens to produce the compound, with a complex synthetic process that took 4 years to develop at an industrial scale. Recognizing the potential of the new estrogen, Seqens recently spent $35 million on a brand-new facility dedicated to its production. Similarly, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals will use a dedicated plant built by large contract manufacturer Lonza to produce a new drug that received FDA approval earlier this year for lupus nephritis, a dangerous kidney condition. And the tiny biotech Cassava Sciences has teamed up with the giant Evonik Industries to make an experimental Alzheimer's treatment for phase 3 clinical trials and, possibly, later commercialization.
A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital examines the associations between wealth mobility and long-term cardiovascular health. The multidisciplinary study borrowed methodology from the field of economics to analyze longitudinal changes in wealth. The team's results indicate that negative wealth mobility is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, while positive wealth changes are associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular events. Their results are published in JAMA Cardiology.

Low wealth is a risk factor that can dynamically change over a person's life and can influence a person's cardiovascular health status. So, it's a window of opportunity we have for an at-risk population. Buffering large changes in wealth should be an important focus for health policy moving ahead." Muthiah Vaduganathan, MD, MPH, Brigham's Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

The retrospective study leveraged data from the RAND Health and Retirement Study (HRS). While wealth data is infrequently categorized in most studies, the HRS uniquely captures detailed information about both housing (primary residence, mortgages, home loans and more) and non-housing (vehicles, businesses, stocks, mutual funds, checking and savings accounts and more) wealth across multiple interviews. The study examined 5,579 adults 50 years or older with no cardiovascular health concerns at baseline. Between January 1992 and December 2016, the HRS research team collected data through interviews with participants about any new diagnoses they had received in terms of their overall health. For deceased participants, next of kin were interviewed and the National Death Index was consulted for additional information.

"Income and wealth, while perhaps informally used interchangeably, actually provide different and complementary perspectives," said Sara Machado, PhD, an economist at the Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics. "Income reflects money received on a regular basis, while wealth is more holistic, encompassing both assets and debts. Could paying off one's debt with a large relative wealth increase be important in promoting cardiovascular health, even without changes in income?"

For the purposes of this study, upward wealth mobility was defined as an increase of at least one wealth quintile and, similarly, downward wealth mobility was defined as a decrease of at least one quintile relative to peers of similar age. Participants who were in the same wealth quintile between interviews were classified as having stable wealth. Altogether, an increase in wealth was associated with protection against cardiovascular diseases and a decrease in wealth was associated with cardiovascular risk.

"Decreases in wealth are associated with more stress, fewer healthy behaviors, and less leisure time, all of which are associated with poorer cardiovascular health," said Andrew Sumarsono, MD from University of Texas Southwestern's Division of Hospital Medicine. "It is possible that the inverse is true and may help to explain our study's findings."

In terms of limitations, all interviews and reports of new diagnoses were self-reported by the participants. Additionally, there are many factors that influence general cardiovascular health, including certain environmental and socio-demographic variables. Some of these factors were not collected by the HRS and therefore were not considered in the study.

The research team hopes that the findings of their research can inform the future of health policy and medical literature.

"Wealth and health are so closely integrated that we can no longer consider them apart," said Vaduganathan. "In future investigations, we need to make dedicated efforts to routinely measure wealth and consider it a key determinant of cardiovascular health."
The infectious nature of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has given rise to several mutations which have led to the emergence of variants such as B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P1, and B.1.617. These pathogenic lineages were originally detected in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and India, respectively.

The widespread transmission of these variants has also had significant impacts on the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with new waves of the virus emerging because of a surge in infection rates around the world. As of June 30, 2021, COVID-19 has infected over 182 million people worldwide and has caused the deaths of almost 4 million people.

Study: Comparative Structural Analyses of Selected Spike Protein-RBD Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Lineages. Image Credit: Polina Tomtosova / Shutterstock.com

A computational study that analyzes and explores the time-based structures of the SARS-CoV-2 variants with specific spike (S) protein mutations has recently been conducted at Clarkson University in Atlanta, Georgia. The findings, which were recently published on the preprint bioRxiv* server, will be further discussed in this article.

Computational immunoinformatics

During the development of preventative drug designs, the field of computational structural biology has become a key aspect for applied immunology, as it enables the understanding of protein structure at a basic level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have only been able to access limited studies on relatable research which could help inform them of therapeutic targets or on how to handle the infectious level of this virus. However, due to the limited availability of published studies on the subject, researchers instead relied on simulation-based tools and strategies in their attempts to study SARS-CoV-2.

Utilizing computational immunoinformatics for this purpose can assist in effectively and appropriately investigating this virus while simultaneously eliminating exposure to this infectious agent. The research discussed in the current study focuses on exploring the lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs). Additionally, the authors of this study looked to evaluate the implications of multiple point mutations on the spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD), all of which are provided in Figure 1. Through measuring the structural and conformational mutations of the variants, the association between the structure and function of SARS-CoV-2 can be more effectively understood.

Figure 1. This table illustrates variants of concern which have been selected for investigation regarding specific mutations within the SARS-CoV-2 lineages and the experiments with key mutations on the spike protein RBD.

Genome of SARS-CoV-2

The genome of SARS-CoV-2 consists of both structural and non-structural proteins (NSPs). Whereas the non-structural proteins include 16 components, the structural proteins include the S, envelope (E), membrane (M), and nucleocapsid (N) proteins. The S glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is the main interacting site by which the virus enters into the host cell; therefore, studies assessing the host immune response and antibody neutralization capabilities often focus on this protein.

The genome of SARS-CoV-2 is approximately 1,273 amino acids long and contains both S1 and S2 subunits of the S protein. The N-terminus signaling peptide is present at the start of this structure, which is then followed by the S1 subunit that assists with the receptor binding. The S1 subunit consists of two domains which include the N-terminal domain (NTD) and the receptor-binding domain (RBD). Mutations related to the S1 RBD are the focus of the current study, as the primary author Urmi Roy aimed to better comprehend the role of these specific mutations in SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.

In the current study, root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) plots were used to explore the SARS-CoV-2 variants with selected S1-RBD mutations. This can be used along with root-mean-square fluctuations (RMSF), as they provide structural indications on which amino acids in a protein are most likely to contribute to a molecular motion. Taken together, this information can be used to provide insight into which structural components can contribute to the mutations of the variants.

Protein stability

The study discusses the lack of consensus on whether a proteins stability is dependent on the number of mutations that are present within the variant. By confirming this association, researchers will be able to better understand how these mutations affect the proteins stability and, overall, the behavior of the virus. A single recorded mutation can also assist in predicting the effects of other mutations in the same amino acid site, which can further aid in combating emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.

In the current study, the RBD mutation of both the B.1.617 and P1 variants are identified as the most stable forms of this mutation. Roy also concludes that these mutations, which include L452R, Y453F, E484Q, S494P, are also quite stable. N501Y, as well as the E484K mutations within the P1 lineage, were also found to have minimal fluctuations while also maintaining their stability in VOCs. However, certain mutations, such as K417N/T, E484K, L452R, and Y453F, are recognized as antibody neutralizing escape mutants.

The B.1.617 lineage and the L452R-Y453F mutations are characterized by minimal fluctuations, which is comparable to mutations in the B.1.351 lineage that show a high volume of fluctuations. The secondary structures of proteins, such as alpha (a) helices and beta (b) sheets, have a significant role in the proteins stability, with mutations such as S494P in the B.1.1.7 variant being quite stable. The B.1.617 variant, which was first detected in India, was initially labeled as a double mutant, as it consists of two mutations (E484Q, L452R) from different lineages.

Protein-level structure mutations, such as those that cause coils to transform into b sheets, are often intricate. As a result, these mutations, as well as methods that can be used for their inhibition, must be extensively studied in order to manipulate them for vaccine and therapeutic drug development purposes.

These findings are helpful when investigating infectious variants of SARS-CoV-2 as it will improve the understanding of antibody cross-reactivity and also help with producing inhibitors with specific therapeutic targets. When certain mutations have enhanced stabilities, as has been seen in the emerging variants, there can be significant consequences to the production of vaccines and therapeutic agents. Subsequently, investigating the structures of these variants at both the amino acid and protein levels can provide insight into how this can affect the transmissibility of the virus.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Researchers in the UK have provided important new insights into the early stages of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)  the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The teams quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 replication dynamics at the single-cell level revealed a previously unrecognized variability among cells in supporting SARS-CoV-2 replication.

The researchers were also surprised to find that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 (Alpha) that first emerged in the UK replicates more slowly than the Victoria isolate  an early variant that is related to the original strain isolated in Wuhan, China.

Ilan Davis and colleagues say this finding suggests that a novel mechanism contributes to the increased transmissibility of B.1.1.7.

A pre-print version of the research paper is available on the bioRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review.

More about the SARS-CoV-2 genome

The SARS-CoV-2 genome consists of a positive-sense single-strand RNA of 30 kilobases that encodes a plethora of viral proteins.

The virus primarily targets the respiratory tract and infection is mediated by the viral spike protein when it binds to the host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2).

Following host cell entry, the first step in the replicative life cycle is the translation of the genomic RNA (gRNA) to form the replicase complex, enabling the synthesis of further positive gRNA copies. In addition, a series of shorter sub-genomic (sg)RNAs is also synthesized that encodes the spike, nucleocapsid and envelope structural proteins, as well as non-structural proteins.

Despite their essential role in establishing productive infection, these early steps in the SARS-CoV-2 replicative life cycle are currently poorly understood.

Typically, analyses of viral replication are performed using in-bulk approaches such as reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and conventional RNA sequencing.

While very informative, these approaches lack spatial information and do not allow single-cell analyses, says Ilan and colleagues. The kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 RNA replication and transcription during the early phase of infection are not well understood and lack quantitative, spatial and temporal information on the genesis of gRNA and sgRNAs, writes the team.

Concerns surrounding variants of concern

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, several variants of concern (VOC) have emerged containing mutations that increase transmissibility and confer immune escape.

Given the current status of the pandemic, there has been a global effort to understand the biology of emergent VOC with high transmission rates and possible resistance to neutralizing antibodies, say the researchers.

The majority of studies have so far focused on mutations within the spike protein, since they can alter host cell entry and susceptibility to infection- or vaccine-induced immunity.

However, some of the mutations map to non-structural proteins, and it is thus plausible that they impact viral replication dynamics, writes the team.

What did the current study involve?

Ilan and colleagues developed a single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridization (smFISH) method that enabled them to visualize SARS-CoV-2 RNAs with high sensitivity and spatial precision.

Using this powerful new approach, the team quantified positive-sense RNA genomes with 95% detection efficiency while simultaneously visualizing negative-sense genomes, sub-genomic RNAs, and viral proteins.

Sensitive single-molecule detection of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA in infected cells. (A) Schematic illustration of single-molecule fluorescence in situ hybridisation (smFISH) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 positive-strand genomic RNA (+gRNA) within infected cells. (B) Reference spatial profile of a diffraction-limited +ORF1a smFISH spot. The gradient legend represents relative fluorescence intensity (top). Frequency distribution of smFISH spot intensities, exhibiting a unimodal distribution (bottom). (C) Assessment of smFISH detection sensitivity by a dual-color co-detection method. Maximum intensity projected images and corresponding FISH-quant spot detection views of ODD and EVEN probe sets are shown. Scale bar = 5 m. Density histogram of nearest11 neighbour distance from one spectral channel to another (top). Vertical line indicates 300 nm distance. Percentage overlap between spots detected by ODD and EVEN split probes, calculated bidirectionally (bottom). (D) Heatmap of probe sequence alignment against various Coronaviridae and host transcriptomes. Each column represents individual 20 nt +ORF1a probe sequences. The minimum edit distance represents mismatch scores, where 0 indicates a perfect match. Melting temperatures of each probe at the smFISH hybridization condition are shown. (E) Experimental design for visualizing SARS-CoV-2 gRNA with smFISH at different time points after infection of Vero E6 cells. Cells were seeded on cover-glass and 24 h later, inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 (Victoria strain at MOI 1) for 2 h. Non-internalized viruses were removed by trypsin digestion and cells fixed at the timepoints shown. Representative 4 m maximum intensity projection confocal images are shown. Numbers at the bottom left corner indicate dynamic contrast range used to display the image. Magnified view of insets in the upper panels are shown in lower panels. Scale bars = 10 m or 2 m.

What did they find?

The team found that SARS-CoV-2 gRNA persisted in the presence of the antiviral drug remdesivir, indicating a long half-life.

The researchers say this could reflect the high secondary structure of the RNA genome that may be refractory to degradation by cellular nucleases.

The study revealed that SARS-CoV-2 replication was highly variable between cells, with only a small proportion displaying a high burden of viral RNA.

The researchers say that recent sequencing studies of SARS-CoV-2-infected bronchial cultures identified ciliated cells as the primary target. However, only a minority of these cells contained viral RNA that may reflect variation in susceptibility.

Ilan and colleagues say that since the human respiratory tract encompasses the nasal passage, large and small airways, and bronchioles, knowledge of the specific cell types and their SARS-CoV-2 RNA burden is limited.

Applying smFISH to clinical biopsies and experimentally-infected animal samples will allow us to address this important question, they write.

An unexpected finding about B.1.1.7

Unexpectedly, the analysis revealed that the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant exhibited significantly slower replication kinetics than the Victoria isolate, yielding a lower number of gRNA and sgRNA copies per cell, fewer viral replication factories, and a lower frequency of super-permissive cells.

The team says a recent longitudinal study of nasopharyngeal swabs showed that B.1.1.7 was associated with longer infection times while showing similar peak viral loads to non-B.1.1.7 variants.

The authors of that study suggested that this extended duration of viral shedding may contribute to increased transmissibility, which Ilan and colleagues say would be consistent with their data showing reduced replication of B.1.1.7 at the single-cell level.

Replication fitness will be defined by the relationship of the virus with its host cell, say the researchers.

While aggressive replication may trigger cellular antiviral sensors, reduced replication may enable the virus to replicate and persist for longer before host antiviral sensors are triggered.

Such differences, and their impact on host antiviral responses, are likely to be of key importance for our understanding of the success of viral variants to spread through the population, concludes the team.

*Important Notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
A new study shows that colleges students are experiencing significant grief reactions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper, "College Student Experiences of Grief and Loss Amid the COVID-19 Global Pandemic," was recently published in OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying.

This study aimed to identify the most common non-death losses and grief reactions experienced by undergraduate and graduate college students amid the pandemic. What we found is that students across the U.S., even those who may not have experienced a COVID-related death, still reported a considerable number of losses and grief reactions, including avoidance and loss of control. This presents a need for practitioners to provide additional support to college students, especially those who experienced cumulative losses during the pandemic." Erica H. Sirrine, Ph.D., Author, Director of Social Work, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Sirrine, a clinical social worker and grief expert, led this research while serving as dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida.
The initial outbreak of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in humans is widely thought to be of zoonotic origin. Zoonosis occurs when a pathogen that derives from animals jumps to, and successfully transmits between, human hosts.

A commonly subscribed to hypothesis during the early onset of the pandemic was a possible spillover event during close human contact with wild animals at a wet market in Wuhan, China, where the virus was first detected in December 2019.

While subsequent phylogenetic evidence has largely problematized this initial thesis, most of the worlds scientific community is still fairly certain that SARS-CoV-2 had jumped to human hosts via wild animals. This was potentially through an intermediary host that contracted the virus from horseshoe bats (a common reservoir for betacoronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2).

Some investigations of the types of animals that are susceptible to this type of coronavirus  or that can act as zoonotic reservoirs  have already been undertaken. These have aimed both to try and get closer to understanding the precise origins of the present pandemic, but also to conduct risk assessments on potential future zoonotic spillovers of SARS-CoV-2 so that we may avoid these sorts of calamitous outbreaks in the future. Of particular concern is the viruss ability to advantageously evolve within animal hosts and then jump back to humans through immunity-evading mutations.

This said, research into how the virus has affected wildlife species is currently limited. However, this may be crucial to determining whether wildlife species can serve as reservoirs for retaining the virus.

In new research attempting to address this issue, peridomestic mammals, which live in and around human habitations, have been investigated to ascertain how SARS-CoV-2 can affect species external to, but in close proximity with, the human population.

This study  conducted by researchers at the Colorado State University, USA, and the University of Queensland, Australia  has been published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.

Peridomestic mammals

Peridomestic animals may include wild and feral animals which reside near humans and can be seen as a key component for researching the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.

The importance of understanding how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with peridomestic mammals is underscored when assessing their associations with humans and the modification of their habitats due to human intervention. These species are at the highest risk of exposure to the virus from humans, which can be said even in pets such as cats.

Subsequently, if these species were to be susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they may have the capacity to replicate and spread this to a high titer, which may lead to the virus being maintained in the species and could result in shedding and being transmitted back into humans. This could possibly lead to an outbreak with new viral variants and populations being led back into a pandemic.

Susceptibility to viruses

Mammals that can display peridomestic characteristics within urban and suburban environments can include wild rodents, cottontail rabbits, raccoons and striped skunks. Research has shown these species to shed influenza A viruses after experimental inoculations, suggesting their ability to harbor productive infections when exposed to other human infectious respiratory viruses (like SARS-CoV-2).

Protein analyses of amino acid residues of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) host cell receptor and the viral spike protein suggest that carnivores and wild rodents are within high-risk groups regarding susceptibility to the virus. However, when investigating which specific species is susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the research is more complex.

Rodents are the largest and most diverse order of mammals which makes susceptibility to the virus more varied within the same species. Non-transgenic mice are predominantly found to be unsusceptible to infection. However, transgenic humanized mice and hamsters, as well as Syrian hamsters, are found to be highly susceptible to infections. One previous study found that Roborovki dwarf hamsters exposed to infection resulted in disease and death after three days.

Findings

The research, published in the CDC journal, assessed six common peridomestic rodents for their level of susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, which included deer mice, wild-caught house mice, bushy-tailed woodrats, fox squirrels, Wyoming ground squirrels, and black-tailed prairie dogs. These animals are commonly found in the United States and have close contact with humans as well as human residences. Another three peridomestic mammals  cottontail rabbits, raccoons, and striped skunks  which may have less interaction with humans but are still commonly found were also assessed.

The research findings consisted of illustrating that peridomestic species such as deer mice, bushy-tailed woodrats and striped skunks are susceptible to being infected by SARS-CoV-2 and have the ability to shed the virus in respiratory secretions. However, other peridomestic mammals such as cottontail rabbits, fox squirrels, Wyoming ground squirrels, black-tailed prairie dogs, house mice and raccoons were found not to be susceptible to the virus.

The animals were all assessed daily for the temperament and clinical signs of disease before conclusions were drawn. The results of this study confirm previous research into the susceptibility of animals, such as deer mice. The researchers conclude that most wildlife exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus manifest with either no or mild symptoms of the clinical disease. Additionally, they either did not shed the virus or shed the virus for short periods of time.

The researchers acknowledge that while some rodents may be found to be potential reservoirs for the virus, the study has limitations of being unrepresentative due to the high doses provided to the animals. This may not be reflective of reality which relies on the available dose within nature, as this may be lower than what was provided in this study.

However, due to the susceptibility of some peridomestic animals, the researchers recommend the development of safety guidelines that can ensure the safety of humans and their pets. This can include risk assessing occupational hazards when working with or around susceptible animals in areas of contact such as barns and sheds. This may require personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent exposure from any type of pathogen that these rodents may carry. Safety is always of paramount importance, and action should be cautioned when interacting with susceptible animals, especially during the ongoing pandemic.

This study has provided insight into how human and wildlife interactions can result in a continual circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in both animals and humans and the likelihood of susceptibility from this interaction.
Vaccination efforts against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the culprit behind the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, have commenced in most countries. SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence data was shared through GISAID on 10 January 2020, and on 19 March, the global pharmaceutical industry announced a major commitment to address COVID-19.

Currently, 18 vaccines are approved by a national regulatory authority for use by the public as of June 2021. As a result of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, the spread, severity, and death due to COVID-19 have significantly been reduced. Phase III trials have shown that several COVID-19 vaccines reduce symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections by as much as 95%.

Some of the vaccines include new messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines like the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, also known as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The BNT162b2 vaccine induces spike protein-specific neutralizing antibodies tied to protective immunity.

Researchers at the Institute of Biomedicine, the University of Turku in Finland showed that the blood of BNT162b2-vaccinated health care workers effectively neutralized the SARS-CoV-2 variant with the D614G substitution and the B.1.1.7 variant (Alpha variant) after the second dose.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrated that the neutralization of the B.1.351 variant or the Beta variant has been reduced five-fold. However, despite the decrease, 92 percent of the seronegative vaccinees have a neutralization titer of more than 20 for the B.1.351 variant, showing some protection.

COVID-19 vaccination

Currently, many countries are vaccinating residents against SARS-CoV-2. To date, more than 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines target the spike protein (S), which binds and invades healthy host cells. Currently, two messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines (BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273) and two adenoviral vector-based vaccines (ChAdOx1-S by AstraZeneca-Oxford and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen by Janssen Biologics B.V. and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV) are approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in Europe.

The vaccines are designed to produce spike protein-specific antibodies and induce anti-S immunoglobulin G (IgG) with neutralizing activity against the first pandemic SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan Hu-1 variant and the currently circulating D614G variants.

However, the recent emergence of new variants of concern, including the B.1.1.7 or Alpha variant in the United Kingdom and the B.1.351 variant or the Beta variant that was first reported in South Africa, has raised concerns about increased infectivity and reduced vaccine efficacy. Also, these variants are characterized by eight to ten protein changes in the S protein, where vaccine-induced antibodies are targeted.

BNT162b2 vaccine-induced antibody responses

To arrive at the study findings, the researchers characterized the BNT162b2 vaccine-induced antibody responses in the sera of 180 Finnish healthcare workers who received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine with three weeks intervals.

From there, they checked for SARS-CoV-2 S1-specific IgG, Immunoglobulin A (IgA), and the immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody responses and neutralization titers for three SARS-CoV-2 variants, namely the D614G, B.1.1.7, and the B.1.351 variants.

The team revealed that receiving a two-dose vaccination yields high levels of anti-S1 IgG antibodies in 100 percent of the vaccinees. Further, the team noted that the second vaccine dose induces antibodies for efficient neutralization of the D614G and the B.1.1.7, while the titers for the B.1.351 variant were lower.

The study showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is highly immunogenic, and particularly after two vaccine doses, all vaccinees showed a very high humoral immune response to D614G variant viruses, the researchers noted in the study. All vaccines that have currently obtained market authorization in the E.U. show excellent protective efficacy against severe COVID-19. Thus, it is very likely that immunogenicity results similar to those presented here will be applicable to them as well, they added.

The team recommends that future studies should tackle the development and persistence of cell-mediated immunity. As more people become vaccinated, the team plans to systemically collect serum and cellular samples to compare analyses about vaccine-induced immunity, the longevity of vaccine, natural infection-induced immunity, and cross-protection.
Contrary to what science once suggested, older people with a declining sense of smell do not have comprehensively dampened olfactory ability for odors in general - it simply depends upon the type of odor. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reached this conclusion after examining a large group of older Danes' and their intensity perception of common food odours.

That grandpa and grandma aren't as good at smelling as they once were, is something that many can relate to. And, it has also been scientifically demonstrated. One's sense of smell gradually begins to decline from about the age of 55. Until now, it was believed that one's sense of smell broadly declined with increasing age. However, a study from the University of Copenhagen reports that certain food odors are significantly more affected than others.

The Department of Food Science's Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge and her fellow researchers have tested the ability of older Danes to perceive everyday food odors. The researchers measured how intensely older adults perceived different food odors, as well as how much they liked the odors.

Our study shows that the declining sense of smell among older adults is more complex than once believed. While their ability to smell fried meat, onions and mushrooms is markedly weaker, they smell orange, raspberry and vanilla just as well as younger adults. Thus, a declining sense of smell in older adults seems rather odor specific. What is really interesting is that how much you like an odor is not necessarily dependent on theintensity perception." Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, Researcher, Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen

For example, liking of seemed to be largely unaffected for fried meat, onions and mushrooms, despite the largest decline in intensity perception was seen for these specific odors. Also the ability to smell coffee declined, among other things, though they didn't like the aroma of coffee to the same degree as younger adults.

The test subjects included 251 Danes between the ages of 60 and 98 and a control group consisting of 92 people between the ages of 20 and 39.

What's the story?

The researchers can only speculate as to why the declining sense of smell in older adults seems to be odors specific, and why, in some cases, liking is largely unaffected. However, they can only speculate of why the intensity decline was most pronounced for fried meat, onions and mushrooms - foods that are referred to as 'savory' or umami in nature.

"This may be due to the fact that these are common food odours in which saltiness or umami is a dominant taste element. It is widely recognized that salty is the basic taste most affected by aging. Since taste and smell are strongly associated when it comes to food, our perception of aroma may be disturbed if one's taste perception of saltiness is impaired to begin with," explains Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

Health and quality of life

The researchers hope that their findings can be deployed by those working to improve the meals and dining experiences of older adults. Figures show that half of those over 65 admitted to Danish hospitals are malnourished. The same applies to one in five nursing home residents.

While the sense of smell is important for stimulating appetite and our serotonin levels as well, according to Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, our study demonstrates that the sensitivity of one's sense of smell need not be decisive. For several of the food odours, the respondent's liking of an odour remained unchanged, even while their ability to perceive it had declined.

"Our results show that as long as a food odour is recognizable, its intensity will not determine whether or not you like it. So, if one wants to improve food experiences of older adults, it is more relevant to pay attention to what they enjoy eating than it is to wonder about which aromas seem weaker to them," concludes Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

The study is published in the scientific journal Food Quality and Preference.

Facts:

The study was conducted in the Future Consumer Lab at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Food Science by Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, Karin Wendin, Morten A. Rasmussen and Wender Bredie.

The study involved 251 Danish older adults from five different regions. The test subjects were aged 60-98. As a control group, 92 people between the ages of 20 and 39 took part.

Instead of using odours of chemical origin, which is commonly the procedure when testing the sense of smell, Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge developed a test kit including 14 natural food odours familiar from everyday life, including bacon, onions, toast, asparagus, coffee, cinnamon, orange and vanilla. The odours were made primarily from essential oils and presented to test subjects by sniffing sticks.

The food odours were chosen based upon commonly consumed foods and dishes that older people often eat and enjoy most according to meal plans and surveys from a Danish catering company that provides food for the elderly.

The study is part of the ELDORADO project. The project aims to study how Danish municipalities can increase the desire of elderly people living at home to eat more, so as to help them avoid becoming malnourished. The ELDORADO project is based at the Department of Food Science and led by Wender Bredie.
FairJourney Biologics S.A. (FJB), leaders in the discovery and optimization of antibodies, today announced the launch of the THE ANTIBODY SERIES - a 1-day conference bringing together top experts in the antibody field to explore the latest innovation within antibody drug discovery. The conference is being launched in Porto, Portugal, celebrating FairJourney Biologics inauguration of their new purpose built, state-of-the-art facilities. Online registration to the event has been made available free for a limited period here: https://www.fjb.pt/the-antibody-series

THE ANTIBODY SERIES takes place on September 9th 2021 (8:45 am BST) and will play host to a panel of influential and international speakers ranging from Biotechs, Universities and Nobel Prize Laureate including:

Sir Gregory Winter, Winner of the 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize

Hans Clevers (Principal Investigator at The Hubrecht Institute)

Ton Logtenberg (University Medical Center Utrecht)

John McCafferty (CSO at IONTAS)

Maria Pajuelo (CSO at FJB)

Daniela Teixeira (COO at FJB)

Teresa Barata (Head of Protein Production and Characterization at Flow Eighteen38)

Allan Jensen (Vice President at Lundbeck)

Mihri Tuna (CSO at Adaptate)

Tatiana Novobrantseva (Co-founder and CSO at Verseau)

Tim Van Hauwermeiren (CEO at argenx)

THE ANTIBODY SERIES will be broadcast live from Porto to enable audiences globally the chance to participate and watch the conference, with the in-person event attended by notable invitees from Industry and Academia..
For most patients, the reasons for having a facelift are simple: to "turn back the clock" for a younger and more attractive appearance. Even during the pandemic year 2020, more than 234,000 patients underwent facelift surgery, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) statistics.

When considering facelift surgery, patients may ask, "How much younger will I look?" For plastic surgeons, that has been a difficult question to answer. Typically, the cosmetic outcomes of facelifting have been judged on a case-by-case basis, or with the use of subjective ratings.

Now research suggests a new, objective approach to assessing the reduction in apparent age after facelift surgery: artificial intelligence (AI) networks trained to estimate age based on facial photos.

"Our study shows that currently available AI algorithms can recognize the success of facelifting, and even put a number on the reduction in years of perceived age," comments senior author James P. Bradley, MD, Vice Chairman of Surgery, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. The study is published in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the ASPS.

The study used a type of AI algorithm called convolutional neural networks.

By training on datasets containing millions of public images, these neural networks can learn to discern facial features with much higher 'experience' than a typical person." James P. Bradley, MD, Study Senior Author and Vice Chairman, Surgery, Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell

Four different, publicly available neural networks were used to make objective age estimates of facial age for 50 patients who underwent facelifting. The AI estimates were made using standardized photos taken before and at least one year after facelift surgery. The results were compared with patients' subjective ratings of their appearance, along with responses to a standard patient-rated evaluation (FACE-Q questionnaire).

The patients were all women, average age 58.7 years. The AI algorithms used in the study were 100 percent accurate in identifying the patients' age, based on "before" photos.

In the "after" photos, the neural networks recognized a 4.3-year reduction in age after facelift surgery. That was substantially less than the 6.7-year reduction, as rated by patients themselves. "Patients may tend to overestimate how much younger they look after facelift surgery - perhaps reflecting their emotional and financial investment in the procedure," Dr. Bradley comments.

On the FACE-Q questionnaire, patients were highly satisfied with the results of their facelift surgery: average scores (on a 0-to-100 scale) were 75 for facial appearance and over 80 for quality of life. Neural network estimates of age reduction were directly correlated with patient satisfaction. "The younger the AI program perceives a patient's age, the greater their satisfaction with the results of their facelift," says Dr. Bradley.

Artificial intelligence algorithms can provide an objective and reliable estimate of the apparent reduction in age after facelift surgery, the new findings suggest. These age estimates also seem to provide an indicator of patient satisfaction scores - even if the reduction in years doesn't quite match the patient's own subjective rating.

"Together with powerful image analysis tools used in modern plastic surgery, neural networks may play a useful role in counseling patients and demonstrating successful results of facial rejuvenation procedures," Dr. Bradley adds. "We think that AI algorithms could also play a useful role for plastic surgeons in assessing their own results and comparing the outcomes of different techniques."
A recent University of Arizona College of Pharmacy study suggests that Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) may be a valuable means of assessing clinical skills while providing learning experiences for pharmacy students in community pharmacy settings.

While the OSCEs were designed to assess health care professionals in a clinical setting, there was limited data on its use in testing skills required in community pharmacies, until now.

For pharmacists working in retail, guiding patients on the use of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs is a common part of the job. According to a recent survey from the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), pharmacists make an average of 29 OTC recommendations each week, and approximately 81% of consumers purchase an OTC product their pharmacists recommended. As the profession evolves to providing more patient care services, there is a continued need for pharmacy curricula to maintain pace.

Self-Care Pharmacotherapeutics, a course required by the UArizona Doctor of Pharmacy program, teaches students the appropriate use of medications for self-care inquiries including selection of medications, appropriate dosing, and analysis of safety in a community pharmacy setting.

But there was limited information on how best to assess the skills taught during this training. Seeking to fill this gap, a study by College of Pharmacy Assistant Professors Bernadette Cornelison, PharmD, MS, BCPS, and Beth Zerr, PharmD, BCACP, evaluated the use of a community pharmacy-based OSCE in assessing pharmacy students in their first year. The analysis found that students and facilitators believed the OSCE tested the skills needed to provide care in a community setting.

We teach the self-care therapeutics course in the first semester of the first year in pharmacy school. We felt it was important to innovate and evaluate new ways of teaching that would educate the students and, hopefully, help them retain information." Bernadette Cornelison, PharmD, MS, BCPS, Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, also found that the design of the simulation reflected the accurate amount of time a student intern would have to complete the Pharmacist' Patient Care Process (PPCP). This finding further demonstrates that the PPCP can be applied to patients even when time may seem limited. The standardization of this process is an important step in advancing pharmacists as recognized patient care providers across the country.

Drs. Cornelison and Zerr say the results show a strong case for fully implementing OSCEs in program curricula and are hopeful other colleges of pharmacy will, too.
Previous studies have shown that cats and dogs can catch coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from their owners, but new research attempting to understand how and why this occurs shows sleeping with the owner puts pets at risk.

Cat sleeping on owner's bed. Image Credit: Ellyy/Shutterstock.com

Exploring the origin and outcomes of COVID-19 infection in household pets

Recent clinical evidence has shown that people with COVID-19 frequently pass it on to their pets. During the onset of the pandemic, concerns were raised on the possibility of COVID-19 transmission between people and their pets. Although this mode of transmission was deemed of limited severity, research has yet to determine the mechanism and outcomes of disease transmission when it occurs.

New research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), suggests that infection rates can vary between pets, and that specific activities may increase the risk of infection. Specifically, the event that poses the highest infection risk appears to be when cats sleep on their owner's bed.

The research conducted by Dorothee Bienzle, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues, studied the cats and dogs of people who had had COVID-19.

Antibodies to COVID-19 were tested from 48 cats and 54 dogs from 77 households to determine whether pets had experienced previous infection and owners were then surveyed about how they interacted with their pets. Additionally, 75 dogs and cats living in an animal shelter and 75 stray cats that had been seen at a low-cost veterinary clinic were also tested for antibodies.

Surveys included questions on whether owners petted them and kissed them and allowed them to sit on their lap or sleep in their bed as well as whether owners allowed their pet to kiss them or lick them on the face and how long they spent with their pet each day. Additionally, other questions included if their pet had become ill when the owners had COVID-19 and the range of symptoms the animal experienced.

Cats more at risk of infection than dogs, and susceptibility increases with time spent with infected owner

The results of the antibody test and surveys showed varying results between pets and activities.

Of the pets tested, 67% of household cats and 43% of household dogs tested positive for antibodies, showing they had had COVID-19.

Contrastingly, only 9% of dogs and cats from animal shelters and 3% of stray cats showed antibody responses. This shows that the most likely route of disease transmission is from human to pet, rather than the other way round.

For dogs, 20% showed symptoms during illness including a lack of energy and loss of appetite, with some animals also experiencing coughs and diarrhea. However, all symptoms were mild and animals quickly recovered.

When looking at their associated surveys, the time spent between the owner and their dog as well as the type of contact had no effects on the animal's chance of getting infected.

For cats, however, 27% showed symptoms including runny noses and difficulty breathing. Most cases were mild but 3 of the tested cases were severe.

When looking at their associated surveys, the time spent between the owner and their cat did increase the risk of infection. Specifically, data showed that when cays slept on their owners bed, cats were highly likely to be infected.

The authors of the study assume that it is the biology of cats including their viral receptors that make them more susceptible to COVID-19 than dogs. Moreover, cats also tend to sleep closer to the face of owners than dogs, increasing their exposure to any infection.

If someone has COVID-19 there is a surprisingly high chance they will pass it on to their pet. Cats, especially those that sleep on their owner's bed, seem to be particularly vulnerable. So, if you have COVID-19, I'd advise that you keep your distance from your pet - and keep it out of your bedroom. I'd also recommend that you keep your pet away from other people and pets. While the evidence that pets can pass the virus on to other pets is limited, it can't be excluded. Similarly, although pets have not been shown to pass the virus back to people, the possibility can't be completely ruled out." Professor Bienzle

Studies exploring the effects of COVID-19 on household pets could consider a wider variety of pets across different geographic areas, which could provide further insight into differences in pet treatment and how it affects infection transmission as shown in this study.
A recent study. published in the MPDI journal Diagnostics, discusses the specific antibody response that occurred in individuals after they had received the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine. In this study, a potent antibody response after vaccination was observed with age-, time- and sex-related differences.

Study: Evaluation of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S-RBD IgG Antibodies after COVID-19 mRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock.com

Introduction

Serological evaluations have traditionally assisted physicians and scientists in assessing the efficacy of vaccines or the immune system to defend individuals against various infections. More recently, these types of studies have been used to estimate vaccine efficacy against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

As of July 1, 2021, which is over 1.5 years since SARS-CoV-2 was originally detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, COVID-19 has been responsible for over 182 million infections and almost 4 million deaths worldwide. The fight against COVID-19 has brought scientists from around the world together to develop effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, which have already been distributed in many countries worldwide.

To successfully bring the global population out of this pandemic, it is essential that the effects of these vaccines are widely studied and understood. However, the antibody response in COVID-19 patients and, especially in vaccinated subjects, remains largely unknown.

Evaluating S-RBD antibody levels post-vaccination

Recently, a group of Italian researchers evaluated the antibody levels in a large cohort to estimate the individual protection against the SARS-CoV-2. The individuals consisted of recipients of the COVID-19 mRNA BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine, with or without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as recovered COVID-19 patients who did not receive the vaccination. The researchers investigated the demographic characteristics and anti-S protein- receptor-binding domain (S-RBD) immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels in the three groups and tabulated them in the paper.

This observational, single-center study was performed at the University Hospital P. Giaccone of Palermo, Italy between February 2021 to May 2021. Taken together, a total of 2,607 subjects were included in this study.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest sample size study performed on the Italian population to date.

Notable SARS-CoV-2 protein targets

The spike (S) and the nucleocapsid (N) proteins are the most potent immunogens among the SARS-CoV-2 proteins. The RBD of the S protein interacts directly with the host receptors and facilitates viral entry. Several COVID-19 serological diagnostic tests have been developed to detect antibodies that are against all or part of the N or S proteins of SARS-CoV-2.

Although SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce the production of antibodies recognizing different viral antigens, antibodies directed against the RBD are the most relevant due to their neutralizing activityIt is noteworthy that the evaluation of antibodies against S-RBD IgG is the most important to assess the protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their neutralizing activity.

Schematic illustration of postulated mechanism modulating SARS-CoV-2 attachment, fusion and neutralizing activity of anti-S-RBD IgG SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. (A) Structural components SARS-CoV-2: Envelop Protein (E), Membrane glycoprotein (M), Nucleocapside protein (N), RiboNucleic Acid (RNA), Spike protein (S). (B) Binding of Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD) to the Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) Receptor. (C) Inhibition of S-RBD binding to the ACE2 receptor by neutralizing anti-S-RBD IgG antibodies.

Study findings

Using an indirect chemiluminescence immunoassay, the researchers found that antibodies against S-RBD were lower in individuals who were previously infected as compared to those who were vaccinated, with or without previous infection. Notably, a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination was not found to affect the anti-S-RBD IgG levels.

Anti S-RBD IgG levels in the three groups investigated * p < 0.001 vs. COVID-19 recovered group, Bonferronis correction.

It was also reported that anti-RBD IgG levels were higher in females than males at 2,110 vs. 1,341 binding antibody units (BAU)/mL, respectively.

Anti S-RBD IgG levels in subjects sub-grouped according to sex (* p < 0.001 vs. men).

The researchers also reported that antibody levels were higher in individuals who complained of symptoms like local/muscle pain, respiratory stress, and other systemic reactions post-vaccination as compared to those who were asymptomatic after their vaccination. This finding, therefore, affirms that this specific vaccine can successfully elicit robust immune responses. It should also be noted that lower antibody levels were detected in older individuals as compared to younger test subjects.

Anti S-RBD IgG levels in subjects sub-grouped by age.

These findings, therefore, support the monitoring of both men and the elderly following their vaccination. To this end, earlier revaccination and/or an increase in the vaccine dose may be warranted to ensure stronger and long-lasting immunity, as well as extended protection against SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers also noted a significant decrease in anti-RBD IgG levels within a short period from a complete two-dose cycle vaccination. This rapid antibody decay rate within a short period after a completed two-dose vaccine cycle was not influenced by age and sex.

Conclusion

Since the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed recently, other important questions must be addressed, including the durability of protection over a long period after vaccination and the determination of the effect of a booster dose to extend the duration of immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

To summarize, this large observational study showed that a robust antibody response occurs after the administration of the mRNA BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine that was characterized by good antibody production with age- and sex-related differences. Evaluating the humoral response to the vaccine is vital to understand the efficacy of the vaccine and, consequently, to tailor the optimal vaccination strategy.
Thought Leaders Professor Simon Davies

Professor Raymond Vanholder

In this interview, News-Medical speaks to Professor Simon Davies and Professor Raymond Vanholder about the impact of COVID-19 on kidney dialysis patients.

Please could you introduce yourself and tell us about your expertise within kidney disease and dialysis?

Simon:

I have been working in the field of kidney disease and dialysis for 35 years and I am currently a Professor of Nephrology and Dialysis Medicine and Keele University, UK, and a consultant Nephrologist based at the University Hospital of North Midlands (Stoke on Trent).

I have particular expertise in peritoneal dialysis  the main form of dialysis done in the patients home  and my research has ranged from experimental translation work (e.g. on how the peritoneal membrane works and is affected by the dialysis process) to more generally how best to use dialysis to control the amount of fluid in the body, and more recently on the factors leading to the discrepancy in the use of home dialysis  both in the UK and internationally.

I am currently chief investigator of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded Inter-CEPt study (1m) designed to understand why there are discrepancies in the use of home therapies in the UK to create interventions that will reduce this. This is multidisciplinary research involving co-investigators at Keele, Birmingham, and Sheffield Universities.

Raymond:

I am a nephrologist and general internist for more than 30 years. I have been mostly involved in research on clinical nephrology, dialysis, dialysis adequacy, biochemistry of uremia, and acute kidney injury. I was head of the Nephrology Section of the Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics of Ghent University Hospital in Belgium until my retirement in 2014, and am a past president of the Belgian Society of Nephrology (BVN), the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO) and the European Renal Association (ERA  previously ERA-EDTA).

Since my retirement, I am president of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA), a Brussels-based NGO defending the case of kidney patients and the nephrological community at the level of the European Union (EU) and the national level. I also chair European Chronic Disease Alliance, another NGO and umbrella organization bringing together 12 European Chronic Disease Societies. Apart from writing scientific opinion papers, my activities currently focus on advocacy for kidney diseases and chronic diseases at the European level.

Kidney Disease. Image Credit: crystal light/Shutterstock.com

Globally, 1 in 10 people have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and the number of people with advanced kidney disease is rising, but there are still over 2.5 million people that do not have access to lifesaving treatments. Why is this, and what can be done to help ensure everyone has equal access to lifesaving treatments such as dialysis?

Simon:

Dialysis is an expensive treatment. There is no country in the world in which there is equitable access to dialysis that does this without including dialysis within a universal healthcare coverage system  and many countries do not have this. Even if they have universal healthcare, they may not include dialysis within this, preferring to spend their money on interventions that are more cost-effective  in particular the prevention of progression to dialysis. Some of these treatments work well and are very cost-effective.

However, many people still need dialysis treatment. In countries without universal healthcare then only those who can afford it will have dialysis  and sadly many families run out of money  so-called catastrophic healthcare expenditure: the money runs out, the patient dies, the family is bankrupt  the term dialysis is an expensive funeral has been used.

So, to ensure equal access to this life-saving treatment, the most important thing is a comprehensive healthcare coverage system that is set up to provide dialysis. There are ways of doing this  e.g. a government scheme to provide dialysis as cost-effectively as possible (and some countries have elected to do this with home peritoneal dialysis  so-called PD first policy  e.g. Hong Kong, Thailand), others develop public-private partnerships with dialysis provision companies, others rely on a mixed model of health insurance schemes  often based around the individual's employer scheme (e.g. mainland China).

Raymond:

For a large number of people and countries, dialysis is too expensive and it is also difficult for several of them to properly organize kidney replacement therapy for as many people as possible. In addition, many countries do not offer (or insufficiently offer) the optimal option of kidney transplantation, not enabling them to become independent of dialysis one day.

The consequence is that many patients with chronic kidney disease in lower-income countries do not get dialysis, or die on dialysis, quite often after a few weeks or months, when they and their family run out of financial resources. Even in Europe and the US, where dialysis is reimbursed for all or most patients, certain social groups (migrants, refugees) are probably missing treatment, and many more miss the most appropriate treatment option. The best way to circumvent these problems is to avoid for as many as possible that they develop kidney disease or the diseases causing them (e.g. diabetes, hypertension) by primary prevention via healthy lifestyle, or, if kidney disease nevertheless develops, to stop or refrain progression to dialysis by secondary prevention.

Prevention is underexploited worldwide. For those still in need of dialysis, to ensure optimal access, cheaper and simpler dialysis options are needed, whereas financial pressure can further be alleviated by properly organizing transplantation programs.

Peritoneal dialysis would be an ideal solution, were it not that in many low income and middle-income countries, no local production of peritoneal dialysis fluids exists, so that they have to import those fluids which increases cost due to import taxes and long-distance transport. Hence, local production of peritoneal dialysis fluids would be another solution.

What is dialysis and what dialysis methods are currently available for patients?

Simon:

Dialysis is a treatment for kidney failure designed to replace some of the functions of the kidney. The most important of these is the removal of toxins (that accumulate from metabolism) and the fluid that we drink.

There are two main ways of doing this, hemodialysis  which is extra-corporeal, i.e. a dialysis machine takes the blood of the patient out of the body, passes it through a filter and returns it minus some toxins and with less water, and peritoneal dialysis, which is intra-corporeal  i.e. it uses the patients own peritoneal membrane (which is the lining of the abdominal cavity) as the dialysis membrane  by placing a couple of liters of dialysis fluid in the abdomen  and exchanging this fluid every few hours once it has equilibrated with the blood.

Raymond:

When the kidneys fail too much, metabolites that normally are excreted by the kidneys, accumulate in the body. These intoxicate the body causing complications, e.g. accelerated cardiovascular disease, resulting in premature death, unless these metabolites are removed. Dialysis is a way to accomplish this removal. Metabolites are removed through a membrane through which those metabolites shift from the blood to pure water that flows at the other side of the membrane.

In the case of hemodialysis, the membrane is a manufactured chemical structure and the water is mechanically pumped through the system; in the case of peritoneal dialysis (PD), the membrane is natural, i.e. the patients own peritoneum, and the water is instilled in the abdomen either manually or by a machine. With advanced kidney failure, patients also tend to accumulate fluid that should be removed. This occurs for hemodialysis by regulating pressures within the system forcing extra fluid through the membrane or for PD by adding osmotic agents to the dialysis fluid that cause plasma water to shift from the bloodstream to the dialysis fluid.

Peritoneal dialysis usually is performed at home; hemodialysis can be performed remotely from home in a center, either linked to a hospital or not, or at home. Worldwide, the large majority of dialyses currently occur in-center.

Dialysis. Image Credit: Aleksander Ivansenko/Shutterstock.com

Can you give an overview of some of the advantages and disadvantages of the two home dialysis options available (peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis)?

Simon:

The main difference is complexity  PD is a simple method, which can be taught in a few days and does not rely on external machinery  including electricity in its simplest form. Home HD is inherently more tricky to do, requires the patient to learn how to place needles into a fistula (a surgically fashioned adaptation typically to a vein in the forearm which can supply the blood for the extracorporeal filter) and this takes longer to train. The house must have a good clean water supply as large volumes are needed.

The disadvantage of PD is that dialysis fluid has to be commercially prepared (must be sterile) and shipped to the patients home in bags  and in many countries, this is unreliable and too expensive (especially if imported and taxed by the government). There are also differences in longevity of outcome  PD is good for a few years (which for many patients is OK because survival on dialysis for many will not be so long  40% survive 5 years, or, if available they will get a kidney transplant, which is much superior to dialysis as a treatment for kidney failure), but for a significant proportion, in the long run, home HD will be better for survival and well-being.

It is important to understand that many kidney failure patients  especially those who live longer  will use more than one treatment over a lifetime. Finally  but very importantly  patients have preferences  they want the dialysis treatment that fits in best with their personal lifestyle if that choice is open to them. Patients who want dialysis at home usually prefer this because it increases their flexibility.

Raymond:

Both home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis offer more advantages than disadvantages. The greatest advantage is certainly that by their performance at home, no transport of the patient to a dialysis center is needed and that the dangers created by the hospital milieu, especially infections, are obviated. Specifically for home hemodialysis, the timeframe can more easily be adapted to the patients needs (e.g. nocturnal dialysis, daily dialysis, longer dialysis sessions) which forestall complications such as hypotension and the ensuing end-organ oxygen need (e.g. of the heart and brain).

PD is by definition more protracted or continuous with minimum risks of volume shifts leading to hypotension. In addition, the remaining function of the own kidneys is often preserved longer. Both home hemodialysis and PD generate in most high-income and middle-income countries a lower health care cost for reimbursement than in-center hemodialysis. This relationship is only inverted for lower-income countries for the reasons mentioned above (drawbacks due to import).

The main disadvantages of peritoneal dialysis are the risk to develop infection of the peritoneal cavity (peritonitis) and with time quality loss of the peritoneal membrane so that it is often necessary after some time to discontinue the treatment and to shift to hemodialysis. Patients are also sometimes moderately fluid overloaded. Also, hemodialysis carries a specific infectious risk, i.e. of the vascular access system through which the dialysis machine is connected to the patient, which then directly can evolve to bloodstream infection (sepsis).

In addition, since hemodialysis is performed over shorter periods which makes them brisker, this leads to more hypotension. The plastic material of the dialysis membrane and circuit can elicit undesired reactions (bioincompatibility) and leach into the patients bloodstream. However, all these disadvantages are the same for in-center hemodialysis. Both peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis remove metabolites insufficiently compared to healthy kidneys, which results in accelerated death, especially from cardiovascular and infectious problems.

Both methods are also imposing an ecologic problem by either substantial water consumption, plastic waste generation, considerable energy consumption, and CO 2 production, or a combination of these (but also these problems are the same for in-center and home dialysis).

It will never be possible to treat all dialysis patients at home. In-center hemodialysis may be needed in at least some people for medical reasons, home hemodialysis training, the patients own will, or temporarily because of hospitalization.

How has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacted dialysis patients? Why is there now a greater need to increase access to home dialysis?

Simon:

Sadly, dialysis patients have suffered greatly during the pandemic. Early on this was because of the relative ease of catching COVID while traveling up to center-based dialysis units and these patients have had significantly more infections than those treated at home.

All dialysis patients are at increased risk of death once they get COVID-19, partly because they are often older and also because they have multiple comorbid conditions  e.g. diabetes  which makes then much higher risk  the proportion of deaths in those center-based HD patients in the UK who contracted COVID was around 25%. Thankfully the risk of catching it has much reduced following the vaccination program and better infection-prevention procedures at the dialysis units. How effective the vaccines are in dialysis patients is yet to be determined.

Raymond:

Of all comorbidities, chronic kidney disease (either not on kidney replacement, on dialysis, or transplanted) had among the highest independent risks to be infected, and, apart from the very elderly, those with advanced chronic kidney disease had, once infected, the highest risk to die. One of the main reasons is that patients with chronic kidney disease have a defective immune defense. Most other chronic diseases also have an increased independent mortality risk vs. the general population (be it not as important as for chronic kidney disease).

As many patients with chronic kidney disease also suffer from other chronic diseases, either as a cause or a consequence, this further increases their risk. Among dialysis patients, those with home treatment had a manifestly lower risk than those treated in-center. The reason for this is that a dialysis center is a closed community so that if someone in that community (either patient or personnel) developed COVID-19, the disease was brought into the community with a high risk to spread (in a way that is similar to what was observed in many retirement homes).

COVID-19 has also taken up a huge amount of resources over the last year with many healthcare professionals working together to develop effective treatment strategies. How could this level of collaboration be used to boost access to home dialysis?

Simon:

The use of home therapies does differ quite a bit between dialysis centers in the UK  and also between countries. In some countries, they are hardly used at all.

The reasons for this are multiple but include lack of awareness that they are available, paternalistic healthcare systems in which patients do not have sufficient say in their healthcare, lack of training of healthcare professionals, financial remuneration of healthcare professionals that does not adequately support home dialysis and lack of availability of affordable PD fluid. This is an opportunity to improve access to home therapies and make this more equitable.

Raymond:

The quality of life and survival of their patients is the first concern of all health care professionals. Taking into account existing evidence, they thus should make major efforts to enable a shift of paradigm away from the current situation towards home treatment for all valid candidates. The quick recent rise in the use of telecommunication tools can only facilitate this move.

The frequent work overload in nephrology and in-center hemodialysis units during the pandemic with drop-out of personnel due to disease or burn-out and loss of many patients due to fatalities could only facilitate this move, by creating awareness among those professionals that the current focus on in-center hemodialysis is far from optimal.

The pandemic also has made kidney patients more aware of the need to stand up for their rights and their wishes, which can only accelerate the shift of paradigm. Finally, the pandemic also forced health professionals to abandon thinking and acting in silos, which again favors changes of practice.

COVID-19. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com

Why is it important to raise awareness around dialysis and the different options available for patients?

Simon:

Dialysis is not a single one-off treatment  like a surgical procedure to make you better. It is a treatment that the patient and their family/carers have to live with. It affects every corner of their lives and having different options of how to do the dialysis makes it a little easier for the patient to fit the dialysis around their lives and not the other way around.

We want people with kidney failure to be in charge of the treatment they get.

Raymond:

The final choice of treatment should be made by the patients (if useful together with their next of kin) with a maximum of appropriate information. Nowadays the patients are too often directed by medical professionals in a paternalistic way. Information delivery is often perceived by the patients as insufficient, which is especially the case if a certain option is not frequently applied or not available in a certain hospital or region (e.g. home hemodialysis). Especially the barrier between doctors and the patients is often perceived as too high and such information is often more adequately delivered by nurses.

Specific training in information delivery is very useful and should be given to students as well as qualified professionals and all involved professionals, thus not only physicians but also any other professional involved in the provision of information, such as psychologists, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, etc. (students as well as qualified professionals). Involvement of patients can be extremely helpful as well as home visits by teams that have been specifically created for this purpose (Tupperware style).

Information delivery is especially difficult towards minorities, people with low income, and the health illiterate, which are more difficult to reach and for whom specific techniques should be considered and developed, preferentially in cooperation with those communities. Benchmarking strategies could help to assess the completeness of information delivery and patient satisfaction.

What more needs to be done to help improve the quality of life for patients requiring dialysis?

Simon:

It is not all about the dialysis itself  there are many symptoms that dialysis patients experience which the dialysis does not help with  so more research and treatments for these are important. Also, we could make the dialysis treatment itself easier and better, with better equipment that is easier to use, more portable and less intrusive, and easier to adapt to the specific requirements for an individual.

Also, it turns out that even when the kidneys have failed and dialysis is needed, that having a tiny amount of preserved kidney function (as little as 1%) gives great benefits  including survival  so ways of doing dialysis that maintain this very small amount of function for as long as possible need to be better understood.

Raymond:

The further development of telecommunication strategies should facilitate treatment at home, where it belongs. Simplification of dialysis machines and hardware should be of further help. Portable and even wearable dialysis machines should allow more flexibility with regards to timing and place of treatment. Miniaturization is a global technological trend that did not yet find its way into the dialysis environment.

The development of innovative strategies for the prevention of the progression of kidney disease should be promoted. There is a lack of innovation in this therapeutic area as compared to other chronic disease therapies. Finally, more attention should be paid to improve patient-centered outcomes (i.e. complaints that affect patient quality of life despite little impact on survival, e.g. itching, cognitive dysfunction, or fatigue).

We have insufficient knowledge of the causes and mechanisms, and therapies specifically developed for chronic kidney disease patients are scarce to non-existent. Strategic changes, as well as research, should be developed in collaboration and dialogue with patients.

Are you hopeful that with increased collaboration and patient engagement, one day everyone will have access to life-saving dialysis treatments?

Simon:

Yes  but it will take some years, and COVID will have set this back  for example, India has been trying to develop a system of government insurance to support dialysis, but this plan will undoubtedly be delayed.

Raymond:

Yes and no. Reaching this goal on a worldwide basis will probably not be possible in the next decades but it may be possible in regions that have already a reasonable healthcare basis. Yet, it remains a multifaceted problem that needs multifaceted solutions, depending on economic progression, socio-economic responsiveness, readiness to eliminate inequalities and for cross-border collaboration, improvement of access to geographically remote areas, willingness to make decisions based on medical and health-economic evidence, technological progress, investment in research, presence of political champions and patient advocates and readiness for policy decision making to make all this happen.

Home Dialysis System. Image Credit: Henrik Dolle/Shutterstock.com

What are the next steps in your career into kidney disease and dialysis?

Simon:

My current research is focusing on understanding better the reasons why there is not more equitable access to home dialysis in the UK  they are complex  and developing approaches to reducing this  the above-mentioned Inter-CEPt study.

I also work with the International Society of Nephrology to develop their Kidney Failure Strategy  which we are now beginning to roll out. The ISN works closely with the WHO and we recently produced a guide for how to develop dialysis services in low resource settings and we are in the process of creating some educational materials to support this.

Raymond:

I retired six years ago, so my personal ambitions are limited and my wishes are rather for the nephrological community at large than for myself. Any further step forward is a bonus. I hope I remain healthy to continue for a few years, enough time to increase awareness of kidney disease outside the nephrological community in Europe and Worldwide.

The first steps in this direction have been made. I hope to see the day that kidney disease will figure among the key health care areas of the European Commission. We were able to talk with the EU Commissioner of health, Kyriakides, who assured us of her full support. The Decade of the kidney campaign (2020-2030) launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) is a very useful tool to reach these aims. The aim is an effort similar to that provided for cancer over the last 30 years.

Furthermore, I hope to still prepare a few publications that are of use to improve the fate of kidney patients and to direct kidney care into a more sustainable course. Finally, I would like to play a modest role in boosting European research by nephrologists on acute kidney injury, green nephrology, and sustainable therapeutic options.

Where can readers find more information?

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dialysis/

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2020.07.023

VANHOLDER R., ANNEMANS L., BROWN E., GANSEVOORT R., GOUT-ZWART J.J., LAMEIRE N., MORTON R.L., OBERBAUER R., POSTMA M.J., TONELLI M., VAN BIESEN W., ZOCCALI C. Reducing the costs of chronic kidney disease while delivery quality health care: a call to action. Nat. Rev. Nephrol., 7, 393-409, 2017

VAN DER TOL A., LAMEIRE N., MORTON R.L., VAN BIESEN W., VANHOLDER R. An international analysis of dialysis services reimbursement. Clin. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., 14, 84-93, 2019

DE JONG R., STEL V.S., RAHMEL A., MURPHY M., VANHOLDER R.C., MASSY Z.A., JAGER K.J. Patient-reported factors influencing the choice of their kidney replacement treatment modality. Nephrol. Dial. Transplant., in press, 2021. Doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfab059

VANHOLDER R., ANNEMANS L., BELLO A.K., BIKBOV B., GALLEGO D., GANSEVOOT R.T., LAMEIRE N., LUYCKX V.A., NORUISIENE E., OOSTROM T., WANNER C., WIERINGA F. Fighting the unbearable lightness of neglecting kidney health: the decade of the kidney. Clin. Kidney J., in press, 2021 Doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfab070

About Professor Simon Davies

As a clinical academic, I have developed a career in researching the problems of dialysis. For many years the focus has been on peritoneal dialysis and this led me to being president of the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis between 2020-12; my work for this organization was recognized by the award of the Distinguished International Medal by the American National Kidney Foundation in 2013.

Currently, I am president of EuroPD  an organization based in Europe with the mission of improving research and education for health care professionals in the field of home dialysis, in particular peritoneal dialysis. More recently I have chaired the International Society of Nephrologys dialysis workgroup and been closely involved in the development of their Kidney Failure Strategy and their work with the WHO.

About Professor Raymond Vanholder

Dr. Vanholder published more than 900 papers, including reviews and book chapters, on the adequacy of dialysis, uremic toxicity, and various topics related to clinical nephrology, especially cardiovascular and infectious complications. He serves as a member of the editorial review board of several journals and is subject editor of Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation and Toxins.

Up till autumn 2010, he has been chairman of the European Uremic Toxin Work Group (EUTox), and member of the Executive Board, and treasurer of Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO). Up till summer 2011, he was chairman of the European Renal Best Practice (ERBP). Up till autumn 2014, he chaired the Renal Disaster Relief Task Force (RDRTF) of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and participated in several international relief operations.

Dr. Vanholder was the founding president of the Belgian Society of Nephrology (BVN-SBN), is past president of the European Society of Artificial Organs (ESAO), and past president of ERA-EDTA. He is now retired (Prof Em at Ghent University) and president of the European Kidney Health Alliance and chair of the European Chronic Disease Alliance.
Funeral services for Thomas Armond "Tommy" Ritch, 72, will be Friday, June 11 at 11 a.m. from the Chapel of Kilgroe Funeral Home. Interment to followe at Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Cemetery in Gallant. The family will receive friends on Friday from 10 a.m. until service time at funeral home
Gilbert J. Rake, 88, of Bonita Springs, FL passed away on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 with his loving wife by his side. He was born in Starlight, IN, son of Henry and Catherine Rake. Gil proudly served his country in the United States Army. Following the service, he worked as an accountant with
HOUSTON (AP)  A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict a former Houston-area doctor who was accused of stealing nine doses of coronavirus vaccine from a damaged vial and administering them to family and friends.

Prosecutors had alleged that Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine while working at a vaccination site at a suburban Houston park on Dec. 29.

But grand jurors in Harris County, where Houston is located, decided no criminal charges were warranted. The grand jurys decision comes after a judge in January dismissed a theft charge prosecutors had filed against Gokal.

Paul Doyle, Gokals attorney, said in statement that the grand jurys decision ends a prolonged, unwarranted attempt by District Attorney Kim Ogg and her office to disparage Dr. Gokals good name.

No doctor should ever feel forced to choose between saving lives and keeping their job, Doyle said.

Doyle said hundreds of medical professionals and others had written letters, sent emails and made phone calls in support of Gokal's actions.

We respect the decision of the grand jury in this and every case. Evidence, not public opinion, is the guiding principle of our work, the Harris County District Attorneys Office said in a statement.

In January, prosecutors filed a misdemeanor theft charge against Gokal, who was fired after the health department conducted an internal investigation.

Doyle said Gokal did nothing wrong and was only trying to ensure that vaccine from a punctured vial was not wasted.

A judge later dismissed the theft charge, ruling there was no probable cause in the case. Harris County Court-At-Law Judge Franklin Bynum criticized prosecutors, saying their probable cause complaint was riddled with sloppiness and errors.

After the dismissal, prosecutors presented the case to the grand jury.

In March, the Texas Medical Board dismissed an investigation against Gokal, saying he appeared to have administered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to patients that were properly consented, in the eligible patient category, and they were given doses that would have otherwise been wasted.

The board also found there were no protocols for Gokal to follow and he relied on state guidance to not waste the vaccine.

In Wisconsin, a former pharmacist who purposefully ruined more than 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine was sentenced to three years in prison on June 8.

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(Newser)  A Canadian Indigenous group said Wednesday a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site near a former Catholic Church-run residential school that housed Indigenous children taken from their families. The latest discovery of graves near Cranbrook, British Columbia follows reports of similar findings at two other such church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves and another of 215 bodies, the AP reports. The Lower Kootenay Band said in a news release that it began using the technology last year to search the site close to the former St. Eugenes Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s. It said the search found the remains in unmarked graves, some about 3 feet deep.

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It's believed the remains are those of people from the bands of the Ktunaxa nation, which includes the Lower Kootenay Band, and other neighboring First Nation communities. Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band called the discovery "deeply personal" since he had relatives attend the school. "Lets call this for what it is," Louie told the CBC. "It's a mass murder of Indigenous people," he said, calling for priests and nuns involved to be located and "held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people." Prior to news of the most recent finding, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked that the national flag on the Peace Tower remain at half-mast for Canada Day on Thursday to honor the Indigenous children who died in residential schools. (Catholic churches on Indigenous land have been going up in flames.)
(Newser)  Search crews going through the ruins of a Florida condo tower pulled six more bodies from the rubble Wednesday, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 18. It was the highest one-day toll since the building collapsed almost a week ago into a heap of broken concrete. The number of residents unaccounted stands at 147. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava made the announcement at an evening news conference, the AP reports. She said two of the dead were children. Earlier in the day, crews built a ramp that should allow the use of heavier equipment, potentially accelerating the removal of concrete that "could lead to incredibly good news events," the state fire marshal said Wednesday. Since the sudden collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South last week in Surfside, rescuers have been working to peel back layers of concrete on the pancaked building without disturbing the unstable pile of debris.

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Officials are worried about the possibility of severe weather interfering with search efforts. Crews have already had to deal with intermittent bad weather that caused temporary delays in the work, and they are now keeping an eye on two disorganized storm systems in the Atlantic Ocean. Gov. Ron DeSantis said some of the resources in Surfside might have to be removed in case the storms hit any part of Florida. On Thursday, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden planned to travel to Surfside. "They want to thank the heroic first responders, search-and-rescue teams and everyone who's been working tirelessly around the clock, and meet with the families" waiting for word of their loved ones, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez said he hopes Biden's visit will be a morale booster for the devastated community. Weve had several challenges from weather, sorrow, pain. And I think that the president coming will bring some unity here for our community, support, like our governor, our mayor, all of us together."

(Read more Florida condo collapse stories.)
(Newser)  Women who accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them expressed shock Wednesday at the ruling that freed him from prisonand worry about the effect on future victims. "My stomach is in knots," said Victoria Valentino, who accused Cosby of raping her in the 1960s. "The work that we have done to uplift women has been overturned by a legal glitch." Andrea Constand, who told a court that Cosby assaulted her in 2004, said victims might have to choose between assisting a criminal prosecution and filing a civil action, CNN reports. Janice Baker-Kinney, who accused Cosby of raping her in the 1980s, said she was stunned that "one legalese can overturn this when so many people came forward." Several of the women said they took some comfort in the fact that Cosby was sent to prison for a time, at least. Cosby, 83, was back home outside Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, per the New York Times. The court's opinion can be read here.

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Cosby tweeted his thanks Wednesday night to those who stood by him during his prosecution and repeated his claim of innocence. "I have never changed my stance nor my story," he posted, adding, "Special thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for upholding the rule of law." One person who stood by him, longtime costar Phylicia Rashad, had to go back online after her celebratory tweet drew a backlash. Her first tweet had said, "A miscarriage of justice is corrected!" Much of the reaction was out of sight, only open to people Rashad follows, per Deadline. But more than 10,000 retweets with commentary hit the internet within the first hour. "What a shameful thing to post," one commentator posted on Deadline, pointing out that Rashad was just hired as dean of Howard University's College of Fine Arts. "How is any female student there supposed to come forward." Rashad's followup said: "I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth." (Read more Bill Cosby stories.)
(Newser)  For the second year running, two Utah men have hidden thousands of dollars somewhere in the wilderness and are urging treasure seekers to go out hunting for it. But many of those seekers are not exactly prepared for the hunt, leading officials to issue a warning to those in pursuit of the prize. Last week, while 25 search and rescue team members were assisting an injured hiker in the Wasatch Mountains after a boulder fell on his foot while he and his family treasure hunted, "Our team ran into several other groups of hikers all looking for the same treasure," the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search and Rescue posted on Facebook. "Most were unprepared to be in the backcountry and asked our team for water on the trail."

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John Maxim and David Cline, who hid $5,000 last year as a way of urging people outside during the COVID-19 pandemic, doubled that amount this year and launched the hunt with a poem for a clue on June 19, NBC News reports. Maxim and Cline assure KSL-TV the fortune is not hidden anywhere where the terrain is too rough. "If anyone feels like its getting a little bit dangerous, we say its probably not there," Cline says. Per the Idaho Statesman, hundreds of people are hunting the treasure this year, some coming from as far as Hawaii, Colorado, and Atlanta. (Read more Utah stories.)
(Newser)  Bill Cosby is out of prisonbut Gloria Allred, the attorney who represented dozens of his accusers, says he "is not home free" after having his sexual assault conviction overturned on a technicality. Allred said that while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision is "devastating" for accusers and she does not expect Cosby to face any other criminal charges, the move will allow her to proceed with a civil suit against the 83-year-old, Fox reports. Allred is representing Judy Huth, who accuses Cosby of sexually assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old. The case was on hold while Cosby was behind bars, but she can now seek a trial date and Cosby will now have to provide a court-ordered second disposition. She said she expects Los Angeles County Superior Court to set a trial date soon.

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"Because his criminal case is now concluded and because he is not in jeopardy of being criminally prosecuted, he will not be able to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in our case," Allred said. As with dozens of other accusations against Cosby, the statute of limitations expired long ago in the Huth case, but California law allows a civil lawsuit because she was a minor at the time. Allred represented some of the "prior bad act" accusers who testified at Cosby's retrial for drugging and raping Andrea Constand. She said Wednesday that the decision to overturn the conviction does not "vindicate Bill Cosbys conduct and should not be interpreted as a statement or a finding that he did not engage in the acts of which he has been accused," per Variety. (Accusers say they are worried about the ruling's possible effect on future victims.)
(Newser)  As expected, a New York grand jury has indicted the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, sources tell media outlets including NBC News, CBS News, and the Washington Post. The charges are expected to be unsealed Thursday afternoon, so the specific alleged crimes are not yet clear. The tax-related allegations are said to involve an alleged plot by the organization to offer perks to its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, "off the books." Weisselberg is accused of avoiding taxes on corporate benefits, and other organization employees may have allegedly done the same. Neither Weisselberg nor the organization have publicly commented since the indictment news broke, but former President Trump on Wednesday night told Sean Hannity on Fox News that the whole investigation of the organization is "nonsense."

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"New York radical left prosecutors come after meyou gotta fight," he said. While neither Trump himself nor anyone else close to him is expected to be charged imminently, sources tell the Post prosecutors hope Weisselberg will offer to testify against Trump in order to diminish his own risk. These are the first criminal charges to arise out of New York's yearslong probe into the organization. "The district attorney has had all these years, all this time to do this investigation thoroughly from top to bottom," Trump's lawyer told CBS on Tuesday. "And what they've come down with is this indictment which they've told us is going to be on fringe benefits for some unnamed employees. For cars, apartments, and I don't know what else." He added that the DA's office has no evidence the organization was involved in "this minimal tax evasion by individuals, which was never charged and has never been charged by the IRS." (Read more Trump Organization stories.)
(Newser)  As the search for survivors continues in Surfside, Fla., now with the help of robots, records show that five out of the seven members of the Champlain Towers South condo's board quit in the fall of 2019 after infighting over a report indicating structural damage. After that 2018 report came out, necessary repairs were repeatedly delayed as board members squabbled with condo owners and each other over the cost and logistics of the repairs, according to HOA records, board meeting minutes, and other correspondence, the Washington Post reports. In September 2019, board President Anette Goldstein stepped down, writing in her resignation letter: "We work for months to go in one direction and at the very last minute objections are raised that should have been discussed and resolved right in the beginning. This pattern has repeated itself over and over, ego battles, undermining the roles of fellow board members, circulation of gossip and mistruths." Four other members quit soon after.

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Records show Goldstein and some of the other board members did eventually return to their posts, and that delays continued as costs rose from an initial $9 million to $15 million. In April, the board's current president, Joan Wodnicki, told residents in a letter that the costly repairs couldn't be put off any longer. "The reality is that we live in an aging oceanfront building that needs work," she wrote. "[O]ur home needs attention, and this is not a surprise. We have known for several years now that this was coming." NPR reports that the board has now retained a crisis communications firm to handle inquiries in the wake of the building's collapse. Meanwhile, ABC News has video taken by a tourist moments before the condo crumbled, showing water gushing out of the ceiling in its parking garage and rubble strewn on the ground. The Miami Herald notes that the part of the garage shown in the video was identified in the 2018 report as having issues to the concrete slab above it. (Read more Florida condo collapse stories.)
(Newser)  A decade ago, Turkey was the first nation to sign an international treaty meant to protect women from domestic violence. In March, the nation was stunned when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he'd issued a decree to pull out of the Istanbul Convention, and on Thursday, that withdrawal was made official, reports CNN. Thousands were expected to protest around the country after a court appeal that tried to stop the disengagement was turned down this week. Canan Gullu, head of the Federation of Turkish Women's Associations, said "Turkey is shooting itself in the foot with this decision" on the pact, which made signees vow to prevent domestic violence, hold perpetrators accountable, and promote equality. Turkish conservatives, however, especially in Erdogan's AK Party, said the pact undermined family values, with some claiming that, due to its efforts to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation, it promoted homosexuality.

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Erdogan says critics are making too big of a deal about Turkey pulling out. "Some circles are trying to portray our withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention as a step backwards in our battle with violence against women," he said Thursday at a meeting in Ankara, per Reuters. "Our battle did not start with the Istanbul Convention and it will not end with our withdrawal from the treaty." At that meeting, Erdogan announced an updated "action plan" for dealing with domestic violence, laying out such goals as overhauling current legislation and raising awareness, per the Hurriyet Daily News. "We will eliminate approaches that make violence against women ordinary," he said. "Combating violence against women can only be successful with the participation and genuine contribution of the whole society." (Read more Turkey stories.)
(Newser)  Xi Jinping led a centennial celebration on Thursday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, but amid the jubilation in Beijing came a warning. "The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress, or enslave us," he told a crowd of 70,000, reports the New York Times, which notes he sported a Mao Zedong-style suit. "Whoever nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on the Great Wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people." Xi didn't mention the United States specifically, but his speech "clearly hinted" at it and wouldn't be lost on the Chinese people, an ex-editor of a Communist Party newspaper said. "We'll never accept insufferably arrogant lecturing from those 'master teachers!'" Xi said to cheers from his flag-waving audience.

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Xi's hourlong speech, which came ahead of his bid next year to win a third five-year term as the nation's leader, was accompanied by much pageantry, including military jets flying overhead, cannons firing, and songs of patriotism, notes the BBC. A key point in his remarks was the message that China and the Communist Party are one, and that the country should unify behind both. "Without the Communist Party, there will be no new China," Xi noted, adding that China's rise is a "historic inevitability," per CNN. Observers note the speech signaled that Xi and the party plan to be in charge for the long haul. "This was not a speech by a leader who is planning on stepping down from power anytime soon," Jude Blanchette of the Center for Strategic and International Studies tells the Times. "The extraordinary pomp and circumstance was designed to say: The Chinese Communist Party is strong, unified, and it isn't going anywhere." (Read more China stories.)
In this Sept. 11, 2008, file photo, with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld next to him, President George W. Bush concludes his remarks during a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon, marking the 7th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In this Sept. 11, 2008, file photo, with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld next to him, President George W. Bush concludes his remarks during a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon, marking the 7th... (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
This file photo from Jan. 11, 2017, shows President-elect Trump, left, his chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, center, and his son Donald Trump Jr. during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

This file photo from Jan. 11, 2017, shows President-elect Trump, left, his chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, center, and his son Donald Trump Jr. during a news conference at Trump Tower in New... (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In his interview for the Red Line podcast, which examines the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in New Zealand, Key emerges as one of the few Western politicians who are strongly pro-China.

Key says his closeness to President Xi has given him insights into China's thinking.

"I've had the privilege of quite a lot of one-on-one dinners and conversations with Xi Jinping."

Key said China still saw itself as a developing nation and hoped to lift another 300-400 million people out of poverty with policies aimed at increasing economic growth.

"The goal is, and this is a crude way of saying it, but Singapore on steroids. It's to develop the country to a point where they are smart, efficient, lifting people out of poverty and giving people opportunity and hope."

The Chinese government is accused of keeping more than a million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps in Xinjiang, in the north west of China. It is also under fire for cracking down on pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and its ongoing actions in Tibet.

Key accepted China had serious human rights issues and believed New Zealand should speak up about those but didn't think that should hinder strong economic relations between the countries.

"Some people will say, 'God, that guy's just an investment banker through and through and all he's thinking about is money, doesn't care about anything else,' and all I would say to you is that I am not an idiot," Key said.

"I do think that New Zealand companies and New Zealand consumers have massively benefited from this relationship. I don't think we've done that by selling our soul. I think we've continued to stand up for the things we believe in and I do think that it would be easy for us to drift into the place where the others are at."

By that he means the strained relations the other Five Eyes countries have with China.

Key said he remained in touch with the former leaders of Britain, Australia, America and Canada and they were all deeply negative about China.

"I'm not going to change my view, because all of a sudden, a bunch of leaders that I used to hang around with who thought China were good, now all of a sudden, think they are not so good."

Key likens some of the more extreme anti-China rhetoric to conspiracy theories about the failure of capitalism, the death of democracy or the evils of technology.

"I'm not a tinfoil hat conspiracy kind of guy. I think they are what they are. They are a big country that used to have the largest economy in the world that has spent centuries on ice," Key said.

"They are many things but a global force for evil is not one of them in my view."

RNZ
Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington DC, released new survey results on Thursday on populations' views towards China and the nation's respect for personal freedoms. The results were drawn from interviews with 16,254 adults across 17 countries between February and June this year.

Critically, the survey found unfavourable views of China are "at or near historic highs", with 15 of 17 populations having an unfavourable view of China.

That's a position expressed by 67 percent of New Zealanders. In comparison, 76 percent of Americans have an unfavourable view of the Asian nation as do 78 percent of Australians. Japan and South Korea also have negative views, while Greece and Singapore are the only countries in which less than 50 percent hold an unfavourable view.

The majority of people in all countries surveyed don't believe China respects the freedoms of its peoples, a view of 87 percent of Kiwis, Pew Research Center found.

However, while most publics say it's greatly more important to have strong economic ties with the United States over China - New Zealand's view is more split. The survey found 45 percent of Kiwis place the US over China, while 44 percent favour China.

But New Zealand is also the country most in favour of trying to promote human rights in China "even if it harms economic relations" with the superpower.

Eighty percent of Kiwis favour human rights, to the 16 percent who want to prioritise economic ties "even if it means not addressing human rights issues". Australia has 17 percent in favour of economic ties and 78 percent in support of human rights, while the US is 26 percent to 70 percent. Of the countries surveyed, just Singapore and South Korea want to prioritise economic relations.

The research also found countries have changed their tune about China's response to COVID-19, with most now saying it was "good", while few have confidence in President Xi Jinping to "do the right thing regarding world affairs".
The declaration says indigenous people - in our case, Maori - have the right to "freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development" and "to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs".

This includes "the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education" and "the right to be actively involved in developing and determining health, housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them and, as far as possible, to administer such programmes through their own institutions".

The report was handed to the Government at the end of 2019, but quietly set aside as the country soon found itself focused on the fight against COVID-19. It came back to public attention in mid-April when the ACT Party called on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to publicly reject it and National Party leader Judith Collins asked questions about it in Parliament.

Matthew Tukaki, chair of the National Maori Authority, said conversation about He Puapua since then has "descended into madness".

"For me it's not about co-governance. It's about Maori aspiration," he told The AM Show, appearing with Dr Brash in a fiery encounter.

"If you talk to everyday Maori right across this greatest country of ours, what you're hearing is people that just want to aspire - hope, opportunity, aspiration. They just want to make sure that we bring down health disparities; they just want to make sure that they're in their own house they own, that they're not renting from somebody down the road; they just want a job; they just want to make sure their kids go to school with shoes on their feet. That means having a say in decision-making."
New research by Niall McCarthy at Statista has revealed the most dangerous airspace to fly though around the world.

The recent incident involving Ryanair Flight 4978 which was forced to land in Belarus has highlighted the problems that can arise when political tensions rise to the point they put flights at 40,000ft in danger.

Ryanair Flight 4978 was flying from Athens to Lithuania when it was forced to land in Belarus, escorted by fighter jets after an apparent state-sanctioned bomb threat was made against the aircraft.

Onboard the flight was a vocal anti-establishment activist, Roman Protasevich. He was detained upon arrival along with his girlfriend.

While politicians including President Joe Biden condemned the hijack, McCarthy says "the event served as a reminder that some sections of international airspace carry an inherent level of risk for passenger flights."

Two other high profile incidents highlight the potential dangers of flying above some parts of the world.

The shooting down of Ukraine International Flight 752 over Tehran in 2020 and the horrific incident when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine in 2014 .

According to this report, most safety alerts are released by the US (FAA), UK (DFT), Germany (BMVI) and France (DGAC) and it is the stance of these organisations which have led to this research.
The comedian and actor is best known for his role as the lovable husband and father in the 1980s television comedy series "The Cosby Show," earning him the nickname "America's Dad."

But his family-friendly reputation was shattered after dozens of women accused him of sexual assault over a period of decades. His conviction was widely seen as a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement that brought forth an array of allegations against powerful men in Hollywood and beyond.

Cosby was found guilty of drugging and molesting Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater Temple University, in his home in 2004. Constand's allegations were the only ones against Cosby that were not too old to allow for criminal charges.

The court's decision expressly barred prosecutors from retrying Cosby.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, who filed the charges against Cosby in 2015, issued a statement noting that a jury found Cosby guilty and that Wednesday's decision was not based on the facts of the case.

"My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims," he said. "We still believe that no one is above the law - including those who are rich, famous and powerful."

Reaction was swift, with many women involved in the #MeToo movement expressing horror at the decision.

"THIS is why women do not come forward," writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused former President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s, wrote on Twitter. Trump has denied her claim.

Lisa Bloom, a lawyer who represented some of Cosby's accusers, told CNN she was "absolutely disgusted and shocked" by the decision.

But Phylicia Rashad, Cosby's co-star on "The Cosby Show," celebrated the ruling for correcting "a miscarriage of justice."

Cosby's spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

'Only one remedy'

The court's majority found that a state prosecutor, Bruce Castor, made a deal with Cosby's attorneys in 2005 not to bring criminal charges.

As a result, Cosby was unable to avoid testifying as part of a civil lawsuit that Constand brought against him, since defendants can only refuse to testify when faced with criminal prosecution.

In a sworn deposition, Cosby acknowledged giving women sedatives to facilitate sexual encounters, though he maintained they were consensual.

His admission, which a judge later unsealed in 2015, helped form the basis for criminal charges later that year, when Steele, who had just been elected district attorney, charged Cosby days before the statute of limitations was set to expire.

The prosecution, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found, essentially amounted to reneging on Castor's earlier promise not to charge Cosby, violating his due process rights.

"There is only one remedy that can completely restore Cosby to the status quo ante," Justice David Wecht wrote for a four-judge majority. "He must be discharged, and any future prosecution on these particular charges must be barred."

One dissenting justice said Cosby should stay in prison, while two others said prosecutors should be allowed to retry him without relying on the tainted evidence.

Castor made national headlines in February as a member of former President Donald Trump's legal defense team during Trump's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. The former prosecutor delivered a rambling opening statement that drew sharp criticism from several senators, including Republican supporters of Trump.

Cosby's first trial ended with a hung jury in 2017, when jurors could not reach a unanimous decision on his culpability. But he was found guilty at a second trial, after the judge, Steven O'Neill, allowed prosecutors to call five prior accusers - four more than in the first trial.

Armed with those witnesses, prosecutors argued that Cosby's assault of Constand was a well-rehearsed offense he had honed over decades: he befriended younger women, acting as a mentor, only to sexually assault them, often with the help of drugs.

Reuters
The UK recorded its highest daily COVID-19 figure since late January on Wednesday, sending the seven-day tally up 70 percent on the week before.



But scientists say Britain's rapid vaccine rollout has weakened the link between infections and death - and that continuing to bombard the public with COVID-19 data has become "useless".

Despite the surge in new infections, the UK's daily fatality figures have remained in the low double-digits. Fourteen deaths were reported on Wednesday, down from 23 the day before.

Data shows 84.9 percent of UK adults have had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose while 62.4 percent have received both, meaning they are fully protected.
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World War II Navy veteran Bill Kelly and his great-grandson, Paxton Etherington, give four thumbs up after learning Kelly was medically cleared after recovering from COVID-19. Both wear protective masks as a safety measure.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High near 80F. E winds shifting to S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 56F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. High near 80F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Bahrain plans to build major roads and strategic intersections in the next five years

Bahrain plans to build major roads and strategic intersections in the next five years

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The government is eyeing massive road development projects in the next five years while giving utmost priority to the construction of strategic intersections.

It has set a target of road construction projects worth an estimated total of BD496 million that will be implemented starting this year until 2025.

The Deputy Prime Minister, His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, who is Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects, directed the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, to study appropriate options for financing the future major road projects.

This came as the Deputy Prime Minister chaired the regular weekly meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects, which was held yesterday remotely.

Taking part in the online discussion were ministers, officials from ministries, ministerial committee members and representatives of relevant government service agencies.

They reviewed a presentation made by Works Minister Eng. Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf on the current and future major road projects that the Ministry plans to implement.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Eng. Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf discussed the most prominent projects under implementation, amounting to BD95 million, at yesterdays regular weekly meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects, which was held remotely.

The projects include the construction of Al Fateh Street and roads leading to Al Lawzi Housing in Hamad City, and the development of Street 47 Phase One in Arad.

For future projects under tendering procedures and those that will be tendered soon, at a cost of BD277 million, the most prominent of them are the following:

Construction of North Bahrain Street, the fourth bridge linking Muharraq Island and the capital, Manama-Busaiteen Bridge; construction of multi-level intersection at the intersection of Shaikh Isa bin Salman Street with Street 12 (Bukwah Intersection); development of roads leading to Bahrain International Airport-Phase Three; construction of the second entrance to the East Hidd Housing Project, south of Hidd Harbor; and expansion of Shaikh Isa bin Salman Street and development of Al Jasra Intersection (Phase Two).

Volume of spending

The volume of spending on major road projects and main intersections over the past 10 years until the first half of this year has reached BD572 million.

This was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister, HH Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, also Ministerial Committee for Development and Infrastructure Projects Chairman, directed the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning.
11 years in jail for woman who married three men in Bahrain

11 years in jail for woman who married three men in Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Arab woman who got married to three male friends was slapped with 11 years in prison after she was found guilty of fraud and forgery.

The defendant, in her 30s, stood trial for getting married simultaneously to three men, all of whom were friends.

The woman managed to deceive the three friends, who believed that she was single and convinced them to get married to her.

According to court files, all the three victims paid a dowry worth a combined total of BD4,500, and the woman embezzled the money.

The woman forged her personal information providing a different identity to each victim.

She stayed with her first victim for four months, during which she tied the knot with the second victim.

The latter survived with her for one month, and she finally signed a marriage contract with the last victim, who felt suspicious about her after one week.

She was later arrested after the three men discovered that their wives were in fact the same person.

Ironically, the three men met the girl because they approached one woman to find a girl for them to marry.

And she shared the same womans number with them.

The woman alleged to the Public Prosecution that she was a divorcee when she married each one of them, but such allegations were deemed untrue following investigation.
Mosaic tightens visitor guidelines.

Starting Thursday Mosaic Life Care will only be allowing one visitor per patient. The policy will be in effect for the next 30 days and will be reevaluated later.


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DANBURY - The CityCenter Danbury Farmers Market has launched a new season with 15 vendors and a promotion to encourage vaccinations that will award a $10 voucher for participants.

The farmers market, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays through October at the Danbury Railway Museum, is now in its 11th year.
AP

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  An 80-year-old Nebraska man has been charged with murder after telling police he shot his wife, who had Alzheimer's disease, because he was struggling to care for her.

Prosecutors upgraded the charges against John Kotopka to first-degree murder on Wednesday  a week after the death of Janet Kotopka, 78. He was originally charged with assault in the June 20 shooting at their home in Lincoln.
DURANGO, Colo. (AP)  Prosecutors on Thursday tried to cast doubt on defense attorneys' suggestion that a 13-year-old boy might have been killed in an animal attack in southwest Colorado rather than at the hands of his father.

Forensic anthropologist Diane France, who testified in Mark Redwine's murder trial, said Dylan Redwine suffered a fracture above is left eye, and she found two marks on the boy's skull that were likely caused by a knife or sharp tool at or near the time of death, The Durango Herald reported.

While some of the boys remains, recovered between 2013 and 2015, had been scavenged by wild animals, the skull fracture was likely not caused by animals, France said.

Mark Redwine, 59, is charged with second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in the death of Dylan, who was reported missing Nov. 19, 2012, while on a court-ordered Thanksgiving visit to his home outside the small city of Durango.

Some of the boys remains were found in 2013 a few miles from his fathers home, and his skull was found nearly three years later. Prosecutors claim Redwine killed Dylan the night before he was reported missing during a confrontation over photos showing the elder Redwine eating feces from a diaper.

Redwine told investigators that Dylan was asleep when Redwine awoke that morning and that he returned from errands to find his son gone.

Heather Johnson, a wildlife biologist who studied bear behavior in and around Durango from 2011 to 2017, testified Wednesday that an animal attack in the area in November would be highly unlikely because most bears were in hibernation by that time, and there was no trash that would have attracted a bear to the area.

She also noted that large prey, like a small child, would not be a primary food source for animals like bears and mountain lions in the fall.

Tonya Golbricht, a former investigator with the La Plata County Sheriffs Office, testified that in November 2015, two hikers found the boys skull 5 miles (8 kilometers) from where his first remains were found. Prosecutors argue it is highly improbable that an animal attack would have resulted in the remains being separated by such a large distance.

Redwine, who was arrested after a grand jury indicted him in July 2017, faces up to 48 years in prison if he is convicted.
LONDON (AP)  Business leaders and unions joined forces Thursday to urge the British government to maintain a salary subsidy program that is being wound down over the coming months  or else see unemployment rise sharply.

The Job Retention Scheme was introduced at the start of the pandemic last March to ensure unemployment didn't rise substantially when lockdown restrictions were imposed. Under the program, the government paid 80% of the salaries of those workers unable to work because of lockdown measures.

The program helped support over 11 million people but the number now is down around the 2 million mark as many sectors have reopened, notably hospitality. It kept a lid on unemployment, which remains relatively low at around 5%.

On Thursday, that support started to be phased out with companies with staff still on furlough having to pick up 10% of the bill. Further tapering is due over coming months before the scheme is due to end in September.

Our Plan for Jobs has supported peoples jobs and livelihoods throughout the pandemic and its fantastic to see so many people coming off furlough and into their workplaces with our restaurants, pubs and shops reopened, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said.

However, there are growing calls on the government to keep the scheme in place for as long as needed.

The British government is hoping to lift all remaining restrictions on social contact in England on July 19 but the recent sharp rise in infections has raised concerns about whether it should, when many people have still to receive at least one dose of vaccine. The other parts of the U.K.  Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland  are taking similar steps out of lockdown.

The taper of government payments into the furlough scheme should be immediately deferred until we take the final step in the road map," British Chambers of Commerce director-general Shevaun Haviland said.

Some businesses, such as nightclubs and many theaters for example, are still unable to open their doors because of a delay in the reopening plans for England.

The country has invested billions in keeping people in work ready for recovery, but if ministers pull the rug from under businesses too soon jobs will go, said Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of the Unite union.

The reopening of the British economy has led to a sharp recovery from the deepest recession in 300 years. Inflation has also risen as the pent-up demand built up during the pandemic raises cost pressures in the economy.

Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey warned Thursday that inflation in the U.K. is set to remain above target, but that it is likely to be temporary phenomenon, partly linked to richer households spending money saved during the pandemic.

The most recent figures showed the annual rate of inflation in the U.K. at 2.1% following a spike largely in energy prices. The bank's primary aim is to keep inflation at 2%, but it has often let it go higher if it considers the increase in prices as the result of temporary factors.

It is entirely possible that we will witness temporary periods of excess demand, or what more commonly we might describe as bottlenecks," he said in a speech in London. There are good reasons to interpret this as a temporary feature, but we must be on the lookout for the risk that these features are more sustained."

At the outset of the pandemic, the bank slashed its main interest rate to a record low of 0.!% and pumped hundreds of billions of pounds into the economy in order to keep money flowing during the stresses of the pandemic.
DANBURY  An attempted motor vehicle stop by police Wednesday morning ended with a crash that shut down an intersection for hours and sent two people to the hospital, according to an accident report.

The crash happened at the intersection of Hayestown and Tamarack avenues around 7:15 a.m. when a 2007 Ford Fusion struck the rear of a 2013 Honda CR-V stopped at a traffic light in the eastbound lane of Hayestown Avenue, the report stated.
On the occasion of CCP centenary, Tibetans have opened up about Chinese brutality to NewsX. The Tibetans continue to fight for the cause of autonomy and freedom from China's stranglehold.

Today Xi Jinping celebrates 100 years of Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The day has been marked by many Tibetan protests against the Chinese illegal occupations and atrocities in Tibet. Sinicisation of Tibet is at its worst today under Xi Jinping rule. There are Tibetans who are being awarded and feted for toeing the politbureau line  Tibetan language, culture, religion has largely been effaced. Today many Tibetan activists and people narrate stories of how CCP killed & tortured them, how their homeland was snatched, what china is doing to Tibet and why world must rally with them.

It began in 1959 that Tibet saw mass exodus of the feeble Tibetans after china took over their land, their mineral rich territory and water sufficient country. The China controlled Tibet for the last 5 decades and more has seen ethnic cleansing of its local population, brainwashing of youth, rape, murder and tyranny, concentration camps, destruction of the Buddhist monasteries, effacing Tibetan language, religion and culture  replacing it with sinicised hegemony.

Today, as china celebrates with pomp and power its unabashed authoritarianism on the occupied territories, Tibetans speak out clearly in protests and fight for the cause of autonomy and freedom from the Chinese communist partys stranglehold.

Tenzin Tsundue  a Tibetan activist speaking from a detention camp said this peaceful protest is to raise our voices against the Chinese communist party which celebrates its 100th year of existence. He added that India is facing huge threat both security and economic from China. He urged Indians to strongly respond to Chinese threats.

He said further internationally many countries have fallen depended on Chinese trade and China is weaponing these bilateral trade relations to toe countries according to its will. China has become a threat to world peace yet nobody speaks directly about it because of high dependency on Chinese supply chains. It is time to start a collective international campaign against China whos tyrannical government has single headedly organised the largest genocide in the world.

In an interview with NewsX, when asked about the overture of the current Tibetan president  Penpa Tsering whos in exile and has spoken about holding a dialogue with the Chinese authorities for a permanent resolution,Tenzin said This is an expression of finding solution through dialogue and seeking autonomy. I feel Tibet government in exile needs to rethink its policies and start its campaign for true independence of Tibet. We all need to stand in unity against China for freedom and justice.

Another prominent Tibetan voice Namgyal Dolkar  MP of Tibetan Parliament in Exile joined the conversation, Chinese have called the violent exilation a peaceful liberation today. China claims that they brought developments to Tibet through infrastructure investment but the fact is they still continue to loot Tibet of its natural resources for its own economic prosperity and mass Chinese immigration into Tibet territory. They have exploited Tibetan strategic locations to focus on India. After all the false promises, we now know that China remains the biggest threat to Tibetan political system, culture, Buddhism religion and so on. She bewares the world to not sign any bilateral agreements with China as it doesnt uphold it. Tibet regrets the signing of bilateral 17 points agreement with China as they are not sticking by it.

50 years after Tibet, Hong Kong has succumbed to its fate against the Chinese might. There is no freedom of speech and pro-democracy protesters are quietened down. The world is witnessing this all from the side-lines, without doing anything to ameliorate the situation. Talking about solutions, Namgyal said its not only about the threat which Chinese government led by Xi Jinping places on occupied territories like Tibet but actually it is also about threat to free and democratic countries like India. Many times we hear about Chinese territorial acquisition and how they are barging into Indian Territory. So India and world should remain conscious of Chinese moves.
The real map of China, drawn by NewsX team, is what the reality is and it is far off from what china claims to be its real territory. If we exclude the occupied territories, mainland china is, in reality, just a small state.

As China celebrates CCPs centenary, NewsX brings to you the real face of Xis mainland, which is marred by 100 years of killings, occupation and suppression. The real map of China, which China is too afraid to admit. In reality, if we exclude the occupied territories, mainland china is just a small state in the middle. All of its attempts of occupation are an attempt to change the status quo.

Even though the Chinese have been here for long and built their expansion dream on the remains of flourishing civilisations, their quest to conquer the world only remains a dream. The world is watching what they have done in East Turkestan, Tibet, Mongolia, Ladakh and Hong Kong. The world has witnessed China unleash brutalities, human right crackdowns, atrocities and ethnic cleansing, all to realise its dream of Chinese supremacy.

The real map of China, drawn by NewsX team, is what the reality is and it is far off from what china claims to be its real territory. It is time to highlight this map, make every concerned global citizen aware of this map, so that as CCP celebrates 100 years of its founding, the global community can tame China and release the nations that have been brutalized over the years, from Xis clutches.

Amid all the talks of foreign bullying by Xi, it is important to know what is the real map of China, without its occupations, that Indias border is actually with Tibet and not China and uncover how CCP hides this reality.
The origin of Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world remains a widely debated topic and a source of controversy and political tension between China, United States and world in general, with much focus on the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), located in Wuhan where the outbreak was first identified in late 2019. Some scientists and politicians continue to maintain that the possibility of a lab leak of the deadly virus exists. Millions are dead from the Wuhan virus but even after two years since the pandemic hit, China refused to take accountability.

In the past few days, the theory that the virus emerged from the WIV in China, which was once dismissed, has suddenly gained steam with US President Joe Biden ordering officials to increase their efforts to probe the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic. In response, China has accused the US of spreading conspiracy theories and has asked Joe Biden to open its own virology facilities to scrutiny. This came amid growing demands for a full scale probe of whether the coronavirus may have escaped from Chinas bio lab.

The World Health Organisation report issued on March 30 said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that a lab leak was extremely unlikely as a cause. WHO chief said data had been withheld from the team and that the lab issue required further investigation. This was followed by an open letter to WHO by prominent scientists who called for a new investigation into the origins of the virus. Investigation suggests evidences after evidences mounting to give credence to the Wuhan lab leak theory but china has shrugged its shoulders and gone back to business.

The origin of the novel coronavirus is still unclear and the theory that it was caused by a laboratory leak needs to be taken seriously until there is a rigorous data-led investigation that proves it wrong, a group of leading scientists said.
As China is celebrating the Chinese Communist Partys centenary, Uyghurs activists exclusively spoke to NewsX on our special broadcast Real CCP Report Card narrating horrific stories from Xinjiang. Uyghur Activist Akeda Pulat, Outreach Director of Campaign for Uyghurs based in Washington DC and Uyghur Congress President, Dolkar Isa narrated the ordeals and testimonies of their community.

Akeda Pulats both mother and your father disappeared overnight because of the kind of activism that they fought for the propagation and spread of the right word for the Uighur community against the CCP. We all share the same emotions and same tragedies. My mother Dr Rahila Dawut is a professors at the Xinjiang University. Shes a law abiding citizens and never participated in any political activities or illegal activity. The Chinese government is the persecutor of the Uyghurs intellectuals. My mother disappeared in December 2017 and I totally lost contact with her. The Chinese government just arbitrarily detained a lot of Uyghurs, said Akeda.

The Chinese Communist Party and its officers are spread along the length and breadth of Xinjiang to take control of the Uighur Muslim population and ensuring that there is crackdown on the intellectuals. Theres crack down on the religious heads because they are the ones who are actually going ahead and spreading the word, talking about the culture, which is the prime focus prime target of the CCP to completely go ahead and destroy Islamic scriptures, mosques, and burial grounds. Throwing some shed on this, Akeda said The older intellectuals and the scholars have an influential role in the Uyghur communities that Chinese governments want to totally take control of. They wanted to totally control Uyghurs and destroy all the people who are intellectual scholars and have the influential roles in their community. Some of them are even given the death sentence, or life sentence.They see Islam as a disease. In our homelands, if you have a Quran in your home, if you practice the religious activity in the past or if you never drink alcohol, the Chinese Communist Partys will accuse us of religious extremism, and they send them to the concentration camp.

Uyghur Congress President, Dolkar Isa said Chinas Communist Party has continually commit crime. Although much has changed in China but for Tibet, Mongolian people on the other hand nothing has changed for the better. CCP has continually attempt to erode identity of all these people. Today, China and the Chinese government has pointed to their economic growth as a vindication for the CCP. But CCP is the worlds most powerful criminal organization supported by state. It is responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people including Chinese, Tibetan widows.

Today China is threatening global democracy, human rights and international human rights system and international law, added the Uyghur Congress President.
With recreational marijuana use becoming legal Thursday in Connecticut for those ages 21 and above, employers have another year to hatch language for their human resources manuals to address instances in which a worker shows signs of being high on the job.

Many will need the time to absorb the new law and how companies have implemented policies in other states that have legalized marijuana, according to several experts.

Employers are first focusing on drug testing policies, stated David Lewis, CEO of the Norwalk firm OperationsInc which offers human resources workshops and consulting to companies nationally. Many in (Connecticut) already stopped testing for marijuana given how legally accessible it was in neighboring states. The remaining ones are either making that call or being advised by testing agencies to eliminate this part of the test.

A human resources attorney with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association said the Connecticut law was written to provide broad leeway for employers to craft their own policies, provided they put everything in writing themselves and make everyone aware. The law gives employees avenues to challenge any disciplinary actions if they feel their rights were violated, including in the courts.

The law is focusing on what is your state (of sobriety) at work, said Diane Mokriski, an attorney who spent two decades in the Hartford office of OConnell, Attmore & Miller before joining CBIA last December. An employer has to have a reasonable suspicion you are high to take any action.

Mokriski said she expects CBIA will offer a workshop on marijuana policy for employers at its annual employment law forum, scheduled this year for November.

Last February, defense contractors General Dynamics, Sikorsky and Raytheon Technologies voiced opposition to the Connecticut move to legalize marijuana. All three have major operations in Massachusetts and other states where marijuana has been legal for years as a recreational drug.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that workplace injuries and accidents increase dramatically with cannabis use, the companies wrote in joint testimony to the Connecticut General Assembly. There is no practical way for an employer to accurately determine whether someone is impaired because of the way that cannabis interacts with the body and there is no way to test an employees level of impairment.

The Connecticut law includes an allowance for employers to prohibit marijuana use by their workers if it would place any contracts in jeopardy under federal rules. Manufacturing is one of several job functions where employers can bar marijuana use, with a few others including vehicle operators, emergency response, schools and health clinics.

A code of conduct manual for employees of Sikorsky and parent Lockheed Martin explicitly prohibits marijuana possession or use in the workplace, while offering employees assistance if they want help with any recreational dependency.

We thank Gov. (Ned) Lamont and members of the Connecticut General Assembly for considering critical employer protections to ensure we can meet our obligations to maintain a drug-free workplace in Connecticut, Lockheed Martin spokesperson Melissa Chadwick said. The employment language embodied in (the law) allows us to continue to do business in Connecticut while meeting critical national security obligations to the federal government and commercial customers.

Federal law extends as well to the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun resorts in eastern Connecticut, with both venues and other sovereign properties located on federal land.

At this time Mohegan Sun will not be changing our team member policies as it relates to cannabis, Mohegan Sun President Jeff Hamilton said. Team members are not permitted to possess or use cannabis while working, and consumption is also not permitted before a work shift. As it relates to guests, at this time Mohegan Sun will also keep current policies in place which do not allow for cannabis consumption on property.

Among employee handbooks by Massachusetts companies that are accessible online, marijuana for the most part has been added to sections addressing impairment from alcohol and other drugs, without any language specific only to cannabis use.

As one example, the Cape Cod Collaboratives employee handbook reserves the right to fire an employee for possession of marijuana, alcohol or other drugs on the job, with the organization providing services to schools from transportation to executive search and professional seminars.

But the manual acknowledges workers have lifestyles in addition to their livelihoods, and says anyone who comes forward voluntarily for help to kick a drug habit will get that help. Anyone found to use marijuana or other drugs can be fired at will, but with the organization also offering the possibility for continued employment with a drug rehabilitation program and regular testing.

While the CCC has no intention of intruding into the private lives of its employees, the CCC does expect employees to report for work in condition to perform their duties, the handbook states.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey's yearlong coronavirus-inspired ban on smoking in Atlantic City casinos will end Sunday, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday that an order he signed ending a public health emergency contained a sunset provision winding down the smoking ban within 30 days, which is Sunday.

While acknowledging gamblers will be free to light up again starting Sunday, the Democratic governor indicated he would look favorably on a measure lawmakers are considering to permanently end smoking in New Jersey's casinos.

I would be very constructive on that, he said at a coronavirus briefing, stopping short of saying he would sign the legislation.

The governor's remarks came two hours after dozens of casino workers and anti-smoking advocates rallied on the Atlantic City boardwalk to call for a permanent smoking ban.

Casinos are exempted from a state law banning most indoor smoking, while an Atlantic City law limits smoking to no more than 25% of the casino floor.

New Jersey has even prohibited smoking on beaches and public parks, which was not lost on many of the rallying casino workers.

How is it that you're not allowed to smoke on our beaches or our boardwalk, but you're allowed to smoke at my table where I can't walk away? asked Nicole Vitola, a table games dealer at the Borgata. All I want is the same right that every other worker in New Jersey receives.

Janice Green, a dealer at the Tropicana, has worked in Atlantic City casinos for 40 years.

Being in the business so long, I have lung disease, she said. I have asthma because of it. It's under control now, but if you bring smoking back, I'm going to be back on inhalers, and I don't want that.

Murphy ordered Atlantic City's casinos to close in March 2020 during the pandemic, and when they reopened 3 1/2 months later, smoking was banned as a public health measure.

Why is this the only place in New Jersey you can smoke?" said Alvaro Dente, a casino floor supervisor at the Tropicana. Bars and restaurants don't allow it. And the casinos are not losing money.

Las Vegas casinos also closed in March 2020, and some groups called for a smoking ban when they could reopen less than three months later. But Nevada regulators declined to address the issue.

Onjewel Smith of the group Americans for Nonsmokers Rights said the casino workers at greatest risk from smoking are the mostly Black and brown women, front-line workers. They are the ones putting their lives at risk every day.

The Casino Association of New Jersey, a trade group, opposes a permanent smoking ban, saying it could cause long-term financial implications.

Going completely nonsmoking would place Atlantic City casinos at a competitive disadvantage with other nearby casinos that allow smoking, the group said in a statement.

Such a ban would lead to fewer customers, fewer casino jobs and lower tax revenue, it said.

The casinos say they have spent considerable sums on cleaning and air filtration systems to protect customers.

And a considerable amount of gamblers say that smoking is an integral part of their gambling experience.

But nonsmoker Tom Cushion, who visits casinos once or twice a week, has loved the smoke-free atmosphere for the past year.

You can feel the difference, said Cushion, who lives in Galloway, just outside Atlantic City. That stale, smoky smell  you don't have that anymore. It's time to go smoke-free.

___

Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC.
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Gloria Allred, who represented many women who spoke out against Bill Cosby, is slamming the courts decision to overturn the comedians sexual assault conviction.

The high-powered attorney and womens rights activist called the courts decision devastating for accusers. She said it doesnt vindicate Cosby. Allred added that Cosbys trials were an important fight for justice, which should not be overshadowed by the court overturning the conviction on a technicality.

This decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court today to overturn the conviction of Bill Cosby must be devastating for Bill Cosbys accusers, Allred said in a statement obtained by Variety.

My heart especially goes out to those who bravely testified in both of his criminal cases. I represented a majority of the prior bad act accusers who testified, Allreds statement continued. Despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Courts decision, this was an important fight for justice and even though the court overturned the conviction on technical grounds, it did not vindicate Bill Cosbys conduct and should not be interpreted as a statement or a finding that he did not engage in the acts of which he has been accused.

Allred represented more than 30 women who alleged they were assaulted or harassed by Cosby. She began to represent the accusers around 2014 when many contacted her seeking advice, despite it being too late to file a lawsuit because of the statute of limitations. However, Andrea Constands statute of limitations had not run out, and her allegations that Cosby drugged and violated her marked the first criminal charges to be filed in the Cosby case when he was first charged in 2015 for sexually assaulting Constand at his Pennsylvania home in 2004.

At the time, dozens upon dozens of women had come forward with allegations of being drugged and raped by The Cosby Show star, known as Americas Dad, for decades.

The case went to trial in 2017, but ended in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. In 2018, the case was refiled and the judge granted prior bad acts witnesses to testify, in order to establish a pattern of behavior. Allred represented the prior bad acts witnesses in the re-trial, which resulted in Cosbys April 2018 conviction. (A few years later in 2020, the same approach was taken in the Harvey Weinstein trial with Molineux witnesses, or prior bad acts witnesses, taking the stand.) Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison for raping Constand.

On Wednesday, however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling that the testimony at the trial was tainted, even though a lower court found that he showed a pattern of drugging and molesting women. According to the Associated Press, the court ruled that Cosbys agreement with prosecutor Bruce Castor in 2005 should have prevented him from being charged again.

In the past, Allred had said she was pleasantly surprised, but shocked, by Cosbys guilty verdict because it has become so normalized to not believe women, particularly those allegedly assaulted by a powerful celebrity.

Speaking to reporters during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Allred doubled down on her statement that the Cosby trials were very important in the fight for justice, despite the turn of events. Even though the court did overturn the conviction, it was on technical ground, Allred said. It did not vindicate Bill Cosbys conduct.

Allred said that her client, accuser Janice Baker Kinney, is stunned by the decision and is still processing it.

While Allred said it does not appear there will be any more criminal cases that could be filed or prosecuted against Cosby  due to the statute of limitations  she did reveal details regarding a civil case she is litigating against Cosby in Los Angeles County for her client, Judy Huth, who has accused Cosby of sexually assaulting her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974 when she was 15 years old.

Our client alleges in the lawsuit that she was the victim of child sexual abuse by Mr. Cosby, Allred said, sharing that she has a scheduled status conference this August with the court in Santa Monica, Calif. With the criminal case concluded, as of today, Allred said, she can move forward with the civil case, which will require a second deposition of Cosby.

We do expect that a date will be set for any further discovery and trial of our case by the court, Allred said during the Wednesday press conference. Because his criminal case is now concluded and because he is not in jeopardy of being criminally prosecuted, he will not be able to invoke his 5th amendment privileges in our case. He will be compelled to answer questions under oath in our casethe jury will decide what they believe based on the evidence.

Allreds daughter, attorney Lisa Bloom, represented three women who accused Cosby, including supermodel Janice Dickinson. She reacted to the news of Cosbys release on Wednesday, saying she and her clients are disgusted that he is a free man today.

He is not released because he is innocent, Bloom tweeted. He is released because a prosecutor promised him years ago that he would not be brought to justice, without even making a deal for him to do time.

Bloom continued with a lengthy Twitter thread, praising her client, Dickinson, along with Constand.

She tweeted, in part, The victim in the case, Andrea Constand, so dignified, so strong, answering every demeaning question. The conviction. We couldnt believe it: justice, a tiny bit, finally. And now this. A kick in the gut to victims and their advocates.

We prepared her for the ugly cross-examination that would come. We flew across the country, waited day after day for her turn. I watched the other prior bad acts witnesses testify magnificently. Then Janices turn. She slayed. I was so proud of her and all the others, Bloom wrote. I will never forget my client Janice Dickinsons brave decision to testify as a prior bad acts witness in Cosbys 2018 criminal trial. She knew this could be used against her in her civil case. We decided we didnt care. Getting him criminally convicted was essential.

Bloom summed up her thoughts by adding: Every day I fight for sexual assault victims and have to advise them of the ugly truth: the system still massively favors the rich and powerful. You need a superhuman level of strength and courage. Luckily many victims have it. Any other Cosby victims, time to come forward!

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Almost 100 new laws came into effect in Connecticut on July 1. Among these laws are the legalization of recreational marijuana as well as a statewide ban on plastic bags.

While some laws will affect residents lives starting now, others won't be enacted until a future date. Tristan's law for ice cream truck safety, for example, has given truck drivers a deadline of May 2022 to make safety changes to their vehicles.
AP

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Prosecutors may file aiding and abetting third-degree murder charges against three former Minneapolis police officers in the death of George Floyd, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The appeals court sent the case back to Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill. He denied prosecutors' motion to add the charges against former officers J Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao back in February during the runup to the separate trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin, whom Cahill sentenced on Friday to 22 1/2 years in prison for second-degree murder.
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP)  A 16-year prison sentence was handed Wednesday to a northwest Indiana man who pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury in the drownings of his two sons.

Levi Patillo, 4, and Evan Patillo, 2, were unresponsive when two fishermen pulled them from the Kankakee River near the Illinois-Indiana state line on Aug. 21, 2018, according to prosecutors. Their father, Eric Patillo, 37, told a witness that he was high on heroin while at the river with his sons.
BRANSON, Mo. (AP)  Health officials working to boost lagging COVID-19 vaccination rates in Missouri are growing anxious as the Fourth of July weekend approaches, creating ripe conditions for the fast-spreading delta variant to send hospital numbers climbing.

We are just kind of keeping an eye to see what is going to happen," said Lisa Marshall, the health director for Taney County, which includes the tourist town of Branson. Weve seen that these numbers can jump pretty quickly."

Missouri is second only to Nevada for having the worst diagnosis rate over the past week. State officials have requested aid from newly formed federal surge response teams. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman Lisa Cox didnt immediately provide details, but the request shows the administration of Republican Gov. Mike Parson is trying to bolster the pandemic response.

The push comes as the state's seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks from 576.14 new cases per day on June 15 to 891.71 new cases per day on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

State data shows that hospitalizations are up sharply, increasing by 38% from 637 on the last day of May to 882 on Wednesday. And the situation is even worse in southwest Missouri, where hospitalizations jumped from 134 to 317 over the same period.

I think one of our team members put it best the other day when they said that they felt like they were holding their breath, Marshall told The Kansas City Star.

Only one in four Taney County residents has been fully vaccinated. In much larger Greene County, which includes Springfield, one in three residents is fully vaccinated. Vaccine rates across southwest Missouri are considerably lower than the roughly 40% for the state as a whole.

With numbers even worse among young people, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page Page on Wednesday announced a major sustained effort that involves offering daily opportunities for families to get all their vaccines, routine physicals and dental care at any of the health departments three clinics starting soon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Health officials in the county shifted their guidance Thursday, encouraging vaccinated people to wear face coverings when indoors with others whose vaccination status is unknown.

This pandemic is not over, said Dr. Faisal Khan, acting director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health. The virus and its variants present a real and imminent danger to the health of people in the St. Louis region. We must encourage vaccination and continued precautions.

Only one-third of county residents ages 12 to 19 have initiated the vaccination process, Page said.

Thats the lowest vaccination rate of all of our age groups, he said. With our overall case numbers going up, and the delta variant threatening our county, its critical we get young people vaccinated before school returns in August.

While Page lamented the teen vaccination rate in the county, the rate in rural areas is even lower, according to a report released Wednesday by Deloitte Consulting, a firm hired by the state of Missouri.

In the states urban counties, 26.3% of children ages 12 to 17 have received a dose of vaccine, compared with just 6.9% in rural counties, the report found.

Cases among teens have played a key role in recent outbreaks. The surge in Missouris cases began in northern Linn and Livingston counties in late May, which Linn County Health Department director Krista Neblock partly blamed on area students from five high schools spending several hours together on senior trip bus rides to either Kansas City or St. Louis.

The following weekends brought high school graduation ceremonies and parties where many were experiencing symptoms but attended events anyway, Neblock said.

In St. Joseph Health, where immunization rates also are low and hospital numbers are on the rise, the health department announced that people can walk in during clinic hours to get the vaccine at one of its locations starting Thursday, the St. Joseph News-Press reports.

I hope people are eager to get the vaccine and hopefully we can get these numbers back down because its unsettling when the numbers go back up for many of us who are watching the virus, Health Director Debra Bradley said.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  A historical plaque memorializing the dozens of Native American children who died while attending a boarding school in New Mexico more than a century ago has gone missing, sparking concern among Indigenous activists.

Members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women are among those pushing the city of Albuquerque to investigate. The small plaque was in a park near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the original site of the Albuquerque Indian School.

The plaque noted the site of a burial ground for students who attended the school between 1882 and 1933. They included children from the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and Apache tribes.

The removal of the plaque comes as the U.S. government embarks on a nationwide investigation aimed at uncovering the troubling history of boarding schools that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the massive undertaking last month while addressing tribal leaders from across the nation.

Advocacy groups have praised the effort as a first step toward acknowledging what many have referred to as a dark history.

Coalition member Jovita Belgarde  who is Isleta, Ohkay Owingeh and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa  said the discovery of the missing plaque added insult to injury. Many Indigenous families have been reeling since hearing about the bodies of hundreds of children being uncovered at the sites of boarding schools in Canada. The launch of the Interior Department's investigation also has stirred unresolved feelings in the U.S.

Belgarde sees the recent taking of the plaque as a continuation of efforts to silence Indigenous voices and perpetuation of violence against Indigenous people.

These atrocities  people talk about them like theyre in the past. These are not the distant past, she told The Associated Press. These actions left deep scars for many of our elders, our families, our friends ... and many people have not had any support to heal that trauma and have had to live with this pain and silence for generations.

Albuquerque officials said Thursday they are working with tribal leaders, historical experts and others to determine the next steps with regard to the missing plaque. They also noted that a public art piece and a second plaque that references the history of the site are still at the park.

"As we continue to work with the respective leaders on this issue, we urge the public to respect the cultural and spiritual significance of this site, city parks director Dave Simon said in a statement.

With more light being shined on past boarding school policies, tribal governors from around New Mexico have advocated for accountability and justice.

All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Wilfred Herrera Jr., who is from Laguna Pueblo, said recounting what Pueblo parents and children experienced has been painful.

While some of our children endured years of abuse for speaking our languages, practicing our cultures, and maintaining our traditions, the unbearable truth is that many of our young never returned to their Pueblo homelands, ever, he said in a statement.

The Albuquerque Indian School was started in 1881 by the Presbyterian Church. It came under federal control a few years later and was among hundreds of known boarding schools across the country. The school closed in the 1980s, and the property was put into trust for New Mexico's 19 pueblos. The buildings eventually were torn down, and a tribal development corporation is working to make it a commercial hub.

Aside from determining the fate of the missing plaque, Belgarde said advocates want an investigation into the site overall in hopes of turning up more information about exactly how many children might have been buried there. She said the site demands more reverence, and city officials need to be transparent about how they proceed.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Irans supreme leader on Thursday appointed a hard-line cleric sanctioned by the West as the country's new judiciary chief, state media reported, replacing the president-elect who previously held the powerful post.

The new chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, 64, takes the reins from Ebrahim Raisi, who will ascend to the country's highest civilian position after his election victory earlier this month.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, announced Ejehi's appointment, urging him to advocate for justice and fight corruption. In a decree, he praised Ejehi's valuable experience, shining records and legal competence.

Ejehi takes over a judiciary widely criticized by international rights groups for being one of the worlds top executioners, as well as conducting closed-door trials of dual nationals and individuals with Western ties. Raisi, the previous judiciary chief and a protege of Khamenei, was sanctioned by the United States in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, as well as over his tenure at the judiciary.

Thursday's announcement was widely expected as Ejehi, considered close to Khamenei, had served as deputy judiciary chief after a long history in the branch, including as prosecutor general. In that post, from 2009-2014, he pushed to further limit access to the internet and popular social media apps, sparking worries among his opponents over the increase of social oppression.

From 2005-2009, during the first term of hard-line populist former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ejehi served as intelligence minister, following decades of deep involvement in the services dating back to his role as head of the ministry's recruiting office in the 1980s.

The conservative cleric landed on the U.S. Treasury Department and European Unions sanctions lists over allegations of severe human rights abuses linked to Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009. That vote, considered rigged by the reformist opposition, sparked massive Green Movement protests and a sweeping crackdown in which thousands of people were detained and dozens were killed.

Ejehi's relationship to Ahmadinejad became strained in 2009, when as intelligence minister he openly opposed the administration's tactic of broadcasting televised confessions from government opponents arrested in the post-election turmoil. In 2009, Ahmadinejad dismissed Ejehi from his post.

Even before the 2009 crackdown, Ejehi was associated with moves to jail reformist politicians. In 1998, he became known as the ultraconservative judge who shocked Tehran, the capital, with a harsh verdict against its reformist mayor. He initially sentenced Gholamhossein Karbaschi to five years in prison, 60 lashes and a hefty fine.

Ejehi also has come under heavy criticism over his role as a prosecutor in the Special Court of Clerics in the 1990s. His opponents accuse him of involvement in a string of killings of activists, dissidents and intellectuals that began in 1998.

Many moderates saw the slayings as an assault by hard-liners against the countrys reform movement. The Intelligence Ministry admitted in early 1999 that rogue agents were behind a limited number of killings, and the intelligence minister resigned. Dissidents claim that more than 80 opposition activists were killed by the security services in the 1990s.

The outgoing relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani congratulated Ejehi on his promotion, praising his efficiency as well as important organizational experience.

__

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report
WEST HAVEN  Following an order by a magistrate judge to produce documents, the city said it has turned over material to an incarcerated man who claimed the Police Department had withheld reports he sought.

Attorney Michael Leone, who represented the city in the case brought by Roderick Lewis, said West Haven has complied with the order.

As part of that litigation, the documents were either produced or an affidavit was procured stating those documents no longer exist, Leone said.

Lewis, who is serving a 14-year sentence for a thwarted home invasion on Myrtle Avenue in 2013, requested police documents as part of a federal lawsuit filed an attempt to demonstrate that his arrest in that case was a conflict of interest and constituted retaliation for a harassment complaint he filed against a detective following a 2009 traffic stop that he alleged turned into a body search for drugs, according the order by Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish.

In the order, Farrish details that Lewis made multiple requests for documents over several years in an attempt to gather information for his petition to be released from custody. Lewis claimed the department violated the state Freedom of Information Act for not adequately responding to some of his requests; notably, he alleged a May 8, 2019, request for all complaints made against an officer initially was ignored, until an August 2019 response said there were no relevant records, according to details provided in Farrishs order.

Lewis said he had filed a complaint against one of the officers, so he knew at least one document existed at some point, the Farrish order says. Lewis had initiated the lawsuit in federal court, making document requests of West Haven city and police officials during the discovery phase, Farrish wrote in his order.

In this case, Mr. Lewis claims to have strong, evidence-backed reasons for believing that the defendants production is incomplete. He has obtained a copy of the records retention and destruction policy applicable to municipal public safety agencies like the West Haven Police Department ... and he notes that under that policy, certain documents encompassed by his discovery requests should not yet have been destroyed, Farrish wrote.

Lewis  representing himself  also filed a motion for an injunction to prevent the city from destroying any further documents.

The department, however, argued that the 10-year retention schedule for records begins on the date of an incident report, not the date of disposition. From the order: The retention/destruction policy says that investigations into unsubstantiated citizen complaints are retained for the [c]urrent year plus 2 years.

In his order, Farrish said Lewis had presented sufficient evidence to call into question whether four of the nine requests should still exist. The other five, Farrish said, would have been subject to destruction  including complaints that were deemed to be unsubstantiated. Farrish granted the motion to compel West Haven to produce documents for four requests  pertaining to Lewiss narcotics arrest in 2010 and his home invasion arrest in 2013.

Lewis previously filed a complaint with the states Freedom of Information Commission but on July 24, 2019, the commission accepted a report from the acting clerk of the commission finding that the Police Department had kept to its stated schedule of document retention and dismissed Lewis complaint.

That case was decided by the Commission in July 2019, necessarily based solely on the evidence presented to the Commission at an evidentiary hearing, as required by the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act. The final decision in that matter was not appealed and therefore stands, said Mary Schwind, managing director and associate general counsel for the FOIC.

She said the lawsuit appeared to involve a much broader scope of records sought during the discovery process than what was brought before the FOIC.

Mayor Nancy Rossi said she supports compliance with FOIA, as someone who used to use it frequently as a councilwoman.

I would hope going forward we release records in a timely fashion, she said.

Lewis made international headlines in 2010 when he bit back when a police dog bit him  he was sentenced to 15 months of jail with five years of probation for that incident.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation for a Tennessee police officer charged with killing two people in a car crash while off-duty.

Antonio Marshall, 27, appeared in a Memphis court Wednesday on vehicular homicide charges, news outlets reported. Shelby County Judge Bill Anderson released Marshall on his own recognizance and ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation.
Hearst Connecticut Media /

NEW HAVEN  The National Weather Service has forecast potential thunderstorms and flash flooding for the New Haven area Thursday, prompting the city to monitor the incoming weather through its emergency operations center.

Emergency Operations Director Rick Fontana said in an email there is the possibility of localized to scattered areas of flash flooding this afternoon into evening ahead of a slow-moving cold front, as well as up to two inches of rain, which could cause thunderstorms, reduced visibility (and) over the road flooding.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico lifted all pandemic-related restrictions on public gatherings and business operations on Thursday, marking the possible end to aggressive public health precautions more than 15 months after the local onslaught of COVID-19.

Business owners were hopeful as state health officials lifted occupancy limits and other restrictions on public and private venues that were imposed by the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in response to the coronavirus.

While the state also ended its color-coded risk system for counties, state health officials said the campaign to get more people vaccinated will continue.

Turning the page, state Health Secretary Tracie Collins announced her return to academic life at the University of New Mexico after eight months at the helm of a crucial agency in the struggle to blunt the pandemic. The Health Department will be overseen by David Scrase, another leading figure in the state's pandemic response as secretary of the New Mexico Human Services Department.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, had set a goal of getting 60% of residents fully vaccinated two weeks before the reopening. That mark was missed, but she still opted to lift the restrictions on commercial and day-to-day activities as scheduled. The state now reports about 62% of eligible resident are vaccinated.

We did it New Mexico,"' the governor proclaimed Thursday on social media.

With the restrictions lifted, all businesses across the state may operate at 100% capacity, and all limitations on mass gatherings are gone. Businesses and local governments may still adopt and require additional precautions at their discretion, state officials said.

The governor has faced criticism from business owners, parents and Republican lawmakers for her handling of the pandemic. The critics have pointed to the effects of the shutdown on small businesses around the state and the lost year of learning that resulted from the education system going virtual.

The governor maintained in a statement that sacrifices over the past year helped to save lives and reduce the spread of the virus.
RENO, Nev. (AP)  A heat wave in the U.S. West that brought three consecutive days of record-high temperatures to Lake Tahoe and is forecast to continue into the holiday weekend gave way briefly Wednesday to thunderstorms and flood advisories across parts of Nevada.

The service issued flood advisories in parts of Lyon and Douglas counties after up to 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) of rain fell in the Pine Nut Mountain southeast of Carson City.

Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada near the Utah line was under a flood advisory after more than a half inch of rain (1 cm) fell there. Campers and hikers were warned to avoid streams or creeks in southern Nevada's Lincoln County.

Parts of neighboring Nye and Esmeralda were under a severe thunderstorm warning, with reports of winds up to 60 mph (96 kph) and quarter-sized hail but no immediate damage.

North of Reno along the California-Nevada line, the service reported winds gusting to 60 mph (96 kph) late Wednesday afternoon were pushing a wall of dust across the desert south of Gerlach, reducing visibility to less than 1 miles (1.6 kilometers).

On Tuesday, the Clark County Fire Department reported at least two water rescues northeast of Las Vegas, where flooding damaged railroad tracks and left some neighborhoods in Logandale under up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water.

Tuesday's high of 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 Celsius) at North Las Vegas Airport was only slightly hotter than normal for this time of year. But three consecutive days of about 90 F (32 C) at Lake Tahoe is unusual for the mountain lake that straddles the California-Nevada line.

South Lake Tahoe, California, set a record of 90 F (32 C) on Sunday, 91 F (33 C) on Monday and tied the previous mark of 89 (31.6 C) on Tuesday. Reno also tied record highs of 103 F (39 C) on Monday and 102 F (39 C) on Tuesday.

Lower highs were forecast Wednesday before warming up again through the weekend, in which highs will approach 110 F (43 C) in parts of Las Vegas, the service said.

Highs into the weekend should be in the mid- to upper 80s F (30 to 31 C) at Lake Tahoe and the mid- to upper-90s F (about 36 C) in the Reno area.
ISTANBUL (AP)  Men are playing cards and backgammon at their local coffeehouses again, movie theaters are being cleaned before their first evening screening and bars are serving beer and chips in Istanbuls famous pedestrian avenue.

Turkey has eased nearly all pandemic restrictions on businesses and events starting Thursday, and lifted nighttime and Sunday curfews as new infections remain steadily below recent record high levels.

We no longer have the patience to stay at home in both the financial and the spiritual way, 42-year-old gig worker Fatih Aydin said.

An interior ministry circular said restaurants, which re-opened weeks ago, and wedding parties no longer have to limit the number of guests but must still abide by social distancing rules. Only hookah shops are still closed.

Concerts and festivals can go ahead indoors and outdoors but music must end by midnight even though there is no longer a curfew. Restrictions on public transport with passenger and age limits have also been curtailed.

Turkeys mask mandate outdoors and in public places remains, though, like elsewhere, many people are not using masks correctly. We are sick of this masked life, I think we need to get back to normal life, Huseyin Baytas, 24, said.

Although this was the most extensive relaxation of measures since the beginning of the pandemic, the threat remains. Turkey has been gradually easing restrictions since mid-May after the end of a so-called full lockdown from which millions of workers and tourists were exempt. A partial lockdown in mid-April was extended to a nearly three-week stay-at-home order after daily cases hit a record high of more than 63,000.

Infections and deaths have dropped since then but cases have been hovering around a 7-day average of about 5,500 per day. Turkeys vaccination drive has also gathered speed, surpassing 50 million doses administered as of Thursday. But only 18% of Turkeys nearly 84 million population has been fully vaccinated with shots by Pfizer-BioNTech and China's Sinovac.

As thousands of tourists come to Turkeys shores from Russia, where there's been an infection surge, fears of the highly-infectious delta coronavirus variant first identified in India abound. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said this week that 224 cases of the variant had been identified so far.

On Wednesday, Koca reduced the waiting time between two vaccine doses to four weeks. He also announced that health-care workers and people aged over 50 could choose to get a third dose  amid worries on Sinovacs long-term efficacy, especially in dealing with the delta variant.

Deniz Seckin, a 40-year-old engineer, said shes not ready to drop precautions. The danger is not 100% over. Ive only had my first dose of the vaccine. There is the delta variant and infection numbers are not dropping below 5,000.

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Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
WEST HAVEN  As the state of the coronavirus pandemic continues to change, so, too, will the University of New Havens response.

The university has hired public health researcher Anthony Santella, a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy and director of the Doctor of Health Sciences Program, to serve as its COVID-19 coordinator after former dean of the School of Health Sciences Summer McGee accepted a job as president of Salem Academy and College in North Carolina.

As the pandemic continues to evolve, its important that not just the University of New Haven but all institutions of higher education and large employers have someone or a group of people that are responsible for ensuring that everyone thats part of our community - students, faculty, staff - have a safe and healthy academic experience, Santella said.

Santella, an expert in infectious disease prevention and control with a focus on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, said the direction the coming academic year takes will depend on public health data  such as case and vaccination rates  and the effectiveness of public health messaging.

It is hard to plan your operations for the upcoming academic year when you dont know what percent are fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated. What about our international students? We dont have all the data, Santella said.

While the university community is eager to hear about confirmed fall operations, were not in a position to release it now because were waiting on the data, he said.

The university is requiring all members of its community to become vaccinated before next semester, or to provide a request for exemption. However, the university is in a holding pattern as it waits for students, staff and faculty to present those records before an Aug. 1 deadline Santella said.

Im hopeful we will get through this coming academic year with some return to  what Ill say  normalcy. Its not going to look like pre-pandemic times and a lot of it will be guided by the behavior of our stakeholders, he said.

Currently, the city of West Haven lags behind most of its municipal neighbors in its community rate of vaccination. According to the most recently available data from the state, 45.31 percent of West Haven residents between the ages of 16 and 44 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 21.02 percent of residents between 12 and 15 are fully vaccinated.

Santella said he supports institutions working together to achieve positive public health outcomes.

West Haven is a very diverse area when it comes to socio-demographic characteristics like age and race demographics, so we know there are pockets of individuals that have been more hesitant when it comes to getting vaccinated, he said.

I am a firm believer institutions of higher education like the University of New Haven have a responsibility to be a good neighbor, just like we want our students who live off campus to be good neighbors, he said. It works both ways, so as we plan our efforts particularly with offering vaccinations through our strategic medical and health partners, were looking for ways to extend that beyond the university.

Santella said the university also is collaborating with Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges institutions, such as Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University and Wesleyan University, in learning from one another and developing effective protocols and responses to the pandemic on campus.

Although most of his professional career has centered around HIV/AIDS, Santella said there are some crucial similarities between both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics from a public health perspective  especially messaging.

He said researchers and experts worked for years to dispel myths and misinformation about HIV/AIDS, such as questions about whether the virus could be transmitted through mosquito bites or sharing spoons, and there are many questions about COVID-19 today.

COVID is so new that theres a lot of education work to do, he said.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday designated 17 countries as not doing enough to combat human trafficking and warned them of potential U.S. sanctions. The administration also called out several U.S. allies and friends, including Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Turkey, for backsliding in their efforts.

The designations came in the State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons report, which cited the coronavirus pandemic as a cause for a surge in human slavery between 2020 and 2021. The report covering 188 nations and territories said the outbreak had put millions more people at risk for exploitation and distracted some governments from efforts to stem human trafficking.

The report classified the 17 mostly authoritarian nations as Tier 3 for failing to meet minimal standards to stop what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called an inhumane cycle of discrimination and injustices. The designation means that without a presidential waiver those countries could lose some U.S. assistance, although decisions on such penalties will not be made until later this year.

Its a global crisis, its an enormous source of human suffering, Blinken said, citing estimates that almost 25 million people, many of them women and children, are victims. This crime is an affront to human rights. It's an affront to human dignity."

Newcomers to the Tier 3 category are Malaysia and Guinea-Bissau, both of which had been on a watchlist for a downgrade for three years and were ineligible to avoid the designation because they had failed to take steps to improve their anti-human trafficking efforts.

They join Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, China, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Venezuela in the worst offender category. Most of those countries are already subject to U.S. sanctions for other reasons.

Meanwhile, six valued U.S. partners and friends  Cyprus, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland  were downgraded from the top Tier 1 category to Tier 2. That means they don't meet international standards for fighting trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so. No penalties are attached to a Tier 2 designation,

Israel was cited for backsliding on serious and sustained initiatives to combat trafficking, including a decrease in investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators, and severe understaffing at its only authority directly charged with dealing with the matter.

The report cited U.S. treaty ally New Zealand for not initiating any prosecutions for labor trafficking and weak prison sentences for child sex traffickers that significantly weakened deterrence, undercut efforts to hold traffickers accountable, and did not adequately address the nature of the crime.

The report criticized NATO ally Norway for not prosecuting any human trafficking cases during the reporting period and charging people suspected of the crime with lesser offenses. Fellow NATO member Portugal was hit for failing to improve victim identification and lacking legal safeguards to protect trafficking victims.

And, in the first such criticism of a NATO ally, Turkey was specifically cited for providing operational, equipment, and financial support to an armed militia in Syria that recruits child soldiers. Turkey and 14 other nations, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, were hit with the same designation, which can result in the loss of U.S. military training assistance.
WALLINGFORD  Board of Education members didnt have to look far to find a replacement for Superintendent of Schools Salvatore Menzo, who has led the district for the past 12 years.

Danielle Bellizzi, who has been the districts assistant superintendent for personnel for the past three years, was promoted to fill become Menzos replacement at a special school board meeting this week. Menzo last year accepted a job running a pair of magnet schools operated by Hartford-based Goodwin University.

Karen Hlavac, chairwoman of the school board, said Bellizzi will provide the educational leadership necessary for our district as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and address the educational, social and emotional issues and needs generated by that public health crisis.

Ms. Bellizzi is a compassionate and energetic individual with extensive knowledge of our school district and an uncompromising commitment to our students here in Wallingford, Hlavac said.

Billizzi said she was excited about being able to lead a district that values the education of all students while inspiring them to recognize their strengths and achieve their fullest potential.

She began her career teaching at Mary E. Griswold Elementary School in Berlin, Conn., and then in 2003 spent five years serving as an elementary reading interventionist and consultant at schools in Maryland. She returned to Connecticut in 2008 and returned to classroom teaching at Emma Hart Willard Elementary School in Berlin.

Bellizzis next career move took her to Middletown in 2010, where she accepted a position as an elementary instructional support teacher at Farm Hill Elementary School. She held that job for three years, then got her first job as an administrator, serving as assistant principal of John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Windsor.

Bellizi left the Windsor district after a year, joining the Wallingford school system in July 2014 as principal of Pond Hill Elementary School. She served in that role through summer 2018, when she was selected as an assistant superintendent for the district.

Bellizzi and her family live in Berlin. Her salary was not immediately available Wednesday night.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)  A Wyoming man accused of burning a toddler with a butane torch, killing him and disposing of his body in an apartment complex dumpster in February has had his bail set at $1 million.

The bail was set for Wyatt Dean Lamb, the boyfriend of the boy's mother, after he made his first court appearance Tuesday in Cheyenne when he was formally informed of the charges he faces.

Lamb, 27, was not asked to enter a plea to one count of first-degree murder and 10 counts of child abuse in the death of 2-year-old Athian Rivera.

Lamb could face the death penalty but prosecutors have not said if they plan to seek it.

Athian went missing on Feb. 19, triggering a search that ended about two hours later with the discovery of his body wrapped in a sheet, blanket and five trash bags in a dumpster near the apartment where he lived, according to a police investigative affidavit filed in court.

The boy's injuries included numerous abrasions and bruises on his head, back, chest, belly and arms  and burns to his groin consistent with a butane torch found in the apartment where the boy lived, according to a summary of the coroner's findings in the affidavit.

The details about the boys injuries and cause of death were not revealed until this week, when the police affidavit was made public in court.

Lamb had been living with the boys mother, Kassandra Orona, and her three children in the apartment, Orona told investigators, according to the affidavit.

Orona and Lamb used the two-burner butane torch to smoke marijuana, she told investigators.

The size and shape of the torch's burners appeared very similar to the shape and size of the burns on Athian, the affidavit said. The boy died two to four hours before he was found of blunt force trauma, lack of oxygen to the brain, or both, the coroner concluded.

Orona told police that Lamb was watching her three children the night before her son was killed while she worked a sandwich shop shift, court documents said.

She told investigators she arrived home at about 3:30 a.m. and was later awakened by Lamb, who wanted her to drive her daughter to school a few minutes away because the girl was running late, according to the documents.

After Orona and Lamb got back, Orona told investigators that she went back to bed. Lamb woke her up just after 12 p.m., saying Athian was missing, according to her account provided to investigators.

Lamb told police he returned to his apartment after Orona got home from work but returned by taxi later that morning when Orona called and said Athian was missing. Police said they went to an address where Lamb previously lived but that he had moved out in August 2020, court documents said.

And several taxi companies contacted by investigators reported no record of a trip that day to Oronas apartment, police alleged in court documents.

Lamb was arrested and jailed after Athian's body was found but on unrelated charges. He faced bond revocation related to a 2020 charge of felony strangulation of Orona and with misdemeanor property destruction and interfering with a peace officer.

Orona had missed a hearing in that case last summer and had been prohibited from living with Orona, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.

Lambs attorney, Ericka Smith, didnt immediately return a phone message Wednesday seeking comment her client's case.

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This story has been corrected to show the suspect was the boyfriend of the boy's mother, not a girl's mother.
WEST HAVEN  Five people were displaced ome Thursday afternoon after smoke and flames engulfed their home in the citys Allingtown neighborhood. One firefighter was hospitalized with burns, but is expected to recover.

The two-alarm fire drew crews in from the citys three fire districts, and a large crowd of onlookers as emergency vehicles flooded the area.

Allingtown Fire District Chief Michael Terenzio said crews were called to the 100 block of Admiral Street at 3:12 p.m. Firefighters arrived at the 100 block of Admiral Street around 3:14 p.m., according to dispatch reports.

Residents initially reported eight people live in the house, but Terenzio said the fire department counted five residents displaced. The home includes three dwelling units, residents said.

Police were called in to control traffic in the area. A total of 25 firefighters responded to the call, with crews from New Haven and Milford covering as all the citys fire districts responded, Terenzio said.

One firefighter was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital with burns on both legs. Terenzio said the firefighter was treated for second-degree burns and released, remaining off-duty for the rest of the shift.

Terenzio said the fire marshal is investigating the cause of the blaze. The fire appears to have started on the first floor in the rear of the building, but investigators are working to determine if the fire started in the interior of the building or outside.

Firefighters could be seen cutting a hole in the roof of the home to put the fire out, with smoke billowing out as they made entry.

Four people were treated for heat exhaustion, said Terenzio. While the day was not hot, the humidity exacerbated the heat.
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 72F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
The senate has finally passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)  but not without fierce arguments. The bill has been in the works s...

The senate has finally passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)  but not without fierce arguments.

The bill has been in the works since the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who led Nigeria between 1999 and 2007 but successive sessions of the national assembly failed to pass it.

But the PIB passed third reading after Mohammed Sabo, chairman of the joint committee petroleum (upstream and downstream) and gas, presented a report and its clauses were put to voice vote.

While presenting the report on Thursday, Sabo said the legislation is aimed at promoting transparency, good governance and accountability in the oil and gas sector.

The chairman said the committee recommended that 30 percent of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) profit from oil and gas should be used to fund exploration of frontier basins.

The various obsolete laws currently in operation in the country have been updated and consolidated in this chapter to meet global competitiveness and best practices, he said.

A total of 355 amendments were recommended to this chapter while others were retained.

During the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill in the committee of the whole, the percentage that should be allocated to the host communities caused a division among the senators.

At the public hearing on the bill, representatives of the host communities demanded that they be allocated 10 percent.

Although five percent was proposed, the joint committee recommended three percent after a meeting of the senators with Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, and Mele Kyari, NNPC group managing director.

After three percent was accepted as what is due to host communities, Thompson Sekibo, senator representing Rivers north-east, called for a division to challenge a ruling of Senate President Ahmad Lawan that allow that.

While some senators spoke in favour of the division, others kicked against.

Abdullahi Yahaya, senate leader, while describing it as a bad precedent, said his heart bleeds over Sekibos motion.

Yahaya pleaded with the Rivers lawmaker to withdraw his motion and Sekibo did.

Also speaking, James Manager, senator representing Delta south, said five percent was not too much for the host communities.

The bill, which has five parts, eight schedules and 319 clauses, was eventually passed.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 84F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Low 71F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms. Low 71F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
There are many obstacles for Black people searching for their ancestors, and researcher Gaynell Brady will discuss how to overcome them at a free genealogical presentation at 6 p.m. July 12, via video conference online.

Brady says the vast majority of African Americans are descendants of the 400,000 Black Africans brought to North America as slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the enslaved had no legal rights, they are not often found in many of the traditional record sources available for that period.

Marriages of the enslaved were not legally recognized prior to emancipation and were not recorded in official records. Tracing enslaved ancestors requires identifying the slave-owning family and tracking documents connected with that family.

After emancipation, some of the formerly enslaved selected a new surname that represented or identified their trade, a leader in the community or their fathers first name.

Brady has served as an interpretive park ranger for the National Park Service and as a museum educator at the Louisiana State Museum, National WWII Museum, and the River Road African American Museum. Brady also is the owner and operator of Our Mammys, an educational resource that encourages children of all ages to research their family histories and use them as inspirational tools.

Visit www.jplibrary.net/adults for more details, including how to join the discussion. The presentation also can be accessed through the librarys Facebook page.

For more information, contact Chris Smith, manager of adult programming for the library, at (504) 889-8143 or wcsmith@jplibrary.net.

TALKING BOOKS AND BRAILLE: JPL partners with the State Library of Louisiana Talking Books and Braille Library to provide free public library service to Louisiana residents of all ages who cannot easily read standard printed materials due to a visual impairment, physical disability or a reading disability, whether it is permanent or temporary.

Anyone who is legally blind or totally blind is eligible. People with physical disabilities that prevent them from holding a book or turning its pages are also eligible. Individuals with a reading disability who are certified by a medical doctor may also use this service.

The collection consists of more than 75,000 titles in nonprint formats (Braille, cassette, digital cartridge and large print) on a broad range of fiction and nonfiction subjects, for all ages. JPL lends playback machines to those using the recorded materials. Recorded magazine subscriptions are also available.

Books and magazines are mailed free to and from library patrons, wherever they reside. More than 6,000 Louisianans actively use the library service.

TBBL, a division of the State Library, is supported by funding from the state and is a cooperating network library of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress.

COMPUTER CLASSES: Receive free computer training at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie. Seating is limited, and online registration is required. Visit the Computer Classes page at www.jplibrary.net/training and click East Bank Regional Schedule. Upcoming classes include:

One-on-One Computer Training: 10 a.m. July 8.

Introduction to the internet: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. July 8.

Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 1: 10 a.m. to noon July 9.

Introduction to Microsoft Excel 1: 10 a.m. to noon July 12.

Introduction to Microsoft Word 2: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 14.

West bank classes: Receive free computer training at the West Bank Regional Library, 2751 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey. Seating is limited, and online registration is required. Visit the Computer Classes page at www.jplibrary.net/training and click West Bank Regional Schedule. Upcoming classes include:

Basic Computer Skills: 10 a.m. July 9.

Basic Computer Skills: 2 p.m. July 9.

Internet Basics: 2 p.m. July 12.

Computer Basics: 6 p.m. July 12.

HAM RADIO CLASS: The amateur radio technician course sponsored by the Crescent City Amateur Radio Group continues at the River Ridge Library, 8825 Jefferson Highway. The remaining sessions, which are free and open to the public, take place at 6:30 p.m. on the following dates: July 13, 14, 20 and 21, with a test on Aug. 3.

Chris Smith is manager of adult programming at the Jefferson Parish Public Library.
Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins is blowing up. There arent a lot of paintings cluttering his French Quarter studio, because they sell too fast. And they sell for thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands.

Which is astonishing, since it wasnt too long ago that Hopkins couldnt afford his cellphone bills and did without electricity for six months. A profile in The New York Times and a review in The Wall Street Journal have helped fuel his rocket ride to stardom. Recently, the National Gallery acquired one of his portraits.

Hopkins current challenge is to produce 18 new acrylic paintings for a show at the high-end Venus Over Manhattan gallery in New York by the winter. The tabletop where Hopkins works is picturesquely piled with plastic jars of acrylic paint and his arsenal of brushes. He usually maps out his canvases first, with interlocking rectangles of background colors, then he meticulously adds details, and details, and details. Rendering the characters and interior decoration in his paintings requires Hopkins to employ his superpower: time travel.

Hopkins, 43, is an 1800s folk artist accidentally trapped in the era of Google, Facebook and Amazon.com, or so it would seem. He appears to recall early Louisiana domestic life as if it were yesterday. Hopkins often uses the word Creole to describe his historical genre scenes. "It's a complicated word," he said. Originally, Creole was used to signify the first generation born in the French colony. But it's also applied to the blending of races and backgrounds  Native American, French, Spanish, Caribbean and African  that occurred in the antebellum Crescent City. Hopkins' Creole paintings are populated by enslaved Black people, European oligarchs, and, often the free people of color, who were sometimes slave owners.

The average person doesnt know what a free person of color is, Hopkins said of the somewhat obscure historical anomaly. Mostly, he said, he hopes his paintings answer the question, What was life like in New Orleans 200 years ago? Though the scenes he creates have a decidedly idyllic take on the period.

When he sits down to compose a 19th-century scene, there's no doubt Hopkins knows his stuff. You can bet that the costumes worn by the characters in his paintings, from their riding boots to their cameo necklaces to their tignons, are historically correct. The native sassafras trees (the source of file powder), satsumas and banana palms in the background are no accident either.

Occasionally Hopkins reinterprets paintings from the classical canon. He considers his version of Botticellis Birth of Venus to be his masterpiece. The goddess of love is, of course, borne on an oyster shell, surrounded by tempestuous, brown, Gulf waters. In his reimagining of Frank Schneiders well-known portrait of Marie Laveau, Hopkins has added a startlingly intense gaze and an electric blue background seemingly abuzz with metaphysical energy.

Hopkins has always had a passion for the past. He was born in Mobile, Alabama, but his compass always seemed to point to New Orleans, with its venerable architecture, crumbling cemeteries and museums.

The French Quarter, Hopkins said, was the coolest place in the world.

His family moved to Crescent City in the 1990s, where he soon became a mini sensation by crafting tiny models of antique furniture from oven-baked clay that he sold in museum gift shops. He was just a teenager at the time.

I was a self-taught nerdy kid who went to museums and talked to people, he said.

Later, Hopkins worked in the gift shop at Laura Plantation, where, he said, we talked to people about Creoles and slavery. He also worked at the 1850s House, a historic residence in the Pontalba apartments, which is part of the Louisiana State Museum. Thanks to the eruption of his painting career, Hopkins is now pals with the French descendants of the Baroness Pontalba who built the apartments in the 1840s, plus hes been scheduled for a solo exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum in 2022.

When Hopkins was 20, he and his French boyfriend opened a Magazine Street antique store, which gave the couple opportunities to travel to Paris on buying trips, honing Hopkins' understanding of New Orleans' Gallic roots. When they split up, Hopkins said, he hit the skids for a while. He calls the next few years his starving artist period. He returned Mobile for a time and also moved to Baltimore, but eventually, New Orleans reeled him back in.

In about 2012, Hopkins said, things began picking up. At Nadine Blake Gallery on Royal Street, his paintings only sold for a few hundred dollars back then, but they sold regularly. Then in 2019 lightning struck, when a nationally known antiques dealer invited Hopkins to show a selection of his paintings at a big-time New York antique show. Thats when his career catapulted, as Hopkins put it. It wasnt long before he sold out a 38-painting exhibit in a Manhattan gallery, at Manhattan prices.

And as his art career took off, so has another part of his self-expression as well. As a kid, Hopkins said, when he wasnt at the library schooling himself on history, he was being swept up by the dreaminess of old black and white movies that he found on TV. He was especially captivated by the glamour of the women of the era. Hopkins said hed always considered cross-dressing but had been reluctant. In preparation for a Christmas party at the French Quarter nightclub Oz a few years back, he took the plunge.

I always wanted to do drag, he said. In my late 30s, I said, You need to do it or not do it.

Desiree Josephine Duplantier is Hopkins alter ego. He describes her as a 1950s Creole grande dame. When Hopkins was anointed featured artist at the New Orleans Museum of Arts Art in Bloom benefit exhibit this year, Desiree appeared at the toney opening reception in his place.

Desiree's Eisenhower-era, shiny sheath dresses, white gloves, clutch bags and abundant pearls may be a far cry from the Victorian fashion worn by some of the characters in his paintings, but Hopkins certainly considers Desiree an artwork of sorts.

Like his painting style, his cross-dressing was self-taught.

To wear stilettoes and pantyhose and corsets is not comfortable, Hopkins said laughing. Shes definitely a work of art.
Around the terminal at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, you can get gumbo just the way they cook it at the landmark Dooky Chases Restaurant or find a seat at Emeril's Table, the latest restaurant from celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse.

The airports restaurant program was designed to give travelers a taste of the citys renowned dining scene right by their boarding gates. Now, though, its also a lens for the struggles that restaurants are contending with in this phase of the pandemic.

Mirroring the larger hospitality industry, customer demand has been rising rapidly while supplies have been inconsistent and increasingly expensive, and staffing levels remain a vexing issue.

At the airport, that means smaller menus, limited hours and a familiar plea to pack along patience and empathy for the people who are back on the job.

What Id stress to anyone at a restaurant in an airport, or outside an airport, is that the whole industry is really working hard and working in conditions and hours that are not normal, said Johnny Blancher Jr., who runs his familys Ye Olde College Inn restaurants, in New Orleans and at the airport. Its unsustainable, but nonetheless were all doing it now.

The airport unveiled its long-planned new terminal in late 2019, and restaurants from local chefs and familiar New Orleans names were a major feature. Together, they represented a quantum leap over food and beverage service at the old terminal, where few vendors were equipped to do more than assemble and serve precooked food.

Just four months after the debut, however, the pandemic cut air travel to nil, and all but a handful of these vendors were shuttered.

But now, heading into the July 4 holiday weekend and a reviving summer travel season, many of the airports amenities are back in action.

Of the 32 restaurants, food stands, coffee shops and bars in the airport, 19 are open again (see list below). That includes many local names -- from the famous beignet stand Cafe du Monde to the neighborhood Vietnamese spot MoPho -- alongside a mix of national chains, like Chick-fil-A, Shake Shack and Chilis.

In June, the airport also opened one new concession, the Vino Volo wine bar and wine shop. It's part of a national brand with a presence in many other airports. The New Orleans location was supposed to open last fall, but was pushed back by the pandemic.

Notable local names that remain closed are Folse Market, a large, multifaceted concept from chef John Folse; Angelo Brocatos, an outpost of the century-old Italian dessert parlor in Mid-City; and Mondo, the reincarnation of chef Susan Spicers former Lakeview neighborhood restaurant (the original Mondo closed in 2019 as the new airport terminal was preparing to open). Operators say staffing is the main reason these remain closed.

Plans are in place to reopen more of the food and drink outlets in the weeks and months ahead as the airport concessionaires continue to hire.

For now, though, even the outlets that are open are working with skeleton crews.

Edgar Dooky Chase IV runs two restaurants here: Leahs Kitchen, a full-service Creole restaurant named and designed as a tribute to his famous grandmother, the late Leah Chase; and Dooks Kitchen, a walk-up counter for burgers and sandwiches.

His menus are shorter now, though there was no question the family gumbo recipe would again be in rotation at Leahs Kitchen. Still, Chase is confident that within the next two months the volume of business and staffing capacity will each be closer to pre-pandemic levels. That should position the airport businesses well for the fall.

Until then well battle through it, but things have changed quickly through this and I think theyll change quickly again on the way up, he said. My next step of the process is full throttle.

Ramping up

Passenger volume at the airport in June was down 30% compared to the same month in 2019. Thats an improvement over May, when volume was down 35.5%, according to data provided by the airport. The airport saw its single highest day for passenger volume since the pandemic on May 13, when 17,700 passengers passed through security.

For concessionaires around the concourses, thats a captive audience the size of an arena crowd each day, and many people arrive ready to eat and drink. But running a business by the boarding gates brings special complexities, which are playing through the overall task of reopening in the pandemic.

Employees here have to shuttle over from parking decks and pass through security before even reporting for work. Service has to be planned with the extra consideration of dwell time, an industry term for the time a passenger waits for a flight. If that dwell time is short, food has to be ready quick -- before customers dash for their gates.

Restaurant operators new to working in an airport environment faced a steep learning curve, but even the short span before the pandemic showed its potential.

One example is the Munch Factory, a mom-and-pop Creole cafe in Gentilly. Opening an airport location was a big step for the small business, and owners Alexis and Jordan Ruiz were eager to get back open.

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They revamped the menu to focus on a handful of dishes that the tiny kitchen and its now-limited staff can field swiftly. At the same time, though, Jordan Ruiz, the chef, said it was important to give people a taste of what the restaurant offers in normal times. So shrimp and grits, wings, gumbo and fried pork ribs remain on the menu now, next to wraps and salads.

Were trying to get back to what we were, and what we are, he said. But we have to have dishes we can serve quickly, because we know people are getting on those planes.

While still short on personnel, airport restaurants are trying to predict and staff for peak hours. That normally falls between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., said Chase, but it can fluctuate based on flight schedules, day of the week and unpredictable weather delays. Restaurants try to stagger their hours, so that at least a few are open at different times for passengers who come through during off-peak hours.

The goal is still to give everyone a taste of what that airport has, Chase said. We still want to give you a taste of it as we work toward full capacity.

Food and drink outlets open as of June 30, 2021

Vino Volo, between concourse A and B

Cafe Du Monde, concourse B

Bar Sazerac, concourse B

MoPho, concourse B

Dooks Burgers, concourse B

Emerils Table, concourse B

Lucky Dogs, concourse B and concourse C

Shake Shack, concourse B

Dylans Candy Bar, concourse B

Leahs Kitchen, concourse C

Midway Pizza, concourse C

Ye Olde College Inn, concourse C

PJs Coffee, concourse C

Chick-fil-A, concourse C

The Munch Factory, concourse C

Cure, concourse C

Chilis, concourse C

Peets Coffee, concourse C

Starbucks, concourse C

+8 New Orleans airport braces for surge in passengers for July 4th weekend New Orleans airport officials are bracing for a surge in Fourth of July traffic, offering a hopeful sign for the airport and its struggling ve

+34 See how these 33 historic New Orleans restaurants managed to reopen in pandemic Historic restaurants are landmarks of a very New Orleans type, repositories of personal traditions, shared memories and long relationships ent

+7 Emeril's Restaurant plans its return: Here's how the New Orleans flagship will be different As the New Orleans hospitality business has snapped back to life, the road ahead for one of its most high-profile restaurants has been a myste

+8 14,000 bottles later, Brennans Restaurant regains a top honor it lost after Katrina When Brennans Restaurant reopened in 2014, it marked the reincarnation of a grand but faded New Orleans classic, blending tradition with new 
Jimmy Fitzmorris liked people. And people liked him. Just not quite enough of them.

Fitzmorris won three elections to the New Orleans City Council in the 1950s and 1960s and was twice elected lieutenant governor in the 1970s.

But Fitzmorris, who died Wednesday at his daughter's home in Slidell at age 99, fell just short of being elected mayor of New Orleans, both in 1965 and 1969, and he was edged out during the 1979 race to be governor of Louisiana by the narrowest of margins.

I suspect Fitzmorris will go down in the history books as one of the tragic figures of 20th-century Louisiana politics, columnist Allan Katz once wrote, although he has never thought of himself that way.

Indeed, he didnt.

Fitzmorris once gave a speech where he said a man should not be measured by his losses.

Every man gets knocked down, Fitzmorris said. You measure a man by how many times and how quickly he picks himself up.

Clancy DuBos, a political columnist for Gambit in New Orleans, heard the speech.

Jimmy Fitzmorris picked himself up from some of the toughest knockdowns you can suffer in politics, DuBos said. He didnt have an ounce of bitterness in him. He was a consummate optimist and salesman in the best and highest sense in the word. He always had a kind word for everyone.

Fitzmorris, a lifelong Democrat, was an old-style retail politician. He liked attending ribbon cuttings, glad-handing with voters on any occasion and he never seemed to forget the name of anyone he met.

During his eight years as lieutenant governor, which coincided with Edwin Edwards first two terms as governor, Fitzmorris liked to promote efforts to bring businesses to Louisiana and make the state a more hospitable place for investment.

He was the classic example of a guy who could get elected to high elected office on the basis of shaking hands and being nice to people, said Ben Bagert of New Orleans, who served in the state House while Fitzmorris was lieutenant governor.

In later years, the plaques on the wall of his downtown office, where he worked as a business consultant, were so plentiful that they covered all the wallpaper.

James Edward Fitzmorris Jr. was born on Nov. 15, 1921. He grew up in the Irish Channel and graduated from Jesuit High School in 1939. He wore his class ring for the rest of his life, said his daughter Lisa. With family finances tight, he attended Loyola University for two years but didnt graduate.

Fitzmorris got a job as a messenger at the New Orleans office of Kansas City Southern Railroad in 1940. He took off time to serve in the Army during World War II. With his innate leadership abilities, he was promoted over time from private to major. After the war, Fitzmorris rose through the ranks at Kansas City Southern, eventually becoming a vice president for the railroad.

But being a businessman wasnt enough for him. In 1954, he won election to the New Orleans City Council while deLesseps "Chep" Morrison was mayor, and he won re-election four years later. In 1962, Fitzmorris was elected to an at-large seat.

In 1965, he challenged Mayor Victor Schiro, who possessed the advantage of incumbency. A quirk of timing worked in his favor: The election occurred shortly after Hurricane Betsy had struck, and Schiro had appeared frequently with President Lyndon B. Johnson when he visited New Orleans and promised to help the city and its residents.

Schiro won by only 2 percentage points, or 3,300 votes.

Despite that loss, Fitzmorris remained upbeat. Such is politics, he said, and after its over, you learn to laugh it off, which I did.

In 1969, with term limits forcing Schiro to step down, Fitzmorris ran first in the Democratic primary and then faced off in a runoff against Maurice Moon Landrieu, who had been his campaign manager four years earlier.

Fitzmorris later said the race turned on a reporters question during a televised debate: Would he promise to hire a Black man to head a major city department? That had not happened under Schiro.

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I said, No, I would not,' Fitzmorris recalled saying. I would not promise to hire a Black man, nor would I hire a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew or a Chinaman. I would hire the best qualified people regardless of race, creed or color.

In a large measure, that statement was misinterpreted by the Black community because, prior to that time, I always got a tremendous Black vote. Moon got something like 90% of the Black vote, which cost me the election.

Landrieu won the Democratic primary with 53% of the vote and went on to be elected mayor.

In 1971, Fitzmorris surprised analysts by making a comeback and winning election as lieutenant governor. Over the next eight years  he won re-election in 1975  Fitzmorris traveled 10,000 miles per month, attending ribbon cuttings and Rotary Club meetings from Amite to Zwolle. He put a special emphasis on his hometown.

At that time, oil and gas was flourishing, Fitzmorris said, so nobody wanted to pay any attention to the hospitality industry, but my God, to me it was evident New Orleans was going to be a tourist mecca.

A big boon to New Orleans tourism was the Louisiana Superdome, which opened in 1975. Because of his railroad career, Mr. Fitzmorris said in an interview that he assembled the land where the stadium sits.

That wasnt the only carryover from his railroad work. A Shreveport Journal story said Fitzmorris started his meetings on time and ended them when they were supposed to end, even if a pontificating member was in mid-sentence.

Late arrivals, the article reported, got the same kind of look that only railroad men give late passengers sprinting after a moving train.

In 1979, Fitzmorris ran for governor in a crowded field that included U.S. Rep. David C. Treen, Secretary of State Paul Hardy, Public Service Commissioner Louis Lambert, state House Speaker E.L. Bubba Henry and state Sen. Edgar G. Sonny Mouton Jr.

On election night, Fitzmorris was in second place, just behind Treen, a Republican, but narrowly ahead of Lambert, a Democratic member of the Public Service Commission. Fitzmorris instantly became the favorite against Treen in the runoff to be the next governor. Two days later, however, as more ballots came in, Lambert jumped ahead of Fitzmorris by 2,500 votes.

Fitzmorris filed a lawsuit in state court, saying that Lambert had stolen the election through voter fraud. At the end of a three-day trial, the judge said to Fitzmorris, You have proven your integrity and courage, but the facts have not proven your case.

Fitzmorris endorsed Treen, along with the three other major Democratic candidates who had lost in the primary. Treen went on to edge Lambert in the runoff.

In 1983, Fitzmorris attempted another comeback by challenging Lt. Gov. Bobby Freeman. Backed by Edwin Edwards, Freeman handily defeated Fitzmorris. At the same time, Edwards routed Treen.

Fitzmorris didnt run for office again.

"He had enough energy to power the Superdome and was always willing to assist in important community efforts," said former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser offered this statement: "Before supporting my candidacy for lieutenant governor, former Lt. Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris asked me to promise to him and the people of Louisiana that regardless who won governor, I would work with the governor and never talk badly about our states top official. When I asked why, Fitz said, Because the only way you can do the best for Louisiana is if you and the governor work together. His ability to unite differing views for a common good is what made him so effective for our state."

In later years, Fitzmorris was president and CEO of Fitzmorris and Associates Inc., a consulting firm that also worked in real estate investments, and he was active in civic associations, especially in the Lakefront neighborhood where he lived. In 2014, Loyola awarded him an honorary doctorate.

His memoir, Frankly, Fitz!, which he wrote with Kenneth D. Myers, was published in 1992. Seven years later, Fitzmorris was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame.

His wife Gloria died in 1995. Fitzmorris is survived by his daughter Lisa, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond will celebrate a Mass at 1 p.m. Wednesday at St. Louis Cathedral. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. The burial will be private.

Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Advocate Library Manager Judy Jumonville contributed research for this article.
Nineteen missing children, including a newborn baby, were rescued in metro New Orleans during a four-month operation led by the U.S. Marshals, authorities said Thursday. Another 20 children were located, with some of them returning home voluntarily.

One of the children safely recovered was a newborn baby boy who went missing in Arkansas. He was found in New Orleans, authorities said.

Nine adults were arrested as part of the operation, dubbed "This Is The Way Home." They are facing several charges, including felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juveniles.

Authorities did not release the names, ages or hometowns of the people who were arrested.

The operation focused on missing and endangered runaways in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes. In addition to Louisiana, authorities said children were found in Florida, Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee.

A statement from the U.S. Marshals about the operation did not provide any details about how the children went missing.

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Man arrested made in Slidell

A 16-year-old boy who authorities said ran away from Tennessee in February 2020 was found in Slidell. He was wanted by police in Tennessee for several outstanding warrants, including possession of a firearm, narcotics violations and theft.

The investigation into the missing teen led to the arrest of Kolby Warren, 21, at a home in the 59000 block of Preacher's Oak Lane in Slidell (map). Warren faces charges of intent to distribute narcotics, illegal possession of stolen firearms and illegal carrying of weapons.

As part of the investigation, authorities said, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office seized $17,586 in cash, seven firearms and codeine, oxycodone, marijuana and other narcotics.

Several agencies worked together in the operation, which ran from March 1 to June 30. They are the U.S. Marshals Service New Orleans Task Force, New Orleans Police Department, the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office, St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office, Louisiana State Police, FBI New Orleans field office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services.
A transportation supervisor at the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve support facility in Algiers was sentenced to 45 months in prison this week after admitting to taking $250,000 in kickbacks in return for funneling $1.9 million in contracts to an Atlanta bus company.

Erik Martin, 49, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery on Dec. 28. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter, who also ordered him to pay restitution.

Martin worked at the support facility and was in charge of managing transportation for about 100,000 Marine reserves across the country.

New Orleans-based Marine Corps supervisor admits taking $250K in kickbacks for bus contracts A employee who oversaw transportation at the Marine Forces Reserves support facility in Algiers has pleaded guilty to a scheme to accept $250,

In 2016, Martin met Darrel Fitzpatrick, who owned National Charter Express, a firm that served as a bus service broker, according to U.S. Attorney Duane Evans office.

Martin fell on hard times three years later, and Fitzpatrick offered to pay him kickbacks if he would help steer the Marines transportation contracts to the company.

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Martin arranged for the Algiers support facility to send 72 payments totaling $1.9 million to Fitzgeralds company, prosecutors said. In exchange, Fitzpatrick wired $110,000 to Martin.

Fitzpatrick later tried to wire a separate payment of $140,000 to Martin, but it didnt go through after the bank raised questions. Both men attempted to convince officials that the money Fitzpatrick sent to Martin was loaned. But authorities determined the payments were kickbacks and filed bribery charges against both men.

The case against Fitzpatrick is still pending. However, the charges filed against him on Dec. 21 were contained in a bill of information, which is generally a sign that a defendant intends to plead guilty.

In a statement Thursday, Thomas Cannizzo, of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which probes misconduct in the Marines, said Martin damaged the integrity of the governments bidding process and wasted taxpayer money.

This sentencing should serve as a warning that perpetrators who seek to defraud the Department of the Navy will always be exposed, Cannizzos statement said.
A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by New Orleans oil company Taylor Energy against the government contractor hired to clean up Taylors nearly two decadeslong oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a U.S. District Court judges ruling in August that Belle Chasse marine contractor Couvillion Group has legal immunity while performing work ordered by the federal government.

Taylor is also suing the U.S. Coast Guard over its order to halt what had become one of the largest and longest-running oil disasters in U.S. history.

After Taylor challenged the 2018 order to fix the leak, the Coast Guard hired Couvillion to do the job.

Since April 2019, Couvillion has collected and recycled more than 770,000 gallons of oil. Thats equal to about seven oil spills the Coast Guard would define as "disasters of national significance."

While managing a round-the-clock oil catchment system about 10 miles off the Louisiana coast, Couvillion President Timmy Couvillion was also fighting an expensive legal battle with Taylor. This weeks appeals court ruling appears to end that fight.

Couvillions first thought upon hearing the decision: Its about damn time, he said. And thats because it always seemed obvious we were doing the right thing and this was the right thing to do.

Taylor did not respond to a request for comment.

The companys platform, known as MC-20 Saratoga, was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The storm triggered an underwater mudslide that snapped the 550-foot-tall platforms legs and buried a cluster of wells. Taylor plugged some of the wells and installed three containment domes.

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Several environmental groups had for years disputed Taylors claim that its containment effort had limited pollution to just a trickle. Oily sheens were regularly seen stretching for several miles on the waters surface near the site.

The Coast Guard was spurred to take action after a government study estimated the site was releasing up to 29,000 gallons of oil per day.

Couvillion designed and installed a containment system that latched on to the toppled platform. The oil is captured and then hauled back to shore, where it is processed and sold at a discounted rate.

In its lawsuit, Taylor argued that Couvillion was unqualified for the job and might increase the release of oil. Taylor also contends that the Coast Guard was giving Couvillion too much leeway in how to run the cleanup, allowing the company to charge more than $40 million for its services, according to court documents.

The Coast Guard will likely eventually bill a $666 million trust Taylor was required to create after the platform was destroyed. Taylor, which is no longer in the oil business, has argued it has done all it can at the site, and that the remaining funds should be returned.

The company was founded by Patrick Taylor, an oilman best known for a college scholarship program for Louisiana residents now known as TOPS. He died shortly after the platform toppled. The company is now led by his widow, Phyllis Taylor, a prominent New Orleans philanthropist.

Its unclear how long the Coast Guard will employ Couvillion to run his cleanup system. He estimated a full plugging and abandonment procedure could take three years.

Well keep doing what were doing because otherwise its all released into the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Its been a big win for us, the government and the environment.

+10 How a Louisiana engineer's invention protects the Gulf from a 'volcano' spewing oil Timmy Couvillion knew the leak from the toppled Taylor Energy oil platform was bad. For 15 years, the platforms damaged wells had sent up an 

+3 New species of 'zombie worm' discovered on dead alligators in the Gulf When ocean scientist Craig McClain sank a couple of dead alligators to the Gulf of Mexicos cold, dark bottom, he knew they would probably att
Tropical Storm Elsa strengthened a little Thursday morning as it raced toward the Caribbean, hurricane forecasters said

UPDATE: Hurricane Elsa forms, expected to head into Gulf of Mexico

Elsa is expected to reach the Gulf of Mexico next week, but it's too early to tell if the storm could be a threat to Louisiana.

The latest track from the National Hurricane Center has Elsa entering the Gulf of Mexico early Tuesday on the western side of Florida. However, forecasters said there is "significant" uncertainty in the long-range track.

Elsa is the fifth named storm of the 2021 hurricane season. The categories, in order of increasing strength, are tropical depression, tropical storm and hurricane (categories 1 through 5).

Here's what we know about the tropics as of 4 p.m. Thursday.

Where is Tropical Storm Elsa?

Tropical Storm Elsa is about 410 miles east southeast of Barbados and is moving west northwest at 29 mph.

It has strengthened a little Thursday, forecasters said, and now has winds near 45 mph with higher gusts. Some strengthening is possible during the next 48 hours, forecasters said.

It's expected to speed up as it heads northwest over the next 24 to 36 hours. On the forecast track, the system will pass near or over portions of the Windward Islands or the southern Leeward Islands on Friday, move into the eastern Caribbean Sea late Friday and move near the southern coast of Hispaniola on Saturday.

No other tropical depressions or storms are expected to develop in the next 48 hours in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean or the Atlantic.

Watches and warnings

Tropical storm watches and warnings are in effect in relation to Tropical Storm Elsa.

Tropical storm conditions, including wind and rain, are expected to reach the warning area on Friday.

Elsa is expected to produce rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches with maximum totals of 10 inches on Friday across the Windward and southern Leeward Islands, including Barbados. This rain may lead to flash flooding and mudslides.

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With hurricane season starting, take some time to assess the trees in your landscape TREE CHECK: Now that hurricane season has begun, its time to check all of the larger trees in your landscape. A tree that is sickly, low in v

A tropical storm warning is in effect for:

Barbados

Martinique

St. Lucia

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

A tropical storm watch is in effect for:

Grenada and its dependencies

The southern and western coasts of Haiti from the southern border of the Dominican Republic to Le Mole le St. Nicholas

People in the Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti should monitor the progress of this system, forecasters said. Additional watches and warnings will likely be required later Thursday, they said.

Next available name

Elsa is the fifth named storm of what is predicted to be a busy 2021 hurricane season. The next available name is Fred.

Elsa is the earliest fifth named storm on record, beating out last years Eduardo which formed on July 6, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Tropical storms Ana, Bill, Claudette and Danny formed earlier this year. Of those named storms, Claudette has been the only system so to develop over the Gulf of Mexico. It dumped several inches of rain on Slidell, flooding homes and streets.

Last year, there were so many storms that forecasters ran out of names and had to use the Greek alphabet. It's only the second time in recorded history that the Greek names had been used.

Things have changed for this season. If needed, forecasters will use a list of supplemental storm names instead of the Greek names.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

See the full forecast here.

Staff writer Katelyn Umholtz and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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The New Orleans City Council is expected to greenlight new names for parks in the French Quarter, Leonidas and Algiers on Thursday, the first locations to be rededicated under a process aimed at scrubbing Confederate and segregationist monikers from public places.

The rechristenings come nearly a year after the council kicked off its renaming commission in the weeks following the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, a killing that sparked nationwide protests and conversations about racism and police violence. They are expected to be followed by 34 more name changes for streets and other public places, though those efforts are expected to take more time because of the citys lengthy review process.

In addition to the parks, the Council is also expected to rename Caffin Avenue in the Lower 9th Ward after Fats Domino, honoring one of the founders of rock n roll on the street where he spent most of his life and attempted to ride out Hurricane Katrina. That honor is not directly connected to the renaming process involving the Confederacy.

The recommendations are in: See superintendent's picks for new school building names in New Orleans More than a century after they were established, some of the most well-recognized school buildings in New Orleans could get their new names as

Perhaps the most prominent park to be renamed is Washington Artillery Park, which overlooks Jackson Square from the Mississippi River Levee, though it also is the least likely to be known by its official name.

The park is now named for a military unit that fought for the Confederacy. It will be rededicated for Oscar Dunn, who served as the first Black elected lieutenant governor in the U.S. in the years after the Civil War.

Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who set up the renaming process and represents the French Quarter, said she was particularly excited about renaming the park for Dunn, an important but overlooked historical figure who she said deserved a place of prominence.

+2 These two New Orleans parks could be renamed soon; no opposition in public forums Many of the public meetings over renaming streets and parks in New Orleans have been contentious affairs filled with spirited rhetoric and deb

Palmers district also covers Algiers, where the council will be voting to change Behrman Park to Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Park. Martin Behrman was a segregationist mayor of New Orleans in the years after Reconstruction, while Jeff was considered a pioneer in providing recreational programs for Black youth during his time at the New Orleans Recreation Department.

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Near Carrollton Avenue, Palmer Park will be renamed Marsalis Harmony Park for Ellis Marsalis, the late patriarch of the family of jazz musicians who lived in the area. Benjamin Palmer, who is not related to the councilmember, was a Presbyterian pastor instrumental in persuading Louisiana leaders to secede from the Union.

Im excited for this park that were renaming it after someone the neighbors are excited about and clearly had deep ties to the city, said Councilmember Joe Giarrusso, who represents the area.

Finally, the council is also expected to go through with the renaming of Caffin Avenue.

That effort has been discussed since Dominos death in 2017 but only got real momentum in recent years, said Councilmember Cyndi Nguyen, who represents the Lower 9th Ward.

His talents, his ability to perform has really inspired people and given people hope during times they felt like there were injustices happening in their community, Nguyen said. His music has given people the ability to continue to fight, and thats priceless.

The parks are the first places to be renamed after the council kicked off its commission last year, which involved expert and public input on dozens of street and park names.

Councilmembers have said they planned to first tackle most of the parks on the list of places to be renamed, since those can be done with a simple council vote. A lengthier and more complex process must be followed for streets, both to gather public input and prevent confusion with existing thoroughfares, and the City Planning Commission has asked councilmembers to hold off on initiating those efforts due to staffing shortages.

Palmer credited the relative lack of controversy over the renamings to the commissions process, which involved extensive research by experts, and to a growing awareness built by social justice movements of the history of structural racism in the country.

I think people understand we have to come to grips with our history to move forward and the problem our country has always faced is an inability to come to grips with racism and structural racism, Palmer said.
A recent hike in pension benefits for New Orleans municipal employees will cost taxpayers millions and is fiscally irresponsible, a nonprofit think tank said in a report Wednesday.

The Bureau of Governmental Research took aim at the city's move in October 2020 to raise benefit payouts by 32% for a third of its administrative workforce and for all future hires, saying the city couldn't prove that it had difficulty attracting and retaining employees under a less generous benefits structure.

The city's decision was a quiet reversal of previous plans to reform the pension system and bring down costs.

New Orleans City Council approves pension changes for new city hires An overhaul of the retirement plan that covers most New Orleans city employees would slow the rate at which new hires earn benefits and would 

BGR urged the city to adopt the less expensive benefits package, at least for future hires. The city should change pay, not pensions, if it's having trouble attracting workers. And the entire pension system should be redesigned to offer a defined contribution or 401k-like option, the group said.

"The more generous benefits significantly exceed the national norm for public pension systems that participate in Social Security, such as the city's," BGR wrote.

City officials blasted the report in a lengthy statement late Wednesday, saying that their changes are unlikely to substantially increase the system's debt or make it more difficult for the city to pay that debt.

Active member contributions are the biggest funding source for the system, not the city's contributions, city spokesperson LaTonya Norton said.

The city's changes also included a tweak to the method used to repay the system's debt  officially its unfunded accrued liability  that allows that debt to be paid over a fixed 25-year period, instead of an indefinite period that can lead to higher costs, she added.

While the report touts 401K-like plans as a less expensive alternative, Norton said the city is only contributing 2.55% of its payroll to fund the retirement benefits of active workers, with the remainder of its annual contributions going to the system's debt.

"It is certainly difficult to imagine that a meaningful retirement benefit could be provided for an employer cost of less than 2.55% of pay," she said.

At issue in the report are the financial woes of the New Orleans Municipal Employees' Retirement System, which provides pension benefits for roughly 3,000 city employees, excluding police and firefighters. That plan is valued at $481 million as of April, and its year-to-date investment performance is around 7.4%.

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Employees pay a percentage of their salary to participate, as does the city. But the system has a $300 million gap between what it can pay out to all of its beneficiaries and how much it has, BGR noted. It has also become increasingly costly for the city to support, with the city contributing $33.9 million to it in 2019, compared to only spending $5 million on it in 2008.

To try and address the shortfall, the City Council cut pension benefits three years ago for employees hired in 2018 or later. Calculations used to determine those employees' future benefits were tweaked to allow the city to pay less into the system; the city also increased the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and raised the minimum number of years one has to have worked to receive benefits from 10 to 20, among other changes.

Councilwoman Stacy Head proposes changes to citys pension plan; here's who would be affected New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head is proposing changes that would make the citys main pension plan less generous for new employees and

But last year, as the city was struggling with falling tax revenue associated with coronavirus and related restrictions, the City Council followed through on a request by the administration and quietly and retroactively increased benefits by about 32% for 1,004 employees and for all future hires, the report noted.

Under the calculations approved in 2017, the city pays retirement benefits based on average annual pay for an employee's final five years of service multiplied by 1.9%, and again by that employees' total years employed. But the changes approved in October raised the "multiplier" percentage to 2.5%, which leads to more generous payments.

The 2020 changes also restored the so-called "rule of 80" that had been eliminated in 2017, which essentially allowed employees with 80 years of combined age and employment to receive benefits. And workers who sought early retirement were allowed to do so as early as age 60 and with a decade of service.

The cap on salary that can be used to calculate retirement benefits was also raised from $100,000 to $150,000.

An actuary noted that the changes would cost the city about $117 million over 30 years, though a second estimate found taxpayers would actually pay about $47 million over that timeframe, according to the BGR report.

BGR noted that the council's move to increase pension costs came less than two weeks after the city announced that it was furloughing employees to save money.

"By enacting measures that successively reduced and increased personnel costs, the City appeared to be working at cross purposes, undermining its public message on the need for frugality," staffers noted in the report.

The more generous pension payout is out of step with normal payouts, the think tank noted. The national median "multiplier" for systems such as the city's that also pay into Social Security is 1.9%.

Norton took issue with that characterization, noting that "median" indicates that half of all multipliers in systems BGR studied were above 1.9%. "The BGR has provided no data about multipliers in excess of 1.9%, so it is difficult to assess whether and to what extent the 2.5% multiplier would be considered outside any 'norm,'" Norton wrote.
New Orleans residents in New Orleans East, Lakeview, Gentilly, the 9th Ward, near the lakefront and some other neighborhoods are sick of waste pickup delays. Theyre sick of taking their trash carts to the curb only to see them sit for days. Theyre sick of looking at garbage and trash. They dont want to see dogs picking through their leftovers. They dont want to see maggots.

They pay good money  $24 a month on the Sewerage and Water Board bill  for the service. The company responsible for the delays gets $13.60 of that. The rest goes to the city. But residents could care less who gets what and why its happening. They simply want it fixed.

Metro Services CEO Jimmie Morgan Woods Sr. hates it, too. He runs the company with the delays: I apologize for the inconvenience, he said during an interview. I understand. Mine is behind as well.

The Bancroft Park neighborhood where Woods lives has Tuesday and Friday pickups, and he sometimes gets Tuesday pickups on Thursdays. Hes not alone. Plenty of people have two-day delays. A number have been longer stretches without pickups.

There are several reasons why trash pickup hasnt been on time in parts of New Orleans the last several weeks, and months before in some cases. There is competition for employees, with not enough trucks available because there arent enough drivers. Not enough drivers because the competition for those with a commercial driving license has been fierce.

There arent enough hoppers, the guys who hop on and off the backs of the trucks to pick up and dump the trash. Hoppers can make $11.40 an hour. Drivers earn a minimum of $16.50 an hour. Metro drivers must have a commercial driver's license and two years of CDL driving experience. Competitors have hired some Metro workers. Some have left for other opportunities. Metro is working to balance a business model that had been based on more than $16 per household, Woods said, but the contract was cut in 2016 to $13.60. Metro recently increased some pay levels, without a rate increase.

But residents don't care about the business model.

Quite frankly, Im embarrassed to be in this position with staffing. Its not what we stand for. ... To be in this position, to not pick up the trash on time and on schedule is really embarrassing. I feel like I owe the community an apology, particularly the Black community, which he said has been so supportive of his business.

The city has three sanitation service area contracts. Each company has from City Hall a seven-year annual contract with three one-year renewal options. Richards Disposal has an $11.5 million contract to serve Service Area 1. Empire/KBS has a $2.9 million contract to serve the French Quarter and the Downtown Development District. Service Area 2, including the areas with significant trash pickup problems, is served by Woods and his company, Metro Service Group. The company has a $10.8 million contract.

Woods said waste contractors have had delays across the nation, and COVID-19 unemployment employment subsidies have contributed to the problem. Richard's has a starting wage of $17 an hour and they've relied on overtime to keep delays at bay. Though Woods said his margins are lower than other contractors, Metro has to work with the city to find ways to make this work. This needs to be fixed.

Woods knows his business is, in pandemic vernacular, an essential service. Thats why hes bringing in workers from other parts of Louisiana and the Natchez, Mississippi, area. Thats why hes housing them and covering meals. Thats why hes asked competitors to help.

Were doing everything we can to get back in front of this thing ..., he said. Were going to get past it in the next 30 days.

The bottom line: Were going to get this right.

But 30 days?

We need Woods, and the city, to get this right. Every city must have timely waste schedules. This situation stinks.
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Staff Writer

Reese Gorman covers elections, local politics and the COVID-19 pandemic for The Norman Transcript. He started as an intern in May of 2020 and transitioned into his current position as a staff writer in August of 2020.
Clinton County, Pa.  A Lock Haven man convicted of sexual crimes against a juvenile in 2020 faces up to 34 years in prison after authorities said he intentionally mislead a young girl online to meet for sexual acts and to receive explicit photos.

The Clinton County District Attorneys Officer said Lionel Darryl Jones, 26, of Lock Haven faces 31 felony counts that range from photograph/film/depict on computer a sex act, unlawful contact with minors, child pornography, corruption of minors, and sexual exploitation of children.

Jones is accused of cultivating a relation online with a 16-year-old female through the social media site Snapchat. According to the release, despite knowing that the victim was only 16, Jones solicited sexually explicit images from the victim and eventually made plans to meet in person to engage in sexual acts with the victim.

Jones allegedly switched between his real name along with an alias on social media to communicate with the accuser.

The Clinton County District Attorneys office ordered Jones to be evaluated by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board to determined if he should be classified as a sexually violent predator. Jones is scheduled for sentencing on September 20 at 8:30 a.m. at the Clinton County Court House.

Jones was charged with five counts each of corruption of minors, photograph/film/depict on a computer sex act, child pornography, unlawful contact with minors, sexual exploitation, and sexual exploitation of children for a 2020 incident investigation by Lock Haven Police.
Tillamook, OR (97141)

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Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 69F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low near 50F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
Vinny Olsziewski has a 40-year career as a disability rights advocate, working with local, state and national organizations and encouraging participation by people with disabilities in the political process.
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Earlier this year, Samsung promised to provide up to four years of security patch updates for over 100 of its devices. Now, it has extended this to five years of support for some devices on its Enterprise Edition program, including the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 series.

4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 5G , Accessory , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker

Recently, Samsung has upped its game in terms of software support for its devices. A few years ago, the company refused to provide more than two OS updates for its flagships, but it has since extended this to three. By contrast, OnePlus has gone backwards and LG, despite releasing hardly any devices before rolling up its smartphone division, is yet to upgrade many of its recent devices to Android 11.

Now, Samsung has committed to providing up to five years of security updates to some of its devices. Typically, Android OEMs provide three years of security patch updates, although Samsung has already promised an additional year of coverage to devices released after 2019. Samsung's new update policy applies to Enterprise Edition devices, which include:

Galaxy S20 series

Galaxy S21 series

Galaxy Note 20 series

Galaxy XCover 5

Galaxy Tab Active3
Sony has revealed an Xperia 1 III pre-order bundle that offers the premium smartphone along with a set of in-ear or over-ear XM3 headphones depending on the market. Along with that, it appears prospective buyers in the US might be able to get to choose a frosted purple Sony Xperia 1 III after all.

4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 5G , Accessory , Alder Lake , AMD , Android , Apple , ARM , Audio , Business , Camera , Cannon Lake , Cezanne (Zen 3) , Charts , Chinese Tech , Chromebook , Coffee Lake , Comet Lake , Console , Convertible / 2-in-1 , Cryptocurrency , Cyberlaw , Deal , Desktop , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Ice Lake , Intel Evo / Project Athena , Internet of Things (IoT) , iOS , iPad Pro , iPhone , Jasper Lake , Lakefield , Laptop , Launch , Linux / Unix , Lucienne (Zen 2) , MacBook , Mini PC , Monitor , MSI , OnePlus , Opinion , Phablet , Radeon , Renoir , Review Snippet , Rocket Lake , Rumor , Ryzen (Zen) , Science , Security , Smart Home , Smartphone , Smartwatch , Software , Storage , Tablet , ThinkPad , Thunderbolt , Tiger Lake , Touchscreen , Ultrabook , Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) , Wearable , Windows , Workstation , XPS , Zen 3 (Vermeer) Ticker

Shoppers who pre-order or buy the Sony Xperia 1 III within the offer time period can expect to be rewarded with a free set of headphones that are worth at least over US$200. However, which headphones you will receive will depend on where you buy the upcoming Xperia 1 III. Those ordering the flagship smartphone in the US will get the WF-1000XM3 noise-canceling earbuds (US$230 value) while customers in European countries like the UK or Germany will get the WH-1000XM3 over-ear headphones (329/379) as part of the introductory offer.

Gamers in the US who are interested in the Sony Xperia 1 III bundle bonus will be delighted to find that along with the highly praised earbuds they will also get 43,200 Cod points for Call of Duty: Mobile, which apparently has a value of a whopping US$540. Its a mixed bag of a pre-order bundle for the Xperia 1 III, as many were hoping for the new Sony XM4 earbuds or headphones, especially as the XM3 series of audio accessories were also offered as part of the bundle package with the Xperia 1 II. Unfortunately, its likely the Cod points are going to be worthless for many buyers, too.

But there is a silver, or frosted purple, lining to this cloud for Sony Xperia 1 III buyers in the US. While shoppers in the UK and Germany are already presented with a choice between purple and black, the former color seemed a less likely option for customers in North America. However, a US advertisement for the phone shows the purple unit, and more promisingly, the official Sony US product page states The Xperia 1 III is available in a choice of colors to suit your taste while showing both the frosted black version and the frosted purple variant.

Buy the Sony Xperia 1 II on Amazon
AAA projects Chicago will be the sixth most popular destination, preceded only by Orlando, Anaheim, Denver, Las Vegas and Seattle, though a ton of people in the Chicago metropolitan area also will be headed out of town. Traffic congestion on Chicago Interstate 90, between West Roosevelt Road to Interstate 294 is expected to be among the worst in the country, especially between 3 and 5 p.m. Thursday and 4 to 6 p.m. Friday.

With travelers eager to hit the road this summer, were expecting nationwide traffic volumes to increase about 15% over normal this holiday weekend. Drivers around major metro areas must be prepared for significantly more delays, says Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst with INRIX. Knowing when and where congestion will build can help drivers avoid the stress of sitting in traffic. Our advice is to avoid traveling on Thursday and Friday afternoon, along with Monday mid-day.

Travelers should expect higher prices. AAA expects that mid-range hotel prices have increased by as much as 35% while car rental rates have shot up 86% year-over-year.

GasBuddy.com expects the average price of gas will be $3.11 per gallon nationally on Sunday, the highest since 2014 and about 43% higher than last year's price of $2.18 per gallon during the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ides moved to RCA Records for a pair of albums before eventually parting ways professionally, but never personally. The others followed various career paths, but Peterik stayed with music, recording solo albums and later co-founding the platinum-selling, MTV-era band Survivor.

After the four old friends did an impromptu "jam" at Borch's wedding reception, the Ides accepted an invitation to play a "reunion concert" at their hometown's 'Berwyn Fest,' and soon other offers followed.

Keyboardist Scott May was added to the line-up and the Ides have remained together recording and touring ever since. All the while, Peterik has pursued and maintained a variety of other projects, including the star-studded World Stage, melodic rock band Pride of Lions, the jazz-pop group, LifeForce, and assorted others.

"We grew up together, went through life together and are much more than just a band," said Peterik of the Ides. "We are brothers. We are family. We love what we do and we treasure every opportunity to get up on a stage together and play music for people. People tell us we never sounded better and I don't know if they are just being kind or what, but I know we rehearse our butts off to give people their money's worth at every show."
The woman, who had known Hobson since childhood, said she now has a bullet and bullet fragments lodged in her head; suffers from seizures, memory loss and vision loss; and must deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety because of the shooting.

She could have lost her child because of him, she said.

"I really want to know why you did this," she said. "But we will never know, because you're too much of a coward to say why."

She told Hobson he was ignorant and "pure evil."

"I hope and pray the judge shows no remorse for you, because someone like you don't deserve to be free," she said.

Hobson declined to make a statement on his own behalf.

Varga said Hobson was just 21 years old when the shooting occurred.

Hobson's father was murdered, and he lost his mother to cancer, Varga said.

"He's still very young," Varga said. "He has his whole life ahead of him."

Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Veronica Gonzalez said Hobson's first contact with law enforcement occurred at age 13. At age 17, he was convicted of his first felony, she said.
HAMMOND  A veteran East Chicago police officer is prepared to admit he stole tens of thousands of dollars from his fellow officers.

The U.S. Attorneys office is charging Francisco Aleman with defrauding the Fraternal Order of Polices Lodge 59 in East Chicago between 2016 and 2019 when he was its treasurer.

A federal court affidavit details dozens of times Aleman illegally diverted large sums of money from the FOPs bank account to his personal bank accounts.

Court records state Aleman has signed an agreement with federal prosecutors, stating he will plead guilty to wire fraud, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

He is agreeing to give up his right to a jury trial in return for prosecutors recommending he receive a more lenient sentence.

It states he also is agreeing to forfeit the stolen money and pay $70,151 in restitution to the FOP lodge.

No date had been set for his formal appearance before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Andrew P. Rodovich.

The charges arise from an investigation begun two years ago by state police and the FBIs Organized Crime and Corruption Unit.
A Gary man sentenced to death for murdering his wife and two stepchildren in 2007 has exhausted his state court options for overturning his conviction and death sentence, and must now seek relief in federal court if he is to stay alive.

On Wednesday, the Indiana Supreme Court unanimously rejected a petition for post-conviction relief filed by Kevin Isom, 55, who claimed his lawyers failed to properly represent him both during his trial at the Lake Superior Court and in his direct appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.

In a 46-page ruling, Justice Geoffrey Slaughter, a Crown Point native, scrutinized each and every instance where Isom alleged ineffective assistance of counsel, including jury selection, jury instruction, sentencing, and competency, among others.

Ultimately, Slaughter and the state's high court agreed with Lake Superior Judge Samuel Cappas that there was no basis to grant Isom relief on his post-conviction claims.

Court records do not yet list an updated execution date for Isom. He currently is incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
HAMMOND  Sentencing has been delayed again for former Portage Mayor James Snyder, who was found guilty a second time in March on a federal bribery charge.

The July 16 sentencing was postponed until Aug. 25 because U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois, who was brought in to oversee the local case, is unavailable due to jury trials, according to court records.

The same reason was given for the first delay in sentencing from July 1.

Just a week ago, Kennelly granted Snyder's legal team a one-week delay to respond to a request for an enhanced sentence based on claims by the government that Snyder obstructed justice by asking a witness to recant his statements, court records show.

That filing deadline is Thursday and Kennelly said that date was unaffected by the most recent delay in sentencing.

The defense had said last week it had no intention of seeking a delay in the July 16 sentencing and did not believe the filing extension would impact any other case deadlines.
On the same day, Schererville police responded to a crash involving the stolen blue Ford, in which the driver fled from the three-vehicle wreck heading south on U.S. 41. St. John police found and arrested the fleeing woman, who was identified as Nowell.

Schererville police said the chase was sparked around 2:40 p.m., when Nowell was reported to police as driving recklessly in a blue Ford going north on U.S. 41. Officers found her driving near the U.S. 30 and U.S. 41 intersection, where she allegedly nearly struck several other vehicles. When an officer attempted to pull Nowell over, she fled south on U.S. 41. The chase was then terminated, however Nowell then got into a crash shortly after and abandoned the stolen Ford to run on foot, court documents said.

After police arrested her, she was taken to a local hospital, where she tried to free herself from handcuffs to escape and stole lotion from the hospital, court records said.

On the same day, another officer was also dispatched to investigate another auto theft at 2230 West 93rd Avenue in Merrillville. A woman said she saw that her 2016 Chevrolet Sonic had been taken from the Goodwill store parking lot. The same vehicle was found in the parking lot at the Dawg House Pub.
The woman who served as first lady of Indiana from 1969 to 1973 alongside Republican Gov. Ed Whitcomb has died.

Patricia "Pat" Whitcomb died June 27 in Seymour, Indiana, according to an announcement by her family. She was 91.

The St. Louis native met the future governor while she was working as a model at an Indianapolis department store after graduating from Ward Belmont College in Nashville, Tennessee.

She helped her husband build his law career, his political base, and was responsible for getting his first book published  all while raising five children.

Before, during and after Ed's single term as Indiana's chief executive he and Pat traveled to all 92 Indiana counties and countries around the world.

To ensure she could engage with people everywhere she went, Pat learned courtesy phrases in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Tagalog and German.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb described Pat as a first lady who served Hoosiers "with honor and grace."

"I loved that she learned how to greet people in many different languages so she could communicate with the world, as she loved meeting new people from all corners  always defining our signature 'Hoosier Hospitality,'" Holcomb said.
Indiana is averaging about 10,000 vaccine shots a day recently after peaking at more than 50,000 shots a day in mid-April, according to the state health department's vaccination tracker.

We are, again, relying on those closest to their employees, to their students, to make sure that folks know, they have the awareness, that the way to reduce the odds of either being hospitalized or getting COVID positive or, good Lord forbid, death is to get vaccinated, Holcomb said.  But were not going to force you to do something that you choose not to do.

The state health department has recorded 36 coronavirus-related deaths over the past week, boosting Indianas pandemic toll to 13,855. The agency reported Indiana hospitals were treating about 400 COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday  after topping 3,000 a day for most of November and December.

Holcombs public health emergency order said its renewal ensures Indiana can continue responding effectively to the pandemic. It also keeps the state eligible for additional Medicaid funding and other federal assistance programs.
LOWELL  The Tri-Creek School Corp. board unanimously approved a new superintendent for the district Thursday.

Andy Anderson, who was the director of vocal music and the district-level music coordinator for Tri-Creek schools from 1998 to 2003, returns to Lowell after most recently serving as assistant superintendent for North Palos School District 117 in southwest suburban Palos Hills.

He thanked the school board for putting its trust in him to lead the district. His term starts next week and goes through June 30, 2024.

"I understand that we're ready to turn the corner and create a new chapter in this community, and I cannot tell you how excited I am to lead the charge," he said.

Anderson said he knows he will need to prove himself and intends to do just that.

Although he was content in his previous job, Anderson said he decided to apply for the role of superintendent because some of the best times of his life were in Lowell. During the interview process, the Tri-Creek school board made it clear to him that it cares about this community and was looking for a superintendent who could care for the people who lead the schools, the district office and the community members.
Gen. Mark Milley is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Pentagon's direct advisor to the President. He testified to the congress that he welcomes the teaching of Critical Race Theory in military academies. Critical Race Theory theorizes that white people in this country are in a rage due to the existence of non-whites in our society.

Personally I don't know anyone who feels this way. It's a theory like the flat Earth theory. It's being promoted by Marxists in our schools. Marxism has always needed to create friction in the society of a target country to gain traction.

Milley defends his stance by saying he has studied many un-American philosophies in order to understand potential enemies. This is different. General Milley himself states that he want's to understand "White Rage" a major belief of the promoters of Critical Race Theory. He say this as if he believes "White Rage" is real. He even believes this had a hand in the demonstration at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

If Milley looks at white Americans as potential enemies based on their skin color he needs to be fired. What's even more scary is that he thinks the American people are so stupid that they don't know the difference between studying an enemy's beliefs and indoctrination of our military in Marxist beliefs.

Either way he needs to be fired.

Leon Gamino, Hammond

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A Wisconsin judge on Thursday ordered the release of a woman convicted of stabbing her classmate to please the Slender Man character in 2014.
Many on Twitter condemned Bill Cosbys release from prison on Wednesday as a setback for the #MeToo movement. But his staunchest supporters, including actress Phylicia Rashad, celebrated his freedom.

FINALLY!!!! Ms. Rashad, who appeared as Mr. Cosbys wife in The Cosby Show, wrote on Twitter. A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!

Mr. Cosby, whose 2018 sexual assault case was seen as the first major criminal conviction of the #MeToo era, was freed from prison on Wednesday after a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned his conviction.

The court ruled that a non-prosecution agreement should have prevented him from ever being charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, to whom Mr. Cosby had been a mentor.
As the debate went on, Ms. Hannah-Jones received the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a major donor to the university. The foundations chief executive, Richard E. Besser, sent a letter to the board chairman, Richard Stevens, on June 3, encouraging the trustees to support the appointment of Ms. Hannah-Jones with full tenure privileges.

On May 27, Ms. Hannah-Jones said in a statement that she had retained legal counsel and was considering filing a discrimination suit.

In a June 21 letter, her legal team informed the university that she would not join the faculty without tenure. The letter said Ms. Hannah-Jones, after signing her fixed-term contract, had learned of political interference and influence from a powerful donor, which she believed had contributed to the failure of the board to vote on the matter.

The powerful donor was apparently Walter E. Hussman Jr., the Arkansas newspaper publisher after whom the journalism school is named. In emails to university leaders, Mr. Hussman, who has pledged $25 million to the school, had expressed concerns about certain aspects of the 1619 Project and Ms. Hannah-Joness hiring.

But in an interview with The Times in June, Mr. Hussman said that, despite his misgivings, he did not want to influence the boards decision. He added that the outcome of the matter would not affect his donations to the university.

In an email on Wednesday, Mr. Hussman said he respected that academic freedom requires that the authority for hiring faculty rests solely with the university. He said he looked forward to meeting with Ms. Hannah-Jones and discussing journalism.

The board of trustees reports to the university systems board of governors, whose members are appointed by the Republican-controlled state legislature. Six of the 13 trustees are scheduled to reach the end of their terms on July 1.
Even before the chaotic display on Tuesday, the elections board had already faced criticism over its decision to reveal some ranked-choice results without factoring in absentee votes.

A number of strategists and officials warned that such a move could fuel voter confusion, especially if there is a different winner once absentee ballots are added in. Results will not be certified until all ballots, including absentee votes, are accounted for, a process that is expected to stretch well into next month.

While we remain confident in our path to victory, we are taking nothing for granted and encourage everyone to patiently wait for over 124,000 absentee ballots to be counted and included in the ranked choice voting tabulation, Ms. Garcia said in a statement. Every candidate should respect the democratic process and be committed to supporting whomever the voters have selected to be the Democratic nominee for mayor.

Mr. Adamss campaign struck a similar note, saying in a statement that there were still absentee ballots to be counted that we believe favor Eric  and we are confident we will be the final choice of New Yorkers when every vote is tallied.

Tuesdays extraordinary counting error comes not long after a 2020 presidential campaign in which Republicans sought to sow unfounded doubts about the integrity of the election and promoted false claims of voter fraud.

And the confusion surrounding the primary results in New York prompted former President Donald J. Trump to weigh in, claiming without evidence that nobody will ever know who really won.

Mr. Adams shot back on Twitter: As always, Trump gets it wrong.

Yesterday, the results released by the B.O.E. had discrepancies which are being addressed, he said. There were NO similar issues in November. Neither of these elections were a hoax or a scam. We need to count every vote. That takes time, and thats OK.
Now, only the articulation is absent; the results are the same.

And even beyond voter suppression, there are errors and incompetence.

One thing I will never forget about the coverage we produced for The New York Times on the 2000 election was something that should have been obvious, but hadnt been for me: that voting machine errors are well known and some degree of error, if small enough, was considered acceptable.

The idea of an acceptable error rate for voting has stuck with me ever since.

For instance, an NPR analysis last summer found that 550,000 primary absentee ballots were rejected, up from about 319,000 in 2016.

Then there is incompetence, like what we are seeing now in the mayoral primary election in New York City. The result of the tally may well be fine, but the haphazard handling of the vote counting undermines faith in the system.

And thats the problem with all of this: maintaining that faith. It seems to me that setting expectations too high actually works against that faith, helps to undermine it, because those expectations will collapse under the weight of reality.

It also seems to me that it is much better to think of voting as a nest of ants, a swarm of bees, a brigade of soldiers attacking an enemy: Not everyone will survive, but the point is to achieve victory by overwhelming the enemy. Everyone that falls in the attempt assists the others in prevailing.

Not everyone who should be able to cast a ballot will be able to. And, not every ballot cast will be properly counted. That is the sad reality of the American electoral system, and conservatives in this country have done their best to maintain or exacerbate it at all costs.
To the Editor:

Google Dominates a Hidden Market With No Rules, by Dina Srinivasan (Opinion guest essay, June 25), makes claims about our advertising technology business that we strongly disagree with.

Independent reports show that the fees we charge our partners are lower than the industry average. In fact, the 100 largest news publishers  many of which have in-house sales teams that perform many of the functions provided by Googles ad sales, exchange and brokerage operations  using our tools keep more than 95 percent of the revenue that their ad space earns, a far cry from the 50 percent Ms. Srinivasan cites.

While one section of Ms. Srinivasans essay refers to ad intermediaries in general, our advertising tools do not result in publishers selling for up to 50 percent less than what it otherwise would, as Ms. Srinivasan suggests. In fact, our research shows that publishers revenue increases when they use our tools  thats why they choose to use them!

Ms. Srinivasan has ignored the inconvenient reality that this industry is highly competitive  with rivalry among household names like Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Oracle, Twitter and News Corp, a company for which Ms. Srinivasan has consulted. We also face competition from a legion of lesser-known but fast-growing competitors like The Trade Desk and Magnite. Many of these rivals also offer ad platforms and tools similar to ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers.
NATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about the decision by Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina to endorse Shontel Brown for Congress misstated which House Democratic leaders had agreed to vacate their posts after this Congress. Although Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially considered a deal with limits on all three of the top Democratic leaders, the deal ultimately applied only to her, not all three.

An article on Tuesday about what to expect as ranked-choice results were released for the New York City mayoral election described incorrectly the lawmaker who Jean Quan defeated in the 2010 mayoral race in Oakland, Calif. While he was indeed the front-runner, he was not the incumbent.

SPORTS

An article on last Thursday about the group stage of Euro 2020 referred incorrectly to potential quarterfinal opponents of three teams. England and Germany could have played Sweden or Ukraine in the quarterfinals, not Croatia. Belgium could have faced Italy or Austria, not France.

STYLES

An article last Thursday about photographs of abandoned houses misidentified the state where Margaret Dewars husband grew up. It was Minnesota, not Michigan.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [cheering] They came from all 50 states out of some sense of patriotic duty  Its so much more than just rallying for President Trump. Its really rallying for our way of life. The American dream, against fake news.  to protest an election they believed had been stolen. Stop the steal! Stop the steal! Were here, patriots. Were in Washington D.C. Capitol building dead in front of us. Their day of action would be Jan. 6  The House comes to order.  when Congress would count electoral ballots and ratify the 2020 election results. For some, it was just a rally for their president. For others, it was a call to arms. We have the power in numbers. March on Congress directly after Trumps speech. In the weeks beforehand, there were over a million mentions on social media of storming the Capitol. Maps were shared of the buildings layout. There was talk of bringing weapons and ammunition, and discussion over which lawmakers should be targeted first. This anger was based on a lie. This election was a fraud. A lie that had grown more frenzied after the election. President Trump won this election. They were flipping votes. Steal the election in Philadelphia. When you win in a landslide and they  Steal the election in Atlanta  And its rigged  Steal the election in Milwaukee  Its not acceptable. This is outrageous. A lie spread by the president and his closest allies. Lets call out cheating when we find it. Some of whom stoked calls for violence. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Everyones going to remember who actually stands in the breach and fights tomorrow. And who goes running off like a chicken. We bleed freedom. This will be their Waterloo. And we will sacrifice for freedom. This will be their destruction. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! What happened next was chaos. They broke the glass? Insurrection. Take it now! Treason! Treason! Death. Then, there began a campaign to whitewash history, starting at the top. It was a zero threat. Right from the start, it was zero threat. And spreading throughout the Republican Party. Even calling it an insurrection, It wasnt. By and large, it was peaceful protest. One lawmaker, who helped barricade the House doors, now suggests there was barely any threat. If you didnt know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. A tourist visit this was not. And the proof is in the footage. As part of a six-month investigation, The New York Times has collected and forensically analyzed thousands of videos, most filmed by the rioters themselves. We obtained internal police radio traffic   and went to court to unseal police body-cam footage. Our reconstruction shows the Capitol riot for what it was, a violent assault encouraged by the president on a seat of democracy that he vowed to protect. Well chart how police leaders failed to heed warnings of an impending attack, putting rank-and-file officers in danger. Well track key instigators in the mob taking advantage of weaknesses in the Capitols defenses to ignite a wave of violence that engulfed the building. Well show, for the first time, the many simultaneous points of attack, and the eight breaches of what appeared to be an impenetrable institution of government. Well show how the delay to secure Congress likely cost a rioter her life. And how for some, storming the Capitol was part of the plan, all along. In fact, tomorrow, I dont even like to say it because Ill be arrested. Well, lets not say it. We need to go  Ill say it. All right. We need to go in to the Capitol. Lets go! Its the morning of Jan. 6, and thousands are filling the National Mall in Washington. Trump will speak here at the Ellipse, a large park near the White House and a half-hour walk to the U.S. Capitol where the election will be certified. Who is actually in this crowd? Most are ordinary citizens who believe Trumps lie that the election was stolen. Its going to be a great day. Its going to be wild, as Trump says. But we also see more extreme groups whove gained a following during Trumps presidency. There are followers of the QAnon conspiracy  Drinking their blood, eating our babies.  who believe that Trump is facing down a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Q posts often invoked notions of patriotism and predict a coming storm. And ahead of Jan. 6, some supporters call for violence. The Oath Keepers, a far-right paramilitary group, are also here. We have men already stationed outside D.C.  Their leader has said the group is ready to follow Trumps orders and take members of what they call the Deep State into custody. Theyre organized, staging their military-style equipment neatly on the ground. And later, they put on body armor, talk on radios, and chat with their supporters on a walkie-talkie app called Zello. We have a good group. We got about 30, 40, of us who are sticking together and sticking to the plan. Yall, were one block away from the Capitol, now. Im probably going to go silent when I get there because Im going to be a little busy. Another group is the Proud Boys. Theyre far-right nationalists who flashed white power signs throughout the day. Check out all this testosterone. They became a household name when Trump invoked them during a presidential debate. Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. And thats what they did. They have a history of street violence and will be key instigators of the riot. Well return to them soon. Although the rally is billed as a political protest, some make calls to storm the Capitol even before Trump speaks. And later, when Trump does take the stage  Were going to walk down to the Capitol.  some hear his words as a call to action. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building. Two hours before this, the Proud Boys were already heading for the Capitol. Theyre clearly spoiling for a fight with far-left agitators like antifa, who they believe are in D.C. But there are moments that suggest another motive. Come on, tighten up. Come on, boys. Theyre organized, too. Many are marked with orange tape or hats. Theyre wearing body armor, carrying baseball bats and using radios. Thats affirmative. Jesse, this is Tucker Leading them is Ethan Nordean, whos been entrusted with so-called war powers. Hes joined by other well-known Proud Boys like Joe Biggs, an organizer from Florida, Dominic Pezzola, a former Marine, and Billy Chrestman. They will be among the first rioters inside the Capitol building. Proud Boys. As Trump is speaking, some of his other supporters also head to the Capitol. Chanting: Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! And the tone is becoming menacing. And were going to storm the [expletive] Capitol. [expletive] you, [expletive]. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Just ahead, officers guarding the building are understaffed and ill-equipped for whats coming their way. You going to stop us? The building is more than two football fields in length. And barricades erected on the east side are defended by just a few dozen officers. The west side, facing Trumps rally, is even lighter. The fencing has been extended and on the northwest approach, only five officers stand guard. Around five also defend the southwest approach, a few more dot the lawn and about a dozen officers are behind them. Plans to storm the Capitol were made in plain sight, but the F.B.I. and Department of Homeland Security did not deem those threats as credible. We will take that building! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Capitol Police leaders and Washingtons mayor were warned at least three times of violent threats, but also didnt take them seriously or circulate that information. And they declined offers of security personnel from federal and other agencies. They could have enlisted several hundred more Capitol police for duty on Jan. 6, but did not. And none of the officers on the barricades have protective gear or crowd-control equipment. As a result, the Capitol is sparsely defended. Whose House? Our House! Whose House? Our House! Its 12:50 p.m. and a large group of Proud Boys is with other protesters right by the Capitol Police line. Joe Biggs is rallying them. When hes approached by Ryan Samsel, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania. They chat, we dont know about what. But a minute later, Samsel is the first to approach the police line. And its now that the protest turns violent. U.S.A.! Without hesitation, the crowd overpowers the police. Nearby, a second group breaks through on another approach. Others jump fences. And now hundreds of rioters rush forward on several fronts. D.C. is a [expletive] war zone. Police retreat to the Capitol building where its becoming more threatening. This is what we came for! Yeah! A mob mentality begins to take hold. Police are so outnumbered, theyre forced to retreat again to more tightly defend access points to the Capitol. Its now five minutes into the siege that the Capitol Police chief calls for backup from local law enforcement, known as the Metropolitan Police, and asks other Capitol leaders to mobilize the National Guard. You took an oath! Does that not mean a damn thing to you, does it? Metro Police will arrive within 15 minutes. But for reasons well explain later, the National Guard wont arrive for over four hours. Back up! Back up! Meanwhile, more Capitol Police come to reinforce the line. Its the first time we see officers in riot gear. But most are missing their shields because they had not prepared to unlock the storage area where that equipment is kept. Proud Boys like Billy Chrestman keep rallying the mob. And again, they start brawling with the police. Minutes later, reinforcements from the Metro Police arrive. A high-ranking Metro officer immediately calls for more backup. They struggle to subdue rioters who respond with their own chemical spray. And within 30 minutes, the police already have casualties. [shouting] This first wave of rioters battling police has paved the way across Capitol grounds for others to follow. And after Trump finishes speaking, thousands more now fill the space. Meanwhile, inside the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence have begun certifying the 2020 presidential election results. Certification will happen on both sides of the building, in the House and the Senate. And this is what the rioters want to stop. An hour into the assault, the mob is battling a police line here, along the west face of the Capitol. But that violence is now going to spread to multiple points of attack, as west side rioters stream around the Capitol and incite the crowd on the east. Heres what that crowd looks like on the east. Stop the steal! Stop the steal! Stop the steal! Theyre aware of the siege happening on the west side, and some are emboldened by it. But up until now, theyve been kept behind the barricades. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Then this group from the west storms around to the building and pushes right through the barriers. The police here barely put up a fight. And its now that protesters, all along the east barricades, surge forward. [cheering] Officers are overwhelmed from several directions, and retreat to guard Capitol entrances. But these rioters believe theyve been deputized by their president to stop a crime. And now, they start trying to get into the building itself. [shouting] [glass breaking] [pounding on door] The Capitol is now surrounded. Rioters havent made it inside yet, but around the time that the mob on the east pushed forward, rioters on the west were making a pivotal move. This scaffolding was erected for the upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden. It covers a staircase that gives direct access to an upper level, and dozens of doors and windows. Three police lines guard that route. But at ground level, officers are so overwhelmed that just a few cover this crucial access point. Several Proud Boys see the weakness. Proud Boys start fighting the police, and with others in the mob, they push through the line. Over several minutes, its a brutal fight on these steps. At one point, the rioters are held back. [groaning] But they make a final push up the flight of stairs. [cheering] At the top, they scuffle again with a small group of officers   who give in after barely a minute. The mob now has direct access to Capitol entrances. I cant believe this is reality. We accomplished this [expletive]. And hundreds more protesters below, surge forward. Lets go! The siege is ours. Its utter mayhem, and its about to get worse. This scene is being filmed from countless angles allowing us to piece together, moment by moment, what comes next. Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola uses a police shield he stole to bash in a window. And at 2:13 p.m., the Capitol is breached. Michael Sparks, a Trump supporter from Kentucky, is the first person inside. A police officer seems unsure of what to do and backs off. Sparks is followed by Proud Boys and other far-right extremists, one carrying a Confederate flag, another armed with a baseball bat. When rioters break open the locked doors, hundreds more rush in. [shouting] [glass breaking] This is a critical moment. Officers must now defend the outside and inside of the building, stretching them even further. Simultaneous events now happen that are critical to lawmakers safety. Rioters head straight for the Senate, and will be at its doors in two minutes. Above them, the Senate is called into recess. Well pause. Members will evacuate down these stairs. In this hallway, directly overhead the rioters, Officer Eugene Goodman is sprinting to overtake them. He passes Mitt Romney, who he warns to turn around. Reinforcements are following behind. Goodman overtakes the mob, goes downstairs and intercepts them. He holds them off while backup arrives upstairs. Behind these rioters, and just feet away, is an escape route where the lawmakers and Senate staff are now fleeing. Just one officer stands guard. Keeping his composure, Goodman draws the mob away from that escape route to where reinforcements are waiting. Goodman: Second floor! He glances toward the Senate, and realizes the door is unguarded. Goodman shoves the protester again, lures the mob away, and brings them into that line of fellow officers. Again, the rioters here are convinced its their duty to defend democracy. Were not [expletive] around! Because we are mad! [shouting] The officers hold them off here, for now. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, a few political leaders are evacuated from the House of Representatives. But despite a lockdown alert, proceedings here will resume. The House will be in order. Well go there soon. First, well go to the Crypt in the center of the Capitol below the Rotunda. The mob is already at its entrance. If they get through here, they will more easily fan out across the building. Rioters jostle with police here for six minutes, and then flood through. Its now 2:24 p.m., some 90 minutes after the siege began, and the mob is about to overrun the building. Stop the steal! Stop the steal! As this is happening, and as thousands more swell outside, Trump composes a tweet. Not to calm his supporters, but to blame his vice president. He writes: At this very time, Pence and his family are being taken to safety, along with an aide whos carrying the countrys nuclear launch equipment. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave? At 2:25 p.m., theres another major breach on the opposite side of the building, the east side. Rioters have been battling a handful of officers at these doors for almost half an hour. The tide turns when rioters who came through the Crypt, reach these doors and pull them open. Then an active-duty Marine Corps officer, Christopher Warnagiris, keeps that door open for the mob to flood in. Just as elsewhere, this crowd is a mix of die-hard Trump supporters, but also more organized groups like the Oath Keepers, who move in formation here toward that east side entrance. The Oath Keepers and their supporters continue to update each other on the Zello chat app. The group enters the Capitol together. Proud Boys are near them, including Joe Biggs, the organizer we saw earlier. Hes entering the building for a second time. The Oath Keepers fill the Rotunda along with hundreds of other rioters. Took over the Capitol. Overran the Capitol. Were in the [expletive] Capitol, bro. Now the police inside the building are completely outnumbered and call for backup. Its our House! Whose House? Our House! Throughout the Capitol, staffers have barricaded doors to keep the mob out. In Nancy Pelosis chambers, staffers rush inside a conference room and lock two doors behind them. Just 12 minutes later, rioters outside head straight for her offices. Nancy! Nancy! And pile in. Huddled together under a table, Pelosis staff record whats happening. One rioter tries to break into that same room. Inside, staffers are silent as they record him pounding. [loud banging] He gets through the first door, but the second door keeps him out. Its a scene that, again, shows just how compromised the U.S. government has become. I think I like my new dining room. By 2:30 p.m., the Senate evacuation is well underway. But even though a lockdown was called over 15 minutes ago, the House is still in session. Do not accept Arizonas electors as certified. Representative Jim McGovern is chairing. He told us he wanted to finish hearing objections to the election results by Paul Gosar. House staff and security gave McGovern the all-clear to continue. Its a delay that likely cost someone their life. Suddenly, staff are now pointing at the chambers doors. Just outside, a mob of 100 or more is baying to get into them. These rioters pay little heed to the thin line of police. Theyre going. Yeah, I would just stop  bro. And in moments, are pushing against the doors into the House. Stop the steal! On the other side, Capitol Police erect a barricade and draw their guns. Youre a traitor. On the floor, lawmakers are evacuated to the rear of the chamber, where in a few minutes a rioter will be shot and killed. Part of the mob outside now peels off in that direction to find a different way in. Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and QAnon supporter, is among the first to arrive at the rear of the House. Open the door. They see the lawmakers escaping. That lobby might have been clear had the House been evacuated sooner. But the rioters now become incensed. Zachary Alam, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania, punches in the glass panels with his bare fists. [pounding on door] Open the door. Police are stretched extremely thin. Just three officers and a security staffer stand guard. None are wearing riot gear, and they keep their weapons holstered. Its going to get worse. Open the door. When a team of heavily armed police now arrives, the three officers step aside. Go! Lets go! Get this. This creates a crucial gap that allows rioters to smash in the glass. A warning  what happens next is graphic. Its 2:44 p.m., and behind the door, a police officer draws his handgun. Babbitt vaults into the window and the officer shoots her once. [gunshot] Oh! Oh! Its a fatal wound through the upper chest. Inside the chamber, the floor is clear, but lawmakers in the balcony are sheltering in place. [gunshot] The [expletive]? Take your pins off. Pins off. They now remove the breast pins that identify them as members of Congress. A group of rioters who almost made it to the balcony are held at gunpoint as its finally evacuated. Now Trump supporters have achieved their goal, stopping the election certification. And while the House is evacuated, at the other side of the building, the Senate is occupied. Treason! Treason! Treason! On the Senate floor, they leaf through lawmakers files. Theres got to be something in here we can [expletive] use against these scumbags. Mug for photos. Jesus Christ  Pray. We invoke Your name. Amen! Amen! And leave a message for Mike Pence. Its only a matter of time. Justice is coming. As rioters inside have been rampaging throughout the Capitol, the crowd outside has grown. And that first battle has continued raging. [horn blowing] For almost two hours, officers face off with rioters who say they support the police   but assault them, anyway. Were going to show what happened here because it demonstrates, yet again, how failures by Capitol Police leaders to prepare put the safety of these officers at risk. Leave him alone! Leave him alone! Capitol Police had been ordered to withhold some of their stronger weapons. But as soon as Robert Glover, a Metro Police inspector arrives, he calls for his munitions team to help. When the building is breached, Glover knows he needs to retreat and seeks advice from Capitol leaders. [shouting] When Capitol dont respond, he asks four times. Push! Push! Push! Push! Then, the police lose the line. We the people, we are the storm! Rioters knock an officer over, throw a fire extinguisher. U.S.A.! Glover issues a 10-33, the call of last resort. Crazed rioters hound the police even as they retreat to the upper level. Police now begin to guard this doorway, an iconic centerpiece of presidential inaugurations. But for another two hours, the same pattern will repeat. Rioters fill the terrace. Instigators trigger a frenzy. And tragically, someone will die. A brutal fight erupts in the doorway. The mob heaves in a coordinated scrum. [screaming] Help! When police finally push them out, they face even worse violence. They are tased, gassed and robbed of their equipment. Theyre beaten with a crutch, a hockey stick and even an American flag. At least four officers are pulled into the crowd. One dragged by his own helmet, face down. And again, the frenzy turns fatal. Rosanne Boyland, a Trump supporter who has been swept up by QAnon conspiracies, is moving toward the door. But amid the scrum, she collapses and is lying unconscious beneath the mob. [crowd chants] I cant breathe! I cant breathe! As the crowd sarcastically chants a Black Lives Matter slogan, Boylands friend, Justin Winchell, tries to pull her to safety. He screams for help. But instead, fellow rioters trample over Boyland and charge at the police again. Boyland will be pronounced dead at a local hospital in the evening. By the end of the day, rioters have breached and entered the building in at least eight locations. Theres the first breach, which weve seen, when rioters smashed through two windows and a door. Beside that, a rioter with a crowbar smashes in a second door, and then opens it to hundreds of people. Others smash a window next to the Inauguration door and climb inside. Patriots, we need people to stand up for our country and our Constitution. At this entrance, police stand aside and allow rioters to stream in, unchallenged. On the north side of the building, police in riot gear yield and let the crowd in. Another three breaches are on the east side, two by the central doors into the Rotunda, and this southeast door leading to the House chamber. Its the arrival of more Metropolitan Police and other agencies that finally turns the tide. When those officers enter the Rotunda, they clear it in just 20 minutes. As the mob is pushed back through the east doors, their rage turns to Mike Pence, who Trump attacked earlier. Metro officers also stop other rioters from entering on the west side, where the mob first broke in. But here, too, we see a crowd empowered by the belief that theyre carrying out some patriotic duty. Over the course of the day, 150 police officers are injured. After 4 p.m., Metro and Capitol Police regain control of the upper levels. The final parts of the interior are cleared by other law enforcement, including federal agencies. Tear gas and flash bangs disperse the crowd on the Inauguration terrace. The Virginia State Police and Arlington County Police help to reclaim that area. Then rioters are swiftly pushed off Capitol grounds by a reinforced police line. Only now, more than three hours after Capitol police first called them, do National Guard soldiers arrive. You can just do and turn down, right now. Troops were staging just 20 minutes away. But a recent procedural change meant the highest level of the Pentagon had to approve deployment. And Pentagon officials delayed the decision, partially in fear of bad optics, even as the Capitol was being overrun. As calm returns, the president tweets again. He repeats that the election had been stripped away, calls his supporters great patriots, and says: The aftermath of Jan. 6 has been as divisive as the lie that launched it. Even as one arm of government has indicted hundreds of rioters, Republican lawmakers continue efforts to normalize what happened with a mix of denials and conspiracy theories. Some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. I knew those are people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law. And so I wasnt concerned. They include Paul Gosar, whod been at the Trump rally. The D.O.J. is harassing peaceful patriots across the country. And Andrew Clyde, who we saw earlier, standing just a few feet from rioters. There was no insurrection. And to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bald-faced lie. Republican leaders have blocked an independent investigation that could have brought new details to light. Ive made the decision to oppose the House Democrats slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of January the 6th. And in May, a top Republican was ousted from the partys leadership after blaming Trump for inspiring the riot. And I think that the party is in a place that weve got to bring it back from. None of what happened on Jan. 6 would have been possible without a huge mass of ordinary people who were proud of what they achieved. We made it! Yeah! We stopped the vote! Millions around the country still believe the violence was not only justified, but necessary. And the forces that brought them there have not gone away. Yeah, the patriots are coming back, yall. Hopefully, yall will be on our side when that happens.
The actor James Franco has agreed to pay more than $2.2 million to settle a pair of lawsuits, including one from two former students of his acting school who said he had subjected them to sexually exploitative auditions and film shoots.

The proposed settlement, which awaits a judges approval, would also settle a class-action lawsuit brought by students at the acting school who said they were defrauded.

The proposed settlement was detailed in papers filed last week with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The terms were agreed to by the various parties in February, though the details were not released at the time.

The total amount in the proposed settlement is $2,235,000, according to the court documents, $894,000 of which would go to settle the sexual exploitation claims; the remaining $1,341,000 would settle fraud claims from about 1,500 students who paid for classes at the acting school.
A California couple who mowed down 36 protected Joshua trees to clear their land for a new house have been fined $18,000, a punishment the authorities hope will discourage others from uprooting the iconic desert plants.

A nearby landowner reported seeing Jeffrey Walter and Jonetta Nordberg-Walter bulldoze the land and bury the trees in a hole in February, the San Bernardino County District Attorneys Office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The couple, who live in nearby Riverside County, wanted to clear the land and build a home on their property in Joshua Tree, Calif., just north of Joshua Tree National Park.

The couple told the authorities they thought they were allowed to remove smaller trees, Douglas Poston, the supervising deputy district attorney of the offices Morongo Basin division, said in an interview on Wednesday.
President Emmanuel Macron of France noted that Covid-19 turned out to be an anti-feminist virus that pushed more women around the world into poverty, nudged more girls out of school and locked women in with their abusers.

Significant nongovernmental pledges were also announced on Wednesday. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it would put $2.1 billion toward gender equality work over five years, one of the organizations largest-ever single commitments. The announcement cemented Ms. French Gatess longtime focus on gender equality, which she has noted remains an underfunded area in philanthropy. The Ford Foundation committed $420 million over the next five years, with $159 million devoted to addressing gender-based violence.

The flurry of commitments announced in Paris are considered all the more remarkable because U.N. forums tend to be better known for photo opportunities, handshakes and lofty declarations, not broad-scale, catalytic action. The platform agreed to in Beijing had no real financial backing, and it involved neither the private sector nor civil society in the negotiations or the writing of the overarching priorities.

To avoid repeating that mistake, the organizers of this years forum devised a new system. All participants  whether U.N. member states or grass-roots activist organizations  would be required to submit clear, measurable proposals that fell under any of the six main policy areas: eliminating gender-based violence, advancing womens economic empowerment, enhancing access to sexual and reproductive health care, increasing gender parity in private and political spheres, investing in gender-focused climate change solutions and narrowing the gender digital divide.

We recognize that everybodys not starting from the same starting point but everybody can make an effort based on their national capacity, and so its for countries to define in which areas they want to be committed, said Delphine O, secretary general for U.N. Womens Global Forum.
In the summer of 1921, there was nothing inevitable about the Communist Party of China, even its survival. Especially its survival.

The country, then the Republic of China, was still struggling with civil strife and crushing poverty a decade after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 ended thousands of years of imperial rule.

In a brick schoolhouse in Shanghais French Concession, a neighborhood carved out by humiliating colonial occupation in the 19th century, 12 men (maybe more) gathered to forge a new political force. They were inspired less by Karl Marx than by the Bolshevik Revolution, which was then consolidating control over the vast Russian empire that had been ruled by the last czar, Nicholas II.

A century later, it is now China that carries the standard of international Communism, not the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.
Seouls mayor, Oh Se-hoon, announced Wednesday that the city would extend for a week the current social distancing regulations for the capital and its surrounding areas. The decision, which came less than 12 hours before the restrictions were supposed to ease on Thursday, followed an emergency meeting with 25 district mayors.

The government had previously said that beginning Thursday, gatherings of up to six people would be allowed, an increase from the current limit of four, regardless of whether they are held indoors or outdoors. After two weeks, that number would have risen to eight. The government had also announced that businesses could operate until midnight, two hours longer than the current 10 p.m. curfew.

Wednesdays move put those plans on hold for now.

The delay to relax protocol comes after a spike in coronavirus cases earlier this week, as the country broke a two-month record of 794 new daily cases on Tuesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Seoul also reported 375 new daily cases on Tuesday, the largest amount of new cases in a single day for the city this year. As new infections increase, authorities have expressed concerns about the recent discovery of the Delta variant among confirmed cases.

Mr. Oh said if Seoul did not see a decrease in new reported cases, then the government would decide whether to further extend the delay on lifting restrictions.
President Vladimir V. Putin urged Russians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus on Wednesday  his most extensive comments on the matter yet  as his country scrambles to contain a vicious new wave of the illness.

Speaking at his annual televised call-in show, Mr. Putin spent the opening half-hour trying to convince Russians to get one of the countrys four domestically produced shots. It was the latest instance of a marked change in tone about the pandemic from Russian officials, who for months did little to push a vaccine-wary public to get immunized but are now starting to make vaccination mandatory for some groups.

Its dangerous, dangerous to your life, Mr. Putin said of Covid-19. The vaccine is not dangerous.

Only 23 million Russians, or about 15 percent of the population, have received at least one vaccine dose, Mr. Putin said. Polls this year by the independent Levada Center showed that some 60 percent of Russians did not want to be vaccinated, even though the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine is widely seen as safe and effective.
As policymakers continue to experiment with lotteries, free beers and other incentives, the poll found that workers were more likely to get the shot when their employers encouraged them to and provided paid time off to make it easier. Two-thirds of the employed adults surveyed said their employer had encouraged workers to get vaccinated, and half said their employer had provided them paid time off to get the vaccine and to recover from side effects.

The workers who said their employer had taken either one of those steps were more likely to report having been vaccinated, even after the poll controlled for other demographic variables. The finding suggested that more employers encouraging vaccination and offering paid time off could lead to higher vaccination rates among workers.

As virus cases fall across much of the United States, the poll found that optimism over the idea that the pandemic may be ending could hamper vaccination efforts, with half of unvaccinated adults polled saying that the number of cases is now so low there is no need for more people to be vaccinated.

If adult vaccinations continue their current seven-day average rate, about 67 percent of U.S. adults will have received at least one shot by July 4, just shy of President Bidens target of having 70 percent of adults at least partly vaccinated by that date, according to a New York Times analysis.

Lazaro Gamio contributed reporting.
Yan Shengmin, a Chinese tenor, is known for bouncy renditions of Broadway tunes and soulful performances in operas like Carmen.

But lately, Mr. Yan has been focusing on a different genre. He is a star of Red Boat, a patriotic opera written to celebrate the 100th anniversary this week of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Yan has embraced the role, immersing himself in party history and binge-watching television shows about revolutionary heroes to prepare.

I feel a lot of pressure, Mr. Yan said in an interview between rehearsals. The 100th anniversary is a big occasion.
On a sultry summer day the trees across the street from my Bronx apartment are deep in conversation. Trees are, science tells us, social beings and do some of the same things we humans do, at least when were acting our best. They trade tips about health, news about weather. They nourish, and protect, and support each other. They support fellow beings too: birds, insects, us. They live sane lives. They generate excellent karma.

Unlike us. In a goes-around-comes-around universe, the karma were producing  through competitive greed, unthinking waste and targeted malice  is killing the world around us. Were at war with the planet and everything on it, trees included.

The artist and architect Maya Lin began her career with a response to a war. Her 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, a blade of black granite slashed into American soil, commemorates a foreign war that became an internal one and divided the nation. Her new installation, Ghost Forest, on view in Madison Square Park in Manhattan through Nov. 14, is commemorative too. Its a sky-reaching memorial to a war in progress directed against everything we call Nature.
Louis Andriessen, who as a young iconoclast disrupted the Dutch classical music scene before becoming one of Europes most important postwar composers with a series of large-scale, often brash works, died on Thursday in Weesp, the Netherlands. He was 82.

His death, at his home near Amsterdam in a specialized village for people with dementia, was announced by his music publisher, Boosey & Hawkes.

Mr. Andriessens musical influences included Stravinsky, bebop and American minimalism, different styles that he often presented in gleeful confrontation. His music was a unique blend of American sounds and European forms, the composer Michael Gordon said in a phone interview.

These pieces are really constructed like big symphonic works, but using the materials of the vernacular, he said. The music was the bridge between European formalism and an almost hipster riffing on American jazz and minimalism.
I ran into an old friend the other day, who right away started telling me about a novel that had failed to meet her expectations. Then she caught herself. Im so sorry! she said. You must hate talking about books when youre not at work!

Actually, I kind of love it. Dont ask me about email, or data management  but books? Thats why were here. This week our recommended titles include everything from a history of the bespoke investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman to a novel about menopausal restlessness by the incomparable Dana Spiotta; an account of violence in a Denver neighborhood to an argument that the human mind depends on far more than the brain alone. Theres Lawrence Wrights look back at the disruptions of a year with Covid, and Clint Smiths tour of an America grappling with the legacy of slavery. Rounding out the list, debut works of fiction from Alex DiFrancesco and Paul Mendez join new novels by a couple of old pros, Joshua Henkin and the prolific Argentine master Cesar Aira.

Gregory Cowles

Senior Editor, Books

Twitter: @GregoryCowles

WAYWARD, by Dana Spiotta. (Knopf, $27.) For Sam Raymond, the restless heroine of Spiottas new novel, menopause is reason enough to re-evaluate everything. Her body revolts just as her mother is starting to ail and her teenage daughter is growing remote and secretive. Sam is rash, funny, searching, entirely unpredictable. Wayward is a furious and addictive novel, our critic Parul Sehgal writes. So much contemporary fiction swims about in its own theories; what a pleasure to encounter not just ideas about the thing, but the thing itself  descriptions that irradiate the pleasure centers of the brain, a protagonist so densely, exuberantly imagined, she feels like a visitation.

THE PLAGUE YEAR: America in the Time of Covid, by Lawrence Wright. (Knopf, $28.) Wright chronicles the pandemics first year in America  when the coronavirus slipped in on cats paws, as he puts it  and examines the countrys failure to properly respond: How is it possible that more than half a million people perished in the country with the most powerful economy in the world? Wright has performed a virtuoso feat and given us a book of panoramic breadth, Sonali Deraniyagala writes in her review. 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.
LOOK BACK IN LANGUOR July is a month for retro pleasures  kites, badminton, snow cones and water balloons, to name a few. So why do so many of us reach for books that are hot off the presses? I decided to pay a visit to best-seller lists of yore to find out what shiny penny novels were flying off the shelves 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago this week.

Smokin Seventeen, by Janet Evanovich. On July 10, 2011, Evanovichs  you guessed it  17th Stephanie Plum novel landed in the No. 1 slot on the hardcover list. In an item called Sales Are Smokin for Evanovich Book, The Times reported that the Evanovich sold an eye-popping 218,000 copies on her publication day, a record for Random House. She went on to write 11 more books about New Jerseys favorite bounty hunter.

Cane River, by Lalita Tademy. This debut novel about four generations of Black women between 1834 and 1936 entered the list at No. 5 on July 8, 2001, but rose even higher a few weeks later after Oprah picked it for her book club. It remained on the list for 17 weeks. Tademy has written two other books, Red River and Citizens Creek.

The Kitchen Gods Wife, by Amy Tan. Our reviewer described Tans much-anticipated follow-up to The Joy Luck Club as a harrowing, compelling and sometimes bitterly humorous tale in which an entire world unfolds in a Tolstoyan tide of event and detail. On July 14, 1991, it was in its second week in the No. 1 spot.
STRANGER IN THE SHOGUNS CITY: A Japanese Woman and Her World, by Amy Stanley. (Scribner, 352 pp., $18.) Stanleys discovery of a 19th-century letter from a Buddhist priests daughter who fled her familys rural village for the city that would soon become Tokyo was the genesis for this 2020 biography, which won the National Book Critics Circle and PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld awards.

THE PULL OF THE STARS, by Emma Donoghue. (Back Bay, 320 pp., $16.99.) Like Donoghues Room, this arresting page-turner, as our reviewer, Karen Thompson Walker, called it, set in the fever/maternity ward of a Dublin hospital during the 1918 flu epidemic, focuses on one space. While the title is a translation of influenza delle stelle, from which the disease got its name, the author pins her characters suffering on society.

A TIME FOR MERCY, by John Grisham. (Bantam, 480 pp., $18.) Its nice to return to the courtroom with someone we trust, is how our reviewer, Sarah Lyall, greeted this third Grisham novel to feature Jake Brigance, a small-town Mississippi lawyer specializing in unpopular, seemingly unwinnable cases. He first appeared in A Time to Kill. Here hes defending a 16-year-old boy whose excellent reasons for committing murder dont change the fact that hes guilty.

THE DEATH OF JESUS, by J.M. Coetzee. (Penguin, 208 pp., $17.) In this final novel in the Nobel laureates Jesus trilogy, David, at 10 years old, is now recognizably a Jesus figure, though the name is never used and the gospel he preaches is that of Don Quixote, who, Coetzee has argued, exemplifies the idea that fantasy can bring us to a true, living world.
For many Americans, cars became a lifeline and refuge during the pandemic, even as newly sparkling air over locked-down cities highlighted their darker side. Soul-searching over commuting and climate change was balanced by hope that cars might clean up their act via electricity, and allow new generations to fall for their beauty and ingenuity.

That wrench-tight tension is at the heart of Automania, an exhibition opening at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan on Sunday  July Fourth, a holiday that has come to symbolize motorized freedom and parade-queen convertibles. In that spirit, the public might be urged to visit MoMA via mass transit; but in this case, pack the kids in the S.U.V. and have at it.

As this shrewdly curated show reveals, that yin-yang of cars dates to the industrys earliest years, and to those of MoMA itself.

Automania takes its name and inspiration from a 1963 Oscar-nominated animated short, Automania 2000. That piece is the work of John Halas and Joy Batchelor, the British husband-and-wife team best known for a 1954 version of George Orwells Animal Farm. Their short imagines a future of science-bestowed wonders, like limitless electrohydromagnetic energy, appetizing factory food made from petroleum, and a craze for ever larger and faster rides that hatches the 40-foot supercar. (The S.U.V. was apparently beyond the most fertile imagination.)
Boryana Straubel, a philanthropist and advocate for environmental sustainability who founded Generation Collection, a jewelry company that uses recycled metals for its designs, died on June 19 after being struck by a car while riding her bicycle in Washoe County, Nev. She was 38.

A spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol, which confirmed the death, said the car was traveling in the opposite direction on a highway in that county, on the states northwest border, when it struck Ms. Straubel.

As a teenager growing up in a small Bulgarian town, Ms. Straubel was a self-described math nerd who spent Friday evenings in a deserted pay-by-the-hour internet shop researching foreign universities. That behavior made her a loser among her peers who were out partying, she wrote later, as part of an assignment for Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Business. (When she was younger, she had turned down sleepovers to stay home and work on math problems.)

When she arrived in the United States in 2005, she spoke no English. But after earning a degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, she became a star executive at Tesla, the electric car company, where she led teams in human resources and market expansion, among other roles.
The top executive of Air France-KLM, one of the worlds largest airline companies, was thrilled when Europe eased restrictions on American visitors last month. Now, he wants the United States to return the favor.

While Europe has largely lifted restrictions on vaccinated American tourists, most Europeans are still barred from visiting the United States even if they have been inoculated against the coronavirus, to the frustration of businesses on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

What were anxiously waiting for is reciprocity on the part of the U.S. government, the Air France-KLM chief executive, Benjamin Smith, said in an interview this week. The trans-Atlantic is the most important long-haul market that we have.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week called for the easing of travel restrictions put in place under the Trump administration, saying that the return of European business travelers and tourists would help drive economic growth and job creation for Americans across the country. Europe has typically been one of the biggest sources of tourists to the United States, especially to New York and other East Coast destinations.
On any normal week, the trading debuts of Krispy Kreme or Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, would be the biggest news in initial public offerings. But they were just two of 19 sizable I.P.O.s that hit the markets last week, making it the busiest since December 2004.

The debuts are the latest example of companies racing to the public market to take advantage of sky-high valuations as investor exuberance pushes the stock market to new heights. And its a sign that, as regulatory scrutiny has slowed the process of going public by selling to the shell companies known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, companies are eagerly embracing the traditional route.

Overall, 213 I.P.O.s raised $70 billion in the first half of the year, which is above the full-year average for the past 10 years, according to Renaissance Capital. June was the busiest month for listings since August 2000.

In addition to rising returns and a massive backlog of unicorns and others, companies are getting out ahead of the July 4 holiday, said Matt Kennedy, a senior I.P.O. market strategist at Renaissance Capital, which manages I.P.O.-focused exchange traded funds.
The daughter of John McCain, the longtime Republican senator who died in 2018, and Cindy McCain, Ms. McCain called her nearly four years on the show one of the hands-down greatest, most exhilarating, wonderful privileges of my entire life.

Her tenure on The View, a production of ABC News started by the television journalist Barbara Walters, included a number of contentious exchanges with the shows liberal co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin (Sara Haines, an ABC News correspondent, rounded out the hosting duties). The women acknowledged the tension on Thursdays episode, with Ms. Behar calling Ms. McCain a formidable opponent and no snowflake.

You and I have had our disagreements, weve had our fights, but weve also had some drinking moments, which were rather fun and interesting, said Ms. Behar, whose tetchy relationship with Ms. McCain was spoofed on Saturday Night Live. We take a lot of hits on this show and we stood by our points of view, and you have done that brilliantly for four years.

Among the most memorable exchanges the self-described sacrificial Republican had on the show: a moving conversation with Joe Biden in 2017 about their families experiences with brain cancer, chastising Ms. Behar for shifting the conversation to President Donald J. Trump during a tribute to President George H.W. Bush after his death in 2018 and accusing Ms. Goldberg in May of cutting her off partway through her remarks stemming from a discussion of incidents of anti-Semitism and related statements made by Representatives Ilhan Omar and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Ms. McCain rejoined The View on Jan. 4, after having extended her maternity leave from six weeks to three months while recovering from postpartum pre-eclampsia. On her return, she called on-air for mandatory paid family leave.
The Japanese carmaker Nissan announced plans on Thursday to build a battery factory near its plant in northeastern England, and to manufacture a new electric crossover S.U.V. there, bolstering the chances that Britains auto industry can survive Brexit and the transition to electric vehicles.

Envision AESC, a Chinese-owned company that already provides Nissan with batteries at the assembly plant in Sunderland, will invest 450 million pounds, or $620 million, in a new so-called gigafactory to supply electric cars made at the site. It is part of a partnership between the two companies that began when Nissan sold AESC to Envision in 2019.

Domestic battery production is crucial to the future of Britains auto industry. Under the terms of Britains exit from the European Union, cars made with imported batteries will be subject to punishing tariffs when exported to the continent.

The tariffs will take effect in 2027, only three years before Britain will begin banning the sale of new cars powered solely by gasoline or diesel. The Nissan factory in Sunderland exports 70 percent of its production to the European Union and could not survive without access to that market.
That wasnt the only issue with the program. More recently, grants for an unknown number of applicants have been revoked because of errors.

Linda Novak, the owner of the Starlight, a cocktail and jazz bar in New Orleans, applied just hours after the program opened and received an approval notice on May 21 for a grant of around $300,000. She was told that the money would be in her bank account within a week.

But it never arrived. In early June, she called customer service hotlines for her bank and the Small Business Administration. She eventually learned from her bank, Hancock Whitney, that it had rejected the deposit because it was improperly coded as being for a savings account. Ms. Novak  who has only a checking account for her business and said she was certain she had filled out the grant paperwork correctly  immediately filed a correction request with the S.B.A., but it languished for weeks.

Last week, Ms. Novak got an email from the S.B.A. that said the money she was counting on would not be paid because of the lawsuits challenging the programs prioritization rules. The agency acknowledged that its deposit had been rejected by her bank and said it will not be able to attempt redistribution at this time because the legal conclusions in these court rulings preclude such action.

Ms. Novak was stunned. I assumed a guarantee from the U.S. government was good, and I could proceed as if this money would be coming to me, she said. The first thing I did was rehire employees. For a month Ive been paying all these salaries that I could only afford because this grant was coming.

Kylie Sachs, an owner of two cafes in Brooklyn called Milk Bar, has also been left stranded by errors she doesnt understand. She applied for loans for each of her locations and received approval notices for both in mid-May. The money arrived quickly for one, but the deposit for the second never came through. She began calling the S.B.A.s hotline every few days, and was told each time by agency representatives that there were some payment delays but that the money would arrive.

Last week, she, too, got an email saying her grant had been revoked. Her application had an invalid industry flag, the letter said, and would be canceled because of the lawsuits.
That wouldnt be the case at Buffer. Not to mention that Buffers pay was significantly more generous, at a starting salary of $70,000. I can afford strawberries! Ms. Kopprasch remembered thinking when she started at the company in 2012.

She wasnt the only employee to cheer the companys shift. Some were gratified to see that the hiring process no longer involved the awkward song and dance of negotiating peoples pay. Salary was determined simply by the job description and location of the new employee.

It was this incredible sense of relief, said Ms. Thomas, who joined Buffer as its chief product officer in 2020, having worked at Microsoft and Intuit. I would rather have a root canal done than fight for a salary.

When the initiative began, some Buffer employees wondered whether making the salary information public would hurt recruiting, because competitors could offer slightly higher pay to top talent. The opposite turned out to be true: Buffers job applications rose from 1,263 in the 30 days before the announcement to 2,886 in the next month.

But while the talent pool expanded and morale was boosted, Buffers gender wage gap continued to grow. In 2015, it was around 4 percent; by 2018 it was inching above 9 percent, and by 2019 it hit 15 percent.

At Buffer, salaries are still determined primarily by peoples roles, and many of the top leaders, including the chief executive, were men. The well-compensated engineering team was also predominantly male. Mr. Gascoigne told his staff that he realized that transparency alone wouldnt close the gap as he had hoped.

Other institutions have experimented with pay transparency to mixed results. When the University of California made salaries public, research showed that people who compared themselves with others and felt they were being underpaid demonstrated less job satisfaction and more turnover.
The Delta variant, which is now responsible for most coronavirus infections in England, is not driving a surge in the rate of hospitalizations there, according to data released by Public Health England on Thursday.

Although the number of coronavirus infections has risen sharply in recent weeks, hospitalization rates remain low. Between June 21 and June 27, the weekly hospitalization rate was 1.9 per 100,000 people, the same as it was the previous week.

The hospitalization rate has increased slightly over the past month, rising from 1.1 admissions per 100,000 people in early June, according to the agencys data. But it remains considerably lower than during Englands surge last winter, when the hospitalization rate peaked at more than 35 admissions per 100,000 people.

The data suggest that countries with high vaccination rates are unlikely to see major surges in hospitalization rates from Delta. Nearly 75 percent of adults in England  including 95 percent of those who are 80 or older  have had at least one shot, according to the agencys numbers.
The Maori family at the heart of Cousins greet each other by pressing their foreheads and noses together. The camera does the same: It peers deep into the characters faces, as if imprinting them onto its lens.

The first face we encounter is Matas (Tanea Heke) as she walks dazedly through an unnamed city; the noises and textures around her blur together. With that same sensory dislocation, the film takes us back to her childhood, when she was separated from her family by her white father and placed in an orphanage.

This tragedy begets several more in the sprawling Cousins. Directors Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith breathe gorgeous cinematic life into the 1992 novel by Patricia Grace (Grace-Smiths mother) about the diverging paths of three Maori cousins in 1940s and 50s New Zealand. A few years after Mata disappears, Makareta (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne) flees home to escape an arranged marriage. Missy (Hariata Moriarty), realizing that the wedding is their familys desperate attempt to consolidate and retain their ancestral lands, takes her cousins place.
As sumptuous as it is odd, No. 7 Cherry Lane is an exercise in harnessing nostalgia for innovation. The first animated film from the director Yonfan is a deeply eccentric chronicle of a forbidden affair in 1960s Hong Kong, as the spirit of Mao Zedongs anti-imperialist, communist revolution arrives in what was still a British colony. Fan Ziming, a beguiling English literature student, becomes embroiled in a knotty love triangle between Mrs. Yu, a divorced Taiwanese exile and former revolutionary who now deals in luxury goods, and her daughter Meiling, a nubile 18-year-old student taking English lessons from Ziming.

At times, No. 7 Cherry Lane unfolds as a hallucinatory daydream, flowing with starry-eyed voice-over narration: Look how the golden years flowed away, reads the opening title card, as the narrator describes the time as an era of prosperity amidst simplicity. The Hong Kong of 1967 is rendered in rich detail through pencil on rice paper, with radiant color blooming onscreen, illustrations of bustling streets and movie theaters constituting the films universe. There are cerebral, erudite dialogues about Proust, French art films and classic Chinese literature that drive the liaisons at its center. The animation is often slow-moving  figures shuffle stiffly across the screen as they muse about art and philosophy, a choice that may challenge viewers accustomed to more fluid gestures. But the approach contributes to the films thematic commitment to nostalgia and adds a quiet elegance and slow-paced intimacy to each scene.
Gaines recruits a talent-rich cast of comics (Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle) to describe the performer. Chris Rock is particularly insightful and blunt, comparing Gregorys relaxed, patient, cigarette-wielding delivery with that of Chappelle. Gregory was ahead of his time in his material on police brutality and racism, but just as he became a star, his activism heated up. A demonstration for voting rights in Mississippi was a turning point, and the movie covers his work and relationships with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the N.A.A.C.P. leader Medgar Evers. By the 1980s, Gregory had stopped playing clubs and became an early health and wellness guru while still waging a broad array of political fights, going on fasts and long runs to earn attention for causes like fighting hunger and obesity.

Theres clearly a price to pay for living as active a life as Dick Gregory did. He was rarely home to see his family (his kids are astute talking heads), and toward the end of his life, legal troubles led to financial collapse and the loss of his home. The last half-hour is jarringly downbeat if slightly underexamined, with Gregory returning to clubs and appearing in a Rob Schneider movie, The Hot Chick, that allows him to get much-needed health care coverage.

The legend of Dick Gregory gives way to a peek of him as a more complex man, albeit one much funnier than most everyone else. On the reboot of his talk show, Arsenio Hall asked him what drove him. Gregory retorted: My bills.

The One and Only Dick Gregory

Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. Watch on Showtime platforms.
A California woman who falsely accused a teenager of stealing her phone and then attacked him at a New York City hotel was charged with a hate crime on Wednesday.

Miya Ponsetto, 22, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, one count of second-degree aggravated harassment and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. She was arraigned in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan over video call.

Ms. Ponsetto gained widespread attention after a video was released of her confronting Keyon Harrold Jr., then 14, in the lobby of the Arlo Hotel in SoHo in December.

Image Miya Ponsetto. Credit... Ventura County Sheriff's Office, via Associated Press

In the video, which was recorded by Keyons father, the prominent jazz musician Keyon Harrold, Ms. Ponsetto, who is of Puerto Rican and Vietnamese descent, tackles the teenager, who is Black, after accusing him of stealing her phone.
Commercial districts across the country are struggling, but office towers in Manhattan continue to empty out even as other cities, including Atlanta and Los Angeles, show signs that they have moved beyond the worst of the pandemic.

While New Yorks vacancy rate was higher than the national rate of 16.2 percent at the end of March, many other cities are also struggling to fill their offices.

In Los Angeles, 24.1 percent of its offices are without tenants, and in Chicago, the office vacancy rate is 21.9 percent. But both cities also entered the pandemic with much higher vacancy rates than New York: In Los Angeles the rate was 18.1 percent, while it was 15.5 percent in Chicago.

There are signs that the situation in New York could get worse. A third of leases at large Manhattan buildings will expire over the next three years, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services company, and companies have made clear they will need significantly less space.

The overall availability rate in New York City is the highest since it started to be tracked in the mid-1970s, when the city was plunged into a financial crisis and the Manhattan skyline was being transformed by the rise of towering office buildings like the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.

Franklin Wallach, a senior managing director for research at the real estate firm Colliers, said that the amount of available office space in Manhattan would most likely continue to climb, as new construction is completed and large companies complete relocation plans that were announced before the pandemic.

About 14 million square feet of office space is under construction in New York City, which is equal to about double the size of Orlando, Fla.
Every day along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, people stream off the elevated subway into a swarm of activity. Vendors ring bells and shout in Spanish  Masks! Water! Shaved ice! as smoke rises from grilling meat and cumbia music competes with the rumble of the train.

A vibrant energy seems to have returned to the cluster of neighborhoods in north central Queens that became the first epicenter of the coronavirus in the country. A year ago, thousands had fallen ill, and hundreds had died.

But beneath the bustle lies desperation. The vendors, whose broad array of street food reflects the areas diversity, often have lost steady jobs and do not know how else to make money. Residents and many business owners have fallen far behind on rent, protected only by a state moratorium on evictions that is set to expire at the end of the summer. Food pantry lines remain long.

The beauty of what we see is that the immigrant community always finds a way to get by, said Francisco Moya, a local Democratic city councilman. But it should not be confused with recovery, he added. What you see on Roosevelt Avenue  its survival.
Allen Weisselbergs a very good man, and hes been treated horribly, he said, characterizing the indictment as political persecution.

Mr. Trump did not respond directly to a question about whether the organization had systematically avoided its tax burdens, as it stood accused of doing, but called the case ridiculous.

His reluctance to discuss the allegations in depth stood in contrast to his gloating after a real estate rival, Leona Helmsley, was charged with tax crimes in 1989, prompting Mr. Trump to call her a disgrace to humanity.

While the charges unveiled on Thursday represent a climax of sorts, they may also mark another step in the district attorneys broader, continuing investigation into the former president, in which he has been joined by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James. The inquiry is focused on whether Mr. Trump effectively kept two separate sets of books: one for his bankers, in which he overstated the value of his properties, and another for the tax authorities, in which he understated them.

Mr. Weisselberg, who is approaching his fifth decade working for the Trump family and would know those books better than almost anyone, has been under intense pressure for months as prosecutors use every tool at their disposal to turn him into a cooperating witness. But the executive, whom a former co-worker described as a disciple for his devotion to Mr. Trump, will now have to weigh that loyalty against the prospect of spending time in prison.

Tax experts have said it is unusual to bring a criminal case solely on the failure to pay taxes on such perks, known as fringe benefits. However, those familiar with the methods of Mark F. Pomerantz, the experienced prosecutor Mr. Vance tapped to help lead the investigation, say that Thursdays indictment could represent the starting point of a broader case.

It certainly could serve as a building block. In any case involving an organization, youre going to indict people and try to flip them, said Robert S. Litt, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official who has been friends with Mr. Pomerantz for decades. Theyve more or less thrown the book at Weisselberg, and if the proof is strong enough and his concern about going to jail strong enough, he may decide to save himself at the expense of others.
Due process matters, even for monstrous crimes.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania made that point clear on Wednesday when it overturned the 2018 conviction of Bill Cosby for aggravated indecent assault. The court held that the prosecution violated Mr. Cosbys right against self-incrimination by using statements at trial that he made during earlier depositions in civil litigation. The court then made another big statement: The county prosecutors office couldnt try Mr. Cosby again because of its promise in 2005 not to charge him.

The courts basis for its decision was a highly unusual 2005 news release by Bruce Castor, when he was district attorney for Montgomery County, Pa. Mr. Castor stated that he chose not to file criminal charges against Mr. Cosby because of insufficient credible and admissible evidence. The state Supreme Court held that Mr. Castors public statements were binding on his successor, who resuscitated the case in 2015. Using Mr. Cosbys deposition statements against him, the court said, was a coercive bait and switch.

While the release of Mr. Cosby is an affront to Andrea Constand, the victim, as well as to the other women who testified against him and to the public, the court was reaffirming the longstanding notion that due process requires the enforcement of prosecutors promises. In Santobello v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court noted that prosecutors promises are not limited to the plea context. Any promise a prosecutor makes that induces reliance to the detriment of the defendant may be binding. Here, the court is merely enforcing the promise Mr. Castor made.

When I worked as a federal prosecutor, I was cautious about making promises because I knew they were binding. With rare exception, my office refrained from making promises to decline charges against someone because of the very real possibility that additional evidence of guilt could emerge. Our hands would be tied if the person had relied on that promise in any way. If we agreed to bring no further charges against someone as part of a plea deal, we included in the plea agreement the caveat that the promise was limited to information that was currently known to the government.
What scientists know about the variant so far

The Delta variant has multiple mutations that appear to make it 40 to 60 percent more transmissible than Alpha, the variant first identified in Britain, which is itself estimated to be about 30 to 50 percent more transmissible than the original coronavirus. In Australia, security cameras even documented a transmission that occurred between two people passing each other in a shopping mall.

It is the most hypertransmissible, contagious version of the virus weve seen to date, for sure  its a superspreader strain if there ever was one, Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine and an executive vice president at the Scripps Research Institution, told Scientific American.

The good news: Several of the vaccines in use still appear to work well against Delta.

A Public Health England study published in May found that the variant only slightly reduced the effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The Moderna vaccine is expected to perform similarly well.

A preprint from Public Health England found that two doses of either vaccine also provided exceptional protection against hospitalization from the Delta variant.

But: The Delta variant does seem to pose a greater risk to people who have received only one dose.

According to Public Health England, a single dose of either AstraZenecas or Pfizers vaccine reduced a persons risk of developing Covid-19 symptoms by 33 percent, compared with 50 percent for the Alpha variant.

A single dose of AstraZeneca showed reduced protection against hospitalization. (There was no major difference with Pfizer.)

Preliminary evidence also suggests that the two Chinese vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm, may be less effective against Delta. Those vaccines are being used in more than 90 countries, including the Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia, which have all outpaced the U.S. vaccination rate. All four ranked among the top 10 countries with the worst Covid outbreaks as recently as last week. If the vaccines are sufficiently good, we should not see this pattern, said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong.

What scientists dont know

Whether the Delta variant causes more severe illness than other variants remains an open question. One Scottish study published in The Lancet found that the hospitalization rate of patients was about 85 percent higher than that of patients with the Alpha variant. But virulence is a difficult trait to measure, as Katherine Wu explains in The Atlantic, and any one study should be taken with a grain of salt: If a surge in virulence happens, its often incidental  collateral damage from an increase in contagiousness, she writes.
Mr. Rumsfelds track record in Iraq is a litany of failures: advocating the invasion based on easily debunked evidence, overseeing a drawn-out war in which tens of thousands of Iraqis died, endorsing harsh interrogation techniques  all of which accelerated Iraqs fall into the abyss. His failure to predict that an insurgency opposing the occupation would arise reflects a lack of understanding of war itself. (By that point, he had been secretary of defense twice!)

Image A detainee with wires attached to him at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in late 2003. Credit... Associated Press

Perhaps his most inhumane failure of responsibility and moral leadership was the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib by U.S. military members. Though some soldiers did time behind bars, Mr. Rumsfeld walked away unscathed. Whatever he believed he had accomplished in Iraq fell apart, and he never apologized or appeared slightly remorseful over the agony his mistakes caused. The nation of Iraq was invisible to Mr. Rumsfeld, therefore it was unworthy of restoring. As my country shed rivers of blood, he showed no contrition.

Iraq today is a shell of a country, a state on paper only. Democracy is a political game of musical chairs with the same corrupt parties that distribute power and wealth among themselves. Iran is the kingmaker with its armed proxies maintaining the status quo and killing off  literally  any challenges to its status. Ironically, the leaders of these proxy militias were able to return to Iraq from exile only because of Americas toppling of Mr. Hussein. The same proxies are today sworn enemies of the United States, attacking the U.S. Embassy compound and the remaining few American military bases there to counter the ISIS coalition.

The failure to stabilize Iraq while losing thousands of American lives shifted the U.S. domestic discourse forever. Any type of U.S. intervention, even when nonmilitary and necessary, is met with skepticism. The Middle East still finds itself in the grip of many dictators and war criminals.

After Mr. Rumsfeld left office in 2006, I never really thought of him again. I wasnt interested in what he said or did. The damage had already been done. To the extent that he set Iraq on an irreversible course of destruction, he wont be forgotten. But for many of us still hoping for a better Iraq, he is irrelevant. Just as his death is now.
To the Editor:

Re Cosby Is Freed After Reversal by State Court (front page, July 1):

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court may have sprung Bill Cosby from a brick-and-mortar jail by overturning his 2018 conviction for sexual assault on technical legal grounds, but neither it nor anyone else can release him from the prison of disgrace he sentenced himself and his legacy to by his unforgivable behavior.

He betrayed not only his marital vows and the trust of a young woman he was convicted of drugging and sexually attacking, but he broke faith with untold millions of viewers who held him up as a model of fatherhood, a fictional character children often dreamed of having as a real parent and someone parents themselves strove to emulate in real life.

Beyond that, he also robbed the many people who worked in front of and behind the camera on his television programs from having their talents displayed on a more ubiquitous basis in lucrative reruns, with the hugely popular Cosby Show, for one, being pulled from several networks and venues because of the sexual assault cases.

Overriding that is the incalculable damage that he has inflicted upon the cause of other sexual assault victims who may now be hesitant to step forward.
After the Supreme Court wraps up its pending business on Thursday, there will be plenty to discuss and debate about a term that seems to have confounded many peoples expectations. Ill leave that conversation for the coming days. For now, I want to explore one of the weeks overlooked developments for what it might tell us about what happened beneath the surface on a subject of great import this term.

That subject is religion, to which the courts new majority is ever more deferential.

On Monday, the court denied review in the case of Ricks v. State of Idaho Contractors Board. Filed on July 10, 2019, the petition had sat on the courts docket for nearly two years. The denial finally came without comment, appearing simply as one line on a list of dozens of cases the justices disposed of on Monday.

As a building contractor, George Ricks was required by Idaho law to register with the state in order to practice his profession. The registration form requires applicants to include their Social Security number. Mr. Ricks refused, asserting a religious objection to submitting his Social Security number to the government. Denied his registration, Mr. Ricks, without a lawyer, filed a lawsuit in Idaho state court. He claimed that the First Amendments Free Exercise Clause entitled him to a religious exemption from the Social Security requirement. Not surprisingly, he lost.

Mr. Rickss appeal to the Supreme Court would have elicited no more than a shrug and a speedy denial but for two things. One was that he was now represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a prominent religious rights litigating organization that has won many recent Supreme Court victories on behalf of religious believers seeking exemptions from government regulations.
Section 5 was by far the most effective way to prevent voting discrimination, but according to Chief Justice John Roberts  who has been working to hobble the Voting Rights Act since he was a junior lawyer in the Reagan administration  the list of offenders was out of date. Things have changed dramatically, he wrote in his 2013 majority opinion, pointing to the increase in Black voter registration and turnout in the years since the Voting Rights Act was adopted. It didnt seem to occur to him that this increase was precisely because of the law, and not in spite of it. As if to drive home the point, Republican-led states that had been under federal oversight began imposing strict new voting laws within hours of the ruling.

After 2013, Section 2 was the only meaningful tool left in the Voting Rights Act  indeed, Chief Justice Roberts pointed out this fact as supposed consolation when the court eliminated Section 5. But its medicine was never as strong. Lawsuits alleging violations under Section 2 can be brought only after a new voting law has passed and may have been discriminating against voters for years. The suits are expensive and time-consuming, which deters most potential plaintiffs. Even when plaintiffs show incontestable proof of discrimination, as they did in Thursdays case, the odds are stacked against them.

This is bad news for upcoming legal challenges to Republican-enacted voter restrictions in other states. Just how bad will depend in part on the outcome of a lawsuit the Justice Department filed last week against a sweeping new voting law in Georgia. The suit contends that the Georgia Republicans who passed it, upset at Democratic victories in the states presidential and Senate contests, intentionally targeted Black voters, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Proving intentional discrimination is a high bar, but Georgias lawmakers worked hard to make the job easier, passing all kinds of restrictions that disproportionately hurt Black voters.

Congress has been debating a bill that would restore the heart of the Voting Rights Act by reimposing federal oversight of voting laws in states that have repeatedly discriminated in the last 25 years. Thanks to blanket opposition by Republicans and the existence of the filibuster, which allows a minority of senators to block a bill with majority support, the bill is a dead letter  unless Democrats decide to end the filibuster.

Even that step would not turn back the anti-democratic tide, which grew into a wave during the Trump administration. In Georgia, Arizona and elsewhere, Republican lawmakers driven by demonstrable lies about fraud in the 2020 election are changing the rules around how votes are counted and certified. They are stripping power from officials, like the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who did their jobs in 2020 and refused to succumb to pressure from Mr. Trump and his allies to find extra votes and overturn the results to help him win.

The strategy is so dangerous because it is so dull. Its easy to be outraged by, say, making it a crime to give voters water while they wait in oppressively long lines to cast a ballot, as the new Georgia law does. Its harder to get worked up about the arcane machinery of election administration. But these laws are of a piece with the voting restrictions being passed by the same lawmakers. Together, they are designed to keep Democratic-leaning voters away from the polls, and to the extent that fails, to deny victory to Democratic candidates, even when they win more votes.

The current conservative majority on the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roberts, shows no interest in thwarting this attack on democracy and protecting Americans fundamental constitutional right to vote. The ball is in Congresss court, and time is fast running out.
At the same time, Mr. Garland so far has avoided narrower actions personally targeting Mr. Trump that would put the Biden administration in direct public conflict with him. Possible federal cases that for now at least seem not to be on Mr. Garlands agenda include prosecution with respect to the evidence of obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller Report; campaign finance violations, for which Michael Cohen, Mr. Trumps onetime attorney, was criminally charged; and allegations of interference in the 2020 election, including Mr. Trumps shocking call to the Georgia secretary of state pressuring him to find 11,780 votes as well as Mr. Trumps role in setting off the insurrection.

We believe the criticisms that have been raised regarding Mr. Garlands judicious approach to investigating Mr. Trump are misplaced. How does one administer justice without inviting cynical allegations of political motivation, given the history of the past four years, and while Mr. Trump persists in his efforts to undermine our democracy? The answer is carefully, by the exercise of restraint, and by focusing the use of power on the most critical problems that must be addressed most urgently. Mr. Garland has striven not to make Mr. Trump himself the explicit focus of his efforts, and so to avoid the swirl of controversy that surrounds the former president.

Whatever path the attorney general may find appropriate in the future, for now America is fortunate to have strong institutional players in the states and localities. And its not just the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., and the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., is also investigating Mr. Trump and his allies startling behavior under her states criminal law. As Mr. Vance did, she has brought in an outside expert and is pressing forward in a low-key but serious fashion.

For these state and local officials, the political considerations obviously weigh differently than they do for the Biden administration. There are certainly people who will perceive politics behind any state investigation, but Mr. Vance and Ms. Willis do not work for Mr. Trumps direct electoral adversary. And in Mr. Vances case, as the lead law enforcement official in the locale where Mr. Trump has for decades centered his business dealings, his office bears the greatest public responsibility for the integrity of the law enforcement process. We believe that the ability of state authorities to engage on these issues is a great strength of our federal system.

The ultimate value of the district attorneys investigation is simple: accountability. While the ultimate question of guilt or innocence will be left to a state judge and a jury, the investigation upholds the most fundamental precept of American governance: As Mr. Vance has put it, no one  not even a president  is above the law.

Donald Ayer, a former U.S. attorney in the Reagan administration and deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration, is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at Brookings, was President Barack Obamas ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic, and served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment. E. Danya Perry, a former deputy attorney general for the State of New York and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is a co-founder of Perry Guha. They are among the authors of New York States Trump Investigation.
This is evident in our institutions. A society that valued democracy and political participation would not design the system we have. For instance, the Electoral College, Altman said. From my perspective, this is a neolithic institution. It surprises every scholar of democracy worldwide. Or the scheduling of American elections. Why do you vote on Tuesday? Altman asked me. You dont give people space to vote. You have to ask your employer to have the time to go out and vote. Its weird. Then theres the role of money. It looks much more like a plutocratic regime of democracy, he told me.

From this perspective, the Republican Partys ongoing efforts to silence certain voters and politicize electoral administration are not aberrations from a glittering past of fair and competitive contests. They are reversions to our mean. And that makes them all the likelier to succeed.

Younger democracies tend to be weaker, Lindberg said. Its much more common that young democracies fail than older ones. If America became so bad that it could no longer be considered a democracy, it would be a return to Americas historical norm: Some liberal rights for some people, but not to the extent that it is a true democracy.

This is less a fight over the idea of democracy than over who gets to participate in it, and how their participation is weighted. This isnt about how people are electing their government, Ivan Krastev, a political scientist who is the chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Bulgaria, told me. Everything is about what kind of people the government wants to elect  who youll give citizenship, who youll give the vote to, who youll try to exclude from voting.

Krastevs theory, drawing on both European and American history, is that democratic states often have two kinds of majorities. One is the historical majority of the nation-state. In Europe, those majorities tend to be ethnic. In America, its bound more tightly by race and religion. But then theres the more literal definition of a democratic majority: the coalition of voters that can come together to win elections. Unlike the historical majority, the electoral majority can, and does, change every few years.

Often, those two converge. The electoral majority reflects the historical majority. But in America, they increasingly conflict. It used to seem these majorities were in harmony, but now its about how much the electoral majorities can change the permanent majority, he told me. During the Yugoslav wars, Krastev said, there was a famous saying. Why should I be in a minority in your country when you can be a minority in mine?

At times, this is startlingly explicit, as when Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, said, If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority. To Krastev, though, Voss comment simply makes the subtext of the moment into text. The major power of the political community is the power to include and exclude, he said. Who decides who you are going to exclude?
In 2011, while Southern California-based artist Jeff Frost was en route to paint an abandoned building in Bombay Beach, his drive was cut short by a wildfire that would ultimately consume over 500 acres of land. I dropped what I was doing and just time-lapsed it all night long, he remembers. Fascinated by this fast moving and destructive force, he set out on a new mission: to document how residents, firefighters and news outlets coped with these dangerous occurrences, purchasing special protective equipment to best capture the blaze. The 300,000 photographs and time-lapse videos he made  of 70 different wildfires from 2011 to 2018  are part of his latest work, California on Fire, a frighteningly vibrant and intimate look at the environment, which is now part of the group show Implied Scale: Confronting the Enormity of Climate Change at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, on view through July 22. Using photography, video, drawing and installation, artists either confront climate change head-on or pay homage to nature. Included are photographs of leaf-cutter ants in Costa Rica by Catherine Chalmers and a 70-foot-long mural by Ted Kim that depicts the incredible amount of trash accumulated in cities, among others. As with Frosts work, the intention of the exhibition, notes Kele McComsey, director at Mana Contemporary, is to make the viewer think about changes they can make. Dont disconnect yourself from nature, he says. Were all sharing the same space. Implied Scale: Confronting the Enormity of Climate Change is on view at Mana Contemporary through July 22, manacontemporary.com.
The lobbying is very much still going on, said Loren Adler, an associate director of the U.S.C.-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, whose research on the issue was influential among lawmakers.

On Thursday, federal officials began completing the particulars of how that legislative plan will translate to action, by publishing the first major regulation interpreting it. The law establishes a system for calculating a benchmark payment and a way for insurers and health providers to appeal to a neutral arbiter when they feel that amount is not appropriate.

The rule released Thursday is not the last that will need to be published before the end of the year, but it does settle several contentious issues. And it was published as a so-called interim final rule, meaning its details are unlikely to change in the coming months. There will still be a comment period when interested parties can submit feedback.

The three main issues addressed are:

How the federal government will define a standard price for out-of-network care. Among the more important and contested provisions in this rule is a detailed definition of the fair price that arbiters should consider as a baseline for deciding how much the insurance plan typically owes the hospital or doctor. This will be a key figure because it will determine how much the patients owe  they are still responsible for paying the out-of-network doctor their normal co-payment or deductible amount  and what reimbursement the provider will net.

What hospitals and doctors will need to do to notify patients they are not in their insurance network. The federal law requires providers to inform patients that they do not participate in their insurance network, in situations that are not a medical emergency, and gain their consent before treating them or sending a bill. The regulation provides a template for a notice that providers can use to fulfill the requirement. It tells patients, If you sign this form, you may pay more because you are giving up your protections under federal law.

The notification rules in the law represent a new form of transparency  doctors and hospitals will need to warn patients if any of their care isnt covered by insurance.

A complaint system for consumers who believe they were illegally billed. The government expects to handle 3,600 complaints annually from patients who think their doctor or hospital has violated the new law.
Although the White House recently acknowledged that President Biden did not expect to meet his self-imposed deadline of 70 percent of U.S. adults at least partly vaccinated by July 4, Anheuser-Busch still plans to offer to buy much of the United States a beer.

As the pool of the Americans most eager to get vaccinated has shrunk in recent months, the Biden administration has shifted its focus from prioritizing the benefits of mass vaccination sites to a persuasion campaign that highlights incentives to encourage hesitant or disinterested people to get vaccinated.

In early June, the brewing giant announced that it would offer free beer, contingent on the country reaching the presidents goal by the holiday. On Wednesday, the company said that it is still offering adults a $5 virtual credit card for beverages this weekend, whether or not they had been vaccinated.

Beginning at noon on Friday, and ending on Monday night, U.S. adults of legal drinking age can log on to a company website, provide personal information like their email address and ZIP code, and receive a gift card redeemable for an Anheuser-Busch beverage at bars, restaurants and other retailers.
After the meeting, Mr. Biden described the grief and agony he heard from the family members, saying of the people in the room: Theyre going through hell.

I sat with one woman who had just lost her husband and her little baby boy, didnt know what to do, the president said. I sat with another family that lost almost the entire family, cousins, brothers, sisters. And to watch them, and theyre praying and pleading and God let there be a miracle.

Mr. Biden said that many of the family members asked what he called basic heart-wrenching questions: Would they be able to recover the bodies of their loved ones so they could bury them? If I dont get the body back, what do I do?

But at the same time, he said he was surprised by their realism and resilience.

They know that the chances are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly, the president told reporters. But at a minimum, at a minimum, they want to recover the bodies. They want to recover the bodies.

The president praised emergency workers and local and state officials, saying that the cooperation in the rescue effort was remarkable. Mr. Biden announced that the federal government would pay 100 percent of the first 30 days of the recovery costs.
The view from New Zealand

Countries across the Asia-Pacific region  including Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Bangladesh  are scrambling to slow the spread of the Delta variant. Many governments are reimposing restrictions. For societies that had just begun to reopen, its a jarring reminder that the pandemic is far from over.

For insight into the situation in Australia and New Zealand, we turned to Natasha Frost, who writes the Europe Edition of the Morning Briefing.

Natasha: When I returned from New York to my home country of New Zealand in October, it was like slipping through a portal into another world  one where people casually brushed past strangers while waiting in line, routinely went without a mask and even shared plates of fries.

A few months later, Auckland went into lockdown because of what would eventually total 15 Covid cases. In most of the world, so few cases would have been cause for celebration. In New Zealand, it was a sign that something had gone drastically wrong.
Because global warming has raised baseline temperatures by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit on average since 1900, heat waves like the one in the Pacific Northwest are now likely to be hotter than those recorded in past centuries. Over the past 30 years, extreme heat has led to more deaths in the United States than other extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods, although estimates for the number of heat-related deaths have varied.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 505 heat-related deaths in the United States in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available. But the real numbers could be much higher. Another study, which looked at excess deaths in the countrys 297 most populous counties, found that approximately 5,600 deaths could be attributable to heat each year.

Last week, residents throughout the region expressed their alarm at the suddenness and severity of the heat, which struck just as they were beginning to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, anticipating the usual temperate summer.

Instead, slammed with temperatures more characteristic of Death Valley, Washington highways buckled and Portlands TriMet public transit system ground to a halt as its overhead wires sagged and expanded. The University of Washington Medical Center treated more than 100 patients for heat-related illness.

In Seattle, Ms. Pinsky said she watched, aching, as a nest of baby crows in her yard struggled to get out of the scorching sun, only to perish.

Ive been in this neighborhood almost 50 years, she said, and Ive never experienced weather like this.

On Thursday, officials in Oregon  which in the previous 20 years combined had recorded 72 heat-related deaths  updated its heat-related death toll since Friday to at least 79. More than 50 of those deaths were in Multnomah County, which includes Portland. The average age of those who died there was 67.
WASHINGTON  Predators worldwide took advantage of pandemic restrictions last year to draw more people into forced labor and sex trafficking, including children who spent their days online under government-imposed stay-at-home orders, according to a new State Department report.

In India and Nepal, young girls were sold into marriage to help families that otherwise had no income because they could not leave home to work or sell their crops.

In Persian Gulf countries, migrants who had no choice but to live at their workplaces were increasingly prohibited from taking time off.

In the United States, tenants who could not afford to pay rent were pressured into having sex with their landlords.
Justice Dept. Pauses Federal Executions The move reverses the Trump administrations decision to resume executions of death row inmates last year after a nearly two-decade hiatus. Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, for one of her eight spots on the committee investigating the Capitol riot. Follow the latest news on President Biden.

Merrick Garland pauses federal executions a year after his predecessor resumed them. Mr. Garlands ruling reversed the Trump administrations decision to resume federal executions. Credit... Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Thursday imposed a moratorium on federal executions pending a review of the Justice Departments policies and procedures, reversing the Trump administrations decision to resume executions of federal death row inmates last year after a nearly two-decade hiatus. The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely, Mr. Garland said in a memo to Justice Department leaders. That obligation has special force in capital cases. Mr. Garland said in his memo that the deputy attorney general, Lisa O. Monaco, would supervise a review of Justice Department policies related to federal executions that were implemented by former Attorney General William P. Barr. He asked that several of the departments divisions, including the Bureau of Prisons, the criminal division and the civil rights division, participate, along with other federal agencies and outside advocacy groups. After 17 years without executions, the Justice Department under Mr. Barr began to execute federal death row inmates last summer. He argued that the Justice Department under both parties had sought the death penalty and that the government owed the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system. The Trump administration ultimately executed 13 people, more than three times the number of people put to death by the federal government in the previous six decades. Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said President Biden approved of Mr. Garlands decision. As the president has made clear, he has significant concerns about the death penalty and how it is implemented, and he believes the Department of Justice should return to its prior practice of not carrying out executions, Mr. Bates said. As a candidate, Mr. Biden said that he would work to abolish federal executions and incentivize states to follow suit. The Supreme Court also said in March that it would review an appeals courts decision to overturn the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Should the Biden administration withdraw its support for the death penalty against Mr. Tsarnaev, the Supreme Court case would become moot. Mr. Garland has asked the department to review policies implemented in the last two years that paved the way to restart federal executions.

Cheney accepts Pelosis appointment to the Jan. 6 committee, angering McCarthy. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 1:28 - 0:00 transcript Pelosi Appoints Cheney to Jan. 6 Committee Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, to a newly created special committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Ms. Cheneys appointment appeared to be an attempt by Democrats to bring a degree of bipartisanship to the investigation. As you can see, I am very proud to be able to announce the members of that committee this morning. Our chairman will be Bennie Thompson  hes chair of the Homeland Security Committee, and he negotiated the bipartisan commission. And we thank him for his leadership. Chair Zoe Lofgren, House Administration Committee, which is having key hearings as a committee of jurisdiction for the safety of the Capitol. Im saying this in seniority order. Congresswoman Liz Cheney of the Armed Services Committee has patriotically agreed to serve on the committee. She has a family matter shes dealing with  may join us depending on how long this takes. But were very honored and proud that she has agreed to serve on the committee. Representative Stephanie Murphy of Armed Services Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional scholar, as you all know, Oversight Committee. That is a committee, major committee of jurisdiction. And then, were very proud that Elaine Luria, a Navy veteran, captain of the ship  maybe theres a more technical and better, what was the title? Retired commander. Retired commander? Oh, my gosh. And a member of the Armed Services Committee. Her interest in this is longstanding in the Congress. She is also a member of the Homeland Security Committee. Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, to a newly created special committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Ms. Cheneys appointment appeared to be an attempt by Democrats to bring a degree of bipartisanship to the investigation. Credit Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday named Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming to a newly created special committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, choosing a Republican who has blamed former President Donald J. Trump for fomenting the assault to help conduct an inquiry that the rest of her party has fought to block at every turn. The appointment drew an angry response from the top House Republican, who suggested that Ms. Cheney  already ousted from party leadership for her insistence on calling out Mr. Trumps election lies  could face fresh retribution for agreeing to help Democrats investigate the deadliest attack on Congress in centuries. The reaction was the latest bid by Republican leaders to turn public attention away from the assault on the Capitol and punish those who insist on scrutinizing the riot. It came as a fuller picture is emerging of how violent extremists, taking their cues from Mr. Trump, infiltrated the seat of American democracy just as Congress was meeting to validate President Bidens election. A New York Times visual investigation published this week revealed in vivid detail how members of extremist groups incited others to riot and assault police officers, and underscored how the former presidents words resonated with the mob in real time as it staged the attack. Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader, responded angrily to Ms. Cheneys decision to accept the post, calling it shocking and implying that she could lose her seat on the Armed Services Committee as payback. I dont know in history where someone would get their committee assignments from the speaker and then expect to get them from the conference as well, Mr. McCarthy said. Should he follow through with the threat, it would be a striking move for Mr. McCarthy, who has declined to penalize Republicans who have made anti-Semitic comments, called for the imprisoning of their Democratic colleagues or spread false conspiracy theories about the origins of the assault on the Capitol.

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California finally has a date for Gov. Gavin Newsoms recall election. Its Sept. 14. The conventional wisdom among allies of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has been that he will benefit from a swift decision. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times The Republican-led, pandemic-fueled campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom of California got an official election date on Thursday, as the states lieutenant governor announced that voters would head to the polls on the issue on Sept. 14. The date, just 75 days away and the soonest that county officials said they could manage to pull together a special election, was released shortly after the California secretary of state formally certified the recall petition. And it came after Mr. Newsoms fellow Democrats in the State Legislature decided to expedite the process. California is overwhelmingly Democratic and Mr. Newsom is widely expected to prevail, particularly as the state has emerged from the coronavirus crisis. The conventional wisdom among his advisers and allies has been that he will benefit from a swift decision, while Californians are still basking in relief from the reopening of the states economy, and before the autumn wildfire season begins. The timeline, set by a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, also severely restricts the ability of prospective challengers to get onto the ballot, leaving only about two weeks for them to join the race to replace Mr. Newsom. More than 50 candidates are already on the ballot, with a handful of well-funded Republicans seriously campaigning. Expected to cost some $276 million, the special election will be the second time in state history that Californians have voted on whether to recall a sitting governor. The first resulted in the ouster of Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003. Mr. Newsom and his supporters, who have derided the recall campaign as a last-ditch ploy for relevance by right-wing extremists, said on Thursday that they welcomed the decision of voters. This Republican recall is a naked attempt by Trump Republicans to grab control in California  powered by the same Republicans who refused to accept the results of the presidential election, said Juan Rodriguez, the leader of the governors campaign organization. Kevin Faulconer, the former mayor of San Diego and one of the Republican contenders, countered that this movement is powered by Californians from every community  Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Mr. Faulconer added, Change is coming for California and retirement is coming for Gavin Newsom. Recall attempts are not uncommon in California, with every governor since 1960 facing at least one. But getting a recall onto the ballot is rare. The campaign against Mr. Newsom languished for months before a series of pandemic-related missteps, judicial decisions and voter fury landed the governor  a liberal in a Democratic state who was elected in 2018 in a landslide  in a perfect political storm.

J.D. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author, enters the wide-open Senate race in Ohio. J.D. Vance speaking with venture capitalists on a bus in Youngstown, Ohio, in 2018. Credit... Andrew Spear for The New York Times J.D. Vance, an author and venture capitalist whose best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, focused on the social and economic underpinnings of former President Donald J. Trumps appeal to the white working class, said on Thursday that he would seek the Republican nomination for the Senate in Ohio. Mr. Vance, 36, enters the campaign as a well-known and well-financed first-time candidate facing an open field. The Republican incumbent, Senator Rob Portman, is retiring after two terms. The race is one of a few in next years midterm elections that could determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress, which is now split 50-50. At his campaign kickoff event at a steel parts factory in Middletown, the city north of Cincinnati where he grew up, Mr. Vance made his back story as a son of the Rust Belt central to his identity as a candidate. He spoke at length about his upbringing, including how his mamaw had kept him on the straight and narrow as a youth, before diving into his political pitch. He staked out populist positions on issues like inequality and Big Tech and more conservative ones on matters like immigration and abortion. If you look at every issue in this country, Mr. Vance said, every issue I believe traces back to this fact: On the one hand, the elites in the ruling class in this country are robbing us blind, and on the other, if you dare complain about it, you are a bad person.

Biden meets with families of victims in Surfside: Were here for you as one nation. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 1:32 - 0:00 transcript Biden Speaks About Meeting Surfside Condo Victims President Biden talked on Thursday about meeting with both survivors of the condominium building collapse and relatives of those who died or remain missing. The whole nation is mourning with these families. They see it every day on television. Theyre going through hell, and those who survived the collapse, as well as those who are missing loved ones. I sat with one woman who had just lost her, her husband and her little baby boy. Didnt know what to do. I sat with another family that lost almost an entire family, cousins, brothers, sisters, and to watch them, their praying and pleading that God, let there be a miracle. Let there be something happen for me thats good. They had basic heart- wrenching questions. Will I be able to recover the body of my son or daughter, my husband, my cousin, my mom and dad? How can I have closure without being able to bury them? If I dont get the body, what do I do? Jill and I want them to know that were with them. And the countrys with them. Our message today is that were here for you as one nation. When I talk to some of the families, some, some of the people who did escape, survived, got out, they talked about watching the building collapse, and watching as theyre in the garage, one floor come down, literally as a whole floor on top of another floor. They know that the chances are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly. But at a minimum, at a minimum, they want to recover the bodies. President Biden talked on Thursday about meeting with both survivors of the condominium building collapse and relatives of those who died or remain missing. Credit Credit... Tom Brenner for The New York Times SURFSIDE, Fla.  President Biden on Thursday offered impassioned remarks in a hotel ballroom filled with the families of some of those who died or remain missing under the rubble of a collapsed condominium building, according to White House officials and those in the room. Mr. Bidens meeting with the families, which officials said lasted about three hours, came during a halt in the search for survivors amid concerns about the stability of the part of the building that remains standing. A video of Mr. Biden posted during the event by one of the family members appeared to show the president talking in somber tones about the grief he felt from the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident that also severely injured his two young boys. The waiting, the waiting, is unbearable, he told the families, many of whom have been waiting for more than a week for word about whether anyone might still be alive under the concrete and steel. After the meeting, Mr. Biden described the grief and agony he heard from the family members, saying of the people in the room: Theyre going through hell. I sat with one woman who had just lost her husband and her little baby boy, didnt know what to do, the president said. I sat with another family that lost almost the entire family, cousins, brothers, sisters. And to watch them, and theyre praying and pleading and God let there be a miracle. Mr. Biden said that many of the family members asked what he called basic heart-wrenching questions: Would they be able to recover the bodies of their loved ones so they could bury them? If I dont get the body back, what do I do? But at the same time, he said he was surprised by their realism and resilience. They know that the chances are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly, the president told reporters. But at a minimum, at a minimum, they want to recover the bodies. They want to recover the bodies. The president praised emergency workers and local and state officials, saying that the cooperation in the rescue effort was remarkable. Mr. Biden announced that the federal government would pay 100 percent of the first 30 days of the recovery costs. He said he told the families that were here for you as one nation, as one nation. And thats the message we communicated. A White House official said that during the closed-door session with the families, Mr. Biden walked from table to table to talk with each family seated in the room. The official said that Jill Biden, the first lady, also held individual conversations with family members. The president was joined by Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Rick Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami Dade County. The official said that Mr. Biden stayed in the room until everyone who wanted to talk with him had the opportunity. After the meeting with the families, Mr. Biden and Dr. Biden made a brief stop at the makeshift memorial to the victims of the collapse, walking along a chain-link fence adorned with flowers, stopping several times to look closely at photos of those who have died or remain missing. Dr. Biden placed a large bouquet of white flowers at the base of the fence before the pair returned to the presidents motorcade. Erick de Moura, a resident of the building who spent the night of the collapse at his girlfriends house, praised Mr. Biden as he and other survivors and victims families left the ballroom at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort. For him to take his time like hes taking right now just walking around and talking to every single family, its just an amazing act and we appreciate it very much. Its comforting for us, Mr. de Moura said. Rabbi Daniel Hadar, the head rabbi of Temple Moses Sephardic Congregation of Florida, an Orthodox synagogue in Miami Beach, said that the tone of the meeting signaled a shift from other meetings with families over the last week. Over a dozen people affiliated with the synagogue, just a couple of miles from Champlain Towers, were in the building at the time of the collapse. There was something for the first time Im seeing: consolation, said Rabbi Hadar. Whereas in previous meetings with officials, Hadar has seen families have expressed anger and frustration with the rescue process, families expressed peace and appreciation. I think a lot of people are either resigning themselves, or understanding that there is hope, and the best hope is to work with these guys and to hear what they have to say, Rabbi Hadar added. Michael D. Shear, Sophie Kasakove and

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A U.S. proposal for a 15% global minimum tax is backed by 130 countries. A 15 percent global minimum tax would end what U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen called a 30-year race to the bottom on corporate tax. Credit... Erin Scott for The New York Times An international effort to create the most sweeping changes to the global tax system in a century gained significant momentum on Thursday when 130 nations announced they had agreed to a blueprint that would ensure multinational corporations pay a fair share of tax wherever they operate. The deal, overseen by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is intended to end what Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen called a 30-year race to the bottom on corporate tax, and includes a 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate put forward by the United States, as well as a crucial new tax system for digital giants like Apple and Amazon. Today marks an important step in moving the global economy forward to be more equitable for workers and middle class families in the United States and around the world, President Biden said in a statement. With a global minimum tax in place, multinational corporations will no longer be able to pit countries against one another in a bid to push tax rates down and protect their profits at the expense of public revenue. The historic agreement would generate an estimated $150 billion in additional tax revenue each year, and could reshape global commerce and shore up public finances that have deteriorated in numerous countries after more than a year of grappling with the pandemic. It could also end a brewing global trade war over the taxation of companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and others that earn revenue online in countries where they have little or no physical presence. It proposes a new system for determining which countries could tax those companies profits, and how, and promises to head off what had been an escalating series of nations levying taxes on American technology companies, with both the Trump and Biden administrations threatening retaliatory tariffs in response. The deal comes after four years of fraught international negotiations and, if enacted, would essentially stop countries from slashing their tax rates, a move that the United States and other high-tax jurisdictions say has deprived them of funding for crucial investments like infrastructure and education. Liz Alderman, Jim Tankersley and

In a major voting rights case, the Supreme Court upholds restrictions in Arizona. Elections officials counting ballots at the Maricopa County Recorder's Office in Phoenix, on Nov. 4, 2020. Credit... Matt York/Associated Press The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld voting restrictions in Arizona and signaled that challenges to new state laws making it harder to vote would face a hostile reception from a majority of the justices. The vote was 6 to 3, with the courts three liberal members in dissent. The decision was the courts first consideration of how a crucial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 applies to voting restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on members of minority groups, and it was issued as disputes over voting rights have taken center stage in American politics. As Republican-controlled state legislatures increasingly seek to impose restrictive new voting rules, Democrats and civil rights groups have turned to the courts to argue that Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, thwart the will of the majority and deny equal access to minority voters. The decision suggested that Supreme Court would not be inclined to strike down many of the measures. After the ruling, President Biden said in a statement that the court has now done severe damage to two important provisions of the Voting Rights Act. After all we have been through to deliver the promise of this Nation to all Americans, we should be fully enforcing voting rights laws, not weakening them, he said. Yet this decision comes just over a week after Senate Republicans blocked even a debate  even consideration  of the For the People Act that would have protected the right to vote from action by Republican legislators in states across the country. While this broad assault against voting rights is sadly not unprecedented, it is taking on new forms, Mr. Biden said. It is no longer just about a fight over who gets to vote and making it easier for eligible voters to vote. It is about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all. Tracking the Major Supreme Court Decisions This Term Public opinion is closely divided on health care, voting, religion and gay rights cases.

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Democrats brace for a narrower path to challenge new voting laws. Demonstrators gathered in Washington on Saturday to protest for equal voting rights. Credit... Kenny Holston for The New York Times The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld voting restrictions in Arizona and signaled that challenges to new state laws making it harder to vote would face a hostile reception from a majority of the justices. The 6-3 ruling left voting rights activists on the defensive, grappling with a ruling that seemed to indicate an uphill battle for those using the Voting Rights Act to challenge these laws in court. The ruling established a series of guideposts for what could potentially constitute a violation under the act, appearing to limit the paths for mounting legal challenges to new measures being proposed and passed in Republican-controlled states. The test is more difficult to meet than Congress intended when it passed the act, said Chad Dunn, the co-founder of the Voting Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former election lawyer. So on that point, I think the dissenting justices got it exactly right: The test is too restrictive. There are other legal avenues to challenge restrictive voting laws besides the Voting Rights Act, including under the First, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. But the act has been the paramount tool for voting rights groups seeking to rein in laws that could disproportionately affect communities of color, and the decision could threaten some of the legal strategies that these groups and election lawyers have been drafting to challenge some of the new laws. President Biden said he was deeply disappointed in the courts ruling and said it would cause severe damage to the federal governments ability to protect voting rights. He again urged Congress to enact new protections for voting. The courts decision, harmful as it is, does not limit Congresss ability to repair the damage done today, Mr. Biden said. It puts the burden back on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its intended strength. Nick Corasaniti and

The House passes a $715 billion transportation and water bill, laying out its marker for infrastructure talks. Amtrak trains sitting on tracks in the station in Philadelphia, Penn., in April. Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times The House on Thursday narrowly approved a five-year, $715 billion transportation and drinking water bill that would do more to combat climate change than the Senates bipartisan infrastructure agreement embraced by President Biden, laying down its marker for negotiations on the package. Democratic leaders see the bill as a baseline for high-stakes talks with the Senate aimed at producing the largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight D. Eisenhower began the interstate highway system. The House measure, which would authorize a 50-percent increase over current spending levels, passed by a vote of 221-201, largely along party lines. The bill would devote $343 billion to roads, bridges and safety measures. It contains $109 billion for transit, which would increase federal spending by 140 percent. It envisions spending $168 billion for wastewater and drinking water, and it includes a new program to forgive unpaid water bills and then to help pay bills in the future, much as the government helps pay home heating and air conditioning costs. With heat records rising from Arizona to Seattle, House Democrats emphasized the billions that would go toward measures aimed at climate change. It would spend money on electric car and truck charging stations, zero-emission transit vehicles and shoring up roads, bridges, tunnels and rail lines to withstand severe weather and rising seas. Funding for Amtrak would be tripled, to $32 billion, and planning for high-speed rail projects would be underwritten. We have to rebuild in ways that we never even thought about before, said Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, adding, This is the moment. We have to be bold. Just how the House Democratic vision of infrastructure will be melded with the deal struck by five Republicans and five Democrats in the Senate is anything but clear. The House bill and the Senate deal are not far apart in spending on traditional infrastructure. Both efforts take up Mr. Bidens call to replace all of the countrys lead drinking water pipes. But the Senate framework only lays down broad categories of spending, while the House bill would extend surface transportation policies and revenues from user fees that are set to expire Oct. 1. It would also establish new policies like Buy-American requirements and a pilot program to give low-income people better access to transit. Another wrinkle: It is the first bill in a decade to include funds for projects in lawmakerss home districts, known as earmarks. There are 1,473 of them totaling nearly $5.7 billion. House members in both parties will be reluctant to lose them. One major thing missing in the House bill, however, is Republican support  even from those who won coveted projects for their districts. Only two G.O.P. lawmakers crossed party lines to support it. House Republicans criticized the legislation as overly political, too expensive and slanted toward social engineering measures that would outstrip the funds available from gas and diesel taxes and other user fees long dedicated to infrastructure spending. Republican leaders called the bill the Green New Deal and Inflation Transportation Act. With many House Republicans denying the established science of climate change and rural lawmakers feeling shortchanged by the shift toward mass transit and rail, the bill is not expected to draw the broad support usually afforded to such measures. The climate provisions are substantial. The bill includes $4 billion for electric-vehicle charging stations, $8.3 billion to reduce carbon pollution and $6.2 billion to make infrastructure resistant to extreme weather. Answering Mr. Biden, it would dedicate $3 billion to tearing down bridges and overpasses that separate many poor communities, most of them Black and Latino, from their cities. To avoid breaking Mr. Bidens pledge not to raise taxes on middle-income Americans, House Democrats would not raise the gas tax to cover the increased spending. Mr. DeFazio said the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee would produce separate legislation later to pay for the infrastructure spending, but House approved the spending without having seen the other side of the ledger.

Britney Spearss case leads 2 senators to question the countrys conservatorship systems. Britney Spears has said that she was drugged, compelled to work against her will and prevented from removing her birth control device over the course of her 13-year conservatorship. Credit... Allison Zaucha for The New York Times Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey are calling on federal agencies to increase oversight of the countrys conservatorship systems, following testimony from the pop star Britney Spears that she had been abused under her conservatorship. The senators, in a letter to Xavier Becerra, the health secretary, and Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, asked for more data within the next two weeks on conservatorships in the United States, and how their agencies interact with the state programs. The move could signal the beginning of a legislative effort to overhaul the system. Ms. Spearss case has shined a light on longstanding concerns from advocates who have underscored the potential for financial and civil rights abuses of individuals placed under guardianship or conservatorship, Ms. Warren of Massachusetts and Mr. Casey of Pennsylvania wrote. The senators also highlighted previous efforts to study and change the conservatorship system that they said had fallen short. Ms. Warren, in a separate statement, described a system with longstanding gaps that can strip people of basic rights. Both the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have previously stepped in to provide federal support for guardianship reforms and establish national reporting as it relates to older Americans, she said. But the lack of federal data on the prevalence of conservatorships and guardianships of all kinds has made it difficult to enact policy changes. The National Center for State Courts estimates that there are 1.3 million active conservatorships in the United States overseeing at least $50 billion in assets, but the group notes that the estimate is based on a handful of states that provide reasonably reliable data on conservatorships. Each state manages its own system of conservatorship, and data collection varies widely from state to state. In particular, the senators highlighted a lack of data on the potential for discrimination in the conservatorship system on the basis of race and ethnicity, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and type of disability of those subject to a guardianship. That assessment is supported by independent government agencies who have studied conservatorships. A report by the Government Accountability Office in 2016 noted that the extent of elder abuse by guardians nationally is unknown. The National Council on Disability said in 2018 that it cannot say for sure whether guardianship is a growing trend or if its popularity is waning, adding that the lack of data makes it difficult to recommend policy changes. Ms. Spears told a Los Angeles judge last week that she had been drugged, compelled to work against her will and prevented from removing a birth control device during the 13-year conservatorship. On Thursday, a wealth management firm that was set to become a co-conservator of Ms. Spearss estate requested to withdraw from the arrangement. In the request to the court, the firm said it had been told that Ms. Spearss conservatorship was voluntary. James P. Spears, Ms. Spearss father who oversees the singers finances, called for an investigation into her claims. His lawyers have requested an evidentiary hearing and called into question the actions of both Ms. Spearss current personal conservator, who replaced Mr. Spears in the position in 2019, and her court-appointed lawyer.

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Intelligence agencies expose new details of Russias hacking campaign. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin met last month in Geneva, Switzerland. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times Two weeks after President Biden met President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and demanded that he rein in the constant cyberattacks directed at American targets, American and British intelligence agencies on Thursday exposed the details of what they called a global effort by Russias military intelligence organization to break into government organizations, defense contractors, universities and media companies. The operation, described as crude but broad, is almost certainly ongoing, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, known as GCHQ, said in a statement. They identified the Russian intelligence agency, or G.R.U., as the same group that hacked into the Democratic National Committee and released emails in an effort to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald J. Trump. Thursdays revelation is an attempt to expose Russian hacking techniques, rather than any specific new attacks, and it includes pages of technical detail to enable potential targets to identify that a breach is underway. Many of the actions by the G.R.U.  including an effort to get into data stored in Microsofts Azure cloud services  have already been documented by private cybersecurity firms. But the political significance of the statement is larger: It is a first challenge to Mr. Putin since the summit in Geneva, where Mr. Biden handed him a list of 16 areas of critical infrastructure in the United States and said that it would not tolerate continued Russian cyberattacks. Well find out whether we have a cybersecurity arrangement that begins to bring some order, Mr. Biden said at the end of that meeting, only minutes after Mr. Putin declared that the United States, not Russia, was the largest source of cyberattacks around the world. Julian E. Barnes and

Traffickers took advantage of the pandemic to exploit more women, children and migrants, a U.S. report finds. A social worker listened to a young victim at a center for victims of child trafficking in Soubre, Ivory Coast, in May. Credit... Sia Kambou/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images Predators worldwide took advantage of pandemic restrictions last year to draw more people into forced labor and sex trafficking, including children who spent their days online under government-imposed stay-at-home orders, according to a new State Department report. In India and Nepal, young girls were sold into marriage to help families that otherwise had no income because they could not leave home to work or sell their crops. In Persian Gulf countries, migrants who had no choice but to live at their workplaces were increasingly prohibited from taking time off. In the United States, tenants who could not afford to pay rent were pressured into having sex with their landlords. While the number of individuals at risk of trafficking grew during the pandemic, so did the conditions under which traffickers thrive, concluded the State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons Report, released on Thursday. It found that victimization grew as law enforcement and other resources were diverted to managing public health measures at the height of the pandemic. In particular, the number of cases of online sex exploitation appeared to skyrocket as people turned to their computers during lockdowns. The report found that predators increasingly recruited and groomed children  who were spending more time online, often without supervision  for sex trafficking and sexually explicit material.

The Supreme Court rejects a California law requiring charities to disclose their major donors. The Supreme Court building in Washington on Tuesday. Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that California may not require charities soliciting contributions in the state to report the identities of their major donors. The vote was 6 to 3, with the courts three liberal members in dissent. The requirement was challenged by Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a group affiliated with the Koch family, and the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian public-interest law firm. They argued that the requirement violated the First Amendments protection of the freedom of association by subjecting donors to possible harassment. The disputed measure requires charities to file with the state a copy of a federal tax form that identifies major donors. Under federal law, the Internal Revenue Service must keep the form confidential. California also promised to keep the forms secret, but it has not always done so. According to court papers, the challengers discovered in 2015 that the state had displayed about 1,800 forms on its website. State officials said that the disclosures were inadvertent and promptly corrected and that the state had imposed new security measures.

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Donald Trump hit the campaign trail again last weekend, and he certainly seemed happy to be back in the spotlight. He bashed President Biden and undocumented immigrants, repeated his false claims of a stolen 2020 election, and hinted at a possible run for the presidency again in 2024.

But as he contemplates a return to politics, he has a more immediate question to contend with: Will he be able to stay out of legal trouble?

On Thursday, the Manhattan district attorneys office charged the former presidents real estate company, the Trump Organization, with running a 15-year scheme to help executives avoid taxation. A top Trump executive, Allen Weisselberg, was accused of dodging taxes on $1.7 million in income; he surrendered to the D.A.s office on Thursday morning.

Mr. Weisselbergs was the first indictment to come out of a lengthy investigation that is being conducted by that office, and it could signal a turning point. If he agrees to testify against the former president, Mr. Weisselberg would be a powerful witness: He has long been one of Mr. Trumps closest financial advisers, and Mr. Trump once praised him for his willingness to do whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line.
Voting rights activists, on the defensive this year in the face of a wave of restrictive new voting laws, grappled on Thursday with new guidance from the Supreme Court signaling that the challenge will be even steeper now for opposing these laws in court.

The 6-to-3 ruling established a series of guideposts for what could potentially constitute a violation under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, appearing to limit one of the few paths Democrats and activists have for mounting legal challenges to new measures currently being proposed and passed in Republican-controlled states.

This decision overly constricts how we view evidence in our Section 2 cases, and thats going to make it harder  not unwinnable  but harder, said Allison Riggs, a senior lawyer at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the rights of people of color.

There are other legal avenues to challenge restrictive voting laws besides the Voting Rights Act, including under the First, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. But the act has been paramount in helping to rein in laws that could disproportionately affect communities of color, and the decision could threaten some of the legal strategies that voting rights groups and election lawyers have been drafting to challenge some of the new laws.
I just came to say thanks, and listen to find out what I can do as president, what I can do in terms of help for whatever you need. The governor and the mayor have been completely open with me  whatever theyve asked for, I think weve been able to deliver, and I think theres more that we can do, including, I think I have the power and well know shortly, and thats to be able to pick up 100 percent of the costs for the county and the state over the next 30 days. I just want to, you know, start today, if I could with as thorough a briefing as youre able to give me. Tell me what you need, and that goes for both the senators and the congresswoman and anyone in Florida, just to pick up the phone. For real, Im not joking about it. As we talk to the family members, as you will soon be doing, as they are waiting and waiting for news of their loved ones, as you said, and also those whove been displaced, I mean, its just a crisis all around. But we are working together to handle the crisis, to get the answers about what happened here. And we can update you on that. And we are going to be examining every inch of this catastrophe. The fact that we now have that search-and-rescue team from Virginia here, and I know we have some more on the way, thats going to be helpful because this is grueling and obviously the families lives have been shattered. Mental health is going to be important. We do appreciate the collaboration from local, state and federal. And, you know, what we just need now is we need a little bit of luck and a little bit of prayers. And, you know, we would like to be able to, you know, to see some miracles happen.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Thursday gave states new latitude to impose restrictions on voting, using a ruling in a case from Arizona to signal that challenges to laws being passed by Republican legislatures that make it harder for minority groups to vote would face a hostile reception from a majority of the justices.

The vote was 6 to 3, with the courts three liberal members in dissent.

The decision was among the most consequential in decades on voting rights, and it was the first time the court had considered how a crucial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 applies to restrictions that have a particular impact on people of color.

The six conservative justices in the majority concluded that the relevant part of the act can be used to strike down voting restrictions only when they impose substantial and disproportionate burdens on minority voters, effectively blocking their ability to cast a ballot  a standard suggesting that the Supreme Court would not be inclined to overturn many of the measures Republicans have pursued or approved around the country.

Where a state provides multiple ways to vote, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority, any burden imposed on voters who choose one of the available options cannot be evaluated without also taking into account the other available means.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, reversed the trial judges ruling, saying that the filing requirement promoted investigative efficiency and that the security breaches had been addressed.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the court has long protected the right of free association guaranteed by the First Amendment, notably in a 1958 decision shielding the membership list N.A.A.C.P.s Alabama office from state officials there.

Because N.A.A.C.P. members faced a risk of reprisals if their affiliation with the organization became known  and because Alabama had demonstrated no offsetting interest sufficient to justify the deterrent effect of disclosure  we concluded that the states demand violated the First Amendment, the chief justice wrote, quoting from the decision.

Chief Justice Roberts said there was a similar problem in California. We do not doubt that California has an important interest in preventing wrongdoing by charitable organizations, he wrote. There is a dramatic mismatch, however, between the interest that the attorney general seeks to promote and the disclosure regime that he has implemented in service of that end.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that 60,000 charities renewed their registrations in California each year, and nearly all filed the required form. But, he added, quoting from the trial judges ruling, there was not a single, concrete instance in which pre-investigation collection of a Schedule B did anything to advance the attorney generals investigative, regulatory or enforcement efforts.

In reality, then, Californias interest is less in investigating fraud and more in ease of administration, the chief justice wrote. This interest, however, cannot justify the disclosure requirement.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined all or most of the majority opinion.
So what risk does the Delta variant pose to Californians? Heres what you need to know:

Should I be worried about the Delta variant if Im fully vaccinated?

Yes. But not because youre likely to get sick.

The Delta variant is extremely contagious, scientists say, and may cause more severe illness. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nations top infectious disease doctor, has described it as the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate Covid-19. Estimates from the C.D.C. suggest that the variant is now responsible for about one in every four cases in the United States. In Los Angeles County, scientists found that it accounted for nearly half of all of the variants genetically sequenced.

However, vaccines work well against the Delta variant.

This means that its dangerous largely because its likely to spread among people who are unvaccinated.

Do experts think advising residents to wear masks indoors is a good idea  even when the C.D.C. and the states department of public health havent done so?

Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist and clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, this week told me that he saw Los Angeles Countys move to advise indoor masking as a prudent one, given the trajectory of the Delta variant in other countries.
NAIROBI, Kenya  The African Unions special envoy on Covid-19 urged Europe to relax restrictions on vaccine makers exports so that African countries could buy more doses and try to stem a fast-surging third wave of the pandemic driven mainly by the more contagious Delta variant.

Speaking in an online news conference on Thursday, the envoy, Strive Masiyiwa, criticized wealthy nations for giving short shrift to Africas needs while monopolizing manufacturers vaccine output for their own citizens. If Europe can lift lockdowns to let soccer fans throng its stadiums, he said, it is time to open up and let African countries buy more vaccine doses from Europe.

Mr. Masiyiwa spoke about a number of issues related to vaccines, including the European Unions decision not to recognize Covishield  the India-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine that most African countries are relying on  in its digital travel pass, which went into use on Thursday.

Just over 1 percent of Africas 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated so far, according to the World Health Organization, while nearly every country in Europe has surpassed 25 percent. Some are over 45 percent.
The militarys unwillingness to provide details about its vaccination program prompted Covax, the global vaccine-sharing program, to delay a shipment of 5.5 million doses in March, said Dr. Stephan Paul Jost, the World Health Organizations representative for Myanmar. No new shipment has been scheduled.

Myanmars health care system may buckle under the outbreak. Doctors and other health care workers have already gone on strike to protest the coup and troops have occupied dozens of medical facilities, prompting many patients to stay away for fear of being detained or shot. Some doctors estimate that hundreds of patients are dying each week because they cannot get the care they need.

The de facto authorities need to create an environment where people can work without fear and patients can get care without fear, Dr. Jost said. It is creating the ultimate dilemma for health workers, whether to serve the country of the future or the patients of the present.

One community hit hard by the coronavirus is the town of Kalay, 65 miles from the border with India. In April, soldiers firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked anti-coup protesters there who had barricaded Kalays streets, killing at least 11. Community leaders say the regime is providing little help in combating the outbreak.

Kalay General Hospital, the lone public hospital in the area, has been overwhelmed by the surge in cases. All its beds are occupied by people in critical condition, said Lal Puia, a volunteer leader at the Ate Sut Community Center, which has been converted into a field hospital. More than 250 people who have tested positive are staying there, he said, and many others are staying at home, where they risk infecting family members.

The town has been placed under a stay-at-home order and its streets are empty except for people buying food and medicine or trying to rent oxygen tanks, which are in short supply.
Digital Covid-19 certificates aimed at facilitating free movement in the European Union came into force across the bloc on Thursday, a long-awaited milestone for countries hoping to boost their ailing tourism industries  but also a point of friction over the number of vaccines that do not qualify.

Free movement is a key pillar of European integration, and E.U. officials said last month that the certificates would again enable citizens to enjoy this most tangible and cherished of E.U. rights.

So far, the European Union lists four vaccines as qualifying for the certificate, all of which have been authorized for use across the bloc. They are the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

That leaves out a vaccine that the international Covax mechanism has distributed across Africa: Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine that is manufactured in India. It is, however, accepted in a handful of E.U. member nations.
JERUSALEM  Not a lot binds the new Israeli government. Its an unwieldy and incoherent coalition of right-wingers, leftists, centrists and Islamists that many fear wont survive more than a few months, let alone years.

But a pair of recent decisions, both related to the most divisive issue in Israel, the Palestinian conflict, show how the government seems to have found, so far at least, a way to maneuver through a maze of sensitive issues while avoiding collapse: by tilting to the right, while giving its leftist and Arab members just enough concessions to justify staying in the alliance.

The latest example was how it dealt with a new, unauthorized Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank that has set off daily protests by local Palestinians. Pull it down, and Naftali Bennett, the hard-right prime minister, risked angering his pro-settler base. Let it remain, and he might have prompted his left-wing and Islamist allies to reconsider their involvement in the coalition.

On Thursday, his government finalized a response that held the coalition together, even as it angered its leftist flank and did nothing for the Palestinians living nearby. The settlers will leave the site for now, the government said in a statement, but their homes will remain and soldiers will be stationed on the site to protect it.
Jenny Urizar and David Rowland unexpectedly found themselves in a long-distance relationship last year, when the pandemic forced them inside and off the subway. She was renting a 600-square-foot studio in a modern Chelsea high-rise for $3,000 a month, and he was seven miles north, in Harlem, paying $1,200 for his share in a two-bedroom in the Sugar Hill Historic District.

Tired of the separation, Mr. Rowland soon moved into Ms. Urizars place, where they could at least take Teddy the dachshund to the dog run in Madison Square Park. Everyone was getting dogs at the time, so there were a lot of puppies, said Ms. Urizar, who is from Miami and works in corporate philanthropy.

But the couple, both 40, quickly discovered that it was difficult to live and work in a single square room. At one point, I was taking calls in the bathroom, said Mr. Rowland, an editor at a scientific journal, who is from Chicago.

They needed a better division of space  some kind of wall or door for some kind of separation and privacy, Ms. Urizar said  so they went on the hunt for a new place together.

[Did you recently buy or rent a home in the New York metro area? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]

She wanted a modern high-rise, preferably with an in-unit washer and dryer. I am a fan of convenience, like a doorman and an elevator, she said. Dave is OK if there are air-conditioning issues.

Mr. Rowland liked brownstone charm, although it often came with drawbacks in the apartments they saw. The kitchen was really small, or it would feel musty, or there wasnt enough light, he said.

He wanted an adult kitchen, with counter space and new appliances, which was easier to find in a newer building.

The couple began looking months too early  long before they wanted to move  and were told to return when they were ready. Still, that ended up being pretty productive, Mr. Rowland said. We would get a sense of what buildings we liked and then get back in touch with them.

Their budget was up to $4,500 a month, after factoring in the months of free rent on offer. They considered upsizing within their current Chelsea building, managed by Equity Residential, but deals were for new tenants only, not for existing ones. The same unit one floor above me was $500 less, Ms. Urizar said. So they focused on modern buildings in central areas of Manhattan.

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A project to dredge nearly 800,000 cubic yards of sand onto the nearly eight miles of beach be- tween Third Street and just beyond the Maryland-Delaware state line is expected to begin just after Labor Day and finish before Memorial Day 2022.
Telling it like it is An ExxonMobil lobbyist has spilled the beans on the companys global warming charade.

Keith McCoy, senior director of federal relations at ExxonMobil, told Greenpeace the oil giant backed groups that were trying to undermine the science behind global warming.

Did we aggressively fight against some of the science, McCoy said on a video. Yes. Did we join some of these shadow groups to work against some of the early efforts? Yes, thats true.

McCoy, who also said Exxons support for a carbon tax was just a talking point because Congress would never approve a new tax, said he was hoodwinked by Greenpeace into participating in the video.

On LinkedIn, he posted: I am embarrassed by my comments and that I allowed myself to fall for Greenpeaces deception.

ExxonMobil CEO Daren Woods disavowed comments by McCoy and a former lobbyist, Dan Easley.

He said their views dont represent the companys position on climate change. We condemn the statements and are deeply apologetic for them.

Exxon stands by its commitments to working on finding solutions to climate change, according to Woods.

The Exxon chief doesnt need another global warming headache.

The Greenpeace bombshell follows Woods PR defeat at the May 26 annual shareholders meeting, at which three directors nominated by Engine No. 1 hedge fund to demand a sustainable value creation plan won board seats.

Former Burson-Marsteller director Sebastian Sichel has gone on to bigger and better things as the 43-year-old is one of the youngest people ever to run for the presidency of Chile.

The center-right candidate is attempting to differentiate himself from his conservative competitors by calling for more entrepreneurship and supporting liberal social policies such as same-sex marriage, according to Bloomberg.

Sichel, who served as the countrys social development minister under president Sebastian Pinera, is rising in the polls.

He faces a primary vote on July 18. The first round of presidential elections is set for Nov. 21.

Chiles economy is a mess and the country has just suffered its worst social unrest in a generation.

Good luck, Sebastian.

Political hack Kevin McCarthy is shocked that Congresswoman Liz Cheney would accept a seat on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol.

"I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi," said the Minority Leader as if the third person in line for the US presidency was a stooge of Vladimir Putin.

McCarthy and his gang of seditionists ousted Cheney from her Republican leadership position because she wasnt all in on the Big Lie about Trump winning the election.

Cheneys statement on her appointment is the best rebuttal to McCarthy:

Im honored to have been named to serve on the January 6th select committee. Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814. That day saw the most sacred space in our Republic overrun by an angry and violent mob attempting to stop the counting of electoral votes and threatening the peaceful transfer of power.

What happened on January 6th can never happen again. Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner.

Our oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and the preservation of the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics.

Read it and weep, Kev. Those are the words of a patriot. Cheney in `24.
Two Dublin lads on an epic charity walk across Ireland received an incredible welcome as they made their way through Offaly this week.

Scott Ward and Derek O'Brien, both aged 19, are walking across Ireland from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher to raise funds for ABACAS Kilbarrack Special School. It is a school for children with a diagnosis of Autism and both of the lads have cousins in the school.

Their long walk took them right through Offaly this week through Edenderry, Tullamore, Kilcormac, Birr and Banagher.

Speaking on Ireland AM on Virigin Media One this morning, the lads spoke glowing about the welcome they received in Offaly, particularly in Kilcormac where they were greeted by locals wearing Dublin jerseys. They also posted a picture from their time in Banagher.

While their feet must be sore at this stage, they are continuing their walk as they approach the west coast and have already raised an incredible 30,000.

Thankfully they will be getting a lift back from Clare to Dublin once their walk is complete!

You can donate by CLICKING HERE
In March this year the Biffo Challenge team set out to raise 24,000 to be equally divided between Offaly Search and Recovery and Offaly Hospice.

We are in the process of reaching this target and have one final challenge which we hope will be an annual fundraiser for Offaly Search and Recovery, John Wallace, one of the organisers of the challenge, told the Tribune this week.



In conjunction with Cillian Kiely, All Ireland Poc Fada champion, Brian Whelahan, four time all star and Barry Loughnane, the Biffo Challenge team have come up with a novel challenge which they hope will raise 10,000 .



To get this amount organisers need 100 participants to get sponsorship of 100 each. Organisers will be breaking this into senior and U16 sections with a signed Offaly Jersey for the winning U16 boy and the U16 girls winner will receive a signed Offaly Camogie jersey. The senior winner will receive the Martin Wallace Perpetual Trophy.

Competitors will come along on Sunday July 11th to St Brendan's Park, Birr where each person will take three pucks and the average of these will be their final distance.

All 100 players will make the wall of fame with the top 15 players then make our champions team captained by the 1st Caman an Fad champion.

All activities will be run within the current covid guidelines on the day.

Outlined John Wallace: We will be asking all participants to register with us once they receive their sponsorship card returning the same with 100 by Thursday July 8th. By return we will send them a receipt,terms and conditions and their time slot for the challenge. We will be working as best we can to ensure people get a time that works best for them.

To date organisers have confirmed the participation of Cillian and Cathal Kiely, Brian Whelahan and Stephen Corcoran.

Added John: So far we have worked very well as a team to raise much needed funds and we are confident that this challenge will work even better than all other challenges to date. You will find us actively on Facebook and instagram @thebifffochallenge or #cumanaguspuc if you want to see how our challenge has been going.

We look forward to your support for this fundraiser and lets hope the 1st annual Caman An Fad will be a great success this year and the years to follow.

If you are interested in having a go to make the champions team or the wall of fame ring John at 0851741957
THE Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan has robustly criticised the government for its decision to cancel Confirmations and First Holy Communions.

In a strongly worded statement Bishop Deenihan says the move has caused great confusion and disappointment among parents and children.

In his statement he says: ''The decision was, according to the Tanaiste, based on the recommendation of NPHET. However, todays newspapers report that Dr. Tony Houlihan informed members of Dail Eireann yesterday that he never requested that Confirmations and First Holy Communions be postponed. That has added to the sense of confusion and anger amongst callers to the Diocesan Office.

This decision by Government is a source of much disappointment to the young people who have been preparing for and looking forward to the various ceremonies. It is a source of disappointment to their parents, teachers and clergy too who have been involved in preparing them for an important moment in their faith. The proximity of the cancellation to the actual ceremony, which was based on previous Government advice, means that parents have days off planned and other expenses have been incurred.

It is of some surprise that while Government officials have indicated that churches are safe, their concern is what happens afterwards in relation to domestic and other settings. I am confident that, at this juncture, parents know what is safe, will not want to put their families at risk and should be trusted in relation to what happens in their own home.

The Church is in a difficult position in this regard. While there is a temptation to ignore Government on religious worship and the celebration of the sacraments, and many have encouraged such a course of action, that would cause concern to some parents too and would politicise the Sacraments, something which, I believe, should be avoided at all costs.

Once again, despite having a schedule devised for Confirmation in the Diocese starting next week, I find myself in the troubling and regrettable position of having to cancel.

This is a political decision that was made without consultation with Church authorities. I remain troubled that any Government or Government minister can cancel the celebration of religious worship or the Sacraments while, crucially, saying at the same time that what happens within a church is safe. This goes to the heart of freedom of worship.

All religious authorities have worked hard to ensure that whatever happens in places of worship is safe. The parishes of this diocese, through the voluntary work of parishioners, have responded generously, courageously and at some cost to ensure that all ceremonies are conducted in accordance with safety measures for the protection of public health.

This is the right, necessary and prudent thing to do. It is unreasonable to ban Sacraments for everyone on the basis of what might happen in some cases afterwards. Such measures have not been applied across any other sector of society. Other places have either been closed or can open based on what happens within those places. The Church seeks no more and no less.

Many people have been contacting this office and the various parishes expressing concern and seeking information. In the light of Dr. Houlihans clarification, I would suggest that such calls are directed towards the politicians who made this decision. In the meantime, be assured that the important Sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation will be celebrated as soon as possible in the Diocese. The celebration of Baptism will proceed in this diocese subject to the pastoral judgement of the local clergy, minimum numbers and public health precautions.''
A RARE glimpse into the commercial heyday of the Grand Canal was afforded on Saturday afternoon last when the restored barge, 45M visited Pullough.

The heritage boat sank in Lough Derg in the 1940s and was painstakingly restored to its former grandeur by boating enthusiasts.

Tens of locals gathered on the canal side in Pullough to welcome the barge and her occupants who enjoyed refreshments outside the nearby Pull Inn.

Maeve Barry, who made the journey from Shannon Harbour to Pullough on the boat, said it was a fantastic trip.

She said at one farmhouse the barge passed by the owner said he was delighted to hear the sound of a Bolinder engine again.

Donal Boland said one of the objectives of the trip was to highlight the tourism potential of the Grand Canal and to entice more boats onto the stretch of the waterway between the Shannon and Tullamore.

We are trying to tie in with local committees along that stretch, said Mr Boland.

Also on board the 45M was Susie Coote whose father David was largely responsible for restoring the boat.

The 45M was built in 1928 by Vickers( Ireland) Limited and worked for only 17 years before she sank in Lough Derg in December 1946 with the loss of three of her crew.

She operated as a hack boat, sub-leased by Tom Moore of Carlow, for about two years during the "Emergency", as World War II was termed in Ireland, being used to carry sugar and general goods between Carlow and Dublin.

She was also used for the shipment of turf into the city. In November 1946 Christy "Copper" Cross was skipper with Jack Boland driving and Tony Brien as deckhand. They had left Dublin with a cargo of porter for Limerick. "Coppers" father was seriously ill and on meeting 61M at Lowtown he swapped jobs with "Red" Ned Boland for the week so he would be close to home.

Two days later on Sunday morning December 1st, 45M travelled down the lake from Portumna heading for Killaloe. The lake was fairly rough so they pulled into Kilgarvan. After a couple of hours, they decided to chance going on to Killaloe so they headed off again. Two hours later they pulled into Garrykennedy for shelter.

In the late afternoon 45M lit the lamp (started the engine) and once again headed off down the lake. After a short while another barge, the St James followed her on, eventually taking the 45M under tow. Opposite Parkers Point 45M was struck by a gale that passed over the lake. The high winds caused the cargo to shift. The tow rope snapped as large waves swept across the deck and the barge heeled over and sank. When she went down "Red" Ned Bolan, Jack Boland and Jimmy McGrath all died. Tony Brien swam to safety and was the only survivor. Jack Bolands body was recovered the next day on the shore, "Red "Neds body was found about three months later in Killaloe and Jimmy McGraths remains were never recovered. "Coppers" father also died that fatal day. 45M lay at rest for the next 29 years at the bottom of Lough Derg.

In 1975 after buying it from CIE for 20 Donnacha Kennedy salvaged 45M from where she rested in 80ft of water. When she was brought up from the bottom the general condition of the hull was beyond their dreams as a thin crust of lime formed over everything and when that was knocked off the original paint showed underneath. The Bolinder was started without a full dismantling or overhaul.

In 1976, David Coote bought 34M from Martin Winston with a view to restoring her to original working state. As Donnacha intended converting a hull and David restoring one, they agreed to swap and in March 1976 45M was sold to David Coote. She was moored at Hazelhatch for many years during her restoration, with the Bolinder being restored in the garage at home. Boat and engine were reunited in 1980 and she had her first voyage with her restored engine that year.

In the mid 80s she travelled back to Lough Derg to her current moorings near Killaloe. She has travelled between Lough Derg and the Grand Canal in the years since then.

45M has been made famous worldwide by the 1991 Waterways programme with Dick Warner.

More recently 45M has appeared in the BBC television series Three Men go to Ireland in 2009.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) can be prevented, and it can be stopped, so that millions of women and girls can enjoy a life to their fullest potential, said Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Women and girls continue to undergo the harmful practice, which may be present in more than 90 countries worldwide, Bachelet said in a video message during a high-level panel event on FGM at the Human Rights Council. The panel discussion focused on the importance of a multi-sectoral approach on ending the practice of FGM and the creation of bolder policies and programs to address FGM in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 200 million girls and women were victims of FGM and four million girls were at risk every year, she added.

However, the global pandemic is putting more women and girls at risk. Today, more than 20 million girls may never return to secondary school, which is known to reduce FGM, Bachelet said. The loss of jobs, school closures and income, as well as the shifting goals of policy makers and donors are increasing the risks of this oppressive practice, she added.

Unless the prevention and elimination of this harmful practice is prioritized and integrated in COVID-19 national response plans and humanitarian actions, many girls will be at a higher risk of undergoing FGM by 2030, Bachelet said.



In July 2020, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 44/16 on the elimination of female genital mutilation to speed up efforts to reach zero tolerance for FGM by 2030 and to restate the global ban on the harmful practice as it constitutes a serious violation of womens rights.

The number of women and girls mutilated every year globally could rise to 4.6 million by 2030 if the goal of zero tolerance isnt reached, said Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

While this may seem bleak, coordination among leaders in Governments and civil society has improved, Kanem explained.

We see multi-sectoral national plans with dedicated budget lines to address FGM, and legally mandated coordination mechanisms, like Kenyas anti-FGM board, Kanem said. The UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme also engages traditional and community leaders, religious authorities, parents, and others in positions of authority.

Kanem experienced this first-hand during her recent mission to Sudan when she met a leader known in her community as Mama Iqbal.

Mama Iqbal told Kanem: When we hear that a family intends to cut their daughters, we pack up our coffee cups and go talk to them.

This is what it will take to end FGM  more Mama Iqbals and other allies, including men and boys, working together in community after community, she said.

Roch Marc Christian Kabore, President of Burkina Faso, urged all States to make a universal commitment to prioritize the fight against FGM in their national projects and programs. In a video message, Kabore pushed for allocating sufficient financial resources and utilizing global inter-organizational initiatives that promote zero tolerance by 2030.

As a way of improving these mechanisms and gathering more information on this progress where FGM is more widespread, Amira Elfadil Mohammed Elfadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), promoted the strengthening of reporting and accountability. In 2019, the AUC, did just this, launching the African Union Saleema Initiative on Female Genital Mutilation to mobilize resources, action, monitoring, reporting and accountability.

Investments such as the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme are lending critical capacity support needed to move this forward  with ending gender-based violence, harmful practices and strengthening human rights action taking center stage, Elfadil said.

In Indonesia, more than half of FGM practices occurs before a girl reaches 4 months old, said Bahrud Fuad, Commissioner at the National Commission on Violence against Women of Indonesia.

FGM is viewed as a religious requirement and a rite of passage, Fuad said. Medicalization of FGM has resulted in greater harm to girls due to the use of more invasive surgical techniques.

To address these challenges, the Government built the capacities of ministries and created an advocacy coalition with religious leaders, academics, and civil society organizations, Fuad added.

While its vital to engage all of these experts, any multi-stakeholder rights-based and gender responsive approach should involve girls and women, Bachelet said. A comprehensive approach, she added, is to consider how the practice is linked to discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes, as well as intersecting forms of discrimination and other root causes of gender inequality.

The silence must be broken  all voices must be heard, all realities known. We must act united against this dreadful practice, Bachelet said.

1 July 2021


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Damage to Childrens Education  And Their Health  Could Last a Lifetime
How One Rural Town Without a Pharmacy Is Crowdsourcing to Get Meds
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

Venture capital interest in Canadian start-ups, particularly tech, has skyrocketed in 2021, drawing capital from both domestic and foreign investors, said a report.

According to Preqin, so far this year, more than $6.2bn has been invested in Canada-based portfolio companies, adding some momentum to a trend that temporarily flatlined in 2020.

"Average deal value in Canada has spiked in the first half of 2021. This is consistent with the global deals trend and that of its southern neighbor, although with fewer deals and higher entry prices," said Charles McGrath, Senior Writer, Preqin

Behind these transactions are predominantly tech-focused software, internet, and cybersecurity companies, which were involved in many of the top deals and remain the chief drivers of venture capital-backed innovation in Canada.

According to the report, software companies in Canada received $2.6bn in funding through most of the first half of the year, already $600mn more than in 2020, but via less than half the number of total transactions. Similar trends characterized internet tech and cybersecurity companies, with the latter noting a significant bump this year.

"This isn't new for tech in Canada. Software companies have led other industries in outside investment for several years, and by a wide margin," Charles pointed out.

In each of the past five years, software and internet companies assumed an annual average of 49% of all venture capit......................

To view our full article Click here
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

The Chicago-based midmarket-focused Vistria Group has wrapped up its largest-ever buyout fund with $2.68 billion and is raising money for a new private-credit strategy.

The private investment firm's latest buyout vehicle, Vistria Fund IV LP, is more than twice the size of its $1.1 billion predecessor and easily exceeded a $1.5 billion target.

Vistria's principals and operating partners committed $180 million to the fund. Investors in the current fund include the $53.1 billion Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Oak Brook.

"Consistent with its predecessor funds, Fund IV will seek to invest in U.S.-based healthcare, education, and financial services companies that can benefit from the firm's deep network, operating expertise, and policy perspectives," said a press release from the company.

"If you look at our track record and the amount of co-investment we have generated and the size of our team, this fund size isn't a huge leap," said Marty Nesbitt, a Vistria co-founder, co-chairman, and co-chief executive.

"The launch of Fund IV extends a remarkable period of growth and transformation at Vistria. Over the last 12 months, the firm has exited several investments while investing in seven new platforms and adding ten new members to the Vistria team," said the release.

Vistria now manages more than $6.5 billion in institutional capital across its funds and co-investment vehicles.

Kip Kirkpatrick,Vistria Co-Founder, and Se......................

To view our full article Click here
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California, July 01, 2021 - The Writer Hub, a prominent writing services forum, recently launched their USA Independence campaign announcing a 70% discount on all services. According to the board of directors, the offer will last on July 5, 2021, and has aimed to provide productive services to all its current customers and potential newcomers. This initiative is mainly designed for the convenience of the customers who are more likely 
Sen. Chuck Grassley speaks with Sioux City businesswoman Charese Yanney Wednesday morning during a visit to the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce for a Q-and-A with members of the Sioux City Growth Organization and Summer in Siouxland.
CELINA [mdash] Doyle Eugene Brittain Doyle Eugene Brittain was called to the lord on Wednesday, June 9th of 2021 in Mckinney, Texas. Doyle was born in Sigourney, Iowa and one of six children to the late Alfred and Bertha Brittain. His late siblings were Verle, Orbie, Eldon, Ruby, and Vera. H
In this Dec. 8, 2017 file photo, the Hubbard House apartments are shown after they were vacated by an emergency order that condemned the building. Now with a different owner, a grant has been awarded to help fix the building.
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Midland residents Angela Griffin and Michelle Vangilder opened Sassy & Chic Boutique at 1 p.m. Wednesday at 4987 Eastman Ave., Midland.

Griffin and Vangilder, both single mothers themselves, met when their youngest children were in preschool together. They said their friendship turned into a business partnership and now, they are opening up their location to share with the community.

The co-owners said they want to help single and working moms in Midland by promoting their products at Sassy & Chic or offering products to serve this demographic.

Surrounded by other businesses in the strip mall, the partners hope to bring an affordable shopping experience to single and working mothers in the Midland community.

Sassy & Chic Boutique is a small business trying to help promote other small businesses.

It's important to us because we are single moms and just knowing that we're helping someone out the same way people that come here to shop are helping us out, Griffin said. We're buying from people and selling here, so we're helping them out as well. It's just kind of like that small business cycle.

In their shop, the co-owners said they are trying to create an affordable shopping environment where women in Midland feel comfortable and cozy.

The boutique features items from clothing, jewelry and sandals to popcorn, soap and table coasters. Griffin said a majority of the items are from small businesses, other products are from American wholesalers who hand-make their products.

The Sassy & Chic owners are planning on holding livestreams on their Facebook page to show new inventory and try on clothing items for potential customers.

The brick and mortar launch came one month after the co-owners secured the Agora Square suite. Vangilder said the boutique began online with the goal of opening a physical location. Vangilder said together, the partners worked up to 10 hours a day to make the June 30 launch happen.

Its just a good location on a busy road and we're also on a strip (mall), Vangilder said. We got nails, we've got hair people, and we've got a nutrition shop (next door) so, it's kind of a ladies strip.

The Sassy & Chic Boutique will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. On weekends, community members can book an appointment or place an inquiry to hold a party hosted by the shop.

The owners are planning on collaborating with business neighbors, Sassy & Chic Boutique already worked with a few businesses to package gift bags for an opening day giveaway raffle.

In the future, the co-owners said they are going to work with other businesses in the area for more community events. The business is working with Soeur Group for a pop-up event at the Ashman Circle.

The Soeur Group houses small businesses on the Ashman Circle in Midland, with the goal of supporting businesses.

The Soeur Group is holding weekly Saturday pop-up events to feature small and home-based businesses. Alex Brothers with the Soeur Group said on July 10, the group will feature Sassy & Chic Boutique for a pop-up event in the Ashman Circle.
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Over the past four to five years, gypsy moth populations have displayed an upward trend across Michigan. Local experts say Midland County has been largely spared until remnant populations experienced ideal growth conditions in 2020.

Neal Swanson is the Midland County Gypsy Moth Suppression program manager at Aquatic Consulting Services. He said compared to last year, there are gypsy moth infestations wide and far.

Its an unprecedented cycle not seen since the original infestation in the late 80s (to) early 90s, were getting a lot of reports that this is similar across the state to that original infestation, Swanson said.

In Midland County, the Gypsy Moth Suppression program is working to reduce the population in local communities. Swanson said the program cannot prevent an infestation. He said the program is designed to catch populations as the invasive species comes up and spray to contain and reduce the population.

The program is monitoring rapidly rising populations within local townships. Swanson said the highest populations are in Lee and southern Jerome Township out of the county. He said Lee Township is currently experiencing the highest wide-spread population.

Swanson said other townships with a gypsy moth population include: Greendale, Geneva, Homer, Porter, Hope, Mills, Warren and Larkin townships. He said the program has received at least one report within Jasper and Mt. Haley townships.

According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, gypsy moth caterpillars defoliate trees, leaving trees vulnerable to diseases and other pests, which may lead to tree mortality. During large outbreaks, the DNR said debris and frass from feeding caterpillars can be disruptive to outdoor activities.

The Midland County Gypsy Moth Suppression Program began in 1986 with treatment in response to a massive defoliation in which nearly one-third of the county's forest cover was eaten by the pests. Now, the county-wide program operates by rotating off-season egg mass surveys with targeted spraying.

We do egg mass surveys in the fall and that determines the areas that will be treated in the upcoming spring, Swanson said. There is still a possibility of caterpillars even after we spray.

The program follows an Integrated Pest Management approach, intended to curtail population expansions to tolerable levels, preserving trees, using environmentally conscious treatments in targeted areas. This approach reduces disturbance to the environment, and ensures funds are retained for times when more aggressive action is necessary.

The countys program is contracted to Aquatic Consulting Services, a leader in the gypsy moth industry in Michigan, and funded through a millage approved by Midland County voters.

In an editorial written by Swanson published in the Midland Daily News, he said the countys Gypsy Moth Fund reserves money for the sole purpose of gypsy moth suppression, and it is replenished only as needed. Many years, no millage is levied due to low operating costs. Swanson said if the fund does become depleted though, a portion of the millage may be levied to keep the program going.

He said in recent years, only one-third to one-half of the millage has been needed to keep the populations in check. However, Swanson said over the next two years, a larger portion of the millage will need to be levied in-order to respond aggressively to observed population trends.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  An 1854 letter hinting at Abraham Lincoln's transition from prairie legislator to political powerhouse, donated to the state of Illinois, was unveiled Thursday at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The short missive, which a scholar once labeled in a sense, the most interesting document Lincoln ever wrote, explains his decision not to return to the Illinois House of Representatives so that he could remain viable for the U.S. Senate. The choice opened the door to the White House and Lincoln's preservation of the nation during the Civil War.

Lincoln wrote it at a pivotal time in his life. Would he focus on the law or make a return to politics?" Lincoln library and museum executive director Christina Shutt said. "His decision changed history, so its appropriate for this letter to find a home at the library and museum dedicated to telling the story of Lincolns impact on the world.

On Nov. 27, 1854, the circuit-riding attorney wrote friend and Peoria attorney Elihu N. Powell: Acting on your advice, and my own judgment, I have declined accepting the office of Representative of this county. He was responding to Powell's earlier reminder that service in the state House would prohibit an 1855 Senate run.

Capitol Hill was where Lincoln knew he needed to be to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the 1854 brainchild of Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas allowing residents of newly established territories to decide whether to allow slavery. It included would-be northern states, thus turning on its head the key theme of three decades of compromise on the issue between North and South. Lincoln at the time was not an abolitionist but virulently opposed expansion of slavery.

Lincoln withdrew from the 1855 campaign but his legendary, if failed, 1858 battle to replace Democrat Douglas catapulted the lanky lawyer into the national spotlight and the White House two years later.

The letter also broaches his inevitable departure from the Whig Party, whose unsettled stance on slavery accelerated its demise. Nonetheless, he fretted over the Anti-Nebraska movement's radical stance on the issue, writing, I fear some will insist on a platform, which I can not stand upon.

Fittingly, the letter was donated by Guy Fraker, a lawyer and Lincoln collector from Bloomington, 135 miles (217 kilometers) south of Chicago. It was in Bloomington that Lincoln debuted his Republican leanings at the party's 1856 convention. He closed the proceedings with a rousing indictment of slavery in an oration which came to be known as the Lost Speech, so called, some say, because reporters were so enthralled they failed to transcribe it.

Those of us who have been lucky enough to serve as caretakers for Lincoln letters and artifacts have an obligation to ensure they will be shared with the public for generations to come, said Fraker, author of Lincoln's Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth Judicial Circuit.

An office in Bloomington's courthouse square is also where Carl Sandburg, in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln biography, says Jesse Fell, who founded Bloomington's twin city of Normal and Illinois State University, suggested Lincoln reach for the brass ring in 1860.

The letters depiction of Lincolns metamorphosis prompted the most interesting document characterization by Paul Angle, a Lincoln scholar and historian of the Illinois State Historical Library from 1932 to 1945.

Lincoln served in the Illinois House from 1834 to 1842. In 1846 he was elected to serve one unremarkable term in Congress. He returned to his adopted town of Springfield and a lucrative law career. As a favor to an ally, he ran for and won an Illinois House seat in 1854 before deciding his future was elsewhere.

The letter will be displayed in the museum's Treasures Gallery for one month beginning July 7, replacing the current exhibit featuring the Emancipation Proclamation.

___

Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor
WCMU Public Medias flagship television magazine show Destination Michigan was awarded three 2021 Michigan EMMYs by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter during a virtual award ceremony on June 19. WCMU received wins in the following categories: Magazine Program, Video Journalist and Photographer  Long Form Content.

The WCMU TV production team is proud to be acknowledged by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter, stated Television Production Manager and Executive Producer Chris Ogozaly. We take tremendous pride in telling the phenomenal stories that Michiganders share with us.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin.

Tuesday, June 29

8:36 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched with Michigan State Police for an unwanted person at a Jasper Township residence. The deputy was disregarded by the trooper upon arrival.

6:31 p.m.  Officers responded to a case of domestic violence on West Allen Street.

11:25 a.m.  A citizen flagged down a deputy in the City of Coleman about a dog in a vehicle on Railway Street. When the deputy checked on the vehicle, the owner was walking up to it. The 80-year-old man advised he had just walked into the coffee shop. The window was cracked and there was water in the vehicle as well. The dogs appeared fine and the interior of the vehicle was not hot. He was spoken to about safety precautions for the dogs when the temperatures are warm.

11:08 a.m.  A Warren Township couple came to the Law Enforcement Center because over the past two weeks they have had three incidents of possible trespassing from unknown individuals. They wanted to make the Midland County Sheriff's Office aware. A deputy handled the report and offered suggestions.

9:44 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a park and ride in Edenville Township for a vehicle that looked like it was involved in a crash and had been parked in the same spot for a long period of time. The deputy contacted the 61-year-old male vehicle owner and he is making arrangements to get the vehicle towed away.

9:43 a.m.  A 33-year-old Mount Pleasant woman was stopped for speeding in Lee Township. The woman was cited for no insurance on the vehicle and given a warning for the speed and expired plate. The report is also being sent to the Midland County Prosecutor's Office.

1:03 a.m.  Officers responded to an OWI in the area of East Hines and Rodd streets.

12:44 a.m.  Officers responded to an OWI in the area of South Saginaw Road and Eastlawn Drive.

12:36 a.m.  A deputy stopped a 32-year-old male for speeding in Lincoln Township. The male was cited for no insurance and speeding. The male's vehicle was towed by Coles Towing. The male was given a ride to a residence in Gladwin County where he was temporarily staying.

Monday, June 28:

11:17 p.m.  Deputies were sent to Lee Township for a verbal argument between a 20-year-old male and his mom's boyfriend. There was no assault between the males and the 20-year-old agreed to spend the night in a camper on the property.

9:11 p.m. Officers responded to a traffic license violation in the area of Isabell Street and Albee Lane.

8:48 p.m.  A deputy spoke with a 29-year-old Edenville Township male regarding a property line dispute with his neighbor (brother). The male had questions regarding installing a gate/fence and stated he was going to handle the issue civilly with his brother. The complainant requested a report to document the issues.

8:44 p.m.  A deputy responded to an 83-year-old male's home after some siding and their A/C unit was damaged. The man suspects it was a neighbor dog, however he is unsure of what animal might have done this. The man requested that the neighbors are contacted about their dogs that also run loose. The neighbors were educated about dog laws.

4:50 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Porter Township residence for a well-being check on a 21-year-old male. The male had been speaking with his probation officer over the phone when he made a suicidal statement. When the deputy contacted the man, he advised he was not suicidal at this time but was struggling with his emotions. The man was voluntarily transported to CMH where he was evaluated for services.

11:38 a.m.  Deputies assisted Saginaw County with a warrant arrest. Saginaw requested deputies find a 25-year-old female and arrest her for an outstanding warrant. The female was located and was placed under arrest for Saginaw. The female was transported to a meeting spot in Freeland and turned over to Saginaw County Sheriff's deputies.

9:45 a.m. Officers responded to a vehicle crash on Airport Road.

3:55 a.m.  Deputies responded to an assisted living home in Ingersoll Township regarding a 19-year-old Ingersoll Township male who sustained minor injuries from an outburst. The male was transported to the Mid-Michigan Medical Center emergency room by ambulance per the request of his mother.

7:43 a.m. Officers responded to a case of larceny in East Reardon and George streets.

2:29 a.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a Warren Township residence regarding a 13-year-old female telling a friend that she wanted to overdose on pills. Deputies made contact with the 13-year-old female and her 44-year-old mother. The female stated she was not suicidal, but that she was depressed and said those things for attention. The mother stated she would have a conversation with the juvenile.
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - Travellers entering Guinea will henceforth be subjected to strict control of their Covid-19 PCR test results following the circulation of new variants in nany countries, the National Health Security Agency (ANSS) announced on Wednesday
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libyan Interior Minister Khaled Mazen has called on security services to counter new methods of drug trafficking, stressing that the rise of this trade has become a threat to national security
BLOOMINGTON  Three northern Illinois residents were released from the McLean County jail Thursday on burglary and theft charges.

Devonte Bryant, 23, of Chicago; Craig O. Harrington, 22, of Chicago; and Ayana I. Johnson, 23, of Algonquin, are accused by police of using counterfeit $100 bills on Tuesday to purchase pre-paid debit cards at several Walgreens and CVS stores in Bloomington-Normal.

Bryant is charged with three counts of burglary and three counts of theft; Harrington is charged with four counts of burglary and two counts of theft; and Johnson is charged with one count each of burglary and theft.

Bryant is accused of purchasing pre-paid debit cards and other items using counterfeit $100 bills at CVS, 100 S. Fell Ave., Normal; Walgreens, 505 W. Raab Road, Normal; and Walgreens, 1502 Fort Jesse Road, Normal.

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Harrington is accused of using counterfeit $100 bills at CVS, 100 S. Fell Ave., Normal; Walgreens, 1502 Fort Jesse Road, Normal; and Walgreens 1408 N. Main St., Bloomington, where he was confronted by an employee and Harrington fled the building. Officers located him outside Walgreens, 1525 N. Veterans Parkway, Normal, where he was arrested, prosecutors said.

Johnson is accused of paying for two pre-paid debit cards with two $100 counterfeit bills at Walgreens, 505 W. Raab Road, Normal.

Bryant and Harrington were released from custody on $20,000 personal recognizance bonds. Johnson was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.

Arraignments are scheduled for July 16.

Booking photos were not immediately available.

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BLOOMINGTON  A jury trial is set for a Country Club Hills man accused of having a role in a 2019 fatal shooting in Bloomington.

Amari M. McNabb, 22, appeared in court Thursday with his lawyer, Edward Johnson, of Chicago, agreeing with McLean County states attorneys they are ready for trial.

McNabb was charged in June 2019 with three counts of murder, one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of mob action in connection to an April 2019 shooting that killed Bloomington man, Juan Nash, 25.

Bloomington police were called to the 1200 block of Orchard Road on April 2, 2019 for reports of shots fired at an outdoor party.

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Scotty A. Allen, 21, of Bloomington, was sentenced to 50 years in prison, and Exodus R. Hebert, 20, of Bloomington, was sentenced to 20 years on murder charges for their involvements in the shooting.

Nash was found unresponsive with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle that had struck a parked car and a residence in the 1600 block of Wildwood Road, about two blocks from the scene.

McLean County Assistant States Attorney Aaron Fredrick and Ashley Scarborough are the assigned prosecutors on the case.

McNabb is due in court July 22 for a final pre-trial hearing before a jury is selected July 26.

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CHICAGO  A man charged with the murder of his mother and accused of fleeing to Grundy County with the body in the front passenger seat of a car, covered in cardboard, told police and paramedics he suffocated her, authorities said.

The killing happened around 5 a.m. Monday in the 100 block of West Delaware Place in the Near North Side neighborhood, where the Hollimans shared an apartment, prosecutors said.

At a bond hearing Wednesday streamed on YouTube, Cook County Judge Arthur Wesley Willis ordered Holliman held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Notes between Marc Holliman and his mother found in their apartment indicated that he was forging checks in his name from his mothers account, according to prosecutors.

The day of the killing, Juanita Holliman was sleeping on the apartments living room couch when her son took her cane and pressed it across her neck, cutting off her air supply until she died, according to Assistant States Attorney James Murphy.

Marc Holliman then wrapped his mothers body in a bedsheet, carried her downstairs and is seen on video surveillance around 5:20 a.m. dragging a heavy object into the passenger seat of his car. He then covered the body with folded cardboard boxes.

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Marc Holliman then drove to a Dwight gas station. Dwight Police were dispatched to the gas station, and Holliman started to describe a theft from his car, but then declined assistance from police, prosecutors said.

The officer returned to his car and Marc Holliman approached him, scissors in hand, and asked if the officer would shoot him if he ran toward the officer with the scissors above his head. The officer tried to calm him and Marc Holliman got back in his car, according to Murphy.

A second Dwight officer joined the first and they watched Marc Holliman for about 30 minutes as he drove back and forth between a gas station across the street and the one where he initially stopped, according to Murphy.

Marc Holliman approached the officers again and they noticed his wrists were bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. He again asked the officers to shoot him.

The officers called an ambulance and one of them got Marc Hollimans permission to turn his car off and lock it. When the officer went to remove the keys from the ignition, he noticed Juanita Hollimans body in the passenger seat.

Holliman was handcuffed and as paramedics treated his wounds he told them he suffocated his mother. He later told Grundy County and Chicago police detectives she was sick and in pain and he had suffocated her after she had asked him to kill her.

Juanita Hollimans daughter, Marc Hollimans sister, disputed what he said, telling detectives she visited Chicago in May and texted her mother daily and her mother showed no suicidal inclinations, Murphy said.

Officials found Juanita Hollimans cane in the home after obtaining a search warrant, Murphy said. They did not find a suicide note.

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U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon was one of two House Republicans to vote Wednesday to support Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosis plan to create a special House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The measure establishing the panel was approved on a 222-190 vote and serves as a fallback after earlier House efforts to establish a bipartisan commission were quashed by Senate Republicans. As a House panel, no action by the Senate or White House is needed.

Watch now: Rep. Dan Brady continues to explore run for Illinois Secretary of State Brady is wading out of his comfort zone by exploring a run for Illinois secretary of state, an office being vacated by the retiring Jesse White.

Kinzinger and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming were the only Republicans to vote for the creation of the panel. Both were among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over his role in the insurrection, which came as the House was convening to certify Joe Bidens win in the presidential election.

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Like Cheney, Kinzinger also voted for the earlier independent commission legislation. Kinzinger said he backed the House select committee alternative because we need a full accounting of what happened.

We need answers on who was involved in the insurrection and who played a role in orchestrating it. We need transparency and truth, Kinzinger said in a statement.

I voted in support of the select committee because the truth matters, because it is our duty to conduct a thorough investigation of this most egregious attack on the Capitol, because the American people  and especially the families of our brave law enforcement on the front lines that day  deserve answers, he said.

Kinzinger, who has sharply criticized Trump for perpetuating a false narrative that the election was stolen, said that with the number of conspiracy theories being perpetuated by media outlets and spreading wildly online, we have to push back with the facts and ensure what happened on Jan. 6 never happens again.

Under the measure, Pelosi will name 13 House members to the panel, with five appointed after consultation with House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. Pelosi, however, has said she will have veto power over McCarthys suggestions.

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Beginning Oct. 1, criminal defendants in Illinois will once again be able to effectively invoke their right to a speedy trial, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered Wednesday.

The states highest court last year ordered that speedy trial deadlines could be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ordinarily, defendants can formally demand trial, at which point prosecutors have a specific time frame in which they must bring them to trial or the case is dismissed.

Wednesdays order restores those time frames, effective Oct. 1.

In addition, the higher court ordered Wednesday that individual county court systems are now able to determine their own social distancing guidelines or eliminate them entirely, as the pandemic appears to wane.

But it is the speedy trial issue that has caused much uncertainty among attorneys, judges and defendants alike. The restored deadlines will again give defendants significant leverage to take cases to trial.

Some defense attorneys at the Leighton Criminal Court Building have attempted to formally demand trial on behalf of their clients during the pandemic, only to be told by judges that their demands have no teeth due to the state Supreme Courts orders.

A spokesperson for Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans office could not immediately be reached for comment on how Wednesdays orders might affect county courts.

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Acknowledging the federal governments role in decades of systemic discrimination in agriculture, Congress in March approved $5 billion in debt forgiveness for farmers of color as part of President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

In response, some white farmers are suing the Biden administration for racial discrimination  not for having discriminated against farmers of color but for making an effort to address historic inequalities.

The lawsuit, launched by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, claims that dedicating resources to specific groups to which white farmers may not belong, is racist. The suit, similar to one filed in Texas, alleges that the white farmers are victims of racism.

On June 10, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a temporary restraining order halting the program.

Yet Wisconsin provides a good example of how systemic racism has put Black farmers at a disadvantage. In addition to discrimination in housing, education and employment, the states Black farmers were historically denied loans because of the color of their skin.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines socially disadvantaged farmers as producers who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group. The agency has dispersed more than 500 grants totaling more than $138 million to disadvantaged farmers since 1994.

Pete Daniel, in his book Dispossession: Discrimination Against African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights, documents how Black farmers lost their operations at a disproportionate rate when compared to their white counterparts. They were systematically denied loans or not provided adequate information on how they could benefit from New Deal-era programs.

A 1999 federal court ruling, Pigford v. Glickman, sent about $1 billion to individual farmers who had experienced racial discrimination by the USDA. Similar victories were won by Latinx farmers in Garcia v. Vilsack and Native American farmers in Keepseagle v. Vilsack.

Other groups, including veterans and women, have also received special attention, but these did not lead to lawsuits on behalf of excluded whites, who are now falsely being portrayed as victims by political conservatives.

Moreover, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has noted, When you look at the COVID relief plans that had been passed and distributed by USDA [in 2020], and you look at who disproportionately received the benefits of those COVID payments, its pretty clear that white farmers did pretty well. One analysis found that white farmers received 97% of the money dispersed in the first of two pandemic relief programs last year.

If those responsible for these lawsuits cared about agriculture and rural communities, they would back the farmers of color, as well as bills introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to provide debt relief for small operators, by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to strengthen the nations antitrust laws, or by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to place a moratorium on Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

Racism in agriculture is a historic fact that must be confronted directly. There is no anti-white racism involved in Bidens debt relief proposal, only an attempt to address decades of institutional discrimination so that the rural United States can take a step in the right direction.

Anthony Pahnke is the vice president of the Family Farm Defenders and assistant professor of international relations at San Francisco State University. Jim Goodman is an emeritus organic dairy farmer from Wonewoc, Wisconsin and board president of the National Family Farm Coalition.

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Photo: (Photo : Constance Bannister Corp/Getty Images)

New legislation directing the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to craft new guidelines mandating furniture makers to design sturdy dressers and cabinets to prevent furniture tip-over accidents has been approved by the House of Representatives.

The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act has received bipartisan support from lawmakers since the deliberations for the legislation started in 2019.

The majority agreed that the safety standards for furniture must be in place following the number of accidents, injuries, and deaths involving children who had furniture falling on them. The bill is now moving to the Senate, which shall begin its deliberation.

A Tragic Data

Data from the CPSC revealed that 451 children in the United States died due to furniture tip-over accidents between 2000 to 2019. Since 2017, an average of 11,300 children received treatments and emergency hospital care for tip-over-related injuries.

Read Also: Homebuilding Expert Offers Take on New Construction vs Existing Home Debate

The data also showed that many parents are not aware of the dangers of furniture tip-over accidents and that 96 percent of consumers believe that dressers and cabinets selling for more than $75 are of high-quality safety standard, which has not been the case.

Mom Kimberly Amato, who is part of the advocacy group Parents Against Tip-Overs, said that she wants parents to be aware of the furniture they buy, regardless of the price or brand name. In 2004, Amato lost her 3-year-old daughter, Meghan, after a dresser fell over her while the rest of the family was still sound asleep.

After Meghan's death, Amato has been staunchly advocating for the protection of consumers and has been active with the CPSC's campaigns. Before the passing of this new legislation, there were never any mandatory standards for manufacturers to comply with to prevent tip-over accidents.

A Lifesaving Bill

"This lifesaving bill has the support of parents, pediatricians, safety advocates, and even major companies in the furniture industry," Consumer Report analyst Gabe night said in an article on Motherly. Knight added that a vote to pass this bill into law signals the intent of lawmakers to keep American homes safer and protected from tragedy.

Related Article: How Do You Choose the Right Home Furniture?

Apart from the mandatory safety guidelines, the STURDY Act will also direct furniture makers to prominently indicate the risks of tip-overs in their products. They will also have to include anchors for their dressers and cabinets to keep the furniture in place. According to the CPSC, only 27 percent of furniture makers currently provide anchors.

In response to the tip-over cases, Ikea, the Swedish furniture maker, announced in January 2021 that it would require shoppers buying their dressers and cabinets in the U.S. to mount the furniture on the wall. Ikea will also ask for the names and email addresses of the customers to verify if they need further guidance on mounting.

It comes as most tip-over cases involved Ikea furniture, according to USA Today. In 2016, the furniture company had to pull out over 17 million units of its popular Malm cabinets for its safety hazards.

Meanwhile, Ikea is a respondent in an ongoing class-action lawsuit in the U.S. for its "deadly dressers."
Photo: (Photo : Sopa Images/Getty Images)

As vaccinations have been ramping up, schools in the United States are preparing to re-open full-time in-person classes in the fall of 2021. However, a survey has revealed that the majority of teenagers are anxious about coming back to class.

The poll, conducted by Navigate 360 and John Zogby Strategies, showed that 54 percent of students between the ages of 16 and 17 are not prepared to return to the classroom. In comparison, only 31 percent said they do not feel anxious about resuming traditional in-person classes.

Some 304 students answered the survey online on March 25, while another survey involving 1,005 adults was also facilitated on the same day. While the teens expressed anxiety about coming back, at least 58 percent of the adults said they felt optimistic about the students returning to in-person classes in the fall.

Anxiety and Social Pressures

The study also showed that the teenagers' anxieties stem from social pressures and bullying in school. Of the students polled, 59 percent said that they are aware of a peer who has thought about suicide or self-harm, while 49 percent said they had been bullied for their sexual orientation, race, and family income status. On the other hand, 34 percent of the adults surveyed have confidence that teenagers can handle the social pressures in school.

READ ALSO: How To Decrease Suicide Risk in Teens

The students also felt less confident than the adults in handling emergency incidents, especially in life-threatening situations while on the school premises.

At least 52 percent of the teen respondents said that they want school curriculums to focus on their social and emotional health and deliver essential training to develop their life skills.

Hasten Academic Recovery

As education experts said, a return to in-person classes is necessary to hasten the students' academic recovery following the COVID-19 crisis. Many kids have not only fallen behind in their school work, but a return to classes could also help address the social and emotional fallout of virtual learning. Some students thrive in the flexibility of online learning, but there are also kids whose learning experience changed drastically due to the remote classes.

"There's no replacement for in-person learning," Department of Education acting assistant deputy secretary Ian Rosenblum told USA Today following the release of a $122 billion COVID-19 recovery funding to help schools re-open or to continue their operations in the virtual environment.

However, some parents and experts are not entirely sold on putting the kids back to school without a clear plan.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said in an interview with CNBC that school re-opening could become "vectors of these new variants" as students have yet to get their COVID-19 vaccine.

He added that while the risk of fatality is lower among students, virus transmission could become an epidemic in schools.

"Smart schools are going to start the school year with some form of mitigation until they figure out which way this goes," Gottlieb said.

Related Article: How to Spot Burnout in Children
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J.R. Martin was born on September 20, 1937 in Deenton, Oklahoma to James Woods Martin and Lola (Frachiseur) Martin. He passed away on Sunday, June 27, 2021 at his home in Foster at the age of 83 years.
Marine specialist services provider AMSOL Ghana was recently awarded a contract by Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) that will further support continued indigenisation in the sector and the extension of the companys services in marine and offshore fuel logistics and transportation. The relationship between GOIL and AMSOL Ghana is underpinned by a master service agreement signed in 2018, targeted at offering world-class solutions tailored to their value proposition through a partnership approach.



The tanker Clenston will deliver Marine Gas Oil on behalf of GOIL to international oil companies (IOCs) as well as clients in the fishing industry. Tanker operations to high international standards require effective risk management to efficiently execute the scope of work to international oil industry standards by ensuring no impact on the environment and the health and safety of all personnel. AMSOL Ghana complies with all relevant codes and conventions which govern the maritime sector.



The crew on the Clenston were recently taken through an induction process by the Chief Executive and Director of AMSOL Ghana, Mr Kojo Quainoo. This was aimed at ensuring that the policies and protocols of AMSOL Ghana were well understood and adhered to in order to meet the expectations of the company and its partner GOIL.



Mr Quainoo, in his address to the crew and the delegation from GOIL, highlighted the importance of the partnership:



With a requirement for the transportation and delivery of marine fuel, GOIL has entrusted AMSOL Ghana with providing a world class service out of Tema. This has been an opportunity to provide employment for Ghanaian seafarers and further develop AMSOL Ghanas competency in marine and offshore fuel logistics and transportation.



Mr Quainoo further stated that AMSOL Ghana believed strongly in local content and local participation and was committed to engaging local personnel and seafarers with relevant experience and competence to deliver solutions which meet international standards.



Mr Quainoo was joined onboard the Clenston by the AMSOL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Maclons, and the Fleet Management Executive of AMSOL, Mr Graham Dreyden.

Mr Maclons on the exciting partnership with GOIL:



Growing capacity in AMSOL Ghana, which is an emerging enterprise in the local maritime industry, and the expansion of AMSOLs footprint in the region supports our growth strategy and we are grateful to GOIL for the opportunity for AMSOL Ghana to provide this essential service.



The commencement of this contract represents the achievement of a strategic objective for the AMSOL Group that also has operations in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.



AMSOL Ghana is 51% Ghanaian owned and ensures the continued development of local marine skills and employment in this specialist sector, primarily in support of the Oil & Gas industry. AMSOL is a market leader in the provision of specialist marine services and operates and owns 19 vessels. Part of the value proposition is the operation and maintenance of Single Point Mooring Systems and Offshore Terminals.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has said prices of fuel will appreciate marginally at the pumps. A statement issued by IES indicated that the price of fuel on the local market increased within the window under review.



Within the first pricing window of June 2021, majority of the oil marketing companies (OMCs) increased their prices of petroleum products by 3% at the pump. Based on this increase, the current national average price of fuel per litre at the pump is pegged at GHS5.97 for both gasoline and gasoil.



For this pricing window, Zen Petroleum, Benab Oil, Cash Oil, Goodness Oil, Top Oil and Frimps Oil sold the least-priced fuel on the local market, according to IES market scan.



For the window under assessment, international benchmark Brent crude price averaged $73.98 per barrel, representing a 4.05% increase from the previous window's average price of $71.10 per barrel.



This windows increase in price has been largely in response to the rise in COVID-19 cases propelled by the Delta variant in parts of Europe and amid warnings of a dense outbreak in the United States.



For the first time in two years, the price of Brent reached the $75-mark at the end of the pricing window. The global crude demand is rebounding as the summer driving season begins and economies reopen from restrictions in mobility.



This is particularly the case, as road and airline travel continue to increase.



The increase in Brent crude prices has also been attributed to the tightening of the physical crude supply in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as a result of the dynamics in spread between the regional benchmarks within the period.



The July 1st OPEC+ meeting to decide on the production policy for August is also expected to offset the markets, as we go into the month of July.



Gasoline and gasoil prices, as monitored on Standard and Poors global Platts platform, show that the prices of international commodities gasoline (petrol) and gasoil (diesel) experienced marginal differences within the period.



Gasoline saw an increase in price by 3.47% to close the window at $694.78 per metric tonne from an earlier $671.45 per metric tonne in the previous window.



Gasoil price also increased by 3.53% to close trading at $597.30 per metric tonne from the earlier window's price of $576.89 per metric tonne. Data collated by IES Economic Desk from the Foreign Exchange (Forex) market shows the cedi maintained its stability, still trading at GH5.77 to the US dollar.





Source: Daily Guide









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The Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen has described Ghanas partnership with Toyota Tsuho as a game-changer after the official commissioning of the program.



Mr. Kyerematen led a team of high-powered government delegation to commission the ultramodern assembling plant for Toyota vehicles under the Tsuho Manufacturing firm.



The latest technological partnership, the third after Volkswagen Ghana and Kantanka Automobile Industries, is expected to help reduce import figures by a considerable percentage.



Speaking at the official commissioning ceremony, the Trade Minister highlighted the economical benefits of the partnership as part of five major reasons behind the deal.



The governments decision to establish automobile industry in Ghana was to achieve some strategic objectives which include the following; to establish a fully integrated and competitive industrial hub for automotive assembling in collaboration with the private sector; to generate highly skilled jobs in automotive assembly and the manufacture of components and parts, with spillover effects into other sectors of the economy; and to establish an asset-based vehicle financing scheme for locally assembled vehicles to ensure affordability for vehicle buyers;



Again, government seeks to improve balance of payments through competitive import substitution and export market development; and improve vehicle safety and environmental standards; as well as transform the quality of the national road transport fleet and safeguard the natural environment, he explained.



On the potential benefits Ghana stands to gain from the partnership, the Sector Minister described the latest deal as a step in the right direction.



Ghana imports over 100,000 vehicles per annum, which makes motor vehicles among the leading imported commodities into the country, accounting for about 15% of the annual import bill. The development of the automotive industry in Ghana, therefore, is a game-changer for the Ghanaian economy aimed at significantly reducing our import bills and contributes towards improving the countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Trade Minister added.



The Minister also revealed plans by government to empower Ghanaians in the production of vehicular parts to ease the importation burden alongside ensuring job creation.



In addition to this and to ensure the systematic progression of registered assemblers into manufacturing of vehicles, the government has prioritized the development of components and parts manufacturing through a local partnership with foreign multinational companies.



In pursuit of this, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is collaborating with the Africa Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) and other relevant stakeholders to develop and implement a comprehensive Supplier Development Programme aimed at creating viable domestic enterprises capable of supplying components for local assembly and the global supply chain, Mr. Alan Kyerematen told the press.

Source: myjoyonline









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The Achimota Police have arrested one Shadrach Boakye, aka Anopa for his alleged persistent harassment, attacks and robbing of commuters along the Achimota forest in Accra and its environs.



Shadrach, 24, had been on the radar of the Achimota Police for several months until he was arrested over the weekend at Fawuhoyeden in the Ahafo Region.



Superintendent Christine Srofenu, Achimota District Police Commander, told Ghana News Agency that the suspect had been successful in his strike, hit and run efforts making his apprehension very difficult.



She said Anopa had also been involved in countless robberies within the Achimota forest enclave since 2019.



Supt. Srofenu made reference to a case reported on Thursday, June 4, 2020, around 1030 hours when Shadrach, in the company of five others attacked and robbed about four victims of their valuables such as phones, laptops, monies and other items at gunpoint.



Police arrested four of the gang members but Anopa being the leader of the gang, managed to escape arrest and went into hiding in his village in the Ahafo Region.

His accomplices are on trial.



However, she said, the suspect resurfaced after some few months of hiding to continue with his operations.



Supt. Srofenu said another case was recorded on Monday, November 30, 2020 when the suspect again attacked and robbed several road users around the CP Roundabout near the Achimota Forest in Accra.



His modus was to hide in the forest, monitor both vehicles and pedestrians, and rob them at the least opportunity.



Anopa used knives, sharp implements or pistol to advance his operations, however, Police were able to track one of the victims phone to where the suspect was hiding that night and got him arrested.



Supt. Srofenu said Shadrach was processed for court in both cases, but somewhere this year, he together with other accused persons were granted bail in all the robbery cases by the two circuit courts and since then the robbery in the forest aggravated.



She said on Monday June 14, 2021, the suspect robbed a car dealer of his bag containing unspecified amount of money and some vehicle documents at CP Roundabout.



The case was reported to the Achimota School Police for investigation and after the complainant described the suspect to the Police, they suspected Anopa to be the culprit.



A search was extended to all his hiding places but he was fast to escape arrest.



Police later had information that he was hidden in a village in Ahafo Region and with support from the Ahafo Regional Police Command, the Achimota Police finally arrested him from his hideout.

Source: GNA









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The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is on the heels of 22 people the police describe as notorious robbers.



The fugitives are suspected to have been involved in attacks on bullion vans in parts of the country and other robberies across Ghana.



The police have also retrieved a cache of weapons and ammunition concealed by some suspected robbers at Ntoaso, near Nsawam in the Eastern Region.



The ammunition retrieved include 2,882 rounds of AK47 ammunition, 840 rounds of M16 ammunition, five 7.62 cartridges and 23 BB cartridges.



Other items are seven machetes, an AK 47 assault rifle, an M16 rifle, a pump action gun, a shotgun, a pistol, five knives, a sword, a crowbar, a military camouflage uniform and a traditional warrior's smock.



Bounty



Subsequently, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, has announced a GH50,000 reward for any person who gives credible information that will lead to the arrest of armed robbers who have perpetrated their dastardly acts across the country, including those who attacked the bullion van at Adedenkpo in Accra.



Additionally, the Ghana Police Service will give GH5,000 to anybody with information that will lead to the retrieval of any AK47 assault rifle.



Intelligence



The Director General of the CID, Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, made this known when he updated journalists on some cases being handled by the CID.



He said the weapons were retrieved during an operation based on police intelligence gathered as part of security measures adopted by the Police Administration under the new Anti-Armed Robbery Task Force (AARTF) strategy aimed at curbing robberies and other violent crimes in the country.



Mr Yeboah said two of the suspected robbers whose identities were not yet known were gunned down during the operation when they opened fire on the police, while two other members of the gang fled on seeing the police.



The police, he said, arrested one of the gang members, who was currently assisting the police in investigations.



Based on the intelligence, a team from the National Operations Directorate (NOD) Surveillance Unit and three other combat patrol teams were dispatched to the location to retrieve the said weapons, he said.



On reaching the location, he said, the team began a search of the premises when one of the suspected robbers, who was hiding in a nearby room, opened fire on the police, hitting the hand of one of the personnel, injuring his two fingers in the process.



The police returned fire and gunned down the suspected robber, while one other was arrested.



After retrieving the weapons, and while the team was returning to the National Police Headquarters, one of the suspected robbers attempted to snatch the weapon of one of the police officers.



A struggle ensued, during which the gun went off, killing the suspected robber instantly.



The injured officer, Mr Yeboah said, was taken to the Police Hospital for treatment, where he is scheduled to undergo surgery to restore his two fingers.



The bodies of the suspected robbers had since been deposited at the Police Hospital for preservation and further action.



He said investigations were underway to arrest the other suspected robbers.



Mr Yeboah urged the public to volunteer information to assist the police arrest the suspects, saying there was a reward for anyone who offered credible information.



Robbery gang



Providing details about Ampah, Mr Yeboah said Ampah, who responded to aliases including Busia, Nana, Dada and Doctor, armed his gangs with weapons, sponsor their robbery operations, after which he shares the booty with them.



Ampah, a native of Nsorkor, who was arrested at Sapeiman, near Amassaman in the Greater Accra Region on June 24, 2021, is said to have been on the police wanted list since 2019.



Mr Yeboah said Ampah was noted for embarking on robberies around mining sites in Kibi in the Eastern Region.



In one of such robberies, which took place on May 26, 2021, he said, Ampah was said to have robbed a victim of bags of gold, an unspecified amount of money and a vehicle, which he abandoned later at Akooko on the Bunsu-Apedwa road.



He said Ampah posed as a national security operative and had a sticker on his vehicle which portrayed him as such, which he used to deceive the police and the public.



On June 15, 2021, he said, Ampah and one of his gangs allegedly snatched a Nissan Navarra vehicle from its owner, under the pretext of buying it, and also attacked a bullion van on the Spintex Road in Accra.



In the same month, he allegedly attacked Bashiru Abdulai and robbed him of GH550,000 near the Accra City Hotel, formerly Novotel Hotel, Mr Yeboah said.









Source: graphiconline.com









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South Africa's former President Jacob Zuma has been sentenced to 15 months by the highest court in the country.



This came after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of contempt after defying the court's order to appear at an inquiry into corruption while he was president.



Mr Zuma's time in power, which ended in 2018, was dogged by graft allegations.



Businessmen were accused of conspiring with politicians to influence the decision-making process.



The former president made one appearance at the inquiry into what has become known as "state capture" but then refused to appear subsequently.

The inquiry - headed by Justice Raymond Zondo - asked the Constitutional Court to intervene.



It is not clear if Mr Zuma will now be arrested.



In a separate legal matter, Mr Zuma pleaded not guilty last month in his corruption trial involving a $5bn (3bn) arms deal from the 1990s.

Source: BBC









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The Bono East Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, has commended the regional leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for their cooperation towards peace in the region.



I am proud and extremely excited to see the NPP and the NDC in Bono East working together peacefully, in resolving the political impasse between them, he said.



Mr Adu-Gyan said peace created an enabling environment for development to thrive and added that without peace it would be difficult for development to progress in the region.



Forum



The regional minister gave the commendation in a statement issued after a forum in Techiman.



The forum was attended by representatives of the NPP and the NDC, representatives of traditional authorities, security agencies, the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Commission or Civic Education (NCCE) and civil society organisations (CSOs).



The forum, which was organised by the National Peace Council with sponsorship from the Commonwealth Secretariat, was on the theme: Countering Post 2020 Election Violence, and Building Consensus for Greater Political Tolerance in Ghana.



Topics discussed centred on dealing with election-related violence and resolving election-related complaints and disputes.



Peace index



Mr Adu-Gyan said Ghanaians ought to be proud of the country being ranked the second most peaceful in Africa by the Global Peace Index Report 2021, and underlined the importance for the NPP and the NDC to collectively help to preserve and strengthen the prevailing peace in the country.



This achievement is a collective effort of the chiefs, political parties, security services, as well as the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and the media, he said.



He gave an assurance that the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) would ensure the required peace needed for development was maintained.



Electoral justice



In a presentation on Electoral Justice, the Executive Secretary of the Bono Regional Peace Council, Alhaji Suallah Abdallah Quandah, said electoral justice played a decisive role in ensuring the stability of the political system in the country.



The role of electoral justice, although not new, has become recognised as a crucial factor in all democracies, whether emerging or established, it said and explained electoral justice was a prerequisite for preventing political and election violence.



Alhaji Quandah stressed the need for periodic review of the nations electoral justice system to ensure it fulfilled its function of guaranteeing free, fair and credible elections.

GNA









Source: graphiconline.com









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Two people have been confirmed dead following a clash between the youth of Ejura in the Ejura/Sekyedumase District in the Ashanti Region and security personnel who have been detailed there to maintain law and order.

Four other residents who sustained gunshot wounds have been sent to the hospital for treatment.



The incident happened when the security personnel opened fire on the youth when the latter refused to retreat and were bent on demonstrating to demand justice for the murder of their compatriot, Ibrahim Mohammed, 45, also known as Macho Kaaka, who was attacked by unknown assailants in front of his house.



The deceased have been identified as Abdul Nasir Yussif, 25, and Muntala Mohammed, 25.



Following the shooting incident, there is a large presence of security personnel in the commercial town of Ejura to maintain law and order and also quell possible reprisal attacks from the angry youth.



Shooting



The shooting occurred when the youth after returning from the cemetery where they went to bury Kaaka, started protesting by burning car tyres while on the rampage.



The military, in an attempt to stop them, first fired warning shots into the air before shooting into the advancing youth, leading to the death of the two.



Protest



An attempt by the youth of Ejura last Monday (June 28) to demonstrate to demand for justice for the murder of Kaaka who died earlier in the day following injuries he sustained in an attack a day before was quelled by the police and military security personnel who were maintaining peace in the town.



But that was not before the youth managed to vandalise a vehicle belonging to a Police Inspector with the Ejura Police.



The youth were demanding justice for Kaaka, a social media activist and a member of the FixTheCountry campaigners, who was attacked in the early hours of last Sunday in front of his house.



According to the police, Kaakas attackers laid an ambush in front of his house at Dagomba line, a suburb of Ejura, and attacked him as he was returning home at around 1:30 a.m.



The attackers inflicted deep machete wounds on his head. He was first rushed to the Ejura Government Hospital and later referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where he died last Monday, June 27, 2021 at around midday.



Arrest



Meanwhile, the police have picked up two suspects in connection with the murder of Kaaka.



The two were picked up upon police intelligence and are in police custody assisting in the investigation.



The suspects are Ibrahim Issaka aka Anyass and Fuseini Alhassan who were picked up on Monday night at around 10:45 p.m.



Also, the police say they have launched an investigation into the circumstances that led to the clash between the youth and the security personnel yesterday (June 29) which led to the death of the two people and causing injuries to four people, including a military lieutenant.



According to a statement issued by the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Godwim Ahianyo, the youth were alleged to have blocked the main road leading from Ejura to Atebubu Amantin after returning from the burial of Macho Kaaka.



He said an attempt by the security personnel to disperse the youth was met with resistance from the latter who were armed with all sorts of weapons, including firearms, clubs, machetes, and even when the security personnel fired warning shots to disperse them, the youth failed to retreat but rather massed up at all corners.



ASP Ahianyo said the death and injuries were recorded in the process.



Background



Macho Kaaka, a resident of Ejura, was a citizen journalist and a social activist who joined the FixTheCountry Campaigners to demand accountability from duty bearers.



He was alleged to have received death threats following some of his videos on social media talking about the lack of development in Ejura.



Around 1:30 a.m. last Sunday, he was attacked by the suspects who allegedly inflicted machete wounds on his head leading to his death on Monday, June 28, 2021, at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The family of late Ibrahim Mohammed also known as Macho Saaka has debunked claims that their son was a member of the #FixTheCountry movement.



This follows series of reports that Macho was a member of the social activism group that has gain prominence on social media.



However, in an interview with journalists on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the elder brother of the late Ibrahim Mohammed, Mahawia Ibrahim debunked the claim and called for calm while the security agencies independently conduct their investigations.



He said I have been saying from the very first day Saaka was pronounced dead that the reason for his untimely exit has nothing to do with politics. So I am pleading with Ghanaians to not associate politics with his demise so that the police officers working on the case can independently conduct their investigations so we all will know what the truth really is and bring closure to the matter.



I have heard that people are spreading false information to the effect that my brother is a member of the #FixTheCountry movement but let me state categorically that my brother was not a member of that movement and so I call on people sending those messages across to put an end to it and let the police do their work, he added.



Macho, 45, a resident of Ejura in the Ashanti Region was reportedly attacked by some unknown people in Ejura last Friday.



According to the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Godwin Ahianyo, the suspects laid an ambush in front of the house of the deceased and attacked him when he returned home on Sunday, June 27, 2021, at about 1:30 am.



He died on Monday afternoon, June 28, 2021, at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi where he was receiving treatment.



Meanwhile, checks with the Regional Police Command indicate that two suspects have since been picked up by the police in connection with the death of Macho.



The police said the suspects were arrested upon police intelligence and were currently in police custody pending further investigation into the matter.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Paramount Chief of Ejura Traditional Area, Barima Osei Hwedie ll, has charged protesting youth at Ejura not to make any room for politicians to politicize the murder of Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka), because murder has no political colours.



Angry Youth of Ejura on Tuesday went berserk to demand justice for a social media activist, Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka) who was murdered by some unknown assailants.



However, the planned protest turned bloody resulting in the death of two and injury of four others.



Speaking in an interview, Barima Osei Hwedie ll who visited some of the shooting victims at the Ejura Government Hospital explained that involving politics in the incident is likely to mar the success of the investigation and therefore called on the youth to exercise patience since investigations have begun into the matter.



The traditional Authority in the area is ready to team up with the Police to investigate the murder of Macho Kaaka, adding that the culprits will be dealt with.



He said he was surprised at the turn of events yesterday which according to him brought tension in the town.



"The youth had earlier visited me in the morning to petition me on the death of their colleague, and the Traditional Authorities also assured them of their maximum support in bringing the culprits to book, but the beauty of the engagement was marred by this deadly violence, he said.



Currently, calm has been restored.



In another development, the Ejura Municipal Police Command is appealing to the General Public to provide them with any available information to enable them arrest culprits who are connected to the murder of Macho Kaaka.



Ibrahim Mohammed (Kaaka) a social media activist was attacked by unknown persons on Sunday and passed away on Monday sparking a protest to demand justice by some youth in Ejura.



According to DSP Philip Kojo Hammond, the police are making extra efforts to arrest culprits, but he believes giving them leads can make their work less difficult.



The police are not ready to make known to the public their whistleblowers and therefore anyone with a hint can come to them with the needed information.



Reacting to the killing of the two protestors and the injuring of others, DSP Kojo Hammond said though the police are not taking the blame, they are sympathizing with the victims' families for this unplanned incident.



Currently, the town is safe and calm as residents are going about their normal duties peacefully.







Source: Prince Kwadwo Boadu/Hello FM









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Tarkwa-Nsuaem Divisional Chiefs have expressed their profound gratitude to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for appointing George Mireku Duker as the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.



The chiefs are happy with the appointment in a statement copied to Peacefmonline.com.



Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal accounts significantly towards the exploitation of mineral resources in the country which has been a strong backbone of Ghanas economic growth. 



Against this backdrop, we are very enthused to state that, this is the first time a legislator of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Constituency has been appointed a sectorial Minister which reflects the heritage of what Tarkwa is best known for in history. We are very grateful to His Excellency the President for this great honour bestowed on us. Statement read



Below is the full statement



We, the coalition of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Divisional Chiefs expresses our profound gratitude to H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, for appointing our Son, Hon. George Mireku Duker (MP) as the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to serve in his government.



Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal accounts significantly towards the exploitation of mineral resources in the country which have been a strong backbone of Ghanas economic growth. Against this backdrop, we are very enthused to state that, this is the first time a legislator of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Constituency has been appointed a sectorial Minister which reflects the heritage of what Tarkwa is best known for in history. We are very grateful to His Excellency the President for this great honour bestowed on us.



We also use this opportunity to humbly remind the President that, we are for the development of Tarkwa-Nsuaem and believes that, the MP should be supported by a hardworking and a dedicated Municipal Chief Executive. On this call, we humbly call on Mr. President to re-appoint Hon. Benjamin Kessie since the latter has performed remarkably in a short period of time with a very cordial working relationship with the MP and Nananom. We believe, the combination of the duo coupled with our support will accelerate the needed development in Tarkwa-Nsauem.



Meanwhile, Tarkwa roads are in a very bad state. We are very much aware of the efforts by the Political leadership to fix it. We are also privy to information that, contractor for the Agona-Nkwanta-Tarkwa road is expected on site next month. Therefore, we use this opportunity to plead with Mr. President and all those that matter to ensure that, Tarkwas road infrastructure is properly worked on urgently. We want to remember this government as a government that significantly improved the condition of Tarkwa roads.



In a nutshell, we assure H. E. the President that, we will support Hon. George Mireku Duker and Hon. Benjamin Kesse to deliver the necessary development that befits the good people of Tarkwa-Nsuaem and Ghana at large. Thank you.



Signed.

Nana Kwabena Gyan II

King Maker, Wassa-Fiase Traditional Council

Chairman, Coalition of Tarkwa-Nsuaem Divisional Chiefs.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has come to the defence of the Police for calling for a Military reinforcement against a protest in Ejura on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.



The Military and Police in the Ashanti Region joined forces to control a crowd of protesters at Ejura following the death of an activist and resident, Ibrahim Mohammed alias 'Kaaka'.



Kaaka was killed last Friday after receiving life threatening messages over his social activism.



The Ejura youth hit the streets to register their displeasure and call for justice for Kaaka but had a confrontation with soldiers and Police deployed to the area to restore calm.



The soldiers fired gunshots directed at the protesters, killing two persons and four others injured.



Critics have lambasted the government over the Military intrusion into the Ejura community wondering why they would be used for crowd control.



The security forces have also been slammed for firing live bullets into the crowd resulting in the death of the two victims.



But, according to Kwamena Duncan, the Police acted proactively and therefore shouldn't be blamed for enlisting the help of the Military.



"The Police needed to be proactive, so I won't accept that the situation was out of their hands and that's why they called for support from the Military, because you don't have to wait for matters to escalate before you act. I mean any person vested in security and how to suppress rioting and to protect lives and property, you can't wait idly for what is at your disposal, to be able to stop the danger which is lurking, to stand there till it gets out of control. Even I who aren't a security person, you come, you get, you look at the extent it is going; then you back up with the necessary arsenal at your disposal," he said.



He also took shots at the "Fix the Country" campaigners for linking the killings to their campaign.



"Fix the country and I thought that, indeed, you will be ones that will be sober and will be waiting to find out and to confirm. When you have no clue at all what has happened, you begin to issue statements and you link people to it. So, they're there for objective Ghanaians for Ghanaians to see them; who they are," he fumed.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Kwamena Duncan has commiserated with the families of the deceased in the Ejura killing incident.



Three persons, Ibrahim Mohammed a.k.a Kaaka widely known to be an activist, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed, have died and four other people have sustained serious injuries at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.



Ibrahim Mohammed was attacked by a mob last Friday and died on Monday at the hospital and the other two met their untimely death during a Military shooting incident that occurred at Ejura on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.



Soldiers and Police officers had been deployed to the area to prevent a protest that was going on but unfortunately resulted in a violent clash as the security forces, upon arrival, fired gunshots into the protesters.



The four injured persons sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to the hospital.



Addressing the issue on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', the former Central Regional Minister, Hon. Duncan expressed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured speedy recovery.



''I extend my condolences to the family that lost their member (Kaaka) and also families of the two deceased protesters. It's very sad. And, with the injured victims, I also plead with the doctors to give them medical treatment'', he said.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Malawians have been sharing photos on social media of female MPs dressed up as schoolgirls - some delighting in their outfits others unimpressed by the stunt.



The countrys 193-member parliament usually has a strict dress code, but it was relaxed on Tuesday for the chambers 43 female politicians.



MP Gotani Hara said the gesture was meant to send a strong message to girls from successful career women that with hard work, everything is possible.



Studies show that up to 15% of Malawian girls drop out of school before finishing primary education - this is put down to a range of reasons including poverty, pregnancy or being forced into marriage.



Some people found humour in how the politicians were dressed, one even carried fried maize in a plastic bottle typical of snacks that children, particularly in rural areas, take to school.



But others were critical saying more action should be taken to help girls actually stay at school.

Source: BBC









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Two people have been arrested in Uganda for giving out fake Covid-19 vaccines. One more is on the run.



It is believed that they may have injected up to 800 workers at private companies that had arranged vaccinations for their staff.



They were charging between 100,000 Ugandan shillings ($28, 20) and 200,000 Ugandan shillings per jab.



State House's Health Monitoring Unit (HMU) says it received a tip-off via local leaders that the two were travelling around some neighbourhoods of the capital, Kampala, claiming to be hospital healthcare workers.



HMUs Dr Warren Namara said that it was not yet clear what was in the fake jabs, but his team was testing the fluid.



Covid-19 vaccines in Uganda are officially free, and available at designated public and private vaccination centres.



More than 856,000 people have so far been vaccinated.



The country is battling a second wave of coronavirus, with an increase in severe infections and deaths.

Source: BBC









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The government has asked the Police Administration to fast-track investigation into the death of Ibrahim Mohammed, alias Kaka, and subsequent rioting at Ejura in the Ashanti Region after his burial on Tuesday, June 29, leading to two more deaths.



Addressing the media in Accra on Wednesday on the matter, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah described the death of Mr Mohammed as unfortunate and condemnable, and urged the Police to work assiduously towards bringing finality to all other similar murders, in order to regain public confidence in them.



According to him, the continuous delay in identifying persons behind such unfortunate incidents often bred suspicion, leading to what was witnessed in Ejura.



Mr Oppong Nkrumah said government viewed the Ejura rioting seriously and would ensure that persons found culpable after investigations were dealt with according to law.



The government spokesperson condemned the death of Kaka and two others and injuries to four persons during a protest.



'Government wishes to commiserate with the families of the victims and their loved ones and urge the security agencies to be quick and clinical in getting to the bottom of this and other unresolved crimes," Mr Oppong Nkrumah added.



The Minister observed that while it was understandable that police investigations sometimes took a while, it did not instill confidence in the public if such acts went unresolved and unpunished.



"So the police needs to get to the bottom of this. Also a credible investigations needs to be conducted into the crowd rioting and crowd controlling incident of 29th June," he stated.



The Minister said this was necessary because it would bring clarity to the sequence of events and ensure that any person who acted inappropriately was punished.



He also commended family members and youth groups who had asked opportunistic individuals and groups who want to take advantage of the unfortunate incident for their parochial interest to back off and allow the authorities to perform their duties.

Source: graphiconline.com









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Mr. Boakye Agyarko, a former Energy Minister has disclosed that the cancellation of the Ghanas power agreement with GPGC Limited which has led to the birth of a $170 million judgment debt did not occur under his watch.



The decision from Cabinet was to restructure our power sector which was bridled with a lot of poorly agreed contracts which were going to put the country into further financial problems.



For the said plant , GPGC Ltd who were expected to provide emergency power for four years sort to use a Used Plant which was due for decommissioning in Italy to Ghana as against the Energy Commissions regulations.

The said company as at the time of the renegotiation didnt even have a site to operate, he said.



Mr. Agyarko is credited for successfully stabilizing the powers supply and distribution networks in this country, having him end the perineal  DUMSOR this country was facing.



Mr. Agyarko is unhappy and surprised that his name has been linked with the abrogation of the deal despite not having powers to do so at the time.



Speaking in at Ekosiisem interview, Boakye Agyarko explained that at the time of the cancellation of the deal, he was no longer serving as Energy Minister.



Mr. Agyarko in disappointment and displeasure revealed how a representative of GPGC tried to get him change a cabinet decision which he didnt succumb to.



Mr. Agyarko presented documents to buttress his point and clear his name of such unfounded allegations.



Mr. Agyarko ended his interview with Asempa Fm by stating that he stands to gain nothing on this deal, for 25 years working experience with the New York Bank, NEVER did he encounter an Audit Violation. Hes worked with Integrity.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Seasoned Journalist, Kweku Baako Jnr. has called on government to compensate the families of the three deceased in the Ejura incident.



The death of the three, Ibrahim Mohammed a.k.a Kaaka a social media activist, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Mohammed has caused a stir in the Ejura community in the Ashanti Region with the irate residents demanding justice for them.



Kaaka's demise was reportedly caused by a mob assault on him for being vociferously vocal about national issues.



The other two were killed while protesting for justice for Kaaka when soldiers deployed to the community released live bullets into a crowd of protesters.



Meanwhile, the government has condemned the incidents of violence that characterized the youth protest in Ejura on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.



Addressing Journalists in Accra on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said; Our security agencies should be quick and clinical in getting to the bottom of this and other unresolved comes. While we understand that police investigations sometimes take a while, it does not instil confidence in the population if such acts go unresolved and unpunished. So the police need to get to the bottom of this, and justice must be done.



"A credible investigation also needs to be conducted into the crowd rioting and crowd control incidents of 29th June. This will bring clarity to the sequence of events and ensure that if any persons acted inappropriately, those persons are punished."



Also touching on the incident, Kweku Baako expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased but requested that ''the State should be minded to offer some compensations and rehabilitation . . . it won't bring back the dead; it won't even erase the scars of the injuries but at least, it mitigates and shows that, when such things happen, at the appropriate time, the State will come to your support''.



He made this comment on Peace FM's morning programme ''Kokrokoo''.



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Host of Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo'', Kwami Sefa Kayi, has registered his displeasure with the Ejura shooting incident which claimed two lives and four other people sustaining serious gunshot injuries.



A combined team of soldiers and Police yesterday clashed with some protesters at Ejura in the Ashanti Region following the death of a resident and social activist, Ibrahim Mohammed alias 'Kaaka' who was killed by some unknown assailants last Friday.



The youth in the community hit the streets while holding a funeral procession for the departed soul but something that was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned violent by the arrival of soldiers and Police officers who shot into the protesters supposedly to stop the protest march.



Two persons were hit by live bullets and died on admission to the hospital.



Moderating a panel discussion on 'Kokrokoo', Mr. Sefa Kayi condemned the violent clash saying "it's very untidy".



He questioned why the Military was deployed to the community asking, "who asked for the Military reinforcement . . . So, who called the soldiers to step in?"



He noted that the Military is for combat and risky to call them to control a crowd of protesters.



He stressed; "When you ask soldiers that there is a situation, they should come in, when they come; they won't engage in crowd control. And when they came to find the youth hurling stones . . . they will shoot back."



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference (GCGC) has expressed disgust at the killing of two persons following clashes between some residents and security personnel at Ejura in the Ashanti region.



The two, Muntala Mohammed and Abdul Nasir Yusif were protesting to demand justice for youth activist Ibrahim Mohammed aka Macho Kaaka who died earlier from injuries after an attack by a mob.



Ibrahim was attacked on Friday, June 25, 2021, by unknown assailants and was rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi where he passed away on Monday, June 29, 2021.



The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference in a statement signed by the President of GCBC, Most Reverend Philip Naameh condemned the killing of Ibrahim. The Conference also reiterated the need for security agencies in the country to professionally discharge their duties, especially when it comes to crowd control.



3-member committee to probe Ejura incidents



President Akufo-Addo addresses deaths at Ejura

We have expressed time and again the need for our security agencies to very professional in the discharge of their duties, especially when it comes to crowd control. Unfortunately, the situation is rather getting out of hand and this does not augur well for our country.



How can one justify the action of the military man seen in the viral video aiming and shooting at unprotected and unarmed civilians in an attempt to stop the demonstration?, it questioned.



It further said the actions of the security agencies were criminal and called for an immediate investigation into the matter.



This act is not only condemnable but criminal and must be investigated and the perpetrators duly punished. This must be done with the urgency it deserves because the citizens are gradually losing trust in the ability of our security agencies to handle such cases effectively and competently.



Read the full statement below:







Source: graphiconline.com









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Works and Housing Minister, Francis Asenso-Boakye has reiterated the governments commitment to tackling floods which have been a burden to the country over the years.



He told parliament whiles addressing the increasing risk of flooding across the country that the Nana Addo-led government is keen on curbing the situation.



According to him, about GH450 million has already been invested in the National Flood Control and Priority Drainage Programme to tackle the situation.



Clearly, this level of commitment to tackling the problem which has resulted in a reduction of flooding incidents in the past few years is unprecedented and commendable. He said



Adding that The government is also collaborating with the World Bank to invest more than $200 million to address solid waste and flood risk challenges in the Odaw Drainage Basin. The project will also see the development and implementation of a Flood Early Warning System to enhance community safety and resilience.



Read below his full statement





STATEMENT BY FRANCIS ASENSO-BOAKYE (MP) MINISTER FOR WORKS AND HOUSING ON ADDRESSING THE INCREASING RISK OF FLOODING ACROSS THE COUNTRY.



Mr. Speaker, perennial flooding across the country poses a significant threat to government's accelerated socio-economic development agenda. Lives have been lost, properties destroyed, people displaced, transport links disconnected, economic activities disrupted and livelihoods uprooted because of flooding. Flooding also impacts adversely on the mental health of victims and undermines their ability to contribute meaningfully to economic growth.



Ghana ranks highly among African countries most exposed to risks from multiple weather-related hazards. In the past three (3) decades, the country has experienced seven major floods. The devastating flood event in the Odaw Drainage Catchment on 3rd June 2015 led to an unfortunate loss of about 150 lives - may their souls rest in perfect peace - and about 50,000 people were directly affected to varying degrees.



Mr Speaker, the World Bank estimates that $3.2 billion (4.45% of GDP) worth of economic assets are at risk of flooding in the Greater Accra Region alone and this figure is expected to quadruple by 2050 without urgent action, (World Bank Press Release, 29 May 2019). One can only imagine the value of assets that are at risk to flooding across the country.



The causes of flooding in the country are multi-faceted. They include inefficient drains, undersized culverts and uncontrolled development in flood plains, wetlands and waterways. Additionally, indiscriminate dumping of solid waste into our drains by households contribute significantly to urban flooding. Across the country, we see new developments and buildings springing up in waterways and flood plains (buffer zones) blocking the flow of storm water and worsening the risk of flooding.



Mr. Speaker, on 24 and 25 June 2021, several areas in Kumasi experienced severe and devastating flooding. This affected commercial areas such as the new Kejetia market, Central market, Asafo market and Bantama High Street. Several shops and homes experienced flooding and goods worth millions of Ghana Cedis were destroyed. Similar reports have been received from Koforidua and Takoradi and indeed other parts of the country. Following my visit to the affected areas in Kumasi on Monday 28 June 2021, the increasing risk of flooding associated with climate change is clear and we as a nation need to take bold steps to tackle this challenge holistically.



Mr. Speaker, since taking office in January 2017, the government of President Akufo-Addo has invested about GH450 million in the National Flood Control and Priority Drainage Programme compared to the GH88 million invested by the previous government between 2011 and 2016. Clearly, this level of commitment to tackling the problem which has resulted in a reduction of flooding incidents in the past few years is unprecedented and commendable.



The government is also collaborating with the World Bank to invest more than $200 million to address solid waste and flood risk challenges in the Odaw Drainage Basin. The project will also see the development and implementation of a Flood Early Warning System to enhance community safety and resilience.



Mr. Speaker, while the government is making every effort to ensure flood risk is minimised, it is important to highlight that government alone cannot do this; it must be a shared responsibility. It is therefore incumbent on every citizen to complement the effort of government, take their own safety seriously and be more mindful of the manner in which solid waste is disposed of.



Additionally, individual homebuilders need to avoid paving all of their compounds and make room for storm water infiltration by introducing vegetation. I further wish to call on MMDAs to strictly enforce planning laws and Building Codes to prevent development in waterways, floodplains and wetlands. Where these are flouted, the MMDAs need to take decisive action to rectify the situation urgently in the interest of protecting the good people of Ghana.



Mr. Speaker, Cabinet at its sitting on Thursday 24 June 2021 approved for the consideration of Parliament, the Bill for the establishment of the Ghana Hydrological Authority. The Authority will undertake hydraulic modeling to inform housing and infrastructural development planning across the country to ensure that they are steered away from flood prone areas. The Authority will also develop and promote higher drainage standards, including the use of nature-based drainage solutions.



Moreover, the Authority will ensure that flood risk assessments are undertaken for all major infrastructural developments, so they are resilient to both current and future flood risks. The proposed Hydrological Authority Bill will include a National Hydrology Fund which will facilitate the effective functioning of the Authority including attracting private sector participation in drainage provision.



It is my earnest expectation, Mr Speaker, that in view of the enormous advantages of setting up the Ghana Hydrological Authority, Parliament will lend its full support, when the Bill comes before this August House for approval.



Mr. Speaker, on that note, I wish to thank you for this opportunity.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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At least two suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of social media activist, Ibrahim Mohammed, also known as Kaaka at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.



The suspects Ibrahim Issaka and Fuseini Alhassan were picked up on Monday evening following police intelligence. Speaking to the media in Kumasi, police spokesperson ASP Godwin Ahianyo said the deceased was ambushed in front of his house upon returning home at 1:30am on Sunday by the two suspects.



This morning we would like to inform the general public that the regional command has arrested two suspects in the attack and murder of Ibrahim Mohammed alias Kaaka aged 45, he said. The suspects are Ibrahim Issaka alias Anyaas and Fuseini Alhassan currently in custody, both were arrested at about 10:45pm on Monday 28 June 2021 following police intelligence, ASP Ahianyo added.



He said the police have commenced investigations to ascertain whether the murder was linked to his work as a citizen journalist or the #Fixthecountry movement.



Meanwhile, protesters on Monday poured out onto the streets of Ejura demanding justice over the murder of Mohammed. The death of the father of five has triggered widespread anger among the youth who are calling for the arrest of the culprits.



Clad in red armbands and headgears the angry youth blocked roads leading to the town to press home their demands.





Source: asaaseradio.com









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An elder brother of the late Ibrahim Mohammed aka "Kaaka", a social media activist who was murdered by unknown assailants, has been arrested by the police.



The suspect, Iddi Mohammed, 48, was picked up at his residence at Ejura today, Wednesday, 30 June 2021.



Another elder brother to the deceased, Maawuya Ibrahim, disclosed this to Class News in an interview.



He said the police stormed their residence and demanded that the suspect accompany them to the police station.



Maawuya said he enquired from the police why they were arresting his younger brother and they said an informant (a woman) in their house had made a statement against him that he was involved in the murder of his brother and, therefore, needs him to assist investigations.



Maawuya noted that said Iddi Mohammed was arrested and taken to the Ejura police station.



Meanwhile, police investigations continue.

Source: classfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Details are emerging about how the Adedenkpo bullion van robbery was carried out.



The daylight robbery led to the gruesome killing of the policeman escorting the bullion van, as well as a lady selling on the street who was allegedly hit by stray bullet, and died.



A Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage has been revealing more about the deadly incident on Monday June 14.



CCTV footages on the streets showed how the hoodlums appeared to tail the bullion van, belonging to MON-TRAN.



Six Robbers



The footages showed that six robbers using three motorbikes (two on each bike) followed the vehicle for some time before launching the attack at Adedenkpo, near Jamestown.



At 11:52 am, they were captured around the Bishop Bowers Junction, at Laterbiokoshie on the Mortuary Road on the same route the bullion van was using.



They kept following the bullion van and occasionally appeared to use other vehicles as decoy.



After about 12 noon, the van turned left at the Korle Bu Junction Traffic Light intersection to across the Korle Lagoon Bridge towards Jamestown.



At a traffic stop at Adedenkpo, the bullion van stopped, and the lead motorcycle bypassed the van.



Daring Move



The two other bikes followed, and within a minute, sandwiched the bullion van at a crowded spot and started firing their weapons.



They then succeeded in killing Police Constable Emmanuel Osei, together with a trader, Afua Badu who was selling nearby.



The bullion van driver sustained injuries while two ladies at the back of the van managed to escape unhurt.



The robbers then emptied the bullion van and escaped on their bikes amid indiscriminate firing to scare onlookers.



The footages also showed people in the vicinity running helter-skelter.



Fresh Arrests



About two weeks into the deadly incident, a notorious Guinean armed robber, who is suspected to have killed the policeman in the bullion robbery, was arrested at Kyebi Zongo in the Abuakwa South Municipality in the Eastern Region.



The suspect, identified as Musa Kamara, 26, was arrested together with three other hardened criminals in a joint police operation involving officers from Accra and Kyebi on Saturday, June 26.



According to police sources, the suspects are said to be directly involved in the bullion van robbery.



Musa Kamara, who allegedly wanted to escape, was shot in the knee by the police before being overpowered and initially sent to the Kyebi Government Hospital under heavy police guard.



The three other suspects who were arrested at Kyebi Zongo on Saturday were identified as Collins Addae aka Kekye; Ebenezer Gyimah aka Peace, and another Guinean, Suleman Keita alias 69, a brother of Musa Kamara.



Two Brothers



The two Guinean brothers have been on the wanted list of the Ghana Police for their involvement in the Jamestown robbery on Tuesday, June 15.



They were said to have been terrorising residents of Kyebi, Akyem Tafo, Osiem, Anyinasin, and its environs for some time now.



The tip-off initially led to the arrest of Ebenezer Gyimah at Kyebi Zongo, but he managed to escape while in police handcuff.



However, he and the three others including Musa Kamara, were later arrested on Saturday at Kyebi Zongo.



Musa Kamara, has now been transferred to police headquarters in Accra from the Kyebi Government Hospital and the other suspects have also been brought to Accra.



Police detectives have been dispatched to the Akyem Oda area following intelligence that other suspects in the Adedenkpo bullion van robbery might be hiding there.



Arrest Warrant



Already, an Accra Circuit Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of one Hakam aka Red Devil, who is suspected to have taken part in the Adedenkpo violent robbery.



The suspect, according to a police statement, could be hiding in Tema, Yendi, Kumasi or Accra, and has urged the public to volunteer information leading to his arrest.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Police have killed two suspected armed robbers, and retrieved large cache of ammunitions from suspected criminals at Ntoaso, near Nsawam, in the Eastern region, during a special operation.



The weapons include 2,882 rounds of ammunitions, BB cartridges, a locally manufactured pistol, one AK 47 Assault rifle, a MI6 rifle, a pump action, a shot gun, and 840 MI6 ammunitions.



Other items retrieved were knives, sword, claw bar, military camouflage uniform and machete among others.



COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, the director general of the criminal investigation department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, announced these at a press conference, in Accra, on Wednesday.



He said the police received information that some arms and ammunitions had been concealed by a gang of armed robbers at Ntoaso



COP Yeboah said a team from the National Operations Directorate surveillance unit and three other combat patrols teams were dispatched to the location to retrieve the weapons.



He said the suspected robbers took to their heels on seeing the police, and The team began a search at the premises and in the process one of the suspected robbers (yet to be identified) who was hiding in a nearby room opened fire on the police and hit the hand of one of the officers injuring his two fingers in the process.



COP Yeboah said the police responded and gunned down the suspected robber and arrested another one.



He explained that while the police were on their way to the National Police Headquarters, others suspected robber attempted to snatch the weapon in possession of the police, resulting in a struggle and the gun went off killing the robber instantly.



COP Yeboah said the injured robber was taken to the Police Hospital for treatment, adding that the two bodies have been sent to the same morgue of the hospital



COP Yeboah said investigations were underway to arrest the other suspects.





Source: asaaseradio.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Media personality Nana Aba Anamoah has expressed her disappointment in the Christian Council of Ghana over their silence about the current happenings in the country.



According to Nana Aba Anamoah, the Christian Council of Ghana used to be one outspoken institution in the country which wasnt afraid to comment of issues concerning the well-being of the country.



She stated the institution used to roar like a lion trying to put the government and its policy on their toes but nowadays feels and behaves like a cat who about the current killing of protesters in the country.



The Christian Council of Ghana is the biggest disappointment. They could roar for days. Now dier its just meooowww



The Christian Council of Ghana is one of the oldest institutions or organization in the country with Rt. Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante who was elected at the councils last Annual General Meeting.



The council through its work serves as an advisory board to the president and the various politicians in the country\ hence people expecting them to come out and condemn the act by the police and the military who clashed with the youth of Ejura leaving three (3) persons died.

Source: ghgossip.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Executive Director of the Child Rights International, Bright Appiah has commended the Education Minister, Yaw Osei Adutwum for his policy proposals aimed at transforming the education sector.



Mr. Bright Appiah, speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', took cognizance of the vision of the Education Minister, therefore reposing confidence in him to enhance youth development in the nation.



He called on the government to support the Minister's policies, which to him, when implmented will help the youth and Ghana at large.



"He has very good plans . . . With his policy direction for education, I will plead with the government that let's support this man to deliver . . . I don't know but I have a belief in him that, at least, even if he's able to even implement about 30 percent of the policies he talks about; I think we can change certain things within our educational system and all that," he briefly said.



Listen to his full submissions below:





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A member of the young patriots' group, Hopeson Adorye, has asked the leader and founder of the All People's Convention (APC), Dr. Hassan Ayariga to be mindful of his utterances against the President and his government.



According to him one cannot lay the blame for everything that goes on in the country whether good or bad at the doorstep of the President.



Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that though President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo- Addo is doing everything within his power to ensure a peaceful country and a buoyant economy, some people like Dr. Hassan Ayariga think the President is sleeping on his job.



"I am surprised somebody like Dr. Hassan Ayariga will even say this. He couldn't manage his own pizza joint when he returned to Ghana from Germany.



"Kwame, Hassan Ayariga was a pizza attendant in Germany so he decided to open a joint when he returned to Ghana from Germany, but he couldn't manage it properly leading to its collapse. I and Abu Ramadan were his biggest customers.



"So if you couldn't manage a small pizza joint how much more the whole country, Ghana. some times, I feel we should accord the President with some respect," he added.



APC Founder, Hassan Ayariga has expressed worry over the myriad national issues facing the country.



Speaking about the state of insecurity in the country at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, 29th June 2021, Hassan Ayariga said the Ministry responsible for National Security has not lived up to expectations.



According to the leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC), the situation is at its worst state because, armed robbers are now attacking at public places in broad daylight. Mobile money operators are being killed on a daily basis. Traders and businessmen are not safe. Police officials themselves are killed like never before. In all these, no person or appointee of the government takes responsibility for the fear and panic Ghanaians are in now."



He alleged that operatives of national security have turned themselves into, "criminal gangs and are criminally attacking citizens in an effort to loot and plunder whatever they can lay their hands on  gold, land, and money.



Touching on the #FixTheCountry campaign, the 2020 presidential candidate of the APC wondered if it has become a crime to assemble, demonstrate and demand that the government and duty bearers fix the country.



Watch video below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Awal Mohammed together with his deputy minister Mark Okraku-Mantey held a brief meeting with stakeholders in the film and music industry.



The meeting which took place on Friday, 25 June 2021 in Accra, forms part of series of engagements with all fields under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.



The meeting was attended by musicians including Samini, Shatta Wale, Joe Mettle, Kwabena Kwabena, D-Black, Okyeame Kwame, Edem, Patience Nyarko, Cwesi Oteng, Kaywa, Appeitus, Celestine Donkor, Joyce Blessing, King Promise, Amandzeba, MOG Music and many others.



John Dumelo, James Gardiner, Van Vicker, Prince David-Osei, Juliet Ibrahim, Gloria Sarfo, Bill Asamoah and a few others were present as film makers.



Media personalities including Andy Dosty, George Quaye, Kwame Dadzie, George Britton, Chris Konney also joined the meeting.



During the engagement, industry players requested that government and stakeholders focus on solving one problem of the industry at a time.



The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture indicated that industry players will later be engaged in smaller groups in order to find solutions to specific problems.



Other fields that fall under the Ministry are expected to be engaged in the coming weeks.

Source: facebook/class fm









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Sparks Lake wildfire burns near Lytton, B.C. in this Wednesday, June 30, 2021 handout photo. A fast-spreading wildfire led to an immediate evacuation order Wednesday night for residents of the British Columbia village of Lytton as many scrambled to escape as flames threatened buildings. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Jo-Anne Beharrell *MANDATORY CREDIT*
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  The Alaska House reached in dramatic fashion Monday an agreement that Gov. Mike Dunleavy said would avert a government shutdown.

House Speaker Louise Stutes indicated the outcome was not assured when she called the House to order, and House Minority Leader Cathy Tilton, who had been negotiating with Stutes, said things were absolutely, completely close to unraveling.

Involved Monday was adoption of a statement of the House, calling for creation of a House-Senate working group to make recommendations on a comprehensive fiscal plan for the next special sess...
Virginia Barnes "Ginna" Kniesly, age 99, Logansport, passed away at 10:10 a.m. on Thursday, June 24, 2021, at Miller's Merry Manor. God Bless the Angels at Millers Merry Manor, every one of whom treated Ginna as their own. The youngest of eight daughters born in Logansport, Indiana, to Emily
FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2019 file photo, abortion protesters attempt to handout literature as they stand in the driveway of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis. A federal judge has blocked a new Indiana law that would require doctors to tell women undergoing drug-induced abortions about a disputed treatment for potentially stopping the abortion process. The ruling Wednesday, June 30, 2021, came just before the so-called abortion reversal law adopted by Indianas Republican-dominated Legislature was to take effect Thursday.
As the start of the first event of the 2021 WSOP.com Online Bracelet Series begins, two players who snagged bracelets in 2020 were spotted in the field, in search of more jewelry to go in their trophy cases.

Louis "PokeThese" Lynch was able to net a bracelet early in last year's series, as the Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania native was able to best a field of 919-entries to win Event #2: $1,000 NLH Deepstack 8-Max to earn a $168,568 top prize, which at the time more than doubled his lifetime career tournament earnings. Lynch defeated Ryan "KOVID19" Ko heads-up to earn his first career WSOP bracelet.

Also in the field is Matthew "Bodeyster" Bode, who topped a field of 1,179 entries in Event #4: $500 NLH Super Turbo to win his first career WSOP Bracelet, as well as $97,091. Bode won the bracelet after calling his shot a few days prior on his Twitter account, saying, "Here goes to becoming a secret online crusher." The secret didn't stay that way for long, and a few days later, Bode earned the coveted WSOP Gold Bracelet to earn his place among the elite that own a WSOP Online Gold Bracelet.

We'll be tracking Lynch and Bode's progress throughout this year's version of the WSOP.com Online Bracelet Series to see if they can replicate their success from 2020.
Itemizer-Observer

DALLAS  Ousted Rep. Mike Nearman received the most votes to replace himself.

At a special nominating convention held by the Oregon Republican Party on June 25 in Dallas, precinct committee representatives from State House District 23 nominated five candidates to be considered by Benton, Marion, Polk and Yamhill County commissioners to fill the vacancy left by the expulsion of Nearman from the State House of Representatives on June 10.

According to an Oregon Republican Party press release, the five nominees in order of most weighted votes received were:

- Mike Nearman

- John Swanson, a Republican state Senate staffer

- Jim Bunn, former state senator and U.S. Rep. Jim Bunn

- Micky Garus, former Dallas City Councilor

- Anna Scharf, a farmer in Amity

Im humbled that my fellow Precinct Committee-persons voted overwhelmingly to return me to the House as their representative, Nearman said in a statement. The fact that they chose me shows that they value someone with courage and principles that will stand up to Democrats, the media and even their own party to do what is right.

On June 10, Nearman was expelled from office by a 59-1 vote of the State House of Representatives for his role in permitting protesters to enter the State Capitol building. The Capitol had been closed to the public due to the pandemic since March 2020.

The vote came after a video emerged showing Nearman, five days before the Dec. 21 session, advising constituents how to reach him via text message and someone would allow them to enter the Capitol.

After his ouster, under state law, commissioners from each of the five counties of HD 23 must now select by July 9 from the five Republican nominees. The nominee selected by commissioners will officially take office after commissioners cast their votes weighted according to the proportion of their countys voters registered in House District 23 and transmit the results of that vote to the state.

Polk County contains the most voters within the district, who will have about 49% of the say in who is appointed. Over the weekend, Nearmans prospects to being selected took a hit when Polk County Chair Craig Pope said he does not support the ousted lawmaker.

No, I will not vote to put him back into office, Pope said. Honestly, he hasnt been a Representative for House District 23 since he was elected the first time. I cant see value in putting somebody back that not only doesnt understand the job or perform for all of us, but actually works in opposition to his entire caucus and the entire Republican party, let only entire citizenry of District 23.

Pope will be the chair for the commissioners that will vote for Nearmans replacement. He is eyeing setting up that meeting July 7 at the Polk County Courthouse with a combination of online and limited in person public attendance.

Nearmans replacement will serve for the remainder of the current two-year term, which, in this case, is until early January of 2023  and must stand for election in November 2022 in order to serve a successive term thereafter.
SALEM  Many Oregon businesses will see smaller increases in their unemployment payroll taxes, and even forgiveness of some amounts, as a result of a bill now headed to Gov. Kate Brown.

House Bill 3389 was repassed by the House on a 56-0 vote Wednesday after it cleared the Senate on a 25-4 vote the previous day. There was no debate in either chamber.

The sole Senate amendment was to add $500,000 for 17 short-term positions to incorporate the changes into the Employment Departments computer modernization project. The first phase of the project, which starts in July, will include collection of payroll taxes that employers pay into the state unemployment trust fund. That phase is scheduled to be complete in early 2023.

The bill also sets the experience rating for businesses for 2022, 2023 and 2024  used to determine tax rates  at 2020 levels, which were determined before the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a steep economic downturn a year ago.

Many businesses closed or curtailed their operations as a result of government-ordered shutdowns intended to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in public places.

In December, the Employment Department announced that payroll tax rates for 2021 would go up based on a shift to a different schedule. The agency also said employer experience ratings would be adjusted to reflect employee layoffs and usage of unemployment benefits from the state trust fund  a move affecting thousands of businesses.

Five lawmakers from both parties took part in a group seeking ways to ease the payroll tax burden on businesses yet maintain the solvency of the state unemployment trust fund. They got technical help from David Gerstenfeld, the departments acting director for almost a year, and agency staff.

The bill is expected to result in a savings of $2.4 billion to Oregon businesses over the next nine years, while it rebuilds the trust fund to $4.8 billion by the end of the 2023-25 state budget cycle.

The bill allows:

 Businesses can defer payment of up to one-third of their 2021 payroll taxes until June 2022 if their tax rate went up by half a percentage point.

 If the tax rate went up between 1 and 1.5 percentage point, a business could be eligible for forgiveness of 50% of the deferred amount, and if the rate went up between 1.5 and 2 percentage points, forgiveness of 75% of the deferred amount. But businesses would be eligible for partial forgiveness only if they filed wage reports and paid the rest of their taxes on time in 2021, and are current on their accounts with the Employment Department.

 Employer experience ratings for 2020, which were set before the onset of the pandemic, would be the basis for payroll tax rates in 2022, 2023 and 2024. It would exclude 2021.

 The Employment Department would base its payroll tax collections for the state trust fund on a 20-year horizon, instead of the current 10 years, and the target would be about 10% lower. The state trust fund was at $5 billion at the start of the pandemic; it is about $3.7 billion now. The fund is expected to dip to $3.5 billion in mid-2023, at the end of the 2021-23 budget period, before rising back to $4.8 billion two years later. A legislative report says the fund should approach $8 billion by the end of the 2027-29 budget cycle.

The agency has paid out more than $9 billion in benefits during the past year, but much of it was from federal funds.

Oregon was among the few states that did not borrow from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits during the Great Recession a decade ago. Gerstenfeld said he does not anticipate this time that the state will have to borrow. Employers in states that borrow repay the costs and interest through higher payroll taxes.

The Legislative Revenue Office estimates that based on current schedules, payroll tax collections are projected to be $291 million less in the 2021-23 cycle, $650 million less in 2023-25, and $840 million in 2025-27.

The bill got endorsements from the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce, Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, Oregon Business & Industry and National Federation of Independent Business/Oregon.

Lawmakers who took part of writing the bill were Reps. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, and John Lively, D-Springfield, and Sens. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro, and Bill Hansell, R-Athena.
The Department of Energys consequential decision to continue the pursuit of plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site was applauded this week by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, who for years has advocated for such a ruling.

For too long, our nation has deferred nuclear modernization efforts that are beginning to impact our national security and nuclear deterrent, Wilson said in a statement Wednesday. I am grateful that the past three administrations have recognized this need and developed a resilient strategy that incorporates the capabilities of the Savannah River Site to achieve this mission.

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday announced its plans to build a factory for nuclear weapon cores  plutonium pits  at the Savannah River Site was given the go-ahead, achieving a major project milestone known as Critical Decision-1. It marks the end of conceptual design and, in this case, greenlights further work on the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility.

Critical Decision-1 lays a foundation for the future of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, Wilson said, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to see this project come to fruition.

The South Carolina Republican has used his senior seat on the House Armed Services Committee to champion the cause and steer conversations toward South Carolina and, often, in favor of the plutonium triggers. During a congressional hearing June 23, for example, Wilson extracted support for pit production in South Carolina and New Mexico from both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In accordance with the presidents budget, Wilson asked Austin, do you support two sites?

I support the presidents budget, yes, Austin responded.

With two sites, Wilson noted. Thank you.

An ongoing review of defense capabilities, Austin mentioned, will factor into what the appropriate number of sites ought to be.

The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility is expected to cost between $6.9 billion and $11.1 billion, far more expensive than previously advertised, and could come to fruition between 2032 and 2035. At least 50 nuclear weapon cores will be produced at the Savannah River plant each year, officials have promised.

Wilsons congressional district, the 2nd, includes all of Aiken and Barnwell counties as well as the Savannah River Site.
A New Mexico senator has proposed spending $30 billion to revamp the Department of Energys aging national labs, including the Savannah River National Laboratory south of Aiken.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat, pitched the funding in the Restore and Modernize Our National Labs Act, which was introduced in late June and has been referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Lujan said the legislation funds necessary updates and upgrades that enhance our national labs capacity to address 21st century challenges, like addressing climate change, creating and leading on industries of the future, and strengthening our national security.

Our national labs, including Sandia and Los Alamos in New Mexico, have helped position our country as a global leader in innovation and scientific discovery, Lujan said in a statement. However, the labs success depends on critical infrastructure that is often decades beyond its usefulness.

The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois, two Democrats. A similar measure, featuring $6 billion, was attached to the House-passed Moving Forward Act last year.

Durbin in a statement last month said scientific dominance and innovation requires proper funding; the Restore and Modernize Our National Labs Act, he continued, can offer our scientists at the world-class labs, like those at Argonne and Fermi, the support they need.

Exactly how much funding would be allocated for the Savannah River National Lab, an institution at the Savannah River Site, is unclear.

There are 17 national labs across the U.S. Each has its own flair or focus or expertise. The Savannah River National Laboratory portfolio includes everything from nuclear waste cleanup and nuclear nonproliferation to forensics and energy manufacturing.
COLUMBIA  The South Carolina Department of Public Safety (SCDPS) announced the creation of specialized teams to help curb increasing trends of aggressive driving on Wednesday.

As the state enters the Fourth of July weekend and nears the halfway point of the 100 Deadly Days of Summer, the number of roadway fatalities in 2021 has already surpassed the total number of fatalities last year.

So far this year, South Carolina has seen 496 roadway fatalities. Last year, the total number was 468, according to S.C. Highway Patrol.

"These driving behaviors are exceedingly dangerous and will not be tolerated," said Col. Christopher Williamson, commander of the Highway Patrol. "We want the public to know that the Highway Patrol will have every available trooper out this Fourth of July weekend to identify and stop these violators who are taking unnecessary risks and putting lives in danger on our roadways."

S.C. Highway Patrol troopers and officers from the State Transport Police formed "Area Coordinated Enforcement (ACE) Teams," which will provide assistance to the seven Highway Patrol troops.

ACE Teams will "use crash data and specialized resources to direct the agency's traffic enforcement efforts to the areas of the state where they are needed most," according to SCDPS.

This will include utilizing both marked and unmarked vehicles  including new additions to the Highway Patrol's fleet.

The new Highway Patrol cars, unveiled Wednesday, are striped Dodge Charges in an assortment of body and stripe colors that "allow troopers to blend in with traffic better and detect and enforce aggressive driving behaviors causing injuries and fatalities," according to SCDPS.

While Highway Patrol hopes the new vehicles will help increase roadway safety, Williamson said the new "toys" are also exciting for officers.

"They love the cars," Williamson said. "It's an exciting tool for all of them at this time and I think they will enjoy it. It's good to have a cool toy to get out there and protect people's lives, so that's how they look at it."

S.C. Highway Patrol urged members of the motoring public to put on their flashers if they are pulled over by an unmarked vehicle, slow down to indicate cooperation and follow the trooper's instructions.

If you are unsure if the vehicle is conducting a traffic stop, Williamson said you can call *HP at anytime.

SCDPS will share safety messaging throughout the Fourth of July holiday travel period on its social media pages and the agency's "Drink. Drive. Die." messaging will run through July 4 on radio and social media, according to SCDPS.

"We still have many weeks to go before the end of summer," said Williamson. "Let's get there safely together."
When home kitchen owners bring in private chefs, they usually want them to fix a meal. But one Charleston-area chef has lately started fixing his clients kitchens.

During the pandemic, especially at the beginning of it, we were home a lot more and dealing with all the different utensils back from when Id gotten married, back from college, Mount Pleasant attorney Gary Christmas said. I was using a Corning dish to put steak in.

Fed up with his culinary hodgepodge, Christmas called Ty Kotz to see if he could tell him what I need to keep and what I need to kick.

Christmas explained its common for lawyers to save time and money when getting ready for trial by hiring experts, so he figured he could apply the same strategy to his cooking setup. Kotz, a former New York City chef and cooking show contestant who had recently added organizational consulting to his professional repertoire, agreed to review Christmas inventory.

There is so much junk out there and gadgets nobody needs to be a good cook, Kotz said. I like to come in and clear it out to what they need based on how they cook. I believe it truly helps people in a way no other service does.

Kitchen assessments are still an emerging service category. While many private chefs will make over spice racks or pantries for a fee, its almost impossible to locate providers through online search engines. Even Kotz is still in the process of updating his website to reflect what he offers.

Yet it stands to reason that a growing number of home cooks will take a closer look at their kitchens in coming months. Although its still too early to codify post-pandemic behavior, Supermarket News in May reassured readers that research conducted by a Jacksonville marketing firm showed a sustained uptick in at-home meals.

Nearly 20 percent of respondents to Acostas survey said they intend to cook more meals than they did prior to COVID-19.

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Leslie Lynch, who also arranged to have her kitchen collection culled, cooked before the pandemic. But now that she has an edited set of equipment, she feels like her earlier meal-making sessions amounted to little more than food preparation.

You just totally take everything out of the kitchen, literally every single item, and decide what you really use, Lynch said. I got rid of things and added things that now I use every day.

Although Lynch declined to detail what she ditched, Christmas said Kotz instructed him to get rid of five or six different types of food processors and blenders and replace them with one appliance that does the same job. He also nixed a giant pair of outdoor grilling tongs in favor of half-sized tongs which allow Christmas to flip steaks comfortably.

Its almost like an extension of your hand, he said.

Among the additions to Christmas kitchen were a durable cutting board, extra pans for enhanced food safety and his favorite, a box of food-service plastic wrap.

I was never a big leftovers guy, but now I can have leftovers for the kids, he said. And I like the minimalist clean lines.

Kotz also included storage containers on Christmas shopping list, which consisted mostly of items in the $4 to $6 range. Christmas confessed he hasnt used those much yet, since he doesnt eat a ton of cereal.

But if he wants last nights dinner for breakfast, hes got the pork chop saved and the right knives to turn it into omelet filling.
Imagine you're out on the water, skimming along with sea salt spray cooling your sun-kissed cheeks and marshland surrounding you.

An egret takes flight from an oyster bank. A dolphin fin emerges just yards away with a bright splash. A sea turtle pops her head from behind a hunk of floating driftwood and then dives deep after a school of fish.

You're on the Bulls Island Ferry, an eco-tour excursion that takes you from a dock in Awendaw to the uninhabited wildlife refuge with 16 miles of trails, 7 miles of coastline, and the breathtaking Boneyard Beach marked by skeletal limbs and sprawling trunks clawing from the sandy shore.

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On the ride there, Capt. Nick Johnson and First Mate Annie Owens spew out a series of facts about the landscape. They point out the snowbird yachts heading up to Boston, pelicans spiraling into the sea in pursuit of lunch.

On a table in the middle of the ferry sits a pile of ocean artifacts: an alligator skull, horseshoe crab shell, giant conchs, wave-lapped bark. You can't bring driftwood back with you from the island, though there's more than a lot of it, the captain cautions. It's considered a living thing.

Once the engine idles and docks ashore, journeyers are left to their own devices, with a map of the island in hand and water bottles strapped to their backpacks. By the shoreline, breezes tickle palm fronds and rush through undergrowth with a summoning whistle.

Cicadas, just about bigger than anywhere else, buzz in sync. Down Sheepshead Ridge Road is Alligator Alley and an observation tower out over the swamp. Across Beach Road awaits a private oceanfront oasis with whole sand dollars and a spattering of angel wings underfoot.

Summerhouse Creek trickles into the unscathed wilderness on the right, while a pathway blazed through cattails and palmetto tree forests beckons in the opposite direction. An ancient oak draped with Spanish moss offers a shady refuge before the more than 2-mile-long trek to Boneyard Beach.

After a half-day of exploring, it's time to bid adieu to the refreshment of an afternoon escape and cruise back home.

The Bulls Island Ferry, which holds up to 49 passengers and departs twice daily on four days of the week in the summertime, is an option offered by Coastal Expeditions, the same company that sells Shem Creek kayak and paddleboard tours. There's also the St. Phillips Island Ferry that arrives at Hunting Island State Park in Beaufort.

"You need to commute to the wild places and not just the workplaces," said Coastal Expeditions owner Chris Crolley.

While East Coast ferries up north deliver cars across waterways, ferries down south follow in the tradition of self-powered vessels that have been shortcutting around the Charleston peninsula for centuries.

A recently discovered prehistoric canoe, buried in pluff mud in the Cooper River and dating back 4,000 years, tells us a little more about that history  of how Native people traversed the Lowcountry landscape.

"You can't leave out the history of how it started," said Crolley.

History, albeit a more modern history, also ties in to another popular local ferry, the Fort Sumter Ferry.

It's a must-do tour if you live in the area, with a compact history lesson of the start of the Civil War and then an up-close-and-personal view of where some of the first shots were fired.

There's also a barbecue dinner cruise option if you're looking to combine some newfound knowledge with recreation and good eats.

The Coastal Expeditions and Fort Sumter ferry boats are just some of a few Charleston area vessels that will get you from point A to point B (with some fun and discovery in between) via Lowcountry waterways.

These adventure options allow time for nature and history exploration, while other more practical endeavors are all about cutting out highway traffic snarls by sailing instead.

The Charleston Water Taxi and Daniel Island Ferry, for instance, have been used as commuting options, especially when the James B. Edwards Bridge over the Wando River was suddenly closed for repairs in May 2018.

"We pivoted quickly and started offering people a commute from Daniel Island to downtown and vice versa," said Daniel Island Ferry owner Colby Hollifield.

Hundreds of local employees who worked at Blackbaud, the Medical University of South Carolina and College of Charleston took advantage. COVID-19 then derailed plans to make that commute trip more permanent, though Hollifield plans to revisit the idea.

Now, a ferry does run between Daniel Island and downtown, but at nighttime, allowing residents to make dinner reservations "across the pond" and then arrive back home without having to put the keys in the ignition.

The new Kingstide restaurant on Daniel Island has drawn more people away from the peninsula, as well. And an upcoming restaurant destination at Sea Breeze Marina will be available as a stop soon, too.

Beer and wine are served onboard the ferry, initiating happy hour as the open water melts away tension from the workday and waterway views allow for a much-needed respite.

"There's nothing like a 20-foot walk to dinner and starting off the evening with a beer in hand," said Hollifield.

Dolphin watches, sightseeing tours and sunset cruises are also popular uses for these ferries.

The sunset views with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge somehow are even more impressive from the water.

For all you non-boat owners out there, hop aboard the ferry train this summer. For as little as $12 for a water taxi day pass, you can enjoy a splash of the salt life and maybe gain an experience or two along the way.
COLUMBIA  Lexington-Richland 5 trustee Nikki Gardner was livid at Superintendent Christina Melton after she re-imposed a mask requirement, lifted by the board, on the advice from district lawyers.

I cannot believe that you have directly gone against the will of the board, Gardner wrote to Melton in an email sent the evening of May 6. You have no authority to enforce masking without a (board) policy. This will cause extreme events  and I will lay it at your feet.

Gardner added that she planned seek how the board could censure Melton.

The exchange took place just seven hours after Melton was named the state's top superintendent for 2022.

Melton's last day running the 17,500-student district covering Irmo and Chapin was June 30. She received a $226,000 settlement, or nearly one-third more than her annual salary, for her resignation.

No one has said why Melton quit after three years as superintendent, but emails now being made public show that trustees had begun to lose faith in her leadership months earlier.

On Dec. 8, trustee Ken Loveless said Melton was being insubordinate by waiting more than three days to answer several questions he had about staffing levels at Chapin High School and rumors of a substitute punching a student.

That followed two other sharply worded emails to Melton  one asking her for detailed information on candidates for three administrative jobs and other regarding quarantine protocols for student athletes.

Melton defended herself against accusations that she was ignoring what was being asked of her, several times asking for clarification of board policies.

Melton acknowledged overlooking his initial text message due to sleep deprivation, keeping her district-issued cell phone locked over that weekend as she rested.

When she did respond via email, it was to ask board chairwoman Jan Hammond whether trustees wanted daily or weekly reports of high need situations.

Loveless was furious.

"Dr. Melton is telling me she will not answer me. She is looking to you for tell her if she has to answer??? I don't understand," he wrote to the superintendent and trustees. "I made specific questions known as board vice chair and I expect answers. I view this as insubordination."

A few days later, on Dec. 12, Loveless found himself again at odds with Melton.

This time he demanded she turn over logs of all "notes and interviews" from job finalists in unspecified administrative positions. But that led to some confusion among trustees about which personnel decisions and information Melton was required to provide.

"Your actions are not directed by a single board member but only by a vote of the board in public," trustee Ed White replied. White would resigned mid-meeting on June 14, just 20 minutes before Melton announced her intentions to leave.

There also were concerns over Meltons decision to let Chapin high and Irmo elementary schools keep taking students who live outside the attendance zone, even after parents expressed concerns over capacity and rezoning.

"If she will not reconsider I think we will need to have a special called meeting to consider directing her to remove these schools from the list, trustee Catherine Huddle told board chairwoman Jan Hammond on Dec. 15.

I know none of us want to tell her what to do but we will be forced to do so if she will not listen to reason," Huddle continued. "Having a special meeting will not do her or us any good. Please ask her to do the right thing are remove (the schools) from the list.

On April 30, as students, parents and staff clashed over the district's mask requirements at board meetings and during rallies held at schools, Gardner asked the board for a discussion on the districts policy. She faulted Melton for not clearly communicating the district's guidelines, including that non-mask wearer would not face punishment.

This is unconscionable and I will not be a part of it any longer," Gardner wrote. "If Dr. Melton would send out clarification, we could avoid this, but since she will not do so, I feel we have to step up and micromanage. Our current policy allows for leniency and it should be stated as such so there is no confusion.

Five days later, trustees voted 4-2 to rescind an August 2020 requirements for masks inside classrooms, turning the mandate to an option  but they revised their decision less than a week later based on a recommendation by Andrea White, the districts attorney.

She told the board a S.C. Education Association lawyer representing 100 employees planned to sue the district for repealing its policy. That led the board to adopt a May 10 resolution strongly encouraging staff and students on district property  which was written to be nullified pending changes to state guidelines.

Though Melton was never censured, White was after his resignation as trustees voted 4-2 on June 28 in responses to his decision to go public some details behind Melton's departure.

I witnessed the hostile and abusive work environment these three (Gardner, Huddle and Loveless) created for her that would make it impossible for any Superintendent to succeed, White wrote in a statement.

Meanwhile, Melton will relinquish her Superintendent of the Year honor because eligibility requirements demand she be on the job.
COLUMBIA  The faces that filled the squares in a recent virtual forum for Columbia's upcoming City Council election told the story of a political movement.

The six women who have announced plans to run for city office were part of a S.C. Democratic Women's Council June 28 event called "Get to Know Her" meant to highlight the importance of women in politics.

The number of candidates ahead of the Nov. 2 election represents the most women who longtime Columbia observers recall seeking city office during the same election.

South Carolina's second-largest city has had a handful of women throughout the years on its City Council, including one now.

The field for the 2021 election and the number of seats at stake presents a chance for the council to pick up its most female representation, with as many as three women seated in council chambers starting in 2022. That's in addition to City Manager Teresa Wilson, who oversees the day-to-day operations and serves as the council's CEO.

Tameika Isaac Devine is leaving her council seat open to run for mayor  she'd be the first woman to hold the office. Heather Bauer, Aditi Bussells and Deitra Matthews are seeking Devine's at-large seat. Tina Herbert and Christa Williams are facing off to represent North Columbia in District 1. Of these, only Devine has held elected office.

"I think the benefit to the citizens of Columbia, with the number of women who are offering themselves for office and the potential to have more women on council, is that l think you will see the leadership of the city be different," Devine said. "I think youll see our approach to issues be different. I think youll see folks who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done."

By comparison, five men are currently running for city offices, including Councilman Daniel Rickenmann and former mayoral aide Sam Johnson for mayor after Steve Benjamin decided to not seek reelection. Elsewhere, Tyler Bailey and John Tyler are seeking the at-large seat, and Joe Taylor is unopposed for Rickenmann's District 4 seat.

The rising participation among women continues a trend started with grassroots efforts to encourage more female candidates in the wake of the 2016 presidential election when Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee.

That effort starts with local boards and commissions and local elections like Columbia City Council, said Barbara Rackes, one of the founders of S.C. Women in Leadership, which encourages women to participate in government and leadership roles.

Women make up 32 percent of the elected officials on city and town councils throughout the state, according to the Municipal Association of South Carolina. They account for 52 percent of the state population.

"It's just like school, you have to learn to read before you can write a dissertation," Rackes said. "We believe in starting at the ground level and working your way up. It's the best way to gain experience."

The organization tries to impress on candidates that even if they lose their first race, the issues they raise during the campaign could have a lasting effect and the experience primes them for another run, Rackes said.

That as many women as men are running for local office shouldn't be out of the ordinary, said Bauer, a South Kilbourne resident who unsuccessfully ran against Rhodes Bailey in the 2020 Democratic primary for S.C. House District 75.

She noted that campaign events she has participated in have all somehow related to the fact she's a woman, that she hopes this doesn't have to be a conversation in the near future and she's ready to just talk about her experience and ideas for the city.

Bauer is a 2019 graduate of Emerge South Carolina, an affiliate of a nationwide program that trains Democratic women to run for office.

Devine completed the program's boot camp in 2020 after 18 years in office, and Bussells is currently enrolled. Richland County Council members Allison Terracio and Gretchen Barron are also products of Emerge.

"I'm excited as a female candidate to see other women running," Bauer said. "I was asked, 'Maybe you shouldn't run, because there's another woman running.' I said no, this should be a normal thing. You should have smart, strong women; that's a good thing. We're seeing progress for sure."

More women on the ballot could help drive turnout during an off year with no statewide or congressional seats up for grabs, said Lauren Harper, a political strategist who is on the board of S.C. Women in Leadership and working for Matthews' city council campaign. Harper worked in Benjamin's office from 2016 to 2019, a period when Devine was the only woman on the council.

"Women have been natural leaders in different spaces, they just dont always identify as leaders because they dont have titles," Harper said. "And so when they are given opportunities to run, I think women are starting to take those opportunities and lend their voices and their experiences to the discourse for the city."
COLUMBIA  Richland County will review the legality of a special road fee it has charged residents for road work after the state's highest court ruled that a similar fee in Greenville County is invalid.

In the S.C. Supreme Court ruling June 30, justices determined Greenville County's road maintenance fee is effectively an additional tax and not allowed under state law.

In an email to Richland County Council members and administrators the afternoon of June 30, acting county attorney Elizabeth McLean alerted officials to the ruling, noting that Richland County's longtime road maintenance fee is similar to Greenville County's and that she would be reviewing the county ordinance.

"I am not optimistic," McLean wrote in the email shared with The Post and Courier. "In the interim, if anyone inquires, I would suggest stating that we are aware of the decision and are looking into our own uniform service charges."

She wrote that the council could discuss the ruling during its next meeting in July.

The $20 road maintenance fee has been in place since 2002 and appears on property tax bills for each vehicle registered in the Richland County. The fee generates some $6 million each year and is restricted to costs associated with improving county roads.

The Supreme Court opinion was the result of a lawsuit filed by Greenville County state Reps. Mike Burns and Garry Smith, and state Sen. Dwight Loftis. The lawsuit in part targeted a Greenville County ordinance in 2017 that raised an existing road maintenance fee from $15 to $25.

The court found that the fee constituted a tax and not allowed under state law. State law requires that those who pay the special fees benefit from the service in a way that differs from the rest of the non-paying the general public.

In the case of Greenville County's road fee, drivers who travel through the area from anywhere in the country benefit from the road maintenance paid by the county's special fund, the court ruling said.

Justice John Kittredge, in agreeing with the Supreme Court's majority opinion, suggested the decision could have consequences throughout South Carolina.

"Local governments, for obvious reasons, want to avoid calling a tax a tax," he wrote. "I believe today's decision sends a clear message that the courts will not uphold taxes masquerading as 'service or user fees."

Conor Hughes and Nathaniel Cary contributed from Greenville.
SOCASTEE  On what would be her 28th birthday, Heather Elvis' family and friends had a fundraiser June 30 at The Cooper House in Socastee to educate and provide the public with safety resources on how to prevent someone from going missing.

Elvis was last seen Dec. 17, 2013. She was 20 at the time. Her body has not been found; her car was found abandoned at a boat landing in Socastee.

This is the sixth year the Elvis family has had a celebration for Elvis's birthday, her mother Debbi Elvis said. On hard days such as her daughter's birthday, Debbi said helping others is the best way she has found to cope.

"We wanted to do something for someone else, and all the thoughts that I have of what I could have, should have, would have done ... and I just thought, 'Well, I need to tell other people,' " Debbi Elvis said.

At the fundraiser, the Elvis family provided child ID kits and safety information for all ages to prevent circumstances that often lead to people going missing. Child ID kits include a child's photo, physical characteristics, fingerprints and more information that should be updated annually so police can use them in case a child goes missing.

Dozens of missing persons posters from Georgetown and Horry counties lined the walls, along with posters with phrases like "Grown-ups don't need to ask kids for help" and "Safety in numbers." Attendees were also encouraged to paint rocks at the event, something Debbi said Heather would have loved as a creative and artistic woman.

In collaboration with Horry County and Surfside police departments, Community United Effort (CUE) Center for Missing Persons, The Porch restaurant and The Cooper House, Debbi said she hopes people learned that anyone can go missing unexpectedly.

"It can happen to you, it can happen to your children, it can happen to your parents," Debbi said. "I have so many missing persons' posters in there that are elderly, that have wandered off, gotten lost, so many teenagers that have just all of a sudden disappeared."

Sidney Moorer, who, according to testimony, had an affair with Heather, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for obstruction of justice in the case.

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While behind bars, Moorer awaits a retrial on a charge of kidnapping Heather Elvis that could see him sentenced to another 30 years. Moorer's wife, Tammy Moorer, is serving 30 years in prison for kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap Heather.

Authorities said the Moorers plotted to abduct Heather, and prosecutors in the case painted Tammy Moorer as a jealous wife threatened by the possibility that Heather might have been pregnant with a child fathered by her husband.

Horry County Police Department Sgt. Heather Wilson said events like these are important to get the word out about how to best prevent unintentional disappearances.

"It is very important not to go with someone that you don't fully know, and someone should always know where you are at all times," Wilson said. "A lot of times, young women will go with someone that they think they can trust, and they can't necessarily trust them."

Debbi said there are a lot of misconceptions about her daughter  that she went off to a dark place with a creepy man. But really, Debbi said, Heather was just like the young women Wilson described. She believes Heather went to meet someone who she loved and thought she could trust, Debbi said, and that many people who go missing do so with or because of someone they know well.

"It was wrong time, wrong place, and that's one of my little signs inside: 'Don't be at the wrong place at the wrong time,' " Debbi said.

To learn more about Heather Elvis, visit facebook.com/findheatherelvis, or call Horry County Police at (843) 915-5350 with any tips or information.
United Community Bank, which plans to build a seven-story corporate headquarters along the Reedy River near Falls Park in downtown Greenville, announced July 1 it has officially moved its headquarters to Greenville from Blairsville, Ga., where the bank was founded.

The move makes United Community the largest bank headquartered in South Carolina. It comes as the lender prepares to construct its new office tower along East Camperdown Way in downtown Greenville in early 2022 with an anticipated completion by 2024.

The bank first had a presence in Greenville in 2012 and opened its first permanent branch in the Greenville area in 2015. It now has more than 600 employees in South Carolina and 290 in Greenville County. It plans to add an additional 227 employees at its corporate headquarters.

United Community leases office space at two locations in Greenville  the former Palmetto Bank building on East North Street and executive offices at the ONE building on West Washington Street.

Greenville provides an excellent place for our company to continue our plans for strategic growth, CEO Lynn Harton said in a written statement. As weve increased our operations here over the past nine years, were continually impressed with the strong public-private partnership that helps to thoughtfully grow this community. More importantly, this vibrant community is an excellent place for our employees and their families to live and provides a great opportunity for future recruitment.

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United has $18.6 billion in assets and 161 offices in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Harton said he expects to grow assets by $2 billion to $2.5 billion annually through growth and acquisitions.

The bank has been beefing up its Palmetto State footprint since 2015, when it completed its $241 million acquisition of Greenvilles Palmetto Bank, then the third-largest financial institution headquartered in South Carolina.

A year later, it set its sights on the coast by purchasing the ailing Mount Pleasant-based Tidelands Bank, giving it four offices in the Charleston region, two in Myrtle Beach and one in the Hilton Head market.

It then expanded its Grand Strand presence by acquiring the Loris-based parent of Horry County State Bank in a deal valued at $66 million.
MYRTLE BEACH  Four Myrtle Beach residents were indicted by a federal grand jury on accusations they were part of an international telemarketing scheme targeting seniors that corralled more than $665,000.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina said July 1 the Grand Jury returned a 13-count indictment against Fabian Gray, who also goes by Mike Taylor, 29; Avia Reid, 29; Khalelah Powell, 20; and Romaine Gordon, 29, all of Myrtle Beach. All four have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that since June 2015, the four knowingly, willfully and intentionally conspired to defraud victims by use of telemarketing, according to a release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The four are accused of falsely informing more than 100 victims, most of them elderly, that the victims had won large amounts of money and then convinced the victims that they had to pay fees in advance in order to receive their awards.

The indictment further alleges the defendants and their co-conspirators sent communications that supposedly were from a genuine sweepstakes company, financial institutions and even federal agencies that discussed the cash awards, designed to hide the true nature of the conspiracy and to convince victims of the authenticity of the winnings and fees, the indictment alleges.

The defendants then reportedly instructed how and to whom the bogus fees and taxes were to be sent. After receiving the victims' money through prepaid cards, money orders, cash, personal checks and wire transfers, the defendants, in turn, wire-transferred and carried it to co-conspirators in Jamaica and elsewhere, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that at least $665,000 was stolen in the scheme.

A Deeper Look

Starting in May 2020, special agents with the Homeland Security Investigations division out of the Charleston office began investigating Gray, who they discovered was known to utilize multiple addresses in the Myrtle Beach area and the subject of interest from a previous investigation involving Jamaican lottery scam victims.

An affidavit said that agents issued summons to phone carriers, wire transfer companies, banks, and delivery services for records they had of him or any address in relation. Through discovery, they found that much of the victims money was sent to an apartment at River Landing Apartments located near U.S. 501.

Research of the apartments address revealed a police report taken by the Tyler County, Texas Sheriffs Office in 2019. In it, a 73-year-old male told them that he was advised he won a Publishers Clearing House prize of $2 million and a vehicle, the file said.

He was instructed to pay taxes and fees to win the prizes and the apartment was one of the locations where he sent the money, according to the file.

On Sept. 21, 2020, after months of going through wire transfer records, agents began surveillance at the apartment complex and discovered Gordon allegedly driving a Porsche Cayenne, arriving at the building and then walking in. An informant previously told them that Gray was known to drive the same make of vehicle, according to the affidavit.

The file said that a USPS Express Mail package mailed from Vestal, N.Y., was scheduled for delivery on the day they were present at the complex. The mail was addressed to Troy Anderson, a name they said has been used on numerous mailings from other identified victims.

In October 2020, a Grand Jury subpoena was issued to PayPal, Inc., requesting records related to Gray, and information sent back revealed about 65 PayPal accounts he was associated with. One was linked to a Conway National bank account where he received about $62,757 while sending out $57,140 and was traced to some of his other co-defendants and an 87-year-old victim who lives in Niles, Mich., the affidavit said.

PayPal records further identified 16 of the 65 accounts were opened in the name of a suspected or confirmed victim, the file said.

On Jan. 15, 2021, agents conducted surveillance at the apartment complex in anticipation of a scheduled delivery of mail from a victim in Phoenix, Ariz., and discovered that the package was signed by a Marsha Williams, according to the affidavit.

On Feb. 5, 2021, after a scheduled delivery of mail from a suspected victim from Rochelle, Ga., agents watched a gold Honda Odyssey driven by Gray drive up to the building, pick up the package and return it to the van, the file said.

On March 26, 2021, agents went to the apartment and discovered the parked white Porsche, known to be driven by Gray and a silver Honda registered to Gordon. It says they watched Gray drive and park the Porsche near Third Avenue North and Broadway Street in Myrtle Beach and he was observed driving the car around the area in the days following, according to the affidavit.

The agents watched the apartment on May 11, 2021, observing a package being delivered while the white Porsche was parked outside, the file said.

On May 21, 2021, agents again observed the Porsche and Honda parked outside of the apartment at River Landing while also discovering a package scheduled to be sent from a victim in Gretna, Va., to an apartment on Village Center Boulevard and addressed to Gray.

All four face up to 20 years in prison per count. Because the indictment alleges the defendants targeted victims over age 55, they face an enhanced penalty of up to 10 additional years for the first 12 counts of the indictment.
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A federal judge has sentenced a Moncks Corner man to 30 years in prison for shooting at law enforcement officers during a pursuit three years ago.

A Berkeley County sheriff's deputy attempted to stop a van driven by Ricky DeWayne Johnson shortly after 2 a.m. on March 22, 2018, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Johnson, 35, fled and led the deputy on a chase in a residential subdivision, at one point performing a U-turn and opening fire on the pursuing officer with a .45-caliber pistol.

Johnson threatened the deputy again with the pistol before abandoning the van in a neighborhood cul-de-sac and running away, the release states.

A passenger in the vehicle, Vanessa Jo Bapp, also fled the van. She was arrested the following day.

Deputies found a .22-caliber handgun in the van, which had been stolen near where Johnson had run.

Hours later, two members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force encountered Johnson in downtown Summerville.

Johnson again tried to flee, pointing a handgun at marshals. The officers shot him. He was treated for a gunshot wound at a hospital and taken into custody.

Johnson had a lengthy rap sheet. He was convicted of second-degree burglary in 2009 and 2010, grand larceny in 2009 and 2013, and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in 2014, as well as various other offenses.

Johnson pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to assaulting federal law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon and a federal firearm offense; 30 years in prison was the maximum sentence for the two offenses.

Johnson's defense attorney, Charles W. Cochran, requested a lesser sentence.

In court documents, he said Johnson was unable to afford medication for schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the offense. He was abusing meth and suffering anxiety, paranoia and auditory hallucinations, Cochran said.

Johnson has five children, ranging in age from 7 to 17, Cohran said, and enjoys close family support from his mother, sister and grandmother.
NORTH CHARLESTON  A man has been arrested in the June 22 shooting death of teenager Jaquez Butler, according to the North Charleston Police Department.

Israel Malachi Robinson, 19, was charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, the department said.

The attempted murder charge is in regards to another person at the scene who was shot at, but not shot, police spokesman Harve Jacobs said.

Police located Robinson in the Pinecrest neighborhood on June 30, interviewed and then arrested him, according to the release.

The investigation is ongoing, Jacobs said.

The Charleston County Coroners Office identified the teen shot the night of June 22 in a North Charleston neighborhood as Butler, who was 16.

Police officers were dispatched to the area of Old Pine Circle and Pine Forest Drive for reports of a person on the ground near a playground about 8:20 p.m. June 22, according to an incident report.

Upon arrival officers located a male victim in a playground who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, according to the July 1 press release. The victim was pronounced deceased on scene.

Butler was from the tri-county area, according to the Coroners Office.

Robinson faces two earlier criminal cases, which remain pending court action. He was arrested in July 2020 on a count of assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest and a count in March of domestic violence. Both cases are working their way through the court system.
The State Law Enforcement Division has opened an investigation into the findings of a new forensic audit of Allendale County that revealed severe accounting deficiencies, including undocumented cash withdrawals and thousands of dollars in unreported bonuses, an agency spokesman confirmed.

Duffie Stone, 14th Circuit solicitor, requested the investigation, SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby confirmed to The Post and Courier.

"No additional information is available at this time as we begin our active investigation," Crosby added.

Stone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The forensic audit, released June 29, cited a range of accounting deficiencies that left the county at serious risk of fraud. County officials lack checks and balances in their accounting practices, have issued payments without invoices and havent kept a general ledger for at least 13 years, among problems the auditors found.

For instance, the sheriff withdrew thousands in cash with no explanation. The clerk of court paid thousands in Christmas bonuses to staff, including herself, without reporting them. And the rural county has at least 45 bank accounts, some in individuals names, the audit says.

Allendale County Council members sought the audit after complaining that the county treasurer, who is elected, was not providing them basic information about revenue, among other concerns, to no avail.

Council Chairman Rick Gooding, who took the helm in January, said the forensic audit revealed alarming problems that must be addressed.

Its appalling to me and troubling, he said. It paints a bad picture for Allendale County. It really does. But County Council is going to fully cooperate with SLED.

He added that the audit also gave the council a good road map. Weve just got to put one foot in front of the other.

The treasurer, Gerzell Chaney, resigned several weeks ago, citing talks with her attorney. It came just days after state Sens. Brad Hutto and Margie Bright Matthews wrote to the governor urging him to take action because Chaney's "failures have placed Allendale County, and its school district, in financial peril."

Meanwhile, Sheriff Tom Carter had taken out an account named "drug money" in his personal name and did not disclose it to the county administrator. In 2020, more than $11,000 was deposited into that account, including a single deposit for $10,565 labeled simply drug money." Yet, the deposit wasnt linked to any court proceedings, the audit found.

Carter also personally withdrew thousands of dollars from the account. He took out nine cash withdrawals totaling $5,095 but provided no explanation of why he was withdrawing $3,695 of that money, the audit says.

There was no approval process for these cash withdrawals, no dual control, and no reporting to the County Administrator, the auditors wrote. This is a material weakness and creates the potential for fraud.

Carter did not respond to a request for comment.

The audits revelations come amid a decadelong parade of scandals involving South Carolina sheriffs. And beyond sheriffs, a lack of scrutiny and financial controls has led to myriad allegations of all kinds of mismanagement  or worse  committed by public officials, from judges to superintendents. The Post and Courier is investigating them this year in its Uncovered series.

In rural Allendale County, which sits on the Georgia border, the audit's findings didn't surprise residents who have watched their county struggle with poverty, low-performing schools and public corruption. Over the past five years alone, the state has taken over its school district for the second time while three of Allendales public officials went to jail on embezzlement charges.

Now, the forensic audit shows far-reaching financial risks to the county, given a major lack of checks and balances and questionable accounting practices. For example, officials kept no master list of capital assets, and payments for jail renovations were made without invoices.

The county clerk, Elaine Sabb, has nine bank accounts and is the sole person receiving and distributing money in them, the audit says.

She paid $13,195 in Christmas bonuses to her staff, including herself, out of a discretionary fund in 2020. The bonus checks ranged from $3,720 to $1,295, but Sabb didnt account for them in the county payroll system or report them to the IRS on W-2s, the audit says.

Sabb did not respond to a request for comment.

Many local residents hope the forensic audit and SLED investigation finally will bring answers to a community rife with concerns over the handling of taxes paid by residents, many of whom are elderly and living in poverty.

Angel Brabham recently created the Facebook page Concerned Citizens of Allendale County to press for transparency from county officials.

"I pray they get a grip on things," she said, "and real consequences happen for those who are truly guilty."
Roger Rollins is the executive director of The Family and Marriage Coalition of Aiken, Inc. Contact him at 803-640-4689, rogerrollins@aikenfamco.com or www.aikenfamco.com.
A small slice of South Carolina history is about to open to the public.

The Hamburg Exhibit at the North Augusta Arts and Heritage Center opens July 15 for a limited time to explain the history of this forgotten town along the Savannah River.

The exhibit was curated by George Forbes and Garland Gooden, North Augusta residents who created a detailed timeline of events with artifacts. They started to gather more information after a previous exhibit on Hamburg was created in 2012.

Hamburg was once a one-stop shipping and railroad port along the Savannah River, located near the Fifth Street bridge. Started by German immigrant Henry Shultz in the early 1800s, the town quickly boomed and rivaled Augusta.

I think technology was responsible for both the growth and the decline of Hamburg, Forbes said. The railroads were developed because of Hamburg. The Charleston merchants were hurting for business because everybody was moving inland and werent shopping in Charleston as much. They were desperate for shipping and they actually built the first and longest railroad in the world from Charleston to Hamburg to specifically get the upland farmers and merchants business.

Just as quickly as the town rose through the prominence of the railroad and steamboat systems, it collapsed. The railroads and steamboat systems continue to expand into modern day Atlanta and Augusta. The tension in the community leading up to the Hamburg Massacre and extreme floods eventually led the town to be demolished in the early 20th century.

The land that was once the major port of Hamburg is now grassy and unused.

Shultz was either one of the luckiest people in the world or one of the unluckiest people in the world, depending on what month or year you were talking about, Forbes said.

Clocks, newspaper clippings, postage and even building materials from the era are featured in display cases inside the North Augusta Arts and Heritage Center.

Gooden said he didnt know much about the town previously. His research to create the book, "The Story of Hamburg: South Carolinas Forgotten Town," helped him clarify some of the history that had been dramaticized over time through oral storytelling.

I was born and raised here and I had no idea what Hamburg was, Gooden said. I heard the name. I wasnt even sure where it had been so this was all an eye opener for me.

I was just amazed at the story, Gooden added. I didnt even know about the massacre and I think most people in North Augusta have no idea what Hamburg was, and I think that is part of our history and they ought to be known, the good and the bad.

The men hope that people can learn about Hamburg and its significance on the community in full.

These artifacts show the daily life of people that live there and make it real, Gooden said. And it certainly did for me.

A reception will be held to honor the opening of the exhibit 5-7 p.m. Thursday, July 15. To learn more about the exhibit, visit https://www.artsandheritagecenter.com/ online.
Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.
Im a New Orleans resident who recently visited extended family in Charleston.

News of Charlestons plan to build a seawall to protect downtown recalls New Orleans struggles with flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

We learned that walls are extremely expensive to build and maintain. We also learned that even the best walls dont stop all the water all the time.

I own a consulting firm and was hired as an adviser to write a few of Louisianas coastal master plans post-Katrina. We stopped using the word protect when describing what structures such as sea walls can do.

Instead, we said these measures can reduce flood risk if we also manage stormwater and restore wetlands.

The water is rising in both our cities. After making many mistakes in New Orleans, were slowly learning that durable flood protection comes when we create sensible land-use plans and a strong civic fabric, one that gives every resident a voice in decision-making, clear information about risk and practical options for handling it.

AMY CLIPP

Lowerline Street

New Orleans

Follow mask rules

Some people enter establishments where mask wearing is required and refuse to follow the rules. Having had the COVID-19 vaccination is not an exemption.

People who take their mask off inside should leave instead. They may be jeopardizing my health and others.

The rule of no shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service can be the new norm since these establishments have a duty to protect other customers and their staff. Please cooperate or go elsewhere.

ROBERT KLOWAS

Ashley Crossing Drive

Charleston

Move into 21st century

When will the politics of our state move from a backwoods mentality into the 21st century? Critical race theory is more about teaching students how to think than what to think.

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I find it alarming that U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman, William Timmons, Nancy Mace, Joe Wilson, Tom Rice and Jeff Duncan, all of whom are members of the Republican Party, sent a letter to the presidents of the University of South Carolina and Clemson University asking that the schools stop teaching critical race theory in their educational courses.

I recall that when I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1965 with a degree in biology, the shadow of the Scopes Trial was still hanging over the campus.

Our biology professors had to be careful not to use the word evolution. So they taught us that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny as a way to skirt the evolution dilemma.

How much longer will it be until we have book burnings and revert back to Neolithic times?

HARTMUT FEGE

Bent Tree Lane

Pawleys Island

Hear the Declaration

Thomas Jefferson worked on the Declaration of Independence between June 11 and June 28, 1776.

It has become one of our nations most cherished symbols of liberty.

Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people.

At 9 a.m. Sunday, the Washington Light Infantry and the Old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon will sponsor a public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Sections of Broad and East Bay streets in downtown Charleston will be closed temporarily for this event.

We invite all to come out and bring water and a chair if needed. American flags will be distributed.

We invite the public to come to this great event.

What a fantastic way to start the celebration of our founding and to be living in the greatest nation in the world: the United States of America.

HENRY SIEGLING

Meeting Street

Charleston
Editors note: This story was produced in collaboration with two Uncovered partners, The News & Reporter of Chester and The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg.

South Carolinas secretive, slow-moving system for policing its judges allows the accused to remain on the bench for years despite serious questions about their character and impartiality, an Uncovered investigation has found.

In one case, a Chester County judge still sits as a magistrate despite persistent complaints that her conflicts with the sheriffs department make her position untenable. Court officials havent acted on a grievance detailing the concerns in the two years since it was filed.

Another judge in Orangeburg County continues to preside in municipal court despite a lengthy criminal investigation into allegations that she siphoned thousands of dollars from a sale of family property. That matter was first brought to South Carolinas Office of Disciplinary Counsel in December 2018.

Records documenting those and other complaints, obtained by The Post and Courier, offer a rare glimpse into the kind of allegations that South Carolina allows judges to face in secret.

The Disciplinary Counsels office, an investigative arm of the state Supreme Court, receives more than 200 complaints against the states judges each year. But those investigations almost never lead to a judge being removed or even publicly reprimanded.

Its one of myriad ways that South Carolina allows government officials to police themselves and escape public scrutiny. Through its investigative series Uncovered, The Post and Courier has partnered with local newspapers to crack the lid on the states broken system of ethical oversight.

Its a state where serious allegations of illegal or improper behavior by police, teachers, mayors, county council members and other officials are kept tucked away in government offices in Columbia, or shielded from the public entirely.

But, as The Post and Courier first revealed in a joint 2019 investigation with ProPublica, few systems are as lenient and cloaked in secrecy as the one overseeing the states judges.

Bound by confidentiality protections that far exceed what South Carolina offers to other officials, the states disciplinary office shares its work with no one. And unlike almost every other state, South Carolina has gone decades without publicly sanctioning any of the states powerful circuit judges despite more than 1,000 complaints, the news organizations found.

The latest cases show how judges of South Carolinas lower courts also escape public scrutiny. Magistrates and municipal judges, collectively the states busiest judges, handle hundreds of thousands of low-level criminal and civil cases a year.

They do not have to be attorneys, a profession steeped in legal and ethical training. About three-quarters of the states magistrates lack a law license, The Post and Courier and ProPublica reported in 2019.

Now, confidential records obtained by The Post and Courier show that sitting judges have been accused of abusing their positions or breaking the law. Yet the judges have remained on the bench for years while disciplinary officials pore over the allegations in secret.

Its nearly impossible for the public to determine how seriously the allegations are taken. The disciplinary agency shields access to its investigative files.

And theres no way of knowing if delays result from understaffing  a spokeswoman would not even tell a reporter how many full-time employees work for the agency. The agency also declined to make its top official, John Nichols, available for an interview.

Left in the dark are the public, the people who file complaints and even politicians who are responsible for appointing judges.

As a municipal judge, Chasity Avinger is appointed by local officials in Orangeburg, Santee and Holly Hill. Her handling of thousands of dollars in proceeds in a real estate matter drew a two-year probe by the State Law Enforcement Division and a case before the disciplinary agency that is still pending.

Avinger told The Post and Courier the dispute over family money had nothing to do with her role as a judge. She denied doing anything illegal.

But the mayors of the three towns where she presides had no idea about the investigations into her conduct. Each first learned of the issue when contacted by The Post and Courier in June.

I know absolutely nothing about what youre talking about, Holly Hill Mayor William Johnson said. Whoever did this oversight didnt think enough to call the mayor who she works for.

Debts unpaid

When someone decides to file a complaint against a judge, the disciplinary agency warns them: The process will take time, and investigators dont always stay in contact as the probe runs its course.

Its not surprising that some cases drag on for years, said Greg Adams, a professor emeritus with the University of South Carolina School of Law who specializes in legal ethics.

Some of the cases are exceedingly complex and labor intensive, Adams said. Still, he added, Does the system work as expeditiously as it ought to? The answer is no.

Consider the 2018 complaint filed against Avinger, a licensed attorney since 2011.

Avingers brother-in-law, Michael Bloom, accused her of stealing thousands of dollars in real estate funds. He sent the complaint to the Disciplinary Counsels office, which polices lawyers in addition to judges.

Bloom also shared the complaint with law enforcement, and SLED opened a probe.

The family had obtained ownership of five properties from Blooms father-in-law, but learned they owed thousands in back taxes. To clear those debts, they sold one of the properties for roughly $5,600.

The proceeds would have covered nearly all the familys back taxes in 2018. Avinger would later acknowledge that, as the lawyer in the family, she agreed to handle the payments.

But when the $5,600 arrived, Avinger instead deposited the money into her and her husbands bank account. The familys debts went unpaid.

Bloom, 49, and his wife, Danni Bloom, 48, were relying on Avinger.

The family, including Avingers husband, had struck a deal with a real estate agent to list three of the remaining inherited properties for sale for $50,000, a contract shows.

The Blooms planned to put their share of the proceeds into an account for their 23-year-old son, who lives with severe autism, the couple said in an interview.

Hes going to need 24-hour care for the rest of his life, Danni Bloom said. We were busy getting our estate planning in order to ensure that after we have passed on that he will be taken care of.

Meanwhile, Avinger had begun missing payments on a property she bought in 2017 for her law office, records show. And she owed thousands of dollars to her sister through a separate private loan. A judge would eventually hand down a $36,250 judgment against Avinger.

She later told The Post and Courier she ran into trouble after incurring costs for her familys health care. Still, she had assured the family she would pay off their back taxes with the $5,600 from the initial sale.

Later, she made the same promise to SLED.

I understand Im responsible for those taxes, Avinger told agents in June 2019. I understand moving forward those taxes have to be paid and that I have to pay them.

But the end of 2019 came and went, and Avinger still hadnt made the payments. Agents attempted to question Avinger again, but she didnt return their messages, the investigative records show.

In her response to The Post and Courier, Avinger insisted she answered all the agents questions and cooperated with the investigation.

The debts unpaid, the county seized the familys three properties and sold them at tax sales. The $50,000 listing, and the Blooms' hopes to put that money away for their son, went up in smoke.

No recourse

After Avinger failed to pay the taxes in 2019, law enforcement considered an arrest, according to SLED agents notes in the investigative file.

But prosecutors and law enforcement ultimately declined to bring any charges against the judge.

This matter appears to be civil in nature and would best be resolved in civil court, Fourteenth Circuit Deputy Solicitor Sean Thornton wrote in November 2020.

Thornton told The Post and Courier the case was reviewed by prosecutors in the 14th and 1st Circuits joint Public Integrity Unit, and that the decision not to prosecute was unanimous.

The Blooms have not sued in civil court.

In response to emailed questions from The Post and Courier, Avinger denied doing anything improper. She said she deposited the money into a bank account she shared with her husband because a portion of the money belonged to him. She did not explain why she declined to pay the property taxes.

The Blooms have one property left from their inheritance. With help from two outside partners, they are now trying to sell that land to collect some money to help care for their son.

As they prepare for that sale, the Blooms are also still waiting for a ruling from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

After receiving the couples complaint in December 2018, disciplinary officials opted to wait for SLEDs investigation to conclude before proceeding with their own probe, notes from a SLED agent indicate.

Ginny Jones, the disciplinary agencys spokeswoman, would not explain whether that decision falls in line with the agencys policies. But Michael Virzi, a former disciplinary investigator, told The Post and Courier that the agency commonly waits for criminal investigations to run their course in order to avoid duplicating work.

First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, whose office worked on the Avinger case with the 14th circuit, said law enforcements decision to decline prosecution should have little to no bearing on the disciplinary agencys investigation of Avingers conduct.

First contacted on June 22, Jones said Nichols, the disciplinary agencys top official, was unavailable for an interview. She requested questions be sent in writing, then declined to address several key issues.

All the Bloom family knows is that their complaint, two and a half years later, is still pending.

Its like we have no recourse, Danni Bloom said. Theres nothing that the little man can do to stand up to attorneys and judges.

Questionable actions

Closer to the disciplinary offices in Columbia, Chester County Magistrate Angel Underwood has held on to her job as one of the countys five magistrates despite a string of controversies.

First, the Supreme Court suspended her for a year as disciplinary investigators discovered she had failed to disqualify herself from more than 100 cases brought by the Chester County Sheriffs Office while her husband, Alex Underwood, was the elected sheriff.

Then, the Chester News & Reporter revealed that Underwood successfully petitioned then-County Supervisor Shane Stuart to pay her $39,000 for the time she was suspended. The lump sum payment was legally questionable, since the Supreme Court had already advised the county it didnt owe Underwood the money. And it wasnt approved by the county council, whose members later asked the state Attorney Generals Office to investigate the payment.

In 2019, The Post and Courier and ProPublica reported that Underwood flew first class on the publics dime to a conference in Reno, Nev., on trips arranged by her husband, the sheriff at the time. Federal prosecutors eventually charged Alex Underwood, alleging he abused his power and skimmed public money to finance the trips.

Whether disciplinary officials have asked Angel Underwood to explain her actions or her use of public money is anybodys guess. The agency declined to answer questions about the case.

Angel Underwood was never a defendant in the federal case, though her name came up repeatedly in her husbands trial. Alex Underwood was convicted on seven corruption and abuse charges. He awaits sentencing.

More complaints

Angel Underwood's ties to her husband's department led to a 2019 complaint from one of her colleagues, former Chester County Magistrate Barbara Cameron.

In that complaint, obtained by The Post and Courier, Cameron alleged Angel Underwood remained constantly involved in the operations of the sheriffs department while her husband ran it. The judge huddled behind closed doors with top deputies and helped forward crime tips for deputies to follow up on, Cameron wrote in the complaint.

Angel Underwood even presided over a drunken-driving case brought by her husbands office, then forged Camerons name on a court document to cover it up, Cameron alleged.

The appearance of impartiality and fairness between the departments was laughable, Cameron wrote in the complaint, which disciplinary officials have yet to resolve.

Angel Underwood also secretly helped deputies draft a complaint against two of her colleagues on the bench, The Post and Courier and ProPublica reported at the time.

In the interim, the countys new sheriff has filed his own complaint against the judge, alleging Angel Underwood has a bias against the department since her husbands 2019 ouster.

Sheriff Max Dorsey noted he defeated Alex Underwood in the 2020 election, and that five of Dorseys deputies testified in the former sheriffs trial. Dorsey did not cite specific examples, but a March 15 complaint insisted that Angel Underwoods handling of any sheriffs department matters has great potential to be unfair.

Until recently, Underwood held the post of chief magistrate. That meant she was in charge of her fellow judges, though held no formal authority to discipline or sanction them. Through his annual selections of chief judges in every county, State Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty removed her as Chesters chief magistrate on July 1.

Still, for weeks after her husbands trial, magistrates under Underwoods supervision remained tasked with considering criminal warrants submitted by Dorseys department. In an interview, Dorsey questioned why those judges had rejected what the sheriff considered to be legitimate requests.

Records from one case, obtained by the newspaper through an open-records request, show a deputy magistrate denied an arrest warrant for a man who published several Facebook posts calling for Chester police and sheriffs deputies to be killed.

In another, a magistrate rejected a warrant request for a man who allegedly trespassed onto a womans property, exposed himself to her and then peed on her husbands truck.

I cant think of another reason why they would be rejected, Dorsey told the newspaper.

The disciplinary agency didnt open an investigation into Dorseys complaint until June 1, about three weeks after The Post and Courier began asking questions about the issue.

Underwoods attorney, I.S. Leevy Johnson, declined to comment on what he described as a false complaint.

Our detailed response to the meritless complaint will be contained in our response that we will submit to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel in a timely manner, he said.

The Post and Courier asked Beatty if he had any concerns that the matters against Underwood are still pending. Through Jones, the courts spokeswoman, Beatty did not answer.

Cameron declined to discuss details, but when asked how she felt about the delay, through her lawyer, she gave a one-word answer: Disgusted.

An outlier system

Some lawmakers have called for a more streamlined system of accountability for the states judges.

State Sen. Tom Davis, a Beaufort Republican, is among those leading the charge for reform. He contends the oversight of lower court judges like magistrates should fall more in line with South Carolinas circuit judges, who handle all felony and major civil cases.

Those judges are screened in public hearings before the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. As it stands, the Disciplinary Counsel is the only one in charge of policing magistrates and municipal judges, who also handle minor criminal offenses.

Thats why its critical that when the disciplinary agency receives complaints about those judges, the agency takes the matters seriously and acts quickly, Davis said.

The lack of responsiveness from (Disciplinary Counsel) or the tolerance for these things is indicative that still the magistrate system is looked at as being an outlier, Davis said. That's something that has to change."

While Underwoods complaints have sat pending, to keep her seat on the bench she has needed only the support of Chesters lone senator, state Sen. Mike Fanning. The Great Falls Democrat has been a close ally to Underwood and her husband for years, endorsing them for public office and regularly posting pictures with the pair.

During the last round of reappointments in 2019, Fanning installed four new magistrates. The only one he kept was Underwood. In an interview, Fanning summed up her performance as magistrate in one word: Outstanding.

Davis proposed Magistrate Reform Act would do away with the practice of sole appointments, and add other layers of scrutiny to their appointments.

A separate proposal by Rep. Tommy Stringer, a Greer Republican, called for a legislative panel to investigate the Disciplinary Counsels office. But his request, filed in December 2019, has stalled in the state House of Representatives.

The key question for Stringer: Why does South Carolina discipline judges so rarely? Two years later, he hasnt gotten an answer.
OMBRE GA'CHONG

As we celebrate the birth of our nation today, the United States of America, it is a good time to take pause and look how far we have come, wh Read more
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Carl Hessler Jr. is a multi-media reporter who writes about crime and justice from the Montgomery County Courthouse for 21st Century Media Newspapers Greater Philadelphia area publications. Follow Carl on Twitter: @MontcoCourtNews
Guest column

Pennsylvanians 50 and older can save on health insurance
I know, this is a post we could do several times a day. But here are a couple of examples of the sheer insanity of todays Left.

First, in Ohio GOP representative Jena Powell introduced a bill to prohibit boys from competing in girls sports. Just a few years ago, this would have been noncontroversial, if anyone had even thought of such a thing. But today, the trans ideology has become an article of faith among Democrats. So Democrats in the Ohio House responded disgracefully to Rep. Powells bill:

Disgraceful behavior from Rep. Michael Skindell at the Ohio House yesterday as Rep. Jena Powell tried to speak. pic.twitter.com/zp8aPsxiyg  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 29, 2021



Here, nutty Democrats humiliated themselves in a cause that can only be described as weird.

Not as weird, though, as what happened in Minneapolis yesterday. The Vice President of Minneapoliss City Council, Andrea Jenkinsa trans African-American woman with a shaved headwas held hostage in her car for around two hours by a far-lefteven farther-leftmob that would not let her go until (s)he signed a pledge to support their crackpot agenda.

In the end, Jenkins signed a list of demands agreeing, among other things, to leave George Floyd Square alone, support the creation of a civilian-led commission to oversee police, and call for the mayors resignation. After she signed, people agreed to step away, clearing the way for the car she was riding in to drive off.

***

In a statement posted on Facebook, Jenkins said she was verbally attacked, berated and held hostage against my will by a large group of angry protesters.

Those who commit the crime of false imprisonment are not protesters, they are criminals. Yet they get what they want with no penalty other than a mild condemnation from local politicians.

The ringleader of the felons live-streamed their attack on Councilwoman Jenkins on Facebook. Here it is. Even if you think you fully appreciate how insane the Left is, the video is shocking:

For the life of me, I dont understand why Jenkins didnt just direct her driver (partner?) to drive away, slowly. The lunatics would have gotten out of the way.

Anyway, that is Episode MCLXIV in the craziness of liberals.
I met todays special guest, Gigi Georges, very briefly on a quick visit to Boston College several years ago when I passing through town, and so I was delighted to get a copy of her charming new book, Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America in the mail.

If you only go by the major media or your local college sociology department, youd think rural America is a hopeless domain of drug and alcohol addiction, downward mobility, and dysfunction. Far from it, at least in rural Maine, where Gigi, after relocating with her family from high powered positions in Washington, New York, and Cambridge, decided to spend several years getting to know and tracking several young women as they made their way through the challenges of their small, working class communities.

Downeast refers to the remote northeastern corner of Maine that is overlooked by tourists, summer sailors, and fall leaf-peepers, and the story Georges tells is one of resiliency rather than the cliche of a downward spiral that is most often summoned to mind for the rural midwest and elsewhere. Downeast is thus a success story of sorts, showing that vital community support networks, both formal and informal, depend ultimately on the shared rootedness of the place, which cant be replicated or preserved by what she calls codified institutions. As such her stories of the five main subjects and their community is a Tocquevillian treatment.

Our conversation about this charming and beautifully written book ranges widely from the stories of the five girls to the role and resiliency of the lobster fishing industry, and we have some callbacks to some classic works that bear on the wider subject, such as Robert Nisbets Quest for Community, and Jane Jacobs Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Georges is a former White House Special Assistant to the President and Communications Director for the New York City Department of Education; she has taught political science at Boston College, served as Program Director for the Harvard Kennedy Schools Innovation Strategies Initiative, and been a Managing Director of The Glover Park Groupa leading national strategic communications firm. She and her family live part-time in Downeast Maine.

You know what to do now: Listen here, or head downeast to our hosts at Ricochet.
The second case decided by the Supreme Court today was Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta. The case arises out of an initiative by Kamala Harris, when she was Californias Attorney General, to force nonprofits to disclose to the state the identities of their major donors.

Schedule B to [IRS] Form 990the document that gives rise to the present disputerequires organizations to disclose the names and addresses of their major donors.

***

Since 2001, each petitioner has renewed its registration and has filed a copy of its Form 990 with the Attorney General, as required by Cal. Code Regs., tit. 11, 301. To preserve their donors anonymity, however, the petitioners have declined to file unredacted Schedule Bs, and they had until recently faced no consequences for noncompliance. In 2010, the State increased its enforcement of charities Schedule B disclosure obligations, and the Attorney General ultimately threatened the petitioners with suspension of their registrations and fines for noncompliance.

Following a trial, the district court found for the plaintiff charities:

[T]he District Court held that disclosure of Schedule Bs was not narrowly tailored to the States interest in investigating charitable misconduct. The court found little evidence that the Attorney Generals investigators relied on Schedule Bs to detect charitable fraud, and it determined that the disclosure regime burdened the associational rights of donors. The District Court also found that California was unable to ensure the confidentiality of donors information.

This, of course, was the point. It was generally assumed that Harris wanted to know the identities of donors to conservative organizations so that they could be harassed by various California agencies, or so that their identities could be leaked in order for them to be canceled by left-wing activists.

In both cases, the court found that the petitioners had suffered from threats and harassment in the past, and that donors were likely to face similar retaliation in the future if their affiliations became publicly known.

The Supreme Court has long recognized that forced disclosure of association with a group can chill First Amendment rights. The seminal case was NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson:

We have also noted that [i]t is hardly a novel perception that compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute as effective a restraint on freedom of association as [other] forms of governmental action. NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449, 462 (1958).

***

As part of an effort to oust the [NAACP] from the State, the Alabama Attorney General sought the groups membership lists. Id., at 452453. We held that the First Amendment prohibited such compelled disclosure.

In my view, this should not have been a difficult case. But the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district courts decision, and the vote in the Supreme Court was 6-3, with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer dissenting. Justice Sotomayor made this very silly argument:

The same scrutiny the Court applied when NAACP members in the Jim Crow South did not want to disclose their membership for fear of reprisals and violence now applies equally in the case of donors only too happy to publicize their names across the websites and walls of the organizations they support.

Of course some donors are happy to publicize their support for a particular nonprofit, but others, fearing personal harassment or damage to business interests, are not. Which is why the nonprofits in this case did not want to give Kamala Harris their donor lists. It is unusual to see such a foolish argument in a Supreme Court opinion.

The fact that liberal judges were happy to side with Californias effort to pry donor lists loose from conservative organizations is a stark reminder of the importance of not losing control over the Supreme Court to the Left.
The 2021 Frontier Days Ambassador Rylie Anderson stands with her grandmother Bev Anderson and a group of friends after the official crowning ceremony, June 24.
Since Nigeria recorded its index case of coronavirus in February, 2020, there have been several claims of home remedies that can cure the virus.

These claims are unverified as COVID-19 is a new strain of virus that has not been experienced before, but then, people eagerly embraced them as they were desperate for remedy and would embrace any that comes their way.

The reaction of most is similar to how many Nigerians embraced untested remedies for the Ebola virus some years ago. One of those is the prescription by a monarch, Attah of Igala, Idakwo Michael Ameh Oboni, who recommended salt solution as a magical vaccine against the virus.

The prescription quickly went viral on social media and an other text messaging platforms. This resulted in the death of two Nigerians and, at least, 20 were hospitalised for excessive salt intake.

Although social media has a tremendous impact on the Nigerian publics collective perception, knowledge, and attitude about issues like this, sometimes, it does harm by triggering unjustified alarms, spreading fears, offering unscientific cures, and dismissal of medical advice.

Dealing with cases like this, only information verified by authorities like Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the World Health Organization(WHO), National Primary Health Care Development Agency, etc. are to be trusted.

Margaret Bolarinwa, a septuagenarian woman, said she suffered the harsh side effects of garlic in the heat of coronavirus spread.

She had gotten a forwarded message on WhatsApp that garlic cures and prevents one from contracting the virus during the lockdown in April 2020.

I take garlic normally because I am a BP patient, but then, I increased the intake since it is said that it cures the deadly virus.

I take it first thing in the morning, during the day, and also at night.

I started noticing that I get weak quickly, I urinate frequently and feel nauseous. If you know me very well, I am not one that just sits down, I am very agile.

One of the times, I went to urinate in the bathroom and I almost passed out, it was then I checked my BP and noticed it was low! I then realised I had taken things too far with garlic.

Part of the precautions people took against contracting the virus was taking different supplements to strengthen their immune system.

Felicia Waziri and her sister Keziah narrated their ordeal with Vitamin C.

Ms Waziri said there has been a history of ulcer ailment in their family and her sister has been managing her own, even though she (Felicia) has never felt it before.

But during the lockdown, my uncle sent us a message on WhatsApp advising a number of immunity drugs and vitamins to protect against COVID, part of it was Vitamin C.

Everyone in the house started using it, it was my sister that first complained of this serious stomach ache, we didnt take her seriously until I got my attack. I was too reluctant to go to the hospital then for fear of getting infected but when the pain increased I went.

I was then diagnosed and it was confirmed to be an ulcer, the doctor asked for the drugs I have been taking and advised that I drop the vitamin C immediately, she said.

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Ms Keziah said even though she had been managing her ulcer before then, the pain from the stomach cramps became intense

I have been able to manage my ulcer to the point where I dont need to feel pain frequently but during that period, I cry like a baby. I have stopped using all the supplements we bought then, and the pain has reduced unlike before she said.

Also, Adamu Mahmud narrated how he experienced constant heartburn with the use of lemon, ginger, and garlic.

This combination is part of the home remedy being rumored on social media for COVID -19.

My heartburn no get part two, Mr Mahmud said lightly in Pidgin English.

It was so discomforting that sometimes I could not sleep. It was until I traced back the genesis that I then stopped taking the mixture.

Since then I have been okay. All these self-medications can kill, he said.

Misinformation as tool of health problems

In trying to prevent or cure the virus, several claims could be considered dangerous because it has to do with ingestion. It ranges from taking natural herbs like garlic and ginger to taking alcohol and even ethanol.

Yes, some of these may be safe to take, especially the natural herbs, but in the event of overdose, there have been documented long-term health issues associated with it.

Claim 1: Eating garlic will cure COVID 19

Sylvie Briand, the director in the Department of Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness, said this to be false.

Her verification can be relied upon because she and her team in WHO track several dangerous and infectious pathogens around the globe including COVID -19.

She said the abuse of garlic intake is not good for the health while expecting it to cure the disease.

Garlic is a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties. However, no evidence from the current outbreak eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus, she said.

Claim 2: Taking Alcohol to kill the virus

Verification: Ms Briand said drinking alcohol does not cure or prevent COVID-19 infection

The virus is not sensitive to the alcohol we drink but maybe people are confused because they see that we use hydroalcoholic gel to wash our hands but in reality, the alcohol that is in the hydroalcoholic gel is much more concentrated and this is certainly not something you can drink, otherwise you will have a serious side effect

Claim 3: Taking lemon, ginger, and honey

Verification: WHO has clarified that these may make one feel better during the common cold or the flu which are part of the symptoms of the virus, but are not a cure for COVID- 19.

At a press conference in Geneva, Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, advised that people can take lemon, ginger, and honey if it works as a remedy for flu or cold.

But please, let us avoid making assumptions without evidence that certain things can cure COVID-19. At the moment there is no proven therapy for COVID-19.

Claim 4: COVID-19 can be treated with antibiotics

Verification: Antibiotics work only against bacteria, not viruses.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus, and therefore antibiotics should not be used for prevention or treatment.

However, if you are hospitalised for COVID-19, you may receive antibiotics because bacterial co-infection is possible.

Claim 5: Drinking methanol, ethanol, or bleach

Methanol, ethanol, and bleach are poisons. Drinking them can lead to disability and death. Methanol, ethanol, and bleach are sometimes used in cleaning products to kill the virus on surfaces  however, you should never drink them. They will not kill the virus in your body and they will harm your internal organs.

Between February 20 and April 7, Aljazeera reported that 728 Iranians died after ingesting toxic methanol, erroneously thinking it can cure the new coronavirus.
Like an ominous shadow, demolition has followed Florence Njoku, 65, from one slum to another around Lagos.

She has moved from Oko-Baba slum, to Iddo and now Otto-Ilogbo slum in Ebutte-Meta area of Lagos. Mrs Njoku, who cannot afford to pay the expensive rent for an accommodation in a decent neighbourhood in the city of over 21 million residents. Things have even become worse for her in the last few years.

I have been living here (Otto-Ilogbo) for the past 25 years with my 10 children, she said, pointing to her wooden home, which is almost collapsing because of its weak structure.

I had a shop before, but now, I pick plastic and sell it to feed the children. I just sent one of my children to look for plastic that we can sell to buy food, Mrs Njoku continued.

Things may get further worse for her as she may soon become homeless if the state government goes ahead with a plan to develop and regenerate her neighbourhood.

Development and regeneration euphemistic terms often used by the state government when it is set to demolish poorer communities, which are then rebuilt with upscale properties, the original residents of the communities cannot afford.

Now, I am hearing that they want to break this place, and I dont know where to take all my children to. I born 10 children and have seven grandchildren, Mrs Njoku said.

Background

Otto-Ilogbo, Otto, Otumara and Ifesowapo communities are slums located at Ebutte-Meta West, Lagos Mainland. The communities serve as home to hundreds of Lagosians, who are mostly victims of past evictions in the state.

Residents of the communities include victims of Makoko, Maroko, Badia, Oko Baba and Otodo Gbame evictions.

Due to the dense population of slum dwellers, the communities registered as Community Development Areas (CDAs) and are identified by the Lagos Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Musbau Agbodemu, a CDA chairman in Otto said.

We are part of the 21million residents Lagos count as its population to get Federal Government allocations and international grants, Mr Agbodemu said, explaining how a recent move to regenerate the communities without their consent will be unfair to the hundreds of residents.

Precedence

Mr Agbodemu, who is one of the oldest dwellers of Otto/Otumara slum said there have been past attempts by the Lagos State Government to evict residents.

In July 2011, during the administration of Babatunde Fashola, residents of Otto and Otumara communities received a Notice of Abatement of Nuisance from the Environmental Sanitation Agency to keep their environment free from filth, refuse or waste.

Following the notice, structures in the communities were marked for demolition by the agency, an act which would have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents.

We took the government to court during that time and with the help of NGOs, CSOs and human right lawyers, we won the case, Mr Agbodemu said in a cheering voice.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained copies of the court proceedings where residents of Otto, Otumara and adjoining communities approached the Lagos High Court for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.

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Although the notice did not state that homes will be demolished, the residents told the court their houses were also marked for demolition by the same agency.

In a motion filed on August 11, 2011 before Femi Adeniyi, a Judge at the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere the residents asked the court for the enforcement or their fundamental rights, pursuant to sections of the 1999 Constitution, African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, and of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009.

The communities sought the declaration of the court that the threatened demolitions of their buildings threatened their fundamental rights under the Constitution and the court should declare the demolition orders null and void.

Giving judgement in the matter on March 5, 2013, the judge, Mr Adeniyi said the notice served on the communities had no demolition of any of the houses in its content.

Although both parties (the applicants and respondents) have alluded to demolition marks being made on the premises, I am not satisfied that a notice to the applicants to abate nuisance under the Environmental Sanitation Law 1992 translates into a threat to demolish the premises.

Although Section 6 of the Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Agency Law 1992 gives the Agencys officers powers to demolish a structure which constitutes public nuisance, the section merely states those powers and nothing more.

I find therefore that the applicants have not established to the satisfaction of this Court that there is any threatened demolition of their houses which may violate their fundamental rights as envisaged under section 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution. The application fails and is accordingly dismissed, the judge ruled.

Lagos govt to develop Otto/Otumara Slums

On May 7, the Lagos Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development announced that approval has been given for the regeneration of Otto and Otumara slum communities in Lagos Mainland.

The ministry, through its commissioner, Idris Salako said the Sanwo-Olu-led administration has concluded regeneration plans to create a new Micro City with better urban aesthetics and vibrancy in Otto and Otumara.

Mr Salako said the new micro-city will feature socio-economic amenities such as hospitals/clinics, schools, market, and water facility.

The commissioner added that ecologically sensitive land spaces, such as Buffer Zones, Earth Drain, Floodplains and waterfronts will be preserved in the communities.

It is to be upgraded rather than total displacement, Mr Salako said  a statement which suggests that residents of the community will not be totally displaced.

However, it is unclear what the regeneration plan of Otto and Otumara communities looks like or how it will affect the slum dwellers.

Residents express fear over possible demolition/eviction

A resident, Abiodun Ajimuda, 78, said regeneration/development are words the government uses when it wants to demolish the homes of poor people.

Mr Ajimuda has been a victim of two evictions  Maroko and Makoko, he moved to Otto slum, where he has been residing since 1996.

I was at Maroko initially, I had a house there, my family was also there. They came to evict us and demolish Maroko on July 7, 1990. From there we went to Makoko, again, they demolished Makoko without giving us any notice, he said.

Mr Ajimuda, a retired petty-trader said he has been living in slums because he could not afford to pay the expensive rents for decent accommodations in Lagos.

The suffering is too much, the government should have pity on us and help us. Those places are water-logged areas, it is after we develop them that the government will come and send us packing.

Where do we go, since 1996 I have been living here and suffering. It surprises me that the government sees us and knows that we are suffering, but it is after we fill up a water-logged area and develop it that they come after us without giving us a better place to live in, Mr Ajimuda said.

Several other residents who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they were worried over a possible eviction and demolition of their properties by the state government.

Having witnessed past evictions, many of the residents are unsure of what their fate would be when the planned regeneration commences.

I have no place to go, no one likes to live in a place like this, it is because we dont have the money to take good houses that we are here, Gideon Adams, a resident, said.

Meanwhile no notice has been served on the communities by the Lagos State government, nor has any meeting been held on the regeneration plan.

A clergyman within the community, Moruf Bello, said he made some payments to the Olotto of Otto-land to get land allocated to him in the slum.

I came here because of church. When I got here like 27 years ago, everywhere was water, it was a swampy area. I met with the Olotoo of Otto land and they measured this place for me. I got here with the intention to buy land and they collected about N180,000 from me.

Since then, I have been here inside this water, filling up this place to make it look like this, he said pointing to the church building which was filled with water.

Mr Bello said the community has been set on fire about three times in the past, to force residents out.

Musbau Agbodemu, the CDA chairman of Otto-Ilogbo said the deficit in housing for the teeming population of Lagosians led to hundreds of thousands of families living in the slums.

We have been here since 1996, developing this place and when the government and the so-called land grabbers realized that this place is developing into a community, they started with their antics and different policies that they want to take over this place.

The CDA chairman said the recent announcement of the regeneration of Otto and Otumara by the Sanwo-Olu-led administration is another way being devised to take over the communities.

They sat comfortably in one of the chambers and they designed a regeneration plan without peoples consent. They are coming not for development but they are coming to demolish our expectations, our hopes, Mr Agbodemu said.

Regeneration of slums laudable, but must be just  CSO

A non-profit organisation, Spaces for Change (S4C) said the plan to regenerate Otto and Otumara communities by the Lagos state government is laudable but must be in the interest of the people.

In a letter written to the Ministry of Physical planning on behalf of residents of Otto and Otumara communities, S4C urged the ministry to embark on a people-oriented project and allay fears of demolition and displacement of the people.

While this regeneration plan is laudable and timely, the target communities fear that gentrification, demolition and displacement are usually occasioned by this kind of development.

The communities, however, stand ready to support this laudable initiative with the hope that it will lead to major improvements in their social, economic and living conditions, the organisation wrote.

S4C urged the Lagos government to make Lagos a Just City and not only a Mega City.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mukaila Sanusi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Physical Planning on the regeneration plan and how it will affect residents, he explained that the project will be executed by a sister agency.

The regeneration is being anchored by LASURA, it is carried out by the Ministry through LASURA, he said.

The spokesperson of the Lagos State Urban Renewal Agency (LASURA), Olatunde Olusesi, said the agency has never carried out any demolition in the state.

LASURA has never demolished any community, if we want to do any project, we provide temporary places for people, even the one we did at Adeniji Adele.

LASURA is not going to be demolishing any community and we have never done that, he said.
While the federal government reduced the fees for registering marriages in Nigeria, corrupt officials of marriage registries have continued to extort prospective couples by charging above the official rate  diverting millions of naira into their personal bank accounts, and shortchanging the federal government. This investigation looks at the corrupt practices and loopholes through which a system frustrates its own online registration portal and forces citizens into mandatory bribes. TAIWO ADEBULU went undercover to expose the fraud in the marriage registration process.

Next to a passport, a marriage certificate is arguably the most coveted official document one can hope to obtain in Nigeria, Africas most populous nation. For a visa application, couples need a valid marriage certificate, and registering a marriage with the appropriate government agency is non-negotiable. Therefore, every week, hundreds of Nigerians troop to the registries to exchange conjugal vows and seal their union.

While some applicants go to the local government registries, others prefer the registries controlled by the ministry of interior, the federal government agency saddled with the responsibility of conducting marriage services. The legal battle between these two known registrars over who has the authority to issue marriage certificates is fuelled by widespread speculations that foreign embassies in Nigeria do not accept marriage certificates from local government registries. This perception of superiority conferred on the Ikoyi registry was challenged when a Lagos high court ruled in 2018 that marriages conducted and registered in the states local councils are also valid.

Nevertheless, many applicants still believe that weddings conducted at federal registries are the most recognised and acceptable. The seven federal registry offices in Abuja, Lagos, Imo, Edo, Kano, Plateau and Rivers states, therefore, continue to receive a larger number of applicants.

Inside Nigerias Most Patronised Marriage Registry

The federal marriage registry in Ikoyi sits on Alfred Rewane Road, Lagos Island, with one of its nearest landmarks being the Falomo Bridge, famous for columns encircled with murals that pay homage to the 276 schoolgirls who were abducted in 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Chibok, Borno State. Just three minutes walk from the portraits of the girls and the shade of Falomo Bridge, brings one to the place often touted as Nigerias most patronised registry.

Here, weddings are conducted from Wednesdays to Saturdays, with the exception of public holidays. Special applications are considered on request for Mondays and Tuesdays, at extra cost. Nevertheless, the registry is always full to the brim on wedding days.

I went undercover to the Ikoyi registry, posing as one of the hundreds of applicants from the six states of the South-west region hoping to get married. At the entrance, each visitor was assigned an official; Elsy was mine.

Arriving at the registry, you cannot miss the business of the day. Propped against the wall were three frumpy wedding gowns, flapping in the wind, on the right side of the entrance. Next to the outfits stood three headless, unclad mannequins; their nakedness possibly due to the fact that the gowns they once carried had been rented by some of the couples waiting their turn in the wedding hall. Opposite the entrance was a travel and tour company that claimed to assist with student visas, work permits, medical visas and tours outside of Nigeria.

I told Elsy, the official handling my case, that I was no longer interested in the wedding gowns; that I did not have any registration documents required (the bachelorhood and birth certificates). She immediately referred me to another woman in a light denim shirt and jeans, who was sitting outside the row of offices. Her gold-hoop earrings were caught in the straps of a face mask covering her chin.

You have to pay N2,500 for you and your wife, the woman in denim said. She gave me a notebook; I filled in details, calling myself Olatunji Iyanu. My imaginary spouse was Oluwagboyega Opeyemi.

Ms All-Denim, who declined to provide her name, then announced that the process was complete, without providing any documentation. She said when the wedding day comes, I would have no hassles because she has already recorded the payment. She asked me to return to the registration office, where I was reunited with Elsy.

This was a small office with about four desks, white and blue plastic chairs for intending applicants. Each desk had hundreds of application forms stacked inside dozens of green files. Everywhere was rowdy; everyone was either counting or collecting money, as payments were mainly sought and made in cash. I picked up snatches of conversation:

You have to pay for scroll

When you are coming that day, make sure you have some money because

I heard a male official telling someone he would prefer to collect all the fees in cash. That reminded me that there would be no trail of the extortion about to happen if I also paid in cash. I noticed there was no official bank account provided for applicants. When Elsy asked for payment, I was prepared. I insisted on paying the N25,000 registration fee using an electronic bank transfer, to leave a record. Elsy gave me her personal bank account number where I sent the fund.

At the office, the uniform rate was N25,000 and this was echoed for all applicants to hear. Apart from the N2,500 Ms All-Denim charged for bachelorhood/spinster certificates, I paid another N2,500 for declaration of age documents, in the absence of a birth certificate. Literally, aside from a passport photograph, one can register for a marriage at the Ikoyi office without any form of identification or legal document. Every process has a price tag.

After I parted with a total of N30,000, the registration process began. Elsy noted that on the day of the wedding ceremony, applicants will also pay N2,000 for the marriage certificate scroll and N3,000 to the registrys official photographer. When asked if applicants can bring their personal photographers, she answered in the affirmative, but with a caveat. The registrys photographer will still get paid the fee whether he/she does the job or not.

A Multi-million Naira Enterprise

When George Asonja, a lawyer based in Akure, the Ondo State capital, got married at the Ikoyi registry in 2018, he was made to part with money that he was not issued receipts for.

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You just have to pay if you want to achieve your purpose without any delay. I did the registration at their office, paid N21,000 and got a receipt for that. Then, we paid another N10,000 to them that had no receipt. You drop some money as an offering during the celebration, he said.

Two years after the lawyer got married, the federal government reduced marriage registration fees and implementation began on July 1, 2020.

The fees chargeable for Statutory Ordinary Marriage has also been cut down from N21,000 to N15,000 while that of Statutory Special Licence has been slashed from N35,000 to N25,000, Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, said in a circular.

Statutory ordinary marriage is between two Nigerians, while the statutory special marriage is when one partner is non-Nigerian.

The new fees were reflected on the eCitiBiz online portal created in 2018 to ease marriage registration and payment. Abdulrahman Danbazau, then interior minister, said the platform would reduce unnecessary contact with people, ensure speedy service delivery and promote economic development. In December 2020, Mr Aregbesola said the automation platform had generated N2.17 billion for the federal government two years after its launch.

However, certain officials of the ministry have also turned the process into a cash cow to help themselves. Specifically, some officials of the Ikoyi registry are charging applicants well above the N15,000 official rate. They also have found ways to bypass the eCitiBiz platform to extort couples. Having collected the registration fee into their personal accounts, the officials go to the online platform themselves to create accounts for applicants and begin the registration process with the information provided on the form given to the applicants. My login details for the eCitiBiz were sent to my email two days after, and I was able to monitor the process online.

With Ikoyi officials charging a minimum of N25,000 for a service with a stipulated fee of N15,000, an extra N10,000 is made per applicant. The couples I interviewed gave an estimate of 200 to 500 marriages being conducted daily at the Ikoyi registry. At an estimate of 200 marriage ceremonies, registrars could make about N2 million daily. For the four compulsory days that marriages hold, that comes to N8 million extra cash, weekly. In a month, corrupt registrars at Ikoyi could make over N32 million. Moreover, the Monday special weddings, which come with extra cost, are not included in this estimate. In a year, officials at the Ikoyi registry in Lagos could pocket over N384 million in illegal fees from couples who troop to their facility.

Bribes, Manipulations, Frustration: Applicants narrate ordeals

When Joseph Onovughakpor, a 29-year-old businessman, registered through the eCitiBiz platform, he did not foresee what happened next at the Ikoyi registry where he married, in July 2020.

The person I initially contacted at the registry said I should bring N30,000. So, I bypassed the official, to register on the online portal and paid the official N15,000 fee. The official I chatted with on the website said I should just go to the registry on my wedding day with the printout and I will be attended to. Before that day, I asked a friend to take my printout to the registry, but they refused to attend to him. They were angry because the registration was done online. He begged them and they charged him N5,000 before he was attended to.

Mr Onovughakpor got to Ikoyi at 8 a.m. on his wedding day, but was disappointed.

My name was not on the register of over 250 couples getting married that day. After I gave them the printout, a lady at the office of the registrar collected N2,000 from me and we got married around 2 p.m.

During the ceremony, we were sold a scroll for N4,000. When you go inside, the first official that will attend to you and give you a number will tell you to bless the counter; then you know what to do. The officials filling the certificates will ask for theirs as well. The ones joining the couples will collect N2,000 each from both parties (the husband and wife). They will also ask your witnesses to drop something.

For Babatunde Aderemi who got married on September 10, 2020, at Ikoyi, the official who conducted the ceremony held back the marriage certificate when he refused to pay extra bribes. That was after he paid N27,000 as a registration fee but got an email confirmation for payment of N15,000. He also paid N1,500 for documentation.

Mr Aderemi said he was aware of the online registration process, but chose in-person registration, to make things faster.

That day, as of 9 a.m., I was 97 on the list but the most frustrating part was when the registry officer demanded N1,000 from me and N500 each from witnesses and parents after joining us together. I paid when she decided to hold back the certificate. My uncle prompted me to give her the money. They dictate the amount and you have to give them, else they delay you.

Amaka Nwora, a Lagos resident who also got married on August 7, 2020, paid N27,500 at the Ikoyi office for the registration and N45,000 for a change of venue because the registries were closed due to the pandemic. An additional N5,000 went into ferrying two officials, who conducted the ceremony, to the venue.

We still paid thank you for coming money too, she said.

Like many others, Sola Bello, a car dealer in Oyo State, paid into the personal account of a registrar at Ikoyi. Before his marriage on January 13, he paid N27,500 but only N15,000 was confirmed in the receipt sent to him. Also, N2,500 was charged for age declaration documents. During the brief wedding ceremony, an official also collected N4,000 for a crate of fizzy drinks, asides from other smaller fees tagged as celebratory charges.

In April 2021, when Chibuzor Ebele, a trader, served as a witness to his wards marriage ceremony at the Ikoyi registry, he found himself calculating what officials made at one point in the process.

The day of the wedding, at the table where they take the oath and everything, all of you must drop money on that table. The couple and their parents, the guardians that will sign for them. I was there to sign, all of us dropped money. Between the six of us, N5,000 dropped on that table and this is done for every couple. So, imagine us, multiplied by all the couples that day. That woman (the registry official) will leave there in just one day with more than a million naira. That day, I think about 500 couples got married, Mr Ebele said.

But is the female registry official at the table the only one spending all that money alone?

Theres no how shes going to take all that money; otherwise, they would have blown her cover. It will cause a problem like only you cant be doing this. This is just me thinking and assuming; its either they share it between themselves, or they take turns. There is a whole lot of money being made in that system. There are too many steps or processes that expose you, or create the room for these extortions to be done, Mr Ebele added.

Some Nigerians have taken to social media to express displeasure over the irregularities happening at the federal marriage registries.

In 2019, Seun Taiwo wrote, Im at a Federal marriage registry in Abuja and after the joining, they legit just said its offering time.. and the womans going round with a basket what the Lord has done for you..

Im at a Federal marriage registry in Abuja and after the joining, they legit just said its offering time.. and the womans going round with a basket what the Lord has done for you.. 

 Seun James Taiwo (@SeunJamesTaiwo) June 13, 2019

Nifemi, a Twitter user, wrote, I went to ikoyi registry today to correct the name on my marriage certificate and I was asked to pay 27,500 and 5,000 for registration but I saw on a poster on a door stating its 15,000. I complained about the difference and the woman picked a fight with me.

@MinOfInteriorNG I went to ikoyi registry today to correct the name on my marriage certificate and I was asked to pay 27,500 and 5,000 for registration but I saw on a poster on a door stating its 15,000. I complained about the difference and the woman picked a fight with me.

 nifemi (@Nyphemy306) July 8, 2020

Krisifesi, another Twitter user, wrote, This issues are everywhere, marriage registry is 15k as stated online, but the marriage registrars are collecting 27,500. In Ikoyi there.

This issues are everywhere, marriage registry is 15k as stated online, but the marriage registrars are collecting 27,500. In Ikoyi there..

  (@krisifesi) April 30, 2021

How Govt Can Block Loopholes

In general, the monetary costs of bribe solicitation and payment add up significantly, nationwide. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) surveyed over 33,000 households and noted that a total of roughly 117 million bribes which sum up to N675 billion were paid to public officials in 2019, with the average bribe size being N5,754.

Dare Sokoya, a family lawyer, said every official at the marriage registry cannot feign ignorance of the extortion happening at the premises. He called for the investigation, dismissal and prosecution of culpable officials, adding that such corrupt acts taint Nigerias global image.

This is official corruption in its most unfortunate form. Those officials who shortchange the government also have superiors they remit the proceeds of their fraud to. Its a multiplication of evil. Punishment for fraud in Nigeria is specifically spelt out under various laws, Mr Sokoya said.

Joshua Olufemi, chief executive officer of Dataphyte, a media research and data analytics organisation, said the solution could be to implement an end-to-end automation policy which enables couples to complete the whole registration, payment, and certification online, similar to what exists in Nigerias education, banking and travel insurance sectors.

Another option could be for the court to adopt the e-courier service or partnership with the Nigerian postal service to deliver and return the registration and application documents, thereby eliminating direct contact with couples or registrants, he added.

But Emeka Okoye, senior knowledge engineer at Cymantiks Limited, an IT consultancy firm, said software systems alone can not save the country from corruption, adding that in bureaucratic systems, paper is power.

The new digital service is being resisted by those interests fearing losing perks. Lack of control, oversight and supervision are the reasons behind this brazenness. We need to place citizens at the centre of government, education of officials on these systems, their purpose as government officials to serve the citizens and not themselves, and the rights of the citizens (as well as) improving the rule of law, so that corrupt officials can be prosecuted and punished thereby discouraging them from misbehaving, Mr Okoye said.

Interior Ministry Fails To React

On April 15, Adjobome Lere-Adams, the spokesperson of the interior ministry, was contacted by this reporter via telephone for an official reaction to the findings of this investigation. When Mrs Lere-Adams was made aware of the nature of the interview, she requested that all questions be sent via WhatsApp.

Specifically, this reporter provided details of the undercover investigation, asked if officials in the registry remit parts of these bribes to senior officials, and whether this is why there have been no prosecutions, despite the brazenness of the solicitation and extortion. Hours later, Mrs Lere-Adams said via WhatsApp message that the ministry was working on it now.

There was no further response to the enquiry. While this reporter was awaiting Mrs Lere-Adams response, the ministry spoke exclusively to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on May 5, saying it would penalise any official of the federal marriage registries found culpable of corruption.

The ministry said it has trained its registrars to comply with the provisions of the Act in the conduct of statutory marriages and to verify the identity of intending couples by obtaining valid forms of Identity such as national identity card, International passport, drivers license and voters identity card.

However, just weeks earlier, none of these forms of identity documents was demanded from this reporter during the undercover investigation at the Ikoyi registry.

Rather, some of these trained registrars brazenly cashed out millions of naira through a relentless system of retail corruption that sends proceeds to personal pockets.

This investigation was supported by ZAM Magazine as part of The Kleptocracy Project Part II.
The Senate has passed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The bill was passed after the lawmakers considered the report of the Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas Resources on Thursday.

The passage of the bill as also a sequel to a closed door meeting with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari..

The meeting lasted for almost two hours.

The duo appeared before the Senate to provide the lawmakers with technical details of the legislation as well as provide clarification where needed.

In the approved bill, the Senate approved a funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPCs profit from oil and gas for frontier basins. This fund is for oil exploration in frontier states.

However, in the report seen by PREMIUM TIMES the states referred to as frontier basins were not clearly stated.

The passage of the bill was preceded by disagreement and division among the lawmakers.

Chaos

The lawmakers had started the clause-by-clause consideration of the bill when some lawmakers began to raise concerns in Clause 240.

The Clause prescribes the fund for host communities.

The bill had proposed 2.5 per cent Equity Share Holding for Host Communities while the committee recommended five per cent.

The Equity Share Holding for Host Communities was top among the demands of individuals and groups at the public hearing of the bill which held over five months ago.

While many opposed the proposed 2.5 per cent, Mr Sylva had said the amount was fair.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the key recommendations from Nigerians at the hearings of the Senate and House of Representatives.

When the lawmakers got to Clause 240, Katsina senator, Babba Kaita, proposed that the amount for the fund be reduced from five per cent as proposed by the committee to three per cent.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, put the question for a voice vote and despite resounding nays, Mr Lawan passed in favour of the ayes.

This generated noise in the chamber as some senators, majorly the South-south senators, were uneasy with the ruling.

James Manager then called for another vote opposing the initial vote.

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And again, Mr Lawan ruled in favour of Mr Kaitas amendment.

Akwa Ibom senaor, Albert Bassey, was next to rise.

He explained that the reason of the recommended five per cent fund for host communities is so it can be used to remedy unfortunate incidents that may affect the assets.

His comment was greeted by more chaos. And in the midst of the noise, River lawmaker, Goerge Sekibo, raised a Point of Order.

Mr Sekibo cited Order 73. This order challenges the ruling of the chairman (Mr Lawan). It requires that he put the question to vote a second time. And if his opinion is again challenged, he shall call each senators name to vote.

This time, the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya appealed to Mr Sekibo to withdraw the order.

My heart bleeds. This Senate has come a long way. We have never treated ourselves this way. We are embarking on a very dangerous journey. We have had and cherished unity. This is a path to Armageddon. I appeal to my brother and friend tSenator Sekibo to withdraw the point of Order,  Mr Yahaya said.

Mr Lawan, too, made the same appeal.

What we have been educated by the GMD gives us better ideas. This three per cent. At least the Senate did not pass 2.5 we passed something slightly higher than that.

I appeal to Sekibo to withdraw the point of order. We should not insist on dividing the Senate. It is our right, Mr Lawan said.

Mr Sekibo withdrew his order but pleaded that the Senate increases the amount a little higher. But his appeal was ignored by the Senate President.

Amidst murmurings, the lawmakers continued the consideration and eventually passed the bill.

Major amendments to the bill

Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Sabo (Jigawa South West), who presented the report earlier, explained that the bill of five chapters, deals with creating efficient and effective governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry and promoting transparency and accountability in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria, among others.

Some key amendments made by the committee include:

** Streamlining the regulatory and commercial role of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited which the chapter seeks to establish.

He said the bill when passed, will strengthen the accountability and transparency of NNPC Limited as a full-fledged CAMA company under statutory oversight with better returns to its shareholders.

**Frontier Basins

He said the committee recognised the need for the country to urgently and aggressively explore and develop the countrys Frontier Basins to take advantage of the foreseeable threats to the funding of fossil fuel projects across the world due to speedy shift from fossil fuel-to other alternative energy sources.

To this end, the Committee recommends funding mechanism of 30 per cent of NNPC Limiteds profit oil and profit gas as in the production sharing, profit sharing, and risk service contracts to fund exploration of frontier basins.

A total of 110 amendments were recommended to this Chapter while others were retained, he said.

** Five per cent share holding

After extensive engagements with various stakeholders, he said, the panel recommended strengthening measures and saddled the host communities with responsibilities with a view to reducing or completely eradicating interferences and tampering in the countrys oil and gas production assets.

Furthermore, to ensure adequate development of the host communities and reduction in the cost of production, the Joint Committee recommends five per cent of the actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations affecting the host communities for funding of the Host Communities Trust Fund.

** Petroleum Industry Fiscal Framework

For the petroleum industrys fiscal framework, he said the legislation when passed into law, will attract and unlock the long-awaited capital investment inflows to the countrys oil and gas industry since it contains enhanced incentives in land, swamp, shallow and deep waters terrains.

The bill also seeks to separates the NNPC into three: Nigerian National Petroleum Authority, Nigerian National Petroleum Commission and NNPC Limted (now to become a limited liability).

Schedules of the bill

The bill comprises eight schedules:

The first schedule generally asserts the Ministers right of pre-emption in line with various circumstances in the industry.

The second schedule defines and enhances the principle of negotiating Incorporated Joint Ventures (IJVs) in line with the provisions of the bill.

The third schedule defines the domestic base price and pricing framework of gas under a free market structure of willing buyer and willing seller.

The fourth schedule provides the formula for gas price and other gas-based industries with the possibility of creating flexibility with respect to the pricing structures where market conditions change.

The fifth schedule explains the capital allowances as it relates to the use and disposal of oil and gas assets.

The sixth schedule defines production allowances and cost price ratio limits in the oil and gas industry.

The seventh schedule explains the main fiscal framework of the bill which covers petroleum fees, rents and royalties across the various production terrains as well as its related penalties for non-payment.

While the eight schedule deals with creation of the Ministry of Petroleum Incorporated to legalize the shareholding of NNPC Limited with provisions required for the creation of same.

More demands

Prior to drama, the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, had commended the panel for amendments made to the initial proposals in the bill but said that people of Niger Delta want a deal.

He had even praised the leadership of the National Assembly for increasing the Equity Share Holding from 2.5 per cent to five per cent. He asked that it be increased a little higher.

I know we cannot get the entire 10 per cent but I will still make a case that we go a bit higher. This is the agitation at home.

On penalties for gas flaring, he said funds gotten as penalties from gas flaring should be invested in development for host communities and not gas infrastructure as proposed.

We dont want it invested in mid-stream gas. This is a penalty. Gas glaring is harming people. We want the penalty to be used for remediation investment and development in the communities.

After the bill was passed, Mr Lawan commended everyone involved in the legislative work describing the act as a milestone.
Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has formally taken membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending months of speculation and denial that he was set on defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But events immediately after the ceremony indicate that his defection has added another crack to the wall of the crisis-ridden Zamfara chapter of the party.

Mr Matawalle announced his defection late Tuesday evening at the Gusau Trade Fair Complex at an event attended by 10 APC governors, ministers and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

His walk to the APC was long, the speculations heightened by his snubbing of PDP governors meetings but hosting APC governors and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, at Government House in Gusau.

The governor took with him into the APC all but one member of the state House of Assembly, all senators and six of the seven members of House of Representatives from the state. Kabiru Yahaya, representing Talata Mafara/Anka federal constituency, is the only state lawmaker who did not leave the PDP.

The states deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu, also did not join the APC, saying his father brought the party to Zamfara and the family had never belonged to any other party.

The new crisis began at the defection ceremony when the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, who is also the governor of Yobe State, announced the dissolution of the executive council of the party in Zamfara and declared Governor Matawalle as the new leader of the party in the state.

As of today, Governor Bello Mohammed is the official leader of the party in the state, Mr Buni said as he announced the dissolution of the state executive of the party.

From now on, Governor Matawalle is the leader of our great party in Zamfara State. You will await further arrangements for new party structure from him, Mr Buni said.

After receiving the partys flag, Mr Matawalle called on all members of the party to rally around him to build a new APC of the peoples desire in the state.

But the following day on Wednesday, former governor Abdulaziz Yari and a former senator, Kabiru Marafa, said Mr Bunis pronouncement of Mr Matawalle as APC leader in the state was not part of the agreement reached before his defection. They said his declaration as their leader in the APC cannot stand.

Messrs Yari and Marafa stated this to reporters in Kaduna State on Wednesday after a meeting with the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai.

Mr Marafa said one thing that we didnt accept is the statement from Mr Buni that Matawalle is the APC leader in Zamfara because that was not part of the agreement reached with the APC governors.

The former senator said pronouncing the governor as APC leader in Zamfara is dubious and unacceptable, revealing that it took the intervention of APC governors, through Governor El-Rufai, for Mr Yari to attend the defection ceremony. He said they were told that the event was meant to end every dispute.

We were only pleaded with by the APC to allow for the defection ceremony in Gusau to hold, for us to become one. Afterwards, there would be further meetings and negotiations. But for someone from Abuja to say he dissolved the APC executives in Zamfara, that cannot happen, the former lawmaker said.

Ironically, the events that culminated in Mr Matawalle inheriting the APC victory at the poll were based on the intractable dispute between then-Governor Yari and then senator Marafa. When the faction led by Mr Yari conducted primaries for the nomination of the partys candidates for the 1999 general elections, the faction of Mr Yari went to court to challenge the process.

The court eventually decided that the process was invalid. Although APC later presented candidates after the Court of Appeal offered it a brief reprieve, the Supreme Court eventually dashed the partys hope by declaring its participation in the elections as invalid.

With Mr Matawalles defection, it appears that the old adversaries have now found a common enemy. This is surprising, given that Mr Marafa had been speculated to be working behind the scene with Governor Matawalle.

At the Wednesday meeting with Messrs Yari and Marafa, the Kaduna governor said part of the agreement before the defection ceremony was that a date would be fixed for an elaborate meeting of all groups in the party in Zamfara to resolve issues.

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In what appears a dig at Governor Buni, Mr El-Rufai said a political party is not an object that an individual would have total control over, but an institution run by convincing people.

Some APC members who were not happy with Mr Matawalles defection had urged Mr Yari not to attend the ceremony, but the APC governors prevailed on him to attend and he did, Mr El-Rufai said.

Were going to meet either here in Kaduna or in Abuja to continue with the discussion before the congresses. The discussion will be on how to resolve the issues amicably without any group being cheated, the Kaduna governor said.

Zamfara APC is not new to internal crisis. The rift between Messrs Mafara and Yari, as earlier recalled, cost APC all elected positions in the 2019 general elections after it swept the polls. However, both men later reconciled in February.

Mr Matawalle was declared governor on May 24, 2019, after the Supreme Court disqualified all the APC candidates over the failure of the APC to conduct valid primaries.

The apex court further ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to cancel the votes secured by the APC in all the elections and decide the new winners from the remaining valid votes.

APC had won the presidential, governorship and all the federal and state legislative seats, beating PDP candidates to a distant second position.
Nnamdi Kanus lawyer has requested British governments assistance for the separatist leader who was recently intercepted abroad and brought back to Nigeria to face trial.

Mr Kanu, who is currently detained by Nigerias secret police, the SSS, on the order of the court, is accused by the Nigerian authorities of orchestrating the killings of about 60 people, including security officials in the countrys South-east region.

IPOB, the pro-Biafra group which he leads, had been proscribed by the Nigerian government.

His lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, in a letter to the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Catriona Laing, requested that Mr Kanu, whom he said was seized in Kenya, be granted every possible Consular assistance to which he is entitled as a British citizen.

The letter is dated June 30.

Mr Ejimakor also wants the British government to demand that his lawyers and doctors be allowed to have access to him while in detention, as well as his unconditional release.

The IPOB leader holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the UK.

He is known to have been residing in the UK after he jumped bail and fled Nigeria in 2017 during his trial for treasonable felony.

Mr Kanu was intercepted in Kenya by Nigerias foreign security agents and brought to Nigeria against his will on or about June 27, his lawyer said.

Mr Kanu is a British citizen who was traveling on a valid British passport when he was seized in a third country and forcibly brought to Nigeria. Such act constitutes an unlawful rendition of a bonafide British citizen.

He was not traveling on Nigerian passport or the passport of any other country, including that of Kenya.

There is no extant Order of extradition by any British Court or any other foreign Court (including Kenya) and we are informed that there is no pending extradition proceedings standing against him in Britain or Kenya.

There is no deportation Order by any Kenyan Court or other authority that made him subject to deportation.

But if there was, the country of his deportation should have been Britain on which passport he was travelling. Deporting him to Nigeria just because he was born in Nigeria, but not traveling on her passport, is unlawful under international law, Mr Ejimakor said in the letter to the British High Commissioner.

The lawyer said Mr Kanus agitation for the independent state of Biafra through a referendum is considered a protected political opinion under British and Nigerian laws.

Mr Kanu (should) be categorised as a high profile political prisoner or a prisoner of conscience and be thus rendered the highest diplomatic protection under municipal and international laws, he said.

The British High Commissioner, Ms Laing, on Thursday held talks with Nigerias Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on a number of issues, including the ban on Twitter by the Nigerian government.

Mr Kanus arrest and detention was not on the agenda of the meeting, it appeared.

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The National Working Committe (NWC) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has presented certificate of return to the winner of the Anambra governorship primary, Valentine Ozigbo.

PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, presented the certificate at the partys national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said the primary that produced Mr Ozigbo followed all the partys constitution and relevant laws.

Mr Secondus said that the June 26 primary was the first time ever PDP conducted peaceful primary election in Anambra since 1999, adding that the party was very strong in the South-east.

We believe that Anambra is a very important state not only for PDP, for the entire nation. Anambra hosts the largest number of billionaires, industries and those who are making things happen in Nigeria.

So, we want to present our certificate to the candidate that has gone through all the process and fulfilled all the conditions of our party.

We believe you will go and campaign peacefully and return victory not only to people of Anambra, you will also return victory for our party, he said.

Mr Ozigbo, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc dedicated the certificate to the people of Anambra.

He expressed his gratitude to the leadership of the party both at the national and state level as well the PDP team that conducted the primary, describing the primary as the most peaceful, transparent and credible.

Such transparency and credibility, he added, reflected positive changes brought by the partys current leadership both at national and state levels.

I am eternally grateful because it is only on the basics of that free and transparent process that somebody like me could emerge as the candidate of the party.

I am here to say that my emergency throws tremendous happiness and joy on the streets of Anambra State. This is a signal on what is to come.

When you compare this to what is happening in other parties, the difference is clear, he said.

Mr Ozigbo expressed optimism that his candidacy, with the support of all stakeholders, would bring victory to the PDP in Anambra.

 I am here to report to you that we are here, not just to celebrate the certificate of return but it is a call to duty because celebration time is in the future.

Nov. 6, going to the poll, I guarantee you by the special grace of God, for the first time in 16 years, Anambra will return to PDP.

Mindful of the circumstances, my team and I are fully aware of what this task is. We know how formidable the other opponents may be, but we are confidence of victory, he said.

Mr Ozigbo said he did not just represent a unifier in PDP in Anambra, but also the voice of the youth.

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I am somebody who is open and enduring to the women, and with this two combinations and work done so far in traversing the length and breath of Anambra, victory indeed is sure, he said.

(NAN)
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Lukman Ibrahim, the phone repairer who was abducted by gunmen in Offa, Kwara State, on Saturday night, has been released.

Close associates who sought anonymity because they are not authorised to speak, said Mr Ibrahim got back home on Tuesday night.

But one of the sources familiar with the communication between the abductors and the family stated that Mr Ibrahim was released after the family paid a two million naira ransom.

Kwara State Police Command spokesperson, Ajayi Okasanmi, also confirmed the release but said the police were not aware of ransom payment.

Mr Ibrahim was kidnapped on Saturday while his pregnant wife, Hawawu, was killed during an attack on the couple who were heading home from Owode market, Offa.

The gunmen attacked them along Ojoku Road, a few metres to a police station.

PREMIUM TIMES obtained pictures of Mr Ibrahims car, a grey-coloured Toyota Camry riddled with bullets.

The car was taken to the police station on Ojoku Road, Offa, while his wifes corpse was deposited in the morgue of the General Hospital, Offa, shortly after the incident.
The Abia Police Command says it has arrested 10 armed robbery and kidnap suspects, allegedly terrorising residents of the state.

The Commissioner of Police, Janet Agbede, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing reporters in Umuahia on the recent achievements by the command.

Ms Agbede said two of the suspects confessed to have robbed a former Chief Judge (CJ) of the state (name withheld).

She said the suspects dispossessed their victim of his ATM cards, compelled him to release his Personal Identification Number (PIN), with which they allegedly withdraw N250,000 from his bank account.

Also in police net were members of a gang that allegedly waylaid Uzoma Ndubueze of No. 50 Ogwo Street, Ohanku in Aba on June 24, while he was driving into his house.

The gang members abducted their victim, took his Lexus 330 car to Ntigha, shot and killed him and still collected N700,000 ransom from his family, Agbede said.

She said the victims phone was recovered from the gang leader, Abia Daniel, who confessed that his gang members were nine in number.

She said the arrest was facilitated through intelligence and collaboration with the Inspector-General of Polices Intelligence Response Team (IRT) on Operation Restore Peace mission.

She said the team arrested the suspects at different locations in the state, including Aba.

The police chief said the suspects belonged to two gangs, adding that the smashing of the first gang paved the way for the arrest of the second gang members.

She said that Daniel, 41, who was a member of the first gang, later pulled out to form his own gang, where he became the kingpin.

She said the command recovered one AK 47 rifle with 25 rounds of live ammunition, one pump action gun with 10 cartridges, one locally-made double-barrel cut-to-size gun, with 10 live cartridges, one Volkswagen Jetta car and one cellphone from the suspects.

Ms Agbede said the first gang confessed to have kidnapped more than six persons.

She further said the IRT, acting on intelligence report, arrested one Emmanuel Paul, 22, of No. 40 Ugorji Street, Aba, and Ifeanyi Onyemesere, 18, of Port Harcourt Road, Aba.

She said the suspects attacked Emmanuel Nnodim, a business man, in his house in Eziama, Aba.

She said the victim was shot in the eye by the suspects, who stole his electronic gadgets, took away his ATM and forcefully obtained his PIN, with which they allegedly withdrew N750,000 from his bank account.

Reacting to the allegations in an interview with reporters, some of the suspects admitted to the crimes.

One of them, Ifeanyi Paul, admitted to be a member of the gang that attacked the former CJ.

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He described the attack as his first operation, saying he was introduced to crime by his friend.

He pleaded with God and police to spare his life, promising never to go back to crime, if pardoned.

(NAN)
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A former defense secretary, who was the architect of the United States wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Donald Rumsfeld, is dead.

He was 88, his family said in a statement released Wednesday.

It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico, the familys statement read.

History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service, but for those who knew him best and whose lives were forever changed as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, his family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life dedicated to country.

The late Republican power broker who served twice as defense secretary is best remembered for masterminding the U.S. military attack on Afghanistan that led to the toppling of the Taliban on the backdrop of the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

He followed this two years later by overseeing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a move aimed at overthrowing then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The Chicago-born graduate of Princeton University, where he was a collegiate wrestler and commissioned as a U.S. Navy aviator and flight instructor, became the North American nations 13th defense secretary in 1975 under former President Gerald Ford, the countrys youngest defense secretary in history. Prior, he was the White House chief of staff and he served as former President Richard Nixons ambassador to NATO.

After a 23 years stint in the private sector, Mr Rumsfeld was again appointed by former President George Bushs administration to become the countrys 21st secretary of defense in January 2001.

Mr Rumsfeld resigned from the role as the head of Pentagon, the U.S. headquarters of the defense department, the countrys largest federal agency, in 2006, and was replaced with Robert Gates.

His leadership of Americas military wars in the Middle East earned praise at first, but it was later faulted as critics accused the troops of human rights abuses against Iraqi prisoners detained at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
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UN counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov has warned that terrorists are becoming increasingly innovative in a world shaken by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in spite of significant progress in the fight against terror.

Voronkov, head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT), concluded the Second High-level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York by summing up four of the strategic challenges facing the world at the moment.

He underscored the need for inclusive, forward-looking, evidence-based approaches to build resilience in the face of the ISIL legacy in Iraq and Syria; terrorist threats in Africa; tackling transnational risks sparked by various forms of intolerance; and the need to upgrade technology and know-how to counter the scourge.

Deliberations over the last few days have advanced the Secretary-Generals vision to promote a networked global counter-terrorism response, Voronkov said.

However, he added, while preparing for tomorrows threats; we also need to change traditional tactics.

He noted that hate speech had become pervasive and self-reinforcing through algorithms and online echo chambers.

According to the UN official, countering the spread of terrorist content online remains high on the agenda.

Upholding the rule of law and human rights is imperative for successful counter-terrorism efforts.

We must preserve and defend these fundamental values and operating principles while we work together to prevent terrorists efforts to destabilise our Governments and societies, he added.

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The OCT chief said his office would integrate gender and human rights policies into all of its programming.

He also underscored the need to sustain efforts at delivering tailored, cost-effective capacity-building measures to sustain impact, including through UN field-based programmes.

Voronkov pointed out that new technologies were adding a layer of complexity as many member states continue to face severe capacity challenges in battling terrorism.

He said solidarity was in everyones common interest and that the international community could not afford to leave any country behind.

It is clear that a terrorist safe haven anywhere is a threat everywhere, the OCT chief said.

The UN official said that as the organisation readied itself to mark the 15th anniversary of the UN Global Counter-terrorism Strategy to enhance national, regional and international efforts, we should take comfort that this Counter-Terrorism Week has reinvigorated support for multilateralism. (NAN)
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Gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped six workers of West African Ceramic Company in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State.

The incident happened in the Emiworo community in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of the state, where the company mines stones.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the workers were abducted while loading stones expected to be delivered in the ceramic site located at Itobe, in the same council area.

The suspected criminals, who were fully armed, whisked the six workers away to an unknown location.

The Kogi state police Public Relations Officer, William Aya, confirmed the incident to this newspaper on Thursday.

He said the officers deployed by the Commissioner of Police were operating in collaboration with other security agencies to see that the victims are rescued.

According to him, the operatives were still combing the bush in the local government area on the trail of the assailants.

The company, however, could not be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report. Its known telephone numbers were unavailable on Thursday morning.
The House of Representatives has resolved to give the federal government time to negotiate with Twitter over the suspension of the microblogging site from operating in Nigeria.

The lower chamber made the resolution, following the adoption of the report of the Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Value, Telecommunication, Information Technology, Justice, and National Security and Intelligence, on the ban.

Segun Odebunmi (APC, Osun), the chairman of the committee on information, national orientation, ethics and value, presented the report, which was adopted by the Committee of the Whole.

The consideration of the report was not without drama, as the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Deputy Speaker Idris Wase, condemned the report presented by Mr Odebunmi.

At first, Mr Wase said the committee failed to invite the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno, adding that the report was not properly done.

Did you engage the national security adviser so that we dont rush this? It is your recommendation that is making me somehow, Mr Wase said.

The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, said the report failed to address the issues raised by the House on the ban. He therefore called for the report to be discarded.

At this point, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was on the floor to participate in the debate, intervened.

He said the report addressed the legal implication and the committees invited the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.

The House rules says the deputy speaker is the chairman of the committee of the whole. The speaker is allowed to step down and participate in debate if he/she wishes.

Mr Wase insisted that the committee should have invited the NSA, since the ban was for security reasons.

We dont want a situation where you (Gbajabiamila) will give him cover today so that tomorrow he will not do the same thing. The decision was made based on security. It has affected the work.

Responding to the comment by his deputy, Mr Gbajabiamila said the assignment was time bound, hence, the committee was unable to exhaust the investigation.

Mr Okechukwu again faulted the report that it was not thorough, and moved an amendment that the government should lift the ban. The amendment was rejected by the House.

The adopted recommendations are as follows:

-That time be allowed for the Federal Government of Nigeria and Twitter to enter into the dialogue process that is already ongoing, so as to create room for amicable settlement on the matter.

-That relevant Government Institutions such as National Broadcasting Commission, Nigeria Communication Satellite, etc. should be alive to their mandate by doing the proper thing to avoid future occurrence of this nature.

-That the Federal Government should take into cognisance the negative effect of the Twitters suspension on Nigerians who depend on the platform for their livelihood

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-That Federal Government should be proactive in their interface with Twitter so as to come up with a timely resolution on the matter

-That Freedom of expression is not absolute anywhere in the world. This is because security and freedom of expression sometimes present contending interests. Therefore, national security must be guaranteed at all times as much as the right to free speech must be protected. That Government should always have communicated better with Nigerians when critical decisions are to be made.

Background

The government announced the ban on the microblogging site on June 4. According to the government, the ban was due to threats to national security.

Following the outcry, the House on June 8 mandated the joint committee to investigate the ban. Mr Mohammed appeared before the committee and gave the position of the government.

The government recently announced the composition of a team that will meet with Twitter on the ban.
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, orchestrated the killing of 60 persons and the destruction of property in 55 violent attacks across the South-east and South-south zones within four months.

The Federal Government stated this in a letter to western diplomats.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the letter dated April 26, 2021 detailed the atrocities committed by members of IPOB on the alleged instruction of Mr Kanu who was then in exile.

NAN also reports that one of the attachments to the letter listed the attacks on lives and property by IPOB in some parts of the country between January and April 2021.

With several Kanus broadcasts from Europe, there were concerns in official quarters that some western countries were justifying IPOBs violent acts under the guise of the groups pursuit of self-determination.

According to the demarche from the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to some western countries, the Federal Government objected to a statement by an agency of a western nation whose government had noted and admitted that the creation of Eastern Security Network (ESN), based on its own understanding, was to combat insecurity.

The Federal Government, in its letter, however considered the statement (by the western nation) as justifying the establishment of a militia by a non-state actor and glossing over the destructive and violent acts of IPOB and the ESN.

In under four months this year, IPOB has carried out over fifty-five (55) violent acts in various parts of Southeast Nigeria killing scores of people and destroying many properties.

Indeed it would seem that the position of the (western nation) seems to have further emboldened Nnamdi Kanu the self-confessed leader of IPOB.

As recently as 22nd April, 2021, broadcasting online from his base in London, Mr Kanu has issued series of instructions to his militia and other members of the outlawed organisation, on acts of violence to be carried out within the territory of Nigeria, the Federal Government stated in the letter.

Copious references by Kanu

The letter made copious references to some of the threats issued by Mr Kanu thus: Our madness has just begun.

Every night, young men will not sleep, you will come out, at the starting of every road that leads to every populated area under human habitation to make sure that appropriate road blocks are put in place to slow them down so we can catch them (Fulanis) and kill them.

That is what we want you to do. Obiano (Governor of Anambra State) from today onwards, anywhere you are seen in public you will be attacked . Obiano,  you are a dead man walking.

Any landlord that gives accommodation or rents his house or her house to a Fulani person, to an army personnel, to somebody who works for the police or DSS .

Kill them. If you see the army and the police in your place, kill all of them Kill them.

From today I am announcing, there will be no election in Anambra State. Every edifice of election in Anambra State, will be destroyed. I am warning you in advance. There will be no election. There will be no campaign in Anambra State.

Any vehicle you see, from tonight (22nd April 2021), 12 midnight to 5, destroy it completely. That is the time they (referring to Fulanis) move about abducting people. And we keep quiet.  What stops you young people from, once you see them coming around 4am in the morning, you will block all every exits, set it on fire?

They will exhaust all the ammunition that they have, then we capture them alive and cut off their heads. All of them. Decapitate them, the Federal Government further quoted Mr Kanus alleged instructions to IPOB members.

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Targeted attacks

The Federal Government also noted that members of the outlawed organisation, in furtherance to these instructions, intensified their attacks on the specified targets.

According to the Federal Government, Kanu issues instructions from western capitals using Radio Biafra and members of the outlawed organisation carry them out in Nigeria.

For example, a day after Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has confirmed to newsmen that Nnamdi Kanu has ordered members of the group to kill him and other South-East Governors, which orders were repeated on Radio Biafra, the private residence of Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, in his hometown in Omuma, Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State, was attacked and set ablaze and two of the security men attached to the house were killed, the Federal Government said.

The letter then listed the IPOB attacks in the South-east and South-south zones:

1. Abia: Between January 26 and April 19, 2021, six policemen were killed while property worth huge sums were destroyed by IPOB members in coordinated attacks at Uratta junction, Aba North LGA; Omoba Police Station, Isiale-Ngwa South LGA; Abriba Community in Ohafia LGA, and Uzuakoli Police Station in Bende LGA.

2. Akwa Ibom: 25 persons, including security personnel were killed in deliberate attacks on different locations across the state, between January 27 and April 19, 2021.

3. Cross River: Seven police officers were killed at Calabar-Ikom highway in Obubra and Yakur LGAs, on March 2, 2021, while a soldier was killed two days later on March 4 at a military checkpoint at Obubra Junction in Obubra LGA.

4. Delta: Between January 10 And April 14, IPOB members attacked and killed 11 persons including security personnel in Ughelli, Ndokwa East, Ezza South, Onicha, Ezza North, Ohaozara, Ohoukwu, LGAs.

5. Enugu: Three policemen were killed in attacks on different locations across the state between February 28 and April 18.

6. Imo: Between January 3 and April 24, 2021, IPOB members killed seven persons and injured many others in different attacks in Orlu, Obouo, Aboli Mbaise, Chitte Uboma, Isiala Mbano, Owerri, Njaba, Mbatoli, Oru East LGAs.

7. Rivers: On April 17, 2021, IPOB operatives killed an NSCDC operative on guard duty at Shell crude oil manifold in Elelewon village in Obio/Akpor LGA and injured many others.

The Federal Government also told the western nation that its position may seem to have further emboldened Kanu, adding that this may explain the increased tempo of attacks carried out by members of his group.

Mr Kanu, who jumped bail in 2017 and fled the country after his country home was attacked by Nigerian soldiers, was arrested and re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.(NAN)
The Nigerian government has threatened to deport foreign travellers who fail to present a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PSC) test result on arrival into the country.

The Chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made this known in a statement titled; Revised Provisional Quarantine Protocol for Travellers Arriving Nigeria, a copy of which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday.

Mr Mustapha, who doubles as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said passengers arriving into Nigeria must present only a valid PCR test to gain access into the country.

He said passengers who fail to comply with the newly revised protocol will be denied entry into the country

A passenger arriving in Nigeria without a valid PCR result (either no PCR result or a forged COVID-19 PCR result or a non-PCR COVID-19 test e.g., an antigen or antibody test) will be subjected to the following measures:

If holding foreign passport and being non-resident in Nigeria, the passenger will be denied entry into the country and arrangements made for immediate deportation at cost to the carrier airline, he said.

Nigerian travellers

Mr Mustapha said passengers who are Nigerians or holders of permanent resident permits will be allowed entry into the country without a PCR test.

He, however, said such passengers must follow the procedure required afterwards.

For Nigerians and foreign passport holders with residency rights, they will be provided with an Information Leaflet outlining the procedure that will be followed;

Port Health Services will screen the passenger to include a temperature check and review of health questionnaires to establish infectivity risk, he said.

Mr Mustapha said the passenger will be registered on the Nigeria International Travel Portal after which such person will be escorted to a designated isolated centre for seven days at the expense of the passenger.

Passengers passport will, however, not be released until completion of the mandatory quarantine period.

He added, COVID-19 PCR test will be conducted by a designated private laboratory within 24 hours of arrival at the quarantine facility at the expense of the passenger.

If the test result is positive, the passenger is transferred to the isolation facility and managed accordingly but if the test result is negative the passenger will CONTINUE with mandatory isolation at the quarantine facility until Day-7 COVID-19 PCR test is done.

He also noted that passengers presenting a forged COVID-19 PCR results shall be referred to the Police Authorities or appropriate bodies for prosecution on the expiration of mandatory quarantine period.

Inbound passengers

The SGF said the revised response provisional quarantine protocol now requires inbound passengers to perform a COVID-19 PCR test not more than three days or 72 hours before boarding

Passengers MUST perform a COVID-19 PCR test not more than three days (72 hours) before boarding.

A PCR test done more than 72 hours before departure is not valid and the person will not be allowed to board. A Rapid antigen or antibody test are also not acceptable.

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Test validity commences from the time of sample collection. For passengers with multiple connections before arrival in Nigeria, the PCR test must be valid within 72 hours of boarding from the first point of departure, he said.

He also said passengers must present an electronic or hard copy of their COVID-19 PCR test for presentation at the departure airport and upon arrival in Nigeria.
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Some gunmen allegedly attacked the home of a self-styled activist, Sunday Igboho, in the early hours of Thursday.

The gunmen, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, raided his house in Soka, Ibadan, Oyo State around 1:00 a.m.

The development was confirmed by Mr Igbohos spokesperson, Olayomi Koiki. He told PREMIUM TIMES that the gunmen were seen in military uniforms when carrying out the attack.

This newspaper has not been able to independently verify his claims yet.

But sources in the area who spoke with our correspondent said there was pandemonium in the Soka community in the midnight following sporadic gunshots.

Mr Igbohos vehicles, including his G-wagon, Prado Jeep, and some properties including furniture, and windows were reportedly destroyed.

This newspaper was briefed that a close ally of Mr Igboho identified as Lady K, was allegedly whisked away by the gunmen.

The police spokesperson in Oyo State, Adewale Osifeso, did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES calls and text messages as of the time of filing this report.

Also, Nigerian Army spokesperson, Mohammed Yerimas phone was not connecting when this reporter dialled it Thursday morning

Background

It would be recalled that Mr Igboho in April raised a similar alarm that his building was under siege. He claimed then that soldiers invaded his residence at around 2:00 a.m.

The military denied then.

Mr Igboho is an agitator of Yoruba nation. He has led rallies in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, and Ogun states. Mr Igboho has threatened to hold the rally in Lagos on July 3 despite warning by authorities.

He has in the past also called for the eviction of Fulanis in South-west states, an action that was condemned by federal and state authorities.

Yoruba Nation agitation is a political ideology to realise an independent and sovereign country for the Yoruba race in Nigeria but many political leaders in the region have rejected the idea.

Former Governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, alongside Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila; politician, Bisi Akande and all leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-west, in a meeting in Lagos last month, opposed the agitation but called for a restructuring of the federation.

They also called for ethnic and religious unity instead of a divided nation.
The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said on Thursday that Nigeria and many African countries have no access to COVID-19 vaccines, despite their availability in developed countries.

Mr Mamora said this at a virtual conference on Nigeria and the Next Pandemic: preparedness, response and vaccines organised by The Conversation Africa.

The minister said Nigeria is focusing on vaccine development to cater for the shortage of vaccines in the country.

He said Bio-Vaccine Nigeria Limited, a joint-venture between the Nigerian government and a private firm, is working on manufacturing vaccines for the country.

We have every need to do that in light of what is happening in the global stage. Right now, a lot of countries in Africa and even Nigeria cant have access to vaccines.

We can only hope to get over that or we have our own manufacturing hub in Nigeria and that is what we are working towards achieving.

As many are aware, the world is facing inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, with Africa bearing the brunt of it. While countries in Europe and America are fully vaccinated as high as 50 percent of their population in less than one year, African countries are still around one per cent and faced with a scarcity of vaccines, the minister said.

Mr Mamora said the pandemic has created a sense of urgency around vaccine development and manufacturing in the African region.

In Nigeria, we have taken this opportunity to fully establish our capacity for vaccine manufacturing. We have been working closely with Bio-vaccines Nigeria Limited, he said.

Earlier, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said Nigeria will get 3.92 million doses of Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccines in July or August.

Preparedness for future pandemic

Speaking on the preparedness of Nigeria for the next pandemic, Mr Mamora said the federal government is working hard to equip the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), through the basic healthcare provision fund.

The minister said NCDC will have access to 2.5 per cent of the 5 per cent of the funds earmarked for health emergencies.

We were not as prepared as we would have loved to at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the resources we had were based on previous investment in health security by NCDC.

We are seeking this opportunity, this moment of disruption, to build more sustainable and resilient systems for health security in Nigeria, he said.

Mr Mamora said though it is difficult to prepare for a future pandemic while still in the face of one, the WHO estimate, which states that the world faces a threat of pandemic every five years, is enough reason to prepare.

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He said vaccine manufacturing is one of the key areas of preparing for future pandemics, adding that the country has leveraged on the COVID-19 to strengthen its health facilities.

Mr Mamora added that Nigeria has learnt a lot of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and it will prepare the country for future pandemics.

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Other speakers at the conference are, Christian Happi, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics; Folashade Ogunshola, Professor of Medical Microbiology; Glenda Gray, Special Adviser, Medical Research Council; Oyewale Tomori, Professor of Virology and and others.

The conference also had in attendance representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health, health experts and scientists and other policymakers.
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The federal government has yet again ignored questions raised by many Nigerians on how it arrested and got the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, returned to the country.

The government said it was on Mr Kanus trail for over two years, and assured he will be treated fairly.

Mr Kanu, who fled Nigeria in 2017, was re-arrested and brought back to Nigeria on Sunday to continue facing his treasonable felony trial.

Since his return, there have been questions about the legitimacy of the procedure adopted in bringing the IPOB leader back to Nigeria. The government has not given details of its operation.

Addressing journalists Thursday in Abuja on the matter, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, simply said it was made possible through the collaboration of Nigerian security and intelligence agencies.

The minister, however, spoke about Mr Kanus luxurious lifestyle and the designer wears he was arrested in.

It will interest Nigerians to know that for over two years, our security and intelligence agencies were on the trail of the proscribed IPOB leader as he lived a five-star life across several countries, traveling on chartered private jets, living in luxury apartments, and turning out in designer clothes and shoes. Of course, as we all saw, he was wearing an attire made by Fendi, a luxury Italian fashion brand, when he was arrested, Mr Mohammed said.

We can tell you that the forensic investigation carried out so far has revealed a treasure trove of information on the proscribed IPOB leader and his collaborators. While the investigation continues, we assure you that none of the collaborators, irrespective of their standing in society, will be spared. They will all face the full wrath of the law for their activities that challenge our nations sovereignty and threaten its unity. No one, no matter how highly placed, is bigger than the country.

Addressing the call for a fair trial by Nigerians, the minister said Mr. Kanu previously got a fair trial before he decided to jump bail and flee.

However, I can assure you that the fair deal that Kanu denied many of the victims of the violence which he willfully instigated through his broadcasts and tweets will not be denied him.

There have been speculations on how this re-arrest was pulled off and in which country the hitherto fugitive leader of the proscribed IPOB was nabbed. What we can tell you, once again, is that the re-arrest was made possible by the diligent efforts of our security and intelligence agencies, in collaboration with countries with which we have obligations. We continue to respect and honour the obligations.

He commended the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, who collaborated to re-arrest Mr. Kanu in one of the most classic operations of its type in the world.

We commend the professionalism, diligence, patriotism, and painstaking efforts of our security and intelligence agencies. We also thank the sister international agencies that collaborated with us to pull off this arrest, the minister said.
The judicial panel of enquiry set up to investigate acts of brutality and rights violations perpetrated by the operatives of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other police units has submitted its report in Katsina State.

Similar panel set up by the Kaduna State government concluded its sitting on Saturday, June 26.

Aside from Katsina and Kaduna, the five others in the North-west region, comprising Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, did not have the panel, PREMIUM TIMES findings showed.

The federal government and the 36 sate governors had, through the platform of the National Executive Council (NEC) chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, agreed to set up the panels of enquiry in the various states in the wake of the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality in October 2020.

Nigerians, mostly the youth, in their march against atrocities committed against innocent persons by the various police units, specifically denounced the activities of SARS and called for its disbandment.

The government acceded to the demand for the proscription of SARS, and agreed to set up the judicial panels of enquiry to address the grievances of the victims of inhuman activities of the police.

While many states complied with the NEC resolution for the setting up of the panels, now popularly referred to #EndSARS panels, some others, like five of the North-western states refused to.

Katsina panel submits report

While submitting its report on February 2, 2021, the chairman of the #EndSARS panel in Katsina State, Abdullahi Bawale, said his panel established some cases of rights violations, unlawful arrests, illegal detentions, and other forms of constitutional breaches perpetrated by identified members of the disbanded SARS.

He explained that the panel received 100 petitions and complaints, out of which 25 were struck out due to non-appearance of the petitioners.

The panel sat in the three senatorial districts of the state, namely, Daura, Katsina, and Funtua, to enable petitioners to have easy access.

The state governor, Aminu Masari, while receiving the report, said he would immediately set the process of implementing the report in motion by constituting a White Paper committee.

The highlights of the report and recommendations have indicated that the commission has conducted thorough investigation and made far-reaching recommendations for consideration.

I will therefore, with immediate effect, set up a white paper committee to come out with the modalities of implementing the recommendations that affect Katsina State and forwarding to the presidency and the Police Service Commission (PSC) the aspect of the recommendations that affect them appropriately, the governor said.

Kadunas panel concludes sitting

Also, in Kaduna State, the panel of enquiry concluded sitting on Saturday, June 18.

The chairman, David Wyom, said the next stage was for the members of the panel to prepare their report which would be submitted to Governor Nasir El-Rufai for further action.

He assured that the panel would be fair and just to every petitioner with substantiative evidence.

While, Kaduna, Katsina remain the only states in Nigerias North-west states that have set up the panel of enquiry, the rest of Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, refused to.

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Kano

About 190 civil society and community-based organisations, in November last year, petitioned Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, asking him to set up the judicial panel of enquiry to check cases of police brutality in the state.

The group called for the setting up of the panel in its petition co-signed by its chairperson, Ibrahim Waiya, and secretary, Peter Tijani.

According to the coalition, the constitution of the panel will help address the grievances of the victims of SARS and police brutality, and abuse of power.

Although, Kano did not experience so much from the #EndSARS protests, we however feel that there is an imperative need to establish such panel in Kano, for the simple reason that, Kano State is strategic and critical, which most at times serves as a pacesetter in all national issues of public concern, their letter had read in part.

The coalition urged the governor to put the state among others that had set up the panels of enquiry to address the alleged violations of human rights by the disbanded SARS and to equally restore such rights and sanction the violators if found.

The Kano State Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, did not pick PREMIUM TIMES repeated calls. He also did not reply a text message sent to him by our reporter asking for his comment on the non-constitution of the panel in the state.

Zamfara

The Zamfara State government too did not set up an #EndSARS panel.

The governors media aide, Zailani Baffa, told PREMIUM TIMES he had not received any briefing on the constitution or otherwise of the panel. He promised to revert to our reporter as soon as he got information on the issue. But he had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

It will, however, be recalled that Zamfara State government had earlier opposed the disbandment of SARS.

As many Nigerians took to the streets last year denouncing the activities of SARS operatives, Governor Bello Matawalle, on October 11, 2020 said he has strongly endorsed the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police as a vital necessity towards attaining peace and tranquility in our country.

Mr Matawalle, quoted in a statement by his media aide, added, Here in Zamfara State, we cannot afford to do without their immense contribution to the success of our peace initiatives against banditry and other criminality.

He stated further that those that were against SARS have more questions to answer from Nigerians.

Jigawa

The Jigawa State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Musa Aliyu, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the state had yet to establish the #EndSARS panel.

Mr Aliyu, however, said he would not rule out the establishment of such panels in the future.

It will be recalled that PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the youth in their hundreds staged a pro-SARS rally in the state October 15, 2020.

The government-backed demonstrations convened by Musbahu Basirka, under the auspices of Human Rights Network, was staged to rally support for then newly created Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) that succeeded the disbanded SARS.

They also called for better funding of the police and improved welfare package of their personnel to be able to fight banditry in the troubled North-west region.

Sokoto, Kebbi States

Sokoto and Kebbi States too did not establish the panels.

When contacted by our reporter, the Kebbi State Commissioner for Information, Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba, declined to comment.

However, an official of the Ministry of Information, who pleaded not to be named because he was not permitted to speak to the media, told PREMIUM TIMES that the state did not establish the panel because the #EndSARS protest did not hold in the state.

The Sokoto States Commissioner for Information, Bajini Galadanchi, did not respond to our reporters calls and text message asking for comment on why the #EndSARS panel was not set up in the state.

A former chairperson of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dutse branch in Jigawa State, Baffa Alhassan, said states in the North-west were reluctant to set up the #EndSARS panels because of the low record of police brutality cases in the states in the region.
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The House of Representatives has asked the Federal Government to suspend the planned privatisation of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

The lawmakers noted that the asset does not belong to the federal government solely, hence, the planned sale should be put on hold till ownership of the asset is resolved.

This resolution was sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by Kayode Musbau (APC, Lagos) on Thursday.

In his motion, Mr Musbau said the funding for procuring the asset was sourced from the federation account, noting that the asset belongs to federal, states and local governments in Nigeria.

Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) is incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act as a private limited liability company with shareholding fully subscribed to by the Federal, State and Local Governments with a mandate to manage the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP).

In 2005, the National Council of State and the National Assembly approved an initial funding of US$2.5 billion for NIPP from the Excess Crude Oil Account (ECOA) which statutorily belongs to the Federal, State and Local governments, he said.

He said the government had in 2013, decided to sell the asset, with proceeds to be invested in renewable energy but the process was truncated.

Mr Musbau informed his colleagues that some assets of the company are part of the those listed by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) to be sold with the aim of using the proceeds to fund the federal government budget deficit.

Resolutions

The House, therefore, mandated the

committees on power and privatisation and commercialisation to investigate the planned sale of the NIPP power plants of the NDPHC and report back within four (4) weeks for further legislative action.

When the motion was put to question by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the ayes had it.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, held talks with Nigerias Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on a number of topical issues on Thursday.

A statement by Mr Malamis spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, said the AGF hosted Ms Laing, at his office in Abuja, where they discussed bilateral issues including asset recovery, and anti-corruption crusade for almost an hour on Thursday.

According to Mr Gwandu, the two officials also discussed the amendment of the Electoral Act, the Audit Bill, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and the recent ban on Twitter by the Nigerian government.

Nnamdi Kanus arrest missing from agenda

But missing from the agenda of the meeting as stated by Mr Gwandu is the issue of the recent arrest of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, who holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

The development is against expectations considering how Mr Kanus arrest has attracted local and international attention since Tuesday and also in light of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

Mr Malami, who doubles as Nigerias Minister of Justice, had said on Tuesday that the separatist leader who fled Nigeria in 2017, evading his treasonable felony trial, was intercepted through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and security services.

But the minister and another official, who has publicly spoken on the matter, continue to hold back crucial details of where Mr Kanu, known to have been residing in the U.K. after escaping from Nigeria, was arrested, and how he was brought back to the country.

Responses from the British embassy on the matter as reported in the media have, also, only been helpful to the extent that they clearly stated that Mr Kanu was not arrested in the U.K.

Until Thursday, no other meeting between top representatives of the U.K. and Nigerian governments has been reported in the media since the controversy over Mr Kanus arrest started with Mr Malamis announcement on Tuesday.

PREMIUM TIMES cannot immediately verify if Mr Kanus matter was discussed at the meeting between Mr Malami and Ms Laing, but was deliberately kept out of the statement issued by the AGF office on Thursday.

Mr Gwandu, the AGFs spokesperson, did not take our reporters call or respond to his text message enquiry seeking further clarification on the matter.

With lack of official information, different media reports have speculated a number of countries such as Kenya, Cameroon, and Czech Republic, as the place where Mr Kanu was reported.

Mutual suspicion

The Nigerian and U.K. governments have a history of mutual suspicion towards each other over Mr Kanu and the separatist activities of his IPOB.

Apart from facilitating Mr Kanus return to the U.K. from Israel, where he first surfaced after fleeing Nigeria in 2017, the British government has also rebuffed Nigerian governments push to declare IPOB a terrorist organisation.

The U.K. government has also not hidden its positive disposition towards granting asylum to IPOB members and other separatists agitating for the Republic of Biafra being persecuted in Nigeria.

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Nigerian government considers the attitude of the U.K. government as ignoring Mr Kanus roles as the mastermind of the violent activities of IPOB in the Igbo-dominated South-east  the region the separatists want carved out from Nigeria as an independent country.

#TwitterBan

Meanwhile the ban on Twitter by the Nigerian government, Mr Malami said the government had established a committee on the matter.

He said the management of the Twitter had approached the Nigerian government over the issue.

If you want operate as a business entity in Nigeria, you must do so within the context of Nigerian laws. Nothing offensive or that breach the Nigerian laws should be entertained, Mr Malami said.

He said public interest had been the uppermost consideration within which the context of freedom of expressions should be regulated noting that reasonable restrictions to freedom of expressions are locally and internationally recognised.

The ban on Twitter by the Nigerian government has been widely criticised within and outside Nigeria as an attack on citizens right to freedom of expression.

The British High Commission to Nigeria, also joined the U.S., Irish, and Canadian embassies as well as the European Delegation to Nigeria in denouncing the ban.

But Malami insisted on Thursday that the Nigerian government is not averse to freedom.

Freedom is not borderless. Freedom of expression must not be used in such a manner that incites citizens to violence or calls for an overthrow of a democratically elected government. There are bounds to freedom within the laws, he was quoted as saying.

PIB, others

The statement added, The meeting which lasted for almost an hour discussed bilateral issues relating to Asset Recovery, Anti-corruption crusade, amendment of the Electoral Act, the Audit Bill, Petroleum Industry Bill, Twitter ban and counter-terrorism approaches.

Malami said the fundamental interest and objective of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was to leverage the bill to enhance value in terms of creating amiable environment for investment, protecting the public interest for the maximum benefit of the country.

On Petroleum Industry Bill, the minister said necessary steps have been taken to ensure the pending bills are transmitted to the President for accent.

Malami said the essence of the amendment of the Electoral Act was to enhance the democratic system thereby aiming at addressing delays in judicial determination of pre-election matters, as well as ensuring justice and fairness in the conduct of election processes including party primaries.

He said to strengthen the fight against corruption, the Nigerian government came up with the Proceeds of Crime Bill and Audit Bill among others.

British ambassadors reaction

In her remarks, the British High Commissioner, Ms. Catriona Laing, reportedly thanked the minister for the clarification of the issues and maintained that the steps taken in the fight against corruption and electoral reforms were really encouraging.
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Angolan authorities should drop criminal defamation charges against journalists Coque Mukuta and Escrivao Jose, stop pursuing such cases against the press, and ensure that journalism is not criminalized, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On June 17, Angolan judicial authorities charged Coque Mukuta, editor of privately owned news website O Decreto and a correspondent for the U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America, and Escrivao Jose, editor of privately owned newspaper Hora H, with criminal defamation after two ruling party officials filed separate complaints about their journalism, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Mukuta said he was charged for an article he wrote in O Decreto.

According to the Angolan penal code, the charge of criminal defamation carries a sentence of up to 18 months in prison or a variable fine at the discretion of the judge.

Since March 2021, CPJ has documented at least six other cases of criminal defamation complaints against journalists in Angola. The country is scheduled to hold a national election in 2022, though a date has not been set, according to Angolas state news agency.

The latest criminal defamation investigations into journalists in Angola demonstrate a renewed push by politicians to silence those in the media who are exposing corruption ahead of next years election, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator. The criminal defamation charges against Coque Mukuta, Escrivao Jose, and other journalists must be dropped immediately, and prosecutors should guard against the criminal justice system being abused for political ends.

In addition to the criminal defamation charges, both Mukuta and Jose were placed under term of identity and residence orders that prevent them from traveling outside of Luanda for an undetermined length of time depending on how their cases progress, the journalists told CPJ. Mukutas order includes a provision that prevents him from leaving his house for more than five days without notifying the attorney generals office, he said.

Mukuta told CPJ that he was charged with criminal defamation after the deputy governor of the northern Cuanza-Norte province, Leonor Garibaldi, filed a complaint against him over an August 3, 2020, article he wrote for O Decreto criticizing Angolan President Joao Lourenco for alleged inaction on corruption in the province. He believes that the criticism of the president is the main reason for the complaint.

In a phone call with CPJ, Garibaldi said she felt she was falsely accused of corruption in the story and that the journalist did not seek comment from her before publishing, and now should be forced to provide proof of his allegations.

Mukuta told CPJ that he sought comment from the government of the province.

Jose told CPJ that prosecutors charged him after Cuanza-Norte Governor Adriano de Carvalho filed a complaint against him for an article Hora H republished that originally appeared on TV NZinga, a news website published on Facebook, in June 2020 about the alleged beating and torturing of a man who had criticized the Carvalho government on social media.

CPJ was unable to locate a link to the report as it appeared on either outlet, but TV NZinga editor Capita Inga, the author of the piece, republished it on his personal Facebook page.

Inga told CPJ via messaging app that he had been twice summoned for questioning last year by the office of the attorney general in Cuanza-Norte after Carvalho filed a similar defamation complaint against him over the same article. Ingas defense lawyer requested that the case be transferred to Luanda, where Inga resides, and Inga has not yet been questioned in the case, the journalist said.

In a call with CPJ, Carvalho said that his family was bullied due to the reports in Hora H and TV NZinga, with people saying awful things to his daughter, though he did not elaborate. Carvalho said he wrote to the Angolan media regulatory body with his complaints about the reporting but did not receive a reply. He said that he wanted the journalists to provide proof of the claims in their reporting.

CPJ called Angolas media regulatory body, the Entity for Regulation of Angolan Social Communication (ERCA) but no one picked up. CPJ also sent emails and a message through the bodys website but did not receive a reply.

Alvaro Joao, a spokesperson for the attorney generals office, told CPJ in a call that authorities have to open investigations and follow up on complaints made by anyone who feels aggrieved and that the various investigations into journalists are not a choice or persecution but merely legal procedure.

Jose said that he has been investigated for 12 other criminal defamation charges since 2011. With so many crimes to investigate in Angola, authorities chase journalists, and the intimidation is only going to get worse until [the 2022] elections as politicians in government scramble to keep a good image, he told CPJ.
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If those who mean well for Nigeria across board can come together and start taking the necessary steps in the right direction, we will be able to win over some cynics in time. We must all accept the fact that Nigeria is better together. I know this may sound cliched. But it is the truth. Dividing this country will not serve the collective interest of any region or religion.

There is no doubt that Nigeria is clearly on the brink. The country has never been this divided and broken politically, socially and economically since the end of the civil war. Nigerians have turned on one another in the midst of other existential problems such as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, among others, that have plagued the country.

Terrorism, banditry and kidnapping for ransom are very serious challenges that require the cooperation and commitment of everyone to be resolved. But unfortunately, rather than unite against these evils that are taking the lives of our people, making people to live in fear and hampering economic activities in different parts of the country, we have become more of a divided people.

There is a growing suspicion between the various sub-nationalities, socio-cultural and religious groups in Nigeria. The South-South and South-Eastern parts of the country are convinced that the Northern folks are the cause of our problems. Northerners see Nigerians in the South-South and South-East zones as the problem. Those in the South-West and North-Central are not left out of the finger pointing and blame game.

On the religious front, the majority of Christians have concluded that Muslims, especially those in the Northern parts, are the problems of this country. Muslims also think that Christians cannot be trusted. The Fulani, as a result of the activities of the notorious herdsmen, are equally considered as the major problem of Nigeria. If you listen to any side of the argument dispassionately, you will almost be tempted to conclude that their concerns have some level of merit.

However, the question we should be asking ourselves is whether any of these regions is benefitting justifiably from the Nigeria project as currently constituted. With all the mutual suspicions, accusations and finger pointing, which region can we say has its ordinary people truly benefiting from the way Nigeria has been managed over the years by different administrations? None, to my estimation. Go to different parts of Northern and Southern Nigeria, and you will find that the plight of the ordinary Nigerian in these places is the same. There is growing poverty everywhere, which is aggravating desperation and fuelling agitations, crises and criminality in different parts of the country.

Poverty does not discriminate. Poverty does not have a colour in the North that is different from that of the South. There has been the collapse of public institutions all across Nigeria. The effects of the failure of leadership, at the federal, state and local government levels, are the same all across, even though the severity and spread may vary. We are all victims of the same broken and failed system that is not working for the benefit of the collective. What we have had consistently over the years is that those who are able to directly or indirectly gain access to political power are the ones living well mostly. As soon as Nigerians gain access to power, they tend to completely forget what it means to be an ordinary person.

To my folks in the South-South, South-East and South-West, our folks in the North are not the problem of this country. To my folks in the North, Nigerians in the South are not the problem either. To Nigerian Christians, Fulani and Muslims are not the problem. And to the Muslims in the North, Christians in the South and indeed all across Nigeria are not the problem. All the problems facing us today, from terrorism to banditry to kidnapping for ransom, destruction of public assets, agitations, etc. are not caused by any particular region or religion. If we continue to blame regions and/or religions, we will not be able to resolve the problems, because we are focusing on the wrong target.

These crises are the result of the broken and failed system that can no longer serve the common good of Nigerians. At best, it will continue to serve the good of the very few who have access to power at the federal, state and local government levels. Even the crisis between herdsmen and farmers that is ravaging different parts of our communities is not caused by either the farmer or the herdsman. It is caused by a failed leadership that cannot see that there is more economic and social benefit to changing our cattle rearing system in this 21st century.

Why is it difficult for our leaders to realise that the system we are running is not working? It is not surprising to the discerning that Nigeria has come to where it is today because the signs have been there over the years through successive governments. Greed, corruption and mismanagement have increased steadily over the years. This administration would have us believe that it has tried. But the reality of the ordinary Nigerian shows otherwise. Nigerians have become refugees in their country. Nigerians cannot move freely around, socially and economically. People are living in perpetual fear. There is growing poverty in the country. How can this administration claim to have done better?

With all the existential issues threatening the stability of the country, is there any hope of survival of the ordinary person? Can Nigeria come out of these challenges? My answer would be, yes. However, achieving this will not be easy. It will start with us as a people. We must be willing to stop the simplistic approach we have been employing over the years. It is simplistic to think that one region or religion is the cause of these problems. It is simplistic to think breaking us is the solution to the problem of injustice and unfair treatment. This approach wont get us anywhere. We must be ready to take a different approach. We will need to work together with all sincerity and start by putting a stop to the mutual suspicion and blame game.

Everybody has a role to play and all of us must play our role for this to work. Political leaders, religious leaders, the civil society, traditional leaders and indeed every one of us must assume personal responsibility to salvage Nigeria, starting with using every platform that is available to us to galvanise the people, inspire hope and encourage change. We must put an end to the mutual suspicion and focus on our common issues. This system as presently constituted is not working. We must come to terms with the need to restructure the system. We must come together and dialogue. I believe there are people who mean well for this country across board, who would always take the high road.

If those who mean well for Nigeria across board can come together and start taking the necessary steps in the right direction, we will be able to win over some cynics in time. We must all accept the fact that Nigeria is better together. I know this may sound cliched. But it is the truth. Dividing this country will not serve the collective interest of any region or religion. We need one another because we are indeed stronger and better together.

Frederick Adetiba is a transformation specialist, social reformer, management consultant and the lead pastor of The Finishing Church, Abuja. You can connect with him via www.fredadetiba.com and @fredadetiba on social media.
On this special occasion of his 60th birthday, Tunji should be saluted as a hero of purposeful journalism and a hero of Nigerias democracy. Especially encouraging is the fact that Tunji has remained himself  humble, level-headed, compassionate and humane, his long sojourn on the corridors of government and power notwithstanding. For he is a jolly good fellow? You can say that again and again.

Robust framed, fine-skinned and afro-haired, while oozing handsomeness in his parliamentary gown, he somewhat stood out among the students union leaders who had thronged the Great Ife campus on that occasion in the 1982/83 session.

Back at the students union office soon after the event, a group of us whispered and joked that the guy from the University of Ibadan (U.I.) must be an e dey happen chap  the other moniker in those days for those categorised as ome aje butter  students or young guys whose mien pointed at a privileged background.

The guy was Tunji Bello. He was the students union leader  the Vice President  who had come to represent the University of Ibadan students union at the second memorial anniversary of four students from the University of Ife who were cut down in their prime by the Police during a funeral procession in Ile-Ife town on June 7, 1981. The irony was that the march was to protest the beheading of another student  Bukola Arogundade.

The brutal killing of Bukola Ojewoye, Fatimah Adebimpe, Paul Alonge, and Wemimo Akinbolu after the Police fired live ammunition and tear gas at thousands of students lined up behind the then students union president, Femi Kuku, in front of Mayfair Hotel in the Lagere area of the town, shook the campus to its foundation. It shocked a nation to whom humanity then mattered.

Indeed, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), under the leadership of Dr. Biodun Jeyifo, had to set up an administrative panel of inquiry comprising Chief Gani Fawehinmi (the head) and Labanji Bolaji, a veteran journalist and member, to unravel the mystery behind the death of the students. It was the panel that found out conclusively that their deaths were a direct outcome of the police assault on the peacefully marching students.

The Fajemifo Christopher executive, on which I served as the Secretary-General, came into office two sessions after the massacre and one of our early resolutions was to organise a befitting commemorative activity, including the erection of a June 7 statue in front of the students union building, to serve as a permanent memorial for the June 7 four.

It was thus the unveiling of the statue, the memorial march by students union leaders from Ife and nearby campuses and other related activities that marked my first crossing of paths with Tunji Bello.

Tunji Bello deserves to be acknowledged as a player and leader in the students movement of that era, which, to a significant number of Nigerians, constitutes a golden generation Sections of that generation believe their radical and or revolutionary vision of Nigeria should not die with campus activism but should be taken into the arena of their professional callings and the larger society.

Beyond the specific symbolism of immortalising the June 7 four, the commemorative events organised by our Executive Committee were reflective of the ideology driven, purposeful and focussed nature of students unionism in that era. The elements of the mission that shaped unionism then included the defence of independent students unionism; protection of students welfare; promotion of a culture of enlightened and robust debate of national and international issues; holding the civilian governments accountable for their deeds or misdeeds; and doing same for the military governments that succeeded them in the aftermath of the military putsch of 1983, which marked the demise of the Second Republic.

The early to mid-80s was also a period when the privileges being enjoyed by students, such as a subsidised feeding system, subsidised accommodation and affordable tuition fees were already under threat. At first, the attack on the educational system was a product of the profligacy of the Shehu Shagari-led National Party of Nigeria (NPN)s federal government. It was that corruption-ridden government that started the establishment of more universities for political considerations, without giving deep thought to how they would be funded. Later, the attack became bye-products of the shift in the direction of neo-liberalism by the military governments.

By the late 80s, it had become clear that the attempt to commercialise education was in part fulfilment of the conditionalities imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to which the country had turned for loans. The most notorious of the initiative in this direction was the Ibrahim Babangida military juntas Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which he claimed had no alternative but which was duly resisted by students, youths and Nigerians, in what became famously known as the anti-SAP riots of 1989.

Tunji Bello deserves to be acknowledged as a player and leader in the students movement of that era, which, to a significant number of Nigerians, constitutes a golden generation.

Sections of that generation believe their radical and or revolutionary vision of Nigeria should not die with campus activism but should be taken into the arena of their professional callings and the larger society. This was especially so with those who had been active as campus journalists, students unionists and leaders; and members of socialist, black nationalist, anti-apartheid, etc., movements, some of who would later become professional journalists.

One of the earliest indications of that commitment was the convergence of a group of erstwhile campus activists and unionists now working as journalists in Lagos at the then secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Yaba, Lagos, to form the Progressives Journalists Associations (PJA) in the period between 1988 and 1989. Adopting the ideology of socialism, the main aim of PJA was to use the instrumentality of journalism to transform Nigeria through the pursuit of journalism with social relevance. In the course of time, the platform expanded to accommodate like-minded elements, especially those who didnt have campus activism backgrounds and it got transformed into the New Trend movement of the NUJ.

As I attested in my recent tribute to another active participant in that movement, Femi Ojudu, who also recently turned 60, Tunji Bello was a prominent player in that movement and would emerge from the forum to be one of the leaders of the NUJ in Lagos State. I wrote: The New Trend platform took the Lagos Council of NUJ by storm when in 1989 it elected the dynamic leadership of Ladi Lawal, Tunji Bello, Richard Akinnola, Kayode Komolafe, Bong Ita, Niyi Bankole, Dagogo Jack etc. It later extended its foray to the national level with the subsequent election of Sani Zoro as the National President of NUJ.

The annulment and the nationwide anger it provoked also meant that he would become a core participant in the struggle for the restoration of the June 12 mandate for which MKO ultimately paid the supreme price. Tunjiis one of the top ten Nigerians who could write authoritatively on the intrigues sharp twists and turns of the June 12 struggle.

Tunji Bello was the Treasurer in that famous Ladi Lawal executive, which embarked on the educational and welfare empowerment of journalists. The EXCO put up a robust defence of press freedom for which it established the Press Freedom Defence Committee and was active in decrying human rights abuses that was characteristic of the military government of that era, so much so that by the time of the June 12 crisis of 1993, following the annulment of the presidential mandate freely given by Nigerians to Bashorun MKO Abiola, the council teamed up with other pro-democracy forces to be part of the Joint Action Committee on Nigeria (JACON), led by late Gani Fawehinmi.

On the above account, Tunji Bello also deserves to be acknowledged and commended as a key player and leader in that radicalisation of the NUJ via the new trend platform.

History, as far as my relationship with Tunji Bello is concerned, ran full cycle when I joined the National Concord, where he was already established on the features and political desks, and would soon become the Political Editor. Though I also became the Features Editor, we related more as former student unionists and NUJ combatants than as line editors. We became friends and on occasions embarked on joint rendezvous, the full details of which can only be preserved as unwritten memoirs.

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Well read, well connected, urbane, focussed, amiable and intellectually endowed, it was not hard to guess that Tunji would rapidly climb the professional ladder of journalism, and one the earliest indications was when he was offered the Alfred Friendly fellowship in the United States. The development so much excited Bashorun MKO Abiola that he organised a farewell reception for Tunji at his Ikeja residence, with some of us present to devour the meals and savour the banters of the occasion. I was the one that dropped Tunji off at the airport for his departure and was equally on hand to pick and drop him at home upon his return.

With such other cerebral journalists like Victor Ifijeh, Sam Omatseye, etc., forming part of his formidable team, it could not have been otherwise that the political desk would be part of the success story of the National Concord in the 1990s. And here again, the contribution of Tunji to media professionalism and development, as one who transversed the vast field of political reporting, should be duly acknowledged.

Tunjis charismatic attributes, the journalism front at which he operated and close relationship with MKO, obviously recommended him for the inner circle role he played in the National Concord publishers bid for the presidency on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1993. The annulment and the nationwide anger it provoked also meant that he would become a core participant in the struggle for the restoration of the June 12 mandate for which MKO ultimately paid the supreme price. Tunji, in my reckoning, is one of the top ten Nigerians who could write authoritatively on the intrigues, the backstabbing, the horse trading, the betrayals, the somersaults and the sharp twists and turns of the June 12 struggle. He owes present and future generation the historical obligation of telling his June 12 story. While we wait for the epic, we have to equally acknowledge the sense of commitment to a Nigeria free from the shackles of military oppression, with which he participated in the pro-democracy movement, despite the obvious risks.

My conclusion therefore is simple. On this special occasion of his 60th birthday, Tunji should be saluted as a hero of purposeful journalism and a hero of Nigerias democracy. Especially encouraging is the fact that Tunji has remained himself  humble, level-headed, compassionate and humane, his long sojourn on the corridors of government and power notwithstanding. For he is a jolly good fellow? You can say that again and again.

Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, is a pro-democracy activist and former Chairman of Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

This is one of the chapters in the book, In Pursuit of Public Purpose  Essays In Honour of Tunji Bello at 60 published to mark his birthday today, July 1st, 2021.
The issues with Nigerias health sector are well documented. From an acute shortage of medical workers, to insufficient medical facilities, and inadequate equipment for the existing facilities to function; Nigeria has a long list of challenges that cast some shadow of doubt on the possibility of an early attainment of the universal health coverage and Sustainable Development Goal 3.

The implications of these challenges are also obvious in the over $1billion Nigeria loses to medical tourism, the perennial brain drain bedevilling our healthcare sector, and the social-economic impact on the general wellbeing of Nigerians and the prosperity of the nation.

Despite the governments best efforts to further accelerate universal health coverage, the road to SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure) still seems a distance.

At the heart of the issues stalling the attainment of these SDGs is the challenge of access. USAID reports that Nigeria shoulders 10 per cent of the global disease burden, attributing this to the lack of access to quality healthcare particularly in the rural areas.

MHF to the Rescue

The Modular Healthcare Facility, MHF, is a fully equipped healthcare facility that can be built and operational within 30 days. It is a prefabricated, customizable, and transportable portacabin with installed medical equipment and healthcare technology applications.

All you need for a healthcare facility to be standing in 30 days is to get the parts of the MHF on a truck, transport them to your preferred location, couple the modules together, and start operations in few days.

How MHF will Improve Access to Quality Healthcare for All

1. Reduce Construction Time to 30 Days: With the MHF, setting up a healthcare facility is now devoid of the time lost to design, construction, equipment installation and commissioning of regular brick and mortar healthcare facilities. The MHF is a plug and play medical facility system.

2. Leverage Technology to Optimize Manpower: To address the issue of inadequate medical practitioners, particularly doctors in the rural areas or crisis zones, the MHF uses technology to connect patients with medical doctors anywhere through its telemedicine facilities.

From the MHF, a patient can be diagnosed, and the report can be digitally transmitted to a doctor or specialist anywhere in the world, the patient can consult with the specialist via the teleconsultation facility, and with the e-pharmacy system; the patient can pick up his prescribed medication at the closest registered pharmacy.

3. Functions Anywhere no Matter the Terrain: One of the issues with access to healthcare facilities is inadequate infrastructure like power, water, etc. The MHF has been designed to run on solar power and efficient water consumption. It is also equipped with a bio-digester system which can converts waste to energy.

4. Comes with the Standard Equipment Requirement: The WHO reports that only a quarter of Nigerias healthcare facilities have more than 25 per cent of the minimum equipment package. It is therefore little wonder why Nigeria records 42.8 per cent prevalence of medical errors.

Whatever kind of medical facility the MHF is acquired for  primary, secondary, or tertiary  the MHF comes will the standard equipment requirement for each level of these healthcare category.

MHF Variants

The MHF comes in different variants that give investors and stakeholders a range of options to choose from, depending on their needs and preferences.

All MHF variants come with telemedicine facilities, Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Radiology Information System (RIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).

MHF 1, for example, is designed for Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs). It houses a fully equipped laboratory, echocardiography and ultrasound scan facilities.

The MHF 2 is for advanced PHCs and Secondary Healthcare Institutions. This contains a fully equipped laboratory, echocardiography, ultrasound scan and X-Ray operations.

The MHF 3 is designed for Teaching Hospitals or other tertiary healthcare institutions. It will cater to the needs of specialist physicians requiring advanced diagnostic services. The MHF 3 comes with a fully equipped clinical laboratory, echocardiography, ultrasound scan, x-ray and Computed Tomography (CT) facilities.

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Presidential Endorsement

Given the positives the MHF will bring to Nigerias health sector, particularly boosting access to quality healthcare, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo endorsed it during the launch of the MHF at the General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos, on Wednesday, June 23. He acknowledged that it would help attain SDGs 3 and 9.

Mr Osinbajo, represented by the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, fulsomely praised Alpha Mead.

I applaud Alpha Mead Healthcare Management Services Limited for harnessing its scientific and technological expertise to make this Modular Healthcare Facility, a solution available for use in the country. It will go a long way in supporting our journey towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, he said.

Mr Osinbajo added that the MHF has appropriately captured SDG Goal 9, which aims at building resilient infrastructure, promote industrialisation, and foster innovations across sectors including health, innovation, infrastructure, and new skills in technology development.

The VP further noted that the MHF would drive SDG 3 and one of its targets of achieving universal health coverage in low and medium-income countries. He urged other private sector players to emulate Alpha Mead, reiterating that the MHF would complement the governments efforts at transforming medical care.

Where and how to use the MHF

The MHF is an answer to a lot of questions when it comes to deployment and availability of medical services anywhere in Nigeria. It can be used in places such as:

1. Camps and Emergency Response Centres: From IDP camps to military base, construction to emergency response centres, the MHF is a compact healthcare solution that takes quality healthcare to the to otherwise inaccessible places like these. Its modular nature makes it moveable to other locations as soon as the camp closes or the operation winds down.

2. Primary Healthcare Facilities: It can be used by government and NGOs to compliment and accelerate the penetration of Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs. Rather than lose time to construction and commission of PHCs, the MHF can serve as a plug and play option. It can be operational in 30days.

3. Secondary & Tertiary Healthcare Spaces: The MHF can serve as the diagnostic and laboratory facility of General, Teaching, or Private Hospitals that lack the necessary equipment.

We care

With this significant investment in the MHF, Alpha Mead has affirmed that it is not just paying lip service to its brand promise of We Care. Instead, it is committed to taking quality healthcare to the doorsteps of Nigerians.

Group Chairman, Alpha Mead Group, Mutiu Sunmonu (CON), affirmed same at the MHF launch in Lagos, noting that a product that accelerates access, addresses manpower shortages, leverages technology and can be rolled out on a massive scale is what our health sector needs. We are happy to be leading this innovation.

He added that for Alpha Mead, the MHF is more than a healthcare facility. It is also an entrepreneurial package capable of serving both social and economic purposes by creating jobs and business opportunities for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, professional health workers, and support staff.

Our focus is to inject our internationally certified processes and systems into the health sector to improve the administration of healthcare in Nigeria, Group Managing Director of Alpha Mead Group, Femi Akintunde, has reiterated.

Theres no gainsaying that Nigerias health sector will not remain the same with the Modular Healthcare Facility as this innovative product will bridge the widening gap in access to quality healthcare in Nigeria.
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The operatives of Seme Command of Nigeria Customs Service have intercepted 3,186 parcels of Cannabis sativa valued at N91.4 million being conveyed in a sand truck along Seme-Badagry Expressway.

Abdulahi Hussiain, the Customs Public Relations Officer, Seme Command, in a statement on Wednesday, said the tipper was intercepted in the early hours of Tuesday, based on credible intelligence reports.

According to Mr Hussiain, the vehicle, after careful examination, was found to contain 41 sacks containing 3,186 parcels of Cannabis Sativa.

He said the Controller of Seme Custums Command, Bello Jibo, commended the gallant officers who made the discovery.

Mr Jibo urged them to sustain the tempo with a view to fighting smuggling within nooks and crannies of the Command in whatever form

The controller advised the officers to always collaborate with the host community in ensuring a harmonious relation to achieve more results.

He called on general public to cooperate with customs in its duty of implementing government policies to generate revenue and improve the economy.

Mr Jibo said that the customs was also tasked with providing professional and quality service that would enhance development in the country. (NAN)
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The police in Lagos on Thursday said it would not allow any form of rally scheduled to hold in the state on July 3 by agitators of the Oodua Republic and Yoruba Nation.

In a statement by Muyiwa Adejobi, the Lagos police spokesperson, the command said they are aware of the planned protest by Sunday Igboho and his supporters.

The attention of the Lagos State Police Command has been drawn to the news making rounds and a press statement signed by one Olayomi Koiki dated 30th June, 2021, that some individuals have concluded plans to stage a mega rally, in continuation of the secessionist agenda for Oodua Republic, on 3rd July, 2021, at Gani Fawehimi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos State.

The Lagos State Police Command hereby warns that no rally will be allowed, under whatever guise, in any part of the state. The Command, therefore, warns the organisers and their followers against staging the planned rally and stay clear of the streets of Lagos for the interest of the State and the general public as anyone caught participating or facilitating the rally will be dealt with within the ambits of the law, the statement reads.

The police warning comes amidst claims by Mr Igbohos camp that gunmen in military uniforms invaded the self-styled activists home in Ibadan in the early hours of Thursday.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, through his spokesperson Olayomi Koiki announced plans for Yoruba Nation protest in Lagos.

We are sending a peaceful message to Governor Sanwo-Olu. We do not mind any other person who is saying we should not come to Lagos. Sanwo-Olu is the chief security officer of the land and we are coming to Lagos.

July 3rd is the most important date; nobody cannot say we should not come to Lagos. It is a peaceful rally, the activist said.

Reacting to the planned protest, the police said Lagos state cannot afford to experience any security lapses, breakdown of law and order, and threat to public peace at the moment, considering the negative effects and reoccurring agonies of the October, 2020 violent #EndSARS crisis that led to massive destruction of public and private facilities.

The Command will not be cajoled by the so-called organizers that the rally will be peaceful. That was the same slogan adopted by the organizers of the #EndSARS protest that was eventually snowballed into crises with attendant massive destruction of lives and properties. The Police will not submit to their antics, the statement reads.

The statement further said that intelligence report available to the police indicates that some disgruntled elements have perfected plans to infiltrate the ranks of the protesters and cause more mayhem and seize the opportunity to attack and loot properties of law-abiding citizens of the state.

The organisers footsoldiers and mobilisers have concluded plans to embark on procession on the streets of Lagos as part of the programme for the mega rally. The effect of this, if allowed to come to fruition is better known than imagined on the security, traffic and economic activities of a cosmopolitan state, like Lagos.

It has also come to the knowledge of the command that the rally arranged to take place at Gani Fawehimi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, has been planned by some other yet-to-be-identified groups to simultaneously take place in LekKi Toll Gate, Ikoyi, Iyana-Ipaja, Ikeja, Surulere, Ikorodu and other areas, the police said in the statement.

Furthermore, the Lagos police said they have gathered intelligence that one Elewe-omo, a transport union leader in Ibadan, Oyo State, has perfected plan to attack the organisers of the rally as a reappraisal attack to the death of one of his followers allegedly killed by one Sunday Igbohos group during a similar rally organised in Ibadan.

The police said it will not fold its hands and allow disgruntled elements to truncate the peace being enjoyed in the state, adding that measures are in place to provide water-tight security for all and sundry in the state.
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The Ogun State police have arrested a 25-year-old suspect for allegedly blackmailing a resident and extorting her to the tune of N7 million.

According to a statement by Abimbola Oyeyemi, the police spokesperson, on Thursday, the suspect threatened to upload nude pictures of the woman on the internet.

The suspect, Adetoro Kazeem, was arrested at his residence at No 2, Paara street Alakia area of Ibadan.

The suspect was arrested following a report by one Gloria Ogunnupebi, who reported at Obalende divisional headquarters Ijebu-Ode that, in the month of May 2021, she received a message from a strange foreign number via a voice note on her WhatsApp that she should send the sum of N200,000 or else her nude picture will be uploaded on social media for public consumption.

She stated further that, to prevent the caller from exposing her to moral and public ridicule, she sent the said amount to him, with the hope that everything is over.

But surprisingly, the person continue(d) demanding for money from her every two weeks, and that she has extorted her up to the tune of N7,363,900, the statement reads.

Following the complaint made by Mrs Ogunnupebi, who is said to be suicidal due to the incident, the police swung into action.

Mr Oyeyemi said the DPO of Obalende Division, Salami Murphy, mobilised detectives to go after the suspect.

The detectives embarked on intelligence and technical base investigation, and they successfully traced the suspect to his hideout in Ibadan Oyo State, where he was apprehended.

On interrogation, the suspect, who confessed to the commission of the crime, informed the investigators that he has many OPAY accounts with different names through which he used to receive money from his victims, the police spokesperson said.

The commissioner of police in the state, Edward Awolowo, ordered an in-depth investigation into the past activities of the suspect with a view to charging him to court as soon as possible, the statement contained.
The Lagos House of Assembly on Thursday debated two bills proposing the establishment of two tertiary institutions, a University of Education and a University of Science and Technology, in the state.

The bills, which scaled second reading on the floor of the House presided over by the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa (Agege 1), were committed to the House Committee on Education (Tertiary) to report back in two weeks.

Currently, there are four state-owned universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education namely the Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), and Michael Otedola College of Education.

Bisi Yusuff (Alimosho 1) argued that the bill for a law to provide for the establishment of the university of Education, Lagos (UNEDLAG), was important as he suggested that it should also have provision for pre-degree programmes.

Mr Yusuff also noted a provision in the bill that would make graduates independent rather than search for jobs.

The inclusion of vocational training will also make the students to be self-employed, he said.

Sanni Okanlawon (Kosofe 1), said it had become important for the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) and the Michael Otedola College of Education to be upgraded to a university.

The society now rejects NCE (holders) and what is the benefit of going to a school that your certificate will not be recognised?

Admission into this school is the lowest as only 18 applicants chose (AOCOED) as first choice in the last Universal Tertiary Matriculations Examinations (UTME).

With the creation of this varsity, it will reduce the number of applicants seeking admission to LASU, he said.

Also contributing, Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti-Osa 2), who agreed with his colleagues on the need to upgrade the two colleges of education in the state to a university, said the NCE is no longer popular.

According to him, the establishment of the university is timely, but there is need to have a template to form the institution in order to avoid overlap.

David Setonji (Badagry 2), chairman of the House committee on Information, supported the bill.

He added that the state has a high number of primary and secondary schools with less teachers and that the university would help resolve the challenge.

The Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1), who said he was excited about the planned upgrade, told his colleagues that he is a product of AOCOED and that he taught for five years with the certificate he got from the institution.

The creation of a new varsity is a good thing. This bill takes care of the welfare of both lecturers and students, he added.

Abiodun Tobun (Epe 2), said he was optimistic the proposed University of Education would produce good teachers if passed into law.

Concerning the proposed University of Science and Technology, the lawmakers expressed optimism that it would help provide manpower for the development of the state and the country.

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In his contributions, Rauf Age-Sulaimon (Amuwo Odofin 2) suggested that courses in the humanities and legal studies should not be included in the institutions curriculum as a University of Science and Technology.

While Femi Saheed (Kosofe 2) said science and technology play vital roles in development, Mr Yusuff urged that the studies to be offered should take into cognisance the culture of the people.

Mr Yusuff also advised that the university should be made to go into researches on agriculture to reduce the high cost of food in the state and the country.
The Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has reacted to the reported attack on the house of Sunday Adeyemo, a self-styled activist also known Sunday Igboho.

The group in a statement by its spokesperson, Jare Ajayi, said the attack on Mr Igbohos house is a sad indicator that we are fast returning to the era of the late Sani Abacha when anyone who expressed opinions contrary to the governments position would be fatally attacked.

PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier that gunmen allegedly invaded Mr Igbohos house, located in Soka, Ibadan, capital of Oyo State around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday.

His vehicles, including his G-wagon, Prado Jeep, and some valuable properties including furniture, and windows were reportedly destroyed.

The attack occurred barely 72 hours to the plan by Mr Igboho and others to hold a rally in Lagos to further canvas for a Yoruba nation.

Afenifere expresses worry

Reacting to the attack, Afenifere said the failure of security agencies to confront the attackers further implicated the government.

We recall with sadness how voices that were opposed to the dictatorial tendencies of Abacha regime were under serious attacks. We recalled how patriots like General Alani Akinrinade, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Pa Alfred Rewane, etc were attacked, resulting in the untimely and gruesome murder of Pa Rewane.

The group, however, called on the federal government to stop any plan to harm Igboho or any other person not known to contravene the law of the land.

Speaking with BBC pidgin on Thursday afternoon, Mr Igboho said he has canceled the rally scheduled to take place in Lagos.

But one of the agitators under the umbrella of Ilana Omo Oodua, Banji Akintoye, said the body would go ahead despite the attack on Igbohos house.

We want to confirm again that the Pro-Yoruba nation rally scheduled to hold on Saturday, July 3rd, in Lagos will proceed as scheduled, he said in a statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

Police warn against protest

Meanwhile police in Lagos on Thursday said it would not allow any form of rally scheduled to hold in the state on July 3 by agitators of the Oodua Republic and Yoruba Nation.

Lagos police command spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, said in a statement that no rally will be allowed, under whatever guise, in any part of the state. The Command, therefore, warns the organisers and their followers against staging the planned rally and stay clear of the streets of Lagos for the interest of the State and the general public as anyone caught participating or facilitating the rally will be dealt with within the ambits of the law.

Yoruba Nation agitation is a political ideology to realise the independence and sovereign country for the Yoruba race in Nigeria but many political leaders in the region have rejected the idea.

Former Governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, alongside Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, Bisi Akande and all leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-West, in a meeting in Lagos last month, opposed the agitation.

They rather called for restructuring of the polity, ethnic and religious unity instead of a divided nation.

Read Afeniferes statement below:

The news of fatal attack on the residence of Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho in the early hours of Thursday, July 1, 2021 is a sad indicator that we are fast returning to the era of the late Sani Abacha when anyone who expressed opinions contrary to governments position would be fatally attacked.

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Nigerians woke up this morning to the unsavoury news of an attack on the residence of the Yoruba activist, Igboho, in Soka area of Ibadan by armed men reportedly in army and DSS uniforms. Reports have it that the invaders came in 15 vehicles.

The attack came less than 72 hours to the plan by Igboho and others to hold a rally in Lagos to further canvass for a Yoruba nation this Saturday. The manner of attack indicated culpability on the part of those in authority

We are forced into this deduction for a number of reasons. Firstly, eye witness accounts indicated that vehicles and uniforms of the attackers were that of the security agencies. Secondly, the failure of security agencies to confront the attackers further implicated the government.

We recall with sadness how voices that were opposed to the dictatorial tendencies of Abacha regime were under serious attacks. We recalled how patriots like General Alani Akinrinade, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Pa Alfred Rewane, etc were attacked, resulting in the untimely and gruesome murder of Pa Rewane.

What is wrong in canvassing for self-determination so long as such agitation is devoid of violence? The constitution the country is running guarantees the right of every Nigerian to express an opinion and even carry out rallies as long as such is done without violence.

To the best of our knowledge, none of the rallies that Sunday Igboho has led in his campaign for the Yoruba nation could be said to be violent nor was he implicated in illegal activities. Why then should he be subjected to the kind of treatment his household received on Thursday morning?
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Armed robbers raided a commercial bank in Otun Ekiti, Moba local government area of Ekiti State, on Thursday killing a police officer and injuring others.

Witnesses said the robbers arrived at the bank, situated in the heart of the town, at about 5 p.m. and shot in the air to scare away people.

The robbers forced their way into the banking hall with dynamite and carted away huge amount of money in Ghana must go bag,' said a witness who requested not to be named.

The bank officials and customers reportedly managed to find safety before the police reinforced and chased the robbers away.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Sunday Abutu, confirmed that the robbers attacked the bank with dynamite, but said they were unable to gain entry into the bank.

Mr Abutu said the men of the command and military men attached to the area engaged the robbers in a gun duel, which resulted in the death of one of the mobile police officers.

There was a bank robbery incident today in Otun-Ekiti at about 5:00 pm, and in the process of shoot out between our men and armed robbers. We, unfortunately, lost one of our men, he said.

The commissioner of police has ordered a discreet investigation into the incident in ensuring the armed robbers are arrested and brought to book.

Thursdays robbery came barely two years after armed robbers stormed a bank in Oye-Ekiti, in a daylight operation, carting away money from the vault and also robbing customers.
African German young leaders programme launched/ fostering cross-border economic cooperation and the development of new business ideas / Application deadline 15 August at www.agyle-programme.com

BERLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "AGYLE - African German Young Leaders in Business" is a new network for young leaders from Germany, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Ghana. This programme is being launched by the Agency for Business and Economic Development (AWE) and Germany - Land of Ideas on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is open to young leaders under the age of 40 from the fields of business, politics, media or international cooperation. The overarching goal of AGYLE is to facilitate cross-border economic cooperation and the development of new business models. With this year's motto "Crisis as a Chance - Young Leaders Prototyping the Future", participants will highlight their experiences and how they deal with crises in their everyday work. Applications may be submitted online at www.agyle-programme.com until 15 August 2021. In addition to a letter of motivation, a letter of recommendation and a CV, participants must also submit a short personal video statement.

Programme and Business Network

A jury will select 40 young leaders, 20 from Germany and a total of 20 from Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The participants will be invited to a digital week in October 2021, which will focus on interdisciplinary exchange and networking, professional motivation and cross-border cooperation. At the heart of the programme is a virtual design thinking lab, in which mixed teams develop and refine selected ideas and business models. The jury will award a prize at the final event for the most innovative and promising idea. The week will be rounded off by virtual panels, keynote speeches, bar camps, and social and cultural activities. In addition, all participants will be introduced to an exclusive digital business network.

About AGYLE  African German Young Leaders in Business

AGYLE is a programme of the German Agency for Business and Economic Development (AWE) and Germany - Land of Ideas. AWE is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by GIZ and DEG. For more information, please visit:

German Agency for Business and Economic Development (AWE)

Germany - Land of Ideas

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (bmz.de)

Press Contact AGYLE Germany  Land of ideas Stefan Volovinis Tel.: 030/206459-160 press@agyle-programme.com www.agyle-programme.com

Related Links

http://www.agyle-programme.com



SOURCE Germany - Land of ideas
PORTLAND, Ore., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Fertility Test Market by Product (Ovulation Prediction Kits, Fertility Monitors, and Male Fertility Testing Products), Mode of Purchase (OTC-based and Prescription-based), Application (Female Fertility Testing and Male Fertility Testing), and End User (Home Care Settings and Hospitals/Fertility Clinics): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212028". According to the report, the global fertility test market was pegged at $462.23 million in 2020, and is estimated to hit $842.96 million by 2028, manifesting at a CAGR of 7.8% from 2021 to 2028.

Download Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/11712

Drives, restrains, and opportunities-

Rise in awareness of fertility testing, launch of technologically advanced products with high accuracy, and declining fertility rates across the globe fuel the global fertility test market. On the other hand, high cost of fertility testing monitors and unproven accuracy of ovulation monitors in PCOS/PCOD patients hamper the market growth. Moreover, sale of fertility testing devices via online platforms would present a plethora of opportunities for the market players in the future.

Covid-19 scenario:

The outbreak of covid-19 pandemic led to lockdown across several countries. Thus, the government forced fertility clinics to shut down to curb the spread of Covid-19. This affected the demand for fertility test products.

However, the boom in the e-commerce sector enabled the customers to order fertility home test kits.

The ovulation prediction kits to lead the trail throughout the forecast period-

Based on product, the ovulation prediction kits segment accounted for the largest share in 2020, contributing to more than half of the market. This is owing to rise in demand for ovulation prediction kits, surge in patient awareness towards infertility and PCOS/PCOD, advancements in the fertility testing products. However, the fertility monitors segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period. The launch of technologically advanced products with high accuracy are expected to boost the growth of the segment.

Enquiry for Short-term and Long-term Impacts of COVID-19 at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/11712

The female fertility testing segment to rule the roost throughout the forecast period-

Based on application, the female fertility testing segment dominated the market in 2020, with around four-fifths of the market. In addition, the segment is expected to portray the highest CAGR of 8.0% from 2021 to 2028. This is attributed to rise in prevalence of diseases of women like PCOS/PCOD in both developed as well as developing countries, surge in demand for fertility testing products, increase in the availability of technologically advanced fertility testing products.

Asia-Pacific to dominate the market, North America to grow at a significant pace throughout the forecast period-

The global fertility test market is analyzed across several regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. The market across Asia-Pacific dominated with the largest share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-fifths of the market. Furthermore, the region is anticipated to register the highest CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period. This is due to rise in the prevalence of diseases like PCOS, increases in the first time pregnancies in women and declining fertility rates. On the other hand, the market across North America is expected to manifest the CAGR of 6.90% throughout the forecast period.

Key market players-

Fairhaven Health LLC

Church & Dwight Co. Inc.

Geratherm Medical AG

Fertility Focus Limited

Prestige Brands Holdings Inc.

HiLin Life Products Inc.

Abbott Laboratories

Quidel Corporation

Advacare Pharma

UEBE Medical

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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#205, Portland, OR 97220

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SOURCE Allied Market Research
This innovative molecular test uses proprietary qSTAR (qualitative Selective Temperature Amplification Reaction) technology, which forms the basis of LumiraDx's point of care molecular assays. In 2020, the technology was used to launch Fast Lab Solutions, a dedicated business unit to help address the COVID-19 testing crisis by expanding existing laboratory testing capacity. LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 utilizes a direct amplification method that combines lysis and amplification in a single step, detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral nucleic acid in under 20 minutes or less on common open channel PCR systems  a process that typically takes more than one hour.

"With CE Mark, we are thrilled to now be able to offer our testing across Europe and provide fast and accurate testing to support laboratory testing programs," stated Sanjay Malkani President, LumiraDx Fast Lab Solutions. He continued, "Our innovative qSTAR technology simplifies and accelerates COVID-19 molecular testing capacity without comprising high sensitivity of detection. In addition, with the small footprint associated with our technology, we are able to bring this testing outside of the laboratory and into mobile units to deliver accurate and trusted results in environments where quick turnaround times are crucial."

LumiraDx's FastLab team of scientists regularly monitors post-market reports to confirm in silico analysis qSTAR technology's detection of all known variants currently in circulation. To date, the FastLab team has aligned 1,750,156 sequences with 99.5% showing perfect identity or a single mismatch, providing confidence and accuracy in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and all known Variants of Interest and Variants of Concern, including the Delta and Delta Plus SARS-CoV-2 variants.*

RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 is already being used across the US in labs and mobile units to support testing in environments that require fast and accurate results. In Europe, LumiraDx is partnering to make testing available in similar settings including the workplace, and schools where early diagnosis can help to quickly identify hotspots and avoid future lockdowns.

About LumiraDx RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2

RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 received an EUA from the FDA on October 14, 2020 with a re-issued EUA in March 2021 to provide improvement in the limit of detection of 1.8 copies/l and additional PCR system validations to allow labs to expand their testing capabilities.

LumiraDx has completed the process for declaring conformity to the essential requirements of the In Vitro Diagnostics Directive (IVDD 98/79/EC) and has CE Marked its RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 assay. The test is now available for sale in the European Economic Area.

About LumiraDx FastLab Solutions

LumiraDx FastLab Solutions, based in San Diego California, is a dedicated LumiraDx business unit that supports high-complexity laboratory testing by utilizing its innovative qSTAR nucleic acid amplification technology in an accessible high-throughput format to leverage current molecular laboratory operations. Utilizing FastLab Solutions enables laboratories to improve efficiency and reduce time to result.

About LumiraDx

LumiraDx was founded in 2014 by a group of entrepreneurs: Ron Zwanziger, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Dave Scott, Ph.D., our Chief Technology Officer; and Jerry McAleer, Ph.D., our Chief Scientist, who have a successful track record in building and scaling diagnostics businesses over three decades, including at companies such as Medisense, Inc., Inverness Medical Technology Inc. and Alere Inc. The company has raised approximately $1 Billion through debt and equity from institutional and strategic investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Morningside Ventures, U.S. Boston Capital Corporation and Petrichor Healthcare Capital Management. Based in the UK, with primary R&D and manufacturing operations in Stirling, Scotland and San Diego, CA, U.S., and supported by its worldwide affiliates to provide access in all major markets, LumiraDx has over 1200 employees worldwide.

Further information on LumiraDx and our SARS-CoV-2 product offerings visit available at lumiradx.com

*While internally validated by FastLab, LumiraDX RNA STAR Complete SARS-CoV-2 assay kit has not been FDA cleared, approved, or authorized by FDA under EUA for the detection of any SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Copyright 2021 LumiraDx and affiliates. LumiraDx and qSTAR are trademarks of LumiraDx International LTD. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555495/RNA_STAR_Complete_box.jpg

SOURCE LumiraDx Limited
OSLO, Norway, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX) announces the appointment of Dr Lone Ottesen, MD, PhD as Chief Development Officer (CDO). She will take a leading role in driving the clinical programs forward. Dr Ottesen will serve as a member of Targovax's management team.

Dr Ottesen is a highly experienced drug developer with extensive experience across the global oncology and immune-oncology drug development spectrum with nearly 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry in both early- and late-phase development. Lone got her MD and PhD at Aarhus University in Denmark and has held roles of increasing seniority in GSK, Eisai and latest AstraZeneca where she was the Global Clinical Head for two assets in pivotal clinical development as well as leading the development of durvalumab in breast and gynecological cancers. Lone will be spearheading the clinical development program for the Targovax portfolio including the planned registration-directed trial in anti-PD1 refractory melanoma for the lead asset ONCOS-102.

Oystein Soug, CEO, commented: "It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Dr Ottesen to Targovax! As we have completed our early-stage clinical development program and are entering into later stage programs taking ONCOS-102 to market, her broad and deep drug development experience will be instrumental in shaping Targovax's future. We are proud to have attracted a seasoned expert like Lone, and I am confident that she will be a valuable addition to our team."

Dr Ottesen added: "I am excited to join Targovax at such an important stage for the company. The clinical data with ONCOS-102 in both monotherapy and in combination therapies in several tumor types are impressive. I am very enthusiastic about the path ahead with the potential for a registrational-directed trial and the opportunity to broaden the development program into other solid tumors. I look forward to start working with the strong team at Targovax to build and execute the clinical program and bring this promising therapy to patients.

Dr Ottesen commences as Chief Development Officer 1 July.

For further information, please contact:

Oystein Soug, CEO

Phone: +47 906 56 525

Email: oystein.soug@targovax.com

Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations

Phone: +47 922 61 624

Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com

Media enquires:

Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)

Phone: +47 9300 1773

Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/targovax/r/targovax-asa-appoints-dr-lone-ottesen-as-chief-development-officer,c3377934

SOURCE Targovax
Introduces GE and GS series that are available across MSI brand stores and authorized sellers

NEW DELHI, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MSI, a world leading gaming brand announced the launch and availability of its new lineup of gaming laptops equipped with 11th Gen Intel H series processors up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU, which will enhance the overall performance with up to 30%. MSI introduces exclusive features like 'Discrete Graphics Mode' to improve graphics performance and ultrafast panels with up to FHD 360Hz and QHD 240Hz refresh rate. The new laptops continue MSI's trend of producing top-tier, powerful machines with aesthetic touches that enhance user experience and unleash the inner gamer spirits.

Starting from INR 2,07,990/- and going up to INR 3,91,990/-, the GE and GS series respectively is available in India on MSI brand stores and authorized sellers.

Model CPU + GPU Price GE76 Raider 11UH Intel 11th Gen Core i9 + (RTX3080, GDDR6 16GB) INR 3,91,990.00 GE76 Raider 11UH Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3080, GDDR6 16GB) INR 3,30,990.00 GE76 Raider 11UG Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3070, GDDR6 8GB) INR 2,35,990.00 GE66 Raider 11UH Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3080, GDDR6 16GB) INR 3,24,990.00 GE66 Raider 11UG Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3070, GDDR6 8GB) INR 2,23,990.00 GS66 Stealth 11UH Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3080 Max-Q, GDDR6 16GB) INR 3,13,990.00 GS66 Stealth 11UG Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3070 Max-Q, GDDR6 8GB) INR 2,35,990.00 GS66 Stealth 11UE Intel 11th Gen Core i7 (RTX3060, GDDR6 6GB) INR 2,07,990.00

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Green Lin, Regional Marketing Manager, MSI, said, "MSI has always showcased innovative features and cutting-edge technology when it comes to their laptops. Time and again, MSI has launched products that are packed with powerful features empowering gamers to have the best user experience. With the steady rise in gaming in the past few months, we are extremely excited to announce the launch and availability of GE and GS series in India. With a host of features like RTX30 for most realistic ray-traced graphics and cutting-edge AI features along with 360Hz ultra high refresh rate for world's fastest gaming display, we are hopeful our consumers will have an amazing experience."

Ultimate Powerhouse - GE76/66 Raider

MSI's new line up of gaming laptops begins with upgrades to the powerful GE Raider series of laptops. Equipped with the latest 11th Gen Intel Core i9 Processor, with 8-core and up to 5.0GHZ dual core turbo frequency, the GE76 and GE66 Raider maximizes efficiency in gameplay, multi-task work and productivity. With state-of-the-art Intel turbo boost max technology 3.0, it brings massive frequency boost on your fastest cores for more flexibility to get the best from your processor. It also features MSI's new mystic light with 16.8 million colors which creates the alluring sci-fi ambience.

Sleek & Sophisticated - GS66 Stealth

The GS66 is equipped with the largest battery of 99.9 WHR, taking the performance up by manifolds. Dynaudio speakers enhance the music listening experience. The GS Stealth series is the ideal portable gaming and working partner. It also supports triple fans with worlds thinnest 0.1MM fan blade with 7 heat pipes.



GE76 Raider GE66 Raider Processor Up to latest 11th Gen. Intel Core i9 Processors Up to latest 11th Gen. Intel Core i7 Processors Graphics NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU 16GB GDDR6 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 Display 17.3" FHD (1920*1080), 360Hz, close to 100%sRGB 17.3" QHD (2560*1440), 165Hz DCI-P3 100% typical 15.6" QHD (2560*1440), 240Hz DCI-P3 100% typical 15.6" QHD (2560*1440), 165Hz DCI-P3 100% typical Memory DDR4-3200, 2 slots, up to 64GB Storage Slot 1 x NVMe M.2 SSD by PCIe Gen4 x4 1 x NVMe M.2 SSD by PCIe Gen3 x4 Webcam FHD type ([email protected]) Communication Killer E3100G Ethernet (up to 2.5 GbE) Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1675, Bluetooth v5.2 USB Ports 1 x Thunderbolt 4 / DP/ USB4 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1 x Thunderbolt 4 / DP/ USB4 Type-C, 1 x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C, 1 x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 2 x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A Keyboard Per-Key RGB gaming keyboard by SteelSeries Audio The Duo Wave Woofers + Speakers designed by Dynaudio system Nahimic 3 Audio Enhance High-Resolution Audio ready The Duo Wave speakers design by Dynaudio system Nahimic 3 Audio Enhancer High-Resolution Audio ready Battery 4-Cell, Li-Polymer, 99.9Whr Video Output 1 x Thunderbolt 4 / DP/ USB4 Type-C 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1 x HDMI ([email protected] 60Hz / [email protected] 120Hz) Dimension 397 (W) x 284 (D) x 25.9 (H) mm 358 (W) x 267 (D) x 23.4 (H) mm Weight 2.9 Kg 2.38 Kg

GS66 Stealth Processor Up to latest 11th Gen. Intel Core i7 Processors Graphics NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU 16GB GDDR6 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6 Display 15.6" QHD (2560x1440), 165 Hz Refresh Rate, 100% DCI-P3(Typical), IPS-Level panel (Optional) Memory DDR4-3200, 2 slots, up to 64GB Storage Slot 1 x NVMe M.2 SSD by PCIe Gen4 x4 1 x NVMe M.2 SSD by PCIe Gen3 x4 Webcam IR HD type ([email protected]) Communication Killer E3100G Ethernet (up to 2.5 GbE) Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1675, Bluetooth v5.2 USB Ports 1 x Thunderbolt 4 / DP/ USB4 Type-C (w/ PD Charging), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C / DP, 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Keyboard Per-Key RGB gaming keyboard by SteelSeries Audio The Duo Wave Speakers designed by Dynaudio system Nahimic 3 Audio Enhancer High-Resolution Audio ready Battery 4-Cell, Li-Polymer, 99.9Whr Video Output 1 x Thunderbolt 4 / DP/ USB4 Type-C (w/ PD Charging), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C / DP, 1 x HDMI ([email protected] 60Hz / [email protected] 120Hz) Dimension 358.3 (W) x 248 (D) x 18.3-19.8 (H) mm Weight 2.1 Kg

For high-res images, please visit: https://msi.gm/2PLcVd0

About MSI

MSI is a world leader in gaming, content creation and AIoT solutions. Bolstered by its cutting-edge R&D capabilities and customer-driven innovation, MSI has a wide-ranging global presence spanning over 120 countries. Its comprehensive lineup of laptops, graphics cards, monitors, motherboards, desktops, peripherals, servers, IPCs, robotic appliances, and vehicle infotainment and telematics systems are globally acclaimed. Committed to advancing user experiences through the finest product quality, intuitive user interface and design aesthetics, MSI is a leading brand that shapes the future of technology. For more product information, please go to https://www.msi.com.

- All rights of the technical, pictures, text and other content published in this press release are reserved. Contents are subject to changes without prior notice.

SOURCE MSI
MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alabama Election Protection Network (AEPN) is proud to announce the launch of its 'Our Districts, Our Alabama' campaign for fair districting. The campaign will work to establish fair representation for all Alabamians through direct public education, engagement with state legislators, and sustained work with AEPN's grassroots partners.

AEPN's core mission is to promote fair and accountable elected representation for all.

The 2020 census gives every state the opportunity to redraw its district lines to reflect changes in its population. In Alabama, it is an opportunity to undo the harm caused by particularly partisan legislative maps. For example, the heavily gerrymandered 7th congressional district where parts of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa are represented in a single district. As AEPN partner Rodreshia Russaw explains, gerrymandered districts minimize every voter's voice in the state.

"By concentrating so many urban cities into one district, we dilute the impact of each vote cast within those communities," she observes. "At the same time, voters in the districts that surround District 7 (Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile) are denied full representation as well. Breaking up communities of interest reduces the ability of voters to make their distinct concerns known and supported. We all have a stake in fair districting."

Our Districts, Our Alabama addresses those issues through a comprehensive public-information campaign, joining with organizations and individuals within their communities to draft fair maps, and communicating with legislators and the Reapportionment Committee. Through these methods, AEPN will work to ensure that the interest of all Alabamians is known and heeded. These efforts will be augmented by AEPN's work with grassroots organizations and faith-based groups, both directly and through the distribution of its Fair Districting Toolkit.

"Alabamians care deeply about the places we call home and are passionate about the things that mean the most to us: our families, our communities, and access to resources that allow all of us to thrive," says Justin Vest of Hometown Organizing Project, a founding AEPN partner. "Fair districting means we can build inclusive and sustainable communities that meet everyday people's needs, no matter who you vote for."

To learn about how 'Our Districts, Our Alabama' , is taking a stand for fair representation throughout the state, please contact Melissa Gilliland at [email protected].

CONTACT:

Melissa Gilliland

[email protected]

321-430-5433

SOURCE Alabama Election Protection Network
MEXICO CITY, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aerodrome Infrastructure S.a r.l. ("Aerodrome"), along with its affiliates Servicios de Tecnologia Aeroportuaria, S.A. de C.V. ("SETA"), Bagual S.a r.l. ("Bagual"), Grenadier S.a r.l. ("Grenadier"), Pequod S.a r.l. ("Pequod"), Harpoon S.a r.l. ("Harpoon"), Expanse S.a r.l. ("Expanse"), Fintech Holdings Inc. ("FH"), and David Martinez ("Mr. Martinez" and, together with Aerodrome, SETA, Bagual, Grenadier, Pequod, Harpoon, Expanse and FH, the "Offerors"), announced today the expiration and preliminary results of their previously announced cash tender offer in the U.S. (the "U.S. Offer") for up to 60,155,201 (1) outstanding Series B ordinary shares, without par value (the "Series B Shares") of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V. ("OMA"), a publicly traded corporation organized under the laws of Mexico, held by U.S. persons, and (2) Series B Shares represented by outstanding American depositary shares (whether held or not by U.S. persons) (each representing eight Series B Shares) (the "ADSs" and, together with the Series B Shares, the "Securities"). The U.S. Offer was made in conjunction with an offer by Aerodrome in Mexico directed to holders of Series B Shares, but not holders of ADSs (the "Mexican Offer," and together with the U.S. Offer, the "Offers").

The Offers expired at 8:00 a.m., New York City time, on June 30, 2021 (the "Expiration Date").

American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, the ADS receiving agent for the U.S. Offer, and J.P. Morgan Casa de Bolsa, S.A. de C.V., J.P. Morgan Grupo Financiero, the Series B Shares receiving agent for the Offers, have advised the Offerors that, as of 8:00 a.m., New York City time on the Expiration Date, 1,579,317 ADSs, representing 12,634,536 Series B Shares, and 90,217,248 Series B Shares, had been tendered and not withdrawn. These results are preliminary and subject to final validation of tenders by the ADS receiving agent and the Series B Shares receiving agent.

Based on preliminary results, because the purchase of all Securities tendered in the Offers would cause the Offerors to purchase an aggregate amount of Series B Shares, including Series B Shares represented by ADSs, that would exceed the total number of Series B Shares, including Series B Shares represented by ADSs, that the Offerors have offered to purchase pursuant to the Offers, the Offerors will accept Series B Shares, including Series B Shares represented by ADSs, for purchase by prorating the tendered Series B Shares, including Series B Shares represented by ADSs, pursuant to the proration mechanism described in the U.S. Offer to Purchase (as defined below), with appropriate adjustments to avoid purchases of fractional Series B Shares or ADSs.

Based on preliminary results, Aerodrome expects to purchase 60,155,201 Series B Shares, including Series B Shares represented by ADSs, in the Offers. Upon the settlement of the Offers, taking into account the Series B Shares currently owned by SETA, the Offerors expect to own, directly or indirectly, 30.1% of OMA's outstanding capital stock.

As described in the U.S. Offer to Purchase, the Offerors expect to announce the proration factor and final results of the Offers on or about July 7, 2021. Any tendered Securities that are not accepted for purchase as a result of proration will be returned or credited without expense to the holder's account.

In accordance with the terms of the Offers, payment for Securities validly tendered and accepted for purchase in the Offers is expected to occur on July 9, 2021 (the "Payment Date"). Securities that have been validly tendered on or prior to the Expiration Date cannot be withdrawn, except as may be required by applicable law.

The offer price of Ps.137 per Series B Share accepted for payment pursuant to the Offers will be settled in Mexican pesos and will be paid through S.D. Indeval Institucion para el Deposito de Valores, S.A. de C.V. ("Indeval"), the Mexican securities clearing system, and to participants in Indeval. The offer price of Ps.1,096 per ADS accepted for payment pursuant to the U.S. Offer will be paid to American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, as ADS receiving agent, in Mexican pesos or U.S. dollars at the discretion of the Offerors. If paid in Mexican pesos, the ADS receiving agent will arrange for the conversion of the consideration into U.S. dollars, net of fees and expenses for converting Mexican pesos to U.S. dollars. Any conversion into U.S. dollars will be based on the U.S. dollar / Mexican peso spot market rate available to the ADS receiving agent on the Payment Date. The ADS receiving agent will pay the offer price, net of fees and expenses for that conversion into U.S. dollars, to the holders of ADSs validly tendered and accepted for purchase.

All conditions described in the U.S. Offer to Purchase that were to be satisfied or waived on or prior to the Expiration Date, were satisfied or waived on or prior to the Expiration Date.

The U.S. Offer was made upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the U.S. offer to purchase, dated May 24, 2021 (as amended and restated, the "U.S. Offer to Purchase"), and the related ADS letter of transmittal, the Series B acceptance letter and related documents filed by the Offerors with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "U.S. Tender Offer Materials").

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities of OMA. Complete terms and conditions of the U.S. Offer are set forth in the U.S. Offer to Purchase and the other U.S. Tender Offer Materials. This announcement is not for publication, release or distribution in or into or from any jurisdiction where it would otherwise be prohibited.

D.F. King & Co., Inc. acted as the U.S. information agent for the U.S. Offer. The U.S. information agent may be contacted at, for bankers and brokers call collect: (212) 269 5550, all others call toll free: (800) 488-8035, email: [email protected].

The ADS receiving agent for the U.S. Offer was American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC. The ADS receiving agent may be contacted at: (877) 248-6417 or (718) 921-8317, fax (718) 234-5001. The Series B receiving agent for the U.S. Offer was J.P. Morgan Casa de Bolsa, S.A. de C.V., J.P. Morgan Grupo Financiero. The Series B receiving agent may be contacted at: +(52 55) 5540-9317.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are information of a non-historical nature or which relate to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. No assurance can be given that the transactions described herein will be consummated or as to the ultimate terms of any such transactions. The Offerors undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or for any other reason.

Media Contact:



D.F. King & Co., Inc. 48 Wall Street, 22nd Floor, New York, NY 10005 Attention: Geoffrey Weinberg (917) 473-2984 Bankers and Brokers Call Collect: (212) 2695550 All Others Call TollFree: (800) 488-8035 Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Aerodrome Infrastructure S.a r.l
NEW YORK and SHENZHEN, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- German luxury skincare brand Amala Beauty launched livestream campaigns on Tmall Global, Alibaba's online marketplace, last week to kick off its marketing for China's annual 618 shopping festival on June 18. Amala Beauty's livestream focused on exclusive performance skincare products for the China market, deepening the luxury brand's connection with consumers in the biggest e-commerce market in the world.

Amala Beauty selected China retail experts Azoya as a strategic partner to enter the China market, with a Tmall Global Flagship store debut in early December. Since its launch, Amala Beauty has experienced sustained growth in China. "Collaborating with Azoya helped us boost brand reach and speed-to-market, and mitigate risks of foreign expansion as global e-commerce booms," said Amy Daugherty, Global Head of Marketing at Amala Beauty. Azoya also managed brand marketing and operations on popular platforms Little Red Book, Weibo, and WeChat.

Luxury beauty sales are exploding on China's online marketplaces. Professional and premium skincare products with natural or organic ingredients are in demand in China, as female consumers spend more on trusted, safe, luxury products. Amala Beauty products align with demand for high-quality, natural ingredients and cutting-edge, clinically proven formulas. Livestreaming helped Amala Beauty reach consumers in real-time to entertain and build brand trust in a highly visual and competitive category.

Last year, Amala Beauty selected China retail experts Azoya as a strategic partner to enter the China market, with a Tmall Global Flagship store debut in early December. Since its launch, Amala Beauty has experienced sustained growth in China. "Collaborating with Azoya helped us boost brand reach and speed-to-market, and mitigate risks of foreign expansion as global e-commerce booms," said Amy Daugherty, Global Head of Marketing at Amala Beauty. Azoya also managed brand marketing and operations on popular platforms Little Red Book, Weibo, and WeChat.

Livestreaming modernizes marketing by connecting brands with consumers using fun and informative, real-time content. "With China's live-streaming e-commerce rising significantly over the past few years, it is undoubtedly an essential tool for beauty brands to reach Chinese digital-savvy consumers and promote products directly," said Franklin Chu, Managing Director U.S. for Azoya. Organized livestream campaigns contributed to sales and helped Amala increase brand awareness, and grow a loyal follower base.

Beauty remains a top category for cross-border e-commerce. Right now, the most popular beauty trends among Chinese female consumers include anti-aging skincare products. According to Mintel, 77% of Chinese respondents say healthy or clean products are safer than ordinary beauty products, and product safety assurance is the most important purchase consideration. Also, more than 60% of consumers say clean beauty products are more effective than ordinary beauty products.1

About Azoya

Azoya, a turnkey cross-border e-commerce solution provider that provides marketplace services, CN Webshop, cross-border supply chain, and marketing to enable international retailers and brands' growth in China.

Azoya is a leading China e-commerce enabler, which endeavors to help overseas brands and retailers break into China via cross-border e-commerce. The company prides itself as being the e-commerce leader that has signed exclusive agreements with the largest number of overseas retailers in China. With its all-encompassing services and dedicated specialist team, the company has won trust from more than 50 overseas retailers in 12 countries. Learn more: https://azoyagroup.com

About Amala Beauty

Amala Beauty sits at the perfect intersection of soul and science. Leveraging over 40 years of pioneering research, Amala skincare can preserve the very best from the natural world. Amala pairs advanced biochemistry, such as the inclusion of Pre+Probiotic infusions and bio-ferments made from whole plants, seeds, and the earth's purest minerals to revitalize and renew the skin. Amala's signature innovations self-adjust to the needs of each person's unique skin imprint for bespoke results that you can see, feel, and maintain.

Press Contacts:

U.S. China Dan Dyer Queenie Yao 513-478-7818 +86 188 2026 3929 [email protected] [email protected]

1 Mintel: Clean Beauty  China, 2020; URL

SOURCE Amala

Related Links

https://amalabeauty.com/


WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Carter-Fitzpatrick Amendment to the INVEST in America Act, which would ban the slaughter of American equines. Led by Reps. Troy Carter, D-La., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., John Katko, R-N.Y., Dina Titus, D-Nev., Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., Buddy Carter, R-Ga., Andy Barr, R-Ky., Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., this bipartisan amendment would ban the transport of equines for the purpose of slaughter, effectively ending the slaughter of American horses for human consumption if enacted into law. The measure is supported by leading animal welfare groups, including the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), the Animal Welfare Institute , t he Humane Society of the United States , the Humane Society Legislative Fund , and Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation - members of a coalition that worked with the sponsors and members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to strengthen the language of this new amendment.

American horses have not been slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S. since 2007, thanks to overwhelming public opposition to this inhumane practice and a federal restriction on funding. However, a loophole in the law allows tens of thousands of our nation's beloved equines to be trucked across U.S. borders each year to suffer a cruel and unnecessary fate.

"Horses aren't bred for food, and Americans don't want them bought under false pretenses, forced into overcrowded trailers, tormented on a thousand-mile journey, and then prodded to slaughterhouses." --- Said Rep. Troy Carter (D-LA) sponsor of the amendment.

"This important bipartisan amendment stops equines from being slaughtered for human consumption," said amendment sponsor Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). "Horses deserve better and we must lend a voice to the voiceless to help end the practice of American horses being needlessly slaughtered."

"Nevada is home to the largest population of wild horses in the nation," said Rep. Dina Titus (NV-01). "Today we took a crucial step to shut down the horse slaughter pipeline permanently. The American people do not support the wholesale killing of these beautiful animals and I am proud that our persistent efforts have gotten us to this moment."

"The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose horse slaughter for human consumption and the ASPCA is working resolutely to solve equine welfare issues on the ground, but we cannot fully succeed while the slaughter pipeline remains open," said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of Government Relations for the ASPCA. "We are grateful to Representatives Carter, Fitzpatrick, and the full bipartisan team for their leadership on this amendment that will finally end this shameful chapter in American history and provide protections to American horses and the people who love them."

"This is a historic moment for the protection of America's horses and hopefully a harbinger of the end of the predatory horse slaughter industry in the United States," said Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute. "Since the early 1980s, millions of horses have endured harrowing journeys to the slaughterhouse before being hauled brutally off the trucks and into the kill box. Congress now has a prime opportunity to expressly prohibit the movement of horses to slaughter, safeguarding horse welfare and public health. We are so grateful to Representatives Carter, Fitzpatrick, Titus, Cohen, Katko, and the numerous other champions who spearheaded the House passage of this amendment."

"It's pretty rare to find anyone willing to defend the slaughter of American horses for human consumption these days," says Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. "Most of us would support any effective proposal to end it, and a major bipartisan infrastructure package that includes an amendment to prohibit the transport of horses for such slaughter is a spectacular and fitting way to bring down the curtain on this sad and sorry practice. We were glad to work so closely with congressional leaders and like-minded organizations to produce the version that passed today."

"More than 1.4 million American horses  including an unknown number who once roamed freely on our public lands  have been shipped to foreign slaughterhouses since the last such plant in the United States closed," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation. ""Their deaths have been a betrayal of the animals who helped us build this country and that continue to serve humanity. It's time to close the slaughter pipeline for good and we commend Representatives Carter, Fitzpatrick, Titus, Cohen, Katko, and the other bipartisan leaders of this amendment."

In recent years, the number of American horses shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered for human consumption has dropped, making this an especially opportune time for Congress to close this legal loophole that causes so much suffering. Last year, approximately 35,000 horses were exported for slaughter - a drastic decline from the high of 166,000 just eight years prior. Research published in 2017 found that 2.3 million Americans have the desire and resources to adopt a horse. America's equine adoption community is working swiftly to match the horses in their care with foster and adoptive families, increasing the number of adoptions every year. This means that every horse who might be sent to slaughter has a home waiting, if given the opportunity to find it.

The horse slaughter industry not only exploits horses, who endure grueling journeys to slaughter plants and an inhumane death, but also harms the broader equine community, including horse owners, riders, and rescues, who fear that their horses will end up in the slaughter pipeline despite their best efforts to keep them safe. Kill buyers  those who buy horses to ship to slaughter in Canada and Mexico  attend auctions and often outbid rescue groups trying to help vulnerable equines. Kill buyers have also been known to pose as good homes in response to ads from horse owners who can no longer care for their animals. Many owners are so fearful that they may even keep their horses beyond the point they can care for them to prevent their sale to slaughter. Horses have even been stolen out of their stalls or pastures and shipped to slaughter.

We urge the U.S. Senate to take similar action and include a horse slaughter ban in their version of the surface transportation bill. If the Carter-Fitzpatrick Amendment is included in the final version of the bill that is approved by both chambers, it would have the same net effect as the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act (H.R. 3355)  banning the slaughter both here and abroad of American equines for human consumption.

About the ASPCA

Founded in 1866, the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was the first animal welfare organization to be established in North America and today serves as the nation's leading voice for vulnerable and victimized animals. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with more than two million supporters nationwide, the ASPCA is committed to preventing cruelty to dogs, cats, equines, and farm animals throughout the United States. The ASPCA assists animals in need through on-the-ground disaster and cruelty interventions, behavioral rehabilitation, animal placement, legal and legislative advocacy, and the advancement of the sheltering and veterinary community through research, training, and resources. For more information, visit www.ASPCA.org , and follow the ASPCA on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

About the Animal Welfare Institute

The Animal Welfare Institute ( www.awionline.org ) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public to achieve better treatment of animals everywherein the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram for updates and other important animal protection news.

About the HSUS

Founded in 1954, the Humane Society of the United States fights the big fights to end suffering for all animals. Together with millions of supporters, we take on puppy mills, factory farms, trophy hunts, animal testing and other cruel industries. With our affiliates, we rescue and care for tens of thousands of animals every year through our animal rescue team's work and other hands-on animal care services. We fight all forms of animal cruelty to achieve the vision behind our name: A humane society. Learn more about our work at humanesociety.org . Subscribe to Kitty Block's blog, A Humane World . Follow the HSUS Media Relations department on Twitter . Read the award-winning All Animals magazine. Listen to the Humane Voices Podcast .

About HSLF

Humane Society Legislative Fund works to pass animal protection laws at the state and federal level, to educate the public about animal protection issues and support humane candidates for office. Formed in 2004, HSLF is incorporated under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code as a separate lobbying affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States. Visit us on the web at hslf.org , read our blog at hslf.org/blog and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/humanelegislation and on Twitter @HSLegFund.

About RTF

Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF ) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1998. It also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at four California locations, caring for 500 wild horses and 51 burros. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram for updates about wild horses and burros on the range and at our sanctuary.

SOURCE ASPCA

Related Links

http://www.aspca.org


RICHFIELD, Ohio, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Group Management Services (GMS), a Professional Employer Organization headquartered in Richfield, OH, is excited to announce the launch of its new GMS Excellence in HR scholarship. The $2,500 college scholarship is open to eligible high school graduates and college students across the country.

The GMS Excellence in HR scholarship marks an opportunity for the company to support gifted students working toward a career in the sales and HR fields. By offering the means and solutions to pursue education, GMS can help enable emerging sales and HR talent to enter this growing industry.

Applicants will be asked to submit an essay explaining what led them towards studying to pursue a career in sales and HR and how they can see those skills benefiting a business, with an esteemed panel made up of members of GMS reviewing and selecting one successful candidate. Additionally, applicants must upload their unofficial transcript to prove their enrollment in an accredited university and show a 3.0 grade-point average or higher from high school or college to be considered for the scholarship.

To be considered for the scholarship, please send your essay to [email protected].

The application deadline for this scholarship is August 15, 2021.

The GMS Excellence in HR scholarship is part of GMS' wider college recruiting program, which provides internship positions for students throughout the year. Internship positions provide students the chance to network with experienced professionals, grow and expand their skill set, and become familiar with the industry.

About Group Management Services

Headquartered in Richfield, OH., Group Management Services has gained over 1,800 companies, representing nearly 35,000 employees, in 11 different locations throughout the United States. We help companies and organizations in the areas of payroll, human resources, risk management, and workers' compensation. For more information on GMS, visit: https://www.groupmgmt.com/about-us/.

Media Contact:

Contact Name Halle Schossler

Phone Number 330.418.5672

Email Address [email protected]

SOURCE Group Management Services Inc.
TUPELO, Miss., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BancorpSouth (NYSE: BXS) will release second-quarter 2021 earnings on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, after the close of the financial markets. It will also hold its regularly scheduled earnings webcast on Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. CDT.



The webcast is live coverage of management's conference call with analysts and can be found by visiting: www.BancorpSouth.com/Webcast . This will be an interactive session between management and analysts; others may listen to the live broadcast as it happens. The conference will also be available in archived format at the same address.



BancorpSouth Bank (NYSE: BXS) is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, with approximately $27 billion in assets. BancorpSouth operates approximately 325 full-service branch locations as well as additional mortgage, insurance, and loan production offices in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, including an insurance location in Illinois. BancorpSouth is committed to a culture of respect, diversity, and inclusion in both its workplace and communities. To learn more, visit our Community Commitment page at www.bancorpsouth.com ; "Like" us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @MyBXS; or connect with us through LinkedIn.

SOURCE BancorpSouth Bank

Related Links

http://www.bancorpsouth.com


DENVER, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The grill brand BBQ Dragon is offering customers $25 to share their BBQ stories. The company's website includes a page called "BBQ Stories" that features real stories from real customers about their funniest, craziest, or most moving BBQ experience. The BBQ Stories page also summarizes the deal BBQ Dragon is offering their customers: send in your best BBQ story, and if the company uses it on their page, they will send you a coupon for $25 off a purchase.

The Zephyr Grill by BBQ Dragon: a Fan-Powered Tabletop Grill BBQ Dragon's fan-powered tabletop grill: The Zephyr Charcoal Grill

"Everybody has a BBQ story," says BBQ Dragon's Director of Marketing, George Prior. "We wanted to make a place for the BBQ community to share these stories. The initial response has been surprisingly big: we got more than 120 submissions in just the first days."

Prior does not publish every story that is submitted. "I think it's not easy to create one of these stories," says Prior. "Some of the submissions are just a sentence or two, describing someone's favorite food, and they don't really paint much of a picture. What we are really looking for is more of a complete story that is unique, funny, and maybe even emotionally moving. It's harder to do than you might guess."

The stories submitted so far do have some common themes, says Prior. "We get a lot of stories about fathers. A lot of people have grown up with their dads barbecuing, and their memories of grilling are often linked to memories of their fathers. Which is one of the beautiful things about BBQ." Another common theme seems to be BBQ disasters. "We have gotten a lot of stories about BBQ gone wrong," says Prior. "Grills that tip over, unexpected house fires, BBQ that got burned, eaten by a dog, or dropped in the water."

Some of the most popular posts on their BBQ Stories page are:

A delicious BBQ lamb meal is served to guests using gloves that were recently used to handle sewage. But even after the guests are told about the dirty gloves, no one cares and they finish the meal completely.

After deboning some meat, a father asks his son to give the bones to the dogs. But the son gives the meat to the dogs by mistake, leaving only the bones for the guests.

A man suffering from health problems and depression gets a new grill, starts cooking and smoking, and soon finds that happiness and satisfaction has returned.

"BBQ is more than a cooking method," says Prior. "It's about being with family and friends, it's about creating good things for other people. It's about working hard and serving your community. BBQ stories are the record of all this work and caring. We haven't seen any other place where BBQ stories are celebrated, and we wanted to share this with our customers."

See the BBQ Stories blog at: bbqdragon.com/bbq-stories

BBQ Dragon products are available online at major retailers like Target, Home Depot, and Lowes, as well as on Amazon.com and the company's website at bbqdragon.com.

BBQ Dragon makes innovative grill tools. The creators of the BBQ Dragon Fan and the 2-minute charcoal Chimney of Insanity, their mission is to create innovative products that inspire customers to excel at BBQ and at life. They believe that good tools inspire good BBQ, and good BBQ inspires good living.

Contact: George Prior

Archipelago Group

855.524.8068

[email protected]

SOURCE BBQ Dragon
NEW CASTLE, Del., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Honoring the request of The Brandywine Valley SPCA (BVSPCA) on behalf of Delaware's animal welfare community, Delaware Governor John Carney and Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long today issued a proclamation in memoriam of President Joe Biden's dog Champ, who passed away on June 19. The memorial proclamation was delivered to the White House this morning accompanied by a letter written by BVSPCA Chief Executive Officer Adam Lamb.

Governor Carney and Lt. Governor Hall-Long's memorial pays tribute to the "extraordinary life and service" of Champ, a German Shepherd who lived much of his 13-year life in President Biden's home state of Delaware. BVSPCA, which operates three open-admission no-kill shelters and veterinary clinics in Delaware, requested that the proclamation be written as a way for Delawareans to share their condolences with the Biden family.

"Thank you to Governor Carney and Lt. Governor Hall-Long for creating this beautiful tribute to Champ, a beloved Biden family member, from all Delawareans," said Lamb. "Here at the Brandywine Valley SPCA, we do the work of caring for pets and uniting them with new families every day, and we know how personal and unique bonds with an animal can be."

"Our Brandywine Valley SPCA family mourns the loss of Champ with the Biden family, and they are in all of our hearts and minds."

In his personal letter to President Biden, Lamb includes the anonymous Rainbow Bridge poem, written in memory of pets after they have passed away. "When I lost my rescue dog Napoleon nearly a year ago, [this poem] brought joy and peace when thinking of all the fond memories," wrote Lamb in the letter. "I truly hope it does the same for you."

About the Brandywine Valley SPCA

Founded in 1929, the Brandywine Valley SPCA is the first open admission no-kill shelter in Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 2020, the BVSPCA cared for more than 16,000 lost, stray, owner-surrendered, and abused and neglected animals while achieving a 96% live release rate at its four campuses. Additionally, BVSPCA provides low-cost high-quality veterinary services at four Animal Health Centers. bvspca.org.

SOURCE Brandywine Valley SPCA

Related Links

www.bvspca.org


JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For the 11th consecutive year, Florida Trend recognized Brightway Insurance as one of the 225 Biggest Private Companies in Florida based on revenue. Brightway, a Jacksonville-based, market-leading insurance retailer and one of the largest Personal Lines insurance agencies in the United States, jumped 20 spots from last year to rank No. 84 on this year's list. Founded in 2008, the company remains privately owned by Co-Founders and brothers, David and Michael Miller.

Brightway Insurance, a market-leading insurance retailer and one of the largest Personal Lines insurance agencies in the United States, ranks No. 84 on Florida Trend's list of Biggest Private Companies.

Brightway President and CEO, Michael Miller, said, "We are honored to be recognized by Florida's premier business magazine 11 years in a row and to rank so high on the list. Since the beginning, we have focused on providing comprehensive business support to our franchise owners to fuel their success and have aligned our financial goals with theirs because when they succeed, the company succeeds."

He continued, "We continue to grow because we attract the best business partners and invest in resources that help them thrive. When we first made the list in 2011, we had about 80 franchise locations in three states. Today, there are more than 300 Brightway franchise locations throughout 25 states with expansion into new states coming soon."

Brightway's unique independent agency franchise model offers a low-cost, turnkey solution to starting a business. The company's award-winning customer service and comprehensive business support platform empower people from a wide variety of backgrounds to build a profitable business by focusing on new business sales while Brightway Home Office handles everything else.

Owning a business that empowers you to focus on sales, earning commissions when the policy sells and residual income when it renews lets franchisees buildup revenue year after year leading to unlimited earning potential. Brightway also offers one of the most affordable franchises available in any industry. With franchise fees as low as $5,000, aspiring business owners can be up and running with a total investment of less than $30,000.

Whether you have worked in insurance before or are new to the industry, Brightway provides support in all key areas of your business, including comprehensive training, technology, marketing and communications, agency development, insurance company liaisons, agency support and much more.

If you are interested in becoming a Brightway Franchise Owner, please complete this online form or email [email protected].

Brightway is always on the lookout for talent to join its corporate office team and will host a meet-and-greet for jobseekers Thursday, July 8, at its Jacksonville company headquarters. Employees enjoy competitive salary, paid time off and benefits, including Medical, Dental, Life and Disability insurance and a 401(k) plan with market-leading 4% match with no vesting period. In their first year, they also get 14 paid days off, along with seven paid holidays. Employees are eligible for bonuses and a tuition assistance program that can help pay for tuition regardless of the type of coursework the employee pursues.

If you are interested in joining a growing, industry leader based in Jacksonville, visit Brightway in-person July 8 and/or online at Brightway.com/careers to learn more about open positions at Brightway and starting a career with the company.

About Brightway Insurance

Brightway Insurance is a national property/casualty insurance distribution company with more than $820 million in annualized written premium, making it one of the largest Personal Lines agencies in the U.S.

Brightway's focus is on producing Win, Win, Win outcomes for consumers by offering customized insurance solutions and for people wishing to sell insurance by providing business opportunities that span from single Agent to multi-unit enterprises. Regardless of the path taken, Brightway provides the support necessary to consistently outsell other insurance agents.

Brightway got its start in 2008 and has since grown to 1,200 people in 313 offices across 25 states serving customers in all 50 states.

Consumers seeking a better insurance buying experience may visit Brightway.com, and people wishing to learn more about franchise ownership with Brightway may visit BrightwayDifference.com.

Contact: Courtney Heidelberg, 904-405-1883, [email protected]

SOURCE Brightway Insurance

Related Links

http://brightway.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nabis , California's largest licensed cannabis wholesale marketplace platform, announced today the company raised $23 million in a Series B funding round. The infusion of capital will support expansion of Nabis' online wholesaling business that already distributes more than $350 million worth of cannabis products per year.

Prominent Series B investors include FJ Labs , Artemis Growth Partners , Silverleaf Venture Partners , Liquid 2 Ventures and Stanley Tang (Co-Founder, DoorDash) . Investors in the company's $5 million Series A raise, which closed less than a year ago, include Y Combinator and Babel Ventures .

"Nabis is the only end-to-end cannabis wholesale marketplace platform that features lightning-fast fulfillment combined with financial and data analytics services that revolutionize cannabis brand and retail expansion. The rapidly legalizing cannabis market will be one of the first entirely new regulated supply chains to be built after the invention of the internet," said Vince C. Ning , CEO and Co-Founder of Nabis. "Traditional distribution is dead, and we are enabling the cannabis brands and retailers of today to transact with the most modern technology tools to best serve the exponentially-growing demand for cannabis. The cannabis wholesaling experience should be similar to best-in-class platforms like Faire that are found in more mature industries."

Nabis will use the funding to grow the Nabis Marketplace , its licensed wholesaling platform that enables the most streamlined sales and delivery experience for brands and retailers. To further accelerate its partners' success, Nabis will focus on scaling its value-added services, which include Nabis Capital and Nabis Analytics. As recreational markets legalize across the nation, Nabis will also explore out-of-state opportunities to bring the company's proven, wholesaling platform to brands and retailers in emerging markets for decades to come.

Nabis now distributes 10% of California's legal cannabis market. In the last 12 months alone, Nabis has grown over 140% in volume, and represents a portfolio of over 100 top-tier brands in the largest cannabis market in the world.

About Nabis

Nabis is the premier licensed wholesaling platform supporting over 100 brands and supplying the entire network of California dispensaries with top-tier products. Nabis offers clients lightning-fast fulfillment, warehousing, payment processing, financing, data analytics, and sales and marketing services to enable more brands and retailers to innovate, launch, and scale. Founded in 2017 by software engineers Vince C. Ning and Jun S. Lee, Nabis is fueled by cutting-edge technology designed to support cannabis wholesaling between brands and retailers. Nabis works directly with its partners to streamline the regulated cannabis wholesaling process by leveraging actionable, industry-leading sales data and insights to help brands and retailers scale strategically. Learn more: Nabis.com

Media Contact:

Trevor Maniscalo

Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency

[email protected]

630-841-1017

SOURCE Nabis

Related Links

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By studying a type of immune cells called T cells, a team of Gladstone scientists has uncovered fundamental differences between patients who overcome severe COVID-19 and those who succumb to it. The team, working together with researchers from UC San Francisco and Emory University, also found that dying patients harbor relatively large numbers of T cells able to infiltrate the lung, which may contribute to the extensive lung deterioration that is a hallmark of fatal COVID-19.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Cell Reports, could pave the way for new treatments. Currently, patients who are hospitalized for severe COVID-19 mostly receive dexamethasone, a drug used to reduce inflammation.

"Dexamethasone has been a life saver for many patients," says Gladstone Associate Investigator Nadia Roan, PhD, a senior and corresponding author of the study. "But it is not always sufficient. Our study suggests that it may also be beneficial to directly prevent excess immune cells, including inflammatory T cells, from entering the lung and causing further damage. This approach could be a good complement to anti-inflammatory treatments for COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit."

The work could also help with disease prognosis.

"Some patients can fall seriously ill from the virus," says Warner Greene, MD, PhD, senior investigator at Gladstone and co-senior author of the study. "We are in dire need for effective ways to anticipate the course of disease, as well as to alleviate lung damage in people with severe COVID-19."

An Imbalance of T Cells

T cells are a crucial component of a successful immune response to many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And they are markedly depleted from the blood during severe COVID-19.

To characterize the features of the T cells that remain, the scientists obtained blood samples that had been collected from COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). While about half of these patients eventually recovered, the other half died of the disease. By examining samples taken at different times during the patients' stay in the ICU, the scientists were able to discern trends that they could relate to the disease outcome.

Much has already been learned about the immune response of COVID-19 patients during active infection or after convalescence. For example, studies from convalescent individuals, including Roan's own previous work, reveal how the immune system may provide long-term immunity. Less clear, however, is how the immune system may protect from severe illness or, conversely, contribute to its worsening and to death. To understand the cause of fatalities, the researchers needed to compare fatal to non-fatal severe cases.

Using CyTOF, a technique implemented in Roan's lab that distinguishes the many types of T cells circulating in the body, the scientists found profound differences between the ICU patients' T-cell response to the virus.

"The T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 increased in patients who were eventually discharged from the ICU and recovered," says Roan, who is also an associate professor of urology at UC San Francisco. "But in patients who eventually died, we sometimes could not detect any T-cell response, or their response decreased over time."

Differences also extended to the composition of the patients' T cells that recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In particular, patients who survived harbored a growing number of T cells called Th1, which are known as important fighters of viral infection. Roan's team found molecular features on the Th1 cells that may explain why they were able to multiply in these patients.

By contrast, they found that patients who died had an elevated number of T cells secreting an inflammatory molecule that would contribute to a worsening of their lung condition. These patients also held more regulatory T cells recognizing the virus. Regulatory T cells normally help quiet down the immune response once infection subsides.

"Perhaps in these patients, regulatory T cells were activated too early and prevented effector T cells from ever mounting an adequate immune response to SARS-CoV-2," says Roan. "This could help explain the patients' paltry response to the virus."

Based on these findings, doctors might be able to predict the course of illness from the relative abundance of Th1 and regulatory T cells that recognize SARS-CoV-2 in a patient's blood.

Roan cautions, however, "Our findings show correlations, not causes. The immune system is complex, with many moving parts and possible interactions between them. Proving the cause of fatality will require further studies."

Stemming the Flow of Lung-Homing Cells

Another potential cause of fatality that the team discovered was a surge in T cells able to infiltrate the lungs of dying patients. By contrast, these cells decreased over time in the patients who recovered.

The scientists call these lung-homing cells "bystander T cells," because they are T cells that do not directly recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

"Our study suggests that during severe COVID-19, bystander T cells are recruited from the blood into the lung, where they may contribute to immune-mediated pathology," says Roan.

What triggers the surge of bystander T cells in severe COVID-19 cases remains unclear, but may be in part mediated by proteins secreted by the lung that recruit these cells. Regardless, stemming their flow into the lung may help reduce lung damage and accelerate the recovery of patients with severe illness.

This approach is particularly promising, as drugs that antagonize a molecule found on the surface of the bystander T cells are already approved for the treatment of metastatic cancer.

"Our next step is to test these drugs in a mouse model of severe COVID-19," says Roan. "We hope that after further scrutiny, such drugs could rapidly be tested as adjunctive treatment for COVID-19."

About the Study

The paper "Distinctive features of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells predict recovery from severe COVID-19" was published in Cell Reports on June 28.

Other authors include Jason Neidleman, Xiaoyu Luo, Ashley F. George, and Matthew McGregor from Gladstone Institutes; Junkai Yang and Eliver Ghosn of Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Cassandra Yun, Kara Lynch, Victoria Murray, Gurjot Gill, Joshua Vasquez, and Sulggi A. Lee of UC San Francisco.

This work was supported by the Van Auken Private Foundation, David Henke, and Pamela and Edward Taft; the Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research, which is partly funded by the Sandler Foundation; philanthropic funds donated to Gladstone Institutes by The Roddenberry Foundation and individual donors devoted to COVID-19 research; Fast Grants Awards (2164, 2208, and 2160), a part of Emergent Ventures from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI123126-05S1, P30 DK063720, and S10 1S10OD018040).

About Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impactunsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco.

Media Contact:

Julie Langelier,

Associate Director, Communications,

[email protected],

415.734.5000



SOURCE Gladstone Institutes

Related Links

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LAS VEGAS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DelveInsight's Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia (CIN) Market report offers comprehensive coverage of the current treatment practices, pipeline drugs, Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market share of the individual therapies, current and forecasted CIN market size from 2018 to 2030 segmented into 7MM (the USA, EU5 (the UK, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany), and Japan).

Some of the key takeaways from the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market report:

The total estimated number of cancer patients on chemotherapy was 1,790,618 in 2020 in the 7MM.

in 2020 in the 7MM. Surprisingly, Japan accounts for the largest Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia prevalence after the US in the 7MM. The driving factor for the highest cases in Japan is due to the high number of colorectal cancer cases.

accounts for the largest Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia prevalence after the US in the 7MM. The driving factor for the highest cases in is due to the high number of colorectal cancer cases. The Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia epidemiological analysis for the US demonstrated Breast cancer accounting for the maximum number of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia prevalence out of various forms of cancers such as Lung cancer, Ovarian cancer, AML, Lymphoma, and others, with CIN cases in AML being the lowest.

Current treatments in the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia therapy market are limited to two approved biologics such as Neupogen (filgrastim) and Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) and their biosimilars.

(filgrastim) and (pegfilgrastim) and their biosimilars. The Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market size of Neupogen and Neulasta was USD 216 million and USD 2,450 million in 2020 in the 7MM.

and in 2020 in the 7MM. The Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market share of biologics is expected to decline owing to the entry of biosimilars as well as novel therapies.

as well as novel therapies. Major key players leading the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market size growth ahead include Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Evive Biotech, Cellerant Therapeutics, BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals , and others.

, and others. Emerging therapies such as Rolontis (eflapegrastim injection), EC-18, ALRN-6924, Romyelocel-L/CLT-008, Myelo001, Plinabulin, F-627 (Ryzneuta), and others in the CIN market explore novel mechanisms of action, which is expected to provide them a leeway to establish a hold in the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market once approved.

Pipeline therapies such as Rolontis (Spectrum Pharmaceuticals), Plinabulin (BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals), and F-627 (Evive Biotech) are anticipated to enter the CIN market in the forecast period.

(Spectrum Pharmaceuticals), (BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals), and (Evive Biotech) are anticipated to enter the CIN market in the forecast period. Recently in February 2021 , the USFDA approved Cosela (G1 Therapeutics) to decrease the incidence of Chemotherapy Induced Myelosuppression in adult patients when administered prior to a platinum/etoposide-containing regimen or topotecan-containing regimen for ES-SCLC.

Discover more about therapy, set to grab substantial CIN market share @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Pipeline Therapy Market Share

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia: Overview

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia (CIN) is the primary dose-limiting toxicity in patients undergoing cancer treatments with chemotherapy. It can lead to febrile neutropenia (FN), and it is associated with increased morbidity and early mortality, increased medical costs, and disruptions in potentially curative treatments. Some of the risk factors for CIN are older age, female gender, poor performance status, albumin level <3.5 g/dL, bone marrow involvement, high LDH, low lymphocyte counts, high-risk chemotherapy regimen, and others.

The risk of infection in CIN patients ranges between 10% and 50% for patients with solid tumors and more than 80% for hematological malignancies. As per DelveInsight's Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia epidemiology analysis, the US accounted for the majority of the cancer patients on chemotherapies with 70% of the total patients on chemotherapy on intermediate-high risk for CIN.

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Epidemiology Segmentation

The Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market report puts forward the epidemiological analysis for the study period 2018-30 in the 7MM segmented into:

Total number of Patients on Chemotherapy

Risk-specific Chemotherapy Patient Pool for CIN

Total Incident Cases of CIN by Cancer-Type

Download report to understand which demographic factors are guiding the CIN epidemiology @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Epidemiological Insights

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Therapy Market

The only strategy to manage Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia is to prevent it. Neutropenia can be avoided or ameliorated by giving less chemotherapy or by stimulating marrow recovery immediately after chemotherapy, using the colony-stimulating factor (CSFs).

The treatment that follows in the case of Neutropenia is associated with fever includes Broad-spectrum antibiotics. Broad-spectrum antibiotics such as MEP are used as first-line antibiotics in all cases. (Hashiguchi et al. (2015)). In addition to these, Myeloid growth factors (MGFs), CSFs such as G-CSF and GM-CSF are an integral part of the prevention of potentially life-threatening Febrile Neutropenia, however, only G-CSF has US FDA approval for use in CIN. Available biosimilars in the US Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia therapy market of Neulasta include Fulphila, Udenyca, Ziextenzo, and Nyvepria and of Neupogen are Granix, Zarxio/Zarzio, and Nivestym.

Despite the fact that CSFs have managed to improve patient quality to a profound extent, the drug class needs to be studied further for a proper understanding of its safety and efficacy profile. Further, the issue of compromised patient compliance with the available pharmacological therapies adds to the intricacy of the lot.

Access the sample copy of the report for more details @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Unmet Needs

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Forecast

The Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia therapy market is observing several therapies emerging in the foreseeable future based on novel mechanisms. This also implies that the CIN market is expected to heat up with competition as the emerging therapies will vie to compete for market share, which at the moment is occupied by biologics and their biosimilars as well. However, the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia pipeline possesses potential drugs for intermediate-high risk patients, which can lend pipeline therapies a leg-up.

Interested in knowing which pharma company is expected to establish a major hold in the market? Drop your query at [email protected]

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Pipeline Therapies

Rolontis (eflapegrastim injection): Spectrum Pharmaceuticals

EC-18: Enzychem Lifesciences Corporation

ALRN-6924: Aileron Therapeutics

Romyelocel-L/CL T-008: Cellerant Therapeutics

Myelo001: Myelo Therapeutics

Plinabulin: BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals

F-627 (Ryzneuta): Evive Biotech

Check out for more @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Drug Pipeline Therapies

Factors Impacting the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Dynamics

A lack of understanding of the pathophysiology of the complication and unclear diagnosis modalities delays the treatment. Besides diagnosis, the present CIN market sees a limited number of therapies that explore novel mechanisms of action with poor patient compliance. The high cost of the therapies also puts a question mark on the cost-effectiveness of the therapies.

However, the gaps in the present treatment market offer pharma players tremendous opportunities to nab. Undoubtedly, the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia pipeline is robust and rich, exploring novel MoAs and aiming to address intermediate-high-risk patients. Pipeline therapies with better safety for long-term use and low treatment duration that are also economical and offer better patient adherence are expected to spark a great deal of change in the CIN therapy market.

Along with efficient pipeline therapies, the growing cancer patient pool will have a direct relation with the increasing CIN patient pool, which further would increase the demand for better therapies, thereby pushing the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia market size growth.

Check out for more @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Forecast

Scope of the Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Report

Coverage: 7MM (the US, EU5, and Japan)

Study Period: 2018-30

Key Companies: Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Evive Biotech, Cellerant Therapeutics, BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, and others.

Key Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Pipeline Therapies: Rolontis (eflapegrastim injection), EC-18, ALRN-6924, Romyelocel-L/CL T-008, Myelo001, Plinabulin, F-627 (Ryzneuta), and others.

Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Segmentation: By Geography, By Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Therapies

Analysis: Comparative and conjoint analysis of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia emerging therapies

Tools used: SWOT analysis, Conjoint Analysis, Porter's Five Forces, PESTLE analysis, BCG Matrix analysis methods.

Case Studies

KOL's Views

Analyst's Views

Drop by to learn more about the future market trends @ Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Landscape and Forecast

Table of Contents

1 Key Insights 2 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Report Introduction 3 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Overview at a Glance 4 Executive Summary of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia 5 Disease Background and Overview 6 Algorithm for Diagnosis of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia 7 Patient Journey 8 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia (CIN) Epidemiology and Patient Population 9 Treatment Algorithm, Current Treatment, and Medical Practices 10 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Epidemiology and Patient Population 11 Country Wise-Epidemiology of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia 10 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Treatment 12 Unmet Needs 13 Key Endpoints of Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia (CIN) Treatment 14 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Emerging Therapies 15 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia: 7 Major Market Analysis 16 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Unmet Needs 17 Case Reports 18 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Drivers 19 Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Market Barriers 20 SWOT Analysis 21 KOL Reviews 21 Appendix 22 DelveInsight Capabilities 23 Disclaimer 24 About DelveInsight

Get in touch with our Business executive for Rich and Deep Market Assessment and Consulting Solutions

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Chemotherapy Induced Febrile Neutropenia Market

Know more about therapies, and pharma companies such as Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Coherus Biosciences, Enzychem, Cinfa Biotech S.L., Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Myelo Therapeutics, Aileron Therapeutics, Cinfa Biotech S.L., Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, and others working involved in the market.

About DelveInsight

DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports Pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance.

Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve .

For more insights, visit Pharma, Healthcare, and Biotech News

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+1(919)321-6187

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SOURCE DelveInsight Business Research, LLP
AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Security Plan Life Insurance Company (SPLIC), a subsidiary of Citizens, Inc. (NYSE: CIA) recently announced a new product and new services that capitalizes upon Citizens' long history of selling insurance in the United States.

SPLIC has been in the insurance market since 1948, bringing a range of insurance products with its unique value proposition to our Home Service market, particularly Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

Our new Whole Life product, Security Plan Plus, is the jumpstart for our future product releases. Security Plan Plus offers a highly competitive product with the sleek combination of design, functionality, and value. Designed with today's consumers in mind, the Security Plan Plus application process is faster and easier. We are focused on providing families with financial security and peace of mind.

Citizens is committed to the Home Service market and the life insurance needs of middle-income consumers and introducing new products will just be the start. It is vital to expand products and services to meet the evolving needs of our customers and their families.

Gerald Shields, Interim Chief Executive Officer said, "We are excited about Security Plan Plus and how this product meets the needs of our market. Citizens remains committed to meeting the market needs of our policyholders. We continue to review our product offerings and adjust to the changing needs of policyholders. 2021 is an exciting year of growth."

Robert Mauldin, President and Chief Marketing Officer said, "Security Plan Life Insurance Company is committed to delivering a new level of protection and service to our policyholders. Security Plan Plus is just the start."

To learn more about Security Plan Insurance Company or its products, you can visit, www.citizensinc.com/security-plan

About Citizens, Inc.

Citizens, Inc. is a financial services company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CIA. The Company utilizes a three-pronged strategy for growth based upon worldwide sales of U.S. Dollar-denominated whole life cash value insurance policies, life insurance product sales in the U.S. and final expense and limited liability property product sales in the U.S.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Citizens, Inc. and its affiliates beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. These factors include, but are not limited to the Company's expectations regarding business performance, operational strategy, capital expenditures, technological changes, regulatory actions, and other financial and operational measures. Readers are encouraged to read the periodic reports Citizens files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, for "Risk Factors" and other meaningful cautionary language disclosing why actual results may vary materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate", "believe", "project" "intends," "continue" or similar expressions. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Citizens, Inc. undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For further information contact:

Marketing Department [email protected]

SOURCE Citizens, Inc.

Related Links

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NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Established in 1861, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (https://web.mit.edu) has since played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, ranking it among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. True to form, throughout the year 2020, MIT hosted a series of challenges to empower the world to take action on the COVID-19 crisis, spearheaded in part by Freddy Nguyen, MD, Ph.D. (Co-Director, MIT COVID-19 Challenge). Rising to the challenge, a group of determined individuals banded together to form the initial foundation for an ambitious project named CoWell Solutions (https://cowell.solutions), of which MIT praised in high regard as a viable means for "strengthening the health system", and the project was named a winner by a panel of esteemed judges.

CoWell Solutions

During the weekend of May 1-3, 2020, MIT presented "MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Africa Takes on COVID-19" (https://covid19challenge.mit.edu/africa-takes-on-covid19/), an inspiring event designed to build solutions for Africa in the COVID-19 crisis. MIT rallied the innovation community to develop solutions towards the most pressing issues related to the COVID-19 crisis in Africa. The academic institution wanted to channel and unlock untapped potential into positive and meaningful efforts to rapidly create and implement solutions that truly address the pressing unmet needs and problems of today. The goal was for teams to design and build local solutions to these now global problems.

Under the challenge of "Empowering the Health Workforce", the problem indicated "informing and motivating healthcare workers facing burnout due to limited time and resources." In response to the challenge, CoWell Solutions outlined a solution and proof of concept via "a platform accessible from urban and rural areas either online or offline, to share information and motivational content with healthcare providers facing burnout and mental challenges."

For "MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Africa Takes on COVID-19," there were over 1,000 participants, and 180+ teams and solutions were formed by members from 106 countries. The winning team of CoWell Solutions was initially formed by individuals from seven different countries: Sir Shefik Macauley (Director, Business Development and Technology - United States); Amina Ighoud (Product Manager - Algeria); Michael De Biasio (Marketing and Operations Manager - Canada); Bhanu Prathap (Graphic Designer and User Experience Manager - India); Chandni Patel (Medical Student - Kenya); Lisa Diamond, MD (Medical Writer - South Africa); and Manuel Acquisti (Business Management - Italy). CoWell Solutions encompasses a group of enthusiastic professionals, comprised of diverse and complementary skillset. CoWell Solutions has since added more team members, who are all aligned with the mission, to offset some of the founders who have moved on to pursue other projects.

"In a time of challenge and uncertainty, our team  with former and current members  joined its efforts to help frontliners in their fight against COVID-19," says Amina Ighoud (Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions). "A year later, we are still working toward our mission to help against clinician burnout. For that, I'm grateful to everyone who contributed and supported our project."

Shortly following the weekend activities of "MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Africa Takes on COVID-19," CoWell Solutions acquired a noteworthy deal with Amazon, under their AWS Activate program and Activate Portfolio tier. AWS Activate provides eligible startups with tools and resources, and benefits are designed to give the right mix of tools and expert support, so CoWell Solutions can succeed with AWS while optimizing performance, managing risk, and keeping costs under control.

"I am excited that CoWell Solutions' platform ideated well over a year ago is coming to fruition with its public release," says Michael De Biasio (Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions).

Also noteworthy, CoWell Solutions recently conducted strategic alignment by executing international projects and multi-cultural events with NBCUniversal, Doctor Dre (former host of "Yo! MTV Raps"), FortiVitum (Lithuania) (https://fortivitum.com), Munhu (Zimbabwe) (https://www.munhuinc.org), and Hope Academy for Girls (Sierra Leone) (http://www.hopeacademy.sl).

"CoWell Solutions rose from the responsibility of MIT stepping up, through their role as an academic leader," says Sir Shefik Macauley (Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions). "It is profound to move forward over the upcoming months, and release to the general public the thoughtful features we have implemented with our project. Special thanks to Dr. Freddy Nguyen and his team at MIT Hacking Medicine for bringing the world together in epic fashion for the greater good."

For more information, visit CoWell Solutions at https://cowell.solutions. You can also inquire about partnerships and/or investment opportunities at [email protected].

Media Contacts

Shefik

Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions

+1 (914) 548-5033

[email protected]

Amina Ighoud

Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions

[email protected]

Michael De Biasio

Co-Founder, CoWell Solutions

[email protected]

SOURCE CoWell Solutions
PLANTATION, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Debbie's Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer (DDF) announces the continuation of its youth initiatives in 2021. The organization looks forward to working with student-led high school and college School Clubs dedicated to raising awareness about stomach cancer, fundraising for DDF's mission, and volunteering for the organization. In addition, the organization will host its annual Scholarship Essay Contest in the Fall of 2021. The contest consists of cash prizes for winners, and it is open to grade-school students across the United States. The organization hopes that these initiatives and others will help educate and raise awareness about stomach cancer for the next generation.

DDF's School Clubs are a nationwide opportunity for youth to establish chapters at their local high schools or colleges. Each chapter is recommended to operate according to the Guide to Starting a Debbie's Dream School Club manual, located on the organization's website. Students are encouraged to volunteer their time and creativity through the club to help raise awareness through activities ranging from visiting patients in hospitals to creating handmade "get well soon" cards for patients or hosting fundraising events. DDF's Nova Southeastern School Club hosted the Debbie's Dream Virtual 5K Challenge from April 17 through May 7, 2021, raising funds for stomach cancer. The foundation looks forward to more efforts such as this from its youth-run chapters to help achieve the dream of finding a cure.

"When our late Founder Debbie started this organization, she made sure to include activities for our youth because she had three young children at the time of her diagnosis," said DDF's Chief Executive Officer Andrea Eidelman. "Debbie recognized the importance of giving children the opportunity to contribute their time and energy towards a cause that will ultimately help others. Not only does it become an educational experience for them, but it's also empowering and can inspire them to be future leaders or doctors who can help find a cure one day."

Continuing to raise awareness, DDF will launch its Scholarship Essay Contest later this year for students ages 5 to 18. The contest consists of three categories: elementary, middle, and high school, and includes essay prompts that inspire students to explore various topics surrounding stomach cancer. A winner will be selected from each category to receive a cash prize. The organization will begin collecting submissions beginning in September.

For more information about DDF's youth initiatives and ways to get involved, visit www.DebbiesDream.org/Youth.

About Debbie's Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer

DDF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about gastric cancer, advancing funding for research, and providing education and support internationally to patients, families, and caregivers. DDF seeks as its ultimate goal to make the cure for stomach cancer a reality.

DDF was founded in 2009 by Debbie Zelman after she was diagnosed with stage IV incurable gastric cancer in 2008 and given only weeks to live. Debbie is considered a pioneer by many for bringing awareness to stomach cancer patients' plight and the lack of federal funding for stomach cancer research. She did all of this while receiving hundreds of rounds of chemo, in addition to daily oral treatments. Debbie passed away on December 23, 2017, almost a decade later, at 50. As a result of her leadership, DDF now has a Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of world-renowned doctors and chapters throughout the United States, Canada, and Germany. DDF strives to continue Debbie's mission and to make her dream a reality. To learn more about DDF, please visit us at www.DebbiesDream.org .

Media Contact:

Brittnay Starks

Communications Coordinator

Debbie's Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer

(954) 475-1200

[email protected]

www.DebbiesDream.org

SOURCE Debbie's Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer

Related Links

http://www.DebbiesDream.org


The issuance of a NOI begins BOEM's and other federal agencies' review of the project and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which will take about two years, and opens a 30-day public comment period during which time federal agencies will conduct scoping meetings and accept comments to inform the preparation of the EIS.

"The Notice of Intent marks an important regulatory milestone and ensures CVOW remains on schedule to complete construction in 2026, so we can deliver clean, renewable offshore wind energy to Dominion Energy Virginia customers," said Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy's chair, president and chief executive officer. "We look forward to continuing to work with our federal regulators and the public as we move forward with the environmental review process."

"Virginia is all in on offshore wind. We are developing the infrastructure, workforce, supply chain, and manufacturing capabilities needed to capture the many benefits of this emerging industry," said Governor Ralph Northam. "This announcement puts our Commonwealth on a path to harnessing the power of wind to produce affordable and reliable renewable energy, create thousands of new jobs, and meet our ambitious climate goals. We are grateful for the federal government's partnership as we work to advance our clean energy future with this large-scale commercial wind project along Virginia's coast."

"Today's announcement marks another critical milestone in the development of Virginia's commercial offshore wind project," said U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA). "With the issuance of the Notice of Intent, we are one step closer to bringing this 2.6-gigawatt commercial offshore wind project online that will deliver clean, renewable energy to hundreds of thousands of Virginians and create thousands of good-paying jobs."

"I'm thrilled to see this project underway as it's an exciting step toward a clean energy economy that creates good jobs in the Commonwealth," said U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA). "I will keep pushing for clean energy investments in Virginia to boost our economy and build a more sustainable future."

Dominion Energy filed in December 2020 its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) to build the CVOW commercial project in a 112,800-acre commercial lease area that begins 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach and extends an additional 15 miles East in the Atlantic Ocean. The plan calls for 2,640 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to be installed, which will generate enough renewable energy to power up to 660,000 Dominion Energy Virginia customers' homes at peak output. BOEM's issuance of the NOI reflects its determination that the COP is complete and ready for the public review process.

Offshore wind generation is a major component of Dominion Energy's comprehensive clean energy strategy to meet standards mandated in the Virginia Clean Economy Act and to achieve the company's net zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions commitment by 2050.

Dominion Energy expects to file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission later this year, seeking regulatory approval for the commercial project. This follows the successful completion of the two-turbine, 12-megawatt CVOW pilot wind farm located adjacent to the commercial development, which was the first project to be fully permitted through the BOEM review process and became operational in October 2020.

According to an economic impact study performed by Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics and commissioned and published by the Hampton Roads Alliance, it is estimated that the CVOW commercial project could create approximately 900 jobs and $143 million in economic impact annually during construction and 1,100 jobs and almost $210 million in economic impact annually during operation of the turbines.

Similarly, during construction, the CVOW commercial project is estimated to generate nearly $5 million per year in local and state tax revenue which increases to almost $11 million annually once the project is commissioned and operational.

About Dominion Energy

More than 7 million customers in 16 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable and safe energy and to achieving net zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its power generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.

This news release includes certain "forward-looking information." Examples include information as to expectations, beliefs, plans, goals, objectives and future financial or other performance or assumptions concerning matters discussed in this release. Our business is influenced by many factors that are difficult to predict, involve uncertainties that may materially affect actual results and are often beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely. We have identified and will in the future identify in our SEC Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. We refer you to those discussions for further information. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which it is made.

SOURCE Dominion Energy

Related Links

http://www.dominionenergy.com


With over 20 sessions, the Exclaimer Signature Summit is organized to appeal to business professionals from an array of disciplines, including IT, marketing, legal, compliance and more. The sessions contain thought leadership keynotes, industry insights, product feature updates and overviews of the unique benefits of email signature management.

Key speakers include Dave Coplin, Author, Alchemist, Catalyst and Founder of the Envisioners. Dave has worked with or for the world's largest technology companies, most recently as Microsoft's "Chief Envisioning Officer". Dave Coplin's keynote addresses the current technology problems we face and how we should be using such technology to reimagine how we live, work, and do business.

Also speaking is Dr. Darren Coleman, Brand Experiences and Brand Strategy Expert, who specializes in helping brands drive growth and retain relevance through brand experiences. Dr. Coleman will outline why delivering consistent brand experiences through employee behavior, communications and design lies at the heart of B2B brand success.

Other key speakers are Christian Buckley, Microsoft GTM Director, Microsoft MVP, and RD who will discuss Microsoft 365 Email Signature Management in the Age of Remote Working. And Nick Cavalancia, Microsoft Cloud and Datacenter MVP who will talk about The Buyer's Guide to Email Signature Management Solutions.

Some of the exciting sessions running during the day are The Art of Email Signature Management, The IT Benefits of Centralized Email Signature Management, Email Signatures: Your Untapped Communications and Feedback Channel, and Designing the Perfect Email Signature.

Attendees can create their own agendas by registering for the sessions they are most interested in, available via three tracks:

Explorer  a public group for IT and business professionals new to Exclaimer and/or email signature management which provides a general overview of the benefits and how to get started

 a public group for IT and business professionals new to Exclaimer and/or email signature management which provides a general overview of the benefits and how to get started Exclaimer Customer - a private group for existing customers to hear about new feature updates and how to get the most out of their Exclaimer solutions.

- a private group for existing customers to hear about new feature updates and how to get the most out of their Exclaimer solutions. Exclaimer Partner  a private group for Exclaimer Partners, this track showcases the benefits of reselling Exclaimer products and latest updates to its Partner Program

Maria Dahlqvist Canton, VP Marketing at Exclaimer, commented about the event:

"We are delighted to announce our first virtual event, The Exclaimer Signature Summit. Our exciting keynote speakers will be sharing fascinating research and insights on topics such as the future of remote working, technology, and delivering consistent brand experiences.

"I'm extremely proud of the Exclaimer team for organizing an event full of so many diverse and interesting topics. We cannot wait to share our expertise to potential new and existing customers and highlight the untapped marketing opportunities with email signatures."

View the full agenda and register for Exclaimer's Signature Summit here

Enquiries:

Maria Dahlqvist Canton

VP Marketing, Exclaimer

Phone: +44 (0) 7930 111931

Email: [email protected]

About Exclaimer

For 20 years, Exclaimer has been providing world-class email signature solutions for Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Google Workplace (formerly G Suite), and Microsoft Exchange. Headquartered just outside of London and with regional offices worldwide, its products are used by over 75 million users in 150+ countries with some companies holding licenses for over 300,000 users.

Its diverse customer base includes renowned international organizations such as Sony, Mattel, 10 Downing Street, NBC, the Government of Canada, the BBC, and many more organizations of all sectors and sizes. The company has been the recipient of multiple industry awards over the years and was the first company of its type to successfully achieve the ISO 27001 Certification for its cloud-based signature management service.

For more information on Exclaimer, please visit www.exclaimer.com

SOURCE Exclaimer
BOCA RATON, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CentralBDC, the automotive industry's fastest growing outsourced BDC Company, today announced the appointment of seasoned automotive executive, Simon Smith, as its president and Chief Operating Officer. Under Smith's leadership, CentralBDC will continue to support dealerships with its industry leading custom BDC services. CentralBDC's proprietary technology coupled with its highly trained and motivated employees currently support many of the largest dealerships and dealership groups nationwide as their full-service BDC for sales, equity-mining and customer service. Simon will also lead CentralBDC's new "Customer Engagement Platform," an omnichannel communication platform designed for consumers to be able to engage with CentralBDC service teams within their preferred communication channel. Central BDC's Customer Engagement Platform is scheduled to launch later this year.

CentralBDC, the automotive industry's fastest-growing outsourced BDC Company hires Simon Smith to become President & COO Tweet this Simon Smith

"Simon has extensive experience in the automotive sector and an outstanding history of driving both top and bottom-line results while ensuring our dealer partners' needs remain top of mind," said Ben Shamsizadeh, CEO and Founder of CentralBDC. "Simon's expertise and industry knowledge of how to scale and grow effective teams and businesses will help CentralBDC deliver better results for our current dealers and prepare our organization to scale to successfully serve over 2,500 dealerships in 2022."

Before joining CentralBDC, Smith was Executive Vice President of Dealer Solutions at TrueCar, where he oversaw a team of over 350 employees playing a pivotal role in the development and execution of the company's dealer relations, growth and industry expansion. Smith previously held senior leadership positions at AutoNation Direct, Carsdirect and Internet Brands, and has amassed an extensive network of dealer relationships from his 20+ years within the automotive industry.

"CentralBDC is specifically built with the business needs of today's modern dealership in mind. The combined operations, technology and processes of CentralBDC provide accountable ROI while coupling cost efficiencies for dealers," noted Smith. "I'm thrilled to be joining the company at this pivotal time and look forward to helping grow our already impressive dealer partner network while also helping CentralBDC dealer partners better understand and measure their marketing spend against actual sales results."

ABOUT CentralBDC:

Established in 2018 CentralBDC is the largest and fastest growing BDC Company in the automotive industry. CentralBDC has responded to over 19 million customer calls and scheduled over one million appointments for dealer partners over the past 24 months. Experience the power of people and technology and learn more at www.centralbdc.com

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE CentralBDC

Related Links

https://www.centralbdc.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NATSO, representing the nation's truckstops and travel plazas; NACS, the National Association of Convenience Stores; and SIGMA: America's Leading Fuel Marketers today announced their opposition to H.R. 3684, the INVEST in America Act, the five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

"NATSO is disappointed that we must reject a federal highway bill for the second time because it contains the same harmful provisions that will discourage the private sector from making investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure," said NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings. "NATSO wants to work with lawmakers to expand the market's transition to alternative fuels, including EV charging. With a few key improvements to these provisions, NATSO and the entire retail fuel industry would otherwise be able to support this important legislation."

"NACS supports infrastructure investments that will leverage private funds and lead to improvements throughout the nation," said NACS President and CEO Henry Armour. "This bill does the opposite and will depress overall investment in critical new technologies like electric vehicle charging. The policies related to electric vehicle charging put forth in this legislation undermine the necessary business case for EV charging infrastructure, making it more difficult for the private sector to make such investments."

The groups all support increased investment in infrastructure, including alternatives to traditional motor fuel such as electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, and natural gas fueling. Public policy should support and incentivize private investment in these and other alternatives, but the INVEST Act falls short in this regard.

While the INVEST Act includes funding for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, those provisions are designed in a way that creates impediments to private sector investment in EV charging.

Specifically, the legislation includes provisions that would encourage government-sanctioned monopolies by placing EV charging stations at Interstate rest areas. Such commercial services at rest areas have been shown to reduce private investment in those services at interstate exits resulting in less, not more, of those offerings for motorists. The associations applaud the leadership of Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, in trying to offer an amendment to H.R. 3684 to modify this provision. Unfortunately, the amendment was not allowed to be considered by the full House of Representatives.

"We are extraordinarily grateful to Congressman Larsen and his staff for their leadership throughout this process," said David Fialkov, NATSO's Executive Vice President of Government Affairs. "Congressman Larsen understands that the existing nationwide network of fuel retailing locations represents the best opportunity to quickly and efficiently bring charging options to market. If Congressman Larsen's amendment came to a vote on the House floor, it would have passed. It's unfortunate that House leaders chose not to allow this bipartisan compromise to see the light of day."

The associations voiced strong objections to last-minute provisions added by the Energy and Commerce Committee that will award rebates to public utilities that also utilize rate payer dollars to invest in electric vehicle charging stations, effectively allowing them to "double dip." While rebates and other funding programs have a role to play in furthering EV charging investments, the structure of this program will undercut private sector investment in EV charging while saddling low-income electricity ratepayers with the costs of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

H.R. 3684 does not include sufficient guardrails to facilitate an open and competitive market for EV charging and fails to protect and provide fairness to all electricity consumers.

It is imperative that federal dollars for EV charging ensures that investor-owned utilities are unable to increase the electricity rates of all their customers  regardless of income  to underwrite investments in EV charging equipment. That unfair funding method combined with federal funds that allow double-dipping of funding for the same infrastructure and the punitive demand charges that utilities impose on private sector operators of EV charging statements make it impossible for the private sector to successfully invest in charging technology.

The three trade groups represent approximately 90 percent of retail sales of motor fuel in the United States.

About NATSO, NACS, and SIGMA

NATSO is the trade association of America's travel plaza and truckstop industry. Founded in 1960, NATSO represents the industry on legislative and regulatory matters; serves as the official source of information on the diverse travel plaza and truckstop industry; provides education to its members; conducts an annual convention and trade show; and supports efforts to generally improve the business climate in which its members operate. Contact: Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, Vice President, Public Affairs. 703-739-8578

NACS advances the role of convenience stores as positive economic, social and philanthropic contributors to the communities they serve. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than 153,000 stores nationwide selling fuel, food and merchandise, serves 165 million customers dailyhalf of the U.S. populationand has sales that are 10.8% of total U.S. retail and foodservice sales. NACS has 1,900 retailer and 1,800 supplier members from more than 50 countries.

SIGMA is the national trade association representing the most successful, progressive, and innovative fuel marketers and chain retailers in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1958 as the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA), SIGMA has become a fixture in the motor fuel marketing industry. Representing a diverse membership of approximately 250 independent chain retailers and marketers of motor fuel, the association serves to further the interests of both the branded and unbranded segment of the industry while providing information and services to members. For more information visit https://www.sigma.org/

Contact:

Tiffany Wlazlowski



SOURCE NATSO, Inc.

Related Links

www.natso.com


ATLANTA, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power today announced an investment of $500,000 by the Georgia Power Foundation, to the Georgia Justice Project (GJP). The funding will help remove barriers to employment and housing and open other opportunities for those with past records who are working to be productive citizens.

"We are proud to support this initiative that will help citizens working hard to be self-sufficient," said Mike Anderson, senior vice president of Georgia Power and president and CEO of the Georgia Power Foundation. "Our commitment to this important work and GJP's efforts, are critical because this is one way that we can make a real impact to help both individuals and our state. As part of our $75 million commitment over the next five-years, it aligns with our goals to assist with education equity, criminal justice and economic empowerment."

The efforts support expanding direct service programs, including implementation of Georgia's new "expungement law," SB 288, that passed both the Georgia House and Senate unanimously. This new law expands access to criminal record restriction and sealing to help clear obstacles to success for approximately 1.5 million Georgians who now have access to record restriction for the first time. Georgia Power's grant will support GJP's efforts to implement a multipronged campaign that includes direct service, education and outreach, and policy expansion to increase the effectiveness of the new law.

"This grant will help Georgia Justice Project ensure effective implementation of Georgia's newly expanded criminal records law by bringing services directly to communities," said Brenda Smeeton, Legal Director of Georgia Justice Project. "As of January this year, many rehabilitated Georgians are now eligible to seal a conviction history to remove barriers to employment, housing and other opportunities, but a new law is only effective if the people who need it most can access it, and this grant will allow us to host expungement desks and events around the state. Our sincere gratitude to Georgia Power for supporting this effort."

For 35 years, GJP has served Georgians who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. The organization's range of legal services includes holistic criminal defense paired with social services, as well as representation for criminal records issues, all provided free of charge. GJP works statewide to educate individuals and service providers on criminal records, issues, and has helped to pass 21 Georgia laws through advocacy efforts.

About the Georgia Power Foundation

The Georgia Power Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is the fifth-largest corporate giving foundation in Georgia. The Foundation provides grants to organizations that are enriching communities across the state and is part of Georgia Power's philanthropic focus to empower Education, Environmental Stewardship and Communities.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is recognized by J.D. Power as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).

SOURCE Georgia Power

Related Links

http://www.georgiapower.com


DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Organic Chocolate Spreads Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Hazelnut, Dark), Distribution Channel (Supermarket & Hypermarket, Online), Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global organic chocolate spreads market size is expected to reach USD 834.0 million by 2028, registering a CAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period.

Increasing consumption of chocolate-based spreads as a part of the breakfast meal coupled with consumer inclination towards organic and natural food products is expected to be a key factor driving the market over the forecast period.



The hazelnut segment accounted for the largest share of the market in 2020 and will expand further at a steady CAGR from 2021 to 2028 due to rising product innovation in this segment. For instance, in October 2019, Rigoni di Asiago launched the Nocciolata Bianca Hazelnut Spread, which is gluten-free and is high in protein. Companies all over the globe, especially start-ups, have been focusing on making products available to consumers through online distribution channels. Moreover, the increasing influence of western food habits in the Asia Pacific region has significantly increased the salability of the product in the market.



Supermarkets & hypermarkets emerged as the largest distribution channel segment in 2020 accounting for a revenue share of over 50%. These stores focus on customer satisfaction and specific food categories pertaining to organic products. Also, the availability of complete household items of all brands in one place drives the segment growth.



Europe emerged as the largest regional market in 2020 with a revenue share of more than 40%. Europe is also a key market for certified organic cocoa in the world. Furthermore, European brands benefit from a large consumer base across countries, such as Germany, the U.K., and Switzerland. The increasing trend of snacking among younger European consumers further fuels the market growth.

Organic Chocolate Spreads Market Report Highlights

The dark chocolate segment is expected to register the fastest growth rate of 5.8% during forecast years owing to the increasing awareness about the health benefits of the product

The online distribution channel is expected to register the fastest growth during forecast years

Europe held the largest revenue share of the market in 2020 due to the high demand for organic food in the region

held the largest revenue share of the market in 2020 due to the high demand for organic food in the region The hazelnut segment held the largest revenue share in 2020 due to the wide popularity of hazelnut-based products among consumers

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope

1.1. Market Segmentation & Scope

1.2. Market Definition

1.3. Information Procurement

1.4. Information Analysis

1.5. Market Formulation & Data Visualization

1.6. Data Validation & Publishing



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Market Outlook

2.2. Product Outlook

2.3. Application Outlook

2.4. Competitive Insights



Chapter 3. Organic Chocolate Spread Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Introduction

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Impact of COVID-19 on the Organic Chocolate Spread Market

3.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis

3.5. Market Dynamics

3.6. Business Environment Analysis

3.7. Roadmap of Organic Chocolate Spread Market

3.8. Market Entry Strategies



Chapter 4. Consumer Behavior Analysis

4.1. Consumer Trends and Preferences

4.2. Factors Affecting Buying Decision

4.3. Demographic Analysis

4.4. Consumer Product Adoption

4.5. Observations & Recommendations



Chapter 5. Organic Chocolate Spread Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1. Product Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2020 & 2028

5.2. Hazelnut

5.3. Duo

5.4. Milk

5.5. Dark

5.6. Others



Chapter 6. Organic Chocolate Spread Market: Distribution Channel Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1. Distribution Channel Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2020 & 2028

6.2. Hypermarket & Supermarket

6.3. Online

6.4. Others



Chapter 7. Organic Chocolate Spread Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

7.1. Regional Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2020 & 2028

7.2. North America

7.3. Europe

7.4. Asia Pacific

7.5. Central & South America

7.6. Middle East & Africa



Chapter 8. Competitive Analysis

8.1. Key global players, recent developments & their impact on the industry

8.2. Key Company/Competition Categorization (Key innovators, Market leaders, Emerging players)

8.3. Vendor Landscape



Chapter 9. Company Profiles

Nutiva Inc.

Rigoni di Asiago

Phalada Pure & Sure

ASKINOSIE CHOCOLATE, LLC

The Organic Family Ltd. (Mr. Organic)

Cocofina

Mason & Co

BIONA

Artisana Organics

Pana Organic

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/1ku1hi

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 6; Released: April 2021 Executive Engagements: 379 Companies: 152 - Players covered include ADURO, INC.; Beacon Health Options, Inc.; Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd; Central Corporate Wellness; ComPsych Corporation; EXOS; Fitbit Health Solutions; HealthifyMe Wellness Products and Services PVT. LTD.; Marino Wellness; Morneau Shepell Ltd.; Privia Health, LLC; Sodexo Group; The Vitality Group, Inc.; Truworth Health Technologies Pvt. Ltd; Virgin Pulse, Inc.; Well Nation; Wellness Corporate Solutions; Wellsource, Inc. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Service (Health Risk Assessment, Fitness, Smoking Cessation, Health Screening, Nutrition & Weight Management, Stress Management, Other Services); Organization Size (Small, Medium, Large) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry



ABSTRACT-



Global Corporate Wellness Market to Reach $87.3 Billion by 2026

Corporate wellness encompasses metal and physical wellness of employees, the cornerstone for business strength, stability, sustainability and growth. The concept of wellness has been gaining considerable attention across organizations over the last several years owing to its ability to influence employee health, mental wellbeing, performance and quality of life. The trend can be attributed to rising incidence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and cardiovascular conditions among employees. Unhealthy lifestyles and associated chronic diseases coerce corporate offices to bear a loss of one trillion dollars in terms of lost productivity. These issues are prompting various organizations to focus on corporate wellness to promote healthy behaviors among employees. Companies around the world are adjusting their corporate wellness plans to match the current public health crisis and given the devastating magnitude of the pandemic, the impact has been fairly positive. Integration of wellness programs in the workplace, be it physical or virtual, has becomes the biggest priority for companies worldwide.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Corporate Wellness estimated at US$56.7 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$87.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.3% over the analysis period. Health Risk Assessment, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 6.2% CAGR and reach US$20.7 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Fitness segment is readjusted to a revised 6.9% CAGR for the next 7-year period. Given the rising susceptibility to chronic diseases such as cancer, respiratory diseases, diabetes etc. even in younger age groups, there is increased focus on inclusion of health risk assessment plans in wellness programs. Apart from helping companies reduce employee healthcare expenditure, health risk assessment enables employees to identify possible future health future and establish wellness goals. Health risk assessment begins with analyzing employee medical history, health status, and lifestyle.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $20.4 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $7.3 Billion by 2026

The Corporate Wellness market in the U.S. is estimated at US$20.4 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$7.3 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.6% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 6.4% and 7% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.8% CAGR. The US represents a key market. In the United States, the Affordable Care Act allows employers to increase the size of their financial incentives for completing wellness programs. Under new rules, firms can penalize non participating employees by increasing their premium contribution up to 30% of the cost of the plan for not completing or engaging with corporate wellness programs.

Smoking Cessation Segment to Reach $13.5 Billion by 2026

Smoking cessation programs assist smokers in selecting and receiving the right medication such as lozenge, gum or patches to reduce craving and mitigate withdrawal symptoms. Cigarette addiction worldwide is expected to increase despite organizations and governments across the globe trying to spread awareness over the harmful effects of tobacco, imposition of high taxes on various tobacco products with an aim to reduce their usage, and approving tobacco products that are less harmful and innovative as a suitable substitute to traditional cigarettes. In the recent years, an increasing number of organizations have started focusing on smoking cessation programs at workplaces for assisting employees in improving their health and eventually boosting the bottom line by pushing productivity and saving on healthcare costs. In the global Smoking Cessation segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 6.4% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$7.4 Billion in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$11.5 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$1.2 Billion by the year 2026. More

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Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

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About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 19; Released: May 2021 Executive Engagements: 68882 Companies: 264 - Players covered include Aprimo US LLC; Adobe Systems Incorporated; Bynder BV; Canto, Inc.; CELUM GmbH; Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation; Extensis; International Business Machines Corp; MediaBeacon, Inc.; Mediavalet, Inc; North Plains Systems Corp.; Nuxeo; OpenText Corp.; Oracle Corporation; QBNK Company AB; Widen Enterprises, Inc. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Component (Solutions, Services); Deployment (On-Premise, Cloud); Vertical (Media & Entertainment, BFSI, Consumer Goods & Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Other Verticals) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-



Global Digital Asset Management (DAM) Market to Reach $12.9 Billion by 2026

In enterprises with huge burgeoning repositories, the absence of effective digital content management systems and workflows often leads to employees wasting substantial man-hours for locating and retrieving required files from the repositories, or producing poor quality output by making do with whatever resources are at hand due to the hassle of finding appropriate content from among the millions of stored files. Effective infrastructure, strategies, and mechanisms are therefore required for previewing, retrieving, transforming, distributing and sharing new and existing digital files in order to extract the maximum value from the existing inventory of digital assets. However, building infrastructure for securely accessing, sharing, and utilizing rich digital media content poses a number of challenges including the use of expensive specialty systems and solutions, and the deployment of strong networks to handle the high load for supporting user access to large-sized files from a centralized library.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Digital Asset Management (DAM) estimated at US$3.8 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$12.9 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 22.2% over the analysis period. Solutions, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 20% CAGR and reach US$8.1 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Services segment is readjusted to a revised 25.1% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $1.4 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $1.3 Billion by 2026

The Digital Asset Management (DAM) market in the U.S. is estimated at US$1.4 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$1.3 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 26.4% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 19% and 21.5% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 20.8% CAGR.

Digital asset management is anticipated to become a compelling technology for content personalization and distribution to support marketing initiatives. AI holds significant role in enhancing the intelligence, automation and speed of digital asset management systems by performing tasks requiring human intelligence without relying heavily on human assistance. AI tools are intended for performing tasks involving learning and reasoning by using information like motion and perception. These systems rely on advanced options like creativity and social intelligence to analyze information and produce knowledge manipulations and representations. In addition, sophisticated AI systems are capable of collecting and analyzing data, and exploit machine learning processes for learning, evolving and assimilating human intelligence patterns. These systems need large data volumes and time for proper learning. The use of AI with digital asset management systems assists users in controlling large content volumes by leveraging various technologies and approaches such as auto-tagging, computer vision and computer linguistics. Further advancements in digital asset management technology is also likely to result in the development of new innovative systems that would act as a centralized brand management platform where companies would be able to store their entire marketing assets and offer customers freedom with control. The integration of brand management into existing systems would enable digital asset management providers in offering users the ability of streamlining and optimizing the organization's reputation, customer experience, and workflow from a single platform. With constant evolution in technology, marketers need to stay updated on how content could be distributed for reaching users on all platforms and devices. This would require digital asset management providers to develop integrated platforms that can help marketers in creating content, building and launching campaigns, and monitoring their best-performing assets all from a single application.

By Deployment, On-Premise Segment to Reach $5.4 Billion by 2026

Global market for On-Premise segment is estimated at US$2.3 Billion in 2020, and is projected to reach US$5.4 Billion by 2026 reflecting a compounded annual growth rate of 14.8% over the analysis period. The United States constitutes the largest regional market for On-Premise segment, accounting for 30.9% of the global sales in 2020. China is poised to register the fastest compounded annual growth rate of 15.6% over the analysis period, to reach US$586 Million by the close of the analysis period. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]



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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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As an employment lawyer at the firm, Reeves focuses her practice on employment litigation, counseling, and investigations. She works with organizations across the country to develop and conduct customized cultural assessments and training programs to support systemic change and efforts to make workplaces more equitable and inclusive. She is known for her ability to develop and implement sustainable, transformative strategies  innovative work that fosters more positive workplace cultures, minimizes risk, and improves the overall health of organizations.

Reeves serves on Goulston & Storrs' Inclusion Advisory Committee and Hiring Committee. She is Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Section, Co-Chair of the Women of Color Committee of the Women's Bar Association, and a member of the Programs and Professional Development Committee of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association. She is also a 2020 Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and serves on the Board of Directors of the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association.

Reeves was named an Up & Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and a Best Lawyers in America Ones to Watch in Labor and Employment Litigation in 2021. She was recognized by Chambers USA as a 2020 Associate to Watch in Labor & Employment in Massachusetts, and has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Star for six consecutive years (2015-2020). She received a Pro Bono Award from Lawyers for Civil Rights in 2019 and the Denis Maguire Pro Bono Award from the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association in 2018.

She earned her J.D. from Boston College Law School in 2010 and her B.A, magna cum laude, from Union College in 2008.

About Goulston & Storrs

Collaboration is not just a pillar of our strategy; it is the key to our competitive advantage and approach to clients, community, and each other. As you get to know us, you will find that Goulston & Storrs is a modern, vibrant firm where the practice of law is pursued with deep expertise and diligence. It is a place where serious business is conducted with genuine camaraderie. It is a place where mutual respect drives open discussion, fresh ideas, and optimal solutions for our clients.

To learn more about our attorneys and clients, please visit our website or sign up to receive real-time news here.

Contact:

Liz Sobe Amy Blumenthal Director of Strategic Growth Blumenthal & Associates PR Goulston & Storrs PC (617) 879-1511 (617) 574-0556 [email protected] [email protected]



SOURCE Goulston & Storrs PC

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TSXV: GBR

VANCOUVER, BC, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Great Bear Resources Ltd. (the "Company" or "Great Bear", (TSXV: GBR) (OTCQX: GTBAF) announces the results of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") held on, June 29, 2021. The total number of shares represented by shareholders present in person and by proxy at the Meeting was 33,673,676, representing 58.94% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares.

The Company's shareholders voted in favour of all items of business brought forward at the AGM, as follows:

Election of Directors



% of Votes

FOR % of Votes

WITHHELD Gilbert Lawson 99.76% 0.36% Michael Kenyon 99.71% 0.29% Douglas Ramshaw 91.76% 8.24% Paula Rogers 93.32% 6.68% David Terry 91.45% 8.55% Chris Taylor 99.03% 0.97%

Approval of Resolutions:



% of Votes

FOR % of Votes

WITHHELD/

AGAINST To Set the number of

Directors at 6 99.64% 0.36% Appointment of Deloitte LLP

as Auditors of the Company 99.72% 0.28% Approval of Amended and

Restated Share Option Plan 94.17% 5.83% Approval of Amended

Restricted Share

Unit/Deferred Share Unit

Plan 94.40% 5.60%

Chris Taylor, President and CEO stated: "On behalf of the Board of Directors we would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support. Mr. Tony Ricci did not stand for re-election as a director this year. Tony has served as a Director of Great Bear for 10 years and has been instrumental in the evolution of the Company. On behalf of the Board of Directors we thank Tony for his many years of service to the company and wish him well in the future."

About Great Bear

Great Bear Resources Ltd. is a well-financed gold exploration company managed by a team with a track record of success in mineral exploration. Great Bear is focused in the prolific Red Lake gold district in northwest Ontario, where the company controls over 200 km2 of highly prospective tenure across 4 projects, all 100% owned: The flagship Dixie Project, the Pakwash Property, the Sobel Property, and the Red Lake North Property, all of which are accessible year-round through existing roads.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Chris Taylor"

Chris Taylor, President and CEO

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This release contains certain "forward looking statements" and certain "forward-looking information" as defined under applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans" or similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained herein is provided for the purpose of assisting readers in understanding management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Forward-looking information are based on management of the parties' reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on such management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect.

Such factors, among other things, include: impacts arising from the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold or certain other commodities; change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); discrepancies between actual and estimated metallurgical recoveries; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties.

Great Bear undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

SOURCE Great Bear Resources Ltd.

Related Links

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EDISON, N.J., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hackensack Meridian Health today marked its five year anniversary as the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey. Its complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care continue to differentiate Hackensack Meridian Health locally and nationally, and put patients at the center of health care like never before.

"We are delivering on our promise to transform health care delivery through innovation, technology and education," said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. "Thanks to our world-class team members, we have made extraordinary progress in making healthcare more affordable, accessible and convenient for the communities we serve."

"The merger facilitated significant advancements in innovation, technology, and education. From the launch of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, to the merger with Carrier Clinic, to the opening of the Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI)  the network has tirelessly focused on transforming health care and served millions throughout New Jersey."

Hackensack Meridian Health by the Numbers (2017 - 2020)

Admissions: 711,222

Births: 69,553

Emergency Visits: 2.5 million

Outpatient Visits: 7.5 million

Community Contributions: $2 billion

Uncompensated Care: nearly $1 billion

Hackensack Meridian Health has played a major role in the COVID-19 pandemic, including treating more patients than any network in New Jersey and developing major breakthroughs  including the state's first rapid COVID test, reducing wait time from days to a just a few hours and developing a dozen clinical trials for COVID therapies and vaccines. The network also created a rapid COVID variant test to more effectively treat patients and better track the virus, an advance that greatly aided the New Jersey Health Department. The network also operated New Jersey's largest COVID-19 mega site at the former Meadowlands Racetrack, vaccinating nearly 5,000 people daily at its peak.

"We are proud of what we have accomplished to date, but we recognize there is much more work to be done. Together, we will continue to deliver the most innovative and compassionate care for our communities, now and for decades to come," Garrett added.

"We are deeply committed to providing the highest quality care that is convenient, accessible and affordable. We will continue on our mission to transform health care in New Jersey and beyond for our patients today and for future generations,'' said Frank Fekete, chair of the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees.

Some of the other key moments since the formation of Hackensack Meridian Health in 2016 include:

In March 2016 , Hackensack Meridian Health announced that Palisades Medical Center has become its fourth hospital in the northern region .

Hackensack Meridian Health announced that Palisades Medical Center has become its fourth hospital in the northern region In December 2016 , Hackensack Meridian Health partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering to boldly change the face of cancer in New Jersey and beyond.

to boldly change the face of cancer in and beyond. In May 2017 , Hackensack Meridian Health and St. Joseph's Healthcare System announced the formation of Visiting Health Services, a jointly owned home health services and hospice services agency.

announced the formation of Visiting Health Services, a jointly owned home health services and hospice services agency. In August 2017 Hackensack Meridian Health partnered with the New Jersey Innovation Institute to open the Bear's Den , an incubator for innovative ideas with a $25 million investment. The Bear's Den brings together engineers, scientists, health care experts and others to launch innovations to improve health care delivery.

, an incubator for innovative ideas with a investment. The Bear's Den brings together engineers, scientists, health care experts and others to launch innovations to improve health care delivery. Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center chosen Among 25 Best Places to Work by Indeed Best Places to Work list 2017.

In September 2017 , Ocean Medical Center opened an innovative 36 private bed medical surgical floor that integrates technology and design to transform the patient experience.

opened an innovative 36 private bed medical surgical floor that integrates technology and design to transform the patient experience. In January 2018 , Hackensack Meridian Health welcomes JFK Health , a leading hospital system that is nationally recognized for its pediatric and adult neuroscience and rehabilitation programs.

, a leading hospital system that is nationally recognized for its pediatric and adult neuroscience and rehabilitation programs. In June 2018 , HOPE Tower at Jersey Shore University Medical Center opens its doors  a 10-story, 300,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that features a world-class cancer treatment center, modern clinical offices for pediatric and adult specialties, and high-tech academic and research space, creating a groundbreaking outpatient facility that focuses on all aspects of health and wellness.

 a 10-story, 300,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that features a world-class cancer treatment center, modern clinical offices for pediatric and adult specialties, and high-tech academic and research space, creating a groundbreaking outpatient facility that focuses on all aspects of health and wellness. In June 2018 , Ocean Medical Center officially became a community-based teaching hospital with the launch of its inaugural class of family medicine and psychiatry residents delivering on a promise to transform medical education and train the physicians of tomorrow.

officially became a community-based teaching hospital with the launch of its inaugural class of family medicine and psychiatry residents delivering on a promise to transform medical education and train the physicians of tomorrow. July 2018 , Jersey Shore University Medical Center is the first hospital in New Jersey to use Radicava to treat ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease through its ALS Center.

is the first hospital in to use Radicava to treat ALS, also known as disease through its ALS Center. In July 2018 , the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine welcomed its first class of medical students. The School of Medicine's innovative approach brings a new era of medicine to the State of New Jersey .

The School of Medicine's innovative approach brings a new era of medicine to the . In January 2019 , Hackensack Meridian Health welcomed Carrier Clinic , a leader in behavioral health with a 100-year history in New Jersey , writing a new narrative for the treatment of mental illness and substance use disorder.

, a leader in behavioral health with a 100-year history in , writing a new narrative for the treatment of mental illness and substance use disorder. In March 2019 , life-saving, miracle surgery performed by a pediatric neurosurgeon on a three-dayold infant and for the first time in history a child survived after being born with half his skull missing.

, life-saving, miracle surgery performed by a pediatric neurosurgeon on a three-dayold infant and for the first time in history a child survived after being born with half his skull missing. In May 2019 , the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) officially opens , a state-of-the art facility which offers world renowned researchers the support to develop novel therapies for some of the world's most difficult diseases  cancer, diabetes, dementia, antibiotic-resistant infection and auto-immune disorders.

, a state-of-the art facility which offers world renowned researchers the support to develop novel therapies for some of the world's most difficult diseases  cancer, diabetes, dementia, antibiotic-resistant infection and auto-immune disorders. In May 2019 , John Theurer Cancer Center receives National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation as a member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium.

as a member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium. In March 2019 , Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center becomes the first hospital in New Jersey , and second in the nation, to become a Magnet-recognized hospital for nursing excellence; receiving its sixth consecutive designation in 2019.

Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center becomes the first hospital in , and second in the nation, to become a Magnet-recognized hospital for nursing excellence; receiving its sixth consecutive designation in 2019. In June 2019 , the cancer program of the two Children's Hospitals that make up Hackensack Meridian a Children's Health received for the first time Top 50 ranking in the annual U. S. News Best Children's Hospitals Report.

, the cancer program of the two Children's Hospitals that make up Hackensack Meridian a Children's Health received for the first time Top 50 ranking in the annual U. S. News Best Children's Hospitals Report. August 2019 , Jersey Shore University Medical Center opens Monmouth & Ocean counties first comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center.

opens Monmouth & Ocean counties first comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center. September 2019 , clinical affiliation announced with St. Joseph's Health to deliver innovative, high-quality and cost-effective care.

clinical affiliation announced with St. Joseph's Health to deliver innovative, high-quality and cost-effective care. July 2020 , Hackensack Meridian Health opens New Jersey's first COVID Recovery Center, also one of the nation's first.

Hackensack Meridian opens first COVID Recovery Center, also one of the nation's first. September 2020 , Hackensack Meridian Health launches the Keeping America Safe program for COVID-19 recovery.

Hackensack Meridian launches the Keeping America Safe program for COVID-19 recovery. February 2021 , Hackensack Meridian Health opens the Retreat & Recovery at Ramapo Valley, a new outpatient addiction treatment center.

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.

Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers  Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children's hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals  Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital  Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.

Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 36,000 team members, and over 7,000 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The network's notable distinctions include having four hospitals among the top in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and being named to Becker's Healthcare's "150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2019" list.

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine opened in 2018, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years, welcomed its third class of students in 2020 to its On3 campus in Nutley and Clifton. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it.

Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org .

SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health

Related Links

www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org


DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Long Read Sequencing Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Technology, Product, Application, Workflow, End User and Geography" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The long read sequencing market was valued at US$ 1,101.15 million in 2020 and it is projected to reach US$ 5,334.68 million by 2028; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.8% from 2020 to 2028. The market growth is attributed to the key driving factors such as the advantages of long read sequencing and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. However, the lack of skilled professionals hinders the growth of the market.



Long read sequencing is a method for DNA sequencing. When compared to next-generation sequencing technology, the long read sequencing method offers numerous advantages including the ability to more accurately sequence DNA containing the same portions of DNA replicated across the genome.



Based on technology, the global long read sequencing market is segmented into single-molecule real time sequencing (SMRT), nanopore sequencing, and loop genomics long read sequencing. The single-molecule real time sequencing (SMRT) segment held the largest market share in 2020, and the loop genomics long read sequencing segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



By product, the global long read sequencing market is segmented into instruments, consumables, and services. The instruments segment held the largest share of the market in 2020. However, the services segment is expected to register the highest CAGR in the market during 2021-2028.



The global long read sequencing market, based on application, is segmented into identification and fine mapping of structural variation, tandem repeat sequencing, pseudogene discrimination, resolving allele phasing, reproductive genomics, cancer, viral and microbial sequencing, and others. The identification and fine mapping of structural variation segment held the largest share of the market in 2020. However, the cancer segment is expected to register the highest CAGR in the market from 2021 to 2028.



Based on workflow, the global long read sequencing market is segmented into pre-sequencing, sequencing, and data analysis. The sequencing segment held the largest market share in 2020, and the same segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during 2021-2028.



Based on end-user, the global long read sequencing market is segmented into academic research institutes, hospitals and clinics, and pharma and biotechnology companies. The academic research institutes segment held the largest share of the market in 2020, and the same segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European Union (EU), National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and World Health Organization (WHO) are a few of the secondary sources referred to while preparing the report on the global long read sequencing market.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Long Read Sequencing Market- Key Takeaways



3. Research Methodology

3.1 Coverage

3.2 Secondary Research

3.3 Primary Research



4. Global Long Read Sequencing Market- Market Landscape

4.1 Overview

4.2 PEST Analysis

4.2.1 North America PEST Analysis

4.2.2 Europe PEST Analysis

4.2.3 APAC PEST Analysis

4.2.4 MEA PEST Analysis

4.2.5 SCAM PEST Analysis

4.3 Expert Opinion



5. Long Read Sequencing Market - Key Market Dynamics

5.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1 Advantages of Long Read Sequencing

5.1.2 Increasing Prevalence of Chronic Diseases

5.2 Market Restraints

5.2.1 Dearth of Skilled Professionals

5.3 Market Opportunities

5.3.1 Growing Funding for Genomics

5.4 Future Trends

5.4.1 Increasing Demand for Personalized Medicines

5.5 Impact analysis



6. Long Read Sequencing Market- Global Analysis

6.1 Global Long Read Sequencing Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis

6.2 Global Long Read Sequencing Market, By Geography - Forecast and Analysis

6.3 Market Positioning of Key Players



7. Long Read Sequencing Market Analysis - By Technology

7.1 Overview

7.2 Long Read Sequencing Market Revenue Share, by Technology (2020-2028)

7.3 Single-Molecule Real Time Sequencing (SMRT)

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Single-Molecule Real Time Sequencing (SMRT): Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

7.4 Nanopore Sequencing

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Nanopore Sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

7.5 Loop Genomics Long read sequencing

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 Loop Genomics Long read sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



8. Long Read Sequencing Market Analysis - By Product

8.1 Overview

8.2 Long Read Sequencing Market Revenue Share, by Product (2020-2028)

8.3 Instruments

8.3.1 Overview

8.3.2 Instruments: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

8.4 Consumables

8.4.1 Overview

8.4.2 Consumables: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

8.5 Services

8.5.1 Overview

8.5.2 Services: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



9. Long Read Sequencing Market - By Application

9.1 Overview

9.2 Long Read Sequencing Market, by Application, 2020-2028 (%)

9.3 Identification and Fine Mapping of Structural Variation

9.3.1 Overview

9.3.2 Identification and Fine Mapping of Structural Variation: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.4 Tandem Repeat Sequencing

9.4.1 Overview

9.4.2 Tandem Repeat Sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.5 Pseudogene Discrimination

9.5.1 Overview

9.5.2 Pseudogene Discrimination: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.6 Resolving Allele Phasing

9.6.1 Overview

9.6.2 Resolving Allele Phasing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.7 Reproductive Genomics

9.7.1 Overview

9.7.2 Reproductive Genomics: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.8 Cancer

9.8.1 Overview

9.8.2 Cancer: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.9 Viral and Microbial Sequencing

9.9.1 Overview

9.9.2 Viral and Microbial Sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

9.10 Others

9.10.1 Overview

9.10.2 Others: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



10. Long Read Sequencing Market - By Workflow

10.1 Overview

10.2 Long Read Sequencing Market, by Workflow, 2020-2028 (%)

10.3 Pre-Sequencing

10.3.1 Overview

10.3.2 Pre-Sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

10.4 Sequencing

10.4.1 Overview

10.4.2 Sequencing: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

10.5 Data Analysis

10.5.1 Overview

10.5.2 Data Analysis: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



11. Long Read Sequencing Market - By End-User

11.1 Overview

11.2 Long Read Sequencing Market, by End-User, 2020-2028 (%)

11.3 Academic Research Institutes

11.3.1 Overview

11.3.2 Academic Research Institutes: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

11.4 Hospitals & Clinics

11.4.1 Overview

11.4.2 Hospitals & Clinics: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

11.5 Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies

11.5.1 Overview

11.5.2 Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies: Long Read Sequencing Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



12. Long Read Sequencing Market - Geographical Analysis



13. Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Long Read Sequencing Market

13.1 North America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

13.2 Europe: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

13.3 Asia-Pacific: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

13.4 Middle East & Africa: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic

13.5 South & Central America: Impact Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic



14. Long Read Sequencing Market-Industry Landscape

14.2 Growth Strategies Done by the Companies in the Market, (%)

14.3 Organic Developments

14.3.1 Overview

14.3.2 organic Developments Done By Companies

14.4 Inorganic Developments

14.4.1 Overview

14.4.2 Inorganic Developments Done By Companies



15. Company Profiles

15.1 Illumina, Inc.

15.1.1 Key Facts

15.1.2 Business Description

15.1.3 Products and Services

15.1.4 Financial Overview

15.1.5 SWOT Analysis

15.1.6 Key Developments

15.2 Oxford Nanopore Technologies

15.2.1 Key Facts

15.2.2 Business Description

15.2.3 Products and Services

15.2.4 Financial Overview

15.2.5 SWOT Analysis

15.2.6 Key Developments

15.3 TATAA Biocenter

15.3.1 Key Facts

15.3.2 Business Description

15.3.3 Products and Services

15.3.4 Financial Overview

15.3.5 SWOT Analysis

15.3.6 Key Developments

15.4 PerkinElmer, Inc.

15.4.1 Key Facts

15.4.2 Business Description

15.4.3 Products and Services

15.4.4 Financial Overview

15.4.5 SWOT Analysis

15.4.6 Key Developments

15.5 F. HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE LTD.

15.5.1 Key Facts

15.5.2 Business Description

15.5.3 Products and Services

15.5.4 Financial Overview

15.5.5 SWOT Analysis

15.5.6 Key Developments

15.6 BaseClear B.V.

15.6.1 Key Facts

15.6.2 Business Description

15.6.3 Products and Services

15.6.4 Financial Overview

15.6.5 SWOT Analysis

15.6.6 Key Developments

15.7 Bionano Genomics

15.7.1 Key Facts

15.7.2 Business Description

15.7.3 Products and Services

15.7.4 Financial Overview

15.7.5 SWOT Analysis

15.7.6 Key Developments

15.8 Longas Technologies

15.8.1 Key Facts

15.8.2 Business Description

15.8.3 Products and Services

15.8.4 Financial Overview

15.8.5 SWOT Analysis

15.8.6 Key Developments

15.9 Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.

15.9.1 Key Facts

15.9.2 Business Description

15.9.3 Products and Services

15.9.4 Financial Overview

15.9.5 SWOT Analysis

15.9.6 Key Developments

15.10 Quantapore, Inc.

15.10.1 Key Facts

15.10.2 Business Description

15.10.3 Products and Services

15.10.4 Financial Overview

15.10.5 SWOT Analysis

15.10.6 Key Developments



16. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/otmimq

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

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SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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NORTHVILLE, Mich., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Judge Brian MacKenzie (Ret.) and Mr. David Wallace, a highway safety and DUI expert, urge colleagues and friends to support a scholarship established in memory of Judge Peggy Fulton Hora, an illustrious jurist and co-founder with them of the Justice Speakers Institute (JSI), an essential resource on national and international justice issues.

Honorable Judge Peggy Hora

Judge MacKenzie noted, "Contributions to the Honorable Peggy Fulton Hora Scholarship Endowment Fund will allow for the continuation of her life's work -- ensuring excellent educational opportunities to judges and promoting justice worldwide." [More donor information here.]

The scholarship was originated by the National Judicial College (NJC), where Judge Hora taught some 60 times over her career. She was also a prime mover behind problem-solving courts, nationally and internationally. Therapeutic jurisprudence was the focus of her 21 years on the bench and the heart of her endeavors through JSI and its sister organization, Justice Speakers International.

A native of Oakland, California, she presided over one of the nation's first drug treatment courts, located in Alameda County, California. She helped promote the model across the country and around the world and became a Senior Judicial Fellow for both the National Drug Court Institute and the Global Centre for Drug Treatment Courts.

Judge Hora was a visiting scholar at the University of Tasmania School of Law. She was also the 2009-2010 Thinker in Residence in South Australia recommending policies for their justice system, and a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide including Israel, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Russia. Additionally she wrote comprehensively on justice issues; her work was cited by U. S. appellate courts and almost 200 journals and law reviews.

JSI Cofounder Mr. Wallace said, "Judge Hora lived life to the fullest and enjoyed friends in countries on six of the seven continents. She changed lives, inspired those around her, and made the world a better place. Our partner, and more importantly our friend, will be missed."

Justice Speakers Institute, founded in 2016, is the gateway to Justice System leaders worldwide. Its founders and associates are internationally recognized experts with decades of experience and mastery over 300 subjects impacting the justice system.

MEDIA CONTACT:

David Wallace, JSI Cofounder

Harbor Beach, Michigan USA 48167

Phone: (989) 479-2144

[email protected]



SOURCE Justice Speakers Institute
"Kalo answers consumer demand for a fast-acting, feel-good beverage that delivers the powerful wellness benefits of hemp-derived cannabinoids without derailing your day," said Ken VandeVrede, CEO of Hillview, Kalo's parent company. "Our flavors are carefully crafted using only the most premium ingredients, delivered in a patented water-soluble formula that produces desired effects in under five minutes."

Kalo seltzers are sold in 12-oz sleek cans featuring 15 mg of high grade, full-spectrum hemp, with only 15 calories, five ingredients and two grams of sugar in each Kosher-certified can. The expanded line will be sold in a four-flavor variety 4 pack, including:

Black Cherry | 12 oz; 15 mg hemp

Ruby Red Grapefruit | 12 oz; 15 mg hemp

Ginger Lemonade | 12 oz; 15 mg hemp

Blood Orange Mango | 12 oz; 15 mg hemp

These four new flavors join Kalo's four best-selling classic flavors, including Lemon Lavender, Strawberry Watermelon, Raspberry Lime and Pomegranate Peach.

Since launching in 2020, Kalo has quietly grown to become one of America's top three hemp-infused sparkling beverages by building a robust retail channel, scaling from one Tier A beverage distribution partnership to 12 in the span of a year. Kalo can be purchased in high traffic convenience stores, natural markets and independent grocery stores in these ten states: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Wisconsin.

"With Kalo, it's our ambition to be the go-to infused beverage brand of the East, a region that is embracing hemp-based products and rapidly adopting legal cannabis," said VandeVrede. "With eight hemp-infused seltzers in the market and a THC beverage on the way, we're focused on building strong retail partnerships and brand fans in our own backyard, with plans to expand our retail footprint nationwide within the year."

Kalo - which means "good" in Greek, was created by Hillview, a New Jersey-based, family-owned agricultural technology innovator and medical marijuana company, which provides Kalo with full-spectrum hemp of the highest quality, rich in naturally occurring cannabinoids, vitamins and nutrients. The founding family has been a leader in the agriculture industry for over 50 years and is the leading greenhouse supplier in the country. Hillview received one of New Jersey's first-ever hemp cultivation licenses and grows hemp locally out of its own state of the art greenhouse facility. From seed to sale, and the technology in between. The company prides itself on scalable operations that can meet market demandsnow and in the future. Their mission is understanding the complexities of hemp and cannabis genetics to provide patients with a top tier product.

Kalo seltzers are 100% vegan, gluten-free and kosher certified. Each seltzer is infused with full spectrum hemp, which captures the full range of nutrient-packed phytochemicals the hemp plant has to offer. The beverage is formulated with patent-pending, water-soluble hemp extract which absorbs through the stomach lining upon consumption, rather than through the liver as with traditional hemp oils.

To locate a Kalo retailer near you or purchase online, visit www.drinkkalo.com .

ABOUT KALO

Kalo is a handcrafted, locally sourced hemp-infused seltzer, designed to make a stress-free day accessible to all. Founded in October 2019, the seltzer is made with a proprietary patent-pending Full-Spectrum Extraction process that transfers all of the naturally occurring cannabinoids, vitamins, and nutrients from the hemp plant while delivering a clean taste from its natural flavors. Kalo was created and is a subsidiary of Hillview is created by Hillview, the company is headquartered in New Jersey and its hemp is grown throughout New Jersey. For more information and to order your own, go to www.DrinkKalo.com.

ABOUT HILLVIEW

Building on a rich heritage in agriculture, Hillview, a New Jersey-based corporation, is dedicated to growing and manufacturing high-quality, safe and effective cannabis and hemp products that support the well-being of every lifestyle. By investing heavily in science and technology, Hillview is leading the hemp and legal cannabis industries in the next generation of cannabis and hemp derived products. Promising transparency and accountability to its consumers, each and every one of its cannabis and hemp derived products is independently third-party lab tested and fully traceable. Hillview owns and operates multiple cultivation and manufacturing facilities, several of which are compliant with the highest certifications including GMP-Compliant, GFSI Certified and USDA Certified Organic. Hillview believes in doing business ethically and partnering with like-minded organizations who share its vision to responsibly advance the cannabis and hemp industries. For more information, visit www.HillviewMed.com .

PRESS CONTACT

Elana Cohen

Trailblaze

[email protected]

SOURCE Kalo
FORT WORTH, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP (NYSE: KRP) ("Kimbell"), a leading owner of oil and natural gas mineral and royalty interests in more than 97,000 gross wells across 28 states, today announced that it will release its second quarter 2021 financial results on Thursday, August 5, 2021, before the market opens. In conjunction with the release, Kimbell has scheduled a conference call, which will be broadcast live over the Internet the same day at 10:00 a.m. Central (11:00 a.m. Eastern).

By Phone: Dial 201-389-0869 at least 10 minutes before the call. A replay will be available through August 12th by dialing 201-612-7415 and using the conference ID: 13720589#.



By Webcast: Connect to the webcast via the Events and Presentations page of Kimbell's Investor Relations website at http://kimbellrp.investorroom.com/. Please log in at least 10 minutes in advance to register and download any necessary software. A replay will be available shortly after the call.

About Kimbell Royalty Partners

Kimbell (NYSE: KRP) is a leading oil and natural gas mineral and royalty company based in Fort Worth, Texas. Kimbell owns mineral and royalty interests in over 13 million gross acres in 28 states and in every major onshore basin in the continental United States, including ownership in more than 97,000 gross wells with over 41,000 wells in the Permian Basin. To learn more, visit http://www.kimbellrp.com.

Contact:



Rick Black

Dennard Lascar Investor Relations

[email protected]

(713) 529-6600

SOURCE Kimbell Royalty Partners, LP

Related Links

http://www.kimbellrp.com


HOUSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kraton Corporation (NYSE: KRA), a leading global sustainable producer of specialty polymers and high-value biobased products derived from pine wood pulping co-products, announces that it has achieved a Platinum rating for its sustainability management system from EcoVadis.

"We are proud to be awarded the Platinum rating by EcoVadis, in recognition of our overall performance as a responsible and sustainable business," said Marcello Boldrini, Kraton's Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer. "This acknowledgment highlights Kraton's ongoing commitment and dedication to sustainability throughout our company as we work to address evolving market needs by providing products and technologies that advance the bio economy, and enable the circular economy."

The Platinum rating is the highest distinction in the EcoVadis supplier sustainability rating structure. This rating puts Kraton in the top one percent of all companies evaluated in its sector. With more than 75,000 companies assessed, EcoVadis is one of the industry reference platforms for evaluating how an organization has integrated the principles of sustainability/CSR into its business and management system.

EcoVadis is a global provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools for global supply chains. The EcoVadis platform and sustainability scorecards provide insight into environmental, social, and ethical risks across more than 200 purchasing categories and 190 countries. Their methodology provides a single framework to evaluate, collaborate and improve sustainability performance to protect brands, foster transparency and innovation, and accelerate growth. For more information, visit ecovadis.com.

More information about Kraton's sustainability initiatives can be found on Kraton.com

ABOUT KRATON

Kraton Corporation (NYSE "KRA") is a leading global producer of specialty polymers and high-value performance products derived from renewable resources. Kraton's polymers are used in a wide range of applications, including adhesives, coatings, consumer and personal care products, sealants and lubricants, and medical, packaging, automotive, paving and roofing products. As the largest global provider in the pine chemicals industry, the company's pine-based specialty products are sold into adhesive, road and construction and tire markets, and it produces and sells a broad range of performance chemicals into markets that include fuel additives, oilfield chemicals, coatings, metalworking fluids and lubricants, inks and mining. Kraton offers its products to a diverse customer base in over 70 countries worldwide. Kraton, the Kraton logo and design are all trademarks of Kraton Corporation or its subsidiaries or affiliates.

For Further Information:

Investors H. Gene Shiels; T: (281) 504-4886

Media: Kristen Boyd; T: (346) 280-7572

SOURCE Kraton Corporation

Related Links

http://www.kraton.com


ORLANDO, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, Christian W. Waugh ("Christian") of Waugh Grant PLLC, argued before a federal judge in Tampa, Florida, on behalf of Montgomery and Newcomb, LLC ("M&N Law"), that the largest group of timeshare companies in America, Wyndham, is violating America's antitrust laws by pursuing sham litigation against lawyers like M&N Law who represent timeshare owners. M&N Law is a law firm that assists timeshare owners who are unhappy with their timeshares.

M&N Law is not alone in its litigation with Wyndham. Dozens of other lawyers are being sued by Wyndham and other timeshare companies for their representation of timeshare owners.

Because Wyndham has such a large market share, and its biggest competitors, such as Bluegreen, Diamond, and Westgate, are pursuing the same kind of sham litigation, its lawsuits decrease competition and deprive timeshare owners of much-needed legal representation. M&N Law has filed a counterclaim against Wyndham for violating the Clayton Antitrust Act. If M&N Law is successful, it may be awarded treble damages as well as injunctive relief against Wyndham.

"Wyndham may be frustrated that so many of its clients want to get out of their timeshare obligations, but they are not legally entitled to take that frustration out on lawyers acting in good faith to represent those timeshare owners," said Waugh.

The attorneys at M&N Law recognize the problems their timeshare owner clients have because their clients often feel they weren't fully informed when they purchased a timeshare. Speaking of this, M. Scott Montgomery ("Montgomery"), an attorney at M&N Law, said, "Based on my conversations with M&N Law's clients, it is my understanding that Plaintiffs fail to disclose to prospective timeshare buyers during the sales process that the value of Plaintiffs' timeshares almost certainly and precipitously drop immediately after their initial purchase, and that it is likely that they could have purchased the same timeshare for one dollar on eBay."

In going before a federal judge tomorrow in Tampa, it is Waugh's goal to protect lawyers from sham litigation brought by multi-billion dollar timeshare companies who have banded together to keep timeshare owners from having proper legal representation.

Related materials:

M&N Law's Counterclaim against Wyndham: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dml9ccxk5e0tpvy/Clayton%20Act%20Claim%20COUNT%20III.pdf?dl=0 M&N Law's Motion for Preliminary Injunction against Wyndham: https://www.dropbox.com/s/svls5gdwod7xe2x/Motion.pdf?dl=0

Waugh Grant PLLC is an earnestly modern law firm with a traditional approach to practicing law.

SOURCE Waugh Grant PLLC

Related Links

waughgrant.com


BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- L.E.K. Consulting, the global management consulting firm, has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2030, the firm announced today. L.E.K. has embarked on a program to both reduce significantly the greenhouse gas emissions that result from its operations and to invest in initiatives that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

L.E.K. has been carbon neutral  offsetting its emissions via the purchase of carbon credits and supporting greenhouse gas reduction initiatives  since 2008.

"Like our clients, we are keenly tuned in to the importance of reducing carbon emissions to society overall. We acted early to understand and address the impact of our carbon footprint, and we are continuing to strive for industry-leading environmental practices by constantly refining our approach to monitoring carbon emissions, being transparent in reporting them and planning initiatives that advance our sustainability goals as well as our clients'," said L.E.K. Global Managing Partner, Stuart Jackson.

The sustainability strategy L.E.K. has developed via its Environmental Sustainability Committee is based on five pillars for reducing carbon footprint and also engaging employees. The pillars are tracking emissions; offsetting emissions; changing employee behavior; moving to green energy; and continually innovating and engaging on the sustainability and net zero imperative.

More specifically, L.E.K. aims to have its offices that aren't already powered by renewable energy transferred to sustainable sources in as short a timeframe as possible. The firm will also work with its employees to adopt principles and practices that reduce their carbon emission. Those may relate to travel, hybrid work arrangements and firm and client events. In addition, L.E.K. has a network of "green" committees in each of its offices charged with creating avenues for employees to participate in L.E.K.'s sustainability efforts and help develop and encourage initiatives that reduce carbon footprint.

"We will endeavor to continue and expand intimacy with our clients but take steps to decrease our emissions. We will ask certain questions before traveling that we may not have in the past," said Jackson.

L.E.K. will also be devoting time, energy and talent to further leadership, best practices development, research and client services in key aspects of sustainability, across the regions and sectors L.E.K. serves. Beyond reducing L.E.K.'s carbon emissions, the firm's sustainability experts are working with client organizations to help them develop their own carbon reduction plans, adapt to new industry dynamics and put sustainability at the heart of their strategies.

"We have an obligation to work hard to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," Jackson said.

About L.E.K. Consulting

L.E.K. Consulting is a global management consulting firm that uses deep industry expertise and rigorous analysis to help business leaders achieve practical results with real impact. We are uncompromising in our approach to helping clients consistently make better decisions, deliver improved business performance and create greater shareholder returns. The firm advises and supports global companies that are leaders in their industries  including the largest private- and public-sector organizations, private equity firms, and emerging entrepreneurial businesses. Founded in 1983, L.E.K. employs more than 1,600 professionals across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe. For more information, go to www.lek.com.

Media Contact:

Michael-Jon Romano

Allison+Partners

[email protected]

SOURCE L.E.K. Consulting

Related Links

http://lek.com


BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Biosciences, a pioneering life sciences company targeting the biology of aging, today announced that the Company's Board of Directors has appointed Jerry McLaughlin as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board. Dr. Mehmood Khan will serve as Executive Chairman of the Board.

"I welcome Jerry to the Life Biosciences team at this exciting time for the company," said Life Biosciences co-founder and Board member David Sinclair, PhD, AO. "Jerry's extensive experience leading both public and private companies through clinical development and financing will be an invaluable asset as we advance our multiple leading programs. I would also like to thank Dr. Khan for leading Life Biosciences and achieving important milestones over the past few years, including progressing our three platforms toward the clinic. Mehmood's continued guidance as Executive Chairman, along with Jerry's stewardship as CEO, will position Life Biosciences for lasting success."

"It has been a privilege to serve as Life Biosciences' CEO, and I am proud of the work we have accomplished together," said Dr. Khan. "With Jerry's strong track record of operational excellence, innovation, and delivering results, I am confident he is the ideal person to lead Life Biosciences through its next pivotal phase. I look forward to working with him as Executive Chairman."

Mr. McLaughlin has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has been involved in the discovery, clinical development, and global commercialization of more than a dozen FDA-approved drugs with multiple successful exits. Most recently, he was President and CEO for Neos Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial stage pharmaceutical company. Before that, Mr. McLaughlin served as President and CEO of AgeneBio, Inc., a clinical-stage private biopharma company developing therapies for neurological and psychiatric diseases. Earlier, he held the role of Senior Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer at NuPathe Inc., acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Mr. McLaughlin began his career at Merck and was extensively involved in multiple blockbuster product launches. He holds a BA in economics from Dickinson College and an MBA from the Villanova School of Business.

"I am thrilled to join Life Biosciences as the company works to advance its first programs toward the clinic," said Mr. McLaughlin. "Having led companies for over a decade that address neurological and psychological conditions and deficits, I am well versed with the negative impacts of aging on the brain and body. Life Biosciences' groundbreaking work to address and treat the underlying biology of aging has the potential to lead the next generation of therapies for a growing population that faces increasing challenges from diseases that correlate tightly with growing older."

Dr. Khan will become CEO at a newly founded global non-profit organization focused on funding research on therapies that address aging biology and extend human healthspan. Dr. Khan's new role is complementary to Life Biosciences' research and development work, and he will continue to support the Company as Executive Chairman. Additional details relating to Dr. Khan's new role will be announced later this year.

About Life Biosciences

Life Biosciences is a private biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel therapies to extend healthy human lifespan. The Company is focusing on three platforms targeting key mechanisms underlying aging biology: mitochondrial uncoupling, chaperone-mediated autophagy, and epigenetic reprogramming. Therapies developed within each platform have the potential to prevent, treat, and/or reverse multiple aging-related diseases. For more information, please visit www.lifebiosciences.com.

Media Contact

Maggie Farrand

[email protected]

SOURCE Life Biosciences

Related Links

http://www.lifebiosciences.com


AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of the Austin chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) met with Rep. Lloyd Doggett where he announced that he would sign on as a cosponsor of the Energy Innovation Act (H.R. 2307).

Rep. Doggett joins 74 other House colleagues in supporting the bill.

The Energy Innovation Act is one of the most robust pieces of climate legislation on the table in Congress. It will put a price on carbon pollution and allocate that revenue to Americans as a monthly dividend or "carbon cash back" payment.

The bill is expected to drive down America's carbon pollution by at least 30% in the first five years and put us on a path to net-zero by 2050. As it does so, it will also improve health and save lives by reducing the pollution that Americans breathe. It will boost the economy by spurring clean energy innovation and job growth.

"Rep. Doggett has worked tirelessly for low income and underserved families for decades and is a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal; so showing that our Carbon Dividend bill benefits these groups while lowering emissions was critical." says Jeff Baker, retired city of Austin firefighter and TX-35 constituent.

The Austin chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby has met with Rep. Doggett's office dozens of times in the last decade and organized many phone calls and constituent letters to the office about climate change and the need for solutions. Our last meeting included a labor representative and several high school students.

Since its introduction, the Energy Innovation Act has garnered supportive reactions from economists, advocacy groups, faith groups and citizens. Here are statements from the Environmental Defense Fund, World Resources Institute, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alliance for Market Solutions and more.

Locally, Carbon Fee & Dividend is endorsed by the Austin City Council, the San Antonio Express News, and dozens of local businesses and organizations. In addition a CCL chapter member Matt Weldon convinced Austin Energy to internally put a small price on carbon resulting in less reliance on coal power, lowering emissions.

Here in central Texas we're already feeling the impact of climate change. According to Bruce Melton, ClimateDiscovery.org "a collapse of the polar vortex that sent an astonishingly unprecedented winter weather disaster into Texas resulted in a cascade of catastrophes killing up to 978 and costing between $200 and $295 billion, as much as Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina combined."

We're ready for Congress to work together and take action. We deeply appreciate Rep. Doggett responding to our concerns and supporting this ambitious carbon pricing bill.

CONTACT: Jeff Baker, CCL Liaison TX-35, [email protected] 512-751-2154

Citizens' Climate Lobby is a national nonprofit organization with local chapters across the country. The group has been the primary catalyst for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. To learn more about our work, visit citizensclimatelobby.org .

SOURCE Citizens Climate Lobby

Related Links

http://citizensclimatelobby.org


LOS ANGELES, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Los Angeles City Planning (City Planning) and the Housing + Community Investment Department (HCIDLA) released the Housing Element of the General Plan, also called The Plan to House LA. This draft aims to accommodate nearly 500,000 housing units over the next eight years, with over 200,000 of those units reserved for lower-income residents.

In order to meet this goal and address Los Angeles's housing shortage, the City would need to add roughly 57,000 new units annually over the next eight yearsmeaning the City's housing production goals would increase from their current level by a factor of five.



The Plan to House LA will set new citywide strategies in motion to achieve a more equitable distribution of market-rate and affordable units across Los Angeles, providing quality access to housing for residents, including those with disabilities, large families, and older adults. The draft plan establishes clear goals and objectives to inform future policy considerations.



These strategies include an ambitious rezoning program for Los Angeles, one that will result in capacity for over 200,000 new housing units within three years of the plan's adoption. The rezoning program will increase density and allowances for housing, particularly in neighborhoods with access to good jobs, schools, and amenities.



"This plan, our Plan to House LA, was designed with our residents in mind, especially those who have been disenfranchised, excluded, and left without housing because of wide wealth gaps and a lack of affordable units," said Director of Planning Vince Bertoni. "We took it upon ourselvesas a Cityto develop a series of strategies that would position us to be successful in confronting our housing challenges head-on. By carefully balancing production, affordable housing preservation, and protection, we intend to create new access to housing, make significant inroads to end chronic homelessness, and keep Angelenos housed without fears of displacement."



Before advancing the plan through the adoption process, City Planning and HCIDLA will hold outreach events to collect additional community input. After the City Planning Commission considers the final recommendations, it will advance to the full City Council for adoption later this fall and will guide the creation and implementation of the City's housing policy from 2021 to 2029.

CONTACT: [email protected], 213-978-1248

SOURCE LA City Planning

Related Links

http://planning.lacity.org/


DENVER, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) will release its second quarter 2021 results on Aug. 4, 2021. The company will broadcast a live conference call on its Investor Relations website at http://ir.lumen.com at 5 p.m. ET.

Additional information regarding the second quarter 2021 results, including the company's earnings release, investor presentation, and related materials will be available on Lumen's Investor Relations website. If you are unable to join the call via the web, the call can be accessed live at +1 877-283-5145 (U.S. Domestic) or +1 312-281-1201 (International).

The call will be archived and available as an audio replay on Lumen's Investor Relations website starting at 7 p.m. ET on Aug. 4, until 6 p.m. ET on Nov. 2, 2021. The replay can be accessed by dialing +1 800-633-8284 (U.S. Domestic) or +1 402-977-9140 (International), reservation code 21995497.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen is guided by our belief that humanity is at its best when technology advances the way we live and work. With approximately 450,000 route fiber miles and serving customers in more than 60 countries, we deliver the fastest, most secure platform for applications and data to help businesses, government and communities deliver amazing experiences.

Learn more about the Lumen network, edge cloud, security, communication and collaboration solutions and our purpose to further human progress through technology at news.lumen.com/home , LinkedIn: /lumentechnologies, Twitter: @lumentechco, Facebook: /lumentechnologies, Instagram: @lumentechnologies and YouTube: /lumentechnologies. Lumen and Lumen Technologies are registered trademarks in the United States.

SOURCE Lumen Technologies

Related Links

https://news.lumen.com/home


MINNEAPOLIS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- President Biden has announced his official endorsement of the bid by the Minnesota USA Expo Committee to host a World's Fair in 2027, focused on the future of health.

"We are honored to receive this recognition from our federal government. With unanimous consent from Congress in 2017 and now this crucial support from White House, Minnesota's proposal has become our nation's official bid to host the first World's Fair in the United States since the 1980s," stated David Loehr, co-chair of Minnesota's Expo Bid Committee. "This is a golden opportunity to bring worldwide attention to our region's special role in shaping the future of healthcare and medicine for people around the planet," continued Loehr.

"Our state's civic and business communities are excited that Minnesota has received official designation from President Biden as the official United States location for a 2027 World Expo," said Jonathan Weinhagen, President & CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber. "There is no place better suited on the planet to showcase innovations and discoveries that are advancing health, wellness, and well-being. I encourage the entire business community to join in this effort to showcase our region, our innovation, and our inclusive and diverse economy under the theme of 'Healthy People, Healthy Planet."

"This official recommendation is an important next step. We can now move forward on our plans to secure support for our bid here in the United States, and around the world," said Bid Committee co-chair Leni Moore. "Our focus on health places Minnesota USA Expo at the center of the world's attention on Covid-19."

Mark Ritchie, President of Global Minnesota and a founder of the Expo Bid Committee, stated "This federal government support comes at a time when the private sector is also stepping up in support of Minnesota's plans to organize the first World Expo focused exclusively on health. The Covid-19 pandemic has created a new sense of urgency around bringing the world together to advance the common good."

The next step in the bid process will be a formal vote by the countries who are members of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). In 2017, Minnesota reached the final round in the BIE's voting for Expo 2023, with Argentina winning the final vote.

Official Website www.minnesotausaexpo.com

SOURCE Minnesota USA Expo

Related Links

www.minnesotausaexpo.com


BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Goldman Sachs has successfully completed its $1.8 billion consumer-relief obligation under its April 11, 2016 settlement agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and three states, according to the Independent Monitor of the settlements, Professor Eric D. Green.

In his sixteenth and final report, Professor Green said Goldman Sachs earned over $1.8 billion in credit after providing more than $1.52 billion of credited Consumer Relief under the settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the States of California and Illinois ( the "Global Settlement Agreement") and $280 million of credited Consumer Relief under the related settlement agreement with the State of New York (the "New York Settlement Agreement"), which supported initiatives for homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

"This directly and materially assisted homeowners struggling to afford to stay in their homes," said Professor Green. "I am pleased that I and the professionals on my team were able to play a part in seeing that homeowners and communities received the full benefits of the $1.8 billion in Consumer Relief."

Some 39% of the credit under the Global Settlement Agreement was earned from Consumer Relief in the three Settling States. Professor Green noted in the report that the data indicated that modifications for first lien principal reductionsthe largest piece of Consumer Reliefresulted in an average principal reduction of 27% and a reduction in the average loan-to-value ratio from 137.4% to 92.1%.

The final report covers October 1, 2020, through June 16, 2021, or eight months and 15 days excluding the end date. During this period, Goldman Sachs forgave the balances due on 560 first lien mortgages, representing total principal forgiveness of $61,710,171 and an average first lien principal forgiveness of $110,197. Total reportable credits amounted to $62,872,653 after the application of appropriate crediting calculations and multipliers. The modified mortgages are spread across 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, with 46% of the credit located in the three settling states and 38% of the credit in Hardest-Hit Areas.

Goldman Sachs also forgave amounts due and previously deferred on 17 first lien mortgages for total forgiveness of $861,969, an average forgiveness of $50,704, and a total reportable credit of $927,390 after the application of appropriate crediting calculations and multipliers. The loans are spread across 8 states, with 27% of the credit in the three Settling States and 44% of the credit in Hardest-Hit Areas.

Goldman Sachs deferred the repayment of the principal due on 37 mortgage loans. The total in principal repayment deferred was $2,280,865, with an average deferral of $61,645 and total reportable credit of $988,821 after the application of appropriate crediting calculations and multipliers. The loans are located in 12 states, with 59% of the credit in the Settling States and 68% in Hardest-Hit Areas.

Goldman Sachs sought credit for the extinguishment of 33 second lien loans with $1,888,067 in total principal forgiven, an average extinguishment of $57,214 and total reportable credit of $806,066 after the application of appropriate crediting calculations and multipliers. These loans are located in 19 states with 45% of the associated credit in the three Settling States.

Lastly, Goldman Sachs received credit for 35 actions involving the extinguishment or forgiveness for $1,754,044 in unsecured loans or loans secured by junior liens. These loans had an average extinguishment or forgiveness of $50,116 and total reportable credit of $636,459 after the application of appropriate crediting calculations and multipliers. The loans are located in 22 states, with 18% of the credit in the Settling States and 69% in Hardest-Hit Areas.

Goldman Sachs' two settlement agreements resolved potential claims regarding the marketing, structuring, arrangement, underwriting, issuance and sale of mortgage-based securities. Besides the Department of Justice, California, Illinois and New York, Goldman Sachs reached settlements with the National Credit Union Administration Board and the Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Des Moines. Under the settlements, Goldman Sachs agreed to provide a total of $5.06 billion, including consumer-relief valued at $1.8 billion to be distributed by the end of January 2021.

Professor Green, a professional mediator and retired Boston University law professor, was named by the settling parties as independent Monitor with responsibility for determining whether Goldman Sachs fulfills its consumer-relief obligations. He has assembled a team of finance, accounting and legal professionals to assist in the task.

In his final report, Professor Green noted that this report "closes the book" on his oversight of three of the major bank settlements that grew out of the financial crisis of 2008. Professor Green stated, "The remediation process through these proceedings has taken thirteen years, during which billions of dollars in relief has been provided to consumers injured by the housing market collapse and mortgage-backed securities catastrophe of the last decade and a half. The costs of this disaster have been enormous and, despite these settlements, are still being felt by many. The Monitor appreciates the cooperation and effort of the many people and organizations responsible for providing this relief, but sincerely hopes that the lessons learned about the behaviors that created the situation in the first place will not be forgotten so that in the future similar calamities may be prevented in the first place."

The report is available at the Monitor's website at http://goldmansachs.mortgagesettlementmonitor.com . The website provides further details about the settlement, plus contact information for Goldman Sachs, the Department of Justice, the Attorneys General of California, Illinois and New York, and agencies that provide legal or tax advice to consumers.

The Monitor's mailing address is:

Monitor of the Goldman Sachs Mortgage Settlement, P.O. Box 10310, Dublin, OH 43017-5910, and the e-mail address is [email protected] .

SOURCE Monitor: Eric D. Green
VALLEY STREAM, N.Y., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- National Health Care Associates Inc.(NHCA) has partnered with FURTHER, a conversational website-based technology tool, to offer instant virtual assistance to residents and their families. The program kicked off in March and has shown such great success that NHCA took the platform to the next level and officially gave its virtual assistant a name and face.

In a world driven by technology and the need for real-time assistance, meet Lucy. She's available to digital consumers 24/7 to offer instant answers and solutions via National Health Care Associate's affiliate centers' websites, which can be found at www.NHCA.com. Lucy connects with online customers, assesses their needs and hands off the information to the center's Director of Admissions to follow-up, saving customers time.

"At National Health Care Associates, we strive to find innovative ways to offer the best service to our residents and their loved ones. Our industry is one where on-demand connection has become a necessity," said Christina Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer. "Lucy plays an important role in giving people the help and answers they need, when they need it. While she does not replace the relationships and connections we pride ourselves on building with our residents, families and referral sources, Lucy helps us put our customers first by connecting with those seeking help online in real-time."

Virtual assistants are becoming more popular as people continue to depend on technology for answers. The platform through FURTHER offers 24/7 coverage, instant answers and easy website navigation. The platform is also integrated with Google My Business (GMB), making it easy for customers to schedule a tour of a center directly from the GMB listing.

Here's an example of Lucy's fast-tracked assistance at NHCA affiliate Hebrew Center for Health & Rehabilitation in West Hartford, Connecticut. Over a weekend, the family member of a hospitalized loved one asked Lucy about rehabilitation options. Lucy gathered some information and then handed the message off to the Director of Admissions, who quickly connected with the family member to answer their questions, put them at ease and make arrangements for their loved one.

"With over 2 million conversations and counting, FURTHER allows loved ones to feel engaged the very moment they arrive on the website," said Thomas Bierlein, SVP of Senior Living, FURTHER. "Our Virtual Sales Assistants, like Lucy, provide family members with a familiar way to find the information they want, when they want it. We are excited to partner with National Health Care Associates to deliver exceptional experiences to their entire community of patients and loved ones."

Need instant answers? Go to www.NHCA.com, choose your center and ask Lucy. She's happy to help!

About National Health Care Associates: National Health Care Associates (NHCA), is a leading provider of long-term care and rehabilitation. NHCA operates a post-acute network of skilled nursing and assisted-living centers throughout the Northeast.

Contact: Cathy Toscano at [email protected] or 516-260-0516.

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SOURCE National Health Care Associates
KALAMAZOO, Mich., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association today released an update to its first-of-its-kind report on the economic impact of the long-standing partnership between skilled craft unions and the biopharmaceutical industry in Michigan and 13 other states. The report found that Michigan building trades helped drive $1.12 billion in investment on major construction projects (over $5 million) active at any point between 2015 and 2021. During the same time period, skilled craft union worker earnings in Michigan reached more than $25 million  representing more than 906,000 hours of work  in addition to significant funding for union health insurance and pension benefits. Updated from a study between 2012 and 2017, the study shows a steady growth in investment from the biopharmaceutical industry both in Michigan and in the US  with the investment and earnings growing every year since 2015.

"This study demonstrates the value of the critical partnership between the biopharmaceutical industry and the skilled construction craft union workers in Michigan," said Brian O'Donnell, Business Manager and Financial Secretary, IBEW Local 131. "As Michigan looks to diversify its economy, the biopharmaceutical industry  and the skilled union craft workers employed by the industry  help create that growing economic engine. Our members are proud of the work they provided to help bring an end to the COVID19 pandemic by working on biopharmaceutical facilities that discovered and developed the vaccine. The industry relies on the skills, training, and work ethic of our members from the first ground broken to wiring the labs."

The study was conducted by the Institute for Construction Economic Research (ICERES), a non-partisan network of academic researchers whose goal is to find pragmatic solutions to workplace and labor market issues in the construction industry. Data for the study were provided by Industrial Information Resources (IIR), a global consulting firm specializing in market data on major power, energy, and industrial infrastructure projects in the United States.

Additional key findings of the report include:

15 major construction projects were active in Michigan at any point during the six-year time period analyzed.

at any point during the six-year time period analyzed. 14 skilled Michigan craft unions contributed an estimated 906,850 labor hours to biopharmaceutical industry construction projects over the six years, earning $25,409,944 .

craft unions contributed an estimated 906,850 labor hours to biopharmaceutical industry construction projects over the six years, earning . Electricians, instrumentation technicians, plumbers and pipefitters, and carpenters had the highest number of labor hours among the Michigan trades.

"We are fortunate to have these highly skilled construction and trades workers at the ready to help us develop medicines that fight deadly diseases," said Dr. Stephen Rapundalo, President and CEO, Michigan Biosciences Industry Association (MichBio). "Along with battling COVID-19, Michigan's bio-industry researches and creates life-saving medicines, devices and diagnostics in the quest for treatments and cures for many challenging health conditions. To do that, we must rely upon the best workers at every stage of development."

The biopharmaceutical sector in Michigan turns to union contractors and their workers because of their long-established and highly effective training and apprenticeship programs. Building, refurbishing, and retrofitting biopharmaceutical facilities to handle next-generation research and development requires an educated, skilled, and experienced labor force.

North America's Building Trades Unions spend more than $1.6 billion a year on apprentice and education programs throughout the country without imposing a nickel of student debt or requiring a dime of taxpayer money. Workers develop skills while on the jobsite and participate in classroom learning in the evenings. North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) sponsors comprehensive apprenticeship readiness programs (ARPs) throughout the U.S. These programs provide a gateway for local residents  focusing on women, people of color, and transitioning veterans  to gain access to Building Trades' registered apprenticeship programs.

The full report is available at www.pilma.org/unionjobs.

Study Methodology

The report examined private-sector biopharmaceutical construction projects active at any time between 2015 and 2020 in 14 states (CA, CO, CT, DE, IL, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, and WA). The states included in this report were selected by PILMA. The report relies extensively on data from Industrial Information Resources (IIR), a global consulting firm specializing in market data on major power, energy, and industrial infrastructure projects in the U.S. The study team identified major private-sector projects in each state and made estimates of total industry construction spending and labor demand based on IIR data. Projects that were co-developed with academic institutions, government (e.g. NIH), and hospital systems were not included in the analysis. The second part of the study integrated data from IIR and the U.S. Census Bureau to examine the economic impact of the partnership between the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and construction trades unions.

About Michigan Biosciences Industry Association

For over 25 years, MichBio has been driving bio-industry growth in Michigan by providing access to resources and information critical to success, advocating for policy decisions that support the long-term viability of the life sciences, and connecting the people, companies, and ideas necessary to create the next generation of bio-innovation.

About The Kalamazoo IBEW LOCAL 131

The International Brotherhood of Electrical workers Union was founded on November 28,1891 in St. Louis, Missouri. There were ten delegates (pictured) representing two hundred eighty six members in attendance. Henry Miller was elected as the first International President and J.T. Kelly as the first International Secretary-Treasurer. Kalamazoo received it's charter on September 14th, 1916 and was signed by the seventh International President F.J McNulty. Kalamazoo is the fourth local to use the number 131. The first local was Columbia, South Carolina from 1900-1901, the second was Traverse City, Michigan from 1901-1908, the third was Twin Falls, Idaho (time span unknown). For more history about the I.B.E.W., click here to visit the International site.

About Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association

PILMA is a coalition of labor organizations and companies in the pharmaceutical industry who have joined forces to grow this important sector in our economy, create high-quality jobs, and promote medical innovations to cure disease. More information is available at www.pilma.org.

The Institute for Construction Economics Research (ICERES)

The Institute for Construction Economics Research (ICERES) is a non-partisan network of academic researchers whose goal is to find pragmatic solutions to workplace and labor market issues in the construction industry.

SOURCE PILMA
Nine pharmacy organizations file court brief defending North Dakota's right to regulate pharmacy benefit managers Tweet this

The case, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) v. Wehbi, is the first to consider at the federal appellate level the scope of the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision last year in Rutledge v. PCMA upholding an Arkansas state law regulating the abusive practices of PBMs. (PCMA is a trade association for pharmacy benefit managers; Nizar Wehbi is the North Dakota State Health Officer.)

In its new filing, PCMA argues that notwithstanding the Supreme Court decision, a regulatory vacuum should still exist that would forestall limiting how PBMs leverage concentrated market power to the detriment of plans, patients, and pharmacies. The state's filing asserts that its legislation is protected by Rutledge.

The amicus brief filed by the pharmacy associations today argues that ERISA does not preempt North Dakota law. It states, "PBMs are neither ERISA plans nor [third party administrators] that administer such plans. They are mere service providers who negotiate at arms-length with ERISA plans." Previous court challenges have confirmed the North Dakota law neither references ERISA plans nor has a connection with ERISA plans.

"The states have an obligation to protect patients and local businesses, and a unanimous Supreme Court made clear in December that they have a right to do so," said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. "PBMs have increased fees on pharmacies by 91,500 percent in recent years. They steer patients to their own corporate pharmacies, and they slash reimbursements for local pharmacies. Their behavior is meant to eliminate their competition and force patients to abandon their preferred healthcare providers. We've been in this fight from the beginning, and we intend to see it through."

"The PBM industry is trying to defend the indefensible," said Scott J. Knoer, executive vice president and CEO of the American Pharmacists Association. "PBMs are essentially asserting that they live within a regulatory vacuum, answerable to no one but themselves. But no one is above oversight. Given their oppressive market dominance and their well-documented, self-serving predatory behaviors that harm states, health plans, patients and pharmacies, this cannot be allowed to stand."

"The North Dakota legislature consistently and overwhelming has supported efforts to address market abuses by the PBM industry and rightfully so. The North Dakota District court further confirmed the ND Legislature acted in the best interests of its citizens and local businesses. This case will hopefully send a message to the PBM industry that their anticompetitive and abusive practices will not be allowed to continue at the detriment of patients, employers, government funded entities, taxpayers and the profession of pharmacy," said Mike Schwab, Executive Vice President of the North Dakota Pharmacists Association.

About the National Community Pharmacists Association

NCPA is the country's leading advocate for community pharmacists, representing more than 21,000 independently owned pharmacies across the country.

About the American Pharmacists Association

The American Pharmacists Association is only organization advancing the entire pharmacy profession. Our expert staff, and strong volunteer leadership, including many experienced pharmacists, allow us to deliver vital leadership to help pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists and pharmacy technicians find success and satisfaction in their work, while advocating for changes that benefit them, their patients and their communities. For more information, please visit www.pharmacist.com.

About the North Dakota Pharmacists Association

The North Dakota Pharmacists Association is the professional society representing all pharmacists in North Dakota. The mission of NDPhA is to act as the leader in advocating the role of the pharmacist as an essential provider of health care and to support pharmacists in providing optimal pharmaceutical care.

SOURCE American Pharmacists Association

Related Links

http://www.pharmacist.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency today expressed its appreciation to the state legislature, Governor Tom Wolf, and all the housing advocates who worked tirelessly to ensure that housing programs will receive substantial funding support in the new 2021-22 fiscal year budget, providing resources that are absolutely critical as recovery continues from the COVID pandemic.

"We're grateful to the General Assembly and the governor for making these significant investments in housing," said PHFA Executive Director and CEO Robin Wiessmann. "We also want to thank the housing advocates who worked with our state leaders to address the tremendous need for quality, stable housing at a time when so many of the state's residents are facing financial hardship. Our thanks to everyone for making housing a priority in this year's state budget.

"Pennsylvania and the nation have seen a growing need for affordable housing over the past decade as housing costs continued to rise. If this situation wasn't clear before, it is especially obvious now as the pandemic brought uncertainly about employment or reduced hours at work for some.

"The funding made available in this year's state budget to help impacted homeowners is critical to prevent homelessness and support the construction of more affordable housing to meet this pressing public need, and we at PHFA are grateful for this generous financial support."

The new state budget includes funding for housing in four main program areas:

$50 Million for the Construction Cost Relief Program from the commonwealth's receipt of federal American Rescue Plan funds. This money will help ensure that the state's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit construction projects are not further delayed due to rapidly rising construction costs and other unforeseen cost increases. Some projects that received more recent LIHTC funding have been jeopardized due to large cost increases for materials and labor.

for the Construction Cost Relief Program from the commonwealth's receipt of federal American Rescue Plan funds. This money will help ensure that the state's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit construction projects are not further delayed due to rapidly rising construction costs and other unforeseen cost increases. Some projects that received more recent LIHTC funding have been jeopardized due to large cost increases for materials and labor. $350 Million in federal Homeowner Assistance Funds provided to the commonwealth through the American Rescue Plan. This funding will help homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgages due to the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. It will be used to prevent mortgage delinquency, default and foreclosure; provide utility assistance; help with insurance payments and homeowner/condo associations fees; and provide other types of assistance as allowed by U.S. Treasury in its guidelines for federal ARP funding.

in federal Homeowner Assistance Funds provided to the commonwealth through the American Rescue Plan. This funding will help homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgages due to the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. It will be used to prevent mortgage delinquency, default and foreclosure; provide utility assistance; help with insurance payments and homeowner/condo associations fees; and provide other types of assistance as allowed by U.S. Treasury in its guidelines for federal ARP funding. Authorization of $10 million annually in state tax credits to assist with the financing of multifamily housing projects awarded credits through the new Pennsylvania Housing Tax Credit Program, established with passage of Act 107 of 2020. This program was created last year but was not allocated tax credits at that time. PHFA will administer the program.

annually in state tax credits to assist with the financing of multifamily housing projects awarded credits through the new Pennsylvania Housing Tax Credit Program, established with passage of Act 107 of 2020. This program was created last year but was not allocated tax credits at that time. PHFA will administer the program. Increase in the annual state tax credit allocation to the existing Mixed-Use Development Tax Credit Program from $3 million to $4.5 million . Proceeds from the sale of tax credits are used by PHFA to fund the construction of mixed-use (commercial/residential) construction projects through the Community Revitalization Fund Program. PHFA is authorized by the General Assembly to administer both these programs.

About PHFA

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency works to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for older adults, low- and moderate-income families, and people with special housing needs. Through its carefully managed mortgage programs and investments in multifamily housing developments, PHFA also promotes economic development across the state. Since its creation by the legislature in 1972, it has generated more than $15.2 billion of funding for more than 182,570 single-family home mortgage loans, helped fund the construction of 138,000 rental units, distributed approximately 191 million to support local housing initiatives, and saved the homes of nearly 50,400 families from foreclosure. PHFA programs and operations are funded primarily by the sale of securities and from fees paid by program users, not by public tax dollars. The agency is governed by a 14-member board.

Media contact:

Scott Elliott

717-649-6522 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency

Related Links

www.phfa.org


REHOVOT, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- POCARED announced that it has signed an agreement with GEM Global Yield LLC SCS ("GEM"), the Luxembourg based private alternative investment group to provide POCARED with up to $50 Million over a 36-month term following a public listing of POCARED's common stock. POCARED will control the timing and maximum amount of drawdowns under this facility and has no minimum drawdown obligation. Concurrent with a public listing of POCARED's shares, POCARED will issue warrants to GEM to purchase up to 5% of the common stock of the company.

POCARED Diagnostics Ltd (POCARED) is on the verge of revolutionizing infectious disease diagnosis by introducing the world's fastest time to results. POCARED test will enable, for the first time, an optimal, evidence based, patient treatment and offer a game changing tool for fighting Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). Infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance are increasing as novel diseases continue to emerge. POCARED's CULTURE FREE Microbiology  System will provide a complete answer within hours of a clinical specimen being received in the laboratory as compared to the few days it currently requires.

POCARED will use the funds to complete development of its technology and commercial its system.

"We are honored to be selected by the GEM Group to receive this investment, which allows us to accelerate the development of our system. The POCARED P-1000 System  will provide results to clinicians in real time leading to an optimize treatment of infections. For the first time, clinicians will have the complete information required to prescribe the most effective antibiotic treatment. This will save unnecessary patient suffering while reducing total healthcare costs and helping to control the overuse of antibiotics" says Jonathan Gurfinkel, President and CEO of the company.

"This GEM Group investment and funding will enable our talented and dedicated POCARED team to realize their ultimate goal of transforming Infectious Disease Diagnostics. Our system will provide Microbiology labs with much more rapid screening, and organism identification/susceptibility results which will greatly improve lab productivity, and yield important timely information to clinicians which will help them target therapeutics and demonstrably improve health outcomes." says Ed Ludwig, Chairman of the company.

The first menu items on the system will be urinary diagnostics including antimicrobial results in less than 5 hours from time of receipt in the laboratory. Other specimen types will quickly follow to cover the full spectrum of infectious diseases.

About the GEM Group

Global Emerging Markets ("GEM") is a $3.4 billion, alternative investment group with offices in Paris, New York, Nassau (Bahamas) and Los Angeles. GEM manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets and has completed over 440 transactions in 70 countries. Each investment vehicle has a different degree of operational control, risk-adjusted return, and liquidity profile. The family of funds and investment vehicles provide GEM and its partners with exposure to: Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities and select venture investments. For more information: http://www.gemny.com

About the Company

POCARED Diagnostics Ltd, is an in-vitro diagnostic and pre-analytics company utilizing cutting edge technologies to deliver next generation platforms. POCARED's CULTURE-FREE Microbiology technology is revolutionizing infectious disease diagnosis and practice with real-time automated results. This saves several critical days in reporting compared to current practices.

For more information please email [email protected] or contact Yael Katzir-levy

Tel: +972-8-6999781

SOURCE POCARED Diagnostics Ltd
SANTA CLARITA, Calif., June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to continued uncertainty regarding the timing for the resumption of cruise holidays in the region, Princess is cancelling cruises in and out of Australia through December 19, 2021.

For guests booked on a cancelled cruise, Princess will move guests to an equivalent cruise in 2022. The rebooking process will have the added benefit of protecting the guests' 2021 fare on their replacement cruise. Alternatively, guests can choose a future cruise credit (FCC) equivalent to 100% of the cruise fare paid plus an additional non-refundable bonus FCC equal to 10% of the cruise fare paid (minimum $25 USD) or a full refund to the original form of payment.

Requests must be received through this online form by July 31, 2021 or guests will automatically receive the FCC option. FCCs can be used on any cruises booked by and sailing by December 31, 2022.

Cruises can be booked through a professional travel advisor, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237), or by visiting the company's website at www.princess.com.

Princess will protect travel agent commission on bookings that were paid in full in recognition of the critical role they play in the cruise line's business and success.

The most current information and instructions for booked guests affected by these cancellations, and more information on FCCs and refunds, can be found online at Information on Impacted & Cancelled Cruises.

About Princess Cruises:

One of the best-known names in cruising, Princess Cruises is the world's leading international premium cruise line and tour company operating a fleet of 14 modern cruise ships, carrying two million guests each year to 380 destinations around the globe, including the Caribbean, Alaska, Panama Canal, Mexican Riviera, Europe, South America, Australia/New Zealand, the South Pacific, Hawaii, Asia, Canada/New England, Antarctica, and World Cruises. A team of professional destination experts have curated 170 itineraries, ranging in length from three to 111 days and Princess Cruises is continuously recognized as "Best Cruise Line for Itineraries." In 2017 Princess Cruises, with parent company Carnival Corporation, introduced MedallionClass Vacations enabled by the OceanMedallion, the vacation industry's most advanced wearable device, provided free to each guest sailing on a MedallionClass ship. The award-winning innovation offers the fastest way to an effortless personalized vacation giving guests more time to do the things they love most. The company is part of Carnival Corporation & plc.

SOURCE Princess Cruises

Related Links

www.princess.com


HOUSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vortex Companies, LLC, ("Vortex Companies"), one of the fastest growing trenchless infrastructure solution providers, today announced that Quin Breland, the company's general counsel and head of acquisitions, is moving to Germany to become the Managing Director for its European operations. "We've been planning this move for a long time," said Mike Vellano, Vortex Companies CEO. "Quin's business intelligence and background, coupled with his tactical abilities, should help to stabilize customer relationships while developing new ones. With our upcoming announcement of our first European transaction, this also sends a message that we are firmly grounded and here to stay in Europe."

Quin Breland will lead Vortex Companies European Division as its new Managing Director.

"Not only is this an exciting move for me and my family, but it's also an incredible growth opportunity for Vortex. I'm looking forward to the challenge and excited to begin expanding our presence throughout Europe," added Breland. His near-term goals will be to re-establish the company's operating team and develop a strategy to promote Vortex's line of trenchless infrastructure rehabilitation materials, equipment and service solutions.

A member of the Vortex team since 2016, Mr. Breland has played a critical role in all of the company's strategic acquisitions and organic business development, as well as being a key advisor to the company's international expansion effort.

About the Vortex Companies

The Vortex Companies is a leading provider of advanced trenchless water and sewer technologies and provides turnkey services to cost-effectively renew municipal, industrial and commercial infrastructure. Vortex, along with its partners, offers the most diverse technology platforms in the industry. This includes manhole and pipe rehabilitation materials, polymeric coatings and resins, sewer robot systems and high-speed drain cleaning tools and allows customers the opportunity to select the best fit for their system.

Operating globally, Vortex remains focused on its vision of expanding and providing a broad range of intelligent and economical trenchless infrastructure renewal solutions, supported by highly experienced and trained personnel. For more information go to: vortexcompanies.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kit Jones

713-269-2333

[email protected]

SOURCE Vortex Companies

Related Links

http://www.vortexcompanies.com


HAFNARFJORUR, Iceland and LONDON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapyd , a global Fintech as a Service company, has entered today into a definitive agreement with Arion Banki (Arion Bank) to acquire Valitor , an Icelandic payments solutions company. The deal size is $100 million and subject to regulatory approval.

Valitor is a well-established payments brand and considered one of Europe's payments leaders, providing both in-store and online payments acceptance solutions as well as card issuing to SMB merchants in Iceland, the U.K. and Ireland, and across Europe. The acquisition of Valitor will complement Rapyd's existing payment capabilities throughout Europe, as well as enhance its issuing portfolio.

Following Rapyd's recent financing round, the company is actively pursuing acquisition opportunities, targeting strong payments companies and enhancing their capabilities by connecting them to the Rapyd Global Payments Network. With its strong European presence, the acquisition of Valitor will empower customers from any industry to streamline integration of omni-channel payments, expand into new markets, flatten FX fees, unlocking revenue and growth potential that would otherwise be inaccessible to them.

"Businesses are looking beyond their borders to scale up and expand their customer base, and they need the right payment providers that can make it happen quickly. With the acquisition of Valitor, customers across Europe will now have access to a greater and more diverse set of payment offerings, ensuring that more companies can take advantage of any opportunity they wish to pursue," said Arik Shtilman, Rapyd co-founder and CEO. "Iceland has long distinguished itself as a cashless nation and an innovation hub, with extraordinary levels of talent and a developed payments ecosystem. We plan to continue to grow and invest in Iceland, making it our European Hub, and will support local merchants while increasing our reach across Europe so that we can provide payment solutions to any business committed to pursuing global success."

Benedikt Gislason, Arion Bank's CEO commented on the announced transaction: "It has been our long-stated intention to find a new and more appropriate home for Valitor. In Rapyd, we have found exactly that. A highly strategic partner, at the forefront of technological innovation and with complementary strengths to those of Valitor. I would like to thank our Valitor colleagues for their co-operation and wish them best of luck on their new adventures as part of the Rapyd Group."

"Today's announcement marks a landmark moment in Valitor's long history. This is a game-changing transaction for the Icelandic payments market. The Valitor management team is excited about the future prospects and very much look forward to closely working with Arik and the broader Rapyd team on the integration of the two businesses", added Herdis Fjeldsted, Valitor's CEO.

Rapyd's comprehensive cloud-based technology allows fast and easy integration of payments and fintech services into any web or mobile application and simplifies the complexity of offering local payment methods while managing diverse compliance and regulatory requirements. By leveraging Rapyd's Collect, Disburse, Wallet, and Issuing capabilities, Valitor businesses and merchants can expand into a broad set of new use cases and services, quickly enter new markets thanks to a ready-made payments infrastructure that fits their needs.

Media Contacts:

Headline Media

Raanan Loew

[email protected]

1-347-897-9276

About Rapyd

Rapyd is the fastest way to power local payments anywhere in the world, enabling companies across the globe to access markets quicker than ever before. By utilizing Rapyd's unparalleled payments network and Fintech-as-a-Service platform, businesses and consumers can engage in local and cross-border transactions in any market. The Rapyd platform is unifying fragmented payment systems worldwide by bringing together 900-plus payment methods in over 100 countries. Rapyd's investors include Stripe, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, Tiger Global, Durable Capital, Target Global, and Tal Capital. To learn more about the company that is accelerating the Fintech-as-a-Service revolution, visit www.rapyd.net , read our blog , or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter .

About Arion Bank

Arion Bank provides services to households, corporates and investors and strives to meet the needs of customers requiring a diverse range of financial services. The Bank has three business segments: Retail Banking, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Markets. The service offering is further augmented by the subsidiaries Stefnir and Vorur. Stefnir is one of the largest fund management companies in Iceland, and Vorur is the fastest growing insurance company in Iceland, providing non-life and life insurance. For more information, please visit www.arionbanki.is .

About Valitor

Founded in 1983, Valitor is an international payment solutions company dedicated to helping merchants, partners and consumers make buying and selling easy. For more information, please visit www.valitor.is .

SOURCE Rapyd; Valitor

Related Links

https://www.valitor.com/


"We are very pleased to bring Albany Green Energy onto the ReGenerate platform, as we continue to build a best-in-class bioenergy business," said Elena Savostianova, Managing Partner of Ember. "ReGenerate will leverage the deep expertise and experience of the ReEnergy and Ember teams to manage and optimize this important facility."

With the acquisition, ReGenerate owns 137 MWs of operating biomass power generation across three facilities, including ReEnergy Stratton and ReEnergy Livermore Falls, both located in Maine. ReGenerate plans to continue the expansion of its platform across North America to deliver sustainable bioenergy products to utilities, corporations, and other partners. The Company will utilize ReEnergy's operational capabilities and both teams' experience in acquiring and growing renewable energy platforms.

"We particularly look forward to joining the robust bioeconomy in the state of Georgia, where biomass energy is embraced as a key component of the state's renewable energy portfolio and represents half of its total renewable electricity generation," said Larry Richardson, Chief Executive Officer of ReEnergy Holdings LLC. "In acquiring Albany Green Energy, we are focused on achieving the high level of safety, environmental, and operating performance that we are proud to have achieved at the other facilities in the ReGenerate and ReEnergy portfolios."

Terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Mayer Brown LLP served as legal counsel and Ansonia Partners served as financial advisor to ReGenerate. Nexus PMG served as independent engineering advisor to ReGenerate. McGuireWoods LLP served as legal counsel to Exelon Generation Company.

About ReGenerate

Ember and ReEnergy formed ReGenerate in April 2021. ReGenerate is a bioenergy platform, comprised of three operating biomass power generation facilities located in Georgia and Maine, that is focused on growing its asset base and delivering sustainable bioenergy products to its partners.

ReEnergy, founded in 2008, is a wholly owned subsidiary of ReEnergy Holdings LLC, which, in addition to the Maine facilities, owns ReEnergy Black River, a 60-MW biomass power facility located on the U.S. Army's Fort Drum installation near Watertown NY, and ReSource Waste Services LLC, which operates five facilities in New England that recycle construction and demolition waste materials. For more information, please visit www.reenergyholdings.com and www.resourcewasteservices.com

Ember, founded in 2018, is a New York-based private equity firm delivering capital solutions to businesses and assets seeking to reduce carbon intensity and enhance resource efficiency. Ember focuses on equity investments across renewable energy, water, waste, industrials and agricultural infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.ember-infra.com.

CONTACT:

ReEnergy: Sarah Boggess: (518) 810-0200, [email protected]

Ember: Maria Rengifo: (646) 374-4476, [email protected]

SOURCE Ember Infrastructure

Related Links

https://www.ember-infra.com


LONDON, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Seaspan Corporation ("Seaspan" or the "Company"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp. ("Atlas") (NYSE:ATCO), today announced that Fitch Ratings ("Fitch") has assigned a first-time Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'BB' to Seaspan. Fitch also assigned a 'BB' rating to the Company's senior unsecured notes. The rating outlook is stable.

Seaspan's issue ratings are summarized in the table below:

Issue Rating Outlook $200 million 6.5% notes due 2024 BB Stable $300 million 6.5% notes due 2026 BB Stable

Fitch noted that Seaspan's ratings reflect its scale and franchise as a leading containership lessor, enhanced funding flexibility, an increased level of unencumbered assets, low leverage profile, and solid liquidity. Seaspan's ratings are also supported by a strong operating platform, which includes ownership of a young fleet on long-term charters, consistent operating cash flow generation, solid profitability, and an experienced leadership team.

Graham Talbot, Chief Financial Officer of Seaspan, added, "This credit rating is recognition of the progress we are making in relation to our stated objective to reshape our balance sheet, achieve a simpler, more efficient capital structure, and ultimately achieve an investment grade rating."

About Atlas

Atlas is a leading global asset management company, differentiated by its position as a best-in-class owner and operator with a focus on deploying capital to create sustainable shareholder value. Atlas brings together an experienced asset management team with deep operational and capital allocation experience. We target long-term, risk adjusted returns across high-quality infrastructure assets in the maritime sector, energy sector and other infrastructure verticals. Our two portfolio companies, Seaspan Corporation and APR Energy Ltd. are unique, industry-leading operating platforms in the global maritime and energy spaces, respectively. For more information visit atlascorporation.com.

About Seaspan

Seaspan is a leading independent owner and operator of containerships. We primarily charter our vessels on long-term, fixed-rate time charters to the world's largest container shipping liners. At March 31, 2021, Seaspan's fleet consisted of 127 containerships representing total capacity of approximately 1,073,200 TEU. On May 19, 2021, we announced the delivery of two second-hand vessels, increasing Seaspan's operating fleet to 129 vessels and 1,090,200 TEU. We also have 45 vessels under construction, and two additional acquired vessels which are expected for delivery early in the third quarter of 2021, increasing total fleet capacity to 1,784,200 TEU, on a fully delivered basis. For more information visit seaspancorp.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) concerning future events, including forward-looking statements regarding the expected benefits of the vessel transactions to Atlas's financial condition and results from operations. Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "forecasts", "will", "may", "potential", "should", and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations only as of the date of this release. As a result, you are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. Although these statements are based upon assumptions that we believe to be reasonable based upon available information, they are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors detailed from time to time in our periodic reports and filings with the SEC, including Atlas's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on March 19, 2021. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether because of future events, new information, a change in our views or expectations, or otherwise. We make no prediction or statement about the performance of any of our securities.

SOURCE Atlas Corp.

Related Links

https://atlascorporation.com/


See's Lollypops have been a fan-favorite for years. Because of the high demand of the product, in 1997, the company opened a kitchen at Rollins Road in Burlingame, CA, dedicated to making Lollypops and Little Pops. From classic Butterscotch to seasonal Root Beer and Cinnamon, all of See's Lollypop flavors are still produced in this unique candy kitchen.

"There's nothing quite like walking into our Lollypop factory and smelling the sweet aroma of butter, cream and sugar. Watching our Lollypops being produced from start to finish is just as fascinating with each visit," said Pat Egan, President & CEO.

Also in the hard candy category, and as part of their year-long Centennial celebration, See's Candies launched their July Sweet-of-the-Month, Lemon Drops.

The heritage candy company urges its customers to celebrate See's 100th summer with the new candy. They're sweet with a refreshing tart twist. Delivered in a glass jar perfect for gifting.

"Sweet, just the right amount of tart, and the perfect summer treat. We can't wait for our customers to try these delicious candies that are packed with flavor," said Egan.

Lemon Drops are now available for $9.50 while supplies last in shops and online.

The company is hosting its annual Lollypop Sweet-stakes which offers fans the chance to win a year's worth of Lollypops. Brand fans can enter the Lollypop Sweet-stakes 7/37/24. Plus, 15 lucky contestants will win $50 See's Gift Cards! For more information and to enter to win, visit sees.com/LollypopDay.

And just in time, as of July 1st, all See's shops will be going back to unwrapped samples for all of their guests. "I know our customers will be thrilled to have the unwrapped samples back. Our shop experience is an iconic part of our brand, and our customers look forward to getting a sweet taste of See's with every visit," said Egan.

Giving samples has been a cornerstone of See's customer experience, and when the pandemic hit they had to shift gears. Given the importance of this tradition, the company quickly pivoted to produce millions of individually-wrapped samples to ensure customers never left empty-handed.

Candy lovers are encouraged to participate in See's National Lollypop Day festivities, sweeten their summer with a taste of the new Lemon Drops and head into a shop for an iconic free sample.

About See's Candies

For 100 years, See's Candies has been dedicated to making candy Mary See's way. Only the finest, freshest ingredients are used in making each recipe. American made, famous for deliciousness, with the friendliest customer servicesince 1921. Today, customers can choose from over 100 different candies and chocolates, whether shopping online or visiting one of See's iconic black-and-white checkered shops. Founded and headquartered in sunny California, See's Candies has expanded from one candy shop to over 250 shops across America and a flourishing online store. For more information visit https://www.sees.com/.

SOURCE See's Candies

Related Links

www.sees.com


The National Solar Tour helps to spread solar contagion, where homes, businesses, schools, and other organizations across the country open their doors, yards and roofs to others who are looking to learn more about how they can utilize renewable energy to save money and the planet. It is about neighbors talking to each other about solar, energy efficiency, other sustainable upgrades, financing, recommendations on installers, local laws or issues. It's also an opportunity to connect in person or virtually, locally or globally.

Join the National Solar Tour and promote your company by hosting your own Local Solar Tour!

Hosting a Local Solar Tour only takes 3 steps:

The National Solar Tour team will generate a Tour webpage for your company with the information you filled out on the sign up form and the Solar Sites your customers create! All Local Solar Tour and Solar Sites have until August 15th to sign up but the sooner you sign up your Tour the more promotion time you get. Tour web pages will be on the National Solar Tour Map and video/photo tours will go live on October 2nd.

For more details on hosting a Local Solar Tour please refer to our How-to guide on hosting a Virtual Local Solar Tour or our Local Solar Tour Organizer Toolkit for an in-person event. Go to nationalsolartour.org/resources to find all the resources for you and your customers to host the perfect Local Solar Tour and Solar Sites.

We also welcome your support as a partner of the National Solar Tour. As a partner of the National Solar Tour, we will list your logo linked to your website on nationalsolartour.org . In return, you can either send an email to your network inviting solar advocates to host solar events or help spread the word by posting on your social media accounts. If you are interested in partnering with the National Solar Tour, please fill out this form .

ASES is the nation's leading association of renewable energy professionals and advocates. The organization has 40 Chapters including Student Chapters. ASES publishes the award-winning Solar Today magazine and the e-newsletter [email protected] for renewable energy professionals, and hosts monthly webinars for the ASES Webinar Series . The organization will also be hosting the 50th annual National Solar Conference, SOLAR 2021: Empowering a Sustainable Future in Boulder, CO from August 3-6, 2021. Learn more and register today at ases.org/conference .

If you have any questions about hosting or attending Local Solar Tours or Solar Sites or if you are interested in partnering with the National Solar Tour, contact [email protected] .

For National Solar Tour sponsorship opportunities, contact [email protected] .

SOURCE American Solar Energy Society

Related Links

http://www.ases.org


"Following a 2020 summer in lockdown everyone is delighted that the great American tradition of coming together over barbecues and cookouts looks to be back for real," says Matt Luxton, Strategic Programs Sales Manager. "Many of last summer's plans were canceled, and to make up for lost time we want our customers to spend summer with friends and family celebrating around a grill with some extra portions of delicious grass-fed meat on us."

"Through the 'Get Seconds on Summer' sweepstakes, we would like to reward people with seconds on everything that is great about summer grilling, especially the flavor of fresh off-the- grill steaks. And when summer finally comes to a close, we're offering a second chance to enjoy grilling season all over again in New Zealand where summer peaks in January."

No purchase is necessary, and all sweepstakes participants will be entered into the draw to win a trip to New Zealand for a second summer. Participants can also claim one of two great deals on Silver Fern Farms products;

Buy-one-get-one free coupons for Silver Fern Farms premium retail packs redeemable in stores; or

a free pack of Beef New York Strip Steak with any bundle purchased from their online shop, us.silverfernfarms.com.

Silver Fern Farms' range includes beautiful grass-fed cuts and a range of premium ground beef, lamb and venison for a variety of delicious burger recipes. The Rib-eye, New York Strip Steak, and Flat Iron Beef Steaks are hand-selected and perfectly prepared, bursting with natural grass-fed flavor and ready for the grill fresh out of the package. And the Lamb and Venison Medallions, which are great for sliders and salads, surprise and delight with new recipes and new traditions straight from the rolling pastures of New Zealand. A host of curated recipes and cooking tips to help inspire the enthusiastic at-home cook and experienced griller are available on their website.

In 2019, Silver Fern Farms entered the U.S. consumer market with branded 100% grass-fed New Zealand beef and lamb, and pasture-raised venison packs distributed in supermarkets in the Tri-State region of New York, New Jersey, and subsequently expanding into Southern California, Washington and the Mid-West. In November 2020, they launched a new e-commerce platform us.silverfernfarms.com, making their range available for delivery to consumers across the continental US.

How to enter the Silver Fern Farms 'Get Seconds on Summer' Sweepstakes

To enter the sweepstakes, customers can scan the QR code on the special promotional sticker on in-store product packs to register. Alternatively, they can also interact with sweepstakes banner/social ads online. Registering will automatically enter all customers for a chance to win a trip to visit New Zealand during its upcoming summer months. Participants will also be able to choose 1 of 2 offers to enjoy free Silver Fern Farms product; either a limited time "Buy-one-get-one-free" coupon in the mail to redeem at participating stores, or an online discount code for a free pack of New York Strip Steak with any bundle purchased on the us.silverfernfarms.com website. Promotional terms and conditions are available on the secondsonsummer.com website.

ABOUT SILVER FERN FARMS: Silver Fern Farms is New Zealand's largest grass-fed lamb, beef and venison producer, supplying the United States from the rolling pastures in New Zealand and striving to set the world standard in red meat. Starting as a small farmer co-operative in 1948, they produce 30% of all New Zealand lamb, beef, and venison in partnership with 16,000 farmers, and exports to over 60 countries.

Media Contact:

Reid Whelan, SweeneyVesty New York

T: +1 212-256-8155 M: +1 646 389 5066

[email protected]

Retail and Business Contact:

Matt Luxton, Director of Sales, USA

T: +64 3 474 6599

[email protected]

SOURCE Silver Fern Farms

Related Links

http://secondsonsummer.com


JOHANNESBURG, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholders are advised in terms of paragraph 3.59 of the JSE Listings Requirements that Mr Paul Victor has informed the Company that he will step down as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and executive director of Sasol Limited on 30 June 2022.

Shareholders are also advised of the appointment of Mr Hanre Rossouw, currently the CFO of Royal Bafokeng Platinum Limited (RBPlat), as CFO designate and executive director designate of Sasol to succeed Mr Paul Victor. Hanre will join Sasol on 4 April 2022 and will succeed Paul as executive director and CFO on 1 July 2022. Paul has agreed to remain with Sasol until the publication of Sasol's financial results and suite of annual reports for the year ending 30 June 2022, allowing for a sixth-month structured handover period.

Sipho Nkosi, Chairman of the Sasol board of directors (Board), said, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Paul for his substantial contribution and exemplary leadership over the past twenty-one years at Sasol. We will pay tribute to him nearer to the date of his departure next year. The Board is pleased to have appointed Hanre as Sasol's next CFO and is looking forward to welcoming him as a member of the Board. His background and experience will benefit Sasol in meeting our business opportunities and challenges."

Hanre has been the CFO of RBPlat since 1 October 2018, where he was responsible for the restructuring of the balance sheet through the refinancing of debt and a rights issue, the introduction of a new capital allocation framework and a new dividend policy.

Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management and, prior to that, the CFO of Xstrata Alloys. He also held a number of other senior roles at Xstrata plc in London that involved extensive strategy, mergers and acquisitions, business optimisation and capital markets experience. His career started as graduate engineer at Anglo American plc and he later also worked for Accenture plc and De Beers Group. Hanre graduated from Oxford University with a Master's degree in Business Administration. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree in Economics.

Tiffany Sydow, Investor Relations Officer

Telephone: +27 (0) 71 673 1929

[email protected]

SOURCE Sasol Limited
ATLANTA, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spelman College, along with Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, announces a new partnership with Blackstone LaunchPad to make the development of entrepreneurial skills more accessible to students in the Atlanta University Center Consortium.

Developed with support from United Negro College Fund Inc., the largest scholarship provider for students of color, Blackstone LaunchPad's expansion to Spelman, Morehouse and Clark Atlanta is the latest step in the Blackstone Charitable Foundation's commitment to increase career mobility for a more diverse set of students through entrepreneurship training and skill-building.

"Spelman's goal is to provide our students with the competitive edge they need to excel in any field," said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman. "Providing access to entrepreneurial insight, training and mentoring through high caliber partnerships, Blackstone LaunchPad is an innovative program our scholars will benefit from for years to come. We are grateful for the investment in our students by Blackstone LaunchPad, which aligns with our new Center for Black Entrepreneurship, and will result in diversifying the pipeline of owners and leaders."

The partnership is part of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation's $40 million, five-year commitment to expand Blackstone LaunchPad from 30 to 75 colleges and universities that have a majority diverse population or serve under-resourced communities. Blackstone LaunchPad will facilitate access to a global network of mentors and advisors, deliver proven startup resources and offer unique virtual and physical convening opportunities. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in pitch competitions, fellowships and live speaker series.

"We are thrilled to be supporting these three great schools and their students through Blackstone LaunchPad," said Amy Stursberg, executive director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. "This partnership is an exciting step in our broader commitment to introduce students from underrepresented communities to entrepreneurial skillsets that are applicable to all future career paths."

The initiative began with a $5 million expansion in January 2021 to six campuses designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions in the University of Texas system that demonstrated a commitment to increasing diversity in student entrepreneurship.

"This an exciting venture that opens opportunities for our HBCU campuses and their students. We are especially pleased that Blackstone LaunchPad will now be available for students at the Atlanta Universities Consortium schools," said UNCF President and CEO Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D. "We look forward to continuing our partnership and introducing Blackstone LaunchPad to additional HBCUs across the United States. Advancements like this enable our students to make their talents grow exponentially and open doors they could never have dreamed of even peering through previously."

With support from partners including Future Founders, UNCF, Startup Grind and Techstars, Blackstone LaunchPad is currently available to over 900,000 students at 30 schools in the United States and Ireland.

About Spelman College

Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College's status is confirmed by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 54 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 4 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 14th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been established with MIT's Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit Spelman College.

About Blackstone Charitable Foundation

The Blackstone Charitable Foundation has led Blackstone's philanthropic initiatives since 2007. We are driven by the firm's commitment to diversity and inclusion and providing access to opportunity in the communities in which we live and work. Blackstone LaunchPad helps college students learn entrepreneurial skills for success to build thriving companies and careers, with an increasing commitment to schools that have a majority diverse student population or engage with under-represented communities. BX Connects engages Blackstone's global employee base to partner with non-profits, supporting their missions through volunteer opportunities, fundraising, board service, and other charitable activities.

About UNCF

United Negro College Fund is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students' education and development through scholarships and other programs, supports and strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically Black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20% of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized trademark, A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous updates and news, follow UNCF on Twitter at @UNCF.

SOURCE Spelman College

Related Links

www.spelman.edu


WORCESTER, Mass., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Next week, a delegation of striking nurses from Tenet Healthcare-owned St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MA will travel to the corporation's headquarters in Dallas to make a direct appeal to the corporate executives to finally respond to the nurses' call for safer staffing for safer patient care, and end what is now the longest nurse strike nationally in more than a decade.

RN Petition Delivery from Massachusetts to Dallas When: Wednesday, July 7 at 12 noon. Where: On the sidewalk outside Tenet Healthcare's Corporate Headquarters, 1445 Ross Ave.,

Dallas, TX. The event will also be livestreamed on the Massachusetts Nurses Association

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/massnurses. What: Nurses and supporters will hold a press conference and attempt to deliver a 16-foot-long

petition signed by more than 700 striking nurses to Tenet CEO Ron Rittenmeyer.

Click here to view the petition language (PDF).

"After months of fruitless efforts trying to convince St. Vincent Hospital's administration to provide us with the resources we need to protect our patients and our community, we have decided to travel to Dallas, Texas and speak directly to the corporate executives who have the ultimate control over the safety and quality of care at our hospital," said Marlena Pellegrino, RN, longtime nurse at St. Vincent Hospital and co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit with the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "Prior to and during the pandemic, our nurses, patients and community suffered greatly as a result of Tenet Healthcare's failure to provide the staffing and resources we needed to keep our patients safe. Tenet failed to safely staff St. Vincent Hospital while exposing nurses and other caregivers to higher risk of COVID-19 due to lack of proper personal protective equipment. While Tenet pocketed more than $500 million in profits using pandemic relief money, our patients suffered preventable falls and bedsores, dangerous delays in receiving medications and other treatments."

The nurses, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, along with other caregivers from Tenet facilities in California, who are represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, as well as healthcare and labor activists from across the country, will hold a press conference on July 7 at noon, which will mark the 122nd day nurses will be on strike against Tenet.

Nurses are bringing a giant, 16-foot-long petition signed by more than 700 striking nurses and will attempt to deliver the petition to Tenet's CEO Ron Rittenmeyer. They will also call out Tenet for its blatant misuse of more than $2.6 billion in taxpayer-supported pandemic funding from the CARES Act stimulus package  funding that was supposed to be used by hospitals to provide PPE, staffing and other resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet in Tenet's hands was used to fund corporate expansion, pay down debt, buy back stock for executes and, in the words of CEO Rittenmyer as reported in the Dallas Morning News in April of 2020, "to maximize our cash position."

It is not only nurses who want to see Tenet investigated. On June 30, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), along with Representatives James P. McGovern (MA-02) and Lori Trahan (MA-03), sent a letter to Tenet Health Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Rittenmeyer questioning the company's use of taxpayer funds, including federal CARES Act grants and loans, to enrich its executives and shareholders rather than meet the needs of its health care workers and patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced in part by an ongoing nurses' strike in Massachusetts and other Tenet facilities across the nation. This call for accountability by Tenet is in addition to efforts by other public officials, specifically, Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA) and Rosa Delauro (D-CT), who sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Director Xavier Becerra and Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Rebecca Slaughter, seeking a federal investigation into whether Tenet and other major hospital operators have misused their stimulus grants and other COVID relief funds.

The nurses' petition drive and decision to go to Dallas was launched last month, after Tenet took the extreme step of threatening to permanently replace the nurses, a move that outraged the St. Vincent nurses, as well as other nursing organizations, social justice, and labor organizations across the nation. The nurses remain undaunted. The conclusion of their petition states what is really behind this strike and why so many support the nurses' efforts:

"We are irreplaceable and are firmly resolved to maintain our strike until Tenet comes to the table and agrees to a contract that provides the necessary staffing improvements to ensure the safety of our patients. For nurses, this strike has nothing to do with profit and loss, for us, our patients are our friends and neighbors and any mistakes we make due to understaffing have names attached to them, with real life and death consequences. We will not let them down." The full text of the petition can be found here.

The strike began on March 8, 2021, after Tenet had refused to negotiate with the nurses over improvements the nurses are seeking to improve unsafe patient care conditions in the hospital. The decision followed earnest and painstaking efforts over the last two years by the nurses to convince Tenet to improve the patient care conditions at the facility, poor conditions that have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

For a more detailed review of the staffing crisis, efforts by nurses to convince Tenet to address the crisis, as well as proposals nurses are seeking to improve patient care, click here to view a previous press release on the matter.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org


The StoreDot Advisory Board will be led by Dr David Gilmour , StoreDot's executive Chairman and formerly Global Head of BP Ventures. It will be providing expertise in battery science, electric vehicle infrastructure, automotive industry integration and strategic funding. The Advisory Board will help guide StoreDot's leadership team as it scales up to commercialize its technology and supply car makers with mass produced, fast charging battery technologies, helping them to overcome their customers' range anxiety concerns  currently a major barrier to EV ownership. StoreDot's XFC batteries, which deliver a 50% reduction in charging time at the same cost, are already being tested by major automotive companies.

StoreDot's Advisory Board members will include Dr Dennis Nobelius, COO of Polestar, the electric performance car brand founded by Geely and Volvo Cars, focused on accelerating the change to a sustainable future. Dennis joined Polestar from sister brand Volvo where he held a number of senior roles over a 14-year career and will bring a wealth of knowledge to the board on OEM integration. To help advise on the battery commercialization aspects of StoreDot's vision, the appointment of Joseph Walicki, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Clarios, (Formerly Johnson Controls-Power Solutions Division)  the world's largest automotive battery company serving customers in 150 countries - will be instrumental. Other foundation board members who all bring with them a range of relevant and important experience include Roy Williamson, a global future-mobility and EV infrastructure expert and, formerly, Vice President of BP Advanced Mobility, Professor Doron Aurbach, the world-renowned electrochemist and pioneer of electro-mobility, and Joel Maryles, a financial industry expert, having held senior positions in both investment banking and venture capital.

Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO: "Our world-leading extreme fast-charging battery technology is essential for automotive manufacturers to develop EVs that overcome range and charging anxiety. We're offering a clear technology roadmap ranging from the silicon-based XFC technology to next generation XED, extreme energy density, solid-state technologies. With the active support and previous experience of our newly formed Global Advisory Board we plan to execute on this unique roadmap accelerating the adoption of EVs aligned with our clear vision of a cleaner, zero-emissions world.

"The formation of our Advisory Board is a major step forward as we rapidly move to our next phase of development and on to commercialization of our first automotive batteries for electric vehicles as early as 2024."

Dr David Gilmour, StoreDot Executive Chairman: "Extreme fast charging for electric vehicles is fundamental to their mass adoption and usability for millions of drivers worldwide. StoreDot has the vision, ambition, capabilities and technologies to partner with global automotive companies, enabling them to overcome this crucial barrier. This is essential to fulfil a zero-emissions future, creating a better world for everyone.

"The formation of the Advisory Board, which I am honored to lead, is another key milestone in StoreDot's plan to introduce an extreme fast charging solution in the near future. With our shared vision, we are laying strong foundations to scale rapidly and meet the increased demand for electrified vehicles."

The Advisory Board is the latest milestone for StoreDot which was founded in 2012 in Israel. In 2019, StoreDot's XFC battery was publicly demonstrated in the world's first full live demonstration, charging an electric scooter in just five minutes. Last month it announced a framework agreement with EVE Energy to support the commercialization and mass production of XFC batteries by 2024.

About StoreDot:

StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption  range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes  the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot's battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future technologies for extreme energy-density (XED). StoreDot's strategic investors include BP, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. In 2020, the company demonstrated the scalability of its XFC batteries for other industries, by fully charging a commercial drone in five minutes in another world first. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially-viable product for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its first-generation batteries that are designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-ion production lines.

For more information see: www.store-dot.com .

SOURCE StoreDot
On June 30, 2021, IDB of the MOEA's sponsored session, Taiwan's Best Practices in Smart City , went live at MWC Barcelona. MWC Barcelona is the world's largest mobile exhibition that is usually attended by over 100,000 people, including thousands of exhibitors and 59% of the most senior decision makers in the industry. This year, however, the exhibition will not only be accessible in-person, but also virtually with sessions on-demand and live-streamed.

The session invited 6 speakers with first-hand understanding from different companies and Smart City project areas. Cameo first presented their artificial intelligence (AI) analysis platforms that assist governments concerned with air pollution. This was followed by Coretronic Intelligent Robotics Corporation (CIRC) which uses autonomous drones to improve surveillance of large industrial sites. Taiwan International Development Co. (TIDC) uses geomagnetic senses to reduce traffic by acquiring and sharing real-time parking information. In discussing smart aquaculture, Quadlink shared its solutions for fish farms to mitigate risks from extreme weather and food contamination. Meanwhile, U-Sync uses Human Intelligence (HI) and AI technology to increase productivity in agriculture through digitalization. The session ended with Adymeds which strives to reduce burdens on hospitals and enable remote patient monitoring through integrated medical and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions.

Conversations with the above companies yielded greater understanding of the solutions with real cases and data. The MWC Barcelona session only covers a small number of the many Smart City Taiwan projects, but it demonstrates some of their best practices which could help cities worldwide that are tackling similar issues.

Recording of the session can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/j5R39eh4-4Q

SOURCE Smart City Taiwan
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation ("Taylor Morrison") (NYSE: TMHC), the nation's fifth largest homebuilder, announced today that it will release its second quarter 2021 results before the market opens on Thursday, July 29, 2021. Taylor Morrison will hold a conference call to discuss its second quarter results the same day, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

A live audio webcast, as well as an archive of the conference call, will be available on Taylor Morrison's website at investors.taylormorrison.com.

For call participants, the dial-in number is: 1 (855) 470-8731 or 1 (661) 378-9962 and the audience passcode is: 6955009. This call will be recorded and available for replay at investors.taylormorrison.com.

Taylor Morrison's filings will be available at investors.taylormorrison.com or with the SEC at sec.gov.

About Taylor Morrison

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taylor Morrison is a leading homebuilder and developer operating under our family of brandsincluding Taylor Morrison, Esplanade, Darling Homes and Christopher Todd Communities built by Taylor Morrison. We serve a wide array of consumers from coast to coast, including first-time, move-up, luxury and 55-plus active lifestyle buyers. From 2016-2021, Taylor Morrison has been recognized as America's Most Trusted Builder by Lifestory Research. Our strong commitment to sustainability, our communities and our team is highlighted in our 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report.

For more information about Taylor Morrison, please visit www.taylormorrison.com.

CONTACT:

Investor Relations

Taylor Morrison Home Corp.

(480) 734-2060

[email protected]

SOURCE Taylor Morrison

Related Links

www.taylormorrison.com


WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Jonathan Hedy, Managing Member of the Association of Dealer Management Software, issued the following statement:

"Today, the Association of Dealer Management Software (ADMS) begins working for BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies by introducing our common data standards and technology practices. Members of ADMS are software companies and technology providers specializing in the BHPH Used Car industry who are committed to advancing our shared industry through insightful leadership and best practices. Our organizations are united in the belief that common data standards are necessary for communicating information efficiently for automotive dealerships and finance companies. We believe data uniformity is appropriate and logical for the future of our industry and success of all BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies. The standards we propose and uphold will remove barriers, increase competitiveness, mitigate data-loss, and improve user satisfaction."

Associations are commonly focused on establishing and upholding standards for the purpose of consistency and industry improvement. There are between 40,000 and 75,000 used car dealerships across the United States, and the used car market has grown $153 billion or 7.7% in 2021. In the BHPH Used Car industry, groups have unified around common goals of improving certain business practices, but until now, no group has focused exclusively on software data standards and technology practices. Disparate service providers over many years, through no deliberate fault of their own, have created fragmented, one-off protocols that are incomplete, inaccurate, and vary greatly. The lack of oversight and standardization often results in data loss and unnecessary complications for integrations and conversions. Data standards are commonplace in other industries, facilitating robust integrations that help businesses thrive. By participating in the BHPH software community, it became apparent to many software companies and technology providers that data standards would greatly improve functionality and fluidity of integrations. This vision was the genesis of ADMS. With the increasing number of software solutions available to BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies, and the desire for interoperability, companies involved within the technology ecosystem are uniquely positioned  both as impacted parties and positive change agents  to address these challenges head on.

"My personal mission has always been to drive institutional change through service and positively impact businesses of all sizes. We have a unique opportunity, given the current industry context, to guide software companies and technology providers down a more sustainable path for the benefit of BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies. Integrations help create a more complete solution for users; ADMS establishes the data standards and requirements necessary for integrations to thrive. By establishing and upholding common data standard for DMS, CRM, LOS, insurance, credit reporting, payment processing, accounting, inventory syndication, and GPS devices, users have a truly seamless integration without data-loss or duplicate effort. I hope to build on the momentum that the ADMS has already created, and to leverage new resource tools and strategic partnerships to broaden the positive impact of the Association," said Hedy.

About the Association of Dealer Management Software (ADMS)

The Association of Dealer Management Software is the premier software association in the United States for BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies, representing technology interests of small and large automobile dealerships and finance companies in all 50 states. The ADMS is a membership council consisting of software companies and technology providers working together for the benefit of the BHPH Used Car industry by creating data standards and implementing forward-looking practices across the industry. The ADMS is the powerful voice of the BHPH Used Car and Special Finance community, and the authority for common data and technology standards that help BHPH Used Car Dealerships and Special Finance Companies maximize their software while being free to choose which technologies to use. Founded by Jonathan Hedy, President of ABCoA  one of the oldest Dealer Management Software companies in the industry - ADMS is uniting software companies and technology providers around the common vision to improve the industry with transparent data standards.

Media Contact:

Jonathan Hedy

800-526-5832

[email protected]

SOURCE Association of Dealer Management Software
MOSCOW, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- People in the United States love ice cream, chocolate, and flour confectionery products. And they are increasingly looking to Russia's largest city to procure these popular treats.

Moscow's export of ice cream to the United States jumping $8.23 million in 2020

"Moscow's agricultural exports to North America soared by 7.5%, hitting nearly $50 million in 2020," said Vladimir Efimoy, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations. "Exports to the United States accounted for the vast majority of Moscow's exports to North America, totaling $35.33 million. Out of these, the leading products were wheat gluten, ice cream, chocolate products, and flour confectionery products, and bread. Also filling out the list were canned fish and other finished products."

According to Mosprom, ice cream saw the largest increase, with Moscow's export of ice cream to the United States jumping $8.23 million in 2020, which is almost four times more than 2019. Moscow-based ice cream producers say it's no surprise Americans love ice cream from Moscow, considering the high-quality Americans always demand.

At the same time, Moscow's chocolate products are growing in North American popularity too because they combine high-quality taste with a nod to consumers' concern for healthy lifestyles. Moscow's chocolate products are typically high in cocoa content and low in sugar. That has helped drive a 13% increase in the export of chocolate products from Moscow to North America.

Exports of flour confectionery products and bread from Moscow to North America grew 43.3% in 2020, while exports of canned fish and other finished products grew 15.3%.

"According to the Mosprom Center, exports of agricultural products to Mexico in 2020 amounted to $9.8 million," said Alexander Prokhorov, head of Moscow's Department of Investment and Industrial Policy. "Canada is an equally important importer of the capital's agro-industrial products in the region. In 2020, exports to the country reached $4.72 million, an increase compared to 2019 by 8.5%."

Goods that were delivered to Mexico in 2020 included food additives ($0.21 million) and chocolate products ($0.18 million). In addition, for the first time in 2020, Moscow sent flour confectionery products to Mexico.

In trade with Canada, the main product is ice cream - the calling card of Moscow's dairy exports, which account for half of all Moscow's exports to Canada.

"Ice cream exports to Canada in 2020 increased by 7.9% to $2.51 million," said Natalia Shuvalova, General Director of the Mosprom Center. "The expansion of supplies is primarily due to the high quality of the capital's products and the general popularity of Moscow ice cream in the world, as well as the reorientation of purchases with emphasis on Russia's closer geographical location to Canada compared to other agro-industrial Canadian trading partners - the Republic of Korea and Taiwan."

Mosprom reported that Canada also imports chocolate products and soft drinks, in addition to ice cream.

"Moscow's ice cream products are just what foreigners love," said Arman Arushanyan, CEO of Moscow ice cream importer Amore. "It is high in fat content, pleasant in texture, and, of course, delicious. We know this is what foreign consumers want in their ice cream, and we're very happy to provide it to them in such increasing quantities."

The Mosprom Center, subordinate to the Moscow Department of Investment and Industrial Policy, deals with individual support for the capital's industrial and agribusiness exports.

The experts at the Center analyze the target markets for the capital's manufacturers. Specialists study the macroeconomic report on the target market, as well as the risk profile, including entry barriers, the state of the industry in the target market, its dependence on exports and imports, and SWOT analyses of the consumer market. The experts at the Center also perform individual analyses for the companies in order to determine the most effective strategy for entering foreign markets.

In addition, as part of the buyer program, the Center's experts - free of charge and based on specific export needs - help Moscow companies with the search of counterparties and negotiations with potential buyers abroad, in addition to providing for the participation of Moscow companies in international exhibitions and business missions.

Related Images

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Moscow's export of ice cream to the United States jumping $8.23 million in 2020

SOURCE Mosprom
"The people's aspiration for a better life is our goal."

On Nov. 15, 2012, Xi Jinping, the newly elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made such a commitment to the Chinese people at a press conference.

General Secretary Xi was once an educated youth in Liangjiahe village in Yan'an of Shaanxi Province. During those years, he witnessed and experienced the hard life there, which made him understand people's needs.

The poverty in China's rural areas at that time has left a deep impression on Xi.

In September 2015, President Xi visited the United States and delivered a speech in Seattle, Washington State. He said that one thing he wished most over 40 years ago was to make it possible for the villagers to have meat and have it often.

Over the past 40-plus years, he has worked in the government at all levels, and has always put poverty alleviation at the top of his work agenda and devoted much of his energy to it.

He has always been committed to making tens of millions of rural residents living in poverty earn a better life.

Now, his wish decades ago has come true.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, China has made a historic achievement in poverty alleviation. The 98.99 million rural people living below the current poverty threshold have shaken off poverty; all the 832 poor counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been lifted out of poverty. China has eliminated poverty over entire regions and eradicated extreme poverty.

With the continuous efforts of the CPC and the Chinese people, China has realized the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

It is an important milestone of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Besides, the CPC also set a centenary goal of developing China into a modern socialist country.

Mao Zedong was the first person to set the centenary vision since the founding of the new China.

Deng Xiaoping put forward the strategic plan of developing China into a prosperous, strong, democratic, and culturally advanced modern socialist country by the middle of the 21st century.

In his report to the 19th National Congress of the CPC, Xi Jinping proposed that from 2035 to the middle of the 21st century, we will, building on having basically achieved modernization, work hard for a further 15 years and develop China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful.

By then, the following goals will have been met: new heights are reached in every dimension of material, political, cultural and ethical, social, and ecological advancement; modernization of China's system and capacity for governance is achieved; China has become a global leader in terms of composite national strength and international influence; common prosperity for everyone is basically achieved; the Chinese people enjoy happier, safer, and healthier lives.

For the CPC, achieving national rejuvenation is like a relay race, in which the baton is passed on from generation to generation.

Xi once said that the baton is right in our hands, and we need to shoulder our responsibilities and be loyal to the Party, the country and the people. We should contribute our wisdom and strength and be committed to making new achievements worthy of the times, history and the people with our best efforts.

The year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and also the starting year of the "14th five-year plan." The CPC will lead the people to embark on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and strive for achieving the second centenary goal.

The Chinese people are highly determined to carry forward this undertaking with confidence, diligence and perseverance.

SOURCE China.org.cn
NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The national nonprofit Delivering Good has completed a robust and dynamic three-part series, virtually attended by over 500 people in June, covering leadership, philanthropy and opportunities to support women. The panel discussions are now available at https://www.Delivering-Good.org/womenofinspiration.

"It has been an honor for Delivering Good to gather such an accomplished and inspiring group of speakers representing the top leadership in their fields, each driving change that will impact our futures. Not only did our Women of Inspiration Roundtable Series engage stellar leaders as moderators, role models and speakers, but we also exceeded the fundraising goal of $200,000," said Lisa Gurwitch, President and Chief Executive Officer, Delivering Good. "We are especially happy that many more people can watch the replay of these events, share them with colleagues, friends and staff, and continue to support us online."

"Women's leadership is critical to the mission of Delivering Good, and we have a long history of it. I'm proud to be chair and support our remarkable female CEO and our highly diverse board of women and incredible men. Much of our assistance also helps women and single mothers to reach their full potential," said Andrea Weiss, Delivering Good Board Chair and Founder/CEO of The O Alliance. "Delivering Good has a vision for a more equitable world in which children, adults, and families facing huge challenges have the useful items that they need to help overcome adversity and build self-esteem."

Delivering Good presented this roundtable series to celebrate experiences in women's leadership and offer insights to support women in their journeys. The speakers and panelists shared experiences and lessons about the success of women in business, academics, government, and public service, as well as the impact of gender in the charitable giving space.

1. CHAMPIONS OF WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP

The first event included an impressive group of women sharing their unique perspective on the opportunities to gain leadership today, as well as overcoming challenges that women may have in seeking new leadership responsibilities. The program featured Congresswoman Kathy Manning, U.S. Representative (D-NC) as the keynote speaker. Lisa Kaplowitz, Executive Director of the Center for Women in Business, Rutgers University as the moderator and the panelists were: Fran Horowitz, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch Co.; Cynthia "Cynt" Marshall, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks; and Rear Admiral Aisha K. Mix, Assistant Surgeon General, Chief Nurse Officer for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

Panelist Cynt Marshall, shared her impact on workforce diversity with this statement, "I've earned the right to be there and it's good that I'm there. I take it as an opportunity to show other people what happens when you have a woman or a black person or black woman at the table. It's an opportunity to educate people and make them want to have more people who look like me."

2. THE POWER OF WOMEN IN PHILANTHROPY

Women are playing an increasingly larger role in our charitable giving space in 2021. Representing 51% of total wealth in the United States, with resources exceeding $20 trillion, women are more likely than men to give to virtually all types of charities. This panel explored the emerging power of women in philanthropy, discussing how to better engage women in the philanthropic space and make greater things happen in the philanthropy world. The moderator for this panel was Lisa Gurwitch, President and CEO of Delivering Good. The panelists were: Janiece Evans-Page, CEO, Tides; Lily Kanter, Founder and CEO, Boon Supply Co and Co-Founder of Serena & Lily; Michele Le Moal-Gray, Chairperson, Countess Moira Charitable Foundation; and Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Acumen.

Jacqueline Novogratz shared this insight on humility in philanthropy, "The real change-makers and the best philanthropists, have the humility to see the world as it is, yet the audacity to imagine that we could change it. The ability to fail, get up and try again, comes from knowing that you're not the most important person, that you are here to serve others. At its essence, that's what humility is."

3. A NEW DAY, A NEW HORIZON

The landscape of challenges that prominent leaders are experiencing in their industries is ever-changing and it is hard to imagine what will come next. This panel discussed how both women and men can prepare for the impact these changes will have, and how to ensure spaces are created for women from all walks of life to thrive. The moderator was Lori Mitchell-Keller, Global Head of Industry Solutions for Google Cloud. The panelists were: Meg Crofton, Former President, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, U.S and France; Valerie Grant, SVP/Senior Portfolio Manager, Alliance Bernstein, LP; Pam Kaufman, President of Global Consumer Products, ViacomCBS Inc.; and James Rhee, Impact Investor & CEO, and Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship, Howard University.

Panelist Meg Crofton had the following to say about changes on the horizon, "Post pandemic, there's a new appreciation for the type of head and heart leadership that is needed. Things like communication and empathy and transparency and listening, those are the hard things to do day in and day out. And they represent traits that stereotypically are strengths of women."

The committee members for the Women of Inspiration Roundtable Series were led by Co-Chairs Carole Postal and Karen Bromley, and include Megan K. Bannigan, Paula Bennett, Monica Bertran, Gaye Dean, Carole Hochman, Carol Lapidus, Amber Mundinger, Emily Olah, Hebe Schecter, and Beth Tractenberg. Silver Level sponsors that supported the roundtable series are Bloomberg LP, Burlington Stores Inc., Centric Brands, Gerber Childrenswear LLC, Global Brands Group, Lisa Gurwitch, Carole Hochman, Kaltex America, The O Alliance RSM, and Spotlight Licensing. The Bronze Level sponsors are The A Woodner Fund Inc, The Bennett and Arzoomanian Family Fund, The Bromley Group, Debevoise & Plimpton, Eileen Fisher Foundation, The Joester Loria Group, MMG Advisors, Pryor Cashman, Ross Stores and Tharanco Group Inc. Media sponsors are Sourcing Journal and WWD.

About Delivering Good

Delivering Good is a national nonprofit organization that provides people impacted by poverty and tragedy with new merchandise donated by retailers and manufacturers. Since 1985, Delivering Good has distributed over $2 billion of new clothing, home goods, toys, furniture, books and other consumer products through its network of more than 800 community partners, offering hope, dignity and self-esteem to at-risk children, families and individuals. For more information, please visit Delivering Good and follow @DeliveringGood on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts:

Peter Paris, Delivering Good, [email protected], (646) 362-9091

Nataly Blumberg, The Bromley Group, [email protected]

SOURCE Delivering Good, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.Delivering-Good.org


"Today is a sensational day for the TRATON GROUP and for our new colleagues at Navistar joining the global TRATON family. From this day on, we will be working side by side to bring sustainable transportation of the future one step closer. This is something the entire group is looking forward to," said TRATON CEO Matthias Grundler, adding: "The fact that this merger has been implemented so quickly and smoothly, despite the obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, is testament to the impressive team work on both sides of the Atlantic. I would like to thank each and every one involved."

"Over the past five years, Navistar and the TRATON brands have worked very well together and it is exciting to become now part of the global TRATON GROUP," said Navistar President and CEO Persio Lisboa. "Our common understanding of the future of transportation and our joint heritage create a very solid basis for our common way forward. The transport industry is changing rapidly. And together we will shape this change  for the sake of our customers. The Navistar team is ready for the next step of collaboration."

A strategic alliance has been in place between TRATON and Navistar since 2017, with both partners benefiting from the considerable value generated by enhanced purchasing power and the integration of new technologies. As a new brand of the TRATON GROUP, Navistar will be in a better position to meet the growing requirements of the market and to improve its customer offering even further, especially with respect to the transition to electric mobility and the establishment of autonomous driving.

Combining TRATON's leading position in the European and South American markets with Navistar's strong presence in North America lays the foundation for a premier company with a global reach and complimentary capabilities. The purchase price was approximately 3.7 billion USD.

About the TRATON GROUP

With its brands Scania, MAN, Volkswagen Caminhoes e Onibus, Navistar, and RIO, TRATON SE is one of the world's leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. Its range comprises light-duty commercial vehicles, trucks, and buses. The Group aims to reinvent transportation  with its products, its services, and as a partner to its customers. For TRATON, sustainable economic growth always includes treating people and nature with respect. The People, Planet, and Performance triad will shape the future of our Company.

About Navistar

Navistar is a purpose-driven company, reimagining how to deliver what matters to create more cohesive relationships, build higher-performing teams and find solutions where others don't. Navistar is the Lisle, Illinois-based parent company of International brand commercial trucks and engines, IC Bus brand school and commercial buses, all-makes OnCommand Connection advanced connectivity services, aftermarket parts brands Fleetrite, ReNEWed and Diamond Advantage and Brazilian manufacturer of engines and gensets MWM Motores Diesel e Geradores. With a history of innovation dating back to 1831, Navistar has more than 12,000 employees worldwide and is part of TRATON SE, a global champion of the truck and transport services industry.

SOURCE Navistar International Corporation

Related Links

http://www.navistar.com


OAK BROOK, Ill., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS) will host an audio webcast of its second quarter earnings results conference call on Thursday, August 5, 2021 at 8:00 a.m. ET. Steve Oakland, Chief Executive Officer and President, and Bill Kelley, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will discuss the results for the second quarter and the outlook for the balance of 2021. An earnings release will be issued before the market opens on the same date, and the accompanying slides will be posted to the "Investors" section of the website at approximately 7:45 a.m. ET. The webcast will be accessible by visiting http://www.treehousefoods.com and by clicking on "Investors," "Events & Presentations."

In order to listen to the webcast, users will need to have installed either Real Player or Windows Media Player software, which can be detected and downloaded by visiting the site. A webcast replay will be available for 180 days following the event within the "Investors," "Events & Presentations," "Archived Events & Presentations" section of the Company's website.

ABOUT TREEHOUSE FOODS

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. is a leading manufacturer and distributor of private label packaged foods and beverages in North America. We have approximately 40 production facilities across North America and Italy, and our vision is to be the undisputed solutions leader for custom brands for our customers. Our extensive product portfolio includes snacking, beverages, and meal preparation products, available in shelf stable, refrigerated, frozen, and fresh formats. We have a comprehensive offering of packaging formats and flavor profiles, and we also offer clean label, organic, and preservative-free ingredients across almost our entire portfolio. Our purpose is to make high quality food and beverages affordable to all.

Additional information, including TreeHouse's most recent Forms 10-Q and 10-K, may be found at TreeHouse's website, http://www.treehousefoods.com.

SOURCE TreeHouse Foods, Inc.

RELATED LINKS

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SOURCE TreeHouse Foods, Inc.
PARAMUS, N.J., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NS Pharma, Inc. (NS Pharma; President, Tsugio Tanaka), a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. (Nippon Shinyaku; President, Toru Nakai), announced that new long-term efficacy and safety data based on interim analyses at 109 weeks from the open-label extension trial of a Phase 2 study of VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection were presented at the PPMD 2021 Annual Conference.

"These analyses showed that, after more than two years of treatment with VILTEPSO, patients maintained their motor function based on clinically relevant measurements while the DMD historic controls showed functional decline," said Leslie Magnus, MD, Vice President, Medical Affairs.

This current open-label trial (N=16) is the extension of a previous 24-week trial in North America. All 16 patients in the short-term study elected to enroll in this long-term trial. Participants were assessed at weeks 37, 49, 73 and 109 and will continue to be assessed until study completion. These interim analyses of the timed function tests were conducted for all participants who had received at least 109 weeks of total treatment vs. the matched DMD historical control group (Cooperative International Neuromuscular Research Group  Duchenne Natural History Study (CINRG-DNHS)).

The efficacy results were for Time to Stand from supine (mean change from baseline (seconds) at weeks 73 and 109 for viltolarsen was 0.21 and 0.43 vs CINRG-DNHS: 3.6 and 4.3, p<0.01), Time to Run/Walk 10 meters (mean change from baseline (seconds) at weeks 49, 73, and 109 for viltolarsen was -0.8, -0.9, and -0.4 vs CINRG-DNHS: 0.5, 1.3, 1.3, p<0.05), and 6-Minute Walk Test (mean change from baseline (meters) at week 109 for viltolarsen was 0.9 vs CINRG-DNHS: -65.6, p<0.05).

The most frequently reported adverse events were mild to moderate in this time-period and included cough, nasopharyngitis, rash, pyrexia, and vomiting. This safety profile was similar to that seen in the previous short-term study. To date, there were no treatment-related serious adverse events and no treatment discontinuations. These data provide important information on the efficacy and safety of the long-term use of viltolarsen for the treatment of DMD patients who are amenable to exon 53 skipping.

"Duchenne is a progressive disease of functional deterioration," said study investigator Paula Clemens, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "More research is needed, but a disease-modifying therapy that could stabilize and delay the loss of muscle function is needed for families with Duchenne and the healthcare professionals who specialize in its treatment."

In addition to this Phase 2 open-label extension study, NS Pharma continues to investigate the efficacy and safety of VILTEPSO in the confirmatory Phase 3 RACER53 trial. This study was initiated in October 2019 and is currently enrolling patients. The purpose of this Phase 3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy of viltolarsen on functional motor endpoints compared to placebo in DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping.

About VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection

Prior to its approval in the U.S. in August 2020, VILTEPSO was granted Priority Review as well as Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations. In March 2020, VILTEPSO was approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with DMD who are amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Prior to its approval in Japan, VILTEPSO was granted with the SAKIGAKE designation, Orphan Drug designation, and designation of Conditional Early Approval System.

Indication

VILTEPSO is indicated for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients who have a confirmed mutation of the DMD gene that is amenable to exon 53 skipping. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on an increase in dystrophin production in skeletal muscle observed in patients treated with VILTEPSO. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial.

Important Safety Information

In clinical studies, no patients experienced kidney toxicity during treatment with VILTEPSO. However, kidney toxicity from drugs like VILTEPSO may be possible. Your doctor may monitor the health of your kidneys before starting and during treatment with VILTEPSO.

Common side effects include upper respiratory tract infection, injection site reaction, cough, and fever.

About NS Pharma, Inc.

NS Pharma, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. For more information, please visit http://www.nspharma.com. NS Pharma is a registered trademark of the Nippon Shinyaku group of companies.

Contact

U.S. Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE NS Pharma

Related Links

http://www.nspharma.com


Why The Red Star Shines Over China? In July 1920, a group of Chinese students who had been sent to study and work in France gathered at Montargis College. At the meeting, Cai Hesen said, "We should imitate the Russian October Revolution to launch fierce revolution, organize the Communist Party, and implement the dictatorship of the proletariat."In August of the same year, Cai Hesen proposed in a letter to Mao Zedong "to formally establish a Communist Party of China."Mao Zedong wrote back, saying: "You are highly perceptive, and not a word do I disagree with in this letter." The name "Communist Party of China" was also first mentioned in the letter.

The Chinese nation has a civilization that dates back more than 5,000 years.

During the long history, the diligent and intelligent Chinese people have created a splendid culture.

From 1840, however, the western imperialist powers launched a series of aggressive wars, and forced China to cede its territories and pay reparations.

The Chinese people were living in dire straits, and the Chinese nation facing tragic and bleak prospects was on the verge of destruction.

In modern times, people with lofty ideals had never stopped fighting bravely to defend the independence and dignity of the nation, and the Chinese civilization.

During that period, the Taiping Rebellion, the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898, and the anti-western Boxer Rebellion broke out.

Due to a lack of scientific theory, correct path, and reliable social forces, these struggles failed time and time again.

In October 1911, the Xinhai Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen finally overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China, hence ending the autocratic monarchy that had ruled China for more than 2,000 years.

The Revolution, however, did not change the miserable plight of the Chinese people under oppression and suppression.

The Beiyang warlords headed by Yuan Shikai usurped what the Xinhai Revolution achieved, and China fell into a fragmented warlord regime and melee.

During this period, various political systems such as imperial restoration, parliamentary system, multi-party system, and presidential system stepped on the political arena of China. Many political forces and their representatives also came on stage. Nevertheless, neither the social nature of the old China nor the tragic fate of the Chinese people changed.

History called for those who could truly take up the mission to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This task fell gloriously on the shoulders of the representatives of advanced productive forces  the Chinese working class and its political party.

Facing the social reality after the Xinhai Revolution, China's outstanding intellectuals represented by ChenDuxiu and Li Dazhao resolutely raised high the banner of democracy and science, and kicked off the New Culture Movement.

Advocating the western ideas of science and democracy, the New Culture Movement lifted the restrictions on new thoughts and started an emancipation of minds in Chinese society.

Around the same time, in 1917, the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin launched the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, which astonished the world. The first socialist country was then established.

Motivated by the October Revolution, the Communist Parties of various countries were founded one after another, and the communist movement rapidly spread across the whole world.

In March 1919, the Communist International  the international organization of the proletariat  was founded.

On May 4th of that year, more than 3,000 students from Beijing gathered at Tiananmen Square to hold a demonstration.

They broke through the obstructions of the reactionary military and assembled from all sides at Tiananmen Square to hold a protest rally. This was the May Fourth Movement that shocked the country and the world.

As the main initiators of the Chinese New Culture Movement, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao resolutely chose to follow the steps of Marxism and the October Revolution during the May Fourth Movement in 1919. They were also the main founders of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Promoted by the party organizations in Beijing and Shanghai, early party organizations were set up one after another in the rest of the country.

In July 1920, a group of Chinese students who had been sent to study and work in France gathered at Montargis College.

At the meeting, Cai Hesen said, "We should imitate the Russian October Revolution to launch fierce revolution, organize the Communist Party, and implement the dictatorship of the proletariat."

In August of the same year, Cai Hesen proposed in a letter to Mao Zedong "to formally establish a Communist Party of China."

Mao Zedong wrote back, saying: "You are highly perceptive, and not a word do I disagree with in this letter." The name "Communist Party of China" was also first mentioned in the letter.

On July 23, 1921, the First National Congress of the CPC was held at No. 106 Wangzhi Road in the French Concession of Shanghai. It closed on the Red Boat on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province.

The CPC was officially established!

The birth of the CPC is the inevitable result of the development of modern Chinese history, of the people's tenacious struggle for survival, and of the nation's pursuit of the great rejuvenation.

In the next 28 years, after arduous struggle and the support of the people, the CPC became the ruling party of China.

Over the past 100 years, the CPC has led the Chinese people to profoundly change the direction and process of contemporary China's development, the future and destiny of the nation, and the trend and pattern of world development.

SOURCE China.org.cn
LONDON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The eagerly anticipated summer issue of World Finance magazine has been released today. Featured on the front cover is Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, the Governor of Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria. Our profile of this man looks at the mission he has embarked upon to lead economic transformation through a series of projects.

Elsewhere in the magazine, we look at how the World Trade Organisation's outdated mechanisms have been exposed by the rise of 'vaccine nationalism,' prompting many members to call for reform. Alex Katsomitros explores whether the WTO can adapt to the post-pandemic era.

Investor enthusiasm for environmental social governance is at an all time high and, by contrast, companies that have not established a positive ESG profile look certain to be left behind as the tide turns against them. Ruth Kibble explores how ethics have become as important as the bottom line.

Meanwhile, Laura French explores how an expertly executed branding campaign has the power to transform the fortunes of a company and, in some cases, successfully introduce that firm into the global consciousness.

Additionally, wealthier countries are buying their way to a fully vaccinated population while others fall behind; Natalie Keffler discusses how developing countries desperately need support if we are to bring an end to the global pandemic.

Other topics covered in the summer edition of World Finance include a profile of Citigroups's new CEO, Jane Fraser, Amsterdam's re-emergence as a financial hub, the growth of NFTs, commercial property, artificial intelligence and private equity.

To read about all of this and more, pick up the latest issue of World Finance magazine, available in print, on tablet and online now.

www.worldfinance.com

World News Media, the parent company of World Finance, is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world.

Contact information

World News Media

Richard Willcox

+44 (0)207 553 4151

[email protected]

SOURCE World News Media
ST. GEORGE, Utah, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In a tribute to freedom and American values, Air Force Colonel (retired) Gail S. Halvorsen will re-live his role as the Candy Bomber for a historic candy drop and flyover at Greater Zion Stadium on the Dixie State University campus in St. George, Utah.

Part of the southwest Utah city's Patriotic Tribute to America celebration, sponsored by the nonprofit foundation United We Pledge, Halvorsen's appearance is slated to take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 3, and will pay tribute to the 100-year-old World War II hero and other local veterans.

At 100-years-old, Air Force Colonel (retired) Gail S. Halvorsen will re-live his role as the Candy Bomber during a historic candy drop on July 3 at the Dixie State University campus in St. George, Utah.

Halvorsen became known as the Candy Bomber in the 1940s after dropping sweet treats from his aircraft to children in Berlin amid the devastation left behind from the war. While flying missions as part of the Berlin Airlift to deliver food, water and medicine to residents of the besieged city, Halvorsen was one of the pilots landing every 13 minutes to help nearly 2 million starving Germans from July 1948 to September 1949.

While his plane was being unloaded during one of his stops, Halvorsen made his way over to a group of children behind a barbed wire fence. Wanting to share something with them, he reached into his pocket and dug out all that he had: two pieces of gum. What followed would affect Halvorsen forever. Demonstrating true generosity and compassion for one another, the children proceeded to split the gum into small pieces to share. The wrappers were then passed around so those who didn't receive a piece of the gum could smell its minty scent off the wrapper.

The children's selfless sacrifice sparked an idea in Halvorsen. Remembering the adage "from small things come great things," which his father often used, Halvorsen asked his fellow servicemen if they'd be interested in sharing their gum and candy rations with the children. Halvorsen soon started tying his peers' contributions to handkerchiefs and dropping the treats to the children below as he flew by and wiggled his wings so the kids could be sure to identify him. This simple gesture of kindness quickly gained traction, and before he knew it, Halvorsen and his friends started receiving donations from candy companies and other groups. Since then, they have shared 23 tons of treats from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania to Japan, Guam and Iraq.

This weekend, after dropping candy from a helicopter flying over the Dixie State University campus, Halvorsen will be escorted to the Greater Zion Stadium, where he will be presented the inaugural Gail Halvorsen Lifetime Service Award in recognition of his legacy of kindness and charity. Additionally, nine local veterans will be honored with service awards.

"Halvorsen showed dedication to helping others in need and is a true American hero," said Dennis Leavitt of United We Pledge.

Media Contact:

Jyl Hall

435-652-7547

[email protected]

https://dixie.edu/

SOURCE Dixie State University
SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The California Lawyers Association ('CLA") and the California Lawyers Foundation ("CLF") are pleased to announce the recipients of the Summer 2021 Labor and Employment Law Student Scholarship Program, a joint program of CLA's Labor and Employment Law Section and the California Lawyers Foundation (a 501(c)(3) charitable organization). The funding of these scholarships was made possible by CLA's Labor and Employment Law Section and provides valuable support for diverse law students interested in pursuing careers in labor and employment law. The Section, CLA, and CLF are committed to fostering the career growth of persons of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups. CLA's Labor and Employment Law Section recognized a particular need for law students interested in practicing labor and employment law and approved $80,000.00 for summer scholarships to ten (10) law students, who will receive $8,000.00 each, to pursue employment or labor related work during Summer 2021.

The purpose of the scholarships is to provide funding to diverse law students to engage in legal endeavors in an employment or labor related field that may be non-compensated or undercompensated. The summer scholarship recipients are:

Kalan Andrews, UC Davis School of Law, interning at the New York Legal Assistance Group

Sami Elamad, Santa Clara University School of Law, interning at the National Labor Relations Board

Mikaila Hernandez, University of San Diego School of Law, interning at Root and Rebound

Josephine Mendoza, UC Hastings College of the Law, interning at the U.S. Department of Labor

Athena Niayesh, Santa Clara University School of Law, interning at the National Labor Relations Board

Ngoclan Nguyen, Golden Gate University School of Law, interning at the U.S. Department of Labor

Angelique Rael, Tulane Law School, interning at Legal Aid at Work

Alexandra Reyna, Loyola Law School, interning at Bet Tzedek

Eduardo Ruiz, University of San Francisco School of Law, interning at California Rural Legal Assistance

Jincy Varughese, UCLA School of Law, interning at Warehouse Worker Resource Center

"Thank you to the Labor and Employment Law Section and the California Lawyers Foundation for allowing me to pursue work that I am passionate about this summer," said scholarship recipient Josephine Mendoza. Another scholarship recipient, Mikaila Hernandez remarked, "this scholarship really helps me pursue the work I want to do with my legal education."

"We were extremely pleased with the high number of applications we received for our inaugural summer. The law students were outstanding, and it was a very hard decision for the selection committee to make," said Jinny Kim, chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section's Diversity Subcommittee. Other members of the Diversity Subcommittee include Adrianne de Castro, Anne Giese, Nicole Heeder, Kevin Hosn, Latika Malkani, Hina Shah, and Scott Stillman.

"We are committed to diversifying the labor and employment law bar and developing the pipeline of future labor and employment law practitioners," said Deborah Maddux, Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Section. "CLF is in a unique position to partner with CLA to deliver practice area specific fellowships and scholarships as part our commitment to expanding the pathway into the legal profession," said Ona Alston Dosunmu, CEO and Executive Director of CLA and CLF.

For more information about the mission of the California Lawyers Association, or how to join, please visit https://calawyers.org. For information about the California Lawyers Foundation, please visit https://calawyersfoundation.org/. For information about the Labor and Employment Law Section, or how to join, please visit https://calawyers.org/section/labor-and-employment-law/.

About the California Lawyers Association:

Established in 2018, CLA is the bar association for all California attorneys. CLA's mission is to promote excellence, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law.

About the Labor & Employment Law Section of the California Lawyers Association:

With over 8,000 members, the Labor and Employment Law Section furthers the knowledge of its members in labor law and employment issues by providing a forum for lawyers and non-lawyers with an interest in labor relations and employment issues. The mission of the Labor & Employment Law Section is to provide diverse educational opportunities and perspectives regarding labor and employment issues to our section members, to the bar, and to the general public. The Section provides educational opportunities throughout the year, including opportunities for online participatory MCLE credit and self-study MCLE credit.

About the California Lawyers Foundation:

Formed in 2019, the California Lawyers Foundation ("CLF") is the charitable arm and partner of the California Lawyers Association, California's voluntary statewide bar association. While new to the scene, the CLF is a statewide foundation actively developing and supporting projects that improve access to justice for people in need and make the legal system more fair and efficient for everyone; increase diversity in the profession and help educate Californians about the 3rd branch, the role of lawyers and the rule of law. CLF is a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") Section 501(c)(3). For more information about CLF, please visit https://calawyersfoundation.org/ .

SOURCE California Lawyers Association
STOCKHOLM, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean Yield ASA ("Ocean Yield") has agreed to acquire 49.9% equity interest in one dual-fuel newbuilding container vessel with 18-year bareboat charter to a major European container line.

The vessel, with a capacity of 15,300 TEUs is under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea and is expected to be delivered in Q3 2022. The vessel will be fitted with a dual-fuel engine and will be able to operate on LNG. The vessel will commence its 18- year bareboat charter to a major European container line upon delivery.

The investment will be made through Box Holdings Inc., a joint venture between Ocean Yield and Quantum Pacific Shipping formed in 2016, which already owns six mega container vessels with long-term charters. The transaction is subject to final documentation.

Box Holdings Inc. is concurrently working on a refinancing of the bank debt relating to the six mega container vessels it currently owns, which is expected to release a significant cash amount that can be made available for new investments and or dividends to the shareholders. It is expected that this refinancing will close during Q3 2021.

Quantum Pacific Shipping is part of the global Quantum Pacific Group, whose interests span a diverse set of industries including energy, natural resources, automotive, sports, medical technologies as well as shipping. Quantum Pacific Shipping's fleet is managed by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping. With a history spanning over 60 years, Eastern Pacific Shipping today manages over 180 vessels and 18 million deadweight-tonnes across the dry bulk, container vessel, and tanker segments.

CEO of Ocean Yield, Lars Solbakken said in a comment: "We are pleased to expand our partnership with Quantum Pacific Shipping, a group with extensive experience in the container segment and an excellent reputation. This investment will contribute to further increase our charter backlog and future dividend capacity."

CEO of Eastern Pacific Shipping, Cyril Ducau, stated: "We are happy to again partner with Ocean Yield on this exciting project. Our relationship has only become stronger over time, and we look forward to continuing to grow our business together going forward."

Company contact:

Eirik Eide (CFO), Tel +47 24 13 01 91

Investor Relations contact:

Marius Magelie (SVP Finance & Investor Relations), Tel +47 24 13 01 82

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/ocean-yield/r/acquisition-of-49-9--interest-in-one-dual-fuel-container-vessel-with-18-year-charter,c3377886

SOURCE Ocean Yield
NAMRC is the premier international forum for applied research and industrial applications in manufacturing and design. NAMRI | SME brings together researchers from leading companies, government laboratories, academic institutions and industrial think tanks located around the world for advancing the scientific foundation of discrete-parts manufacturing.

"Our annual NAMRC event allows us to come together  virtually this year  to discuss issues and celebrate those among us who have made significant advancements in the manufacturing realm," said Brigid A. Mullany, PhD, 2021-22 NAMRI | SME president. "These advances are important to a robust manufacturing industry, and the awards help us recognize those thought and technology leaders who are continuously improving processes to support a competitive economy."

Awards Recognize Advancements from Teams, Individuals

NAMRI | SME S.M. Wu Research Implementation Award

Named after the late University of Michigan professor Shien-Ming Wu, PhD, FSME, this award recognizes outstanding original research presented at NAMRC which subsequently, upon implementation, had a significant commercial and/or societal impact. The 2021 recipient was:

Jianjun Shi , PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta

NAMRI | SME Outstanding Lifetime Service Award

This award honors distinguished members for their long-term dedication and contributions to NAMRI | SME. This year's recipient was:

Steven Y. Liang , PhD, LSME, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta

2021 Outstanding Paper Awards

Three papers were chosen as outstanding from among more than 130 that were submitted:

"3D Freeze-printed Cellulose-based Aerogels: Obtaining Truly 3D Shapes, and Functionalization with Cross-linking and Conductive Additives," from authors Halil Tetik , Keren Zhao , Nasrullah Shah and Dong Lin , Kansas State University , Manhattan, Kansas .

, , and , , . "Influence of a local short-term heat treatment on the formability of orbital formed functional components," from authors Andreas Hetzel , Marion Merklein and Michael Lechner , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremburg Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Erlangen, Germany.

, and , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremburg Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Erlangen, Germany. "Stochastic Modeling for Tracking and Prediction of Gradual and Transient Battery Performance Degradation," from authors Matthew Russell , Evan King , Chadwick Parrish and Peng Wang , University of Kentucky, Lexington , Kentucky .

NSF Blue Sky Award Competitors / David Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award Winner

The NSF Blue Sky Awards competition, which culminates in selection of the David Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award winner, encourages participants to think big  sometimes even outrageously  in posing grand challenges to be addressed and in thinking transformatively in a manner that may interest government entities in supporting and funding their projects. The winner of the competition, chosen from among eight finalists, was:

"Product in a Patient: In Vivo Surgical Manufacturing," authored by Michael McPhail , PhD; Juergen Neubauer ; and David Lott , Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona .

NAMRI | SME Board of Directors Sustained by Membership

As part of the NAMRI | SME Member Meeting preceding the awards ceremony, the NAMRI | SME 2021-22 board and directors were ratified by vote from members present. Receiving the confirming vote were:

President  Brigid Mullany , PhD, University of North Carolina at Charlotte , Charlotte, North Carolina

, PhD, , President-Elect  Livan Fratini , PhD, University of Palermo, Sicily, Italy

, PhD, University of Palermo, Secretary  KC Morris, PhD, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Scientific Committee Chair  Ihab Ragai, PhD, PE, Penn State Behrend, Erie, Pennsylvania

Scientific Committee Chair-Elect  Robert X. Gao , PhD, FSME, Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland

, PhD, FSME, , Immediate Past-President  Lihui Wang , PhD, FSME, PE, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

, PhD, FSME, PE, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Second Past President  Albert J. Shih , PhD, FSME, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , Michigan

NAMRI directors:

Jeffrey A. Abell , PhD, FSME, CMfgE, PE  General Motors, Warren, Michigan

, PhD, FSME, CMfgE, PE  General Motors, Dale R. Lombardo  GE Aviation, Niskayuna, New York

 GE Aviation, Tony L. Schmitz , PhD, FSME  University of Tennessee, Knoxville , Tennessee

, PhD, FSME  , Zhijian "ZJ" Pei, PhD, FSME  Texas A & M, College Station , Texas

, Mike Vogler , PhD  Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Illinois

, PhD  Caterpillar Inc., Rebecca R. Taylor , Ex-Officio  The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Founders Lecture

Given during the NAMRI | SME Member Meeting, the Founders Lecture was delivered by 1996-97 NAMRI | SME President Warren DeVries, PhD, FSME, retired professor of Mechanical Engineering and former dean of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

Next year will mark the 50th year that NAMRC has been conducted. It will be held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, June 27-July 1, 2022.

NAMRC  North American Manufacturing Research Conference of NAMRI | SME

NAMRC is recognized as North America's preeminent and longest-running international forum for applied research and industrial applications in manufacturing and design with its presentations and publication of original, basic and applied research in advanced manufacturing.

An annual event since 1973, NAMRC advances the scientific foundation of discrete-parts manufacturing leading to next-generation applications of emerging and innovative technology in material removal, forming and additive manufacturing processes and machines, and cyber-physical systems. The conference attracts global academicians, government and industry researchers, engineers, students and leaders in manufacturing to interact with each other and advance the field. NAMRC features peer-reviewed papers, keynotes, special opportunities for networking and collaboration, and recognition of research implementation, service and achievements. Details available at NAMRC.SME.org.

About SME

SME connects manufacturing professionals, academia and communities, sharing knowledge and resources to build inspired, educated and prosperous manufacturers and enterprises. With nearly 90 years of experience and expertise in events, media, membership, training and development, and also through the SME Education Foundation, SME is committed to promoting manufacturing technology, developing a skilled workforce and attracting future generations to advance manufacturing. Learn more at SME.org, follow @SME_MFG on Twitter or facebook.com/SMEmfg.

SOURCE SME

Related Links

http://www.sme.org


NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Amynta Group, a leading insurance services provider of property & casualty and warranty protection products and services, has acquired Scion Underwriting Services from Brit. Based in Dallas, Texas, Scion operates as an MGA providing specialty casualty insurance solutions to the excess and surplus lines market. The company specializes in excess liability, with a focus on the transportation market, and primary general liability, writing total premiums of over $65 million. As part of the transaction, Brit will continue to be the largest provider of underwriting capacity for the business. Scion will continue under the leadership of Scott Brock, President of Scion and Michael Hattaway, Senior Vice President.

"We are very pleased to welcome Scott, Michael and the Scion team to Amynta. Scion has built an excellent business with a well-established team focused on delivering innovative, client focused solutions to the market," said Robert Giammarco, Chairman and CEO of Amynta. "We look forward to partnering with Brit to support the continued growth of the business."

"We are excited to be joining Amynta which will accelerate our expansion plans and continue delivering creative solutions and superior service to our broker partners and clients with the continued support of Brit" said Scott Brock, President of Scion.

Matthew Wilson, CEO of Brit, commented: "Scott and his team have done a great job in building Scion, creating a differentiated product set and growing the business significantly since launch. Having aligned our US operations under the Ambridge brand, Amynta represents a better strategic fit for Scion, enabling the business to continue to expand and develop its offering. Brit will remain a capacity provider for Scion and we look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the Company."

For more information, please visit scionunderwriting.com.

About Amynta

Amynta Group is a premier insurance services company with more than $3.5 billion in managed premium and 2,000 associates across North America, Europe, and Australia. An independent, customer-centered and underwriting-focused company, Amynta serves leading carriers, wholesalers, retail agencies, auto dealers, OEMs, and consumer product retailers with innovative insurance and warranty protection solutions. Amynta operates through three segments: Managing General Agencies; Warranty, including automotive, consumer and specialty equipment; and Specialty Risk Services. For more information, please visit amyntagroup.com.

About Brit

Brit is a market-leading global specialty insurer and reinsurer, focused on underwriting complex risks. It has a major presence in Lloyd's of London, the world's specialist insurance market provider, with significant US and international reach. Brit underwrites a broad class of commercial specialty insurance with a strong focus on property, casualty and energy business. Its capabilities are underpinned by robust financials. Brit is a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. For more information, please visit britinsurance.com.

Amynta Media Contact:

Brenna Tetley

Phone: 646.887.9498

Email: [email protected]

Amynta Mergers & Acquisitions Contact:

Chris Ezbiansky

Phone: 646.887.9495

Email: [email protected]

Brit Media Contact:

Tom Blackwell

Phone: +44 7747 113919

SOURCE The Amynta Group

Related Links

www.amyntagroup.com


HILO, Hawaii, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Andrzej Kudelka MD, FACP, FACE, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who for a Top Oncologist for his professional excellence in the medical field and his unwavering dedication as a traveling doctor for Hilo Medical Center.

Dr. Andrzej Kudelka, a board-certified oncologist, has been in medical practice for over four decades, specializing in gynecology, melanoma, sarcoma, advanced thyroid, cancer, and breast medicine, to name a few. He most recently moved to Hawaii and joined the Hilo Medical Center team as an attending and traveling doctor. Prior to his current role, he gained valuable experience as a vital member of the Melanoma Management Team at Stony Brook Cancer Center, which he joined in 2006. Dr. Kudelka remains a faculty member within the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. An expert in his field, Dr. Kudelka has researched the areas of gynecology and breast cancer.

In light of his academic achievements, Dr. Kudelka graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from City College of CUNY in 1974. He was also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. Furthering his studies, Dr. Kudelka attended Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, where he studied Applied Mathematics, followed by Columbia University, where he studied Biology. Dr. Kudelka's medical career began after obtaining his medical degree in 1982 at the Medical Academy of Gdansk in Poland. In the same year, he was elected as a member of the Electoral College of the Medical Academy of Gdansk for the Academy's President, Vice President, and Deans' first free elections.

Dedicated to his medical training, Dr. Kudelka's completed an internal medicine residency at Coney Island Hospital and the Veteran's Administration Medical Center. Lastly, he completed a hematology/oncology fellowship at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. With a commitment to excellence, Dr. Kudelka is board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology & hospice, and palliative medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Throughout his extensive career, Dr. Kudelka excelled in the academic sector. He has served as an associate professor and associate internist at The University of Texas / M. D. Anderson Cancer Center within the following: Department of Gynecologic Medical Oncology, the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, the Department of Clinical Investigation, the Department of Medical Oncology, and the Department of Clinical Immunology and Biological Therapy. Furthermore, he served on various medical committees, including the Stony Brook Cancer Center Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and the Quality and Patient Safety Committee at Stony Brook University.



Remaining abreast of the latest advancements in his field, Dr. Kudelka maintained active memberships with several professional organizations, including the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, The Society for Melanoma Research, the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the International Gynecologic Cancer Society. Additionally, he is a distinguished Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Endocrinology.

As a testament to his professional excellence, Dr. Kudelka is the recipient of many awards and accolades. He was named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor and a Top Doctor by Newsday.

To learn more, please visit https://www.hilomedicalcenter.org/. You can learn more about Dr. Kudelka's research at:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C33&q=+Andrzej+Kudelka&btnG

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634 [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Archer, a data-driven real estate investment firm, has hired Miles Pratt as Managing Director  Real Estate Acquisitions. In this role, Pratt is responsible for identifying and pursuing investment opportunities across the United States on behalf of Archer and its clients. He is also responsible for building and maintaining relationships with private and institutional investors.

Miles Pratt

"Miles brings a unique combination of real estate industry experience, off-market deal making expertise, and a willingness to challenge the status quo by leveraging unique approaches to data and technology," says Thomas Foley, Archer co-founder and CEO. "We're thrilled for the opportunities that Miles will help unlock as we work with our clients and investors to source and execute on targeted real estate acquisitions."

Pratt represents Archer's first acquisitions-related hire. He boasts 16 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. During that time, he's been involved in deals worth more than $1 billion across multiple property types including multifamily, retail, office, and mixed-use.

Prior to joining Archer, Pratt served as principal of Glade Street Capital, an investment firm focused on unique off-market and mid-market opportunities in the Washington D.C. region. In that executive position, he concentrated on multifamily and land development, as well as value-add and repositioning opportunities.

Pratt also spent more than nine years with Arlington, Va.-based McCaffery Interests. During his tenure at the private development and investment firm, he held four different roles including vice president of finance and acquisitions. He was responsible for executing acquisition and development strategies across multiple property types.

Pratt's most notable deal was 1600 Smallman St. and Produce Terminal in Pittsburgh's Strip District, a joint venture between McCaffrey Interests and BentallGreekOak. The project involved more than $100 million in capital. McCaffery Interests was awarded developer of the year in 2019 and both projects were ranked in the top 10 developments in Pittsburgh in 2020.

"At Archer, we believe real estate data and technology is best leveraged when it is combined with the experience and intuition of local operators and industry veterans," says Fred Canney, Archer co-founder and CFO/COO. "Adding Miles to our team demonstrates our commitment to this approach."

Archer's proprietary technology platform, Actionable Insights Model (AIM), helps investors source opportunities by converting raw, disjointed data into actionable market intelligence with a click of a button  something that typically requires an army of analysts and takes multiple weeks, if not months.

Utilizing behavioral ownership triggers, AIM creates a "seller propensity" score, allowing acquisitions teams to focus on the deals most likely to transact, e.g. the most actionable deals. The platform also provides customized recommendations based on clients' preferred locations, previous investments, and areas of interest. By layering proprietary cash-flow forecasting models with market-specific data and thematic demand drivers, AIM delivers a clear view into the performance of any property type and market.

Archer is working with several real estate investors to enhance their in-house acquisition teams and source deals. The firm plans to invest in commercial real estate alongside its clients, either through co-investments or customized separate accounts. Its longer-term vision is to build investment portfolios that target specific cities and property types, e.g. Salt Lake City industrial or San Antonio multifamily.

"I'm thrilled to be joining the Archer team," Pratt says. "The way the company has aggregated data, along with its automated underwriting and asset management tools, allows it to look at hundreds of opportunities each month without having to rely on dozens of analysts and associates. Now is the time to capitalize on real estate tech and data in commercial real estate. It took a little while, but commercial real estate is finally catching up to the rest of the financial sector, and Archer is at the forefront."

Pratt began his real estate career as an asset management analyst with Asset Capital Corp. In that role, he managed a portfolio of more than 1 million square feet of commercial office, medical office, and industrial assets in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.

A New Orleans-native, Pratt attended Tulane University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in political science. After moving to the nation's capital, he obtained a Master's degree in real estate finance from Georgetown University.

About Archer

Archer is a real estate investment firm that helps investors build their ideal portfolios. By targeting specific cities and properties, Archer is refining the way investors enter new markets and expand into new property types. The firm has developed a transformative technology tool, Actionable Insights Model (AIM), that merges data from trusted sources and insights from local market experts. Guided by AIM, Archer identifies the most strategic assets, allowing investors to reduce the risk associated with market entry. Learn more at www.archer.re.

Contact:

Jennifer Duell

8179032432

[email protected]

SOURCE Archer
Request a free sample report for more insights

Fast-paced modern lifestyles are increasing the preference for convenience among people worldwide. This has increased the demand for time-saving and easy-to-use products such as automatic baby swings. Automatic baby swings help soothe and calm the baby while parents take care of household chores. The demand for such baby products is on the rise among career-oriented parents who prefer earning enough to ensure the safety and comfort of their children. Thus, with the increasing emphasis on convenience, the demand for automatic baby swings is expected to increase during the forecast period.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample:

https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR44101

As per Technavio, the growing number of working parents and nuclear families will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2021-2025.

Automatic Baby Swing Market: Growing number of working parents and nuclear families

Changing lifestyles of people have increased the number of working parents and nuclear families. Also, the number of working women and single parents is on the rise globally. For instance, in 2019, the female labor force constituted 38.9% of the total labor force globally. In the UK, out of the total female population of the age group of 15 years and above, 59.65% were working in 2019. The number of working women is also on the rise in developing countries such as China and India. The rise in the number of working parents has increased the reliance on convenient baby products such as automatic baby swings, which is driving the market growth.

"Benefits associated with baby swings in the physical and mental development of babies will further boost market growth during the forecast period", says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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Automatic Baby Swing Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the automatic baby swing market by product (full-sized automatic baby swing and portable automatic baby swing), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA).

The European region led the automatic baby swing market in 2020, followed by North America, APAC, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, Europe is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the rise in the number of dual-income households in the region.

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more.

Request a free sample report

Related Reports on Consumer Discretionary Include:

Global Online Baby Products Retailing Market  Global online baby products retailing market is segmented by product (baby toys, baby gear, baby apparel, baby diaper products, and others) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Global Baby Carrier Market  Global baby carrier market is segmented by product (buckled baby carrier, baby wrap carrier, and baby sling carrier), distribution channel (online and offline), and geography (Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Download Exclusive Free Sample Report

Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

Report: www.technavio.com/report/automatic-baby-swing-market-industry-analysis

Newsroom: newsroom.technavio.com/news/automatic-baby-swingmarket

SOURCE Technavio

Related Links

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LAVAL, Quebec, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) ("Bausch Health" or the "Company") today announced it will reduce debt by $150 million through the redemption of outstanding senior notes, using cash generated from operations.

Bausch Health will redeem $150 million aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 6.125% Senior Notes due 2025, CUSIP Nos. 91831A AC5, C96729 AC9 (the "Notes") on Aug. 2, 2021. With the redemption announced today, the Company will have redeemed a total of $650 million aggregate principal amount of debt in 2021 using cash generated from operations.

The Company will issue today an irrevocable notice of redemption for the Notes, and a copy will be issued to the record holders of such Notes. Nothing contained herein shall constitute a notice of redemption of the Notes. Payment of the redemption price and surrender of the Notes for redemption will be made through the facilities of the Depository Trust Company in accordance with the applicable procedures of the Depository Trust Company. The name and address of the paying agent are as follows: The Bank of New York Mellon; 111 Sanders Creek Parkway, East Syracuse, N.Y. 13057; Attn: Redemption Unit; Tel: 800-254-2826.

About Bausch Health

Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) is a global company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of pharmaceutical, medical device and over-the-counter products, primarily in the therapeutic areas of eye health, gastroenterology and dermatology. We are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. For more information, visit www.bauschhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information and "Safe Harbor" Statement

This news release may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the redemption of the Notes. Forward-looking statements may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believes," "estimates," "potential," "target," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's most recent annual and quarterly reports and detailed from time to time in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. They also include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties caused by or relating to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, and the fear of that pandemic and its potential effects, the severity, duration and future impact of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, and which may have a material adverse impact on the Company, including but not limited to its supply chain, third-party suppliers, project development timelines, employee base, liquidity, stock price, financial condition and costs (which may increase) and revenue and margins (both of which may decrease). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Bausch Health undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release or to reflect actual outcomes, unless required by law.

###

SOURCE Bausch Health Companies Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bauschhealth.com/


CHARLES TOWN, W. Va., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTC:PTBS)  BCT-Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, today announced a new funding campaign through its BCTCares For The Hungry initiative in support of local backpack food programs for food-insecure children. This BCTCares campaign is called "Pack the 'Pack" in reference to raising funds to purchase enough food to fill 5,000 take-home backpacks. Fundraising will be from July 1, 2021 through August 31, 2021. Monetary donations will be accepted at all BCT branch locations and online. For a list of branches, visit www.mybct.bank/locations/. Online donations can be made by visiting www.mybct.bank/bctcares/.

Alice Frazier, President and CEO of BCT remarked, "The BCTCares team was particularly moved to help the startling number of food-insecure children in our communities. Through our Pack the 'Pack campaign, we are raising awareness in our communities about the thousands of local children who will go hungry and are asking those communities to join us to prevent it. A $5.00 donation will fill one backpack with food for one child." Frazier continued, "Over 150 years ago, our founders established a culture of neighbor helping neighbor. We think this is one more opportunity to do just that."

For the Pack the 'Pack campaign, BCTCares has partnered with local backpack program charities who will purchase and distribute food using the funds donated. The local backpack program partners are:

- Berkeley County Backpack Program (Berkeley County, WV) -

http://feedbcwvkids.org/

- Community Combined Ministries  Kidz Power Pacs (Jefferson County, WV) - https://communitycombined.org/

- HARC/Micah's Backpack (Washington County, MD) -

https://harccoalition.org/programs/micahs-backpack/

- Loudoun Backpack Coalition (Loudoun County, VA) - https://loudouneducationfoundation.org/backpack-coalition/

To learn more about the Pack the 'Pack campaign and how to donate, visit any BCT branch or BCT's website at www.mybct.bank/about/bctcares.

About the Company

Founded in 1871 and celebrating their 150th year of service, BCT - Bank of Charles Town, also known as The Community's Bank, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Potomac Bancshares, Inc. (OTC:PTBS). With approximately $661 million in assets as of March 31, 2020, the Company conducts operations through its main office, an additional eight branch offices, and two loan production offices. BCT's offices are located in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties (WV), Washington County (MD), and Loudoun and Stafford Counties (VA). The Bank provides various banking products and services including free access to over 55,000 ATMs through the Allpoint network plus online and mobile banking for individuals, businesses, and local governments. The Bank also offers commercial lines and term loans, residential and commercial construction, commercial real estate loans and agricultural loans. The Residential Lending division offers secondary market and portfolio mortgage loans, one-time close construction to perm loans, as well as home equity loans and lines of credit. For over 60 years, BCT Wealth Advisors has provided financial management, investment, trust, and estate services to its clients. In 2019 and 2020, the Bank was named a "Best Bank To Work For" by American Banker. In 2018, Forbes named BCT a "Best In State Bank" for Maryland.

The Company's shares are quoted on the OTC Pink Sheet marketplace under the symbol "PTBS." For more information about Potomac Bancshares, Inc., and the Bank, please visit our website at www.mybct.bank.

SOURCE BCT - Bank of Charles Town

Related Links

http://www.mybct.bank


HOUSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beecher Reagan, a global search and leadership firm specializing exclusively in senior professional services and private equity leadership, announces the appointment of Rupert Jones as Principal of the Consulting and Technology Practice based out of their EMEA headquarters in London.

"Beecher Reagan continues to invest in our Consulting and Technology Services Practice areas. Rupert's appointment reinforces our continued commitment to our EMEA business within Consulting and Tech Services. Like much of our team, he brings both senior executive search and mainstream consulting experience from EY. This appointment strengthens our capabilities and further deepens our expertise!" Says Global Managing Partner, Clark Beecher.

John Wittorf, Managing Partner, EMEA states "Please join me in welcoming Rupert Jones to the Beecher Reagan UK team. Rupert joins the team from EY where he led the firms resourcing capabilities, designed diversity programs and implemented an analytically rigorous approach to hiring in their Financial Services practice for UKI. Rupert brings a tremendous amount of professional services experience to the Beecher Reagan EMEA practice."

Rupert has 8 years' experience in Professional Services and Consulting working across a variety of areas during that time. He has joined from EY where his primary focus was in the financial services sector, working with senior leadership to mobilize client projects with resources from across the Financial Services space. Prior to this, Rupert worked in the executive search space placing senior level candidates across professional services firms globally.

Rupert shares, "I am delighted to be joining the EMEA practice at Beecher Reagan at an exciting time for the firm. I look forward to applying my expertise to provide great value to our clients."

About Beecher Reagan

Founded in 2009 by Clark Beecher and Tim Reagan, Beecher Reagan, LLC is a global retained executive search and leadership advisory firm focused exclusively on senior professional services and the consulting talent market. The firm brings more than 100 years of combined experience to help professional services, Fortune 500, and alternative investment companies align search strategies to organizational goals. The Beecher Reagan team consists of strategic search professionals, global talent acquisition leaders and former consultants with first-hand experience and knowledge of the talent and industries we serve. www.beecherreagan.com

SOURCE Beecher Reagan

Related Links

http://www.beecherreagan.com


CHICAGO, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today named Brian West as the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer effective August 27, 2021.

In this role, West will lead all aspects of Boeing's financial strategy, performance, reporting and long-range business planning, as well as investor relations, treasury, controller, and audit operations. West will also oversee the company's business transformation efforts and will have executive responsibility for the company's global financing arm, Boeing Capital Corporation. He will report to Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun and will serve on the company's Executive Council.

"Brian is the ideal executive to serve as Boeing's next CFO given his significant financial management and long-term strategic planning experience in complex global organizations across the aerospace, manufacturing and services industries," said Calhoun. "I have had the pleasure of working with Brian previously, and he is an exceptional leader whose broad operational expertise and commitment to transparency with stakeholders will advance our efforts as we continue our focus on safety and quality, improving our performance and transforming our company for the future."

West joins Boeing following a successful and diverse career in senior financial and operational roles spanning several industries, including aerospace, manufacturing, infrastructure, healthcare, global information services, financial and risk management. He has served as the chief financial officer of Refinitiv since 2018, and was previously CFO and executive vice president of Operations for Oscar Health Insurance and CFO and COO of Nielsen. Prior to Nielsen, West spent 16 years at General Electric, where he served as CFO of GE Aviation and CFO of GE Engine Services. His additional finance leadership positions in GE businesses encompassed plastics, transportation and energy.

West is a founding board member of a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to prepare the next generation of diverse female leaders with the skills, community and connections to thrive in the world. He previously was a board member of Future 5, an organization that helps under-resourced students in Stamford, CT reach their full potential.

West holds a bachelor's degree in Finance from Siena College and a Master's in Business Administration from the Columbia Business School.

West succeeds Greg Smith, who previously announced his plans to retire, effective in early July. The company has named Dave Dohnalek, currently Boeing's senior vice president and Treasurer, to the role of interim CFO until West joins the company in late August.

"I want to thank Greg again for his outstanding contributions to our employees, customers, communities and our company throughout his more than thirty years of service with Boeing," said Calhoun. "I also want to thank Dave for assuming interim leadership of our Finance organization. With decades of executive leadership experience at Boeing across treasury, investor relations, financial planning and more, Dave is a highly respected and effective leader who will bring informed and balanced guidance to our Finance organization during this transition period."

As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future and living the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity. Learn more at www.boeing.com.

Contact

Boeing Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing

Related Links

http://www.boeing.com


Renowned for his whimsical graphic illustrations, Harrington's first ever design for BOMBAY SAPPHIRE features a vibrant collage of motifs, including the artist's signature palm tree characters. On track to be the first major gin brand to be made with 100% sustainably sourced botanicals, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE vapor-infused botanicals are featured in artful illustrations, as well as the iconic BOMBAY SAPPHIRE blue bottle, its signature gin and tonic cocktails, plus paint splashes and artist palettes, as a nod to the brand's longstanding ties with creativity.

This marks the second artist-designed Limited Edition bottle for BOMBAY SAPPHIRE, following on from the inaugural Limited Edition designed by Hebru Brantley released in July 2020. Artist Hebru Brantley, a long-term collaborator of BOMBAY SAPPHIRE, nominated Steven Harrington to design this latest edition.

"We're delighted to be collaborating with Steven Harrington for the new BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Artist Limited Edition Bottle, who is revered for his joyful, contemporary pop-art aesthetic. With his uplifting visions inspired by the Californian landscape, passion for sustainability and thriving mix of cultures, fused with our all-natural elements of our gin, we thought his design was the perfect fit to grace shelves just in time for summer entertaining. We hope it becomes a beloved collector's item for gin and art fans alike" said Jaime Keller, North America Brand Director for BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin.

As artist Steven Harrington explains, "My work is all about connections; connections that transcend time and space. This creative collaboration with BOMBAY SAPPHIRE has enabled me to redesign the iconic bottle which I'm thrilled about, and apply some of my signature motifs in a way that's organic for the brand, capturing its all-natural, botanical edge and support of the arts."

The Limited Edition BOMBAY SAPPHIRE bottle by Steven Harrington is available nationwide from July 1 and online at ReserveBar.

For more information on BOMBAY SAPPHIRE and products please visit www.BombaySapphire.com.

For press inquiries, please contact Piper Gardiner at [email protected].

NOTES TO EDITORS:

STEVEN HARRINGTON X BOMBAY SAPPHIRE LIMITED EDITION

SIZE: 750 ML

SRP: $22.99

ABV: 47%

ON-SHELF: JULY 1, 2021

LINKS FOR PURCHASE: ReserveBar

About BOMBAY SAPPHIRE

BOMBAY SAPPHIRE is the world's number one premium gin by value and volume (IWSR). Based on a 1761 recipe, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin is created by perfectly balancing a unique combination of 10 hand-selected exotic botanicals from around the world. The BOMBAY SAPPHIRE distillery at Laverstoke Mill has won a BREEAM award for sustainability and is the home of the unique Vapour Infusion process, where the natural flavours of the botanicals are skillfully captured, resulting in the fresh and vibrant taste with which BOMBAY SAPPHIRE is synonymous.

BOMBAY SAPPHIRE has recently been awarded the prestigious Double Gold and Gold medal at the 17th San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC).

The BOMBAY SAPPHIRE brand is part of the portfolio of Bacardi Limited, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited.

ABOUT BOMBAY SAPPHIRE AND CREATIVITY

Launching the 'Stir Creativity' campaign in 2018, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE is leading a global mission - a call to arms for everyone to engage with their creativity and unlock their creative potential. From advocacy programmes including World's Most Imaginative Bartender competition running in the US for the last 14 years to hosting The Glasshouse Project, a global advocacy programme bringing together the world's top bartenders in a series of creative workshops designed to push the boundaries of cocktail creativity.

For ten years, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE has run The Artisan Series, an art competition created by the brand to provide emerging artists with an international platform. The brand has also partnered with well-known artists and creators such as Tracey Emin, Thomas Heatherwick and Tom Dixon for the BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Designer Glassware Competition.

BE BRILLIANT AND INSPIRED. DRINK RESPONSIBLY!

2021. BOMBAY SAPPHIRE AND ITS TRADE DRESS ARE TRADEMARKS.

IMPORTED BY THE BOMBAY SPIRITS COMPANY U.S.A., CORAL GABLES, FL. GIN - 47% ALC. BY VOL.

SOURCE BOMBAY SAPPHIRE
WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chambers Litigation Support 2021 has ranked BRG Band 1 globally in the Economic Analysts category for the second year running. Sources commend the firm's "wide network and range of professional and thoughtful experts" and their skills in testimony. London-based Managing Director Daniel Ryan is highlighted as a "notable practitioner" in arbitration, litigation and quantum of damages.

BRG's Investigations practices from AsiaPacific, the U.K. and the U.S. also are included in the guide. In Asia, the firm is described as "diverse, nimble and flexible with a range of investigative practices in-house." The U.K. team is endorsed for "big, complicated  investigatory work," with a source commenting, "I hold them in high esteem and often refer them to clients on personal matters, which to me is the highest distinction I can place on someone." The U.S. practice is recommended as "our go-to team to assist ... with  complicated matters that many times span the globe."

The UK Forensic Accounting practice complements the Investigations rankings. A client said, "Forensic accounting is a big part of BRG's playbookthe firm mixes the investigations side of things with the forensic accounting elements better than basically anyone." The practice is led by Managing Director Ben Johnson, who is described as "brilliant and the best I've come acrossvery experienced and very diligent."

Also recently announced was the ranking of BRG's Cyber Security & Investigations practice in Chambers Crisis and Risk Management  Global Cybersecurity Risk. Thomas Brown, the practice head and a BRG managing director, is described as an "extremely intelligent expert in the field who approaches challenges creatively with his client's best interests in mind," and who leads a practice of "professional, experienced, dedicated and very good team players." The same source commented, "[O]ur experience has been really good, and they've solved our problems. Our first option  is BRG."

About BRG

Berkeley Research Group, LLC is a global consulting firm that helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and performance improvement and advisory. Headquartered in California with offices around the world, we are an integrated group of experts, industry leaders, academics, data scientists and professionals working across borders and disciplines. We harness our collective expertise to deliver the inspired insights and practical strategies our clients need to stay ahead of what's next. Visit thinkbrg.com to learn more.

SOURCE Berkeley Research Group, LLC

Related Links

https://www.thinkbrg.com


Thursday, July 15, 6:30-7:30PM. ONLINE - Author and Photographer Candacy Taylor will talk about her book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book, on the travel guide for African Americans circa 1936 -1966. This discussion will highlight equity and the importance of staying informed.

Friday, July 16, 6  7PM. ONLINE - The #EATDRINKREAD component of SoFloBookFest delivers a culinary experience featuring cookbook author Chef Irie Hugh Sinclair . "Chef Irie" hails from Jamaica and brings an international flair to the cuisine he demonstrates.

Saturday, July 17, 10  3PM. Special Guests in Person, OUTDOORS at AARLCC, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311.

Authors in various genres with online presentations include Caleb Azumah Nelson, Cherie Jones, Talia Hibbert and other contributors.

Author and President of The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Desmond Meade will discuss the recent passage of Amendment 4 which restored voting rights to over 1.4 million Floridians with felony convictions. He and his team will be on-site for a social justice discussion entitled "Let My People Vote." The first 25 attendees will be invited to a VIP experience including a book signing, continental breakfast, photo op, and Q&A at Desmond's tour bus. Author, artist, songwriter and radio personality Stichiz will host the event.

Attendees of a panel discussion on "Social Reform & Voting Rights" can meet Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott and his staff to see a voting demo, learn about new laws and get registered to vote by bringing a Florida driver license or Florida ID card.

Stay connected at #SoFloBookFest, #EATDRINKREAD and #FreeTheVote for details and updates. Food trucks, including Island Boyz Conch Shack, will be on site. For additional information, including sponsorship, participation and volunteer opportunities, contact Tray Fitzpatrick at [email protected] or 954-357-6190.

This event is made possible by the support of Bank of America, The Friends of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center, The Social Justice Institute of Florida Memorial University, The South Florida Social Justice Common Read, and Florida Humanities.

About Broward County Libraries

Broward County Libraries Division, named 2020 and 2015 Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association, was founded in 1974 and is the largest library system in Florida by square footage and one of the busiest, with more than 7.5 million walk-in customers visiting its 38 locations annually. Broward County Libraries Division provides convenient access to a full range of innovative and cost-effective services that satisfy the changing needs of the people of Broward County for information, education and recreation. Visit our website, Broward.org/Library, or follow Libraries on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Broward County Libraries

Related Links

https://www.broward.org/library


"Following a quarter of historic pricing for the net lease sector, owners of lower quality assets brought properties to the market in attempt to take advantage of current cap rate levels," says Randy Blankstein, President, The Boulder Group. "The increased concentration of lower quality assets was the primary contributing factor for the rise in cap rates."

Despite a decrease of approximately three percent in supply of net lease assets, lower quality assets (short term leases and less desirable tenant credits) made up a larger concentration of the market in the second quarter.

"The supply of assets with long term leases to credit tenants remains limited," adds Jimmy Goodman, Partner, The Boulder Group. "Only 22% of the property supply had more than 15 years of lease term remaining."

Demand for the perceived high-quality assets including McDonald's, 7-Eleven and CVS heavily outweighs supply creating an extremely competitive market for these properties. Accordingly, cap rate compression for these assets exists in the current market. In the second quarter the bid-ask spread for net lease retail and industrial assets decreased by 2 and 4 basis points respectively.

"Significant competition for a limited amount of assets is causing some investors to seek alternatives in net lease," John Feeney, Senior Vice President, The Boulder Group adds. "In a search for yield, some net lease investors have shifted focus to categories that weren't previously in as high of demand including daycares and tenants such as Rite Aid."

The increased demand for net lease assets has provided a boost to liquidity for more speculative assets. Transaction activity in the net lease sector will remain active through 2021. The industry will pay careful attention to any potential tax code changes including the 1031 exchange proposed by the current administration and its potential impact on real estate and strategies moving forward. As the country continues to reopen, investors will carefully be monitoring assets classes that were not trading during the pandemic (fitness, theaters, etc.).

"The supply pipeline will determine if transaction volume will outpace 2020 or even the high-water mark of 2019," according to Blankstein.

To view the full report: https://bouldergroup.com/media/pdf/2021-Q2-Net-Lease-Research-Report.pdf

About The Boulder Group

The Boulder Group is a boutique investment real estate service firm specializing in single tenant net lease properties. The firm provides a full range of brokerage, advisory, and financing services nationwide to a substantial and diversified client base, which includes high net worth individuals, developers, REITs, partnerships and institutional investment funds. Founded in 1997, the firm has arranged the acquisition and disposition of over $6 billion of single tenant net lease real estate transactions. From 2012-2020, the firm was ranked in the top 10 companies in the nation for single tenant retail transactions by both Real Capital Analytics and CoStar. The Boulder Group is headquartered in suburban Chicago.

Press Contact:

Randy Blankstein,

8475620003,

https://www.bouldergroup.com/

SOURCE The Boulder Group
PHOENIX, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Catholic Education Arizona (CEA) has been raising tax credit scholarship funds for Catholic schools in the Diocese of Phoenix for 24 years. Last year tax credit contributions made to CEA assisted more than 45% of the Diocese of Phoenix's Catholic school students. There are 36 schools in the Diocese of Phoenix that are served by Catholic Education Arizona along with St. Michael's Indian School and Boys Hope Girls Hope of Arizona.

Recently, Catholic Education Arizona associates gathered with the Board of Directors for a reception to thank board leadership. Accolades and gratitude were shared for the outgoing Board Chair Melissa Soza Fees, Ph.D. and Vice Chair Fr. Tom Eckert, C.S.C. "We have experienced growth, earned #22 Best Places to Work in Small Business category by Phoenix Business Journal and strengthened our stakeholder relationships. We have been fortunate to have Melissa and Fr. Tom at the helm," stated Catholic Education Arizona's President and CEO Nancy Padberg, MBA.

"It has been a pleasure to serve as Board Chair of Catholic Education Arizona for the past four years. The commitment of educators, clergy, consecrated sisters and community leaders to enable Arizona families to afford a Catholic Education is noteworthy. Individual and corporate contributors can be confident that the associates and volunteers are mission focused enabling the organization to provide more than $288 million in scholarships that help families with demonstrated financial need to access to a high-quality education," added Melissa Soza Fees, Ph.D.

Individuals and corporations support Catholic Education Arizona and The Diocese of Phoenix Catholic High Schools because of their impressive student results:

99.4% graduation rate

97% of graduates matriculate to higher education or military service

1000s of hours of community service are conducted annually

Catholic Education Arizona partners with Arizona businesses and individual taxpayers to make private education affordable and accessible. A School Tuition Organization serving the Diocese of Phoenix, CEA offers Arizona residents and businesses an opportunity to help change lives. Arizona tax credit legislation allows individuals and corporations to direct their tax dollars for tuition scholarships.

Corporate partners filing as S or C Corp, LLCs filing as S Corp and insurance companies paying premium taxes can direct up to 100% of their state tax liability to Low Income and Disabled/Displaced scholarships through CEA. CEA partners with Meritage Homes, Cigna, Earnhardt Auto Centers, Grand Canyon University, Lumen Technologies and Dignity Memorial as well as many small businesses.

Catholic Education Arizona is the largest provider of scholarships to underserved families attending private schools. Since 1998, over $288 million has been raised to benefit students in the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Phoenix and 143,000 scholarships have been awarded. Learn more about how CEA is changing lives one scholarship at a time. Visit www.ceaz.org or call 602-218-6542 to learn more.

Contact:

Debra Preach, Chief Development Officer

Catholic Education Arizona

[email protected]

(602) 218-6542

SOURCE Catholic Education Arizona

Related Links

www.ceaz.org


CHICAGO, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading provider of global market infrastructure and tradable products, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings, Ltd. (Chi-X Asia Pacific), an alternative market operator and provider of innovative market solutions. Through ownership of Chi-X Asia Pacific, Cboe gains entrance into two of the world's largest securities markets  Japan and Australia  to establish a significant presence in the Asia Pacific region for the first time.

"Welcoming Chi-X Asia Pacific to the Cboe network represents an exciting milestone in Cboe's growth story and another important step in our vision to become a truly global marketplace for our customers," said Ed Tilly, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Cboe Global Markets. "The team at Chi-X Asia Pacific shares Cboe's dedication to defining markets through innovative products, services and trading solutions. We look forward to the opportunities ahead as we welcome the Chi-X team to the Cboe community and work together to accelerate Chi-X Asia Pacific's further growth and extend Cboe's global footprint."

Through Chi-X Asia Pacific, Cboe now has the opportunity to bring new trading solutions and services to Asia Pacific, including extending the industry-leading block trading capabilities of BIDS Trading to the region. BIDS, acquired by Cboe in January 2021, operates the largest block trading ATS by volume in the U.S., and one of the largest block trading platforms in Europe. With BIDS' current network covering U.S., Europe and expanding into Canada, the addition of Asia Pacific is expected to create a global block trading platform to serve an even broader base of customers.

Cboe plans to fully integrate Chi-X Asia Pacific into its existing global business operations and technology platforms, beginning with the integration of Chi-X Asia Pacific and BIDS. Chi-X Australia and Chi-X Japan are planned to migrate to Cboe's state-of-the-art trading platform thereafter. Providing one, unified technology platform will help provide market participants greater access to Cboe's diverse product set and more efficiency, resiliency and functionality when trading across Cboe's markets.

Vic Jokovic, Chief Executive Officer at Chi-X Australia, said: "Through the years, Chi-X Australia has established itself as the country's most innovative market operator, consistently delivering best-in-class trading solutions, technology and customer service. We couldn't be more excited for the future of our exchange as we join the Cboe team and leverage its global resources to further our growth and develop new products and services that will benefit the Australian markets."

Toru Irokawa, Representative Director and President at Chi-X Japan, said: "Chi-X Japan has gained tremendous success by providing superior service and trading solutions that help deliver best execution and significant cost-savings for retail and institutional investors. We look forward to the many opportunities that this acquisition will create and expect Cboe to further propel our growth, as well as enhance the competitive landscape to help bring greater efficiency and resiliency to the Japanese markets."

Chi-X Asia Pacific positions Cboe to expand its global equities business into Asia Pacific and build an unparalleled, high value global market data business that is expected to offer data from major markets around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and 18 European countries. In addition, Cboe plans to further broaden investor access to its unique suite of proprietary products  including U.S. index options products based on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Cboe Volatility Index (VIX)  to meet growing investor demand globally for U.S.-based derivatives products. Cboe plans to extend trading hours for SPX and VIX options to nearly 24 hours a day beginning November 21, subject to regulatory approval.

Chi-X Asia Pacific is one of the most successful alternative market operators in Asia Pacific, with offices in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Chi-X Australia (CXA), the country's second largest securities exchange achieving an 18.6 percent total market share1, offers trading in all Australian-listed securities, as well as the exclusive trading of CXA quoted warrants and ETFs. Chi-X Japan (CXJ), a leading proprietary trading system for Japanese equities and third largest equities venue in the country with a 2.5 percent lit market share2, offers four trading books, including both displayed and non-displayed mechanisms.

Cboe acquired Chi-X Asia Pacific from J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the company noted that the purchase price is not material from a financial perspective and is expected to be nominally accretive to the company's adjusted earnings in 2021. Cboe funded the transaction with cash on hand and borrowings under its term loan credit agreement. Chi-X Asia Pacific generated approximately USD 26 million in net revenue for the 12 months ended December 31, 2020, reflecting a 26 percent growth rate compared to the prior year, with non-transactional revenue comprising approximately 67 percent of the overall 2020 net revenue. For additional background information on Chi-X Asia Pacific, see the slide deck available under events and presentations on Cboe's Investor Relations website at http://ir.cboe.com/events-and-presentations.

Legal advisors to Cboe Global Markets on the transaction were Sidley Austin LLP (U.S. and Hong Kong), King & Wood Mallesons (Australia), Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu (Japan) and SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan (Philippines), with BofA Securities serving as financial advisor.

About Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), a leading provider of market infrastructure and tradable products, delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to market participants around the world. The company is committed to operating a trusted, inclusive global marketplace, providing leading products, technology and data solutions that enable participants to define a sustainable financial future. Cboe provides trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives and FX, across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit www.cboe.com.

About Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings, Ltd.

Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings, Ltd. ("Chi-X Asia Pacific") is a leader in driving marketplace innovation across the Asia-Pacific region. For over a decade the business has been operating trading venues and generating pioneering products and services for the benefit of financial markets and the global trading community. The company believes that modern competition from technology-driven markets increases overall market volumes and improves investor performance, providing benefits to all participants. As an alternative market operator, Chi-X Asia Pacific operates market centers two of the Asia-Pacific region's key securities trading centers in Australia and Japan, while its Chi-TechTM technology services units provide technology to its business. The company maintains offices in Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Manila. For more information, visit www.chi-x.com.

CBOE-C

CBOE-OE

Cboe, Cboe Global Markets, Cboe Volatility Index, and VIX are registered trademarks of Cboe Exchange, Inc. Chi-X Asia Pacific, Chi-X Australia and Chi-X Japan are registered trademarks of Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings, Ltd. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the impact of the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic, including changes to trading behavior broadly in the market; the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security risks, cybersecurity risks, insider threats and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; fluctuations to currency exchange rates; our index providers' ability to maintain the quality and integrity of their indices and to perform under our agreements; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit and default risks, associated with operating a European clearinghouse; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing potential conflicts between our regulatory responsibilities and our for-profit status; our ability to maintain BIDS Trading as an independently managed and operated trading venue, separate from and not integrated with our registered national securities exchanges; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; our ability to manage our growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments or intangible assets; and the accuracy of our estimates and expectations. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.

We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

1Source: Australian Securities and Investments Commission equity market data. Based on average daily value traded 2021 YTD through May

2Based on lit market volume 2021 YTD through May

SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cboe.com


Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, vowed that the CPC will lead the Chinese people to strive for better lives and national rejuvenation.

Founded in July 1921 with just over 50 members, the CPC has grown into the world's largest political party with more than 95 million members.

The Party had set two centenary goals: The first was to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021 when the CPC celebrates its centenary, and the second is to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of the century to celebrate the centenary of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

From humiliation to 'Xiaokang'

Xi reviewed the historical background of the CPC's creation and explained the role it played in the nation's efforts to realize rejuvenation.

After the Opium War in the 1840s, China gradually became a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and endured intense humiliation and the people suffered great pain, Xi noted. "Since that time, national rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation."

After a series of attempts to "save the nation" failed, the CPC was created when the country urgently needed new ideas and a new organization to lead the movement, he said.

"Since the very day of its founding, the Party has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its aspiration and mission," he said.

Xi summarized the Party's efforts and successes in leading a series of revolutions and the country's modernization, particularly in pursuing reform and opening-up since 1978, which he called a "crucial move in making China what it is today."

China, a relatively poor country decades ago, has become the world's second largest economy with its gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding 100 trillion yuan (about $15 trillion) and per capita GDP over $10,000. It declared the victory in eradicating absolute poverty nationwide by the end of 2020.

Highlighting the fulfillment of building a "Xiaokang" society and other achievements, Xi said the Party and the people have shown the world that "China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability."

CPC's close ties with the people

Xi underscored the close relations between the CPC and the people, stressing that the Party "has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people."

"Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail," he warned.

As China embarks on a new journey toward socialist modernization, he vowed that the CPC will continue to practice a people-centered philosophy of development, address the people's concerns and promote common prosperity for all.

"On the journey ahead, we must rely closely on the people to create history," he said.

The people-centered philosophy of development was raised by Xi at the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in October 2015. The philosophy stresses that China's development must be for the people and by the people, and its fruits shared among the people.

The philosophy has been emphasized again in China's latest development blueprint  the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. The document vows to further improve people's livelihoods by pursuing more balanced, higher-quality development.

China's commitment to peaceful development

Xi also expounded on the main principles of China's foreign policy and vision on international relations. He reiterated the call for building a community with a shared future for humanity and stressed the country's commitment to peace.

"The Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes," Xi said. "China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development and preserve international order."

China will stay committed to the path of peaceful development, he said. It will "promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through joint efforts and use China's new achievements in development to provide the world with new opportunities," he added.

Proposed by Xi in 2013, the BRI which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes.

A total of 140 countries and regions have signed cooperation agreements with China under the BRI over the past eight years. The aggregated trade volume between China and its BRI cooperative partners has exceeded $9.2 trillion, and Chinese companies have made direct investments totaling over $130 billion in countries along the Belt and Road.

Meanwhile, Xi said China will continue to champion cooperation over confrontation and oppose hegemony and power politics.

The Chinese people have a strong sense of pride and confidence and will not be intimidated by threats of force, he stressed.

"We have never bullied, oppressed or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will," he said. "By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or subjugate us."

Xi reiterated the Party's stance on Hong Kong, Macao and the Taiwan region. "We will ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao, and implement legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security," he said.

He described resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification as a "historic mission and an unshakable commitment" of the CPC, calling for resolute action to defeat any attempt toward "Taiwan independence."

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-01/With-Xiaokang-achieved-CPC-vows-to-lead-people-toward-better-life-11xvkhxk5pe/index.html

SOURCE CGTN

Related Links

www.cgtn.com


ZURICH, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) will hold its second quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday, July 28, 2021, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

The company expects to issue its second quarter earnings release and financial supplement after the market closes on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. These documents will be available on the company's investor website at investors.chubb.com.

The earnings conference call will be available via live webcast at investors.chubb.com or by dialing 888-254-3590 (within the United States) or 323-994-2093 (international), passcode 8683056. Please refer to the Chubb website under Events and Presentations for details. A replay of the call will be available until Wednesday, August 11, 2021, and the archived webcast will be available on our website for approximately one month. To listen to the replay, please click here to register and receive dial-in numbers.

About Chubb

Chubb is the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. As an underwriting company, we assess, assume and manage risk with insight and discipline. We service and pay our claims fairly and promptly. The company is also defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb maintains executive offices in Zurich, New York, London, Paris and other locations, and employs approximately 31,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com.

SOURCE Chubb Limited

Related Links

http://new.chubb.com


Cambridge Medical & Rehabilitation Center has a history of more than 7 years of successfully delivering the science and the art of rehabilitation services for patients and families who urgently rely on these critical services when seeking enhanced progress to their patient's condition and thus, revitalizing hope. Here in the United Arab Emirates, with solid and insightful leadership, CMRC was a key component in supporting the healthcare system by admitting non-covid patients to its facilities thereby reducing the burden and pressure on the government healthcare system.

"At Cambridge, we came together, as a family, to protect our patients, their families, and our dedicated frontline teams. In doing so, we not only provided enormous value for our patients, but we came to the aid of the public and private healthcare systems, supporting their urgent needs, admitting many of their patients so that they could make room for the pandemic tidal wave of acutely ill patients. These collective efforts supported a truly outstanding year for Cambridge." - Dr. Howard S. Podolsky; Group Chief Executive Officer

As the most diversified provider of Post-Acute & Rehabilitation services in the region CMRC has demonstrated how a Long-Term Care facility could serve as a shield under the circumstances of a pandemic. CMRC developed the ability to adapt their existing long-term relationship to the ever-changing needs of the government. With extensive experience comes excellent outcomes; CMRC is a Long-term and Rehabilitation facility that provides a bed capacity of 196 in UAE distributed among two home-like facilities in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain with hospital capabilities. In addition, with another set of 60 beds in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as located in Dhahran, CMRC-KSA is the only rehabilitation facility in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Having more than 1,300 improved inpatients, with a service to more than 110,000 outpatients. At 87%, CMRC has the highest weaning rate in the region by providing the unique Mechanical Ventilator Weaning Program. CMRC provides patient and family-centered programs in combination with world-class standards of care provided by an exceptional 600 multi-disciplinary professionals that strive to enhance the quality of life for all of our patients and their families.

Moreover, in 2018, the UAE government contributed 66% of the country's total healthcare spending, which is equivalent to USD 15 billion. Between 2018 to 2022, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of private-sector healthcare spends expected to be 9.5% compared to the government contribution of 4.4%. Based on the emergence and support for public-private partnership and the aging population it is anticipated there will be greater demand for additional hospital services and beds, and the ongoing privatization of hospitals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in combination with the mandatory medical insurance will serve continue to contribute and encourage additional spending in the healthcare sector in the UAE.

Reference: https://gulfbusiness.com/private-investment-in-uae-healthcare-to-rise-by-9-5-annually-kpmg-report/

This portends a bright future of the new ownership of CMRC by Amanat Holdings, making this acquisition one of the most significant GCC healthcare deals in the past three years, worth approximately USD 232 million.

Dr. Mohamad Hamade , CEO of Amanat , added: "We have emerged as winners of a competitive bidding process to acquire this high-profile asset in CMRC, which will constitute the cornerstone of Amanat's PAC platform. It is a genuinely unique and established provider with a leading market position and an experienced management team. In FY-2020, CMRC's revenues hit a record high of USD 75.3 million, EBITDA of USD 22 million & net income of USD 15.2 million."

Reference: http://www.amanat.com/home/News/2020,-March-1---Amanat-Acquires-CMRC-for-USD-232-Million.html

Dr. Howard S. Podolsky has expressed : "With CMRC's new change in ownership, we aim to continue creating value  value for our patients, and value for the healthcare systems of the UAE and KSA," to extend the commitment that CMRC has made to support communities by identifying the best healthcare solutions that meet their needs and requirements."

Additionally, in keeping with CMRC's vision of being the leader of post-acute rehabilitation services providing exceptional patient experiences and clinical outcomes across the MENA region, the demand for healthcare services continues to increase. CMRC Managing Director in UAE, Rita McGrath, has shared her prospect: "As CMRC welcomes new ownership, we look forward to expanding our UAE footprint in Home Care and Out-Patient care. Such an exciting time for our growth journey, a journey that focuses on delivering exceptional patient outcomes and supporting patient families throughout the healing journey."

As history tends to repeat itself, and the world continues to evolve, it is highly likely that COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic our earth will witness. Visionary countries like the United Arab Emirates have successfully managed the pandemic by depending on the most logical, hands-on solutions to keep the infection rate as low as possible and working with Long-Term facilities as CMRC. Will the world require more Long-Term facilities that could serve as yet, another strategic solution and long-term partnership to minimize the damage of the next pandemic?

For more information on the Center, please visit www.cmrc.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556011/CMRC_Logo.jpg

Video - https://youtu.be/7cYs0xA9vEw

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556010/Abu_Dhabi_Hospital.jpg

SOURCE Cambridge Medical & Rehabilitation Center
MILWAUKEE, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hope to Health: The Campaign for the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital, raised a record amount of philanthropic support from donors to support the campaign's broad strategic priorities, including cancer research, student scholarships, and new technologies to improve patient care and outcomes.

Contributions to the campaign, which commenced on July 1, 2015, totaled more than 50 percent of the original goal of $200 million.

"This campaign was about securing the future of healthcare for us all," said Linda Mellowes, an MCW emerita trustee, community leader and key advisor for the campaign. "I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished to build safer, healthier and more equitable communities."

John R. Raymond, Sr., MD, MCW president and CEO, launched the campaign with Cathy Jacobson, president and CEO of Froedtert Health, in 2015 to elevate access to research-based healthcare across the region, boost education programs for medical professionals, address the devastating burden of cancer and support partnerships with the community to reduce healthcare disparities.

"The leadership and generosity of our donors will benefit this community for generations," said Dr. Raymond. "These philanthropic investments bolster all of our work  from new medical discoveries that cure disease and treat injuries to addressing the health disparities that have kept our community behind economically and socially, including racial inequities that require our urgent attention."

"As the only adult academic health system in eastern Wisconsin, we already have been taking on the toughest problems in medicine and delivering care for patients and families not available anywhere else in the region," adds Jacobson. "Philanthropy sustains these efforts and demonstrates this community's strong endorsement that our work is critical to our future."

The campaign focused on four key pillars: accelerating research and advancing patient care, transforming healthcare education, leading the way in cancer research and care, and driving health and vitality for the community.

During the campaign, 48,603 gifts were received from 28,328 donors, including contributions from 17,973 new donors. MCW alumni contributed 15 percent of all gifts totaling $45 million. Gifts from MCW and Froedtert Hospital faculty and staff during the campaign totaled $9 million.

SOURCE Medical College of Wisconsin

Related Links

http://www.mcw.edu


WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2021/CPSC-Announces-2-Million-in-Pool-Safely-Grants-Available-for-State-and-Local-Governments-to-Help-Prevent-Drownings-and-Drain-Entrapments-Apply-Now

Note: Grants deadline extended to August 16, 2021

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is seeking applications for a Pool Safely Grant Program (PSGP or grant program) offered to state and local governments. CPSC will award up to a total of $2 million in two-year grants to assist jurisdictions in reducing deaths and injuries from drowning and drain entrapment incidents in pools and spas. The PSGP is a part of CPSC's national campaign to make drowning and drain entrapment prevention a critical public safety priority.

The grant program is made possible through the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (VGB Act), legislation authored and advanced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida). The VGB Act seeks to provide state and local governments with assistance for education, training and enforcement of pool safety requirements.

"These grants can make a real difference and potentially save lives as communities work to reopen pools following the pandemic. These grants can help educate consumers about drowning and entrapment dangers and provide assistance to states and municipalities for their enforcement of pool safety laws," said CPSC Acting Chairman Robert Adler. "State and local programs can receive funding to continue this lifesaving work to reduce the risk of drowning."

Applicants must be a state or local government or U S. Territory that has an enacted or amended a state and/or local law(s) that meet the requirements of the VGB Act (15 U.S.C. 8001), sections 1405 and 1406.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to review the solicitation on Grants.gov, under grant opportunity CPSC-21-001. Applications will be accepted through August 16, 2021.

CPSC's website: www.PoolSafely.gov, has more information about the Pool Safely Grant Program and the VGB Act. Poolsafely.gov has free, downloadable information for the general public, state and local officials, the swimming pool and spa community and the media.

The requirements of this child safety law have helped reduce the risk of drowning. The requirements, include installing new safety drain covers and physical barriers, such as a fence completely surrounding the pool, with self-closing, self-latching gates, and, if the house forms a side of the barrier, using alarms on doors leading to the pool area and/or a power safety cover over the pool. See additional pool safety tips at: www.poolsafely.gov

About the U.S. CPSC

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products has contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 40 years.

Federal law bars any person from selling products subject to a publicly announced voluntary recall by a manufacturer or a mandatory recall ordered by the Commission.

For lifesaving information:

- Visit CPSC.gov.

- Sign up to receive our e-mail alerts.

- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram @USCPSC and Twitter @USCPSC.

- Report a dangerous product or a product-related injury on www.SaferProducts.gov.

- Call CPSC's Hotline at 800-638-2772 (TTY 301-595-7054).

- Contact a media specialist.

Release Number: 21-143

SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Related Links

www.cpsc.gov


LOS ANGELES, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Throughout the nearly 40 years since its inception, D.A.R.E. America and all affiliated local D.A.R.E. programs throughout the United States, as well as in dozens of other countries, have followed an absolute policy of never accepting donations from corporations, businesses, or individuals whose primary source of income results from the production and/or sale of alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, or cannabis.

On June 16th, 4Front Ventures Corp., a multi-state cannabis operator and retailer, issued a press release appearing in several online outlets, announcing a $75,000 donation to the City of Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The release stated, in part, that $15,000 of the total donation would be given to the Elk Grove Village Police Department's Crime Prevention Unit's "drug education efforts, a partnership with the D.A.R.E. America program, to provide drug resistance education to middle school students."

"4Front Ventures Corp. statement regarding a donation in support of Elk Grove Village's D.A.R.E program is misleading and untrue. Neither D.A.R.E. America nor the Elk Grove Village D.A.R.E. program was aware of either the donation or the press release. D.A.R.E. America does not accept and prohibits local D.A.R.E. programs from accepting donations from any individual or business whose primary source of income is derived from the production or sale of cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, or vaping products," stated Richard Mahan, D.A.R.E. America's Chief Operating Officer.

Mahan continued by stating, "4Front Ventures Corp. has attempted to improve its image by announcing a donation to support the most recognized drug prevention education program in the world without ever directly contacting, communicating, or discussing the donation prior to announcement with either the local Elk Grove Village D.A.R.E. program or D.A.R.E. America. It not only is a false message, it sends the wrong message to students, families, and communities in Elk Grove Village, in Illinois, and throughout the United States."

Launched in 1983, D.A.R.E. is a comprehensive K-12 education program taught in thousands of schools throughout America, as well as in dozens of other countries. D.A.R.E.'s official mission today is teaching students good decision-making skills to help them to lead safe and healthy lives. While D.A.R.E. curricula address drugs, it also focuses on violence, bullying, internet safety, and other high risk circumstances that could be a part of the daily life of students. For more information, visit www.dare.org.

SOURCE D.A.R.E. America

Related Links

http://www.dare.org


"We're excited to increase our footprint in Pennsylvania, and to complement our other nearby stores in Camp Hill and King of Prussia," remarked Nick Kruczaj, President of Deep Six CBD. "Our grand opening is on July 2nd, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday. As an Air Force veteran, it's enormously important to me to provide help to the military veteran community."

"All Deep Six stores will host a Buy One Get One 50% Off Sale on Saturday & Sunday to celebrate the Fourth of July and this grand opening. We will also offer 20% Off and free shipping for all products on our website, DeepSixCBD.com, all weekend long." Customers seeking the full complement of products that are offered online will find Delta 8 and CBD-infused brownies, cookies, oils, flower, and more. CBD treats for pets reportedly help to keep pets calm during fireworks displays that cause them distress.

No med card? No problem for THC 8 users in Elizabethtown, Ephrata, and New Holland areas.

CBD, short for "cannabidiol", is a cannabis extract that is popularly used for help with pain, stress, and anxiety without an intoxicating effect. Related to this, Delta 8 THC, or "Delta 8" is a newly-available cannabis extract that can be sold directly to consumers without medical cannabis cards. Users report that it helps with everything from PTSD to simple relaxation, and that they enjoy a soothing, clear-headed "buzz" without the anxiety spikes that traditional Delta 9 THC cannabis can cause.

Benton Purtle, Operations Manager of Deep Six, commented, "Our grand opening on July 2nd will allow us to provide the Lancaster area with the finest cannabis-derived products on the market." Purtle reports using THC 8 as an alternative to traditional ADHD treatments such as Ritalin or Adderall. "We only work with producers who are able to provide lab-certified products and Certificates of Analysis."

SOURCE Deep Six

Related Links

https://www.deepsixcbd.com/


Request a free sample report for more insights

Home appliance manufacturers are focusing on continuous technological innovations to add more value to their products and enhance their functionality. For instance, in February 2019, Bosch launched its new dishwasher models to expand its dishwasher portfolio. The new product line featured innovative drying technologies that save the time of end-users. Similarly, other vendors are incorporating innovative features such as increased spray pressure, high-pressure multiple jets for cleaning sticky silverware, special air ducting systems, self-cleaning functions, and hygiene programs to offer convenience to users. The introduction of such innovative features is increasing consumer interest in these products, which is positively influencing the growth of the global dishwasher market.

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample:

https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR44092

As per Technavio, changing kitchen designs can boost sales in urban will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2021-2025.

Dishwasher Market: Changing kitchen designs

Consumers across the world are investing more in sophisticated kitchen designs that are convenient yet easy to maintain. Besides, the growing number of smaller houses is compelling consumers to put significant emphasis on good storage and space plans while designing their kitchens. This is increasing the demand for compact-sized kitchen appliances, which is encouraging vendors to add new streamlined appliances to their portfolios that cater to the growing needs of consumers. For instance, Haier offers under-the-sink dishwashers to cater to homeowners who have restricted space in their kitchens. The introduction of such innovative products will be crucial in driving the growth of the market during the forecast period.

"Increasing labor costs, busier lifestyles, and the increasing influence of western lifestyle on APAC countries will further boost market growth during the forecast period", says a senior analyst at Technavio.

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Dishwasher Market: Segmentation Analysis

This market research report segments the dishwasher market by product (freestanding dishwasher and built-in dishwasher), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and MEA).

The European region led the dishwasher market in 2021, followed by North America, APAC, South America, and MEA respectively. During the forecast period, Europe is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to the presence of a large number of potential consumers, manufacturers, and exporters of dishwashers in the region.

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Related Reports on Consumer Discretionary Include:

Global Smart Kitchen Appliance Market  Global smart kitchen appliance market is segmented by product (smart large cooking appliance, smart refrigerator, smart small cooking appliance, and smart dishwasher), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

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Global Household Appliance Market  Global household appliance market is segmented by product (major household appliances and small household appliances), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (APAC, Europe, North America, South America, and MEA).

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Some of the key topics covered in the report include:

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

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MIAMI, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fetal Institute, Miami, FL, which specializes in the assessment, counseling, and management of patients with high-risk pregnancies, is conducting an FDA-monitored clinical trial of fetoscopic repair in open spina bifida. This minimally-invasive technique was developed by doctors at The Fetal Institute and the USFetus in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil, translating more than 10 years of experience in the animal model to a viable clinical application.

"This trial will determine the validity of the new technique," says Dr. Eftichia Kontopoulos, co-investigator. "Because fetoscopic repair doesn't require opening the uterus, we can treat the fetus while at the same time allow the mother to deliver vaginally for the affected and any subsequent pregnancy."

Open spina bifida (OSB), a birth defect that occurs in approximately 1 in 1,500 births in the United States, results from failure of the spine to close at some point along its length during fetal development. The abnormality leads to injury and loss of spinal cord tissue at and below the defect.

Previous research has shown that antenatal treatment via open fetal surgery, which requires opening the maternal abdomen and uterus, can improve pregnancy outcomes in OSB. However, this places the mother at risk for uterine rupture and requires delivery by cesarean section for the affected pregnancy and any subsequent pregnancy.

The new minimally-invasive fetoscopic technique for OSB repair requires no uterine incision, minimizing risks to the mother while preserving the potential benefits of the in-utero repair for the fetus.

To learn more about the clinical fetoscopic repair trial or to obtain information on referring patients to The Fetal Institute, please click here or call (786)-971-2303.

About the Fetal Institute



The Fetal Institute provides patients with the latest and most advanced resources in the field of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Fetal Therapy, including high-resolution ultrasound imaging, non-invasive serum screening and prenatal testing (NIPT), as well as comprehensive invasive prenatal diagnostic and therapeutic techniques Fundamental to the Institute's philosophy, all diagnostic and therapeutic options are performed using either a non-invasive or a minimally invasive approach, which results in better pregnancy outcomes.

Founded by Dr. Ruben Quintero and Dr. Eftichia Kontopoulos, The Fetal Institute serves as a resource to all Obstetricians and Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialists and a national and international referral center for the assessment and management of complicated pregnancies.

Media Contact:

Ruben Quintero

[email protected]

786-971-2303

SOURCE The Fetal Institute

Related Links

https://the-fetal-institute.com/


The hospital will feature all private patient rooms, a spacious therapy gym with advanced rehabilitation technologies and an activities of daily living suite, cafeteria, dining room, pharmacy and therapy courtyard.

About Encompass Health

As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facilitybased and homebased patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 140 hospitals, 250 home health locations, and 94 hospice locations in 42 states and Puerto Rico, the Company provides highquality, cost-effective integrated healthcare. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as those relating to the likelihood, timing and effects of the completion of this hospital project, are forward-looking statements. In addition, Encompass Health may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Encompass Health's actual results or events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated include, but are not limited to, the regulatory review and approval process, any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings that may be brought by or against the Company; the possibility this project will experience unexpected delays; the ability to successfully complete and integrate this project consistent with Encompass Health's growth strategy, including realization of anticipated revenues, cost savings, and productivity improvements arising from the related operations and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; the continued spread of COVID-19, including the speed, depth, geographic reach and duration of the spread; the actions to be taken by Encompass Health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and Encompass Health's response thereto; the hospital's ability to maintain proper local, state and federal licensing; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's information systems; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages and the impact on Encompass Health's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; general conditions in the economy and capital markets; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.

Media Contact:

Hillary Carnel | 205 970-5912

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Crissy Carlisle | 205 970-5860

[email protected]

SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.

Related Links

http://www.encompasshealth.com


HOUSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Georgetown Energy Partners (GEP), an entity owned by ENGIE North America and Axium Infrastructure (Axium), achieved financial close with Georgetown University through a long-term comprehensive energy management partnership. Under the terms of the 50-year agreement, GEP has assumed sole responsibility to operate, maintain, and modernize the University's utility system including steam, chilled water, power and domestic water for their main campus location and downtown law center facilities.

This long-term agreement will help accelerate and actualize the University's ambitious sustainability goals that include a 35 percent overall reduction in energy use intensity and to achieve carbon neutral status by 2030 by leveraging innovative energy solutions and modernization of the existing utility infrastructure. For more information on Georgetown Energy Partners, please visit https://georgetownenergypartners.com.

"The ENGIE team is proud to recognize the final transfer of Georgetown University's utility system to management under the unified Georgetown Energy Partners group this week," said Stefaan Sercu, Managing Director Energy Solutions Americas at ENGIE. "Our partnership with Georgetown builds off of a successful track record of the University's long-term commitment to sustainability  through measurable infrastructure upgrades, impactful renewable generation goals, and integrated academic leadership that promotes interdisciplinary solutions to the climate crisis. We're looking forward to shaping new opportunities together that accelerate the campus community's transition to a carbon-neutral future."

"Axium is thrilled to join the extraordinary community at Georgetown University and to partner once again with ENGIE," said Thierry Vandal, President of Axium Infrastructure US Inc. "We look forward to supporting Georgetown in meeting its campus sustainability goals and carbon neutrality objective," added Mr. Vandal.

ENGIE is a leader in energy services for major universities, cities, and critical infrastructure entities around the world. The 50-year partnership with globally-renowned Georgetown University is the latest example in which institutions are turning to a partnership model to manage and operate energy infrastructure upgrades. Over the last three years, ENGIE North America has implemented successful energy concession partnerships at The Ohio State University and the University of Iowa. Most recently, ENGIE North America announced its new collaboration with Howard University, for a 20-year agreement managing the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new central utility plant on campus.

Societe Generale S.A, acted as Financial Advisor and Lead Arranger for ENGIE. Allen & Overy LLP acted as lead counsel for ENGIE. For Georgetown University, Barclays acted as financial advisor, Jones Day acted as legal advisor and Arup acted as technical advisor.

Axium has a successful track record of investing in critical infrastructure assets on university and corporate campuses throughout the United States. Axium's commitment to Georgetown University is consistent with the firm's strategy of delivering expertise and innovation to universities in support of their broader academic mission. This partnership with Georgetown University follows successful collaborations with ENGIE North America at The Ohio State University and the Longwood Medical Area in Boston. Axium has also developed long-term on-campus housing partnerships with several leading Universities in the United States.

About Georgetown University

Established in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll, Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the United States. Located in Washington, DC; Doha, Qatar; and around the world; Georgetown University is a leading academic and research institution, offering a unique educational experience that prepares the next generation of global citizens to lead and make a difference in the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit Georgetown.edu or connect with Georgetown on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

About Axium Infrastructure Inc.

Axium Infrastructure (comprised of Axium Infrastructure Inc. and its affiliated entities) is an independent portfolio management firm dedicated to generating long-term investment returns through investing in core infrastructure assets. Axium Infrastructure had approximately US$5 billion in assets under management as of May 31, 2021, as well as over US$1 billion in co-investments. The firm benefits from the capabilities of a group of specialists with decades of experience acquiring, developing, financing, operating and managing infrastructure assets. Focus is placed on assets that are supported by robust market demand and under long-term contract with creditworthy counterparties. Since 2010, the firm has invested in a diversified portfolio of over 165 North American infrastructure assets. For further information, including information about other infrastructure assets the firm has invested in, please visit www.axiuminfra.com.

About ENGIE North America

ENGIE North America Inc. offers a range of capabilities in the United States and Canada to help customers decarbonize, decentralize and digitalize their operations. These include comprehensive services to help customers run their facilities more efficiently and optimize energy and other resource use and expense; clean power generation; energy storage; and retail energy supply that includes renewable, demand response, and on-bill financing options. Nearly 100% of the company's power generation portfolio is low carbon or renewable. Globally, ENGIE S.A. is a global reference in low-carbon energy and services, that relies on their key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to customers. With 170,000 employees, customers, partners and stakeholders, the group is committed to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally-friendly solutions.

Media Contact:

ENGIE North America: Sandrine Deparis, [email protected], (202) 855 3705

SOURCE ENGIE North America

Related Links

https://georgetownenergypartners.com


DENVER, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Denver-based healthtech leader Eon has established a new Eon Center of Excellence (ECOE) program to reward and certify facilities who are improving the early capture and longitudinal care of patients with incidental pulmonary nodules, and who comply with comprehensive, quantifiable standards of care and best practices.

Eon

The majority of lung cancer cases are detected through incidental findings, so while other center of excellence programs focus only on lung screening, ECOE is breaking new ground by focusing on incidental pulmonary nodules. ECOE accredits and provides resources to exceptional facilities that improve early lung cancer detection through incidental management.

Unique to the program, ECOE has three tiers of accreditation that reflect the three pillars of care proven to improve outcomes for patients with incidental pulmonary nodules: Bronze for Patient Capture, Silver for Follow-up Adherence, and Gold for having an Integrated Program with centralized workflows, decision-making processes, and oversight. Also unlike other center of excellence programs, Eon's program uses criteria that are data-centric measurements of success to award a program the three ECOE tiers.

Dr. Scott Skibo, Eon's Chief Medical Officer, explains why ECOE uses outcome-based criteria. "The ECOE program is anchored to the adherence of clinically based guidelines for follow-up surveillance. These data-centric standards of care clearly prove the successful impact a facility is having on its patients." He adds, "To help facilities improve their processes and achieve better outcomes for patients with incidental pulmonary nodules, the ECOE program provides accreditation and free resources."

Also unlike many other programs, ECOE is a developmental program with no application, no cost, and no manual data upload or submission. All accredited ECOE facilities will be given a program-specific analysis of how to achieve the higher tiers, and rewarded with other resources that will help them improve their processes and continue providing exceptional patient care.

The ECOE program will have an immediate positive impact on accredited facilities. They can expect to achieve better patient outcomes and quality of care, standardize best practices of patient care, and achieve top-of-mind awareness and positive word-of-mouth from patients and providers in the area. They can also expect an increase in patient satisfaction, as well as a competitive advantage over competing hospitals who do not deliver on the various aspects of care for incidental pulmonary nodule patients.

"The ultimate goal of the ECOE program is to support each facility in meaningful ways that lead to a stage shift in patient care and improved survival rates," says Dr. Skibo. "We'll work together with ECOE-accredited facilities to help them achieve higher and higher levels of patient care."

Eon is constantly innovating to help facilities with their efforts towards improved patient capture, adherence, and outcomes. The company is live in over 250 facilities nationwide with disease-defying software solutions. Eon's dedication and drive are fueled by the positive outcomes of early identification and intervention of catastrophic disease.

About Eon

Eon is a Denver-based healthtech company dedicated to revolutionizing the way healthcare data is gathered, curated, and shared among industry professionals. We are on a mission to ensure the right data reaches the right people at the right time to identify disease early and stop it in its tracks. We believe together we can defy disease.

For more information, please contact Fahad Siraj at 416-518-4936 or [email protected] and follow Eon on LinkedIn and Twitter .

SOURCE Eon
HONG KONG, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The artist Vlastimil Beranek, who first ever exhibited Bohemian crystal sculptures on the seabed in 2017 in Balearic Islands, Mallorca has decided to join forces with NFT company Coinllectibles, a fully owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings Inc. (OTC: COSG), to produce the first ever bronze sculpture Fusion NFT. Vlastimil Beranek is well known for creating breath taking sculptures which are collected by affluent collectors around the world. His sculpture 'Venus' was inducted into the Czech Book of Records for the biggest entirely polished Bohemian crystal sculpture in the world. Beranek's sculptures were recently selected to represent Bohemian art on EXPO Dubai.

Mr Vlastimil Beranek (commonly referred to as the "modern Bohemian Leonardo") has recently entered a memorandum of understanding to establish a partnership with Fusion NTFs art purveyor and gallery Coinllectibles. Mr. Beranek's first bronze sculpture will be minted into a blockchain-enabled Fusion NFT and will be showcased in Coinllectibles' physical art gallery in Victoria Dockside, the most prestigious and ultra-luxurious art real-estate in Hong Kong.

Mr Vlastimil Beranek is a renowned creator of large cast Bohemian crystal, and bronze sculptures. His sculptures are based on fundamental simplicity, giving them a perfect look from every angle. In some cases, their extreme forms take them to the limits of applied technology. Mr Beranek's pieces are minimalistic in nature which makes it difficult to simplify any further. In partnering with Coinllectibles, Mr Beranek embarks on his journey into the blockchain space through minting his carefully curated high-valued art pieces into Coinllectible Fusion NFTs.

"I am incredibly thrilled to be working closely with Coinllectibles. This will be the first ever Bronze Art Sculpture Fusion NFT produced anywhere in the world, and it is about time that art meets technology in real-life." Said Mr Beranek.

When it comes to introducing the world's first bronze sculpture Fusion NFT, Mr Beranek decided to feature a tribute to love, which is symbolised by the shape of the Heart. This first ever European large scale bronze sculpture to be minted into a Fusion NFT will be purchased by Coinllectibles at a yet undisclosed value. The debut piece that will be minted into a Fusion NFT is the Heart, weighing 30 KG, and will become the first bronze sculpture Fusion NFT in the world.

Mr Beranek, who is a graduate of The Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, is best known for his Aqua, Smoke and Ocean series  organic Bohemian crystal forms both large and small, which glow and shine in a variety of media and colours seemingly representing infinity or the ephemeral smoke that rises from an extinguished match.

"It is very exciting to introduce to the NFT world one of the few ever produced bronze sculptures from Vlastimil Beranek. His Heart sculpture is absolutely unique, because although you can see the shape of Heart from many angles, the Heart actually doesn't exist on the sculptureIt is created by opposite edges of the sculpture. It is an amazing optical effect showing the genius of Mr. Beranek, because creating such an optical illusion in the first place requires extraordinary imagination and vision." Said Mr Marek Landa, Chief Executive Officer of CrystalCaviar and representative of Mr Beranek.

Coinllectibles hopes to launch the first bronze sculpture Fusion NFT in the world in a hybrid virtual-physical celebratory event with admirers of Mr Beranek's artworks all over world.

"It is an honour to have one of the most renowned Bohemian sculptors of our times carefully select several exclusive one of one art pieces to be minted into Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs" Said Mr Toby O'Connor, Chief Executive Officer of Coinllectibles.

"These firsts Beranek-Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs in the world carefully handpicked by Mr Beranek himself will be timeless and priceless" added Dr Herbert Lee, Founder and Advisory Board Chairman of Coinllectibles.

Pictures and details of the Heart, bronze sculpture minted into Coinllectibles Fusion NFT are available on Coinllectibles official website, and any party interested to purchase this art piece may contact Coinllectibles directly through their website.

About Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.

Cosmos Group Holdings Inc. (OTC: COSG) was formerly a television network and multimedia information and distribution company focused on serving the homeland security and emergency preparedness industry. The group's future will focus in the development of blockchain NFT technologies and platforms to facilitate the global trading of arts and collectibles.

About Coinllectibles

"Coinllectibles" is an ACT (Arts and Collectibles Technology) company, which is redefining how the world thinks about art and collectible ownership in the digital age. Their minted curated Fusion NFTs, capture all the rights and independent valuation and ownership of physical arts and collectibles securely underpinned by smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs bridge the physical and virtual dimensions of the arts and collectibles market, providing a pleasurable, transparent, and frictionless experience to customers from all walks of life.

About Vlastimil Beranek:

Vlastimil Beranek was born in 1960 in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic. Vlastimil Beranek is the third-generation exponent of the well-established, glassmaking Beranek family. They made history in Czech glass in the 1940's, by founding a glasshouse at Skrdlovice. He oversaw the glass works himself from 1992 to 2008.

The focal point of his personal interest lies in free creation of molten Bohemian crystal sculpture. His sculpture features a rigid, elementary form, often bordering on the technologys very possibilities. They possess a monumental, free-of-all-compromise expression. They do not rely on just the crystal's inner aesthetics or a single frame view. They claim their own space. They are one-of-a-kind and completely unique sculptures of Bohemian crystal, bronze, semiprecious stones and wood.

More Information About Vlastimil Beranek:

Website: www.vlastimilberanek.com

More Information About Coinllectibles:

Website: www.coinllectibles.art

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coinllectibles

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coinllectibles

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinllectibles

Telegram: https://t.me/Coinllectibles

SOURCE Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Total sales up 32%

Retail sales up 27%

Strong sales results for Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler and Alfa Romeo brands

Jeep delivers second best ever Q2 U.S. retail sales

Jeep Wrangler  Best quarter ever for U.S. retail sales

Jeep Wrangler 4xe  No. 1 best-selling plug-in hybrid

Jeep Gladiator  Best quarter ever for U.S. retail and total sales

Dodge Durango  Best second quarter for U.S. retail sales since 2005

Ram total sales rose 47% year-over-year

Chrysler total sales rose 36% year-over-year

Alfa Romeo total sales rose 34% year-over-year

Driven by strong consumer demand for Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler and Alfa Romeo brand vehicles, FCA US LLC reported a 32% increase in second-quarter sales over the same time period a year earlier. Retail sales rose 27% for the quarter. Fleet accounted for 12% of total sales.



"The recovering U.S. economy and continued strong demand for our products drove unprecedented results," U.S. Head of Sales Jeff Kommor said. "We continue to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry."



The Jeep brand continues its trailblazing performance, recording a 19% increase in total sales year-over-year, and its second best ever second quarter for U.S. retail sales. Wrangler recorded its best quarter ever for U.S. retail sales, while Gladiator posted its best quarter ever for U.S. retail sales, as well as U.S. total sales with 29,962 vehicles.



The Jeep lineup continues to grow. Since the full launch of the Wrangler 4xe earlier this year, it quickly became the No. 1 best-selling plug-in hybrid in the marketplace. In June, the all-new 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L, the first ever three-row Grand Cherokee, began making its way to dealerships. An all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee two-row and its 4xe electrified version is scheduled to debut later in 2021.



The Ram brand was also a bright spot during the quarter, delivering 187,750 total sales, a 47% increase on a year-over-year basis. Ram pickup trucks rose 40%, while the Ram ProMaster Van and ProMaster City drove 129% and 132% increases in total sales, respectively, over the prior year.



Powered by Challenger, Charger and Durango, Dodge brand total sales rose 42% year-over year. Separately, total sales of Challenger rose 52%, Charger rose 95%, and Durango rose 53%. The second quarter was also the best ever quarter for total sales of the Challenger Scat Pack and Charger Scat Pack, and the best retail second quarter for Durango since 2005. The Brotherhood of Muscle will grow stronger on Saturday, August 14, as thousands of automotive enthusiasts attend this year's ultimate car festival of legal street racing, Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan.



Total sales of the Chrysler brand increased 36% to 18,900 vehicles compared to Q2 of last year, driven by the Chrysler 300 and Chrysler Pacifica. The Pacifica Hybrid, the minivan segment's first-ever hybrid vehicle and the only plug-in hybrid minivan, also recorded its best ever second quarter total sales.



As Alfa Romeo celebrates its 111th anniversary, the brand marked yet another reason to celebrate as its second-quarter U.S. total sales rose 34% over Q2 of the prior year. The Stelvio SUV increased 38%, the Giulia sedan increased 31% and the Alfa 4C increased 8%.



Stellantis will share its electrification strategy on Thursday, July 8, at 2:30 p.m. CEST / 8:30 a.m. EDT during its EV Day 2021 hosted by Stellantis Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares. Details for accessing the event, along with the supporting materials, will be available under the Investors section of the Stellantis corporate website at www.stellantis.com. A recorded replay will be accessible on the Group's corporate website.



FCA US LLC Sales Summary Q2 2021























Q2 Sales Vol % CYTD Sales Vol %



Model Curr Yr Pr Yr Change Curr Yr Pr Yr Change



Compass 14,195 18,401 -23% 34,154 48,221 -29%



Patriot 4 0

4 1 300%



Wrangler 69,020 56,463 22% 118,666 96,131 23%



Gladiator 29,962 19,568 53% 48,784 34,827 40%



Cherokee 29,235 23,263 26% 67,158 56,938 18%



Grand Cherokee 52,726 46,326 14% 107,924 96,409 12%



Renegade 15,297 12,695 20% 31,294 26,859 17%



JEEP BRAND 210,439 176,716 19% 407,984 359,386 14%



Ram P/U 164,232 117,448 40% 313,068 246,253 27%



ProMaster Van 18,129 7,913 129% 29,009 17,498 66%



ProMaster City 5,389 2,322 132% 8,593 4,418 94%



RAM BRAND 187,750 127,684 47% 350,670 268,170 31%



200 2 0

3 3 0%



300 5,668 2,787 103% 11,062 8,383 32%



Town & Country 1 0

1 0





Pacifica 13,229 11,069 20% 47,571 35,594 34%



CHRYSLER BRAND 18,900 13,856 36% 58,637 43,980 33%



Dart 1 2 -50% 2 5 -60%



Charger 22,363 11,456 95% 42,103 30,084 40%



Challenger 15,052 9,880 52% 30,148 22,018 37%



Viper 0 0

2 0





Journey 5,885 5,434 8% 12,765 20,586 -38%



Caravan 1,158 5,291 -78% 2,867 30,222 -91%



Durango 17,855 11,694 53% 38,415 29,499 30%



DODGE BRAND 62,314 43,757 42% 126,302 132,414 -5%



500 8 239 -97% 12 566 -98%



500L 84 124 -32% 153 254 -40%



500X 403 395 2% 668 678 -1%



Spider 396 581 -32% 873 969 -10%



FIAT BRAND 891 1,339 -33% 1,706 2,467 -31%



Giulia 2,219 1,692 31% 4,284 3,451 24%



Alfa 4C 43 40 8% 67 71 -6%



Stelvio 2,756 2,002 38% 5,313 3,915 36%



ALFA ROMEO 5,018 3,734 34% 9,664 7,437 30%



FCA US LLC 485,312 367,086 32% 954,963 813,854 17%





















FCA US LLC

FCA US LLC is a North American automaker based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It designs, manufactures, and sells or distributes vehicles under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, FIAT and Alfa Romeo brands, as well as the SRT performance designation. The Company also distributes Mopar and Alfa Romeo parts and accessories. FCA US LLC is a subsidiary of Stellantis N.V. For the methodology of determining FCA US LLC monthly sales click here.



These statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events and, by their nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. They relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur or exist in the future and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on them. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in such statements as a result of a variety of factors, including: volatility and deterioration of capital and financial markets, changes in commodity prices, changes in general economic conditions, economic growth and other changes in business conditions, weather, floods, earthquakes or other natural disasters, changes in government regulation, production difficulties, including capacity and supply constraints, and many other risks and uncertainties, most of which are outside of our control.

SOURCE FCA US LLC
BOISE, Idaho, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UrbanLink Magazine announces the launch of Figures, a podcast and docuseries focused on notable entrepreneurs of recent years and their journeys. UrbanLink Magazine will release a new episode each week with guest list of entrepreneurs and change makers. Figures episodes from the inaugural season are available at urbanlinkmag.com.

"Entrepreneurship has consumed much of my adulthood and inspired my inner child to chase a similar dream," stated Chris Jones, the host of Figures Podcast. "It's easy for successful people to downplay achievements or credit good timing or good fortune. Interviewing these amazing creators allows us unfiltered insights into their successes and failures."

Figures kicks off from Napa Valley visiting with winemaker Dario Sattui. Sattui's storied winemaking legacy takes place at Castello di Amorosa winery, an authentic 13th Century-style castle. Sattui amusingly refers to himself as "a little crazy" but it is his passion and determination that is revealed in the interview.

Later in Season 1, Jones travels to Nevada to spotlight David Manica's architectural mastery, Allegiant Stadium, new home of the Las Vegas Raiders. Manica's resume includes the architectural designs for Wembley Stadium in the UK, and other stadiums in the U.S. and around the world. Manica's vision for stunning design and innovative functionality are illuminated from inside his latest architectural marvel.

Other Figures episodes feature the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute an incubator for student entrepreneurs and VersaBuilt Robotics founder Al Youngwerth, an established leader in the field of artificial intelligence.

"The Figures Podcast and video docuseries is a celebration of success in entrepreneurship," Jones stated. "Our inaugural season figures to be just that; a series of conversations revealing the various avenues available to achieve entrepreneurial excellence."

Find Figures Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Contact UrbanLink Magazine for more information or to recommend interviewees for Season 2.

About Figures

The Figures podcast and docuseries provides a unique glimpse into what makes an innovative entrepreneur "tick". The conversations our guests have with Chris Jones makes a great podcast in and of itself. The fact that the Figures' team also takes you right to where these entrepreneurs have made their magic makes this series all the more compelling.

SOURCE UrbanLink Magazine
MADISON, Wis., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FluGen, Inc., a clinical-stage vaccine company transforming vaccine efficacy in infectious respiratory diseases, today announced that it has been awarded funding from the United States Department of Defense to conduct a safety and immunogenicity study of M2SR, the Company's investigational, supra-seasonal, live, single-replication, intranasal influenza (flu) vaccine. This study will evaluate a monovalent H3N2 flu vaccine candidate, as compared to a licensed quadrivalent vaccine that is considered the current standard of care for adults aged 65 and above. The study is designed to measure a breadth of immune responses against both vaccine matched and drifted influenza strains amongst study subjects who receive either vaccine alone, both vaccines administered simultaneously, or both given sequentially. The study will also assess seroconversion and seroprotection to identify the number of subjects who respond with antibodies to drifted strains of the flu virus. Protecting against drifted strains, particularly H3N2, has been a challenge over the last decade, as evidenced by research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showing that H3N2 flu viruses tend to undergo more genetic changes, and as such, can lead to a mismatch between the vaccine strain and those that circulate during the flu season. Additional endpoints of this study will look at mucosal and cellular immune responses, areas which are not typically seen with intramuscularly delivered flu vaccines.

"We are extremely pleased to have been awarded funding from the Department of Defense to conduct this important study and further evaluate the ability of M2SR to address virus drift in a highly vulnerable patient population," said Paul Radspinner, President and Chief Executive Officer, FluGen, Inc. "FluGen is committed to ensuring older adults are protected from the flu virus, and particularly drifted strains, and the current standard of care has not been shown to be widely effective in protecting this population from virus drift, particularly against H3N2. We believe M2SR has the potential to be a more effective vaccine option in older adults, as it induces a broad antibody response, including mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity, even in the presence of pre-existing immunity to the flu. This represents a critical advancement in flu protection, and we look forward to initiating our study in the second quarter of 2022 and demonstrating the potential seroconversion and seroprotection benefits of our investigational flu vaccine particularly against drifted strains."

This integrated, Phase 1b, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of Cambodia 2021 H3N2 M2SR influenza A vaccine (M2SR) in older adults (n=300), >65 years of age. In the proposed study, M2SR, the high dose flu vaccine, or placebo will be administered in different dosing regimens, which will allow for the evaluation of the immunogenicity of M2SR on its own or when sequentially or co-administered with the inactivated vaccine. This design will also enable direct measurement of the breadth of immune responses generated by M2SR and the standard of care vaccine in older adults. The study will be initiated in the second quarter of 2022, which is aligned with the next flu season.

The study is supported by a $11.4 million grant from the Department of Defense. The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity is the awarding and administering acquisition office and this work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program under Award No. W81XWH2110563. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

About FluGen:

FluGen, Inc. is a clinical-stage vaccine company transforming vaccine efficacy in respiratory diseases. The company's lead candidate is M2SR, a supra-seasonal, live, single-replication, intranasal flu vaccine. Unlike standard of care flu vaccines, M2SR stimulates mucosal, humoral, and cellular immunity. In an unprecedented challenge trial, M2SR demonstrated protection against infection and illness across seven years of virus drift; and M2SR induces a durable antibody response with potential to cover an entire flu season and beyond. M2SR also has shown activity as a vaccine vector for other respiratory vaccines and infectious diseases, including a COVID-19/flu combination. For more information about FluGen, Inc., please visit http://www.FluGen.com/ .

SOURCE FluGen Inc

Related Links

http://www.FluGen.com


PLYMOUTH, Wis., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the race coming up this weekend at Road America in Plymouth, Wis., we are excited to announce that two ForeverLawn dealers are teaming up to proudly sponsor the NASCAR Xfinity race series, Jeffrey Earnhardt, and the JD Motorsports team. ForeverLawn Chicago and ForeverLawn Milwaukee will be the primary sponsors on Saturday.

The #BlackandGreenGrassMachine rides again! See Jeffrey Earnhardt race in the ForeverLawn car on Saturday, July 3 at Road America in Plymouth, Wisconsin. Two ForeverLawn dealers, ForeverLawn Chicago and ForeverLawn Milwaukee, are the primary sponsors of the No. 0 Chevy driven by Jeffrey Earnhardt in this weekend's NASCAR race at Road America in Plymouth, Wisconsin.

The July 3 race at Road America is part of a multi-race deal that ForeverLawn made with Earnhardt and JD Motorsports for the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity race series. Earnhardt will be driving the number 0 Camaro sporting the ForeverLawn paint scheme that Earnhardt fans affectionately call the "#BlackandGreenGrassMachine".

"We are so thankful for the ForeverLawn dealers in the great state of Wisconsin who are sponsoring us," said Tony Priscaro of JD Motorsports. "After a strong finish last week, we look forward to another great race in Plymouth."

Harvest Church and Pastor Greg Laurie will continue to deliver the message of "Hope" on the rear bumper of the car via their website harvest.org. In addition, the car will boast another message of hope this week, this time directed specifically towards veterans and first responders. ForeverLawn will add the logo of LifeGR, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping veterans deal with PTSD, depression, and focus on getting them excited about life again. Jesse Johnson-Bowers, founder of LifeGR, believes in a new kind of therapy to aid some of the vets struggling with depression called Adrenaline Therapy. "It's hard to imagine getting much more adrenaline than traveling almost 200mph around a track," said Jesse. We are excited to partner with Jeffrey Earnhardt and ForeverLawn on the number 0 Camaro, letting veterans and first responders know there is help, and there is hope. That's why we are promoting LifeGR via this car."

For more information about ForeverLawn products contact ForeverLawn at 866.992.7876, or visit foreverlawn.com.

About ForeverLawn

ForeverLawn provides innovative synthetic grass products to create better landscapes worldwide. In areas where real grass is difficult to grow or maintaindue to high traffic or poor conditionsForeverLawn offers a natural-looking alternative that is beautiful, functional, and durable. ForeverLawn offers exceptional business opportunities nationwide for individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit wishing to join a growing industry. ForeverLawnGrass without limits. 

CONTACT

Derek Taylor

ForeverLawn

678.986.5281

[email protected]

SOURCE ForeverLawn
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Frutta Bowls, a WOWorks brand and the nation's fastest-growing superfoods cafe franchise, has partnered with SteelCraft, a trendy outdoor eatery concept using shipping containers as the base of its design. Through the agreement, Frutta Bowls will debut its first restaurant in California late summer.

SteelCraft, based in Long Beach, CA, opened its first location in 2017 and has since become a go-to destination in the community due to events and strong neighborhood engagement. With its close placement of shipping containers, SteelCraft gives guests the ability to enjoy trendy food options, live music, and a fun outdoor atmosphere. SteelCraft is bringing on Frutta Bowls for its colorful and healthy menu items that align with their guests' preferences to balance indulgence with nutrition. For Frutta Bowls, SteelCraft's high foot traffic and California's climate makes this vertical an excellent growth opportunity.

The debut will allow Frutta Bowls to experiment entering new markets with a less-costly footprint. Non-traditional growth across all of the WOWorks family of restaurant brands  which include Saladworks, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh and The Simple Greek  is a key factor on the company's growth plan. With Frutta Bowls' focus on providing quality, "better-for-you" foods, WOWorks expects Frutta Bowls will not only fit in this new concept but also successfully operate in the unique space.

"We are excited about this partnership because we know both Frutta Bowls and SteelCraft are perfect for each other. Frutta Bowls' fresh, high-quality and flavorful menu items like acai bowls, pitaya bowls, smoothies, toasts and protein bites are on-trend with California's climate and guest lifestyles," said Mark Mears, Chief Marketing Officer of WOWorks, parent company of Frutta Bowls. "We believe the unique low-cost footprint and high foot traffic opportunity associated with this restaurant debut will help introduce the Frutta Bowls brand to a new guest base and will open up many more development options on the West Coast."

Frutta Bowls represents more than just a meal or snack to sate an appetite for the moment  it serves as "fuel" that stimulates the mind, energizes the body, lifts the spirit and feeds the soul. The menu features customizable bowls, smoothies, toasts and protein bites that are packed with vitamin-rich superfoods such as Acai, Pitaya and Kale that are high in antioxidants along with almonds, blueberries, oatmeal and dark chocolate to help boost immunity levels.

About Frutta Bowls

Founded in 2016 to fulfill a need for fresh and flavorful plant-centric dining options, Frutta Bowls has since grown from its original location in Freehold, New Jersey, to more than 30 locations. From Acai to Zinc, Frutta Bowls uses only the freshest, ripest and most flavorful plant-based, whole-food ingredients featured in customizable bowls, smoothies, toasts and protein bites. Frutta Bowls is part of WOWorks, a parent company family of restaurant brands that also includes Saladworks, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh and The Simple Greek. For more information, visit www.fruttabowls.com.

About WOWorks

WOWorks was formed in 2020 with a mission to help guests pursue their passions and live their best lives by serving healthy, nutritious and flavorful meals along with first-rate hospitality. Fully owned by Centre Lane Partners, LLC, WOWorks' portfolio consists of: Saladworks, the nation's leading fast-casual salad brand; Frutta Bowls, a unique restaurant franchise serving a variety of superfood bowls, fresh fruit smoothies, protein bites and more; Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, a popular Mediterranean restaurant concept; and most recently, The Simple Greek, which offers a fresh and healthy take on traditional Greek recipes in a fast-casual setting. WOWorks seeks to drive explosive growth across all of its brands through a variety of channels, both traditional and non-traditional, including ghost kitchens, food trucks, grocery retail and more.

SOURCE Frutta Bowls

Related Links

http://www.fruttabowls.com


OKLAHOMA CITY, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An Oklahoma-based company is challenging the widely accepted notion that America must rely on other nations for its supply of lithium -- a critical component for batteries used in electric vehicles and countless electronic products.

Galvanic Energy LLC has secured a footprint of 100,000 acres in a continuous trend overlying Southern Arkansas' Smackover Formation. Galvanic's acreage contains enriched concentrations of lithium and bromine dissolved in brine, providing a significant addition to the domestic inventory of economically recoverable lithium for battery production.

"For decades, America's leaders have promoted a national goal of energy independence," said Brent Wilson, Galvanic's president and chief executive officer. "Given the United States' current reliance on a foreign lithium supply chain, this resource has the potential to bring that goal into clearer focus, as it greatly expands the possibility of American self-reliance for lithium."

Galvanic estimates resources in place of 4 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), which is enough to power more than 50 million electric vehicles. The inferred resource estimate makes this prospect the largest brine lithium prospect in North America.

Historical brine analyses in this region, from three separate studies, indicate significant resource potential for lithium and bromine, with average concentrations of 325 ppm and 4,000 parts per million (ppm), respectively.

Reviving a local economic engine

Producing lithium will provide further opportunities for growth in a region that already has a robust industry for the extraction of bromine, which is commonly used in the production of flame-retardant materials.

The Smackover in Southern Arkansas produces 40 percent of the world's bromine. Albemarle Corp. and Lanxess Corp are the primary bromine producers, with operations near Galvanic's acreage position. Lithium extraction is currently being developed by Standard Lithium in cooperation with Lanxess.

With a historically stable bromine market and recent opportunities for bromine use in energy storage systems, along with the upside of lithium production, Galvanic is well positioned to provide a domestic source of lithium and bromine for decades to come.

Lithium is required for most electronic devices, including smartphones and laptops, and it is the primary source for batteries in electric vehicles. However, lithium production is relatively rare in the U.S., prompting the federal government to label it as a critical mineral in 2018.

Unlike conventional lithium mining methods, which require open-pit mines or large evaporation ponds, brine mining operations, such as in the Smackover, use a closed-looped system with a very small, distributed footprint. Brine is pumped out of the earth, elements of interest are extracted, and brine is returned to the Smackover Formation.

Galvanic Energy is committed to environmental stewardship and the growth of the American economy. For more information, visit galvanicenergy.com .

SOURCE Galvanic Energy
ATLANTA, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As many Georgians plan summer vacations across the state, Georgia Power reminds visitors and customers of the recreational opportunities the company offers across Georgia right near home. As part of the company's commitment to conservation and the outdoors, Georgia Power remains the largest non-governmental provider of public recreation in Georgia, maintaining and operating approximately 100,000 acres of land, 60,000 surface acres of water and more than 15 lake properties for years.

Get easy access to lakes and recreational facilities online

By visiting the Georgia Power lakes and recreation website at gplakes.com, Georgians can easily find spots to explore or relax outdoors at one of the company's numerous recreational properties.

Through the company's lakes and recreation website, visitors can:

Purchase Day Use or Annual Passes to any of the company's lakes and recreation facilities. Many offer boating, fishing, swimming, picturesque scenery, hiking trails, picnic areas, pavilions and campgrounds. With a pass, visitors have access to these amenities and more.

to any of the company's lakes and recreation facilities. Many offer boating, fishing, swimming, picturesque scenery, hiking trails, picnic areas, pavilions and campgrounds. With a pass, visitors have access to these amenities and more. Easily reserve a camping spot at their favorite Georgia Power lake or campground by picking the campground from a drop-down menu and selecting the dates to visit on the calendar. Availability and site amenities, such as electric service and water hookup, are shown for each campsite.

at their favorite Georgia Power lake or campground by picking the campground from a drop-down menu and selecting the dates to visit on the calendar. Availability and site amenities, such as electric service and water hookup, are shown for each campsite. See an aerial view of the facility, allowing viewers to know exactly where the campsite or recreation is within the campground and in relation to amenities and activities such as parking, biking, fishing, hiking and scenic trails.

You can check out www.georgiapowerlakes.com for more details around each lake's offerings. For the latest on hours of operation, visit the Georgia Power lakes and recreation site.

The company's lakes can be found across the state, including:

North Georgia  Lake Burton  Lake Rabun  Lake Seed  Lake Tugalo  Lake Yonah  Tallulah Falls Lake East Georgia  Lake Oconee  Lake Sinclair Central Georgia  Lake Jackson  Lake Juliette West Georgia  Lake Harding  Goat Rock Lake  Lake Oliver  Lake North Highlands  Lake Worth

The company is also encouraging customers and lake visitors to remember water safety tips with the start of the Independence Day weekend. Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death for children 1 to 4 years of age, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health and SPLASH, a longstanding Georgia Department of Natural Resources initiative supported by Georgia Power. Through public outreach, the organizations aim to greatly reduce the number of these deaths and injuries.

SPLASH encourages citizens to follow these tips when enjoying beaches, pools, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water:

S upervision  Designate an adult to watch children at all times. Do not assume someone else is watching.

upervision  Designate an adult to watch children at all times. Do not assume someone else is watching. P revention  Wear personal flotation devices (PFD or life jacket), install fencing around pools, and use drain covers in pools.

revention  Wear personal flotation devices (PFD or life jacket), install fencing around pools, and use drain covers in pools. L ook before you leap  Never jump into water without knowing how deep it is and what is below the surface.

ook before you leap  Never jump into water without knowing how deep it is and what is below the surface. A rm's Length  Adults should be arm's length to children in water, and safety tools such as hooks should be nearby at all times.

rm's Length  Adults should be arm's length to children in water, and safety tools such as hooks should be nearby at all times. S wim Lessons  Knowing how to swim greatly reduces the chance of drowning. Classes are often available through the Red Cross or YMCA.

wim Lessons  Knowing how to swim greatly reduces the chance of drowning. Classes are often available through the Red Cross or YMCA. Have a Water Safety Plan  Know what to do during an emergency

In addition to detailed information about all of Georgia Power's properties, including the status of facilities and amenities, local attractions and water safety information, the Georgia Power lakes site also allows visitors to browse an interactive fish guide for each of the lakes and check current lake conditions. The site also provides additional water safety tips through its lake safety public service announcement on the Georgia Power YouTube Channel.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is recognized by J.D. Power as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).

SOURCE Georgia Power

Related Links

http://www.georgiapower.com


CLARK, N.J., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GEP, a leading provider of procurement software and procurement services to Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises worldwide, announced today that leading global technology company Lenovo has selected GEP SMART , the industry's premier procurement software platform, after a thorough selection process.

Lenovo is a US$60 billion revenue global company headquartered in Hong Kong, operating and serving customers in 180 markets around the world. Lenovo will be using GEP SOFTWARE to support its global sourcing needs and suppliers for all its direct spend. At a time of Lenovo's continued strong growth and innovation, GEP SOFTWARE will provide a full range of cloud-native solutions to support Lenovo's

Complex direct global sourcing needs through GEP SMART's sourcing & project management capabilities

sourcing & project management capabilities Comprehensive supplier performance evaluation, information management & risk management to mitigate risk and drive value across its global supply chain

Unique requirements to continue to deliver smarter technology solutions and services

GEP SMART is a unified, cloud-native source-to-pay platform, built on a data-centric foundation with AI at its core and user-first design. GEP SMART enables Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients to drive optimum efficiency, agility, visibility and actionable intelligence into all procurement and purchasing functions, while eliminating burdensome infrastructure and support costs to achieve maximum ROI.

About GEP SOFTWARE

GEP SOFTWARE provides award-winning digital procurement and supply chain platforms that help global enterprises become more agile, resilient, competitive and profitable.

With beautifully rendered interfaces and flexible workflows, GEP provides users fresh, intuitive digital workspaces that yield extraordinary levels of user adoption and meaningful gains in team and personal productivity.

GEP products capitalize on machine learning and cognitive computing, advanced data and semantic technologies, IoT, mobile and cloud technologies, and are designed to incorporate continual innovations in technology.

GEP's software integrates quickly and easily with third-party and legacy systems, such as SAP, Oracle and all other major ERP and F&A software. And with superb support and service, GEP is an industry leader in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

A leader in multiple Gartner Magic Quadrants, GEP's cloud-native software and digital business platforms consistently win awards and recognition from industry analysts, research firms and media outlets, including Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Procurement Leaders and Spend Matters.

GEP SOFTWARE is part of Clark, NJ-based GEP  the world's leading provider of procurement and supply chain strategy, software and managed services. To learn more, visit www.gepsoftware.com.

Media Contact

Derek Creevey

Director, Public Relations

GEP

Phone: +1 732-382-6565

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE GEP

Related Links

http://www.gep.com


DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global and China Graphene Industry Report, 2020-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Wide adoption gives a big boost to the graphene market.

In 2020, the global graphene market was worth USD4,386 million, of which the growing Chinese market was valued at RMB10.1 billion, or 33.4% of the global.



Graphene finds wide commercial application in the form of powder and film. Graphene powder is largely used in new energy and anticorrosive paint; graphene film gets utilized for flexible displays and sensors, with the new energy field demanding over 70%.



For downstream application, graphene is most often seen in new energy-related fields such as lithium battery conductive agent and new energy supercapacitor. The increasingly high penetration of new energy vehicles will fuel the boom of graphene industry. In 2020, the global graphene conductive agent market was valued at RMB6.7 billion; in 2030, the global graphene supercapacitor market is expected to be worth USD609 million, sustaining CAGR of over 20%.

In 2019, China's production of anticorrosive paint jumped by 18% thanks to good performance of graphene anticorrosive materials in thermal stability and antisepsis. Graphene flexible displays are often demanded by wearable devices. For strong chemosensitivity, graphene-based sensors have a promising future in medicine.



By region, Asia-Pacific region, especially China where advanced manufacturing is rising, demands ever more graphene, leading to a surging graphene market there. In 2020, the region commanded 42.1% of the global graphene market, outstripping the rest of the world in sales. Moreover, considering large numbers of producers with strong competence in research and development, it is predicted that the region's demand for graphene will soar in the years to come.



Through the lens of competitive pattern, European and American companies stay ahead in graphene preparation technology and applied products like composites and core electronic components, while the Asian graphene application market has a rosy prospect. In China, over 10 listed companies work on research and production of graphene-based products, typically graphene conductive agent, flexible display and heat conductive materials, with the initial capability of mass-producing graphene films and powder.

Among them, The Sixth Element (Changzhou) Materials Technology Co., Ltd. as the first one boasting graphene powder and film mass production lines focuses on studying graphene application in sensor and heating film; 2D Carbon (Changzhou) Tech Inc., Ltd. has developed graphene film production lines for application in heating film and flexible display.



Global and China Graphene Industry Report, 2016-2026 highlights the following:

Graphene (classification, technology, development course, industry chain, etc.);

Global graphene industry (status quo, market size, prices, patents, industrialization, development trends, etc.);

China's graphene industry (status quo, market size, competitive pattern, industrialization, development trends, etc.);

graphene industry (status quo, market size, competitive pattern, industrialization, development trends, etc.); Graphene upstream sectors (market size, etc.)

Graphene downstream sectors (market size, main companies, segments, application, etc.);

20 foreign and 17 Chinese producers of graphene and applied products (operation, graphene business, production layout, R&D, etc.).

Key Topics Covered:



1 Overview of Graphene Industry

1.1 Definition

1.2 Performance

1.3 Preparation Methods

1.4 Development History

1.5 Development Bottleneck

1.6 Industry Chain



2 Development of Global Graphene Industry

2.1 Status Quo

2.2 Market Size

2.3 Prices

2.4 Industrialization Prospects

2.5 Overview of Patents

2.5.1 Total Filings

2.5.2 Structure

2.6 Competitiveness Analysis



3 Development of Chinese Graphene Industry

3.1 Policy Environment

3.2 Status Quo

3.2.1 Graphene Powder

3.2.2 Graphene Film

3.3 Industrialization Development

3.3.1 Industry-University-Research Collaboration

3.3.2 Industrial Parks

3.4 Competitive Pattern

3.4.1 Enterprises' Layout

3.4.2 Competition



4 Upstream Sectors

4.1 Graphite

4.2 Others

4.2.1 Methane

4.2.2 Ethanol



5 Downstream Application Sectors

5.1 Lithium Battery

5.1.1 Graphene Application

5.1.2 Status Quo

5.2 Supercapacitor

5.2.1 Graphene Application

5.2.2 Status Quo

5.3 Transparent Electrode

5.3.1 Graphene Application

5.3.2 Status Quo

5.4 Integrated Circuits

5.5 Others

5.5.1 Polyester-based Composites

5.5.2 Electrically Conductive Printing Ink

5.5.3 Heat Dissipating Material

5.5.4 RFID



6 Major Global Graphene Producers

6.1 G6 Materials

6.2 CVD

6.3 Focus Graphite

6.4 Lomiko Metals

6.5 Applied Graphene Materials (AGM)

6.6 Graphene NanoChem Plc

6.7 Haydale Graphene Industries

6.8 Northern Graphite

6.9 XG Sciences Inc

6.10 Other Enterprises

6.10.1 Grolltex

6.10.2 Graphenea

6.10.3 Graphene Square

6.10.4 Grafoid

6.10.5 GraphenePlatform Corp

6.10.6 BGT Materials Limited

6.10.7 Angstron Materials

6.10.8 Graphenano

6.10.9 Vorbeck Materials

6.10.10 Cambridge Nanosystems

6.10.11 GRAPHENE FRONTIERS



7 Major Chinese Graphene Producers

7.1 The Sixth Element (Changzhou) Materials Technology Co., Ltd.

7.2 2D Carbon (Changzhou) Tech Inc., Ltd.

7.3 Beijing Graphene Holding Group Co., Ltd.

7.4 FangdaCarbon New Material Co., Ltd.

7.5 Der Future Science & Technology Holding Group Co., Ltd.

7.6 Kangdexin Composite Material Group Co., Ltd.

7.7 Xiamen KnanoGraphene Technology Co., Ltd.

7.8 Deyang Carbonene Technology Co., Ltd.

7.9 Others

7.9.1 Nanjing XFNANO Materials Tech Co., Ltd.

7.9.2 JCNANO Tech Co., Ltd.

7.9.3 Tianjin Plannano Energy Technologies Co., Ltd.

7.9.4 Changzhou Zhongchao Graphene Power Technology Co., Ltd.

7.9.5 Changzhou Ruifengte Technology Co., Ltd.

7.9.6 Dongxu Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd.

7.9.7 Qingdao Huagao Graphene Technology Corp. Ltd.

7.9.8 Shengquan Group

7.9.9 Qingdao Haoxin New Energy Technology Corporation

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/81eh1i

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

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FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 5; Released: April 2021 Executive Engagements: 753 Companies: 30 - Players covered include ADS Biotec Inc.; Argos Technologies Inc.; Arthrex, Inc.; Avita Medical; Bertin Bioreagent; BRAND GMBH + CO KG; Biomedical Research & Development Laboratories Inc. (Brandel); (USA); Connectorate AG; Cox Scientific Ltd; PerkinElmer Inc.; SP Industries; Terumo BCT Inc.; TOMTEC Imaging Systems GmbH and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Type (Manual, Automated); Application (Peripheral Blood, Bone Marrow, Umbilical Cord, Adipose Tissue, Other Applications); End-Use (Biotech & Biopharma Companies, Research Institutes, Other End-Uses) Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-



Global Cell Harvesting Market to Reach $359.2 Million by 2026

Cell harvesting is a next-generation technique that involves collection of stem cells from the culture media for R&D and therapeutic applications. Growth in the global market is spurred by of increasing investments in clinical, cell-based and regenerative medicine research. The technique is likely to gain from rising incidence of infectious and chronic diseases coupled with continuous expansion of the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. Stem cell research is estimated to witness fastest growth as stem cells derived from the bone marrow hold potential to advance stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and stem cell-based therapies. Stem cells are one of the latest entrants joining the race for COVID-19 cure. The therapy involves intravenous administration of MSCs derived from the human placenta to COVID-19 patients for boosting the immune response and helping the body in fighting the infection. The approach is being investigated by various researchers in the US and China, with some of them observing positive outcomes.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Cell Harvesting estimated at US$233.2 Million in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$359.2 Million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.3% over the analysis period. Manual, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 7.9% CAGR and reach US$284.4 Million by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Automated segment is readjusted to a revised 5.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The Manual segment dominates market share owing to extensive adoption of these systems as a result of their affordable and user-friendly nature.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $78.8 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $32.1 Million by 2026

The Cell Harvesting market in the U.S. is estimated at US$78.8 Million in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$32.1 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 10.4% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 6.1% and 7% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.6% CAGR. The US dominates market share due to increasing R&D investments and favorable government policies. The US FDA has approved cord blood-based blood-forming stem cells for use in the US. These cells along with stem cells derived from the bone marrow are widely used in medical transplant procedures for treatment of cancer along with diseases related to the immune system and blood. The Asia-Pacific market expansion is being driven by increasing R&D spending to develop new treatments, government policies favoring stem cell research, and public-private efforts to foster stem cell-based treatments. More

MarketGlass Platform

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CONTACTS:

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Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Offshore Support Vessel Market by Type (AHTS, PSV, MPSV, Standby & Rescue Vessel, Crew Vessel, Chase Vessel, Seismic Vessel), Application (Shallow water and Deepwater), End-User (Oil & Gas and Offshore Wind), and Region - Forecast to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The offshore support vessel market is projected to grow from an estimated USD 22.0 billion in 2021 to USD 26.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.0%, from 2021 to 2026.

The growth of the market is also attributed to the increase in exploration activities in ultra-deepwaters and the Arctic region, in countries such as the US, Canada, and Norway.

Also, a growing focus on the European Union's (EU) renewable energy targets would result in increasing the demand for offshore wind energy in Europe.

Thus, the growth in deployment of offshore wind farms would be the opportunity for the offshore support vessel market during the forecast period. Oversupply of offshore vessels acts as a restraint for the growth of the market during the forecast year.



The AHTS segment is expected to hold the largest share of the offshore support vessel market, by type, during the forecast period



Anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels constitute the largest segment of the offshore support vessel market, by type, in terms of volume as well as value. AHTS vessels are designed to provide anchor-handling and towage services and are also used for supplying deck cargo, water, fuel, dry bulk, and mud-to-oil rigs and platforms. These vessels can also be used for emergencies and are well equipped for firefighting, rescue, and oil recovery operations.

The demand from Asia Pacific and Europe is projected to drive the market for AHTS vessels during the forecast period. Countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia increased their E&P activities in offshore areas in the recent past.

Malaysia is the largest contributor to the short-term oil & gas production growth mainly due to the Kebabangan Gas Project. The global AHTS market dominated the global offshore support vessel market owing to increasing shallow-water activities in the Asia Pacific region.



North America: The fastest market for offshore support vessels



The North American market is projected to be the fastest-growing market, during the forecast period, owing to the continued production and exploration activities, particularly in the US and the Gulf of Mexico. As oil prices remain stable, the North American market will grow at the highest pace, as it will witness the fastest rise in exploration and production spending in response to any future recovery in oil prices, with its well-developed offshore industry.

Moreover, significant reserves and a comparatively stable political environment have further supported the growth of the offshore support vessel market in the region.

Premium Insights

Increased Ultra-Deepwater Exploration Activities, Especially In Arctic Region Is Expected To Drive offshore Support Vessel Market Growth During forecast Period

Ahts Segment Is Expected To Continue To Account for Largest Share of Offshore Support Vessel Market During forecast Period

Shallow Water Segment Is Expected To Continue To Account for Larger Share of Market During forecast Period

Oil & Gas Segment To Dominate Market During forecast Period

Asia Pacific To Grow At Highest CAGR During forecast Period

Offshore Support Vessel Market In Asia Pacific, by End User and Country: Oil & Gas Segment and India Dominated offshore Support Vessel Market In Asia Pacific In 2020

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Increasing investments for offshore wind farm construction, combined with development of offshore oil & gas reserves

Restraints

Fluctuating oil prices and huge capital requirements for offshore projects

Oversupply of vessels due to declined demand for OSVs

Opportunities

Aging offshore infrastructure leading to replacements and decommissions

Increased ultra-deepwater exploration activities, especially in Arctic region

Challenges

High operational risks for OSVs due to extreme offshore climatic conditions

Growing stringency of regulations for offshore activities in key regions

Market Map

Average Day Rate

Supply Chain Overview

Key Influencers

Offshore support vessel providers

Brokers

End users

Case Study Analysis

Offshore Support Vessel Boarded With Battery Energy Storage System

Eidesvik offshore equipped its OSV with onboard battery energy storage system to reduce fuel consumption

Objective

Solution statement

Company Profiles

Key Players

Maersk

Bourbon

Seacor Marine

Swire Pacific

Tidewater

Siem offshore

Grupo CBO

Havila Shipping

Solstad offshore

Vroon Group

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha

Ostensjo Rederi

Nam Cheong Limited

MMA offshore

DOF Group

Other Players

Harvey Gulf International Marine

PACC offshore Services Holdings

Royal IHC

Edison Chouest offshore

offshore GC Rieber

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kwdjlf

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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Health Management Associates (HMA) acquired Edrington Health Consulting (EHC), a healthcare actuarial and analysis firm. Tweet this

"Edrington Health Consulting has helped clients across the country navigate the complexities of reimbursement mechanisms, tailoring strategies and solutions that help fuel future success," Rosen said. "The actuarial expertise of our new colleagues is impressive and further expands the ways in which we can help our clients now and into the future."

EHC also provides guidance and services related to actuarial and financial analysis and strategy, IBNP development, risk and efficiency analysis, encounter data validation and review, provider reimbursement and incentives, and data warehousing and analytics.

"We have worked alongside HMA for years and are proud to join our new colleagues who we know share a similar passion for publicly funded healthcare," said Kyle Edrington, EHC founder and managing partner. "The combination of HMA's unmatched expertise and breadth of knowledge with our foundation in client-focused, outcomes-driven actuarial consulting services will deliver exciting opportunities to our existing clients and team members."

EHC will continue to operate as Edrington Health Consulting, An HMA Company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1985, HMA is an independent, national research and consulting firm specializing in publicly funded healthcare and human services policy, programs, financing, and evaluation. Clients include government, public and private providers, health systems, health plans, community-based organizations, institutional investors, foundations, and associations. With more than 20 offices and over 300 multidisciplinary consultants coast to coast, HMA's expertise, services, and team are always within client reach.

For more information about HMA, visit https://www.healthmanagement.com/.

SOURCE Health Management Associates

Related Links

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TEL AVIV, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The partnership will focus on applications where the data for AI is distributed across multiple silos and performance requires physical proximity to the data sources. Hub's platform protects client's endpoints and all intermediate servers while providing all the computing power needed to run Scaleout's advanced technology. "Our expertise in securing customer solutions, combined with Scaleout's unmatched expertise in decentralized AI will provide immense benefits to our mutual clients," said Ido Helshtock, Chief Product Officer at HUB Security.

Daniel Zakrisson, CEO of Scaleout agrees.

"Scaleout is developed to handle 1000's of clients. With Hub Security, we can now protect the client's sensitive information where it sits as well as any privacy concerns within and across clients arising from machine learning." Eyal Moshe, CEO of HUB Security, added that "The partnership brings to market an extremely powerful and secure decentralised artificial intelligence solution. Aimed towards Companies responsible for critical infrastructure, healthcare, banking, and governments, the new products will bring confidence to clients to focus on their core businesses in an ultra-secure environment."

HUB Security was established in 2017 by veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces 8200 and 81 intelligence units. The company specializes in protecting sensitive commercial information and has an advanced encrypted computing solution for companies and organizations aimed at preventing hostile intrusions and the theft of sensitive commercial information. HUB Security recently completed an investment of $50M and became a public traded company on the Tel Stock Exchange through its merger with ALD .

Scaleout develops solutions in machine learning and distributed systems. focusing on federated learning and MLOps for the distributed cloud. The Company emerged from the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University, Sweden. The founders are veterans in machine learning, cloud architecture, software engineering, blockchain technology and entrepreneurship with extensive experience from both the industry and leading academic research in applied AI.

For more information on the Companies:

https://hubsecurity.io/

https://www.scaleoutsystems.com/company

SOURCE Hub Security
WASHINGTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hunter Strategy, a premier Cyber Risk and DevSecOps firm announced their recognition today as a Registered Provider Organization (RPO) for the Cyber Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program. Achievement of RPO Status enables Hunter to assist organizations seeking certification prepare to undergo the formal CMMC assessment.

Introduced in January 2020 by the Department of Defense, the frequently controversial CMMC framework serves as a series of standards and cybersecurity baseline requirements for the more than 300,000 contractors and vendors that store, process, or transmit Federal Contract Information (FCI) or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Say Hello to Zero Trust.

While CMMC compliance may still be complicated and political, the interim rule requires that contractors must now demonstrate their cyber posture and compliance across five maturity levels and 17 domains. In the capacity of an RPO, Hunter's Virtual Information Security Officers (v-ISOs ) offer expansive technical expertise  along with tactical implementation guidance to optimize security operations. Offerings include:

DFARS Compliance Review

CMMC Readiness Assessment and Gap Analysis

CMMC Maturity Level 1, 2 & 3 Evidence Documentation

System Security Plans (SSP) & Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms)

Product & System Integrity Testing

Manage ongoing CMMC compliance

"Given the gravity of our nation's recent and persistent cyber attacks, cyber hygiene is more important now than ever. We are pleased to be distinguished as an RPO to help organizations seeking CMMC certification at any level" said Jessica Sweet, Vice President of Cyber Risk and Principal Consultant at Hunter Strategy. "Attainment of RPO status reaffirms Hunter's commitment towards DoD's long term vision of to delivering cyber optimization and supply chain security to the Defense Mission."

About Hunter Strategy

Headquartered in Washington DC's Cathedral Heights neighborhood, Hunter Strategy is a Small Business Administration (SBA) HUBZone certified small business that offers strategic DevSecOps, cyber risk management, and Agile software engineering solutions to federal agencies, Fortune 1000 companies, and emerging technology firms. For more information, please visit www.hunterstrategy.net.

SOURCE Hunter Strategy

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AUCKLAND, New Zealand, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New Zealand-based natural performance apparel company, icebreaker, has released the fourth installment of its annual Transparency Report with a major focus on its plastic-free initiative.

For more than 26 years, icebreaker has worked with what nature provides to create natural, high-performing outdoor clothing as an alternative to plastic-based synthetic apparel. In 2017, icebreaker launched its inaugural Transparency Report detailing what it means to be a truly sustainable business and in 2019, the brand announced its boldest ambition to date: to become plastic-free.

A major highlight in this year's Transparency Report reveals that in 2021, 91% of icebreaker's total fiber composition is now merino or plant-based, with 65% more styles (vs 2020) being made with 100% merino or plant-based fibers. In 2021 alone, icebreaker forecasts to sell over 1.3 million units of 100% merino or plant-based apparel.

With national estimates suggesting that consumers keep clothing items about half as long as they did 15 years ago and fast fashion companies doubling and even tripling production, it is no surprise that the amount of plastics and synthetic materials in the apparel industry alone has multiplied. Fragments from textiles and apparel can be a significant contributor to environmental pollution. According to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, plastic particles washed off from products such as synthetic clothes and textiles contribute to 35% of primary microplastics polluting our oceans.

"Like many consumers around the world, we found ourselves facing the creep of plastic into our lives and our product line. So, in 2019 we made a bold commitment," said Jan Van Mossevelde, Brand President. "By 2023, our aim is for all our clothing to be made from merino wool or plant-based fibers. For the very small amount of petrochemical synthetics that cannot be removed, we're working on alternatives, including using bio-based fibers for now."

icebreaker's commitment to becoming plastic-free is especially vital now more than ever as a result of Covid-19. The pandemic not only disrupted everyday life as we know it, but has skyrocketed the use of single-use plastic consumption as more consumers shopped online, purchased disposable protective gear, and opted for bagged or wrapped produce and other grocery items.

HOW ICEBREAKER IS MOVING TO NATURAL - TRANSPARENCY REPORT KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

2019

Launches its plastic-free by '23 ambition

84% of its fiber composition is merino wool or plant-based

icebreaker clothing is PFC-free and acrylic-free

Launches new innovation icebreaker Nature Dye, using renewable, plant-based dyes

Launches plastic-free swing tags, saving over 2 million units of plastic per year

Removes 59 synthetic-heavy styles. Retail value, $7.9M

Moves its knitwear collection to 100% merino or plant-based

2020

87% of its fibre composition is merino wool or plant-based

Launches the plastic-free full body mannequin, made from non-toxic paper pulp

Launches collaboration with SPINNOVA in an industry-first innovation combining merino with plant-based fibers

2021

91% of its fiber composition is merino wool or plant-based

The best-selling Tech Lite tee moves to 100% merino

The best-selling Quantum mid layer moves to 100% merino

The award-winning new ZoneKnit hoodie is made from 100% merino

icebreaker forecasts to sell over 1.3million units of 100% merino or plant-based apparel

THE LAST 9%

As icebreaker doubles down on the final 9% of plastics in its clothing, it faces some specific challenges. The synthetic fibers that remain in the range, and which are still derived from petrochemicals include elastane in underwear for stretch, nylon in socks for strength, and polyester in jackets for lightweight strength.

ICEBREAKER CONTINUES TO LEAD THE JOURNEY TO MOVE TO NATURAL IN ITS RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF BETTER, INCLUDING FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING INITIATIVES:

Regenerative Agriculture: working with growers to conserve and rehabilitate our ecosystem, with the goal of 100% of contracted growers to join its program by 2023

SPINNOVA Partnership: investing in developing a pioneering yarn blend in partnership with Finnish startup that takes plant-based fibers to a next level of sustainability by blending merino and cellulosic fibers

Bio-based Elastane: collaborating with leading elastic yarn producers and bio-feedstock suppliers, such as corn adhered to sustainability programs, to ensure that the yarns adopted have a clear sustainability roadmap from plant to yarn

Bio-based Nylon: collaborating with leading yarn producers and bio-feedstock suppliers, such as castor beans, and actively working with research teams, engaging start-ups, scouting the market and asking the industry constant questions in search for natural solutions to replace traditional nylon

Labels: replacing back neck and pip labels of new styles to be 100% natural fiber labels by August 2022 (opting for organic cotton fabric printed labels versus synthetic woven labels)

ABOUT ICEBREAKER

Founded by Jeremy Moon in 1995 in New Zealand, icebreaker pioneered the ethical and sustainable production of natural performance apparel. Now a part of the VF Corporation, icebreaker continues to challenge the status quo while championing natural, transparent and responsible ways to do business.

Following the publication of its Transparency Report in 2018 and 2019, icebreaker was one of only a handful of brands to be awarded an A+ rating in the Tearfund Ethical Fashion report, two years in a row. The report found icebreaker to be excellent in every area, including scrutiny of policy, traceability, transparency, supplier relationships and worker rights at every stage of the production process.

icebreaker looks to nature for the answers and for innovative ways to do more with less. Working with what nature provides and adapting as nature does, icebreaker enables consumers to join a movement towards choosing natural and preserving our planet for generations to come.

icebreaker is sold in more than 5,000 stores in 50 countries through wholesale, Touch Lab retail stores and e-commerce platforms. To discover more, visit icebreaker.com.

SOURCE icebreaker

Related Links

https://icebreaker.com


BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its discovery, graphene has endured an extensive period of hype. There was not a problem on earth (or beyond!) for which graphene was not proposed as a solution. That narrative has, thankfully, shifted to targeting more appropriate value-add applications that are beginning to gain commercial success. However, practically no graphene manufacturer is making significant revenue, let alone a profit, so continued funding will still be essential  but is there still enough cash being injected?

IDTechEx forecast the market for graphene material to be at a tipping point with notable orders beginning to arrive. However, those orders are not arriving for everyone, and a period of consolidation is expected over the next 5-10 years as clear market leaders emerge; looking at equivalent mature industries there will not be space for more than a handful. In fact, it is more sensible to see graphene powders and nanoplatelets as options within a broad family of advanced carbons that include MWCNTs, SWCNTs, thin graphite, and carbon black.

In their leading, unbiased market report "Graphene Market & 2D Materials Assessment 2021-2031", IDTechEx provide global analysis of the manufacturers, applications, and materials. This gives the reader key insights into the graphene industry and a realistic outlook for the market potential.

As mentioned, revenues are still low to modest for graphene manufacturers, and profitability is almost non-existent outside of a few; for a full breakdown see the market report. This is unsurprising given the time it takes for an advanced material to gain adoption in anything more meaningful than a branding exercise. However, this does bring the challenge of funding, which will remain essential for companies to carry on until the profitable booming market arrives.

Funding was not an issue 10-years ago, there were numerous new graphene companies with many raising some significant money and/or going public to further support this. Despite the pandemic, for many emerging technologies the previous 12-months has seen a flurry in early-stage funding and significant money raised with companies going public (mostly via SPAC), but the same cannot be said for the graphene industry.

Of course, funding is not everything; strategic partnerships can be as significant to the future success of a company. The first half of 2021 has seen more of these, with the likes of Sojitz Corporation investing in the promising Singapore start-up 2DM, Huvis and NeoEnpla for graphene fibers, and even Nationwide Engineering with University of Manchester and Versarien for their concrete work.

In 2020, the key graphene funding was mainly related to energy storage with Skeleton Technologies and Nanotech Energy grabbing the headlines. This has not reached the same heights in the first half of 2021, but with NanoXplore and Martinrea forming a joint venture called VoltaXplore and each contributing $4m, Graphene Manufacturing Group going public and being prominent about their aluminium-ion work, and several smaller companies, such as Volexion and Anaphite, making some initial investment announcements, it shows there remains an appetite here. In terms of private funding raised by a graphene manufacturer, Graphmatech's oversubscribed funding round of 84.5million SEK (ca. $10m) is one of the more notable so far this year.

Funding does not just have to be external private or public investments; large companies will often start new ventures or business units that can reshape the market. The biggest news stories from the first half of 2021 all surround Gerdau. Gerdau is a Brazilian company and one of the leading steel producers in the world. They have been active in the graphene field for multiple years, and in 2021 the company took their activities a step further and launched a new subsidiary called Gerdau Graphene. It was stated that the focus will be on construction, industrial and automotive lubricants, rubber thermoplastics, paints, batteries, and sensors market in the Americas. This was quickly followed up with supply & distribution agreements with NanoXplore and a MoU concerning a distributor agreement with First Graphene.

There are 4 final areas to consider when looking at the funding developments in the graphene landscape.

- Firstly, there is the area of applied graphene companies. Investment in energy storage companies has already been discussed, but it does not stop there. Companies are not looking to be graphene producers (or masterbatch or liquid dispersed products) but rather take a few steps further on the chain and capture more of the value. ORA Graphene with their headphones, INBRAIN Neuroelectronics with their neural implants, and Cardea Bio with their biosensor all raised further investment in 2021.

- CVD-grown graphene films and wafers should be considered separate from their powder and platelet counterparts. This is at an earlier stage and predominantly targeting different application areas; we have already seen some of the companies using this material highlighted. Major companies have already sunk a huge amount of money trying to make this a success to little avail. Despite this, there is still investment and notable progressions. At the end of 2019, Paragraf raised 16.8m (ca. $21.4m) in Series A funding for their MOCVD approach, and Grolltex closed an oversubscribed round of undisclosed amount. Meanwhile, at the end of 2020, Versarien acquired the assets and IP on CVD production of electronics grade graphene from Hanwha Aerospace for 4.34m (ca. 5.8m); this was followed-up in 2021 with an agreement with Graphene Lab in South Korea with a strategic investment of 1.93m (ca. $2.7m).

- Government-sponsored R&D and academia remains a key area for graphene. Companies cannot rely on grants forever, but it provides necessary input of cash for projects that are looking to bridge the valley of death. The most notable from 2020 comes from the graphene flagship, a central European body for academic and industrial R&D; one of the most notable was EUR 23m (ca. $27.3m) for their CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project that intends to build a biorefinery to create graphene out of urban waste.

- Finally, beyond carbon, there is an exciting area emerging. 2D materials are predominantly at an early R&D stage, one area gaining the most commercial progression is boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), the counterpart to CNTs. In 2021, BNNano and Huneed Technologies announced a strategic announcement, and BNNT Technology, a subsidiary of PPK and Deakin University, announced a scale-up of capacity and progressions in lithium-sulfur batteries. See the market report "Carbon Nanotubes 2021-2031" for more information on CNTs and the "Graphene Market & 2D Materials Assessment 2021-2031" for a deep dive into the status of the broader 2D material family.

In summary, funding and commercial activity are still very much alive in the graphene industry. There is a range of joint ventures, acquisitions, IPOs, funding rounds, and strategic partnerships & investments still taking place. The challenge is the amount; to be a large-scale player (either as a manufacturer or further up the value chain) and compete against incumbent materials or other emerging solutions, particularly for energy storage, will take a large amount of capital. Obviously, there are internal company investment/spending and public companies raising money not discussed; much of the funding quoted in this article is interesting but, in many cases, will be just to keep the company afloat or get started rather than enable significant growth.

For more information on the graphene market see the leading IDTechEx report on the topic, "Graphene Market & 2D Materials Assessment 2021-2031". This included detailed analysis based on an extensive number of primary interviews for over 10 years. The report details the players, use-cases, and provides granular forecasts segmented by 18 application areas. To learn more about this report, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Graphene, or for the full portfolio of research available from IDTechEx please visit www.IDTechEx.com/Research.

About IDTechEx

IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Subscription and Consultancy products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.IDTechEx.com.

Media Contact:

Natalie Moreton

Digital Marketing Manager

[email protected]

+44(0)1223 812300

Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/IDTechEx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/idtechex/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IDTechExResearch

SOURCE IDTechEx
Moonclave's first annual event - an invite-only summit for crypto industry insiders, financial institutions, high net-worth individual investors and savvy new entrants - will take place from March 28-31, 2022 at Wynn Las Vegas. This moment will be simultaneously exclusive and inclusive. CEOs from leading multinational enterprises will gather their leadership teams to strategize with future partners, current clients, frenemies and investors. Contributors to the event will focus solely on the consequential decisions driving forward the most affecting financial migration in modern history.

"The impact of well-executed in-person events cannot be understated, especially after extended isolation. Crypto adoption has accelerated dramatically over the last 18 months and this dynamic ecosystem needs a new forum. Visionary thinkers need the ability to brainstorm freely with legacy incumbents and exchange ideas that will shape the future of global finance. The stakes are higher than ever and players pouring into this market are demanding knowledge that can only be gleaned from real life interactions," said Jake Skinner, an early operator in the crypto space who is Moonclave's Co-Founder and CEO. "Moonclave will create a constructive, engaging environment for digital assets to thrive. We'll eliminate the noise characteristic of events with tens of thousands of people and elevate the substantive issues that our discerning audience must consider. We strive to maximize value and efficiency for the participants. Everything is curated with the intention of facilitating transactions, partnerships and collaboration that will drive the future of financial markets."

"Over the past decade, I've had the privilege of working with exceptionally talented teams to lead the development of influential events across some of the largest industries," said co-founder and chairman Jonathan Weiner. "As an early investor, I've witnessed firsthand how crypto has evolved from something that was laughed at or discussed in whispers, to something that has become essential to the advancement of financial technology. This ardent community is introducing innovative technology at a pace unmatched in all other industries. Moonclave will bring together the best and brightest in crypto while also drawing in decision makers from companies and organizations that must accept blockchain and decentralization in order to evolve their businesses."

Invite details, partners, speakers and a detailed agenda will be announced in the coming months. To request an invite, go to moonclave.com.

About Moonclave

MOONCLAVE is an invite-only crypto event created by industry insiders that will be held March 28-31 at Wynn Las Vegas.

To learn more or register for the event, visit moonclave.com and follow us on BitClout, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn @moonclave.

Contact: Coco Siebert, [email protected]

SOURCE Moonclave

Related Links

https://moonclave.com


STOCKHOLM, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Analysts, investors and media are invited to the presentation of Mycronic's Q2. The presentation will be held on July 15, at 10:00 a.m. The report is published on July 15, at 8:00 a.m. and will, together with the conference call slides, be available on www.mycronic.com.

Anders Lindqvist, CEO and Torbjorn Wingardh, CFO will present the company's development. The presentation is held as an audio web cast and a telephone conference. After the presentation, which is held in English, a Q&A session will follow.

Dial in details and audio web cast

In order to participate by phone, dial one of the numbers below. Please dial in five minutes prior to the start of the presentation.

Sweden: +46 8 566 427 03

UK: +44 333 300 9273

USA: +1 833 823 0590

Link to web transmission: https://mycronic-external.creo.se/210715

In order to ask questions, you must call one of the telephone numbers above. A recording of the presentation will also be posted on Mycronic's website.

For additional information, please contact:

Sven Chetkovich

Director Investor Relations

Tel: +46 70 558 39 19

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/mycronic-ab/r/invitation-to-mycronic-s-q2-2021-presentation,c3377910

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/10432/3377910/1439465.pdf Invitation to presentation of Mycronic's Q2 2021

SOURCE Mycronic AB
DALLAS, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- JC Data Solutions, Inc. (OTC: JCDS) today announced that its shareholders have voted to approve the proposed merger with a subsidiary of TerraData.ai.

Approval of the merger required the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of JCDS's outstanding shares entitled to vote. Approximately 59% of the outstanding shares of common stock (including preferred stock on an as converted basis) of JCDS as of the record date were voted at the special meeting. Of the shares that were voted, approximately 59% voted in favor of the merger and less than 1% voted against the merger. JCDS's shareholders also voted to approve the certificate of amendment, which was a condition to closing of the merger.

Upon consummation of the merger, JCDS shareholders (except for JCDS shareholders who have properly exercised rights of dissent and appraisal) will receive $0.0012 in cash for each share of JCDS common stock and JCDS will become a private, wholly owned subsidiary of TerraData.ai. The transaction is expected to close on July 6, 2021.

About JC Data Solutions

JC Data solutions has been a leader in the funds and document distribution industry. Their premier service, Payment Manager, has saved Oil & Gas companies thousands and thousands of dollars - all while improving and streamlining their funds distribution process.

About TerraData.ai

Mineral Answers, Inc. (DBA TerraData.ai) is a technology company focused on aggregating real property information to provide models, insights and highly configurable visualizations, specializing in real property, oil and gas and alternative energy information.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are those that address activities, events or developments that we intend, expect, project, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are those that use terms such as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "intend," "should," "could," "anticipate," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "predict," "potential," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this and other written and oral reports are based on management's assumptions and assessments in light of past experience and trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other relevant factors.

The Company's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results, developments and business decisions may differ materially from those envisaged by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Merger Agreement; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the Company related to the Merger Agreement; the inability to complete the transaction due to the failure to obtain the Required Vote or the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the transaction, including the receipt of all regulatory approvals related to the transaction; the disruption of management's attention from the Company's ongoing business operations due to the transaction; the effect of the announcement of the transaction on the Company's relationships with its customers, operating results and business generally; the effects of local and national economic, credit and capital market conditions. Factors or events that could cause the Company's actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all of them. The statements made herein are made as of the date of this disclosure and the Company undertakes no obligation to update them, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE JC Data Solutions
TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945



BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Investment Management, a company of Manulife Investment Management, announced net fee reductions on five funds with a combined $7.7 billion in assets under management effective today, ranging from 2 basis points (bps) up to 13 basis points (bps). The reductions reflect contractual modifications to management fee schedules and/or reimbursement expenses for the funds and certain management fee waivers according to asset level breakpoint schedules. These changes pass additional value to shareholders through the benefit of scale. Over the past 10 years, 87% of John Hancock Investment Management's fund assets have experienced reductions in net expense ratios, due to either management actions or asset growth.1

The funds impacted by the net fee reductions are John Hancock Strategic Income Opportunities fund, subadvised by Manulife Investment Management; John Hancock Classic Value fund, subadvised by Pzena Investment Management; John Hancock ESG Large Cap Core fund, subadvised by Trillium Asset Management; John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core fund, subadvised by Manulife Investment Management; and John Hancock ESG International Equity fund, subadvised by Boston Common Asset Management.

John

Hancock

Fund AUM

(6/30/21) Ticker  Class I Previous Net

Expense Ratio Reduction in Basis Points (bps) Net Expense Ratio

effective July 1,

2021 Strategic

Income

Opportunities $4.79B JIPIX 0.79% 2 bps 0.77% Classic Value $2.60B JCVIX 0.93% 4 bps 0.89% ESG Large

Cap Core $170.54M JHJIX 0.93% 6 bps 0.87% Fundamental

All Cap Core $136.18M JFCIX 0.97% 13 bps 0.84% ESG

International

Equity $93.61M JTQIX 1.03% 6 bps 0.97%

"We are pleased to be able to offer these pricing reductions to financial professionals and their clients. Since 2014, we have lowered fees on more than 50 John Hancock funds - through 70 strategic pricing reductions2 - and we continuously review our lineup to find additional value for shareholders and ensure our products are competitively priced for the market," said Andrew G. Arnott, CEO, John Hancock Investment Management and head of wealth and asset management, Manulife Investment Management, United States and Europe. "As investors look for new sources of return in traditional portfolios - and ESG investing continues to build momentum - our goal is to provide more options to them through our multimanager network that is backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry."

1. Simfund, as of 5/31/21, includes John Hancock Investment Management retail sold funds only: ETFs, Open End and Closed End Funds, and Fund of Funds 2. As of 7/1/21, John Hancock Investment Management  internal data

About John Hancock Investment Management

A company of Manulife Investment Management, we serve investors through a unique multimanager approach, complementing our extensive in-house capabilities with an unrivaled network of specialized asset managers, backed by some of the most rigorous investment oversight in the industry. The result is a diverse lineup of time-tested investments from a premier asset manager with a heritage of financial stewardship.

About Manulife Investment Management

Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than a century of financial stewardship and the full resources of our parent company to serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. Headquartered in Toronto, our leading capabilities in public and private markets are strengthened by an investment footprint that spans 17 countries and territories. We complement these capabilities by providing access to a network of unaffiliated asset managers from around the world. We're committed to investing responsibly across our businesses. We develop innovative global frameworks for sustainable investing, collaboratively engage with companies in our securities portfolios, and maintain a high standard of stewardship where we own and operate assets, and we believe in supporting financial well-being through our workplace retirement plans. Today, plan sponsors around the world rely on our retirement plan administration and investment expertise to help their employees plan for, save for, and live a better retirement.

As of March 31, 2021, Manulife Investment Management had CAD $764.1 billion (US $607.6 billion) in assets under management and administration. Not all offerings are available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit manulifeim.com.

Request a prospectus or summary prospectus from your financial professional, by visiting jhinvestments.com or by calling us at 800-225-5291. The prospectus includes investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should consider carefully before investing.

Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal.

John Hancock Investment Management Distributors LLC  Member FINRA, SIPC

200 Berkeley Street  Boston, MA

 2021 John Hancock Investment Management. All rights reserved.

SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management
MILWAUKEE, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO has been elected Chair of the JA Worldwide Board of Governors. Prising will lead a diverse Board charged with shaping the global footprint of an organization dedicated to equipping more than 12 million young people each year with the employment and entrepreneurship skillsets to succeed in 100 countries.

"As digitization accelerates and the future of work transforms at rapid pace there has never been a more important moment to ensure that the next generation has the soft and technical skills to be part of future growth and prosperity," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO. "I am honored to take the next step in my partnership with JA to serve as Chair of the JA Worldwide Board. The broader role of business in addressing social problems, including youth unemployment, has come to the fore as a result of the pandemic and JA has a crucial role to play in bringing companies together to support millions of young people by enabling them to learn the skills we know employers need."



"This is a significant milestone in the history of JA Worldwide. At a time when we know that youth disillusionment is a global risk, as young people continue to deal with their second global crisis in a decade, Jonas' leadership will ensure our organization not only continues to have a positive influence in the lives of the youth we serve, but also improve communities by nurturing future leaders," said Asheesh Advani, CEO of JA Worldwide. "ManpowerGroup has been a great partner to us over the years and their expertise and deep understanding of the labor market, trends and skills needed for the future of work combined with Jonas' wealth of experience, strategic vision and success will only continue to elevate our organization. I'm excited for what the future holds during his tenure."



ManpowerGroup's partnership with JA spans decades, stretches across more than 30 countries around the world and includes both strategic support and engagement at the ground level with employee volunteering. Earlier this year, ManpowerGroup received the Junior Achievement USA President's Volunteer Service Award, recognizing more than 3000 hours of volunteer service across the US for the fourth consecutive year. Later this month, ManpowerGroup will present its fifth annual signature Ready for Work Award at the annual JA Europe Company of the Year Competition, encouraging young people to develop business skills by setting up and running a mini company for a year. The Ready for Work Award recognizeds the student team that has best built and demonstrated work-readiness skills during the competition.

ABOUT MANPOWERGROUP

ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands  Manpower, Experis and Talent Solutions  creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across more than 75 countries and territories and has done so for over 70 years. We are recognized consistently for our diversity - as a best place to work for Women, Inclusion, Equality and Disability and in 2021 ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the 12th year - all confirming our position as the brand of choice for in-demand talent.

ABOUT JA WORLDWIDE

As one of the world's largest youth-serving NGOs, JA Worldwide prepares young people for employment and entrepreneurship. For 100 years, JA has delivered hands on, experiential learning in work readiness, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. We create pathways for employability, job creation, and financial success. Each year, our network of over 500,000 volunteers and teachers serves more than 10 million students in over 100 countries. Visit us at jaworldwide.org.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup

Related Links

http://www.manpowergroup.com


BEIJING, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kuke Music Holding Limited ("Kuke" or the "Company"), a leading AI-driven music education company and classical music content provider in China, today announced that it plans to release its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, before the U.S. market opens on Wednesday, August 4, 2021. The earnings release will be available on the Company's investor relations website at https://ir.kuke.com/.

Kuke's management will hold a conference call at 7:30 A.M. U.S. Eastern Time on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, (7:30 P.M. Beijing/Hong Kong Time on the same day) to discuss the financial results. Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers:

International: 1-412-902-4272 United States Toll Free: 1-888-346-8982 Mainland China Toll Free: 4001-201203 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-905945 Conference ID: Kuke Music Holding Limited

A replay of the conference call will remain accessible for one week after the live event by dialing the following numbers:

International: 1-412-317-0088 United States Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 Access Code: 10158093

A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at https://ir.kuke.com/.

About Kuke Music Holding Limited

Kuke is China's leading comprehensive music group encompassing the entire value chain from content provision to education services. By collaborating with Naxos, the world's largest independent classical music content provider in the world, the foundation of Kuke's extensive classical music content library is its unparalleled access to more than 900 top-tier record companies. Leveraging its market leadership in copyrighted classical music content in China, Kuke provides highly scalable classical music licensing and subscription services to over 700 universities, libraries and online music platforms. In addition, it has hosted BMF, the most renowned music festival in China, for 23 consecutive years. At the same time, Kuke provides consumers with premium music content, music literacy education, talent competitions, and public performances through its apps, Kuke Music and BMF Club. Through KUKEY, the Company's proprietary AI music education system, Kuke aims to democratize music education via technological innovation, bring fascinating music content and professional music techniques to more students, and continuously improve the efficiency and penetration of music learning. By integrating music content and education, Kuke is constructing a unique AI-driven music education ecosystem and providing students with full life-cycle music programs.

Investor Relations Contact

Kuke Music Holding Limited

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +1 (212) 321-0602

SOURCE Kuke Music Holding Limited

Related Links

https://ir.kuke.com/


ARMONK, N.Y., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyndryl, the independent public company that will be created following the separation of IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Managed Infrastructure Services business, today announced its global leadership model to bring its mission-critical technical expertise to a broader set of core digital technology environments.

These announcements are important milestones that will prepare Kyndryl for future success  nothing will change with the IBM Global Technology Services business until after responsibility passes to the Kyndryl team. IBM remains on track to complete the spin-off by the end of the year.

"Kyndryl is meeting customers where they are on their digital transformation journeys, with a lean and focused team that has the critical skills they depend on to succeed," said Martin Schroeter, Chief Executive Officer of Kyndryl. "Our country leaders and managing partners will be empowered to work closely with customers, make quick decisions and access the best global talent in the industry. Their mission will be to place Kyndryl at the heart of progress for our customers."

Organizing Around Our Customers

Kyndryl will implement a simplified global leadership model for key markets representing more than three-fourths of Kyndryl revenue.

Kyndryl's newly appointed leaders will include:

Tosca Colangeli , President of Kyndryl United Kingdom and Ireland

, President of Kyndryl United Kingdom and Xerxes Cooper , President of Kyndryl Canada

, President of Kyndryl Canada Paolo Degl 'Innocenti, President of Kyndryl Italy

'Innocenti, President of Kyndryl Italy Luis Roca Fernandez , President of Kyndryl Spain and Portugal

, President of Kyndryl Spain and Markus Koerner , President of Kyndryl Germany

, President of Kyndryl Germany Matt Milton , President of Kyndryl United States

, President of Kyndryl United States Kerry Purcell , President of Kyndryl Australia and New Zealand

, President of Kyndryl Australia and Philippe Roncati, President of Kyndryl France

Lingraju Sawkar, President of Kyndryl India

Takashi Uesaka , President of Kyndryl Japan

The Kyndryl country presidents are seasoned executives who have significant experience in their markets and who have worked with many of the world's largest enterprises. These senior leaders will deliver to our customers global best practices and deploy leading technologies and innovations.

In addition Kyndryl announced that Rick Ruiz will become Kyndryl's Strategic Markets President and will lead Kyndryl's activities in all other countries. Ruiz, a veteran IBM sales and technology executive, has served as general manager for IBM's Global Technology Services business in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa, and has also led IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services.

Global Practices

Kyndryl also announced that it will create six global managed services practices and an advisory and implementation services practice in support of our customers, which will pull together managed services, advisory services and implementation.

"By integrating multiple offerings into these six practices and applying our mission-critical systems capabilities to a broader digital environment, we will be well positioned to support our customers on their digital transformation," Kyndryl Group President Elly Keinan said. "These practices will leverage the most experienced talent in our industry to support our customers' success."

The six global practices are:

Cloud

Applications, Data & AI

Security & Resiliency

Core Enterprise & zCloud

Network & Edge

Digital Workplace

Kyndryl also announced the Kyndryl Advisory and Implementation services practice, which will include a group of senior business and technology executives who can advise Kyndryl customers on best-in-class digital environments and the adoption and integration of advanced technologies.

The Corporate Team

Kyndryl has assembled a senior leadership team that draws from executive talent across the IT industry as well as in key industry sectors.

"We're assembling an outstanding team that has experience not only in technology but in being a tech services customer," Schroeter said. "This team understands what it means to be consistently focused on a customer-centric model, and how to invest in people and talent to bring that model to life."

The senior leadership team, in addition to Schroeter, Group President Keinan and Strategic Markets President Ruiz, currently includes:

Nelly Akoth , Chief Transformation Officer

, Chief Transformation Officer Michael Bradshaw , Chief Information Officer

, Chief Information Officer Maryjo Charbonnier , Chief Human Resources Officer

, Chief Human Resources Officer Vineet Khurana , Controller

, Controller Una Pulizzi , Global Head of Corporate Affairs

, Global Head of Corporate Affairs Edward Sebold , General Counsel

, General Counsel Antoine Shagoury , Chief Technology Officer

, Chief Technology Officer Maria Bartolome Winans , Chief Marketing Officer

Kyndryl will announce more details on its organization in the near future.

"We are fortunate as a 90,000-person 'start-up' to have extraordinary global talent, from IBM Fellows and distinguished engineers to experts at service delivery centers, working with deep skills and more than 3,000 patents that help innovate with our customers," Schroeter said. "Over time, we'll be showing all Kyndryls how they contribute to advancing the vital systems that our customers depend on."

Kyndryl designs, runs and manages the most modern, efficient and reliable technology infrastructure for the world's most important businesses and organizations, with the industry's most experienced services experts. Its previously announced separation is expected to occur by the end of 2021. For more information, visit www.kyndryl.com

SOURCE IBM

Related Links

www.ibm.com


DALLAS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The pandemic's increasingly diminished economic effects are the backdrop to a strong labor and housing market recovery that is well underway in Texas' two largest metropolitan regions, according to a new analysis released today by Beacon Economics. Dallas's jobs recovery is nearing its pre-pandemic high, while Houston's recovery is picking up steam.

As of May, the most recent data available, the Dallas-Plano-Irving MD has recovered 95% of the jobs it lost in the unprecedented declines of early 2020. The Houston MSA has recovered 64% of jobs lost in that region. By this measure, Dallas is leading and Houston trailing the state's overall job recovery rate of 72%. Smaller metros such as Austin (105% job recovery) and San Antonio (98% job recovery) are even further ahead.

The unemployment rates in both Dallas and Houston have also been steadily falling, although in Houston, the latest decline is at least partly due to a contraction in the labor force. In May, Dallas's unemployment rate fell to 5.5% even as the region added 11,400 workers to its labor force. "This is a particularly strong indicator since adding to a labor force can put upward pressure on unemployment rates because more people are actively looking for work and being counted among the unemployed," said Taner Osman, Research Manager at Beacon Economics and one of the report authors. "What this tells us is that the number of new people entering Dallas's workforce is being completely offset by the number who are finding jobs and being hired."

Houston's unemployment rate also declined in May, to 7.1%, but at the same time, the region saw 3200 workers leave its labor pool, which puts downward pressure on unemployment as fewer people are counted among those ranks.

Housing market activity in Dallas and Houston can be described as red hot, driven by high demand and historically low inventory. Single-family home prices in just the first quarter of 2021 appreciated 14.1% in the Dallas-Plano-Irving MD and 13.3% in the Houston MSA. In terms of home sales, Houston has surged ahead with annual sales of existing single-family homes soaring 17.9% from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021. Sales in the Dallas MD grew 1.8% over the same period.

SOURCE BEACON ECONOMICS

Related Links

http://www.beaconecon.com


www.spendedge.com/report/laboratory-animals-and-supplies-procurement-market-intelligence-report

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the major market threats?

The pressure from substitutes and a high level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the moderate bargaining power of suppliers.

The pressure from substitutes and a high level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the moderate bargaining power of suppliers. What is the expected price changes in this market?

The Laboratory Animals And Supplies Market is expected to have a CAGR of 6.08% during 2020-2024.

The Laboratory Animals And Supplies Market is expected to have a CAGR of 6.08% during 2020-2024. Who are the top players in the market?

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Charles River Laboratories International Inc., The Jackson Laboratory, Taconic Biosciences Inc., Envigo, JSR Life Sciences Corp., Horizon Discovery Group plc, Janvier Labs , Hilltop Lab Animals Inc., and Ketchum Manufacturing Inc., are some of the major market participants.

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Charles River Laboratories International Inc., The Jackson Laboratory, Taconic Biosciences Inc., Envigo, JSR Life Sciences Corp., Horizon Discovery Group plc, , Hilltop Lab Animals Inc., and Ketchum Manufacturing Inc., are some of the major market participants. What are the pricing models followed by buyers?

Volume-based pricing, cost-plus pricing, and project-based pricing are the widely adopted pricing models in Laboratory Animals And Supplies Market.

SpendEdge suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. SpendEdge's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports.

Request for a FREE sample to access the definite purchasing guide on Laboratory Animals And Supplies procurement.

Related Reports on Pharma and Healthcare Include:

Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing - Forecast and Analysis: The pharmaceutical contract manufacturing will grow at a CAGR of 6.54% during 2021-2025. This report evaluates suppliers based on domain expertise and experience, scalability and flexibility, regulatory compliance, and time-to-market. Clinical Research Services Sourcing and Procurement Report: This report offers key advisory and intelligence to help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their clinical research services requirements. Some of the leading clinical research services suppliers are profiled extensively in this report. Pharmaceutical Gelatin - Sourcing and Procurement Intelligence Report: The pharmaceutical gelatin prices will increase by 2%-3% during the forecast period and suppliers will have a moderate bargaining power in this market.

To access the definite purchasing guide on the Laboratory Animals And Supplies that answers all your key questions on price trends and analysis:

Am I paying/getting the right prices? Is my Laboratory Animals And Supplies TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable?

How is the price forecast expected to change? What is driving the current and future price changes?

Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities?

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

To know more: https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo

Contacts

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
"As we head into the third quarter of this year, we continue to be strategic on where we expand across North America," said Jeff Beck, CEO and President of Leaf Home. "I'm looking forward to these new markets and witnessing how our brands thrive throughout the rest of 2021."

Leaf Home Safety Solutions Adds St. Louis Location

Leaf Home Safety Solutions, which enables homeowners to access every room and level of their home with ease and confidence, now calls the "Gateway to the West," its latest home. The St. Louis office location, its eleventh in the nation, also marks the first for the brand west of the Mississippi River.

Leaf Home Safety Solutions' life-enhancing products are designed to improve life quality without the need for a stressful, full-scale renovation. Custom installations and packages allow representatives to work with each customer's existing space, allowing projects to be completed in a matter of days instead of weeks or months. To learn more and see if Leaf Home Safety Solutions serves your neighborhood, visit the website and schedule a free estimate.

Leaf Home Water Solutions Opens in Cincinnati

On a mission to support family wellness through healthy, purified water, Leaf Home Water Solutions has completed its growth to the three largest Ohio metropolitans with its latest office in Cincinnati. This is its sixth location overall, with offices also throughout Florida and more planned across additional states this year.

Leaf Home Water Solutions pairs homeowners with the ideal whole-home water filtration system for their needs by testing tap water with free cutting-edge digital water tests. The product line tackles both city and well water's unique demands, with a team of industry experts with an intense dedication to customer service. To schedule a free water test for your home, visit the Leaf Home Water Solutions website.

About Leaf Home

Leaf Home is North America's leading technology-enabled provider of home solutions on a mission to transform home hassles into personal peace of mind. Leaf Home's experienced, dependable specialists provide end-to-end services directly to consumers through its core brands; LeafFilter Gutter Protection, Leaf Home Safety Solutions, Leaf Home Water Solutions, and Leaf Home Enhancements. With its corporate headquarters in Hudson, Ohio, Leaf Home delivers seamless, transformative home solutions for safer, easier, and more comfortable living every day. Live Comfortable. Live Safe. Live Happy. For more information, visit www.leafhome.com.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Leaf Home

Related Links

http://www.leafhome.com


DUBLIN and SANTIAGO, Chile, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global wind and solar company, Mainstream Renewable Power ("Mainstream" or "The Company"), has achieved financial close for the third and final phase of its "Andes Renovables" wind and solar platform in Chile. The c. US$182 million in debt raised will be used to build the "Copihue" phase which consists of one wind farm, named Caman, located in central Chile.

The project, which will commence operations in 2022, initially had an installed capacity of 100 MW but has since increased to 148.5 MW following the signing of an additional long-term, bilateral Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a strategic partner.

The senior debt financing comes from KfW IPEX-Bank, DNB, CaixaBank and the VAT financing comes from Scotiabank Chile.

With the financial close announced today, Mainstream completes an investment of more than US$1.8 billion to build its entire Andes Renovables platform, which is expected to be fully operational by 2022 and will provide around 20% of power for regulated customers in Chile using renewable energy.

Sacyr will be the Balance of Plant contractor for the Caman wind farm and they will carry out the electrical connection works. The main transformer will be supplied by ABB.

Mary Quaney, Mainstream's Group Chief Executive said:

"Net zero commitments across the world require systemic decarbonisation of power  our presence and work with partners in both mature and emerging markets demonstrates the scalability and success of our project development model to support this transition.

"Andes Renovables is one of the largest renewable energy platforms in Latin America which will have an installed capacity of 1.35 GW of clean energy, generating around 3,100 jobs during its construction.

"It showcases our industry-leading expertise in structuring hybrid projects with the combination of ten wind and solar generation profiles in order to meet our commitments to deliver firm power at scale over a twenty-year period.

"It reflects our commitment to, and experience in Chile, which is one of the world's most progressive renewable energy markets, and further solidifies our leadership position in-country, where we will soon be supplying the equivalent of one in five Chilean homes with power from our facilities."

Manuel Tagle, Mainstream's General Manager for Latin America said:

"Andes Renovables will power the equivalent of more than 1.7 million Chilean homes and avoid the emission of more than 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, the same as that produced by approximately 350,000 cars each year. The ten wind and solar farms that make up the platform are located between the regions of Antofagasta and Los Lagos. It is precisely this geographical and technological diversification that will allow for a more secure and constant electricity supply.

"We are pleased to have increased the Copihue portfolio size by 50% by adding a bilateral PPA in addition to the existing regulated PPA, which demonstrates our standing in the market.

"And it doesn't stop there. We are using our platform in renewables and experience as a market leader to pioneer new developments in emerging technologies to complement existing capacity and ensure we are on the cutting edge of cleantech. In parallel to the Andes Renovables platform we are also investing in a new large-scale renewable platform, Nazca Renovables, and in the last few months we have signed four new energy supply contracts with private customers. We look forward to sharing more updates on both portfolios as they progress through development."

Notes to Editors:

About Mainstream Renewable Power in Chile

In 2016, Mainstream was the biggest winner in Chile's largest ever technology-neutral electricity auction, taking 27% of the total allocated capacity. Chile's National Energy Commission awarded Mainstream a 20-year index-linked, US dollar denominated contract, to supply 3,366 Gigawatt Hours of firm power starting in 2021. Mainstream has also delivered an additional 332 MW of wind generation in Chile via the Aela Platform with its joint venture partner Actis, delivering its first wind farm into commercial operation in 2014. Mainstream has an additional 2,700 MW of wind and solar PV generation assets under development in Chile.

Andes Renovables Projects

Phase Portfolio Financial Close MW wind projects MW solar projects 1 Condor November 2019 3 project (426MW) 1 project (145MW) 2 Huemul September 2020 3 project (425 MW) 2 project (205 MW) 3 Copihue June 2021 1 project (148,5 MW) ---

Contact:

Emmet Curley, Head of Communications & Positioning

Phone: +353 86 2411 690

Email: [email protected]

Caroline Cutlet | Ojasvi Goel, FTI Consulting

Phone: +44 20 3727 1000

Email: [email protected]

About Mainstream

Mainstream Renewable Power is a leading pure-play renewable energy company with a global footprint. The company is focused on expanding its high-quality pipeline of more than 13 Gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar assets across Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific as well as the global offshore wind sector. In May 2021, it closed an agreement for Aker Horizons to take a 75% equity stake in the company, enabling Mainstream to accelerate its global expansion plan to bring 5.5 GW of assets to financial close by 2023 ahead of a planned IPO.

Mainstream has delivered more than 6.5 GW of wind and solar assets to financial close, and currently has over 1.4 GW (net) in construction across Latin America and Africa. In Chile, Mainstream's wholly-owned 1.35 GW of fully contracted wind and solar assets are on track to reach commercial operation from 2021. In Africa, the company has delivered 842 MW of wind and solar assets into commercial operation in South Africa, and further, through its Lekela Power joint venture has 410 MW of wind assets in construction in Senegal and Egypt.

Mainstream is the most successful independent developer of offshore wind at scale globally. It has successfully consented Hornsea One (1.2 GW), the largest operational offshore wind plant in the world today; and developed the Hornsea 2 project (1.4 GW) before selling these projects and the entire Zone in 2015. Overall, it has developed and later divested projects representing 22% of the UK's offshore wind capacity either in operation or under construction. Mainstream fully consented the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind project in Scotland, 450 MW, currently under construction. Mainstream's Soc Trang 1.4 GW offshore wind development in Vietnam is one of South East Asia's largest renewable energy developments.

Mainstream has raised more than EUR3.0bn in project finance to date and employs more than 340 staff across five continents.

www.mainstreamrp.com

SOURCE Mainstream Renewable Power

Related Links

http://www.mainstreamrp.com


DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mallinckrodt plc (OTCMKTS: MNKKQ), a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced new treatment guidelines for sarcoidosis from the European Respiratory Society (ERS), which include use of Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) therapy in the clinical management of certain patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, published in European Respiratory Journal.1 The treatment guidelines are the first ERS-issued evidence-based clinical practice recommendations, aimed at providing guidance to physicians treating sarcoidosis patients, to include Acthar Gel. In addition, the guidelines support existing consensus recommendations on the use of Acthar Gel in the management of patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis based on a recent U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement, previously published in European Respiratory Review.2

Acthar Gel is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of symptomatic sarcoidosis and is only commercially available in the U.S.3 Please see Important Safety Information for Acthar Gel below.

The guidelinesdeveloped by a ERS Task Force committee composed of clinicians, methodologists and patient advocates with experience in sarcoidosislist Acthar Gel among the various anti-inflammatory treatments for pulmonary sarcoidosis and note it can be used on a case-by-case basis when other therapies are ineffective or not tolerated. Additionally, the guidelines state that recent studies have suggested the effectiveness of Acthar Gel as a steroid-sparing agent in advanced sarcoidosis. The guidelines acknowledge that the potential mechanisms of action of Acthar Gel have not been fully elucidated and that its understanding has continued to evolve with further research.1 Mallinckrodt continues to invest in studies to advance the characterization of the proposed mechanisms of action and to better understand the efficacy and safety profiles of Acthar Gel.

"Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disorder that almost always affects the lungs. The condition can be debilitating for many patients and in some cases become serious or life-threatening, which is why it is important to recognize those patients with progressive disease and manage them appropriately," said Robert Baughman, M.D., Pulmonologist at University of Cincinnati Health, lead author of the ERS guidelines and contributing author of the U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement. "The new ERS guidelines, along with the expert panel consensus statement, provide practical guidance to physicians of the role of Acthar Gel in the clinical management of sarcoidosis based on the combined clinical experience of experts in the field, creating consensus around the real-world use of Acthar Gel in treating patients with this disease."

The U.S. Sarcoidosis Expert Panel Consensus Statement published in European Respiratory Review includes guidance on dosage, concomitant medications and adverse event (AE) management of advanced sarcoidosis with Acthar Gel. The panel, comprised of 12 independent physicians with expertise in treating patients with sarcoidosis, recommended a starting dose of Acthar Gel 40 units twice a week for most patients with less severe disease, but did not achieve consensus on whether a higher initial dose was indicated for patients with a more severe condition. In addition, Acthar Gel should be continued at a maintenance dose for most patients who respond to therapy, particularly those with chronic refractory/advanced sarcoidosis, and the maintenance dose should be individualized for each patient. If patients develop major adverse events, the recommendations suggested considering reducing or discontinuing Acthar Gel. The panel also made recommendations related to discontinuation of therapy, including weaning to the lowest efficacious dose if the patient has stable, well-controlled disease after six to 12 months of therapy.2

Study limitations include the following: There are no generally accepted criteria for consensus. The study is based on a degree of consensus, which may be refuted by future rigorous studies. Panelists were not accountable for their responses, and opinions may be based on insufficient/minimal consideration. Panel selection and questionnaire development may introduce bias, and perspectives from stakeholders other than U.S.-based physicians may have been missed.

Regarding the use of concomitant medications, the panel recommended that concomitant steroids be tapered and potentially discontinued as quickly as possible in patients receiving Acthar Gel, but concomitant use of immunosuppressive medications should be continued. Consensus recommendations were also reached for AE management, including that Acthar Gel be titrated down or discontinued if other interventions fail or if AEs are severe and significant.2

"There has been a need for quite some time for evidence-based consensus on the treatment of sarcoidosis, a rare disease that can significantly impact patients' functioning and quality of life and can be difficult to diagnose and treat," said Steven Romano, M.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Mallinckrodt. "The ERS guidelines will help fill knowledge gaps in clinical care and enable more standardized treatment of symptomatic sarcoidosis to help improve clinical outcomes for patients. Moreover, both the guidelines and the sarcoidosis expert panel consensus statement provide practical, expert guidance on the use of Acthar Gel for physicians who manage patients with this complex disease."

Mallinckrodt has a dedicated team to support healthcare providers and patients throughout a patient's treatment regimen including personalized injection training.

About Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a challenging, yet manageable, rare multisystem disease.4,5 In some cases the symptoms may come and go throughout one's lifetime. This is referred to as symptomatic sarcoidosis. In people living with sarcoidosis, the immune system overreacts, forming clumps of cells called granulomas that result in inflammation of the body's tissues.6 The disease can impact any organ but most often impacts the lungs, lymph nodes, eyes, and skin.4 Over 90 percent of people with sarcoidosis suffer lung problems.6 Concomitant involvement of organs outside of the lungs is common, occurring in as many as half of all sarcoidosis cases.7

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Contraindications

Acthar is contraindicated:

For intravenous administration

In infants under 2 years of age who have suspected congenital infections

With concomitant administration of live or live attenuated vaccines in patients receiving immunosuppressive doses of Acthar

In patients with scleroderma, osteoporosis, systemic fungal infections, ocular herpes simplex, recent surgery, history of or the presence of a peptic ulcer, congestive heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, primary adrenocortical insufficiency, adrenocortical hyperfunction, or sensitivity to proteins of porcine origin

Warnings and Precautions

The adverse effects of Acthar are related primarily to its steroidogenic effects

Acthar may increase susceptibility to new infection or reactivation of latent infections

Suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may occur following prolonged therapy with the potential for adrenal insufficiency after withdrawal of the medication. Adrenal insufficiency may be minimized by tapering of the dose when discontinuing treatment. During recovery of the adrenal gland patients should be protected from the stress (e.g., trauma or surgery) by the use of corticosteroids. Monitor patients for effects of HPA axis suppression after stopping treatment

Cushing's syndrome may occur during therapy but generally resolves after therapy is stopped. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms

Acthar can cause elevation of blood pressure, salt and water retention, and hypokalemia. Monitor blood pressure and sodium and potassium levels

Acthar often acts by masking symptoms of other diseases/disorders. Monitor patients carefully during and for a period following discontinuation of therapy

Acthar can cause gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and gastric ulcer. There is also an increased risk for perforation in patients with certain GI disorders. Monitor for signs of perforation and bleeding

Acthar may be associated with central nervous system effects ranging from euphoria, insomnia, irritability, mood swings, personality changes, and severe depression to psychosis. Existing conditions may be aggravated

Patients with comorbid disease may have that disease worsened. Caution should be used when prescribing Acthar in patients with diabetes and myasthenia gravis

Prolonged use of Acthar may produce cataracts, glaucoma, and secondary ocular infections. Monitor for signs and symptoms

Acthar is immunogenic and prolonged administration of Acthar may increase the risk of hypersensitivity reactions. Neutralizing antibodies with chronic administration may lead to loss of endogenous ACTH and Acthar activity

There may be an enhanced effect in patients with hypothyroidism and in those with cirrhosis of the liver

Long-term use may have negative effects on growth and physical development in children. Monitor pediatric patients

Decrease in bone density may occur. Bone density should be monitored in patients on long-term therapy

Pregnancy Class C: Acthar has been shown to have an embryocidal effect and should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus

Adverse Reactions

Commonly reported postmarketing adverse reactions for Acthar include injection site reaction, asthenic conditions (including fatigue, malaise, asthenia, and lethargy), fluid retention (including peripheral swelling), insomnia, headache, and blood glucose increased

The most common adverse reactions for the treatment of infantile spasms (IS) are increased risk of infections, convulsions, hypertension, irritability, and pyrexia. Some patients with IS progress to other forms of seizures; IS sometimes masks these seizures, which may become visible once the clinical spasms from IS resolve

Other adverse events reported are included in the full Prescribing Information.

Please see full Prescribing Information for additional Important Safety Information.

ABOUT MALLINCKRODT

Mallinckrodt is a global business consisting of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries that develop, manufacture, market and distribute specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. The company's Specialty Brands reportable segment's areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; analgesics and gastrointestinal products. Its Specialty Generics reportable segment includes specialty generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit www.mallinckrodt.com.

Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS RELATED TO FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release includes forward-looking statements concerning Acthar Gel including its potential impact on patients and anticipated benefits associated with its use, as well as related on-going studies. The statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: satisfaction of regulatory and other requirements; actions of regulatory bodies and other governmental authorities; changes in laws and regulations; issues with product quality, manufacturing or supply, or patient safety issues; and other risks identified and described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Mallinckrodt's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC, all of which are available on its website. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date hereof and Mallinckrodt does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events and developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

CONTACT

Media Inquiries

Caren Begun

Green Room Communications

201-396-8551

[email protected]

Investor Relations

Daniel J. Speciale

Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations Officer

314-654-3638

[email protected]

Government Affairs

Mark Tyndall

Senior Vice President, US General Counsel & Government Affairs

[email protected]

Mallinckrodt, the "M" brand mark and the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals logo are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company. Other brands are trademarks of a Mallinckrodt company or their respective owners. 2021 Mallinckrodt. US-2000641 06/21

References

1 Baughman RP, Valeyre D, Korsten P, et al. ERS clinical practice guidelines on treatment of sarcoidosis. Eur Respir J. 2021, 2004079; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.04079-2020.

2 Rahaghi FF, Sweiss NJ, Saketkoo LA, et al. Management of repository corticotrophin injection therapy for pulmonary sarcoidosis: a Delphi study. Eur Respir Rev. 2020;29:190147. https://doi. org/10.1183/16000617.0147-2019.

3 Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) [prescribing information]. Mallinckrodt ARD LLC.

4 Judson MA. The clinical features of sarcoidosis: a comprehensive review. Clin Rev Allerg Immunol. 2015;49:63-78.

5 Baughman RP, Field S, Costabel U, et al. Sarcoidosis in America. Analysis based on health care use. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2016;13:1244-1252.

6 Baughman RP, Culver DA, Judson MA. A concise review of pulmonary sarcoidosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011;183:573-581.

7 Shigemitsu H, Patel HV, Schreiber MP. Extrapulmonary sarcoidosis. In: Judson MA, ed. Pulmonary Sarcoidosis: A Guide for the Practicing Clinician. Vol 17. New York, NY: Springer; 2014:149-186.

SOURCE Mallinckrodt plc

Related Links

https://www.mallinckrodt.com/


HELSINKI, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mandatum Asset Management has signed an agreement concerning the purchase of real estate fund management company Trevian Funds AIFM Ltd. In connection with the transaction, Trevian's entire fund management business, including the personnel employed by the company, will transfer to Mandatum Asset Management.

Trevian Funds AIFM is a Finnish privately owned real estate fund management company that currently manages two funds: Trevian Finland Properties I and Trevian Carbon Sink Real Estate I Ky. Established in 2017, Trevian Funds AIFM has more than EUR 300 million in assets under management.

Trevian Funds AIFM and Mandatum Life launched a commercial partnership in 2018, when Trevian's special common fund Trevian Finland Properties I was included in Mandatum Life's range of investment objects offered to customers and the company's real estate investment programmes.

"We know Trevian well as a company, as we have several years of collaboration behind us. Trevian's excellent knowledge of real estate made it a natural acquisition for us," says Mandatum Asset Management's CEO Lauri Vaittinen.

"I am very pleased that our years of close and growing cooperation with Mandatum are now leading to a new phase in which Trevian Funds AIFM will get a strong new owner, ensuring the continued growth of the company. Trevian's real estate expertise and Mandatum's strong position in the capital markets guarantee excellent success in the real estate investment market. We hope to continue the cooperation with other Trevian companies even after the transaction", says Reima Sodervall, Chairman of the Board and Founding Partner of Trevian Funds AIFM.

"The transfer of the business to Mandatum Asset Management will enable the strong growth of our real estate fund business also in the future and offer our team a vantage point in a prestigious group. We are looking forward to this cooperation", says Emilia Riikonen, CEO of Trevian Funds AIFM.

Ownership of Trevian Funds AIFM will transfer to Mandatum Asset Management in the course of autumn 2021. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.

For more information, please contact:

Mandatum Group

Lauri Vaittinen, CEO, Mandatum Asset Management, [email protected], tel. +358 (0) 50 382 1674Niina Riihela, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, [email protected], tel. +358 (0) 40 728 1548

Trevian Funds AIFM Oy

Reima Sodervall, Chairman of the Board, [email protected], tel. +358 (0) 50 362 7400

Kari Kolu, founding partner, [email protected]

Amos Janhunen, founding partner, [email protected], tel. +358 (0) 40 709 2836

Mandatum Asset Management Ltd was formed by combining Sampo Group's proprietary balance sheet, client assets, and the investment operations from Sampo Plc and Mandatum into a new asset manage-ment company. The merger process is still ongoing, and it is expected that Mandatum Asset Management will be fully operational during the second half of 2021. By that time, Mandatum Asset Management will manage around 24bn euros and employ 100 investment professionals. Mandatum Asset Management belongs to Sampo Group and is a sister company to Mandatum Life Insurance Company Ltd.

Trevian Funds AIFM was established in 2017 and it has a license under the AIFM Directive. The company is based on Finland's strongest property portfolio management expertise. Non-UCITS Trevian Finland Prop-erties I is its first fund to invest in strong cash flow and development potential, as well as reducing the carbon footprint of its holdings.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/trevian/r/mandatum-asset-management-acquires-trevian-s-fund-business,c3377660

The following files are available for download:

https://news.cision.com/trevian/i/trevian-rahastot-pmk-talo-tampere,c2931979 Trevian Rahastot PMK-talo Tampere https://news.cision.com/trevian/i/mandatum,c2931995 Mandatum

SOURCE Trevian
SEOUL, South Korea, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Seoul-based edtech startup Mathpresso announced today that it has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round last week, which puts the company's total funding at $105 million, according to CFO Soo Nahm.

The new Series C round was participated by Yellowdog, GGV Capital, Goodwater Capital, KDB, and SKS Private Equity. In addition to the four new investors, previous backers including SoftBank Ventures Asia, Legend Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Smilegate Investment also participated in the round.

This round marks GGV's first investment in a Korea-based startup. With edtech as its key global investment thesis, GGV has backed a number of edtech companies like Zuoyebang.

The startup was founded in 2015 by co-CEO Ray Lee and Jake Lee, and operates QANDA, a K-12 mobile learning app. In 2017, QANDA adopted an AI-based optical character recognition(OCR) scan that searches for answers in 5 seconds. The service is now used by over 9.8 million users monthly from more than 50 different countries; a five times increase since 2020. Over 80% of QANDA's users are now outside of Korea, with its strongest user bases include Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Mathpresso's home ground has been long considered an educational mine; Korea has one of the highest household expenditures on education and one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Since the school lockdown in April, 2020, online learning emerged as a new form of education with the number of QANDA's monthly active users surging by nearly 5 times.

Applying Korea's advanced learning content and after-school tutoring system to the global market, Mathpresso plans to develop a multi-faceted education platform with personalized content catered to each user's learning level. A premium subscription model that offers micro video lectures launched in Korea in March of this year. Ray Lee describes the company's mission as "segmenting and connecting all education content in the world" to build a highly personalized learning platform backed by seamless recommendation algorithms. The company also has ventured into offline and book publishing to optimize learning experience both online and offline. QANDA Study Center Vietnam partners with teachers to match them with students and publishes quality workbooks, securing its presence as an all-in-one education hub.

With its Series C investment, Mathpresso plans to strengthen its AI-based techniques of recommendation algorithms and develop localized business models for its regional offices in Indonesia and Thailand. "Historically, quality education has been strictly available for the privileged few," said Jake Lee, "Our mission is to break down the barriers to education through technology. In the future we vision, anyone should and will be able to access quality education built just for them."

About Mathpresso

With the mission to provide the most effective education for all, Mathpresso develops the world's leading learning platform, QANDA, an AI-based learning app that allows students of all levels to receive instant answers and customized learning sources. Recognized for its technological advances, Mathpresso was selected as GSV Edtech 150, national representative of Google AI for Social Good APAC event in 2018, and guest speaker at AWS Public Sector Summit ASEAN in 2019. Since 2015, Mathpresso has raised $105 million in total from investors including SoftBank Ventures Asia, Legend Capital, Mirae Asset Investment, GGV, and Goodwater Capital. Headquartered in Seoul, Mathpresso has offices in Tokyo, Hanoi, Jakarta, and Bangkok.

About QANDA

QANDA, which stands for 'Q and A,' is a mobile app that allows students of all levels to receive instant answers and customized learning content. QANDA recognizes text and mathematical formulas in a photo with optical character recognition (OCR) technology. Supported by over 2.4 billion solution data and a self-developed search engine, QANDA provides solutions to a student's question with high accuracy. QANDA has over 9.8 million monthly active users in over 50 countries. The app currently offers 7 languages  Korean, English, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai.

SOURCE Mathpresso

Related Links

https://mathpresso.com/?lang=en


IRVINE, Calif., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total June sales of 32,605 vehicles, an increase of 28.7 percent compared to June 2020. Year-to-date sales totaled 189,167 vehicles; an increase of 46.8 percent compared to the same time last year. With 25 selling days in June, compared to the same number of days the year prior, the company posted an increase of 28.7 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 5,947 vehicles in June, a decrease of 17 percent compared to June 2020.

Sales Highlights

Second-best June sales in the U.S. with 32,605 vehicles sold.

Best MX-5 June sales since 2007 with 1,227 vehicles sold.

Second-best sales of the CX-30 with 5,824 vehicles sold since launch.

Second-best sales of the CX-5 with 16,393 vehicles sold since launch.

Second-best sales of the CX-9 with 3,282 vehicles sold since launch.

CPO sales achieved its second-best June ever with 5,947 vehicles sold.

Mazda Canada Inc. (MCI) reported June sales of 6,816 vehicles, an increase of 3.8 percent compared to June last year. Year-to-date sales increased 53.1 percent, with 34,575 vehicles sold.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported June sales of 3,324 vehicles, a decrease of 19.6 percent compared to June last year. Year-to-date sales increased 14.6 percent, with 24,402 vehicles sold.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico through approximately 780 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at InsideMazda.MazdaUSA.com/Newsroom.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.

































Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date





























June June YOY % % MTD

June June YOY % % MTD





2021 2020 Change DSR

2021 2020 Change DSR



























Mazda3 3,323 3,250 2.2% 2.2%

21,634 16,228 33.3% 35.1%



Mazda6 1,889 1,356 39.3% 39.3%

10,026 8,085 24.0% 25.6%



MX-5 Miata 1,227 966 27.0% 27.0%

6,677 4,320 54.6% 56.6%



CX-3 667 1,000 (33.3)% (33.3)%

4,040 4,757 (15.1)% (13.9)%



CX-30 5,824 3,526 65.2% 65.2%

33,904 16,956 100.0% 102.6%



CX-5 16,393 12,501 31.1% 31.1%

92,621 65,072 42.3% 44.2%



CX-9 3,282 2,727 20.4% 20.4%

20,265 13,451 50.7% 52.7%



















































CARS 6,439 5,572 15.6% 15.6%

38,337 28,633 33.9% 35.7%



TRUCKS 26,166 19,754 32.5% 32.5%

150,830 100,236 50.5% 52.5%



























TOTAL 32,605 25,326 28.7% 28.7%

189,167 128,869 46.8% 48.7%



















































*Selling Days 25 25





151 153























































SOURCE Mazda North American Operations

Related Links

www.mazdausa.com


ATLANTA, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MERGED Software has launched a $5.75M Series A funding round following a successful $750,000 Seed Round in mid-2020. MERGED has recently released their new eSignature solution "Autograph" to focus on making eSignatures simple, affordable, and secure.

MERGED Software Group

While the company was originally founded in 2019, developing a more relevant approach to real estate transaction technology, MERGED spent the Covid downtime focused on making their first product, TaskCycle, more industry agnostic and taking the task and document authentication engines and converting them into an eSignature platform that would substantially improve document workflow, signature security and ease of use compared to the other eSignature products generally available today.

MERGED | Autograph is initially available in the United States and Canada, and with current marketing plans, and internationalization efforts underway, MERGED aims to launch Autograph into Latin America and the Caribbean in early Fall 2021.

Things have changed quite a lot since 2019, as the e-signature market has grown tremendously. You may be familiar with other e-signature companies and a bunch of other players; none of them have been designed for the global markets and small to medium businesses with the collaboration strengths that MERGED | Autograph is delivering.

MERGED wants to become the North and South American alternative to these traditional companies. More specifically, the startup thinks it can convince small and medium companies that aren't using an e-signature solution yet. "Instead of asking other e-signature companies' customers to switch, MERGED wants to convert new customers to e-signature users that can also find significant benefit in the already released workflow platform TaskCycle.

"Faced with traditionally complex, expensive and difficult-to-use alternatives, MERGED has built a solution that is accessible and easy to use, and incorporates advanced security features, allowing SMBs and consumers to sign their first documents within minutes and without the high subscription rates of other products," MERGED co-founder and CEO Jack Berube said in a statement.

"The real estate industry in a logical place to deliver our solution, creating a new experience for the various parties (agents, mortgage, services, and consumers) to collaborate more efficiently, minimize delays and automate everyday tasks, while adding a new level of document security to prevent unnecessary litigation expense," said Jamie Heindl, VP of Client Engagement for MERGED.

With today's funding round announcement, MERGED wants to reach 50,000 North and South American SMBs by 2023, and 1 million consumers  MERGED currently has a little over 7,500 clients through its real estate vertical and is growing that to 100,000 by year-end 2021.

To learn more about MERGED and this opportunity, please visit us ONLINE.

Related Images

merged-collaboration-cloud.png

MERGED Collaboration Cloud



SOURCE MERGED Software Group
ZUG, Switzerland, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MoonLake Immunotherapeutics AG, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on creating next-level therapies for inflammatory skin and joint diseases, today announced key leadership appointments. MoonLake aims to optimize and accelerate the "pipeline within a product" development of the potentially best-in-class Tri-specific Nanobody Sonelokimab, which was in-licensed from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in May 2021. Sonelokimab has clinically-demonstrated potential to drive disease modification in dermatology and rheumatology patients with major unmet need.

The Company has appointed Jorge Santos da Silva as Chief Executive Officer and Matthias Bodenstedt as Chief Financial Officer. The expanded leadership team will join co-founders Arnout Ploos van Amstel MSc. Econ, Chief Operating Officer, and Prof Kristian Reich MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, whose appointments were announced in May.

Dr. Jorge Santos da Silva, Founder and CEO, commented: "Sonelokimab has the potential to transform the lives of patients affected by IL-17A/F-driven inflammatory diseases (AFID), It can offer them the chance of better disease control and that is something that moves us at MoonLake. I am very happy to be part of this first-class team of immunology specialists with the expertise to drive a comprehensive Phase 2 clinical trial program in AFIDs. This program will build on exciting Phase 2 data with Sonelokimab in Psoriasis. Our management team has the full complement of R&D, regulatory, manufacturing, access and commercial expertise to unlock the full potential of Sonelokimab for the benefit of patients and investors. We have a clear and ambitious strategic plan to execute and I am looking forward to get going."

Jorge Santos da Silva was previously Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, Inc. For almost 15 years, Jorge was a leader in McKinsey's Pharmaceutical & Medical Products Practice and in the Company's Zurich office. He led several key groups at McKinsey over the last decade, including the Biotech group and the Biosimilars group, leading the consultancy's thinking in several biotech-related topics. Over the years, he advised international biopharma and biotechs, on corporate and business-unit strategy, commercial operating models, R&D, organizational design, M&A, joint ventures, and marketing and sales. Jorge is a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and has broad scientific experience in molecular-, cellular- and neuro-biology, with several high profiles peer-reviewed publications during his career in Academia. He performed his research and earned his degrees in different institutions including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and the Universities of Glasgow and Turin. Jorge is also a Professor and a Board advisor at the School of Medicine at the Minho University in Portugal.

Matthias Bodenstedt was previously a Partner at McKinsey & Company and brings deep experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with a focus on finance and commercial strategy. At McKinsey, Mr. Bodenstedt served a diverse set of clients, ranging from pre-revenue biotechs to large global pharmaceutical companies. He was a key advisor on many industry-shaping transactions on the sell- and buy-side, and worked closely with senior executives on topics such as financing, M&A, BD&L, portfolio strategy, and go-to-market strategy and execution. Mr. Bodenstedt holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, New York, an MPhil in Finance from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany.

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics was founded in 2021, backed by a Series A financing led by BVF Partners LP. Other investors include Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The Company intends to accelerate the clinical development of Sonelokimab, an investigational IL-17A/IL-17F inhibitor with an albumin binding site, which has the potential to facilitate deep tissue penetration in the skin and joints. This group of IL-17A/F Inflammatory Diseases (also known as AFID) includes psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa  conditions affecting millions of people worldwide with a major need for improved treatment options. Multiple Phase 2 trials are expected to be launched soon.

The Company will build on robust clinical data generated by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and by Ablynx, a Sanofi company, which discovered the molecule. Full results of a Phase 2b study of Sonelokimab in psoriasis published in The Lancet in May showed impressive efficacy with a favorable safety profile, and numerical outperformance of the active control, secukinumab.

For the full announcement please see: https://www.moonlaketx.com/news/appointment.

For further information please visit our website www.moonlaketx.com.

For enquiries, please contact:

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics AG

Arnout Ploos van Amstel

Kristian Reich MD PhD

[email protected]

Mo PR Advisory

Mo Noonan / Jonathan Birt

Tel: +44 (0)7876 444977 / +44 (0)7860 361746

SOURCE MoonLake Immunotherapeutics AG

Related Links

https://www.moonlaketx.com


OWINGS MILLS, Md., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Minority Health Association (NMHA) today announced that it has received an $11.1 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The grant is part of the approximately $125 million available through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) American Rescue Plan to develop and support a community-based workforce that will serve as trusted voices in sharing information about COVID-19 vaccines, increase vaccine confidence, and address barriers to vaccination for those living in vulnerable and medically underserved communities.

The grant funding will help community-based organizations like NMHA better mobilize frontline home health workers to conduct on-the-ground outreach to educate and assist individuals in receiving reliable information about vaccinations, scheduling vaccine appointments, and assisting with appointment transportation needs.



"I am very excited to see a mobilization of home health workers since they are on the front lines of this pandemic," said 'The Doctors' host, Dr. Ian Smith. "We seek to amplify their trusted voice and support the home health effort to reduce hesitancy about taking the vaccine  and I am glad to help," continued Smith.

The initiative will focus on 12 key states: California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

"We are honored that HRSA saw value in selecting the National Minority Health Association for this important mission of Increasing public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and boosting vaccinations within vulnerable and underserved communities," said Burgess Harrison, Executive Director.

"Community health workers are a trusted voice within their respective neighborhoods and play a vital role in supporting this important effort to keep patients and loved ones safe. Our program is an example of health equity at work and achieves a key mission of NMHA as we serve populations that have historically suffered from poorer health outcomes, health disparities, and other inequities." Harrison added.

To help further support this initiative, NMHA has assembled a comprehensive network of supporting partners to help ensure a broad geographic reach and achieve the goal of getting as many people vaccinated as possible. These supporting partners bring deep expertise to support this initiative through their experience in healthcare, marketing, communications, social media, technology, video production and content creation. These unique skills are crucial to further activate and continually engage home care agencies, home health workers, patients, consumers and multi-generational family networks in the fight against COVID-19.

To date, these supporting industry partners include:

Dr. Ian Smith , Host of " The Doctors "

, Host of " " EagleForce Health/myVax

Gather Voices (GV)

Insignia Health

Nevvon

Rowan Homecare Technology Report

Sage Growth Partners (SGP)

"Trusted messengers play an essential role in sharing information about COVID-19 vaccines, answering questions, and ultimately convincing people to get vaccinated," said Acting HRSA Administrator Diana Espinosa. "This funding will support national, regional, and local organizations that will work directly with hard-hit, underserved, and high-risk communities to help bolster COVID-19 vaccination rates."

About NMHA. The National Minority Health Association, founded in 1988 by Dr. David L. Dalton, Chairman, and CEO, UNIVEC Conglomerate, Inc. (UNVC), achieved its initial mission of ensuring the establishment of Offices of Minority Health in all 50 states. Today the NMHA is adding to its mission and deploying new programs that utilize patient-centered, value-based care, and new ways of enhancing care to patients where they are, lowering costs, and improving outcomes for minority and underserved communities. To find out more, visit www.theNMHA.org. Become a member of the NMHA Health Equity Action Leaders network (HEAL) and join the fight for health equity. https://www.thenmha.org/donation. Help build confidence in the vaccine www.GoFundMe.com/thenmha

For More Information

John Gonda

616-309-4888

[email protected]

SOURCE National Minority Health Association
BALLARAT, Australia, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For centuries one of the world's richest, most powerful organisations was able to keep its secrets locked up tight. It used its reputation as a source of light and goodness to cover up for monsters within its ranks. While sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests continued unabated, the Church relied on blind faith to convince victims to stay quiet. Thankfully, in recent years, the work of investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and a series of government inquiries has lifted the lid on something that had become a common occurrence within the Catholic Church. We now know that thousands of innocent children across the world have been sexually abused by the very people they were taught to trust - priests and other church leaders. The ones who were caught were often whisked away to other assignments where they would continue to offend. When they couldn't be hidden, they were protected from prosecution by the Church. This story is an international one  sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests has taken place in every country in the world that has a Catholic presence.

Cover of The Boy in the Presbytery by Monique Patterson Author and journalist Monique Patterson

In Australia, Paul Levey, a survivor of one of the world's most prolific paedophile priests, Gerald Ridsdale, has come forward and bravely shared his story. Paul was sexually abused on an almost daily basis while living with Ridsdale in the Mortlake presbytery in Victoria. Paul has shared his story to bring attention to the church's history of cover-ups and to give survivors hope.

Beginning in the 1980s, allegations of clergy sexual abuse of children, some as young as three years old, started coming to light. These allegations detail decades of abuses by priests, nuns, and members of religious orders, and evidence has shown that the Church leaders have been aware of this abuse for as long as it has been happening. From 2000 to 2010, the Church itself investigated over 3,000 members of its own ranks over allegations of sexual abuse dating back fifty years. In June 2021, Pope Francis issued an extensive revision of the Catholic Church laws that require bishops to take action against offenders within the church.

Survivors often stay quiet for fear of being judged. Many people both within and outside the Catholic Church ask how and why this could be allowed to happen. Paul Levey and author Monique Patterson, who were both brought up Catholic, want people to know that the church deceived the members of their faith. In their new book, The Boy in the Presbytery, Paul and Monique demonstrate how so many people had the wool pulled over their eyes by leaders of a religion that promised to protect them from evil. This is not an Australian story or a Catholic story. It is a human story.

Monique Patterson, a journalist with more than fifteen years of experience, endeavors to tell stories that give a voice to the victims and survivors of crime.

Paul Levey is retired from the Australian army and now travels the world to bring attention to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandals.

Genius Book Publishing, a Los Angeles-based publisher, specializes in true crime. The Boy in the Presbytery is the third book by Monique Patterson published by Genius Books.

Contact: Steven Booth, Publisher, Genius Book Publishing

[email protected], +1.818.585.9945

https://geniusbookpublishing.com



SOURCE Genius Books & Media, Inc.

Related Links

https://geniusbookpublishing.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency is pleased to announce that the newly signed state budget increases the allocation of tax credits for its Mixed-Use Development Tax Credit Program by $1.5 million to now total $4.5 million. The agency is grateful to the state legislature and the governor for this additional funding that will now support even more redevelopment across Pennsylvania.

Bidding on these tax credits is already in progress, and PHFA wants to ensure that all interested bidders are aware of this important change of additional available tax credits. In light of this new development, the deadline for bids is being extended until 2 p.m. on Friday, July 23.

"We appreciate this additional funding from the General Assembly and the governor, which demonstrates their support for the revitalization of communities across the commonwealth through mixed-use developments that include affordable housing and commercial space," said PHFA Executive Director and CEO Robin Wiessmann. "These mixed-use projects bring a double benefit because they not only provide more critically needed housing, but the commercial part of these developments brings economic revitalization, too."

These tax credits will be used by the winning bidders  which can be companies, organizations or individuals  to reduce their state tax liability. The intent of the bidding process is to raise as much funding as possible from the $4.5 million in tax credits being made available to provide for significant community revitalization investments in mixed-use developments in various communities. The projects to receive this funding will be selected during a competitive Request for Proposals process later this year.

This state tax credit program was created as part of the commonwealth's fiscal year 2016/2017 budget (implemented July 1, 2017), and PHFA was directed to administer the credits. PHFA was authorized to sell these tax credits through directed or negotiated sale to any qualified taxpayer. It is expected that the tax credit awards will be made within 90 days after bidding closes. The credit awards will be made in 2021, but they are not effective for utilization until 2022 against a 2021 tax liability.

More information about the mixed-use development tax credit and the current bidding process is available on the PHFA website (scroll down). Program guidelines and bid criteria are posted there. Annual reports identifying projects awarded these tax credits in prior years are also available on that webpage. Interested organizations can learn more by contacting Bryce Maretzki at PHFA at (717) 780-1867 or by email at [email protected].

About PHFA

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency works to provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for older adults, low- and moderate-income families, and people with special housing needs. Through its carefully managed mortgage programs and investments in multifamily housing developments, PHFA also promotes economic development across the state. Since its creation by the legislature in 1972, it has generated more than $15.2 billion of funding for more than 182,570 single-family home mortgage loans, helped fund the construction of 138,000 rental units, distributed approximately 191 million to support local housing initiatives, and saved the homes of nearly 50,400 families from foreclosure. PHFA programs and operations are funded primarily by the sale of securities and from fees paid by program users, not by public tax dollars. The agency is governed by a 14-member board.

Media contact:

Scott Elliott

717-649-6522 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency

Related Links

www.phfa.org


SAN DIEGO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- North Island Credit Union has provided four $2,500 college scholarships to local students in partnership with the North County African American Women's Association (NCAAWA). The North Island Credit Union Scholarships were awarded through the NCAAWA's Scholarship Program, created to assist young African American women in acquiring higher education from an academic institution.

North Island Credit Union Scholarship recipients through the NCAAWA Program include:

San Diego State University student Shaylee Anderson , an Oceanside resident, majoring in Communications, with a minor in Digital and Media Studies.

student , an Oceanside resident, majoring in Communications, with a minor in Digital and Media Studies. Lena McEachern , a 2021 graduate of El Camino High School in Oceanside.

, a 2021 graduate of El Camino High School in Oceanside. Anna Kaye Powell , a current San Diego State University student from Oceanside, majoring in Accounting.

, a current student from Oceanside, majoring in Accounting. San Marcos resident Arianna White , who is pursuing a degree in a STEM-related field at Harvard University .

Recipient photos are available here.

"We are excited to expand the credit union's 2021 Scholarship Program to make an even greater impact through our partnership with North County African American Women's Association," said North Island Credit Union CEO Steve O'Connell. "We applaud all the work the organization is doing to empower young women in our community and to provide an essential support network. We congratulate these exceptional students, and wish them much success in their college career and beyond."

The North Island Credit Union Scholarships, along with all of the NCAAWA 2021 scholarships, were presented during its 2021 Virtual Culminating Scholarship Award Celebration on June 29th. "Thankfully, the nearly $40,000 sustained NCAAWA's commitment to its youth and young adults," said NCAAWA President Linda Berry. "COVID indeed challenged each of us to share ideas, innovations and community partnerships differently. We thank our community partners for helping us to overcome obstacles, to improve the lives of so many women in North County."

Through its annual scholarship program, North Island Credit Union has worked to support the educational goals of outstanding students within its local communities since 2005. The credit union's partnership with NCAAWA expands its educational assistance to specifically support North County female students of African American descent. The credit union is also providing financial literacy training for upper class high school girls in NCAAWA's Global Ambassadors Mentoring Program.

The NCAAWA Vision is to provide a support network through education, health awareness, and life skills programs for women and girls in North San Diego County. To date, the organization has provided over $290,000 in scholarship awards and grants to help young women further their education.

About North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union

California Credit Union is a federally insured, state chartered credit union founded in 1933 that serves public or private school employees, community members and businesses across California. With more than 165,000 members and assets of over $4 billion, California Credit Union has 25 branches throughout Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The credit union operates in San Diego County as North Island Credit Union, a division of California Credit Union. California Credit Union offers a full suite of consumer, business and investment products and services, including comprehensive consumer checking and loan options, personalized financial planning, business banking, and leading-edge online and mobile banking. Please visit northisland.ccu.com for more information or follow the credit union on Instagram or Facebook @northislandcu.

About North County African American Women's Association

Established in 1995, the North County African American Women's Association (NCAAWA) is an all-inclusive non-profit 501(c)(3) volunteer organization located in North San Diego County. Its mission is to provide a support network through education, health awareness, and life skills programs for women and girls in San Diego's North County to increase their self-sufficiency. Maintaining its charitable, educational, and recreational objectives, the organization, through its mission, has opened support to all women in San Diego's North County, celebrating ethnic and racial pride.

SOURCE North Island Credit Union

Related Links

http://northisland.ccu.com


Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust selects Indica Labs to aid in full digitisation of pathology workflow. Tweet this

Two years ago, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) and NUH NHS Trust founded the PathLAKE project in collaboration with other partners. PathLAKE is working to deliver innovative AI solutions needed in NHS pathology labs. Digitisation of the pathology workflow at NUH was made possible by PathLAKE Plus which is massively expanding digitisation across the NHS in order to put AI solutions developed by PathLAKE into practice.

Dr Tim Taylor, the Clinical Director of Pathology at NUH said, "We are really pleased that NUH has secured 2.3 million of funding from Innovate UK as part of a government initiative to develop digital pathology services across the NHS. This funding will allow our team of specialist consultant pathologists to move from analysing tissue biopsies using microscopes to using state of the art software from Indica Labs, reducing the time patients have to wait for diagnoses, particularly for those patients with suspected cancer. It will also allow our team of pathologists to work more collaboratively with pathologists in other Trusts across the region and opens the way to using sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to assist pathologists in the future through the PathLAKE Plus project."

Indica Labs' HALO AP software will be used to manage and view scanned slides for primary diagnosis, secondary consultations, tumour boards, multi-disciplinary team meetings, and remote reporting. To further streamline the digital reporting workflow, HALO AP will be integrated fully with the hospital's existing laboratory information system, CliniSys WinPath. Finally, in line with the PathLAKE Plus mission, HALO AP is designed to deploy a broad array of AI tools developed via Indica Labs' HALO AI platform, as well as third-party AI solutions.

"Digitization, automation, and AI can play a vital role in supporting pathologists to meet growing workloads and increasing diagnostic complexity," said Founder and CEO of Indica Labs, Steven Hashagen. "Indica Labs is delighted to participate in this exciting initiative, and we are committed to helping the NUH NHS Trust, and the wider PathLAKE Plus consortium in realizing the promise of this technology."

David Snead, Founding Director of PathLAKE, and consultant pathologist at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire said:

"UCHW NHS Trust is proud to be leading PathLAKE Plus, the world's largest implementation of digital pathology and AI to date, which will deliver the benefits of AI across a population base of 17 million people.

"The ambition is to deliver digital pathology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the benefit of NHS patients. Digital pathology has already proved its worth during the pandemic, by allowing the remote working of pathologists. However, it paves the way for the implementation of emerging AI technologies that will ensure we deliver the best possible results for our patients.

"Digital pathology is the future for tissue diagnosis and offers myriad opportunities to improve the quality of care for patients, PathLAKE Plus will be realising these benefits over the coming months and years. We are grateful for the support of Indica Labs, one of a team of commercial suppliers supporting PathLAKE Plus, that have made the project viable through their contribution."

The PathLAKE Plus project has been supported by funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) data to early diagnosis challenge in 2018, alongside additional scale-up funding for the digital pathology and imaging AI programme from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

About Indica Labs, Inc

Indica Labs is the world's leading provider of computational pathology software and services. Our flagship HALO image analysis platform enables fast, quantitative evaluation of tissues using a broad range of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision algorithms. HALO Link and HALO AP facilitate remote image analysis, collaboration and management. Through a combination of precision, scalability, and usability our software solutions enable pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic labs, research organizations, and Indica's own contract pharma services team to advance tissue-based research, clinical trials, and diagnostics. For more information, please visit https://www.indicalab.com or contact [email protected].

About Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust based in the heart of Nottingham and provide services to over 2.5 million residents of Nottingham and its surrounding communities. We also provide specialist services for a further 3-4 million people from across the region. We're one of the largest employers in the region, employing around 16,500 people at QMC, Nottingham City Hospital and Ropewalk House. We have 90 wards and around 1,700 beds.

We have a national and international reputation for many of our specialist services, including stroke, renal, neurosciences, cancer services and trauma. We are at the forefront of many research programmes and new surgical procedures.

In partnership with The University of Nottingham we host a Biomedical Research Centre carrying out vital research into hearing, digestive diseases, respiratory, musculoskeletal disease, mental health and imaging.

As a teaching trust we have a strong relationship with our colleagues at The University of Nottingham and other universities across the East Midlands, including Loughborough University, where we are part of the Olympic Legacy project. We play a vital role in the education and training of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Experts from NUH are leading the important work is in the NHS to establish appropriate sponsorship and project management of the National facility at the National Defence and Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall, a facility which has potential to very significantly improve inpatient rehabilitation services and clinical outcomes for patients in Nottingham and across the East Midlands.

For media inquiries, contact Kate Lillard Tunstall, [email protected] (Indica Labs), +441789765721.

SOURCE Indica Labs

Related Links

www.indicalab.com


NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ObvioHealth, a global Virtual Research Organization (VRO), announces it has raised $31 million in its latest round of financing. The round was led by two new partners: Dedalus Group, an international healthcare IT and diagnostic software provider, leader in Europe and backed by Ardian, and Novotech Health Holdings Pte. Ltd. ("Novotech"), Asia Pacific's highest revenue biotech-specialist CRO in 2020.

The collaboration with Dedalus integrates clinical research with EHR (electronic health record) data, facilitating clinical trial design and recruitment while helping healthcare providers from over 6000 hospitals and clinics to deliver better care to more than 330 million patients. The initial stage of the partnership enables researchers to collaborate with hospitals to conduct granular prognostic and predictive analysis for identification of more precise patient subpopulations while maintaining full compliance with stringent European privacy and data safety regulations.

"The collaboration is born out of our strategic focus on clinical safety and efficiency," said Giorgio Moretti, founder of Dedalus and ObvioHealth board member. "Dedalus will facilitate the collaboration of healthcare stakeholders through Dedalus systems, enabling the transformation of clinical data into clinical knowledge. This will result in huge benefits for patients, healthcare professionals and for the clinical research industry at large. ObvioHealth is already helping to bring new drugs and devices to market by making clinical trials faster and safer. The financial investment from Dedalus testifies to its commitment in supporting this transformation."

Novotech specializes in conducting clinical research for biotech companies in Asia-Pacific, a fast-moving market with an appetite for virtual trials. The partnership means ObvioHealth will become Novotech's preferred provider for virtual clinical trials in APAC. In return, Novotech will become ObvioHealth's preferred CRO in the region for hybrid and virtual trials. This partnership will grow ObvioHealth's presence in a region known globally for its medical research and access to large diverse patient populations. Novotech has 29 offices across APAC with local expertise in each market essential to the success of clinical trials in the region.

"Our efficient approach to conducting clinical trials is a key driver of our growth in the biotech space, where clients are seeking faster and more cost-efficient solutions," said John Moller, CEO at Novotech. "Virtual trials offer patients greater access to the important clinical trials conducted across our region."

"The addition of Dedalus and Novotech as investors and partners is a real boon to ObvioHealth's strategic roadmap," said Ivan Jarry, ObvioHealth's CEO. "Both companies are leaders in their respective fields. These complementary assets will allow us to continue to grow our global footprint and extend our virtual trial competencies beyond traditional boundaries."

Together the Dedalus and Novotech Series B investment represents $18.5 million. Additional investment comes from, SPRIM Global Investments, a healthcare and life science-focused venture fund that was the initial seed investor in ObvioHealth and AT Capital group, a Singapore based family office with over US $2 billion of proprietary assets under management, as well as other existing investors.

The financing enables ObvioHealth to boost the IT capabilities of its proprietary ecosystem and platform for conducting virtual clinical trials, including the GDPR compliant bridging software to query EHR data. ObvioHealth also intends to make key hires in the coming year, particularly in Asia, with plans to expand the Singapore office into a technology hub.

About ObvioHealth

ObvioHealth is an end-to-end Virtual Research Organization (VRO) that delivers better data to sponsors and an easier clinical trial experience for participants. The company developed and launched one of the first DCT apps, downloadable on smartphones enabling people to participate in clinical trials from the comfort of their homes. In the 4 years since launch, the company has been awarded nearly 40 studies from 28 blue chip clients, implemented in 28 countries, in 16 different therapeutic areas. For more information, visit https://www.obviohealth.com .

About Dedalus

Dedalus Group is the leading healthcare and diagnostic software provider in Europe, supporting the digital transformation of 6100 hospitals and 5300 Laboratories worldwide, processing its solutions for more than 330M patient records. The company recently announced the successful acquisition of DXC Technology's global healthcare information technology (ICT) business, strengthening its position as a specialist healthcare ICT company, with one of the largest digital health research and development teams in Europe. For more information, visit www.dedalus.com

About Novotech

Novotech is a leading Asia-Pacific biotech specialist CRO, consisting of two operating brands, "Novotech" and "PPC". Novotech is a full-service clinical CRO with labs, phase I facilities, and drug development consulting services. It has accumulated experience in over 3,700 clinical projects, including Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials and bioequivalence studies. Novotech is positioned to serve biopharmaceutical clients conducting clinical trials in Asia and globally. As of March 31, 2021, Novotech had a total of 1,765 FTEs working across our offices in 11 geographies in Asia-Pacific and the United States. For more information, visit https://novotech-holdings.com/

About Ardian

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets over US$112bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base. Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian's global network of 700 employees manage funds on behalf of 1000- clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt that fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world.

About ATC

Founded by Mr. Arvind Tiku, the AT Capital group is a Singapore-based family office with over US$2 billion of proprietary assets under management. AT Capital Group's key strategic investments are in the renewable energy and residential & commercial real estate sectors, in addition to significant public market investments.

About SPRIM Global Investments

SPRIM Global Investments (SGI) is a healthcare and life science-focused investment company with offices in New York and Singapore with major focuses on healthcare IT and biotech across stages and therapeutic areas. Further information can be found at www.sprim.com.

SOURCE ObvioHealth
KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PayIt Digital Government, Inc., the leader in digital government services and payments, has announced their official partnership with the City of Toronto. This partnership marks a monumental step forward for PayIt, the City of Toronto and the residents of Toronto. PayIt is looking forward to being part of the landscape of Toronto; simplifying the government experience for Torontians and helping to support the growth of the local tech economy.

PayIt and the City of Toronto will deliver a digital experience and payments platform that allows residents, businesses and visitors to interact with the City in a more modern and convenient way. Starting this fall, Torontians will be able to pay property taxes, utility bills and parking violations all from one online and mobile platform. Permits, licenses and court fines will also be available for payment in phase two of the project's implementation.

"This is a step forward in modernizing our government and improving the customer experience for the residents we serve in a number of ways," said Toronto Mayor John Tory. "Residents, businesses and visitors to Toronto want a simple, consistent and connected interaction with the City and this new service offering will help us deliver just that."

Currently, residents have to navigate separate experiences and payment portals to conduct their business. This partnership allows the City to consolidate a number of essential government services into one easy-to-use and easy-to-access web and mobile application.

"Through this new service we can now better meet people's expectations for a modern government and create more value for residents and businesses, similar to how they interact with their banks, retailers and increasingly the public sector  simpler, more convenient and increasingly personalized," said Deputy Mayor Stephen Holyday (Etobicoke-Centre).

This expansion into the Canadian market comes on the heels of PayIt opening an international headquarters in Toronto and their commitment to building roots in the community.

"This city is already home to some immense tech talent and we are excited to contribute to this ever-growing pool," said PayIt Founder and CEO John Thomson. "It is our plan to use our presence in Toronto as a means to create more highly-skilled tech jobs in the city and to support the continued development of Toronto's tech talent footprint."



In a few short years, PayIt has grown from humble beginnings to serving nearly 80 million people throughout the United States. With clients ranging from the multiple Department of Motor Vehicles to county treasurers to city courthouses, PayIt has grown to become leaders in digital government service delivery. A partnership with Toronto, the fourth largest city in North America, was a natural next step for PayIt.

"Governments are recognizing the need for technology partners across all of North America," Thomson said. "Being able to work with the City of Toronto, who already has a track record of innovation and forward-thinking leadership, was the perfect fit for us. We can't wait to get started."

From the City's official release, "The agreement with PayIt will be for a period of three years, plus options for two one-year extensions at the discretion of the City's Chief Technology Officer. The City has calculated a return on investment of $11 million over the five-year term of the contract The digital payment options will provide an improved customer experience to businesses and residents. For example, a typical Toronto family must currently access more than 10 separate channels and portals to manage over 20 residential services and payments throughout the year. Over time, the agreement with PayIt will facilitate the merger of those multiple channels and portals into an integrated digital experience."

"I'm happy to see the work and due diligence that's been done in order to secure a digital payments processing platform for the City," said Councillor Paul Ainslie (Scarborough-Guildwood), Chair of the General Government and Licensing Committee. "By working with PayIt, we are continuing to move the City of Toronto forward into the digital age and provide an improved customer experience for residents and businesses."

With the public sector continuing to build partnerships with private sector technology companies, PayIt expects continued growth and expansion throughout the United States and Canada.

About PayIt

PayIt is the leading SaaS provider of digital government services and payments. Through cloud-native technology, PayIt's platform simplifies doing business with government agencies of any size by consolidating hundreds of services and payments into one connected experience for citizens. Within a 90-day launch period, PayIt delivers a platform that allows citizens to handle all of their essential government tasks (i.e. taxes, driving documents, permits, licenses, fines).

This innovative approach to government service delivery has garnered significant recognition in both the public and private sectors:

GovTech 100 (2017-2021)

Fast Company Innovation in Design Award (2019)

StateScoop 50 State IT Innovation of the Year (2019-2020)

NASCIO State IT Recognition finalist (2020)

LocalSmart Awards (2020)

Contact:

Ryan Gerding for PayIt

[email protected]

913-602-8531

SOURCE PayIt
MODI'IN, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Percepto , pioneering autonomous inspection by industrial robotics today announced that it has been selected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to participate in the market leading new BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) whose work will entail developing a regulatory path for standard drone operations Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). Percepto has also been approved as an official partner of the upcoming FAA symposium .

"Percepto is deeply committed to gaining BVLOS and other regulatory approvals throughout the world to enable safe and scalable autonomous drone operations," said Dor Abuhasira, CEO and Co-Founder of Percepto. "Seeking regulatory change for sUAS is vital for the industry to grow and for clients and their respective industries to utilize Percepto's systems and sUAS flight benefits fully."

The company is included among the first group of the 'Gold standard' FAA's Type Certification (TC) process and is one of just six sUAS manufacturers selected to join the BVLOS ARC.

Percepto has an industry leading track record of regulatory firsts.

In the US, during the wildfires of 2020, Percepto's client, Verizon, was granted a first of its kind emergency waiver to fly the Percepto Sparrow drone and inspect critical communications infrastructure 24 hours a day with less than three miles of visibility, all from a remote location and no observer on site.

In Australia , Percepto's Sparrow now has an EVLOS waiver from CASA, allowing it to fly within 1500 meters (.93 miles) of multiple observers, and full BVLOS flight is expected in 2021.

, Percepto's Sparrow now has an EVLOS waiver from CASA, allowing it to fly within 1500 meters (.93 miles) of multiple observers, and full BVLOS flight is expected in 2021. ICL Dead Sea was the first company in Israel to receive a BVLOS waiver, allowing them to monitor and secure their mining operations.

About Percepto

Percepto is at the forefront of redefining how industrial sites and critical infrastructure are holistically inspected and monitored, harnessing remote robotics to autonomously collect, aggregate and analyze visual data.

Leveraging its experience with Percepto Sparrow, the most deployed drone-in-a-box solution on the market, the company introduced Percepto AIM (Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring), the first end-to-end autonomous inspection and monitoring platform. Percepto AIM empowers the remote operation center of the future to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency, increase safety and reduce operational costs.

Founded in 2014, Percepto's solutions are trusted by Fortune 500 customers in more than 10 countries including ENEL, Florida Power and Light and Verizon. The company is the recipient of the Frost & Sullivan Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award. For more information, visit www.percepto.co .

Media Contact

Judith Arkush

[email protected]

US +1 347 474 0012Isr

SOURCE Percepto

Related Links

https://percepto.co/


WENATCHEE, Wash., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Through the month of July, PetHub, Inc - the leader in modern pet identification - will be celebrating its 8th annual Lost Pet Prevention Month (LPPM). Over this month-long campaign, PetHub will be collaborating with over 25 industry partners and shelters to educate and provide resources on how to keep their pets safe and prepared for any scenario.

LPPM was started by PetHub in 2014 with a goal in mind to provide strategies, content, and tools to help prevent pets from getting lost, as well as recovery techniques that will help pet parents get their furry friends back home safely.

According to the ASPCA around 6.5 million companion animals enter animal shelters every single year. In that 6.5 million, around 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats. This number has decreased since 2011, but it is still an issue that PetHub has been actively fighting for 11 years. While there is no way to ensure a pet will never become lost, PetHub understands the impact a campaign like Lost Pet Prevention Month can have.

"The idea for Lost Pet Prevention Month actually came to me when I was working at a trade show in 2014," said co-founder and COO, Lorien Clemens. "Someone who works in the pet industry asked me why they would need our tag if we already microchip our animals. My answer was simple: If microchips were the panacea, the issue would have been solved decades ago. Lost pets are a complex problem and we need to be thinking of comprehensive solutions to help solve it. PetHub is passionate about this issue, and we created this month to start a conversation about lost pet prevention and preparation for finding missing pets. Our goal is to provide easy resources and techniques that owners will be able to use to help keep their furry friends prepared and safe."

Throughout July, the pet industry will come together to discuss lost pet prevention and recovery techniques so that pet parents are prepared for any situation. Each week, PetHub will be focusing on specific topics such as the Fourth of July, dogs, cats and the history of Lost Pet Prevention Month.

"We have a great lineup of partners this year," Clemens reflects. "Every year I am blown away by how many companies, industry experts and bloggers contribute to helping educate pet parents about how to prevent pets from getting lost and what to do should their pet go missing as part of this month's campaign."

In addition to the content, resources and techniques that will be provided throughout the campaign, PetHub and LPPM partners will be extending discounts and deals to help support pet parents. For example, PetHub is offering a 25% discount on ReadyKits - a bundle of PetHub's top selling identification products. Use code: LPPM25

The full list of 2021 partners include: Harper , DogTv , Dog Is Good , Dogo , Walkee Paws , Petmate , Modern Cat Magazine , Undercollar , Pet Living (Kristen Levine), Trusted House Sitters , Pet Guide (Amy Tokic), Feline Behavior Solutions (Marci Koski), The Dog Gurus (Robin Bennett), GoPetFriendly (Amy Burkert), Dogly , PupJoy , Shameless Pets , Tabby , San Diego Humane Society , Greenville County Animal Care , Wenatchee Valley Humane , Ventura County Animal Services , Miami Dade Animal Services , Contra Costa Animal Services , Denver Animal Shelter , National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA), and Code 3 Associates

To learn more visit us at www.lostpetpreventionmonth.com and follow @PetHub on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . Many additional resources and special opportunities for pet parents will be posted on PetHub and partner websites, social media accounts and media outlets.

About PetHub

PetHub, Inc., was started in 2010 by former Microsoft employee, Tom Arnold, to combat the issue of low RTO ("return to owner") rates for lost animals. Combining software with a physical ID tag allows anyone to help a lost animal get home quickly, often avoiding a trip to a vet or a shelter. 96% of PetHub recovered "pack members" are home again in under 24-hours, and before ever entering a shelter. PetHub's award-winning platform has multiple software and hardware patents pending on its ID tags and Internet services. Success stories can be found at http://PetHubFound.me . The company's tags are now in nearly 600 communities in the United States as their pet license or rabies tag, and over 700,000 pets are now members of PetHub.com .

Additional press resources are available for download here.

Contact:

[email protected]

855-795-8440

SOURCE PetHub

Related Links

https://www.pethub.com/


SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Phoenix American Financial Services, Inc. ("Phoenix") is pleased to announce its new client partnership with real estate investment fund sponsor Sandy Bay Partners ("Sandy Bay"). Phoenix will fulfill the back-office operational needs of Sandy Bay with its industry leading investor services platform featuring the state-of-the-art STAR-XMS shareholder management / transfer agent system. Sandy Bay will benefit from Phoenix American's combination of advanced technology, partner-oriented client service and long experience with the unique operational requirements of alternative investment funds.

Sandy Bay Partners

Sandy Bay Partners is the sponsor of investment programs focused on private equity and real estate development that are environmentally, socially and economically impactful. Working with the best-in-class landowner, legal and industry partners, Sandy Bay brings professional real estate and sponsor guidance to the surface and subsurface development industry. The company focuses on commercial real estate development, the energy industry and various mining operations in Illinois, West Virginia, Georgia and beyond. Sandy Bay also sponsors conservation easement projects which have preserved thousands of acres in multiple states. Sandy Bay Partners only partners with the highest quality landowners and properties, in order to deliver the very best for their investors.

Advanced operational solutions are critical to the success of today's fund sponsors. The increasing demands and expectations of both investors and regulators have magnified the back-office burden for fund sponsors in recent years. Phoenix American has combined the most efficient systems and precision back office processes in alternative investments since its origins as a fund sponsor in 1972. Phoenix's industry leading STAR-XMS transfer agent system is the result of the company's direct experience as a fund sponsor as well as decades of experience as an administrator for alternative investment funds.

"Our commitment to exceeding investors' expectations regarding financial transparency, reporting and money management practices, led us to partner with Phoenix American," said David Johnson, managing partner at Sandy Bay. "We look forward to delivering even greater results to our growing market base with this industry-leading transfer agent."

"We're very pleased to be working with Sandy Bay," said Andrew Constantin, Senior Vice President of Operations at Phoenix American. "They are focused on the excellence of the investor experience and we are happy to have them on the Phoenix American platform."

Phoenix American Financial Services, Inc. provides back-office outsourcing services including fund administration, fund accounting, investor services and sales and marketing reporting services to management firms in the alternative investment industry. The Phoenix American aircraft group, including its Irish subsidiary, PAFS Ireland Limited, provides managing agent services for asset backed securitizations (ABS) in the commercial aircraft and engine leasing industry. Phoenix is an affiliate of Phoenix American Incorporated along with Phoenix American SalesFocus Solutions. Phoenix American has five offices worldwide, was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in San Rafael, CA.

Media Contact:

David Fisher

(310) 621-7822

[email protected]

SOURCE Phoenix American
PORTLAND, Ore., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) announced today that it will host an analyst conference call and webcast at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, July 30, to review its second quarter 2021 financial results.

Portland General Electric's second quarter 2021 earnings summary will be released before financial markets open in the United States on July 30.

The conference call will be hosted by Maria Pope, president and CEO; Jim Ajello, senior vice president, finance, CFO and treasurer; and Jardon Jaramillo, senior director of investor relations, treasury and risk management.

To hear the conference call by webcast, log on to Portland General Electric's investor website at investors.portlandgeneral.com, select Events & Presentations from the menu, and the webcast will be listed under Upcoming Events. A replay of the call will be available beginning at 2 p.m. ET on July 30 through 2 p.m. ET on August 6. To access the recording, call 855-859-2056 (toll-free US/Canada) or 404-537-3406 (international toll call) and enter access code 4041879.

About Portland General Electric Company: Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) is a fully integrated energy company based in Portland, Oregon, with operations across the state. The company serves approximately 900,000 customers with a service area population of 2 million Oregonians in 51 cities. PGE owns 16 generation plants across Oregon and other Northwestern states and maintains and operates 14 public parks and recreation areas. For over 130 years, PGE has delivered safe, affordable and reliable energy to Oregonians. Together with its customers, PGE has the No. 1 voluntary renewable energy program in the U.S. PGE and its 3,000 employees are working with customers to build a clean energy future. In 2020, PGE, employees, retirees and the PGE Foundation donated $5.6 million and volunteered 18,200 hours with more than 400 nonprofits across Oregon. For more information visit www.PortlandGeneral.com/news.

For more information please contact:

Mike Houlihan, PGE, 503-504-9706

SOURCE: Portland General Company

SOURCE Portland General Company

Related Links

http://www.portlandgeneral.com


HEILBRONN, Germany and BOSTON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Protagen Protein Services (PPS) today announced that it will merge with GeneWerk, an Ampersand portfolio company. With the addition of GeneWerk's unique capabilities in vector safety, characterization, and functionality analysis, PPS will complement its current analytical testing offering in protein characterization identity, purity, potency and capsid loading to become a full-service partner in gene therapy testing for the biopharmaceutical industry.

Today's announced merger creates a leading partner for the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry to benefit from the most advanced, integrated set of analytical services capabilities in biologic development, especially in gene and cell therapy-related testing, from early development through drug approval to commercialization. The combined organization will have more than 175 employees across four sites in Europe and North America.

"The combination of Protagen Protein Services (PPS) and GeneWerk will establish a leading, analytical CRO serving the most thriving and innovative therapeutic segments within the global biopharmaceutical industry. We are excited to join forces with the GeneWerk team, who have established unique, worldwide excellence in cell and gene therapy and helped to establish the industry standard of integration site analysis for all vector delivery systems," outlined Martin Bluggel, CEO Protagen Protein Services GmbH.

"We are impressed by PPS' scientific background and are eager to join with our scientific excellence. By integrating our analytic platforms, programs and expertise with PPS, we look forward to working closely with premier biopharmaceutical companies to design, generate and deliver integrated, best-in-class analytical data packages and strategic support along the full development spectrum from developability, lead optimization, clone selection and process development to vector safety, gene editing targets, sequence analysis and gene expression," commented Dr. Manfred Schmidt, Managing Director and Co-Founder of GeneWerk GmbH.

As part of today's announcement, PPS noted that it plans to significantly expand the laboratory capabilities of its US subsidiary BioAnalytix to include GeneWerk's technology platforms and analytical capabilities in order to better serve clients located in the Boston area biotechnology hub and elsewhere in North America. Such service capabilities will include the determination of fusion sequences adjacent to known DNA or RNA fragments in minimal tissue samples down to the single cell level.

To support the integration and future growth of the combined business, PPS also announced that Ampersand Capital Partners has acquired a majority ownership stake in PPS from Zukunftsfond Heilbronn, PPS's initial private equity investor.

Marina Pellon-Consunji, Partner at Ampersand Capital Partners, stated: "We have been looking for the right opportunity to expand the capabilities of our portfolio company GeneWerk. We are proud to partner with the PPS team and look forward to helping further build a leading provider of innovative, scientifically-differentiated testing and analytical services for large molecule therapeutics, particularly in the rapidly-growing cell and gene therapy industry."

About Protagen Protein Services GmbH (PPS)

Protagen Protein Services (PPS) is a world leading CRO and recognized expert in analytical services in protein science and gene therapy products. Over 20 years of market experience and the comprehensive spectrum of validated analytical methods ensure the highest quality for customers in the pharmaceutical, biotech and life science industry. The company is an excellent partner for the biopharmaceutical industry worldwide to benefit from the most advanced, integrated and complete analytic services capabilities and platforms in biopharmaceutical development, from clone selection through drug approval to commercialization. In working together with their pharmaceutical partners, the PPS teams generate best-in-class analytic data packages and provide scientific, technical and regulatory support to advance, de-risk and accelerate all stages of biopharmaceutical development by all-in-one-hand service with complete documentation and outstanding project management to gain market success. www.protagenproteinservices.com

About GeneWerk GmbH

Founded in 2014 by Prof. Dr. Christof von Kalle, Dr. Manfred Schmidt, and Dr. Annette Deichmann with the participation of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, GeneWerk is a cell and gene therapy testing laboratory focused on providing preclinical and clinical trial patient sample analysis services. The company is recognized as a leading provider of vector integration site analysis (ISA) services, a method that was developed by the company's founders and that the FDA and EMA recommend performing after the administration of both integrating and non-integrating cell and gene therapies.

www.genewerk.com

About Ampersand Capital Partners

Founded in 1988, Ampersand is a middle market private equity firm with more than $2 billion of assets under management dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston and Amsterdam, Ampersand leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive superior long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of the firm's core healthcare sectors. Additional information about Ampersand is available at www.ampersandcapital.com.

SOURCE Ampersand Capital Partners

Related Links

www.ampersandventures.com


We are continuously expanding our efforts to make Protiviti a place where all feel valued. Tweet this

"We are continuously expanding our efforts to make Protiviti a place where all feel valued, where all have a sense of belonging and where all can contribute and grow," said Scott Redfearn, executive vice president, global human resources, Protiviti. "We've expanded our pool of diverse candidates and actively built relationships with many professional organizations, including the National Association for Black Accountants, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Association of Latino Professionals for America and Ascend for Pan-Asian leaders, to ensure we attract the best talent across all communities to build their careers with Protiviti."

Best Companies honorees will be celebrated at Seramount's virtual Multicultural Women's National Conference on July 21-22, 2021.

Read more about Protiviti's awards and recognition at www.protiviti.com/US-en/company-recognition.

About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach, and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting and managed solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries.

Named to the 2021 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

Editor's note: Protiviti photos available upon request.

SOURCE Protiviti

Related Links

http://www.protiviti.com


Valade comes to Red Lobster from Black Box Intelligence where she served as President and CEO since 2019. Prior to joining Black Box Intelligence, Kelli spent over 22 years at Brinker International, including most recently serving as Brand President for Chili's Grill & Bar. While at Brinker, she previously held leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Human Resources. As President, Valade was responsible for 80,000+ ChiliHeads and more than 1,600 restaurants. She established a clear vision and bold strategies and cultivated a purpose-driven culture, all with uncompromising dedication to the guest and her team members.

"When I announced my plan to retire, I promised our people we would recruit an outstanding new CEO to lead Red Lobster to even greater success over the next generation, and I absolutely believe Kelli is that person," said Lopdrup. "Her experience and deep industry insights coupled with her integrity and commitment to fostering a purpose-driven culture are the perfect fit as we begin this new chapter. I have never been more excited about Red Lobster's future."

Red Lobster Chairman Rittirong Boonmechote added, "We are delighted to welcome Kelli as Red Lobster's next CEO. She has proven that she can lead large casual dining companies very successfully, and she brings all the key skills that we were hoping to find. She is the ideal leader to help fulfill our vision of making Red Lobster 'Where the world goes for seafood, now and for generations.'"

Valade has been passionate about the restaurant industry since the age of 16, when she landed her first restaurant job as a hostess. It was there she found the same hospitality, the same love of great food and the same connection around the table she experienced her entire childhood, cooking and eating food around her grandmother's kitchen table in New York. Today, Valade continues to dedicate her career to living out that passion.

"I love the restaurant industry because it's about so much more than great food  it's about the great people who are truly heroes on the frontlines of the restaurants delivering a great experience to guests every day," said Valade. "Red Lobster has incredible people and an amazing culture in place, along with a solid business model and a strong foundation as an iconic and differentiated brand. My job as the brand's new leader is to inspire and develop our people while also leveraging the brand's strengths and finding ways to build on them for even greater success. I am looking forward to a very bright future together."

Valade currently serves on the boards of the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation (NRAEF) and Seasoned as well as on the executive committee of the board of the Women's Foodservice Forum (WFF). She also currently sits on the Board of Trustees for the Shelton School in Dallas.

Valade has also received several industry recognitions, including being named to the Nation's Restaurant News Top 50 Power List several times. In addition, The Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo gave her the Beacon Award in 2016 and Dallas Business Journal named her a Woman Worth Watching in 2013. In 2020, she earned the "Distinguished Alumni" award from Binghamton University and was honored for her impact in business and in the restaurant industry.

About Red Lobster Seafood Co.

Red Lobster is the world's largest and most-loved seafood restaurant company, headquartered in Orlando, Fla. With a proud heritage and an even brighter future, Red Lobster is focused on serving the highest quality, freshly prepared seafood that is traceable, sustainable and responsibly-sourced. To learn more about Red Lobster's sourcing standards and where the seafood we serve comes from, please visit www.redlobster.com/seafoodwithstandards. In 2021, Red Lobster was named to Forbes magazine's list of America's Best Large Employers and Newsweek magazine's list of America's Best Loyalty Programs. To learn more about Red Lobster, including locations and menu options, please visit http://www.redlobster.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

CONTACT: Nicole Bott, [email protected]

SOURCE Red Lobster Seafood Co.

Related Links

http://www.redlobster.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: RGRX) ("RegeneRx"), a clinical-stage drug development company focused on tissue protection, repair and regeneration), today announced that it closed its previously announced private placement offering of common stock and warrants for gross proceeds of $1,980,000. RegeneRx will be issuing to purchasers of common stock Series A Warrants to purchase up to approximately 7.5 million shares of common stock with an exercise price of $0.24 per share, exercisable immediately and have a term of two years following issuance and Series B Warrants to purchase up to approximately 7.5 million shares of common stock with an exercise price of $0.28 per share, exercisable immediately and have a term of five years following issuance.

Roth Capital Partners served as sole placement agent. After the placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses payable by the company, the company expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $1,800,000.

The securities offered in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or applicable under state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and such applicable state securities laws. As part of the transaction, the Company has agreed to file a resale registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 45 days of the closing to register the resale of the shares of common stock and shares of common stock underlying the warrants issued in the private placement.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

About RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

RegeneRx is focused on the development of novel therapeutic peptides, including Thymosin beta 4 (T4) and its constituent fragments, for tissue and organ protection, repair, and regeneration. RegeneRx currently has three drug candidates in clinical development for ophthalmic, cardiac/neuro and dermal indications, four active strategic licensing agreements in the U.S., China, and Pan Asia (Korea, Japan, and Australia, among others), and the EU, and has patents and patent applications covering its products in many countries throughout the world.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are expectations and estimates based upon information obtained and/or calculated by the Company. Please view these and other risks described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including those identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and subsequent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q, as well as other filings it makes with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements in this press release represent the Company's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update this information, as a result of future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.regenerx.com


ZUG, Switzerland, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global leader in flexible workspace solutions, International Workplace Group has opened its first property in the Cayman Islands.

Located in the capital George Town just five minutes from George Town Cruise port, the Regus centre opened to an event attended by the territory's premier Wayne Panton, tourism minister Kenneth Bryan as well as members of senior government, the Chamber of Commerce, and business leaders from around the region.

Designed to serve local enterprises and entrepreneurs, Regus provides flexible workspace solutions for modern-day businesses, which, in tandem with government initiatives such as the Global Citizen Concierge Programme  a campaign to attract digital nomads to the territory  provide a springboard for growth and business development.

"The appetite for flexible, co-working spaces was growing in Cayman pre-COVID and the pandemic has only increased demand now that work habits have changed significantly. There is also a clear international demand from those who wish to take advantage of the Regus network and the Government's Global Citizen Concierge Program, and we've been delighted to welcome several new members who seek a professional and flexible workspace under this initiative," says Sophia List, Client Relationship Officer of the Regus Cayman location.

IWG has been at the fore of global workspace solutions for more than 30 years, with 2021 serving as a record year for the company, which added half a million users to its network in just the first quarter. The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the way people work, with companies of all sizes indicating that hybrid work is here for the long term.

The addition of the Regus centre in George Town demonstrates the workplace provider's investment in Grand Cayman's capital, a move that will promote the brand's expansion throughout the Caribbean, adding to locations in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago.

About Regus

Regus is the world's largest provider of flexible workspaces with an unrivaled network of offices, coworking, and meeting spaces that companies can use around the world. It is an infrastructure that supports all business opportunities - a global infrastructure built for businesses. The Regus network of workspaces allows companies to operate anywhere, with no set-up costs or capital investment. It offers customers immediate cost benefits and the ability to fully outsource their real estate portfolio.

SOURCE Regus

Related Links

http://www.regus.fr/


EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Salvia BioElectronics B.V. ("Salvia"), a neurostimulation platform company targeting chronic migraine, announces today the appointment of Dr Alan Levy as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Dr Levy has 40 years of senior operational leadership and entrepreneurial experience in the medical device industry. Throughout his distinguished career, he has raised substantial funds, developed and implemented strategy, hired and built strong teams, managed the successful commercial launch of multiple medical products and multiple FDA approvals. These include: CEO at Chrono Therapeutics; Senior Advisor and Venture Partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners, a top venture capital firm, focusing on the Life Science sector; founding CEO at Incline Therapeutics, acquired by The Medicines Company for $390 million; founding CEO and President at Northstar Neuroscience, which raised $112 million in its IPO; CEO and President at Heartstream, acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $140 million; and President at Heart Technology, acquired by Boston Scientific for $500 million. In addition, he held several leadership positions at Ethicon, a division of Johnson & Johnson, including Vice President of Research and New Business Development and Director.

Hubert Martens, CEO of Salvia BioElectronics, said, "We are delighted to welcome Dr Levy to the Board. His unrivaled experience and extensive network in the global life sciences industry, as well as his hands-on experience building teams and successful healthcare companies both as a CEO and as a company director, will be invaluable to Salvia as we move into the next phase of growth."

Dr Alan Levy, new Chairman of Salvia BioElectronics, commented: "Over the years, I have been privileged to work with and lead transformative companies in the healthcare sector. Salvia is developing an innovative neurostimulation solution for chronic migraine based on a novel device concept with unique benefits to both patients and physicians. I am very pleased to join as Chairman and look forward to working with the talented management team backed by world-class investors to help deliver bioelectronic solutions that restore health for people suffering from chronic migraine and other neurological disorders."

Dr Levy serves as a board member at several public and private companies, including Intuitive Surgical, Tasso Inc., and Bardy Diagnostics. He received his PhD in organic chemistry from Purdue University, a bachelor's degree in chemistry from City University of New York and holds an honorary Doctor of Science from Purdue University.

About Salvia BioElectronics B.V.

Salvia BioElectronics is an innovative Dutch startup active in the emerging field of bioelectronics. It was founded in 2017 by neuromodulation industry veterans with the ambition to develop a bioelectronics therapy for people suffering from chronic migraine that is as easy as taking medication yet side-effect free. Building on research around known neural targets in migraine, Salvia develops the right form factor for stimulation that is effective, safe, and affordable.

Migraine is the first cause of disability in under 50s, affecting one out of seven people, predominantly women. People with migraine experience episodes of throbbing, pulsating pain, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days. More than five percent of patients experience migraines for 15+ days per month  with an average of 22 days  a condition described as chronic migraine.

www.salvianeuro.com

SOURCE Salvia BioElectronics
Erica was recognized for her support of Sourcewell's mission, and Sharp's continued support of cooperative contracts. Sourcewell acknowledged Erica and her team for the development of Sharp's Purchase Order Only Program  their easy-to-use catalog for their network of salespeople and their tiered pricing system that provides discounts based on deal size. Through these offerings, Sharp has provided dealers the support they need to finance their businesses while still being able to make a profit.

"I am humbled to be recognized with this prestigious industry accolade from Sourcewell," said Erica. "Sharp is committed to being a trusted and supportive partner to our customers and dealer community and we are grateful for our long-standing partnership with Sourcewell."

This is the sixth award the Sharp team has won with Sourcewell, and Erica's team's response received the highest score in the bid evaluation process.

"I've worked with Erica since 2009, and she believed in what we were doing from the very beginning," said Dave Duhn, Supplier Development Supervisor, Sourcewell. "Her faith in us and 'all in' mindset helped us get where we are today. We are so grateful and proud to recognize her with this award."

Sharp recently announced that it has been awarded another four-year contract with Sourcewell for a 6th consecutive term.

About Sharp Imaging and Information Company

Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, strives to help businesses achieve Simply Smarter work through technology that is smart and easy to use. The aim of the Simply Smarter Workplace strategy is to accelerate collaboration, improve efficiencies, digitize workflows, and increase information security. Sharp's expansive line of products and solutions include interactive displays such as the award-winning Windows collaboration display and AQUOS BOARD interactive display, commercial displays, security-first laptops, desktop monitors and a full suite of multifunction copier and printer solutions.

About Sourcewell

Sourcewell is a self-supporting government organization, partnering with education, government, and nonprofits to boost student and community success. Created in 1978 as one of Minnesota's nine service cooperatives, we offer training and shared services to our central-Minnesota members. Throughout North America, we offer a cooperative purchasing program with more than 400+ awarded suppliers on contract. Sourcewell is driven by service and the ability to strategically reinvest in member communities.

For more information on Sharp's business products, visit our website at business.sharpusa.com .

Become a fan of Sharp business products on Facebook , follow us on Twitter , LinkedIn and Instagram and watch us on YouTube .

Peppercomm for Sharp

Paul Merchan

212.931.6172

[email protected]

SOURCE Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA)
GAITHERSBURG, Md. and SUZHOU BIOBAY, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirnaomics Ltd., a leading biopharmaceutical company in discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, announced today that it has sealed $105 million in a Series E financing. This round of funding was led by Rotating Boulder Fund, an investor that has been supporting the company since its Series B round, with participation from existing investors and a well-recognized syndicate of new investors.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to fund the continued development of Sirnaomics' novel RNAi therapeutics for treating diverse human disorders, which include cancers, viral infections, fibrosis, and metabolic diseases. Sirnaomics will also further advance its delivery technology platforms and strengthen its large-scale manufacturing capacity to support the company's fast-growing product pipeline at different clinical stages (See: https://sirnaomics.com/news/).

Sirnaomics' product candidates, STP705 and STP707, are dual targeting siRNA therapeutics against TGF-1 and COX-2 for either local or systemic administration to treat various types of cancers and fibrotic diseases. Based on successful clinical and preclinical studies, a future clinical focus will be targeted towards immune oncological evaluation, with combination design of the novel RNAi drug candidate and immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies. With further expansion of the company's systemic RNAi drug delivery platforms, encompassing siRNA-chemodrug conjugates and proprietary GalNAc-siRNA conjugates, Sirnaomics is poised to address multiple therapeutic areas.

"We are pleased to close the Series E round of financing with oversubscription from a very diversified and strong investor base," commented Patrick Lu, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This is another powerful validation that the RNAi therapeutics, fuelled by innovative delivery platforms, ground-breaking CMC technologies, and fast expansion of multiple clinical programs with positive results, are attracting significant interests from the investment community. We appreciate strong trust and persistent support from our existing investors, and we are very excited with this addition of a well-regarded syndicate of investors for the Series E financing. This combination of existing and new investors will not only strengthen our financial foundation, but also bring tremendous experience and expertise to Sirnaomics as it enters the next phase of growth."

About Sirnaomics Ltd.

Sirnaomics Ltd., a leading privately held biopharmaceutical company for discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou, China. The Company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics to alleviate human suffering and advance patient care in areas of high unmet medical need. The guiding principles of the company are: Innovation, Global Vision with a Patient Centered focus. Members of the senior management team have a combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning clinical development, regulatory, financial and business management in both the U.S. and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors and corporate partnerships. Sirnaomics has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property with an enriched product pipeline. The therapeutic areas of focus include oncology, anti-fibrotic, anti-viral and metabolic therapeutics. Learn more at www.sirnaomics.com.

Contacts:

Sirnaomics:

George Ji, MBA

Chief Operating Officer

Email: [email protected]

Investors:

Stephanie Carrington

Tel: +1 646 277 1282

Email : [email protected]

Media:

Mark Corbae

Tel: +1 203 682 8288

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sirnaomics, Inc.
MINNEAPOLIS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Merchology has been named one of the Top Workplaces in Minnesota and a National Standard Setter by the Star Tribune . This is Merchology's second time appearing on the Star Tribune's Top Workplaces list.

Merchology is an online retailer of company-branded merchandise, including apparel , drinkware , tech accessories , and more. Merchology partners with world-class retail brands such as Under Armour, YETI, Patagonia, Apple and more to bring your company logo to life. Merchology currently offers over 300 brands and over 100,000 products, and also offers unique gifting experiences and services, such as the MerchBox and residential drop shipping.

Produced by the same team that compiles the 30-year-old Star Tribune 100 report of the best-performing public companies in Minnesota, Top Workplaces recognizes the most progressive companies in Minnesota based on employee opinions measuring engagement, organizational health and satisfaction. The analysis included responses from over 76,000 employees at Minnesota public, private and nonprofit organizations.

The results of the Star Tribune Top Workplaces are based on survey information collected by Energage, an independent company specializing in employee engagement and retention.

"There's nothing more important to the Merchology ownership and leadership team than creating a generous and inclusive company where people love to work," co-founder and CMO Ally Delgado stated. "After a challenging year that tested our team to the limit, being named a Top Workplace is a remarkable honor. We have a fast-paced, fun, and collaborative culture, and we look forward to building upon this strength as we continue to grow."

Star Tribune Publisher Michael J. Klingensmith said, "The companies in the Star Tribune Top Workplaces deserve high praise for creating the very best work environments in the state of Minnesota. My congratulations to each of these exceptional companies."

SOURCE Merchology

Related Links

https://www.merchology.com/


GURUGRAM, India, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

The target market for KSA bags and luggage industry includes people from all income categories and comprises of 33.4 mn domestic population as well as 19.7 mn international tourist arrivals demanding different types of bags such as handbags backpacks and laptop or business bags.

Increase in number of expats from 9.7 Million in 2015 to 10.7 Million in 20201. requiring business bags (including Laptop Bags) for their daily activities has positively impacted the bag sales in the Kingdom.

Despite the ups and downs that the sector had experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, KSA bags and luggage market will revive due to the pilgrim visits to Mecca and Medina in the coming year along with FIFA 2022 to take place in Qatar which might increase the tourists in KSA as well.

Growth beyond Luggage: Luggage Category is expected to grow @11.8% CAGR in the future period in the KSA market but its share of the overall bags and luggage market is still dwarfed by that of bags with handbags leading the charge with majority revenue share in the overall bags market in 2025F.

Less Popular Formats Gaining Ground: Because consumers are likely to opt for domestic destinations in the next few months along with focus on keeping a healthy lifestyle, a shift in preference towards smaller and convenient bags such as duffles, backpacks, and weekenders would be in demand. The company are also focusing on smaller products that can carry items like hand sanitizer and extra masks which can be folded up into a tiny square when not in use and other accessories such as iPhones and sunglasses.

Smart Luggage: Technology is the major boosting factor for bags and luggage market largely driven by increasing global tourism coupled with growing trend of integrating luggage with technology. Increase in Internet penetration may lead to adoption of smart luggage in KSA. However, leading manufacturers have yet to officially launch any significant attempts at "smart luggage" in the country.

The report titled "Potential Assessment In Saudi Arabia Bags & Luggage Market  Driven by Change in Lifestyle, Increasing Travel and Tourism and Customer Inclination toward High-end Brands" by Ken Research suggested that the bags and luggage market is further expected to grow in the near future owing to Change in demographics, Increase in consumer spending and Rise in E-commerce industry. The growth in domestic tourism along with surging young and women population foreseeing handbags as a style statement than its functional aspect has supplemented the market growth. The market is expected to register a positive six year CAGR of 10.1% in terms of revenue during the forecast period 2020-2025F.

Key Segments Covered in Saudi Arabia Bags and Luggage Market:-

By Bags and Luggage

Bags



Luggage

By Type of Bags

Handbags



Backpacks



Business Bags



Wallet



Crossbody Bags



Duffel Bags



Briefcases



Other Bags (Totes, Baguettes, Satchels, Flaps, Hobos, Shopper Bags, Messenger Bags, Clutches and others)

By Type of Luggage

Hard Case



Soft Case

By Hard Case Luggage Capacity

30-50 L



50-90L



>90L



Roling Totes



Others such as Jewellery cases, Business case etc

By Soft Case Luggage Capacity

30-50 L



50-90L



>90L



Garment Bags



Rolling Totes



Others

By Price Range of Bags and Luggage

Premium



Economy



Luxury

By Sales Channel of Bags and Luggage

Offline



Online

By Retail Format of Bags and Luggage

EBOs



MBOs



Local Retailers

By Region

Riyadh



Jeddah



Dammam



Al khobar



Mecca and Medina

and Medina

Others

Key Target Audience:-

Luggage Manufacturers

Bags Manufacturer

Retailers and Distributors

Time Period Captured in the Report:-

Historical Period: 2015-2020

2015-2020 Forecast Period: 20202025

Key Topics Covered in the Report:-

Saudi Arabia Luggage and Bags Market Introduction

Saudi Arabia Luggage and Bags Market Size, 2015-2020

Saudi Arabia Luggage and Bags Market Segmentation, 2015-2020

Growth Drivers for KSA Luggage and Bags Market

Understanding the Target Market for Bags & Luggage Industry

Recommended Store Layout & Proposed Business Framework

Landscape of Local Manufacturers, Distributors & Retailers in KSA Bags and Luggage Market

Potential B2B Partnership Strategy (Partnership with Corporate , Schools , CSD and Local Retailers )

Competition Scenario of Bags and Luggage Market in KSA

4Ps and Pricing Analysis in KSA Luggage and Bags Market

Global Practices and Global Case Scenarios that can be Adopted in KSA

Technological Innovations in Bags and Luggage Market

Consumer's Decision Making Parameters and Buying Behavior in KSA Luggage and Bags Market

Issues and Challenges in KSA Luggage and Bags Market

KSA Luggage and Bags Market Future Outlook and Projections, 2020-2025F

GTM and Market Opportunities for KSA Luggage and Bags Market

Bags and Luggage Market Saudi Arabia

Bags Market Saudi Arabia

Luggage Market Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Market Size Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Market Revenue Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Target Market Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Market Import Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Production Saudi Arabia

Handbags Revenue Saudi Arabia

Business Bags Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage 4Ps Analysis Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Distributors Saudi Arabia

Bags and Luggage Market Ecosystem Saudi Arabia

Premium Luggage Saudi Arabia

Marketing and Promotional Strategies Saudi Arabia Market

Competition Scenario Saudi Arabia Bags and Luggage Market

Saudi Arabia Bags and Luggage Competition Scenario

COVID Impact Bags and Luggage Saudi Arabia

For More Information On the research report, refer to below link:-

Saudi Arabia Bags & Luggage Market

Related Reports:-

Philippines Luggage and Bags Market Outlook to 2023 - By Bags (Handbags, Backpacks, Cross body Bags, Duffel Bags, Wallet Coin Pouches, Business Bags, Other Small Bags), By Luggage (Hard and Soft Case), By Distribution Channel

Philippines bags and Luggage Market is at the growing stage. All major international players have their presence in the market and are competing aggressively to dominate. Bags are in very high demand as compared to luggage and the global leader LVMH dominated the market. There is no major domestic designer brand in the luxury segment. The market has grown in terms of revenue due to the growth of domestic and outbound tourism, an increase in the young and working population and an increasing presence of bags and luggage retailers in the Philippines.

India Luggage and Bags Market Outlook to 2025- Growth in Outbound & Domestic Tourists Coupled with Inclination Towards Branded Luggage Supporting Market Growth)

India luggage and bags market grew at a double digit growth rate over the review period 2013-2019 and was further supported by expanding travelling based expenditure for both leisure and corporate tourism, increasing proliferation of online portals, introduction of affordable pricing products and consumer shift from unbranded to branded quality products. The entry of several inter

national players has also contributed towards the same. Strong growth was observed in Indian luggage and bags industry majorly due to high consumer demand but a depreciating USD ($) affected profitability of multiple manufacturers in India. However, stabilization of GST rate at 18% (previously 28%) created a positive impact on the consumer demand.

KSA Online Grocery Delivery Market Outlook to 2025- Driven by Changing Shopping Habits of Consumers and Regional Expansion of Local & International Players in the Kingdom

KSA Online Grocery Delivery service gained traction among consumers as it allows customers to avoid the hassle of crowds, payment & parking queues and offers convenience as one doesn't need to be at home to pick up the order. Major grocery delivery companies entered the market between 2016 and 2018. Smartphone users aged between 25 and 44, is considered an influential customer base for online grocery shopping. The industry is currently positioned in a growth stage registering a double-digit growth rate close to 44% between 2017 and 2019. Changing consumer preferences, high smartphone penetration, and regional expansion of local and international players led to the growth of online grocery services in the Kingdom. Companies have expanded their product portfolios from food & beverages to household supplies, baby food, fresh food, fish & meat, and other product categories.

Contact Us:-

Ken Research

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

+91-9015378249

SOURCE Ken Research
NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More and more offices plan to reopen their doors in the coming months, but will their workers show up? Amid higher productivity, 43 percent question the wisdom of returning to the workplace at all.

The new survey by The Conference Board reveals a notable shift in employees' greatest return-to-work concerns. Once dominant fears of contracting COVID-19 or exposing family members to it now lag behind anxieties about returning at all, dropping by nearly half in the last nine months. Moreover, a clear divide among workers emerged, with lower-level employees, women, and millennials questioning the need to return to the office at higher rates than their counterparts, despite expressing more concern about mental health.

Conducted between May 28June 4, the online survey examines plans and opinions on reopening the workplace. More than 3,600 US workers participated, representing a cross-section of people across industries. It is a follow-up to similar surveys conducted in late 2020 and early 2021. Key findings include:

Workers question the wisdom of returning to the workplace given high productivity.

The belief that productivity remained high while working remotely has 43 percent of respondents questioning the need to return to the workplace at all. This is a significant increase from the 31 percent who felt that way in January.

The lower the employee level, the more they question the need to return to the workplace:

Individual contributors: 56 percent.

56 percent.

CEOs: 18 percent.

18 percent. Women question the wisdom of returning more than men:

Women: 50 percent.

50 percent.

Men: 33 percent.

33 percent. Millennials are more likely to question the wisdom of returning than other generations:

Millennial: 55 percent.

55 percent.

Gen X: 45 percent.

45 percent.

Baby Boomer: 36 percent.

36 percent. While exposing family members to COVID-19 or contracting it personally were of greatest concern in September 2020 , those concerns dropped by nearly half in June, to 28 and 24 percent, respectively.

, those concerns dropped by nearly half in June, to 28 and 24 percent, respectively. One-quarter of respondents also noted concerns over the deterioration of mental health, up from 13 percent in September and January.

These mental health concerns were also greater among individual contributors, women, and millennials.

CEOs, men, and baby boomers were the largest cohorts to have no concerns about returning to the workplace.

Stress/burnout is the top well-being concern among workers, particularly among women, millennials, and individual contributors.

Worker level:

Individual contributors: 61 percent.

61 percent.

CEOs: 30 percent.

30 percent. Gender:

Women: 62 percent.

62 percent.

Men: 43 percent.

43 percent. Generation:

Millennials: 70 percent.

70 percent.

Gen X: 59 percent.

59 percent.

Baby Boomers: 42 percent.

"What's striking is that the same workers who question returning to the workplace given high productivity while working remotely have also expressed greater concerns about mental health, stress, and burnout," said Rebecca Ray, PhD, Executive Vice President, Human Capital at The Conference Board. "This reinforces the need for companies to pay close attention to the well-being of their people in remote and hybrid work arrangements."

On average, respondents believe that more than half of their organization's full-time workers will have a hybrid work arrangement.

Almost 40 percent will work 2 to 3 days remotely.

13 percent will be remote 1 day per week and on-site 4 days.

Another 30 percent will be in the office 5 days per week.

"While there are many difficulties surrounding a move to a hybrid work arrangement, most workers want the flexibility to choose what's right for them," said Amy Lui Abel, PhD, Vice President, Human Capital Research at The Conference Board. "For companies, the challenge in getting this right will entail policies that are inclusive, technologies that can support the movement of workers, and leaders that can guide and manage a different workforce model."

More than one-third of respondents report that their level of engagement has increased.

More than one in ten say it has increased significantly.

Around half report that their level of engagement stayed the same compared to pre-pandemic.

Respondents believe their employers have acted on their concerns throughout the last year.

87 percent agree to some degree, with 35 percent agreeing, and 52 percent agreeing strongly.

Comfort returning to the workplace has drastically increased in the last 6 months.

Nearly 40 percent of respondents are very comfortable or even want to return, compared to only 17 percent in September 2020 .

. This level of comfort increases based on seniority:

CEOs: 66 percent are very comfortable/want to return.

66 percent are very comfortable/want to return.

Individual contributors: 23 percent.

23 percent. Men are more comfortable returning than women:

Men: 49 percent are very comfortable/want to return.

49 percent are very comfortable/want to return.

Women: 31 percent.

31 percent. Older generations are also more comfortable returning than younger ones:

Baby Boomer: 43 percent.

43 percent.

Gen X: 38 percent.

38 percent.

Millennials: 24 percent.

Two-thirds of workers will be back in the office in the next 3 months.

Nearly half of workers surveyed (43 percent) expect to return to the office by the end of September.

Only 12 percent have already returned to the workplace as of June 2021 .

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

SOURCE The Conference Board

Related Links

http://www.conference-board.org


PHILADELPHIA, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Health Union survey reveals the distinct difference in experience that people with sickle cell disease often face when interacting with their primary healthcare professionals compared to emergency department staff, which can lead to serious delays in needed care and ultimately impact quality of life. The inaugural Sickle Cell Disease In America survey illuminates the perspectives and experiences of people living with sickle cell disease.

These findings also support and fuel content and engagement for the recent launch of Sickle-Cell.com, Health Union's 31st condition-specific online health community.

Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that are hard, sticky and C-shaped - as opposed to healthy, round red blood cells.

Sickle cell disease is predominately managed by hematologists. In fact, 92% of Sickle Cell Disease In America respondents said they see a hematologist for their sickle cell disease, while eight in 10 respondents said a hematologist is the primary HCP managing their condition.

Fortunately, respondents rate their relationships with the healthcare professionals who primarily treat and manage their condition overwhelmingly positively. This is the case across a number of interpersonal and condition management factors. Nearly eight in 10 respondents said their HCP is easy to talk to, listens to them and cares about them as a person. And about three-fourths said their HCP clearly explains treatment options and provides excellent overall care.

However, survey findings show that patients' experiences and relationships with emergency department staff can be less positive. Due to the abnormal shape of the blood cells of people with sickle cell disease, blood flow can get clogged, which can lead to infection or a pain crisis that often requires frequent visits to an emergency department. In fact, 87% of respondents said they had visited an emergency department or urgent care center during the previous year, with a quarter visiting one of these facilities at least five times in that span.

Unfortunately, 65% of respondents who have visited an emergency department said they feel judged or stigmatized by the staff. This is compared to only a third who say they feel judged or stigmatized by the HCPs they typically see for their sickle cell disease.

When asked about typical experiences with emergency department staff, various open-ended responses indicated staff often hadn't been well-versed in sickle cell disease, didn't take them seriously, gave them a hard time and treated them like drug seekers. One respondent recalled feeling judged during a hospitalization by a doctor who "stated I was drug seeking because a sickle cell crisis can be managed with [an over-the-counter medication]. His statement is not true!"

As a result of these experiences, people with sickle cell disease might end up avoiding going to the emergency department, making access to care increasingly difficult. In fact, 24% of respondents said they avoid or hesitate visiting the emergency department due to cost, but a larger percentage - 43% - reported avoiding or hesitating going to an emergency department for fear of people judging them.

"Navigating the healthcare system can already be complex, but undergoing such wildly different experiences can make access to reliable, timely, effective care even more difficult for people with sickle cell disease," said Olivier Chateau, Health Union's co-founder and CEO. "Online health communities, like Sickle-Cell.com, can go a long way toward providing people living with sickle cell disease the information, connection and support they need."

The Sickle Cell Disease In America survey, which fielded from Oct. 19, 2020 to Feb. 26, 2021, included responses from 111 people living with sickle cell disease. Additional survey results may be available upon request. More information about living with sickle cell disease can be found on Sickle-Cell.com.

About Health Union

Health Union , with the recent acquisition of WEGO Health, maintains the largest team of experts, patient advocates and healthcare leaders dedicated to social health. The company encourages social interactions that evolve into valuable online health conversations, helping people with chronic conditions find the information, connection, and validation they seek. Health Union creates condition-specific online communities  publishing original, daily content and continuously cultivating social conversation  to support, educate and connect millions of people with challenging, chronic health concerns. The Health Union family of brands includes 34 online health communities , including LungCancer.net, ParkinsonsDisease.net, MultipleSclerosis.net and Migraine.com.

SOURCE Health Union
CHENGDU, CHINA, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As a professional PDF solution provider, SwifDoo PDF developed and released two APIs to make sharing more convenient - Google Drive and Dropbox. Users then can directly share documents that have been well modified within SwifDoo PDF to these two cloud storage platforms.



New Updates:

In the latest, a new functional area has been added to simplify file transferring - the "Sharing" tab. This tab offers two new API integrations that lets our program SwifDoo PDF smoothly interface with Google Drive and Dropbox.



File sharing is of paramount importance to many cloud storage users, as it makes much easier and convenient to send large documents or folders to groups of people. Now once you finish editing document, click on "Save" icon and then select either Dropbox or Google Drive to store your file into the cloud.



Google Drive



Developed by Google in 2012, Drive is a file storage and synchronization service provider, allowing users to store files in the cloud, synchronize files across devices, and share files. Google Drive lets you share files and folders using the mobile application or in the web-browser interface via direct links, or the option to share access through email.



Dropbox



Dropbox appeared on the market in 2007 and enabled PC users to familiarize themselves with the concept of "cloud storage" for the first time. This cloud service provider offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.



Who Is SwifDoo PDF?



SwifDoo PDF has accumulated more than 1 million satisfied users across the globe. Our goal is to offer a helpful and simple-to-use PDF software to a wider audience with the ultimate purpose of improving productivity and work efficiency. To meet your demands, we release this update to help facilitate file transfer and provide yet another user-friendly feature on our software.



SwifDoo PDF puts user demands at the forefront of our software development, and values the importance of innovation. Only with core competency and creativity can we go further to push the boundaries of PDF software.



Offical Website: https://www.swifdoo.com



This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.



SOURCE SwifDoo PDF
Marxist philosophy holds that the future is bright while the road ahead is tortuous. This also applies to the Communist Party of China (CPC) which believes in Marxism.

In 1933, Chiang Kai-shek, the then rival of the CPC, mobilized 1 million troops, acted as the commander-in-chief himself, and hired a large number of German military experts as consultants to draw up war plans. He also purchased large quantities of arms with huge loans from the United States and Britain, greatly improving the equipment performance of his troops.

All this was supposed to fight against the then only 12-year-old CPC.

At that time, Mao Zedong lost his leadership and command of the army. The actual leader Bogu, also known as Qin Bangxian, relied heavily on Li De (Otto Braun), the military adviser from the Communist International. However, Li was a foreign revolutionary. He did not know the actual conditions in China at all, but only borrowed the regular warfare experience from the Soviet Red Army, which led to the defeat of the war.

The army led by the CPC was finally forced to carry out a strategic transfer, known as the "Long March."

It was later proved that the arduous Long March revived the army.During the Long March, the CPC's army fought all the way, and finally broke through encirclement by Chiang's troops.

The ragged and hard-hit Red Army fought bitterly at the Xiangjiang River, made four crossings of the Chishui River, fought their way across the Dadu River, and seized the Luding Bridge. The army climbed over snow-capped mountains, trekked across vast grasslands, and finally joined forces to defeat the enemy and establish new China.

In the early 1960s, American journalist Edgar Snow asked Mao Zedong, "What's the darkest moment in your life?"

Mao replied that it was the conflict between him and Zhang Guotao in 1935 during the Long March.

At that time, after the First and Fourth Front Armies joined forces, Zhang refused to implement the Central Committee's policy of marching north, insisted on going south, and tried to split the Party and the Red Army.

To see a big picture and to resolve the adversity of the Red Army as soon as possible, Mao Zedong had to lead the central authority and the Third Front Army up the north overnight.

When Li Te,the deputy chief of the Fourth Front Army who was worked up, came together with a team of fully armed cavalry, Mao Zedong showed a very calm expression and said that they could go south and that he believed they would meet again in the future. "We are all from the Red Army, and from the Communist Party of China. We're a big family, and will never fight against each other!

Now anyone who'd like to go north could follow the CPC Central Committee, and the rest could go back with Zhang Guotao. We'll meet again in the future."

Mao Zedong said,"With no precedent in recorded history, the Long March issued a manifesto, spread a message, and planted a seed."

As the opposing forces of good and evil clashed, and a choice had to be made between light and dark, the CPC rooted itself deep among the people, uniting them and relying on them. With its own exemplary actions, the CPC won the genuine support of the people, who became an endless fountain of strength for the victory of the Long March.

During the Long March, the CPC also promoted the formation of the anti-Japanese national united front. The Chinese people deeply realized that the CPC worked for the people's benefits and the Red Army was the people's army.

The victory of the Long March justified what the CPC stands for, sowed the seeds of revolution, expanded the influence of the Party and brought the CPC more closely connected with its people.

The "Long March" has become a spiritual symbol of the CPC.Hence comes the "Long March spirit." What is the "Long March spirit" then?

In October 2016, at a gathering to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, interpreted the "Long March spirit" as"regarding the fundamental interests of the people and nation above anything else,upholding revolutionary ideals and beliefs, and firmly believing that the cause of justice is bound to succeed; being willing to sacrifice everything for our nation and people when facing difficulties and obstacles;pursuing independence, seeking truth from facts and proceeding from reality; taking the overall situation into consideration, strictly observing discipline and uniting closely; relying firmly on the people, sharing weal and woe with the people, and struggling hard alongside the people."

Looking back on the Long March, we can clearly see that it is not only a great expedition of human spirit and willpower, but also a great journey for the Chinese people to seek the rejuvenation of their nation under the leadership of the CPC.

Following the past footprints, each Chinese generation has its own long march, and each generation should proceed with its own long march.

SOURCE China.org.cn
SEATTLE, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) announced the appointment of the MRC Asia-Pacific (APAC) Advisory Board. The organization has been growing apace in recent years and this new Advisory Board is key to its further growth as part of the strategic plan for global expansion.

In its latest development plans, the MRC has appointed 16 Advisors to the APAC Advisory Board, who will work closely with MRC VP of Global Expansion and Member Advocacy Una Dillon and with support from MRC Regional Co-Leaders Tom Donlea and Vishal Singhvi, based in Singapore. The appointments were made following an open call that invited applications from individuals with professional payments industry experience.

The Advisors take up their role at an exciting time for the MRC as the organization's membership numbers continue to grow during this turbulent COVID era.

Sustained focus on the region in recent months has laid the foundations for positive growth, and despite the challenges of operating in a pandemic landscape, the MRC has demonstrated its resilience. There is substantial demand for the MRC and its activities in the APAC region. The strong brands that have joined the Board and the willingness of the appointees to invest their time and support the MRC's work in APAC are testament to the need for the MRC Community which fosters a collaborative environment for retailers and payment solution providers in the area.

Speaking about today's announcement, MRC CEO Julie Fergerson stated: "We are enormously excited to launch our APAC Advisory Board and welcome all our new board members. Each Advisor brings to the Board, a wealth of knowledge in the payments industry and provides a unique perspective and acumen. We very much look forward to their expertise and support as we drive the MRC Community in the region."

MRC APAC Advisors include:

Razer: Li Meng Lee , Chief Strategy Officer ( Singapore )

Microsoft: Aurelie Saada , APAC Risk Lead ( Singapore )

Google: Bin Yao, Head of APAC Payments Platform Partnerships ( Singapore )

Facebook: Jeannie Lim , Strategic Payments Partnerships ( Singapore )

Netflix: Shalini Khatwani , Director of Payments, Asia Pacific ( Singapore )

Air Asia : Steve Harbick , Group Head of Business Security ( Singapore )

: Lazada, Alibaba: Alan Chan , Chief Risk Officer Alibaba Group ( China )

Gojek: Pohhuat Lee, VP Risk Management ( Singapore )

Accertify: Luke Dynan, General Manager APAC ( Sydney )

Payoneer: Nagesh Devata, Regional VP of Enterprise ( Singapore )

Adyen: Martyna Lazar , Head of Risk and Compliance, APAC ( Singapore )

2C2P: Aung Kyaw Moe, Founder and Group CEO ( Bangkok )

Callsign: Namrata Jolly , General Manager, Head of Asia Pacific ( Singapore )

Visa: Martin Lee , Head of Managed Risk Services, Cybersource APAC ( Singapore )

Riskified: Julian Sarkadi , Director of Strategic Growth ( China )

Ethoca (Mastercard): Brett Small , General Manager APAC ( Melbourne )

The APAC Advisory Board launches on July 1, 2021.

About the MRC:

The MRC is an unbiased global community providing a platform for eCommerce fraud and payments professionals to come together and share information. As a non-profit 501(c)6 organization, the MRC's vision is to make commerce safe and profitable everywhere by offering proprietary education, training, and networking opportunities, as well as a welcoming forum for timely and relevant discussions. The MRC was launched in 2000, at the start of the eCommerce boom, by a small group of industry professionals from leading consumer brands, united by the goal of fighting against online fraud. Since its inception, the MRC has also added online payments to its portfolio, expanding its presence further into eCommerce, and continues to be at the forefront of industry evolution and the continued fight against fraud. The MRC is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, but embraces membership from across the globe.

Media Contact: Lea Prosenica

Telephone: +1 678-593-0391

Email: [email protected]

MRC Logo Link: download image

SOURCE Merchant Risk Council
LOS ANGELES, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's month-long Food From The Bar Campaign raised nearly $625,000 for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, thanks to the Los Angeles legal community. This generous donation will help the Food Bank and our Partner Agency Network of 700 nonprofits provide sustenance to the food-insecure population in our County. This gift will help provide more than 2.5 million healthy meals.

Food From The Bar began in 2009 and is a collaborative effort between legal firms, law schools and legal services organizations to raise the most funds, acquire the most food resources and contribute the most volunteer hours for the Food Bank to help the children who rely on school lunches during the summer months when classes are not in session. This year's campaign had 50 legal organizations participate. Since its inception, Food From The Bar has raised more than $5.5 million for the Food Bank. Due to the devastating impact of the Coronavirus, the campaign efforts will support the Food Bank to meet the increased demand for food assistance.

"The pandemic's long-lasting economic impact continues to affect residents in LA County, including children and families," said Los Angeles Regional Food Bank President and CEO Michael Flood. "We are extremely thankful for the Los Angeles legal community in its dedication to helping raise funds and awareness around this issue."

This year's Overall Winner was Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.

"It is an honor to be able to carry out the Food From The Bar tradition and support the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank," said Kathleen McDowell, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. I am inspired by the generosity of our community that raised more than half a million dollars to help food-insecure families and children when they need our help the most."

Food insecurity is an enduring critical issue in our community and one in five people in Los Angeles County lived with food insecurity before the pandemic. That number of people and the level of need has only increased due to COVID-19 and its related economic downturn. With generous gifts from the community such as Food From The Bar, the Food Bank and our Partner Agency are able to provide unbroken support to 900,000 children, seniors, families and individuals each month. Together, #WeFeedLA.

For a full list of firms and recognition levels, as well as a list of special awards, please visit the Food From The Bar webpage .

About the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has been mobilizing resources to fight hunger in Los Angeles County since 1973. To support the Food Bank's vision that no one goes hungry in Los Angeles County, food and grocery products are distributed through a network of 700 partner agencies and directly to those in need through Food Bank programs. The Food Bank has distributed more than 1.7 billion pounds of food, the equivalent of 1.4 billion meals, since 1973. The total value of food and grocery product distributed since the Food Bank's inception is $2.3 billion. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Food Bank tripled the number of people helped, and now reaches 900,000 people every month. The Food Bank is a 4-star rated charity by Charity Navigator. For more information, visit LAFoodBank.org.

Media Contact: David May

Director of Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

323 234 3030 ext. 134

SOURCE Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
This short documentary was produced by Tianjin Haihe Media Group, which told Dr. Zhang's story of his battle against COVID-19 during the pandemic. In 2020, Zhang Boli, 72, helped the medical community recognize the value of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by leading an expert team to treat COVID-19 infections in Wuhan, China's frontline in the battle against the novel coronavirus disease.

As head of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhang arrived in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on January 27, the third day of China's Lunar New Year and the fifth day into the megacity's lockdown for pandemic control.

Zhang Boli and over 300 other doctors formed a TCM medical team. They were stationed at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan's Jiangxia district using TCM decoctions with other treatments such as massage, acupuncture, and physical exercises from Tai Chi and Baduanjin, a traditional aerobics form, to treat COVID-19 patients.

With Zhang's pioneering practices, TCM treatment has been given to 90 percent of COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, helping to relieve symptoms, slowing disease progression, and boosting recovery.

Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556230/Tianjin_Haihe_Media_Group.mp4

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1556228/Tianjin_Haihe_Media_Group_Logo.jpg

Contact:

Jane Cheng

Tel.: +8610-68996566

E-mail: [email protected]

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-ODsnxuR-VQ

SOURCE Tianjin Haihe Media Group
The maritime sector, which has had the biggest role in international transportation since antiquity, is increasing its share in parallel with the increasing trade volume, especially with its environmentalist approach. Surrounded by seas on three sides due to its geographical location, with a total of 78 shipyards and 119 thousand actual ship personnel trained in 88 institutions, Turkey is focusing on strengthening its "Maritime Country" identity every year.

Stating the construction of three big ports on the three seas of Turkey, which is surrounded by seas on three sides, to emphasize the identity of the "Maritime Country", Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu:

"As the Ministry, we act in line with the interests of our country in every investment we make in the sector in order to develop and move the maritime industry to a much higher level. Istanbul Canal is one of the freshest and biggest examples of the importance we give to our seas and the maritime sector. We will be the playmaker country in world maritime trade with Istanbul Canal, which is Turkey's strategic move with its location, function and areas of influence. Domination of the seas is about being a logistical power. Istanbul Canal will make Turkey the logistics base of its region; and it will make Marmara Sea the center of Eurasia. In order to develop our maritime sector, which has reached a significant level with the investments, supports and projects made in the last 19 years, and to move it to a much higher level, we use a common mind with the sector representatives and see the problems of the sector as our own. We will continue to work to raise our Blue Motherland to the place it deserves, to increase the contribution of our seas to the country's economy and to develop the sector."

Main Theme: Blue Motherland

The current strength and potential of our Blue Motherland, the areas that promise the highest potential for future growth in the maritime and logistics industries, the advantages that the industry will gain from this growth; will be the main theme of the summit, which will start with the Maritime and Cabotage Day celebrations.

In the summit, which will be organized to contribute to the development of mutual information exchange and relationship networks of the sector stakeholders, in line with the vision of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure; it is aimed to bring together thousands of local and foreign participants under one roof with sessions, roundtables, workshops, ideathons, experiential practices, enriched content and methodologies.

Turkey's Strategic Move "Canal Istanbul" Will Be Evaluated

At the Turkey Maritime Summit, Turkey's strategic move, Istanbul Canal's importance in terms of world logistics and the maritime sector, the new balances it will create, its location, function and areas of influence will be evaluated in the light of the vast knowledge of experts in the field.

At the opening session of the event, which will start with Cabotage Day celebration activities, Secretary General of International Maritime Organization Kitack Lim and T.R. Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu will give a speech.

Program Flow

Turkey Maritime Summit, where Istanbul Canal, Blue Motherland and our maritime vision will be discussed, will be held in Tersane Istanbul between 1st-3rd of July; within the scope of the event, in addition to two sessions titled "Trade in Maritime" and "Global Maritime Technology, Trends, Driving Forces and Challenges"; two other talks, "History of Turkish Straits" with Prof. Dr. Ilber Ortayl and "A 'Barbaros' Conversation" with Iskender Pala, will take place.

"A sacred duty"

Emphasizing that public and private sector cooperation opportunities are being mobilized to the fullest in order to have a voice in every inch of Blue Motherland, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu: "We are passing through a historical turning point of where we understand the value our Blue Motherland much better. As a maritime nation, it has become an extremely sacred duty for us to show the world our dominance in the seas surrounding our three sides."

[email protected] +905386200591

SOURCE Turkish Maritime Summit
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. and PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vibra Healthcare ("Vibra"), a national specialty healthcare provider, plans to construct a freestanding specialty hospital in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Vibra has selected a site in Bethesda Health City, Boynton Beach, for the development of the new hospital. Vibra anticipates that the hospital will bring over 160 jobs to the area, about two-thirds being medical staff.

Vibra and its affiliates currently own, operate, and manage over 90 specialty hospitals, transitional care facilities, and hospital-based outpatient physical therapy locations in 19 states. The future hospital in Palm Beach County will be Vibra's first hospital in the state of Florida.

"We are eager to expand into Florida and look forward to the opportunity to serve the Palm Beach County medical community and their patients," said Brad Hollinger, CEO of Vibra Healthcare. "This great community is fortunate to have many outstanding healthcare providers. Like them, we understand the importance of both patient experience and exceptional clinical outcomes. We are confident that Vibra will complement the area's existing care options, serve as a reliable post-acute partner for local providers, and offer those in need of our services a high-quality choice for their care."

"We're pleased to welcome Vibra Healthcare to Boynton Beach, bringing 160 new jobs and a capital investment of $32 million to Palm Beach County," said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.

Vibra plans for the Palm Beach County location to house a combination of acute medical rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospital beds. The multispecialty hospital will treat individuals who suffer from a wide range of serious injuries, illnesses, and other debilitating medical conditions.

About Vibra Healthcare

Vibra Healthcare, LLC is a post-acute care provider based in Mechanicsburg, PA that is focused on the development, acquisition, and operation of freestanding specialty care hospitals, medical rehabilitation hospitals, and outpatient physical rehabilitation centers. Teams of highly trained specialists lead clinical programs at Vibra's specialty hospitals for rehabilitating patients who suffer from strokes, multiple traumas, major orthopedic, neurologic, cardiac, and respiratory conditions. Vibra and its affiliates currently employ over 10,000 employees and own, operate, and manage over 90 specialty hospitals, transitional care units/facilities, and hospital-based outpatient physical therapy locations in 19 states. For additional information about Vibra Healthcare's network of specialty hospitals and post-acute care continuum, please visit its website at www.vibrahealthcare.com.

About Business Development Board of Palm Beach County

The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County is the official public/private economic development organization for Palm Beach County and Enterprise Florida. Founded in 1982 as a not-for-profit corporation, our primary purpose is to attract and retain new industry, business investment, high quality jobs and workforce development through corporate relocations, expansions and international trade. During the past five years, the BDB has assisted companies that have created more than 12,822 direct jobs with average salaries greater than $69,062, resulting in more than $777 million in capital investment to Palm Beach County and an economic impact that exceeds $6.87 billion. The BDB's highest level investor partners include Carrier, Florida Power & Light, LRP Media Group, Stiles Nicholson Foundation, Suffolk, Tortoise Properties, and Wexford Capital. Additional information can be found at the BDB's website, BDB.org.

SOURCE Vibra Healthcare, LLC

Related Links

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DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Postal Automation Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The postal automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.10% over the forecast period to reach a market size of US$4.900 billion in 2026.

Automation is growing in several industries as it improves organizational efficiency while reducing the total operational cost. The postal automation system is an intelligent system, which provides a solution for effective parcel sorting and brings mails from the sender to the recipient in a reliable and fast manner. The postal automation systems consist of mail sorting systems, parcel sorting systems, postal software, and automatic reading and coding systems. The primary reason behind the need for automation in the postal system is to eradicate the shortcomings of the traditional postal systems such as human errors, higher processing time, and high labor requirement. Automation of the Postal industry provides a faster and better categorization of letters and parcels, it further assists in the digitalization of this procedure.

The key drivers of the postal automation market are the rising labor costs, the need for proper checking and accountability, and the growing e-commerce industry. The total number of parcels and packages is on an increase owing to the rise in online shopping by end-users, this, in turn, increases the demand for efficient and reliable solutions for sorting parcels and delivering them to the recipient on time, which further creates a need for the automation of the postal system. Automation in the postal system simplifies the complete mail processing chain from pre-sorting to sequencing, this reduces the fixed costs and helps in improving the quality of service provided. In addition, it helps in increasing the profitability, quality, competitiveness of the system, and reducing the labor costs as the process requires less labor. In addition, the growing demand for industrial automation is further projected to fuel the market growth for postal automation systems during the forecast period.



By component, the postal automation services will grow on account of the regular repairs and updates required for the proper functioning of machines. In addition, the increasing training and supervision required for operating the machines will further drive the growth of postal automation services. The hardware component owns a substantial share to improve organizational efficiency and boost the company's profitability throughout the forecast period. By product type, the parcel sorter segment is expected to hold a significant market share owing to the growing need to cut down on intensive manual labor requirements. The increasing demand in the online shopping industry is also predicted to drive the market growth for this segment. By end-user, the Government postal applications are projected to hold a notable market share due to the shift from conventional postal systems to automated ones during the forecast period.

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region holds lucrative opportunities that can result in substantial growth during the forecasted period. The rising trend of e-commerce in developing countries like China, India, and South Korea among others will result in increased demand for a more automated and streamlined procedure. The presence of some of the major market players results in the easier availability of products and services in the emerging markets, thus augmenting the demand for these machines. The North American and European regions were the early adopters of postal automation equipment and are now moving towards upgrading their systems to provide better connectivity and meet the increasing needs, thereby boosting the demand for postal automation solutions in the region.



Growth Factors

Increasing transactions in the E-commerce industry

The growing popularity of the e-commerce industry is expected to propel the market growth for the postal automation market during the forecast period. According to the United States Department of Commerce, the e-commerce industry has grown by 15% to reach USD 395 billion in total sales in 2016. The increasing popularity of the e-commerce industry is becoming a challenge for the logistics industry as the manual procedures may be erroneous and involve a lot of time and money. According to the Wall Street Journal, online sales generate the need for reverse logistics as approximately one-third of all the products are ultimately returned by consumers. The voluminous amount of package transfers are expected to fuel the market growth for the postal automation market as a large number of packages will require an efficient parcel automation system.

Reduction in labor cost

The primary advantage of an automated postal system will be the reduction in labor costs and labor dependence. Many factors such as high attrition rates, decreasing productivity, government regulations, and a shortage of employable skills are some of the reasons for the increase in labor costs, which the conventional postal market has to bear. According to Eurostat, in the first quarter of 2018, the annual growth in labor costs was 2% in the Euro area and 2.7% in the European Union. Many industries such as logistics, manufacturing, automotive, energy, and power, etc. have to bear the increasing labor costs. The automated postal system helps the companies to save on labor costs and make the complete process economical, accurate, and highly productive. Thus, the market for postal automation systems is expected to expand during the forecast period.



Restraints

High costs

The initial investment associated with automating the postal system is huge. To automate the entire postal system large amount of funds will be required as the entire process will be digitalized along with the installation of various hardware and software. Furthermore, once the automated system is installed, it will require regular maintenance, servicing, and renewal, which will further increase the variable cost. Thus, the high costs associated with the installation and maintenance of the postal automation system may hinder the market growth during the forecast period as company companies would want to minimize or avoid this additional expenditure.



Impact of COVID-19



The covid-19 pandemic moderately influenced the postal automation market as the E-commerce and logistics industry were on a rise despite the virus outbreak. Furthermore, many companies shifted towards automation of their postal systems as restrictions were imposed on travel due to which all manual labor-related work was put to a halt. This encouraged companies to shift towards postal automated systems as they wanted to reduce their dependency on labor. Also, owing to the pandemic many companies adopted postal automation to reduce labor costs as the business operations were hampered due to the lockdown restrictions imposed by the governments.



Competitive Insights



Prominent/major key market players in the Postal Automation Market include Siemens AG, Toshiba Corporation, NEC Corporation, Pitney Bowes, Solystic SAS, Vanderlande N.V, Fives Group, Leonardo S.P.A, Beumer Group GmbH & Co. KG, and National Presort (NPI) LP. The players in the Postal Automation Market are implementing various growth strategies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in this market. For Instance, in September 2019, Vanderlande N.V has launched the next installment of its scalable solutions (evolutions) - DIRECTSORT in the Parcel and Post Expo 2019 in the Netherlands. DIRECTSORT is a modular, future-proof solution that sorts parcels from the moment they are unloaded from trailers, vans, or load carriers to optimize the total cost of ownership. Major market players in the market have been covered along with their relative competitive strategies in this report and the report mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last few years. The company profiles section details the business overview, financial performance (public companies) for the past few years, key products and services being offered along with the recent deals and investments of these important players in the Postal Automation Market.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction



2. Research Methodology



3. Executive Summary



4. Market Dynamics

4.1. Market Drivers

4.2. Market Restraints

4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis

4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis



5. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Component

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Hardware

5.3. Software

5.4. Services



6. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Product Type

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Culling and Cancelling

6.3. Sorting Machines

6.4. Parcel Sorter

6.5. Mail Sorter

6.6. Flat Sorter

6.7. Mixed Mail Sorter

6.8. Services

6.9. Others



7. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By End-User

7.1. Introduction

7.2. Government Postal

7.3. Private Postal



8. Postal Automation Market Analysis, By Geography

8.1. Introduction

8.2. North America

8.2.1. United States

8.2.2. Canada

8.2.3. Mexico

8.3. South America

8.3.1. Brazil

8.3.2. Argentina

8.3.3. Others

8.4. Europe

8.4.1. United Kingdom

8.4.2. Germany

8.4.3. France

8.4.4. Spain

8.4.5. Others

8.5. The Middle East and Africa

8.5.1. Saudi Arabia

8.5.2. Israel

8.5.3. Others

8.6. Asia Pacific

8.6.1. Japan

8.6.2. China

8.6.3. India

8.6.4. Indonesia

8.6.5. Taiwan

8.6.6. Thailand

8.6.7. Others



9. Competitive Intelligence

9.1. Competitive Benchmarking and Analysis

9.2. Recent Investment and Deals

9.3. Strategies of Key Players



10. Company Profiles

10.1. Siemens AG

10.2. Toshiba Corporation

10.3. NEC Corporation

10.4. Pitney Bowes

10.5. Solystic SAS

10.6. Vanderlande N.V

10.7. Fives Group

10.8. Leonardo S.P.A

10.9. Beumer Group GmbH & Co. KG

10.10. National Presort (NPI) LP



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/58icl5

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

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A look at the major movers on the London stock market on Thursday

PLC (LON:GFTU) has built up a good rise after disposing of its traditional merchanting business in Great Britain.

The building materials distributor and DIY retailer behind Selco has sold the business for an enterprise value of 520mln to Huws Gray, one of the UK's largest independent builders' merchants which is controlled by equity funds managed by Blackstone.

Assets of the business - which comprises a range of brands including Buildbase, The Timber Group and Bathroom Distribution Group - were 497.2mln as of last December.

Grafton is retaining freehold properties with development potential that have a market value of around 25mln.

After a strategic review Grafton decided that exiting this segment of the building materials distribution market in Great Britain would enable it to optimise shareholder value.

The move will allow it to focus on Selco and its other specialist distribution and manufacturing businesses, as well as on its international development strategy which it said would be a key priority over the coming years.

Chief executive Gavin Slark said: "This is an attractive outcome for Grafton and is in line with our strategy of deploying our capital resources towards higher growth potential businesses offering superior returns."

Its shares have added 54p or 4.71% to 1201p.

3.16pm: Ormonde Mining climbs after it postpones annual meeting to discuss investor request

( ), which dissolved its last annual meeting after failing to get enough votes to issue new shares, has now delayed its next get-together.

The last meeting failed to get the support of a key shareholder for the move, and ultimately a deal to buy two licences in the Republic of Congo - what it called a transformational deal - fell through.

It did not name the shareholder but veteran investor Thomas Anderson has 22.3% of the business.

Now Anderson has put forward two resolutions for the latest annual meeting to nominate two people to the board as directors, Brendan McMorrow and Tom Barry.

The company says it is reviewing the request with its advisors, but meanwhile it has postponed the AGM due to take place on 16 July.

Ormonde's shares, which fell sharply after the last annual meeting upheaval, have jumped 23.53% or 0.2p to 1.05p.

2.19pm: Rank rises as business improves and an 80mln VAT refund is in sight

PLC ( ), the company behind Grosvenor casinos and Mecca bingo halls, has seen its number come up after a positive update.

The gaming group said trading in the first six weeks after the re-opening of its venues had been in line with expectations, albeit with total revenues down 19% compared to 2019 levels.

Its venues were trading above cash breakeven and it expected the performance to continue improving as social distancing and international travel restrictions were eased, and when the current 10.30pm curfew was removed in Scotland.

In Grosvenor, like for like net gaming revenues in venues outside of London were close to 2019 levels.

But in the capital revenues were down 38% on 2019 levels due to the lack of international tourists and a significantly reduced number of office workers in the city.

It said Mecca was performing best where it was trialling improvements to its offering, including enhancements to the mainstage bingo game. In Spain, trading improved as regional restrictions on capacity limits and opening hours have gradually been relaxed.

It is also optimistic on its claim for a refund for VAT paid on slot machine income between April 2006 and January 2013 after a tribunal yesterday ruled in its favour. HMRC has 56 days to lodge an appeal.

Rank expects to receive around 80mln if it all goes ahead.

The company's shares are up 4.05% or 6.8p at 174.6p.

11.51am: Cambridge Cognition climbs after spinning off drug development business

( ) has seen its shares climb after it completed the spin off a business it has been developing.

Cambridge Cognition, which specialises in digital solutions to assess brain health, has been incubating Monument Therapeutics Ltd since 2018, supported by two Innovate UK grants.

Monument is a drug development company with a pipeline including treatments for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for post-operative cognitive dysfunction.

Now it has received 2.6mln of funding from a consortium of investors led by Catapult Ventures and . After the spin-off, Cambridge Cognition will keep a 36.9% shareholding in Monument and has agreed a licence for the use of a number of its cognitive assessments. When Monument successfully commercialises its drug development programmes, it will pay royalties to Cambridge Cognition.

Cambridge Cognition chief executive officer Matthew Stork said: "[The Monument move] leverages Cambridge Cognition's intellectual property and provides the potential for considerable royalty payments in the future. In addition, it gives the company greater focus on the development and commercialisation of its cutting-edge digital health technologies."

Cambridge Cognition shares are 7.4% or 12.4p higher at 179.9p.

10.59am: Broker boosted by equity market recovery and corporate deals

Stockbroker PLC (LON: ARDN) is seeing its own shares snapped up by investors.

The business has reported a 118% jump in half year revenues to 5mln and a 0.9mln profit compared to a 1.5mln loss in the same period last year.

It said the recovery in UK equity markets, the dramatic increase in demand for capital triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and improved investor appetite made for favourable trading conditions in the half year.

And since then, it has continued to trade profitably, with several corporate transactions completed and an encouraging pipeline.

Chief executive officer Donald Brown said: "The second half has started well with a number of transactions having already been completed, including an IPO.

"Market sentiment has remained positive, continuing the favourable trading environment.

"We have a very encouraging pipeline of transactions and remain confident of delivering a profitable result for the year as a whole, the scale of which will be determined by the delivery of these pipeline deals."

The company has climbed 13.79% or 2p to 16.5p.

9.25am: Bars group cheered by demand after indoor trading restarted

( ) is raising a glass to a successful reopening.

The company, which runs 66 bars under the Revolution and Revolucion de Cuba brands, said it now expected its full year performance to be better than forecast after strong trading in recent weeks despite continuing restrictions.

Since 17 May when it was allowed to open indoors again, it said trading was at 86% of the levels seen in 2019 before the pandemic hit. This was despite the fact that seating represented only 28% of total capacity, given the social distancing rules.

Given the pent up demand it has seen for drinking vodka with friends, it expects the strong performance to continue, especially when lockdown measures are completely lifted.

So it expects a better than anticipated full year loss of around 12.5mln and an improvement in net debt to 5mln, helped by the recent equity raising.

But it remains cautious about the coming financial year, with the continuing impact of COVID-19 remaining unclear, and it called on the government to stick to its roadmap to give businesses clarity.

Chief executive Rob Pitcher said: "As predicted we have continued to see huge pent up demand and a rapid recovery across the nation in our bars following indoors reopening.

"We were disappointed to see that the much anticipated 'Freedom Day' of 21 June was delayed but the new date of 19 July, when our bars will be able to trade without restrictions, looks more certain than ever.

"Following sixteen months of government-imposed restrictions on our business our customers are very keen to take advantage of our full guest experience. Whilst we anticipate strong demand for our late night offering, we continue to be cautious about possible restrictions on our business during the winter period."

But the generally upbeat tone has pushed its shares up 10.19% or 2.15p to 23.25p.

8.26am: Drug development company in demand

( ) is soaring after encouraging results from its COVID-19 research project.

The drug development company said the research - funded by the UK Sustainable Innovation Fund for pandemic projects - was designed to investigate the effects of its SDC-1801 inhibitor on inflammation triggered by an overreaction of the body's immune system.

It said project was completed on schedule and the final results confirmed the initial encouraging reports.

It said: "The results of the project found that SDC-1801 reduced the levels of cytokines associated with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in human lung cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrated a profile that was superior to the anti-inflammatory steroid dexamethasone and similar to baricitinib, a JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor."

Subject to further studies, approvals and financing, the company plans to start phase 1 clinical trials in early 2022.

Sareum chief scientific officer Dr John Reader said: "The results from our COVID-19 research project are very encouraging and provide clear evidence of the potential of SDC-1801 to reduce the excessive inflammatory response seen in severe COVID-19.

"We are keen to progress this project to the next stage and will now explore our options to find the best way to fund these next steps. This could include the UK government's AGILE clinical development platform, which was established to fund Phase 1 trials and fast-track the development of potentially ground-breaking COVID-19 treatments. These activities are expected to run in parallel with the broader SDC-1801 development plan targeting autoimmune diseases."

Sareum's shares have jumped 20% or 1.16p to 6.91p.

Elsewhere ( ) has accelerated 23.83% or 2.8p to 14.55p.

The AIM investing company has sold its stake Greenwhitestar Acquisitions, the holding company for the Eddie Stobart, The Pallet Network, IForce, Eddie Stobart Europe and The Logistics People businesses.

It expects to receive a net cash inflow of not less than 120mln, compared to a fair value of 35.8mln in the books for its stake. This will give it available cash of not less than 127mln for new investments.

Logistics chairman Adrian Collin said: "We now have substantial resources to invest in new opportunities and we look forward to working with our investment manager DBAY Advisors Limited to identify investments that will create further value to shareholders."
Final gold assay results are anticipated in the second half of 2021

( ) reported initial results from the Phase 2 exploration programme at the Assaleyta project in Djibouti.

Best results from reverse circulation drilling include 16-metre grading 1.08 grammes per tonne of gold from 12 metres and 5 metres grading 8.97 grammes per tonne of gold from 110 metres including 1 metre grading 43 grammes per tonne of gold.

A total of 1,106 diamond core and reverse circulation samples for Assaleyta and 2,159 rock, diamond core and reverse circulation samples from Hesdaba are currently pending ministerial clearance in Djibouti, with final gold assay results for the programmes anticipated in the second half of 2021.

Oriole has a 10.61% interest in Thani Stratex Djibouti Limited, where African Minerals Exploration & Development Fund III is managing and funding a multi-million dollar exploration programme across a portfolio of low-sulphidation epithermal gold projects in the East African Rift Valley.

"It's great to see yet more encouraging results from this project, with targeted second phase drilling building on the results of the earlier exploration phases, Tim Livesey, chief executive of the AIM-listed group, said in a release.

As work progresses in Djibouti, we are happy to see this continued success as we expect this will ultimately be reflected in an increased value in our equity position in the projects.
While Gap will operate in the UK and Ireland as an online-only business, Primark is unlikely to establish an e-commerce platform given its success in stores

s ( ) Primark is a tough competitor for high street retailers, as shown by the closures of competitor Gap.

The US fashion giant has announced plans to permanently shutter all stores in the UK and Ireland, where it will keep operating from its e-commerce platform.

The same will happen in France and Italy after a strategic review of the European business.

Meanwhile, Primark has been back with a bang after third-quarter sales topped expectations.

Gap to close all UK stores...20 years ago it had the same market share as Primark pic.twitter.com/7hPIh4kJAx  Patrick O'Brien (@pat_gdretail) June 30, 2021

The fast-fashion designer said it even captured more market share, despite its stores have been closed for months on end and it couldnt operate online as it doesnt have e-commerce capabilities.

The departure of Gap from the high street is likely to help it attract more customers when they are out shopping.

With these impressive numbers, Primark seems even more unlikely to reverse its decision not to launch a digital sales platform. Primark may look increasing like an anachronism, a bricks and mortar island fighting off an encroaching online tide, but it has shown that with a strong social media presence it can still entice queues of shoppers through its doors, said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

When GAP burst onto the British retail scene in 1987 with its brand of American style casual clothing, it was a breath of fresh air for the high street GAPs own brand apparel clearly needs revitalising and a fresh sense of direction, with so many other brands now competing in the casual space.

With UK retail footfall languishing at 75% in high streets and 73% in shopping centres, analysts expect that more brands will close shop to focus on their online presence.

In turn, this is piling pressure on councils to review town and city centres spaces, perhaps turning former stores into hospitality venues, office centres or even housing.

This is going to need significant investment from the public sector with costs likely to be too high for commercial property landlords to go it alone, Streeter continued.

As campus style developments, our distressed city centres may once again find a new lease of life and bring fresh energy back into the retail ecosystem.

Shares in AB Foods surged 5% to 2,326.19p on Thursday morning.
He has worked with the company before, leading its drilling in Namibia in 2018, which was operated safely, on time and under budget

( ) announced the appointment of David Brecknock as drilling manager, with responsibility for the company's planned Anchois gas appraisal well within the Lixus licence, offshore Morocco.

He has worked with the company before, leading its drilling in Namibia in 2018.

The AIM-listed outfit said the objectives of the drilling campaign are to further evaluate the resource volumes of the Anchois gas field to unlock the initial development, to provide a future producer well location and potentially drill the additional prospective sands with the aim of establishing a larger resource base for longer term growth.

Brecknock has two decades of experience with high profile deepwater offshore drilling with international experience gained with Enterprise, , BG, Devon, Perenco, Ophir.

Adonis Pouroulis, acting chief executive of Chariot, said: "I am delighted to welcome David back to the company. He played a pivotal role in Chariot's previous drilling campaign in Namibia which was operated safely, on time and under budget, and we expect him to play a similarly important part in our exciting Anchois gas appraisal well.

"We look forward to keeping the market up to speed over the coming months as we get closer to drilling."
's ( ) David Minchin joins Proactive London from his drill programme in Tanzania.

Minchin explains to viewers their globally unique, large-scale, high-grade, primary helium project which has the potential to become a strategic asset in resolving a supply-constrained market.

Helium One's assets are located within the rift basins on the margin of the Tanzanian Craton.
According to the company, the mineral resource upgrade will help increase the technical and commercial re-evaluation of the project in Namibia.

There is total contained cobalt of 259,000 tonnes and contained copper of 970,000 tonnes.

Resources Ltd ( ) has more than doubled the mineral resource estimate at its Opuwo Cobalt-Copper Project in Namibia.

The updated mineral resource estimate is based on drilling completed at the project and comprises 225.5 million tonnes at a grade of 0.12% cobalt, 0.43% copper and 0.54% zinc.

This represents total contained cobalt of 259,000 tonnes and contained copper of 970,000 tonnes classified as:

45.3 million tonnes at a grade of 0.11% cobalt, 0.44% copper and 0.51% zinc in the indicated category; and

180.2 million tonnes at a grade of 0.12% cobalt, 0.43% copper and 0.55% zinc in the inferred category.

The updated mineral resource demonstrates the potential for Opuwo to be a large future supplier of cobalt and also enhances the validity of the project given current and forecast copper prices.

Demonstrates scale of asset

Celsius chairman Martin Buckingham said: This new JORC mineral resource for Celsius Resources Opuwo Project demonstrates the scale of this significant asset.

With the next wave of demand for battery minerals almost upon us, and with cobalt continuing to be a significant component in most battery types, the Opuwo project represents a potential, stable cobalt source from a non-conflict country, which could be globally significant.

This deposits contained copper of 970,000 tonnes also represents material upside to the projects potential value proposition.

The company plans to assess ways to advance the project in parallel with the flagship copper-gold assets in the Philippines.

Resource modelling and estimation

Resource modelling and estimation has been completed by independent consultants, Mining Plus Pty Ltd, and has involved the creation of a comprehensive 3D geological model of the mineralised Dolostone Ore Formation (DOF), which hosts the cobalt-copper-zinc mineralisation.

The resource estimate covers a zone of about 13.5 kilometres in length, with mineralisation remaining open in northerly, westerly and easterly directions, and includes the large anticlinal structure of the NW extension.

As a result of the inclusion of this area the new mineral resource is almost double the previous mineral resource estimate of 112.4 million tonnes at 0.11% cobalt, 0.41% copper and 0.43% zinc.

The DOF unit has been traced in drilling and outcrop for over 15 kilometres with a key aspect of the DOF-hosted mineralisation being its extensive continuity and the consistency of mineralisation along strike and to depth.
Havana, July 1 : Cuba reported on Wednesday 2,970 new Covid-19 infections in the last day and 14 deaths, including a two-year-old child, bringing the total caseload to 190,993 and the death toll to 1,284.

Director of hygiene and epidemiology of the Public Health Ministry Francisco Duran said in his daily report that 15,502 people are currently hospitalized, marking the highest figure to date, Xinhua reported.

The western province of Matanzas registered 790 infections in the last day and continues to be the epicenter of the pandemic on the island, with an incidence rate of 656.3 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal pointed out that the high rate of infection and the increase in the incidence rate in the last 15 days have been compounded by the circulation of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus.

As a result, the Cuban government has announced new measures which include the strengthening of epidemiological monitoring and the implementation of more rigorous international health controls.

At the same time, the ministry's emergency vaccination campaign against Covid-19 continues, as 5.84 million doses of Cuban vaccine candidates Abdala and Soberana-02 have been administered so far, with over 2.74 million Cubans receiving at least one dose.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Mumbai, July 1 : Actress Taapsee Pannu, whose new thriller film "Haseen Dillruba" is all set for an OTT release, finds it natural that the genre has forever been popular with the audience.

"It's thrillers that have been popular across generations because these films keep you gripped, because the idea holds you for two hours of the film," she reasons, while speaking to IANS.

The actress feels the ability to keep people guessing is something that gives an is interactive quality to the genre.

"It keeps you involved. You feel like you are also one of the judges there trying to find out who has done it and that is why you stay connected to the film if it is written and done well. That is why I think it is popular as a genre," she added.

The film, which also stars Vikrant Massey and Harshvardhan Rane, has Taapsee playing Rani, who becomes the prime suspect following the death of her husband.

"Haseen Dillruba" is slated to release on Netflix on July 2.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Dhaka, July 1 : Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq has said former prime minister Khaleda Zia has no other alternative but to confess her guilt and apologise to the President to leave the country legally.

The minister said in the Parliament on Wednesday that Zia's family members had applied for her release to take her abroad for treatment. "But in their application, they did not mention any provision of the law, they accepted it. They took Begum Zia home from jail," he added.

The Anti-Corruption commission filed another related case on July 3, 2008 related to corruption in the Zia Orphanage. There were six accused in this case including Zia and her son Tarique Rahman. In the case, they have been accused of embezzling 21 million takas from the trust.

In this connection, Huq mentioned that the government considered an earlier appeal under 401 of penal code and suspended her corruption sentences and released her on two conditions. The two conditions were that she will receive treatment at home staying in the country.

"They have applied and got her released, abiding by certain conditions. Now they are saying that she has to go abroad and apply accordingly. That application is final (disposed of). No one else can do anything about it. That application has been disposed of under section 401," the law minister said. He also said that there are six sub-sections in the law.

"If you (BNP MPs) can show under those sub-sections that you will be able to apply again [to take Khaleda abroad], then I will not be in the legal profession anymore," he challenged. Pointing to provisions of the law to free Khaleda, the law minister said that any convicted person has to be released through the law.

"There is a way -- they can apologise to the President or to the government admitting guilt under section 401." Referring to Khaleda's treatment, he said she was at Evercare Hospital where she received proper care. The law minister urged the BNP to stop doing "meaningless political stunts" regarding Khaleda's treatment.

Anisul was responding to allegations from two BNP legislators that the government is not allowing the former prime minister to leave the country for receiving better medical treatment because of political reasons.

Speaking on the cut motion during the passage of the budget for 2021-22 fiscal, BNP lawmakers Harunur Rashid and Mosharraf Hossain demanded that the government allow Khaleda to get treatment abroad.

Pointing to BNP leaders' repeated appeal to send Khaleda abroad, the law minister said that once an application is disposed of, it cannot be reconsidered.

BNP chairperson Zia has been in jail since February 8, 2018 over the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. On October 10, 2019, her sentence got extended by five more years after her lawyer appealed against the lower court order.

Meanwhile, in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case, Khaleda Zia was sentenced to seven years as a special court convicted her on October 27,2019.

Right now, Khaleda Zia has at least 36 cases ongoing against her including the Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption Case and Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. She was shifted from jail to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on April 1, 2019.
New York, July 1 : Critics of Big Tech market power got a preview of the long slog likely ahead in US courts after a federal judge this week dismissed anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and a phalanx of state attorneys general, landing a blow to regulators hoping to rein in the world's largest social networking platform.

Facebook counts 3.45 billion monthly active users across its family of products - Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp - as per its first quarter data for 2021.

In a 53-page opinion, US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the lawsuits were "legally insufficient" and did not provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly.

"Although the Court does not agree with all of Facebook's contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the agency's Complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed," he wrote.

The ruling goes on to say that the FTC has failed to "plausibly establish" that Facebook has monopoly power.

"The Complaint contains nothing on that score save the naked allegation that the company has had and still has a "dominant share of that market (in excess of 60 per cent)".

"The FTC's Complaint says almost nothing concrete on the key question of how much power Facebook actually had, and still has, in a properly defined antitrust product market," the ruling reads.

"It is almost as if the agency expects the Court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist." The complaint has been struck out but the case stays put. The FTC, which now has a strident Big Tech critic - Lina Khan - as its chief, could refile another complaint.

"These allegations, which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook's market share at any point over the past 10 years, ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power," the judge said.

"Anyone who thought this was going to be easy and quick should probably step backathe law is tough, the politics are tough," Harry First, an anti-trust-law professor at the New York University, told Wall Street Journal.

The latest court ruling comes at a time when, in parallel, a clutch of landmark bills are hurtling forward in the US Congress - all of which want to slam the brakes on Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. If these six bills gain momentum, the US could see landmark changes in the tech industry.

In recent years, anger against Big Tech has been on the ascendant in the US and beyond. Countries have begun punching back against these companies' swagger and the US has clearly been outpaced on technology policy, first by Europe and more recently Australia and India too.

For now, it's 1-0 for Facebook in the US antitrust techlash. Soon after the Monday judgement landed, the company's market capitalization shot past $1 trillion for the first time in its history.
Tehran, July 1 : Iran's Health Ministry has authorised the emergency use of a second domestic vaccine against Covid-19, a top official announced here.

The third phase of clinical trial for the Pasteur vaccine, developed by Iran's Pasteur Institute, has been carried out, Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Saeed Namaki as saying on Wednesday.

The Pasteur vaccine is the second Iranian vaccine approved for inoculation against coronavirus, Namaki added.

On June 14, Iran announced the emergency use of COVIran Barakat financed by the Barakat Foundation.

Currently, 4,436,083 people have received first dose of coronavirus vaccines in the country, with 1,596,507 taking both.

Iran has already introduced Covid-19 vaccines from Russia, India, China and South Korea for over 5 million people across the country.

Iran on Wednesday reported 11,748 new Covid cases, raising the country's total infections to 3,204,557.

The pandemic has so far claimed 84,264 lives, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said.

A total of 2,876,828 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 3,183 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Lucknow, July 1 : The Congress in Uttar Pradesh will be conducting training camps focussed on social media handling for its leaders and workers from Thursday.

The training sessions will focus on the dos and don'ts of social media and teach the Congressmen on how to spread information about the 'misdeeds' of rival political parties.

UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu said, "The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is going to organize a special training camp to train its leaders and workers. Congress will organize a two-day training camp from July 1 to July 8 in 7 out of its 8 zones of UP.

"In this, the state vice-president of each zone, state general secretary, state secretary, district presidents, city presidents and block presidents of all the districts associated with that zone will be trained.

"These training camps will be first organized in Allahabad Zone from 1st to 2nd July and then in Sultanpur from 2nd to 3rd July, in Lucknow from 3 to 4 July, in Mathura from 4 to 5 July, in Jhansi from 5 to 6 July and in Ghaziabad from 6 to 7 July and then It will finally be held in Bareilly from 7 to 8 July." He said that this was a part of the party's preparation for the next UP assembly elections, due early next year.

Congress general secretary and UP in-charge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has been virtually holding meetings with party leaders and giving directives for party programmes.

The Congress, fraught with infighting in Uttar Pradesh, has been lagging behind in poll preparations. The party failed to make its mark in the panchayat elections, leaving the party cadres further demoralized.
Bali, July 1 : At least seven bodies have been found, while 11 people remain missing after a ship capsized off the waters of the Indonesian resort island of Bali, rescue officials have said.

Head of the Bali Search and Rescue Office, Gede Darmada, told Xinhua news agency late Wednesday that the toll still could change.

Alif Supartana, head of the Bali office's operation affairs unit, said that "the figure of missing persons may change. We will wait until there is no more report from the relatives or families. Then we can figure out the precise number of the missing persons".

He added that the actual number of people onboard the ship may also be different from the manifest.

Supartana said that the search and rescue mission will be carried out for seven days.

Meanwhile, 46 people have been rescued so far.

The KMP Yunicee ship sank at 7.06 p.m. on Tuesday near the Gilimanuk port in Bali after departing from the Ketapang port in the East Java province.
Lucknow, July 1 : The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar has proposed a seemingly bizarre power-sharing formula for Uttar Pradesh.

He has said that if his ten-party 'Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha' came to power in the 2022 Assembly polls, "there will be a new chief minister every year, representing a different caste".

He said that he was confident that his Morcha would win a comfortable majority.

"I will ensure that every major caste group among the poor and downtrodden get a share in power. I am not interested in holding all posts myself and depriving others.

"After Babasaheb Ambedkar, I am the second person to resign as a cabinet minister. People fight elections to become an MLA, MP, or Minister, but I continued to fight with the chief minister even in power for the rights of the poor. People have faith in me," he told reporters.

The SBSP, which was a part of the ruling BJP alliance till last year's Lok Sabha elections, is now fighting as a Morcha for the 2022 Assembly polls.

The SBSP has four legislators in a house of 403 legislators in Uttar Pradesh.
Chennai, July 1 : Classical dancers and musicians of Tamil Nadu joined together and auctioned their saris to support the deprived artists of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu who are suffering due to the loss of jobs following the Covid pandemic.

Eighteen classical dancers and musicians of the state including Bombay Jayasree, Aruna Sairam, Malavika Sarukkai, Priyadarshini Govind, donated their saris to an online auction, "6 Yards of Hope".

The proceeds of the auction will go to "Funds for Folk", a fundraiser programme to support the deprived and disadvantaged artists of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The team of "Funds for Folk" told IANS that the funds would be provided to support the artists of these southern states. The idea was mooted by dancer Christopher Guruswamy and implemented by the team of "Funds for Folk" led by Shreya Nagarajan Singh and Tenma.

The auction which was held for two weeks fetched around Rs 2.5 lakh.

The team joined hands with Panjavarnam silks in terms of platform, textile, and classical arts.

The team received eighteen silk saris which were put on the Instagram page of Panjavarnam Silks. A joint statement of "Fund for Folk" and Panjavarnam Silks said that all the saris put out on the Instagram page of Panjavarnam Silks were sold out.

The highest bid was Rs 26,500 for the Silk sari of Bombay Jayasree which was bought by an anonymous buyer based in the United States, the statement said.

The group, "Fund for Folk" said that they would take more such initiatives to support people who are suffering from the woes of the pandemic and that the artists of various categories will be extended support in the days to come.

Almost all the artists barring a few are in acute financial stress following back to back pandemic waves and most of them are surviving by the meagre support extended by the state government including food kits and dole of Rs 4,000 provided in two instalments.

Suryammurthy Ramakrishnan, a tabla artist at Erode while speaking to IANS said, "We are not starving, thanks to the food kit initiative of the state government but there are other basic needs and we are not in a position to meet up. Anyway, such initiatives are great and would at least give people like us a fresh hope to pull off."
July 01 : After getting her renewed passport following a legal battle, Kangana Ranaut was spotted at the airport on Wednesday, leaving the city. It is still not known if the actress has left for Budapest for the shooting of her forthcoming film Dhaakad.

The Tanu Weds Manu actress was seen at the airport in a gorgeous all pink look. The actress has also shared a couple of pictures in the pink outfit on her Instagram handle and stories. The Judgementall Hai Kya actress opted for a short pink floral dress, which she teamed with a pink jacket, pink purse, and pink heels. The colour coordinated look was certainly quirky yet trendy.

Earlier, Kangana shared a picture on her Instagram stories, wherein she gave a glimpse of the preparations she is doing for Dhaakad before heading to Budapest for the shooting. In the picture, the actress can be seen sitting on a couch reading something, while getting her hair done. Sharing the photo, Kangana wrote, "Corona Kaal mein behind the scene for #Dhaakad with @shifstershetty."

Image Source: Instagram/kanganaranaut Kangana Ranaut shared on her Instagram story

Tthrough an Instagram post, Kangana had informed that she has received her new passport, and will soon join the Dhaakad team in Budapest. Sharing a picture with the Dhaakad's director Razneesh Ghai, the actress captioned it as, "Got my passport.... Thanks to everyone for their concern and best wishes ... Chief I will be with you all soon @razylivingtheblues #Dhaakad."

The Queen actress was recently in news when she moved the Bombay High Court after the local passport authorities raised concerns over the renewal of her passport as some FIRs were filed against her.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Kangana has quite a number of films lined up. The actress is awaiting the release of Thalaivi, wherein she portrays the late J Jayalalithaa, co-starring Arvind Swamy, Bhagyashree, Madhoo, and others. Besides this, the actress is currently working on Dhaakad and Tejas. She has recently announced the film Emergency on Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Kangana will act and direct the film.
New Delhi, July 1 : The cumulative global sales of Apple iPhone 12 series has crossed the 100-million units mark in April, says a new report.

According to Counterpoint Research's mobile handset Market Pulse Service, the series was able to achieve this feat in the seventh month after its launch, which is two months earlier than the iPhone 11 series.

With the iPhone 12 series, Apple has achieved another volume super-cycle after six generations of iPhones and at the cusp of 5G transition, the market research firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

The report said that for the iPhone 12 series, the addition of 5G capability and a full OLED screen attracted customers.

With the ASP for Apple phones being at an all-time high, the iPhone 12 series' volume super-cycle will also lead to a revenue super-cycle breaking its record every year.

Consumers preferred the highest version of the iPhone 12 series during the first seven months after the series' launch.

The share of the Pro Max version in the iPhone 12 series sales was 29 per cent, compared to the 25 per cent for the same model of the iPhone 11 series.

This is also one of the reasons for the iPhone 12 series grossing 22 per cent more revenue than the iPhone 11 series in the first seven months of its launch.

The launch price of the base variants of the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the iPhone 12 Pro Max was the same at $1,099.

The notable upgrades in the 12 Pro Max were 5G capability, a higher RAM/memory and the A14 Bionic chip.

There was also a trade-off as the charger and headphones were missing from the box. However, this did not seem to be a deal-breaker for consumers, especially in the US, which contributed to 40 per cent of the global iPhone 12 Pro Max sales till April.

The upgrades, which came at the same price as that of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, supported by aggressive operator promotions, helped the 12 Pro Max sales soar to make it the highest-selling device in the US consistently since December 2020.

Moreover, the iPhone 12 series was also comparatively less affected by the pandemic than the iPhone 11 series. Also, consumers who held on to their devices last year due to the pandemic, upgraded to the 12 series.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Rome, July 1 : Seven migrants were killed and 46 others rescued after their boat capsized off the island of Lampedusa, Italy's Coast Guard said in a statement.

A search for possible survivors is ongoing, the statement said on Wednesday.

The eight-metre vessel loaded with some 60 people capsized after the Coast Guard intervened to rescue those on board, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Coast Guard said it intervened after receiving a distress call from a migrant on board the vessel, which was in distress "about seven nautical miles from Lampedusa, within the Italian Search and Rescue (SAR) zone".

"News of the tragic shipwreck off Lampedusa today highlights once more the urgent need for an EU-led and proactive sea patrol system to reduce loss of life at sea," tweeted Antonio Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

"At least 700 people drowned attempting the Central Mediterranean crossing this year," Vitorino tweeted.

On June 22, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, had said that "the number of illegal border crossings (into the European Union) in the first five months of 2021 reached 47,100, 47 per cent more than a year ago when irregular migration dropped due to Covid".
London, July 1 : The UK and the European Union (EU) have agreed to extend the grace period for another three months for chilled meat products coming from Britain to Northern Ireland.

The temporary arrangement was announced just hours before exemption on customs checks expired on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The extension means that Northern Ireland consumers will be able to buy chilled meat products from Britain, and allows for further discussions to continue on a permanent solution, a statement from the UK government said.

"We are pleased we have been able to agree a sensible extension on chilled meats moving from Britain to Northern Ireland -- one that does not require rules in the rest of the UK to align with future changes in EU agrifood rules," the British Brexit minister, David Frost, said.

Frost called it "a positive first step", but both sides still need to agree a permanent solution.

Recognising chilled meats issue is only one of a very large number of problems with the way the Northern Ireland Protocol is currently operating, Frost said solutions need to be found with the EU to ensure it delivers on its original aims, to protect the Good Friday Agreement, safeguard Northern Ireland's place in Britain, and protect the the bloc's single market for goods.

Earlier on Wednesday, a high court in Belfast ruled the Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful after a group of unionist politicians had challenged the protocol in judicial review proceedings.

Northern Ireland is at the centre of the post-Brexit trade dispute with the EU.

As part of the Brexit deal, the Protocol stipulates Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market and customs union to avoid a hard border between the region and the Republic of Ireland.

However, this leads to a new "regulatory" border between Britain and Northern Ireland, which exacerbates the conflict between pro-Britain and pro-independence groups in Northern Ireland.

Protests and riots raged for days in April in Northern Ireland.
New Delhi, July 1 : BJP chief J.P. Nadda and union home minister Amit Shah, on Thursday, greeted doctors and chartered accountants on 'Doctors Day' and 'Chartered Accountants' Day.

Saluting doctors Nadda tweeted, "On Doctors' Day, I congratulate all doctors for their round the clock efforts. Our gratitude to the doctors for their selfless service in fighting the COVID pandemic. The nation admires and salutes your professionalism & dedication. My tributes to Dr B.C. Roy, a distinguished doctor." In a tweet, union home minister Shah said, "Being a doctor is a pledge to serve mankind. On National Doctors' Day, we salute the heroic efforts of our courageous doctors who left no stone unturned to serve humanity irrespective of the odds. Time and again, we have witnessed their selfless efforts towards society." Greeting chartered accountants, Nadda tweeted, "On national chartered accountants day, we express our gratitude towards the entire professional community of Chartered Accountants for driving the Indian economy in the right direction. As Shri Narendra Modi Ji said, CAs are the architects of the nation's economy." In a tweet, Shah said, "On CA Day, I extend my greetings to the entire CA fraternity. Chartered Accountants are an important pillar of our country's economic growth, their expertise and vast knowledge play a vital role in nation-building. May they continue to contribute with the same zeal and passion."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Hyderabad, July 1 : Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday greeted doctors on the occasion of the National Doctor's Day.

The governor conveyed her heartiest wishes to all the doctors saying they have been rendering selfless and relentless services to the mankind.

She said that this is the right occasion to express deep gratitude to all the doctors who as the frontline warriors have been fighting against Covid-19 pandemic to protect the human beings from its clutches.

"Saving patients' lives even at the cost of risking theirs, the brave and committed doctors are in the forefront in saving precious lives of the people. The Covid-19 pandemic has once again reflected the great role that doctors play in our lives," said Tamilisai Soundararajan, who herself is a physician.

The National Doctor's Day is celebrated on July 1 every year in honour of the birth and death anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, a renowned Physician and the second chief minister of West Bengal.

"This is the appropriate occasion to realise, recognise, respect, revere and thank the doctors for their invaluable services in Telangana and across the country," she added.

The governor called upon people to respect, salute and protect 'our doctors who in turn will protect us and save the precious lives.' Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao also greeted doctors on the occasion of National Doctor's Day. He said the state government has taken up action programmes to protect the public health and to make the state a healthy Telangana.

He urged the doctors to become part of the health yagna. He appealed to each and every doctor to work for the public health.

"If God gives birth, doctors will give rebirth. Since doctors save lives from the disease and calamities, they are the gods in the physical form," he said.

The CM said services of doctors during the pandemics like Corona are highly appreciable as the doctors often put their own lives to risk saving others. He congratulated each doctor, their family members and those supporting them.

He pointed out that to strengthen medical and health sector, the state has sanctioned more medical colleges and nursing colleges. In every district headquarters, diagnostic centres were opened. Works on new super specialty hospitals have begun. In all the hospitals infrastructure facilities are improved and with the Basti Dawakhanas medical treatment has reached the the common man. Adequate staff was given and salaries of the medical staff were increased, the CM said.

Within a short span of period after formation of the state, 20,000 new posts were sanction for the medical and health department and this itself shows the government's commitment.

The CM said that in future too medical and health sector would be strengthened and funds would never be a constraint. He said the state committed to the welfare of doctors, nurses and other medical staff.
Mumbai, July 1 : Mswipe, a financial services platform for MSMEs, on Thursday announced to appoint industry veteran Ketan Patel as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The company's founder Manish Patel will move into the role of Managing Director.

"I am a firm believer of constant evolution and adaptability and I am confident that Ketan will spearhead Mswipe on to an exciting, high-growth journey as Mswipe expands to provide credit and other financial services in addition to our core payments services to our customers," said Manish.

In his earlier role as the Executive Director and CEO of CASHe, Ketan led the company in becoming India's largest digital lending company for salaried millennials.

He was also instrumental in setting up the Private Banking Business for the Kotak Group in the UK.

"Mswipe has been a market leader in transforming digital payments for MSMEs and is credited with bringing several industry first innovations in the last 10 years. We will continue building a superior financial platform for MSMEs that is built on the tenants of accessibility and affordability," Ketan said.

Mswipe is the largest independent mobile POS merchant acquirer and network provider with 6.75 lakh POS and 1.1 million QR merchants across the country.

Headquartered in Mumbai, it offers a host of payment acceptance services for SME's enabling them to accept - cards, wallets, mobile payment apps and bank apps, contactless and QR payments.
Gurugram, July 1 : A team of the cybercrime police has busted an illegal call centre operating in Sector-48 area in Gurugram, the police said on Thursday.

The call centre mostly used to threaten the US nationals to block their Social Security Number (SSN) and used to charge 100 to 800 dollars as a service charge per client, the police said.

According to the police, a team from the Cyber Crime police station raided the call centre following a tip-off.

During the raid, the police arrested two persons and seized laptops and mobile phones along with other electronic gadgets.

The arrested persons have been identified as Manmohan Singh, the owner of the call centre and manager Nishant.

During the raid, the police found that two women and eight men, who were working at the fake call centre, were communicating with the US nationals. However, after questioning the police have released them.

"A complaint was received that this fake call centre in the Sector-48 area had threatened several US nationals to block their SSN. The youths were employed at the call centre, which was being operated without a license that should have been issued by the Department of Telecommunications. They used to cheat US nationals and charge 100 to 800 dollars," said an investigation officer.

"The matter is under investigation. How the accused was operating the fake call centre is a part of the investigation. The involvement of other people cannot be ruled out," the officer added.

An FIR under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act has been registered at the Cyber crime police station for further investigation.
New Delhi, July 1 : The Supreme Court on Thursday junked a plea seeking directions to the government to allocate separate and adequate funds for the judiciary.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, at the outset, queried the advocate Reepak Kansal, "what kind of petition is this?" The bench also comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy said the court does not want to give any direction to the government to allocate separate funds for the judiciary.

"Sorry, we don't want to, we will deal with this appropriately", said the bench. Kansal, petitioner-in-person, requested the court to hear the application, the bench responded "We don't want to give any such direction in the present case".

The top court was hearing an application for restoration of the PIL which was dismissed by the apex court bench headed by former Chief Justice S.A. Bobde in March for non-prosecution.

"Application restored. Writ petition dismissed. Without expressing any opinion", said the bench, in its order dismissing the plea.

During the hearing, Kansal submitted he has filed an application for restoration of the case and the plea seeks directions for allocation of funds for the judiciary.

The plea had sought direction to Centre and state governments to allocate separate and adequate funds for smooth, effective and impartial functioning of the judicial system. The plea argued for the constitution of a separate secretariat with the Supreme Court and High Courts to manage the funds allocated to the judiciary.
San Francisco, July 1 : A man's life in the US was saved when, unknown to him, his Apple Watch detected him falling and called emergency services automatically, the media reported.

Apple Watch has saved lives before and sometimes surprises its wearers by detecting problems they are unaware of.

A man has been rescued by the Summerfield Fire Department before he even knew his Watch could send an emergency message, AppleInsider reported.

"The first thing I asked (the officer) was, 'How did you guys know to get here?' and he said, 'Your watch sent us a message'," 78-year-old Mike Yager told Fox News.

Yager had reportedly fallen hard in his driveway, breaking his nose, and passing out. When he didn't respond to his Apple Watch, it automatically called 911.

"(Apple Watch is) kind of expensive," continued Yager, "but I think it's well worth it if you are over 65... you definitely need to do something like (get a Watch)." The man's wife, Lori Yager, told Fox News that the Summerfield Fire Department officer showed her his log saying the alert had come from her husband's Apple Watch.

"I was speechless, I didn't know what to say," she said.

"I wasn't due to come home for another couple of hours and who knows what would have happened when I got home," she added.

The ability to detect a fall is automatically enabled in the Apple Watch Series 4, or later, if the owner is over 65.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Azamgarh : , July 1 (IANS) Lal Bihari 'Mritak', the man who made headlines when he fought a long battle to prove he was 'alive', after being declared 'dead' in government records, is in news again.

'Mritak' is now planning to remarry his 56-year-old wife Karmi Devi because it has now 27 years since he turned up alive again. He was declared alive on June 30, 1994.

"I was reborn in government records 27 years ago. The marriage ceremony will be held in 2022, when I will turn 28 after my rebirth in government records," Lal Bihari told reporters.

Mritak has three children-two daughters and one son -- all of whom are now married.

Lal Bihari, now 66-years-old, said that he wanted to remarry his wife and draw the attention of the people towards the plight of the 'living dead'.

"Though I fought and won my case, not much has actually changed in the system. I remained 'dead' in government records for 18 years. There are still people who have been declared dead and their land has been usurped by relatives in connivance with government officials. I have been helping such victims in the past decades but the campaign must continue," he said.

Lal Bihari is a resident of Amilo village in Azamgarh district and was officially declared dead in 1975.

During his legal battle to regain his identity, he added 'Mritak' (deceased) in his name.

He even formed a Mritak Sangh to highlight the cases similar to his.

Filmmaker Satish Kaushik has made a film 'Kaagaz' on his life and actor Pankaj Tripathi essayed the role of Mritak.
Dubai, July 1 : Visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has inaugurated the country's first-ever Consulate General in Dubai during his ongoing trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is the first by a senior official of the Jewish state to the Gulf nation since the two sides normalised ties last year.

According to the UAE's official WAM news agency, the ianuguration on Wednesday also saw the participation of Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, reports Xinhua.

In his welcoming remarks, Al Olama said: "As we look to a comprehensive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which the UAE and Israel have faced as close partners in scientific and technological innovation, we expect bilateral exchange to rapidly expand.

"The Consulate General of Israel in Dubai will provide essential services to Israeli visitors to the UAE and those seeking to travel from the UAE to Israel.

"Ultimately, the warm ties between the UAE and Israel are slated to grow in many areas, and in the coming period, our two countries will usher in the next phase of bilateral cooperation." Lapid also officially opened the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

UAE Minister of Culture and Youth Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi attended the ceremony.

The Ministers reiterated that "with the opening of the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi, we will further drive growth and widen channels of collaboration across all key sectors".

In turn, the friendship between the peoples will flourish," they added.

After signing the Abraham Accords in 2020, which formally established relations between the UAE and Israel, the two countries have engaged in high-level cooperation in the political, economic, and cultural fields, as well as diplomatic and consular coordination.
Bengaluru, July 1 : The Bengaluru police arrested Andhra Pradesh based three-member Ganja supplying gang that peddled banned substances in bulk in the city, said the police on Thursday.

The police seized 70 kg of ganja, besides a kilogram of Hashish oil substances from this gang, which is valued at about Rs 21 lakh.

According to the police the arrested are identified as Kala Shiva, 25, Kallu Govind, 25 and Hariprasad, 31, hailing from Andhra Pradesh.

The police in its statement said that the gang was arrested after a tip off that bulk supplies were landing near a playground in Jaraganahalli, near Kanakapura, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

"The gang was supplying in bulk to local suppliers in two or three kg packs. This gang mainly supplies to peddlers of the southern suburb of Bengaluru," the police said.

Speaking to IANS Bengaluru south division deputy commissioner of police, Harish Pandey, said that the police in south division had tightened its vigilance in its jurisdiction as a result of which on an average the police had been catching at least four to five narcotic substance consumers.

"They are the ones who are giving inputs, where substances are stocked up or dropped by various gangs. In this vicious circle of drug smuggling, consumers invariably become drug peddlers also, therefore, these people have information about such large stocks being unloaded in the city," he explained.

The police has registered a case and an investigation is continuing.
London, July 1 : The UK's National Health Service (NHS) has been given the green light to roll out Covid vaccine booster programme for all the vulnerable populations in the country from September, the media reported.

This move follows interim advice by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) that boosters will help maintain protection against Covid-19 and new variants for those most at risk, before winter sets in, BBC reported on Wednesday.

As a bigger flu season than normal is expected, extra protection against Covid is likely to be needed.

The JCVI has advised to give a third Covid jab (and a flu jab) to adults aged 16 and over who are immunosuppressed or clinically extremely vulnerable; residents in care homes for older adults; all adults aged 70 and over; frontline health and social care workers.

After those groups, it will be all adults aged 50 and over; adults aged 16-49 who are in a flu or Covid-19 at-risk group and those living in the same house as people who are immunosuppressed.

"We want to be on the front foot for Covid-19 booster vaccination to keep the probability of loss of vaccine protection, due to waning immunity or variants, as low as possible -- especially over the coming autumn and winter," Prof. Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, was quoted as saying.

He said other respiratory viruses, particularly flu, "will make a comeback" and be an additional problem this winter.

"We will need to ensure protection against flu, as well as maintaining protection against Covid-19," Van-Tam said.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said ministers were working with the NHS to rapidly deliver the programme from September.

"Our first Covid-19 vaccination programme is restoring freedom in this country, and our booster programme will protect this freedom," he was quoted as saying.

The JCVI's final advice will be published before September, when better data will be available on how long protection from the first two doses of the vaccines lasts. The latest figures on hospitalisations, emerging variants and trials will also be taken into account at that point, and could change their advice, the BBC report said.

Younger adults will not be given a third dose, because they will only have had their second dose in the summer, although this decision will be revisited at a later time, the JCVI said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Washington, July 1 : Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the main architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has died, according to a statement by his family released Wednesday. He was 88.

"It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico," the statement issued on Wednesday said.

The cause of the former defence chief's death was multiple myeloma, according to Keith Urbahn, a spokesman for the family.

Rumsfeld first served as Defence Secretary in the Gerald Ford administration during the early 1970s, and then headed the Pentagon again under then President George W. Bush in the early 2000s, reports Xinhua news agency.

While the veteran politician's two stints at the helm of the Pentagon made him both the youngest and the second-oldest Defence Secretary, it was the second term that defined Rumsfeld's legacy.

Rumsfeld oversaw two conflicts during his tenure in the position -- Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan conducted less than a month following the 9/11 terror attack on American homeland in 2001, and the Iraq War launched in 2003.

Despite having Bush's support, Rumsfeld ultimately resigned in November 2006 under pressure from both US and other NATO-member retired military leaders over his role in the Iraq War, for which Washington's excuse that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of massive destruction was never proven on a factual basis.

In his 2011 memoir, "Known and Unknown", Rumsfeld, having retired from public service for over four years, still expressed no regrets over the decision to invade Iraq.

"Ridding the region of Saddam's brutal regime has created a more stable and secure world," he wrote.

Many have also urged that Rumsfeld should be held to account for the notorious detainee abuse scandal in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Meant to be classified but leaked in 2004, a report by then US Army Major General Antonio Mario Taguba found that between October and December of 2003, there were numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" by American soldiers and members of the intelligence community against prisoners detained at Abu Ghraib.

In June 2008, Taguba accused the Bush administration, of which Rumsfeld was a member, of committing war crimes.

Despite the criticism that long outlived Rumsfeld's years in Washington, Bush on Wednesday lauded his former Defence Secretary as an "exemplary public servant and a very good man".
Muzaffarabad, July 1 : Raja Farooq Haider, the Prime Minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), has said that it would be foolish for Islamabad to seek US intervention on the Kashmir issue with India.

Haider said Pakistan's efforts and repeated demands to the US administration to act as an arbitrator in the Kashmir issue, will be against the true essence of the Kashmir cause, insisting that the dispute's resolution remains in the hands of the people of Kashmir, who deserve the right to self-determination and hold the authority to decide their fate.

"The government of Pakistan cannot take matters like this after India's usurpation of Kashmir on August 5," he said.

Haider alleged that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan are no different, calling them the two sides of the same coin.

"If they want to forget the past, forget it. But we will not forget," he said while questioning the authority of the Pakistani Prime Minister to change the map of Kashmir.

"Who game Prime Minister Imran Khan the power to change the map of Kashmir?" he asked.

Haider lashed out at Khan for also carrying out "naked aggression to win the election in Azad Kashmir".

Haider has been demanding the Pakistan government to not seek the US' arbitration in the Kashmir dispute, as that would undermine the demands of the Kashmiri people.

He has urged Pakistan to take stronger steps to stop what he called "ongoing aggression by Modi led government in Jammu and Kashmir", and stop opting to rhetoric statements.

Pakistan has been trying to seek international intervention in the Kashmir dispute, aimed at pressurising India to come to table talks on the matter.

However, the US has made it clear to Islamabad that it can only mediate between India and Pakistan, if both parties agree to it.

Prime Minister Khan has stated that no bilateral or diplomatic relations with India would move not forward until New Delhi reverses its decision taken to abrogate Article 370 and 35A to change the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

However, Islamabad's failing efforts to attract global attention on the Kashmir dispute has irked Haider, who has questioned the Khan government's intention and efforts.
Kabul, July 1 : Afghan forces foiled a Taliban attack in Ghoryan district of Herat province, resulting in the death of 20 militants, an official statement said on Thursday.

Hundreds of Taliban insurgents launched the multi-pronged offensive on Ghoryan district early Thursday morning, but the security forces retaliated forcing the insurgents to flee leaving 20 bodies behind, the statement said.

Ten more militants were injured in the counter-offensive backed by fighter jets, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

It also confirmed that one security personnel was killed and three others sustained injuries.

The statement added that the security forces would continue to fight the militants in Ghoryan and its vicinity to ensure security.

Taliban militants have reportedly captured more than 70 districts since the start of the withdrawal of the US-led forces from Afghanistan on May 1.
New Delhi, July 1 : Smartphone brand OPPO on Thursday announced that it is all set to launch one of the most anticipated Reno6 smartphone series in India on July 14.

The upcoming series consists of two smartphones, Reno6 Pro 5G and Reno6 5G, that pack leading imaging technologies, such as industry-first Bokeh Flare Portrait Video, AI Highlight Video and additional professional camera features to capture every emotion in a portrait.

"The Reno6 series are the perfect for new age video-creators, backed by industry-first Bokeh Flare Portrait Video and other leading videography features to capture cinematic and professional-level videos," Damyant Singh Khanoria, Chief Marketing Officer, OPPO India, said in a statement.

"Like a studio in your pocket these come with advanced camera and design technology while guaranteeing a powerful performance, super-fast charging in a sleek and hard-to-look-away design," Khanoria added.

OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G bundles in exceptional performance, featuring flagship MediaTek 5G SoC with RAM expansion.

Furthermore, the OPPO Reno6 series incorporates 65W SuperVOOC 2.0, faster, safer and more stable low voltage flash charging technology.

The phone also allows for real-time professional video editing whilst filming with its So LOOP offering, the company said.

A recent report said that the OPPO Reno6 Pro is likely to feature a 6.55-inch OLED with a 32 MP camera, while the main shooter will be 64 MP.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Seoul, July 1 : A top South Korean official said on Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have carried out a reshuffle of top officials at a recent politburo meeting of Pyongyang's ruling Workers' Party.

"There is a possibility of personnel changes involving Ri Pyong-chol, Pak Jong-chon and Choe Sang-gon, as Ri and Pak were not seen participating in the voting process and Choe's seat was left empty," Yonhap News Agency quoted the official from the Unification Ministry as saying.

The Ministry however, said it could not officially confirm the reshuffle.

Video footage aired on Wednesday on Pyingyang's Korean Central Television showed officials at the meeting on Tuesday voting on personnel issues, with the exception of Ri Pyong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, and Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army.

Choe Sang-gon, director of the central committee's science and education department, was also absent from his seat during the voting.

The North Korean state media had said that Kim discussed "an organisational issue", including the election of new politburo members and a secretary of the party's Central Committee, at the meeting on Tuesday.

But it not provide any further details.
New Delhi, July 1 : The Supreme Court on Thursday junked a plea by the Delhi Police challenging the High Court order, which asked it to supply the copy of statement of a witness to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 11 other MLAs in a case connected with alleged assault of the then chief secretary Anshu Prakash in 2018.

A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud told the police, "It may be a hot political potato for you but there is nothing in it legally". The bench also comprising Justice M.R. Shah added that in accordance with the basic principle of natural justice, there must be a "robust common sense", which is that the accused must have the witness's statement copy.

The criminal case was registered in connection with the alleged assault on Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal's official residence on February 19, 2018. The alleged assault had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.

Counsel for police argued that this is a question of statement not being recorded under 161, and it is an important matter with ramification elsewhere. The bench responded this will not have ramification and refused to entertain the appeal.

The top court observed that the accused must have a copy of the statement, for a robust criminal justice system. "It's a good view of the High Court", said the bench.

In October 2018, Kejriwal, Sisodia and nine other AAP MLAs were granted bail. MLAs, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, were earlier granted bail by the High Court.
New Delhi, July 1 : Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India's June 2021 sales sky-rocketed on a year-on-year as well as sequential basis.

Accordingly, the company posted a total sales of 147,368 units in June 2021 from 57,428 units sold during the like period of last year.

On sequential basis, the company's total sales stood at 46,555 units in May 2021.

The sales growth momentum in June picked up after slowing down from April to May due to Covid's second wave.

It had a faster growth rate on the year-on-year basis due to base effect.

"Total sales in the month include domestic sales of 126,196 units, sales to other OEM 4,152 units and exports of 17,020 units," the company said in a statement.

"With this the Company closed the first quarter of FY 21-22 with total sales of 353,614 units (297,118 units domestic, 10,977 units to other OEM and exports of 45,519 units)." According to the statement, sales in the first quarter of both FY20-21 and FY21-22 have been 'far from normal owing to Covid-19 related lockdowns and disruptions and hence any comparison would not be very meaningful'.

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi, July 1 : After Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said that the judiciary cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the legislature or the executive, or else the Rule of Law would become illusory, the Congress has got a window of opportunity to attack the government.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "Chief Justice of India's comments that judiciary cannot be controlled must serve as warning sign for BJP obsessed with subverting institutions; BJP must explain why judges expressing concerns about democracy & independence of judiciary has become regular feature in BJP regime?" "The CJI's comments have exposed the BJP which has ambition to convert democracy into dictatorship," Shergill said further.

Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, on Wednesday, said judges should not be swayed by the "emotional pitch of public opinion on social media platforms", and the judiciary cannot directly or indirectly be controlled by the legislature or the executive.

He also insisted media trials cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases.

Shergill said, BJP should explain what led the CJI to make such strong comments that judges should stay away from external pressure.

Delivering the 17th Justice P.D. Desai memorial lecture on 'Rule of Law', Chief Justice Ramana said: "The judiciary cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the legislature or the executive, or else the Rule of Law would become illusory. At the same time, judges should not be swayed by the emotional pitch of public opinion either, which is getting amplified through social media platforms." He emphasised that judges have to be mindful of the fact that the noise thus amplified is not necessarily reflective of what is right and what the majority believes in. The new media tools that have enormous amplifying ability are incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, good and bad, and the real and fake, he added.

He stressed that for the judiciary to apply checks on governmental power and action, it has to have complete freedom. "And the importance of the judiciary should not blind us to the fact that the responsibility of safeguarding constitutionalism lies not just on the courts," he noted.

He said the judiciary is the primary organ which is tasked with ensuring that the laws which are enacted are in line with the Constitution. "The Supreme Court has held this function to be a part of the basic structure of the Constitution, which means that the Parliament cannot curtail the same," he added.
Chennai, July 1 : Tour operators in the city are flooded with calls after the announcement by the Central government allocating five lakh free visas to foreign nationals who are to travel to India on tourist and visit visas.

While the tour and travel operators of the city were sceptical on the arrival of tourists to the country, the flood of calls that they are receiving mainly from France, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, and the US have flabbergasted them.

M. Murugesan, a tour operator with a leading travel agency at Royapetth in Chennai told IANS, "We were not very interested in the announcement as with Covid-19 second wave still on, we were not expecting tourists coming to India but we were surprised when almost all travel and tour operators in the city started getting flooded with calls from people of Tamil origin and citizens of France, the UK, the US, Malaysia and Singapore making frenetic calls to come to India." Tour operators said that most of these tourists are coming to the country on pilgrimage as several of them were not able to visit their favourite temples because of the Covid induced lockdown.

Tour operator Madhavan Raja Manickam told IANS, "I got calls from the UK and the US for group travel and they wanted an all South India tour, several are foreigners but some are Indian born foreign citizens. Anyway these calls have increased my confidence and the reduction in GST rates for foreign travellers would increase the number of tourists touching the country." The tourist season commences from September and continues till February increasing business of tourist taxi operators, hotels, restaurants, motels, resorts, and also curio shops and other shops selling unique artefacts.

Tour operators also said that there were several tourists who have shown interest from Malaysia and Singapore and most of them are for pilgrimage tourism. A section of tourists from Malaysia also preferred medical tourism as Chennai is home to some very noted multi-specialty hospitals. Sources in the tour industry told IANS that there were several enquiries for Madurai Arabindo Eye hospital and Apollo Hospital, Chennai.

With back to back waves of pandemic causing panic, the measure of the Central government to allow 5 lakh free visas would definitely cause relief to the distressed tourism sector.

Kalayanaraman, a tourist taxi operator in Chennai while speaking to IANS said, "We were dull with the business for the past two years and I had almost made up my mind to quit this industry and to work as a daily wager to support my family. However, this announcement has indeed boosted the industry and the travel agencies through which I get my work have all received several calls and most of them are serious about travelling to India and especially South India".

The industry is, however, expecting that the state government increases its vaccination drive and creates maximum awareness among the general public on Covid-19 as foreign tourists will be much more careful while in India. Any negative report from the first batches of the visitors can give a totally different picture of the country and could reduce the footfalls, the industry leaders added.
New Delhi, July 1 : Leading real estate technology company Compass on Thursday said it aims to double its headcount in India at the Compass India Development Centre (IDC) over the next few months, with a focus on technologies such as artificial intelligence, Cloud computing and mobility.

The Compass IDC, located in Hyderabad, is the only technology hub Compass operates outside of the US and complements the company's tech hubs in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Compass' global technology talent pool of more that 850 product and engineering professionals has made a significant contribution towards the substantial business growth of the company, it said in a statement.

"India is home to some of the finest technology talent powered by entrepreneurial thinking and innovation critical for transforming industries. Their ability to adapt to a fast-paced and changing work environment accompanied by strong technical skills makes them perfect candidates for an organisation like ours," said Joseph Sirosh, Compass Chief Technology Officer.

The Compass IDC has over 200 employees, with agile, highly-skilled software engineers and product teams who have developed multiple cloud based services since launching the centre in Q1 2020.

The company provides an end-to-end platform that empowers residential real estate agents to deliver exceptional service to seller and buyer clients.

The Compass platform includes an integrated suite of cloud-based software for customer relationship management, marketing, client service and other critical functionality, all custom-built for the real estate industry and enabling the company's core brokerage services.

"We believe in providing technology innovators with the freedom to work independently and by embracing the power of entrepreneurial thinking we've been able to build an extremely competent team despite these challenging times," said Sirosh.

"We're looking for people who move fast, dream big, and want to shape the direction of their own careers while shaping the future of real estate through cutting-edge innovation," he added.

Since its inception, the India Development Centre has proved to be a highly valuable asset for the organisation in terms of innovation and support.
Kochi, July 1 : Actor Fahadh Faasil's upcoming crime drama film "Malik '' will have an OTT release on July 15.

The Mahesh Narayanan directorial chronicles the journey of Sulaiman Malik (essayed by Faasil), a leader bestowed with unconditional love and loyalty from the people of his community, who leads a revolution against authoritative forces that try to encroach on their lives.

Talking about the film's release, Narayan said: "Releasing 'Malik' on a popular streaming service like Amazon Prime Video is a huge opportunity to showcase our work to a global audience. Malik is a story rooted in the Indian ethos with multiple nuances in its character as well as the emotions they portray, and I hope it resonates with the expectations of the audience." Fahadh also made the announcement by uploading the poster of the film on his Instagram account and announcing direct OTT release in the caption.

The film also stars Nimisha Sajayan, Joju George, Vinay Fort, Dileesh Pothan, Jalaja, Salim Kumar, Indrans, Sanal Aman, Dinesh Prabhakar, Divya Prabha and Parvathy Krishna in pivotal roles.

"We are excited to bring an ambitious story like 'Malik' to our audience. The successful global premieres of our recently released DTS movies reflect the customer's growing affinity towards Malayalam cinema across the country. With Malik being a strong direct-to-service offering in the crime drama space, we are happy to expand our content selection with stories that help us reinstate our commitment of bringing exceptional narratives and superior cinematic experiences to our viewers within the comfort and safety of their homes," said Vijay Subramaniam, Director and Head, Content, Amazon Prime Video, India.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kabul, July 1 : A total of 33 militants were killed in Afghan airstrikes that struck Taliban gatherings in Kaldar and Shortepa districts of Balkh province, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, the fighter jets targeted Taliban the gatherings in parts of the restive districts on Wednesday afternoon, killing 33 insurgents and injuring 19 others, Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

During the air raids, huge quantity of arms and ammunitions were also destroyed.

Taliban militants have reportedly captured more than 70 districts since the start of the withdrawal of the US-led forces from Afghanistan on May 1.
New Delhi, July 1 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Thursday, said that it has arrested Pawan Kumar, an employee of Power Development Department posted at Jammu in connection with an alleged graft case.

A CBI spokesperson said that Kumar was arrested for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 6,000 from the complainant.

The agency registered the case against the employee, working in the office of AEE, Power Development Department, Sub-Division-III, Jammu on the allegations that he demanded bribe for providing connection to main electric supply and updating records of installed electric meter in the name of the complainant.

It was further alleged that the complainant had applied for installation of electric meter at his residence, in December 2019 and the electric meter was installed but connection to main electric supply was not provided and also name of the complainant was not updated in the records. The complainant contacted the accused who demanded bribe of Rs 6,000 for processing his file.

The agency laid a trap and the accused was caught red-handed while demanding & accepting bribe of Rs 6,000.
Hyderabad, July 1 : Amid growing tension between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of river waters and electricity generation, both the states have deployed armed police personnel at dams and power plants across Krishna river.

Security has been tightened by both the states at Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects.

Andhra Pradesh, which is demanding Telangana to stop hydel power generation at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar, deployed its force on its side in Guntur district. Telangana also tightened the security on the border at Suryapet district.

Andhra police personnel also stepped up security at Pulichintala project. Over 100 policemen were deployed near the project amid a tense situation.

The government of Andhra Pradesh has taken strong exception to Telangana starting hydel power generation at full capacity at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects despite low water levels in Pulichintala. It also registered protest with the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.

Telangana also deployed additional police force at Nagarjuna Sagar power generation unit. About 100 police personnel joined the Telangana special protection force.

The Telangana police on Thursday also stopped a team of Andhra officials from visiting the power generation unit. The team wanted to meet the chief engineer of Telangana Power Generation Corporation to submit a memorandum.

The police took up checking of vehicles on the bridge and stopped tourists as a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile, the war of words continued between the two states. The row over power generation erupted even as the two states were sparring over Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project (RLIP).

Telangana has taken exception to Andhra going ahead with construction of RLIP saying this would harm its interests. It urged Krishna Water Management Board to stop Andhra from going ahead with the works.

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on Wednesday decided to lodge a complaint with Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the 'illegal drawal' of Krishna water by Telangana from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar (NSP) for power generation.

Andhra's water resources minister P. Anil Kumar Yadav stated that the state government was prepared to retaliate if the situation warranted.

Telangana's tourism minister Srinivas Goud on Thursday said the comments made by Andhra ministers were objectionable. He reiterated that Andhra immediately stop works on RLIP.
Lucknow, July 1 : The Janata Dal-United and the Republican Party of India-Athawale may be BJP allies at the centre but the two parties are set to create problems for it in Uttar Pradesh.

Both the parties have announced their decisions to contest the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

RPI state President Pawan Gupta said: "A large number of people from the Bahujan Samaj Party are joining the RPI. Our president Ramdas Athawale has held talks with BJP President J.P. Nadda on contesting UP elections and the response has been positive." The JD-u, on the other hand, has already stated that it will contest the UP elections even if it is not accommodated by the BJP.

JD-U General Secretary K.C. Tyagi has already said that his party was determined to contest the UP polls - with or without the BJP.

A state party leader said: "We are keen to revive our party in Uttar Pradesh. Our first choice will be to contest as part of the NDA, and we hope it works out. We have had old presence in UP since the days of the erstwhile Samata Party, though we did not contest in 2017. We had MLAs in the UP and we also had ministers in the government." The stand taken by these two parties, who are BJP allies at the centre, has rattled the BJP leaders in UP.

"We already have allies in the Apna Dal and talks of an alliance have been fruitful with the Nishad Party too. If we keep acceding to the demands of other allies, we will be denting our own party organisation. After all, how many seats can we give away?" said a senior BJP functionary.

BJP sources said that while the JD-U would get a percentage of Kurmi votes, the RPI could get some Dalit votes.

If these two parties contest independently -- as they have announced -- they will be cutting into the BJP's vote base.

"We will try and convince these parties not to insist on seats in UP elections and jeopardise our game plan. We are hopeful of bringing them around," the functionary said.

The BJP is unlikely to leave much space for smaller parties even as the opposition is trying to stop it from returning to power.

The JD-U, on the other hand, is also determined to spread its wings in the Hindi belt and emerge stronger before the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Amaravati/New Delhi, July 1 : Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan and several other leaders from the state on Thursday extended birthday greetings to Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, who hails from the southern state.

"Dear Sri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji, I along with people of #AndhraPradesh extend my heartiest felicitations & warm greetings on your birthday. May Lord Jagannath & Lord Venkateswara shower their blessings for good health, long life & guide Nation with your wise leadership," tweeted Harichandan.

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu also extended birthday greetings to the Vice President.

"As the full embodiment of Telugu (culture) and as a person who always strives for the development of Telugu language and people at any capacity, I wish good health and prosperity to you," said Naidu.

Similarly, Andhra Pradesh BJP chief Somu Veerraju also conveyed his greetings to Venkaiah Naidu, who turned 72 on Thursday.

"You (Venkaiah Naidu) have worked hard for the development of the country and its people for decades together," said Veerraju.

He also prayed for the Vice President's good health and long life in service to the nation.
Chennai, July 1 : Fishermen's association leader Jesu Raja, heading the association of Rameswaram, Mandapam and Thangachimadam, has said that the state government must fix the prices for fish just like fixing the price for paddy and other produce. He said that export firms were procuring fishes like pomfret, seer and prawns at a paltry rate from the fishermen ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 600 a kilo and selling them in foreign markets at 3 to 4 times the price they buy.

He said that even as the exporters are making huge profits the fishermen who are braving rough weather in the sea and hard conditions get a paltry sum. While admitting that the export market has provided the fishermen with regular buyers, the benefits are very less.

Saju John, who is the president of the All Tamil Nadu Fishermen Welfare Association, told IANS: "Fishermen are always in difficulty. We venture into the sea, catch fish braving rough weather, rough seas and we end up being paid much less. The government can take the initiative and fix the prices for fish just like prices are fixed for paddy and other crops. Of course, if there is a huge catch, the prices will come down but even then the government can fix a price range and not allow exploitation in this field, otherwise, the labour will go waste." The association of Tamil Nadu Marine Products Exporters however said that they are making average payment to the fishermen and most important there are regular buyers. Sivashankaran .M of the exporters association told IANS, "At present, there is a proper balance between the fishermen community and the exporters. We are regular customers and we are paying for the fish according to our means. For a catch to be exported it requires a lot of other paraphernalia and hence we need to balance that also. I can vouch that the exporters and fishermen are having a symbiotic relationship." He added, "If there is any issue, we can discuss and iron out these differences." The fishermen of Tamil Nadu ventured into the sea only on Tuesday night even after the 61 day annual ban ended on June 14 as they had taken time to repair the boats, fishnets etc. Things got delayed as most of the fishermen had not taken even the first jab of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Jesu Raja said, "We ventured into the sea only on Tuesday night as the annual maintenance of fishing nets, mechanical work on the boats, and other necessary maintenance work was not done as Covid-19 has created major problems for the fishermen community. Several of the fishermen were yet to take even the first dose of the Covid vaccine."
Mumbai, July 1 : Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is in talks with Singapore based-Cube Highways to sell its 4 road assets for an enterprise value of Rs 1,430 crore. The company will use the proceeds from the sale to cut down its debt.

Singapore-based Cube Highways is promoted by I Squared Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, International Finance Corporation and a consortium of Japanese investors including Mitsubishi Corporation and Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation.

According to sources close to the development, Cube Highways has shown interest in Reliance Infra's four road assets viz, DS Toll Road Private Limited, NK Toll Road Private Limited, SU Toll Road Private Limited, in Tamil Nadu and JR Toll Road Private Limited, in Rajasthan.

With a total length of 283 kms, all four road assets are under operation with the balance available concession period of up to 12 years. Cube Highways has offered an Enterprise Value of Rs 1,430 crore and the proceeds would result in Reliance Infra's debt reduction to that extent.

If this deal materialises, this would be the second transaction between Reliance Infra and Cube Highway. In January 2021, Reliance Infrastructure had successfully completed the sale of its 100 per cent stake in Delhi-Agra Toll Road to Cube Highways for an enterprise value over Rs 3,600.

Reliance Infra is on a debt reduction drive. Recently the company announced a fund raising of Rs 550 crore from the promoter group and VSFI Holding Pvt Ltd - an affiliate of Varde Investment Partners, LLP. The funds raised would be utilized for long term resources, for general corporate purposes, fund future growth and also to reduce debt.

The company's consolidated debt was Rs 14,260 crore and standalone debt was Rs 3,808 crore as of March end. It aims to be debt free by the end of March 2022.

Reliance Infra has an EPC order book of over Rs 25,000 crore, power distribution business in Delhi serving 45 lakh customers and defence manufacturing business. The company has executed projects worth over Rs 2 Lakh crore in the past 20 years.
New Delhi, July 1 : In the run up to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, the Indian listening posts have picked up chatters that the ISI and the Pakistan Foreign Office are asking their station chiefs and diplomatic missions to drum up negative media coverage on Kashmir after the recent initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 76th session of the UNGA will open on September 14 and continue till September 30. In the run up to the UNGA, Indian listening posts have come across messaging to ensure negative publicity about Kashmir and also proliferate it in the international media.

Pakistan seems to be uneasy about the progress made in the fields of education, health and the other developmental initiatives take by the Modi government, along with the impending restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir for which an all-party meeting was convened recently in New Delhi.

A process is already on to ramp up negative sentiments by Pakistan as #KashmirRejectsModiAPC is trending on Twitter.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has described Narendra Modi's all-party meeting with top political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir as a "drama" and a "PR exercise".

"In my view, it was a drama. Why was it a drama? Because at best it could be called a public relations exercise, but nothing was achieved," Qureshi said a day after the high-level meeting on Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi on June 24.

Qureshi said the Kashmiri leaders at the meeting "unanimously demanded full-fledged restoration of statehood".

But the fact is that the Government of India is already contemplating such a move at the earliest. In fact, the delimitation exercise has already been jumpstarted.

Under Westphalian sovereignty laws, India is clear as daylight that Jammu and Kashmir is legally, ethically and constitutionally a part of India and no external interference will be brooked. However, Pakistan continues to daydream that it can get this to change diplomatically, militarily and by launching a 30-year long proxy war.

It has failed on all counts and yet it hankers for Kashmir as the unfinished business of Partition and as a reprisal for the brutal defeat in the 1971 war when it was vivisected, and a new nation called Bangladesh was born.

Pakistan daily 'Dawn' said in an editorial that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has also said that Pakistan is ready for talks with India should the latter provide a roadmap for restoration of Kashmir's special status.

"Therefore, India must take solid steps to not only address Kashmiris' concerns, but also to push the peace process with Pakistan forward. Moreover, India needs to halt its efforts to change Kashmir's demographics by settling outsiders in the region. India must show that it respects the wishes of the people of Kashmir, or else such meetings will be little more than a political pantomime," Dawn said.

In recent days, there is a bump up in terrorist activity to break Jammu and Kashmir's peace with encounters almost every other day. The drone attacks in Jammu are also seen as attempts to scuttle the prevailing peace.
Uttara Kannada : , July 1 (IANS) Karnataka's Kolage had a unique but unexpected visitor - a giant crocodile, who strolled through the village before heading back to its usual habitat, as per a video clip which went viral on various social media platforms on Thursday.

After a while, the crocodile vanished back into the river again. However, this incident has left residents in shock and fear.

According to a forest official, due to copious rains in Western Ghat region, rivers are flowing with its brim, including Kali river, one of the biggest rivers in Karnataka, and home to a large number of crocodiles, many of which are found near the temple at the tourist spot of Dandeli in Uttara Kannada district.

Kolage is situated on the banks of river Kali but this was the first time that a crocodile was sighted in this village.

The sanctuary in Dandeli, where dense deciduous trees are interspersed with bamboo and teak plantations, is rich in flora and fauna. Crocodiles are a major wildlife attraction in this sanctuary, which offers both bird watching and crocodile spotting.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 1 : In a matter of shame for Kerala Tourism, two European ladies, on Thursday, complained to the Varkala Police that they were harassed by two men who came on a bike, while they were taking a stroll on the beach.

Varkala is a hugely popular beach destination about 40 kms from the state capital and the incident occurred on Monday late evening when they went for a stroll on the beach.

"While walking on the beach, a man came towards us and we were scared. Soon we started to run, he also came after us. When a third person saw this happening, the person behind us stopped and he ran away," said the lady who was at the receiving end.

These two ladies have been staying at Varkala at a home stay for the past six months and have been trying their best to return to their home countries, but have not been able to go because of the lockdown.

A police official attached to the Varkala Police station told IANS that the complaint was received on Thursday and the police has started the probe.

The police will be examining the CCTV footage in the area.
Kolkata, July 1 : Myanmar's military junta has released more than 2,000 prisoners in the last two days in a possible effort to deflect growing global criticism.

Most of those released had been charged with incitement for joining anti-regime protests, according to the regime's spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun.

"A total of 2,296 people have been released. They took part in protests, but not in leading roles. They didn't participate in violent acts," he told the Burmese media on Thursday.

But prominent activists and National League for Democracy MPs were not among those released.

The regime had detained 6,421 people will Tuesday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a human rights group.

AAPP functionaries said that more than 4,000 political prisoners still remain in detention.

Yangon's notorious Insein Prison has released 721 detainees, including Myanmar Now reporter Ma Kay Zon Nway, who was in detention for more than four months.

She was arrested in late February while covering a protest in Yangon and charged with incitement.

"I didn't have to sign any pledge for the release," she told IANS over FB Messenger.

The other five journalists released from Insein in the last two days were Ko Aung Ye Ko from 7 Day News, Kay Zon Nway of Myanmar Now, freelance editor Ko Banyar Oo, freelance reporter Soe Yarzar Tun, Ye Myo Khant of the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and Hein Pyae Zaw from Zeekwat Media.

All of them were detained in late February while covering anti-regime protests in Yangon and charged with incitement.

Numerous journalists, including Frontier Myanmar's managing editor Danny Fenster, editor-in-chief of the Thanlyin Post Ma Tu Tu Tha, Mizzima News Agency co-founder Ma Thin Thin Aung and Myitkyina Journal's reporters still remain in prison.

Prisons in Pathein, Dawei, Shwebo, Lashio and other places also released detainees on Wednesday and Thursday.

The releases came after the junta dropped charges against 24 celebrities who had booked for incitement to anti-regime activism.

In late March, the regime had released 628 alleged protesters.

The AAPP said in a statement that none of those detained should have been seized in the first place and asked if more innocent civilians would be detained and about those still being held, many of whom are being tortured.

"Any release must aim at real reform and include the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Violence must end and those who committed torture and murder brought to justice. The junta is releasing people while arrests continue," AAPP joint-secretary U Bo Kyi told IANS.

He said the international community must not accept this as a relaxation and continue pressuring for the release of all political prisoners and the return of democracy.

The spate of release began last week when Aung Saan Suu Kyi's media chief U Zaw Htay was released after five months in detention.

A former soldier-turned-Suu Kyi loyalist, Zaw Htay had upset junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing by his strident critique of the military takeover.
New Delhi, July 1 : In a big win for the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations for brand protection across the world, has ordered a Delhi-based firm against using a domain name www.urbankhadi.com, which illegally uses the brand name "Khadi".

The KVIC is a statutory corporation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and is the original owner of the 'Khadi India' brand.

The Administrative Panel of WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center has ruled that the firm "Om Soft Solutions", owned by one Harsh Gaba, had registered and used the domain name www.urbankhadi.com in "bad faith" and to gain benefit from the goodwill of Khadi.

The panel's order came on a petition of KVIC that alleged "Om Soft Solutions" was indulging in the business of garments by misusing the brand name "Khadi".

A note from KVIC said that the panel lent credence to KVIC's contentions that "it was a systematic attempt by Harsh Gaba to derive unfair advantage, wrongful commercial gains and to mislead the public into believing that www.urbankhadi.com is an associate of Khadi India." "It is evident that the respondent can have no legitimate interest in the disputed domain name. Nobody would use the word "Khadi" unless seeking to create an impression of an association with Khadi," the panel noted.

"The evidence submitted by the complainant (KVIC) leads to the presumption that the disputed domain name www.urbankhadi.com was registered and used by the respondent in bad faith. The panel orders that the disputed domain name be transferred to the complainant, i.e. KVIC," the panel ruled.

The panel also categorically rejected the arguments that the word "Khadi" enjoyed no protection and that nobody had an exclusive right to use the name "Khadi".

"The complainant (KVIC) is the owner of several KHADI trademark registrations. The complainant is also the owner of trademarks "Khadi" and "Khadi India". The disputed domain name www.urbankhadi.com includes the trademark of KVIC and is confusingly similar or identical to the trademarks of the complainant (KVIC)," the panel observed.

KVIC Chairman, Vinai Kumar Saxena said the WIPO's order will bolster Khadi's fight against violation of its brand name not only in India but also globally.

"KVIC will take all measures to protect the identity and global popularity of Khadi. KVIC has registered the trademark "Khadi" in several countries to prevent any misuse of the brand name "Khadi" as it has a direct bearing on the livelihood of our artisans. The WIPO's order will be a deterrent for individuals and firms from illegally using the brand name "Khadi"," Saxena said.

It is pertinent to mention that KVIC, in recent times, has won several cases against violation of its trademark "Khadi". On June 4, the Delhi High Court barred a Ghaziabad-based trader JBMR Enterprises from manufacturing and selling counterfeit Khadi Prakritik Paint. On May 28, the Delhi High Court restrained "Khadi Design Council of India" and "Miss India Khadi Foundation" from using the "Khadi" brand name. On May 3, an Arbitration Tribunal in Delhi had said that "Khadi" was not a generic name to be used by private individuals or firms while permanently restraining an individual from using the brand name Khadi. In March this year, the Delhi High Court had also restrained a firm from using the brand name Khadi and the Charkha symbol to sell its products under the name "IWEARKHADI".

The KVIC in the last few years has acted tough against such violators. So far KVIC has issued legal notices to over 1000 private firms including Fabindia for misusing its brand name and selling products under the name of Khadi. The KVIC has sought damages to the tune of Rs 500 crore from Fabindia which is pending before the Mumbai High Court.
Seoul, July 1 : Samsung Electronics is expected to report strong second-quarter earnings on the back of its semiconductor business that offset a lukewarm performance of the mobile unit, analysts here said on Thursday.

The South Korean tech giant was projected to log 11.2 trillion-won (US$9.9) billion in operating profit for the April-June period, up 37.6 percent from a year earlier, while its sales were estimated to increase 15.8 percent on-year to 61.3 trillion won over the period, according to the data from 15 local brokerage houses compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.

Its improvement may have been partly affected by a base effect. Still, Samsung's second-quarter operating profit was estimated to be up 19.5 percent from the first quarter of 2021, according to analysts, although its revenue was projected to fall 6.2 percent.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chip and smartphone producer, will announce its second-quarter earnings guidance next week.

Analysts forecast that Samsung's semiconductor business anchored the company's performance in the second quarter thanks to price hikes in memory chips and the normalisation of its foundry line in Austin, Texas.

They predict Samsung's chip business would post more than 6.5 trillion won in operating profit for the second quarter, nearly double from the first quarter.

"Operating margins for both DRAM and NAND were estimated to have increased from the first quarter apparently due to a price increase, improved product mix and yield rate," said Kim Un-ho, an analyst at IBK Investment & Securities. "Its Austin semiconductor fabrication plant shifting to the black also helped." Analysts estimated Samsung's DRAM average selling price increased by around 15 percent, while that of NAND went up around 3 percent in the second quarter.

Samsung suffered a monthlong shutdown of its Texas fab after a severe snow storm caused power and water outages in February. It went back to full operations in April, but the company suffered more than 300 billion won in losses.

Samsung's mobile business was predicted to report tepid earnings compared with the first quarter due to weak seasonality, coupled with the resurgence of COVID-19 in major markets and chip shortages.

Analysts predict Samsung's IT & Mobile Communications unit to log around 3 trillion won in operating profit for the second quarter, with some expecting its smartphone shipments to decline more than 20 percent from a quarter earlier.

"There seems to have been a decline in demand in India, as well as its production disruption in Vietnam due to COVID-19, while a short supply of application processors for some smartphone models appear to have affected its performance," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities.

Earnings from Samsung's Consumer Electronics (CE) division, which manages TVs and home appliances, were expected to be flat or slightly lower from the first quarter with around 1 trillion won in operating profit.

"Its TV sales may have declined slightly, but due to demand of seasonal home appliances, the CE unit is likely to report similar earnings like the first quarter," said Lee Soon-hak, an analyst at Hanwha Investment & Securities.

Samsung's display panel business was projected to report improved performance from the first quarter with an estimated 1 trillion won in operating profit when a one-off gain is reflected in its second-quarter earnings.

For Samsung's earnings in the second half of the year, many analysts had a positive outlook with its semiconductor business again leading the way.
Colombo, July 1 : Major trade union action urging basic Covid-19 facilities among other demands by Sri Lankan nurses has crippled the islands health service amid the spread of the Covid pandemic.

Over 38,000 nurses working in government-run hospitals stayed away from work applying sick leave, demanding that they be provided with facilities for Covid-19 services, and the long-delayed promotion and disparities within other health workers be solved.

"Nurses battling the pandemic are given only surgical masks while authorities in AC rooms are given quality masks," Saman Ratnapriya, President of the Government Nursing Officers' Association, told IANS.

The union leader complained that nearly 4,000 nurses working on the frontline battling the pandemic have not been given a single vaccine dose.

The strike has brought work in over 1,100 hospitals to a standstill, while the services at nearly 250 medical offices and 17 nurses' training schools too have come to a halt.

However, nurses are attending to the emergency services at the children's hospitals, cancer hospitals and maternity hospitals. They are also, on voluntary basis, working at 125 hospitals and Covid centres where nearly 30,000 Covid infected patients are treated.

The trade union charged that the government has failed to address the long-pending demand to solve the promotion disparities among doctors and nurses.

"While the doctors get the first promotion in two years, the nurses have to wait for 10 years. While the doctors get their second promotion in the ninth year, the nurses have to wait for 20 years," Ratnapriya complained.

He said that six months ago, the government had promised to solve this disparity, but nothing has happened. He also complained that the Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led government has failed to act on his Presidential election promise to promote nurses' education to degree status.

While out-patients departments (OPD) at the hospitals look isolated, thousands of patients are seen flocking outside the hospitals.

Up to Wednesday, Sri Lanka had reported more than 259,000 Coivd-19 cases with over 3,000 deaths.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, July 1 : The Delhi High Court held that stray or street dogs have the right to food and citizens have a right to feed them, but this shouldn't impinge on rights of others.

It emphasised that people should show compassion towards all living creatures, adding that animals may be mute but society is there to speak on their behalf.

A single judge bench of Justice J.R. Midha, ruling on a dispute between two parties regarding feeding of stray dogs, said: "Community dogs (stray/street dogs) have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs but in exercising this right, care and caution should be taken to ensure that it does not impinge upon the rights of others or cause any harm, hinderance, harassment, and nuisance to other individuals or members of the society." Passing a slew of guidelines for the welfare of stray dogs, the court said that animals require food, water, shelter, normal behaviour, medical care, self-determination, and they have a right under law to be treated with compassion, respect, and dignity.

It said that feeding of community dogs have to be done at areas designated by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), in consultation with the Resident Welfare Associations or Municipal Corporation (in case RWA is not available). The court noted that every dog is a territorial being, and therefore, the street dogs have to be fed and tended to at places within their territory which are not frequented, or less frequented, and sparingly used by the general public and residents.

"It is the duty of the AWBI and the RWAs to ensure and keep in mind the fact that community dogs live in 'packs' and care should be taken by the AWBI and the RWAs to see that each pack ideally has different designated areas for feeding even if that means designating multiple areas in a locality," the bench added in its 86-page judgment.

The court noted despite the law prohibiting cruelty to animals, there was an increasing tendency of defiance among citizens and also government officials have taken up a position contrary to the well-settled law.

The court pointed out that in case of any grievance with regard to any act of caregivers and feeders, the residents can seek redressal of same through the Animal Welfare Committee of their areas, and if not satisfied, the issue could be raised before the AWBI through the RWA.

The court said it will be the duty and responsibility of the RWA or Municipal Corporation and all government authorities including enforcement authorities like police to provide all assistance and ensure that no hindrance is caused to the caregivers or feeders of community dogs.

"It is the duty and obligation of every Resident Welfare Association or Municipal Corporation (in case RWA is not available), to ensure that every community dog in every area has access to food and water in the absence of caregivers or community dog feeders in the said area," it added.

The High Court also set up a 7-member committee headed by Director, Animal Husbandry Department or his nominee, to implement court's guidelines for the welfare of dogs.
Mumbai, July 1 : Actress Nikita Rawal has pledged to donate her organs.

"I researched on the blind in the country and found out that India can be cured of the entire blind population in about two to three weeks if everyone donated their organs. I think it's something that everyone should be involved in," said the actress, who has acted in films like "Mr Hot Mr Kool", "The Hero: Abhimanyu" and "Amma Ki Boli".

Nikita also focussed on innumerable people in the country in need of an organ -- be it eyes, kidneys or other implantables.

"Organs have no use after death and they are either going to bury the individual or burn. Organ donation can light up someone's life or give a new lease of life. I think it's my duty as a citizen of this country," she said.

Nikita, who is the founder of Aastha Foundation that works towards the empowerment of underprivileged women in the Nayanagar area of Goregaon, Mumbai, also highlighted the need to get vaccinated.

"The pandemic is not yet over and let us be accountable to one another," said the actress, reminding of the necessity to get vaccinated," she said.

Nikita will be soon seen alongside Arshad Warsi and Chunkey Pandey in the upcoming film "Roti Kapda And Romance".
New Delhi, July 1 : Jon Huntsman, the US Ambassador to Russia, post landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln on April 23, 2019 had remarked, "Each of the carriers operating in the Mediterranean represent 100,000 tonnes of international diplomacy." Exactly two years later, on April 23, 2021, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Navy demonstrated its own capability of naval military diplomacy when, on the same day, it commissioned a Type-55 Renhai-class cruiser, a Type-75 Landing Helicopter Deck and a Type-094 SSBN with a cumulative tonnage of 70,000 tonnes.

The statement of intent is clear.

Discarding its continental mindset, China, the second largest economy in the world, aims to be a global maritime power of the magnitude of the British Empire in the late 17th/18th century and the United States in the 19th/20th century.

The rate at which the CCP Navy has been inducting new warships has been the cynosure of many world navies. Between 2000 and 2020, the CCP Navy commissioned a staggering 195 major combatants such as destroyers, frigates, tankers, submarines, landing ships and corvettes.

More astounding is the fact that 138 of these were inducted into service in the last 10 years at an average of 13.8 per year, with 26 platforms being commissioned in 2020 itself.

Whether it be through reverse engineering or licensed production or cyber espionage or through outright copying, the feat is truly remarkable by any account.

Sometime between 2015 and 2020, the CCP Navy also crossed a critical threshold. It fielded more warships than the US Navy, making it the world's largest navy numerically.

Today, at around 360 hulls, it exceeds its American rival by more than 60 warships and the gap continues to grow rapidly.

Add to it the two other maritime forces -- the Coast Guard and Maritime Militia -- and the CCP Navy in total has over 700 ships even by conservative accounting.

While there was been some scepticism with regard to the combat capabilities of CCP Navy assets, the new generation platforms, like the Type-55 Renhai class, are technologically similar to the latest being inducted by Western Navies and are likely to be the mainstay of the CCP Navy's Carrier Strike Force as well as distant operations task groups.

Anyway, the numbers too do matter sometimes, especially if one is to contest in the dense combat environment in the littoral waters of South and East China Sea.

So, borrowing the tagline of the popular Discovery Channel series - 'How did they do it'? It all started in the 1980s and 90s when the CCP famously 'opened up' all defence manufacturing sectors to civilian production.

The booming global commercial shipbuilding industry was an added bonus and China, taking advantage of a state provided economic stimulus and cheap labour market, soon surpassed South Korea as the world's largest shipbuilder in 2010.

This resulted in sudden mushrooming of smaller and medium-sized shipbuilding enterprises, all vying for the lucrative global market. At one time in 2013, China had more than 800 shipyards and a large number of dry docks.

In comparison, matured players like South Korea had only about 20 shipyards. This unprecedented growth, pushed by the senior most leadership of the CCP, has seen the shipbuilding industry in China grow by 13 times between 2002 and 2012.

Trouble began after the 2008 global financial crisis, which resulted in a sudden downturn in demand for shipping. As a result, most of the Chinese shipbuilding enterprises were operating at drastically lower capacities.

This is when the CCP decided to step in to protect its shipbuilding industry and started giving government contracts for warship production to some of its preferred yards.

This resulted in the sudden spurt in warship production, primarily due to China's socio-economic necessities rather than its operational requirements.

As mentioned earlier, the period between 2013 and 2020 witnessed a meteoric rise in warship production. Such a rise in force levels surely met CCP's geo-strategic agenda too.

The CCP Navy is likely to become a 4-carrier Navy by the end of this decade and could have 10 carriers by 2049.

Presently, they appear to be focusing on integrating their aircraft carriers and the associated carrier battle groups (CBG) with their fighter squadrons. And it's not just the numbers, even the speed of construction has been astounding.

Just to put it into perspective, while the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier or IAC-1 of the Indian Navy was launched in 2013 and is still undergoing trials, the CCP Navy launched its first domestically built carrier, Shandong, in 2017, and commissioned the ship in 2019. Such rapid buildup of ships has never been seen since the end of World War II.

This barrage of Chinese ship construction has great potential implications for the CCP's efforts to coercively envelop Taiwan, resolve other sovereignty disputes in its favour, carve out regions as zones of exceptionalism to international rules and norms, and project Beijing's authoritarian power and influence around the globe, especially in the Indian Ocean.

What all this brings out quite starkly are four critical issues.

First is the need for India to similarly build-up its own Navy in strength. There is an urgent need to address the shortfall in numbers of major combatants and fleet-support ships.

While it is true that over 45 warships are currently being built in the Indian shipyards, the rate of production is painfully slow and as a consequence, the numbers may not be enough in the available time before a possible scenario wherein Indian Navy is pitted against the CCP Navy in the Indian Ocean.

Another matter of concern is with regard to the naval budget. Although India continues to be active in the Indian Ocean Region, it continues to spend far too little on its navy compared to its peers and competitors.

This under-allocation means that the Indian Navy could barely cover its planned expenditure, leaving no money for new purchases or further modernisation. The resultant shortfalls in terms of capable surface combatants, submarines, surface and aerial surveillance assets, anti-submarine capabilities etc. mean that India is less capable of deterring China.

It also brings into focus the need for three aircraft carriers to safeguard national maritime interests within our areas of interest, against the backdrop of changing geo-politics in the Indian Ocean Region. Carrier Battle Groups are our primary source of power projection and provide the Navy with freedom to manoeuvre.

Three aircraft carriers would arm the Indian Navy with the required teeth to deter our potential adversaries from any misadventure, as well as to establish credible deterrence.

And finally, the most important aspect that needs immediate attention from the policy makers is with respect to the slow pace of naval shipbuilding in India, especially those related to complex weapon platforms.

There is a need for the government to accept the capacity limitations of the defence public sector undertakings and encourage private players.

Akin to the Chinese model, greenfield yards in the country may be encouraged to either build relatively low-end platforms so as to free-up capacity in the more established defence shipyards, or to take up construction of major surface-combatants themselves.

There is an enormous scope for private players in the national effort to ramp up the numbers in the Indian Navy's destroyer and frigate holdings.

It is also imperative that, akin to the Chinese, Indian policy makers show the intent and invest capital into the indigenous ship-building industry to ensure that the skilled manpower and captive infrastructure remain as a well-oiled unit.

In the interim, the Indian Navy will have to rely upon its superior training, well-oiled strategy and nimble-footedness in terms of use of the available resources to keep the CCP Navy at bay.

(Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in)
Mumbai, July 1 : Actress Amyra Dastur has a lot of gratitude and respect for her father Rohinton Dastur, a doctor by profession. The actress says she never saw her father, a surgeon in a South Mumbai hospital, complain about sleepless nights over the past one year.

The actress recalls how, in the last one and a half years ever since the pandemic of Covid-19 broke out, she has seen her father work relentlessly.

"My father has always been my hero but in the last year and a half, he is a certified superhero. I have never seen him complain even once, I have seen him wear his coat and do his duty, which is to serve and take care. I have had sleepless nights worrying about his health, and battled with the demon that he is putting his own life at risk for saving the lives of others but my father is a champion, and I couldn't be prouder than I am today. There were days I would just pray for him to come home safe and sound. I have seen him suffer as he lost patients to this deadly disease and it's had a huge mental impact on doctors, as it's shown them death like no other disease in the past year," says Amyra.

The actress, who has been part of films such as "Issaq" and "Made In China", has immense gratitude towards the medical fraternity.

"We think they are conditioned but nothing prepares you for something like covid 19. However, my father is always smiling, always positive and came home to show us that no matter what, duty comes first. On the occasion of World Doctors day, I fold my hands and bow down to all doctors. Thank you for your service, we are alive because you chose to risk your lives," she says.
Hyderabad, July 1 : Actors from across the country took to social media to thank doctors for their unconditional service to the country, on the occasion of National Doctor's Day. From Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit to Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu, many from the film fraternity expressed gratitude on Thursday.

Bachchan took to Twitter and wrote: "On International Doctors Day .. salutations and great pride for the Doctors of India, IMA who have fought and continue the fight against this dreaded virus, selflessly at great personal risk .. in the service of the Country and humanity." Chiranjeevi tweeted: "Saluting ALL the Doctors on this #NationalDoctorsDay.Doctors are the ONLY beings who could save lives.#VaidyoNarayanoHarihi Doctors are the Human forms of Almighty GOD!During this global health crisis this fact has been reinforced yet again.Lets be grateful to them now & always!" Madhuri Dixit Nene tweeted: "Wishing the real-life superheroes, our dear doctors a very #HappyDoctorsDay. Huge respect & gratitude to them for helping us all during these dire times & saving lives every single day. Dil se thank you." Mahesh Babu took to Instagram to praise doctors. The actor uploaded a collage of doctors on duty and captioned it: "Saviours of life.. The greatest heroes of all time! Your contribution and commitment to the welfare of humanity is unparalleled. A big thank you to all the doctors out there! Gratitude always #DoctorsDay." Anushka Shetty uploaded a picture of herself holding a white coat, and captioned it: "Thank You doctors for making this world a better & healthier place to live in. You too are the true HERO's of our universe. Happy Doctor's Day."
Mumbai, July 1 : Asia's oldest existing newspaper - "Mumbai Samachar" - where once Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel used to drop in for tea and a chat, entered the 200th year of publication on Thursday.

It was started as a small bunch of pamphlets on July 1, 1822, by Parsi priest-cum-scholar, Fardunjee Murazban - considered the prioneer of Gujarati journalism - through the first Indian printing press which he launched in 1812.

Initially, Murazban brought out a Gujarati calendar in 1814 before jumping into media journalism in 1822 with the "Mumbai Samachar, 14-pages on three small quarto sheets and a half-sheet supplement in a 10 by 8 inch format.

While the first Asian newspaper was "Hicky's Bengal Gazette" or the Original Calcutta General Advertiser, which came out from 1780, it folded up in 1782. "Samachar Darpan" the country's first non-English newspaper, was published from May 23, 1818 from Hooghly, followed by the "Mumbai Samachar".

"It catered to the thriving business community of the city and provided business-related news, death announcements, and especially shipping time-tables as all trade was conducted through the Bombay port," its present-day owner-Director Hormusji N. Cama, told IANS in a free-wheeling chat.

A weekly till 1832, a bi-weekly till 1855, and then on to a full-fledged daily, the newspaper became a darling of the Gujarati community comprising Parsis, Hindus, Jain, Dawoodi Bohras, Khojas, Memons, et al.

Over the years, while faithfully catering to the business community, "Mumbai Samachar" witnessed history as the Seven Isles known as Bombay transformed into Mumbai, the country's financial-glamour power capital.

The Camas, who acquired it in 1933, continued the paper's strongly "nationalistic" editorial policies which endeared itself to the stalwarts of the freedom movement.

"Gandhiji, Nehru and Patel were frequent visitors to my grandfather, Mancherji Cama, to discuss politics over tea," said Cama, who is now managing the newspaper with his two brothers - Mancherji and Merwanji.

With a daily circulation of barely 15,000 copies in the 1930s, now it sells at least 10-times more, and held a total monopoly in the Mumbai Gujarati daily newspaper segment till the 1990s when its first competitor entered Mumbai.

There was also the "Bombay Chronicle" started by another luminary, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta in 1910, but after the Camas took it over, they shut it down in 1959 to concentrate only on "Mumbai Samachar".

Interestingly, after Asia's first bourse, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) started in 1875, the "Mumbai Samachar" would provide well-researched daily reports on the ups-and-downs right till the 1990s which were eagerly lapped up by the investor community.

"With the advent of the Internet-era, we toned down the stock market coverage However, the BSE authorities publicly objected and we reverted to it for a few years But, as things became quicker due to technology, we now offer detailed analyses," Hormusji Cama told IANS.

As in the past, the Camas ensured the newspaper avoided controversies, never targeted people, communities or politicians unnecessarily as it wanted "the readers to feel good in the morning" instead of getting depressed with negative news.

There was a time when the newspaper would carry many top news a day or two later, since, as Cama explained: "We would verify all news, even from the newswire agencies and the tradition continues though selectively." Surviving for nearly 18 decades without its own set of correspondents, barely in the past 20 years, the newspaper started hiring its own reporters, columnists, expert commentators.

It even appointed the first-ever woman editor for a Gujarati daily, Pinki Dalal, and has a modern bustling newsroom in the 'Red House' - its imposing headquarters near Horniman Circle, which was a landmark well-known as the Red Fort or the White House for old Mumbaikars.

The staffers enjoyed certain privileges like lifetime employment, no retrenchment policy, and modest emoluments compensated by generous festival food coupons, no salary cuts - even if employees remained absent for months or years due to illness, they would continue to get paid, "as it was not their fault and we couldn't just dump them", said Cama.

The current Editor, Nilesh Dave said its glorious traditions continue and entering the 200th year was a landmark occasion of which all are excited.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 1 : Amid the on going infighting in the state unit, Rajasthan BJP chief Satish Poonia apprised the Central leadership in the national capital about the political situation in the desert state.

Poonia met Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Arun Singh and discussed political issues concerning the party and the state.

Poonia's visit to New Delhi is seen as a crucial development a few days after a 22-year-old letter written by him went viral amidst the infighting in the state. In the letter, he had written to the then party president and current Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria in 1999 as the state president of the Yuva Morcha, Poonia had expressed displeasure over not getting the assembly ticket despite assurances from top leaders like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Harishankar Bhabhra, Lalit Kishor Chaturvedi and had resigned from the post.

Party insiders claimed that the letter was shared by Vasundhara Raje's camp after a show cause notice was issued to former minister Rohitashav Sharma, who is considered close to Raje.

Poonia told IANS that he met senior party leaders and union ministers during his visit to the national capital. "I was not called by the Central leadership. I came to Delhi to discuss organisational issues with the party leadership. I briefed them about the political situation in the state. I also told the party leadership that the Ashok Gehlot government is trying to defame the RSS. Since 1948, the Congress party has left no stone unturned to defame the RSS and that is their only agenda," Poonia said.

Recently a video clip that surfaced on social media showed a RSS functionary sitting with others, who were allegedly seen talking about Rs 20 crore commission from a firm for getting its payment released from the municipal body in the state.
New Delhi, July 1 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday that months after Purvi Modi, the sister of fugitive businessman Nirav Modi who is wanted in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, turned approver, she has transferred Rs 17.25 crore into the government bank account.

An ED official said that Purvi Modi, a Belgian national, and her husband Mainak Mehta, were named in the ED charge-sheets as accused in the case.

However, on January 4 this year, the court allowed for grant of tender of pardon under Sections 306 and 307 of the CrPC to her, on condition of making full and true disclosure, and further allowed that the accused be marked as an approver in this case.

The official said that on June 24, Purvi Modi intimated the ED that she had received the knowledge of one bank account in London in her name, which was opened at the behest of her brother, Nirav Modi, and that the funds did not belong to her.

"As Purvi Modi was allowed tender of pardon on condition of making full and true disclosure, she remitted an amount of $23,16,889.03 from her UK bank account to the bank account of the ED," the official said.

"With the cooperation of Purvi Modi, the ED was able to recover approximately Rs 17.25 crore from the proceeds of crime," he added.

Nirav Modi is currently lodged in a prison in London since his arrest in March 2019. His extradition to India was ordered on April 16 this year by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel. He lost the first stage of his extradition appeal in the UK High Court on June 23.

On February 25 this year, a UK court had allowed the extradition of Nirav Modi to India.

Nirav Modi's uncle, Mehul Choksi of Geetanjali group, is also being probed in connection with the case.
Bengaluru, July 1 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday visited the 100-oxygenated bed Covid care facility at Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd's (KPCL) Yelahanka campus here.

The hospital was raised from the ground up in less than 20 days. Of the 100 oxygen beds, 10 beds are dedicated for ICU services and 20 beds for the High Dependency Units (HDU) ward. The hospital will also have triage, donning and doffing, pharmacy, laboratory, rest areas, nurse stations and meeting rooms for medical staff.

"It is commendable that industries and NGOs have collaborated with the government in our fight against the Covid battle. Thank you to Boeing India, SELCO Foundation and Doctors for You (DFY) for building an oxygenated super-speciality Covid care facility at Karnataka State Power Corporation Ltd (KPCL) campus in Yelahanka," Sitharaman said.

The facility has been been jointly funded by Boeing India and SELCO Foundation, while Doctors for You (DFY) provide the necessary staff and care, and KPCL has provided the land for setting up the hospital.

The DFY team will comprise specialist and generalist doctors, paramedics, and facility management staff. Boeing's funding will also provide medical equipment, including CT scanners, ventilators, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, flow meters, and ambulances to the hospital.

The event was attended by Dr Sudhakar, Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Medical Education, Government of Karnataka, Gunjan Krishna, IAS, Commissioner for Industrial Development and Director, Department of Industries & Commerce, Government of Karnataka.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, July 1 : The Delhi Police has initiated a probe after two doctors and a shopkeeper were injured in a scuffle, officials said.

According to Delhi Police officials, on Wednesday night some doctors went to the shop of Bhagat Singh Verma Paranthe Walla in south Delhi's Gautam Nagar and allegedly consumed alcohol in the shop with the owner.

"During this period some arguments started between the doctors and the shopkeeper. Thereafter, allegedly, both parties assaulted each other," a police official said. He said that during the scuffle, two doctors and the shopkeeper Bhagat Singh Verma, his son Abhishek sustained injuries.

He further said that the statements of both parties are being recorded and legal action will be taken accordingly. However, the CCTV footage from the shop where two doctors were injured shows them hitting and kicking the elderly shopkeeper.

In the CCTV footage, the doctors are seen slapping and hitting the elderly shopkeeper. Following which the doctors were attacked by the old man with kicks and punches. The incident of attack on doctors came to the fore on the eve of Doctor's Day, which is being celebrated in the country on Thursday.
Islamabad, July 1 : The quick withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and increasing terror attacks, and claiming various areas, by the Taliban, would undermine Islamabad's efforts to facilitate Taliban's return to Kabul through power-sharing arrangements, says a report compiled by the International Crisis Group.

The report titled "Pakistan: Shoring Up Afghanistan's Peace Process", compiled by the Washington/Brusselsbased think tank, warns that the quick withdrawal of foreign troops would have a direct impact on Pakistan-US and Pakistan-Kabul ties.

"Should the Afghan peace process continue to sputter or altogether fail, Islamabad's relations with Kabul and Washington would sour," it warns.

"Further instability or Taliban gains in Afghanistan could embolden Pakistani militants aligned with their Afghan counterparts, deepening insecurity in Pakistan," the report added.

It is pertinent to mention that the US had expected Pakistan to persuade the Taliban to announce a ceasefire and show some flexibility on their reinstating their version of Islamic governance.

The report further warns that Islamabad's failure in persuading the Taliban to opt for a peacefully-negotiated political settlement, would strain its ties with Washington and the Kabul administration.

"Pakistan should double its efforts to convince the Taliban to scale back both their attacks and their aspirations to reinstate their version of Islamic governance," read the report.

The report raises serious concerns over the probable worsening situation in Afghanistan after the foreign troops' withdrawal, and that it could only reassure and bolster factions of the Pakistani Taliban and could also trigger massive influx of Afghan refugees.

It claims that Pakistan has facilitated and played an important role in the Afghan peace process, because it wants to ensure existence of a power-sharing arrangement with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, the Biden administration's announcement to withdraw all US troops by September 11 has put difficult timelines and deadlines for the peace process to materialise and tackle a probable intensified conflict.

Pakistan's position remains pivotal to the Afghan peace process. Even though its ties with the Taliban are not as strong as they used to be, but since the Taliban shura still operates out of Pakistani havens, Islamabad could still use its efforts and pressure to persuade the Taliban to break the deadlock in the peace talks and reduce violence in Afghanistan.
New Delhi, July 1 : Expressing his anguish at the death of Corona warriors, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday thanked the members of the medical fraternity and their families for their 'exemplary valour and service to the society' during the ongoing pandemic.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the second edition of 'Gratitude Week -- A Tribute to Health Guardians' organised by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHW) Council, a premier health think-tank.

"On the occasion of National Doctor's Day, I would like to appreciate the efforts to organise the Gratitude Week. In this unprecedented war against a new virus, doctors have been the frontline soldiers," Harsh Vardhan said in a video message.

"Each life lost is a matter of great personal grief for me. Doctors have put their own lives at risk to save the lives of others -- there can be no greater example of courage, sacrifice and compassion than this. I also bow down to the family members for encouraging you to carry on with your duty -- I thank you and your families for your exemplary valour and service to the society," Harsh Vardhan added.

He also urged the doctors to take care of themselves, stay connected to their peers for updates and serve as a role model to the people and the community at large.

Meanwhile, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO Southeast Asia, has thanked all healthcare and frontline workers for working tirelessly day and night for over 18 months amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

"We have unfortunately lost many of our health workers to the pandemic. To these brave hearts, their families and our health workforce, WHO salutes you. Your heroism, commitment and duty are legendary. WHO will continue to work with countries to invest in health workforce strengthening, to protect their occupational health and safety and embrace health workforce innovations that enhance health equity. WHO stands in solidarity with all health workers, everywhere," Singh said in a statement.

Every year, July 1 is celebrated as National Doctors' Day by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). While the doctor-per-patient ratio and lack of skilled healthcare workers has been a long-standing structural challenge for India, many have been victims of violence.

According to a Lancet report, more than 75 per cent of the doctors across India have faced some form of violence, and 68.33 per cent of violence was committed by the patients' attendants.
Guwahati, July 1 : In a major haul, the Assam police arrested a serial offender from Goalpara district and seized drugs worth Rs 10 crore from his residence on Thursday, police said.

Police officials said that the drugs and psychotropic substances were hidden in an underground bunker at the residence of drugs manufacturer and peddler Jahangir Alom, who allegedly has been running an underground mini factory to make cocaine based cough syrup. The drugs include yaba tablets, nitrozepam tablets, heroin. Some cash was also seized from Alom's home at Bhalukdubi in western Assam bordering Meghalaya.

Assam's Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta in a tweet said that one JCB, a pickup van, one Alto and one electric rickshaw were seized from the accused's house.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appreciated the police for this big haul of drugs. He tweeted: "In a major breakthrough, the Assam Police nabbed a serial offender Jahangir Alom at Bhalukdubi and seized drugs & psychotropic substances worth Rs 10 cr. Alom ran an underground mini factory to make codeine based cough syrup. Determined to eliminate the drug cartel." This is the second big haul of drugs in Assam within a fortnight. On June 17, Assam police seized heroin valued at Rs 7 crore and arrested two Nagaland based persons, including a woman drug peddler, in the state's Karbi Anglong district. Between May 10 and June 10, drugs worth Rs 24 crore were seized and 500 peddlers arrested.

Promising to intensify the crusade against the trade in illegal drugs, the Chief Minister said that drugs are mostly smuggled from Myanmar making Assam a transit route. Sarma, who also holds the home portfolio, said his government will maintain a zero tolerance policy towards the illegal drugs trade as hundreds of youths are being led astray in Assam with the abuse of various drugs.
Mumbai, July : The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to convict Abdul Rauf alias Daud Merchant for the sensational daylight murder of music baron and T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar Dua near a temple here 24 years ago.

The court also confirmed the acquittal of TIPS music company co-founder Ramesh Taurani, but set aside the lower court's order acquitting Merchant's brother, Abdul Rashid Merchant, and sentenced him to life imprisonment, said the Merchant brothers' lawyer Satish Maneshinde.

A division bench comprising Justice Sadhana Jadhav and Justice N.R. Borkar has found the Merchant siblings guilty of murder, conspiracy, common intentions, and under the Arms Act.

"The appellant (Abdul Rauf) should not be entitled to remission if any. He has criminal antecedents and continued in similar activities thereafter. In the interest of justice and society at large, the appellant doesn't deserve any leniency," the court observed.

The court further noted that soon after the 1997 incident, Abdul Rauf was absconding till his arrest in 2001, and was later released on furlough in 2009 and re-arrested in 2016.

The court's order came in the Maharashtra government's appeal through state counsel Prajakta Shinde against Taurani and Abdul Rashid's acquittal, and Abdul Rauf's appeal against his conviction and life sentence, which was awarded in April 2002 by the then Sessions Judge M.L. Tahilyani.

It may be recalled that on August 12, 1997, Delhi-based music baron Gulshan Kumar was shot dead with 16 bullets fired at him outside a temple in Juhu in suburban Mumbai, triggering a massive upheaval in Bollywood.

The prosecution contended that the killing was an outcome of business rivalries between Kumar and Taurani, and a rift between Kumar and music director Nadeem Saifi of the erstwhile Nadeem-Shravan duo, and the plot was hatched in Dubai, in the premises of Anees Ibrahim Kaskar, the brother of mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar.

As part of the differences, Saifi allegedly hired gangster Abu Salem of Dawood Ibrahim gang to eliminate Kumar, but sneaked away to London in June 1997 and has not returned since. His partner Shravan Rathod died in April 2021.

The killing of Kumar, 40, who ignored death threats against extortion by the mafia, sent terror in Bollywood circles and culminated in a series of mafia attacks on film personalities.

Soon after the sensational murder, the Mumbai Police filed a chargesheet naming 26 accused, of which 15 were arrested and the rest is absconding, while one Mohammed Ali Shaikh had turned approver.

While on furlough in 2009, Abdul Rauf had slipped away to Bangladesh and was rearrested only after his deportation to India. He is currently lodged in the Arthur Road Central Jail here.
Jaipur, July 1 : A small tribal cluster in Rajasthan's Dungarpur is basking in glory for checking the second wave of the coronavirus smartly. It stands tall for giving a 'No Entry' to corona in its periphery and hence can be a learning lesson for all at a time when the third wave of the pandemic remains a strong possibility, said health officials, adding that the villagers here have started collecting money to buy oxygen concentrators.

A gram panchayat Galiyakot had zero Covid patients even at a time when the second wave of Covid was knocking at the doors in neighbouring villages.

District collector Suresh Ola says that the reason for it is the alacrity and awareness of the villagers who cooperated with the administration to win the war against Covid.

Four villages in this gram panchayat namely Limbadiya, Debriya, Gediya and Ratanpura followed all Covid guidelines. The villagers wore masks and maintained social distancing and hence recorded zero Covid patients.

Zila Parishad chief executive officer Anjali Rajauriya said that the village administration, core committee group and villagers worked as a team to block Covid's entry in their area and were successful in their attempts.

Besides this, another gram panchayat Saroda also scripted a success story by taking quick steps to check the spread of Covid.

Rajoriya said that three villages namely Saroda, Damorwada and Kesarpura with a population of around 9,000 come under this gram panchayat.

A total of 85 villagers became Covid infected together which set off alarm bells as there were chances that surrounding populations will catch the infection. However, the village panchayat announced a lockdown for 15 days even before the state government. The entire village was sanitised and the first lockdown was announced there from May 3 to 17.

Each household was given masks, oximeters, sanitiser and streamers.

Testing, tracing and treatment followed to check the infection, said village secretary Bhavesh Patidar.

A door-to-door survey was done, helpline centre was set up and medical kit was home delivered when required.

One thousand packets of Kadha were distributed in houses.

In Saroda, a WhatsApp group was organised and Rs 1.21 lakh was collected. These funds were used to buy sanitisers, masks etc.

This village panchayat is also preparing for the third wave and saving money to buy oxygen concentrators, said health officials.

So the combined efforts of the villagers and the administration helped keep Covid at bay which can be a learning lesson for all, they added.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Gurugram, July 1 : The Gurugram police have arrested four persons including a bank employee for allegedly creating fake documents to claim the life insurance policy of a doctor worth Rs 10 crore in Gurugram.

The mastermind of this gang used to work in the claims department of an insurance company, along with his accomplice had involved a leading private bank employee in their conspiracy and fraudulently had opened a bank account on behalf of the nominee of the insurance policyholder, the police said on Thursday.

The arrested accused have been identified as Nitish Kumar of Samalkha, New Delhi Rajnikanth Kumar, a resident of Jaipur, Durgesh Dubey of Bijwasan, New Delhi and Naval Kishor of Gorakhpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

Based on specific information the accused were arrested from the Palam Vihar area by a crime branch unit Palam Vihar led by Inspector Joginder Singh on Wednesday.

A complaint was lodged by Deepika Bhalla, wife of Dr Prashant Bhalla, a resident of South City-1 Gurugram on June 21.

She alleged in her complaint that some fraudsters had fraudulently tried to claim her husband's life insurance policy based on his fake death certificate and fake bank account.

During questioning the culprits disclosed that Rajinikanth and Durgesh earlier used to work in the claims department of the insurance company and they had complete information about what documents are needed in the claim process.

"They had also obtained the details of the insurance policy of the complainant's husband. Both of them along with their partner Nitish prepared all the fake documents required in the claim of insurance policy and their fellow accused Naval Kishor, who works in a private bank had opened a fake bank account of the complainant," said Inspector Joginder, in-charge of Palam Vihar crime branch unit.

Thereafter, the accused had applied to the insurance company for the claim of the policy of the complainant's husband but when the survey was conducted by the surveyor of the insurance company, the policyholder was found to be alive and the fraud was exposed, he said.

In connection with the incident, a case under various sections of the IPC including the IT Act was registered against unknown culprits at Sector-29 police station.
Mumbai, July 1 : The SEBI has barred Biocon Biologics Deputy CEO Shreehas P. Tambe from the securities market for a period of three months over insider trading.

The capital market regulator has also imposed a total penalty of Rs 2 lakh on him.

The SEBI order said that Biocon had announced information relating to its collaboration with Sandoz and the period of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) was from December 20, 2017 to January 18, 2018.

It is alleged that the information related to the collaboration of Biocon with Sandoz on next-generation Biosimilars is material and before it was published on the website of the Exchanges, was UPSI in terms of regulation 2 (1)(n)(vi) of PIT Regulations.

Tambe who was Senior Vice President at Biocon during the period concerned, had, being an insider, sold 17,440 shares of Biocon during the period December 19, 2017 to December 27, 2017 while in possession of UPSI. Thus, it is alleged he had engaged in insider trading in the scrip of Biocon.

Further, he also allegedly failed to make the timely requisite disclosures to Biocon when he had sold shares, whose value exceeded Rs 10 lakh, on December 19-20, 2017.

"Shreehas P. Tambe shall not buy, sell or otherwise deal in the securities market in any manner whatsoever or access the securities market, directly or indirectly, for a period of three months from the date of this order," the order said.

Further, Tambe is also restrained from associating himself with any listed public company and any public company which intends to raise money from the public or any intermediary registered with SEBI other than Biocon for a period of three months from the date of this order.
New Delhi, July 1 : The Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, said on Thursday that doctors have emerged as heroes without capes during the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that it is saddening to see them being brutally attacked while on duty.

Delivering his speech on the occasion of National Doctors' Day at a 'Defeat Diabetes Launch Campaign', Ramana said that unless one sees doctors working personally, he/she can't visualise the discomfort of being in a PPE kit non-stop for 24 hours in day, and sometimes even for days together with no rest or proper food.

"My salute to all the heroes without capes," he added.

Deploring the brutal attacks on doctors, especially amid the raging pandemic, he said, "It is saddening that our doctors are being brutally attacked while on duty. Why is it that the medical professionals are at the receiving end for someone else's failure?" He pointed out that issues such as insufficient number of medical professionals, infrastructure, medicines, outdated technologies, and government not giving priority to the medical sector are issues of immediate concern.

"Why is it that profiteering by corporates and investors is being blamed on doctors," he asked.

Ramana said that his heartfelt sympathies go to the families of more than 798 doctors who lost their lives in the deadly second wave of the pandemic.

"Owing to the nature of the disease itself, thousands of doctors and healthcare workers have been separated from their families during these difficult times. No amount of medical training or experience can ever prepare anyone to go through the psychological ordeals of the pandemic," he added.

Ramana also said that the pandemic has inflicted huge economic losses on the country and the world as a whole and emphasised that "it should wake us up to the reality that there is no substitute for free and universal public healthcare system with focus on disease prevention." He insisted that there should be a comprehensive policy framework in place where the awareness campaign is also made a part of the 'diabetes eradication programme'.

"For the programme to be successful, the same has to be integrated into a free and universal public healthcare system. Left to individuals, we will never reach the goal," he added.

The CJI added that given the enormity of the challenge, it is essential to design diabetes awareness campaigns at the scale of anti-tobacco and pulse polio campaigns.
Mumbai, July 1 : Actor Amol Parashar, popular as Chitvan Sharma in the web series "Tripling", took to Instagram on Thursday and shared a picture posing against a picturesque valley.

"Photo clouds ka hai, apun foreground hai," he wittily wrote as caption.

In the picture, the actor sits on a cemented fence against the background of a valley, with grey clouds seemingly fading into falling rain. He is casually dressed in a maroon T-shirt, blue denim shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers.

After "Tripling", Parashar went on to do multiple web shows and also featured in Alankrita Shrivastava's film "Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare" opposite Konkona Sen Sharma, besides the Manoj Bajpayee-starrer film "Traffic".

The actor will next be seen in the anthology series "Feels Like Ishq", scheduled to release on July 23. He will also be seen as freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Shoojit Sircar's "Sardar Udham Singh", starring Vicky Kaushal in the title role.
Indias renowned eye surgeon Padma Shri DR TP LAHANE who holds a world record with 162,000 Cataract operations retired from government service after over 36 years. Image Source: IANS News

Indias renowned eye surgeon Padma Shri DR TP LAHANE who holds a world record with 162,000 Cataract operations retired from government service after over 36 years. Image Source: IANS News

Indias renowned eye surgeon Padma Shri DR TP LAHANE who holds a world record with 162,000 Cataract operations retired from government service after over 36 years. Image Source: IANS News

Indias renowned eye surgeon Padma Shri DR TP LAHANE who holds a world record with 162,000 Cataract operations retired from government service after over 36 years. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, July 1 : The country's leading ophthalmologist Dr Tatyaro P. Lahane -- who created a world record with an eye-popping 162,000-plus cataract surgeries -- has retired after over 36 years from government service.

"Now, I will go back to my first love, Opthalmology" a visibly relaxed Lahane told IANS a day after hanging up his boots and attending a variety of media events.

Having served in various capacities with the government, the last post he held was the prestigious Director - Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER) - and was one of the key persons leading the anti-Covid war in the state.

Often regarded as the 'Last Word' in eye ailments, Lahane completed his 100,000th cataract surgery in 2007 -- witnessed by the late Union Minister and former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh -- and was conferred a Padma Shri (2008). Since then the record has climbed upto over 162,000 eye surgeries.

On his post-retirement plans as the country paid tributes to the medical fraternity on National Doctors Day on Thursday, Lahane said he will continue to "serve the people", and would not stop as far as ophthalmology was concerned, going back to the Opthalmology Department at the Sir J. J. Hospital where he was once the Dean.

He was born on February 12, 1957 to a farmer couple Pundlikrao and Anjanabai Lahane, as one of seven siblings, in a small village Makegaon in Latur district.

After his schooling and medical education, he started his professional career at the Ambejogai Hospital in adjoining Beed district.

During his childhood, both his kidneys had failed and his mother donated one of her kidneys to save his life and later in 1995, he underwent a kidney transplant in Mumbai.

Despite the kidney transplant, continuing on medication, Lahane works for more than 15 hours daily and is reputed to have not taken a single day off in several decades.

During his tenure at the Sir J. J. Hospital, he modernized the age-old Opthalmology Department and also brought the state-of-the-art Phacoemulsification Surgery to the government sector which revolutionized cataract treatment in public hospitals frequented by the poor and needy.

Over the years in the public health sector, Lahane conducted thousands of eye camps in the remotest villages or tribal hamlets to bring the benefits of the latest treatment for eye ailments to those who could ill-afford treatment costs or travel to hospitals in distant urban centres.

In 2018, film-maker Virag M. Wankhede paid a celluloid tribute to him with a Marathi biopic - "Dr. Tatya Lahane - Angaar Power is Within".

In his long innings in the ophthalmology field, Lahane has lectured widely, conducted eye camps, and has been conferred several honours and awards for his services to the community and humanity.
New Delhi, July 1 : Bharti-led Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb plans to make its global service available in 2022.

"OneWeb intends to make global service available in 2022," said a company statement.

During a virtual interaction with the media on Thursday, OneWeb's Executive Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal said that the company is 10 months away from its global coverage.

He also said that OneWeb may raise more funds going ahead.

The statement comes just days after Bharti announced to invest an additional $500 million into OneWeb. Post the investment, the total funding raised by OneWeb would amount to $2.4 billion.

Mittal added the company would prepare for commercial launch in the next six months.

On Thursday, the satellite communications company announced the successful lift-off of another 36 satellites to mark the completion of its 'Five to 50' mission.

With this major milestone, the company is on the way to deliver connectivity across the UK, Canada, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, and the Arctic Region, said the company statement.

The completion of the latest launch will take OneWeb's in-orbit constellation to 254 satellites, or 40 per cent of OneWeb's planned fleet of 648 LEO satellites that will deliver high-speed, low-latency global connectivity.

"This fifth launch amid the unprecedented global pandemic is truly remarkable and I congratulate the management team and fellow shareholders on the success," Mittal said.

"Bharti's doubling of its investment earlier this week is testament to the commitment to OneWeb's mission. We now look forward to the next chapter in OneWeb's story, preparing the company for commercial service in the less than six months to deliver our global connectivity solutions to communities around the world," he added.

OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson said: "This is a truly historic moment for OneWeb, the culmination of months of positive momentum in our 'Five to 50' programme, increased investment from our global partners and the rapid onboarding of new customers." During his interaction with the media, Mittal also said that OneWeb's strategy is not to compete with or replace telecom operators, rather it would collaborate with them to provide connectivity in far-flung unconnected areas.

He further said that not only Bharti Airtel, but other players like Jio and Vodafone Idea would also be able to avail its services.
New Delhi, July 1 : The national capital's peak power demand crossed 7,000 MW on Thursday.

Around 3.30 p.m., Delhi's peak power demand clocked this season's highest of 7,026 MW.

This is only the third year in Delhi's power history that the peak power demand has crossed 7,000 MW. In 2018, the peak power demand had crossed the 7,000 MW for the first time, clocking 7,016 MW. In 2019, it had peaked at 7,409 MW.

Power discom BSES, in a statement, said that proper planning and a robust distribution network enabled its discoms to successfully meet the load in their area.

Because of the lockdown, Delhi's peak power demand recorded last year (6,314 MW) on June 29, 2020, was lower than the all-time high peak power demand of 7,409 MW on July 2, 2019.

Moreover, in June last year, Delhi's peak power demand had crossed 6,000 MW, clocking 6,193 MW only on June 18, 2020.

Delhi's peak power demand is expected to be in the range of 7,000 MW to 7,400 MW. Though the original estimates were around 7,900 MW.

Further, BSES discoms are geared up to source adequate electricity to meet the power demand of over 4.5 million consumers and 18 million residents in south, west, east and central Delhi, including essential services such as hospitals, labs, quarantine centres, vaccination centres among others, without compromising the safety of its employees.

Apart from a robust distribution network and accurate load-forecasting, BSES discoms have also made proper arrangement, including long-term PPAs and banking to meet the electricity demands of Delhi consumers, the company statement said.

BSES discoms will arrange up to 600 MW of power through banking arrangements during the summer months. Additionally, BSES is also receiving 220+ MW of wind power, 31 MW from Waste-to Energy and 138 MW of solar power from SECI.

It is also being helped by 110 MW of roof-top solar installed on roof-tops in south, west, east and central Delhi.
Patna, July 1 : Bihar Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahani on Thursday offered to resign, levelling serious allegations on the department's Principal Secretary Atul Prasad.

"Atul Prasad has been sitting on the post of Principal Secretary for the last 4 years and has destroyed the department. He has ignored my suggestions during transfer postings. He should explain what his achievements are during his tenure in this department.

"The department is run by bureaucrats and I am not having options other than resigning from the post," Sahani said.

"We have complained to higher authorities about his approach in the department but no one has taken action on it," he added.

Sources have, however, said that the dispute between Sahani and Prasad happened during transfer postings of CDPOs and other officials of the department.

Sahani wanted transfer posting of officials according to his choice. As per the norms, reshuffle of officers can be possible only after once an officer has completed three years or more at one place. Sahani was allegedly wanting to transfer all officials including those who have not completed three years tenure. His recommendations were refused by Prasad. This was the actual reason for the dispute between him and Prasad, resulting in few transfer postings in the month of June.

As per the norms, the Bihar government used to transfer officials and personnel of every department in June every year.
New Delhi, July 1 : Satish Agnihotri, a 1982 batch IRSE officer (retired) on Thursday took charge as the new Managing Director of the National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL), which is looking after the works of the high-speed rail corridors.

NHSRCL spokesperson Sushma Gaur said that Agnihotri holds Bachelor of Engineering (Civil, 1982) and Master of Engineering (Structures, 1984) degrees from the IIT Roorkee, and was conferred with the distinguished 'Alumnus Award' by the institute in 2013.

She said that Agnihotri comes with more than 19 years of experience in th implementation of mega rail infrastructure projects.

"He had worked as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) for close to nine years. He also held the position of Chairman, High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (HSRC), a fully-owned subsidiary of RVNL, since its inception in July 2012 till August 2018," she said.

Gaur said that HSRC was the Indian-side counterpart agency for carrying out various high-speed studies which were undertaken on government-to-government basis with China, Spain etc. and completed feasibility studies of five high-speed rail corridors.

Gaur further said that during his tenure as the CMD of RVNL, it completed 7,000 km of project length including 3,000 km doubling/3rd line, 880 km conversion of metre gauge track to broad gauge, 3,000 km railway electrification, 85 km new line, six factories and many important bridges.

"A 7 km long tunnel was also completed in a record time of 25 months in a new line project in Andhra Pradesh," she added.

Achal Khare, the first MD of NHSRCL, retired on Wednesday.

"As we bid farewell to our first Managing Director Achal Khare, the NHSRCL family takes this opportunity to thank him for his inspiring leadership and trailblazing spirit towards the dream of India's first high-speed rail corridor," the NHSRCL said in a tweet.
New Delhi, July 1 : The fate of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat remains uncertain even as he met top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders - party chief J.P. Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the future course of action.

Covid-19 pandemic played a spoiler for Rawat as assembly by-elections have not yet been scheduled. Rawat is currently a Lok Sabha MP and as per the rules he needs to be sworn in as an elected MLA within six months of taking over as the Chief Minister.

Top sources in BJP stated that Rawat might be asked to step down as Chief Minister and work to strengthen the party on the ground.

Sources said that in the meeting late on Wednesday, Nadda explained to Rawat that Section 151 of Representation of the People Act, 1951 has created hindrance in his election to state Assembly.

"In an hour-long meeting, all the possibilities were discussed and Rawat was explained about Section 151 of Act which says that by-election must be held within six months of a vacancy occurring. Nadda also explained that the section also provided two exceptions for not holding by-elections -- if the remainder of the term in relation to the vacancy is less than a year or if the Election Commission, in consultation with the Centre, certifies that it is difficult to hold the by-election within the said period," a party insider said.

Rawat was summoned by the BJP's national leadership and reached Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the situation after three days of 'Chintan Shivir' of the party's Uttarakhand unit.

Sources said that Rawat is willing to contest the bypolls to become a MLA to continue as Chief Minister till next year's Assembly polls but the central leadership explained to him that it will be difficult to hold bypolls within the six month period as the poll body has stalled the poll process due to the pandemic.

An insider said that after the midnight meeting between Nadda, Shah and Rawat, it seems that the message is loud and clear to the Chief Minister that it will be difficult for him to continue in office.
New Delhi, July 1 : IDP will acquire 100 per cent of British Councils India IELTS business for 130 million pounds on a debt free, cash free basis.

The IDP and British Council, the two partners of IELTS, the world's most popular high-stakes English language test, announced on Thursday that British Council will sell its IELTS business in India to IDP.

This means that all IELTS tests in India will be delivered by IDP, a leader in global education services. As an Australian listed company, it has operations in more than 50 countries and its websites attract 100 million visits a year.

Under the terms of the agreement, IDP will acquire 100 per cent of British Council's India IELTS business for 130 million pounds on a debt free, cash free basis. The terms also outline that British Council employees working on IELTS in India will become part of the IDP team.

The transaction is subject to customary conditions with the completion expected to occur in August.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the world's most popular English language test for study and migration and is trusted by more than 10,000 organisations around the world as a secure and reliable indicator of English language proficiency.

One of the key benefits of this sale is that customers will see continuity of the test.

Kate Ewart-Biggs, the interim CEO of British Council, reiterated its commitment to its broader services in India.

"Distributing IELTS solely through IDP in India will simplify and improve the customer experience for IELTS test takers. As IDP already delivers IELTS in India, the high-quality service provided to IELTS customers will remain the same.

"To ensure we could continue to deliver on our global cultural relations mission, we explored strategic options for the English examinations business with IDP in India in 2020. The proceeds of the sale will enable British Council to improve its financial position following the impact of Covid-19 on our finances," Ewart-Biggs said.

Andrew Barkla, CEO of IDP, said this agreement marks the start of a new chapter for IELTS in India.

"By bringing together two expert teams, test takers can feel confident they are getting the best experience possible when taking their world-leading test," Barkla said.
Srinagar, July 1 : A policeman was injured after terrorists opened fire on a police party in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Thursday evening, officials said.

"At about 8:50 pm this evening, terrorists fired some pistol shots towards police party near Lazibal, Anantnag. One cop received minor injury. Area was cordoned and search is on," police said.

Additional police parties have reached the spot and an operation has been started to nab the attackers.
New Delhi, July 1 : Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Thursday, a day before the commencement of Budget Session of the state Assembly in which the saffron camp is expected to corner the ruling Trinamool Congress government over the post-poll violence in Bengal.

Sources said that Adhikari discussed the prevailing political situation in the state with Shah, along with other issues ahead of the upcoming Budget Session.

It is learnt that Adhikari also briefed Shah about the party's plan to corner Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the floor of House during the upcoming Assembly session on a host of issues.

Sources said that Adhikari also met Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the national capital.

"Adhikari discussed the ongoing legal battle between the BJP and Banerjee in court over post poll-violence," the sources said.
Bengaluru, July 1 : Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that a special session of the GST Council will be held soon to discuss all compensation-related issues.

Sitharaman, who is on a two-day visit to Karnataka, said that she had already assured all the stakeholders about convening a special session in which every issue related to GST compensation would be discussed in detail.

To a question about Karnataka's GST compensation, she said that every state's compensation will be worked out.

"At this juncture, I cannot give you these figures off the cuff. These are amounts, which are determined based on a formula, which was arrived at last year and that is the basis on which the distribution will start," she said.

Responding to another question, the Finance Minister asserted that the supply of anti-Covid vaccines across the country is well managed and no citizen needs to worry about their vaccination. "It is our (Centre) commitment to vaccinate each and every citizen of this country," she said.
New Delhi, July 1 : The telecom industry is under 'tremendous stress' and it would require some relief from the government and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to come out of it, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said on Thursday.

The Airtel Chairman also reiterated the concern that the industry should not turn into a 'duopoly'.

Interacting with the media on Thursday, Mittal said: "Saying the telecom industry is under stress in an understatement. The industry is under a tremendous amount of stress." Mittal noted that the government should help the industry achieve the 'Digital India' dream.

Observing that the government is concerned about the industry, he expressed hope that it would come forward with some support measures.

On raising tariffs, Mittal said: "We will not hesitate to do it, but it can't be done unilaterally." On Thursday, Bharti-led Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company OneWeb announced the successful lift-off of another 36 satellites to mark the completion of its 'Five to 50' mission.

During a virtual interaction with the media, Mittal, who is also the Executive Chairman of OneWeb, said that the company is 10 months away from its global coverage.

OneWeb plans to make its global service available in 2022.
Gurugram, July 1 : The mega vaccination drive run by the Health Department in the district on the occasion of Doctors' Day has set new records in the Covid vaccination programme in Gurugram on Thursday as 51,241 people were vaccinated at 220 health centres of government and private institutions.

A total of 14,26,475 people have been vaccinated so far.

Dr Virender Yadav, Civil Surgeon Gurugram, expressed his happiness over this new record of vaccinations and said that it is the result of the combined hard work of all the people due to which the district of Gurugram is in a much better position to vaccinate its citizens as compared to not only the state but also the big cities of the country.

"The vaccination camps were organised by the Health Department at 180 government centres. Around 43,314 persons were vaccinated at these 180 places. Also, a target was set to vaccinate 50,000 people of the district in the drive. Apart from government health centres, a vaccination drive was also conducted in 40 private institutions in which 7,927 persons were vaccinated," Dr Yadav told IANS.

Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr M.P. Singh informed that during the vaccination drive around 38,778 people of the 18-plus age group received their first and second doses and 12,066 people above 45 years of age get both doses on the occasion of Doctors' Day. Apart from this, 186 people got Covid jabs in a slum area through mobile vaccine vans.

Along with this, 333 people got jabs in the vaccination camp started at HUDA City Centre Metro station on Thursday.

Besides this, in collaboration with the district administration Reach Pro organised a free drive-through vaccination camp that benefited over 600 people above the 18 years age group.

"We thank the district administration for its support in making the initiative successful. The group also plans to organise more such initiatives in the future," Nandini Taneja, Vice President, Reach Pro Group, said.
Guwahati, July 1 : After over one and a half years in jail, Assam MLA and activist Akhil Gogoi was freed as a special NIA court on Thursday acquitted him in the second of the two cases filed against him in connection with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in December 2019.

Hundreds of his supporters, amid heavy deployment of security forces, greeted Gogoi as he walked out of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital where he was being treated for numerous illnesses, after the special NIA court sent the release order to the Guwahati Central Jail.

"Truth has finally succeeded. The court upheld the democratic rights albeit all kinds of attempts were tried to keep me behind the bars," Gogoi, who is also the President of Raijor Dal, told media after his release.

Gogoi immediately visited the parents of "first CAA martyr" Sam Stafford at their residence in Hatigaon area of the city.

Earlier on Thursday, Special NIA judge Pranjal Das acquitted him and his three associates -- Dharjya Kowar, Manas Konwar and Bitu Sonowal -- in the second of the two cases filed against him in connection with the anti-CAA agitation in December 2019.

Gogoi and his three associates were accused in two cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. They were cleared of all charges in the first case last week.

Welcoming the acquittal, Raijor Dal's Working President Bhasco de Saikia said the court's verdict has exposed the BJP government's attempts to target the party chief without any basis.

Gogoi, 46, was elected from eastern Assam's Sibsagar seat in the March-April Assembly polls, though being in jail since December 2019, for allegedly fomenting violence during the anti-CAA agitations.

The National Investigation Agency had taken up the cases against him and his associates on the basis of two FIRs registered at the Chandmari police station in Guwahati and Chabua police stations in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh district.

Gogoi's lawyer Rahul Sensowa told the media that the three others were also discharged on Thursday. All the three activists are, however, already out on bail.

Gogoi and his associates werecharged with criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds such as religion, race and language, assertions against national integrity and support to a terrorist organization including Maoist link.

The NIA court had last week granted two days' parole to Gogoi to meet members of his family in Guwahati and eastern Assam's Jorhat. His 84-year-old mother Priyoda Gogoi is also ailing.

Gogoi is the first lawmaker in Assam to win an election from jail. His mother, son Nasiketa and prominent activists of the country, including Medha Patkar, Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey, several students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and intellectuals from different parts of the country, had come to Sibsagar to campaign for him.
New Delhi, July 1 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday carried out searches at nine locations in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in connection with the case relating to extortion by Khalistani terrorists.

An NIA spokesperson said agency sleuths carried out searches at nine locations in Barnala, Moga, and Ferozepur in Punjab and Meerut and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh in connection with a case it registered related to threats and extorting money by Khalistani terrorists at Mehna and Moga in Punjab.

A case was registered in Punjab's Moga district in May this year relating to information received by Punjab Police that Arshdeep Singh alias Arash, a resident of Moga, Charanjit Singh alias Rinku, a resident of Barnala and Ramandeep Singh alias Jajj, a resident of Ferozepur, all currently residing abroad, had formed a gang and were threatening and extorting money from people.

NIA had taken over the probe on June 10. The official said that during investigation, three accused persons have been arrested and arms and ammunitions have been recovered at the instance of the arrested. The official said that Arshdeep Singh is a close associate of Hardeep Singh alias Nijjar, chief of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), who has been declared a designated terrorist by the Indian government.

"As per Hardeep Singh's directions, Arshdeep Singh had formed this terrorist gang comprising gangsters and shooters based in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh," the official said, adding that the arrested accused persons have killed three businessmen and targeted entities based in Punjab and they had identified other targets as well.

The official said that during searches conducted at Beehla in Barnala, Dala in Moga, Ghall Khurd and Satiawala in Ferozepur in Punjab, and Hastinapur and Udyawali in Uttar Pradesh, empty bullet cartridges, one polybag containing 122 grams of narcotic substance, digital devices including compact drives, mobile phones, SIM cards and many incriminating documents have been recovered.
Chennai, July 1 : Tamil Nadu Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, Anitha R. Radhakrishnan, said on Thursday that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is of the view that talks between India and Sri Lanka are necessary to have a permanent solution to the attacks on Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.

"Whenever such attacks take place, the Chief Minister immediately contacts the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister. The Chief Minister is of the opinion that both countries should conduct high-level talks regarding this and find a permanent solution to this issue, which will happen soon," Radhakrishnan told mediapersons.

Fishermen association leader Jesu Raja said, "Talks are necessary and important, as the Sri Lankan Navy behaves very rudely with our fishermen when they accidentally cross into the Sri Lankan waters. Talks are important for a permanent solution to this problem." Radhakrishnan also said that all efforts are being made to improve the ranking of Tamil Nadu to retain back its position as the number one exporter of fish in the country, adding that the state has now slipped to the fifth position.

He said that export of freshwater fish would be promoted to get foreign currency like Andhra Pradesh which is exporting freshwater fish in huge numbers.

Asked about the government fixing prices for fish as demand by some fishermen's bodies, the minister said, "We have to make a decision taking into consideration all the factors related to this. We will have discussions with the concerned people and officials and then see what could be done." Radhakrishnan was inspecting the progress of work at the Advanced Institute for Integrated Research on Livestock and Animal Sciences in Thalivasal.

The institute has been set up at over an area spanning 1,022 acres and will have advanced facilities for research and veterinary sciences. The centre will also have a livestock farm and will provide self-employment support to the farmers, the minister said.

Radhakrishnan said that the veterinary college at the centre is currently teaching 40 students and the strength would be increased to 80 in the near future.

He also said that foreign students will be admitted to the veterinary college and the institute will be uplifted to international standards.
Chennai, July 1 : Arrested AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu Minister M. Manikandan has moved the Madras High Court seeking bail in a rape case.

He is now lodged in Puzhal jail after there were complaints that he was provided VIP facilities at the Saidapet Sub Jail where he was kept after being arrested in Bengaluru on June 20.

The AIADMK leader, in his bail plea, said that the complainant is not a teenager or an illiterate woman but a Malaysian citizen and a movie actor, who knows fully well the consequences of having a sexual relationship with a married man. He said that even if her complaint of having a sexual relationship with him on the promise of marrying her after divorcing his wife was true, it did not amount to rape.

He claimed that a completely false complaint had been lodged against him by the Malaysian actor and her associates to avoid repayment of a loan amount of Rs 5 lakh that she had taken from him.

Manikandan also said he was a general surgeon in the Tamil Nadu government service for 12 years before entering politics and that he had a credible track record.
Bengaluru, July 1 : Karnataka on Thursday issued fresh special surveillance measures for travellers from Kerala, asking them to produce a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours or vaccination certificate of at least one dose of Covid vaccine compulsorily.

These fresh guidelines will be applicable to those who are entering from Kerala by air, bus, train, taxi, personal transport or any other mode of transportation.

According to the circular, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) has intimated that Delta+ mutant strain is reported in certain districts of Kerala, hence, Karnataka has come up with new set of guidelines, though the state is satisfied with the measures taken by Kerala to curb the spread of this mutant.

"Prevailing pandemic situation entails taking special surveillance measures to prevent the spread into the bordering districts of the state, therefore, fresh guidelines have been issues," the circular maintained.

The circular added that Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of districts bordering Kerala, i.e. Dakshin Kannada, Kodagu, Mysuru and Chamarajnagara shall make necessary arrangements to deploy additional staff at check posts to ensure that all vehicles entering Karnataka are checked for compliance of the requirement.

The circular also stated that airlines, railways and state-run transport corporation authorities shall issue boarding passes in buses or railways only to those passengers carrying negative RT-PCR tests reports not older than 72 hours or certificate of at least one dose of inoculation of Covid vaccine.
Hyderabad, July 1 : The Prohibition and Excise department of Telangana busted a drug racket and arrested two peddlers including a Yemen national in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Eight grams of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 17 grams of cocaine, 15 grams of hashish and 73 ecstasy pills were seized during a raid on a house in Banjara Hills.

Officials said Rs 80,000 in cash, two mobile phones, a digital weighing machine were also seized. They arrested Abdurabu Mohammed, a Yemen national and Solomon Susairaj, 28, a resident of Balamrai in Secunderabad here.

The 31-year-old Yemen national, who was arrested on similar charges about two years ago, revealed that he was selling the drugs here to his known customers.

The Yemen national told investigators that he came to India in 2010 to pursue studies. He discontinued his degree course at a college in Pune and joined Hyderabad's Nizam College in 2013. He got addicted to drugs and discontinued education again.

He was arrested in 2019 for selling drugs to his friends. After release from jail, he left for Bengaluru. He then started sending drugs from Bengaluru to Hyderabad with the help of his associates.

The foreign national came to Hyderabad from Bengaluru earlier this week along with Solomon. Acting on a tip-off the excise department officials arrested them and seized the drugs.

Abdurabu told officials of Prohibition and Excise department that he purchased cocaine and hashish from a Nigerian national Ezeh Chidi, who resides in Mumbai and MDMA from Victor, a resident of Bengaluru. Both Chidi and Victor are said to be absconding.

Abdurabu had purchased cocaine at Rs 3,000 per gram and sold it for Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000. He had purchased MDMA at Rs 2,000 per gram, hashish at Rs 2,000 per tola and each Ecstasy pill at Rs 700.
Dhaka, July 1 : It was late evening on July 1, 2016 when five young militants stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery, a popular site for expats, in Dhaka's Gulshan area and went on to kill 20 diners, two policemen and two staffers before they were shot dead by army para-commandos the next morning.

Five years hence, the paperwork of the death reference of seven convicts is now ready, but the hearing cold not start due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The neo-JMB militants, armed with pistols, sub-machine guns, choppers and grenades, had taken around 40 people hostages, including restaurant staff and guests. Among the diners, they killed an Indian girl, nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Bangladeshi-born American, and two Bangladeshis.

Two police officials -- Salahuddin Ahmed, Officer in Charge of Banani police station, and Rabiul Karim -- were killed as they tried to take on the attackers.

In an army mission codenamed 'Thunderbolt', para-commandos rescued 13 hostages, included women and children, and killed all five attackers to end an overnight siege that shocked the world and came on a Friday during Ramadan.

The incident changed the perception of militancy in Bangladesh, showing how even educated youths from well-off families can be lured into this most atrocious crime.

In wake of the attack, Bangladesh shifted resources to combating the scourge and anti-militancy operations were intensified. Dozens of militants were killed, including most of the masterminds behind the attack, or arrested.

An anti-terrorism tribunal on November 27, 2019 sentenced to death seven militants of the banned Neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB) for the attack.

"The attackers are unworthy of mercy, because of the despicable manifestation of militancy's insane, cruel and brutal side," judge Md Mojibur Rahman held.

"The armed terrorists carried out the killings in front of children. The militants hacked the motionless bodies to confirm their deaths. The Bakery turned into a Death Valley all of a sudden," he said. The attack was an "attempt at character assassination of a secular Bangladesh" and it made foreigners feel insecure in the country.

The seven convicts sentenced to death are Jahangir Hossain aka Rajib Gandhi, Rakibul Hasan Regan, Aslam Hossain alias Rashedul Islam Rash, Abdus Sabur Khan alias Soheil Mahfuz, Hadisur Rahman Sagar, Shariful Islam Khaled alias Khalid and Mamunur Rashid Ripon. Another accused Mizanur alias Borro Mizan, was acquitted as his involvement could not be proved.

Following the rules, the death references were sent to the High Court on December 5, 2019. The High Court's dispatch then forwarded them to the Death Reference Department that sent a copy of the verdict and other documents to the government press after scrutiny.

After five months, on August 18, 2020, the press submitted the paper-book to the court's relevant department. But Bangladesh was already being battered by the pandemic.

The court officials prepared the paper-book nearly a year back but a High Court bench to hear the death references is yet to be designated.

Attorney General A.M. Amin Uddin on Thursday he will try his best to see the hearing is held as soon as possible once the situation is back to normal.

"There has been a delay to begin hearing the death reference cases because the court has not been operating regularly since March last year," he said.

However, the top law officer did not say whether the government will appeal against the acquittal of the accused or not.

Supreme Court spokesman Mohammed Saifur Rahman said: "Due steps will be taken on the death references following the rules once the work is done." Meanwhile, to mark the attack's 5th anniversary, the RAB and DMP chiefs paid homage to the sculpture of Saladin Khan and Rabiul Karim with flowers. Also the cafehouse in Gulshan was opened for visitors, especially foreigners to pay their tributes, by placing wreaths but on a limited basis due to the strict lockdown.
Patna, July 1 : After Bihar Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahani on Thursday offered to resign, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his governance model.

"The double engine government of Nitish Kumar is undergoing a huge internal dispute. The boat of NDA is wobbling and it would sink anytime," RJD leader Mritunjay Tiwari said.

"Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahani has offered resignation as he is miffed with the bureaucrats. There are several other ministers in Nitish Kumar government having a similar plight. They are ready for resignation. The bureaucrats are ruling in their respective departments and not listening to the ministers.

"Our leader Tejashwi Yadav is pointing out the same for long time and it has been proven on Thursday after Sahani offered his resignation and BJP MLA Gyanendra Singh Gyanu levelled allegations on ministers for taking massive bribes during transfer-posting of officials and personnel in different departments come under Bihar government," Tiwari added.

"We believe that the Nitish Kumar government will soon lose its majority in the house as ministers like Madan Sahani are offering their resignation. In this case, the Nitish Kumar government may collapse soon," he claimed.
Bengaluru, July 2 : Karnataka would build a memorial in Bengaluru for doctors who died due to Covid-19 during the pandemic, state Health Minister K. Sudhakar said on Thursday.

"The memorial, to be the first in the country, will be built at the Arogya Soudha in the city housing the health department to commemorate the doctors who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty while treating Covid patients in government and private hospitals across the state," said Sudhakar, marking the National Doctors' Day celebrated on July 1 every year.

According to the health department, about 700 doctors have died on Covid duty across the southern state since May last year.

"As frontline warriors in the battle against the virus, several doctors, nurses and paramedics died on Covid duty. They are remembered as martyrs," said Sudhakar, who's a medical doctor by profession.

"A model will be designed soon for erecting the memorial where people can come and pay their homage to the martyred doctors, just as public pays respect to martyred soldiers at the War Memorial in Delhi," he added.

Participating at the Doctors' Day event organised by the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) state chapter, the minister expressed gratitude to the doctors, healthcare workers and frontline warriors for their service and sacrifice in the fight against coronavirus.

As part of ramping up the healthcare infrastructure in the state, the health department has recruited about 4,000 doctors in the last six months to treat Covid patients across the state.

Condemning the attacks on doctors and medical staff, Sudhakar said that people should not take law into their hands, as health warriors try their best to save patients till their last breath.

"Legal action will be taken against those assaulting the doctors on duty for the death of Covid patients. The offenders will be jailed for 5-7 years," he said.

Recalling the services of visionary doctor late B.C. Roy, whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Doctors' Day, the minister said the former West Bengal Chief Minister's contribution to the medical field was immense, as he inspired the medical fraternity by his ideals.

Born on July 1, 1882, Bidhan Chandra Roy was a noted physician, educationist, freedom fighter and statesman, who served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1948 until his death on July 1, 1962.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Bengaluru, July 2 : Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar on Thursday said his party workers will soon reach out to people who have lost their kin during both Covid waves since March last year that has wreaked havoc in the state.

Shivakumar told reporters that his party strongly believes that the Karnataka government headed by ruling BJP has been busy in a cover-up of total deaths that occurred during at least the last one year of Covid.

"There is no coherence in the state's Covid deaths which according to the state stands at 35,000 but the state gets exposed by its own government agency eJanma which has issued death certificates for over 3.27 lakh people in the last one year. This is a case in point, that the state government is hiding real numbers," he argued.

Citing death figures from the eJanma website of the Office of the Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths, the state Congress chief said that between January 1 and June 13, there were 3.27 lakh deaths in the state and as on June 30, this figure stood at 3.60 lakh.

He demanded the state government to carry out mandatory death audit for truth to prevail. "If the state government fails to do it (death audit), our workers will go to each and every house and draw up a list of people who died last year and this year due to the pandemic," the KPCC president warned and added that the party's massive month-long outreach programme was launched on Thursday.

"We have made our own application form for households that have not received Covid death certificates. Our party workers will launch protests in order to exert pressure on officials to issue death certificates, which will be used to claim compensation from the government," he explained.

Shivakumar said the state government should be generous during testing times like these and the state government should not hesitate to disburse compensation, with or without a doctor's certificate.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Bengaluru, July 2 : The Karnataka government has directed all the universities in the state to vaccinate their students on priority before offline classes begin for the 2021-22 academic year, Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan said on Thursday.

"We have directed the vice-chancellors of all the universities in the state to vaccinate their wards (students) by July 10 on priority to facilitate opening of physical classes in higher educational institutes, including colleges," Narayan said in a statement here.

Narayan, a medical doctor by profession, holds the portfolios of higher education, IT, BT and science and technology in the BJP-led Karnataka government.

"As per the vaccination drive schedule, maximum number of students above 18 years will be administered the jab over the next 10 days across the state," he said after a virtual meet with the vice-chancellors.

As part of gradual lifting of the lockdown measures in the state, Narayan said the date of opening of colleges and universities would be decided on the success of the vaccination drive to protect the students from the pandemic.
ITJuana, a tech services company based in San Diego that enables customers to create technology centers of excellence in Tijuana is pleased to announce that Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive Officer of ITJuana, has been recognized as the San Diego Business Journal 2021 CEO of the Year awards winner in the category of Rising Star. This award recognizes local industry leaders great achievements within their companies and in the community.

This year only, Maritza Diaz was also honored by the San Diego Business Journal as Women of Influence in Technology, setting an exciting year of success and growth for her company. This award represents a major stepping stone on her goal of leveraging the strength of the CaliBaja region to build a thriving innovation economy that leads the digital transformation for companies in California.

My team represents the amazing digital talent that is available in our region. Engineers that are helping our customers solve very difficult problems of the future. Problems that are very impactful and rewarding at the same time. My team, this award is for you.

About Maritza Diaz

Maritza Diaz is a talented and seasoned technology executive with over 25 years of experience in IT and Software Engineering. She is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and is a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco where she represents San Diego. Prior to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of ITJuana, Maritza served as Sr. Director at Thermo Fisher Scientific where she was responsible for growing the companys digital capabilities in North America, India, and Mexico. In this role, she successfully managed the digital and agile transformation of an organization composed of 800 software professionals; today this organization is considered one of the finest software organizations in the industry.

About the Award

The San Diego Business Journals 2021 CEO of the Year Awards recognizes local industry leaders great achievements within their companies and in the community. The winners and finalists are lauded for demonstrating determination and insight yielding huge successes for their organizations. These executives have taken the lead in driving their businesses and the local economy.

About ITJuana

ITJuana is devoted to serving fast-growing, high-value market sectors that contribute to the growth of the Cali Baja region. With a Nearshore model, working with the highest quality software engineers, data scientists, and creative designers from across Mexico and Latin America, ITjuana enables companies to create world-class software engineering centers of excellence in Tijuana, MX. For more information visit http://www.itjuana.com
Fred Alger Management, LLC (Alger), a $45-billion growth equity investment manager, is pleased to announce that Dr. Sanjiv Talwar and Keye S.K. Chow have joined the firm to expand its health care sector team.

Dr. Talwar joined as senior vice president, senior analyst, portfolio manager and head of health care. Mr. Chow joined as senior vice president and senior analyst.

I am pleased to welcome Sanjiv and Keye to Algers investment team, said Dan Chung, CEO and Chief Investment Officer. Sanjiv brings significant health care experience to our organization and I believe his deep knowledge of the sector will be valuable to our firm and our clients. Keye has spent the majority of his career investing in health care and technology and I believe he will be a key contributor given his emphasis on bottom-up, fundamental research.

Sanjiv also joins Dan as a portfolio manager on the four-star Morningstar rated Alger Health Sciences Fund and the Alger Large Cap Growth strategy.

Dr. Talwar has 15 years of investment experience and more than 12 years of experience in scientific and medical research. Before joining Alger, Sanjiv was a portfolio manager for a life sciences fund at Invesco, where he also served as a senior health care analyst on a global fund. Prior to that, he was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company, where he led consulting teams focused on health care, serving industry and private equity globally. Sanjivs research experience includes roles as a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the State University of New York and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, where he helped develop the science of brain-machine interfaces. He was also a resident surgeon in Mumbai, India and a professional squash player in the U.S. Sanjiv earned an M.D. from the University of Bombay and both a Ph.D. and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Keye has 17 years of investment experience, most recently as a senior equity analyst and sector portfolio manager at Invesco, where he led fundamental research and stock selection across health care services, medical technology and biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to that, Keye was an equity analyst covering health care and technology at several investment managers, including Millennium, Credit Suisse, Ivory Capital Management and Palmyra Capital Advisors. He also gained experience in the technology industry during his time in business development and corporate development roles for Documentum and RSA Security, respectively. Early in his career, he worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and a strategy consultant at LEK Consulting. Keye earned a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering at Stanford University. He also earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

About Alger

Founded in 1964, Alger is widely recognized as a pioneer of growth-style investment management. Headquartered in New York City with affiliate offices in Boston and London, Alger provides U.S. and non-U.S. institutional investors and financial advisors access to a suite of growth equity separate accounts, mutual funds, and privately offered investment vehicles. The firms investment philosophy, discovering companies undergoing Positive Dynamic Change, has been in place for over 50 years. Weatherbie Capital, LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser specializing in small and mid-cap growth equity investing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alger. For more information, please visit http://www.alger.com.

Risk Disclosures: Investing in the stock market involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. Growth stocks may be more volatile than other stocks as their prices tend to be higher in relation to their companies earnings and may be more sensitive to market, political, and economic developments. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness such as COVID-19 or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant impact on investments. A significant portion of assets will be invested in healthcare companies, which may be significantly affected by competition, innovation, regulation, and product obsolescence, and may be more volatile than the securities of other companies. Investing in companies of small capitalizations involve the risk that such issuers may have limited product lines or financial resources, lack management depth, or have limited liquidity. Private placements are offerings of a companys securities not registered with the SEC and not offered to the public, for which limited information may be available. Such investments are generally considered to be illiquid. Foreign securities involve special risks including currency fluctuations, inefficient trading, political and economic instability, and increased volatility. Active trading may increase transaction costs, brokerage commissions, and taxes, which can lower the return on investment.

This material is not meant to provide investment advice and should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell securities.

2021 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating  based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a funds monthly performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating may differ among share classes of a mutual fund as a result of different sales loads and/or expense structures. It may be based in part, on the performance of a predecessor fund. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Alger Health Sciences Fund Z was rated 4, 5, and 3 Star(s) for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods among 136, 127, and 104 Health funds as of 3/31/21.

Rankings and ratings may be based in part on the performance of a predecessor fund or share class and are calculated by Morningstar using a performance calculation methodology that differs from that used by Fred Alger Management, Inc.s. Differences in the methodologies may lead to variances in calculating total performance returns, in some cases this variance may be significant, thereby potentially affecting the rating/ranking of the Fund(s). When an expense waiver is in effect, it may have a material effect on the total return or yield, and therefore the rating/ranking for the period.

Before investing, carefully consider a Funds investment objective, risks, charges, and expenses. For a prospectus and summary prospectus containing this and other information or for a Funds most recent month-end performance data, visit http://www.alger.com, call (800) 992-3863 or consult your financial advisor. Read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing.

Distributor: Fred Alger & Company, LLC. NOT FDIC INSURED. NOT BANK GUARANTEED. MAY LOSE VALUE.

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The Su2ura Approximation Device for Minimally Invasive Surgical Suturing Similar to sewing machines becoming a household item, Anchora Medical was founded to extend these same ideas to bring automated and simplified suturing to minimally invasive surgery. We are delighted the Su2ura has received FDA clearance to turn this vision into a reality.

Anchora Medical, an Israel-based medical device company, announced today that it has received 510(k) clearance from the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its Su2ura Approximation Device, an innovative, automated suturing device used in laparoscopic surgery, for the placement of interrupted or running stitches in soft tissue.

Today, standard laparoscopic suturing during Minimal-Invasive Surgery (MIS) is complex and technically challenging. Surgeons face altered depth perception, two-dimensional vision, a small working field, and use long instruments, where the needle driver is far from the surgeons hand, making precision suturing challenging.

The Su2ura Approximation Device enables a simple, automated single-trigger operation that combines simplicity, strength, and durability of sutures during MIS. By simplifying the suturing procedure, the Su2ura Approximation Device aims to shorten operation time, lower costs, reduce risks and improve clinical outcomes.

The proprietary, patent protected Su2ura Approximation Device incorporates tiny stainless-steel smart anchors threaded on a surgical thread to create sutures seamlessly adjusted by the surgeon for precision suturing in small spaces. It is a sterile single-use device operated through a 5 mm laparoscopic port.

The Su2ura device has been used in human trials, performing laparoscopic procedures and successfully closing primary umbilical hernia defects prior to mesh fixation. The surgeries are being performed in two medical centers.

Anchoras CEO, Yoni Epstein, commented: "We are proud to receive FDA clearance for our novel Su2ura Approximation Device which will set a new standard in the way laparoscopic and endoscopic suturing is performed during MIS. The FDA clearance signifies a critical milestone in our development and will enable us to move forward to commercialization."

Anchora Chairman, Dr. Shimon Eckhouse, added: Similar to sewing machines becoming a household item, Anchora Medical was founded in 2014 to extend these same ideas to bring automated and simplified suturing to minimally invasive surgery. We are delighted the Su2ura has received FDA clearance to turn this vision into a reality.

Among Anchoras investors are HOYA Corporation (ADR: HOCPY, TYO: 7741), Dr. Shimon Eckhouse, Alon Medtech Ventures, Tal Capital, and other private investors.

About Anchora Medical:

Anchora Medical is a privately-held medical device company based in Israel. Its platform technology is devoted to changing suturing in both laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures. Anchora was founded as part of the IIA, Alon Medtech incubator. For more information, visit: http://www.anchora-medical.com .
Camana Bay, Grand Cayman Weve seen a steady increase in leasing enquiries from both startups and established businesses in the reinsurance industry.

The reinsurance industry in the Cayman Islands continues to grow after a three-year high in registered insurance companies in the Cayman Islands was recorded in 2020 (source; source), and this growth shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Well-regulated framework

In April 2021, Moodys Investor Services affirmed the Cayman Islands Aa3 rating, reflect the governments low debt burden, high per-capita income and strong institutional framework. While this demonstrates the British Overseas Territorys financial stability, its only one of many reasons why reinsurance is becoming one of the countrys fastest growing industries.

During the past five decades, the Cayman Islands has established itself as one of the worlds leading financial services jurisdictions thanks in part to a business-friendly environment and a sophisticated regulatory framework, which plays a vital role in long-term commercial success and in protecting the financial health of public and private institutions. As a result, the Cayman Islands has earned a spot as one of the top three captive insurance domiciles in the world (source). In 2019, Captive International reported $21.1 billion in total assets for the largest 20 commercial reinsurers domiciled in the Cayman Islands, approximately one-third of the total assets of international insurers.

Adrian Lynch, executive vice president  North America, Artex Risk Solutions, and Jim Owen, chief financial officer at Aureum Re, both agree that the Cayman Islands regulatory framework is particularly attractive for large global reinsurers.

[Our regulatory framework] is particularly attractive for large global reinsurers looking to transact in the Cayman Islands, says Lynch.

Owen reiterates that this framework is an overarching factor in Caymans ability to align itself with the US from a regulatory and reporting perspective. He also notes that the Cayman Islands insurance law permits reinsurers to adopt their own internal capital model for capital requirements.

This has been good for us because we're able to adopt the NAIC [National Association of Insurance Commissioners] risk-based capital guidelines thereby remaining transparent to the US market, says Owen.

Poised for growth

Caymans well-regulated financial system is characterised by transparency, strict anti-money laundering laws and a community of professionals committed to maintaining high-calibre transactions. Additionally, the jurisdictions high standard of living, sophisticated infrastructure, politically stable government, straightforward immigration and residency laws and top-quality commercial and residential real estate options are attractive to reinsurers.

In late 2020, the Cayman International Reinsurance Companies Association (CIRCA) was formed in response to the industrys emergence and with a mission to promote the reinsurance industry through peer interaction, advocacy and education on topics impacting the regulatory and business environment.

Weve seen a steady increase in leasing enquiries from both startups and established businesses in the reinsurance industry, says Jennifer Ebanks, Senior Manager of Leasing at Dart. The trend began before the pandemic and has continued since the formation of CIRCA. We are also seeing some of the major names in the industry showing interest in relocating here.

Ebanks notes that Dart Real Estates existing Class A and Class B office buildings are nearly fully leased and the developer is adding 200,000 square feet to its existing portfolio to meet the demand the team are receiving from across the financial services and technology industries.

These are high-quality commercial spaces managed by a best-in-class landlord, says Ebanks. But I also believe this continued demand for commercial real estate is the result of people discovering all the wonderful things the Cayman Islands has to offer such as ease of doing business and a truly sophisticated lifestyle. Ebanks notes that the Cayman Islands is poised to grow an industry that has typically domiciled in other jurisdictions.

For more information, follow Dart Real Estate on LinkedIn and Twitter or visit DartRealEstate.com.

About Dart Real Estate

Dart Real Estate is a development company based on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory.

The companys flagship development is the 685-acre mixed-use, master-planned town of Camana Bay, the Caribbeans first and only community founded on the principles of New Urbanism.

Dart Real Estates portfolio continues to grow with the addition of world-class Seven Mile Beach developments, including Kimpton Seafire Resort + Spa, The Residences at Seafire, The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, Hotel Indigo and Paradise Villas on Little Cayman.

Dart Real Estate also manages Regatta Office Park, Flagship Building, Island Plaza and the Cayman Islands Yacht Club. It developed the residential neighbourhoods of North Creek and Salt Creek. In addition, the 26-acre Dart Nursery propagates and supplies native plants and trees for all of its developments and properties.

Dart Real Estate strives to enhance the quality of life and to create opportunities for all in the Cayman Islands through purposeful placemaking, meaningful connections and lasting experiences that transcend bricks and mortar.

For more information, visit dartrealestate.com and keep up with the latest developments on LinkedIn, and Twitter.
"I am a firm believer that the business opportunities provided by federal, state and local government agencies will directly catapult the growth and development of minority- and women-owned small businesses in our country" --Cheryl McCants, Impact Consulting Enterprises president & CEO

After receiving thousands of nominations, GovSpend, a technology company that aggregates purchase order data from government agencies, named six outstanding individuals to induct into its inaugural GovSales Hall of Fame via a LinkedIn Live celebration today at 12:00 pm EDT. Cheryl McCants, founder and CEO of Impact Consulting Enterprises, Jennifer Schaus, principal at Schaus & Associates and Mark Amtower, CEO and founder of Amtower and Company, received Government Sales Support Provider Awards. Korey Maryland, government sales manager of AGCO Corporation and Krista Salmon, government sales leader of Apple received the Professionals Award. And, Joshua Frank, founder and managing Partner of RSM Federal received GovSales Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nominated by their peers for their extraordinary efforts in giving back to the government sales space, these GovSales inductees continuously prove their desire to work in partnership with government procurement personnel, and develop expertise in the guidelines, regulations, and processes necessary to sell to the government.

Its an honor to be recognized in this space and I thank everyone who nominated me for this august award, says Founder & CEO of Impact Consulting Enterprises, Cheryl McCants. I am a firm believer that the business opportunities provided by federal, state and local government agencies will directly catapult the growth and development of minority- and women-owned small businesses in our country.

McCants along with five other awardees, showcased their GovSales Hall of Fame trophies during todays LinkedIn Live celebration. GovSpend Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Jack Siney, and his team made the final awardee selections. According to Siney, Serving as the only database of purchase order records for government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, we thought it crucial to highlight some of the most influential players in government sales. Selecting this inaugural group of inductees from thousands of worthy individuals was not easy.

About Impact Consulting Enterprises

Impact Consulting Enterprises, found on the web at https://www.eimpactconsulting.com is a Black, woman-owned strategic communication, marketing, public relations, website design and development firm founded in 1989 by business strategist and communication professional, Cheryl McCants. Foundations, corporations, small businesses, and government agencies partner with Impact to tell their untold stories to diverse audiences including women, millennials, genZers, baby boomers, Latino-, Asian-and African Americans. Impact, A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau, is HUBZone, WBE, WOSB, SBE, MBE, and 8A certified. We tell your stories!

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Harris Brown, Owner My Fish Stop Five years of grinding, putting smile after smile on every customer's face, with one goal, to spread joy through my food and Ive been only serving Coca Cola with those smiles all these years. So for God to send Coi Leray with BET and Coke was only divine from God above.

Southern California casual dining restaurant, My Fish Stop, received a major marketing push in a national commercial. My Fish Stop and owner Harris P Gordy Brown were featured in a commercial by Coca Cola and BETs partnership titled A Seat at The Table, hosted by Republic Records artist Coi Leray, which highlights local small businesses by partnering to help grow their businesses. My Fish Stop is Coi Lerays favorite Black owned restaurant and she selected it to be featured and supported. The restaurant is located at 14843  Burbank Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91411 and is owned by local businessman Harris Brown. Brown, a native of Mississippi, brings his love for soul food and the Delta region style of cooking fish, he calls Mississippi Soul by creating options based on recipes of his late mother. Since opening five years ago Brown has garnered the support of celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Pump, Terrance J., O.T. Genesis, Red Grant, Big Percy and many more.

Brown has worked in the music industry from 1997 to 2009 holding roles with No Limit and Priority Records before transitioning into the nightclub industry totaling 21 years, followed by 2016 launch into the restaurant industry. My Fish Stop boasts a Mississippi style of cuisine to include soul fish, candied yams, lobster mac and cheese, collard greens, crack chips and desserts such as banana pudding and peach cobbler. The restaurants slogan, Mississippi Soul Fish, supports Browns mission to provide his customers with the best fresh fish options. Brown shares, Five years of grinding, putting smile after smile on every customer's face, with one goal, to spread joy through my food and Ive been only serving Coca Cola with those smiles all these years. So for God to send Coi Leray with BET and Coke was only divine from God above.

Currently Brown is finalizing the contract for a second restaurant in Watts, CA which will neighbor a Wing Stop and The Habit restaurants. Each Thanksgiving Brown hosts a traditional dinner at the restaurant for those without family. The only requirement is they get to know their fellow neighbors while dining in the restaurant. Brown also has plans in the works to do a yearly event with local non-profit Mothers of Watts. He currently partners with (TASC) Task Adult Skill Center to provide employment and other resources for adults who have faced challenges. As a veteran himself Brown has also worked with the VA resource center to offer job placement for other veterans.

See the commercial here:

https://www.facebook.com/BET/posts/10158140999255404

Social Media

Website: https://www.myfishstop.com

Instagram: @myfishstop

https://www.instagram.com/myfishstop/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myfishstop

For press and media inquires send contact to classic@classiccpr.com
DCCM, a portfolio company of White Wolf Capital (White Wolf), is pleased to announce the acquisition of R. G. Miller Engineers, Inc. (RG Miller). Based in Houston, TX, RG Miller is a growing provider of a wide range of infrastructure services to both public and private sector clients. In acquiring RG Miller, DCCM is partnering with industry veteran Jack Miller who will continue in his role as President of RG Miller.

James F. (Jim) Thompson, CEO of DCCM, noted Ive known and worked with Jack in the civil engineering industry for over 30 years and am thrilled to have him as a business partner and a member of the DCCM team. Jack has built RG Miller into an incredible business, and we plan to only compound this success.

Jack Miller, President of RG Miller, added We are looking forward to partnering with DCCM and White Wolf as we begin an exciting new chapter of our story. Having the opportunity to leverage our history and experiences with those of Jims within the Texas and U.S. marketplace will undoubtedly help accelerate our growth along with our breadth and depth of services.

Elie Azar, Managing Director of White Wolf, added Partnering with Jack Miller and the RG Miller team is just the beginning for DCCM. Were looking to build on this momentum and continue with DCCMs growth trajectory throughout Texas and the U.S.

About R. G. Miller Engineers, Inc.

R. G. Miller Engineers, Inc. is a Houston-based civil engineering firm providing a wide range of infrastructure services to both public and private sector clients in Texas. RG Millers integrated team of professional engineers is skilled and experienced in all areas of site and land development, utility districts, public works, transportation, hydrology, and environmental engineering.

The Companys engineers have planned and managed some of the largest projects in the multi-county area in and around the city of Houston, including retail and mixed-used developments, corporate campuses, multi-family housing complexes and county toll roads. R. G. Miller Engineers, Inc. is consistently ranked as one of the top 25 civil/structural engineering firms by the Houston Business Journal.

About DCCM

DCCM is a provider of design, consulting, and program & construction management professional services focusing on infrastructure marketplaces throughout the public and private sectors. Through a family of complementary brand companies, DCCM can serve a variety of end markets while offering a national reach.

DCCM is actively seeking add-on acquisition opportunities that meet the following criteria:



U.S. firms specializing in civil engineering, construction management, or infrastructure services.

Gross Revenue of $10 million to $150 million.

Service offerings that include transportation, water, water resources, land development, and infrastructure consulting.

For further information, please visit: http://www.dccm.com.

About White Wolf

White Wolf is a private investment firm that began operations in late 2011 and is focused on management buyouts, recapitalizations and investments in leading middle market companies. In general, White Wolf seeks both private equity and private credit investment opportunities in companies that are headquartered in North America with $10 million to $200 million in revenues. Preferred industries include: manufacturing, business services, information technology, security, aerospace and defense, government services, and infrastructure services.

For further information, please visit: http://www.whitewolfcapital.com.
Dilbeck launches CORE Present CORE Present sets the stage for agents to have a compelling conversation with their clients. Its a complete presentation builder with behavioral-driven content and designs, custom branding, and integrated e-signature tools that help seal the deal.

Inside Real Estate, one of the fastest-growing independently-owned real estate software companies and a trusted technology partner to over 250,000 top agents, teams, and brokerages, announced an expanded partnership with Pasadena, California-based Dilbeck Real Estate. The independent brokerage firm will now provide Inside Real Estates new CMA and presentation solution, CORE Present, as part of the technology offering to their 500+ agents.

With roots dating back to 1950, Dilbeck Real Estate has a long-standing commitment to providing agents the support they need to offer buyers and sellers a high level of service and differentiate themselves in the market. The firm initially partnered with Inside Real Estate in 2020 to provide a streamlined, modern technology platform their agents and top teams could fully embrace. Their kvCORE Platform was the best in the market and a proven solution that our agents and teams were asking for, said Mark Dilbeck, President, Dilbeck Real Estate.

Building on an already strong tech foundation, Dilbeck added CORE Present, the powerful new CMA and presentation solution by Inside Real Estate to help their agents secure more listings. Combining kvCORE + CORE Present has become a key differentiator, helping agents and teams compete in todays hyper-competitive market. CORE Present empowers agents to facilitate compelling listing presentations with an interactive, big-picture pricing dashboard. The solution utilizes MLS and other data sources to help agents navigate pricing discussions, addressing client questions in real-time to build trust and confidence in their pricing strategy. There are so many things kvCORE and CORE Present do while still being user-friendly, says Merilee Iverson, Dilbeck Real Estate branch manager. Agents dont feel overwhelmed, as its an easy-to-use, intuitive platform.

We believe our technology should work for brokers, agents, and teams, not the other way around, says Joe Skousen, CEO of the CORE Division at Inside Real Estate. CORE Present sets the stage for agents to have a compelling conversation with their clients. Its a complete presentation builder with behavioral-driven content and designs, custom branding, and integrated e-signature tools that help seal the deal.

CORE Present is available now to new and existing kvCORE users. Visit insiderealestate.com to learn more.

About Inside Real Estate:

Inside Real Estate is a fast-growing, independently-owned real estate software firm that serves as a trusted technology partner to over 250,000 top brokerages, agents, and teams. Their flagship product, kvCORE Platform, is the most modern and comprehensive solution in the industry known for delivering profitable growth at every level of a brokerage organization. Built on a modern, scalable, and flexible architecture, kvCORE enables every brokerage to create their own unique technology ecosystem through custom branding, robust integrations, and high-quality add-on solutions. With an accomplished leadership team and over 225 employees, Inside Real Estate brings the resources, scale, and vision to deliver ongoing innovation and success to their growing customer base.

About Dilbeck Real Estate:

Founded in 1950, Dilbeck Real Estate was built on a commitment to superior service, honesty, integrity, and the value of homeownership and family. To the Dilbeck Real Estate family, every handshake, client and local community is important. Dilbeck Real Estate enjoys helping people buy and sell their homes. Today, Dilbeck uses advanced technology and marketing to help achieve a vision that began more than a half-century ago. Consistently ranked in the top 100 companies nationally by Realtor Magazine, Dilbeck Real Estate operates 10 offices and more than 450 agents throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. Learn more at dilbeck.com.


Dr. Vardi will build on the superior education that CESJDS offers students by drawing on her history of excellence and innovation in schools.

Dr. Lisa Vardi has kicked off her tenure as the High School Principal for the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (CESJDS). She most recently served as the Director of Teaching and Learning at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland.

During her 12 years at Bullis, Dr. Vardi also served as Director of Cross-Divisional Curriculum and Professional Development, Upper School Social Studies Department Chair, and Global Studies and Services Director. Prior to her work in independent schools, she was an administrator and teacher at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, Maryland, and a department chair and teacher at Leo Baeck Junior High School in Haifa, Israel. She has experience from outside the educational world as an executive at AT&T and the US Department of Commerce.

Dr. Vardi recently completed a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University. She also holds two masters degrees from The George Washington University, one in Secondary Education and the other in International Affairs. In addition, she has a teaching certificate in English as a Foreign Language from Gordon's Teacher's College in Haifa and was National Board Certified in the teaching of Social Studies.

Dr. Vardi has a deep love of Israel and the Jewish people, having lived and worked in Israel for a number of years. Her experience teaching in Israeli schools informs her work as both an educator and a deeply committed Jew. This position also represents a return to CESJDS as her children attended the School.

Dr. Vardi embraces our mission of engaging students in an outstanding and inspiring general and Jewish studies education grounded in a commitment to Jewish values, the Jewish people and love of Israel. Her knowledge of our community and her exceptional educational background will serve as an asset in her work with students, faculty and families, said Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, CESJDS Head of School. Rabbi Malkus added that Dr. Vardi will build on the superior education that CESJDS offers students by drawing on her history of excellence and innovation in schools.

About CESJDS

Founded in 1965, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (CESJDS) is one of the largest and most prestigious K-12 Jewish day schools in North America. Creativity and confidence are the cornerstones of our school community, cultivated by our warm, family atmosphere and tradition of academic excellence. Our 900+ students flourish with the support of dedicated faculty and the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies. At CESJDS, we prepare our students for active engagement in the Jewish community and leadership in American society. CESJDS is accredited by the Association of Independent Maryland & DC Schools (AIMS).

To schedule an interview with Dr. Vardi, contact Laurie Ehrlich, Director of Marketing and Communications, at lehrlich@cesjds.org.

Visit http://www.cesjds.org for more information and/or for a tour of our campuses.
A People for His Name: a gripping tale of living a faith-based life. A People for His Name is the creation of published authors, Duane and Sue Kershner with Judi Tabler. Duane and Sue Kershner are missionaries living and working in Southern Mexico for the past thirty years.

The authors share, This book is a fascinating testimony that reveals the reality of the real war, the spiritual battle raging between the two kingdomsthe kingdom of this world with the powers of the occult attempting to establish the son of Satan as ruler over The New World Order versus the eternal King Jesus Christ and his kingdom, which will manifest at his second coming and fill the entire earth. This is the battle, the real one that affects every person that has ever lived on this planet.

In 1967, Duane Kershner was abruptly interrupted while working his way through architectural studies. He was drafted into the US army and sent to Vietnam. After the war, disoriented and disillusioned, he went south, leaving the United States in search for truth, if there was one. His intense search eventually led him to enroll in an international university in Mexico City.

Unknown by Duane, the university had been infiltrated by Satanists who were recruiting for the New World Order. Blind to what was happening, Duane was gradually being trapped and prepared for a Black Sabbath Mass where the Satanists would attempt to bring him across the line and into the ranks of Satan. He narrowly escaped from the satanic ritual, but the Satanists did not give up easily.

Duane was brought face-to-face with death. Seconds before his soul would have passed through the eternal gates of hell, he called for the blood of Jesus. Jesus miraculously caught his descending soul, brought it back to his body, and saved him from hell. The power and glory of God began to fill every cell of his body. He was healed, delivered from the grips of Satan, and called into the army of the Lord Jesus Christ.

After an intense time of training, he was commissioned by the Holy Spirit with the mission of taking the truth of Jesus Christ to the unreached indigenous tribes of Southern Mexico.

To learn more about Roca Blanca: http://www.rocablanca.org

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Duane and Sue Kershner with Judi Tablers new book is a thought-provoking exploration of Mr. Kershners life.

From being drafted into Vietnam to establishing a missionary base in Mexico, read along to see the trials and joys of the authors faith.

View a synopsis of A People for His Name on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase A People for His Name at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about A People for His Name, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Four Kitchens and Advomatic have merged, effective July 1. Advomatics emphasis on social good is particularly exciting," said Todd Ross Nienkerk, CEO and co-founder of Four Kitchens. "We at Four Kitchens feel a responsibility and urgency to do more social impact work, particularly based on what weve seen in the last four years.

Four Kitchens, a distributed web design agency founded in Austin, TX, is expanding its foothold in the nonprofit sector by combining forces with Advomatic.

With roots in New York City, Advomatic is a digital agency that serves a deep roster of mission-driven clients in nonprofit advocacy and higher education. The merger brings together a pair of longtime powerhouses in the Drupal and WordPress communities. This creates a combined portfolio between the two firms that includes NBC, the Sierra Club, the Columbia University, and Public Radio Exchange.

The merger takes effect July 1.

Advomatics emphasis on social good is particularly exciting," said Todd Ross Nienkerk, CEO and co-founder of Four Kitchens. "We at Four Kitchens feel a responsibility and urgency to do more social impact work, particularly based on what weve seen in the last four years.

Were increasingly holding ourselves accountable to the role small businesses play in creating a more just and equitable world, Nienkerk added.

Merging with Four Kitchens will allow Advomatics client base of justice-focused organizations and labor unions to access a deep bench of resources to meet their digital goals. Founded in 2006, Four Kitchens began as a website development shop that now provides services in digital strategy, UX design, frontend and backend development, and analytics. Four Kitchens also created the Emulsify Design System, an open-source style guide and component library tool. Emulsify facilitates faster, more accessible content creation and website development.

The magic here is were not only great agencies from a technical standpointwe are also agencies that are very values-driven and values-aligned," said Sarah Durham, CEO of Advomatic. "We approach our client relationships with a lot of collaboration and an eye for doing it right. The combination of those values and that expertise is what makes us an invincible team. Both Nienkerk and Durham emphasized retaining continuity for clients of both firms through the ongoing transition.

Four Kitchens has built a robust roster of higher education clients that includes Yale and NYU. Bringing Advomatics talent and experience into the fold will allow the firm to offer additional WordPress expertise as well as greater capacity for ongoing support. Called Continuous Care, Advomatic's program for providing long-term website support and improvements to their clients is a vital component of their business.

Advomatic is a very well-run organization ... and there are so many reasons why theyre successful, Nienkerk said. We want to learn those reasons and adapt where it works for everybody and let the best ideas win. There are some really interesting ways to blend our approaches so were greater than the sum of our parts.
Gathering in Remembrance Event featured a butterfly release to pay tribute to loved ones. We held the Gathering in Remembrance to offer anyone in grief  especially children  the chance to feel the support of the community, said Christine Phillips, Friends of Aine Executive Director.

Friends of Aine, a nonprofit organization providing bereavement support services to grieving children, teens and families, held a free community event for anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one on Sunday, June 27, at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.

Gathering in Remembrance: Sharing Grief. Honoring Love. Inspiring Hope. was sponsored by Elliot Hospital and Health System and Home Health & Hospice Care. Governor Christopher T. Sununu issued a proclamation naming June 27, 2021 as Friends of Aine Gathering in Remembrance Day, which was read at the beginning of the program, followed by remarks by Christine Phillips, Friends of Aine Co-Founder, and an attendee remembrance tribute that featured names and photos of loved ones on the stadiums Jumbotron. A butterfly release and kids activities were additional program highlights.

We held the Gathering in Remembrance to offer anyone in grief  especially children  the chance to feel the support of the community, Phillips said. Its important to talk about our lost loved ones and seek out healing as we grieve. Were grateful to our sponsors and all who attended the event for bringing such a positive effort to fruition.

For more information about Friends of Aine and its grief support services, visit friendsofaine.com.

ABOUT FRIENDS OF AINE

Friends of Aine is the only nonprofit organization in New Hampshire whose sole mission is to support grieving children, teens, and families. Through a network of trained volunteer facilitators, its Good Grief Program assists children and teens with sharing their experiences, exploring topics related to grief, learning coping strategies, and not feeling alone in their grief. Thanks to the generosity of donors, there is no cost to families. Friends of Aine also provides training, education, and research to families and professionals. The organization is inspired by Aine Phillips, who died suddenly at the age of eight, and the lack of existing grief support at the time for her surviving sister, Bella. For more information about Friends of Aine, visit friendsofaine.com.

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It is my hope that others, especially pastors, will find this book an encouragement and inspiration as they, too, meet the challenges of life and make their own personal journey toward emotional and spiritual wholeness

Author Carolyn Cammenga shares the story of how God healed her heart and assured her that she was wanted in What Others Reject, God Accepts: A Pastors Journey Toward Wholeness ($16.99, paperback, 9781662819001; $9.99, e-book, 9781662819018).

Cammengas birth mother was unmarried and left her in the care of her maternal grandparents. She spent 4  happy years with them before, for reasons she did not understand, they put her up for adoption. Cammenga was welcomed into a wonderful, loving family, but she could not overcome the feeling that she was rejected and unwanted. In this book, she tells her story to testify that God is the One who accepts what others do not.

It is my hope that others, especially pastors, will find this book an encouragement and inspiration as they, too, meet the challenges of life and make their own personal journey toward emotional and spiritual wholeness, said Cammenga.

Rev. Carolyn Cammenga is a retired pastor with a BA degree in Speech and Drama from Monmouth College, an MS degree in Guidance and Counseling from Illinois State University, a Master of Divinity degree and a Master of Theology degree from Calvin Theological Seminary. In addition to teaching in various schools around the world, she worked alongside her husband to plant churches in Illinois and Michigan. Cammenga was ordained by the Presbyterian Church USA in 1980, and the Christian Reformed Church in 2005. She served a number of churches in various capacities up until her retirement in 2012. Now widowed, she has four children, ten grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.

###

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. What Others Reject, God Accepts is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
Many drivers resort to bundling when they need to save car insurance money. In many cases, policyholders can manage to save hundreds of dollars per year. However, bundling is not always the best option, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that explains how drivers can save car insurance money after bundling home insurance and car insurance.

For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/you-can-save-money-by-bundling-your-home-and-car-insurance-policies/

Bundling is a well-known method used to save car insurance money. Drivers that are bundling at least two insurance policies to the same provider will get a discount. Drivers that want to bundle their policies should contact their new insurers and explain their situations. Then they should cancel their current policies or wait for them to expire before signing a new deal.

Drivers that are bundling their home and car insurance policies should know the following:



Bundling can save money. Families can pay several thousand dollars per year on insurance products. In most cases, bundling can save between 5% to 15%. While some persons might believe that bundling can save as much as 50% of insurance costs, the reality is that bundling can save a lot less than that.

Other advantages of bundling. First, bundling can significantly reduce the risk of coverage gaps. Insurance providers know that their customers like to bundle, so they have built their policies to be interlocking. By doing so, the risk of coverage gaps is minimized. Secondly, bundling will reduce overlapping between policies. Thirdly, drivers can pay one monthly bill for both car and home insurance. And at last, bundling car and home insurance are convenient by having to deal with one insurance company, one insurance agent and one monthly bill.

Disadvantages of bundling. Bundling is not always the right option. In some cases, having separate policies is better. For example, some home insurance providers can offer a driver an insurance deal that is worth $1,100. The actual car insurance provider charges $1,600 on car insurance and they offer a home insurance deal that is worth $1,500. Furthermore, the actual provider can bundle these policies and make an offer that is $2,800. In this case, is better to have two separate policies.

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
We are excited to bring Jakes energy, knowledge and relationships to the firm. His business litigation experience and experience with municipalities and government agencies at both the state and federal levels is a valuable asset for our clients.

Hall Booth Smith, P.C. is pleased to welcome Jake Evans as a Partner to further deepen the firms business litigation, and public policy and regulatory practice.

Jake has a robust business litigation practice that focuses on disputes involving breach of contract and fiduciary duties, residential and commercial real estate, restrictive covenants, business dissolutions, partnerships and joint ventures, derivative corporate claims, note defaults and workouts, and intellectual property (IP), including patents, copyrights and trademarks. Jake represents clients as a first-chair litigator in these areas across industries.

Jakes regulatory and public policy practice involves counseling clients under investigation by state attorney general offices, U.S. attorney offices and other federal and state agencies, election law, including advising municipalities and counties on election law issues and representing candidates and concerned parties in cases involving election law, representing clients before state and local agencies, including licensing boards, commissions and procurement offices, and representing companies with government facing matters that implicate public interest and necessitate a carefully devised solution.

Jake is also Chairman of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission (formerly called the State Ethics Commission), which oversees compliance and reporting requirements for officeholders, candidates and lobbyists, and is stepping down from that post on June 30. He is also Chairman of the Georgia Chapter of the Republican National Lawyers Association and the Georgia Republican Partys Election Competence Task Force. He serves on the Georgia Bipartisan Task Force for Safe, Secure and Accessible Elections, the Georgia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Advisory Council of the Atlanta Ballet.

We are excited to bring Jakes energy, knowledge and relationships to the firm. His business litigation experience and experience with municipalities and government agencies at both the state and federal levels is a valuable asset for our clients, said John Hall, a Founding Partner of Hall Booth Smith.

Before joining HBS, Jake was a Partner at another Atlanta firm, where he built a flourishing practice that was predicated on providing solutions to clients facing complex problems.

I look forward to working alongside the committed and enthusiastic team of attorneys at HBS, many of whom I have known and worked with over the years, Jake said. Together, we will provide elite service to our clients by protecting their interests and paving the way for prosperity and growth within their companies and lives.

Jake earned a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Georgia. He has been recognized as a top lawyer and one of the most influential people in Georgia by numerous publications including the ALM Daily Report, James Magazine, Georgia Trend Magazine, The Legal 500, Outstanding Atlanta, Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Atlanta Magazine.

About Hall Booth Smith

Established in 1989, Hall Booth Smith, P.C. (HBS) is a full-service law firm with six regional offices strategically located throughout Georgia, as well as offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Miami, Tallahassee, Tampa, St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach, Florida; Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Saddle Brook, New Jersey; and New York City. Experienced across a wide range of legal disciplines, HBS attorneys pride themselves on providing knowledgeable, proactive, client-specific counsel to individuals, domestic and international corporations, state and federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The firms promise: Serving to Achieve Excellence." To learn more, please visit: http://www.hallboothsmith.com or connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hall-booth-smith-p-c-/
"He will be a great asset to the bank as we strive to realize our vision to be the best bank in Central Maryland for our Clients, Colleagues, Community and Shareholders. - Steve Heine, President and CEO, Woodsboro Bank

Jason Lee is Co-Owner and CEO of Lee Building Maintenance and a respected leader in the commercial cleaning industry as well as the Frederick Community. Jason always desired to own a company within the service industry and after receiving invaluable knowledge and direction in the work field, he enrolled in classes at FCC and began building his clientele over time. He is currently serving his second term on the Board of Directors for the industrys leading organization, Building Service Contractors International (BSCAI).

Mr. Lee is often described as a leader with vision as well as the ability to inspire and motivate others to achieve success. His talent to connect others, provide sound judgement, and turn dreams into realities are unique.

He aims to live life to the fullest daily and prioritizes charity to his hometown of Frederick, MD which he feels has provided him a great deal. Mr. Lee is a member of the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek as well as a past president. He has also served as Chair of the Board for the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce and served on the YMCA Board of Directors. Being community focused is a priority to Woodsboro Bank and Mr. Lees dedication and involvement in our community along with his leadership qualities make him a great addition to its board.

It is with great excitement that we welcome Jason to our Board. He will be a great asset to the bank as we strive to realize our vision to be the best bank in Central Maryland for our Clients, Colleagues, Community and Shareholders, said Steve Heine, President and CEO of Woodsboro Bank.
Jon Zacharias, Co-Founder of GR0 We are basically matching the hottest direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, working with the biggest celebrities in the world, and creating real partnerships."

A new article in Mens Journal explores the path that Jon Zacharias took from a JD in Santa Monica to founding an SEO-focused ad agency in Los Angeles. As reported by Tom Lorenzo, Zacharias opens up about how he worked himself out of rock bottom and got sober in 2016, and met his eventual co-entrepreneur Kevin Miller along the way.

Jon Zacharias explains how his work experience during his JD he became more interested in acquiring cases rather than litigating them, and soon stumbled his way into the world of SEO. He would then go on to spend the larger part of the next decade honing his craft as a contractor working for a variety of clients across the country. During this he would partner with Miller, who he met at a local rehab center as he worked to recover his health. Miller is a former employee of Google and some Silicon-Valley startups who was well-versed in the art of online visibility, but still found himself learning for Zacharias.

The two would go on to found their company at the tail-end of 2019, and despite the pandemic of 2020 found themselves growing exponentially. As many businesses flocked online, Jon Zacharias and GR0 would offer them ways to continue their relationships with their audiences and to maintain visibility in an online-first world. We are basically matching the hottest direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, working with the biggest celebrities in the world, and creating real partnerships, he describes.

Now their business works with clients like Theragun, Nugenix, Venus et Fleur, Funboy, and Hydrow, offering them direct lines to audiences through organic search. They employ over 30 people across the United States and are based in the heart of the media agency: Los Angeles. With deep ties to media outlets and publishers they offer small brands like themselves premium access at affordable rates to provide a one-of-a-kind digital package.

Jon Zacharias has spent years working in digital marketing and advertising, and his latest venture GR0 is clear proof of that. He currently works with influencers across all sects to provide meaningful relationships between his clients and their potential audiences, and is constantly working to grow his portfolio. With over 30 employees, GR0 works to help brands improve their SEO rankings on Google and create quality online engagement between them and their customers.
Jungo is now fully integrated with LendingPad, a cloud-based loan origination system designed by lending professionals. With the Jungo and LendingPad LOS Sync, loan originators can work more efficiently to serve their clients. This LOS Sync features increased connectivity and security, customizable field mapping, and realtor and co-borrower contact creation.

"A complete sync between LOS and CRM allows for powerful automations and insight into the mortgage process, says Mike Gulitz, CEO of Jungo. "A good LOS is the foundation of efficient and profitable relationships between loan officers and their borrowers. Jungos LendingPad LOS Sync gives LOs the ability to use their hard-earned data with effective precision, resulting in more free time to focus on high payoff activities.

Jungos LendingPad Integration Allows Loan Originators To:



Minimize sync errors with zero downtime.

Easily adjust mappings and milestone fields.

Utilize multiple pairing methods for syncing between LendingPad and Jungo.

Leverage greater sync consistency and security with continuous integration improvements.

Eliminate the need for double data entry with automated data sync every 15 minutes.

Were excited about our new integration with Jungo! says Wes Yuan, CEO of LendingPad. This key CRM aligns perfectly with our modern, innovative design and best-in-class strategy.

About Jungo

Jungos best-in-class Enterprise Marketing and CRM Software provides mortgage and real estate professionals an all-in-one tool for business growth. Integrated with LendingPad and leading mortgage sales applications, Jungo makes sales management and reporting easier than ever. Built on Salesforcethe worlds most widely-used, award-winning ecosystemJungo gives mortgage professionals the ability to track, interact with and market to all of their contacts.

With more than a decade of experience creating and integrating solutions for the financial services industry, Jungo is the preeminent expert in the field. Jungo's ease, accessibility and capabilities help businesses connect with customers to drive sales every day. To schedule a live demonstration of Jungo, visit http://www.ijungo.com.

About LendingPad

LendingPad is a revolutionary loan origination system that transforms efficiencies by maximizing productivity. Its a modern, web-based program thats highly intuitive and designed to scale alongside you through evolutionary updates.

Designed by residential mortgage professionals and in business since 2015, LendingPad is a hub connecting borrowers, brokers, lenders, and service providers. LendingPads solutions elevate the efficiency, compliance, and information security of its users. Visit http://www.lendingpad.com to schedule a live demonstration.

Salesforce is a trademark of salesforce.com, inc., and is used here with permission. LendingPad is a trademark of LendingPad, Inc., and is used here with permissions. LendingPad licensing is not included.

CONTACT INFO:

Jordan Lemke

jordan@ijungo.com

619.727.4600

1230 Columbia Street, Suite 1120, San Diego, CA 92101
If you would like to know more about the FERMA lawsuit, please contact Attorney Jackland K. Hom today by calling (619) 255-9047.

The Northern California labor law attorneys, at Zakay Law Group, APLC and JCL Law Firm, APC, filed a class action complaint against FERMA Greenbox, Inc. and FERMA Corporation (collectively, "FERMA") for allegedly failing to accurately pay employees' wages for all their time worked. The FERMA class action lawsuit, Case No. RG21101104, is currently pending in the Alameda County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit, FERMA allegedly violated California Labor Code Sections  201, 202, 203, 204, 206.5, 226, 226.7, 510, 512, 558, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, and 1198 by failing to: (1) pay minimum wages; (2) pay overtime wages; (3) provide required meal and rest periods; (4) reimburse employees for required business expenses; (5) provide accurate itemized wage statements; and (6) provide wages when due. The lawsuit also alleges FERMA violated the Private Attorneys General Act ("PAGA"), which gives rise to civil penalties as a result of FERMA's conduct. PAGA allows aggrieved employees to file a lawsuit to recover civil penalties on behalf of themselves, other employees, and the State of California for Labor Code violations.

California Labor Code Section 226 requires an employer to furnish its employees an accurate itemized wage statement in writing showing (1) gross wages earned, (2) total hours worked, (3) the number of piece-rate units earned and any applicable piece-rate, (4) all deductions, (5) net wages earned, (6) the inclusive dates of the period for which the employee is paid, (7) the name of the employee and only the last four digits of the employees social security number or an employee identification number other than a social security number, (8) the name and address of the legal entity that is the employer and, (9) all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding number of hours worked at each hourly rate by the employee. FERMA allegedly failed to provide its employees with accurate itemized wage statements that complied with all the requirements of California Labor Code Section 226.

If you would like to know more about the FERMA lawsuit, please contact Attorney Jackland K. Hom today by calling (619) 255-9047.

Zakay Law Group, APLC and JCL Law Firm, APC are labor and employment law firms with offices located in California that dedicate their practices to fighting for employees who have been wronged by their employers due to unfair employment practices. Contact one of their attorneys today if you need help with workplace issues regarding wage and hour, wrongful termination, retaliation, discrimination, and harassment.

-THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT-
Find lease deals on the 2021 Hyundai Tucson in Waukesha.

Local Waukesha dealership, Boucher Hyundai of Waukesha, offers vehicle lease specials for select Hyundai models. Customers who are shopping for their future vehicle are encouraged to take advantage of these deals while they still can.

There are two sedans and two SUVs included in the lease deals available at this dealership:



2021 Hyundai Kona at $175 a month

2021 Hyundai Elantra at $149 a month

2021 Hyundai Tucson at $199 a month

2021 Hyundai Sonata at $299 a month

Both the Hyundai Kona and the Hyundai Elantra are solid vehicles for new drivers and shoppers who are searching for a smaller vehicle in the respective classes. However, customers who are searching for a more spacious model are encouraged to investigate the Hyundai Sonata and the Hyundai Tucson, both of which are larger than their previously mentioned counterparts and make for excellent family vehicles.

Customers who are interested in learning more about these lease deals or the other vehicle specials available at Boucher Hyundai of Waukesha are encouraged to contact the dealership today by calling 800-339-7306 or by showing up to the dealership in person at 1583 Moreland Blvd. in Waukesha. Additionally, the dealership offers a variety of blog posts and research pages for shoppers who are just starting out their search for their future vehicle. Information such as cargo space power and performance and even fuel economy can be found on the dealerships site at http://www.boucherhyundai.com.
Dont be caught off-guard if youre instructed to evacuate. Create a plan with your family so everyone knows what to pack, where to go and how to get your home ready for any upcoming storms.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was record-breaking, producing 30 named storms, of which 14 became hurricanes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts another above-normal year, with a likely range of 13 to 20 named storms, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes, including three to five major hurricanes. Mercury Insurance (NYSE: MCY) urges residents along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to take precautions and prepare themselves, their families and property for the duration of the 2021 Atlantic season, which ends November 30.

Its critical to make preparations for severe weather, says Christopher ORourke, Vice President of Property Claims at Mercury Insurance. Dont be caught off-guard if youre instructed to evacuate. Create a plan with your family so everyone knows what to pack, where to go and how to get your home ready for any upcoming storms.

Four named storms  Tropical Storms Ana, Bill, Claudette and Danny  already formed in June, the first month of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center will be monitoring a strong tropical wave, which may develop into Tropical Storm Elsa over the holiday weekend.

ORourke advises homeowners to take the following steps to prepare their homes for a hurricane:

*Regularly maintain your property. Make sure trees and shrubs on your property are well-trimmed to make them more wind-resistant. Clear gutters and downspouts of debris so they dont get clogged and direct water into your home.

*Reinforce your home. Close shutters or use plywood to board up windows and doors. Secure outdoor furniture, potted plants and other items that could become projectiles during the storm.

*Acquire a generator. Power outages are common during a hurricane so, if youre unable to evacuate, this might come in handy. Be sure to consult the owners manual and safety instructions.

*Be aware of flood zones in your area. Hurricanes can cause high winds, flying debris and flash flooding. Get out of town and go to higher ground. If your home is located in a flood zone and you cant leave before the storm, remain indoors and get to the highest level possible.

*Know the location of your main power switch. If flooding is expected, emergency officials may instruct you to turn off your electricity, which will need to be turned off at the circuit breaker.

ORourke also advises residents of high-risk areas to take the following precautions ahead of mandatory evacuation orders:

*Pack a go-bag. There are several essential items to have at the ready in case of an emergency, especially if you need to leave your home quickly. A primary go-bag  or emergency kit  should be stored in an easily accessible place within your house or garage. Smaller kits can be kept in your car or at work. Take stock of your go-bag yearly to make sure your items are up-to-date, including:



A three-day supply of water (one gallon per person), non-perishable food items and pet food, if applicable;

A battery-powered or hand-crank radio (and extra batteries);

A phone charger;

A flashlight;

A first aid kit;

A whistle to signal for help;

A can opener;

Gloves, face masks, hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes;

Blankets;

Pliers or a wrench to turn off utilities;

At least $200 in cash in small bills, as power may be out, making ATMs, debit and credit cards unusable; and

Prescriptions for you, your family and your pets.

*Create an emergency plan. Know where family members will meet if instructed to evacuate, as well as several options to get out of the city in case routes are blocked. Establish a meeting point ahead of time. Staying with friends or family who live outside of the local area is a good option, but you should also research hotels and shelters.

*Store important documents in a safe place. This includes copies of insurance policies, birth certificates, medical records and prescriptions, social security cards, important financial documents, passports and other identification, which should be stored in a waterproof container. Upload scanned copies of these documents to a cloud-based digital storage site so theyre easily accessible from your smartphone or computer if needed.

Consider purchasing flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program if you live in a high-risk area as homeowners insurance doesnt typically cover weather-related flooding, adds ORourke. Vehicle damage may be covered by your auto insurance policy if you carry comprehensive coverage, but its best to check with your agent ahead of time to make sure.

These and other helpful resources to prepare for a hurricane are available on the Mercury Insurance blog. Additional details can be found at the National Weather Service and Ready.gov.

Tweet the news: @MercuryIns has hurricane preparedness steps to take now.

About Mercury Insurance

Mercury Insurance (MCY) is a multiple-line insurance organization predominantly offering personal automobile, homeowners and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. Since 1962, Mercury has specialized in offering quality insurance at affordable prices. For more information visit http://www.mercuryinsurance.com or Facebook and follow the company on Twitter.
Teachers deployed by TbT are provided training on DEI, culturally responsive instruction and student engagement centered on social emotional (SEL) support.

Tutored by Teachers (TbT), a public benefit company and one of the first models for a national high dosage tutoring program, launches their national Summer Academy July 6 through August 6. TbT reimagines summer school with a flexible and synchronous model with intervention blocks for math and ELA foundations. Districts and school leaders are encouraged to apply for the summer and 2021-2022 school year programs which are eligible for American Rescue Plan Act, CARES Act, Title I and Title III funding.

What can school partners and students expect during TbTs Summer Academy?

Diverse, certified and vetted educators in math, ELA and special education

Pre- and post-assessments to measure academic progress and lexile growth

Targeted phonics instruction reinforced with small group reading

Continual collaboration with school-based content-area faculty for improved pacing, standards alignment and grade tracking

As districts across the country grapple with learning loss and the flow of American Rescue Plan Act funding entering state education budgets, TbTs focus hinges on learning recovery interventions and standard-aligned gains as their core strategy to help districts close the gap before districts start back in the fall according to co-founder Rahul Kalita.

In our inaugural summer school academy, we will apply the best practices from our high dosage tutoring intervention to help Americas students achieve their grade-level proficiency, Kalita says. With the success of this summer, we'll serve 10,000 kids next school year.

Building on this momentum, spring academic data shows marked improvement in TbTs four week offering. One partner, Tulsa School for Advanced Studies, a Los Angeles Unified School District elementary partner, showed 63% growth in targeted phonetic skills and significant academic growth in  of their K-2 students who participated in the 4 week spring program. This is a notable short-term measure for a school with 26% of their students designated as English as a Second Language, and 14% as English Language Learners, a key population of growing concern nationally for districts and school stakeholders.

TbT also impacted gains for at-risk 8th graders in Alabamas Phenix City School District with a 50% increase in passing rate for both math and ELA classes and an overall course grade improvement by 21 points in math and 11 points in ELA.

Chad Simmons, Senior Program Director of Virtual Programs of Roads to Success, established a partnership with the national tutoring program for the spring and looks forward to continuing this level of support for their two partner schools in Harlem. In addition to the extra dosage of academic support, Simmons says TbT helped alleviate parent concerns over learning loss since the challenges of Mayor Bill de Blasios push to reopen New York Public Schools in October of last year.

Tutored by Teachers is well versed in technology and their content areas, he says. The tutors really take the time to get to know our students and develop great professional relationships with them.

Both urban and rural districts have shown proven gains with TbTs high dosage intervention with a nationwide cadre of certified teachers supporting schools recovering from extended closures and virtual learning. Teachers deployed by TbT are provided training on DEI, culturally responsive instruction and student engagement centered on social emotional (SEL) support. A whole child approach has been noted as a lasting impact on sustainable student and school improvement.

Dominique Marie Martinez, a TbT teacher based in Redlands, Calif., looks forward to making an impression on students during the virtual Summer Academy and earning her mettle as an educator in the post-pandemic learning landscape.

With Tutored by Teachers Summer Academy, students are going to need us more than ever to re-establish their confidence, self-determination, Martinez says. Placing their SEL needs at the forefront of education will be a vital part of learning recovery.

To learn about school partnerships and teacher employment with TbT, visit tutored.live for more information.

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About Tutored By Teachers

Tutored by Teachers (TbT) is a public benefit company that seeks to close the opportunity gap and advance equity in education by supporting high needs students in underserved communities. In the process, TbT empowers our nations teachers to express their full potential by tutoring students and supporting their peers in the classroom. Learn more about Tutored by Teachers by visiting tutored.live.
Native American Connections (NAC) has been working to mitigate the mental health, substance abuse, and housing crises in its community for nearly 50 years. In support of these efforts, the organization was awarded a $200,000 grant from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation. The grant will support the new Dunlap Pointe, 54-unit, permanent supportive housing community located in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix.

Dunlap Pointe focuses on supporting veterans experiencing homelessness, which includes providing trauma-informed care and assistance through partnerships with local veteran and military organizations.

Too many veterans, especially those facing PTSD, find themselves struggling with related substance abuse and homelessness, said Founder and CEO of PXG and U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War Veteran Bob Parsons. NAC is honoring these neglected heroes by offering long-term solutions through affordable housing and ongoing supportive care.

Substance use, behavioral health, and homelessness are inextricably connected. Communities like Dunlap Pointe, which offer permanent supportive housing, allow individuals to live independently while having access to cost-effective and compassionate on-site services. These services support residents through substance-use issues, physical and mental health challenges, financial and other obstacles. Native American Connections believes treating the whole person is key to solving these problems.

We are grateful to The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation for this grant, which will help NAC further our efforts in developing, building, and managing high-quality housing communities and organizing community support to end homelessness, said Diana Yazzie Devine, President and CEO of Native American Connections.

The Dunlap Pointe housing community shares a campus with the Patina Wellness Center, which offers behavioral health services predicated on the belief that culture and spirituality are essential to healing. Wellness programs are open to all but integrate traditional Native American healing ceremonies with other research-based practices.

Native American Connections is taking a stand in the fight against homelessness by providing safe and affordable housing and the chance for its residents to be a part of a supportive and healthy community, said President and Executive Creative Director of PXG Apparel Renee Parsons.

For more information regarding Native American Connections services, please visit nativeconnections.org. For media inquiries and to schedule a visit or interviews please contact Jason Coochwytewa at Jason@uriascommunications.com.

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About Native American Connections

Native American Connections has been healing individuals, changing lives, and strengthening communities since 1972. We integrate Native American healing with evidence-based practices to support health and wellness, provide affordable housing, and champion community development projects. We are a leader in developing, building and managing advanced behavioral health and state-of-the-art housing communities, and own and operate 21 sites throughout Central Phoenix. Our services are open to all, and we touch the lives of more than 10,000 individuals and families each year.

About The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation offers support to nonprofit organizations successfully working to empower, educate, nurture and nourish people during what is often the darkest time of their lives. Founded in 2012 by philanthropists and business leaders Bob and Renee Parsons to provide hope and life-changing assistance to the countrys most vulnerable populations, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation offers critical funding at critical times to those in need. The Foundations giving is driven by the core belief that all people  regardless of race, religion, roots, economic status, sexual orientation or gender identity  deserve access to quality healthcare, education and a safe place to call home. Follow @WeDealInHope on social media or visit TBRPF.org, to learn more about partner organizations and the important work being done in the community.
Nevada is a global leader in renewable energy and we will now be the leader on how governments around the world track and reduce their carbon emissions to meet the goals set in the Paris Climate Accord, said Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak.

Ledger8760, a SaaS startup that tracks and reports comprehensive Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions data using its proprietary energy and carbon mapping technology, has signed groundbreaking new contracts with the City of Reno, Washoe County and the State of Nevada. The partnership will allow these jurisdictions to become the first in the world to share their hourly, daily and monthly emissions data while tracking it against both internal and Paris Agreement on Climate Change emissions reduction targets.

Nevada is a global leader in renewable energy and we will now be the leader on how governments around the world track and reduce their carbon emissions to meet the goals set in the Paris Climate Accord, said Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. This innovative technology can help us to accurately measure and track our carbon emissions to work to reduce them. As we continue to battle drought, diminishing water supplies and wildfires across the West, we are reminded daily of how critical our fight is to slow climate change. I hope other government agencies as well as major companies employ the technology required to track emissions. Collectively, we can measure and work to reduce our carbon output and help to save the planet.

Ledger8760 is pioneering sustainability transparency practices for businesses and government agencies. The company, which displays the 8760 marker as a nod to the number of hours in a calendar year, separates itself from other reporting tools as it measures real-time emissions as the data is generated with unprecedented accuracy calculating at every single hour from generation through consumption. This SaaS startup measures energy, emissions and utility information from thousands of public and proprietary data points and helps companies and government agencies reduce their costs.

Ledger8760 will track energy and emissions from the Nevada State Capitol, Nevada State Legislature, the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, and The Nevada Department of Transportation as well as the Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions for the City of Reno, and Washoe County.

As the first county in the country to initiate real-time tracking of our carbon footprint with reference to the standards established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Washoe County is proud to join our local partners and serve as pioneers to track our Greenhouse Gas emissions, said Washoe County Commission Chair, Bob Lucey. By being transparent with our energy usage and subsequent impact, we will craft policies to limit climate change and improve our community.

Ledger8760 believes that you cant change what you cant measure, and thus has developed a SaaS that reduces costs across the organization and measures carbon footprint.

Up until this point, organizations have had limited access to a data set of their emissions and energy usage, and they havent been able to see the full picture, said Adam Kramer, CEO of Ledger8760. Through the data sets tracked with Ledger8760, leaders and stakeholders can now have a single dashboard with a full visualization of their energy and emissions output, along with the related costs, across their organization that will be both accurate and actionable.

The City of Reno joins Washoe County and the State of Nevada as the first city in the country to undertake real-time and on-demand carbon tracking designed to meet or exceed the standards set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"This partnership will allow for real-time tracking of GHG emission data and progress toward the goals set forth in the Paris Climate Accords. Consistent with the standards established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the City of Reno will be able to more closely monitor its emissions profile, said Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve. The first phase of the project will provide the City of Reno with an accurate baseline of our emissions in a form that complies using IPCC metrics - establishing the City of Reno as a leader in meeting the transparency aspirations of the Accords. The ongoing, real-time data analysis will capture successes to demonstrate the City of Reno's progress over time toward its mitigation climate goals, while also identifying data-driven practices and opportunities to accelerate its mitigation effort. This effort is crucial for the City to reach its goals set forth in our adopted Sustainability & Climate Action Plan.

Using Ledger8760 data, Nevada jurisdictions plan to identify key areas of energy efficiency, track emissions reduction efforts and inform new environmental initiatives.

For more information, visit http://www.ledger8760.com.

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About Ledge8760: Ledger8760 is an innovative start-up that tracks real-time energy, emissions and utility information using patented technology that provides businesses and government agencies unprecedented access to their environmental information for investor and regulatory grade-reporting.
George will be joining the firm as Senior Counsel, Managing Attorney  Real Estate Division with practice areas in real estate, business formation, estate planning, and IRS defense. He has closed on more than 10,000 real estate transactions in Virginia and has participated in multiple civil actions involving land use, landlord tenant laws, and civil torts. He is admitted to practice in Virginia and Washington, D.C. and is a member of the Virginia Beach Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Christopher joins the firm as Counsel and will specialize in real estate, business law, estate planning, landlord/tenant law, contracts, and civil litigation. Chris earned his Juris Doctor from the Regent University School of Law and is admitted to practice in Virginia. During law school, Chris served as President of the Federalist Society, Coordinator for the Trial Advocacy Board, and was a Graduate Assistant for the Center for Ethical Formation and Legal Education Reform.

Derek will join Anchor Legal Group, PLLC, as an attorney Of Counsel. Derek will bring years of experience working in corporate compliance with a concentration in nonprofit formation and management, and intellectual property. Throughout his career, he has worked with dozens of churches and Christian charities. He also has experience in personal and corporate tax negotiations with the IRS, intellectual property rights via copyright and trademark application, and renewal compliance. He is admitted to practice in Washington State and is a member of the American Bar Association.

The legal team at Anchor Legal Group, PLLC has experience handling a variety of issues and will work to obtain the best solution possible for their clients. Those interested should call 757-LAW-0000 or contact the firm at anchorlegalgroup.com to schedule a consultation. Located in Virginia Beach, the firm serves clients throughout Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton, and Eastern Shore, Virginia. The firm also serves clients throughout the United States through its network of associated attorneys.
Because of continued strong growth across all of our international regions, the changes represented by the Penetron Africa name reflect a reorganized team with a focus on increased technical and customer support

Formerly known as Penetron South Africa, the new organization, Penetron Africa will offer project support for all of sub-Sahara Africa. The headquarters in Centurion, Gauteng Province, are immediately adjacent to Pretoria, the nations capital, and about 55 km north of Johannesburg, the countrys business center.

The Penetron Africa team currently consists of product support engineers in Centurion (Johannesburg), Durban in KwaZulu Natal, and Cape Town in the Western Province  with regional offices in the other Provinces. The professional support teams offer technical advice and training for specialized Penetron applicators to increase further business opportunities.

Because of continued strong growth across all of our international regions, the changes represented by the Penetron Africa name reflect a reorganized team with a focus on increased technical and customer support, explains Jozef Van Beeck, Director of International Sales & Marketing for The Penetron Group.

Underlining the direction of Penetron Africa, the team is already completing projects in Nigeria (office buildings and commercial development projects), Botswana (grain silos), and Swaziland (hotel/convention center). In addition, Penetron Africa is focusing on the continents West Africa region, including Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of Congo, where the team collaborates with several South African construction companies.

Its a time of opportunity for Penetron Africa, adds Neil Courtney, Managing Director of Penetron Africa. Penetron has become the leading provider of concrete waterproofing and durability solutions to the construction industry in South Africa over the past decade and we are now making a concerted effort to consolidate our core market in South Africa  and rapidly expand in our targeted regions across the continent.

The PENETRON Group is a leading manufacturer of specialty construction products for concrete waterproofing, concrete repairs and floor preparation systems. The Group operates through a global network, offering support to the design and construction community through its regional offices, representatives and distribution channels.

For more information on PENETRON waterproofing solutions, please visit penetron(dot)com or Facebook(dot)com/ThePenetronGroup, email CRDept(at)penetron(dot)com, or contact the Corporate Relations Department at 631-941-9700.
While the country continues its reopening and recovery, increases in consumer spending, stock market values and the labor market are sparking an economic boom with significant growth opportunities for B2B organizations. With the post-pandemic reset providing context, Delia Associates, a leading B2B Branding and Digital Marketing firm, commissioned the study entitled Insights & Opportunities: Breaking Down the Role of the B2B Sales & Marketing Executive to better understand the new business environment and what lies ahead.

This data, detailed in a new report published by Delia Associates, is based on an independently conducted survey of senior sales and marketing leaders in April 2021. Respondents were surveyed on priorities in four key growth areas: leadership, marketing, branding and sales. Participants represented a wide variety of B2B industries, company size, longevity and geographic location.

Despite the pandemic and initial fears of a prolonged economic slowdown, an overwhelming 57 percent of companies updated their brand in 2020 or were in the process of doing so. Forward-thinking companies recognize the pandemic as an opportunity to retool their brand in anticipation of future growth, notes Ed Delia, President of Delia Associates. To achieve growth in a boom, you must be ready to accept growth, and that requires having a brand that is properly positioned and deployed to tap into this potential.

Also, among the findings detailed in Insights & Opportunities: Breaking Down the Role of the B2B Sales & Marketing Executive:

Leadership: Sales and marketing heads were primarily hired into the company in this role and were new to leading this function. They generally believe they are doing a good job leading, with only one-third citing the need for leadership skills to excel in their positions. But significant opportunities to improve their skills relative to guiding their teams were noted.

Branding: More than half of respondents refreshed their brand since the pandemics start. Another half recognize branding and marketing as equals in supporting company sales and growth initiatives, while 47 percent report that customers pay a premium for their companys products and/or services based on brand image and reputation.

Marketing: Marketing is considered the top function for sales success; metrics include new lead generation, ROI and positive reviews. Among sales, marketing and branding, 40 percent of the budget should be allocated to marketing, which is largely executed through digital marketing tools and channels.

Sales: An overwhelming majority recognizes the role of brand in supporting sales. More than one-third cited sales as the most essential skill needed for success, second to marketing. Approximately one-third of the total sales and marketing budget is typically allocated to sales in line with desired budget allocations, slightly behind marketing (42%).

The survey results highlight several competitive opportunities for B2B organizations. While most B2B leaders cite marketing as critical for sales success, some fail to implement the comprehensive branding initiatives needed to support these efforts. Conversely, marketing efforts backed by robust branding initiatives build recognition, strengthen loyalty and increase positive sentimentality. Successful leaders recognize how leadership, marketing, branding and sales function together, creating a symbiotic relationship that strengthens market position, fuels the sales pipeline and sparks B2B company growth.

To download a complimentary copy of the full report and findings, please visit https://www.delianet.com/delia-survey-report/.

About Delia Associates

Delia Associates, the award-winning branding and marketing firm, is Where b2b brands go to grow. Since 1964, and across two generations of leadership, the firm has enabled numerous packaging companies to achieve sustainable marketplace success and exponential growth. Through the firms proprietary Brand Leadership Solution, a unique brand-based marketing platform, hundreds of packaging brands have achieved next-level success. The process directly supports and accelerates business development initiatives by creating distinctive and dynamic brand positions, go-to-market strategies and fully integrated marketing programs. Additional in-house competencies include strategic brand development, rebranding, website development, trade show marketing and support, advertising, content, and social and search marketing. For more information visit, https://www.delianet.com.

To assess the full survey report and findings, please visit https://www.delianet.com/delia-survey-report/.

For additional press information, please contact:

Ilena Della Ventura

Delia Associates

T. 908-534-9044

E. Idellaventura@delianet.com
NuVerge announced the addition of Peter Hill to their executive sales leadership team on Tuesday. In this capacity, Mr. Hill will be responsible for establishing all aspects of NuVerges professional sales encompassing Nextworld, Nextbot No-Code Platform, NuTrax for Wine, NuTrax for Construction, and NuView reporting and data analytics platform. Peter will work directly with Mark Goedde, President and CEO, & Bill Hylton, EVP and COO.

Peter has more than 25+ years of experience managing enterprise sales teams. In his most recent role at Yardi (a global real estate software and services firm), Peter was the National VP of Mid-Market and Co-Working Sales. Before that, Peter served as Industry Principal for Engineering Construction and Real Estate at SAP. Peter has also worked as the VP of Service Industries at Peoplesoft and spent 19 years at JD Edwards, where he started and grew the JD Edwards Singapore office and built two new vertical business units in both the Project and Service Industries and the Assest Intensive Industries.

Peters experience in growing a professional enterprise sales team and managing complex sales cycles will enhance NuVerges ability to procure large contracts that involve long sales cycles, multiple decision makers, and a higher level of risk.

I am very excited to welcome Peter to our senior leadership team, said Mark Goedde, NuVerges President and CEO. Peter has a long history of building successful sales teams and delivering on demanding revenue objectives. He brings to NuVerge a balance of exceptional customer service, industry expertise, and sales leadership that will allow NuVerge to position Nextworlds No-Code ERP and NuVerges NuTrax Vertical no-code software solutions and services.

Customers in todays digital economy are sophisticated and demand solutions that will allow their business to grow and remain competiive for decades to come. With Nextworlds No-Code ERP solution coupled with NuVerges NuTrax industry specific solutions I am confident customers will quickly see the power of this next-generation solution set and readily adopt the business solutions to best create operational efficiencies and long term value. said Peter Hill.

As an early innovator of next-generation enterprise solutions, NuVerge offers clients vertical specific No-Code Enterprise Grade Software Solutions, real-time reporting and data analytics solutions. NuVerges leadership and critical partnerships in digital transformation allow NuVerge to solve clients legacy issues while moving them into the future with speed and agility. NuVerge creates a digital posture for their clients that will future proof their investments and keep them on the forefront of innovation, creating real organizational value for their end customers.

About NuVerge

Established in 2018, NuVerge is a Global Reseller of Nextworlds No-Code ERP Applications and Nextbot (a No-Code platform for business process automation). NuVerge is committed to leveraging Next Generation Business Software and Technologies that focus on digital transformation and accelerated process automation.

The NuVerge Strategy is simple; assist our clients in the untethering of legacy software while improving their organizational performance and growing their business at an unprecedented pace.

NuVerge is headquartered in Longmont, Colorado and serves its North American client base from its East and West regional offices.

Please visit http://www.nuverge.com for additional information.

Contact:

Press@nuverge.com

Trademarks:

NuTrax for Wine and NuTrax for Construction and NuVeiw are registered trademarks of NuVerge, LLC.

Nextworld and Nextbot are registered trademarks of Nextworld and/or its affiliates.

Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
June 2022 is going to determine exactly how the recovery has shaped out. By then, the travel industry is expected to have solved much of its shortages -- Jay Singh, Simple Flying

What a difference a year makes. The Summer of 2020 was a complete bust, and any form of travel or summer vacation was relegated to your backyard, if you are fortunate to have one, or short road trips by car. In May 2020, ExpertFlyer reached out to several travel industry experts to get their thoughts and predictions about what a post-pandemic recovery might look like for the travel industry. Fast forward one year later and the Summer of 2021 is looking quite bright for consumers and businesses alike. As the U.S. approaches a seventy-percent vaccination rate and states of emergency have been officially lifted, consumers are taking to the skies once again.

ExpertFlyer circled back with these experts to discuss what they got right, what they got wrong, and what completely surprised them over the past year. Kimberly Wilson Wetty (Valerie Wilson Travel), Jay Singh (Simple Flying), Jonathan Breeze (AARDY), and Chris Lopinto (ExpertFlyer) participated in the follow up story and offered additional thoughts for the future. As part of the story, ExpertFlyer also included some video commentary from Jason Guggenheim, Boston Consulting Group Global Leader of Travel and Tourism who recently participated in a Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss what the evolution of travel means for business.

In general, everyone was excited and encouraged about how the Summer of 2021 is shaping up and most agree that the trend will continue through 2022 when they believe travel will be back to pre-pandemic levels. However, most also believe that business travel will remain below pre-pandemic levels until 2022 or even 2023.

During her interview in May 2020, Kimberly Wilson Wetty from Valerie Wilson Travel discussed the rumor of a vaccine becoming available as soon as December; a rumor proven to be true. Wilson Wetty felt that even the discussion of a vaccine that early would boost confidence and increase psychological positivity among consumers.

Hindsight is 20-20, right? Wilson Wetty said with a smile. When I think back to a year ago, we still had hope that the recovery would start in late 2020 and move into early 2021, but we are so excited by the progress that has been made, thus far. Between the vaccine rollout and our preferred partners constantly innovating to make travel safer for clients, we are thrilled with how quickly travel is beginning to return! The pent-up demand is real! she exclaimed.

Jay Singh at Simple Flying suggested that the Summer of 2020 would be a wonderful opportunity to experience local activities and suggested using the time to take virtual tours of destinations to consider visiting once it was safe to travel again. He also predicted that airlines would allow frequent flyers to retain their current status for at least another year. I think what surprised me the most was the airlines announcing the end of change fees, Jay Singh said. Without it, airlines will need to find new ways to make up for that lost revenue. While it is not exactly clear where airlines expect to make it up, for passengers who need more flexibility, this is a huge deal. Singh also sees the rush to travel extending into the holiday season later this year. Pent-up demand is starting to show itself for the summer, and those trends will certainly continue into the fall, and I think that by January 2022 the airlines will be entering a phase of more sustained profitability with most passengers coming back to the skies.

But Singh believes that June 2022 is really the month to watch. By and large, summer 2021 is gearing up to be a very successful one for airline leisure bookings, though there are some strong limitations on the return of travel, he said. Lodging and rental cars have been in short supply, and shortages in labor have led to long waits at restaurants, concessions, amusement parks, and more. June 2022 is going to determine exactly how the recovery has shaped out. By then, the travel industry is expected to have solved much of its shortages. Summer 2022 might be the one where passengers who were priced out of that trip to Yellowstone or Maui may be able to travel again and access rental cars or hotels.

For the range of COVID-inspired challenges consumers faced last May, beyond contracting the virus, Jonathan Breeze at AARDY, an online travel insurance marketplace, says that Cancel for Any Reason travel insurance is the way to go since it allows for 75% of the trip cost to be reimbursed in the event of cancellation. Cancel for Any Reason has become a more mainstream policy option  more and more people are looking for this flexibility, he said.

One area that I was very happy with this last year was the way in which the travel insurers responded, Breeze continued. They demonstrated great flexibility in allowing customers to move travel dates, suspend policies, and change destinations. That flexibility helped customers save a lot of money in otherwise wasted premiums and built a large pool of goodwill for the future.

Chris Lopinto, president of ExpertFlyer, coined 2020 as the year of the staycation back in May 2020 and said the sooner consumers understood and embraced that notion, they could begin to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives. Lopinto also correctly noted that booking trips well into 2021 should be made sooner than later because, in his words, the award inventory generosity by the airlines will last only as long as planes are empty.

Lopinto was surprised at how quickly travel came back in 2021 and credits early access to a vaccine and stimulus money many consumers are using for travel. He also believes Europe will fully open by the end of this summer, once the EU determines how it wants to handle vaccine passports.

By mid-2022, demand for leisure travel should be back to normal levels. Business travel, however, will likely be at lower levels versus 2019 for a couple more years as businesses realize that video calls can replace many, but not all, business trips, Chris Lopinto added.

Visit ExpertFlyers blog to read the entire story. For more on the evolution of travel post-Covid and how it will affect business travel, watch Yahoo! Finances interview with Jason Guggenheim, Boston Consulting Group Global Leader of Travel and Tourism.

About Valerie Wilson Travel

Valerie Wilson Travel, A FROSCH Company, is an award-winning travel management firm that has grown into an industry leader with offices across the United States servicing Corporate, Leisure, and Meetings, Incentives & Fulfillment clients. Headquartered in New York, NY, VWT was originally founded by Valerie Ann Wilson, Chairman & CEO in 1981, and is managed along with her two daughters, Co-Presidents Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg and Kimberly Wilson Wetty, as well as COO, Brian Buttigieg. All VWT locations are proud members of Virtuoso - the travel industry's leading luxury network. The agency has been consistently named on the annual Travel Weekly Power List as well as Travel + Leisure's A-List.

About Simple Flying

Simple Flying is the world's largest aviation news website. The publication was launched in June 2018, by young entrepreneur Arran Rice. Their goal is to provide a one-stop hub for all the essential stories on commercial aviation and sharing the news in a simple, accessible way. The site and company are registered in the United Kingdom under the name of Simple Flying Limited, and the company has a fully remote, international team of 25+ people. Travelers can access Simple Flying to read all of the latest news on our website, simpleflying.com, and download their free Android and iOS app. In addition, they create daily videos for YouTube and produce a weekly podcast. The podcast can be found by searching for 'Simple Flying' on your favorite podcast app.

About AARDY

AARDY is a Travel Insurance Marketplace. Founded in 2015, AARDY specializes in supporting US Seniors as they travel internationally. AARDY donates 10% of its annual profits to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation  a charity that supports the children of fallen US Special Forces.

About ExpertFlyer.com

Each month, ExpertFlyer's One-on-One blog goes face-to-face with the travel industry's leading decision makers to discuss and address topics relevant to many of today's business and frequent travelers.

ExpertFlyer.com was conceived and created by an eclectic team consisting of a veteran elite tier frequent flyer, an airline captain and corporate travel manager, and information technology professionals to deliver a 24/7 real time powerful air travel information service. The company provides its subscribers and corporate travel managers alike with a complete, concise, and efficient way to access the ever-changing details of worldwide air travel information. For more information, please visit expertflyer.com.

Stuck in the middle seat again? Download the free Seat Alerts app from ExpertFlyer and get the window or aisle seat without hassle or frustration.

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With timely help from Operation Smile, the nonprofit's partner hospitals in India were able to continue treating patients with COVID-19 and also allowed some hospitals to expand their existing number of COVID-19 beds.

As a second wave of COVID-19 spread through India this spring, Operation Smile shifted its focus to help address the dire need for oxygen and other medical supplies in the country. With resources available around the world along with the ongoing generosity of donors, the organization provided 100 oxygen concentrators to its partner hospitals across India.

We are part of the communities we serve, so our hopes for health and opportunity are inextricably linked, said Dr. Ruben Ayala, Operation Smiles chief medical officer. We believe that an action that bestows relief in times of crisis, however large or small, is worth the effort. We have no option but to try and do our part. Under enormous pressure and difficult circumstances, Abhishek Sengupta, our regional director in India, his team and partners made the seemingly impossible happen.

The central and state government struggled to meet demand for the increased oxygen supply as the number of infected people that required hospitalization with oxygen beds and ICU support grew. The impact of this second wave on Indias health system and economy was devastating.

Purchasing oxygen concentrators in such a short time has been a challenge because of the sudden increase in demand and limited supply, but we were able to cut through a lot of the red tape and ensure they were purchased on time and delivered to partner hospitals, explained Regional Director of Operation Smile India, Abhishek Sengupta. These 100 concentrators are being used in COVID-19 wards of seven different hospitals today and have been instrumental in saving lives.

Although all four Operation Smile India year-round care centers were forced to close at the height of the pandemic, teams continued to support patients as well as hospital partners. They were able to stay in touch with patients through virtual and home visits and provide necessary consultations for all patients receiving treatment.

In spite of the lockdown, our teams have been able to make home visits to deliver necessary food supplements and formulas to patients enrolled in our nutrition programs, continued Sengupta. We have ensured that there isnt any inconvenience to patients, and the ones that are on a treatment pathway receive necessary advice and support virtually.

With timely help from Operation Smile, the nonprofit's partner hospitals in India were able to continue treating patients with COVID-19 and also allowed some hospitals to expand their existing number of COVID-19 beds. The donations made by Operation Smile will continue to support hospitals and patients and also ensure that its partner hospitals are better prepared for any third wave of the pandemic.

The last year and half has been tiring. However, as a team and as an organization, we all remain committed. During the first wave we stood by our partners and patients by providing food to over 15,000 families, this time we are supporting partner hospitals, patients and their families, said Sengupta. We hope that these tough times are behind us soon and we can quickly reopen out centers and start providing clinical services. Patients are waiting.

About Operation Smile

Operation Smile revolutionized cleft surgery globally in 1982. With nearly four decades of experience as one of the largest surgical volunteer-based nonprofits, Operation Smile staff, its private-public partnerships and thousands of volunteers have improved the health and dignity of patients with cleft conditions, helping them to better breathe, eat, speak and live lives of greater quality and confidence. While one cleft surgery can bring immediate transformation to a childs life in as little as 45 minutes, Operation Smile is committed to providing patients with health that lastsbeing there to offer patients additional surgeries, dentistry, psychological services, speech therapy and other essential cleft treatments. Its training and education programs elevate local surgical standards and entire health systems to aid safe surgery and strengthen a global network to reach more people earlier in their lives. You can learn more about its transformative and healing work by visiting http://www.operationsmile.org or by following @operationsmile on social media.

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Piper-Heidsieck Chief Winemaker Named 2021 Sparkling Winemaker of the Year

At 34 years old, Piper-Heidsieck Chief Winemaker Emilien Boutillat has been named the 2021 Sparkling Winemaker of the Year at this years annual International Wine Challenge (IWC) held in London, United Kingdom.

Emilien joined the Piper-Heidsieck family in October 2018, taking over from renowned winemaker Regis Camus, and is the youngest chef de cave to lead a major House in the region.

His dynamic approach to winemaking has maintained the excellence and success of the House in recent times, enabled by his philosophy to balance tradition with trailblazing distinction.

As a result, Piper-Heidsieck is the most awarded Champagne House of the century*, achieving eight titles under the leadership of Regis Camus, and now a ninth with Emilien Boutillats latest IWC Sparkling Winemaker of the Year award.

Thrilled with the honor of the Award, Emilien stated:

This is an important recognition of the work produced by the entire Piper-Heidsieck team and honors the legacy of my predecessors, including Daniel Thibault and Regis Camus, both of whom achieved great success during their time at the helm of Piper-Heidsieck.

He continued:

From the winemaking team, some of whom have been with the House more than 30 years, to the winegrowers and partners, and those involved in the production of the bottles, each of our teams valuable contribution is what has enabled us to receive this award.

The 2021 Sparkling Winemaker of the Year award affirms the dedication and commitment of Piper-Heidsieck to continue producing the finest blends, while working towards a sustainably conscious future within all its winemaking practices.

In its 37th year, the International Wine Competition brings together a panel of expert judges to blind taste the wide variety of wines and work in unison to discover the highest-quality blends from 52 countries.

The vast range of awards presented by the IWC includes Red, White, Fortified, Sparkling, and Sweet Winemakers of the Year and the Own Label, Varietal, Regional, National, and International shortlists.

Lauded as the most awarded House of the century*, Piper-Heidsieck has been one of the US markets Top Five Champagne brands for more than a decade and is poured in more than 100 countries worldwide. A House with a storied history, it was the first champagne to appear in film and has long been associated with celebration, cinema and celebrity.

An official sponsor of the iconic Cannes Film Festival for more than 20 years, and the official Champagne of the Academy Awards since 2015, a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck is opened around the world every 8 seconds.

Wines in the Piper-Heidsieck portfolio include: Brut NV ($45 SRP), Extra Dry ($45 SRP), Sublime ($50 SRP), Rose Sauvage ($60 SRP) and 2012 Vintage Brut ($80 SRP).

Wines are available nationally through fine wine retailers and restaurants. For more information or image requests, please contact Rebecca Hopkins at rhopkins@foliowine.com

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About Piper-Heidsieck:

The most awarded Champagne House of the century*, Piper-Heidsieck is celebrated for its audacity and excellence. Steeped in history, Piper-Heidsieck was born of a love story that began in 1785 with German-born founder Florens-Louis Heidsieck crafting a wine to seduce his lover. For Piper-Heidsieck, the true meaning of seduction is free from convention to innovate and to convey self-expression. The Maison continued its path of seduction winning over Marie-Antoinette, exciting the palates of speakeasy goers throughout Prohibition and even becoming Marilyn Monroes bedfellow with the famous actress claiming she would get up every morning with a glass of Piper. Today, Piper-Heidsieck is poured in over 100 countries and prides itself on holding dual certification of Viticulture Durable en Champagne and Haute Valeur Environnementale**. The progressive Champagne House also enjoys a colourful history of unique encounters and moments of intimacy, none more memorable than the iconic Prohibition-era which this year celebrates 100 years.

** Predecessor of Emilien Boutillat, Regis Camus awarded the title of Sparkling Winemaker of the Year eight times by the International Wine Challenge jury since the beginning of the century.

** VDC: Sustainable Viticulture in Champagne / HVE: High Environmental Value

About Folio Fine Wine Partners:

Founded by the Michael Mondavi Family in 2004, Folio Fine Wine Partners is an importer, fine wine agency and producer of quality wines from the world's premier and emerging wine regions, providing sales, marketing and public relations services to wine brands from California, Italy, France, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Washington State, Austria and South Africa. For more information about Folio Fine Wine Partners, visit http://www.foliowine.com/ or social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Lighthouse Health & Wellness Officer health and safety are top priority for the Pocatello Police Department. The department is always looking for the best ways to help employees manage the day-to-day challenges of the job and to truly thrive.

The Pocatello Police Department of Pocatello, Idaho has launched a custom application developed by Lighthouse Health & Wellness through a scholarship provided by NCPCV. The application is designed to provide health resources and support for first responders and their families.

The Pocatello Police Department Prioritizes Officer Health

Officer health and safety are top priority for the Pocatello Police Department. The department is always looking for the best ways to help officers manage the day-to-day challenges of the job and to truly thrive. The custom Lighthouse app will make it easy for department employees to access vital information and make even better use of the resources they already have in place. Lighthouse Health and Wellness is confident that the launch of this custom application will play a key role in supporting the continued success of health and safety initiatives at the Pocatello Police Department.

Scholarship Resources Provided by NCPCV

Pocatello Police Departments application was provided by a scholarship offered by The National Center for Prevention of Community Violence (NCPCV), covering a one-year subscription to a customized Lighthouse Health & Wellness mobile app and web-portal. NCPCV received a 2020 grant from Motorola Solutions Foundation in generous support of this project. Motorola Solutions Foundation awards grants each year to organizations, such as Destination Imagination, which support and advance public safety programs and technology and engineering education initiatives.

Lighthouse Health & Wellness  Supporting First Responders Wellbeing

Lighthouse Health & Wellness is an in-hand, on-demand, 100% confidential health and wellness platform. The apps give public safety employees easy access to their agencys existing health and wellness programs, as well as to a growing library of the latest educational health and wellness information and toolsall tailored to the unique needs of those working in public safety. Custom mobile applications include access to the evolving Lighthouse Library of educational content, the agency's existing wellness resources, a customizable event calendar, peer support toolbox, therapist locator, and more.

Public Safety Officers Need Support  Now More Than Ever

With the overwhelming rise in job-related stress, growing media scrutiny, increased focus on public safety suicides, and the reality and fear of senseless line-of-duty deaths, it is more important than ever that all first responders have access to health and wellness resources. Lighthouse is accessible on the web as well as via iOS and Android applications. This puts the tools public safety officers need literally at their fingertips. If you or your organization would like to know how you can support wellness initiatives at the Pocatello Police Department or at your own local agency, we encourage you to reach out to us at https://www.lighthousehw.org/contact.

About Lighthouse Health & Wellness

Lighthouse Health & Wellness is a public benefit corporation with the stated mission of ensuring that every public safety agency in the nation can provide its employees and their families with confidential and anonymous access to health and wellness resources. Lighthouse H&W accomplishes this through mobile app and web portal platforms, powered by Apex Mobile. This technology provides our nations first responders private access to culturally competent, cutting edge health and wellness information and resources. For more information about Lighthouse Health & Wellness and their first responder health and wellness programs call 949-305-7008 or go to https://www.lighthousehw.org.

About National Center For Prevention of Community Violence

The National Center For Prevention of Community Violence is a nonprofit with extensive experience providing evidence-based programming. NCPCVs AC4P-Policing program uses an innovative approach to providing comprehensive, culturally competent training and tools to foster wellness among public safety. For more information visit http://www.ncpcv.org.
Mrs. Property Solutions with the Cannon family I am very happy with how Cristina and Tricia were able to help me sell my home! Both for what I was asking and in the amount of time we had agreed on.

After providing top-notch service to home sellers in Los Angeles for the last 5 years, Mrs. Property Solutions is now expanding into the Phoenix market. For those in the area who are looking to sell their homes quickly and without any hassle, this is an incredible opportunity to receive a great deal on their home.

Summary

Mrs. Property Solutions is a company that buys houses from sellers who are dealing with property issues and makes it easy to get a cash offer entirely online in just a few minutes. The business customizes its service to address the individual needs of its customers, such as desired timeline a home owner wants to sell in, how much they want to sell their house for, and any kinds of customization they may require to make the sale extra easy.

The company provides this customization through a 100% free offer that has high flexibility for any personal situations and time crunches its customers may be dealing with. So whether the homeowner is going through a difficult situation like a foreclosure or divorce, Mrs. Property Solutions goes out of their way to work on the timeline that its customers need to make a smooth transaction out of the house so that they are able to get the funds that they need to move on. They are also willing to take on any challenges that the property has like code violations, tax delinquencies or problematic tenants that might make it hard to sell on the regular open market.

These kinds of services are particularly helpful for someone that needs to sell a house with some differed maintenance issues. Even bigger projects like a house that is in need of major repairs like a poor foundation, termite damage, or leaky roofs, Mrs. Property Solutions makes fair offers to people in need of selling and will make an offer that is dependent not only on a homes current value, but based on their projections for what they are able to resell the house for, once they fix any of the needed repairs. For more information on the kinds of situations that the company can help with in the Phoenix area, please take a look at Mrs. Property Solutions Phoenix webpage.

The Process

Just as Mrs. Property Solutions did in L.A., its Phoenix customers can go through a surprisingly simple process. They simply need to fill out a form on their website, and after that they can expect to receive a call from the company so that they can gather a few extra details about the house in order to calculate a fair offer. Depending on the situation and the customers comfort level, a representative from Mrs. Property Solutions may ask for the opportunity to tour the house one time, in order to receive a guaranteed offer. However, due to the pandemic, they are also sensitive to the needs of its customers and if anyone would rather do the process 100% virtually, Mrs. Property Solutions will of course make accommodations so that everyone feels safe and comfortable throughout the process.

To regards to calculating how much Mrs. Property Solutions can offer for a house, they use this simple calculation:

[ARV]-[Repairs]-[Trans. Costs]-[Min. Profit] = Offer Price

They start with the ARV which stands for After Repairs Value, which is essentially the amount they believe they could sell the house for if it is all fixed up. To arrive at an ARV they look at what fixed up houses in that neighborhood recently sold for. From there, they subtract the repair costs, transaction costs, and the minimum profit they need to make from the home.

Once all of those costs are subtracted, that is where Mrs. Property Solutions arrives at the cost they are able to pay for a home. If the customer decides to accept the offer, they are able to select the date that they want to close the transaction and when they want to collect their cash. From there, Mrs. Property Solutions will draw up the necessary paperwork and hand off the transaction to an Escrow company that will handle the closing and make sure that all of the terms are followed by both parties in regards singing the correct documents, and that the seller receives their promised payment. Everything is done legitimately through proper channels that are 100% legal so that everyone is protected and feels confident moving forward.

Feedback from Previous Customers

Helping provide the ability to expand into the Arizona market, positive feedback from Mrs. Property Solutions numerous customer has proven the companys reliability. The business has received 5-star reviews on Facebook, Google, and Yelp. Also, it has an A+ standing with the Better Business Bureau. With so many video and social media testimonials, it is clear from their customers feedback that there is a trend pointing out the professionalism and high quality that its customers receive, also noting that they were able to sell their homes easily without the hassle of poor service or communication.

For example, Ace Lothario noted on Google reviews that I am very happy with how Cristina and Tricia were able to help me sell my home! Both for what I was asking and in the amount of time we had agreed on. There were problems on my end with squatters holding up the sale and they were able to come up with fast and effective solutions that otherwise would have been a lengthy process and a legal battle. They were always on point with documents ready to sign and to answer any questions I had. Thank you both so much for making a stressful situation (house fire) into a smooth process, transition and transaction! I highly recommend them both and Mrs. Property Solutions for anyone's real estate needs!

Putting Customers First

Why do so many customers love Mrs. Property Solutions? Because they always put their customers first. Home sellers have found that selling to the company is better than simply listing on the market because the business goes above and beyond to meet the needs of their customers  whatever that might look like for each person.

For instance, take a look at the Cannon family: when Miranda first contacted Mrs. Property Solutions, she was struggling with the fact that the house where her grandmother lived in Los Angeles was out of state from the rest of the family in Washington, and she was needed to be moved into an assisted living facility due to dementia. So, the company made moving arrangements for the grandmother to be moved into the new location and not only coordinated the move, but also handled all of the items that she was not able to take behind by donating them to folks in need so that they family didnt need to handle all of that extra stress.

Of course, this may not be the needs of everyone that needs to sell their home, however it is a perfect example of how Mrs. Property Solutions is willing to go above just buying a house  they are invested in the families that they work with and willing to do whatever is necessary to help them have s smooth transition onto the next chapter of their lives.

Why Mrs. Property Solutions Does What It Does

Although Mrs. Property Solutions earns money to support its family and team, financial gain is not the companys main goal. Rather, it aims to help others through hard work and understanding of the market. The business always strives to be honest and do the right thing, which is why it puts customer service at the forefront. Finally, the companys staff always work to be joyful in what it does, realizing that its work to help people who are trying to sell their homes is a blessing.

Mrs. Property Solutions is proud to be a Christian company, and while that may be a deterrent to some, it only means that they operate in a way that honors God and honors people. Their core values are Integrity, hard work, and a cheerful, giving spirit  and when one takes a look at their online reputation, it is apparent that these are not just empty words but the culture by which they actually operate.

What to Do Next

Potential customers with a house in Arizona that want to sell their home to a reliable company (which is rapidly gaining attraction) can get a quick and individualized offer, along with high-quality service, by requesting an offer online. All they need is a home, a phone, and a few minutes on their hands.

Anyone with questions before moving forward is also free to check out Mrs. Property Solutions FAQ section of their website or they can submit a contact form and the company will get back to them within 24 hours. Some of the popular areas that they are currently buying houses in are Mesa and Gilbert in the east valley.

Even for those who want to sell their homes but do not live in Los Angeles or Phoenix, no worries! Mrs. Property Solutions has some branches of its company throughout the United States, particularly Idaho and Washington state. If clients would like to know whether Mrs. Property Solutions can cover their region, they can contact the company at any number listed on their website.
PROVEN, a product launched to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and provide health solutions backed by licensed healthcare professionals, and Pass, a partner of demonstrated biometric and touchless healthcare technology providers since 2012, will serve as partners to ensure that individuals can travel safely and return to normalcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic through a convenient and secure mobile app. The product of this partnership is PassID powered by PROVEN, a digital health clearance solution created by USHealthPass and Pass.

The PassID powered by PROVEN tool helps fight the spread of COVID-19 while keeping users health information safe and seen only by licensed healthcare professionals. Key features of the app include verified COVID-19 vaccine credentials, COVID-19 symptom/contact tracing, and additional capabilities to use thermal imaging and biometric screening through Passs hardware capabilities. The system goes beyond the traditional vaccine passport by enabling all types of users to prove their health status, whether they are vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19, have taken an at-home COVID-19 test, or can be verified by a health professional to have shown no signs of exposure or symptoms for an extended period of time.

The mobile app, called myPassID, is currently available for download from the App Store and Google Play. Users can sign up easily and quickly with just a phone number. To access the complete range of capabilities, users should upload an acceptable form of identification and a photo to verify their information. Once fully registered, the app generates a unique QR code to represent the users digital identity. To complement their profiles, users may also upload relevant records, like vaccine records, tickets, and other types of documentation. Users can scan their QR codes anywhere and everywhere to streamline identity, health, and ticket verification.

The goal of PassID powered by PROVEN is ultimately to give users a sense of safety as they return to normal life in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pass Product Director Tom Simmons explained. In this new age, we aim to put users in control of personal details such as vaccination status and give them a secure and seamless way to share their digital information.

To accomplish this objective, the myPassID mobile app is secured with access control measures to keep users personal information private. The technology is HIPAA compliant so that users and organizations can feel comfortable knowing their data meets the highest industry standards.

PROVEN uses medical professionals to verify the COVID-19 health status for travelers, employees, guests, and customers, said USHealthPass President Peter Gallic. PassID powered by PROVEN will provide a robust tool to businesses and the travel industry that does not discriminate against people without a vaccine but looks holistically at the health history and status of each person.

Additionally, PROVEN is working with NAHA Health to provide clinical support and CheckMyTest for COVID-19 testing solutions. NAHA Healths clinicians will quickly review users vaccination and health status, and verify the information provided by users by accessing health records. NAHA Health is a healthcare company that is HIPAA compliant and has teams of licensed clinicians, doctors, and nurses that regularly access healthcare records to treat patients.

Backed by healthcare professionals, PROVEN provides a global alternative to vaccine passports that can even clear unvaccinated users. The PassID powered by PROVEN tool enables those who are opposed to vaccinations or have a medical reason not to be vaccinated, such as having COVID-19 antibodies, to be able to move about freely and safely after being medically cleared.

ABOUT PROVEN:

Based in Clearwater, Florida and Washington, D.C., PROVEN is a new digital health tool launch by USHealthPass, which is partnering with organizations across the globe to safely reopen as we find new solutions to live and work with COVID-19, and allows people to move freely without violating their privacy (HIPAA compliant). PROVEN provides a global health pass to help keep each other safe as we get back to life. The tool keeps everyones personal health information safe and all medical records confidential as they are reviewed by licensed healthcare professionals. PROVEN provides employers, schools, tourism, hospitality and event providers a straightforward color-coded status to quickly understand if someone has been COVID verified or not. For more information, please visit ProvenPass.com.

ABOUT PASS:

Pass is a PassID offering that focuses on providing access control mechanisms for organizations and individuals alike. The Pass product suite involves a range of solutions including an access control endpoint, a mobile app with verified digital credentials, and a cloud platform with advanced data analytics  all of which enable users to authenticate and utilize their identity to move through life seamlessly. To learn more, visit https://www.passid.com or connect with us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Ten community development entities (CDEs) that made qualified low-income community investments (QLICIs) into five businesses are the winners of the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits QLICIs of the Year Awards.

The awards honor participants who strive for excellence in community development. The awards go to CDEs that made QLICIs in the following properties:



Multi-Assistance Center at Morgans Wonderland in San Antonio as the Metro QLICI of the Year.

Lakota Tech in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, as the Non-Metro QLICI of the Year.

TemperPack Virginia Inc., in Richmond, Virginia, as the Operating Business QLICI of the Year.

Pauls PlaceGroundwork Kitchen in Baltimore, Maryland, as the Small Business QLICI of the Year.

Salt City Market in Syracuse, New York, as the Real Estate QLICI of the Year.

The new markets tax credit incentive is one of the most effective ways to invest in low-income communities and this years winners show the diversity in the types of investments, said Michael J. Novogradac, CPA, managing partner of San Francisco-based Novogradac. A rural school, an urban culinary arts training center and a mixture of other investments are great examples of community development investment.

The Multi-Assistance Center at Morgans Wonderland is the new construction of a 165,000-square-foot property that will serve as a one-stop service center to coordinate care for low-income special needs individuals and their families in an area with a poverty rate of more than 30%. More than 40 nonprofits and for-profit community providers will join to provide a unique service model to achieve better treatment outcomes and reduce patient costs. CDEs DV Community Investment, PeopleFund NMTC LLC and CCG Community Partners LLC provided QLICIs to help finance the facility.

CDEs Dakotas America LLC and USBCDE LLC provided QLICIs to help finance the construction of the only physical career and technical education high school within the Oglala Lakota Nation, an 80,000-square-foot property in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The school has the capacity for 400 students and will graduate more than 100 students per year with career readiness skills in an area with an unemployment rate as high as 80%.

TemperPack received a $15 million QLICI from AMCREF Community Capital, enabling the company to expand its production capacity for its ClimaCell packaging products. ClimaCell insulation is a recyclable alternative to Styrofoam, which allows food and life science companies to ship perishables without unnecessary plastic waste. That upgrade took place in a severely distressed area with a poverty rate of more than 40% and a 17% unemployment rate.

Pauls PlaceGroundwork Kitchen is a 15,000-square-foot culinary arts training center, restaurant and carryout shop in Baltimore, made possible by QLICIs from Cinnaire New Markets and The Community Builders Inc. Pauls Place, a nonprofit established nearly 20 years ago, is launching Groundwork Kitchen for classes of up to 15 people to learn front-house and back-of-house skills for the hospitality industry, graduating 60 adults per year.

Salt City Market is a 78,000-square-foot mixed-used development on a formerly vacant lot where three impoverished neighborhoods intersect. QLICIs by The Rose Urban Green Fund LLC and Chase New Markets Corporation, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., helped finance the development, which will include a 24,000-square-foot public market and grocery store, nonprofit office space and 26 mixed-income apartments. There will be 10 food incubator stalls for food entrepreneurs.

The winners will be honored at the Novogradac 2021 New Markets Tax Credit Fall Conference Oct. 28-29 in Austin, Texas.

Additional details about the awards winners and information on how to nominate a development for the next round of awards can be found at http://www.novoco.com/events/awards.

About Novogradac

Novogradac, which has been in business for more than 30 years, has grown to more than 650 employees and partners with offices in more than 25 cities. Tax, audit and consulting specialty practice areas for Novogradac include affordable housing, community development, historic rehabilitation and renewable energy.
Holly Weinzapfel, vice president of ResourceOne

ResourceOne, a Moore company, today announced the appointment of Holly Weinzapfel to vice president. In her new role, her responsibilities will be expanded to include account management of enterprise accounts, strategic planning and business development. ResourceOne provides direct mail, digital and media solutions, analytics and strategic consulting for nonprofits and organizations to increase brand awareness and donor relations.

My father worked in Chicago during the golden age of ad agencies, so I grew up with a deep interest and passion for marketing and advertising that continues to this day, said Weinzapfel. Working with ResourceOne and their clients has allowed me to apply this passion and develop amazing cutting-edge programs for some of the largest and well-respected nonprofits in the world.

Weinzapfels appointment to this role aligns with ResourceOnes commitment to excellence and client growth. Weinzapfel has proven herself a leader and trusted client advisor in all aspects of client management including distribution, analytics, strategy and development.

Holly excels at providing strategic insights and analytical direct response marketing for her clients through collaboration and creative solutions, said Jeff Pelcher, president of ResourceOne. In this new role, she will continue to build internal and external relationships with current and potential clients, solidify brand identities and manage strategic development for campaigns.

Prior to joining ResourceOne, Weinzapfel worked for Gannett Direct Marketing in Louisville, Kentucky, and was an account executive for Haynes & Partners. Her work for The American Legion, Vietnam Womens Memorial, the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Citizens Flag Alliance perfectly exemplifies her knowledge of missions and ability to combine history, fundraising expertise and experience to deliver exceptional results.

Weinzapfel graduated with a journalism degree from Indiana University and an MBA from Butler University.

For more information on the services provided by ResourceOne, visit resource-one.us.

About ResourceOne

ResourceOne, a Moore company, designs and implements direct marketing solutions. The company provides innovative multi-channel marketing solutions proven to increase response rates and cultivate lasting relationships. ResourceOne Fundraising is dedicated to providing solutions that exceed client expectations by focusing on data-driven results.

About Moore

Moore is a global leader in performance-driven marketing solutions focused on all facets of the consumer experience. With over 3,000 employees in 36 locations across the country, Moore is dedicated to helping clients fulfill their missions. The organization provides services including strategic consulting, creative development, media planning and buying, as well as research and analytics, production management and product fulfillment, database services and public relations to nonprofit, association, commercial and government clients and is a key contributor to strengthening these sectors.
Integrating PayPerks with smiONE will provide exclusive differentiation to our state and local partners, while making an important positive impact on the financial lives of our cardholders and their families. -Bo Stone, Chief Strategy Officer, SMI

Systems & Methods, Inc. (SMI) today announced that it has acquired the PayPerks platform, brand, and assets. The PayPerks platform has been successfully used for 10 years to improve the financial health of its millions of users, and will now power the education, gamification, and rewards functionality of the smiONE Visa Prepaid Card. The transaction was completed last month.

The PayPerks solution was created in 2010, at the dawn of the current fintech era, to create a new approach to cardholder engagement through a unique combination of easy-to-digest visual education, fun quizzes, engaging points schemes, and exciting sweepstakes-based rewards.

This new approach created value for both the prepaid debit cardholder and the card provider, driving awareness and understanding of card basics, better usage of advanced card features, budgeting and savings, safety and security, and other financial capability skills, while helping the card provider improve the programs top line and bottom line through optimization, loyalty, and improved servicing.

SMI plans to integrate the functionality of the PayPerks platform directly into its smiONE Card product, bringing the same education and rewards solutions to its 1.9 million cardholders. The smiONE Card is a part of SMIs set of solutions that it provides to states and local agencies for the disbursement of government payments, including child support. Embedding the PayPerks solution into the card experience will benefit not only SMI and its cardholders, but also SMIs government partners who are looking for innovative solutions to make a positive impact on their constituents.

PayPerks has a proven track record of creating positive behavior change and working with government partners. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its bank partner deployed the solution for its Direct Express card program, where PayPerks was able to drive significant cardholder behavior change, increase cardholder satisfaction, and improve cardholder financial health. Cardholders reported that the education helped them feel that someone cared for their wellbeing and that the financial lessons learned improved not just their financial lives, but their whole lives.

We are very excited to bring PayPerks to our cardholders as we continuously work to enhance our users experience with the smiONE Card, a growing part of our product and solution portfolio, says Bo Stone, Chief Strategy Officer, SMI. Integrating PayPerks with smiONE will provide exclusive differentiation to our state and local partners, while making an important positive impact on the financial lives of our cardholders and their families.

This acquisition is an exciting beginning of the next phase of our companys mission to improve the financial health of cardholders, says Jake Peters, Co-Founder and CEO, PayPerks. There continues to be a real need to help Americans across the financial spectrum with basic financial literacy and advanced financial capabilities, all in service of improving not only financial health, but overall health. After having gotten to know the SMI team over the past year, I am thrilled to know that the solution we have built will continue on as a part of a thoughtful, innovative, family-run company that cares deeply for its users, just as we have for the past decade.

About SMI: For almost 50 years, Systems and Methods, Inc. (SMI) has pioneered innovative government payment solutions that make it easier for families to access critical funds that help improve the quality of their daily lives. Founded in 1971 in Carrollton, Ga., as a local accounting, batch processing, and data entry service, SMI now operates comprehensive State Disbursement Units (SDUs) in 17 states and manages the reloadable smiONE Visa Prepaid Card for 1.9 million cardholders in 12 states and 12 tribes, more than any other provider in the U.S. As a family-owned and operated company, SMI combines a unique relationship-based approach with innovative technology to customize the right solution for each government agency and its constituents. Learn more about SMI at http://www.smi-inc.com.

About PayPerks: PayPerks was founded in 2010 in New York City by Arlyn Davich and Jake Peters, two entrepreneurs focused on leveraging technology to provide innovative solutions to improve the financial capability of low-income Americans through education and sweepstakes-based rewards. Supported by leading venture capital investors, including Anthemis Group, Red & Blue Ventures (fka MentorTech Ventures), DCM, the New York Angels, Columbia Universitys Lang Fund, and other angel investors including Esther Dyson, the company grew to provide effective behavior change solutions to prepaid card program managers, banks, processors, and state and local governments, improving the financial capability and financial health of millions of cardholders. PayPerks received awards and industry recognition from Paybefore Magazine, PYMNTS.com, Prepaid Expo, The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, The White House, and the CFED. Learn more at http://www.payperks.com.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Britton (SMI) at elizabeth.britton@smimail.net.
The Village of Glen Ellyn will be holding its Independence Day celebration on Sunday, July 4th. After reviewing the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the State of Illinois plans for reopening, the village determined that it would be able to go ahead with the planned festivities while encouraging participants to follow the recommended safety guidelines. Certain planned activities, including the Food Truck Festival, the Lake Ellyn Cardboard Regatta, and the July 4th Afternoon Festivities at Lake Ellyn Park, have been canceled for 2021, but they will hopefully make a return in the summer of 2022.

The festivities will begin with the Fourth of July parade, which will take place at noon in downtown Glen Ellyn. As a Gold-level sponsor, Stogsdill Law Firm will be featured on a banner carried by volunteers in the parade. The villages fireworks display will take place at dusk at Lake Ellyn Park, located at 645 Lenox Road. Both the parade and the fireworks show will be live-streamed online for those who do not wish to attend in person. For more information about the Fourth of July events, please visit https://www.glenellyn4thofjuly.org/.

Stogsdill Law Firm is proud to support the community in Glen Ellyn by sponsoring the villages Fourth of July festivities. The firms attorneys believe in giving back to their community, and they are happy to be able to help people in the DuPage County area begin to return to normalcy after the difficulties they have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About Stogsdill Law Firm, P.C.:

The Stogsdill Law Firm has been providing family law services to clients in DuPage, Will, DeKalb, Kendall, and Cook Counties and other areas in Northern Illinois for over 40 years. The firms dedicated lawyers share over 110 years of combined experience, and they work to provide high-quality, personalized representation and legal help in every case. The firm assists with a wide variety of family law matters, including divorce, child custody, adoption, paternity, and prenuptial agreements. To learn more or to schedule a free consultation, visit https://www.stogsdilllaw.com or call 630-462-9500.


Excited To Announce Our New Office In Toronto, Canada We see our Toronto location as pivotal to achieving our goal of becoming a dominant global fund administrator, said Nilesh Sudrania, Co-Founder and CEO, Sudrania. We have been very impressed with the level of talent available in Toronto and the impact the team has made already."

Sudrania Fund Services (Sudrania), one of the worlds fastest-growing fund administrators, has opened its newest office in Toronto, Canada to introduce its cutting-edge, end-to-end cloud-based fund administration platform to institutional investors. This Canada Day is extra special for Sudrania as the company celebrates its expansion into the Canadian market coinciding with its five-year anniversary.

Sudrania has rapidly grown to 600 employees, serving over 500 global clients. Among the top reasons high-caliber clients have increasingly chosen Sudrania for their fund admin needs are:



A well-staffed global team with 15+ average years of industry experience.

Proprietary cloud-based technology platform that creates operational scale, efficiencies, and significantly improved calculations versus legacy processes.

Global leader in the Digital Assets/Cryptocurrency space with the most robust connectivity to the worlds major exchanges and custodians.

SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 audits/certificates.

Unmatched ability to fully address the needs of Hedge Funds, Fund of Funds, Impact Funds, Private Equity Funds, Real Estate Funds, and Crypto and Digital Assets Funds.

Sudrania is aggressively scaling up its operations in Canada. The company already has five people employed in Toronto and plans to hire 20-25 people by the end of 2021.

About Sudrania

Sudrania Fund Services Corp is a Chicago, IL-based, technology-enabled, fund administrator combining the power of cloud computing matched with an equal commitment to client service. Sudranias Seamless platform is an integrated portfolio, fund, and investor accounting system with a full-scale general ledger. It can process millions of trades and produce daily NAVs for all fund types, including cryptocurrency, where Sudrania is a global leader. For more information, visit https://sudrania.com/
What Makes You Great?: a thought-provoking read meant to elevate the confidence of the reader. The author hopes that when her readers reach the final page of her book, theyll gain insight and be motivated to stop the toxic perception towards themselves and finally realize the reason why they were blessed by the Creator with a life here on Earth. What Makes You Great? is the creation of published author Tasha C. Hoggatt, a compassionate woman who desires to spread the glory of God. She is a motivational speaker and mentor who touches the lives of the people she encounters.

Hoggatt shares, What Makes You Great? is a deeply moving and inspirational book on the power of faith, love, forgiveness, and life. The authors approach to understanding who you are and why it matters keeps you turning the page. You must never doubt your ability to achieve anything, become anything, overcome anything, and inspire everything. is a quote from the book that is really at the soul of the book. What Makes You Great? provides a unique understanding of how to walk out your faith and carry your cross, one day at a time, in the most empowering ways. This book provides insight and clarity to the importance of self-reflection. It is brilliantly written to encourage conversation, walk out your faith, andmostly importantlyto point people to the kingdom of God.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Tasha C. Hoggatts new book is a highly insightful literary piece aimed at those who are in constant battle against themselves, those who cant see their worth, and to those who have already given up in life.

The author deeply prays that through this book, readers will renew their faith and love towards the Heavenly Father.

View a synopsis of What Makes You Great? on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase What Makes You Great? at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about What Makes You Great?, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Arizona legislators have worked tirelessly to offer many voting opportunities to all eligible and registered voters. While these laws look to secure ballots, they in no way attempt to give minorities less opportunities to vote than non-minorities," said Chase Martin, Legal Affairs Director at FGA.

The United States Supreme Court upheld Arizonas efforts to safeguard its elections in a 6-3 vote today, a major victory as states work to restore voters trust in the democratic process. The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) applauds this decision.

The case specifically evaluated the legality of two Arizona election reforms that the Democratic National Committee unsubstantially claims infringe on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The reforms under question aim to implement a precinct-centered voting process and ban third parties from collecting absentee ballots. Both are intended to make it easy to vote, but harder to cheatregardless of the voters background.

The unfounded belief that these two laws infringe on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a convenient argument that the Democratic National Committee is making to misguide all American voters, said Chase Martin, Legal Affairs Director at FGA. Arizona legislators have worked tirelessly to offer many voting opportunities to all eligible and registered voters. While these laws look to further secure ballots, they in no way attempt to give minorities less opportunities to vote than non-minorities.

The Foundation for Government Accountability supports clear, transparent voting procedures and safeguards that restores voters trust in the electoral process while protecting the voice and vote of all voters.

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a nonprofit, multistate think tank that specializes in health care, welfare, and work reform. To learn more, visit http://www.TheFGA.org.
Find vehicle service specials at Mercedes-Benz of Scottsdale.

Local Scottsdale dealership, Mercedes-Benz of Scottsdale, has vehicle service specials available for customers to utilize. Among these service coupons customers will find:



Full Detail and Interior Sanitization with the purchase of Service B Package

American Express Gift Card Service Specials

$50 off Front or Rear Brake Pad Replacement

$25 off Service A Package

All of these offers expire on July 6, so any customer who is interested in taking advantage of these deals are encouraged to contact the dealership as soon as possible. This particular dealership has a state-of-the-art service facility and an expert service team who is well-experienced in fixing all sorts of makes and models, not just vehicles from the Mercedes-Benz brand. Because of this, Mercedes-Benz of Scottsdale remains a trusted and true dealership not only for drivers to purchase new and used vehicles from, but also to depend on for quality vehicle service in the Scottsdale community.

This dealership also has a variety of blog posts and research pages available to assist customers in their research efforts. Shoppers who are searching for their future vehicle and utilize these pages to complete their research quickly and effectively.

Any questions can be directed to the dealership by calling 480-409-0409 or by showing up to the dealership at 4725 North Scottsdale Road, in Scottsdale.
Wheels micromobility device in Santa Monica Were thrilled to expand our footprint in our hometown to the streets of Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Were looking forward to serving these communities and to offering all Los Angeles area riders a more seamless experience across the city.

Today Wheels, the last-mile, shared electric mobility platform, announced that it will expand its Los Angeles services to Santa Monica and West Hollywood, becoming the only micromobility operator in the county that gives riders an end-to-end transportation option throughout Los Angeles. From Sunset Boulevard to the Santa Monica pier, the Los Angeles County Art Museum to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, LA residents and tourists can ditch their cars and use Wheels to beat the traffic, no matter where they want to go.

With the economy reopening and many Americans looking for a safer and more sustainable way to travel, Wheels views these Los Angeles expansions as a big step forward in providing affordable and accessible transportation to all. Wheels was selected as a local micromobility option in part due to its high safety standards - ranking in as the safest micromobility option on the market.

Were thrilled to expand our footprint in our hometown to the streets of Santa Monica and West Hollywood. Were looking forward to serving these communities and to offering all Los Angeles area riders a more seamless experience across the city, said Marco Mcottry, CEO of Wheels. Our goal is to continue to expand our services so everyone has access to the safest and most accessible electric mobility platform on the market.

These latest expansions make Wheels the only micromobility option available in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Culver City and West Hollywood, giving riders the option to sit down without pedaling. One hundred Wheels devices will be deployed in West Hollywood and two hundred devices will be deployed in the City of Santa Monica as part of the citys second Shared Mobility Pilot Program.

Additionally, a portion of devices in Santa Monica will be outfitted with Wheels industry-first integrated smart helmet, free to riders, that includes a biodegradable headliner that can be peeled off before each use. Riders can rent a Wheels device through the Wheels app, which displays the closest available device on a map. To rent a device, riders tap Scan to Unlock and point their phone camera toward the QR code located on the handlebars. When the ride is complete, they will park the device out of the public's right of way and it is recommended that they park in an approved parking zone identified within the app.

Wheels will be available in Santa Monica and West Hollywood starting today, July 1, 2021.

Todays news comes on the heels of two recent Wheels announcements transforming urban transportation safely and sustainably. In June, Wheels partnered with Lime to offer Orlando access to its electric vehicle through the Lime app. In addition, Wheels announced an exclusive partnership with Edenred, the leading corporate mobility provider, to offer commuters a safer way to return to work.

To learn more, visit: https://takewheels.com.

About Wheels

Wheels is a last-mile, shared electric mobility platform whose seated form factor changes the landscape in dockless mobility. In addition to being seated, Wheels devices have a low center of gravity and 14-inch wheels to help navigate uneven pavement surfaces. Wheels recently launched a first-of-its-kind integrated helmet system that gives riders physical access to a shareable helmet with every ride they take. Because of its unique design, Wheels devices have a broad appeal, with half of its riders being women and one-third being over 35. Wheels is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and is currently expanding operations across the U.S. and Europe. Learn more at http://www.takewheels.com.
Woolpert Buildings Sector Leader Suzette Stoler Her exceptionally solid and diverse experience has provided her with the perspective needed to position Woolpert for short- and long-term success.

Woolpert has hired Suzette Stoler, FARA, AIA, to serve as vice president and buildings sector leader. She is a registered architect and has extensive, international leadership experience at small and large architecture and engineering firms, including AECOM, Jacobs and Stantec.

Stoler has provided inspired and steadfast direction to support myriad design pursuits for public and private clients around the world and has been a successful agent of operational change. She has fostered customized growth strategies for in-house talent, helped guide profitable company mergers and acquisitions, created and implemented business development strategies, and steered constructive organizational restructuring.

At Woolpert, Stoler will be responsible for leading the architects, interior designers, planners and engineers who serve the firms private, public and federal markets. She will guide them to innovate the built environment through smart planning, programming and design. Woolpert Senior Vice President and COO Kirk McClurkin said Stoler was hired due to her strong experience with acquisition integration, her proven leadership and her passion for the industry.

Suzette has held several senior-level positions that have improved operations and propelled successful growth strategies at the regional, national and global levels, McClurkin said. Her exceptionally solid and diverse experience has provided her with the perspective needed to position Woolpert for short- and long-term success. Im excited about the future of the sector with Suzette at the helm.

Stoler said she was drawn to Woolpert because it is a global company with a highly talented staff, who serve a strong network of offices and clients. She said she hopes to leverage this global talent to reimagine the design and delivery of projects that will support the post-pandemic world now and well into the future.

Woolpert has an entrepreneurial spirit that is not only encouraged at all levels of the organization but is integral to a growth strategy that supports both staff and client goals, Stoler said. Woolperts history of delivering innovative projects coupled with its ongoing thought leadership across public and private markets provides an incredible platform that enables the firm to be a change agent for the architecture, engineering and geospatial industry.

The Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M University graduate also is active with the Society of American Registered Architects regionally and nationally. She has held several leadership positions, including serving as national president of SARA, and was awarded fellowship in 2008. In addition to contributing at the industry level, Stoler also likes to give back to the profession by fostering future leaders.

I love engaging with staff at all levels, but I especially enjoy being a mentor to rising professionals and brainstorming about career development from both an industry and social perspective, she said. Figuring out opportunities for what we can do and how we can get there is key to attracting and retaining staffand its fun, too! I look forward to working with the amazing talent here at Woolpert and to contributing to the firms bright future.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its fifth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has over 1,100 employees and 42 offices in three countries. For more, visit woolpert.com.
Workout Anytime, a leader in the fitness industry with more than 180 units across the country, hosted its annual franchise conference  called The Year of Awesome  from June 25 to June 27 in Alpharetta, Georgia.

More than 300 Workout Anytime franchise and vendor partners attended the conference, which focused on digital marketing strategies in a post-COVID landscape. This included educational breakouts and sessions surrounding best practices.

Were the first fitness brand in the industry to host a face-to-face conference since the pandemic began, said Greg Maurer, Workout Anytime VP of Fitness. More than just a conference, this is a coming out party for the entire fitness industry. And for us and our franchise partners, its a major celebration.

With nearly 20% of fitness clubs nationwide permanently closed as a result of the pandemic, theres reason for the 22-year-old Workout Anytime brand to celebrate.

While COVID shutdowns were devastating in the retail and service industries, we are very well managed, which means that were now in a great spot, said Maurer. The market didnt shrink, but the industry did.

Workout Anytime is in a rapid growth phase with eight new locations already opened this year and another 30 in the pipeline. The brand is also outperforming pre-COVID sales, with online sales up by 38% in Q1 of 2021 compared to 2019 and in-club sales up by seven percent.

The brand will also open its first international locations in Honduras and Costa Rica in Q4. Workout Anytime is well positioned to capture whats expected to be increased demand, as members seek to shed the quarantine fifteen, get back to their former fitness levels and make their health a priority.

The pandemic was a wake up call for a very good reason, Maurer said. Many of the people who passed away as a result of COVID had comorbidities. Theres a growing awareness of the importance of fitness. Its no longer just about looking good, its about being healthy. Taking care of yourself has become a priority.

Boasting more than 275,000 members nationwide, the 24/7 fitness brand focuses on wellness and exercise programs aimed at helping customers with their overall mental and emotional health. Offering a wide range of equipment, small group programming, personal training and nutrition advice  and increasingly, recovery services like infrared saunas  Workout Anytimes franchise partners provide a personal touch that larger fitness brands cant offer.

Were a community-based organization, so our franchise partners typically live in the communities they serve, Maurer said. They know the police and the public servants who do shift work and want to utilize our 24/7 clubs. Ours is a hyper-personal model, one thats dependent upon an amazing franchisee team.

To show its appreciation, the brand honored many of its outstanding franchise partners at the conference, with awards for the highest revenue, the most successful personal training programs, those displaying the most heart and soul, franchisee of the year and more.

For this relationship-focused fitness franchise and its dedicated partners, theres never been a better time to help clients across the country achieve their personal health and fitness goals. We are not only standing, we are prospering, Maurer said. Happy days are here again!

To learn more about franchising with Workout Anytime, visit https://workoutanytimefranchise.com/.

ABOUT WORKOUT ANYTIME:

Atlanta-based Workout Anytime is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week fitness concept with 180+ units across the U.S. Founded by fitness veterans John Quattrocchi and Steve Strickland, the company was formed to provide members with first-class fitness facilities at the lowest cost possible, while delivering a profitable and affordable business model to franchisees. Built on the founders motto of, think big, keep it simple and do it with integrity, Workout Anytime is preparing for significant expansion into new territories by providing opportunities to business-minded entrepreneurs. Franchise opportunities are available and more information can be found on http://workoutanytime.com/.
Author and activist Byrd Baylor, whose picture books reflected deep appreciation for the Southwest and the Native American cultures she loved, died on June 16 in Tucson, Ariz. She was 97.

Baylor was born on March 28, 1924 in San Antonio, Tex. When she was very young, Baylors father worked on oil rigs and in precious metal mines, moving the family as he took jobs in Texas and Arizona. Baylor was five or six years old when the family settled in Tucson. Throughout her childhood she could often be found outdoors exploring and learning about the regions plants and animals. During these early years she developed great respect for the natural world of the deserts and canyons around her and also became fascinated with Native American culture, including folklore and art. I always knew I was going to be a writer, Baylor told the Arizona Daily Star in 2009. When I was a little kid, I was sending off poems to magazines and signing them, Byrd Baylor, age 36. 

Baylor studied creative writing at the University of Arizona but left in her junior year when she married a young naval officer and moved to San Francisco. After that marriage ended, Byrd returned to Tucson and began working as a reporter for the Tucson Daily Citizen in 1951. She covered arts stories and segued into writing features about the people on the Tohono Oodham Reservation and other social justice issues that were important to her like poverty in Tucson. But according an Arizona Daily Star piece, her reporting on a well-known Tucson resident who was a slumlord led to a falling out in the newsroom and in 1955 Byrd moved on to become a freelance writer. Her first success on that front was a short story about a romance that was published in Redbook in 1957.

By 1963, Baylor had combined her passions for writing and the natural world in a new way, publishing her first childrens book, Amigo, illustrated by Garth Williams (Macmillan), about a boy who befriends a prairie dog in the desert. She had remarried and published Amigo and three other titles in the 1960s under the name Byrd Baylor Schweitzer, before reverting to Baylor after the marriage ended. Throughout the 1970s she published at least one picture book annually, with a variety of illustrators. When Clay Sings, illustrated by Tom Bahti (Scribner, 1972), is a prose poem focusing on how ancient Native Americans, including the Anasazi and Mogollon peoples, depicted scenes from their everyday lives on their clay potteryand the children who find remnants of those pots in the hillsides of the Southwestern deserts. The book won a 1973 Caldecott Honor, the first of four her titles would receive.

Everybody Needs a Rock (Scribner, 1974), in which the narrator presents readers with guidelines for finding just the right rock for them, marked Baylors initial collaboration with illustrator Peter Parnall. Three subsequent collaborations received Caldecott Honors: The Desert Is Theirs (Scribner, 1975), Hawk, I Am Your Brother (Scribner, 1976), and The Way to Start a Day (Scribner, 1978). In the Arizona Daily Star, Baylor noted that her books depict all the things I love... the land, the animals, and that she was continually inspired by daily excursions into her surroundings. I have learned so much by walking or just sitting on a rock.

As her childrens book career flourished, Baylor was simultaneously fighting to protect native wildlife and working to help local Native American people in need. She told the Arizona Daily Star that on her first day counseling people of the Tohono Oodham Reservation who had moved to Tucson, she took six people home with her. That experience and others inspired her only novel, Yes Is Better Than No (Scribner, 1977), which was written for adults and follows a Native American family that wins a swimming pool in a lottery but doesnt know what to do with the prize because they dont have running water.

Beginning in the 1980s Baylor lived off the grid in an adobe house her friends helped her build on more than 35 acres of land in Arivaca, southwest of Tucson. She did all of her writingwhich included essays and other works beyond her two dozen childrens bookson manual typewriters, in a converted chicken coop studio. In the early 2000s Baylor began another humanitarian effort by joining forces with a group called No More Deaths, providing food and water to undocumented migrants from Mexico. She allowed the organization to create the Byrd Camp on her property and according to the Arizona Daily Star, the camp has been running for 16 years. It will continue to provide support as long as the group has permission from Baylors grandson Jesse Stanley, with whom she had lived in Tucson since the 2010s.
Whats happening?

Purdue University is creating a new operating model for WBAA radio AM and FM with Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media (MIPM). MIPM, which operates WFYI public broadcasting entities in Indiana, will acquire the WBAA broadcasting license from Purdue. WBAA will retain its call letters, maintain its heritage, and remain a strong public radio entity in Greater Lafayette and beyond.

When does this take effect?

Pending approval of the transfer of the broadcast license by the Federal Communications Commission, MIPM will assume operations of WBAA beginning on or around Oct. 1.

Will Purdue and Greater Lafayette still be affiliated with WBAA?

WBAA will maintain a strong heritage and physical presence in Greater Lafayette and will enjoy extended reach via MIPM and its WFYI stations. As a vital member of the Lafayette community, WBAA will continue to provide opportunities for Purdue students to contribute to the station.

Where will WBAA be located?

MIPM is committed to maintaining a vital public media service in Greater Lafayette. Going forward, some WBAA staff will remain in Greater Lafayette. MIPM and WFYI will also contribute the resources of its entire organization headquartered in Indianapolis, providing critical support in broadcast engineering and fundraising.

What's going to happen to current WBAA staff?

MIPM intends to retain several current WBAA employees and will maintain a strong local presence in Greater Lafayette.

Will WBAA continue to provide local news?

Yes, MIPM/WFYI is committed to preserving local journalism and a local media presence.

Will I still hear NPR?

Yes, WBAA will continue to provide NPR news.

Will I still hear classical music?

Yes, WBAA will continue to provide classical music.

What differences will I notice as a listener?

You will hear some new mentions of WFYI during shared programming. WBAA members who donate $60 or more annually will receive a PBS Passport as part of the transition, gaining access to a robust video streaming library not available today, an added membership perk for WFYI members not currently available to WBAA members.

Will WBAA still offer internships to Purdue University students?

Yes. Students will have access to expanded learning and development opportunities both locally with WBAA and through the larger WFYI organization, in positions spanning broadcasting, digital media, sales and marketing and more.

What will happen with my donation to WBAA?

Any gifts previously given in support of WBAA will be used to support the service. Future gifts should be made to WFYI, which will maintain the commitment to support public media in Greater Lafayette via the WBAA stations. Additionally, WBAA members who donate $60 or more annually will receive a WFYI Passport as part of the transition, gaining access to a robust video streaming library not available today, an added membership perk for WFYI members not currently available to WBAA members.

I am an underwriter  what does this mean for me?

WFYI is committed to maintaining public media services to Greater Lafayette, and the organization will continue to offer underwriting opportunities to connect with public media audiences, on radio, television and digital platforms throughout Greater Lafayette and the state of Indiana.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue University announced Thursday (July 1) that it has signed a letter of intent to enter an agreement for WBAA radio AM and FM to be operated by Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media (MIPM), which currently operates WFYI public broadcasting in central Indiana, with the goal of enhancing the stations public service mission and offerings while preserving WBAAs strong local heritage.

Like weve seen done at many other higher education institutions, Purdue University has been looking for a public radio partner to lead WBAA toward its next 100 years in Greater Lafayette, said R. Ethan Braden, Purdue senior vice president for marketing and communications. WFYI is a strong public broadcasting entity, well-known and respected throughout Indiana, and we believe this agreement represents enhanced opportunities for our students, it preserves the experience that listeners enjoy today, and it extends WBAAs reach and public service offerings.

Pending approval by Purdues Board of Trustees, which will address the matter at its July 7 meeting, and approval of the license transfer by the Federal Communications Commission, MIPM is expected to assume operations of WBAA on or around Oct. 1.

Through the proposed agreement, WBAA will maintain its call letters, its strong heritage and its physical presence in Greater Lafayette. Local news and reporting, NPR and global news, and classical music  mainstays of WBAAs current lineup  will continue to be aired on WBAA-AM and WBAA-FM and its digital frequencies.

Details are still to be determined, but enhancements are expected to include:

Purdue students in the Brian Lamb School of Communication, WBAAs internship partner, will have access to expanded learning and development opportunities both locally with WBAA and through the larger MIPM and WFYI networks, in positions spanning broadcasting, digital media, sales and marketing, and more.

WBAA members who donate at least $60 annually would receive a complimentary WFYI Passport membership (including access to a robust video streaming library of PBS and local programs) as part of the transition, an added membership perk for WFYI members that is not currently available for WBAA members.

Program and underwriting partners will gain access to a broader listenership via shared programming that will also air on WFYI stations.

We are so pleased to work with Purdue University  a world-class research institution  on preserving its public service mission through WBAA, said Greg Petrowich, president and CEO of Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media. Through this agreement, we will strengthen and build on WBAAs commitment to listeners and the communities served by WFYI and WBAA.

WBAA-AM received its broadcast license on April 4, 1922. It is Indiana's longest continuously operating radio station, one of several AM stations signed on by land-grant schools in the early days of radio. WBAA-FM began broadcasting in 1993. WFYI recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of operations.

This transition is subject to approval by the FCC, expected in September.

For additional information, see FAQ.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 5 Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at purdue.edu.



About Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media

Since 1970, WFYI has served Central Indiana as a trusted friend. Its public radio and television stations and its community engagement activities inform, entertain and educate Hoosiers of all ages and walks of life. WFYI broadcasts original content as well as programming from PBS and NPR. WFYI is always here for you. Learn more at wfyi.org. Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media is the parent organization of WFYI public media.

Media contact: Tim Doty, Purdue director of media relations, doty2@purdue.edu
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Preliminary unofficial results show 29 women leading their City Council races, surpassing 21 in 21s goal. If the tallies hold through ranked-choice voting rounds and absentee ballot counting, the next Council will be 57 percent female.
Subway booth clerks at the Forest Hills-71st Avenue station in Forest Hills havent handled cash transactions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Talk by transit officials last week saying cash sales may end permanently isnt sitting well with a range of critics.
Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said that travel is picking up this summer at JFK, LaGuardia and other airports within its purview, but flights have not reached pre-Covid-19 levels.
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Protest against illegal arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, January 31, 2021, (  

Whenever Putin encounters resistance, whether it is a regional neighbor like Ukraine, or a domestic dissident like Alexei Navalny, he will most likely choose to crush them. For example, Russian police arrested over one thousand of Navalnys supporters during recent demonstrations across Russia.[3] Putin relies on populist and nationalist support as a counterweight to his oligarchs. While he uses the oligarchs for payoffs, protection, and political weight, he still needs to keep them in check. He uses the Russian military to rally support and has ordered large-scale exercises that petrify the West to win favour from the nationalist base.[4] The problem for Putin is that these shows of strength are like Roman bread and circus gamesdistractions and superficial appeasement. They are distractions for the real domestic problems that Russia faces such as an aging population, population decline, and the lack of civil rights. Putin will continue to put on these shows, and the West gives him all the ammunition he needs to continue placing NATO as a barbarian at Moscows gates.

Despite Russias veto, NATO intervened by launching a bombing campaign. For Russia, it was a clear message that its voice and position in the U.N. were hollow, even with a seat on the Security Council and a position as one of its five permanent members.

Regardless of the Americas humanitarian intentions, the decision to intervene in Bosnia in 1995, gave Russia and later President Putin the ammunition needed to treat NATO as an aggressive military alliance, and not one built to counter the original Warsaw Pact. Charles Krauthammer argued that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States became the unchallenged superpower; a hegemon in the international order.[5] Not too long after the end of the Cold War, Russia witnessed an American led NATO intervention in Bosnia during the summer of 1995 without formal support from the U.N. Security Council.[6] Despite Russias veto, NATO intervened by launching a bombing campaign. For Russia, it was a clear message that its voice and position in the U.N. were hollow, even with a seat on the Security Council and a position as one of its five permanent members.[7] The intervention disintegrated the notion for Russia that the U.N. and its permanent body were there for the purpose of balancing power. Russias perception shifted such that it felt compelled to fight American led Western dominance, as specifically mentioned in its 2000 National Security Concept.[8] Meanwhile, the United States continued to mount humanitarian interventions through a willingness to use its military capabilities, showing the world its credibility behind its threats of action.

The world watched as the United States did not militarily intervene when President Bashar al-Assad and other actors employed chemical weapons.

Today, at least for Putin, the United States lost its credibility in its willingness to intervene. Putin witnessed two occasions where the United States practiced hardlining and failed to follow through: crossing President Obamas Syria Red Line and using Little Green Men in Ukraine. In August of 2012, President Obama threatened to use military force in response to chemical weapon use in Syria and did not follow through. The world watched as the United States did not militarily intervene when President Bashar al-Assad and other actors employed chemical weapons. In the absence of a coherent American response, Putin seized the opportunity to support Assads regime.[9] When Russia seized Crimea and supported separatist forces in Donetsk in 2014, the United States reiterated Ukrainian sovereignty and condemned the violence. However, the United States gave a mixed response. While the United States provided material support and advisors for the Ukrainian military, along with sanctions, President Obama drew another red line that limited the American response against aggression towards NATO members; to which Ukraine is not a member. Today, Russia retains control of Crimea and continues to support separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine. For Putin, the American strategy of brinkmanship is a paper tiger.

The American playbook does not provide the right pressure to shape a change in Putins behavior. As Putin is a figure who is heavily reliant on his public image, he cannot afford to appear weak as it will internally threaten his position. Ukraines decision to push back against Russian aggression through threatening Crimeas water supply forced Putin to react. Crimea relies on Ukraine to deliver its drinking water, primarily through the North Crimea Canal, which accounts for 80% of Crimeas water use.[10] Ukraine held Crimea hostage and applied pressure on Putin, who promised the Crimean ethnic Russian population security and prosperity. The popularity boost that Putin enjoyed through Crimeas capture eroded. As the Russian government spends billions of rubles trying to circumvent Ukrainian pressure, Putin knows that such spending, with sanctions, hurts the Russian economy.

The future of Russias economy, especially how to pay pensions for the countrys aging population, is an internal pressure that worries Putin.[11] Pensions are at the forefront of Russian domestic politics because of Russias aging population. In 2018, Putin initiated an unpopular bill, intent on raising the retirement age to receive benefits to 60 for women and 65 for men, and it received tremendous backlash.[12] Ukraine, while citing debt as the source of its decision to cut Crimeas water supply, made the peninsula too expensive of a purchase for Putin to keep. Ukraines decision directly threatened his credibility. Putin took decisive action and mobilized tens of thousands of troops, armor, and equipment to send a clear signal to Ukraine. His military exercises were a show of force, and their proximity to Ukraine shows Russias readiness to escalate.

Putin believes that the United States will not fight a conventional war with Russia over Ukraine. America used poorly applied external pressure that instead strengthened Putins internal position.

In response to this action by Putin, Ukrainian President Zelensky turned to the United States and the West for support. With Russian troops conducting a large-scale exercise within 70 miles of the Ukrainian border, Zelensky urged the United States to invite Ukraine to become a member of NATO.[13] As Putin expected, the United States sent a military response as part of its outdated brinkmanship strategy, a game that Putin has mastered. A contingent of three hundred paratroopers deployed to Ukraine, and two warships sailed towards the Black Sea.[14] Despite the voiced concerns of the United States and NATO, Russia continued its exercises, increased its military presence, and deployed a fleet to the Black Sea to cut off the Kerch Strait.[15] The United States may feel that a show of solidarity is enough through teasing a tripwire force; in reality, it only fuels Putins objectives to portray himself as the protector of Russia.

Americas decision to dabble into what is now a regional water dispute is an action that bolsters Putins domestic base. It is not an accident that Putins decision to crack down on Navalnys supporters happened around the time when President Biden blinked and offered future talks with Putin. The BBC interviewed Konstantin Eggert, a reporter who followed the development in Ukraine. When Putin denied Americas urge to de-escalate, and then received a phone call from the White House to set talks, Mr. Eggert argues Biden caved.[16] Putin believes that the United States will not fight a conventional war with Russia over Ukraine. America used poorly applied external pressure that instead strengthened Putins internal position. Instead, the United States should have set aside its old playbook and pursued soft power as its primary weapon to shape Putins decision making.

Rather than escalate, the United States could have broken the cycle of brinkmanship by exercising soft power, thus not allowing Putin to reap the benefits from a knee jerk response. Putin, in his own way, hunts for opportunities to embarrass the United States, like when he sent to the United States COVID vaccines and offered material support.[17] Here, the United States could have issued a public statement that offered humanitarian aid for the Crimean Peninsula. The United States could have forced Putin into a position where he would have lost face regardless of his response, thus applying effective external pressure in a fashion that directly attacks his persona without risking military escalation. By offering humanitarian aid, the United States could offer talks from a position of human rights and not play the brinkmanship game that Putin enjoys. It would be more beneficial for both Russia and the United States to instead focus on building mutual economic partnerships.
Great power competition is a trendy concept that frames the current perception of international affairs held by many. As such, it deserves serious consideration.[1] Arguably the most dominant conceptualization of great power competition is an objective status of international order characterized by an increased contest between great powers.[2] To understand great power competition, we need to deconstruct it. The underlying claim here is that great power competition is a hollow, unhelpful, and potentially dangerous concept. The case against it is threefold.

First, it does not provide insight into who exactly are those great powers and how to differentiate them from medium or small powers. Most often, great power competition describes bilateral interactions between the U.S. and China. Sometimes Russia is added with a footnote that the Kremlin is not a true systemic competitor, but a regional power and major disruptor.[3] This uncertainty naturally leads to an important question about how the European Union, Japan, India, and other important, but arguably not first-league, players fit into the great power competition discussion.

Second, competition is a primary category of means the state employs to struggle over security and prosperity with other states. It describes the nature of interactions states engage in to proceed towards specific ends. It is part of a continuum between cooperation and conflict. A sense of rivalry is arguably a defining feature. This distinguishes it from adversarial interactions of conflict and cooperative interactions typical for coexistence. The takeaway point here is that international actors compete with each other all the time. Competition is nothing new and therefore, the concept of great power competition adds no value to this discussion.[4]

It is tempting to misjudge great power competition as an end in and of itself and not a means.

Third, great power competition does not come with an inherent strategic end. We do not know what, exactly, it is that states should compete over. It is tempting to misjudge great power competition as an end in and of itself and not a means. This is potentially dangerous. If any specific goal does not limit competition, it can become an end in itself. Such competition for competitions sake risks unchecked escalation.[5]

In Search of Great Powers

as the case of Russia clearly shows, one does not have to be a great power with global interests and reach to be an influential player in international relations.

According to Kenneth Waltz, a great power can be determined through the criteria of population and territory, economic capability, military strength, political stability and competence. These give great powers a relational advantage to change other states' behavior, arguably globally.[6] As John Mearsheimer argues, great powers seek more power. Also, they compete over gaining or affirming great power status, which makes status a strategic end. Their competition is geographically unlimited, therefore global, and takes placeat least in theoryin all dimensions of national power.[7] Employing these criteria, the United States and China are today contenders for great power status.

limiting Great Power Competition to U.S-China or U.S.-China-Russia interactions risks falling into costly and potentially dangerous oversimplifications.

Nevertheless, as the case of Russia clearly shows, one does not have to be a great power with global interests and reach to be an influential player in international relations. Policymakers should not simply put aside actors such as the European Union, India, Japan, and others. These states present an essential variable for Great Power Competition in several ways. Middle and small powers tend to become objects to be competed over, which is the most fundamental driver of classical geopolitics. Yet, they also have their own agency. Cunning leaders of middle or small states sometimes are able to walk the line between great powers, receiving favors from various sides. Their modes of interactions with so-called great powers can range from non-alignment and neutrality to balancing, hedging, shelter-seeking, or bandwagoning. Furthermore, states like Ukraine, Turkey, Taiwan, Belarus, Iran, or North Korea are considered places of special interest to primary players due to their geopolitical position. That is why limiting Great Power Competition to U.S-China or U.S.-China-Russia interactions risks falling into costly and potentially dangerous oversimplifications.

Means or Ends?

One of the gravest blunders any decision-maker or military commander can make is to exchange the means for the ends of strategy. Competition misjudged for an end is not limited by any goal and may lead to conflict escalation. In the context of great power competition, such a mistake could turn very ugly.[8] To avoid headlong employment of great power competition as a guiding concept for formulating policy, analysts have to pay double attention to discussing strategic the ends great powers can strive for through competition.

A good strategic end is arguably tangible enough to allow decision-makers to assess if they have succeeded, failed, met it halfway, or decided to adjust or abandon that particular end altogether. Moreover, it is important to acknowledge that especially great powers pursue various ends simultaneously, which may or may not be connected. Naturally, not all ends are attainable through competition. it is informative to review some past actions of the U.S., Russia, and China to see how competition as a means fitted them.

Western analysts have spent a long time discussing this phenomenon under the label of Russian hybrid war, while a more elegant interpretation would be edgy and unrestricted competition.

In Russia's case, strengthening the regimes grip on power at home, together with coercion and subversion abroad are the methods of choice for the fundamental goal of regime survival. Causing trouble abroad is a Russian way of reminding the rest of the world that they should be treated as an essential player of newborn multipolarity.[9] In reaching for this goal, Russia does not seem to be particularly shy about the means it employs. When the Kremlin lost Kyiv's prospect of joining the Eurasian Economic Union over closer association with the European Union in 2014, it decided to annex Crimea and incite and support the armed separatist movement in Donbas.[10] Western analysts have spent a long time discussing this phenomenon under the label of Russian hybrid war, while a more elegant interpretation would be edgy and unrestricted competition.

The key enabler of China's rise has been its economic competitiveness in global markets. Enormous financial means invested into research and development have recently translated into technological competitiveness. Beijing's assertive actions in the South China Sea and over Taiwan and Hong Kong, declared an interest in managing regional interactions from the dominant position. China also leads several projects to develop and deepen its global economic and political engagement, with the One Belt, One Road Initiative as a prime example. The One Belt, One Road and other similar projects bring cooperative and competitive interactions in one package. China needs time for further economic, military, social, and technological modernization. That translates into Beijing's interest in maintaining the current status quo. Competition always was and will continue to be an essential statecraft tool of Beijing.[11]

to be successful, current and future U.S. administrations will need clear answers on how, where, and when to compete, not just with whom.

During the Cold War, the U.S. pursued containment against the Soviet Union, with the general end being the prevention of a regional hegemon emergence in Eurasia. After the Cold War, with no apparent challenger worth that name, the U.S. adopted a broader strategic posture with less clearly defined ends. President Donald Trump's administration officially introduced a focus on the great power competition in the 2017 National Security Strategy and the 2018 National Defense Strategy.[12] These contributed significantly to the proliferation of GPC (great power competition) into the vocabulary of defense analysts and foreign policy pundits. In the U.S. context, the great power competition concept seems to be an eloquent way of setting clear and strong emphasis on foreign policy priority on China.[13] The end of Washington's uncertain strategic focus is arguably a good thing. However, to be successful, current and future U.S. administrations will need clear answers on how, where, and when to compete, not just with whom.

What is the added value of Great Power Competition?

The failure of great power competition as a concept is almost absolute. Great Power Competition exploits intuitive or implicit understanding of what great powers are, while it gives no solid clues on what actors should policy makers consider relevant and why. States compete all the time. Competition is something states naturally do in a quest for security, prosperity, and prestige. Still, competition is hardly a defining feature of how states seek to achieve or secure their interests. States employ unique blends of cooperative, competitive, and conflict interactions vis their partner, rivals, and adversaries. Great power competition provides close to zero helpful guidance on how decision-makers should act and, most importantly, what they should seek through competition with others. Based on this assessment, great power competition seems like a hollow, unhelpful, and even an eventually dangerous bumper sticker slogan.
If you're white and work for the federal government, get ready to be labelled a racist, regardless of how fair and open-minded you are. On Friday, President Joe Biden ordered all federal agencies to ramp up workplace training on "systemic and institutional racism" and "implicit and unconscious bias."

Those are buzzwords for critical race theory, which holds that all whites are biased against people of color, even if unconsciously. Under this theory, throughout American history and continuing now, whites oppress Blacks and need to acknowledge their guilt.

Assume you work in an office with people of several races and, until now, you worked pretty smoothly as a team. Then you and your co-workers undergo mandated critical race theory training. Whites will be ridiculed as racists, and if they try to deny that, they'll be told their denials are proof of their unconscious bias and "white fragility." Black employees will understandably question if they can even trust their white co-workers and if they all have the same goals. Critical race theory is a disaster for workplace morale.

Expect an avalanche of lawsuits challenging Biden's efforts to saturate the federal workplace with this divisive doctrine. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- still the law of the land, Mr. President -- bars employers from allowing a toxic work environment. Federal regulation defines a toxic work environment as permitting "intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults or put downs" based on race, religion, age or other distinctions. That's exactly what goes on in these training sessions. No one should have to put up with being called a racist as a condition of their employment.

Or as a condition to serve in the military. No other institution in American society has been more colorblind since the early 1950s than the U.S. armed forces. In Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East, Black and white infantry soldiers have fought side by side in the trenches, trusting each other with their lives

But on Wednesday, the nation's top military man, Army Gen. and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, defended teaching critical race theory at West Point and assigning critical race theory texts to troops. What could be the outcome except distrust based solely on skin color?

Requiring employees to hear about "their racial ancestors or their individual current white privilege runs contrary to an employer's responsibility to avoid creating a hostile work environment," cautions University of Maryland professor George R. La Noue.

Biden is already buried in legal challenges against his other racially discriminatory policies. Federal judges have suspended his debt forgiveness program for Black farmers because it specifically excludes white farmers. Federal courts have also halted grants to restaurant owners hurt by the pandemic because most white male restauranteurs were told they had to go to the back of the line, behind minorities and women. Team Biden seems to forget that discrimination is against the law. Period.

It's one thing to promote diversity and inclusion. We need to show mutual respect and work together. In the federal workforce, people of color make up nearly half of entry-level positions but only one-third of senior positions. More can be done to help minorities succeed. But not by demeaning whites.

Defending assigning critical race theory texts, Milley told Congress that it's important for military personnel to be widely read. "I've read Karl Marx, I've read Lenin, that doesn't make me a communist," Milley said. But that's misleading. Critical race theory isn't taught as one of many ideas to be debated. It shuts down debate.

Activist Robin DiAngelo says that even keeping your own viewpoint to yourself and staying silent during a discussion of racism makes you a racist.

The idea isn't to foster debate. It's used only to indoctrinate and compel acquiescence.

On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill to block funding for Biden's workplace indoctrination scheme. "The federal government has no right to force a political agenda on Americans ... and divide us based on race." The U.S. Constitution agrees.

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM
When I took over DonorsTrust more than five years ago, I expected some vitriol to be flung my way by those who disagree with our governing principles. Ive worked in the D.C. policy world for decades, and, frankly, such anger comes with the territory. I did not expect just how unpleasantly descriptive and personally threatening these hateful callers would be.

No one should be exposed to such irrational abuse and, while I wont say I enjoy these calls, I know that all donor-advised fund account holders have the option to recommend anonymous grants  and it is often the institutional provider that absorbs the punches that are really intended for its clients.

One donors cause celebre may be anothers greatest offense. For this reason, U.S. nonprofit organizations are not obligated to make public their list of donors. This practice protects donors  progressive or conservative or politically unengaged. It also protects nonprofits themselves  whether Planned Parenthood, National Right to Life, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or the Beef Producer Partnership.

Since the founding of our republic, individuals have disagreed on the best approaches to solve societal challenges. But the right to support anonymously such causes has been recognized as inherently valuable only these last few decades. Yet during that time, many have chipped away at that important right. Fortunately, the Supreme Court today ruled in favor of philanthropic privacy in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta.

The case, had it gone the other way, wouldve required Americans for Prosperity Foundation to acquiesce to a mandate put in place by Californias then-Attorney General Kamala Harris forcing nonprofits operating in the state to hand over the names and addresses of its top donors, something the IRS already requires of all nonprofit organizations via a required Schedule B sent to the IRS annually.

Doing so would have created new avenues of potential abuse: namely involving another layer of government (in this case the states themselves) with personal information about people who may not even be a resident of that state. With an increase in cancel culture, the politics of envy, and political disagreements that spur needless violence, protecting donor information is critical.

As Chief Justice John Roberts writes in the majority opinion, the Attorney Generals disclosure requirement imposes a widespread burden on donors associational rights. He also states that the up-front collection of Schedule Bs is facially unconstitutional.

Recent headlines only highlight the challenge the IRS itself has in avoiding leaks or breaches of confidentiality. The reason the Supreme Court even took this case was based on the fact that the California AGs office leaked many Schedule Bs not once, but twice.

The demand from the California attorney general to obtain information about who is donating to causes is now, unquestionably, unconstitutional. There is no compelling state interest to know who funds nonprofit organizations that may not even operate within that states border.

Many donors gladly make public personal information and their connection to a major gift. Many of our clients do that, and there is nothing wrong with that. Others, however, choose to keep their philanthropy under wraps for a variety of reasons, whether out of modesty, religious belief, fear of nagging phone calls, or the above-mentioned safety concerns.

Maintaining that donor privacy strengthens the ability of the philanthropic community to respond to crisis or extreme hardship and avoid the distraction of unwanted harassment or accolade.

Donor privacy also secures the fundamental right to freedom of associationlegal precedent born out of the civil rights movement with the NAACP v. Alabama decision. Had the Supreme Court decided otherwise, it wouldve contradicted rulings that protect Americans First Amendment rights. The opinion shows the court understands this matter is about nonprofits, not politics.

Donating to charities that align with your values, promote or defend ideological truths, and encourage policy solutions to public problems is a necessary component of the U.S. marketplace of ideas. It can generate good possibilities, and squelch bad ones, thus benefiting all.

We should be celebrating those who make grants that align with their values, beliefs, and charitable giving goalsnot opening them up to harm or discouraging giving. We should be grateful that decisions of privacy can be left to donors, and not to more bureaucrats.

The law should never be used as a tool to discourage charitable giving, chill freedom of association, or leave would-be donors vulnerable to unwanted solicitation, harassment or even threats to a donors life.

Walk into any art gallery, symphony hall, museum, zoo, park, or homeless shelter and you will see a benefactors wall replete the names of family foundations, corporations, and individualsand topping the list will always be a designation for anonymous.

It is just as true at donor-advised fund providers like DonorsTrust or the Tides Foundation as it is at policy nonprofits such as the Democratic Socialists of America Fund or the Heritage Foundation.

Remove those anonymous gifts and the legitimate work that happens in these institutes fades. Ill gladly continue to shield my clients from harassing phone calls, as I know it means protecting a lifeline for millions who depend on the philanthropic community.
Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. military's greatest defender.

Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets. When generals, active or retired, became controversial, conservative America usually could be counted on to stick with them.

Flyover country supported marquee officers such as Gen. Michael Hayden, Gen. James Mattis, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus and a host of others when the media went after them for alleged unethical conduct, financial improprieties, spats with the Obama administration, or accusations of using undue force or hiding torture.

When Democrats railed in Congress about the "revolving door" of generals and admirals leaving the Pentagon to land lucrative board memberships with corporate defense contractors, Middle America, rightly or wrongly, mostly yawned.

Yet traditional America also assumed its military leaders were largely apolitical and stayed out of politics. Brilliant World War II commanders Curtis LeMay, Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton did not fare well when they clumsily waded through the minefields of partisan national politics.

No longer.

The Pentagon's current and past top echelon is seen as politically weaponized -- and both careerist and opportunist. Generals and admirals are currently scanning enlistments for mythical white supremacists, in fear of left-wing pressure following the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. These military officials apparently have no commensurate concern about whether there are antifa-affiliated service members with records of past violence.

We are learning that much of what was reported about that unfortunate Capitol riot was untrue. There were no "armed" insurrectionists with guns, led by conspiracist kingpins. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was not "murdered." Medical examiner Francisco J. Diaz said the autopsy showed no evidence of internal or external injuries. The only violent death was that of an unarmed female military veteran who was shot by a mysteriously unnamed law enforcement officer while climbing through a window.

The tenure of highly decorated Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has proved a veritable train wreck of late. Under pressure from the left, last summer he renounced a photo appearance with then-President Donald Trump as unduly politicizing his service.

OK, but every recent chairman of the Joint Chiefs has routinely appeared with the president in photo ops, if sometimes reluctantly.

Milley was timidly reacting to media claims that Trump sicced federal law enforcement on disruptive protesters with tear gas to ensure calm for his photo op. The inspector general of the Department of the Interior recently exposed such reporting as a fable.

Equally untrue were complaints from Milley and a host of retired officers about Trump tyrannically using federal troops to maintain civic order. Such action has happened repeatedly in our history. For example, Gen. Colin Powell, former head of the Joints Chiefs, commanded the troops sent into Los Angeles in 1992 to quell the rioting that followed the acquittal of L.A. police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.

Neither Milley nor any of the previously vocal top brass objected to the Biden administration's militarization of Washington, D.C., after Jan. 6. There was not a word about miles of barbed wire and fencing. There was utter silence about the omnipresence of thousands of armed troops throughout the city. Such mobilization was the very scenario they had said would pose an existential threat to democracy.

Gen. Milley was incoherent and paradoxical when pressed about critical race theory -- the belief that racial bias has been encoded in society -- during congressional testimony last week. He bragged that he had read insurrectionary texts by Karl Marx and Mao Zedong to acquaint his open mind with supposed enemies -- as if his inquisitive approach to those subversive authors was analogous to the teaching of critical race theory in the military.

Our top officers reveal inconsistent views on recommended readings, ideological indoctrination and the use of federal troops during domestic crises. They are selective and partisan in their shrill criticism of particular presidents. Some blast political opponents with inflammatory comparisons to Nazis and fascists.

The military's alienation of Middle America could not happen at a worse time. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea watch in glee at our self-created discord, which threatens to tear apart the most lethal military in the world.

The military is not yet a revolutionary people's army overseen by commissars. But it is getting there with politicized agendas that split the country in half and abandon the military's traditional role of unifying in common purpose to defend America.

(C)2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A funny thing happened on the way to California's collapse. It didn't happen.

We keep hearing that the Golden State is going down, down, down. Last year, it suffered the first drop in population since records have been kept. And there's that parade of natural plagues -- the droughts, catastrophic wildfires and infernal heat.

A largely hostile right-leaning media go on and on about California's high taxes and various liberal excesses. Californians, their story goes, are leaving in droves for low-tax, lax-regulation places like Texas. And it's true that some big California names -- Oracle, Charles Schwab, Hewlett Packard and Tesla CEO Elon Musk -- have moved their headquarters there.

But is this the whole picture? It is not. As Bloomberg News reports, California's economy is hardly headed for disaster. On the contrary, it is No. 1 among the states by most economic measures. Furthermore, it is emerging from the pandemic in very good shape.

And so when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said last February that California uses "heavy-handed government tactics that drive away businesses," California Gov. Gavin Newsom had to respond. "We remain the fifth largest economy in the world," Newsom's office said. "No. 1 in Bloomberg's Innovation Index and home to 20 of Fortune's top 100 fastest growing companies in the world."

California's small population loss last year largely reflected former President Donald Trump's curb on new visas. While some people do leave California, others arrive. Many of the newcomers are immigrants with grand ambitions and a desire to live in a welcoming place.

As the pandemic draws to a close, California is sitting pretty with an operating budget surplus of $75 billion. This is the product of a surging economy and the collection of capital gains taxes. It would seem that a few rich Californians did not move to Texas after all.

Thanks to this surplus, California has embarked on what Newsom calls the "largest state tax rebate in American history." Two-thirds of Californians are receiving Golden State stimulus checks totaling almost $12 billion.

What about economic growth? California's gross domestic product has jumped 21% over the past five years, leaving Texas' 12% gain in its shadow. Even New York state, another of Abbott's targets, outdid Texas with a 14% rise in state GDP.

If California were a country, its growth rate would have exceeded that of Japan, Germany and the entire U.S. Only China grew faster.

"For all its bluster as being 'best for business,' Texas can't match California's innovation," Bloomberg said. Some 18% of California's corporate locations are dedicated to research and development. The percentage of Texas facilities for research and development are just under half that of California's.

During a heat wave last August, parts of California suffered rolling blackouts, leading Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to predictably snark that the state was "unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity."

Six months later, of course, blackouts left millions of Texans in darkness without heat or electricity or, in some cases, running water. Abbott used the occasion to troll green energy advocates, blaming the crisis on freezing wind turbines. Wind supplies only 20% of the state's energy, and it was noted amid laughter that Greenland's turbines do just fine in subzero weather.

Some of the coolest people I know live in Texas --- and California is home to a variety of moronic woke campaigns, such as the attempt to take Abraham Lincoln's name off a San Francisco school. But right-wing efforts to portray California as an economic failure due to its liberal politics wither in the heat of facts. On economic prowess, Texas really should not mess with California.

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM
Good morning, its Thursday, July 1, 2021. Who will be the next mayor of New York City? The answer is significant. The citys new chief executive will tackle of host of COVID-era urban challenges ranging from rising crime and low police morale to the exodus of children in public schools and the top wage earners who are taxed to a fare-the-well to pay for it all.

For now, however, New York City election officials dont seem to be able to count the votes. The mayoral primary, which is tantamount to election in the near-monolithically Democratic stronghold, took place 10 days ago. But basic incompetence and at least one spectacular blunder have obscured the tally. The following morning, it seemed that the Democratic primary had been won by Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain. Now, no one seems to know who is ahead.

Apparently, New Yorkers understood the potential for a train wreck more than the rest of us. They knew that the ability of the city to tabulate votes is not a given. It took two months to release the results of two close primaries in congressional elections last year -- even after the primary had already been delayed two months. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential primary, some 200,000 Democrats were deleted from the voting rolls without their knowledge, giving rise to suspicions in Bernie Sanders camp that Mayor Bill De Blasio (who had endorsed Hillary Clinton) was playing games.

It is absurd that in Brooklyn, New York -- where I was born, actually -- tens of thousands of people, as I understand it, have been purged from the voting rolls, Sanders said told supporters at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. From long lines and dramatic understaffing to longtime voters being forced to cast affidavit ballots and thousands of registered New Yorkers being dropped from the rolls, whats happening today is a disgrace!

Hizzoner didnt really deny it. The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised, De Blasio conceded at the time, undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed.

But that did not happen. And the latest fiasco has accomplished the nearly impossible: It has resulted in Bernie-style progressives, Donald Trumps Stop the Steal obsessives, and good-government advocates all singing from the same hymnal. As for those well-intentioned goo-goos, their immediate concern isnt the success of any particular Big Apple mayoral candidate. Their worry is that the New York City Board of Elections has sabotaged public confidence in one of their most cherished reforms: ranked-choice voting.

One can also forgive establishment Republicans for skepticism that Democrats are to be trusted with rewriting the procedures for voting processes everywhere in the country. As for me, Im still wondering if well ever know who won the 2020 Democratic caucuses in Iowa.

With that, Id point you to our front page, which aggregates, as it does each day, an array of columns and stories spanning the political spectrum. Todays lineup includes John Fund on the aforementioned NYC Board of Elections (Spectator); Clarence Pages thoughtful discussion of critical race theory (Chicago Tribune); and Jessica Tarlov on the ubiquitous presence in American public life of a certain former president (The Hill). Speaking of The Hill, on a personal note Id mention the death of a great American, and one the co-founders of that publication. His name was Al Eisele, and his obit is here. Meanwhile, we offer a complement of original material from RCP reporters and contributors, including the following:

* * *

RCP Poll: Patriotic Feeling Abides, But Its Expression Varies Widely. I examine RealClear Opinion Researchs latest survey, which tackles a pertinent topic as July 4th approaches and Americans are divided over how they view this nations progress.

White House Wont Stop Governors From Sending Natl. Guard to the Border. Phil Wegmann reports on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noems plan to help Texas address the migrant surge, a step that has elicited a shrug from the Biden administration.

Philadelphia Reflects Big Cities Public-Safety Challenges. Charles F. McElwee explores the spike in crime that -- along with remote-work options for Center City employees -- has emptied out the once-vibrant downtown.

Senates Production Tax Credit Could Re-shore U.S. Solar Manufacturing. At RealClearEnergy, Jeff Ferry lauds the effort to ensure that Americas entire solar supply chain is independent of China.

Demonizing Amazon for Rewarding Its Vendors. RealClearMarkets editor John Tamny takes issue with the insinuation that Amazon essentially forces its vendors to sell it shares at below-market prices.

Researchers Urge Americans to Focus on Loneliness Epidemic. Henry Kokkeler has the story at RealClearPolicy.

A Book That Speaks to Our Moment. At RealClearBooks, Daniel J. Mahoney praises Robert L. Woodsons Red, White and Black for bringing together African American and other minority voices who reject the cult of victimization.

Digital Upgrade for U.S. Military Is Vital. At RealClearDefense, Frank Ponds highlights the need for information assurance, especially in contested environments with constantly evolving technology.

Americans Support Campus Due Process. At RealClearEducation, Edward E. Bartlett considers the findings of a new survey.

* * *

Carl M. Cannon

Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics

@CarlCannon (Twitter)

ccannon@realclearpolitics.com
In mid-1980s Philadelphia, the erection of One Liberty Place, which broke a long-standing gentlemans agreement by surpassing City Halls height, ushered in widespread downtown development. At the time, though, Center Citys rising new skyscrapers opened in a metropolis facing significant headwinds. When commuters ascended elevators and then looked out their office windows, they beheld a vast, row-home-lined landscape beset by rising crime, a crack epidemic, population loss, and economic decline.

Now, amid the pandemic recovery, Philadelphia again confronts daunting challenges that leave Center City in an urban purgatory. Many downtown skyscrapers  emblematic of a years-long renaissance  remain sparsely occupied, leading to fewer pedestrians on city streets. As one recent survey found, among a sample of 18 office high-rises, one building was 75% occupied, another was occupied in the 30% to 40% range, five were from 20% to 30% occupied, and 11 were below 20%. Philadelphias plummeting transit ridership and tax revenue reflect this trend.

This past years pandemic restrictions hastened employers embrace of remote work. But another COVID-era trend  rising crime  is delaying suburban commuters return to big cities like Philadelphia, which is included in the Biden administrations plan to address urban violence.

Commuters public-safety concerns arent just an issue of perception. Philadelphia faces a record homicide rate that is quite real. In Chicago, residents of the Loop are advised to avoid walking alone. Random shootings regularly occur in New Yorks Times Square, where a 21-year-old U.S. Marine was shot in the back while standing outside Starbucks. In these cities, regional commuters read the news, hear the anecdotes, and, in many cases, recall the bad old days of the 80s and early 90s. In their view, why not skip an arduous commute, plug in at home, and eliminate the vulnerability?

Some level of street crime is an inescapable reality in big cities, but pre-pandemic, office workers were better conditioned to traverse busy urban streets, including in the downtown area. When youve been home for over a year, you havent been in the city, and you hear these stories about crime and theres a lot fewer people if you go into the city, your confidence  in navigating that landscape is lower, Aaron Renn, a Governing columnist, told me. The fact that people who previously worked downtown no longer feel like they have a direct mastery of Philadelphia means that anxiety will keep [them] from going into the city.

But other factors are at play, too. Philadelphias uptick in crime and disorder is exacerbated by law-enforcement policies  emanating from the district attorneys office  that embolden criminals. This past weekend alone, about two dozen people were shot and three died. As the Philadelphia Inquirer recently reported, If the current pace holds, the city will record more shooting victims by early August than it did in all of 2017.

Alarming trends apply to Center City, where illegal ATVs and dirt bikes disrupt neighborhood life, and in the citys SEPTA transit trains, where one man was recently shot on the Market-Frankford line. In an interview, John MacDonald, a University of Pennsylvania criminologist, shared that he has observed more panhandling on his SEPTA commute  an uncommon site a few years before. People arent looking [only] at the crime stats, MacDonald said. Its the perception: When theres more disorder apparent, such as panhandling in and around [transit] stations, it drives fear for people.

Paul Levy, president and CEO of the Center City District, had told his staff its 1990 all over again. Americans have a long history of being fearful of cities, and in the last 20 to 30 years we really changed that and all of that disappeared for a period of time, he told me. We need to be rebuilding public confidence in the public environment  and thats key for cities in general.

In 1991, when Levy became the founding head of CCD  a highly-regarded business improvement district  commuters maintained a dim view of Center City, where crime spiked in the late 1980s. At the time, the Inquirer reported how Philadelphians cited the stigma of Center City  even as downtown crime, by then, started to decline and skyscrapers continued to rise above City Halls William Penn statue. As one police officer observed, I tell people, Crime is down and they say, Thats great, but my car just got stolen.

As CCDs director, Levy played a pivotal role in Center Citys 90s-era revival. First, Levy made Center City clean. Then he made Center City safe. From there, he remade Center City itself, wrote Patrick Kerkstra in a 2013 Philadelphia magazine profile. With apologies to Ed Rendell [the citys then-mayor], no Philadelphian is more responsible than Levy for transforming downtown from the hellhole of the 1980s to the archetype of intimate, walkable urbanity its become.

Quality-of-life policing, too, was crucial to Philadelphias resurgence  and improved commuters safety perceptions. This law-enforcement approach was evident as recent as 2012, when then-Mayor Michael Nutter said: We combined a zero-tolerance attitude toward those who terrorize our neighborhoods with a community policing approach that built trust and a sense of partnership between citizens and the men and women whose job it is to protect us.

But progressive governance now reigns in Philadelphia, where incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner overwhelmingly won reelection last month. Meanwhile, the Inquirer recently reported that beginning this August in Northwest Philadelphia  thanks to a federal judges order  police officers will no longer be permitted to stop, question or detain people for quality of life violations, potentially including panhandling, smoking marijuana, urinating in public, or holding open liquor containers. The policy move was opposed by Philadelphias police department, where many officers are retiring due to low morale.

Ideologically driven law-enforcement polices only signal challenges ahead for Center City, where remote working will create long-term disruptions. As Renn put it, when discussing office workers, If even 5 or 10% dont come back, thats a big deal.

Levy remains optimistic about the future of downtown, where the CCDs wide-ranging work includes bike patrols and graffiti removal teams. We have a lot of work to do but  weve done it once before here, he said. Meanwhile, amid widespread vacant office space, landlords aim to attract life-sciences companies to downtown.

Overall, similar to the early 1990s, Center Citys future is largely dependent on Philadelphias public safety. As MacDonald noted, What makes downtowns and commercial districts really attractive to people  isnt the office building theyre sitting in, but the social vibrancy to be able to go out on the street, go to lunch with colleagues, and take in the hustle and bustle of street life.

But, he added, when there is abandonment and disorder, thats not the place to go anymore.

In the coming year, the issues of crime and public safety will figure largely in Pennsylvania politics  especially in the governors race. In last years election, suburbanites delivered the state to Biden, but this didnt assure widespread down-ballot success for Democrats in Philadelphias collar counties. For now, as Krasners victory made clear, Philadelphias Democratic voters favor progressive policies. Their preference, though, may not be shared by the suburbs more moderate voters  many of whom may avoid the city commute for fear of Philadelphias safety.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/30/2021



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has officially been canceled by TLC after 11 seasons and almost six years on the air due to Josh Duggar 's recent arrest on child pornography charges."TLC will not be producing additional seasons of ," the network told People in a statement."TLC feels it is important to give the Duggar family the opportunity to address their situation privately."The news TLC will no longer continue working with the Duggar family comes shortly after a Change.org petition boycotting the series racked up about 29,000 signatures."The decision was made by TLC earlier this week to cancel the show... The petition from those who boycotted was hard to ignore, and sponsors were very concerned following Josh's arrest," a source told The U.S. Sun."There have been a lot of discussions in recent weeks as the network had already spent money on production after months of filming. But the bottom line is, the network really wants to be on the right side of this scandal ahead of Josh's trial. It was important for bosses to be seen to have taken action."The source added, "The case has put the show in such a bad light, and although it's a shame for those who worked hard on it, and the money spent, there really is no way forward."19 Kids and Counting, which starred Josh and his large family, aired on TLC for seven years until it was canceled in 2015 after cheating and molestation scandals involving Josh rocked his Christian family.premiered on TLC in 2015 and did not feature Josh. Season 11 of -- which was initially launched as Jill & Jessa: -- wrapped in September 2020.Josh, 33, was arrested by Homeland Security and taken to a prison in Arkansas' Washington County on April 29.The former 19 Kids and Counting star reportedly appeared at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas via Zoom on April 30 and pleaded not guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.In May 2019, Josh allegedly downloaded content of child sexual abuse on the Internet, "some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12," according to a press release.Prosecutors reportedly believe the former reality TV star had more than 200 images of children on his computer.Josh was set to begin trial on July 6, but on Tuesday, a judge granted his defense team's request to delay the trial date.While Josh requested a February 2022 trial, court documents obtained by Us Weekly reveal the judge decided to extend the trial date by just four months and Josh's conference will begin on November 18, 2021, with a rescheduled trial date of November 30.If Josh is convicted of the alleged crimes, he could receive a total possible sentence of 40 years and $500,000 in fines given each of his charges carry up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines.The eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar was held without bail after his arrest, but Josh's lawyers reportedly claimed during a May 5 hearing he should be released on bond because Josh is "neither a risk of flight nor a danger to the community."Josh was hoping to return home to his 32-year-old wife, Anna Duggar, who announced in April that she is expecting her seventh child with Josh.But due to the fact minors live in Josh's family's home, Josh was ultimately approved to reside with pastor Lacount Reber and his wife Maria Reber for a home-confinement stay after his release, according to Us.Shortly after Josh's April arrest, TLC told Us in a statement, "TLC is saddened to learn about the continued troubles involving Josh Duggar . 19 Kids and Counting has not aired since 2015.""TLC canceled the show on the heels of prior allegations against Josh Duggar and he has not appeared on air since then," the network added.Josh and Anna tied the knot in 2008 and are parents of Mackynzie, 11, Michael, 9, Marcus, 7, Meredith, 5, Mason, 3, and Maryella, 19 months.Josh and Anna have mostly avoided the spotlight since August 2015, when Josh admitted he had cheated on Anna and developed an addiction to pornography.Josh completed a seven-month rehab stint at Reformers Unanimous in Rockford, IL, in early 2016.At the time, Josh reportedly confessed on the Duggar family website, "I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.""I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him," he continued.But once Josh left rehab, he was still wrapped up in a legal battle with Danica Dillon, an exotic dancer at the time who claimed Josh had caused her "physical and emotional injuries" during paid sexual encounters in 2015. Dillon alleged intercourse with Josh was rough and traumatizing.Reports also surfaced in May 2015 Josh had molested a handful of girls, including his own sisters Jill Duggar and Jessa Duggar , over a decade prior.Anna reportedly said she had known about Josh's alarming past before walking down the aisle in 2008 and had forgiven him, however, it was extremely difficult when Josh's "teenage mistakes" came back to haunt them in the press.Jessa told People at the time Anna takes her "until death do us part" vows very seriously and personally worked hard to forgive Josh and build trust again.
RuPaul's Drag Race alum Manila Luzon has a new series in the works.

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Luzon, 39, announced Thursday on Instagram that she will host Drag Den, the first Filipino drag queen competition series.

Luzon shared the news alongside a teaser image for the show.

"It's time to lace up, Pilipinas! You wanted a drag cartel? We heard you, and we're making it MAJOR! The first ever drag reality show in the Philippines is finally here, and I'm running the show!" she captioned the post. "See you soon @DragDenPH #DragDen."

Luzon is an American performer with Filipino and German-Swedish heritage. She said in an interview with Vice in April that she hoped to bring a version of Drag Race to the Philippines in the future.

"Filipinos make beautiful drag queens," Luzon said. "Filipinos also love pageants and Drag Race is the ultimate drag pageant."

"I can't wait to go back," she added of the Philippines. "Whenever I do a show in the Philippines, I feel like I'm at home with my culture, like I did when I was a kid dancing the tinikling. Even though it's not fully my country, I'm embraced and accepted. And I'm proud to be able to share my Filipino culture with the world."

Luzon competed in RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3 and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Seasons 1 and 4. She also hosts the podcast The Chop with fellow Drag Race album Latrice Royale.
Traverse City, MI (49684)

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After winning the Athens Area High School Battle of the Bands for two consecutive years, local alternative rock group A.D. Blanco is set to release their first album, Time Never Wasted, on all music streaming platforms on July 2.
Athens offers a wide range of choices and locations for both locals and visitors to grab a scoop. Take part in the celebration with these four Athens spots for ice cream and other treats.
In the summer of 2020, members of the UGA community shared stories of alleged sexual assault and misconduct on Twitter. More than a year later, theyre still waiting for a social media movement to lead to institutional change.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

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To the editor: I am responding to a letter written to the Reformer by Daniel Brown titled "The double standard around Israel" (June 24).

Letter: The double-standard around Israel To the editor: Over the past decades, tens of millions of Africans have been murdered, raped

I would like to clarify and dispute Mr. Brown's claims regarding his comments about the former Grand Mufti, Hajj Amin al Hussenini of Palestine. Mr. Brown said, "he shared Adolf Hitler's genocidal views which he broadcast to his people." According to historian David Kaiser, Harvard professor, Bib Netanyahu spread this distorted truth at a World Zionist Conference. Bibi Netanyahu claimed that Hajj Amin al Hussenini was the "brain child of the Holocaust." To counter this claim there is a full recording now available online to counter this manipulation of truth. Time Magazine has the recording available.

While this Grand Mufti did apparently meet with Hitler as Germany and Palestine were allies, he did not say this. The Grand Mufti was also angry at Britain for being involved with Palestinian lands being taken. He did not promote genocide. Hitler himself decided this after their meeting.

Regarding "honor killings" ... Mr. Brown stated he enjoyed "Palestinian hospitality" during his stay there, then veered quickly into cultural bias about honor killings in Palestine, stating "they still do this." Who is they? There are rare cases of honor killings today in Palestine and the practice is condemned. This is an ancient pre-Islamic practice from early tribal Arabs related to adultery. Also, ancient Jews practiced a similar method of stoning before the advent of Islam. It is relayed to me through a friend in Gaza that any family member now who kills their daughter in an honor killing is also imprisoned and can receive the death sentence. In essence, these honor killings are world wide, Pakistan being the most prevalent. The United States has also had honor killings. We may be quick to judge other countries, however there are endless murders in families in our own country not described as honor killings but clearly similar in nature.

Mr. Brown states that when Israelis kill a few hundred Palestinians, activists explode in outrage. In 2014 2,300 people were killed. Does Mr. Brown know that many of those killed are children and babies? Does Mr. Brown know about snipers that shoot children's eyes in towns and village? Does Mr. Brown know that young children are imprisoned by the IDF and there are reports of physical and sexual abuse? Does Mr. Brown know about snipers that were at the "March of Return," that was a peaceful demonstration for over a year that killed and maimed many, including medics and journalists? Does Mr Brown know that ordinary Palestinians have no access to any guns or weapons as we send almost $4 billion to Israel for weapons?

Our former President Jimmy Carter was one of the first government officials to call Israel's treatment of Palestinians apartheid. It is ironic that Mr. Brown spoke of imagining the Abenaki Indians knocking on our doors demanding their land back. Ironically, that is exactly what is happening in East Jerusalem with settlers banging on Palestinian doors to give them their houses! And many of these settlers are from Brooklyn! Does Mr. Brown know about the storming of the Al Aqsa mosque by settlers almost daily attacking worshippers.

I hope Mr. Brown will research more of his complaints that the Palestinian issue and victim issue is overblown. There are beneficial Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street and Anna Baltzers book, "A Witness in Palestine." Why this area of the world is so important is because it is considered the Holy Land to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

My last comment to Mr. Brown is that we have to focus on the present situation and not dredge up old distorted myths.

Margaret Robbins

Putney, June 29
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A Meriden man pleaded guilty to a federal offense this week, admitting to his role in trafficking heroin from two stores he ran on Bridgeports East Main Street, according to federal prosecutors.

Eddy Antonio Torres Morel, 50, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to possession with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin before Judge Robert A. Richardson via video conference.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Gov. Tim Walz celebrated the completion of a two-year $52 billion state budget and new milestones in Minnesota's fight against COVID-19 on Thursday, while House Democratic leaders credited their search for win-wins with Senate Republicans.

Well, the COVID recovery act budget is done, the work now begins, Walz said at a ceremonial signing of copies of the big budget bills that the Legislature sent him Wednesday, just hours before the old budget expired.

As of Thursday, 70% of Minnesotans 18 and older had received at least their first vaccine shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walz said Minnesota is only the second Midwestern state to meet President Joe Bidens goal of 70% by July 4, and that the state leads the Midwest with 52% of its population fully vaccinated. Walz took pride in those numbers even though the state fell short of his goal of 70% of residents in a wider age range  16 and up  to be at least partially vaccinated by July 1. That figure stands at 67%.

The divided Legislature finished off the budget when it passed a tax bill early Thursday. But its more time-critical steps came Wednesday when lawmakers passed the last of the spending bills forming the core of the budget, beating a midnight deadline for averting a partial state government shutdown.

The 2020 regular legislative session, which ended in May, and the June special session, which was necessary to finish the budget, won't go down as the most productive in state history due to partisan differences and the difficulties of making deals while working remotely most of the time. There were disputes over how to spend a huge influx of federal relief. And the 2020 elections left House Democrats and Senate Republicans with even slimmer majorities than before.

It's been one heck of a year. ... I think Minnesota is happy with the overall work that's been completed, GOP Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake, remarked wearily just before the final gavel.

Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, said she, Walz and Gazelka were able to accomplish major objectives for Democrats and Republicans despite their differences.

To the dismay of some members of my caucus, I look for win-wins, Hortman said at a news conference.

Republicans blocked Democratic proposals for tax increases on the wealthy. Instead the highlight of the tax bill was $1 billion in tax cuts for businesses and workers hit by the pandemic. Democrats gave in to GOP demands to preserve the state's health care reinsurance program. And Republicans got their way with an end to the peacetime state of emergency.

Democrats achieved significant investments in education and health and human services, Hortman said. She claimed success for the inclusion of protections for renters in the off ramp to the state's eviction moratorium. And she highlighted a package to increase the hiring and retention of teachers of color.

Police accountability was one of the toughest divides to bridge. Democrats from the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus pushed hard against resistance by Republicans to deeper policing changes, hoping to build on changes the Legislature enacted last summer following the unrest over the death of George Floyd.

But only a modest compromise came together in the end. Democrats were able to get agreement on sign and release warrants so people stopped for certain minor offenses who have outstanding warrants for missed court appearances won't have to go to jail, the speaker noted. The bill also plugs holes in the state's sexual assault laws.

It was because we were willing to look for win-wins that we were able to get some really significant Democratic wins with a divided Legislature and that Senator Gazelka was able to get some significant conservative wins, Hortman said.

While the House adjourned its special session, the Senate only recessed until Friday. Gazelka said that was mostly trust but verify to make sure nothing went wrong. He didn't expect many senators to return.

Walz is expected to call lawmakers back for another special session in September to approve a $250 million bonus package of federal aid for frontline workers who risked their lives in the pandemic. Details of how that will work must still be negotiated. The next special session could also provide an opportunity to pass another piece of unfinished business, a public works borrowing package known as a bonding bill  if lawmakers can agree on what projects should go into it.
HOUSTON (AP)  A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict a former Houston-area health department doctor who was accused of stealing nine doses of coronavirus vaccine from a damaged vial and administering them to family and friends.

Prosecutors had alleged that Dr. Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine while working at a vaccination site at a suburban Houston park on Dec. 29. His attorney said Gokal was only trying to save lives by using doses that would have been thrown away.

But grand jurors in Harris County, where Houston is located, decided no criminal charges were warranted. The grand jurys decision comes after a judge in January dismissed a theft charge prosecutors had filed against Gokal.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gokal, 48, said when he was confronted with the possibility that a life saving vaccine could be lost, he made the decision to find eligible people late at night who could be given the expiring doses.

I came as a practicing ER doctor into public health and as an ER doctor, I err on the side of life and thats how I chose to make my decision," he said. It was the right thing to do and it meant saving more lives."

Paul Doyle, Gokals attorney, criticized the decision by prosecutors to pursue charges, saying Gokal's supervisor had approved his plan for the leftover vaccine doses.

There is no other case that I know of in the country where a doctor went above and beyond and was persecuted for it," Doyle said.

Doyle said hundreds of medical professionals and others had written letters, sent emails and made phone calls in support of Gokal's actions.

We respect the decision of the grand jury in this and every case. Evidence, not public opinion, is the guiding principle of our work, the Harris County District Attorneys Office said in a statement.

Harris County Public Health, Gokal's former employer, declined to comment, referring all questions to the district attorney's office.

In January, prosecutors filed a misdemeanor theft charge against Gokal, who was fired after the health department conducted an internal investigation.

A judge later dismissed the theft charge, ruling there was no probable cause in the case. Harris County Court-At-Law Judge Franklin Bynum criticized prosecutors, saying their probable cause complaint was riddled with sloppiness and errors.

After the dismissal, prosecutors presented the case to the grand jury.

While he felt relief and happiness after learning about the grand jurys decision, Gokal said the ordeal has taken a toll on his family, as his wife's health has been impacted and his children's grades suffered.

Gokal said he would still like to work in some capacity in public health but worries the theft accusation has put this in danger. Since he was fired by the county health department, he has worked part time in the emergency departments at two Houston hospitals.

For the time being, Im not going hungry and my family is doing OK," he said.

Gokal said he and his family, including his two daughters and son, have been grateful for the outpouring of support they have received.

So many people reached out, helped in different ways, from GoFundMe (donations) to prayers and messages. Ive been so overwhelmed by that," he said.

In March, the Texas Medical Board dismissed an investigation against Gokal, saying he appeared to have administered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to patients that were properly consented, in the eligible patient category, and they were given doses that would have otherwise been wasted.

The board also found there were no protocols for Gokal to follow and he relied on state guidance to not waste the vaccine.

In Wisconsin, a former pharmacist who purposefully ruined more than 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine was sentenced to three years in prison on June 8.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
ATLANTA (AP)  State law officers on Thursday identified the man who they say opened fire on two Atlanta police officers, hitting one of them in the face and shoulder, when their elevator opened in an apartment building where they were responding to a previous shooting.

Joseph Lee Humbles, 29, of Atlanta was killed when the officers returned fire Wednesday afternoon in the citys Midtown area in an attack the city's mayor described as an ambush on the officers.

The wounded officer, Khuong Thai, remained in stable condition at a hospital, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said at a Thursday briefing.

He's in better spirits even today," Bryant said Thursday.

When the chief visited with Thai a few hours after the shooting, he was sedated but able to speak with him and others. Thai has been on the force for about two years, Bryant said.

On Thursday, Bryant said Thai was shot twice  once in the face and also in the shoulder.

Both of these officers are very heroic," Bryant said at a briefing late Wednesday. Ive been here on this police department now 32-plus years, and to see the extent of the events that have played out today, it is without doubt that these are some of the most heroic people to respond to an incident in the city of Atlanta."

Another officer was hurt in a traffic crash while responding to the scene and is also in stable condition, Bryant said.

The officers who faced the gunfire were dispatched to the apartment building around 1 p.m. Wednesday after a 911 call reported a person shot on the eighth floor, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday. Humbles had shot a man just before the officers arrived, police said. That man was taken to a hospital, where hes in stable condition and is expected to survive.

The gunman  later identified as Humbles  opened fire on the officers just as their elevator door opened on the eighth floor, police said.

Humbles' criminal record in Atlanta includes what Bryant described as a minor drug violation.

The shooting happened in a prominent area of Atlanta about one block north of the iconic Fox Theatre and the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where cast members of Gone With The Wind stayed when the movie made its Atlanta premiere.
NEW HAVEN  Possession and use of marijuana is legal in Connecticut (for those 21 and up as of Thursday)  but dont smoke it on the Green. Or anywhere in Lighthouse Point Park  or in any city park or rec center, for that matter.

Or in any public building.

Or in the car.

Or within 25 feet of any doorway other than your own.

Or anywhere else where the use of tobacco isnt allowed.

Welcome to the end of prohibition, New Haven-style.

So where can you smoke pot in the Elm City?

Anyplace thats not prohibited, said Acting Chief of Police Renee Dominguez, drawing a chuckle or two from the assembled media.

One such place might be a parked car  but only if the keys are not in the ignition, she said in response to a question.

Or your own backyard.

Pipes and bongs? Legal at your own house or in your own backyard, as long as your landlord, if you have one, allows it, said Mayor Justin Elicker. The mayor held a media briefing in City Hall Wednesday to help people sort through the ins and outs of whats allowed in New Haven.

For example, landlords have the right to prohibit use of marijuana and marijuana products on their property, Elicker said.

Rule of thumb: If you cant smoke cigarettes, you cant smoke marijuana, either, said Elicker, who was flanked by Dominguez, Director of Health Maritza Bond and Corporation Counsel Patricia King.

While the state legislation effective July 1 gives municipalities the ability to designate locations where use of cannabis products is allowed, New Haven has no immediate plans to do that because it hasnt passed any ordinances restricting where they may be used.

Because we dont have a prohibition, were not required to designate an area, Elicker said.

The restrictions on use of marijuana on the Green, at the beach or in public buildings all are the result of the fact that the cannabis legislation adopts existing restrictions on where tobacco may be used, said Dominguez. Most of those restrictions are in an ordinance the Board of Alders passed in 2015.

The Proprietors of the Green have their own rule that was passed a few years ago restricting the use of tobacco on the Green.

Bond said the Health Departments primary interest will be messaging to ensure safe use of cannabis, as well as issues involving addiction and treatment. Any future updates will be posted on the departments Twitter account and the citys website, Bond said.

Elicker said the city is concerned about the possibility of people driving while impaired  and pointed out that even though use of cannabis will now be legal, driving while impaired is illegal and the Police Department will issue tickets for it.

Dominguez pointed out that while the new law legalizes the possession and use of cannabis for people aged 21 and over, it remains illegal for juveniles.

For police, the legislation legalizing the possession and use of cannabis is really and extension of the decriminalization that took place a few years ago, Dominguez said.

I dont anticipate that theres going to be some major change where people are going to be out in the street smoking marijuana, she said.

Asked about enforcement, Dominguez said the Police Departments approach is likely to be the same as it is with the prohibitions on the use of cigarettes, which is, if it becomes a problem, it will be enforced.

The ability to use enforcement measures is there if theres an overabundance of smoke, Dominguez said.

King said the city will have the ability to enact further legislation if its needed as of Oct. 1.

While adults aged 21 and over will be allowed to have up to 1.5 ounces on their person and up to five ounces in a locked container or in their vehicle glove compartment or trunk  and the law makes it a $100 infraction to go beyond those limits  the rules are different for those under age, Dominguez said.

Obviously, there are some growing pains here, said Elicker. The most important thing is that people are respectful.

Dominguez previously has said she was concerned about people driving while impaired  and said that in cases where someone appears to be impaired, the procedures will be somewhat similar to what currently is in place.

Currently, when someone who appears to be intoxicated is given a Breathalyzer test for possible alcohol intoxication and it comes back negative, there are additional field sobriety tests they are given to determine whether they may be under the influence of something else, she said.

Dominguez has pointed out that in Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in 2013, the state saw an increase in traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.

The report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Training and Information Center found that since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013, traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 135 percent while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 24 percent.

It also found that since recreational marijuana was legalized, traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 people in 2013 to 129 people killed in 2019, and that the percentage of all Colorado traffic deaths that were marijuana related increased from 15 percent in 2013 to 25 percent in 2019.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
MAHANOY CITY  The Mahanoy Area School District administration and school board released a revised statement regarding the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court involving the appeal by the school district regarding the Brandi Levy case.

At its June 24 meeting, the school board had its solicitor, John G. Dean, read the new statement written by him on behalf of the school board and administration that replaced another statement published on the districts Facebook page on June 23, the day of the SCOTUS ruling.

Dean said at the beginning of the meeting:

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court in the B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District matter affirmed the Honorable A. Richard Caputos decision in favor of B.L. and his finding that B.L. had a constitutionally protected right in her out-of-school speech. Unfortunately, due to participation in a pre-scheduled arbitration deliberation yesterday, I was not able to see or review the press release issued on behalf of the district. This press release was not authored by the district and to make it abundantly clear, B.L. won her case regarding her free speech rights and the district fully respects the courts decision. However, the district is pleased that the United States Supreme Court did recognize that the intermediate appellate court holding was overly broad and further recognized that there are circumstances in which a public school entity may take action based on out-of-school statements.

Again, the previous press release was not authored by the District. Please note that except for a $15,000 insurance deductible met and paid some three years ago, the district has not paid and will not pay any extra monies as the insurance company has long ago agreed to pay all costs and fees. Finally, and importantly, we congratulate B.L. on her success in this matter and wish her luck in her future endeavors.

The statement is on the school districts website, www.mabears.net, and its Facebook page.

In 2017, 14-year-old Brandi Levy was suspended for one year from the school districts junior varsity cheerleading squad after comments she made during non-school time and not on district property, venting her frustrations in a post with four-letter expletives that included a classmate on Snapchat, each with raised middle fingers.

Her parents Larry and Betty Lou Levy, of Mahanoy City, took the school district to court, which sided with the Levys. The school district appealed the decision, and after similar losses in appeals to higher courts, the final step was the Supreme Court, which heard arguments on May 28 and announced its decision on June 23 supporting the First Amendment right of free speech of students.

However, the school district in its filing of the appeal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruling in 2020 also had the Supreme Court agreeing with Mahanoy Areas position on after-school discipline in limited circumstances.

The prior post was deleted from the Mahanoy Area Facebook page. As published in the Republican Herald on June 24, the post read:

The Mahanoy Area School District is pleased with and vindicated by todays Supreme Court decision. The School District unanimously won the issue upon which it sought Supreme Court review: all 9 Justices rejected the Third Circuits conclusion that school districts lack authority to regulate off-campus speech. The Supreme Court held that it does not agree with the reasoning of the Third Circuit. The Supreme Court instead enumerated many examples of situations when school districts can regulate off-campus speech and made it clear that its list was not exclusive. So, although the Court upheld the $1 judgment in favor of Ms. Levy, we are very pleased that the Court agreed with our arguments about schools authority to address off-campus speech under a wide variety of situations. This decision is an important vindication of schools authority to protect students and staff and to fulfill schools educational missions.

Dean does not know who authored the original statement.

I said in the statement that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brandi and congratulated her that she won the case, Dean said by phone. We didnt pay any money for this other than $15,000.

Dean said the first statement was not drafted by him or the school district.

When I saw it after the arbitration, I wasnt sure I would have said that, Dean said. The administration relied upon their insurance lawyers to draft it. The statement I would have drafted is what I said at the meeting. The insurance group that represented the district in the Supreme Court included a group of them, but which one of those individuals drafted it, I cant say.

Larry Levy was not pleased with the first statement released since it put most of the emphasis on the favorable decision on agreeing with the school districts position on becoming involved in some after-school situations rather than on the main focus involving his daughter.

I would like to commend the district solicitor for correcting the school districts version of the truth on the ruling and making it very clear that the court found in Brandis favor and that he wished Brandi the best of luck in her future endeavors, Levy said. I believe that first release came out because of lack of communication. I was getting hammered with phone calls because of that first press release. 
In the $40.8 billion state budget that they passed late Friday, state legislators at least acknowledged that the state government under-funds many school districts across the state.

Then, as always, the lawmakers didnt fix the problem.

Armed with nearly $10 billion in federal pandemic relief money, the Republican majorities in both houses decided to hang on to most of it, putting $2.5 billion in the rainy day fund and banking another $5 billion for unspecified future use. Another $350 million will go to schools in one-time funding to help pay for programs to mitigate learning loss during the pandemic shutdown.

The budget does increase public education funding by $300 million, $200 million of which will be added to the $6 billion that the state distributes to all 500 school districts, and $100 million of which will go to a level up distribution to the 100 poorest districts in the state.

Even by modern standards, $300 million is a large sum. But in context, it is inadequate. While receiving the aggregate $300 million increase, the 500 districts also face an increase of at least $400 million in the tuition that they will have to pay to public charter schools.

The $100 million in level up funding recognizes that many districts are shortchanged under the fair funding formula adopted by the Legislature in 2015. But they applied the formula only to funding appropriated after 2015 rather than to all basic education money.

A lawsuit filed by districts, parents and students against the unfair state distribution will be heard this fall, so its possible that the billions that the Legislature decided to squirrel away will end up covering a court award or settlement with the districts.

But the Legislature does not need federal recovery money or a court order to correct its demonstrably unfair distribution of education funds. It has the authority to do the right thing, but obviously lacks the requisite political courage to do so.
Malayalam superstar Mohanlal who enthralled fans with the release of Drishyam 2 in February, recently took to Twitter and informed about the films theatrical release in Qatar, Oman, and UAE. After nearly four months of the OTT release, the film will set to run theatrically overseas. Mohanlal took to Twitter and shared the happy news with his fans and followers. Drishyam 2 is a mystery thriller, directed by Jeethu Joseph.

Drishyam 2 to release theatrically in UAE, Omar, and Qatar

This is the first Indian film to get a theatrical release after an OTT premiere. Mohanlal shared the poster of Drishyam 2 and wrote, "For those of you in UAE, Qatar, and Oman, #Drishyam2 finally reaches the big screen. Releasing tomorrow! (sic)." Mohanlal and director Jeethu Joseph reunited for Drishyam 2, a sequel to the film of the same name. The film was released amid huge expectations and managed to live up to it. Produced by Antony Perumbavoor, Drishyam 2 stars Meena, Murali Gopy, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Asha Sarath, and Siddique in lead roles. The film is being remade in Telugu and Hindi as of now.

Earlier, after receiving huge appreciation and rave reviews for the film, Mohanlal had taken to Twitter and penned a series of posts while thanking his fans and followers for their love. "Overwhelmed and overjoyed by the tremendous response to #Drishyam2. I Am touched by the fact that so many of you have already watched the film and have messaged or called with words of appreciation. The success of #Drishyam2 is a testament to the fact that cinema lovers across the world always appreciate good work and support it. It is the love and support of the cinema-loving public that continues to inspire us to constantly better ourselves (sic)," he wrote then.

Overwhelmed and overjoyed by the tremendous response to #Drishyam2. I Am touched by the fact that so many of you have already watched the film and have messaged or called with words of appreciation.



1/3  Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) February 20, 2021

IMAGE: TARAN_ADARSH/Twitter/PTI

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United Nations, Jul 1 (PTI) India has asked Iran to continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the performance of verification activities related to its nuclear programme and addressing all outstanding issues.

Indias Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador T S Tirumurti said at a UN Security Council meeting on the Implementation of the Resolution 2231 (2015) on the Iran Nuclear Issue said that India supports the full and effective implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and resolution 2231.

The JCPOA, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; plus Germany) together with the European Union.

The future of the deal was called in question after the United States unilateral pull out in May 2018.

We have always maintained that all JCPOA related issues should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy and have extended our support to all such efforts which help in constructively addressing and resolving outstanding issues, Tirumurti said.

He added that all participants should adhere to their respective obligations under the resolution.

Expressing hope that the ongoing engagement will result in a positive outcome, Tirumurti added that India urges Iran to "continue to cooperate with the IAEA in the performance of its verification activities and addressing all outstanding issues. We count on the full implementation of the JCPOA by all parties, which will serve the shared and long-term interests of all countries, he said.

Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, briefing the Security Council on the Iranian nuclear issue, said that the context for the implementation of the JCPOA and resolution 2231 (2015) has improved considerably since last year.

The continued diplomatic efforts in Vienna offer a critical opportunity for both the United States and Iran to return to the full and effective implementation of the plan and the resolution, she said, adding that this would be a welcome and crucial development.

DiCarlo said it is essential that all member states promote a conducive environment and avoid any action that may have a negative impact on these ongoing diplomatic efforts, as well as on regional stability.

She echoed the Secretary-Generals appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan, extend the waivers concerning the trade in oil with Iran, and once again facilitate nuclear-related activities consistent with the plan and the resolution.

She called on Iran to resume the temporary technical understanding with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) without delay, to refrain from taking further steps to reduce its commitments and to return to full implementation of the plan.

US Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Senior Advisor for Special Political Affairs said Iran continues to disregard the provision of 2231 that calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.

We share the concerns stated by the E3 and Israel in their letters regarding Irans ballistic missile activities, and we reject Russias and Irans assertions that these activities are not covered by 2231. These activities are clearly in defiance of the resolution, he said, a reference to the E3 nations of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The United States is committed to ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, and we believe diplomacy, in coordination with our allies and regional partners, is the best path to achieve that goal," DeLaurentis said.

The last few rounds of discussions in Vienna have helped to crystallise the choices that need to be made by Iran and by the United States in order achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA, DeLaurentis added.

US President Joe Biden is seeking to rejoin Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China in the agreement to block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

Irans Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said the Councils message is loud and clear: the JCPOA must be implemented and there is no better alternative.

Despite such encouraging statements, we have recently heard (including in this meeting) discouraging statements from a few Council members pointing their fingers at the victim instead of demanding the culprit to act responsibly. Ravanchi added that Irans decision to negotiate and conclude the JCPOA was based on its principled policy to make the best use of dialogue and diplomacy in advancing its foreign policy objectives.

We have always been steadfast in applying this policy. Iran will remain consistent and resolute in pursuing this approach regarding the JCPOA as long as other parties put an end, completely and without any precondition or further delay, to their bullying policies, violating their obligations and dishonouring their promises, Ravanchi said.

He added that the JCPOA is a deal made to secure the interests of all sides.

While we are sincere and serious in current negotiations, our ultimate goal is only to ensure implementation of the deal as is by all, no more, no less.

"Given years of serious violations of the JCPOA by other sides, it is essential to secure enough assurances that all sanctions are removed verifiably; and the U.S. will not, once again, withdraw from the JCPOA or abuse its mechanism to create another implementation crisis to deprive Iran of its benefits from the deal. PTI YAS NSA AKJ NSA

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
India on Thursday called on Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to speedily release and repatriate civilian prisoners and missing defence personnel as the two countries completed their biannual formality of exchanging a list of prisoners in each other's jails. According to the press release by the Ministry of External Affairs, India has handed over lists of 271 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 74 fishermen, who are currently in India's custody, to Pakistan. In a similar way, Pakistan also handed over the list of 51 civilian prisoners and 558 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or are believed to be Indians.

India & Pak exchange list of prisoners in both countries

The release further informed that the lists were exchanged in keeping with the provision of the 2008 Agreement under which such lists are exchanged every year on January 1 and July 1. "India has called for early release and repatriation o civilian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats from Pakistan's custody. Pakistan was asked to expedite the release and repatriation of one Indian civilian prisoner and 295 Indian fishermen to India, whose nationality has been confirmed and conveyed to Pakistan," read MEA release.

Informing that Pakistan has also been asked to provide immediate consular access to 194 fishermen and 17 civilian prisoners who are in its custody and are believed to be Indian, India has also requested Pakistan to expedite the grant of visas to the members of the medical experts' team and facilitate their visit to the country to access the mental condition of believed to-be Indian prisoners of unsound mind lodged in different jails. The release said that it was also proposed to organise an early visit of the Joint Judicial Committee to Pakistan, read the release.

As India has also urged Pakistan to expedite necessary action at its end to confirm the nationality status of 78 Pakistan prisoners, including fishermen, whose repatriation is pending for want of nationality confirmation by Pakistan, India said that it is committed to addressing all humanitarian matters, including prisoners in each other countries on priority. Meanwhile, Pakistan in view of the current pandemic situation has requested the safety, security and welfare of all Indian and believed-to-be Indian civil prisoners and fishermen, the release added.

(Image: AP, PTI)
One of the two LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) terrorists accused of involvement in the Bihar's Darbhanga Railway Station blast had visited Pakistan and is said to have met UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed and underworld don Tiger Memon. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested the two - Imran Malik alias Imran Khan and his brother Mohammad Nasir Malik who were a part of the conspiracy hatched by top operatives of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT to execute terror acts across India. The two terrorists were residents of Hyderabad in Telangana, but originally hailed from Shamli district in Uttar Pradesh.

Republic Media Network has accessed details of how NIA zeroed in on the two LeT operatives. According to sources, the NIA found a sticker of a shop on the parcel bomb that was recovered from Darbhanga railway station. The NIA traced the shop to Hyderabad and reached out to the shopkeeper who later identified Imran and Nasir.

Imran Khan resided with his wife in Hyderabad. His wife was intercepted first by the NIA and that's how they nabbed Imran Khan. Whereas Mohammad Nasir has confessed that he travelled to Pakistan in 2012 and was trained there for four months at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He specialised in IED blasts and timer devices. He also met Hafeez Saeed and the underworld don Tiger Memon there.

According to the CCTV footage of Darbhanga railway station, on June 15, the two terrorists were seen getting out of a car with an IED parcel wrapped in clothes to place the explosive on the Secunderabad to Darbhangda train after which the blast took place on June 17. Sources have said, one of two terrorists sold clothes in Hyderabad for one and half years.

According to sources, the terrorist duo is a part of the syndicate that was involved in other terror operations in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, Nanded in Maharashtra where they have been involved in setting up IED devices. The terrorists made entry into India through Nepal which acts as a safe passage for terrorists trained in Pakistan to enter India.

The two accused terrorists will be brought to Patna on Friday to be produced before the NIA court for further remand and interrogation.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested two LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) terrorists in connection with Bihar's Darbhanga Railway Station blast case. The two terrorists arrested by the NIA- Imran Khan and Mohd. Nasir Malik, both are residents of Nampally, Hyderabad and originally hail from Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district.

NIA arrests 02 Lashkar-e-Taiba ( LeT) terrorists in Darbhanga, Bihar Railway Station Case pic.twitter.com/r13gHQtLIX  NIA India (@NIA_India) June 30, 2021

NIA arrests 2 LeT terrorists in Darbhanga Railway Station Blast case

As per the release by NIA, "The case, in which the arrests have been made was registered as FIR No 26/2021 dated June 17, 2021, at Railway PS Darbhanga District Muzaffarpur Rail, Bihar relating to an explosion in a parcel on Platform 1 of Darbhanga Railway Station on June 17, 2021."

Stating that the said parcel was booked at Secunderabad and had arrived in Train No. 07007 Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express, the investigation agency informed that it had registered the case as RC/13/2021/NIADLI dated June 24, 2021, and taken up the investigation. Informing that the detailed examination of the accused and investigation continues to unearth the larger capacity, the NIA said that the two LeT terrorists nabbed by the agency on Wednesday will be produced before the Special NIA Court, Patna after obtaining transit from the competent court.

"Preliminary investigation and examination of the accused persons have revealed a trans-national conspiracy hatched by top operatives of proscribed terrorist organisation Laskar-e-Taiba ( LeT) to execute terror acts across India and cause large scale damage to life and property," the NIA said.

Remarking that Mohd Nasir Khan and his brother Imran Malik acted under the direction of Pakistan-based handlers of LeT, NIA said that both of them fabricated an incendiary IED and picked it in the parcel of cloth and booked the same in the train. The investigation agency further said the arrested accused, Mohd Nasir Khan, had visited Pakistan in 2012 and had received training from handlers of LeT in the fabrication of IED from locally available chemicals. He along with his brother Imran was in touch with Pakistan-based handlers of LeT over encrypted communication platforms, it said.

Read the full NIA release here:

(Image: PTI)
New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists residing in Hyderabad were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the blast at the Darbhanga railway station in Bihar earlier this month, a spokesperson of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.

Imran Malik alias Imran Khan and his brother Mohammad Nasir Khan were part of a conspiracy hatched by top operatives of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT to execute terror acts across India, the spokesperson said.

He said the duo were arrested from Hyderabad where they have been residing.

Originally hailing from Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, the accused were zeroed in on after the NIA took over the investigation into the explosion in a parcel on platform number one of Darbhanga railway station on June 17.

The investigation revealed that the parcel was booked at Secunderabad and had arrived at the site in Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express.

"After the visit of the scene of crime and development of key inputs by the investigation team of NIA, preliminary investigation and examination of the accused persons has revealed a trans-national conspiracy hatched by top operatives of LeT to execute terror acts across India and cause large scale damage to life and property, the spokesperson said.

Acting under the directions of Pakistan-based handlers of LeT, the arrested accused fabricated an incendiary improvised explosive device (IED) and packed it in a parcel of cloth and put it in the train, he said.

He said this was aimed at causing explosion and fire in a running passenger train resulting in huge loss of lives and property.

Nasir Khan had visited Pakistan in the year 2012 and had received training from handlers of LeT in fabrication of IED from locally available chemicals. He along with his brother Imran was in touch with Pakistan-based handlers of LeT over encrypted communication platforms, the spokesperson said.

He said the arrested accused will be produced before a special NIA court in Patna.

"Detailed examination of the accused and investigation continues to unearth the larger conspiracy, the spokesperson said. PTI SKL SMN SMN

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
If you have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 then you will no longer have to carry a physical certificate to prove your vaccination status because Google is working on letting Android users store their vaccination certificate on their mobiles. Google on Wednesday had announced that it had updated its Passes API to enable a secure way to store COVID-19 vaccination certificate and COVID-test results on Android phones. This feature will be first rolled out for the users n the United States and it will then be expanded to other countries, it added.

Google to allow Android users to store their COVID-19 vaccination card on their phone

Google blogpost said, "Google has updated its Passes API to enable a simple and secure way to store and access COVID vaccination and test cards on Android devices. Starting today, developers from healthcare organizations, government agencies and organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute COVID vaccines and/or tests will have access to these APIs to create a digital version of COVID vaccination or test information. This will roll out initially in the United States followed by other countries."

Giving out further details, Google blogpost informed that once a user stores his COVID-related cards on his device, he will be able to access them via a shortcut on their device home screen. It further mentioned that the users will not require an active internet connection to access their COVID vaccination card. "Your Android device needs to be running on Android 5 or later and be Play Protect certified. It is not mandatory to install the Google Pay app to access COVID Cards," it added.

Assuring that the information in the users' COVID card is not shared by Google with its third party services and for targeting ads, the search engine platform said that only the user can show his card to people and services it wants to. Remarking that Google will have no role to play here, the platform said that it will only help the user to store the vaccination card in the device.

Google said, "If you want to access your digital vaccine cards related cards on multiple devices, will need to manually store it on each device. Google said that it does not retain a copy of the users COVID vaccination or test information."

Informing that the users will have to set up a lock screen to store digital vaccine cards on a device, Google said that when a user wants to access his COVID card, he will be asked for the password, pin or biometric method set up for their Android device. "This is for added security and to protect the users' personal information," it added.

(Image: Unsplash- Solen Feyissa)
As the world continues to battle against the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that in the coming months the Delta variant of COVID-19 will become the dominant variant of the coronavirus globally. In its COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, the UN agency informed that as of June 29, 2021, 96 countries have reported cases of the Delta variant. However, the WHO also added that this is an underestimate as sequencing capacities needed to identify variants are limited.

A number of these (96) countries are attributing surges in infections and hospitalisations to this variant, the WHO said.

The UN agency warned that given the increase in transmissibility, the Delta variant is expected to rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant variant over the coming months. WHO noted that the tools that exist today to combat the coronavirus individual, community level-public health and social measures, infection prevention and control measures that have been used since the beginning of the pandemic remain effective against current variants of concern (VOCs), including the Delta variant. But the world body added that the measures may need to be maintained for a longer period of time amid the spread of the highly transmissible strain.

"Although the increased transmissibility of VOCs (Variants of Concern) means that measures may need to be maintained for longer periods of time, particularly in a context of low vaccination coverage, these measures must be targeted, time-bound, reinforced and supported by member states," WHO added.

Overall decrease in number of cases

Further, the UN agency informed that the cases of the Alpha variant have been reported in 172 countries, territories or areas, Beta in 120 countries (one new country), Gamma in 72 countries (one new country) and Delta in 96 countries (11 new countries). In its weekly update, WHO noted that at 521,298, the highest numbers of new cases were reported from Brazil during the June 21-27 week, followed by India (351,218 new cases, a 12 per cent increase over the previous week), Colombia (204,132 new cases, 5 per cent increase), Russia (134,465 new cases, 24 per cent increase) and Argentina (131,824 new cases, 11 per cent decrease). It added that the South-East Asia Region reported over 573,000 new cases and over 13,000 new deaths, a 5 per cent and a 33 per cent decrease respectively compared to the previous week.

"There is a slight overall decrease in the number of cases reported this week, mostly due to the decrease in the number of cases reported in India," the update said, adding that a number of countries, including Myanmar (112 per cent increase), Indonesia (60 per cent increase) and Bangladesh (48 per cent increase), reported large increases in the number of newly reported cases for this week.

"Well into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global situation remains highly fragile. While at the global level, trends in cases and deaths have been declining in recent weeks, there is significant variation by region, by country and within countries, the update said.

(With inputs from PTI)


Pakistan, an all-weather friend of China, has so far turned a blind eye over the human rights violations of Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province despite the entire global community calling it out. However, Pakistan has now gone a step further in officially proclaiming that it accepts China's version over Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

It has been widely reported that millions of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of China are suffering genocide at the hands of the ruling Communist Party of China. However, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan while speaking to a Chinese journalist, said that the Chinese version of the Uyghur situation was completely different from what was being reported in Western media.

Imran Khan said as reported by Dawn, "Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version." This means, Imran Khan brazenly admitted that Pakistan will continue to believe the Chinese version simply because China has generously given alms and charity to Pakistan.

Pakistan's hypocritical stand

Imran Khan said it was hypocritical that while the Uyghur situation and Hong Kong were being highlighted, attention was not being given to the human rights violations in Kashmir. However, what is really hypocritical is Pakistan points fingers at Kashmir while it continues to allow atrocities on minorities in its own soil and also turns mute when asked to comment on China. It is a known fact that women from minority Hindus, Sikhs and other religions in Pakistan are abducted in broad daylight and are forcibly married off to men of Islam. Also, minority religious institutions have been vandalised in Pakistan with the law and order machinery doing nothing to stop the crimes against minorities.

As for Kashmir, it is also important to note that the Government of India recently held an unprecedented meeting with all the political parties of Jammu & Kashmir and assured that J&K will be given full statehood and elections will also be held after the delimitation exercise is conducted of the Union Territory.

Earlier, when asked in an interview by Axios over the situation of Uyghur, Imran Khan had ducked the question by saying that any conversation with China would happen "behind closed doors".

Despite claiming to stand up against discrimination towards Muslims globally, Pakistan has repeatedly maintained silence when asked about atrocities on Uyghur Muslims in China, while it continues to peddle false narratives about Jammu and Kashmir, although preposterously failing to garner attention on the same even from the Islamic countries as they firmly believe in India's democracy. Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an international organization of Islamic countries, has refused to interfere in the J&K issue and has categorically said that abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories is an internal matter of India. Also, it is a known fact that Pakistan, through its state and non-state actors, continues to facilitate infiltration in India.

Genocide of Uyghur Muslims

About 11 million Uyghurs - ethnic Muslims - live in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Attempting a systemic cleansing of the indigenous population, the Chinese government has allegedly imprisoned more than a million people and subjected them to severe ill-treatment, forced sterilisation, forced labour, suppression of Uyghur religious practices, political indoctrination among several other human rights issues, while those not detained also face intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labour, and sterilizations.

According to international media reports, most people in the camps have never been charged with crimes and have no legal avenues to challenge their detentions. The detainees seem to have been targeted for a variety of reasons, according to media reports, including travelling to or contacting people from any of the twenty-six countries China considers sensitive, such as Turkey and Afghanistan, attending services at mosques, having more than three children, sending texts containing Quranic verses.

In May this year, the countries participating in the G7 summit openly called out China for its human rights abuse of Uyghur Muslims, apart from criticising China's military assertiveness in the South China Sea and the issues concerning Hong Kong. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet had called for meaningful access to verify the serious reports of human rights violations and the genocide of Uyghur Muslims. But China has blatantly refused to allow any investigation by saying that the UN human rights official is welcome for a friendly visit but not to pursue any investigation.
Massive protests erupted outside a COVID-19 mass vaccination center in Islamabad after thousands of Pakistani citizens gathered to demand COVID-19 vaccines from the Imran Khan-led government. The protests were staged largely by expatriate workers who said that they were desperate to get vaccinated so that they could go back to work in Saudi Arabia. According to the workers, apart from the Islamabad vaccination center, there were no other COVID-9 vaccination centers in operation in Pakistan.

"The people are sleeping in parks for the last three days. If our demand will not be fulfilled, we will be violent and block the main road and even go on strike. Vaccination centers are closed in the whole country and only centers in Islamabad are providing vaccines. We have hired cars worth Rs 10,000 and come here for this," said Mohammad Sarwar, a resident of Pakistan's Narowal.

Expats demand non-Chinese vaccines

Saudi Arabia has still not opened direct travel with Pakistan but permits travelers to enter the country without quarantine if they have taken a Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, or a Johnson and Johnson COVID shot. If a traveler has not been vaccinated using these vaccines, they have to quarantine at a cost.

The expatriate workers have argued that with direct travel already halted between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the cost of travel for them was already expensive. On top of this, if they were not vaccinated using a Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or other approved vaccines, the cost of quarantine for them would be beyond reach.

"There are people who want to travel overseas. They have come from far-off places and hired cars. Some people are waiting for days in the queue to get vaccinated, but they are unable to get inoculated," said another local.

Pakistan's reliance on Chinese vaccine backfires?

It is important to note that Pakistan has, by and large, shunned procuring globally-approved vaccines and has turned to all-weather friend China for Sinopharm, CanSinoBio, and Sinovac vaccines. Apart from the donations by China, it has also announced the launch of a Coronavirus vaccine named 'PakVac' which will be manufactured in Pakistan with the assistance of the Communist country.

Questions have been raised over the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines after Seychelles which vaccinated its citizens with Sinopharm reported a surge in COVID-19 infections among the fully vaccinated citizens. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain which also used Chinese vaccines in their vaccination drives were reported to be mulling a third dose owing to the alleged inefficiency of the first two doses.

(With Agency Inputs)
Large numbers of farmers in Bangladesh have been forced to flee to the capital Dhaka to escape floods caused by climate change.

"We lived in a place called Rangabali but then there was a flood," climate migrant Nurjahan Begum told British broadcaster Sky News.

She had been forced to move to Dhaka's dark and dangerous Kallyanpur slum in order to pay off debts.

"We did some farming, watermelon, lentils and chili, but the flood washed everything away," she said.

Last year, over four million people were displaced by intense flooding in Bangladesh, according to Sky News.

Cyclones and monsoon rains are becoming ever more frequent and intense, and sea levels are rising.

"People who don't believe that climate change is happening are totally ignorant," said Mohammed Sirasul Islam, another climate migrant.

"I'm almost 70 and things have changed over the last 20, even 40 years. Now even a monsoon rain floods the land."

2,000 people make the journey from the countryside to the capital every day, looking for better opportunities. But the huge city is struggling to cope.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Starting July 15, the Maldives will resume visa-on-arrival for South Asian countries, including India. The Ministry of Tourism, Maldives tweeted on Tuesday, "Maldives will restart issuing of on-arrival tourist visas starting 15th July to tourists travelling from South Asia. Tourists need a negative #PCR result to enter the Maldives. Further details will follow accordingly."

#Maldives will restart issuing of on arrival tourist visa starting 15th July to tourists travelling from South Asia. Tourists need a negative #PCR result to enter Maldives. Further details will follow accordingly. #VisitMaldives @visitmaldives  Ministry of Tourism (@MoTmv) June 29, 2021

Maldives to resume visa-on-arrival for tourists

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced at a press conference in the President's Office that the Maldives will resume issuing tourist VISAs to South Asian visitors on July 15. According to Maldives media, more information on this issue will be released soon. Additionally, from July 1, work visa holders will be able to re-enter the Maldives. After crossing the border, they will be subject to quarantine in the Maldives.

In May, a travel ban was enforced on visitors from South Asia in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka were among the countries affected by the restriction, in addition to India. However, the ministry decided to admit tourists after analyzing the current situation and the decrease in the number of cases.

Maldives Bans Entry Of Indian Tourists

A month ago, Maldives imposed restrictions on travellers from India as the restrictions were tightened due to a surge in the COVID-19 crisis. The Indian Ocean archipelagos Health Protection Agency had informed that the residents of Male will be required to stay indoors from 4 pm until 4 am. Visas for tourists from India and other nations in South Asia will be halted from May 13, it added.

The healthcare professionals, on the other hand, must have a PCR negative result from a sample obtained 96 hours before their trip to the Maldives, as per previous regulations. They will also be subjected to 14-day home quarantine. Only after a negative PCR test will they be removed from home quarantine. In addition, all inbound tourists from foreign countries must have a PCR negative result from a sample obtained 96 hours prior to their departure from the Maldives' first port of embarkation, said the release.

(with inputs from ANI)

Picture Credit: Unsplash
Some 20 opposition figures in Nicaragua have been arrested by President Daniel Ortega's police, including five presidential hopefuls, over the past month.

Most face vague allegations of crimes against the state.

Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, brother of the presidential pre-candidate Cristiana Chamorro Barrios, was detained on Friday night.

Since then, his wife, Marta Lucia Urcuyo, has been visiting the detention centre carrying food and drinks, but she is only allowed in with water, and sometimes the doors remain locked.

Cristiana Chamorro Barrios has been under house arrest for investigation since 2 June.

The 23-year-old presidential candidate, Lesther Aleman, said that many of the police arrests are more like kidnappings.

"No one knows where you are, what your conditions are, etc. And there is no respect for due process."

Aleman, who rose to fame in May 2018, a month after massive protests paralyzed much of the country before being violently repressed, is running his presidential campaign in hiding.

With some of the best-known potential candidates already in jail and the field tilted heavily in Ortega's favour as he pursues a fourth consecutive term, some believe the opposition should sit out and not legitimize an Ortega victory.

Yet Aleman remains optimistic that he will be able to drive turnout, attract independent voters to the opposition and even draw some Sandinistas away from Ortega.

Mauricio Madrigal, news director of Canal 10, was summoned Tuesday to the Public Prosecutor's Office to testify in a case of alleged money laundering against opposition leader Cristiana Chamorro Barrios for which more than twenty journalists have been summoned.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
While speaking during his annual televised phone-in, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the US military of staging a complex provocation after British warship HMS Defender sailed near the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea. According to BBC, Putin assured that there was "no risk" of starting World War three, however, he said that he believes that it was part of an attempt to set up military bases in or near Ukraine. The Russian President alleged a US spy plane was part of the operation too, even though the UK Royal Navy has rejected the Russian account of what happened on June 23.

Hours before the HM Defender engaged in a stand-off with Russian ships and fighter jets off the coast of Crimea, a US reconnaissance plane took off from Greece to observe the Kremlins reaction, Putin said. He further added that the Russian navy could have sunk the vessel without igniting a new world war. But he also said that the aim of the exercise was to test Russian defences.

This provocation was full-scale, it was carried out not only by the British but by the Americans too, he said. Still, even if we sank this ship, it is difficult to imagine that the world would stand on the verge of a third world war that the West knows it couldnt win, he said.

It is worth mentioning that the June 23 incident came a week after Putins summit meeting with US President Joe Biden aimed at de-escalating the worst tensions in years between Russia and the West. Moscow said that it used bombs and gunfire as warning shots to force the British vessel to leave waters it claims off the coast of Crimea. The UK, on the other hand, rejected that, saying the warship pursued its planned voyage along an international shipping route.

Russian borders will be protected by all means

The British Navy destroyer HMS Defender entered Russia's "territorial waters" on Wednesday in breach of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to Moscows account of the confrontation. Russian military forces accused the British warship of encroaching the Russian maritime border to the northwestern of the Black Sea at 11:52 am Moscow time (0852 GMT). Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov reportedly even accused US and the Uk of trying to provocate conflict in the Black Sea.

Ryabkov has reportedly said that Russia would defend its borders using all possible means. Washington and London were trying to incite conflict in the region by failing to accept Crimea as a part of Russia, Russian news agency RIA cited Ryabkov as saying.

Ryabkov said that the Russian borders will be protected "by all means, diplomatic, political and military if needed. Russia would be ready to fire on targets if warnings dont work, Ryabkov said while commenting on the Black Sea warship incident. The Russian military ministry called on the British side to conduct an investigation of the HMS Defender crew for the prevention of similar incidents in the future, according to news agency TASS.

IMAGE: AP
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday.

He was 88.

In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfeld's family said he "was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico."

President George W. Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served as Pentagon chief, hailed his "steady service as a wartime secretary of defense  a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor."

Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America.

After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.

"Rummy," as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, energetic, engaging and capable of great personal warmth.

But he irritated many with his confrontational style.

An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; a biting humor was a favorite weapon.

Still, he built a network of loyalists who admired his work ethic, intelligence and impatience with all who failed to share his sense of urgency.

Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest.

He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and member of Congress.

For all Rumsfeld's achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.

Nine months into his second tour as defense secretary, on Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, thrusting the nation into wars for which the military was ill-prepared.

Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime.

Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, applauded for his blunt talk and uncompromising style.

By 2002 the Bush administration's attention shifted to Iraq, which played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to President George W. Bush in 2004 amid disclosures that U.S. troops had abused detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison  an episode he later referred to as his darkest hour as defense secretary.

Not until November 2006, after Democrats gained control of Congress by riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, did Bush finally decide Rumsfeld had to go. He left office in December, replaced by Robert Gates.

Rumsfeld is survived by his wife, Joyce, three children and seven grandchildren.

IMAGE: AP

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Revenue Update: 6 months post-Brexit

Today (1/7/2021), 6 months on from the UKs departure from the EU, Revenue provided key information and insights into the very different trading environment between Ireland and Great Britain.

Commenting on the extent of the changes Brexit has brought about, Revenue Commissioner and Director General of Customs, Mr Gerry Harrahill, said:

The significant and permanent change in trading arrangements with Great Britain since 1 January last represents the biggest challenge for trade and business in Ireland in almost 30 years, since the creation of the EU Single Market. Customs formalities and other regulatory requirements and checks now apply to goods moving to, from and through Great Britain. These checks form part of Irelands responsibility as a member of the EU to maintain the integrity of the Single Market and the Customs Union. In practical terms this means that goods simply cannot seamlessly move from Great Britain to Ireland as they did when the UK was a member of the EU.

Mr Harrahill acknowledged that businesses have made enormous progress in adapting to the new requirements in the last 6 months, with many now successfully trading with or through Great Britain or changing their supply chains or supply routes so as to eliminate the need for compliance with customs and other regulatory formalities.

There have been over 186,500 freight vehicle movements into Ireland from Great Britain via Dublin Port and Rosslare Europort since 1 January 2021. 84% were green routed on arrival meaning they passed freely through the relevant port without the need for any additional interaction with Revenue or any other State agency. 12% were orange routed meaning the goods needed a documentary check or similar control and 4% were red routed meaning there was a requirement for a physical examination or inspection of the goods. Its important to note that certain goods requiring a check does not necessarily equate to non-compliance with the new formalities. Mandatory checks for certain types of goods are now simply a reality of trading with Great Britain.

Building on the significant engagement with businesses in the lead up to 1 January 2021, over the past 6 months Revenue has continued to engage with and support businesses, large and small, in overcoming the challenges and adapting to the new requirements arising as a result of Brexit. In addition to regular stakeholder meetings with ferry operators, hauliers and the Retail Forum, Revenue has participated in 36 trade webinar events since the start of January, providing key information and practical advice to over 6,600 attendees. The majority of these sessions were recorded and are available for further viewing through the relevant trade body website. Revenue has also engaged one-to-one with impacted businesses on an on-going basis.

Commenting on the benefits of positive engagement and collaboration with businesses, Mr Harrahill said:

The valuable insights we have gained from our intensive engagement with businesses and trade representative bodies has enabled Revenue and the other State agencies including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Health Service Executive to streamline processes and improve our services with, for example, several enhancements to the Customs RoRo service already delivered. These enhancements individually and collectively serve to further cement the cohesive approach between State agencies, provide increased visibility of critically relevant information to all parties in the supply chain and automates key messages to hauliers and ferry operators. While it is not and will not be possible to eliminate the operation of formalities and checks, the enhancements have minimised, in so far as possible, some of the challenges first faced in January last.

While many businesses have made enormous progress in adapting to the new requirements in the last six months, Revenue is aware that some businesses continue to be challenged in adapting to the need to comply with customs and other regulatory formalities. To further assist these businesses, Revenue along with colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) will hold a webinar on Wednesday 7 July 2021. This information session will seek to ensure a full understanding of the operation of customs controls and other formalities, provide an overview of the most common challenges experienced by businesses since 1 January and provide advice on the practical steps businesses can take to manage these challenges while at the same time complying with the necessary requirements when trading with or through Great Britain.

Mr Harrahill encouraged businesses trading or who are thinking of trading with Great Britain to attend the webinar:

Over the last six months, all the stakeholders including the State agencies have experienced the practical and everyday challenges brought about by the UKs departure from the EU. We are using this webinar as a forum for sharing these experiences, to outline how things like ensuring your supply chain operates and functions as an integrated whole can minimise potential delays. We will also use this opportunity to remind businesses of the different reliefs, measures and facilities available to assist them in managing and, in some cases mitigating, the financial implications now associated with trading with Great Britain. These are valuable insights that can assist any business in operating effectively in a more complicated and perhaps still unfamiliar trading environment. Information on how businesses can register for this event will be available shortly on the Revenue website.

Finally, businesses are reminded that Revenues Customs helpline can be contacted on a 24/7 basis on 01 7383685. Additionally, a range of Government supports are available, including training and grants, to help businesses deal with these changes. More information on the supports available can be found on the Government .

{Ends 1/7/2021}
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'Human rights and environmental work are not criminal offenses,' the UN says in a June 30 statement.

United Nations human rights and environmental officials called on Wednesday for an end to Cambodian authorities use of punitive measures against protectors of the countrys environment, following the arrests this month of four young environmental activists.

The four activists, members of the Cambodian environmental protection group Mother Nature, were arrested on June 16 after three of the groupSun Ratha, Ly Chandaravuth, and Sith Chhivmengwere arrested while filming the drainage of sewage into the Tonle Sap River in front of Phnom Penhs Royal Palace.

Separately, authorities in Kandal province arrested Mother Nature activist Yim Leang Hy at his hometown in the provinces Koh Thom district. Sith Chhivmeng was later released after 24 hours of questioning by police in Phnom Penh.

Sun Ratha, 26, and Yim Leang Hy, 32have now been charged with conspiracy and with lese-majeste, or insulting the king, and are being held in Phnom Penh's Prey Sar Prison awaiting trial.

The fourth youth activist arrested and now also held at Prey SarLy Chandaravuth, 22has been charged with plotting to topple Cambodias government.

The group could face between five to 10 years in prison on conviction. Mother Nature founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, now living outside Cambodia, also faces charges of conspiracy.

In a June 30 statement, Cynthia VelikoSoutheast Asia Representative for the UN Human Rights Office in Bangkokcalled on Cambodian authorities to end the use of the punitive measures routinely leveled against human rights and environmental rights workers in Cambodia.

Human rights and environmental work are not criminal offenses," Veliko said.

We urge the authorities to ensure that human rights and civil society organizations in Cambodia can operate without fear or intimidation and that their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association are protected and respected."

The world is now living in the midst of an environmental crisis, added Dechen Tsering, the UN Environment Programmes Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, also writing in the June 30 statement.

Civil society which peacefully advocates for the environment is a fundamental partner in addressing the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, Tsering said.

Cambodia rejects criticisms

Responding to the UN statement, Kata Onspokesperson for Cambodias official Human Rights Committeerejected the statements concerns as the thoughts of individuals whose opinions are not in the best interests of Cambodia.

But if these concerns are raised one day at the UN General Assembly or in meetings of the UN Human Rights Council, Cambodia will use the mechanisms [available to it] to defend its record on human rights, Kata On said.

The concerns expressed in the UN statement are not subjective opinion, however, but the views of skilled UN staff working to fulfill their responsibilities, said Soeung Senkaruna, spokesperson for the Cambodian rights group ADHOC.

These explanations by the Cambodian government have not won credibility with the international community in the past, Soeung Senkaruna said.

If Cambodia is concerned about losing its image on the world stage, or about getting respect on the world stage, it should accept findings like these and work to improve its record, he said.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Richard Finney.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which marked the centenary of its secret founding in Shanghai on , is determined to hold onto power and stand up to foreign "bullies," general secretary Xi Jinping told a mass choreographed ceremony of flag-waving crowds in Beijing, punctuated by a fighter-jet flypast.



"We must uphold the firm leadership of the party," Xi told the assembled dignitaries and hand-picked crowds.



"We Chinese ... are not intimidated by threats of force," Xi said. "We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us."



"Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he said.



Xi, who removed term limits for China's highest-ranking leaders in 2018, has presided over the broadening and deepening of party control over public speech, the media, and academic debate, while expanding the high-tech surveillance of China's 1.4 billion citizens, and rolling out a nationwide campaign to encourage people to study his personal brand of political ideology.



Xi has also been inscribed into the CCP charter as a "core" leader, with political commentators observing that he appears to be emulating the political style and personality cult that flourished around late supreme leader Mao Zedong.



"We must ... uphold the core position of the general secretary on the party Central Committee and in the party as a whole, and uphold the Central Committees authority and its centralized, unified leadership," Xi said, to cheers from tens of thousands of spectators, who cheered, sang and waved hammer-and-sickle flags.



Xi's speech also nodded to key elements of his power base, including the People's Liberation Army (PLA), with a promise to pour more resources into military modernization.



Xi, who commands the PLA as head of the Central Military Commission, also reiterated the party's total control over China's armed forces.



"We will ... maintain the partys absolute leadership over the peoples armed forces [and] elevate our peoples armed forces to world-class standards," he said.



A woman takes a selfie as Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech is being broadcasted on a large screen in Beijing during celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, July 1, 2021. Credit: AFP Nationalism the main theme

Xi's speech also recognized the work of the CCP's outreach arm, the United Front Work Department, which has been implicated in attempts to control public discourse and infiltrate the political life of countries far beyond China's borders in recent years.



"We have constantly consolidated and developed the broadest possible united front," Xi said.



"The patriotic united front is an important means for the party to unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, both at home and abroad," he said.



The centenary event, which saw unprecedented security measures and surveillance across Beijing, kicked off with a flag-raising ceremony, followed by a 100-gun salute.



Beijing political commentator Wu Qiang said that the CCP has now completely identified itself with Chinese nationalism, something it once fought against in the guise of the Kuomintang regime (1911-1949) in the wake of World War II.



"The party that was once a revolutionary party and the vanguard of the working class has now been transformed into a nationalist party," Wu said. "This was the main theme of the centenary celebration."



Wu said Xi's rhetoric around "national rejuvenation" and political civilizations was telling.



"It's reminiscent of social Darwinist theories about the clash of civilizations," he said. "That was my deepest impression from [this] celebration."



Mao Zedong was name-checked in 's speech, alongside Xi's predecessors Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao. However, neither Jiang nor his former premier Zhu Rongji were present at the ceremony.



Mao's former premier Zhou Enlai, former premier Liu Shaoqi, who was deposed and persecuted under Mao, and revolution-era military commander Zhu De were also among those mentioned by Xi.



'More and more dictatorial'

Xi's speech also appeared to leave room for future ideological campaigns, a tactic frequently used by Mao to eliminate political rivals in the CCP.



"We must ... root out any elements that would harm the partys advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health," Xi warned.



He also once more asserted the CCP's direct control over the administrations of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as claiming "unshakable commitment" to the annexation of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, and which, at the time of the CCP's founding, was ruled by Japan.



"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said.



"Long live our great, glorious, and correct party!" he said, before the band struck up The Internationale and 100,000 white doves took to the skies above Tiananmen Square.



Taiwans Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the island would hold onto its sovereignty in the face of growing threats to regional security from China.



"We call on [Beijing] to abandon its coercive propositions and bullying actions, and truly become a responsible party committed to regional peace," the MAC said in a statement in response to Xi's speech.



"Since the CCP took power, its one-party dictatorship has clamped down on peoples democracy and violated human rights and freedoms," it said.



"They have become more and more dictatorial at home ... while trying to interfere with the international order overseas," the statement said.



"Democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law are the core values of Taiwanese society," it said. "Our governments determination to firmly defend national sovereignty and Taiwans democracy and freedom ... remains unchanged."

Xi did not mention Tibet or Xinjiang in his speech, but exile populations from those communities plan protests for July 1.

Penpa Tsering, the recently elected leader of the India-based Central Tibetan Administration exile government, said "the 100 years of the Communist Party, or the 70 years of the so-called 'liberation of Tibetan people,' is not a matter of any celebration."

"The desire of the Tibetan people for freedom to practice their own religion has not been recognized by the Chinese government," he said.

Tsering added: China is the only country in the world who spends more on silencing dissent as internal threat than on neutralizing external threats like most other countries in the world.

Writing on her Facebook page, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said, "As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates 100 years of existence, we can't forget the 1,000,000 Uyghurs they are imprisoning and torturing in concentration camps."

"Today is not a day to celebrate, it's a day to mourn China's victims," Haley said.

Reported by Qiao Long, Hwang Chun-mei, Chingman and Emily Chan for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
One year after China launched a crackdown on public protest and dissent in the city, police continue to arrest activists.

Protesters confront police in Hong Kong on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, July 1, 2021.

One year after China imposed a draconian national security law on Hong Kong, police locked down Victoria Park, a former site of mass protest rallies and marches, and cordoned off downtown streets, while supporters of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hung flags along the streets and sang revolutionary songs.

Dozens of police in Causeway Bay surrounded and arrested veteran protester Alexandra Wong, a frequent participant in the 2019 protest movement, for waving a British flag, photos posted to social media showed.

A young boy was also chased by officers through the Fashion Walk mall before being dragged aboard a police vehicle, photos posted to Twitter on the 24th anniversary of the 1997 handover to Chinese rule showed.

Bystanders said he had apparently been targeted for carrying a bag that was yellow, the color used by the pro-democracy movement and two mass protest movements since 2014.

Police also arrested three activists from the group Student Politicism in Mong Kok at around 5.00 p.m. local time, on suspicion of "distributing seditious publications," according to a police statement and social media reports.

And barrister Chow Hang-tung, who heads a group that once organized an annual candlelight vigil marking the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen massacre, was rearrested on suspicion of "inciting others to participate in an unauthorized assembly" under public order laws.

Hundreds of police took to the streets of Causeway Bay, arresting 19 people on suspicion of offenses that included "disorderly conduct," failing to heed police warnings, and "desecrating the national flag."

They also handed out 19 fixed penalties for breaches of a ban on gatherings linked to coronavirus restrictions.

Two women who were fined said they had only been in a group of two, when the maximum number allowed is four.

"We don't know how this happened. They pulled us to one side and said we had violated the gathering restriction order," a woman surnamed Ng told RFA. "There were just the two of us, nobody else."

"I don't know what the Hong Kong government is turning into."

Her friend, surnamed Lee, said she had been hit with a H.K.$5,000 fine "for no reason."

"We just came out to go shopping," she said. "I work hard as a cleaner and they just fine me H.K.$5,000 for no reason."

Protesters turn out in small groups

Despite a police ban on what had been an annual mass protest march on July 1, people turned out in small groups to chant slogans and wave flags and protest banners, police said in a statement on their Facebook page.

Later in the evening, a man allegedly stabbed a police officer in the district at around 10.00 p.m., the police said.

"The officer sustained injuries to the left side of his back and was sent to hospital for treatment, while the assailant was subdued on the spot," the statement said.

Rights groups hit out at the rapid deterioration of human rights protections since the national security law was imposed on Hong Kong by China's National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee.

Chinese and Hong Kong officials have said the law was needed to deal with an attempt by foreign powers to foment a "color revolution" in Hong Kong, a reference to the 2019 protest movement that began as mass, peaceful opposition to plans to allow extradition to mainland China.

But its sweeping provisions allowed China's feared state security police to set up a headquarters in Hong Kong, granted sweeping powers to police to search private property and require the deletion of public content, and criminalized criticism of the city government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Dozens awaiting trial

Dozens of opposition lawmakers are awaiting trial for subversion for taking part in a democratic primary, while at least seven journalists have been arrested for "colluding with a foreign power" in connection with opinion pieces in the Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close after its assets were frozen in a raid by national security police on June 17.

"Since the law has gone into effect, [the] authorities have used it to drastically curtail freedom of expression and other human rights far beyond what international human rights law permits," the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said in a joint statement with other rights groups.

"The Hong Kong government has accused the [Apple Daily] of publishing approximately 100 videos or articles that are suspected of violating the National Security Law while refusing to specify which videos and articles," it said.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is currently serving a 14-month sentence for participating in pro-democracy protests in August 2019 while awaiting trial for "colluding with a foreign power" under the national security law.

"Shutting down the citys most popular Chinese language newspaper and detaining its staff is the most obvious and emblematic violation of the right to freedom of expression in Hong Kong today," CHRD said in the statement, that was signed by Safeguard Defenders and Humanitarian China, among other groups.

It also cited the government's assertion of editorial control over public broadcaster RTHK, where a number of prominent journalists have been fired or sanctioned for producing content critical of the authorities.

The groups also cited constraints on academic freedom at Hong Kong's universities, with events canceled, debates modified, and lecturers reported by student informants over potential violations of the law.

Targeting the opposition

Eric Lai, research fellow at the University of Georgetown law school, said it was clear that the government is using the law to target the political opposition, with the majority of arrests under the law being of opposition politicians.

He said the refusal to release national security suspects on bail had interfered with the presumption of innocence that was previously a feature of Hong Kong's common law jurisdiction.

"We can't see any sign that they are presuming innocence, because a large proportion of defendants aren't being released on bail," he said.

"They have also changed the trial system by abolishing jury trials [in national security cases]," Lai told RFA. "The point of a jury trial ... is to make the trial more fair and open, but they are taking the opposite approach."



Reported by Man Hoi Yan, Cheng Yut Yiu, Gigi Lee, Chan Yun Nam and Jia Ao for RFA's Cantonese and Mandarin Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
'Now we have no money, no land to farm, and no homes to live in,' one survivor says.

Some of the 700 permanent homes being built for flood survivors in Sanamxay district, Attapeu province, in Laos are shown in an undated photo.

Almost three years after a dam collapse that caused Laos worst flooding in decades, most of the 3,600 survivors of the collapse are still living in shelters, with their cash and food allowances cut off or reduced since January, Lao sources say.

On July 23, 2018, water surged over a saddle dam in Attapeu provinces Sanamxay district at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project following heavy rains, inundating 12 villages and killing at least 40 people in Attapeu and neighboring Champassak province.

Only around 111 families of survivors have now been moved into permanent homeswith 45 homes built by the Thai government and 66 built by Japanand with monthly government support of 250,000 kip ($25) and 20 kilograms of rice per person for all survivors ended or reduced in January 2021, sources in the country say.

The chief of my village told us that our allowances have been cut off, a survivor living in Sanamxay district's Dong Bak Village resettlement camp told RFA in a recent interview.

[But] late last year, a high-ranking official told us that our cash and rice subsidies would not be stopped until we had all moved into permanent homes and had some land to farm.

Local authorities should have told camp residents that their allowances would end beginning in January, the man said. Instead, they kept us waiting and waiting in vain for our allowances for six months.

Many of us are upset about this, he said.

Another Dong Bak camp resident confirmed they had never been informed of the coming cut-off.

Theyre the ones who put us in this situation, and theyre responsible for what happens to us now, he said.

The authorities said they wouldnt cut off our support until we had all moved into permanent homes, but now the cash allowance has been stopped and the rice allowance has been cut back since January, a third Dong Bak villager said.

Now we have no money, no land to farm, and no home to live in, he added.

Desperate for cash

Flood survivors living in Sanamxay's Thasengchanh Village resettlement camp are now so desperate for cash that they are selling the temporary shelters the government has given them and are moving into huts in the fields, some said.

Because of the cut-off of support, I have no choice now but to sell my temporary metal shelter so that I can get some cash to make ends meet, one villager said, adding that he had sold his shelter to a Vietnamese worker.

In our Thasengchanh village, some families have no money because the cash allowance has been cut off and the rice allowance has been reduced, another camp resident said.

So far, about seven families have sold their shelters for about 1.8 million kip ($180) each and have moved to live in huts at their farms or in their rice fields, the villager said, speaking like the others on condition of anonymity for reasons of personal safety.

The village and district authorities told them not to sell the shelters, but they wouldnt listen, he said.

'We're on our own now'

Also speaking to RFA, the Thasengchanh village chief said, Now were in trouble financially because the 250,000 kip cash allowance has been cut off, and the monthly 20 kilograms per-person allotment of rice has been cut off.

Were on our own now, he said. To survive, some of us have moved to live on our farms or in the rice fields to grow crops and wait for our permanent homes to be built.

Ignoring the larger question of financial hardship, one Attapeu provincial official said that the temporary shelters are in any case now the villagers own to sell.

At first, we were planning to take the temporary metal shelters back once the survivors have moved into their permanent homes. But after discussing things with the dam developer, we decided that the survivors are allowed to keep their shelters.

Theyre theirs, so they can sell them, he said.

Homes still being built

The construction of 700 permanent homes for the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam flood survivors is being financed by the company operating the dam, with 505 now being built, the Lao National Committee for Disaster Control said in a statement following a virtual meeting held on June 7.

Construction on the remaining 195 homes has not yet begun, but around 182 homes are expected to be finished by the end of the year, the committee said.

Laos has built dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries, with plans to build scores more under a plan to become the Battery of Southeast Asia to export the electricity they generate to other countries in the region.

Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the countrys economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements.

Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
But critics call the move a stunt to gain global recognition for a regime that lacks legitimacy.

Myanmars junta released some 2,300 detaineesmostly political prisoners charged with defamationas part of a nationwide amnesty on Wednesday, but the move was greeted with skepticism by critics who called it a stunt to gain international recognition following its February power grab.

The 2,296 detainees were freed from prisons in the capital Naypyidaw as well as all 14 of the countrys states and regions, and included journalists, protesters, and relief workers accused of violating Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code for defaming the military.

Aung Ye Ko, a reporter from 7 Days News, told RFAs Myanmar Service he had been released 124 days after his Feb. 27 arrest while covering an anti-coup protest in the Hledan district of Myanmars largest city Yangon.

I dont know about their intentions or why I was released but Im going to carry on with my profession, he said.

I endured a bit of physical and mental suffering while in therethere were no beatings but a lot of interrogations. I would say they have no respect for the Media Law.

Ye Myo Khat, a photojournalist from Myanmar Press Agency (MPA), was arrested while covering the same protest as Aung Ye Ko and slammed the authorities for ignoring the nations legal protections for reporters.

We were unlawfully arrested without any regard for the 2014 Media Law and it is totally unacceptable, he said.

Anti-coup protesters who were freed told RFA under condition of anonymity that their charges had been withdrawn and vowed to continue fighting against military rule.

On Feb. 1, Myanmars military orchestrated a coup detat, claiming that a landslide victory by Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) in the countrys November 2020 elections was the result of widespread voter fraud. Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders have been held in detention since the takeover.

The junta has yet to provide evidence for its claims and has violently suppressed mass demonstrations against the takeover, killing at least 883 people and arresting 5,224, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

On Wednesday, an AAPP official, who declined to be named, told RFA that his organization does not consider the amnesty to be an act of good faith by the military.

If they want to show goodwill, all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, should be released immediately and unconditionally, he said, using an honorific for the 76-year-old Nobel laureate, who has been detained since the coup.

What they did today, as usual, is to play a trick on the international community as their administration is in crisis.

The official congratulated those released Wednesday on their freedom and urged those still in detention to stay strong because they are a part of this revolution.

Refugees who fled fighting at a makeshift camp in Chin state, June 11, 2021. RFA Chin state clashes

Wednesdays amnesty came as Myanmars military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country of 54 million that have led to fierce battles with a profusion of local Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militias formed to protect residents from troops loyal to the junta.

Clashes between the military and the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) have been raging in northwest Myanmars southern Chin state since April 26 and have forced more than 50,000 people to flee to safety from their homes in the townships of Hakha, Mindat, Matupi and Kanpetle, according to aid groups.

At least 30 junta soldiers and four militia members were killed in fighting in Hakha and Falam townships on Tuesday, according to a CDF spokesman.

The spokesman said the military launched an attack on CDF positions in Falam using heavy artillery, prompting a firefight that left four militiamen and an estimated 20 junta troops dead.

In Hakha, the Chin state capital, a five-hour exchange of fire that began early on Tuesday killed at least 15 government soldiers and injured one, another CDF member told RFA.

Residents of the area said the military has been looting villages for livestock and restricting the transportation of rice for fear that it will end up in the hands of CDF fighters. Prices for necessities are spiking and medicine is in short supply, they said.

While the two sides agreed a 14-day ceasefire on June 19, only around 30 percent of people displaced b fighting have returned to their homes, saying they continue to fear for their safety.

Win Myat Aye, Minister for Humanitarian and Disaster Management for Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG), told a news conference over the weekend that efforts to support war refugees in the region have been stymied by military restrictions.

More than a quarter of a million civilians in seven regions of Myanmar have been displaced by clashes between the military and militias or fighting between ethnic armies in the months since the junta overthrew the countrys democratically elected government, according to aid groups and the United Nations.

They join more 500,000 refugees from decades of military conflict between the government military and ethnic armies who were already counted as internally displaced persons at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO.

Reported by Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Myanmar's ambassador to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun makes a three-finger salute as he delivers an impassioned plea at an informal meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the international community to take the "strongest possible action" to end the junta's rule in the country, Feb. 26, 2021.

Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmars Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations, is the most prominent of his countrys diplomats to reject the military junta that overthrew the elected government on Feb. 1 and join the anti-regime shadow government known as the National Unity Government (NUG). He told Khin Maung Soe of RFAs Myanmar Service in an interview conducted at the Residence of the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations in New York that The Myanmar military council continues to fail in the international arena" and pointed to a string of setbacks to the military regimes attempts to represent Myanmars 54 million people at meetings key United Nations bodies and in UN General ssembly voting. Kyaw Moe Tun also laid out the NUGs plan to pursue charges against the military regime for human rights violations at the International Criminal Court. The following Q&A has been edited for length:

RFA: The international community  UN agencies and others  appears to be rejecting the military junta. What is happening?

Kyaw Moe Tun: If you look at the UN General Assembly (on June 18, calling for a halt to arms sales to Myanmar and urging the military to respect November election results and release political detainees), there are a total of 193 countries and 119 of them have supported us. Abstention by 36 countries. And there was only one country that objected. This kind of vote is extremely rare. It's because the events unfolding in Myanmar and the human rights violations happening there were so ugly and were unacceptable to most countries. To answer your question, look at the World Health Organization assembly in May. The military wanted to send their delegation and so did NUG. The decision was deferred. A similar decision was made at International Red Cross. What is also noteworthy is what happened at last month's Food and Agriculture Organization meeting. The regime's delegate was not given a turn to give his address. His turn was passed on to the next delegate. And at the recent meeting for the Law of the Sea Convention, the junta's representative was not accepted. At the Human Rights Council meeting now being held in Geneva, the agenda for Myanmar includes a report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to be adopted and an interaction with the High Commissioner as well as an interaction with the Special Rapporteur. We requested that the Human Rights Council postpone the adoption of the UPR as the events in Myanmar since Feb. 1 were so unacceptable. The council has accepted our request to postpone it. There have been so many human rights violations. It is time now to submit a report on Sustainable Development Goals. But the report is currently being prepared by officials under the regime and we don't think it will be in line with reality. We notified the Chairman of the Economic and Social Council on this issue and requested on June 21 for a postponement of the National Voluntary Review and he replied the next day that he had accepted our request. The developments have clearly shown the setbacks in the international arena the military regime is facing at present and that the international community has not ignored the struggles of our people.

RFA: What can you tell us about plans to have action taken against the junta at International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice?

Kyaw Moe Tun: We have all along advocated the need to take action against those who committed human rights violations. The Independent Committee of Enquiry in its report says there were many violations and atrocities in Rakhine state in 2016-2017 and the NLD government had pledged to carry out necessary action to find justice. But more human rights violations occurred in the country after February 1 and we can say the entire judicial system has collapsed. What NUG is doing now is to find ways to approach ICC to bring the past violators as well as those who had committed such violence after Feb 1. We are still working on how to get action taken against the responsible military leaders even though Myanmar is not yet a member of the Rome Statute and at the same time we are trying to become a member of the ICC.

RFA: Do you think Myanmar diplomats in other countries would like to support the (anti-junta) Spring Revolution?

Kyaw Moe Tun: You can ask anyone regarding the military coup. A large percentage of them would say they do not like the coup. Only those who are somehow related to the military would accept them. Even some of them, though they do not say it publicly, have said so in private. So many career diplomats have suffered under various military regimes when promotions were concerned. Many career people in government ministries have enjoyed democratic rule. During military rule, many rarely went beyond the rank of a director, as top positions were usually filled by former military officers. It wasn't so under the democratic government.



RFA: You are the only prominent diplomat who has stood up against the regime. Why is that?

Kyaw Moe Tun: It is not easy for them to make such decisions even though they support the Spring Revolution. Some of them have to think of their families. No matter what, I have respect for their decisions. However I would like to say that it is now time for them to reconsider standing by the people. It would be more effective if we all can make a united stand.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.
Chinese authorities are closely watching a Tibetan writer after they discovered she had contact with people outside Tibet, a source in Tibet told RFA.

Pema Tso, author of numerous articles and poems published in Tibetan magazines, has been teaching Tibetan language in Rebkong (Tongren in Chinese) for the past 30 years.

Due to constant police surveillance, she has been unable to meet other people or have a normal life, the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFAs Tibetan Service.

Since 2020, Chinese authorities started restraining Pema Tso, saying that she had contact with people outside Tibet, specifically Beijing-based Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser, the source said.

Woeser, who writes a column for RFAs Tibetan Service, is a controversial figure because of her pro-Tibetan writings and poems.

Woeser "has emerged as the most prominent mainland activist speaking out publicly about human rights conditions" for Tibetans, the U.S. State Department said in a statement after she won its "Woman of Courage" award in 2013.

In addition to surveilling Pema Tso for contacting Woeser and others, authorities warned her several times, according to the source.

She was accused of owning sensitive political documents and books. She is currently barred from attending any schools or lectures, the source said.

Pema Tso was born in the 1960s in Rebkong, the capital of the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai. She graduated from Qinghai Public University in 1987 as a Tibetan language major. She has won many literary awards for her writings.

Reported by Sangyal Kunchok for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Within three months in 2017, seven educators from the high school were taken away with black hoods over their heads.

New information has come to light about the death of a principal and the jailing of six teachers at a Uyghur-language school arrested by authorities in 2017 amid a deepening crackdown on Uyghur education, culture, and language in Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The No. 5 Intermediate School in Altay (in Chinese, Aletai), the only school in the city where the Uyghur language was the medium of instruction, became a starting place for some of the earliest detentions in that city during the first half of 2017.

In less than three months, local police said to be working with national security authorities had detained seven educators from the high school, taking them away as they wore black hoods over their heads.

The detainees included school principal Rayhan Amat, who later died during interrogation at one of the many internment camps China set up beginning in 2017 that are believed to have housed 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslims, according to sources from the region.

The seven educators  including geography teacher Rayhan Musa, Russian language teacher Akbar, and computer science teacher Alim  disappeared one after the other in 2017, according to a source with knowledge of the situation in Altay who spoke with RFA last week.

Other staff members and students at the school did not know why police had detained Rayhan or the other six teachers or where they had been taken.

All [six] of them were detained along with their husbands and wives, after which they all completely disappeared without a trace, said Muhtar Abdurahman, a Uyghur researcher who lives in Japan who obtained information about the educators from acquaintances in Altay.

By July of that year, the Public Security Bureau in Altay informed school leadership that Rayhan had been arrested on charges of opposing national language education and attempting to divide the country, and that she had died.

National language education refers to Mandarin Chinese language instruction, though Uyghurs say it has become code for extreme and overtly assimilationist patriotic language and school policies in the XUAR since 2016-2017.

We are witnessing their attempt to completely Sinicize Uyghur education, and to completely eliminate its roots, Muhtar said.

The Bureau of Education in Altay city declined to comment on the principals situation when contacted by RFA, though the official who answered the phone call did not deny that seven teachers from the school had been detained.

When authorities cancelled instruction in the Uyghur language at the school, Rayhan complained that the sudden implementation of the new policy would undermine teaching at the school, Muhtar said.

Her objection to the policy was used as the basis for accusations by authorities that she was a separatist who attempted to divide the country, he said. The six other school employees detained along with Rayhan had expressed support for her objection.

Rayhan Amat apparently expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of so-called bilingual education, and for this reason, the Chinese government detained her and locked her up in a camp at some point in 2017, Muhtar said. News of her death spread only several months later. Her death in interrogation was confirmed, and her corpse was sent out [of the camp].

Authorities handed over Rayhans body to her family two months after her detention, according to the source with knowledge of the situation in Altay, who requested anonymity for safety reasons.

Because Rayhans body was buried under local police surveillance, she was not sent off in accordance with Muslim religious and cultural norms that undergird death and mourning in Uyghur society, the source said. Rayhans family as well as her gravesite remained under police surveillance for a month following the burial.

A lasting impression

When contacted by RFA, relevant officials in Altay refused to answer questions about the latest news on the seven educators, saying that the cases were very sensitive. Only one of them confirmed that Rayhan had died in detention, but declined to provide further details.

Rayhan made a lasting impression on students and colleagues at the No. 5 Intermediate School in Altay  her alma mater  with her loud voice, decisive temperament, and experience in school management, the source said. She was also known as a relentless researcher who exercised every morning.

They doubted that the principal, who was 50 at the time of her death, had died of a heart attack as authorities said, and suggested that she died of torture while in the camp.

Of the remaining six educators arrested in the first half of 2017, one was sentenced to life in prison and two others received 17-year prison terms, sources in the region said. Three family members of the imprisoned teachers also were sentenced to 17 years in jail.

All six of them were sentenced to long terms without trial for supporting Rayhans protestation of the bilingual education policy they were told by education authorities to implement, said the source who requested anonymity.

Russian language teacher Akbar and computer teacher Alim were sentenced to 17 years in prison, while geography instructor Rayhan Musa was sentenced to life in prison not only for supporting the principals objection to the new policy, but also for alleged religious extremism because she encouraged her husband to stop drinking alcohol, Muhtar Abdurahman said.

Authorities sentenced Rayhan Musas husband, Akbar, to 17 years in prison for giving up alcohol as well as for praying, he added.

As for Rayhan Musa herself, she was sentenced to life in prison, Muhtar said. It has been made known that her husband was given 17 years in prison.

One of the officials in Altay contacted by RFA declined to comment on the sentencings of the teachers, but a city police officer confirmed the verdicts of the three educators.

Muhtar also told RFA that he learned that Obulqasim Yasin, a businessman and the brother of computer teacher Alim, and Halmurat, Alims cousin who was the imam of the Dongbazar mosque, also were sentenced to 17-year prison terms.

I learned concrete details about their situations from a close friend, he told RFA. Both of them [Akbar ad Alim] were core teachers at the school, where they had studied as high schoolers. Verdicts showing that they were sentenced to 17 years in prison were produced and provided to their families.

Proper trials unlikely

Authorities have targeted high schools and other educational institutions in the XUAR since the beginning of the mass internment campaign in early 2017, because they are the brains of Uyghur society, Abdureshid Niyaz, an independent Uyghur researcher who is based in Turkey, told RFA last week.

Education is the most significant means of continuing the traditions of a people, and of [encouraging the] knowledge and preservation of identity, he said.

Abdureshid surmised that those who received lengthy prison sentences likely did not have proper trials.

During a previous RFA investigation in 2017, a police officer in Peyziwat (Jiashi) county in Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture said that the large number of Uyghur detainees made it impossible to hold trials, and that the detainees were dealt with based upon orders from each countys politics and law commission.

The police officer also said he had prewritten court verdicts on hand, and that authorities would send people to prison simply by filling their names in the blank spaces on the documents.

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Elise Anderson. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An ethnic Uyghur demonstrator wearing a mask painted with the colors of the flag of East Turkestan, the Uyghur name for China's Xinjiang region, takes part in a protest against China in front of the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul, Oct. 1, 2019.

A Chinese government campaign using Uyghur expatriates to make pro-China videos and comments on social media platforms to mark the July 1 centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been met with contempt by activists and netizens from the Uyghur diaspora.

Posts, videos, and photos on WeChat, TikTok, and Instagram featuring ethnic Uyghurs praising the Chinese governments policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have rankled Uyghurs with family members in the regions vast internment camp system that has brought international accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity.

In a video recently uploaded to TikTok, an ethnic Uyghur cosmetic surgeon named Mardan who lives in South Korea says he encouraged his seven-year-old daughter to take part in a concert organized by the Chinese Embassy celebrating the CCPs 100th anniversary, where she sang a Chinese patriotic song.

Other videos show Mardan and his family at embassy events, giving interviews to Chinese journalists, and expressing their loyalty to the Chinese state. The videos describe how Mardan is imbuing his two Korea-born daughters with ideas about the unity of the Chinese nation and Chinese identity.

Mardan says that he has posted videos of the daughters on social media to propagate the idea that Uyghurs live happily in China.

When contacted to discuss his short videos, Mardan abruptly ended the call, saying that he could not speak to RFA.

In another recent video on Douyin, Chinas domestic equivalent to TikTok, a Norway-based Uyghur named Akbar praises Chinese-made cars and other products, and says that he always has considered himself a proud Chinese citizen despite living outside the country.

Uyghurs on social media swiftly condemned the video, after which Akbar issued a statement on Facebook asking his fellow Uyghurs for forgiveness and claiming that he considers himself an East Turkistan Uyghur, using the name for the XUAR preferred by most Uyghurs. Akbar said he was forced to make pro-China statements on Douyin so he could maintain contact with his relatives in the XUAR.

Some members of the Uyghur diaspora expressed understanding for Akbars situation, but many others denounced his actions as unacceptable.

We are a people subjugated, a people experiencing a genocide, and we have ended up in this situation on account of the Sinophilic Uyghurs among us, on account of those people who support the government, said Zubayra Shamseden, Chinese outreach coordinator of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

The cowards among us

A small number of Uyghurs who live in democratic nations publicly express their loyalty to the Chinese state, shun Uyghur-led demonstrations against Chinese policy around the globe, and even report on Uyghurs abroad to Chinese government authorities to help block events and slander activists, Zubayra said.

She cited the examples of Halida, a Uyghur woman working for the Chinese government in Australia, who recently attempted to block Uyghur-led demonstrations, and of a young Uyghur woman in Germany who has spoken out in defense of Chinese policy and slandered the testimonies of camp survivors.

Such actions make us ashamed that there are people like this among us, that there are such sellouts, traitors, and cowards among us, that there are people who are so selfish as to destroy the future of an entire ethnic group, an entire people, for a smidgen of personal gain, Zubayra said.

Although such people are useful to the Chinese authorities in their disinformation campaigns, they ultimately live under the threat that they and their families will fall into Chinas black hands, she added.

Some Uyghurs have spent their entire lives working loyally for the Chinese state, only to find themselves detained and locked up in camps and prisons  what China calls two-faced Uyghurs, she noted.

Since January, the U.S. State Department and the parliaments of six other democratic countries have determined that the Chinese government is perpetrating genocide against Uyghurs in the XUAR, citing internment camps that have held some 1.8 million people, some of whom have been tortured or subjected to other abuse. A German parliamentary committee last week declared that serious human rights violations against the Uyghurs are crimes against humanity.

The U.S. and several other countries have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for various abuses against Uyghurs, as well as on Chinese government agencies and companies suspected of using Uyghur forced labor to make products such as cotton, wigs, tomatoes, and polysilicon for solar panels.

In response, the Chinese government has intensified a multifaceted campaign to counter its critics and dismiss the allegations.

Whilst Beijing celebrates this month, our communities will be mourning the gradual loss of our fundamental rights over the past century," said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, in a statement issued June 28.

We have nothing to celebrate during an ongoing genocide, so we will continue to speak up against this authoritarian regime, Isa said. The CCP is the worlds most fearsome criminal organization supported by the state. It is responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people in the last 100 years. [The] CCPs crimes must be held accountable by the international justice system.

Following increased pressure from the international community, the Chinese government has stepped up its Uyghur crisis disinformation campaign in Japan, in part by mobilizing Chinese Embassy and Chinese NGOs in the country, Uyghur residents said.

On April 29, two Japan-based organizations, including the Chinese Professors Association, organized an online briefing during which a young Uyghur man named Pahirdin Parhat, gave a pro-China speech, according to Ahmatjan Letip, secretary general of the Japan Uyghur Association.

In addition to claiming that there were no internment camps in the XUAR, Pahirdin also criticized international human rights organizations for making what he called baseless claims against China.

The 25-year-old Uyghur recounted having grown up in China and said that Uyghurs faced no discrimination there. He also stressed that Uyghurs and Han Chinese lived prosperous and harmonious lives together in the XUAR, Ahmatjan said.

Pointing out untruths

Among the different kinds of Chinese propaganda being used abroad are embassy-organized online briefings by Chinese and Uyghur officials from the XUAR's capital Urumqi, so-called cadets and religious figures whose minds have been changed in the reeducation centers, and ordinary people from all walks of life, Ahmatjan said.

They claim that everything being said about Uyghurs internationally is false, that it is all propaganda fabricated by the West, he said.

Pahirdins remarks provoked strong condemnation from Uyghurs living in Japan, Ahmatjan said, amid a strengthened Chinese government propaganda campaign in that country.

Pahirdin discussed the camps in his presentation, [and] he said that the Western media is spreading disinformation that one million Uyghurs have been locked up in concentration camps, Ahmatjan said.

As in some other countries, Chinese government representatives are attempting to justify the crimes they are committing against Uyghurs by forcing Uyghur students to speak out in favor of the government and its policies, he said.

Ahmetjan stressed that Pahirdin's hour-long presentation had a negative impact on Japanese society, and that in response his organization distributed a video and published op-eds in major Japanese newspapers pointing out the young Uyghur's untruths.

Abdulkerim Abdurahman, president of the Japan Uyghur Association, told RFA that association members have begun holding anti-disinformation activities in Japan.

For this person named Pahirdin to stand on Chinas side and refute all of this oppression, to say that Uyghurs are living happily at a time when the people in our homeland are suffering so indescribably, deeply angered Uyghurs in Japan, he said.

RFA could not locate Pahirdin for comment.

To mark the CCPs 100th anniversary, the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs issue a statement titled 100 Years of CCP Rule: Genocide is Nothing to Celebrate and appealed for international attention to Chinas treatment of the 12 million Uyghurs in eh XUAR.

As fireworks burst in China, they will ring as an insult to the millions of people suffering under CCP rule. They will illuminate a nation that has eschewed freedom of religion and democracy in favor of authoritarian rule, the statement said.

This is a deeply sad day for the world, since we have yet to stop the CCPs reign of terror. The genocide of the Uyghurs is ongoing still, and each day the Party is becoming bolder, said Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Washington-based NGO.

This is our final wake-up call that the CCP must be stopped if we are to preserve a global system of dignity and order that is respected by all, she said.

Reported by Mihray Abdilim and Erkin Tarim for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Residents say they were made offers that are three to four times below market rates.

Authorities in northern Vietnams Ha Nam province have blocked off irrigation canals and access points to a rice field at the center of a land dispute between villagers and a company with plans to turn the site into an industrial park, according to residents.

On the morning of June 25, more than 100 riot police and other officers led a convoy of excavators, bulldozers, and trucks to requisition a field in Ly Nhan districts Chuong village, despite ongoing compensation negotiations between residents and the Thai Ha Urban And Industrial Park Investment Joint Stock Company.

Video of the eviction, which occurred shortly after the sowing of seeds for a new crop of rice, shows villagers engaging in a scuffle with authorities that resulted in at least one 70-year-old woman being hospitalized for injuries.

The rice field is part of an area of 100 hectares (250 acres) of land that was approved for development of the first phase of the Thai Ha Industrial Park by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung in November 2019. The area includes parts of land farmed by some 500 households in Ly Nhans communes of Bac Ly, Chan Ly, and Tran Hung Dao.

Chuong villagers claim that the dispute began when Thai Ha sought 15 hectares (37 acres) of land in addition to the 100 hectares approved by Trinh. Residents, suspecting the land would be repurposed for housing, demanded an increase in compensation.

In some nearby communes, after receiving land, investors did not build industrial parks. Instead they divided the land into plots to sell for housing, a Chuong villager who gave his name as Mr. T told RFA.

Because the information for this project is so vague, we became suspicious.

The total area of the Thai Ha Industrial Park project is currently listed as 100 hectares on the website of the Ha Nam Industrial Park Management Board.

Multiple attempts by RFA to contact the investor went unanswered and Tran Xuan Duong, Vice Chairman of the Ha Nam Peoples Committee, declined an interview request.

Low compensation offer

Residents of Chuong village told RFA they were offered compensation of 73 million Vietnamese dong (U.S. $3,175) for each sao (360 square-meters) of land. Among the 500 households whose land is subject to requisition, more than 300 households accepted the offer and received compensation, while the remainder held out for more money, citing market prices.

In Vietnam, a sao can fetch anywhere from 250 to 300 million dong (U.S. $10,830 to $15,165), or three to four times higher than the rate offered by the investor.

A villager, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said farming is the only means by which to earn a living for many of the families whose land is subject to the requisition.

Its OK to build industrial parks here for the sake of the countrys development, but affected households should be given the opportunity to negotiate compensation prices, the villager said.

What will live on if 100 percent of our farmland is repurposed?

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Le Van Dung, also called Le Dung Vova, had reported online about corruption, land disputes, and other social issues deemed politically sensitive by authorities.

An independent Vietnamese journalist hunted by police for online writings called anti-State by authorities has been arrested after evading capture for more than a month, RFA has learned.

Le Van Dung, also known as Le Dung Vova, was taken into custody on Thursday by Hanoi police, state media reports said on July 1, adding that Dung had not resisted arrest and had shown a cooperative attitude when taken by police.

Speaking to RFA, Dungs wife Bui Thi Hue confirmed news of Dungs arrest, saying she had been informed of his capture by an acquaintance.

I received the news from someone I know that my husband was arrested this morning, Hue said. They only told me about the arrest, though, and did not say they had seen it happen with their own eyes. I am just saying what I was told.

Dung, also known as Le Dung Vovaowner of the Facebook-based online CHTV news channelwas away from home when police tried on May 25 to place him under arrest on charges under Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code for reporting on corruption, land disputes, and other issues deemed politically sensitive by authorities.

Unable to arrest Dung, police left instead with a laptop computer and two mobile phones belonging to his wife Bui Thi Hue, Hue told RFAs Vietnamese Service on May 25. Vietnamese authorities later issued a special warrant calling for Dungs arrest, placing notices in major media outlets around the country.

Article 117 of Vietnams Penal Code imposes penalties for creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items, and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the countrys one-party communist state.

Harsh forms of persecution

With Vietnams media all following Communist Party orders, the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution, the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.

Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.

To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which activities aimed at overthrowing the government, anti-state propaganda and abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state are punishable by long prison terms, the rights group said.

Vietnams already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Tran Duc Do was found hanging from a tree, but bruises suggest he was beaten to death, family said.

The family of a recently deceased Vietnamese military serviceman held a funeral for him Thursday, but only after local authorities agreed to investigate the cause of his death.

Tran Duc Do, 19, was found Monday hanging from an acacia tree about 50 meters from a military training facility in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, sometime after he excused himself to go to the bathroom at about 1:45 p.m., the Ministry of National Defense told local media.

Do was then rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.

Authorities said the cause of death was suicide, but Dos family suspected foul play.

Tran Duc Hoi, Dos father, told local television channel VTC that his sons body had many unusual bruises, and that he might have been beaten to death.

Social media videos circulated on June 29 and 30 showed Dos family demanding an investigation. Some of the videos showed people delivering a large freezer to Dos house in nearby Bac Ninh province, to preserve the corpse as evidence.

The family initially refused to bury him until they were sure there would be a thorough investigation.

In a video livestreamed Wednesday from Dos house, Dos mother met with local authorities and military representatives to request the investigation.

State media reported Thursday that four agencies will participate in the investigation: the Criminal Investigation Division of Military Region 1, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Defense, the Thai Nguyen police, and the Military Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The local Thanh Nien newspaper reported that the head of Military Region 1s Propaganda and Education Department, Nguyen Xuan Thin, said that statements from the military had been distorted on social media sites and forums in recent days.

Col. Thin also said that hundreds of people used the excuse of supporting Do and his family to create trouble and make livestream videos so they could get famous on social media.

According to our assessments, someone there is taking advantage of the incident to incite the public, Thin said.

We are collecting the distorted and untrue information to report to the Central Propaganda and Education Committee and the Ministry of Information and Communications, he said.

According to World Population Review, Vietnam has a suicide rate of 7 per 100,000 people, well below the world average of 8.22 and less than half the rate of the United States 16.1.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
MINSK -- Belarusian journalist Andrey Alyaksandrau, who was arrested in January amid an ongoing crackdown on media and pro-democracy activists, has been charged with high treason.

Alyaksandrau and his girlfriend Iryna Zlobina were arrested on January 12 and charged with "organizing and preparing activities that violate public order" over unsanctioned mass rallies demanding that long-time authoritarian ruler of the country, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, step down.

On July 1, Alyaksandrau's lawyer, Anton Hashynski, said his client was given the new charge on June 30.

Alyaksandrau now faces up to 15 years in prison. On the initial charge, Alyaksandrau and Zlobina faced up to six months in prison, the term that expires on July 12.

Crisis In Belarus Read our coverage as Belarusians continue to demand the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid a brutal crackdown on protesters. The West refuses to recognize him as the country's legitimate leader after an August 9 election considered fraudulent.

The unprecedented protest rallies across the country erupted in early August 2020 after election officials handed Lukashenka a sixth term in office following a presidential election that many in Belarus say was rigged.

Two days after their arrest in January, police searched offices of the independent BelaPAN news agency in Minsk, where Alyaksandrau used to work as an editor in the past.

The Belarusian Interior Ministry said at the time that Alyaksandrau and Zlobina helped more than 250 anti-government protesters pay fines they were ordered to pay over their involvement in mass protests demanding Lukashenka's resignation.

Deputy Interior Minister Henadz Kazakevich said the couple received money to pay the fines on behalf of the protesters from ByHelp Fund. The fund's two founders, Alyaksey Lyavonchyk and Andrey Stryzhak, fled Belarus earlier fearing for their safety.

The Minsk-based Vyasna human rights center has condemned the arrests of Alyaksandrau and Zlobina, calling it politically motivated and linked to their civil rights activities.

It is not clear at this point if Zlobina was also charged with high treason.

Belarusian security forces have cracked down hard on journalists, rights defenders, and pro-democracy demonstrators, arresting thousands and pushing many activists and most of the top opposition figures out of the country.

Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.

Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and has refused to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.

The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have imposed sanctions on him and several senior Belarusian officials in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
China was marking the 100-year anniversary of its ruling Communist Party on July 1 to herald its rise on the world stage, celebrating what it says is its growing influence abroad, along with an array of economic and political victories at home.

Standing at the Gate of Heavenly Peace above a portrait of Mao Zedong, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech to a massive crowd in Tiananmen Square in Beijing where he credited the party with lifting the country out of poverty and pledged to expand its military and political influence, saying that the era of China being bullied was gone forever.

We will not accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us, Xi said. We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will.

By the same token, we will never allow anyone to bully, oppress, or subjugate [China]. Anyone who tries will find themselves on a collision course with a steel wall forged by 1.4 billion people.

The fiery rhetoric, which was met by thunderous applause, comes at a time of rising Chinese nationalism that has coincided with Beijing taking on a more assertive and prominent role in world affairs.

The Chinese Communist Partys international influence, appeal, and attraction have continually increased, placing it at the forefront of world politics, Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the partys external liaison department, told reporters on June 28.

China has seen huge improvements in living standards over the past 40 years, accompanied by rising international financial and political influence.

Yet, while many nations have benefited from Chinas rise, analysts note, Beijing is also seen as eroding democracy and human rights in countries over which it holds economic influence.

They say the trend highlights an increasing contrast between the Chinese Communist Partys reputation at home and how it is seen abroad.

In Chinese diplomacy, domestic politics is always king, and a lot of the way that Beijing has behaved over the last few years is geared towards that domestic audience, Peter Martin, the author of Chinas Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, told RFE/RL.

Many governments are worried that China will attempt to spread its model across the world, so internationally there is more concern about Beijing under the [Communist Party] than there has been since at least the 1970s.

Charting Pushback

As much of the world has grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic that seemingly originated in central China, Beijing has been flexing its geopolitical muscles, leading to both increased heft and deteriorating relationships across some parts of the world.

A June 30 survey of 17 advanced economies in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific by the Pew Research Center found that most countries see China in an unfavorable light, with views of Xi near historic lows.

Over the last year, China has had a trade row with Australia, a military clash with India along their shared border, and effectively taken control of parts of the disputed South China Sea.

Chinas policies in its western Xinjiang Province, where it is operating an internment-camp system that has detained 1 million or more Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities, have also damaged its relations with many countries.

While Beijings standing with Central Asian governments remains strong, the internments next door have inflamed tensions and contributed to negative views of China among local populations and led to protests and pickets in Kazakhstan, for instance.

The United States government and several Western parliaments have meanwhile labeled China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide.

Tit-for-tat sanctions with the European Union over Xinjiang led to the bloc freezing a massive investment deal in May between Brussels and Beijing.

Chinas Wolf Warrior diplomacy, which takes its name from a nationalistic Chinese film franchise and refers to the combative tone taken by the countrys diplomats online, has also ruffled feathers in many Western countries and led to diplomatic spats across Europe.

Allegations of vaccine diplomacy, wherein Beijing has donated and preferentially sold doses of COVID-19 vaccines, have also highlighted a potential path for expanding Chinese influence and trading doses for political favors.

Such charges surfaced on June 24 with Western diplomats alleging that Beijing pressured Ukraine into withdrawing its support for greater scrutiny into Xinjiang by threatening to withhold vaccine shipments. Chinese authorities denied the accusations.

We won't be seeing a recalibration in Chinese diplomacy, said Martin. Beijing shows no signs of softening its approach on any issue, from environmental policies to Xinjiang.

Following China's Rise

Despite Chinas newfound international difficulties, Beijing is still successfully expanding influence across much of the world, said Nadege Rolland, a senior fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research and a former adviser on Chinese strategic issues to the French Defense Ministry.

The developing and emerging world is a huge area where China is actually pushing harder and harder to expand its own influence and is showing results, she told RFE/RL.

Beijing has expanded diplomatic ties across Africa, Eurasia, and Latin American in recent years, inking technology and infrastructure deals under the guise of its multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.

We are starting to witness a transition that is much more proactive where China is trying to shape the government systems of countries, said Rolland. Not everything is being implemented yet, but we are seeing the building blocks for the future put into place.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked up their growing partnership during a June 28 teleconference in which the two leaders extended the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation for another five years.

In Serbia, which is a crucial hub for Beijings growing presence in the Balkans, Chinese technologies have gained a foothold through surveillance cameras and a smart city project, which includes data gathering, storing, and management, under way in Belgrade and planned for Novi Sad.

Chinese companies have also begun to supply surveillance and facial-recognition technology in Central Asia, where the security services of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have each inked agreements in recent years.

The systems are officially sold as monitoring of traffic and citizens, but the use of the technology raises ethical and human rights concerns and has been already deployed widely across China, including as part of a vast surveillance system in Xinjiang to target Uyghurs.

Elsewhere, China has made forays into education. Three Serbian universities have signed a cooperation agreement with Jiao Tong University, opening the door to deeper long-term cultural ties.

A planned university project in Budapest with Shanghais Fudan University has come under fire in Hungary for its use of taxpayer funds, but the campus would mark an important milestone as the first Chinese university in the EU.

This is the next step for a power like China, which has risen to a new level, said Rolland. [Beijing] wants other countries to become amenable to the principles and values within its own system.
Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appointed a hard-line cleric sanctioned by the West as the new chief of the judiciary, replacing President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who was voted in last month.

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, gave the position to Raisi's deputy, 64-year-old hard-line cleric Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, urging him to promote justice and fight corruption, state agency IRNA reported on July 1.

In a decree, Khamenei praised Ejehi's valuable experience, shining records, and legal competence.

Ejehi, who had earlier worked as prosecutor-general and intelligence minister, takes over a judiciary blasted by rights groups for its record of being one of the worlds top executioners, as well as conducting closed-door trials of dual nationals and individuals with Western ties.

The conservative cleric has been on the U.S. Treasury Department and European Union's sanctions lists over allegations of severe human rights abuses linked to the disputed 2009 reelection of former hard-line populist President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, when Ejehi was intelligence minister.

That election was denounced as rigged by the reformist opposition, sparking massive Green Movement protests and a harsh crackdown in which thousands of people were detained and dozens were killed.

Raisi, a hard-liner who held the position from 2019, won the June 18 presidential election and is to replace moderate Hassan Rohani next month.

Raisi, a protege of Khamenei, has also been under U.S. sanctions in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners, as well as over his tenure at the judiciary.

Khamenei has the power under Iranian law to appoint judiciary chiefs as well as many other ranking officials, including military commanders.

Raisi said after his election victory that he backs discussions to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for commitments to limit and monitor its nuclear program.

Based on reporting by AP and IRNA
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Police in Kazakhstans largest city, Almaty, have detained several activists who have been involved in ongoing pickets in front of the Chinese Consulate to demand the release of their relatives held in China's Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Baqyt Sembai, a wife of one of the protesters, told RFE/RL that police arrested her husband and his mother while they were at home on July 1.

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.

Baibolat Kunbolat, Sembai's husband, had been released from jail two days earlier after being detained for filming a rally in front of the Chinese Embassy. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail after a court in Almaty found him guilty of "organizing an unsanctioned rally."

A court reduced his sentence by half after dozens of people protested his imprisonment.

Nurgul Ibraeva, the wife of the leader of the Real Volunteers of the Fatherland group, Bekzat Maqsutkhan, told RFE/RL that police also detained her husband on July 1. Maqsutkhan's group has been actively raising the issue of the plight faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang for years.

Last week, several women were fined for their participation in the picketing of the Chinese Consulate in Almaty.

In recent years, many similar protests have taken place in Kazakhstan, with demonstrators demanding Kazakh authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps, but people who have fled the province say people from the groups are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.
SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan -- Police in the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent have detained more than a dozen activists, including three who have been on a hunger strike for weeks to push for the release of political prisoners.

Some 50 men in civilian clothes surrounded three hunger strikers and more than a dozen of their supporters on July 1 in front of the Shymkent city administration's headquarters and forcibly took them to a police station.

The chief of the city police department's anti-extremism desk, Ernar Altaev, who was at the site, refused to explain to RFE/RL why the group, which was also protesting court decisions to ban two political movements, was detained.

Two masked men at the site opened umbrellas with which they tried to block the cameras of RFE/RL reporters from recording the detentions, a method previously used by unknown individuals apparently associated with local authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

Dozens of activists have been on hunger strike since June 19 in several cities in the Central Asian nation, including Nur-Sultan, Almaty, Oral, Oskemen, and Shymkent. They have been demanding the cancellation of court decisions to label as extremist and ban the unregistered opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and the associated Koshe (Street) party.

Several activists in Kazakhstan have been handed prison sentences or parole-like sentences in recent years for their support or involvement in the activities of the DVK and Koshe, as well as for taking part in unsanctioned rallies organized by the two groups.

DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstans BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstans law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from the authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the nations constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.
PRISTINA -- During a visit to Kosovo, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance-led peacekeeping force will remain in the country to secure peace and stability in the Western Balkans, and urged local leaders to work toward normalizing relations with neighboring Serbia.

History has shown that the KFOR mission is important not only for Kosovo and for the region, but also for NATO and for all NATO allies, Stoltenberg told a press conference in Pristina on July 1.

The Western military alliance has led KFOR since 1999, with more than 3,700 troops from over two dozen countries, after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended the 1998-1999 Kosovo War that left more than 10,000 dead.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but it has not been recognized by Belgrade, Russia, and five EU nations. The United States and more than 110 other countries have recognized the independence of Serbias former province.

During his visit, Stoltenberg visited KFOR troops at Camp Bondsteel and met with top Kosovar officials.

In the talks, Stoltenberg said he had underlined the importance of dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade.

"I think the most important thing Kosovo can do now is to continue to work for a political solution, to continue to engage in a political dialogue with Belgrade, because at some stage you need to see a normalization, Stoltenberg told the press conference.

That would be important when it comes to the relationship between Pristina and Belgrade, but it will also be important when it comes to Kosovos relationship with all international institutions, including NATO."

Serbian and Kosovar leaders met two weeks ago in Brussels as part of decade-long negotiations aimed at resolving disputes, but the talks failed to make progress.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to continue supporting the regime of Belaruss authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka, which is facing increasing international pressure over its brutal crackdown on dissent in the wake of last years disputed election.

"We will continue to provide comprehensive assistance to the brotherly Belarusian people in the current political situation, Putin told the eighth Forum of Regions of Russia via video conference on July 1. "Belarus is not just a good neighbor for us -- first and foremost, it is our closest ally.

The European Union, the United States, and other countries have slapped sanctions on Belarusian entities and Lukashenka's inner circle over the brutal crackdown on the opposition and the media by authorities in Minsk following the August 2020 election.

The opposition says that election was rigged, and the West has refused to recognize the official results of the vote and does not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader.

The crisis hit a new level last month when Belarusian authorities scrambled a military jet to escort an Athens-to-Vilnius Ryanair flight to land in Minsk in what many countries regarded as a "state hijacking." After the plane landed, law enforcement immediately arrested opposition blogger Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

Sanctions

In response, the EU last week sanctioned key sectors of the Belarusian economy and major revenue sources for Lukashenkas regime.

In turn, Belarus recalled its representative to the EU for consultations, announced a travel ban on unspecified EU officials, and said it was suspending its participation in the blocs Eastern Partnership program.

Crisis In Belarus Read our coverage as Belarusians continue to demand the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid a brutal crackdown on protesters. The West refuses to recognize him as the country's legitimate leader after an August 9 election considered fraudulent.

Putin said on July 1 that Moscow will continue to support our Belarusian friends in their resistance against restrictions through sanctions that have been imposed by the European Union just recently.

Lukashenka also addressed the forum, saying that Belarus and Russia will withstand the attacks launched against our countries.

We will make use of this moment to reinforce our economic cooperation and make our countries fully independent, and not just from the economic point of view," he said.

Russia has also been hit by Western economic sanctions over its seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, among other things.

Putin has been pushing Lukashenka in recent years to take steps toward the integration of their economies in order to cement a 20-year-old agreement to form a union state.

Lukashenka has rebuffed the pressure, but unprecedented street protests over the presidential election and subsequent Western sanctions have weakened his negotiating position with the Russian leader.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has announced the beginning of a booster vaccine campaign amid efforts to contain a surge in coronavirus cases in Russia blamed on the highly infectious Delta variant.

Sobyanin said Moscow clinics will offer booster vaccine shots after the Russian Health Ministry on June 30 announced the revaccination drive, making Russia one of the first countries in the world to officially launch a booster shot program for people already fully vaccinated.

Sobyanin said revaccination was available with any of the four Russian-registered vaccines, but that the flagship Sputnik V and the singe-dose Sputnik-Light would initially be used at eight clinics across the city.

On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his annual call-in show, urged citizens to overcome their hesitancy and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as the country continues to rack up daily records for deaths from the coronavirus.

Putin said he hoped the country would avoid a nationwide lockdown in response to the spike in cases and would not impose mandatory vaccinations, even though Russia currently has one of the lowest rates of vaccinations among major industrial nations.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Czech ambassador to Russia, Vitezslav Pivonka, after Prague demanded Moscow pay it compensation for a deadly 2014 ammunition depot blast that Prague has blamed on Russian intelligence agents.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 1 that Ambassador Pivonka would be informed during the meeting that Pragues proposal to discuss the issue of the explosion that killed two Czech nationals in the village of Vrbetice is "unacceptable."

Earlier in the week, the Czechs summoned Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Zmeyevsky to request full compensation for the explosion.

In April, the Czechs accused Moscow of being involved in the blast, sending bilateral relations into a tailspin, with Prague expelling several of Russias diplomatic personnel.

Moscow, which has denied any involvement, responded similarly.

The Czechs said that two Russian men were involved in the explosion, identifying them as two Russian citizens who have also been accused by Britain of being involved in the 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.

Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS
MOSCOW -- Police in Moscow have searched the election campaign offices of a close associate of jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny who is planning to take part in parliamentary elections in September.

Oleg Stepanovs support group condemned the July 1 searches as "pressure on our campaign."

Police said that the raids were linked to a criminal case launched in February on charges of creating a noncommercial organization that "violates citizens' rights."

Stepanov used to work as the chief of Navalny's local office in Moscow.

Ivan Zhdanov, the former director of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK); Leonid Volkov, who headed Navalny's regional network before its dissolution in April; and Navalny himself are being investigated in the case.

Last month, election officials rejected Stepanov's move to open a bank account for his campaign, citing his association with the FBK, which along with other groups associated with Navalny was declared extremist by the Russian authorities on June 9.

Stepanov has insisted that he never worked with the FBK.

A day earlier, Aleksei Yakovlev, a former producer of the Navalny LIVE YouTube channel, was detained at Moscows Sheremetyevo airport.

Yakovlev's lawyer, Sergei Telnov, said on June 30 that his client was detained aboard a plane after landing and taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning as a witness in an unspecified fraud case.

In late December 2020, the Investigative Committee said that another criminal case had been launched against Navalny on suspicion that he and his associates misused some $4.8 million donated to the FBK by donors and supporters.

On June 29, Russia announced that it had placed Zhdanov, who currently resides in Lithuania, on an international wanted list and had shared the details of his case with Interpol.

The FBK has relentlessly targeted senior government officials over the past decade with widely watched videos detailing corruption allegations that were distributed via the Navalny LIVE channel.

With opinion polls indicating waning support for the ruling United Russia party, authorities have ramped up pressure on dissent ahead of the September elections.

Navalny's political network has been instrumental in implementing a "smart voting" strategy -- a project designed to promote candidates most likely to defeat Kremlin-linked figures.

The Moscow City Court ruling to declare the FBK and other groups related to Navalny as extremist prevents people associated with Navalny and his network of regional offices across Russia from seeking public office.

The ruling also carries lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations.
The Moscow City Court on June 30 extended by three months the pretrial detention of prominent former journalist Ivan Safronov, who is accused of treason.



The 30-year-old Safronov, a former adviser to the head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, covered the defense industry for the newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti.



He was arrested on July 7, 2020, on allegations that he had passed secret information to the Czech Republic in 2017 about Russian arms sales in the Middle East.



The new court order extends his pretrial detention to October 7.



Defense lawyers had asked that Safronov be released on bail and submitted more than 600 petitions from journalists and public figures in support of the measure.



Safronov has rejected the accusations against him and many of his supporters have held pickets demanding his release.



His legal defense says that investigators did not communicate to Safronov when and to whom he had allegedly passed the classified information or what it contained. All case materials are classified.



One of Safronov's defenders, lawyer Ivan Pavlov, became a suspect this spring in a separate criminal case on the disclosure of data from the journalist's case.



Human rights organizations have issued statements demanding Safronovs release and expressing concerns over an intensifying crackdown on dissent in Russia.
MANSFIELD -- Mind Body Align (MBA) recently hired award-winning educator Caryl Church Jesseph as a Curriculum and Education Developer and Mindful Educator.

An ODE licensed teacher for grades kindergarten through 12, Caryl taught for 15 years in public schools in Lake and Geauga counties, where she received multiple honors, including the Northeast Ohio Outstanding Art Educator Award.

Like all educators, our lifes work is to help students be successful in life, said Julie Braumberger, Director of Education for MBA and the creator of the MBAwareness Educational Program. Caryl brings a passion for making teaching more impactful by using storytelling, visual art, movement, and play. She also nurtures ecological connections.

"She has a comforting and thoughtful manner of teaching that our school community will appreciate.

Church Jessephs education informs her work. She earned her masters degree in art education from Kent State University. She is also a published writer, exhibited artist, and certified yoga teacher.

"I am honored to join a team of talented, caring practitioners dedicated to transforming individuals' lives through mindfulness, Church Jesseph stated. I look forward to supporting the growth of the MBA community."

In her spare time, Caryl can often be found photographing wildflowers, writing stories, or enjoying live music.

Caryl is passionate about creating welcoming, inclusive spaces that support people's mindful awareness and connection to self, others, and the natural world, said Annamarie Fernyak, founder of Mind Body Align. She is developing mindful SEL content that reaches every student.

"Her work embodies our mission. It is transformative.

About Mind Body Align, LLC

Mind Body Align improves lives by teaching mindful social emotional learning (SEL) and workplace programs. The SEL is proven to improve learning for 90.5% of students, including 70% of at-risk students. Mind Body Align also improves profitability of businesses by using mindfulness education as a part of employee resources. Studies show mindfulness positively impacts academic and professional performance, focus, collaboration, and job satisfaction.

Mindful MBA services are available both online and in person. Learn more at mindbodyalign.com.
MANSFIELD -- After a year of hopping between online and in-person learning, most teachers and students are looking forward to a return to normal.

Most Richland County youngsters will likely return to a traditional, in-person setting next school year. However, some schools will continue to offer blended learning platforms in the fall.

Ohio lawmakers made a provision last year to allow schools to carry out fully-remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since that provision has not been renewed, school districts are pivoting their online learning programs to a blended learning model that combines online coursework with time spent in a traditional school environment.

Both Ontario Local Schools and Lexington Local Schools will limit blended learning programs to middle and high school students with extenuating circumstances.

Mansfield City Schools, on the other hand, will continue full steam ahead with the Tyger Digital Academy program. The program will be open to students in grades K-12.

TDA students will utilize online learning platforms, but also have a Mansfield City Schools teacher assigned to them.

We want to see them for a shorter amount of time. So it's not a full school day, but it's still for a chunk of time where they could get some help with reading, math, writing, science, social studies," explained TDA Director Heather Kushner.

Kushner said she plans to work with families individually to create a schedule that works for them.

It's our intention to see our students on a more frequent basis but still provide that flexibility that families want," she said. "I know that's a lot of work, but our families are important and every student's different.

"So I would really like to address individual student needs and to address the needs also of the family, while still providing the required standards for education."

Superintendent Stan Jefferson agreed.

"It's to provide families options," he said. "We're just here to say, we want to provide quality education.

Mansfield City Schools had a large swath of its student population choose online learning during the 2020-2021 school year. There were 1,100 students in the TDA in the fall. Around 850 finished out the school year in the TDA.

Nevertheless, Jefferson expects enrollment to be significantly lower than during the 2020-2021 school year.

So many families want to have their child back in in-person learning. But I do believe that we will have large numbers, Jefferson said.

The TDA program will be housed at the Hedges Campus, so students will meet with their designated teacher at 176 Hedges Street in Mansfield. Families can enroll in the program on the district website.

The Madison Local School District will make its blended learning option available to middle and high school students only next school year. Like Mansfield, students will be able to enroll in the program without an extenuating circumstance.

While it is the belief and philosophy of the Madison Local School District that teaching and learning is a human business, and the best teaching and learning is going to occur with our students and teachers in a face-to-face learning environment, we will be providing the Madison Online Academy to students in grades 7-12 for the 2021-2022 school year, Supt. Rob Peterson wrote in a letter to the school community.

Students in the Madison Online Academy will also be required to have some in-school component in their learning plan. This could include regular check-ins with a teacher or completing unit tests or coursework in the classroom.

Nevertheless, Peterson stressed in his letter that students who chose to enroll in the Madison Online Academy will be expected to complete their learning independently on Edmentum, a third-party online platform.

It is strongly recommended that students who do not learn well independently and require instruction from their teachers enroll in face-to-face learning, he wrote.

Madison will also require its blended learning students to meet certain attendance, academic progress and grade level standards in order to stay in the online academy. Otherwise, they will have to return to the regular classroom.

Students who were enrolled in the Madison Online Academy last school year and did not meet those requirements may not be permitted to re-enroll.

An application form for the Madison Online Academy, along with a full list of guidelines for participating students, will be posted on the school district website soon, Peterson said at a Wednesday night school board meeting. The enrollment deadline is Aug. 1.
MANSFIELD  Two men within the Mansfield Fire Department were promoted Thursday morning.

Lori Cope, Mansfield safety service director, swore in Lt. Robert Garn as a captain. Firefighter Todd Toussant was sworn in as a lieutenant.

Garn, who has worked at the agency for 21 years, said he enjoys the camaraderie and the work environment in Mansfield. He does the quality assurance for all EMS reports at the department.

I just enjoy helping people in the city, he said when asked about the feeling of getting promoted.

The captain said he got into fire service because his family has been involved in it since he was young. That is why he decided to join the local fire department of Jeromesville in Ashland, where he is from, after getting out from the Navy.

And then it just evolved from there, Garn said.

Toussant said he loves to work at Mansfield Fire Department because it is busy and he can get a lot of experiences. Growing up in Akron-Canton area, he said he has been with the department for more than six and a half years.

His mother, Andrea Roudabush, pinned the badge to his shirt on Thursday when his father, Nick Toussant, was busy taking pictures.

As a lieutenant, Toussant said he will supervise one of the stations and ensure the safety of his colleagues.

Just take care of your guys, he said.

Just like Garn, Toussant joined the fire service because of his family. He said he grew up watching his uncle and two cousins working as firefighters and has decided to do the same job since he was a little child.
Paula Margaret Bapka of Lexington, passed away at the age of 75 on 
MANSFIELD -- Independence Day fireworks this weekend may not be a cause for celebration for your family dog.

In fact, the loud booms and bright lights may be a cause for terror.

"Fireworks can be incredibly scary and disorienting for them due to the loud noises and bright lights," Richland County Dog Warden Missy Houghton said Thursday.

Houghton said dog owners who know their pet is terrified of fireworks may want to call their veterinarian in advance to seek some form of anti-anxiety medication.

Houghton advised dog owners to close window blinds and curtains and to turn up the volume on TVs and radios to help muffle sounds coming from neighborhood firework shows.

"Please close windows and doors," she said. "We have seen cases where dogs jump out through open windows when they become panicked."

She urged pet owners to give their dogs a safe spot where they may feel better protected from sights and sounds associated with fireworks. Houghton said it's a natural fear for some dogs.

"If you heard random explosions and bright lights across the sky and had no idea what it was ... you would likely be panicked, too," she said.

"Fortunately, there are some dogs that don't care. Some, however, care a whole lot. Plan in advance to help those dogs," Houghton said.

The dog warden encouraged owners to make sure their dogs have a current ID collar with their license and also to be microchipped.

"All of that information is helpful in the event the dog flees and ends up with us so that we can get them back home safely," Houghton said.

Just because a dog has not shown fear in the past doesn't preclude it this year, Houghton said.

"As dogs grow older, sometimes they become more reactive to things that they did not react to in the past. Try to cushion them from this holiday as much as possible," she said.

The American Kennel Club, on its website, also offers advice for dog owners for this weekend:

1. Keep Your Dog Away From Fireworks

First of all, dont take your dogs to fireworks shows, says Dr. Judy Morgan, a vet in New Jersey. And dont leave them outside during fireworks. Keeping your dog inside in the evening on the Fourth of July is the best idea, especially if you fear they might not react well.

2. Create a Safe Haven For Your Dog

Morgan recommends creating a place where your dog will (hopefully) feel comfortable. You should get your pet used to a calming environment beforehand. Dogs are den animals  theyre looking for that cave to get away from it all.

Try setting up an area in a quiet space away from windows  such as a basement or a larger closet  so that they cant hear or see fireworks. Use a crate if thats where your dog feels safe, and make sure to provide your pup with familiar toys and treats.

3. Play White Noise

You can try leaving a fan, TV, or radio on to help mask the sounds of the fireworks. Theres some classical music called Through A Dogs Ear that has been shown to have calming effects for dogs, says Jenn Stanley, certified behavior consultant and professional dog trainer, and co-owner of Awesome Pawsabilities Pet Training & Behavior Consultations based in North Carolina.

4. Comfort Your Dog

If you can, try staying home with your dog or leaving them in the hands of a trusted person. One of Morgans relatives usually stays with her dog in the closet to help soothe the animal.

You absolutely can and should comfort your dog if hes afraid, said Stanley. The key here is in how you do so. Its important to remain calm and use a soothing, even tone. Petting them can be comforting  long, slow, firm strokes along the length of their body are typically very soothing.

The one thing to avoid? Seeming frantic in any way, says Stanley. Rapidly saying, Its OK, its OK, its OK in a higher-than-average pitch may make your dog think that there really is something to fear. Try your best to remain calm and reassuring to help your canine companion.

5. Walk Them Before the Fireworks Start

Head out for your long walk before the sun sets to increase the chances that youll avoid the sounds. When you do go out, youll want to ensure your dog is secure on a leash before your walk.
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2017, shows President-elect Donald Trump, left, his chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, center, and his son Donald Trump Jr., right, attend a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Manhattan prosecutors have informed Donald Trumps company that it could soon face criminal charges stemming from a long-running investigation into the former presidents business dealings. The New York Times reported that charges could be filed against the Trump Organization as early as next week related to fringe benefits the company gave to top executives, such as use of apartments.
North Conway - It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Stacie L. Hampton, 45, of North Conway, N.H., on Thursday, July 1, 2021, in Albany, N.H., after an extended illness. Born in Newburyport, July 31, 1975, Stacie was the daughter of Paul F. Fougere and Michelle 
What would the Fourth of July be without fireworks and festivities to celebrate the 245th year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence?

Ah, the cookouts, parades, swimming parties and other outdoor activities are given activities to mark Independence Day.

But the most notable celebrations for the holiday are professional displays of fireworks or the back-yard variety of firecrackers, rockets, sparklers and Roman candles.

Its fun for people, but not for pets or other animals.

The holiday can be traumatic for pets, especially dogs, according to a release from the Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare organization.

The loud sights and sounds at the holiday celebration have been known to spook dogs so badly that they have been known to dig under fences or jump over them, break tie-outs and break glass, the release said.

Pets tend to panic and may run away which could lead to injuries or a stay in the nearest shelter.

Its fairly simple to make your home a tranquil place for your pets on July Fourth, said Erin Katribe, a veterinarian and medical director for the Best Friends organization.

The last thing you want is an emergency over a holiday.

But there are steps that can be taken before the big day arrives that can reduce the risk of harm to a dog or other pet.

One of the most important steps is making sure your pet can be identified, according to a release from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Make sure pets tags have a current phone number or address. Better yet, have your pet microchipped. Fireworks or not, a microchip can be invaluable for you and your pet.

Its a simple procedure, but pets can be found quickly. The chip contains the owners information and be detected by a simple scan.

Make sure you have current pictures of your pet. If your pet runs off, the photo will be a big help for social media postings.

On July 4, when the fireworks and celebrations begin, put your pet in an escape-proof room or crate, close the curtains and leave soft music playing to help with relaxation, the release said.

If you plan to celebrate at a friends house, leave your pet home  and in a safe place.

Ask your guests to keep watch on the pets so they dont get out. Keep your pets inside if neighbors are setting off fireworks, the release said.

Dont feed table scraps to the pets and keep them away from the grill. Keep them inside if its hot and humid and never leave your pet in a car when its warm outside, the release said.

If loud noises create anxiety for your dog, consider a thunderstorm shirt that helps to relax canines.
Many people view mid-July as the height of summer. As a result, they want to seize opportunities to have a bit of fun in the sun. Luckily, there are plenty of great places for a mid-July summer break. If youre looking for ideas on where to go and what to do, here are some options you may want to check out.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

If you love the outdoors, Santa Fe might be your perfect destination. The state is overflowing with opportunities for adventures outside. Whether you like hiking, fishing, biking, or boating, youll get your chance here.

Plus, the area has a rich and intriguing history. There are museums and attractions that can give you new insights into this part of the country, or you can simply explore on your own.

As a bonus, Santa Fe is more affordable than many other classic vacation locations. If youre budget-conscious, this is a city worth keeping on your list.

New York City, New York

New York City is brimming with attractions, great restaurants, and much more. Plus, the city has lifted many of its COVID-19-related restrictions, making it easier to have fun during your stay.

Whether you enjoy museums, zoos, shopping, or dining, there is something in New York City for you. Just be aware that hotels can be a bit pricy, so make sure you do your research to find the best deals.

Portland, Oregon

While the Pacific Northwest has a reputation for rain, the weather is usually quite nice in July. The temperatures rise, and the sky is often clear, making it a great time to explore the city of Portland.

Portland has a personality all its own. There is an inherent quirkiness that locals embrace, making it an excellent option for anyone looking for a fun-loving vibe. Plus, it has fantastic food, art, and brewing scenes, as well as plenty of museums and other attractions, ensuring that there is something for everyone.

Orange County, California

The California coast is always a favorite summer destination. Ocean breezes and warm temperatures make Orange County a great option. Plus, while it isnt necessarily a low-cost area, its typically less expensive than heading to Los Angeles.

As a bonus, the Orange County Fair arrives in mid-July and runs through mid-August, giving you something fun to explore during your stay. Just make sure to buy your tickets in advance if you want to guarantee admission.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

There is a reason Cape Cod is a favorite summer vacation destination. The weather is amazing, making time spent on the beach more enjoyable. Plus, if youre a fan of seafood, youll find delectable options at every turn.

The area also has a ton of historic charm. You can arrange to stay in one of the beautiful inns to experience it first hand, or simply take a stroll through the lovely downtowns to explore it during your trip.

Ketchikan, Alaska

In 2021, you have a chance to experience parts of Alaska in ways that arent usually possible. Largely, cruise ships wont be heading through the Ketchikan area this year, creating unique opportunities for visitors who want to explore the Inside Passage while it isnt overrun.

Plus, since people have mainly been indoors recently, the wildlife populations have flourished. Fishing is also in its prime, thanks to less activity during 2020.

Can you think of any other summer break ideas that are perfect for mid-July? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Many parents are heaving sighs of relief that theyll be able to send their children back to classrooms this fall. However, this relief doesnt come without its stressors. Having had kids out of the classroom for over a year due to COVID, many parents wonder how their kids are going to fare readjusting to in-person learning. Take the summer to have a lot of conversations with your children. If you prepare children for in-school learning, then the fall should come with relief for everyone.

Start Talking About School Now, Positively but Honestly

Communication is the best way to prepare children for in-school learning. Open up the conversation in small, casual ways. Discuss going back to school matter-of-factly all throughout the summer. This has many benefits:

You normalize going back to school. Therefore, childrens fears reduce.

By speaking about the positives of in-person learning, you help your child get excited about it again.

Being honest about the concerns helps your kids know that its okay that they might be a little worried.

Emphasizing the positive while making room for the negative allows your kids to feel like they can talk to you.

By the time the first day of class comes around, youll all know what to expect.

Returning to School: Coping with Anxiety

The main issue youll face as you prepare children for in-school learning is anxiety. Anxiety is fear and worry about the future. The best antidote: focus on the present moment. Therefore, even though youll have lots of discussions about what its like to go back to school, make sure that you keep coming back to the present moment. Remember that: in this moment, you are both okay. Moreover, practice skills to help your child stay grounded when they do return to school.

Managing Your Own Anxiety

Children read their parents. If youre anxious, then how can you prepare children for in-school learning without making them anxious? Obviously, you need to manage your own anxiety. In other words, you need to set an example for your kids. This can take many forms:

Attend therapy to work through your own anxiety.

Have conversations with your partner and/or adult friends to address fears and concerns.

Communicate with the educators at your childs school. See if they have resources that can help.

Inform yourself about what to expect. Are your fears valid?

Reduce your intake of stressful news and media.

Practice deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and other somatic anxiety reducers.

Teaching Your Child to Manage Anxiety

Modeling a positive, relaxed attitude about the return to school is the best thing that you can do to prepare children for in-school learning. However, you also want to acknowledge and address any fears that your child has. Moreover, you want to work with them so that they can learn to reduce anxiety.

Ask your child what their thoughts and feelings are about returning to school. Then LISTEN. Dont make judgments. Dont try to reassure them immediately. Instead, simply validate their feelings.

Let your child know that its okay to feel anxious. Remind them that everyone is in the same boat, returning to school after a long absence.

Practice grounding exercises with your child that they can do whenever they feel anxious. Normalize this by doing them together often. These may include breathing exercises, focusing on a comforting picture, feeling their feet on the ground, etc.

If your child has an inordinate amount of anxiety about returning to school, then you might also consider therapy as an options.

Take a Visit to the School Before It Opens

If possible, take your child to the school before the first day of classes. This allows them to get a feel for what to expect. If a teacher or principal can meet you there, then thats even better. Encourage your child to ask questions. Also ask questions of your own. Find out in advance whats different now as everyone returns to school after COVID. Let your child see their classroom. Discuss what recess, lunch, and moving between classes will look like. The more that your child understands what to expect, the easier it will be.

Embrace More Activities This Summer

If your child gets used to socializing in groups again before school starts, then itll be easier when classes resume. Therefore, you should sign your child up for classes, day camps, meetups, summer sports, etc. Theyll be less stressed about doing something that theyre really excited about. Doing that will build their self-esteem. In turn, this will make the return to school easier.

Additional Quick Tips for Preparing Kids to Return to School

Here are some additional tips from the National Association of School Psychologists as well as from CNN:

Help kids focus on ways to help others in school. Volunteering and helping others takes your focus off your own worries.

Create and maintain a new daily routine. Whats the new routine now that youre returning to school? Figure it out, right it down, and let your kids know what to expect.

Keep some of the things that worked for you when you were home during COVID. Nature walks, board games, and spending time petting the dog are all still important. They can be a great way to decompress in the afternoon when school is over.

Reduce and monitor media. This is good for both of you.

If you have to take special precautions because of an at-risk family member, make sure that your child understands this. Its awkward to be one of the few kids wearing a mask. However, if your child understands the reasoning behind this, it will make it easier for them.

Pack the things that your child might need to feel safer: masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes. Your school might have a suggested list for the start of the year.

Ask the school for help. Teachers, counselors, and other staff might have great suggestions. Theyll also know about resources if your child struggles returning to school.

Keep Communication Open and Ongoing

We cant stress this enough. Communication is the key as you prepare children for in-school learning. In the first days and weeks of school, make sure that you have debriefing time with them when they get home. Give them space to talk about the positives and negatives. Let them express their feelings, fears, hopes, and excitements.

If your child has a hard time returning, you dont immediately have to jump to letting them stay home. Instead, acknowledge that its hard going back. Work through the issues together. Come up with solutions as problems arise. Remember that adjusting is going to be tough for everyone. However, its also going to get easier and easier. We all learned how to navigate the new school situation during the pandemic. Therefore, we can all learn how to resume our new normal.

Make Sure You Have a Plan B

This one is for you, not for your child. However, you might feel better if you have a backup plan. What if your child simply cant adjust to the return to school? Back-up plans might be moving to a school with smaller classes, working with a therapist, trying a hybrid in-person / online model, etc.

Additionally, consider that we simply dont know whats going to happen moving forward. Most likely, well continue with in-person learning. However, with COVID variants, etc., we could see additional changes. We might return home. We might end up in a hybrid model. Alternatively, we might stay in school but have to resume mask-wearing, etc. Consider what your familys plan will be in case of those events.

You dont need to share those plans with your child. However, having the plan in mind can help ease your own stresses around returning to school. The better you feel, the better your child will feel about returning to in-person learning.

What have been yours and your childrens biggest concerns as you prepare children for in-school learning? Share in the comments below to help others!

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WASHINGTON  Uber Eats, Postmates and DoorDash said they will no longer waive delivery fees for customers who order from Black-owned restaurants in Arizona, to settle charges by the state that the deals violated the Arizona Civil Rights Act.
Seen from Seaside: Ira Krizo lets faith be his guide in the kitchen, classes
Ted S. Warren/AP

The message at a Wednesday press briefing by the Washington State Department of Health was clear: Life in Washington can now resume as normal if youre vaccinated.



If you havent been vaccinated, now is your time, said Michele Roberts, the acting assistant secretary in the departments Prevention and Community Health Division. Getting vaccinated will protect you, your family, your community, and youll be able to return to your regular life for the most part.



Washington lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday. And while the mood among state health officials was mostly jubilant, they also stressed that the only way the state will see fewer hospitalizations and deaths is if more people get vaccinated.



It is a tale of two societies, and we want to do everything we can to recognize that those who are unvaccinated remain unprotected, Secretary of Health Umair Shah said during the Wednesday news briefing And, unfortunately, if they continue to partake in certain behaviors they are going to be at risk for hospitalization.



As of Tuesday, 68.8% of residents ages 16 and older had received at least one shot, meaning the state missed its June 30 goal of 70% by just a few percentage points.



What worries state officials most are three prominent mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Referred to as the Alpha, Gamma and Delta variants, these mutations seem to spread more quickly than the dominant strain and appear more likely to lead to hospitalization or death.



Serious upticks in cases involving the variants have led other states to consider reinstituting some of the COVID-19 restrictions  namely statewide mask mandates  like the ones that were just lifted in Washington. Right now, however, officials say variant cases are on the decline in the state and such a move seems unlikely.



We are not seeing increases in cases and we are not seeing increases in severity at this point, so we are not, currently, considering a reinstitution of the mask mandate, said Scott Lindquist, a state epidemiologist. We are just not there at this point.



But, like other state health officials at Wednesdays briefing, Lindquist insisted that getting vaccinated is the best way for residents to protect themselves from the variants and to ensure the state can keep its COVID-19 restrictions lifted.
CHICAGO (AP)  Lithium batteries exploded loudly overnight inside a burning former paper mill in northern Illinois that officials had believed was long abandoned, and fire officials have decided to let the blaze burn out because they fear trying to extinguish it could trigger more explosions.

The fire that started in Morris Tuesday prompted city officials to order the evacuation of 3,000-4,000 people in some 950 nearby homes, a school, church and small businesses.

On Wednesday, as thick, black smoke continued to billow from the building, Police Chief Alicia Steffes said the evacuation order would remain in place until at least 9 p.m. and might be extended.

Police are stationed throughout the area to prevent people from entering, although anyone who can prove they live there may return to retrieve essential medicine, she said.

Fire Chief Tracey Steffes said thus far air quality tests were coming back favorable," but he cautioned that changing weather conditions and other factors could cause the air quality to deteriorate.

Mayor Chris Brown urged anyone experiencing respiratory problems to contact their physicians.

The fire chief said he's gathering information from fire departments and other experts on how to fight the fire in a building that  to the surprise of his department and other city agencies  was being used to store nearly 100 tons of lithium batteries ranging in size from cellphone batteries to large car batteries.

Steffes' firefighters stopped using water on the blaze minutes after they arrived when they discovered the batteries because water and firefighting foam can cause batteries to explode. And he said while he has heard some ideas on how to battle the blaze  road salt has been suggested  he won't send crews to battle the fire because of the unknowns about what's inside.

I don't know 100% what was stored in that building, only what they're telling us what was stored in that building, he said.

Further, Steffes said that while his department and other agencies have fought fires at buildings that contain lithium batteries, he had thus far found nobody with fires that involve so many batteries. He said the battery explosions overnight could be heard across the city.

The mayor said the city didn't know the building was being used to store batteries until it caught fire, and that he knows very little about the company that owns them.

The name of the company is Superior Battery ... and we didnt know they existed until yesterday afternoon, said Brown. Apparently nobody else at City Hall did either, because there's no record of a business license or any communication between the company and any city department, he said.

Barely concealing his anger at the very serious danger his firefighters were in, Steffe suggested that he couldn't trust any information coming from the company as a result.

We had no way of knowing they were doing business ... there, said Steffes, adding a company official told him they had occupied the building for about a year. Steffes said the paper mill had been vacant for decades.

No information was immediately available on Superior Battery. The fire chief said company representatives were not invited to Wednesdays news conference.

The mayor said the police department will conduct an investigation about the storage of the batteries and that other agencies, including the state fire marshal and the Illinois Attorney General's office, have already been contacted.

Morris is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.

The Morris fire came two weeks after an explosion and massive blaze at a chemical plant near Rockton, an Illinois town along the Wisconsin border, forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes for several days. Nobody at the plant or the surrounding community was injured by the June 13 fire that officials later determined was started accidentally during maintenance work.
ATLANTA (AP)  Two police officers responding to reports of gunfire in one of Atlanta's most famous neighborhoods were ambushed Wednesday, leaving one of them shot and wounded and a suspect dead, authorities said.

When the officers went into an apartment building in the city's Midtown area to investigate, they were immediately approached with gunfire" when the elevator door opened, Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said.

The officers returned fire, killing one suspect, police said.

The wounded officer was in stable condition at a hospital and talking to fellow officers and family members, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said.

It is only through their training and by the grace of God that these officers did not come upon a more tragic situation, Bryant said.

A bystander reported hearing a barrage of shots and said he later saw an officer, bleeding badly while being rushed from the scene on Peachtree Street, a major thoroughfare in the bustling Midtown district.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, speaking at the news conference with police officials, praised the officers for their swift actions.

These officers were ambushed, the mayor said.

Atlanta police officer C.J. Johnson said law enforcement had asked the public to avoid a stretch of Peachtree Street, where numerous officers and police vehicles converged afterward.

Patrick Walker, who works as a concierge for the apartment building, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he heard a barrage of shots.

Walker was at the building's front desk when he heard the shots and saw police come running through the doors. Employees and others in the lobby tried to find safety, he said.

Walker then saw an officer being carried out by his arms and legs, bleeding so bad, he told the newspaper.

Authorities did not immediately identify the officer or the person who was fatally shot.

Anthony Crawford, a U.S. Army veteran, said he was at a nearby cafe when he heard what sounded like semi-automatic gunfire. His heart started racing.

I just took off running, he said.

He said he later saw the wounded officer taken out on a gurney with his face bandaged. He was sitting upright and responding.

He looked like he was doing alright, he said.

The shooting occurred in a prominent area of Atlanta about one block north of the iconic Fox Theatre and the Georgian Terrace Hotel, where cast members of Gone With The Wind stayed when the movie made its Atlanta premier.

Later Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wrote on Twitter that he and his family join all Georgians in praying for the Atlanta police officer who was shot in the line of duty today.

Georgia stands with the brave men and women who protect us every day, Kemp added.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it is investigating the shooting at the request of the Atlanta Police Department. No further details were immediately released.

___

Martin reported from Marietta, Georgia.
KRANJ, Slovenia (AP)  Slovenias presidency of the European Union got off to a tense, rocky start Thursday, as the EUs chief executive demanded that the right-wing government end a funding rift with the small Alpine countrys main news agency.

At a news event meant to usher in Slovenias six-month term at the EUs helm, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also urged Prime Minister Janez Jansa to swiftly nominate a delegate to the EU prosecutors office, a new body aimed at investigating graft across the 27-nation bloc.

We need media, and free media, that is critical as an oversight of governmental activities or, for example, European Commission activities. This is the essence of democracy, a stony-faced von der Leyen told reporters during a visit to Slovenia with her team of commissioners.

We think that Slovenia must ensure the independence and the appropriate funding of the public service provided by the agency. So, we expect that swift solutions are found to unblock the funding, and we will follow up the developments, she said.

Pressure has been mounting on Jansas government in recent months as it prepares for its EU presidency, which is largely an agenda-setting bureaucratic role  an honest broker trying to ensure the smooth adoption of files in a wide-range of European policies.

Last month, some 20,000 people gathered at a central square in the capital, Ljubljana, to demand that the government step down and early elections be held. Several workers unions and opposition parties joined the demonstration.

Critics accuse Jansa of assuming increasingly authoritarian ways similar to those of his ally, Hungarys hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban. They claim that Jansas government has pressured Slovenian media and spurred hate speech, while mishandling the coronavirus crisis.

He has come under particular scrutiny for keeping a strangle-hold on funds for Slovenias only news agency, the STA.

But on Thursday he said, somewhat cryptically, that in Europe, you usually pay the bill when you get it. Our problem is that we need a document. He did not provide details but said that he expects the problem to be resolved this fall.

Officials in Brussels have also been concerned for some time about Jansas delay in appointing two legal experts to the European Public Prosecutors Office, a new body that started work this month with a brief of tackling fraud linked to the EUs budget.

It is a crucial component to protect EU tax-payers money, von der Leyen said. It is very good that Slovenia has signed up to it, and now Slovenia must deliver and cooperate with the EPPO.

I count on the prime minister to submit names of candidates to the EPPO with utmost urgency, she said.

Von der Leyens remarks came just as the EUs executive branch endorsed Slovenias plan to revive its economy and stands ready to provide 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in grants and 705 million euros ($836 million) in loans.

Commission experts said the appointment of delegates to the public prosecutors office is not a requirement for the plan to be approved.

Such occasions are usually marked by good humor. But in a sign of tensions behind the scenes, von der Leyens deputy, European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, refused to take part in the family photo between Slovenias cabinet and the commissioners.

It came after Jansa, complaining about leftist politicians, displayed a photograph depicting two Slovenian judges alongside opposition members.

I simply could not be on the same podium with PM Jansa after his unacceptable attack on the judges and politicians, Timmermans said in a statement after the meeting. He added that judicial independence and respect for the role of elected officials  in this case from his own Socialist party group  are cornerstones of the rule of law.

We can never stop calling out those who attack it, he said.

Last month, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi said that you cannot efficiently investigate all the suspicions of fraud without European delegated prosecutors. She said that the manifest lack of sincere cooperation of the Slovenian authorities with the EPPO seriously undermines the trust in the effective functioning of the management and control systems for EU funds in Slovenia.
Students from a Maine island high school have seen the world on senior class trips -- the Eiffel Tower, Icelands volcanos, Norways fjords, the canals of Italy, the tropical beaches of Panama.

This year, members of Islesboro Central Schools Class of 2021  all 13 of them  were eyeing a trip to Greece, or maybe South Korea. But they wound up going nowhere.

Instead, they donated $5,000 to help out neighbors struggling in the wake of the pandemic.

It was painful, no doubt. But in the end, it wasnt a difficult decision.

It felt sort of obvious that it needed to go back to the island community, said Olivia Britton, 17, of Belfast, one of this months graduates.

Before the pandemic put the kibosh on further fundraising -- including their annual auction -- the seniors raised nearly $8,000 by working concession stands, holding harvest and winter festivals, and hosting community suppers.

Much of that money would end up going to the Island Community Fund to help people suffering from COVID-19-related job losses to put food on the table or cover unexpected expenses.

The pandemic hasnt been easy for young people anywhere in the United States, and the tight-knit island community has felt the effects keenly.

Five of the Islesboro Central School seniors take the ferry from the mainland, while the rest live on the island, which has about 700 year-round residents. So the students were not only isolated by the pandemic but they were also split apart, unable to gather for months, with a three-mile gulf between the island and the mainland.

The Class of 2021 had long been accustomed to doing things together. For Halloween, the class would coordinate group costumes and pile into a school-owned van, driven by an English teacher, to go trick or treating together on the island.

It was a large group, by island standards. In fact, the 13 seniors represented the largest senior class in recent years.

As the reality of the pandemic took hold, the seniors kicked off an email chain to discuss what to do about the trip. International travel was a no-go, so Greece, South Korea and Japan were no longer options.

They thought about scaling it back. Perhaps they could do a regional trip. It would be better than nothing. But even that started to seem far-fetched.

The worlds struggles weighed on them as they tried to justify salvaging an exotic outing against a backdrop of deaths and economic pain.

It would have seemed weird and definitely wrong to be spending money on an overseas trip during a time of such difficulties, said Liefe Temple, 18, of Lincolnville.

We could really see how the whole world and the island, too, was struggling. So it felt really good to do that with our money, to give it back to the people who gave it to us, Temple said.

The president of the Isleboro Community Fund said there were cheers, high fives and even some tears when the board learned of the donation.

When everything settled down, there was a strong sense of pride in these students. Thats because their decision demonstrated an awareness of the hardship in their community and a willingness to do something about it, Fred Thomas said. They learned that giving is hard, but giving is good.

Some money also was used to defray unexpected costs associated with operating COVID-19 vaccination clinics; the students got a kick out of knowing they contributed to their teachers and peers getting the jab. Theyre still deciding where to donate the couple of thousand dollars that's left.

Word of their gesture spread through a news account in their local newspaper. They received a warm response on the island, said Brittons mother, Dr. Megan Britton, a family doctor who advised the Class of 2021 on fundraising for the trip.

The consensus: People complain about the youth today but this really flies in the face of that. Not these kids, at least, she said.

___

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.

___

One Good Thing is a series that highlights individuals whose actions provide glimmers of joy in hard times  stories of people who find a way to make a difference, no matter how small. Read the collection of stories at https://apnews.com/hub/one-good-thing
PHARR, Texas (AP)  Republican lawmakers traveled to Texas to cheer former President Donald Trump as he paid a visit to the southern border Wednesday and hammered the Biden administration for its immigration policies amid a decades-high spike in border crossings.

Trump, who was joined by more than two dozen House members, also continued to spread lies about the 2020 election as he participated in a border briefing and visited the wall he championed in a trip that was strikingly similar to the many he'd taken here while president.

Biden is destroying our country. And it all started with a fake election," Trump railed as he stood at the border, an American flag hoisted by a crane waving above him. Trump has persisted in falsely claiming he won in November, even though state and federal election officials, his own attorney general and numerous judges have said there is no evidence of the mass voter fraud he alleges.

Coming fresh off his first rally since leaving the White House, the visit underscored the extent to which Republicans, both nationally and in the states, continue to embrace Trump as the leader of their party. And it demonstrated anew how much the GOP has taken up Trumps signature issue of immigration as the party looks to recapture control of Congress in next years midterm elections.

Trump was invited to South Texas by the states governor, Greg Abbott, who is up for reelection next year and is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate. After facing criticism for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott has taken up Trump's immigration mantle, vowing to continue building the southern border wall that the Biden administration has suspended.

At the wall, Abbott heaped praise on Trump, hailing him as the man who did more to secure the border than anybody and any president ever has."

Pointing to the unfinished border wall rising behind him, Abbott called on Biden to resume construction. This is Bidens fault because President Biden is not continuing what President Trump began," he said. Democrats have long criticized the wall as a symbolic waste of money that does nothing to address the root causes of migration.

The trip came as Trump was facing new and unprecedented legal pressure in New York. His company and longtime finance chief have been indicted on charges stemming from a New York investigation into the former presidents business dealings, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The charges remain sealed but are expected to be revealed Thursday.

Trump did not respond to shouted questions about the charges or the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, when his supporters stormed the building to try to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Indeed, some in the audience of House Republicans and GOP staffers booed the reporter who asked if Trump planned to apologize for what happened that day.

While Biden has enjoyed high approval ratings in the first months of his presidency, immigration has consistently been a weak spot. A May Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found more than half of Americans  54%  disapprove of his handling of the issue. And a recent Quinnipiac University poll of Texas voters found 64% disapprove of the way Biden is handling the situation at the border; 29% approved.

Trump has hammered the issue in nearly every appearance he has made since leaving office. And on Wednesday, he assailed the Biden administration for reversing the policies hed enacted.

All they had to do was leave it alone," he bemoaned.

Along with the two dozen House members, who skipped a vote in Washington on the creation of a new panel to investigate the events on Jan. 6, Trump was joined in Texas by a cadre of former administration officials, including his acting homeland security secretary and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Their presence, along with Trump's familiar grievances, gave the event the feel of a journey back in time for the former president.

We have a sick country, in many ways. Its sick on elections, and its sick at the border," he said as he received a briefing on border security in Weslaco. He later insisted that, were he still president, the wall would have been completed in two months, even though more than 200 miles remained to be built under now-canceled contracts.

It would have been painted, not sitting there rotting and rusting. It would have been perfecto. It was all set, he said.

Democrats representing the state denounced the visit and their characterization of the border;

Lets make one thing clear: the narrative of a violent and insecure border region is blatantly false, said Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela in a statement. The border is not a war zone, and the wall Abbott and Trump are trying to get Texans to pay for is not only a waste of their hard-earned money but also an un-American symbol of hatred that separates and intimidates our communities, harms our wildlife, and encroaches on landowner rights.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 180,000 encounters on the Mexican border in May, the most since March 2000, sparking Republican attacks. Those numbers were boosted by a pandemic-related ban on seeking legal asylum that encouraged migrants to make repeated attempts since getting caught carries no legal consequences.

Nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children were picked up along the border in March 2021, by far the highest month on record. While the number of families and children traveling without their parents has dropped sharply since March and April, encounters with single adults have remained high.

Biden's administration has abandoned many of Trumps hard-line policies, most notably one that forced asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. Biden has said he is working to build a humane asylum system, but details have been vague.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden tapped to lead his administrations response to the migrant increase, traveled to Texas amid growing pressure from Republicans and some in her party to travel to the border. Trump took credit for forcing her hand.

In recent weeks, Abbott has rolled out get-tough plans and rhetoric on immigration not seen before in Texas. He's promised to continue building Trumps wall on his own and announced plans to shift $250 million in state dollars to new barrier and finance more through crowdsourcing. Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, also a Republican, have also asked governors to send additional law enforcement staff and resources to the border. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem  two other potential Republican 2024 White House contenders  are among those who have obliged.

Still, Abbotts characterization of the Texas border as a growing emergency is disputed by local officials in the most populous counties along the border, including Hidalgo.

The counties have rejected Abbotts efforts to use the current number of border crossings as justification to issue sweeping disaster declarations, which are usually reserved for hurricanes and fires. But other Texas counties that are hundreds of miles from the border and controlled by Republicans are signing on, including Galveston County, which on Tuesday said it was willing to give more than $6 million in federal recovery funds to help the governor build new border barrier.

___

Associated Press writers Paul Weber and Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Australia has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations  recording just a single coronavirus death since last October  but its success means many Australians are not in a rush to get vaccinated and that could delay the country's return to normalcy.

Concerns are growing about the economic cost to Australia of being left behind by countries that suffered far higher death tolls, but urgently embraced vaccines and are increasingly opening up.

Most of Australia's pandemic success, after all, can be attributed to the continued closure of the isolated continent's border, something that is unlikely to change until far more than the current 6% of the population is vaccinated.

But with relatively few cases of the virus and so few deaths, many in Australia are questioning whether the slight health risks to young adults of the widely available AstraZeneca vaccine make it worthwhile.

It's a debate that divided politicians and medical experts this week at a time when nearly half of Australia's 26 million people are living under lockdown measures due to the emergence of new virus clusters mostly blamed on the delta variant, which is thought to be more contagious.

The AstraZeneca shot in Australia currently is recommended only for people older than 60 because of the risk of rare blood clotting in younger people. The only alternative registered in Australia is Pfizer, which unlike the locally made AstraZeneca is imported and in short supply.

AstraZeneca had been recommended for all adults until a 48-year-old Australian died from blood clots in April. The vaccine was then recommended for people older than 50 until a 52-year-old died in May.

That's more than the single death from COVID-19 since last year, an 80-year-old man who died in April after being infected overseas and diagnosed in hotel quarantine.

Many people are refusing to take their second AstraZeneca jab, recommended three months after the first, because of the evolving safety advice. Many have canceled appointments for their first shots.

In most parts of the world, the risk-benefit assessment is stacked in favor of taking AstraZeneca. But that balance is different in Australia.

The Australian government on Monday gave all adults the AstraZeneca option if their doctors agree to administer the jab. The government also indemnified the doctors who administer the shot against lawsuits.

The leader of the Australian militarys pandemic response, Lt. Gen. John Frewen, said Pfizer was restricted to people older than 40 because of limited supplies.

Its really important that Australians have now got a choice about whether they make an informed decision about accessing AstraZeneca, Frewen said on Thursday.

Weve got AstraZeneca available and I think Australians who want to should be able to have a conversation with their G.P. about whether they access AstraZeneca now or whether they wait for another vaccine later on, Frewen added, referring to general practice doctors.

But fewer than 3,000 adults under 40 had taken up the opportunity for a first dose of AstraZeneca by Thursday.

Queensland state Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was accused by critics of scaremongering when she said on Wednesday that with only 42 coronavirus cases active in the state, AstraZeneca was not worth the risk for younger adults.

I dont want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldnt die, Young said.

She was contradicted by former Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia Nick Coates, who said younger Australians were at greater risk of dying of COVID-19 than they were from AstraZeneca side effects.

Young was unfortunately out on a very lonely limb there, Coates said.

But Prof. Chris Blyth, the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization that advised the government to recommend Pfizer for those younger than 60, said few young adults should take AstraZeneca.

I do not believe at this stage that young people should be receiving AstraZeneca at this stage unless their circumstances press for that, Blyth said. There are some situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small.

The alternative to AstraZeneca is to wait for more Pfizer or an as-yet-unregistered Moderna vaccine contracted to be delivered between October and December.

Australia has been relatively successful in containing clusters throughout the pandemic, registering fewer than 31,000 cases and 910 deaths total.

Australia introduced extraordinarily tough border restrictions in March 2020 that prevent Australian citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country as well as foreigners from arriving except under limited circumstances.

The government forecasts that normal flights wont resume until mid-2022, which frightens business groups.

Those involved in international education, Australias third-largest export industry, have warned that would mean overseas students would turn to universities in other countries next year and stay with those institutions throughout their courses for years.
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As COVID recedes, local schools plan for in-person learning in fall

File photo by Cecily Weisburgh / Sentinel Staff Keene High School

Although the summer is still young, school districts throughout the Monadnock Region have already begun planning for the 2021-22 school year.

And after three semesters dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led schools to switch to varying forms of remote and hybrid learning, local districts are planning for significantly more in-person instruction in the fall.

As the pandemic continues to move in a downward trend, we are approaching the next school year with a much more back to normal mindset, Robert Malay, superintendent of N.H. School Administrative Unit 29, wrote Monday in a message on the SAU website. There will continue to be a top priority placed on the safety and well-being of our students and staff as well as those that enter our buildings moving forward.

SAU 29  which covers Chesterfield, Harrisville, Keene, Marlborough, Marlow, Nelson and Westmoreland  is scheduled to release a draft reopening plan by the end of the day Thursday, Malay said in an interview Wednesday. After that, families and staff in those districts will have until July 9 to submit feedback on the plan before SAU 29 releases the final version in mid-July, Malay said.

Other area districts are also preparing for more in-person classes in the fall. The Monadnock Regional School District  which covers Fitzwilliam, Gilsum, Richmond, Roxbury, Swanzey and Troy  intends to return to full in-class instruction, according to the districts reopening plan. The Monadnock school board approved the plan June 15, according to the minutes of that meeting.

Monadnock operated under a hybrid model for most of the previous year, with students attending school in person two days per week and learning remotely the rest of the week. Families also had the option of having their children learn fully remotely last year.

But according to the 2021-22 reopening plan, Monadnock will not continue to provide remote support to students in the fall. The district will make exceptions if any students need to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure or infection, or if the state recommends a shift to remote learning due to a rise in coronavirus cases.

Overall, the plan for Monadnock  like several area districts  calls for flexibility based on the latest public health data and guidance from the state and federal government.

While we would like to say everything will be back to normal for our return to school in the fall of 2021, the reality is that we dont really know for sure what normal is going to look like in the future, the Monadnock plan states. Any plan we make must be fluid and adaptable, as updated guidance seems to be issued almost daily with local and state governments shifting policies and rules just as frequently.

The ConVal School Districts reopening plan, which the school board approved at its June 15 meeting, takes a similarly flexible approach to its specific COVID-19 mitigation strategies like masking and physical distancing.

The plan is divided into four phases based on the level of COVID-19 transmission within ConVals nine communities  Antrim, Bennington, Dublin, Francestown, Greenfield, Hancock, Peterborough, Sharon and Temple. In each of these phases, the plan calls for the district to follow the mitigation strategies recommended at the time by the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So, while were not saying, hard and fast, these are the mitigation strategies well have at each level right now, it is because we want to be able to look at this data and make an informed decision, Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders said last week in a video posted on the districts website.

She added that ConVal officials believe they will be able to begin the school year in the blue phase, which is the lowest level of community transmission and calls for minimal mitigation measures. But the district is waiting until closer to the beginning of the new year to make these final decisions, Rizzo Saunders said, so school leaders can take into account factors such as the spread of COVID-19 variants, state and local vaccination rates and the latest medical research on the novel coronavirus effects on children.

Under ConVals plan, students would learn in person when the district operates in the blue and green phases, which would be in effect during minimal to moderate COVID-19 transmission. Most or all classes would switch to remote in the yellow and red phases, when there is substantial or uncontrolled transmission.

Meanwhile, the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District is moving forward with a reopening framework that features almost a complete return to normalcy, Superintendent Reuben Duncan wrote in the plan, which the school board approved June 21. The district plans to offer five days a week of in-person instruction, and will drop its mask mandate in schools and on district property.

The mask mandate could return to specific classes or schools, or districtwide, should there be an outbreak of COVID-19 or other highly contagious illness within the district or greater Jaffrey-Rindge community, according to the plan.

In the meantime, the district is working to maintain at least three feet of physical distance between everyone participating in summer school programs. But, according to the plan, with cases continuing to decrease and vaccination rates still increasing, the school district will determine over the summer if social distancing is needed in any settings in the fall.

The Hinsdale School District also plans to return to full in-person instruction, according to a post from the school board on the district website. And though the district has not yet released a full reopening plan, the board wrote that Hinsdale schools will adapt as necessary.

We will revisit this plan as needed and if circumstances change, the board wrote, we will be prepared to make adjustments to ensure, to the best of our ability, quality education for our students and the health and safety of our entire school community.
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Majority of Florida condo board quit in 2019 as squabbling residents dragged out plans for repairs
Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Jennifer Sung, a labor official in Oregon and a longtime labor lawyer and former union organizer, was nominated by President Biden on Wednesday to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, his first selection for the nations largest federal appeals court.

Sung was appointed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in 2017 to the states Employment Relations Board, which referees labor disputes for public and private employees in the state. Before that, she was a labor lawyer in Portland for four years and in San Francisco for the preceding six years.
Since Californias recent pandemic reopening, many vaccinated residents have been shedding their masks. But in addition to rising concerns about the delta variant, there may be another good reason to hang onto them: wildfire smoke.

Last seasons record-breaking wildfire season severely impacted Bay Area air quality, triggering a record number of Spare the Air days. And with extreme heat waves already descending and the states severe drought providing an abundance of parched fuel, experts say California is poised to see more catastrophic wildfires this year.

Masks became part of our daily apparel during the pandemic, but will the face coverings we bought to help protect us from the coronavirus also shield us from the harmful effects of wildfire smoke?

John Balmes, a professor of medicine at UCSF and environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley, weighs in on all your questions about masks and wildfire smoke.

Do I need a mask to protect me from wildfire smoke?

Balmes said its a good idea for everyone to have a mask that helps protect against wildfire smoke, especially for those with lung and heart problems. He said people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are most vulnerable to wildfire smoke and should have a good fitting N95 respirator. (The CDC notes that some people cannot wear respirators because of medical conditions that may be made worse when breathing through them.)

Sarahbeth Maney/Special to The Chronicle

Will the cloth mask or surgical mask I bought for coronavirus protection also work against wildfire smoke?

Cloth masks work against COVID-19 because they shield the wearer from large respiratory droplets that transmit the coronavirus. However, they do not protect wearers from the harmful fine particulate matter (PM2) in wildfire smoke, according to the CDC.

Balmes said surgical masks are made to FDA specifications and offer 20% protection against wildfire smoke  which is not much, but better than nothing.

What type of mask should I get?

The best choice is an N95 respirator that is NIOSH-certified and can be 95% effective at filtering particles greater than 0.3 microns when properly fit-tested, Balmes said. NIOSH is the occupational health and safety agency of the CDC.

Properly fit-tested N95s provide the highest protection, but even those not fit-tested can offer about 80% protection against wildfire smoke particulate matter, according to Balmes. Visit the CDC for the approved list of respirators, and be wary of counterfeit products that are not truly NIOSH-certified (there is no copyright on the name).

Health experts also recommended N95s as the best protection against the coronavirus  though especially during the early months of the pandemic they were in short supply, and the general public was urged to reserve them for health care workers.

What about a KN95 mask?

KN95 masks are certified under Chinese standards, unlike N95s, which are under U.S. standards that include NIOSH certification. When they meet the right requirements and are not counterfeit, KN95s can filter up to 95% of particles in the air, according to the CDC.

Balmes said some of these masks are very good, but that consumers should consult the CDCs assessment of some of the non-NIOSH approved masks.

Any N95, KN95, KF94 or true surgical or medical mask is better than nothing when you have to go outside during a wildfire smoke event, Balmes said. It is best to stay inside, however.

What about double-masking?

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

Surgical masks have gaps around the sides, so wearing a tightly-sealed cloth mask over a surgical mask probably would somewhat improve its effectiveness against smoke, Balmes said.

Also, Some double-layer cloth masks may provide some protection, but you cant be sure, he said. Its better to stick with a NIOSH-certified N95 or surgical mask.

In other words, a respirator is best. Balmes said there is no need to double-mask when wearing an N95.

Can a disposable mask be reused for smoke protection?

For smoke protection, disposable respirators and masks can be worn more than once, Balmes said  but it depends on how long you wear it and how dirty the filter material gets. When in doubt, switch it out for a new one.

What else can I do to protect myself and my family from wildfire smoke?

On days when the air quality is bad, the best thing you can do is stay home with the windows and doors closed. If you have an HVAC system, install a high-quality air filter with a MERV rating of 13 or higher.

You may want to consider investing in an air purifier that can help remove particulate matter, including the PM2.5 fine particles from wildfire smoke. Put it in your most used room (usually the bedroom) or designate a clean room that everyone can go to when the air is bad.

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

As San Francisco and other Bay Area cities ready Fourth of July celebrations, more than 100 scientists urged the public to forgo potentially wildfire-sparking fireworks.

We are gravely concerned about the potential for humans to accidentally start fires from fireworks and other activities by adding ignitions to this combination of historic drought, heat and dry vegetation, the scientists wrote in an open letter published Wednesday on The Conversation, a website featuring academic commentary.
In his many attempts to overcome a methamphetamine addiction that ground through two decades of his life, Tyrone Clifford Jr. remembers well the closest he came.

The most success I had, he said, is when my dealer was in jail.

Then Clifford walked into a rehab clinic in San Francisco called the Positive Reinforcement Opportunity Project. There, he encountered an approach so simple he sounds slightly bemused explaining it. The secret? The program paid him to show up and stay clean.

It wasnt much money  very little, in fact, and I didnt really need it, said Clifford, 52. But I did need the support. I did need the connection. I was doing something positive for the first time in a long, long time, and it changed my outlook.

The concept of a reward for sobriety  known as contingency management  lies at the heart of many an addiction therapy success story. Research showing its a highly effective tool for managing substance use disorder, especially for stimulants, goes back decades.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has long employed the therapy, providing it to more than 5,600 veterans. About 92% of the 72,000 urine samples collected during treatment tested negative for the targeted drug, said Dominick DePhilippis, a clinical psychologist and researcher who helped launch the VAs program in 2011.

But outside of the VA? It is used almost zero, said Richard Rawson, a professor emeritus at UCLA who has researched the therapy for nearly 30 years. Providers worry that by paying patients theyll violate anti-kickback regulations, and thus jeopardize their federal funding through Medicaid.

But California appears poised to challenge the regulations. On June 1, the state Senate unanimously passed SB110, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, which declares contingency management a legal practice and authorizes its funding by adding it to the list of drug treatment services offered through Medi-Cal, the states version of Medicaid. The price tag for the bill depends on how many patients use the therapy, but it would cost only about $179,000 a year to include the approach in treatment for 1,000 people trying to kick stimulant use, according to a financial analysis.

Californias latest budget, still being hammered out, may include money for a pilot program for next year. Wieners bill would provide permanent funding  if, that is, the states Medi-Cal program can get federal sign-off on the practice.

The federal anti-kickback statute prohibits offering an inducement to a patient to choose a specific program or type of treatment. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General has so far agreed with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that a violation would occur at any monetary incentive beyond $75 a year, which contingency management experts say isnt enough to get results.

More than a dozen organizations have written to the Department of Health and Human Services to ask for a waiver of the anti-kickback statute as it pertains to the therapy. A group led by Dr. Westley Clark, former director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, is asking Congress to instruct Health and Human Services to allow the treatment in Medicaid programs. (Health and Human Services did not respond to a Kaiser Health News query on whether it is considering a waiver.)

The VA can ignore the inspector generals interpretation of the rule because the departments budget covers all its costs. VA is in many ways the ideal setting for (the therapys) implementation, DePhilippis said. Were not subject to the funding concerns that I hear expressed by my colleagues in programs outside of the VA.

As the name implies, patients in a contingency management program are rewarded on a contingency basis for modifying their behavior  specifically, by not missing recovery meetings or failing a drug test. While the approach can be employed to treat any type of substance addiction, its been especially useful for stimulants such as meth and cocaine, for which there is no well-established addiction-combating medication, such as methadone for an addiction to opioids.

Patients at VA recovery sessions draw from a plastic fishbowl that holds 500 slips of paper. Half of those slips contain positive messages: Good job. Way to go. Another 209 slips are worth $1, while 40 are worth $20 and one jumbo prize of $100 lurks in every bowl. As patients continue to stay clean, the number of slips they get to draw increases, to a maximum of eight. If they skip meetings or test positive, they go back to drawing a single slip. The money is paid in the form of vouchers that can be used through the VAs canteen system to buy food and other items, but not alcohol or tobacco.

In other programs that employ the approach, including the one Clifford found in San Francisco in 2011, patients receive gift cards worth $300 to $400 over 12 weeks in exchange for regularly attending meetings and producing clean tests. Most of the incentive programs are designed to end after three months on the theory that patients have used the time to regularly attend counseling and therapy sessions and kick-start their recoveries.

That is what happened to Clifford, who fell into meth use after learning he was HIV-positive at age 21. He and his partner (now husband) soon moved from Georgia to San Francisco, where his use spiraled out of control until he was advised to visit the Positive Reinforcement Opportunity Project administered through the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

The money wasnt the main thing for me  but it is for some of the guys who come in here, Clifford said. They may need that small amount to keep a cell phone bill paid. They may need that for a doctor. I hear people say, Why should we pay a drug user to stop using drugs? My answer is that it works. You keep coming in, week after week, and pretty soon youre back on your feet.

Some critics have moral qualms about paying a patient for good behavior, and therapists are sometimes wary of the approach. But effective approaches are needed. In San Francisco, the meth overdose death rate has increased more than 500% since 2008, and half of all psychiatric emergency room admissions at San Francisco General Hospital are now meth-related.

As a gay man in San Francisco, my community has been deeply affected by meth use, Wiener said. Meth use spiked 20% nationally among those tested in the early months of the pandemic.

Those whove seen the approach used successfully in treating meth addiction are befuddled by its lack of availability, especially now that states offer anything from marijuana to Yankees tickets to persuade people to get vaccinated against COVID.

Still, Rawson of UCLA said he doubts Californias bill can override the federal restrictions. Wiener, on the other hand, doesnt believe the use of therapy was ever in violation of anti-kickback statutes.

Tyrone Clifford simply knows it works.

I see it now from the other side, said Clifford, who is 10 years sober and now counsels those trying to kick meth addiction through the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Guys keep coming back. You can see it building every week.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, a national newsroom that provides in-depth coverage of health issues, one of three major programs of Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News is the publisher of California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
You You Xue, the owner of Wonderful in Millbrae and Foster City, owes close to $200,000 in back rent at his two Hunan restaurants.

He also owes more than $20,000 to PG&E, the water bill to the city of Millbrae and deferred sales tax payments. His dining rooms are starting to fill again, but sales are still down 25%. These pandemic-related debts continue to hang over his business.

As much as landlords are entitled to receive a return on their property, we (shouldnt) forget that there are a lot of people who are struggling, Xue said.

Xue is far from alone. Despite the optimism of this moment, with Bay Area restaurants able to return to full capacity, the financial pressures of the shutdown linger. Many restaurant owners say their recovery is far from certain: At least one restaurateur who spoke with The Chronicle faced eviction proceedings even though protections are in place to prevent that. Others worry whether ongoing debt will bring another raft of closures in the coming months.

A recent survey of more than 100 restaurants found that 60% of the restaurants have amassed debt during the pandemic, compared to 34% in March 2020, according to small-business nonprofit SF New Deal, which conducted the study. On average, restaurants debt has nearly doubled, up from $62,000 to $114,000, according to the survey.

Its an existential crisis, Namu Stonepot co-owner Dennis Lee said of back rent. All of our businesses are in jeopardy.

In San Francisco, unpaid rent for retail properties like restaurants and bars is much higher than for other businesses  89% to 98% of money owed, even though they make up only about a quarter of the rented commercial rental spaces in the city, according to a March report from the Budget and Legislative Analysts Office. This could be due in part to the fact that San Francisco restaurants and bars experienced the sharpest drop in sales in 2020 of any business sector and were mandated to close, except for takeout, for much of the year, according to the report. Statewide, nearly a third of restaurants permanently closed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report presented to the state Senate in May.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Temporary eviction moratoriums in Bay Area cities arent always clear-cut solutions, either. Xues Wonderful restaurants are located in San Mateo County, where the moratorium requires businesses to show they cant pay rent due to decreased net business income as a direct result of the pandemic. So in November, Xue said he was shocked to receive a three-day notice asking him to pay $39,000 worth of rent for his Millbrae location or move out. The landlord, Xue said, argued that the restaurant had lost revenue, not profits.

A judge ultimately ruled in Xues favor, but not before Xue incurred $20,000 in attorneys fees; hes now engaged in legal action to get his landlord to cover that. Neither Xues landlord nor his landlords attorneys responded to The Chronicles requests for comment.

Our first priority is to keep the doors open and prepare for any contingencies, Xue said. It isnt to pay back our landlord.

Other restaurateurs have struck deals with their landlords to pay back rent and said the process has felt largely cooperative and supportive. Still, reopening doesnt mean theyre in the clear with their debts.

The landlords for San Francisco restaurants Nopalito and Liholiho Yacht Club, for example, adjusted the rents to a percentage based on sales with a base minimum, said partner Jeff Hanak. But this month, that minimum will be back to its full, pre-pandemic amount. And if the restaurants have higher sales than anticipated, theyll have to start paying back an additional percentage of the deferred rent, Hanak said. He and other owners remain hopeful but on edge about whether demand will pick up enough to help them pay off their debts.

Im hesitant. Im a little nervous about our sales volume as we start to ramp up, Hanak said. Weve been taking small steps and have been very cautious of not pushing it.

Anamika Khanna, owner of the fast-casual Kasa Indian Eatery in San Francisco and Redwood City, has agreed to pay back rent over the next five years at two of her three restaurants. But her lease recently expired at Kasas Polk Street location, so shes paying month-to-month while she negotiates a new lease.

This has proved challenging: Khanna and the landlord have different ideas of what market rate is, and it might be untenable to commit to paying a higher rent when her business has not yet bounced back, she said. Corporate catering, which made up a third of Kasas business before the coronavirus pandemic, has been slow to return.

Shes still running her restaurants with a skeleton staff while expenses like food costs and insurance are increasing. The Chronicle was not able to immediately reach her landlord for comment.

Its really hard to say that Im completely confident, but at the same time Im not sure how else to proceed, Khanna said of paying back her debts.

As the Bay Area reopens, landlords are looking to recoup their losses from the pandemic. Landlords rely on rent to pay mortgages, property taxes and other expenses, said Charley Gross of the San Francisco Apartment Association, which represents residential and commercial landlords.

Its been difficult on both sides, Gross said of landlords and tenants.

Along with rent, many restaurateurs deferred payments on everything from sales tax to electric bills. Some took out more loans to keep their businesses afloat during the shutdown. Joe Hargrave, co-owner of Tacolicious, is up to date on all his rent payments. But he took out a $2 million loan to keep his string of Mexican restaurants alive last year. A large, one-time payment at the end of the loan term will be due in about three years with a pretty good amount of interest.

Its suffocating, he said. I kinda did what most people did, (which was), if I can push this off for three years, that will give me time to figure it out.

Lingering uncertainty is making the prospect of paying off deep debt even more daunting. Restaurant owners say sales are starting to pick up and stabilize, but theyre not yet back to pre-shutdown levels. Many feel stuck in a catch-22: They have to ramp up operations to increase sales and get their businesses out of the red, but worry about the potential return of restrictions and incurring even more expenses with the addition of parklets and more seats.

We have no choice but to go for it 100%, said Namu Stonepots Lee.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

There is some help, though. Many credit the combination of federal and local grants with helping them stay afloat and to partially defray costs like rent and utility bills. SF New Deal recently launched a $1 million fund to provide grants of up to $2,500 to small businesses across the city. More than 900 have applied. (The application is open through Friday.)

Commercial eviction moratoriums in some Bay Area cities also have been crucial for small businesses. San Franciscos moratorium has been extended through Sept. 30, meaning landlords cant evict tenants before giving a written notice and an opportunity to catch up on their payments. It also provides tenants with additional time after the moratorium expires to pay back any unpaid rent.

Dennis Faoro, a San Mateo attorney who represents commercial landlords and tenants on the Peninsula (he represented Xue in his case), said helping tenants pay off any pandemic debts is mutually beneficial. The alternative for landlords could be a building that sits vacant and is more susceptible to vandalism and thus higher insurance costs.

Bay Area cities have offered support in other ways, too, such as temporarily closing streets to traffic to allow for more outdoor dining, imposing caps on third-party delivery fees and waiving license fee renewals.

But the eviction moratorium and grants may have provided a false sense of security for some owners. William Ortiz-Cartagena, a commissioner with the San Francisco Office of Small Business, said many local Latino restaurateurs used Paycheck Protection Program and Restaurant Revitalization Fund monies to pay back rent so they didnt try to renegotiate their leases, and theyre not yet getting pressure from their landlords because of the moratorium. Most are sole proprietors and may have a harder time accessing financial and legal resources due to a language barrier, he said.

This is going to have a lasting effect. Specifically in the Latino community, come September, were going to see a tremendous flood of commercial evictions, Ortiz-Cartagena said.

His nonprofit Clecha, which provides support to Latino entrepreneurs, is trying to stem this tide by offering real estate attorneys on retainer and reaching out to Latino-owned restaurants.

San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who represents District 11, which includes the Excelsior, Outer Mission and Visitacion Valley, also sees this as a critical juncture in the survival of local businesses. Hes pushing the city to budget up to $50 million in rent relief for small businesses, and said hes worried that without further support, the city will see another extreme wave of closures. Supervisor Dean Preston also recently introduced legislation that would excuse businesses from paying rent when required to shut down under pandemic health orders.

Theyre at a crisis point, Safai said. If we dont find a way to get them additional help to pay down some of their back rent, a lot of these businesses will be faced with filing for bankruptcy.

Whether the grants and temporary protections will be enough to keep businesses open remains to be seen. Yuka Ioroi of San Franciscos Cassava said the federal Paycheck Protection Program, Restaurant Revitalization Fund and local grants helped defray some of her half-million dollars in debt. Still, the restaurant continues to operate at a loss, she said.

Were definitely not relaxing, she said.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
New coronavirus cases have jumped more than 20% in California and the Bay Area since the states June 15 reopening  a sign that even as residents embrace a return to normalcy, the virus can still spread among unvaccinated people and will likely linger for months to come.

Statewide, new cases crept up from about 900 on June 15 to nearly 1,100 on June 30, according to seven-day averages of new daily infections. In the Bay Area, cases ticked up from 187 to 225 during the same period, according to Chronicle data.

State and local health officials had predicted a rise in new cases after June 15, when California lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions on public life. Case rates are still considered low, at fewer than 3 new infections per 100,000 people statewide and in the Bay Area. In January, during the worst of the winter surge, there were nearly 100 new cases a day per 100,000 people statewide.

In the Bay Area, the biggest jump in new cases is in Alameda County, which has seen a 55% increase since June 15. New cases are up 22% in San Francisco, 27% in Contra Costa County and 35% in Marin County, according to Chronicle data.

In some counties, though, the number of new cases is relatively small. San Francisco went from averaging 11 cases a day to 13. Marin went from four cases a day to five.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are also increasing statewide and in the Bay Area, but at a slower rate than new cases. The number grew 11% statewide and 9% in the Bay Area from June 15 to 30, according to state data.

Deaths are largely flat statewide and dropping in the Bay Area. There is usually a lag time of several weeks between new cases and hospitalizations and deaths.

The rise in new cases can be attributed to three factors: the reopening, the fact that nearly a third of people eligible to be vaccinated have not received a shot and the spread of the more contagious delta variant, said local health officials and infectious disease experts.

Most of the new cases are among people who have not been vaccinated, including young adults and teenagers, and in areas that have lower vaccination rates, health officials said.

Its a good argument that the vaccine is helping to protect residents, said Dr. Nicholas Moss, health officer for Alameda County. And people who have not had the opportunity to get vaccinated yet, we strongly encourage to do that.

In neighboring Contra Costa County, the city of Antioch  which has significantly lower vaccination rates than the county overall  accounted for 25% of new cases over the past two weeks, even though it has just 10% of Contra Costas population, said county Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano.

unvaccinated people in Contra Costa are 16 times more likely to get COVID than vaccinated people, according to county data. The COVID vaccines also do a better job of preventing serious symptoms in the handful of vaccinated people who do test positive.

With the lifting of the business restrictions, more people getting out and doing things, a lot of people not wearing masks, its kind of a recipe for increased infections in people who are unvaccinated, Farnitano said.

unvaccinated people mingling indoors is especially concerning, now that most venues go by the honor system when it comes to masking, said Dr. George Lemp, a former University of California epidemiologist.

The problem is because theyve changed the mask mandate, particularly indoors, theres no way for proprietors of stores or any other facilities to know whether a person whos maskless indoors is vaccinated or not, Lemp said. The large crowds of people who are unvaccinated who gather together indoors in places like Disneyland and other venues around the state are going to spread coronavirus to each other.

The Bay Area as a whole has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, led by San Mateo and and Marin counties, where more than 80% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. More than 70% of residents are fully vaccinated in Santa Clara, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties. But even in those highly vaccinated counties, there are pockets where vaccination rates are less than 50%.

The spread of the delta variant prompted Los Angeles County health officials to urge even vaccinated people to resume wearing masks in indoor public spaces  one of the pandemic restrictions that the state lifted June 15. Local counties have not issued similar advice, but health officials say the growing number of delta infections could mean that the Bay Areas already impressive vaccination numbers may have to get even better to check the diseases spread.

Delta might be transmissible enough, infectious enough, that you just need to push your vaccination rates a little higher, said Moss of Alameda County. A more transmissible virus is more likely to get to those susceptible (unvaccinated) people. And even just a small increase in the ability of the virus to pass from one person to another, when you multiply that over millions of people, you can start to see these changes in the pandemic.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
The rise of the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is prompting many to ask how well the Johnson & Johnson vaccine works against it and whether those who got the shot should get a booster.

Scientists dont yet know the answer to either question, and many urge people to wait until data comes out, likely in the next few months, that could provide clarity. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not recommended booster shots for J&J recipients, who include Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed  both of whom got the one-shot vaccine in April when officials were trying to build public confidence in it.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are highly effective at preventing COVID symptoms brought on by the delta variant, according to studies and the companies. But less is known about the J&J vaccines effectiveness against the delta variant, which was first identified in India and now accounts for nearly a quarter of new coronavirus infections in California. It is far more transmissible than other variants  but whether it is more likely to lead to a more severe case of COVID-19 is still being studied.

J&J has not released data on the one-dose shots efficacy against the delta variant, but said Wednesday it is studying the matter and will share data in the near future. The company is also testing a two-dose regimen on the most commonly circulating variants, including the delta, and expects to have interim results this summer.

We believe that the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will continue to offer durable protection, and at present there is no evidence to suggest a need for a booster dose to be administered, J&J said in a statement.

The J&J vaccine has been shown to work well at preventing hospitalization and death against variants that were first identified in South Africa and Brazil, as have the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

In countries where delta is spreading, few people have gotten the J&J, so theres not much evidence yet to show how well its working against the variant. The United Kingdom and India, for instance, where delta is circulating widely, are mostly using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Similarly, in the U.S., where the delta variant is expected to become dominant by the fall, the vast majority of people have gotten Pfizer or Moderna. In California and the rest of the nation, the J&J vaccine makes up less than 4% of all doses administered. Still, that translates into 1.5 million Californians relying on the vaccine to keep them safe from COVID.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently said the J&J vaccine appears to be about 60% effective against delta  slightly lower than the 66% level at which it was tested in clinical trials against the original coronavirus strain. But Gottliebs figure is an estimate that has yet to be backed up by studies, infectious disease experts said.

Experts say theres simply not enough information about the J&J vaccine and the delta variant to recommend people who got it to seek a booster. Their best advice is to wait and see. But if someone is worried theyre not protected enough with one J&J shot, seeking an additional shot would probably not harm them.

The CDC has not recommended that J&J recipients get boosters, but its permission may not be necessary. Even so, its not clear if vaccine providers would administer a booster to a person who has already received a J&J shot  although providers dont always ask if someone has already been vaccinated.

Dr. Phil Grant, who led the J&J vaccine clinical trial at Stanford, said he knows of some participants who later got a second J&J shot, or a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination.

Mixing and matching vaccines is safe, with little downside, he said.

If people are concerned and want to do something before data is available, I dont think its unreasonable, Grant said. But I think from a public health standpoint, its not something thats recommended because the datas not there.

Some countries are already allowing the mixing and matching of vaccines. Canada recently recommended that people who got their first dose of AstraZeneca get Pfizer or Moderna for their second dose. This was mostly meant for people concerned about the rare risk of blood clots with AstraZeneca, a vaccine that is not being used in the U.S.

Even if the J&J shot turns out to be less effective against the delta variant, the difference may not be significant if it still reduces severe disease and death. The vast majority of people who have recently died or been hospitalized with COVID-19 have been unvaccinated, indicating that all the vaccines, including J&Js, work very well at preventing the worst outcomes.

If what the FDA says is accurate, 60% is really not bad, said Dr. Lee Riley, chair of the division of infectious disease and vaccinology at UC Berkeleys School of Public Health. In fact, that might be sufficient to prevent severe disease outcomes.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
The history of Californias governorship is littered with disastrous clerical errors: George Deukmejians misplaced decimal point; Ronald Reagans expired ranching permit; Hiram Johnsons unpaid traffic ticket.

Not really, of course: Gavin Newsom is quite alone in the annals of his august office in that he might lose it over a paperwork problem. Its a minor mistake replete with major implications and ironies.

According to a recently filed lawsuit, Newsoms lawyers notified Secretary of State Shirley Webers office last month that the governor would like to be listed on recall election ballots as a Democrat. It was an understandable request given that Newsom is in fact a Democrat and, more important, so are more than 10 million California voters, about twice the number of registered Republicans.

The trouble was that under the terms of a law Newsom signed in 2019, his request was nearly 16 months late.

But surely Weber could forgive what Newsoms suit called an inadvertent but good faith mistake on the part of his election attorney, couldnt she? Especially given that enforcing the deadline against Newsom would be fundamentally unfair and lead to absurd results?

Californias top elections official wasnt having it. A Weber spokesman explained: The Secretary of States Office has a ministerial duty to accept timely filed documents. Acceptance of filings beyond a deadline requires judicial resolution.

Perhaps Weber, more than Newsom and company, understands that running a vast bureaucracy requires getting the details right. And perhaps Weber, an accomplished former legislator, was especially sensitive to the imperative to do so given that Newsom appointed her to the normally elective office just six months ago. Bending the recall rules so her fellow Democrat could be identified as such would be questionable in any context, but especially so given any appearance of a quid pro quo for the person who gave her the job.

Newsoms January swearing-in of Weber was set in motion by his appointment of her predecessor, Alex Padilla, to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President Kamala Harris. Including his appointment of Rob Bonta to succeed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra as attorney general, the governor and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature managed to fill three statewide elective offices without anything so messy as an election. Webers unwillingness to help Newsom win his recall election therefore amounts to a spectacular backfiring of the governors avid exercise of his power to anoint officials who should be elected.

Its not the only comeuppance inherent in the episode. Newsom sued his handpicked secretary of state on the very day he and the Legislatures majority Democrats were re-revising the rules to speed up the recall election, undoing parts of a law passed a few years earlier to help a Democratic legislator survive another recall. That enabled Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis on Thursday to schedule the recall for Sept. 14, curtailing the opportunities for unforeseen events to hurt the governors ratings. Newsom was changing the rules to seize that advantage even as he asked a court to force Weber to ignore a rule that puts him at a disadvantage.

The prospect of appearing on ballots without his party affiliation is especially disadvantageous to Newsom because his campaign has relentlessly appealed to partisanship, disparaging a Republican recall backed by mega Trump donors, conspiracy theorists and militia members, and anti-vax extremists. Now he stands to be barred from letting everyone know hes a Democrat when it matters most.

Newsoms lawyers may well get a judge to overrule the statutory deadline he signed. Even if they dont, the governor and his partisan affiliation may be familiar enough to voters.

The error nevertheless puts Newsom at more risk in a way that is characteristic of his administration. From housing production to pandemic restrictions to wildfire prevention, the governor has set broadly ambitious goals but faltered in the painstaking work of execution. This time the neglected details threaten the primary goal of most politicians, staying in office.

Josh Gohlke is The San Francisco Chronicles deputy opinion editor. Email: jgohle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshGohlke
Kamala Harris used to refer to herself as Californias top cop when she was the states attorney general. The current, more progressive Attorney General Rob Bonta prefers a different framing: He calls himself the peoples attorney.

He looks at his job as being the protector of the little person  or as Bonta describes it in his rapid patter, our most vulnerable, voiceless, hurt, harmed, abused, mistreated, cast aside, forgotten.

But some of that framing  and the issues Bonta supports, such as tougher oversight of the police  will be fodder for his conservative opponents. Bonta was appointed to the job by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March after President Biden tapped previous Attorney General Xavier Becerra to join the administration as head of Health and Human Services. He faces an election in November 2022 to win the office in his own right.

Rivals are already raising big money against him for next years race and seeking to cast him as a clone of two progressive district attorneys now facing recall threats: San Franciscos Chesa Boudin and Los Angeles George Gascon.

Rob Bonta is a supporter of George Gascon and Chesa Boudin, and their philosophies in their district are, Dont put people in jail whove committed violent and serious offenses for the full extent of the law, Nathan Hochman, a Republican former federal prosecutor challenging Bonta, told me.

Thats a preview of the attacks that Hochman and Bontas other opponent, Republican-turned-independent Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, will fire at him. Next years race is already shaping up to be a marquee California match-up. It will be watched nationally as an indicator of whether voters prefer more progressive prosecutors or a return to the tough-on-crime policies that marked the California of two decades ago.

Bonta will have his hands full. Hochman, who has never held elective office, had already raised more than $500,000 before Wednesdays filing deadline; Schuberts campaign, which will file its first campaign statement this month, says it has already raised more than $1 million. Bontas campaign has collected $1.1 million. None will be starved for cash, given how intense feelings are about the issues that divide them.

One of Bontas top policies takes effect July 1. Starting then, Bontas Department of Justice will have more latitude to take over the investigations of fatal shootings of unarmed civilians involving police officers. That power comes from a bill that Bonta co-authored when the Alameda resident represented most of Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro in the Legislature.

Bonta told my Its All Political podcast that his office plans to aggressively investigate those cases  not just review the work of local investigators and then rubber-stamp their findings.

We will definitely be on the scene and doing scene processing whenever possible, Bonta told The Chronicle. If its impossible, well work collaboratively to make sure that we have all the necessary evidence. Bonta said that could involve getting involved in autopsies and all investigative components, from the investigation to the review of the evidence to the charging decision and beyond.

Thats a different tone not only from Harris but from Bontas immediate predecessor, Becerra. Both were criticized for not aggressively pursuing police shootings of civilians more aggressively.

The change in attitude goes back to how Bonta approaches law enforcement. Like Harris, he grew up as the child of activists. However, her activist background was occasionally muted because she spent much of pre-Senate career straddling the line between progressive politics and serving as the top cop. Bonta came to the attorney generals job after being a progressive legislator.

His father marched in Selma and organized for voting rights and civil rights in the 1960s. Bonta was born in 1972 in the Phllippines, where his parents were doing Christian missionary work.

They returned to the U.S., and the family of five moved to a trailer in La Paz, in the Tehachapi Mountains near Bakersfield, close to the headquarters of the United Farm Workers movement. Much of Bontas political perspective was shaped by the work his parents did there to organize Latino and Filipino farmworkers. They were close to Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Philip Vera Cruz, a Filipino American leader in the movement.

I saw my parents fight with and for everyday people, committed to a common goal to create success and to right wrongs, Bonta said. I saw they could do it. And it made me want to pick up the baton and continue the effort.

Bontas efforts to make change are spurring his opponents to lump him together with progressive prosecutors who want shorter sentences and seek alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders. Schubert spent much of one of her early campaign events talking as much about Gascon and Boudin as she did Bonta. She said cities like San Francisco are in chaos because of liberal policies that imperil public safety.

While chaos might be political hyperbole, Bontas opponents represent a segment of Californians who backed three strikes and youre out prison sentences a generation ago.

Bonta disagreed. Putting a twist on the false choice phrase Harris often used when she disagreed with a questions premise, he called the lock-em-up or let-em-out choice a false narrative.

It is wrong to say that they are mutually exclusive, Bonta said. That you either have to be safe and have never-ending sentences and mass incarceration and over-criminalization or you can be just and fair and unsafe. Our system is broken.

Look at bail, Bonta said. Thats a prime example of how you can be more safe and more just and more fair.

Bonta was among the legislators who led the fight to end a cash bail system that keeps a disproportionate number of poorer, non-white defendants in jail for long periods awaiting trial. Bonta backed legislation that would replace cash bail with a computer-generated system to do a risk assessment of a persons potential to flee.

But California voters disagreed. Last year, they rejected Proposition 25, which asked if they wanted to uphold a 2018 state law eliminating cash bail. Bontas takeaway from the defeat: Californians have not yet decided on what the appropriate replacement system is for the fundamentally broken, unsafe, unfair, unjust current money bail system.

Thats how transformation works, Bonta said. We recognize the problem, and then we decide on what the solution is to the problem.

Transformation is a word that progressives often use to describe the type of change they want. Bonta doesnt shy away from the comparisons to Gascon and Boudin, saying they lead with their heart, but adds, Im my own person with my own approach.

Anyone who is trying to compare me to someone else doesnt know me, he said, or is deliberately looking away from my very long, deep, detailed record that is unique in its own way.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
WASHINGTON  The House passed a significant infrastructure bill Thursday that would bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the Bay Area and beyond and make climate-friendly policy changes to federal transportation programs.

Most everyone involved acknowledges it wont become law as is, given the current political dynamics. But passing the bill is nonetheless a significant data point, as it gives the Bay Area an indication of what could be coming if President Biden succeeds at passing the big-ticket infrastructure law hes negotiating with the Senate.

What the House passed Thursday is known as the surface transportation bill. Every five years, give or take some extensions Congress grants itself, lawmakers must reauthorize federal spending programs on highways, transit, rail and other transportation programs. That includes refilling the coffers of those programs, and there is a deadline for it at the end of September.

The $715 billion bill the House passed Thursday, however, is more than the usual reauthorization process because it comes amid an effort by Biden to enact a massive infrastructure investment as one of his signature presidential achievements. Most of the attention on that negotiation has been on the Senate, where a 60-vote threshold to advance legislation requires working with Republicans to pass bills. Biden has secured a tentative deal with a bipartisan group of senators on a legislative package.

But that bill remains largely in the form of bullet points, whereas the bill Thursday out of the House contains significant legislative language that its authors are hoping provides a strong starting point for negotiators to flesh out the particulars of their bill. From bridge repairs to BART improvements, it contains significant money for infrastructure work in and around the Bay Area.

This is a super important policy marker, and its one of the reasons the House needed to get this out before this bipartisan group of senators start fleshing out their proposal, San Rafael Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman told The Chronicle. Were not just potted plants over here; weve put a huge amount of work into the policy of these things and were not going to have a better opportunity in our lifetimes to transform the transportation sector, so were not just going to cede that to 10 senators.

The House bill got only two Republican votes, however, an indication of the opposition that persists among the GOP to some of House Democrats top priorities. In the Senate, a counterpart surface transportation package was a much more modest $303 billion, indicating a smaller appetite for the must-pass reauthorization due in September.

Whats in the House bill is significant for the Bay Area in two ways. First, it effectively redesigns federal transportation funding for the next five years to prioritize major climate priorities such as electric vehicles, energy-efficient transit and alternatives to fossil fuels. Second is that the bill marks the return of federal earmarks, or targeted spending allocations, that together constitute a small part of its overall cost but can amount to big money for local communities. Both elements could find their way into either the final reauthorization bill or an infrastructure package.

Last time I checked, the House of Representatives was a co-equal part of the U.S. Congress, said Concord Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier. Rather than wait around to see what the Senates going to do, were respectful of their process, but we did our work.

For the first time in a decade, lawmakers were able to ask for money to support specific projects in their districts under new transparency requirements enacted by House Democrats. All of the Bay Areas Democratic lawmakers did so, and several of the nearby Republicans in Northern California did as well.

The final bill contains money to fulfill many of those requests to the tune of around $20 million per district for the Bay Areas 10 Democratic representatives, with some overlapping projects. The North Bay, for example, would get $7 million to improve Route 37 put in by Huffman and St. Helena Rep. Mike Thompson and more than $13.6 million to rehab the Healdsburg Russian River rail bridge.

In the South Bay, San Mateo Rep. Jackie Speier and Palo Alto Rep. Anna Eshoo got nearly $12 million altogether for US-101 improvements and Speier got $3 million for Caltrain at-grade crossings upgrades. San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren got nearly $8 million for highway-rail crossings in the Warm Springs neighborhood.

In the East Bay, Oakland Rep. Barbara Lees funded projects include $3 million for East Bay BART station public restroom upgrades and $3 million for Bay Bridge transit upgrades. Livermore Rep. Eric Swalwell got $20 million for the Valley Link project, to connect BART to the Altamont Corridor Express. DeSaulniers funded projects include $6 million for traffic signal improvements along I-680.

Not everybody who secured earmarks voted for the final bill, however. Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford (Kings County), got $20 million for the State Route 41 Excelsior Corridor in Fresno County, but voted against the bill. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake (San Bernardino County), got money including $5 million for National Trails Highway widening in Victorville, as did Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), who got nearly $2 million for the Roe Road Extension Project in Paradise, and both also voted no.

Despite the no votes, Huffman argued the return of earmarks ultimately means getting projects important for communities funded.

Every member of Congress is treated the same, this is not some spoil system where friends of the chairman or Democrats or anyone else get a leg up, Huffman said. Its really reclaiming some of our Article I authority to direct how the power of the purse is used. We had ceded all that to the executive branch over the years (and) ... that left a lot of really important projects unfunded.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
A second round of one-time Golden State Stimulus checks could soon be on the way for many Californians.

On Monday, state lawmakers approved Gov. Gavin Newsoms plan to send $600 stimulus checks to low- and middle-income Californians as the state begins to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The governor proposed the second round of checks in his $262.6 billion state budget in May. The budget passed Monday by lawmakers reflects a partial deal on most major issues, including $8 billion for the new stimulus checks.

The governor and Legislature are still negotiating details on how to spend funds on wildfire prevention, drought and child care, among other areas.

The second state stimulus package would send $600 checks to households making up to $75,000 per year that didnt receive a check in the first round of stimulus payments in the spring. The first $3.7 billion round targeted those making $30,000 or less.

Heres what you need to know about the second round of checks:

Do I qualify for the new stimulus payments?

Households earning up to $75,000 per year will receive direct payments, which Newsom said includes two-thirds of Californians. Families with children will receive an extra $500, and undocumented immigrants, who have been left out of the federal stimulus bills, will receive an additional $500 direct payment. Some taxpayers could receive multiple payments from the state.

To qualify, you must file your 2020 tax return.

When would I receive it?

It is unclear when the direct payments will go out, as Newsom has yet to sign the bill and lawmakers continue negotiations.

But individuals who qualify wont have to do anything to receive the payments. The state schedules and issues checks twice a month after eligible 2020 tax returns are processed. For more information, check out the Golden State Stimulus website.

Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores
SACRAMENTO  Californians will decide in less than three months whether to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office before the end of his term.

A special recall election will take place on Sept. 14, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis announced Thursday, giving challengers about two more weeks to enter the race.

Hours earlier, Secretary of State Shirley Weber finally certified the recall petition, after months spent by counties tabulating voter signatures, a campaign by Newsom supporters to persuade voters to withdraw their support and an analysis of the cost of the election by state officials.

Webers action kicked the process over to Kounalakis to choose an election date within 60 to 80 days of the certification.

Although the window of time from which I could select a date was narrow, I believe we have chosen a fair and reasonable date for this election to take place, Kounalakis said in a statement. It has always been my intention to choose an election date that gives election officials and the public ample time to ensure a smooth election with broad participation.

Critics of Newsom  a liberal Democrat elected governor in 2018 who is running for a second term in November 2022  have been trying to recall him nearly since he first took office over his views on immigration, homelessness, taxes and other issues. But the latest attempt, propelled by anger over his aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic, caught momentum last fall after The Chronicle reported about a birthday dinner he attended at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley in violation of his own social distancing protocols.

As it became clear this spring that organizers had collected enough signatures to force another vote on Newsom, it appeared that a lengthy set of requirements would push the election back as late as November.

But a conventional wisdom emerged among many Democrats in recent weeks that an earlier date would be better for Newsom, whose job approval has held strong as California emerged from the worst of the pandemic and the state reopened. Proponents of the idea argued that a shorter campaign would leave less time for something to go wrong for the governor.

Lawmakers quickly introduced a measure to reverse some of the rules they adopted just four years ago to protect a fellow Democratic state senator facing his own recall drive. The bill, which eliminated a requirement for legislators to review and comment on the cost of the election before a date could be set, chopped at least a month out of the process.

It passed Monday over the objections of Republicans, who accused Democrats of cheating and undermining public trust in elections, and was signed without comment by Newsom later that day.

Shout out to California Democrats for manipulating their own recall rules, Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party, said in a statement Thursday. Now Californians only have to wait until September 14 to recall the worst governor in California history, Gavin Newsom.

An analysis of the cost of the election, the final step before the recall petition could be certified, was also finished Thursday. The state Department of Finance estimated that conducting the recall election would cost $276 million, or about $26 million more than the Legislature set aside to pay for it in a state budget plan passed this week.

The projected cost increased, mainly for local elections offices, compared with a preliminary estimate completed last month, because lawmakers also recently mandated the recall be treated as a regular election, rather than using emergency pandemic procedures that had allowed counties to consolidate polling places last fall.

The Legislature will have to determine how they want to deal with the marginal reported difference, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance.

With an election date set, a campaign that has been gliding along for several months is likely to kick into high gear. Candidates have until July 16 to file to run.

The recall ballot will ask voters two questions: Should Newsom be removed from office? And if he is, who should replace him?

If a majority of voters answers yes to the first question, then whoever receives the most votes on the second question will become the new governor, even if the candidate receives less than 50% of the total. Newsom cannot run as a replacement candidate for himself.

Dozens of Californians have already signaled their intention to challenge the governor, including a handful of prominent Republicans: San Diego County real estate investor John Cox, who lost to Newsom in 2018; former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer; reality TV star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner; and Doug Ose, a former member of Congress from the Sacramento area.

The most recent public polling on the race in May, however, found that only 40% of likely voters would remove Newsom from office.

This Republican recall is a naked attempt by Trump Republicans to grab control in California  powered by the same Republicans who refused to accept the results of the presidential election and are now pushing voter suppression laws across the country, Newsom campaign manager Juan Rodriguez said in a statement. On September 14, Californians will have the chance to defend our state and reject this Republican power grab once and for all.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
Jessie Lee Cooks, one of four notorious Zebra killers convicted of terrorizing San Francisco in the mid-1970s with a string of unrelated and random street murders, has died in prison.

Cooks was found unresponsive in his bed in the hospice unit at a medical facility in Vacaville at 10:30 Wednesday night, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was 76 and had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree robbery. He died of natural causes, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for CDCR

Cook was convicted in 1976 along with three other men for the murders that took place between October of 1973 and April of 1974. Though it was overshadowed by both the hunt for the Symbionese Liberation Army responsible for murders and the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the hunt for the Zodiac killer, the Zebra killers were far more deadly, leaving 15 dead, all strangers seemingly chosen at random and mostly shot point-blank, one in a laundromat and others while simply out walking.

There were seven wounded, and many never saw the killers coming, having been shot from behind. But one who was wounded and got a good look at them was a social worker named Art Agnos who was shot while on his way to a community meeting on Potrero Hill. Agnos ended up a key witness for the prosecution at trial and later was elected mayor of San Francisco.

Arrests were made only after a massive and frustrating dragnet by San Francisco police that included a specific radio channel code-named Zebra.

The arrests came after a $30,000 reward was offered for tips leading to an arrest and conviction. The killers, who had worked together at a moving company, were tracked to an apartment house on Grove Street in the Western Addition and arrested without incident on May 1, 1974.

Also convicted along with Cooks were J.C.X. Simon, Manuel Moore and Larry Green. Simon died at San Quentin State Prison in 2015, at age 69. Moore died at California Health Care Facility in Stockton in 2017, at 73. Green, 69, remains incarcerated at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com. Twitter:@samwhitingsf
San Franciscos beloved fireworks celebration will return to the citys waterfront this weekend for the first time since 2019.

The show this year will start at 9:30 p.m. and while the fireworks are often visible from many spots in San Francisco  if the fog isnt too thick  the city says they are best seen along the northern waterfront between Aquatic Park and Pier 39.

Anyone planning to attend the show, or any large holiday gathering in-person is encouraged to be fully vaccinated, obtain a negative COVID-19 test prior to attending the event, or wear a well-fitted face covering. People who are not yet fully vaccinated should celebrate safely by holding outdoor gatherings and continuing to wear face masks when closely interacting with people outside their household.

Although today is a celebration of our hard work throughout the pandemic, its more important than ever for every San Franciscan to get vaccinated, so we can continue to attend these large gatherings, said Mayor London Breed at a Thursday news conference. If you plan to join us for fireworks this weekend and are not vaccinated, please get tested. We are so close to ending this pandemic!

As holiday traditions return in the city, holiday traffic is also coming back. The American Automobile Association expects travel volume to nearly fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, with the second-highest Independence Day travel volume on record, second only to 2019. AAA predicts 47.7 million Americans will take to the roadways and skies, representing an increase of nearly 40% compared to last year.

Pier 39 is advising vistors to be aware of public transportation options when planning trips to see the fireworks show, as access to the waterfront and parking will be very limited.

We are anticipating larger than usual crowds, a representative said.

Bob Partrite, COO of Simco Restaurants, which owns Fog Harbor Fish House on Pier 39, said his restaurants will increase staff and stay open a bit later on July 4.

Were planning on a very busy weekend, the whole weekend being busy, hoping people are coming from out of town, he said, adding that he thinks the fireworks on the bay will be some of the best around.

I don't think this year is going to be quite as busy as the past, but I think were going to see some strong numbers, he added.

To accommodate the fireworks show and the influx in visitors, BART will be providing additional trains at the Embarcadero station after regular service ends, advising attendees to be at the station by 10:40 p.m. to catch a train home.

Regular BART service will end at 9:00 p.m. on July 4, and passengers will be able to enter the system only at the Embarcadero Station after regular BART service ends.

About 30 minutes after the fireworks display ends, BART will run two sets of special event trains from the Embarcadero Station to Richmond, Antioch, Berryessa and SFO/Millbrae making all station stops. Muni will also be providing shuttles along the Embarcadero to BART, and passengers are encouraged to load their clipper cards in advance with enough funds to get home after the show to avoid long lines. Masks are still required on the trains, and on Monday, July 5 BART will return to normal weekday service.

San Franciscos pyrotechnic display comes as many parched Bay Area counties crack down on home firework shows over the holiday weekend. Drought conditions only continue to worsen in the state, with Santa Clara fire officials warning they would be adopting a zero tolerance policy this year. San Mateo County announced at the start of June that it would be increasing the fine for illegal fireworks tenfold  from $100 to $1,000 per incident  with a separate $1,000 fine applicable to any party host where fireworks are lit, either legal or illegal.

Instead, party-goers and fireworks enthusiasts are being told to watch firework displays at authorized professional shows or on television.

Chef Amaryll Schwertner owns Ferry Building staple Boulettes Larder, which will be closed during the firework show.

Its not something we participate in, she said, citing the large crowds and security concerns in the Ferry Building.

Also returning to the San Francisco waterfront is the Bay Ferry service. Starting Thursday, the ferry service will be increasing rides to and from the city for both visitors and commuters. The Bay Ferry will operate a record number of 136 weekday transbay departures on five routes, and a new ferry service will offer direct 20-minute trips between the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal at Alameda Point and Downtown San Francisco.

San Francisco Fleet Week will make its return in October with its air show, Parade of Ships and the humanitarian village and joint military and civilian disaster planning exercises. The annual event honoring the men and women of the United States armed forces attracts millions of vistors each year and generates over $10 million in annual revenue for the city.

Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco, said at the conference that the port is proud to welcome back large events to the waterfront and eager to have local residents and visitors return.

The waterfront has something for everyone with more exciting opportunities on the horizon, she added.

San Francisco Chronicle visuals intern Nina Riggio contributed to this report.

Emma Talley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: emma.talley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EmmaT332
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This Fourth of July weekend, one of the best deals in the outdoors is an hour-long boat tour for $20 on San Francisco Bay out of Fishermans Wharf.

On Saturday and Sunday, from noon to sunset, seven fishing boats will be lined up along Jefferson Street near Pier 45. Along the sidewalk fronting the boats, a deckhand will say, Cmon aboard. Just show up with a 20 and away you go.

No reservations or advance tickets are needed.

Most of the vessels are 49-foot Deltas  rock solid on the bay, yet still small enough that you feel close to the water. When enough people are aboard, the captain will guide the boat out to the Golden Gate Bridge, across the bay to Alcatraz and then back along the San Francisco waterfront.

This can be the best $20 you ever spent, said Frank Rescino, owner of the Lovely Martha.

The trip starts when you slowly exit the harbor, then enter the open water of the bay with views across the water to the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island and Alcatraz. You then turn left and cruise past Aquatic Park and along Marina Green and Crissy Field, and then venture offshore past the Presidio and Fort Point en route to the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

In all weather conditions, cruising under the Golden Gate is a dramatic moment. The towers rise 746 feet above the water and, in summer, often disappear into the fog. Even socked in, youll see the amber glow of the bridge lights and hear the booming foghorn as you circle the massive concrete footing of the South Tower. Its a classic San Francisco moment you wont soon forget.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

In clear weather, the views north to the Marin Headlands and its hidden beaches at the foot of the bluffs are spectacular.

Once everybody has their photos, the trip ventures to Alcatraz. To your left are Richardson Bay, Raccoon Strait and Angel Island. To your right is a sweeping view of the San Francisco waterfront and Coit Tower. Eventually you reach Alcatraz, which is smaller than many imagine.

Youll also see fishing boats, ferries, sailboats, tankers and freighters. By then, you realize that life on the water provides a unique perspective to even the most famous landmarks.

You then turn back toward San Francisco. The boats always cruise past Pier 39, where sea lions often are lying around on rafts, and then along the waterfront back to Fishermans Wharf. Many of the captains help bring the trip to life with stories of their days on the salt and the history of many sites.

If you go

At Fishermans Wharf, party boats offering bay tours: the Lovely Martha, (415-509-5552, www.lovelymartha.com), Chuckys Pride (415-564-5515, www.chuckyspride.com) and Bass-Tub (415-456-9055, www.basstub.com). Others boats (without a website) offering tours include the Flying A, Amigo, Serendipity and Hyperfish.

Most captains also offer special charter cruises, including the popular Sunset Cruise. A typical charter for the Lovely Martha, for instance, costs $500 per hour for a two-hour minimum with a capacity of 49 people. That works out to about $20 per person.

For those who want a more formal experience on a larger vessel, both the Red and White Fleet and Blue & Gold Fleet are again running this summer with a variety of tours.

The Red and White Fleet (415-673-2900, www.redandwhite.com) departs from Pier 43 on the Embarcadero. Bay Tours are available for $38 for adults, $29 for youth 5 to 17, with advance tickets available online.

Trips on the Blue & Gold Fleet (415-705-8200, www.blueandgoldfleet.com) depart from Pier 39 on the Embarcadero. Tickets for the San Francisco Bay Cruise are available online, $35 for adults, $30 for ages 12 to 18, $25 for children 5 to 11.

Tom Stienstra is The Chronicles outdoor writer emeritus. Email: tomstienstra2021@gmail.com. Twitter: @StienstraTom.
An early accuser of disgraced comedian Bill Cosby has spoken out after his conviction was overturned Wednesday, a shocking decision that has ignited a firestorm of fury.

Helen Hayes came forward in 2014 with allegations of sexual assault, in an incident at a Pebble Beach event in 1973.

I always thought I was alone. Im not going to tell anybody. Silence. Theyll think youre crazy, said Hayes in an interview with KPIX.

She went on, telling the station that she "thought he was just going to die in there on bread and water."

It just upsets me that it could happen that he can get out. He deserves to be in there. Hes evil."

The decision was not made out of any consideration over Cosby's guilt; he and former Montgomery Couny District Attorney Bruce Castor  perhaps better known in recent years as part of President Donald Trump's defense team in his 2021 impeachment trial  struck a deal to not charge him after the bombshell 2005 deposition that was used for his conviction a decade later.

In that case, Andrea Constand accused Cosby of drugging and assaulting  the case was initially settled out of court.

Montgomery County District Atorney Kevin Steele later said that Cosby's freedom hinged on a procedural issue that is irrelevant to the facts of the crime.

Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown also spoke out shortly after the conviction was reversed, but in defense of Cosby  a longtime friend. He allegedly attempted to reach out to Cosby upon hearing of his release.

In an interview with KGO, he shamed the approximately 60 women who accused Bill Cosby of rape, sexual misconduct, assault and battery for not speaking out sooner.

"If they were absolutely accurate in telling the truth, why would you wait from 1969 to 2018 to tell the story?" Brown told KGO.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. Navy's daredevil fighter jet pilots, the Blue Angels, are slated to return to the skies over San Francisco this fall, after a one-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fleet Week San Francisco confirmed Thursday its annual event will return Oct. 3 to 11 with the usual lineup of airplane stunts, ship tours and a nautical parade.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for goop

The Fillmore corridor in Pacific Heights is known for high-end, luxury shopping, but even a shop that sold $1,000 dresses and $75 bottles of olive oil couldnt make it through the pandemic.

The Goop Lab at 2121 Fillmore St. will not reopen after remaining closed since the store first shuttered under the initial shelter-in-place order back in March 2020. Gwyneth Paltrows oft-criticized brand had hosted two pop-up stores in San Francisco before the Pac Heights store debuted in November 2019.
When construction started on Van Ness Avenue in 2016, the city said the transit improvement project would be completed by 2019. It is now June 2021, and construction is ongoing.

Local business owners say the construction has had an outsize impact on business.

"Oh my god, since we opened two-and-a-half years ago, we are in the middle of the construction," said Wael Naber, whose son Shadi Naber owns Salty's at 748 Van Ness. "It's really, really, very bad for business."

Wael Naber said customers intentionally avoid the restaurant given the construction. Online orders sometimes cancel because delivery drivers don't want to deal with the hassle that is Van Ness.

"What are you going to do?" asked Naber. "We have to be patient."

The Van Ness corridor is a vital connector between neighborhoods. It serves as the main artery between the southern center of the city and Marin, and it's dotted with restaurants, car dealerships and banks, among many other businesses.

In 2003, voters approved a proposition allocating tax dollars to provide rapid transit service on Van Ness. Supervisors approved the estimated $346 million project 10 years later. Construction broke ground in 2016, with the goal of being finished three years later. New projections say the project will be completed six years after its start date, in 2022.

A new report from the San Francisco grand jury attempts to make sense of the Van Ness mess. Therein, it describes how the estimated total cost of the project increased from $309 million to $346 million  a 12% increase  and attempts to make sense of the long delays.

The report traces the problem to three issues: It says that planning and design processes "failed to capture the scope of the project adequately;" contracting processes did not instill accountability; and ongoing project management "failed to remediate problems efficiently and effectively."

San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency has pushed back against the report's findings. The agency told the San Francisco Examiner that "the report tells a one-sided story with little emphasis on the contractor's roles and responsibilities."

Multiple key issues in the report  have all been the subject of contractor claims which were resolved in a way that acknowledged shared responsibility between the SFMTA and the contractor," SFMTA spokesperson Erica Kato told the Examiner.

In the meantime, businesses on Van Ness are making do, and some say the impact of construction has leveled off.

"When it first started, there was a great, great impact financially," said Blanca Ramos, the manager at Peet's Coffee on Van Ness. "Right now, it's pretty neutral."
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Charles Schwab appears ready to keep significant operations in Omaha after it finishes its integration of TD Ameritrade because it is hiring more than 200 people in the city.

The new jobs will add to the roughly 2,200 people that Schwab already employs in Omaha where TD Ameritrade was based before Schwab acquired last year in a $22 billion deal. The Omaha jobs are also part of a nationwide hiring push at Schwab to fill 1,000 jobs in Texas where its new headquarters will be and another 200 jobs in California.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The owner of Gulf of Mexico oil wells broken in 2004 cannot demand damages from a federal contractor who says his equipment has captured enough oil to fill scores of tank trucks, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a decision that Taylor Energy Co. LLC cannot sue Couvillion Group LLC for trespass because Couvillion has a federal contract to contain oil from a spill that began when Hurricane Ivan toppled a Taylor platform off Louisiana.

Representatives of Taylor, which sold its leases and assets four years after the rig was destroyed and now exists only for the specific purpose of dealing with the accident, did not respond to an email and telephone call seeking comment Thursday.

The company has consistently said that oil stirred up from sediments, rather than leaking wells, is the main cause of a persistent sheen on the surface, and that it involves much less oil than others say.

Timmy Couvillion, president and CEO of Couvillion Group, disagrees.

"Taylor Energy has continuously made the assertions that the sky is not blue and if we say it, saying it makes it true, he said Thursday.

This is a money-grubbing story, said his attorney, Patrick McShane.

McShane said the suit is among 11 that Taylor has filed in attempts to get $432 million out of a federal escrow account set up to stop the leaks if engineers ever figure out how to do that.

Taylor plugged some of the wells but says further attempts would endanger workers and create a much greater environmental danger than currently exists.

In 2019, a federal judge in Washingon, D.C., dismissed a suit saying the U.S. Interior Department should be made to return the money.

The underwater mudslide that overturned Taylors platform also dragged it nearly 560 feet (170 meters) and buried the pipe casings for its cluster of 28 oil wells under up to 165 feet (50 meters) of sediment.

The well bores for the 28 wells ... rest in a tangled web, U.S. District Judge Gerard Guidry noted in his August 2020 summary judgment dismissing Taylors claims against Couvillion.

The 5th Circuit upheld his ruling that Couvillions contract with the Coast Guard was valid and correctly supervised, and makes the company immune to trespass claims.

The agency had ordered Taylor to end the leak in October 2018, one day after The Washington Post published an article including what was then a new estimate that 10,500 to 29,400 gallons (39,747 to 111,291 liters) of oil was leaking daily.

Taylor sued to block that order the same day it sued Couvillion Group, which was hired in November 2018.

Couvillion set up its containment system on April 12, 2019, and had captured 735,000 gallons (nearly 2.8 million liters) by late May, according to its reports.

That would be enough to fill about 58 large tanker trailers.

The amount of oil coming from the area has been a contentious issue from the start.

A study by Taylor consultants, published last year in a peer-reviewed journal, said the sheens contained synthetics that probably came from work done before 2012.

Though they said Couvillion's figures had never been verified, the consultants noted that the containment tent ... has resulted in a substantial reduction in the frequency and extent of surface sheens.

This respite should be used to have the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine study what could be done, they wrote.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  Thousands of Indonesians lined up at a sports stadium to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose Thursday in a one-day, mass vaccination event thats part of a push to dramatically scale up the nations virus fight as hospitals fill with sick patients.

Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo announced new community restrictions and the mobilization of the National Police and other resources to combat the surging infections.

The efforts follow a warning earlier this week from the Red Cross that Indonesia is on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe" and urgently needs to increase medical care, testing and vaccinations.

The emergency restrictions on public activity are to take effect Saturday through July 20 on Indonesia's main island of Java and the popular tourist island of Bali. I call on people to be disciplined in complying with these restrictions for the safety of all, Widodo said.

He said the government will mobilize civil servants and healthcare workers. The Health Ministry will continuously increase hospital capacity, centralized isolation facilities as well as the availability of medicines, medical equipment and oxygen tanks, he said.

Thursdays mass vaccination event was part of efforts to reach a target of 1 million doses per day in July and 2 million in August.

At the stadium in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, local authorities aimed to vaccine 25,000 people. Tanti Rohilawati, chief of Bekasis health agency, said more than 1,500 health care workers, including 550 to give the shots, were involved in the event.

More than 80% of beds at the Bekasi city hospital are filled, and Mayor Rahmat Effendi said tents were set up in the hospital's parking lot to treat COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe symptoms.

Similar conditions were seen elsewhere. A Red Cross COVID-19 hospital in Bogor, outside of Jakarta, was overflowing and using emergency tents as well.

The world's fourth-most populous country has seen a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. Indonesia had its deadliest day with 504 people confirmed deaths from the virus on Thursday, while new cases set another record at 24,836. The country has recorded a total of 2,203,108 cases, including 58,995 deaths.

Indonesia aims to inoculate more than 181 million of its 270 million people by March 2022, but authorities have only fully vaccinated 13.6 million people and partially vaccinated another 16.6 million others so far.

On Wednesday, raw materials for 14 million doses of the China-developed Sinovac vaccine arrived. The country has received 118.7 million doses produced by Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

___

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report.
Much has changed in the United States energy landscape over recent years. With Ferrari Energy celebrating its seventh anniversary in June, they share their experience helping landowners realize the benefits and profits they deserve from their land.

Much has changed in the seven years that Ferrari Energy has been in business. The United States has become the world's leading producer of oil, overtaking Saudi Arabia. At the same time, natural gas has become the leading fuel source for the generation of electricity in the country.

While companies are searching for new ways to focus on renewable energy sources, there seems to be no stopping alternative, cleaner sources such as natural gas.

These massive changes in the U.S. energy landscape have forced energy companies to make significant changes, too. Along the way, Ferrari Energy has evolved with the industry.

In seven years in business, Ferrari Energy has completed more than 2,500 transactions and deployed more than $150 million in capital.

Ferrari Energy's business model deploys capital into mineral interest and non-operated working interest and provides much-needed liquidity to a volatile marketplace. This funding can prove to be essential in a market that is proving to be highly volatile.

Since 2005, analysts from the Energy Department have said it's becoming tougher and tougher to predict the U.S. markets for electricity, oil, and gas. This unpredictability makes it difficult for companies, lawmakers, policymakers, and homeowners to make decisions about how to move forward.

Recent research published in Nature Energy revealed that the volatility in all markets is seen in price, demand, and product. It also showed how the volatility could be extreme from just one year to the next.

We have stuck by our family-owned philosophies of educating landowners and serving the needs of the people who live in the communities it serves in uncertain times, stated Adam Ferrari, founder and CEO of Ferrari Energy. Celebrating its seventh anniversary in June 2021, the company emphasizes the importance of affordable and abundant gas and oil resources.

Founded in 2014, Ferrari Energy works with landowners in a partnership to ensure they receive the benefits and profits from their land to which they are entitled. Ferrari's clients have consistently received premium value for the transactions they've conducted because the company has been able to stay ahead of the times in an ever-changing industry.

Starting in Denver, Colorado, the company quickly expanded to other states. Currently, the team at Ferrari has provided services in Colorado, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah. It is also looking to expand in the coming years into Texas, Montana, and Oklahoma to assist and educate homeowners on the rights in those states.

About Ferrari Energy:

Ferrari Energy is a family-owned private oil and gas company focused on mineral and leasehold acquisitions. Founded in Denver, CO, with a focus on educating landowners, Ferrari Energy has consistently served the needs of the landowner community in the basins in which it works. Its operation covers several areas throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and ND. Ferrari Energy has provided oil and gas leases to over 850 homeowners and held multiple lease signing events to accommodate the residents of Broomfield, Colorado.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: https://www.prweb.com/releases/ferrari_energy_a_family_owned_private_oil_and_gas_company_celebrates_seven_years_in_business/prweb18042713.htm
Barbara Rich/Getty Images

Officials with the Glenn County Sheriff's Office received multiple calls in June 2017 from family and friends of 41-year-old Jennifer Moore.

She had seemingly vanished, and for more than four years, was still missing  until a local found her remains a few months ago.
With the return of single rider lines this week, and fireworks this weekend, Disneyland is rapidly returning to the park people knew and loved before its pandemic closure. But theres one thing that has been top of mind for many park guests: Fast Passes havent come back yet, and there is no indication from the company as to when theyll return.

However, bringing them back might just be a mistake.

Fast Passes are limited-supply passes that give guests a return time for more popular rides, allowing them to skip the long standby queue. They're coveted theme park hacks that let people maximize their time in the park, and are often the thing around which people organize their Disneyland days. Before the park's pandemic closure, those passes were little slips of paper distributed from machines outside of rides like Space Mountain and Soarin', but they haven't been available since the park reopened on April 30.

If Fast Passes come back at all, theyll return to Disneyland virtually the same way they had been offered at Walt Disney World before the pandemic  booked through the park app on your smartphone. Theres almost no chance that paper tickets will come back, given Disneys new emphasis on eliminating touch points by encouraging mobile food ordering and, most recently, mobile shopping.

Walt Disney World has also suspended Fast Passes since its reopening last July. Those parks did away with paper Fast Passes in 2014, instead switching over to a technology-forward model that used the WDW smartphone app to book time slots on available rides, then linked those passes to either a guests ticket or MagicBand, a wristband that can do everything from open hotel room doors to pay for purchases. (Theyve also been called NSA-esque devices that can track your location in real time, which is especially valuable data to Disney about kids, who dont all have smartphones and largely cant be tracked through the Disney park apps.)

Courtesy of Getty

The MagicBand technology, however, never made it to Disneyland, which continued to issue paper Fast Pass tickets until the pandemic closed the park in March 2020. In 2017, the park started offering MaxPass as a way to upgrade the Fast Pass experience. For $10 per ticket per day (it had been increased to $20 when the park closed last year), guests could use the Disneyland app to get a better selection of Fast Passes for the day and book them digitally, rather than having to physically go to each ride and swipe their ticket to get one.

The Walt Disney World model had several effects, though. While it did make it easier to secure Fast Passes and ensure youd get to ride your few must-rides of any given park, it changed the spirit of the thing. You werent going to a park and seeing what you could ride anymore. You now had to book your passes 60 days out, and if you didnt  or if you bought your tickets closer to your park day  youd effectively miss out on all of the best rides, or sacrifice an hour or two of park time to wait in line just to ride one of them. Effectively, if you didnt have the knowledge and foresight to plan a park day two months out, you lost out.

Thats why theres an argument to be made that the paper system at Disneyland was the better one. Sure, in-person passes meant you needed to haul across the park to whatever your must-ride is as fast as you could when you got through the gates, but there was an element of equality to the system that was no longer present at Walt Disney World. Maybe you wouldnt get in the faster line for Space Mountain, but at least you had a fighting chance.

Planning your schedule with Fast Passes, Zoe Wood writes for WDWInfo.com, takes all of the spontaneity out of your Disney adventure. Anyone who visited the parks prior to the FP inception in 1999 would remember that there was a certain charm in not knowing where you were heading next.

If you don't use it, she adds, you are at an extreme disadvantage because so many others will.

The larger problem with Fast Passes, though, is that they can slow down the regular stand-by lines.

When Walt Disney World introduced the new Fast Pass system in 2014, Disney blog TouringPlans.com did an analysis of wait times, and found that while the waits did go down on some rides, they increased on about twice as many, including some of the most in-demand rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise.

We think the increases in wait times here are primarily due to the preferential treatment FastPass+ guests get in boarding these rides, Steve Bloom writes. Its possible for cast members to load 10, 20 or 30 FastPass+ guests for every 1 standby guest in line, and enough people are selecting these attractions as their 3rd FastPass+ choice to make that policy have an impact.

Even with increased capacity at Disneyland and sold-out park days in June, the ride waits, even at peak times, have been comparable to or lower on average than on a pre-pandemic day. Midday on Wednesday, June 30, a sold-out park day, the wait for Big Thunder Mountain was 10 minutes, for Pirates of the Caribbean was 30, and for Indiana Jones was 35. All of those wait times are on the lower end of what you might find on an average Disneyland day before the closure.

Still, it doesnt change how fervently Disney fans are anticipating the return of the passes. When Disneyland announced earlier this week that the park would be reinstating single rider lines on some rides, many Twitter users swiftly responded with a call for Fast Passes. Great, @TimothyDowling tweeted on June 26, Fast pass next please.

Disneyland is great but  they need to figure out the fast pass system again cause their lines are not it, @faytalmusic tweeted on June 23.

Disneyland has no official word on Fast Passes currently beyond what's on the park website, which says the passes, "are suspended for the time being and are not available for purchase or use. We will share future updates at a later date." There has been no indication by Disney as to when Fast Passes will return to any park, or if they will return at all. As of March, Disney World was covering up the signs for the Fast Pass entrances to rides in its parks. The timing is particularly noteworthy because Walt Disney World has been reopen since July 2020. It could be the company doesnt intend to bring them back after all.
After the Gavin Newsom recall petition cleared remaining procedural hurdles Thursday, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis announced recall election day will be Sept. 14.

That date is earlier than initially expected after the state legislature waived its cost analyzing period, with Democratic lawmakers stating that they hoped to hold the election prior to the worst of wildfire and power blackout season when Newsom could be in greater political jeopardy. Most observers originally thought the election would be held in November.

That mid-September date is the earliest county officials said they would be able to conduct an election. The counties said that if the election were held any earlier, they would not be able to print enough ballots.

The recall election ballot will have two questions. The first question will be something along the lines of, "Should Gavin Newsom be recalled?" and the second question will then ask voters to pick a candidate to replace Newsom.

If a majority of voters choose to keep Newsom, the second question is moot and Newsom will remain in office. If a majority of voters choose to remove Newsom, he is immediately disqualified from office and the candidate on the bottom of the ballot who receives the most votes will become governor. The winner only needs a plurality, not a majority, of votes.

So far, there are four major Republican candidates in the race: Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, businessman and Newsom 2018 opponent John Cox, reality television star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, and former Rep. Doug Ose.

Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley and conservative radio host Larry Elder are also considering entering the race.
For the second time this week, a major national news outlet released a report on drama in Vice President Kamala Harris' office.

Unlike Tuesday's CNBC story, which was mostly based on gripes from donors about not keeping their preferred level of access to Harris now that she's vice president, Wednesday's Politico report  headlined "Not a healthy environment': Kamala Harris office rife with dissent" seems to be a bigger deal for the administration.

The report, which conducted interviews with 22 "current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden," alleges that the vice president's office is an "abusive environment" where "people are thrown under the bus from the very top."

"Its not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s," one anonymous official said.

The report is similar to ones released in the aftermath of Harris' failed 2020 presidential bid, where former campaign staffers alleged mistreatment, dysfunction and poor management.

Like the CNBC report, the Politico report includes several quotes from individuals critical of Harris chief of staff Tina Flournoy, a Bill Clinton administration alum. The report also posits that what is particularly noteworthy is the fact that President Joe Biden's team have allegedly "taken notice and are concerned about the way Harris staffers are treated."

Politico reported that those close to Harris fear poor office morale could damage her relationship with the president and his team. After Harris' much-maligned trip to the border, administration officials leaked to CNN that they were "perplexed" by how Harris conducted herself on the trip.

You can read the full Politico report here.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP)  Four more suspects have been arrested in connection with an escape from the Carson City jail last weekend and three others still are being sought, according to authorities.

Carson City Sheriffs officials said at least nine people have been implicated in Saturdays escape of 27-year-old Matthew Marizza and 29-year-old Cody Abernathy.
HONOLULU (AP)  A former administrator of federal coronavirus aid funds allocated for Honolulu was sentenced Wednesday to over three years in prison for embezzling more than $500,000 in taxpayer money.

Hanalei Apioalani, 42, pleaded guilty to embezzling from the AmeriCorps program and agreeing to take a bribe to administer grants through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as CARES. Prosecutors said he and his wife spent the money on themselves, including $22,000 at a hotel beach club, more than $3,000 at a Hawaii water park and more than $10,000 to lease a BMW.

Sentencing was postponed for his wife Angelita Aipoalani, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to embezzle from AmeriCorps. Prosecutors say the program brings volunteers who receive stipends to work in vulnerable and marginalized communities.

The couple flaunted their lavish lifestyle on social media, prosecutors said, including photos of a Ferrari the husband rented for his birthday, the wife sitting in first class during a flight to San Francisco and a $395 dinner at a New York City steakhouse.

Hanalei Apioalani, appearing at his Washington, D.C., sentencing hearing by video from Hawaii, blamed his actions on being naive and immature. He said while he takes responsibility for his crimes, he took issue with the Ferrari, noting that he didn't rent it but posed in front of one at a car wash.

Prosecutors asked for a sentence of five-and-a-half years, while his court-appointed attorney asked for home confinement or jail on the weekends.

He has suffered loss of face," and has been shamed in the community, his attorney H. Heather Shaner said in a court document. Losing face in the Hawaiian culture is a very real punishment, she said. In extreme cases it can be like losing all the senses, or losing one's place in life.

Judge Reggie B. Walton called Apioalani's crimes reprehensible. He said the 46-month sentence has to send a message for defrauding taxpayer money meant to help people during a devastating pandemic.

You had a good time and now you have to pay a price, Walton said.

The judge also said it was cold blooded" to unfairly fire an AmeriCorps member in order to divert the worker's living allowances into Apioalani's bank accounts.

He stole from AmeriCorps by fraudulently enrolling members without their knowledge and diverting their living allowances into accounts he controlled as human resources director of a Hawaii nonprofit, prosecutors said.

To affect his frauds, the Defendant abused multiple positions of trust and treated public funds ear-marked for the most vulnerable and desperate Americans as his own personal piggy bank," prosecutors said in a court document.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third surge of infections, saying Thursday that not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa.

Strive Masiyiwa also took aim at the global effort meant to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, accusing COVAX of withholding crucial information including that key donors hadn't met funding pledges. He didn't name which donors.

The situation could be very different had we known back in December that Listen, this help is not coming, do for yourselves, Masiyiwa told reporters, adding that many countries were just sitting back saying, the vaccines are coming.' ... We as Africans are disappointed."

The criticism revealed African leaders' sheer exasperation at the world's dramatic vaccine divide, with Masiyiwa describing vaccinated, unmasked Europeans attending football matches while just 1% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The continent has the lowest vaccine coverage in the world.

Masiyiwa stressed that Africa has purchased 400 million vaccine doses and can buy more, but he challenged donors: Pay up your money ... We will no longer measure pledges, we will measure vaccines arriving at our airports.

The African continent of 1.3 billion people is now in the grip of a third surge of infections that is extremely aggressive, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. Health officials have described overflowing COVID-19 wards, dangerous oxygen shortages and a growing spread of the virus to extremely vulnerable and unequipped rural areas.

Masiyiwa said COVAX had promised to deliver 700 million vaccine doses to Africa by December. But at mid-year, Africa has received just 65 million doses overall. Less than 50 million doses via COVAX have arrived.

We are very far away from our target, Nkengasong said. We dont want to be seen as the continent of COVID ... (In Europe) the stadiums are full of young people shouting and hugging. We cant do that in Africa.

A spokeswoman for the public health group that manages the U.N.-backed COVAX, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, did not address Masiyiwa's allegations. She said COVAX publishes a supply forecast based on best available information, and said the vaccine shortfall so far this year is because the major COVAX supplier, the Serum Institute of India, diverted production for domestic use.

The World Health Organization in a separate briefing said COVID-19 case numbers are doubling in Africa every three weeks and the highly contagious delta variant is driving the new wave of infections.

And the Lancet COVID-19 Commission African Task Force made an urgent appeal for at least 300 million vaccine doses so every African country can fully vaccinate at least 20% of its people by the end of August. It said 46% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with about 33% in the European Union and about 40% in China.

Nkengasong and Masiyiwa did announce some vaccine progress, saying the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer doses based on U.S. support will begin arriving next week. It was not clear how many doses would be in the shipments. Meanwhile, more African-purchased doses will arrive in August, Masiyiwa said.

The African continent has had 5.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and has seen a remarkable" 23% increase in deaths over the past week, the Africa CDC director said.

He said the continent needs 1.6 billion doses in a double-dose regime, or 800 million for a single-dose regime, to meet the goal of vaccinating 60% of the population.

Masiyiwa gave a frank accounting of where global efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 had sputtered. It became pretty clear by December that the hope that we would all as a global community buy vaccines together through COVAX was not being adhered to, particularly by the rich and powerful nations, he said.

COVAX aimed to provide 20% of Africa's vaccine needs, with African nations stepping up for the rest, he said. But it really doesnt matter how much money your country has, they couldnt buy vaccines ... I never saw presidents try so hard, calling chief executives."

The African continent has relied on vaccine manufacturing capabilities elsewhere in the world, but the COVID-19 vaccine crisis has jolted African leaders into pursuing their own production.

Step by step, Masiyiwa laid out the challenges: Vaccine suppliers require advance purchases, and the World Bank could only lend to countries once vaccines are available. African nations scrambled via the Africa Export-Import Bank, owned by member states, to come up with some $2 billion. African countries created a purchasing platform to improve their buying power.

But the vaccines have been hard to find as countries with manufacturing capabilities imposed controls on export sales in the interest of vaccinating their own citizens first. It was the same whether we were talking to the East, to the West, whatever, Masiyiwa said. This has created a massive crisis."

He took aim at Europe: When we go to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us they're completely maxed out meeting the needs of Europe, were referred to India. But the EU now imposes public health restrictions on people vaccinated with Covishield, the Indian-produced version of the EU-accepted AstraZeneca vaccine.

So how do we get to the situation where they give money to COVAX, who go to India to purchase vaccines, and then they tell us those vaccines are not valid? Masiyiwa said.

Without mentioning the EU issue, COVAX in a statement on Thursday warned against turning away people protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines, saying it would "effectively create a two-tier system, further widening the global vaccine divide.

Some countries engage in so-called vaccine diplomacy and those bilateral donations are welcome, Masiyiwa said, but they're not enough to move the needle.

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
BOSTON (AP)  In the wake of a series of recent drownings in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation Thursday that would increase fines for swimming outside of designated waterfronts in the state.

The bill would boost the maximum fine to $500 for entering or swimming in any waters on Department of Conservation and Recreation property not designated for swimming. The legislation is intended to provide an appropriate penalty for swimming in unsafe areas and deter park visitors from considering unsafe activities, according to the Republican.

Swimming at undesignated waterfronts is dangerous and too often leads to tragic consequences," Baker said in a press release. This legislation is part of a comprehensive plan to discourage risky behavior and ensure the safety of visitors to our state parks and beaches.

Penalties for violating DCR rules and regulations currently vary depending on whether a property was once part of the Metropolitan District Commission, with fines ranging from $20 to $200. Bakers bill would set a uniform maximum fine of $500 for entering or swimming in waters other than those designated for swimming by the DCR.

Undesignated waterfronts do not have services like clearly marked swimming areas with ropes and buoys, lifeguards, and water quality testing. They may also have hazardous features like murky water, steep slopes, and aquatic plant species, creating a potentially dangerous situation for swimmers, officials said.

The state has also been adopting new measures to encourage public safety and discourage swimming at undesignated waterfronts including posting swimming safety signs at DCR parks and beaches, including some in multiple languages at areas like Houghtons Pond within the Blue Hills State Reservation in Canton.

DCR has also increased outreach for the agencys Learn to Swim program, which offers free swimming lessons at 12 locations statewide for people of all ages.

The bill comes as the state has grappled with a series of recent drownings including the death of 38-year-old Worcester Police Officer Enmanuel Manny Familia in June, who drowned while trying to save the life of 14-year-old Troy Love at a pond in the citys Green Hill Park. The teen, who was visiting from Virginia, also drowned.

The new legislation also comes amid a shortage of lifeguards in the state and across the country.

In response, Massachusetts officials are upping pay and offering bonuses in a bid to attract more lifeguards to protect swimmers at the states beaches.

Pay for Department of Conservation and Recreation lifeguards is going up from $17 to $20 an hour. Head lifeguards will start making $21 an hour, up from $18. Lifeguards who remain on the job the entire season can earn a $500 bonus.

Interested individuals can apply online or visit the DCRs lifeguarding webpage, where application information and lifeguard requirements can be found.

Baker's bill now heads to the Massachusetts Legislature for their consideration.
TORONTO - Celebrations of Canada's national day were more subdued than usual in parts of the country Thursday amid mounting fury and grief over the recent discoveries of more than 1,000 unmarked graves on or near the grounds of former residential schools for Indigenous children.

Several communities said that their festivities would be altered. Others said that they were scrapping or postponing them altogether. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resisted calls to cancel virtual celebrations, but said that the Canadian flag on the Peace Tower in Ottawa would remain at half-mast.

In a statement Thursday, Trudeau acknowledged that "for some, Canada Day is not yet a day of celebration."

"We, as Canadians, must be honest with ourselves about out history because in order to chart a new and better path forward, we have to recognize the terrible mistakes of the past," he said. "The truth is we've got a long way to go to make things right with Indigenous peoples."

The holiday comes as Canada grapples with one of the darkest chapters of its not-so-distant history: Wednesday saw the announcement of another discovery of unmarked graves at or near a former school for Indigenous children - at least the third such find since late May.

The Lower Kootenay Band, part of the Ktunaxa First Nation, said ground-penetrating radar had revealed 182 human remains in unmarked graves - some as shallow as three feet - near the grounds of the former St. Eugene's Mission School in British Columbia. The school was run by a Catholic group until it closed in the 1970s.

"It is believed that the remains of these 182 souls are from the member Bands of the Ktunaxa nation, neighboring First Nations communities, & the [local] community of aqam," the Lower Kootenay Band said in a statement.

The Lower Kootenay Band announcement comes one month after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at another former residential school in British Columbia sparked a national reckoning. Last week, an even larger discovery underscored the extent of the abuse.

The discoveries have been vindication for Indigenous people, who have long told stories about the graves, and a visceral, jolting reminder of Canada's mistreatment of them.

Indigenous leaders expect to find many more unmarked graves as communities across the country turn to ground-penetrating radar to unearth dark secrets buried for decades.

"This is the beginning of these discoveries," tweeted Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, on Wednesday.

Nearly 150,000 Indigenous children were sent to the government-funded and often church-run boarding schools, which were set up in the 19th century to assimilate them and operated until the late 1990s. Many students were forcibly separated from their families to be placed in the schools.

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in a 2015 report that many of the students were subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the schools, which barred them from practicing their traditions and speaking their languages. It said that schools carried out "cultural genocide" and effectively institutionalized child neglect.

The commission identified more than 3,000 students who died at the schools, a rate that was far higher than for non-Indigenous school-age children. That number has since grown. Children, who were often malnourished, died of diseases. Others died in fires, accidents or while trying to escape.

Pope Francis, who has expressed sorrow over the graves but stopped short of apologizing for the Catholic Church's role, has agreed to meet with residential school survivors. The Canadian government and some Catholic groups, as well as the Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches of Canada, which also ran the schools, have apologized for their roles in the abuse.

Since the first graves were discovered, more than a half-dozen churches across the country, including a number on Indigenous land, have been vandalized or burned. Authorities have cast the fires as suspicious.

On Wednesday, police in Alberta and Nova Scotia said that they were investigating two suspicious fires at Roman Catholic churches, at least the fifth and sixth such fires in 10 days. Others churches have been defaced. In Saskatchewan, a Catholic church was splattered with red handprints and the words, "We were children."

Trudeau on Wednesday denounced the spate of vandalism and the fires.

"This is not the way to go," he said. "The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable and it must stop."

"Hate-inspired violence, burning down faith communities, targeting them with these acts of violence and intimidation is not reconciliation," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney told reporters as he toured the charred remains of a century-old church in the town of Morinville.

Bellegarde, the First Nations chief, urged restraint.

"I can understand the frustration and the anger and the hurt and the pain," he said. "But to burn things down is not our way."
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has raised $1.2 million in her bid for reelection, her campaign announced Thursday.

The Republican incumbent's fundraising could deter challengers from either side of the aisle in the 2022 election. In a bit of saber-rattling, her campaign made the sizable figure known ahead of mandatory election filings.

The people of Alabama are energized and enthusiastic for 2022, and I could not be more grateful to them for their overwhelming support of my re-election campaign, Ivey said in a statement.

Ivey, 76, announced four weeks ago that shes running for reelection. She made the announcement in a video message released by her campaign. The governor emphasized her administrations investment in infrastructure; job creation, Alabamas pandemic recovery and the state's low unemployment rate.

Campaign finance records show that Ivey had a campaign balance of under $200,000 at the end of 2020. She has garnered a number of major contributions since announcing her bid for office.

Ivey is the states second female governor and the first Republican woman elected to the position.

She had been lieutenant governor when she succeeded Gov. Robert Bentley in 2017.

She won election to her first full term the next year, defeating first a field of primary challengers and then Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox in the general election.

Ivey, who is two years younger than President Joe Biden, faced indirect questions about her health during the 2018 race, but easily won her partys nomination and then the general election.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked the council that screens and nominates judicial applicants Thursday for a new slate of candidates for a state Supreme Court vacancy. He questioned why a judge, who was pushed by his recent council appointee, wasn't among the finalists.

The finalists advanced last month by the Alaska Judicial Council were Anchorage Superior Court judges Dani Crosby, Jennifer Stuart Henderson and Yvonne Lamoureux. In a release dated May 25, the council said Dunleavy had 45 days to choose from among them.

Under its bylaws, the council will not reconsider names submitted to the governor after nominees are submitted unless the disability, death, withdrawal or unavailability due to appointment to another position of one or more of them leaves the governor with less than two names.

Jeff Turner, a Dunleavy spokesperson, by email said Dunleavy is asking the council to forward him the names of all the applicants for the open position on the court. Dunleavy's letter requests a new slate of names to choose from for the seat.

It's not clear what happens if an appointment is not made within the 45-day window. Susanne DiPietro, the council's executive director, by email said in the past, governors have always ended up making appointments from among the Councils original nominees.

She noted Dunleavy in 2019 did appoint a council nominee to a Superior Court judgeship, though after the deadline. Dunleavy at the time had raised questions about the selection process but filled the seat after a meeting with then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger that he said provided important clarification about process.

The group seeking to recall Dunleavy listed the failure to make a timely appointment as one of its grounds for seeking a recall election.

Dunleavy told reporters Thursday: We'll follow the constitution, and we'll follow the law.

Dunleavy, in his letter Thursday, questioned why Kotzebue Superior Court Judge Paul Roetman was bypassed. He cited Roetman's time as a judge and experience in rural Alaska. Roetman was one of seven applicants for the Supreme Court seat that was being vacated by Bolger.

Dunleavy said over the past several months he's heard a number of concerns regarding the representation of rural Alaska in the Judiciary.

The people of Alaska, including myself, wonder how someone like Judge Roetman is qualified to sit where he currently is but not have his name put forward for consideration to the Alaska Supreme Court? Dunleavy wrote.

Kristie Babcock, a Dunleavy appointee to the council, in an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News in May said Bolger killed Roetman's nomination as a tie-breaking vote on the matter.

She also complained about the selection process.

The council has three public members and three members who are lawyers. The chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court chairs the council and only votes when necessary, the council says on its website. It says its selection process is merit-based.
NEW YORK (AP)  Top Trump Organization executive surrenders ahead of expected charges on tax crimes.
Part of the Arctic is nicknamed the Last Ice Area, because floating sea ice there is usually so thick that its likely to withstand global warming for decades. So, scientists were shocked last summer when there was suddenly enough open water for a ship to pass through.

The opening, documented by scientists aboard a German icebreaker, popped up in late July and August in the Wandel Sea north of Greenland. Mostly it was due to a freak weather event, but thinning sea ice from decades of climate change was a significant factor, according to a study Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.

While scientists have said most of the Arctic could be free of summer sea ice by mid-century, the Last Ice Area was not part of that equation. They figure the 380,000-square-mile (1-million-square-kilometer) area wont be ice-free in the summer until around 2100, said study co-author Kent Moore, a University of Toronto atmospheric physicist.

Its called the Last Ice Area for a reason. We thought it was kind of stable, said co-author Mike Steele, a University of Washington oceanographer. Its just pretty shocking. ... In 2020, this area melted out like crazy.

Scientists believe the area  north of Greenland and Canada  could become the last refuge for animals like polar bears that depend on ice, said Kristin Laidre, a co-author and biologist at the University of Washington.

The main cause for the sudden ice loss was extraordinary strong winds that pushed the ice out the region and down the coast of Greenland, Moore said.

That had happened in smaller, infrequent episodes, but this time was different, Moore said. The researchers used computer simulations and 40 years of Arctic sea data to calculate that there was a significant climate change signal"  about 20%, they estimate  in the event, Moore said.

In the past, thicker Wandel Sea ice would have resisted the strong winds, but in 2020 it was thinner and more easily broken up and pushed out, said National Snow and Ice Data Center scientist Walt Meier, who wasnt part of the study.

Another part of the Last Ice Area, off Canadas Ellesmere Island, had open waters after the July 2020 collapse of part of the Milne ice shelf, but scientists are still studying it to determine if there is a climate change connection, Moore said.

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Read stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
PHOENIX (AP)  Republican lawmakers on Wednesday dropped a push to significantly expand Arizona's school voucher program, instead adopting limited changes before adjourning one of the longest legislative sessions in state history.

The agreement on vouchers and a handful of other disputes ended a stalemate between the House and Senate that held up the final pieces of the state budget and kept lawmakers in session for 171 days.

Three House Republicans had balked at a Senate-approved plan to open the voucher program to about 600,000 new low-income students. Instead, they agreed only to shorten waiting periods for the roughly 250,000 children already eligible.

The voucher dispute highlighted the contentious nature of the 2021 session, in which Republicans had razor-thin majorities in both the House and Senate. Opposition from any any of the 31 Republicans in the House or the 16 in the Senate was enough to kill legislation if no Democrats were on board, creating what Republican Rep. John Kavanagh called 47 governors with veto power.

Despite the narrow margins and the failure on school vouchers, Republicans advanced a staunchly conservative agenda this year that included massive tax cuts focused primarily on the wealthy, new abortion restrictions, limits on sexual education and election law changes.

Democrats were frustrated. This as been a really trying session, said Rep. Charlene Fernandez, a Democrat from Yuma.

In the final hours of the session on Wednesday, Republicans gave up on the push to expand the voucher program to cover more than half the state's 1.1 million public school children.

Under the agreement, children who already qualify for the program will no longer have to spend 100 days in a public school before receiving a voucher to pay for private-school tuition. Children who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and live in the boundaries of a poorly rated public school will be eligible immediately, while others will have to spend 45 days in their public school.

With the shorter waiting period, they dont have to linger and struggle in the school, said Sen. Paul Boyer, a Glendale Republican who advocated for the full expansion.

The school could be a great school, but it might not work for that kid, Boyer said.

The voucher program is open to foster children and those with special needs, living on a Native American reservation or attending a poorly rated school. Children with parents in the military, a blind or deaf parent, or a sibling who gets a voucher also qualify.

Boyer had hoped to open the program to all children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and those receiving Title I services.

Republicans have called Boyer's proposal a lifeline for low-income students, while Democrats argue it would siphon money from already underfunded public schools.

Just three years ago, Arizona voters by a 2-1 margin rejected a universal school voucher plan passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by Ducey.

Children in struggling schools need the Legislature to focus on improving their schools, said Sen. Martin Quezada, a Democrat from Glendale.

They dont need a parachute or an escape to take them out of their neighborhood, Quezada said. They need us to invest in their neighborhood.

The state Department of Education says about 250,000 students are now eligible, but only about 9,800 students are currently getting vouchers and half are disabled children attending specialized schools. Technically called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, they cost the state about $145 million a year. Parents get 90% of the state funds that would otherwise go to their local public school to use for private school tuition and other education costs. Disabled students can receive up to $40,000 for specialized therapy.

The House and Senate also voted to increase the daily payments given to lawmakers from outside Maricopa County to cover their costs for staying in Phoenix during the legislative session. If Ducey signs off, rural lawmakers' per diem will be tied to the rate for federal employees traveling on business to Phoenix, currently $207.

Currently, Maricopa County lawmakers get $35 a day while rural legislators get $60. The new rates would continue to drop after 120 days of session, as they do now.

Supporters of the increase said the current rates, which were last changed in 1984, fall far short of the cost to maintain safe housing in Phoenix. Several critics said the Legislature shouldn't be rushing through such a change on the last day of the legislative session.

Ducey vetoed similar legislation two years ago that would have also boosted payments to legislators who live locally.

At 171 days, the 2021 session was tied for the third longest since the modern 90-member legislature was established in 1965, according to an almanac maintained by the Arizona Capitol Times.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  A bridge thats crucial to delivering desperately needed food to much of Ethiopias embattled Tigray region has been destroyed, aid groups said Thursday as Tigray fighters were said to be approaching other combatants occupying large areas nearby.

The destruction of the bridge over the Tekeze River means aid efforts will be even more severely hampered than before, the International Rescue Committee said in a statement. Tigray has the worlds worst hunger crisis in a decade, with the United States saying up to 900,000 people face famine conditions in a situation it calls entirely man-made.

It was not immediately clear who destroyed the bridge on a main supply route linking western Tigray, which is occupied by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, and the rest of Tigray.

Aid groups were looking into reports of other key bridges destroyed. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's government has prohibited aircraft to fly below 29,000 feet within the airspace over Tigray, according to a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration notice posted Wednesday.

The Tigray forces, emboldened after retaking the regional capital this week in a stunning turn in the eight-month war with Ethiopias military, have taken control of key towns this week, and several thousand of its fighters had been seen to be moving west.

The spokesman for the Tigray forces this week told The Associated Press they would liberate the region from enemies including the Ethiopian forces, Amhara forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.

Ethiopias government, under pressure from battlefield losses amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war, this week declared an immediate and unilateral cease-fire. Witnesses have seen Eritrean forces retreating toward the border Eritrea shares with Tigray.

Amhara authorities have warned the Tigray forces against trying to retake western areas. The Amhara regional spokesman, Gizachew Muluneh, told the AP an investigation would be carried out into the bridge's destruction. Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getinet Adane said that we have the information about it but it will be disclosed in a press conference.

The bridge's destruction is disastrous, tweeted the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. There are just four main roads into the Tigray region of 6 million people and now only one might be passable, Samantha Power said, since one is blocked by Amhara forces and another by fighting.

Frances U.N. ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said the body would most likely hold an open meeting Friday afternoon on developments in Tigray that would include political and humanitarian briefings.

He said at a news conference that the council should again demand humanitarian access to Tigray and compliance by the parties with human rights, which have been violated during the conflict.

Humanitarian aid groups have been badly constrained in Tigray, with electricity and communications links still cut in the region. The Tigray fighters, who had long dominated Ethiopias government and military before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have demanded the return of services to the region as a condition of any peace negotiations.

In a recent case of blocking aid, a 29-truck convoy carrying World Food Program supplies was denied access and had to return to the Amhara region earlier this week, a U.N. humanitarian worker said. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

A WFP spokesman, Peter Smerdon, told the AP the Tekeze bridges destruction will have an impact, but we are currently assessing how much of an impact and whether there is an alternative route we could use to bring in urgently needed food stocks from Gondar to our warehouses in Shire.

He did not say how soon those Shire warehouses would be empty if a supply route cannot be found. The rainy season now beginning in Tigray will further complicate matters.

The cease-fire is limited; Ethiopia's government has said it will last only until the end of the crucial farming season in Tigray, which means September.
REDDING, Calif. (AP)  Hundreds of firefighters worked Thursday in high heat to beat back three large wildfires in the forests of far Northern California, where the flames destroyed several homes and forced some communities to evacuate.

Mount Shasta, the volcano that towers over the region, was shrouded in a haze from smoke plumes that could be seen in images from weather satellites in space.

The scene was ominously reminiscent of last year's California wildfire season, which scorched more than 6,562 square miles (17,000 square kilometers) of land, the most in the state's recorded history.

An extraordinary Pacific Northwest heat wave that extended into the upper reaches of California was slowly receding, but it was only expected to cool off slightly before temperatures trend back up heading into the Fourth of July weekend, forecasters said.

It is very hot and dry, said Suzi Johnson, a Shasta-Trinity National Forest spokeswoman for the Salt Fire, which broke out Wednesday and grew to 7 square miles (18 square kilometers), shutting several lanes of Interstate 5 and prompting evacuation orders for some roads in Lakehead, an unincorporated community of around 700 people.

A reporter for the Redding Record Searchlight saw at least a dozen buildings destroyed south of Lakehead, including homes, garages and outbuildings, the paper reported.

Johnson told the paper that investigators were trying to locate a car that may have started the fire Wednesday afternoon near Interstate 5 when hot pieces or parts apparently flew off and ignited dry brush.

About 300 firefighters battled the blaze but were hampered by hot weather and challenging terrain, officials said.

The fire was a threat to homes around Shasta Lake north of the city of Redding, more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of San Francisco. The huge lake is popular with vacationers, but its water level is dramatically low because of the drought.

No building damage was reported from two other northern fires, which erupted as California and the rest of the U.S. West was mired in a historic drought tied to climate change.

To the north, the Lava Fire burning partly on the flanks of Mount Shasta grew to nearly 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) and was 25% contained. Evacuation orders for communities near the city of Weed were still in effect.

The steep, rocky terrain challenged nearly 1,300 firefighters battling the blaze, which was ignited by lightning last week.

To the northeast, the Tennant Fire that broke out Monday in the Klamath National Forest and forced evacuations grew to about 15 square miles (38 square kilometers). The fire was expected to advance north toward Oregon, and its cause was being investigated.

Many of California's national parks have restrictions on campfires, cooking and smoking because of fire risks in the hot, dry summer. The parks are bracing for large crowds over the holiday weekend.

Fire authorities throughout California also have stepped up campaigns urging people not to use fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July, citing both the explosive dangers and the threat of wildfires in the withering conditions.

The fuels are bone dry, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said at a news conference. We are extremely concerned about the use of fireworks of all kinds.

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Antczak reported from Los Angeles.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  The third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House is embarking on a listening tour to talk up the Biden administration's federal aid package and push for Medicaid expansion in states that have not taken that step.

On a Thursday call with reporters, U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn laid out his Help is Here town hall tour, which will focus on rural and low-income communities in his native South Carolina. Kicking off Tuesday in Ridgeland, he'll make stops in Manning, North Charleston, Santee and Hopkins over the following week.

Throughout the state, Clyburn said he will be highlighting the benefits of the American Rescue Plan, signed into law in March by President Joe Biden. That includes an expanded child tax credit that will pay out up to $300 per month for qualified parents.

Clyburn said representatives from the Internal Revenue Service will be on hand at the events to answer questions. Also at the town halls, Clyburn said that community health center workers will be available to provide COVID-19 vaccines for those who are eligible.

All of us are aware of how catastrophic COVID-19 has been to rural and low-income communities, Clyburn said. And what we have seen in the Biden administration is a very comprehensive program to build back better.

Also on Clyburn's agenda is his argument for the need to close gaps in Medicaid services. A dozen Republican-led states, including South Carolina, have resisted expanding coverage under a key provision of former President Barack Obamas health care law, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court for the third time in a decade.

The financial incentives that are included in the Biden administration's nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill have proved to be a hard sell, according to a survey by The Associated Press. Some Republicans in those states have softened their opposition, while key gatekeepers  governors or legislative leaders  indicate they have no plans to change course.

Gov. McMaster isnt for sale, regardless of whatever ill-conceived incentives congressional Democrats may come up with, spokesman Brian Symmes told the AP earlier this year. What the federal spending plan does is attempt to offer a short term solution for a long term problem.

Under the enticement included in the coronavirus relief bill, the federal government would boost its share of costs in the regular Medicaid program, which offers coverage for the poorest Americans. The bump in federal funding would last two years for the states that join the Medicaid expansion and comes on top of a 90% federal match for the costs of covering the newly insured through the expansion.

A handful of states are taking action. Oklahoma began its expansion on Thursday. In Missouri, voters approved an expansion but GOP legislators balked at funding it, and a judge last month ruled that the ballot question there was unconstitutional.

Clyburn said Thursday that he had been working on another way to implement expansion in the remaining states, without giving details.

I'm going to be working here in the Congress, over the next several months, to try to get the federal work-around in those states that refuse to expand Medicaid, Clyburn said. We've been working on it for some time now, and I think that we're beginning to get some traction.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twiter.com/MegKinnardAP.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  After six years of preparations and delays, most of North Carolina's Medicaid recipients switched over to managed care Thursday with its developers hopeful the changes will mean improved health outcomes and controlled costs.

Its been a long time coming, said Rep. Donny Lambeth, a Forsyth County Republican who helped pass the managed care law in 2015 and other legislative adjustments, some finalized just this week.

Four statewide health plans and one multi-regional plan will now handle care for roughly 1.6 million of the nearly 2.5 million consumers covered by Medicaid  mostly poor children and older adults  as well as from another program for children in low- and middle-income families. Another smaller plan for Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians members also has started.

More Medicaid consumers, particularly those with substance abuse issues, developmental disabilities and severe mental health troubles, shift to similar managed care coverage in July 2022.

Its the biggest change to our program in its history, said Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, whose agency awarded the five-year plan contracts  expected to cost $6 billion annually  and carries out the law.

The Medicaid overhaul initially was supposed to start in 2018 or 2019. But it got delayed as Republican legislators and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper were knotted in a budget impasse centered on whether to expand Medicaid to cover hundreds of thousands of adults through the federal Affordable Care Act. Expansion still has not happened.

As the largest state by population yet to switch to managed care, North Carolinas foray into privatized Medicaid will be watched closely by other states and Medicaid experts. In mid-2018, almost 70% of the nations Medicaid enrollees were participating in managed care plans in nearly 40 states, or about 54 million people, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data. Enrollment

For decades, Medicaid has used a traditional fee-for-service process, whereby providers bill the state for each test or procedure. Now health plans will receive monthly payments for each patient enrolled. For example, health plans initially will receive on average $170 monthly for each covered child and $420 for each adult, according to Department of Health and Human Services data.

The plans financial gains or losses will depend on whats left over after medical expenses and other costs. Healthier patients could mean monetary bonuses, with financial penalties possible for poorer outcomes.

Patients have signed up for a health plan  some operated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield and United Healthcare and others with less familiar names like WellCare and AmeriHealth Caritas  or have been enrolled automatically in one. Medical providers have entered into contracts with plans and consumers are being told what to expect.

We feel very good at this point, state Medicaid director Dave Richard said. There will be things that dont work anytime you have something this big, but I think were as prepared as possible come July 1.

Managed care was embraced by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory after Medicaid cost overruns in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Initially, Medicaid spending under managed care will increase, with new administrative and underwriting expenses and more consumers still covered in the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicaid spending this coming year is projected at $18.3 billion, with 70% paid through federal funds and the rest from the state and other sources. Medical service spending is projected to decline as managed care matures.

Lambeth, a former hospital executive, is hopeful eliminating medical redundancies will curb overall costs. Keeping costs under control will require significant DHHS and legislative oversight of the health plans, said Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy.

State officials must "really push them to do all the things that they should be doing or could be doing, Tewarson said in an interview.

Tewarson said she's anxious to see how North Carolina conducts pilot projects that will target further ways to address the non-medical needs of Medicaid patients such as homelessness, transportation and access to healthy foods.

Lambeth said hes concerned some providers are not ready to handle the paperwork that managed care requires. Other small-town doctors or personal care agencies may not have entered contracts with multiple health plans, meaning some patients may learn they cant use those providers.

Michelle White, a director of Cone Healths HomeCare Providers, covering four central counties, said consumers who have been struggling during the pandemic may not realize how managed care could affect them.

Whats going to happen July 1 and the days and the weeks to follow will be somewhat of an awakening as people start to understand that there have been changes with their Medicaid, said White, whose agency will serve about 100 Medicaid managed care patients daily. Were going to have work to do as an industry to really help them get settled into the right plan, the plan thats going to meet their needs.
More than half of all U.S. states have enacted police reforms in the 13 months since George Floyd's death, but critics contend a Missouri measure would go the other way by reducing police accountability while increasing criminal penalties for some protest activities.

Senate Bill 26, sometimes referred to as the police bill of rights," was approved by Missouri lawmakers in May and is awaiting the signature of Republican Gov. Mike Parson, a former sheriff. His spokeswoman said Parson is still reviewing the bill. If signed, it would become law Aug. 28.

George Floyds death in May 2020 prompted soul-searching in many states. Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced last week to 22 1/2 years in prison after being convicted of murder in Floyd's death.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, around 30 states have passed police reform legislation since Floyd was killed. Among the new laws: Nine states and the District of Columbia banned chokeholds, while 12 states and the District of Columbia updated or changed their use of force policies.

My impression is that Missouri is tone deaf to the real reforms that are necessary, said Rod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri NAACP. Missouri just turned its back on it.

Missouri isnt alone in its approach. In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a law providing new protections for police and increasing penalties for protesters involved in property damage or violence.

In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill last month that makes it easier for police to charge activists for public disorder, obstructing a roadway and engaging in unlawful assembly. That bill also adds protections for police, such as restricting circumstances in which an officer may be discharged or disciplined.

The Missouri bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Bill Eigel of St. Charles County, said it takes necessary steps to protect police and the public.

One provision addresses the so-called defund the police movement. It prohibits decreasing the budget for a policing agency by more than 12% compared to the jurisdictions other departments over a five-year period.

The bill comes as some progressives in St. Louis and Kansas City want to reduce police budgets and use the money for things such as mental health services and addiction treatment.

Weve seen both of those large urban areas take steps to slowly move dollars away from their police force, which is absolutely the wrong direction to go," Eigel said. "Ultimately it comes back to supporting law enforcement, which was the original intent of the bill.

Another provision spells out procedures for disciplining police, which Eigel calls the police bill of rights. Among other things, it requires records of any administrative investigation to be confidential and not subject to disclosure under Sunshine Law, except by subpoena or court order. The Sunshine Law is Missouris open records law.

The Missouri bill also puts limits on investigations of officers and provides protection against civil claims unless the officer is criminally convicted.

This gives due process rights for discipline, which was sorely needed, said Kevin Ahlbrand, legislative director for the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police. There is still a process for disciplining an officer. It doesnt protect bad officers.

The bill upgrades the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony if someone vandalizes any public monument or structure on public property. Public structures such as police stations have sometimes been targeted by racial injustice protesters, as have monuments including those honoring the Confederacy. The upgraded charge means, potentially, more jail time and a higher fine.

Another provision creates a new class D misdemeanor for anyone who willfully or recklessly interferes with an ambulance. Racial injustice protesters often march or gather on streets, roads and highways, which authorities say risks blocking access for ambulances and other first responders.

We can absolutely preserve the right of free speech without putting each other in danger, Eigel said.

St. Louis activist Darryl Gray called it an anti-Democracy bill that seeks to threaten and intimidate racial injustice protesters.

It pushes people away from exercising their First Amendment rights, Gray said. We find it all as an assault on democracy and assault on our freedom of speech and our right to peacefully assemble.

A provision in another Missouri bill this session would have allowed use of deadly force against protesters on private property and given immunity to people who run over demonstrators blocking traffic. That proposal was later dropped.
WILBER, Neb. (AP)  A three-judge panel began hearing evidence Wednesday to decide whether a woman should become the first female sentenced to death in Nebraska for her role in the killing and dismemberment of a woman she met through a dating app.

Bailey Boswell was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder last year for the slaying of Sydney Loofe. Boswell's boyfriend during the murder, 54-year-old Aubrey Trail, was sentenced to death last month for fatally strangling Loofe and dismembering her body.

Authorities say Boswell lured Loofe, a 24-year-old clerk at a Menards hardware store, to her death through the dating app Tinder. Loofes body parts were found in garbage bags, cut into 14 pieces and left in ditches along country roads in southeastern Nebraska.

Prosecutors on Wednesday presented graphic autopsy photos to bolster their case that Boswell, 27, deserves to die for the crime.

Prosecutor Doug Warner of the Nebraska attorney general's office argued that Boswell set up three Tinder accounts to arrange dates with women and bought tools that could be used to dismember a body shortly before her last date with Boswell.

Warner pointed to previous testimony from three other women Boswell and Trail recruited that painted them as fascinated with group sex and gaining powers by torturing and killing someone. He noted that Loofe's internal organs were missing when they found her remains, arguing that the murder was especially depraved and deserving of the death penalty.

Boswell's court-appointed attorney, Todd Lancaster, urged the judge panel to view his client based on her actions, and not those of Trail.

Its the state of mind and actions of Bailey Boswell" that are relevant, Lancaster said.

Lancaster said the discussions of murder and torture are irrelevant because it happened weeks before Loofe met Boswell in person.

He also said that the dismemberment of the body occurred after Loofe had been killed, and that some courts have ruled that postmortem mutilation  particularly if used only to dispose of a body  should not be used to justify a death sentence.

The three-judge panel is expected to hear evidence through Friday and impose a sentence several weeks later. Boswell, a former high school athlete from Leon, Iowa, could get the death penalty or life in prison.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  Fireworks injuries more than doubled in Iowa in the four years since a 2017 law legalized their sale and use by consumers, with far more children getting hurt and more patients requiring amputation, according to state data and a new study.

Emergency room visits stemming from fireworks-related injuries rose to an annual average of 147 from 2017 through 2020, according to Iowa Department of Public Health data obtained Thursday. That's a 114% increase from the state average of 69 over the previous four years.

A new study found that the states two largest trauma centers have seen notable increases since bottle rockets, roman candles and other consumer explosives became legal.

Medical personnel at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City and Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines treated 107 patients with fireworks injuries from the law's inception through 2019, compared to 42 over the previous three years.

Patients are now younger and more seriously injured, and are usually the handlers of the fireworks rather than bystanders, the study found.

The most significant change was an increase in amputations, mostly fingers. No amputations had been recorded since 2014, but 18% of patients with fireworks injuries at the two hospitals required amputations from 2017 through 2019, the study said.

Children have been disproportionately affected. Nearly one in every three patients treated at the two hospitals since 2017 was under the age of 18, up from one in five before legalization.

Statewide, the injury rate for children between the ages of 5 and 14 rose 140% in the first three years of legalization.

Injuries to the hands and burns are the most common, followed by injuries to the eyes and face. Not surprisingly, injuries are concentrated around the July 4 holiday weekend.

I think people believe that since theyve been legalized they must be safe, said Michael Takacs, professor of emergency medicine at UI Carver College of Medicine and one of the reports authors. You see other people buying them, or youre at a park or family gathering and other people are setting off fireworks so you want to be part of the celebration. It gives people a false sense of security.

Researchers recommended new safety campaigns that target high-risk populations and highlight emerging trends, additional steps to stop children and intoxicated people from using fireworks, and more statewide research and reporting on injuries.

Most patients are treated by emergency personnel and released, but the Iowa Department of Public Health said 22 fireworks injuries required hospital admissions in 2020.

The increase in injuries began immediately after Iowa became the 43rd state to allow retailers to sell fireworks in 2017, lifting a ban that had been in place for decades. Let the fireworks begin, then-Gov. Terry Branstad said after signing the bill into law.

The law allows licensed retailers to sell fireworks to consumers from June 1 through July 8 and Dec. 10 through Jan. 3. Consumers can legally set them off in municipalities that have not banned their use.

Fireworks are for sale this year at 583 licensed sites, from Flashing Thunder Fireworks in Adel to Wild Willys in Webster City, according to the Iowa Fire Marshals office. Many are in temporary tents.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated in a report this week that 2020 saw a 50% increase nationally in fireworks injuries, with emergency room visits rising to more than 15,000.

The agency attributed the increase, after years of mostly stable rates, to the coronavirus pandemic, which prompted the cancellation of many public fireworks displays and more people to shoot off fireworks on their own.

This year, Iowa officials are warning of the increased risks of fire and breathing problems caused by fireworks due to dry conditions. They warned that drifting smoke can also cause problems for people with asthma or respiratory issues, and that the elderly and children are vulnerable.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  The Florida Supreme Court ordered a judge to resentence a man on death row for a 2013 murder, saying in a Thursday ruling that evidence not brought up in his trial was considered during his sentencing .

Christian Cruz and Justen Charles were both convicted of first degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Christopher Jemery in Deltona, but were tried separately by the same judge.
SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP)  Former Indiana first lady Patricia Whitcomb, whose husband, Republican Edgar Whitcomb, led the state from 1969 to 1973, has died at age 91.

Whitcomb died Sunday in the southern Indiana city of Seymour, her family said.
John Raoux/AP

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  In a story June 30, 2021, about a billionaire Republican donor who is paying $1 million to help defray the cost of deploying the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the spokesman for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. The spokesman is Ian Fury, not Ian Fry.
HILO, Hawaii (AP)  A Hawaii father won't serve additional jail time for his role in the starvation death of his 9-year-old daughter.

Kevin Lehano was sentenced to 10 years of probation and won't serve more jail time because he has spent nearly four years behind bars, which is twice the maximum term in a probation sentence, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Thursday.
PIERRE, S.D. (AP)  The South Dakota Department of Health has compiled a preliminary list of health conditions that will be covered by the state's medical marijuana program.

The list includes AIDS, HIV, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, epilepsy and seizures, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer associated with severe or chronic pain, nausea or severe vomiting, or cachexia or severe wasting.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly  one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.

As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.

An excessive heat warning remained in effect for parts of the interior Northwest and western Canada Thursday.

The death toll in Oregon alone reached 79, the Oregon state medical examiner said Thursday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland.

In Canada, British Columbias chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between Friday and Wednesday afternoon. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.

She said it was too soon to say with certainty how many deaths were heat related, but that it was likely the heat was behind most of them.

Washington state authorities have linked more than 20 deaths to the heat, but authorities said that number was likely to rise.

In Oregon's Multnomah County, the average victim's age was 67 and the oldest was 97, according to county Health Officer Jennifer Vines.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Vines said she had been worried about fatalities amid the weather forecasts. Authorities tried to prepare as best they could, turning nine air-conditioned county libraries into cooling centers.

Between Friday and Monday, 7,600 people cooled off amid the stacks of books. Others went to three more cooling centers. Nearly 60 teams sought out homeless people, offering water and electrolytes.

We scoured the county with outreach efforts, with calls to building managers of low-income housing to be checking on their residents, Vines said.

But the efforts weren't enough, she said: Its been really sobering to see these initial (fatality) numbers come out.

Oregon Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps agreed. Learning of the tragic loss of life as a result of the recent heat wave is heartbreaking. As an emergency manager  and Oregonian  it is devastating that people were unable to access the help they needed during an emergency, he said.

Among the dead was a farm laborer who collapsed Saturday and was found by fellow workers at a nursery in rural St. Paul, Oregon. The workers had been moving irrigation lines, said Aaron Corvin, spokesman for the states worker safety agency, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, or Oregon OSHA.

Oregon OSHA, whose database listed the death as heat-related, is investigating labor contractor Andres Pablo Lucas and Ernst Nursery and Farms, which did not respond to a request for comment. Pablo Lucas declined to comment Thursday.

Farm worker Pedro Lucas said the man who died was his uncle, Sebastian Francisco Perez, from Ixcan, Guatemala. He had turned 38 the day before he died.

Lucas, who is cousins with the labor contractor, was summoned to the scene. But by the time he arrived, his uncle was unconscious and dying. An ambulance crew tried to revive him but failed. Lucas said Perez was used to working in the heat and that the family is awaiting an autopsy report.

Reyna Lopez, executive director of a northwest farmworkers' union, known by its Spanish-language initials, PCUN, called the death shameful and faulted both Oregon OSHA for not adopting emergency rules ahead of the heat wave, and the nursery.

Corvin said Oregon OSHA is exploring adopting emergency requirements, and we continue to engage in discussions with labor and employer stakeholders.

He added that employers are obligated to provide ample water, shade, additional breaks and training about heat hazards.

An executive order issued in March 2020 by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would formalize protecting workers from heat, but it is coming too late for the dead farmworker. Brown's order focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also tells the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon OSHA to jointly propose standards to protect workers from excessive heat and wildfire smoke.

They had until June 30 to submit the proposals, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the two agencies requested the deadline be pushed back to September.

In Bend, Oregon, a scenic town next to the snowy Cascade Range, the bodies of two men were found Sunday on a road where dozens of homeless people stay in trailers and tents.

Volunteer Luke Richter said he stepped into the trailer where one of the men, Alonzo Lonnie Boardman, was found.

It was very obviously too late. It was basically a microwave in there, Richter told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Cooling stations had been set up at the campsite on Saturday, with water, sports drinks and ice available.

Weather experts say the number of heat waves are only likely to rise in the Pacific Northwest, a region normally known for cool, rainy weather, with a few hot, sunny days mixed in, and where many people don't have air conditioning.

I think the community has to be realistic that we are going to be having this as a more usual occurrence and not a one-off, and that we need to be preparing as a community, said Dr. Steven Mitchell of Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, which treated an unprecedented number of severe heat-related cases. We need to be really augmenting our disaster response.

This week's heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.

Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).

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Associated Press journalist Manuel Valdes contributed to this report from Seattle.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  The percentage of Idaho students in kindergarten to third grade reading at their grade levels this year fell nearly 5% compared to 2019, state education officials said.

The State Department of Education told the Idaho Statesman in a story published Thursday that testing results show a drop from 69.7% to 65.1%.

Students faced unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus pandemic that prevented testing in 2020, officials said.

School districts across the state switched to remote learning or a hybrid that included in-person learning as officials sought to prevent schools from becoming vectors for the illness that has killed more than 2,100 Idaho residents.

Officials said that only about 50% of K-3 students were reading at their grade levels at the start of the school year, but that teachers identified problems areas and improved that by 15%.

Now our districts and schools are focused on addressing the effects of any unfinished learning going into this summer and the next school year, making sure students learn to read by third grade so they can read to learn for the rest of their lives, Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra said in a statement.

The test, called the Idaho Reading Indicator, showed that 69.3% of white students were reading at their grade levels at the end of the school year. About 50% of Hispanic students were reading at grade level, as were 47.1% of Black students.

Only about 43% of homeless students were reading at grade level, while 30.6% of students with disabilities were reading at grade level.

In the West Ada School District, 77.5% of students were reading at grade level at the end of the year, slightly below the 80.3% found at the end of 2019.

Char Jackson, chief communication officer for the school district, said students in kindergarten and first grade improved reading proficiency from fall to spring by 22%.

"In light of the difficulties we all faced in the past months, we are extraordinarily proud of the hard work and dedication of our teachers, students and parents this school year, she said in an email to the Idaho Statesman.
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  Five Idaho State Police troopers will go to Arizona for 21 days to help with border security, Gov. Brad Little said Thursday.

The Republican governor said the troopers will will start a 21-day mission on Tuesday to help Arizona law enforcement officials with intelligence gathering and investigative work to prevent illicit drugs from crossing the border.

The crisis at the United States-Mexico border and the alarming bump in illegal drug activity are direct results of failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration that harm the people of Idaho, Little said in a statement.

Republican Govs. Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott of Texas sent a letter to fellow governors last month asking for law-enforcement help.

On behalf of Texas and Arizona, we respectfully but urgently request that you send all available law-enforcement resources to the border in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity, the two governors wrote.

Little, who faces reelection next year and is being challenged by far-right Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, said it will cost Idaho just over $53,000 to send the troopers to Arizona. He said Idaho State Police leadership assured him that the troopers' duties in Idaho will be covered while they're in Arizona.

We did our homework and worked closely with Arizona State Police to determine the true needs and how Idaho can help in a meaningful, impactful way without compromising public safety here at home, Little said.

Immigration continues to be an animating issue in the Republican Party. On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump and a group of about two-dozen Republican members of Congress toured the border in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where they railed against President Joe Bidens handling of the border.

Four other states with Republican governors are also responding. Florida is sending 50 law enforcement officers. South Dakota is sending 50 national guardsman following a $1 million donation from a wealthy Republican donor to pay for the deployment. Iowa is sending 30 state police officers on a two-week deployment to Texas, and Nebraska is sending 25 state patrol troopers for up to 16 days.

Idaho will continue to evaluate our resources and the border states needs to determine if we can do even more to help in the fight to protect Americans against the Biden-Harris inaction, Little said.

In Arizona, the Idaho troopers will be deputized and will act under the same authority given to Arizona State Troopers.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israel's president warmly welcomed his German counterpart on Thursday, praising him as an ally in combatting antisemitism.

Reuven Rivlin said that Germany has been Israel's strong partner in the uncompromising fight against antisemitism and has stood with Israel against the forces of terror who seek to wipe us off the map.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also met with Israels new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem. The prime ministers office said in a statement that the two discussed Irans nuclear program, and that Bennett restated Israels determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. Germany's postwar leaders have repeatedly apologized for the Nazi atrocities and it has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in reparations to Jewish victims. Israel and Germany have developed close ties in recent years.

During a solemn visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Steinmeier said the unspeakable suffering caused in Germany's name fills us with pain and shame.

We will keep the memory of this alive for the sake of those who were murdered and for the sake of future generations," he said.

Germany launched a new initiative with the United States last week to stem an alarming rise in antisemitism and Holocaust denial around the world.

The U.S.-Germany Holocaust Dialogue seeks to reverse the trend, which gained traction during the coronavirus pandemic amid a surge in political populism across Europe and the U.S. The dialogue creates a way to develop educational and messaging tools to teach youth and others about the crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators.

Later in the evening, Rivlin hosted Steinmeier for a dinner at his official residence, and the German president reiterated his country's strong support for Israel.

It does not matter how quickly the world changes, we will do our best to preserve the special friendship between Israel and Germany. Germany will continue to stand by Israel, and Israel will continue to be a wonderful friend to Germany, Steinmeier told Rivlin, according to remarks released by the Israeli presidents office.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israeli soldiers held an Associated Press photographer against his will during clashes in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, in a spot where Palestinian protesters were hurling stones and the troops were firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.

The Israeli military said the photographer interfered with an operation and was detained after ignoring soldiers requests to move. It said soldiers moved him behind a barrier to protect him from stones being thrown by the demonstrators.

AP photographer Majdi Mohammed was covering ongoing demonstrations in the town of Beita against a nearby Israeli settlement outpost on June 27. He was wearing a helmet and a protective vest that clearly identified him as a reporter.

He came across a group of soldiers on the edge of Beita, around 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the outpost, who were using a bulldozer to set up a roadblock. He said the soldiers told him he could take pictures. Mohammed has been an AP staff photographer since 2006, and has spent even longer covering conflict in the West Bank.

A short while later, protesters hurled a volley of stones at the soldiers. An Israeli officer ordered Mohammed to stay where he was and get down on the ground.

Mohammed said the officer told him he was being detained, and that the soldiers were keeping him there so the protesters would not throw rocks at them. Mohammed said he informed the officer that this was unlawful and amounted to using him as a human shield.

International law forbids forcibly placing civilians near military targets to deter attacks. In 2005, Israels Supreme Court outlawed the long-standing practice of using Palestinian civilians in military operations, including the neighbor procedure, whereby soldiers would send a Palestinian civilian to the home of a wanted militant to order him out. The Israeli rights group BTselem says soldiers have occasionally used such practices in the years since.

Mohammed said that stones rained down on the area where he was being held, with one striking his leg, as the soldiers fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. I was terrified because the stones were falling all around and the soldier was firing from a meter (yard) away, he said.

Mohammed called Oded Balilty, the APs chief photographer for Israel and the Palestinian territories, who spoke to the Israeli officer. The officer said Mohammed had been detained because he interfered in the soldiers work. Balilty asked the officer to release Mohammed, saying he would leave the area immediately. The officer told Balilty that Mohammed was safe and would be released soon.

About 15 minutes later, Mohammed again called Balilty, who asked the officer to release him. We dont work for you, well release him when were done, the officer said, according to Balilty.

Mohammed was detained for a total of about one hour, and the whole time there were stones being thrown and shots fired. Before releasing him, Mohammed says the officer demanded to see the pictures on his camera and ordered him to delete any showing the officers face, a violation of press freedom.

It is unacceptable that AP photographer Majdi Mohammed was held against his will under dangerous circumstances by Israeli soldiers while simply trying to do his job, said Ian Phillips, APs vice president and head of international news. The AP has submitted a detailed account of the incident and calls on the Israeli military to hold itself accountable.

In a statement released Thursday, the military said the photographer had been detained and moved behind the troops to a safer place after interfering with their work. It said Mohammed was certainly not asked, as alleged, to stand by the troops in order to serve as a shield.

It denied that Mohammed was asked to delete images. It said he was asked not to take pictures, saying the request was wrong, and this has since been made clear to the commanding officer. The military said it greatly respects the freedom of the press.
A St. Louis judge will allow the special prosecutor to withdraw from the perjury and evidence tampering case against a former FBI agent who was hired by the city's top prosecutor to investigate former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.

Judge Michael Stelzer posted the decision late Wednesday. He appointed Robert Russell, a western Missouri prosecutor, to take over from Gerard Carmody, a private attorney in St. Louis. Russell is the Republican prosecuting attorney in Johnson County. Carmody has said he needed to withdraw to deal with other issues in his law firm.

The investigator, 68-year-old William Don Tisaby, is accused of lying in a March 2018 deposition leading up to Greitens criminal trial. Greitens, a Republican, was governor at the time.

Tisaby was indicted two years ago. At a hearing last week, Tisabys attorney, Daniel Dailey, urged the judge to toss out the case, saying the prosecutor turnover would further delay justice for Tisaby.

Dailey and Tisaby's other lawyer, Jermaine Wooten, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Greitens was indicted for invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman during a 2015 extramarital affair, before he was governor, and threatening to use it as blackmail if she divulged their relationship. The charge was dropped in the midst of jury selection, but Greitens resigned in June 2018.

Tisaby was hired by Democratic Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to investigate Greitens. The indictment against Tisaby alleges he denied taking notes during his interview of the woman who was involved with Greitens, although a recording showed him doing so. The indictment also says that while Tisaby claimed he didnt receive notes from the prosecutors office before interviewing the woman, a document uncovered during grand jury proceedings showed Gardner provided Tisaby her notes.

The indictment also raises concerns about whether Gardner was complicit, saying she failed to correct Tisabys inaccuracies or report them, and that she made incorrect statements to defense lawyers and a judge.

Meanwhile, Missouris chief disciplinary counsel said in a court filing in May that a review indicated Gardner concealed evidence that could have helped Greitens. A hearing to determine if Gardner should be disciplined is planned but no date has been set.

Greitens also faced a second criminal charge in April 2018, accusing him of using a charity donor list to raise money for his 2016 gubernatorial campaign. During the court hearing on June 24, Dailey said it was Tisaby who uncovered the donor list. Dailey said, without naming names in court, that the list includes clients of Carmodys law firm.

Mr. Tisaby will prove thats the reason he was indicted, Dailey said at the time, drawing an angry response in court from Carmody.

Dailey filed a letter with the court Monday that said Carmody threatened him after the June 24 hearing, allegedly stating, Your day is coming.

The judge did not address Dailey's concerns in the ruling on the special prosecutor.

Greitens announced in March that hes running for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin judge on Thursday ordered the release of a woman who has spent 3 1/2 years in a state mental health facility after being convicted of stabbing her classmate to please the Slender Man character.

Anissa Weier, 19, was sentenced to 25 years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in December 2017. She argued in a petition for conditional release that she's no longer a threat to anyone.

She won't be allowed to go free immediately, however. Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren gave state officials 60 days to draw up a conditional release plan and sent Weier back to the mental hospital pending another hearing on Sept. 10.

In addition to the conditions of release, Weier will be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she's 37 years old, the length of her commitment.

The May 2014 stabbing happened after Weier and friend Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into the woods at a Waukesha park following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier encouraged Geyser to inflict the injuries. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

Weier and Geyser left Leutner for dead, but she crawled out of the woods and was found by a passing bicyclist. She suffered 19 stab wounds and barely survived.

Weier and Geyser told investigators they stabbed Leutner because they thought Slender Man was real. They said they thought attacking her would make them his servants and keep him from killing their families.

When Weier petitioned Bohren for conditional release in March, she said she had exhausted all her treatment options at Winnebago and she needed to rejoin society. She vowed she'd never let herself become a weapon again" and promised to comply with whatever conditions Bohren imposed.

Prosecutors countered in court filings that Weier is still immature and susceptible to dangerous influences. They said she attracts people with myriad psychological issues of their own and there's no guarantee she won't attack someone again.

But Bohren found prosecutors failed to prove Weier remains a threat and that nothing suggests she'll hurt people again, according to online court records documenting Thursday's hearing.

Asked via email for comment on Weier's reaction to the judge's decision, her attorney, Maura McMahon, said only that Weier was led out of the courtroom pretty quickly.

Bohren sentenced Geyser in February 2018 to 40 years in a mental health facility. She has argued that her case should have been heard in juvenile court but has gotten no traction. An appellate court ruled last year that the case was properly heard in adult court. The state Supreme Court in January refused to review that decision.

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Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
ATLANTA (AP)  Voting integrity activists argue that several parts of Georgia's new election law criminalize normal election observation activities, while the state asserts that those provisions reinforce previous protections and are necessary for election integrity.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee heard arguments Thursday on the activists request that he bar election officials from enforcing those provisions, but did not immediately rule on the request.

Georgia's overhaul of election rules, like similar measures enacted this year in other GOP-controlled states, has received broad criticism from Democrats and others who say it makes it harder to vote, particularly for voters of color.

There are eight federal lawsuits challenging aspects of Georgia's new law, including one filed last week by the U.S. Department of Justice. They mostly target parts of the law that critics say threaten voting rights. The hearing Thursday focused narrowly on a handful of provisions and didn't address the most commonly criticized parts of the law.

Boulee is overseeing all eight of the lawsuits challenging the law. The reason he heard arguments on this narrow request is that the activists had asked for an emergency temporary hold on those parts of the law. There have been no similar requests for immediate action in the other lawsuits.

The challenged provisions mostly have to do with monitoring or photographing parts of the election process.

Bruce Brown, a lawyer for the activists and others who filed the suit, said the state misrepresents the law as promoting transparency and election integrity.

They say that, but what they mean by transparency is a fake transparency, Brown said during the online hearing. It's transparency theater. It's integrity theater.

Instead, Brown said, the challenged provisions of the law effectively obstruct election transparency and intimidate voters and members of the news media who provide citizen oversight for the way elections are run.

Bryan Tyson, a lawyer for the state, argued that the challenged provisions are necessary to protect ballot secrecy and the integrity of the state's elections. He also noted that none of the activists have said that they intend to violate the challenged provisions, and that they face no harm unless they violate these provisions.

The Georgia First Amendment Foundation has filed a brief in the case, saying the new law "has imposed new and dangerous restrictions on news gathering that threaten the ability of the public and press to remain informed about Georgia elections.

One challenged provision makes it a felony to intentionally observe a voter "in a manner that would allow such person to see for whom or what the elector is voting. Brown showed photos of the large, upright touchscreen voting machines, noting that it's nearly impossible for anyone in the polling place not to see how someone's voting.

Tyson argued that the new provision applies to intentional efforts to see someone's votes, not accidental observation.

A second provision prohibits monitors and observers from communicating any information they see during absentee ballot processing to anyone other than an election official who needs such information to lawfully carry out his or her official duties. Another makes it a misdemeanor for monitors and observers to estimate the number of absentee ballots cast or any votes on the absentee ballots cast. These two provisions are attempts to silence critics and limit unfavorable press coverage of how elections are run, Brown said.

Tyson said it was necessary to make sure no vote counts would be disclosed before the polls close since the new law allows absentee ballots to be scanned in the weeks before an election.

A provision that prohibits the photographing of the face of a touchscreen voting machine while a ballot is being voted or while an elector's votes are displayed on such electronic marker or the photographing of a voted ballot would prevent routine news coverage of voting and counting of ballots, Brown argued. He showed the judge well-known news photos of notable public figures voting and of election workers counting ballots during the 2020 election.

Photography was already restricted inside polling places, with some narrow exceptions, Tyson said. He raised the possibility of a vote-buying scheme requiring voters to show photographic proof of how they voted.

The activists are also challenging an absentee ballot application deadline 11 days before an election. The deadline for the certification of election results can fall 11 days before a runoff, meaning people may not be able to get an absentee ballot for a runoff election, Brown argued.

Tyson said it's often clear as early as election night that there will be a runoff and that voters don't have to wait for results to be certified to request an absentee ballot.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)  Two people, one of them a teenager, are charged in connection with a fatal shooting in northwest Charlotte, police said Thursday.

A news release from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said officers responded to reports on Tuesday of a shooting victim. When they arrived, officers found a man with an apparent gunshot wound. The man, identified as Joshua Hollingsworth, 20, was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Kentucky's contract renewal with a Baptist-affiliated childrens agency remains in limbo, but the state is continuing to place youngsters in its care, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

The monthslong dispute revolved around a clause in a new contract with the state that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and that Sunrise Childrens Services refused to sign.

Sunrise has since been offered a revised contract reflecting what it had requested, with a line in two different sections eliminated, the Democratic governor said at his weekly news conference.

Sunrise has responded by saying thats no longer their position and they now want significant additional terms written into the contract, Beshear said. "So at this point, there is not resolution but they have the contract they asked for, right there ready to sign if theyre willing.

Sunrise officials say the disputed clause would have compelled them to violate deeply held religious principles by sponsoring same-sex couples as foster or adoptive parents. Sunrise is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, consisting of nearly 2,400 churches with a total membership of about 600,000 people. The faith views homosexuality as a sin.

Supporters of the provision see it as a safeguard against discrimination.

The state offered the contract change after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which Sunrise's attorney contended fully applied to the Kentucky dispute. In the Pennsylvania case, the high court unanimously sided with a Catholic foster care agency that said its religious views prevented it from working with same-sex couples as foster parents.

Beshear's administration had set a June 30 deadline for Sunrise to sign a new contract. If it refused, the state had threatened to stop placing children with the agency.

But the governor said Thursday that children are still being placed with the foster care and adoption agency. Sunrise also offers residential treatment programs, serving some of the states most vulnerable children.

Were not cutting that off at the moment," the governor said. "Kids are still being placed there.

Sunrises attorney, John Sheller, said Thursday that any additional language being sought is needed to comply fully with the Supreme Court ruling in the Fulton v. City of Philadelphia case. The state also has asked for changes or clarifications in the contract, he said.

Every clarification requested by Sunrise is either something required by Fulton, something it requested before, or something KY has accepted in the past, Sheller said in an email. We look forward to completing the process soon and we presume KY feels the same.

Beshear, a former state attorney general, acknowledged that the Supreme Court ruling might not be directly on point in regards to the Kentucky matter but was pretty close.

The governor said Sunrise has been a good provider of services. While discussing the latest snag in negotiations, Beshear added: "There is capacity in this state to make sure that every child that needs help is helped, with or without them.

So I hope theyll put those kids first," he said. "That language no longer appears in the contract theyve been offered. But this isnt a chance to negotiate for more on top of something. Youve gotten what youve asked for. Lets make sure that we can serve them.

Kentucky consistently has some of the nations worst child abuse rates.

Formerly called Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Sunrises history dates to caring for Civil War orphans. It has contracted with the state for 50-plus years.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, and GOP state lawmakers have pressed Beshear's administration to renew Sunrise's contract.

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Hudspeth Blackburn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
NORFOLK, Va. (AP)  A defense attorney for a U.S. Marine told jurors Wednesday that he played a minor role in the hazing of a U.S. Green Beret and should not be found guilty of murder and other crimes in the soldier's death.

Speaking inside a Navy base in Virginia, Marine Lt. Col. Timothy Kuhn said that Mario Madera-Rodriguez never touched Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar during the fatal hazing incident in Africa in 2017 until he tried to help revive him.

Facts have been manipulated and moved around like a puzzle to fit the governments theory, Kuhn said.

Kuhn spoke during closing arguments at the trial for Madera-Rodriguez. The Marine is the last of four American servicemembers to face a court-martial in Melgars killing.

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, who include another Marine and two Navy SEALS, have already made plea deals with military prosecutors.

Military prosecutors have said the men were angry over Melgars perceived slights during their time in Mali. In particular, some were upset that they missed a party at the French embassy in the capital city of Bamako because Melgar and the others got separated in traffic.

Their plan was to choke Melgar into unconsciousness and then humiliate him while filming it on a phone camera, prosecutors said

Despite the text-book risks and known dangers of such chokeholds, they do it anyway, military prosecutor Benjamin Garcia said Wednesday during his closing argument.

Navy Cmdr. Garcia told the jurors that Madera-Rodriguez chose to get some duct tape to help tie up the Green Beret. And Garcia said Madera-Rodriguez chose to help restrain him while a Navy SEAL applied the chokehold. Melgar died of strangulation.

They tied him up, and he could not tap out, Garcia said.

Much of the closing argument from Madera-Rodriguez's defense attorneys was held in closed session because classified information was discussed. But in open court, his attorneys disputed much of the government's case.

Kuhn said that Madera-Rodriguez's task was limited to breaking down Melgar's door with a sledge hammer, putting on some music and bringing in two Malian guards who were part of the joke.

Madera-Rodriguez did not restrain Melgar, Kuhn said.

Kuhn also said that the government's case against Madera-Rodriguez was like a house of cards based on a flawed application of the law.

For instance, Kuhn said that Madera-Rodriguez can only be found guilty of felony murder if he's found guilty of burglary, a charge related to the accusation that the men broke into Melgar's room. But Kuhn said the burglary charge depends on the alleged crime happening at night, which he said it no longer was.

You don't have night time, you don't have burglary, Kuhn said. You don't have burglary, you don't have felony murder.
BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP)  The federal government has awarded a Maine laboratory more than $750,000 to enhance its use of mice as a model for cancer research.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King said the grant is going from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Cancer Institute to Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Officials with the lab said the money will fund the Mouse Models of Human Cancer Database.
NEWAYGO, Mich. (AP)  A man whose home was searched after his son accidentally detonated an explosive at a high school in western Michigan pleaded guilty Thursday to two weapons-related charges.

In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, David Saylor said he and his son made improvised explosive devices for two years in Newaygo County.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicans living abroad sent home a record amount of money in May, topping $4.5 billion in a month for the first time, Mexicos central bank said Thursday.

Just a year ago, it was considered a record when migrants' money, known as remittances, broke the $4 billion per month mark in March 2020.

They now regularly send more than $4 billion. Only January and February, traditionally slow months for remittances, fell below that mark this year, with March, April and May setting new records. May is a traditionally high month because of Mothers Day.

The $19.2 billion sent home in the first five months of 2021 is 21.7% more than during the same period of 2020.

If the pace keeps up, Mexico could be on track to top $45 billion in remittances for the full year in 2021.

As a source of foreign income, remittances earn Mexico more money than oil exports or tourism and are exceeded only by manufacturing exports.

BBVA bank said in an analysis report that the rapid U.S. economic recovery and shortages of workers in some sectors may have helped migrants send more money home. Most Mexican migrants live and work in the United States, where employment opportunities have surged as the coronavirus pandemic eases.

Remittances in Mexico have now set records for five straight years. The $40.6 billion that migrants sent to Mexico in 2020 was equivalent to the combined budgets of the Mexican governments education, health, labor, welfare and culture departments.

About 98.5% of Mexicos remittances are sent from the United States, almost all by bank or wire transfers.

Despite a controversial proposal to require the central bank buy all cash dollars that wind up in Mexican banks  a move that would supposedly help migrants  only about 0.7% of remittances enter the country as cash.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  About $5 million in cash and college scholarships will be given away in lottery-style drawings aimed at raising Michigan's COVID-19 vaccination rate, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday.

The incentive program features a $2 million jackpot, a $1 million prize and 30 daily drawings of $50,000 for residents ages 18 and older who have received at least one shot. Vaccinated residents ages 12 to 17 are eligible for one of nine four-year prepaid tuition contracts valued at $55,000.

The MI Shot to Win Sweepstakes is being launched after several states, including Ohio, offered millions of dollars to boost vaccinations  with mixed results.

It's an exciting opportunity for so many people in our state to do what they need to do to protect themselves and our communities but also get an opportunity to win a big prize, Whitmer said at a news conference, warning that the coronavirus remains a threat to the unvaccinated  particularly with the spread of the more transmissible delta variant. The incentives could motivate those who have questions to seek answers so they feel comfortable being vaccinated, she said.

Nearly 62% of Michigan residents ages 16 and up have received at least one dose, ranking it near the middle among states, as infections have plummeted. Whitmer and state health officials want 70% vaccinated, which would require about 678,000 additional people to get a shot.

The weekly number of first doses administered has dropped for five straight weeks and was roughly 36,000 last week, 9% of the high from early April when Michigan opened eligibility to everyone who was authorized at that time. About one in five Americans said they probably or definitely would not get vaccinated, according to a May poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The sweepstakes is being operated by Meijer and the Michigan Association of United Ways and will end in August. The state, which encountered legal restrictions against directly running the lottery, will fund the raffles with federal coronavirus relief aid that was allocated to Michigan.

Starting Thursday, residents who want to participate must sign up at www.MIShotToWin.com or call (888) 535-6136. All vaccinated individuals will be eligible for the $1 million and $2 million drawings, which will be held on or about July 11 and Aug. 4.

Only residents who become newly vaccinated can vie for the $50,000 daily prizes. Those drawings will begin Tuesday and will correspond to a specific day entrants get their first shot. The raffle for the Michigan Education Trust contracts will occur on or about Aug. 4. They cover full tuition and mandatory fees at any state university and can be used to lower them for students who attend private or out-of-state colleges.

Vaccine lotteries in other states have shown they are very effective at getting more people vaccinated very quickly, said Kerry Ebersole Singh, director of the Protect Michigan Commission, which promotes the vaccine's effectiveness and works to overcome hesitancy.

Dr. James Grant, chief medical officer and senior vice president at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, strongly encouraged people to be vaccinated.

It's the best defense, the best line against COVID-19, he said. Herd immunity has been effective against measles, mumps, polio, chicken pox amongst so many other infectious diseases. We just have to get to that point now with COVID.

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Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an appeal of a ruling striking down new restrictions on when abortions can occur.

Schmitt said he filed a request Thursday for the nation's highest court to hear arguments on a 2019 state law that bans abortions as soon as eight weeks into pregnancy and also prohibits abortions based on a Down syndrome diagnosis.
NORMANDY, Mo. (AP)  A suburban St. Louis police chief is rejecting calls for his dismissal after a police report surfaced showing a woman in 2013 accused him of striking her and destroying her belongings.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Chief Mark Hall wrote in an email to the Normandy City Council that the attempt to remove him from office was an attack on my character.

Mayor Mark Beckmann argues that Hall must be removed because theres a lot of credibility to the allegations. Beckmann said the claims werent fully examined before Hall was hired in December.

Hall was a St. Louis police officer in September 2013 when he was investigated after a woman reported he pushed, slapped and shoved her, urinated on her clothing and cut up her underwear during a dispute that spanned three days. No charges were filed.

Hall declined to speak with the Post-Dispatch about the allegations, but said in his letter to the council that he disclosed the incident during the interview process.

Normandy Councilman Maurice Hunt, who was the interim mayor when the council voted to hire Hall, said city officials knew about the incident before the chief was hired.

Because of a mistake he made years ago, theyre trying to punish him," he said.

But Councilwoman Yolanda Campbell, who was not on the council when Hall was hired, wrote on Facebook she believed the police report should disqualify him from office.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  The New Mexico Constitution doesn't clearly require that the public be allowed to attend legislative sessions so rule changes made during the pandemic to restrict in-person access were permissible, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

The opinion issued Wednesday explains the court's decision last year on Republican lawmakers' argument that the restrictions deprived citizens of their constitutional right to participate in the legislative process, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona's largest newspaper is asking a judge to order the state Senate and Cyber Ninjas, a cybersecurity firm hired to conduct Senate Republicans' review of the 2020 election, to turn over public records.

The Arizona Republic filed the lawsuit seeking financial records and communications about the audit in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday, the newspaper reported.

The Senate and its contractors have said little about how the audit is being conducted, the businesses doing the work, the funding sources and what officials are saying to each other.

A lawyer for the newspaper argues in the lawsuit that the records must be disclosed under Arizona's public records law because the audit is being conducted on behalf of the Senate, a public body.

Arizona law entitles the public to know how this audit is being conducted and funded, attorney David Bodney, who represents The Republic, told the newspaper. And the Arizona public records law does not permit the Senate to play hide the ball by delegating core responsibilities to a third party like Cyber Ninjas and concealing records of government activities and public expenditures in Cyber Ninjas files.

Spokespeople for the Senate and Cyber Ninjas did not respond to requests for comment.

Lawyers for the Senate have argued in another case that records maintained by Cyber Ninjas are not subject to the public records law.
Boris Grdanoski/AP

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  North Macedonias parliament has formally adopted legislation to make the country's section of the Shar Mountains an extensive national park.

All 66 lawmakers present in the 120-member parliament voted late Wednesday to grant protected status for the region that's already protected on the other side of the border in Kosovo.
LAMONI, Iowa (AP)  Flight documents show two people were aboard a small plane that crashed Thursday in south-central Iowa, federal aviation officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it does not identify people involved in crashes, and local officials have not yet said whether anyone was injured or killed in the crash, television station KCCI reported.

Reports of the crash came in around 8 a.m. Thursday, the Decatur County Sheriffs Office said. First responders confirmed that a plane crashed near the south end of the Lamoni Municipal Airports runway.

Authorities did not release other details of the crash.

People working near the crash site told KCCI that they heard what sounded like an explosion around the time of the crash.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The state superintendent plans to resign in September and retire from state service after more than five years of leading the Ohio Department of Education.

Paolo DeMaria, 58, has been superintendent of public instruction since 2016, when the Ohio board of education approved him for the job in a striking unanimous vote. DeMaria notified the current board president on Thursday that he plans to retire from state service, effective Sept. 24, according to the department.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  Police in Delawares capital city are investigating a late-night shooting that left one man dead and three other people injured.

Dover police say a group of people were gathered on South New Street when gunfire broke out shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday.
MILWAUKEE (AP)  Ousted Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales will not return to his job on Saturday as per a court order, his attorneys said Thursday.

Morales retired in August after the citys police commission demoted him following turmoil over racial justice protests and complaints of distrust within the police department.
PHUKET, Thailand (AP)  Thailand embarked on an ambitious but risky plan Thursday that it hopes will breathe new life into a tourism industry devastated by the pandemic, opening the popular resort island of Phuket to fully vaccinated foreigners from lower-risk countries.

As the first flight arrived, airport fire trucks blasted their water canons to form an arch over the Etihad jet from Abu Dhabi as it taxied to its gate.

Leaving the airport, Frenchman Bruno Souillard said he had been dreaming for a year of returning to Thailand and jumped at the opportunity.

I am very, very happy, the 60-year-old tourist said.

The Phuket sandbox program comes as coronavirus infections are surging in Thailand, including a significant number of cases of the Delta variant, and many have questioned if it's too early to woo tourists back, and whether they'll come in significant numbers in any case due to the restrictions they'll still face.

But the number of new cases on the island itself is extremely low, in the single digits daily, and more than 70% of its residents are fully vaccinated. The government is gambling that travelers will be willing to put up with coronavirus-related regulations for the opportunity for a beach holiday after being cooped up in their home countries for months.

Before the pandemic, the tourism sector made up some 20% of Thailand's economy, and 95% of Phuket's income.

The resort island off the southern coast saw fewer than a half million visitors in the first five months, and almost no foreigners, compared to more than 3 million during the same period last year including some 2 million foreigners.

In a nod to the importance of the sandbox plan, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew to Phuket to be on hand in person for the launch.

He emphasized that the sandbox was just the first step toward his goal announced in June of having Thailand completely reopened within 120 days.

"This reopening is related to not only Phuket but also the whole country, he said.

Last-minute hitches in some of the program details and cautions from authorities that if cases start to rise on the island more restrictions may be needed  or it may have to be shut down entirely  meant some cancelations before it even began. Fewer than 250 international travelers were expected on the first day compared to the initial target of 1,500.

But as the kinks are worked out and people report their first-hand experiences, authorities are hopeful for a steady increase in the numbers. From July 1 to 15, there are currently 1,101 hotel bookings for a total of 13,116 room overnights.

Travelers to other parts of Thailand are subject to a strict 14-day hotel room quarantine, but under the sandbox plan, visitors to Phuket will be allowed to roam the entire island  the country's largest  where they can lounge on the white beaches, jet ski and enjoy evenings eating out in restaurants, although clubs and bars remain closed.

Only visitors from countries considered no higher than low or medium risk  a list currently including most of Europe and the Mideast, the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand  are permitted, and they must fly in directly to Phuket, though plans are in the works to allow carefully controlled transfers through Bangkoks airport.

Following the inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi, passengers were expected to arrive later Thursday from Qatar, Israel and Singapore.

Adult foreign visitors must provide proof of two vaccinations, a negative COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours before departure, and proof of an insurance policy that covers treatment for the virus of at least $100,000, among other things. Once on the island, they have to follow mask and distancing regulations and take three COVID-19 tests at their own expense  about $300 total  and show negative results.

After 14 days, visitors can travel elsewhere in Thailand.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Soon after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction on Wednesday, the comedian's former co-star and fierce ally Phylicia Rashad took to Twitter to celebrate the news.

"FINALLY! A terrible wrong is being righted - a miscarriage of justice is corrected!" she tweeted, along with a photo of Cosby.

The post set off a fervent backlash, with critics accusing Rashad, the newly appointed dean of Howard University's College of Fine Arts, of being insensitive and disrespectful of sexual assault survivors.

It is not the first time Rashad publicly supported Cosby. In 2015, she told a reporter that she didn't believe the dozens of women accusing him of sexual harassment and assault - a statement that also received criticism.

Howard University condemned Rashad's tweet in a statement late Wednesday, saying that it "lacked sensitivity towards survivors of sexual assault."

"Personal positions of university leadership do not reflect Howard University's policies," the statement read. "We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard."

Rashad's comments come as Howard University attempts to recuperate from years of accusations from students and alumni of repeatedly mishandling sexual assault allegations.

In 2017, at least six women filed lawsuits against the university for failing to respond quickly to reports of sexual assault. The following year, students occupied the school's administration office, demanding better policies for dealing with sexual assault among other calls for improved housing and a temporary tuition freeze.

In 2019, several current and former students publicly recounted their experiences with sexual violence and their struggles to get support from the university. And last June, more students and alums told their stories online, prompting one Howard graduate and sexual assault survivor to establish the "Black Survivors Healing Fund," a GoFundMe to help pay for the services such as therapy.

Rashad's comments alarmed some alumni.

"As a @HowardU School of Fine Arts alum, and as a survivor, this tweet from @PhyliciaRashad is disappointing," Alicia Sanchez Gill tweeted. "I hope we can have a dean who believes & respects survivors."

"I think it's good that Phylicia Rashad spoke up and showed us she's not qualified to be the Dean of the College of Fine Arts. It's really on Howard to do the right thing and rectify the situation," Andrew Addison, another alum, tweeted.

Rashad walked back her comments in a follow-up tweet, saying she supports survivors who come forward with their experiences of sexual violence.

"My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth," Rashad, 73, tweeted. "Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing."

Rashad similarly said her comments supporting Cosby were misunderstood in 2015 following an interview with a reporter from Showbiz 411. Rashad told the reporter that the allegations against Cosby were "orchestrated" and a "destruction of a legacy." At one point she said, "Forget those women."

In an interview with ABC News, she said that she was misquoted and that she didn't mean to come off as dismissive.

"I am a woman. I would never say such a thing," she said.

At least 60 women have accused Cosby of raping or sexually harassing them. His trial in April 2018 centered around Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who accused Cosby of giving her a pill and then assaulting her in 2004.

Cosby was convicted on three counts of assault and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. Cosby's lawyers appealed the case in 2019, but the court upheld the decision.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the case on Wednesday, ruling that prosecutors violated Cosby's Fifth Amendment rights by using evidence from past statements in which he acknowledged that he obtained quaaludes to use on women. The prosecutor at the time told Cosby his statements would not be used as evidence against him.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP)  Pima County Constable Oscar Vasquez has been suspended for nearly six months for allegedly refusing to serve an eviction while waiting for the tenant to find another housing option.

Vasquez serves eviction papers and other legal summons in Justice Precinct 4.
SEATTLE (AP)  An argument over fireworks escalated into a shooting that left a 22-year-old man dead and injured three other people Monday night at Alki Beach in West Seattle, according to Seattle police.

A 19-year-old suspected gunman waived his appearance at his initial court hearing Wednesday afternoon, when a King County District Court judge found probable cause to hold him on investigation of homicide, The Seattle Times reported.
Kamran Jebreili/AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  One of the worlds largest port operators, DP World, said Thursday it has acquired an American logistics firm in a $1.2 billion deal, the latest investment as the maritime company pushes to expand farther afield.

Dubai-based DP World said its purchase of global logistics provider Syncreon Holdings is expected to close later this year. The company plans to fund the acquisition from existing resources so as not to take on more debt.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  A protest medic who works as an intensive care unit nurse at Oregon Health and Sciences University filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court against the city of Portland and the police officer who arrested him.

Tyler Cox claims his constitutional rights were violated Aug. 31 when Officer Thomas Clark tackled him after police declared a riot, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Video shows Cox was moving with the crowd away from officers.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Russias U.N. ambassador on Wednesday called a proposal to reopen a border crossing from Iraq to Syrias northeast for delivering humanitarian aid a non-starter. He also refused to say what will happen to the only crossing now in operation, from Turkey to the countrys rebel-held northwest.

A U.N. Security Council draft resolution proposes sending aid through both crossings, but Vassily Nebenzia said at a news conference that Russia is discussing only the possible continuation of deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing to Idlib in northwest Syria. He refused to say whether Russia will vote to keep it open or use its veto to close it.

Russia has come under intense pressure from the U.N., U.S., Europeans and others who warn of dire humanitarian consequences for over a million Syrians if all border crossings are closed.

Nebenzia was commenting on a draft resolution circulated to the Security Council last Friday that would keep Bab al-Hawa open and reopen the Al-Yaroubiya crossing from Iraq in the mainly Kurdish-controlled northeast that was closed in January 2020.

The Security Council approved four border crossings when aid deliveries began in 2014, three years after the start of the Syrian conflict. But in January 2020, Russia used its veto threat in the council first to limit aid deliveries to two border crossings in the northwest, and then last July to cut another.

So today, aid can only be delivered through the Bab al-Hawa crossing, and its mandate ends July 10.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Western donors, who are the major providers of humanitarian aid to Syria, of blackmailing Moscow by threatening to cut humanitarian financing for its close ally Syria if the mandate for Bab al-Hawa is not extended.

We consider it is important to resist such approaches, he said in a recent oral statement conveyed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and obtained last week by The Associated Press. We believe that further concessions to the Americans and Europeans under the pressure of financial threats will undermine the credibility of the United Nations, its Charter and the Security Councils resolutions.

Nebenzia reiterated Russias criticism of cross-border aid and said humanitarian assistance should be delivered across conflict lines within Syria to reinforce the Syrian governments sovereignty over the entire country.

He reiterated Lavrovs criticism of the continuous attempts since April 2020 to block a convoy by the United Nations, International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent to Idlib from Syrias capital, Damascus. The Russian minister blamed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest militant group in Idlib, with the connivance" of Turkey, for refusing to allow the cross-line delivery.

Nebenzia was pressed at a news conference on Russias reaction to the resolution, which was drafted by Ireland and Norway, both serving two-year terms on the Security Council. The draft was discussed Wednesday by council experts for the first time, he said.

The Russian ambassador said he told Ireland and Norway in the very beginning that what we hear from our colleagues about reopening the closed cross-border points is really a non-starter.

That appears to doom Al-Yaroubiyas reopening.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who recently visited the Bab al-Hawa crossing, expressed disappointment Friday that the draft resolution didnt call for aid deliveries through three crossings, including the second crossing from Turkey to the northwest at Bab al-Salam, which was closed last July.

Millions of Syrians are struggling, and without urgent action, millions more will be cut off from food, clean water, medicine and COVID-19 vaccines, she said.

Nebenzia said the Syrian government wants to close cross-border deliveries, and dismissed claims there is no alternative.

There were predictions of disaster when Al-Yaroubiya was closed, but today facts on the ground confirm, and the U.N. says that they have increased increased humanitarian assistance to the northeast ... through the cooperation with the Syrian government, he said.

He said cross-border aid was approved in 2014 in special circumstances when there was no access to many parts of Syria.

But, of course, today it is now an outdated operation and eventually it will be closed, he said.

Asked whether he didnt see the need for even a single crossing now, Nebenzia said: I will not give you a definitive answer at this time. I will only tell you we continue consulting on this issue.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russia's domestic security agency said Thursday it has discovered a plot by followers of the Islamic State group to conduct terror attacks in Moscow and southern Russia, and killed one suspected conspirator.

The Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency known by its Russian acronym FSB, said that two Russian nationals were plotting the attacks with firearms and knives in crowded areas in Moscow and the southern city of Astrakhan under the IS leaders' guidance.
BOSTON (AP)  Massachusetts courts will move closer to pre-pandemic operations later this month under two updated orders released Thursday by the Supreme Judicial Court.

The first order removes occupancy limits and physical distancing requirements in courthouses, but requires everyone, whether fully vaccinated or not, to continue to wear a face covering.

The second order reopens courthouses for in-person business and trials.

It ends COVID-19-related limitations or restrictions on where and how jury trials are conducted, the SJC said.

Because courts continue to work through the backlog of trials caused by the pandemic, certain cases that typically would be heard by 12-person juries, such as Superior and Housing Court civil cases, will continue to be heard by six-person juries.

Priority will to be given to trials in cases where a defendant is in custody. Certain proceedings may still be conducted virtually.

Both orders take effect July 12.

We are truly encouraged by the progress in the Commonwealth with respect to COVID-19, and hope it will continue and allow courts to gradually return to normal," Chief Justice Kimberly Budd said in a statement. At the same time, we hope to take some of the lessons learned during the pandemic and apply them going forward, particularly when it comes to conducting certain proceedings virtually.

Due to juror notice requirements, jurors will not be available for trials in some locations until Sept. 7.

___

SENIOR CARE VACCINES

A Massachusetts senior care company has announced that it will require workers at all of its facilities to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, one of the first in the state to make the move.

We hope our announcement will be a springboard for others, Adam Berman, Legacy Lifecares president and chief executive told The Boston Globe.

About 30% of Massachusetts nursing home staff are not vaccinated, according to the most recent state data, putting vulnerable residents at risk. About one-quarter of the nations pandemic deaths have occurred in nursing homes.

Berman said he was spurred by announcements from many of the state's largest hospital systems that they would require COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees, and by the rapid spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

Peabody-based Legacy Lifecare has about 1,800 workers and more than 75% are already vaccinated. The company operates facilities in Chelsea, Peabody, Longmeadow, Boston, and Wellesley.

Tara Gregorio, president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, an industry group that represents nearly 400 facilities, said Legacy Lifecare is believed to be the first long-term senior care company in the state to enact a vaccine mandate. She expects others to follow.

Some national companies with Massachusetts facilities have vaccine mandates.

___

STATEHOUSE REOPENING

Top legislative leaders are beginning to think about how  and when  to reopen the Massachusetts Statehouse, which has been closed to visitors since the early days of the pandemic last year.

Since then lawmakers have been able to participate in legislative sessions remotely or in person. Staff have also continued to work in a hybrid manner throughout the state of emergency and beyond, with most working from home and some in the Statehouse, according to Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano, both Democrats.

While a large focus of the upcoming summer months will be the legislation ahead of us, we are also actively preparing our workplace for a safe return of members, staff, and the public, the two said in a joint statement Wednesday.

The two said there are a number of factors to consider, given that the Statehouse is not only a workplace to hundreds of people, but it is a public building visited frequently by local residents and tourists alike.

The Legislature is engaged with employees and will give them advance notice and guidance so they can plan their return to the State House, and a rebalancing of in-person and remote work. We are simultaneously planning a phased timeline of the reopening of the State House to the public as well, the two said.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP)  A Sioux City man has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman at a New Years Eve party.

Christopher Morales, 20, was sentenced Wednesday in Woodbury County District Court for the death of 18-year-old Mia Kritis, the Sioux City Journal reported. Morales pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and three counts of reckless use of a firearm in the case after being originally charged with first-degree murder and more serious counts that could have seen him serving life in prison.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  Gov. Kristi Noem's administration is guiding law enforcement officers not to honor Native American tribes' medical marijuana identification cards if they are not issued to tribe members.

The guidance, released by the South Dakota Highway Patrol just hours before the voter-approved medical marijuana law took effect Thursday, sets up a potential conflict between prosecutors and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, which has set up the state's first marijuana dispensary and plans to issue medical cannabis ID cards to anyone with a certified medical condition, the Argus Leader reported.

People seeking medical cannabis ID cards in South Dakota currently only have the option to obtain one from a Native American tribe because the state will not begin issuing ID cards until November.

However, the highway patrol's guidance also states that troopers should not arrest people who have no more than three ounces of pot if they have an ID card from another state or can show a statement from a doctor certifying they have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition. While the guidance only officially applies to the Highway Patrol, it encouraged other law enforcement officers to follow it to promote consistency in enforcing the state's new laws on medical marijuana.

But the attorney general for the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Seth Pearman, said it is ready to challenge the Highway Patrol's stance in court if someone is arrested after presenting a tribe-issued cannabis card. He said the tribe's ID cards are valid under state law because they are certified by a medical recommendation or a medical ID from another state.

That is a fight we will back, he said.

However, some local law enforcement agencies are easing up on enforcing low-level marijuana laws, regardless of medical status. Law enforcement agencies in the state's largest city, Sioux Falls, told the Argus Leader they will no longer prosecute marijuana possession charges for three ounces or less starting on Thursday.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island is poised to become the first state to authorize so-called harm reduction centers where people dealing with addiction can take heroin and other illegal drugs under the supervision of medical professionals.

Legislation cleared the state General Assembly Thursday creating a two-year pilot program for the centers, which are also referred to as safe injection sites or supervised injection sites.

The Senate-approved bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Dan McKee after the state House of Representatives approved the measure earlier this week. The Democrat has said he'll review the proposal when it reaches his desk.

Having a place where someone can save them from an overdose and where there are people offering them the resources they need for treatment is a much better alternative to people dying alone in their homes or their cars, state Sen. Joshua Miller, the bills sponsor, said in a statement.

Canada is among at least 10 countries that allow the facilities, but none exist in the U.S. Assembly leaders said their bill would make Rhode Island the first state to authorize such a pilot program.

New York, Philadelphia and Somerville, a Boston suburb, are among the American cities that have been trying to open the centers to combat the opioid crisis in recent years. Massachusetts lawmakers are also weighing a bill creating a 10-year pilot program with at least two sites.

James McDonald, the state Department of Healths medical director, said harm reduction sites have proven effective in preventing fatal overdoses.

They've also proven successful in connecting people with substance abuse treatment, recovery support and other health services, added Miller.

The Cranston Democrat has cautioned the measure, if approved, could face legal challenges as the injection centers remain illegal under federal law.

Under Miller's bill, opening a center would also require city and town approval.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Kosovo on Thursday and reassured local leaders that the international Kosovo Force will remain in place to secure regional peace and stability.

Stoltenberg was in the Kosovar capital Pristina where he was also to visit the NATO-led mission, known as KFOR, and show NATOs commitment to peace and stability in the Western Balkans.

NATO has been leading KFOR since 1999, with more than 3,700 troops from 27 countries.

Stoltenberg said history has shown that the KFOR mission is important not only for Kosovo and for the region, but also for NATO and for all NATO allies."

He said that after Western forces presently complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, for years NATO's biggest operation, KFOR will not only be the longest, but also the biggest NATO military operation.

The 1998-99 war in the former Serbian province of Kosovo between ethnic Albanian independence fighters and Serbia left more than 10,000 dead and ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade has refused to accept that. While Kosovo has been recognized by the United States and most EU nations, Belgrade has relied on support from Russia and China in its bid to retain a claim on the territory.

In his meetings with Kosovos president, prime minister and an ethnic Serb minority politician, Stoltenberg said he had underlined the importance of dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade.

The EU-brokered dialogue resumed last month in Brussels. It is also strongly supported by the U.S.
KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP)  The South Carolina-based Catawba Indian Nation has opened a preliminary, temporary version of its proposed casino just across the border in North Carolina.

Tribal leaders were joined by local and state government officials Thursday for a ribbon-cutting at the modular facility containing 500 slot machines just off Interstate 85 in Kings Mountain, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of Charlotte. It's a key step in ultimately creating the $273 million Catawba Two Kings Casino with plans for 2,600 permanent jobs and revenues for the tribe.
AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. (AP)  An Airway Heights truck importer has agreed to pay a third fine stemming from a federal investigation that found it was trying to cheat emissions testing standards.

DDM Imports has agreed to pay $66,622 after an inspection of two Ford F-350s at the Canadian border in November revealed evidence of tampering with emission controls, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
TIRANA, Albania (AP)  Western Balkan countries on Thursday launched free roaming for all mobile phone users within the region as a first step of regional cooperation in their path toward joining the bigger European Union bloc.

Cell phone providers will no longer apply roaming charges for people traveling inside the region following an agreement that the regional countries  Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia - reached two years ago.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A man convicted along with three others in the racially motivated killing spree that terrorized San Francisco in the 1970s died in a prison cell while on hospice care, officials announced Thursday.

Jessie Lee Cooks, 76, was found dead Wednesday in his bed at the California Medical Facility, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. The cause of death will be determined by the Solano County Coroner, officials said.

Cooks was sentenced in San Francisco County on March 29, 1976, to serve life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree robbery.

Cooks, Manuel More, J.C.X. Simon and Larry C. Green were convicted of targeting white victims between October 1973 and April 1974 in a rampage that terrorized San Francisco and left 14 people dead.

The murder victims included a woman who was beheaded with a machete, an 81-year-old man and a 19-year-old college student carrying a teddy bear as a Christmas present.

The attacks were known as the Zebra murders because investigators communicated their information in the case over the police broadcast band Z. The wounded included Art Agnos, who would go on to serve as San Franciscos mayor.

The mayor at the time, Joseph L. Alioto, ordered a citywide dragnet to catch the killers. Police officers stopped and questioned nearly every young Black man they encountered between the ages of 20 and 30 who were 6 feet tall or a few inches shorter. Those questioned and cleared were given a card to show other officers who might detain them for questioning.

J.C.X. Simon passed away at San Quentin State Prison in 2015 at age 69. Manuel Moore passed away at California Health Care Facility in Stockton in 2017. He was 73.

Larry C. Green, 69, is incarcerated at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  Several early childhood education programs in West Virginia will get $16.6 million in federal funding.

The state's U.S. senators announced the new funding for Head Start and Early Head Start programs on Wednesday.

The largest amount, nearly $6.9 million, will go to the Northern Panhandle Head Start Inc. organization. There is $5.1 million for the Eastern Panhandle Instructional Cooperative, and less than $2 million each for Upshur Human Resources Inc., Monongalia County Board of Education and Greenbrier County Board of Education.

Investing in West Virginians at an early age is essential for a bright future, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said. Head Start programs provide our youngest West Virginians with the skills and foundations they need to succeed throughout their education.

The funding is made available through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I have long been an advocate for Head Start funding, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a statement. She added she has seen how much the programs matter to young people.
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Try anything new, try something different, try to challenge the leaders, and hey, you've got to be swatted like a fly, says Elizabeth Carmichael in the engrossing, four-part docuseries The Lady and the Dale.

Set in 1970s Los Angeles, its an ambitious story with an even more ambitious central character: In addition to being a loving mother and brilliant entrepreneur, Carmichael is an outlaw whos spent most of her life on the run. For years, cops, mobsters, and journalists bite at her heels, trying to unravel this mysterious and powerful woman. The filmmakers interview family members to retell Carmichaels life storyand use a unique blend of archival photographs and stop-motion animation to recreate it.

While the docuseries initially focuses on Carmichaels failed venture, an odd-looking, three-wheeled car named the Dale, it is a story about much more. Its a tale about Carmichaels epic rise to fame and her fall once the mainstream media ruthlessly publicizes her transgender identity. Just as the automotive world wasnt ready for her three-wheeled car, cisgender society wasnt ready for an empowered trans woman to challenge the status quo.

Courtesy of HBO

Before the Dale, and before she transitioned, Carmichael was a highly intelligent criminal mastermind. She crafted multiple identities, forging wads of fake cash along the way. Indicted on conspiracy and counterfeit charges, Carmichael fled, taking her family with her. Eventually, after years of starting multiple businesses, hiding in various parts of the U.S., and even faking her death, Carmichael comes out to her wife and children as transgender. They accept her, even embracing her as their new mother.

Gender theorist Susan Stryker relates Carmichaels experience to overarching narratives about the historically marginalized trans community. The employment discrimination, the housing discrimination, the kinds of police violence that gets directed at you, the criminalization of your life, psychiatrization of your life, it puts you in a very vulnerable, marginal position where sometimes your only options then are crime, says Stryker in the film.

Courtesy of HBO

Carmichael struggles to gain employment as a woman, but when she founds her own company, 20th Century Motors, and begins marketing the Dale, everything changes. Her miracle car is lauded as a solution to Americas then-dire gas shortage, and the public can't wait to get their hands on it.

Described as an overnight success, Carmichael accrues millions of dollars in investments and graces magazine covers all over the world. I will run the auto industry like a queen, she says with conviction. It all seems too good to be true because, well, it is.

Colin Dangaard/Courtesy HBO

Ultimately, Carmichael was just selling a concept. The Dale was never even test driven in public; it was only put on display at auto shows. Somehow, she convinced the masses to buy a car they had never driven, and illegally used their investments to fund 20th Century Motors. Her charisma is so infectious, as viewers, we, too, buy into her vision, despite her voracious appetite for wealth.

If in the process if I save the world thats OK, but my main concern is for myself, she says to a reporter in the film. At this point, Carmichael stops at nothing to persuade investors, even if it means lying about the Dale, but her ability to inspire the public outweighs her inability to deliver the product. She continues to rake in $30,000 a day on a dream, while her employees struggle to build a car with incorrect tools.

However, Dick Carlson, transphobic investigative reporter and father of Tucker Carlson, doesnt buy it. Just as he doesnt view the Dale as a real car, he doesnt view Carmichael as a real woman. Subsequently, he doggedly pursues her, becoming obsessed with exposing her as a fraud, and its later revealed that he built his journalism career on outing transgender women. When the state of California discovers that Carmichael has been illegally using her investors money to fund her business, she flees once more, but only gets so far. Once shes arrested and outed, the media collectively mocks her. They misgender and deadname her, displaying her to the world like an eviscerated big game trophy.

Courtesy of HBO

Despite facing a guilty verdict from a prejudiced jury, Carmichael successfully escapes from mens prison, which would could have been a death sentence. Against all odds, shes able to start her life anew and live well into old age, but not without encountering more journalists, who, like Carlson, link her trans identity to her criminal behavior.

In the end, like the Dale, Carmichael could be viewed as deceitful, not because of her gender but because she swindled naive investors. But she and the Dale both embodied a dream for a newer, better way of life when no one else dared to.

Ariana Bindman is a freelance writer in the Bay Area, find her on Instagram at @ariana.bindman.
Long lines. Delays. Cancellations. Limited refunds.

Air travel in the United States is in a hellish state at the moment, with Southwest and American Airlines both coming under fire for canceling hundreds of flights and making various excuses ranging from the weather to labor shortages to IT issues.

Bill McGee, aviation and travel adviser for Consumer Reports advocacy arm, said most of the blame rests with one group in particular.

"Most of blame goes to the airline industry and it's important to remember the context," he said. "Last year, the airlines were given close to $50 billion in taxpayer bailouts, and there were no provisions in the relief bills for consumer protections like guaranteeing refunds, but there were provisions about airlines ensuring they were not short-staffed, which of course is what's happening right now. The airline industry really failed abysmally here."

Most airlines are still dealing with labor shortages following mass layoffs during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While some are stepping up efforts to return to a level of staffing that would allow for normal service, most industry experts are skeptical the problem will be fixed over the summer.

McGee believes airlines had ample time to prepare for summer travel season.

"The airlines could see for months and months that vaccinations were increasing and people would be interested in flying again," he said. "It's really not surprising that its summer now and people are anxious to get back out there, and the airline industry was still caught flat-footed. It's a total mess and quite frankly, theyve failed us all, especially when they took so much in bailout money."

A March 2021 analysis from the New York Times found that airline executives and investors were the primary beneficiaries of the bailout money from Congress. While the relief money was credited with keeping 75,000 aviation workers across the industry employed, that figure translates to approximately $300,000 in relief funds per employee  which is a figure well over the range for the average annual salaries of customer service agents and flight attendants ($50,000 to $70,000).

In other words, for as much money as the airline industry received, more workers should have remained employed.

The Times analysis finds that the money's primary use was bolstering airline share prices, as the authors write, "we socialized the airline industry's losses and largely privatized the gains." A former Obama administration called the money "the ultimate corporate welfare," and an additional analysis from Open Secrets found that the airline industry spent $25 million on lobbying lawmakers in 2020.

While some blame rests with Congress, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is the sole regulatory body that can take action against airline companies.

McGee noted that the airline industry is unique because it is one of a small number of industries in the country that can only be regulated by the federal government. Unlike other tourism industries, such as hotels, airlines cannot be controlled by state legislatures or courts, requiring congressional or executive branch oversight.

The DOT, currently headed by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, has the power to enforce various consumer protection laws passed by Congress. McGee believes that in order to ameliorate this summer's fiasco, the department should be doing more to guarantee refunds for customers. It is a longstanding DOT rule that if an airline  not the passenger  cancels a flight, it must provide a refund.

In the early months of the pandemic, the DOT sent frequent warnings to airlines that they must abide by the refund rules. No such warnings have gone out this summer, and lawmakers have called on Buttigieg to do more.

"We believe the DOT must take strong action to address these complaints and ensure the return of travelers' money," reads a letter from Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal as well as Reps. Chuy Garcia and Steve Cohen. "At a minimum, it is imperative that the DOT does not allow pandemic-related flight credits to expire."

Refunds are nice, of course, but they will not completely solve the underlying problem of airline companies not adequately planning for a summer travel season with high demand.

McGee said he hopes the current situation spurs more serious regulatory action against the airline industry.

"Airline executives are the biggest socialists of all because they have no problem taking billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars, but then they dont want us to get involved in how its spent so they get the best of both worlds," he said. "We need to have a much larger discussion in Congress, at the White House at the Department of Transportation, in the media and with us as consumers about the state of the U.S. airline industry. They're failing consumers over and over again with no repercussions."
Storm-producing fire clouds threw out hundreds of thousands of lightning strikes over wildfire-stricken British Columbia and northwestern Alberta provinces in Canada Wednesday and Thursday, bewildering meteorologists.

Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist with the company Vaisala, which maps lightning strikes around in the world, said the North American Lightning Detection Network sensed 710,177 lightning events across British Columbia and northwestern Alberta in about 15 hours, between 3 p.m. on June 30 and 6 a.m. on July 1.

Of those, 597,314 were in-cloud pulses, meaning the strikes didn't hit the ground. "Each in-cloud lightning 'strike' can be made up of multiple in-cloud pulses," Vagasky explained.

There were 112,803 cloud-to-ground strokes detected over the same area, he said.

Vagasky called the numbers "surprising" for Canada. "In studying lightning, there is always something interesting that comes up, whether it is lightning in a hurricane or volcano, or large numbers of lightning," he said. "As a whole, Canada doesnt generally see a lot of lightning  about 90% less than the United States. In fact, the counts from yesterday are more what you would expect to see in a big day over lightning-prone regions like Texas or Oklahoma."

The numbers coming out of the lightning siege seem too big to be true, but Vagasky said the activity is measured with precision equipment.

Data produced by North American Lightning Detection Network is monitored nonstop and validated against rocket-triggered lightning, lightning to tall towers, and other lightning references.

"The network detects more than 95% of cloud-to-ground flashes with 100-meter accuracy," said Vagasky.

The majority of the strikes in western Canada were the result of pyrocumulonimbus clouds forming over the wildfires tearing across western Canada, which has also suffered from a sweltering heat wave in the past week.

On Thursday morning the British Columbia Wildfire Service listed 47 blazes across the region. In a fire burning 95 miles northeast of Vancouver, the entire village of Lytton evacuated. The mayor of the town of 250 people told CBC News on Thursday the whole town was on fire. Large blazes also burned north of Big White as well near Sparks Lake, according to CBC.

"Absolutely mind-blowing wildfire behavior in British Columbia," Dakota Smith, a scientist in Colorado, tweeted along with satellite imagery. "Incredible & massive storm-producing pyrocumulonimbus plumes."

"I've watched a lot of wildfire-associated pyroconvective events during the satellite era, and I think this might be the singularly most extreme I've ever seen," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, wrote on Twitter. "This is a literal firestorm, producing *thousands* of lightning strikes and almost certainly countless new fires."

These massive, mushroom-shaped clouds of hot, smoky air towering thousands of feet into the sky are caused by a natural source of heat such as a wildfire or volcano, according to NASA. Rising warm air from the fire carries water vapor, ash and smoke up into the atmosphere, forming clouds.

BC Wildfire Service

These clouds can become so intense that they create their own weather and emit lightning that can start new wildfires on the ground.

Neil Lareau, who studies wildfire-generated weather, said this appears to be the biggest pyrocumulonimbus event he has seen.

"At face value, Im tempted to say this might be the upper end of what Ive ever seen," said Lareau, a professor of atmospheric sciences in the department of physics at the University of Nevada at Reno. "There have been some significant pyrocumulonimbus clouds in British Columbia in 2017 as well as the Australian outbreak of 2020 and then the Creek Fire here in California."

Lareau closely followed a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that developed over the Creek Fire on Sept. 5, 2020, between Shaver Lake, Big Creek and Huntington Lake, Calif. Using data from the National Weather Services network of Doppler radars, Lareau created a model of the smoke plume that soared 55,000 feet in elevation.

He said the fires in western Canada have produced several clouds of this magnitude.

"Every year its one upping the year before, which is really horrifying," he said.
Sharon, PA (16146)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 91F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low around 70F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
NEW HAVEN  You could call them the Brillies.

They likely would answer, as that is the special name for a small group of about 15 Yale Law School students who are assigned during their first-year fall semester to Yale law professor Lea Brilmayer.

And the law schools small groups have gotten a lot of publicity lately because of Professor Amy Chua.

Chua did not lead a small group last year, after she was confronted by law school Dean Heather Gerken with having students to her house. She denied that she violated the Yale guidelines for pandemic gatherings and said she withdrew from the group. Her disagreement with the law school made national news, but other professors said they kept to the university rules despite the difficulty.

The small groups, which are offered only that first term, are more than a seminar class. Traditionally, the professor leading the group socializes with the students, with some holding dinners parties or other gatherings at their home. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it put a major damper on the groups.

A Nov. 6, 2020, email from Provost Scott Strobel and Dr. Stephanie Spangler, vice provost for health affairs, stated, Gatherings that involve serving food or drinks where masks are removed are strongly discouraged.  Restrictions on attending or hosting parties remain in place for students. Additionally, the States new Phase 2.1 rules prohibit gatherings larger than 10 people in private residences and apply to all members of the community.

Contributed photo

Brilmayer, who led a small group in contracts law last fall, said it was difficult, but she managed to continue seeing her students at her home on the Branford shore, without violating the rules.

Brilmayer said all her small gathering were planned for outside with no food or drink.

It wasnt that the rules themselves were so tough. It was everything in combination, Brilmayer said. The rules did not stay constant the entire time  You never knew when it might change so you always had to be looking.

Brilmayer is popular with her small-group students. She holds sleepovers and swimming parties. The students even give themselves a nickname.

Everybody knows that if you get into a Brilmayer section that youre a Brillie. Brillies are special, she said. Theres reputed to be a secret handshake.  This year they made up travel mugs, coffee mugs with tops on them that [said], Everybody wants to be a Brillie.

Two of her students have gotten married, as well.

Chua withdrew from leading hers, either voluntarily, according to the law school, or under pressure because Gerken told her she would not be leading one, as Chua described it.

The issue, Gerken said in a statement to the New Haven Register, was that Professor 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.

Chua said she had had only groups of two or three students to her Westville home mostly as extensions of office hours. One get-together, which was documented in a dossier of text messages brought to the dean, actually was a meeting with two students, one of whom was upset because of being targeted by other students, she said.

Each professor has her or his own style of how to lead the small groups, Brilmayer said.

For some people, theyll have one very nice dinner party. For other people, theyll do a lot of informal socializing, but I really try to get to know everybody in the class, she said. I do tend to get very friendly with my students.

A microburst

For Brilmayer, an international law scholar, the groups are a way for students to get to know her and, more importantly, to get to know each other, she said. Its a way of releasing the stress of studies. They want to be someplace where they can put their feet up on the table, she said.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media file

When it comes to socializing with her students, Brilmayer said, Im kind of extreme. For me the small group is about the students getting to know each other in a way that doesnt happen at most law schools.  They dont come over to my house to meet me.

COVID made everything harder. This was really terrible for them, Brilmayer said. Being at Yale Law School can be one of the most fun things in the world. They were looking forward to this. They worked so hard to get here.

Yale University has been one of the strictest institutions when it comes to pandemic precautions. This years commencement was held in person, but without family or guests allowed on campus.

Six or seven people was the maximum number of people you could have in any group, Brilmayer said. People could not meet indoors, eat or drink or engage in strenuous activity. Brilmayer said she split the group up and followed the rules, but she continued to entertain at the Victorian house she shares with her husband, Bill Horne, a longtime leader of the Branford Land Trust.

I typically have a lot of social events at my house and there wasnt a single thing that I could do that was consistent with university rules, Brilmayer said. Everything had to be stripped down to the bare bones. Everything had to be rethought.

So Brilmayer broke the group in three. I arranged things so there was a period of two or three hours on Friday afternoon. Four or five people would come over to hang out at the house, six feet apart, wearing masks. I just tried to be extremely punctilious about this, she said.

She didnt offer food or drinks, she said. When they were outside, we didnt serve anything. At first I thought the rule was they could bring food and eat their own food, but the rule was you couldnt eat. We made a point out of this because it was a slippery slope.

Unfortunately, the first get-together didnt quite work out that way. It was on Aug. 27. The one time that we did sort of violate the rules was the first sort of event that I had. The group was swimming in Long Island Sound at about 4:30 p.m., when Horne came running, yelling for them to get out of the water.

Come on! Come on! Come on! There was a tornado, Brilmayer said Horne called out. In Branford, the high winds later were determined to have been a microburst, but there was a small tornado farther north.

It was really freaky, Brilmayer said. It was a dangerous situation and I let them into the house. She said she would defend the action as being in line with wanting to keep the students safe.

We were outside on the porch, looking south at Rogers Island when a big gust of wind came through, she said. This was like a howling wind. There were branches down all over the place.

Later, with trees down across the road, Horne had to lead the students, using the flashlights on their phones, across a trail to Stony Creek to get home. It was really a scene, Brilmayer said.

Otherwise, she said, she kept the rules to a fault, always outside. In fact, we had a very small party of five or six student on Election Day  those who werent busy working at polls or getting votes out. She pushed a television to the window and the students watched from the porch.

We did that and they had blankets and it got colder and colder and colder, she said. The students eventually went home.

Brilmayer started at Yale Law School in 1982, left in the 90s for several years to teach at New York University because they were jazzing up their international law programs, she said. She returned to Yale in 1998.

We always tell people that being placed in the Brilmayer small group is like winning the lottery because professor Brilmayer is an incredible person and the community is so strong, said Duncan Hosie, who said Brilmayers students also are known as Brillionaires. He said he was in her small group his first year and served as a teaching assistant, known as a Coker fellow, last year during COVID.

There are extremely close relationships between the class years, said Hosie, who originally is from the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated in May. Each year, past and present Brillies would attend a Halloween party at Brilmayers home, he said.

I think she is an extremely generous person. I also feel she prioritizes the small groups, Hosie said. I think she really cares about the small groups and realizes for 1Ls its a really important part, if not the most important part, of the first-year experience.

Hosie said that last year I think we rose to the occasion. I think there was a lot of concern we wouldnt be able to deliver the small-group experience to them. He said breaking the group into smaller groups was how they managed to obey university rules about gathering during the pandemic.

Internet games

Professor Robert Post, a constitutional law scholar, conducted his small group totally on Zoom. Im 73 and Im not about to meet in person because of the risks of COVID, he said. Zoom was not what he wanted to do, however.

Contributed photo

I was terrified of it because typically I have them over to the house and we have brunch or they go bowling together, Post said. He said he intends to develop a very personal mentorship relationship with each student. Its important, he said, that each student feel free to speak whats on their mind, and that can lead to a delicate and personal classroom experience.

I personally had to revamp how I taught it, Post said. We had to have a much more structured discussion. My teaching is all about basically how you read texts very carefully.

Post said the two third-year Coker fellows did get together with students. They did social activities with the students since it was student to student, he said. One of the consequences of being 73 is youre really out of it as far as the culture of someone whos 23.

As for Posts socializing with his students, I met with them three or four nights during the semester and we played internet games, he said. I felt like I sort of got to know them a little bit more. He also met with each student on Zoom individually.

He called Brilmayer someone who is super-connected to these kids. She has a wonderful home.  She is a super-fabulous teacher. I concentrate much more on the curricular side, although Im there for the personal side.

One of Posts students, Andrew Granato, said, As far as I know, most group were still able to do physically distanced functions in person by cleaving the group in half. He said his small group stayed under the 10-person limit and went pumpkin and apple picking and met in a field.

We never had any social function that was all of us, he said. Everybody did the best they could to simulate normal social rituals or activities they would have done.

Granato said he didnt meet professor Post in person the entire semester except one time I ran into him on the street. He was wearing a mask and sunglasses, so I didnt recognize him.  He started talking to me and I didnt realize who it was for several seconds.

Granato, who is from Columbus, Ohio, and interested in financial and business regulation, said the small group acts as a default friend group for new students. Thats particularly true this year because normally in a university setting you run into people in the hallways or during classes and that was  restricted during COVID. Definitely a lot of my best friends that I made at the law school were in my small group.

Neither Brilmayer nor Post wanted to comment on Chuas situation, and the law school declined to comment, as did Chua.

edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382
The latest week of COVID-19 vaccination data in Connecticut shows the lowest number of shots administered since early January when few people were eligible.

For the week ending June 26, 43,591 doses awere dministered statewide, according to the states data released Thursday. The number represents a decline of nearly 30 percent from the week before, and a massive drop since vaccinations peaked one week in early April at more than 315,000.

The lower demand for shots comes as more than 67 percent of all Connecticut residents have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions data tracker. A little less than 61 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC metrics.

Statewide, COVID-19 numbers have remained low through the late spring and early summer. That trend continued Thursday with 35 new cases statewide out of 8,046 tests for a daily positivity rate of 0.43 percent. Hospitalizations for the illness rose by six, bringing the state total to 37. One more fatality brought the states death toll to 8,279.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday marked the first time since the pandemic began where the state had gone a full week without a new case in any Connecticut nursing homes.

With our nursing home residents nearly entirely vaccinated, this is more proof that vaccines work, the governor tweeted Thursday afternoon.

But some communities are still lagging well behind the state average when it comes to vaccination, now three months since Connecticut began offering vaccines to anyone eligible, and two months since the state rolled back its pandemic-era restrictions.

State data show vaccinations are lagging particularly in rural communities and in some of the states largest cities.

In Mansfield, a town of about 25,000, less than 35 percent of residents have started vaccination while only around 32 percent are fully vaccinated. The percentage of residents with at least one dose increased by less than a quarter of a percentage point in the past week, the data shows.

In rural Sterling, Thompson and urban Hartford, less than 45 percent of residents have initiated vaccination, according to the data.

Communities with large underserved populations also tend to rank lower on the list compared with communities with high vaccination rates. The state has prioritized certain underserved communities for vaccination based on ZIP codes. As of Thursday, 51.3 percent of residents living in those ZIP codes have received at least one shot or more, compared with 63.8 percent in all other ZIP codes.

Meanwhile, some communities are close to having all of their residents at least partly vaccinated.

In Canaan, a town of a little more than 1,000 people, 98 percent have initiated vaccination, according to the states data. Salisbury, Lyme, Old Saybrook and Kent all report more than 80 percent of residents have received at least one dose.
SALEM, Ore. (AP)  The grim toll of the historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest became more apparent as authorities in Canada, Oregon and Washington state said Wednesday they were investigating hundreds of deaths likely caused by scorching temperatures that shattered all-time records in the normally temperate region.

British Columbias chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 sudden and unexpected deaths between Friday and Wednesday. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the Canadian province over a five-day period.

While it is too early to say with certainty how many of these deaths are heat related, it is believed likely that the significant increase in deaths reported is attributable to the extreme weather, LaPointe said in a statement.

Many homes in Vancouver, much like Seattle, dont have air conditioning, leaving people ill-prepared for soaring temperatures.

"Vancouver has never experienced heat like this, and sadly dozens of people are dying because of it, Vancouver police Sgt. Steve Addison said in a statement.

Oregon health officials said more than 60 deaths have been tied to the heat, with the states largest county, Multnomah, blaming the weather for 45 deaths since temperatures spiked Friday. At least 20 deaths in Washington state have been linked to the heat, a number that was expected to rise.

The heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense. Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).

While the temperatures had cooled considerably in western Washington, Oregon and British Columbia by Wednesday, interior regions were still sweating through triple-digit temperatures as the weather system moved east into the intermountain West and the Plains.

Amid the dangerous heat and drought gripping the American West, crews were closely monitoring wildfires that can explode in the extreme weather.

Heat warnings were in place for parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana as well as Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, where a prolonged, dangerous, and historic heat wave will persist through this week, Environment Canada said.

The temperatures recorded this week are unprecedented  lives have been lost and the risk of wildfires is at a dangerously high level, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

In Oregon, the Multnomah County medical examiner blamed 45 heat deaths on hyperthermia, an abnormally high body temperature caused by a failure of the body to deal with heat. The victims ranged in age from 44 to 97.

The county that includes Portland said that between 2017 and 2019, there were only 12 hyperthermia deaths in all of Oregon.

This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people, Dr. Jennifer Vines, the county's health officer, said in a statement.

The King County medical examiner's office, which covers an area including Seattle, said on Wednesday that a total of 13 people had died from heat-related causes. In neighboring Snohomish County, three men  ages 51, 75 and 77  died after experiencing heatstroke in their homes, the medical examiners office told the Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, on Tuesday. Four deaths have also been linked to heat in Kitsap County, west of Seattle.

In western Washington, the Spokane Fire Department found two people dead in an apartment building Wednesday who had been suffering symptoms of heat-related stress, TV station KREM reported.

The heat led a power company in Spokane to impose rolling blackouts because of the strain on the electrical grid. Avista Utilities says it's trying to limit outages to one hour per customer.

Heather Rosentrater, an Avista vice president for energy delivery, said the outages were a distribution problem and did not stem from a lack of electricity in the system.

Renee Swecker, 66, of Clayton, Washington, visited a splashpad fountain in downtown Spokanes Riverfront Park with her grandchildren Wednesday, saying they are going everywhere where there is water.

Im praying for rain every day, Swecker said.

___

Morris reported from Vancouver, British Columbia. Associated Press writer Nicholas K. Geranios contributed from Spokane, Washington.
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Is travel opening up? As the second wave in India shows constant decline, are we Indians ready to fly and explore the world again? We will look through some of the countries which allow Indian travellers right now. More countries are getting added to the list as I type this, so this list might not be comprehensive.

Also guidelines on travel are constantly evolving and restrictions to international flights to India still remain in place. One needs to really look at the most updated guidelines and make travel plans. Better still, make plans right now but travel later when travelling is safer again - for now staying where you are and keeping safe should be the highest priority.

Countries Indians can travel to

Watch the video version!

If you prefer to watch a video, you can also do it here on my YouTube channel. The channel has been around for ages but it's only now that I have restarted making and uploading videos there - hope you'll enjoy them just as you've enjoyed the blog!

Here's the link to my channel.





Background to Tourism and Covid-19

The tourism industry across the world took the worst possible hit when Covid-19 started to destroy the world as we knew it. Countries implemented lockdowns, often suspended local and international travel, and with that the tourism industry took a major hit. It is estimated that the industry took a loss in excess of $4.6 trillion.

Just as the industry had started to revive in 2021 in India, the second wave hit and we are now back to score one, or maybe even negative one. In contrast to us in India, the West has done better - driven primarily due to high vaccination rate there. In Europe people are getting ready for the summer break - its a really big thing there, and similarly in US many restrictions have already been eased, including masks if you are fully vaccinated.

So where does this leave us Indians? Can we travel anywhere at all right now? Well, as it turns out, there are a few countries which welcome tourists from India. There are more countries that you can fly to especially to countries with whom India as an air-bubble arrangement for flights, but those are for essential travel and necessarily for tourism purpose.

But the big question is - should you fly outside India at all right now? My answer to that would be absolutely NO in capital letters. However, if you do not want to follow my advice, this video is exactly for you.

Countries Indians can travel to right now!

1. Russia

The land of tsars, Lenin and Putin, is waiting for us Indians with open arm. Of course, Russia is so much more than these three power figures, and for me Russia is actually a very special place and I am quite surprised that I haven't been there as yet. Did you read about the news about how some travel agencies were selling Russia travel deals bundled with Sputnik V jabs?

Russia

Fun fact - back in the Soviet era when India and Soviet Union were besties, we used to get this Russian magazine called Sputnik in India. I loved that magazine and I think that's when my love affair with the country also started. My first (and last) pen pal was also a Russian girl - but I never got to meet her and our love story never really started. Moving on

2. Turkey

The next in the list is Turkey - located at the confluence of Asia and Europe.

Now Turkey is special because this is the first country I visited outside India. Well, apart from Nepal - but I didnt need visa to go to Nepal (I still dont), heck not even a passport. So yes, Turkey was the first one.

Turkey

No COVID vaccine shots there, but the country is so beautiful and their coffee is yum too. Some of the Instagram influencers from India have gone there too - seems like the world didnt change at all there. Or maybe its the curated (fake) world of Instagram celebrities. We would never know.

3. Nepal

The next in the list is Nepal. Oops - I guess, I will have to now accept that the first country I ever visited (about a 100 times) was Nepal. I grew up along the India-Nepal border in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and this meant that I we went to Nepal very very often - family trips, school picnics, shopping for nice pencil boxes and erasers and even Coca-cola - it used to be banned in India back then.

Nepal

However, Nepal is currently going through very difficult times with respect to a Covid resurgence, and I think it would be rather inappropriate to make a travel trip there.

Would you do that?

4. Egypt

The next one is Egypt - again a country Ive never ever been to. Back in the good old travel blogging days, I almost visited the country with a bunch of other bloggers, or so I thought at least. I think it was a scam. At least I didnt lose any money!!

Egypt

I would love to go to Egypt once all this is over, and that might take a while. Maybe next year, maybe the year after that - I am ready to wait. Travel can wait.

5. South Africa

And the final country in the list is South Africa - another country I've never been to. Fun fact - the first Bollywood movie to be shot there was Prem Granth which starred Madhuri Dixit and Rishi Kapoor. The movie was based on the issue of rape and how the entire society blames the woman and how much she suffers. The movie was extremely sad.

South Africa

I am not sure how this video got so dark.

On an even darker note, I think it would be disastrous if the Delta variant from India and Beta variant come together to make something even worse. Maybe thats a good reason to not travel right now?

Still planning to travel?

So are you still thinking of traveling? Please dont be a douchebag and travel. By all means make travel plans, but for now stay at home and stay safe.
I wouldnt call myself an outdoorsman by any means but fishing is something I have long enjo
Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar has been hospitalised once again, for the second time this month.

The 98-year-old actor was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Hinduja Hospital, Khar on Tuesday, after reportedly complaining of breathlessness. As per reports, he is stable now.

This is the second time this month that the veteran actor has been admitted to hospital. He was hospitalised on June 6 after experiencing breathlessness.
The third phase of clinical trial for the Pasteur vaccine, developed by Iran's Pasteur Institute, has been carried out, Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Saeed Namaki as saying on Wednesday.

Tehran, July 1 (IANS) Iran's Health Ministry has authorised the emergency use of a second domestic vaccine against Covid-19, a top official announced here.

The Pasteur vaccine is the second Iranian vaccine approved for inoculation against coronavirus, Namaki added.

On June 14, Iran announced the emergency use of COVIran Barakat financed by the Barakat Foundation.

Currently, 4,436,083 people have received first dose of coronavirus vaccines in the country, with 1,596,507 taking both.

Iran has already introduced Covid-19 vaccines from Russia, India, China and South Korea for over 5 million people across the country.

Iran on Wednesday reported 11,748 new Covid cases, raising the country's total infections to 3,204,557.

The pandemic has so far claimed 84,264 lives, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said.

A total of 2,876,828 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 3,183 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

--IANS

ksk/
Fundraising is the manner of raising money as contributions for a cause from individuals and businesses. Initially used to gather money for nonprofit organizations, fundraising has grown a lot over the years, and it is now used to support various important causes. These purposes may involve anything, from serving the needy to raising funds for one's education. Traditional fundraising results offline, whereas modern-day crowdfunding occurs online.

When you wish to give, you may not apprehend that donating to a foundation will make more than support your favorite cause, and giving can also provide you with many personal benefits. Whether you favor donating to charities help people living in poverty, promoting to protect the environment, helping animals in need, or addressing other global or local problems, charities require your help to maintain their selfless actions.

Nonprofits organizations all try to improve the world and make a difference. However, these foundations need funding to advance their purpose. That's how fundraising is always top of mind for many nonprofits-fundraising is a vast opportunity for nonprofit organizations to bring in donations. Nevertheless, it's also a great way to raise knowledge around a cause or bring in new volunteers.

The work of social equity nonprofits is about directing and correcting inequities and oppressions of many sorts. The organizing aims solutions to racism, sexism, poverty, and so on. Hence many look at fundraising for social justice. But, unfortunately, nonprofits don't have successful events and negotiate for civic beliefs to bring more mainstream donors. Yet now, organizations have to drill down even further to figure out how to raise the needed funds, build the power of a thick base of individual donors, and do that from an increasing society.

Crowdfunding has a broad reach. Crowdfunding is used in a variety of platforms, from social media to face-to-face environments. Donors may give to feel good about themselves or because they believe in a cause. Some contributions are made to individuals, while others are made to organizations. The same is true in online crowdfunding. However, some differences exist in their method of giving, geography, and demographics.

Meanwhile, an attempt to make medical affordable and accessible to all, to bring down the fatality rate in emergencies, the interest of spreading crowdfunding as a viable healthcare financing choice in India. In India, crowdfunding makes it easy for patients to fight unexpected medical emergencies and unaffordable healthcare costs. Let us look into some of the popular Medical Fundraising platforms.

Milaap

Milaap is an online crowdfunding platform that enables anyone across India to raise funds for healthcare, education, sports, disaster relief, and other personal causes with great ease. Established in 2010 by a team of young and passionate entrepreneurs, Milaap has pioneered person-to-person giving in India.

Milap began as a platform to support rural projects and micro-entrepreneurs. Still, today it has widely utilized by Indians to raise funds from friends, family, and a more comprehensive social network for medical needs, loved ones and charity.

Milaap faces many challenges, such as difficulty discovering the right causes, trust deficit, and overall donor indifference. They practice providing and managing microloans to their local communities or connect with the reason to help with a donation.

The platform is constantly striving to take the concept of online fundraising to more and more Indians. Backed by the increasing penetration of social media and the popularization of digital payments, Milaap has quickly become India's most preferred platform to raise funds for personal causes.

ImpactGuru

ImpactGuru is India's leading online crowdfunding platform that allows NGOs to support their programs and individuals to fund their medical expenses, creative projects, and personal projects. ImpactGuru is a social business that provides crowdfunding support for medical, private, and nonprofit causes. Alternatively, it will enable you to donate to a cause you support or choose from a host of vetted reasons on Impact Guru.

Many campaigners, particularly medical causes, cannot wait until the fundraiser closes and often need to make payments to hospitals in parts. Unlike many platforms, on ImpactGuru, you can request partial or entire fund withdrawal before your fundraiser closes. Go to your dashboard, click on "Withdraw Funds," enter the amount you wish to withdraw, and upload the documents required (bank details and scanned copies of PAN and Aadhar cards).

In India, healthcare and education require a personalized and customized approach. Likewise, crowdfunding constantly strives to provide the best fundraising experience and support to all our customers. Our pricing plans reflect the value we deliver in helping our customers achieve their fundraising goals at the lowest possible cost.

Smile Foundation

A group of young corporate professionals established Smile Foundation in 2002. They started working from scratch to bring about a difference in the lives of needy families and communities. Since urban slum residents lack the education to be aware of diseases and healthcare, they do not approach hospitals for checkups to risk a day's wages. Smile has a two-fold approach to nail this dilemma. They first bring class healthcare services with easy access to the needy. The second step is to promote healthcare knowledge and encourage the poor to seek help.

Smile has a reach of 6 lakh children and families across 950 villages and slums of India. It has 200 projects on social causes like healthcare across 25 states of India.

HelpAge India

HelpAge India has remained active for over four decades. One of India's most extensive mobile healthcare programs provides free healthcare services to impoverished elders.

A cataract is a leading cause of blindness in India. HelpAge India has helped over 9 lakh elders in the restoration of eyesight and in going back to work as independent individuals. HelpAge conducts more than 45,000 eye surgeries for the blind elderly across 21 states.

HelpAge India also works towards providing palliative care to end-stage cancer patients. Pairing with several credible and competent hospitals, the organization helps the poor elderly who cannot afford expensive medication for cancer.

HelpAge India has received several awards for its commendable contribution to society. It holds the Chairman's Challenge Award, Times Social Impact Award, and NGO Leadership & Excellence Award, among several others.
By Etienne BALMER



TOKYO (AFP) -- Tokyo tattoo artist Ichi Hatano's usual business has dwindled during the pandemic, but now he's keen to mine a new stream of income at Japan's first crypto art exhibition.

Hatano's ink featuring Japanese folk creatures was especially popular with foreign visitors until Japan closed its borders to tourists due to Covid-19. Hatano has now gone digital, selling his designs as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), virtual objects that have taken the art world by storm.

"It's great for artists to have a new market, it opens a lot of possibilities," said the 44-year-old, who has five digital artworks on sale at the show, which opened last weekend in Tokyo.

Using the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies, NFTs transform anything from illustrations to memes into virtual collectors' items that cannot be duplicated.

They rocketed into the mainstream this year and are now traded at major auction houses, generating several hundred million dollars in transactions every month.

Despite swapping his familiar canvas of human skin for pixels, Hatano said the creative process is the same.

"This is the emergence of a new economy, a new way to value art," he told AFP, saying he hoped the technology would allow creators like him to reach a wider public.

His work is among 150 NFTs from several dozen artists on display at the "CrypTokyo" exhibition in the Japanese capital's trendy Harajuku district.

Screens on the walls show a rotating selection of the works, whose NFTs can be bought online with the Dai and Ethereum cryptocurrencies for amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars up to around $50,000. Hatano hopes to bag around $1,400-2,400 for each of his offerings.

Some of the most expensive works are by Maxim, frontman of the British electropunk group The Prodigy and a recent convert to NFT art.

'Part of everyday existence'

Any digital creation can be traded virtually as an NFT, allowing artists to monetise digital art by giving buyers bragging rights to unique ownership -- even if the work can be endlessly reproduced online.

Classic parts of internet culture from GIFs to home videos have been auctioned off for huge sums. In March, the American digital artist Beeple became one of the world's three most valuable living artists when an NFT of one of his works sold for $69.3 million.

But in Japan, there's still some way to go before crypto art becomes a mainstay, said Yasumasa Yonehara, 62, an artist exhibiting at the show.

"NFTs are known in Japan for the sale of tweets by famous people for astronomical sums, and few know what it's really about," he said.

An authenticated version of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet -- the first ever on the social network -- was sold in March for $2.9 million.

Japanese buyers are still approaching the format with caution, agreed the exhibition's 27-year-old curator Sascha Bailey.

"The problem a lot of people have with NFT art is 'how do I live with it, how do I interact with it in my everyday life?'" Bailey, who runs the international sales platform Blockchain Art Exchange, told AFP.

"What we're attempting to do here, at least in the proto-stages, is to show how this can be part of your everyday existence."

Some of the static works have augmented reality features -- coming alive when viewed through a smartphone screen -- and talks with artists are also planned during the three-week exhibition.

French artist Botchy-Botchy, 48, sold his first NFT at the Tokyo show.

"The real plus is that the artist gets royalties at each resale of its token," he said. And in the art industry, "that's really a new thing".

Bailey said he sees Beeple's massive sale as "an exception" and thinks greater value lies in the potential of NFTs to spark broader creativity.

"Maybe (Beeple's sale) was important to show the mainstream art world that it's a competitive thing... I see crypto art being the most powerful and meaningful when it's helping smaller artists," he said.
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It was seen as one of the great markers of out-of-control, irrational froth during the pandemic -- legions of amateur day traders were frantically snapping up shares of Hertz Global Holdings after it filed for bankruptcy.

As the stock swelled to $US5.50 last June, it made no sense to the experts. Regulators stepped in, blocking the car rental company from selling any new shares to gullible investors.

On Wednesday, Hertz will exit bankruptcy. And when it does, the stock may debut at more than double that price -- somewhere around $US14, analysts reckon -- just months after the company warned those stockholders that their shares were probably worthless.

Back from its rollercoaster ride: Hertz will be bought out of bankruptcy. Credit:Bloomberg

The 103-year-old companys turnaround neatly mirrors the trajectory of the US economy as a whole: A violent collapse followed by a spectacular resurgence, aided by a boom in travel as virus cases plunged and by billions in fresh cash from some of the biggest investment houses.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A satellite image shows the new forest spreading in a thick band from Chinas northern borders with Russia and Mongolia to the south and west, towards the Gobi desert. By the time the planting is finished in 2050, the Three-North Shelter Forest Program will cover about 35 million hectares, an area about the size of Germany. It will be the largest environmental project ever undertaken on Earth. Though launched in 1978 to stop the spreading desert from unleashing sandstorms into rapidly expanding cities, the program is a key part of Chinese domestic efforts to address climate change. Forest workers in a tree farm in Yichun City in north-east Chinas Heilongjiang Province in June 2021. Credit:Getty Images By cartographical ledger, China is greener today than it was a generation ago. But that isnt the whole story. The project is emblematic of the countrys strengths in tackling such a complex problem as climate change, says Li Shuo  who is based in Beijing and directs Greenpeaces climate and energy policy in east Asia  but its also emblematic of its weaknesses.

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Its sheer scale and ambition is almost difficult to comprehend for those used to the efforts of Western nations. But because it was first shaped by centralised planning departments rather than by ecologists and scientists, much of the energy expended was wasted, particularly in the early years. Officials directed the planting of swathes of fast-growing poplar trees and the resultant monoculture did little for biodiversity and left the new forests prone to pest infestation and erosion. In the years since, science and leadership have improved and so has the forest. Loading China, meanwhile, performed its economic miracle, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and placing itself at the heart of global manufacturing. As a result, in 2006 it surpassed the United States as the worlds largest emitter of carbon dioxide and it remains so today. Industrialisation has been as destructive to Chinese environments as it had been to others before them. And to the Earths atmosphere.

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By the time the world met to thrash out what became the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, a few things were obvious. Each nation needed to do its bit. But if an agreement was to be reached, developed nations had to make deeper emissions cuts than emerging economies. It was also clear that if the world had any chance at all of staving off the worst impacts of climate change, the United States and China would have to work together. The US is the greatest historical source of emissions. Most of the greenhouse gasses it produced during its global rise are still heating the planet. Together, the US and China account for 40 per cent of todays global emissions. After the failure of world climate talks in 2009, the US and China were determined to ensure the Paris talks would not fail the same way. Months before the Paris summit began, the two nations shocked the world by announcing their own climate deal. China agreed to peak emissions in 2030; the US to reduce its emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent by 2025. Climate laggards would not be able to use the failure of these giant economies as cover for their own Paris targets. But with Donald Trumps victory, the US abandoned its efforts and the relationship between the two nations deteriorated.

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Xi may have invested political capital in climate action, but he confronts the same imperatives to maintain prosperity and employment as his Western peers. Meanwhile, some Chinese provincial leaders ramp up coal production and coal plant construction reflexively as economic stimulus. Lee also believes that China now sees action on climate as linked to its broader and growing international power and prestige. Professor Bill Hare, a lead author on the fourth assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chief executive of Climate Analytics, says China is reducing the carbon intensity of its coal-heavy power sector faster than many nations, including Australia. Even as it opens new coal mines, he notes, it is closing older, less efficient ones. He agrees that Xi and much of the Chinese Communist Party leadership view climate change as a potentially existential threat, particularly as crop yields shrink and water supplies fall under threat due to climate pressures. How far China is willing to go will become clearer in the months leading up to the Glasgow talks, he says.

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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is urging people to stay at home unless absolutely necessary after 24 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Thursday, with only half in isolation while infectious.

Two new cases included a healthcare worker and an aged care worker, while the number of active exposure locations across the state swelled to more than 300.

NSW Health on Thursday afternoon confirmed a person who attended the mass vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park on Tuesday, between 3.30pm and 5pm, tested positive the following day.

Dr Chant also warned that all people who attended two shopping centres  Pacific Square at Maroubra between June 23 and 30 and Auburn Central on June 28  should get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
When Bondi photographer Dan Wilkinson saw the impact of the lockdown on his local bars and pubs, he took to Instagram with a socially distanced jaunt he calls a margarita crawl.

Mr Wilkinson encouraged his 15,000 followers to pop into different bars and restaurants for a takeaway roadie or snack on their way home.

Bartender Veronica Simard, from Bondi Tonys Burger Joint, pours a takeaway margarita for a customer Credit:Wolter Peeters

I can see people hurting. As a small business owner, I want to think of things I can do to help other businesses. I thought, why dont we support the locals and have a drink?

On the weekend I went to Bonditonys [Burger Joint] and Makuto on my walk and then to Raw Bar for takeaway margaritas, and then I stopped at Bar Copo on my way home for a takeaway chorizo sandwich, Mr Wilkinson said.
Regional universities have lost up to 40 per cent of their international students according to new national figures as NSW Treasury reports a broader hit to the state economy with the loss of 15,000 jobs.

NSW budget figures show a 99.8 per cent drop in the number of international students arriving in the state in February 2021, compared to the previous year.

These figures also show international student enrolments were down about 18 per cent through the year to February 2021, with commencements down more than 40 per cent over the same period. It said each student creates on average 0.36 new jobs in the economy.

Based on the change in enrolments to date, relative to last year, this would imply a loss of around 15,000 jobs, the budget papers said.
Suppose youre a 25-year-old young person, male or female. How do you weigh up the risks of catching COVID, and the complications of that, with the risk of having a COVID vaccine, Pfizer or AstraZeneca? First of all, we know that COVID is less severe in young adults and the risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID is much lower than an older person. So, what is needed is a way in which to calculate a risk-benefit ratio thats relevant to you, as a young person. Such a calculator is available on the web from Britain. It was set up by the Oxford group. Its extremely helpful if you live in the UK where disease is common but we need a risk calculator for Australian circumstances. Emma Kong, 23, received the AstraZeneca vaccine the day after the Prime Minister said it would be available for all adults. Credit:Scott McNaughton Several groups are working on just that. The Immunisation Coalition is in discussion with the Oxford group to quickly adapt their instrument to Australia. Watch this space.

Loading So a 25-year-old person has to consider whether to have Pfizer  having to wait for some weeks and months  or getting AZ quite quickly. She/he would take into account that there is an imminent risk of transmission if living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, but a very low risk in many other parts of Australia. Understandably, she/he would be concerned that there is a risk of clotting syndrome (TTS) in the order of one in 25,000 after the first dose of AstraZeneca. The clot problem would probably require hospitalisation but only about one in 25 people hospitalised might die from it, giving a risk of less than 1 in 500,000 of dying from a clot due to the vaccine. Thats about the same risk as being struck by lightning. The risk of being killed in a motor vehicle accident is much higher, and the risk of getting a serious clot in a 25-year-old woman on the oral contraceptive pill is quite a bit higher. Loading No vaccine or medicine is without some risk, albeit rare, or even very rare. Reports from the US suggest the Pfizer jab may result in a risk of myocarditis/pericarditis for one in 100,000 vaccine recipients, with a higher rate if you are young and male. Also, about one in 100,000 people given an mRNA vaccine is at risk of anaphylaxis but the allergic reaction is most unlikely to cause death.
Petern_2004: Thats NOT life. Thats just irresponsible behaviour by the representative of the people of New England. KAM: Hard to believe his story. He was only in the store for 30 seconds, but that is long enough for a member of the public to recognise him, call the police, and the police arrive to catch him? Sounds like he was in the store for a lot longer than that. Horatio: Does Joyce care about anyone other than himself? SteveP: This is the best person the National Party can put forward? Deputy Prime Muppet of Australia? Gds Gds: Well done Barnaby. Apparently protecting other peoples lives is for the little people. Sort of like traditional values.

Afah0447: We have seen this time and time again with conservative politicians during the pandemic, they just dont think the rules apply to them. If Britney was Brian, would she be locked inside her home? As Britney Spears fronted a Los Angeles court this week in a bid to end the conservatorship shes been in since she was 26 years old, writer Julia Baird argued that if Britney was a man he would not have been subject to the same cruel conditions Spears has endured for the last 13 years. Britney Spears performs during her 2004 world tour. Credit:AP Impatiens: If I were Britney, Id be furious too. Worse than. It seems to me that if she werent mad before, the injustice of her situation would make her so. I hope she wins this one.

Rich Vegan: There is no question that oppression of women is evident everywhere and of course this is wrong and unjust. However, I think we must also acknowledge the male-dominated system has failed us all. Justadare: The Handmaids Tale is REAL!!! Lynette Chamas: Its abuse. Pure and simple. LisaP67: Her situation is outrageous and appalling. Glad she has built up the strength to fight her father and the system. Bonnie: I find the treatment of Britney Spears incomprehensible. It shouldnt matter if she is mentally ill or not. She is entitled to do what she wants with her life and money. An audit of her financial records might be very revealing.

Kinabalu_break: It would be interesting to know how much money has been taken from her assets to support those people keeping her under lock and key. orangesky: Thank you for this article. I have worked in the legal (and mental health) fields and seen how badly women are treated by the courts compared to men. Britney has been treated terribly by a misogynistic and sexist society. Her father, the judges and others have all been men trying to control her and steal her money. Its disgraceful and sexist and needs to stop. Men should have no say at all over women. Danzo: Funny you should mention Brian. Are you not familiar with what happened to Brian Wilson? Beach Boys creative genius locked down, drugged, finances and life controlled for more then 10 years. Ross - Mallabula: While I agree that Britneys treatment is absurd and cruel, dont forget that Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys spent years in similar circumstances after his breakdown. I think it is wealth rather than gender that is the major factor. Marcus Aurelius: This has also happened to males. Brian Wilson of Beach Boy fame and Mickey Rooney were given court-appointed conservators which lasted years. He was put under a conservator in the 1990s. Abuse of the wealthy is not a gender-based issue.

rb: So, take a single case, turn it into a generalisation, with speculative evidence, then make it a statement about male vs female. And how is this helpful? DT2010: Unfortunately history shows young men and boys who have these types of episodes mainly end up on the street and homeless. Statistics show parents give up alot quicker and more often on boys to fend for themselves. Check out the gender homeless statistics on rough sleeping. Why the disparity?



Alan55: A very similar conservatorship was awarded to protect a man in California. The man was also a prominent musician of substantial earning capability. The conservator became abusive of the position, the conservatee eventually granted freedom through the courts and the conservator was punished. The life of Brian Wilson is well documented. Ross Carnsew: I hope Britney wins. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had his whole life taken over by his doctor. They werent even related! Nasty business. Will we ever find aliens? How likely is it that we will ever find life outside of Earth? Sherryn Groch decided to tackle this question following the release of a declassified report on an investigation into sightings of UFOs.

Is this a UFO? Credit:AP Buff: I believe an alien civilisation started a space mission to investigate Earth soon after they received the first radio broadcasts from a hundred years ago. They were almost here when they then intercepted talkback radio and changed their minds, turned around and went back home. MickC: Who says the earth has intelligent life? Derrick: Maybe there has been an external presence here for a very long. It would explain the antics of the ancient gods, reported across multiple cultures and some very anomalous writings in the Old Testament. SBhatt: The proof that there is intelligent life out there is that they have not tried to contact us.
Queensland has reported four new cases of COVID-19 but none were linked to an unvaccinated Brisbane hospital receptionist whose case sparked a snap three-day lockdown for millions of residents.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state was not out of the woods yet but the latest developments were good news.

Were not out of the woods yet, weve got another 24 hours to go to see what happens over the next 24 hours, and well update you tomorrow in relation to whether or not we can lift that lockdown, she said on Thursday.

But it is very, very encouraging news at this stage.
After years of negotiation, boundaries defining Victorias traditional owners have been formalised in land covering central Melbourne but one group says they have been left out of the carve up and will miss out on opportunities as a result.

Previously, there had been no formalised traditional owner group for 3721 square kilometres of land from the Werribee River through Melbourne and east to Bunyip.

Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation both made formal claims for the land, which crosses 24 local government areas, and failed to come to an agreement despite four years of discussion.

Instead, boundaries were drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council and came into effect on Thursday after consent was given by the two registered Aboriginal parties last month.
The countrys vaccine advisory group, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), on Thursday reiterated its preference that the Pfizer jab be used for vaccinating people aged under 60. ATAGI co-chair Christopher Blyth said the AstraZeneca vaccine was not banned for people under 60 and that young people should be discussing vaccination with their general practitioner, as we all should be. But he told the ABC he did not believe that young people should receive the AstraZeneca vaccine at this stage. The nations peak medical group has slammed political leaders for fuelling confusion over the vaccine rollout. The Australian Medical Association said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had mangled the policy change without enough consultation and sparked a dispute with state leaders that would increase vaccine hesitancy.

Tougher line on travel urged Mr Andrews said he would ask national cabinet to dramatically reduce the number of people coming into the country who would enter hotel quarantine. It is better to lock some people out than to lock everyone down, he said. He said there could be about a 75 per cent or 80 per cent reduction in people coming back to Australia.

We have it within our power to dramatically reduce the number of people who are coming back just for these next three or four months until we get a critical mass of people with a jab [and] protection for the community, including the vulnerable, Mr Andrews said. New figures on Thursday showed more than 10,000 travellers entered Australia to visit friends, go on holiday or for business trips in April, putting pressure on the countrys hotel quarantine system while 34,000 citizens remain stranded overseas wanting to come home. He acknowledged such a change would be very difficult for some people who want to come home for the best of reasons. But Mr Andrews said that did not compare to the discomfort lockdowns caused to an entire city. Were called to often make very hard [decisions]. This needs to happen, Mr Andrews said. I think we need to see a very significant reduction in the number of people that are coming back to Victoria [and] coming back to Australia.

Mr Andrews said ensuring that returning Australians were vaccinated would not eliminate the risk of transmission. Loading We could make sure that ... everyone who comes here is vaccinated before they come here, that would reduce their risk of transmission, but it doesnt eliminate it, Mr Andrews told media on Thursday. The problem is not so much the vaccination status of people on the other side of the world, its vaccination status of people right here. The Premier said it would be desperately sad to tell some people that they couldnt come home to Australia for compassionate reasons.

But if youre coming home for those compassionate reasons, it makes it much more likely that there will be an outbreak and well have to lock everybody down, then youve got to make that tough call. The greatest good for the greatest number, and thats exactly what well do. Victoria has declared several Australian jurisdictions red zones, including Greater Sydney, Greater Darwin, parts of south-east Queensland, Townsville, and the Perth and Peel regions in Western Australia. Alice Springs was added to the list at 11.59pm on Wednesday. Red zones dictate that travellers are barred from entering Victoria without an exemption. Victorian residents can come home, but they have to obtain a permit and quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival. Victorias COVID-19 response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said on Thursday that authorities had so far issued 10,400 red-zone permits, and spoken to about 10,000 of those permit holders. Of them, 38 per cent had so far tested negative to coronavirus.

Of course, those numbers shift day to day, Mr Weimar said. He said Victoria Police issued 17 warning notices to people on Wednesday, after officers questioned more than 2000 people at the NSW border and conducted 130 home visits to people who had returned from red zones. Zero local cases Mr Andrews comments came as Victoria has recorded zero new local coronavirus cases. The number of active cases fell to 31 from 34 on Wednesday. No cases of coronavirus were recorded in Victorias hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to midnight on Wednesday.

More than 29,149 COVID-19 test results were processed in the past 24 hours, and more than 19,219 people received their coronavirus vaccine doses. As debate raged over the vaccine rollout, a top health official warned it may not be possible to rein in another outbreak of a similar scale to the states second wave. Victorias Deputy Chief Health Officer, Daniel OBrien, said new infectious variants of coronavirus had proved much more difficult to control. He said Victoria had managed amazingly last year to get a major outbreak under control but did not know if it would be possible to do so next time around.

Loading Therefore you need a layer of defence, Associate Professor OBrien said, citing mask wearing, people getting tested when they had symptoms and using QR check-in codes as examples. He said people were previously considered at risk of catching coronavirus if they had spent 15 minutes face-to-face with a positive case, or more than an hour in the same room. The new Delta and Kappa variants that drove recent outbreaks across the nation posed a risk to people entering a room within 20 minutes of an infected person leaving. With David Crowe, Rachel Clun and Jenny Noyes
Close to 2000 international arrivals have been through Western Australias hotel quarantine at least twice since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting a strong rebuke from the states premier who called for a tougher approach to letting people out of the country.

WA Premier Mark McGowans comments came as his state counterparts racheted up pressure on the federal government to reduce the intake of returning Australians until vaccination rates are higher as the nation struggles with multiple lockdowns sparked by a leaky quarantine system.

There have been close to 2000 international arrivals who have been through hotel quarantine in WA twice or more since the start of the pandemic. Credit:WAtoday

Mr McGowan told reporters on Thursday the biggest threat vector for the country was still people coming back from overseas infected with the virus and new variants, which were getting out into the community.

Weve done our utmost to make hotels as safe as possible but theres still that risk. We had three positives come into hotel quarantine yesterday, he said.
Its a familiar feeling for Perth residents by now. A third snap lockdown and again no further cases of community concern detected during that time.

If there is more good news on Friday, the city of two million would typically come out of lockdown. But could the Delta strain and its ability to transmit during the most fleeting of interactions cause the state government to think twice?

Based on Perths previous lockdowns, the city is on track to ease stay-at-home orders on Friday evening, pending no further cases who have been in the community while infectious. Credit:Getty Images

Premier Mark McGowan has so far remained tight-lipped on what would be required for WA to lift its four-day lockdown at midnight on Friday, initially telling the community it would be the minimum time the stay-at-home orders would be in place.

We dont know how long or how extensive the lockdown will be until [Friday] at the very earliest and then it may well be theres a step down in measures, he said on Thursday.
There is no great mystery to it. While there has been much speculation over what percentage of a countrys population needs to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before it can safely resume normal life, the principle has never altered: vaccinating most people is the only way out of this pandemic.

The challenge, of course, has been acquiring enough doses and then convincing enough people to roll up their sleeves to get inoculated. There is no one reason for vaccine hesitancy. When it comes to conspiracy theories, social media is a super spreader. For those who believe Microsoft founder Bill Gates will use his free time to track people via microchips inserted into vaccines, no amount of scientific evidence is likely to debunk such crackpot theories.

But, for many others, genuine concerns over vaccine side-effects should not be treated lightly. The blood clotting issues with AstraZeneca are real, albeit extremely rare, and have been the catalyst for many countries to limit its usage, including Australia. In Britain, AstraZeneca is not recommended for people under 40 if an alternative is available, while nations including South Africa have suspended its use altogether.

Up to this week, in Australia, for leading health officials and political leaders it had been a delicate balance of encouraging people to get vaccinated while making people aware of the possible downsides. That was not made easier when, two weeks ago, based on new data, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation raised the recommended age group for AstraZeneca from 50 to 60.

A ripple of concern went through the community and, with limited doses of Pfizer until later this year, it left the vaccine rollout with few options to cater for the growing demand triggered by the recent outbreaks.
Many Sydneysiders are now eligible for the federal governments $500-a-week COVID-19 disaster payment but applicants are being turned down because of a raft of exceptions and confusing eligibility rules.

People who cannot work because of state lockdowns that last more than a week can access the payments, with workers who have lost more than 20 hours entitled to $500 a week while those who have lost fewer hours receive $325. More than 6000 claims for the payment were made on Thursday.

Lauren Lancaster has had her shifts cut because of the lockdown but cannot access federal coronavirus payments. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Waitress Lauren Lancaster had her shifts at a bar in Sydneys inner west cancelled for the last fortnight but she and three friends who tried to access the payments online received either rejections or system error notifications.

It was really difficult to figure out the eligibility criteria in the first place, said Ms Lancaster, 20. The interface is totally unusable.
Eligible NSW prison inmates and staff have been increasingly rejecting the AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns of rare side effects, with less than half of the total population estimated to have received their first shot.

Figures from the Public Service Association, the union representing corrective services staff, suggest willingness to accept the AstraZeneca jab inside prisons plummeted from a high of up to 60 per cent to just 10-20 per cent, after concerns about rare potential blood-clotting emerged.

Correctional facilities are considered high-risk settings where exposure to COVID-19 could result in large outbreaks. Credit:Janie Barrett

PSA president Nicole Jess said the figures from Corrective Services NSW revealed a significant decline since the first jabs began rolling out in prisons on March 15.

Everyone is now just saying, we are not having the AstraZeneca. Especially inmates. They are saying, no Im not having it. Its not happening, Ms Jess said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended her planned trip to Tokyo as part of the states bid for the 2032 Olympic Games and insisted she would complete 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine on her return.

Her Deputy Premier, Steven Miles, on Wednesday blasted travellers he claimed were putting the state at risk of a coronavirus outbreak by skipping past Australias closed international borders for business meetings.

Its not good enough that just because you can afford a business-class flight or a charter flight you can breach our closed international borders, he said.

His comments came despite the Premiers intention to travel to Japan this month to make the final pitch to the International Olympic Committee.
With new figures showing the countrys quarantine hotels have a rising number of COVID-positive travellers in the past fortnight, health officials are worried about the growing proportion of returned travellers carrying the Delta strain of the virus. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Outbreaks of the highly-infectious COVID variant have locked down more than 12 million Australians across Queensland, Western Australia, NSW and the Northern Territory. Burnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole has calculated there to have been 23 hotel quarantine leaks since November  approximately one every 10 days. In Victoria where about 1000 travellers are flying in each week, 19 people tested positive in quarantine hotels in the first half of June compared with 30 in the second half of the month.

In NSW there were 72 cases in hotels in June, 20 of whom came in the past week. South Australia had 22 in the first half of the month and 27 in the second, including six on Tuesday. The figures mean some of the states may become amber or red under the Commonwealths risk-rating system when it next reports in coming days. Mr Andrews, in his first week back after three months recovering from a fractured spine and ribs, acknowledged the really hard impact of fewer arrival spots on those with compassionate reasons to enter or leave the country. But if youre coming home for those compassionate reasons, it makes it much more likely that there will be an outbreak and well have to lock everybody down, then youve got to make that tough call, Mr Andrews said. The greatest good for the greatest number, and thats exactly what well do.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose three-day lockdown of Brisbane is due to end on Friday, has similarly said she wanted a massive reduction in overseas arrivals. Federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia already had some of the tightest border controls in the world. Weve also shown a willingness to tighten it even further, such as during the Indian outbreak if the risk factors are greater. And well always continue to look at that evidence and work through it with the states to territories. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said he was comfortable with the states numbers and quarantine system but any system should be up for review in a pandemic.

Lets be frank, hotel quarantine has been our number one success story in keeping the virus at bay ... theres no doubt that over time systems will change, its just a matter of when and making the decisions at the right time, he said. Mr Andrews also said lockdowns would no longer be necessary once everyone who wanted a vaccine had been given access to one. We wouldnt be having lockdowns to protect people who werent prepared to protect themselves, he said. With 34,000 citizens overseas having registered an interest to return to Australia, public health expert Maximilian de Courten lamented the blunt instruments available to governments almost 18 months into the pandemic.

Its quite depressing that after all this time we dont have a better plan than [cutting flights] after new cases emerge, said Professor de Courten, director of Victoria Universitys Mitchell Institute. Its displaying again that we react to COVID rather than deal with risk proactively with a solid long-term plan. Locking down the country and not allowing people in is an extreme approach to safety. It has been two months since Melbourne resident Sejal Pandyas 70-year-old father died of coronavirus in Baroda, in Indias west, when the country was recording more than 400,000 cases a day. Her mother, 60, was infected at the same time along with her two brothers and sister-in-law. Ms Pandyas mother is diabetic and has suffered from fungal infections since she recovered from COVID-19, requiring regular trips to the hospital. Sejal Pandya said Daniel Andrews proposal to cut international arrivals would kill any hopes of getting a flight home this year. Credit:Jason South

I was very close to my mum and dad. Every day I talk with her now and she asks me one question: when will you be here? When can I see you? And I have no answer to that, said Ms Pandya. Simon Longstaff executive director of the Ethics Centre says the country faced an ethical dilema. Credit:Louie Douvis The 31-year-old has unsuccessfully applied to fly to India twice and said Mr Andrews proposal would kill any hopes of getting a flight home this year, even if she was granted a permit. Ms Pandya said it was left to hospital staff in India to cremate her father in May with the rest of her family in hospital with COVID-19. Its important to have those rituals in our culture and to say goodbye. How is it possible to be happy with this thought cutting in the back of my mind? There is zero certainty. It feels like they want us to live in this darkness.

Simon Longstaff, executive director of the Ethics Centre, said the countrys ethical quandary was that those who suffer the most from the tighter rules, namely stranded Australian citizens, bore the burden of political leaders not being adequately prepared to deal with the risk of COVID-19. He said governments two levers to manage risk were vaccinating the population and building purpose-built quarantine facilities. Those whove had no control over those things are the ones who bear the price, he said. The reduction in arrivals is not just a function of changing risk, its also a function of the degree of preparedness in order to manage that. Professor Toole said the Premiers call for a cut of up to 80 per cent was dramatic and amounted to putting our hands up and giving up on making hotel quarantine safe.

He said some states had not done enough work to improve ventilation in their hotels and reduce the risk of airborne transmission. We owe it to Australian citizens to have them back, and we can do better in hotel quarantine, he said. Loading As Queenslands Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young stood by her stance that under-40s should avoid getting the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday, Mr Andrews backed the Commonwealths position by telling Victorians to get their advice from doctors, not politicians. AstraZeneca is safe, but it is really important to have a conversation about your individual circumstances, he said.
If Victoria was the jewel in the Liberal Partys crown as Sir Henry Bolte once described it, Melbournes eastern suburbs represented the large cushion-shaped diamond at the very centre of the Queens Imperial State Crown.

The Liberal Party had come to rely on voters in Melbournes affluent east and south-east to blindly support the blue team on election day, freeing up crucial resources for more marginal fights.

In the Bolte era it could be safely assumed that the Liberal Party would win seats in Melbournes affluent eastern and south-eastern suburbs Credit:Eddie Jim

Then came 2018 when the good folk of Hawthorn, Portsea and Mont Albert turned their backs on the Liberal Party, apparently disenchanted with policies that simply didnt resonate. It was carnage. The Liberals lost a dozen seats across both houses of parliament making the road back to government all the more challenging.

To make matters worse, the proposed redrawing of electorate boundaries released on Wednesday will make any Coalition victory all the more difficult.
Vancouver/Portland: A heatwave that smashed all-time high temperature records in western Canada and the US north-west has left a rising death toll in its wake as officials brace for more sizzling weather and the threat of wildfires.

The worst of the heat had passed by on Wednesday (US/Canada time), but the state of Oregon reported 63 deaths linked to the heatwave. Multnomah County, which includes Portland, reported 45 of those deaths since Friday, with the county Medical Examiner citing hyperthermia as the preliminary cause.

Kais Bothe relaxes in the cool in the city hall pool, as temperatures hit 37 degrees in Edmonton, Alberta, on Wednesday. Credit:AP

By comparison all of Oregon had only 12 deaths from hyperthermia from 2017 to 2019, the statement said. Across the state, hospitals reported a surge of hundreds of visits in recent days due to heat-related illness, the Oregon Health Authority said.

In British Columbia, at least 486 sudden deaths were reported over five days, nearly three times the usual number that would occur in the province over that period, the B.C. Coroners Service said on Wednesday.
Los Angeles: The Pennsylvania Supreme Courts decision reversing Bill Cosbys conviction reminds us that even those who commit despicable crimes are protected by the US constitution. The Pennsylvania courts ruling is disturbing in allowing Cosby to go free notwithstanding his sexual assault convictions, but it is correct in applying a crucial US constitutional right: the privilege against self-incrimination found in the Fifth Amendment.

In 2018, Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004. This is one of a number of instances where Cosby was accused of drugging and raping women over many years. The evidence against Cosby included statements that he had made in depositions in civil cases against him.

Bill Cosby reacts outside his home after being released from prison. Credit:AP

The constitutional problem is that Cosby gave those depositions based on an assurance, in 2005, from then-district attorney Bruce Castor that he would not be criminally prosecuted for sexual assault.

When a deposition is taken in a civil case, the right against self-incrimination allows a witness to refuse to answer any questions that might lead to criminal liability. But if there is no possibility of a criminal prosecution, then an individual cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment and must answer questions.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The General Audit Chamber presented its audit report entitled Compliance Audit: Financial Statements of St. Maarten 2017 to Parliament today. The General Audit Chamber is required by law to examine whether Government was legally compliant and effective in its spending of St. Maarten's public funds.

The 2017 financial statements should have been drafted on September 1st, 2018. Instead, the General Audit Chamber and the SOAB received the financial statements from Government on October 30th, 2020. The SOAB must first review and issue a report after which the legal timeline for the Audit Chamber to report starts. That timeline started on June 11th, 2021, when the SOAB presented its report and opinion to the Audit Chamber.

The 2017 Financial Statements contain numerous errors and uncertainties. This situation contributed to our opinion that the 2017 Financial Statements do not provide a true representation of the Governments financial position as of December 31st, 2017, nor of the level of income and expenses for that year. A surplus of ANG 20.0 million had been initially projected. The lower result of ANG 181.2 million is largely due to the effect of Hurricane Irma that impacted the island in September 2017.

The report is published in both English and Dutch and is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber (www.arsxm.org).

Click here to view Compliance Audit Financial Statements.
By Arlene J. Schar and Dr. David Leffler

Leaders worldwide face a challenging task: uniting their fractured and crippled countries in the midst of a raging pandemic with economic devastation and societal discord fueling terrorism and conflict. Achieving unity under these stressful conditions is a daunting task but it can and must be done.

Can conventional strategies and tactics truly defeat all adversaries during these challenging times of pandemic, protest, and economic collapse? An ideal defense against conflict and terrorism is a proven, state-of-the-art, non-violent alternative that actually prevents adversaries from arising in the first place. This alternative gives warriors a strategic and profound proactive advantage by preventing conflict, war, and terrorism before they occur, for far less the cost of conventional defenses. This highly effective unconventional approach with a proven scientific record for diffusing conflict and violence is called Invincible Defense Technology (IDT), a brain-based technology which incorporates practices of the non-religious Transcendental Meditation (TM) to bring about peace.

When large groups of trained practitioners apply the advanced TM techniques together twice a day, a powerful field effect of coherence and peace affects the consciousness of the surrounding population. The bigger the group the bigger the effect. These outcomes of consistent and measurable decreases in war deaths, terrorism, and crime have been substantiated by extensive research published in the following refereed journals: Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, International Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Mind and Behavior, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, Psychological Reports, Psychology Crime and Law, Social Indicators Research, Social Science Perspectives Journal, Society of Neuroscience Abstracts, and Studies in Asian Social Science. Hundreds of scientific studies conducted at more than 200 independent universities and research institutions and published in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals confirm that regular practice of TM produces major increases in calmness, happiness, creativity, energy, and clarity of mind. Over six million people worldwide of all religions, cultures, and ages have learned TM and experienced these benefits.

The TM field effect was demonstrated in 1993 when over 4000 TM experts gathered in Washington, DC as a "National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness in Washington." As predicted, research published in Social Indicators Research showed that crime dropped 24% and public approval of the US president suddenly changed from a negative trend to a positive trend.

Research indicates that such calming effects can also be created on a national level. A recent study published in Studies in Asian Social Science showed that large group practice of these programs in Cambodia between 1993 and 2008 was associated with a 96.2% decline in sociopolitical violence in that war-torn country compared to violence in the preceding three years. The authors conclude the likelihood of this reversal in the rising 19901992 trend of violence occurred randomly was one chance in 10 million. Other published research has shown that after advanced TM was applied, Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates averaged 8.9%, and poverty was reduced by 63% between 1994 and 2008. By 2010 Cambodia was ranked 63rd out of 152 countries on the international scale of poverty, an unprecedented jump of 89 places in less than one generation.

Despite such promising scientific results, this TM research and the actual military field tests in other countries have so far been largely ignored by most policymakers. Image what leaders worldwide could accomplish together if permanent groups of TM experts were established to meditate twice daily to reduce the high-stress levels in their countries.

The Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP) (https://www.gusp.org/) is a global group of eminent scientists and leaders dedicated to supporting alternative, peaceful means of conflict resolution. Members of GUSP have endorsed the IDT approach, including Yukio Hatoyama, former prime minister of Japan; former president of Mozambique Joachim Chissano (who applied IDT programs to end that nation's civil war); Lt. General (Ret.) Vasyl Krutov, former chief of the Ukraine Anti-Terrorism Center; retired Ecuadorian Lt. General Jose Villamil who also applied IDT to end the conflict between Ecuador and Peru.

Lasting peace and invincibility could be established globally if it is based on science rather than politics. In order to best succeed it would be wise to advocate this simple and cost-effective approach. Militaries could quickly form what are called Prevention Wings of the Military. Any large group of experts trained in advanced TM techniques can produce similar results. Groups could be comprised of congregations at places of worship, prisoners, the elderly in retirement homes, even students as was done in Cambodia. The important factor is that the techniques be performed by trained TM experts consistently in groups twice a day. Simply by doing this high societal tensions would be eradicated.

Violence has historically been the response to national differences, despite its costs both in financial and human terms. What divided countries worldwide need now is for all leaders to recognize that there is a more effective proven way to resolve differences. TM is that scientifically verified approach, and now is the time for them to utilize this new brain-based technology to dissolve high political tensions and create perpetual unity and stability.
StaRUG: Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring Framework for Businesses

Posted by Publisher Internet

The new German Act on the Further Development of Restructuring and Insolvency Law, or SanInsFoG, was passed in 2020. SanInsFoG changes insolvency law and introduces the new Act on the Stabilisation and Restructuring Framework for Businesses (StaRUG), which came into force on

1 January 2021.

StaRUG ? The New German Restructuring Tool

The StaRUG is a pre-insolvency rescue procedure which allows a debtor to implement a restructuring plan outside formal insolvency proceedings.

General Features of StaRUG

Rescue procedure in which a restructuring plan is put to a vote across separate classes of creditors.

Available at an early stage outside of formal insolvency proceedings.

Initiation requires the debtor?s notice to the court, combined with a restructuring concept and confirmation that the company is facing impending insolvency.

Moratorium of maximum eight months possible.

Dept-equity-swaps and other measures are possible in the plan.

High Degree of Flexibility

Debtor may choose from a broad toolkit of individual instruments.

Not all instruments require the court?s involvement.

Debtor is free to choose who is included in the plan.

The restructuring process closes the gap between free restructuring and judicial insolvency proceedings. However, the method can only be used by companies that are threatened with insolvency, explain the Ecovis experts.

Changes to the Insolvency Law

Liability regimes for wrongful trading, which were scattered throughout corporate law, are harmonised in one central insolvency law provision (Par. 15b InsO).

Debtors who wish to use insolvency in self-administration (?Insolvenz in Eigenverwaltung?) need to show to the satisfaction of the court that they have provided detailed debtor in possession planning with a six-month planning horizon.

The mandatory insolvency case of over-indebtedness was reduced to a twelve-month (instead of 24 month) forward-looking going-concern prognosis.

?

For further information please contact:

Michael Busching, Partner, Lawyer, ECOVIS Insolvenz und Sanierungs AG, Hamburg, Germany

Email: michael.busching@ecovis.com?

Nils Krause, Partner, Lawyer, ECOVIS Insolvenz und Sanierungs AG, Hamburg, Germany

Email: nils.krause@ecovis.com

Ecovis is a leading global consulting firm with its origins in Continental Europe. It has almost 8,500 people operating in nearly 80 countries. Its consulting focus and core competencies lie in the areas of tax consultation, accounting, auditing and legal advice.

The particular strength of Ecovis is the combination of personal advice at a local level with the general expertise of an international and interdisciplinary network of professionals. Every Ecovis office can rely on qualified specialists in the back offices as well as on the specific industrial or national know-how of all the Ecovis experts worldwide. This diversified expertise provides clients with effective support, especially in the fields of international transactions and investments ? from preparation in the client?s home country to support in the target country.

In its consulting work Ecovis concentrates mainly on mid-sized firms. Both nationally and internationally, its one-stop-shop concept ensures all-round support in legal, fiscal, managerial and administrative issues.

The name Ecovis, a combination of the terms economy and vision, expresses both its international character and its focus on the future and growth.
Lucille Morgan, 98, of Science Hill, passed away Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at the Hospice of Lake Cumberland. A Funeral Service will be held 2:00 PM Saturday, July 3, 2021 at the Chapel of Morris & Hislope Funeral Home. Burial will be in Science Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be after 12:
Cyrus Vance Jr., New York County District Attorney, arrives at New York State supreme court, Thursday, July 1, 2021, in New York. Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organizations longtime chief financial officer has surrendered to authorities ahead of an expected court appearance on the first criminal indictment in a two-year investigation into business practices at Donald Trumps company. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions embraces BIM to smooth specification and installation of door security solutions

BIM (building information modeling) provides a process for creating and managing information during the building lifecycle and beyond. BIM is often equated with 3D modeling of construction projects, but the visual component is just part of the value of BIM. Additional data, such as specifications and other documentation, is also part of the process, underlying the visual aspects, helping to drive decision making and providing immediate access to detailed information about all facets of the building process. Incorporating BIM systems For the last six years, ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions has worked with specification writers and architects in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) to make it easy to incorporate ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions doors, hardware, and security solutions into BIM systems. Everyone on a project can work together in the interactive and information-rich BIM environment. BIM tools are also used by contractors, distributors, facility owners, and security consultants. BIM software BIM information relating to doors, hardware, and security solutions is available in the cloud BIM information relating to doors, hardware, and security solutions is available in the cloud with the companys Openings Studio BIM software. This improves the process of door scheduling and visualisation and enables customers to focus on the design, installation, and management of openings. If you have up-to-date information inside the BIM model, you can reduce mistakes and misunderstanding in the building industry, says Marc Ameryckx, ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions BIM Manager for the EMEIA region. It helps to eliminate mistakes before they happen or as early as possible in the building process. The earlier, the less it costs. We provide data as soon as possible in the process. (ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions also has comparable systems available in other regions of the global company.) Centralised data in BIM 3D model Expanding the data available in BIM provides additional value compared to merely providing BIM objects that can be incorporated into a BIM 3D model. The combination of BIM modeling and the underlying specifications boosts the quality of the project and its key to success, says Marc Ameryckx. Even after the building is complete, the BIM model is still valuable, providing a repository of as-built information that can be used by building managers and security professionals tasked with operating and maintaining the building. For example, if a lock needs to be replaced, retrofitting is simpler because all the information about the lock and existing installation is available in a centralised data file. Revit and ArchiCAD A widely used BIM software is Revit from Autodesk, a program that brings architecture, engineering, and construction disciplines into a unified modeling environment to drive more efficient and cost-effective projects. Another BIM software program is ArchiCAD, developed by the Hungarian company Graphisoft. Openings Studio added a plugin for ArchiCAD this year, in addition to Revit. Tailor-made information security solutions We provide tailor-made information security solutions with various hardware on projects with more doors" We can provide tailor-made information security solutions with various hardware on projects with more doors, adding more flexibility, says Marc Ameryckx. Customers do not need to be the experts on the products because we provide expertise as part of our specifications. For example, how often do building mistakes occur because of a misunderstanding about the electrical needs of a lock and the wrong cabling is installed? The problem is especially expensive if it is discovered only after the walls are complete. Providing complete data about the electrical lock as part of a BIM system avoids the snafu. Another example is the specification of a deadbolt lock on a door that operates with an electric strike. The deadbolt undermines the intended operation of the electric strike and can interfere with escape routes in case of an emergency. The mistake becomes obvious in the BIM environment and can be rectified before consequences impact the real world. Data addition to Opening Suites site ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions is continuously expanding the data it provides at the Opening Suites site, covering additional functionality and more components including the door, cabling, and electrical connections. Hardware sets are linked to specific doors in the BIM models, including all the details of various components, including article numbers, technical sheets, electrical requirements, all depending on customer expectations. Physical equipment includes QR codes that can be scanned by a smartphone to provide information on the door (A mobile app is in development). More details and more data Experienced BIM consultants work with the Openings Studio software on projects ranging from single doors to large buildings with many doors. Data will be more and more important, and there will be more data inside BIM models Adding more data and detail to the BIM process at the level of each door expands the usefulness of BIM, which has historically been focused on broader issues such as structural work and HVAC. Openings Studio provides all the data to integrate doors and security in the BIM process, says Marc Ameryckx. The higher level of detail may be a new aspect even for customers who already use BIM software. Data will be more and more important, and there will be more data inside BIM models, says Marc Ameryckx. In the future, the use of digital twins could expand the capabilities even further; for example, the software could simulate escape routes in case of fire. More data makes more things possible.
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spotlight

Funding, facilities will address child care needs throughout southern Minnesota

A child watches her science experiment unfold as a part of the curriculum used at the Leo Augusta Childrens Academy. The academy will be moving into the former site of Minimizer in Blooming Prairie, bringing more than 100 child care slots to the small town  directly taking on the child care crisis plaguing the state. (Photo courtesy of Leo Augusta Childrens Academy) Children with the Leo Augusta Childrens Academy spend a summer day decorating the asphalt with puff paint. Once opened next spring, the new child care center in Blooming Prairie will provide care for children ages infant to 12 with age-appropriate curriculum. (Photo courtesy of the Leo Augusta Childrens Academy)

Penny

Kruckeberg

During what has been nothing short of a tumultuous year, those providing and needing child care have been on quite the roller coaster. From an increase in expenses during a time of decreased revenue, followed by a surge in need, the continuing shortage of child care remains a crisis for young families throughout the state.

In southern Minnesota there is a need of nearly 8,000 additional child care slots, according to data provided by the Center for Rural Policy and Development  or Rural MN. Marnie Werner, director of research for Rural MN, child care is no longer a luxury  it is an economic development tool and an indispensable part of economic infrastructure in greater Minnesota. Thats why organization such as the Owatonna-based Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation continues to be one of the top priorities in their services and missions.

Tim Penny, president and CEO of SMIF, said the child care shortage is without a doubt one of the biggest challenges for rural areas of southern Minnesota.

We have single-parent households and two-income households, all with preschool-aged children who need some place to go where they will be both well cared for and actually receive the equivalent of a preschool education, Penny said. We want and need quality child care across greater Minnesota.

There may be some relief. The Minnesota Legislature has added funding to help create more child care opportunities outside of the metro area. In the omnibus Employment and economic Development bill passed Tuesday by both the House and the Senate, $5 million in grant funds were included to provide to local communities to increase the number of child care providers. Penny said from his understanding, the competitive grants will run for the next two years, allocating $2.5 million each year.

We also have a separate allocation directly to us to help us continue our work in addressing the child care shortage, but also providing trainings to current and potential providers, Penny said, referencing the $35 million in funding that will be provided to foundations similar to SMIF throughout the rural area of the state. We will have to think about whether we will apply to that other pool of money, but in both these cases the money is there to help rural communities seek solutions for their needs.

In one rural Steele County community, a local couple has gotten creative to address the needs as soon as next spring by spearheading a new initiative.

Craig Kruckeberg and his wife, Robyn, have donated buildings, land and funds to develop a new child care center in Blooming Prairie. The buildings and land are the former Minimizer sites in town, once home to the heavy-duty trucking giant founded by Craig Kruckebergs father, Dick Kruckeberg, in 1984. In March, the company relocated to Owatonnas industrial park, leaving behind three separate Blooming Prairie facilities.

The donation from the Kruckebergs is to the Leo Augusta Childrens Academy, an organization that came to fruition thanks to the Kruckebergs generosity. According to the Academys website, the name honors Craig Kruckebergs parents by using their middle names.

When asked what inspired the decision to allow the vacant commercial space to be converted into child care opportunities, Kruckeberg said he is simply the donor. In 2017 when both Kruckeberg and his father were named Blooming Prairies People of the Year, however, Kruckeberg said giving back to the community was something instilled in him by his parents.

We dont give because we want to, but because Dick instilled it in us, Kruckeberg said during his acceptance speech.

Once completed, the facility will feature an 18,000-square-foot building and over 3 acres of land for outdoor use. It will include a gymnasium/indoor activity space, a full-service kitchen, an outdoor playground area, and learning spaces specially designed to promote age-appropriate learning.

Once the facility opens in the spring of 2022, it will have the capacity to enroll more than 100 children ages infant through 12.

Penny says what is taking place in Blooming Prairie is monumental and will provide a game changer for that area.

God bless the Kruckebergs for working to make this happen, Penny said. Making sure there is adequate care available in our communities is ongoing work, especially when so many people have left this sector in the last number of years  we just dont have enough new providers coming in behind those who leave.

While Penny said Blooming Prairie is the ideal location for a center such as this  specifically because of how many residents work in neighboring towns such as Albert Lea and Austin  small rural towns would benefit more from additional in-home child care options.

Oftentimes the smaller towns requires creative solutions, Penny said. Thats where we come in a resource to work with those communities and how we can support and encourage people to move into this profession.

ALSO INCLUDED IN THE OMNIBUS BILL $35 million for grants to partner organizations to serve businesses inside the metro area

$20 million for the Minnesota Investment Fund

$16 million for the Job Creation Fund

$8.4 million for the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program

$8.1 million for the Minnesota Youth Program

$7.2 million for the Pathways to Prosperity Competitive Grant program

$6.2 million in fiscal year 2022 for project development of the Rondo neighborhood land bridge over Interstate Highway 94 in St. Paul

$4.9 million for wage theft prevention

$2 million for competitive grants to organizations providing services to relieve economic disparities in the Southeast Asian community

$2 million for competitive grants to organizations providing services to relieve economic disparities in the African immigrant community

$1 million for rural career counseling coordinators.

A one-time $435 payment to low-income families in the Minnesota Family Investment Program

MFIP recipients with an annual cost-of-living increase and an additional $50 per month housing benefit

MA coverage for treatment, testing, and vaccination for COVID-19 as required under the American Rescue Plan;

Requiring obstetric care and birth centers to make available continuing education on Anti-racism and implicit bias for staff who care for pregnant or postpartum patients

Increasing wages for personal care attendants and home care providers
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Rain, rain, come again: Local farmers battle with extended drought

Carson Hughes / By CARSON HUGHES carson.hughes@apgsomn.com Angela Guentzel of Guentzel Farms in Kasota was happy to see recent showers provide her corn with much-needed water. The extended drought has placed stress on crops, but farmers are holding out hope for more rain before corn and soybeans enter their reproductive stages. (Carson Hughes/southernminn.com)

Two months ago, local farmers were singing praises of the clear skies. The absence of stormy weather created ideal soil moisture conditions for planting seeds. But now growers are praying for rain as an extended drought threatens to take its toll on crops.

As of June 24, 75% of the state of Minnesota was in a drought and 14% of the area was in a severe drought. While southern Minnesota experienced showers over the weekend and heavier rains on Monday, the region will need a few more inches of rain this summer before communities are out of the drought for good. And Fourth of July weekend is not forecasting much. if any, moisture.

The extended drought marks one of the states driest summers in recent memory. Just one year prior, 17% of the state was experiencing a drought. The hot and dry weather isnt just plaguing Minnesota. A historic heat wave had gripped the western United states in an exceptional drought while neighboring Midwestern states North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin are suffering an extended drought as well.

For local farmers, the dry heat threatens to place a great deal of stress on their crops. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, just 24% of topsoil has an adequate level of moisture, while 75% is either short or very short on moisture. This time last year, 71% of topsoil was adequate and just 11% was short on moisture.

The drought is already taking its toll on crop conditions. In just one week, the amount of corn in good or excellent condition fell from 50% to 43%, according to the DNR. Good soybean conditions also declined from 53% to 45%. At the beginning of the month, 76% of corn and soybeans were in good condition.

Going in, conditions were excellent. We had really timely rain right after everything got planted. Starting off, its generally OK to have a drought, because that really promotes that root growth right away, said Angela Guentzel, a Kasota farmer and board member of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. But now, lately, its been an excessive drought. The corn, especially in our area, has shown a lot of stress.

But if Minnesotans are fortunate enough to see more rain on the horizon, farmers could recover their yields. Drought stress typically does not significantly reduce yield early on in corns growth stages. Corn really feels the heat when it enters its tasseling, silking and pollinating stages. Soybeans are also highly resilient to drought stress in early reproductive growth.

Once we get to that area where the corn is indicating its ready to pollinate, thats when were going to feel the big yield impacts, said Shane Bugeja with the Le Sueur County University of Minnesota Extension Office. Right now, were kind of in the caution zone. Some fields are going to do better than other fields.

Those with the best chances at thriving in drought conditions are fields where crops have access to moisture deeper in the earth. But those reserves can only last for so long, noted Bugeja.

Like topsoil, subsoil has been drying out fast. As of June 27, 31% of subsoil in the state has adequate or surplus levels of moisture and 69% is short or very short on supply.

Droughts can be especially difficult, said Bugeja, because unlike pests and diseases, a farmer cant go into the field and solve the problem. Without an irrigation system, many simply have to hope for more rain to come.

Guentzel described the recent rain as a turning point for the corn on the Guentzel Family Farm, where she and her family raise corn as well as run a seed company and produce microbial products. The Kasota farmer said those microbial products have stimulated deeper root growth in her corn, allowing the corn a better chance at accessing subsoil water and thriving under drought stress.

Were really grateful for the rain we did just get, said Guentzel. The corn  it made a drastic difference. I dont think in our area the drought conditions would be considered severe yet, but you could definitely tell the signs of stress in the plant. With the last couple of rains theres been a dramatic difference. So were optimistic that weve gotten that, granted were not out of the woods.
Medford, NJ (08055)

Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 88F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 70F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
oining the cast in Season 4 will be Jacki Weaver, wholl play Caroline Warner, the CEO of Market Equities that is trying to crush the hold that John Dutton (Kevin Costner) has on his sprawling Montana ranch. Anyone who watched Weaver in her breakthrough film Animal Kingdom can see the possibilities. Also joining will be Covert Affairs Piper Perabo, wholl play a protester from Portland who is against the state funded police force that protects industrialized farming and the killing of animals; Nashvilles Kathryn Kelly, wholl play a vet tech who strikes up a relationship with a Dutton ranch cowboy; and Finn Little (Storm Boy), wholl play Carter, a youth reminiscent of a young Rip (Cole Hauser) whom the Duttons gave a home. Here, Beth decides the ranch is the best place to teach the youth how to be a man. Weaver, Perabo and Kelly will be recurring; Little has signed on as series regular. For that matter, so has Will Patton, who surfaced last season as black sheep Jamie Duttons biological father, a man with a murderous past who has told his son the way to wrest control of the ranch business is to kill the king.
Algiers, July 01, 2021 (SPS) - - Ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Algeria, Abdelkader Taleb Omar, said that the Moroccan system was responsible for blocking the appointment of the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General to Western Sahara with the intention of maintaining the political status quo, calling on the United Nations to denounce this pernicious step before the international public opinion.

In a statement to the website "Sahel Afrique", Taleb Omar said that the SADR has given, in late April, its endorsement of the appointment of the Swedish Staffan de Mistura as the new UN envoy, but Morocco opposes each time, as evidenced by the fact that it has so far rejected 10 proposals out of a total of 12, while the Polisario Front has expressed reservations about only two names.

The Sahrawi ambassador "further denounced the practices and incessant Moroccan sabotage to appoint a UN envoy, so that the whole world knows the truth about who is trampling on the settlement of the conflict and so that the executioner and the victim are never treated on the same footing," especially since this conflict, after the resumption of the armed struggle, threatens international security and peace.

The Sahrawi diplomat welcomed "the strong statements" of Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of the People's National Army (ANP), Said Chanegriha, on the Sahrawi cause during the Conference on International Security held in the Russian Federation.

Speaking on the issue of Western Sahara, "the last colony in Africa and whose people aspire to freely exercise their right to self-determination," Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha stressed the need for the UN to assume its responsibilities to resolve this conflict.

For the Sahrawi ambassador, the importance of the statements of Lieutenant General Said Chanegriha lies in the fact that they come in the middle of a meeting on international security "to unmask the irresponsibility of the Moroccan system after violating the ceasefire agreement last November 13 and all the threats that weigh on the entire region," especially since the SADR is a factor of balance in the region SPS

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STAMFORD  The city will use millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 stimulus money to boost its spending on capital projects over the next year, with a focus on ventilation and stormwater-related upgrades.

Among those is a project to address persistent frozen water on West Hill Road south of Roxbury Elementary School and issues with a storm drain beneath Bouton Street West and Hope Street.

Stamford has received $24.5 million in federal money so far, $1.6 million of which is still unallocated. Its expected to receive another $24.5 million next spring. The city must spend all of it by the end of 2026.

Mayor David Martin laid out the citys plan for using $21.5 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funding during a meeting Monday with the Planning Board, the Board of Finance and the Board of Representatives Fiscal Committee. The approvals Martin needed from the boards sailed through on unanimous votes.

Martin displayed a chart showing how $8.1 million in ARPA money would go toward Board of Education HVAC projects and $11.8 million would go toward city stormwater projects.

The Board of Finance has urged the Martin administration to direct the federal stimulus money toward capital projects. Last month, as it wrapped up the budget process for the fiscal year that begins Thursday, the board put just $1.5 million toward the citys operating budget.

On Monday, Martin acknowledged the boards view on the matter, saying that if the city used a lot of the federal funding to cover operating expenses, it would have to raise taxes significantly in the future to continue covering them.

Stamford is preparing to issue bonds for a host of capital projects. It was previously looking to issue $40 million in bonds, Martin said, but the American Rescue Plan Act money prompted officials to shuffle funding sources to pay for some long-needed upgrades.

A significant portion of the previously planned bond issue (is) now eligible for ARP funding  and that would be HVAC and stormwater projects, Martin told the boards.

After all the moving around, Stamfords bond issue will now be $34.5 million. Thanks to the ARPA money, the city is able to do that smaller bond issue while increasing its overall capital spending to $55.5 million.

The federal money not only reduces our borrowing, said Richard Freedman, the chairman of the Board of Finance, but also lets us do things that we otherwise couldnt have done right now.

Were paving streets that wouldnt have been paved, for example. Were fixing catch basins that wouldnt have been fixed. Were replacing heating and cooling systems at schools that would have not been replaced until we could have paid for them, Freedman said after this weeks meeting. I mean, eventually all this work would have gotten done, but maybe it would be three years from now, five years from now, eight years from now.
HONOLULU (AP)  As Hawaii slowly approaches vaccination benchmarks that will trigger loosened coronavirus restrictions, state officials are extending an incentive program to get more shots in arms.

A second round of vaccine incentives will be launched in July, Hawaii Public Radio reported Wednesday.

The Hawaii Department of Health said the state's current incentive program contributed to a 30% increase in vaccinations over what was expected in June.

Nearly 58% of the Hawaii's population is fully vaccinated. Travel testing and quarantine rules will be suspended when the state reaches 60%  the governor expects that will happen by July 8 and has promised to drop those rules on that day.

When the state reaches 70% all COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted.

People can register for the second round of incentives beginning July 12. Incentives include cars, cash and furniture.

The program has been funded by local businesses.

Theres been no expense to the state for the higotvaccinated.com campaign," said Patrick Bullard of H&B Marketing, who is coordinating incentives for the state vaccination program. Its all been made possible through the generosity of businesses that have come forward  who recognize the importance to the community to get us to the finish line sooner rather than later.
The Fourth of July weekend is supposed to be a time of fun and celebration. But its also a prime time for drunken driving accidents, said Dr. Steven Valassis, chairman of emergency medicine at St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport.

We definitely see more drunk driving accidents in summer and on all the holiday weekends its more prevalent, Valassis said. We want people to enjoy their summer, but we also want them to make good decisions and good choices.

On Thursday, Hartford HealthCare  the health system that St. Vincents is part of  announced the Not One More campaign, designed to prevent drunken driving accidents.

Funded by a $550,000 highway safety grant from the state Department of Transportation, the program  led by HHCs Hartford Hospital  will unite 12 trauma centers from across the state to urge drivers to avoid having just one more alcoholic beverage before driving.

The program was announced during a press conference at Hartford Hospital, which included officials from Hartford Hospital, Hartford HealthCare and some of the other participating trauma centers.

As part of the Not One More campaign, Connecticut drivers will be encouraged to sign an online pledge that they will not drive impaired at NotOneMore.org.

The website will also include personal stories of health care providers and their experiences treating victims of impaired driving, as well resources, such as a blood alcohol content calculator.

The campaign is about working together to improve public health  something everyone has had a lot of experience with of late, said Dr. Jonathan Gates, chief of trauma, and system director of Hartford HealthCares Trauma Network.

If we have learned anything collectively from this COVID-19 pandemic, its that the answer to controlling any outbreak is found in all of us, he said. It really is looking out for one another.

Gates said he realizes that there will always be drinking. The goal of the campaign, he said, is to make sure that people dont get behind the wheel impaired, and that they encourage their friends not to drive after drinking, either.

Alcohol consumption, we understand, is part of everyday life, he said. We get that. But we want you to enjoy it responsibly.

Others who spoke at Thursdays event included Dr. Shea C. Gregg, section chief of the trauma, burns and surgical critical care at Bridgeport Hospital. Gregg is also the chairman of the Connecticut State Trauma Committee. He said he and his colleagues frequently deal with people injured and killed in drunken driving accidents, and hed like to see efforts like Not One More put an end to that.

Trauma surgery is a career path where we dont want more business, he said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is typically an increase in drunken driving accidents over the Fourth of July weekend. The NHTSA reports that, from 2015 to 2019, there were 1,339 drivers killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes over the Fourth of July holiday period, and 38 percent of the drivers killed were drunk.

Valassis said he has witnessed the pain that drunken driving accidents can cause, not just to the impaired driver, but also to their families and anybody they might harm while behind the wheel.

If you speak to any first responder; if you speak to anyone who works in an emergency department; if you speak to my trauma colleagues, they can speak to the trauma of drunk driving and how it affects families, he said. You dont want to wake up in the emergency department and realize that youre hurt because of a decision you made. And, then, as you sober up you realize that youve also hurt someone else.

Valassis said the Not One More campaign is a step toward preventing deaths and injuries due to drunken driving. Its about not having one more accident after one more drink, he said.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday began putting in place consumer protections against surprise medical bills enacted in bipartisan legislation signed last year by former President Donald Trump.

Regulations jointly issued by four federal agencies spell out protections for insured patients against surprise billing in medical emergencies, and unexpected charges from out-of-network doctors at an in-network facility. Out-of-network clinicians and service providers would also be barred from billing patients for the difference between their charges and what insurance paid.

Surprise medical bills are a common and frustrating problem for people with health insurance, even if they thought they were protected. Charges that can run from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars come from doctors and hospitals outside the network of a patients health insurance plan. Its estimated that about 1 in 5 emergency visits and 1 in 6 inpatient admissions triggers a surprise bill.

Thursdays action signaled that the Biden administration is committed to having the new protections in place for consumers by Jan. 1, as the law requires. Work continues on another major piece of the new framework, a process to resolve billing disputes between insurers and medical providers without dragging patients into them.

It's a rare demonstration of bipartisanship on health care, one of the most politically polarized issues of the past decade, as Republicans repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.

It's about getting good health care at a good price for all Americans  it's a bipartisan effort, said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, whose department is working on the issue with Treasury, Labor and the federal government's personnel agency. You will no longer be stuck in the middle of a payments dispute because you were blindsided by a charge you weren't expecting.

Consumer advocates, insurers and medical and hospital associations are poring over the complicated fine print of the Biden administration's 400-page rule. Arcane definitions pertaining to such issues as payment levels can translate to millions of dollars of economic impact. Also under the rule, insurers and health care providers would have to notify patients about their new protections.

They are clearly pulling out the stops to get this implemented in a timely manner, said Karen Pollitz, a health insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. We know this has been a problem that people put at the top of their list of worries.

Pollitz said it could take until well into next year to see how the new system works in real life. Currently millions of surprise bills are sent every year. Even if 90% of them are handled perfectly the first year, you could still have hundreds of thousands that go through to the patient, she said.

The advocacy group Families USA, leading a coalition that has urged the administration to take a pro-consumer approach to implementing the rule, said in a statement the details will take time to digest but at first blush it appears to recognize the significance of ensuring strong transparency and easily understandable patient notice and consent standards.

Although many states have passed curbs on surprise billing, federal action was needed to protect patients covered by large employer plans regulated at the national level. The Biden administration is allowing 60 days for public comment on its rule.

The surprise billing law passed by Congress last year takes patients and their families out of the financial equation by limiting what they can be billed for out-of-network services to a fee thats based on in-network charges. That amount gets counted toward their in-network annual deductible.

The central provisions of the legislation include:

 Holding patients harmless from surprise bills resulting from emergency medical care. Protections apply if the patient is seen at an out-of-network facility, or if they are treated by an out-of-network clinician at an in-network hospital. In either case, the patient can only be billed based on their plans in-network rate.

 Protecting patients admitted to an in-network hospital for a planned procedure when an out-of-network clinician gets involved and submits a bill.

 Requiring out-of-network service providers to give patients 72-hour notice of their estimated charges. Patients would have to agree to receive out-of-network care for the hospital or doctor to then bill them.

 Barring air ambulance services from sending patients surprise bills for more than the in-network cost sharing amount.

Surprise bills are a direct of result of high health care costs. To try to keep premiums in check, insurers set up networks of hospitals and doctors who agree in advance on payment levels. But some high-demand clinicians, such as emergency room doctors and anesthesiologists, have an incentive to stay out of at least some networks, to maximize their earnings.

Public programs like Medicare and Medicaid prohibit or restrict such billing practices.
Whatever money Connecticut might get from a settlement with the company accused of fueling the opioid crisis must go toward stopping addiction. The state cant disappoint on this, as it did with the huge tobacco settlement reached in 1998.

Connecticut spends virtually none of its $110 million-plus annual tobacco-settlement take on stopping kids from smoking or helping smokers kick the habit, according to Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The group ranks Connecticut dead last in the nation on tobacco prevention spending.

This is severely hampering [Connecticuts] ability to respond to the youth vaping epidemic and tobacco use disparities, says the American Lung Association.

Will this same indifference hamper Connecticut in dealing with the opioid scourge?

Deaths from opioid overdoses in Connecticut have risen from 298 in 2012 to 1,273 last year. In other words, they are up to more than three deaths a day.

A deep look by Hearst writer Paul Schott into the devastation wrought by opioids is chilling. Many opioid deaths, the state has alleged, are linked to the painkiller OxyContin, produced by the now-bankrupt pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma of Stamford.

Connecticuts lawsuit is among 3,000 local and state actions against the company that have been consolidated in Purdues bankruptcy case.

Where to get help If you or someone you know needs help with substance abuse or addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 24-hour treatment referral hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit Findtreatment.samhsa.gov for free and confidential help. In the case of a medical emergency, call 911. See More Collapse

Purdue has denied that it engaged in misconduct that contributed to the opioid epidemic. It says its painkiller OxyContin makes up a small share of the market for pain drugs

But Edward Neiger, a lawyer for many of the victims suing the company, says Purdue wrote the playbook that other opioid companies followed in pushing their products.

In 2007, Purdue reached a settlement with Connecticut and two dozen other states to resolve lawsuits alleging it did not adequately disclose the risks of abuse and addiction to OxyContin.

Connecticuts current lawsuit alleges that from 2007 to 2018, Purdues marketing blitz continued as it rewarded high-prescribing doctors with meals, gifts and money. Purdue denies the accusation. It has proposed settling this and all other lawsuits.

Our goal is to achieve a global settlement that would deliver more than $10 billion in value, including 100 percent of Purdues assets, to address the opioid crisis, Purdue said.

Whatever money might come Connecticuts way, it has pledged to put the funds toward tackling opioid addiction instead of doing what did with tobacco settlement money  throwing it into the states general fund to balance the budget.

My biggest disappointment is not being able to determine how the nearly $5 billion in settlement money allocated to Connecticut has been spent, Richard Blumenthal said back in 2008 when he was attorney general.

Lets not let that happen again. The opioid crisis has ruined too many lives. Connecticut cant turn its back on victims.
GREENWICH  Its officially a three-way race for the Republican nomination to run in the special election for the empty seat in the state Senate.

Greenwich resident Leora Levy jumped into the race Thursday morning, saying she will seek the GOP nomination to succeed Alex Kasser in representing the 36th Senate District.

An executive committee member for the Republican National Committee, Levy joins state Rep. Harry Arora and Ryan Fazio, a member of the Representative Town Meeting, in the GOP race.

Levy is expected to make a public announcement Tuesday but announced her intention to run with a statement released Thursday.

If I am elected, I will be a senator who will always fight for every resident of the district and for all of Connecticuts families, Levy said in a statement. I understand how much of what happens in Hartford affects our daily lives. As the mother of three sons, all raised in Connecticut, I know how concerning some of the laws passed this past session must seem to parents who now have had their right to control the medical care and raising of their own children stripped away.

Levy also cited what she called the frustration of the police who have lost their qualified immunity and funding in the police reform measures passed last year by the legislature. She also said the state does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem while saying the state cannot afford more taxes.

Then-President Donald Trump nominated Levy to be the U.S. ambassador to Chile in 2019. But the Senate never voted on whether to confirm her nomination before the end of Trumps term.

The 36th Senate District includes all of Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan. The three candidates have a little more than a week to lock down support before the nominating convention, which is tentatively scheduled for July 10 over Zoom, according to Greenwich Republican Town Committee Chair Dan Quigley.

Gov. Ned Lamont is expected on Friday to set the date of the special election for Aug. 17. If he sets a different date, that could change the date of the convention.

Democratic Town Committee Chair Joe Angland said the partys nominating convention will be held over Zoom on July 6, with Democrats choosing between Alexis Gevanter and John Blankley. Gevanter has the endorsement of both Kasser and state Rep. Stephen Meskers, D-150.

The special election will fill the remainder of Kassers term, which goes through fall 2022. Kasser, a Democrat, was reelected to her second term last November but resigned unexpectedly last week. In a statement, she cited her ongoing divorce as the reason for leaving the legislature.

Contested races

Quigley said he was looking forward to the nominating convention and he expected every Republican in the district to coalesce around the nominee.

Arora, Fazio and Levy are three highly qualified candidates who each have deep roots in our community and have spent many years among them actively engaged with the residents of Greenwich, Stamford and New Canaan, Quigley said.

Arora won a special election for state representative in January 2020 to replace Fred Camillo, who had resigned to become Greenwichs first selectmen, and Arora was reelected in November. Fazio ran for the state Senate last year but was defeated by Kasser.

Competition is at the core of our American values, and we have a healthy competition for the Republican state Senate nomination in the 36th, Quigley said. We are fortunate that we have not had to conduct a candidate search nor have we had any of our candidates handpicked in backroom deals like our opponents.

Angland pushed back against Quigleys claim that there had been any backroom deals on the Democratic nomination. Several possible candidates dropped out after Kasser gave her support to Gevanter.

The suggestion that potential candidates who decided not to run did so because of backroom deals is just silly, Angland said. The nominee will be selected by the roughly 50 delegates who were elected a year ago, long before any of the potential candidates for this election were running. Whoever gets the support of a majority of those delegates will be the nominee  pure and simple.

After expressing interest in running, former state Democratic Vice Chair Dita Bhargava and town residents Matt DesChamps and Trevor Crow declined to run. Crow is expected to be the Democratic nominee for tax collector, which she had announced a run for before Kassers resignation.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
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 
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court dealt a blow to New Jersey and other states seeking a way to oppose pipelines running through their land, siding with a pipeline company Tuesday in a dispute over New Jersey land needed for a natural gas pipeline.

Both liberal and conservative justices joined to rule 5-4 for the PennEast Pipeline Co. The ruling says that companies building interstate pipelines, once their projects have been given the greenlight by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, can obtain the land they need even in the face of state opposition.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations had supported PennEast. Nineteen states had urged the Supreme Court to rule the other way and side with New Jersey.

In New Jerseys case, the 116-mile planned pipeline is to run from Pennsylvanias Luzerne County to Mercer County in New Jersey. FERC had allowed the companys project to move forward in 2018 by granting PennEast a so-called certificate of public convenience and necessity, but lawsuits followed.

The company ultimately took New Jersey to court to acquire state-controlled land for its project. PennEast argued the commissions greenlighting of its project allowed it to use eminent domain to acquire state-controlled properties. The Supreme Court agreed.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that when FERC issues a certificate of public convenience and necessity, federal law authorizes the certificates holder to condemn all necessary rights-of-way, whether owned by private parties or States.

Roberts wrote that although nonconsenting States are generally immune from suit, they surrendered their immunity from the exercise of the federal eminent domain power when they ratified the Constitution. He said that because the federal Natural Gas Act delegates the federal eminent domain power to private parties, those parties can initiate condemnation proceedings, including against state-owned property. Roberts was joined by conservative justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh and liberal justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in a dissent that the majoritys view that states had surrendered their immunity by ratifying the Constitution has no textual, structural, or historical support. She was joined by fellow conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch and liberal Justice Elena Kagan.

The decision from the high court doesnt end litigation over the pipeline. A separate challenge involving New Jersey is pending in a federal appeals court in Washington.

In a statement, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal promised that the decision is not the end of the road in our fight against the PennEast pipeline.

We still have other, ongoing legal challenges to this proposed pipeline, which is unnecessary and would be destructive to New Jersey lands, Grewal said, urging the federal government to take another look at this harmful proposal.

In a statement, Anthony Cox, chair of the PennEast Board of Managers said the company was pleased with the decision.

This decision is about more than just the PennEast Pipeline Project; it protects consumers who rely on infrastructure projects  found to be in the public benefit after thorough scientific and environmental reviews  from being denied access to much-needed energy by narrow State political interests, Cox said.

New Jersey had argued that PennEast couldnt take the state to court to acquire the property it is seeking  only the United States government can. The state argued that the Natural Gas Act does not explicitly authorize private lawsuits by private parties against states. A federal appeals court sided with New Jersey while a lower court had sided with PennEast.

The case is PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey, 19-1039.
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:58:46 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

In May this year, Turkeys scrap imports continued to increase both month on month and year on year. The import volume in May alone came to 2,029 million mt, up approximately 23 percent month on month, according to the data provided by the Turkish Steel Producers' Association (TCUD). During the January-May period of the current year, Turkish steelmakers full order books both for long and flat steel led them to continue purchasing scrap at a rapid pace, resulting a gradual rise in tonnages bought.

During the January-May period, Turkey's steel scrap import volume increased by 32.5 percent on year on year to 10.828 million metric tons. The value of these imports exceeded $4.460 million, up 95 percent year on year. Looking at Turkeys scrap imports in May in detail, the EU maintained its number one position among suppliers of Turkeys scrap imports with a 56 percent share, followed by the US with 13.8 percent and then the UK with a 11.9 percent share. It is noteworthy that Turkeys scrap imports from the US indicated a 10.5 percent decrease year on year in the first five months of 2021.

The main sources of Turkeys scrap imports in January-May 2021 can be seen in the table below:

Imported tonnage Jan-May 2021 (thousand mt) Change year on year (%) US 1,498 -10.5 EU 6,058 +43.5 CIS 1,059 +39.5 UK 1,288 +41.2 Others 924 +26.4 Total 10,828 +32.5

The number of bookings for June shipments is expected to be higher than for May shipments and to indicate a rise year on year. Turkeys scrap imports had totaled 1.535 million mt in June 2020, while amounting to 9.707 million mt in the first half of 2020.
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"The border police from the Nadlac II Crossing Point have carried out an extensive search regarding three vehicles, driven by two Bulgarian citizens and one Romanian. The drivers were transporting, according to documents accompanying the freight, various goods for companies from Germany and Austria. While the search was being carried out, inside the cargo hold, hidden among the transported shipment, 16 foreign citizens were discovered," the Arad Border Police informed on Thursday.



Upon preliminary checks, the border police established that all immigrants are from Afghanistan and have ages between 15 and 30, being asylum seekers in Romania.



In all cases the border police are conducting investigations, reports agerpres.
A number of 340,020 digital certificates have been generated in the first 12 hours since the certification-covid.gov.ro platform was launched, the Secretary of State with the Ministry of Health Andrei Baciu, also vice-president of the CNCAV (National Committee Coordination Vaccination Activities against COVID-10), informed on Thursday.

"This means that 28,335 Romanians have generated their European document every hour. That means over 470 certificates issued every minute," Baciu wrote on his Facebook page.

According to the vice-president of CNCAV, over 97.28pct are COVID certificates attesting the vaccination, the remaining 2.72pct represent COVID certificates of recovery and negative test.18,000 users connected in the last 30 minutes, i.e. 600 people/minute, said Andrei Baciu.
The total number of citizens with the right to vote registered with the Electoral Register on June 30 is 18,914,403, 3,305 more than the last public information in May, according to the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP).

According to a press release sent by the AEP to AGERPRES, the differences appear as a result of the current operations performed by the mayors in the Electoral Register related to their administrative-territorial units and data imports from DEPABD.

Thus, in June, 22,257 persons were deregistered from the Electoral Register as a result of death and 41 persons as a result of the prohibition of exercising the right to vote or being placed under interdiction.At the same time, 331 people regained their electoral rights as a result of the expiration of the deregistration period.The number of voters who turned 18 in the same period is 19,620, and they are registered with the Electoral Register ex officio, by the Permanent Electoral Authority, based on the communication of the Directorate for the Registration of Persons and the Administration of Databases.As a result of the data imports from DEPABD, 5,652 new voters were registered who turned 18 before June 1, 2021, AEP also states.Out of the total number of Romanian voters appearing in the Electoral Register, 18,164,382 have their domicile or residence in the country, and 750,021 have their domicile abroad and are CRDS (Romanian Citizen Residing Abroad) passport holders.
The implementation of environmental legislation in the unrolling of European funds for agriculture and rural development, afforestation and the creation of agro-forestry systems on degraded agricultural lands were some of the aspects analysed on Thursday by the Minister of Agriculture, Adrian Oros, and the Minister of Environment, Barna Tanczos, informs the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Another topic addressed during the discussions between the two officials was to streamline the way of authorizing agricultural activities on farms.

The two ministers also discussed the revision of common normative acts in order to improve the flow of documents, aiming to reduce the time for issuing approvals and the need to develop emergency management regulations specific to the type of risk, respectively the urgency of drafting and approving management regulations for types of risk (storms - strong wind and/or heavy rainfall, hail, floods caused by the rise of the groundwater level, fires in grassy and/or shrubby vegetation).Last but not least, topics related to the emergency approval of the draft Government Decision on the manner of granting compensation for damages caused by game species, as well as the obligations of game fund managers and of owners of agricultural, forestry and domestic crops were also analyses for damage prevention, as well as the problems related to fishing and fisheries and aquaculture in our country, aspects related to the prevention of the effects of extreme weather phenomena, such as floods, by carrying out dams and works on the drainage channels.
The deputy chairman of Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV), Andrei Baciu, declared that the night between Thursday and Friday, 237,600 vaccine doses produced by Johnson&Johnson will arrive in Romania, Agerpres informs.

"For the following period, with the exception of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine, we suspended vaccine shipping, in order to have a more efficient stock management. Tonight, 237,600 vaccine doses produced by Johnson&Johnson will arrive in Romania. Additionally from the transaction Romania is doing with Denmark, there are requests from many states. (...) There are several actions and analyses being carried out in this sense, we will probably have news next week," Baciu told a press conference at Victoria Palace.

He added that until now Romania has received 16,359,029 vaccine doses, of which 54.75% have been administrated. There was also a 0.9 percent of lost vaccine doses.
575 private companies from 38 counties have started the vaccination activity of their own employees, and of these 91 are from the HoReCa field, said on Thursday the vice-president of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee, Andrei Baciu, Agerpres informs.

"Regarding the vaccination of private economic operators, an activity that started a few weeks ago, so far we have 575 private companies that have started this activity in 38 counties, of which 91 private operators in the field of HoReCa in 21 counties "This activity was carried out with the help of 196 mobile teams. 63,856 people were vaccinated, and of these 3,867 work in Horeca. Brasov, Alba and Bihor are the top counties," Baciu told a press conference at Victoria Palace of Government.

He added that this week, 250 of these companies will complete the vaccination of the employees and their families.
The headquarters of the NATO Headquarters Multinational Division South-East (HQ MNC-SE) started, on Thursday, its activity in the Sibiu Garrison, occasion on which the commander of this military capability, Lieutenant General Tomita Catalin Tomescu, announced that a few hundred servicemen will be present, and starting with 2022 the foreigners from the Alliance's structures will also arrive.

"We have just arrived at your garrison. We have many things to do. We have a long way to go before we get to the final capability. We have to build and rebuild, remake, two military bases here, one for us, one for the support regiment. We have to acquire the super performing communication system with which we need to lead, if need be, the structures that we will have under our command. Furthermore, we must increase the staffing in numbers. Next years the foreigners will come. The community in Sibiu must help us to accomplish all of this. (...) We are a few hundred men that come here, not many are from the garrison or the area. There are many of us coming to do our jobs. (...) Sibiu already has a calling card, we're just giving it NATO touch, that's it. We're giving it a NATO touch, we're putting it on NATO's map. You will see the scale and the activities that are to follow," said, on Thursday, the commander of HQ MNC-SE, Lieutenant General Tomita Catalin Tomescu.

The head of the Defence General Staff, Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu, emphasized that the "moving of the command in Sibiu is, without a doubt, a strategic decision for the geographic positioning of this capability."

"Since establishment and until today, when we are participating in the ceremony on the occasion of the redeployment and commencement of command in the Sibiu area, large part of the military agenda was build depending on the events of this Command: activation in the NATO military structure, obtaining the status of international military command, accomplishing the initial operational capacity. Moving the command to Sibiu is, without a doubt, a strategic decision for the geographic positioning of this capability. On the other hand, knowing the cultural wealth of the city, as well as the hospitality of its inhabitants and the beauty of the area, Sibiu will prove to be a successful choice for the entire staff of the HQ," mentioned the head of the Defence General Staff.

According to the quoted source, this NATO command will be very important on the Pan-European Corridor IV.

"I can anticipate that, in Romania, after this garrison is placed on the NATO command map, many roads will lead to Sibiu on the Pan-European Corridor IV. Furthermore, I anticipate that the activity of international servicemen will be a win for the local community," showed Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu.

The ceremony to establish NATO's Headquarters Multinational Division South-East in Sibiu took place one year ago, on July 23, in Cincu (Brasov County).

"One year ago, on July 23, 2020, we met in Cincu, Brasov County, in the establishment ceremony for NATO's Multinational Division South East Headquarters. In the presence of the Romanian President, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, and the Minister of National Defence, Mr. Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca, we participated then in the first stage in a process of concretization of a very important project of Romania proposed to the North Atlantic Alliance, at the 2018 Summit in Brussels. In the context of the demarche to adapt the NATO command structure, our country proposed to the Alliance the development on national territory of a command-control capability, following the necessities to adapt national and allied defensive structures to the unstable security environment in the Black Sea region and the Eastern Flank of the Alliance," the head of the Defence General Staff recalled.
Most cases newly confirmed of COVID-19 compared to the last report were registered in Cluj - 6, Bucharest and Timis - 4 each, informs, on Thursday, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS).

Also, no new cases were registered in 25 counties.

All counties and the municipality of Bucharest remain in the green scenario in terms of infections with the novel coronavirus, the highest incidence per thousand inhabitants being in the counties of Prahova - 0.11, Dolj and Ilfov - 0.09.

In the last 24 hours, 31 new cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus have been reported.
In the week of June 21 - 27, 39.5% of the total cases of COVID-19 were registered in Prahova, Bucharest, Dolj, Ilfov and Bacau, informs the National Institute of Public Health (INSP).

According to the quoted source, 58% of the total deaths were registered in Prahova, Bucharest, Galati, Arges and Botosani.

Since the beginning of the pandemic and until now, one in 77 of the total cases has been registered in medical staff.Also, 86.1% of all deaths were in people over 60, and 58.4% of deaths were in men.94.6% of the deceased persons had at least one associated comorbidity, INSP states.
The activity in the sanitary system (public and private) took place last year in over 63,000 sanitary units (52,000 sanitary units in urban and 11,000 in rural areas), according to data published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

INS mentions that in 2020 the activity of the health and health care network was marked by the emergence and evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, by the measures of the central and local authorities to prevent the spread of the virus.

By main categories of units, the health network had, in 2020, 535 hospitals, compared to 532 hospitals in 2019; 150 units assimilated to hospitals that offer only day hospitalization services or outpatient and day hospitalization services, by 11 units fewer compared to the previous year (by some of these units' transformation into hospitals or by temporarily ceasing or suspending the activity of others); over 12,000 independent specialized medical practices, by 242 more units than in 2019; over 15,000 independent dental offices, by 108 more units than in the previous year; almost 11,000 family medicine offices, down by 214 offices compared to 2019.

The pharmaceutical network provided services through a number of 9,800 pharmacies, drugstores and pharmaceutical points, down by 76 units compared to 2019. Of the 685 hospitals and units assimilated to the hospitals that operated in 2020, only 347 are large medical units (with more than 100 beds), while 258 are small medical units (with fewer than 50 beds).

According to the INS, primary medicine, provided through the network of family medical offices, is the population's first contact with the health system, both for diagnosing and treating diseases and for performing preventive medical examinations. Most family medicine practices operated in urban areas, 6,400 practices compared to 4,300 practices in rural areas. In rural areas, a family medicine practice has 1.3 times fewer inhabitants (belonging to the resident population) compared to an urban practice.

Specialized outpatient medical care is provided by specialized units such as specialized outpatient clinics, medical and dental centers, polyclinics, diagnostic and treatment centers, etc., units that are located mostly in urban areas.

The network of independent medical practices and that of independent dental practices - part of the outpatient healthcare system - is also located mostly in urban areas.

While in the urban area there were 12,000 independent specialized medical practices, in rural areas their number was 22 times lower (only 533 offices). Consequently, the average number of inhabitants who returned to an independent specialized medical office was 19 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

In 2020, there were only 0.6 independent specialized medical offices per 10,000 inhabitants in the rural area (as in 2019) compared to 11.2 practices in urban areas (11.0 practices in 2019).

According to the INS, the 685 hospitals and units assimilated to hospitals had, in 2020, 134,700 beds for continuous hospitalization (124,500 beds in urban areas and 10,200 beds in rural areas) and 9,600 hospital beds for daytime hospitalization (only 380 beds in rural areas).

In 2020, hospitals and similar units provided inpatient services to 2.6 million cases of continuous hospitalization and 3.2 million cases of daytime hospitalization, compared to 2019 when 4.3 million patients were treated, both with continuous hospitalization and daytime care. From the point of view of bed insurance, most hospital beds (132,000 beds, accounting for 91.6%) were made available to patients in large hospitals (units with over 100 beds each), 7,000 hospital beds (4.9%) were available in medium-sized hospitals (units with 50-99 beds), and 5,000 beds (3.5%) in small hospitals (with less than 50 beds).

In 2020, as per the Order of the Minister of Health no. 555/2020 on the approval of the Plan of Measures for the preparation of hospitals in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, was established the network of hospitals and units assimilated to hospitals treating patients having tested positive for COVID-19 and support units for patients having tested positive for COVID-19 or under suspicion of being infected. These measures have strongly influenced the activity and resources of hospitals, the structure of beds on specialties being one of the relevant indicators for the analysis of the impact of this period on hospital units.

Thus, a number of 21,123 beds for continuous hospitalization were allocated for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, representing 15.7% of all beds for continuous hospitalization. Of these, most were distributed to the infectious diseases specialty, representing 27.4% of the total beds COVID-19, respectively 83.6% of the total beds allocated to this specialty and to the pulmonology specialty, accounting for 13.4% of the total COVID-19 beds, respectively 34.3% of the total beds allocated to this specialty. Within the ICU wards, a number of 1,489 beds were allocated for patients with COVID-19, representing 7% of the total COVID-19 beds and 26% of the total ICU beds.

The public sector took over the most important part of the COVID-19 patient care activity, 98.4% of the allocated care beds allocated to COVID-19 belonging to public hospitals, and the private sector contributed to the care of COVID-19 patients with 342 continuous care beds.

From the point of view of providing medical staff, in 2020 the health system had 65,700 physicians, up by 2,400 compared to 2019; of 18,500 dentists, up by 1,500 dentists compared to 2019; of 19,500 pharmacists, up by 1,400 pharmacists compared to the previous year; of 152,700 personnel with average health training, up by 2,400 compared to 2019 and of 73,900 auxiliary health personnel, up by 1,600 compared to 2019. In 2020, a number of 2,300 physiotherapists (100 more than in 2019) and 16,800 nurses with higher education (600 more than in 2019) provided medical care in the units of the public and private health system.

By gender, the medical staff is mostly made up of women, the share of women among doctors and dentists being 70.5%, respectively 66.2%, and among pharmacists 89.3%.

In 2020, compared to 2019, the number of doctors (except for dentists) increased by 2,437, the most obvious increases being directly correlated with the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighted by increases in the number of specialists in the main medical specialties involved in the treatment COVID-19 patients and in the activities of managing the spread of the virus.

The medical specialties that registered the largest increases in the number of doctors, compared to 2019, were: infectious diseases, where the number of doctors increased by 11.5%, anesthesia and intensive care with an increase of 8.5%, epidemiology, with an increase of 10.3% and pneumology, with an increase of 4.9%. The doctors specialized in laboratory medicine whose number increased by 6.3% compared to 2019 and the doctors specialized in public health and health management whose number increased by 21.8 % essential also contribution in the diagnosis and management of the pandemic.

The distribution of health personnel by areas of residence is determined by the territorial distribution of health units, maintaining the existing major discrepancies.

Out of the total number of doctors, about one fifth were family doctors, almost two thirds of them working in urban areas. In 2020, as in the previous year, the discrepancies by area of residence regarding the provision of the population with medical staff are highlighted by the higher number of inhabitants (belonging to the resident population) who returned to a medical-sanitary framework, as follows: in rural areas there were by 9 times more inhabitants per doctor (1.6 times more inhabitants per family doctor), 6.4 times more inhabitants per dentist and almost 4 times more inhabitants per pharmacist, compared to the environment urban, reports agerpres.
The new Head of the European Commission (EC) Representation in Bucharest, Ramona Chiriac, states, when taking office, that this position represents for her "an opportunity to be part of Romania's present and future".

"For me, it is an honor to represent the European Union in Romania, after almost 10 years I represented Romania and the Romanians in Germany, in different mandates. I see my new role as an opportunity to be part of Romania's present and future, this time at European level," she said, according to a statement from the Representation.

Ramona Chiriac also refers to the Next Generation EU, "which means more than a recovery plan: it is a unique chance to transform Romania and create opportunities., Agerpres informs.

"Next Generation EU will contribute to building a greener and more sustainable future for Romania by supporting the green and digital transition," the new head of the EC Representation said.

Another priority in the mandate of the Head of Representation is the Conference on the Future of Europe.

"It allows us all to debate a common vision of what we want the Union to be," Ramona Chiriac added.
President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday said that Romania is a promoter of a strong transatlantic relation and will continue to support a robust and indivisible North Atlantic Alliance and cooperation between NATO and the EU.

"Romania is and will remain strongly rooted in the community of democratic values while being a promoter of a strong transatlantic relationship. We will continue to support a robust and indivisible North Atlantic Alliance, as well as synergistic and complementary cooperation between NATO and the European Union. I am certain that the transatlantic relations provide the most effective tools to manage current challenges, including reaffirming democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. A revitalized transatlantic partnership will positively influence how the international system adapts to the current context, by reporting to shared democratic values," the head of state said at a reception given by the US Embassy on Independence Day.

He underscored that Romania supports and promotes the concept of transatlantic strategic resilience."Our aim is to reduce or even eliminate the dependence on actors who do not share the same values that represent the basis of the transatlantic community we are a part of. This is also the meaning of Romania's initiative to set up the Euro-Atlantic Centre for Resilience in Bucharest, which we have recently inaugurated, and which is open to our partners," Iohannis said.The head of state pointed out that, at bilateral level, the relationship between Romania and the USA is based on a solid and deep strategic partnership, on the common belonging to the values of democracy, rule of law and human rights, and mentioned that this year marks three special moments: ten years since the adoption of the Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century, ten years since the signing and entry into force of the Agreement on the location of the United States ballistic missile defence system in Romania and five years since the achievement of the Full Operational Capacity of the Ballistic Missile Defence Facility in Deveselu."The deepening of the strategic partnership also aims to encourage stronger links between people. A solid support of the transatlantic educational and cultural dialogue is the Fulbright Scholarship Programme, which this year celebrates 75 years since its launch and over 60 years of presence in Romania, thus completing the series of important anniversary moments in the bilateral relationship," Iohannis added.He added that the recent European tour of the US President Joe Biden was a success, adding that the decisions taken at the NATO Summit, the European Union-US Summit and the G7 meeting in Carbis Bay are "clear evidence of the commitment of the United States to its allies and partners, as well as its re-involvement in key issues for international architecture."The President also appreciated that the discussions he had with President Biden on the sidelines of the NATO Summit were an opportunity to reconfirm both the strength of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States and the commitment of the US partners to Euro-Atlantic security. He also appreciated the participation, for the first time, of a US President at the Bucharest Format Summit 9, hosted in May in Romania."President Joe Biden's message at the meeting was strong and very encouraging for the Allies on the Eastern Flank, showing that the transatlantic relation is not just a link between the two shores of the Atlantic, but extends across Europe to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, and the partnership between the USA and Europe is the cornerstone of international relations," said Klaus Iohannis.
The European Commission could approve Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) at the beginning of autumn, and at that time the country will receive the first tranche of 13% of the amount, announced on Thursday Marius Vasiliu, Secretary of State, in the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE).

He participated in the video conference "Romania - development strategy", organized by the Bursa newspaper.

"Probably, by respecting the timelines in the regulation and meeting the respective deadlines, we will have the plan approved at the beginning of autumn, which means that from that moment we will have the first tranche of financing from this plan, an advance of 13% of what Romania proposes in relation to the 29 billion grants and loans," said Vasiliu.

According to him, the reasons why we are still in discussions with the European Commission are related to the fact that even the Commission changed its approach when the final form of the regulation was approved, which was different from the draft, on the basis of which the first version of the proposal for a plan was made.

"As there are a lot of things in Romania that everyone wants to solve through the PNRR, the negotiation process, including the internal one, was extremely laborious, quite complicated. In addition to needs, there are also conditionalities, which catch us out of phase as a member state in relation to the EU, as long as the priorities of other states are different from the basic ones of Romania, streets, motor ways, roads, infrastructure, gas supply - we still heat ourselves with wood stoves and use coal in thermal power plants, so we are not discussing at Romania's level of things that are normal and common, in our country these are still desiderata and challenges," the ministerial official continued.

We lag behind in education, health, the environment, he says.

"PNRR is an opportunity, somewhat forced for Romania, because we have the obligation to complete everything we have undertaken within a deadline which, if not respected, the same cannot be done as in the case of the classic operational programs with European funding on the principle 'how much we received is well received, then we go on with our money.' It does not go like this through the PNRR, we are obliged to assume all the targets, otherwise we do not receive any money. The opportunity comes with a coercion, and the political environment has understood this need to overcome the transition approach so far and to create a real country project for Romania's rebirth," Vasiliu underlined.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) hasy signed an agreement with the Government of Romania for the hosting of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 (PP-22) in Bucharest, Romania's National Communications Administration and Regulation Authority (ANCOM) reported in a press statement released on Thursday.

ITU's supreme governing body is set to convene from 26 September to 14 October 2022 at the Palace of the Parliament in the Romanian capital, marking the return of the conference to Europe after more than three decades.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of digital technologies and services like never before. Yet challenges remain everywhere. ITU member states will use PP-22 to set out a roadmap for 2024-2027, at a time when digital transformation is accelerating around the world," according to ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.According to ANCOM, the conference will elect ITU's next Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, and Directors of the Bureaux of the Radiocommunication Sector, the Telecommunication Standardization Sector, and the Telecommunication Development Sector, along with the members of the Radio Regulations Board.ITU member states will be invited to officially submit candidatures about one year prior to the conference. Candidatures must reach the ITU Secretary-General not later than 23:59hrs (Geneva time) on the 28th day prior to the conference, i.e., Monday, 29 August 2022.PP-22 is also to set ITU's general policies, adopt four-year strategic and financial plans, and address key ICT issues as requested by ITU members.ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference is held every four years, convening representatives of the organization's 193 Member States to oversee global radio spectrum allocation, the creation of global technical standards for information and communication technology (ICT) networks and services, and efforts to promote digital inclusion in under-served communities.After discussion at the 2019 session of the ITU Council, councillors agreed with the proposed location of PP-22 in Bucharest with the dates of 26 September to 14 October 2022 (C19/127). The previous ITU Plenipotentiary Conference was hosted in Dubai in 2018 by the Government of the United Arab Emirates.ITU's last Plenipotentiary Conference in Europe was hosted by France in 1989.The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), driving innovation in ICTs together with 193 member states and a membership of over 900 companies, universities, and international and regional organisations.Established over 150 years ago, ITU is the intergovernmental body responsible for coordinating the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoting international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, improving communication infrastructure in the developing world, and establishing the worldwide standards that foster seamless interconnection of a vast range of communications systems.
At the time, cases and hospitalizations had been dwindling since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. Soon after, however, the more infectious and dangerous delta variant began causing an increase in numbers in Missouri, starting in northern counties and spreading to the entire southwest corner of the state.

For much of June, Missouri had the highest number of new cases per capita in country. It continues to hold the No. 2 spot, according the New York Times data tracker.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday that the agency is leaving it up to local health officials to set guidelines around mask-wearing, taking into account their local vaccination rates and numbers of new cases.

The World Health Organization on June 25 urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks and practice others safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.

New cases top 1,000 a day
ST. LOUIS  Along with notebooks, highlighters and calculators, add a COVID-19 vaccine to the list of things needed for the first day of school, health officials say.

Now is the time to get a shot. Consider it part of your back-to-school list, said St. Louis County Executive Sam Page. This is arguably the most important tool your students need for the new school year.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 is approved for those as young as 12, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available for those 18 and older.

The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses three weeks apart, with full immunization kicking in two weeks after the second dose  about the time school will be starting if adolescents start the process now.

Page on Wednesday announced a major sustained effort to help families get their teens vaccinated. It involves offering daily opportunities for families to get all their vaccines, routine physicals and dental care at any of the health departments three clinics in Berkeley, Pine Lawn and Sunset Hills. Nurses will also be available to answer questions about the vaccines.
ST. LOUIS  Police officers unlawfully obtained a no-knock warrant in 2017 that was used to storm the home of a 63-year-old man who was then fatally shot by an officer, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit contends a St. Louis officer, Thomas Strode, used lies or bogus information and boilerplate language to obtain the search warrant for the home of Donald Don R. Clark Sr. Another city officer, Nicholas Manasco, shot Clark after officers broke down the door and tossed a flash bang diversionary device inside the home on the evening of Feb. 21, 2017, the suit says.

Having to just deal with figuring out what had transpired just made me angry, and Ive been angry ever since. I just feel robbed. My family was robbed, Ashley Boureima Mourou, one of Clarks children, said Wednesday at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.

Clark, a U.S. Army veteran who used a cane and suffered from diabetes, poor eyesight, poor hearing and other health problems, slept in the front room of the one-bedroom home, opposite the front door, the suit says.
CLAYTON  A Maryland Heights man will serve the rest of his life in prison for killing his uncle and 22-month-old cousin in a knife and hammer attack.

Traveon Sims, 24, pleaded guilty to 10 felonies including two counts of first-degree murder. Circuit Judge Joseph Dueker sentenced Sims to consecutive prison terms of life without parole for the murders of Sims' uncle Malcom Mathis II, 33, and Mathis' 22-month-old son, Malcom Mathis III, on Feb. 15, 2018.

The judge added another 310 years combined for charges of stabbing Mathis II's 4-year-old daughter and 57-year-old mother-in-law and robbing Mathis II of his car and credit cards.

Mathis II's wife of six years, Susan Mathis, discovered the carnage in her Maryland Heights home after returning from studying for the bar exam, authorities said.

"My heart will never be whole again," she said Thursday via videoconference as Sims stood in the courtroom. "You took it all away for what? I miss them so much, and you selfishly took them away.  I will learn to forgive, but I will never forget."
Local departments are barred from enforcing them or risk being sued for $50,000. They also are prohibited from assisting federal agents in enforcing laws declared invalid and from hiring former federal agents who had enforced them.

The laws passage was a victory for gun rights activists who have pushed it for nearly a decade in the Missouri Legislature. But law enforcement agencies have raised concerns that it will hamper their ability to investigate crimes alongside federal agents when guns are used or involved. In those cases, prosecutors often pursue gun charges because they come with additional penalties upon sentencing.

St. Louis City and County have sued the state over the law, seeking to block it from taking effect. Last month, a U.S. Justice Department official wrote to Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt saying HB 85 conflicts with federal firearms laws and regulation and threatens to disrupt the working relationship between federal and local authorities.

Missouri is not attempting to nullify federal law, Schmitt and Parson wrote back. Instead, Missouri is defending its people from federal government overreach by prohibiting state and local law enforcement agencies from being used by the federal government to infringe (on) Missourians right to keep and bear arms.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Mike Parsons administration has asked the federal government for help from new surge response teams amid climbing COVID-19 cases in Missouri, where the more contagious delta variant is spreading.

Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services, confirmed Thursday the state had asked for the governments help, but didnt immediately provide more information.

Jeff Zients, the White House COVID Response Coordinator, said during a briefing Thursday the teams will focus on increasing shots in arms in communities with low vaccination rates who are fighting outbreaks, including through targeted, paid media into these areas.

He said the government was mobilizing COVID-19 surge response teams to be at the ready to deploy federal resources, and where needed, federal personnel.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday approximately 1,000 counties in the United States have vaccination coverage of less than 30%. These communities, primarily in the southeast and Midwest, are our most vulnerable.
Although legislation cutting off Medicaid funding for the organization advanced in the House, the Senate adjourned without taking up the measure.

Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said the timing of Schmitts appeal was not an accident.

This is what it looks like in Missouri when anti-abortion politicians try and fail to further their agenda. The timing is no coincidence  just yesterday, Republican leadership failed to defund Planned Parenthood or redefine birth control as abortifacients, Rodriguez said.

Schmitts action is in response to a June 9 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis that the 2019 law should not go into effect until all legal remedies are satisfied.

The law, known as the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act, says doctors who perform abortions after the first eight weeks of pregnancy could face up to 15 years in prison.
With billions of dollars in jeopardy and millions of livelihoods at stake, the majority of legislators put narrow political interests aside and passed an FRA renewal bill that protects Missouris most vulnerable populations and builds on our pro-life principles. Without their efforts, we would be announcing unprecedented budget restrictions rather than these historic investments. To all those who helped get FRA across the finish line: we appreciate your work, Parson said.

The spending blueprint, which goes into effect Thursday, includes a massive infusion of federal emergency relief money. But, it earmarks no funding for a voter-approved expansion of the states Medicaid program.

The Medicaid expansion issue is the subject of a lawsuit pending before the state Supreme Court.

Other cuts ordered by Parson include $5 million for charter school repairs.

The governor also cut $24 million set aside to improve the pay rate for health care providers who work for the Department of Mental Health.

He also erased a $250,000 line-item to provide EpiPens  autoinjectors that deliver a measured dose of epinephrine  for first responders.
Parson said the protesters should have spent time lobbying the Legislature when it was in session. After the GOP-controlled House and Senate rejected funding for expansion, Parson withdrew his application for expansion to the federal government.

That was the legislative process. Its fine to protest and be out there. But the reality of it is there is nothing to be done until next year, Parson said.

Jeremy Manley, spokesman for Teamsters Local 245 in Springfield, Missouri, said, Medicaid and Medicare, its a basic human right for every person.

It helps us dramatically when we go to negotiate good contracts for our members if theres a health care option thats available for everyone, Manley said.

Jason Starr, president of the United Auto Workers Local 249 in Kansas City, said the union wanted to stand up for what voters supported despite our governor ignoring the will of the voters.

Starr said his members receive very good health care through their union contract, which is why we believe in it so much.

Health care provides you security to live your life in a dignified manner without worrying about how youre going to pay medical bills, he said.
If we raise the wages a little bit, hopefully well get some much needed staffing, he said.

The Rev. Philip Duvall, a member of the St. Louis County Justice Services Advisory Board, also called on the legislative body to support the pay raises.

After voicing support for the pay increase back in May, the advisory board voted last week to formally back the request after it was amended to remove a handful of supervisors that received a pay bump in the last two years under a previous jail administration. Duvall was among members who had raised concerns about their inclusion.

Days on Wednesday said she wanted to concrete information on if there are any other alternatives to concerns raised by jail officers and volunteers.

Im looking for management to come with some sort of plan, she said.

I dont think its responsible of us to turn money loose on something that we may not be able to sustain, she said.

Burris said Wednesday that he plans to hand deliver detailed responses this week to questions raised.

"I remain hopeful," Burris said. "I'm certain that once all of the details are looked at completely it will give reason to support this request."
Council Chair Rita Heard Days, D-1st District, said the proposal was important for getting young people involved in government.

I think that whatever we can do to encourage young people to get into this kind of work is worthwhile, she said.

The legislation requires the youth advisory council to meet no later than Sept. 1, requiring Page and the county council to appoint members in coming weeks. Page would get one appointment, and all seven council members would nominate two residents in their district for Page to formally appoint to the panel.

Its up to each council member to decide how to nominate appointees to the Youth Advisory Council, Clancy said. Clancy, whose district includes suburbs from Clayton south to Crestwood, said her office would create an application form for young residents who are interested in being nominated to the youth council.

Youth advisory council members would each get paid $600 a year, for a total $9,000 a year. The top range pay for members of county commissions and advisory panels is $1,500 per year, and the lowest range $300 per year.

Clancy said the $600 stipend was necessary to incentivize participation.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Gathering without masks, Maine lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved an $8.5 billion budget on the eve of the new fiscal year. The budget includes a $300 hazard pay bonus for most workers.

Both chambers adopted the budget by a margin greater than a two-thirds majority, allowing it to go into effect upon the governor's signature.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said the budget represents an historic investment in Maine people.

It boosts the states share of K-12 public education costs to 55%, meeting a goal established by state voters, while adding $45 million to the school renovation fund and $40 million for land conservation, and increasing revenue sharing with cities and towns. It also expands preventative dental care to more than 200,000 Mainers.

It does all that while adding to the state's rainy day fund.

The new spending was made possible through more than $900 million in unanticipated revenues, based on updated projections.

The votes came as most lawmakers ditched their masks for the first time since lawmakers convened this year.
NORMANDY, Mo. (AP)  A suburban St. Louis police chief is rejecting calls for his dismissal after a police report surfaced showing a woman in 2013 accused him of striking her and destroying her belongings.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Chief Mark Hall wrote in an email to the Normandy City Council that the attempt to remove him from office was an attack on my character.

Mayor Mark Beckmann argues that Hall must be removed because theres a lot of credibility to the allegations. Beckmann said the claims werent fully examined before Hall was hired in December.

Hall was a St. Louis police officer in September 2013 when he was investigated after a woman reported he pushed, slapped and shoved her, urinated on her clothing and cut up her underwear during a dispute that spanned three days. No charges were filed.

Hall declined to speak with the Post-Dispatch about the allegations, but said in his letter to the council that he disclosed the incident during the interview process.
It costs money to run cities, and that money comes from taxes. While governments at all levels waste that tax money to varying degrees, sometimes it is necessary to increase certain taxes to fund necessary services.

Right now in St. Louis County, two prominent suburbs have put property tax increase votes before their citizens in August. The first one is Clayton, the county seat and central business hub. The second one is Frontenac, a wealthy bedroom community with a major mall right in the center of St. Louis County.

Too often, governments try to export the costs of running their cities to outsiders with tourist taxes, sales taxes, special district taxes, and so on. In the cases of Clayton and Frontenac, the best thing you can say about the proposals is that they are property taxes that will be paid by the residents and businesses of their respective communities. Of course, the businesses dont vote  only the residents do. But businesses and residents all benefit from effective police, properly equipped fire departments, and well-maintained roads.
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Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.
The government has backed off on plans to cancel the existing VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement) with the United States. Without the VFA any American troops entering the Philippines have to apply for a visa. This is a time-consuming process but that is not all. Without VFA American military personnel are subject to Filipino courts and legal proceedings. As a general rule the United States requires something like the VFA, usually called a Status Of Forces (SOF) agreement, before it will allow U.S. troops to enter the territory of a friendly nation. The Philippines still has a Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States and that could still be invoked by the Philippines if needed. The most immediate damage from no VFA is American military assistance during an emergency, usually of the natural disaster variety. The closest American aid is usually the U.S. Navy which can quickly provide helicopters, medical care, electrical power (from docked warships) as well as radio and other communications gear brought ashore for a disaster zone. Without a VFA/SOF such emergency aid is limited depending on the risk from corrupt local justice systems and politicians. American troops have been visiting the Philippines to provide training assistance or, as has often happened in the last few decades, the U.S. forces provide additional intelligence and aerial surveillance support. Without the VFA these troops have restrictions on their activities. They are usually restricted to the bases they are working from as well as travel restrictions. The Filipino military opposed the VFA cancellation.

The VFA cancellation threat was in response to the U.S. sanctions imposed on some Filipinos involved with president Dutertes war on drugs. One of the key Filipino police commanders who carried out the war on drugs was Ronald dela Rosa, who commanded the national police at the start of the war on drugs five years ago. Two years later he retired, ran for the senate and won. His victory was largely because of his prominent role in getting the war on drugs going. Even before Duterte became president dela Rosa was a fan and, in the Senate, he became a major ally. But some foreign nations consider dela Rosa a criminal for what they feel was illegal acts during the war on drugs. Duterte and most Filipinos disagree with that. They also disagree with punishing dela Rosa with sanctions so there was some popular support for discarding the VFA.

That has changed over the last fifteen months because of continuing Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and increasing militancy by West Pacific nations threatened by Chinese expansion. Filipino threats to make American military and emergency assistance more difficult to provide were less popular in the Philippines. A few months ago, Duterte downgraded the cancel VFA threat to, asking that the U.S. pay to renew the VFA. That did not generate much interest as the Philippines turned to the United States to obtain a dozen modern jet fighters. The U.S. approved the sale of a dozen F-16s as well as air-to-air missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Sweden is also competing for that sale, offering its JAS 39C Gripen. The F-16 has an edge because it has been used by other West Pacific nations for decades and has a more extensive and successful combat record than Gripen.

Finally, there was the covid19 vaccine situation. At first China offered its own covid19 vaccines at a low price and sooner than Western vaccines. This backfired when it was discovered that China was charging the Philippines three or more times per dose as other customers in east Asia and Africa. Moreover, the Chinese vaccine turned out to be much less effective than Western vaccines also available to the Philippines. Worse, all these negotiations and delays in Chinese deliveries meant that the Philippines will be the last nation in the region to receive enough vaccine to suppress the covid19 threat. Currently several million Western covid19 vaccines are being delivered, most of them (from the U.S.) free-of-charge.

President Duterte has maintained unusually high approval ratings in this, his last year in office. Even with the covid19 crisis and growing foreign criticism of his anti-drug policies, Filipino voters see Dutertes leadership as more effective than any other Filipino president. Duterte pays attention to what Filipinos need and changes his decisions to deal with new circumstances. His anti-drug campaign pledge was what got him elected. After five-years, drug use is down over 50 percent and so are crime rates. With all this, there is no longer much Filipino support for ending the VFA. Duterte cannot run for reelection.

June 28, 2021: In the north (outside the capital) security forces, acting on a tip, found and clashed with several armed members of the NPA (the illegal armed wing of the local Communist Party) and killed one of them, who was later identified as the vice commander of NPA forces in Bataan Province. The NPA, along with the smaller ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) groups in the south, have been in decline for over a decade but have been active for about half a century. The end of the Cold War in 1991 and the collapse of most communist governments in Europe left the NPA without much external, or internal support and now the NPA is regarded as bandits who used to be leftist rebels.

In neighboring Indonesia, the U.S. and Indonesia are building a new naval training center in the Riau Islands on the southern edge of the South China Sea. The Riau Islands consist of nearly 1,800 islands, many of them tiny and uninhabited, between Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo and near the Malacca Strait. The Riau Islands are actually a province of Indonesia, but contain only 8,200 square kilometers (3,267 square miles) of land and about two million people. The training center will cost $3.5 million and is one of several joint projects the Americans are doing with Indonesia, which has been particularly aggressive in keeping Chinese intruders (coast guard, naval militia or poachers) away from Indonesian waters. Indonesian ships have opened fire and sunk some trespassing Chinese ships.

June 23, 2021: In the south (Sulu province) troops with a warrant for the arrest of a local Abu Sayyaf member, were met with gunfire as they approached the house where he was staying. The Abu Sayyaf gunman was killed. The dead man was one of the few Abu Sayyaf members skilled at building explosive vests. He had components for such a vest with him. Abu Sayyaf now considers itself the local ISIL affiliate and one reason for that was ISIL can provide cash and technical experts, not to mention worldwide publicity and a fearsome reputation. The Filipino counterterror operations have been increasingly successful in going after those specialists and support experts that keep Abu Sayyaf deadly and functional.

June 20, 2021: In the south (Maguindanao province) a two day running battle with ten armed BIFF (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) ended with two of the Islamic terrorists dead and several others wounded but able to get away with the others. There are only about a hundred BIFF members left and most are veterans, which explains how they eventually evaded the two-day pursuit by the soldiers. Because of their small numbers, BIFF has not been able to carry out any attacks lately. The pursuit did reveal the existence of an abandoned BIFF base-camp that was built to accommodate up to a hundred members.

June 18, 2021: Commercial satellite and electronic surveillance of the South China Sea revealed that there were a hundred more ships, than the previous month, in Filipino EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) portions of the South China Sea, which Filipinos call the West Philippines Sea. Most of these additional ships were Chinese military or naval militia sent into the EEZs of other South China Sea nations EEZ to claim islands or reefs for China. The number of ships has grown from 129 to 238 in the last month. China can put over 600 ships, mostly naval militia (subsidized Chinese fishing trawlers called into active military service).

June 13, 2021: In the south (Sulu province) security forces tracked four armed Abu Sayyaf men to their hiding place and were met with gunfire as they approached. All four of the Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed.

June 8, 2021: In the central Philippines (Masbate province) security forces tracked and confronted three NPA rebels. A gun battle ensued and all three NPA gunmen were killed.
Miami, FL, June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Amazonas Florestal Ltd. (OTC: AZFL) management announced today that after extensive negotiations, financial analysis and approval from its attorneysChairman Ricardo Cortez, effective June 21st, 2021, has executed memorandums of understanding with two companies that will be wholly acquired by Amazonas Florestal. The agreements involving capital and stocks are currently being drafted by AZFLs attorneys.



Innova Consulting Group (www.innovacg.com.co) and Gamma Engineers & Consultants are both private companies headquartered in Colombia. Innova operates in the Information Technology and Solutions sector, focused on creating programs and software for the cannabis industry. Gamma is an Engineering and Design firm that focuses on cannabis cultivation and processing facilities, mainly operating in hemp grow room design.

Amazonas Florestals CEO Ricardo Cortez stated: Weve been evaluating the acquisition of these companies for some time nowI could not be happier with our management teams due diligence and Amazonas presence in the country of Colombia. Innovas involvement in cannabis research and development, coupled with their accounting, testing and inventory software solutions will greatly advance Amazonas vision to becoming a big player in the cannabis space. On the other hand, we have always envisioned this company becoming fully vertical, and Gamma brings us much closer to our goal with their expertise in commercial grow room design. We are confident they can help us maximize our potential in hemp cultivation and processing as Amazonas shifts its focus to hemp-derived concentrates and isolates, starting with the opening of our first extraction facility in Miami, FL in the coming months.

About Amazonas Florestal Ltd.

Amazonas Florestal Ltd is a natural resources company dedicated to the research and development of innovative projects to process Industrial Hemp in legal cannabinoid concentrations into high CBD, T-Free and Delta-8 products. The Company also promotes the sustainable management of large tracts of land in the rainforests of state of Amazonas, in Brazil, and projects the certification and sale of carbon credits registered from the preservation of rain forest properties. In 2017, the Company shifted gears to focus on the growing, harvesting, research and development of Industrial Hemp and related products in the U.S.A. for both domestic and international markets. In 2021, the Company is building an important Hemp Derived Extraction facility in South Florida dedicated to the production of premium bulk T-Free cannabinoid extractions derived from Hemp and products that use these extractions as an active ingredient for Human and Animal Health and Wellness.

Headquartered in Miami, FL, Amazonas Florestals goal is to become a leader in field of Cannabinoid Extractions serving labs that use these chemicals as a raw material for human and animal consumption in health and beauty products.

Disclaimer: Forward Looking Statements

Forward-looking statements in this release regarding Amazonas Florestal Ltd. are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact:

Amazonas Florestal Ltd.

Email: info@azflamerica.com

Website: http://azflamerica.com
CHICAGO, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cosmos Holdings, Inc. (the Company") (OTCQX: COSM), an international pharmaceutical company with a proprietary line of branded and generic pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, OTC medications and an extensive, established European Union distribution network, today announced that it has appointed finance veteran Alexi Papaconstantinou to the Company's Advisory Board.

Mr. Papaconstantinou is a capital markets veteran and brings over 20 years of experience in investment banking, equity financing, portfolio management and mergers and acquisitions with a particular focus on high-growth public and private companies. Mr. Papaconstantinou is currently the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Lacerta Partners, a family office backed multi-strategy fund. Prior to Co-founding Lacerta Partners, Mr. Papaconstantinou served as Portfolio Manager/Senior Investment Analyst at a number of well-known hedge funds, including Point72 and Moore Capital Management in London. Earlier in his career, Mr. Papaconstantinou held various positions within the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley in London, where he worked on numerous M&A and capital markets transactions across a broad spectrum of industries including transport, financial institutions, retail, and pharma. Mr. Papaconstantinou received a B.A. in Economics and graduated Magna cum laude from Yale University.

Greg Siokas, Chief Executive Officer of Cosmos Holdings, stated, We are pleased to welcome Alexi to our advisory board. Alexi brings with him an impressive track record in corporate finance and capital markets as well as mergers and acquisitions, which should be invaluable as we continue to aggressively expand our global footprint, both organically and through acquisitions. Additionally, we believe having an experienced finance veteran of Alexis caliber will assist us in achieving a listing on a senior national exchange and help us to maintain the highest levels of corporate governance.

Mr. Papaconstantinou commented, "I am delighted to be joining such a progressive, growth-oriented company as Cosmos. I look forward to working with management to enhance shareholder value as Cosmos continues to expand its robust distribution network and launch new and innovative pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products in different markets worldwide.

About Cosmos Holdings, Inc.

Cosmos Holdings Inc. is an international pharmaceutical company, with a proprietary line of branded and generic pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, OTC medications and medical devices and an extensive, established EU distribution network. The Company identifies, acquires, develops and commercializes products that improve patients' lives and outcomes and has developed a global distribution platform with clients in 16 European countries and currently expanding throughout Asia and North America. Cosmos Holdings has offices and distribution centers in Thessaloniki, Greece, Athens, Greece and Harlow, UK. More information is available at www.cosmosholdingsinc.com and www.skypremiumlife.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

With the exception of the historical information contained in this news release, the matters described herein, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that otherwise, include the words believes, expects, anticipates, intends, projects, estimates, plans and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as will, should, would, may and could, are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts, although not all forward-looking statements include the foregoing. These statements, involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may individually or materially impact the matters discussed, herein for a variety of reasons that are outside the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the Companys ability to raise sufficient financing to implement its business plan, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Companys business, operations and the economy in general, and the Companys ability to successfully develop and commercialize its proprietary products and technologies. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward- looking statements, as actual results could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements contained herein. Readers are urged to read the risk factors set forth in the Companys filings with the SEC, which are available at the SECs website (www.sec.gov). The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update, or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Relations Contact:Crescendo Communications, LLCTel: 212-671-1020Email: COSM@crescendo-ir.com

Source: Cosmos Holdings
BOCA RATON, Fla., June 30, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xeriant, Inc. (OTC PINK: XERI) (the Company or Xeriant), a new aerospace technology and advanced materials holding company, announced today the appointment of Dave Zajac to the Companys Advisory Board, effective immediately. Zajac will play an important role in the testing, certification and commercialization of newly sourced advanced materials and chemicals.

Xeriant signed a binding agreement in January with its affiliate, Xeriant Europe, to represent and exclusively distribute advanced materials and technologies to companies in the U.S. and select international territories. Due diligence is underway, and a definitive agreement between the entities will be finalized upon completion, which is expected in July. Xeriant is in active discussions with companies to execute long-term contracts to purchase Movychems Retacell fire protectant and XERI-MC lubricants, as soon as the products are certified in accordance with U.S. standards. The global market for fire protection products is expected to reach $4.5T by 2030, with lubricant products growing to $219B over the same period.

The addition of Dave Zajac to our Advisory Board demonstrates Xeriants commitment to accelerating the development and commercialization of breakthrough advanced materials and chemicals. Daves broad range of executive, financial, and technical experience, along with his extensive industry relationships, are invaluable as we move forward, stated Keith Duffy, CEO of Xeriant.

Zajac has over 40 years of experience as a seasoned building materials executive and held leadership positions with a number of international corporations in the architectural and industrial coatings industries. His background includes advisory work for private equity firms, which lead to several mergers and acquisitions in the building products space, and acted as CEO to run and integrate the newly combined businesses. At PPG Industries, a global Fortune 500 company, he was General Manager of its Architectural Coatings Division which included Pittsburgh Paints, Lucite Paints and Olympic Stains. Dave is currently President and CEO of AMF Building Products, a manufacturer of aluminum building products used in the construction of multifamily, commercial, and residential properties. Zajac founded AMF in 2010, after purchasing WeatherGuard Building Products from a private equity firm.

Dave Zajac commented These technologies could be groundbreaking in the building materials industry alone, and I look forward to working with Xeriant to successfully shepherd these opportunities from certification through sales.

About Xeriant

Xeriant, Inc. (d.b.a. Xeriant Aerospace) is a holding and operating company focused on acquiring, developing, and commercializing revolutionary, eco-friendly technologies with applications in aerospace, including innovative aircraft concepts targeting emerging opportunities within the aviation industry. In 2019, Xeriant acquired a unique, scalable, multi-purpose VTOL aerial platform called Halo, which is protected under a broad utility patent. Xeriant is located at the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida adjacent to the Boca Raton Airport. The Company is an OTC Markets public company trading under the stock symbol, XERI.

For more information, please go to www.xeriant.com

About Xeriant Europe

Xeriant Europe s.r.o., headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, was founded with the purpose of uncovering leading-edge green technologies with applications in aerospace, primarily from the Czech Republic, and promoting them on the world market, especially in the U.S. The companys focus is on unique products that are either already being sold or are close to commercialization.

SAFE HARBOR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

In connection with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Xeriant, Inc. is hereby providing cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements (as defined in such act). Any statements that are not historical facts and that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, indicated through the use of words or phrases such as will likely result, are expected to, will continue, is anticipated, estimated, intends, plans, believes and projects) may be forward-looking and may involve estimates and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to, our expectations concerning our ability to attract investors.

We caution that the factors described herein could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements we make and that investors should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of such factors. Further, we cannot assess the impact of each such factor on our results of operations or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

XERIANT, INC. CORPORATE

Investor Relations:(818) 923-5302IR@xeriant.comwww.xeriant.com

Source: Xeriant, Inc.
DENVER and EAST LANSING, Mich., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Everside Health (formerly Paladina Health, Activate Healthcare and Healthstat), one of the largest providers of direct primary care in the country, and MSU Health Care today announced a partnership that will provide employers throughout Michigan with a better, more innovative health care solution. The unique collaboration is in response to growing employer concerns regarding ongoing increases in health care costs and barriers to quality health care for their employees.

"Until now, employers in Michigan had few choices when it came to health care delivery options," said Chris Miller, CEO for Everside. "They had to rely on solutions created by large insurance companies or health systems. But our new partnership with MSU Health Care is designed to change the status quo in employers' favor by bringing together our proven direct primary care model and advanced technology with MSU's strong innovation and research capabilities. The result is expected to be measurable cost savings with improved access to quality care."

Everside has a long history of successfully collaborating with various health care organizations to deliver accessible, high-quality care while lowering costs for employers and patients. This collaboration with MSU Health Care, however, marks the first time the organization has partnered with a medical school.

Everside's direct primary care model is positioned as an alternative to America's current fee-for-service health care delivery model. Under the Everside model, employers or other plan sponsors pay a fixed cost per employee for nearly 24/7 unlimited access to primary care providers. It is not a replacement for an employer-sponsored insurance plan, but rather a complementary service focusing on keeping employees well. Patients receive convenient, low- or no-cost access to physicians and 24/7 virtual care, reducing the need for costly ER use. On average, employers on the Everside program save 20% on claims costs by year four, largely as a result of Everside's ability to treat health issues early on before they become catastrophic or require a more expensive urgent care or emergency department visit. The model also is poised to benefit individuals through the Everside model of care.

"The collaboration with Everside is another example of working with like-minded organizations to fulfill our mission to improve the health of all communities in Michigan," said Seth Ciabotti, CEO for MSU Health Care. "The pandemic highlighted the need for every individual to have a medical home supported by a robust relationship with a primary care team for maintaining health. Telehealth visits proved to be a viable delivery mechanism for increasing access to health care in rural and underserved areas in Michigan."

"We are receiving very positive feedback on this new offering from a wide array of parties, including manufacturers, unions and municipalities," said Roger Jansen, PhD, Chief Innovation and Digital Health Officer for MSU Health Care. "Employers and other potential plan sponsors are eager for a new health care option that saves them money and improves the quality of and access to care for their employees and members."

According to Jansen, Everside emerged as the natural choice for the collaboration because the company has a dedicated division under its legacy Activate brand name that exclusively serves unions. Given Michigan's strong history with unions, it was important for MSU to have a partner that fully understands the unique health care needs of union members.

"MSU Health Care represents an ideal partner for us because of the organization's track record for innovation," said Kirk Rosin, chief revenue officer for Everside who led the negotiations with MSU that started in late 2020. "Working with an academic medical center provides us with the opportunity to educate residents about our new and improved model for treating patients. The future of health care is all about using data in a meaningful way, and our model is based on using population health data to effectively manage the most expensive chronic diseases and prevent more serious, costly health problems."

Based on initial feedback to the new offering, Rosin confirmed that the two organizations are exploring real estate options in the Lansing and Grand Rapids areas for their inaugural employer-based health center.

Interested employers and sponsors of this innovative program available through MSU Health Care and Everside can call 844-205-6403.

About Everside Health

Everside Health, formerly Paladina Health, Activate Healthcare and Healthstat, is one of the largest direct primary care providers in the U.S., operating approximately 340+ health clinics in 33 states located at or near the facilities of its employer, union and other benefit sponsor clients. Everside's patient-focused, care-obsessed, technology-driven health care delivery model aligns incentives to benefit the patient, the physician and the benefit provider, all while reducing the total cost of care. Patients receive convenient, low- or no-cost access to physicians and 24/7 virtual care, reducing the need for costly ER use. Everside Health is based in Denver. For more information, visit www.eversidehealth.com.

About MSU Health Care

MSU Health Care is the fully-integrated academic health center of Michigan State University, representing more than 600 faculty and affiliate providers. Our commitment to safe, high-quality patient care is realized through our comprehensive services for people of any age, education of the next generation of health care providers and medical research. MSU Health Care provides nearly 400,000 inpatient and outpatient visits annually. MSU Health Care providers can be found in more than 100 locations, in nearly every county of the State of Michigan delivering primary and specialty care. The activities of our clinical services support the academic and research initiatives of Michigan State University. Our providers treat patients at Henry Ford, McLaren Greater Lansing, Sparrow and Spectrum hospitals as well as more than a dozen additional large health care systems throughout the state. As a separate, 501(c)3 corporation of Michigan State University we are positioned to create partnerships with like-minded organizations to transform health care. For more information, visit healthcare.msu.edu.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/msu-health-care-announces-affiliation-with-everside-health-to-transform-employer-based-primary-care-services-in-michigan-301324690.html

SOURCE Everside Health
TICKERS: EMX

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (6/30/21)

David Cole, the CEO of EMX Royalty, talks to Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable about recent developments at several properties where the firm owns royalties.



Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is David Cole, the CEO of EMX Royalty Corp. (EMX:TSX.V; EMX:NYSE.American), the Royalty Generator.

It's always a pleasure to speak with you, sir, to get the latest exciting developments from EMX Royalty. Before we begin, Mr. Cole, please introduce us to EMX Royalty and the opportunity the company presents to shareholders.

David Cole: EMX Royalty, we're the most prolific royalty generator on the planet. We acquire prospective mineral rights around the world, utilizing our alpha which is economic geologic talent. We add value by building geologic models illustrating prospectiveness, and sell those assets to an industry hungry for discovery opportunity for a combination of cash, shares, annual payments, work commitments, and, always, a royalty on the back end.

We've been doing this business model successfully now for nearly 18 years, accumulating a large portfolio of mineral real estate assets around the world. To augment the portfolio, we grow organically through that bread and butter process. We also buy royalties, which is a difficult business, which speaks to the value of royalties. They're phenomenal financial instruments, but we do occasionally find royalties to buy, to add to our portfolio.

And the third thing that we've done very successfully is make strategic investments; those are share placements into public and/or private companies where we commonly follow that investment with intellectual talent as well that adds value and then liquidate it over time. And our strategic investing track record throughout the history of the company is fantastic, and that's why we're in a very strong cash position today.

So we're sitting here today with nearly 300 mineral property assets worldwide, close to US$40 million in cash, close to $20 million or perhaps a tad more in tradable securities and long-term investments within the portfolio, giving us nearly as much cash and investments and tradable securities as we have raised in the entire history of the company, in addition to our mineral property assets that span the globe, and, of course, we have no debt.

Maurice Jackson: For all of the virtues that you've just conveyed here today, I'm on record. I've said it in previous interviews, I plan to match my bullion purchases with the shares in EMX Royalty.

David Cole: We appreciate that.

Maurice Jackson: I believe that the stock has the potential to melt up, and that's not just my opinion. I have a Rolodex of names, some of those are the most respected names in the industry, and we are all aligned with the value proposition of EMX Royalty in that regard.

Sir, EMX Royalty has some important updates for shareholders. Let's begin in Serbia. Mr. Cole, take us along the Bor mining district and the Timok property, which is owned by Zijin Mining, which is quickly becoming one of the world's biggest ongoing copper-gold discoveries in the past decade. Last week, Zijin provided some exciting news on the upper zone. What are the latest developments that you can share with us?

David Cole: So, this is an excellent example of how our business model has worked over the long term for EMX. It was one of our first business units in the company when we were a private company operating in Serbia, originally called Southern European Exploration. We were focused on this business model and acquiring assets in Serbia. We ended up adding value to those and selling them off part and parcel to our business model for cash shares and royalties and that company, which we sold to Reservoir Minerals, made a huge discovery with our joint venture partner Freeport, and as luck would have it, it was just off the boundary of our royalty.

But we had our ear to the railroad track. We knew what was going on there. And so we were able to quickly go out and buy the royalty that did exist that was held by another company over that discovery for a price of $200,000 Canadian early on in the discovery history before it was fully understood what the minimal potential was there.

Keep in mind that the Bor District is Europe's largest historical copper and gold producing region and has some incredible geology. It's a magmatic complex with copper and gold deposits spread along the strike length of that complex.

Reservoir Minerals ended up making a very large discovery there. That discovery was ultimately sold to Zijing Mining, which is advancing the Timok Project very quickly, part and parcel to a half a billion-dollar investment into the ground there and a letter of understanding with the Serbian government. And my understanding is that mine will be commissioned within the coming days.

We've been told they're throwing a party there for the commissioning. We're very excited about that. We do hold  of 1% royalty over that deposit. The combined reserve and resource there is approaching 2 billion tonnes at close to 1% copper equivalent. That's contained within a higher grade upper zone and then a bigger porphyry zone at depth. And the high-grade upper zone is what's going into production first, which will facilitate the development of underground infrastructure for the development of the lower zone, ultimately.

Maurice Jackson: You've stated in the past that royalties are powerful financial instruments allowing for embedded optionality. Put that into some kind of context for us on how powerful EMX's 0.5% NSR will be on the Timok Property?

David Cole: Well, it's a good example of the optionality of royalties and one of the reasons why royalties trade at what sometimes seem like absurd premiums. And this concept of optionality is worth touching upon. A great example is the royalty that Franco-Nevada bought on the Goldstrike Mine for a little over a million dollars decades ago. And that royalty has now paid close to a billion dollars, but when they first bought it, on a very modest deposit hosted in poor host rocks hosted on the Carlin Trend. And as luck would have it, they ended up finding a huge deposit at depths. New metallurgical techniques were invented to be able to extract the gold from the more metallurgically complex ores. Greater infrastructure continued to be built on the Carlin Trend, making things more and more economic with time.

So we're sitting here today with nearly 300 mineral property assets worldwide, close to 40 million US dollars in cash, close to 20 million or perhaps a tad more in tradable securities and long-term investments within the portfolio, giving us nearly as much cash and investments and tradable securities as we have raised in the entire history of the company, in addition to our mineral property assets that span the globe, and, of course, we have no debt.

And all of these aspects of optionality, metallurgical advancements, engineering advancements, discovery, most importantly, and of course, commodity price optionality because the price of gold has moved substantially since they bought that royalty, is multiplicative. And so it creates a situation where a royalty that they paid a little over $1 million has paid close to $1 billion now over the life of the royalty, and it's still paying.

And so, of course, not every royalty is going to turn out that nicely, but it does speak to this concept of optionality. And we believe that our royalty on Timok has that kind of potential. Certainly, since we've purchased that royalty, it's turned into a discovery that is measured in billions of copper tonnes. And the price of copper and gold have done very well.

So these aspects of optionality can play in and be very powerful. And that's why you want to own royalties, and that's why I often say that royalties are phenomenal financial instruments.

Maurice Jackson: Speaking of royalties, let's go to Turkey to the Balya lead-zinc-silver mine where EMX Royalty retains a 4% NSR. Are there any updates you can provide shareholders?

David Cole: That's rapidly advancing towards full-scale commercial production. It's already been in small-scale commercial production. We have received production royalty payments in a fairly modest amount as they've done test mining to work on the metallurgy, etc. Metallurgy works out excellently.

There is a commingling agreement which we've signed because the district is divided in half where we have a 4% royalty to the north and the 5,000 ton per day mill is one kilometer from the headframe. They're advancing a spiral decline into the deposit as well. My understanding is that they're at greater than 200 meters depth in that spiral decline, and they're getting close to reaching the first big ore pod to be able to mine with rubber-tired vehicles. Previously, they were mining with a railroad track, and now they're going to mine in a more advanced way, which will facilitate greater tonnage using rubber-tired vehicles, LHD load haul dumps from underground, and running through the 5,000 tonne per day mill.

We're very excited about the ramp-up of production here. Another great example of optionality on a royalty property. Keep in mind, we bought this project originally for US$17,000 from the Turkish government, put together the geology illustrating the potential, and sold it for $100,000 and a 4% royalty. And that 4% royalty will pay us back in spades.

Readers need to understand that it takes a long time for these things to mature. We created that royalty organically more than a decade ago, but it takes a long time for these things to bubble up, work their way up the pyramid, and become cash flowing. But the opportunity for this to happen multiple times within our pyramid is very high.

Maurice Jackson: Speaks volumes for the business acumen and the geologic acumen that the EMX team has here. Let's move north to Finland where EMX holds a 2% NSR on Palladium One's copper-nickel-gold-platinum group project, where they continue to drill more and more well-mineralized intercepts. How do you think this will play out for EMX shareholders?

David Cole: Well, I think it's going to be another really good one. We love those commodities. We think that copper and nickel and platinum group elements and gold are a great place to be. Those are some of our favorite commodities, if not our absolute favorite commodities.

Once again, we bought this royalty early on in the discovery cycle. We bought it for CA$250,000. It's 2% royalty where 1% can get bought back at any time prior to production for 1 million euros, leaving us with 1% uncapped on buyable forever on the property. And it's turning into a large discovery there in Finland. We believe that it's very likely that that will eventually go into production, and it continues to get bigger within that ultramafic complex. It's a particular type of geological environment that hosts that style of mineralization.

And we're very pleased. And it's a good example of us buying royalty to augment a portfolio that we were growing organically. We have other royalties in the district that we've grown organically through the acquisition of exploration licenses and then selling on to other companies and keeping the royalty, so we have a big royalty footprint within that district.

But we're most excited about the one at Kaukua by Palladium One, and I will give Palladium One a plug. I think they're a very well run, technically astute company.

Maurice Jackson: We discussed the good. Let's address the not-so-good. EMX acquired a 19.9% interest in the Rawhide Mine in western Nevada. So far, the mine has not performed up to expectations. What is the plan going forward?

David Cole: Well, this is a great example. And I'm excited about this investment, but I know that that we initially expected a strong cash flow from it right out of the gate. That cash flow has not materialized, as there have been problems with the crusher circuit, etc.

But EMX is doing here what we oftentimes do and that follows our investment with intellectual talent. So we have brought in a top-notch engineering team of ex-Newmont people that are dialing things in here. The mine is back operating very nicely. This last week, I believe, we were averaging 85 ounces a day, pouring gold ounces per day, dore on-site, so the mine's operating quite nicely now.

We do have a large debt on that project. It's about a $15 million debt, and that debt is being amortized, is being paid down. So we do expect to see more cash flow once that debt is paid off.

But more importantly, concerning value creation, is now that we've spent more time on this property and put our geologists out there looking at the potential beyond the known deposits, we've gotten very excited about the exploration potential within this large property that's been tightly held for decades and, thus, not seeing much exploration outside the immediate mine area.

We've been so excited about this that we've increased our percentage ownership, and we're moving towards 40% ownership in that now. And I know it didn't produce the cash flow that we expected right out of the gate, but long term, I'm confident this is going to be a good winner for EMX.

Maurice Jackson: Well, certainly, if you're going to double your position in it from 19.9 to 40%.

David Cole: We feel risk adjusted. We're making a good bet.

Maurice Jackson: Last question. What would you like to say to shareholders?

David Cole: Well, I'm a big believer in this business model. I believe that it creates wealth, sometimes slowly, but it accretes wealth over time. And the key to our stock, a lot of junior natural resource stocks, you want to buy pre-discovery and sell on discovery and catch those waves. With EMX, it's a different model. With EMX, you want to buy the dips and hold the stock long-term. That is conducive to how our business will and has added value over time.

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Cole, for someone listening that wants to get more information about EMX Royalty, please share the website address.

David Cole: www.EMXRoyalty.com.

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Cole, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Wishing you and EMX Royalty the absolute best, sir.

David Cole: Same to you, Maurice. Thank you.

Maurice Jackson: Thank you, sir. And as a reminder, I am a licensed representative to buy and sell precious metals through Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, where we have several options to expand your precious metals portfolio, from physical delivery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium, to offshore depositories, and precious metals IRAs. Give me a call at 855.505.1900 or you may email: [email protected]. Finally, please subscribe to www.provenandprobable.com, where we provide Mining Insights and Bullion Sales; subscription is free.

Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

[NLINSERT]

Disclosure:

1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own securities of the following companies mentioned in this article: Labrador Gold. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Labrador Gold is a sponsor of Proven and Probable. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.

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Rear Adm. Milton J. Sands took command of Special Operations Command Africa, July 1, 2021, at a ceremony at the units Stuttgart headquarters, replacing Air Force Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson. (U.S. Navy)

STUTTGART, Germany  Rear Adm. Milton J. Sands, an officer with previous stints on multiple Navy SEAL teams, took over Thursday as head of the militarys special operations mission in Africa.

Sands replaced Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, who led Special Operations Command Africa for the past two years, during a change of command ceremony at the units Stuttgart headquarters.

A key moment during Andersons tenure was overseeing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia in January. The effort to relocate about 700 troops and equipment out of Somalia involved sending thousands of additional troops to the region, along with ships and fighter planes, to ensure the safety of personnel during the mission.

The sudden departure of U.S. forces was ordered by former President Donald Trump during his last weeks in office.

Sands will oversee a special operations mission in Somalia that, for now, mostly relies on rotating troops in and out of the country to support local forces in their battle against the al-Qaida aligned militant group al-Shabab. Sands also will contend with terrorist threats in other parts of Africa, such as the greater Sahara region, where Islamic State-linked groups have emerged as a force.

Sands previously served as commander of the Naval Service Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill.

Other assignments included two tours with SEAL Team 2 and command of SEAL Team 8. He is a 1992 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

vandiver.john@stripes.com

Twitter: @john_vandiver
Incoming plebes read their Reef Points as they wait to move out.. The Naval Academy welcomed incoming freshman, or what they call plebes, during Induction Day, Wednesday, June 30, 2021, to begin their plebe summer. (Paul W. Gillespie, The Capital Gazette/TNS)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Tribune News Service)  Emma Single will miss music the most during the six-week Plebe Summer.

That, and Netflix.

Thats just part of not having a phone. Already, the incoming plebe will have turned in her phone, her wallet, her watch, practically any personal belonging with few exceptions.

She prepared for the six weeks. She went surfing, hung out with her family. Tuesday night, she watched Pixars Luca. On the way to the academy, Single listened to music. When it comes to her phone, she had not yet parted with it despite knowing she would give it up for several weeks.

Im going cold turkey, she said.

For Single, arriving on campus for Induction Day is the beginning of a journey sought after since her freshman year in high school when she attended an academy lacrosse game.

The Naval Academy welcomed 1,186 new midshipmen to the Yard Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the two-day Induction Day.

There are still some challenges to overcome, as the pandemic is not completely over, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge. Still, this year there are no restrictions and plebe summer is moving forward.

The plebes this year will not have to spend two weeks in a restriction of movement period, confined to their rooms. They will be able to participate in close contact activities.

And this year, were trying to turn up the discipline a little bit, McCarthy said. Were trying to turn up the intensity a little bit.

But the Class of 2025 looks ready, he said. They are dedicated and motivated.

I mean, theyre excited, McCarthy said. I can see it, and I can feel it. Everybody can.

On the Yard, the only sign of the deadly pandemic, which altered much of the academys last year and resulted in a shortened plebe summer, were white masks which each of the midshipmen wore as they made their way through Alumni Hall.

Even those came off after the plebes read their Reef Points, as long as they were vaccinated.

Single, 19, is from Millersville and an Old Mill High School graduate. But she comes to the academy with a year of collegiate experience already underneath her white belt.

Prior to coming to the academy, she attended Louisiana State University for a year. As someone who ultimately wanted to attend the academy, she participated in the civilian preparatory program, which allows people to go through similar training as those who attend the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island.

Now, Single is at the academy and Wednesday evening shell take the oath swearing her into the military.

Part of it doesnt feel real, to be honest, she said, standing on the sidewalk outside of Alumni Hall, where Induction Day procedures took place. I am absolutely over the moon though.

To start her induction process, Single first had to check-in and then follow the winding path through Alumni Hall that would lead her to each station.

She would receive her name badge.

She would start giving her paperwork.

She would learn the proper way to address every officer or older midshipman.

She would get yelled at.

Her uncle, a class of 1995 graduate, told her not to take the shouts personally.

But the detailers, the people in charge of I-Day, certainly tried. A set of four spent hours in the faces of plebes, telling them to hurry as they had to grab their bags and head to the next station.

If it was a question, the proper response is sir, yes, sir. Or maam, yes, maam. But if it is acknowledgment, it should be sir, aye, sir. That tripped up many of the soon-to-be midshipmen.

Emily Messinese, of Manchester, Maryland, was ahead of Single by about an hour and a half. And she received a fair amount of shouts as she made her way through Alumni Hall.

After receiving her uniform, she needed to get her name badge back on. She did not do it fast enough, and a detailer made sure she knew it.

Messinese wants to serve, she said. Thats why she applied to and chose the Naval Academy.

She first visited in eighth grade, and the Gerstell Academy graduate said she became more serious about attending in high school.

She wants the opportunities that come with a career in the military, and she is looking forward to being part of the brigade.

She wanted a different college experience than most of her high school classmates, and shell get that during the summer training.

But first, Messinese needed to get through Induction Day.

With her belongings given to the academy, she proceeded through Alumni Hall. She walked through the amnesty tent, which is where she had her last chance to throw out any contraband.

Then to the chaplains for a religious needs assessment, and then to medical, where she would be screened, a process that took roughly an hour and a half.

Once that was finished, she received her uniforms. And more detailers yelled at her. Like many plebes before her, she did not address every detailer in her way.

She made sure her uniform fit. She received her shoes.

And finally, she would say her Reef Points along with other midshipmen.

Wednesday evening Single and Messinese were slated to stand with the other members of the class of 2025 and take the oath, officially making them midshipmen.

Then plebe summer began.

___

(c)2021 The Capital (Annapolis, Md.)

Visit The Capital (Annapolis, Md.) at www.hometownannapolis.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A health worker directs motorcycle taxi drivers at a COVID-19 drive-thru vaccination site set up at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines, on June 22, 2021. (Veejay Villafranca/Bloomberg)

Though Gerry Casida is on the priority list for a free COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines because of his asthma, he's isn't planning to get the shot any time soon. A video he found on social media of a woman claiming vaccines are being used for genocide helps explain why.

"I've read a lot of posts on Facebook about how many died in other countries because of vaccines, and how that's being concealed," said the construction worker, 43, from Manila. "My mom also consulted a folk healer, who said the vaccines could affect my heart."

Millions of people like Casida in some of the worst COVID hotspots in Southeast Asia are delaying inoculation or just saying no, swayed by disinformation on social media from both local sources as well anti-vaccination movements in the U.S. Those false claims are fueling vaccine hesitancy in some pockets of the region, undermining efforts to inoculate some of the most vulnerable people in Asia and end a pandemic that has stalled the global economy.

Despite some of the highest rates of new cases in the world, recent surveys show vaccine resistance is prevalent in the region. In the Philippines, 68% of people are either uncertain or unwilling to take a COVID shot, according to polling company Social Weather Stations. A third of Thais have doubts or refuse to be vaccinated, according to the Suan Dusit Poll, while a separate survey in Indonesia showed nearly a fifth of the population were hesitant.

Anti-vaccination propaganda is a big reason for that reluctance, which has further slowed takeup in countries already struggling with limited supplies. Less than 10% of the population in Thailand and the Philippines have received even one shot.

"It is a polluted media landscape," Melissa Fleming, the United Nations' under-secretary-general for global communications, said at a virtual forum in May. "This infodemic has shifted now, and the focus is misinformation on vaccines. It's about instilling fear in people."

A heavily Catholic country, the Philippines has been particularly vulnerable to falsehoods peddled online by U.S. evangelical Christian groups, which then filter across through church and family networks. Among many Facebook discussion groups focused on anti-vaccination theories trawled by Bloomberg News, one video in the local Filipino language claimed COVID shots will brand people with the "mark of the beast," alluding to the Antichrist in Christian eschatology. It got more than a thousand views.

Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia's minister of science, technology and innovation, visits a COVID-19 vaccine program for sailors and port workers at the LPK Social and Recreation Club Multi-Purpose Hall Vaccinations Centre in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, on June 25, 2021. (Samsul Said/Bloomberg)

An English language video with hundreds of views said the vaccine makes recipients magnetic. In Malaysia, misinformation ranging from exaggerated risks to life and body organs to genetic alteration are spreading on the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp. Many of them twist and amplify arguments made by U.S. politicians and also Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer Inc. scientist and a COVID-vaccine skeptic who's become an icon for anti-vaxxers.

Other popular conspiracy theories being peddled on social platforms across the region include a claim that microchips in COVID-19 vaccines are being used to collect biometric data.

The resistance is challenging governments keen to get as much as 80% of their populations protected against the deadly pathogen. Almost all countries in Southeast Asia are struggling with a perfect storm: outbreaks driven by more transmissible variants; lagging inoculation because of shortages after rich nations dominated stock; and global isolation. In Bloomberg's COVID Resilience Ranking, which tracks how well the world's biggest 53 economies are handling the crisis, these countries are now in the bottom 10.

"Without some semblance of herd resiliency to the coronavirus, large countries and small will have difficulty in accommodating the free flow of international travelers, which is important not only for the travel and hospitality industries, but for business and international investment," said Steve Cochrane, chief APAC economist at Moody's Analytics.

In February, Malaysia's Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had to reassure the public about the safety of vaccines, saying they don't contain microchips. He also rubbished claims that they are part of an Illuminati agenda to establish a new world order, according to a report by the Straits Times.

Even in Singapore, which has largely contained the spread of the virus, the young and educated succumb to fake news, said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease physician at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital.

"Some of the stories get amplified more, but the reasons are pretty much the same," he said.

In late May, an open letter by a dozen Singapore doctors questioning the safety of mRNA vaccines, including a claim that the shots would change one's DNA, was circulated on WhatsApp. That elicited a swift rebuke from the city-state's health ministry, which issued a press release saying all but one of the medical professionals "have since retracted their statement."

Despite efforts by governments and companies to curb unsubstantiated information, the false claims in English often continue to spread in non-English speaking communities. Encrypted platforms, where there's less moderation, also play a key role, said Ishaana Aiyanna, a researcher at Logically, a technology company that tracks misinformation and targeted disinformation campaigns.

"Western narratives that have previously been debunked are often circulated alongside hyper-localized narratives," she said. "This is compounded by a lack of media literacy on the part of a vast majority who rely solely on these groups and online communities for information."

There's another major reason for hesitancy. With wealthier Western nations getting the lion's share of the super-effective mRNA shots, poorer countries are having to contend with limited supplies and fewer available brands, exacerbating the problem. When a country offers a choice of only one vaccine, many people want to wait until they can get a higher-efficacy shot.

In Thailand, some are refusing vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech and the U.K.'s AstraZeneca. In the Philippines, nearly 50% in a survey earlier this year said they trust U.S.-made shots the most, but the nation's vaccine program has relied primarily on Sinovac. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail those who refuse vaccines.

Others are taking a quirkier approach to encourage vaccinations. A district in northern Thailand started raffling off cows in mid-June as an incentive. In rural Indonesia, vaccinated residents got free chickens, while a city in the Philippines is giving away a house.

Educating vaccine recipients and even medical practitioners is the best tool for fighting hesitancy, said Leong.

"The biggest weapon the COVID-19 virus has against humans is one, vaccine hesitancy, and two, the lack of a coordinated worldwide response," he said. "And in these two, human beings have failed miserably and the virus is winning incredibly."
The Biden administration on Thursday announced the formation of "surge response" teams intended to combat the fast-moving delta variant of the coronavirus by deploying additional expertise and supplies to hot spots.

"These are dedicated teams working with communities at higher risk for, or already experiencing, outbreaks due to the spread of the delta variant and their low vaccination rate," White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters at a news briefing.

The delta variant now represents about one-quarter of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, and is now the predominant variant in Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri and Utah, say public health experts. "In some regions of the country, nearly one in two sequences is the delta variant," said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.

The highly transmissible variant, first identified in India, is the "greatest threat" to ending the U.S. outbreak, posing special risk to unvaccinated people, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said last week. Los Angeles County public health authorities this week urged vaccinated as well as unvaccinated people to wear masks again inside restaurants, stores and other public indoor spaces.

The White House-coordinated teams will include a mix of virtual support and on-the-ground personnel, helping deploy additional supplies as requested by local officials, such as testing or therapeutics. Staff will come from the CDC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the Department of Health and Human Services. The White House also may ramp up paid promotions about the benefits of vaccination in areas that officials deem high risk. All the vaccines authorized in the United States have been shown to be highly protective against the virus, preventing severe illness and death from delta.

CDC already has deployed a response team to Mesa County, Colo., which has seen a surge of cases linked to the delta variant. That team is helping support state officials' efforts to investigate the spread of the outbreak. Another team is preparing to deploy to Missouri.

White House officials on Thursday reiterated their concern about the significant variation in local vaccination rates, with Walensky warning that fewer than 30% of residents have been vaccinated in about 1,000 counties. "These communities, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest, are our most vulnerable," she said.

Walensky also cited preliminary data indicating that 99.5% of coronavirus deaths in the past six months were in unvaccinated people.

Biden administration officials said they would continue to pursue tactics to boost immunizations, including arranging pop-up vaccination sites and deploying mobile vaccination clinics. Biden had called for 70% of adults to have received one shot of vaccine by July 4, a goal that the nation will narrowly miss. About 66% of adults have received at least one shot so far.

"We'll double down on these efforts as we continue to vaccinate millions of people across the summer months," added Zients. "This whole-of-government, wartime response continues."

Ahead of the holiday weekend, public health experts said they are concerned about the delta variant's rapid spread but continue to tailor their advice to local conditions.

"In Palo Alto, California, I think there is a high degree of safety vis-a-vis covid-19 transmission in outdoor settings, and I have no qualms about joining gatherings," said Stanley Deresinski, an infectious-disease doctor at Stanford Medicine. "In Modoc County, California, where only [about 30] percent of the population has been fully vaccinated and where, despite its rural nature, cases continue to occur, I think I would be careful in the presence of others."

The Washington Post's Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
Buy Photo (Gerald Waller/Stars and Stripes)

Offenbach, West Germany, March, 1951: Although it saved many lives, the tank respirator  also known as the iron lung  was a dreaded symbol of polio to many who grew up in the early 1950s before the arrival of Dr. Salks vaccine. The iron lung on display in the photo was bought for the Offenbach hospital with funds provided by the German Youth Activities group at Rhein-Main Air Base. The device was crucial in the early stages of polio when paralysis of chest muscles made breathing difficult.
Buy Photo The Trio of Parmigiana appetizer at Johnny Take Ue includes three samples: traditional eggplant, potato and bechamel and zucchini and tomato. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

Dont go to Johnny Take Ue just for the food. Instead, visit for the experience of eating skillfully prepared traditional Neapolitan cuisine alongside young couples, families and working people in Naples lively Mergellina neighborhood.

Johnny Take Ue isnt a tourist trap. Sure, some visitors stumble upon the restaurant located along well-known Corso Vittorio Emanuele, but most diners are from the neighborhood.

Appetizers, pasta, meat and fish and, of course, pizza are on the diverse menu. Portions are big. If you have a large appetite, youll be in heaven. If not, be prepared to let some food go to waste.

The Johnny Salad features greens, radicchio and rocket along with grilled eggplant, hard-boiled egg and black olives. If you like a flavorful dressing, youll be disappointed as the salad is simply dressed with olive oil, which allows the flavors of the greens and grilled vegetables to stand out. I found the salad to be fresh and flavorful, but I needed to add salt and pepper.

The Trio of Parmigiana was a different story. It was three tasty bites  that could easily be shared by two  of classic parmigiana with eggplant, another of zucchini, tomato, provolone cheese and pepper and finally of potato, bechamel, fior di latte cheese, baked ham and grated cheese. This appetizer was the best item on the table during my visit, with the standout being the eggplant.

Pizza choices are plentiful and inventive. I settled on the Trio of Mini Pizzas  Queen Margherita, stuffed in the oven (an oblong, calzone-type pizza filled with cheese and tomato sauce) and the marinara. This dish left me wishing I had chosen just one pizza as the flavors were indistinguishable and the crust on all three seemed a bit soggy.

Buy Photo Donna Imma's Meatballs at Johnny Ue in Naples, Italy, are made with eggplant, provolone cheese and beef. They are served in a Grana Padana "basket" along with seared tomatoes. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

But Donna Immas Meatballs  eggplant, provolone cheese and beef  served on top of Grana Padana cheese and seared tomatoes were quickly devoured by my dining companion.

Sweets include the expected tiramisu and panna cotta along with an assortment of ice cream. Graffa  fried, yeasted dough dusted with sugar  also is available, and Johnny Take Ue does it one better with the addition of Nutella.

Johnny Take Ue isnt the place to get the best pizza in Naples, but if you want to try some classic local dishes while taking in the atmosphere of a traditional Neapolitan neighborhood, its the spot to be.

bath.alison@stripes com

Buy Photo Interior seating at Johnny Take Ue includes a small dining area with a big television just inside the front door. More indoor seating is available on a second floor. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo The kitchen at Johnny Take Ue features a colorful pizza oven. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo Johnny Take Ue includes outdoor and indoor seating at its Corso Vittorio Emanuele location in Naples' Mergellina neighborhood. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

Address: Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 84 80121 Naples

Phone: +39 0817618861

Hours: 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. lunch daily; 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. for dine-in, takeout and delivery

Menu: Available in English and Italian at https://www.johnnypizzaportafoglio.it/en/pizzerie-takeue/

Prices: 9-10 euro, appetizers and salads; 4 euro and up, pizza; 12 euro and up for meat and fish; 4.50 euro, desserts.
Buy Photo The Aecht Schlenkerla rauchbier at Hofbrau on June 21, 2021 in Bamberg, Germany. The city is renowned for its rauchbier, or smoked beer. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

Germanys fame as the land of beer has been safely established for hundreds of years. But one town in particular is famous for a very special brew that attracts visitors from far and wide.

Bamberg, an agricultural and tourist center in northern Bavaria, is home to the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier. Lore has it that this smoked beer dates to the Middle Ages, when the malt was accidentally smoked before being added to the brewing process.

The smoked malt results in a very distinctive taste, which is best sampled at Bambergs historic Schlenkerla brewery. Its located directly beneath the cathedral, which opens for visitors as early as 9:30 a.m. At the brewery tavern, the beer is tapped directly from wooden barrels in keeping with an old tradition.

You will likely see a decent-sized crowd gathered outside. With coronavirus restrictions easing, you can make conversation with some of the locals or tourists who hang outside the brewery as well.

Buy Photo Outside of the Schlenkerla brewery on June 21, 2021 in Bamberg, Germany. Bamberg is renowned for its rauchbier, or smoked beer, with its distinct flavor. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo The outside of Hofbrau Brewery on June 21, 2021, in Bamberg, Germany. Bamberg is known for its rauchbier, or smoked beer. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo The Regnitz River runs through Bamberg, Germany in Upper Franconia on June 21, 2021. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

But if youre a beer enthusiast, dont end your tour at Schlenkerla. Bamberg, which dates back to the 9th century, has many more breweries to discover  at a leisurely pace, of course.

Have something to eat to soak up the brew and between strolling over the bridges that overlook the Regnitz River. The old town is considered one of the best-preserved in Germany and its city hall, perched on a small island in the middle of the river, is a breathtaking sight.

When youre ready for that next round, the Hofbrau restaurant has pleasant outdoor seating, along with all the beer, wursts, schnitzels and traditional German foods you can imagine.

Bamberg was home to a U.S. Army garrison for 69 years, until its closure in 2004. The Army first arrived in April 1945, when after a short fight it occupied the town.

It takes just under two hours to arrive to the city by car from the Grafenwoehr and the Vilseck training areas. If you drive there and want the best beer experience, there are a number of affordable room options  please dont drink and drive. A train tacks on a bit more time.

I would also recommend grabbing some smoked beer in bottles, as keepsakes to bring back home.

johnson.immanuel@stripes.com; Twitter: Manny_Stripes

Buy Photo Downtown Bamberg, Germany in June 2021. Bamberg is renowned for its rauchbier, or smoked beer. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

Address: Schlenkerla Brewery, Dominikanerstrasse 6, 96049. Hofbrau, Karolinenstrasse 7, 96049. Bamberg is about 60 miles from both Grafenwoehr and Vilseck.

Hours: Schlenkerla Brewery is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Hofbrau is open Sunday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. Hours may vary on holidays.

Information: Schlenkerla: online: schlenkerla.de. Phone: +49 0951 56050. Hofbrau: Online: hofbraeu-bamberg.de, Phone: +49 0951 53321.
An overcrowded migrant boat, top left, tries to escape from the Libyan Coast Guard in the Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. A non-profit sea rescue group is denouncing the Libyan Coast Guard and the European Union after it witnessed and filmed the Libyan maritime authorities chasing a crowded migrant boat and shooting in its direction as it tried to stop it from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. (Kai von Kotze/Sea-Watch.org via AP)

BARCELONA, Spain  A non-profit sea rescue group on Thursday slammed Libya's coast guard after it witnessed the Libyan maritime authorities in what it described as chasing a crowded migrant boat and shooting in its direction in an apparent effort to stop it from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

Members of the German non-governmental group Sea-Watch filmed the incident on Wednesday while flying over the area in an observation mission.

"Those who shoot at refugees and try to capsize their boats are not there to save them. The EU must immediately end cooperation with the so-called Libyan Coast Guard," Felix Weiss was quoted in a statement from the group released with the video.

In the footage, filmed from the plane, a blue wooden boat with a small engine and at least two dozen people onboard is seen being followed in circles, at high speed, by the Libyan coast guard.

During the chase, which occurred in international waters under Malta's search and rescue responsibility, men in uniform on the Libyan vessel can be seen firing at least two times toward the boat, with bullets hitting water close to the boat. The Libyan coast guard comes dangerously close to crashing into the boat several times.

The Sea-Watch said it communicated to the Libyan authorities via radio that they were endangering the lives of the people on the blue vessel and urged them to stop shooting. The Libyan coast guard replied in broken English that they were trying to rescue the migrants.

The Sea-Watch aircraft was short on fuel and turned back before the chase ended, the statement said. It later received reports the boat had arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday morning.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from Libya, Malta or the authorities on Lampedusa.

The EU trains, equips and supports the Libyan coast guard to intercept people trying to cross the Central Mediterranean to Europe. At least 723 people are known to have either died or gone missing taking this route on unseaworthy boats so far this year.

Nearly 15,000 men, women and children have been intercepted by the Libyan coast guard and returned to Libyan shores from the start of the year up to June 26, a record number.

More than 20,000 migrants and refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe since 2014. The Central Mediterranean stretch between Italy and Libya specifically has seen an uptick in attempted crossings and deaths this year after a lull during the height of the pandemic.

With EU support, the Libyan coast guard has stepped up interceptions of migrant boats, returning people onboard to Libya. But the U.N. and several other rights organizations have condemned their return to the war-torn country, where many are placed in abhorrent detention centers at risk of abuse and torture.
Libyan Gen. Khalifa Hifter arrives for a meeting in Athens., on Jan. 17, 2020. A U.S. judge has ruled, Thursday, July 1, 2021, that the Libyan military commander who previously lived in Virginia cannot claim head-of-state immunity as a defense in lawsuits accusing him of atrocities in his countrys civil war. (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  A Libyan military commander who previously lived for decades in Virginia cannot claim head-of-state immunity as a defense in lawsuits accusing him of atrocities in his country's civil war, a judge ruled Thursday.

Khalifa Hifter leads the self-styled Libyan National Army, a faction in a civil war that has raged in the country for years. Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.

He is also a defendant in three separate federal lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Plaintiffs allege their loved ones were killed or tortured by Hifter's forces.

The lawsuits seek millions of dollars in damages that could be recovered from property that Hifter, a dual U.S. and Libyan citizen, and his family still own throughout northern Virginia.

In court papers, Hifter asserted that he is immune to lawsuits because he is head of state. He also said the judge should dismiss the cases because a lawsuit that seeks to assert blame in the country's civil war is a "political question" that requires deference to the executive branch.

But at a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Hifter cannot claim either head-of-state immunity or the political-question doctrine as a defense in the lawsuits. She noted that she twice asked the State Department if it wanted to assert an interest in the case  once during former President Donald Trump's administration and once during President Joe Biden's administration  but that it declined to do so on both occasions.

Hifter's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, argued unsuccessfully that the State Department's decision not to intervene should not be seen as resolving the matter. He said the situation in Libya is fluid and whether Hifter is in fact the head of state is a question dependent on multiple factors. He said the State Department's failure to assert an interest in the case could be the result of many factors that have nothing to do with whether Hifter is, in fact, a head of state.

"Diplomacy is a difficult business," he said. "Taking a position can screw up all the work you're doing as a diplomat."

But Brinkema agreed with Kevin Carroll, a lawyer for Muna al-Suyid and her family who says her brothers were killed by Hifter's forces in Benghazi in 2014. Carroll argued that if the State Department refused to recognize Hifter as a head of state, Brinkema would be out of bounds as a judge to let him assert that immunity.

"If you were to declare Field Marshal Hifter is head of state in Libya, you would be acting inappropriately," Carroll told the judge.

Brinkema's ruling does not determine the final outcome of the cases. Plaintiffs will still have to prove their allegations at trial. And Brinkema is allowing Hifter to argue a different defense at trial: that those who were killed were armed combatants in the civil war, as opposed to innocent civilians.

"If the alleged victims were in fact engaged in armed hostilities, that changes the nature of the beast, in my opinion," Brinkema said.

The case now moves into a fact-finding phase that will likely include a deposition of Hifter himself.
Eighth Army issued a new mask mandate on Thursday, July 1, 2021. (Pixabay)

Eighth Army has ordered all its soldiers, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks after a pair of new coronavirus clusters appeared at bases on the Korean peninsula.

The order from Lt. Gen. Willard Burleson III was sent out Thursday via a mass notification system and lasts from Friday to July 10. It applies to all Army personnel in unit facilities, including offices, communal areas in barracks and any locations in which personnel congregate, interact, hold meetings, and must work together.

The move is designed to provide more time for surveillance testing, which could prevent another outbreak, according to the order.

USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams announced recently that two small clusters had broken out at Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. base on the peninsula, and at Camp Casey, north of Seoul.

The command reported 10 new cases of the coronavirus respiratory disease on Wednesday evening. The new patients  nine service members and one family member  tested positive between Saturday and Tuesday, a statement said.

Four service members at Casey, one at Camp Carroll, and a dependent of a service member stationed at K-16 in Seoul tested positive after coming into close contact with positive individuals, the statement said.

One service member stationed at Humphreys, one at Casey and another at K-16 tested positive Monday and Tuesday after developing COVID-19 symptoms, according to the statement. Another service member assigned to Casey tested positive on Tuesday prior to returning to the United States.

USFK also announced in the statement that approximately 80% of its community has been vaccinated, and less than 1% of its active-duty force is infected with COVID-19.

South Korea added 762 new cases at midnight Wednesday and three deaths, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agencys Central Disease Control Headquarters. The government has counted over 155,000 COVID-19 cases during the pandemic and 2,000 deaths, the WHO said.

Okinawa Marines ease restrictions

The Marine Corps on Okinawa has loosened some of its pandemic-related rules.

Masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated personnel unless they are in a shared space with host nation citizens or where masks are mandated, according to a Thursday Facebook post by Marine Corps Installations Pacific.

Marines also no longer have to fill out contract-tracing logs, the post said.

U.S. military bases in Japan announced three new COVID-19 infections as of 7 p.m. Thursday.

U.S. Army Japan had two people test positive between June 23 and Wednesday, an Army statement said. One is a recent arrival to Japan who tested positive in quarantine, and the other came up positive after developing COVID-19 symptoms.

Kadena Air Base had one individual test positive for COVID-19, according to a base Facebook post Wednesday night. That person self-isolated after developing symptoms and is in quarantine.

Japan reported 1,751 new coronavirus infections Thursday, 39 fewer than the same day last week, according to public broadcaster NHK and the World Health Organization. There were 24 deaths nationwide.

The government has counted approximately 800,000 COVID-19 cases during the pandemic and 14,500 deaths, the WHO said.

Tokyo on Thursday reported another 673 coronavirus infections and two deaths, according to NHK, which cited metropolitan government data. Thats 103 more than the same day last week.

Okinawa prefecture, home to most U.S. troops in Japan, reported another 63 new infections Thursday, one more than the same day last week, according to NHK. There were four deaths.

Okinawa remains in a state of emergency until July 11.

Stars and Stripes and Stripes reporter Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report.

burke.matt@stripes.com

Twitter: @MatthewMBurke1
Vienna Police Chief Gerhard Puerstl attends a briefing in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 22, 2009. Puerstl said on Thursday, July 1, 2021, that a 13-year-old girl was given drugs and crimes against the sexual integrity of the girl were committed. (Hans Punz/AP)

BERLIN  Austrian authorities have arrested three Afghans as suspects in the rape and killing of a 13-year-old girl, a crime that has prompted strong condemnation and tough talk from the country's leader on crimes committed by migrants.

The girl's body was found next to a tree in Vienna's Donaustadt district on Saturday. Two Afghan youths, aged 16 and 18, were arrested as suspects on Monday. Both were asylum-seekers; the elder had had his protected status revoked as a result of three convictions that included one for robbery.

Police said Thursday that a third man, a 23-year-old Afghan, was arrested in Vienna on Wednesday evening on suspicion of involvement.

Officials have said that the victim knew the first two suspects and had voluntarily accompanied them to the 18-year-old's apartment. There, according to Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl, she was given drugs and "crimes against the sexual integrity" of the girl were committed.

Police say the elder of the two has denied having anything to do with the killing, while the younger hasn't yet said anything.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz promised on Tuesday that authorities will ensure the perpetrators are "punished with the full force of the law."

"I find it intolerable for people come to us, say they are seeking protection and then commit cruel, barbaric crimes in Austria," he said.

"Politically, this means for me that we will stick to our consistent line," said Kurz, who has long taken a tough approach to migration issues. "With me, there will definitely never be a halt to deportations to Afghanistan or a watering-down of asylum laws toward asylum-seekers who commit crimes."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a briefing in Brussels on June 14, 2021. (Kenzo Tribouillard, Pool via AP)

PRISTINA, Kosovo  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Kosovo on Thursday and reassured local leaders that the international Kosovo Force will remain in place to secure regional peace and stability.

Stoltenberg was in the Kosovar capital Pristina where he was also to visit the NATO-led mission, known as KFOR, and show "NATO's commitment to peace and stability in the Western Balkans."

NATO has been leading KFOR since 1999, with more than 3,700 troops from 27 countries.

Stoltenberg said history has shown that the "KFOR mission is important not only for Kosovo and for the region, but also for NATO and for all NATO allies."

He said that after Western forces presently complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, for years NATO's biggest operation, "KFOR will not only be the longest, but also the biggest NATO military operation."

The 1998-99 war in the former Serbian province of Kosovo between ethnic Albanian independence fighters and Serbia left more than 10,000 dead and ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade has refused to accept that. While Kosovo has been recognized by the United States and most EU nations, Belgrade has relied on support from Russia and China in its bid to retain a claim on the territory.

In his meetings with Kosovo's president, prime minister and an ethnic Serb minority politician, Stoltenberg said he had underlined the importance of dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade.

The EU-brokered dialogue resumed last month in Brussels. It is also strongly supported by the U.S.
(Wikicommons)

KABUL, Afghanistan  A refugee advocacy group has filed a lawsuit on behalf of an Afghan engineer who says he supported the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan at great personal risk, but was denied a U.S. visa because his supervisor was kidnapped and couldnt verify his eligibility.

The lawsuit, submitted last week, seeks to overrule the U.S. governments decision to reject the Afghan mans Special Immigrant Visa application.

We felt this is what we needed to do to vindicate his rights, Katie Austin, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project, which filed the litigation, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

The man, whose name was not revealed because of security concerns, submitted his visa application in 2016. It included a reference letter from his supervisor, Mark Randall Frerichs, a Navy veteran, according to the complaint filed in District of Columbia federal court.

Mark Frerichs, a contractor from Illinois, poses in Iraq in this undated photo obtained from Twitter that he would include with his resume when job hunting. Frerichs was abducted in Afghanistan in January 2020. (Twitter)

Two years later, after confirming the authenticity of Frerichs letter, the government agreed the man was eligible for a visa and allowed him and his family to proceed to the latter stages of the application process, the complaint said.

But in 2020, after suspected Taliban-affiliated militants kidnapped Frerichs and he was unable to reverify the letter, the government revoked the initial authorization, resulting in the application being rejected, the complaint added.

Our clients story is emblematic of the problems with the SIV program, which is plagued not only by delays but also by faulty decision-making that can be the difference between life and death, Austin said in a separate statement Wednesday.

Now more than ever, it is critical for U.S. officials to afford our Afghan allies the protections that Congress intended, Austin said.

Congress enacted the Afghan Allies Protection Act in 2009 to enable certain Afghans who worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan to immigrate to the U.S. with their families through the SIV program.

As the U.S. continues its final withdrawal from the country, President Joe Biden has come under increasing pressure to do more to help the roughly 18,000 people who have applied for SIVs and believe their lives are at risk in Afghanistan because they worked for the United States.

The administration last month said it would evacuate the applicants to a location outside the mainland U.S., possibly Guam, where they could complete the application process. Administering the visas has been delayed since last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The man being represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project, described as managing numerous sensitive construction projects on behalf of the U.S., has already fled with his family to India, the group said.

Meanwhile, the government continues to offer a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location, recover and return of Frerichs, who was working as a contractor in eastern Khost province when he disappeared in January 2020.

Speaking to reporters in Washington last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Biden did not mention Frerichs disappearance during a meeting at the White House.

Frerichs supporters have expressed concern that the U.S. exit could make it more difficult to bring him back home, particularly because the U.S. will have weaker intelligence capabilities.

Stars and Stripes reporter J.P. Lawrence contributed to this report.

wellman.phillip@stripes.com

Twitter: @pwwellman
Four decades after the first wave of Afghan refugees fled in the face of a Soviet invasion, and nearly 20 years after a U.S.-led invasion transformed life in the country, humanitarian agencies say they are bracing for another round of displacement in Afghanistan as the Taliban gains territory and Western forces prepare to withdraw in September.

This week, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan warned that chaos and civil war could be on the horizon. U.S. intelligence analysts fear the Afghan government could fall swiftly in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal. While President Joe Biden has sought to reassure Afghan leaders of Washington's "humanitarian commitment to the Afghan people," aid agencies say there's much to fear.

Nearby countries already hosting millions of Afghans say they are not equipped to handle a new influx if the security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate and international programs to aid refugees remain underfunded.

Afghans fleeing war and violence have long sought safety in Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Many Afghans in these countries remain mired in poverty, undocumented and subject to limits on work amid constant pressure to leave.

"It is the responsibility of all international actors to continue working with Afghanistan to secure a lasting peace and to continue supporting countries hosting Afghan refugees," Indrika Ratwatte, Asia-Pacific bureau director for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in a statement last month.

Economic crises related to COVID-19 have compounded the burden for "already beleaguered" host countries, Ratwatte said.

Unsafe and unstable conditions for Afghans in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and other nearby countries could push more people to try to make the dangerous trek to Europe.

"The stability of Afghanistan goes beyond the region," said Ratwatte. "It's in everyone's collective self-interest."

In April, Biden announced a complete withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, nearly two decades after the United States first invaded to oust the Taliban. The U.S.-backed Afghan government will take over full security responsibilities  but experts warn that the Taliban is poised to retake significant swaths of territory.

Since the start of the year, some 200,000 Afghans have been internally displaced, said Ratwatte, on top of an additional 380,000 in 2020. Just since May, the Taliban has taken over 80 districts. Last week, Taliban fighters took control of the main border crossing with Tajikistan as tens of Afghan soldiers fled to there for safety.

Around 1,000 Afghans a month since April have flown into Tajikistan to seek asylum, according to Ratwatte. Countless more cannot afford flights and have resorted to smuggling routes to sneak into nearby countries or try to make it to Europe, he said.

Biden has pledged to relocate tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces as drivers, interpreters and in other roles that have made them Taliban targets.

A resurgent Taliban, however, also threatens to roll back many of the gains Afghanistan has made, especially around women's rights and access to education, which is likely to push many more to flee, said Kemal Kirisci, a Turkey-based senior fellow with the Brookings Institution.

"Short of making sure that Kabul doesn't fall into the hands of the Taliban and that the gains made over this long period aren't rolled back, I honestly don't see what else can be done" to prevent further displacement, said Kirisci.

For decades, Pakistan and Iran have hosted a majority of the millions of Afghans on the run from war and conflict, along with neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and nearby Turkey.

Since 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, nearly 5.3 million Afghans have voluntarily returned through a UNHCR program  although rates have significantly slowed in recent years, and some who returned have left again.

Instead, by the end of 2019, Afghans were the world's third-highest forcibly displaced people. They were also among the top nationalities seeking asylum in the European Union or caught by European authorities while trying to enter.

The coronavirus and resulting restrictions on movement halted much of global migration, but experts predict it will quickly pick back up.

Pakistan is home to about 3 million Afghans, around half of whom are registered as refugees with the United Nations and the remainder who are either undocumented or in the country on other documents. Pakistan is not a signatory to the U.N. refugee convention and has urged Afghans to return home.

Iran hosts nearly 1 million registered Afghan refugees, in addition to more than 2.5 million who are undocumented or in the country on their Afghan passports. U.S. sanctions on Iran, however, have led to deteriorating economic conditions that have spurred many Afghans there to find their way to Turkey.

The UNHCR reported in May that only 8% of the $97.9 million it said it needed for Iran in 2021 had been funded.

Afghans are now the second-largest nationality seeking asylum in Turkey, where many are undocumented. From Turkey, said Kirisci, many Afghans are enticed to try to illegally cross into Europe in search of safer opportunities.

In Tajikistan, which shares many linguistic and ethnic connections with Afghanistan, Afghans are banned from working certain jobs and living in certain areas.

A 2016 E.U.-Turkey deal halted much of the flow of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Europe following a massive flow of asylum seekers to the continent.

But Kirisci said an increase in Afghan refugees could tip the balance.

If new waves of Afghan refugees "arrive in Turkey, there is going to be a great likelihood of them trying to move on to the European Union," he said. "I predict there could be a crisis similar to the 2015 and 2016 crisis."
President Joe Biden's decision to launch airstrikes Sunday against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria demonstrated how the administration plans to handle attacks on American troops and facilities in the region: The U.S. will respond forcefully even if no American personnel are killed or injured, a lower bar for retaliation than was employed by the Trump administration, U.S. officials said.

"We have a responsibility to demonstrate that attacking Americans carries consequences, and that is true whether or not those attacks inflict casualties," said a senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy matters. "If you attack us, we are going to respond."

That message, which has been relayed to Iran through diplomatic channels, represents a shift in policy from the Trump era.

Under President Donald Trump, who hoped to withdraw U.S. forces from the Middle East, Washington set a different red line: The killing of U.S. personnel would trigger a U.S. military response. Senior officials in the Biden administration believe that policy did little to deter the wave of nonlethal rocket attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq that increased dramatically in 2019 and 2020 after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and began imposing numerous sanctions on Tehran's economy.

The new policy, designed to deter lethal and nonlethal attacks, raises questions about what will stop tit-for-tat strikes from spiraling out of control and how such skirmishes advance the Biden administration's ultimate goal of drawing down U.S. forces in the Middle East.

The three U.S. strikes carried out by Air Force planes on Sunday targeted weapons storage facilities used by the militia groups Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, according to the Pentagon. The militants retaliated on Monday with rocket attacks on U.S. troops but they did not result in death or injury.

Since April, the militias have carried out five drone attacks on U.S. facilities, including on a CIA hangar in the northern city of Irbil in the spring. The attacks demonstrated a growing technological sophistication that alarmed the White House and prompted a series of interagency discussions about the appropriate U.S. response that culminated in last weekend's strikes, said U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Since the spring, Biden has been briefed on the attacks by his top intelligence officials multiple times in his morning presidential daily briefing, said a person familiar with the matter.

Unlike the simple remote-controlled drones that militias have used in the past, the recent string of attacks involved drones guided and operated using preprogrammed GPS waypoints. The explosive-laden drones followed a pre-set path set to specific coordinates, allowing them to divebomb into heavily protected targets, said Western officials and congressional aides familiar with the assaults.

While the Biden administration's zero tolerance policy on militia attacks risks sparking more fighting, U.S. officials say they are trying to minimize that possibility through the targets that they choose and diplomatic outreach after the fact.

The State Department has communicated to Iran through "multiple channels" the risks of their support for armed militias in Iraq. "We were clear that this operation was conducted to disrupt and deter, not escalate," said a State Department spokesman.

U.S. officials are particularly mindful of events in March 2019 when the Trump administration bombed what it described as militia positions in Iraq, following a rocket attack that killed one British and two American service members. Iraqi authorities countered that the strike had hit an empty warehouse in a civilian airport in Karbala, killing a civilian. British officials said that they had declined to join the military action, citing a lack of concrete evidence over who was responsible.

"We are going to respond, and in that response, we want to make sure, as best as we can, that we are hitting targets that are connected to the attacks against us," said the senior U.S. official.

Such U.S. operations have angered Iraqis and increased pressure on the government in Baghdad to demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The airstrikes on Sunday, Biden's second military strikes in Syria since February, when U.S. bombs hit buildings the Pentagon said belonged to Iranian-backed groups, have raised concerns from some Democrats in Congress about what the end game is in Iraq and Syria.

Following the strikes, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut noted that he trusts the "instincts" of the White House but worries that the pace of attacks and counterattacks between U.S. forces and Iranian proxy forces is "starting to look like" the type of fighting that require the president to go to Congress for a war declaration.

Other Democrats have gone further.

"These airstrikes were not authorized by Congress and are therefore unconstitutional," said Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon in a statement.

The retaliatory militia attacks on Monday on a base housing U.S. forces who patrol near a Syrian oil field also raised questions from Democrats about whether the Biden administration was continuing a Trump-era policy of protecting Syrian oil fields.

U.S. and allied forces say the American presence in eastern Syria does not have anything to do with protecting oil fields, though some admit that the rationale was used to convince Trump to keep a small U.S. presence in the country. Today, the U.S. views its patrols of a wide swath of Syria's eastern quadrant as a stabilizing presence in the former heart of the Islamic State caliphate.

The territory includes the squalid and porous al-Hol displacement camp where Western and Kurdish officials say that a slow drip of the Islamic State's most die-hard supporters are being smuggled out of to rejoin the group, or leave the country quietly.

The four casualties caused by the U.S. strike on Sunday all occurred on the Syrian side of the Syria-Iraq border, but the Iraqi militia groups have tried to rally nationalist sentiment that the U.S. attack targeted those protecting Iraq from outsiders.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is under pressure from all sides: Iran, which has significant influence over Iraqi politics, wants U.S. forces pushed out of Iraq. The Biden administration is demanding that Kadhimi rein in militia rocket and drone attacks on U.S. interests in the country.

Iraqi security forces say they have increased random patrols to try to pre-empt rocket attacks, which are often opportunistic: a pickup truck in an empty lot or field, firing rockets quickly before driving off into the night. But Kadhimi's government has struggled to reduce militia operations. The Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraq's network of militia groups, often hold more power than the prime minister does, analysts say, heightening the risk of any confrontation with them.

High-profile arrests of Iran-backed Shiite paramilitaries have been followed by swift releases amid militia threats. This week, the Popular Mobilization Forces released a photograph from an anniversary parade showing Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Fadak al-Mohammedawi with his arm around the shoulders of a grinning Kadhimi. The prime minister's office did not share the image on its own social media channels.

Loveluck reported from London.
WASHINGTON  The State Department named Afghanistan among the countries with the world's poorest records on human trafficking for the second year in a row, deepening questions about the fate of vulnerable Afghans when the United States withdraws its military forces from the country.

In its annual trafficking report, the State Department put Afghanistan, along with China and Russia, in a small group of countries assessed as failing to make significant efforts to combat the trade in people.

"This crime is an affront to human rights. It is an affront to human dignity," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of the global phenomenon in an address that accompanied the release of the report.

Afghanistan was among the countries singled out for a "government policy or pattern" of human trafficking, including in Afghanistan's case the employment of child soldiers by security forces and a widespread practice called bacha bazi, which amounts to the sexual slavery of boys on government compounds, a senior State Department official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the department.

The designation comes as the U.S. military continues to airlift personnel and equipment out of Afghanistan, moving closer to ending its two-decade military presence. While President Biden this spring set a Sept. 11 deadline for ending that mission, military officials say the departure could be concluded within the next week.

Taliban militants have accelerated their attacks on Afghan troops in recent months ahead of the exit of U.S. forces and most of their NATO counterparts, intensifying fears about the government's ability to hold the militants at bay  and the Taliban's willingness to engage in peace talks that U.S. officials have hoped can avert an all-out civil war.

Those concerns loomed over White House talks last week between Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. While both leaders sought to cast the situation in a positive light, with Biden vowing continued U.S. assistance for Afghanistan and Ghani promising that government forces will be able to stand alone, U.S. intelligence officials are warning the government could fall within six months.

Whether the United States can help preserve the gains that have been made since 2001 in economic development, women and minority rights, and freedom of expression will be a central test of the American legacy in Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear how Afghanistan's inclusion in the State Department's list of "Tier 3" countries that failed to take significant action against human trafficking might affect American assistance. According to U.S. law, countries in that category may be denied non-humanitarian, non-trade assistance, and the United States may also seek to withhold financing to them from multilateral lenders. But the president can also waive those restrictions, as President Donald Trump did last year, the senior official said.

The president is expected to make a decision before the next fiscal year begins in October, the official said.

Since 2002, the United States has provided Afghanistan, still overwhelmingly reliant on outside aid, some $36 billion in civilian assistance and $88 billion in security assistance, according to the White House. The Biden administration has promised to provide billions more in coming years.

While the report found that Afghanistan has prosecuted some instances of the practice of sexual exploitation of boys, it said "the government did not investigate or prosecute many high-level security officials or government employees for bacha bazi, despite continuing reports of complicity."

In addition, the government has never prosecuted military or police officials for employing child soldiers  a practice also used by anti-government militants  the report said. Instead of protecting victims, the government has often penalized or abused them.

Other countries named in the State Department's "Tier 3" are Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Nicaragua, North Korea, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Sgt. Daniel Perry is accused of fatally shooting Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran, during a protest in downtown Austin last summer. (U.S. Army)

AUSTIN (Tribune News Service)  A Texas grand jury has indicted a Fort Hood Army sergeant on a murder, deadly conduct and aggravated assault charge in the 2020 shooting death of an Austin protestor, according to his attorney and jail records.

The slaying of Garrett Foster  an Air Force veteran remembered by family and friends as a man dedicated to exercising his Second Amendment rights, stamping out racial injustice and caring for his fiancee  brought national attention and deepened debates over issues, such as protestor safety, self defense and the right to openly carry guns.

Sgt. Daniel Perry turned himself into the Travis County Jail at 2:21 and was released about 15 minutes later on $300,000 bail. His attorney has said previously that Perry was defending himself when he shot Foster.

A fixture in Austin's protests over equality and police brutality last year, Foster was marching in a crowd in downtown Austin July 25. The 28-year-old was carrying an assault-style rifle, which is legal under Texas open carry laws.

Perry was working as an Uber driver the night of the shooting and at 9:50 p.m. he honked his horn while on Fourth Street and then turned onto Congress Avenue, into the crowd of marchers, according to police. Foster's fiancee  Whitney Mitchell, a quadruple amputee who uses a wheelchair  was in the crowd near Foster.

Police have said Foster approached Perry's car and Perry drew his own weapon and fired, mortally wounding Foster, before driving away and calling 911.

Police detained Perry but did not arrest him in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

A key issue in the case is whether Foster raised his weapon at Perry. Some witnesses have said that Foster never pointed the gun, keeping it down, but an attorney for Perry has said that police have interviewed several people who corroborated his client's account that Foster pointed the gun at him.

Foster grew up in Plano and had been living in Austin with Mitchell for about two years at the time of his death. The couple had been attending downtown Austin protests against police violence since at least late May, and Foster often had his rifle with him, according to protesters and Foster's family.

Legal experts previously interviewed by the Statesman had said that criminal charges in the case could be unlikely because of state laws giving people wide leeway to protect themselves in the face of perceived danger.

2021 The Austin-American Statesman.

Visit statesman.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
In this image captured from Hudson public access television, retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter gives a Memorial Day speech in Hudson. (Image from HCTV Video/TNS)

HUDSON, Ohio (Tribune News Service) After the fallout from an incident at a Memorial Day ceremony temporarily halted the organization's operation, the members of American Legion's Hudson post are working to get the veterans group back on track.

American Legion Department of Ohio Cmdr. Roger Friend temporarily suspended the charter of Hudson Lee-Bishop American Legion Post 464 on June 4, four days after a veteran's mic got cut while he spoke at a Memorial Day ceremony in Hudson about Black Americans' role in the history of the holiday.

The charter for Post 464 was suspended after the state Legion said its investigation found that Jim Garrison, then-adjutant and treasurer of Post 464, and Cindy Suchan, then-president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, "intentionally censored Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter, US Army (Ret.) during his Memorial Day speech hosted by American Legion Post 464."

Garrison and Suchan resigned from their leadership roles at Friend's request.

Post members, along with Friend and several officers from the state Legion office, met June 24 at the American Legion Streetsboro Post 685 to discuss the future of Post 464. A message left for Friend was not returned by press time.

Suzette Heller, adjutant for the American Legion Department of Ohio, said "quite a few people" signed up for membership and some of the leadership roles were filled.

Before he resigned, Garrison was serving as adjutant and treasurer of Post 464. Heller said new people were installed in those roles, but said she did not have the names of the new leaders.

"They're on the right track with getting the post back on track," Heller said. "... They had expressed that they were upset about what had happened and now members are paying attention to what's going on with the leadership of the post and how they interact with the community."

Clark Wonderland will continue to serve as commander of the post, Heller said. Wonderland hung up the phone when he was contacted by a Beacon Journal reporter for comment.

'Not fair to punish the entire post'

Heller said her office is reviewing information about the new leaders and added that the suspension of the post's charter could be lifted as soon as July 8 when the state Legion's executive committee meets.

"We really don't want to see a post close," Heller said.

The state Legion's investigation determined only Garrison and Suchan were involved in cutting Kemter's microphone as he spoke at the Memorial Day program in Markillie Cemetery, she said.

Heller said it was "not fair to punish the entire post when this is not the mindset of the entire post," and noted there are many people in Hudson who did not want the post to close.

"They've witnessed a lot of benefits from the post," Heller said. "The post is a staple in their community that does a lot of good and has a lot of history."

More officers are expected to be appointed at the post's next meeting July 21, which will again happen at the Streetsboro post.

Not all pleased with response

Peter Loal, a life Post 464 member who attended the meeting on June 24, said in a letter to the editor he was disappointed that some members at the gathering appeared to be "brushing over" the mic-cutting incident.

Loal said while he hopes the post survives, he believed the organization "[has] not addressed removing the cancer that caused the problem, or have taken the incident seriously."

Due to what he heard at the meeting, Loal said he has decided to leave the Hudson post.

Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert said he's pleased that the state Legion leadership is giving Post 464 "a second chance, under new leadership, to continue representing and serving our military veterans."

The mayor said he hoped that Post 464 would continue to operate and be a key component in the community.

"What happened on Memorial Day can never happen again," Shubert said. "Our military has fought and died for our right to free expression. It is a cherished freedom and while we may not agree with someone's viewpoint, they have a right to share it. My hope is this will be a new beginning for the Hudson legion post, whereby veterans who may not have been actively involved will now step forward to help restore its status and rightful place in our community."

Silenced veteran offers to speak in Hudson again

Kemter himself said he would like to see both Hudson American Legion Post 464 and the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary continue to operate. He said he would be "honored" to speak if those groups decided they wanted to have him deliver another speech at a ceremony.

The state Legion office also has asked Garrison and Suchan to give up their membership with their respective organizations, but Heller noted, "we can't remove them as members."

She explained that Post 464 would have to file a complaint against Garrison and the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary would have to do the same against Suchan to start the removal process.

Hudson American Legion Auxiliary still operating

Meanwhile, the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary is still operating under a separate charter with new leadership, according to Kelly Gibson, department secretary-executive director of the American Legion Auxiliary of Ohio.

As of Wednesday, Gibson said she could not provide the name of the new president because the state office had not yet received a certification of officers from the Hudson auxiliary.

Kristen McLaughlin, president of the American Legion Auxiliary of Ohio, said her office kept the Hudson auxiliary's charter in place to give the organization a chance to regroup. She said her office did not ask Suchan to relinquish her membership in the Hudson auxiliary.

Gibson said further steps would be discussed when her office's executive committee meets during the Legion's state convention July 8-10.

2021 www.beaconjournal.com.

Visit beaconjournal.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
South Dakota National Guard Soldiers from the 153rd Engineer Battalion of Huron greet Gov. Kristi Noem at Barnes Canyon Camp during Golden Coyote training exercise in Custer State Park, S.D., June 14, 2019. Noem announced Tuesday, June 29, 2021, that she will join a growing list of Republican governors sending law enforcement officers to the U.S. border with Mexico. (Breanne Donnell/Army National Guard)

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noems decision to send up to 50 National Guard troops on a deployment to Texas using donated funds stirred up questions about whether using private money to finance a military mission is lawful.

Some legal experts have said state law apparently allows for such a move.

Depending on the details, Noems dispatch of a privately funded military support force to a sister state may not be in violation of either federal or South Dakota law. And that may be the biggest problem here, Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas School of Law wrote in a column for MSNBC.

Under South Dakota law, the governor is allowed to accept donations as seen fit, said Ian Fury, a spokesman for Noem. The governor has additional authority to accept donated funds through a second law related to emergency management.

Governor Noem welcomes any such donations to help alleviate the cost to South Dakota taxpayers, Fury said, referencing the state laws SDCL 5-24-12 and SDCL 34-48A-36.

The $1 million donation from the Willis and Reba Johnson Foundation landed in state accounts Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. Neither Willis Johnson, a 74-year-old billionaire and long-time donor to the Republican party, nor Noems office would confirm the amount.

The governor  may authorize any officer of the state or of the political subdivision, as the case may be, to receive such services, equipment, supplies, materials, or funds on behalf of the state or political subdivision, and subject to the terms of the offer and the rules and regulations, if any, of the agency making the offer, according to South Dakota law.

At the National Guard Association of the United States, no members have called yet with concerns despite the attention shown the deployment by the media, said John Goheen, spokesman for the nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the National Guard.

Never has a deployment of 50 Guardsmen generated so much attention, he said.

Looking into the National Guard history, there were likely some instances of private donations being used to build local armories, but nothing he believed to be comparable to the donation in South Dakota.

Vladeck wrote the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which outlines how states share resources such as the National Guard, does not provide guidance for this situation.

As off-putting and bizarre [and practically pointless] as it may seem, there may be no legal barrier to Noems decision to send privately funded South Dakota National Guard units to Texas, Vladeck wrote.

He wrote the move seems like transparent political theater, and it has caused Democrats to swiftly speak out against it.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said on NBCs Meet the Press that he plans to question Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the move.

To think that rich people can start using the U.S. military to advance their objectives, independent of what the commander-in-chief and the secretary of defense think they ought to be doing, this is unbelievably dangerous, said Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. If it isnt illegal, it ought to be illegal.

The South Dakota Democratic Party responded to the announcement, stating Noem had sold out the National Guard.

She is treating our Guardsmen as her own private army, available for hire, the party said in a statement.

South Dakota state Sen. Reynold Nesiba, a Democrat, said in a statement that Noem should cancel the deployment and return the donation.

[South Dakota] National Guard members signed up to serve our state and country, not to generate airtime for our governor on Fox News or to be mercenaries for some wealthy donor. Our National Guardsmen and women are not professional soldiers for hire, he said.

The deployment comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott invoked the emergency assistance agreement earlier this month alongside Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. Both Republican governors have deployed hundreds from their own state Guards and disagree with policy changes implemented by President Joe Biden.

After taking office in January, Biden changed former President Donald Trumps Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as Remain in Mexico, which kept asylum seekers waiting for court dates in Mexico instead of entering the United States. He returned to former President Barack Obamas policy known as catch and release, which allows people to be paroled in America as they await court proceedings instead of remaining in detention.

Biden also has canceled construction of a border wall, but did leave in place about 3,600 service members, including the National Guard, for a federal mission along the southern border alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The mission began under Trump and nearly two dozen states now have troops at the border, according to U.S. Northern Command, the military headquarters that oversees the mission.

If you really look at the U.S. electorate, this is one issue about which people have a lot of concerns, and so it's not going away, said Mark Cancian, senior adviser of the International Security Program for the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. The question about how the Guard will play into it is not going to go away, and this is just one more incident in a long, continuing story.

He said this is the first time he has seen a private donation used to fund National Guard troops, but state laws could allow for it.

They are under command of the governor. It's not like someone can hire a private army. The Guard will only do what the governor authorizes. But, of course, it is unusual, and it does raise questions, Cancian said. Now, if there were mechanisms for private donations, and those became more common, then you might see more instances of the Guard deploying for local interests in a way that they don't now.

In Arizona, where the state is funding up to 250 troops at its border with Mexico, Ducey said it is estimated to cost about $25 million. In Texas, the 500 Guard members deployed at the border are part of a larger effort that includes about 1,000 state troopers. Abbott said the states budget for border security efforts such as these is about $1 billion.

Shortly after Noems announcement Tuesday, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also announced a plan to send up to 40 troops from his state to Texas for a 90-day deployment consistent with a training mission.

The governors office did not immediately respond to questions about funding for the troops.

Thayer.rose@stripes.com

Twitter: @Rose_Lori
The Korean War Memorial in GAR Park, Haverhill, Mass. (My Town - Haverhill Facebook)

HAVERHILL, Mass. (Tribune News Service)  Members of two local unions answered a call for help from a local Korean War veteran after he discovered a floodlight that illuminates the Korean War Memorial in GAR Park had been vandalized.

Their help could not have come at a better time, because June 25 marked the 71st anniversary of the start of the Korean War.

"I usually hold a small ceremony at the memorial, and for this one, I'm thankful for the help we've received," said 89-year-old Korean War veteran Russell V. J. Chaput, founder of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee that raised money to install the memorial and is now its treasurer, secretary and caretaker.

His group raised more than $130,000 to erect the monument, which is located at the northern edge of GAR Park near Winter Street and the Citizens Center.

During a recent visit to the memorial for light maintenance, Chaput discovered that someone had vandalized one of the LED floodlights that ring the memorial.

"These lights cost us veterans approximately $500 each to have installed," Chaput said, noting that 16 Haverhill men were lost in the war and the memorial was created to honor them.

He said the Korean War veterans raise money and pay for all maintenance and upkeep of the memorial. Replacing the floodlight would have taken a bite out of the memorial's dwindling maintenance fund, according to Chaput.

Michael Gagliardi, business manager for the Laborers International Union Local 175 in Methuen, said members of his union along with members of IBEW Local 103 electrical workers of Boston made repairs last week.

He said they pitched in and bought a replacement floodlight and installed it, and also repaired some loose brickwork and added three cubic yards of bark mulch donated by Mackey Construction in Wilmington. That company sent two of its laborers, both veterans, who assisted with repairs and laying down the new mulch.

"When we read the story in The Eagle-Tribune about what happened we contacted Mayor (James) Fiorentini, who put us in touch with Russ," he said. "We were heartbroken to think someone would desecrate a monument to our nation's heroes and it made it even better when we found out an 89-year-old veteran (Chaput) was overseeing maintenance of the memorial.

"He was on his hands and knees alongside our union members doing some of the work and I was amazed," Gagliardi said. "Russ' dedication is a credit to this country."

Taking part in the project were, Michael Gagliardi and his sons Michael Jr. and Brendyn Gagliardi, both of whom are with Local 175; David O'Laughlin, business agent for IBEW Local 103 electrical workers of Boston; Bill Mahoney and his son Ryan Mahoney, members of IBEW Local 103; Sean McNulty, a Marine veteran with MacKay Construction in Wilmington; and Luciano Guerreiro, also a veteran and of MacKay Construction.

Chaput said he is appreciative of the work that members of the two unions did.

"I only expected them to fix the light and I was surprised to see them reset some loose bricks and spread new mulch  which I usually spread myself but it's getting harder each year," he said. "What they did (has) saved me a lot of physical pain."

Chaput is seeking donations to fund a perpetual maintenance account for the memorial.

Checks to the Korean War Memorial Maintenance Fund can be sent to Haverhill Bank, 180 Merrimack St., Haverhill, MA 01830, or to Russell V.J. Chaput, 56 Brandy Brow Road, Haverhill, MA 01830.

(c)2021 The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.)

Visit The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.) at www.eagletribune.com

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WASHINGTON  The Department of Veterans Affairs is offering employees a half-day off work in exchange for getting vaccinated against the coronavirus, and Secretary Denis McDonough is considering mandating vaccines for staff if the numbers dont improve, he said.

As of Thursday, 298,387 employees were fully vaccinated against the virus. The department employs about 375,000 people. McDonough said during a news conference Wednesday that he has the authority to mandate employees to receive vaccines, but he first wants to see the outcome of the new policy allowing vaccinated staff members a half-day off.

The issue is made more urgent by the increase in cases of the coronavirus delta variant, McDonough said. The World Health Organization said the delta variant is the most transmissible of the variants identified during the pandemic, and cases are on the rise in the United States.

Given what were witnessing with the delta variant across the globe, it would be negligent to not be considering the full range of opportunities that we have to ensure that were taking every step possible to protect our veterans, he said.

The VA does not have specific data on the numbers of employees vaccinated by location. Anecdotally, McDonough said that VA facilities with the highest rates of employee vaccination were about 85% vaccinated. That includes the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans, which was an epicenter of the virus early in the pandemic.

On the lower side, fewer than 60% of staff at some VA facilities were vaccinated, including the St. Cloud VA Health Care System in Minnesota. McDonough said he would be pushing more staff to get vaccinated over the next month.

My goal has been that by August, were in a position to provide more care and benefits than before the pandemic, McDonough said. Our ability to do that is enhanced by getting more of our personnel vaccinated.

McDonough also encouraged other non-veterans to get vaccinated, promoting it as a way to help veterans. Because of military-related conditions and injuries, veterans are more likely to have underlying health issues that make them more at risk for serious illness, he said.

The bottom line is, every non-veteran that gets vaccinated could help save a veterans life, he said.

As with the rest of the United States, the VA has seen a significant reduction in demand for vaccines in recent months, McDonough said. President Joe Biden is expected to fall short of his goal to have 70% of the population at least partially vaccinated by July 4.

Last month, McDonough traveled to Alabama, Florida and Louisiana to speak about the importance of being vaccinated against the coronavirus. The department is trying to meet people where they are with doses, he said.

The department recently administered vaccines to people in Louisiana who remained in shelters after evacuating from hurricanes last year. The agency is also on site to offer vaccines to people at cooling centers in the Pacific Northwest, which is dealing with an intense heat wave.

The VA also shipped 5,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the Philippines for veterans, their spouses and caregivers.

Essentially, every person dying from COVID right now is unvaccinated, McDonough said. Which means that from this day forward, every COVID death is preventable. Thats our top priority  shot by shot, arm by arm.

wentling.nikki@stripes.com

Twitter: @nikkiwentling

Buy Photo The Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C. is shown in this undated file photo. (Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes)
Archaeologists from the Northeast Archeological Resources Program test the proposed location for a new gravesite in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. (Spotsylvania County Battlefields National Military Park Facebook)

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (Tribune News Service)  A Civil War cemetery in northern Virginia may soon host its first soldier burial in 76 years, after human remains were discovered on the grounds of a nearby battlefield hospital.

Archaeologists are looking for an available plot in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, which hasn't seen a veteran burial since 1945, according to the National Park Service. The burial is considered "proposed" until a suitable site if found, officials said.

"The new grave will be the final resting place for the unidentified remains of US soldiers found in the City of Fredericksburg in 2015," the military park posted Wednesday on Facebook.

"The remains were found near the Rowe  Goolrick House, which served as a hospital during the Battle of Fredericksburg."

Identities for the soldiers may never be known, but that is not unusual in an area known as "America's Battleground."

Fredericksburg National Cemetery was established in 1865 and "is the final resting place for more than 15,000 Union soldiers who died in the major Civil War battles that occurred between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia," according to the National Park Service.

Historians say the "constant presence or passage of armies for nearly two years mutilated the landscape" in the area around what is now Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. The region eventually became known as the place where "the Civil War roared to its bloody climax," the park service says.

"No place more vividly reflects the War's tragic cost in all its forms. A town bombarded and looted. Farms large and small ruined. Refugees by the thousands forced into the countryside. More than 85,000 men wounded; 15,000 killed  most in graves unknown," the park reports.

Ground-penetrating radar has been used used at the crowded cemetery to find an open spot among the hundreds of stone markers. However, an exact site for the burial has not been chosen, officials said.

"In this part of the process, the archaeologists need to make sure that the location of the proposed grave is clear of any other burials or archaeologically significant material," the park wrote.

"These efforts are ongoing, and are the result of much cooperation and careful planning. We will be providing more updates (as) the work progresses."

(c)2021 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com

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A few hundred people including this group watching from the back of a pickup truck are treated to a more than 40-minute fireworks show July 1, 2018, at River of Life Church south of Stillwater. This year, Boomer Blast returns after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is set to be held Sunday.
Melissa Lindhorst, 45, passed away June 26, 2021. A "Come and Go" reception will be from 4-6:00pm Saturday, July 10, 2021 at the Strode Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will be at Fairlawn Cemetery at a later date.
Port Richey, FL (34668)

Today

Some sunshine with a thunderstorm or two possible this afternoon. High near 90F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely, especially this evening. Low 73F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Indianapolis prosecutor who resigned for cancer care dies

INDIANAPOLIS  Former Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry has died nearly two years after he stepped down while undergoing prostate cancer treatments. He was 72.

Curry, a Democrat who won the first of his three elections in 2010 as the top prosecutor in Indianas largest county, died Tuesday, the prosecutors office said.

The major cases he oversaw included murder convictions against two men responsible for setting off a 2012 natural gas explosion that killed two people and damaged or destroyed more than 80 homes in an Indianapolis neighborhood. During his tenure, gunmen were sentenced to life without parole in the separate fatal shootings of two Indianapolis police officers. Curry also filed for the death penalty against the man awaiting trial in the 2017 shooting death of a Southport officer.

Curry unsuccessfully pushed the Republican-dominated Legislature to toughen laws on gun sales and was a prominent advocate for a state hate crimes law.

Terry was a man of action and of progress, and his impact will continue to be felt in our community, current Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a statement. He was a leader who unapologetically stood for fairness and integrity.

2nd man arrested in death of guard during Indiana bank heist

HAMMOND, Ind.  Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday a second man believed involved in a Gary, Indiana, bank robbery that resulted in the fatal shooting of a security guard has been charged.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana Tina Nommay said Hailey Gist-Holden, 26, of Gary, has been charged with armed bank robbery, using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during the June 11 bank robbery and causing the death of Richard Castellana, 55, of Tinley Park, Illinois.

Gist-Holden was arrested in Georgia in the early morning hours of June 18, following a police chase, according to officials. He is awaiting extradition to Indiana.

James Anthony King, Jr., 24, of Miami, Florida was indicted on June 17 for armed bank robbery and for using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a robbery. The use of dogs to track the robbery suspect led to the arrest of King. It wasnt immediately known if he has retained legal representation.

The murder of Richard Castellana was a senseless act of violence, said Nommay. Thanks go out to all our law enforcement partners locally and around the country in their determined efforts to apprehend King and Gist-Holden.

Investigators say they believe Castellana was approached outside First Midwest Bank and shot to death. After the shooting, the suspects entered the bank and demanded money.
Winston Watusi

Music Plus

It seems Ive been on a bit of a rant recently; lets return to regular stuff. Largely.

This week that includes: Reb Fountain in Katikati; a band with a name I cant pronounce and a band with a name I cant print in Tauranga; and Ringo Starr in a fight over sex toys...

First of all I advise music lovers who dont currently live in Katikati to hop on the as yet unfixed road with the ridiculously low speed limit and head at a slow, safe speed to the Arts Junction next Sunday evening (July 11) where the Katikati Folk Club host Reb Fountain in concert.

Sorry if I go on a bit about the Katikati Folk Club, but I am blown away by the extraordinarily prescient nature of the committee and which artists they choose.

Because behind their unassumingly low-key facade obviously lurks a group with their fingers firmly on the countrys musical pulse.

I saw Tami Neilson at the club about a year before she really broke out. And Reb? Someone would have to have booked her a while back, probably before she was nominated for a Silver Scroll last year and three Aotearoa Music Awards. Certainly before her self-titled album won this years prestigious Taite Music Prize.

More awards

Perhaps I give those clever Folk Club folk too much credit. Reb cleans up pretty much every time she releases something. In 2018 she won the Tui Award for Best Country Album/Artist for her EP Hopeful & Hopeless, as well as the APRA Best Country Song for the title track.

But enough of such things. The bottom line is that Rebs album of last year was simply breathtaking - outstanding in every way from writing to performance to production. I cant recommend it highly enough.

With Reb comes Dave Khan, who has in the past couple of years become the go-to guy for accompaniment, whoever you are. It helps that hes a multi-instrumentalist, playing most things with strings, which is why you might have seen him with Tim Finn, Marlon Williams, Tami Neilson, Delaney Davidson, Gin Wigmore or Don McGlashan. Oh, and Caitlin Smith when she was here last month. He gets called a lot, for good reason.

Doors open at 7pm, and the show is at 7:30pm. Cost is $20 door sales only and seats are limited to 100, so you might want to arrive early!

Hardcore

Coming back to town, there is a hardcore gig happening at the Hop House next Saturday (10 July) where Wellington noise terrorists Tuscoma lead a three band line-up.

With two albums under their belt and particular praise for last years Discourse, the band had to cancel European dates due to the pandemic but have bounced back by expanding their two-piece line-up to now include a bass player.

Also on the bill are the very heavy Abysm and a third band that shall not be named in a family newspaper.

Things kick off at 9pm, and again it is door sales only ($10).

And the story you've all been waiting for  Ringo and the sex toys! It turns out that for the last three years The Beatles drummer has been fighting in court to stop a sex toy. Its part of Pacific Coast Holdings Screaming O range, which also includes the Swingo, The Big O and the Primo. Reliable sources tell me they sell by the million worldwide. As to what each does I leave that to your imagination...

And then there was the Ring O. Which upset Mr Starr.

Now Ringo has dropped his suit and the toys will go ahead under their original name, as long as there is a gap between the Ring and the O. The defendants have also agreed to avoid any activity likely to lead to confusion as well as promising not to degrade, tarnish or deprecate or disparage Ringo's name or image.

They also won't make any reference or innuendo, or include words or images that could associate their products with either the musician or his former band.

In return, Ringo has agreed not to register his own name trademarks in connection with adult sex aids.
Simon Bridges

National Party MP

simonbridges.co.nz

You may have seen an announcement by Labour a few weeks back about building a cycleway across the Auckland Harbour for $785 million, ready for use in the late 2020s.

But the real news for our region wasnt the building of anything, rather the cancellation of something. You see, a few weeks back Labour cancelled the Tauranga Northern Link  our regions most important transport project by a long way  for the second time.

The TNL  or Takitimu Northern Link as Labour now call it  has been talked about for decades. When I was Transport Minister in 2016, the National government and the NZTA fully approved and funded it from Tauranga to Omokoroa and, following all necessary preparations, construction was to start in October 2018.

During the election campaign we also promised to take it further to Katikati (though I accept this was a political promise by National not a completed, fully-funded government decision, as Tauranga to Omokoroa was).

Sadly, on winning office, Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters government cancelled the TNL mid commercial tender. This was the first time they did so. Pressure began to build and campaigners including the fix the bloody road crew piled it on.

So, going into the 2020 election, Labour decided they needed to promise it and so TNL from Tauranga to Omokoroa was at least back on track for some future date, albeit delayed by at least a term.

Now youre up to speed, up until a few weeks ago when Labour again cancelled over half of the TNL. While the 6.8 kms to Te Puna will (were told) happen, the next 10 kms to Omokoroa wont. As for Katikati, forget about it!

The first cancellation was to fund a tram along Dominion Road, Auckland. This time the cancellation is to fund a cycle bridge over the Auckland Harbour.

Indeed, Id note the funding for the cycle bridge pretty closely matches what Te Puna to Omokoroa would cost these days. Its a pretty close to perfect swap for Labour.

All of this is, of course, a disgraceful tragedy. Im really gutted. One of the most dangerous roads in New Zealand wont get the fix it requires, meaning therell be many more deaths and serious injuries.

In addition, youll be stuck in traffic while going to work or taking the kids to their activities. Oh well, at least in the late 2020s you might possibly get to go for a bike ride in Auckland. Then again, dont count on it!
Kawerau's Tasman paper mill has closed amid questions about what contamination it leaves behind.

Freshwater campaigner Tiipene Marr, of Ngati Rangitihi, says owner Norske Skog should have to produce an environmental audit before it leaves.

The Norwegian company says it is aware of the environmental matters, and would meet all its obligations.

Tiipene and his family used to call the river the "black drain" - now they call it the "brown drain".

"The whole Tasman site is totally contaminated," says Tiipene.

"It's been running for 66 years, polluting our river and polluting our people."

Tiipene says in the past workers got sick from exposure to Tasman mill contaminants, and he says he watched as diggers buried chlorine-contaminated sludge in nearby forests.

The river is much cleaner than it was, though downstream from the mill, a monitoring site on State Highway 30 shows high phosphorus, ammonia and discoloration levels, in the worst quarter of monitored rivers, and in some cases worsening.

"We should get online with the Norwegians and tell them they're leaving a whole lot of pollution in New Zealand," says Tiipene.

"I bet they don't do it in Norway."

'No overarching audit'

At the Tasman mill, no clean-up plan has been required before it shuts.

The regulator, Bay of Plenty Regional Council says: "There is no overarching audit report. There are no specific remediation plans required."

At the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, also a sunset industry in New Zealand, there also was no over-arching audit and the government has had to pay Southland Regional Council $300,000 to come up with one for testing whatever remediation plan the smelter company eventually releases.

Another major industry changing tack, the Marsden Point oil refinery, does not have a remediation plan in place because fuel imports look set to continue there.

At Kawerau, a process is underway to "confirm remediation plans that mitigate effects on the environment, if required", says Bay of Plenty Regional Council compliance manager Stephen Mellor.

The council met with the company on Friday.

But Norske Skog says it was "not undertaking an environmental audit of part or all of the site".

"The environmental issues across the site are well known and are being managed in accordance with existing licence conditions," it stated.

'Absolute confidence'

The regional council is stressing it will keep monitoring the resource consents even after the paper mill shuts.

Most key consents were held jointly with other companies which would continue to be responsible for monitoring, managing and "potentially remediating if required".

For instance, the pulp mill next door, run by Japan-owned Oji Fibre Solutions, shares wastewater, water and energy services with Norske.

Any landfills that are closed would have to have closure plans, the council says.

Regional councillor Toi Kai Rakau Iti says the river was compromised in years past and Tiipene is right to be "raising the alarm".

"We should all be worried about big industries walking away and leaving a mess," he says.

"I am absolutely glad that there are people out there ... who are keeping the pressure on organisations like ourselves.

"I have absolute confidence in the staff, that they will be doing everything that they can to ensure that Norske Skog meet their obligations."

'Potential liabilities'

Norske Skog provided a statement to RNZ saying it is "aware of the environmental issues associated with the Kawerau site and its legal responsibilities", which it would honour.

It had been "completely open" with prospective purchasers about the environmental obligations.

Neighbouring company Oji Fibre Solutions says it is not the only one interested in Norske's assets.

"We recognise there are some potential environmental liabilities associated with parts of the land [Norske] may want to sell," Oji says.

It is committed to "full compliance" with the consents it had control over, whatever happened with the paper mill.

Oji recently spent $60m on upgrades, and ended many bleaching processes which it says cut in half some discharges to the Tawarewa River.

Tipene Marr is not reassured.

Now in his 60s, he learned from his father to campaign for the river, worked at the paper mill in his 20s then sat on the regional council for years.

"They should be made to show how they're going to clean up if it doesn't get sold," he says.

"The resource consent doesn't make them actually clean up all their pollution", he says, such as the grey sludge buried under pylons in the forests.

"They won't be told to clean up all little places all over the Kawerau region where they've dumped rubbish."

He was sceptical the council had the will to take on Norske Skog.

Treasury has told the government that regional councils have a conflict of interest in trying to regulate major industries that are big employers and spenders.

Tiipene suggested if Oji fully took over the resource consents "they should take over the pollution as well".

Kawerau mayor Malcolm Campbell says council staff have been working on closure issues for months.

Norkse Skog is retaining its investment in a wood pellet manufacturer and he is confident it would meet its obligations, says Campbell.

Phil Pennington,/RNZ.
A set of Waikato District Health Board servers were at end-of-life and unpatched when hackers struck in the early hours of May 18, a source claims.

Decisions that led to the poor security and ailing system were financially motivated, claims the source close to Waikato DHB.

However the DHB says the particular servers were not a contributing factor in the cyber-attack.

The information comes as those responsible for the ransomware attack dumped large tranches of the DHBs private patient and employee details on the dark web on Tuesday, six weeks after the hack crippled services across five hospitals including Waikato.

The massive privacy breach shows swathes of files that contain personal and highly sensitive information about patients and employees.

The source claims servers containing Human Resources Information System data based in Caro Street, Hamilton, had not been patched for years.

Server patching refers to the installation of critical software updates in IT security to a server, when a software update is released.

The Waikato DHB was relatively up-to-date with patching with the exception of Caro Street, says the insider.

Compounding the problem was that the Caro Street servers were at end-of-life, which meant they were unsupported, the source claims.

The underlying infrastructure hosting these servers became end-of-life, out of support, and subsequently no security or patches were applied to this equipment.

It's understood the DHB had been migrating its information systems to a cloud host based in Auckland.

Migrating the HRIS servers from Caro Street to the cloud was initiated in January this year however due to risk the DHB brought on consultants to manage the project, the source says.

Its understood different departments within the DHB have separate IT budgets, and the source claims the estimated cost of this project blew out to more than $1 million for the Human Resources department.

The migration did not continue due to budget and the servers remained unpatched, says the source.

The hackers would have obviously exposed a vulnerability within the system and exploited that. I suspect Caro Street was that point of vulnerability.

Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae.

In 2018 the DHB initiated a tender process for renewal of HRIS, which at that stage was 17 years old, documents show.

The tender asked for a solution that would make the HRIS fully compliant with the New Zealand Information Security Manual and specifically in relation to the management of role-based security, including providing improved adherence to security.

Almost $460,000 was spent for the renewal preparations across the 2018/2019 financial year, an OIA response from last year shows.

National's health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says by June last year the renewal project had been listed as "red status due to technical and resourcing issues", impacting the time, cost and scope.

He says the DHB's risk and impact register from the past 12 months showed HRIS software as a "highly probable risk with severe impact".

A DHB spokesperson says it has been confirmed HRIS servers were not a contributing factor to the breach of security.

He says the migration of the applications at the Caro Street site was largely completed prior to May 18 and they had now all been moved.

Exactly where the vulnerable point was and how the hackers found it is still unclear.

Hackers use a number of techniques including macros (bits of code) in emails, word documents and PDFs to get into a system, as well as port scanners to detect possible access points for infiltration and to identify what kinds of devices are running on the network, such firewalls, proxy servers or VPN servers.

In a statement on Tuesday night the DHB confirmed stolen information had made its way onto the dark web.

While we had hoped this would not occur, the DHB was aware of the risk and had been preparing and working closely with cyber security experts to identify and manage any potential disclosures.

Unfortunately, predicting the actions of cyber criminals can be challenging, however, we are monitoring the situation as closely as possible to protect our community.

Minister of Health Andrew Little told Local Democracy Reporting the Ministry of Health had information standards that DHBs were expected to comply with.

This includes keeping up with basic maintenance. There will be an independent inquiry into the Waikato DHB cyberattack which I expect will commence once services are fully restored.

Many services including critical patient treatments such as radiation therapy have been restored but Local Democracy Reporting understands some Waikato Hospital departments face a backlog in patient care because of the delays caused by the attack.

IT security expert Daniel Ayers says if the DHB had servers that were no longer supported it meant the software would have been very old.

The forensic IT investigator says he couldnt understand why an investigation into the cause of the hack had not already begun.

He says the threat of cyber security incidents within health was widely publicised from 2019 and that the attack at Waikato DHB was preventable.

Under Rule 5 of the Health Information Privacy Code, an agency must ensure health information it holds is protected by reasonable security safeguards against loss, access, use, modification, disclosure or other misuse.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says Waikato DHB must notify all individuals whose details were included in the data published on the dark web, and take steps to prevent further distribution of the information.

If somebody has suffered loss or considerable distress as a result of having their information included in the hack, and it can be shown that the DHB failed in its duty to take reasonable care, then the Waikato DHB could be liable.

Edwards says there is a risk the data dump could result in serious harm through identity theft and people fraudulently obtaining credit.
Like all busy mums, Tauranga singer Ria Hall juggles the demands of bringing up her young family, with work and study.

Like all other mothers who work, study and juggle life - you just manage as best you can and get on with the job, says Ria.

She is bringing up her two sons aged 2 and 10 months in Tauranga. She grew up in Maungatapu and attended Tauranga Girls College.

Ria is most known for her singing and songwriting career as a solo artist, as well as her collaborations. Her nephew is renowned New Zealand singer Stan Walker, and she sang on his hits Like Its Over and Aotearoa and has regularly performed with him.

The global pandemic hasnt stopped her musical ventures. In 2020, she produced and hosted Say Something, a podcast of conversations with inspiring Aotearoa musicians.

For her latest project TUAWAHINE, Ria is at the other side of the mic, as musical director of a stellar line up of female artists in a one-night-only show in Auckland this Friday as part of Matariki celebrations.

Ria told Sunlive that she is thrilled to be directing the all-female cabaret style show.

Im very excited to say the least. It's been great fun putting it together and I'm looking forward to watching it unfold as we inch closer to the show.

Tauranga singer Georgia Lines. Supplied image.

The line-up includes Anika Moa, Annie Crummer, Georgia Lines, Paige, and Tami Neilson supported by a band consisting of Julia Deans on guitar, Steph Brown (Lips) on Keys, Marika Hodgson on Bass, Tatupu Fata on Drums and Bella Kalolo on backing vocals.

While the line-up she is directing contains some of Aotearoas well known female musicians, Ria particularly singled out two rising stars who will be performing - Taurangas Georgia Lines, and Paige - who is performing in Tauranga in July.

We have two stunning up and coming artists in our show who are already doing amazing things in their respective careers. Paige and Georgia Lines are talented singer/songwriters who have huge futures ahead of them.

Ria says it will be a night of re-imagined classics, current hits and iconic covers.

TUAWAHINE

Musically directed by Ria Hall

Friday, July 2 at The Civic Theatre, Auckland. All ages.

Tickets: www.aucklandlive.co.nz
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Lawton, OK (73501)

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A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph..

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Mainly clear skies. Low 69F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Aviation Boatswains Mate (Fuels) Airman Deion Mesa, from Tahlequah, raised a disc stack to clean a fuel purifier aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7), on June 21. Tripoli is underway conducting routine operations in U.S. Third Fleet. With more than 90 percent of all trade traveling by sea, and 95 percent of the worlds international phone and internet traffic carried through fiber optic cables lying on the ocean floor, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity and security of the U.S. is directly linked to a strong and ready Navy.
Calm haven for seafarers in Doha passes 50,000 visitors in under seven months

The worlds first airport lounge for the exclusive use of seafarers and offshore workers has surpassed more than 50,000 visitors since it opened its doors in late 2020 and to mark the International Maritime Organizations Day of the Seafarer, Qatar Airways held a ceremonial opening event.

Located at Qatar Airways hub at Hamad International Airport in Doha, the Mariner Lounge was officially opened by the Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Day of the Seafarer on 25 June. The provision of dedicated lounge facilities provides ships crews and those working in offshore industries travelling with Qatar Airways an exclusive and luxurious haven during their journeys. In addition to an international selection of food and beverages, facilities include unlimited high-speed wi-fi, shower facilities, a television area, reading materials and a Business Centre. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker said: Qatar Airways is pleased to have played a leading role in the repatriation of seafarers stranded due to the pandemic, working closely with governments and the maritime industry. The international shipping industry is the lifeblood of the world economy, and as a leading global airline, Qatar Airways is truly proud to support the crews who, along with us, keep the world moving. We offer something no other airport or airline in the world currently provides  a peaceful space for these key workers to relax during their flight transfer as they make their way home or to their next posting. I hope many more maritime workers will sample our hospitality at the Mariner Lounge. Eligible seafarers & offshore workers can relax in style and experience exclusive benefits of the new lounge in addition to our world-class service and hospitality. During the pandemic, Qatar Airways has carried more than 380,000 seafarers and offshore workers since April 2020, including repatriations and crew changes, and there have been around 100 charters carrying around 28,000 mariners. The global COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for the aviation industry and, despite this, Qatar Airways never ceased operations and worked diligently to take people home safely and reliably throughout the crisis. The airline has also added eight new destinations in the past 12 months including San Francisco and Seattle in the US, Abidjan, Abuja, Accra and Luanda in Africa, and Brisbane and Cebu in Asia Pacific. As travellers return to the skies with Qatar Airways, they can take comfort knowing that they are travelling with the only airline in the world that has, together with its state-of-the-art global hub Hamad International Airport, achieved four 5-Star Skytrax ratings  including the prestigious 5-Star Airline Rating, 5-Star Airport Rating, 5-Star COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating and 5-Star COVID-19 Airport Safety Rating. These achievements highlight Qatar Airways commitment to providing our passengers with an industry-leading experience at every point of their journey, including the highest possible level of health and safety standards that safeguard the wellbeing of our passengers both on the ground and in the air.




Dutch seafarers working for John T. Essberger, based in Hamburg, have rejected forced redundancies at the tanker shipping company.

Twenty-one Dutch seafarers are threatened with redundancy, following the sale of Netherlands flagged tankers Alcedo, Ardea and Dutch Faith.

Nautilus International industrial officer Bert Klein said the tanker operator was operating a social dumping strategy by importing cheap labour from overseas to replace existing Dutch crew.

'We demand that Essberger retains our members instead of pushing for redundancy,' he said.

'The usefulness and necessity of this ill-advised plan are still completely unclear to us. Esberger management refuses to share necessary information with us to be able to form a well-founded opinion about it.'

Essberger recently established a partnership with Stolt Tankers, resulting in a joint venture E&S Tankers. The E&S fleet consists of 45 ships.

Separately, Essberger invested in eight new tankers, the first of which will be flagged in Madeira. No additional information is available for the remaining vessels.

The number of Essberger ships under the Netherlands flag has fallen from 11 to eight.

Nautilus International is very concerned about the trend to flag out from the Netherlands. 'We have seen this with Maersk and apparently Essberger is following its bad example. But just like at Maersk, we are on top of it, together with our members!'

Nautilus does not rule out industrial action at Essberger if the employer does not return to the negotiating table.
Furetanks tanker meets 2050 emission requirements

When Furetanks new vessel Fure Viten leaves the shipyard, it is best in class globally when it comes to the UN climate goals for shipping.

On 22nd June 2021, Fure Viten left the Yangzhou shipyard: a 17,999 dwt tanker with a cargo capacity of 20,300 cubic meters. It is a milestone for Swedish Furetank Rederi AB, but also an international flagship concerning environment and climate. The UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulates emissions from new vessels through the EEDI energy efficiency design index, where a lower value means less emissions. Today, the requirement for a vessel the size of Fure Viten is to reach below 9.37 points, but Fure Viten reached a value as low as 4.65 points: the best result achieved in the size segment so far.  We will operate the ships we build now for the coming 20 years, so we have put a lot of effort into investigating what is the best possible technology that we can invest in today. Climate change is a reality and we believe that politicians mean what they say. Thus, if we are to survive as a shipping company in the future, we must do our absolute best to reduce our climate and environmental impact, says Lars Hoglund, CEO of Furetank. All systems energy-optimized Fure Viten is the latest vessel in a series of eight vessels so far, out of which Furetank owns four and commercially operates all. The series is designed by Furetank and FKAB Marine Design in collaboration with Wartsila, with the aim of reducing fuel consumption as much as possible. Throughout the design and construction process, energy efficiency has been increased and the EEDI value has been improved.  We have developed ships since the 80s and used our entire experience to optimize every detail. There is not a single system that we havent improved. This combination of interacting, energy-saving technical solutions is unique, says Lars Hoglund. For example, batteries help reduce the use of auxiliary engines, a ducted propeller increases thrust and reduces power requirement, an improved hull shape minimizes drag, and the main engine and shaft generator use variable frequency to increase propeller efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. Gas propulsion brings great benefits The eight dual fuel vessels will be operated with LBG (liquefied biogas) or LNG (liquefied natural gas). Gas propulsion provides major climate, environmental and health benefits compared to oil. In combination with the technical optimizations, emissions of climate-affecting carbon dioxide have been reduced by 55% compared to older vessels and eutrophic nitrogen oxide (NOx) by 86%. Emissions of acidifying sulfur oxide (SOx) and hazardous particles (PM) are basically completely eliminated.  The next step will be to operate the ships completely without fossil fuels. We are in the process of securing the supply of larger quantities of biogas within a year or so, through an exclusive agreement with a supplier. My view is that in 2030 we will run these vessels largely on LBG with zero fossil emissions, says Lars Hoglund. First in Europe with full shore power Fure Viten and preceding sister vessel Fure Vinga are the very first tankers in Europe that are fully equipped to operate the energy-demanding cargo pumps with 6.6 kV high voltage shore power. This will reduce emissions even further as soon as ports offer the opportunity. The solution is being developed in collaboration with the ports of Gothenburg and Rotterdam, currently in the process of developing the full capacity power connection required to operate the pumps. An important effort, as the emissions in port can account for up to 20% of the total emissions from a tanker, in an environment that is often even more sensitive to pollution and noise than at sea. Reaches UN target for 2050 With the delivery of Fure Viten, the average carbon dioxide emissions from Furetank's intermediate fleet have been decreased by 50% compared to 2008. Already today the vessel series fulfills its part of the IMO's total emission target for the world fleet: to halve emissions up to year 2050. FURE VITEN Dead weight: 17,999 tons

Load capacity: 20,300 cubic meters

Tanks: 12

Design: Furetank & FKAB Marine Design

Shipyard: China Merchants Jinling Shipyard Dingheng Co Ltd.

Commercial manager: Furetank Chartering within the Gothia Tanker Alliance

Flag: Sweden

Ice class: 1A

Fuels: Dual fuel, LBG / LNG

EEDI value: 4.65




Navig8 pools boost ( ) Phoenix Energy Navigation has joined Navig8s Alpha8 Pool entering the 2008-built LR2 Phoenix Hope.



BW buys into WOMAR ( ) BW Group has entered into an agreement with the shareholders of WOMAR to buy out the stake currently held by Heidmar for an undisclosed price.



Nanjing makes impairment provisions ( ) Nanjing Tanker, the Shanghai-listed subsidiary of state conglomerate Sinotrans & CSC Holdings, last year made provisions totalling Yuan4.6 bill ($757 mill) for 19 VLCCs, due to weak spot rates.



OSM signs up Neste ( ) Norway-based OSM Maritime Group has taken over Finnish Neste Shippings fleet management.



China to stimulate VLCC demand ( ) The dramatic changes in US crude oil production through the development of the shale oil industry have already had a significant impact on the VLCC market in terms of demand.




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Satirical post: Only India-NCAP certified cars can be sold in India Delhi: In a shock move that has left the auto-industry scrambling for explanations, the Ministry of Transport today announced the only cars that have been crash tested by India-NCAP will be allowed to be sold in the country.



This move comes at the heels of the ministry announcing that only motorcycle helmets certified by BIS can be imported and sold by retailers, and that all helmets must have an ISI sticker to be deemed legal.







In a press conference today morning, the Transport Minister had this to say:



As the pandemic has clearly proven, we care deeply about the safety and well-being of our fellow countrymen. These foreign Global-NCAP people have done a great job in creating extremely reliable safety standards through their crash tests, but what do they know about the Indian road conditions?



Just like weve mandated that all helmets sold in India must be ISI certified, well now force manufacturers to crash test their cars with our new India-NCAP. It is completely irrelevant that the foreign certification organizations have far more money, experience, and competence than our local ones ever will, what matters most is that Im a big boy and only what I say is good will sell.



Our India-NCAP tests will include special scenarios relevant to the crashes we see everyday: A 70 kph, 45 degree impact into the rear of a bullock cart which is so overloaded that neither man nor animal is visible

A 120 kph highway test where you suddenly find yourself flying over the top of an unmarked speedbreaker and flip end to end

A 30 kph city test where an auto driver suddenly swerves left in front of you to pick up a passenger on the footpath and then yells at you when the auto rolls over

A 70 kph crash straight into a stationary goat where the driver maintains full eye contact with the animal to the very end

A 100 kph test where your front left wheel goes into a deep pothole and divorces your car mid-drive

A 60 kph test when a VVIP cavalcade of Fortuners crashes into you while overtaking an ambulance at twice the speed limit from the wrong side Once a car is crash tested, we will give it an appropriate rating to show how safe it is: One mirchi - Bad

Three mirchi - Good

Five mirchi and a nimbu - Best This is the same reason why weve banned helmets that are certified by the American DOT, and European ECE organizations. Sure these 50,000 Rupee lids from Arai, Shoei, and AGV are used by MotoGP riders, and represent the highest level of safety that is available right now, but they are completely missing the one thing that represents true protection, an ISI sticker.



The head of the newly created India-NCAP also provided a small statement:



This is a great day for the safety of our road users. India-NCAP will reduce the number of deaths and injuries in this country dramatically, I can assure you that. I am also mindful of the concerns of the industry that this additional and unnecessary crash test will increase their input costs, but Im sure that wont happen at all.



Most foreign testing organizations depend on carefully controlled crashes in expensive indoor labs to provide their ratings, we dont believe thats the correct way, because it doesnt replicate real life situations. Our testing methodology will be very simple, the test drivers will be allowed to go full speed on the nearest highway until they crash. Then well see if the guy survived, what injuries he has if he did, and rate the car accordingly.



This is by far the best way to crash test, better than how BIS tests helmets for sure. All they do is ask a pillion to put the helmet around his / her arm as he / she rides pillion with her partner, and if it's comfortable enough while the pillion holds a shopping bag in the other hand and whispers sweet things into the rider's ear, they give it an ISI sticker. In a shock move that has left the auto-industry scrambling for explanations, the Ministry of Transport today announced the only cars that have been crash tested by India-NCAP will be allowed to be sold in the country.This move comes at the heels of the ministry announcing that only motorcycle helmets certified by BIS can be imported and sold by retailers, and that all helmets must have an ISI sticker to be deemed legal.In a press conference today morning, the Transport Minister had this to say:As the pandemic has clearly proven, we care deeply about the safety and well-being of our fellow countrymen. These foreign Global-NCAP people have done a great job in creating extremely reliable safety standards through their crash tests, but what do they know about the Indian road conditions?Just like weve mandated that all helmets sold in India must be ISI certified, well now force manufacturers to crash test their cars with our new India-NCAP. It is completely irrelevant that the foreign certification organizations have far more money, experience, and competence than our local ones ever will, what matters most is that Im a big boy and only what I say is good will sell.Our India-NCAP tests will include special scenarios relevant to the crashes we see everyday:Once a car is crash tested, we will give it an appropriate rating to show how safe it is:This is the same reason why weve banned helmets that are certified by the American DOT, and European ECE organizations. Sure these 50,000 Rupee lids from Arai, Shoei, and AGV are used by MotoGP riders, and represent the highest level of safety that is available right now, but they are completely missing the one thing that represents true protection, an ISI sticker.The head of the newly created India-NCAP also provided a small statement:This is a great day for the safety of our road users. India-NCAP will reduce the number of deaths and injuries in this country dramatically, I can assure you that. I am also mindful of the concerns of the industry that this additional and unnecessary crash test will increase their input costs, but Im sure that wont happen at all.Most foreign testing organizations depend on carefully controlled crashes in expensive indoor labs to provide their ratings, we dont believe thats the correct way, because it doesnt replicate real life situations. Our testing methodology will be very simple, the test drivers will be allowed to go full speed on the nearest highway until they crash. Then well see if the guy survived, what injuries he has if he did, and rate the car accordingly.This is by far the best way to crash test, better than how BIS tests helmets for sure. All they do is ask a pillion to put the helmet around his / her arm as he / she rides pillion with her partner, and if it's comfortable enough while the pillion holds a shopping bag in the other hand and whispers sweet things into the rider's ear, they give it an ISI sticker. Last edited by GTO : 30th June 2021 at 08:37 . Reason: Rule #11 :)
Why it matters: Google is allowing Android users to store and display Covid-19 vaccine cards and test information on its passes system, used for non-payment cards, starting with select providers in the United States. The company writes that developers from healthcare organizations, government agencies and organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute Covid vaccines and tests will have access to Google Pay's Passes API to create a digital version of the documents.

The digital Covid-19 vaccination card shows the recipient's name and date of birth, which vaccine they received, and the date of both doses. You can save the information on more than one device, and you don't need the Google Pay app to access the feature, which requires a device with Android 5 or later and be Play Protect certified.

Google writes that users can find their vaccine or test information by visiting their healthcare providers' website or app, or via a text or email. If they support the feature, a Save to Phone option should be present for saving it to Google Payeven if you don't have the app. Google recommends adding a shortcut to your home screen to access the Covid card faster.

Google assures users that it will not store their data in the cloud, share it with third parties, or use it to target ads, but it will collect some information, including how many times they use the card and on which days.

As noted by The Verge, some states, such as New York and California, have their own version of the digital vaccine card, as do many countriesthe UK's version is accessed through an NHS app. But Google could make the whole process easier for health authorities and the public.

Image credit: Studio Romantic
In a nutshell: Philips is adding another entry to its range of 49-inch monitors with the Brilliance 498P9Z, a curved display with a 165Hz refresh rate that combines gaming and productivity features.

Dell, AOC, and Samsung are just some of the companies that have embraced the 49-inch, super-wide monitor form factor. Were big fans of the Samsung Odyssey G9, which we gave a score of 90 in our review last year.

Like the Odyssey G9, the Philips Brilliance 498P9Z uses a 5120 x 1440 (32:9) VA panel thats essentially like having two 27-inch 2560 x 1440 displays side by side, only without the distracting bezels. Theres a 1800R curve for added immersion, and the 550 nits max brightness means its certified for DisplayHDR 400. Gamers, meanwhile, should appreciate that 165Hz refresh rate, 4ms GtG response time, and Adaptive-Sync technology.

Being designed for work and play, the Brilliance 498P9Z boasts 89% coverage of the Adobe RGB color gamut, along with 91% DCI-P3, 100% NTSC, and 122% of the sRGB color gamuts. Its also factory calibrated to a Delta E <2 accuracy. Users should appreciate the LowBlue Mode, Flicker-free technology, and integrated KVM switch for controlling two separate PCs with one monitor-keyboard-mouse set up.

Port-wise, the monitor comes with one DisplayPort 1.4 and three HDMI 2.0 inputs. Theres also a six-port USB 3.2 hub (two upstream, four downstream with fast charge), built-in dual 5W speakers, and a stand with adjustable height, swivel, and tilt.

No word yet on availability or price, but expect the Philips Brilliance 498P9Z to be a little over $1,000, as is the case with most 49-inch monitors of this kind.
What just happened? Micron back in March announced it had ceased production of 3D XPoint memory and was putting its Lehi, Utah-based fab up for sale. Theyve since found a buyer in Texas Instruments.

Micron this week said Texas Instruments has entered into an agreement to purchase the facility for $900 million in cash. The company said it expects to recoup an additional $600 million from the sale of select tools and other assets, some of which have already changed hands. The remaining assets will be redeployed to Microns other manufacturing sites or sold to other buyers, were told.

Texas Instruments will offer all existing Lehi team members job opportunities, and will deploy its own technologies at the site.

Micron partnered with Intel in 2015 on 3D XPoint, a memory technology that was billed as being 1,000 times faster than NAND. A handful of Optane-branded products did make it to market utilizing 3D XPoint, but Intel ultimately pulled out of the venture in late 2018.

Micron has since shifted its focus to memory solutions for data centers, powered by the Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect. The tech, according to Micron, delivers a high-performance link between compute, memory and storage subsystems, and could be a key cog in artificial intelligence platforms and within the world of data analytics.

Image credit Charles Knowles, tomeqs
(Photo : Investing in Environmentally Friendly Green Technology)

In 2017, total transactions in renewable energy increased by 1%, while global new investment in this field increased by 2%. New investments in this industry touched $279.8 billion, while transactions totalled $393.8 billion. The year 2018 is expected to be another strong year for investing in the field of renewable energy as through the third quarter, new investments had already reached a total of $211.4 billion. Investments in green technology are made in a number of ways, with increases for development in electric vehicles and wind power, new highs being reached for installing renewable power capacity, and a worldwide and marked increase in public market investment. In 2018 and across the world, the Asia-Pac region leads the investment, with the greatest funding going to solar-powered innovations. As a result, what was once perceived as a view of the future, has become a reality, because all around the world, countries are investing substantially, year after year, in green technology affecting the HFEL share price.

What is the Reason for Investing in Green Technology?

Clean technology investing, as green technology investing is also called, involves investing in select companies who practice and offer products and services that are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Clean technologies can help to decrease environmental impact, or improve efficiency and resource productivity. Green technology is all the time emerging as a growing force, and this has led to many industry clusters emerging, that take advantage of the constant changes from trends in innovation. UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program breaks down green industries into categories like, solar ,wind, biomass, biofuels, small hydro, marine, and geothermal. The growth in global green technology investments has led to the participation of a growing number of countries. UNEP breaks down this global investment as that carried out in The Americas (excluding US and Brazil), Brazil, the United States, Europe, China, India, ASOC that excludes India and China, and the Middle East and Africa. As per reports of Bloomberg, in 2018, the leader in investments was the Asia-Pac region with a total of just under $40 billion.

Industries

Green technology had a 60% share in new power generating capacity in 2017 In this year, the investment in solar and wind led by receiving investments of $161 billion and $107 billion. While solar and wind continued with this momentum in 2018, attention is also being drawn to that on electric vehicles. NIO, a Chinese rival to Tesla, brought out an initial public offering (IPO) that gathered a lot of interest. It raised $1 billion with this IPO. NIO trades on the NYSE at a price that has increased to $7.96. China was also reported to be the leader in the sales of electric vehicles having sold 533,000 vehicles in 2017.

Countries

All over the world, public and private markets have been putting their funds into IPOs of companies that are into green technology. In 2017, developing countries spent more than the developed countries by investing $177 billion. The majority of this investment, $144 billion, came from India, China, and Brazil. China led the world in 2017 with $126.6 billion.

In 2104, public market investment peaked at $15.1 billion, but has reduced to $5.7 billion in 2017. Their investments are mainly in solar and wind. IPOs are being placed in private markets all over the world with sale of shares from China Everbright Greentech, New Energy Solar, Windlab, and Omega Geracao.

The government in the United Kingdom maintains a 24.5 million fund for the Department of Energy and Climate Change established Energy Catalyst, as well as Innovate UK, and the Physical Science Research Council. In the first round of this funding, forty different technologies were given a share of these funds. Researchers and businesses from any sector can approach The Energy Catalyst as long as they address issues that relate to savings in energy costs and reducing carbon emissions.

Investments in Green Technology Abound

If you are an investor who wants to invest in green technology, it is important that you understand the background behind this field of technology, and the goals that this rapidly growing field are founded on. These goals are:

Source Reduction: Here the goal is to reduce waste and pollution by changing the patterns of production and consumption.

Sustainability: This makes an effort to meet the needs of society by using methods that can be used indefinitely in the future so that natural resources are not damaged or depleted.

Innovation: Some technologies are harmful to the environment, and focus of innovation is to develop alternatives that will not do so.

Cradle-to-cradle Design: This requires creating products that can be reclaimed or reused, thus putting an end to the cradle-to-grave cycle that most manufactured products go through.

Viability: Here, the accent is on creation of economic activity centers that concentrate on products as well as technologies that benefit the environment, and result in an increased speed of implementation of the technology and its products.

As an investor, you will find many subsectors in green technology that make for excellent investment opportunities. They include:

Energy: Energy is considered the most pressing issue in green technology, and the focus here is on developing alternative fuels.

Green Nanotechnology: This requires manipulating various materials at a nanometer level, so that it can transform the way products are manufactured.

Green Chemistry: This requires inventing, developing, and applying chemical processes for products, so that the generation and use of hazardous substances are eliminated or reduced.

Planning a Strategy for Green Tech Investment

When you are choosing a sector for investment in green technology, focus on finding those that are not only lucrative, but also ones that are in line with your environmental and personal interests. New IPOs can be top prospects as more companies that are small, successful, and growing, list themselves on exchanges.

All green tech investments can be considered good in an ideal situation, but what you need to keep in mind is that investing in any new technology can be risky, as well as investing in companies that are just emerging and are largely unknown. Any successful investment strategy requires to be one that is diversified. You can protect your funds by having a diverse portfolio that is invested in different green sectors. ETFs or exchange traded funds that are managed and mutual funds leaves stock picking to the professionals and can turn out to be good investments.

Greenwashing is a trap that is easy to fall into, and in this companies or services claim to be green, while actually they are not. Understand and research the basis of the technology that is being developed before you decide to back the company offering this. Asking questions is the best way to determine the solidity of the technology and its environmental practices behind a company, so that you know they are not just being greenwashed.

The Bottom Line

There are abundant opportunities if you are an investor looking for sound investments that are environmentally responsible. There is two-fold challenge in green technology investment. One, is to increase your personal wealth, and the other is to make the world a better place by investing in a way that is socially responsible. This is not an easy task, and can be quite daunting, but any time taken to conduct the needed research can help you protect both your wealth and the environment. You must remember to make a level of investment that is in line with your goals, tolerance of risk, and and level of financial commitment, while also being able to support the sustainable practices and environmental goals that the latest technological advances bring.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Elon Musk teased another feature of his popular spacecraft, and it is the Rapid Reusability Rockets, saying that Falcon 9 has less maintenance work and cost with every use, with Starship and Super Heavy at zero. This means that SpaceX is not spending as much funds or resources on its reusable rockets, but saves more on its use.

One might think that SpaceX is spending too much money in keeping or maintaining a rocket like Falcon 9, which already passed its tenth flight milestone and believed lifespan. However, that is where people are wrong, especially as the CEO reveals how much work it needs to keep it up and running.

Elon Musk: SpaceX's Rapid Reusability Rockets

Recently, SpaceX achieved success on its first on-shore landing of the year, launched and returned at Cape Canaveral, Florida, which forewent its traditional return on drone ships or offshore. The successful mission of the Falcon made Elon Musk more active on social media and address a lot of questions.

One of which was targeted on his recent tweet about the "Rapid Reusability Rockets RRR," with a pirate sign on the side.

Here, a Twitter user has asked about whether SpaceX spends as much money as building a new rocket, on refurbishing its Falcon 9 between each flight to get it ready and capable of handling another usage of it.

Here, Musk replied that the Falcon 9 costs "less and less" between each flight, and this means that refurbishing it or getting it ready every reuse does not cost SpaceX a fortune. Then, the CEO revealed that its Stainless Steel spacecraft, Starship, and its Super Heavy Rocket booster will have "Zero" costs every time it would be reused.

Work needed between flights is less & less, as shown by shortening time between reflights. Required work between flights for Starship & Super Heavy is zero.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2021

Read Also: Elon Musk Jokes with Tory Bruno About ULA's Vulcan Assembly, To Bring a Few Spare Engines from SpaceX

Falcon 9 and Starship, Super Heavy

SpaceX has popularized the use of reusable rocketships and has been one of its pioneers and innovators in the modern age, which made the company famous and save on a lot of its missions. This was a win-win for them, especially as it gave SpaceX a notion that it is a sustainable company, coming from an Earth advocate CEO.

The Falcon 9 is the older version of the reusable rocket, and it has exhibited a lot of missions where it has been reused a lot of times, each mission turning out to be a success until recent times.

It would soon be replaced by the tandem of Starship and Super Heavy Rocket, which are more maintenance-free compared to Falcon 9, as revealed by Musk. Note that July was the target date for a full-stack flight, and it is right around the corner.

When will Falcon 9 Retire?

Currently, there are no announcements as to when the Falcon 9 will retire, but it would surely be used less and less for Starlink's mission that would bring satellites to orbit, as Starship will take over. Having said this, it seems like Falcon 9 will soon have its absence on the launch fields of SpaceX, once the stainless steel spacecraft is operational.

Related Article: SpaceX Delays Launching Rideshare Mission of 88 Satellites -- Here's Why

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Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Florida "Deplatforming" Law backed by Governor Ron De Santis faced a halt from an injunction that was posted by a Federal Judge. This gave Facebook and Twitter a pass from paying $250,000 per day, on the politicians who have taken off their platforms, based on violating the Community Guidelines and other offenses.

One of the most prolific de-platforming was on former President Donald Trump's case, where Twitter permanently banned him off the short word social media following the change of the POTUS. Shortly, Facebook followed but was initially unclear of what Trump's sentence would be, but then gave him the max 2 years of suspension in the platform.

Florida Deplatforming Law Gets Injunction

In the recent development of the Florida Deplatforming Law, US District Judge Robert Hinkle has brought up a preliminary injunction against the new law that protects politicians from getting their platforms away from them.

Free speech is also applied for the big tech companies of Facebook and Twitter, hence the injunction that was posted, and it helped them to be saved from Florida's recently passed law. According to the injunction, Hinkle wrote that they have the right to govern over the platforms, and choose who can stay or be suspended from it, if it violates their guidelines.

Read Also: DOJ Leaves Apple With No Choice But to Release Private Data Amid Trump's Leaker Crusade

Injunctions cannot fully invalidate a law, rather they can only halt a certain prohibition's effects or rule over something while having it reviewed and reconsidered by courts.

First Amendment and Deplatforming

The First Amendment of the US Constitution upholds the exercise of free speech for all American citizens, focusing on public speech and via platforms for the modern age. And while deplatforming a politician "violates" free speech, Judge Hinkle argued that free speech can also be exercised by the removal of those who violated certain guidelines.

Community Guidelines from Facebook or Twitter, and other social media are there to ensure that people would be responsible for carrying out their free speech on social media. As long as it is not inciting violence, or disrespecting any person of any age, race, religion, and ethnicity, it is allowed on the platform.

This part is the grey area, where both are considered forms of free speech, and both are also in conflict with one another.

Facebook and Twitter Are Fine-Free

Florida was supposed to be penalizing Facebook and Twitter for banning politicians like Donald Trump for $250,000 per day, making this a very expensive one to pay. However, thanks to the federal judge's injunction, they are fine-free and saved from this.

Twitter's permanent ban would surely cost them a lot, especially as they exhibit no plans of taking it back for Trump.

Related Article: Facebook Antitrust Law Complaints Thrown Out by US Judge - What Happens Next?

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Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NEOWISE, also known as Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer will give NASA a good look at the approaching hazardous near-earth objects including the asteroids and other celestial entities. According to the space agency, there are more than 1,850 of them spotted by the asteroid-hunting telescope under its guard.

NEO Telescope to Extend Operations For Two Years

The NEOWISE will continue to operate until June 2023 according to NASA. The mission will cover hunting potential objects that will enter the earth. The team will also study the hazards that each of them poses.

Following the announcement about the extension service of the telescope, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that they are always on the lookout to spot asteroids and near-earth objects which could help them know more about the solar system.

Moreover, they have already searched more than 26,000 asteroids, but still, more of them are expected to arrive at unknown dates.

Nelson added that they will continue to develop the NEOWISE for more effective space exploration. They are focused on finding the celestial threats before they land on Earth.

In December 2009, there was no "Near-Earth Object" placed on the name of the surveyor. What it did in the past was to conduct observations of stars, asteroids, and even identify infrared wavelengths in the far-reaching galaxies. Two years later, NASA decided to rest it for a while since its cryogenic coolant malfunctioned during the mission.

The then-WISE mission was reborn in 2013 with a new name called NEOWISE. Those asteroids crossing the Earth's orbit are detected before they officially come in contact with the planet's surface.

Read Also: Hubble Space Telescope Spots Image of Blackhole-Lit Spiral Galaxy

International Asteroid Day

On Wednesday, June 30, the special commemoration for International Asteroid Day was conducted. This tackled the possible asteroids that could impact the earth--the largest batch of heavenly bodies.

"NEO Surveyor will have the capability to rapidly accelerate the rate at which NASA is able to discover asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to the Earth, and it is being designed to discover 90% of asteroids 459 feet in size or larger within a decade of being launched," said Mike Kelley, NEO Surveyor program scientist at NASA Headquarters via WMTW's report.

Scientists can also study the asteroid size as they collide with the surface of the Earth. Furthermore, the data that they would gather will help them know about the contents of the near-earth objects.

Next-gen NEO Surveyor

In the next five years, the NEO Surveyor will be released as part of the replacement for NEOWISE. According to NEO Surveyor lead, Amy Mainzer, the new telescope will assist them in an asteroid-hunting mission. Provided that it is an improved space-based infrared telescope, it would give them a more comprehensive look at the asteroids.

Currently, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been managing the existing NEOWISE project.

Related Article: NASA's Neowise Mission Detects 72 New Near-Earth Objects Including 8 Potentially Hazardous

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Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Screenshot From Commons.Wikipedia.org) NASA's 'Commander Moony McMoonface' Almost Ended Up with a Different Name

A NASA practice dummy, or manikin, that is set to head to the moon as a part of NASA's Artemis 1 mission some time later this year finally has a name! Everyone, the newest astronaut on the NASA team, manekin "Commander Moonikin Campos!"

R.I.P. Arturo Campos

The name was chosen through a public vote which honors Arturo Campos, a particular electrical engineer who was able to help bring the famed Apollo 13 back to Earth safely. This was after a service module aboard the popular spacecraft ruptured which put astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert.

Campos was one of the very few Mexican-American employees over at the Johnson Space Center, which was formerly called NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, when the majority of the employees were of white heritage. Colleagues remembered Campus as a person that was extremely proud of his heritage.

NASA 'Moonikin' Dummy

NASA previously announced the agency's Name the Artemis Moonikin Challenge some time earlier this month in order to find the right moniker for the somewhat male-shaped manikin which they called "moonikin." The dummy is set to launch as part of the agency's upcoming uncrewed flight test of the SLS or Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

The new Commander Moonikin Campos will be occupying the commander's seat aboard the upcoming Orion while wearing the same Artemis astronaut spacesuit during launch, entry, and even other phases of the mission. Sensors set under the manekin's headrest as well as behind the seat are set to record acceleration and vibration throughout the whole journey while delivering data on how the whole trip might actually impact real human beings.

Introducing Commander Moonikin Campos

The Commander Moonikin Campos name emerged victorious from a whole bracket-style contest of titles honoring NASA programs and people, and the astronomical objects. The final bracket finally broke down to Campos and Delos, a particular reference to the island where Artemis and Apollo were actually born in Greek mythology.

According to CNet, there were a few names that were close to making the cut for the new astronaut. Other names include Montgomery for Julius Montgomery and Ace for Artemis Crew Explorer. NASA was able to tally over 300,000 votes all in all from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Read Also: Russia Soyuz Rocket Sends Progress MS-17 To ISS-Marking 2nd Cargo Ship of the Country

Campos Part of the Hispanic Heritage Program

Campos died back in 2004 after being able to leverage his electrical engineering expertise in over dozens of different NASA projects. He also served as the Johnson Space Center's Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Program representative as well as a member of the employees' proud Hispanic Heritage Program.

Although the name Commander Moonikin Campos does honor an important person in space history, there were moments in the past that asking the public to give a name for a significant part of an official mission didn't play out right. When the public was asked to name a British submersible polar research vessel. They came down to Boaty McBoatface.

Related Article: NASA Confirms to Try Latest Solar Sail Technologies in Space by Mid-2022

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Written by Urian B.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Space junk has been a growing debate and headache for those who are invested in space exploration. Some may say it's better to leave all of the space junk floating in outer space. Sending spacecrafts and missions to outer space is costly as it is. Sending one meant to dispose of space junk or find a way to bring all the debris back to Earth is even more so.

Others may just nonchalantly ask, "Well, then, why don't you just remove it?" It's one thing to say it. It sounds easy, but it's a whole other thing to actually be able to do it.

Many might even say that while it may be important to clear the debris, it can wait a couple more years. An increasing number of space junk crashes and incidents in the past few years, however, says otherwise.

Here is what you should know about space junk, the crashes and incidents the debris have caused over the years, and the efforts being made to clear out or lessen the debris left in outer space:

Space Junk: What It Is

Space junk, or space debris, is defined by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a terminology that "encompasses both natural meteoroid and artificial (human-made) orbital debris." Orbital debris include man-made objects orbiting our planet that no longer serve any purpose or function.

According to NASA, there are around 23,000 pieces objects "larger than a softball" that are currently orbiting the Earth and therefore considered as space junk. Pieces of debris that are the size of marble or even smaller are even much greater than number.

It may not seem threatening at all at first glance, but in outer space, even the tiniest of debris can cause a lot of damage to a spacecraft.

Per NASA, "they travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft."

Last March, the International Space Station ejected a pallet filled with 2.9 tons of old batteries that is considered as its largest piece of space junk ever. A collision between Chinese and Russian spaceships likewise generated even more space debris last year.

Related Article: Space Debris Is A Growing Threat, Scientists Warn

Space Junk Crashes and Incidents

The past couple of years have seen multiple crashes and incidents caused by space junk. A list published by Space details what the publication considers the space debris events of all time. Included in the list are the reentering of the Cosmos 954, whose spy radar antennas contained compact nuclear reactors, and a woman in Oklahoma getting hit by debris from a Delta 2 booster in 1997.

In 2016, a space junk that was pretty much just a 7-millimeter circular chip cracked the window of the International Space Station. A robotic arm in the space station was also damaged by space debris just last month, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Efforts Made to Remove or Lessen Space Junk

With the amount of damage that even the smallest of space junk can cause, efforts have been made to clear up all the junk from outer space.

The International Space Station launched its first space mission that aimed to clean up space junk in 2018. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a similar mission in 2017, but the mission failed when the cargo spacecraft it used fell back to Earth.

Alternatives to the usual structure of satellites have also been explored as a way of lessening space debris. Japan is in the process of developing the nation's first wooden satellite, while another wooden satellite by a Finnish manufacturer is set for launch this year.

If the launch will be successful, it will be the world's first wooden satellite to reach outer space.

Also Read: The World's First Wooden Satellite is Set to Launch This Year

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Written by Isabella James

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Screenshot From Commons.Wikipedia.org) Crypto Miners to Pay Higher Rates for Electricity in Kazakhstan | 'Negative Impact on Investment Attractiveness'

Cryptocurrency miners over in Kazakhstan will be paying more compared to other consumers for the electricity they need in order to mint new digital coins. The country's president has just signed a law that would impose additional fees for the needed power by the energy intensive crypto mining industry.

Kazakhstan to Raise Crypto Mining Electricity Prices

According to News.Bitcoin.com, crypto mining entities over in Kazakhstan will be paying a surcharge for the needed electricity that they use. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has just signed a brand new law which would amend the Central Asian republic's legislation when it comes to taxes as well as other obligatory payments to the budget.

The bill was voted by the Senate some time in early June 2021 and would introduce 1 Kazakhstani tenge (which is around $0.0023) for every kilowatt-hour that needs to be used by cryptominers. The brand new electricity rate will be imposed during the first day of next year on Jan 1, 2022, according to Forklog.

New Crypto Law Sees 'No Critical Consequences'

Authorities over in Nur-Sultan now claim that the additional charge will in fact "bring out of the shadow" those particular cryptocurrency miners that are still operating in the gray economy as of the moment. Albert Rau, the lawmaker that was named as the author of the bill by local media gave a statement.

Rau noted that they could not foresee any actual "critical consequences" from this new adoption. Rau also insists that the official parliament has already approved a "government version" of the said initially proposed amendments.

Crypto Representatives Speak Up

Representatives coming from the cryptocurrency sector express disagreement with Rau's current position along with a warning that this move actually comes at a really inappropriate time. The members of Kazakhstan's National Association of Blockchain and Data Center Industry stated to the crypto news outlet that the decision will in fact have a really negative effect on the potential investment attractiveness of the industry itself.

The main concern as of the moment is that the fee might turn away Chinese companies that have been looking around for other particular jurisdictions throughout the ongoing China crackdown on crypto mining. Kazakhstan has also recently been considered as a potential mining destination due to the country warming up towards the crypto industry over the past few years

Read Also: [Breaking] South Korea Crypto Exchanges Could Sue Government for Alleged 'Unconstitutional' Banking Requirements

Chinese Cryptominers Moving to Kazakhstan

Back in May, 2021, Bit Mining, a Shenzhen-based crypto mining company announced its plans to build a massive 100MW mining data center in Kazakhstan along with two local firms as partners. In June, Chinese authorities intensified their push on bitcoin mining operations and the company started to ship out mining devices in Kazakhstan.

Some time earlier this month, Canaan, a Hangzhou-headquartered mining hardware manufacturer, established an after-sales service center in Kazakhstan as even more Chinese miners decided to relocate to Central Asia.

Related Article: Breaking: Binance Banned from Operating in UK a Day After Japan and Canada Ban, FCA

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Elon Musk invited people to "visit and see" China via a tweet, which he believed to be the next top market for Tesla.

He goes on to marvel at the infrastructure of the Asian country, which he dubbed as "truly amazing."

Elon Musk Tweets Inviting People to Visit China

Benzinga reported that the Tesla CEO sang high praises for China in response to Xinhua News, a state-run media, tweeting about the centennial celebration of the Communist Party.

The Chinese news outlet's tweet quoted President Xi Jinping, boasting how far the country has achieved. Furthermore, the Asian leader claimed that China has already attained a "moderately prosperous society."

China has realized the first centenary goal pic.twitter.com/oqCgnChHOj  China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 1, 2021

Elon Musk then immensely commended China's economic standing. As he marveled at the Asian country's achievement, he enthusiastically invited other people to visit the country.

Elon Musk Winning Back China?

It is not the first time that the Tesla boss spoke high favorable about China. As such, CNN noticed on March 24 that Musk is trying to win back the Asian country.

It came after his company faced China's wrath as the country accused his vehicles of spying. The Asian country pinpointed the numerous cameras that Musk's Tesla vehicles feature, and its ability to record videos anytime it desires.

On April 8, the Tesla CEO responded to the allegations of China, saying that the cameras only worked in the United States. Even so, car owners have the choice to opt-out of the system.

China's accusations have led to the banning of Tesla vehicles in any military complex in the Asian country. Thus, Musk had to clarify it.

Read Also: Elon Musk Tweets A Beautiful Photo of SpaceX's Enormous Starship Rocket Booster

Elon Musk Praises China

That said, Musk started to marvel at the Asian country in March. He told CCTV, a state-owned network in China, that he predicts that it will soon be Tesla's "biggest market," as per Insider.

Currently, China accounts for 30% of the total sales of Tesla vehicles. It now comes second to the United States.

He further forecasted that the economy of the Asian country will be the most globally significant in the future. Musk noted that China has already strengthened its sustainable energy commitment by then.

On June 27, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO tweeted that China's Zhurong Mars Rover is "cool." It was his response to the progress video that the rover has recently uploaded.

Related Article: Elon Musk Tweets with Broken Heart Emoji, Linkin Park Reference As Popular Crypto Drops as Much as 3.4%

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Google Assistant records your conversations even when not in use, the company reportedly admitted to an Indian government panel.

So, it turns out that even without saying the word "OK Google," the AI Assistant still listens to your conversations discreetly.

Google has already previously admitted recording conversations on Assistant in a blog post on July 11, 2019. However, the tech giant clearly said that it does not do so without the magic word. It further assured that it only sends audio to its servers after summoning the AI.

Google Assistant Records Audio Secretly

According to Android Authority, representatives from Google admitted to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology of India that Assistant records audio even when products featuring it are not being used.

The tech giant also noted that their employees listen to such recordings as the speech recognition technology uses them.

Nevertheless, Google clarified that it is not being done in a creepy way, assuring that their staff is not listening to our sensitive conversations. It was further established that they only have access to limited parts of the audio.

Notably, the search engine giant did not disclose what sets the line to figure out which conversations are non-sensitive or sensitive.

Elsewhere, here's how much data Google Maps collects.

Google Assistant Recording Conversations Mistakenly

The Google Assistant has recorded audio without permission in the past. However, the company fixed the error immediately.

VoiceBot reported on August 11, 2020, that Google similarly admitted that Assistant records audio even without saying "OK Google," blaming a software error.

The tech giant goes on to say that a small number of users have been affected by the issue. Since then, Google has assured users that the error has been resolved.

Specifically, Google Home devices due to Nest Aware have faced the inadvertent recording mess back then.

Read Also: Google Assistant to Automatically Fill Out Forms When Users Order From Restaurants

Google Assistant Recording Leak

Meanwhile, the audio recording of Google's assistive AI has also previously been leaked, as per CNBC.

On July 11, 2019, about 1,000 customer confidential conversation recordings were exposed by its partners. Google said that their third-party language reviewer for the Dutch audio was responsible for it.

The tech giant did not tolerate the incident and vowed to take action against their partner. Meanwhile, the company reviewed its processes to avoid the incident from occurring in the future.

Google clarified that the language reviewer only had access to 0.2% of their users' recordings.

In other related news, the upcoming Pixel smartphone is likely featuring a Google Assistant Shortcuts upgrade.

Related Article: Google Assistant's 'Tell Me A Story' Feature Makes Bedtime Stories Available Anytime, Anywhere

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Apple is once again in trouble after a medical device developer filed a lawsuit against its Apple Watch Series 6's pulse oximetry feature. Masimo claims that the giant iPhone maker's wearable gadget bypasses some of its patents.

(Photo : Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

Jun Matsuda from Sydney shops for his new Apple Watch Series 6 at the Apple Store in George Street on September 18, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Customers to the Apple stores in Australia are among some of the first in the world to be able to view Apple's newest products. The new Apple Watch Series 6 features a blood oxygen sensor and app, while a new iPad (8th generation) has also been released.

Masimo is currently one of the largest medical-grade pulse oximeter manufacturers across the globe. Various hospitals and other medical companies use its medical gadgets. If you don't know what a pulse oximeter is, it is a gadget that shows how much oxygen is in the blood of the user.

Experts and medical researchers use this advanced device to know the health factors affecting the patient's oxygen levels. And now, Apple's Watch Series 6 offers the technology as an internal feature.

Because of this, Masimo filed a complaint, asking FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to ban the device since its pulse oximeter feature infringes five patents of the company.

Apple Vs. Masimo

According to Slash Gear's latest report, Masimo filed a patent infringement against Apple Watch Series 6 before last month of June ended. The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating the lawsuit.

(Photo : Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

Jun Matsuda from Sydney shops for his new Apple Watch Series 6 at the Apple Store in George Street on September 18, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Customers to the Apple stores in Australia are among some of the first in the world to be able to view Apple's newest products. The new Apple Watch Series 6 features a blood oxygen sensor and app, while a new iPad (8th generation) has also been released.

Also Read: Apple iOS 15 Public Beta: FaceTime, Focus, SharePlay, and MORE Features-Should You Install It?

Specifically, Masimo asks FTC to complete stop the import of the Apple Watch Series 6. In the new lawsuit, Masimo accuses the giant tech developer of selling more Watch Series 6 units that bypass its pulse oximetry patents.

On the other hand, the patent office also suggested that Masimo needs to send the lawsuit to ITC (The International Trade Center). The office told this so that the lawsuit will not be delayed.

Aside from this, Masimo also claimed that the total ban of the Apple Watch Series 6 will not affect the public since this wearable is not really essential. The medical device manufacturer added that this gadget also doesn't increase people's welfare.

As of the moment, Apple Watch Series 6 is considered one of the most advanced oximeter devices since it can monitor your oxygen levels, even when you are sleeping.

Masimo Already Filed Other Lawsuits Against Apple

Mac Rumors reported that Masimo already reported Apple back in 2020. The medical gadget maker accused the iPhone maker of stealing trade secrets.

Aside from this, Masimo also claimed that Apple is misusing its innovations. Right now, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is already investigating Masimo's inventions since Apple disputed that it did not use its technologies.

For more news updates about Apple and other related stories, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Apple Releases Detailed List of Products That Should Be Kept Away From Medical Devices--Here Are They

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Microsoft is the latest victim of the cryptocurrency bubble if you could believe it.

According to a report by GameSpot, the company just lost a massive $10 million worth of Xbox gift cards due to a scheme perpetrated by one of their employees. All gift cards the said employee generated were sold for boatloads of bitcoin, until he was caught fairly recently.

(Photo : Chesnot/Getty Images)

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 16: The logo of the U.S. multinational computer and microcomputer, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft Corporation on display during the 5th edition of the Viva Technology show at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on June 16, 2021 in Paris, France.

The employee, a Microsoft engineer, named Volodymyr Kvashuk, was able to commit the crime after being assigned to simulate purchases from the company's online store. While working, he noticed that he got real Xbox gift card code whenever he made a simulated purchase. He then had the idea of selling this off, not for cash, but as bitcoins.

To sell the codes, PCGamer reported that Kvashuk went to cryptocurrency marketplaces such as Paxful. There, he would sell the Xbox gift cards in bulk at a discount, which would then be resold to buyers looking for codes.

Initially, the employee started small with $10 Xbox gift cards. He then moved on to denominations as big as $100 while working his shifts, recruiting a few co-workers to help him along the way. He rerouted his internet traffic through offshore servers in Japan and Russia and used a wide array of user-profiles user-profiles to hide his tracks. He also used money laundering websites like ChipMixer to hide the trail further.

But of course, this didn't fly under Microsoft's radar for very long. His activities resulted in a significant spike in gift card transactions. Before he knew it, federal agents were ordered to raid his home in July 2019. Kvashuk was sentenced to nine years in prison, ordered to pay restitution amounting to $8.3 million, and was likely deported to his home country of Ukraine.

Kvashuk's exploits were, as prosecutors would put it, was "singularly responsible" for the massive fluctuation of Xbox gift card pricing in global markets, as reported by WindowsCentral. This wasn't mere petty theft: it's a full-blown heist.

Read also: Xbox Series X Restock Drought is Finally Ending-- Here's an Updated Tracker For the Last Restock Dates and Where to Go Next

Microsoft Xbox Gift Card Heist: Did their Own Security Fail?

As much as what the employee did was bad enough, Microsoft's internal security might've been quite lacking for Kvashuk to do what he did.

The original report from Bloomberg that broke this story out had other more interesting details. But perhaps the most eye-catching one is that despite Kvashuk's job requiring him to simulate purchases, it still returned actual, working Xbox gift card codes. This is a major loophole in Microsoft's security that should be patched by now. But if it still isn't, then they're at risk of something like this happening again.

It seems like the video game industry has increasingly fallen victim to cyberattacks during the past couple of years. According to experts, there has been an insane 340% increase in gaming-focused cybercrime compared to pre-pandemic numbers, which is more than enough cause for concern.

And since Microsoft has been experiencing massive success with Xbox recently, they can't afford to deal with this down the road.

Read also: Xbox Series X Restock Drought is Finally Ending-- Here's an Updated Tracker For the Last Restock Dates and Where to Go Next

Microsoft Xbox Gift Card Heist: Did their Own Security Fail?

As much as what the employee did was bad enough, Microsoft's internal security might've been quite lacking for Kvashuk to do what he did.

The original report from Bloomberg that broke this story out had other more interesting details. But perhaps the most eye-catching one is that despite Kvashuk's job requiring him to simulate purchases, it still returned actual, working Xbox gift card codes. This is a major loophole in Microsoft's security that should be patched by now. But if it still isn't, then they're at risk of something like this happening again.

It seems like the video game industry has increasingly fallen victim to cyberattacks during the past couple of years. According to experts, there has been an insane 340% increase in gaming-focused cybercrime compared to pre-pandemic numbers, which is more than enough cause for concern.

And since Microsoft has been experiencing massive success with Xbox recently, they can't afford to deal with this down the road.

Related: Xbox Game Pass Vs Xbox Live Gold: Which One Should You Get? Price, Features, and More

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Written by RJ Pierce

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Dawson Springs Independent Schools Superintendent Leonard Whalen delivers his monthly report to the Dawson Springs Board of Education at its meeting last week. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board rated Whalen as exemplary in his annual evaluation.
David Bueso always maintained his innocence in the fatal 2017 bludgeoning of his ex-roommate in Baton Rouge, even after a jury voted 11-1 to convict him of second-degree murder in 2019 and he was sentenced to life in prison.

The conviction and sentence were overturned after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed non-unanimous jury verdicts in April 2020, and this week the charges against him were dismissed. An East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury declined to re-indict Bueso, 23, on the murder charge.

+5 Supreme Court's ruling on non-unanimous juries could force retrials in Baton Rouge Jace Crehan, Jimeelah Crockett and David Bueso shared something in common heading into last week: Each had been convicted of second-degree mur

"The District Attorneys Office received new information after the guilty verdict was rendered in 2019 and based upon that information felt that justice required that our office take the case back before the Grand Jury," East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Thursday

Moore sad the panel heard the case Wednesday and did not indict Bueso.

"Accordingly, we dismissed the charges against David Bueso," he said.

Bueso had stated at his sentencing in May 2019 that he and Jhoel Tercero Brisuela, 22, were the victims of an armed robbery inside Brisuela's Coy Avenue apartment in the Gardere area.

Baton Rouge man sentenced to life term in 2017 Gardere-area bludgeoning death A 21-year-old Honduran man maintained his innocence in two languages Friday as a state judge sentenced him to life in prison in the 2017 bludg

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Im a victim too, Bueso told the judge, adding that he didnt murder his best friend.

Kyla Blanchard-Romanach, one of Buesos appellate attorneys, said Thursday that a terrible wrong has been righted.

"He was innocent and it's a shame it took four years for that to come to light," she said. "The District Attorney's Office got it wrong initially, but I'm glad they corrected the error."

Prosecutor Morgan Johnson argued at Buesos trial that he killed Brisuela during a cowardly ambush while the victim slept on Aug. 5, 2017. She suggested Bueso murdered Brisuela in a dispute over money. Bueso was jobless while he roomed with Brisuela, and was supposed to pay half the rent, the prosecutor said.

Johnson also suggested to the jury that a 24-inch machete found in a bathroom next to a spray bottle of bleach was the murder weapon, but Buesos DNA was not discovered on the machete. Buesos DNA and Brisuelas blood, however, were found on the bottle, she said.

Baton Rouge man convicted in 2017 machete beating death of ex-roommate A 21-year-old Honduran man was convicted Tuesday of beating his former roommate to death in the victim's Gardere-area apartment in 2017.

Bueso told detectives where they could find the pants he was wearing the night Brisuela was killed, and Brisuela's blood was discovered on those jeans.

Brisuela died of blunt-force trauma to the head. He suffered skull fractures and bruises of the brain.
Parents raise their hands during the question and answer portion during a town hall meeting, hosted by new EBR Superintendent Sito Narcisse.
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However, the insurance industry argued the policies were never intended to cover pandemics despite an error in the policy wording that indicated otherwise. Clauses that sought to exclude pandemics referred to an outdated parliamentary act.

Lockdowns to prevent COVID-19 starved thousands of businesses of income, causing many to make claims through business interruption insurance policies. These policies are typically used to cover losses associated with extreme weather events such as floods or fire.

Two class actions have been launched against QBE and Lloyds over failure to pay business interruption claims during COVID-19. Credit:Bloomberg

Gordon Legal, the class action firm that won $1 billion over the governments robo-debt welfare debt recovery scheme, has started both class actions through the Federal Court to obtain compensation for rejected payments and missed opportunities.

About 25,000 Australian businesses could be eligible to sign up to a class action against global insurers QBE and Lloyds to seek compensation for losses sustained during COVID-19 after the insurers refused to pay business interruption claims during the pandemic.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has bitterly fought liability for these claims through the courts, but it has been largely unsuccessful. The High Court rejected the insurers last ditch bid to deny liability last week.

The ICA has since encouraged policyholders to make claims and collect evidence, although Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech said this was too little too late. It wouldnt take too cynical a person to say its a very late reaction to getting an absolute kicking from the High Court, he said. What people need insurance companies to do is to confirm they are indemnified. Lodging claims is one thing but its another thing if youre given every reason under the sun as to why claims wont be paid.

Gordon Legal is now investigating whether to launch class actions against more insurers who are also exposed to COVID-19 claims. Insurance Australia Group has previously disclosed it could be on the hook for about $1 billion in these claims due to the policy wording error.

Mr Grech said the class actions were seeking compensation on two fronts  for losses sustained as a result of COVID-19 that would have been covered under the policies and additional payments for financial harm caused by the insurers refusal to pay out claims during the pandemic.

If my claim had been paid, I could have had the opportunity to reboot my business, get back on my feet, Mr Grech said. I should be able to claim the consequential losses too.
Power giant AGL will be forced to confront significant market doubts about the plan to split its retailing business from its coal fleet as the accelerating clean-energy shift continues to pummel profits and pressure the demerged companies balance sheets.

Shares in AGL, the nations largest and oldest energy utility, fell 10 per cent on Wednesday after it outlined the details of its plan for a historic demerger, before falling another 1.2 per cent on Thursday.

AGL intends to split off its power generation business into a separate company. Credit:Caria Gottgens

The proposed split would include forming a new company, Accel Energy, to own its fleet of huge coal- and gas-fired power plants, while the other company, to be called AGL Australia, would hold its electricity, gas and telecommunications retailing business along with some cleaner generation assets. Following the demerger, Accel would retain a 15 per cent to 20 per cent shareholding in AGL Australia.

UBS energy and utilities analyst Tom Allen said the investment bank believed the demerged entities were not leveraged to support growth. Based on the capital structure of both entities, we see limited balance sheet capacity for AGL and Accell to pursue its growth ambitions given earnings headwinds facing both companies in the 2022 financial year, he said.
Medical technology company Masimo Corp has stepped up its legal fight against Apple, filing a patent-infringement complaint at the US International Trade Commission that seeks to halt imports of the Apple Watch.

Apples Series 6 smartwatch infringes five patents for devices that use light transmitted through the body to measure oxygen levels in blood, Masimo said in a complaint filed at the Washington agency. The patented technology is key to Masimos core business and Apple is unfairly copying the features, the company claims.

Masimo, which develops signal-processing technology for health-care monitors, and its spinoff, Cercacor Laboratories, first sued Apple in January 2020, accusing it of stealing trade secrets and improperly using Masimo inventions related to health monitoring in its Apple Watch.

Masimo says he public wont be harmed if the Apple smartwatch is kept from the US market as its not an essential health device.

The patents in the federal case are being reviewed by the US Patent and Trademark Office after Apple argued they didnt cover new inventions. The judge put that aspect of the case on hold until the reviews are completed.
Billionaire Warren Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger have highlighted the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic in a wide-ranging interview.

The economic impact has been this extremely uneven thing where I dont know how many but many hundreds of thousands or millions of small businesses have been hurt in a terrible way, but most of the big, big companies have overwhelmingly have done fine, unless they happen to be in cruise lines or, you know, or hotels or something, Buffett told CNBC .

Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett with long-time business partner Charlie Munger. Credit:AP

Buffett and Munger, who is the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, touched on a variety of topics during the interview. Munger said China had the right approach to the pandemic by essentially shutting down the country for six weeks.

That turned out to be exactly the right thing to do, Munger said. And they didnt allow any contact. You picked up your groceries in a box in the apartment and thats all the contact you had with anybody for six weeks. And, when it was all over, they kind of went back to work. It happened they did it exactly right.
NFTs, the hot collectible that has been embraced by the founder of Twitter, the National Basketball Association and the artist who created a flying cat with a Pop-Tart body, has cast its reach back to the beginning of the digital age: the source code to an early version of World Wide Web.

Sothebys on Wednesday auctioned off the code, created by Tim Berners-Lee, in the form of a nonfungible token, or NFT, for $US5.4 million ($7.2 million) with fees. Sothebys said it was accepting payment in cryptocurrency for both the hammer price and its buyer fee.

The winning bidder will remain anonymous, per auction house rules, but that could change if the buyer steps forward.

Physicist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World-Wide Web as an essential tool for High Energy Physics in 1989. Credit:CERN

Bidding began at $US1000, and bidders had a week to name their highest price in the auction, called This Changed Everything. The NFT attracted 51 bids, according to Sothebys website, and the proceeds will go toward unnamed initiatives supported by Berners-Lee. Unlike some NFTs, the offering failed to inspire a last-minute flurry of demand; the winning bid was offered just under 10 minutes before the close of the auction.
Miss Leigh, 47, was tired. She showed it. A few hours of rest later, at a reception in a city hotel, her on-stage radiance and vivacity had returned.

MISS VIVIEN LEIGH, leading lady in the Old Vics touring company  and perhaps the entire theatres leading lady  dispensed with dramatics when she arrived in Melbourne yesterday.

She was charming, she looked beautiful and she was more like the Vivien Leigh Australians last met 13 years ago.

Vivien Leigh arrives in Melbourne, 1961. Credit:Age photographer

Miss Leigh will star in Lady of the Camellias, which will open at, her Majestys theatre on July 12, followed by Twelfth Night and Duel of Angels.

All are plays of her own choice and strenuous rehearsals lie ahead. She believes Australian audiences will like them.

She wore a white coat, colored scarf  and partly transparent shoes  as she stepped from the aircraft at Melbourne airport.
Last week a privately funded emergency medical evacuation flight flew into Adelaide airport bringing back a seriously ill family.

The family of three came from an Indonesian hospital and was transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The flight caused a bit of a stir among the South Australian media, who quizzed Premier Steven Marshall about it. He professed ignorance and passed questions on to South Australian Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier.

It turns out that the flight carried a reporter for The Australian newspaper and their partner, who both tested positive to COVID-19 last month while on assignment and then fell seriously ill.

CBD has decided not to name the family due to privacy concerns.
Australias COVID-19 vaccine rollout has become as much a public relations campaign as a health one, with marketing and public health experts urging governments to step up their game past the tepid effort so far.

The federal government initially hoped to administer 45 million vaccinations by October but supply constraints, a lack of urgency, hesitancy, and confusion driven by shifting health advice around the AstraZeneca jab has pushed that timeframe into 2022.

The current vaccine marketing campaign has been described as tepid. Credit:AP

Vaccination rates have slowly been rising as more supplies come online but nearly a third of Australians say they are unlikely to get a jab.

Now prominent public health leaders such as Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid are calling for the campaign to take a war footing.
Spotted by Japanese reconnaissance aircraft as they left Darwin, Armidale and Castlemaine survived repeated air attacks but reached Betano too late to rendezvous with Kuru, which had already taken on Portuguese refugees and made for open water. The two corvettes found Kuru 110 kilometres off Timor and the refugees were transferred to Castlemaine, which returned to Darwin. Kuru and Armidale were ordered to continue the operation in daylight. Both came under further attack and Armidale was sunk. As the last survivor, Leonard was able to accurately and articulately describe the final hours of the ship. He recently told how they were spotted by a reconnaissance plane the day before [the attack] and the eerie feeling amongst the crew. Ray Leonard with bride Beryl on their wedding day. Aged in his 90s, he recounted: The fighter planes were machine gunning and the torpedo bombers were lining them up. Then, the inevitable, as the ship lifted slightly out of the water.

With no sign of rescue the survivors built a raft to cling to and over the next couple of days used it as a dock to repair a bullet-riddled and half submerged boat from the Armidale called a whaler. Leonard was one of the 29 men chosen to row the whaler toward Darwin. The others remained on the raft and he recounted the tremendous silence and deep sadness of their separation. There was dangerously little food and water on the whaler and as each day passed, the men suffered increasingly from hunger and thirst and began to show signs of physical and mental exhaustion. Meanwhile, the remaining survivors clung to the raft and awaited rescue. On the seventh day a RAAF Catalina aircraft found the whaler and advised that they had dropped provisions to the men still on the raft. On the eighth day, Leonard and the others were finally rescued by HMAS Kalgoorlie and taken to Darwin. Despite extensive air and sea searches, the men on the raft were never seen again. Leonard survived with a dwindling number of fellow sailors dealing with exposure, starvation, dehydration sharks and sea snakes. Survivors from the corvette HMAS Armidale adrift on a raft. Credit:AWM Commodore Greg Yorke, Senior Naval Officer, Victoria told the funeral with the coffin draped in the white ensign: Ray was still serving in HMAS Armidale when on that fateful day on the first of December 1942 she was attacked by Japanese bombers and Ray witnessed the brave actions of ordinary seaman Teddy Sheean VC as the ship sank.

Having survived the attack, Ray and 19 of his shipmates lived through over a week in the ships whaler and in the waters of the Timor Sea. Commander Terry Makings told the funeral: Whilst floating upon the high seas, not knowing if, or when, they would ever be rescued, they were motivated and encouraged by the knowledge that their shipmate Teddy Sheean had done his duty. And in return they needed to be strong, supportive and hopeful in light of his memory, something Ray did for the rest of his life. It was said that Ray and his shipmates were a pitiful sight, in a poorly condition, sunburnt, blistered, ulcerated skin covered in furnace fuel and salt. When the trauma of the sinking of the Armidale had faded and his burns had healed, Leonard wasted no time in getting posted on to his next ship in April, 1943. He married Beryl in 1944, she was 17 and he was 21 and serving on the HMAS Quiberon, a Q-class destroyer. Our naval people understand that we owe a great debt to the men and women who served with you in those perilous times. Chief of Navy Vice-Admiral Michael Noonan

After the end of the war Leonard returned to his studies at Melbourne University and won a scholarship to study psychology at Queens University in Kingston, Canada, and was able to take the young family with him. He gained a PhD in psychology as dux of his year. On return to Melbourne he headed two departments at the university as leading psychologist. In private practice he helped victims of car injuries, addictions and other dysfunctional behaviours. He was chief psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs. In later years he was active with the Melbourne RSL and was a life honorary member of the Remembering HMAS Armidale Association. In recent weeks the current Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Michael Noonan wrote to Leonard. He said: Your eyewitness testimonial to the Teddy Sheean tribunal was of critical significance in the strengthening of the case to award the Victoria Cross of Australia. You were the last member of HMAS Armidales ships company able to attest that you knew Teddy remained at his post when the ship was foundering and then you heard him firing back at the enemy. Our naval people understand that we owe a great debt to the men and women who served with you in those perilous times in Australias history. We remember with sorrow and gratitude all of your shipmates and all on board Armidale who lost their lives in the hours around her heroic last fight. He also recently received a letter from the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and acknowledgement of his service from Governor-General David Hurley.
Police have surrounded a beauty salon in inner Brisbane after its owner defied Queensland lockdown restrictions by opening her business.

South-east Queensland as well as Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island entered a three-day lockdown from Tuesday at 6pm.

Police surrounded beauty salon Vanity House at Newstead on Thursday after the owner opened her doors to clients during lockdown. Credit:Ciaran Sammon-Spears

Residents can only leave their homes for essential reasons, including getting food, visiting a vulnerable person, for exercise and to go to work.

All non-essential businesses including cinemas, entertainment venues, gyms and beauty salons closed. All but one.
Two people, one with a shotgun, can be seen running after bikie Shane Bowdens BMW as he pulled into a driveway seconds before he was gunned down in an execution-style killing on the Gold Coast, CCTV released by police shows.

Bowden, a senior member of the Mongols and reportedly the gangs former national sergeant-at-arms who had defected to the Finks, was sprayed with 21 bullets outside a Pimpama unit in October 2020 after he pulled into the driveway.

The two offenders can be seen running into the garage holding a firearm. Credit:Police Media

Homicide detectives have released CCTV footage of the minutes before the shooting that shows Bowdens BMW pulling into the garage as two offenders run towards him from the street.

One of the offenders can be seen carrying a firearm and running from nearby vacant land and following Bowden into the garage.
Under fire from the federal government and medical professionals, Queenslands Chief Health Officer has fronted a defiant press conference to defend her comments about whether people under 40 should get the AstraZeneca vaccine rather than Pfizer.

Dr Jeannette Young drew criticism when she said on Wednesday it was her advice that no one under 40 should get the AstraZeneca vaccine in the current circumstances, due to the small risk of the clotting side-effect.

On Thursday, at a rowdy press conference where journalists barked questions over each other, Dr Young said the reaction to her comments was getting absolutely silly and clarified her stance.

She did not change her position.
It promised to be the worlds smartest, safest, and most exhilarating electric scooter but, two years on, Melbourne start-up Raine scooters has announced it is hibernating, leaving crowdfunding backers $500,000 out of pocket.

The company, which hit its crowdfunding goal in just 43 minutes in 2019, blamed the situation on the soaring cost of materials, parts and freight.

Justin Taylor with a photo of the scooter he fears he may never receive. Credit:Eddie Jim

We have received a cost increase on the weekend of several hundreds of thousands of dollars from the overseas supply chain doing our build, the company said in a recent business update on its website.

This is a huge change that blows us out of the water on cost and supply ... we must hibernate and come back online when the market conditions work.
Large sheets of steel have twice come loose and dangled from one of the tallest buildings outside Melbournes CBD causing road closures in the streets below as emergency workers rushed to fix the problem.

The steel shutters provide privacy to balconies of the upmarket The Chen hotel, which is part of Box Hills 115-metre tall Whitehorse Towers.

A large sheet of metal that came loose on The Chen, an Art Series Hotel within the Whitehorse Towers in Box Hill on December 30, 2020.

On June 10, members of the public alerted emergency services that a shutter had come loose from the building after a night of severe weather.

A spokesman for Victorias State Emergency Service said their local Whitehorse unit got two calls on the morning of June 10 to attend Whitehorse Towers in Box Hill with reports of loose debris posing a risk to community.
Western Australia has gone another day without recording a new COVID-19 community case, raising hopes a four-day lockdown will not be extended beyond Saturday morning.

Health Minister Roger Cook also defended the states decision to go into lockdown rather than maintain phase 1 restrictions as a way of dealing with the outbreak, despite the four cases of a Delta-variant cluster being linked together.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced there were no new cases of COVID-19 overnight in the state. Credit:Hamish Hastie

There have been 295 negative tests returned from 360 close contacts identified in connection to the cluster which thrust the Perth and Peel regions into the states third lockdown of the year on Monday.

A further 1173 negative results have come back from 2503 casual contacts linked to the infected West Australians.
While the debate this week has centred on whether younger people (under 40) should get AstraZeneca, one-third of elderly Victorians and almost half of over-50s still have not been immunised against coronavirus. Professor Cunningham said older people must balance the small risk of developing complications against the really rapid rise in likelihood of death if you do get COVID over the age of 60. If you were in the UK or Thailand during a significant wave of the virus, you wouldnt hesitate to get the vaccine because the risk changes greatly, Professor Cunningham said. New Guinea hasnt complained about getting AstraZeneca. I dont think Pacific nations will either. With Pfizer, AstraZeneca is doing the heavy lifting in the UKs vaccine program, though it is not recommended there for people under 40. So what has gone wrong in Australia? People line up to get vaccinated at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia. Credit:AP Some experts say Australia has been a victim of its own success in radically suppressing the virus through lockdowns, closed borders and hotel quarantine. No community transmission of the virus when the vaccine program began in February meant Australia had the choice to take a far more cautious approach in limiting the age for AstraZeneca, compared to places such as the UK where the virus was raging.

If you frame [the side effects] against the disease and risk when there is no COVID disease in the community, its hard for people to accept death and long-term impact from a really severe, but rare, clotting syndrome, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute vaccine expert Margie Danchin said. There have been 64 cases in Australia linked to AstraZeneca of the rare but serious complication called thrombosis (blood clots) with thrombocytopenia (low platelets) from more than 4 million doses  a risk of about 2.7 clotting incidents from 100,000 doses. Of those who get a clot, the percentage of people who die from it is between 2.4 and 3.2 per cent. In Australia, two people, both under 60, have died from clots compared with 20 coronavirus deaths in the same age range. The total risk of dying from blood clots is one in 2 million. Last month, the federal Health Ministers top immunisation advisers, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, limited the AstraZeneca vaccine to over-60s because of a concerning number and severity of non-fatal blood-clotting cases in people in their 50s. Doctors say they are now confident they can detect and treat the rare blood-clotting syndrome associated with AstraZeneca. However, the immunisation advisory group noted the rare complication was more apparent in the 50 to 59 age group and that the cases had tended to be a bit more severe.

For some, the personal risk-reward ratio has begun to shift in favour of AstraZeneca. More than 18 months into the pandemic, according to Professor Danchin, people are starting to say, Ive lost my job, my livelihood and I cant bear the fact that I cant see my family overseas. They are taking a much broader view of the benefit of getting vaccinated. Beyond the medical risk, some experts say AstraZenecas position in peoples minds has been sullied and confused by the chopping and changing in advice. Australias Immunisation Coalition and University of Sydney vaccine and infectious diseases expert Robert Booy said people need clarity, consistency and information they can understand and a poorly executed communication campaign and frequently changing advice had fuelled hesitancy. Loading That was compounded this week when the government failed to consult top medical bodies, including the Australian Medical Association and doctors, before Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a snap announcement that any adult who wants the AstraZeneca jab will be allowed to have it. Then Health Minister Greg Hunt, as well as the AMA, appeared to try to walk that back again. We are now in a very dangerous position with more coronavirus in the world than ever before and extremely low vaccination rates and yet we have ample amounts of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Professor Booy said.

The Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations own advice has changed twice, becoming more conservative. It is that Pfizer is the preferred vaccine for everyone under 60. The group advises against younger Australians receiving AstraZeneca unless their circumstances press for that, including if Pfizer is unavailable, the benefits outweigh the risks for that individual and they have given informed consent. Co-chair Professor Christopher Blyth said the advice could change again if, say, the Delta variant meant there was a sudden increase in the number and severity of COVID-19 cases. Loading Were in the middle of a pandemic  [and] if we didnt have the capacity to modify our recommendations based on risk ... that would not be a good thing for this country, Professor Blyth said. Professor Cunningham said the current level of scrutiny on vaccine trials and safety in this pandemic was unheard of. Almost all vaccines will have some sort of rare side effect because of the genetic make-up of human beings, and the possibility that you can end up with adverse responses from the immune system is incredibly rare.
Where does that win rate?

Yes, Im obviously proud of the group. So I think thats the first thing, really proud of the way they played. We played with a plan and tried to work on the particular brand for a while.

That was the most complete win for this year certainly. You execute that. Not under or over-react to the last three weeks, which we know have been disappointing but I think we held our nerve, weve been really confident in our processes and won some critical contests tonight.

The overwhelming thing is Im happy for the playing group. Theyre really connected, and for them to feel that is the best thing.

Touk Miller. Credit:Getty Images

Given the chaos of the last week, is that another source of pride for you in this win?

It is the reality of the competition. Were lucky anyway to be involved in such a great game. We had a practice run very similar back in I think it was round three versus Adelaide.

On Tuesday we got the call, we got a few hours more notice but we did have a practice run so we were well-versed and prepared and that showed.

But it shows also if youre willing to get yourself ready to go at the start of a game regardless of what happened in the previous few days, it is the professional output.

How pleased were you that the guys were able to handle the challenge that Richmond puts you in that last quarter?

Yes, its reward for effort because weve been training the same things, we know weve been a little bit inconsistent in the contest, our ball movement has been quite stagnant. We lost - lets be honest, we lost a little bit of confidence, but I think our training form hasnt waivered.

Thats a lesson for our players. Keep the training standards high and keep showing up, and then itll turn. But, pleasingly, I think it was - it was pleasingly, I think it was in the first three quarters we scored the first goal and at least the last.

Thats been an area where weve started quarters well but the 20 minutes-plus has been an issue but we showed some real grit and fight tonight. So thats, you know, I guess from our point of view, that was really pleasing.

How closely did you analyse last weeks loss from Richmond?

It was well balanced. We probably looked at more what does our brand want to look like, how much do we want to be in the contest, how do we want to move with the ball and I guess the lesson often when a team loses the week before, and particularly one like Richmond, it shows their human.

I think that thats probably one thing the players subconsciously took out of it, that they can be beaten. But I think, really importantly, we reviewed hard, we learned from it and we want to get better.

Your ball movement has probably been a bit stagnant the last few weeks. Where did that freedom come from tonight to take the game on?

We looked at the last couple of games, particularly last week, we know the conditions were so-so down there but thats no excuse. We werent working hard enough in offence. We had to get up and out and in particular, move that ball with speed.

We didnt get it totally right. There were a couple of times where we overdid it but certainly from a coaching group point of view, we wanted to give them the confidence that, look, we understand to get some of these results youre going to have to live with some pain and were aware of that.

Its like guys getting good roles playing in different positions, we know at different periods we have to live with some pain to get through to the goodness. I think thats probably just a reminder for all of us to stick to the plan, were really confident in it and it came out tonight.

What was your thoughts on the goal-kicking tonight?

I think because the roof was open it might have been a bit windy, but, no. No, theyve been doing work on it. I think theyre confident in their process. Can we get better? Absolutely. I dont think theres a footballer that doesnt love a goal.

So, well be sure to keep working on it. Guys have to know what kind of kick theyre going to kick on every bit of grass. I think I saw Matthew Lloyd say that, that when youre in a game if youve done the work on the track youll know exactly what kind of kick you will make when you get on the grass.

Our guys have to keep logging the hours.

Just on Touk, especially with Hugh Greenwood out, he really stood up. A few words on his performance.

He is an pro. He knows when he comes to game hell play a good game because hes confident in his process. Guys shared the load through there, and Brayden Fiorini has been waiting patiently in the VFL but he is always club first, thats his attitude. He got the nod because he know he is a quality AFL player. He has been parked in behind probably Hugh and obviously Hugh and Ando different times. Sam Flanders is another one.

Do you have any idea what your next few days are like and when you might be able to get back home?

Not as yet. We know our VFL side are playing Box Hill on Saturday. Clearly, well be here to support the boys there. We were caught on the hop. We were unaware whether that game was going ahead but its going ahead so well get around those lads on Saturday and Im guessing what comes from there is well wait for the call.

With Hugh, whats the status with him? Is he a chance to come back next week?

A lot of that will depend on the border. I am not sure if Im breaking any news but Hugh had his second child on Thursday. So it was important for him to stay back. It was all going to plan with playing at Metricon Stadium but obviously, a spanner was in the works so hell just be at the mercy of the rules and well see how we go from there.

It is no secret how poorly your second halves of seasons have been at recent times. Is the challenge now to use this performance as a building block and as a springboard to finish strongly this year?

We have to bottle what we did tonight and our consistency around it. That is our challenge. I think Ive said at different times last year, I think the Richmond game we referenced last year was one of our better games.

Now, we didnt get the win the way we went about it. The Collingwood game last year we were in the second half of the year. In terms of the over-reacting to it were just holding our line on that because we saw some growth from last year. But we understand, you know, we have some serious competition coming up and we welcome it because our guys really thrived on that and their application to it was important for the footy club and for our supporters back home. But also out here.

You know, they were really loud. Someone even had a drum behind the goals which was pretty good where the goals went. But they were pretty loud here and they were against Collingwood. It is important for them to get some wins.
One hundred years ago, the Chinese Communist Party was founded by the Comintern, the Soviet-backed organisation that tried to spark the fire of a world revolution by founding, and funding, communist parties across the globe. The CCPs initial membership was less than 60 men, plus Comintern representatives. Today its membership is 91 million, and the party has ruled the Peoples Republic of China with an iron fist since 1949.

On Thursday, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping gave a boilerplate speech to launch the 100th anniversary. On previous anniversaries, foreign heads of state would have been in attendance or sent effusive messages of congratulations. At the 90-year celebrations, the leader of the National Party of Australia, Warren Truss, praised China for having played an ever more positive and constructive role in promoting regional peace, stability and development, participating disaster relief, and advancing international negotiations. New Zealand Prime Minister John Keys congratulatory message promised that New Zealand will seize all opportunities to strengthen the friendly contacts between the two governments and the two peoples and promote bilateral relations of mutual benefit.

Pedestrians watch a screen showing a live news broadcast of Chinese President Xi Jinping speaking at a ceremony marking the centenary of the Chinese Community Party on Thursday. Credit:Bloomberg

This year very few foreign political leaders sent congratulatory statements. Russian leader Vladimir Putin praised the CCPs important and constructive role in solving major international problems, while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised Xis leadership. In 2021, the CCP is internationally isolated  and facing a population it deeply mistrusts. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, which by World Health Organisation figures has taken the lives of an estimated 3,937,437 people, worldwide, no foreign leaders attended.

Instead of focusing on the success of his party in the lead-up to the 100th anniversary party, Xi Jinping appears to have been obsessed with fears of disloyalty and betrayal. In June, the CCP Central Discipline Commission promoted the story of Gu Shunzhang (1903-1935), 39 members of whose extended family were strangled to death, then buried in pits covered with concrete, after he betrayed his comrades. The CDCs commentary on Gu states: General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised loyalty to the CCP, never betraying the party. CCP members must be united with the party at all times, unwavering, and unswerving for life.
London: More than half the population would be given a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as the winter flu jab under world-first plans being drawn up in Britain.

In a development which may eventually be replicated by other countries, health authorities revealed they had started work on a campaign to offer a third dose from September for those most at risk from the disease.

The proposal means tens of millions of people in the United Kingdom could be offered a new round of protection before Australias troubled initial rollout is completed.

The government has not made a final decision on whether to proceed but said it was important to ensure the shield offered by first and second doses was maintained ahead of the northern winter and against new variants.
Los Angeles: Britney Spears father has asked the court overseeing his daughters conservatorship to investigate her statements to a judge last week on the courts control of her medical treatment and personal life, which she called overly restrictive and abusive.

James Spears, known as Jamie Spears, emphasised in a pair of documents filed late on Wednesday AEST that he has had no power over his daughters personal affairs for nearly two years.

Britney Spears, pictured here in 2013, has had her say in court. Credit:Sony/RCA

His filing says the court must investigate serious allegations regarding forced labour, forced medical treatment and therapy, improper medical care, and limitations on personal rights.

Given the nature of the allegations and claims, it is critical that the court confirm whether or not Ms Spears testimony was accurate in order to determine what corrective actions, if any, need to be taken, the documents said.
New York: The chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation surrendered to authorities on Thursday as he and former US President Donald Trumps namesake company prepare to face criminal charges.

Allen Weisselberg, the CFO, entered a building housing Manhattans criminal court, where he and a Trump Organisation representative are expected to appear later in the day.

The Trump Organisations chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.

The charges would be the first to emerge from an ongoing investigation into Trumps real estate empire, which has been hovering over the former president since he left office in January. Trump denies wrongdoing and calls the investigations a witch hunt by politically motivated prosecutors.

Trump himself is not expected to be charged this week, though prosecutors have said their investigation into his Trump Organisation is continuing, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti has said.
2021 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody Review by Larry Nutson +VIDEO

Muscle is alive and well

Larry Nutson

Executive Editor/Chicago Bureau Chief

THE AUTO CHANNEL







The first time a Hemi engine sat under the hood of a Dodge was back in 1953. This Red Ram V8 continued until 1957. Many of those engines found their way into hot rods and dragsters of the 1960's.

The Hemi engine reappeared in 1964 as the 426 race Hemi used in NASCAR for only one year. It was so good it was banned because it diluted the competition. However, it was the engine to beat in sanctioned Super Stock and Pro Stock drag racing for many, many years. It still is today!

Dodge introduced the Street Hemi in 1966 in a slightly milder state of tune than the race Hemi. That engine continued to dominate the streets into the early 1970's.

The third generation Hemi came along in 2002, and was found under the hood of Dodge cars and trucks. Further development by the SRT engineering team gave us the 485 horsepower 392 Hemi, and then the outrageous 707 horsepower supercharged Hemi Hellcat in 2015. Then to everyone's jaw dropping surprise the 808 horsepower Challenger SRT Demon limited production widebody street legal drag racer was introduced in 2017.

Fast forward to today and new for 2021 is the Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody. With a 797 horsepower supercharged 6.2 liter Hemi pulled from the Challenger SRT Demon its capable of a top speed of 203 miles per hour, making it the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world. Widebody exterior is standard with integrated fender flares adding 3.5 inches of width.

New 20-inch by 11-inch wheels fitted with Pirelli 305 35 Z R 20 tires make the grip. The induction air box has three fresh air sources. A functional hood scoop, a mail slot grille opening and an opening near the front wheel liner. Launch assist and line lock launch controller help get the Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody down the quarter mile in 10.6 seconds at 129 miles per hour.

The Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody is yours with its base price of $78,595.

What is amazing to consider is, anyone can visit a Dodge dealer, plunk down the money and drive away with this production hot rod. I call it a street-legal race car. On the weekend load up your family for a visit to your local drag strip. You can make a few passes in sub 11 seconds covering the quarter mile just as quickly as the pro drag racers in their purpose-built Super Stock Dodges did in the '60's and '70's. Technology has come a long way.

The Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody has much more capability than just driving in a straight line. The very robust engineering, high performance competition chassis tuning, adaptive suspension, Brembo brake system with 6 piston calipers, performance wheels and tires, all make for great track capability.

Last Fall, on the invite of Dodge, I participated in a Dodge product briefing program, held in a city that celebrates the sport of auto racing, Charlotte, North Carolina. Dodge opened up Carolina Motorsports Park for a long afternoon running laps around the 2.28 mile 14-turn road course. Accelerating along the straights to 125 miles per hour, braking heavily, making the turn in and rolling into the throttle to accelerate again was done repeatedly over many laps. The balance and refinement is evident and rewarding in the complete performance package of this variant of the Charger.

True performance, ultimate performance, American performance, as well as fast and powerful very accurately describe the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody.

My most recent drive experience reinforced the streetability of this Charger. It seats five, has a big trunk, is loaded with the latest tech for comfort, safety and driving enjoyment. Alcantara, suede and carbon interior trim bring a premium finish and feel. Apple CarPlay, Google Android Auto, six speaker Alpine audio system, Uconnect 4C navigation system all make for great road-trip comfort and enjoyment.

The Hemi's throttle will get you going very quickly. The exhaust rumble and the whine of the supercharger are music to the enthusiast's ear, plus they turn some heads. The widebody look and the Hellcat Redeye badge will get you some thumbs up. If you're easy on the pedal you can get 21 miles per gallon, or even better cruising the highway.

Cars aren't dead. Sedans, coupes, convertibles and station wagon will continue at about twenty to twenty five percent of the U.S. market. The muscle car segment is not very large, but buyers are all fulfilling the want in their brain with Dodge cars. It's all about WANTS versus NEEDS.

Looking to the future, Dodge acknowledges that it will need to grow with the times for its products to remain relevant, adapting to emission and Cafe standards, and adding more offerings to its current vehicle lineup. But for now, Dodge's strategy seems to be working.

Lastly! Want some track time? Dodge is the official sponsor of the Bondurant High Performance Driving School in Chandler, Arizona, where guests get behind the wheels of the fastest street-legal cars in the world with professional instruction and time on the track. Customers who buy a new SRT model receive one full-day session as part of the Dodge SRT Package, and they have the opportunity to learn how to get the optimum performance from their new vehicles in a controlled environment.

For more information on this program, visit https://www.dodgegarage.com/track-experience.

 2021 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy
Best June Total and Retail Sales Ever

Record-Breaking Q2 Total and Retail Sales

Most First Half-Yearly Total and Retail Sales in Hyundai History





FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., July 1, 2021  Hyundai Motor America reported total June sales of 72,465 units, a 45% increase compared with June 2020. This was the highest June sales total in Hyundai history and the fourth consecutive month setting a new monthly record.

The dedication of our retail partners in delivering Hyundai vehicles with an outstanding consumer experience is paying off with even more sales records, said Randy Parker, senior vice president, National Sales, Hyundai Motor America. We continue to successfully manage the extraordinary consumer demand in close collaboration with our manufacturing and supply chain partners.

June Retail Highlights

Hyundai set a new June retail sales record with 66,765 retail sales, up 36%. Retail sales rose for the entire lineup with SUVs (+24%), cars (+64%) and eco-friendly vehicles (+639%), all growing substantially. Eco-friendly vehicles also accounted for 11% of the retail volume.

Q2 and First Half Highlights

In the second quarter, Hyundai sold 240,005 total (+69%) and 226,094 retail (+69%) units, both all-time Q2 records. The first half also saw new records with 407,135 total (+49%) and 383,564 retail (+55%) sales.

June Total Sales Summary

Jun-21 Jun-20 % Chg Q2 2021 Q2 2020 % Chg 2021 YTD 2020 YTD % Chg Hyundai 72,465 50,135 45% 240,005 141,722 69% 407,135 272,597 49%



June Product and Corporate Activities

Santa Cruz Production Begins: Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama celebrated the launch of the all-new 2022 Santa Cruz Sport Adventure Vehicle

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama celebrated the launch of the all-new 2022 Santa Cruz Sport Adventure Vehicle Elantra N Teaser: Hyundai Motor Company revealed the first glimpse of the Elantra N

Hyundai Motor Company revealed the first glimpse of the Elantra N Hyundai and Disney: In support of the #QuestionEverything marketing campaign for the all-new Tucson, Hyundai partnered with Disney to produce custom content featuring talent and characters from The Bachelorette, black-ish, SportsCenter and Marvel

In support of the #QuestionEverything marketing campaign for the all-new Tucson, Hyundai partnered with Disney to produce custom content featuring talent and characters from The Bachelorette, black-ish, SportsCenter and Marvel Good Housekeeping Awards: Four Hyundai vehicles were featured in Good Housekeepings Best New Family Cars for 2021

Four Hyundai vehicles were featured in Good Housekeepings Best New Family Cars for 2021 Fuel Cell Racing: Hyundai Motor Group announced that its dedicated hydrogen fuel cell system brand, HTWO, will make its motorsports debut in the ETCR

Hyundai Motor Group announced that its dedicated hydrogen fuel cell system brand, HTWO, will make its motorsports debut in the ETCR Boston Dynamics: Hyundai Motor Group completed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics



Model Total Sales

Vehicle Jun-21 Jun-20 % Chg Q2 2021 Q2 2020 % Chg 2021 YTD 2020 YTD %Chg Accent 959 1,239 -23% 5,832 3,487 67% 10,104 8,294 22% Elantra 14,785 7,561 96% 47,964 22,705 111% 74,057 48,450 53% Ioniq 3,444 868 297% 6,982 1,916 264% 11,107 5,438 104% Kona 8,388 5,943 41% 28,386 15,593 82% 50,996 30,767 66% Nexo 22 12 83% 56 25 124% 134 76 76% Palisade 5,965 8,169 -27% 22,294 19,366 15% 43,501 36,455 19% Santa Fe 11,202 8,376 34% 34,540 23,527 47% 63,110 43,429 45% Sonata 9,938 5,407 84% 33,641 14,687 129% 54,198 30,289 79% Tucson 14,621 10,216 43% 50,370 34,206 47% 83,517 57,941 44% Veloster 108 806 -87% 674 2,205 -69% 1,361 4,287 -68% Venue 3,033 1,538 97% 9,266 4,005 131% 15,050 7,171 110%



Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America focuses on Progress for Humanity and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs and electrified vehicles. Our 820 dealers sold more than 620,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2020, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.
Mazda Reports June 2021 Sales Results







IRVINE, Calif. (July 1, 2021)  Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total June sales of 32,605 vehicles, an increase of 28.7 percent compared to June 2020. Year-to-date sales totaled 189,167 vehicles; an increase of 46.8 percent compared to the same time last year. With 25 selling days in June, compared to the same number of days the year prior, the company posted an increase of 28.7 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 5,947 vehicles in June, a decrease of 17 percent compared to June 2020.

Sales Highlights

Second-best June sales in the U.S. with 32,605 vehicles sold.

Best MX-5 June sales since 2007 with 1,227 vehicles sold.

Second-best sales of the CX-30 with 5,824 vehicles sold since launch.

Second-best sales of the CX-5 with 16,393 vehicles sold since launch.

Second-best sales of the CX-9 with 3,282 vehicles sold since launch.

CPO sales achieved its second-best June ever with 5,947 vehicles sold.

Mazda Canada Inc. (MCI) reported June sales of 6,816 vehicles, an increase of 3.8 percent compared to June last year. Year-to-date sales increased 53.1percent, with 34,575 vehicles sold.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported June sales of 3,324 vehicles, a decrease of 19.6 percent compared to June last year. Year-to-date sales increased 14.6 percent, with 24,402 vehicles sold.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico through approximately 780 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City.


GM Reports June and 2Q 2021 Sales Up 40%







Chevrolet Bolt EV delivers record second-quarter and first-half deliveries.

Buick sales rise 86 percent on strong demand for new Encore GX, redesigned Envision, and Enclave, creating the brands best quarter in more than 15 years.

GMC records best second quarter and best first half since 2005 driven by Yukon and Yukon XL.

Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra sales up a combined 36 percent, with light-duty models posting strong segment share gains.

Cadillacs second quarter retail sales were its best since 2015.

DETROIT  General Motors Co. announced today it sold 688,236 vehicles in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2021  an increase of 40 percent compared to a year ago  in a unique market bolstered by strong customer demand, but constrained by low inventories resulting from the global semiconductor shortage.

The U.S. economy is accelerating, consumer spending is robust and jobs are plentiful, said Elaine Buckberg, GM chief economist. Consumer demand for vehicles is also strong, but constrained by very tight inventories. We expect continued high demand in the second half of this year and into 2022.

The agility and creativity of our supply chain, purchasing, engineering and manufacturing teams, in collaboration with our suppliers and dealers, have helped us continue to satisfy customers and gain market share in some of the highest demand segments of the market, said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president, Sales Operations.

GM is well positioned in 2021 to lead the industry in full-size and mid-size pickup sales for the seventh consecutive year. During the quarter, GM earned 40.6 percent of the retail market for full-size pickups, up 4.5 percentage points year over year (J.D. Power PIN), with more than 237,000 Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras sold in the quarter.

The company is taking steps to meet customers future needs, especially in capacity-constrained segments:

GM announced that production of HD pickups will increase by about 1,000 trucks per month beginning in mid-July as a result of production line efficiencies delivered by the team at Flint Assembly in Michigan.

Also, GM will return full-size pickup production to Oshawa Assembly in Canada at the end of 2021.

Shipments of Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon mid-size pickups built at Wentzville Assembly in Missouri increase by about 30,000 total units from mid-May through early July as the team completes dynamic vehicle testing on units held at the plant due to semiconductor supply disruptions.

Although the situation remains fluid, were focused on continuing to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our highest demand products, McNeil said.

GM ended the quarter with 211,974 units in inventory, down from 334,628 at the end of the first quarter.

Second-Quarter Sales Highlights (vs. Q2 2020)

Chevrolet

Chevrolet deliveries were up 31 percent, with the Bolt EV and Traverse both delivering their best-ever second-quarter sales and best first-half sales.

Silverado LD deliveries increased by 31 percent, HD by 42 percent.

Sales of the Tahoe (74 percent), Suburban (91 percent), Silverado HD and LD combined (34 percent), Trailblazer (248 percent) and Corvette (224 percent) were all up sharply.

To continue building customer interest in electric vehicles and demand for the all-electric 2022 Bolt EUV and redesigned Bolt EV, Chevrolet will cover standard installation of Level 2 charging outlets through a collaboration with Qmerit for most qualified and eligible purchase and lease customers.

The Bolt EUV is also the first Chevrolet to feature Super Cruise, GMs advanced driver-assistance technology, which uses Adaptive Cruise Control, Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking and lane-centering technology to enable hands-free driving on compatible roads. GM plans to expand Super Cruise availability to 22 models by 2023.

GMC

GMC deliveries grew by 50 percent, led by gains from Sierra LD and HD models, up 38 and 46 percent, respectively.

The all-new Yukon and Yukon XL had a combined increase of 126 percent.

Acadia sales were up 72 percent and Terrain sales increased 19 percent.

Buick

Buicks premium SUVs recorded a total sales increase of 86 percent, leading to its best quarter in more than 15 years.

The all-new Buick Envision attracts more former sedan buyers to the brand than any other Buick model, leading to the vehicles best quarter ever with total sales up 97 percent.

The Encore GX also had a record quarter, with sales up 184 percent, and Enclave sales grew 103 percent. Building on this momentum, Buick is launching an all-new 2022 Enclave this fall.

Cadillac

Total sales increased by 55 percent, leading to Cadillacs third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

The XT5 and XT6 had total sales increases of 83 and 73 percent, respectively, and sales of the CT4 increased by 290 percent.

Sales of the Escalade more than doubled, up 120 percent.

Fleet Highlights

GM fleet sales, which were severely impacted by pandemic shutdowns a year ago, are beginning to recover as the company prioritizes production of its most in-demand vehicles.

Fleet deliveries were up 69 percent year over year in the second quarter.

Small business sales increased 43 percent.

Sales to commercial customers increased 73 percent, driven by increases of mid-size pickup sales, up 97 percent; full-size pickups, up 96 percent; full-size vans, up 74 percent; and the Silverado MD, up 57 percent.

GM fleet sales were about 14 percent of total sales, which is lower than the companys pre-pandemic fleet mix of about 20 percent, due to supply constraints caused by the semiconductor shortage. Rental sales represented 4 percent of GMs total sales.

General Motors is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which will power everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, can be found at https://www.gm.com.
Fleet of Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell Trucks Surpass 1 Million-kilometer Benchmark

SEE ALSO: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Content Archive

XCIENT Fuel Cells collectively drive one million kilometers in Switzerland

The fleet of hydrogen-powered trucks expected to grow by 1,600 units by 2025

Next, Hyundai Motor plans to expand hydrogen fuel cell trucking to North American market





SEOUL, JULY 1, 2021  Hyundai Hydrogen Mobilitys fleet of XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks has collectively exceeded 1 million kilometers of driving in only 11 months of service in Switzerland. During that time, the fleet has reduced CO2 emissions by over an estimated 630 tons, compared to diesel-powered vehicles. Since hitting Swiss roads last October, the fleet of now 46 hydrogen fuel cell trucks have been able to reach this milestone in the service of 25 Swiss companies in logistics, distribution and supermarket fulfilment.

Hyundai shares this achievement with customers that have integrated the worlds first mass-provided heavy-duty fuel cell trucks in their business operations, replacing regular diesel trucks. Customers in Switzerland have expressed their satisfaction with the performance of the XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks so far, noting eco-friendliness, short refuelling times, and a long range as the top benefits.

Swiss transport and logistics companies are convinced that hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles have the greatest potential among various alternative energy vehicles. The member companies do not stop at simply introducing hydrogen fuel cell trucks. They have high expectations for the hydrogen energy source that holds great potential for the future and believe that hydrogen will be the key for transitioning to eco-friendly energy, Jorg Ackermann, Chairman of the H2 Mobility Switzerland Association said. Specifically, the biggest advantage of hydrogen energy is its excellent storability. This suggests that hydrogen will play an important role in the era of eco-friendly energy. Many distribution companies are already experiencing the benefits directly by using the XCIENT fuel cell trucks, and I think that if summer operation is completed successfully, the demand for the XCIENT fuel cell trucks will increase even more."

Growing the fleet

After initially launching the model in 2019, Hyundai revealed the 2021 XCIENT Fuel Cell heavy-duty truck last month. The next generation of trucks features a bold grille design as well as updates to improve its performance. The new trucks come available in a 4x2 or 6x2 rigid body configuration.

A total of 140 units of the 2021 model will be shipped to Switzerland by the end of this year. Taking this eco-friendly shift even further, the fleet will grow to 1,600 hydrogen-electric trucks by 2025.

Shaping Hyundais future in hydrogen

In 2019, Hyundai Motor Company started a joint venture with Swiss company H2 Energy to create Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility (HHM). Based in Switzerland, HHM leases the XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks to commercial truck operators on a pay-per-use basis with includes the hydrogen supply as well. The benefit for commercial fleet customers is that there is no initial investment.

HHM plans to go into other European countries next year, Mark Freymuller, CEO of Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility said. Germany and the Netherlands are the most likely, and there is also strong interest for our vehicles from nearly every other European country. Hyundais latest push will put more pressure on local players, which are developing their own hydrogen plans.

Hyundai Motor Company has set an annual sales goal of 110,000 fuel cell electric vehicles worldwide by 2025, under its Strategy 2025 plan. Meanwhile, the wider Hyundai Motor Group plans to ramp up production capacity for hydrogen-powered vehicles to 500,000 units by 2030. One of the ways Hyundai plans on achieving this is by bringing its fuel cell electric vehicle technology to the commercial vehicle market.

Hyundai has also announced plans to expand into truck tractors. The company is considering North America as the first market in which the products will be tested and launched. With a hold in two of the worlds strongest industrial markets, Hyundai aims to set an example with its hydrogen-powered trucks.

Pushing for a hydrogen-based Europe

Europe is gradually shifting toward clean mobility. The European Union announced a green recovery plan as part of its new hydrogen strategy.

The plan is to significantly increase green hydrogen production in Europe, or hydrogen gained via renewable sources. Green hydrogen is generated using renewable electricity, such as hydropower, to separate the hydrogen and oxygen molecules in water, resulting in no carbon dioxide emissions. This process is known as electrolysis. Increased availability of hydrogen fuel as well as refuelling stations will lead to a rise in zero-emissions transportation.
In this Tuesday, May 8, 2018 photo, former Arizona Republican Speaker of the House J.D. Mesnard speaks to to volunteers and voters during the Sun Lakes Republican Club meeting in Sun Lakes, Ariz.
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Pennsylvania governor vetoes GOP-led election overhaul citing voter ID restrictions

Philadelphia Inquirer/JOSE F. MORENO This bill is ultimately not about improving access to voting or election security, but about restricting the freedom to vote, the governor said in a statement.

This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeats republishing policy.

HARRISBURG  Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a Republican rewrite of Pennsylvanias Election Code on Wednesday, making clear his partys opposition to stricter voter ID requirements and setting up a potential showdown on the issue at the ballot box.

In addition to requiring voters to show ID during every election, the bill would have created early voting, instituted new security rules for drop boxes, and allowed voters to fix mail ballots with missing signatures. GOP lawmakers said the legislation provided extra security measures while also expanding access, but Wolf said it would create new barriers for voters.

This bill is ultimately not about improving access to voting or election security, but about restricting the freedom to vote, Wolf said in a statement. If adopted, it would threaten to disrupt election administration, undermine faith in government, and invite costly, time-consuming, and destabilizing litigation.

The governors rejection of House Bill 1300 was expected, but it dealt a blow to county election officials caught in the partisan battle of voting reforms.

Theyve been asking for two specific provisions: the ability to process mail ballots ahead of Election Day, and moving up the deadline to request a mail ballot. Passing those two measures, officials said, will fix a majority of the issues that arose last November, when election workers were running in-person and mail elections simultaneously during a pandemic.

While the 150-page bill  dubbed the Voting Rights Protection Act  included election officials two priorities, it also contained numerous proposals Democrats said would disenfranchise voters, such as limiting the use of drop boxes and requiring signature verification on mail ballots.

This is Pennsylvanias voter suppression effort rearing its ugly head, Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia) said on the Senate floor before the chamber approved the bill Friday. This is Pennsylvania contributing to the national state-by-state effort to suppress the vote.

Rep. Seth Grove, a York County Republican who wrote the bill, said it would restore confidence in elections through enhanced security measures. Those include requiring voters to present an ID each time they vote  as opposed to only when they vote at a new polling site, as is currently law  requiring bipartisan teams to check the IDs of people returning ballots at drop boxes, and mandating that ballot-scanning machines have signature verification capabilities.

The measure also included curbside voting for those who have difficulties going inside a polling place and increased poll worker pay.

To say I am disappointed in Wolfs lack of action is an understatement, Grove said in a statement. Though Wolf has put on blinders to problems within our election process, it doesnt mean the problems do not exist.

Democrats said the bill was a product of Republicans refusal to accept the results of the Nov. 3 presidential contest and a solution in search of a problem. There was no widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, and multiple government officials and audits confirmed the accuracy of the votes.

Wolf on Wednesday used his line-item veto power to remove $3.1 million from the state budget that Republicans had included to establish a Bureau of Election Audits. Democrats said they never agreed to the creation of such an office.

The governor said he was willing to engage in good faith to refine our shared priorities and work to find common ground in areas where we do not currently have agreement, but he said he refused to negotiate if stricter voter ID requirements were part of the package.

There is a way for Republicans to avoid Wolf entirely: the constitutional amendment process, which theyre increasingly using to advance their priorities. GOP lawmakers sent two questions about curtailing the governors emergency powers to the voters, who approved the changes to the Pennsylvania Constitution this May.

Such amendments rarely fail to pass: Since the 1990s, voters have approved 100% of ballot questions.

Grove warned in a statement last week that if his bill was vetoed, we will take election reform directly to the people and bypass the executive branch.

A constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Judy Ward (R., Blair) would require voters to show a valid, government-issued ID each time they vote at a polling place or include proof of ID with their mail ballot. It passed the Senate last week and was sent to the House for consideration.

The General Assembly must approve the measure in two consecutive two-year sessions to send the question to the voters. The earliest the question could appear on the ballot is 2023.

Voter ID has a contentious history in Pennsylvania. In 2012, the state enacted one of the nations strictest mandates  requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID  but courts struck it down as unconstitutional before it took effect.

Still, roughly three-quarters of respondents to a recent Franklin & Marshall College poll of Pennsylvania voters said they favor requiring all voters to show photo ID.

Wolf said the state already has voter ID requirements, though its fair to have a discussion about whether Pennsylvanians are satisfied with the current rules.

The voter ID that was talked about in HB 1300 is not the voter ID that I think is reasonable, he said Wednesday during a press conference. Its selectively discriminatory and it suppresses the vote.

Voter ID can make it harder for marginalized groups such as the elderly to access the polls, though Groves bill would have required county election boards to provide each voter with a free registration card that includes their signature and a scannable ID number. Without an acceptable ID, the bill would have allowed voters to sign an affidavit and provide the last four digits of their Social Security number.

State lawmakers recessed until late September after passing the election overhaul last week, diminishing the hopes of county election officials that any changes will be implemented in time for the fall municipal election.

Sen. David Argall (R., Schuylkill) last week introduced a bill that solely addresses election officials two priorities: giving counties seven days of precanvassing and moving the mail ballot application deadline to 15 days before Election Day.

In a statement, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania said local officials remain ready to partner on ongoing election reform efforts.

Grove responded in a tweet, saying, There wont be any. We are going straight to the people. Take your complaints to Gov. Wolf.

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FRANKLIN - Justin Curtis Harper, 50, passed away peacefully at his beloved home, July 1, 2021, after a hard fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Justin was born on March 13, 1971, to George and Mary Harper in Annapolis, MD. He was predeceased by his father in 2013. He is survived by his wif
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Jeff Robbins, a former assistant U.S. attorney and delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Middle East.
Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
News

Evictions moratorium ends today

RALEIGH  The state evictions moratorium ends today (July 1) after Republican members of the Council of State rejected a one-month extension, which would have aligned with the national CDC evictions moratorium through July 31.

Its disappointing to see Council of State Members revoke eviction protections for people still struggling to stay in their homes, said Governor Roy Cooper. Many North Carolinians still need help and we will work to make sure landlords abide by the CDC evictions moratorium and that tenants can access rent and utility assistance from counties and the state HOPE program.

Under the Emergency Management Act, the Governor has requested the concurrence of the Council of State for each extension of the eviction moratorium. On Monday, the Governor requested that the Council of State approve extending the moratorium through July, in line with the CDC evictions moratorium. The extension would have also given tenants notice that the moratorium would be lifted at the end of July.

A majority of Council of State members rejected this extension, with their votes falling along party lines. Attorney General Josh Stein, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and State Auditor Beth Wood supported an extension. Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell, Commissioner of Labor Josh Dobson, Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt opposed extending the moratorium.

Folwell said he supported the original order, but called ending the moratorium, which had been extended three times, the right thing to do.

Letting this order expire pushes the power back to the people to make these types of decisions, Folwell said. What was originally an act of COVID now exists solely as an act of the state. Now, property owners can work with tenants on equitable solutions that are unique to each situation without a one-sizes-fits-all government-mandated order. In turn, property owners  especially small property owners  will feel more confident in making more housing available because they know they have a much higher probability of recouping their costs for mortgage payments, property taxes, maintenance and repairs.

The CDC evictions moratorium went into effect on Sept. 4, 2020 protecting certain residents, based on income, from being evicted for an inability to pay rent. The CDC indicated that the current 30-day extension is intended to be the final extension of the order. In order to qualify for protection, tenants must attest to meeting the CDC Orders income and eligibility requirements.

The state evictions order aligned with the CDC Order and implemented important notice requirements for landlords before they could initiate a residential evictions action. The state order required that landlords provide their tenants with a copy of the declaration form they are required to fill out to receive protections under the CDC Order. Without this requirement, many North Carolinians may be unaware of the protections available to them under the federal evictions moratorium and evicted unnecessarily.

The state executive order also specified procedures that must take place once a tenant has provided a landlord with a signed declaration attesting that the tenant qualifies for protection and protected tenants who had been awarded state rental assistance from eviction while payment on awards was processed.

Last fall, Cooper created the HOPE Program using federal funds to provide rent and utility assistance to people struggling during the pandemic providing $132 million in assistance to landlords and utilities on behalf of more than 37,000 tenants.

The HOPE Program opened a new eligibility period this spring and is currently accepting applicants. Several counties are also delivering Emergency Rental Assistance through local programs, and their information may be found at the HOPE website. The state evictions moratorium had protected HOPE awardees from eviction. The Council of State decision means that people awarded HOPE funds may be at risk of eviction until checks are processed, an average currently of about 14 days. As of June 28, the HOPE Program had awarded $66 million to 19,000 households since May 17.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR RENTERS

Some North Carolina renters retain protection against evictions based upon the CDC moratorium. Renters who:

Received a federal stimulus check in 2020 or 2021, or

Were not required to report income to the IRS in 2020, or

Earn less than $99,000 ($198,000 filing jointly) per year, and

Cannot make rent payments due to lost income, may provide a signed declaration to their landlord that protects them from eviction while the federal moratorium remains in effect. The declaration form may be found here.

Renters with questions may get help from an expert by contacting (800) 569-4287.

Complete details about the HOPE Program or a local Emergency Rental Assistance program, including eligibility requirements, program benefits and an online application, are available at www.hope.nc.gov. Applicants who cannot access the website may also call (888) 9ASK-HOPE or (888) 927-5467.

Applicants who wish to apply for free legal help may call Legal Aid of North Carolina at (866) 219-5262.
Screenshot of Stephanie de Garay and her daughter Maddie de Garay sharing how Maddie was injured from a COVID-19 vaccine at Sen. Ron Johnson's press event on June 28, 2021. (Rumble/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

13-Year-Old Suffers Severe Side Effects After Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

Maddie de Garay was a healthy, happy, straight-A student from Ohio who enjoyed hanging out with friends before she received her second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the age of 12.

The now 13-year-old was one of the 2,260 voluntary participants in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial for adolescents aged 12 to 15 that began in July 2020. Maddies mother, Stephanie de Garay, said her daughter asked to participate in the trial as a way to help end the pandemic.

My husband works in the medical field, and I have a degree in electrical engineering, said de Garay, who spoke on behalf of her daughter at a press conference hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) on June 28. We are pro-vaccine and pro-science, which is why we agreed to let Maddie and her two older brothers volunteer for the trial.

Johnson held a news conference to allow people from across the country whove experienced severe adverse reactions following a COVID-19 vaccine to share their stories after being repeatedly ignored by medical professionals and federal health authorities, advocating for Americans health care freedom.

According to de Garays testimony, which has been posted on an independent website by a group of pro-vaccine, pro-science Americans dedicated to raising awareness about rare cases believed to be COVID-19 vaccine injuries, Maddie received her first injection on Dec. 30, 2020, and experienced mild adverse reactions of fever, tiredness, and swelling at the injection site that resolved within a couple of days. However, after getting her second dose on Jan. 20, Maddie immediately felt pain at the injection site that didnt occur with the first dose.

About 18 hours later, she developed severe muscle/nerve pain, painful electrical shocks down her neck and spine which caused her to walk hunched over, severe chest pain that felt like her heart was being pulled out, numbness and swelling in her vaccine arm (left), her fingers and toes turned white and were ice cold to the touch, the pain in her toes was so bad she walked on her heels, severe abdominal pain (especially on [the] lower right side), and a fever of 101.4, de Garay wrote.

Maddie was taken to the emergency room at the childrens hospital where the Pfizer vaccine trial was conducted.

Her blood was taken for a renal profile and tested, she was checked for appendicitis, which she did not have, and given an IV with some medicine and sent home, de Garay said. In the discharge papers from the childrens hospital ER that she went to, the diagnosis stated adverse effect of vaccine initial encounter. This would be the only time that that was written in her medical charts.

Maddies condition didnt improve but worsened over the next 2 1/2 months as she developed more symptoms, including not being able to walk; inability to feel below her waist; memory loss; loss of bladder control; inability to swallow food or liquids, thus requiring a nasogastric feeding tube; and fainting or seizing 10 or more times per day.

All these symptoms are still here today. Some days are worse than others, de Garay tearfully said.

For the past five months, de Garay said her daughter was taken to the emergency room nine times and hospitalized three times for a total of two months in the hospital. Maddie has also visited various specialists and received multiple therapies.

De Garay believes the vaccine caused her daughters injury and feels her concerns havent been taken seriously by medical professionals, Pfizer, or federal health agencies. She said doctors have dismissed her daughters condition as a mental issue.

Because they couldnt figure it out, one physician labeled her as having functional neurological disorder due to anxiety, said de Garay. At one point, they even tried to admit her to a mental hospital.

Prior to her vaccine, Maddie had no major health issues and only took medication for her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

De Garay also claims in her written testimony that once Maddie was given a diagnosis, further testing was stopped, and any new doctors already had a bias from reading her medical record.

It wasnt until after de Garay connected her neurologist to another doctor conducting research on adverse reactions similar to Maddies that additional blood tests and an MRI were prescribed in June.

De Garay doesnt understand why doctors and federal health agencies arent studying Maddies case and working to find out why some people are experiencing severe adverse reactions after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, so others wont have to go through the same thing.

All we want is for Maddie to be seen, heard, and believed, because she has not been. And we want her to get the care that she desperately needs so she can go back to normal again, de Garay said.

Illustration photo of Pfizer vaccine. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Pfizer said Maddies condition wasnt related to the Pfizer vaccine.

Pfizer and the vaccine clinical trial investigator each independently evaluated this case and concluded that it is not related to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The information about the case has been shared with health authorities.

Pfizer developed its vaccine in partnership with BioNTech, a biotechnology company in Germany.

Pfizers vaccine is currently the only COVID-19 vaccine granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for individuals 12 years of age and older in the United States. But that may change as Moderna announced on June 10 that it has filed for an EUA for use of its vaccine in adolescents.

De Garay was one of five people to speak at the press conference about severe health conditions experienced following a COVID-19 vaccination.

Johnson also presented data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). As of June 18, VAERS received 384,270 reports of adverse events and 4,812 reports of fatalities among Americans who had gotten a COVID-19 vaccine.

Reports made on VAERS dont necessarily mean the vaccine caused the adverse effects or deaths. In addition, VAERS is known to only capture less than 1 percent of adverse events from vaccines, due to underreporting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 750 fully vaccinated patients have died of COVID-19, and 3,907 patients have been hospitalized as of June 21. This is among the more than 150 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated.
Local businesses are seen damaged after illegal fireworks seized at a South Los Angeles home exploded, in South Los Angeles, Calif., on June 30, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

17 Hurt as Illegal Fireworks Cache Explodes in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELESA cache of homemade fireworks exploded as it was being destroyed by a bomb squad, flipping and damaging cars, smashing windows in homes and injuring 17 people including police officers, authorities said.

It could take days to determine why the material exploded inside an iron containment vessel on a tractor-trailer Wednesday night, tearing the rig apart in what was supposed to be a safe operation to handle explosives that were too unstable to remove from a South Los Angeles neighborhood where tons of illegal fireworks were discovered.

Clearly, protocols were followed and pursued. But something happened in that containment vessel that should not have happened and we dont know why, Police Chief Michel Moore said. But we intend to find out why.

Los Angeles County emergency personnel work at the scene of a fireworks explosion in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 30, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

Homes, cars, and a laundromat had windows shattered and one car had its side plowed in and was knocked on its side by the force of the blast, which was heard two blocks away.

The blast shortly after 7:30 p.m. sent nine police officers and a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives officer to the hospital with minor injuries, Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said.

Six civilians, ranging from 51 to 85 years old, were taken to the hospital, three with minor and three with moderate injuries, and one person was examined at the scene but wasnt transported, fire officials said.

News reports showed several women and men on gurneys being taken to ambulances.

Fireworks are illegal to sell or possess in Los Angeles and in unincorporated areas of the county but every year, we see the devastation and destruction from them, Terazas said.

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a fireworks explosion in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 30, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

Authorities said the blast illustrated the dangers of underground pyrotechnic sales. In March, a massive fireworks explosion at a home in Ontario, east of Los Angeles, left two people dead and caused at least $3.2 million in damage.

The explosion came after police had spent the day disposing of some 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of commercial-grade fireworks that were found in the home following an early-morning tip. Police found some them on a patio in cartons stacked 8 to 10 feet high, Moore said.

A resident, Arturo Cejas, 27, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a destructive device but he also may face charges of child endangerment because his 10-year-old brother was in the home, Moore said.

It wasnt immediately known whether Cejas had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The bomb squad was called because the large volume of explosives at the home posed an imminent and real danger to the community, Moore said.

Local business are seen damaged after illegal fireworks seized at a South Los Angeles home exploded, in South Los Angeles, Calif., on June 30, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

The fireworks cartons were marked Made in China. The police chief said they were bought out of state in order to sell them in the neighborhood for use on the Fourth of July.

Moore said three box trucks and a 53-foot trailer were brought in to load up the fireworks and move them to a safe location. However, improvised explosives also were found that were too dangerous to move, the chief said.

He described them as 40 home-made devices the size of Coca-Cola cans with simple fuses and 200 smaller but similar devices.

The material was taken to a total containment vehicle, Moore said. The multi-ton semi-tractor trailer rig has a spherical iron chamber that is designed to safely detonate explosives.

Michel Moore (C) chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, talks to the media after illegal fireworks seized at a South Los Angeles home exploded, in South Los Angeles, Calif., on June 30, 2021. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

Moore said less than 10 pounds of material was placed in the chamber, far less than its safety rating.

This vessel should have been able to dispose of that material, he said but instead there was a total, catastrophic failure of that containment vehicle.

As a safety measure, police had knocked on doors before the blast to evacuate homes on both sides of the street where the truck was parked. But firefighters later found people in some of the homes, Terrazas said.

Despite shattered windows, Terrazas said the explosion seemed to have caused mainly superficial damage to homes and gas and water lines were intact.

Moore said a response team consisting of members from around the country would be arriving in town to examine the site and walk through it for an investigation that could take several days. The chief also said the blast may have thrown debris and possibly dangerous material some distance.

People who spot something suspicious in their yards shouldnt touch it but should call police, he said.

By Robert Jablon
20 GOP Governors Urge Biden to Reject Packing the Supreme Court

Twenty Republican governors on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to oppose any expansion of the number of justices on the Supreme Court.

Historically, cases before the Supreme Court have served as the last legal defense of state sovereignty, protecting states and our citizens from federal overreach, the 20 governors, led by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, said in their letter to the Biden administration. As Governors, we have a vested interest in ensuring that our nations highest court remains independent and free from political pressure or partisan power grabs.

The president in April signed an executive order to form a commission to study possible reforms to the court, including proposals to expand it. He presented the idea of a commission as an alternative to court-packing efforts.

The commission was created amid calls to add four seats to the Supreme Court, effectively flipping the balance from six to three in favor of conservative-appointed justices, to seven to six in the opposite direction.

Lobbying efforts by liberal activists to pack the court have ramped up in recent months following their unsuccessful attempt last year to stop Judge Amy Coney Barretts nomination.

Legal scholars from across the country and on both sides of the political aisle agree that court packing will breed perpetual court packingit will never be enough. Each partisan shift will result in seats added to the Court until the Court has lost not only its independence but its authority, the governors said.

The end result of court packing would lead to inconsistent rulings that undermine the legitimacy of the Court and fail to guide our nation and serve our states.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey speaks at a news conference in Beauregard, Ala., on March 4, 2019. (Vasha Hunt/AP Photo)

In a statement, Ivey said that she urged the president to put down any partisan pressures and withdraw consideration from any proposal to pack the court.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in April said that efforts to expand the nations top court would be nothing less than a direct assault on judicial independence.

The cornerstone of our Constitution rests on the notion that power is divided between separated branches of government. This unique system creates checks and balancesan essential defense against any form of tyranny, he said in a letter to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), after House Democrats proposed to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 seats.

History has demonstrated that when elected officials propose legislation to alter the composition of the Supreme Court, their real motives are less than noble. In fact, these misguided actions have almost always attempted to bypass the principles of the Constitution in a quest for more power, Brnovich said at the time.
4 Ways to Make Sure Your Business Survives the Unexpected

Here are the four variables worth adding to your business and financial plan

have a reputation for having a high- tolerance. Studies back up this stereotype, and I can too: Of all my clients, small-business owners are more daring when it comes to managing their financial assets.

This approach to risk is understandable. Entrepreneurs are often innovators willing to leave behind a steady paycheck to test the workabilityand profitabilityof their ideas. Ive also found that this personality type tends toward optimism. Entrepreneurs great belief in the upside overshadows any downside.

Experienced entrepreneurs also know the levers they can pull if things dont go as planned. Or at least they thought they knew. We all thought we knew. Even for those of us who calculate risk for a living, 2020 was a curveball. But if you take an entrepreneurial approach, this past year provided a great laboratory for testing your relationship with risk.

Im not suggesting I liked 2020s unprecedented disruption, but it did offer the opportunity to help clients experiment with new ways of doing business. I saw what was successful and where more planning was needed. And, like any good lab technician, I charted the results. Want to know the four variables that led to success during the pandemic? Read on.

1. Keep a Healthy Stash of Cash

The phrase cash is king was evident last year, especially in particular industries. A restaurant owner with enough cash to operate for 12 months had a better chance of surviving than one whose reserves only lasted three. Cash gives us flexibility, which was needed in ample supply during 2020. A proper cash foundation is also where we start with our clients.

A companys cash reserve policy is similar to a personal cash reserve policy: The soundness of your plan increases with your cash levels. At the very least, you need to have enough money for typical disruptions, like replacing a piece of machinery. You also need reserves or a well-designed insurance policy to cover uncommon but substantial emergencieslike if a hurricane damages your property and forces you to close down for months.

Related: 10 Expert Tips on Managing Cash Flow as a New Business

2. Establish a Strong Banking Relationship

If you dont have a stash of cash, access to itthrough a bank loan or line of creditcan also be advantageous during unforeseen, or even unfathomable, circumstances. And access starts with a good relationship.

In the race to access the first tranche of the attractive SBA-backed loans known as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, borrowers with stronger connections to banks were more likely to have their applications approved, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study.

Knowing a banker personally can also help if you are considering selling your business. Bankers might help you shore up the balance sheet of your company before you shop it for a sale, for instance, or they could lend you money to finance an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

Related: How to Qualify for an SBA Loan in 2021

3. Draw a Line of Demarcation (or Even a Thin Veil) Between Your Companys Risk Stack and Your Own

Small-business owners are the face of their businesses. In many cases, they are also the wallet. Particularly when starting out, your business and your personal finances are closely linked, if not intertwined or even lumped. We understand this. Still, while your business may need your personal investment, we recommend having two different financial plans with two very different risk stacks.

This was tested in the pandemic. Consider a gym owner who had to close down for months. Without a veil between assets, she might have chosen to use personal assets to float her gym during the closure. The move may have bought her time, but the pandemic didnt arrive with an end date, so all the while she was putting all her assets in jeopardy. Having both a personal and business plan could have protected her individual investments even though she ultimately may have run out of cash and been forced to let her company fail.

Related: How to Take the Right Risks

4. Develop a Contingency Plan for Realistic Worst-Case Scenarios

For a business, creating a financial plan involves imagining what if and worst-case scenarios. Scenario planning often feels like a task that can be put off to another day, but you never know how long you have to get it done.

What we call break the glass documents outline what happens if a key leader dies or is disabled. The exercise can help you see gaps in your plan. Managing for the gaps will relieve some of the anxiety. As we say in our office, Day two of a crisis shouldnt be its own crisis.

Even less dramatic disruptions deserve consideration. This winter, as our team shivered and struggled during historic power outages in Texas, we ran a brainstorming session to identify what we will implement to safeguard against interruptions during future storms. We decided to move more of our services to the cloud and to install a generator.

When planning for contingencies, remember to focus on your actual risks, rather than your deepest fears. Humans tend to misestimate the risk of the unknown. Some turn a blind eye. Others can only imagine the worst. But 2020 taught us that the best plan lies in the middle. (Because do you really need a garage full of toilet paper?) If you steel yourself for the worst in normal times, you can avoid unrealistic worst-case scenario planning. Look to the experts for data that can help you more effectively identify the risks and opportunities facing your business and how you can best plan for them.

Debra Brennan Tagg, CFP, is President of BFS Advisory Group and creator of the DBT360 Financial Plan, software that helps clients curate financial plans and achieve the life they want. In addition to her role as President of BFS, Debra is a nationally recognized speaker and contributor.

BFS Advisory Group / 8201 Preston Road, Suite 400, Dallas TX 75225 / (214) 764-1964 Securities and investment advisory services offered through FSC Securities Corporation (FSC), member FINRA/SIPC. Financial planning services offered through BFS Advisory Group, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Insurance is offered by Debra Brennan Tagg as an independent insurance agent. FSC is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of FSC.
Ranking Member Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) questions Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham, during a House Appropriations Subcommittee about preparations for the upcoming 2020 Census, in Washington, on April 30, 2019. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

A Dark Milestone in History: US Lawmakers Decry CCPs 100th Anniversary Celebrations

A centenary of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) existence is no cause for celebration, U.S. lawmakers said, but rather a time to remember the millions of victims murdered and brutalized by the regime.

On July 1, the CCP held a large-scale event in Beijings Tiananmen Square marking its 100th birthday, including military jet flybys, cannon salutes, and a 3,000-strong chorus singing socialist songs.

Today, Beijing celebrates 100 years of the Chinese Communist Party while the Chinese people and the rest of the world mourn its contributions to societymillions killed by its atrocities, slave labor, genocide, religious persecution, organ harvesting, and a global pandemic, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote on Twitter.

Since its founding in 1921 and then coming to power in 1949, the Party has launched wave after wave of mass atrocities causing tens of millions of unnatural deaths and the destruction of traditional Chinese culture and values.

To this day, the communist regime persecutes millions of religious believers, ethnic minorities, and dissidents, aided by advanced technology to surveil and control its citizens. Those ensnared by the Partys repression have suffered detention, torture, forced labor, surveillance, and even forced organ harvesting.

In Xinjiang Province, Beijing has deployed a sweeping clampdown against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, detaining more than 1 million in a network of internment camps. The campaign has been designated a genocide by the U.S. government and other Western countries parliaments.

Meanwhile, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan Buddhists, and house Christians are targeted across China in what U.S. officials have described as the regimes war against faith.

In Hong Kong, the CCP is rapidly tightening its control over the once-vibrant democracy, with the help of a draconian national security law imposed on the city last year. Since then, the territorys pro-democracy forces have been crippled amid mass arrests of figures critical of the regime and the recent forced closure of a prominent pro-democracy newspaper.

The CCPs motto is and has always been the muzzled and dead dont revolt, and theyve taken it to heart, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement. They have brought down the iron hammer on freedom seekers, religious and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and everyday citizens through outright murder, re-education torture camps, disappearances and forced sterilization.

Citing the CCPs abuses, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) described the centenary as a dark milestone in history.

Other lawmakers demanded justice for the regimes victims.

We must hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable, Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif) said in a tweet.

Last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a resolution that lists and condemns the Partys severe abuses since its founding. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the bills lead sponsor, said the resolution aims to lay the CCPs true nature bare for all the world to see.

The point here is to illustrate that the abuses were seeing from the Party today, including the genocide in Xinjiang, is not a new phenomenon, Gallagher said at a press conference on June 29. Human rights abuses are hardwired into the Chinese Communist Partys very DNA.
The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington on May 7, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Arizona Ballot-Harvesting Ban Is Legal, Supreme Court Rules in High-Stakes Electoral Integrity Case

Arizonas ban on ballot-harvesting and out-of-precinct voting doesnt violate the federal Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court ruled 63 in a closely watched case with implications for future elections.

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Mark Brnovich, attorney general of Arizona, who argued the case, said the court recognized when it comes to time, place and manner, the states have a lot of authority.

We as public servants have no more sacred duty than protecting the peoples right to vote, but we have to maintain confidence in the integrity of the results, the Republican officeholder said.

The court opinion split neatly along ideological and partisan lines, with the six conservative justices nominated by Republican presidents voting to uphold the state rules and the three liberal justices nominated by Democratic presidents voting to strike them down.

The July 1 decision was a victory for the former Trump administration, which argued in a friend-of-the-court brief the month before it left office that the rules were legally sound.

President Joe Biden promptly denounced the Supreme Court ruling after it was issued, saying it undercuts the Voting Rights Act, and upholds what Justice [Elena] Kagan called a significant race-based disparity in voting opportunities in her dissenting opinion.

The ruling comes one day after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed a Republican-backed election overhaul bill and one week after the Biden DOJ sued Georgia over the states new GOP-supported electoral integrity law, claiming that it amounts to so-called voter suppression.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the courts opinion in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (DNC), court file 19-1257, and Arizona Republican Party v. DNC, court file 19-1258. Oral arguments took place telephonically on March 2 after the Supreme Court decided Oct. 2, 2020, to hear the consolidated case.

Former DOJ civil rights attorney J. Christian Adams praised the ruling, calling it a clear victory for election integrity.

The Court obliterated the idea that there must be demonstrable voter fraud to enact a law to deter and prevent it, Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation said in a statement. This is a big blow to the vote fraud deniers who have turned to the courts to make our elections less secure.

Courts Opinion

The Supreme Court concluded that Arizonas policy disallowing ballots cast in the wrong precinct and the ballot-collection ban in the law known as HB 2023 do not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. The court also found HB 2023 was not enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose. Most states require voters to vote in their own precincts, and around 20 states limit ballot collection by third parties.

Section 2 forbids voting practices that result in a denial or abridgment of the right  to vote on account of race or color [or language-minority status], and provides that such a result is established if a jurisdictions political processes  are not equally open to members of such a group.

Arizona law generally makes it very easy to vote, Alito wrote in the courts opinion.

All voters may vote by mail or in person for nearly a month before election day, but Arizona imposes two restrictions that are claimed to be unlawful.

First, in some counties, voters who choose to cast a ballot in person on election day must vote in their own precincts or else their ballots will not be counted. Second, mail-in ballots cannot be collected by anyone other than an election official, a mail carrier, or a voters family member, household member, or caregiver.

When the case came before U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes, an Obama appointee, he upheld Arizonas rules. When the other side appealed, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court, but when the other side appealed again, all the judges of that circuit sat en banc, and the divided full appeals court reversed, finding the states voting rules unlawful.

Judge William Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, wrote the opinion for the en banc appeals court, finding that Arizonas policy of wholly discarding  out-of-precinct ballots, and  criminalization of the collection of another persons ballot, have a discriminatory impact on American Indian, Hispanic, and African American voters in Arizona, in violation of the results test of Section 2 of the VRA.

The ballot-collection ban was enacted with discriminatory intent, in violation of the intent test of Section 2 of the VRA and of the Fifteenth Amendment, Fletcher wrote, adding that the Arizona rules are unfair because American Indian voters, other minorities, renters, and poor people are disadvantaged because they have difficulty receiving and sending mail.

The 9th Circuit stayed enforcement of its judgment pending appeal, allowing Arizonas disputed laws to remain in place for the 2020 elections.

Alito rejected Fletchers reasoning.

The en banc court relied on the rules small disparate impacts on members of minority groups, as well as past discrimination dating back to the States territorial days.

We now hold that the en banc court misunderstood and misapplied [Section 2] and  exceeded its authority in rejecting the District Courts factual finding on the issue of legislative intent, Alito wrote.

Alitos opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Kagans dissenting opinion was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Discrimination

In her dissent, Kagan wrote that the courts majority is upholding two election laws from Arizona that discriminate against minority voters.

What is tragic here is that the Court has (yet again) rewrittenin order to weakena statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses. What is tragic is that the Court has damaged a statute designed to bring about the end of discrimination in voting, she wrote, quoting President Lyndon Johnson, who, she said, sent the bill to Congress, ten days after John Lewis led marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Brnovich took issue with Kagans assertions.

He told The Epoch Times that the dissent provides an important historical background that all Americans should remember, but she is wrong when she reaches the next-step conclusion.

If you accept the logic of the dissent, then almost any voting integrity measures enacted by any state would be unconstitutional or inconsistent with the Voting Rights Act. It would essentially nationalize all of our elections, which is exactly what the left is trying to do with S1 and HR1, Brnovich said, referring to the two versions pending in Congress of the Democrats proposed For the People Act.

Republicans oppose the legislation, saying its an unconstitutional power grab that strips states of the power to run their own elections.

So I think that Justice Kagan in that dissent is essentially doing the bidding of the far left thats trying to undermine this system of checks and balances with our government as well as states sovereignty, Brnovich said.

There was a time not that long ago when even the Democrats recognized that limits on ballot harvesting help protect the integrity of the process.

Brnovich pointed out that Arizona has no-excuse absentee voting, while jurisdictions like New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire  dont even allow no-excuse absentee voting.

And yet the left doesnt sue those states or go after them. They go after red states like Arizona or Georgia, he said.

The far left doesnt want to have discussions, they dont want to have debates, what they want to do is define the terms and then demonize everyone who disagrees with them. And that, quite frankly, is the real danger in this country today.

The Epoch Times reached out to the lawyers of the unsuccessful litigants.

Mark Elias, counsel of record for the DNC, and Jessica Ring Amunson, counsel of record for Arizonas Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, had not replied to requests for comment as of press time.

July 1 was the last day of the Supreme Courts term that began in October 2020. In a historic first, all oral arguments of the term were conducted telephonically because of the ongoing pandemic.

Although media speculation was rampant that the oldest member of the court, Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, would announce his retirement, no such announcement had been made as of press time.
Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are audited at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 29, 2021. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP/Pool)

Arizona Election Audit Moves out of Coliseum, Ballots Held in New Building Under 24/7 Security: Official

After more than two months, the audit of Arizonas Maricopa County moved out of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, according to one of the state Senates audit liaisons.

Randy Pullen, one of the Senates audit liaisons, told reporters that the audit process will persist inside another building at the fairgrounds. The audit team has to vacate the coliseum due to a lease agreement, he said, adding that 2.1 million ballots and voting equipment will be moved to the Wesley Bolin Building on Thursday morning.

The voting machines, ballots, and other materials will be protected around the clock by three security guards, Pullen said. Surveillance cameras will also provide livestream from inside the Wesley Bolin Building for security reasons, he added.

Theres still a little bit more work to do, Pullen said, reported KTAR. I cant imagine it will take more than a couple of weeks to get everything resolved, he added.

Last week, the audit team announced that the counting and paper examination of the ballots had finished. Officials involved in the process said that more work will be done before a report is produced by the end of the summer.

I dont think theyll be any numbers coming out, preliminary numbers or anything, Pullen said of a report being released. That would be totally up to the Senate.  That would be their call.

Following the completion of the counting, Republican Senate Majority Leader Karen Fann told The Epoch Times GOP senators will be meeting this week to formulate a plan and timeline moving forward, without elaborating.

For months, amid a legal tug-of-war between the Republican-led state legislature and Maricopa County executives, the Senate ultimately authorized an audit of Maricopa Countys 2020 election results, which started in late April. The Senate won a legal fight to enforce a subpoena of voting equipment and the ballots

Democrats, including Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, have routinely criticized the audit and called it a partisan affair. Republicans, including Fann, have said the audit isnt designed to overturn the 2020 election results but is merely an attempt to restore the publics trust in the elections system.

Earlier this week, Maricopa County announced it would replace all subpoenaed voting machines that were examined during the audit.

Accordingly, I write to notify you that Maricopa County will not use the subpoenaed election equipment in any future election, said the letter from the county officials, dated Monday. In a separate press release, Maricopa County said it will never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections.

Fann, however, told The Epoch Times that the announcement is another attack on the audit, and stressed the machines werent tampered with during the weekslong process.

The Epoch Times has contacted former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, another audit liaison, for comment.
Arizona Man Sentenced For Drug Charge After Tunnel is Discovered Under His House

A 35-year-old Arizona man will spend the next 41 months in prison after federal agents discovered hed been funneling shipments of illicit drugs from Mexico into the United States using a tunnel hed built under his rental house.

Jovany Alonso Robledo-Delgado, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, was sentenced June 24 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin.

After his sentence has been served, Robledo-Delgado will receive five years of supervised release.

On Dec. 17, 2019, federal agents executed a search warrant at the house Robledo-Delgado was renting in Nogales, Arizona, a community of about 21,000 that straddles the United States-Mexican border.

During a house search agents discovered a subterranean tunnel down to the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI), a wastewater pipeline that begins at the Mexican border and flows north to a plant that treats wastewater from Nogales, Sonora, and cities in Arizona pursuant to an agreement between the United States and Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office, District of Arizona, in a news release.

Inside Robledo-Delgados house, agents also found large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and heroin.

Agents found Robledo-Delgado hiding under a bed before he was arrested on the drug charge.

Robledo-Delgado told agents that he built the tunnel so he could breach the IOI and retrieve packages of drugs that floated through the IOI from Mexico into the United States. He was being paid $3,000 for each shipment.

In March, federal agents on the San Diego Tunnel Task Force discovered a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel, which extends more than 2,200 feet underground from a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico to a warehouse in a commercial complex in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. Agents seized 4,400 pounds of illegal drugs, including 1,300 pounds of cocaine, 17 pounds of heroin, 3,000 pounds of marijuana, and more than two pounds of fentanyl from the tunnel, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a press release.

The total street value of the illicit drugs is estimated at $29.6 million.

Tunnels like this bring large quantities of dangerous drugs and violence into our communities. Law enforcement often relies on the publics assistance in identifying the location of these tunnels, the ICE statement said.
Servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo stand guard as people gathered to attend the public hearing of suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces, a terrorist group, in Beni on Aug. 20, 2016. (Kudra Maliro/AFP via Getty Images)

At Least 10 Killed in Overnight Attack on Eastern Congo City of Beni

BENI, Democratic Republic of CongoAt least 10 people were killed overnight in a raid on the city of Beni in eastern Congo, witnesses said, and a civil society group and a monitoring body said Islamist terrorists were suspected of being behind the attack.

Residents said a group of attackers had set several houses on fire in the middle of the night in the citys Beu district, firing upon people as they exited the buildings and attacking some with machetes.

The raid took place just four days after the city, home to thousands of displaced people who fled surrounding areas because of violence, was hit by two blasts, which officials also blamed on the Islamists.

Hundreds of people took to Benis streets on Thursday morning to protest against the governments failure to protect the city. Some people built makeshift barricades while others burned tires.

So far we have seen 10 bodies ourselves and have just transported a body on a cart to the morgue, said protester Kathembo Ngeleza, who was woken up by gunfire during the night after attending a party celebrating Congos Independence Day.

We dont know what our authorities are doing. The idea is to protect the inhabitants, but here we are again  We are really angry, he added.

Gloire Kivetya, president of a body representing civil society groups in Benis Beu district, blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist terrorist group that claims links to the ISIS terrorist group. The Kivu Security Tracker also said the ADF was suspected.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the ADF could not be reached. The ADF has been accused of killing thousands of people since 2014, mostly in more remote areas.

The army blamed the ADF for two explosions that hit Beni on Sunday, in which only an attacker was killed. The citys mayor closed schools, churches, and markets for 48 hours as a safety precaution.

The government declared martial law in North Kivu and Ituri, two provinces bordering Uganda, at the beginning of May, in an attempt to quell a surge in violence.

But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has increased since then, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which maps unrest in eastern Congo.

There are nearly 700,000 internally displaced people in Beni territory, 57,000 of whom are in the city itself, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday.

By Erikas Mwisi Kabale
Australian Fuel Security Undermined by Shell Be Right Attitude

Experts are warning that Australias pursuit of efficiency coupled with a shell be right attitude has put the countrys fuel supply in danger. Many are also concerned that the federal governments recent efforts to address the problem are not enough to eliminate any vulnerabilities.

The comments come as the Australian Parliament looks set to pass the Fuel Security Bill 2021, which will compel the oil industry to maintain stock levels above a certain threshold and solidify a government pledge to subsidise local refining operations.

Anthony Richardson, a research fellow at the Future Social Service Institute at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said Australian supply chains had been too focused on keeping costs low, which has eroded the resilience of the system.

This is best demonstrated by the concept of just in time supply chains, in which stock arrives when it is needed, minimising the costs of holding excess inventory in stock, he wrote in The Conversation.

Such an approach is certainly efficient, but it is also fragile. This is a pretty good description of Australias current oil supply chains.

Pursuit of Efficiency Leads to Declining Resilience

Formerly a net exporter of fuel Australia was once able to extract and refine all its petrol, diesel, or jet fuel domestically with 10 refineries operating in the country in 2000. However, as the decades rolled on, oil companies shut their plants in response to tougher economic conditions and declining profit margins.

By February 2021, Australia was reduced to two refineries with the closure of the Altona facility in Victoria. Its owners claimed the operation was no longer economically viable and would convert the facility into an import terminal.

Fuel supply chains to Australia (Screenshot: NRMA 2013 report)

Hunter Laidlaw of the Australian Parliamentary Library said competition from Asia had been one of the leading factors driving refinery owners to close their facilities.

The existing Australian refineries are relatively small and old and have to compete against larger and more efficient refineries in the Asian region, he wrote.

The rise of Chinese refineries has also made life difficult for traditionally competitive refineries in Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea. As Chinese refining capacity increases, so has Chinese exports.

Even Australia has seen its share of imports from China jump from 0.5 percent in 2010 to over 13 percent of all imports in 2019-2020. Currently, Australia imports 90 percent of its refined petroleum from overseas, with our biggest import markets being Singapore and South Korea, followed by India and China.

But these supplies are under increasing threat from the geopolitical competition that is currently encompassing the Indo-pacific.

Heavy traffic heads south at Yatala, ahead of the Easter long weekend in Brisbane, Australia, on April 1, 2021. (Jono Searle/Getty Images)

Alexey Muraviev, head of the Department of Social Sciences and Security Studies at Curtin University, noted that The global supply chain was set up on the premise that there would not be any disruptions to the international security environment.

This premise may have worked back in the 90s. But right now, in the second decade of the 21st century, we are seeing greater strategic competition, he told The Epoch Times.

Graeme Bethune, CEO of EnergyQuest, an energy advisory firm, said complacency was a major issue, as well as a reluctance to intervene in the market as it could drive up fuel prices.

There has also been a lot of opposition from the refiners and importing companies too. I think theyve argued for years its not necessary (to store fuel) because the system worked well, he told The Epoch Times. Theyve done a good job, but the world is changing.

Under standards set by the International Energy Agency, governments must hold 90-days of crude oil in reserve. Currently, Australia is estimated to hold 68 days. This includes even crude oil stored on tankersor on the water reserves.

Too Little, Too Late?

In response to the recent closures of ExxonMobils Altona and BPs Kwinana, the government pledged $2.3 billion in taxpayer funds to support the remaining two refineries in Brisbane (Ampol) and Geelong (Viva Energy).

Last April, the federal government also purchased $94 million of crude oil from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

One of the biggest moves was the governments decision to open 80,000 square kilometres (30,000 square miles) of coastal waters for oil and gas exploration.

The 21 release areas available for offshore oil and gas exploration as part of the 2021 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release. (Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources)

While experts have welcomed the moves, they believe that larger fundamental changes were still needed.

Michael Shoebridge, defence director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said it was fortunate to see the government prioritise the issue; but warned it was not enough.

Any support to loss-making local refineries will not solve all of Australias fuel security issuesonly a larger economic transition away from fossil fuels to energy sources that are available at scale locally will do that, he told The Epoch Times.

The total strategy has to be a combination of increased local storage, limited onshore refining capacity for the fuel types that are most necessary during crises, and a bigger, faster transition for the broader economy away from fossil fuels.

Bethune called for a National Transport Policy to better determine the scope of the countrys petroleum needs, including an assessment of the potential uptake of electric vehicles; whether biofuels and hydrogen can be used to power vehicles; changes to the fuel excise; and the scope of rail electrification across the country.

Meanwhile, Daniel Wild, director of research at the free-market think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, said the refining industry needed to be more investor-friendly.

A key factor behind the decline of Australias oil refinery industry is over-regulation, red tape, and environmental activism, which has deterred investment, he told The Epoch Times.

What is remaining of Australias oil refinery industry would be killed off by a net zero emissions target which would make it impossible for Australian industry to compete, he added.
Australias Vaccination Task Force Commander Clarifies ATAGI Advice Amid Political Squabbling

The head of Australias Vaccination Taskforce, Lieutenant-General John Frewen, has clarified the expert advice about eligibility for vaccinations after Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Dr. Jeannette Young appeared to give conflicting advice to Australians about the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On Monday, the prime minister said that people aged under 40 could get the AstraZeneca vaccine if they made an informed choice in consultation with their GP.

If they wish to go and speak to their doctor and have access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, they can do so, Morrison said when asked if people aged under 40 could get the jab immediately.

However, on Wednesday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk argued against this advice, telling reporters, I do not think this is the time to risk the safety of our young Australians  when the UK will not even allow their under the 40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Queenslands Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, takes off her face mask to speak during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, on June 29, 2021. (Jono Searle/Getty Images)

This was also the advice of Queenslands Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, who said young people were more at risk of the blood clotting syndrome that was linked to AstraZeneca. Her advice on Wednesday was for people aged under 40 not to get the AstraZeneca vaccine but wait for Pfizer.

I do not want under 40s to get AstraZeneca because they are at increased risk of getting  that rare clotting syndrome, Young said. I dont want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID, probably wouldnt die.

But on the matter of which vaccine those under 40 should get, Australias Vaccination Taskforce commander told Nines Today Show on Thursday that the advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) had not changed.

The ATAGI advice has remained unchanged, the medical advice has remained unchanged, and that is that people can make informed consent about whichever of the vaccines are available, Frewen said. Both the vaccines we currently have are safe.

COVID-19 Taskforce Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on June 18, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

While clarifying the prime ministers comments, Frewen said that Australia had prioritised Pfizer vaccines for people aged over 40 until the Pfizer shipment arrives in October.

What the PMs announced the other day is that those under 40 can make an informed choice with their GP about whether they wish to access AstraZeneca right now or whether they wish to wait until later in the year for an alternative vaccine, he said.

Queenslands Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, speaks during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, on June 29, 2021. (Jono Searle/Getty Images)

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli on Wednesday demanded an end to the squabbling between the two tiers of government, warning the lack of clarity on the issue was fuelling hesitancy.

But on Thursday Young defended her comments, saying, I have put my advice out there very, very clearly. Now, people need to work out where they want to get advice from.

Palaszczuk also denied her remarks that the UK government wont allow under 40s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine were misleading.

She later shared a link on Twitter to a BBC article that said 18-39-year-olds in the UK would be given an alternative to AstraZeneca if available, and if it does not cause delays in having the vaccine.

Since the prime ministers announcement on Monday, about 2,600 people under 40 have chosen the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A security officer wearing a face mask stand guard in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City, while the closing of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference takes place in Beijing on May 27, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Beijing Bans Household Use of Natural Gas in Restricted Areas to Tighten Security Around CCP Anniversary

Natural gas supply has been cut off around July 1 from households in Beijings Donghuamen sub-district in Dongcheng district in a move to secure celebrations of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) anniversary, sources have told The Epoch Times.

July 1 is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

A netizen posted on social media that community officials will arrange for meals to be sent to residents. The ban will not lifted until July 4.

Geographically, Donghuamen is of great importance to Beijingit is home to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Chinas ministries of foreign affairs, foreign trade and economic cooperation, and public security, among others.

At this delicate time, the CCP considers [natural gas] a risk, a male resident with the surname Zheng told The Epoch Times on June 29. It would frown at any fire in the restricted areas.

Another internet user posted an image of three breakfast coupons issued by local authorities to the affected residents. With the Hepingmen Market shown on the front, the coupons are worth 20 yuan (about $3.13) each, and are valid until July 5. Residents can use them at designated eateries.

Staff from the Hepingmen Market expressed that they didnt know the reason for its appearance on the coupons, which were implemented by community administrators.

The Epoch Times could not reach the relevant neighborhood committee for comment by phone.

Its too much that residents cannot cook at home, complained Zheng.

Today, as social conflicts are serious in China, the CCP regime is far from resting assured, he added. Its frightened at the anger coming from the grassroots. Thats why harsh security measures are seen in the name of anti-terrorism across the country.

Wide-ranging precautions have been announced by the CCP as the regime works to maintain control over events for its 100th anniversary, including traffic controls; restrictions on knife purchases; removing petitioners at government offices seeking redress; and banning drones, model airplanes, kites, and balloons in nine districts designated as no-fly zones.

Its a strict rule across Beijing that any knife buyer must pay an in-person visit and present his or her ID in advance, a shop assistant at a knife store in Huilongguan of Changping district, Beijing, told The Epoch Times on June 29. Buyers ID must be registered with the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

All buyers have to come to the store and show their IDs, another shop assistant at one of Beijings well-known Wangmazi knife and scissors stores said of the restrictions. Whats more, you cannot go away with it even you have paid the money. It can only be posted to youand the posting be made after July 2.
President Joe Biden hands a pen to House Nancy Pelosi (2nd L), alongside other members of the House, after signing a bill dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, in Washington, on June 30, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Biden Revokes Trump-Era Rule That Eased Restrictions on Methane Emissions

President Joe Biden on June 30 signed into law a bill overturning a Trump-era environmental rule that eased restrictions on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

Called S.J.Res. 14, the joint resolution nullifies the Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Sept. 14, 2020.

The Trump administration rule eliminated more stringent Obama-era regulations around the emissions of methane, a gas that scientists have said traps the earths heat. The EPA says methane has a global warming potential up to 36 times greater than carbon dioxide over 100 years.

Democrats and environmentalists opposed President Donald Trumps methane rule and said its removal would help the Biden administration to tackle climate change.

Weve learned that methane is even more dangerous to the climate than we knew back then, in 2016trapping much more heat than carbon dioxide, Biden said in remarks upon signing the bill, which he called an important first step of cutting methane pollution.

When the joint resolution was under consideration by Congress, it drew opposition from several Republicans, who said the measure unfairly took aim at oil and gas companies that were already working to reduce emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases.

Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) said the repeal measure advanced radical activist priorities while empowering foreign oil producers at the expense of domestic production.

Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.) said the resolution would nickel and dime the most essential [businesses] in her district, the oil and gas producers, which she said could be driven out of business by excessive government regulations.

In 2016, the EPA curbed methane emissions at facilities built or modified since 2015, requiring companies to deploy technology to detect and fix methane leaks at oil and gas wells. While some large energy companies have embraced methane capture as a way to save money and promote natural gas as a cleaner option than coal in the nations power plants, smaller companies have argued the requirements are too expensive for them.

When the Trump administration in 2019 announced its proposed methane emissions rule change, officials estimated the rollback of the Obama-era restrictions would save the oil industry tens of millions of dollars a year in compliance costs.

In August 2020, then-EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said the rollback delivered on Trumps 2017 executive order to promote energy independence and economic growth.

EPA has been working hard to fulfill President Trumps promise to cut burdensome and ineffective regulations for our domestic energy industry, Wheeler said at the time.

While the oil and gas lobby initially fought methane regulations, it has recently eased up on the effort, as have major oil and gas producers, as they face pressure from investors on climate issues.

Keeping methane in the pipes is good for the planet and for business, said Mary Streett, senior vice president of BPs U.S. communications and advocacy, in remarks to The Wall Street Journal. It means that we can sell it as a cleaner fuel source rather than losing it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden holds a meeting with cabinet officials, governors and private sector partners to discuss preparedness of Western states to heat, drought and wildfires this season, at the White House in Washington, on June 30, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Biden Ups Firefighter Pay, Pushes Climate Spending

President Joe Biden announced pay raises for federal firefighters on Wednesday and said the United States was behind in its preparations for a potential record number of forest fires this year because of drought and high temperatures.

Bidens remarks at a virtual meeting with governors of western states sought to show the White House is treating wildfires are no less a national emergency than hurricanes.

Biden said he would raise the pay of federal firefighters to at least $15 an hour and bonuses would be paid for those working on the front lines.

The White House also seeks to convert seasonal firefighting jobs to full-time to meet greater demand.

A bipartisan infrastructure bill includes nearly $50 billion in drought, wildfire, flood, and multi-hazard resilience programs, the White House said on Wednesday, while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell upped pressure on fellow Republicans not to back it if it was linked with a second spending measure.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection patch is seen on the arm of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Mission, Texas, on July 1, 2019. (Loren Elliott/Reuters)

Border Patrols Fentanyl Seizures Increase by 4,000 Percent From 2018, Officials Say

Border officials have seized 4,000 percent more fentanyl in 2021 than in 2018 as the border crisis continues, NBC News reported on June 29.

Cartels have taken advantage of increased federal resources allocated for migrant encounters to smuggle fentanyl into the United States between ports of entry, according to NBC News. Border officials have found 41 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2021, compared with nine pounds in 2020, two pounds in 2019, and one pound in 2018.

For the first time, were starting to see these tactics where fentanyl is being smuggled between ports of entry, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said. Cartels are very creative. They find ways to intimidate migrants and find ways to illegally have them transport that narcotic into the United States.

Officers at #CBPLaredo remain at the forefront of border security operations to protect the public of lethal narcotics, as seen in this seizure of fentanyl worth $384K. pic.twitter.com/Uw0b2KWT57  Port Director Alberto A. Flores (@CBPPortDirLRD) June 25, 2021

Cartels have been manufacturing fentanyl using raw materials imported from China, experts said, according to NBC News. Just two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal to the average person and one kilogramabout 2.2 poundscan kill up to 500,000 people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Cartels reportedly favor fentanyl because its easier to smuggle into the United States and is highly potent and profitable, DEA officials told NBC News.

Officials reported an 85 percent increase in the number of methamphetamine seizures away from ports of entry in 2021, NBC News reported. Fentanyl seizures at ports of entry increased 719 percent and methamphetamine was up 781 percent.

Border officials in Sunland Park, New Mexico, typically encounter single adult men who attempt to evade apprehension instead of migrant families seeking asylum, according to NBC News. Drug cartels have taken advantage of the increase in migrants illegally entering the United States seeking asylum to move narcotics into the country.

They assault the agent because they want to get away, Chavez said. Its the only obstacle between them and freedom into the United States.

By Kaylee Greenlee

From The Daily Caller News Foundation

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Riley, 7, with his autism service dog, Willow, during his first visit to the dentist on May 28. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

Boy with Autism Afraid of Dentists Chair Until Service Dog Gets Her Teeth Checked First

A 7-year-old boy with autism, terrified of the dentists chair, summoned the bravery to open his mouth wide thanks to his loyal service dog who had her teeth checked first.

Mom Nicole Duggan of Cork in Ireland shared about Rileys first visit to the dentist in a social media post. To say that her little boy was just anxious was an understatement, she wrote.

From the second he walked into the clinic, Rileys mantra was, Im not getting my teeth checked. Duggan said he kept repeating this over and over until they went into the dentists room.

Riley then refused to sit in the dentists chair, choosing instead a chair by the door beside his dog, Willow. The pup kept Riley calm and distracted until the family had a smart idea.

Riley, 7, with his autism service dog, Willow, during his first visit to the dentist on May 28. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

We got the dentist to check Willows teeth first, Duggan said. He watched and saw that no one had to go at her teeth, and Riley then copied and let [the dentist] have a look in his mouth to see what was going on.

It was amazing to see!

Feeling brave, Riley even ventured over to the dentists chair, holding Willows lead for comfort. He got to see an X-ray of his teeth. Enthralled, the little boy told the dentist his lamp looked like the Moon.

The dentist gave Riley so many stickers for courage.

What started off as a stressful situation turned into a positive one! Duggan said.

Nicole Duggan of Cork in Ireland with her 7-year-old son, Riley. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

Duggan shared that although Riley decided to sit in the chair, he might not have let the dentist do anything. However, they still managed to figure out what the problem was, she said.

Riley left with antibiotics, but perhaps best of all he left with a smile on his face, confident that he will return in the future.

Him sitting in this chair was an enormous step, the proud mom said. And he has said he will go back! That alone is a major win!

Events such as visiting the dentist can be extremely stressful for Riley, who was diagnosed with autism three months before his third birthday. Having Willow by his side makes life a little easier.

Riley with his service dog, Willow. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

Before they got Willow, Duggan struggled to communicate Rileys hidden disability to the world around him.

Recounting their story to Love What Matters, the mom said that Riley once used a special needs stroller, but hated to be there.

He wanted to be free, she wrote. He wanted to run. But I could not manage him out and about anymore. I couldnt catch him when he ran because he was so fast.

Riley holding My Canine Companions autism service puppy in-training who was named after him. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

Fearful that she couldnt keep her son safe, Duggan was relieved when Riley made it to the top of the list for an autism service dog.

The family took part in a puppy program with Irish charity, My Canine Companion, and Riley and Willow formed an inseparable bond.

Anchored to his adorably fluffy dog, Rileys world opened up. Willow, as a trained autism service dog, knows how to keep her little owner calm when the world seems scary by licking his hand.

Riley with Willow while shopping for a new pair of shoes for school. (Courtesy of Nicole Duggan)

Grateful for their faithful service dog, Rileys whole family now pays it forward by fundraising. In June, they took part in a sponsored walk for the charitys ongoing autism and therapy services.

This is why we will walk 60 miles proudly, Duggan wrote in her social media post. Because Willow has changed this guys life!

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
An employee works at a production line of lithium ion batteries inside a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on Oct. 16, 2018. (Joyce Zhou/Reuters)

California Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Laptop Batteries From China

A man in San Gabriel Valley, California, has pleaded guilty to being involved in a multi-million-dollar scheme to ship counterfeit laptop batteries and other electronics from China to the United States, where they were sold through online marketplaces.

The 29-year-old Chinese national, Zoulin Cai, who went by the name Allen Cai, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California said in a statement.

According to his plea agreement, Cai conspired to import counterfeit lithium-ion batteries and other electronic accessories for laptops and cellphones to the United States from China.

He sold and shipped the counterfeit batteries to unsuspecting buyers via online marketplaces eBay and Amazon, and advertised them as new and original products from companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, and Toshiba.

The batteries also bore counterfeit trademarks of those companies, and also carried counterfeit safety certification marks of the company UL.

According to UL, most laptop battery counterfeiting is of lithium-ion batteries because the market is bigger and more lucrative. Due to poor design or a fault in the counterfeited battery, these counterfeit items can pose significant safety risks and overheat, catch fire, and explode.

Cai was previously arrested in December 2019 for his then-alleged involvement in the scheme.

Read More Chinese National Charged With Selling $23.8 Million in Counterfeit Computer Batteries

He admitted on June 29 that his co-conspirators and he had profited by at least $3.5 million and as much as $23,831,668 from the sale of the counterfeit products from March 2014 to June 2019. In that same time frame, Cai and his co-conspirators sent more than $18 million through wire transfers from U.S.-based bank accounts directly to Chinese bank accounts.

According to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed in December 2019, Cai worked for Shenzhen Theseus Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based company, before he moved to Los Angeles County in 2012. Shenzhen Theseus manufactured counterfeit lithium-ion batteries and was owned and operated by Cais relatives.

Federal agents made undercover purchases of the counterfeit batteries from Cai on several occasions prior to his arrest.

Cai and other co-conspirators had created many corporations based in the United States to import and sell the counterfeit batteries and electronics, which were then shipped from warehouses in La Puente under his control, the plea agreement stated.

One of Cais warehouses was found in December 2019 to have contained about 44,000 batteries and 175,000 counterfeit labels of multiple companies, including Apple, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, and Samsung.

The Chinese national faces a maximum sentence of 22 years of federal imprisonment. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 4.
Clinicians perform a tracheostomy on a patient in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 17, 2021. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Californias Budget Will Give Illegal Aliens Free Health Care

California taxpayers will soon be footing the health care bill for older illegal immigrants as part of a recently approved state budget.

The budget deal will guarantee coverage for low-income, undocumented immigrants older than 50. The plan was initiated by Democrats, whove said they want to ensure everyone has health care insurance.

The coverage, set to take effect in 2022, will cost taxpayers $1.3 billion per year.

California state Sen. Jim Nielsen said he felt providing health care to those living in the country illegally was one of the most egregious parts of the bill, which Newsom was expected to sign by July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Individuals who are illegally in California now will receive [health] benefits equal to a citizen of California. All they had to do is just simply be here, and whether they were of legal status or not makes no difference, Nielsen told The Epoch Times.

I would argue that is at the expense of Californians who are legally here and have been here their whole life. Also, it inflates the budget considerably, and it becomes a part of the base budget, meaning the ongoing budget into the future. Every year, we have to build into the base expenditure, the extension of the people served.

The funding comes on top of the millions California already spends each year to try to ensure that residents have insurance coverage. Despite this, nearly 3.2 million Californians will remain uninsured next year, making up 9.5 percent of the state, according to the University of CaliforniaBerkeley Labor Center.

Nearly 1.3 million illegal immigrants under 65 are among the uninsured population.

When asked about the implementation, a spokesperson from Gov. Gavin Newsoms office told The Epoch Times that the governor believes all California residents deserve to be healthy.

Governor Newsom has made it clear that he supports health care for all, regardless of immigration status, and since taking office has advanced this goal while maintaining fiscal responsibility for future years, the spokesperson said.

Building on the states expansion of Medi-Cal coverage to all Californians up to age 26 and additional Covered California premium assistance to middle-income individuals, the governor in May proposed tackling the long-standing structural barriers in health care for low-income older undocumented persons as the state makes progress toward universal coverage.

On top of giving aid to the undocumented, the budget will also eliminate the asset test when applying for Medicaid.

This test originally required 65-and-older residents to be low income in order to receive the free health care. Another requirement was that Medicaid recipients couldnt have assets that exceeded $2,000 for a single person or $3,000 for a couple. These assets can include items like cash or some jewelry.

The removal of the asset test will enable 17,802 people to come into the Medicaid program and will cost $220 million per year, according to the Department of Health Care Services.
Three illegal immigrants were arrested by Sierra Blanca Border Patrol in Hudspeth County, Texas, on June 29 after allegedly breaking into a ranch house and stealing weapons along with other items. (Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

CBP Arrests Group of Armed Illegal Immigrants Accused of Stealing Guns From Ranch

Authorities arrested a group of armed illegal aliens on Tuesday after they allegedly broke into a ranch house near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and stole multiple items, including handguns, officials announced Wednesday.

Border patrol agents in Sierra Blanca responded to the burglary that was reported at a ranch in Hudspeth County, where weapons were known to have been stolen, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement.

As agents responded, they located three armed illegal immigrants and upon a search, also discovered the other stolen items.

Upon search of the undocumented non-citizens, two loaded handguns, ammunition, food, and clothing were discovered, agents said.

The trio was handed over to the Hudspeth County Sheriffs Office, which also took custody of them for further investigation, the agency said. They are facing potential state charges for trespassing and theft of property.

In surveillance photos released by CBP are three males, two of whom appear to be holding guns.

Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents encountered 3 undocumented non-citizens armed with firearms they obtained after burglarizing a ranch house. The men were arrested by agents who found 2 loaded handguns, ammo, food, and clothes after a search. More: https://t.co/EzrD3rE1JE pic.twitter.com/jPeHlHklib  CBP (@CBP) July 1, 2021

Through extensive training, our Border Patrol Agents are always prepared and ready to respond to various scenarios, Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Sean L. McGoffin said in a statement.

Without hesitation, these agents responded to the ranch house and safely secured the location, the stolen weapons and the undocumented non-citizens, he added. With the presence of weapons in the wrong hands, this situation could have turned violent; fortunately, our agents were able to control the encounter and bring it to a peaceful resolution.

The number of illegal crossings at the southern border has surged since President Joe Biden took office in January. For the month of May, border patrol agents apprehended 180,034 individuals illegally entering the United Statesthe highest number seen in a single month in more than two decades.

Border Patrol agents apprehend 21 illegal aliens from Mexico who had hidden in a grain hopper on a freight train heading to San Antonio, near Uvalde, Texas, on June 21, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pointed at the burgeoning crisis as a result of Bidens move to overturn several key Trump-era immigration policies that significantly curbed the flow of illegal border crossings. This includes his predecessors cornerstone Migrant Protection Protocol, commonly known as the Remain in Mexico policy, which effectively ended the problematic catch and release policy and significantly reduced the number of illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border in 2019. The MPP, which has been on pause since Biden took office, was officially terminated on June 1.

In a return to the Obama-era catch-and-release policies, the Biden administration is again releasing unaccompanied minors into the country. Opponents argue that Bidens move has been interpreted as a signal to prospective illegal immigrants that they can once again illegally cross the border.

The Biden administration, on the other hand, has sought to shift the blame on the Trumps administration, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas previously saying that it had dismantled the orderly, humane, and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their own country.

Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Portraits of detained Chinese human rights lawyers Jian Tianyong (L) and Wang Quanzhang are seen as Hong Kong pro-democracy activists observe a silent protest in support of human rights lawyers in China, outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong's Central district on July 9, 2017. (Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty Images)

CCP Documents Reveal Its Socialist Rule of Law

The Epoch Times has recently obtained a report written by a Chinese legal expert summarizing the construction of socialist rule of law in China. It reveals the history of the CCPs (Chinese Communist Partys) legal systems and its rule of China by man instead of by law since 1949.

On June 17, 2013, Xu Xianming, then-vice president of the China Law Society and president of Shandong University, gave a special report (pdf) titled Review and Prospects of the Rule of Law in China at a training session for the cadres of the law societies at the prefectural and municipal levels.

Xus report states that the regime developed its regulations, laws, and legal systems based on communist ideology. According to Xu, from 1949 to 2013, the CCPs rule of law had experienced stages of initial establishment, destruction, restoration, and development.

Xu is currently the deputy chairman of the Supervisory and Judicial Affairs Committee of the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature.

The CCPs Rule of Law Has Always Been Rule of Instructions and Opinions

Establishment: 19491956

The CCPs legal system started from Instructions, some in the written form and some orally, as revealed by Xu in his report.

According to Xus report, in February 1949, the CCPs central committee issued Instructions of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Relating to Abolishing the Complete Six Laws of the Kuomintang [KMT] and Establishing Judicial Principles for the Liberated Areas (the Instructions), and it was the beginning of the socialist concept of rule of law.

The Complete Six Laws, which are also known as the Complete Six Codes, established by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China) before 1949, included the Constitution, the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Administrative Laws, and the Military Laws.

How did the CCP establish its own legal system after demolishing the existing law of the Republic of China?

The Instructions state, If there is a law, follow the law; if there is no law, follow the policies; if there is neither a law nor a policy, follow the socialist legal ideology.

An angry Chinese man (middle R) is heckled and taken away by a plain-clothes militiaman (middle L) after trying to roll out and paste his hand-written placard or dazibao on the dazibao wall (background) in front of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee of Beijing in Beijing, China, in July 1974. Dazibaos were the only means for people to express their opinions. (Serge Romensky/AFP via Getty Images)

The Instructions further require that cadres be taught to master Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought: The judicial and legal organs should always educate and reform their judicial and legal cadres with the spirit of disrespecting and criticizing the Six Laws and all other reactionary laws and decrees of the KMT, with the spirit of disrespecting and criticizing all anti-people laws and decrees of the capitalist countries of Europe, America, and Japan. To achieve the goal of educating and reforming the cadres, they should be required to study and master the Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thoughts view of the state and the laws, policies, decrees, orders, regulations, and resolutions of the New Democracy [put forward by Mao].

In other words, in the initial stage of the CCPs legal system, the rule of law in China was primarily the party line of the CCP including its policies and ideology.

Chinas first constitution under the CCPs rule took effect in 1954, hence the name 1954 Constitution. It was hailed by Xu in his report as the highest achievement in the initial stage of the CCPs construction of its legal system. Mao personally oversaw the entire drafting process of the 1954 Constitution.

Mao soon became unhappy about the law and said: The law always binds peoples hands and feet, but what we need now is to free our hands and feet. So [we] must break the bondage of the law, according to Xus report.

Young Chinese people demonstrate during the great proletarian Cultural Revolution in front of the French embassy, in Beijing, China, in January 1967. Since the Cultural Revolution was launched in May 1966 at Beijing University, Maos aim was to recapture power after the failure of the Great Leap Forward. The movement was directed against those party leaders in authority taking the capitalist road. (Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images)

In 1956, Mao initiated The Hundred Flowers Campaign, which was an effortas some observers notedto identify, persecute, and silence critics of the CCP. Under this campaign, Chinese citizens were encouraged to express openly their opinions of the Communist Party. When people started to voice their opinions of the CCP, Mao cracked down on them, depriving them of their jobs, sending them to labor camps, and labeling them as rightists. The Anti-Rightist Movement then started in 1957.

As reported by The Epoch Times Chinese edition on Sept. 26, 2019, the CCPs public information shows that in 1957, more than 3 million rightist intellectuals were persecuted nationwide. By 1978, the rightist label was removed from 550,000 intellectuals, leaving only 5,000 with the label. The other more than 2 million intellectuals that were persecuted during the anti-rightist campaigns remain missing. What happened to them? Where did they go?

Zhu Zheng, the author of the book Year of Dingyou: On the CCPs Anti-Rightist Struggle, personally experienced and survived the Anti-Rightist Movement, in 1957, or year of Dingyou in the traditional Chinese calendar. He calls that year a time of disappearance of contemporary Chinese intellectuals.

With the disappearance of the intellectual elite class, no one dared to oppose the opinions of the CCP or its leaders. In 1958, Mao launched The Great Leap Forward movement to catch up with the UK and surpass the U.S., which led China into a great famine that killed 45 million Chinese people between 1958 and 1962, according to historian Frank Dikotter in his book Maos Great Famine.

In 1962, Mao, fearing that he was losing controlbecause of the opposition within the CCP after his political campaigns caused the numerous deathsput forward something different. He said, It seems that it doesnt work without law. But we have our practice, according to Xus report.

Our practice refers to the process of using internal documents passed around at CCP meetings as law. The report noted that it was the beginning of the legitimization of CCP internal documents as laws. Since then, CCP leaders and cadres have followed internal documents in their work and life, while the public follows editorials of the state-run Peoples Daily as their guiding principles.

Mao said in 1958: What we need is the rule of man, not the rule of law. One editorial in the Peoples Daily, [what the CCP states in the editorial] will be implemented nationwide. Why bother with the need for any law?

Restoration: 1978 (after Cultural Revolution)1997

In 1989, Deng Xiaoping, the top leader of the CCP, gave the order to kill student protesters in Tiananmen Square. Sources say this was an oral order and Deng said, Even if at the cost of 200,000 lives, it will be worth it in order to get 20 years of stability. According to the sources, in April 1989, Deng summoned then-premier Li Peng, then-Party Secretary of Beijing Li Ximing, and then-mayor of Beijing Chen Xitong, to his home.

This statement is not seen in the official Resolution on the Suppression of Unrest and the Quelling of Anti-revolutionary Riots passed by the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature on July 6, 1989.

A rickshaw driver peddles wounded people, with the help of bystanders, to a nearby hospital after they were injured during clashes with Chinese soldiers at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on June 4, 1989. The crackdown ended a period of relative political openness and led to the downfall of Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang. (Liu Heung Shing/AP Photo)

Before the 1989 suppression of the Tiananmen protest, Deng had personally initiated the 1983 Stern Blow (also known as Strike Hard) Anti-crime Campaign. The campaign is described as the bloodiest chapter in post-Mao Chinese politics by Murray Scot Tanner, professor of Chinese and East Asian Politics, Western Michigan University, in his research article State Coercion and the Balance of Awe: The 19831986 Stern Blows Anti-crime Campaign, published in 2000.

According to a CCP report (pdf), during the three-year campaign, 1,772,000 people were arrested, 1,747,000 were sentenced, and 24,000 were executed across the country.

Development: 19972004

After the 15th National Congress of the CCP in 1997, the regime stepped into the so-called development of socialist rule of law.

Documents Reveal Jiang Zemins Manipulation of Laws to Persecute Falun Gong

Since 2006, when The Epoch Times first exposed the CCPs live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, numerous international medical organizations, human rights lawyers, and investigators from many countries have conducted independent investigations in this regard.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice consisting of simple, slow-moving meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It grew in popularity during the 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by the end of the decade, according to official estimates at the time.

Feeling threatened by its popularity, the CCP launched a systematic elimination campaign in July 1999. Since then, millions have been detained inside prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

In 2019, China Tribunal, an independent peoples tribunal deliberated over documents from more than a years investigation of forced organ harvesting in China. It came to the unavoidable final conclusion (pdf) that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been oneand probably the mainsource of organ supply.

The genocide started with only a statement by then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin in a written interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. On Oct. 25, 1999, Jiang told the French media that Falun Gong is an evil cult, and five days later, the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature issued the Resolution on Banning Heretic Cult Organizations, Guarding against and Punishing Heretic Cult Activities, which the CCP claims to be the main legal basis for its persecution of Falun Gong.

Last year, The Epoch Times obtained exclusive access to a judicial opinion, classified as top confidentiality, and jointly issued by the CCPs Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice on Nov. 30, 2000.

A screenshot of the opinion. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)

It is stated in the Opinion that political and legal departments at all levels should firmly implement the important instructions of Jiang to persecute Falun Gong. The five judiciary ministries or institutions of the CCP not only fabricated numerous charges against Falun Gong practitioners for their beliefs, but also claimed that the handling of cases involving Falun Gong practitioners is highly political, legal, and policy-oriented, requiring close cooperation among the political and legal departments at all levels under the unified leadership of the Party Committee.

Liu Ping (pseudonym), a Chinese lawyer, was shocked upon reading the Opinion.

This is evidence that the CCP is guilty of genocide! Liu exclaimed. He said that the issuance of this document by the five CCP legal institutions is itself a violation of the law because there is no law authorizing them to legislate.

The Epoch Times Chinese edition reported on this document and interviewed the lawyer on Oct. 22, 2020.

In addition, a number of public documents, including those quoted in the book A True Jiang Zemin and in the investigation report published by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIFG), reveal how Jiang manipulated the law and the entire state apparatus to persecute Falun Gong, despite the opposition of other Politburo Standing Committee members. Jiang set up an extrajudicial organization called the 610 Office for the sole purpose of persecuting Falun Gong and made up relevant laws to endorse his persecution.

Documents Reveal the CCPs Rule of Law Targets Both Chinese and Foreign Countries

A recent example of the CCPs rule of law is the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, which was passed by the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature on June 10. The purpose of the law is to counter Western sanctions, primarily those of the United States.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping officially introduced the law in November 2020 during a speech delivered at the Central Working Conference on the Comprehensive Rule of Law. He instructed that we should strengthen the rule of law and make use of the means of the law and make comprehensive use of legislation, law enforcement, and justice to carry out the struggle. Therefore, following Xis speech, in March 2021, the CCPs rubber-stamp legislature decided to work on this and quickly passed the legislation in June.

China current affairs commentator Li Linyi told The Epoch Times Chinese edition in an interview: The documents exposed by The Epoch Times reveal that the CCPs laws are the product of the leaderships instructions, the CCPs internal documents, and other confidential documents summarizing its construction of rule of law, which proves that ruling the country by law has been a lie of the CCP.

Long Tengyun contributed to this report.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping (front C) attends the fourth plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party's rubber-stamp legislature, the National People's Congress, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 13, 2018. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

China Has Never Regarded US as Friend in Past 70 Years: Retired CCP Professor

The Chinese Communist Party regards the United States as an enemy and utilizes Americans kindness to grab resources and develop itself, according to a veteran ideology professor for the partys Central Party School.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) teaches the people to hate the United States  has consistently, from 1949 to this day, promoted anti-American sentiment, CCP insider and retired professor Cai Xia wrote in an article published by the Hoover Institution on June 29 (pdf). The words I have been most familiar with since kindergarten and primary school are phrases such as stop the American imperialist wolves, she said of her experience growing up in communist China.

Cai then gave an example of the result of the CCPs anti-American education. Once, I bought a toy pistol and gave it to a six-year-old boy. The boy played with it and blurted out: Kill the Yankees.

Perceiving the United States as its enemy, the CCP regime uses any method it can to benefit from America.

Believing there can never be too much deception in war, Cai wrote, the CCP took advantage of opportunities for economic and cultural exchanges to sneakily acquire economic, commercial, technological, political, and military intelligence. In particular, the theft of high-tech research results is not only carried out in foreign companies within China but also by Chinese students and scholars who go abroad and may be required to cooperate with certain agencies to filch various information.

However, although Americans have been cheated by the CCP for over 40 years, many U.S. elites still regard the CCP regime as an authoritarian one, Cai resigned.

She warned that they have not realized that China has turned into a refined form of neo-totalitarianism.

Relying on unilateral good wishes and illusions, they adhered to engagement, which caused the policy to have a certain appeasement effect in reality, Cai said of the prevailing approach by the U.S. government.

She warned that the totalitarian system of the CCPs rule is the greatest threat to American security and world peace, and the CCP regime has no moral compass because the CCP utilizes everything to achieve its aims.

They think that as long as the purpose is achieved, any means can be used (the ends justify the means), Cai wrote.

She urged Washington to see the CCPs true face clearly, which can help the nation and its people to take the right actions to protect itself as well as the world.

At the same time, Cai believes that the CCP may suddenly collapse because the regime has the ambition of a hungry dragon but inside, it is a paper tiger. Anything can happen in a totalitarian regime, she said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (center) and lawmakers stand for the anthem during the closing session of the rubber-stamp legislatures conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 11, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

70 Years of Hatred, 40 Years of Deceit

Cais essay is titled China-US Relations in the Eyes of the Chinese Communist Party. She spends most of the 28 pages talking about U.S.-China relations from the Chinese perspective. As a professor who used to give communist ideological lessons to senior CCP officials, Cai concluded that the CCP had hated the United States for over 70 years and has deceived it for over 40 years.

From 1949the year that the CCP seized control of the Chinese mainlandto 1969, the United States and China have had bad diplomatic relations, although both parties met for ambassador-level meetings over 100 times in Geneva, Switzerland, and Warsaw, Poland.

In China, the CCPs education has taught people to think that the United States is the biggest enemy of the country and the Chinese people, Cai also warned of the regimes propaganda efforts.

Things started to change when Beijings closest communist ally, the Soviet Union, started to challenge the CCP in 1958, when then-leader Mao Zedong and Soviet head Nikita Khrushchev couldnt agree with each other on multiple issues. In March 1969, the Soviet Union and China clashed over a small islet on the Ussuri RiverChina called it Zhenbao Island and the Soviets called it Damansky Islandmarking the start of worsening Soviet-China relations.

Choosing the United States in the confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union at that time helped the CCP to rely on the strength of the U.S. to reduce Soviet threats, Cai wrote. On the diplomatic side, the CCP was actively building up relations with the United States throughout the 1960s, although it kept teaching its people that the United States was still the enemy.

On Jan. 1, 1979, the United States and China formally established diplomatic relations, and the U.S. helped China develop its economy with a hope that a China under the CCPs rule would become more liberal, even democratic, and a responsible power in the world, Cai wrote.

Ten years later, the CCP has killed its own people who asked for democracy and freedom in Beijing, resulting in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Cai said then CCP leader Deng Xiaoping ordered the regime to hide our capacity, to bide our time, when dealing in foreign affairs. He tried to convince Washington that Chinas market is huge and promised that the regime welcomed foreign companies to participate in this market.

This is the basic rule that the CCP regime had followed since then, Cai wrote. She gave an example of how the CCP has cheated Americans by selling this promise.

It is precisely because the CCP has seen through the American capitalists strong desire for the Chinese market that it knew that big business would willingly pressure the U.S. government to make concessions. Therefore, the CCP couldnt care less about criticisms of its human rights violations, and it has become increasingly repressive domestically, Cai wrote.

However, these American enterprises and businessmen havent received the treatment they expected in China.

[The CCP] will use enticing language to lure multinational companies into China. But then, these companies will soon find that they have fallen into a trap: they must transfer their technologies or face shutdown. After acquiring the foreign technology, China often figures out ways to force these companies to leave the Chinese market, Cai wrote. Elon Musks Tesla company is experiencing this situation now.

At the same time, the CCP regime has kept up its brainwashing of the Chinese people, including CCP officials, to be loyal to the party and treat the United States as their enemy.

After 1989, the CCP continued to strengthen its crisis education within the party, emphasizing that if the CCP fell from power, as in the former communist party-states, tens of thousands of cadres could be incarcerated or killed, and most party members and cadres would face unemployment and difficulties in making a living, Cai wrote.

Student hunger strikers from Beijing University relax as several hundred students start an unlimited hunger strike as the part of mass pro-democracy protest against the Chinese government at Tiananmen Square on May 14, 1989. (Catherine Henriette/AFP via Getty Images)

Threats & Ambitions

Cai said the CCP regime started to have the ambition to control the world in 2008, when China hosted the Olympic Games and the United States fell into the subprime financial crisis.

Since then, the CCP has tried to involve itself in global rule-making like at the World Trade Organization. It had also busied itself with building a modern military aimed at the United States, expanding its overseas propaganda activities, and penetrating overseas media, finance, economy, technology, education, think tanks, museums, and other fields and institutions.

Cai pointed out that the CCP has restricted foreign scholars entering China, preventing them from sharing their mentality of free thought in China. The regime controls communications between Chinese scholars and foreign officials. At the same time, the CCPs long arm control has reached Chinese students and Chinese organizations across the U.S., and the party has even set up CCP branches in American universities [to steal the know-hows and influence the free world], Cai wrote.

Cai pointed out that Chinese current leader Xi Jinping is the most aggressive one, whose target is clearly the United States.

The CCP regime amended its National Defense Law on Jan. 1. Cai pointed out that one item specifying, The States military activities are to prevent and resist aggression, prevent armed subversion and division, and defend national sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, security, and development interests, has a special meaning behind it.

These two key terms, division and development interests, have profound implications: one is for Taiwan; the other is a threatening signal for all countries, and most importantly the U.S., that Chinas military will go to war with whoever prevents the CCP from unifying Taiwan and whoever affects Chinas development interests, Cai wrote.

Chinese troops march during a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Cai, 68, was raised in a military family and joined the army in 1969. After retiring from the military, Cai became a CCP official in 1978. In 1992, Cai started her life at Central Party School as a postgraduate student.

In 1997, Cai became a lecturer at Central Party School to teach CCP ideology and politics. In 2000, she received the Doctor of Laws degree from the school and became a professor. She retired in 2012.

In 2020, when COVID-19 spread in China, Cai was in the United States as a tourist, and couldnt return to China as planned.

In June 2020, an audio recording of Cai criticizing Xi Jinping was leaked online. Two months later, the CCP regime announced it was revoking Cais party membership and stopping her retirement benefits. She has remained in America since.
Employees working on an assembly line at an Dongfeng Honda auto in Wuhan in China's central Hubei Province, on April 15, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Auto Industry Stagnates Due to Chip Shortage

The world is currently experiencing computer chip shortages and China is no exception. Chinas lagging semiconductor manufacturing business has become a long-term barrier for its auto industry.

China held its Automotive Industry Summit, the 2021 China Automotive Forum, in Shanghai from June 17 to 19. The forum focused heavily on how to solve the chip crisis, as the themes were Automotive Chip Shortage and Chinas Countermeasures.

Public data shows that Chinas semiconductor manufacturing capability is currently only 15 percent self-sufficient, and automotive chip manufacturing is only 5 percent self-sufficient. Chinas weak domestic semiconductor industry results in an import rate of automotive chips as high as 90 percent.

Automobiles worldwide have become more intelligent, with emphasis on AI, connectivity, and electric power. Reports show that a standard vehicle is now equipped with more than 1,400 chips. As the industry advances, the demand for chips will only be greater.

The Chinese regime has repeatedly emphasized the need to establish its autonomous automotive-grade chip manufacturing industry. But with chips being the core component of automobile intelligence, Chinas struggle to meet its demand has stagnated its automobile industry even further.

The chip industry is the crystallization of the most advanced technologies from many countries in the world. If any one of them is missing, the global semiconductor industry chain will break. No country in the world can independently manufacture chips, not even a country as powerful as the United States, said Dakang, an Auckland, New Zealand-based Chinese commentator and news analyst. You may steal individual technologies, but can you steal the overall foundation [of the integrated technology]?

Due to the CCP virus pandemic, U.S. sanctions, and Chinas mobile phone manufacturers hoarding chips, there is currently a chip shortage worldwide. The automobile industry accounts for a large portion of the worlds economy. Among the sectors affected by the chip shortage, the automaker industry is one of the most severely impacted.

Shawn Lin is a Chinese expatriate living in New Zealand. He has contributed to The Epoch Times since 2009, with a focus on China-related topics.
Chinas Real Century of Humiliation

In the 100 years since its founding in Shanghai, the CCP has wrought untold damage upon the worlds oldest civilization

Commentary

Scholars and enthusiasts of Chinese history are familiar with the term century of humiliation, referring to the long chain of crises the country suffered during its entry into the modern era starting in the mid-19th century.

From the Opium Wars waged and lost against Britain and France, to the multimillion deaths of the Taiping rebellion and Japanese invasion in World War II, China never seemed to catch a break. Imperial rule gave way to the Republic of China, which, strained by the multitude of crises facing it, was eventually driven off the Asian mainland by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Today, the century of humiliation remains a central motif in the CCPs propaganda justifying its leadership ofand absolute rule overthe Chinese nation. As the Party celebrates the 100th year since its founding, the narrative presented is that the doctrines of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and other communist leaders allowed China to overcome daunting difficulties, making possible its national reunification and rejuvenation.

In reality, neither communism nor the Communist Party played any positive role in Chinas darkest hours. And once in power, the CCP imposed a totalitarian regime not only responsible for the most deaths of any tyranny in history, but which also seeks through its atheist ideology of struggle to destroy the spiritual foundations of Chinese civilization.

From radical left-wing intellectual trends in the early 20th century that denigrated all of ancient China as an exercise in backward feudalism, to todays adulteration of Chinese national heritage with the red gene, the CCP and its followers have never ceased in replacing traditional culture with a pernicious Communist Party culture. Throughout the ages, no foreign invader has so thoroughly disparaged the teachings of the sages, clamped down on scholarly expression, or assaulted the family institution as has the CCP. No setback faced by the Chinese people in their engagement with modernity can compare with Chinas true century of humiliation: the 100-year history of the Communist Party.

A Foreign-backed Insurrection

One of the Communist Partys favorite tactics is to claim its opponents are anti-China or backed by foreign forces. But the CCP itself was formed by a small cadre of leftists who disdained Chinas culture and history, and supported by funds from the Cominterns Far Eastern Bureau, established by Soviet Russia in 1920.

While Lenins Bolsheviks were committing hair-raising atrocities in the Russian Civil War, new intellectual trends were on the rise in China. A generation of access to Western education led to interest in a variety of fields, from technology and medicine to the rule of law.

However, repeated military defeats at the hands of the Western powers and Japan, as well as the crushing unequal treaties that followed, made many wonder if there was a deeper cause for Chinas weakness.

The overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and its replacement by the Republic of China (ROC) did not immediately reverse the countrys fortunes, and the ROC itself got off to a dubious start, with regional strongmen vying for control of the top Chinese government institutions.

The year 1919 saw the May Fourth movement, a series of student protests and riots in Beijing, then the capital of the nascent Chinese republic. At the center of the movement, which was propelled by popular anger at the bullying of China at the post-World War I Versailles talks, was Li Dazhao, one of the first prominent communists and a lecturer at the prestigious Peking University. Li was accompanied by a small group of like-minded scholars, including then-library assistant Mao Zedong.

Li received funding and support from the Bolsheviks, and supported their policies in turn. He and another prominent Marxist, Chen Duxiu, worked in cooperation with the Comintern, to form a nationwide communist network. While Li was a leader of the May Fourth Movement, Chen helmed the earlier New Culture Movement, which brought harsh criticisms of old China into the mainstream.

Most proposals suggested China learn from Western culture and adopt suitable aspects for national modernization, but the New Culture Movement demanded revolutionary change. To do this, Chinas traditional culture would have to be replaced.

The writer Lu Xun, whose books are still required reading and memorization material in Chinas schools, disparaged traditional Chinese education and social order. In A Madmans Diary, he summed up all of his countrys past as chi ren, or cannibalism. Mao Zedong would praise Lu as the chief general of Chinas cultural revolution.

Foreshadowing the CCPs simplification of Chinese characters, left-wing linguist Qian Xuantong wrote that Chinese script promoted childish, naive, and barbaric ways of thinking. He proposed that Chinese characters be abolished entirely, an effort Communist Party later attempted, but gave up on for reasons of feasibility.

After growing to prominence in Chinese intellectual circles, the CCP moved to infiltrate Chinas nationalist movement, using the united front tactics pioneered by Russias Bolsheviks.

Taking Advantage of National Crisis to Seize Power

During the 1920s, in exchange for Soviet advisors and military aid, the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) led by ROC founding father Sun Yat-sen allowed communists to join the party. While this helped the Nationalists win battles against the warlords and unify the country, it sowed the seeds of disaster.

The First United Front ended in 1927, when Suns successor Chiang Kai-shek launched a purge of the CCP for undermining the Kuomintangs Northern Expedition to Beijing.

However, several years of increasingly successful campaigns by Chiangs armies against the communist rebels were cut short: in 1931, Imperial Japan invaded the three provinces of Manchuria in Chinas northeast, spurring a nationwide wave of patriotic sentiment. The CCPs propagandists leapt at the opportunity, with its mouthpieces spreading the slogan Chinese do not fight Chinese. In 1936, one of Chiangs own generals mounted a coup against him and forced him to enter a Second United Front with the CCP.

During the period of all-out war with Japan, the CCP engaged in hardly any offensives against the invader, while the Kuomintang sacrificed millions of men, including its most modern divisions, to buy time for an orderly retreat to the Chinese interior.

By the end of World War II, China was a member of the United Nations Security Council, recovered Taiwan (the island had been taken by Japan in 1895), and overturned almost all the unequal treaties, bringing an end to the century of humiliation.

But CCP propaganda to this day ignores or minimizes the critical role played by the Kuomintang and its allies (including the United States) in helping China survive World War II. Mainland Chinese are taught to call the continued civil war of 19461949 the war of liberation, and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) established in October 1949 as the new China.

Legions of Chinese internet trolls extoll the communist Chinese armys war in Korea as a victory against foreign imperialism, despite the conflict being started by the communist North.

Deceit, Malice, Struggle

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, first serialized by The Epoch Times in 2004, sums up the nature of the CCP as deceit, malice, and struggle. No matter how much the Party changes its colors or adjusts its propaganda, it does not abandon its Marxist-Leninist doctrine, which maintains the sacrosanct status of atheist materialism and the totalitarian organization of the Party itself.

These doctrines stand in diametric opposition to the principles of traditional Chinese culture, which are rooted in the religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism.

Chinas native spirituality is arguably rooted in Daoism, reverently called the doctrine of the Yellow Emperor and [Daoist sage] Lao Zi. Learning from the legendary ruler who is believed to have founded the first Chinese state 5,000 years ago, emperors who followed this principle stressed ruling with moderate regulation and light taxation. Daoism centers on the dual interaction of yin and yang, giving balance to all phenomena in the universe.

Confucianism and other ancient schools of thought took inspiration from Daoisms naturalistic understanding of the world, giving rise to the strong Chinese respect for ancestors, family, and the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, ritual, wisdom, and integrity. Though an imperial dynasty may take over through armed rebellion, once in power it would make efforts to adhere to traditional morality. Even Sun Zi, author of the Art of War, stressed that the Moral Law was the greatest factor in determining victory in battle.

Buddhism, imparted to China and the rest of East Asia by Indian monks, gave the Chinese a heightened respect for life, and inspired many to pursue spiritual perfection and deliverance from the attachments of the mundane world. During the Tang Dynasty, which embraced the new religion, the imperial court received scholars and subjects from across Eurasia.

Marxist thought, whether in its original packaging as an economic theory or in other forms, holds that all of human history is nothing more than Darwinistic class struggle. Mao infamously said that revolution is an act of violence in which one class overthrows another.

That the CCP has opposed traditional culture and morality since its very founding is only to be expected. From the New Culture Movement later came the cult-like rectification of unorthodox thought between 1942 and 1945 in the CCPs Yanan redoubt. This was repeated with the slaughter of millions of landlords and rich farmers, to the Cultural Revolution, which saw the wholesale destruction of the four oldspriceless artifacts of Chinese history, not to mention the harmonious relations that had governed society for millenniawere no more.

Party Nature Versus Human Nature

As described in Commentary Five in the Nine Commentaries, individual Communist Party members or even leaders may be motivated by compassion. For example, in 1989, the reformist CCP general secretary Zhao Ziyang expressed sympathy for the protesting students at Tiananmen Square. However, he was quickly outmaneuvered by hardliners who argued that the Partys power was at risk. Communist leader Deng Xiaoping declared the protests a violent riot, and thousands were killed as troops and tanks cleared the streets of Beijing.

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, who was promoted to replace Zhao due to the formers tough and reliable stance on protests in Shanghai (Jiang was the citys Party boss), faced an opposite situation when he opted to ban the Falun Gong spiritual practice.

A Buddha-school qigong discipline also known as Falun Dafa, Falun Gong gained massive popularity throughout the 1990s since its founding in 1992, with an estimated 70 to 100 million adherents of the practice by 1999.

Jiang and his close supporters saw Falun Gong, which teaches truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and a traditional worldview, as a threat to the Partys rule. Even though the other six CCP Politburo Standing Committee members were opposed to or ambivalent about Jiangs demand for a nationwide repression of the practice, they were cowed into acceptance when Jiang argued that failure to defeat Falun Gong would make a laughingstock of Marxism and result in the destruction of the Party and country.

Because Jiang followed the unspoken principle of the Communist Party, he was able to overcome disagreement within the organization, while Zhao, despite his achievements in the much-vaunted reform and opening up of the 1980s and efforts to bring rule of law to China, was unceremoniously ousted and put under house arrest until his death in 2005.

The deleterious effects of the CCPs underlying Marxism-Leninism went ignored by the international community for years, and still remain poorly understood. Western observers often criticize China as ultranationalist or authoritarian, while hoping for positive engagement with moderate leaders in the CCP.

The Partys strengthening techno-totalitarianism of the last decades should have shattered such illusions. As long as the Communist Party runs China, no fundamental change is possible. A century of communist rule not only brought China a second age of humiliation, but threatens freedom around the world.

Leo Timm is a former China reporter for The Epoch Times and writes about Chinese politics and current affairs.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Chinese-Linked Miner in Pole Position for African Iron Ore Project

Beijings attempts to pivot their iron ore supply chains away from Australia to Africa appear to be taking shape with the signing of a major deal that will likely grant a Chinese-linked mining firm AustSino access to the massive Mbalam-Nabeba Iron Ore project.

The deal comes seven months after Australian and British mining firms were suddenly stripped of their mining licenses for the same project under allegedly unlawful and arbitrary circumstances.

Mbalam-Nabeba, which straddles the countries of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, promises to deliver 100 million tonnes of iron ore per annum.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between three entities, including AustSinowho was recently delisted from the Australian stock exchangeBestway Finance, and the Cameroon government will place the Chinese-linked firm in pole position for construction of rail and port infrastructure connecting the mine to the seaside town of Kribi, according to a statement (pdf) on June 26.

A Troubled History of Ownership

AustSino and Sundance are both based in Perth, Australia, and in 2018 partnered to develop Mbalam-Nabeba.

Sundance claims in a statement (pdf) on June 27, 2021, that it introduced AustSino and its Chinese partners to government officials in Cameroon and the Republic of Congo (ROC).

AustSinos partners included major Chinese companies Shenzhen Yantian Port Holdings, China Railway Construction Corporation International, Hong Kong Baofeng International, and Shanghai Tsingshan Mineral.

A worker with molten iron flowing up in the iron-smelting workshop at the Chengde Steel Plant in Chengde City, Hebei Province, China, on Oct. 11, 2007. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

In November 2020, Sundance terminated its partnership after it found AustSino would not deliver on a promised $29 million investment that would assist with the development of Mbalam-Nabeba.

A month later, the ROC government suddenly withdrew mining licenses from Sundance, as well as fellow Australian firm Equatorial and UK-based Avima. The licenses were instead granted to a mysterious new entity called Sangha Mining Development Sasu, with no previous track record in mining activities.

Equatorial described the move as unlawful and arbitrary.

The actions of the ROC government in granting multiple licenses to Sangha Mining are unprecedented, unlawful and unfair, the company said in an investor announcement (pdf).

Sangha was later revealed to be 100 percent owned by Bestway and also had alleged links to family members of the Congolese president, according to an investor announcement by Avima (pdf).

Cameroon, Congolese Govts Facing Multi-Billion-Dollar Lawsuits

Giulio Casello, CEO of Sundance Resources, was quick to issue a statement in response to the news of the MOUs signing.

We are shocked at these latest developments, not least because an Australian companyAustSinothat we introduced into the Mbalam-Nabeba Iron Ore Project is attempting to benefit from the illegal expropriation of Sundances iron ore assets, Casello said in an investor statement (pdf).

Sundance has always fulfilled all of its licence obligations and gone above and beyond in both Cameroon and Congo, which is why we are so determined to challenge this illegal expropriation through the international courts, a process that is underway, he added.

Sundance and Avima have both launched legal actions against the ROC government for US$8.76 billion and US$27 billion, respectively, at the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.

A disused mine in central Africa (Marc Jourdier/AFP via Getty Images)

In June, Sundance commenced a further action against Cameroon at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.

Avima has accused Sangha Mining of lacking the experience, financial muscle, or track record to bring the Mbalam-Nabela project online.

Sangha Minings attempts to market the Avima license demonstrate the management teams lack of understanding of the industry and the issues they, and companies like them will face when trying to sell illegally acquired assets, Socrates Vasiliades, chairman of Avima said (pdf).

Both the Congolese Government and Sangha Mining have failed to recognise that iron ore is simply not a black-market commodity, he added.

He said the outlay for the project would run into the millions and would struggle to attract international investment interest.

Customers will not invest this level of capital without undertaking substantial due diligencethis would include due diligence on the political and economic stability of the host country, the background and ability of the owners and operators, and the acquisition process of the licenses, he added.

These actions will be catastrophic for the countrys future.

Chinas Scramble for Africa

The news comes as Beijings continues its push into Africa to find new supply chains for precious minerals, including rare earths and iron ore, amid worsening relations with democratic nations.

In 2018, a Chinese-backed consortium won the rights to develop the $14 billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping has engaged in ongoing dialogue with African leaders, in what analysts believe is an attempt to shore up future supply chains and minimise its reliance on Western nations like Australia.

The Simandou mine will be the largest in Africa (in the red oval). Source Rio Tinto.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has, over the past year, engaged in an ongoing trade war with Australia, suspending and blocking a long list of imports from the country, including iron ore, beef, barley, lobster, timber, lamb, and cotton.

Yet iron ore has remained a major sticking point.

Chinas massive demand for high-grade iron ore, and the lack of alternative markets, has resulted in 80 percent of imports coming from Australia.

Since the trade war began in April 2020, prices for the mineral have also ballooned from around US$80 per tonne (in April 2020) to over US$200 per tonne (in July 2021).

Michael Shoebridge, defence director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the scale of Chinese demand for quality iron ore would ensure that diversification for the CCP would remain years away.

The reliability and scale of other producers has not been able to match Australian suppliers, and much of this is unlikely to change fastsovereign risk in a number of African states remains an enduring problem, he told The Epoch Times in an email.

Australias comparative advantages from the nature of the deposits and the high technology techniques of the mining companies makes Australia the highest volume, most globally competitive producer of iron ore. That is an enduring advantage supported by continual investment, he added.
Young participants hold a banner during a "Stand With Hong Kong" rally in Pasadena, Calif., on June 12, 2021. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese Regimes Century of Persecution: Californians Share Experiences

With July 1 marking the 100-year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Southern California residents who escaped persecution by the regime shared their experiences.

Jana Li, of Chino, Calif., said her experience living under the CCPs rule was a nightmare.

[The CCP] treated me like an enemy and a target to kill to death, either physically or spiritually, Li told The Epoch Times.

Li is one of the estimated 100 million Falun Gong practitioners who were practicing the peaceful meditation in China in the 1990s.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice gained widespread popularity in China prior to the start of its persecution in 1999.

Li was arrested soon after the persecution began. She was held in three separate detention centers throughout ChinaGuangzhou, northeast China, and Beijingas well as a womens concentration camp in Beijing.

While in the concentration camp, two policewomen used electric batons on Lis back and arms for hours, in an attempt to force her to renounce her faith.

I could smell the scorched skin, Li said. As a result, I couldnt lie on my back.

Li was followed and monitored by another inmate 24 hours a day, while I was sleeping, eating, and even using the restroom, she said, cursing me and insulting me all the time.

Li said the policewomen deprived her of sleep for extended months, allowing her to sleep for only four hours a night. During this time, she was forced to stand against a wall from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. as a form of torture.

She was also imprisoned in a dark, small, isolated room that was roughly 20 square feet.

Her sentencing lasted for over a year.

Falun Gong practitioners hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on Oct. 15, 2105, for those who have died during the persecution in China. (Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times)

Li later immigrated to the U.S. in July 2004. She hasnt seen her family or relatives in the 17 years since she left.

The police and CCP officials harassed my family members, my parents, sister, and brother even after I escaped from China and [started] living here in the U.S., Li said.

My sister was so scared and suffered insomnia for a long time. We havent talked to each other for years because she is so scared.

Fleeing Hong Kong

Hong Kongs pro-Beijing National Security Law, which cracks down on political dissenters of the CCP, has led to many people fleeing Hong Kong to escape political persecution.

Nelson Lam, who now lives in Los Angeles, left Hong Kong in a hurry soon after the National Security Law was implemented in July 2020.

Lam worked as a clerk for a government department in Hong Kong.

After the National Security Law was implemented, however, Lam said his colleagues reported on each other to their superiors about any sign of support for Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement or any criticism against the CCP.

If it werent for this incident [National Security Law], I would be safe, but after 2019, it has changed, and we have all changed, Lam told The Epoch Times.

We have no evidence to tell you what pressure we are actually under. It is an invisible pressure that threatens you.

Lam said that under the influence of the CCPs policies, it is common for private companies in Hong Kong to suppress employees with different political opinions.

He also said many pro-CCP individuals would disguise themselves in black and join peaceful Hong Kong pro-democracy protests to cause trouble.

I saw a lot of demonstrations, which were originally peaceful, but the pro-CCP people would deliberately cause some incidents, which makes people have the illusion that this demonstration is violent, Lam said.

Said Lam: If you want to leave [Hong Kong], you must leave as soon as possible; those who dont want to leave should keep a low profile and let those who have already gone out to unite to help recover Hong Kong.

(Courtesy of David Li)

Sentenced to Forced Labor for Handing Out Flyers

David Li, of Upland, Calif., was arrested and sentenced to various forced labor camps for two years in 2010 for distributing flyers that contained information about Falun Gong.

Police broke into Lis apartment by breaking down the door. The police confiscated his belongings, including his cell phone, computer, flyers, and Falun Dafa books.

They erased much of his personal information that was stored on his computer, Li said.

Li was brought to a local police station and was then transferred to a detention center in Beijing.

He was placed in a small room packed with nearly 30 other people imprisoned, all of whom shared one toilet.

The food served was extremely scarce, and at times inedible. Li said for breakfast, they were given one piece of bread and one portion of vegetables each.

Even some insects were inside of the vegetable soup, Li said.

After about 40 days at the detention center, Li was transferred to a forced labor camp in Bejing, where he spent about two and a half months.

There I was persecuted seriously by the policemen, Li said.

Li arrived and was placed in a room with three prisoners who were assigned to watch him and persuade him to give up practicing Falun Gong.

He was forced to sit on a tiny stool that would cause severe pain after sitting for a prolonged period.

He was also forced to watch video programs and read articles that slandered Falun Gong from about 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.

You cannot move for 18 hours, he said.

After 11 p.m., Li slept in a cell with another prisoner who would monitor him.

Li was only allowed to go to the bathroom once every three to four hours.

Every time he needed to use the bathroom, however, he had to submit a written request to the police. Li said sometimes these requests would not be answered by the police, even for a whole day.

After seven days, the police did not allow Li to use the toilet, forcing him to soil his trousers.

Li then went on a hunger strike and refused food. From the two and a half months Li spent in prison, he went from about 205 lbs. to 150 lbs.

Li was denied showers and was not permitted to wear warmer clothes in the winter.

In the winter, Beijing reaches very low temperatures. With Li having only one layer of trousers, and having lost a lot of body weight, he would shiver frequently.

My whole body was shaking  because theres no food, and its cold, Li said. You really cannot control the shaking.

Li was then transferred to another labor camp in Inner Mongolia, where he spent one and a half years.

Every day, he worked with a group of about 25 people, with three to five other Falun Gong practitioners, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., sowing bags for fertilizer and making bottle caps. He was also required to plant corn and other crops outside of the labor camp.

Li was again transferred to another labor camp in Inner Mongolia, where he stayed in a cell with seven other practitioners. He was beaten by one of the prisoners, who crushed his throat with his foot.

I yelled to call the policeman, Li said. The policeman came and said, Its okay, its okay. He didnt do anything to stop that guy.

In August 2012, Li was released from the labor camp. He and his wife, also a Falun Gong practitioner, immigrated to the U.S. the following year to escape further persecution.

Woman Forced to Have Three Abortions

Ms. Sun moved to the U.S. after being subjected to three forced abortions due to the CCPs family planning policies.

The CCP launched the one-child policy in 1979 to counter the rapidly rising population. Families who had more than one child during this period were subjected to extremely high fines, their property was confiscated, and other abuses.

They [the staff of the CCPs Family Planning Office] forced me to take medicine and told me that the child cannot be birthed because it violates the policy, Sun told The Epoch Times.

They are totally inhumane, forcing me to drink drugs with strong side effects, and after a miscarriage, I have to bear all the medical expenses by myself.

As a result of the drugs Sun was forced to ingest, she vomited for several days, had abdominal pain, and an allergic rash covered her body. The forced abortion left Sun depressed, with severe insomnia.

The side effects of the drug were very serious, Sun said. I was in low spirits and had to stop breastfeeding. My first child was only six months old at the time. As a result, she developed slowly and was very thin.

In February 2009, Sun became pregnant again.

I knew that I had a baby accidentally, and my first reaction was not to be happy, but to be afraid, Sun said.

The local Family Planning Office forced Sun to undergo another abortion and use an intrauterine device.

In February 2012, after the CCP implemented a two-child policy, Sun gave birth to another daughter.

However, in 2018, Sun became pregnant again and was forced to have a third abortion.

This child did not come at the right time, because at that time China had a two-child policy, and there was no three-child policy, she said.

The regime recently announced a three-child policy quota, where couples are not allowed to have more than three children.

Said Sun: When to have children and how many children are peoples own rights, they should not be restricted because of any government policy.

Xu Xiuhui contributed to this report.
COVID-19 Vaccines Could Be Spurring Variants, Say Israeli and European Experts

Commentary

In January, an Israeli Defence Forces Intelligence report (pdf) warned that Israels mass vaccination program could create an Israeli mutation that proved resistant to COVID-19 vaccines. Prepared for Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, the report stated that The mass vaccine campaign taking place parallel to the active outbreak in Israel may lead to evolutionary pressure on the virus.

In May, the Pasteur Institutes Luc Montagnier, the virologist whose discovery of HIV won him a Nobel Prize in 2008, warned that COVID-19 vaccines are spurring deadlier variants. I am doing experiments at the Institute with patients who became sick with Corona after being vaccinated. I will show you that they are creating the variants that are resistant to the vaccine, he stated in an interview in France. It is the antibodies produced by the virus that enable an infection to become stronger.  It is clear that the new variants are created  due to the vaccination.

Though others have disagreed, that mass vaccinations in the midst of a pandemic can create variants is basic science, said Belgian virologist Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, whose vaccine-industry credentials include positions at GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In a keynote address at the Vaccines Summit in Ohio and in a letter to the World Health Organization (pdf), Bossche outlined the danger. Because the COVID-19 vaccines are unable to quickly kill off the COVID-19 virus, they create a breeding ground for variants, much as happens with bacteria that arent killed off when patients dont take a full course of antibiotics. The virus then has time to adapt and mutatewhat doesnt quickly kill it makes its offspring strongerleading to the seemingly endless variants were now seeing.

The danger of this immune escape, said Bossche, is heightened enormously by lockdowns, which prevent the bodys innate immune system from being adequately challenged by random pathogens and other environmental agents to keep it trained and fit, akin to the deconditioning that occurs when we dont get adequate physical exercise to keep our heart, lungs, and other muscles fit.

The perfect storm of an unfit innate immune system and COVID-19 vaccines ineffectual against ever-more-virulent mutant viruses of their own making will then see those previously infected with COVID-19 and the vaccinated themselves succumb to infection from the variants, claimed Bossche, who added that the vaccinated are at particular risk since the long-lived specific antibodies produced by vaccination are particularly adept at incapacitating the bodys general antibodies (pdf).

The theory that vaccines are not as effective against variants was bolstered in a non-peer-reviewed study in May by 14 researchers at five German medical schools and universities who discovered that the highly transmissible Delta (Indian) variant B.1.617one of only four that the WHO classes as a variant of concern at a global levelis more able than the original virus to infect patients who were previously vaccinated or previously infected.

The authors concluded that the Delta variants ability to evade specific COVID-19 antibodies may contribute to the rapid spread of this variant, adding that In populations with a high percentage of individuals with pre-existing immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 [aka COVID-19], viral variants that can evade immune control have a selective advantage. They noted that a similar phenomenon may have occurred with the South African variant, B.1.351, and a Brazilian mutation called P.1, which also seem to thrive in populations that acquired immunity to COVID-19.

Those with immunity to COVID-19, in other words, could still be vulnerable to more transmissible and/or deadly variants of the virus.

Another non-peer-reviewed study that bolsters the theory came from Israels Clalit Health Services and Tel Aviv University. It analyzed 800 people who had been infected with COVID-19400 of them previously vaccinated and 400 unvaccinatedto discover that those who had been fully vaccinated with two Pfizer shots contracted the South African variant at a rate that was eight times higher than the unvaccinated (though the sample size was very small). The study, which matched the two groups by demographics such as age and gender, also found that those who received one Pfizer shot contracted the British variant more often than those who received none.

Yet more concerns were voiced in a Science article earlier this year titled New mutations raise specter of immune escape, which described how more-deadly mutations could learn to evade the immune response in both previously recovered and vaccinated peoplegiving the mutation an advantage in populations with high immunity. In one example, Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, showed that E484K, a mutation of a worrisome South African variant called 501Y.V2, reduced the potency of specific antibodies by a factor of up to 10.

To combat the waves of COVID-19 mutations, many experts insist on the need for new vaccines to counter the mutations that the COVID-19 vaccines have spurred. But if those vaccines are administered during a pandemic, others warn, they could merely perpetuate a vicious cycle of new variants begetting the need for new vaccines begetting new variants.

Lawrence Solomon is an Epoch Times columnist, author, and executive director of the Toronto-based Consumer Policy Institute. LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com @LSolomonTweets

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Critical Race Theory: Parents Push Back | Larry Elder

Parents across America are fighting back against the teaching of critical race theory in their childrens schools due to its highly politicized agenda and trying to teach opinions as facts. In this episode, Larry Elder looks at how one college professor tries to define racism while using the term racism in his definition and how parents across America see critical race theory being taught in schools as something harmful for their childrens education.

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Emergency workers conduct search and rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed residential building in Surfside, near Miami Beach, Fla., on June 30, 2021. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)

147 People Remain Missing Nearly a Week After Florida Condo Collapse

SURFSIDE, Fla.Six more bodies have been found in the shattered ruins of a Miami-area condominium tower over the past 24 hours, officials said on Wednesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 18 nearly a week after the building collapsed.

Nobody has been pulled alive from the mounds of pulverized concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since the early hours of the disaster in the oceanfront town of Surfside, Florida, adjacent to Miami Beach.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference that 147 people remained missing and were feared trapped in the ruins of the Champlain Towers South condo. She said two of the 18 confirmed fatalities were children, aged 10 and 4.

The loss of children is too great to bear, Levine Cava said. Our community, our nation and the world all are mourning with these families who have lost loved ones.

Officials have said they still harbor hope of finding survivors. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said in an interview he had promised families that rescue crews were not leaving anyone behind as teams dig deeper into the rubble.

Weve not gotten to the bottom. We dont know whats down there, he said. Were not going to guess. Were not going to make a life-or-death decision to arbitrarily stop searching for people who may be alive in that rubble.

Burkett said that every day the mound of wreckage is visibly shrinking, indicating progress.

The search-and-rescue crews consist of about 200 specialists working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, with hundreds more personnelfirefighters, police, engineers, environmental safety experts and othersserving in support roles. Two teams of dogs were helping to scour the wreckageone trained to sniff out survivors, the other to detect cadavers.

Investigators have not concluded what caused nearly half of the 40-year-old high-rise to collapse as residents slept in the early hours of last Thursday.

Search and rescue personnel with a rescue dog continue searching for victims days after a residential building partially collapsed in Surfside near Miami Beach, Fla., on June 27, 2021. (Maria Alejandra Cardona/Reuters)

But in 2018, a report prepared by the engineering firm Morabito Consultants ahead of a building safety recertification process found structural deficiencies in the 12-floor, 136-unit complex that are now the focus of inquiries.

As recently as April, the condo associations president warned residents in a letter that severe concrete damage identified by the engineer around the base of the building had grown significantly worse.

On Wednesday, the relatives of a missing resident, Harold Rosenberg, filed a lawsuit in Floridas 11th Circuit Court against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association Inc, Morabito Consultants Inc and SD Architects P.A., which the lawsuit says was retained by the association to repair the building.

The lawsuit says the defendants ignored obvious and shocking warning signs and indications that a catastrophe was imminent. It seeks unspecified damages for negligence.

Given the location of his residence, Harold Rosenberg is likely located at the very bottom of the mountain of rubble that search-and-rescue personnel have only begun to chip away at, the lawsuit said. Hope is dwindling by the day.

The architects firm could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brett Marcy, a spokesman for Morabito, said in a statement that the firms 2018 report offered detailed findings and recommendations regarding extensive and necessary structural repairs for the condo building.

Both Marcy and Maria Stagliano, a spokesperson for the condo association, said in separate statements that they could not comment on claims made in pending litigation but were working with investigators to understand why the building collapsed.

Search and rescue personnel look for survivors through the rubble at the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., on June 27, 2021. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

Grand Jury Inquiry Planned

The state attorney for Miami-Dade County, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said on Tuesday she would convene a special grand jury, apart from any potential criminal investigation, to examine building safety.

President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, planned to visit the scene of the tragedy on Thursday.

Fire officials have spoken of hearing faint sounds from inside the rubble pilewhile acknowledging that such noises could come from settling of the ruinsand finding voids deep in the debris large enough to possibly sustain life.

But Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said on Tuesday that search personnel faced a daunting task, hampered by intermittent showers and thunderstorms, and picking through compressed wreckage of 12 floors that collapsed onto one another, all within that same footprint.

Levine Cava said Tuesday that conflicting information may account for day-to-day fluctuations in the tallies of those unaccounted for, and that police were conducting an audit of all the missing-persons reports to verify and remove duplicates wherever possible.

Debris removed from the rubble pile is being trucked to a collection site to be sifted through by detectives for bits of evidence that will be cataloged and photographed for future investigative purposes, Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez said.

Hurricane season has arrived in Florida, and the states emergency management director, Kevin Guthrie, said Wednesday he was making contingency plans should a tropical storm descend on the coast.

By Gabriella Borter
Members of the Iraqi army and security forces at the Sadr City suburb of Iraq's capital Baghdad in a file photo. (Sabah Arar/AFP via Getty Images)

Explosion Injures 11 in Baghdads Sadr City

BAGHDADAt least 11 people were wounded in an explosion on Wednesday in Baghdads Sadr City neighborhood, Iraqi police and medical workers said.

A military statement said an explosion took place in Sadr City but gave no details.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It was the second attack to hit Sadr City and the third to target a busy market this year in Baghdad.

In April four people were killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack in the same neighborhood. And in January a suicide attack killed at least 32 people in a crowded market.

Both attacks were claimed by ISIS terrorists.

Large bomb attacks, once an almost daily occurrence in the Iraqi capital, have halted since ISIS terrorists were defeated in 2017, part of an overall improvement in security that has brought normal life back to Baghdad.

Wednesdays attack comes during an election year, a time when tension between rival Iraqi political groups has often caused violence.

The populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, after whom Sadr city is named and who commands a following of millions of Iraqis, counts among his enemies both ISIS and rival Shiite parties with militias backed by Iran.
Facts Matter (June 30): NYC Election Results Voided After 135,000 Ballots Mistakenly Added as Test

Over in New York City, it was just revealed that the Board Elections made a mistake which caused a discrepancy of 135,000 ballots in the mayoral primary vote count. What exactly happened?

Meanwhile, in Arizona, the audit of the 2020 election is wrapping up, with the audit team having completed the hand recount portion of the process. They are now working remotely to complete the forensic aspect of the audit.

And amidst all this, the Arizona State legislature just passed a bill that will reduce the Arizona Secretary of States role in contested elections. The new bill will strip the SoS of all election lawsuit-related powers, handing the role over to the state attorney general.

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Firecracker Hot Dogs Are Perfect for Your Holiday Menu

The Fourth of July, also called Independence Day, is an American holiday celebrating the adoption by Congress of the Declaration of Independencewhich happened (no surprise!) on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence stated that the American colonies were no longer under British rule; they were now independent states.

Today we celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, parades, and barbecues, where we serve classic American foods such as hot dogs, burgers, and potato salad. Instead of simply grilling your dogs and slapping them on a bun this year, grab the kids and try this baking method that results in a big bite that one of our young recipe testers couldnt have loved more, saying, Its like a piggy in a blanket, but Hulk-size!

Firecracker Hot Dogs

Serves 8

Vegetable oil spray

8 hot dogs

1 can biscuit dough

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Equipment

Fork

Small bowl

Measuring spoons

Rimmed baking sheet

Parchment paper

8 wooden skewers

Ruler

Chefs knife (or bench scraper)

Pastry brush

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray parchment lightly with vegetable oil spray.

Carefully push 1 skewer lengthwise (the long way) through the center of each hot dog.

Use your hands to pat and stretch 1 biscuit dough round into an oval, about 8 inches long. Cut the oval in half lengthwise. Repeat stretching and cutting with 3 additional biscuit dough rounds.

Starting from the top, wrap 1 dough strip around each hot dog in a spiral, leaving gaps in the spiral as you wrap. Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet, tucking the ends of the dough strips underneath the hot dogs.

Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the dough strips with egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top.

Bake until biscuit strips are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let hot dogs cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.

Recipe Note

You can make your hot dogs extra-special by making a topper for your skewers!

Pat out extra biscuit dough into 4-inch circle. Use 1 1/2- to 2-inch star cookie cutter (use similar-size cookie cutter of another shape, if desired) to cut out dough shapes.

Carefully push skewers all the way through hot dogs, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches of skewer sticking out at top of each hot dog.

Before brushing with egg, carefully stick 1 dough shape on end of each skewer. Continue with recipe as directed.

For 25 years, home cooks have relied on Americas Test Kitchen for rigorously tested recipes developed by professional test cooks and vetted by 60,000 at-home recipe testers. The family of brandswhich includes Cooks Illustrated, Cooks Country, and Americas Test Kitchen Kidsoffers reliable recipes for cooks of all ages and skill levels. See more online at AmericasTestKitchen.com/TCA. Copyright 2021 Americas Test Kitchen. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Florida Judge Partly Blocks Law That Targeted Social Media Censorship

A federal judge in Florida has partially blocked a social media law that would have imposed penalties on big social media companies for deplatforming candidates for public office.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle granted a preliminary injunction on June 30 sought by the plaintiffs in the case, NetChoice LLC and the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

The legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standardsspeech they otherwise would not hostand forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would, the judge wrote in a 31-page opinion (pdf).

The Governors signing statement and numerous remarks of legislators show rather clearly that the legislation is viewpoint-based. And parts contravene a federal statute. This order preliminarily enjoins enforcement of the parts of the legislation that are preempted or violate the First Amendment.

The judge blocked two of the three Florida statutes created through the enactment of the social media law, also known as Florida Senate Bill 7072 (pdf). One of the statutes imposed fines on social media companies for deplatforming candidates for public office. The other statute imposed a number of restrictions on censorship by social media giants, which are private companies.

The plaintiffs are trade associations that represent some of the social media companies impacted by the legislation, which was set to go into effect on July 1. The plaintiffs filed suit against several Florida officials in their official capacity on May 27. The lawsuit alleged that the social media law violated the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and that its preempted by the protections internet companies have under Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act.

The judge concurred with the plaintiffs arguments.

The legislation now at issue was an effort to rein in social-media providers deemed too large and too liberal. Balancing the exchange of ideas among private speakers is not a legitimate governmental interest, Hinkle wrote. It is also subject to strict scrutiny because it discriminates on its face among otherwise-identical speakers: between social-media providers that do or do not meet the legislations size requirements and are or are not under common ownership with a theme park. The legislation does not survive strict scrutiny. Parts also are expressly preempted by federal law.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, supported the social media law. Among other provisions, the law would enable Floridians to sue big tech companies over censorship issues. It also empowered the Florida Election Commission to impose fines of $250,000 per day on any social media company that deplatforms any candidates for statewide office. The fine was set at $25,000 per day when deplatforming candidates for other offices.

DeSantiss office told The Epoch Times that it plans to immediately appeal the ruling.

We are disappointed by Judge Hinkles ruling and disagree with his determination that the U.S. Constitution protects Big Techs censorship of certain individuals and content over others, DeSantiss office wrote in an emailed statement.

As Judge Hinkle seemed to indicate during this weeks hearing on preliminary injunction, this case was always bound for the Eleventh Circuit and the appeals court will ultimately make its own decision on legal conclusions. Governor DeSantis continues to fight for freedom of speech and against Big Techs discriminatory censorship.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis departs after signing into law Senate Bill 7072 at Florida International University in Miami, Fla., on May 24, 2021. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Floridas DeSantis Vetoes Civics Education Bill, Citing Politicized Action Civics

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a civics education bill unanimously approved by the state legislature, citing concerns of promoting potentially biased political viewpoints and activism in Floridas education system.

DeSantis on Tuesday nixed Senate Bill 146, which received zero nay votes from either legislative chambers before it was sent to his desk. The bill would have developed a civic literacy practicum that requires high school students to participate in civic engagement activities, such as taking up an unpaid government internship or observing a naturalization ceremony. It would also have established a Citizen Scholar Program at the University of South Floridas St. Petersburg campus, in partnership with the Florida YMCA, to provide high school students with college credits for their participation.

In his veto letter (pdf), the Republican governor said the legislation would further politically biased action civics that favored philosophies of the USF and the YMCA.

The proposed bill seeks to further so-called action civics but does so in a way that risks promoting the preferred orthodoxy of two particular institutions, the message reads.

DeSantis also noted that his administration has been doing much to strengthen civics education throughout the state.

Indeed we have embedded strong civics curriculum in every grade level of Floridas kindergarten through grade 12 English Language Arts standards, and implemented the national model Florida Civics and Debate Initiative, he wrote. Moreover, the Department of Education is in the process of adopting new civics standards and developing high-quality curriculum aligned to those standards.

The veto came about two weeks after conservative news site The National Review warned that the bipartisan Florida bill could actually open a backdoor allowing partisan politics to influence K-12 education.

The article, headlined DeSantis Should Veto SB 146, argued that the measure contains no protections against politicized action civics and will easily be used as a wedge to import protest civics into Florida.

Action civics, according to conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, is a progressive-led movement that encourages students to participate in protests and demonstrations more than study history and our founding ideals, and understand the structure of American government.

While teaching students to volunteer in their communities is admirable, focusing civic education on protesting before teaching young people how to evaluate different social and political causes only makes them more likely to jump on the bandwagon of whatever movement is popular at the time, wrote Jonathan Butcher, a fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation.
A Fulton County election worker removes absentee ballots for the U.S. Senate runoff elections from envelopes at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 5, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage)

Georgia Secretary of State Seeking Election Takeover of Fulton County: Enough Is Enough

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is pursuing the taking over of Fulton Countys elections operations, claiming that the Atlanta-area county has habitually failed to count votes.

I think people are saying enough is enough, Raffensperger said during a Just the News podcast on June 30. Im tired of it, but so is everyone else who lives in the other 158 counties [in Georgia].

Raffensperger, a Republican who has been frequently criticized by former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election, stated that he will invoke Georgias recent election integrity law that allows Georgias Elections Board to take over elections operations in localities that have issues with counting ballots.

The law, SB 202, was approved by the Georgia state Legislature and signed into law earlier this year. The Department of Justice announced last week that it will file a civil rights lawsuit against the measure.

Raffensperger was asked during the podcast about whether he would recommend that the Elections Board take over Fulton County by using the law.

Yes is the answer to your question, he said.

With SB 202, habitually failing counties canactually the state election board can come in and replace the election director and really take over the governance of that.

Raffensperger also noted that he sought the ouster of a top Fulton County elections official, but the county declined to do so.

During the podcast interview, Raffensperger cited a report released by elections monitor Carter Jones in June that detailed alleged irregularities at a Fulton County vote-counting center in November 2020.

What [Jones] said was its all this mismanagement, he said, noting that county mismanagement and dysfunction erodes the publics trust in the election system and really lends itself to conspiracy theories.

So it needs to be fixed. Its our largest county.

Representatives from Fulton County didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

His announcement comes in the midst of an investigation into Fulton County election forms regarding ballots chain of custody that allegedly went missing.

Amid claims that Fulton County cant produce all ballot drop box transfer documents, Raffensperger said in a June 14 statement that his office is investigating the matter.

Other counties that have failed to follow the states rules and regulations regarding drop boxes are also being reviewed, he said.

A spokesperson for Fulton County at the time appeared to dismiss the reports, telling The Epoch Times that officials followed procedures for the collection of absentee ballots from Fulton County drop boxes.

We maintain a large quantity of documents and researching our files from last year to produce the ballot transfer forms. We have been in communication with the secretary of states office to update them of our progress on this matter.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 9, 2020. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)

Has the Military Lost Middle America?

Commentary

Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. militarys greatest defender.

Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets. When generals, active or retired, became controversial, conservative America usually could be counted on to stick with them.

Flyover country supported marquee officers such as Gen. Michael Hayden, Gen. James Mattis, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus, and a host of others when the media went after them for alleged unethical conduct, financial improprieties, spats with the Obama administration, or accusations of using undue force or hiding torture.

When Democrats railed in Congress about the revolving door of generals and admirals leaving the Pentagon to land lucrative board memberships with corporate defense contractors, Middle America, rightly or wrongly, mostly yawned.

Yet traditional America also assumed that its military leaders were largely apolitical and stayed out of politics. Brilliant World War II commanders Curtis LeMay, Douglas MacArthur, and George S. Patton didnt fare well when they clumsily waded through the minefields of partisan national politics.

No longer.

The Pentagons current and past top echelon is seen as politically weaponizedand both careerist and opportunist. Generals and admirals are currently scanning enlistments for mythical white supremacists, in fear of left-wing pressure following the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. These military officials apparently have no commensurate concern about whether there are Antifa-affiliated service members with records of past violence.

Were learning that much of what was reported about that unfortunate Capitol incident was untrue. There were no armed insurrectionists with guns, led by conspiracist kingpins. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick wasnt murdered. Medical examiner Francisco J. Diaz said the autopsy showed no evidence of internal or external injuries. The only violent death was that of an unarmed female military veteran who was shot by a mysteriously unnamed law enforcement officer while climbing through a window.

The tenure of highly decorated Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has proved a veritable train wreck of late. Under pressure from the left, last summer he renounced a photo appearance with then-President Donald Trump as unduly politicizing his service.

OK, but every recent chairman of the Joint Chiefs has routinely appeared with the president in photo ops, if sometimes reluctantly.

Milley was timidly reacting to media claims that Trump sicced federal law enforcement on disruptive protesters with tear gas to ensure calm for his photo op. The inspector general of the Department of the Interior recently exposed such reporting as fiction.

Equally untrue were complaints from Milley and a host of retired officers about Trump tyrannically using federal troops to maintain civic order. Such action has happened repeatedly in our history. For example, Gen. Colin Powell, former head of the Joints Chiefs, commanded the troops sent into Los Angeles in 1992 to quell the rioting that followed the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.

Neither Milley nor any of the previously vocal top brass objected to the Biden administrations militarization of Washington after Jan. 6. There wasnt a word about miles of barbed wire and fencing. There was utter silence about the omnipresence of thousands of armed troops throughout the city. Such mobilization was the very scenario they had said would pose an existential threat to democracy.

Milley was incoherent and paradoxical when pressed about critical race theorythe belief that racial bias has been encoded in societyduring congressional testimony last week. He bragged that he had read insurrectionary texts by Karl Marx and Mao Zedong to acquaint his open mind with supposed enemiesas if his inquisitive approach to those subversive authors was analogous to the teaching of critical race theory in the military.

Our top officers reveal inconsistent views on recommended readings, ideological indoctrination, and the use of federal troops during domestic crises. They are selective and partisan in their shrill criticism of particular presidents. Some blast political opponents with inflammatory comparisons to Nazis and fascists.

The militarys alienation of Middle America couldnt happen at a worse time. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea watch in glee at our self-created discord, which threatens to tear apart the most lethal military in the world.

The military isnt yet a revolutionary peoples army overseen by commissars. But its getting there with politicized agendas that split the country in half and abandon the militarys traditional role of unifying in common purpose to defend America.

Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative commentator, classicist, and military historian. He is a professor of classics emeritus at California State University, a senior fellow in classics and military history at Stanford University, a fellow of Hillsdale College, and a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness. Hanson has written 16 books, including The Western Way of War, Fields Without Dreams, and The Case for Trump.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on April 17, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Hill GOP Presses Agencies Linked to Wuhan Lab Funding, Data on Research for CCP Virus Origins

Congressional Republicans are pressing federal officials for documents and data on the origins of the CCP virusalso known as the novel coronavirusthat has reportedly killed more than 600,000 Americans since January 2020.

The pressure is coming on two fronts, one involving three Republican senators seeking information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the other involving three House Republicans pursuing materials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

In a June 28 letter to NIH Director Francis Collins, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R- Tenn.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) noted media reports in which Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials asked that vital data about the virus be deleted from a key government database.

On June 23, 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese researchers directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to delete gene sequences of early COVID-19 cases from a key scientific database, called the NIH Sequence Read Archive, the senators told Collins.

The article states that NIH confirmed that it deleted the sequences. The article further reports that the deleted data includes genomic sequences from SARS-CoV-2 and that these sequences were from viral samples collected in Wuhan in January and February 2020 from patients in the hospital.

The senators ask Collins to provide a list of explanations focused on the CCP deletion requests, identifying who at NIH has authority to delete such data, the characteristics of the Wuhan samples, and numerous related issues.

This type of data may contain important and relevant information that could help to better determine the viruss origins. The efforts by Chinese researchers to delete the data demands additional explanation, the senators wrote.

As you are aware, the Chinese government has failed, from the beginning, to be open and transparent with the world with respect to its role in the pandemic.

Blackburn is the ranking minority member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Subcommittee.

Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Marshall is one of the Senates four members who are doctors, all of whom are Republican.

In the House, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.); and Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) sent a June 28 letter to USAID Director Samantha Power concerning her agencys long-term relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

In 2009, USAID launched PREDICT, a $220 million, ten-year project, as part of its Emerging Pandemic Threat Program to detect viruses of pandemic potential, the three House Republicans told Power.

By collecting data, such as bat coronavirus samples, USAID aimed to identify viruses that may spark a naturally occurring global pandemic. Through PREDICT, the USAID-funded project collected more than 15,000 bat samples, which led to the identification of around 500 new coronaviruses and detected about 1,200 viruses that could spread from wild animals to humans, with more than 160 of them being novel coronaviruses, much like SARS-CoV-2, they wrote.

They further noted that the USAID, through its PREDICT program, trained WIV scientists in disease detection and research for a decade. The program was scheduled to expire in 2019 but was extended and expanded by the USAID in 2020. The expansion focused specifically on the CCP virus and its origins, using data collected during the prior decade.

Those facts [suggest] that USAID has already identified potential sources of the virus. Further, the extension project investigation was funded to conduct SARS CoV-2-specific testing on samples collected and analyze existing project data, the trio wrote to Power.

Moreover, before the SARS-CoV-2 sequence and specific assays were available, the PREDICT-trained laboratories detected the new SARS CoV-2 virus in some of the first patients that traveled outside China.

The representatives noted that USAID grant recipients under the PREDICT program included EcoHealth Alliance and the University of CaliforniaDavis.

EcoHealth is a New York-based nonprofit that also shared grants it received from NIH with WIV for gain-of-function research that was banned in the United States during the PREDICT programs tenure. Such research focuses on upgrading a viruss genetic capabilities to higher levels of lethality and transmissibility.

Through its PREDICT grant recipients, such as EHA and UC Davis, USAID likely possesses detailed documentation and extensive knowledge about bat coronavirus research and experiments performed at the WIV and at other laboratories in China, they wrote.

Considering its long-term WIV partnership and the extent of the research conducted there by USAID grantees, we expect USAID has records pertinent to our COVID-19 origins investigation.

Among the multiple areas of information requests to USAID, the three House Republicans requested copies of reports of any WIV laboratory accidents or other safety concerns about the WIV facilities, including the WIV infectious disease diagnostics labs used by USAID or WIV researchers, described as having state-of-the-art molecular virology and serology capacity.

Because congressional Democrats have refused to launch an official investigation of the origins of the virus, Republicans cant compel Collins or Power to respond as requested.

Congressional correspondent Mark Tapscott may be contacted at mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc.
A man gestures as he brings copies of the final edition of Apple Daily, published by Next Digital, to a news stand in Hong Kong, on June 24, 2021. (Lam Yik/Reuters)

Hong Kong Media Crackdown Aims to Silence Free Speech

With its 100th anniversary quickly approaching, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fortifies its media suppression in Hong Kong where Chinese authorities arrested another former Apple Daily editor on June 27, after forcing the newspaper to shut down.

Fearing repercussions from the state, many Hong Kong internet media and political affairs commentators decided to self-censor or shut down their content channels and social media accounts altogether.

The Hong Kong Journalist Association strongly condemned the authorities for their targeting of journalists, describing it as a media blackout using terror.

New Chief Secretary for Administration Picked by Beijing

With the CCPs July 1 anniversary approaching, Hong Kongs Chief Executive Carrie Lam led a delegation of 70 to Beijing on June 28 to attend celebrations. During Lams absence, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Administration, Li Jiachao, will serve as the interim Chief Executive.

Just three days prior, on June 25, the CCPs State Council removed the former Chief Secretary for Administration, Zhang Jianzong, and promoted Li Jiachao to the post, making him the second in command in Hong Kong. Li is the former head of the Security Bureau and was known for suppressing the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests, forcing Apple Daily to cease publication, and freezing its funds. Lis promotion marked the beginning of Hong Kongs police rule.

Another Apple Daily Chief Editor Arrested

After forcing Apple Daily to shut down, the police arrested Feng Weiguangbetter known by his author name Lu Fengthe former chief editor of Apple Daily, at the airport on June 27.

Unlike the earlier arrest of Yang Qingqi, another former Apple Daily chief editor, the police arrested Feng Weiguang in broad daylight.

A Hong Kong YouTuber, John Connor, suggests that the police could have arrested Feng anytime with their so-called evidence of foreign collusion.

But why did they have to arrest him at the Hong Kong International Airport in broad daylight? Connor asked.

Conner believes that the Hong Kong police and the CCP want to create an atmosphere of terror and a deterrent for journalists who voice opposition. The message they want to send is that you may be safe if you dont go to the airport, but as soon as you go to the airport, you may be arrested.

Hong Kongs Press Freedom Lost

The Hong Kong Journalist Association condemned the police for its repeated arrests of journalists and demanded that the police immediately admit its wrongdoing. In a statement on June 28, the Association emphasized that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are Hong Kongs core values.

Hong Kong will hardly be regarded as an international city, the statement said, while questioning how an ordinary persons piece of pen and ink could collude with foreign forces, and how it could endanger national security.

The Journalist Association also pointed out that the recent series of incidents against freedom of speech has almost completely wiped out freedom of the press in Hong Kong.

When Hong Kong is left with one voice, and only the rich and powerful prevail, will international companies still trust this land? Can Hong Kong still serve as an international financial center?

In a second statement on the evening of June 28, the Journalist Association expressed concern about the white terror of self-censorship looming over the news industry, saying there has been a hurricane of self-censorship in the media industry since Apple Daily ceased publication, and Hong Kong is less and less civilized, while freedom of speech is being eroded.

Former Editor Deletes Videos, Adapts to Situation

Hong Kong media professionals are taking precautions while faced with political repression.

Yuan Yaoqing, the founder of the 852 Post and former deputy editor-in-chief of Hong Kong Economic Journal, removed all video posts on YouTube on June 28. Yuan issued an apology statement, saying the situation has changed abruptly, and because he was staying in Hong Kong, he had to adapt to the situation. He also uploaded an apology video on YouTube in which he repeatedly said that he is sincerely sorry.

Yuan mentioned the arrest of Feng Weiguang, the former chief editor of Apple Daily, and changes at Stand News, saying the political climate in Hong Kong has taken a turn for the worse.

He also said that he would be communicating in a new format, and although he may not speak out like in the old days, he will voice Hong Kongs state of affairs with subtlety, adding that he wishes to carry on the Hong Kong spirit despite the restricted environment.

Yuan established the 852 Post in 2013 under the pseudonym You Qingyuan. The company had more than 20 employees. On May 14 of this year, Yuan suspended the business due to concerns about the National Security Law and financial problems. He laid off the remaining six employees and continued to work as an individual journalist.

Political Cartoonist Shuts Down Facebook Page

Huang Zhaoda, a political cartoonist with over 20,000 followers, suspended his 10-year Facebook page Huang Zhaoda Comics.

Huang said on Facebook that he was deeply saddened to see the column by Stand News taken down and the arrest of Apple Dailys Lu Feng.

Initially, Huang said he thought he was not at immediate risk, and even though he had fear, he still had to maintain his livelihood. But pretty soon he decided to shut down his comic page temporarily, as he felt that all plausible analyses of journalist safety are meaningless.

Another Facebook page that has become unavailable is Zhou Tings, a former member of Demosisto, Hong Kongs pro-democracy political organization. Its currently unknown whether Zhou had deleted the page herself.

Winandmac Media Withdraws from Hong Kong

Winandmac Media, a digital media company operating since 2010, also issued a notice on its Facebook page on June 28, stating that it decided to withdraw from Hong Kong because of security concerns.

The announcement cited the closure of Apple Daily as the trigger point and also mentioned the changes occurring at Stand News. Winandmac, like other media, has often been subjected to unknown intimidation and threats. Stating that there no longer is any press freedom in Hong Kong, after careful consideration, Winandmac initiated its withdrawal from Hong Kong. Since then, all its funds have left Hong Kong.

Hong Kong and Taiwan TV and Radio Programs Terminated

Several popular Hong Kong and Taiwan talk-show programs have also been taken off the air.

The widely acclaimed programs Five Nights Lecture and Viewpoint 31 were terminated from TV programs. On June 28, Viewpoint 31 was no longer available in the latest scheduled programs of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The time slot was replaced by an old episode of University Questions.

Current affairs commentator Leung Kai Chi posted on Facebook on June 28 that he received a notice of termination of the Five Nights Lecture program in Hong Kong and Taiwan, although he was scheduled to be on the show.

Allan Au, a veteran media personnel and host of the Radio Hong Kong program Free Wind Free Phone, also stopped hosting on June 28. After serving as host for 11 years, he said goodbye to his listeners at the end of the last show while choking up. Au said that his shows had aimed to tell the facts and the reason, and he hoped to continue hearing different opinions.

Stand News and Others Trying to Hold the Line

After Apple Dailys forced closure on June 27, the owners of Hong Kong media Stand News were also mentally preparing for the possible freezing of funds by the authorities.

On June 27, Stand News announced that it would stop accepting sponsorships and monthly subscription fees from members. It also announced that it would temporarily remove commentary articles such as blog posts, reprinted articles, and reader contributions published before June of this year. The six directors of the parent company accepted the proposal and resigned.

Stand News then renewed its employment contract with employees who have been with the company for more than six months. The renewal is an attempt to protect its employees in case of forced closure, like what happened to Apple Daily. In the process, Stand News employees received generous settlements in addition to the renewal contracts. Stand News intends to keep most of its employees and continue to operate for however long they can.

Some opposition media continue to hold the line. Zhong Jianhua, the deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Institute of Public Opinion, keeps on writing commentaries on current affairs despite suppression. Zhong used to write articles for Apple Dailys Monday column. He wrote a total of 256 pieces. After Apple Daily shut down, he still wrote for the column on June 28, published it on Facebook, and allowed others to share it.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) holds a press conference with Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), right, Rep. Kevin Brady, (R-Texas), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and other Republican leaders on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 10, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

House GOP Leader: Cheney Could Lose Committees After Pelosi Appointment to Jan. 6 Panel

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ky.) says Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) could lose her committee assignments after agreeing to take part in a Democrat-backed select committee that was recently formed to investigate the Jan. 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol.

In comments made during a July 1 press conference, McCarthy said he was blindsided by Cheneys decision to join the panel, which was strongly backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Cheney, who recently was ousted from her GOP leadership position, is the only House Republican to join the committee.

Now, according to McCarthy, the Wyoming Republican may face further backlash from fellow Republican lawmakers.

Im not threatening anybody with committee assignments, McCarthy said during the conference. It was shocking to me that if a person is Republican, they get their committee assignments from the Republican conference. For somebody to accept committee assignments from Speaker Pelosithats unprecedented.

Cheney was among just two Republicans to vote in favor of the select committee on June 30. The other was Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump and House Republican leadership.

Since the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, Cheney has taken an increasingly critical tone against Trump and Republicans who have aligned themselves with the former president, arguing that Trump should no longer be considered a leader within the Republican party. But in May, Cheney was sharply rebuked after Republican House members voted to strip her of her No. 3 position within the party, instead electing staunch Trump ally Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

When Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) switched from Democrat to Republican following the first impeachment inquiry, he lost his Pelosi-selected committee assignments, McCarthy said. The same occurred for former Rep. Justin Amash when he left the Republican party and became an independent.

I dont know in history where someone would go get their committee assignments from the speaker and expect them to have them from the conference as well, McCarthy said of the possibility that Cheney could lose her assignments. It would seem to me, since I didnt hear from her, maybe shes closer to [Pelosi] than us.

I dont know.

The newly formed select committee differs from the bipartisan Jan. 6 independent commission proposal that passed in the House but was later blocked by Republicans in the Senate. The committee wouldnt allow Republicans to have control over subpoenas and has no deadline to deliver a final report, Pelosi said last week that it should go for as long as it takes.

After being named to the committee, Cheney released a statement saying she is honored to have been named to serve and believes it serves lawmakers oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and the preservation of the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics.

Cheneys office didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Los Angeles, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2015. (John Moore/Getty Images)

ICE Agents, Sheriffs Sue Biden Admin Over Unlawful Deportation Policy

GALVESTON, TexasA group of sheriffs and active Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have filed suit against the Biden administration for its unlawful and unconstitutional requirements regarding the arrest and deportation of illegal aliens.

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to a Feb. 18 memorandum that they say commands ICE officers to violate the specific terms of federal immigration law.

The relief we are seeking is that the court order ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to simply follow the law, lead attorney Kris Kobach said after filing the suit at the Galveston federal courthouse on July 1. To follow the specific laws  that require them to detain and deport certain illegal aliens.

The lawsuit (pdf) alleges that many extremely dangerous illegal aliens who would have been detained prior to the February 18 Memorandum are now not being detainedagainst the wishes of the ICE officers seeking to detain them, and in violation of federal statutes requiring their detention and/or removal.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued interim guidelines on Feb. 18 for handling the arrest, detainment, and deportation of illegal immigrants.

DHS directed ICE officers to focus on only three priority groups of illegal immigrants, including national security threats, such as known or suspected terrorists; those who crossed the border illegally after Nov. 1, 2020; and public safety threats who are convicted of aggravated felonies or gang members.

Part of ICEs job is to track down and remove the 672,000 fugitives who have been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge but are still in the United States.

But the new DHS directive says that ICE agents must first get clearance from supervisors if they encounter illegal immigrants who arent convicted criminals during operations.

The decision of whether to arrest the individual needs to take into account whether the person might be suffering from a serious physical or mental illness, a DHS official said at the time.

We want [ICE] to think about ties to the community, whether the individual has family here in the United States, U.S. citizen family members, and other considerations, the official said.

Upon the rollout of the new guidelines, a DHS official said that ICE arrests werent expected to drop under the new guidelines.

However, ICE reported a record low 2,962 deportations in April, in comparison to an average of 8,634 illegal immigrant deportations per month during fiscal year 2020.

ICE officers have been rarely granted preapproval for enforcement actions against non-priority aliens, according to the lawsuit.

The time-consuming paperwork and the low probability of preapproval being granted have caused many ICE officers not to even attempt seeking preapproval, the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit outlines several cases provided via affidavit by ICE officers who were forced to release illegal alien criminals into the community.

In one case, ICE officers sought approval to arrest a twice-deported illegal alien who had been convicted of sexual battery against a child. ICE management denied the request, according to the lawsuit.

In another case, local police initiated the arrest of a twice-deported illegal alien for selling heroin.

The alien attempted to evade arrest by ramming the police car with his vehicle, nearly hitting an officer who was standing outside the police car, the lawsuit states.

The alien was eventually arrested and found to have a quarter of a pound of heroin in his possession, as well as a female and a baby in the back seat of his vehicle.

ICE officers requested approval to place a detainer on the illegal alien, in order to gain custody once he was released from local custody. ICE management denied the request, according to the lawsuit.

A third case involved an illegal alien arrested by local authorities for the rape of a child. ICE officers sought approval to place a detainer on the illegal alien, in order to detain him upon release from local custody. ICE management denied the request, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says that ICE officers are being forced to choose between following the Feb. 18 memorandum and following federal laws.

Plaintiffs fear that they will be disciplined or will lose their jobs if they follow the law, the lawsuit states.

The Texas sheriffs joining the lawsuit include Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, Edwards County Sheriff J.W. Guthrie, and McMullen County Sheriff Emmett Shelton. More counties are expected to join the lawsuit in the coming weeks.

The sheriffs allege in the lawsuit that theyre no longer able to present illegal aliens arrested for criminal activities to ICE for removal and expect them to be removed.

The detention costs, crime response costs, crime investigation costs, and related costs experienced by the Plaintiff sheriffs and counties have consequently increased dramatically, the lawsuit reads.

Since all this began six to eight months ago  weve seen a drastic increase in human smuggling and what we call foot trafficthose that are walking through the ranches, Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County said outside the federal courthouse in Galveston on July 1. Kinney County shares 16 miles of international border with Mexico.

As far as jail space, its putting a huge dent in my budget. At one time I had up to 18 people in the neighboring county jail. And they were charging me $65 a day per person.

Kinney County has 14 jail spaces available. Currently, Coe has 18 inmates, which includes six housed in a neighboring jail. Ten of the 18 are charged with human smuggling.

Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson said during a May 13 congressional hearing that the agencys relationship with the state and local community is vital in us being able to carry out our important mission.

Without their support, its very difficult for us to be efficient and effective. So when local jurisdictions do not cooperate, whether thats in terms of not honoring our detainers, or not letting us in there at their facilities, then it puts ICE in a situation where we actually have to go out into the communities to find individuals that in this case would meet our priority, she said.

The group is suing President Joe Biden, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Acting Director of ICE Tae Johnson, and Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Troy Miller.

Representatives from the White House, DHS, and ICE didnt respond to requests for comment by press time.

In fiscal year 2020, ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations removed almost 186,000 individuals, of whom 92 percent had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, according to ICEs end-of-year report.

The new guidelines place priority on those who have been convicted of an aggravated felony, not those with pending charges.

ICE detention facility capacity has been decreased from 52,000 to 15,000 illegal aliens.
A computer image created by Nexu Science Communication together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus which is the type of virus linked to COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus linked to the Wuhan outbreak, shared with Reuters on Feb. 18, 2020. (NEXU Science Communication/via Reuters)

International Scientists Call for New Inquiry Into COVID-19 Origins

Alternatives needed in case Chinese regime wont cooperate, they say

A group of internationally renowned scientists has issued another open letter calling for a new, thorough inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by an international investigative team. The letter also provided solutions to the possible scenario of the Chinese communist regime not cooperating with such an investigation.

On June 28, the Paris Group published the open letter with major French media Le Figaro. The group is made up of 31 leading scientists and doctors from countries around the world, including France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, India, Australia, the United States, Canada, and Japan.

The letter notes that COVID-19 has been raging around the world for more than a year, but the origin of the virus hasnt been identified.

A report by the World Health Organizations (WHO) team that visited Wuhan, China, a year after the outbreak to seek its originsnow shown to have included key members with a clear conflict of interestwas inconclusive and raised doubts globally, especially in Western countries.

We believe that the joint study process that the WHO is currently calling for, in its current form, does not satisfy the conditions to be credible due to serious structural gaps, the letter reads.

The letter also addresses the Chinese regimes attempt to erase related data, pointing out: The measures taken by the Chinese government to hide the origins, and stop Chinese experts from sharing certain essential information and detailed data clearly show that the current process, without significant changes, has no chance of putting a complete or credible inquiry in place for all possible scenarios.

The letter states that its particularly regrettable that no exhaustive inquiry on all the plausible origins has been undertaken, and that none is planned.

We ask for a new scientific inquiry into all the plausible origin hypothesis, which has unlimited access to all the pertinent files, samples, and staff in China, and elsewhere if necessary, the scientists urge in the letter.

The direction of the investigation should include the possibility of the virus leaking from the laboratory, the letter suggests.

Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli is seen inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. (Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images)

If the Chinese regime wont cooperate in such an investigation, the group has suggested launching an international investigation mission without Chinas participation, led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Group of Seven Industrial Countries (G-7), or other institutions.

A well-organized and concerted effort, free of interference, drawing on all available sources of information and involving a large number of experts, may well end up providing unambiguous evidence supporting one particular hypothesis regarding the origins of the pandemic, the letter reads.

The suggestion is based on the fact that sufficient data are available worldwide for such an inquiry, the scientists argue.

A great number of very pertinent details can be collected without the participation of the Chinese authorities. Many governmental and individual scientists across the world have already gathered, and started to analyse, significant quantities of pertinent data, the letter reads.

The letter further suggests that the inquiry would also need the cooperation of the United States and the European Union in sharing documents and data.

The letter comes at a time when more evidence is emerging, with the international community now turning focus to the virology lab in Wuhan that has been conducting gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in cooperation with the Chinese regimes military.

This is the fourth open letter this year calling for a new independent and thorough inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The Paris Group issued another two letters earlier this year. In March, the first letter stated that an inquiry into the role of major science journals in concealing information of the pandemic, such as The Lancet, is in order.

They issued a second open letter on April 7, condemning the WHOs report. The letter received significant coverage in French newspapers.
The logo of Planned Parenthood outside the Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center in St. Louis, Mo., on May 30, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Iowa Supreme Court Lets State Block Govt Funding for Planned Parenthoods Sex Education Program

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that the state can block companies such as Planned Parenthood from providing sex education programs funded by government funds.

The 61 decision upholds a 2019 law passed by the Republican-led state legislature that would block any abortion provider from receiving funds from two federal grants to carry out youth sex education programs. It doesnt limit Planned Parenthoods ability to offer its own sex education programs.

Even if the programs do not include any discussions about abortion, the goals of promoting abstinence and reducing teenage pregnancy could arguably still be undermined when taught by the entity that performs nearly all abortions in Iowa, Dana Oxley, an associate justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, wrote in the majority opinion (pdf).

The State could also be concerned that using abortion providers to deliver sex education programs to teenage students would create relationships between the abortion provider and the students the State does not wish to foster in light of its policy preference for childbirth over abortion.

Oxley, an appointee of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, added, These considerations provide a factual basis to support the States assertion that the general assembly could have passed the Act out of concern that its message could be diluted if PPH [Planned Parenthood of the Heartland], the primary abortion provider in the state, delivered the state-sponsored sexual education programs.

The lone justice dissenting the decision, Justice Brent Appel, is the only member of the court appointed by a Democratic governor. In his dissent, he wrote that the Iowa Legislature was seeking to impose unconstitutional conditions on Planned Parenthood, and that the effort was trying to accomplish indirectly what it cannot do directly: namely, attack abortion rights. This cannot be permitted.

The funding ban was attached to a budget bill on the last day of Iowas legislative session in 2019. After Reynolds signed the ban into law in May 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Reynolds and the state on behalf of PPHan affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of Americasaying that the law violates its free speech, due process, and equal protection rights. PPH has since merged with Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to form Planned Parenthood North Central States.

District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin later in May 2019 issued a temporary injunction stopping the ban from taking effect, after saying that in his view, PPH would likely win its challenge. District Court Judge Paul Scott in May 2020 made permanent the temporary injunction blocking the law, and ruled that the funding ban was unconstitutional. The state appealed the ruling.

The Iowa Supreme Courts ruling on June 30, which found the 2019 law constitutional, serves as a reversal to Scotts ruling. The high court also rejected PPHs complaint that the law violated its right to equal protection and that the law served no legitimate government interest.

PPH currently provides sex education at more than 30 schools and 15 community-based youth organizations in Iowa. It will no longer receive grants for these sex education programs. The court noted that the companys practice of providing abortions wouldnt be affected by the ruling.

Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said in a statement that the decision is a major setback for public health.

Parents agree that young people need medically accurate information to make healthy decisions that will determine the trajectory of their lives, she said. As Iowas largest sex education provider, we are committed to our critical sex education programs, and we are invested in continuing this important work.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Nov. 16, 2020. (Kelsey Kremer/Des Moines Register/Pool)

Reynolds said in a statement that the June 30 ruling was a strong statement in support of the idea that taxpayer dollars should not fund abortion.

I am proud to be a pro-life governor who will protect all innocent life, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child in a Screen-Addicted Culture

Screen use can devour your kid's childhood, but you can give it back with help from like-minded parents

I was recently invited to a gathering of eight moms who had been to a ScreenStrong workshop at their school. They were learning from each other about how to deal with the screen dilemmas in their homes. We sat together in a cozy den and chatted about what grades our kids were in, what they were doing online, and how hard it was to manage video games and social media. It made me realize again that parents need a close community when facing an issue like managing kids and screen addiction.

There Is Strength in Numbers

We have so many questions, one mom said.

I just need to talk to moms with kids the same age as mine to get advice, said a mom of a 15-year-old girl.

How do you get your husband on board? asked another.

Then one mom got teary-eyed and said in a broken voice, I feel so alone, I am so stuck and have made so many mistakes already. I just have to say that I am so glad to be here.

A moment of silence was followed by such wonderful support for this mom as everyone agreed that they all felt isolated and needed to be in that room. They needed validation and support from other moms. They needed to know that they were not the only ones having problems managing screens in their homes.

I remembered all of these feelings so well from when my oldest was struggling with screen addiction in the form of video game dependency. I felt isolated and stuck too. I remember asking all my friends for help. I finally found answers when I read Playstation Nation written by a mom and dad who had gone through the same struggle.

I kept reading books and becoming more educated myself. Then I went a step further and gathered a group of moms similar to this group. We were eager to learn more about how to manage the screens in our homes. We met on a regular basis and read books together while our kids played in the backyard. We all decided to establish video-game-free homes and delay giving our kids smartphones. We had peace of mind when our kids played at each others homes for playdates. A huge burden was lifted and our kids thrived.

Until we formed that community, we felt like we were all on our own islandsparalyzed and privately losing the screen battle in our homes. It was because of our newly formed community that real change began to occur for all of us and we became screen strong families. Our kids reaped tremendous benefits from growing up screen-free, and we never looked back.

Why Community Is So Important in Battling Screen Addiction

Humans are born with a strong need to belong to a larger group. Its in our nature to bond with and even mimic others around us. Its a survival skill. When were influenced by a positive peer group, everyone enjoys the benefits. When were influenced by a negative peer group, the group suffers.

The need to conform to the larger group is strongincluding our screen culture. We change our actions and behaviors based on this culture. For example, even though we know our kids arent ready for a smartphone, we give in at early ages because the community around us is giving in. We let our 9-year-olds play mature-rated games if our friends allow theirs to.

As we conform to the group, our blind spots grow. We know its not in our teens best interest to be on social media, but we give in because we feel powerless to step out from the crowd. We dont want to be isolated and unusual. Remember the story of the emperors new clothes? The emperor strode around believing his clothes were invisible to fools, and the crowd cheered him on until one young boy shouted the obvious. Social conformity can make fools of us all.

Raising a child with a budding screen addiction is a lonely path. It is embarrassing to admit that your son plays video games for 6 hours a day, dropped out of his sports, and hates school. It is difficult to share the news that your daughter spends hours every day editing TikTok videos and taking selfies, or worse, that shes sending nude photos. Its hard because these side effects of our dysfunctional screen culture are not openly discussed by our peers. It is also hard because we live in a culture that promotes early and excessive screen use, and we feel that if we were doing our job as parents, our kids would be able to handle it. But no kid can.

So when trouble hits, and it eventually will, we privately seek the help of another community: counselors. Sometimes counselors tell us that Tech is here to stay; this is our teens world. If we dont allow toxic tech, we are a controlling parent, and our kids will hate us. Or, worse, Parents are in the dark and dont understand their kids virtual world, so most kids need counselors today. These opinions are not accurate nor are they based in science. As a result, we come up empty-handed, more isolated, and afraid. Meanwhile, our childrens problems due to screen addiction grow worse.

Real Change Happens Best in a Small Group

Are you feeling isolated on your screen journey? Do you feel like your child is the only one without a phone? If youre having trouble finding like-minded peers, it may be time to start your own small community. The good news is that you wont need an army of like-minded friends, just a small core group. You can begin by hosting a book club-style meeting in your home and become more informed on the science behind kids and screens. As you meet together to discuss and troubleshoot problems on a regular basis, youll gain confidence.

Our organization, ScreenStrong, has everything you need to delay toxic screens and begin your journeyfrom the educational pieces to organizing your own ScreenStrong small groups. Begin by going through the Kids Brains and Screens mini-course workshop and listen to the ScreenStrong Families Podcast.

The journey will be much easier for your kids if they have some friends to join in with them. So organize some gatherings for them too. Plan regular non-tech activities for your kids friends. One or two screen strong friends is all your kids really need to be happy as they reboot and transition to remove the tech distractions from their lives.

I recently spoke with a mom of five children who has been able to keep her kids screen free through the high school years. I asked her what her secret to avoiding screen addiction was. She said, The best thing I did early on was to find one other family to take this journey with us, that made all the difference. Today we have two other families who are as serious as we are. I agree. That advice is priceless.

At the end of our meeting, all the moms felt better. They were empowered and they had made some new friends to call when they needed support. A few had plans to get their boys together after school at a local park. A few more were discussing ideas for getting their daughters together the following weekend. Another group was planning a Friday fun night for their middle school kids.

I left that meeting remembering how great it felt to finally have a plan. These moms now have a number to call when they need help, and they can look forward to having kids come to their homes just to have fun and be kids without video games or phones. Im so happy for this new small group of parents. I got a big smile on my face as I remembered that turning point in the life of our familywe got our kids back. We have never regretted our screen strong decision, and weve never looked back. I dont think they will either.

Melanie Hempe, BSN, is the founder of ScreenStrong, an organization that empowers parents to help their children to gain the benefits of screen media without the toxic consequences of overuse that threaten healthy mental and physical development. The ScreenStrong Solution promotes a strong parenting style that proactively replaces harmful screen use with healthy activities, life skills development, and family connection. This article was originally published on ScreenStrong.com
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley looks on during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington, on June 17, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/Pool via Reuters)

Joint Chiefs Chairman Ignores Evidence Showing Critical Race Theory Harms Unit Cohesion

Commentary

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley dismissed concerns about neo-Marxist critical race theory. He feigned outrage at accusations the military was becoming woke. His cavalier response showed that at best hes ignorant, and at worst he doesnt care.

Critical race theory stems from a school of thought among post-Russian Revolution Marxist intellectuals who were disturbed by the fact communist revolution didnt sweep Europe as Marx predicted. Orthodox Marxists deny that critical race theory is Marxist because it derives from a revisionist strain of thought. The revisionists reimagined Marxist theory to focus on who has power in society and who doesnt instead of the class struggle between the working class and the capitalists found in Karl Marxs writings.

Critical race theorys reliance on Marxist dualism of the oppressor versus the oppressed intends to produce strife and chaos.

Unsurprisingly, a 2012 Harvard Business Review article noted, Diversity training doesnt extinguish prejudice. It promotes it.

Other social-science research finds that diversity training is ineffective at reaching positive outcomes.

Milley clearly never read these reports.

Ive read Mao Tse Tung. Ive read Karl Marx. Ive read Lenin. That doesnt make me a communist, Milley said. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?

Milley acknowledged critical race theorys roots in critical legal studies at Harvard University back in the 1980s. It bears the strong influence of neo-Marxist theorist Frantz Fanon and Communist Party USA member W.E.B. DuBois, winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.

And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being, quote, woke or something else, because were studying some theories that are out there. That was started at Harvard Law School years ago, Milley continued.

He claimed that he wanted to understand the White Rage behind the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6. The generals liberal-sounding rhetoric masks the real problem. The concept of White Rage, developed by Emory University professor Carol Anderson, is an aspect of critical race theory itself.

Anderson promotes black powerlessness and blames whites for every contemporary problem of black America. She insinuates that questioning the critical race theorists dogmas itself is racist in her book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide.

The trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black advancement, Anderson theorizes, thus setting up a strawman argument that suggests that all white Americans oppose prosperity for blacks and that it threatens them.

Her book cherry-picks points about white Americans following the Civil War. It avoids discussion of how people such as General and later President Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Army fought to protect freed blacks from racist violence. She also glosses over how Republicans tried to protect black civil rights from racist oppression immediately following the Civil War (pdf), focusing instead on President Andrew Johnsons racism. Doing so is needed to portray America as totally evil. Such omissions show that Andersons White Rage is propaganda, not scholarship.

Are Grants exploits on behalf of black Americans discussed, or the role of the U.S. military during Reconstruction protecting black lives (pdf) talked about in the Defense Departments seminars?

Milleys discussion of his having read Mao, Marx, and Lenin was a red herring about the question at hand. Namely, are U.S. servicemembers being indoctrinated in ideas developed by contemporary acolytes of Karl Marx? Marxist thought is particularly destructive because its predicated on dialectical thinking that promotes conflict to bring about a new society.

Milleys dismissal set up a strawman argument because critical race theory is not a dispassionate examination of the history of slavery, Jim Crow, or even the problems black Americans currently face in American society. And by all reports, this critical race theory is being taught as fact rather than as a dispassionate assessment of the sectarian opinions of neo-Marxist scholars without presenting contrary ideas for debate. They aim to discredit the United States, its Constitution, and the same institutions that members of the military swear an oath to protect.

What Gen. Milley was responding to was an exchange that I had had during my time of question-and-answer with Secretary Austin, where I raised the point of a series of courses and seminars thats being taught at West Point, which was brought to my attention by very upset and disturbed cadets, their families, soldiers, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) told Hugh Hewitt on his podcast on June 24. One of the seminars, Hugh, was titled, Dealing With Your Whiteness and White Rage, which apparently over 100 cadets attended; Critical Race Theory: An Introductionthe textbook is part of the curriculum.

This was one of several incidents that have appeared since Joe Biden became president.

Members of Congress have repeatedly raised questions about the Navys recommendation of neo-Marxist ideologue Ibram X. Kendis book How to Be an Antiracist, which seeks to remedy past discrimination against blacks with future discrimination against whites. Kendi blames capitalism for the lack of an equality of outcome among black Americans. Kendis thesis falls apart after you look at how Afro-Cubans live in communist Cuba compared with Cubans of Spanish descent, the former suffering discrimination despite living under socialism.

Like Anderson, Kendi cherry-picks his information and gets facts, such as data about black poverty in the Reagan era and other topics that are more nuanced than he claims, wrong.

American capitalism has spawned more innovations and technological achievements than any in the preceding millennia of human history, including the technology that youre reading this article on. Poor Americans of all colors have a higher standard of living here than they do in any socialist country, including China.

Adm. Michael Gilday similarly defended critical race theory and Kendis disinformation.

Sir, initially you mentioned critical race theory: Im not a theorist; Im the Chief of Naval Operations, Gilday told Congress. What I can tell you is, factually, based on a substantial amount of time talking to sailors in the fleet, theres racism in the Navy, just like theres racism in our country. And the way were going to get after it is to be honest about it, not to sweep it under the rug, and to talk about itand thats what were doing. And thats one of the reasons that book is on the list.

Winning wars requires unit cohesion and a common mission. It seems that Gen. Milley, Adm. Gilday, and the Pentagons civilian leadership are determined to compromise unit cohesion at the time when threats from Russia and China are increasing and that cohesion is needed the most. If they examined the social science, they would realize their activities only cause harm.

John Rossomando is a senior analyst for defense policy at the Center for Security Policy and served as senior analyst for counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty gives an update on the COVID-19 pandemic during a virtual press conference inside the Downing Street Briefing Room in central London on May 14, 2021. (Matt Dunham/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Man Apologises for Manhandling UKs Chief Medical Adviser

One of the men criticised for apparently accosting the UKs chief medical adviser Chris Whitty has apologised, claiming that the social media video of the incident has cost him his job.

To be honest I just wanted a selfie with Chris Whitty to show my mum, Lewis Hughes told The Sun newspaper. There was no malicious intent, I didnt want to upset him.

Whitty became a household name during the early period of the pandemic when he regularly appeared alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson giving televised briefings and fielding questions on the scientific advice behind the UK governments pandemic response.

Footage from June 27 in St. Jamess Park, London, shows two men jeering as they grab hold of Whitty, who appears to struggle to free himself.

At one point one of them can be heard saying, One photo please?

The police said that they had recorded the incident as common assault, but that Whitty did not want to make a formal complaint.

Hughes said that he had lost his job as an estate agent after the video went viral and prompted widespread criticism, including from the prime minister, who called the two men thugs.

His former employer has yet to respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

Hughes admitted to having a drink before the incident.

If I made [Whitty] feel uncomfortable, which it does look like I did, then I am sorry to him for that, he said.

Still taken from video appearing to show professor Chris Whitty, Englands chief medical officer, being harassed by two men in a park in London.

But his friend Jonathon Chew, who was also in the video, was less repentant, according to The Sun.

I dont think we did anything wrong, we just saw him, and thought thats the guy from the TV, said Chew, who has autism and ADHD. Hes been on our screens every day for the last year, hes famous.

According to The Sun, the duo had been attending an anti-lockdown protest in central London when they spotted Whitty in the park.

Personal security expert Will Geddes said that in his experience of protecting public figures, the advent of smartphones and social media has fuelled the growth of such incidents.

Weve seen a real amplification of those that are wanting to achieve, obviously, notoriety or fame or recognition or exposure by posting certain content on their social media, he told The Epoch Times. Now, inevitably, you see those that are upping the ante every single time to get even more controversial postings or video footage, he said.

It is the third time that footage of Whitty apparently being harassed has surfaced on social media, prompting questions over whether he should be assigned personal protection.

Geddes said that he was astonished that Whitty, as such a public figure and also involved in controversial decisions, had not been assigned some kind of protection officer.

He said that in the security industry, they look at whether someone is in the public domain to assess risk, not whether their notoriety is by accident or by design.

Ive certainly protected many people who fall within the same category as professor Whitty, who have maybe embraced that initial role, feeling that they are contributing their experience, their expertise, to the better good of everybody around them, he said.

But inevitably there are always two sides to every opinion. There will be those that will support it, and those that will be opposed to it. And then there will be those, inevitably, there are the farthest reaches of opposition that actually take exception to it.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police previously told the Epoch Times via email, We are aware of a video being shared online showing an incident that took place in St Jamess Park at around 19:20 on the evening of Sunday 27 June.

Officers were in the vicinity policing a nearby demonstration and intervened when they saw what was happening.

They spoke to the victim and checked his welfare. He had not suffered any injuries and informed officers that at that time he did not wish to make any allegations. He then went on his way.

Officers continued to speak to the two men and recorded their details. They were robustly warned about their behaviour and ordered to leave the area.

Police remain in contact with the alleged victim. The incident has been recorded as a common assault and continues to be investigated by the Mets Public Order crime team.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C), standing with former leader Hu Jintao, attends the celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on July 1, 2021. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Xi Jinping Warns Foreign Powers Will Get Their Heads Bashed If They Confront Beijing

In a speech marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)s founding, its leader Xi Jinping said that foreign forces would get their heads bashed if they attempted to bully China. He added that the regime would smash any attempts from self-ruled Taiwan to claim formal independence.

In his hour-long address from Beijings Tiananmen Square, Xi vowed to bind the CCP to all Chinese people, pledged to strengthen Chinas military, and sang high praises of Marxism.

In the over 80-degree temperature outside, Xi was the only one who wore Mao Zedong-style grey tunic suit, while all the other male CCP leaders dressed in black suits with ties.

During Xis speech, the about 70,000 selected audience members who sat at the square all applauded at the same time, at the same speed, and without enthusiasm. After Xis speech, it rained, an unlucky omen in Chinese culture. During the whole process, the CCP senior leaders and the audience kept their poker faces, even while shaking hands.

Hu Jintao, the former CCP leader, and Wen Jiabao, the former premier, participated in the celebration, but their predecessors Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji didnt show up, which is unusual in the CCPs history.

The purpose of the CCPs celebration is just showing its force  which is hiding its weakness in both domestic and diplomatic affairs, Su Tzu-yun, director of the Defense Strategy and Resources Division of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times.

Su noted that the CCP regime is struggling economically, politically, with the Taiwan Strait issue, and in relations with other countries.

The CCP regime tried to transfer Chinese peoples focuses from their dissatisfactions on the regime to foreign affairs by [targeting the West and Taiwan], Su commented.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C), standing with former leader Hu Jintao, attends the celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China on July 1, 2021. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Xis Speech

Xi, the CCPs most powerful leader since the regimes founder Mao Zedong, addressed his speech in a communist tone, in which he claimed that he represented all CCP members and even all Chinese people, on Thursday.

The CCP is in solidarity with Chinese people, will live together and die together, Xi said. Any attempts to separate the CCP from Chinese people will absolutely fail. The over 95 million CCP members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to happen.

Then Xi spoke as a representative of all Chinese people.

Chinese people would never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us [the CCP and China]. Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against the Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people, Xi said.

Xi claimed that unifying Taiwan is the CCPs historical task. He then said: All sons and daughters of China, including compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must work together and move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any Taiwan independence plots.

Xi closed his address by wishing for the CCP to never be disintegrated.

Chinese women sing at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China on July 1, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Commentary

Commentators didnt express much concern about the threats Xi delivered, but all noticed that the facial expressions of Xi and other senior CCP leaders were dignified during the celebration.

They should be happy to celebrate the partys centennial  They were anxious and panicked, Su Tzu-yun said. Its a reflection of the difficult situation that CCP is facing.

The U.S.-based political commentator Chen Pokong commented in his independent media channel on July 1: Xi Jinping read his speech without any emotion on his face, which is like reading a condolence.

Talking about Xis threats, Su said he didnt worry that the Beijing regime would unify Taiwan by force in a short time, but still suggested: Taiwan should strengthen our self-defense forces.

Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Council stated on July 1 that the Taiwanese people rejected the CCPs one-sided principles, and the core values of Taiwanese society are democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. The council urged Beijing to follow Taipeis diplomatic suggestions, which are peace, reciprocity, democracy, and dialogue.

The Chinese regime claims the island as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.

Four members of Hong Kong League of Social Democrats are marching on streets to urge the Beijing regime to release all political prisoners in Hong Kong on July 1, 2021. (Song Bilong/The Epoch Times)

As the CCP celebrated its centennial, Hong Kong pro-democracy activists face increasing pressure of arrest and protested in the city. They urged the Beijing regime to release all the detained political prisoners and dissidents.

According to the U.S.-based organization Dui Hua Foundation, which is dedicated to collecting data on political prisoners in China, the CCP regime had detained 44,932 political prisoners as of March 31.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) holds a press conference about the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill in the Capitol in Washington on March 26, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

McCarthy Calls for Probe Into NSA After Tucker Carlson Spying Claim, Other Disturbing Events

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday called for a probe into the National Security Agency (NSA), citing a disturbing trend that includes allegations of spying on Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the sidelining of Trump-appointed Michael Ellis as the agencys general counsel.

McCarthy said in a June 30 statement that he has observed a pattern of action in recent months on the part of the agency that he finds disturbing.

Earlier this year, I sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Austin expressing concern over the politicization of the Agency through the sidelining of Michael Ellis as NSA General Counsel, McCarthy said, adding that he had requested that Ellis, who was first placed on administrative leave and later resigned, be reinstated to his post. The California Republican also reiterated his concern that Elliss sidelining was the result of undue political influence.

Ellis, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency, was put on administrative leave the day President Joe Biden took office. In an April 16 resignation letter to NSA director Gen. Paul Nakasone, published by The Washington Post, Ellis wrote that he had been sidelined for nearly three months without any explanation or updates, and there is no sign that NSA will attempt to solve the issue. I therefore resign my position, effective immediately.

McCarthy also accused the NSA of refusing to cooperate with the GOP.

It has recently come to my attention that NSA has refused to deliver information requested by the Republican Members on the House Intelligence Committee who are trying to fulfill their oversight responsibilities, McCarthy said in the statement.

He then noted recent allegations made by Tucker Carlson that the agency had spied on him.

Now, there is a public report that NSA read the emails of Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Although NSA publicly denied targeting Carlson, I have serious questions regarding this matter that must be answered, McCarthy said.

Given this disturbing trend, Ive asked HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] Ranking Member Devin Nunes to investigate and find answers on behalf of the American people. The NSA cannot be used as a political instrument, and House Republicans will ensure accountability and transparency, the California Republican wrote.

The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on McCarthys remarks, but the agency on Tuesday denied allegations made by Carlson that it had spied on him in an attempt to take this show off the air.

Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air, the NSA said in a statement on Twitter.

NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States, the agency added. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.

Carlson on Monday accused the agency of monitoring his electronic communications and accessing some of his personal emails, citing information from a whistleblower from within the U.S. government, although he did not present evidence to back his claims.

The whistleblower had repeated back to us information about a story we are working on that could have only come from my texts and emails, Carlson said.

Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, at the News Corporation building, in New York City, on March 13, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Responding to the NSAs statement Tuesday, Carlson on his show called it infuriatingly dishonest and an entire paragraph of lies written purely for the benefit of the intel communitys lackeys at CNN and MSNBC.

Last night on this show we made a very straightforward claim: NSA has read my private emails without my permission. Period. Tonights [NSA] statement does not deny that, Carlson said.

The Epoch Times earlier reached out to Fox News and the White House for comment.

Isabel Van Brugen contributed to this report.
Italian Army soldiers of the last Italian troops withdrawing from Afghanistan walk in the airport in Pisa, Italy, on June 29, 2021. (Italian Defense Ministry via AP)

Most European Troops Exit Afghanistan Quietly After 20 Years

BERLINMost European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the U.S.-led mission was officially expected to endpart of an anticlimactic close to the forever war that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war.

Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Polands last troops returned home, bringing their deployments to a low-key end nearly 20 years after the first Western soldiers were deployed there.

Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremonya stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the U.S. invasion to rid the country of al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

With the passing years, NATO and U.S. troops took on greater roles developing Afghanistans National Security and Defense Forces and training police. At the wars peak, the U.S. and NATO military numbers surpassed 150,000.

NATO agreed in April to withdraw its roughly 7,000 non-American forces from Afghanistan starting May 1.

NATO declined to give an update Wednesday on how many nations still have troops in its Resolute Support mission. But an analysis of 19 governments own announcements shows that more than 4,800 of the non-American forces have left.

The United States has refused to give troop figures, but when President Joe Biden announced the final pullout, between 2,500 and 3,500 troops were deployed. The United States has also refused to give a clear date for their final withdrawal.

As of February, a total of some 832,000 American troops had served in Afghanistan. About 25,100 Defense Department civilians had also served there.

Germany publicly announced the end of its nearly 20-year deployment in a statement and a series of tweets from the defense minister late Tuesday evening, shortly after the last plane carrying its troops had left Afghan airspace.

Three transport aircraft landed at the Wunstorf airbase in northern Germany on Wednesday afternoon. The troops, wearing masks, lined up on the tarmac for a brief ceremony, but the military dispensed with a bigger reception because of the coronavirus pandemic.

We have worked long and hard to stand here today, said Brig. Gen. Ansgar Meyer, the last commander of the German contingent. As your commander, I can say for you: Mission accomplished. You have fulfilled your task.

The German pullout came amid a spate of withdrawals by European nations. Polands last departing troops were greeted Wednesday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. Some 33,000 Polish troops have served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The last Italian troops from Italys base in Herat arrived at the military airport in Pisa late Tuesday. Italy officially declared its mission in Afghanistan over in a statement Wednesday, with Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini paying tribute to the 53 Italians who died and 723 who were injured over the past two decades.

Going forward, Guerini said Italys commitment to Afghanistan would remain strong but in other forms, beginning with the strengthening of development cooperation and support for Afghan institutions.

Georgias last troops returned home on Monday, while Romania brought home its remaining 140 troops on Saturday, when Norway also pulled out. Troops from Denmark, Estonia, and the Netherlands also returned home last week. Spain withdrew its last troops on May 13, Sweden on May 25, and Belgium on June 14. The small contingents deployed by Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Finland, Albania, North Macedonia, and Luxembourg have all left as well.

The pullout is nearing its end as security in Afghanistan worsens. Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have overrun district after district, including key ones along major transportation routes. Many have fallen after Afghan soldiers surrendered, often being convinced to leave their post by elders. But elsewhere there have been bitter military battles, with Afghan troops sometimes losing when their positions could not be resupplied.

The U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austen S. Miller, meanwhile, expressed concern about the resurrection of militias, which were deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces but have a brutal reputation for widespread killing.

A civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory its on right now, that should be of concern to the world, he said.

At a ceremony last week to mark the official end of the Dutch deployment, Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten underscored the uncertain outlook.

We see reports of the rise of the Taliban, growing violence, also in areas where we were stationed, she said. A lot has been achieved but we must be realistic: The results are not irreversible.

By Geir Moulson and Kathy Gannon
A doctor puts out syringes with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at La Colaborativa in Chelsea, Mass., on June 11, 2021. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Reduce Illness Severity in Breakthrough Cases: Study

A new study shows that people vaccinated with messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines who then contract COVID-19 are likely to have a lower viral load, milder symptoms, and a quicker recovery rate than their unvaccinated counterparts.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 30, tracked 3,975 individuals to examine the effectiveness of two mRNA vaccinesthe one by Moderna, and the one by Pfizer-BioNTech. Researchers sought to gauge the performance of the two-dose vaccines in preventing infection with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, and in reducing the impact of the illness on those who did become infected.

The findings, which were based on data from two ongoing studiesone led by University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers and the other by Abt Associatessaw just five fully vaccinated and 11 partially vaccinated individuals develop COVID-19 infections, compared to 156 individuals who were unvaccinated.

The researchers also found that study participants who were fully or partially vaccinated had a viral load that was 40 percent lower than that of unvaccinated individuals.

If you get vaccinated, about 90 percent of the time youre not going to get COVID-19, said Dr. Jeff Burgess, associate dean for research and professor at Arizona Universitys Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, in a statement. Even if you do get it, there will be less of the virus in you and your illness is likely to be much milder.

For people who were vaccinated, the risk of self-reported fevers was 58 percent lower, they spent 2.3 fewer days sick in bed, and the overall length of illness was six days shorter relative to those who were unvaccinated.

The study also found that the majority of infections in vaccinated individuals were detected for one week, compared to two or more weeks in the case of those who werent vaccinated.

Its heartening to see that vaccines operating in the real world can effectively prevent the vast majority of COVID-19 infectionsand, moreover, can moderate the impact of those breakthrough infections when they do occur, said Lauren Olsho, the Abt Associates principal investigator on the study, in a statement.

Overall, the study concluded that two doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were 91 percent effective against infection from the CCP virus, while a single dose was 81 percent effective.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed Modernas and Pfizer-BioNTechs mRNA COVID-19 vaccines safe and effective and authorized them for emergency use during the pandemic, the agency recently added a warning to information on these vaccines about the risk of developing heart inflammation.

Health officials have said that the risks of developing heart inflammation are outweighed by the vaccines benefits.

The risk of myocarditis and pericarditis appears to be very low given the number of vaccine doses that have been administered, Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said in a statement. The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination continue to outweigh the risks, given the risk of COVID-19 diseases and related, potentially severe, complications.

Dr. Robert Malone, who identifies himself as the inventor of mRNA vaccines, told The Epoch Times The Nation Speaks program in a June 26 interview that reports of heart inflammation among people who have been vaccinated with the mRNA vaccines shift the risk-benefit ratio, especially for those under 18 years of age who are at low risk of contracting COVID-19 and, if they do, are unlikely to experience severe complications.

Vaccines save lives. These vaccines have saved lives, Malone said. However, he noted that, when it comes to children, he doesnt believe the use of the vaccines outweighs the risks.

In a separate interview on Fox News, Malone said, I can say that the risk-benefit ratio for those 18 and below doesnt justify vaccines, and theres a pretty good chance that it doesnt justify vaccination in these very young adults.

One example of such risk is the story of a 13-year-old Ohio girl experiencing a severe reaction after receiving the second dose of an mRNA vaccine, which was presented at a press conference hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on June 28. Stephanie de Garay, the girls mother, described her daughters symptoms, including loss of feeling below the waist and inability to walk, fainting or seizing multiple times per day, and requiring a feeding tube after losing the ability to swallow food and liquids.

All these symptoms are still here today. Some days are worse than others, she said.

Meiling Lee contributed to this report.
The Chinese Communist Party flag behind razor wire at a housing compound in Yangisar, south of Kashgar, in China's western Xinjiang region, on June 4, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP) (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Negative Views of China Remain at Near Historic Highs, Pew Survey Shows

Negative views of China among the worlds most advanced economies hover at near-record highs amid concerns about Beijings human rights record, according to a recent survey conducted by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center.

A Pew report detailing the results of the survey of 17 advanced economies in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region released on June 30 shows that 15 majoritieseight in 10 respondentshold unfavorable views of China and believe the Chinese regime does not respect the personal freedoms of its people.

This sense is also at or near historic highs in nearly every place surveyed, having risen significantly in countries like Italy, South Korea, Greece, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom since 2018, the reports authors wrote.

Pew polled 18,850 adults in 17 advanced economies from Feb. 1 to May 26 and published its findings on June 30, a day before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) marked its 100th anniversary.

The economies surveyed included Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States.

The results indicate record highs in Canada, Germany, South Korea, and the United States. Roughly 76 percent of Americans said they have a negative outlook on China, according to the survey, an increase of three percentage points from last year.

Higher dissatisfaction with the worlds most populous country was seen in places such as Japan (88 percent), Sweden (80 percent), Australia (78 percent), and South Korea (77 percent). The only places that expressed favorable views toward China were Singapore and Greece, the report shows.

The survey results come as Beijing faces increasing scrutiny over its human rights practices, including its suppression of religious and ethnic minorities and the implementation of its draconian national security law on Hong Kong in July 2020, which has criminalized vaguely defined crimes such as subversion and secession with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

In Chinas northwestern region of Xinjiang, regime authorities have been accused of committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, including the detention of at least 1 million people in secretive political reeducation camps.

Former Uyghur detainees have told The Epoch Times that they were subject to torture, forced to denounce their faith, and forced to pledge loyalty to the CCP while held for unknown reasons in often overcrowded facilities.

Uyghursthe majority of whom are Sunni Muslimalongside other ethnic minorities such as Tibetans, as well as religious believers who remain outside state control, including house Christians and Falun Gong adherents, have long been targeted by the CCP for transformation through reeducation.

Pew also found that with the exception of Singapore and New Zealand, more than half of those surveyed in each place said it was more important to have strong economic ties with the United States than with China.

In the Asia-Pacific, majorities in all but Singapore said they had little or no confidence in leader Xi Jinpings handling of world affairs, with the most86 percentexpressing that view in Japan. In Singapore, 70 percent expressed confidence in Xi.

Despite the widespread sense that China does not respect the personal freedoms of its people, publics are somewhat divided over what the appropriate response should be, the reports authors wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.
New Tiny Home Community for the Homeless to Open in Los Angeles County After Independence Day

As Los Angeles officials grapple with a growing homeless population and lack of supportive housing units, a new tiny home community will make its debut after Independence Day in the San Fernando Valley to service the unhoused. The village will have 76 units and 10 showers, housing up to 150 people.

Los Angeles Councilmembers Kevin De Leon and Bob Blumenfield spent the night in the Tarzana Tiny Home Village on West Topham Street on June 28 to commemorate its opening. Members of the media, including The Epoch Times, spent the night as well to get an insider view of what guests will experience when they move in July 5.

I love that we had an opportunity to do this, this sleepover event, because this enables me to get a firsthand experience of what its actually like to sleep in the cabins and to go through an evening of what someone who is coming off the streets and living here would go through, Blumenfield told The Epoch Times.

Hope of the Valley, the nonprofit who oversees the tiny home communities, partnered with the City of Los Angeles to place multiple cabin communities across the county. Theres a total of four tiny home villages in the county. Each unit is 64 square feet and includes a bed, power outlets, air conditioning, heater, lights, and a lock on the door. Pets are also permitted.

The communities offer full wraparound services such as rehabilitation programs, job training and placement, three meals a day, washer and dryer, 24-hour security, and more. The home is meant to be a 90-day shelter while case managers try to connect them with permanent housing.

A tiny home village in Tarzana, Calif., on June 28, 2021. (Jamie Joseph/The Epoch Times)

The city realized that we cant just wait until permanent housing is built, we needed an interim solution. And so, the nice thing about a site like this is that its scalable, its affordable, it is doable, CEO and President of Hope of the Valley, Ken Craft, told The Epoch Times.

Grace Ancheta, one of the outreach workers at Hope of the Valley, told The Epoch Times a lot of people have the assumption that many of the people that come in are  addicted to drugs, but many times its also underlying issues.

We have domestic violence, we have trauma, PTSD, kids that get fostered out of the foster care system, once they turn 18, they lose benefits. We also have people that werent homeless in the past that due to the pandemic, now, you know, theyre out on the street, the elderly, the disabled, those that care for the disabled, she said.

No drugs, alcohol, or weapons are allowed on the premises, but residents have lockers outside the facility where they can store their belongings. They are not required to be sober to enter the facility.

According to the 2020 Los Angeles Homeless Authority and Services (LAHSA) count, there are more than 66,000 people experiencing homelessness in the county, a 12.7 percent increase from the previous year. And while many Measure HHH permanent supportive housing units are stuck in the project development pipeline, city leaders are being urged to direct some of those funds to lower-cost shelters in the interim.

This is a humanitarian crisis of biblical proportions unlike anything weve ever seen before or experienced, De Leon, whose district includes Skid Row, said during the Tarzana Tiny Homes press conference.

You cant even compare it to sleeping in a tent on cement concrete or asphalt in a park, in an alleyway on a street or even in your car. It is apples and oranges. Its a light year difference between living on the streets and having your own locked door, he said.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva was highly critical last week in a press conference with Venice Beach community members of the citys partnerships with various nonprofits, calling it a homeless industrial complex as he pointed out policy failures in Venice Beach. But Craft said in response, Nobody is getting rich.

Once you start addressing the real issue, and you start bringing in mental health services, substance abuse counseling, and detox and ongoing services, job training, job placement, case managers, housing, navigators, subsidies to really help people get into housing, and then you throw on just the operational costs with food services, and delivery of those food services, utility costs, it costs money, I wish it didnt, and I wish that all of our staff could just donate their time, he said.

But when you add it all up  honestly, these particular projects, we actually lose money on them, he said.

The price to install a tiny home is about $6500 each. However, when the total cost of site development, design, the sewer line, the shower units, the offices, the fencing, and so on is factored in, the total cost is roughly $24,000 per bed.

The construction for the tiny homes is 100 percent covered by the City of Los Angeles, according to Chief Financial Officer for Hope of the Valley, Rowan Vansleve. The operation of the site is 80 percent covered by LAHSA and the remaining 20 percent is covered by Hope of the Valley.

But not everyone approves of the tiny homes. Blumenfield, whose district includes Tarzana, received pushback from neighbors during the opening of a tiny home village he championed in Reseda. Some protested outside of his home. Given the close proximity, he said he spoke with community members in the Tarzana area.

I understand that people have spent their whole lives to live in a townhome or to live in a house and all of a sudden there is a cabin community going up very close to them, and theyre worried about their safety, and theyre worried about the impact on their property value, and theyre worried about change, he said.

We need to house people. But we also need to maintain our public rights of way, he said.

Blumenfield said he believes everyone has a right to a roof over their head, but they dont have a right to every park bench.

We need to have legitimate, appropriate shelter and homes, for everyone. It is it is a shame and unconscionable to have people living on our streets. But that doesnt mean that its okay to have an encampment, its okay to block the right of way, or that its okay to be living in the dugout where the little league needs to play. Thats not okay, he said.

During a city council meeting on June 29, a motion was brought forth by Councilmember Joe Buscaino to reinforce regulations on encampments during the day and distinguish where people are permitted to dwell in public space. The motion was shot down, but its up for a vote again on July 1.

Meanwhile, Venice Beach has become the center of a political battle between Councilmember Mike Bonin and Sheriff Villanueva, as both attempt to house every single person on the boardwalk by July 4. Bonin predicts it will take up to six weeks to accomplish the goal through a St. Joseph Center outreach team.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at a press conference in East Rockaway, N.Y., on April 22, 2021. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

New York Assembly Will Issue Subpoenas in Cuomo Impeachment Probe

The New York Assemblys Judiciary Committee will soon issue subpoenas as part of its impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a member of the committee said on Wednesday.

The announcement was made by state assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Democrat who chairs the bodys Judiciary Committee, who has been named as the head of the panel conducting the impeachment investigation.

At the end of a meeting in Albany, he said the committee will issue subpoenas to compel documents and sworn statements from witnesses to corroborate existing evidence.

The purpose of this process is to both gather substantive evidence, as well as to assess the credibility and corroborate information learned during interviews, Lavine said.

The Judiciary Committee since mid-March has been probing allegations against Cuomo of sexual misconduct. At least 10 women have separately came forward with to name the embattled governor.

Cuomo is also being probed over allegations that he directed staff to illegally withhold or mispresent information regarding the number of COVID-19 nursing home resident deaths, and whether he directed or had knowledge of executive personnel withholding information regarding safety concerns with bridges in the state.

Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, a Democrat, said the subpoenas will likely be issued to a whole wide range of categories of people.

This is the next step in the process, its a normal step. We all expected this was going to happen.

Cuomo has said the interactions detailed by the women who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against him may have been insensitive or too personal but denied inappropriately touching anybody or propositioning them. He has apologized for his conduct.

Cuomos office has also acknowledged withholding information on COVID-19 deaths from state legislators.

The governor has refused to resign, despite growing calls for him to do so, saying its up to voters to decide who governs the state.

Lavine didnt indicate on Wednesday when he expects the impeachment investigation will end.

Law firm Davis Polk, which was appointed by Speaker Carl Heastie to lead the probe, has collected more than 100,000 pages of records, he said, adding that the firm has reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents, including emails, text messages, photographs, personnel records, training materials, and policies.

A separate probe is taking place under the aegis of the states attorney general, Democrat Letitia James. Lawyers Joon Kim and Anne Clark are leading that investigation, which has no defined timeline.

President Joe Biden said in March that Cuomo should resign if an investigation confirms the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.

Cuomos office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
A general view of houses in Oriental Bay on April 9, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

New Zealand Returns Wellington to Alert Level 1 After Australian COVID-19 Outbreak

New Zealands cabinet has agreed to return the Wellington region to Alert Level 1 after the city was moved to Alert Level 2 when an Australian man travelled there from Sydney while potentially infectious with the Delta variant of the CCP virus.

NZ COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said in a press release there had been no cases detected in Wellington, with nearly 2,500 negative results from contacts of the Australian man.

There have been no cases of COVID-19 detected in the community, nearly 2,500 negative results from contacts of the case (including repeat negative results from the cases close contacts) and wastewater testing which continues to show no detection of the virus, Hipkins said.

Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins speaks to media during a post-cabinet press conference at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on June 28, 2021. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

However it is paramount that we stay vigilant. Testing centres will remain open in Wellington Central, Porirua, Kapiti Coast, Hutt Valley, and Wairarapa.

This comes as New Zealand announced that it will resume its Australia travel bubble with certain states, including South Australia, ACT, Tasmania, and Victoria, from midnight on Saturday, July 4.

Travellers will need a negative pre-departure test before they can fly to New Zealand, and they must not have been in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia on or after 10.30 p.m. on June 26. Nor should they have been in New South Wales on or after 11.59 p.m. on June 22 to be eligible to fly.

The pause on travel with these states will be reviewed on July 6.

New South Wales was viewed as the most risk by NZ officials, with Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory being a higher risk than NZ officials were comfortable with.

Cabinet carefully weighed up the evidence this morning, and we consider a partial lifting of the pause is a proportionate action when bolstered with the introduction of a mandatory pre-departure test and other health measures, Hipkins said.

Todays decision gives airlines, passengers, and Government officials time to prepare for flights back from those states we consider low risk when the pause lifts.

We know how important the bubble is, in particular for families and businesses. But we also want to avoid a situation where we are having to respond to a case here in New Zealand, he said.
News Crew Held Up by Armed Robbers While Interviewing Oaklands Chief of Violence Prevention

A television news crew in Oakland, California, was held up by armed robbers while interviewing the citys director of violence prevention on steps of the City Hall, just hours after the police chief warned of a surge in crime amid law enforcement budget cuts.

The incident took place on Monday afternoon, when two suspects approached an NBC Bay Area news crew in an attempt to snatch the camera of the cameraperson filming the interview, the Oakland Police Department said in a statement to East bay Times.

After a scuffle, an armed security officer pulled his firearm out, and directed the suspects to leave, according to the police. The suspects then immediately left the area without the camera and were still at large. No injuries were reported.

The police also confirmed that Guillermo Cespedes, head of the citys Department of Violence Prevention, was the person being interviewed by the newscasters, although he was not listed as one of the victims.

Just about bout three hours before the attempted robbery, Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong held a press conference discussing the impact of a newly approved city budget, which redirects nearly $18 million from the Police Department to the Department of Violence Prevention.

I am challenged today by the decisions that were made on Thursday around the budget for the city of Oakland, particularly for the police department, Armstrong said, adding that he has concerns about shifting resources away from the police force at a time when violent crime is on the rise.

We find ourselves in a crisis, he said. We find ourselves reeling from a weekend of violence where we have seen four homicides over a three-day period. It now has us currently at 65 homicides for the yearthats a 90 percent increase compared to last year.

Armstrong said he recently responded to a call from a shooting where a man was killed. He recalled walking through the neighborhood and a woman yelling from her window, Do something about it.

Without the resources, it makes it challenging to make Oakland safe, he said. When the yellow tape is gone and when the streets are cleaned up, there is still hurt and pain and tragedy in our community.

Armstrong spoke in the wake of the City Council passing a two-year budget that will reduce funding for police, and instead, use the money to fund violence prevention programs and social services.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D), whose own budget proposal would have increased funding for the police, warned that 50 police officer positions will be left vacant, and plans to built additional police recruit academies will have to be scrapped with the funding cuts.

Unfortunately, it also cuts 50 police officers who respond to Oaklanders 911 calls and enforce traffic safety. It also cuts much-needed future academies, which will significantly reduce police staffing and delay response to Oaklanders in their time of crisis, Schaaf said in a press release following the council vote. It will force our officers to work even more overtime shifts, which are expensive and unsafe for officers and residents alike.
PERTH, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 19: Passengers from Qantas flight QF583 are escorted to waiting Transperth buses by Police Officers after being processed following their arrival at Perth Airport from Sydney, before being driven to a CBD hotel for quarantining on October 19, 2020 in Perth, Australia. Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Overseas Arrivals May be Cut To Stop CCP Virus Outbreak in Australia

Australia has been warned it faces a pressure cooker moment as state premiers urge a dramatic reduction in international arrivals to stop coronavirus outbreaks.

Labor premiers in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia are calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to reduce passenger caps.

We are at a pressure cooker moment, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.

But Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews rejected calls to reduce caps, with the issue set to be high on the agenda at Fridays national cabinet meeting.

We need to learn to live and to work in the COVID environment in which we find ourselves, she told reporters on the Gold Coast.

The first response should not be to close down our borders.

Ms Andrews said weekly caps of about 1000 passengers entering Queensland and 3000 coming to NSW were not large.

Outbreaks of the contagious Delta variant have plunged more than 12 million Australians into lockdown.

Ms Palaszczuk argues lower caps, ensuring arrivals are fully vaccinated and putting quarantine centres in regional areas will reduce the need to shut cities down.

She told the ABCs 7.30 Report she would put a case for a massive reduction in caps by 50 per cent or 75 per cent when the national cabinet meets on Friday.

We need to do this now because we need to contain this Delta strain.

WA Premier Mark McGowan believes the vast majority of people granted exemptions to travel overseas for work and study should not have been allowed to leave.

They should stay home while there is a pandemic running wild around the world, he told reporters in Perth.

He called for a tougher approach to granting permission to leave, with people inevitably wanting to return to Australia.

Ms Andrews disputed suggestions that half the people entering the country were not Australians.

Official border force figures show 80 per cent are citizens, permanent residents or immediate family members.

Between March 25 last year and May 31 this year,156,507 Australian citizens and permanent residents were granted exemptions to leave Australia, with 84,031 requests denied.

NSW Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian said arrival caps were for the federal government to decide.

New South Wales will always do our fair share as we have done. We do it without complaint, she told reporters in Sydney.

Ms Berejiklian said about half of the people coming through Sydney ended up in other states.

Im interested that other premiers are complaining about what they have to do, but its far less to what New South Wales is doing.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley questioned whether the lesser evil was having millions in lockdown or scaling back quarantine while the federal vaccine rollout improved.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said further limiting international arrivals would ignore critical skill shortages.

This would take us in precisely the wrong direction, he said.

The major employer group is suggesting home quarantine with strict conditions and additional capacity as ways to bring in more workers.
Preemie Born Weighing Less Than a Bag of Sugar Meets Medics Who Saved His Life

The family of a baby boy who survived a dramatic premature birth had an emotional reunion with the three paramedics who saved his life more than a year ago.

Mom Gemma Maxwell of Glasgow in Scotland, who organized the reunion, was moved to tears upon meeting the medics who saved her now-15-month-old baby, Finlay. Thanks to their timely response, the toddler is a happy, healthy baby who now weighs 22 pounds (10 kg), 10 times the 1 pound 13 ounces (822 grams) he weighed at birth.

All I have thought for the last 15 months is, What do you say to the people who have saved your babys life?' Gemma, 29, told BBC News. I think we absolutely had to do this so I could process that morning and say, thank you. It was healing.

Finlay meets the paramedics who saved his life. (Courtesy of Gemma Maxwell)

It was just five days before the United Kingdom lockdown in March 2020 when Gemma, who was 26 weeks pregnant, went into labor unexpectedly. She had felt unwell the evening prior to her birth and asked her mother to spend the night with her.

In the morning I felt a rush of really bad pain, my waters broke, and we called an ambulance, she recalled.

Gemmas mother, with guidance from paramedics over the phone, helped deliver her grandsonwho weighed less than a bag of sugarin the living room. About 30 seconds later, paramedics arrived.

Response paramedic Sheila Parr, who arrived at the same time as ambulance paramedics Harry Trodden and Nikki Wilson, saw Gemma on the floor against the sofa with a blue and floppy baby in her arms, and the newborn wasnt crying.

Baby Finlay was born weighing less than a bag of sugar. (Courtesy of Scottish Ambulance Service)

Trodden immediately leaped into action, cutting the cord and making sure Gemma was stable, then running to the ambulance to start CPR on the premature baby, who was barely breathing on his own.

The heart was barely beating, and it was a long eight minutes to the hospital, Trodden said.

Due to Finlays size, Trodden had to administer CPR using just two fingers so as to not damage his underdeveloped lungs. Even the smallest oxygen mask was too big for the tiny baby.

Wilson, who was driving, had only returned to work two months prior after having had her own baby. She admitted that her heart was in her mouth, but upon reaching the hospital, Finlay started to pink up, said Trodden.

A week later, Wilson found out that Finlay was doing well in the NICU. He was discharged after spending 11 weeks in the hospital.

Finlays father, 30-year-old Niall Mackenzie, admitted he was on a different planet during the chaos of his sons premature birth. If it wasnt for the crew, he wouldnt have made it, he marveled, speaking to the Scottish Ambulance Service. They are all amazing.

Gemma still doesnt remember much about the day her son was born. However, she was able to put pieces together upon reuniting with Parr, Trodden, and Wilson.

Now that things are getting back to normal now, we were able to track them down, Gemma told Glasgow Live. I think they needed it too, as they said they often dont get to hear the other side after finishing a job, and with someone born at 26 weeks its not always the best outcome.

The paramedics arrived at the June 15 reunion at the Glasgow East Ambulance Station bearing gifts for Finlayincluding a model ambulance and paramedics helmetdelighted to meet the thriving toddler for the second time.

Parr told the BBC she felt empowered by the experience. I have been a paramedic for 20 years and this is one of the most memorable cases, she reflected.

Finlay, said Gemma, is doing amazingly despite his rocky start in life. She hopes that sharing their story will help other parents going through a similar experience realize theyre not alone.

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
People thought to be migrants are brought into Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel on July 1, 2021. (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Record Numbers of Migrants Cross English Channel in Small Boats

Record numbers of people are running the gauntlet of the English Channel in small boats and rubber dinghies, with nearly 6,000 breaking immigration law to reach the UK in the past six months.

The uptick comes despite Home Secretary Priti Patels vows to make crossing what is one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes unviable for the smugglers and immigrants.

According to the PA news agency, which has tracked and analysed crossings for the past 18 months, more than 5,900 people have succeeded in reaching the UK aboard small boats so far in 2021.

A total of 8,417 made the journey in the whole of 2020four times the number for 2019.

In 2018, just 299 people made the crossing, according to Home Office figures.

A Home Office spokesperson said, These crossings are completely unacceptable and we have redoubled efforts with French authorities by increasing beach patrols, intelligence sharing, and investment in surveillance as we enter the summer months.

As a result we have now seen over 5,000 people prevented by the French from making the dangerous crossing so far this year.

As organised criminal gangs adapt their approach, so will we. But to truly close this lethal route we must fix the broken system through our New Plan for Immigration, which will be firm on those who abuse the system and fair on those in genuine need of protection.

Some charities have criticised the Government over the figures.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: The Governments obsession with trying to build Fortress Britain has created a people smugglers dream.

And their planned refugee Bill looks set to be an unworkable, unlawful and expensive disaster that will do nothing to stop refugees risking their lives on the Channel.

Several people have died attempting the busy 21-mile crossing in recent years.

In October, a Kurdish-Iranian family including small children died when their migrant boat sank off the French coast.

Channel crossings make up only a small proportion of illegal immigration to the UK. The vast majority of illegal immigrants in the UK are those who have overstayed visas, failed to receive asylum, or have obtained visas illegally.

The latest figures on channel crossings come amid reports that the home office may introduce controversial legislation to enable asylum seekers to be sent to processing centres abroad.

There is little precise information on levels of what might be categorized as illegal immigration into the UK, not least because the definition of illegal immigration is also hard to pin down and is subject to different interpretations and uses.

A report by the London School of Economics in 2007 (pdf) estimated the number of irregular migrants was 533,000a little under one percent of the population.

PA contributed to this report
A view of the Confucius Institute building on the Troy University campus in Troy, Ala., on March 16, 2018. (Kreeder13 via Wikimedia Commons)

Resolving the Global Threat to Learning Authentic Chinese

Chinese is the second most common language in the world. But if you are planning to enroll in one of the hundreds of Confucius Institutes around the globe that teach this language, realize the curriculum is censored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Not only will you be deprived of the freedom to discuss certain topics, but the CCP also seeks to ensure that you are brainwashed to think and speak on only the topics they allow.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Gregory Laslo, an American language student described the differences he experienced when studying Chinese in Taiwan versus in mainland China. He said:

In Taiwan, Ive never run into any freedom of speech problem. In China, I didnt attend class as much. But I did feel a sort of pressure to not speak about certain things. People on the street would ask me about sensitive topics sometimes. But I tried to avoid them because I was a little afraid of my own safety there.

And this kind of restraint and monitored academic environment is not only happening in China. One student who holds dual citizenship with Germany and Switzerland said: Almost every Chinese language program in universities around the world is sponsored by the CCPs Confucius Institutes. These institutions brainwash foreigners.

Gregory Laslo, an American, chose to come to Taiwan to learn Chinese. (Wei-Yin Liao/Epoch Times)

Traditional Chinese Characters vs. Simplified Characters

In another interview with The Epoch Times, a student from Germany said: The Confucius Institute controls the Chinese education system inside Germany. I live in Frankfurt and cannot learn the traditional Chinese characters. Compared with other countries, Taiwan is still very traditional and has many good traditional cultures.

Thomas Kalmund from Germany said that Taiwan has a lot of good traditional culture to learn from. (Weiyin Liao / Epoch Times)

Traditional Chinese characters retain the complete form, sound, and meaning of the characters. Learners can use this to fully understand the essence of the characters, and they can also draw inferences between characters. This is not the case with simplified characters used in China.

Axiu, a student from Malawi expanded on this idea. Simplified Chinese removes the heart from the word Love and makes it meaningless. This is unfortunate since traditional Chinese characters are interesting. Every word has a story. Learning traditional Chinese characters is not only learning Chinese characters but also learning culture and history.

Russians Make Simplified Chinese Characters Mandatory

Meeting in Vladivostok in September 1931, representatives of the CCP and the Soviet Union drafted the New Latinized Characters of Northern Dialect. They issued this announcement: The hieroglyphics should be completely abolished and replaced with the pure pinyin Text.

Then in 1950, Stalin issued an order to simplify Chinese characters in several steps, and eventually replace them with Latin alphabetization. It was not until the death of Stalin in 1953 that this practice stopped.

Thus, the use of simplified characters in mainland China was ordered by the Russians and monitored by their sinologists.

The goal of this transition was not to simplify the Chinese language. Instead, it was to expand the communist philosophy by exerting control over the people.

Chinese traditional culture is a divine culture that was developed by deities and humans together. Chinese characters were created in Yellow Emperors era approximately 5,000 years ago. People today can still read a traditional book written by the Yellow Emperor and establish a connection with the Creator and understand His teaching and the way of heaven.

The Communist Party was and still is acutely aware of how traditional Chinese culture stands in stark contrast to Communist ideology. For Communism to thrive, Communist Party leaders tried to destroy all remnants of the traditional Chinese language and culture.

Confucius Institutes Are a Red Infiltration Wrapped in Cultural Sugar Coating

The Confucius Institute program began in 2004. As of 2020, 541 Confucius Institutes and 1,170 Confucius Classrooms had been established in 162 countries (regions). In the USA alone there were 113 Institutes in 2015, but this number is now rapidly shrinking.

In 2020, the U.S. State Department declared that the Confucius Institute program was a foreign mission of China and a threat to democracy.

According to statistics of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), the United States has closed or in the process of closing 84 Confucius Institutes as of May 2021.

The number of Confucius Institute closures in the past seven years. Data source: National Association of Scholars (Infographic by The Epoch Times)

Confucius Institutes are funded and supervised by the Chinese Ministry of Education-affiliated State Hanban, now referred to as the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. A former senior CCP official admitted that the Confucius Institutes are an important part of Chinas overseas propaganda set-up. CCP head Xi Jinping said in 2014 that its intentions are to give a good Chinese narrative.

A China Post article reported in 2014 that Certainly, China would have made little headway if it had named these Mao Institutes, or even Deng Xiaoping Institutes. But by borrowing the name Confucius, it created a brand that was instantly recognized as a symbol of Chinese culture, radically different from the image of the Communist Party. 

The Confucius Institutes operate within established universities, colleges, and secondary schools around the world, providing funding, teachers, and educational materials. Partners must sign a contract to declare their support of Beijings One China policy. Hence, topics relating to individual freedoms, human rights, democracy, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang all become taboo. The CCP spends approximately $10 billion each year to exercise these subversive initiatives. The CCP has been secretly parlaying the soft power provided by the Confucius Institutes into a sharp power to advance their communist agenda. By rewriting Chinese history in textbooks and other learning resources, the CCP has managed to gain the ability to brainwash the minds and hearts of people around the world.

But there still is hope.

Taiwanese Learning Systems Preserve the Traditional Chinese Culture

Taiwan is a free and democratic society that is seeking to preserve traditional Chinese orthography and culture. Its non-censorship model of positive learning offers a better educational partnership.

Anisa, another U.S. student interviewed by The Epoch Times spoke favorably about the advantages of learning Chinese from Taiwanese teachers. The way things are taught here reminds me of education in the United States. Its free, open, and honest.

Camila from Guatemala said she never spoke Chinese until after her arrival in Taiwan. A friendly, democratic, and free life is the most valuable asset of Taiwans Chinese language education, she said.

In October 2020, the U.S. Government announced the National Security Language Initiative that placed emphasis on safely studying the Chinese language outside of China. This evolved to the establishment of the Taiwan-U.S. Education Initiative which makes it possible for students from the United States and other countries to finally gain an appreciation of and empathy for authentic Chinese history and culture.

Simultaneously, the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) is actively developing programs to utilize overseas resources and new technologies. This includes establishing the Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning that is integrated with compatriot schools in Europe and the United States.

At present Taiwan has over a thousand registered overseas compatriot schools in 50 countries. According to Brent Christensen, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), this initiative will enable students to avoid undue scrutiny, fear, and coercion while learning the Chinese language.
Chinese women stand in front of a large Communist Party logo at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on July 1, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Very Bloody Legacy: Scholar Spotlights Scars Left by Communist Rule in China

While the Communist Party was commemorating the 100th birthday of its inception in Beijing on July 1, a U.S. scholar highlighted the historical scars left by its rule.

The communist party is an accident of history, said Minxin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, accusing the regime of leaving Chinese society a very bloody legacy.

Pei was one of the four guest speakers at The Chinese Communist Party At 100: Is The Past Prologue To The Future, a 90-minute panel discussion hosted online by the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy.

If you look at the number of people killed in the campaign to suppress counter-revolutionariesthe number is approaching 10 million, he said, referring to the ideological projects of Land Reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution the Communist Party carried out during its rule.

Over 300,000 people on average, died annually due to disastrous policies in peacetime under the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedongs governance, according to Pei.

It is probably the most consequential political regime in Chinese history, he said.

During the orchestrated events on Tiananmen Square on Thursday morning, regime leader Xi Jinping said, At the same time, the Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us.

The party is its own worst enemy. When you look at what has actually destroyed the party, its not some outside forces. Its all the party itself, said Pei.

Founded in July 1921, the Chinese Communist Party has been in national power since 1949. The number of Party members topped 95 million, according to the latest official data.

Pei doubted the figure indicates party allegiance, as the Chinese officials are Liang Mian Ren, (a Chinese term meaning two-faced people) driven to join by material benefits or out of fear, he added.

The party does not know how many of its own  party members are actually loyal. And the party probably doesnt want to find that, he said.

A popular communist propaganda song was sung during the anniversary celebration, named Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China.

When the Party says the Chinese people or history picked [the] Communist Party, I think the Chinese people certainly did not have a say in this, said Pei.

The panel also discussed trade wars with the United States and Australia, Beijings cover-up of the CCP virus pandemic, and suppression in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.
Workers walk out of Smithfield Foods pork plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 16, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Smithfield Foods to Pay $83 Million to Settle Pork Price-Fixing Claims

Smithfield Foods Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $83 million to settle litigation that accused several companies of conspiring to limit supply in the $20 billion-a-year U.S. pork market to inflate prices and their own profits.

The settlement with Smithfield resolves antitrust claims by direct purchasers such as Maplevale Farms that accused the nations largest pork companies of having fixed prices beginning in 2009.

Smithfields settlement requires approval by Chief Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Keira Lombardo, Smithfields chief administrative officer, said the settlement eliminates a substantial portion of the Smithfield, Virginia-based companys exposure in the litigation.

She also said Smithfield denied liability in agreeing to settle, and believed its conduct was always lawful.

Smithfields parent WH Group Ltd says it is the worlds largest pork producer.

Clifford Pearson, a lawyer for the direct purchasers, declined to comment.

Hormel Foods Corp, the JBS USA unit of Brazils JBS SA, Tyson Foods Inc and data provider Agri Stats Inc are among the other defendants in the litigation.

Smithfield and those companies are also defendants in related pricefixing litigation in Minneapolis by commercial and other indirect pork purchasers, such as restaurants and delis.

The litigation is similar to litigation in federal court in Chicago where purchasers accused companies such as Tyson, Perdue Farms Inc and JBS majority-owned Pilgrims Pride Corp of conspiring to fix broiler chicken prices.

The case is In re Pork Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, No. 18-01776.

By Jonathan Stempel
Some Arizona Republicans Vote Down GOP Election Integrity Bill

Two Arizona Republican state senators traded accusations on June 30 over the partisan defeat of an election integrity bill that sought tighter security restrictions in future elections.

Kelly Townsend (R) criticized Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R), the chairwoman of the Arizona Senate Government Committee, after she voted with Democrats to kill the bill that Townsend had sponsored, ostensibly because Townsend didnt go through a round with a committee before presenting the bill for a hearing.

Townsend said in a Twitter post on Tuesday, Michelle Ugenti-Rita, candidate for AZ Secretary of State, just killed my bill, SB1241, which had over 34 serious election integrity and security provisions, because she was mad that I didnt get her permission to run them.

Townsend further commented of Ugenti-Ritas actions on the Senate floor, saying, I was told it was because I went around the chair and her committee. That is no reason to kill a bill. That is no reason to vote no on good election integrity.

The bill was defeated in a 16-13 roll call vote. Paul Boyer (R) also voted no, as did Townsend, since the bill lacked sufficient votes to pass but can be brought back for reconsideration.

I will vote no to reconsider this bill, Townsend said, and I want everyone to think long and hard about what just happened.

The bill which passed in the state House, included several new provisions introduced by Townsend to address concerns about fairness and transparency in chain-of-custody and voting equipment use requirements.

Ugenti-Rita reportedly offered to support the bill only if Townsends additions were removed in a conference committee.

Since the 2020 general election, some Republican lawmakers in Arizona have floated a slew of election integrity bills seeking to restore trust for all voters in the states election processes and to make sure every legal vote counts. Republicans who support the legislation believe that new election rules can prevent voter fraud and prevent costly legal action from election disputes.

Townsends bill required, among other things, that an electronic voting system provide a paper receipt to early and provisional voters at the time that their ballot is received for counting. The receipt would state whether the voters ballot was tabulated or rejected, and the reason for the rejection.

If this bill goes down, the 2022 primary election will have the same rules when it comes to chain of custody as it had in the 2020 general election because of pride, because of nonfeasance, because the chairwoman [Ugenti-Rita] didnt like that I went around her to add the new provisions, Townsend said.

This chairwoman is denying the people of Arizona confidence in election security. Thats unacceptable, she added.

The two lawmakers clashed over other key election-related legislation early this year, with Ugenti-Rita accusing Townsend of having a personal vendetta against her, as Townsend pushed her stated motivation to ensure transparent and trusted elections.

She has a vendetta against me since I got the chair of the Government Committee, Ugenti-Rita told The Epoch Times on Wednesday. She just cannot handle it in a professional way and its really driven a lot of her anger toward me. Its unprofessional.

It is very personal, she added. Its not personal from my end.

Ugenti-Rita said her goal is to address the findings of the ongoing Maricopa County audit as a united party caucus and come up with meaningful, specific, well-written fixes, championing together as a team.

What she does is make YouTube videos of me completely ignoring the facts. Its about her, and not about the process. Shes killed many of my election bills, Ugenti-Rita said. I am not going to support doing something hastily and [not] have the support of the caucus. We have an opportunity to do it the right way and we have one chance.
A grandmother carries her laughing grand-daugher outside the tourist mecca of Yangshou, in southern Chinas Guangxi Province on Oct. 1, 2003. (Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images)

The CCPs Ten Major Shams

Commentary

Communist is synonymous with liar and the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the prime collective of liars and lies. This article will recount ten major incidents that lay bare the historical truth behind the CCPs shams.

The May Fourth Movement

The CCP has long touted the May Fourth Movement in 1919. The movement paved the way for its tyranny.

Hu Shih, a contemporary scholar and educator, regarded the movement as the Chinese Renaissance that could enlighten the Chinese to adopt the Western notion of democracy. But Chen Duxiu, the founder of the CCP, turned cultural enlightenment into a political movement, preaching Soviet Russian communism under the guise of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism.

Hu Shih, to oppose the Soviet-Russian path, proposed a theory of more study of problems, less talk of Isms. Yet, the CCP was founded two years after the movement and Chen became CCPs first General Secretary.

The April 12 Incident

The CCP claimed, In 1927, Chiang Kaishek (chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) and President of the Republic of China (ROC)), staged a coup purging numerous communists. Chiang was denounced by the CCP for holding back historical progress.

In fact, Chiang Kaishek knew of the CCPs violence and its attempt to establish tyranny.

The KMT Central Committee was heavily infiltrated, and a large number of CCP members accounted for a majority of KMT members. While the CCPs armed forces were causing widespread red terror and violence in Shanghai and many other places, Chiang Kaishek acted decisively to crack down on the communist bandits, preventing the CCPs early seizure of power.

This file photo dated 16 June 1924 shows Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China, sitting on a chair at the Whampoa Military Academy. Standing behind him is Chiang Kai-shek, then president of the academy. (AFP via Getty Images)

The April 12 Coup, as the CCP called it, was actually an anti-communist revolutionChiang Kaisheks historical achievement. The purge brought stability to Chinas social order, and China was able to escape being a victim of Soviet Russia at that time.

The Xian Incident

In 1991, the 90-year old Zhang Xueliang (1901-2001), the warlord of Manchuria, left Taiwan for the United States for the first time.

We had a 3-hour talk in his New York residence along with other fellow villagers from Northeast China. He made it clear that abandoning three Northeastern provinces of China to the invading Japanese troops during the September 18 Incident of 1931 (also known as the Mukden Incident) was not approved by Chiang Kaishek but was his own decision.

However, Zhang dared not to disclose the truth about the 1936 Xian Incident: He abducted Chiang Kaishek for his personal quest for power, establishing a Northwest coalition government headed by himself with support from Mao Zedong, chairman of the CCP, Zhou Enlai, vice chairman of the CCP, and Yang Hucheng, a warlord in Northwest China, under the guise of resisting Japan.

Stalin was concerned that without Chiang Kaishek, China would split and trigger a civil war, which would give the Japanese a chance to attack the Soviet Union. He demanded Mao and Zhou, who needed Stalins support against the KMT, release Chiang.

Three adverse consequences ensued from the Xian Incident: First, the crackdown on the Communist Party haltedthe red army not only survived but was incorporated into the National Government system with military allowances; second, the Xian Incident prompted the Japanese to bring forward the full-scale invasion of China, exacerbating the difficulty for China to counter the invasion because of a lack of adequate preparations; third, the incident allowed the CCP to gain strength and eventually seize power from KMT.

The CCP would have been nipped in the bud if there had been no Xian Incident, which, however, was manipulated by Zhang Xueliang to change the course of Chinese history.

The Civil War Between KMT and CCP

It was clearly a war to counter the CCPs violent seizure of power.

Back then, Chiang Kaishek was the highest leader of the National Government with the CCPs Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army under the National Governments Army. Therefore, it was in fact a subordinate rebellion to seize power.

The so-called China hands of the U.S. government suggested the KMT and the CCP establish a coalition government like the two parties in the United States, which restrained Chiang Kaisheks anti-communist efforts. While Stalin, by contrast, fully supported the CCP with armaments so that the CCP could fight all the way from Northeast China to Hainan Island.

The external factor that led to the success of the CCPs seizure of power was the United States not fully supporting Chiang and Soviet Russias support of the CCP.

The Agricultural Production Cooperatives Campaign

The CCPs Agricultural Production Cooperatives Campaign launched shortly after its inception, was a sham.

The CCP, in order to have a constant source of troops to defeat the KMT, provided land to the peasants in exchange for their children to join its army under the banner of an attack on the despotic landowners and the distribution of their land to the poor peasants.

After defeating the KMT, the CCP immediately nationalized the land with the Agricultural Production Cooperatives Campaign, turning the land into the CCPs property.

The Anti-Rightist Movement

The Anti-Rightist Movement in 1956 was the suppression of free speech.

According to the CCP figures, 552,973 people were persecuted and labeled as Rightists. It was reported that only 100,000 of those persecuted survived the CCPs rehabilitation of the branded Rightists. In 1958, there was an act of correcting the mistakes of the 1956 movement, and of the 552,973 persecuted, all were removed off the Rightist list except for 96 people. That means if indeed 96 were the so-called Rightists, the majority of those persecuted were innocent.

Frankly speaking, it is not an issue of the scale of the movement, but the brutalities of the CCP to stifle thoughts and suppress freedom of speech.

Chinese people parade during the great proletarian Cultural Revolution in the late 60s in the streets of Beijing. (AFP via Getty Images)

The Great Famine in the 1960s

The Great Famine was a sham falsely labeled as a natural disaster by the CCP.

Amid the twelve months that saw the worst famine with the highest number of people dying of starvation since the 1961 Great Famine, records from Chinas Ministry of Food showed that there were still 44.4 billion pounds of crops in stock, which equaled to annual food rations for 140 million people at the time.

A great number of people would not have starved to death if the CCP had used the most common famine relief measure in Chinese historydistributing the stored cropseven if it was half of the stock.

However, Mao Zedong believed that the peasants were deceived by enemies of the people and refused to submit their crops.

He did not distribute the crops, instead, he searched for more and prevented the peasants from escaping the famine, using atrocious means. As many as 2.7 million people were shot and tortured to death. In Xinyang, Henan province alone, 67,000 people were killed by bricks.

According to research by foreign scholars, back then, as many as 45 million people in China starved to death and the same figure was calculated by the CCP scholars from the birth and death rate of the population. This is the worst mass massacre caused by the CCPs policies.

Liu Shaoqi, then-chairman of the CCP, claimed that 30 percent of the Great Famine was caused by natural disasters, and 70 percent of it was man-made.

In fact, the Great Famine was a 100 percent man-made catastrophe.

The Cultural Revolution

This is a man-made catastrophe was instigated by Mao, involving issues of thought, culture, and life.

According to official Chinese reports, over 2 million people were killed, over 7.03 million were maimed, and 71,200 families were destroyed amidst the Cultural Revolution.

Former CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang said to a foreign reporter, At that time, nearly one hundred million people were implicated, which was one-tenth of the Chinese population.

However, the present CCP leader Xi Jinping has been propagating the Cultural Revolution in recent years, paving the way for himself to be a Maoist dictator.

The Tiananmen Square Massacre

CCP authorities have continued to re-classify the Tiananmen Square massacre, first calling it a counter-revolutionary riot, before downplaying it to a turmoil, then renaming it as an incident, and then a crisis, before now finally just calling it that thing.

The CCP has been keeping a low profile each time it redefined the massacre, indicating that it has been downplaying the massacre and cannot justify itself.

According to a secret British diplomatic cable, at least 10,000 people were killed by a Chinese army unit in the massacre.

The 30-plus years of censorship on the Tiananmen Square Massacre has brainwashed the Chinese into thinking that no such massacre occurred and now younger generations cast doubt about it.

Essentially, the CCPs brainwashing the Chinese amounts to crushing their spirit before killing them.

The Persecution of Falun Gong

When Qigong (a form of spiritual practice) emerged in China in the early 1990s, Falun Gong came into being and flourished rapidly. However, it was soon suppressed by the CCP for three main reasons.

First, the founder, Li Hongzhi, disagreed on establishing a party branch administered by the CCP within Falun Gong and thus annoyed the authorities; second, the traditional Chinese values including truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance practiced by Falun Gong adheres to theism and clashes with communist atheism; third, in April 1999, more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully petitioned at the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration (also known as Xinfang Bureau) in Beijing, sparking the CCPs fear of mass gatherings.

The CCP is intolerant to a large number of people assembling at official institutions.

The CCP launched a nationwide persecution campaign against Falun Gong and fabricated lies followed by harsh physical persecution.

According to estimates cited in the 2008 U.S. Department of State International Religious Freedom Report, more than half of Chinas reeducation-through-labor camp population is made up of Falun Gong adherents. Later reports (pdf) stated that there have been 63,000 cases of torture of Falun Gong adherents and, as of today, over 4,000 documented cases of Falun Gong adherents being tortured to death.

China has become the worlds largest country of organ transplants despite the increasing exposure by international media of the CCPs illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong adherents. The CCP is evil to the core.

Its manipulating the CCP virus to attack the globe, infecting over 181 million people and claiming 3.93 million lives. Many studies and evidence have pointed to the virus being leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, and it is likely a biological weapon developed by the CCPs army.

With 100 years of brutality the communists have brought to mankind, the world needs to learn through history to defeat the true cult of the universe.

Cao Changqing, a journalist and columnist, has long been a guest speaker in many Chinese language media such as FTV, Voice of America, NTD, Radio Free Asia, etc.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The Chinese Communist Party Has Destroyed the Best of China

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken strict precautions in its preparations to mark its 100th anniversary. Beijing is heavily guarded. Knife stores are required to ask for ID and report customers information to the police. Restaurants in restricted areas have been forced to close their doors. The CCP is arresting people going to Beijing and blocking any social media account that might not show enough self-censorship.

The CCP might look strong on the outside, but in reality, it is extremely nervous. Despite decades of tight control and brainwashing, the Chinese people are well aware that the communist system is against human nature and will not last long.

Since its takeover of China, the CCP has killed an estimated 80 million Chinese people. During its existence, it has never stopped its campaigns to purge different groups, every time picking a new group to target. Its primary targets have been those who represented the best of the Chinese people and their culture.

In the 1950s, the CCP took property from landowners, confiscated private businesses from business owners, and killed millions whom they called capitalists. Many of its victims were the most well educated and the most successful in Chinese societyoften those who imparted the best of Chinese culture, handed down to them through a long family history.

The Chinese people have a long tradition of being loyal to their family and their spouses. When CCP officials reached the cities, they divorced their wives and married city girls. The Chinese also had a long history of respecting and supporting those who lived in temples. But the CCP forced monks to marry.

All communist countries have experienced famine. Its an inevitable result of the communist system. In China, the Great Famine from 1958 to 1962 is estimated to have killed around 40 million people. In thousands of cases, people were driven to insanity and turned to cannibalism.

There is one such story that is widely known. A father and his two children, a boy and a girl, were the only ones left in their farmhouse. One day, the father drove his daughter out of the house. When the girl came back, her brother had disappeared. There was a layer of white foam floating in the wok, and a bone had been thrown by the stove. A few days later, the father added water to the wok and then asked his daughter to come over. The girl was so scared that she hid behind the door, crying and begging: Da, dont eat me. I will tend the grass and keep the fire for you. If you eat me, no one will work for you.

China has a history of 5,000 years of civilization. For most of that time, China was the envy of surrounding countries. The people were civilized and led stylish lives. Even kings from other countries chose to stay and even die in China. Communism, however, has brought famine, poverty, and an endless war against the Chinese people.

The Chinese have a tradition of being extremely respectful toward the elderly, showing respect to their parents, grandparents, and teachers. One day my teacher, life-long my father, as the old saying goeshe who teaches me for one day is my father for life.

However, in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution, teenagers were encouraged by communist officials to beat their parents and teachers. In Beijing alone, more than a thousand teachers were beaten to death by their students. As a young man, Bo Xilaithe future mayor of the super city Chongqing who would go on to visit the United States as a high-ranking officialstomped on his fathers chest, breaking several of his ribs. This kind of act was unheard of during 5,000 years of Chinese history.

The CCP used teenagers to search civilians homes and destroy antiques, artwork, and traditional objects they found, as well as public artwork, temples, and so onanything that could remind people of traditional Chinese culture.

The Chinese culture was always believed to be divinely inspired. But communist ideology is against humanity and against human nature. Anything that represents traditional culture and principles is an obstacle to enforcing its ideology.

After using teenagers to destroy traditional objects and overthrow political opponents, the CCP sent those same teenagers to the remote countryside to get educated. Doing so prevented a potential revolution and demands from them for employment. These young people faced many years of pain and hopelessness.

The CCP also shut down universities and sent intellectuals to the countryside to do farm work for reeducation. Many musicians had their hands ruined by hard labor. Countless writers, artists, professors, engineers, scientists, leading experts, and cultural elitesthe people who traditionally carry a countrys knowledge, skills, and cultural spiritcommitted suicide.

Worst of all, when the CCP came to power, it outlawed religion, dismissing it as an opium of the people. It uses atheism to destroy peoples belief in God, taking away peoples belief in moral standards.

The most severe religious persecution campaign by the CCP targets Falun Gong practitioners. In terms of the persecutions scale and severity, it is unprecedented, targeting 100 million practitioners of the spiritual discipline, as well as their families and friends. Falun Gong teaches traditional meditation, which has been a core part of Chinese tradition since ancient times, and the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

To carry out the persecutionwhich is now entering its 23rd yearCCP leader Jiang Zemin promoted anyone who supported this persecution, forcing people to oppose truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In promoting people who opposed goodness, the CCP placed those who were most capable of committing evil in the top positions in Chinese society.

The forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitionerswhereby healthy individuals are killed for their organs to be sold for profithas been supported and carried out by the military, police, courts, hospitals, and prison system. As a result, the entire country has become morally bankrupt.

Once the CCP began to profit from killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, it could not stop its business of killing for profit. It has continued this practice in Xinjiang Province.

The destruction of Chinese traditions, the damage to the moral standard, and the persecution of people of faith have been the biggest crimes of the CCP.

The Party has killed more people in China than the number who died in the two world wars combined. Beyond killing, it has made every effort to destroy the spirit, culture, and dignity of the Chinese people. Fully aware that its the enemy of the people, the CCP has always been in an existential crisis.

This is why when top CCP leaders speak at anniversary events, they always try to make a strong appeal, and appear like they represent the Chinese people. Actually, the CCP has taken the Chinese people hostage, for fear that they will rise up and overthrow it.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a border security briefing at the Texas DPS Weslaco Regional Office in Weslaco, Texas, on June 30, 2021. (Joel Martinez/Pool via The Monitor)

Trump Organization: Criminal Probe Against CFO Is Scorched Earth Attempt to Go After Trump

The Trump Organization has reacted to reports that its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, has surrendered to a Manhattan prosecutor and may face a grand jury indictment.

In a statement on July 1, the company described the criminal probe against Weisselberg and the company as a political witch hunt.

Allen Weisselberg is a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the Trump Organization for 48 years. He is now being used by the Manhattan district attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President, a Trump Organization spokesperson said in a statement. The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing.

This is not justice; this is politics.

Weisselbergs attorneys confirmed to news outlets that he surrendered on July 1.

The Trump Organization didnt respond to a request for comment by press time.

The charges come in the midst of a nearly three-year investigation by Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vances office into the Trump Organization, a real estate firm owned by former President Donald Trump and operated by his family members. The former commander-in-chief has described Vances probe as a partisan affair designed to politically wound him.

A lawyer for Trump earlier this week told Politico that Vances office informed him that Trump wont face charges in the case.

We asked, Is there anything else? Trump lawyer Ronald Fischetti told the political news website on June 28, referring to the conversation he had with Vances office. They said, No.

Its crazy that thats all they had. They just said, When this indictment comes down, [Trump] wont be charged. Our investigation is ongoing.

Last week, Fischetti said that a company shouldnt be indicted for allegedly not paying taxes on benefits.

Its outrageous. Its unprecedented. Its never happened before, Fischetti said, according to CNN.

In a separate case, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, informed the Trump Organization that theyre pursuing criminal charges against the company. Initially, Jamess probe was a civil case.

We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature, James spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement last month.

That case also involves the firms tax dealings.

Weissberg was given immunity by federal prosecutors in 2018 regarding a case involving former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen was ultimately convicted and sentenced on tax evasion and other chargesbefore becoming a critic of the former president on Twitter and in mainstream media appearances.
Former President Donald Trump applauds a member of the media after a border security briefing in Weslaco, Texas, on June 30, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Trump Says Hes Made Up His Mind About 2024 Presidency

Former President Donald Trump said that he has made up his mind on whether he will run for president again in 2024, but didnt say if he would nor not.

Trump was asked about the prospect of running for president by Fox Newss Sean Hannity during an event on Wednesday night.

Youre not going to answer, but I have to ask. Where are you in the processorlet me ask you this, without giving the answerwhat the answer ishave you made up your mind? Hannity asked the former president.

Trump only said, Yes.

Cheers and applause from the crowd then ensued.

In recent days, Trump has seemingly re-inserted himself into the national political conversationmonths after he left office and after his social media accounts were banned.

The single-word response came just days after Trump held his first campaign-style rally in Ohio to support his former aide, Max Miller, in a GOP primary race against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), who voted to impeach Trump earlier this year.

And on Wednesday, Trump visited the Texas-Mexico border and sharply criticized the Biden administrations immigration policies and messaging, while also calling for the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall to continue. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to suspend construction of the wall, and later, he authorized funds that were appropriated for wall construction to be sent back to the Department of Defense.

The former president is scheduled to attend an event in Sarasota, Florida, on July 3.

Trump, in a statement in early June, again teased a possible run in 2024 in a critical comment directed at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook was one of the social media platforms that suspended the former president in January.

Next time Im in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Trump said in a statement after Facebook executive Nick Clegg announced he would be suspended for two years starting Jan. 7. It will be all business!

Should Trump run again, it appears unlikely that he would choose former Vice President Mike Pence as his running mate for a second time. Trump has faulted Pence for presiding over the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6 that ultimately certified the election for Biden.

And again in June, Trump reiterated in an interview that he was disappointed by Pences decision not to reject electors, arguing: I felt he had the right to send it back, and he shouldve sent it back.

Days before Jan. 6, Pence released a statement saying that he believes the Constitution wouldnt allow him to reject electors in favor of Trump and decided to preside over the Joint Session as president of the Senateone of the vice presidents duties.
University of North Carolina Grants Tenure to 1619 Project Author Nikole Hannah-Jones

After months of debate and a three-hour special meeting Wednesday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills board of trustees voted 94 to approve tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones, the leading author of the New York Timess 1619 Project.

Some demonstrators congregated inside to watch the board meeting, which was supposed to be a closed-door session. However, this information was reportedly not communicated to the student body, so police officers had to forcibly remove those who refused to leave, according to the student newspaper Daily Tar Heel.

Todays outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me, Hannah-Jones said in a statement. This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers, and students.

The vote comes a day before Hannah-Jones had originally been scheduled to start teaching at UNC Chapel Hills Hussman School of Journalism and Media as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. The 1619 Project spearhead, however, insisted on not joining the faculty without tenure.

The universitys board of trustees first declined Hannah-Jones tenure bid in May, citing concerns about awarding tenure to someone from a nonacademic background. Amid mounting pressure from outside and within the campus community, the board eventually reversed its stance and agreed to vote on the matter.

Among a minority opposing the tenured appointment for Hannah-Jones was Walter E. Hussman Jr., a UNC megadonor after whom the Hussman School of Journalism and Media is named. According to emails obtained by online magazine The Assembly, Hussman told university leaders that he worried about the controversy of tying the UNC journalism school to the 1619 Project.

I find myself more in agreement with Pulitzer prize winning historians like James McPherson and Gordon Wood than I do Nikole Hannah-Jones, Hussman reportedly wrote in one of the emails. As prominent scholars of American Civil War and American Revolution, respectively, McPherson and Wood not only disputed the 1619 Projects portrayal of historical events, but also demanded the New York Times to correct the projects inaccuracies and fallacies.

In May 2020, Hannah-Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the 1619 Project, which aims to reframe American history by presenting the United States as an inherently racist nation founded on slavery. The project consists of a collection of essays that argue, among many other controversial claims, that the real reason for the American Revolution was to preserve slavery, and that slavery was the source of American economic growth in the 19th century.

The idea that racism remains deeply embedded in todays America, as Hannah-Jones claims in her essays, gained prominence during last years nationwide unrest. After a New York Post op-ed, Call Them the 1619 Riots, associated the widespread looting, statue-toppling, and flag-burning with the 1619 Projects flawed history narrative, Hannah-Jones said it would be an honor that the mobs carried out violence under the 1619 banner.

Its not immediately clear when Hannah-Jones will start her teaching career at UNC Chapel Hill.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses the media during a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, in Rome on Monday June 28, 2021. (Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo)

US Hits 17 Nations for Not Combating Human Trafficking

WASHINGTONThe Biden administration on Thursday designated 17 countries as not doing enough to combat human trafficking and warned them of potential U.S. sanctions. The administration also called out several U.S. allies and friends, including Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Turkey, for backsliding in their efforts.

The designations came in the State Departments annual Trafficking in Persons report, which cited the coronavirus pandemic as a cause for a surge in human slavery between 2020 and 2021. The report covering 188 nations and territories said the outbreak had put millions more people at risk for exploitation and distracted some governments from efforts to stem human trafficking.

The report classified the 17 mostly authoritarian nations as Tier 3 for failing to meet minimal standards to stop what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called an inhumane cycle of discrimination and injustices. The designation means that without a presidential waiver those countries could lose some U.S. assistance, although decisions on such penalties will not be made until later this year.

Newcomers to the Tier 3 category are Malaysia and Guinea-Bissau, both of which had been on a watchlist for a downgrade for three years and were ineligible to avoid the designation because they had failed to take steps to improve their anti-human trafficking efforts.

They join Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, China, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela in the worst offender category. Most of those countries are already subject to U.S. sanctions for other reasons.

Meanwhile, six valued U.S. partners and friendsCyprus, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerlandwere downgraded from the top Tier 1 category to Tier 2. That means they dont meet international standards for fighting trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so. No penalties are attached to a Tier 2 designation.

Israel was cited for backsliding on serious and sustained initiatives to combat trafficking, including a decrease in investigations and prosecutions of perpetrators, and severe understaffing at its only authority directly charged with dealing with the matter.

The report cited U.S. treaty ally New Zealand for not initiating any prosecutions for labor trafficking and weak prison sentences for child sex traffickers that significantly weakened deterrence, undercut efforts to hold traffickers accountable, and did not adequately address the nature of the crime.

The report criticized NATO ally Norway for not prosecuting any human trafficking cases during the reporting period and charging people suspected of the crime with lesser offenses. Fellow NATO member Portugal was hit for failing to improve victim identification and lacking legal safeguards to protect trafficking victims.

And, in the first such criticism of a NATO ally, Turkey was specifically cited for providing operational, equipment, and financial support to an armed militia in Syria that recruits child soldiers. Turkey and 14 other nations, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, were hit with the same designation, which can result in the loss of U.S. military training assistance.

By Matthew Lee
A worker at Rough Linen sews fabric masks in San Rafael, Calif., on April 6, 2020. Rough Linen, a maker of hand crafted linen bedding, has changed its production line and is now making fabric masks that are being donated to local hospitals and healthcare workers who are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

US Mask Manufacturing at Risk Due to Cheap Imports From China

Evidence shows that cheap masks from China have cornered U.S. domestic manufacturers, according to a report by Nikkei Asia. As a result, industry professionals are now calling on the Biden administration to take immediate action to ensure self-sufficiency over the national security concerns.

The American Mask Manufacturers Association (AMMA) highlighted to President Joe Biden in an updated 1,458-word letter on May 13 the challenges faced by U.S. mask manufacturers. It exposed that China has been continually dumping its products in the U.S. market at well below actual cost.

While there are $0.03$0.06 of raw materials that go into every surgical mask produceda cost that is the same everywhere in the worldChinese masks are sold for less than $0.01 in the United States, the letter noted. Consequently, around 260 million American-made masks are left unsold and stockpiled in warehouses. At the same time, U.S. manufacturers have had to cut 2,647 jobs.

A case in point is the company Premium-PPE, whose workforce has plummeted from 280 to around 50 and whose monthly production has plunged nearly 90 percent from last years peak.

Selling the mask for less than a penny is not possible, expressed Brent Dillie, the chief revenue officer of Premium-PPE, according to Nikkei Asia.

Lloyd Armbrust, the founder and CEO of Armbrust American, told NPR that the AMMAs 28 members would go out of business in the next 60 to 90 days. Five of them have already stopped production, he said.

When they go out of business, its not like we turn off the lights and mothball these machines. We send them to the dump. That capacity that we created goes away, Armbrust said.

More alarmingly, the AMMA pointed out a fact that a portion of Chinese imports fail to meet American health and safety standards.

A study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that 31.5 percent, or 103 of 326 masks, tested by the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) failed to meet the Chinese KN95 standard (GB 2626-2019) and the NIOSH standard (42 CFR Part 84) of 95 percent particulate filtration protection.

Additionally, 70 percent of Chinese KN95 masks tested failed to meet minimum standards, according to the Emergency Care Research Institute (ERCI). The institute concluded that U.S. hospitals bought hundreds of thousands of masks produced in China [that] arent safe and effective against the spread of COVID-19.

The open letter also sent a warning that Chinas unfair trade practices will threaten the viability of our industry and the welfare of every single American, and that cheap Chinese products flooding the U.S. market will put our healthcare workers at risk for current and future pandemics if the situation is taken from the perspective of national security.

As such, the association earnestly requested that the Biden administration immediately remove the FDAs Emergency Use Authorization for non-U.S. based manufacturers; immediately require the federal government, and anyone receiving federal dollars for PPE reimbursement, to buy Berry-Amendment Compliant masks, that is, items manufactured in the United States; and review the Strategic National Stockpile and remove masks that fail to meet American standards; among others suggestions to ensure American manufacturing capacity.

The open letter was co-signed by 34 representatives from small and midsize companies of the industry.
Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 12, 2021. (Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

US, Taiwan Revive Trade Talks Despite Objections From Beijing

WASHINGTONThe United States and Taiwan on June 29 resumed trade talks after five years, a move that has angered the communist regime in Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the liberal democratic island.

Discussions reopened on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which was stalled in 2016. At the virtual meeting, U.S. and Taiwanese officials pledged to deepen the trade and investment relationship.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which led the talks, said in a statement that the two sides discussed a wide range of issues, including creating resilient supply chains and combating forced labor and climate change.

After the virtual meeting, Taiwans chief trade negotiator John Deng reiterated Taiwans aspiration for a bilateral trade deal.

We expressed to the U.S. that Taiwan hopes to sign a trade agreement, he told reporters. We believe that if we continue to work hard, we will achieve our goal one day.

While the U.S. trade agency pledged to intensify engagement with Taiwan and agreed to hold working-level meetings going forward, it avoided mentioning negotiations on a comprehensive free trade deal.

At the TIFA Council meeting, U.S. officials emphasized the importance of the U.S.Taiwan trade and investment relationship, and expressed a desire for stronger and more consistent engagement going forward, the USTR statement reads.

Both sides agreed to address outstanding trade matters, including current market access barriers facing U.S. beef and pork producers, and other issues such as copyright legislation, digital piracy, financial services, investment, and regulatory transparency.

A global computer chip shortage has boosted the economic and strategic importance of Taiwan recently, as the self-governed island is home to some of the worlds largest and most advanced chip manufacturers.

After almost five years of no talks, its important to get back to the negotiating table to address market access barriers and new challenges, Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.Taiwan Business Council, told The Epoch Times.

That said, this platform is modest so Im loath to take breadcrumbs and call it a banquet. Substantial market barriers in investment and taxation, for example, need to be resolved in broader agreements.

According to Hammond-Chambers, investment and tax are key areas that inhibit the free flow of goods and services between the United States and Taiwan.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, listens and questions witnesses at a hearing on Religion with Chinese Characteristics: Persecution & Control in Xi Jinpings China, on July 23, 2015. (Gary Feuerberg/ Epoch Times)

A bipartisan group of 42 U.S. senators sent a letter this week to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, urging her to reconvene trade agreement talks with Taipei.

We respectfully request that you prioritize these talks and take steps to begin laying the groundwork for negotiation of a free trade agreement (FTA), or other preliminary agreement, with Taiwan, the senators wrote in the letter.

In August 2020, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen announced the lifting of import restrictions on U.S. beef and pork, which had been a major obstacle to a trade deal.

It is now time for the United States to reciprocate and begin negotiations. It is clear that the United States stands to gain much in doing so, the letter stated.

Former Undersecretary of State Keith Krach echoed similar sentiments, saying, A free trade agreement is long overdue.

Last year, Krach played a crucial role in the warming of relations with Taipei under the Trump administration. He led a delegation to Taiwan, becoming the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the island in decades.

Prior to the bilateral meeting this week, Beijing urged the United States to stop all forms of official exchange with Taiwan.

In response, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said our support for Taiwan is rock solid, during a press conference on June 28.

Taiwan is a leading democracy and major economy and a security partner. And we will continue to strengthen our relationship across all areas, she said, noting that China has taken increasingly coercive action to undercut democracy in Taiwan.
Vials labelled "COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine" and sryinge in front of the Johnson&Johnson logo in this illustration taken, on Feb. 9, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

US to Ship 2.5 Million Doses of J&J Vaccine to Colombia

The United States plans to ship 2.5 million doses of Johnson & Johnsons COVID-19 vaccine to Colombia, the White House said Wednesday.

The Colombian presidents office said Monday that U.S. President Joe Biden told President Ivan Duque of the donation in a call during which they also discussed reactivating the economy, jobs, climate change and shared democratic values and human rights.

The United States will also donate 2 million COVID-19 Pfizer vaccines to Peru, the U.S. State Department announced on Tuesday.

The United States is donating 2 million Pfizer vaccine doses to Peru as a part of our ongoing solidarity with the people of Peru as they recover from this devastating pandemic, State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration will also ship 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Pakistan.

Porter said the United States will continue to donate vaccine doses in the coming months as supplies become available.
Steven Schaerer on the way to detention in China after being illegaly arrested. (Courtesy of Steven Schaerer)

Why Is Chinas Communist Party Indefinitely Detaining and Torturing Bay Area Entrepreneurs?

Commentary

SLAM!

My entire body shuddered as I heard the CCP guards slam the large metal door behind me.

I was horrified. I stood there, blood-stained blankets in hand, trying to take in my new surroundings: the interior of a black-site Chinese communist prison cell.

Days earlier, a police raid had been carried out on my office in Beijing where I was told to show up at a police station to discuss why I was in China.

I spent hours being interrogated by CCP police officers after being separated from my colleagues.

Do you know how much money we make, one of the police officers asked me after his colleague inspected my Chinese income-tax documents.

I dont, I replied.

You make more than we make, he shot back, implying that a foreigner earning more than a Chinese national was in and of itself, illegal. You make too much money in our country.

After nearly four hours of interrogation, CCP police managed to unpack my entire life, but found no evidence of any law having been broken. I was instructed to sign and fingerprint nearly 40 pages of documents in Chinese that I was not given time to read or translate.

In China, when the police tell you to do something, its a demand, not a question. There are no human rights organizations, mechanisms for due process, or media to cover police brutality.

Little did I know that this was the CCPs way of getting me to secretly sign and fingerprint my confession documents.

Come pick up your passports tomorrow, we were told by CCP officers.

We returned the next morning, as instructed, expecting to pick up our passports. Once inside the police station, we were ushered into a barren room that had an oversized wooden table in the center and chairs lining the walls.

After nearly an hour of waiting for our passports, a prison-style transport van appeared through the window. One of my colleagues nudged me with his elbow sarcastically stating, Maybe thats for us.

We laughed.

That military-style prison transport vehicle turned out to be a horrifying surprise-start to our day. CCP officers blatantly lied as it turned out that we were not at the police station to collect our passports.

Get in, one of the officers barked at us, after we had been marched outside. Without so much as a formal charge, or evidence that any law had been violated, we were subsequently forced into the cage in the back of the van.

That vehicle would ultimately transport us to our final destination later that night: a military-style black-site prison compound.

For nearly 15 hours, we were held in a holding cell without charge, carted around to a myriad of police stations and processing centers, and forced to undergo a litany of various medical tests against our will.

In China, there is no due process. There are no lawyers to call, no Miranda rights, no bail, no phone call, no day in court, and no media outlets that can legally cover your story. The CCP says youre guilty and you simply disappear from society after being forced into a cage.

No one, aside from the Communist Party, has the power to challenge that decision. If you try, youll disappear too.

Under Chinas notorious and vague security laws, we were ultimately and falsely accused of being illegally employed in the country.

When we finally arrived at the prison compound we were stunned at the level of security. The entrance was a manned checkpoint with 30-foot-high metal doors for vehicles to enter and exit. The perimeter was just as robust with high cement walls lined with barbed wire and watchtowers that were manned with armed guards.

This wasnt a holding facility; it was a prison.

Inside, all of our belongings were taken from us. We were stripped naked, marched through metal detectors, shoved into rooms where our blood was drawn, and had our faces shoved into iris-scanning machines. All this after being held for nearly 15 hours without food and water.

We were instructed to grab blankets from a bin that were stained with blood, and given a prison jacket, pants, and sandals.

For nearly a month, that was the last I would see of anything aside from the inside of my prison cell where we were locked up 24 hours a day, except for a weekly exercise routine that was held in the prison courtyard in Beijings freezing winter temperatures.

I was locked up with 16 other inmates sharing a single squatter toilet, forced to eat yellow sludge out of a communal bucket, and made to sleep on wooden planks with our blood-stained blankets.

The prison cell was meant to hold maybe eight to ten inmates. There were 17 of us. Bright fluorescent flood lights beamed down on us 24 hours a day, and prisoners slept folded over each other on the insufficient space of the wooden planks.

Every two hours, inmates had to rotate to do the watch where you had to stand up against the wall and watch the other inmates to make sure no one tried to kill each other. If that happened, there was a red button on the wall that you were instructed to press for emergencies.

In other words, these conditions make it impossible to sleep, and you are forcibly sleep-deprived. Studies show that prolonged exposure to these conditions literally cause your brain to atrophy.

Its illegal to contact your embassy, I and the other foreign inmates were routinely told. On other days, I was pulled out of my cell to translate for foreign inmates who had stopped eating in other cells.

Make him eat, the guards would instruct, as they pointed at some helpless foreigner on the brink of death. Suicide warning signs were plastered on the walls.

After nearly a month of being held incommunicado and detained indefinitely, I was finally pulled out of my cell by CCP guards.

American, come.

I was deported back to San Francisco in November of 2016, the very Bay Area I was born in and where I had attended college.

I returned to the United States extremely malnourished, horrifically sleep-deprived, sick, and PTSD-ridden. I was lucky to still be alive.

I responded by authoring a 350-page book capturing the horrors of that experience, Surviving Chinese Communist Detention.

This is a warning and a wake-up call to any foreign national entering China. Irrespective of whether you are a tourist, engineer, entrepreneur, or journalist in the country, it is not safe.

As a foreigner in China, you are sitting on a ticking time bomb that can go off on any day and for any reason. You dont have to break a single law and you can have every working document necessary to be operating in the country legally, and youre still not safe.

China is not a country that embraces human rights, due process, or their own laws. This is my warning to any foreign national that is entertaining the idea of visiting or moving to China for any reason.

Do not go.

Steven Schaerer is a tech worker and author of the book Surviving Chinese Communist Detention.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
WESTPORT  Are the towns restaurants biting off more than they can chew?

Thats the concern of the local health director, who is worried about the impact outdoor restaurant seating added during the COVID-19 pandemic will have on restaurants now that restrictions on indoor dining have largely been lifted.

Westport Weston Health District Director Mark Cooper sent a letter on June 23 to Planning and Zoning Deputy Director Michelle Perillie detailing potential safety concerns associated with keeping outdoor dining at pandemic levels.

During Connecticuts COVID-19 pandemic efforts to keep restaurants viable, outdoor dining was considered as a way for restaurants to maintain some acceptable level of service, because of the Governors Directive that only 50% of the indoor capacity could be used, Cooper wrote. The WWHD supported the creation of safer outdoor dining areas, which basically gave food service facilities a way to get back closer to their maximum approved seating capacity  50% inside and 50% outside.

But now that most COVID restrictions have been lifted, Cooper said, restaurants can return to 100 percent capacity indoors.

The concern is, with indoor dining back full force, are we going to be overtaxing the restaurants ability to serve food, Cooper said on Thursday.

For example, he said, a restaurant might be equipped to handle 100 seats. During the pandemic, he said, they would have had to reduce to 50 seats inside, but added 50 seats outside to compensate. Now they can go back to 100 seats inside, Cooper said, but they might want to keep those additional 50 seats outside. However, they might not be equipped to handle that extra seating.

If restaurants have to scramble to meet the increased demand, Cooper said, they could lose sight of safety concerns, leading to dangerous conditions and possibly even foodborne illness outbreaks.

You cant let your (health inspection) scores go down, he said. We cant see you being unsafe.

In his email to Perillie, Cooper asked that the health department have an opportunity to review all outdoor dining proposals to evaluate the facilities capacity to handle additional seating safely. Coopers request was reviewed Wednesday during a virtual meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commissions revision subcommittee.

Many of those present, including some local restaurant owners, wanted to hang on to some outdoor dining. Howard Bass, whose wife, Stacy Bass, is one of the owners of Manna Toast on Church Lane, said he hoped outdoor dining could stay.

New York has opened up so much street space to outdoor dining and I think it offers incredible vibrancy, he said.

However, some pointed out that, during COVID, there were some restaurants that were able to open their outdoor dining on town streets, some of which were closed for that purpose. Other businesses werent afforded that luxury.

RTM member Sal Liccione, who serves the towns ninth district, said after the meeting that he would prefer to see a more level playing field.

Whats good for one should be good for all, he said.

Steven Carpentieri, owner of Dunvilles Restaurant on Saugatuck Avenue, said the purpose of allowing outdoor dining was to help compensate for the pandemic-mandated reduction in indoor capacity  not to allow for de facto expansion of some restaurants. He said some facilities, such as his own, couldnt expand onto town property.

Instead, Carpentieri said, he closed part of his parking lot to add tables. He said he understands wanting to keep outdoor dining, but wants it to be done in a way thats safe and fair.

You need to create a better platforrm so everyone can participate, he said.
CT State Police / Contributed

BRANFORD  The wife of a local police captain was killed in a utility terrain vehicle crash in upstate New York last weekend, police said.

Troopers from the Troop D barracks in Oneida, N.Y., responded to a report of a rollover UTV crash around 5 p.m. Sunday in Lyme, N.Y., which is about two hours north of Syracuse on Lake Ontario.
WOOD RIVER  Public health officials continue to make strides in the battle against COVID-19, but the emergence of new strains of the virus, such as the Delta variant, serves as a reminder that the fight isnt over.

The Delta variant is considered to be two to three times more contagious than other variants and is already causing problems in the U.S., with Missouri, in particular, seeing an uptick in cases in areas with low vaccination rates.

The Delta variant is the one that came from India, where it wreaked havoc about six weeks ago, said Amy Yeager, public information officer for the Madison County Health Department. Right now, its the Delta variant that is setting the United Kingdom into another lockdown and it was announced Tuesday morning that Australia is going into another lockdown. Israel has the highest vaccination rate of any country on the globe and they just instituted a mask mandate again.

We dont know what the Delta is going to do here, but we do know it has the highest multiplying or doubling rate of any of the variants. Its moving a lot faster than any of the other variants.

The Illinois Department of Public Health lists the Delta among its COVID-19 Variants of Concern, along with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and two strains of the Epsilon variant.

As far as Delta, there is still a lot we dont know, but (public health director) Toni Corona has put forth some questions that we have to the IDPH, Yeager said. We are still meeting every other week with the PIOs (public information officers) from the bi-state area.

We know that Delta is in Missouri and that there are some specific hot spots there. A lot of people from Illinois travel back and forth to Missouri for work and we know that the Lake of the Ozarks area is a hotspot for Delta right now. We know that its here in the area and we dont know much at this point, but were trying to get answers.

Yeager noted that the Delta variant seems to be hitting two age groups in the U.S. the hardest  unvaccinated adults and children under 12, who have not yet had a vaccine approved for their use.

Pfizer and Moderna are working through clinical trials for the vaccine for kids under 12, so its not like were going to have a vaccine for them in the next couple weeks, Yeager said. For those 12 and older who are unvaccinated, its important for them to get the vaccine.

There is a small number of people with specific medical conditions that are unable to get the vaccine, so for the sake of those people and for the kids under 12, we ask that other people get vaccinated to continue building that wall of protection around them.

The number of new COVID-19 cases on the Madison County Health Department COVID-19 Dashboard (https://gisportal.co.madison.il.us/portal/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/c2a8d5f6752f498286bfc31252ecee1b), which had been steadily declining, have started to increase again, and the Delta variant might be the reason.

Four or five weeks ago, we had new cases in the lower range, like one to six new cases a day, Yeager said. Then it started to creep up a bit and it held pretty strong for two weeks or so with numbers in the seven to nine range. Then we started getting into double digits again and now its really picked up steam, where it went from the lower 10s to the upper teens pretty quickly.

Weve had six or seven days, all except for one, in the twenties for new cases per day, and Monday we had 29. Last Monday (June 21) we had 101 active cases and this Monday we had 192. Last Monday we had a seven-day positivity rate of 1.65 percent and this Monday we had a rate of 4.99 percent, and thats a big jump for one week. Whether or not its Delta, I dont know, but in the end, it doesnt matter, its COVID. Youre still going to get sick from it and you could wind up in the hospital.

For Yeager, the upward tick is another reminder that the pandemic is not over, and that people shouldnt let their guard down.

We are one of the most vaccinated counties in the state at 41.59 percent fully vaccinated and St. Clair County is 39.71 percent, Yeager said. Those are great numbers but nowhere near the 70 to 85 percent suggested range. The bottom line is that we encourage everyone to get vaccinated, especially with the unknowns of the Delta variant.

On June 21, the average number of new cases per day was eight, and by Monday, that number had jumped to 20 new cases per day.

Were on an uptick, so we encourage people to go back to our original messaging, Yeager said. Wash your hands often, keep some distance from other people especially if you dont know their vaccine status. If youre vaccinated, wear your mask if you want to, and if youre not vaccinated, you should wear a mask, and kids ages 2 to 12 should be wearing a mask.

Despite the challenges presented by the Delta and other variants, Yeager remains upbeat.

Were not done with COVID and the pandemic is not over yet, but were in a much better place than we were in last year at this time, Yeager said. A year ago, we were really deep in long-term care outbreaks and lost a lot of older folks.

Things are getting better, but its a matter of following the necessary steps and doing your part to help keep everybody healthy and try to slow the spread of the virus.

Yeager urges people who are not vaccinated to continue wearing masks.

As a health department, we follow the CDC and IDPH recommendations and we understand that we are still in a global pandemic, Yeager said. We understand that there is a whole mental health layer to all of this.

Even if youre vaccinated, if you feel more comfortable wearing your mask, then by all means wear it. Were still learning a lot about the Delta variant and I still wear my mask. From what weve seen so far, its been making people sicker faster and putting them in the hospital faster. Its primarily hitting people who are unvaccinated, including kids.

Yeager, who was on a call with the IDPH Tuesday morning, added that the Alpha is still the primary variant in Illinois.

However, they are closely watching Delta and its movement, especially with our proximity to Missouri, Yeager said.

COVID testing sites are still listed on the Madison County dashboard, and Yeager urges people to take advantage of them.

All of the Walgreens and CVS stores in Madison County offer free COVID testing, as do a lot of the health providers, Yeager said. We encourage people, especially in higher-risk situations, if they are having symptoms of COVID, to get tested.

If you choose to get a COVID home test, please follow up with a medical provider afterward. Those results should always be confirmed at a testing site such as CVS or Walgreens, one of the sites on our dashboard, or by a medical provider.

This is the last week of the Madison County mass vaccination clinic at Gateway Center in Collinsville, with the clinic set to close at the end of the day on Saturday. It is the last mass vaccination in Illinois outside of Chicago.

The clinic is closed on Wednesday but is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Its been a very successful site and it has served its purpose, Yeager said. Were grateful to the city of Collinsville for making that facility available to us for over six months. We could not have done this without the Illinois National Guard, and it has been a great working relationship.

Appointments are available on the Madison County Health Department website, but walk-ins are also welcome.

We still have part of the facility reserved for a few random days for community-based mobile clinics in July and August, probably one or two days a week, Yeager said. We will only have one National Guard unit after July 3.

Yeager added that the COVID-19 vaccine is now available at many other sites in Madison County.

Most pharmacies have the vaccine and you can make an appointment, and some of them take walk-ins, Yeager said. We have several pediatricians offices that have the vaccine now and some of them will vaccinate people who are not their clients. We will continue to post our community-based clinics on our website.
EDWARDSVILLE  As the city of Edwardsville gradually settles into phase 5 of Illinois reopening plan, the community faces navigating the social and public landscape with loosened COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Glen Carbon resident Lily Grieve said although she is vaccinated, she will continue to wear a mask in busy public places until more individuals are fully vaccinated.

I feel comfortable to the extent that I definitely feel safe being around other completely vaccinated people, she said. Then, when it comes to more public things, like, walking around Walmart or Target, and all of those big retailers, Im going to wear my mask.

Grieve, who attended Kentuckys Murray State University, said she believes that people in rural areas prefer not to wear masks.

I feel most of the people walking out there without a mask, in Edwardsville, and especially at Murray, were people who didnt get vaccinated, she said.

But Grieves opinion is not reflective of all Edwardsville residents.

Resident Lony Ness said he is excited to see people be able to gather again in the city after a tough year.

For the first time since before the pandemic, the (Land of Goshen Market) had a musician performing during the market, he said. Before the pandemic, I went to the Saturday morning market every week and always looked forward to the different musicians who performed.

One of his favorite spots is Sacred Grounds Cafe, 223 N. Main St., where Ness visits every day for black coffee and sometimes orders lunch. During the pandemic, Sacred Grounds shut its doors indefinitely. That is, until Kate Baumgartner bought the business. Since then, the coffee house has reopened and welcomed back customers to dine-in or carry out.

When the pandemic started, Ness said he felt there was so much different public information about the novel coronavirus, that it was difficult through which to sort.

I was taking this whole COVID thing, not as serious as everybody else, he said, but then I got really nervous about it.

Im glad everyone had to stay home and do what they had to do.

Angela Gausmann, of Edwardsville, said she is fairly comfortable without wearing a mask to places she visits regularly, but when she visits places where children are present, she is quick to grab her face covering.

Since some kids still arent qualified to get the vaccine, I try to put my mask on when I am around a lot of them, she said. I figured its just a piece of cloth, and I can wear it when Im asked or when I choose to.
Salida, CO (81201)

Today

Sunny early then increasing clouds with some scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 86F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 57F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Joe Ashley is plant manager at ORBIS Corp. in Bardstown and a member of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board.
Expert wants Sinovac jab drive to cover children

THAILAND: Chinas Sinovac vaccine should be sanctioned for use in children aged three and older by the years end to boost efforts to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, virologist Yong Poovorawan says.

CoronavirusCOVID-19healthVaccineChinese

By Bangkok Post

Thursday 1 July 2021, 09:00AM

Photo: AFP

The head of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University recommended in his Facebook post that children aged three years old and over should be vaccinated and the vaccine made by Sinovac was the best option as the side effects were less severe.

If we are to achieve herd immunity, the vaccination must include children. The rollout should start by years end at the latest, Dr Yong said.

Despite children mostly developing mild symptoms, they can spread the virus to older people who are at risk of more severe illnesses, he said. Dr Yong said children will receive safe COVID-19 vaccines and assured they will be able to return to school soon.

COVID-19 vaccination drives for children are being launched around the world. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorised by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on children aged 12 and older, while Chinese authorities have also approved the Sinovac vaccine for children as young as three.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities lowered the age limit for people receiving the Sinovac vaccine to three years old in early June, a decision which Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had noted.

Asked about the Pfizer vaccine, Mr Anutin said on June 11 the government was targeting its use on children aged 12 and up. Indonesia has also recommended Sinovac be used on children over 12. Jabs will commence once the countrys food and drug agency approves it for emergency use.
First Phuket Sandbox tourists arrive

PHUKET: The first tourists to arrive in Thailand under the Phuket Sandbox scheme were 25 tourists arriving on Etihad Airways Flight EY430 from Abu Dhabi, which touched down at Phuket International Airport today (July 1).

tourismCOVID-19transport

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Thursday 1 July 2021, 01:21PM

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

the first tourists to arrive under the Phuket Sandbox scheme touched down at Phuket International Airport this morning (July 1). Photo: PR Phuket

The passengers were welcomed to Phuket then escorted through the procedures at the airport to ensure they are fully vaccinated and comply with all the requirements for being permitted to enter Thailand through the Sandbox policy, which begins today (July 1).

The passengers had their body temperatures checked and then had their documents checked to confirm that they had been vaccinated, had the US$100,000 health insurance coverage and had booked to stay at least 14 nights at SHA+ approved venues, among other requirements.

Once cleared by officials checking their Sandbox credentials, the tourists were then escorted to clear Immigration and Customs procedures before being taken to have swab test samples taken to be tested for COVID-19.

As for the atmosphere in the international arrivals hall today, its starting to come back to life. Shops selling goods and souvenirs are back open again, noted those present at the airport this morning.

Phuket officials today confirmed that just four flights are to land in Phuket today, not five as previously announced.

The Etihad Airways flight, scheduled to touch down at 10:20am, arrived at about 11am.

In total, just under 400 tourists are expected to arrive in Phuket today under the Phuket Sandbox scheme.

According to Phuket officials this morning, Qatar Airways Flight QR840 from Doha-Phuket is to land at 1:30pm with 136 passengers on board, El Al Israel Airlines Flight LY87 from Tel Aviv is to land at 1:45pm with 137 passengers on board, and Singapore Airlines Flight SQ736 is to arrive at 5:10pm with an estimated 100 people on board.

Prime Minister Prayut is scheduled to be at Phuket airport in person to welcome the passengers arriving on the Singapore flight, Phuket officials noted.
Mercedes finally meets its match in unstoppable Verstppen

FORMULA ONE: A comfortable victory from pole, an extended championship lead and no signs of slowing down: Max Verstappen is Formula 1s new championship favourite.

Formula-One

By Michael Lamonato

Thursday 1 July 2021, 10:15AM

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are having a very good season so far. Photo: AFP

Its easy to get carried away by the result of a single grand prix, but the cool dominance with which Max Verstappen won the Styrian Grand Prix is difficult to overstate.

There wasnt a moment all weekend at which Red Bull Racing looked anything but confident. Verstappen eased his way to pole last Saturday (June 26) with two laps good enough to beat Mercedes and comfortably led every lap of the race, lapping all but three cars.

Fast in a straight line, fast through the corners, fast in the pit stops - Red Bull Racing was unstoppable at the Red Bull Ring.

The gap in pace has been put down to the RB16Bs newfound straight-line speed, but its a furphy to suggest - as Hamilton has implied - that engine upgrades, banned in 2021 on cost-saving grounds, are behind Red Bull Racings gains, though the team admits a new oil formulation has delivered kilowatts.

The gap is all down to aerodynamic performance. Verstappens speed down the straights is thanks to his car carrying a slimmer rear wing, slashing drag, but the rest of the cars surfaces are working efficiently enough that he loses nothing through the corners.

The Mercedes W12 is not as efficient, and boosting straight-line speed costs the car in the turns, slowing it down overall. And at the high-altitude Red Bull Ring, with air scarcer than at sea level, this relative inefficiency is amplified.

This would be far from a crisis just eight rounds into any other season, but 2021 is making unique demands of all teams. Sweeping rule changes are being introduced next season, and every team is focusing intensely on their 2022 cars knowing that new regulations present a golden chance to reset the pecking order.

But Red Bull Racing has left the 2021 development tap on - indeed reports suggested that as many as five deliveries of upgrades were made to the team over the course of this weekend alone.

Its a balancing act between this year and next year, but if that means weve got to work a bit harder, were fully up for it, Red Bull Racing principal Christian Horner said.

The team clearly thinks risking its medium-term future is worth gambling on its best shot at a title in eight years, and resultantly momentum has swung dramatically in Red Bull Racing favour since its heavy defeat at the Spanish Grand Prix just eight weeks ago.

Mercedes, on the other hand, has admitted it wont bring any new parts to the W12 this season.

Its unfamiliar territory for Mercedes. Though its been challenged in its sparkling 201420 title-winning era, it has never been so lacking in pace to settle for second place as Hamilton did in Styria.

Whats tough is that its the first race in eight years where youre just lacking the pace, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told British TV. You feel they are eking away consolidating their performance, so weve just got to get our heads together and get the best out of the package that we have.

Wolff is adamant theres performance to unlock from its car through set-up and experimentation alone, but while its engineers analyse the data, Red Bull Racing has opened a 40-point title lead and Verstappen sits atop the standings by 18 points.

Naturally they are just faster than us, Hamilton said in defeat. Theres not a lot I can do in that respect.

Ive just got to keep trying to do the best job I can each weekend.

But without Red Bull Racings developmental firepower backing his campaign, his route to a record-breaking eighth title is narrowing by the race.
Phuket officers ordered to police the bridges for COVID travellers

PHUKET: Police, soldiers, navy personnel and an assortment of other law-enforcement officers in Phuket have been given clear orders to ensure that any persons crossing the bridges onto or off Phuket comply with the COVID-19 protection measures.

COVID-19Coronavirushealthtourismtransport

By The Phuket News

Thursday 1 July 2021, 10:24AM

Region 8 Police Commander Lt Gen Kitrat Panpetch delivered the message at a general assembly held at the Phuket Check Point at Tha Chatchai on Tuesday (June 29).

Present at the assembly were Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew and leading officers from the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command, the Royal Thai Army 41st Military Circle, which heads Army operations in Phuket, as well as officers form the Phuket branch of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) along with general police, volunteers and government officials.

The Tha Chatchai checkpoint will be an important land screening point that must screen tourists traveling in and out of the province under the conditions of Phuket Sandbox, Lt Gen Kitrat said.

Any persons who do not satisfy the requirements set down are not to be granted passage onto or off the island, he said.

Phuket must welcome tourists safely. There must be no spread of COVID-19, as Phuket is a model province for about 10 other provinces to follow that will open to tourists on October 1, he explained.

Any travelers departing from Phuket after spending 14 days on the island must present evidence to the authorities confirming that COVID-19 tests during the 14 nights stay in Phuket show that no infection was detected, Lt Gen Kitrat said.

If its a Thai national, we just check that they have been vaccinated with the full dose of each vaccine or have a test certificate proving that they are not infected. We also make sure they have the Mor Chana application installed [on their phones] and have registered their travel details through the www.gophuget.com website. Upon arrival, they show this evidence to the staff, and they will be allowed to enter, he added.

Therefore, I ask you to study the conditions and rules that Phuket Province [the provincial government] has clearly defined, Lt Gen Kitrat said.

However, he emphasized to officials that inspections must be rigorous without the impression that citizens rights are restricted.
Prayut arrives in Phuket

PHUKET: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha arrived in Phuket this morning to begin his inspection of the islands preparedness for receiving vaccinated foriegn tourists under the Phuket Sandbox scheme, which begins today (July 1).

tourismCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Thursday 1 July 2021, 12:55PM

PM Prayut inspected the procedures to be followed at the airport in checking tourists to make sure they are to be permitted to enter Phuket under the scheme.

According to his official schedule, after his visit at the airport, PM Prayut will inspect Phuket Check Point in Tha Chatchai, the site of the only bridge onto the island, before inspecting the EOC Command Center at Phuket Provincial Police Station in Phuket Town.

He will then meet with Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew and other Phuket officials at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, where he will have lunch.

At 1:45pm, he will preside over what is described as the opening ceremony of Hug Thai Hug Phuket campaign, to be hosted by the Thai Chamber of Commerce at the Central Phuket shopping mall.
Prayut: Phuket should be proud

PHUKET: Phuket people should be proud of their mission for the country, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said this afternoon (July 1) at a meeting held for him to be brought up to speed on the COVID prevention measures in effect to ensure the Phuket Sandbox model is a success.

tourismCOVID-19

By The Phuket News

Thursday 1 July 2021, 06:11PM

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the launch of the Hug Thais Hug Phuket campaign at Central Phuket this afternoon (July 1). Photo: PR Dept

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the launch of the Hug Thais Hug Phuket campaign at Central Phuket this afternoon (July 1). Photo: PR Dept

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the launch of the Hug Thais Hug Phuket campaign at Central Phuket this afternoon (July 1). Photo: PR Dept

Speaking at the Royal Phuket City Hotel in Phuket Town, PM Prayut noted the importance Phuket Sandbox has in reopening Thailand to receiving international visitors.

He also said he felt more reassured after listening to clarifications from all sectors involved, including businesses and members of the public.

If this is successful, it can be expanded to other tourist areas of the country according to the steps, he said.

PM Prayut noted that the number of travel bookings to Thailand is already on the rise.

The number of tourists coming to Phuket is now increasing. Some flights are from airlines that have never traveled to Phuket before, but at the same time some are from countries where there have been recent outbreaks, he said.

However, he also recognised, If there is another COVID-19 outbreak, measures will need to be taken to control the disease again.

This opening of the country must be done carefully and we must accept the risks together. The government is always concerned, but has never left anyone behind, PM Prayut said.

Phuket Sandbox is not only a matter for Phuket residents. Its about the people of the whole country, so that the country can move forward in accordance with the mission of re-opening the country in 120 days, he added.

The people of Phuket should be proud of their mission for the nation, for your country. Also, by asking for cooperation in complying with the prescribed measures, this may cause some inconvenience, but I would like to leave hope to the people of Phuket. If Phuket Sandbox is successful, it will be practiced in other areas. What do you need help with? he said.

PM Prayut concluded his speech by calling for a round of applause to support the doctors, nurses and public health personnel who are working hard.

And please give encouragement to all Phuket people, he said.

During his visit to Phuket today, PM Prayut this morning inspected the checking processes and procedures at Phuket International Airport and at the Phuket Check Point at Tha Chatchai.

He also visited Sirinath National Park, where presided over a turtle release, and he marked the Phuket launch of the Hug Thais Hug Phuket tourism campaign at the Central Phuket shopping mall.

The Prime Minister noted that the Hug Thais Hug Phuket event was to pass on encouragement and embrace the Thai people with love.

When all Thai people need encouragement to get through this challenge together, he said.

Today we are working together to create history in Thailand, to lead the nation through this crisis, he added.

PM Prayut welcomed the smiles he saw today. Today Im happy, seeing smiles on both sides of the road, there are people waving their hands Everyone is happier even during difficult times, he said.

He called the Phuket Sandbox project a great challenge.

It will prepare to open in other island areas, which is a great challenge. and is considered an urgent necessity to revive the economy, especially in Phuket, which has more than 90% of its economy dependent on the tourism sector, which is one of the reasons for choosing Phuket as a pilot province, he said.

The Thai government has come under intense criticism for its rollout of the Phuket Sandbox scheme, with many rules and requirements changing up until as recently as late Tuesday, when the conditions of entry were finally published in the Royal Gazette. The conditions were publicly announced only yesterday.

Also heavily criticised has been the late issuing of Certificates of Entry needed by tourists wanting to enter Thailand through the Phuket Sandbox scheme.

However, tourists arriving at Phuket International Airport this morning on the first flight to touch down under the scheme said the bureaucratic procedures were not a serious issue for them.

One tourist, who identified himself as Reno, said, If you take care of the Thai embassy plan, its not complicated. I did it in four days.

Reno arrived in Phuket on the Etihad Airlines flight that touched down in Phuket at about 11am. He began his journey in Paris and arrived in Phuket via Abu Dhabi.

Reno explained he had come to stay in Phuket for two weeks, and after that planned to travel elsewhere in the country.

I have a house in Hua Hin. After [Phuket], I will visit my house and after that I will travel in your beautiful country, told The Phuket News Thai-language sister newspaper Khao Phuket.

After that, maybe I go shopping in Bangkok and maybe later I will visit Chiang Mai, he added.

English tourist Kiefer said his flight was very good.

However, he noted, The documents were hard to prepare. Its a lot of work, but its okay.

Kiefer explained that he was a regular visitor to Phuket on holiday over many years. This time he planned to stay two months.
NORRISTOWN  Montgomery County officials Thursday launched an agency to designate millions of dollars in federal funding for COVID-19 economic recovery programs.

Were very excited to begin this work and bring these resources to our residents and communities as quickly and thoughtfully as possible, said Barbara OMalley, Montgomery Countys deputy chief operating officer.

OMalley addressed the trio of elected officials during Thursday mornings Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting to unveil the Montgomery County Recovery Office.

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Need for the department stemmed from the roughly $161 million in financial relief the county received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package was passed by Congress back in March. Of that, $350 billion was committed to state, local and tribal territories, OMalley said.

She told the county commissioners that the federal legislation would deliver immediate and direct relief to families and workers as well as build a bridge to an equitable economic recovery.

Funding must be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024 and spent by Dec. 31, 2026, OMalley said.

The $161,395,498 allocated for Montgomery County was divided into two installments, according to OMalley, who added that the first $80,697,749 has already been distributed and the remaining payment is expected to be given in 2022.

The funding must be used for specific purposes:

support public health expenditures,

address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency,

serve the hardest hit communities and families,

replace lost public sector revenue,

provide premium pay for essential workers, and

invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

This is a great opportunity for Montgomery County to make some transformational change, said Montgomery County Commissioners Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr.

Montgomery County Commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh agreed, calling the funding a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

She added that the monies would allow for the chance to work on some issues that have been long standing, and were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials stressed that municipalities and school districts received separate, direct funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.

OMalley said that Thomas Bonner, director of the Montgomery County Department of Assets and Infrastructure, would oversee the recovery office. Officials are also seeking public input.

The office will handle several duties, according to OMalley, who said it will include complying with regulations, crafting processes and documentation, coordinating with the countys finance, solicitor and purchasing departments, and eventually, implementing programs and projects."

We are committed to our economic recovery, supporting our social safety net, and repairing and improving our county infrastructure, read a statement in part on the offices website. The public will be able to follow our initiatives and expenditures through the OpenGov platform, to see how these programs are developed and how these investments will provide a positive impact to our county.

The website offers additional information about past federal spending initiatives, including from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Montgomery County received $145 million from that last year.

To learn more about the Montgomery County Recovery Office, and provide feedback, visit montcopa.org/recoveryoffice.
Today

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Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms this evening. Skies will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

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Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. High 92F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

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Joly. Skeete, address Anglo concerns at QCGN conference

Joel Goldenberg / Joel Goldenberg screenshot Christopher Skeete, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers, addresses a QCGN conference. Joel Goldenberg / Joel Goldenberg screenshot Federal Official Languages Minister Melanie Joly speaks to the QCGN conference.

During a panel discussion moderated by former Alliance Quebec president and radio host Royal Orr at the Quebec Community Groups Network Zoom Conference themed Our Place in Quebec and Canada, former MNA and MP Clifford Lincoln says he believes the CAQ governments long-term plan is to make Quebec an independent state with French as the language and minorities are secondary. Theyve been very cunning and clever in putting out this bill as a defense of a threatened French language, which is a total myth. But people believe this and are being brainwashed to a degree.

National political commentator Warren Kinsella objected to Bill 96s provision allowing a language inspector to inspect a businesss cell phone for language compliance. This is, in my view, completely unconstitutional and, as Mr. Lincoln has said, its just deplorable that the Prime Minister of Canada has agreed to go along with this without any objection.

Federal Official Languages Minister Melanie Joly and Christopher Skeete, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers, addressed concerns about Quebecs proposed Bill 96 and changes to the Official Languages Act. The proposed Official Languages Act change recognizes French as the official language of Quebec and demands that employees working for federally chartered companies of 25 employees or more can work in French in Quebec.

Joly insisted that the Quebec English-speaking community is still protected under the Official Languages Act changes, and members do not lose federal services or jobs in federally chartered institutions as a result. She added that 55 percent of federally regulated businesses already voluntarily adhere to Quebecs language law, Bill 101. Joly told the QCGN conference that the federal government is open to input from the community and modifications to those OLA changes.

Its certainly not my goal to create more tensions, she added. For me, it was important to have a balanced approach, and to make sure we were protecting French, but that would never be to the detriment of English-speaking Quebecers. The Liberal Party has always been there to protect Official Language minorities and minorities in general.

In a reply, John Buck, president and CEO of the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC) said that while the QCGN supports all measures that protect and promote French in Quebec and across Canada, there can be no mistake, however, that our continued and profound support for the French language...can be construed as acquiescence to any act to ignore, reduce or limit the viability of our community, its rights and institutions. It would not be an overstatement to indicate to you that the English-speaking community of Quebec is feeling abandoned and ignored in the federal reform. While the English language is not threatened, the English community in Quebec is.

Skeete asserted that French is fragile in Quebec and that the proposed Bill 96 is not zero-sum, in terms of enhancing French at the expense of English rights. He added that there are wins for the English community, such as allowing cities that are below 50 percent English mother tongue to retain their bilingual status in a council declaration, and prioritizing English spots in CEGEPs. He welcomed input from the English community to help make the bill better, during consultations later this year.

Former MP Eleni Bakopanos then pointed out that Skeete finished ahead of schedule, and wanted to allow questions from meeting participants. Skeete said he could not as he was already late for a meeting, but Bakopanos expressed some points anyway.

Who is included in the Quebec nation? she said. Thats not clear for a lot of members of the English speaking community.

I hear that question a lot  were all Quebecers, Skeete replied.

Bakopanos replied that many English-speaking Quebecers do not feel that way. She added that another concern is overuse of the Notwithstanding clause, as it is being employed for Bill 96.

That is of grave concern for people who believe in minority rights being protected, she added. And one of the biggest concerns is the powers of search without a warrant in businesses [by language inspectors]... taking the equipment, and computers. Thats totally unacceptable and definitely an infringement of rights. Wed be happy to send you the questions. Skeete was then thanked and he went on to his meeting.

QCGN president Marlene Jennings, a strong critic of Bill 96, said that history judges societies by how they treat their minorities. With Bill 96, I think and the QCGN thinks that Quebec is at a crossroads  the path that Quebec takes with Bill 96 will determine how history unfolds in this province and in Canada at large. The QCGN will always defend the rights of Quebecs minority English-speakers and the human rights of all Quebecers.
A man walks through the ruins of Kansas Citys Hyatt Regency Hotel on July 19, 1981. The collapse of a walkway that spanned the lobby left 114 dead and at least 200 injured.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88.

In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfelds family said he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.

President George W. Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served as Pentagon chief, hailed his steady service as a wartime secretary of defense  a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor.

Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart and combative, patriotic and politically cunning, Rumsfeld had a storied career in government under four presidents and nearly a quarter century in corporate America.

After retiring in 2008 he headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans.

"Rummy, as he was often called, was ambitious, witty, energetic, engaging and capable of great personal warmth. But he irritated many with his confrontational style. An accomplished wrestler in college, Rumsfeld relished verbal sparring and elevated it to an art form; a biting humor was a favorite weapon.

Still, he built a network of loyalists who admired his work ethic, intelligence and impatience with all who failed to share his sense of urgency.

Rumsfeld is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest.

Current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saluted Rumsfeld on Wednesday for his boundless energy, probing intellect, and abiding commitment to serve his country.

He made a brief run for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, a spectacular flop that he once described as humbling for a man used to success at the highest levels of the government, including stints as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador and member of Congress.

For all Rumsfelds achievements, it was the setbacks in Iraq in the twilight of his career that will likely etch the most vivid features of his legacy.

Nine months into his second tour as defense secretary, on Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, thrusting the nation into wars for which the military was ill-prepared. Rumsfeld oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime. Frequently presiding at televised briefings on the war, Rumsfeld became something of a TV star, applauded for his blunt talk and uncompromising style.

By 2002 the Bush administrations attention shifted to Iraq, which played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The war effort in Afghanistan took a back seat to Iraq, opening the way for the Taliban to make a comeback and prevent the U.S. from sealing the success of its initial invasion.

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003. Baghdad fell quickly, but U.S. and allied forces soon became consumed with a violent insurgency. Critics faulted Rumsfeld for dismissing the pre-invasion assessment of the Armys top general, Eric Shinseki, that several hundred thousand allied troops would be needed to stabilize Iraq.

News of Rumsfelds death broke overnight in Iraq, where the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein and disbanding of Iraqi security forces ushered in years of unremitting sectarian killings and car bombs at the hands of rival armed factions.

It deprived us of an ordinary life, said Rasha Al Aqeedi, now a U.S.-based analyst from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Daily curfews, an explosion here, a suicide attack there. A consistent sight of death everywhere.

Al Aqeedi joined other Arabs Wednesday in tweeting of Rumsfelds blame in the invasion. By phone, she cited his and other Bush officials apparent lack of planning for what happened after the U.S. toppled Saddam.

The legacy he left behind ... the Iraq war, has been such a stain on Americans foreign policy, she said. It shaped how an entire generation views any intervention by the United States.

Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush in 2004 amid disclosures that U.S. troops had abused detainees at Iraqs Abu Ghraib prison  an episode he later referred to as his darkest hour as defense secretary.

Not until November 2006, after Democrats gained control of Congress by riding a wave of antiwar sentiment, did Bush finally decide Rumsfeld had to go. He left office in December, replaced by Robert Gates.

Rumsfeld is survived by his wife, Joyce, three children and seven grandchildren.

__

Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
SPRINGFIELD  Alton Steel on Thursday joined a coalition of businesses and organized labor opposing an energy proposal backed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker they say would bring the largest rate hike for consumers in Illinois history while exporting jobs to neighboring states.

On June 17, Illinois lawmakers finished a two-day special session without reaching agreement on an energy bill that would phase out all carbon emissions from power plants over the next 30 years. Pritzker wants to phase out coal plants entirely by 2035 and natural gas-fired plants by 2045 by gradually lowering caps on allowable emissions.

On Thursday, members of a coalition opposing the proposed legislation said an analysis of it indicates the plan will cost Illinois families, businesses and organizations at least $700 million a year.

This massive electric rate hike couldnt come at a worse time for Illinois businesses and families, who will be asked to pay significantly higher monthly electric bills, said Mark Denzler, President/CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers Association.

At Alton Steel, it is estimated the proposal will cost the 250-member employee-owned facility at least a half a million dollars a year.

It is important that any bill contemplated does not take away one of the biggest competitive advantages that Illinois manufacturers have, said Jeff Dorries, Chief Financial Officer of Alton Steel. This is important to protect the well-paying jobs with excellent benefits at Alton Steel, for our local community and Southern Illinois.

Chad Goldschmidt, Vice President of the Southwestern Illinois Building Trades Council, said the state would sacrifice energy grid reliability and affordability under the proposal.

This issue is personal to me; I helped build Prairie State (power plan in Marissa), so I know how important it is not just to our power grid but also our state and regional economy, said Goldschmidt. If these plants are prematurely shuttered, Illinois will need to import power from other states, likely from less efficient coal plants.

Working Illinois families should not be asked to pay more for less reliable power, he said.

Since deregulation was enacted in 1997, Illinois families and businesses have saved more than $37 billion in energy costs, according to a 2013 economic analysis cited by the coalition. They said Illinois energy prices and reliable electric grid have been cited repeatedly by governors as reasons why businesses should stay in or more to Illinois.

Manufacturers use one-third of all energy consumed in the United States so this will have a disproportionate impact on the industrial sector, Denzler said. Manufacturers have reduced emissions by 21 percent in the last decade while increasing economic output by 18 percent.

After more than a year of disruption and uncertainty, they need help getting back on their feet, not new hurdles in the form of higher electric prices, he said. We ask the governor and lawmakers to rethink this proposal, which will end one of best competitive advantages in Illinois.

The energy proposal would have a detrimental impact on Illinois agricultural sector and result in higher energy costs for farmers, said Jeff Adkisson, Executive Vice President of the Grain & Feed Association of Illinois.

Handling grain and manufacturing feed is a high volume, low margin commodity business which needs a reliable power supply, said Adkisson. This proposal will simply reduce the reliability of the power supply from Illinois and saddle the agricultural industry with a significant rate hike, resulting in lower prices paid to farmers and higher prices for animal food.

Rob Karr, President/CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said state officials should explain to businesses and residents why the energy proposal is needed.

Instead, they are being asked to cover the costs for a process completely devoid of transparency or accountability, said Karr. This proposal will only make it more difficult for retailers to get back on their feet after a year in which many were forced to close or limit operations.

Coalition members said the proposal would leave more than a thousand workers without a job as state-of-the-art energy plants are set to be shuttered decades before the end of their useful lives.

The transition to cleaner energy must be done in a thoughtful way that doesnt pick winners and losers, said Rick Terven, Legislative and Political Director, Illinois Pipe Trades Association.

Under this plan, there are a lot of losers  including businesses, consumers, and workers who rely on these power plants for their livelihoods, he said. At the same time, when these employees will be put out of a job, they will be asked to pay more to power their homes.

Its a cruel double-whammy that can and should be avoided, said Terven.
An empanada restaurant soon will open in the food court at the Wyoming Valley Mall.

Empanada King, 103 Casey Ave., Wilkes-Barre Twp., plans to expand and open a second location in the mall's food court in a location that once housed McDonald's.

Empanada King manager Crystian Tavarez said he expects the restaurant to open this weekend next to Les Crepes Paris, which opened in a spot where Arby's closed in 2019, and across from Orange Julius.

The spot where Empanada King will open has been painted yellow and green and its menu is on display.

Its menu features 17 different kinds of empanadas, which are pastries with fillings that are popular in Latin American cultures, as well as footlong hot dogs, Philly cheesesteak fries, funnel fries, churros, tres leche cake, smoothies and natural juices.

Empanada King initially planned to open on Casey Avenue next to McDonald's on Route 309 in March last year but Tavarez said the pandemic pushed its opening back to November.

Since it opened, Tavarez said the restaurant has been busy and it has been attracting customers from different cities and towns. Some people tell him it's difficult to find empanadas.

Tavarez said people like to eat empanadas for breakfast, lunch and dinner and he would like to see them available everywhere and become the "next hot dog."

"We're trying to take the empanada to the masses," Tavarez said. "We're trying to say we're offering a different product that you can't find everywhere."

When Empanada King opens in the mall, it will bring the number of options in the food court to three.

Dino's Pizza closed last year in the food court but Dino's Pizza and Italian Restaurant near JCPenney is open as well as other food options outside the food court, including Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Cinnabon.
UGI Utilities Inc. was among 38 utility companies across the country to receive the "Most Trusted Brand" status in the 2021 Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement: Residential report for Escalent, a leading human behavior and analytics firm.

UGI received the status for a fourth consecutive year.

The Brand Trust Index is a composite score of utility performance on customer focus, community support, communications effectiveness, reliable quality, environmental dedication and company reputation.

UGI serves more than 730,000 customers in 45 Pennsylvania counties and one county in Maryland.
A trail is paved with waffle cones in Pennsylvania this summer.

After a hiatus last year caused by COVID-19, state officials announced the return of Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail  a road map of Pennsylvania that highlights the states $12.6 billion dairy industry by pointing out popular stops for a scoop or two.

This years list of 31 creameries contains some local names.

It was a great experience for us, said Jean Manning, co-owner of Manning Farm Dairy, a North Abington Twp. ice cream spot that was last on the trail in 2019. We had people from Philadelphia; we had people from all over.

Launched in 2018, the ice cream trail is a partnership between the states Department of Community and Economic Developments tourism office, the Center for Dairy Excellence, as well as the states Department of Agriculture and its PA Preferred program, which identifies food produced in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation for ice cream production, according to a news release announcing this years ice cream trail.

Lackawanna County stops on the trail are Manning Farm Dairy in North Abington Twp. and Keatings Ice Cream in Jefferson Twp. Other local stops are Creamworks Creamery, Clinton Twp., Wayne County, and Milkhouse Creamery, West Hazleton, and the Lands at Hillside Farms, Shavertown, both Luzerne County.

In 2019, the program included a passport that ice cream tourists could get stamped at creameries and then redeem for T-shirts and even more ice cream. This year, passports are not part of the program because of COVID-19.

Karen Keating, owner of Keatings Ice Cream, said being part of the trail in 2019 brought in a lot of business from dessert day-trippers as far away as New York.

She said she is hopeful for a busy summer this year, especially because she did not open last season because of the pandemic.

A healthy, busy summer, she said.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a voting-rights challenge to Arizonas election laws, ruling the state may discard legal ballots that are cast in the wrong precinct even if doing so results in throwing out a much higher percentage of votes cast by Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans than whites.

The court also upheld a second provision that makes it a crime for anyone other than family members or postal workers to deliver a mail ballot, a rule that has a significant impact on tribal reservations.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices held the states election laws do not violate the Voting Rights Act and its ban on rules that have a discriminatory impact based on race or ethnicity.

Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said voting in Arizona is equally open to all eligible voters, and that mere inconvenience cannot be enough to demonstrate a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The courts three liberal justices dissented.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote: What is tragic here is that the court has (yet again) rewritten  in order to weaken  a statute that stands as a monument to Americas greatness, and protects against its basest impulses.

The decision overturned a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said last year that Arizona discarded far more ballots than any state in the nation by shifting its precincts often and by canceling all votes cast in the wrong place. In nearly all cases, these out of precinct voters were legally entitled to vote for a candidate for U.S. senator, U.S. representative, governor or president who appeared on the ballot.

The ruling is a victory for the Arizona Republican Party, which defended the states rules, and a defeat for the Democratic National Committee, which sued seeking to have them declared discriminatory and illegal.

In its defense, Arizona argued that half the states have laws that require voters to cast their ballots in the right precinct. California is not among them.

The Arizona case took on major importance this year because it comes amid a partisan national battle over voting rights and election rules  and because the Supreme Court has said remarkably little to clarify when state election rules become so strict they may interfere with the right to vote.

Eight years ago, the conservative justices in a 5-4 opinion threw out the part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that imposed federal oversight on the Southern states with a history of discriminating against Black or Latino voters. Arizona was among them.

After that ruling in Shelby County vs. Holder, states from Georgia to Texas and Arizona were free to adopt new election rules without preapproval from the Justice Department in Washington.

They could still face discrimination suits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which applies nationwide. But exactly what constitutes discrimination under the law has been unclear.

In 1982, Congress amended the law with a bipartisan compromise to say it does more than forbid intentionally racist rules. Rather, the law also forbids states and localities from imposing any voting rule or procedure which results in a denial or abridgement of the right...to vote on account of race.

In recent decades, this part of the law has been used to challenge state election maps whose districts were drawn in a way that made it hard for Black or Latino candidates to be elected. But the Supreme Court had not spoken on how the law applies to voting rules.

The Democratic National Committee sued over the two Arizona provisions that it said resulted in discrimination. Their lawyers alleged the wrong precinct rule resulted in discrimination against Latino voters in the Phoenix area who moved more often. In some areas, more than 40% of the voters had their precinct changed in the two years between elections.

The Democrats also alleged the criminal ban on so-called ballot harvesting had a discriminatory effect on Navajos and other Native Americans who lived on reservations with poor mail service.

They lost before a federal judge and a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit, but won before an 11-member group of the appeals court.

In a 7-4 decision, the appeals court said Arizona had by far the nations highest percentage of ballots discarded because they were cast in the wrong precinct. And it said Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans were more than twice as likely as whites to have their otherwise legal ballots thrown out.

The appeals court also described Arizonas history of discriminating against Latino and Native American voters. Its opinion noted that an earlier version of its criminal ban on ballot collection had been blocked as discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act, but was revived after the Supreme Courts ruling which lifted the pre-clearance rule.



2021 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
SCRANTON  Pennsylvania American Water is bringing 100 new jobs to Scranton through an affiliate that handles customer service and billing issues, the two companies recently announced.

The jobs are a lingering aspect of the water companys purchase of the Scranton sewer system in 2016.

The partner, EOS USA, one of Americas largest customer care and receivables management companies, will establish a new branch of EOS operations where the new employees will work at the Green Ridge Plaza, according to the announcement.

Pennsylvania American Water is proud of its 25-year history as a community partner in Scranton, and this announcement is another example of delivering on our commitments to the communities we serve, PAW President Mike Doran said in a statement. We are pleased to bring more than 100 new jobs to Scranton that will be supporting American Waters operations across the country from right here in Lackawanna County.

EOS provides critical customer care and call-center support for water company customers, ranging from scheduling service calls to addressing billing issues and all other inquiries, PAW spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said in an email.

Completed Dec. 29, 2016, the Scranton Sewer Authoritys $195 million sale of the Scranton/Dunmore sewer system called for, among other things, the water company to bring a minimum of 100 new jobs to Scranton by the end of 2020.

Those new jobs could be with the water company or an affiliate, and would have pay and benefits comparable to that of water company employees in similar positions, according to the terms of the sewer sale deal.

During development of the sewer sale in 2015 and 2016, former Mayor Bill Courtright and former Scranton Sewer Authority officials said the 100 new jobs would be worth $8.5 million in wages and benefits.

Turcmanovich said the water company could not speak to the $8.5 million figure cited by Courtright, but added, We can confirm that compensation and benefits for these new positions are comparable per the agreement.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in having all of the new jobs in place by the end of 2020, Turcmanovich said. EOS began recruiting last fall for the new jobs, with new hires following a work-from-home directive because of the pandemic.

EOS also experienced some difficulty securing a location for its new branch in the city, which caused the process to carry over into 2021, Turcmanovich said.

EOS, based in Norwell, Massachusetts, has had a long-standing relationship with the water company and has call centers in Illinois and Kentucky that service the water company, EOS Vice President Jay Hinckley said in a phone interview.

The Scranton location will be EOSs first center in Pennsylvania, he said. EOS is setting up shop in the space of three units in a building at the far end of the parking lot of Green Ridge Plaza, he said.

We completely demoed the space and are doing a buildout from the bottom up. We will put in a state-of-the-art call center, Hinckley said. This is pretty exciting for us and were looking forward to it.

The firm expects to hire more than 100 employees, Hinckley said, though he was unsure of an exact number. So far, EOS has hired 30 of the 100-plus employees and they are working remotely from their homes.

Recruitment began last fall and continues.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked diligently in 2020 to fulfill this commitment, including working with local agencies on job postings and open house hiring events, Turcmanovich said.

EOS expects to move into Green Ridge Plaza in the first half of September, Hinckley said.

Scranton City Council President Bill Gaughan, who is the only council member remaining in office from the time of the Courtright administrations monetization of the sewer system, said word of the new jobs comes as welcome news.

Our economy suffered tremendously due to pandemic and any time jobs are created its a good thing, Gaughan said. I appreciate them (PAW) fulfilling their commitment to the city.
Acknowledging the federal governments role in decades of systemic discrimination in agriculture, Congress in March approved $5 billion in debt forgiveness for farmers of color as part of President Joe Bidens $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

In response, some white farmers have sued the Biden administration for racial discrimination  not for having discriminated against farmers of color but for making an effort to address historic inequalities.

The lawsuit, launched by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, claims that dedicating resources to specific groups to which white farmers may not belong, is racist. The suit, similar to one filed in Texas, alleges that white farmers are victims of racism.

On June 10, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a temporary restraining order halting the program.

Yet Wisconsin provides a good example of how systemic racism has put Black farmers at a disadvantage. In addition to discrimination in housing, education and employment, the states Black farmers were historically denied loans because of the color of their skin.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines socially disadvantaged farmers as producers who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group. The agency has dispersed more than 500 grants totaling more than $138 million to disadvantaged farmers since 1994.

Pete Daniel, in his book Dispossession: Discrimination Against African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights, documents how Black farmers lost their operations at a disproportionate rate when compared to their white counterparts. They were systematically denied loans or not provided adequate information on how they could benefit from New Deal-era programs.

A 1999 federal court ruling, Pigford v. Glickman, sent about $1 billion to individual farmers who had experienced racial discrimination by the USDA. Similar victories were won by Latinx farmers in Garcia v. Vilsack and Native American farmers in Keepseagle v. Vilsack.

Other groups, including veterans and women, have also received special attention, but these did not lead to lawsuits on behalf of excluded whites, who are now falsely being portrayed as victims by political conservatives.

Moreover, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted, When you look at the COVID relief plans that had been passed and distributed by USDA (in 2020), and you look at who disproportionately received the benefits of those COVID payments, its pretty clear that white farmers did pretty well. One analysis found that white farmers received 97% of the money dispersed in the first of two pandemic relief programs last year.

If those responsible for these lawsuits cared about agriculture and rural communities, they would back the farmers of color, as well as bills introduced by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) to provide debt relief for small operators, by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) to strengthen the nations antitrust laws, or by Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) to place a moratorium on confined animal feeding operations.

Racism in agriculture is a historic fact that must be confronted directly. There is no anti-white racism involved in Bidens debt relief proposal, only an attempt to address decades of institutional discrimination so that the rural United States can take a step in the right direction.
If the GOP is supposed to be the pro-military party, former president Donald Trump didnt get the memo. He raged at his generals for supporting alliances such as NATO and for resisting his demands to crack the skulls of civil rights demonstrators. While reveling in military parades and props, Trump reportedly denounced top generals as dopes and babies and troops who fell in battle as suckers and losers.

Now Trumps ideological heirs carry on his odious battle against the military. Fox News host Tucker Carlson  a grizzled veteran of the culture wars  kicked off the latest offensive in March when he criticized an Air Force flight suit for pregnant women. Its a mockery of the U.S. military, he complained and went on to grumble that the U.S. armed forces are becoming more feminine while Chinas military becomes more masculine.

In May, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, posted an internet video that contrasted muscular Russian soldiers doing push-ups and jumping out of airplanes with a female U.S. soldier who was raised by two mothers. Holy crap, Cruz tweeted. Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea. Cruz then doubled down on his homophobia, accusing Dem politicians & woke media of trying to turn the armed forces into pansies. Promoting Russian propaganda to own the libs  brilliant!

At a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee last week, Republicans expressed outrage that an elective course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point includes information about critical race theory and white rage. This prompted a memorable rebuke from Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military ... of being woke or something else because were studying some theories that are out there, Milley said. I want to understand white rage  and Im white. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?

The generals explanation hit a little too close to home for a TV personality who personifies white rage while denying its existence. Carlson responded by calling Milley  a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan with degrees from Princeton and Columbia University  unimpressive. Hes not just a pig, Carlson opined, hes stupid.

His Fox colleague Laura Ingraham, taking a break from maligning Democrats for supposedly defunding the police, called on Congress to defund the military. Meanwhile, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, taking a break from defending himself against allegations of sex trafficking, tweeted: With generals like this its no wonder weve fought considerably more wars than weve won.

With conservatives like this, its no wonder our country is so screwed up. Thanks to Trump, the guardrails are gone. These right-wing blowhards  most of whom have never served a day in uniform  now feel free to revile decorated combat veterans such as Milley. Imagine what kind of hissy fit the right would throw if a member of the squad called a four-star general a stupid pig. Yet the most popular cable-TV host in America does it without a peep of protest from the right.

To anyone who is familiar with the military  a category that evidently excludes most Fox hosts and Republican lawmakers  the notion that it has been a hotbed of progressive ideology is absurd. Even though Trumps attempts to politicize the military reduced his support in the ranks, the military remains a deeply conservative, heavily Republican institution. Over the years, it has integrated Black people, women, gays, transgender people and others. But, at each step of the way, critics, internal and external, wrongly claimed that expanded diversity would hurt combat effectiveness.

One of Carlsons guests had the temerity to claim last week that We have been a colorblind culture in the United States military for almost 200 years. In fact, President Harry Truman ordered the military desegregated 73 years ago. Even today, there is widespread evidence of racism and discrimination within the armed forces. Right-wing extremism also remains a real concern: Some 10% of the defendants charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 are either veterans or active-duty service members.

In short, theres a good reason the military is trying to combat racism, sexism and other noxious sentiments: They present a clear and present danger to a diverse military force that must work together to defend the nation.

But right-wing politicians and commentators dont care about what is in the best interests of the armed forces. They care only about scoring their stupid political points  and they show no regard for the damage they inflict on an institution where far too many TVs are tuned to Fox News. Carlson & Co. are giving aid and encouragement to racists in the ranks, telling them, in effect, to ignore the guidance they receive from the chain of command. Theyre the ones  not the critical race theorists  who are hurting unit cohesion, good order and discipline.

I just wish the military-bashers would spare us the pretense that they are uber-patriots who support the troops. You cant be for the troops if youre waging war on the armed forces.

MAX BOOT is a Washington Post columnist.
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
State subsidy in Britain has had a bad rap since the wasteful 1970s.

Yet it is easy to forget that had British Leyland not been supported then there might be no Mini or Jaguar Land Rover today, or if Rolls-Royce had not been rescued in 1971 then aerospace would have been obliterated.

Indeed, while the UKs former EU partners have lavished assistance on aerospace in the pandemic (as has the US) the UK has adopted a hair-shirt approach, requiring carriers including BA owner IAG and Virgin Atlantic to sink or swim.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wants to save the remnants of Sanjiv Guptas imploding Liberty Steel empire including the Stocksbridge plant, a producer of greener, speciality steels

As part of the EU, Whitehall was more rigorous in enforcing state subsidy rules and competitive bidding than its Continental counterparts, to the detriment of industries such as train making.

It should come as a blessed relief that the UK is now seeking to control its industrial destiny with a nimble system of state subsidies.

Sensibly, constraints are built into the new system in the shape of an advice unit within the Competition and Markets Authority.

The assumption is that the subsidies largely will be used to back green projects and support levelling up.

Among early candidates will be that most basic of industries: steel-making.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is determined to keep alive the remnants of Sanjeev Guptas imploding Liberty Steel empire including the vital Stocksbridge plant, a producer of greener, speciality steels.

Another candidate for extra support could be the Rolls-Royce small modular reactors, flexible nuclear power units, which could create jobs, secure the finances of the nations premier engineering group and contribute to carbon reduction.

The freedom to help was a hard-won prize of Brexit. Using it frugally, rather than carelessly, will be the key.

French lessons

The great Marks & Spencer sandwich crisis in Paris, caused by over-zealous French enforcement of food hygiene and customs arrangements, is shocking enough.

Even more worrying is the sight of an unmasked Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase supremo, cosying up to President Emmanuel Macron.

With his re-election prospects in the balance, Macron, a former Rothschild banker, knows better than most the value of financial services to an economy.

There remains resentment in France at the way the UK has vacuumed up so much of Europes activity, with South Kensington a home-from-home for French traders in London.

The new JP Morgan Paris HQ is designed to host 800 people and that includes 265 pre-Brexit staff and a further 440 expected to be recruited or transferred from London by year end.

Dimon is playing both sides. Macrons goal is to entice euro derivatives trading and settlement to Paris. He is pushing on an open door in that a much-wanted financial services standstill between London and Brussels looks elusive. To Britains advantage are the economics and risk factors.

A deeper market in the Square Mile improves liquidity and pricing and will militate against Balkanisation of enforcement.

It is not exactly as if Dimon has given up on the UK. JP Morgan employs some 10,000 people in London plus many thousands more in back office work in Dorset.

Dimon has chosen Britain for the launch of Chase, its digital bank in Europe, which has just snapped up UK fintech asset management start-up Nutmeg.

Fresh data from Tech Nation shows that the UK has 100 tech firms worth more than $1billion, putting it third in the world behind the US and China, with fintech leading the charge.

It is critical that the City, which powers 7pc of GDP and the tax system, is not weakened by Brexit. Macrons demarche looks as much political as economic.

Hot-wired

The pandemic has been transformational for Dixons Carphone. A huge uplift in online penetration, great demand for electricals and electronics for home working and play have fundamentally changed the outlook.

It allowed it to look through the black hole from flawed mobile contracts and closure of the Carphone chain and generate cash flow of 438million.

Furlough and business rates have been returned to the Exchequer, and the dividend restored.

And there is no sign the appetite for electronics, gaming and the like is over. Chief executive Alex Baldock has guided a notoriously volatile retailer to safety.
Women endure sexism in all walks of life. But in the male-dominated word of mining it has emerged in the most sinister form.

Shocking allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment at mining camps across Australia have sparked calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the mistreatment of women.

While other industries can focus on hitting gender targets and bringing more women into the boardroom, mining bosses are battling to make female employees feel safe at night.

Shocking allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment at mining camps across Australia have sparked calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the mistreatment of women

Last week senior executives at five mining giants, including FTSE 100-listed BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, held an extraordinary press conference in which they apologised to victims of rape and harassment and backed calls for an official inquiry into the problem.

The show of solidarity in Perth was supported by Western Australia's premier Mark McGowan, who backed a review and promised to try to get it started as soon as possible.

Stressing their 'zero tolerance' approach to workplace rape, assault or harassment, the mining companies have vowed to do everything in their power to make the industry safer for women.

This includes investing in more surveillance cameras and street lighting, and developing a new smartphone app which tracks workers' movements and can be used to call for help if they feel threatened.

An industry code of conduct is also being drawn up for mine camps across Western Australia to stamp out abuse of women, who still make up less than a quarter of the workforce.

And, in a clear sign of the scale of the crisis, bosses in this beer-loving country are considering plans to emulate the booze curbs announced recently by BHP.

Mining behemoth Rio Tinto confirmed that it was among those weighing up tougher alcohol restrictions, which are likely to be deeply unpopular among its workforce.

Paul Everingham, chief executive of lobby group the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, has been spearheading the drive to tackle sexual harassment which he admitted is 'prevalent' in the industry.

This month, a BHP worker was charged with the rape of a female colleague in the mining camp near the company's enormous South Flank iron ore operation in Pilbara (pictured)

He said: 'The resources industry has got a zero tolerance policy of workplace rape, harassment, or assault of any kind.

'Wherever it has happened previously we are very sorry that it has happened and we apologise for any hurt or distress that it has caused.

'We now need to work our hardest to make sure people are safe at all times on our sites and that if an incident does happen they feel comfortable coming forward and reporting it.'

One approach, he said, is tackling excessive alcohol consumption among mine workers, which has been at the root of some of the most disturbing claims.

'Some people love to have a beer and we've got to weigh up how much of a risk factor alcohol consumption is,' he said.

'On oil and gas sites offshore, alcohol is not permitted.

'And our members are reviewing their acceptance or otherwise of alcohol consumption because it's definitely a risk factor.

I can see the industry certainly moving closer much more towards lower consumption of alcohol.'

This month, a 35-year-old BHP worker was charged with the rape of a female colleague as she returned to her accommodation in the Mulla Mulla Village, the camp near the company's enormous South Flank iron ore operation in Pilbara.

She had reportedly rejected advances from male colleagues at the mine camp's 'wet mess', a dining area where workers often meet for drinks after her shift.

Prosecutors allege the man entered the woman's hut  or 'donga'  while she was heavily intoxicated and raped her while she was barely conscious.

Last week it emerged that a second 'fly in, fly out' BHP employee has been charged with raping a colleague in Pilbara while they were off-duty in Perth.

Fortescue Metals Group also revealed it is assisting police with an investigation into the attempted rape of a female worker at one of its mines in Pilbara.

Zero tolerance: Western Australia's premier Mark McGowan has backed official inquiry into the mistreatment of women in the mining industry

Female workers have also come forward to describe a toxic 'Wild West' culture at mining camps, with widespread binge drinking and sexual harassment of women.

There have also been claims of men trying to pay cleaners to have sex with them.

According to a major report published last year by the Australian Human Rights Commission, just under three-quarters of women in mining have experienced harassment over the last five years.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, one female worker said it is 'sickening' how common sexual harassment and assault was in the mining camps.

But Mick Buchan, the leader of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union in Western Australia, said that the mining giants are partly to blame for this crisis.

He believes poor living conditions and gruelling working hours at the mine camps have fuelled excessive drinking and anti-social behaviour.

This, he said, urgently needs to be addressed as part of any inquiry into sexual harassment in the industry.

He said: 'The evidence shows that sexual discrimination and harassment occurs across every single mine site in Australia. But this is not a problem unique to the mining industry.

'It is a problem within our whole society, and it gets amplified where any group of people are taken away from the connection and influence of their community and their family.'

He added: 'The mining companies will give out platitudes about needing to tackle sexual harassment and their support for an inquiry.

'But the truth is they've been putting profits before people by actively undermining the stability and quality of community on their mine sites for the last decade to save a few bucks.'

BHP said it has brought in more security guards and patrols, and introduced a chaperone service to escort staff back to their accommodation. It is also investing more than 160million in further upgrading camp rooms and beefing up security.

This will include installing swipe card entry doors on 'dongas', more CCTV cameras, and security lighting.

Brandon Craig, head of BHP's iron ore operations in Western Australia, said: 'BHP is working hard to make our company safer and more inclusive, and prevent harassment and assault.'
America is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, and treating the problem is big business.

Nearly 50,000 people die each year from opioid overdoses, while a further 1.7m in the US suffer from disorders after taking prescription pain relievers.

The problem started in the 1990s when pharmaceutical giants prescribed opioids on a big scale, but the medical community failed to foresee that patients would become heavily addicted.

High demand: FTSE 250 pharmaceutical firm Indivior makes the drug suboxone which is given to people who have started addiction treatment

The US Department of Health has declared war on the crisis and one of the best ways to combat the problem is to promote overdose-reversing drugs.

One company that makes such treatments is Indivior, which is listed on the FTSE 250 in London but based in Virginia. Its suboxone is given to people who have started addiction treatment.

The opioid problem has got even worse during lockdown and as a result the company has upgraded forecasts and now expects to generate revenue of 534million this year, up from a previous estimate of up to 451million.

The update will have come as a relief for Indivior and its investors. Last month it suffered a revolt at its annual meeting when 38 per cent of votes cast went against its pay report.

Stock Watch - Pendragon Car dealer Pendragon expects to swing to a half-year profit thanks to a surge in demand in May and June, but has warned of a shortage of new vehicles. It expects to post underlying pre-tax profits of around 30million for the first six months of 2021, against underlying losses of 31million a year earlier with annual profits predicted to be 45-50million, up from 8.2million last year. It said trading had been particularly strong this month and last, with the used car market leading the way and pent-up demand boosting prices. Shares rose 0.41 per cent, or 0.08p, to 18.5p.

Shareholders objected to the decision to maintain bonuses for former chief executive Shaun Thaxter, despite him being jailed for his role in the US opioid crisis.

Under Thaxter Indivior made misleading safety claims about suboxone to win endorsement from doctors. Shares were up 6.4 per cent, or 9.3p, at 154.6p.

But the FTSE 100 index was treading water for a second straight session, down 0.7 per cent, or 50.08 points, at 7037.47.

All eyes were on the Opec meeting today in what has so far been an excellent year for the oil industry as economies around the globe roar back to life.

As a result Brent crude prices have risen from $50 per barrel in January to hit $75 and the chatter is that prices will touch $100 a barrel before the end of the year for the first time since 2014.

Opec is expected to decide to raise output by 500,000 to 1m barrels a day at the meeting, according to RBC Capital Markets.

The coalition will answer the call to put more barrels on the market, the analysts report.

The oil industry is undergoing rapid change as concerns over climate change lead to actions that will cut fossil fuel consumption.

But many investors want to see producers ramp up exploration and refining projects.

BP was down 0.3 per cent, or 1p, at 315p, while Shell dipped 0.1 per cent, or 1.4p, to 1399p.

Another notable faller was Serco which will lose Track and Trace work as the virus begins to fade away.

Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Test and Trace system had failed in Sercos hands, but the Government has repeatedly stood by chief executive Rupert Soames and Serco, handing it contract extensions.

Soames said: Our view is that the use of Test and Trace will reduce substantially in the second half, but its likely something will continue into next year though.

Government will likely want to keep a residual capacity, but I dont think thats going to cost a substantial amount of money. Serco fell 1.3 per cent, or 1.8p, to 135.7p.

Elsewhere on the FTSE 250, Morrisons was on the charge as brokers speculated that a fresh bid from Clayton Dubilier & Rice was imminent.

The supermarket rejected the first bid which valued it at 5.5billion, because it said undervalued the company.

One broker said: Word is a fresh bid is coming this week. Lets see if it can get the board to the table this time around.

Morrisons largest investors, including hedge fund Silchester, have so far declined to comment on any potential deal. Shares were up 4.5 per cent, or 10.7p, to 246.7p.
The City watchdog has blasted firms that are supposed to oversee fund managers such as Neil Woodford.

In a scathing review the Financial Conduct Authority said Authorised Fund Managers (AFMs) suffered from governance weaknesses and conflicts of interest.

Though the FCA's report did not shame any AFMs by name, it comes in the wake of the Woodford fund implosions that resulted in thousands of ordinary investors losing their savings.

Loose canon: The Financial Conduct Authority's review comes in the wake of Neil Woodford's (pictured) fund implosions that resulted in thousands of ordinary investors losing their savings

Woodford's AFM was Link Fund Solutions, which was supposed to make sure capital requirements were met and was ultimately responsible for the funds.

All UK funds have an AFM, who is separate from the manager and must ensure the fund complies with FCA rules.

Link is being sued by savers who say it should have kept Woodford (pictured) on a shorter leash.

The FCA said AFMs failed to focus on risks posed to investors by 'inappropriate or poor value' funds.

Some referred to funds as if they were solely operated by the third-party manager, the FCA said, and did not mention their own responsibilities.

Sheldon Mills, at the FCA, said: 'Some firms are not sufficiently meeting FCA standards and we want to see significant improvement.

'We expect firms to look at the key findings on governance structures, conflicts of interest, operational controls, and the other areas highlighted and take action.'

Conflicts of interest were raised when Woodford's flagship Equity Income fund collapsed in 2019.

Investors accused Link of failing to keep a close eye on his management of the fund, as he broke rules on how much should be invested in listed firms, and tried to dodge rules by listing some shares on the obscure Guernsey exchange.

While savers said Link should have spotted this behaviour, industry sources said it could be tricky for an AFM to criticise a manager when it was that same manager who was effectively paying its wages.

Ryan Hughes, of AJ Bell, said: 'Some findings from the FCA will be of concern, particularly a lack of adequate oversight, a lack of in-depth understanding and a lack of evidence around robust governance procedures.

'It is exactly these kind of challenges that have been discussed at length regarding Woodford.'

The watchdog's review said some findings were also applicable to in-house AFMs.
Nissan has unveiled plans for a huge factory in Sunderland to make batteries for electric cars.

The Japanese firm already makes the Leaf vehicle at the plant, which opened in 1986, but this would be a significant expansion - and the deal includes the North East car factory producing a 'next-generation' crossover.

Bosses say the gigafactory will produce around 100,000 batteries per year.

On the charge: Nissan has unveiled plans to build a battery 'gigafactory' at its plant in Sunderland where it currently produces the Leaf electric vehicle (pictured)

And other models, including the Qashqai and Juke, will continued to be produced in Sunderland, say reports.

More than 1,600 jobs will be created in Sunderland and an estimated 4,500 in supply companies under an investment of 1billion.

The gigafactory would be the first in the UK by a major car maker. Britishvolt, a start-up backed by Emirati and Scandinavian investors, is separately plotting a 2.6billion facility in Blyth, Northumberland, that would produce 300,000 batteries a year.

The factories will be crucial to plans to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, with the Government seeking to encourage similar proposals from other companies.

Nissan said its Electric Vehicle (EV) Hub will be a world-first EV manufacturing ecosystem

This is the first image of the electric crossover that will likely be produced at the Sunderland car plant that will be powered by batteries produced at the new gigafactory

Bosses at Nissan have agreed the plans after assurances of support from the Government, on top of its own 420million investment.

It is thought the plant could open in 2024, creating thousands of jobs. Nissan said Sunderland has played a pioneering role in developing the electric vehicle market.

It said: We will continue to electrify our line-up as part of our global journey towards carbon neutrality.
When Margaret Thatcher cut the ribbon on Nissan's Sunderland plant 35 years ago, the then prime minister expressed hope it would pave the way for more car makers to invest in Britain.

Sure enough, the Japanese giant's rivals soon followed, with Toyota setting up shop in Derby and Honda in Swindon  helping to create thousands of jobs in the process.

Now Boris Johnson is trying to repeat the trick with plans to lure electric car makers to UK shores  and Nissan may once again have provided a timely leg-up.

Green future: Japanese car maker Nissan has unveiled plans for a 1bn upgrade of its Sunderland site (pictured)

To the Prime Minister's delight, the company has unveiled plans for a 1billion upgrade of its Sunderland site as it prepares for a green future.

This includes a 423million investment to produce an all-electric model at the plant, as well as electrified versions of the Qashqai and Juke models that are already made there. Nissan produces the all-electric Leaf in Sunderland too, and this will continue.

At the same time, another 450million is being invested by battery maker Envision into a massive 'gigafactory' next door that will produce batteries for the cars. The deal is a major boost to Britain's automotive sector and puts to bed fears that Nissan would exit the UK after Brexit.

It also follows the announcement of similar plans by start-up Britishvolt, which hopes to build another huge gigafactory in Blyth, Northumberland.

Yet ministers hope this is just the beginning of a wave of new investment into the car industry, which has been battered by coronavirus and faces enormous upheaval.

To ensure this happens, they are seemingly prepared to put serious cash on the table. Nissan said a key influence on its decision was the Government's willingness to provide support to the project, thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds.

And Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has said he is in talks with other car manufacturers as well about new investment.

He hailed Nissan's plans as 'a huge step forward in our ambition to put the UK at the front of the global electric vehicle race, and further proof that the UK remains one of the most competitive locations in the world for automotive manufacturing'.

An artist's impression of battery maker Envision's proposed 450million 'gigafactory' next door to Nissan's Sunderland plant

He added: 'The cars made in this plant, using batteries made just down the road, will have a huge role to play as we transition away from petrol and diesel cars and kick-start a domestic electric vehicle manufacturing base.'

Securing battery 'gigafactories'  a term first coined by electric car maker Tesla's founder Elon Musk  is seen as crucial for any country with serious ambitions to produce electric cars.

This is because the battery is the most valuable component in most electric vehicles. And that distinction will soon become even more important, due to the terms of the UK's trade deal with the European Union.

Under the accord, cars exported from Britain to the continent will need to have a certain proportion of parts made domestically to avoid being hit with tariffs.

This effectively means fewer components can be shipped in from other countries such as China and Japan for assembly in the UK.

The rules are due to come into force from 2024 and will slowly ratchet up, requiring more and more parts to originate here.

That presents car manufacturers with a choice of either doubling down on the UK, by bringing more production onshore, or winding down their operations as petrol and diesel cars are phased out of use.

Nissan has opted for the former  and said that the decision to make Sunderland its European electric vehicles hub demonstrated a 'renaissance of the British car industry'.

But other manufacturers such as Vauxhall are still examining their options. The firm is weighing whether to produce electric cars at its Ellesmere Port site in Cheshire, while companies such as BT also want it to cut the price of its electric Vivaro vans by making them at its plant in Luton.

Carlos Tavares, chief executive of Vauxhall owner Stellantis, has previously complained about new costs arising from Brexit and the 'brutal' impact of Boris Johnson's 2030 ban of internal combustion engine cars.

Expansion: Nissan is investing 423m to produce an all-electric model at its Sunderland plant, as well as electrified versions of the Qashqai and Juke models that are already made there

It is now being claimed that talks between the firm and ministers are going well, however, and that an announcement of fresh investment at Ellesmere Port could be just 'weeks away'.

But despite the upbeat tone, ministers face a ticking clock.

Research institute, The Faraday Institution, estimates Britain will need eight gigafactories by 2040 to meet demand for electric cars.

Without this level of investment, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has warned of 'precipitous decline' for an industry that currently supports 180,000 jobs.

And critics say that it must be secured now or never.

Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said: 'The next few years represent a critical period for the sector.

'The pace of technological change is accelerating and the competition more ferocious.

'If we are to secure vehicle manufacturing in this country, with all the benefits that it brings, decisions need to be made today.

'The Government has made clear its support for the sector, so now is the time to go full throttle.'

Alan Johnson, managing director of Nissan's Sunderland plant, said he believed the future of the UK automotive sector will be 'extremely positive'.

Referring to Nissan's investment, he said: 'This is a foundation for our future.

'It is huge  and I think only in time will people come to realise just how significant it is.'

That is certainly what Boris Johnson will be hoping as he seeks to revitalise Britain's car industry once again.
MPs have waded into the Morrisons private equity takeover row, asking regulators whether they may be able to intervene.

In a letter to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Darren Jones, chairman of the House of Commons' Business Committee, raised concerns about the 5.5billion bid for the supermarket group by US private equity giant Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CDR).

In a sign of the growing scrutiny of private equity firms, Jones asked the CMA whether it had powers to investigate the bid, and what issues the watchdog might consider.

MPs have raised concerns about the 5.5bn bid for Morrisons by US private equity giant Clayton Dubilier & Rice

Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, said: 'British supermarkets are the latest area of interest for private equity and other buyers using significant amounts of debt.

'Some stakeholders have raised concerns about what this might mean for the protection of jobs, pension funds and supermarkets presence on British high streets.

Whilst activity levels are currently low, I am keen to understand what regulatory oversight is in place to ensure any future transactions protect consumers and workers.'

Morrisons has tried to fight off CDR, and shareholders including Legal & General have hit out at the 'lowball' bid.

But private equity predators have been circling the stock market with renewed determination since the pandemic began.
TIFTON [mdash] Everette Allen Ivey, 80, of Tifton passed away Sunday, June 27, 2021, at his residence. A graveside funeral service will be held for Mr. Ivey at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, July 1, 2021, at Oak Ridge Cemetery, where he will be laid to rest. The Rev. Rickey Wells will officiate. The fa
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HAGERSTOWN  Lois E. Harpold, 75, of Hagerstown, died Thursday, June 24, 2021, at her daughter's house in Philadelphia. Lois was born Dec. 26, 1945, the youngest of eight children born to the Rev. William C. and Drewry E. Harpold. Besides her parents, Lois was preceded in death by sister, Fl
Bill Cosby gestures outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., Wednesday, June 30, 2021, after being released from prison. Pennsylvania's highest court has overturned comedian Cosby's sex assault conviction. The court said Wednesday, that they found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. The 83-year-old Cosby had served more than two years at the state prison near Philadelphia and was released.


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Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High near 80F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

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When officers arrived at the West Side Inn Thursday morning, they saw 54-year-old Lisa Short armed with a handgun.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks to a joint session of the Tennessee Legislature at the start of a special session on education Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Nashville, Tenn.
Before the pandemic hit, Jacqueline Bartley, a mother of two girls and a boy, had a comfortable life. Then the 41-year-old lost her job at American Airlines, quickly spent her savings and found herself months behind on the $1,350-a-month home she rented. Until then she had never missed a rent payment.

Bartley, of Durham, North Carolina, turned to the state's rental assistance program and was relieved in January to be awarded $8,100. But she says her landlord refused the money after she rejected his request to amend her two-year lease to a shorter period. The program required landlords to honor leases, among other conditions, to get the money.

She turned to a second program launched this month by the state and again was approved. Last week, she learned her landlord had accepted nearly $20,000 for back rent and three months of future payments, and agreed to dismiss his eviction lawsuit.

The news means she won't be forced from her home after the federal eviction moratorium ends July 31. But the waiting and uncertainty meant months of stress.

Its been crazy especially when you have children in school, Bartley said. Its pretty much been going by a whim. OK, am I going to have somewhere to go each month?

Millions have found themselves in situations similar to Bartley's, facing possible eviction despite bold promises by governors to help renters after Congress passed the sweeping CARES Act in March 2020.

Nationwide, state leaders set aside at least $2.6 billion from the CARES Acts Coronavirus Relief Fund to prop up struggling renters, but a year later more than $425 million of that  or 16%  hadn't made it into the pockets of tenants or their landlords, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and The Associated Press.

Its mind-boggling, said Anne Kat Alexander, a project manager with Princeton Universitys Eviction Lab. I knew there were problems but thats a huge amount of money not to be disbursed in a timely manner.

Like many state leaders, North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper pledged to roll out an ambitious program last year offering tens of millions of dollars in federal aid that would help cover unpaid rent.

But it took months to get up and running and stopped accepting applications just weeks after it finally opened in October due to overwhelming demand. The 20 nonprofits designated to distribute the money often lacked the capacity to get it out quickly.

Then, faced with the Republican-controlled Legislature's takeover of CARES Act spending in January, the state had less money to award applicants. It eventually spent $133 million of a promised $167 million  far short of what some housing advocates say is needed.

We knew the money would not be enough. There were too many people who needed rental assistance, said Pamela Atwood, director of housing policy at the North Carolina Housing Coalition. There was a lot of poor execution in rolling out that first program and it caused a lot of inefficiency.

Tens of billions of dollars more in rental assistance have been delivered to states from the federal government in 2021, but that has been slow to be disbursed, too.

With the first round of funds in 2020, bureaucracy was not the only problem. Politics also played a role, with a handful of states, many led by Republicans and with a history of weak tenant protections, offering little to no assistance.

Then, there was the often onerous application process and an end-of-the-year federal deadline for spending the money, extended so late that some states had already pulled funding to use on other expenses. Some landlords refused to participate over restrictions that meant they could not evict a tenant who fell behind again after the assistance. Tenants sometimes short-changed themselves by filing incomplete applications.

Congress' sweeping 2020 CARES Act sent billions of dollars to states and some local governments. But it didnt mandate that any money be spent on rental assistance, leaving it to states to create their own programs and set the rules.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalitions database of rent relief programs in 2020, Georgia, West Virginia and Tennessee, all run by Republican governors, chose not to set up statewide rent-relief programs that year, despite having higher than average historic eviction rates. South Carolina allocated less than $14 per renter-occupied household.

Georgias Department of Community Affairs tried to set up a rental assistance program with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the fall of 2020, but when it became clear that a separate, larger amount of money would be coming from the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2021, the program stalled, said Susan Reif, housing unit director for Georgia Legal Services Program and director of the Eviction Prevention Project.

Still, many states did scramble into action, creating massive programs to keep families in their homes  the safest place to shelter during the coronavirus pandemic. By the summer of 2020, state and local government officials launched about 530 rental assistance programs, setting aside at least $4.3 billion from various sources.

Several states were praised for programs that ran well. Illinois, Indiana, Oregon and Washington state were among more than a dozen that reported distributing every dollar of the rental assistance set aside from the Coronavirus Relief Fund by March 31.

The Center for Public Integrity surveyed about 70 state and local agencies that the National Low Income Housing Coalition identified as having set aside Coronavirus Relief Fund money for rent help in 2020. About $1 out of every $6 of that $2.6 billion wound up getting spent on other COVID-19-related expenses, such as protective equipment, police officers' salaries and small-business loans.

Some states also spent millions of dollars setting up their programs, including North Carolina, which allocated around $20 million on administrative costs, and Hawaii, which spent $8 million. In the case of Hawaii, much of that went to help nonprofits scale up and rent space. The state also spent money on a software system in an effort to prevent fraud.

Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said last years funding challenges led Congress to earmark nearly $47 billion specifically for emergency rental assistance in December and March.

The previous funds, the vast majority of them, were very flexible and had a broad set of allowable uses," of which eviction prevention was just one, said Yentel, whose group has been tracking rental assistance programs.

Some states and cities carved out some of those funds for eviction prevention and to create emergency rental assistance programs," she said. "But many didnt or many didnt set aside enough.

Among the biggest challenges was states' failure to spend what they had allocated.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency received $150 million to help renters, but returned about $96 million to the state treasury, which plugged holes in the states public safety budget. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation earmarked $250 million for rental assistance but returned about $99 million to the state treasury to be spent on other programs. Eighty-three percent of Montanas $50 million set aside for rental assistance went back to the state. New York ended up spending only $47.5 million of the $100 million promised for rental assistance.

New York's 2020 rent-relief program was set up to fail, said Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at Legal Aid Society in New York. It was a program that really punished people. There was a real intention to make sure people didnt do better in being hurt by COVID, so if they were struggling before, they should be struggling after.

Tenants had to prove they were rent-burdened before the pandemic to qualify for rent relief in 2020, though eventually that stipulation was removed.

Hawaii spent around $71 million of the $100 million initially promised, though an analysis by the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice found the state spent the most per capita, at $44.50. Still, the Legislature set a late December deadline for the spending, which meant the remaining $29 million had to be redirected to the states unemployment insurance trust fund.

It would have been better to base the ending of the program on the CARES Act spending deadline with whatever extensions were enacted, because ultimately the deadline was extended, said Gavin Thornton, the centers executive director. If that had been done, the program would have continued, and landlords and tenants would have been able to continue to access those funds, which were certainly needed.

Smaller cities and counties were affected too. In Marion County, Florida, none of the $1 million set aside for renters from the Coronavirus Relief Fund ever made it to people who needed it because the United Way of Marion County, which administered the funds, didnt have enough workers to process applications, said Scot Quintel, the organizations president. The United Way was able to distribute rent assistance from another source, but the Coronavirus Relief Fund money went back to the city for other COVID-19-related expenses.

Its just horrifying how ill-prepared some states were, said Alexander, of the Eviction Lab. Some places made it work and some places didnt, which demonstrates that the places that didnt probably could have.

In Athens, Georgia, Dylyn Price said she got about $5,800 in rental assistance but that may not prevent her from losing her home. After her pay and hours at a fast food restaurant were cut, eviction notices started arriving in early 2020. They havent let up.

Price received rental assistance from the Ark, a nonprofit administering funds from the CARES Act on behalf of the city of Athens, but the assistance ended earlier this year. Prices landlord has refused to renew her lease after it expires Wednesday.

She fears having to live, once again, in a homeless shelter with her 14-year-old son.

Its a very nauseating and uncomfortable situation to be in, Price said.

___

Casey reported from Boston, Kleiner reported from Washington, D.C., and Johnston reported from Brook Park, Ohio. Casey can be reached at mcasey@ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at @mcasey1. Kleiner can be reached at skleiner@publicintegrity.org. Follow her on Twitter at @bysarahkleiner.



This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in Washington.
NEW YORK (AP)  On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally endorsed the Declaration of Independence. Celebrations began within days: parades and public readings, bonfires and candles and the firing of 13 musket rounds, one for each of the original states.

Nearly a century passed before the country officially named its founding a holiday.

With the recent passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, the country now has 12 federal holidays. Many are fixtures in the American calendar, but their presence isn't only a story of continuity. They reflect how the U.S. has evolved  from an affiliation of states with a relatively small federal government to a more centralized nation.

Statewide and local gatherings for Independence Day and other holidays are as old as the country itself. But the first round of federal holidays, identified as such because federal employees (initially only federal employees in Washington, D.C.) were given the day off, was only signed into law in 1870, by President Ulysses S. Grant, five years after the Civil War ended.

The Civil War consolidated national power in all sorts of ways, and national holidays are an illustration of that, says the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner. There were many, many firsts after the Civil War.

Juneteenth and other federal holidays have passed with substantial majorities in Congress, suggesting broad, bipartisan consensus. The first holidays, notes Grant biographer Ron Chernow, were the safest ones at the time  New Years Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and George Washington's birthday (enacted in 1879).

They followed the Civil War, but, by no accident, they had nothing to do with the Civil War. The war wounds were still deep and irrevocable, and any commemoration of the war itself would have been seen as divisive," Chernow says. He notes that Memorial Day, the honoring of those who died in war, did not become a federal holiday until 1888.

The first five federal holidays ... attempted to restore common ground between North and South, Chernow says. Both sides in the Civil War claimed to have fought in the spirit of the American Revolution. It was therefore easy for both sides to honor Washingtons birthday and Independence Day.

Whether statements of patriotism or social justice, federal holidays mirror a part of the country's sense of itself and how it changes.

Public support to make the Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday a holiday was so strong that it was signed into law in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, who had opposed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in the 1960s and privately believed the late civil rights leaders standing was based on an image, not reality. Even then, Arizona, New Hampshire and South Carolina resisted making it a state holiday, with South Carolina waiting until 2000. Alabama and Mississippi still pair King's birthday with the birthday of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1968, endorsed by Congress and President Lyndon Johnson as a tribute to immigrants and as a declaration of willingness to face with confidence the imponderables of unknown tomorrows, according to a Senate report at the time. But over the past 40 years, as Columbus' image has shifted from the discoverer of America to that of a racist and imperialist, cities and states have either changed the holiday's name (Hawaii calls it Discovery Day) or used the day to honor others; since 1989, South Dakoka has called it Native American Day.

You can think of federal holidays as being like monuments erected in parks, says Matthew Dennis, author of Red, White, and Blue Letter Days, a 2002 book on American holidays. With a monument, you try to set the meaning of the past in stone. But that can change, and people might say, Wait, who is this guy?

Among national holidays, July 4 stands as the most complex and debated, a reflection of the questions and contradictions about the country's origins and about the Declaration of Independence itself.

Independence Day has been caught up in the country's divisions almost from the start. In the 1780s and 1790s, supporters of a stronger central government (Federalists) and those who worried about a return to British-style monarchy (sometimes called Jeffersonian Republicans), argued over the authorship of the Declaration of Independence, with Republicans giving sole credit to their own Thomas Jefferson and Federalists countering (correctly) that many others had worked on it.

In the decades before the Civil War, Black Americans were often excluded from official July 4 events and instead would celebrate on July 5, both acknowledging July 4 and their distance from it. Frederick Douglass delivered his famed 1852 speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July, on July 5.

The Civil War itself was a time for competing interpretations. Southerners embraced the Declaration of Independence's message of defiance against tyranny. The North looked to it as a blueprint. In a letter to Congress sent on July 4, 1861, just months after the Civil War began, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of Independence Day as inspiration for a new and more humane society.

Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words `all men are created equal, Lincoln wrote, adding that the Union was upholding "government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.

The meaning of July 4 has continued to evolve, from president to president. Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush are among those who dedicated Independence Day speeches to the military, whether during World War II or in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. John F. Kennedy's 1962 address, in the midst of the Cold War, called independence the single issue that divides the world today and invoked the longing for independence behind the Iron Curtain. In 2014, President Barack Obama cited the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as a reason immigrants from around the world dream of coming to our shores.

For Independence Day in 2020, less than two months after the murder of George Floyd, President Donald Trump denounced Black Lives Matters protesters and what he called a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children. His eventual successor, Joe Biden, issued a brief video saying the country had yet to live up to its promise of equality, noting that even Jefferson was a slaveholder.

But once proposed, it (equality) was an idea that couldn't be constrained, he said. It survived the rages of the Civil War, the dogs of Bull Connor, the assassination of Martin Luther King and more 200 years of systematic racism.

America is no fairy tale," Biden added. "It's been a constant push and pull between two parts of our character: the idea that all men and women  all people  are created equal and the racism that has torn us apart.

___

Hillel Italie, the books and publishing writer for The Associated Press, writes frequently about culture and history.
On the surface, the short feature A Void, which premieres this weekend at the Madison Theatre in Albany, appears to be a science-fiction story about the laboratory creation of a bubble of pure emptiness.

But for 32-year-old filmmaker and Colonie native Joe Gietl, the concept is a metaphor for something much deeper.

Gietl will mark 11 years of sobriety later this month, knows something about feeling surrounded by emptiness. Growing up, I was that class clown type of guy, he said. I wanted that validation  people thinking I was funny, or liking me. I think there was a sadness, even from a young age.

As happens for many creatives, Gietls desire for a future career as an artist ran up against the usual admonitions  being told that those kinds of dreams come true only for one in a million, for instance. Yet the desire for attention persisted, creating internal turmoil that he eventually tried to resolve through drug use. When he was using, it felt like I could be myself, he explained. All that performative stuff that I was doing my whole life for attention or for love  it was answering those questions.

But he was not in any sense what he calls a functional drug user: He dropped out of college, struggled to keep jobs and found himself on a rapid descent into a void of his own. I got to the point where I thought I didnt care if I lived or died, and that happened within the course of a year, he recounted. At his lowest point, sick and teetering on the edge of death, he made a call for help to someone he describes as being extremely supportive throughout his life: his mom, Paula Conklin. Thank God she answered the phone, he added.

He would subsequently spend multiple days in an intensive care unit, and it was during that time that, as he explains it, Something clicked in me. In rehab, he found a passion for writing about his experience  first in the form of lyrics, later as stories and eventually as film scripts. I clung to that like a life raft, he said. As he began to find his voice, he also developed a healthy perspective on success  one that included an acceptance of small failures along the way as necessary and inevitable.

Thats how he frames his attempt at launching himself in Los Angeles, where he moved after getting just 10 months of sobriety under his belt. I had no idea who I was. It was this lonely feeling of Im in this amazing place now; Im here but I'm not a part of it, he said. He returned home around a year later, just in time to attend the funeral of his beloved grandfather Sam Papa. Though the L.A. venture felt like a failure, he said, going out there helped me figure out who I was again.

Today, as is common for people in recovery, Gietl shares what hes figured out with others just getting sober. And although the new film doesnt draw directly from those experiences, he said, It cant help but be a theme in anything I do.

"A Void" is Gietl's second film after Museum, which screened at the Adirondack Film Festival in 2019, and grief is a major theme. One of the main characters, played by actress Kristin Noriega, processes hers by devoting her energies toward finding a breakthrough in the lab; her husband, played by Mu-Shaka Benson, seeks refuge in memories instead. Gietl can relate to the choices of both characters. Its almost like I was transferring my own feelings of emptiness into something meaningful, he explained.

Finding his path drew upon inspiration from other films  among them a documentary about Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, One More Time with Feeling, which looks at Caves experience of losing his teenage son during the recording of a new album. He likened grief to being attached to a rubber band, and no matter how far away you get ... you keep snapping back to it, Gietl recalled, adding that seeing that film freed him to create his own narrative in a fragmented, nonlinear way, with his characters compelled to return repeatedly to the event at the center of their grief.

He also drew upon support from The APB, a Troy-based film production collective that connected him with experienced creatives and served as an incubator for his vision. According to Gietl, the opportunity to work with people like commercial producer John W. Yost, production designer John Stegemann, cinematographer Jim Powers and visual effects designer Lawrence Basso, made up for his lack of professional training. I didnt go to film school, he explained. I just made a movie.

Further networking led him to find Beth Hinde, a writer-producer based in Des Moines, Iowa, who became a primary investor in the film. He put his own money into the project, and his family supported him as well; his mom is listed as one of the films producers. Gietl also named his production company Stickboat Films as a way of honoring a cherished childhood memory that he recalls as his first foray into imagination: He and his grandfather would select sticks to launch in a backyard creek, pretending they were competing in a boat race. That's almost what a film is to me, he said. Its like building a boat made of sticks. Its like this rickety thing, and it feels like it could fall apart, but it doesnt. You build a strong foundation with a good script and bring a talented crew on board to make sure it doesnt [sink] when the current takes it away.

As he neared the end of the filmmaking process  a journey of roughly four years since he started developing his initial concepts for the story  Gietl began to feel he was finding his stride as a director. I had the plates spinning, all at the same time. I had that balance, explained. And he knew this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Following the premiere, his plan for A Void is to submit to festivals, although he acknowledged that the films length might create challenges: At 45 minutes, the piece may be too long to be considered a short, while at the same time too short to be considered a feature. Yet he feels he has been successful in being true to the story he wanted to tell, so the film is exactly the length it needs to be.

That commitment to truth is paramount for Gietl, who says that his work isnt done until finds it. You know it when you feel it, and when you write it, he said. It's like this little nugget of gold.

If you go If you go "A Void" Where: The Madison Theatre, 1036 Madison Ave, Albany When: 7 and 8 p.m., Sunday, July 11. Admission: Free, but donations are accepted. Info: Private screenings for cast and crew will be held at the same time on Saturday, July 10; limited seating may be available to the public. See More Collapse

Perhaps its no coincidence, then, that a recurring theme in the 12-step programs commonly followed by people in recovery is the importance of honesty with oneself. What Im really trying to do is ... understand the world, and find truth and humanity in these characters, Gietl said. And ultimately, myself.

To learn more about A Void, visit facebook.com/avoidmovie or follow on Instagram, @a_voidfilm. A trailer for the film is available on Vimeo.

If you go

A Void

Where: The Madison Theatre, 1036 Madison Ave, Albany

When: 7 and 8 p.m., Sunday, July 11.

Admission: Free, but donations are accepted.

Info: Private screenings for cast and crew will be held at the same time on Saturday, July 10; limited seating may be available to the public.
PARIS (AP)  World leaders, philanthropists and organizations have pledged at least $40 billion at an international conference in Paris to boost gender equality, as women and girls worldwide have been deeply affected by the consequences of the pandemic.

U.N. Womens Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka welcomed the pledges at the three-day Generation Equality Forum that started Wednesday.

The summit "is about change. It is about moving from making promises to telling us what you are going to do for the situation of women to change, she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that over the past year and half, an extra 47 million women fell into poverty amid the pandemic, and millions of others were deprived of treatment, contraception and the possibility of choosing for themselves. While they were on the frontline of the fight against COVID, women are the first victims of this health crisis, he said.

The conference aims at tackling and funding all issues that impede womens rights -- forced marriage, gender-based violence, leaving school, work inequality, losing out on innovation and technology  and ensuring their sexual and reproductive rights and health.

Bill and Melinda Gates namesake foundation announced it will spend $2.1 billion in the next five years on health and family planning programs, economic empowerment projects and other initiatives.

The Ford Foundation announced a $420 million investment to tackle threats to womens rights caused by COVID-19. The World Bank committed to funding programs in 12 African states.

The conference, co-organized by the U.N., France and Mexico, is mostly held virtually, but some heads of state, U.N. officials and womens right activists were also attending in person in Paris.

Meant to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, during which nations made major commitments to achieve gender equality, it was delayed from last year because of the coronavirus.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who famously said in Beijing that human rights are womens rights, and womens rights are human rights, came to Paris to encourage younger generations to continue fighting.

Now looking back, I believe we have made progress not near enough, and that we have to recommit ourselves to going even further. But we also need the power to claim the rights, she said. Rights without power adds up to very little."

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking via videoconference, highlighted threats to democracy around the world.

Democracy is in peril. Strongmen have become stronger. Human rights abuses have multiplied, she said. And who gets hurt when democracies fall? When democracies falter? ... Well, women and girls are among those who suffer.

Harris previewed US commitments to reinforce our institutions in ways that will create tangible results that improve the lives of women in the United States and women around the world, without providing details.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced what he described as a current pushback from some world leaders, political, economic and religious movements across the world.

We must push back against the pushback, he said. We must win that ideological battle against conservative forces.
ALBANY  U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik talks often about her support for police and derides Democrats for supposedly wanting to strip law enforcement of funding.

Consider what Stefanik (or somebody who works for her) tweeted on Monday: "America is facing a #CrimeCrisis due to the failed Far Left policies of Joe Biden & radical Dems. Defunding the police hurts every community!"

And on Tuesday: "Dems mantra 'Defund the Police' was one of their top policy & messaging points in 2020 ... GOP has always supported increasing funding for police!"

But a recent legislative scorecard compiled by a organization representing rank-and-file cops suggests that Stefanik's pro-police rhetoric doesn't match her voting record.

The National Association of Police Organizations says Stefanik voted with its legislative priorities just 57 percent of the time during the 116th Congress. That's the lowest percentage among New York's House of Representatives delegation  and notably lower than the percentages from Democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (71 percent), Antonio Delgado (86 percent) and Paul Tonko (86 percent).

NAPO is not a liberal group, mind you. The organization, a coalition of police unions that is based in Virginia and claims to represent 241,000 police officers, endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

And some other Republicans scored well on NAPO's scorecard, which considered votes on pensions, bulletproof vests, 9/11 compensation, health benefits, police reform and COVID-19 relief. Former U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican who retired in January, voted with the group 100 percent of the time in 2019 and 2020, for example.

I'd like to say that Stefanik offered a robust defense of her record and an explanation for her relatively poor ranking from NAPO. But her office did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment, which is par for the course.

To be clear, the argument here isn't that Stefanik should have voted as NAPO wanted every time or that its measurement is flawless. But the scorecard illustrates, I think, that the issue of who supports police and who doesn't is more nuanced than the North Country Republican would have you believe.

It's easy to wrap yourself in a blue-and-black flag, as Stefanik metaphorically does. But that's different from actually supporting the legislation that most directly impacts cops.

"Moderates from both parties tend to do the best on our scorecards, consistently," said Andy Edmiston, the director of government affairs at NAPO, who noted that the ranking does not include the group's priority legislation, typically uncontroversial, that passed the House by voice vote.

Democrats tend to vote more often with NAPO's labor priorities, Edmiston added, while Republicans agree more often with its policing priorities.

Stefanik, for example, voted against last year's version of the George Floyd Justice in Police Act, which was opposed by NAPO and sought, among other steps, to limit the use of no-knock warrants and chokeholds. Tonko, the Democrat who represents much of the Capital Region, voted for it.

The pair also split on the $3 trillion Coronavirus Relief Package supported by NAPO and most Democrats, but not Stefanik. As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post noted in a column about NAPO's scorecard, the money funded the rehiring of four police officers in Watertown, a city in Stefanik's 21st congressional district.

That little fact cuts against Stefanik's attempts to paint police funding in simplistic, red-vs.-blue strokes.

"Democrats are the Defund the Police party," Stefanik tweeted, even though Joe Biden has proposed to more than double money for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program, from $165 million to $388 million. That isn't defunding, folks.

Oh, well. As I've said before, Stefanik's cynical bluster seems based on the assumption that we're stupid. (Anyone relying on a politician's Twitter account for accurate takes on reality might be.)

It is true, of course, that some on the progressive left want to reduce police spending and redirect some of the money toward social programs. That view is probably out of step with the people in neighborhoods most affected by crime, who in my experience say they want more police on their streets.

I'd also argue that cutting police budgets is a bad idea  and not just because of rising crime. The best possible policing requires increased officer training and cops who aren't stressed by unreasonable workloads. Those sorts of things require more money, not less.

Thankfully, there aren't many elected Democrats who actually support defunding the police. It's an area of bipartisan agreement, despite what Stefanik wants you to believe.

An earlier version of this column misstated the name of the National Association of Police Organizations.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The fighters now retaking parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region will pursue soldiers from neighboring Eritrea back into their country and chase Ethiopian forces to Addis Ababa if that's what it takes" to weaken their military powers, their spokesman said Tuesday, as a conflict that has killed thousands of civilians looked certain to continue.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Getachew Reda said that well stop at nothing to liberate every square inch of the Tigray region of 6 million people, nearly eight months after fighting erupted between the Tigray forces and Ethiopian soldiers backed by Eritrea.

He rejected the unilateral cease-fire Ethiopias government declared Monday as a sick joke and accused Ethiopia of long denying humanitarian aid to the Tigrayans it now pretends to care about. Ethiopia declared the unilateral cease-fire as its soldiers and hand-picked regional interim administration fled the Tigray regional capital following some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

We want to stop the war as quickly as we can, the Tigray spokesman said.

But he said liberating the region is not just about territory. If there is still a menace next door, whether it be in Eritrea, extremists from the neighboring Amhara region who have occupied western Tigray or Ethiopian forces, its about assuring Tigrayans security, he said.

The comments were sure to bring new alarm from the United States, United Nations and others who have pressed for an end to the fighting in Africa's second most populous country that has sent hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans into the world's worst famine crisis in a decade.

This week's swift turn in the war has left people scrambling to understand the implications for Tigray, as communications links remained largely cut.

Eritrean soldiers, accused by witnesses of some of the wars worst atrocities against Tigrayans, left the towns of Shire, Axum and Adwa, witnesses said, but it was not clear whether the retreat was temporary. The information ministry of Eritrea, a longtime enemy of Tigray's former leaders and described by human rights groups as one of the world's most repressive countries, did not immediately respond to questions.

We don't yet know if they are withdrawing from Tigray altogether, acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Godec told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He said the U.S. had seen no statement from Eritrea saying it was committed to the cease-fire after what appears to be a significant withdrawal of Ethiopian national defense forces from Tigray."

The Tigray leaders have waged a guerrilla war since November after a political falling out with the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had sidelined them from influential roles in Ethiopia's government and military. An Ethiopian military spokesman did not answer the phone Tuesday.

The arrival of Tigray forces in the regional capital, Mekele, on Monday was met with cheers. The fighters on Tuesday moved into Axum and Shire, a town that in recent months saw the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing intimidation in western Tigray and is a key staging area for humanitarian aid.

Tigray forces are now in control of much of the region after a major counteroffensive with mass popular support, International Crisis Group analyst William Davison said in a statement. They are "now in a position to facilitate access to many previously hard to reach areas, he said, urging Ethiopias government not to sabotage the urgent humanitarian efforts.

But the Tigray forces' talk indicates how distrustful they are of the cease-fire," Aly Verjee, a senior adviser at the United States Institute of Peace, told AP. Of course, I think its highly irresponsible for them to say such things. It doesnt do anything for people on the brink of famine. At the same time, I understand they're motivated by deep suspicion of Eritrean forces in particular.

Major questions remained about the fate of the more than 1 million civilians that the United Nations has said remain in parts of Tigray that have been hard, if not impossible, to reach with aid. The United States has said up to 900,000 people now face famine conditions, in the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade.

That famine is entirely man-made, the acting U.S. assistant secretary of state said.

Sarah Charles, assistant to the administrator for the United States Agency for International Development, told the Washington hearing that the next week or two will be consequential. She urged Ethiopia to lift a communications blackout on Tigray and said forces from the Amhara region must lift checkpoints on key roads for aid delivery.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the impact of the current situation on the humanitarian operations in the region remains unknown right now. Operations have been constrained for the past few days due to the ongoing fighting. The airport in Mekele was closed, and routes to deliver aid were not open, he said.

Ethiopia has said the cease-fire is in part for the delivery of aid but will last only until the end of the crucial planting season in Tigray  which is in September.

In Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, people said they weren't sure who to believe amid the battlefield claims, and hoped for peace.

Its the innocent children, farmers and the poor people that are at the front of the war and are suffering, resident Biruk Dessalegn said.

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report
PHOENIX (AP)  Jill Biden on Wednesday appealed to Arizona residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19, aiming to counter skepticism by declaring that the vaccines are safe and have been vigorously tested.

Im here to ask all the viewers on these TV stations to please make the choice to get vaccinated because its safe, she said in a speech before an invited audience and TV cameras after touring a vaccine clinic at Isaac Middle School in Phoenix.
CRANBROOK, British Columbia (AP)  A Canadian Indigenous group said Wednesday a search using ground-penetrating radar has found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site near a former Catholic Church-run residential school that housed Indigenous children taken from their families.

The latest discovery of graves near Cranbrook, British Columbia follows reports of similar findings at two other such church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves and another of 215 bodies. Cranbrook is 524 miles (843 kilometers) east of Vancouver.

The Lower Kootenay Band said in a news release that it began using the technology last year to search the site close to the former St. Eugenes Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s. It said the search found the remains in unmarked graves, some about 3 feet (a meter) deep.

Its believed the remains are those of people from the bands of the Ktunaxa nation, which includes the Lower Kootenay Band, and other neighboring First Nation communities.

Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band called the discovery deeply personal since he had relatives attend the school.

Lets call this for what it is, Louie told CBC radio in an interview. Its a mass murder of Indigenous people."

The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.

Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, which today is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

The Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.

Last week the Cowessess First Nation, located about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of the Saskatchewan capital of Regina, said investigators found at least 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former Marieval Indian Residential School.

Last month, the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were found buried on the site of what was once Canadas largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia.

Prior to news of the most recent finding, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he has asked that the national flag on the Peace Tower remain at half-mast for Canada Day on Thursday to honor the Indigenous children who died in residential schools.

On Tuesday, it was announced that a group of Indigenous leaders will visit the Vatican later this year to press for a papal apology for the Roman Catholic Churchs role in residential schools.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Indigenous leaders will visit the Vatican from Dec. 17-20 to meet with Pope Francis and foster meaningful encounters of dialogue and healing.

After the graves were found in Kamloops, the pope expressed his pain over the discovery and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on this sad affair. But he didnt offer the apology sought by First Nations and the Canadian government.

The leader of one of Canadas largest Indigenous groups says there are no guarantees an Indigenous delegation travelling to the Vatican will lead to Pope Francis apologizing in Canada.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde confirmed that assembly representatives will join Metis and Inuit leaders making the trip to the Vatican in late December.

"There are no guarantees of any kind of apology from the pope, said Bellegarde.

The Anglican Church has apologized, he told a virtual news conference. The Presbyterian Church has apologized. United Church has apologized.

This is really part of truth and part of the healing and reconciliation process for survivors to hear the apology from the highest position within the Roman Catholic Church, which is the pope.

Louie said he wants more concrete action than apologies.

Im really done with the government and churches saying they are sorry, he said. Justice delayed is justice denied."

A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but the Canadian bishops conference said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for the residential schools.

Since the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools, there have been several fires at churches across Canada. There has also been some vandalism targeting churches and statues in cities.

Four small Catholic churches on Indigenous lands in rural southern British Columbia have been destroyed by suspicious fires and a vacant former Anglican church in northwestern B.C. was recently damaged in what RCMP said could be arson.

On Wednesday, Albertas premier condemned what he called arson attacks at Christian churches after a historic parish was destroyed in a fire.

Today in Morinville, leglise de Saint-Jean-Baptiste was destroyed in what appears to have been a criminal act of arson, Kenney said in a statement.

RCMP said officers were called to the suspicious blaze at the church in Morinville, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Edmonton, in the early hours of Wednesday.

Trudeau and an Indigenous leader said arson and vandalism targeting churches is not the way to get justice following the discovery of the unmarked graves.

The destruction of places of worship is unacceptable and it must stop," Trudeau said. "We must work together to right past wrongs.

Bellegarde said burning churches is not the way to proceed.

I can understand the frustration, the anger, the hurt and the pain, theres no question, he said. But to burn things down is not our way.
GREEN ISLAND  A 49-year-old man is charged with sexually assaulting a young girl at the unlicensed day care business of his girlfriend, who was subsequently charged with child endangerment for failing to report the attacks to authorities, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said Wednesday

John J. Ferrara is accused of committing crimes against the child "over a course of time" while the child was being cared for by Anna M. Pratt, 50, Apple said. Pratt, he said, ran a private day care in her Green Island apartment where the child stayed. Pratt was charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing to disclose the situation to authorities.
HALFMOON  Small business landlords are vital to providing affordable housing, Sen. James Tedisco said Wednesday, but they can't make a living when tenants don't pay rent, and a state bailout fund meant to help both tenants and landlords is ineffective.

Tedisco, R-Glenville, and Sen. Daphne Jordan, R-Halfmoon, held a press conference in Halfmoon with four local landlords, who each described the hardships they've endured since the COVID-19 pandemic began and some of their tenants stopped paying rent  either because they lost income or because they refused, knowing there were both federal and state eviction moratoriums in place that would prevent the landlord from evicting them.

Rosie Karame, a mortgage tax supervisor for the Rensselaer County clerk's office and the owner of a rental property in Troy, said she had a tenant who paid rent consistently for six years until the pandemic hit, then she stopped paying. In September, she moved out and Karame said she can't find the woman in order to take her to court for the unpaid rent. Karame, who mentioned she has three children  two in private school  said she's taking money out of her children's college fund to pay the taxes and water bill on the property.

The state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance has a program with $2.7 billion in it to help people pay rent. They started taking applications June 1, but the requirements are too complicated and the eligibility too narrow for it to be useful, said Chris Morris, the founder and executive director of Schenectady Landlords Influencing Change. The application is not complete unless both the tenant and landlord fill out their portion. Tenants cannot make more than 80 percent of the area median income, listed as $55,500 for a family of four in Saratoga County.

Michelle Arthur, executive director of United Tenants of Albany, said approval from ERAP takes six to eight weeks once the application is complete.

"We have not had any approvals yet as not enough time has elapsed and all of our tenants who applied did not fall in the specific approval criteria open at this time," she said.

The Emergency Rental Assistance Program will cover up to 12 months of back rent dating to March 13, 2020, and up to 12 months of unpaid electric or gas utility payments. Landlords may not evict the tenants for up to a year after they receive money from ERAP or raise the tenants' rent.

Anthony Farmer issued a statement on behalf of the OTDA late Wednesday:

Under the law passed by the Legislature, the Emergency Rental Assistance Program has a 30-day period where applications are received and prioritized based on need, which [ended Wednesday]. Accordingly, the more than 100,000 applications already received will be reviewed and prioritized, with the first payments expected to go out in the coming weeks. Moreover, under federal law, a landlord may not complete an entire application on behalf of a tenant; at a minimum, the tenant must sign and attest that the information contained in the application is accurate.

In a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dated June 17, Jordan called for changes to ERAP, noting when "rent scofflaws" leave their apartments without a forwarding address, the landlord is stuck.

Tedisco has introduced a bill offering a different solution to help landlords, calling for a program similar to the federal Paycheck Protection Program offered earlier in the pandemic. The loan-to-grant program would issue loans to landlords who own properties that contain six or fewer units. If a tenant pays back rent, the landlord would return money to the state; if not, the loan becomes a grant. Tedisco proposes taking money from ERAP to pay for the loans.
SCHOHARIE  A conference held Thursday on whether the judge overseeing the criminal case against Nauman Hussain should accept a plea deal in the matter ended without a clear resolution.

The Schoharie County Clerks office said the conference between the Schoharie County district attorneys office and Hussains attorneys was adjourned until July 7.

Hussain is the only person to be criminally charged in connection with the 2018 limo crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.

Talks between Hussains attorney, Lee Kindlon, and District Attorney Susan Mallery have stretched on for months. The terms of the potential plea deal are unknown.

Hussain has pleaded not guilty in the case and has been free on bond since his April 2019 arraignment.

Kindlon and Mallery previously met virtually with Schoharie County Judge George Bartlett III on June 23 to discuss a potential plea deal, but no agreement was reached.

Hussain is accused of ignoring orders by the state Department of Transportation to keep his 2001 stretch Ford Excursion limo off the road after it was repeatedly deemed unsafe by a DOT investigator, as well as using a driver who lacked the appropriate license.

On Oct. 6, 2018, Hussain booked a party of 17 to ride in the Excursion from Amsterdam to Cooperstown for a birthday celebration. After the driver appeared to have gotten lost, he lost control of the limo driving down Route 30 toward the village of Schoharie, and slammed into an SUV in the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store at the intersection of Route 30 and Route 30A while going more than 100 mph.

Two bystanders who were walking toward the SUV were killed instantly by the initial impact, and the Excursion then slammed into a ditch. All 18 aboard, including the driver, died from their injuries.

Brake failure was to blame, according to a State Police report. A National Transportation Safety Board report also blamed bad brakes. The NTSB also faulted the DOT and DMV for not doing enough to prevent the tragedy.
ROTTERDAM  The town is urging residents to pay their bills directly to the towns preferred vendor instead of using a third-party online competitor that allows people to aggregate all of their utility payments through a single account.

The town alleges the vendor, doxo, has falsely identified itself as a provider for the town and is not only charging residents for services but may also be making the payments late due to their processing timeframe.

As the town works to rectify the misleading claims of this vendor, we urge all town residents to only use specified payment services found on our official town website, said Supervisor Steven Tommasone in a prepared statement. We are committed to providing our community reliable and honest services and will continue to work with the town to eliminate any falsehoods.

The Seattle-based company pushed back on the accusations.

I cant explain why the inaccurate information was released by the town, said a doxo spokesperson.

Users can pay any biller for free with their bank account and manage all their due dates in one place, according to the company.

Payments have been coming from doxo users to the town since 2017, and there are 130 users that have the town listed as one of the billers in their account.

Yet the town said they are aware of only at least eight instances where payments were made through the website, although the total monies paid are not known at this time, said Brittany Kenny, a spokesperson for Martin Group, the town-enlisted public relations firm that issued a press release late Wednesday outlining the accusations.

At the root of the flap is timing over property and school tax payments, as well as water bill payments.

Taxes with the payment deadline June 30 was the first collection where the town has been notified of doxos involvement, according to the Martin Group.

After completing their payment, residents have received a confirmation, which says their payment is processing with the assumption the process is made by the town of Rotterdam, according to Martin. This is untrue and has resulted in late payments.

Doxo disputes the late payments and provided screen shots of examples that outline the timeline for payment schedules, indicating dates and benchmarks (although the images were samples and not Rotterdam-related).

The company also disputes theyve identified themselves as a town-affiliated provider, but rather people can voluntarily sign up and include Rotterdam as one of their billers.

Wed welcome the opportunity to work with the town to help reduce consumer fees and improve the bill pay experience, said the doxo spokesperson.

The company works with 100,000 billers across the U.S., including National Grid, and has over 5 million users, according to their website.



The town is steering residents to its own preferred third-party service that also collects fees.

This isnt the first time doxo has been flagged by localities for what they perceive to be questionable practices.

A rural Pennsylvania police department issued a similar warning late last month.

But officials later backtracked and confirmed that doxo is not a fraudulent company and that the resident who sparked an investigation visited another site created by a fraudulent enterprise, according to FOX 43, a York, Pa.-based network.
SCHENECTADY  Junior Kisson and his pals gathered in his yard last week.

Their attention was focused on a van outfitted with sub-woofers cranking out hip-hop at a teeth-rattling clip.

Everybody plays music, celebrates parties, birthdays and whatever function, Kisson said. Or maybe there doesnt even need to be a function.

At the other end of Lincoln Avenue near the Carver Center, a young DJ has been magnetically attracting passersby as he cultivates and refines his skills in the Jamaican art of sound system, a genre that stitches together elements of rocksteady, reggae and dub.

Quiet in nature, hes loud in his craft. But hes not being disrespectful, said his neighbor, Ifrecak Miller.

Just practicing.

Music is intrinsic with Caribbean culture, Miller said, an indication that people are full of joy and enjoying life.

Theyre at rest, relaxing and theyve having fun, said Miller, pointing at the long history of sound system at neighborhood jerk chicken joints in her native Jamaica.

Its summer and the streets are sizzling. Yet this pocket of Hamilton Hill and other neighborhoods across the increasingly diverse city are debating the fine line where cultural traditions bleed into public nuisance.

The city, said Roberta Roberson, needs to crack down on excessive noise because its unfair to longstanding city residents like her elderly mother, who has lived on the block since the mid-1960s and whose quality of life has been lessened by the endless panoramic soundtrack.

Loud, thumping music at all hours is simply unacceptable, she said.

If thats their culture, they need to move to a farm in the woods, said Roberson. Youre going to tell us its your culture, to be ... disrespectful?

Sometimes music comes from six different directions, Roberson said, with one house starting up, then another  and another. The wall of sound spirals out from Lincoln Avenue to Hulett Street, Grant and Duane Avenues. Paired with firecrackers, loud vehicles and the sirens of emergency and police vehicles, life on the block can be intolerable.

And no one comes out and says anything, Roberson said. Residents are fearful to intervene or complain.

The city code has provisions to regulate music. Aside from city-approved activities open to the public for the public benefit, sound reproduction through amplifiers and radios are restricted if they cause unreasonable or unnecessary noise.

That means if neighboring residences can hear music between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. regardless of whether their windows are open.

Revelers can be found in violation if noise can be heard 50 feet from the device, whether a speaker-filled van like Kissons or a boombox.

For private parties, the hours apply from 11 p.m. to noon the following day, with noise defined as loud, annoying or offensive if it can be heard from 25 feet or more from its source.

On narrow city streets, thats next door or across the street.

City police responded to 1,554 calls for loud music and noise complaints between Memorial Day and Labor Day last year.

Its not immediately clear how many tickets were issued.

Police treat each call on a case-by-case basis and automatic ticketing isnt the default solution.

Generally we give people a warning before we cite them, said Patrick Irwin, a city police spokesman. If its constant, well issue a ticket right off the bat. Its the summer and we dont want to be the fun police.

Anything above 80 decibels is considered excessive and subject to a violation, with offenders subject to fines of up to $250 for the first offense, escalating up to $500 and/or a 30-day imprisonment for a third violation.

Police Chief Eric Clifford said monitoring decibel levels can be tricky, from ensuring officers have the proper equipment to arriving when the music is still at full blast.

Neighborhood leaders acknowledge police are spread too thin to be constantly issuing tickets and suggested the city may want to tighten up its ordinances.

City Council should make you get one shot, said Pat Smith, president of the Mont Pleasant Neighborhood Association. And if you get a callback, its $100.

Lawmakers appear to have little appetite to take action beyond issuing mild public pleas.

Majority Leader John Polimeni occasionally implores residents to keep it down during weekly meetings.

Play it so you can hear it, but the whole neighborhood doesnt, Polimeni said on Monday. Just because you like something doesnt mean the whole neighborhood wants to listen to it.

Complaints pour in from across the city, he said, a deluge echoed by City Councilwoman Marion Porterfield.

The City Council can take a look (at tightened regulations), but the mayors office needs to take a strong look at this, said Porterfield, who agrees with a talk first, penalize second approach.

City Council President John Mootooveren didnt return a phone call seeking comment.

Different approaches



Theres a widespread sentiment on Lincoln Avenue that people can skirt regulations by applying for a special permit  but it's not carte blanche to behave badly.

Multiple agencies must sign off on the $125 permit, including the code enforcement bureau, city police and fire departments and the mayors office.

Applicants must include the phone number for a contact person and the license can be revoked at any time, said Chief Building Inspector Chris Lunn.

As soon as complaints come in, youre not going to get that permit, Lunn said.

Applications have increased this year, but Lunn doesnt see a trend because last summer's coronavirus restrictions limited large group gatherings.

City cops will soon be equipped with another tool: Increased cultural training for officers is part of the package of police reforms City Council adopted this spring.

Ideally, responding officers will be better equipped to identify and understand West Indian and other cultural traditions when responding to noise complaints and act upon them appropriately.

Were not yet identifying what the plan will be, but plan to train them that various cultures exist in the city, Clifford said.

Yet whats considered to be a cultural celebration is limited to anniversaries and parties  not the indiscriminate blasting of music into the wee hours.

Get to know your neighborhoods, get to know where you live and play music thats reasonable, Clifford said.

Miller agrees, noting Schenectady is an experiment in emerging multiculturalism. But she also sees the divide as an issue breaking out more along generational fault lines  not racial ones.

I think the solution is to talk, she said. We have to be tolerant of each other, and accept what each others culture is bringing.
JOHANNESBURG (AP)  South Africas former President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018.

Zuma was not in court for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg.

If Zuma fails to turn himself in within five days South Africa's minister of police and the police commissioner have been ordered to take him into custody within three days.

This is the first time in South Africas history that a former president has been sentenced to prison.

Finally, Zuma will find himself where he belongs - behind bars, said opposition politician Herman Mashaba in reaction to the sentence.

This is indeed a victory for all South Africans that have become gatvol (fed up) with those who have looted our country with impunity," Mashaba, former mayor of Johannesburg and leader of the ActionSA party, said in a statement. "The judgment is equally a victory for the rule of law in South Africa, once again serving to highlight the independence of our judiciary. This is a central pillar of our hard-won democracy.

South Africa's apex court, the Constitutional Court, ruled that Zuma defied an order by the countrys highest court by refusing to cooperate with the commission of inquiry, which is chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.

The Constitutional Court holds that there can be no doubt that Mr. Zuma is in contempt of court. Mr. Zuma was served with the order and it is impossible to conclude anything other than that he was unequivocally aware of what it required of him, said acting chief justice Sisi Khampepe.

She added that in determining the jail sentence for Zuma, the court found it impossible to conclude that he would comply with any other order.

Mr. Zuma has repeatedly reiterated that he would rather be imprisoned than to cooperate with the commission or comply with the order made, said Khampepe.

Zuma has previously expressed his unwillingness to appear before the commission, which has so far heard evidence directly implicating Zuma in wrongdoing.

In a previous 21-page letter written to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, which the court has described as scandalous, Zuma claimed that he was ready to be sent to prison.

In his letter which he released to the public, Zuma claimed that the commission chairman, Zondo, was biased against him and that evidence presented against him was politically motivated.

Some former Cabinet ministers, high-ranking government officials and executives of state-owned enterprises are among witnesses who have implicated Zuma in corruption.

Several have testified that while president Zuma allowed members of the controversial Gupta family to influence his appointment of Cabinet ministers and lucrative contracts at state-owned companies.

Zuma is also facing additional legal woes as he is standing trial to face charges related to bribes that he allegedly received during South Africas 1999 arms procurement deal.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers have applied for the lead prosecutor in his case to step down because of alleged bias against Zuma.
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP)  A 92-year-old woman who had lived in a beachside Florida condominium for more than 20 years has been found dead amid the collapsed tower's rubble, her family said Wednesday.

Hilda Noriega had recently put the condo up for sale and was planning to move in with her family. They were notified late Tuesday that she was the 12th victim recovered from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. More than 140 people were still listed as unaccounted for early Wednesday.

Her family announced her death in a statement released by North Bay Village, a nearby city in which her son, Carlos Noriega, serves as the police chief.

The Noriegas have lost the heart and soul and matriarch of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for, the statement said.

Carlos Noriega and his son, Mike Noriega, rushed to the site when they heard of the building collapse. Among the flying debris, they stumbled across mementos that bore witness to her life on the sixth floor of the building she'd called home for more than 20 years. They found an old picture of her with her late husband and their infant son, and a birthday card that friends from her prayer group sent two weeks earlier with the acronym ESM, Spanish for hand-delivered, scrawled across the yellow envelope with a butterfly etching.

There was a message in the mess of all this, said Mike Noriega, who last spoke with his grandmother the day before the disaster. It means not to give up hope. To have faith.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned the Noriega family during a news conference on Tuesday, calling their story inspiring.

I could see the difference that she made in his life, in his wifes life, and in her grandkids lives, the governor said.

The Noriegas described Hilda as a fiercely independent and vivacious retiree. Her grandson said she was the youngest 92-year-old I know ... 92 going on 62.

Her husband died six years ago, the family said, and she had decided to sell the condo and move in with her family.

She loved living near the ocean and friends, but when you lose a spouse, you want to be surrounded by family ... and she wanted to spend more time with her family and grandchildren, said Sally Noriega, Hildas daughter-in-law.

Hilda Noriega built a life with her husband and raised a family after coming to the U.S. from Cuba in 1960, her daughter-in-law said.

She was just one of those people who from the first time she met a person she instantly loved that person, and that person instantly loved her, Sally said.

___

Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Theres nothing new about military leaders dismissing criticism of their decisions by wrapping themselves in the flag. Progressives used to see it as an authoritarian tactic. Now, though, they are happy to salute  at least when the brass is using that move in defense of their causes.

Two Republican congressmen Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, both of Florida  raised questions about critical race theory at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the congressmen that it was vital for the military to study different perspectives: Ive read Mao Tse-tung. Ive read Karl Marx. Ive read Lenin. That doesnt make me a communist.

He added, I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers, of being, quote, woke or something else because were studying some theories that are out there.

His impassioned statement drew coverage everywhere from USA Today (A top military official defended ... studying theories about race relations in America) to Rolling Stone (delivered a powerful defense of the militarys right to study critical race theory). Progressives cheered Milley in the terms that we now expect about viral clips: The website Uproxx said Gaetz got absolutely wrecked.

Democrats in Congress celebrated Milleys statement, too, especially once Republicans started slamming him. Donald Trump called Milleys comments pathetic, while Tucker Carlson of Fox News called him a pig and stupid.

You dont have to agree with those shots at Milley to think he ought to be embarrassed over his performance at the hearing, not lauded for it. In an interview with me, Representative Waltz made three points that have gotten lost in the din.

First, Milleys response wasnt responsive. Neither congressman had said or suggested that the military should avoid studying left-wing theories about race.

Waltz was objecting to indoctrination, not discussion. His questioning arose, as he explained, from the correspondence with the family of a West Point cadet who thought a lecture on Understanding Whiteness and White Rage had crossed that line.

Second, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin agreed with Waltz. Right before Milley delivered his stem-winder, Austin said that while he would like to know more about that lecture, it sounds like something that should not occur. He raised the possibility that the lecture might have been defensible as some sort of critical examination of different theories  which is not at all how Lieutenant General Darryl Williams, the superintendent of West Point, had described the lecture in a letter to Waltz.

Third, Milleys analogy is  and this is my characterization, not that of Waltz, who was much more diplomatic  preposterous. Nobody believes that West Point is taking the same attitude toward critical race theory that it does toward Maoism. Its not inviting Maoists to give guest lectures with no rebuttals.

If the military were treating CRT as a dangerous set of beliefs that needs combating, Waltz and Gaetz wouldnt be complaining, although some other congressmen might. I would add that comparing CRT to ideologies that led to tyranny and mass murder is not quite the slam-dunk defense of it that progressives are taking it to be.

Neither Waltz nor Gaetz was making a negative generalization about the U.S. military or its officers. At the end of his remarks, Milley noted that Waltz and he are both Green Berets. In our conversation, Waltz volunteered that he respects Milley. During the hearing, Gaetz emphasized that he was channeling concerns he increasingly hears from officers themselves.

Maybe those concerns are overstated or misguided. Thats a fair debate. Saying that raising them is an attack on the military, on the other hand, is an attempt to shut down debate. A democracy should respect the military that serves it. But it should also have the self-respect to tell its top military commander when hes out of line.

Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
In the absence of stronger federal laws, civil rights will have to be won anew, state by state.

----

The U.S. Justice Departments decision to sue Georgia over its blatant efforts at voter suppression opens a new battle over civil rights in America. Even more encouraging is the clear signal that this is just the beginning.

Georgia was among a host of GOP-controlled states that in the aftermath of Republican Donald Trumps loss to Democrat Joe Biden for the presidency have intensified efforts to pass laws brazenly aimed at suppressing votes by people of color. Georgia and its defenders offered the weak defense that some of the provisions it passed will expand voting rights, as if a little window dressing is supposed to make up for its draconian measures.

Those measures, as outlined by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke, included a raft of restrictions on absentee ballots, including shortening the time to apply for them and imposing new ID requirements. As Ms. Clarke noted, Black voters used absentee ballots at a much higher rate last year than white ones.

The Georgia law  which grew from three pages to 90 on its way from the state Senate to the House, where it received a mere two hours of debate  would also cut, from 100 to around 20, the number of ballot drop boxes that were popular in the metro Atlanta area where, not coincidentally, the states largest Black voting-age population resides. It added provisions that the Justice Department says will make it harder for people who vote in the wrong polling place to have their ballot counted  a situation Black voters, who tend to move more frequently, face more than whites.

And infamously, the law made it illegal to give people waiting in long lines  which voters in high-minority areas tend to face  food or even water.

Thats just one state. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University counted as of mid-May nearly 400 bills with restrictive voting provisions around the country.

These laws arent happening in a vacuum, but in the echo chamber in which Mr. Trumps lie of a stolen election and his fiction of massive voter fraud keeps getting repeated by Republican lawmakers as if it is true in order to justify such anti-democratic schemes. At the same time, Mr. Trump and others in his party have openly worried that without these acts of suppression  if all eligible voters could easily vote, that is  Democrats would win more elections. So theyre passing these laws in statehouses, and using the filibuster in Congress to block federal legislation to protect voting rights.

There are still laws that apply here, and its encouraging that Attorney General Merrick Garland announced at the same time as the Georgia lawsuit that the Justice Department will fully use the Voting Rights Act and other statutes to push back on voter suppression and intimidation wherever they find it. In the absence of a new commitment in Congress to this most fundamental right in a democracy  the right of the people to choose their leaders  the battle is never ending, to this nations shame.
The familiar saying that "history repeats itself" is certainly true. A good example is Saratoga Springs public officials claiming that their community's uptick in violence can be attributed to "social justice and police reform advocates." ("Officials blame violence on racial justice advocates," June 29.)



I grew up in the deep South, and as a young adult I lived in the Mississippi Delta during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and '70s. I was active in that movement. Officials of that time and place frequently blamed their "troubles" on outside agitators and liberals. Now we hear the Saratoga folks doing the same, including troublemakers from Albany.



There are, in fact, many social justice and police issues that need to be addressed in the Capital Region. Social justice groups like the Albany Center for Law and Justice, the NAACP, the Justice Center of Rensselaer County, and many others are doing just that. We are proudly making "good trouble."



Yes, history does repeat itself, but I encourage Saratoga Springs to address the issues that may be causing the violence and avoid becoming the "Mississippi of the North."



Bob Blackmon

Troy

Justice Center of Rensselaer County
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A pandemic-fueled boom in crowdfunding has small businesses flocking to capital-raising platforms that experts say could help many companies get back to normal, and interest in crowdfunding small-business reboots could have long-term effects on how businesses seek funding
June 30, 2021





Cyberthreats have grown in size and complexity, and it's clear that no business is completely safe. Both the effects of the pandemic and the cybersecurity statistics have revealed a concerning upturn in hacked and breached data from sources that are progressively common in the workplace, like IoT and mobile devices.







Using state-of-the-art technologies to create more efficient methods to infiltrate a business network security and access sensitive data, modern cybercriminals wreak havoc through almost 50% of small businesses. Readily available tools and information have also helped season cybercriminals and individuals with limited digital skills to deploy sophisticated attacks effortlessly. While running your in-house IT security comes with a lot of advantages, there will be situations in which prudent things to do for your business's survival is to outsource your Cybersecurity.

?Provide Compliant Services

Regardless of the compliance you are mandated to adhere to, you are likely required to hold a log of events that are occurring in your network. Some firms will invest in a SIEM tool, but not tune or monitor the tool accordingly.

However, outsourcing the administration of your SIEM, you will have a professional team who is able to easily trigger, classify and properly manage the major security flaws.

No business is a "low risk" target for modern cyber-attacks; hackers are just as keen to infiltrate systems with ransomware or malware because of the very nature that smaller business owners may believe they're immune. But because reality is other than they imagine, these businesses also expect a loss of trust from clients or customers, damage to reputation, and even legal action that comes from a data breach.

If you start outsourcing services, you can expect the important advice to protect your data or to resolve the issues of Cybersecurity with updated regulations and best standards like GDPR & PCI (News - Alert) DSS.

?Safer Business Cloud Expansion

Supplying your business cloud is smart business more. Yet, greater dependence on the cloud could bring greater risks to security.

According to Netzen, the average business is using 8.4 private and public clouds to run applications and services. Sharing your resources and data across multiple clouds can get disorganized fast. Managing different security models and maintaining visibility across different cloud models isn't just time-consuming but also difficult without the right professional expertise.

By outsourcing an IT security service, you can implement a detailed infrastructure and set operations to merge and protect your growing cloud infrastructure.

?Access to professional expertise

As security flaws associated with overlooking vulnerabilities and threats continue to develop, the threat landscape is constantly changing. This change has made corporations emphasize the importance of professional expertise and skills that must be repeatedly honed and kept up to date. However, it's not always easy to find time for an in-house team to attend dedicated security training, especially when security is the duty of IT professionals, and there are several goals to balance.

Just 24% of firms have suggested that any of their employees in digital positions had undergone training in the past year. On the other hand, in fields like forensic analysis, testing, and security architecture, more than 30% of businesses suffer from a lack of specialized skills, whereas 27% have skills gaps around incident response and do not outsource it.

Successful risk management of information security needs dedicated experts with an in-depth understanding of how hackers function and the tactics they use. Companies gain a team of security experts by outsourcing security, with a collective range of expertise developed through many different industries.

?Cyber Security Skills Shortage

The cybersecurity landscape is facing an unparalleled challenge: hiring and training enough professionals to tackle the growing need of global businesses, which are experiencing an ever-growing threat of cyberattacks.

Every 39 seconds, ransomware attacks occur somewhere in the world. These suffer organizations more than $13 million, and the total global value at risk from being attacked amounts to nearly $5.3 trillion in the period from 2019 to 2023, as Accenture shows.

Unfortunately, hiring cybersecurity experts turns out to be a challenging task. Although a job in Cybersecurity can offer long-term career opportunities in a money-spinning and interesting environment, there simply aren't enough workers entering the field.

But outsourcing could be the key to this dilemma  businesses get to hire an entire team of cybersecurity experts without having to worry about recruiting and training their own staff. Because of the companies' stringent ethical principles, these professionals go the extra mile to ensure that there is no prospect for any compromise in data confidentiality.

Outsourcing cybersecurity is a smart move because professional know-how better monitors business networks and endpoints.

?To Double-Layer Your Business Security

Malicious actors are more powerful now, and only a high level of Cybersecurity can protect your valuable data. By outsourcing cybersecurity, you're providing your organization with a layered protection  many outsourced cybersecurity firms offer extensive and detailed security checks, and the right methods could prevent most common internal employee mistakes. They also provide around-the-clock surveillance because cybercriminals are working incessantly to find new ways to steal your data.

Monitoring and managing your business cybersecurity requires 24/7 monitoring with more experts. Outsourcing these specialists means you can reach a higher level of monitoring services from a group of experts without being financially ripped from training or hiring the in-house teams.

?Ease the Burden on Teams In-house

To manage the entire cybersecurity operation, many businesses rely on small in-house teams. These teams are often overworked and overwhelmed as a result of this. And they do have lots of worry about; Protecting businesses from the new cyberthreat -wave is a difficult challenge that teams frequently fail to manage accordingly.

Companies rely on a wide range of security technologies to support security processes. Configuring, tuning, and controlling these devices, however, is in itself a strenuous activity. Outsourcing cybersecurity allows managers to reduce the pressure on in-house IT and security departments, providing professionals to help bear the load.
July 01, 2021





What does an intranet do? Or more specifically, what should your intranet do?

As consumers, were accustomed to the rapid developments of technology  the flurry of new developments, updates, features. With constant anticipation around the next Big Thing, its easy to overlook the original purpose of what your software should do.







Bells and whistles are great, but if your tech doesnt fulfill its core role, its doomed. An intranet can come with an impressive feature list, but without adhering to your original strategy of what you want to achieve, these add-ons are irrelevant.

With this in mind, we explore eight things a company intranet must do in order to provide value to a business  and the features and functionality that support those goals.

Helps get work done NOW

An organization relies on people performing their roles and getting work done. Intranet software should serve as a tool to make this process more efficient and help users complete their tasks.

At its most basic level an intranet is there to solve problems. Whatever the challenge  the need to get expenses paid, to deal with a certain customer, to understand return-to-work benefits or find somebody that speaks Spanish  users should be able to go to the intranet, and resolve the issue.

Take away: Does your intranet make it easier for your users to do their jobs? Consider their core needs, roles, and requirements, and whether your intranet helps  or hinders  these.

2. Focus on user needs and different communities

Organizations are, by nature, diverse and made up of individuals  each with unique roles, requirements, skillsets and objectives to achieve. So, when it comes to your intranet strategy, it is critical to focus on user needs, rather than business needs alone.

Within this framework, we need to be conscious of the range of different communities within any organization. What one user requires isnt what another user needs: each employee is looking to get something different from their intranet experience. Identifying the key stakeholders for your intranet, and their needs, is fundamental to its success.

Take away: Have you considered the unique, individual needs of your users and the communities they form? Do you offer the right features, functionality and capacity to tailor their intranet experience?

3. Align with your business objectives

While a focus on the end users of your intranet is vital, it is also equally important to ensure your intranet serves a strategic purpose within your organization.

So often, we talk to business leaders in a company and discover that the objectives of their intranet arent aligned to the objectives of the business. Without this direction and alignment to your goals, your intranet wont deliver value.

Ask yourself these simple questions. If you cant answer them, its likely your intranet wont benefit your company:

What are your long-term, strategic objectives as a business, and what role could  or does  your intranet play in achieving those?

Is your intranet aligned to the objectives of each individual business unit?

How do you measure the success of your intranet? Do you have benchmarks in place to gauge ongoing performance?

Do you have the buy-in of senior management for your intranet?

Do you regularly review your objectives?

For example, if your strategic goal is for international expansion, does your intranet support a globalized workforce? Does it enable remote access, facilitate collaboration across different time zones, and offer the correct features and tools for different offices?

Take away: Your intranet is a business tool. Ensure it has defined objectives that align to your overall business goals and direction.

4. Cater to mobile and remote workforces

With more employees than ever outside the office, people need to be able to work on whatever device they are on, wherever they are. Think about the needs of your company. What will people want to do on their mobile? How can we support them with completing work and tasks on-the-go? Will they be able to access vital information or applications without restriction, regardless of their location, device or form of connection?

Then consider the tools they will need and provide those tools in a mobile-first platform that works for them.

Take away: Workforces are mobile. Ensure you are able to meet their needs and provide access to the essential tools and information they require to do their roles effectively.

5. Deliver a great user experience

Your intranet is there to provide value to your employees, after all they are the end-users. As such, they will expect the same level of performance from their intranet as any other consumer-grade technologies they use, to the point that the user experience (UX) should be almost taken for granted.

To this end your user experience must be seamless, intuitive and visually appealing. For example, does your home page navigation allow users to quickly identify where they need to go? Is the taxonomy of content areas unwieldy, are there too many unnecessary clicks or is it difficult to get to the information they need?

How easy is it for even non-technical users to create content? Is the interface intuitive and simple to use? Does it allow for different file formats  for example, enabling authors to upload Word, Excel, PDF files, and add images, videos or links to their content?

Take away: Place user experience at the top of your priority list and invest in intranet strategy services to ensure you deliver.

6. Embrace enterprise social networking  according to your business needs and culture

Enterprise social tools are here to stay and offer many advantages for most companies. However, they arent appropriate in all cases. Dont push social features onto your company  at least, not until you are ready and it aligns with your culture.

In our experience, the most successful enterprise social networks have a clear purpose within the company, engage people over different disciplines, and are embraced as part of the overall business culture. If youve not had a social collaboration platform before, launching all social features from day one, without addressing cultural barriers, will probably fail.

Take away: Understand that not everyone in your company will contribute. People have different roles in a social intranet, and you need to find ways to encourage these people.

7. Allow people to self-serve

Ultimately, enabling your people to self-serve is essential for intranet success. So, allowing your users to build their own areas to collaborate, create forms, add events and more gives you a greater chance of adoption. The important thing to remember is that teams in the modern-day workplace are agile and diverse.

This calls for a range of different spaces where groups can connect, communicate and complete business tasks  and cant be defined by traditional role-specific teams. For example, you may have a team space linked to a particular project, or around a common interest or area of expertise.

Take away: Encourage your users to take ownership of your intranet. Make sure your platform is easy to use and allows employees to create their own collaborative spaces  whether for certain projects, team structures or even common interests.

8. Be proud to be an intranet

The development and investment in workplace tools and tech have seen a massive increase in recent years. In turn, intranets have been the focus of substantial innovation and growth. In an age of enterprise social networking, cloud storage and instant messaging, weve been asked whether intranets are still relevant and what role they can  or should  play in business communications.

Lets consider what, at its most basic level, an intranet is.

An intranet is a powerful enabler to solve an employees need, offering timely and relevant information and support. It helps connect individuals, regardless of time zone, location, or device. It empowers employees with a voice and offers a means to tap into the knowledge of an organization. Whats more, in an increasingly challenging and dispersed workplace, it helps build and support a successful business culture.

Given the value placed on employee engagement, we would argue intranets are now more relevant than ever. Is the intranet here to stay? Should we call it something different? We believe there is no better way to describe a collection of tools that allow communication, business processes and collaboration than an intranet. So be proud of it  call it an intranet.

Take away: There are a huge variety of tools and applications available to facilitate communication and collaboration. The intranet is a collective, a facilitator, a portal that brings together all these different tools, features and applications. In todays marketplace, it is more relevant and valuable than ever before.
[July 01, 2021] Aptean to Expand in Austria Through Acquisition of Ramsauer & Sturmer

ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Aptean , a global provider of mission-critical enterprise software solutions, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ramsauer & Sturmer, a leading provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in Austria.

Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Salzburg, Austria, Ramsauer & Sturmer offers clients a full spectrum of ERP functionality with its rs2 business software. With tailored solutions catering to a variety of industries, including construction, cable car systems, food and beverage, service providers, non-profits and production, Ramsauer & Sturmer is a trusted partner to over 400 clients around the world. This transaction will provide Aptean with an expanded geographic presence in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region, where demand for digital business solutions increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aptean also looks forward to welcoming Ramsauer & Sturmers 150 talented employees. As part of Aptean, Ramsauer & Sturmer will have the opportunity to continue their focus in their local region while also benefitting from the companys global scale and resources, including its deep technology expertise. Ramsauer & Sturmer will be better positioned to serve clients as a truly long-term provider throughout the full customer lifecycle. "Ramsauer & Sturmer is a trusted ERP solutions and implementation partner for its global network of customers, and we are confident we will see continued success together in the DACH region, said TVN Reddy, CEO of Aptean.Their talented staff have over 35 years of expertise delighting customers across industries with a compelling suite of software solutions. We are eager to work with the Ramsauer & Sturmer team to help continue to advance their technology and drive this exciting phase of growth for the business, added Volker Schinkel, General Manager of Aptean DACH.



Aptean stands out as a leader in its differentiated focus on developing industry-specific software, and we look forward to joining forces, said Ramsauer & Sturmers Managing Director Markus Neumayr. With Apteans global scale and significant capabilities, we will be able to accelerate investment in our business and better support our customers at a time when demand for digital workflows and optimized processes has never been stronger. We are excited to work closely with the Aptean team to continue to deliver the absolute reliability, broad expertise, premium quality and innovative thinking our customers trust us to provide. About Ramsauer & Sturmer

Founded in 1984, Ramsauer & Sturmer produces market-leading ERP solutions for mid-sized Austrian companies. We are highly committed to providing our customers with innovative software delivered quickly by our solutions-oriented staff. Reliability, high quality and strong customer focus are at our core. We are here to support you on the way to success. Visit www.rs-soft.com/en/.

About Aptean

Aptean is one of the worlds leading providers of industry-specific software, enabling our customers to be Ready for Whats Next, Now. Our enterprise resource planning and supply chain solutions are uniquely designed to meet the needs of specialized manufacturers and distributors in over 20 industries, while our compliance solutions serve specific markets such as finance and life sciences. In total, Apteans solutions are used by over 6,500 customers around the world. With both cloud and on-premise deployment options, Apteans products, services and unmatched expertise help businesses of all sizes to scale and succeed. Aptean is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. To learn more about Aptean and the markets we serve, visit www.aptean.com. Aptean is a trademark of Aptean, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. For Media Inquiries Please Contact

Nicole ORourke

Chief Marketing Officer

Nicole.Orourke@aptean.com

(770) 715-0362



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[July 01, 2021] Bizzabo Expands European Footprint with New London Office

NEW YORK, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bizzabo , the world's leading event success platform, today announced the opening of a new office in London, affirming its commitment to elevate event experiences for marketers around the world. Bizzabo has hired event industry veteran Tim Bull to lead London operations and oversee expansion efforts across Europe.

Following quickly on the heels of Bizzabos acquisitions of x.ai and Whalebone , Bizzabos London location will be a hub for the companys European customer-facing operations, including sales, service and marketing teams. As the world moves toward re-opening, weve remained focused on our mission of bringing people together to create impactful experiences, said Eran Ben-Shushan, Co-Founder & CEO at Bizzabo. Our new London office will give us a strong foothold as we continue to invest in and partner with marketers across Europe. Headquartered in New York with an office in Tel Aviv, Israel, the London office is Bizzabos fourth global location and follows the opening of a technology-focused office in Kyiv, Ukraine, earlier this year. Bizzabo is a growing global team of more than 300 employees, with 130 open roles that include exciting opportunities to join the Bizzabo London Team . Bizzabo is recruiting top talent across Sales and Client Services, including Account Executives, Enterprise Sales Directors and Sales Engineers.



As Bizzabos first Vice President of Sales in EMEA, Tim brings more than 20 years of experience in the meetings and events industry with a specific focus on SaaS technology. He previously served as the Managing Director of Sales, EMEA & APAC at Aventri and as the Director of Sales at Lanyon/Cvent. Tim has also held roles at Deutsche Bank, Whitbread, De Vere, Zibrant, and Active Network. Bizzabo is continuing to strategically invest in people and in the future of event technology. Their commitment to redefine the space positions Bizzabo as the most innovative solution for modern organisers, Tim said. Im excited to join the team and continue to build on this momentum.





Over the last two months, Bizzabo announced two key acquisitions  x.ai , the powerful artificial intelligence scheduling tool that automatically finds time for people to meet, and Whalebone , the crowd amplification and visualisation technology that enhances the audience, organiser, and speaker experience to make events feel more interactive, exciting, and human. In December 2020, Bizzabo announced a $138 million financing round to meet surging demand for its all-in-one, end-to-end events platform globally, with a focus on enhancing the attendee experience in the hybrid events market. Powering events for brands like Amazon, Electronic Arts, Forbes, Siemens, and Salesforce, Bizzabo recently earned  Leader  recognition in The Forrester Wave: B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 report. For more information about Bizzabo, visit www.bizzabo.com . About Bizzabo: Bizzabo is the only Event Success Platform. Bizzabos all-in-one event software enables in-person, virtual, and hybrid events to deliver unique attendee experiences through intelligent and intent-based personalised engagement. We help companies measure, manage, and scale events towards key business outcomes. Our platform empowers every organiser, marketer, exhibitor, and attendee to unleash the power of events. As a Leader in The Forrester Wave: B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 Report, we are trusted by world-leading brands to power their eventsfrom Fortune 100 enterprise organisations and financial institutions to creative agencies and scaling tech companies Bizzabo was founded by Boaz Katz, Alon Alroy, and Eran Ben-Shushan, and has more than 300 employees in its New York, Tel-Aviv, and Kyiv offices.

Media Contact: Veronica Amenta veronica@crenshawcomm.com

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[July 01, 2021] BPM Welcomes Gumbiner Savett, Expands Presence in Southern California

BPM LLP, one of the 50 largest public accounting and advisory firms in the country, and Gumbiner Savett Inc., a full-service accounting and consulting firm headquartered in Santa Monica, today announced that the businesses will combine, effective July 1, 2021. Existing Gumbiner Savett clients will benefit from access to BPM's global reach and the variety and depth of knowledge manifested by its growing base of 800-plus professionals. The announcement comes on the heels of a slew of recent expansions for BPM. 2020 saw combinations with Irvine-based Warnick, Maestas & Maroney (WMM) Accountancy Corporation as well as Long Beach-based full-service CPA firm Rossi LLP. The combination with Gumbiner Savett further expands BPM's reach in Southern California with a new office in a significant Los Angeles metro area. "Gumbiner Savett is an established, respected member of the Los Angeles County's business community whose mission and values mirror our own," said Jim Wallace, BPM's Chief Executive Officer. "This strategic business combination strengthens our competitiveness in the marketplace and will be a key driver ofgrowth for our firm as we expand in Southern California. We look forward to achieving new heights of opportunity for both our clients and colleagues under our newly combined firm."



Gumbiner Savett's Santa Monica office will be rebranded under the BPM name, joining the list of the Firm's existing locations across California as well in Eugene, Oregon, and Bellevue, Washington. "This combination with BPM will allow us to serve our clients even better through enhanced resources and capabilities, including many new specialty services," said Rick Parent, Managing Director of Gumbiner Savett. "We are excited to share this news with our clients and continue to find new ways to support and grow their businesses."

Earlier this year, BPM was recognized as a 2021 Best of Accounting award winner for the sixth year in a row based on client service excellence and was also listed in Forbes' "Best Tax and Accounting Firms" for the second consecutive year. Most recently, BPM was named as one of Accounting Today's "Fastest Growing Firms in the U.S." and among the top firms on the West Coast. About BPM Founded in 1986, BPM is one of the 50 largest public accounting and advisory firms in the country. With more than 800 professionals along the West Coast-as well as an office in Bengaluru-the Firm offers a cross-functional team approach that gives clients direct access to the best and most qualified resources. To learn more, visit the BPM website. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005844/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Broadridge Acquires Innovative Compliance and Surveillance Solution for Broker-Dealers

NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader, today announced that it is further enhancing its regulatory compliance capabilities for broker-dealers with the acquisition of the cloud-based Execution Compliance and Surveillance Service (ECS) assets from Jordan & Jordan. The solution provides a combination of surveillance and regulatory reporting as well as compliance consulting capabilities for US regulations. "We are committed to helping broker-dealers simplify the process of complying with an ever-changing set of regulatory requirements," said Vijay Mayadas, President of Capital Markets at Broadridge. "This tuck-in acquisition provides a natural extension of our reporting and compliance capabilities for pre and post execution activities for the US market and underlines Broadridge's commitment to expanding our capital markets offerings to clients." The acquisition enables Broadridge to further extend its strategic regulatory reporting capabilities as well as add compliance and regulatory reporting consulting capabilities. The solution allows broker-dealers to more effectively comply with regulations such as SEC Rules 605/606 and Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and strengthens their capabilities around best execution, trade surveillance and the detection of fraud-based manipulative activity. It also enables clients to monitor the effectiveness of their required policies and procedures and provide detailed records to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing surveillance. "We are proud that our innovative solution is being used by an increasing number of firms to assist in meeting their compliance obligations," said Tom Jordan, President & CEO of Jordan & Jordan. "The acquisition by Broadridge, a leader in the capital marketsindustry with significant size and scale, will further accelerate its capability to meet the increasing demand from clients."



Berkery Noyes and CapM Advisors acted as financial advisors to Jordan & Jordan. About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with over $4.5 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance, and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. In addition, Broadridge's technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of on average more than U.S. $10 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work, Broadridge is a part of the S&P 500 Index, employing over 12,000 associates in 21 countries. For more information about us and what we can do for you, please visit www.broadridge.com. About Jordan & Jordan Jordan & Jordan (www.jandj.com) is a veteran owned financial technology company that provides market data consulting and industry solutions across the securities industry. The Market Data practice specializes in the commercial aspects of market data offering data usage compliance assessments, licensing support, data governance, technology alternatives, project management, audit services and staff augmentation. Jordan & Jordan facilitates solutions to shared industry issues for broker dealers, asset managers, exchanges/ATSs and vendors through their management of the Financial Information Forum (FIF - www.fif.com) and Research Information Exchange Markup Language (RIXML - www.rixml.org). For additional information on services please contact Kathy McGovern at kathy.mcgovern@jandj.com. Investors: W. Edings Thibault

Head of Investor Relations, Broadridge

+1 516-472-5129

Edings.Thibault@Broadridge.com Media: Tina Wadhwa

Corporate Communications, Broadridge

+1 212-973-6164

Tina.wadhwa@broadridge.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/broadridge-acquires-innovative-compliance-and-surveillance-solution-for-broker-dealers-301324004.html SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.

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[July 01, 2021] Caverion to acquire the business of RPH Linc AB in Sweden , further strengthening its smart security solutions offering

- Caverion to acquire the business of RPH Linc AB in Sweden, further strengthening its smart security solutions offering HELSINKI, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Caverion has today closed an agreement to acquire the business of the Swedish company RPH Linc AB. RPH Linc is a system integrator in the area of electrical security focusing on high-end security solutions for enterprise and multisite customers and the public sector. RPH Linc was founded in 1999 as an IT consultancy company, and then developed towards the security sector as a systems integrator of more complex systems. RPH Linc also has a long history of working together with Caverion. In the financial year ending March 2020, the revenue of RPH Linc was about EUR 3 million. The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction price. The acquisition is a bolt-on acquisition for Caverion in the area of smart technology services, an area in which Caverion has a deep competence. Caverion's extensive resources all over Sweden and the advanced ISO-processes will strengthen the delivery even further. Customers from both Caverion and RPH will benefit from this development: additional security specialist competence is added to the Caverion security team while the RPH solutions can be scaled much further with the Caverion nationwide network to customers of all sizes and from all segments. "For us at RPH Linc this will be a natural step forward and an exciting development. We can serve customers even better and scale our offering. Our knowledge will enrich the already advanced capabilities of Caverion in this growing security space  together we will be even stronger," says Raphael Cameron, CEO, RPH Linc. "The acquisition strengthens our ambition to provide smart, digital and sustainable solutions for which expert knowledge is crucial. We see great possibilities to up-scale the know-how RPH Linc has developed during many years. The business will form a special unit within Caverion. RPH Linc uses the same security platform technology as Caverion, which will facilitate our cooperation. The smart adaptions RPH Linc have made to the security platform, especially in passage and access control, will further boost our position in the market of integrated security systems," says Juha Mennander, Head of Caverion's Division Sweden. Read more about our security solutions. For more information, please contact: Juha Mennander, Head of Caverions Division Sweden, tel. +46706521203, juha.mennander@caverion.com Erika Bjornesparr, Head of Marketing and Communications, Caverion Sweden, tel. +467 3050 9285, erika.a.bjornesparr@caverion.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/caverion/r/caverion-to-acquire-the-business-of-rph-linc-ab-in-sweden---further-strengthening-its-smart-security,c3378002 The following files are available for download:







https://news.cision.com/caverion/i/juha-mennander-caverion-and-raphael-cameron-ceo-rph-linc,c2932183 Juha Mennander Caverion and Raphael Cameron CEO RPH Linc



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[July 01, 2021] CCLA and Bancolombia Enter Into a Joint Venture to Develop and Operate Multi-Family Buildings Across Colombia

CCLA, a partnership between CIM Group and Compass (News - Alert) Group, which is focused on owning, developing and operating real estate in Latin America, and Bancolombia, a financial institution with more than 146 years of history and a broad presence in LATAM, announced today that they have entered into a joint venture ("JV") to develop and operate purpose-built, for-rent multi-family buildings across Colombia's largest cities, starting with Bogota. The JV aims to develop a portfolio of mid to high-rise buildings, with the objective of developing 5,000 units in the next five years. Additionally, this JV positions CCLA and Bancolombia among the leading institutional multifamily investors, developers and operators in the country. "Bancolombia is an ideal partner for expanding our presence in Colombia based in part on the group's ability to adapt to new client requirements and introduce business units to promote sustained economic development and benefit communities," said Ricardo Goldberg, Managing Director at CIM Group. "Through this partnership, we are not only increasing our presence in Colombia but also supporting the consolidation of our platform across LATAM, striving to replicate what we have achieved in Colombia and Mexico to other countries in the region." Additionally, Cristina Arrastia, Business Vice President of Bancolombia affirmed that through this joint venture, "we seek to respond to the housing needs of all types of people. On the one hand, we offer credit and leasing products for those whose life goal is to own their home. On the other hand, we bring this leasing model for those who prefer to pay for the use of things without being tied in another way. Thus, we complete an offer of solutions that adapts to any family."



In 2018, CCLA and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, entered into a JV to develop and operate purpose-built, for-rent multi-family buildings across Mexico's largest cities including Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. The objective is to position the companies as the institutional investors, developers and operators of multifamily residential for-rent assets in the country during the following years. "Our goal is to revolutionize the multi-family segment in the LATAM market, aligning with the specific requirements of each country and city. In particular, we've seen a tremendous need to improve the residential assets available throughout Colombia, and we believe we can more effectively serve tenants and benefit communities in the country," said Sebastian Luque, Country Head of CCLA Colombia.

Over the next few years, CCLA also plans to consolidate its current business in Chile & Peru and expand to other LATAM regions such as Brazil. About CCLA Established in 2016, CCLA, a joint venture between CIM Group and Compass Group, primarily develops, owns, and operates, well-amenitized including mixed-use real estate assets in Mexico and Latin America. CCLA relies upon CIM's North American opportunistic investment, development, and operational expertise and Compass' long-term asset management track record, strong local footprint and market expertise in Latin America, to oversee the development, design, construction of projects as well as marketing and management of operating residential buildings. CCLA currently operates more than 2,300 apartment units and approximately 300,000 square feet of commercial properties, with 5,500 apartment units under development in LATAM. For more information, please visit www.cclagroup.com About Bancolombia Financial group with 146 years of history, and with a presence in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and El Salvador. It offers a portfolio of financial and non-financial products and services to more than 20 million clients. It provides, among others, commercial and consumer banking services, stock brokerage, financial leasing, factoring, trust services, asset management, private banking and investment banking. It has declared to promote economic development to achieve the well-being of all, seeking to positively impact the communities of the countries in which it operates. For more information, please visit www.grupobancolombia.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005946/en/

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[July 01, 2021] CI&T Acquires Dextra to Scale Local and Global Operations

NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CI&T , a digital specialist for global brands, today announced the acquisition of Dextra , a Brazilian based software development company that creates end-to-end digital products. This acquisition is part of CI&T's ongoing effort to amplify its capabilities and build a stronger global market presence. Dextra has over 1,200 experienced digital professionals, top-tier clients in Brazil and the U.S., and has developed a similar culture to CI&T focused on being lean, agile and providing full digital solutions. Dextra creates end-to-end digital products, from innovation and design to running secure and scalable software, which complements CI&T's current offering. "We are thrilled about the opportunity to grow and expand our operations together with Dextra, a company that we have always admired and respeted. The market demand is very high and together our offering is even stronger," celebrated Cesar Gon, CI&T's founder and CEO.



This acquisition further cements CI&T's market leader position in Brazil, increases the potential for nearshore opportunities, and will offer more comprehensive and robust solutions for both client portfolios. As both companies share similar cultural building blocks, incorporating the CI&T framework of an adhocratic management system with independent and decentralized decision-making will facilitate a seamless transition and help generate fast and relevant business impact for clients. "Our success at Dextra has the potential to be exponential and global, and we are looking forward to starting our next chapter with CI&T. We are very excited about this new phase for the company," explained Eduardo Coppo, founder and CEO of Dextra.

CI&T will add Dextra's experienced tech professionals, seasoned group of founders and senior management to its global employee base of over 4,000 digital specialists, and clients such as Alelo, Solvay, Serasa Experian and McDonald's, among others. On top of providing a wider range of services to the market, this merger will strengthen CI&T's technical expertise. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. About Dextra

Dextra is an expert in combining design methodologies, agile development and data science to deliver digital products that boost our customers' businesses. We are a team of more than 1,200 people developing digital transformation projects in leading companies in their sectors in Brazil and the US. Since 2013 we are proud to be recognized among the 10 best IT & Telecom companies to work for by GPTW, in addition to several awards received from our clients for excellence in delivery and innovation. About CI&T

CI&T is a digital specialist, a partner in end-to-end digital transformation. As digital natives, we bring a 26-year track record of accelerating business impact through complete and scalable digital solutions. With a global presence of 4,000 professionals in strategy, research, data science, design, and engineering, we unlock top-line growth, improve customer experience and drive operational efficiency. CONTACT: press@ciandt.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cit-acquires-dextra-to-scale-local-and-global-operations-301323966.html SOURCE CI&T

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[July 01, 2021] Clearwater Analytics Continues Its Expansion in Europe, Appoints Martin Wallmann as Region Head for DACH

FRANKFURT, Germany, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearwater Analytics, the leading SaaS solution for investment accounting, reporting and analytics, announced today that it has appointed Mr. Martin Wallmann as Managing Director for their business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland effective 1 July 2021, as part of the company's growth in Continental Europe. Mr. Wallman will be based out of Clearwater's offices in Frankfurt. Before joining Clearwater, Mr. Wallmann worked for J.P. Morgan for 13 years where he held several cross-regional leadership roles in Frankfurt, Luxembourg, and London. Most recently he was responsible for the Securities Services Client Business for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Commerzbank AG in their Transaction Banking arm, in different leadership roles across Trading, Custody and Network Management. With over 65 clients in the UK and Europe, Clearwater is emerging as a leader in the investment acconting and reporting space for insurance, institutional asset management and corporates in the region. Clearwater's rapid growth is driven by a SaaS single instance, multi-tenant platform that handles over $5.5 trillion in AUM globally. With the opening of the Frankfurt office, Clearwater now has presence in London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Edinburgh to serve the UK and European market.



"Clearwater has the ability to provide solutions to resolve key challenges experienced by the majority of asset owners and asset managers, that in large part still face operating models relying on legacy technology and processes. Clearwater offers a leading-edge SaaS solution that allows for a faster and more streamlined management of data, and enables more efficient operating models as well as highly bespoke reporting solutions. I am excited to join an organization that is focused not just on innovation and client experience but focused on its clients and its employees," said Martin Wallmann. "We are excited to welcome Martin to Clearwater," said Gayatri Raman, Managing Director of EMEA and APAC, Clearwater Analytics, "Martin brings a wealth of experience and understanding of the local market. His expertise is of immense value to Clearwater as we continue to expand across Europe and serve a growing client base in the German speaking region."

About Clearwater Analytics

Clearwater Analytics is a global industry leading SaaS solution for automated investment data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, and reporting. Each day, the Clearwater solution reports on more than $5.5 trillion in assets for clients that include leading insurers, asset managers, corporations, pension plans, governments, and nonprofit organizations  helping them make the most of their investment portfolio data with a world-class product and client-centric servicing. Investment professionals in 50 countries trust Clearwater to deliver timely, validated investment data and in-depth reporting. Additional information about Clearwater can be found at

www.clearwater-analytics.com, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1502063/ClearwaterLogo__RGB_300_Logo.jpg

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[July 01, 2021] Cloud Inventory Recognized for Excellent Security with Veracode Certification

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Inventory, a leader in innovative inventory management technology, has announced that its mobile-first, cloud-based platform has strengthened its security credentials by receiving Veracode Verified Standard certification. The certification, indicated by the Veracode Seal, recognizes that companies utilizing Cloud Inventory's low-code inventory management solutions can be assured of outstanding security. Veracode Verified Standard certification is granted to applications and websites that implement specific additional security measures to pass a thorough code security review. Companies that are awarded the Veracode Seal demonstrate robust security standards that protect their software from cybersecurity risks. Cloud Inventory's low-code platform is built with the flexibility to provide both out-of-the-box performance and a high degree of configurability to meet a variety of supply chain needs, both in the warehouse and in field environments. While in some cases low-code software can sacrifice security for speed, the Veracode Seal shows that Cloud Inventory's software maintains both high security standards and efficient speed. Receiving the Veracode Seal indicates that Cloud Inventory users can rey on secure implementation regardless of how the platform is used.



"This certification reinforces Cloud Inventory's commitment to providing agile, real-time supply chain solutions," said Chris Horsefield, CTO. "We want to ensure that Cloud Inventory customers benefit from timely solutions that do not require time-consuming security checks, solutions that lead to high-assurance, high-value results without costly delays." "With shrinking delivery timelines and increasing reliance on technology to manage supply chains, customers expect inventory management software to be both efficient and secure," said Mark Goode, President & CEO. "The Veracode Verified Standard let's our customers know that Cloud Inventory solutions provide the inventory visibility and control they need without sacrificing security."

Increasing concerns about cybersecurity have made a transparent, conscientious approach to security a priority for companies that provide customers with software solutions. In receiving Veracode Verified Standard certification, Cloud Inventory has demonstrated its continued commitment to prioritizing the highest level of software security for its customers. For more information on Cloud Inventory, visit CloudInventory.com . About Cloud Inventory

Cloud Inventory's mobile-first applications empower organizations with real-time inventory visibility at all points in the supply chain, from the warehouse to the field. Based in Kansas City, our global team has the supply chain knowledge and mobile-first development expertise to deliver solutions that solve today's business challenges. Visit www.cloudinventory.com to learn more. Media Contact:

Meredith Strassle

Director, Content & Communications

Meredith.Strassle@cloudinventory.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-inventory-recognized-for-excellent-security-with-veracode-certification-301324051.html SOURCE Cloud Inventory

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[July 01, 2021] Colombier Acquisition Corp. Announces Closing of Underwriters' Over-Allotment Option in Connection with its Initial Public Offering

Colombier Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: CLBR) (the "Company") today announced the closing of the issuance of an additional 2,250,000 units pursuant to the full exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option in connection with the Company's initial public offering. The additional units were sold at the initial offering price of $10.00 per unit, generating additional gross proceeds of $22,500,000 to the Company and bringing the total gross proceeds of the initial public offering to $172,500,000. The Company's sponsor team is a consortium of SuRo Capital Corp. and principals of Farvahar Partners and Torch Capital, who have come together to leverage their combined expertise and differentiated relationship network to identify and execute attractive business combination opportunities. The team is led by our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Omeed Malik and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Voboril. The Company's board of directors includes: Omeed Malik, Founder and CEO of Farvahar Partners; Joe Voboril, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Farvahar Partners; Ryan Kavanaugh, Co-Founder of Triller; Eddie Kim, Founder and CEO of Memo; Jonathan Keidan, Founder and Managing Partner of Torch Capital; Keri Findley, Senior Managing Director of SuRo Capital Corp.; and Claire Councill, an investor at SuRo Capital Corp. B. Riley Securities, Inc. acted as sole bookrunning manager. The offering was made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from B. Riley Securities, Inc. at 1300 17th Street N., Suite 1300, Attn: Syndicate Prospectus Department, Arlington, Virginia 22209, by telephone at (703) 31-9580 or by email at prospectuses@brileyfin.com.



A registration statement relating to the securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) ") on June 8, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Colombier Acquisition Corp.

Colombier Acquisition Corp. was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. It may pursue an initial business combination target in any business or industry. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may include, and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may include, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements regarding possible business combinations and the financing thereof, and related matters, as well as all other statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management team, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company's management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and prospectus for the Company's initial public offering filed with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005900/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Community Bank System Acquires Fringe Benefits Design of Minnesota, Inc.

Community Bank System, Inc. (NYSE: CBU) announced today that it acquired Fringe Benefits Design of Minnesota, Inc. ("FBD"), a provider of retirement plan administration and benefit consulting services with offices in Minnesota and South Dakota. FBD will become a subsidiary of Benefit Plans Administrative Services, Inc. ("BPAS"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Community Bank System. BPAS, through its various subsidiaries provides daily valuation, actuarial and employee benefit consulting, cafeteria plan and institutional trust services on a national scale, from offices in Utica and Syracuse, NY, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA, Houston, TX Boston, MA and Puerto Rico. The acquisition of FBD is expected to give BPAS a profile of over $110 million in annual revenues, administration of more than 510,000 retirement plan participant accounts, 4,200 employer clients, approximately $13 billion in defined contribution plan assets on its daily valuation system, and approximately $110 billion of total assets in trust. "We are very excited to be partnering with FBD, a respected and growing provider of retirement plan administration and benefit consulting services," said Community Bank System President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark E. Tryniski. "The transaction will strengthen and complement our existing BPAS businesses, and represents an attractive opportunity to expand our benefits business in the Midwest. We are delighted to welcome the entire FBD team to the Community Bank System organization and look forward to the future of the combined company." Community Bank System, Inc. operates more than 225 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Western Massachusetts through its banking subsidiary, Community Bank, N.A. With assets of over $14.6 billion, the DeWitt, N.Y. headquartered company is among the country's 125 largest banking institutions. In addition to a full range of retail, business, and municipal banking services, the Company offers comprehensive financial planning, insurance and wealth management services through its Community Bank Wealth Management Group and OneGroup NY, Inc. operating units. The Company's Benefit Plans Administrative Servics, Inc. subsidiary is a leading provider of employee benefits administration, trust services, collective investment fund administration and actuarial consulting services to customers on a national scale. Community Bank System, Inc. is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Company's stock trades under the symbol CBU. For more information about Community Bank visit www.cbna.com or https://ir.communitybanksystem.com.



This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of CBU's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause the actual results of CBU's operations to differ materially from its expectations: the macroeconomic and other challenges and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the negative impacts and disruptions on public health, corporate and consumer customers, the communities CBU serves, and the domestic and global economy, including various actions taken in response by governments, central banks and others, which may have an adverse effect on CBU's business; current and future economic and market conditions, including the effects of declines in housing prices, high unemployment rates, U.S. fiscal debt, budget and tax matters, geopolitical matters, and any slowdown in global economic growth; fiscal and monetary policies of the Federal Reserve Board; the effect of changes in the level of checking or savings account deposits on CBU's funding costs and net interest margin; future provisions for credit losses on loans and debt securities; changes in nonperforming assets; the effect of a fall in stock market prices on CBU's fee income businesses, including its employee benefit services, wealth management, and insurance businesses; the successful integration of operations of its acquisitions; competition; changes in legislation or regulatory requirements; and the timing for receiving regulatory approvals and completing pending transactions. For more information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from CBU's expectations, refer to its reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) "), including the discussion under "Risk Factors" as filed with the SEC and available on CBU's website at https://ir.communitybanksystem.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and CBU undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005845/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Cosmos Holdings Appoints Finance Veteran Alexi Papaconstantinou to its Advisory Board

CHICAGO, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cosmos Holdings, Inc. (the Company") (OTCQX: COSM ), an international pharmaceutical company with a proprietary line of branded and generic pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, OTC medications and an extensive, established European Union distribution network, today announced that it has appointed finance veteran Alexi Papaconstantinou to the Company's Advisory Board.

Mr. Papaconstantinou is a capital markets veteran and brings over 20 years of experience in investment banking, equity financing, portfolio management and mergers and acquisitions with a particular focus on high-growth public and private companies. Mr. Papaconstantinou is currently the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Lacerta Partners, a family office backed multi-strategy fund. Prior to Co-founding Lacerta Partners, Mr. Papaconstantinou served as Portfolio Manager/Senior Investment Analyst at a number of well-known hedge funds, including Point72 and Moore Capital Management in London. Earlier in his career, Mr. Papaconstantinou held various positions within the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley in London, where he worked on numerous M&A and capital markets transactions across a broad spectrum of industries including transport, financial institutions, retail, and pharma. Mr. Papaconstantinou received a B.A. in Economics and graduated Magna cum laude from Yale University. Greg Siokas, Chief Executive Officer of Cosmos Holdings, stated, We are pleased to welcome Alexi to our advisory board. Alexi brings with him an impressive track record in corporate finance and capital markets as well as mergers and acquisitions, which should be invaluale as we continue to aggressively expand our global footprint, both organically and through acquisitions. Additionally, we believe having an experienced finance veteran of Alexis caliber will assist us in achieving a listing on a senior national exchange and help us to maintain the highest levels of corporate governance.



Mr. Papaconstantinou commented, "I am delighted to be joining such a progressive, growth-oriented company as Cosmos. I look forward to working with management to enhance shareholder value as Cosmos continues to expand its robust distribution network and launch new and innovative pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products in different markets worldwide. About Cosmos Holdings, Inc.

Cosmos Holdings Inc. is an international pharmaceutical company, with a proprietary line of branded and generic pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, OTC medications and medical devices and an extensive, established EU distribution network. The Company identifies, acquires, develops and commercializes products that improve patients' lives and outcomes and has developed a global distribution platform with clients in 16 European countries and currently expanding throughout Asia and North America. Cosmos Holdings has offices and distribution centers in Thessaloniki, Greece, Athens, Greece and Harlow, UK. More information is available at www.cosmosholdingsinc.com and www.skypremiumlife.com . Forward-Looking Statements With the exception of the historical information contained in this news release, the matters described herein, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements preceded by, followed by, or that otherwise, include the words believes, expects, anticipates, intends, projects, estimates, plans and similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as will, should, would, may and could, are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts, although not all forward-looking statements include the foregoing. These statements, involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may individually or materially impact the matters discussed, herein for a variety of reasons that are outside the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the Companys ability to raise sufficient financing to implement its business plan, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Companys business, operations and the economy in general, and the Companys ability to successfully develop and commercialize its proprietary products and technologies. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward- looking statements, as actual results could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements contained herein. Readers are urged to read the risk factors set forth in the Companys filings with the SEC, which are available at the SECs website (www.sec.gov). The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update, or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investor Relations Contact:

Crescendo Communications, LLC

Tel: 212-671-1020

Email: COSM@crescendo-ir.com



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[July 01, 2021] Crosslake Fibre to Transform UK and France Connectivity on PlatformDIGITAL With New CrossChannel Fibre System

PARIS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Interxion: A Digital Realty Company (NYSE: DLR) and leading European provider of carrier- and cloud-neutral colocation data centre solutions, has been chosen by Crosslake Fibre to enable direct interconnection from Interxion's Paris Campus to the CrossChannel Fibre System, which is expected to be operational by the end of the 2021. Interxion's Paris campus is one of the world's leading digital business hubs comprising seven data centres, and is currently undergoing major expansion with the construction of the Interxion Paris Digital Park. It will provide a landing point for subsea cables, such as the CrossChannel Fibre System, that will help businesses interact more easily between the UK and mainland Europe. Interxion customers in all Paris data centres will be able to interconnect seamlessly to the CrossChannel Fibre System following its anticipated activation by the end of 2021. The CrossChannel Fibre System is the first new subsea cable to be built across the English Channel in nearly twenty years, providing users with an ultra low latency and geographically diverse interconnection between Paris and the UK. The high fibre count, non-repeatered system will contain 96 fibre pairs, each providing over 20 terabits per second of capacity. The CrossChannel Fibre System's enhanced technical solution will lower operating costs, bringing significant added value to Digital Realty's global platform PlatformDIGITAL and enabling connected data communities across the globe. "Interxion's Paris data centres are home to a thriving community of networks, enterprises, content providers, as well as financial, gaming, and media companies that will all benefit from the CrossChannel Fibre System's diverse routing, high capacity and low latency," explains Fergus Innes, Senior Vice President at Crosslake Fibre. "The CrossChannel Fibre System will provide the shortest path between Paris and the UK, a critical benefit for our latency sensitive customers. In addition, the system follows a new, physically separate route from Paris to the UK, enabling our customers to enhance the resilience of their networks and efficiently overcome data gravity challenges," says Mike Hollands, Senior Director, Market Development at Digital Realty. The most recent Data Gravity Index DGx which measures the creation, aggregation and private exchange of enterprise data across 53 global metros  revealed that London and Paris are among the cities with the greatest intensity of data gravity in the world, along with Amsterdam, Dublin and Frankfurt in Europe. Data Gravity is the phenomenon of large amounts of data attracting more data and applications into the same place. Cities with strong, open data exchange with other cities often generate the greatest intensity of Data Gravity  bringing major strategic advantages to businesses in those cities.



"The CrossChannel Fibre System will alleviate the effect of being weighed down by data gravity, by opening up a new route for data to move efficiently between businesses. This is particularly important for London and Paris as, according to the Data Gravity Index DGx, London and Paris are one of the world's most interconnected city pairings  coming in second after London and Amsterdam," concludes Hollands. Additional Resources

Read more about Digital Realty's manifesto for open interconnection

Learn about Data Gravity and its impact on digital transformation initiatives

Explore global coverage options on PlatformDIGITAL About Interxion: A Digital Realty Company

Interxion: A Digital Realty Company, is a leading provider of carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre services across EMEA. With more than 700 connectivity providers in over 100 data centres across 13 European countries, Interxion provides communities of connectivity, cloud and content hubs. As part of Digital Realty, customers now have access to 47 metros across six continents. For more information, please visit interxion.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Digital Realty

Digital Realty supports the world's leading enterprises and service providers by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL, the company's global data center platform, provides customers a trusted foundation and proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx) solution methodology for scaling digital business and efficiently managing data gravity challenges. Digital Realty's global data center footprint gives customers access to the connected communities that matter to them with 290 facilities in 47 metros across 24 countries on six continents. For more information, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Crosslake Fibre

Crosslake Fibre is an International Network Service Provider (NSP) and developer of fibre-optic networks throughout North America and Europe. Crosslake's innovative approach to operating and developing next-generation networks provides a range of capacity services on new backbone routes for financial services, telecommunications carriers and web-centric customers. For more information, please visit crosslakefibre.ca. Media and Industry Analyst Inquiries

Marc Musgrove

Digital Realty

(415) 508-2812

mmusgrove@digitalrealty.com Marianne Auzureau

Interxion: A Digital Realty Company

+33 1 53 56 36 14

mariannea@interxion.com Emmanuelle Pionnier / Cedric Damour

Oxygen RP

+33 6 09 09 15 06 / +33 7 84 21 02 20

emmanuelle.rp@oxygen-rp.com / cedric.d@oxygen-rp.com Mike Cunningham

Crosslake Fibre

info@crosslakefibre.ca

+1 289 715 2513 Investor Relations

John J. Stewart / Jim Huseby

Digital Realty

(415) 738-6500

investorrelations@digitalrealty.com Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the CrossChannel Fibre System, our Paris campus, Data Gravity Index DGx, the European and French metros, PlatformDIGITAL and the global exchange of data. For a list and description of risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crosslake-fibre-to-transform-uk-and-france-connectivity-on-platformdigital-with-new-crosschannel-fibre-system-301324762.html SOURCE Digital Realty

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[July 01, 2021] Day Pitney Completes Merger With Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg

Day Pitney LLP is pleased to announce the completion of its merger with Rhode Island-based law firm Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg LLP, a dedicated trusts and estates boutique handling complex and sophisticated planning, probate, and trust matters for high net worth individuals and families. Eight attorneys, including name partners Renee A. R. Evangelista and A. Max Kohlenberg, have joined the firm's Individual Clients department, growing its ranks to nearly 80 attorneys. The combined firm is retaining all of Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg's personnel, as well as the existing office in Providence. Evangelista will be the Managing Partner of the Providence office. "When the opportunity came about to bring Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg onto our team we knew it would be a great fit in terms of the strategic values of our firm, practice areas, culture and geography," said Thomas D. Goldberg, Day Pitney's Managing Partner. "Renee and Max created the preeminent trusts and estates firm in Rhode Island, and we are delighted to be able to call them and their entire team Day Pitney colleagues." With the completion of the merger, Day Pitney has nearly 300 attorneys and oerates 14 offices along the East Coast. The firm services clients in the United States and internationally through its core departments: Individual Clients, Corporate and Business Law, and Litigation.



"We welcome Day Pitney to Rhode Island and look forward to the opportunities the firm and its clients bring to our state," commented Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea. "This merger is indicative of how Rhode Island is becoming a home for forward-thinking businesses committed to the economic development of our state, just as my office is." In addition to Evangelista and Kohlenberg, the following attorneys have joined the firm's trusts and estates practice: Emma D. Becker, Claire N. Carrabba, Joshua R. Caswell, Leigh E. Furtado, Dana T. Pickard and Joshua Simon. Pickard, Simon and Carrabba are all admitted to practice in Florida, where the firm has offices in Boca Raton, Coral Gables, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach.

"Merging our firms will leverage and expand the experience, depth and breadth that both firms have in the private wealth category, while providing all of our clients with increased access to individual attention and innovative solutions," said Evangelista. Day Pitney has one of the largest trusts and estates practices on the East Coast, and the firm's attorneys collectively have hundreds of years of experience helping clients to plan for the future. Both teams are highly ranked in the 2020 Chambers High Net Worth Guide, a Chambers and Partners publication specifically aimed at the international private wealth market. Additionally, Day Pitney won the 2021 U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers "Law Firm of the Year," for Trusts & Estates Law, and was selected as the "Best Law Firm - Estates and Trusts" at the Private Asset Management Awards in 2020. About Day Pitney LLP

Day Pitney is a full-service law firm with close to 300 attorneys in Boston, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Providence, and Washington, DC. The firm offers clients strong corporate and litigation practices, with experience on behalf of large national and international corporations, as well as emerging and middle-market companies. With one of the largest and most sophisticated individual clients practices in the country, the firm also has extensive experience helping individuals and their families, fiduciaries and tax-exempt entities plan for the future. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005146/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Deutsche Bank Appointed as Depositary Bank for the Sponsored American Depositary Receipt Program of DingDong (Cayman) Limited

Deutsche Bank announced today its appointment as depositary bank for the NYSE-listed American Depositary Receipt program of DingDong (Cayman) Limited. DingDong (Cayman) Limited. (NYSE: DDL) is a leading on-demand e-commerce company in China providing customers with fresh produce, meat and seafood and other household products. The Company is headquartered in Shanghai, People's Republic of China.* "We are very pleased to be appointed as depositary bank for DingDong (Cayman) Limited's Level III American Depositary Receipt program," said Daniel Clark, Global Head of Depositary Receipts at Deutsche Bank. "Leveraging Deutsche Bank's range of ADR services, we look forward to working with DingDong to help grow the ADR program and diversify the shareholder base." In addition to specializing in administering cross-border equity structures such as New York Shares and American and Global Depositary Receipts, Deutsche Bank provides corporates, financial institutions, hedge funds and supranational agencies around the world with trustee, agency, escrow and related services. Deutsche Bank offers a very broad range of services for diverse products, from complex securitizations and project finance to syndicated loans, debt exchanges and restructurings. * This information was provided by DingDong (Cayman) Limited (July 2021).







Depositary Receipt Information Country China (Cayman Islands incorporated) Custodian Bank Deutsche Bank AG, Hong Kong Branch Effective Date July 1, 2021 Level III ADR CUSIP 25445D 101 ISIN US25445D1019 Symbol DDL Exchange NYSE Current Ratio 2 ADS: 3 Ordinary Shares Eligibility DTC

Depositary Receipt Contacts Head of Depositary Receipts New Business

Development Daniel Clark William Ng Tel: +1 212 250 3547 Tel: +852 2203 7889 www.adr.db.com Markets Distribution adr@db.com London Tel: +44 (0) 20 7547 6500 gtb.db.com New York Tel: +1 212 250 9100 Hong Kong Tel: +852 2203 7854 Deutsche Bank provides commercial and investment banking, retail banking, transaction banking and asset and wealth management products and services to corporations, governments, institutional investors, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. Deutsche Bank is Germany's leading bank, with a strong position in Europe and a significant presence in the Americas and Asia Pacific. The Depositary Receipts have been registered pursuant to the US Securities Act of 1933 (the "Act"). The investment or investment service which is the subject of this notice is not available to retail clients as defined by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. This notice has been approved and/or communicated by Deutsche Bank AG New York. The services described in this notice are provided by Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas (Deutsche Bank) or by its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in accordance with appropriate local registration and regulation. Deutsche Bank is providing the attached notice strictly for information purposes and makes no claims or statement, nor does it warrant or in any way represent, as to the accuracy or completeness of the details contained herein or therein. This announcement appears as a matter of record only. Neither this announcement nor the information contained herein constitutes an offer or solicitation by Deutsche Bank or any other issuer or entity for the purchase or sale of any securities nor does it constitute a solicitation to any person in any jurisdiction where solicitation would be unlawful. No part of this notice may be copied or reproduced in any way without the prior written consent of Deutsche Bank. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Copyright July 2021 Deutsche Bank AG. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005853/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Empathy Partners with Compassus to Strengthen Care for Families After Loss of a Loved One

NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Empathy, a service platform helping families navigate the journey they face after losing a loved one, today announced a partnership with Compassus, a nationwide provider of home-based services including home health, infusion therapy, palliative and hospice care. Empathy's extensive offering will be available to the families of Compassus patients, offering both logistical and emotional aid to those grieving across the U.S. to make the world a better place  one family at a time. Millions of Americans lose a loved-one each year leaving many families in distress not just from grieving their loss but from the logistical challenges that follow. In the weeks and months that follow, families spend over 500 hours dealing with immediate needs such as arranging a funeral and validating a will, as well as long-term processes such as account cancellations, estate administration, benefit claims, and property cleanout. Combining technology and human support, the Empathy app streamlines end-of-life bureaucracy, minimizes tedious tasks, and automates processes involved in the administration of an estate  freeing families to deal with emotional repercussions and to be there for one another. Empathy also offers human support to provide users both emotional and practical assistance, creating a hybrid experience to help families navigate arrangements and grief. Compassus will offer access to Empathy's digital companion application to provide continued support for families grieving after the loss of a loved one. Compassus, which provides a continuum of home-based care services from 200 locaions in 30 states, is committed to delivering quality patient outcomes and increased access to families across its communities.



"We cherish the trust our patients and their families place in us to support their well-being throughout the end-of-life journey," said Jim Deal, CEO of Compassus. "The set of Empathy services helps Compassus expand our commitment to provide a new standard of bereavement services, bringing even more emotional and logistical support to the patients and families we serve." "Logistics are made hard by grief, and grief is made harder by logistics. Therefore, we are confident that software can and will play a role in helping families deal with loss," said Ron Gura, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy. "Compassus is setting a trend that will hopefully drive a much needed change in the end-of-life industry at large. We are proud to partner with Compassus, a company that shares our vision to provide family-centric care to those in need."

About Empathy Empathy's mission is to help families deal with loss, incorporating both emotional and logistical support for the families in their time of need. Powered by technology and driven by purpose, Empathy's application simplifies and streamlines end-of-life bureaucracy with personalized plans and grief support. Launched in 2021 and headquartered in New York and Tel Aviv, Empathy was founded by Ron Gura and Yonatan Bergman and is backed by VC firms General Catalyst and Aleph. To receive more information about Empathy's app, visit us at Empathy.com. About Compassus Compassus puts patients and families first, providing a continuum of home-based services including home health, infusion therapy, palliative, and hospice care. Nearly 6,000 colleagues in 200 locations and 30 states provide high-quality care and manage patients' advanced illnesses in partnership with health systems and long-term care partners. The Compassus brand promise, Care for Who I Am, reflects its unique care delivery model, which focuses on each person as an individual and each family as a cherished entity, to improve their quality of life in a meaningful way. Learn more at compassus.com, follow @Compassus on Facebook or LinkedIn. Empathy Media Contact Garrett Krivicich

press@empathy.com

+1 786 233 7684 Compassus Media Contacts Dana Coleman

Lovell Communications

dana@lovell.com

(615) 686-5286 Sloane Sharpe

Compassus

Sloane.sharpe@compassus.com

(615) 309-5672 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/empathy-partners-with-compassus-to-strengthen-care-for-families-after-loss-of-a-loved-one-301324145.html SOURCE Empathy

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[July 01, 2021] Ferring Pharmaceuticals Announces Changes to Board of Directors

Ferring Pharmaceuticals announced today that Frederik Paulsen is stepping down from his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors* and transitioning to the role of Honorary Chairman. Lars Rebien Srensen is appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors. Jean-Frederic Paulsen is also appointed to the Board of Directors. All of these changes are effective immediately. Mr. Paulsen has been Chairman of Ferring's Board of Directors since 1988. During Mr Paulsen's tenure, the company has delivered impressive growth and expanded rapidly into new markets, with a presence in almost 60 countries and revenues of nearly EUR 2 billion today. "My father Frederik Paulsen and stepmother Eva Paulsen founded Ferring in 1950, and it has been an honour to continue their legacy of pioneering science while driving the global expansion of the company," said Mr Paulsen. "As Ferring enters its next phase of growth, this is the right moment for me to hand over the reins. With his extraordinary track record, I am confident that Lars will effectively guide Ferring towards its ambitious long-term strategic and financial targets, while keeping alive the pioneering spirit on which the company was built." Lars Rebien Srensen has over three decades of general management experience in the pharmaceutical industry and was President and CEO of Novo Nordisk A/S from 2000 until 2016, spearheading the company's growth into a highly respected and successful global pharmaceutical company. Today, Mr Srensen is Chair of the Board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Chair of the Board of Novo Holdings A/S, a board member of Thermo Fischer Scientific Inc., as well as Chair of the Advisory Board of Axcel Management A/S. "I'm excited to take on the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Ferring Pharmaceuticals and will seek to build on the company's strong foundations and continue its impressive track record of growth," said Mr Srensen. "I look forward to working with the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, to bring the company's long-term strategy to life and help more people around the world build families and live beter lives."



Jean-Frederic Paulsen is Chairman of Ferring Ventures S.A, in addition to other activities. He previously served as Senior Advisor to four Ministers of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and has worked at Mars Inc, Coca-Cola and Credit Suisse. After he steps down as Chairman, Frederik Paulsen will transition to Honorary Chairman of Ferring's Board of Directors, continuing to provide support and ensuring a smooth transition for the Board. Mr Paulsen will also dedicate more time to his passions of polar exploration and climate change science, in addition to his diverse philanthropic activities and the oversight of his other investments.

*Refers to the Board of Directors of Ferring Holding S.A - the parent company of the Ferring Pharmaceuticals group About Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years and has a portfolio covering treatments from conception to birth. Founded in 1950, privately-owned Ferring now employs around 6,000 people worldwide, has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries. Learn more at www.ferring.com, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. # # # Ferring International Center SA

Ch. de la Vergognausaz, 50

CH-1162 Saint-Prex

Switzerland

www.ferring.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005972/en/

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[July 01, 2021]

Gamin Tout Terrain is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new identity

PARIS, July 1, 2021 /CNW/ -- The childcare product distributor, which has launched iconic brands such as Bugaboo, Cybex, Mima, UPPAbaby, Lascal and BabyBrezza in France and Europe, is changing its visual identity to better reflect its ambitions for the future.

The old logo, inspired by their first product (the Lascal BuggyBoard, still a loyal brand) no longer accurately represented what the company had become.

Charles Kehoe, co-founder of Gamin Tout Terrain:

"For several weeks, with the help of a specialist agency and the involvement of our suppliers and customers, we spent time thinking about what we are. We needed something that portrayed our DNA: a pioneer spirit, rigorous selection processes and a personal approach to each of the brands that trust us, and all of this with a family mindset on a European scale"







Gamin Tout Terrain (with founders of four nationalities) wants to become the benchmark distributor for childcare across Europe. Already present in 22 countries, they enjoyed 40% growth in 2020.

Gamin Tout Terrain in a few dates

1997 - BuggyBoard, a world first

2003 - Bugaboo, the iconic pushchair

2005 - BambinoMio, the start of washable nappies

2007 - KiddyGuard, the first safety barrier that could be rolled up

2009 - Cybex, on the launchpad

2011 - Mima, pure design

2015 - BabyBrezza, the first automatic formula maker

2018 - UPPAbaby, the American leader

Opening up the way, supporting and representing, guiding and advising, the new identity embodies this culture and these ambitions.

Our new signature

Brands with vision.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555199/Gamin_Tout_Terrain.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555198/Gamin_Tout_Terrain_Logo.jpg

Contact:

contact@gamin-tout-terrain.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gamin-tout-terrain-is-celebrating-its-25th-anniversary-with-a-new-identity-301323222.html

SOURCE Gamin Tout Terrain
[July 01, 2021] GRAID Technology Unveils the Future of Enterprise Data Protection

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GRAID Technology today announced the launch of GRAID SupremeRAID, the world's first NVMe RAID card to deliver 100% available SSD performance, offering a new way for enterprise data centers to achieve record-breaking NVMe SSD or NVMeoF performance without sacrificing data security or business continuity. Designed for a modern software composable environment, GRAID Technology's disruptive solution sets the new standard for RAID data protection by protecting direct-attached flash storage as well as storage connected via NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF), with proven world-record performance. Industry leaders Gigabyte and Kioxia are some of the first to offer GRAID Technology's game-changing solution to global enterprise data center customers. As NVMe SSD quickly becomes the new standard for storage infrastructure, a challenge arises for datacenter storage infrastructure design: the industry requires a future-ready solution to deliver NVMe SSD performance without sacrificing data security or business continuity. Now, with proven performance tests and partnerships with global industry leaders, GRAID SupremeRAID removes the traditional RAID performance bottleneck and delivers world-record performance, comprehensive data protection, unmatched flexibility, at the lowest TCO on the market. "GRAID Technology is proud to partner with Kioxia and GIGABYTE to unveil the next generation of NVMe server, storage and data protection technology, capable of delivering industry leading performance for the future of 5G, AI and IoT workloads," says Leander Yu, CEO of GRAID Technology. Daniel Hou, VP of Networking and Communication at GIGABYTE, states: "With each generational leap there are more demanding workloads that require fast throughput from storage solutions. GIGABYTE has partnered with GRAID Technology and Kioxia to develop industry leading performance for Gen 4 NVMe SSDs showcased in R282-Z94, that deliver blazing fast performance in a storage dense 2U chassis." Solution Advantages: Flexible & Future Ready

Optimized for SCI (Software Composable Infrastructure) means unmatched flexibility and automatio capabilities with NVMeoF support



World Record Performance

With 6M IOPS 4k random IO and 25GB/s throughput with single GRAID SupremeRAID card on a PCIe Gen3 platform, or 100GB/s throughput on a PCIe Gen4 platform, GRAID SupremeRAID has redefined performance standards for SSD RAID technology Liberate CPU Resources

Offload your entire RAID computation to the GRAID card to free-up precious CPU computing resources for 5G, AI and AIoT applications

Plug & Play

Effortless installation, no cabling or motherboard re-layout required Highly Scalable

Easily add features like compression, encryption, or thin provisioning; or use for computational storage Easy to Use

Unlike traditional hardware RAID systems, GRAID SupremeRAID does not rely on memory caching technology to improve performance, eliminating the need for battery backup modules GRAID SupremeRAID is available in North America on July 1, 2021 direct or through our data center solution partners. For more information on GRAID Technology or to find out how to offer your own GRAID SupremeRAID solution, visit www.graidtech.com . Partner Case Studies GIGABYTE and GRAID SupremeRAID Deliver the Future of Enterprise Data Protection

GRAID SupremeRAID: The New Standard of Data Protection for NVMe SSDs

GRAID & Kioxia Partner to Revolutionize Enterprise Data Protection Architecture GRAID Technology Inc. is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California with an R&D center in Taipei, Taiwan, and is composed of a dedicated team of experts with decades of experience in the SDS, ASIC and storage industries. GRAID's extraordinary software plus hardware solution has redefined the value of SSD RAID cards and makes GRAID SupremeRAID the most powerful and flexible NVMe SSD RAID in the world. Andrea Eaken

Director of Marketing

(949) 742-9928

andrea.eaken@graidtech.com Related Images graid-technology.png

GRAID Technology

Learn More: graidtech.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/graid-technology-unveils-the-future-of-enterprise-data-protection-301324254.html SOURCE GRAID Technology

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[July 01, 2021] Growatt deepened its market penetration in the Americas

BONN, Germany, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Growatt achieved a great success in the Americas last year, being honored with "Top Brand PV Inverters" awards for the US, Brazil, Mexico and the Americas. This recognition is based on the results of surveys amongst solar installers in those markets carried out by EUPD Research, a market research institution based in Bonn, Germany. With increasing investment in the Americas in recent years, Growatt has gradually deepened its market penetration, set up service centers in the US, Mexico and Brazil, and expanded the local service team. "Because of this localization strategy, Growatt is able to overcome the challenges brought by the pandemic and continue to expand our businessesacross the continent," commented Lisa Zhang, Marketing Director at Growatt.



Dedicated to innovation and excellence, Growatt has developed a new generation of X series inverters that feature a sleek design as well as safe, smart and powerful functionalities. To adapt to the market demand in Latin America, the company has launched new product models such as the MAC 15-36KTL3-XL and MIN 7-10KTL-X inverters. The former inverter is suitable for three-phase 220V systems, while the latter is designed for high-power residential solar applications. Growatt has also introduced its MIN 3000-11400TL-XH US hybrid inverter and ARO lithium battery into the United States to offer customers safe and reliable solar energy storage solution. In addition, Growatt provides off-grid energy storage solutions in the Americas, in which it brings up with SPF off-grid inverter series and ARK battery with modular and stackable design for 120V and 240V applications.

To meet increasing demand, Growatt has begun production at its new manufacturing plant that covers an area of 200,000 square meters and boosts its annual production capacity to 20GW, according to Zhang. Having its strong competitive advantages in distributed solar energy, Growatt ranked third globally for residential inverters and it also came among the world's top 5 suppliers of three-phase string inverters for commercial and industrial projects according to IHS Markit's latest PV Inverter Market Tracker. Media Contact: Whiskey Lu, whiskey.lu@growatt.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/growatt-deepened-its-market-penetration-in-the-americas-301324307.html SOURCE Growatt

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[July 01, 2021] GWM Holds the 8th Technology Festival and Officially Released Its 2025 Strategy

BAODING, China, July 1, 2021 /CNW/ -- "GWM 2025 Strategy Global Launch Conference and the 8th Technology Festival Opening Ceremony" was grandly held in Baoding HAVAL Technical Center on June 28th. GWM officially launched its 2025 strategy, which aims to achieve its annual global sales of 4 million vehicles by 2025, of which 80% are new energy vehicles, with operating revenue exceeding 600 billion CNY, and is expected to invest up to 100 billion CNY in R&D. Jack Wei, Chairman of GWM, said at the conference, "The only way for Chinese auto brands to surpass our competitors in the real sense is to magnify their own advantages in a quick manner in the next three to five years to lead in the field of new energy and intelligence. Moreover, the opportunity for Chinese automobile brands knocks onl once. "



In the future, GWM will push hard for comprehensive and thorough innovation and change, and continuously build competitiveness to take the lead in the new field and promote transformation of GWM into a global technology-driven mobility company on the basis of the new positioning of "global layout", "large investment in R&D", "great change of enterprise" and "user-centered operation". In order to "win China and go global", GWM not only lays out global R&D, production and sales, but also keeps deepening the globalization of brand, technology and talents. GWM aims to sell 4 million vehicles across the world by 2025. New energy vehicle sales will account for 80% of the total sales, with operating revenue exceeding 600 billion CNY. In the next 5 years, its total R&D investment will be up to 100 billion CNY to ensure its technological predominance in creating greener, smarter and safer products for global users. Additionally, GWM will enlarge its pool of global R&D talents. By 2023, its global R&D personnel will exceed 30,000, including 10,000 software development talents.

Through the "great change of enterprise", GWM will practice its concept of "user-centered" service in real sense to build a brand-new value system in which the enterprise and users operate together through the innovative "user-centered operation" of all aspects and the whole field. GWM will rely on the industrial Internet to deepen the user operation mode of consumer to business (C2B); build a new business model of "products +software+ services" to share fruitful results and achieve win-win situation with users through co-creation. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gwm-holds-the-8th-technology-festival-and-officially-released-its-2025-strategy-301324138.html SOURCE GWM

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[July 01, 2021] Hagens Berman: Class Certification Granted in Lawsuit Against Ford for Shelby GT350 Mustang Limp Mode Defect

Today, a federal judge certified a class of Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang owners in a class-action lawsuit accusing the automaker of knowingly selling models that while marketed as "track-ready" cannot actually be operated safely on a racetrack due to a defective powertrain, according to Hagens Berman and Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen, co-counsel law firms representing the plaintiffs. "Through product placement in James Bond movies and racing partnerships with figures like Carroll Shelby, Ford (News - Alert) has spent half a century cultivating an aura of performance and adventure. But these Plaintiffs allege, to Lee Iacocca's chagrin, that their cars are more like Pintos than Mustangs," said Judge Federico A. Moreno in his July 1, 2021 order. The order goes on to state, "In reality, Plaintiffs say, the Base and Technology package versions of the cars were intentionally designed without coolers in order to inflate Ford's profits margins. As a result, the Base and Tech cars could not complete a full 'Track Day' without going into 'Limp Mode.'" Judge Moreno certified statutory and common law fraud classes in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Washington; statutory fraud classes in Missouri and Texas; common law fraud classes in Oregon and Tennessee; and implied warranty and Magnuson-Moss classes in California and Texas. The order also appoints the firms as class counsel. "We are pleased the court has allowed our claims to continue and look forward to leading this case forward with something these affected Mustangs surely lack - speed and endurance," said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. "The class of individuals who purchased these pricey pieces of history deserve to have more than a flashy trophy in their garage. They deserve to have a car that is capable of the track performance they were baited with." "Mr. Shelby, the founder of this line, would be shocked to see Ford refusing to fix the problem as other manufacturers have who were in a similar situation," he added. If you own or lease a 2016 Shelby GT350 Mustang Base model or Technology Package model, you may be entitled to compensatin for this defect that inhibits your car's performance. Contact Hagens Berman to find out more about this issue and your consumer rights against Ford.



According to the lawsuit originally filed Mar. 22, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, after spending a big premium to own a piece of racing history, drivers soon learned that once on the track, their track-ready vehicles can lose speed and power mid-drive, without warning and in as little as 15 minutes. In other words they behave like Pintos, not Mustangs, on the track, in Judge Moreno's phrasing. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for a class of consumers who purchased or leased the affected vehicles, as well as injunctive relief for Ford's misconduct related to the design, manufacture, marketing, sale and lease of affected vehicles.

Learn more about the lawsuit against Ford. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is a consumer-rights class-action law firm operating in 10 cities worldwide. The firm's tenacious drive for plaintiffs' rights has earned it numerous national accolades, awards and titles of "Most Feared Plaintiff's Firm," MVPs and Trailblazers of class-action law. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw. About Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen is a team of award-winning trial attorneys devoted to helping individuals and businesses damaged by other's negligence or misconduct seek the justice to which they are entitled. From its four offices throughout Florida, the firm is focused on the catastrophically injured and high-stakes litigation in state and federal courts in Florida and around the nation covering multiple areas of trial law, including medical malpractice, product liability, personal injury, wrongful death and complex litigation cases. Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen is extremely selective about who it chooses to represent because the firm is dedicated to ensuring clients receive the personal attention they deserve during their representation. For nearly 30 years, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has achieved a record of jury verdicts and settlements for its clients totaling more than one billion dollars and has been recognized with multiple national and regional awards, such as the LawDragon 500 Leading Attorneys in America, the Perry Nichols Award, Florida Trend's Legal Elite and Top Attorneys in Florida. To learn more about Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen, visit www.grossmanroth.com or call 888-296-1681. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005906/en/

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[July 01, 2021] HarbourVest Opens German Office

HarbourVest Partners, a global, independent private markets asset manager with $76 billion in AUM, today announced the opening of its office in Frankfurt, Germany to address increased demand from institutional and private wealth clients for innovative and broad ranging investment solutions. Frankfurt is the second international expansion for HarbourVest this year following the opening of its Singapore office in May. This grows the firm's global footprint to 12 locations across EMEA, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. The office is fully integrated into the firm's global network, providing clients with seamless access to private equity, private credit, real assets and infrastructure investments. HarbourVest has been active in the German market for over 30 years, investing in the country and managing significant capital for investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices through fund and separately managed account solutions. "We are pleased to announce the expansion of our European office network with the opening of our office in Frankfurt," said Peter Wilson, Managing Director. "The German market is one of the strongest and most influential in Europe with institutional, private client, and wealth management channels continuously increasing their allocation to private markets and seeking innovative solutions from investment managers. This is an exciting stage in our evolution as we continue to grow our capabilities across EMEA and further deepen our connections with German clients." The Frankfurt team will be led by HarbourVest Maaging Director Olav Konig, alongside newly appointed Principal Martina Schliemann, who brings 23 years of local market experience working with German managers and investors. The team will offer clients access to a broad range of expertise across investments, investor relations and operations.



The Frankfurt office will operate as HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, Zweigniederlassung Deutschland. HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, Zweigniederlassung Deutschland is authorized by the Central Bank of Ireland as a branch of HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited, an Alternative Investment Fund Manager authorized to conduct certain regulated activities within the EU. HarbourVest's operations in Germany will be supervised by the Board of Directors of HarbourVest Partners (Ireland) Limited. The firm has also become a proud member of the Bundesverband Alternative Investments e.V. ( BAI (News - Alert) ), the industry body for alternative investments in Germany.

For more information about HarbourVest, please visit https://www.harbourvest.com/. ABOUT HARBOURVEST HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets investment specialist with over 35 years of experience and more than $76 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2021. The Firm's powerful global platform offers clients investment opportunities in private equity, private credit and real assets and infrastructure through primary fund investments, secondary investments, and direct co-investments, in commingled funds or separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has more than 700 employees, including more than 150 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This global team has committed more than $46 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $29 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $21 billion directly in operating companies. Partnering with HarbourVest, clients have access to customized solutions, longstanding relationships, and actionable insights. Nothing herein should be construed as a solicitation, offer, recommendation, representation of suitability, legal advice, tax advice, or endorsement of any security or investment and should not be relied upon by you in evaluating the merits of investing in HarbourVest funds or in any other investment decision. Information about the fund is not representative of any other HarbourVest fund or investment product. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005191/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Healing Paper reinvents healthcare and strengthens the security and privacy of customer data with QueryPie, expanding its global footprint

SEOUL, South Korea, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- QueryPie announced today that Healing Paper, Gangnam Unni's creator, has chosen QueryPie to heighten the company's data governance, meeting global privacy regulation standards. QueryPie is also a member of Born2Global Centre . "Gangnam Unni continues to multiply outside of Korea, including in Japan, where we are expanding our customer-centric cosmetic and plastic surgery service platform market. As part of our commitment to global privacy regulations, we are increasingly relying on QueryPie to strengthen our data governance infrastructure.", stated Seung-il Hong, co-founder and CEO of Healing Paper. A few months after its launch in Japan, Gangnam Unni secured over 350 Japanese cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics that match the number one provider of relevant information and services. Gangnam Unni, Korea's leading medical beauty mobile app, allows users to receive quotes from hospitals and surgical centers, schedule consultations, and video chat with cosmetic and plastic surgeons about double eyelid surgery, nose work, liposuction, and other procedures from hospitals and surgical centers. More than 2.8 million people have downloaded the app. Users can access more than 1,300 affiliated medical centers using the app, which can provide them with cosmetic surgery quotes within 72 hours and share real-time plastic surgery stories with its 1.66 million members, who are in their teens and twenties. Jayme Pang, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Healing Paper, says, "With NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and DynamoDB, and relational cloud databases such as AWS Aurora, we can develop apps and run analytics on large data sets quickly, regardless of their location. So it's no surprise that we extensively utilize this new breed of database management systems. We needed a cloud-enabled data governance solution that could handle RDBMS and NoSQL connectivity acoss multiple regions and offered high performance. QueryPie met our needs without a hitch."



QueryPie enables organizations to manage their data governance efficiently. QueryPie's centralized administration enables enterprises to streamline their data governance processes, make better use of their data resources, and ensure compliance as a global data governance solution. "We are humbled to receive such a positive customer and product validation from Healing Paper. Like Healing Paper, we are sincerely committed to becoming a customer-centric company and putting the needs of our clients first. The collaboration with Healing Paper has enabled us to serve our customers better, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of Healing Paper's remarkable growth.", Brant Hwang, CEO of CHEQUER, stated.

For more detailed information on QueryPie, visit https://www.querypie.com . About QueryPie QueryPie ( www.querypie.com ) is an advanced data governance solution developed by CHEQUER that simplifies data access and manages scattered data sources and data protection policies. QueryPie facilitates easier management and auditing of the user or group-specific data access across the organization through a web-based solution, helping the organization ensure seamless data governance. QueryPie delivers visibility and control over cloud applications, data, and users across multiple databases and cloud data platforms, including relational databases, NoSQL databases, data warehouses, and the Hadoop ecosystem. QueryPie has become an increasingly popular platform for enterprises implementing PII policies and complying with security standards such as PCI-DSS and data governance frameworks, including PIPA, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. About Healingpaper (App: Gangnam Unni) Gangnam Unni is Korea's leading medical beauty mobile app. In addition to receiving quotes from cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics, users can schedule consultations with specialists and video chat. Doctors-turned-entrepreneurs launched the app in 2015, taking its name from Seoul's Gangnam district - the Beverly Hills of Seoul - and a central plastic surgery hub. As the name of the app translates, "Sister from Gangnam" represents people who want to ask an (older) sister from Gangnam for advice when considering a little nip and a tuck. After introducing its first app for chronically ill patients, the company rethought how cosmetic and plastic surgery marketplaces functioned, turning them into a consumer-centric service instead of a provider-centric one, which has taken the country by storm ever since. Healing Paper is committed to using innovative technologies and infrastructures to address the deficit in medical services and the information imbalance between non-specialists and IT experts. Moreover, the company's reverse auction service highlights the medical beauty industry's excessive prices and procedures and discourages them. About Born2Global Centre Born2Global Centre ( www.born2global.com ) is a full-cycle service platform for global expansion. Born2Global has set the standard for a thriving startup ecosystem as the primary Korean government agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT since 2013. Born2Global has expanded and transformed startups to be engaged, equipped, and connected with the global market. Media Contact CHEQUER

Celine Lee, Marketing Manager

celine@chequer.io Healing Paper

Joanne Hwang, Communications Lead

joanne@gangnamunni.com Born2Global Centre

Jina Lee, PR Manager

jlee@born2global.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/healing-paper-reinvents-healthcare-and-strengthens-the-security-and-privacy-of-customer-data-with-querypie-expanding-its-global-footprint-301322973.html SOURCE Born2Global Centre

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[July 01, 2021] HUAWEI Ads welcomes Malaysia advertising partners to explore joint business growth

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei's mobile advertising division, HUAWEI Ads, is expanding its business in Malaysia by introducing more partner support and diverse ad solutions, aiming to encourage local advertisers to onboard the platform and amplify their brand messages across the Huawei ecosystem. Launched in 2020 in the Asia-Pacific region, HUAWEI Ads is a one-stop, programmatic advertising marketplace tailored for Huawei devices. The service integrates with the underlying lgorithms and architecture of Huawei devices, making it the most effective platform to reach Huawei's over 730 million global users across devices such as smartphones, PCs and tablets.



Through HUAWEI Ads, advertisers can choose from diverse ad options for placements within Huawei's native and third-party apps, according to their campaign objectives. Currently, HUAWEI Ads is integrated into more than 10,000 high-traffic third-party apps in APAC. Besides standard display ads include banner ad, interstitial ad, native ad, splash ad, rewarded ad and roll ad, HUAWEI Ads also comes with innovative formats such as custom placements on AppGallery, Huawei's official app store, and new search ads on Petal Search.

The HUAWEI Ads platform supports real-time and programmatic biddings, and precise targeting features such as lookalike audiences and retargeting. This ensures that the advertiser's messages and placements are directed to the ideal users who fit their consumer demographics. Additionally, HUAWEI Ads provides tools such as Smart Bidding and Smart Banners, along with one-click installation links, to give advertisers more control over the ad settings. In addition, all HUAWEI Ads inventories have integrated with the international standard Open Measure Software Development Kit (OM SDK). This is a set of software tools designed by IAB Tech Lab for facilitating third-party viewability of measurement data. OM SKD-enabled media helps generate uniform ad viewability reports for each ad placed in the app environment, providing HUAWEI Ads advertisers with accurate and consistent third-party independent data to better evaluate their ad performance and ensure fairness and transparency in the programmatic ad marketplace. All-round support to nurture business growth

HUAWEI Ads also provides end-to-end support from the onboarding process to ad optimisation for Malaysia advertisers in a commitment to build a sustainable digital ad environment. Direct advertisers and certified agencies in Malaysia will be able to enjoy the following benefits:

Free advertising credit for direct advertisers that qualify for the trial programme

Rebates on media spend for certified agencies

Dedicated support from the local team to guide through the onboarding process

Expert training on ad campaign setup and optimisation

New product beta testing opportunities for certified partners Advertisers can start exploring business growth by downloading HUAWEI Ads Media Kit and booking a demo session via https://bit.ly/HuaweiAdsAPACE. Advertising consultation can also be arranged by sending email to devicemy@huawei.com. SOURCE Huawei Mobile Services

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[July 01, 2021] Idaho's largest home builder is setting a new standard for features

BOISE, Idaho, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CBH Homes continues to grow and push new technologies to the forefront as they bring all future CBH homes top notch security and smart home options with ADT. Studies show that 47% of Millennials have at least one smart home product within their homes and 57% of Americans believe that this technology saves them at least 30 minutes on a daily basis. Read more stats here. "With this new technology, we improve on all fronts. Our homeowners will be more connected than ever before. Now, homes under construction will have security to deter theft by ensuring our homes are locked. We'll be more efficient by being able to control the thermostat from one location. This tech just raised the bar," said , President/Owner of CBH Homes.



Moving forward, CBH will install Smart & Safe packages on all of their homes. "To us, it's about keeping our homeowners and our team first safe, then smart so that we can tap into more efficiencies and create a top-notch home experience with ADT," said Ronda Conger, Vice President of CBH Homes. CBH chose to partner with ADT due to their long-standing security experience along with the flexibility of integrating different products. Google recently invested in ADT to bring new products, along with research and development, to grow their smart home technology. Read more here. ADT's technology is offering security not only to CBH's homeowners and their under construction homes but allows CBH to offer self-guided tours sooner in the process and more efficiently.

The CBH Smart + Safe Home features a smart garage door opener, smart thermostat, video doorbell, smart code front door lock, and the security panel to run it. Existing CBH Homeowners can also gain access to a special package from ADT. Learn more about the program here. About CBH Homes: CBH Homes has been building dreams for Idahoans for over 29 years, and for 18 of those, CBH Homes has been Idaho's #1 Builder, an Idaho Best Place to Work, now ranked #36 in the nation and proudly working with 22,000 happy homeowners. Cbhhomes.com RCE-923 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idahos-largest-home-builder-is-setting-a-new-standard-for-features-301324511.html SOURCE CBH Homes

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[July 01, 2021] INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation of Rocket Companies, Inc. (RKT) on Behalf of Investors

Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Rocket Companies, Inc. ("Rocket" or the "Company") (NYSE: RKT) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of federal securities laws. On May 5, 2021, Rocket announced first quarter 2021 financial results and second quarter 2021 outlook in a press release, reporting that it expected closed loan volume within a range of only $82.5 billion and $87.5 billion and gain on sale margins within a range of only 2.65% to 2.95% for the second quarter of 2021. The midpoint of this gain on sale margin estimate represented a 239 basis point decline year-ove-year and a 94 basis point decline sequentially, which was Rocket's lowest quarterly gain on sale margin in two years and reflected that favorable market conditions recently touted by the Company had in fact reversed.



On this news, the Company's stock price fell $3.79, or nearly 17%, to close at $19.01 per share on May 6, 2021. If you purchased Rocket Companies Class A common stock, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005783/en/

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[July 01, 2021] IQM Expands Operations to Spain; New Unit to Focus on Quantum Finance and Co-Design Quantum Computers

IQM Quantum Computers (IQM) expands its operations to Spain, creating a subsidiary in Bilbao. This operation has been supported by Basque local administration via Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Bilbao City Hall. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005046/en/ IQM processor example (Graphic: IQM) With its Spain operations, IQM aims to tap into another hotspot for quantum computing in addition to its Finland and Germany offices. IQM Spain will collaborate closely with the local research community, quantum experts from academia and the industry to build a vibrant Spanish and European quantum ecosystem. IQM with its international partner network will also connect the Spanish quantum ecosystem to the global quantum network. "QUTIS Center in University of the Basque Country Bilbao has outstanding experience and experts in quantum computation and simulation, quantum control, quantum sensing and other areas. Today's announcement signals our commitment to accelerate the success of our application-specific quantum computers, and aggressively develop quantum finance offerings for our customers worldwide," said Jan Goetz, CEO at IQM. "Local Public Administration, via Beaz and Bilbao Ekintza, have been extremely supportive and are committed to attracting best talent and growth companies. We look forward to working with their team to grow our Co-Design offering from Spain and deliver it globally." The technical goal for this Spanish subsidiary is to create a quantum finance Co-Design hub that tightens the interaction between hardware and software to solve problems in finance. In particular, IQM Spain will develop an application-specific approach where quantum software integrates closely with a suitably designed quantum hardware with novel quantum architectures. Combined with IQM's hardware expers and go-to market teams in Finland and Germany, IQM will be able to deliver this offering to global customers. This approach accelerates the development of useful quantum solutions for specialized financial applications and will establish Spain and Europe as the leaders for quantum finance.



Last year, IQM had also entered into a research agreement with the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Bilbao, a collaboration led by Dr. Jorge Casanova (Ramon y Cajal and Ikerbasque researcher at UPV/EHU) and includes Dr. Mikel Sanz (Ikerbasque Researcher at UPV/EHU) and Prof. Xi Chen (Professor at Shanghai University and Ramon y Cajal researcher at UPV/EHU). Ms. Olatz Goitia, General Manager of Beaz, said, "We work to turn the territory into an innovation hub of international reference, and to this end, the retention and attraction of talent and entrepreneurship and companies like IQM is key."

Mr. Javier Garcinuno Zabala, General Manager of Bilbao Ekintza, said, "We're pleased to see European growth companies like IQM start their Spanish operations in Bilbao. Our BIG Bilbao entrepreneurship centre will support their local operations and Bilbao Ekintza will also collaborate with IQM on joint projects in Bilbao's strategic economic sectors." About Beaz: Beaz is a public company of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia whose objective is to support companies and entrepreneurs in their efforts to create new projects, innovate and internationalize. A goal that is in line with that of the Regional Department of Economic Promotion, to which Beaz reports directly: to contribute to the growth of economic activity and the creation of qualified employment. https://beaz.bizkaia.eus/en About Bilbao Ekintza: Bilbao Ekintza is a public company of Bilbao City Hall that develops the municipal powers in the field of economic development, promotion of Bilbao and its events as a tourist destination and business promotion, both from the point of view of the attraction, creation and growth of companies and the improvement of opportunities for access to employment. https://www.bilbaoekintza.eus/en About IQM Quantum (News - Alert) Computers: IQM is the European leader in superconducting quantum computers, headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Since its inception in 2018, IQM has grown to 110+ employees and established a subsidiary in Munich, Germany, to lead the Co-Design approach. IQM delivers on-premises quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centers and provides complete access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers quantum advantage through a unique application-specific Co-Design approach. IQM is building Finland's first commercial quantum computer with VTT, and an IQM-led consortium was awarded  12.4 Million in February 2021 to commercialize application-specific quantum processors by the German Ministry of Education and Research. For more information, visit www.meetiqm.com. Registered office:

IQM Finland Oy

Keilaranta 19

02150 Espoo

Finland View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005046/en/

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[July 01, 2021] ISW Holdings Closes on Its 1st phase of over 100MW Georgia Crypto Mining Farm Capable of Driving Over $100M in Annual Gross Revs

LAS VEGAS, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire  ISW Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ISWH) (ISW Holdings or the Company), a global brand management holdings company with commercial operations in Telehealth and Renewable Energy Cryptocurrency Mining, is excited to announce that it has finalized its land lease development agreement, which grants the Company full use of a 1st phase 7-acre parcel of property in Georgia tailored for cryptocurrency mining operations, complete with access to energy resources capable of powering over 100 MW of cryptocurrency mining capacity. This agreement puts us in position to scale up into a top-five global cryptocurrency mining position by volume, remarked ISW Holdings President and Chairman, Alonzo Pierce. We control an ideal plot of land, to initiate the 1st phase with additional access to over 100 megawatts of power for use in crypto mining. We also have our close partner Bit5ive, LLC  North Americas largest provider of collective management of renewable, clean energy services and mining equipment  right on premises to manage and develop the mining operations at the site. China is cracking down hard and shutting down its domestic crypto mining industry. This has enormous consequences because more than half of the worlds cryptocurrency mining has been taking place in China. As a result, we are already fielding calls from mining firms seeking a new home. We are now equipped to handle this at scale. We have the power! The Company is now in the first phase of its expansion into hosting mining operations. The necessary engineering and design involved in installation is already underway. This first phase consists of over 20 MW of power to be deployed among 20 separate New Generation 1-MW POD5 units. The Company believes this entire first tranche of power will be deployed to active mining operations by the end of this year. The expected gross revenue run rate attached to this initial phase  deployment of the first tranche of 20 MW of power  is currently estimated at more than $10 million per year. Pierce added, Our plan is to execute an additional agreement with some of the worlds largest and best-known mining companies seeking additional accommodation for expanded mining operations. We are already beginning to design and plan for this added scalability. Once we deploy the full 100 MW, we see total gross revenue run rate exceeding $100 million on an annualized basis. About ISW Holdings

ISW Holdings, Inc. (ISWH), based in Nevada, is a diversified portfolio company comprised of essential business lnes that serve consumer product demands. Our expertise lies in strategic brand development, early growth facilitation, as well as brand identity through our proprietary procurement process. Together, with our partners, we seek to provide a structure that meets large scalability demands, as well as anticipated marketplace needs. We are able to meet these needs through a variety of strategic innovative processes. ISWH is creating and managing brands across a spectrum of disruptive industries. It maneuvers its proprietary companies through critical stages of market development, which includes conceptualization, go-to-market strategies, engineering, product integration, and distribution efficiency. The company has also partnered with a well-known software development and consulting company, Bengala Technologies LLC, which is developing significant enhancements in the supply chain management space; and the partnership has a vitally needed patent now pending.



The Companys cryptocurrency mining segment, established in partnership with industry leader, Bit5ive LLC, is driven by a mission to mine cryptocurrency with a zero carbon footprint. For more information, visit www.iswholdings.com .

About Bit5ive Bit5ive is a leader in crypto currency mining data centers with several projects currently in development in the United States. Bit5ive's success lies in its commitment to its clients, hailing from a variety of industries and professions. Bit5ive's corporate headquarters is based in Miami, Florida, from which it operates as a management hub for its data centers, sales and customer service. For more information, visit www.Bit5ive.com Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including "could," "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" and the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested in this report. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements so as to conform these statements to actual results. Investors should refer to the risks disclosed in the Company's reports filed from time to time with OTC Markets ( www.otcmarkets.com ). Company Contact:

info@ISWHoldings.com Public Relations

EDM Media, LLC

https://edm.media Corporate Communications:

InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN)

Los Angeles, California

www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com

310.299.1717 Office

Editor@InvestorBrandNetwork.com



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[July 01, 2021] JuiceBar EV Charging Stations First to Meet 'Made in America' Criteria

NORWALK, Conn., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- JuiceBar, a leading manufacturer of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the United States, is proud to announce that all of the chargers produced by the company meet the Made in America criteria set forth in the Buy America provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Section 1605). The complexity and strict guidelines that need to be followed to meet the Made in America criteria make this announcement even more impressive. "JuiceBar has a dual mission: to address climate change and to support advanced manufacturing in the US. As the only EV charging station company that is both made and assembled in the USA, JuiceBar is leading the evolution to electric vehicles in the United States while also contributing to the building of the American economy," said Paul Vosper, President & CEO of JuiceBar. "Manufacturing and assembling our charging stations stateside allows us not only to provide more jobs locally but also have direct control over our supply chain and manufacturing process." As a result of COVID-19, many companies have seen their supply chains disrupted as it became increasingly difficult to import goods from foreign countries. Due to the domestic manufacturing plant already in place in Oxford, Connecticut, JuiceBar has been able to address supply chain issues without interruption, delivering chargers to customers across America.



Based in Norwalk, Connecticut, JuiceBar currently manufactures four different levels of charging stations that are in more than 100 cities across North America. The company's mission to deliver unsurpassed value, service, reliability, and cutting-edge technology is evident in the industry-leading product coming out of JuiceBar. The flagship Gen 3 chargers are the most powerful Level 2 EV chargers on the market.

JuiceBar's charging stations offer first-in-class safety systems, charging speeds that are up to 60% faster than standard Level 2 chargers, and an open network infrastructure that allows property owners a degree of flexibility to choose their own network. This open network model is in line with the desires of utilities throughout the country; as EV infrastructures are being built, buyers demand competitive pricing as well as new options to generate revenue and manage electricity usage. "It is not only our goal to charge vehicles most efficiently, but also to do so sustainably," added Vosper. "Our commitment to sustaining the environment for future generations is directly tied to our manufacturing and assembly process right here in the United States. We are honored to be a part of the clean energy initiative through building American-made EV charging stations to help drive the conversion to electric vehicles." ABOUT JUICEBAR

JuiceBar has been leading the EV Charger EVolution since 2009 and is committed to building a global EV charging infrastructure that sustains the environment for future generations. Our JuiceBar chargers are deployed across more than 100 cities in the United States and Canada and are manufactured and assembled in the USA. Our recently launched Gen 3 chargers are 60% faster than the industry's standard Level 2 charger, offer unique safety features and provide choice of communication networks. We are recognized for our technology, elegant and resilient charger designs with custom branding, a superior user experience, and our ability to consult and guide buyers through a cost-effective transition to e-mobility solutions. www.JuiceBarEV.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/juicebar-ev-charging-stations-first-to-meet-made-in-america-criteria-301323880.html SOURCE JuiceBar

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[July 01, 2021] KASA Launches First Ever Six-Month IGEM

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Environment and Water (KASA) and its agency, the Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGTC), have taken a bold move to organise the International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM) this year for an extended period of six months. Themed "Redefining Sustainability", the event to be held between 1st July through to 31st December 2021 on its virtual platform, www.igem.my is expected to feature close to 300 exhibitor booths from 50 countries, targeting to attract 30,000 registered visitors and over RM5 billion in business leads. Minister of Environment and Water, Yang Berhormat Dato' Sri Tuan Ibrahim bin Tuan Man said, "IGEM is an ideal platform to explore business in the green energy sector as the ASEAN market is rapidly growing, with increased participation every year from various industries, government agencies and investors showcasing their latest innovations, financial and policy interventions." "We are expecting a bigger impact for this year's IGEM. In the next 6 months, IGEM 2021s virtual platform will offer more ideas and opportunities for all its participants, to encourage a more sustainable growth," he added.



The 6-months event will have a monthly thematic focus starting with: Green Technology (July); Water (August); Climate Change and Environment (September); Sustainability (October); Green Financing (November); and Energy and E-Mobility (December) Each of the monthly themes will be complimented with topical events, conferences, and activities as well as feature key industry leaders and experts to enable participants to receive the latest insights pertaining to specific sectors.

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), longstanding partners of IGEM, will be returning this year to facilitate group and private business matching sessions between leading and emerging organisations from various industries as well as organise investment workshops. Chief Executive Officer of MGTC, Shamsul Bahar Mohd Nor said, "Over the past 11 years, IGEM's strong foundations have been instrumental in developing a thriving green economy in Malaysia and beyond. It has also played an important role in fostering the regional exchange of knowledge, ideas and innovations, and I am certain that this year's programme will continue to do so and much more." "In our efforts to Redefine Sustainability, the IGEM 2021 virtual platform has been restructured to integrate new features as well as offer an enhanced user interface, to create a more dynamic and convenient website. I call upon all organisations and green entrepreneurs to sign up for IGEM 2021 and join us in redefining sustainability as we rebuild for a more resilient and greener post-pandemic economy," he concluded. Organised annually for more than a decade now, IGEM has successfully delivered over RM30 billion in business leads and boasts an attendance of close to 500,000 visitors including delegates, dignitaries, and companies from over 79 countries. For more information, please visit www.igem.my. SOURCE Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGTC)

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[July 01, 2021] Lionbridge Acquires Rocket Sound to Strengthen Global Audio Capabilities

Lionbridge, the premier video game globalization and publishing services partner, has acquired Rocket Sound, a sound services company based in Los Angeles, California. With this acquisition, Rocket Sound will become part of Lionbridge Games, a rapidly growing division of Lionbridge that provides a full suite of end-to-end testing, audio, localization and crowd services for game developers, publishers and platform holders. Rocket Sound is a leading sound services company serving the video game and media industry, with deep experience helping AAA customers on the West Coast and Asia bring complex, high-stakes projects to life. "Lionbridge Games has successfully partnered on AAA projects with Rocket Sound for many years so when we decided to establish in-house voice-over creation capabilities and set up our Los Angeles studio to accommodate our growing Pacific Rim localization business, they were our first choice," said Tugdual Delisle, Managing Director at Lionbridge Games. "With the addition of Rocket Sound to our network of sudios, we are now able to offer a full suite of audio creation and localization services to our customers and provide them with access to high end Los Angeles casting, acting, recording, direction and postproduction services. These capabilities will enable Lionbridge Games to better support our customers creating superior gaming experiences for North American and English-speaking gamers."



Founded in 2013 by Tom Hays, a game industry veteran and one of the world's foremost authorities on games audio, Rocket Sound's state-of-the-art sound studios are in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. "Lionbridge Games' proven capabilities and global scale in content and audio localization combined with Rocket Sound's deep experience in sound for games, and our expertise in localization into English for Asia-based publishers and developers, is a perfect match. Our combined capabilities will allow Lionbridge Games to offer and deliver more integrated global audio solutions, helping customers achieve faster time to market and a more consistent voice for their games around the world," said Tom Hays, Rocket Sound CEO. "Together we will deliver an unparalleled solution for bringing AAA games to the global market."

About Lionbridge Lionbridge partners with brands to break barriers and build bridges all over the world. For 25 years, we have helped companies connect with their global customers and employees by delivering translation and localization solutions in 350+ languages. Through our world-class platform, we orchestrate a network of passionate experts across the globe who partner with brands to create culturally rich experiences. Relentless in our love of linguistics, we use the best of human and machine intelligence to forge understanding that resonates with our customers' customers. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lionbridge maintains solution centers in 23 countries. Learn more at www.lionbridge.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005002/en/

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[July 01, 2021] MAPFRE Launches MotionSmart? to Reward Safe Driving, in Partnership with Cambridge Mobile Telematics

MAPFRE, the largest auto insurer in Massachusetts, today launched MotionSmart?, a usage-based insurance (UBI) program available to new MAPFRE policyholders in Massachusetts. Developed in partnership with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the largest telematics company in the world, MotionSmart assesses users' driving behaviors and provides personalized safe-driving tips, based on real-time behavior. New MAPFRE policyholders who participate in the program will receive a discount of up to 10% at initial enrollment. Based on how safely they drive, they can earn up to 20% savings on their annual premium with MotionSmart. CMT's smartphone telematics platform measures several factors, including excessive speeding, hard braking and phone distraction. CMT data shows that active app users reduce their phone distraction by 39% after 30 days, speeding by 30% and hard braking by 51%. "Safer driving means fewer accidents," said Jaime Tamayo, CEO of MAPFRE USA. "We are delighted to team with Cambridge Mobile Telematics to encourage good driving and, at the same time, reward customers who demonstrate a commitment to keeping our roads safe." No plug-in devices are required. Participants simply install the MotionSmart app on their smartphone. "Smartphone distraction affects drivers' perception and response time resulting in more hard braking events and more severe crashes," commented William Powers, co-founder and CEO of Cambridge Mobile Telematics. "We are proud to work together with MAPFRE to reward drivers that improve and reduce risk for all who share the roads."



About MAPFRE Insurance MAPFRE Insurance, rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company, serves policyholders in 13 states across the United States. It is the largest auto and home insurer in Massachusetts and the 21st largest private passenger auto insurer in the United States. MAPFRE Insurance is part of MAPFRE Group, a global insurance company with a worldwide presence.

MAPFRE Insurance is a brand and service mark of MAPFRE USA Corp. About Cambridge Mobile Telematics At Cambridge Mobile Telematics, we show up every day to achieve one goal: to make the world's roads and drivers safer. Founded in 2010 based on MIT (News - Alert) research, we are the world's leading mobile telematics provider, powering over 70 enterprise programs in 25 countries. Our technology serves several million drivers through our partnerships with leading insurers, rideshares, cellular carriers, personal safety companies and automakers. CMT's headquarters are in Cambridge, with offices in Seattle, Tokyo, Chennai, Budapest and London. To learn more, visit www.cmtelematics.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005690/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Medolife Rx Announces Successful Stability Results on Escozine Conjugated With Radioactive Iodine

BURBANK, Calif., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Medolife Rx, Inc. ("Medolife"), a global integrated biopharmaceutical company with R&D, manufacturing, and consumer product distribution, which is a majority owned subsidiary of Quanta, Inc. (OTC PINK: QNTA), announced today that the Company has completed a stability study on its lead drug candidate Escozine that was conjugated with radioactive iodine, showing strong stability throughout the study. The preclinical study took place in preparation for next steps of the Companys clinical trials on Escozine under the guidelines of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Company performed this preclinical study in advance of its impending Pharmacokinetic (PK) study on Escozine, the next step outlined by the FDA in its response to the Company regarding its Pre-IND submission as a COVID-19 drug. PK studies are designed to measure the bodys intake and clearing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which in Medolifes case is the polarized scorpion venom peptide in Escozine. An important mechanism of action of the peptide is that it binds only to cancer cells, leaving healthy cells untouched. The peptide in Escozine can also pass the blood-brain barrier, which allows the compound to bind with some of the deadliest types of cancers, such as glioblastomas (brain tumors). Conjugation of Escozine with radioactive iodine allows for researchers to more clearly see where and how Escozine is absorbed and processed in the body. Many APIs do not remain stable when conjugated with radioactive iodine, eliminating the possibility of certain types of PK studies. However, through this preclinical study, Medolife has proven the stability of Escozine paired with radioactive iodine and is prepared to move into a full PK study per the guidelines given by the FDA. Beyond our successful stability result on Escozines peptide conjugated with radioactive iodine, we were even more excited by its potential applications in the field of diagnostics, said Medolife CEO Dr. Arthur Mikaelian. We hope that those who follow our company see how quickly we are moving in this process since receiving our response from the FDA. These programs generally take years and we have wasted no time since receiving the guidelines in preparing for our next steps. We are extremely confident in Escozines potential palliative and therapeutic benefits and look forward to updating those interested as soon as possible. The Company recently announced that it has received a detailed response from the FDA on its Pre-Investigational New Drug (Pre-IND) submission on Escozine as both a potential palliative and therapeutic drug for the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus. In the response, the FDA acknowledged the Companys clinical trial that took place in the Dominican Republic (DR) as a proof-of-concept study and provided detailed guidelines for next steps in its approval process. Among those were the request to performfurther toxicology studies on Escozine, including a DNA toxicology study, as well as the predetermined next step of performing a PK study, which is extremely standard in clinical programs. This preclinical result enables the Company to move forward with the PK study in an expedited and efficient manner.



In addition to its usefulness in PK studies, the Company foresees additional applications for Escozines peptide conjugated with radioactive iodine in the field of diagnostics. Given that the pair remains stable in the body, Escozine conjugated with radioactive iodine could allow physicians and researchers further visualization of abnormalities in the body not previously visible without the radioactivity. Many lesions in the body can be small and difficult to identify using standard MRI imaging, but if Escozine conjugated with radioactive iodine were introduced into the body it would be drawn to the lesions, illuminating them on imaging devices and making it easier for physicians to identify and target hard-to-see abnormalities, which could lead to a reduced recurrence of cancer. The Company plans to further investigate this hypothesis as yet another potential for Escozine as a medical innovation and disruptor. Abnormality identification using MRI equipment is a less-than-perfect science and solutions are needed in order to improve their accuracy and effectiveness. Conjugating Escozine with radioactive iodine has the potential to illuminate many types of abnormalities in the body, giving physicians a better chance of identifying hard-to-see issues more quickly. This could have major applications across the spectrum of healthcare, and we are excited to pursue Escozines potential in this area, while simultaneously continuing our clinical program on Escozine through the FDA, Dr. Mikaelian added.

About Medolife Rx Medolife Rx, Inc. is a global biotechnology company with operations in clinical research, manufacturing, and consumer products. Medolife Rx was created through the merger of Medolife, a private company founded by Dr. Arthur Mikaelian who pioneered the unlaying polarization technology that makes the Companys portfolio of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products so effective, and Quanta, Inc., a direct-to-consumer wellness product portfolio company. The Companys lead clinical development programs include Escozine, a proprietary formulation consisting of small molecule peptides derived from Rhopalurus princeps scorpions, which is amplified by the Companys polarization technology and is being researched as a treatment of various indications, including COVID-19 and cancer. The Company has completed preclinical safety and efficacy research on Escozine and is pursuing product registration and drug approval in various countries, including the United States and throughout Latin America. Through its subsidiary QuantRx, Medolife manufactures and distributes consumer wellness products in high-impact consumer areas such as pain relief, beauty, and general wellness. QuantRx products are designed using Dr. Mikaelians polarization technology, which applies advances in quantum biology to increase the potency of active ingredients. Ultimately, Quanta's mission is to deliver better, more effective ingredients to elevate product efficacy, reduce waste, and facilitate healthier, more sustainable consumption. Beyond its own clinical and consumer applications, the polarization technology used by Medolife and its subsidiaries has many potential applications. From potentiating bio-ingredients, to producing more-effective carbon-trapping plants, to transformative anti-aging solutions, Medolife has the opportunity to upend how commercial and pharmaceutical products are made and increase their benefits, while decreasing their chemical concentration. Forward-Looking Statements Safe Harbor Statement under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains statements that are forward-looking in nature which express the beliefs and expectations of management including statements regarding the Company's expected results of operations or liquidity; statements concerning projections, predictions, expectations, estimates or forecasts as to our business, financial and operational results and future economic performance; and statements of management's goals and objectives and other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "anticipate," "estimate," "plan," "project," "continuing," "ongoing," "expect," "we believe," "we intend," "may," "will," "should," "could," and similar expressions. Such statements are based on current plans, estimates and expectations and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors and additional information are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and statements in this release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Although we believe that these statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we cannot guarantee future results. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Media Contact:

Kyle Porter

medolife@cmwmedia.com



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[July 01, 2021] Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America's Largest Digital Assets Platform, raises $200 Million USD from SoftBank

2TM Group, the parent company of Mercado (News - Alert) Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, today announced that Mercado Bitcoin has raised $200 million USD from the SoftBank Latin America Fund. The fundraise represents the largest Series B round in Latin America's history and SoftBank's largest investment in a Latin America crypto company. The investment values 2TM Group at $2.1 billion USD, making it the eighth most valuable unicorn in Latin America.3 Mercado Bitcoin will use the funds to increase its scale, expand its offerings and invest in infrastructure to meet the soaring demand for crypto in the region. The company has seen significant growth over the past year, with its client base reaching 2.8 million in 2021 -more than 70% of the entire individual investors base on Brazil's stock exchange.4 Between January and May 2021, approximately 700,000 new customers signed-up to use Mercado Bitcoin's services. During the first five months of the year, Mercado Bitcoin also saw its trade volume increase to $5 billion USD, surpassing the total for its first seven years combined. The new funding round will also enable Mercado Bitcoin to grow its team to 700 by the end of 2021, as well as accelerate growth across 2TM Group's portfolio, which will also include digital wallet provider MeuBank, subject to regulatory approvals. In 2021, 2TM Group will also launch Bitrust, the first digital custodian in Latin America, subject to regulatory approval. "Millions of people around the world are realizing that digital assets and cryptocurrencies are both innovative technologies and efficient stores of value - Brazil is no exception to that trend," said Roberto Dagnoni, Executive Chairman & CEO of 2TM Group. "This series B round will afford us to continue investing in our infrastructure, enabling us to scale up and meet the soaring demand for the blockchain-based financial market. I am thrilled to have the SoftBank Latin America Fund support to help us to realize our vision, thanks to the unparalleled combination of their financial expertise, in-depth industry experience, and extensive regional footprint." "Mercado Bitcoin and its sister companies have demonstrated both innovation and leadership in the space. As we've developed a scalable market infrastructure, we have become the most trusted crypto brand in Brazil. This unique positioning has allowed us to capitalize on the surging interest in cryptocurrencies in both Brail and Latin America more broadly, resulting in the significant expansion of our market share in the past year and paving the way for continued growth," said Gustavo Chamati, Mercado Bitcoin's Co-Founder and Board Member.



"Thanks to Roberto and Gustavo's vision, Mercado Bitcoin has become a global leader in the cryptocurrency space. We've been impressed by 2TM Group's understanding of the Brazilian ecosystem, as well as their contribution to the evolving regulatory framework in Brazil, all of which have positioned it at the forefront of the Latin American blockchain revolution and as a defining player in the cryptocurrency explosion in Brazil," said Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group. "Cryptocurrencies have incredible potential in Latin America. We believe winning in Brazil is critical for 2TM Group and are excited to take part in this incredible journey." With a track record of innovation and disruption in Latin America, in 2019, 2TM Group became the first company in the world to tokenize public debt assets. And, in 2020, the company issued Futecoin, the first digital asset in the world based on FIFA's solidarity mechanism, and has also since tokenized or distributed private debt, carbon credits and a variety of utility and DeFi tokens. 2TM Group is also closely working with regulators to build a consistent framework for alternative digital investments in Brazil in line with its vision of a convergence of the traditional and blockchain-based financial markets.

The financing round comes just five months after Mercado Bitcoin's Series A round in January 2021, which was co-led by G2D/GP Investments and Parallax Ventures, with participation from HS Investimentos, Gear Ventures, Evora and Genial. J.P.Morgan and DealMaker acted as advisors to 2TM on the transaction. About 2TM: The 2TM Group is a Brazilian holding company managing a range of digital asset services and solutions. Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is the crown jewel in its portfolio. In the first five months of 2021, the exchange processed transactions totaling almost $5 billion USD in volume. Sister companies include Meubank, a multi-asset wallet and account service currently waiting for a Brazilian Central Bank license, Bitrust, a qualified digital custodian currently awaiting regulatory approval, Clearbook, an equity crowdfunding platform, MBDA, an asset tokenizer, Mezapro, which provides services to institutional investors, and the Blockchain Academy, the group's educational arm. For more information, visit: https://www.2tmgroup.com/ 1 Distrito Fintech (https://distrito.me/). (Brazilian equivalent to CB Insights).

2 2TM Group

3 https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies

4 http://www.b3.com.br/pt_br/market-data-e-indices/servicos-de-dados/market-data/consultas/mercado-a-vista/perfil-pessoas-fisicas/faixa-etaria/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005361/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Natixis Investment Managers Announces First Recipients of the Global Minority Advancement Scholarship

Natixis Investment Managers (Natixis) is pleased to announce the first recipients of a global scholarship and development program focused on expanding the pipeline of diverse candidates within the financial services industry. Two high school graduates will receive up to $10,000 annually toward college tuition and expenses, along with internship opportunities and mentoring at Natixis. The Boston-based scholarships are the first awarded under Natixis' global scholarship program, which is part of a broader strategic initiative to promote diversity at the firm and within the financial services industry. "The asset management industry has acknowledged that more needs to be done to expand the racial and ethnic composition of our collective workforce," said Tracey Flaherty, Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Affairs. "The Natixis scholarship program provides an opportunity for Natixis to attract - and develop - a talent pool that can help support the future growth of a diverse candidate pipeline." Jawahir Mohamed and Marvin Baez, 2021 graduates of the Boston Latin Academy, have been named winners of the inaugural Natixis Investment Managers Global Minority Advancement Scholarships. Mohamed plans to attend Harvard in the fall, majoring in psychology, and Baez plans to major in business administration and management at UMass Lowell. Internships will be available at Natixis in order for both to experience the business environment and gain knowledge of the investment industry. "We want to inspire talented youth from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in financial services, and to help ensure they receive the academic training and internship experience needed to succeed," said David Giunta, CEO of Natixis Investment Managers in the US. "We applaud Jawahir and Marvin for all of the hard work and dedication that has brought them this far, and we are excited to be a part of their bright futures - as well as the futures of many scholars to come." Launched in 2020, the Natixis Investment Managers Global Minority Advancement scholarship program is part of the firm's long-standing commitment to support its local communities and supports its broader efforts to increase diversity in the financial services industry. The US program was designed in partnership with Bottom Line, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that assists first-generation students from underprivileged backgrounds in their pursuit of higher education studies and career development in business and related fields. Similar programs will be mplemented in the UK and France.



The scholarship and mentoring program complements the addition this year of two charter high schools to Natixis' philanthropic partner program, Academy of the Pacific Rim in Boston and Life Learning Academy in San Francisco. Combined with Natixis' long-standing program at the John Winthrop Elementary School in Boston, Natixis' support now spans nearly the entire path of education. Natixis has a strong culture of giving back to the communities where its associates live and work. The firm's unique philanthropic model provides direct support to its nonprofit partners and offers meaningful engagement opportunities for associates. Natixis' collaborative philanthropic model has been embraced by employees and has been recognized in the community and the industry. For nine consecutive years, the annual Boston Business Journal ranking has recognized Natixis associates as the Most Generous Employees in Massachusetts. Natixis is also a fixture on Boston Business Journal's list of the Largest Corporate Charitable Contributors in Massachusetts.

About Natixis Investment Managers Natixis Investment Managers serves financial professionals with more insightful ways to construct portfolios. Powered by the expertise of more than 20 specialized investment managers globally, we apply Active Thinking to deliver proactive solutions that help clients pursue better outcomes in all markets. Natixis Investment Managers ranks among the world's largest asset management firms1 with more than $1.3 trillion assets under management2 (1,152.8 billion). Headquartered in Paris and Boston, Natixis Investment Managers is a subsidiary of Natixis. Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Natixis is a subsidiary of BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. Natixis Investment Managers' affiliated investment management firms include AEW; Alliance Entreprendre; AlphaSimplex Group; DNCA Investments;3 Dorval Asset Management; Flexstone Partners; Gateway (News - Alert) Investment Advisers; Harris Associates; Investors Mutual Limited; Loomis, Sayles & Company; Mirova; MV Credit; Naxicap Partners; Ossiam; Ostrum Asset Management; Seeyond; Seventure Partners; Thematics Asset Management; Vauban Infrastructure Partners; Vaughan Nelson Investment Management; Vega Investment Managers;4 and WCM Investment Management. Additionally, investment solutions are offered through Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, and Natixis Advisors offers other investment services through its AIA and MPA division. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit Natixis Investment Managers' website at im.natixis.com | LinkedIn (News - Alert) : linkedin.com/company/natixis-investment-managers. Natixis Investment Managers' distribution and service groups include Natixis Distribution, L.P., a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various U.S. registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliated firms of Natixis Investment Managers, Natixis Investment Managers S.A. (Luxembourg), Natixis Investment Managers International (France), and their affiliated distribution and service entities in Europe and Asia. 1 Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2020 ranked Natixis Investment Managers as the 17th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of December 31, 2019.

2 Assets under management ("AUM") as of March 31, 2021 is $1,354.8 billion. AUM, as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets, assets of minority-owned affiliated entities and other types of non-regulatory AUM managed or serviced by firms affiliated with Natixis Investment Managers. Excluding H2O Asset Management.

3 A brand of DNCA Finance.

4 A wholly-owned subsidiary of Natixis Wealth Management. 3654915.1.1 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005784/en/

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[July 01, 2021] NOTICE TO DISREGARD -- ADAX

NICOSIA, CYPRUS, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are advised by ADAX that journalists and other readers should disregard the news release, "Adax wil become a prominent trading venue inside the Cardano Ecosystem with the recent Partnerships" issued June 16, 2021 23:44 ET, over GlobeNewswire.







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[July 01, 2021] ObvioHealth Raises $31 Million, Adds Two Strategic Partners to Bolster Capabilities and Drive Growth Globally

NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ObvioHealth, a global Virtual Research Organization (VRO), announces it has raised $31 million in its latest round of financing. The round was led by two new partners: Dedalus Group, an international healthcare IT and diagnostic software provider, leader in Europe and backed by Ardian, and Novotech Health Holdings Pte. Ltd. ("Novotech"), Asia Pacific's highest revenue biotech-specialist CRO in 2020. The collaboration with Dedalus integrates clinical research with EHR (electronic health record) data, facilitating clinical trial design and recruitment while helping healthcare providers from over 6000 hospitals and clinics to deliver better care to more than 330 million patients. The initial stage of the partnership enables researchers to collaborate with hospitals to conduct granular prognostic and predictive analysis for identification of more precise patient subpopulations while maintaining full compliance with stringent European privacy and data safety regulations. "The collaboration is born out of our strategic focus on clinical safety and efficiency," said Giorgio Moretti, founder of Dedalus and ObvioHealth board member. "Dedalus will facilitate the collaboration of healthcare stakeholders through Dedalus systems, enabling the transformation of clinical data into clinical knowledge. This will result in huge benefits for patients, healthcare professionals and for the clinical research industry at large. ObvioHealth is already helping to bring new drugs and devices to market by making clinical trials faster and safer. The financial investment from Dedalus testifies to its commitment in supporting this transformation." Novotech specializes in conducting clinical research for biotech companies in Asia-Pacific, a fast-moving market with an appetite for virtual trials. The partnership means ObvioHealth will become Novotech's preferred provider for virtual clinical trials in APAC. In return, Novotech will become ObvioHealth's preferred CRO in the region for hybrid and virtual trials. This partnership will grow ObvioHealth's presence in a region known globally for its medical research and access to large diverse patient populations. Novotech has 29 offices across APAC with local expertise in each market essential to the success of clinical trials in the region. "Our efficient approach to conducting clinical trials is a key driver of our growth in the biotech space, where clients are seeking faster and more cost-efficient solutions," said John Moller, CEO at Novotech. "Virtual trials offer patients greater access to the important clinical trials conducted across our region." "The addition ofDedalus and Novotech as investors and partners is a real boon to ObvioHealth's strategic roadmap," said Ivan Jarry, ObvioHealth's CEO. "Both companies are leaders in their respective fields. These complementary assets will allow us to continue to grow our global footprint and extend our virtual trial competencies beyond traditional boundaries."



Together the Dedalus and Novotech Series B investment represents $18.5 million. Additional investment comes from, SPRIM Global Investments, a healthcare and life science-focused venture fund that was the initial seed investor in ObvioHealth and AT Capital group, a Singapore based family office with over US $2 billion of proprietary assets under management, as well as other existing investors. The financing enables ObvioHealth to boost the IT capabilities of its proprietary ecosystem and platform for conducting virtual clinical trials, including the GDPR compliant bridging software to query EHR data. ObvioHealth also intends to make key hires in the coming year, particularly in Asia, with plans to expand the Singapore office into a technology hub.

About ObvioHealth ObvioHealth is an end-to-end?Virtual Research Organization (VRO) that delivers better data to sponsors and an easier clinical trial experience for participants. The company developed and launched one of the first DCT apps,?downloadable on smartphones enabling?people to participate in clinical trials from the comfort of their homes. In the 4 years since launch, the company has been awarded?nearly 40 studies from 28 blue chip clients, implemented in 28?countries, in 16 different therapeutic areas. For more information, visit https://www.obviohealth.com . About Dedalus Dedalus Group is the leading healthcare and diagnostic software provider in Europe, supporting the digital transformation of 6100 hospitals and 5300 Laboratories worldwide, processing its solutions for more than 330M patient records. The company recently announced the successful acquisition of DXC Technology's global healthcare information technology (ICT) business, strengthening its position as a specialist healthcare ICT company, with one of the largest digital health research and development teams in Europe. For more information, visit www.dedalus.com About Novotech Novotech is a leading Asia-Pacific biotech specialist CRO, consisting of two operating brands, "Novotech" and "PPC". Novotech is a full-service clinical CRO with labs, phase I facilities, and drug development consulting services. It has accumulated experience in over 3,700 clinical projects, including Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials and bioequivalence studies. Novotech is positioned to serve biopharmaceutical clients conducting clinical trials in Asia and globally. As of March 31, 2021, Novotech had a total of 1,765 FTEs working across our offices in 11 geographies in Asia-Pacific and the United States. For more information, visit https://novotech-holdings.com/ About Ardian Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets over US$112bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base. Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian's global network of 700 employees manage funds on behalf of 1000- clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt that fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world. About ATC Founded by Mr. Arvind Tiku, the AT Capital group is a Singapore-based family office with over US$2 billion of proprietary assets under management. AT Capital Group's key strategic investments are in the renewable energy and residential & commercial real estate sectors, in addition to significant public market investments. About SPRIM Global Investments SPRIM Global Investments (SGI) is a healthcare and life science-focused investment company with offices in New York and Singapore with major focuses on healthcare IT and biotech across stages and therapeutic areas. Further information can be found at www.sprim.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/obviohealth-raises-31-million-adds-two-strategic-partners-to-bolster-capabilities-and-drive-growth-globally-301324096.html SOURCE ObvioHealth

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[July 01, 2021] Owners of 2003-2009 Toyota 4Runners Experiencing Excessive Rust Corrosion May Contact Bell Legal Group for Information

Owners of 2003-2009 Toyota 4Runners experiencing premature rusting of the vehicle's frame may contact Bell Legal Group for information about an inspection of the vehicle. An inspection of vehicles showing signs of premature rusting of the undercarriage will be helpful in providing information for a class-action lawsuit. 4Runner owners may call 843-546-2408 or visit www.belllegalgroup.com/toyota-lawsuit for more information. The firm filed a lawsuit in South Carolina in December 2018 against Toyota Motor Corporation on behalf of lead plaintiff Gary Weinreich. The lawsuit alleges that the frames on 2003-2009 Toyota 4Runners rust prematurely due to improper treatment against rust corrosion during manufacturing. The case is making headway, and Bell Legal Group is quickly gathering information to build its case. According to the lawsuit, the defect causes severe premature rusting of the undercarriages on the 4Runners and poses a dangerous risk. The claim states that "the excessive rust corrsion on the Toyota 4Runner compromises the vehicles' safety, stability, and crash-worthiness because important suspension components, engine mounts, transmission mounts, and body mounts anchor to the vehicles' frames." Documentation also shows that Toyota was aware of the problem and did not warn consumers or offer a solution to the issue.



Lead plaintiff Weinreich bought a new Toyota 4Runner in 2005 and noticed excessive rusting in 2011. In 2018, the front steering control arm of his 4Runner broke off, causing him to run off the road. The case claims that Weinreich attempted to contact Toyota during this time to voice his concerns over the excessive rusting, and Weinreich states that Toyota ignored his concerns. Another class-action lawsuit involving Toyota Tacomas (2005-2010), Sequoias (2005-2008) and Tundras (2007-2008) experiencing the same premature rusting issues was settled in 2020. The settlement was for about $3.4 billion in benefits to the class.

Owners of 2003-2009 Toyota 4Runners may visit www.belllegalgroup.com/toyota-lawsuit or call 843-546-2408 for more information. About Bell Legal Group: Established in 1983, Bell Legal Group is a law firm headquartered in Georgetown, S.C. focusing on auto safety litigation for more than 30 years. As the only law firm in the U.S. with its own state-of-the-art science and research lab dedicated to accurately recreating accidents and crime scenes, Bell attorneys have the skills and resources to handle the most complex injury cases. For more information, visit www.belllegalgroup.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005905/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Protegrity Partners with b.telligent to Expand Go-to-Market Operations in DACH Region

Protegrity, a global leader in data security, today announced it has partnered with b.telligent, a leading consultancy firm for data and analytics, to expand Protegrity's partner go-to-market (GTM) operations within the Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (DACH) region - the largest economy of the European continent. With the Protegrity Data Protection Platform, b.telligent can now offer its customers greater choice to protect data according to their unique business needs, control over how data is protected enterprise wide, and confidence that their data will remain secure, even if a breach occurs. EOS Technology Solutions (News - Alert) GmbH is a leading international service provider of receivables management and a joint customer of Protegrity and b.telligent. According to Malte Sonnichsen, manager, data warehouse at EOS, "Protegrity and b.telligent have enabled us to rethink our existing data warehouse architecture to support our broader data-driven transformation goals. As a result, we've increased our analytics performance and efficiency without exposing any sensitive customer data. Through the combination of Protegrity's advanced data-protection capabilities, b.telligent's expert consultancy, and the leading in-memory analytics database from Exasol, EOS has established a secure data platform that reduces our overall administration overhead and safeguards our business against existing and evolving privacy regulations." Protegrity and b.telligent Empower Secure Data Warehouse Modernization Based in Munich, Germany, b.telligent is a technology-independent consultancy specializing in business intelligence, customer relationship management, data warehouse, big data, data science, and cloud technologies. With more than 250 employees at seven locations in Germany and Switzerland, b.telligent supports companies across all phases of their data journey, from strategy to analysis, design, implementation, and more. With a core focus of b.telligent's business focused on data warehouse consulting, b.telligent considers Protegrity to be a key value component for its data warehouse consultancy and services. Powered with the Protegrity Data Protection Platform, b.telligent is able to provide more robust consultancy and professional services for data warehouse modernization, increasing the company's competitiveness to establish market leadership in the DACH region. "Modern data platforms must be characterized byavailability, speed, and high assurances of data security," said Klaus Blaschek, founder and CEO of b.telligent. "Together with Protegrity, we're able to deliver a solution that ensures greater success for our customers to meet their data security needs of today, while future-proofing their business against new privacy regulations and emerging cybersecurity threats. Our customers have seen strong success with Protegrity's data-protection solutions, and we look forward to further collaboration as we support our customers across the DACH region."



Protecting Sensitive Data Without Compromising Analytics Efficiency Across Germany and surrounding markets, many businesses have only implemented basic data-protection solutions to ensure compliance with EU privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, many of these existing solutions are built in-house and are not suited for enterprise scale, resulting in solutions that are not future-proof or suitable for cloud migration or analytics use cases. As a result, these basic protections can be significantly more costly in the long term.

With its fine-grained data-protection capabilities, the Protegrity platform allows businesses to freely and securely leverage sensitive data to be included in data analytics, machine learning, and AI - without putting intellectual property or the personal information of customers and employees at risk. "Our strategic partnership with b.telligent allows us to extend our value to the DACH region with a highly reputable and well-regarded partner," said Alasdair Anderson, general manager, EMEA at Protegrity. "Not only does this provide increased access and operational support for the local market, but we are able to add greater business value to our mutual customers in the region, enabling them to embark on their next wave of data innovation." To learn more about the Protegrity and b.telligent partnership, please register for the webinar here. Learn More Webinar: Data platforms - secure, fast & complete

Website: protegrity.com

Twitter (News - Alert) : @Protegrity

LinkedIn (News - Alert) : linkedin.com/company/protegrity/ About Protegrity Protegrity, a global leader in data security, protects sensitive data everywhere and future-proofs businesses as data-privacy regulations evolve. Maintaining privacy today across distributed data has become impossibly complicated. With Protegrity, enterprises can secure data wherever it resides, control how it's protected, and have confidence that data is safe, even if a breach occurs. The Protegrity Data Protection Platform is a modern alternative to traditionally complex data-protection methods that leave gaps in security. Whether encrypting, tokenizing, or applying privacy models, Protegrity protects data at the speed of business. Deep integrations with Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, Teradata, Oracle (News - Alert) , Microsoft SQL Server, Cloudera, Databricks, and many other enterprise applications ensure that data remains fully protected in hybrid-cloud, multi-cloud, and on-premises environments without performance penalties. The platform's fine-grained data protection anonymizes personally identifiable information (PII) that's used in AI and machine learning models, providing faster access to critical analytics data and dramatically shortening the time to business insights. Protegrity protects the sensitive data of more than two billion individuals across global enterprises, including four of the world's 15 largest banks, four out of 10 of the top health insurance providers, and three of the world's leading multinational companies. With more than two decades of industry-leading innovation, Protegrity allows businesses to finally tap into the value of their data and accelerate digital transformation timelines - without jeopardizing individuals' fundamental right to privacy. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005041/en/

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[July 01, 2021]

Risen Energy won the French carbon footprint certification

NINGBO, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Risen Energy announced that it had successfully won the French carbon footprint certification, including 166mm PV modules and 210mm PV modules, adding strong support to the enterprise's globalization strategy.

The carbon footprint certification is an extremely important indicator to enter the French market. This certification has always been known for its strict requirements in the global market access, and only few Chinese photovoltaic enterprises have won it. DEKRA is an international authoriative third-party testing agency. This time, it cooperates with Chinese Quality Certification Center (CQC) to launch the joint certification business of PV components. Wining the certification from both organizations help Risen Energy successfully enter the French market.







The French market is one of the most valuable markets in Europe. The total installed capacity of France has exceeded 10GW in 2020, and it is planned to reach 20.6GW in 2023. The whole French market is expanding rapidly and showing a strong future.

The carbon footprint certification has showed that Risen Energy's products have dual advantages of ultra-high power and green benefits. Risen Energy has sold its products to more than 50 countries and regions, such as Europe, America, South Africa and Southeast Asia, setting an example for Chinese photovoltaic enterprises to go global.

SOURCE Risen Energy Co., Ltd
[July 01, 2021] Sandvik to acquire leading CAM software company Cambrio

SANDVIKEN, Sweden., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandvik has signed an agreement with Battery Ventures to acquire US-based Cambrio, a leading company with an end-to-end portfolio in CAD/CAM software for manufacturing industries like automotive, transportation, energy, medical and aerospace. Cambrio will be reported in the Design & Planning Automation division within Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions.



"This is in line with our strategic focus to grow organically and through acquisitions in the advanced manufacturing space, with special focus on industrial software close to component manufacturing, industrial metrology- and additive manufacturing solutions. Cambrio will enable a broadened customer offering, covering more of the total manufacturing value chain," says Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik. Sandvik's strategic ambition is to provide customers with software solutions enabling automation of the full component manufacturing value chain  from design and planning to preparation, production and verification. Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) plays a vital role in the digital manufacturing process, creating an offer of automated solutions from design to machining. By acquiring Cambrio, Sandvik will establish an important position in the CAM market that includes both toolmaking and general-purpose machining. This will complement the existing customer offering in Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions. Cambrio's product portfolio includes GibbsCAM for production milling, turning, and mill turn operations, Cimatron for mold and die, as well as SigmaNEST for sheet metal fabrication. "With the addition of Cambrio's product offering, we will be able to help our customers to further increase productivity in the broader value chain. We share the same desire to automate workflows and make our customers more efficient and sustainable. I look forward to welcoming the Cambrio team to Sandvik," says Mathias Johansson, President of the Design & Planning Automation division in Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions. Cambrio is headquartered in Ohio, USA, and has 375 employees. In 2020, the company had revenues of about SEK 628 million (68 million USD) with an EBIT margin slightly dilutive to Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions. Impact on Sandvik's earnings per share will initially be neutral. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2021 and is subject to customary regulatory approvals. Conference call There will be a conference call related to the intended acquisition on July 1, 2021 at 14.00 CEST for analysts, investors and financial media. The conference call will also be available in 'listen-only' mode on Sandvik's website. Please see home.sandvik for dial-in details and presentation material. Dial-in numbers for the conference call: SE: +46 8 505 583 66 UK: +44 333 300 9030 US: +1 646 722 4904 Stockholm, July 1, 2021 Sandvik AB For further information, contact Louise Tjeder, VP Investor relations, phone: +46 (0) 70782 6374 or Johannes Hellstrom, Press and Media Relations Manager, phone: +46 (0) 70721 1008. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/sandvik/r/sandvik-to-acquire-leading-cam-software-company-cambrio,c3377691 The following files are available for download:







https://mb.cision.com/Main/208/3377691/1439281.pdf Sandvik to acquire leading CAM software company Cambrio

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandvik-to-acquire-leading-cam-software-company-cambrio-301324012.html SOURCE Sandvik

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[July 01, 2021] Southeastern Grocers Announces Annual Grant Program to Support Equity in Local Communities

Southeastern Grocers Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, together with the SEG Gives Foundation, today announces the opening of applications for the 2021 Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant, a program that supports local nonprofits by addressing racial disparities in health care, food insecurity and education. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005219/en/ The MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation was named a 2020 recipient of the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity grant to help sustain its efforts in expanding possibilities for young students of color. (Photo: Business Wire) Now through Sept. 30, organizations supporting underserved populations throughout SEG's five-state footprint are encouraged to apply online for grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. The SEG Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Committee, a group of nine associates and leaders from diverse backgrounds, will review all applications for consideration and announce selected organizations on Oct. 29, 2021, the grant namesake's 102nd birthday. The grant program reaffirms SEG's steadfast commitment to racial equity and social justice by offering qualified nonprofits opportunities to receive financial support to help level the playing field for individuals of all backgrounds. Elizabeth Thompson (News - Alert) , Chief People Officer for Southeastern Grocers, said, "At Southeastern Grocers, we embrace diversity by advocating for social justice and positive change, and we wholeheartedly commit to a culture that fosters a sense of inclusion and empowerment. As a people-first company, we proudly stand with our neighbors by offering meaningful solutions that provide sustainable opportunities to enrich the lives of underserved and underrepresented individuals and organizations." In its inaugural year, the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant awarded $100,000 in funding to nine deserving community organizations, including the Louisiana Center for Health Equity in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation in Jacksonville and The Society of St. Andrew in Orlando, among others. <> This year, to drive support and bring further awareness to the cause, the SEG Gives Foundation hosted a community donation program during Black History Month to raise additional funds for the grant program. Thanks to the support of generous customers, the 2021 Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant will be able to support additional nonprofits, allowing more communities to benefit from the program.



Terri Florio, Executive Director of the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation, said, "The MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation was truly honored to be named a 2020 recipient of the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity grant to help sustain our efforts in expanding possibilities for young students of color. We are deeply appreciative for the generous funding received from the SEG Gives Foundation to support our foundation in addressing racial disparities in education by providing after-school programs, summer youth development enrichment and enhanced academic support." SEG is committed to cultivating a culture of belonging and inclusion that directly reflects the diverse communities it serves. Through the grocer's longstanding partnerships with organizations like the American Red Cross, Feeding America, Folds of Honor and others, SEG can help amplify the voices of underrepresented sectors of the community that are often left unheard.

Community organizations throughout SEG's five-state footprint are invited to apply for grant funds to help address racial disparities in health care, food insecurity and education. For additional information about applying for the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant program, or to submit an application, visit www.seggives.com/grantapp. More About the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Namesake

The namesake for the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant Program is a 101-year-old Winn-Dixie associate, Romay Davis. During a time when women and people of color faced restricted rights, Ms. Romay consistently broke barriers by challenging society's limited beliefs with unfathomable accomplishments, such as being a WWII Private First Class veteran, NYU multi-degree scholar, New York fashion designer and model, Taekwondo Black Belt, community advocate and much more. At the young age of 80, Ms. Romay rejoined the workforce as a Winn-Dixie associate. After two decades of working for the grocer, Winn-Dixie's parent company, Southeastern Grocers, honored Ms. Romay as the namesake of a program that supports the fight for racial equity and social justice. Ms. Romay's life is an inspiration to all and her incredible legacy will live on through the Romay Davis Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity Grant. About Southeastern Grocers

Southeastern Grocers Inc. (SEG), parent company and home of Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, is one of the largest conventional supermarket companies in the U.S. SEG grocery stores, liquor stores and in-store pharmacies serve communities throughout the five southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie are well-known and well-respected regional brands with deep heritages, strong neighborhood ties, proud histories of giving back, talented and caring associates and strong commitments to providing the best possible quality and value to customers. For more information, visit www.frescoymas.com, www.harveyssupermarkets.com and www.winndixie.com. About SEG Gives Foundation

SEG Gives Foundation is the charitable arm of Southeastern Grocers Inc. (SEG), parent company of Fresco y Mas, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie stores. The SEG Gives Foundation aligns giving with causes that are priorities to the communities SEG serves, including the fight against hunger, support for military service members and their families, relief to those affected by extreme weather and natural disasters and quality educational opportunities for students. Southeastern Grocers strives to be ingrained in its communities and, through the SEG Gives Foundation, better the lives of its customers and neighbors. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005219/en/

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[July 01, 2021] SparkCognition Acquires Industrial Knowledge Management Company Maana, Expanding Fortune Global 100 Portfolio

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkCognition , the world's leading infrastructure-focused artificial intelligence (AI) company, is pleased to announce it has acquired Maana, a leading digital knowledge platform company. Through this acquisition, SparkCognition gains Maana's computational knowledge graph technology, its industrial expertise and customers such as Chevron, Shell, Aramco, and Airbus, expanding its Fortune Global 100 footprint with multi-year software agreements. SparkCognition's AI platform combined with Maana's digital knowledge technology will accelerate customers' time to value in adopting AI-driven decision making across the enterprise. "Since SparkCognition's inception, our mission has been to create value for our clients by delivering advanced AI technology to the world's largest industries, such as energy, aviation, shipping and logistics," said Amir Husain, founder and CEO of SparkCognition. "Maana's deep technical expertise in these key verticals made it an obvious choice for us, and together, we will propel our solutions forward to better serve our clients and partners around the world." Maana's software enables subject matter experts to develop AI-driven, business critical solutions. Subjct matter experts use Maana's no-code/low-code tools to encode domain knowledge, decision processes, and critical reasoning, then collaborate with data scientists and developers to build applications that optimize business operations. Using Maana's applications, customers save tens of millions of dollars annually.



"Maana was founded to organize human expertise, machine intelligence, and data into digital knowledge to assist subject matter experts making critical decisions at business operations," said Babur Ozden, Founder & CEO at Maana. "We mutually share this vision with SparkCognition, and we're proud to pursue the mission now as part of SparkCognition." "Acquiring Maana serves as an important step in SparkCognition's growth," said Vijay Doradla, Chief Business Officer at SparkCognition. "We're excited to bring Maana's customers, team, and technology onboard, and continue to build next generation products and solutions for our customers."

To learn more about SparkCognition click here . To learn more about Maana, click here . About SparkCognition SparkCognition catalyzes sustainable growth for clients throughout the world with proven artificial intelligence (AI) systems, award-winning machine learning technology, and a multinational team of AI thought leaders. Our clients partner with SparkCognition to understand their industry's most pressing challenges, analyze complex data, empower decision-making, and transform human and industrial productivity. Our vision is to build scalable AI solutions to solve the problems that matter most. We collaborate with organizations to help them reduce environmental impact creating a better, smarter, and more sustainable world. To learn more about how SparkCognition's AI applications can unlock the power in your data, visit www.sparkcognition.com . SparkCognition Contact Info

Michelle Saab

VP, Marketing Communications

msaab@sparkcognition.com

512-956-5491 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sparkcognition-acquires-industrial-knowledge-management-company-maana-expanding-fortune-global-100-portfolio-301324264.html SOURCE SparkCognition

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[July 01, 2021] Stem, Inc. Supports Grid Operators and Retail Utilities During Extreme Heat

Stem, Inc. ("Stem" or "the Company"), a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven energy storage services, today announced that the Company dispatched its portfolio of more than 500 megawatt-hours (MWh) enrolled in demand response and grid services programs during heat waves in the United States and Canada throughout the month of June. In that time, Stem's Athena software responded to almost 4,000 site events across 10 different utility programs and more than 400 customer sites in California, Massachusetts, New York and Ontario, Canada. During California's statewide record-setting heat wave during the week of June 14, 2021, Stem dispatched its portfolio of operating energy storage systems in response to California Governor Gavin Newsom's Extreme Heat Event and Flex Alerts from California Independent System Operator (California ISO), the nonprofit that manages the state's power grid. At the same time, as the East Coast of the United States and Ontario experienced heat related events, Athena dispatched energy storage systems in wholesale markets and utility programs to help eastern utilities and grid operators maintain system stability. An increase in energy demand during heat waves can create significant stress on the electrical grid. Stem's Athena intelligent software automatically operates energy storage systems to reduce customers' energy costs and instantly responds to signals received from the grid operators to dispatch available capacity when and where it is urgently needed. This helps to stabilize the grid by flattening electricity usage peaks and delivering power to the most constrained parts of the grid. Athena co-optimizes the value of flexible energy in real time, incorporating dynamic conditions such as energy prices, local grid capacity constraints, tariff-based program events and severe weather conditions. The Company's technology provides fast-response and backup power while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reliance on diesel generators and fossil fuels. "Utilities across the country continue to see the value of Stem's demand response and grid services, allowing them to call for demand reduction without impacting customer operations," said Julie Steury, Vice President of Program Operations at Stem. "This is accomplished through use of our virtual power plants. We are prepared to continue to support grid operaors and retail utilities in reducing power outages in the coming summer months."



Stem was the first energy storage provider to launch and integrate a battery storage virtual power plant (VPP) into California wholesale markets as a demand response resource. Today, Stem has more than 950 systems representing about 1.1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) contracted or operating in more than 75 jurisdictions. About Stem, Inc.

Stem, Inc. (NYSE: STEM) provides solutions that address the challenges of today's dynamic energy market. By combining advanced energy storage solutions with Athena, a world-class AI-powered analytics platform, Stem enables customers and partners to optimize energy use by automatically switching between battery power, onsite generation and grid power. Stem's solutions help enterprise customers benefit from a clean, adaptive energy infrastructure and achieve a wide variety of goals, including expense reduction, resilience, sustainability, environmental and corporate responsibility and innovation. Stem also offers full support for solar partners interested in adding storage to standalone, community or commercial solar projects - both behind and in front of the meter. For more information, visit www.stem.com. Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Federal securities laws - that is, statements about the future, not about past events. Such statements often contain words such as "expect," "may," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "intend," "anticipate," "should," "could," "will," "see," "likely," and other similar words. Forward-looking statements address matters that are, to varying degrees, uncertain, such as statements about the reduction of greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions; the integration and optimization of energy resources; the business strategies of Stem and those of its customers; the global commitment to decarbonization; and future results of operations. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Stem and its management, depend upon inherently uncertain factors and risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations, including our inability to help reduce GHG emissions; our inability to seamlessly integrate and optimize energy resources; our inability to achieve our financial and performance targets and other forecasts and expectations; our inability to recognize the anticipated benefits of our recent business combination with Star Peak Energy Transition Corp. ("Star Peak"); our ability to grow and manage growth profitably; risks relating to the development and performance of our energy storage systems and software-enabled services; the risk that the global commitment to decarbonization may not materialize as we predict, or even if it does, that we might not be able to benefit therefrom; our inability to secure sufficient inventory from our suppliers to meet customer demand, and provide us with contracted quantities of equipment; the risk that our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by other political, economic, business and competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the definitive proxy statement relating to the business combination filed by Star Peak on March 30, 2021 and other documents we file with the SEC (News - Alert) in the future. If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize (or the consequences of any such development changes), or should our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the press release, and Stem disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly or revise such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005289/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Stephen Ambrose Joins SAIC as Chief Climate Scientist

Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) today announced the appointment of Stephen Ambrose in the newly created role of chief climate scientist. In this role, Ambrose will lead SAIC's (News - Alert) climate program to provide government and industry customers solutions to address some of the most challenging problems facing society. Ambrose brings more than 40 years of experience working in science and technology at the National Oceanic (News - Alert) and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior, and the private sector where he shaped and led efforts to apply technology and analytics to government missions regarding climate-related challenges. His experience will guide SAIC's efforts to support government customers as they advance solutions to deal with the impacts of climate on land, air, sea, wildlife, and civilizations around the world. He will also promote solutions for measuring and addressing climate challenges, leveraging SAIC solutions and capabilities in data science, modeling, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics. "Climate change is one of the grand challenges of our time, with government organizations at the forefront of efforts to address the associated issues," said Bob Genter, president of SAIC Defense and Civilian Sector. "Stephen brings a wealth of experience and expertise to SAIC as we continue to help our customers rise to this challenge with solutions scaled to meet all levels of climate and disaster risk and adaptation." Prior to his new role with SAIC, Ambrose was a senior advisor and program manager at General Dynamics (News - Alert) Information Technology. In that role, he supported the company's work in providing scientific modeling, application development, web design, visualization, computational science, and statistical support to the EPA Office of Research and Development Labs and EPA offices nationwide. His government career with NOAA spans 25 years as a physical scientist, meteorologit, satellite data operations manager and deputy of NOAA's archive of satellite data and products. At NASA, Ambrose served for 10 years as program manager executive for disasters, homeland security, and water resources and as an aerospace engineer study manager supporting future earth science missions at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Among his many career awards, he received NOAA's Bronze Medal for wildfire response and NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal for his work related to disaster reduction.



Ambrose holds a Bachelor of Science in physical science from the University of Maryland with additional studies in climatology at the University of Maryland Graduate School's Geography Department. About SAIC

SAIC is a premier Fortune 500 technology integrator driving our nation's technology transformation. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian, and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, digital, artificial intelligence, and mission solutions. Using our expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective, and efficient solutions that are critical to achieving our customers' missions. We are more than 26,000 strong; driven by mission, united by purpose, and inspired by opportunities. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has pro forma annual revenues of approximately $7.1 billion.???? For more information, visit saic.com. For ongoing news, please visit our newsroom. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this release contain or are based on "forward-looking" information within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "guidance," and similar words or phrases. Forward-looking statements in this release may include, among others, estimates of future revenues, operating income, earnings, earnings per share, charges, total contract value, backlog, outstanding shares and cash flows, as well as statements about future dividends, share repurchases and other capital deployment plans. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risk, uncertainties and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from the guidance and other forward-looking statements made in this release as a result of various factors. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause or contribute to these material differences include those discussed in the "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Legal Proceedings" sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, as updated in any subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC (News - Alert) , which may be viewed or obtained through the Investor Relations section of our website at saic.com or on the SEC's website at sec.gov. Due to such risks, uncertainties and assumptions you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SAIC expressly disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statement provided in this release to reflect subsequent events, actual results or changes in SAIC's expectations. SAIC also disclaims any duty to comment upon or correct information that may be contained in reports published by investment analysts or others. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005538/en/

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[July 01, 2021] STL completes PoC for its pFTTx stack with Chunghwa Telecom's open broadband network

PUNE, India, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- STL (NSE: STLTECH), an industry-leading integrator of digital networks, today announced that it has successfully completed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for its programmable FTTx (pFTTx) software solutions with Chunghwa Telecom's open broadband access network. The PoC collaboration demonstrated how STL's fully virtualized OLT software stack will enable Chunghwa to upgrade its Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) to XGS-PON (10 Gig Symmetric PON) - a fibre access technology for symmetric broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps. This successfully establishes pFTTx as a fully cloud native, disaggregated and open networking compliant solution for last mile fixed access. Chunghwa Telecom is the largest integrated telecommunication service provider in Taiwan. As they are looking to evolve FTTx, they are adopting a virtualized, disaggregated and open access technology, STL's pFTTx - a virtual OLT (Optical Line Terminal) software stack enables Chunghwa to transform their FTTx network into a cloud native network architecture. pFTTx leverages white box partner hardware to provide a feature rich solution. The trial further established connectivity with Chunghwa's commercial network demonstrating use cases such as BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) integrtion and live IPTV server integration.



STL's open source system allows Chunghwa Telecom to use devices and software from different providers, rather than being constrained by single vendor lock-ins. The successful Proof of Concept (PoC) and live network integration has firmly established STL's open networking compliant approach as an alternative to monolithic, proprietary solutions for fixed access. By enabling programmability at the core of the network and decoupling white-box hardware from software, STL's pFTTx software stack brings more flexibility, cost efficiency and service excellence to edge networks. Chris Rice, CEO, Access Solutions, STL, said: "Virtualisation, disaggregation and openness, both in the wired and wireless domains, will shape the network landscape in the coming years. We are very glad to announce the successful integration of STL's virtualised OLT software stack (pFTTx) into Chunghwa Telecom's broadband access network. This successful Proof of Concept will go a long way in building and scaling open, disaggregated wired access networks, that will be critical in delivering 5G use cases to millions of customers."

Dr. Lin, the President of Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories, notes that: "To effectively consolidate the potential of development, production, and marketing, while leveraging the technical capability to build a robust ecosystem, is not only a challenge but also an opportunity for Chunghwa Telecom. Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories embraces open networking standards and will continue our collaboration with software/hardware partners in exploring the advantages of network infrastructure and cloud architecture." About STL - Sterlite Technologies Ltd: STL is an industry-leading integrator of digital networks. Our fully 5G ready digital network solutions help telcos, cloud companies, citizen networks, and large enterprises deliver enhanced experiences to their customers. STL provides integrated 5G ready end-to-end solutions ranging from wired to wireless, design to deployment, and connectivity to compute. Our core capabilities lie in Optical Interconnect, Virtualized Access Solutions, Network Software, and System Integration. We believe in harnessing technology to create a world with next-generation connected experiences that transform everyday living. With a global patent portfolio of 569 to our credit, we conduct fundamental research in next-generation network applications at our Centre of Excellence. STL has a strong global presence with next-gen optical preform, fibre, cable, and interconnect subsystem manufacturing facilities in India, Italy, China, and Brazil, along with two software-development centres across India and a data centre design facility in the UK. stl.tech |Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/876464/Sterlite_Technologies_STL_New_Logo.jpg

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[July 01, 2021] StoreDot, The Extreme Fast Charging Battery Pioneer, Appoints Global Advisory Board to Advance Mission Towards Universal EV Adoption

HERZLIYA, Israel, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- StoreDot, the pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles, has announced the formation of a Global Advisory Board. The new multi-skilled board will be crucial in supporting StoreDot's mission to provide technologies that transform consumers' charging experience and eradicate range anxiety, enabling automotive manufacturers to accelerate a seamless and rapid transition to a zero-emissions electrified future. The StoreDot Advisory Board will be led by Dr David Gilmour, StoreDot's executive Chairman and formerly Global Head of BP Ventures. It will be providing expertise in battery science, electric vehicle infrastructure, automotive industry integration and strategic funding. The Advisory Board will help guide StoreDot's leadership team as it scales up to commercialize its technology and supply car makers with mass produced, fast charging battery technologies, helping them to overcome their customers' range anxiety concerns  currently a major barrier to EV ownership. StoreDot's XFC batteries, which deliver a 50% reduction in charging time at the same cost, are already being tested by major automotive companies. StoreDot's Advisory Board members will include Dr Dennis Nobelius, COO of Polestar, the electric performance car brand founded by Geely and Volvo Cars, focused on accelerating the change to a sustainable future. Dennis joined Polestar from sister brand Volvo where he held a number of senior roles over a 14-year career and will bring a wealth of knowledge to the board on OEM integration. To help advise on the battery commercialization aspects of StoreDot's vision, the appointment of Joseph Walicki, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Clarios, (Formerly Johnson Controls-Power Solutions Division) - the world's largest automotive battery company serving customers in 150 countries - will be instrumental. Other foundation board members who all bring with them arange of relevant and important experience include Roy Williamson, a global future-mobility and EV infrastructure expert and, formerly, Vice President of BP Advanced Mobility, Professor Doron Aurbach, the world-renowned electrochemist and pioneer of electro-mobility, and Joel Maryles, a financial industry expert, having held senior positions in both investment banking and venture capital.



Dr Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO: "Our world-leading extreme fast-charging battery technology is essential for automotive manufacturers to develop EVs that overcome range and charging anxiety. We're offering a clear technology roadmap ranging from the silicon-based XFC technology to next generation XED, extreme energy density, solid-state technologies. With the active support and previous experience of our newly formed Global Advisory Board we plan to execute on this unique roadmap accelerating the adoption of EVs aligned with our clear vision of a cleaner, zero-emissions world. "The formation of our Advisory Board is a major step forward as we rapidly move to our next phase of development and on to commercialization of our first automotive batteries for electric vehicles as early as 2024."

Dr David Gilmour, StoreDot Executive Chairman: "Extreme fast charging for electric vehicles is fundamental to their mass adoption and usability for millions of drivers worldwide. StoreDot has the vision, ambition, capabilities and technologies to partner with global automotive companies, enabling them to overcome this crucial barrier. This is essential to fulfil a zero-emissions future, creating a better world for everyone. "The formation of the Advisory Board, which I am honored to lead, is another key milestone in StoreDot's plan to introduce an extreme fast charging solution in the near future. With our shared vision, we are laying strong foundations to scale rapidly and meet the increased demand for electrified vehicles." The Advisory Board is the latest milestone for StoreDot which was founded in 2012 in Israel. In 2019, StoreDot's XFC battery was publicly demonstrated in the world's first full live demonstration, charging an electric scooter in just five minutes. Last month it announced a framework agreement with EVE Energy to support the commercialization and mass production of XFC batteries by 2024. About StoreDot: StoreDot is a pioneer and leader of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption  range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes  the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot's battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future technologies for extreme energy-density (XED). StoreDot's strategic investors include BP, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. In 2020, the company demonstrated the scalability of its XFC batteries for other industries, by fully charging a commercial drone in five minutes in another world first. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially-viable product for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its first-generation batteries that are designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-ion production lines. For more information see: www.store-dot.com . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/storedot-the-extreme-fast-charging-battery-pioneer-appoints-global-advisory-board-to-advance-mission-towards-universal-ev-adoption-301324288.html SOURCE StoreDot

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[July 01, 2021] Tableau Foundation Teams up with Fair Count, Southern Economic Advancement Project to Make Data a Cornerstone of an Equitable Post-Pandemic Recovery

SEATTLE, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Tableau Foundation announced its expanded commitment to the Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP) and Fair Count in support of both organizations' work to improve the lives of marginalized, vulnerable populations in the southern United States. Collectively, the Stacey Abrams-founded organizations will be able to continue their work of focusing on empowering organizations and nonprofits that are driving toward a measurable, positive impact on society. SEAP, which focuses on exploring policy ideas designed to directly address broadening economic power, and Fair Count, which focuses on building long-term power in communities that have been historically undercounted in the decennial census, will be able to use the investment to get new software, training, and financial support to expand their work with analytics, enablement, and data storytelling across 12 southern U.S. states. "SEAP and Fair Count stand out for their ability to work with communitiesincluding some of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations across the region, and we're excited to support their work to expand that degree of enfranchisement," said Neal Myrick, Global Head of Tableau Foundation. "Data can be a powerful resource to identify the experiences and challenges of people whose voices we may not normally hear, and help create programs, policies, and resources needed to ensure these same people are not left behind." The SEAP Partnership Tableau Foundation's partnership with SEAP will focus largely on data literacy development in marginalized communities across the southern region with a goal of helping people develop marketable job skills in a changing workplace. It will also enhance the design and functionality of their current data tools, SEAP Data Tracker and SouthStrong Covid Data Tracker , as well as broaden tools that are in development. The partnership will also help SEAP invest in its own organizational capacity to work with data and Taleau.



"The Southern Economic Advancement Project and Tableau partnership can help collect, compile and present the data that can help to fundamentally alter the blueprint for the most disadvantaged regions," stated SEAP Research Director, Sarah Beth Gehl. "Going beyond the data, governments and organizations need assistance to turn the analytics into tangible policies for their communities. That's where SEAP comes in  giving them a source they can trust to build their communities back better, stronger and more just than they were before the pandemic." The Fair Count Partnership

In 2020, Fair Count and Tableau teamed up to reach communities in Georgia at risk of being underreported in the decennial census. In their second collaboration, the partnership will aid in the creation of a Tableau dashboard for the organization that will enhance the presentation, dissemination, and utilization of data currently reported in Fair Count and SEAP's quarterly Pandemic to Prosperity: South (P2P: South) report. Focused on data indicators across 12 southern states, the report illustrates the challenges and unique opportunities the South faces on its road to post-pandemic recovery. Over 20 indicators will be examined and reported, such as the number of working adults who lack health insurance, COVID-19 vaccine distributions, and the tracking of economic relief funds. "Fair Count's work building long-term power in historically marginalized communities is fueled by the demand for real justice and driven by the application of quality data," said Fair Count VP Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean. "Our partnership with Tableau helps us improve our analysis, refine our focus, and execute our mission." These announcements coincide with the 1-year anniversary of the launch of Tableau's Racial Justice Data Initiative . This partnership is another example of how the organization is working to spark movement to build the data capacity of national, regional, and community-based organizations fighting anti-Black racism in the United States. About the Southern Economic Advancement Project

The Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP) is your partner and resource. SEAP amplifies existing organizations and networks' efforts to broaden economic power and build a more equitable future. Broadening economic power brings attention to how race, class, and gender intersect social and economic policy in the South. SEAP explores policy ideas designed to address these connections directly. SEAP focuses on 12 Southern states and marginalized/vulnerable populations within the region. Learn more at theseap.org . About Fair Count

Founded by Stacey Abrams in 2019 and anchored in Georgia, Fair Count works to build long-term power in communities that have been historically undercounted in the decennial census, underrepresented at the polls, and whose communities are often torn apart in redistricting. Learn more at FairCount.org . About Tableau Foundation

The Tableau Foundation is a philanthropic initiative led by the employees of Tableau Software that encourages the use of facts and analytical reasoning to solve the world's problems. Tableau Foundation grants combine Tableau's two most valuable resources  its people and its products  with financial support to nonprofits that are using data to reshape communities around the globe. To learn more, please visit www.tableaufoundation.org . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tableau-foundation-teams-up-with-fair-count-southern-economic-advancement-project-to-make-data-a-cornerstone-of-an-equitable-post-pandemic-recovery-301322418.html SOURCE Tableau Software; SEAP; Fair Count

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[July 01, 2021] TECNO Launches PHANTOM X as a Brand-New Flagship

MOSCOW, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 2021 sees TECNO is venturing into new heights by announcing its newest flagship smartphone, PHANTOM X. Debuting on July 1st 2021, PHANTOM X features an elegant design of 3D Borderless Screen and the industry's first silk glass back cover. The combination of the 50MP Ultra-Night camera and the industry's leading 1/1.3 super large senor, 48MP Ultra-Clear Selfie camera with 105Ultra-Wide angle, not to mention the AI-assisted Super Night Mode and 50mm Golden Portrait, provides a big leap in camera performance. Powered by a 4700mAh, 256G+8G large memory and a newly-updated HiOS 7.6 system, PHANTOM X empowers and supports every experience of your life and work. PHANTOM X will be available in two artistic colors of Van Gogh's Starry Night and Monet's Summer. Customers can get PHANTOM X through the online one-stop website www.mobile-phantom.com and shop at local TECNO stores across Africa and other countries including Pakistan, Turkey, Columbia and more. "We're proud to introduce the all-new PHANTOM X. It is an extraordinary beginning that encompasses TECNO's vision, encapsulating and reframed for a new audience of more demanding consumers," said Stephen Ha, General Manager of TECNO, "PHANTOM X isn't just an innovative high-end smartphone; it empowers the modern extraordinary individuals' way of life-being bold to reject the ordinary, always strive for success and have the ambition to achieve new heights. Holding this spirit, we aim to continually make breakthroughs in product and design innovations as we have delivered through PHANTOM X." Extraordinary Beauty of Design PHANTOM X is equipped with a 3D Borderless Screen, embedded with a unique arc design at the right angle of 36.5 to accommodate a comfortable grip to the hand. The top-class 6.7" screen supports an enjoyable experience for videos and games. Unbounded by bezels, the 3D borderless screen features a large bending angle up to 70, making text and images blend seamlessly into infinity around the edges of the device. The new PHANTM X offers the industry's first curved glass surface etched texture. The innovative silk glass is based on a series of complex tests and manufacturing procedures, finally creating the elegant touch of "silk delicacy" and "glass sparkle".



PHANTOM X came up with two classical colours: Van Gogh's Starry Night brings a stellar display of the mysteriously nebulous sky. Monet's Summer is a display of warm and exuberant colors. Both are perfect options for bold explorers and innovators. Extraordinary Pleasure of Technology

Extraordinary Camera Performance

PHANTOM X's camera system consists of triple rear and dual front cameras. PHANTOM X adopts an industry-leading 50MP Ultra-Night Camera with a 1/1.3-inch Ultra-Large Sensor, making it easy to shoot crisp, professional photos. The 50MP Ultra-Night camera featuring 1/1.3-inch Ultra-Large sensor can take in 33% more light from the outer environment compared to camera featuring 108MP camera with 1/1.5-inch sensor. With a wider ISO range and less noise, better exposure, users are empowered with the ability to capture unexpected beauty with a pixel size of 2.4m in 4-in-1 mode, whilst not having to sacrifice on image quality even in complex lighting conditions. With PHANTOM X's 48MP Ultra-Clear Selfie camera, you can capture every detail such as: clearer skin textures, sharper facial features, and even brighter smiles. It is ideal for both individual and group selfies with the AI-assisted 105Ultra-Wide angle. With the self-developed AI face recommendation switching algorithm, when multiple faces are detected, the selfie camera automatically recommends users to switch to ultra-wide shot mode to meet the needs of those multiple party selfies. PHANTOM X, equipped with a macro lens of 50mm Golden Portrait to capture detailed portraits with a short focal length, comparable to professional portrait lenses. Users can also choose seven diversified portrait lighting effects without changing the photo background. Three professional portrait color schemes are available to choose from to accommodate different skin color types, in line with multi-regional aesthetics and the demands from consumers. With PHANTOM X's Super Night Mode, night photography will never be a challenge again. Even in dark environments of less than 0.1 lux, PHANTOM X can bring more vivid details than the naked eye with the algorithm-enabled camera by utilizing AI segmentation and night protection.. PHANTOM X makes it easy for you to capture the glorious night city scenes with the Super Night View 3.0, and even allows you to take elegant portraits in the spectacular night view with the help of Super Night Portrait. Extraordinary Inner Power With 8G+256GB of storage, users can capture endless memorable pictures and videos. Also, you can always stay cool with the powerful 4700mAh battery. When fully charged, it can support 30 days standby battery life, 16-hour video streaming and 9-hour video meeting. With a 33W flash charge, 30 minutes of charge can pump up charge to 70% battery life and 60 minutes of charge pumping up to 100%. What's more, PHANTOM X is comprehensively upgraded in UI design, intelligent operation, and system performance, bringing a higher efficiency and fluency in use. Extraordinary Exclusivity of Enjoyment PHANTOM X also features an industry-leading AI voice assistant who has mastered English and the Hausa language and can respond to your instructions even when you are offline.. In addition, for other language barriers, PHANTOM X features AI live transcribe function that can transcribe more than 70 languages, allowing you to communicate with more than 80% of the global population without difficulty. Realtime and accessible communication is tailored for interactive conversations with a far-reaching audience. Moreover, PHANTOM X provides a series of promising safety measures to protect user privacy. Functions like Peek Proof and App encryption hiding can avoid your information from being leaked. Even in the instance where users accidentally lose their PHANTOM X, an anti-theft function alerts and remote locks the device. The ultra-thin under screen fingerprint allows you to unlock PHANTOM X in less than 0.4s, giving you optimum unlocking speed without compromising on security. SOURCE TECNO

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[July 01, 2021] Texas Blockchain Council Announces First Texas Blockchain Summit

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Texas Blockchain Council, a trade association representing the blockchain industry in Texas, announced today that it will host the inaugural Texas Blockchain Summit in Austin on October 8th, 2021. The one-day event addresses how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin contribute to the economic dynamism of the State of Texas and the United States. Prominent subject-matter experts on the topics of blockchain and cryptocurrencies headline the event, including Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, Texas Banking Commissioner Charles Cooper, Chamber of Digital Commerce Founder Perianne Boring, Venture Capitalist Nic Carter, Professor of Finance Nik Bhatia, and the Human Rights Foundation's Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein. The conference will focus on digital asset policy, digital identity, Bitcoin mining in Texas, and cryptocurrency's implications for US sovereignty and national security. The Summit's joint focus on policy and protocol-enabled self-sovereignty make it the first of its kind. Natalie Smolenski, Chairman of the Board of the Texas Blockchain Council, explined the importance of the event: "We are in a unique moment in the history of human societies. For the first time, we have a form of sound money that is not issued by any nation-state. This has profound implications for political economy that the brilliant minds attending the Texas Blockchain Summit intend to explore."



Lee Bratcher, Founder and President of the Texas Blockchain Council, described how the Summit arose against a background of growing support for the blockchain industry in Texas: "This conference is the culmination of years of policy work in Texas that started in early 2019 when Representative Parker filed the first Blockchain Work Group bill. At the Texas Blockchain Council, we believe that Texas can lead the world in establishing a climate of innovation around blockchain technology." Texas is fast becoming a leader in blockchain innovation. During the 87th State Legislative Session, which ended on May 31st, 2021, the Texas House and Senate passed bills to create a Blockchain Work Group (HB 1576) and to clarify the treatment of digital currencies under Texas law (HB 4474). The bills were carried through the legislative process by a broad, bipartisan coalition of State Legislators and championed especially by Representative Tan Parker and Senator Angela Paxton. Governor Greg Abbott has publicly assured the blockchain industry in Texas of his support. Furthermore, on June 10th, 2021, the Texas Department of Banking affirmed that banks chartered in Texas may custody virtual currencies.

Register for the Texas Blockchain Summit here. To join the Texas Blockchain Council, please contact: lee@texasblockchaincouncil.org For press inquiries, please contact: press@texasblockchaincouncil.org For more information, visit https://texasblockchaincouncil.org. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/texas-blockchain-council-announces-first-texas-blockchain-summit-301323942.html SOURCE Texas Blockchain Council

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[July 01, 2021] UBS Advisor Melissa Corrado-Harrison Named to the Barron's Top 100 Women Financial Advisors List

UBS Private Wealth Management today announced that Melissa Corrado-Harrison, a Private Wealth Advisor in the firm's downtown Denver office, has been named to the Barron's Top 100 Women Financial Advisors list for 2021. For nearly 30 years, ultra-high net worth individuals, families and corporations have relied upon Melissa for customized strategies to address their complex wealth management needs. Her background in long-term planning and strategy accounts for her strong emphasis on wealth preservation and conservative, controlled growth. Melissa leads her team and directs the practice's portfolio management activities, oversees liquidity event and IPO planning strategies, and works with clients and their attorneys to develop comprehensive estate plans. "We are very proud of Melissa," said Tommy Stacy, Texas Rockies Market Head at UBS Private Wealth Management. "Her success is a result of her unyielding commitment to provide the highest level of expert financial advice and customized service to her clients, and it's gratifying to see the industry acknowledge her achievements year after year." Melissa began her career in the Family High Net Worth Planning division of Merrill Lynch, where her responsibilities included asset management, pre- and post-IPO planning, mergers and acquisitions, single stock strategies, estate planning strategies and tax minimization strategies. In 2001, Melissa became a Private Wealth Advisor within Merrill Lynch's Private Banking and Investment Group. She joined UBS in 2015. Locally, Melissa serves on the board of two charitable organizations, Judi's House and ACE Scholarships. In recognition of her excellence as an advisor, Melissa has been named to numerous industry accolades includig the Forbes Top 250 Wealth Advisors for 2020, the Forbes Top 1,200 Financial Advisors from 2018-2021, the Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors from 2018-2021 (one of the Top Five Advisors in Colorado from 2019-2021), and Barron's Top 100 Women Financial Advisors from 2018-2021 and 2008-2015. Melissa was also named to the Barron's Hall of Fame in 2019, an award honoring advisors who exemplify long-term success and commitment to their clients.



The Barron's Top 100 Women Financial Advisors list reflects assets under management, revenue the advisors generate for their firms, and the quality of their practices. This does not include investment performance as clients with accounts often exceeding $10 million pursue a range of goals, with asset preservation at the forefront. For the full list and more information visit: https://www.barrons.com/advisor/report/top-financial-advisors/women.

Notes to Editors About UBS Global Wealth Management

As the world's largest wealth manager, UBS Global Wealth Management provides comprehensive advice, solutions and services to wealthy families and individuals around the world. Clients who work with UBS benefit from a fully integrated set of wealth management capabilities and expertise, including wealth planning, investment management, capital markets, banking, lending and institutional and corporate financial advice. About UBS

UBS provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as private clients in Switzerland. UBS's strategy is centered on our leading global wealth management business and our premier universal bank in Switzerland, enhanced by Asset Management and the Investment Bank. The bank focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their targeted markets, are capital efficient, and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook. UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 31% in Switzerland, 19% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 20% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs over 68,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).  UBS 2021. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS.

Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. or its employees pay a fee in exchange for these ratings. Past performance is not an indication of future results. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005679/en/

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[July 01, 2021]

Ultrasonic Sensor Market to Reach $10.43 Bn, Globally, By 2028 at 11.1% CAGR: Allied Market Research

Rise in adoption of robotics in industrial sectors, surge in usage in the healthcare industry, and adoption in the food & beverage sector drive the growth of the global ultrasonic sensor market.

PORTLAND, Ore., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Ultrasonic Sensor Market by Product Type (Proximity Detection and Range Measurement), Application (Level Monitoring, Anti-Collision Detection, Distance Measurement, Object Detection, Loop Control, Robotic Sensing, and Others), End User (Automotive, Industrial, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Food & Beverages, Aerospace & Defense, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212028." According to the report, the global ultrasonic sensor industry generated $4.90 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $10.43 billion by 2028, witnessing a CAGR of 11.1% from 2021 to 2028.

Prime Determinants of Growth

Rise in adoption of robotics in industrial sectors, surge in usage in the healthcare industry, and adoption in the food & beverage sector drive the growth of the global ultrasonic sensor market. However, availability of substitute sensors hinders the market growth. On the other hand, adoption of surveillance drones and usage in smart applications present new opportunities in the coming years.

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Covid-19 Scenario

Businesses and manufacturing units in the electronics and semiconductor sector were closed due to lockdown imposed in many countries. Moreover, the supply chain was affected adversely.

The large-scale manufacturing interruption across Europe and disruption in exports of raw materials from China impacted the ultrasonic sensor industry.

and disruption in exports of raw materials from impacted the ultrasonic sensor industry. The demand from end user industries such as automotive, industrial, consumer electronics, and aerospace & defense reduced significantly due to lack of business continuity during the lockdown. However, the demand is expected to rise steadily during the post-lockdown.

The range measurement segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on product type, the range measurement segment held the highest share in 2020, accounting for more than half of the global ultrasonic sensor market, and is expected to maintain its lead position in terms of revenue during the forecast period. This is due to advantages of ultrasonic sensors over traditional sensors such as detection and measurement of moving objects and ability to detect small objects over long distances. However, the proximity detection segment is estimated to manifest the largest CAGR of 11.8% from 2021 to 2028, owing to increase in its demand for features such as object detectionover intermediate distances and the ability to operate in a wide variety of operating conditions.







The level monitoring segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on application, the level monitoring segment accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to more than one-fifth of the global ultrasonic sensor market, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. This is due to its advantages such as time and cost savings, real-time monitoring and instant alerts, and adaptability with changing industrial needs. However, the anti-collision detection segment is projected to portray the fastest CAGR of 13.0% from 2021 to 2028, owing to technological advancements and increase in application in the healthcare sector.

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Europe, followed by North America, to continue its dominant share by 2028

Based on region, Europe, followed by North America, accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly one-third of the global ultrasonic sensor market, and is expected to continue its dominant share by 2028. This is due to rise in its demand from consumer electronics and technological advancements across the region. However, Asia-Pacific is estimated to register the highest CAGR of 13.1% during the forecast period, owing to rapid growth of industrialization and low operating cost.

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Leading market players

Balluff GmbH

Banner Engineering Corp.

Baumer Group

Hans Turck GmbH & Co. KG (Turck)

Honeywell International Inc.

Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd

OMRON Corporation

Pepperl+Fuchs SE

Rockwell Automation, Inc.

Sick AG

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[July 01, 2021] Vertex Aerospace Awarded 2021 James S. Cogswell Award

MADISON, Miss., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertex Aerospace is pleased to announce its selection as a recipient of the 2021 James S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award. The aerospace defense company was one of 40 facilities selected for the award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). Vertex was chosen from 13,000 cleared contractors to receive the award, which recognizes defense contractors for industrial security excellence. Less than one percent of cleared contractors are honored to receive the annual award. Being previously awarded this exemplary achievement in 2019, Vertex has sustained excellence in industrial security. "The Cogswell is the most prestigious honor the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) bestows to members of cleared industry," said Robert Hayes, Vertex's Corporate Director of Security. "e were selected because we were able to demonstrate excellence and the highest of standards in establishing and maintaining a superior security program that goes beyond the NISP requirements."



Vertex is proud to be a defense industry leader. The Company was one of the first defense contractors to establish an insider threat program (ITP) long before the DCSA required implementation. Vertex's ITP is based on Department of Defense regulations and industry best practices and was designed to protect national security information. The Cogswell award was established in 1966 in remembrance of late U.S. Air Force Col. James S. Cogswell, the first chief of Industrial Security. Cogswell developed the basic principles of the National Industrial Security Program, including an emphasis on partnerships between industry and government to protect classified materials.

About Vertex Vertex Aerospace offers a global capability and complete solution for government and commercial customers. The mid-level aerospace company provides aftermarket aerospace services for more than 2,400 fixed and rotary wing airframes. Vertex's agility, rapid deployment capability, and customer optimization have distinguished it from competitors for over half a century. With a nearly 60 percent veteran workforce, the Mississippi-based company understands the challenges faced by the defense sector. Information about Vertex can be found at vtxaero.com. POC: Kimber Riley

Corporate Communications Manager (Interim)

Kimber.L.Riley@vtxaero.com

Wk: 601-607-6031 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vertex-aerospace-awarded-2021-james-s-cogswell-award-301324502.html SOURCE Vertex Aerospace

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[July 01, 2021] Why did the CPC Win the War of Liberation?

BEIJING, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on CPC centenary: Why The Red Star Shines Over China? In 1946, just before the war, the Kuomintang had overwhelming advantages not only in the number of troops but also in weaponry and other things. It was even backed by the United States. So Chiang Kai-shek had full confidence that the CPC would soon be eliminated. But history chose to stand on this seemingly "weak" side. What was the reason behind that contrast? How did Chiang Kai-shek waste the precious window of opportunity?

On the Monument to the People's Heroes standing at the heart of Tian'anmen Square in Beijing carved a line: "Eternal glory to the people's heroes who laid down their lives in the People's War of Liberation and the people's revolution in the three years!" The three years is a magnificent epic of the unyielding struggle of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the War of Liberation, recording the Chinese nation's commitment to fight for the country and its people. Why was the Communist Party of China (CPC) able to win such a great victory in the War of Liberation? Here lies the root: The victory of an army relies on the people. During this war, with the strong support of the Chinese people, the CPC gained enormous strength, thereby finishing the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang and establishing the People's Republic of China. In 1946, just before the war, the Kuomintang had overwhelming advantages not only in the number of troops but also in weaponry and other things. It was even backed by the United States. So Chiang Kai-shek had full confidence that the CPC would soon be eliminated. But history chose to stand on this seemingly "weak" side. What was the reason behind that contrast? How did Chiang Kai-shek waste the precious window of opportunity? The oral history told by Zhang Xueliang in his late years gives us the answer.He believed that it is because the CPC conformed to public opinion that it could grow up and thrive. When the Kuomintang military leaders were busy enriching themselves, squeezing the people and involved in rivalries with different factions of their party, the CPC proposed a slogan, "All the cadres who may go to the countryside for work should go deep to the rural areas."In the eyes of the PLA, their logistics department was composed of ordinary people. As Wang Shuzeng, a mlitary writer, recalled in an interview, when the Huaihai Campaign started, an old villager joined the supporting troops.



He trundled a wheelbarrow for about 100 miles to transport shells to the PLA. In the rainy days, he would take off his clothes and put them over the shells, in case that they would misfire if getting damped.

Finishing the transport task, he didn't rush to come back home before the shells were fired to enemies. At that time, the transport of military goods and materials to the frontline largely relied on ordinary people, who carried them on their shoulders or backs and by their carts. After the founding of New China, when the commander of Huaihai Campaign Chen Yi was questioned how they won this battle, he said that it was the ordinary people who trundled wheelbarrows to help them win. Due to years of war, China's economy has been greatly damaged with extremely low agricultural productivity, which needs to be restored and rebuilt. To protect the survival interests of farmers, the CPC proposed to tackle the problem related to farmers' land. The CPC Central Committee issued "the May Fourth Instructions" on May 4, 1946, declaring that they would change the policy of reducing rents and interest, and distribute the land occupied by landlords to poor farmers. Once the people had land, they would produce food. That would be the basis for their survival. And the people further learnt that only the CPC cared for them in the true sense. Later on, in northeastern China with a population of over 10 million, 400,000 farmers volunteered to join the army led by the CPC, which soon changed the power structure of the battlefield there. The Kuomintang, in contrast, forced young men into conscription. So the morale of the PLA was far higher than the Kuomintang; gradually, some troops of the latter even surrendered in an organized way. The land reform was not only an economic revolution that boosted national productivity, but also a liberation movement for the Chinese people, thereby enhancing the likelihood for the CPC to seize the ruling power. As the CPC gained a succession of victories in the War of Liberation, new governments had to be established at the newly liberated areas. During this process, the "bean ballot" created in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border region in the anti-Japanese war enabled the local people to be the true masters of the country again. When the American reporter Anna Louise Strong was doing interviews in Yan'an, a model worker surnamed Yang told her, "The biggest difference between the old society and the new one is that there was no election in the old society, but in the new society everyone can vote." Without democracy, there will be no socialism; only the real democracy can win people's hearts. While the Kuomintang members were making profits from the disaster and fighting for the ranks after the victory over Japan, the CPC members showed their indifference to wealth and fame, and loyalty to their career. In 1955, when Peng Dehuai and Luo Ronghuan, among others, heard that they would be awarded the rank of grand marshal, they all politely declined the rank. Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai also refused to accept any ranks. As a senior military officer, Xu Guangda even asked for demotion. With various factors considered, he was still awarded the rank of senior general. But his salary was one level lower at his repeated request. Xu Liqing, once the general at the regiment level when the War of Liberation started,should have been granted the rank of general. But when the Central Military Commission (CMC) was confirming the commission list, he wrote over 10 letters to the CMC leaders and insisted on demotion. Mao Zedong praised him, "So marvelous! We can tell a person's thoughts and morals from his attitudes towards wealth, status and honor. It's always been so since ancient times." In the exhibition hall about the War of Liberation in the Military Museum of Chinese People's Revolution, there are five remarkable golden Chinese characters, "Renmin de shengli" meaning "People's Victory" in English. A relief called "People Supporting the Frontline" in the hall vividly depicts the scene of the people and the PLA fighting together. History represents the past, but will not be forgotten. The history of the CPC is a history of fighting for the people and their welfare. As Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, once said, the people's army will conquer all as long as they strive for the common aspirations of the people and are supported by the people. They must bear in mind their responsibility of serving the people whole heartedly.They are the people's army at all times and under all circumstances. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/why-did-the-cpc-win-the-war-of-liberation-301323931.html SOURCE China.org.cn

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[July 01, 2021] Xi: China will never allow foreign bullying

BEIJING, China, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from chinadaily.com.cn: Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivered an important speech at a grand gathering celebrating the centenary of the CPC's founding at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on Thursday. A 100-gun salute was fired in the morning, representing the 100 years of the Party. A national flag-raising ceremony was held. A congratulatory message jointly issued by eight other political parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and personages without party affiliation was read out at the ceremony. Here are some highlights from Xi's speech: - China has realized the first centenary goal -- building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. - The CPC has united and led the Chinese people over the past 100 years for one ultimate theme -- bringing about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. - The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in fighting bloody battles with unyielding determination, achieving great success in the new democratic revolution. - The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in endeavoring to build a stronger China with a spirit of self-reliance, achieving great success in the socialist revolution and construction. - The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in freeing the mind and forging ahead, achieving great success in reform, opening-up and socialist modernization. - The Party unites and leads the Chinese people in pursuing a great struggle, a great project, a great cause and a great dream through a spirit of self-confidence, self-reliance and innovation, achieving great success for socialism with Chinese characteritics in the new era.





- Seeking happiness for the people and national rejuvenation has been Party's aspiration and mission since founding. - Only socialism could save China, and only socialism could develop China. - By pursuing reform and opening-up, a crucial move in making China what it is today, China has caught up with the times. - The CPC and the Chinese people, through a tenacious struggle, have shown the world that China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability. - The people are the true heroes, for it is they who create history. - The great founding spirit of the CPC is the Party's source of strength. - China's success hinges on the Party. ------- - The firm leadership of the CPC must be upheld. - The Party will continue leading Chinese people toward a better life. - The Party must continue to adapt Marxism to a Chinese context. At the fundamental level, the capability of the Party and the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics are attributable to the fact that Marxism works. - The Party must uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. - The Party must continue self-reform. - China will elevate its armed forces to world-class standards so that we are equipped with greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding our national sovereignty, security and development interests. ------- - China is committed to "one country, two systems" in governance of Hong Kong and Macao. - Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China. - All Chinese people, both at home and overseas, can focus their ingenuity and energy on the same goal and come together as a mighty force for realizing national rejuvenation. - The Party is still in its prime, determined as ever to achieve lasting greatness for the nation. - Chinese young people should carry on the mission of national rejuvenation. - Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. - The time in which the Chinese nation could be bullied and abused by others is gone forever. - China welcomes helpful suggestions, but will not accept sanctimonious preaching. - Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, oppress or subjugate us. - China will keep promoting community with shared future for mankind. - China is committed to world peace, development and order. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/xi-china-will-never-allow-foreign-bullying-301324473.html SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

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[June 30, 2021] ROCKET COMPANIES SHAREHOLDER ALERT by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Reminds Investors With Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Rocket Companies, Inc. - RKT

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 30, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE: RKT), if they purchased the Company's shares between February 25, 2021 and May 5, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. What You May Do If you purchased shares of Rocket Companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-rkt/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 30, 2021.



About the Lawsuit Rocket Companies and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On May 5, 2021, the Company disclosed disappointing financial news, including closed loan volume within a range of only $82.5 to $87.5 billion and gain on sale margins within a range of only 2.65% to 2.95% for the second quarter of 2021, due to certain market trends that began in part "at the end of Q1." On this news, shares of Rocket Companies plummeted nearly 17% to close at $19.01 per share. The case is Qaiyum v. Rocket Companies, Inc., No. 21-cv-11528. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006030/en/

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[June 30, 2021] Government of Canada invests over $620,000 to bring high-speed Internet to 146 more homes in the Carlsbad Springs area, around the communities of Navan, Vars and Blackburn Hamlet Ontarians in rural communities to benefit from increased connectivity

OTTAWA, ON, June 30, 2021 /CNW/ - Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how much we rely on our connections. Now more than ever, Canadians across the country need access to reliable high-speed Internet as many of us are working, learning, and staying in touch with friends and family from home. Right now, too many Canadians living in rural and remote communities lack access to high-speed Internet. Through the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) Rapid Response Stream, the Government of Canada is taking immediate action to get Canadians connected to the high-speed Internet they need. Today, Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Member of Parliament for Orleans, on behalf of the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development, announced over $620,000 in federal funding for Rogers to bring high-speed Internet to residents of rural Ontario. This project will connect 146 underserved households in the Carlsbad Springs area, around the communities of Navan, Vars and Blackburn Hamlet, to high-speed Internet. The Universal Broadband Fund was launched in November 2020. Projects funded under the $2.75-billion UBF, as well as through other public and private investments, will help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. Today's announcement builds on the progress the Government of Canada has already made to improve critical infrastructure in Ontario. Since 2015, the federal government has invested more than $2.85 billion in over 4,060 infrastructure projects in Ontario communities with a population of fewer than 100,000 people. These investments mean 452 km of new or upgraded roads that are making our communities safer; more than 938 projects to provde residents with cleaner, more sustainable sources of drinking water; and more than 5,427 additional housing units built in rural communities, helping ensure all Ontarians have a safe place to call home.



Quotes "The pandemic has brought to light the importance of being connected to proper broadband services. That's why I am so pleased to see the federal government invest in rural communities in the Carlsbad Springs area, around the communities of Navan, Vars and Blackburn Hamlet, to improve Internet services, allowing residents to access services remotely, making work and education accessible. For these families, connectivity is not a luxury, but a necessity."

 Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and Member of Parliament for Orleans "We are pleased to be working together with the community of Carlsbad Springs to understand its needs and help deliver reliable broadband services to its residents. Whether it is working remotely, studying online, accessing virtual health care services or running a business, high-speed connectivity is essential to keeping Canadians connected to the people and things that matter most."  Phil Hartling, Executive Vice President, Service Expansion, Rogers "Today's announcement targets 146 homes in 5 residential areas in Carlsbad Springs. The planned Rogers high-speed Internet expansion will change many lives in our area and promote its economic and social development. It is a game changer for many homeowners who have struggled for many years with poor or limited Internet service and connectivity."  Denis Labreche, past president of the Carlsbad Springs Community Association Quick facts Canada's Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload.

Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload. The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is a $2.75-billion investment designed to help connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet. Applications to the UBF were accepted until March 15, 2021 , and are now being evaluated.

investment designed to help connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet. Applications to the UBF were accepted until , and are now being evaluated. The UBF is part of a suite of federal investments to improve high-speed Internet. The suite includes the Connect to Innovate program, which is expected to connect nearly 400,000 households by 2023, and the $2-billion broadband initiative from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Associated links Backgrounder: Universal Broadband Fund and Telesat low Earth orbit satellite capacity agreement

Universal Broadband Fund

Connect to Innovate Program  Project status updates

Canada Infrastructure Bank announcement

High-Speed Access for All: Canada's Connectivity Strategy Stay connected Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

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[June 30, 2021] BrainChip Takes a Look at what ML and AI Can Achieve With Arm Fellow Jem Davies

BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) (OTCQX: BRCHF), a leading provider of ultra-low power high performance artificial intelligence technology, today announced that Jem Davies, VP, Fellow and GM of the Machine Learning Group at Arm, joins BrainChip Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Rob Telson, on the latest "This is our Mission" podcast episode designed to provide insight on the Company's strategy and progress. The 23-minute podcast will be available through the company's website, https://brainchipinc.com/brainchip-podcasts/, as well as across all major podcast platforms July 6, at 4 p.m. PDT. An experienced technologist and architect, Davies has run the ML group within Arm for the past 4 years, driving the technology inflection across the company and guiding the direction of the company as it supports evolving workloads. In the eighth episode of the series, Davies and Telson discuss the process that technology undergoes before implementation at the consumer level, how AI on devices is helping to evolve the direction of the technology, and how these transformations can ultimately benefit society. "With hundreds of billions of Arm-designed chips in devices, there is a tremendous opportunity to implement AI and ML technologies that provide efficiencies and optimization, which will transform business in the coming years," said Telson. "Jem's deep appreciation for what ML and AI can achieve places him in a unique position to not only envisio what the world will look like with the transition to these emerging workloads, but will help drive the very solutions for Arm partners looking to provide faster and more efficient devices that can get us there. His amazing insights into how small measures in deploying AI-based devices can provide cascading benefits in energy efficiencies, faster and more accurate business decisions, and the ability to solve problems, with the 'three V's,' make for an informative podcast."



BrainChip's Akida brings artificial intelligence to the edge in a way that existing technologies are not capable. The solution is high-performance, small, ultra-low power and enables a wide array of edge capabilities. The Akida (NSoC) and intellectual property can be used in applications including Smart Home, Smart Health, Smart City and Smart Transportation. These applications include but are not limited to home automation and remote controls, industrial IoT, robotics, security cameras, sensors, unmanned aircraft, autonomous vehicles, medical instruments, object detection, sound detection, odor and taste detection, gesture control and cybersecurity. The BrainChip Podcast is a monthly event intended to provide company and industry insight for the engineering community in target markets, as well as analysts, technical and financial press and investors.

About BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN, OTCQX: BRCHF) BrainChip is a global technology company that is producing a groundbreaking neuromorphic processor that brings artificial intelligence to the edge in a way that is beyond the capabilities of other products. The chip is high performance, small, ultra-low power and enables a wide array of edge capabilities that include on-chip training, learning and inference. The event-based neural network processor is inspired by the spiking nature of the human brain and is implemented in an industry standard digital process. By mimicking brain processing BrainChip has pioneered a processing architecture, called Akida, which is both scalable and flexible to address the requirements in edge devices. At the edge, sensor inputs are analyzed at the point of acquisition rather than through transmission via the cloud to a data center. Akida is designed to provide a complete ultra-low power and fast AI Edge Network for vision, audio, olfactory and smart transducer applications. The reduction in system latency provides faster response and a more power efficient system that can reduce the large carbon footprint of data centers. Additional information is available at https://www.brainchipinc.com. Follow BrainChip on Twitter (News - Alert) : https://www.twitter.com/BrainChip_inc

Follow BrainChip on LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/7792006 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006025/en/

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[June 30, 2021] F1 Security, Inc. Expansion of targeting the Japanese market with customer-friendly software-installed web security products

SEOUL, South Korea, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Last year on December 21st, F1 Security signed a partnership agreement with COCOA in Tokyo as the official Japanese sales representative and is actively venturing for market expansion in Japan. F1 Security, through the partnership with COCOA, has been promoting Unified Web Security Service (UWSS) online utilizing the DV360 platform since last month. COCOA has developed a landing page for promotions in Japan and is executing advertisement inquiry reception and response and the primary technical support for UWSS. UWSS is a Unified web security service developed and provided by F1Security. More than 90% of the major hacking incidents known around the world are due to website security vulnerabilities. It is easy to think that websites can be protected by a web application firewall (WAF), but that is not the case. UWSS provies the following four services required for website security.



(1) Web application firewall that detects and blocks web hacking attacks

(2) Anti-WebShell that detects and processes hacker-installed web shells

(3) Web malware scanner that detects whether malicious code is spreading through a website

(4) Website forgery detection that detects unintentional changes to website content UWSS is a monthly subscription software service that does not require dedicated hardware. Therefore, it is the best service for web security to websites for a limited time such as public clouds and events where it is difficult to install hardware. Also, unlike other companies' services, which vary depending on the amount of communication and the number of accesses, the price of UWSS is "fixed monthly".

UWSS's Website: https://www.uwss.online

UWSS Japan Promotion Site: https://www.uwss.jp/summary/japan

F1Security's Website: http://www.f1security.co.kr/english

Contacts: F1 Security, Inc.

Press Contacts: Divo, gpartners@f1security.co.kr About F1 Security F1 Security is a Korean company specializing in information protection that has participated in the RSA Conference held since May 17th this year for three consecutive years. Also, F1Security is a specialized information security service company designated by the Ministry of Science and ICT of South Korea. F1Security has been operating the Korean government's public web security service for the past 5 years. Services operated by F1Security include a project that analyzes 4 million websites a day to monitor the distribution of malicious codes, and a project that checks 5,000 website vulnerabilities a year and distributes software-installed web security products. SOURCE F1 Security, Inc.

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[June 30, 2021] KITS Reports Voting Results from Annual Meeting of Shareholders

VANCOUVER, BC, June 30, 2021 /CNW/ - KITS Eyecare Ltd. (TSX: KITS) (OTCQX: KTYCF) ("KITS" or the "Company"), a rapidly growing, vertically integrated eyecare platform, today announced the voting results for the election of directors at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders held earlier today. A total of 26,087,269 common shares representing 84.15% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares were represented by shareholders present in person or by proxy at the meeting. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business put forth at the meeting. The votes for the election of directors were as follows:







Nominee % of Shares Voted For % of Shares Withheld Roger Hardy 99.83% 0.17% Sabrina Liak 98.51% 1.49% Nick Bozikis 98.51% 1.49% Peter Lee 99.83% 0.17% Ted Goldthorpe 94.97% 5.03% Anne Kavanagh 99.83% 0.17%

Final voting results of all other matters voted on at the meeting will be made available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About KITS: KITS is a rapidly growing, vertically integrated, digitally native eyecare platform for eyes everywhere. We offer customers access to a vast selection of contact lenses and eyeglasses, including our own exclusive KITS designed products, as well as a robust suite of online vision tools. Our efficient digital platform, backed by our industry-leading manufacturing and designs, removes intermediaries and enables us to offer great prices and deliver made to order personalized products with incredible care and accuracy. We are creating disruption in the industry by constantly pursuing cutting-edge technologies to enable the best customer experience, including online eyewear fitting tools, virtual try-on for glasses, and an integrated online vision test. We strive to delight our customers with our competitive prices, a convenient digital shopping experience, fast and reliable delivery options and an unrelenting focus on earning our customers' lifelong trust. For more information on KITS, visit: www.KITS.com . SOURCE KITS Eyecare Ltd.

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[June 30, 2021] Data Analytics Expert David Roell Joins RiskExec as Vice President, Compliance Products & Analytics

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Asurity proudly announces David Roell has joined the company as Vice President, Compliance Products and Analytics at its subsidiary RiskExec, Inc. (RiskExec). Prior to joining the Asurity organization, David served as Lead Data Scientist, HMDA Operations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that role, David was responsible for collecting, analyzing, and publishing Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data across the industry, to be used by multiple federal regulatory agencies to support the performance of their oversight and enforcement responsibilities directed at fairness in lending. During his tenure with the CFPB, David held a variety of roles focused on developing actionable intelligence from the large quantities of data the CFPB routinely receives as part of its regulatory oversight responsibilities. Leveraging his extraordinary data analytics skills, David led various quality assurance initiatives, developed testing processes, and created reporting dashboards to enable data visualization and the tracking of key metrics. David holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. RiskExec is the industry leading SaaS solution for Fair Lending, HMDA, and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance in financial services. RiskExec's powerful tools, which include geocoding, mapping, peer comparison, redlining analysis and more, have been adopted by consumer lenders and mortgage anks of all sizes. In this new role, David will be responsible for the design, development, and commercial advancement of RiskExec's business analytics product suite.



"We are constantly evolving and looking for ways to enhance our existing products as well as to build new and innovative solutions designed to make compliance more achievable and cost effective," says Andy Sandler, CEO of Asurity. He continued, "With this strategic hire, Asurity continues to invest in building and diversifying our rapidly growing RiskExec data analytics platform. We appreciate the strong support of the financial services industry for RiskExec's expanding product set which now includes HMDA, CRA, Goals, Redlining Analysis, Assessment Areas/REMA, Fair Lending, Fair Servicing, Peer Analysis and Batch Geocoding. Later this year, we expect to introduce to the market a new student lending module."

"Big data can be overwhelming," said Dr. Anurag Agarwal, President, RiskExec. "The addition of David to our exceptional team of subject matter experts will position us well as we work to accelerate the pace of innovation and to enable lenders to make more informed decisions with the benefit of RiskExec's powerful business analytics." David Roell commented, "I am excited to join a progressive organization that moves fast, embraces change and innovation, and which has garnered such appreciation and accolades from its dedicated clients across the financial services industry." About Asurity and RiskExec

Asurity delivers compliance-focused solutions to the mortgage and consumer lending industries. RiskExec is one of Asurity's leading SaaS-based products, combining the best of compliance expertise with state-of-the-art software for reporting and analytics to help lenders meet demanding regulatory requirements. RiskExec is embraced by financial institutions to analyze high-volume data for compliance or other uses in mortgage, auto lending, student lending, and other forms of credit and deposit products. Asurity also offers AsurityDocs, a leading solution for the dynamic preparation of compliant mortgage document packages. For additional information, please visit www.asurity.com . MEDIA CONTACT:

Darci Johnson

Djohnson@asurity.com

(214) 220-6452 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/data-analytics-expert-david-roell-joins-riskexec-as-vice-president-compliance-products--analytics-301323812.html SOURCE Asurity

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[June 30, 2021] DDN Boosts AI Storage Leadership with EXAScaler 6 and Expanded Portfolio for Enterprise Intelligent Infrastructure

CHATSWORTH, Calif., June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Expanding on its global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and multi cloud data management solutions, DDN is strengthening its commitment to enterprise AI customers and channel partners with EXAScaler 6 (EXA6) and expanding its portfolio of IntelliFlash  systems from Tintri,  a DDN company and the leading provider of Intelligent Infrastructure for enterprises. Additionally, DDN announced a new process by which certified partners can acquire DDN's A3I  with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with a single SKU. These new offerings allow channel partners and resellers to more easily acquire and deploy solutions for enterprise workloads and at-scale AI infrastructures. EXA6 Enhances Efficiency and Ease of Use

DDN introduces EXA6, extending its leadership in parallel file systems. This next iteration of EXAScaler scalable software for data storage, analysis and management runs on a new EXAScaler Management Framework (EMF) with APIs for configuration and management. EXA6 simplifies managing and upgrading systems through automation by 10x over competitor solutions. New features include full support for the latest NVIDIA Magnum IO GPUDirect Storage, online upgrades, enhancements to automatic tiering, and Hot Nodes for client-side persistence. EXAScaler is the most powerful file system for AI, analytics and HPC, and EXA6 is the foundation for stronger security, enriched data services, and end-to-end data management. EXA6 adds new acceleration technologies with Hot Nodes, which automatically caches data on the local NVMe of NVIDIA GPU systems, reducing IO latency and traffic by avoiding network round trips. Deep Learning (DL) models often require datasets to be re-read many times  this multi-epoch learning process places a heavy load on compute, networking and storage. Developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, this new feature automatically copies DL data into GPU local storage, freeing up infrastructure to serve additional workloads, such as ingest, labelling and archive. EXA6, with this new Hot Nodes capability, underscores DDN's commitment to end-to-end efficiency of data paths within compute, networking and storage, and raises the bar for AI system performance at any scale. DDN Insight 4.0 Provides Deeper Visibility

DDN Insight 4.0 monitors the spectrum of IO resources and workloads, bringing customers profound visibility and granular control of the entire data path to reduce time to discovery. Insight 4.0 presents an even deeper view into systems and operations with a range of data intelligence, including individual jobs, IO metrics, workload analysis, and GPU usage to comprehensive job views and lightweight profiling. Insight 4.0 allows administrators to resolve workload and infrastructure problems quickly and ultimately improve service levels. IntelliFlash Completes DDN's End-to-End Solution Capability

IntelliFlash systems from DDN and Tintri combine the performance and attractive economics for full-service Intelligent Infrastructure that autonomously optimizes SSD-to-HDD ratios and delivers scalable performance. A variety of time-saving management features provide outstanding support for enterprise applications, and consolidates workloads with concurrent multiprotocol support for block, file and object storage, and VMs on a single system. Complementary to A3I solutions, IntelliFlash systems satisfy a new range of use cases, delivering consistent, low latency and market leading IOPS performance. IntelliFlash simplifies operations with one secure and intelligent approach, plus comprehensive storage management. Global monitoring and cloud-based analytics maximize uptime and efficiency on systems worldwide. Hyper flexible to meet changing business needs, IntelliFlash adapts and provides an agile storage structure that allows customers to take advantage of all-flash or hybrid flash systems. "By expanding our IntelliFlash portfolio, DDN can be the one-stop supplier of storage and data management solutions for AI at any scale," said Dr. James Coomer, senior VP of products, DDN. "As customers scale-up their AI applications, we are able to accelerate all stages of the AI development cycle." NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD Single SKU Delivers Performance Without Compromise

DDN's solutions are integrated into NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, which offer the fastest path to scalable enterprise AI infrastructure. The combined solution was designed and deployed in production to solve some of the most challenging AI and HPC workloads, and enables the rapid implementation of a supercomputing infrastructure. In partnership with Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 110 value-added distributor, the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD single SKU will be available for certified resellers. Not only does the single SKU provide the accelerated compute hardware consisting of 20 NVIDIA DGX A100 systems, it also includes the NVIDIA InfiniBand networking infrastructure, all-flash storage systems and support in one integrated bundle. "As the leader in Intelligent Infrastructure solutions, we are delighted to be building on our successful channel partnerships," said Peggy Maloney, director, Channel Programs and Marketing for DDN and Tintri. "Our new and expanded channel portfolio will bring DDN's differentiated solutions to power the success of enterprise customers." Find out More at DDN's Data, AI and Analytics Summit

On July 1, 2021 DDN is holding its virtual Data, AI and Analytics Summit where customers, like NVIDIA, will share how they have deployed DDN's Intelligent Infrastructure to accelerate workloads. DDN will also speak about its vision for breakthrough data architectures that deliver secure multi-cloud data mobility and performance to even the most challenging applications. The Summit is open to customers and non-customers - register here to attend . DDN also has a presence at the virtual ISC conference. Click here for more information. Availability

EXAScaler 6 and Insight 4.0 are targeted for release in Q3 2021. The expanded range of IntelliFlash systems are available directly from DDN and through certified partners. The NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD single SKU is now available for DDN and NVIDIA certified partners and their customers. Supporting Resources More on DDN EXA6 Solutions

More on DDN Insight 4.0

More on IntelliFlash Systems

More on the Single SKU and DDN's PartnerLink program

program More on DDN's Global Solution Partners

More on DDN's Partner Ecosystem About DDN

DDN is the world's largest private data storage company and the leading provider of intelligent technology and infrastructure solutions for Enterprise At Scale, AI and analytics, HPC, government and academia customers. Through its DDN and Tintri divisions the company delivers AI, Data Management software and hardware solutions, and unified analytics frameworks to solve complex business challenges for data-intensive, global organizations. DDN provides its enterprise customers with the most flexible, efficient and reliable data storage solutions for on-premises and multi-cloud environments at any scale. Over the last two decades, DDN has established itself as the data management provider of choice for over 11,000 enterprises, government, and public-sector customers, including many of the world's leading financial services firms, life science organizations, manufacturing and energy companies, research facilities, and web and cloud service providers.







1 Based on a typical HPC procurement, which would include chassis, memory, motherboards, CPUs, compute disks, operating systems, multiple types of AI software, NICs, cables, switches, storage software, storage chassis, storage disks, GPUs, racks, and rack hardware adds up to over 200 SKUs.

Contact:

Press Relations at DDN

pr@ddn.com Walt & Company, on behalf of DDN

Sharon Sumrit, 408.369.7200 x2981

ddn@walt.com 2021 All rights reserved. DDN, Tintri, A3I, and EXAScaler are registered trademarks, IntelliFlash is a trademark owned by DataDirect Networks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ddn-boosts-ai-storage-leadership-with-exascaler-6-and-expanded-portfolio-for-enterprise-intelligent-infrastructure-301323823.html SOURCE DataDirect Networks (DDN)

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[June 30, 2021] Torrid Holdings Inc. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

Torrid Holdings Inc. ("Torrid" or the "Company") today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 11.0 million shares of its common stock to be sold by certain of Torrid's existing shareholders at a price of $21.00 per share. In addition, the selling shareholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 1.65 million shares of common stock from such selling shareholders at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount and commissions. Torrid will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling shareholders. The shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") on July 1, 2021, under the ticker symbol "CURV". The offering is expected to close on July 6, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Jefferies LLC are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the offering. Baird, Cowen and William Blair are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Telsey Advisory Group LLC is acting as a co-manager for the offering. The initial public offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014

BofA Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Steet, 3rd floor, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28255-0001, or by email at dg.prospectus_requests@bofa.com

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, or by email at prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com

Jefferies LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at (877) 821-7388 or by email at prospectus_department@jefferies.com



About TORRID

TORRID is a direct-to-consumer brand of apparel, intimates and accessories in North America targeting the 25- to 40-year old woman who is curvy and wears sizes 10 to 30. TORRID is focused on fit and offers high quality products across a broad assortment that includes tops, bottoms, denim, dresses, intimates, activewear, footwear and accessories. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward looking statements, including statements regarding the initial public offering. These statements are not historical facts but rather are based on Torrid's current expectations and projections regarding its business, operations and other factors relating thereto. Words such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "anticipate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward looking statements. These statements are only predictions and as such are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those in Torrid's registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630006057/en/

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[June 30, 2021] O2 to sell Spacetalk devices in the UK

Highlights Telefonica UK Limited ("O2") to range Spacetalk Adventurer

Target launch in Q1 FY22 [1] ( 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021 )

Adventurer will mark O2's first entry into the category of kids smartphone watches, with O2 supporting the launch of Spacetalk across all of its consumer channels

Adventurer will range in all O2 branded stores across the UK and online

Adventurer will be available on O2's custom plans, giving customers the flexibility to choose how much they pay upfront and the length of their Device Plan

O2 represents a significant new distribution channel for Spacetalk, which will benefit from its customer reach and for the first time having a significant bricks-and-mortar retail presence throughout the UK SYDNEY, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Spacetalk Ltd. (ASX:SPA) ("Spacetalk" or "Company"), developer of innovative technologies that keep families safe and connected, is pleased to announce that Telefonica UK Limited ("O2") will range Spacetalk Adventurer across its UK retail stores and online channels. O2 has entered into a commercial arrangement with Spacetalk's UK distributor whereby Spacetalk will supply O2 inventory through the distributor. O2 is the principal commercial brand of Telefonica UK Limited, part of the global telecommunications group Telefonica S.A, headquartered in Spain and operating in Europe, and North, Central and South America. O2 is the UK's largest network with more than 36 million connections, providing 3G, 4G and 5G services while operating a nationwide O2 Wifi service. Commenting on why Spacetalk was chosen, O2 Head of Devices and Financing Products Thomas Chant said: "We have a proud track record of identifying and supporting business partners with innovative solutions which align with our values and bring practical benefits to our customers. Our relationship with Spacetalk was seeded from a recognition of the fast-growing market of smartphone watches for kids safety and family connectivity. We pride ourselves on being champions of coverage and reliability, and this is especially relevant as it relates to child safety. Spacetalk's Adventurer smartphone watch for kids stands out as the most credible and reliable device to range as part of our commitment to providing safety, confidence and connected engagement for children and their families." Target launch is in Q1 FY22, with the Adventurer smartphone watch for kids to range in all O2 branded stores across the UK and online. Adventurer will mark O2's first entry into the category of kids smartphone watches, with O2 supporting the launch of Spacetalk across all of its consumer channels. Adventurer will be available on O2's custom plans which give customers the ability to choose how much they want to pay upfront and the length of their Device Plan, selecting between three and up to 36 months (in one-month increments). Spacetalk CEO Mark Fortunatow said: "We are extremely excited that O2 has partnered with Spacetalk to grow and penetrate the category of kids smartphone watches in the UK. The partnership recognises Spacetalk's expertise and brand equity in the category, and our shared history and passion about child safety and family connectivity. In addition to bringing the practical benefits of Spacetalk devices to O2, Spacetalk will benefit from O2's customer reach and for the first time having a significant bricks-and-mortar retail presence throughout the UK - critical to effectively marketing and growing the category, and building consumer awareness of Spacetalk products. We believe Spacetalk's partnership with O2 is the start of an exciting journey to build a very successful business together, and for our Company to access the global market opportunity, in what is a fast-growing and large yet relatively new and niche market of kids smartphone wearables." The financial impact of selling through O2 is currently unknown, with no guaranteed or minimum level of revenue, however, the Company expects it to have a direct positive impact on the total revenue of the Company and be reflected in the disclosure thereof. This announcement has been authorised by Spacetalk CEO Mark Fortunatow. For more information, please contact:







Vivek Miranda

Investor Relations and Corporate Development

VMiranda@spacetalkwatch.com

M: +61 401 462 712



About Spacetalk Ltd. Spacetalk Ltd. (ASX: SPA) is a global technology provider of secure communication solutions for families to stay connected and protected. Spacetalk's range of all-in-one smartphone GPS watches for children (Spacetalk Kids and Spacetalk Adventurer) and seniors (Spacetalk Life) are purpose built with tailored features, design qualities and best practice data encryption, security and privacy technologies, for families to stay confidently connected. Fun, fashionable, secure and technologically advanced, Spacetalk devices deliver confidence for the child and senior wearer, enhanced controls for the guardian, and engaging functionalities for the whole family to stay connected. The Spacetalk App is designed to provide a family environment for fun, engaging and secure media consumption beyond its device control functionalities for the guardian. Every linked contact - parents, grandparents, extended family members and friends - regardless of whether they are Android or iOS users, can interact with linked Spacetalk devices and each other through the Spacetalk App. Spacetalk was founded in 2001 and listed on the ASX in 2003 as MGM Wireless Limited, which developed the world's first SMS student absence notification platform for schools and went on to become Australia's most successful school messaging company. On 12 November 2020 the Company changed its name to Spacetalk Ltd. To learn more about the Spacetalk devices and app platform, and the Company, please visit: https://www.spacetalkwatch.com/. Investor Centre: https://investors.spacetalkwatch.com/. About O2 O2 is the principal commercial brand of Telefonica UK Limited, part of the global telecommunications group Telefonica S.A, headquartered in Spain and operating in Europe, and North, Central and South America. O2 is the UK's largest network with more than 36 million connections, providing 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G services while operating a nationwide O2 Wifi service. O2's coverage and reliability are industry recognised, with GWS ranking O2 as the most reliable UK network, three years in a row (2021, 2020, 2019). For four consecutive years O2 has won Best Network Coverage provider at the publicly voted Uswitch Awards (2021, 2020, 2018, 2019). It also won Best Network Performance at the Mobile News Awards in both 2020 and 2019. The Company is the network of choice for mobile virtual network operators giffgaff, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile and manages a 50:50 joint venture with Tesco for Tesco Mobile. O2 has led the industry with its commitment to Customer Fairness. Since 2013 O2 Refresh has split airtime and device costs so customers never pay for a handset they already own, and the evolution of customisable plans gives customers true flexibility over how they pay for their mobile phone. From exclusive Priority Tickets which provide customers with pre-sale tickets for The O2 and O2 Academy venues, 48 hours before everyone else, to England Rugby matches - who O2 have proudly been sponsors of since 1995. O2 strives to do the right thing as a business and for its customers. It has committed to becoming net zero by 2025 and to working with supply chain partners to reduce carbon emissions by 30% in the next five years. The O2 Recycle scheme encourages customers to dispose of old devices responsibly and was named Best Recycle Service at the Mobile Industry Awards. In 2019 O2 was one of only three companies globally to be recertified at the highest level by the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing supply chain emissions. Telefonica UK Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registration number: 1743099. Its registered office is at: 260 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 4DX, United Kingdom.

[1] Q1 FY22 = 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021. SOURCE Spacetalk Ltd.

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[June 30, 2021] The Long March, Faith and People Power

BEIJING, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on CPC centenary: Why The Red Star Shines Over China? The army led by the CPC was finally forced to carry out a strategic transfer, known as the "Long March."It was later proved that the arduous Long March revived the army. During the Long March, the CPC's army fought all the way, and finally broke through encirclement by Chiang's troops. Marxist philosophy holds that the future is bright while the road ahead is tortuous. This also applies to the Communist Party of China (CPC) which believes in Marxism. In 1933, Chiang Kai-shek, the then rival of the CPC, mobilized 1 million troops, acted as the commander-in-chief himself, and hired a large number of German military experts as consultants to draw up war plans. He also purchased large quantities of arms with huge loans from the United States and Britain, greatly improving the equipment performance of his troops. All this was supposed to fight against the then only 12-year-old CPC. At that time, Mao Zedong lost his leadership and command of the army. The actual leader Bogu, also known as Qin Bangxian, relied heavily on Li De (Otto Braun), the military adviser from the Communist International. However, Li was a foreign revolutionary. He did not know the actual conditions in China at all, but only borrowed the regular warfare experience from the Soviet Red Army, which led to the defeat of the war. The army led by the CPC was finally forced to carry out a strategic transfer, known as the "Long March." It was later proved that the arduous Long March revived the army.During the Long March, the CPC's army fought all the way, and finally broke through encirclement by Chiang's troops. The ragged and hard-hit Red Army fought bitterly at the Xiangjiang River, made four crossings of theChishui River, fought their way across the Dadu River, and seized the Luding Bridge. The army climbed over snow-capped mountains, trekked across vast grasslands, and finally joined forces to defeat the enemy and establish new China.



In the early 1960s, American journalist Edgar Snow asked Mao Zedong, "What's the darkest moment in your life?" Mao replied that it was the conflict between him and Zhang Guotao in 1935 during the Long March.

At that time, after the First and Fourth Front Armies joined forces, Zhang refused to implement the Central Committee's policy of marching north, insisted on going south, and tried to split the Party and the Red Army. To see a big picture and to resolve the adversity of the Red Army as soon as possible, Mao Zedong had to lead the central authority and the Third Front Army up the north overnight. When Li Te,the deputy chief of the Fourth Front Army who was worked up, came together with a team of fully armed cavalry, Mao Zedong showed a very calm expression and said that they could go south and that he believed they would meet again in the future. "We are all from the Red Army, and from the Communist Party of China. We're a big family, and will never fight against each other! Now anyone who'd like to go north could follow the CPC Central Committee, and the rest could go back with Zhang Guotao. We'll meet again in the future." Mao Zedong said,"With no precedent in recorded history, the Long March issued a manifesto, spread a message, and planted a seed." As the opposing forces of good and evil clashed, and a choice had to be made between light and dark, the CPC rooted itself deep among the people, uniting them and relying on them. With its own exemplary actions, the CPC won the genuine support of the people, who became an endless fountain of strength for the victory of the Long March. During the Long March, the CPC also promoted the formation of the anti-Japanese national united front. The Chinese people deeply realized that the CPC worked for the people's benefits and the Red Army was the people's army. The victory of the Long March justified what the CPC stands for, sowed the seeds of revolution, expanded the influence of the Party and brought the CPC more closely connected with its people. The "Long March" has become a spiritual symbol of the CPC.Hence comes the "Long March spirit." What is the "Long March spirit" then? In October 2016, at a gathering to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, interpreted the "Long March spirit" as"regarding the fundamental interests of the people and nation above anything else,upholding revolutionary ideals and beliefs, and firmly believing that the cause of justice is bound to succeed; being willing to sacrifice everything for our nation and people when facing difficulties and obstacles;pursuing independence, seeking truth from facts and proceeding from reality; taking the overall situation into consideration, strictly observing discipline and uniting closely; relying firmly on the people, sharing weal and woe with the people, and struggling hard alongside the people." Looking back on the Long March, we can clearly see that it is not only a great expedition of human spirit and willpower, but also a great journey for the Chinese people to seek the rejuvenation of their nation under the leadership of the CPC. Following the past footprints, each Chinese generation has its own long march, and each generation should proceed with its own long march. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-long-march-faith-and-people-power-301323840.html SOURCE China.org.cn

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[July 01, 2021] Bambuser Partners with Digital Agency oddity to Elevate Live Video Shopping Across the DACH Region

STOCKHOLM, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bambuser and oddity group, the German-based creative and digital marketing agency, today announced a partnership that will bring Live Video Shopping to more brands and retailers in the DACH region. The partnership will combine the technical expertise of Bambuser, recent winner of the LVMH Innovation Award, with oddity's deep insights into strategies for driving success across the entire customer journey. The teams within the oddity group that specialize in consumer and channel marketing will play a key role in activating the partnership. The deal is expected to accelerate adoption of Bambuser's One-to-Many and One-to-One Live Video Shopping solutions in the DACH market, with oddity actively increasing awareness of the platform and its growing list of capabilities. Among the most recent feature additions is social multistreaming, which enables live video shopping events on Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms. As a result of the partnership, oddity, whose clients include Bosch, Disney, ROLF BENZ, dm-drogerie markt, OTTO, Bonprix, and BABOR, will help more organizations incorporate livestream shopping into their e-commerce strategy. With knowledge garnered from its presence in Asia, the agency will provide end-to-end expertise at every stage of clients' video projects, from ideation to technical set-up and on-site support as well as with post-show data analysis and marketing. Eva Reitenbach, Managing Director oddity, said: "With all the experience which we have already gathered with our teams and clients in Asia over the last several years, we're poised to drive live video shopping in the European market as well. To this end we're thrilled to have partnered up with Bambuser, the leading live video shopping software provider in Europe. In fact, we've already kicked off our first projects together." Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of Bambuser, said: "With their innovative approach to combining communication and commerce to drive impact, oddity is exactly the type of partner that will bring the power of Bambuser's technology to more brands and retailers in the DACH market. We are excited to combine our world-class technology with oddity's expertise, creativity and impressive client base and look forward to bringing compelling interactive shopping experiences to more forward thinking, innovative retailers and brands in the DACH region." About Bambuser:



Bambuser is a software company specializing in interactive live video streaming. The Company's primary product, Live Video Shopping, is a cloud-based software solution that is used by customers such as global e-commerce and retail businesses to host live shopping experiences on websites, mobile apps and social media. Bambuser was founded in 2007 and has its headquarters in Stockholm. About oddity:



A friend called future. We are an agency for digital communication and commerce. Our 250 experts in Stuttgart, Belgrade, Berlin, Belgrade, Cologne, Shanghai and Taipei find new answers to changing needs in an increasingly digitalized world. In co-creation with our clients, we design digital brand worlds that emotionalize brands and deliver the impetus to buy. Among our clients are Bosch, Daimler, Disney, dm-drogerie markt, Krombacher, OTTO-Gruppe, Porsche, Ritter-Sport und TRUMPF. Contact:

Corporate Communications, Bambuser AB | +46 8 400 160 00 | press@bambuser.com Certified Adviser

Erik Penser Bank AB | +46 8 463 83 00 | certifiedadviser@penser.se This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/bambuser/r/bambuser-partners-with-digital-agency-oddity-to-elevate-live-video-shopping-across-the-dach-region,c3377625 The following files are available for download:







https://mb.cision.com/Main/15749/3377625/1439230.pdf Release https://news.cision.com/bambuser/i/maryam-ghahremani---eva-reitenbach,c2931970 Maryam Ghahremani & Eva Reitenbach https://news.cision.com/bambuser/i/eva-reitenbach,c2931971 Eva Reitenbach https://news.cision.com/bambuser/i/maryam-ghahremani,c2931972 Maryam Ghahremani

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bambuser-partners-with-digital-agency-oddity-to-elevate-live-video-shopping-across-the-dach-region-301324050.html SOURCE Bambuser

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[July 01, 2021] Adesso Launches Gyration Security Solutions

Adesso Inc., a leading manufacturer and supplier of computer peripherals to schools, corporate entities, and the government, announces the launch of Gyration security solutions. All Gyration products are compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), allowing the cameras to be installed on federal properties or properties of federally funded entities. Select models are made in Taiwan and compliant with the Trade Agreement Act (TAA), therefore available for U.S. federal government purchase. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005199/en/ Adesso launches Gyration security-based solutions - cameras and network video recorders. (Graphi: Business Wire)



The Gyration product line will initially include bullet, dome, and turret-style cameras, ranging from 2MP, 4MP, and 8MP, as well as 4, 8, 16, and 32-port network video recorders (NVRs). The Gyration products come with a free monitoring app for smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. Gyration will introduce, in the near future, a Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) that will provide an interface between edge computing and the cloud access to your security system.

"We are excited to announce the rebranding of Gyration to provide professional security solutions," said Allen Ku, president of Adesso. "Gyration security solutions is a natural outgrowth of Adesso's experience designing cutting-edge webcams and document cameras, and Gyration's experience with user-interface devices. Gyration's CyberView products are the first new products since we acquired the brand and introduces Adesso to the security industry." Gyration security cameras are designed for indoor or outdoor applications. The cameras, from basic to intelligent models, come equipped with fixed or varifocal lens options to capture various viewing angles based on surveillance needs. Intelligent camera models come with smart perimeter protection, including crossline, intrusion, enter/exit area; as well as face capture. Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) technology allows the cameras to capture crisp and clear images in most lighting environments. Each camera also has a built-in Micro SD slot for edge storage. Gyration NVRs offer high-quality recording for your surveillance needs, providing 4K resolution; Ultra 265/H.265/H.264 compression; simultaneous HDMI and VGA output; and supporting Gyration's VSaaS. "With Adesso's understanding of video cameras, video surveillance is a logical extension to its existing production lines," said Oliver Zhang, vice president of sales and marketing for Gyration. "As the surveillance market heads toward cloud technology and artificial intelligence, we see a much greater need for secure video surveillance. Being a long-time supplier to the government sector, Adesso's familiarity with federal regulations and its experience in product design and supply chain management will help alleviate these concerns." Please visit www.gyration.com for more information. About Adesso:

Founded in 1994, Adesso has become a leading design manufacturer and supplier to schools, corporate entities and the government, for computer peripherals and mobile accessories, including webcams, document cameras, keyboards, mice, trackballs, headsets, docking stations, wireless chargers, graphic tablets, barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawer, and TAA compliant products. Adesso's products are available through distributors, such as Synnex, Ingram Micro, and D&H, and resellers including CDW, Mall, Zones, Connection, Insight, SHI, Staples (News - Alert) , and Office Depot. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005199/en/

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[July 01, 2021] India has improved its global position and is currently ranked at 48th in the Global Innovation Index, says Dr. Sujit Banerjee Director, DST

- Chandigarh University in association with Department of Science and technology launches first of its kind Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam International Innovation Conclave - Entrepreneurs serve as the catalysts in the process of industrialization and economic growth of a nation, says US Diplomat Michael Rosenthal CHANDIGARH, India, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "For any nation to emerge as a developed economy, it is important for that nation to focus on research and innovation which can help them in designing and developing new products that have global demand," said Michael Rosenthal, Director, US Embassy (North India). The US Diplomat was speaking during the curtain-raiser ceremony of International Innovation Conclave hosted by Chandigarh University. The first of its kind two-months long International Innovation Conclave has been named after the Missile Man of India and former President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam as a mark of respect for his contribution made in the field of Defense and Space Technology and is jointly organized by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, and Chandigarh University. Young and budding innovators from 32 countries including the USA, U.K, Italy, India, Australia would be participating in the Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam International Innovation Conclave during which they would be working onto find innovative & technology-driven solutions of problems in the field of Agriculture, Health, COVID-19, Waste Management, Water Management, Rural Development. While addressing the virtual audience, US Diplomat, Michael Rosenthal/span> said, "Entrepreneur plays a vital role in the economic development of the country. Entrepreneurs serve as the catalysts in the process of industrialization and economic growth. Government alone cannot create an Ecosystem to encourage entrepreneurship, but it is the society and environment which leads to the emergence of new entrepreneurs in the country who can uplift the economy by investing their time and efforts in innovative ideas rather than choosing contemporary jobs in the industry." He further added, " The bilateral trade between India and USA has scaled to new heights and touched $ 149 billion in 2019. India is one of the Top Trading partner of USA and this has been possible only because of entrepreneurs from both the countries who have developed new products & technologies which have generated demand over a period of time."



Dr. Sujit Banerjee, Director, Department of Science & Technology(DST), said, "Government of India is working with a mission to encourage the spirit of innovation in the country amongst the youth and for this purpose, DST has joined hands with Universities like Chandigarh University which is a breeding ground for the next generation of entrepreneurs. The innovation lead policy adopted by the Government of India has started showing results as India for the first time has been placed amongst the top 50 innovative countries in the Global Innovation Index 2020." India is currently ranked 48th with a jump of four positions in the Global Innovation Index. While keeping the perspective of industry, Mukesh Jain, CTIO & Vice President Insight & Data, Capgemini India, said, "Innovation starts with an idea, which should be further encouraged to take shape of futuristic technology to become beneficial for society. Young entrepreneurs are often discouraged by seeing the failures of other entrepreneurs and we have to remove this fear of failure from their mind so that they are not afraid of taking risks."

Mohit Gambhir Innovation Director, Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell, Govt. of India, said, "Government has constituted an idea of Innovation cell which is working with universities and colleges all over India to develop traits of entrepreneurship among youth. Currently, the Innovation cell managed by the Ministry of Education has established Innovation Council in more than 2500 Colleges and Universities." While giving details about the Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam International Innovation Conclave, Dr Sanjeet, Dean Chandigarh University, said, "Research Scholars including student and faculty from all over the world can submit their ideas online based on the themes by 5th August 2021. The initial screening and feasibility of the ideas would be completed by the experts from the industry by 25th August 2021 after which the selected students would present their final pathway to develop their ideas into real-time solutions on 3rd and 4th September 2021. Total prize money of 1.67 lakh would be given to the winners of the conclave." Speaking on the occasion Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor Chandigarh University, said, "Chandigarh University is amongst the pioneer Higher Education institution of India which are richly contributing in the field of research and innovation. Recently, the University has been ranked first in India amongst the stand-alone Institution by the Office of Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademarks Government Of India for filing the highest number of patents (336) in a year. The University has earmarked an annual budget of Rs 5 Crore to encourage budding research scholars". About Chandigarh University Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade University and an autonomous educational institution approved by UGC and is located near Chandigarh in the state of Punjab. It is the youngest university in India and the only private university in Punjab to be honoured with A+ Grade by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). CU offers more than 109 UG and PG programs in the field of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, journalism, animation, hotel management, commerce and others. It has been awarded as The University with Best Placements by WCRC. Website: https://www.cuchd.in/ Photo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1555962/Dr_APJ_ABdul_Kalam_International_Innovation_Conclave.jpg

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[July 01, 2021] Articulate Raises $1.5 Billion in Series a Round Led by General Atlantic, With Participation From Blackstone Growth and ICONIQ Growth

Articulate Global, LLC, a market-leading SaaS (News - Alert) provider of online training tools and e-learning authoring apps for the new world of work, today announced a $1.5 billion Series A funding round led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, and joined by funds managed by Blackstone Growth (BXG) and ICONIQ Growth. Bootstrapped by founder and CEO Adam Schwartz in 2002, today's fundraise is Articulate's first source of institutional capital, and the company is now valued at $3.75 billion in one of the largest Series A rounds ever. With these new partnerships, Articulate will aim to further accelerate its growth and scale internationally. Articulate's easy-to-use software, vibrant community, and interactive content make it easy for organizations to develop, deliver, and analyze online training that is both engaging and effective. The company serves both enterprise companies and small-to-medium sized businesses through two offerings. First, Articulate 360 is a suite of online course development apps and resources for enterprises with learning management systems (LMSs), named 2021's seventh most loved product in the world by TrustRadius. In 2020, the company also launched Rise.com, an all-in-one online training system, a first of its kind for SMBs and departments in the enterprise. In total, Articulate has more than 106,000 customers spanning 161 countries and counts all 100 of the Fortune 100 companies as customers. These customers - including CVS, L'Oreal, and Nestle, among others - have collectively created millions of training courses using Articulate software. "We're partnering with the growth equity firms we're convinced will help us have an even greater impact in the world," said Schwartz. "Companies face a whole host of challenges training employees in remote and hybrid work environments and reskilling their workforces post-COVID. They're also under increasing pressure to build learning cultures that treat employees as whole humans, democratize learning creation and consumption, and reduce turnover through enhanced engagement. With these growth equity partners at our side, Articulate is well positioned to be the one-stop shop for organizations transitioning from instructor-led training to the online training that is so critical in the new world of work." Named one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces 2020 and a leader in building a human-centered organization, Articulate is guided by a commitment to provide the best value to customers and do right by employees. The company is deeply focused on sustaining a workplace where eeryone feels empowered, valued, and safe to be their whole selves at work.



"We strategically selected General Atlantic, Blackstone, and ICONIQ Growth as investors for their combined strengths, including deep operational expertise, proven experience growing cloud-based SaaS companies, and an extensive network of resources to help us scale rapidly," said Lucy Suros, President of Articulate. "Moreover, all three partners support our passionate commitment to building a human-centered organization." "It's rare that a company achieves the level of success Articulate has without any prior institutional backing," said Anton Levy, Co-President and Global Head of Technology Investing at General Atlantic. "On key measures including industry leadership, transformative technology, customer NPS, employee happiness, and sustained growth, Articulate has established itself as a leader and innovator. Drawing from a longstanding history of backing mission-driven entrepreneurs, we are thrilled to partner with the Articulate leadership team to extend and accelerate the transformative impact they've already had in the world."

Jon Korngold, Global Head of Blackstone Growth, said, "Articulate is a clear leader in the fast-growing online learning industry with world-class technology solutions. We look forward to partnering with the company's management, General Atlantic, and ICONIQ to extend Articulate's market leadership position." Will Griffith, Founding Partner of ICONIQ Growth, said, "Workplace learning has been a core theme only accentuated by the pandemic, and we are proud that Articulate directly addresses this challenge for employees around the world." LionTree served as exclusive financial advisor to Articulate and will invest alongside the other investors, bringing its global strategic relationships to Articulate as the company continues to accelerate growth. About Articulate Articulate is a leading, fully remote software company that is redefining and transforming the way the world learns. More than 112 million learners in 161 countries have learned new skills, gained new insight, and received career-boosting training made possible by Articulate apps. More than 106,000 organizations worldwide, including all of the Fortune 100, have created millions of courses using Articulate's online training apps. In February 2020, the company launched Rise.com, an all-in-one system that makes online training easy to create, enjoyable to take, and simple to manage. Articulate's E-Learning Heroes Community has more than 980,000 members and is the largest and fastest-growing community in the training industry. About General Atlantic General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 400 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $53 billion in assets under management and more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto (News - Alert) , Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com. About Blackstone Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $649 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. About ICONIQ Growth ICONIQ Growth partners with exceptional entrepreneurs and leaders who drive global impact and change. We are inspired by visionaries defining the future of their industries by building company cultures that endure. Our unique investment platform harnesses the power of ICONIQ Capital's vibrant ecosystem of founders, pioneers, and business leaders with the goal of delivering tangible value and amplifying our portfolio companies' success from early growth stage to IPO and beyond. ICONIQ Growth's portfolio of innovators includes Adyen, AirBnB, Alibaba, Alteryx, Automattic, BambooHR, Braze, Chime, Collibra, Coupa, Datadog, Docusign, Gitlab, Marqeta, Miro, Procore, Red Ventures, Relativity, ServiceTitan, Snowflake, Sprinklr, Truckstop, Uber, Wolt, and Zoom, among others. For more information and a complete list of portfolio companies, please visit ICONIQGrowth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005246/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Gett Announces the Return of Matteo de Renzi as Managing Director, Ground Transportation Management Platform

Gett, the leading corporate Ground Transportation Management (GTM) platform and B2B marketplace, today announced that Matteo de Renzi has re-joined Gett as Managing Director of GTM platform. De Renzi re-joins Gett following success in his previous role leading Gett's business in Western Europe. He left the business at the end of 2019 to become CEO of bp pulse - one of the world's largest providers of charging solutions for electric vehicles. He returns to Gett to develop the GTM platform strategy as the business expands its marketplace of global partner fleets for enterprise clients. Gett first launched its on-demand corporate travel services in 2010, and in De Renzi's three years leading the business in Western Europe he oversaw significant expansion. De Renzi's previous experience includes a variety of roles at Pirelli Tyres, McKinsey & Company (News - Alert) and Goldman Sachs. Dave Waiser, CEO and co-founder of Gett, said, "I'm thrilled to welcome Matteo back to Gett to further strengthen our global corporate GTM platform after leading our business for several years in Western Europe. We see that employers are increasingly focused on providing seamlss ground transportation experiences for their employees while minimizing spend. As the GTM category leader, we remain committed to offering a robust B2B marketplace that seeks to curate ground transportation globally, optimize costs for corporations and enhance the employee experience."



During the first quarter of this year, Gett saw B2B passenger volumes returning to 80% of Q1 2020 levels and management expects passenger numbers to continue to rise into the summer. Gett has now surpassed 1,000 connected fleets with notable fleet partners including Lyft, Ola, Curb, Green Tomato, Excel, Carey, Careem and Cabify, among many others. The milestone coincides with an increase in global business travel, following the easing of lockdown restrictions and the recent progress achieved in Covid-19 vaccination programs. With the momentum of Gett's transition to an enterprise marketplace software platform, the company is focused on expanding partner fleet options for its enterprise clients. About Gett

Gett is a technology platform focused on corporate Ground Transportation Management (GTM) in a market worth $100B globally. Gett is the GTM category leader and serves more than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies. Gett's cloud-based software aggregates existing transportation providers onto a single platform, and helps businesses manage all their ground transportation spend. Additionally, Gett expands companies' coverage by connecting them to a grid of transportation providers globally. Gett organizes corporate fleet, ride-hailing, taxi and limo providers on one platform, and optimizes the entire employee experience, from booking and riding to invoicing and analytics, to save businesses time and money. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in London, Gett has raised more than $750M in funding to date, including more than $300M from the Volkswagen Group. ENDS View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005396/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Instructure to Acquire EesySoft to Help Educators and Students Improve Adoption of Educational Technology

SALT LAKE CITY, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Instructure today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire EesySoft , the technology adoption vendor that empowers educators and students to more effectively use edtech products like Canvas . Through this acquisition, Instructure will rebrand EesySoft as " Impact by Instructure ," with solutions designed to help institutions improve adoption of education technologies, seamlessly navigate new platforms, and evaluate the impact they have on student engagement and outcomes. Instructure acquires EesySoft and launches "Impact by Instructure" to help educators and students better adopt edtech



"As we transition into a post-pandemic era, districts and schools are under increased pressure to measure the ROI and positive impact of their technology investments," said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. "We believe hybrid learning is here to stay, and whether it's Instructure tools or other industry education technologies, Impact by Instructure is designed to help all education technology solutions demonstrate their usefulness in school communities." Based in Amsterdam, EesySoft is a 40-person company and a long-time Instructure partner that was founded in 2010 by CEO Michel Visser and CTO Jan Henrick Ejme. As the EesySoft technology becomes Impact, it will be a vital part of the Instructure Learning Platform, driving adoption and engagement.

"We have grown very fast as a company in the past couple of years and want to ensure further growth, innovation and expansion of the solutions that we offer," said Michel Visser, CEO and co-founder of EesySoft. "Instructure is a perfect match and at the right time for us so that we can further help accelerate and improve teaching and learning around the world." Impact provides a guided user experience for education technology platforms like Canvas LMS, thereby improving teaching and enhancing the student's online learning experience. Insightful dashboards and dynamic reporting provide a birdseye view of how well students and educators are engaging with available tools. Customized in-app messaging provides key insights about optimal platform use, while in-context support helps educators and students in the moment of need, empowering them to focus more on teaching and learning, and less on traversing new technologies. Impact also helps instructional support staff foster effective teaching with technology and provides in-depth support within Canvas based on the context and role of students and educators. This means not only providing support articles from Canvas, but also the option for institutions to either add their own or integrate 3rd party assets. And when users need to escalate support requests, the dynamic routing helps to decrease time to resolution. ABOUT INSTRUCTURE

Instructure is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform supports more than 30 million educators and learners around the world. Learn more at www.instructure.com . CONTACT:

Maggie Quale

Corporate Communications

Instructure

831.325.7943

maggie.quale@instructure.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/instructure-to-acquire-eesysoft-to-help-educators-and-students-improve-adoption-of-educational-technology-301323990.html SOURCE Instructure Canvas

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[July 01, 2021] WhiteHat Security Announces Name Change to NTT Application Security

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WhiteHat Security, a world leader in application security, announced today it has formally changed its name to NTT Application Security. The new name will not affect any change in ownership of the organization and provides a closer identity with the parent company of which it remains a wholly-owned, independent subsidiary. NTT Application Security will continue to be powered by WhiteHat's award-winning cloud-based application security platform. The name change is the next step in progression following the acquisition of WhiteHat Security by NTT Security Corporation in July 2019. The move reinforces the two security-focused companies' intention to communicate a unified strategy for serving its global customers, partners and prospects with the most innovative cybersecurity solutions in the market. "While our name has changed, our mission has not; we are still laser-focused on solving the fundamental problem of the cyber threat landscapefinding and remediating vulnerabilities in web applications," said Craig Hinkley, chief executive officer at NTT Application Security. "This is an exciting time for the company, and we look forward to continuing to serve our impressive roster of world-class clients that have trusted WhiteHat to secure their businesses for nearly 20 years." Alongside the name change, NTT Application Security will play a critical role in NTT's integrated platform strategy and continue to bolster the organization's enterprise application security capabilities. "Over the course of nearly two decades, WhiteHat Security hs earned its reputation as an industry pioneer and a trusted advisor for Fortune 500 clients who are at the forefront of today's digital revolution," said Kazu Yozawa, chief executive officer at NTT Security. "Now, as NTT Application Security, the company is better positioned to leverage NTT's global brand recognition to help accelerate its mission of driving the future of application security."



NTT Application Security will debut its new brand to industry professionals, prospects and media at Black Hat USA 2021, scheduled to take place in Las Vegas Aug. 4-5. Attendees interested in learning more can speak with the NTT Application Security team by visiting booth #2066. For more information about NTT Application Security, please visit whitehatsec.com.

About NTT Application Security

NTT Application Security is driving the future of application security. For nearly 20 years, organizations around the globe have relied on NTT Application Security to secure their business' digital footprint in an increasingly application-driven world. Bolstered by its award-winning, cloud-based application security testing platform, NTT Application Security delivers industry-leading accuracy by combining artificial and human intelligence to help security teams quickly identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities. Formerly WhiteHat Security, the company is an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Ltd. and is part of NTT's security services portfolio. NTT Application Security is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with regional offices in Houston and Belfast. For more information, visit www.whitehatsec.com. About NTT

NTT Ltd. is a leading global technology services company. Working with organizations around the world, we achieve business outcomes through intelligent technology solutions. For us, intelligent means data driven, connected, digital and secure. Our global assets and integrated ICT stack capabilities provide unique offerings in cloud-enabling networking, hybrid cloud, data centers, digital transformation, client experience, workplace and cybersecurity. As a global ICT provider, we employ more than 40,000 people in a diverse and dynamic workplace that spans 57 countries, trading in 73 countries and delivering services in over 200 countries and regions. Together we enable the connected future. Visit us at hello.global.ntt Media Contact

Chris MarshSenior Manager, Analyst Relations & Communications

NTT Application Security

chris.marsh@global.ntt Adriana Saldana

Lumina Communications for NTT Application Security

NTTAppSec@luminapr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/whitehat-security-announces-name-change-to-ntt-application-security-301324126.html SOURCE WhiteHat Security

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[July 01, 2021] Leidos Named to Forbes' List of America's Best Employers for Diversity

RESTON, Va., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, today announced it has been named to Forbes' list of America's Best Employers for Diversity 2021. The annual list ranks employers that host the most diverse boards and executive ranks, as well as the most proactive diversity and inclusion initiatives. "The challenges of 2020 reinforced our commitment to inclusion as one of our core values at Leidos," said Paul Engola, Leidos chief human resources officer and head of business partnerships. "The ongoing pursuit of respect, belonging and trust for all our employees, customers and communities remains a key part of our culture. This recognition by Forbes demonstrates not only the strong foundation we've built, but our never-ending dedication to advancing inclusion and diversity at Leidos." Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to survey 50,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees. The results were used to identify companies most dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. Leidos has taken significant steps to advance an inclusive workplace culture. Earlier this year, the company launched its inaugural Enterprise Inclusion Council to help identify and champion innovative actions that create a more inclusive work environment. The company also established development programs to increase inclusive leadership and enable personal and organizational accountability. Learn more about Leidos' commitment to inclusion and diversity by visiting the Inclusion & Diversity homepage. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, civil, and health markets. The company's 40,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $12.30 billion for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.













Contact: Melissa Duenas

(571) 526-6850

duenasml@leidos.com





Thomas Doheny

(571) 474-4735

dohenyt@leidos.com





Victor Melara

(703) 431-4612

victor.a.melara@leidos.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leidos-named-to-forbes-list-of-americas-best-employers-for-diversity-301323988.html SOURCE Leidos

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[July 01, 2021] Thesis Launches to Help Institutions Modernize and Thrive in Today's Higher Education Marketplace

LONDON, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thesis today announced the launch of its new SIS business, delivering modern student systems to meet growing demand from educational institutions. Formerly organized as a line of business of Unit4, a global leader in enterprise cloud software for people-centric organizations, Thesis is now a separate business dedicated to student system solutions in global higher education markets. Student systems in the higher education sector are dominated by "green screen" legacy solutions that have been ported to hosting models instead of reinvented to fully leverage advanced technology. These older methods don't meet the demand for modernization, which has grown to unprecedented levels over the past decade. There's now a need to fundamentally rethink how institutions execute core operations, including the use of automation to free faculty and staff from administrative work so they can concentrate on their core mission, which is delivering an exemplary experience to students seeking a wide variety of educational experiences. Among its solutions, including QLS, EMS, and CAMS Enterprise, Thesis delivers a transformatitive SaaS offering, named Thesis SM, that is already supporting trailblazing customers worldwide to transform their student system processes, including Manchester Metropolitan University, London Southbank University, Global Banking School, Algonquin College and Selkirk College. By establihing a dedicated entity operating under a new brand, Thesis is better able to focus on the needs of the higher education sector, scale to meet demand like a high-growth startup, and operate independently to deliver the necessary depth and complexity of global student system solutions. Thesis will continue to be owned by Advent International, a leading global private equity investor.



"Now more than ever, higher education institutions are looking for a partner who can help them drive organizational transformation through innovation, and Thesis has the educational focus, technical expertise and service standards that can effect change across the institution," said Gary Greenberg, General Manager of Thesis. "Colleges and universities that adapt quickly will thrive and grow in the years ahead. Thesis can help educational institutions meet immediate operational needs while achieving their vision for the future, and we look forward to working together to make it happen." Apart from a contractual change in the business entity that handles service delivery, the separation from Unit4 will be seamless for customers. The new company brings together SIS team members from across departments into a single business division that is purely focused on the design, delivery and support of SIS solutions. Unit4 and Thesis will continue to work together to deliver solutions integrated at the product level for customers who access SIS services from Thesis and enterprise resource planning (ERP), FP&A and HCM solutions from Unit4. Find out more at www.thesiscloud.com

Media Contact:

communications@thesiscloud.com About Thesis

Thesis provides student information management solutions for higher education institutions worldwide, focusing on the use of best-practice standards, automation, and process simplification to free faculty and staff from administrative work so they can concentrate on their core mission, which is delivering an exemplary experience to students seeking a wide variety of educational experiences. Thesis' SaaS offering, Thesis SM, delivers a modern software suite that breaks free of the constraints of legacy systems, giving higher education institutions the ability to scale and evolve to meet new marketplace realities with a purpose-built software-as-a-service solution. Visit www.thesiscloud.com to learn more. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thesis-launches-to-help-institutions-modernize-and-thrive-in-todays-higher-education-marketplace-301322416.html SOURCE Thesis

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[July 01, 2021] Revolo Biotherapeutics Announces the Appointments of Marla S. Persky and Glen Giovannetti to its Board of Directors

NEW ORLEANS and LONDON, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Revolo Biotherapeutics (Revolo Bio or the Company), a Company developing therapies that reset the immune system to achieve superior long-term remission for patients with autoimmune and allergic diseases, today announced the appointments of Marla S. Persky and Glen Giovannetti to its Board of Directors.

We are delighted to welcome industry veterans, Ms. Persky and Mr. Giovannetti, to our board of directors, said Jonathan Rigby, Group Chief Executive Officer of Revolo Biotherapeutics. Both have proven track records and bring a wealth of expertise in life sciences including corporate affairs, accounting, legal and regulatory experience. We look forward to leveraging their strategic guidance as we work to advance our portfolio in four upcoming phase 2 clinical trials designed to achieve our mission to revolutionize autoimmune and allergic disease treatment. Ms. Persky added, I am honored to join Revolos board. The Companys preclinical and clinical data are impressive, and I look forward to leveraging my strategic planning and legal affairs skills to help the Company during this period of rapid growth. Mr. Giovannetti said, Joining Revolos board is an honor. The Company is tackling an area of great unmet need with a novel approach. I am eager to apply my deep industry knowledge and board and financial governance experience to further guide overarching corporate strategy and operational plans. Marla S. Persky brings more than 25 years of international senior business and legal experience in the pharmaceutical industry to Revolos Board. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer and President of WOMN LLC. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Persky was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corprate Secretary for Boehringer Ingelheim Inc. Previously, Ms. Persky held numerous business and legal leadership positions at Baxter International Inc. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Xeris Pharmaceuticals, YGEIA Consulting Group, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Primary Stages, and World Neighbors. Ms. Persky earned her J.D. from Washington University School of Law and her B.S. in speech studies from Northwestern University.



Glen Giovannetti has more than 35 years of experience in strategy and operational leadership as well as in financial governance, risk and reporting. Mr. Giovannetti spent over three decades at EY where he focused on the biopharmaceutical industry, including serving as the firms Global Biotechnology Sector Leader and Life Sciences Sector Leader during the period from 2007 to 2016. In these roles he was responsible for developing the Companys global strategy to support life science industry clients. He has extensive experience assisting clients with strategic transactions, including initial public offerings, alliances and acquisitions. Mr. Giovannetti serves on the Board of Directors of Life Science Cares, Teon Therapeutics and XW Pharma. He earned his B.A. in accounting from Linfield College and is a CPA in Massachusetts. About Revolo Biotherapeutics

Revolo Biotherapeutics is developing therapies that reset the immune system to achieve superior long-term remission for patients with autoimmune and allergic disease, without the immune system suppression seen with current therapies. Its two drug candidates, 1805 and 1104, a protein and a peptide respectively, reset the immune system by preventing the chronic pro-inflammatory immune response that results in autoimmune or allergic disease. 1805 is a modified analogue of a key protein in immune function and is in clinical development for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis and non-infectious uveitis. 1104 is a peptide derived from a natural immune-regulatory protein and is entering clinical development for patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and allergic disease. The disease-agnostic mechanism of action of Revolo Biotherapeutics assets provides a potential platform for the development of treatments for multiple autoimmune and allergic diseases.

For further information, please visit www.revolobio.com. Company Contact

Marylyn Rigby, VP Investor Relations & Marketing

mrigby@revolobio.com Media Contact

Monica Rouco Molina, Ph.D.

LifeSci Communications

+1-929-469-3850

mroucomolina@lifescicomms.com





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[July 01, 2021] Learning Alliance Corporation Finalizes Transition to In-Person Training Model

Learning Alliance Corporation (LAC) announced it has finalized its conversion to full in-person training for its Broadband Digital Installer program. Over the last year and a half, LAC had to alter its delivery model in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, the structure was based around an eight-week plan which consisted of seven weeks of online training and one week of live in-person, hands-on training. With Florida now lifting its COVID-19 restrictions, LAC decided to reinvent its training program once again to continue to give students the best possible learning experience. Cesar Ruiz, CEO/Owner of LAC, described the change, "We're changing our entire delivery model, from a blended, six-week learning environment, with four weeks online and two weeks at LAC, to a month-long bootcamp where students will be at our facilities 12 hours per day, six days a week for an entire month. The students won't just graduate as tower technicians, they will be certified 5G technicians, supporting the entire industry. It will give graduates the opportunity to choose the path that aligns best with their personal mission." The telecommunications industry is a quickly developing and evolving space, and LAC continues to adapt with it - showing a willingness to pivot as needed to embrce the industry's needs. One of the individuals that played a major role in the developments of LAC's new delivery model is LAC's Director of Training, Derrick Francis. The following is what Derrick had to say about the shift:



"Our new program will be a comprehensive four-week program covering almost everything a person working in the telecommunication field might encounter. Students will spend two weeks on macro sites learning how to safely perform work at height and conduct rescues. They will also learn how to perform maintenance, installation, and decommissioning of cellular and radio tower components. In week three, students will focus on the basics of design and installation of a cabling system that will support multiple systems and various hardware applications for telecom in both the residential and industrial sectors. In the final week, students will learn the fundamentals of how fiber optic systems work. Students will be taught how to set-up, test and maintain fiber optic cables in various settings and environments." LAC's newly redesigned Broadband Digital Installer is specifically designed to get students the hands-on training and certifications they need to get started with a new career in the telecom industry. The multifaceted four-week program prepares the learner for several different job roles such as Tower Technician, Fiber Optic Technician, Structured Cabling Installer, and Telecommunications Technician, according to LAC.

LAC says this new program structure will "empower LAC students to start their future careers in the telecommunications industry as quickly as possible and give them the safety-focused skills they need to be successful in the telecom workplace." About Learning Alliance Corporation Learning Alliance Corporation partners with businesses, colleges, and universities to bring U.S. Veterans and civilians stronger training initiatives that equate to solid career growth. By partnering with employers nationwide, Learning Alliance Corporation has created workshops, labs and simulation programs that align the theoretical concepts into real world application learning. This adaptable approach creates learning solutions based on the community specific goals, industry, staff skill level, and corporate culture. Learning Alliance Corporation provides quality instructors, who are highly trained and specialize in the areas they teach. Learn more at https://www.mylearningalliance.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005195/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Symphony RetailAI Named to Food Logistics' 2021 Top Green Providers List

DALLAS, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Symphony RetailAI, a leading global provider of integrated AI-powered marketing, merchandising and supply chain solutions for FMCG retailers and manufacturers, today announced that it has been named to Food Logistics 2021 Top Green Providers list.

Food Logistics annual Top Green Providers recognizes companies whose products, services or exemplary leadership is enhancing sustainability within the cold food and beverage industry. Through artificial intelligence, machine learning and data management, Symphony RetailAIs end-to-end supply chain solutions help grocers reduce waste of perishable goods and prepared foods, with case studies demonstrating up to 95% improvement in forecast accuracy, 20% reduction in inventory and up to 10% reduction in waste. Symphony RetailAIs demand forecasting solution helps grocery retailers accurately predict demand, ensuring the right levels of shelf-sensitive products are moved efficiently through the supply chain. Furthermore, waste can be minimized as retailers better manage sourcing and transportation between warehouses, distribution centers and stores. For fresh items specifically, use-by dates are factored into demand forecasting to ensure accurate inventory levels. AI-powered demand forecasting also uses rich data management to analyze items relationships across the entire assortment to accurately forecast demand. The rise in click-and-collect services last year has led to an increase in dark stores and put a greater strain on distribution centers. To support this trend, Symphony RetailAIs warehouse management solution optimizes the allocation of orders in real time to reduce waste. We are thrilled to be recognized by Food Logistics for our commitment to helping retailers make an environmental impact while also building end-to-end supply chain efficiency, said Chris Koziol, CEO, Symphony RetailAI. After a year like 2020, retailers are seeking ways to exceed consumer expectations as they face dramatic and increased changes in demand. Our team is focused on delivering supplychain transparency, traceability and sustainability. We work to educate and collaborate with our clients to reduce food waste while improving profitable growth. Symphony RetailAIs AI-powered solutions deliver accurate demand forecasts that leverage a unified view of inventory, which are key accelerators for companies seeking to reduce food waste across their supply chains.



Learn more about Symphony RetailAIs Demand ForecastingAI and Warehouse Management System (WMS). Recipients of this years award are profiled in the June 2021 print issue. Visit FoodLogistics.com to view the full list of all 2021 Top Green Providers.

About Food Logistics

Food Logistics is the only publication exclusively dedicated to covering the movement of product through the global cold food supply chain, focusing on trucking, warehousing, packaging, risk management, food safety and more. Go to www.FoodLogistics.com. About Symphony RetailAI

Symphony RetailAI is a leading global provider of role-specific, AI-powered revenue growth management solutions and customer-centric insights for retailers and CPG manufacturers across the entire value chain. Our proven, industry-leading, AI-enabled software, coupled with the industrys only conversational natural-language AI interface, CINDE, provides key users with proven prescriptive and preemptive recommendations that make it easy to identify end-to-end growth opportunities, activate plans and realize measurable profit and revenue growth. Our solutions are specific to key decision-maker roles focused on profitable growth across the retail value chain from source to consumer. With our strong global partner ecosystem, we serve more than 1,200 organizations worldwide  including 15 of the top 25 global grocery retailers, 25 of the top 25 global CPG manufacturers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains  all through the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Symphony RetailAI is a SymphonyAI company. More at Symphony RetailAI. About SymphonyAI

SymphonyAI is building the leading Enterprise AI company for the digital transformation of the business enterprise, across the most important and resilient growth verticals, including life sciences, healthcare, retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, manufacturing and media. In each of these verticals SAI businesses have many of the leading enterprises as clients. SAI is backed by a $1 billion commitment from Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. Since its founding in 2017, SymphonyAI has grown rapidly to a combined revenue run rate of more than $300 million and over 2,200 talented leaders, data scientists, and other professionals. More at SymphonyAI. Media Contact

Adrienne Newcomb

Ketner Group Communications (for Symphony RetailAI)

adrienne@ketnergroup.com





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[July 01, 2021] Dan Rather's What Unites Us: The Graphic Novel Available Free to All Nevada Residents, Sponsored by Las Vegas-Clark County Library District & Macmillan

LAS VEGAS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In an innovative eBook partnership between public libraries and book publishers, Las Vegas Clark-County Library District (LVCCLD) and Macmillan announced the availability, to all Nevada residents, the newly released Dan Rather eBook What Unites Us: The Graphic Novel. In this illustrated adaptation of Rather's bestselling collection of essays, legendary news anchor provides a voice of reason and explores what it means to be a true patriot. The eBook is available via geolocation to anyone in Nevada at LVCCLD.org/BiblioBoard. The graphic novel appeals to all age groups and will be exclusively available for eight weeks from July 5 through August 27, 2021, making it perfect for summer reading and book clubs. The new BiblioBoard eBook platform used by LVCCLD will provide wider access to discover digital books from best-selling independent authors, while also creating a vehicle for local self-published authors to create and share their work with a national audience. In addition to the award-winning eBook, users of the platform can explore a digital archive collection of Rather's illustrious journalism career. Brought to life in stunning color by artist Tim Foley, What Unites Us: The Graphic Novel examines the building blocks of this country, from the freedoms that define us, to the values that have transformed us, to the institutions that sustain us. Rather's vast experience and unique perspective as one of Americ's most renowned newscasters shed light on who we were, and who we are today, allowing us to see a possible future, where we are one country, united.



"We are proud to sponsor the availability of this important new graphic novel to all residents of Nevada," said Kelvin Watson, executive director of LVCCLD. "It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Macmillan on this project as we explore new ways that public libraries and publishers can work together for our mutual benefit, to create a more accessible culture of reading for all." As part of the event launch, Watson interviewed Rather for a national audience, which will be available to view beginning July 5, 2021 at LVCCLD.org/BiblioBoard. Watson has been at the helm of several large library systems across the United States over the past decade, and is the former president of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and a national leader in the conversation about racial equity in America. He is also the recipient of the 2021 RUSA Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award for leadership in this area.

"We are very excited about this innovative partnership that brings this important graphic novel to readers in the State of Nevada," said Brian Heller, vice president, academic, library, wholesale & international of Macmillan. "I'd like to thank Kelvin Watson of the Las Vegas Clark County Library District, Mitchell Davis of BiblioLabs, and their talented teams for all their efforts in bringing this project to fruition." About Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

The award-winning Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is an independent taxing entity that serves a diverse community across 8,000 square miles. Through its 25 branches and website, the Library District offers a collection of 3.2 million items consisting of books, movies, music (including streaming and downloadable), online resources, as well as free programs for all ages. The Library District is a vibrant and vital member of the community offering limitless learning; business and career advancement; government and social services support; and best of all, a place where customers find a sense of culture and community. For more information, please visit LVCCLD.org. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dan-rathers-what-unites-us-the-graphic-novel-available-free-to-all-nevada-residents-sponsored-by-las-vegas-clark-county-library-district--macmillan-301324073.html SOURCE Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

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[July 01, 2021] AIG Announces Final Results of Its Tender Offers for Certain Notes

Today, American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) announced the final results of its cash tender offers (the "Tender Offers") and solicitations of consents (the "Consent Solicitations") for certain outstanding notes that were commenced on May 11, 2021. The Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations were made pursuant to AIG's Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement for the SunAmerica Notes (as defined below), dated May 11, 2021, and AIG's Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement for the AIG Life Holdings Notes (as defined below), dated May 11, 2021 (each, an "Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement") and the related letters of transmittal, which set forth a more comprehensive description of the terms of each Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation. The Tender Offers consisted of an offer to purchase any and all of the following series of notes:







Title Original Issuer CUSIP No. 7.57% Junior Subordinated Deferrable

Interest Debentures, Series A American General Corporation(1) 00138GAB5 8 1/8% Junior Subordinated Deferrable

Interest Debentures, Series B American General Corporation(1) 00138GAC3 7 % Notes due 2025 American General Corporation(1) 026351AU0 6 5/8% Notes due 2029 American General Corporation(1) 026351AZ9 8 % Junior Subordinated Debentures

due 2030 American General Corporation(1) 00138GAA7 8.125% Debentures due 2023 SunAmerica Inc.(2) 866930AB6 7.05% Notes due 2025 SunAmerica Inc.(2) 86703QBJ9 7.00% Notes due 2026 SunAmerica Inc.(2) 86703QBN0 5.60% Debentures due 2097 SunAmerica Inc.(2) 866930AG5

____________ (1) The current obligor for this series of notes is AIG Life Holdings, Inc. ("AIG Life Holdings"), a wholly owned subsidiary of AIG and successor to American General Corporation, and each series of such notes is, as of the date hereof, guaranteed by AIG. Collectively, these series of notes are referred to herein as the "AIG Life Holdings Notes." (2) The current obligor for this series of notes is AIG (as successor to SunAmerica Inc.). Additionally, the Consent Solicitations consisted of solicitation of consents to certain proposed amendments to (i) the indenture under which the four series of notes were originally issued by SunAmerica Inc. (referred to as the "SunAmerica Notes") and (ii) the indenture under which each of the 7.57% Junior Subordinated Deferrable Interest Debentures, Series A (referred to as the "Series A Notes") and the 8 1/8% Junior Subordinated Deferrable Interest Debentures, Series B (referred to as the "Series B Notes"), each as set forth in the table above, were issued. AIG previously announced the successful completion of its Consent Solicitation for the Series A and Series B Notes of AIG Life Holdings, and on June 10, 2021, AIG entered into a supplemental indenture to effect the amendments to the indenture under which the Series A and Series B Notes were issued. Results of the Tender Offers and Solicitations of Consents as of the Extended Expiration Time and Extended SunAmerica Consent Expiration Time As previously announced, the extended expiration time for the Tender Offers was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 30, 2021 (the "Extended Expiration Time"), and the extended time for holders of SunAmerica Notes to deliver consents was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 30, 2021 (the "Extended SunAmerica Consent Expiration Time"). AIG will accept for purchase all notes validly tendered in the Tender Offers at or prior to the Extended Expiration Time and not previously accepted for purchase. Holders who validly tendered their notes will receive the Total Consideration set forth in the table below. The Total Consideration will be payable promptly on July 1, 2021 (the "Final Settlement Date"). In addition to the Total Consideration, holders of notes accepted for payment will receive accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date for the notes to, but not including, the Final Settlement Date. The early participation results of the Tender Offers were previously announced in the press release dated May 25, 2021. On May 26, 2021, AIG purchased $253,596,000 aggregate principal amount of notes, which were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 24, 2021 in accordance with the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statements. As of the Extended Expiration Time, the principal amount of notes of each series outstanding and validly tendered and the Total Consideration per $1,000 principal amount were as follows: Title Original

Issuer Principal

Amount

Outstanding Principal

Amount

Tendered Percent of Amount

Outstanding

Tendered Early

Tender

Payment(1) Total

Consideration(2) 7.57% Junior Subordinated

Deferrable Interest

Debentures, Series A American General Corporation $31,465,000 $0 0% $30 $1,540.72 8 1/8% Junior Subordinated

Deferrable Interest

Debentures, Series B American General Corporation $141,985,000 $0 0% $30 $1,630.56 7 % Notes due 2025 American General Corporation $101,465,000 $217,000 0.21% $30 $1,250.83 6 5/8% Notes due 2029 American General Corporation $99,303,000 $276,000 0.28% $30 $1,308.06 8 % Junior Subordinated

Debentures due 2030 American General Corporation $54,866,000 $29,000 0.05% $30 $1,424.77 8.125% Debentures due April 28, 2023 SunAmerica Inc. $68,585,000 $6,735,000 9.82% $30 $1,152.95 7.05% Notes due 2025 SunAmerica Inc. $12,533,000 $520,000 4.15% $30 $1,255.94 7.00% Notes due 2026 SunAmerica Inc. $8,299,000 $420,000 5.06% $30 $1,262.08 5.60% Debentures due 2097 SunAmerica Inc. $2,167,000 $43,000 1.98% $30 $1,375.60 _____________ (1) Per $1,000 principal amount of notes tendered and accepted for purchase. With respect to the Series A Notes, the Series B Notes and the SunAmerica Notes, the Early Tender Payment includes the payment of a consent fee to holders that delivered tenders and accompanying consents. The Early Tender Payment is included in Total Consideration. (2) Per $1,000 principal amount of notes tendered and accepted for purchase, based upon a Reference Yield determined as of 2:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 24, 2021; excludes accrued and unpaid interest; assumes settlement on May 26, 2021. Additionally, AIG announced that it will not accept consents delivered by holders of SunAmerica Notes without tendering the related notes in the previously announced Consent Solicitation. Holders of SunAmerica Notes who delivered consents without tendering the related notes will not receive a "Consent Payment" of $5 per each $1,000 principal amount of consenting notes. The Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations are subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions. With respect to the Tender Offers for the Series A and Series B Notes and the SunAmerica Notes, AIG has waived Series A-B Notes Documentation Condition and the Documentation Condition, as applicable (as described in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statements). AIG is not obligated to accept for payment, purchase or pay for, and may delay the acceptance for payment of, any tendered notes or delivered consents, in each event subject to applicable laws. AIG retained Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC to serve as dealer managers and consent solicitation agents for the Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations and retained D.F. King, Inc. to serve as the tender and information agent for the Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations. Requests for documents may be directed to D.F. King, Inc. by telephone at (800) 334-0384 (toll free) or (212) 269-5550 (for banks and brokers) or by email at aig@dfking.com. Questions regarding the Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations may be directed to either Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC at (800) 820-1653 (toll-free) or (212) 538-2147 (collect) or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at (866) 834-4666 (toll free) or (212) 834-4045 (collect). This press release is neither an offer to purchase, nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the notes or any other securities nor a solicitation of consents. The Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations were made only by and pursuant to the terms of each Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement and the related letters of transmittal and only to such persons and in such jurisdictions as is permitted under applicable law. The information in this press release is qualified by reference to each Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement and the related letters of transmittal. ### Certain statements in this press release, including those describing the completion of the Tender Offers and Consent Solicitations, constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only AIG's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside AIG's control. It is possible that actual results will differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results indicated in these statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from those in the forward-looking statements are discussed throughout AIG's periodic filings with the SEC (News - Alert) pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ### American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading global insurance organization. AIG member companies provide a wide range of property casualty insurance, life insurance, retirement solutions, and other financial services to customers in approximately 80 countries and jurisdictions. These diverse offerings include products and services that help businesses and individuals protect their assets, manage risks and provide for retirement security. AIG common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Additional information about AIG can be found at www.aig.com | YouTube (News - Alert) : www.youtube.com/aig | Twitter (News - Alert) : @AIGinsurance www.twitter.com/AIGinsurance | LinkedIn (News - Alert) : www.linkedin.com/company/aig. These references with additional information about AIG have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. AIG is the marketing name for the worldwide property-casualty, life and retirement, and general insurance operations of American International Group, Inc. For additional information, please visit our website at www.aig.com. All products and services are written or provided by subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. Products or services may not be available in all countries and jurisdictions, and coverage is subject to underwriting requirements and actual policy language. Non-insurance products and services may be provided by independent third parties. Certain property-casualty coverages may be provided by a surplus lines insurer. Surplus lines insurers do not generally participate in state guaranty funds, and insureds are therefore not protected by such funds. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005524/en/

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[July 01, 2021] One Concern Announces Executive Appointments

One Concern, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Jeffrey Bohn as Chief Strategy Officer and named Craig Fugate as Chief Resilience Officer, effective immediately. The two will work closely with One Concern's expert Advisory Board including Alice Hill, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, Temasek International. "In our mission to make disasters less disastrous, we're thrilled to build our C-suite with foremost experts and leaders in climate risk and emergency management, as we continue our mission to prepare for and mitigate unpredictable climate risk," said Ahmad Wani, CEO and Co-Founder, One Concern. "Alice, Jeff, Craig and Steve bring decades of experience across the private and public sectors in addressing climate threats and natural hazards, and this unparalleled experience will help One Concern create a resilience-as-a-service marketplace. Our goal is to help industry and government to build resilience and understand the downstream effects a climate event can have on business and society." Dr. Jeffrey Bohn served as Chief Research & Innovation Officer at Swiss Re Institute, where he managed new research activities supporting Swiss Re's strategy, clients, business development, and technology. Before he joined Swiss Re to establish the Swiss Re Institute, he served as Chief Science Officer and Head of GX Labs at State Street Global Exchange. Past appointments for Dr. Bohn include Head of Portfolio Analytics and Economic Capital at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore and General Manager of the Financial Strategies group at Shinsei Bank in Tokyo, where he supervised the implementation of best-practice risk and capital analytics. Craig Fugate previously was One Concern's Chief Emergency Management Officer and served as FEMA Adminisrator under President Obama, leading the agency through record-breaking disaster years, including hurricanes Irene, Matthew, and Sandy, as well as devastating tornadoes in the Midwest. Fugate is a leading proponent of the whole community approach to emergency management, emphasizing and improving collaboration among all levels of government (federal, tribal, state, and local) and external partners, including voluntary agencies, faith-based organizations, private sector organizations and citizens.



Alice Hill is the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, with prior federal roles in building resilience as a special assistant to President Barack Obama and as a senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council. Under President Obama, Hill led public policy development, incorporating climate resilience considerations and capabilities into federal programs and developing national risk management standards for the most damaging natural hazards. She is the author of Building a Resilient Tomorrow and The Fight for Climate After COVID-19. Steve Howard is a globally renowned sustainable business leader, currently serving as Chief Sustainability Officer for Temasek, the Singaporean-headquartered investment company, and Co-Chair of the We Mean Business Coalition, a global nonprofit working with the world's most influential businesses to act on climate change. Howard was previously Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at IKEA Group and served on IKEA's Executive Group Management from 2011-2017. Prior to joining IKEA, Howard founded The Climate Group, a global non-profit organization that works with business and government leaders around the world to address climate change.

Recently, One Concern filed public comments with the Securities and Exchange Commission, advocating for the importance of a data-driven approach to measuring resilience as the Commission considers updating its climate risk disclosure requirements. A copy of One Concern's comments can be found here. About One Concern One Concern is a Resilience-as-a-Service solution that brings disaster science together with machine learning for better decision-making. With operations in the US and Japan, the company quantifies resilience from catastrophic perils, empowering leaders to measure, mitigate, and monetize risk so disasters aren't so disastrous. One Concern is now part of the World Economic Forum's Global Innovators community. For more information: https://www.oneconcern.com/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005298/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Zoned Properties Appoints Berekk Blackwell as Chief Operating Officer, Expanding its Executive Team and Commercial Real Estate Services

Zoned Properties, Inc. (the "Company") (OTCQB: ZDPY), a leading real estate development firm for emerging and highly regulated industries including legalized cannabis, today announced the appointment of Berekk Blackwell as Chief Operating Officer. For the past year, Blackwell has played a significant role in Zoned Properties' operational expansion as Director of Business Development, successfully launching several new growth projects. Prior to joining Zoned Properties, Blackwell developed domestic and international markets for Kahala Brands, a global franchise organization with more than 3,000 retail locations in over a dozen countries. The conglomerate included Cold Stone Creamery, Blimpie Subs, and other name-brand quick service restaurant (QSR) franchises. Most recently, Blackwell broadened his capital market background leading emerging brand and portfolio operations for several private equity groups investing in the restaurant franchise space. With the recent advancement of the Company's growth divisions, Blackwell will oversee Zoned Properties' Commercial Real Estate Advisory, Brokerage, Franchise, and PropTech Data services. Blackwell will continue to expand Zoned Properties' team of Senior Advisors across the country in tandem with overall business development. The Company's full-spectrum of commercial real estate services is helping clients and projects across the country enhance value and mitigate risk in emerging and highly regulated industries. "Coming from international franchise operations, which can be one of the most highly regulated industries in business, I have been able to quickly identify strategic parallels to assimilate into the cannabis industry. We plan to leverage common best practices from these various emerging sectors to drive momentum across each of the operational divisions for Zoned Properties," said Berekk Blackwell, Chief Operating Officer for Zoned Properties. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bryan McLaren, plans to continue recruiting talented individuals to contribute to the Company's core mission, vision, and values. The investment in new executive talent will increase the Company's ability to identify, develop, and deliver critical needs for complex real estate projects from start to finish. "Berekk has been absolutely essential to the launch of Zoned Properties' advanced client offerings and our collection of growth services. For the past year, he has played an integral role in developing our multilayered approach to commercial real estate through purpose-built solutions for complex and highly regulated business landscapes," said Bryan McLaren. About Zoned Properties, Inc. (OTCQB: ZDPY): Zoned Properties is a leading real estate development firm for emerging and highly regulated industries, including regulated cannabis. The compay is redefining the approach to commercial real estate investment through its integrated growth services.



Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Zoned Properties has developed a full spectrum of integrated growth services to support its real estate development and investment model; Advisory Services, Brokerage Services, Franchise Services, and PropTech Data Services each cross-pollinate within the model to drive project value associated with complex real estate projects. With national experience and a team of experts devoted to the emerging cannabis industry, Zoned Properties is addressing the specific needs of a modern market in highly regulated industries. Zoned Properties is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Forbes Real Estate Council. Zoned Properties does not grow, harvest, sell or distribute cannabis or any substances regulated under United States law such as the Controlled Substance Act of 1970, as amended (the "CSA"). Zoned Properties corporate headquarters are located at 14269 N. 87th Street, Suite 205, Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information, call 877-360-8839 or visit www.ZonedProperties.com.

Twitter (News - Alert) : @ZonedProperties

LinkedIn (News - Alert) : @ZonedProperties Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. COVID-19 Statement In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and recommended containment and mitigation measures worldwide. We are monitoring this closely, and although operations have not been materially affected by the COVID-19 outbreak to date, the ultimate duration and severity of the outbreak and its impact on the economic environment and our business is uncertain. Currently, all of the properties in our portfolio are open to our Significant Tenants and their customers and will remain open pursuant to state and local government requirements. We did not experience in 2020, and we do not foresee in 2021, any material changes to our operations from COVID-19. Our tenants are continuing to generate revenue at these properties and they have continued to make rental payments in full and on time and we believe the tenants' liquidity position is sufficient to cover its expected rental obligations. Accordingly, while we do not anticipate an impact on our operations, we cannot estimate the duration of the pandemic and potential impact on our business if the properties must close or if the tenants are otherwise unable or unwilling to make rental payments. In addition, a severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including weakened demand for our properties and a decreased ability to raise additional capital when needed on acceptable terms, if at all. At this time, the Company is unable to estimate the impact of this event on its operations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005165/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Medalist Partners Accelerates the Buyout of Minority Partner in its CLO Platform; Incorporates ESG Mandate for Future CLOs

Medalist Partners, LP ("Medalist Partners" or "Medalist"), an alternative asset management firm specializing in asset-based private credit, structured credit and CLOs, announced today that it has accelerated a buyout option with JMP Group LLC for its remaining stake in Medalist Partners Corporate Finance, LLC, a CLO platform with approximately $1.2 billion in assets under management. Medalist has further announced the formal incorporation of ESG criteria into its future CLO investment mandates on the platform. While largely consistent with an approach already being followed by the team, as part of the formal ESG initiative Medalist has adopted specific guidelines which will be factored into the investment process. Medalist's CLO platform will continue to be led by Craig Kitchin, Jeremy Phipps, and Shawn O'Leary. "We are excited to exercise the buyout of JMP's remaining ownership stake ahead of schedule," said Greg Richter, CEO of Medalist Partners. "JMP has been a great partner in the CLO business and we thank them for their support. However, given the significant demand we are seeing from investors seeking high quality access to the CLO market, we believe assuming full control of the platform affords us greater flexibility in scaling the business and facilitating new strategic partnerships going forward." Regarding the incorporation of ESG screening in future CLOs, Craig Kitchin, Presidentof Medalist Partners Corporate Finance added, "The decision to screen leveraged loans for ESG factors in future CLOs reflects growing investor demand for structures that consider these issues, as well as our belief that such practices will ultimately reward investors with superior performance. We believe the trend towards ESG investment will continue to gain momentum, and areas perceived as contradictory to ESG principles may become riskier investments as a result."



Lastly, Michael Ardisson, President & COO of Medalist added, "We believe this transaction ideally positions our CLO business for continued growth, with our seventh CLO expected to launch later this year. With positive momentum across the broader Medalist platform, including our asset-based private credit business continuing its industry leading performance, it is an exciting time for our firm." Lowenstein Sandler LLP served as legal counsel for Medalist Partners on the transaction.

About Medalist Partners:

Medalist Partners is an alternative investment manager with approximately $2 billion in AUM across strategies in asset-based private credit, structured credit and CLOs. Headquartered in New York, the 23-person team is led by partners Greg Richter, Michael Ardisson, and John Slonieski. Medalist's clients include pensions, endowments, foundations, banks, fund of funds, family offices and HNW individuals. The business and track record were started within Credit Suisse and Candlewood Investment Group prior to being spun-out as an independent, partner-owned firm in 2018. The Medalist team has extensive experience in asset finance, structured products, investment banking, securitization, and credit underwriting. For more information, visit www.medalistpartners.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005438/en/

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[July 01, 2021] New Report Sheds Light on Tech Demand Gen Trends in 2021

SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Activate, a B2B tech demand generation company, announced the release of its fifth annual State of Demand Gen report. The report consists of feedback and plans from enterprise B2B tech marketing and demand gen decision-makers regarding demand gen initiatives in their companies. Over 150 tech marketing leaders were surveyed. "Digital tech marketing has been growing steadily for years, and in many cases, demand gen is taking the lead in terms of share of marketing budget," says Martha Schwartz, co-founder and president of Activate. "During Covid, B2B tech demand gen marketers hit and exceeded their KPIs. We also found that 90% of marketers are seeing online event fatigue. There are so many other revealing insights that will let B2B demand gen marketers see where they stand against their peers." Here are some of the topics covered in this report: Demand generation budget patterns and growth

How most B2B tech demand generation marketers have changed and expanded their activities in response to the pandemic

Tactics that are seeing increased adoption

Top ABM and sales relationship strategies

Sophisticated attribution techniques and metrics in use The omplete State of Demand Gen 2021 report can be found at www.activatems.com/state-of-demand-gen-2021/.



About Activate:

Activate Marketing Services ( www.activatems.com ) provides content-powered lead and marketing services for business technology marketers, based on a unique combination of buyer insights and high-performance content. Activate develops detailed buyer personas, creates multi-platform content to engage prospects at every stage of the decision-making process, then nurtures the resulting relationships across live, mobile and digital platforms to convert prospects into customers. Founded by a team of high-tech media executives with deep expertise in editorial, marketing and technology, Activate's formula for high-performance marketing connects messaging, marketing and measurement to deliver bottom-line results. A Next 15 Company

For more information, please visit www.activatems.com . CONTACT:

Lunie Caetano

(516) 361-0188

Email: Lunie@activatems.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report-sheds-light-on-tech-demand-gen-trends-in-2021-301323919.html SOURCE Activate Marketing Services

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[July 01, 2021] Philadelphia Business Journal names Ricoh North America's Sven Adler CFO of the Year

EXTON, Pa., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh USA, Inc. today announced Sven Adler, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Ricoh North America, has been honored as a CFO of the Year by Philadelphia Business Journal. The award recognizes financial professionals in the greater Philadelphia area for outstanding performance in their roles as corporate financial stewards. For Adler, this is routinely evident in the work he does turning data into actionable insights and uncovering opportunities that have helped Ricoh double its operating income from FY18 to FY19 along with navigating financial success and digital transformation amid the global pandemic. Adler leads the company's finance, accounting, and IT operations in the U.S. and Canada, which includes accounting and controls; digital transformation; financial and tax reporting; pricing and commercials; financial planning and analysis; treasury; and applications and infrastructure. With more than 15 years of experience, Adler brings a proven record of strengthening financial operations to drive greater revenue and efficiencies for Ricoh. This includes providing strategic and operational oversight for financial and IT management enterprie-wide, for 700 team members, along with creating strategies for sustainable growth in key financial areas.



"It is an absolute honor to be recognized as a CFO of the Year," said Adler. "While it has been an important strategy for quite some time at Ricoh, digital transformation has never been more crucial than within the past 16 months. And while I'm very grateful to receive this recognition, I share this acknowledgment with our team who worked together to overcome the many difficult challenges brought on by the pandemic, thanks to our commitment to help improve quality of work life for all." The honorees will be celebrated during a virtual event on July 29 and will be included in a special section of the Philadelphia Business Journal's July 30 issue.

For more information on Ricoh, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com, follow the company's social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and join the conversation using #FocusOnForward. | About Ricoh | Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable individuals to work smarter from anywhere. With cultivated knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-years history, Ricoh is a leading provider of digital services and information management, and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation and optimize business performance. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group has major operations throughout the world and its products and services now reach customers in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2021, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,682 billion yen (approx. 15.1 billion USD). For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com  2021 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/philadelphia-business-journal-names-ricoh-north-americas-sven-adler-cfo-of-the-year-301324301.html SOURCE Ricoh USA, Inc.

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[July 01, 2021] Evergreen Services Group Announces Acquisition of Telco Experts

Evergreen Services Group, a family of leading managed IT businesses, announced today that it has acquired Telco Experts, Evergreen's 27th investment since its founding in late 2017. Telco Experts is a leading voice and data telecommunications provider. The company will continue to operate independently but transition leadership with Alex Green joining as CEO. Green comes from an extensive background in management consulting at McKinsey & Company (News - Alert) , and recently finished her M.B.A. at Harvard Business School this past spring. Eric Klein, former CEO and co-founder, will help with the transition before ultimately parting with the company. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005249/en/ "Eric and Adam have built an incredible business in Telco Experts by focusing on customer service and building a great team," said Jeff Totten, Evergreen's CEO. "We look forward to supporting Telco Experts' continued growth and commitment to its customers, channel partners and team. We have enjoyed working with Eric and Adam since our first interaction and we're excited to expand on what they have built." "The Evergreen acquisition is exciting to me personally, as I have always envisioned Telco Experts as an extension to companies' existing IT teams. Evergreen's current MSP portfolio and plan to continue purchasing MSPs allows Telco to do what it does best while giving customers what they want, which is a one stop shop for all their voice, data, and IT eeds. In addition, with this strategic acquisition, the employees that helped make Telco Experts what it is today can continue to be an integral part of the future growth strategy," said Eric Klein (News - Alert) , Telco Experts' Co-founder.



In Telco Experts, Evergreen saw both a cross-sell opportunity within Evergreen's current MSPs as well as an exciting opportunity to grow Telco Experts' partner program. Telco Experts works with hundreds of IT service provider partners to help them deliver reliable connectivity and voice services. Partners receive commissions and can focus their teams' time on supporting end users and IT infrastructure, while knowing that their customers' connectivity and voice needs will be well taken care of by Telco Experts. Customers value the efficiency of Telco as a single source provider for all of their telecommunication requirements. The company is headquartered in New York, NY, and provides its telecommunication services to thousands of companies nationwide. "Telco's success stems from our absolute dedication to client satisfaction and world-class service. With Evergreen's investment, we are further affirmed in the quality of our company, our team, and our abilities as one of the top voice and data resellers nationwide," said Adam Goldberg, Telco Experts' former President and co-founder. "It will be exciting to see how Telco will grow with Evergreen's support."

"We are very excited to bring Telco's capabilities to the channel," said Ramsey Sahyoun, Evergreen's Head of M&A. "As technology proliferates within businesses, IT service providers are finding it challenging to deliver the great service that clients expect while not burning out their people. Telco Experts solves that problem by ensuring the end customers get world-class voice and connectivity solutions, while freeing up the service providers to focus on what they do best." Telco Experts follows Evergreen's acquisition of 26 managed service providers since 2018. Evergreen continues to actively invest in leading IT service providers throughout North America, where it can serve as a long-term capital partner and support future growth. Q Advisors, a global TMT investment banking boutique, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Telco Experts. About Telco Experts

Telco Experts is a premier Voice and Data Telecommunications provider and a full-service consulting firm serving the business community. Telco Experts provides a wide array of customized voice, data, and IP products. Strategic relationships with several providers of voice and data services allows Telco to provide clients with quality and reliable service across MPLS, Fiber, Broadband, Wireless, VPN, Hosted PBX (News - Alert) , SIP Trunking, PRI service, Toll Free or standard local and regional and long-distance services and more. For more information about Telco Experts, visit https://telcoexperts.com/. About Evergreen Services Group

Evergreen Services Group is a family of leading managed IT services companies operated by world-class leadership teams and service professionals. Evergreen partners with owners of IT services companies to provide operational assistance and capital in support of growth and exceptional service delivery. Evergreen differentiates itself by providing a permanent home for founder-led businesses that care deeply about their customers and employees. For more Evergreen Services Group news and information, visit www.evergreensg.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005249/en/

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[July 01, 2021] stc Group CEO: There Is a Great Deal the Telecom Industry Can Do Together to Contribute to a Low Carbon Economy

stc Group CEO Eng. Olayan Alwetaid confirmed stc's commitment to providing a service, which is as environmentally friendly, and to adopt integrated sustainable practices into every aspect of our business. "We understand that as a MENA digital enabler we have a duty to our country in Saudi Arabia and to our customers to ensure we are operating in a sustainable manner," Alwaetaid said while speaking in We Act For Impact" panel discussion during MWC Barcelona 2021. He was among environmental experts and ICT infrastructure development leaders who met to discuss sustainability progress. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005618/en/ stc's 5G technology mpresses as company showcases new technology at MWC Barcelona (Photo: AETOSWire)



Alwetaid gave his thoughts on several environmental issues in the debate stating that stc has been playing a pivotal role in Saudi Arabia's digital transformation, which has seen the Kingdom launch digital projects including the roll out and implementation of stc advanced 5G technology. He said: "stc is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and become a green network operator, and we have taken several steps to achieve this goal and reach Net Zero. We have developed a Sustainable Energy Framework designed to take us through 2030. These steps will reduce our energy consumption and will include better energy management, monitoring, and reporting - with clear benchmarks and KPIs. We will also develop renewable energy generation at our campus and facilities throughout KSA. What's more we will ensure energy efficiency in our existing buildings and assets and finally new buildings will be designed and built with energy-saving features."

stc is also fully in support of the Saudi Green initiative - the world's largest afforestation project with an aim to plant 50b trees, including 10b in KSA. "The government has set a clear strategic vision with broad goals and it's important for private sector leaders to be in alignment with their objective and goals the public sector," said Alwetaid during the discussion. "For this to happen and lead to a green digital recovery, the government should establish a framework of investment incentives including financial support for R&D and scale up. For its part, the private sector must step up and leverage this opportunity with an eye to the future. * Source (News - Alert) : AETOSWire View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005618/en/

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[July 01, 2021] ATLIS Motor Vehicles Secures $300 Million Capital Commitment From Global Emerging Markets (GEM)

MESA, Ariz., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ATLIS Motor Vehicles, Inc. (ATLIS) announced a $300 million capital commitment from GEM Global Yield, LLC SCS (GGY), a Luxembourg-based private alternative investment group. Under the agreement, GEM will provide ATLIS with a Share Subscription Facility of up to $300 million for a 36-month term following the public listing of ATLIS's common stock. ATLIS will control the timing and maximum amount of each drawdown under the facility and has no minimum drawdown obligation. Concurrent with a public listing, ATLIS Motor Vehicles will issue warrants to GEM to purchase up to 4.2% of the common stock of the company. ATLIS is developing a fully electric vehicle platform, proprietary battery cells and packs, and the necessary charging infrastructure to recharge a 500-mile range battery in less than 15 minutes. "GEM's investment tremendously solidifies our long-term financial goals and reinforces our commitment to develop electrified vehicles and the technology needed to power them," said Annie Pratt, ATLIS president. "We've been quite successful with our Regulation A+ offering, which has generated investments from more than 9,000 individuals at $8.24 per share. This new capitalcommitment will propel us in our quest to continuously hit aggressive development and production milestones."



About ATLIS Motor Vehicles

ATLIS is a mobility technology company developing products that will power work. The ATLIS innovators are building an electric vehicle technology platform for heavy and light duty work trucks used in the agriculture, service, utility, and construction industries. To meet the towing and payload capabilities of legacy diesel-powered vehicles, ATLIS is developing proprietary battery technology and a modular system architecture capable of scaling to meet the specific needs of the heavy-duty all-electric vehicle. For more information visit www.atlismotorvehicles.com. About The GEM Group

Global Emerging Markets ("GEM") is a $3.4 billion alternative investment group based in Paris, New York, The Bahamas, and Los Angeles. GEM manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets that provide the group and its investors with a diversified portfolio of asset classes that span the global private investing spectrum. Each investment vehicle has a different degree of operational control, risk-adjusted return, and liquidity profile. The family of funds and investment vehicles provide GEM and its partners with exposure to: Small-Mid Cap Management Buyouts, Private Investments in Public Equities (PIPEs) and select venture investments. For more information: http://www.gemny.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atlis-motor-vehicles-secures-300-million-capital-commitment-from-global-emerging-markets-gem-301324435.html SOURCE ATLIS Motor Vehicles

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[July 01, 2021] CGTN: With 'Xiaokang' goal achieved, CPC vows to lead Chinese people in quest for better life, rejuvenation

BEIJING, July 1, 2021 /CNW/ -- China on Thursday announced a landmark victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, known as a "Xiaokang" society in Chinese, as the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates its centenary. "We have realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a grand gathering at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, vowed that the CPC will lead the Chinese people to strive for better lives and national rejuvenation. Founded in July 1921 with just over 50 members, the CPC has grown into the world's largest political party with more than 95 million members. The Party had set two centenary goals: The first was to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021 when the CPC celebrates its centenary, and the second is to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects by the middle of the century to celebrate the centenary of the People's Republic of China (PRC). From humiliation to 'Xiaokang' Xi reviewed the historical background of the CPC's creation and explained the role it played in the nation's efforts to realize rejuvenation. After the Opium War in the 1840s, China gradually became a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and endured intense humiliation and the people suffered great pain, Xi noted. "Since that time, national rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation." After a series of attempts to "save the nation" failed, the CPC was created when the country urgently needed new ideas and a new organization to lead the movement, he said. "Since the very day of its founding, the Party has made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its aspiration and mission," he said. Xi summarized the Party's efforts and successes in leading a series of revolutions and the country's modernization, particularly in pursuing reform and opening-up since 1978, which he called a "crucial move in making China what it is today." China, a relatively poor country decades ago, has become the world's second largest economy with its gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding 10 trillion yuan (about $15 trillion) and per capita GDP over $10,000. It declared the victory in eradicating absolute poverty nationwide by the end of 2020.



Highlighting the fulfillment of building a "Xiaokang" society and other achievements, Xi said the Party and the people have shown the world that "China's national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability." CPC's close ties with the people

Xi underscored the close relations between the CPC and the people, stressing that the Party "has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people." "Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail," he warned. As China embarks on a new journey toward socialist modernization, he vowed that the CPC will continue to practice a people-centered philosophy of development, address the people's concerns and promote common prosperity for all. "On the journey ahead, we must rely closely on the people to create history," he said. The people-centered philosophy of development was raised by Xi at the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in October 2015. The philosophy stresses that China's development must be for the people and by the people, and its fruits shared among the people. The philosophy has been emphasized again in China's latest development blueprint  the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. The document vows to further improve people's livelihoods by pursuing more balanced, higher-quality development. China's commitment to peaceful development Xi also expounded on the main principles of China's foreign policy and vision on international relations. He reiterated the call for building a community with a shared future for humanity and stressed the country's commitment to peace. "The Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes," Xi said. "China has always worked to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development and preserve international order." China will stay committed to the path of peaceful development, he said. It will "promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through joint efforts and use China's new achievements in development to provide the world with new opportunities," he added. Proposed by Xi in 2013, the BRI which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. A total of 140 countries and regions have signed cooperation agreements with China under the BRI over the past eight years. The aggregated trade volume between China and its BRI cooperative partners has exceeded $9.2 trillion, and Chinese companies have made direct investments totaling over $130 billion in countries along the Belt and Road. Meanwhile, Xi said China will continue to champion cooperation over confrontation and oppose hegemony and power politics. The Chinese people have a strong sense of pride and confidence and will not be intimidated by threats of force, he stressed. "We have never bullied, oppressed or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will," he said. "By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or subjugate us." Xi reiterated the Party's stance on Hong Kong, Macao and the Taiwan region. "We will ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao, and implement legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security," he said. He described resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification as a "historic mission and an unshakable commitment" of the CPC, calling for resolute action to defeat any attempt toward "Taiwan independence." https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-07-01/With-Xiaokang-achieved-CPC-vows-to-lead-people-toward-better-life-11xvkhxk5pe/index.html View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgtn-with-xiaokang-goal-achieved-cpc-vows-to-lead-chinese-people-in-quest-for-better-life-rejuvenation-301324436.html SOURCE CGTN

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[July 01, 2021] Global Infrared Imaging Technology Market to Reach $7 Billion by 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Infrared Imaging Technology - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" . The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 7; Released: April 2021

Executive Engagements: 551

Companies: 55 - Players covered include Allied Vision Technologies GmbH; Axis Communications AB; Bosch Security Systems, Inc.; FLIRA Systems, Inc.; Fluke Corporation; General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.; Hanwha Techwin Co., Ltd.; L3Harris Technologies, Inc.; Leonardo DRS; Lynred; New Imaging Technologies; Opgal Optronic Industries; Sensors Unlimited, Inc.; Xenics NV; Zhejiang Dali Technology Co., Ltd and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Technology (Uncooled, Cooled); Application (Security & Surveillance, Monitoring & Inspection, Detection); Vertical (Industrial, Non-Industrial)

Geographies: World; USA; Canada; Japan; China; Europe; France; Germany; Italy; UK; Spain; Russia; Rest of Europe; Asia-Pacific; Australia; India; South Korea; Rest of Asia-Pacific; Latin America; Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; Rest of Latin America; Middle East; Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; UAE; Rest of Middle East; Africa.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-

Global Infrared Imaging Technology Market to Reach $7 Billion by 2026

Infrared (IR), also sometimes known as infrared light, is an electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that possesses longer wavelengths in comparison to a visible light, and is not visible to ordinary human eye. Though under certain conditions a human eye can visualize IR with wavelengths of about 1050 nm generated from specialized pulsed lasers. From the total energy emitted by the sun to the earth, more than half is emitted in the form of infrared radiation. The balance between emitted and absorbed infrared radiation shows a critical effect on the climate of the Earth. Infraed radiation is absorbed or emitted by molecules, especially when there is change in the rotational-vibration movements. As a result, the vibrational modes are excited in the molecule due to changing of dipole moment. Given these properties, infrared radiation finds application across several industrial sectors, including medical, law enforcement, military, scientific, and industrial areas. Night-vision devices that use active near-infrared illumination enable animals or people to be observed, even without divulging the details of the observer.



Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Infrared Imaging Technology estimated at US$4.9 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$7 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.3% over the analysis period. Uncooled, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record 6.6% CAGR and reach US$4.9 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Cooled segment is readjusted to a revised 5.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period. The U.S. Market is Estimated at $2.2 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $603 Million by 2026

The Infrared Imaging Technology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$2.2 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$603 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 7.7% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.6% and 5.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.1% CAGR.

The market is forecast to witness robust growth opportunities driven by growing demand from non-industrial sector, growing adoption in new end-use applications, technological advancements in IR imaging technology, rising adoption in security and surveillance applications, increasing availability of reasonably priced infrared cameras. Furthermore, rising demand for infrared imaging cameras in emerging economies and high penetration of SWIR cameras is poised to open up new avenues of growth in the upcoming years. The increasing use of IR cameras in quality control and inspections and steady uptake in consumer electronic market also presents untapped growth opportunities. IR imaging can be used as both a predictive and preventive tool, which makes it highly diverse. However, high cost of infrared imaging systems in comparison with substitute technologies, strict import and export regulations, and lack of awareness about the technology hamper market prospects. SWIR cameras are expensive owing to the use of expensive semiconductor material such as indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) sensors in their formulation. By Application, Security & Surveillance Segment to Reach $4.1 Billion by 2026

Global market for Security & Surveillance by Application segment is estimated at US$2.9 Billion in 2020, and is projected to reach US$4.1 Billion by 2026 reflecting a compounded annual growth rate of 6.1% over the analysis period. The United States constitutes the largest regional market for Security & Surveillance segment, accounting for 42.8% of the global sales in 2020. China is poised to register the fastest compounded annual growth rate of 7.6% over the analysis period, to reach US$417.6 Million by the close of the analysis period. More

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Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

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Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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Info411@strategyr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-infrared-imaging-technology-market-to-reach-7-billion-by-2026-301324190.html SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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[July 01, 2021] Deluxe Reality Series, Small Business Revolution, Receives Television Emmy Nomination

Deluxe, a Trusted Payments and Business Technology company, this week received an Emmy nomination for its reality series Small Business Revolution (News - Alert) . The groundbreaking series harnesses the power of Deluxe small business expertise to boost struggling small businesses, giving them the tools and solutions, they need to survive and grow. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy) nomination recognizes the fifth season of the show, in the category of Outstanding Lifestyle Series. The winner will be announced in a live-streamed event July 18 at 8 p.m. E.T. There were more than 3,000 submissions for this year's awards, judged by a pool of more than 1,000 peer professionals from across the television industry. "Season 5 presented the real-time challenges small businesses faced in trying to survive during the pandemic," said Amanda Brinkman, series creator, host and Chief Brand Officer at Deluxe. "Their perseverance and our business expertise were critical factors to ensure these businesses would survive. This Emmy nomination is incredible validation that brands truly can be publishers. We are proud of this engaging content that resonates and captures how we have turned our brand purpose into real brand action." Brinkman was joined by cohost and renovation icon Ty Pennington in Season 5, which features the stories of seven small businesses in Fredonia, New York. "The Small Business Revolution continues to drive awareness of Deluxe products and services to grow our compan. Each episode teaches small business owners how to succeed, while showcasing our products and solutions along the way," explained Barry McCarthy, President and CEO of Deluxe. "Being nominated for an Emmy is further validation of what an incredible program we have created and how it continues to resonate with small business owners and entrepreneurs."



"We've always loved getting to work on this show," added Matt Naylor, Principal at Flow Studios and director of the series. "Small business is a fascinating lens into so many aspects of American life. But then, in 2020, to be alongside these business owners while we were all living through such a difficult time. It wasn't easy to make Season 5 happen, but it felt like a unique opportunity to capture a moment in history." The sixth season of Small Business Revolution is currently filming in several communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, shifting the focus from small businesses in small towns to small businesses in larger, urban settings. To learn more about the Small Business Revolution and see previous seasons, visit www.sbr.org, HULU or Prime Video.

About Deluxe Corporation Deluxe, a Trusted Payments and Business Technology company, helps businesses pay, get paid, optimize and grow. For more than 100 years, Deluxe has championed businesses so communities thrive at all stages of their lifecycle, from start-up to maturity. Our powerful solutions support millions of small businesses, thousands of financial institutions and hundreds of the world's most valuable brands. The company operates at significant scale, processing more than $2.8 trillion in annual payment volume. To learn how we can help your business, visit us at www.deluxe.com, www.facebook.com/deluxecorp, www.linkedin.com/company/deluxe, or www.twitter.com/deluxe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005659/en/

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[July 01, 2021]

FCC Names Communication Service for the Deaf as a Qualified Direct Video Entity

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Connect Direct, a subsidiary of Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), has been named a Qualified Direct Video Entity by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), giving CSD access to the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Numbering Directory. This action by the FCC allows Connect Direct to support call centers in accepting direct video calls from people who use American Sign Language (ASL).

Connect Direct is the leading provider of contact center solutions for deaf customers. Just as a caller can "press two" for Spanish to access support in their native language, now deaf callers can communicate barrier-free through ASL-fluent representatives. Plus, businesses that work with Connect Direct save an average cost of 33% per call. It's a simple concept with a big impact.

As one deaf customer recently expressed after using Connect Direct, "At the beginning of my call, I thought we were going to connect with a VRS interpreter. When I learned that it was a direct connection, I was thrilled! It all felt much more personalized and comfortable in direct ASL. I felt so empowered!"

"We believe this is the culmination of what the ADA was intended to achieve  a functionally equivalent communications experience for all of those who interact with the world through sign language," said Chris Soukup, CEO of CSD. "With this new recognition from the FCC, we look forward to expanding the adoption of direct communication access and we are ready to work with all organizations who are committed to this achieving this reality."







"We have seen significant growth in demand for our services over the past year, emphasizing the need for direct ASL-to-ASL communications," said Craig Radford, CSD's Vice President of Emerging Markets. "We're excited by this decision by the FCC because it paves the way for CSD to continue leading in adaptive technology, ensuring fully accessible communications, and creating jobs by and for the deaf community."

Having access to information and opportunities for open communication offers increased agency in the lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing people, making for a more equitable experience across all facets of everyday life.



About CSD

Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) is the largest deaf-led social impact organization in the world. For more than four decades, CSD has been a leader in creating and providing accessible and innovative solutions for the deaf community. Today, CSD continues its work to create opportunities for personal and economic growth within the deaf community, specifically addressing leadership and employment. CSD's Social Venture Fund is one of the first angel funds and incubators in the world supporting deaf entrepreneurs and deaf-owned and operated businesses. For more information, please visit? CSD and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About Connect Direct

Since 2017, Connect Direct has been providing innovative call center solutions for communicating directly with deaf customers in American Sign Language. Offering cutting-edge customer service through Connect Direct decreases customer frustration and opens the door to a new market of loyal clients. This expertise provides an invaluable, time-saving solution for a businesses, customers, and representatives alike. To learn more, visit Connect Direct, check out our media kit, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Leila Eltouny

leltouny@csd.org

(888) 701-0173

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fcc-names-communication-service-for-the-deaf-as-a-qualified-direct-video-entity-301323676.html

SOURCE Communication Service For The Deaf, Inc
[July 01, 2021] Global $494.87 Billion B2B Legal Services Markets, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F: Civil & Criminal, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Business Transactions - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "B2B Legal Services Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Major players in the B2B legal services market are Arps; Slate, Meagher & Flom; Clifford Chance; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Linklaters, Skadden; Allen & Overy; Kirkland & Ellis LLP; and Latham & Watkins LLP. The global b2b legal services market is expected to grow from $390.62 billion in 2020 to $402.15 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $494.87 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 5.3%. The B2B legal services market consists of the sales of law-related services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that advise corporate clients on the body of law that governs disputes between businesses and represent corporate clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions and other matters in which legal advice and other assistance are sought. This segment excludes legal services offered during disputes between businesses and individuals. B2B legal services are usually provided by commercial law firms. Clients of commercial law firms include listed corporations, government institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises, and high net worth individuals. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included. Legal service firms are using blockchain to provide a secure way to make transactions and record that transparently. Blockchain is open, distributed ledger that record transactions between the two association or companies efficiently and permanent way. According to the law firm's survey in 2018, 53% of the legal service providing firms are researching blockchain solutions, and only 3% have implemented it. Smart contracts are created digitally and verifiable since they are on the blockchain. Smart contracts help lawyers spend more time on legal advising instead of drafting legal documents. For instance, Chainlink is a start-up that deeloped technology that relies on data from multiple sources and makes smart contracts more attractive. Blockchain and smart contracts offer several advantages such as secure transactions, transparent records, less paperwork, and more time for advising clients.



The B2B legal services market covered in the report is segmented by service type into civil or criminal; mergers and acquisitions; business transactions; others and by end-user into listed corporations; government institutions; small and medium-sized enterprises; high net worth individuals; others. In January 2020, UK based law firm DWF acquired Chicago-based managed services business Mindcrest for a deal amount of $18.5 million. DWF gets a readymade low-cost legal center through this acquisition that will bolt on to the existing managed legal services capabilities. Mindcrest provides litigation support, contracts, compliance, and legal analytics for corporate clients.

An Increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions contributed to the growth of the B2B legal services market. For completing mergers and acquisitions transactions, the companies require to consult legal firms for finalizing the deal. According to the JPMorgan report on the 2020 Global M&A Outlook, the number of M&A deals in 2018 were 41, and in 2019 were 47 worldwide. The increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions drove the B2B legal services market. The shortage of skilled workforce in the industry is expected to limit the B2B legal services market. The effects of skilled workforce shortage are high turnover rate, ineffective staff management, increased business expenses, and loss of customers. According to research by Robert Half Legal, 91% of lawyers said that finding skilled legal professionals is challenging. Around 80% of lawyers responded about being concerned on losing top performers to other opportunities. The shortage of qualified workforce reduces the effectiveness of the firms output and negatively affects B2B legal services market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. B2B Legal Services Market Characteristics 3. B2B Legal Services Market Trends and Strategies 4. Impact of COVID-19 on B2B Legal Services 5. B2B Legal Services Market Size and Growth 5.1. Global B2B Legal Services Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers of the Market 5.1.2. Restraints on the Market 5.2. Global B2B Legal Services Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers of the Market 5.2.2. Restraints on the Market 6. B2B Legal Services Market Segmentation 6.1. Global B2B Legal Services Market, Segmentation by Service Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Civil or Criminal

Mergers and Acquisitions

Business Transactions

Others 6.2. Global B2B Legal Services Market, Segmentation by End-user, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Listed Corporations

Government Institutions

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

High Net worth Individuals

Others 6.3. Global B2B Legal Services Market, Segmentation by Size of Law Firm, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Large law firms

SME law firms 7. B2B Legal Services Market Regional and Country Analysis 7.1. Global B2B Legal Services Market, Split by Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 7.2. Global B2B Legal Services Market, Split by Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned Arps

Slate

Meagher & Flom

Clifford Chance

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Linklaters

Skadden

Allen & Overy

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Latham & Watkins LLP

Baker & McKenzie

DLA Piper and Skadden For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/zamt79. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005738/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Cloud Infrastructure Spending Maintained Strong Growth in First Quarter of 2021, According to IDC

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud infrastructure, including dedicated and shared environments, increased 12.5% year over year in the first quarter of 2021 (1Q21) to $15.1 billion. Investments in non-cloud infrastructure increased 6.3% year over year in 1Q21 to $13.5 billion. As the market and the world slowly begins to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, sectors of the economy that had suffered the most revenue loss are returning to growth. A lasting impact on IT infrastructure will be an increased reliance on cloud platforms for delivering commercial, educational, and social applications, as well as an intensified focus among organizations on business continuity and risk management, helping to drive digital transformation initiatives and increase usage of as-a-service delivery models. Spending on shared cloud infrastructure increased 11.6% year over year in 1Q21, reaching $10.3 billion. IDC (News - Alert) expects shared cloud infrastructure spending to surpass non-cloud infrastructure spending in the near future. Spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure increased 14.7% year over year in 1Q21 to $4.8 billion with 45.5% of this amount deployed on customer premises. IDC expects that cloud environments will continue to outpace non-cloud throughout its forecast. With healthy first quarter results and the overall infrastructure market beginning to recover from the pandemic, IDC is forecasting cloud infrastructure spending to grow 12.9% to $74.6 billion for 2021, while non-cloud infrastructure is expected to grow 2.7% to $58.5 billion after two years of declines. Shared cloud infrastructure is expected to grow by 12.2% year over year to $51.8 billion for the full year. Spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure is expected to grow 14.7% to $22.7 billion for the full year. As part of the new Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, IDC tracks various categories of service providers and how much compute and storage infrastructure these service providers purchase, including both cloud and non-cloud infrastructure. The service provider categories IDC follows are: cloud service providers, digital service providers, communications service providers, and managed service providers. In 1Q21, service providers as a group spent $15.5 billion on compute and storage infrastructure, growing 12.5% year over year, and accounting for 54.0% of total compute and storage infrastructure spending. IDC expects compute and storage spending by service providers to reach $74.7 billion for 2021, growing at 11.1% year over year. Spending on cloud infrastructure increased across most regions in 1Q21, with the highest annual growth rates in Canada (40.3%), China (PRC) (35.0%), and Asia/Pacific excluding Japan and China (APeJC) (28.8%). Western Europe grew 10.8%, the United States grew 4.5%, and Japan declined 1.1%. The smaller regions had mixed results and collectively grew 0.1%. At the vendor level, all major vendors grew their cloud infrastructure revenue in 1Q21, with the highest growth rates belonging to Lenovo (38.2%) and Huawei (News - Alert) (37.9%). Huawei, Lenovo, and HPE/H3C(a) each grew their market share compared to results from the prior year's first quarter.







Top Companies, Worldwide Cloud Infrastructure Vendor Revenue, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q1 2021 (Revenues are in Millions) Company 1Q21

Revenue

(US$M) 1Q21

Market

Share 1Q20

Revenue

(US$M) 1Q20

Market

Share 1Q21/1Q20

Revenue

Growth 1. Dell Technologies $2,467 16.9% $2,422 18.6% 1.9% 2. HPE/H3C(a) $1,637 11.2% $1,386 10.6% 18.2% T3. Inspur/Inspur Power Systems(b)* $1,022 7.0% $915 7.0% 11.7% T3. Lenovo (News - Alert)* $994 6.8% $719 5.5% 38.2% T5. Huawei* $460 3.1% $334 2.6% 37.9% T5. Cisco* $393 2.7% $374 2.9% 5.1% T5. IBM (News - Alert)* $321 2.2% $301 2.3% 6.9% T5. NetApp* $305 2.1% $301 2.3% 1.4% ODM Direct $5,358 36.6% $4,851 37.2% 10.5% Rest of Market $1,667 11.4% $1,427 11.0% 16.9% Total Vendor Revenue $14,624 100.0% $13,028 100.0% 12.3% IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, Q1 2021

Notes: * IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide cloud IT infrastructure market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the vendor revenue shares among two or more vendors. a. Due to the existing joint venture between HPE and H3C, IDC is reporting external market share on a global level for HPE and H3C as "HPE/H3C" starting from 2Q 2016. Per the JV agreement, Tsinghua Holdings subsidiary, Unisplendour Corporation, through a wholly owned affiliate, purchased a 51% stake in H3C and HPE has a 49% ownership stake in the new company. b. Inspur revenues include revenues and server units for Inspur Power Systems. Inspur is reported as a separate company with revenues including Inspur OEM systems and Inspur Power Systems locally developed and branded systems revenue. Per the JV agreement, Inspur Power Commercial System Co., Ltd., has total registered capital of RMB 1 billion, with Inspur investing RMB 510 million for a 51% equity stake, and IBM investing RMB 490 million for the remaining 49% equity stake. In addition to the table above, a graphic illustrating worldwide cloud infrastructure share for the top 5 companies in 1Q21 and 1Q20 is available by viewing this press release on IDC.com. Long-term, IDC expects spending on compute and storage cloud infrastructure to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.3% over the 2021-2025 forecast period, reaching $112.9 billion in 2025 and accounting for 66.1% of total compute and storage infrastructure spend. Shared cloud infrastructure will account for 67.5% of this amount, growing at a 10.5% CAGR. Spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure will grow at a CAGR of 13.1%. Spending on non-cloud infrastructure will rebound slightly in 2021 but will flatten out at a CAGR of 0.3%, reaching $57.9 billion in 2025. Spending by service providers on compute and storage infrastructure is expected to grow at a 10.1% CAGR, reaching $108.8 billion in 2025. A graphic illustrating IDC's worldwide enterprise infrastructure buyer & cloud deployment forecast by deployment type (non-cloud, shared cloud, dedicated cloud) is available by viewing this press release on IDC.com. IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment is designed to provide clients with a better understanding of what portion of the compute and storage hardware markets are being deployed in cloud environments. The Tracker breaks out each vendors' revenue into shared and dedicated cloud environments for historical data and provides a five-year forecast. This Tracker is part of the Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker, which provides a holistic total addressable market view of the four key enabling infrastructure technologies for the datacenter (servers, external enterprise storage systems, and purpose-built appliances: HCI and PBBA). Taxonomy Notes IDC defines cloud services more formally through a checklist of key attributes that an offering must manifest to end users of the service. Shared cloud services are shared among unrelated enterprises and consumers; open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users; and designed for a market, not a single enterprise. The shared cloud market includes a variety of services designed to extend or, in some cases, replace IT infrastructure deployed in corporate datacenters; these services in total are called public cloud services. The shared cloud market also includes digital services such as media/content distribution, sharing and search, social media, and e-commerce. Dedicated cloud services are shared within a single enterprise or an extended enterprise with restrictions on access and level of resource dedication and defined/controlled by the enterprise (and beyond the control available in public cloud offerings); can be onsite or offsite; and can be managed by a third-party or in-house staff. In dedicated cloud that is managed by in-house staff, "vendors (cloud service providers)" are equivalent to the IT departments/shared service departments within enterprises/groups. In this utilization model, where standardized services are jointly used within the enterprise/group, business departments, offices, and employees are the "service users." For more information about IDC's Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, please contact Lidice Fernandez at lfernandez@idc.com. About IDC Trackers IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly Excel deliverables and on-line query tools. Click here to learn about IDC's full suite of data products and how you can leverage them to grow your business. About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter (News - Alert) at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights. All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005754/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Swiss Growth Forum Welcomes you to Exclusive Monaco and EU Summer Events Co-Hosted by Michael Terpin July 4th - 9th.

Monte Carlo, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) Andreea Porcelli is thrilled to welcome investors and companies back to Monaco for the 23rd Edition of the Swiss Growth Forum in Monaco on July 4th - 5th. Photo Available Here Andreea was quoted "The Summer of 2021 is the beginning of our return to in person networking and inverter events. What better way to kick it off than with the Launch of BitAngels Monaco which I will be hosting together with Michaelt Terpin, Founder of CoinAgenda and BitAngels at the lovely Mariott Riviera Cap d'Ail Bolinas Bar on Monaco on the 4th of July from 4:30 - 7:00 pm. As always we will be introducing the fantastic Speakers and and Presenting Companies that will joining us for the Swiss Growth Forum Summer Edition on July 5th from 10:00 am - 7:30 pm at the Mariott Riviera Hotel". Please see our full Schedule for July 4th - 5th Events in Monaco and July 9th in Milano all hosted by Andreea Porcelli and Michael Terpin, founder of CoinAgenda and BitAngels.

The Theme of BitAngels Launch Parties and SGF Summer Forum: 2021"Digital Assets are Now an Essential Part of a Wealth Management Portfolio". July 4th: Andreea Porcelli and Michael Terpin Host the Launch Party for BitAngels in Monaco with 4 outstanding Fintech companies. Where: Mariott Riviera in Cap d'Ail

When: 4:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Cocktail Reception with Champagne, Hors D'oeuvres and Networking

RSVP Here: Click Here



July 5th: Swiss Growth Forum Summer Edition 2021 at the Mariott Riviera in Cap d'Ail When: 10:00 am - 7:30 pm

Co-Hosted. by Andrea Porcelli and Keynote Speaker Michael Terpin.

10 Presenting Companies and an Exlcusive Investor Panel Discussing "Digital Assets as an Essential Part of the Wealth Management Portfolio:

Schedule: Swiss Growth Forum 23rd Summer Edition in Monaco at the Mariott Riviera Cap d'Ail

9:30 - 10:00 am: Networking Coffee Break

10:00 am: Welcome Speech by Michael Terpin and Andreea Porcelli

10:30 am - 1:30 pm: Presenting Companies (click here for full list)

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm: Sated Networking Luncheon with Cascina Ballarin Wines.

3:00 pm - 5:30 pm: One to One meetings at the Mariott Terrace and Interior lounge.

4:30 - 5:00 pm: Panel Discussion featuring Michael Terpin and a range of wealth managers and public company directors on the topic of "Digital Assets as an Essential Part of Fund Raising for Companies".

6:00 - 8:00 pm: Closing Cocktail Reception and Barolo Wine Tasting with Cascina Ballarin Wines. Hors d'oeuvres and Champagne served.

RSVP for a limited time on a COMPLIMENTARY BASIS for both events!

Limited number of tickets available. RSVP Here: Click Here

Friday July 9th SGF/ Bit Angels Launch Reception in Milan hosted by Andreea Porcelli and Michael Terpin. Where: Sheraton Diana Majestic Hotel.

4:30 - 6:30 pm: Cocktail Reception ad Barolo Wine Tasting with hors d'oeuvres and 3 presenting companies

RSVP: Complimentary Entrance for a limited time only! RSVP Here: Click Here Contact us:

Andreea Porcelli

Founder & CEO

Swiss Growth Forum LLC

www.swissgrowthforum.org

LinkedIn | Youtube

Mobile: +1 702-528-7280

aporcelli@swissgrowthforum.io BITAngels Contact:

Erika Zapanta: erika@coinagenda.com



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[July 01, 2021] French Gerleman and IAC Supply Solutions Merge to Create a $250 Million Industrial Automation and Electrical Supply Distribution Company Spanning Six States

ST. LOUIS, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- French Gerleman, one of the largest privately held companies in the St. Louis region, and IAC Supply Solutions, ranked among the fastest growing companies in Memphis, have announced their merger. Both French Gerleman and IAC are hundred-year-old independent distributors of electrical, industrial and automation products and services. The newly formed company will operate under the name Agilix Solutions, and will be headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The newly formed Agilix Solutions is one of the 50 largest electrical supply distributors in the United States . The combined company generates $250 million in annual revenue and employs more than 350 people across 13 branches in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. Agilix Solutions will remain an independent, family-owned, and privately held company. The combined ownership group is made up of the French and Wagner families from French Gerleman, and the Langley family from IAC Supply Solutions. French Gerleman's President Mike tanfill will serve as CEO, with IAC President Darrell Smith serving as President of Agilix.



"French Gerleman and IAC have long histories of sustained excellence and common values," said Stanfill. "We've navigated market and technological changes over the years and assisted our customers through the transformations. This merger of two great organizations delivers increased value to our stakeholders -- the customers we serve, manufacturers we represent, and employees and owners who define us." The newly formed Agilix Solutions ranks among Electrical Wholesaling Magazine's 50 largest electrical supply distributors in the nation. The company expects to grow by double digits over the next five years and plans to increase staff by the end of 2021.

"The merger of IAC and French Gerleman positions two great companies very well for a strong future," said Smith. "Each of us brings complementary strengths in terms of our teams, product lines, service offerings, and geographical regions we serve. Because Agilix remains an independent distributor, we can be closer to our customers and anticipate their needs with the flexibility and agility required to support their business objectives in a fast-moving world." Established in 1923, with roots dating back to 1914, French Gerleman is a fifth-generation, family-owned business serving industrial, commercial, contractor and original equipment manufacturer customers. The company offers industrial automation, power transmission, electrical supply, safety and solar products across 6 branches in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. IAC Supply Solutions' historical roots date back to 1895. The company has been family-owned since 1985, and today, operates under third-generation ownership. IAC is one of the fastest growing companies in Memphis, serving the electrical, automation, industrial, commercial, residential and construction markets in West Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. More information about each company, and the merger, can be found online at GoAgilix.com. About Agilix Solutions:

Agilix Solutions is one of the 50 largest electrical supply distributors in the United States, and a leading distributor of products and services to the industrial, commercial and construction markets. Founded in 2021 through the merger of French Gerleman and IAC Supply Solutions, the company has longstanding partnerships with manufacturers such as Rockwell Automation, nVent Hoffman, Panduit, ABB, Southwire, Siemens, Hubbell, Acuity Brands, 3M, Mersen, and many other top manufacturers of automation, electrical, datacom, power transmission, safety, industrial supply, lighting and solar solutions. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/french-gerleman-and-iac-supply-solutions-merge-to-create-a-250-million-industrial-automation-and-electrical-supply-distribution-company-spanning-six-states-301324383.html SOURCE French Gerleman; IAC Supply Solutions

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[July 01, 2021] WazirX Partners With TRM Labs to Deploy Leading Crypto Compliance Platform

WazirX, India's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced their collaboration with TRM Labs, a leading blockchain analytics provider, to enhance anti-money laundering and anti-fraud measures for transactions conducted on the WazirX platform. TRM Labs provides a full-service platform for crypto compliance and risk management, including tools for wallet screening, transaction monitoring and investigations. TRM's monitoring capability spans 360,000+ digital assets across 20+ blockchains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Dogecoin, Cardano, Bitcoin, and others, representing the most extensive asset coverage in the industry. The partnership comes as crypto usage and demand surges in India, with trading volumes increasing significantly following recent clarification on access of banking services to cryptocurrency businesses in India. Indian authorities have previously expressed concern that crypto assets could be used for criminal activity such as money laundering and funding terrorism, signalling the importance for exchanges like WazirX to demonstrate a robust capability to detect and prevent illicit activity from occurring on its platform. "Ensuring that our operations are secure and compliant with global regulatory requirements is critical to our success; at the same time, we want to meet our customers' expectations for fast, seamless transactions. TRM's platform elps us achieve this balance with an AML (Anti Money Laundering) solution that's easy for large compliance teams to use, but also underpinned by best-in-class blockchain analytics," says Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO of WazirX.



"Forward-thinking crypto businesses like WazirX recognize that the right risk management tool is an enabler of growth. Our next-generation platform is designed for customers who need to move quickly to meet consumer demand for new assets while maintaining the highest standard of regulatory compliance and risk management." says Esteban Castano, CEO of TRM Labs. About TRM Labs

TRM Labs provides blockchain intelligence to organizations who need to detect, assess and investigate crypto-related fraud and financial crime. Trusted by financial institutions, crypto businesses and government agencies across the globe, TRM's risk management platform includes tools for crypto wallet screening, transaction monitoring, Know-Your-VASP checks and investigations. The platform enables a rapidly growing cohort of organizations to safely embrace cryptocurrency-related transactions, products, and partnerships. www.trmlabs.com About WazirX WazirX is India's largest and the most trusted crypto exchange with over 6.5 Million users and a monthly volume of $6.2 Billion. WazirX's mission is to make crypto accessible to everyone in India. It is available for the global audience and key features include instant INR (fiat) deposit and withdrawal options to help users enter and exit anytime 24x7, QuickBuy to allow users to buy their first crypto with just a tap, Smart Token Fund to help crypto investors find expert traders, and let them manage their crypto portfolio, and world's first auto-matching P2P engine with high liquidity. https://wazirx.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005766/en/

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[July 01, 2021] OTC:ILUS, ILUS International (Ilustrato Pictures International Inc) Builds on Second Quarter Milestones With New Acquisitions, Important US Plant Set Up and Marketing Drive

NEW YORK, NY, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- ILUS International Inc (OTC: ILUS) is forging ahead with another key phase of expansion after achieving a number of important second-quarter goals in its global M&A strategy to acquire and develop technology-based companies.

Having followed up its two first-quarter acquisitions with a third in the second quarter (BCD Fire), ILUS International (ILUS) is anticipating a strong third quarter, with several more acquisitions, including one in the USA, close to completion. In the United Arab Emirates, the company has now commenced production after moving into its new factory in Dubai and is undergoing ISO9001 and 140001 certifications. The factory includes a new vehicle superstructure manufacturing division that uses specialist co-polymer plastic to manufacture Fire Truck and Ambulance bodies. The significance of Plastic Fire Truck Superstructures, which are already the norm in the UK and much of Europe, is that they are lighter in weight, recyclable, and comparably low on maintenance and cost. The companys new Dubai plant is believed to be the only plastic vehicle production facility in the entire Middle East, with the UK and Europe previously supplying all the regions plastic bodies. ILUS intends to replicate this plastic vehicle body production capacity in a new USA facility to be established in the third quarter. Currently, the majority of USA trucks are still manufactured from metals. In order to support its rapid growth, the company has recruited a number of key staff, and is continuing to identify and bring in more outstanding talent. Following its recent appointment of an experienced General Manager for UK and Europe, ILUS is in the process of recruiting a General Manager for the Middle East, as well as five engineers for the Dubai factory. Additionally, a specialist EV Engineer is being enlisted to continue the development and support the rollout of the E-Raptor into the USA market, and global distribution. ILUS is also headhunting a Technical Director for the USA factory, and is close to appointing a Director of Fixed Systems to accelerate the certification of its fixed firefighting systems, including the much-awaited kitchen system. With the second quarter only just ended, the accounting team is working full out to have the groups financials consolidated on time to meet the quarterly filing deadline. Despite its two major markets being in lockdown, ILUS generated almost $3mil of revenue in the second quarter, keeping the company on target to achieve its forecast of $15mil to $20mil annual Revenue Run Rate by the end of 2021. ILUS is targeting a $50mil Revenue Run Rate by the end of 2022. After working with the Canadian authorities for several months, ILUS management successfully lifted the Canadian Cease Trade order to allow the Canadian markets to trade ILUS stock. The company is currently working with the Transfer Agent and its attorneys in order to improve the Share Structure, cancelling some shares and retiring or reallocating other shares. Once this has been finalised, the OTC will be updated and should show an improved Outstanding Share Structure. In association with the companys strategic partner, the ILS coin was successfully launched and listed on a Decentralised Exchange PanCake Swap and a Centralised Exchange LA Token. The coins following and popularity are now growing, following a challenging journey that saw the crypto market (Bitcoin Dodge and Ethereum) reach an all-time high during the launch, and then crypto prices crashing. The partnership has worked well and the company expects it to flourish during the second half of the year.



While the world still feels the pressure of Covid-19, many countries are making great progress with their vaccination programs and are starting to return to more normalised trading for the second half of 2021. In recognition of this, ILUS is in the process of booking a series of exhibitions, roadshows and demonstrations for the end of 2021 and through 2022. Roadshows and demonstrations are key to gaining traction and adoption in new markets. ILUS has already confirmed that it will exhibit at Intersec Dubai in January 2022, FDIC in Indianapolis in April 2022 and the Emergency Services Show in Birmingham in September 2022. Many more events and roadshows are planned, as the company looks to let the products speak for themselves when demonstrated. Anticipating a strong second half of the year, with growing revenues, acquisitions, USA set up and improved operations, ILUS is placing a big focus on marketing and PR for the remainder of 2021. In addition, all companies in the group are currently bidding on substantial contracts, which are expected to be awarded in the third quarter.

ILUS CEO, Nicolas Link, commented: The second quarter has been a period of consolidation, during which we have been regrouping after a whirlwind first quarter. From the outside, it may appear that not many scores were added to the board, but in fact, this second quarter was a vital foundation-building period for the company to catapult it forward into what we expect will be an epic second half of the year. The third quarter should get off to a flyer with expected acquisitions in the first half of the period, and we will be exponentially building from there. For further information on the companies, please see their communication channels: Website: https://ilus-group.com Twitter : OTC_ILUS Contact: Email: IR@Ilus-Group.com Source: ILUS Related Links https://ilus-group.com Forward-Looking Statement Certain information set forth in this press release contains "forward-looking information", including "future-oriented financial information" and "financial outlook", under applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Except for statements of historical fact, the information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements and includes, but is not limited to, the (i) projected financial performance of the Company; (ii) completion of, and the use of proceeds from, the sale of the shares being offered hereunder; (iii) the expected development of the Company's business, projects, and joint ventures; (iv) execution of the Company's vision and growth strategy, including with respect to future M&A activity and global growth; (v) sources and availability of third-party financing for the Company's projects; (vi) completion of the Company's projects that are currently underway, in development or otherwise under consideration; (vi) renewal of the Company's current customer, supplier and other material agreements; and (vii) future liquidity, working capital, and capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management's beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although forward-looking statements contained in this presentation are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has provided guidance to issuers regarding the use of social media to disclose material non-public information. In this regard, investors and others should note that we announce material financial information via official Press Releases, in addition to SEC filings, press releases, Questions & Answers sessions, public conference calls and webcastsalso may take time from time to time. We use these channels as well as social media to communicate with the public about our company, our services and other issues. It is possible that the information we post on social media could be deemed to be material information. Therefore, in light of the SEC's guidance, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our company to review the information we post on the following social & media channels: website: https://ilus-group.com Twitter : OTC_ILUS Note: ILUS Coin does not sit within ILUS International Inc (Ilustrato Pictures International Inc) so the public are recommended to follow the correct Media Channels relating to the public company OTC: ILUS.



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[July 01, 2021] Ready Asset Pro Captures IoT Evolution Product of the Year

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ready Wireless, a leading IoT Solution Integrator, was recognized at the internationally attended IoT Evolution Expo in Miami Beach, Florida. Ready Asset Pro, the company's innovative solutions framework, was awarded the Expo's prestigious Product of the Year award. With over 150 solutions Ready Asset Pro solves the most vexing challenges that businesses face when deploying technology "I'm thrilled to receive this prestigious award on behalf of our team and our partners," said Dennis Henderson, CEO of Ready Wireless. "An unbelievable amount of energy and passion has gone into this project, and it's very gratifying to receive this recognition from industry experts." Ready Asset Pro solves the most vexing challenges that businesses face when deploying technology solutions. With over 150 point-solutions at their disposal, utilizing LTE/Cat-M/NB-IoT/LoRaWAN and BLE, business customers can manage their assets, solve business problems, and generate ROI, all on a single pane of glass. Ben Muhlenbruch, Director of Marketing, said, "It's no secret that businesses operating today aren't facing just one or two challenges when it comes to optimizing their operations. Ready Asset Pro delivers location, key behaviors, and the needed parameters to efficiently manage your high value assets such as trailers, generators, water tanks, LP tanks in the field, or fill/fuel level for mission-critical generators. Ready Asset Pro also implements automated contact tracing for employees with the added ability of monitoring air quality of offices as employees return to work. Before Ready Asset Pro, customers received multiple invoices for a single solution. We've eliminated the confusion and complexity by utilizing a "Single Pane of Glass" to realize the needed efficiencies for our customers. Our Ready Asset Pro customers can do all of this with one partner on a sinle application, and solve the next problem using the same setup. This is absolutely a game-changer, and we are proud to receive Product of the Year at the IoT Evolution Expo this year."



Ready Wireless has partnered with WMW to develop the Ready Asset Pro application framework. "Our requirements around device- and network-agnosticity proved challenging for nearly every platform partner we considered," Muhlenbruch said. "WMW is a perfect fit for us - we can quickly add virtually any new device, regardless of connectivity type, and modify the application to conform to the customer use case, resulting in a tailor made application for them." Bert Vanaken, CEO and founder of WMW, said, "We're determined to play a meaningful role in the IoT space. Not by building a software platform, but by developing a technology to build platforms. With this homegrown technology we build IoT applications at an unprecedented speed and fully tailored to the needs of the customer and the use cases. When the pandemic hit all of us, we developed a social distancing solution to keep people safe and help reopen companies and factories. Ready Wireless was already very active in the IoT space, and we got on their radar with our social distancing solution. As we learned about their intentions and their dedicated team, they also learned that our technology would allow them to put to practice all they set out to do. To successfully roll out IoT projects, you need to bring many things together and possess a good understanding of both technologies and business needs. Ready Wireless has all that and we are thrilled that, partly with our technology, they are now recognized with this award, as a key player in this meaningful and growing IoT market."

Industry experts are already weighing in on the leading edge solution, John Hubler Partner of BH IoT Group said, "Ready Asset Pro is helping companies cut through the confusion when it comes to connecting devices from multiple assets, Ready Asset Pro acts as an IoT hub that allows device manufacturers to easily add their devices to a platform that can be converted into a tailor-made application for customers and a provides access to a robust commercially viable channel program." About Ready Wireless Ready Wireless is a leading IoT Managed Service Provider and Systems Integrator. The company is a one-stop-shop that brings networks, devices, and portals together to solve weighty problems for business customers. Prepackaged solutions address critical business needs such as contact tracing, distracted driving, and asset management. Ready's solutions are customizable and its portals offer clean and powerful management capabilities for Ready's customers. For more information, visit www.readywireless.com. About BH IoT Group BH IoT Group is a Wireless & IoT Consulting Practice. Our team of experts helps companies navigate the constantly changing environment of the Internet of Things. We build Go-to-Market strategies, educate and enable our clients to be successful within IoT to ensure their success in SMB, mid-market and enterprise environments. About WMW WMW is an IoT-hub where you combine your operational data with information provided through various types of sensors and devices. Everything you want to know about your assets, people and external services can be linked digitally to your organisation. We have already produced more than 150 apps that can be used for single purpose solutions or combined into full application suites like for example in smart city or smart farm projects. The underlying technology is a framework to develop applications providing visibility and insights in data to all stakeholders. With a robust engine for data ingestion from many wireless protocols and a codelibrary to manage and visualise all that data for asset management, we fulfill the software and hosting requirements for any IoT project.

Media Contact: Ben Muhlenbruch, bmuhlenbruch@readywireless.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ready-asset-pro-captures-iot-evolution-product-of-the-year-301324610.html SOURCE Ready Wireless, LLC

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[July 01, 2021] Cloud at Work Selected by ACI Consulting, Leading Sage Business Partner, as Exclusive Hosting Provider for its Sage Clients

NEW YORK, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud at Work (www.thecloudatwork.com) , a purpose-built Sage hosting solution, today announced that ACI Consulting (ACI), a leading Sage business partner, has selected it as its exclusive hosting provider for Sage clients. By migrating its Sage clients to Cloud at Work, ACI enables them to take control of their businesses, and realize the financial benefits of SaaS, supported by the combined Sage application and cloud technology expertise of ACI and the Cloud at Work team. After working with multiple hosting providers over the years we wanted a client-first partner we could trust Since its inception in 1993, ACI Consulting has evolved into a full-service Sage VAR representing Sage 100, Sage 500, Sage X3, Sage Intacct and Sage CRM. Taking a client-first approach, ACI has grown into a leading Sage partner, supporting hundreds of clients by building trust and delivering a white glove service. By choosing Cloud at Work as its exclusive Sage hosting provider, ACI gives their clients the increased agility needed in a fast-changing, post-pandemic world, while reducing costs, increasing profits, and streamlining processes to improve efficiencies and gain a competitive edge. "ACI Consulting and Cloud at Work are natural partners because of our shared cultures and values as problem solvers and promise keepers," said Tyer Bower, Director of Cloud at Cloud at Work. "ACI has become one of the most trusted brands in the Sage community, and we look forward to working with Douglas and his first-rate team in enabling their Sage clients to realize the efficiencies and business benefits of cloud hosting."



"After working with multiple hosting providers over the years we wanted a client-first partner we could trust to seamlessly transition our clients' Sage solutions to the cloud and help grow our practice," said Douglas Luchansky, President of ACI. "That Sage vetted and certified Cloud at Work a Sage Partner Cloud Strategic Service Provider, spoke volumes about their expertise and client-centric approach, which made this decision that much easier." Cloud at Work's recently announced Partner Development Fund allocates $1.5 million to Sage Business Partner customers who migrate their application to Cloud at Work. Sage users that sign on to move to Cloud at Work Hosting will receive a certificate of credit to be spent exclusively with their Sage Business Partner of Record. The funds can be used for any service, including upgrades, new software, services and migrations. Learn more about the Cloud at Work Partner Program.

About Cloud at Work

Cloud at Work gives users of Sage applications more capabilities and control to increase business performance using their technology investments. With a knowledgeable, highly-responsive team of Sage application experts and advanced cloud hosting solutions personalized to customer strengths, Cloud at Work helps its customers pivot more quickly to capitalize on new business opportunities and resolve issues faster. Businesses using Sage trust Cloud at Work to help them achieve higher levels of business productivity and resiliency that outpace competitors and help them capture more market share. Visit thecloudatwork.com for more information. About ACI Consulting

ACI Consulting provides boutique services to its Sage clients, bridging the gap between very large Sage firms, and smaller Sage firms that are often one-person shops. Offering a highly personable approach to consulting, ACI Consulting recognizes the need as a service-based company to provide quick responses, project management, superior Sage product knowledge, and business process advising, all with-in the context of a Sage Software environment. Businesses that work with ACI Consulting as their Sage partner find that the level of attention to detail is second to none, meaning ACI Consulting's application experts are often regarded as an extension of our clients. Visit www.ACIconsulting.com to learn more about the power of experience. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-at-work-selected-by-aci-consulting-leading-sage-business-partner-as-exclusive-hosting-provider-for-its-sage-clients-301324612.html SOURCE Cloud at Work

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[July 01, 2021] Bioasis Announces the Appointment of Dave Jenkins as Chief Financial Officer

NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOASIS TECHNOLOGIES INC . (TSXV:BTI; OTCQB:BIOAF), (the Company or Bioasis), a pre-clinical, research-stage biopharmaceutical company developing its proprietary xB3 platform technology for the delivery of therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders in areas of high unmet medical need, including brain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Dave Jenkins as Chief Financial Officer.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and our management team, it is my pleasure to welcome Dave to Bioasis. Dave has a proven track record in finance and accounting, including financing transactions, business development, strategic planning, and guiding companies through significant growth. His contributions will be critical as we continue to execute on our mission to advance our internal pipeline and license our proprietary xB3 platform technology, said Deborah Rathjen, Ph.D., Bioasis Executive Chair. Jenkins has previously worked at a number of technology and life sciences companies and brings diverse financial management experience in executing the strategic and financial plans of emerging companies. I am delighted to join Bioasis at a time when the company is preparing to reach major milestones in its development, said Jenkins. I am excited by the potential of the Bioasis xB3 platform technology and admire the teams focus and vision on bringing transformational therapies to patients with brain cancers and neurological diseases. I look forward to contributing to Bioasis success and supporting its mission. The Board and management thank our outgoing CFO, Ms. Christine Antalik, for her contribution to Bioasis over the past several years and wish her every success in future endeavours, said Dr. Rathjen. About Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins has more than 35 years of experience in accounting and finance including 31 years at PwC, one of the worlds largest accounting and consulting firms. At PwC, Jenkins was an audit partner, serving multinational public companies, private equity portfolio companies, and venture backed growth companies. He served companies in multiple sectors including bioscience, software, and healthcare. He has deep experience assisting companies raise capital, develop teams, evaluate and complete acquisitions, design well controlled systems, and expand internationally. Jenkins currently has his own advisory practice, Forest View Consulting, LLC, where he assists high growth technology and bioscience companies develop strategic business models, enhance business development, and evaluate key transactions. Jenkins earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration and accounting from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. where he also currently serves on the colleges Board of Trustees.>



On behalf of the Board of Directors of Bioasis Technologies Inc.

Deborah Rathjen, Ph.D., Executive Chair of the Board Follow on:

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BTI-CRP About Bioasis

Bioasis Technologies Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing the xB3 platform, a proprietary technology for the delivery of therapeutics across the blood brain barrier and the treatment of CNS disorders in areas of high unmet medical need, including brain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. The delivery of therapeutics across the blood brain barrier represents the final frontier in treating neurological disorders. The in-house development programs at Bioasis are designed to develop symptomatic and disease-modifying treatments for brain-related diseases and disorders. For more information about the Company, please visit www.bioasis.us. Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 or forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities legislation that may not be based on historical fact, along with other statements containing the words believe, may, plan, will, estimate, continue, anticipate, intend, expect and similar expressions. Such forward- looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, events or developments, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, events or developments express or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such factors include, among others, our stage of development, lack of any product revenues, additional capital requirements, risk associated with the completion of clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval to market our products, the ability to protect our intellectual property, dependence on collaborative partners and the prospects for negotiating additional corporate collaborations or licensing arrangements and their timing. Specifically, certain risks and uncertainties that could cause such actual events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from any future events or results expressed or implied by such statements and information include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties that: products that we develop may not succeed in preclinical or clinical trials, or future products in our targeted corporate objectives; our future operating results are uncertain and likely to fluctuate; we may not be able to raise additional capital; we may not be successful in establishing additional corporate collaborations or licensing arrangements; we may not be able to establish marketing and the costs of launching our products may be greater than anticipated; we have no experience in commercial manufacturing; we may face unknown risks related to intellectual property matters; we face increased competition from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; and other factors as described in detail in our filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are based on our current expectations and we undertake no obligation to revise or update such forward- looking statements and information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contacts: Deborah Rathjen, Ph.D., Executive Chair of the Board and CEO

deborah@bioasis.us

203-533-7082 Investor Contact:

Graeme Dick

Colwell Capital Corp.

graeme@colwellcapital.com

403-561-8989



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[July 01, 2021] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Rocket Companies, Inc. (RKT) on Behalf of Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Rocket Companies, Inc. ("Rocket" or the "Company") (NYSE: RKT) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your Rocket investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information at https://www.glancylaw.com/cases/rocket-companies-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights. On May 5, 2021, Rocket announced first quarter 2021 financial results and second quarter 2021 outlook in a press release, reporting that it expected closed loan volume within a range of only $82.5 billion and $87.5 billion and gain on sale margins within a range of only 2.65% to 2.95% for the second quarter of 2021. The midpoit of this gain on sale margin estimate represented a 239 basis point decline year-over-year and a 94 basis point decline sequentially, which was Rocket's lowest quarterly gain on sale margin in two years and reflected that favorable market conditions recently touted by the Company had in fact reversed.



On this news, the Company's stock price fell $3.79, or nearly 17%, to close at $19.01 per share on May 6, 2021. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding Rocket should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email shareholders@glancylaw.com. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times (News - Alert), Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005779/en/

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[July 01, 2021] Global Mass Transit Security Market (2021 to 2026) - Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecasts

DUBLIN, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Mass Transit Security Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global mass transit security market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 10% during the forecast period (2021-2026). Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end-use industries. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Mass transit security can be referred to as various safety and security solutions employed at entry and exit points of public transportation hubs. These solutions are deployed by governments across airway, waterway, roadway and railway systems to ensure optimum protection and safety of goods, products or passengers while traveling. They detect, monitor and scan travelers and their belongings through video surveillance, voice recognition, biometric access controls and automated 3D and X-ray scanners. Other technologies, including cargo inspection, perimeter intrusion and tracking and navigation systems, are also utilized for ensuring maximum security of the public.



Owing to the alarming increase in global terrorism, coupled with the rising rate of crimes at public places, there is a growing need for efficient public safety solutions, which in turn is contributing to the market growth. On-road means of transportation and air traffic are two of the key fields, which have a high demand for mass transit security systems. Governments of various nations are investing significantly to improve the existing security infrastructure and deploy newer solutions. Efforts have been undertaken to equip airports and bus and railway stations, among other mass transit areas, with advanced security solutions, such as perimeter security, cybersecurity, surveillance, communications, access control and screening systems for monitoring passengers and staff members. Additionally, the utilization of biometrics, data analytics and 3D scanning systems, along with the integration of surveillance systems with the Internet of Things (IoT), are also favoring the market growth. Other factors, such as the emerging trend of e-passports, along with the strict implementation of stringent government policies, are projected to drive the market in the upcoming years.



The publisher's latest report provides a deep insight into the global mass transit security market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from macro overview of the market to micro details of the industry performance, recent trends, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces analysis, value chain analysis, etc. This report is a must-read for industry players, investors, researchers, consultants, business strategists, and all those who have any kind of stake or are planning to foray into the mass transit security industry in any manner. Competitive Landscape:



The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Fortem Technologies, Inc., Genetec Inc., Hikvision Digital Technology, InigoVision Group PLC, NICE Systems Ltd., Panasonic Corporation, etc.







Key Questions Answered in This Report: How has the global mass transit security market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global mass transit security market?

What is the breakup of the market based on the transit type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the solution type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the service type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global mass transit security market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry? Key Topics Covered:





1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Mass Transit Security Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Transit Type

6.1 Airways

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Waterways

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Railways

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Roadways

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Solution Type

7.1 Surveillance System

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Screening System

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Biometric Security and Authentication System

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 C2/C4ISR System

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Critical Communication System

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast

7.6 Others

7.6.1 Market Trends

7.6.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Service Type

8.1 Managed Services

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Professional Services

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Application

9.1 Homeland Security

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Industrial

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Retail and Payment Industries

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast

9.4 Logistics and Transportation Industries

9.4.1 Market Trends

9.4.2 Market Forecast

9.5 Healthcare

9.5.1 Market Trends

9.5.2 Market Forecast

9.6 Others

9.6.1 Market Trends

9.6.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region

10.1 North America

10.1.1 United States

10.1.1.1 Market Trends

10.1.1.2 Market Forecast

10.1.2 Canada

10.1.2.1 Market Trends

10.1.2.2 Market Forecast

10.2 Asia Pacific

10.2.1 China

10.2.1.1 Market Trends

10.2.1.2 Market Forecast

10.2.2 Japan

10.2.2.1 Market Trends

10.2.2.2 Market Forecast

10.2.3 India

10.2.3.1 Market Trends

10.2.3.2 Market Forecast

10.2.4 South Korea

10.2.4.1 Market Trends

10.2.4.2 Market Forecast

10.2.5 Australia

10.2.5.1 Market Trends

10.2.5.2 Market Forecast

10.2.6 Indonesia

10.2.6.1 Market Trends

10.2.6.2 Market Forecast

10.2.7 Others

10.2.7.1 Market Trends

10.2.7.2 Market Forecast

10.3 Europe

10.3.1 Germany

10.3.1.1 Market Trends

10.3.1.2 Market Forecast

10.3.2 France

10.3.2.1 Market Trends

10.3.2.2 Market Forecast

10.3.3 United Kingdom

10.3.3.1 Market Trends

10.3.3.2 Market Forecast

10.3.4 Italy

10.3.4.1 Market Trends

10.3.4.2 Market Forecast

10.3.5 Spain

10.3.5.1 Market Trends

10.3.5.2 Market Forecast

10.3.6 Russia

10.3.6.1 Market Trends

10.3.6.2 Market Forecast

10.3.7 Others

10.3.7.1 Market Trends

10.3.7.2 Market Forecast

10.4 Latin America

10.4.1 Brazil

10.4.1.1 Market Trends

10.4.1.2 Market Forecast

10.4.2 Mexico

10.4.2.1 Market Trends

10.4.2.2 Market Forecast

10.4.3 Others

10.4.3.1 Market Trends

10.4.3.2 Market Forecast

10.5 Middle East and Africa

10.5.1 Market Trends

10.5.2 Market Breakup by Country

10.5.3 Market Forecast



11 SWOT Analysis



12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis 14 Price Indicators



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Axis Communications AB

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.1.3 Financials

15.3.2 Bosch Security Systems Inc.

15.3.2.1 Company Overview

15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.3 Cisco Systems, Inc.

15.3.3.1 Company Overview

15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.3.3 Financials

15.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.4 Fortem Technologies Inc.

15.3.4.1 Company Overview

15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5 Genetec Inc.

15.3.5.1 Company Overview

15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.6 Hikvision Digital Technology

15.3.6.1 Company Overview

15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.6.3 Financials

15.3.7 IndigoVision Group PLC

15.3.7.1 Company Overview

15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7.3 Financials

15.3.8 NICE Systems Ltd.

15.3.8.1 Company Overview

15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.8.3 Financials

15.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.9 Panasonic Corporation

15.3.9.1 Company Overview

15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.9.3 Financials

15.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yahy0o Media Contact: Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



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U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-mass-transit-security-market-2021-to-2026---industry-trends-share-size-growth-opportunity-and-forecasts-301324540.html SOURCE Research and Markets

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[July 01, 2021] Noorda-COM Begins National Search for New President and Appoints Interim President

The Board of Trustees of the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine (Noorda-COM) today announced it will begin a national search for a new permanent president and has appointed Dr. Norman S. Wright, Ph.D. as interim president during the search. Dr. Wright is a current member of the Noorda-COM Board of Trustees. Dr. Richard P. Nielsen, president of Noorda-COM for the past two years, has retired from his position effective June 30, 2021. About Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine Located in Provo, Utah, Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine (Noorda-COM) offers an innovative and unique medical education approach. Noorda-COM provides 21st-cetury medical students a curricular model blending active, small group learning with advanced laboratory experiences and research opportunities while also emphasizing school and life balance with a commitment to health and wellness. Noorda-COM focuses on preparing future residency-ready physicians committed to providing patient-centered healthcare. Noorda-COM is a private, proprietary institution. An independent governing Board of Trustees oversees Noorda-COM. The Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation granted Noorda-COM Pre- Accreditation status in December 2020. https://noordacom.org



View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210701005929/en/



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[July 01, 2021] Boatim Inc. announces its appointment of Joseph Johnson as Chief Executive Officer

MIAMI, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Boatim Inc. (OTCQB: BTIM), an innovative software as a service (SaaS) company building the digital boating products of tomorrow, announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Johnson. The appointment follows the resignation of Wolfgang Tippner as CEO. Mr. Johnson, a seasoned executive and business lawyer, was confirmed today following a months-long world-wide search for a new CEO. Mr. Johnson fits well into Boatim's diverse team as he is multilingual and has extensive international experience as an executive, business consultant, and attorney. The Company further announces the resignation of its CTO, Mr. Patrick Heneise. Following the appointment of our new CEO, Mr. Johnson will bring new management members on board from within his US network. The Company wishes to express its gratitude to Mr. Heneise for his valuable contributions and relentless service. This announcement comes on the heals of Boatim's successful launch of its insurance quoting and financing tools, enabling potential boat buyers direct access to financing and insurance options through Boatim.com. Boatim's continued innovations in bridging the social media and SaaS world make it the largest provider in this segment. About Boatim Inc. Boatim Inc. (OTCQB: BTIM) is a globally operating online marketplace and special interest social network for both the boating industry and boat users. Boatim Inc. was founded in 2018 and currently operates with offices in Miami (USA) and Barcelona (Spain). The technology start-up provides industry-specific software, aimed at facilitating the process of buying and selling boats andproviding digital maritime services online.



On Boatim.com the boating industry can sell and promote products and connect with a fast-growing potential customer base, while boat users can explore and buy boats, and connect with like-minded people and brands. The platform, that can be accessed through both mobile devices and desktops, generates revenues through listing placements and subscription plans, as well as on-platform ads. Thanks to the great business model scalability, revenue streams are being added continuously. Since August 2019 the privately funded start-up has become a publicly listed entity, trading at the OTCQB Venture Market under the trading symbol BTIM.

To learn more about Boatim, visit https://investor.boatim.com Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual results due to a variety of factors including: our ability to retain or increase users and engagement levels; our reliance on advertising revenue; our dependency on mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control; risks associated with new product development and their introduction as well as other new business initiatives; our emphasis on user growth and engagement and the user experience over short-term financial results; competition; litigation; privacy and regulatory concerns; risks associated with acquisitions; security breaches; and our ability to manage growth and geographically-dispersed operations. These and other potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted are more fully detailed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on Dec 2, 2020, which is available via the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Additional information has also been set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Aug 31, 2020. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is June 2, 2021, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or future events.

Boatim and Smart Connected Inventory are registered trademarks of Boatim, Inc. All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

 2021 Boatim, Inc., All Rights Reserved. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/boatim-inc-announces-its-appointment-of-joseph-johnson-as-chief-executive-officer-301324778.html SOURCE Boatim Inc.

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NASHVILLE The Tennessee Beef Promotion Board will meet July 16, 2021 at 1 p.m. CDT at the Tennessee Beef Industry Council located at 530 Brandies Circle Suite A in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The meeting is open to the public. Individuals interested in addressing the board should plan to arrive early in order to be placed on the agenda.

The agenda includes approval of previous meetings minutes, industry reports, a review of board finances, and an update on programs.

The Tennessee Beef Promotion Board was created in 2012 by state law to oversee the collection and use of assessments paid by producers for the purpose of promoting beef and beef products in-state. The Board comprises representatives from the Tennessee Livestock Market Association, Tennessee Cattlemens Association, Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, Tennessee Dairy Association, and Tennessee Beef Cattle Improvement Initiative.

For more information, contact the Tennessee Department of Agriculture at 615-837-5160.
Company is a leading Tier 1 OEM supplier

Project represents an investment of $40 million

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced today that the automotive parts manufacturer will expand its operations in Robertson County, investing $40 million and creating 97 new jobs.

Through the expansion, Martinrea will upgrade its large presses, add additional robots and welding cells and add 30,000 square feet to its existing facility at 1 Fabco Dr. in Springfield.

Martinrea is a diversified and global automotive supplier engaged in the design, development and manufacturing of highly engineered, value-added Lightweight Structures and Propulsion Systems. It currently operates in 57 locations in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, China, South Africa and Japan.

Over the last five years, TNECD has supported more than 10 economic development projects in Robertson County, accounting for nearly 2,100 job commitments and roughly $688 million in capital investment.

QUOTES

We are proud to see another respected automotive company expanding in Tennessee. This investment will bolster our states reputation as a leader in advanced manufacturing. Thank you, Martinrea, for being a partner to Robertson County and creating 97 new jobs for Tennesseans.  Gov. Bill Lee

The strength of Tennessees automotive sector is supported by the 900 plus automotive suppliers that call our state home. The new investment and job creation from Martinrea underscore the robust business environment that Tennessee offers global automotive companies. I want to thank Martinrea for its continued commitment to Tennessee and the impact these new jobs will have for the residents of Robertson County.  TNECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe

Expanding Martinreas facility in Robertson County was a logical decision for us due to its skilled workforce and close proximity to our customers. We are excited to see the continued growth of the automotive industry in Tennessee and would like to thank Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe for their leadership in this sector.  Martinrea International President and CEO Pat DEramo

The City of Springfield is excited for Martinreas continued success and expansion. They are a vital part of our community.  Springfield City Mayor Ann Schneider

Martinrea International has been a valued corporate citizen in Robertson County for many years and we are proud that they have chosen to invest in an expansion of their facility in Springfield and add new jobs for our community.  Robertson County Mayor Billy Vogle

TVA and Springfield Department of Electricity congratulate Martinrea on its decision to expand operations in Robertson County. Its always an exciting day when we can celebrate a companys continued commitment to job creation and investment in the Valley. We are proud to partner with Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, City of Springfield and Robertson County Economic Development Board to support existing industry growth from companies like Martinrea, and celebrate this announcement.  John Bradley, TVA senior vice president of Economic Development

Were excited that Martinrea is expanding operations here. Their new expansion is not only providing a large investment in the Springfield area, but also adds almost 100 new family sustaining jobs. I look forward to seeing the opportunities this expansion creates in Robertson County and appreciate all the work done by our state and local officials to bring these jobs home. It is an honor to work with them.  Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield)

Martinrea is a valued employer in Springfield, and I congratulate them and their employees on their success. I thank them for their continued investment in our community with the creation of these 97 new jobs. This demonstrates that Robertson County is a pro-business environment, and we are dedicated to helping our existing industries thrive.  Rep. Sabi Kumar (R-Springfield)

About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Developments mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tnecd.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @tnecd. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/tnecd.

TNECD Media Contact

Molly Hair, Public Information Officer

(615) 878-0063

molly.hair@tn.gov

###
NASHVILLE, Tenn.  As of July 1, the Tennessee National Guard has helped administer over 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations throughout Tennessee since Operation Warp Speed began.

Tennessees Soldiers and Airmen have been working alongside the Tennessee Department of Health, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and various other agencies playing a vital role in planning and immunizing the citizens of Tennessee when the vaccine became available last November.

Our Soldiers and Airmen who volunteered to serve in the fight against COVID-19 have done an exemplary job, said Lt. Col. Justin Olander, commander of Joint Task Force  Medical, which is responsible for the Tennessee National Guards COVID-19 response. They have sacrificed so much to put their communities first, and we will continue to do so for as long as were needed.

The Tennessee National Guard originally activated 250 Soldiers and Airmen on March 23, 2020, at the request of Gov. Bill Lee, to assist with operating COVID-19 testing sites. Lee also established the Unified Command Group to streamline the states pandemic response and established testing sites across the state supported by the Tennessee National Guard.

Not only have we surpassed 1 million vaccinations, the Tennessee Guard has helped test nearly 900,000 citizens for COVID-19, said Maj. Gen. Jeff Holmes, Tennessees Adjutant General. And we are still supporting the states efforts in both missions. Guardsmen have assisted in every county in the state and continue to operate in over 50 counties providing testing and vaccinations to our citizens.

More than 700 Soldiers and Airmen are currently on orders to support the COVID-19 fight.

In addition to operating testing and vaccination sites, members of Joint Task Force  Medical have performed testing at long-term care facilities and corrections facilities for both residents and staff. The Tennessee National Guard has also operated pop-up testing centers in public housing complexes and government housing facilities in Tennessees urban communities.

In April, Col. Jason Glass, Tennessees Assistant Adjutant General, Air, was named the Dual-Status Commander for the militarys effort to help vaccinate citizens throughout Memphis. In partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state and local agencies, Glass lead a team of approximately 130 Navy and Marine Corps personnel with the 2nd Marine Division. The sailors and Marines, organized as Vaccine Support Teams, helped support a city-run, federally supported Community Vaccination Center located at the Pipkin building at the Memphis Fairgrounds.

Additionally, the Guard also formed an Infection Disease Team, a group of specialists responsible for inspecting hospitals and alternate care facilities throughout the state to develop effective safety protocols and procedures for at-risk communities. Guard members have been instrumental in the collection and distribution of personal protective equipment, collecting supplies and delivering them to hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and those who need them most.

The men and women of the Tennessee National Guard have dealt with so much adversity since last year, said Holmes. They have sacrificed so much to stay vigilant and flexible in the fight against this virus, conquering every obstacle to provide vital services for members of our communities, and I couldnt be more proud.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will suspend all construction-related lane closures on interstates and state routes beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, July 2 through 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 6 to provide maximum roadway capacity for holiday travelers.

DISTRICT 27

CUMBERLAND COUNTY I-40 repair of the bridges over SR-1 (US-70) at MM 328.5: During this period, westbound and eastbound I-40 near MM 328 will have no scheduled lane closures. SR-1 (US-70) may be reduced to one lane with traffic signals near LM 24 at Crab Orchard, TN for bridge repair. Motorists should exercise caution and pay attention to the temporary traffic signals as they travel through the work zone.

[Mid-State Construction Company, Inc./Bradley/CNU145]

CUMBERLAND COUNTY SR-28 (US-127) construction and paving from north of I-40 (LM 17.8) to near Potato Farm Road (LM 22.7): Construction signs have been installed with erosion control and clearing activities in progress. Utility relocation for the gas line is in progress. Temporary lane closures or traffic stoppages will be necessary as construction activities continue. Motorists should use caution while traveling through the work zone.

[Jones Bros. Contractors, LLC/Bradley/CNV009]

CUMBERLAND COUNTY SR-101 (Peavine Road) grading, drainage, and paving from Firetower Road to Westchester/Catoosa Boulevard: Motorists should use caution while driving along Peavine Road. The posted speed limit from I-40 to Tuttle Lane is now 45 MPH. The existing speed limit within Fairfield Glade remains at 30 MPH. The newly installed traffic signals at Stonehenge and Eagle Lane are in operation. Temporary lane closures and/or traffic stoppages may be needed as the contractor completes punch list activities. Motorists should reduce speed on Peavine Road and be alert for construction personnel/equipment entering and exiting the roadway.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Bradley/CNQ921]

DEKALB COUNTY SR-26 (US-70) construction from near SR-53 (LM 2) to near SR-96 (LM 6.1): Contractor has begun clearing operations and installing erosion control measures. Intermittent lane closures and flagging operations are expected. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Twin K Construction/James/CNV012]

DEKALB AND WARREN COUNTY SR-56 construction of bridges and paving from south of Warren-Dekalb county line (LM 24.5) to East Bryant St. (LM 2.9): The contractor will continue installing concrete box culverts and drainage structures. Grade work, bridge work, paving operations, and utility work on the new roadway alignment are ongoing. Traffic is still using the existing SR-56; however, motorists are advised to use caution and watch for construction equipment adjacent to roadway. Flaggers may be present to move equipment across roadway, unload equipment, or complete utility work. The contractor currently performing grade work inside Smithville City Limits between Dearman Street and East Bryant Street. A traffic shift in this area will remain to allow contractor to complete work. A diversion remains in place for Williams Road to allow contractor to construct new alignment. The speed limit has been reduced to 45 mph in the construction zone. Motorists should use caution in this area and watch for flaggers and construction equipment. The contractor will not interfere with traffic flow during 07/02/21 through 07/05/21.

[Jones Bros. Contractors, LLC/Harris/CNT011]

PUTNAM COUNTY I-40 EB bridge repair and resurfacing from west of Falling Water River Bridge (MM 291) to the ramp from SR-24 (US-70N / MM 300): The contractor will patch potholes at night, which will require temporary lane closures from 7 PM to 6 AM Sunday night through Thursday night. Motorists should be prepared for slower traffic and be alert to construction equipment and personnel entering and exiting the work area.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU358]

PUTNAM COUNTY I-40 resurfacing from east of SR-56 (MM 281) to west of SR-136 (MM 287): Contractor will be performing nightly lane closures Sunday through Thursday from 7 PM - 6 AM. Work will consist of milling and paving operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNV029]

PUTNAM COUNTY SR-135 (Burgess Falls Road) grading, drainage, signals and paving at the intersection of West Cemetery Road (LM 6.6): Contractor continues their roadside grading operations and will have a road closure in place on Meadow Wood Drive beginning 07/06/21. A signed detour is in place during this time via Colonial Drive. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU270]

PUTNAM COUNTY SR-24 (US-70N) slide repair near LM 30.1: The contractor has installed barrier rail and began excavation work. Traffic will be reduced to one lane and controlled by temporary traffic signals at each end of the project. Be prepared to stop when traveling through the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./James/CNU359]

DISTRICT 28

BLEDSOE COUNTY SR-30 slope stabilization at LM 12.5: Roadway is reduced to one lane. Traffic is controlled by signals.

[TDOT/Miner/MAINT]

BLEDSOE COUNTY SR-30 bridge repair over the Sequatchie River (LM 10.36): The contractor will be working on SR-30 on the bridge over the Sequatchie River. The road will be reduced to one lane controlled by a traffic signal while repairs are made. Please use caution when traveling through the area. RESTRICTIONS: Loads wider than 15' should seek alternate route.

[Jamison Construction, LLC/Voiles/CNV003]

COFFEE AND GRUNDY COUNTY The resurfacing on I-24 from east of Rutledge Hill Road (LM 28.93) in Coffee County to east of the Bells Mill Road bridge (LM 2.45) in Grundy County, including bridge repair: Project activity will continue from 7 PM to 6 AM. The roadway will be reduced to one lane nightly both directions to support operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone and be prepared to reduce speeds while approaching the work zone located between Coffee County LM 28.93 to Grundy County LM 2.45, the posted speed limit has been reduced from 65 MPH to 55 MPH within the work zone.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Hussein/CNU339]

FRANKLIN COUNTY SR-15 (US-41) intersection improvement at University Avenue (LM 27.9): Project activity will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced from 4-lanes to 2-lanes. Motorists should proceed with caution through the area and be aware of signage, personnel, and equipment.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Hussein/CNV062]

FRANKLIN COUNTY SR-50 construction of a small drainage structure at (LM 7.6): Project activity progression will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced to one lane controlled by traffic signal operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone and be prepared to stop while approaching the work zone located at LM 7.6, the posted speed limit has been reduced from 40 MPH to 25 MPH within the work zone.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Hussein/CNV062]

FRANKLIN, COFFEE, AND GRUNDY COUNTY SR-50 (US-64) resurfacing from west of Rutledge Ford Rd (LM 21.4) in Franklin County, through Grundy/Coffee County to near I-24 (LM 0.2) in Grundy County: Project activity progression will continue daily. The roadway will be reduced to two lanes during construction work, all 4 lanes will be restored by the end of each day. Motorists should proceed with caution through the area and be aware of signage, personnel, and equipment.

[Tinsley Asphalt, LLC /Hussein/CNV015]

GRUNDY COUNTY SR-56 slide repair between LM 26.3 and LM 26.6: The road will remain one lane controlled by a temporary traffic signal while contractor completes slide repairs in the area. Motorists should use caution in the area and watch for flaggers and equipment.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Harris/CNU355]

SEQUATCHIE COUNTY SR-8 (US-127) repair of bridge over the Sequatchie River (LM 12.7): The contractor will be working on SR-8 on the bridge over the Sequatchie River. The road will be reduced to one lane controlled by a traffic signal while repairs are made. Please use caution when traveling through the area. RESTRICTIONS: Loads wider than 15 feet should seek alternate routes.

[Southern Constructors, Inc./Voiles/CNU148]

VANBUREN COUNTY SR-111 resurfacing from Sequatchie County line (LM 0) to north of Feedstore Drive (LM 12.5): The contractor has begun resurfacing operations on SR-111 from the Sequatchie County line to Log mile 12.51 in Van Buren. One lane will be closed while resurfacing operations are taking place. Please use caution when traveling through the area.

[Strawser Construction, Inc./Voiles/CNU298]

DISTRICT 29

BRADLEY COUNTY I-75 resurfacing from north of SR-60 (MM 25) to south of SR-308 (MM 31): During this reporting period, the contractor will install construction signs and begin resurfacing operations. Nightly lane closures will be in place on I-75 Northbound in Bradley county beginning at mile marker 25. These closures will begin on Tuesday 07/06/2021 through Thursday 07/08/2021 and will occur from 7 PM to 6 AM. The speed limit in the work zone will be reduced to 60 MPH while workers are present. Motorists are advised to use caution and reduce speed in the work zone.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU335]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-2 (KEITH ST. S.W.) Utility Work southbound from LM 8.57 to LM 9.24: Lane closures between Fairway Drive SW and Harrison Pike. Signage and barrels will be present. Motorists should reduce speed and use caution through the work zones between the hours of 9 am - 2 PM during the daytime and 8 PM - 6 AM during the nighttime. [2020-423/424]

BRADLEY COUNTY SR-312 (HARRISON PK.) Utility Work both directions from LM 8.48 to LM 8.42: A detour of Harrison Pike at Keith Street will cause short delays as traffic is routed along Grove Avenue during utility construction. Motorists should reduce speed and follow signage. Barricades, cones, and flaggers will be present between 8 PM and 6 am with an estimated completion of 07/07/21. [2020-423/424]

BRADLEY COUNTY I-75 at Exit 33 (SR-308, Lauderdale Highway) bridge work and ramp upgrades: There will be lane shifts in both the Southbound and Northbound lanes from MM 31 to MM33. The lanes will be reduced to 2- 11ft lanes in both directions as work goes on this project. On SR308 (Lauderdale Highway) there will be intermittent lane closures as the contractor works in this area. On Tuesday Night of this reporting period, from 7 PM- 12:00 AM, there will be 1 lane closed in both Northbound and Southbound on I75, weather permitting. RESTRICTIONS: The lanes on this project in both Northbound and Southbound have been reduced to 11 ft. lanes.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNV124]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-24 interchange improvement at SR-2 (US-11, US-41, US-72, Broad Street) and SR-58 (Market Street): During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on Market Street (SR-58) and I-24 to remove existing Eastbound entrance ramp. The contractor has closed the ramp to I-24 Eastbound at Long Street and the cloverleaf ramp from Market Street (SR-58) Southbound to I-24 Eastbound. Traffic in these areas accessing I-24 Eastbound will do so via a temporary signal located just south of the I-24 underpass on Market Street (SR-58). Detour signage will be in place. Brief, intermittent lane closures are possible on 25th Street at the intersection of Long Street during daylight hours as the contractor works on the removal of existing entrance ramp. Chestnut Street is closed to thru traffic between West 20th Street and West 25th Street and will remain closed until construction of Bridge No. 2 has been completed.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU011]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-24 Replacement of Belvoir Ave. bridge over I-24 and I-24 bridges over Germantown Road near MM 183: Single and double alternating lane closures on I-24 EB and WB will be used on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 9 PM and 6 AM. Additionally, there will be single lane closures in the north and south directions of Germantown Road under the I-24 Bridge and at the intersections of Germantown with North and South Terrace on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 9 PM and 6 AM. There is a 45 MPH speed limit reduction throughout the project corridor on I-24.

[Bell and Associates Construction, LP/Blevins/CMGC03]

HAMILTON COUNTY I-75 at I-24 Interchange Reconstruction: Phase 3 traffic alignments have been implemented. Watch for trucks entering and exiting project. Traffic should expect multiple lane shifts traveling through the interchange. Lane closures will occur Sunday nights through Thursday nights between 9 PM and 6 AM at the following locations: I-75 NB MM 1, I-75 SB MM 3 and I-24 EB MM 184.0 Traffic pacing may occur throughout interchange Sunday nights through Thursday nights between 9 PM and 6 AM. Additionally, there may intermittent shoulder closures at various locations for access to the median and roadside areas. The Welcome Center has been reopened. The speed limit has been reduced to 45 MPH throughout the interchange. ***Welcome Center will be closed beginning 12 AM 07/06/2021 through 7 AM 07/09/2021.

[C.W. Matthews Contracting Company, Inc./Blevins/DB1801]

HAMILTON COUNTY US-27 (I-124) widening from I-24/US-27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Monday 07/05/21  Wednesday 07/07/21 7 AM to 6 PM Temporary Right Shoulder Closure will be in place for Northbound and Southbound US-27 from the Olgiati Bridge to I-24 For Pull Box Repair. State Trooper Requests: No

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Curtis/CNP230]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-17 (S. WILLOW ST.) Utility Work both directions from LM 2.65 to LM 3.16: Detours will occur on South Willow Ave between Chamberlain Ave and E 16th Street for utility work. Motorists should use caution and be aware personnel and equipment. Barricades, signage, and flaggers will be present between 7 AM and 7 PM with an estimated completion of 07/06/21. [2021-507/543]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (DODDS AVE.) Utility Work both directions from LM 10.10 to LM 11.33: Lane closures will cause delays on Dodds Avenue between East 23rd Street and McCallie Avenue. Motorists should reduce speed and be prepared to stop or use alternate routes when possible. Signage, cones, barricades, and flaggers will be present between the hours of 7 AM and 7 PM with an estimated completion of 07/06/21. [2019-507]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (E. 23RD ST.) Utility Work both directions at LM 9.16: Shoulder and single lane closure between S. Holly Street and S. Highland Park Avenue. Signage and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 3 PM through 07/07/21. [2021-111]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-2 (E. 23RD ST.) Utility Work both directions at LM 9.82: Shoulder and single lane closure between 4th Avenue and S. Lyerly Street. Signage and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 2 PM through 07/07/21. [2021-389]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-8 (SIGNAL MOUNTAIN RD.) Utility Work northbound at LM 13.45: Shoulder and single lane closure between Mundy Street and Mountain Creek Road. Signage, drums, and cones will be present. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment between 9 AM and 2 PM through 07/14/21. [2021-330]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-312 resurfacing from south of Henry Road (LM 6.9) to west of SR-58 (LM 14.2): During this reporting period, there will be intermittent lane closures on this road as the Contractor will have flaggers directing traffic for the construction operation. The motoring public should expect possible long delays.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Curtis/CNV087]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-317 (Apison Pike) improvement project from SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) to east of Layton Lane: Lane closures and flagging operations will be required on SR-317, Apison Pike, to install power poles and transfer lines. The flagging operations will be performed on 07/01/21, 07/06/21, and 07/07/21 from 7 AM to 1 PM and 3 PM to 7 PM. Closures will last about 2 hours per location. There will also be very short lane closures for blasting that will last five minutes or less. The contractor will have intermittent flagging operations during daytime non-peak hours for utility work, delivery of materials and equipment. The contractor also plans to shift traffic onto the new alignment of Tallant Rd. on 07/07/21.

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNT336]

HAMILTON COUNTY SR-319 (Amnicola Highway) bridge repair over SR-153: Contractor will be performing bridge repair operations on the Amnicola (SR-319) bridge over SR-153. During this project, SR-319 will have lane closures in place & SR-153 may have lane closures as well. Bridge repair over SR-153 will be performed between 8pm & 6am. During repair operations at least one lane of traffic shall remain open in all directions.

[Mid-State Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNV053]

HAMILTON COUNTY The construction of an S.I.A. to VW: The contractor will be grading, paving, constructing retaining wall(s) and installing signals & lighting on S.I.A. route connecting Ferdinand Piech Way & Volkswagen Dr. **The roadway is not open to traffic**. The traveling public should be alert to the entrance and exit of construction vehicles from the jobsite onto the connecting roadways. Flaggers may be onsite directing traffic.

[Talley Construction Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNU221]

MCMINN COUNTY I-75 at SR-30 (Exit 49) and SR-305 (Exit 52) interchange improvements: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on surface pavement on SR-305 at the I-75 ramps. This work will occur starting 7/6/2021 through 7/9/2021 from 8 AM to 5 PM. Motorists can expect lane closures and brief delays in the area during this time. Flaggers will be on site to assist with traffic control.

[APAC - Atlantic, Inc./Wagner/CNU352]

POLK COUNTY SR-33 (HWY. 411) Utility Work both directions from LM 9.9 to LM 14: Lane closures between SR-40 and Ocoee River Bridge for utility construction. Motorists should use caution and be aware of personnel and equipment when traveling through the work zone. Signage, cones, and flaggers will be present between 9 AM and 3 PM with an estimated completion of 07/30/21. [2019-245]

POLK COUNTY SR-40 (US-64) bridge over the Ocoee River: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on foundations for the new bridge and relocation of utilities on the east side of the river. The right shoulder of SR-40 (US-64) is closed for the duration of this work. Brief intermittent lane closures are possible on SR-40 (US-64) Tuesday 7/6/2021 through Friday 7/9/2021 8 AM to 5:30 PM to allow for utility work and moving equipment/supplies. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for trucks entering/leaving the highway.

[Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc./Wagner/DB1802]

POLK COUNTY SR-40 (US-64) emergency slope stabilization near LM 20.5: During this reporting period, the contractor will be working on final punch list activities. Brief intermittent lane closures are possible on SR-40 (US-64) Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5:30 PM while the contractor completes this work. Motorists are advised to reduce speed in the work zone and watch for workers on the shoulder of SR-40 (US-64).

[Wright Brothers Construction Company, Inc./Wagner/CNU909]

RHEA COUNTY SR-302 resurfacing from SR-68 (LM 8.9) to near SR-29 (US-27) (LM 12.2): During this report period, the contractor will have temporary lane closures in place while performing resurfacing operations. Flaggers will be present to assist traffic flow.

[Rogers Group, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNV099]

RHEA COUNTY The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, paving and signals on a S.I.A. route serving Nokian Tyres: Construction activity at the Nokian Tyres SIA project continues just North of Dayton, TN. The traveling public should be alert to construction vehicles entering and exiting the site. SR-29 traffic will continue to experience slight lane shifts with no shoulders at the entrance to the SIA roadway but there will be no lane closures on SR29.

[Dement Construction Company, LLC/Curtis/CNU014]

REGION WIDE

REGION 2 The random on-call signing on various Interstate and State Routes: During the daytime, the contractor will be setting up shoulder closures at various locations in Sequatchie, Marion, Warren, Coffee, Franklin, and Grundy Counties to install new signs. A truck mounted attenuator will be on site during these closures.

[Superior Traffic Control, LLC/Inc./Voiles/CNU178]

REGION 2 on-call guardrail repair and new guardrail installation on various Interstate and State Routes: The contractor may have short term shoulder and/or lane closures to perform guardrail repair. These closures will take place on the interstate nightly from 7 PM to 6 AM Sundays through Thursdays and daily on state routes. At least one travel lane will always remain open to traffic on the interstate, and flaggers will be present on state routes during any work that is performed. The contractor will not be performing any lane closures or interfering with traffic during 07/02/21 through 07/05/21.

[Cumberland Guardrail, Inc./Harris/CNU107]

REGION 2 preventative and unscheduled maintenance of Chattanooga SmartWay Intelligent Transportation System: The contractor may have short term shoulder and/or lane closures to perform preventative or unscheduled maintenance to the local SmartWay Intelligent Transportation System. At least one travel lane will always remain open to traffic. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed.

[NABCO Electric Company, Inc./Osbonlighter/CNT354]

REGION 2 TDOT Maintenance drainage work: There will be possible short-term lane and shoulder closures at various locations in Region 2 to clean rock and debris from ditches on an as-needed basis. One lane will always be maintained.

[TDOT Operations/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 TDOT Maintenance pothole repair and pavement patching: There will be possible short-term emergency lane closures at various locations in Region 2 to repair potholes and patch pavement on an as-needed basis. Depending on location and severity these repairs may be done during the day or at night. In addition to performing the work, regional Operations crews will also provide traffic control.

[TDOT Operations/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 TDOT mowing operations: There will be possible short-term lane closures at various locations on interstates and state routes in Region 2 to perform mowing activities on an as-needed basis. In addition to performing the work, regional Operations crews will also provide traffic control.

[TDOT/Maintenance/R2MAINT]

REGION 2 longitudinal joint stabilization on various state routes: During the daytime, the contractor will have short term lane closures on various routes in Putnam on SR-111 Warren on SR-55, and Grundy SR-50. During this time one lane of traffic will be closed while contractors are present. Please use caution when traveling through the area.

[Pavement Restorations, Inc./Voiles/CNV113]

REGION 2 The random on-call cable barrier repair on various Interstate and State Routes: The contractor may have short term shoulder closures to perform cable rail repair. Both travel lanes will always remain open to traffic on the interstate during any work that is performed.

[LU, Inc./Harris/CNU303]

REGION 2 The random on-call pavement marking on various interstate and state routes: Contractor will be retracing pavement markings on various interstate and state routes in Putnam, Dekalb, White, and Cumberland county. Work will be performed using mobile operations. Motorists are advised to use caution and be alert to all construction signage while traveling through the work zone.

[Reynolds Sealing and Striping, Inc./James/CNV036]

REGION 2 The sweeping and drain cleaning on various Interstate and State Routes: There will be an area wide sweeping operation on selected regional state routes and interstates. This activity will be supported by a mobile lane closure. Hours of activity are Sunday through Thursday night between 8 PM and 6 AM during this reporting period. The drain cleaning operation will be having intermittent lane closures on SR153, SR111, I24 MM132.8-134.3 and I40 MM269.6-273. During this reporting period, the contractor will only be working Thursday Night.

[Sweeping Corporation of America, Inc./Curtis/CNU328]

RESTRICTIONS

BLEDSOE COUNTY - CNV003: Loads wider than 15' should seek alternate route.

SEQUATCHIE COUNTY - CNU148: Loads wider than 15 feet should seek alternate routes.

BRADLEY COUNTY - CNV124: The lanes on this project in both Northbound and Southbound have been reduced to 11 ft. lanes.

Motorists are encouraged to use caution and obey reduced speed limits in all TDOT work zones, regardless of lane closure activity.

Information in this report is provided to the Department of Transportation by the contractors. Most work is weather dependent and subject to change due to inclement weather. All times are local.

From your desktop or mobile device, get the latest construction activity and live streaming SmartWay traffic cameras at www.TNSmartWay.com/Traffic. Travelers can also dial 511 from any land-line or cellular phone for travel information, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TN511 for statewide travel or Chattanooga area alerts @Chattanooga511 or any of TDOT's other Twitter pages. As always, drivers are reminded to use all motorist information tools wisely and Know Before You Go! by checking travel conditions before leaving for your destination. Drivers should never tweet, text, or talk on a cell phone while behind the wheel.

In 2016, the Tennessee Department of Transportation lost three workers in the line of duty. All three were struck by passing motorists. Those tragedies bring the total number of TDOT lives lost to 112. We don't want to lose another member of our TDOT family. We're asking you to WORK WITH US. To learn more, go to the website at https://www.tn.gov/tdot/work-with-us/.

###
Research News

Researchers have identified a new treatment candidate that appears to not only halt neurodegenerative symptoms in mouse models of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but also reverse the effects of the disorders.

The team, based at Tohoku University, published their results on June 8 in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The treatment candidate has been declared safe by Japan's governing board, and the researchers plan to begin clinical trials in humans in the next year.

"There are currently no disease-modifying therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, Huntington disease and frontotemporal dementia in the world," said paper author Kohji Fukunaga, professor emeritus in Tohoku University's Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. "We discovered the novel, disease-modifying therapeutic candidate SAK3, which, in our studies, rescued neurons in most protein-misfolding, neurodegenerative diseases."

In a previous study, the team found that the SAK3 molecule - the base structure of which is found in the enhancement of T-type Ca2+ channel activity - appeared to help improve memory and learning in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

According to previous studies, SAK3 enhances the function of a cell membrane channel thereby promoting neuronal activity in the brain. Typically, SAK3 promotes neurotransmitter releases of acetylcholine and dopamine that are significantly reduced in Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. The Ca2+ channel enhancement is thought to trigger a change from resting to active in neuronal activity. When the Ca2+ channel is dysregulated in the brain, the acetylcholine and dopamine releases are reduced. The result is a dysregulated system that a person experiences as cognitive confusion and uncoordinated motor function.

SAK3 directly binds to the subunit of this channel, resulting in the enhancement of neurotransmission thereby improving cognitive deficits. The researchers found that the same process also appeared to work in a mouse model of Lewy body dementia, which is characterized by a build-up of proteins known as Lewy bodies.

"Even after the onset of cognitive impairment, SAK3 administration significantly prevented the progression of neurodegenerative behaviors in both motor dysfunction and cognition," Fukunaga said.

In comparison, Aduhelm, the Alzheimer's drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reduces the number of amyloid plaques in the brain, but it is not yet known if the amyloid reduction actually prevents further cognitive or motor decline in patients. According to Fukunaga, SAK3 helps destroy amyloid plaque - at least in mice.

SAK3 also helps manage the destruction of misfolded alpha-synuclein. Normal alpha-synuclein helps regulate neurotransmitter transmission in the brain. The protein can misfold and aggregate, contributing to what researchers suspect may be an underlying cause of neurodegenerative symptoms. This aggregation can also lead to the loss of dopamine neurons, which help with learning and memory.

"We found that chronic administration of SAK3 significantly inhibited the accumulation of alpha-synuclein in the mice," Fukunaga said, noting that the mice received a daily oral dose of SAK3.

According to Fukunaga, SAK3 enhances the activity of the system that identifies and destroys misfolded proteins. In neurodegenerative diseases, this system is often dysfunctional, leaving misfolded proteins to muck up the cell's machinery.

"SAK3 is the first compound targeting this regulatory activity in neurodegenerative disorders," Fukunaga said. "SAK3 administration promotes the destruction of misfolded proteins, meaning the therapeutic has the potential to solve the problems of diverse protein misfolding diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia and Huntington disease, in addition to Alzheimer's disease."

Publication Details: Title: T-type Ca2+ enhancer SAK3 activates CaMKII and proteasome activities in Lewy body dementia mice model

Authors: Jing Xu, Ichiro Kawahata, Hisanao Izumi and Kohji Fukunaga

Journal: International Journal of Molecular Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126185

Press release in Japanese
I don't think ANYBODY important is willing to go on record regarding this surprising development.

Nevertheless, let's start with a local connection to start the conversation . . .

In 2007 Bill Cosby visited Kansas City and earned the key to the city along with a great many accolades from local elected officials.

More importantly, here's something that mainstream media won't report . . .

There are quite a few locals who NEVER believed that charges against Mr. Cosby and claimed the attacks were part of an organized effort against him in order to stifle his social criticism and conservative messaging which focused on promoting personal responsibility within the African-American community.



Like it or not, his tweet message deserves consideration . . .

Our news link collection . . .

Bill Cosby to be released after Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacates conviction and judgment Bill Cosby will be released after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated his conviction and judgment of sentence, according Stacey Witalec, spokesman for Pennsylvania's highest court.

Bill Cosbys TV wife Phylicia Rashad backtracks statement celebrating his release: 'I fully support survivors' "The Cosby Show" actress Phylicia Rashad celebrated the shocking news that her longtime TV husband Bill Cosby's sex assault conviction was overturned Wednesday by Pennsylvania's highest court, tweeting that a "miscarriage of justice" was corrected. "FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!"

Bill Cosby freed as sex conviction reversal stuns Hollywood: 'Shame on the court' Bill Cosby is a free man, despite 60 women credibly accusing the once-beloved actor of sexual assault. News of Cosby's 2018 conviction being overturned sent shockwaves across social media on Wednesday, with many stars decrying the "miscarriage of justice." However, the comedian's Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad was not one of those people as she is celebrating news of his release.

All Your Questions About Bill Cosby's Overturned Verdict, Answered It's been one month since Bill Cosby was denied parole for refusing to attend prison workshops for sex offenders, and now the 83-year-old comedian is walking free. After Pennsylvania's highest court overturned Cosby's three felony charges of aggravated indecent assault, there are a lot of questions about what happened, and how the latest decision could impact future cases in the era of Me Too.

Bill Cosby accusers and their attorneys express outrage and betrayal over his release from prison | CNN Accusers and their attorneys say Cosby's release was "devastating."

Hannibal Buress said the fallout from his Bill Cosby rape joke was 'crazy' in 2015 A joke made by comedian Hannibal Buress back in 2014 prompted dozens of women to come forward with sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby. Buress previously opened up about the fallout after his infamous Cosby rape joke. "I was like, 'Oh that's crazy,' and then I shut my laptop," Buress said during an interview with Fox 411 back in 2015.

Bill Cosby may be out of prison, but we know who he is - and it's not 'America's dad' Bill Cosby is now a free man. A debate about his guilt or innocence rages across America. Was Thursday's Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling fair and impartial justice? Please allow Cosby to answer for himself. "When you got the quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?"

Addendum . . .

Our blog friend, The JOCO SOB, doesn't think that woke white ladies will handle this news well. However, this longtime favorite clip of white women doing Bill Cosby impressions renews our faith in the resilience of progressive hotties.

You decide . . .
Real estate deals gone wrong bring out the worst in people. Today a Kansas City fight for cash offers a PERFECT example of this truism.



Check the highlights that are making the middle-class panic because high hopes for the streetcar extension have already started to fall apart . . .



KC Biz Journal: "Redeemer Fellowship, which owns the historic Katz Drug Store building, seeks permission to demolish the structure after incentives were denied for an apartment complex. If the city's Historic Preservation Commission denies the request, the property owner will have the right to tear down the building after three years if no better offer comes along."

To which we add . . .

PLEASE TEAR IT DOWN!!! HISTORIC OR NOT, KANSAS CITY SHOULD NEVER DO BIZ WITH PEOPLE WHO BARGAIN BY WAY OF THREATS!!!



The only way to answer this threat is by way of strength.

Losing the Katz building will be sad, so take a picture while it's still around.

But giving into this kind open economic hostility sets a HORRIFIC precedent and will inspire every two-bit developer scrounging around for cash to follow the same greedy path to riches.

More to the point . . .

Blame for the impending destruction of the Katz building belongs with streetcar extension supporters who have sparked a development feeding frenzy and rampant speculation.

Critics of the toy train warned of the real estate nightmare that would unfold and now we're at the outset of developer mania in Midtown . . . More human tragedy will follow when residents are soon displaced.

Sure, this low-rent church is bargaining like a thug but they own the property and it's their right to play hard ball.

What's worse is that a rigged, gerrymandered vote for an obsolete mode of transit put Kansas City is a weak bargaining position that will likely end with the iconic building's demolition.



More info here for subscribers . . .
On Sunday our blog community had an important discussion about the Mayor and his SUPERB delivery of Prez Biden Administration talking points.

Because Kansas City "journalists" are nothing more or less a closed and quickly shrinking clique of pseudo-intellectuals who can't engage in discussion outside of their bubble . . . Our bloggy community is picking up the slack for political discourse which considers the big picture and alternative viewpoints.

Accordingly, we're committed to offering a more complete view of the local discourse to the best of our ability and we would be remiss if we didn't note this essay which has garnered traction among locals who stridently support KCPD and oppose recent defunding/reallocation power moves.

Check-it . . .

Kansas City Police Supporter Push Back Against Mayor Q On Fox News

Hey Mr. Mayor,

It's me, again. I just listened to your interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News and had a few thoughts I wanted to share.

The first question that is brought up is about the high rise in crime in the last year. Your answer was that because of covid we were all unable to be together which led to a lack of prevention and intervention services. While I do not disagree with you, I wish you would also publicly acknowledge that in the last year the BLM movement has created a lack of respect for the law, endangered lives of Law Enforcement Officers, and allowed prosecutors to slack in doing their jobs. Prosecutors have too easily been able to jump in on the political side of things instead of holding criminals accountable for their actions. They should be removing the guns, drugs, and criminals off the street, but instead have easily ignored this problem by giving them a slap on the wrist and returning them to the streets to allow the violent cycle of crime to continue. (Looking at you, JPB).

The precedent that many city leaders, yourself included, has set this past year has been nothing short of incredibly damaging to our communities. Last summer you voted alongside the city council to dismiss the charges of 200 arrests without a single one of them standing in front of a judge. All that this tells our city is that citizens can do what they want now, ask for forgiveness later, and ultimately that actions do not have any consequences. Thus you are not going to be held responsible for your wrongdoings. It is a shame that with KC's homicide rate increased by 29% (1% more than the national average at 28%) that you set this example for what is allowed in KC. Here you can assault Officers, threaten them and their families, and dox KCPD members for weeks on end and get punished for none of it.

Also, it is funny that you push the narrative you want by stating things like, "my friends on the right like to say Back the Blue, but aren't offering any solutions on how to make our communities safer". I adamantly disagree with this, but first I need to ask what ideas do your "friends on the left who like to say defund the Police" have to offer in order to make our communities safer, other than taking money away from the department?

When your plan to defund the Police was brought up, you state that, "As we are giving more money to the Police budget we want to be sure you are doing the things that citizens want". That is like saying, if you are doing what we want you to do THEN we will give you more money in your budget. Hmm, if only there was a word for something like this...oh wait, there is! It's called EXTORTION! Let's be clear here.

1.) Extortion is defined as "The practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threat". Seems to me, Mr. Mayor, that between you, the City Council, and the "defund the Police" crowd there has been the act of force to bend KCPD to agree to spend their money how you see fit or else they won't get it. It is also apparent that after that disgusting display of a pig in a coffin paraded through downtown and then burnt infront of headquarteres, I would dare to say that there is some threat behind KCPD getting that money too. Oh, and by the way one would think you would know this being a lawyer and all, but extortion is illegal. There is actually a law against putting stipulations on the Police budget. But again, you often think that you are above following the law, so I digress...

2.) You might have spoken to some Officers and listened to them, but it is clear you didn't HEAR any of them. If you did then we would have a fully funded department that is able to support the youth programs, social workers, CIT, and CIO Officers you mention the department already having in this interview. By the way, fun fact? All of these programs have been in place well before you were even Mayor. KCPD has been leaps and bounds ahead of other large city Police departments.

3.) You also state the best way to back the blue is to prevent crime in the first place. Well Mr. Mayor, there are a few ways to go about that and they include having our citizens cooperate with investigations. You need to be making sure that Jean Peters Baker is actually doing her job of prosecuting criminals to the fullest extent of the law. It would also be helpful to build a jail for the city of Kansas City, ensure that these offenders are kept off our streets by actually putting them away, and finally giving back the money you swindled from the department. You did this with no plan as to what you were going to do with it. All you have done is talk, play politics, and hold it over KCPD's heads to promote division, fear, and push your own agenda.

Oh, remember how you said your "friends on the right aren't offering any solutions"? Umm, HI! Just gave you a starting point above and happy to go into much greater detail of ideas when you are ready to really listen to your citizens, ALL of them.

Next on your interview you discuss gun violence and youth. This year alone we have had a total of 74 homicides, 7 of which have been victims ages 0 to 16 years old and 4 of which have been suspects ages 0 to 16 years old. Therefore 67 of these homicides and 70 of the suspects are ages 17 and up. Do we have a gun violence problem? Yes. A homicide problem? Absolutely. But an issue with our youth being the actual suspects in these crimes? Not so much. I would think it is safe to say that this push for better Police intervention for our youth (as well as gun control) stems from your agenda, not the statistics.

You, sir, are a smooth talker and I applaud your ability to dance around answering any actual question and/or pandering to your audience, but if you really care about Kansas City then you need to start taking action in ways that truly better our city, not just talk and play politics.

Sincerely,

A REAL NORMAL Kansas Citian

#############

You decide . . .
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'They need to come down' McBride says of Trenton Kingsbury Towers after air condition out for days
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.



Morris reported from Vancouver, British Columbia. Associated Press writer Nicholas K. Geranios contributed from Salem, Oregon.
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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Adult Vibrator Market by Product, Distribution channel, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025
Growing Need for Affordable Housing to Have Strong Impact on Land Subdivision Businesses | Discover Company Insights on BizVibe
ATLANTA (AP)  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is endorsing a Democrat-turned-Republican who's challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the state's 2022 Republican primary.

Giuliani spoke to reporters Wednesday before headlining a fundraising dinner for former state Rep. Vernon Jones in Atlanta.

Jones was on the outs with his party when he shot to prominence in Republican circles as an African American Democrat who endorsed Donald Trumps reelection campaign. Jones has since switched parties and doubled down in support of Trumps false claims of election fraud, appealing to Republican voters in Georgia who might be unhappy with Kemp. Trump has repeatedly attacked Kemp but has not so far endorsed Jones.

Giuliani said his main reason for endorsing Jones was their shared belief that then-President Trump was cheated out of Georgia's 16 electoral votes and the overall election.

The current governor has been a failure. I mean, he's had his time. He put together an election that wouldn't have passed muster in Africa, Asia, in undeveloped countries, Giuliani said.

An state appeals court suspended Giuliani from practicing law in New York last week because he made false statements while trying to get courts to overturn Trumps loss in the presidential race. Elected mayor on the strength of his record as a federal prosecutor, Giuliani said Wednesday that the judges who suspended his license ruled out of fear of political retribution from Democrats.

Kemp is Georgia's former secretary of state, but had little role in 2020's election administration besides certifying results showing that Biden had won. Kemp this year signed and has championed an election law that Democrats have attacked as discriminatory, but Jones contends Kemp should have done more, including calling a special session to try to block Georgia's electoral votes from going to Biden.

Jones has also been supported by former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Trump pardoned Kerik after Kerik pleaded guilty to tax fraud and false statement charges years earlier and served prison time. Jones said Wednesday that Kerik, who attended the news conference, is serving as a law enforcement adviser to Jones' campaign.

Jones, 60, served multiple terms in the Georgia House, sandwiching a troubled turn as elected leader of Atlantas suburban DeKalb County.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered California to stop collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities, calling the state's requirement a dragnet for sensitive donor information."

The justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines to side with two nonprofit groups, including one with links to billionaire Charles Koch. The groups argued that California's policy of collecting the information violates the First Amendment.

The nonprofits had drawn strong support from groups across the political spectrum, including The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, American Civil Liberties Union and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

California had defended its policy by saying that the information's collection was necessary to prevent fraud. But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion joined by the court's other conservatives that there is a dramatic mismatch between California's interest in preventing wrongdoing by charities and its donor information requirement.

The upshot is that California casts a dragnet for sensitive donor information from tens of thousands of charities each year, even though that information will become relevant in only a small number of cases involving filed complaints, Roberts wrote.

He later added: We have no trouble concluding here that the Attorney Generals disclosure requirement is overbroad.

In a dissent for the court's three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned of the decision's consequences.

"Todays analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bulls-eye. Regulated entities who wish to avoid their obligations can do so by vaguely waving toward First Amendment 'privacy concerns,'" she said.

California had required all charities that collect money from state residents to give the state an IRS form identifying their largest contributors. The information is not supposed to be disclosed publicly. Just three other states, Hawaii, New Jersey and New York, require charities to provide the IRS form.

A federal appeals court had upheld California's practice, ruling that the information serves the important state goal of preventing charities from committing fraud. The information was unlikely to be released publicly, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

The two groups that had challenged California's requirements are the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center and the Virginia-based Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a charitable organization connected to the primary political organization supported by Koch and his brother, David, who died in 2019. Kochs organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Republican candidates and conservative policies, making them frequent targets of attacks by Democrats.

Both groups argued that their contributors had in the past suffered harassment and threats and that California had in the past let the donor information become public.

In a statement, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center called Thursday a great day.

This opinion safeguards our clients donors from the threats of governmental misuse and public disclosure of their identities and addresses  whether intentional, mistaken, or by electronic theft, Louie Castoria said.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation CEO Emily Seidel said in a statement that the decision: protects Americans from being forced to choose between staying safe or speaking up."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he was disappointed by the decision.

As the Peoples Attorney, my office has the responsibility to protect charitable assets for their intended use and ensure that donations go towards their intended purpose. Stripping our office of confidential access to donor information  the same information about major donors that charities already provide to the federal government  will make it harder for the State to fight fraud and prevent the misuse of charitable contributions, he said in a statement.

The Biden administration had argued that California's requirement should stand but that the justices should send the case back to the appeals court for a fuller analysis of whether the two charities themselves should have to comply.

The presence of the Koch organization in the case prompted three Democratic lawmakers to ask Justice Amy Coney Barrett to sit out the high-court dispute or explain her decision to take part. Thats because Americans for Prosperity, Kochs main political arm, said it would spend more than $1 million dollars last year in support of Barretts Supreme Court confirmation, said Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia in a letter to the justice. Barrett was among the six conservative votes for the nonprofits.
Recreational marijuana becomes legal to possess and use in Connecticut as of Thursday.

But not everything marijuana-related will be legal immediately. Here are five things you need to know about the legalization of recreational cannabis in Connecticut.

1. Its legal to have and use, but not to buy or sell

On Thursday, those 21 and older are allowed to openly possess 1.5 ounces of marijuana and an additional 5 ounces of marijuana in a locked container. But recreational marijuana dispensaries will not become legal in Connecticut until late 2022.

That means you are limited in how you will be able to purchase marijuana products, even though you will be allowed to have it.

If you have a medical card, you can purchase marijuana products at a legal medical dispensary in Connecticut. You can also go to another state that already has legal recreational dispensaries, like Massachusetts.

However, recreational marijuana sales are illegal in Connecticut until the first dispensaries open next year. In the meantime, simple possession of the states regulated amounts are no longer an offense.

2. You can smoke pot in public

As of Thursday, people ages 21 and over are allowed to smoke (or otherwise use) marijuana in public, with some restrictions. Wherever you are allowed to smoke tobacco, you are permitted to use marijuana.

Marijuana products (including vaping) will be subject to the Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking (tobacco included) in any building owned or operated by the state or a municipality, along with any area of a school building, day care facilities, retail establishments, including restaurants, colleges and halfway houses.

Also, driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal, and you are not allowed to smoke pot in your car if the key is in the ignition.

Any municipality may regulate or ban the public use of cannabis, though municipalities with a population greater than 50,000 will be required to provide an outdoor space for marijuana use, if they choose to regulate public consumption at all. No municipal regulations have yet been passed.

3. You cannot grow your own (yet)

Connecticut residents will be allowed to grow their own marijuana plants, but not until July 1, 2023.

At that point, residents age 21 and older will be allowed to grow a total of six marijuana plants, three mature and three immature.

For people with a medical marijuana card, the rules will be different. They will be allowed to grow as of Oct. 1, 2021, and though the number of plants is the same, three mature and three immature, the law applies to residents age 18 and older.

4. Medical marijuana use has different regulations

In 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state in the nation to allow the use of medical marijuana. The law that allowed for recreational use does not affect the medical marijuana rules, other than in very simple ways.

Medical marijuana patients will no longer be required to select which dispensary they will use after Oct. 1. Patients who use medical marijuana will be allowed to obtain non-medical products from recreational marijuana retail facilities once they are open. However, medical marijuana products will only be sold at medical-only dispensaries or dispensaries that sell both medical and recreational products.

5. Law offers protections for tenants, employees and students

The law prohibits landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who have a prior marijuana-related conviction, and prohibits landlords from banning cannabis possession, though they are allowed to ban smoking (of any kind).

According to the Office of Legislative Research, the bill requires employers to ban smoking and e-cigarette use in any area of the workplace, and while it does allow employers to force workers to submit to drug testing, it also allows employees to sue their employers if they feel their rights have been violated.

Colleges are not allowed to deny financial aid for students who have been found to possess or use cannabis.

The bill generally bans public and private higher education institutions from revoking any financial aid or student loans or expelling a student, the OLR said, if they have less than 4 ounces of cannabis plant material or the equivalent.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect medical marijuana will not be sold at general recreational marijuana retailers.

Clarification: The story has been updated to reflect any municipality can set public recreational marijuana restrictions.


The Solarium's Decor Is Straight From The Fern Bar '70s, But The Prices Are Painfully '90s. By Rebecca Cook FOR MORE THAN 20 years, the Solarium, along East Tanque Verde's legendary "restaurant row," has been captivating Tucson diners. The architecture, with its lofty beamed ceilings, multi-level dining rooms, a plethora of custom-designed windows, stained glass and rock-and-tile booths, represents a sophisticated California fern bar sensibility--an impression further enhanced by a tasteful abundance of green plants. The collective effect is singular and charming. Yet, as H.G. Wells tried to tell us, time travel has its price. And be forewarned: At the Solarium, you'll have to pay top dollar. Ambiance and sentimentality is only worth so much. For a restaurant, sooner it later it all comes down to the food, and this obviously is not the Solarium's prime concern. It's not just that the menu is a bit tired and humdrum, the food essentially mundane or the service a bit lackadaisical. What halts the merry meandering down memory lane at the Solarium are the prices, which are easily on a par with some of the swankiest joints in town. Call me crazy, but if I'm going to spend big bucks, I want to be wooed. I want my taste buds to be thoroughly thrilled, and I want to get up from the table infused with the kind of profound glow in my soul that only a meal of superlatives can produce. To say that the Solarium falls short of this cost-for-value expectation would be an understatement. Lunch here is low-key and casual, with a menu reflecting prices that are at least within striking distance of reasonable (the highest-priced item being sea scallops and pasta for $12.75). Lunch is not apparently the meal of choice for most diners--the day we visited at peak noon hour, there were but a handful of occupied tables. We sampled a crab Louie salad ($10.95) and a house specialty Southwest chicken ($9.25), which consisted of a boneless, skinless chicken breast sauteed in salsa butter and stuffed with green-chile strips and feta cheese. The salad was nice: lots of crabmeat (albeit previously frozen crabmeat) served atop a large plateful of mixed greens, shredded red cabbage, wedges of fresh tomato, sliced cucumber and red onion. The dressing was thoughtfully added in a small pitcher on the side. There was nothing flashy or unusual about the salad, but it managed to hit the spot. The chicken breast was moist and tender, but disappointingly bland. Somehow I expected the salsa butter and chile to add a bit more zest to this dish. To make matters worse, it was accompanied by an embarrassing preparation of rice and an inedible trio of steamed broccoli, carrots and yellow squash, which added absolutely nothing but color to the plate. In addition, it took forever to get out of the Solarium. Even though the restaurant was far from busy, the service was incredibly plodding, with interminable periods during which our server quite literally vanished. We waited on every snippet of our meal, causing a workday lunch hour to stretch alarmingly to nearly two hours. If you're punching a clock, beware. Dinner is livelier. Happy hour draws in the younger crowd and the resulting conversational buzz permeating the place gives the impression of a happening scene. Unfortunately, this energy doesn't seem to have penetrated as far as the kitchen, where a spirit of ennui pervades most every preparation. Rather than expend our appetites on fried zucchini or traditional shrimp cocktails (the typical Solarium appetizer), we opted to sample soup and salad. Featured that day was a lovely tomato bisque, smoothly pureed and imbued with the sweet character of fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes. A sprinkling of Tabasco or red chile infused the roux with a gentle and pleasing piquancy. The house salad consisted of mixed mesclun greens, red cabbage and fresh tomatoes topped with the house dijon vinaigrette. Nothing revolutionary, but certainly enjoyable. Once known for its prime rib, the Solarium in recent years has bolstered its seafood and pasta offerings. I was impressed with the various fish specials as well as the standing selection of shrimp dishes, scallops, lobster and crab. In particular, I was tempted by the king crab legs, a longtime favorite of mine. So, true to form, I ordered it. Without asking the "market price." Without inquiring if they were fresh. Big mistake. Three incredibly large legs were presented conveniently halved, allowing easy access to the luxurious white meat inside. The butter that came with the big claws was so beautifully clarified I could almost catch my reflection in the yellowish pool. The meat was decent enough, slightly tough or mushy in some places , but still fairly tasty. Not great by any means, but pretty good. Later, however, when I found out this dish was going for $29.95 a pop, I was not a happy camper. A taste of the featured fish specials proved slightly more satisfying, but, at $18.95, a bit expensive. A Mexican lenguado (flounder), sauteed lightly and stuffed with Monterey Jack cheese, was obviously fresh and actually very pleasing, but devoid of distinctive flavors. To remedy this situation, we added the only available condiment, a generous dash of hot sauce. A fresh salmon fillet, poached and served with a breath of green-chile butter, was also quite good. The only drawback was the previously mentioned rice and steamed vegetables, which seemed to be recycled through the evening meal. Not a welcome sight. Happily, however, dessert at the Solarium is absolutely scrumptious, a circumstance that can nudge even the most prosaic of meals into a passing grade. Most impressive is the Solarium cake, dense layers of chocolate cake with variegated fillings of white and dark chocolate ganache iced completely in a ponderous bittersweet chocolate glaze. This is pure ambrosia for the chocolate aficionado, as is a flourless torte known as "the mudslide," which deliciously incorporates a German chocolate coconut and pecan filling. White or dark chocolate mousses--airy and delicious--are also available, as are apple tarts, New York-style cheesecake and carrot cake. Presented on a dessert tray for your end-of-the-meal approbation, the final culinary word also happens to be one of the Solarium's best. Nothing, however, will soften the blow of that final tab, which will leave you scratching your head in penniless wonder. It's a lot of money to pay for food that, for the most part, deserves no higher mark than "satisfactory," and frequently merits a "needs improvement." I know the space is engaging, but it's hardly worth the present price of admission. Enough with this time-travel tour; I'm getting off at the next stop while I still have enough money left in my pocket to get home again. The Solarium. 6444 E. Tanque Verde Road. 886-8186. Open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and diner nightly from 5 p.m. Full bar. All major credit cards. Menu items for lunch: $2.95-$12.75; dinner $2.95-$24.95 ("market price" items can be more).
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The government plans to eventually liberalise the cost of fuel at the pumps, which has been on the cards for some-time now.

It has stated that a zero-tolerance approach to market monopolisation would be taken.
Over the past day, June 30, 10 ceasefire violations by the Russian-occupation troops were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation area in eastern Ukraine.

"In particular, the enemy fired hand-held antitank grenade launchers near Zolote-4 (59km west of Luhansk); tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns  outside Novoselivka (16km west of Luhansk); weapons on BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, 82mm mortars, and heavy machine guns  in the area of Novhorodske (35km north of Donetsk); heavy machine guns  near Krasnohorivka (21km west of Donetsk); hand-held antitank grenade launchers and heavy machine guns  outside Pivdenne (40km north-east of Donetsk); automatic easel and hand-held antitank grenade launchers and small arms  near Vodiane in the Sea of Azov area; automatic easel grenade launchers and small arms  in the suburbs of Orikhove (57km north-west of Luhansk)," the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports.

In addition, an enemy Orlan-10-class UAV flew over the line of contact in Luhansk region. The drone was timely suppressed with radio-electronic warfare equipment

As of 7 a.m. on July 1, two ceasefire violations were reported. The enemy fired 82mm mortars and grenade launchers of various systems near Avdiivka (17km north of Donetsk).

No combat casualties among Joint Forces personnel were reported.

Ukrainian soldiers opened fire in response to the enemy shelling.

The Ukrainian side of the JCCC informed the OSCE SMM about the ceasefire violations. Ukrainian military continue to control the situation in the JFO area.

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Today, July 1, 2021, the law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Circulation of Agricultural Land" enters into force, which abolishes the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land.

This is stipulated in the final provisions of the law, Ukrinform reports.

According to the document, from July 1, 2021 to January 1, 2024, only individuals who are Ukrainian citizens can buy agricultural land. Within the first two years from the day the law comes into force, one individual will be able to buy no more than 100 hectares of land.

If the area of the purchased land plot exceeds the specified maximum size, it is confiscated by a court decision. A body exercising state control over the use and protection of land can file a claim for confiscation of a land plot. The confiscated land plot is subject to sale at a land auction under a court ruling.

Payment operations for the purchase of agricultural land will be carried only in non-cash form. The price of agricultural land plots cannot be lower than their normative monetary value (such norm will be valid until January 1, 2030).

According to the law, only private land plots can be purchased. State-owned and communal agricultural lands will not be sold. From January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities created and registered under the legislation of Ukraine, whose participants are only citizens of Ukraine and/or the state or territorial communities, will be allowed to purchase agricultural land.

Legal entities that have not disclosed information on their beneficial owners or whose beneficial owners are registered in offshore zones will not be able to obtain a permit for the acquisition of agricultural land.

Foreign nationals will be allowed to purchase agricultural land in Ukraine only after the relevant decision has been made by the national referendum.

Agricultural land will not be sold to legal entities that are controlled by the individuals and legal entities registered in the countries included by the FATF in the list of the states not cooperating in the field of combating money laundering.

In addition, regardless of the decision adopted through the referendum, foreign citizens are forbidden to purchase land in the 50 km zone from the state border of Ukraine.

As reported, on March 31, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Circulation of Agricultural Land." On April 28, it was signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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The World Banks Board of Executive Directors has approved a $212 million financing package for a new project in Ukraine  Improving Power System Resilience for European Power Grid Integration.

This was said in a press release published on the World Bank website.

"The World Banks Board of Executive Directors approved today a $212 million financing package, including a $177 million International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loan, a $34 million Clean Technology Fund (CTF) concessional loan, and a $1 million CTF grant for a new project in Ukraine  Improving Power System Resilience for European Power Grid Integration (Installation of Hybrid Systems for Electricity Production in Ukrhydroenergo)," the report reads.

The project will enhance the flexibility of the Ukrainian power system to help synchronize it with the European electricity grid and decarbonize the power sector.

The Ukrainian Private Joint Stock Company Ukrhydroenergo (UHE) is the borrower and implementing agency of the project. The project provides financing for the installation of 197-megawatt short-duration battery energy storage systems combined with solar power plants within four hydropower plant sites (Kyiv, Kaniv, Kremenchuk and Seredniodniprovska) to further allow for ancillary services to the national power grid. Also, a long-duration battery with a solar power plant will be installed within Dniester Hydro Power Plant.

This is one of the most innovative projects that the World Bank is launching in the Europe and Central Asia region. It will help Ukraine integrate its power system with the European power grid, reduce the influence of vested interests, and contribute to the achievement of a more energy independent Ukraine. I am pleased that the project also helps Ukraine align with the European Green Deal, said Arup Banerji, World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe.

The World Bank has already been working to prepare Ukraines power infrastructure for synchronization with the EU power grid under the ongoing Second Power Transmission Project (PTP2). This project supports Ukraine in the introduction of smart grid technologies and wholesale electricity markets.

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A delegation of Ukrainian business representatives will make a business visit to Tbilisi, Batumi, and Poti on July 20-24, Ukrainian Business and Trade Association (UBTA) reports.

The delegation will be headed by Deputy Economy Minister of Ukraine - Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka.

During the visit, a range of meetings are planned to be held with representatives of business circles and business associations of Georgia, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, the Georgian National Agency for Standards and Metrology, and the leadership of the Poti Sea Port.

The topic of the visit is the intensification of bilateral economic cooperation. UBTA drew attention to the fact that Georgia is a net importer of almost all groups of commodities. In 2020, imports exceeded exports by 2.5 times and amounted to more than USD 6 billion. In addition, this country has a huge transit potential for Ukrainian goods going to the countries of Central and Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In addition, liberal taxation in Georgia makes it effective to create joint ventures to increase export opportunities for Ukrainian goods. A free trade zone with China and participation in the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention provide an opportunity to expand the export of domestic goods to the countries of these regions.

UBTA invites Ukrainian businessmen to join the Ukrainian delegation and take the opportunity to increase their presence in the country's market and use Georgia's export opportunities for other countries.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held a phone call with His Holiness Pope Francis, the presidential press service has reported.

According to the report, Zelensky congratulated the pontiff on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

"I appreciate the opportunity to continue our dialogue. The Holy See is the world's moral authority," Zelensky said.

He said that the conversation took place in a special period of the 20th anniversary of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine. He stressed that millions of Ukrainians have a bright memory of John Paul II and his fateful visit to Ukraine.

Zelensky also recalled the words of the Holy Pope who believed that "Europe should breathe with two lungs: Western and Eastern" and that Ukraine is an integral part of Europe's Eastern lung. In the context of these words, he stressed that the Pope's visit to Ukraine is "oxygen that is so needed."

"First of all, the people of Ukraine are waiting for the visit of Your Holiness," Zelensky said.

Zelensky also renewed the invitation to Pope Francis to visit Ukraine. He expressed confidence that His Holiness's meetings with Ukrainians on Ukrainian soil would be a fateful event.

It was noted during the conversation that today Ukraine is a country where representatives of all religions coexist peacefully and feel comfortable. The state has no apparent interfaith conflicts and virtually no speculation on the subject of faith.

Zelensky noted the global dimension of His Holiness's activity, in particular, attention to the issues of peace, interreligious dialogue, protection of the rights of refugees, and care for the poor.

Zelensky thanked Pope Francis for his constant prayers for peace and tranquillity in Ukraine, which contribute to the restoration of peace in the country and through which Ukrainians feel that Ukraine is in the heart of the pontiff.

Zelensky informed Pope Francis about the terrible consequences of the war in eastern Ukraine. He noted that the state had lost more than 14,000 people in the war in Donbas, and 1.5 million Ukrainians had been forced to leave their homes.

"We look forward to working with the Holy See and to your support in bringing peace to Donbas. The support of the world community and spiritual leaders is extremely important," Zelensky added.

The head of state also noted that the Ukrainian people are waiting for the beatification of Metropolitan Sheptytsky.

On March 25, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican handed him an invitation from the president to visit Ukraine.

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The U.S. administration considers support for reforms in critical areas in Ukraine, as well as cooperation in the fight against corruption, as priorities of bilateral relations.

Kara McDonald, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said this at Ukraine Reform Conference on June 30, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Supporting reform in critical areas is the top priority for the U.S. relationship with Ukraine," she said.

McDonald acknowledged that since 2014 Ukraine had made significant progress in reforms. "Today Ukraine is stronger, more prosperous and more accountable to its people," she noted.

However, according to MacDonald, oligarchs in Ukraine continue to receive super-profits at the expense of the state, which undermines the process of eradicating corruption.

The deputy assistant secretary noted that the American side had taken steps to counter corruption and malicious activity in Ukraine. In this regard, she recalled, in particular, the imposition of sanctions against Ihor Kolomoisky and his family.

We look forward to further action by the Ukrainian authorities aimed at strengthening judicial institutions, ending impunity and building institutional capacity to hold corrupt officials accountable, McDonald said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that any statements about the so-called "external management" of Ukraine are just a propaganda mantra for internal consumers in Russia.

He stated this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"In my opinion, the facts are always more eloquent than any statements. It is the facts that need to be assessed. It is clear that the theses of any 'external management' are just a propaganda mantra for internal consumers in Russia itself. Because in the real world, all issues concerning Ukraine are resolved purely in Ukraine and by the Ukrainian state, and certainly not in any neighboring country, and certainly not by 'shadow mediators' who are currently under house arrest or on the wanted list," Zelensky said.

He said he was convinced that the Ukrainian state was currently working according to the principle of "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine."

"The events taking place in the global political market only prove it. Moreover, my personal meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel will take place on July 12. At the end of July, there will be direct talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. I am also ready to meet with President Putin if he is really interested in resolving a number of crisis issues that objectively exist in bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia. In any case, preparations for this difficult match are underway," he added.

At the same time, when asked whether he was "hurt" by Putin's phrase that "what's the point of talking to Zelensky if everything is decided in Washington," Zelensky said:" No, because I never live by stereotypes. It looks as if I would say, for example, 'Why should the Russians have the elections, direct democracy, if everything is decided exclusively in the Kremlin?'"

On Wednesday, June 30, commenting on the possibility of his meeting with Zelensky, Putin said that all issues on Ukraine are allegedly "resolved in Washington, Berlin and Paris." He also noted that MP Viktor Medvedchuk had allegedly been placed under house arrest "ahead of the election campaign."

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Ukraine is interested in involving U.S. representatives in the Normandy format talks. Ukraine definitely needs new unions and new alliances.

Ukraines Deputy Prime Minister, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG and the Normandy format talks, Oleksiy Reznikov, said this in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (Mirror Weekly) newspaper, answering the question whether Ukraine would object to U.S. participation in the Normandy format.

"I am sure we will not, because we have long said that it would be reasonable, fair and, among other things, part of our expectations regarding the implementation of the Budapest Memorandum, which has not been canceled," Reznikov said, adding that after the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents in Geneva, the desire to involve the United States in the negotiation process has not disappeared.

"We need to do something. We definitely cannot live in standby mode for another seven years, as it was before. We will not wait for someone to agree on our behalf, since it may not be in our interests to do so. We have already gone through this. We certainly need new unions and new alliances, but with an independent position," Reznikov said.

He also reminded that Ukraine has the right to demand at least consultations within the Budapest Memorandum with the participation of Americans, French and Russians.

Earlier, the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Leonid Kravchuk, said that the decision to involve the United States in the Normandy format to resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine is likely to be made following the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington.

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The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expects the European Union to open its borders to Ukrainians during the next update of the list of epidemiologically safe third countries, which will be made in two weeks, the ministry's spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, has told Ukrinform.

Commenting on media reports that the EU did not include Ukraine during the latest update of the "safe list," he noted that "there is no politics in the recommendation of the European Commission."

Nikolenko said that EU member states review the list of third countries for free entry into the territory of the European Union every two weeks. The recommendation is based on four factors: the rate of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 14 days, the number of tests performed in the past seven days, the level of positive tests, and the nature of the virus, including the presence of more dangerous strains.

He said that the European Commission had been assessing indicators in Ukraine for the past few weeks, when they were still above the norm.

"As we are now getting closer to the norm set by the European Commission, on the instruction of Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the Mission of Ukraine to the EU is working with the European side to include Ukraine in the list during its next review," Nikolenko said.

He also noted that the European Commission's recommendation to open the EU's borders to a certain list of countries is not legally binding. "EU member states individually approve final decisions on easing or tightening travel restrictions. Accordingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is working with European countries bilaterally to simplify travel conditions for Ukrainians, in particular on the recognition of vaccination certificates and digital COVID certificates," Nikolenko said.

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Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has thanked Ukrainian MPs for the ratification of four large-scale Ukrainian-French projects, including a project to improve water supply in Luhansk region.

According to Ukrinform, Avakov wrote this on his Twitter account.

"The Verkhovna Rada has ratified four large-scale Ukrainian-French projects - EUR 1.3 billion for the Ukrainian economy. [These projects concern] locomotives for Ukrzaliznytsia, fire ladders for the State Emergency Service, quality drinking water for Luhansk region and Kyiv. I thank my French colleague Le Maire. I thank the deputies," he wrote.

On July 1, the Verkhovna Rada ratified a Ukrainian-French intergovernmental agreement to strengthen the protection of the population from emergencies, a Ukrainian-French intergovernmental agreement on the purchase of 130 freight electric locomotives, a Ukrainian-French intergovernmental agreement to finance a project to improve water supply in Kyiv, and a Ukrainian-French intergovernmental agreement to improve water supply in Luhansk region.

On May 13, French Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire announced that France would sign four strategic intergovernmental agreements with Ukraine totaling 1.3 billion euros.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden at a meeting in Washington in July will discuss in detail the participation of the United States in the process of the political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the issue of countering Russian aggression.

According to Ukrinform, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this in an interview with the Liga online news site.

"The main focus is to take a new step in cooperation with our partners in the field of security and defense, investment and trade. I do not yet know whether we will leave the meeting with a ready answer about what U.S. participation will be like in the process of political and diplomatic settlement and in countering Russian aggression, but the presidents will certainly talk about it in great detail. This will be the key topic," Kuleba said.

He added that Ukraine's goal is to find a format for U.S. participation in the talks that will give maximum results. According to Kuleba, the Americans "are already in this process, but this is not enough to change Russia's behavior."

Kuleba also noted that the Russians "categorically do not reject the issue of interaction with the Americans on this track."

"Remember the Surkov-Volker line. But we have problems in the Normandy process. Everyone says: Russia, you are a party to the conflict, fulfill your obligations, stop the war. But Russia says: no, we are not a party to the conflict. Until we untie this knot, a full settlement is impossible. And we need to talk very objectively with the Americans about how to untie this knot, what kind of combination can be built so that we get out of the impasse," he said.

Biden and Zelensky had a phone call on June 7 during which the U.S. leader invited his Ukrainian counterpart to visit the White House.

Kuleba said on June 11 that the Ukrainian and U.S. presidents would meet in late July.

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The Verkhovna Rada has adopted the law "On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine," initiated by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, 325 lawmakers supported the decision at an extraordinary parliament meeting on Thursday.

The explanatory note states that the purpose of the document is to determine the legal status of indigenous peoples of Ukraine and establish legal guarantees for full possession of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons belonging to indigenous peoples of Ukraine, which are established by international law and envisaged by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.

According to the law, the concept of "indigenous people of Ukraine" is defined as an "autochthonous ethnic community that formed on the territory of Ukraine, is a carrier of original language and culture, has traditional, social, cultural or representative bodies, sees itself as an indigenous people of Ukraine, is an ethnic minority in its population and does not have its own state formation outside Ukraine." According to this definition, the law proposes to establish that the indigenous peoples of Ukraine include Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks.

In accordance with the provisions of the legislation, the indigenous peoples of Ukraine and their representatives have the right, collectively and individually, to the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as defined in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in international agreements, the binding nature of which has been approved by the Verkhovna Rada, as well as provided for in the Constitution and laws of Ukraine.

The law defines guarantees for legal protection from any actions aimed at deprivation of signs of ethnicity and integrity as original peoples, deprivation of cultural values; eviction or forced relocation from places of compact residence in any form; forced assimilation or forced integration in any form; encouraging or inciting racial, ethnic or religious hatred against the indigenous peoples of Ukraine. The document guarantees the cultural, educational, linguistic and information rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine to sustainable development.

The law provides for the determination of the legal status of the representative bodies of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, their resource provision, and the issue of international representation.

On May 18, 2021, President Volodymyr Zelensky registered in the Verkhovna Rada the bill No. 5506 "On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine."

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Some 62% of Ukrainians support their country's accession to the European Union, whereas 54% back Ukraine's joining NATO, according to a survey conducted by the Razumkov Center between April 23-28, 2021.

"If a referendum on Ukraine's accession to NATO took place in the near future, the vast majority (71%) of Ukrainians polled would take part in it, which is evidence of high public interest in the country's strategic course. Some 54% of Ukrainians surveyed are ready to vote for [their country] joining NATO, 31% are against that, and 15% were undecided," the survey says.

In addition, according to the study, the level of public support for European integration is traditionally slightly higher than support for Euro-Atlantic integration.

"Some 62% of all respondents voted for Ukraine's accession to the EU, and 26% voted against accession. At the same time, the share of supporters of accession significantly exceeds the share of opponents in all age categories, regardless of the gender of respondents. The balance between 'for' and 'against' varies significantly, depending on the region of residence, but remains in favor of supporters of EU accession," the study shows.

Sociologists also studied the opinion of Ukrainians about possible threats to their state. According to the vast majority of respondents, the most relevant threats to Ukraine are threats from Russia (74%) and external aggression (72%). The majority of respondents also consider relevant the internal and external threats: separatism (63%), international terrorism (53%) and the growth of extremism in Ukraine (49%).

The study was conducted by the sociological service of the Razumkov Center in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Some 2,021 respondents aged 18 and older were interviewed. The poll's margin of error is 2.3%.

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Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova and Speaker of the Estonian Parliament Juri Ratas have discussed the issues of developing international cooperation and supporting reforms, Ukrinform reports with reference to the Prosecutor Generals Office.

"Large-scale reforms are underway in the country. We have created an effective triad of anti-corruption bodies, which we strive to make more powerful and effective. The prosecutor's office has completed the main stage of staff replacement. Judicial reform is topical now, on which both justice and the country's investment climate depend. That is why we are glad to have business contacts and exchange of experience with the Estonian legislative bodies, because parliaments are the engines of change in the states, Venediktova said.

The parties discussed issues of security and peace, in particular in eastern Ukraine.

Ratas and Venediktova also discussed the development of digitalization and cybersecurity. Venediktova noted that Ukrainian law enforcers, together with European colleagues, have successfully exposed large-scale fraudulent schemes and hacker groups that attack information systems and users around the world.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba held a phone conversation with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence Simon Coveney, the ministry's press service reports.

Kuleba welcomed the opening of the Embassy of Ireland in Ukraine with a residence in Kyiv. Coveney confirmed his intention to visit Ukraine this year to discuss the intensification of Ukrainian-Irish relations in political, economic, technological, and cultural spheres.

The ministers discussed the measures taken by Ukraine and Ireland in the context of countering the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinating the population, and simplifying travel rules for citizens.

Ukraine is completing the process of launching a digital COVID certificate, which will be synchronized with its EU analogue. Mutual recognition of such certificates between our countries will simplify the travel of citizens and revive business contacts. This will be one of the first tasks of the ambassador of Ukraine, who is due to arrive in Dublin in a few weeks, Kuleba said.

The Ukrainian minister thanked Ireland for its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for promoting internal transformations in the country.

Coveney stressed that Ireland supports Ukraine's European choice.

The ministers also discussed the two countries' cooperation in international organizations, in particular in the context of Ireland's non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

ish
A group of displaced South Sudanese take part in a training session on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) run by UNHCR's NGO partner AHA (Africa Humanitarian Action) in Pariang, South Sudan.  UNHCR/Andrew McConnell

NAIROBI, Kenya - UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, hosted its first ever regional consultations with hundreds of civil society actors including local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and refugee-led organizations from the East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region and beyond from 28 June  1 July. The four-day consultations that took place virtually, reviewed progress, challenges, and opportunities regarding engaging more local NGOs within the region, and how refugee inclusion can be enhanced particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly reemphasized the importance of working with local NGO partners, said UNHCRs Regional Bureau Director Clementine Nkweta-Salami. They are most often on the front lines piloting innovative approaches, having the closest relationships with refugees, and other forcibly displaced persons and host communities, so their expertise and knowledge is quite crucial.

The consultations were centered on localization of humanitarian action, the socio-economic inclusion of refugees in the context of Covid-19, and the implementation of Global Refugee Forum pledges. In addition, UNHCRs Strategic Framework for Climate Action and collaboration with NGOs to address related challenges including climate-induced forced displacement was discussed.

The success of these first consultations for the region is due to the active participation of all actors, especially NGOs and refugee-led organisations, said the International Council of Voluntary Agencies Regional Representative for Africa Marco Rotelli. The complementarity clearly emerging from the diversity of participants - local, national, regional and international - reassures us that the path for collective action and collaboration we are currently on, will bring results for the forcibly displaced and the communities that host them. Its up to all of us to nurture it with determination and perseverance.

While the principle of localization has been widely endorsed in the humanitarian community including through the Global Compact on Refugees and the Grand Bargain, there is still need for more participation of and partnerships with local actors in finding durable solutions for the forcibly displaced.

Participating in these consultations was critical for us as a local NGO, who has been working with UNHCR for many years, said Nile Hopes Gender and Protection Coordinator Martha Nyakueka Reath who is based in South Sudan. It was an opportunity for us to learn and share good examples of our work across the region, with other like-minded organizations. We hope that one of the outcomes will be more investment and support to local NGOs and ensure their meaningful engagement, particularly during this pandemic.

A key priority is also to ensure that organizations established and led by refugees are meaningfully engaged as part of the humanitarian response.

Refugee-led organizations, like ours, should be empowered to participate in finding sustainable solutions for refugees and other displaced people as they have first-hand experience on the challenges faced by people forced to flee, said Vasco Asimi, Operations Manager for Resilience Action International based in Kenya. These consultations have provided a good foundation to create an enabling space for refugee-led organizations to become equal partners in finding solutions to problems facing refugees.

Recommendations from this years regional consultations will inform future global consultative processes including the High-Level Officials Meeting on the Global Compact on Refugees in December 2021.

We remain committed to develop and support processes and efforts of NGOs that enable refugees and host community members to play a more substantial role in setting up responses that are accessible, inclusive and matched to their needs, Nkweta-Salami added.

In addition to the pandemic, the consultations were held at a time when increasing conflict and impacts of climate change have led to 2 million people becoming newly displaced in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan in 2020 alone.

More information on the event can be found here.

For more information, please contact:

In Nairobi (regional), Faith Kasina, [email protected], +254 113 427 094
Paul Aponte (77), from Venezuela, receives his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  UNHCR/Santiago Arcos Veintimilla

Malaria remained the single most common cause of illness among refugees in 2020, while psychological distress caused by COVID-19, and acute malnutrition constituted major threats to refugees health and well-being, according to data released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in its Annual Public Health Global Review.

In a year marked by the pandemic, UNHCRs key focus was to advocate for the inclusion of refugees in COVID-19 national response plans. The agency also worked to support national health systems by procuring personal protective equipment, other equipment like oxygen concentrators, COVID-19 tests and medicines, and by increasing intensive care capacity in countries such as Lebanon and Bangladesh.

At the onset of the pandemic, amidst movement restrictions and the fear of getting infected, refugees access to health facilities was significantly reduced. However, adaptations were made to ensure that refugees continued to have safe access to essential services. As lockdowns and restrictions eased, the use of health services was largely restored.

We worked to reduce crowding in clinics, find alternatives to delivering services, such as with remote follow-up, and, above all, to keep refugee communities informed, said Sajjad Malik, UNHCRs Director of the Division of Resilience and Solutions. Special efforts were needed to secure continuity of maternal and neonatal health services, as well as mental health services, given that refugees capacity to cope was severely stretched due to COVID-19.

Overall, during last year, UNHCR supported access to comprehensive primary health care services and referral to secondary and tertiary care in 50 countries, hosting 16.5 million refugees.

In 2020, 112,119 live births were reported from 159 refugee settlements in 19 countries  a similar level to 2019. Neonatal deaths represented a significant proportion of deaths among children under the age of five and maternal mortality continued to raise concerns in most countries where UNHCR operates. Too many women in refugee settings continued to die from pregnancy-related complications which are preventable and treatable. UNHCR works to support clinics with more trained staff, medicine and equipment, in order to manage obstetric emergencies, and save mothers and newborns.

As in 2019, malaria was the single most common cause of morbidity reported among refugees (20 per cent), followed by upper and lower respiratory tract infections. To fight malaria, UNHCR and partners work to secure access to early diagnosis and treatment, and help communities find ways to reduce exposure to mosquito bites, including through insecticide treated mosquito nets. They also advocate for environmental measures to reduce mosquito breeding sites.

Acute malnutrition remained a significant health problem in many UNHCR operations. The onset of the pandemic resulted in mobility restrictions, and UNHCR, in collaboration with partners, had to review the delivery of nutrition programmes to ensure both continuity of care and COVID-19 mitigation measures.

For example, therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes helped bridge the nutrition gap experienced by children, women, and other people with specific nutritional needs such as those living with HIV and/or tuberculosis. To continue these programmes, UNHCR prepositioned supplies to allow for the provision of rations for a longer duration and reduce the frequency of visits to clinics. Moreover, the agency increased distribution days to reduce crowding. In places such as southern Chad and western Rwanda, UNHCR also provided counseling via radio and telephone on recommended feeding practices for infants and young children.

As we are in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, funding is required to sustain the pandemic response in support of national systems, Malik said. However, this must not be at the cost of maintaining access to other essential health services. Overall, a much larger investment is needed, to ensure that refugees  just like everyone else  can enjoy the right to the highest attainable physical and mental health.

Notes to Editors:

UNHCRs 2020 Annual Public Health Global Overview can be found here.

For Video B-roll, click here

For more information on this topic, please contact:
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IN THE aftermath of the New Hampshire budget debate, there will be a lot of energy spent tallying the winners and losers of the process, with a lot of focus on how this two-year spending blueprint reflects on political leaders and on the political parties. The time spent on the most contro
MANAMA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 01st Jul, 2021) On the sidelines of the Generation Equality Forum co-hosted by the Governments of France and Mexico, UN Women in cooperation and partnership with the Supreme Council for Women of the Kingdom of Bahrain, hosted a virtual event to launch the second edition of the Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Global Award for Womens Empowerment.

The Award aims to encourage and promote worldwide efforts for the empowerment of women and girls, while highlighting the achievements of individuals and institutions in this field. It recognizes achievements towards womens empowerment across four categories: Public Sector, Private Sector, Civil Society Organisations and Individual Champions. The winner in each category will be awarded USD 100,000 to further sustain initiatives that support women.

HRH Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa noted: "We are pleased with the initial response and impact of this Award, which was adopted by UN Women. We appreciate their valuable input along with its esteemed Jury Members, to accurately position and define the Awards goals, allowing its participants to have the opportunity to promote and publicize their efforts in supporting womens progress and enhance their role in advancing their society, and for us to celebrate these distinguished initiatives."

"The Award shines a spotlight on the need for all segments of society to collaborate on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and on Sustainable Development Goal 5 in particular, to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls," said Anita Bhatia, UN Women Deputy Executive Director.

"I kindly invite institutions and individuals worldwide to share their success stories on such a platform that welcomes and applauds innovation that brings in new approaches to bridge gaps in favour of women of all ages and in various fields; while ensuring the sustainability of these initiatives during times of peace, stability, conflicts, disasters, and/or pandemics," said H.

E. Hala Al-Ansari, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Women of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

During the online panel discussion, Yenny Wahid, Director of the Wahid Foundation from Indonesia said: "Empowering women brings great benefits to society. Only by empowering women we can achieve all the development goals we have set for humankind."

Panelist Abdulrahman Jawahery, President of Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company from Bahrain, alluded to the role of private sector in advancing womens economic empowerment: "Companies, by embracing and supporting women as workers, consumers, producers, and suppliers; act as a catalyst for change and a supportive partner in progress of womens empowerment."

Speaking at the panel, actress, model, and UN Women Asia-Pacific Regional Goodwill Ambassador Cindy Sirinya Bishop from Thailand, referred to how individuals can support womens empowerment: "In this age of social media, individuals have the power to reach such a wider audience and many influencers are now using their platforms to empower, inspire and educate."

Interested parties can apply or nominate an organization or individual, by completing the online form available on the Awards official website www.womenglobalaward.org/en, and uploading the required supporting files. Applications will be accepted until March 2022, with the winners announced later that year.
Majuro, Marshall Islands, July 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jul, 2021 ) :Seventy-five years after the US military began using the Marshall Islands as a nuke testing ground, a new generation fired-up by climate activism is demanding justice.

When the Able atomic bomb was detonated at Bikini Atoll on July 1, 1946, Alson Kelen's family were among those forced from their palm-fringed ancestral homes.

For decades, complaints were muted. Many accepted at face value promises from the US Navy that they were in no danger and would be safely relocated away from the test sites.

But abnormally high cancer rates among the displaced islanders -- who are either unable to return to their radiation-tainted homelands or must live alongside leaking deposits of nuclear waste -- tell a different story.

Washington at the time was preoccupied with winning the Cold War arms race against the Soviet Union. The plight of Pacific islanders was considered a low priority next to the communist threat.

Today, Kelen's generation has found its voice taking the industrialised world to task over climate pollution blamed for rising seas that threaten to swamp the low-lying Marshalls, which sit barely a metre above sea level.

He likens climate change to "another nuclear test that is forcing us to fight for our survival" in the Pacific archipelago of 58,000 people, spread over 29 atolls and more than 1,100 individual islands and islets.

The 53-year-old, a member of the Marshall Islands Nuclear Commission, is among those now demanding Washington address the consequences of the 67 nuclear tests on the atolls of Bikini and Enewetak between 1946 and 1958.

The US military's exit was arguably as calamitous for the Marshalls as its testing programme, with assurances given in the 1970s to Bikini islanders that it was safe to return home.

They proved to be false, forcing another relocation, but not before a new generation of children, including Kelen, were exposed to radiation in food grown on contaminated farmland.

Military engineers dumped nuclear waste in a bomb crater in Enewetak atoll, capped it with a 45-centimetre (18-inch) thick concrete dome and again gave residents the all-clear to return.

The dome on Runit island has now developed cracks and has been described by UN chief Antonio Guterres as "a kind of coffin" in the heart of the Pacific.

Washington attempted to draw a line under the issue in 1986 by paying the Marshalls $150 million in compensation for nuclear test damage.

An independent tribunal later estimated the health and environmental damages to be more than $2 billion.

Extraordinarily, the Marshalls' nuclear history was not taught in local schools until last year, when it was finally added to the curriculum after a lengthy campaign.

Once the focus of a small group of activists, the issue has now become more widely known.

Ariana Tibon, 25, admits that growing up she knew nothing about the nuclear weapons test legacy and said it was hard to get younger people interested.

Now the nuclear commission's education and public awareness director, Tibon believes the situation has changed and she is intent on telling the stories of previous generations.

"I feel like the nuclear survivors are outcasts, they are angry and frustrated. I understand it because nothing is being done to help them," she said.

Tibon hopes the same history will one day be taught in US schools, so Americans understand their nuclear legacy in the Pacific.

For Kelen, Washington needs to right the wrongs committed when the Marshalls helped the United States hone the nuclear arsenal that gave it an edge in the Cold War.

"If I could speak to President Biden, I'd say, 'the Marshall Islands is the reason the United States is able to talk to Russia and other countries (from a position of strength). Please just give us a little focus,'" he said.

"We are the small picture that created the big picture. But we're not on the agenda."
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Libreville, July 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jul, 2021 ) :Three soldiers behind a failed 2019 coup in Gabon have been sentenced to 15 years in prison, the prosecutor told AFP on Thursday.

The three, including Lieutenant Kelly Ondo Obiang who was a member of the elite Republican Guard, had gone on state television in January 2019 calling for a "public uprising" during the short-lived coup.

Five policemen and a civilian who were on trial alongside them were acquitted, the prosecutor said.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Weslaco, United States, July 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jul, 2021 ) :Donald Trump visited the US-Mexico border Wednesday, pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric and rallying his base by warning that "millions" of undocumented migrants were surging into the country due to the lax policies of his presidential successor Joe Biden.

The Republican former leader's first fact-finding tour since leaving the White House comes as the Biden administration grapples with a migrant surge that Trump blames squarely on an easing of his "tough but fair" policies that were aimed at deterring new arrivals.

"Now we have an open, really dangerous border, more dangerous than it's ever been in the history of our country -- and we better go back fast," the brash billionaire said after receiving a briefing from sheriffs at the Department of Public Safety in the small town of Weslaco, Texas.

"Millions of people are coming in," Trump added later in remarks delivered along the border in Pharr, Texas, part of his recent ramp-up of public appearances.

Migrant detentions reached their highest level in 15 years in March, and Biden critics accused the president of downplaying the situation.

But the numbers are in the hundreds of thousands, not millions, and many migrants are being returned to Mexico.

Trump was accompanied by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has pledged to finish Trump's wall along his state's border -- but with private donations and not Federal assistance.

Trump was also joined by several Republican members of Congress, including conservatives Lauren Boebert and Jim Banks, as they observed an uncompleted portion of the re-enforced metal wall looming over a grassy bluff.

The area is in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the illegal migration hot spots along the 1,930-mile (3,100-kilometer) border.

Trump expressed pride in his efforts to build more than 400 miles of border barrier and to tamp down the number of migrants crossing into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

"We did a hell of a job," Trump said.

Most of Trump's new construction involved bolstering or replacing existing wall or fencing, with fewer than 50 miles of it being constructed where none stood previously.

Republican lawmakers have slammed Biden for reversing Trump programs, including his "remain in Mexico" policy, which had forced thousands of asylum seekers from Central America to stay south of the US border until their claims were processed.

"Things have changed so quickly and so dramatically under the Biden administration, it's been amazing and disastrous," Governor Abbott said, using fear-mongering language to portray an area where Americans are being "threatened every single day" by migrants crossing the border.
ANKARA,1 July (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Jul, 2021 ) -:Turkmenistan hosted an international media forum Wednesday via videoconference on regional dialogue with representatives of international organizations, NGOs, politicians, academicians, senior officials and journalists from various countries taking part.

The forum, broadcast from the Institute of International Relations of the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan, focused on alternative channels for dialogue and interaction on the occasion of the country's 30th anniversary of independence and 25th anniversary of permanent neutrality.

Speaking at the forum, the Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Hadi Soleimanpour, stressed the vision of Turkmen society and the country's foreign policy.

He said the policy of permanent neutrality as a main aspect of the foreign policy and cooperation in the region and beyond comes with "peaceful coexistence, cooperation, harmony and benevolence." Soleimanpour underlined that the "peaceful coexistence" between cultures and ethnic groups as well as the "cultural harmony" with society, nature, the country's own people and neighbors is the main value of Turkmen society.

He also stressed the importance of common and sustainable development in the region.
Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jun, 2021 ) :United States began shipping 2.5 million doses of Moderna's Covid vaccine to hard-hit Bangladesh on Tuesday, a White House official told AFP.

"Thanks to the US commitment to playing a leading role in ending the pandemic everywhere, 2.

5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine will begin to ship to Bangladesh," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bangladesh, which neighbors India, began a severe lockdown on Monday in response to surging infections from the Delta variant of the new coronavirus.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) The source code for the internet was sold on Wednesday at Sotheby's for a bit over $5.4 million in a form of an NFT, or a non-fungible token, by the person who wrote it, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee.

"One of the most historically significant digital artefacts ever sold, an NFT of the source code for the Web has brought $5.4 million. Offered by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, proceeds will benefit initiatives that Sir Tim & Lady Berners-Lee support," the auction house tweeted.

NFT is a non-fungible token, or a virtual digital unit, in the blockchain network that cannot be exchanged for another.

It is a unique digital certificate that gives exclusive rights to rare digital goods when acquired.

The first website was opened on August 6, 1991 at Berners-Lee's initiative. As part of his project, he created the world's first web server "httpd" and the world's first hypertext web browser for the WorldWideWeb computer, later renamed to Nexus. Berners-Lee also created the first Internet site at http://info.cern.ch, which hosted the description of what the World Wide Web is, how to set up a web server and other information.
President Joe Biden's visit to the collapsed residential building site in Surfside, Florida, will not affect the search and rescue operations there, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) President Joe Biden's visit to the collapsed residential building site in Surfside, Florida, will not affect the search and rescue operations there, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Thursday.

Biden left Washington earlier in the day and is currently meeting with rescue crews and relatives of those still unaccounted for in building collapse incident.

"President Biden's visit today will have no impact on what happens at the site. The search and rescue operation will continue as soon as it is safe to do so," Cava said.

The 12-story residential building in Surfside partially collapsed in the early hours last Thursday.

Since, massive search and rescue operations have been undertaken to pull residents out from the rubble. The death toll in the incident stands at 18 with 147 residents still unaccounted for.

The US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology has recently launched an investigation into the causes of the building collapse. According to US media reports, an engineer who inspected the building three years ago warned the owners of major structural damage and recommended repairs.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) Actor and comedian Bill Cosby has been released from prison following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision to overturn his 2018 sexual assault conviction, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said on Wednesday.

"Mr. Cosby was released from SCI Phoenix just before 2:30 p.m.," the department said on their official Twitter account.

Cosby was convicted of sexual assault using incriminating statements that he made during a previous civil suit under oath, based on a decision by the then-District Attorney not to charge him criminally.

However, the subsequent District Attorney decided to prosecute Cosby nevertheless.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled earlier in the day that the initial District Attorney's decision not to criminally charge Cosby was unconditional and binding, ultimately resulting in them overturning his conviction and securing his release from prison.

Cosby, a former comedian and tv personality, has been accused by more than 60 women of various forms of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1960's. He consistently continues to deny the allegations of impropriety.
Millions of people in western Canada and the northwestern United States were under heat alerts Wednesday as the region baked in record-breaking temperatures and police reported scores of deaths likely linked to the scorching conditions

Vancouver, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jun, 2021 ) :Millions of people in western Canada and the northwestern United States were under heat alerts Wednesday as the region baked in record-breaking temperatures and police reported scores of deaths likely linked to the scorching conditions.

The heat wave has stretched emergency services, with at least 134 people dying suddenly since Friday in the Vancouver area, according to Canadian police.

In the northwest US city of Seattle, doctors reported a flood of heatstroke victims, and at least two patients -- aged 65 and 68 -- died of hyperthermia as their bodies overheated, according to the Seattle Times.

Soaring temperatures in California's valley, mountain and desert areas raised fears of wildfires amid windy dry conditions.

The US National Weather Service warned of "a possibility of dry lightning strikes... creating the potential for lightning-sparked fires." President Joe Biden was due to host a virtual meeting with governors from western states to discuss the threat of wildfires spurred on by the heat wave.

Federal officials say the fire season is already outpacing last year's -- the worst on record in California.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver Police Department alone said it had responded to more than 65 sudden deaths since Friday, with the vast majority "related to the heat." Canada set a new all-time high temperature record for a third day in a row Tuesday, reaching 121 degrees Fahrenheit (49.5 degrees Celsius) in Lytton, British Columbia, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of Vancouver, the country's weather service, Environment Canada, reported.

Some Vancouver locals said they had never experienced such temperatures before.

"It's never this bad. I've never seen anything like this," said resident who only gave her name as Rosa.

"I hope it never becomes like this ever again. This is too much." Others lamented that some residents were more vulnerable to the heat than others.

"I feel for those people whether they're the elderly demographic or people who live on the downtown eastside of Vancouver who don't have a cool spot to live or sleep," said river swimmer Graham Griedger.

Climate change is causing record-setting temperatures to become more frequent. Globally, the decade to 2019 was the hottest recorded, and the five hottest years have all occurred within the last five years.

The scorching heat stretching to Canada's Arctic territories has been blamed on a high-pressure "heat dome" trapping warm air in the region.

Temperatures in the US Pacific Northwest cities of Portland and Seattle reached levels not seen since record-keeping began in the 1940s: 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland and 108 in Seattle Monday.

Vancouver on the Pacific coast has for several days recorded temperatures above 86 degrees Fahrenheit -- almost 20 degrees above seasonal norms.

The chief coroner for British Columbia, which includes Vancouver, said the province had "experienced a significant increase in deaths reported where it is suspected that extreme heat has been contributory." The service said in a statement it recorded 233 deaths between Friday and Monday, compared with 130 on average.

- 'Hottest week ever' - "We are in the midst of the hottest week British Columbians have ever experienced, and there are consequences to that, disastrous consequences for families and for communities," British Columbia Premier John Horgan told a news conference.

He urged "checking up on those people we know might be at risk, making sure we have cold compresses in the fridge or we're staying in the coolest part of our homes, and making sure that we're taking steps to get through this heat wave." Environment Canada said the "prolonged, dangerous and historic heat wave will persist through this week."The heat wave has forced schools and Covid-19 vaccination centers to close in the Vancouver area, while officials set up temporary water fountains and misting stations on street corners.

Cities across the western United States and Canada opened emergency cooling centers and outreach workers handed out bottles of water and hats.
The death toll in the collapse of a beachfront condo building in Florida has risen by four to 16, an official said Wednesday

Surfside, United States, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Jun, 2021 ) :The death toll in the collapse of a beachfront condo building in Florida has risen by four to 16, an official said Wednesday.

Another 147 people remain unaccounted for in last Thursday's tragedy, and the search and rescue effort amid the debris continues, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference.
MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) Presidents Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin discussed defense cooperation, security issues, and energy prices during a telephone call on Thursday, the Belarusian leader's office said.

"Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin discussed in detail the development of defense industry cooperation and security issues," the press service said.

In addition, the presidents agreed on upcoming in-person contacts.

"They also touched upon the situation around Belarus and the most pressing and acute issues on the regional agenda, as well as interaction with neighboring countries," the office added.
The Czech Foreign Ministry on Thursday refuted media reports that the country's ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry over Prague's statements on Vrbetice blasts, the ministry's spokeswoman Eva Davidova said

PRAGUE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) The Czech Foreign Ministry on Thursday refuted media reports that the country's ambassador in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry over Prague's statements on Vrbetice blasts, the ministry's spokeswoman Eva Davidova said.

"I can deny that the ambassador [of the Czech Republic] was summoned [to the Russian Foreign Ministry], as foreign media reported," Davidova told the CTK broadcaster.
(@FahadShabbir)

Former US President Donald Trump's business organization and its CEO Allen Wisselberg, are expected to be charged with tax-related crimes on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported

NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2021) Former US President Donald Trump's business organization and its CEO Allen Wisselberg, are expected to be charged with tax-related crimes on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"The Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to charge the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax-related crimes on Thursday," the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The indictment would be the first criminal charge against the former US president's company since prosecutors began investigating the firm three years ago.

According to the report, the Trump Organization and Weisselberg are to be charged with tax evasion on fringe benefits.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office and New York Attorney General's Office have been investigating whether Weisselberg and other employees illegally avoided paying taxes on perks - such as cars, apartments and private-school tuition - received from the Trump Organization.

If prosecutors could show the Trump Organization and its executives systematically avoided paying taxes, they could file more serious charges alleging a scheme, the report said.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and said the investigations, conducted by offices led by rival Democrats aligned to President Joe Biden, were politically motivated.
Former US President Donald Trump's team has launched a new social media platform called GETTR, Politico reported citing a person familiar with the matter

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) Former US President Donald Trump's team has launched a new social media platform called GETTR, Politico reported citing a person familiar with the matter.

The report said Trump's former spokesman, Jason Miller, is the head of the company but it is unclear what Trump's role is with the platform.

The description for the GETTR app advertises it as a non-bias social network.

In June, Miller announced that Trump's blog titled "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump" shut down less than a month after it was launched. The blog was launched on May 4 as a way for the former president to communicate with the public without having to use one of the major social media platforms.

Trump was banned from major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook following the incident at the Capitol Complex on January 6. The platforms deemed that his activities in relation to the event violated their policies.
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd July, 2021) The United States extended an earlier advisory for Guatemala with an added warning to not travel to Nicaragua, the State Department said on Thursday

"The Department of State renewed its Travel Advisory for Guatemala on July 1, 2021. The Department continues to advise travelers to not travel to Nicaragua.This replaces the previous Travel Advisory issued on June 16, 2021," a department press release said.

The US renewed a Level 4 "do not travel" advisory for Nicaragua on Tuesday.

With Thursday's announcement, Guatemala remains subject to a Level 3 "reconsider travel" health advisory from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) due to elevated levels of COVID-19 and a similar warning from the State Department due to the prevalence of violent crime and gang activity, the release said.

The advisory designates three areas of Guatemala as especially high risk - areas that have been declared off-limits to US diplomatic personnel due to crime.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2021) US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and German Federal Minister of Defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer have discussed defense cooperation, China, Russia and other issues, the White House said in a statement.

"National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met today with Federal Minister of Defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer of Germany. They discussed our countries' close and enduring partnership on a range of issues, including defense cooperation both bilaterally and through NATO," the statement said.

"They also discussed shared foreign policy priorities, including China, Russia, and the Sahel," it said.
FILE - This combination of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, shows from left, former Minneapolis police Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. A more detailed trial schedule for three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting in the death of George Floyd has been set for next March, according to an order made public Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Last month, a judge pushed the trial of Lane, Kueng and Thao out to next March, in part because he wanted publicity from the trial of ex-officer Derek Chauvin to cool down, and partly to allow a federal case against the officers to go forward first.
FILE - In this Monday, June 14, 2021, file photo, an election worker goes over a ranked choice voting explanation card with a voter before she casts her vote during early voting in the primary election, at the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in the Soho neighborhood of New York. Members of the New York City Board of Elections apologized Wednesday, June 30, 2021, after incorrect vote counts were posted in the Democratic primary for mayor. The error came as the board was going through its first major exercise in ranked choice voting.
File photo of the Bishop of Luena with his flock in Angola

The Bishops of the United States have announced plans to send a large amount of funds raised from a special collection to support pastoral activities on the African continent.

By Lisa Zengarini

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Subcommittee on the Church in Africa will allocate more than $1.36 million for African Bishops' conferences, regional associations of Bishops' conferences, and regional associations of religious congregations this Summer.

Funding comes from the special collection taken each year by dioceses in parishes across the United States.

Supporting pastoral care and social ministry in Africa

The sum will help support pastoral care, leadership development, evangelization, and social ministry activities on the African continent, where the Catholic Church remains a beacon of hope in a context of persistent conflict, growing poverty amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and drought.

The USCCB Subcommittee approved grants for 56 pastoral projects at its meeting on June 14.

56 projects

Projects include, amongst others: popularizing and implementing Pope Franciss environmental encyclical, Laudato si in Zambia; training pastoral counsellors to support those impacted by the Covid-19 crisis in Zimbabwe; promoting evangelization in local languages in Togo; creating a mens ministry modelled on the example of St. Joseph in Malawi; reinforcing the local Churchs capacities for protecting minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse across all the dioceses in Burundi; building the skills of catechists in Cameroon to address the psycho-social needs of internally displaced persons who have fled their homes to escape violence; and, organizing interfaith support for the pastoral care of refugees in Uganda.

Making a difference with small gifts

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, chairman of the USCCBs Subcommittee on the Church in Africa, thanked the many Catholics in the United States who contributed to the Solidarity Fund in 2020, despite their own personal hardships resulting from the pandemic.

These gifts," he said, "will work wonders in the lives of African Catholics, who are eager to share the Gospel, care for their brothers and sisters, and raise up a new generation of Catholic leaders who will work for a more just and faithful society."

"Even a small gift goes a long way in these countries, and many small gifts added together make a major difference in the lives of individuals, parishes, and dioceses, he added.
A new UNICEF survey shows the majority of families in Lebanon cannot afford to meet the basic needs of their children.

By Robin Gomes

Children in Lebanon are bearing the brunt of one of the worlds worst economic collapses in recent times, says a study by the United Nations childrens fund, UNICEF.

The report released on Thursday says that series of mutually reinforcing crises, including a devastating recession, have left families and children in Lebanon in a dire situation, affecting just about every aspect of their lives, with few resources and virtually no access to social support.

Child labour, marriage

With no improvement in sight, more children than ever before are going to bed hungry in Lebanon. Childrens health, education and their very futures are affected as prices are skyrocketing and unemployment continues to increase. More and more families are being forced to resort to negative coping measures, including sending their children to work in often dangerous and hazardous conditions, marrying off their young daughters or selling their belongings, said Yukie Mokuo, UNICEF Representative in Lebanon.

The crunch

The country is going through one of the world's most severe economic crises in modern times, which is having serious social repercussions. According to the latest World Bank report, Lebanons economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.

Lebanons woes, which intensified in late 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a post-civil war political class that has accumulated debt and done little to encourage local industries, forcing the country to rely on imports for almost everything.

With the Lebanese pound losing 95% of its purchase power, half of the population is believed to be living below the poverty line.

Facts and figures

UNICEFs survey has unveiled some very grim facts about Lebanons current economic and social malaise.

- More than 30 per cent of children in the country went to bed hungry and skipped meals in June.

- 77 per cent of households do not have enough food or enough money to buy food. The figure in Syrian refugee households, is as high as 99 percent.

- 60 per cent of households have to buy food on credit or borrow money.

- 30 per cent of children are not receiving the primary health care they need.

- 76 per cent of households said they are affected by the massive increase in medication prices.

- 1 out of 10 children has been sent to work.

- 40 per cent of children are from families where no one has work and 77 per cent are from families that do not receive any social assistance.

- 15 percent of families stopped their childrens education.

- 80 per cent of caregivers said their children had difficulties concentrating on their studies at home  which might indicate hunger or mental distress.

Lebanons precarious situation is exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. While the 1.5 million Syrian refugees are the most hard-hit, the number of Lebanese people in need of support is growing rapidly.

Popes Lebanon initiative

UNICEFs report on Lebanon came the day Pope Francis convoked the countrys heads of Christians Churches and communities to the Vatican for a Day of Prayer and Reflection. The theme of the Day is, "The Lord God has plans for peace. Together for Lebanon." The purpose is to rally the various Churches behind the country in this critical situation and to implore on its people the gift of peace and stability. The summit started with a visit and prayer inside St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican, followed by three closed-door meetings. The Day was to conclude with an ecumenical prayer service and a speech by Pope Francis at 6 pm.

Lebanons crisis came to a head when a massive explosion on August 4 2020 at a fertilizer storage facility in Beirut port tore through the city and reopened the countrys old wounds. The blast killed at least 190 people, injured over 6,000, caused over US$10 billion in property damage, and left some 300,000 people homeless.

Hariri was designated as Prime Minister in October 2020 but he has been at loggerheads with President Michel Aoun over cabinet positions and has failed to form a government so far.

Safety nets for children

In its report, UNICEF reinforces its call to the national authorities to implement a major expansion of social protection measures, to ensure access to quality education for every child, and to strengthen both primary healthcare and child protection services.

Mokuo said, Determined, concerted action is critical to mitigating the suffering, particularly among the most vulnerable, who are trapped in a spiral of poverty. Lebanon cannot afford children to be nutritionally deprived, out of school, in poor health and at risk of abuse, violence and exploitation. Children are an investment, the ultimate investment, in a nations future, she added. (Source: UNICEF)
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The decision by Myanmars junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to visit Russia before next-door neighbor China highlights his militarys easier relations with Moscow and hopes of drawing the Kremlin closer to avoid relying on Beijing alone, analysts say.

Min Aung Hlaing visited Russia last week for a three-day international security conference.

China and Russia have been the juntas most powerful allies since the military, or Tatmadaw, toppled Myanmars democratically elected government four months ago. Amid international rebuke of the militarys bloody crackdown on peaceful protests, Beijing and Moscow have blocked efforts in the United Nations Security Council to pressure the junta to back down. The two are also Myanmars main arms suppliers.

As a neighbor, China has the far older, deeper and intricate ties to Myanmar. It is the countrys top trade partner and a major investor. Myanmar also figures large in Beijings sprawling Belt and Road Initiative, offering China a new route to the Indian Ocean and vital oil and gas supplies in the Middle East.

Instead of making Beijing his first stop outside of Southeast Asia since the coup, though, Min Aung Hlaing headed to Moscow on June 20 for the security conference. The visit included meetings with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Those who watch Myanmar closely were not surprised by the choice.

Moscows support for the new regime has been unequivocal and the junta chief was assured of a warm welcome from a major international power and the opportunity to discuss expanding military and economic cooperation, said Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with Janes defense publications.

The relationship with China has been far testier given Beijings dissatisfaction over the chaos triggered by the coup, and longstanding Tatmadaw suspicion over Chinese goals and support for certain ethnic insurgent groups, he said.

Foul weather friend

Smuggling, gambling operations and weapons flows between southern China and northeast Myanmar have been helping prop up ethnic minority rebel armies fighting the Tatmadaw for autonomy along the border for decades, a major thorn in the militarys side. Last year Min Aung Hlaing openly complained about a foreign country backing some of the rebels.

Though he did not mention the name of this country, it was automatically known that he referred to China, said Ye Myo Hein, who heads the Tagaung Institute for Political Studies, a Myanmar think tank.

He noted too that Min Aung Hlaing was speaking to Russian state media on a trip to Russia.

As both a neighbor and big investor, China is also far more worried than Russia about the violence and economic nosedive the February 1 coup has sparked or inflamed, he added. Financial forecasters say Myanmars gross domestic product may plummet by as much as 20% this year. Assassinations and bomb attacks targeting government administrators and facilities are tearing through the country, while long-dormant standoffs between the Tatmadaw and some rebel armies have flared up.

Ye Myo Hein said Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Russia before China to avoid the added pressure that would come with a trip to Beijing to stick to a five-point plan for saving Myanmar from collapse drawn up by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He knows China will not give blank check support, which the coup leaders will not be happy about. China has a great deal of concern with instability and the spillover effects in neighboring countries. That's why it is pushing the five-point consensus from ASEAN, but the junta has not been ready to follow it, he said.

Min Aung Hlaing reportedly agreed to the plan during a special meeting of the bloc in Jakarta in April, including an immediate end to violence and negotiations with all parties concerned, but has shown no sign of following though since then.

Balancing Beijing

Davis said Russia also offers Myanmar a critical great-power counterbalance to the sort of over-reliance on Beijing seen in the 1990s.

Min Aung Hlaings decision to attend the security conference in Moscow rather than send a representative may signal his interest to draw Russia even closer, said Moe Thuzar, a Myanmar analyst at Singapores Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

So the decision to make Russia the destination of his first visit out of the region would be motivated by Min Aung Hlaings interest to seek more legitimacy and more strategic support, and present that balancing and diversification element to existing relations with China, she said.

To date, Russia has filled that role largely as an arms supplier, and an ever more important one. The Tatmadaw has bought more military hardware from China over its history. In the past two decades, though, it has sourced nearly as much from Russia as from China, according to data collected by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The same data show the Tatmadaw lately turning to Russia mainly for airpower, from surface-to-air missiles to helicopters and fighter jets. Davis said Russian hardwares superior quality and competitive prices make them a better deal than their Chinese alternatives, and that the Tatmadaws possible purchase of more planes and armored vehicles  and interest in Kilo-class submarines  could soon make Russia Myanmars top arms supplier. Whether that happens will depend in large part on how much the junta can afford as the economy tumbles, he added.

Those financial woes are also why Min Aung Hlaing wants to move relations with Russia beyond the military-to-military level they are mostly at now, said Ye Myo Hein.

With Western governments imposing targeted sanctions and foreign companies holding off on new deals, he said the junta urgently needs more investment as the economy is tremendously going down. Currently there will be investment only from China, and I think the junta is trying to invite more investments from other countries, Russia included.

Value systems

Ye Myo Hein said the junta will entice Russia with the promise of more weapons sales and may even offer up Myanmars ports for calls from Russias navy on any forays it makes into the Indian Ocean.

Ian Storey, another analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said Russia would like to expand its presence in the ocean, having forged close security ties with India but has few friendly ports along the way from Vladivostok on Russias east coast. He said a reliable stop in Myanmar would help but added the limited number of warships in the Russian navys Western Pacific fleet would keep those trips modest for the foreseeable future.

The Russian navy may send the odd ship or two into the Indian Ocean using Myanmar as a stepping stone, but not in any numbers to shift the balance of power there, said Eugene Rumer, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

He said Russias naval ambitions will remain elsewhere, including the north Atlantic and northeast Pacific.

Rumer said Moscow will seek some business concessions for the diplomatic cover it gives Myanmars junta but, like others, he does not expect Russia to prove the economic lifeline the junta may be looking for.

Analysts say that role will continue to go mainly to China.

What the junta does also offer Russia is another chance to chip away at the Wests push for an international relations regime based on democratic values, said Rumer. By coming to the aid of pariah states from Venezuela to Zimbabwe, and now Myanmar, he said Moscow hopes to advance a regime void of those values, much in line with Beijing.

It undercuts U.S. insistence on values as being a major aspect of our foreign policy, he said. The flip side of it is that it helps show that the United States is not omnipotent; it brings it down a peg or two. And it brings Russia and China closer together, something that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has made part of his foreign policy priorities.
On July 1, the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its centennial, marking its dramatic rise from a small group of idealists to a party of 92 million members that now oversees the worlds second largest economy and the worlds biggest surveillance state.

Internally, its policies color every sector of a nation with the worlds largest population, or 1.4 billion people. Externally, its model is having an impact and influence on distant economies and leaders worldwide not to mention the everyday shopper looking for a new pair of shoes.

One hundred years ago, the party began with meetings in Shanghai of a dozen or so people, who represented, at most, five times their number.

At the time, Shanghai was known for its cosmopolitan drive in an impoverished, divided country struggling to emerge from a string of humiliations by foreign powers that had controlled chunks of its territory for nearly a century.

It wasnt until October 1949, after years of political turmoil and civil war, that Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the Peoples Republic of China, setting in motion more than 70 years of change.

Getting to that moment in Beijing took the party decades of battles. In its early days, the party allied with the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, in an effort to reunify and modernize China so it could ward off further encroachment by Japan.

The two parties also collaborated to rid the nation of warlords that prevented the formation of a strong central government, according to a U.S. State Department history.

In 1925, Sun Yat-sen, the Nationalists leader and a revered CCP figure, died of cancer on March 12. On May 30, a series of strikes and protests throughout China left 11 demonstrators dead as British police responded to the anti-foreign eruption on May 30. Anti-imperialist outrage benefited the CCP which grew from a few hundred members to more than 20,000.

Suns successor, Chiang Kai-shek, instigated a slaughter of communists in 1927, and despite Moscows efforts to engineer cooperation, the two parties fell into a civil war.

By 1931, when Japan invaded Manchuria, the CCP had established itself in rural central China in part by expropriating land from wealthy owners and redistributing it to peasants.

Chiang pursued the CCP and its army, pushing them onto the Long March and off to the caves of Yanan in Chinas central province of Shaanxi giving the party its foundational myth.

In Yanan from 1935-47, Mao Zedong rose to power, building rural support for the party and expanding it from an initial force of less than 10,000 to nearly 2.8 million members as the CCP adopted a constitution that enshrined Marxist-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The partys rapid expansion led to more political and ideological education for newcomers, an indoctrination process that came to include even Long March veterans. Known as the Yanan Rectification, the effort allowed the party, and Mao, to purge thousands of people suspected of disloyalty.

That was only the beginning of decades of political turmoil and internal strife.

After World War II, what had been the two parties united front against Japan dissolved as the full-scale civil war returned. Eventual Communist victory seemed more and more likely, according to the U.S. State Department.

On Oct. 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced The Chinese people have stood up in Beijings Tiananmen Square, ending the civil war and dispatching the Nationalists backed by U.S. imperialism to Taiwan.

For some, the moment seemed like a new hopeful beginning. Chinese then living in the West, many of them intellectuals, professionals and scholars, returned to China to participate in its rebirth. According to an official CCP document from 1956, A Report on Job Assignments of Students Returning from Capitalist Countries, as many as 1,538 Chinese returned to China from August 1949 to November 1955.

Of those, 1,041 returned from the United States.

Mao next launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign, which encouraged people to engage in ideological debate, including constructive criticism of the Communist Party. But hundreds of thousands of people who spoke up later lost their jobs. Many were sent to labor camps as the Anti-Rightist Movement evolved. Later, repressive tactics used against the rightists evolved as part of campaigns to consolidate CCP power under Mao, including the Great Leap Forward.

Starting in 1958, Mao carried out a massive economic and social campaign that tried to remake the countrys agrarian economy into a communist ideal, but instead lead to the deaths of at least 20 million people.

The CCP and Mao again sought to consolidate power with the decade-long Cultural Revolution, which some critics believe killed as many as another 20 million people.

In 1970, amid the social chaos of the Cultural Revolution, Mao signaled a willingness to speak with Beijings declared enemy, the United States. U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to China from Feb. 21-28, 1972, visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, where he met Mao. The countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1979.

Maos death on Sept. 9, 1976, effectively ended the Cultural Revolution, which was followed by the transformative reforms crafted by then-CCP Chairman Deng Xiaoping.

By opening China to foreign investment, Dengs era led to the rapid growth of Chinas economy and the first steps toward the realization of major infrastructure projects such as the Yangtze Three Gorges Dam.

But by the spring of 1989, protests and demonstrations calling for political reform to match the economic changes percolated throughout a China increasingly marked by inequality. The government quashed the biggest protest, a gathering of thousands in Tiananmen Square by ordering the troops to open fire on June 4.

Reporters and diplomats who witnessed the massacre estimated hundreds if not thousands were killed in what Chinese refer to as the June 4 Incident, or 6/4.

It is this swing between openness and crackdown that has marked CCP policies since its founding and continues to this day. The most recent clampdown has been on massive and cash-strapped Chinese multinationals like Alibaba or the implementation of advanced surveillance methods deployed to control minorities such as the Muslim Uyghurs, dissidents and people in cities facing a sudden outbreak of COVID-19.

Today, the CCP is preparing for its chairman, President Xi Jinping, to assume an unprecedented third term, even as the Party faces daunting problems such as an aging population, a declining birthrate, and environmental challenges, Xi is urging party members to remain loyal and serve the people.

To mark the CCPs centennial, VOA Mandarin spoke with people with deep roots inside the party and China, as they reflected on their lives under CCP rule and their changing perceptions of the party. The interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

The forever purge

One of the tactics that CCP leaders have employed throughout its history is purging political enemies. From Maos Cultural Revolution to President Xi Jinpings current anti-corruption campaign, there have been countless attempts to solidify power by destroying enemies to purify the party ranks.

Li Rui (19172019) held senior positions in Chinas government and was once the personal secretary of former Chairman Mao Zedong. An early and enthusiastic member of the CCP, he joined the party in 1937 but soon endured his first revolutionary reeducation during the Yan'an Rectification Movement. He became one of Mao Zedongs personal secretaries in 1958 due to his insights on the Yangtze Three Gorges Dam Project but he was purged again because of his criticism of the Great Leap Forward a five-year plan to collectivize farms and spur rural industrialization that began in 1958 and abandoned in 1961. During the decade-long Cultural Revolution that ended in 1976, he was purged again for voicing opinions contrary to the movement. He was denounced as an anti-party element and spent seven years in prison before he returned in 1979 to hold senior positions in government. After retiring from his political career, Li became an advocate for democratic reform in China.

Few understood this better than Li Rui, a longtime CCP member and once the personal secretary of Mao Zedong. He evolved from a loyal believer to one of the partys most outspoken critics, advocating before he died in 2019 at the age of 102 for liberal reform in China.

VOA talked to his daughter Li Nanyang, a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, where she manages a special project on historical materials relating to her father.

My father joined the Party when he was 20 years old, when the CCP was a small party with less than 50,000 members. At that time, he absolutely admired the old Red Army soldiers for the kind of hardship they embraced during the Long March.

Yet just five years later, the party purged Li for criticizing its policies during the Yan'an Rectification Movement in 1942, a campaign aimed at identifying and removing party members opposed to Maos leadership and policies.

My father told me that he has suffered the least torture. He was not allowed to sleep for five days and nights. He survived, but he said that there were others that werent allowed to sleep for 15 days and nights, said Li Nanyang.

According to Li Rui, this was to rectify those intellectuals who had not yet joined the party or become a tool for spreading their ideology.

For the party and its leader Mao, the Yan'an Rectification Movement was a success. Party members as well as the general public were reformed in their thinking, Li Rui said in Li Ruis Oral Account of Past Events published in 2013 in Hong Kong.

Li was purged during the Great Leap Forward and during the Cultural Revolution for criticizing Maos policies.

When asked about when he changed his perception of the party, he told me it was actually not because of his prosecutions. It was in 1979, when he first came to the United States. He had only been to the Soviet Union before and didnt realize that the West was already so rich. He told me when he set foot on the American soil, he realized that socialism might not be working, Li Nanyang said.

And the last straw was when the party removed the term limits on the presidency in 2018, effectively allowing Xi Jinping to remain in power for life. I think my father completely lost hope for the party at that point.

A party society

Guo Yuhua, a well-known sociologist in China famous for her criticism of the central government, was born to an elite military family in 1956. Because of her familys army ties, Guo joined the military in 1971 at the age of 14. Enrollment at a young age was considered a privilege at the time.

Four years later, she joined the Party.

Guo Yuhua (1956--) is one of the best-known sociologists in China and an outspoken critic of the CCP. As a professor at Tsinghua University, she focuses her research on vulnerable populations such as people living in rural China and migrant workers. Guos parents, both military officers, remained in senior posts in the central government until the Cultural Revolution, during which her father was persecuted and denied medical care for cirrhosis of the liver. Guo was 12 years old when he died.

I didnt really understand why. I guess if you are in the military and not a party member, its just weird. People would think you were either not hard-working, or you have some problem that needed to be fixed, Guo told VOA Mandarin.

At the time, Guo loved China and the CCP. I was Red inside and out.

Over time, Guos view of the party changed, an evolution that began in 1980, when she was admitted to Beijing Normal University. She spent the next decade studying until she obtained a doctorate degree in 1990.

It was completely different back then. When we first entered university, we saw seniors running to be people's representatives. There were university students and young teachers, delivering campaign speeches on campus. At that time, debates and discussions were active and welcomed, Western books were allowed, and we were hopeful, she said.

But that all ended on June 4, 1989, she said referring to the massacre of protestors in Tiananmen Square by the government. After that day, I realized that it was an illusion that the CCP would push for democratic reform. Now 30 years have passed, we still dont see the government even admit its mistake. Then the only way to rule is through lies.

Guo officially quit the party in 2014. In fact, I have never participated in any Party activities since I joined Tsinghua University in 2000. When they asked me to pay party dues, I gave them the receipt I got from donating to poor children in the countryside, she told VOA.

Before we said China was a party state, now I think it is a party society, Guo said in reference to how CCP control has gone beyond oversight of the government and seeped into every aspect of life. China was once a party society during the Mao era, but are things better now? I dont think it has changed fundamentally at all.

We have a so-called market economy today, but who does this system work for? Take a look at the farmers and migrant workers. Take a look at the entrepreneurs whose assets have been taken away. The fundamental question is who has taken all the benefits? she said. Answering her own question, Guo said the ruling elite of the CCP has benefited the most from the opening of Chinas economy.

I Thought China Was Happy

I remember when I was young, the school would organize us to watch parades punishing those liberal individuals, and we would sit in the public trial for them. Looking back, if you understand the concept of universal rights, China had an insane amount of human rights violations in all walks of life during the Cultural Revolution. But at that time, it was just daily life, Akio Yaita told VOA Mandarin.

AkioYaita (1972 --- ) is a Japanese journalist and current affairs commentator. From 2007 to 2017, he was a reporter for the conservative Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbun, in Beijing. He now heads the newspapers Taipei branch. Yaita was born in 1972 during the Cultural Revolution in Chinas coastal city of Tianjin where his family had business ties. Yaita received the same kind of red education as many Chinese at that time. It wasnt until he returned to Japan during his teens that he realized most of what he had learned was CCP propaganda. In his book 'I Thought China was Happy,' released in 2020 by Taiwan Gusa Publishing, he recorded personal observations on how the CCP has ruled China by distorting facts and defaming Western countries.

Yet after the Cultural Revolution, from the time he went to elementary school up until the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, China was a country full of hope, according to Yaita.

Honestly, everything was slowly getting better. The countrys economy was opening up, people were encouraged to speak up, it was probably the best time in China in the past 100 years, he said.

He returned to Japan with his family at the age of 15 and was shocked by how different the two societies and political systems were.

I thought Japan was a utopia at that time. People were friendly and the government's policy was geared to help those less fortunate. Most importantly, the media was completely different. All the news outlets served as watchdogs, they criticized politicians and held them accountable. Yet in China, all we heard was how great the leadership were, how heroic Chairman Mao was. It was very, very different, he said.

With a keen interest in international relations, Yaita embraced journalism and has spent most of his career covering China.

In his eyes, the mission of a journalist is to expose unfairness in the system, dig out of the truth, and speak for those at the bottom of the society.

I feel so fulfilled in my career covering China, because unfairness is everywhere, he told VOA Mandarin.

I have a friend, Xu Chongyang, a successful businessman who later lost all his assets from working with a few high-ranking CCP officials who defrauded him. So he begins to file petitions, Yaita said.

When I first met him, he was full of energy and was convinced that he could bring justice back. He was then targeted by the authorities, he was beaten, he was locked up. ... Every time I saw him, he became weaker. And every time he petitioned, he got a few more crimes (linked to) his name. He once told me, In this country, you cant really sleep easily no matter how rich you are. You just dont know when the nightmare will come.

Xu was just an example, said Yaita, who told VOA Mandarin that he has witnessed hundreds of stories. He believes these personal tragedies are caused by a system where no one has an incentive to speak for the weak.

The rights of the weak should be protected, he said. Any of us could possibly experience unfortunate incidents in life, so a strong social support system is essential. But in China, this is the group that suffers the most, so no, I dont think China is a happy country at all.

New Chinese nationalism

Meanwhile, a growing number of Chinese patriotic youth have taken defending the Chinese government and the CCP as their duty.

These so-called little pinks, or xiao fenhong in Chinese, emerged on Chinese social media and became a popular term after the 2016 Taiwan election, when pro-independence leader Tsai Ing-wen won the race.

Beijing views Taiwan as a wayward province belonging to one and the same China," and Chinese internet users flooded Taiwanese social media with nationalistic rhetoric. Today, they defend China position in the South China Sea, cheer for Chinas so-called wolf warrior diplomacy, and support Beijings tough policies on Hong Kong.

Chinese media outlet Sohu quoted literacy scholar Wang Xiaoyu as saying little pinks can be considered part of the "Chinas rise" generation, who argue the global community is demonizing China and that China should take on a tougher attitude to defend itself.

Gao Mei is a little pink. Born in 1992 in Chinas eastern Jiangsu Province, she finished her bachelors degree in Hong Kong and obtained a master in international relations in New York. She asked that VOA not use her real name because she feared online retaliation.

During her time in Hong Kong and New York, she has access to information routinely censored in China. She has watched historical videos about Tiananmen Square, and discussed the incident with family and friends. Yet she thinks that while the Beijing government has made some mistakes, it has also brought China out of poverty and led the country to become the worlds second largest economy after the United States.

"Yes, we have a one-party system. While we might have sacrificed democracy, it has improved efficiency, she told VOA Mandarin. The Western countries enjoy democracy, but they are slow, they are unable to move forward. I think the response to COVID-19 pandemic is a great example.

Gao and other Chinese who support the CCP say Beijings lockdowns in response to the pandemic limited its spread inside China, showcasing the Partys highly effective governance. Critics counter that Beijings continuing tight control over information during the pandemics early days has been an obstacle to international efforts to find out how it began.

Gao said she considers herself a mild little pink. I think the term refers to those who like Chinese culture and support the current leadership. I think this way of thinking is pretty common among young people."

Compared to Gao, 23-year-old Li Liang is taking active actions to defend the CCP online. He told VOA that he has used VPN to leave negative comments on Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wens Facebook. He asked that VOA not use his real name for fear of retaliation.

This is his way of showing his patriotism, he said.

As an electric engineer in a hi-tech company in Chinas eastern Shandong Province, Li said he will sometimes use a VPN to access blocked content online, but he sees Chinas state-owned CCTV and Xinhua News Agency as the most reliable. He supports wolf warrior diplomacy and hopes his favored Chinese news outlets take an even tougher stance to spread out our own voice and regain our status on the world stage.

I consider myself a little pink. Previously, the term had a negative connotation, referring to those who support the government without critical thinking. But now I think it just refers to those who are patriotic, he said. As a Chinese citizen, I love my country, its a must.
Donald Trump's company and his longtime finance chief are expected to be charged Thursday with tax-related crimes stemming from a New York investigation into the former president's business dealings. That's according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.



The charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, appear to involve non-monetary benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including use of apartments, cars and school tuition. The charges arise from a probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat leaving office at the end of the year.



Donald Trump's company and his longtime finance chief are expected to be charged Thursday with tax-related crimes stemming from a New York investigation into the former president's business dealings, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.



The charges against the Trump Organization and the company's chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, appear to involve non-monetary benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including use of apartments, cars and school tuition.



The people were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that charges were expected Thursday.



The charges against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be first criminal cases to arise from the two-year probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat who leaves office at the end of the year.



Prosecutors have been scrutinizing Trump's tax records, subpoenaing documents and interviewing witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.



A grand jury was recently empaneled to weigh evidence and New York Attorney General Letitia James said she was assigning two of her lawyers to work with Vance on the criminal probe while she continues a civil investigation of Trump.



Messages seeking comment were left with a spokesperson and lawyers for the Trump Organization. Messages were also left with lawyers for Weisselberg and other company executives. The Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment.



Trump's spokesperson did not immediately response to a request for comment, but Jason Miller, a longtime former senior adviser to the Republican, spun the looming charges as "politically terrible for the Democrats."



"They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80 year-old man for maybe taking free parking!" Miller tweeted, apparently referring to Weisselberg, who is 73.



Trump had blasted the investigation in a statement Monday, deriding Vance's office as "rude, nasty, and totally biased" in their treatment of Trump company lawyers, representatives, and long-term employees.



Trump, in the statement, said the company's actions were "things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime" and that Vance's probe was an investigation was "in search of a crime."



Trump, who's been critical of President Joe Biden's immigration policies, was scheduled to travel Thursday to Texas to visit the U.S.-Mexico border.



Trump Organization lawyers met virtually with Manhattan prosecutors last week in a last-ditch attempt to dissuade them from charging the company. Prosecutors gave the lawyers a Monday deadline to make the case that criminal charges shouldn't be filed.



Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the AP this week that there was no indication Trump himself was included in the first batch of charges.



"There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president," Fischetti said. "I can't say he's out of the woods yet completely."



Weisselberg, a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred, came under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his son's use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.

Barry Weisselberg managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park.



Barry's ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with the investigation and turned over reams of tax records and other documents to investigators.



Allen Weisselberg has worked for the Trump Organization since 1973.



Prosecutors subpoenaed another long-time Trump finance executive, senior vice president and controller Jeffrey McConney, to testify in front of the grand jury in the spring. Under New York law, grand jury witnesses are granted immunity and can not be charged for conduct they testify about.



Prosecutors probing untaxed benefits to Trump executives have also been looking at Matthew Calamari, a former Trump bodyguard turned chief operating officer, and his son, the company's corporate director of security. However, a lawyer for the Calamaris said Wednesday that he didn't expect them to be charged.



"Although the D.A.'s investigation obviously is ongoing, I do not expect charges to be filed against either of my clients at this time," said the lawyer, Nicholas Gravante.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Joshua Nkomo, says his dismissal from the government of Robert Mugabe has brought Zimbabwe to the brink of civil war. Speaking to about 60,000 supporters at a rally in Bulawayo on 4 April, 1982, he said Mr. Mugabe's policies could bring about factional fighting.
The World Health Organization has expressed concern about Uganda's approval of a locally made herbal treatment for COVID-19 amid a third wave of cases.

The WHO has not approved the substance for COVID-19 treatment, but Ugandan pharmacists say they have little choice because drugs authorized for emergency use in developed countries are not available.

Ugandas drug authority said Tuesday that it had approved the herbal medicine, Covidex.

Dr. David Nahamya, executive director of Ugandas drug authority, said the approval followed a two-week scientific evaluation of the medicine's safety and efficacy.

Covidex has been notified to be sold in licensed drug outlets for supportive treatment in management of viral infections but not as a cure of COVID-19, Nahamya said.

The WHO consulted researchers from nine African countries, including Uganda, in March about the use of traditional medicine to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Dr. Solome Okware of the WHOs Uganda office said Covidex wasnt among the traditional medicines that were evaluated.

WHO has not received any information about this product, Okware said.

Bases for approval

Nahamya reassured Ugandans that the manufacturer, Jena Herbals Uganda, had increased production and that the herb would be available for all who needed it, under medical supervision.

He added that the approval was based on initial assessments, published literature and safety studies conducted by the innovator.

The product has been formulated from herbal plants that have been traditionally used to alleviate symptoms of several diseases," Nahamya said. "To further the efficacy of the drug for other uses, NDA [Uganda's National Drug Authority] has advised the manufacturer to conduct random controlled clinical trials, which are the highest level of evidence to ascertain any claims of treatment.

Okware said that in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the WHO developed master and generic protocols to provide guidance to members for developing clinical trials to assess claims of effective treatment for COVID-19.

Many plants and substances are being proposed without the minimum requirements and evidence of quality, safety and efficacy," Okware said. "The use of products to treat COVID-19 which have not yet been robustly investigated can be harmful if the due process is not followed.

'Local solutions'

Dr. Samuel Opio, secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda, said that while there were concerns about misuse of Covidex by the public, its approval was a positive step.

"Whatever is currently being approved [for] emergency use in the U.S. are not available in Uganda," Opio said. "So the issue of lack of a treatment, the issue of inaccessibility to even what is approved for emergency use, means that we need to also look for local solutions to the global challenges, and herbal treatment is one area.

Uganda recently received 175,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine but is inoculating only frontline workers. With just 856,025 people vaccinated in the country, many members of the public have resorted to using Covidex to treat COVID-19 symptoms.
Zimbabwe's new COVID-19 lockdown includes a curfew, a ban on intercity travel, and a vaccination blitz aimed at border towns and vendors. But vendors and rights activists say the government should make more vaccine available instead of tightening regulations.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the new measures, including a 6:30 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew, on national television Tuesday. He said the restrictions were the result of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

Commerce and industry are to open from 0800 hours to 1530 hours. Travelers from countries with alpha and delta COVID-19 variants will be quarantined and tested on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 10th day, at their own expense. Those deported back to Zimbabwe will be subject to self-quarantine or will be quarantined in identified places. Travelers with fake COVID-19 documents will attract custodial sentences, said the president.

The new measures to contain COVID-19 include what the government is calling a vaccination blitz targeting borders and vendors.

The head of the Zimbabwe Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation, Samuel Wadzai, has welcomed the new regulations allowing vendors to operate for limited hours.

But Wadzai said the vaccination program should be voluntary, not compulsory.

What we can urge the government is for the vaccine to be accessed without queueing for long hours. Lets decentralize. This is the only way we can do away with these lockdowns. In their nature lockdowns are restrictive and they dont give us space to operate as informal traders. So, we urge the government to quickly ensure that the vaccines are available, he said.

About 771,000 Zimbabweans out of a population of 14 million have received their first shots, and 545,000 have received their second inoculations since the program started in February. The country had a monthlong shortage of vaccine until it received 500,000 Sinopharm doses from China on Saturday.

Zimbabwe has about 48,533 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,761 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which tracks the global outbreak.

Dewa Mavhinga, head of Human Rights Watch in southern Africa, told VOA the infection figures do not justify a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

It seems excessive. The government is focusing more on restrictions than on other efforts that are needed to contain the coronavirus  efforts such as ramping up vaccinations, ensuring that all essential workers are vaccinated and ensuring that the adult population in Zimbabwe is vaccinated. There is no movement in that regard, said Mavhinga.

Zimbabwes seven-day average infection rate has increased five times in the last two weeks, according to official figures released this week.

The government says it is importing more vaccine in July and in August to achieve herd immunity for about 10 million people by the end of the year.
The African wild dog, or African painted dog, is one of the world's most endangered mammals with less than 7,000 remaining, mostly because of human-wildlife conflict. In Zimbabwe, the Painted Dog Conservation group finds and removes thousands of snares every year that can kill or injure the dogs.
Sir Michael Caine is to host a new podcast series on gangs.

The legendary actor will tell the stories behind infamous real-life gangs from across the globe in the Audible Original series 'Michael Caine: Gangs', including the Kray twins, Jesse James, and the Mafia in Sicily.

Throughout the six-part series, Michael will seek to reveal the hidden realities behind the myths that surround famous gangsters and discover if and how a gang can truly be 'successful', with other episodes looking at 'The Black Widow' Griselda Blanco, John Gotti and former gang member Tracey Miller.

The 'Get Carter' star said: "There is an undeniable public interest with gangs, which has had people transfixed for decades, influencing films, books and culture.

"In this new podcast series, I uncover the remarkable real-life stories from gangs across the globe, including my personal experience in 1960s London.

"Throughout Gangs, we determine whether the truth is stranger than fiction with these famous cases in history, as well as the present day realities of gang life."

Michael will begin the series by looking at the Krays and he recalled how he tried to avoid them back in the 1960s.

The 88-year-old star said: "I met the (Kray twins) in a discotheque. They came in there and everyone went quiet.

"I met them three or four times but I tried very hard not to become a close friend. They were very scary."

Michael also recalled how he knew many gangsters growing up in London and was put off by the violence.

The 'Italian Job' actor explained: "I knew enough gangsters. I just wanted to be a simple actor and not hit anyone or slash anyone with a razor."
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A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a former Kenosha woman will be able to practice law despite being less than forthcoming about a past drug charge for attempting to smuggle more than 100 pounds of marijuana from Oregon to Wisconsin.

The court ruled 4-3 Tuesday to reverse a Board of Bar Examiners decision that Abby Padlock was unfit to practice law in Wisconsin, directing the board to certify Padlocks admission to practice law in the state. "We again choose to exercise our prerogative and afford this applicant the benefit of the doubt," the court wrote.

The state bar had earlier ruled that Padlock did not have the character and fitness to practice law in the state because she did not fully disclose the circumstances of her arrest on drug smuggling charges on her law school application or when she applied for admission to the Wisconsin State Bar.

Padlock was an all-state volleyball player at Tremper High School who went on to play volleyball at college. When she was 24, Padlock and a friend were driving from Oregon to Wisconsin in October 2015 when they were stopped by a Minnesota police officer who found 76 individual packages of marijuana that, all together, weighed 114 pounds. During the subsequent investigation, police found $30,000 in cash in Padlocks home, that cash seized in a civil forfeiture.

Padlock was originally charged with two felonies and faced up to 25 years in prison, but eventually entered a deferred prosecution agreement, was sentenced to three days in jail, fined $1,000 and placed on probation.

Admitted to law school

While she was on probation, she was admitted to the University of Wisconsin Law School. In her application to law school, she was asked to report any past criminal violations. She reported that she had been given a stay of prosecution on a marijuana charge and was given probation.

She did not report the amount of marijuana that was discovered, the initial felony charges that she faced, any information about the $1,000 fine, her three days in jail, or her two years of probation. She did not mention the $30,000 civil forfeiture, the court opinion states.

The university later learned about her criminal history during a background check for a law school mentoring program while she was still a student and determined she seriously mischaracterized her 2015 criminal matter but did not discipline her and she completed school, but was warned the matter might adversely affect her admission to the bar.

In Wisconsin, students who complete law school in the state have diploma privilege and do not have to pass the Bar exam to practice law in the state. But they do have to apply for admission to the bar and can be denied on character and fitness grounds.

In Padlocks case, the Board of Bar Examiners preliminarily ruled that she was at risk of being denied. She formally contested that ruling and the board held an evidentiary hearing in September 2000.

At that hearing, two of Padlocks professors testified in her support, saying she spoke openly and honestly at school about her experiences with her criminal case and that those experiences led her to volunteer for a legal assistance program for incarcerated people.

At the same hearing, Padlock admitted that before she had been arrested in 2015 she had been paid $10,000 for an earlier marijuana smuggling run.

She maintained that her oversight on her law school application was not intentional, that she did not intend to deceive anyone and that she wrote what she thought was required of her.

The board found that she was not credible and that there was a notable lack of evidence that Ms. Padlock had engaged in any significant rehabilitative efforts to offset her misdeeds.

Court critical of harsh actions

The Supreme Court majority found that was too harsh, noting that Padlock had volunteered to provide legal services to people who are incarcerated and to women seeking asylum, and that she had volunteered to provide legal assistance to veterans at the veterans hospital in Madison. She was involved in a non-profit that aided children in Kenya and started a business after graduating from law school.

Twisted Grounds exterior Fresh out of law school, Abby Padlock opened Twisted Grounds on Madison's Far East Side.

The court found that the board was brutally disparaging of her credibility, employing rhetoric that seems, at times, unnecessarily scathing.

While the court stated that Padlock would have done better to be exceedingly forthcoming on her law school and her bar applications but found that denying her admission to the bar would be too harsh a penalty.

Affirming the ruling were justices Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky.

In a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Patience Roggensack and Brian Hagedorn, Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote that she was not persuaded that Padlock had the requisite moral character and fitness to practice law in the state.

By repeatedly minimizing her criminal conduct surrounding the illegal transportation of drugs across state lines, Ms. Padlock manifested a deficiency in honesty and integrity, both of which are essential characteristics for admission to the bar in this state.
Stowe, VT (05672)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Thunderstorms likely late. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
On the 245th anniversary of the United States of America declaring itself an independent nation  231 years after Vermont joined the republic and a year following one of the quietest Independence Day celebrations in the states history  July Fourth celebrations have been planned across Lamoille County.

In accordance with Gov. Phil Scotts rescinding of all masking and social distancing guidance on June 15, this will be the first federal holiday  aside from the newly created Juneteenth holiday  to have no state pandemic-related requirements to limit celebrations.

These are the celebratory events being held in the Lamoille County area this Sunday.

Stowe

The Moscow Parade will begin in Moscow at 10 a.m. and Stowe Vibrancy 4th of July Parade and accompanying festivities will begin in Stowe at noon.

Fireworks sponsored by Stowe Parks and Recreation will be held in the evening, with parking at Mayo Farm Events Field open at

6 p.m. and fireworks beginning around 9:30. Food vendors and live music will precede the fireworks.

Morristown

The Morristown Parade will begin at the Community College of Vermont in Morrisville at 11 a.m. and end at Peoples Academy High School.

The parade will follow the theme of Ring Your Bells for Freedom. Accompanying floats and displays will incorporate bells to promote the theme. Registration for groups, clubs and organizations to walk in the parade will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the community college parking lot.

In the evening, live music and fireworks will be held in Oxbow Park. The festivities will begin at 7 p.m. with live music featuring Pitz Quattrone followed by a fireworks display at 9.

Cambridge

A super heroes-themed Independence Day Parade will start at 10 a.m. in Jeffersonville.

Floats will assemble in the parking lot of G.W. Tatro Construction near the roundabout at 9:30 a.m. and the parade will end at the Cambridge Elementary School field, where the national anthem will be sung and a $500 prize for best float will be awarded.

Following the parade theme, grand marshals will include those who have worked on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, including Cambridge Elementary School principal Mary Anderson, nurses Greg Johnson and Sue Reed of University of Vermont Medical School and Cambridge Elementary School and restaurant worker Kayla Neumeister of 158 Main, Irving Payne of the Cambridge Community Center, Fred Stevens of Aubuchon Hardware and Zach Bakos of Cambridge Village Market.

No town fair will be held this year, but Varnum Memorial Library is holding its annual book sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jeffersonville Arts Jam, featuring food trucks, artwork and demonstrations and sponsored by Visions of Vermont and Cambridge Arts Council, will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In the evening, Smugglers Notch Resort will hold a fireworks show. There will be no firemans barbecue this year. Live music, hosted by Goodtime Charlie, will begin at 6 p.m. and include the Vermont National Guard 40th Army Band playing a mix of classical favorites and patriotic tunes. Fireworks will begin at dusk.

Elmore

A boat parade will be held on Lake Elmore. The parade will begin at 4 p.m.

Eden

The Lake Eden Boat Parade will begin at 11 a.m., starting at the boat launch and ending at Boy Scout Beach.

This years theme will be Game On! and prizes will be awarded for most entertaining boat, most decorated boat, best representation of theme and most original boat.

Festivities also include outdoor games, sports, board games, bar games and video games.

If you want to participate, contact cfortin@ewsd.org or 735-3860 to sign up.

Greensboro

In neighboring Greensboro at the southern edge of Orleans County, the towns traditional celebration, Funky Fourth of July, will precede the actual day of the holiday.

On Friday July 2, fireworks will be hosted at the intersection of Breezy Avenue, Hardwick Street, Lake Shore Road and Center Road.

On Saturday July 3, a parade will be held that travels from Country Club Road down Breezy Avenue to its end at the town hall green.
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Law enforcement officials are investigating a Saturday shooting that left two people dead in a Boston suburb as a hate crime.

The victims were identified by Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins during a press conference Sunday as Ramona Cooper, 60, a former Air Force staff sergeant, and retired Massachusetts State Trooper David L. Green, 58. Both victims were Black.

The suspect was identified by law enforcement as Nathan Allen, 28. Rollins said he stole a large truck and crashed it into another vehicle and a building in Winthrop before shooting Green and Cooper. Allen was shot by police and taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries.

Allen was armed with at least two weapons, police said Saturday.

"Two innocent people lost their lives in the safe neighborhoods of Winthrop," Rollins said. "They fought for us to be safe and to have the opinions that we have and they were executed yesterday."

Asked at the press conference whether the victims were targeted because of the color of their skin, Rollins said the shooter "walked by several other people that were not Black" and did not harm them.

"At this preliminary stage of the investigation, the excellent work of law enforcement has already unearthed troubling white supremacy rhetoric and statements written by the shooter," Rollins said in a statement Sunday.

Allen's writings have been linked to "anti-Semitic and racist statements against Black individuals," Rollins said at the press conference.

"This shooter was married and employed. He had a Ph.D. and no criminal history," the district attorney said in her written statement. "To all external sources he likely appeared unassuming. And then, yesterday afternoon he stole a box truck, crashed it into another vehicle and a property, walked away from the wreckage interacting with multiple individuals and choosing only to shoot and kill the two Black people he encountered."

Victims remembered as heroes

Rollins said Cooper was shot three times in the back while Green was shot four times in the head and three times in the torso.

Massachusetts State Police Colonel Christopher Mason issued a statement about Green, praising his 36-year career in law enforcement and saying his fellow Troopers described him as a "true gentleman..

Green became a Metropolitan District Commission Police Officer in 1980 and became a Massachusetts State Trooper 12 years later when the MDC Police were merged into the MSP, according to the statement.

"Trooper David Green more than upheld the ideals of integrity, professionalism, and service to others that are the hallmarks of a great Trooper. We are heartbroken by his loss and offer our condolences to his family and friends," Mason said.

Ramona's son, Gary Cooper, described his mother to CNN affiliate WBZ as a good person and "the type of person to help anyone out."

"You know we're in 2021. We shouldn't be hating on other people based on the color of their skin but I guess we are not there yet," Cooper said.

"I got sick to my stomach when I found out it was racially motivated."

Boston Police, Chelsea Police, Revere Police, MBTA Transit Police and the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council assisted with the investigation in Winthrop.
Bill Cosby's release from prison could be triggering for survivors of sexual assault.

"It may feel like a slap to the face for some survivors," Adde Waggoner with Crisis Services of North Alabama said.

She says Cosby's release was disheartening and sends the wrong message to those who experienced sexual assault.

"Even if they were to come forward, perhaps their aggressor would not see the repercussions from those actions," Waggoner said.

The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network says the majority of perpetrators will not go to jail or prison. Only 25 out of every 1,000 assault suspects will ever see time behind bars. That's less than 3 percent!

Now, Waggoner is worried about a bigger potential issue.

"It takes a lot of courage and bravery for someone to come forward of their assault as it is. If they feel like the legal system isn't going to accurately represent or try their case, then they may be discouraged from coming forward," she said.

Right now, more than 2 out of 3 sexual assaults go unreported. Waggoner hopes all survivors know there's still a way for them to heal and that they're not alone.

"We hear you. We see you. We believe you. We want you to know that there's help. There's hope, and if they need to speak to somebody whether it was 20 years ago or two days ago. We want people to know that we are here," Waggoner said.

If you experience sexual assault but are afraid of filing charges, there is a way to submit an anonymous record with crisis services of North Alabama. The forensic exam and report would be stored until they feel ready to press those charges.

Help is always available at crisis services of North Alabama. All services are free.

You can call their 24-hour help line at 256-716-1000. You can send them a text from 4-11:30 pm at 256-722-8219.
Athens city council approved bringing in 25 Bird electric scooters to Downtown Athens.

City planner, Lakeisha Johnson, said it will give residents another form of transportation and help grow local businesses.

"This is beneficial to the businesses and the individuals within the city of Athens because its another mode of transportation," said Johnson.

Dawne Douthit, the owner of Epiphany Boutique and Square Clock Coffee, said electric scooters could definitely help surrounding businesses, including her own.

"Anything that brings in more business we just love," said Douthit. "Its a great atmosphere down here and lots of foot traffic, so Im sure the scooters will be awesome."

The electric scooter company says surrounding businesses can anticipate growth.

56% of rides connected to local businesses. On average, over 6 months, an additional $921 was spent at local businesses, per scooter.

The electric scooters are at no cost to the city. Johnson said it's an experimental process, to see how the city benefits.

"Athens is one of the fastest-growing cities in the state and Limestone County is the fastest-growing county within the state," said Johnson. "This is an opportunity for us to be diverse, multi-dimensional, and to utilize new experiences we did not have before."

Although safety is one concern residents in the area have.

Athens resident, Dakhea Eubanks, said, "It's the other people, its how they drive, I mean you got to pay attention yourself, but its the other people too."

Johnson said safety is a top priority when it comes to electric scooters. Signage around the square is one tool the city plans to use to alert drivers.

"You wont be able on any alternate streets, only local streets," said Johnson. "You wont have to worry about 72, 31, were keeping it very localized in the downtown area district."

Eubanks said he does understand the appeal of bringing electric scooters to the square.

"If its pretty packed, you just pull up, hop off your scooter and get what you need to get," said Eubanks.

The city is in the beginning planning stages in partnership with Bird. Johnson said she expects electric scooters to be in Athens in the next couple of months.
The Jackson County Sheriffs Office arrested an Athens man on rape and sodomy charges involving a victim younger than 12 years old.

Nicholas Lee Young, 36, was indicted by a grand jury, according to court documents.

He was booked in the Jackson County Detention Center on a $60,000 bond.

According to the sheriffs office website, he bonded out about 4 p.m. Thursday.
Your safety. Your security. Your child's science project. That text message you just sent.

Just about everything that impacts your life is managed right now by large teams of military and civilian experts living around you in North Alabama. Redstone Arsenal is making our lives safer and smarter. It's an undertaking 80 years in the making.

Every day inside Huntsville's 500-square-mile military post is a well-tuned orchestra with four synergies performing in perfect harmony:

Space Operations and Missile Defense

Research/ Development / Testing / Engineering

Logistics

Intelligence and Homeland Security.

And it takes some of the best and brightest minds (yes some are rocket scientists) to never miss a beat.

"We have a vast display of incredible people with a vast amount of knowledge and skills. to continue to propel Redstone Arsenal into the future and be a valued member of the Department of Defense for a long time to come," bragged Col. Glenn Mellor, Redstone Arsenal Garrison Commander.

He has a right to be proud.

A decision about locating US Space Command Headquarters here hangs in the balance.

Mellor said we could find out as soon as early next year if the Air Force's recommendation of Redstone is accepted and moves forward. That's a four star general command and 1,600 jobs and a major United States combatant command responsible for military operations in outer space.

The future truly is now at Redstone.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is engaged in our Artemis mission to eventually send humans to Mars.

Congress made two major decisions to increase the Army's presence at Redstone; the first in 1995 and then again in 2005. The Base Realignment and Closure process, or BRAC, moved Army Aviation Command to the post and combined it with the existing Missile Command (AMCOM). Then later, the Army Materiel Command (AMC) moved to Redstone.

"This is where the rubber meets the road. I mean, you have operational Army units executing strategic missions for the nation right here," said Maj. Gen. Bob Harter, Chief of Staff at AMC.

Numerous other Army commands are located at Redstone to ensure our soldiers who are downrange have the most technically advanced equipment to keep us safe. Lasers and hypersonic technology continues to come online.

The Army Missile Defense Agency recently issued contracts to help protect our country from intercontinental ballistic missile attacks.

The list of agencies at Redstone goes on and on. The expanding FBI component, ATF, Homeland Security. Military and Space Intelligence (MSIC).

When you add it all up, this synergy of multiple agencies on one military post is a testimony to a major investment to protect our land, air, sea and space (our way of life) now and in the future.

It's also a tip of the cap to the pioneers who kicked it all off at Redstone Arsenal some eight decades ago.
On Thursday, some future space travelers made a visit to the Rocket City!

The members of Space X's "Inspiration4" mission were at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to talk with students in the Aviation Challenge program. Inspiration4 will be the first all-civilian crewed mission to space.

The inspiration crew is certainly living up to their name, as they showed students in the Aviation Challenge program what the future could look like for them.

"My earliest memories of aviation was the exposure I received here at Aviation Challenge, so it's really incredible to be back here," says Jared Issacman.

Isaacman is the commander of the Inspiration4 mission. He grew his passion for space after attending the Aviation Challenge camp nearly 26 years ago.

"(I'm) very excited for all of you because we are going into what I think is like the most exciting time in space exploration in decades really," says Isaacman.

Now, he's commanding the first all-civilian crew to space.

"It's the first time really where everyday people are getting the chance to go up and go around," explains Isaacman.

His crewmembers are equally excited

"I'm in my 50s and I'm going to space. And it's something that, you know what I like to say is don't give up on your dreams," says Dr. Sian Proctor.

The campers took her message to heart.

"It was cool to see that because that means anyone could really go to space," says camper Emma Jett.

Another camper, Jack Lavinder, says after hearing the crew speak, "We know that we can, like, basically do anything that we set our minds to."

If the mission is a success, it will unlock new doors for everyday people, and these bright eyed campers, as they shoot for the stars.

The mission is raising awareness and money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. One of the crew members, Hayley Arseneaux, received life-saving treatment there as a child. Their goal is to raise $200 million for the hospital, the largest fundraising effort in the organization's history.

Inspiration4 is set to blast off on Sept. 15. The crew will spend three days in low orbit before returning to Earth.
Where that second round of CARES Act funding is headed in Springfield
Schmidt blames oil from take-away sandwiches, pizza and kebabs for stains on Florence streets and monuments.

The head of Italy's Uffizi Gallery, Eike Schmidt, has suggested taxing street food vendors in Italy's art cities - including Florence - and using the funds to pay for cleaning up streets stained by ketchup and oil.

Schmidt said the oily stains cause particular harm to the grey 'pietra serena' or Macigno sandstone used extensively in Renaissance Florence for architectural details.

The remarks by the German-born Schmidt, expressed during an interview with the daily QN, were reported by Italian news agency ANSA.

"It would be fair to introduce an additional taxation for street food establishments, or those that do not offer their customers space and tables but force them to eat on the street," said Schmidt, highlighting the constant cleaning undertaken by both the Uffizi and the city of Florence.

However Schmidt's proposal was rubbished by the Florence branch of Confartigianato Imprese, which represents artisans and small business owners in the Tuscan capital, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The group's president Paolo Gori described it as an "absurd" and "senseless" idea, stating: "We are absolutely opposed to this additional burden on the city's businesses" which are already under heavy financial strain due to the covid-19 crisis.

Gori suggested that the only way to counter the "uncivil behaviour" of those who dirty the city is to increase checks and hand out fines to whoever "does not respect the rules."

In 2019 Rome banned sitting and eating on the Spanish Steps , a rule that is still enforced by police today.

Cover image: Tourists eating near the Pantheon in Rome. Photo credit: Roman Babakin / Shutterstock.com.
Free guided tours of Rome's Aurelian Walls this summer.

Rome opens up internal stretches of the city's ancient Aurelian Walls for the first time with guided tours at weekends this summer.

The tours will be held in the walkways of sections of the walls along Via Campania, from Porta Pinciana to Via Marche, and on Viale Pretoriano, between Via dei Frentani and Via dei Ramni.

The tours, free of charge, will be held on Saturday and Sunday mornings, between 09.00 and midday, from 3 July until 26 September.

For full details see the Roma Capitale website. Photo Roma Capitale.
Scientists pay the most attention to mutations in the gene that encodes the viruss spike protein, which plays a key role in its entry into cells and is targeted by vaccines. The four variants of concern all carry multiple mutations affecting the spike protein. That raises questions about whether people who have developed antibodies to the regular or wild type strain -- either from a vaccine or from having recovered from Covid -- will be able to fight off the new variants. University of Florida researchers found that for the Covid vaccines being rolled out on a global scale, the alpha strain led to somewhat reduced efficacy compared with the wild strain, while the beta and gamma variants led to considerably lower efficacy, they said in a paper released in May ahead of peer-review, in which research is scrutinized by experts in the same field before publication. As for delta, data from Public Health England indicate that vaccines are less effective at preventing symptomatic disease compared with alpha, especially after only one dose.
In countries where vaccine supplies are scarce, knowing people can safely and effectively mix vaccines could help overcome shortages. Freeing countries from the need to match second doses to first doses would give them more flexibility to use the vaccine that is most readily available. Moreover, if researchers can pinpoint the combination of vaccine types that will boost immunity for the longest and is most potent against variants, it could help protect populations against Covid more efficiently and reliably -- assuming production of such a superior combo could be scaled up. As governments are ordering supplies for future booster shots, its important to know which formulations could maximize protection, especially if it depends on which vaccines a person has already been given. Trials in the U.K. and U.S. are examining this. Finally, as pharmaceutical companies work to produce new versions of vaccines that are more effective against variants, knowing that people can safely receive a third shot thats based on a technology different from their previous ones could ease supply concerns.
Authorities are dramatically ramping up the use of the law against royal insults, which can result in a sentence of as many as 15 years in prison. Dozens of activists who participated in the demonstrations were facing royal defamation prosecutions, drawing criticism from United Nations rights experts. Arnon and Parit Chiwarak, the author of the 10 demands, have been arrested and released several times since mid-2020 on various charges. They and about a dozen other leaders charged with royal defamation were detained for weeks before being granted bail. Prayuth has questioned the movements funding and legitimacy, but said police wouldnt use force against peaceful protesters. After several delays, the military-backed parliament in June approved a bill that would pave the way for a referendum on changing the constitution, as required before any overhaul. But for now, the lawmakers ignored the sweeping changes demanded by protesters in favor of a minor change to the election rules that would benefit big parties, including the one that backs Prayuth.
Such an exercise could be invasive or cringe-inducing. But the cards guide participants so gently through the sessions lasting about 45 minutes, and the communication that they provoke can be so sweet and surprising that it all comes across as a joyful resetting of ones bearings for being out in the world. If youre on social media, you know how caustic and unfeeling the exchanges can be. This Encounter is a reminder that the faceless have faces. Recognizing the dignity and the whimsy and some of the history of one other human may help, if you try to imagine the same qualities in everyone.
Rumsfeld was Navy man, a former wrestler, an early adopter of the standing desk (read into this if you must). Its easy to forget that Rumsfelds nearly six years in the Bush administration were a coda to his career in public service, which initially ran from his enlistment in 1954 to his appointment as Ronald Reagans special envoy to the Middle East, where he famously smiled and shook hands with Hussein about 19 years before overseeing the invasion of his country. Rumsfeld returned to the Pentagon at age 68 to transform the department that hed first helmed 25 years prior, and found bureaucrats standing in his way.
Because there are so many unknown variables, including when certain countries may reopen (or if they will potentially close again), what hotels are accepting guests, which cruise itineraries are going to set sail, and more, some travelers are hedging their vacation by booking refundable hotel rooms in two places, to guarantee that they will be able to get away this year. They dont want to run the risk of not being able to find somewhere else with availability if their original trip needs to be canceled.
A year later, Weaver-DuBose is helping lead a campaign to rectify what she describes as a grating inequity: She has to leave Ward 8 to take Marble to any one of the citys 16 public dog parks, all of them in more prosperous Zip codes on the other side of the Anacostia River.
We know so many of our neighbors are facing the prospect of losing their homes, Frosh said during a virtual call to action on Thursday. We know there are thousands of Marylanders who have been unable to access public benefits like unemployment insurance, and we know that many Marylanders  due to the loss of a job and income  have been unable to pay their bills, to pay the rent.
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Brian was truly one of the kindest people I have known throughout my life, his brother wrote in the online fundraiser. As a kid, he would always try to care for injured birds or mice. I think he felt bad that most of those injuries were caused by our cats and wanted to make that right with the universe.
Fire Lt. Dave Pylar said the rescuers had to cut through three separate layers to reach the man. We just worked with different tools to keep cutting, he said. We would take breaks from our tools, turn them off, reassure him we were going to get him out. Officials said when the man got out, he asked for water and to call his mother.
"I so look forward to being governor and actually working hard to unleash the potential of all Virginians . . . so that all Virginians  Black Virginians, Brown Virginians, White Virginians, yellow Virginians  can all achieve their aspirations and their ambitions," Youngkin, who is White, said in an April podcast that recently resurfaced. "And this is what America is about. And this is what Virginia should be about."
It was not immediately clear how Afghanistans inclusion in the State Departments list of Tier 3 countries that failed to take significant action against human trafficking might affect American assistance. According to U.S. law, countries in that category may be denied non-humanitarian, non-trade assistance, and the United States may also seek to withhold financing to them from multilateral lenders. But the president can also waive those restrictions, as President Donald Trump did last year, the senior official said.
We are going to respond, and in that response, we want to make sure, as best as we can, that we are hitting targets that are connected to the attacks against us, said the senior U.S. official. The Biden administration is not operating off a different legal basis for the use of military action in Iraq or Syria.
Im organizing essentially all the different drawings for the same floor, with different dates, so I can see what the differences are, he added. I did that for North, and I did that for East and now finishing off South, he said referring to the different towers. Ill sort them by date and look for differences between the two, if there are any.
Attack in Congo kills 9: At least nine civilians were killed in an attack by rebels in Congo's eastern city of Beni, officials said. The attack is the third in the Beni area this week. Police and the military have blamed Allied Democratic Forces rebels for the violence. On Sunday, two explosions hit a Catholic church in Beni's Butsili district and a market in another district, leaving four wounded. The Islamic State's Central Africa Province asserted responsibility for those blasts. Eastern Congo has been mired in conflict for more than a quarter-century.
The fire chief said he is gathering information from experts on how to fight the fire in a building that  to the surprise of his department and other city agencies  was being used to store nearly 100 tons of lithium batteries.
The former has shown up often in Bidens presidency so far  in his regular public mourning for those who have died of covid-19, his emotional phone call with the family of George Floyd, his comments after successive mass shootings. It is a testament to a country still reeling from a pandemic and reckoning on race, as it confronts a new outbreak of violent crime on Bidens watch.
California says the attorney general needs to have the information on hand in case there are complaints about charitable fraud, and that only the names of those who contribute so much that they could influence the charity are required. It says a key fact is that the information is not publicly disclosed, although it acknowledges past problems with that.
The Wyoming Republicans appointment to the panel, and the warning from McCarthy, underscores the sharp and growing differences between the two parties over the insurrection. Many Republicans remain loyal to Trump and are loath to spend time reviewing the attack by his supporters. GOP leaders are working to shape the narrative about the committees work, complaining that it will be dominated by Democrats even though the Republicans scuttled an earlier attempt to form a bipartisan commission.
This week, the New York City Board of Elections was not immediately forthcoming with details about what went wrong, and its press office did not reply to a request for comment. But the counting error and the ensuing uncertainty about who won have brought unfavorable attention to the citys adoption this year of ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to select up to five candidates in order of preference. If no candidate surpasses 50 percent, lower-finishing candidates are nixed and their voters subsequent choices are tabulated in a series of tallies until one candidate emerges with a majority.
But Dunne told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that, counter to Trump's recent suggestion, the contents of the indictment did not detail "standard practice in the business community." The charged crimes, he added, were "not the act of a rogue or isolated employee . . . [but were] orchestrated by the most senior executives who were financially benefiting themselves and the company by getting secret pay raises at the expense of the state and federal tax payers."
He always did it in a group. Like there would be four or five, but you knew there were two of you he was really talking to, and the other three just had to kind of sit there. That was Boehner, Massie said.
Indigenous activists have also struggled to garner responses from Catholic hierarchy regarding the Doctrine of Discovery. Lucias proposed Vatican meeting on the topic wouldnt even be the first: Steven Newcomb, the Shawnee/Lenape co-founder of the Indigenous Law Institute, was part of a delegation that traveled to Rome in 2016 to press the Vatican about the Doctrine of Discovery. There, Newcomb and a slate of Indigenous representatives convened a two-hour meeting on the topic with Silvano Maria Tomasi, an archbishop since elevated to cardinal who was a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (since renamed the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development).
My daughter was very bright. She wanted to study English and go to a top university, but we couldnt afford to send her to private classes, said Mohammed Hussain, a day laborer who earns about $25 a week. He enrolled Zahra in the seventh grade at al-Shahda, where she blossomed. She was always at the top of her class, and this was her last year, he said this month, weeping into his scarf. On May 8, Zahra and her best friend started to walk home together. They never arrived.
The Chinese people have never bullied, oppressed, or enslaved the people of other countries, he said. At the same time, the Chinese people will never allow any foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us. Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.
The Council of Europe, the United States and the United Nations had appealed to Erdogans government to remain in the treaty, which sought in part to ensure equal legal protections against abuse for women across Europe. The decision, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to deepen the protection gap for women and girls during a time when gender-based violence against women is on the rise, the U.N. womens rights committee said in a statement Thursday. Such an unprecedented act cannot, and does not, have a valid ground and justification, the statement said.
Activists have also called for an ongoing public awareness campaign about consent amid widespread concerns about the prevalence of sexual assault. A website called Everyones Invited went viral this year with tens of thousands of victims, in schools and other locations, sharing stories of assault, abuse, misogyny and rape. Almost 3,000 schools were named in the testimonials, including more than 400 elementary schools. Soma Sara, the founder of the site, has called for an overhaul of how sexual education and consent are taught in schools. Students need to gain the ability to have the language to call out these issues in real life and challenge the culture, she told ITV News. It really starts from the beginning: Are they being taught about consent? Empathy? Boundaries? Its all very much interconnected, she said.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday upgraded its travel alert for Eswatini to warn Americans against any travel to the country and announced it would allow non-essential America diplomats and their families to leave due to the deteriorating security situation there.
Among those welcoming the sentence for Zuma was Mac Maharaj, a veteran leader of the ruling African National Congress party who had served as Zumas presidential spokesman from 2011 until 2015. Maharaj said he resigned because he did not want to be associated with the corruption that he witnessed.
Charles L. Riney, 86, of Washington, went home to be with our Lord and Savior on Sunday, June 27, 2021, at 7:25 a.m. He was born in Washington on Nov. 3, 1934, to Thomas and Ann Marie (Smith) Riney. He loved gardening and spending time with his beloved dog. He is survived by one sister, Paul
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North Yorkshire-born actor, singer and LGBTQ+ advocate Olly Alexander has been busy this year. Not only is the 30-year-old starring in Its a Sin, one of the years most talked about TV series, hes also released hit single Starstruck, performed at the BRIT Awards and recorded with an Australian icon.

But theres more.

The new album is done, he says. Ill still be able to add a few things, or take things out, but the album is finished now. I just decided on the name, but I cant tell anyone yet.

Olly Alexander.

Hes referring to the third Years & Years album, and the first in which Alexander is the sole member. In March, the band decided amicably to break up after a decade and allow Alexander to continue making music under the moniker. It also meant rejecting an album theyd tentatively made and starting afresh.
The Morrison government paid $42 million up front for four train station car parks in the key Liberal-held seat of Deakin in Melbournes east before any of the projects had been properly assessed.

The payment was made to Maroondah Council last year but construction is yet to begin on three of the four, and the estimated cost of delivering them has already blown out by almost $20 million. It is more than a year until most of the projects are likely to be completed.

The existing carpark at Ringwood station, one of several sites chosen for upgrades under the federal governments controversial congestion fund. Credit:Paul Jeffers

The commuter car parks in Ringwood, Heathmont, Heatherdale and Croydon are in the marginal Liberal electorate held by Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, and are part of a program slammed by federal Auditor-General Grant Hehir for failing to award funds based on merit.

In a scathing report this week, the Australian National Audit Office found that projects under the $4.8 billion federal Urban Congestion Fund program had been green-lighted by Prime Minister Scott Morrison the day before he called the 2019 election, and the money mostly went to Liberal-held or marginal seats.
Samoa is withdrawing its weightlifting team from the Tokyo Games because of COVID-19 curbs, the chief of the Pacific nations Olympic committee said on Thursday, just over three weeks before the event starts, although other athletes will attend.

The pullout is the latest setback for Japans fraught efforts to stage the worlds biggest sporting event during a pandemic, after it was delayed last year. The Games are set to begin on July 23.

The only team that cannot travel is the weightlifting team, which is based here in Samoa, committee president Patrick Fepuleai told Reuters by telephone.

We are still under a state of emergency, were in lockdown.

But Samoa would have a presence at the Games, he said. We are still sending a team to the Olympics, he added. Our teams are scattered all around.
Wilmington, DE (19810)

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Mostly cloudy early, then sunshine for the afternoon. High 87F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

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A clear sky. Low around 70F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The arrestees are suspected members of the motorcycle clubs "The Pagans and The Warlocks and were allegedly upset that the victim had patches and tattoos of those clubs but was not a member.
FBI still searching for robbery suspect who exchanged gunfire with agents in Lexington
The number of people registered as sex workers with German authorities declined sharply last year as coronavirus restrictions shut brothels for months, official data showed Thursday.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell again last week to the lowest level since the pandemic struck last year, further evidence that the job market and the broader economy are rebounding rapidly from the coronavirus recession
Weatherford, TX (76086)

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Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 86F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph..

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Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
HARTFORD  Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday vetoed controversial legislation that would have limited the amount of time incarcerated people could be kept in solitary confinement and the use of restraints.

But in an executive order accompanying the veto, the governor ordered the Department of Correction to immediately enact policies that limit restrictions for the incarcerated. Lamont ordered that by Oct. 1, solitary inmates get out of their cells for at least two hours a day.

I am not signing this legislation because, as written, it puts the safety of incarcerated persons and correction employees at substantial risk, Lamont said in a written explanation. This legislation places unreasonable and dangerous limits on the use of restraints. The bill as written only permits correctional officers with the rank of captain or higher to order the use of handcuffs and only permits therapists to order restraints during a psychiatric emergency.

It was a setback for advocates who have been working for years to reform what they claim is a system of torturous procedures within the state Department of Correction. Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, the lead sponsor, said he was surprised by the governors action.

I believe that I had heard he represented he would sign the bill, so to do the opposite is frusrating, Winfield, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a phone interview. There is absolutely no reason that that bill should be vetoed. But the governor has a right to be wrong.

The veto marked a victory for prison guards who had mounted a late-afternoon rally at the state Capitol to persuade Lamont to veto the legislation. The event, set to start at 4 p.m.  four minutes after Lamonts veto announcement  turned into a celebration for what the guards believe are important tools in keeping inmates under control, including the use of restraints.

About 150 correction officers attended the rally, which was announced Tuesday afternoon. They cheered when Jody Barr, executive director of AFSCME Council 4, announced that the bill had been killed, and credited meetings Lamont had last week with the presidents of three bargaining units representing prison workers.

Tom Lally, an officer at Garner Correctional Center in Newtown, said union pressure on lawmakers and the governor yielded the result. We understand where this bill was coming from, what the intentions were, but we deserve a seat at the table, said Lally, who has 10 years in the prison system.

The union leaders said they were not sure what the executive order might do to affect the current procedures. Collin Provost, president of AFSCME Local 391, said that the bill went far beyond what correction officers could perform to keep facilities secure and safe.

On a related matter, Provost said that legislation in the state budget to allow free phone calls of at least 90 minutes per day for all inmates seems to also be very problematic.

A veto override would require two-thirds votes in both the House and Senate. The previous 26-10 vote in the Senate would reach the 24-vote threshold for an override, but the 87-55 vote in the House was 13 votes short of the 101 votes needed to reach two-thirds.

Lamont, speaking after an unrelated event in Stamford Wednesday night, said he conferred with union officials and lawmakers.

Solitary confinement is not an appropriate form of punishment, but I have a job as governor to make sure the corrections officers and inmates are kept safe, he said. So were going to do through regulation what they tried to do through legislation. Were going to make some adjustments and allow the inmates and corrections officers to stay safe. Some of these folks who are in solitary are a danger to other corrections officers. We have to put in place a structure where theyre not in solitary confinement 24 hours a day, but we can control that and keep that facilities safe. That was my number-one concern.

The legislation would have given the DOC until July 1, 2023 to create a program to allow each inmate six-and-a-half hours a day outside their cell. Earlier this year, agency officials said they were changing procedures for what prison officials call restrictive housing.

It was the first bill of the year to earn Lamonts rejection and abruptly ended the efforts of advocates including Stop Solitary CT until the next legislative year.

It was a major goal of lawmakers including Winfield and Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven. In early 2020, Winfield arranged for a simulated solitary confinement cell to be installed in the Capitol lobby.

Winfield said that in the case of a captain or higher ordering handcuffs, wardens could delegate authority to lower-ranking officers. He said the effective dates of the bill would have given the DOC plenty of time to put procedures in place.

While Lamont seems to be focused on time spent in cells, Winfield said, there were other parts of the legislation that dont appear to be addressed in the accompanying executive order, including the appointment of an ombudsman to monitor disciplinary incidents; and changes in visitation rules.

Others expressed anger.

It confirms that the governor does not value the lives of people incarcerated in Connecticut, said David McGuire, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, in a phone interview. His actions continue to bear that out. The bill would not have banned solitary. It would be phased in over a couple of years. This is a practice that has been condemned across the world and were going to continue to do it here.

Barbara Fair of the Stop Solitary CT coalition, which had members demonstrating outside the State Capitol building for weeks during the recent legislative session, said late Wednesday afternoon that she was still trying to catch her breath after the veto.

Its unbelievable but somehow not unexpected, Fair said in a phone interview. Where were the governor and his executive order when the people were dying of COVID? The DOC does not want any oversight over what they are doing. Im not shocked. Im disappointed and angry, with all the work we put into this.

She said that solitary confinement is exacerbating the problem that incarcerated people have with mental illness. Its going to continue to dehumanize our people, Fair said. People are losing their minds. People are killing themselves. Right now, Im just trying to breathe.

As of Monday there were 8,957 inmates in Connecticut, according to the Department of Correction, down sharply from before the pandemic.

Staff writer Paul Schott contributed to this report.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Gathering without masks, Maine lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved an $8.5 billion budget on the eve of the new fiscal year. The budget includes a $300 hazard pay bonus for most workers.

Both chambers adopted the budget by a margin greater than a two-thirds majority, allowing it to go into effect upon the governor's signature.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said the budget represents an historic investment in Maine people.

It boosts the states share of K-12 public education costs to 55%, meeting a goal established by state voters, while adding $45 million to the school renovation fund and $40 million for land conservation, and increasing revenue sharing with cities and towns. It also expands preventative dental care to more than 200,000 Mainers.

It does all that while adding to the state's rainy day fund.

The new spending was made possible through more than $900 million in unanticipated revenues, based on updated projections.

The votes came as most lawmakers ditched their masks for the first time since lawmakers convened this year.

Lobbyists, lawmakers and laypeople crowded State House hallways without face coverings after the Legislative Council rescinded its COVID-19 restrictions last week. The governor's state of civil emergency, imposed at the start of the pandemic, was to expire at midnight, as well.

Lawmakers already passed a bare-bones budget on a partisan vote in the Democratic-led Legislature. But there was bipartisan support on Wednesday for the budget revision.

I know this legislative session has been particularly difficult because of the pandemic, and I want to applaud both Republicans and Democrats for working together in good-faith to negotiate a strong budget that we can enact immediately, the governor said.

The updated budget proposal passed unanimously in the appropriations committee before going to floor votes.

"The Maine Legislature is sending a clear message to the people of the state of Maine: bipartisanship is alive and well in Augusta, said Democratic Sen. Cathy Breen, co-chair of the appropriations committee.

Rep. Teresa Pierce, the House co-chair, lauded the investments in education while maintaining strong fiscal responsibility.

Local governments will get a break with the state finally picking up its full share of education costs. This marks the first time Maine has met the 55 percent threshold since voters passed a referendum in 2004, she said.

In other action, the Maine Legislature approved a bill to scrap Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state's largest electric utilities, and replace them with a consumer-owned utility.

The proposal previously failed by a single vote in the Senate, but it picked up support Wednesday after it was amended to spell out that the utility would have to pay property taxes to cities and towns.

Nonetheless, the bill that would create an entity called Pine Tree Power still lacked a two-thirds majority necessary to overcome a likely veto by Mills.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, said it's time to have a power grid that's no longer owned and run by those from far away" and are not invested in the state and its energy decisions.

The Pine Tree Power Company will finally let us reinvest the money from our electricity bills back into the grid instead of sending it to investors overseas who have never set foot in Maine," he said.

Critics said the proposal was costly and risky. Mills previously described the bill as a rosy solution to a very complicated series of problems.
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A billionaire Republican donor is paying $1 million to help defray the cost of deploying the South Dakota National Guard to the U.S. -Mexico border
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Willmar, MN (56201)

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Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. High 96F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. military will remain involved in the Afghanistan war into September, keeping the option of launching airstrikes against the Taliban to defend Afghan forces, U.S. officials said Thursday, even as the final combat troops prepare to leave the country in coming days.

For weeks, officials have said the withdrawal of the main U.S. military force and its equipment from Afghanistan would be largely completed by this weekend, well ahead of the Sept. 11 deadline set by President Joe Biden. Army Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. commander there, would then leave, marking a significant turning point in the U.S. mission. But a range of complicating factors means that will not end America's involvement in the 20-year war.

Officials said when Miller flies out, his combat role, including authority to carry out strikes on the Taliban and to conduct counterterror operations against al-Qaida or other groups, will be taken over by Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, who is based in Florida. Officials said there have been several U.S. airstrikes in support of the Afghans in recent weeks, using warplanes based outside of Afghanistan, and those strikes will continue.

The new U.S. commander inside Afghanistan will be Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, who will head the security mission at the U.S. Embassy. He is already in Kabul, working with Miller on a transition, said the officials, who discussed new details of the withdrawal on condition of anonymity.

Vasely will have 650 U.S. troops in the country, based largely at the embassy to secure the diplomatic mission, a force that will remain indefinitely. In addition, until September, McKenzie will have the authority to keep up to 300 more troops in Afghanistan to help with security, including at the airport, said the officials.

The Pentagon and other U.S. leaders  from the White House to Capitol Hill  have expressed alarm about a recent surge in violence in Afghanistan, amid fears that it will lead to a widespread civil war and the collapse of the Afghan government and its military.

During his final press conference in Kabul earlier this week, Miller painted a grim picture of the security situation. He noted the rapid loss of districts around the country to the Taliban and warned that a civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if this continues on the trajectory its on right now, that should be of concern to the world.

The U.S., meanwhile, is also scrambling to develop a plan to get some of the thousands of Afghan interpreters and others who aided the U.S.-led coalition out of the country. While the U.S. military is not expected to play a major role in the evacuation, troops may be needed to ensure security for the departures.

Thus, while the military has hastened its exit, security requires that the September deadline remain the final goal.

'We remain on the timeline that the president announced just a few weeks ago, which is to get our troops out of Afghanistan, while having a remaining diplomatic presence on the ground, by September," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki this week.

Officials have repeatedly stressed that security at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is a critical requirement for keeping any U.S. diplomatic staff in Afghanistan. While Turkey has agreed to continue that mission, agreements with the Afghans and the U.S. have not been finalized.

As part of the agreement with Turkey, the U.S. would keep a C-RAM  or Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar system  at the airport, as well as troops to operate it. The U.S. also plans to leave aircrew for helicopter support at the airport.

It is unclear exactly when Miller will board a plane and depart with his staff and security, but it is expected soon. Once he leaves and the equipment withdrawal is complete, the U.S. will shift its focus to two missions  protecting the diplomats and providing financial and logistical support to the Afghan government from outside the country.

That withdrawal essentially fulfills an agreement made when the Trump administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020. The deal called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 2021, and in exchange, the Taliban vowed to cut ties with al-Qaida and ensure that Afghanistan would not again become a safe haven for militants seeking to attack the U.S. After taking office, Biden moved the withdrawal deadline to Sept. 11.

The U.S. has also made it clear that it will continue to monitor terror groups operating in Afghanistan, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. And the U.S. maintains its authority to strike any militants that pose a threat to the American homeland.

Bagram Airfield, a massive complex north of Kabul that has long been the heart of American military power in Afghanistan, is to be turned over to the Afghans any day now.

NATO agreed in April to pull out its roughly 7,000 non-American forces, and as of this week 19 nations had announced troop withdrawals totaling more then 4,800. Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Polands last troops have returned home.

____ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
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Theres a gently sunbleached sign outside Preservation Hall that reads, "We cant wait to meet you."

Inside the Empress Street restaurant, husband-and-wife owners Tristan and Melanie Foucault still havent met many of their regular customers in person since opening one year ago. Instead, Instagram followers have taken the place of a full dining room and timeline posts have become a stand-in for the daily special spiel.

"You post about the fish and all of a sudden you have a 300 per cent increase in fish sales," Melanie says. "You do see a direct correlation between the people that are commenting, liking, sharing and supporting the restaurant and the people that are actually placing orders."

In the era of COVID-19 and ever-changing public health restrictions, social media  Instagram, in particular  has been a major lifeline for restaurants. Its not a new form of promotion within the industry, but now, even for the tech-averse, its a necessity.

Melanie and Tristan Foucault, owners of Preservation Hall, are optimistic about the future of their French resto, which opened during the pandemic. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

Chris Elliott, senior economist with Restaurants Canada, a national non-profit organization that represents the food-service industry, expects the newfound reliance on social media to live on as one of many permanent changes to the hospitality sector post-pandemic.

"Business has changed," he says. "Now, youre forced to engage people differently."

On June 26, Preservation Hall marked its one-year anniversary by reopening for in-house dining after many, many lean months.

Restrictions are lifting, vaccination rates are climbing and optimism is growing, but restaurants arent out of the weeds yet. The Free Press spoke with people from across the industry to find out how the business of dining has changed and what the future holds  for better or worse.

Melanie and Tristan met at Peasant Cookery, where he was a longtime chef and she was a front-of-house manager. Opening their own restaurant was always part of the plan; doing so during a pandemic was not.

"The (business) model kind of went out the door," Tristan says. "All the predictions, everything we had to do to get loans we were expecting to do X-amount in sales and were doing fractions of that."

Preservation Hall is a 5,000-square-foot French-inspired eatery built around Tristans mastery of cured meats, pickles and preserves. The Foucaults have only hosted dine-in guests for 26 of the last 52 weeks and as a new business, they arent eligible for most government relief programs, which require a demonstrated loss of revenue over previous years. Booths are separated by Plexiglas screens and there are about 50 chairs, unusable in a physically distanced dining room, stacked high atop their walk-in freezer.

Preservation Hall is a 5,000-square-foot French-inspired eatery. (Jesse Boily / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Its not the restaurant of their dreams, but its not quite a nightmare either.

"Were a glass-is-half-full kind of place," Melanie says. "If we can make it through this past year, I really think we can make it through anything."

For many brick-and-mortar restaurants, the relief of reopening has been overshadowed by staffing shortages. The problem is evident in pages upon pages of urgent help-wanted ads posted to local classified websites.

A recent survey by the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association found that, on average, restaurants were expecting only 34 per cent of pre-pandemic employees to return to work.

"Most of our amazing staff have transitioned to new industries because of the difficulties in ours," says Kristjan Kristjansson, owner and president of Brazen Hall.

The Pembina Highway restaurant and brewery typically operates with 85 people in front- and back-of-house positions. Last Friday, only 20 of those jobs were filled.

Kristjan Kristjansson (left) and Kris Kopansky, managing partners in Brazen Hall, are building a patio which should hold about 100 people, given current capacity ratio of 50 per cent. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

Kristjansson has turned to technology as a stopgap measure. Each table on the restaurants new 94-seat patio is now equipped with a scannable QR code, allowing guests to place orders and pay via their cellphones without interacting with a server. It's an extension on contactless menus used at some other restaurants.

"The food gets delivered by a friendly face and you can keep ordering another drink or some more French fries, whatever you want," he says. "You pay when its done and you tip or dont."

Training new hosts, servers and bartenders is a lengthy, costly process.

At Brazen Hall, labour represents roughly 30 per cent of each bill and while Kristjansson knows diners enjoy the experience of table service, he also believes in the value of convenience. Software-supported dining may sound dystopian, but it could be an effective way for casual dining restaurants to cut costs while catering to a modern, tech-savvy clientele.

"If the trend goes that route and people like it, well, those jobs are permanently gone," he says. "I gotta pay my $5,000 or whatever it costs to put in the software, but then thats it and I dont have to worry about the employment side of it  and thats a terrible thought."

As restaurants struggle through reopening, diners are in for more surprises. Service will likely suffer while new, inexperienced staff learn the ropes, says Kristjansson, and menu prices are on the rise. "Were not going to like our restaurants for a while."

Brazen Hall's Kristjan Kristjansson explains how the new POS software will work: a QR code for each table will allow customers to see their menu and make orders. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press)

Manitoba has lost nearly 12,000 jobs in the hospitality sector since February 2020, according to data from Restaurants Canada. Employment numbers arent expected to return to normal until next year.

Zack Clarke may never return. After 12 years in the industry, the former front-of-house manager at Nonsuch Brewing Co. was laid off during the first lockdown. He waited for restaurants to reopen, collecting employment insurance and federal emergency benefits, and worked casual bartending gigs during the summer. The second lockdown forced him to cut ties with what was once a viable career.

"Thats when I started expanding my horizons," says Clarke, who eventually landed a job at BZAM Cannabis, a dispensary on Corydon Avenue.

Adjusting to the slower pace of retail was a challenge, but hes found familiar satisfaction in learning about new products and helping customers. Still, when the province announced an easing of restrictions, Clarke was tempted to jump back behind the wood.

"The allure is there," he says. "I dont want to go back to it full-time  I just dont think my hearts in it anymore  but I miss draught beer so much. I just cant wait to pull a tap again."

Zack Clarke misses pulling pints. (Sasha Sefter / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Many industry friends have also moved on and Clarke is curious to see how restaurants fare over the next year. He expects fewer people to rely on serving jobs as their only source of income in the future and hopes this moment of upheaval leads to positive changes for workers (restaurants in the United States have started offering higher wages and competitive benefit packages in an attempt to lure staff back to work).

"Id love to see a transition away from a cash-flow, tip-based business and more towards a strong employer-employee relationship," Clarke says. "We can make it more sustainable and we can focus on what restaurants are supposed to be, which is about food and exploring things, instead of the hustle and bustle."

When sending an email to Kosmos Space Cowboy Food Cantina, expect to receive a response from Cosmo Kramer. No, the fictional character from the popular 90s sitcom Seinfeld doesnt have a stake in the local ghost kitchen and yes, the alias is totally on-brand for owners Stefan Lytwyn and Nyk Bielak.

On social media, the cousins trade in memes, goofy catchphrases and over-the-top internet slang to promote their indulgent to-go menu. But its not just silliness for silliness sake.

"Being a completely digital restaurant, thats the face you show to the world," Bielak says. "A restaurant can decorate their interior and use lighting and music. We were like, OK, we can do something similar but we have to do it all on social media."

Cousins Stefan Lytwyn (left) and Nyk Bielak started Kosmos Space Cowboy Cantina as a ghost kitchen restaurant last October in the basement kitchen of the German Society of Winnipeg. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The pair started Kosmos last October on a whim after Lytwyn stepped away from cooking at Deer + Almond and Bielak returned home after seven years of performing with the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. The ghost-kitchen concept  where a restaurant operates without a storefront  provided opportunity in an untapped market.

"We didnt see it happening in Winnipeg very much," Lytwyn says. "(Its) very low overhead, you dont have to worry about a dining room, you dont have to worry about flatware or plates or anything."

All they needed was a bare-bones kitchen and an internet connection, which they found in the basement of the German Society of Winnipeg. Word of Kosmos spread quickly through Instagram and the business has grown five-fold in less than a year, thanks to a loyal following of "Kosmoheadz."

"It was like this cool, hip secret," Bielak says. "What started as a fun little COVID project has snowballed into... our whole lives."

The menu is based entirely around food that travels well  burgers, sandwiches, tater tots, mac n cheese  and the cost of using delivery apps, some of which charge 35 per cent in commission, is baked into the bottom line. The flexible business model means Kosmos hasnt been majorly affected by changes to public health orders.

On the flip side, Bielak and Lytwyn have little control over food quality once an order is out the door and their revenue stream is stunted because people tend to buy less food via delivery compared with in-house dining.

So far, Winnipeg has been fairly slow on the uptake (two WOW Hospitality-operated ghost kitchens, Mercy Me! Nashville Chicken and Fuel Functional Foods, have been delivering since 2019), but ghost kitchens have flooded larger centres such as Toronto and Vancouver. Its a trend with no sign of slowing post-pandemic, says Chris Elliott of Restaurants Canada.

Stefan Lytwyn (left) and Nyk Bielak saw an opportunity for a ghost kitchen in Winnipeg, an untapped market for the concept. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press)

"Ghost kitchens were going to happen anyway," he says. "What the pandemic has done is accelerate that restaurants are looking to this as a viable solution."

Despite the practical benefits, Bielak and Lytwyn arent convinced ghost kitchens will proliferate locally. In fact, the entrepreneurs are working towards opening a physical Kosmos location in the future.

"I think its a smart thing to have in your back pocket, because in reality this probably wont be the last (pandemic) that we see," Lytwyn says.

"We did this out of necessity," Bielak adds. "We would love so much to have dine-in and be able to chat it up with customers."

The average Manitoba restaurant is carrying $86,000 in debt right now. Tony Siwicki is in the unenviable position of being above average.

"Were reaching $160,000," says the owner of Silver Heights Restaurant and chair of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association (MRFA). "You use whats given to you and its gone already."

Half of his looming debt load is from federal emergency business loans, which he will have to repay by the end of next year, and the rest is the accumulation of fixed costs  everything from rent, cleaning subscriptions and business licences to utilities, equipment leases, and pandemic health-and-safety upgrades. "It just goes on forever," Siwicki says.

Tony Siwicki, owner of Silver Heights Restaurant and Lounge, says his debt is mounting every day. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

At Silver Heights, which has been operating for 64 years, the financial burden is going to be a factor in every business decision for years to come. Debt repayment will trump restaurant renovations, maintenance and advertising. It will also determine staffing and labour arrangements.

"Instead of growing youre just patching," he says. "Its like the government is the boss, you know; you look after that (debt) because thats whos got a hold of you."

Siwicki believes his restaurant will survive, but says federal and provincial support needs to stick around until the industry fully recovers. Forgivable loans would also be nice.

An estimated 10,000 restaurants, roughly one in 10 food service establishments, have closed across Canada during the pandemic. There are 2,157 restaurants in Manitoba, but its hard to gauge the scope of losses locally because the association's data only accounts for its membership. In Winnipeg, prominent eateries such as Segovia, Hermanos, Black Bird Brasserie and several Stellas locations have closed permanently.

"The restaurant I used to take my wife to every year on our anniversary is closed," says Shaun Jeffrey, association executive director. "Its a very sad thing."

Even if theyve made it this far, Jeffrey predicts more restaurateurs will be forced to throw in the towel owing to debt. Reopening is great, but profit margins are razor-thin with limited capacity.

"Theyre carrying a debt load that is totally insurmountable in an industry that makes about five per cent as an average profit," he says. "Thats why were really pushing our provincial government to help with some recovery support."

Manitoba recently reopened its $5,000 pandemic bridge-grant program, which makes an additional $2,000 available for eligible food businesses; last month, the province unveiled a new wage-subsidy program to encourage employers to hire vaccinated staff.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Silver Heights Restaurant has been in the Siwicki family for 64 years. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

But its about more than money. Many in the local hospitality industry have felt unfairly targeted by public health restrictions and Siwicki worries shutdowns have eroded public trust.

"Meanwhile, were the only ones that are mandated by liquor inspectors, health inspectors," he says. "We need the confidence built back up from the government letting people know were safe."

A recent Restaurant Canada survey found that while the majority of Canadians are eager to get back to outdoor patios, theres still hesitancy about indoor dining until more people are fully vaccinated or herd immunity is achieved.

Everything about dining has changed course, not least of all the food.

Over the last 16 months, chefs have had to adjust their menus for takeout and delivery. The to-go trend is guaranteed to stick around and Chris Elliott of Restaurants Canada says many kitchens are scaling back their regular menu options to cut costs.

"Its going towards that simplified menu, not trying to be all things for all people," he says. "When you have 100 items on the menu, you now have to carry inventory for all those items."

Dinner kits, groceries and prix fixe special-occasion meals have also become ubiquitous.

Christa Bruneau-Guenther, owner of Feast Cafe Bistro, has added a new grab-and-go menu to her business. (Gabrielle Touchette photo)

Christa Bruneau-Guenther, owner of Feast Cafe Bistro, was in the midst of expanding her kitchen when the pandemic hit. Catering had become a larger part of the business and she was busy building more cooking, prep and storage space in the basement of the Ellice Avenue restaurant. Plans shifted after the first lockdown.

"We decided to change some purchases... to accommodate our grab-and-go menu and our prepared meals," she says.

A deep-freeze became top priority and the dining room was shuffled around to make room for a self-serve market full of premade dinners, spreads and sauces. While Feasts regular menu hasnt changed much  Bruneau-Gunther says she feels "lucky that Im not a fine dining restaurant; most of my food works well for takeout"  the grab-and-go options are likely a permanent addition.

"It went over really well," she says. "All of a sudden there was homeschooling while trying to work from home and there were lineups at the grocery store it was a great outlet for families and people to come and grab home-cooked, nutritious food."

Cooking food for others has been Bruneau-Guenthers saving grace amid the pandemic. Like many people interviewed for this story, the public health crisis has pushed her to the brink. The exhaustion in her voice is palpable. There are days she considers giving up. Yet, like many people interviewed for this story, she perseveres.

The suffering in the hospitality sector is one of the dominant narratives of the pandemic. But the inhospitable landscape hasnt deterred new restaurants from opening and the bleak financial outlook hasnt caused existing operators to quit en masse. Its illogical, but it comes down to purpose.

"They havent lost the passion," Elliott says of restaurant workers and owners. "Thats whats really kept them going throughout all this."

The Feast's grad-and-go menu has proved popular during the pandemic with people spending more time at home, says Bruneau-Gunther. (Gabrielle Touchette photo)

Bruneau-Guenther, who is Metis and a member of Peguis First Nation, is on a mission to build community and keep Indigenous food traditions alive, for example.

"I didn't open a restaurant because I wanted to become rich," she says with a laugh. "It was to create jobs for people, particularly those who might have barriers to employment and to really highlight and celebrate the spirit of our ancestors."

For Melanie Foucault of Preservation Hall, its about connecting with guests.

"People go out for dinner, they celebrate milestones, special occasions by doing that," she says. "Being part of those milestones was something that was truly special."

For Tony Siwicki, whose grandfather opened Silver Heights in the 1950s, it has a lot to do with legacy.

"This is our life; this is what we know," he says.

Whether passion is enough to keep the lights on long-term, is yet to be seen.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney
The extraordinary" meeting between the Pope and representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year proves the Pope is serious about reconciliation, the archbishop of Winnipeg says.

The "extraordinary" meeting between the Pope and representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year proves the Pope is serious about reconciliation, the archbishop of Winnipeg says.

Richard Gagnon, who is also president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, pointed out the pontiff will meet for one hour with each delegation, and then for an hour with all three groups together, from Dec. 17 to 20.

"The Pope is a world leader (and) most heads of state get 15 minutes with him," he said.

The amount of time he will spend with the delegations is a sign of "how important this is to him," said the archbishop, who countered reports the Pope isnt interested in reconciliation with Indigenous groups. They've been calling for a papal apology after unmarked burial sites were found near former residential schools, including two in B.C., and one in southeastern Saskatchewan. The Catholic church was involved in running many of the schools, which were put in place by the federal government.

CP Pope Francis will meet Canadian representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year. (Gregorio Borgia / The Canadian Press files)

"This is not a political exercise for the Pope, not ticking off a box," he said. "Its a pastoral process and encounter, a time of dialogue, of sitting with people and listening. He wants to hear from them directly."

At the meeting, which will take place in Rome, the archbishop and others from the Catholic Church will be observers, he said, not participants. "We are deferring to the delegates."

As for whether the Pope will come to Canada and apologize to Indigenous peoples, the archbishop said he cant presume what the Pope will say or do.

Gagnon said he would "strongly support an apology," similar to the Popes apology to Indigenous people in South America in 2015.

"If he offered an apology for wrongs done in South America, why not also in Canada?" he asked. "Thats the way he approaches reconciliation."

He added the Pope is "open to coming, and thats a wonderful thing," noting such a visit will be discussed by the Canadian bishops in September.

Most world leaders only get 15 minutes with the Pope, says Winnipeg Roman Catholic Archbishop Richard Gagnon. (Sasha Sefter / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The archbishop also addressed criticism of a homily he gave in Brandon a week ago in which he said the Catholic Church in Canada is facing "persecution."

In the homily, he said he is getting "bombarded a lot" by criticism and is noticing a lot of inaccurate information, exaggerations and false ideas about the church in the media in relation to residential schools.

"And so I say in my heart, You know something? Theres a persecution happening here," he said during the homily.

The archbishop acknowledged "maybe thats a bit strong of a word," but said his comment was "fuelled" by his reaction to misinformation being spread about the church.

Hes heard reports about priests and nuns killing children, which "are not true," he said, adding "such reporting and rumours fuel flames of bigotry against the church. It inflames people to act on false information."

On Wednesday, a Catholic church burned to the ground in Morinville, Alta., in what police said was arson. Since May 27, when it was announced unmarked graves had been found near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., a handful of churches have been set on fire, including at Cross Lake in northern Manitoba and in two communities in B.C.'s Okanagan region.

He realizes people are upset at the church, but he wants Canadians to know it isnt "sitting idly by. Weve been in discussions with the three Indigenous groups for almost three years, and apologies have been issued since 1991. Were not sitting back and doing nothing."

He said he and the bishops are disappointed the church's campaign to raise $25 million for residential school survivors and their families, which began in 2005, brought in only $3.7 million before it was scrapped in 2013.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gagnon would support an apology to Canadian Indigenous groups, similar to the Popes apology to Indigenous people in South America in 2015. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files

The commitment was part of an agreement that stemmed from lawsuits filed against the federal government and churches that ran the schools.

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The agreement obligated the 50 Catholic Church entities (mainly religious orders, but also a few dioceses) to pay $29 million in cash, set up a $25-million fund for programs and to raise another $25 million.

"Something was obviously lacking with it," Gagnon said, noting there is talk among Canadas Catholic bishops about revisiting the idea.

"But if we go back, we wont use the same model," he said, adding it would be important to include Indigenous voices.

Right now, the focus is on the meetings in Rome, he said, noting there are frequent meetings between church officials and members of the three groups.

"This is a time of challenge, but also a time of opportunity for us as a church and as a whole country in dealing with our very important relationships with Indigenous people; an opportunity to build a new future together, one based on charity, consideration and respect for each other," he said.

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No one was injured after a blaze broke out in a warehouse on McGillivray Boulevard Wednesday afternoon, prompting extended road closures and "very large backups" for traffic in the area, say authorities.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Fire crews try to contain a large fire with billowing, black smoke at Pool Pros Ltd., located at 2595-B McGillivray Bvld., Wednesday.

No one was injured after a blaze broke out in a warehouse on McGillivray Boulevard Wednesday afternoon, prompting extended road closures and "very large backups" for traffic in the area, say authorities.

Commuters are being asked to avoid McGillivray Boulevard between Winnipeg and Oak Bluff as first responders deal with a fire in the area. The main thoroughfare is closed west of Kenaston Boulevard.

"All traffic in the area has been re-routed due to potential hazardous substances contained in the building," a spokesperson for the RCMP said in a statement Wednesday.

The statement said the fire west of Winnipeg was initially reported to its detachment in Stonewall-Headingley at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

RCMP officers and fire departments from both the rural municipality of Macdonald and Winnipeg remain on the scene.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)  Some 130 countries have agreed on a global minimum tax backed by President Joe Biden as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates.

FILE - In this June 7, 2017 file photo, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters is pictured in Paris, France. Some 130 countries have backed a global minimum tax as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates. The agreement announced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Thursday also provides for taxing the largest global companies in countries where they earn profits through online businesses but may have no physical presence.(AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)  Some 130 countries have agreed on a global minimum tax backed by President Joe Biden as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates.

The agreement announced Thursday is an attempt to address challenges presented by a globalized and increasingly digital world economy in which profits can be relocated across borders and companies can earn online profits in places where they have no taxable headquarters.

The deal calls for a global minimum tax of at least 15%, a key element pushed by Biden as he seeks to raise more revenue for his infrastructure and clean energy plans. Technical details still need to be worked out and it would be at least 2023 before the agreement takes effect.

The agreement, announced by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, also provides for taxing part of the profits of the largest global companies in countries where they do business online but may have no physical presence.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called it "the most important international tax agreement in a century.

FILE - In this June 4, 2021 file photo, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ahead of her meeting with Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, as finance ministers from across the G7 nations meet at Lancaster House in London, ahead of the G7 leaders' summit. Some 130 countries have backed a global minimum tax as part of a worldwide effort to keep multinational firms from dodging taxes by shifting their profits to countries with low rates. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/Pool Photo via AP)

Countries led by France have already started imposing unilateral digital taxes aimed at U.S. tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook; under the deal, they would agree to withdraw those taxes, regarded as unfair trade practices by the U.S., in favor of the global approach.

The French tax on tech giants prompted retaliatory tariffs under former U.S. President Donald Trump, and France has welcomed the Biden administrations push to reach a global deal.

Online giants must pay their faire share of taxes where they have activities," he said. There is no reason a small or medium business should pay more taxes than an online giant simply because its physically present in the country where it carries out its activities.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called it a historic day."

For decades, the United States has participated in a self-defeating international tax competition, lowering our corporate tax rates only to watch other nations lower theirs in response, she said in a statement. "The result was a global race to the bottom: Who could lower their corporate rate further and faster?"

Yellen said lower rates deprived countries of money for infrastructure, education and efforts to fight the pandemic.

Manal Corwin, a tax principal at professional services firm KPMG and a former Treasury Department official, said the deal put together the big pieces of an overall agreement, although technical complexities remain to be worked out. She said what was approved was pretty much the U.S. proposal, noting that it was hugely important for the U.S. to obtain a commitment from other countries to withdraw their unilateral digital taxes.

Under the deal, countries could tax their companies' foreign earnings up to 15% if they go untaxed through subsidiaries in other countries. That would remove the incentive to use accounting and legal schemes to shift profits to low-rate countries where they do little or no business, since the profits would be taxed at home anyway. Such tax avoidance practices cost countries between $100 billion and $240 billion in lost revenue annually, according to the OECD.

Not all of the 139 countries that joined the talks signed on to the deal. Ireland's finance ministry said it had broad support for the approach used in the agreement but could not agree to the 15% minimum. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said the country's 12.5% rate is a fair rate. Ireland said it would constructively engage in discussions going forward.

Signers included Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, regarded by economists as tax havens, and major economic powers China and India.

More discussion is expected at the meeting of the G-20 finance ministers in Venice next week, ahead of a final endorsement by the full G-20 summit of country leaders in October. The proposal to tax companies where they have revenue but no physical presence would require countries to sign up for a multilateral convention, while the minimum corporate tax could be adopted by each country through national legislation on a voluntary basis.

Tax experts say that voluntary approach could work if adopted by countries where many multinationals have their headquarters, such as the U.S. and in Europe, by making clear to companies that even if they avoid tax by moving profits to overseas subsidiaries, those profits will be taxed at home up to the minimum.

In the U.S., Biden has proposed a 21% minimum rate on overseas earnings of big American companies to deter them from shifting profits to tax havens. Bidens U.S. tax must first pass Congress, where the Democratic president has only a narrow majority.

Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third surge of infections, saying Thursday that not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa.

FILE  In this June 3, 2021 file photo an elderly patient receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, at a clinic at Orange Farm, near Johannesburg, The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third wave of infections. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The African Union special envoy tasked with leading efforts to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the continent is blasting Europe as Africa struggles amid a crushing third surge of infections, saying Thursday that not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa.

Strive Masiyiwa also took aim at the global effort meant to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, accusing COVAX of withholding crucial information including that key donors hadn't met funding pledges. He didn't name which donors.

The situation could be very different had we known back in December that Listen, this help is not coming, do for yourselves, Masiyiwa told reporters, adding that many countries were just sitting back saying, the vaccines are coming.' ... We as Africans are disappointed."

The criticism revealed African leaders' sheer exasperation at the world's dramatic vaccine divide, with Masiyiwa describing vaccinated, unmasked Europeans attending football matches while just 1% of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The continent has the lowest vaccine coverage in the world.

Masiyiwa stressed that Africa has purchased 400 million vaccine doses and can buy more, but he challenged donors: Pay up your money ... We will no longer measure pledges, we will measure vaccines arriving at our airports.

The African continent of 1.3 billion people is now in the grip of a third surge of infections that is extremely aggressive, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. Health officials have described overflowing COVID-19 wards, dangerous oxygen shortages and a growing spread of the virus to extremely vulnerable and unequipped rural areas.

Masiyiwa said COVAX had promised to deliver 700 million vaccine doses to Africa by December. But at mid-year, Africa has received just 65 million doses overall. Less than 50 million doses via COVAX have arrived.

We are very far away from our target, Nkengasong said. We dont want to be seen as the continent of COVID ... (In Europe) the stadiums are full of young people shouting and hugging. We cant do that in Africa.

A spokeswoman for the public health group that manages the U.N.-backed COVAX, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, did not address Masiyiwa's allegations. She said COVAX publishes a supply forecast based on best available information, and said the vaccine shortfall so far this year is because the major COVAX supplier, the Serum Institute of India, diverted production for domestic use.

The World Health Organization in a separate briefing said COVID-19 case numbers are doubling in Africa every three weeks and the highly contagious delta variant is driving the new wave of infections.

And the Lancet COVID-19 Commission African Task Force made an urgent appeal for at least 300 million vaccine doses so every African country can fully vaccinate at least 20% of its people by the end of August. It said 46% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with about 33% in the European Union and about 40% in China.

Nkengasong and Masiyiwa did announce some vaccine progress, saying the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer doses based on U.S. support will begin arriving next week. It was not clear how many doses would be in the shipments. Meanwhile, more African-purchased doses will arrive in August, Masiyiwa said.

The African continent has had 5.5 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and has seen a remarkable" 23% increase in deaths over the past week, the Africa CDC director said.

He said the continent needs 1.6 billion doses in a double-dose regime, or 800 million for a single-dose regime, to meet the goal of vaccinating 60% of the population.

Masiyiwa gave a frank accounting of where global efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 had sputtered. It became pretty clear by December that the hope that we would all as a global community buy vaccines together through COVAX was not being adhered to, particularly by the rich and powerful nations, he said.

COVAX aimed to provide 20% of Africa's vaccine needs, with African nations stepping up for the rest, he said. But it really doesnt matter how much money your country has, they couldnt buy vaccines ... I never saw presidents try so hard, calling chief executives."

The African continent has relied on vaccine manufacturing capabilities elsewhere in the world, but the COVID-19 vaccine crisis has jolted African leaders into pursuing their own production.

Step by step, Masiyiwa laid out the challenges: Vaccine suppliers require advance purchases, and the World Bank could only lend to countries once vaccines are available. African nations scrambled via the Africa Export-Import Bank, owned by member states, to come up with some $2 billion. African countries created a purchasing platform to improve their buying power.

But the vaccines have been hard to find as countries with manufacturing capabilities imposed controls on export sales in the interest of vaccinating their own citizens first. It was the same whether we were talking to the East, to the West, whatever, Masiyiwa said. This has created a massive crisis."

He took aim at Europe: When we go to talk to their manufacturers, they tell us they're completely maxed out meeting the needs of Europe, were referred to India. But the EU now imposes public health restrictions on people vaccinated with Covishield, the Indian-produced version of the EU-accepted AstraZeneca vaccine.

So how do we get to the situation where they give money to COVAX, who go to India to purchase vaccines, and then they tell us those vaccines are not valid? Masiyiwa said.

Without mentioning the EU issue, COVAX in a statement on Thursday warned against turning away people protected by a subset of WHO-approved vaccines, saying it would "effectively create a two-tier system, further widening the global vaccine divide.

Some countries engage in so-called vaccine diplomacy and those bilateral donations are welcome, Masiyiwa said, but they're not enough to move the needle.

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
AMSTERDAM (AP)  The mayor of Amsterdam apologized Thursday for the extensive involvement of the Dutch capital's former governors in the global slave trade, saying the moment had come for the city to confront its grim history.

A woman argues with a police officer to attend a nationally televised annual ceremony, closed for coronavirus related measures, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, July 1, 2021. The ceremony and and celebration known as Keti Koti, which means Chains Broken, marks the abolition of slavery in its colonies in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863. Debate about Amsterdam's involvement in the slave trade has been going on for years and gained attention last year amid the global reckoning with racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

AMSTERDAM (AP)  The mayor of Amsterdam apologized Thursday for the extensive involvement of the Dutch capital's former governors in the global slave trade, saying the moment had come for the city to confront its grim history.

Debate about the role of Amsterdams city fathers in the slave trade has been going on for years, but it has gained more attention amid the global reckoning with racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Mayor Femke Halsema, rear right, apologized for the involvement of the city's rulers in the slave trade during a nationally televised annual ceremony in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, July 1, 2021, marking the abolition of slavery in its colonies in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863. The anniversary is now known as Keti Koti, which means Chains Broken. Debate about Amsterdam's involvement in the slave trade has been going on for years and gained attention last year amid the global reckoning with racial injustice that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

It is time to engrave the great injustice of colonial slavery into our citys identity. With big-hearted and unconditional recognition, Mayor Femke Halsema said. Because we want to be a government for those for whom the past is painful and its legacy a burden."

While apologizing, she also stressed that not a single Amsterdammer alive today is to blame for the past.

The Dutch government has in the past expressed deep regret for the nation's historic role in slavery, but has stopped short of a formal apology. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last year that such an apology could polarize society.

An independent commission that discussed the issue in recent months issued a report Thursday advising the central government to apologize, saying it would help heal historic suffering.

Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren attended the ceremony in Amsterdam but did not comment directly on the call for a government apology.

Black activist and actor Patrick Mathurin said some in the Netherlands try to ignore the country's colonial past, "but through our activism, we forced them to look at it. And also what happened, of course, with George Floyd made it all ... evolve faster.

Halsema said history casts a shadow that reaches into the present day.

The city officials and the ruling elite who, in their hunger for profit and power, participated in the trade in enslaved people, in doing so entrenched a system of oppression based on skin color and race, she said. The past from which our city still draws its distinctive commercial spirit is therefore indivisible from the persistent racism that still festers.

She closed her speech with the words: On behalf of the College of Mayor and Alderpersons, I apologize. Cheers and applause erupted from the small group of invited guests sitting on socially distanced white chairs.

The apology came during an annual ceremony marking the abolition of slavery in Dutch colonies in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863. The anniversary is now known as Keti Koti, which means Chains Broken.

Activists say many people who had been enslaved were forced to work without pay for their former masters for a further decade.

Research into the involvement of Amsterdam's city fathers in the slave trade and slavery was commissioned by the municipality in 2019.

Halsema said it showed that from the end of the 16th century until well into the 19th century, Amsterdams involvement was direct, worldwide, large-scale, multifaceted and protracted.

Amsterdam municipality is not alone in apologizing for its role in slavery. In 2007, then-London Mayor Ken Livingstone made an emotional speech apologizing for the citys involvement. And a year ago the Bank of England apologized for the links some of its past governors had with slavery.

Halsema doesn't have to leave her official residence on one of Amsterdam's mansion-lined canals to be reminded of the city's deeply rooted ties to slavery.

The residence was formerly the home of Paulus Godin, who was a board member of the West-India Company and director of the Society of Suriname that were both heavily involved in slavery in the 17th century.

A stone plaque outside the house recalls that history and calls the slave trade and slavery crimes against humanity.

Amsterdam municipality says that former city fathers in the time that slavery was rife in Dutch colonies were deeply involved in the trade.

Mayors were also owners of plantations or traded in people. They helped, through their public office, to maintain slavery because they profited from it, the city says on its website.

The Dutch national museum, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, is currently staging a major exhibition entitled simply Slavery examining the country's role in the global slave trade.

Thursday's anniversary is the Dutch equivalent of Juneteenth in the United States, which President Joe Biden made a federal holiday earlier this month. There are calls to make the Dutch day of commemoration a national holiday.

The U.S. federal government has not apologized for slavery. The U.S. House and Senate both have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery and racial segregation laws.

During a press conference in 2007, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was sorry for Britains role in slavery, which he called entirely unacceptable. But eight years later during a trip to Jamaica, Prime Minister David Cameron sidestepped calls for an apology and ruled out paying reparations.

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Corder reported from The Hague. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka in London and AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.
DIVJAKA, Albania (AP)  The pandemic has brought one good thing to western Albania's Divjaka-Karavasta Lagoon  badly needed peace and quiet for endangered mating pelicans, and resulting population growth.

Pelicans fly over Divjaka-Karavasta Lagoon, western Albania, Tuesday, June 22, 2021.The pandemic has brought one good thing to the Divjaka-Karavasta Lagoon in western Albania - calmness for the pelicans and increase of their numbers. Officials of the Regional Agency of Protected Areas say number of the pelicans' reproductive couples has increased by one-fifth in the last two years, from 68 in 2019 to 85 in 2020 and the same this year. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

DIVJAKA, Albania (AP)  The pandemic has brought one good thing to western Albania's Divjaka-Karavasta Lagoon  badly needed peace and quiet for endangered mating pelicans, and resulting population growth.

Regional environmental officials say nesting pairs have increased by one-fifth in the last two years, from 68 in 2019 to 85 this year, even as numbers of human visitors have halved. They're huge birds, reaching up to six feet (nearly two meters) in length and 11 feet (more than three meters) in wingspan.

The seaside Divjaka-Karavasta National Park covers around 22,000 hectares (55,000 acres), including a long sandy beach, a saltwater lagoon dotted with mudflats and tiny islands and a strip of pine forest. Situated 90 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the capital, Tirana, it's home to around 260 bird species.

But it's best known for the curly pelicans, as the locals call the giant Dalmatian Pelicans, who have their only nesting colony in Albania here  on minute Pelican Island where they spend December to June.

Pelicans are an endangered species in Albania, where their numbers fell in 2001-2003 to as low as 19 nesting couples, compared to 250 a century ago.

Peace and quiet during the pandemic has helped us a lot in the preservation of Pelican Island, said Adrian Koci, head of the Regional Agency of Protected Areas.

In 2014 Koci and his staff of fewer than two dozen started to take care of the 150-200 square-meter (1,600-2,150 square-foot) islet.

People in boats were banned from approaching nearer than 200 yards (180 meters). A net kept fishing boats away. And a 24-hour guard was installed in a small cottage across the water to protect them. Small wooden fences along parts of the waterways prevent erosion.

Koci regularly checks on the island with a drone during the January-June reproductive period.

We have freed the island of the fishermen who disturbed the pelicans. We have raised their nests threatened by the tide, he said. But intensive fishing around has, nevertheless, reduced the number of fish the pelicans eat.

Koci, a veterinarian, also cares for other injured birds from as far afield as neighboring Kosovo and Montenegro. A few years ago, the U.N. Development Program helped him launch Albania's first bird recovery center.

A rare vulture found injured in Montenegro was treated for two months there and then let free to continue its trip toward Africa.

Two Dalmatian Pelicans, named Johnny and Vlashi, have called the center home for the past three years. Johnny cant fly because of a damaged wing. But Vlashi can, and both are relaxed with visiting tourists. Staff regard them as part of their family, and often buy fish themselves to feed them.

Since the initial UNDP funding, the center has had little financial support  from donors, a small volunteer money-collecting box, even contributions from its staff.

This creates a dilemma: The site is increasingly popular with visitors, not always an advantage when dealing with shy birds need calm to reproduce. From 1,300 in 2014, visitors rose to a difficultly manageable 550,000 in 2019. Last year, that number was halved because of the pandemic. Staff say that on the whole it would be better to regain visitors lost to the coronavirus restrictions as their donations are badly needed.

Klara Perinova, 28, drove from Prague to spend two weeks in Albania with her boyfriend. She praised Divjaka's undiscovered beauty.

Were here (because) you have a very beautiful nature, really endangered species, not the same nature you can see in other parts of Albania, she said.

Koci is trying hard to preserve the largely undisturbed environment of the lagoon, urging local authorities to replace the engines of the five boats used by tourists with electric ones, or to install more solar power panels.

Limya Eltayeb, the UNDPs resident representative, said the U.N. organization is supporting Albania in implementing nature-based solutions in Divjaka and elsewhere, and helping the center to become self-sustainable  beyond the small state funding and private donations.

Tourists are made welcome here, including by Johnny and Vlashi," said Ervin Allushi, one of the center's experts. "Visitors often help (financially). Although the pelicans over there on the islet dont want them nearby.

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LONDON (AP)  In another blow to Britain's retail sector, American clothing company Gap said that it will close all of its stores in the U.K. by the end of the year as it moves its business exclusively online.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2018 file photo, a sign for the Gap store seen in London's Oxford Street. American clothing retailer Gap announced that it will close all of its 81 stores in the U.K. and Ireland by the end of 2021. It will shift its business to exclusively online. The announcement late Wednesday, June 30, 2021, comes following a strategic review that sought more cost-effective solutions for its presence in Europe. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

LONDON (AP)  In another blow to Britain's retail sector, American clothing company Gap said that it will close all of its stores in the U.K. by the end of the year as it moves its business exclusively online.

The closures will take place in a phased manner by the end of September and includes the company's outlets in Ireland. In total, 81 stores will close.

It's unclear how many jobs will be affected, but the company insisted it will provide support and transition assistance to its employees.

The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping, Gap said in a statement late Wednesday, adding that they intend to be a digital first business.

The retailer, which has been active in the U.K. since 1987 and since 2006 in Ireland, was emblematic of the quintessential American T-shirt-and-jeans look that was particularly popular for decades. Its hoodies emblazoned with the companys name and iconic denim were arguably the signature look of the era. It was in short a breath of fresh air.

But in recent years, the appeal of Gap has plummeted, edged out by e-commerce sites that have made its offerings seem bland rather than just basic.

Its also the latest casualty of the pandemic that has battered the U.K. economy. Long-suffering department store chain Debenhams and Arcadia Group, the retail empire of billionaire Philip Green, have been two of the biggest casualties in recent month.

"The Gap-sized hole in the high street which will be left when the U.S. retailer closes its final stores at the end of September will be hard to fill, given the big names which have already left bricks and mortar shops behind," said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown.

Last year, the U.K. experienced one of the worlds deepest recessions after lockdown restrictions were imposed. While the easing up of restrictions have seen the economy recover, questions remain over the future of the retail sector given that so much shopping is now done online.

Not all retailers in the U.K. are suffering like Gap.

Rival Primark, for example, hailed several new sales records on Thursday, reflecting an increase in both confidence and willingness to spend by our customers." It said it continues to push ahead with store openings and investments across the U.K. and Europe despite the impact of lockdowns.

And another rival, Sweden's H&M, also struck a more upbeat tone, as it delivered better-than-expected profits after a rebound in sales.
KARAK, Jordan (AP)  Jordan has drawn a curtain of secrecy on the unprecedented public rift within its royal family, but the social tensions laid bare by the palace drama that unfolded in April  particularly the economic despair of its influential tribes  can be seen everywhere.

FILE - In this April 2, 2001, file photo, Jordan's King Abdullah II laughs with his half brother Prince Hamzah, right, shortly before the monarch left Amman, Jordaan, for the United States. Jordan has drawn a curtain of secrecy on the unprecedented public rift within its royal family, but the social tensions laid bare by the palace drama that unfolded in April  particularly the economic despair of its influential tribes  can be seen everywhere. (AP Photo/Yousef Allan, File)

KARAK, Jordan (AP)  Jordan has drawn a curtain of secrecy on the unprecedented public rift within its royal family, but the social tensions laid bare by the palace drama that unfolded in April  particularly the economic despair of its influential tribes  can be seen everywhere.

Years of economic crisis have frayed the historic patronage-for-loyalty bond between the king and the tribes, a bedrock of the Hashemite family's decades-long rule.

That may have been an underlying factor in an alleged plot by the half brother of King Abdullah II to try to take a throne he was once in line to inherit. The prince has been silenced, and his purported co-conspirators are on trial behind closed doors.

But even some government insiders fear that anger percolating under the surface could erupt at any moment, a warning bound to worry the kingdom's Western allies.

I'm afraid of what is next because of the tragic living situation, that people wont bear it anymore, and (that) people will explode, said Sayel al-Majali, head of the governing council of Karak province, where unemployment has reached 40%.

I fear losing control of security matters" if problems aren't solved, said al-Majali, a retired army brigadier and a member of one of Karak's most prominent tribes.

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Prince Hamzah, stripped of his title of crown prince in favor of Abdullah's eldest son in 2004, allegedly sought to harness such dissatisfaction to take the throne. Hamzah has denied he tried to incite against his half brother.

Yet he also nurtured ties with the tribes over the years. In a self-made video leaked from house arrest, Hamzah played up his connection to ordinary Jordanians, contrasting it with what he described as an aloof ruling system bent on enriching itself.

FILE - This April 11, 2021 file photo from the Royal Court twitter account, shows Jordan's King Abdullah II, center, Prince Hamzah, second left, and others praying during a visit to the tomb of the late King Hussein, in Amman Jordan. Years of economic crisis have frayed the historic patronage-for-loyalty bond between the king and the tribes, a bedrock of the Hashemite family's decades-long rule. That may have been an underlying factor in an alleged plot by Prince Hamzah, the half brother of King Abdullah II, to try to take a throne he was once in line to inherit. (Royal Court Twitter Account via AP)

I tried to remain connected with people in the hope that they realize that there are members of this family who still love this country, who care for them and will put them above all else, Hamzah said, using a portrait of his still widely beloved father, the late King Hussein, as a backdrop.

Over the years, Hamzah earned a reputation for honest piety, making him a symbol of hope for change, especially among younger members of the tribes, said analyst Labib Kamhawi.

The issue is not Hamzah visiting these tribes, he said. The issue is how these tribes received Hamzah."

The prince has not been charged, with the king saying the family will deal with him. But his name appears throughout the indictment against Bassem Awadallah, a former royal court chief, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a distant cousin of the king. The pair allegedly worked on social media messages the prince was to post to stir discontent, and also offered to seek foreign help.

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Hope is scarce in Jordan's rural areas and provincial towns that are home to the kingdom's original Bedouin tribes. In the neglected provincial capital of Karak, downtown shops and streets were largely deserted during a recent visit. Young men hung around in small groups, smoking and chatting to pass the time. Karak's main attraction is a crusader castle, but the coronavirus pandemic halted tourism.

Even before the pandemic, there weren't enough jobs for a young, rapidly growing labor force. The lives of many young Jordanians are on hold because they cannot follow the traditional path of job, marriage and children.

Karak resident Mustafa Shamayleh amassed academic credentials over the past decade, hoping to find a job. He is now 30, still unemployed and living with his parents, despite his Ph.D. in economics from a top-tier university in India.

I cant live life, said Shamayleh, who delivers food on a motorbike for pocket money to ease the burden on his 70-year-old father. If I want to marry now, how? I have nothing.

Shamayleh keeps searching for work in his field even though scarce jobs tend to be awarded through personal connections, or wasta," which he says he does not have.

His father Ali, a retired ambulance driver, recalls when royal patronage provided a safety net. Tribal Jordanians had access to jobs in the security forces and the civil service. They were given preference over the descendants of Palestinian refugees, also a large segment of the population, but one seen as less loyal to the monarchy.

It's not that the king doesn't want to give them (jobs) now, said Kamhawi, the analyst. He doesn't have the money. The government doesn't have the money. The country doesn't have the money.

The pandemic made things worse. Officially, unemployment rose to 23.9% in 2020, but it's believed to be higher. More Jordanians are sinking into poverty, with the figure expected to exceed a quarter of the population soon, up from 15.7% three years ago. The economy contracted last year for the first time in three decades, the World Bank said.

Former Information Minister Mohammed Momani said Hamzah tried to exploit the economic pain, accusing him of evil coordination with his two alleged co-conspirators. Its not an attempt to try to help the country, he said. Its an attempt to try to destabilize the country."

Momani brushed aside suggestions the economic downturn was eroding the historic bond between the king and the tribes. He said the tribes might disagree with some government policies, but that at the end of the day, they stand by the country and the monarch.

The indictment also suggested the defendants sought foreign aid, a version reinforced by Momani. Bin Zaid allegedly asked officials at an unidentified foreign embassy about their potential support, while the charge sheet played up Awadallah's Saudi ties. Awadallah holds Jordanian, U.S. and Saudi citizenship, has business interests in the Gulf, and has been linked to Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince. Still, Jordan stopped short of accusing Saudi Arabia, an important financial backer, of involvement in the alleged plot.

In an apparent attempt to limit the damage from the royal scandal, the king appointed a 92-member commission that is to deliver a plan for political reform by October. Momani, a member of the panel, said he expects concrete results because there's a hard deadline and the king presided over the launch to underscore its importance.

Still, calls for opening the political system have largely gone unanswered over the past decade, amid fears that significant electoral reform could boost the Muslim Brotherhood, the kingdom's only organized opposition group.

Atef al-Majali, a tribal leader in Karak, shrugged off the committee as an empty gesture. He said calls for reform have not been heard, adding that the tribes don't just demand a better deal for themselves, but for all Jordanians.

The tribe is still upset over the arrest of two senior members, including Hamzah's chief aide, Yasser al-Majali. At the time, the prince was placed under house arrest and more than a dozen prominent tribal figures and officials were detained.

All detainees were released three weeks later, but the al-Majalis took issue with security forces storming homes, saying it was insulting and that an invitation to the local police station would have sufficed. Yasser al-Majali and other members of Hamzah's staff have not been allowed to return to work, and the prince has not been heard from in public.

Like others, Atef al-Majali expressed frustration with the decision-makers, saying tribal leaders are being ignored despite their traditional influence.

Our voice is loud, but no one hears us, he said. We try to be patient, but in the end, patience has limits.
HALIFAX - Of all the cases Brian Galbraith has worked on over the years, one that still sticks with him involves a client who divorced his wife using a documents they completed themselves.

HALIFAX - Of all the cases Brian Galbraith has worked on over the years, one that still sticks with him involves a client who divorced his wife using a documents they completed themselves.

The owner of Ontario-based Galbraith Family Law said the do-it-yourself divorce agreement was favourable to his client. However, when it was challenged by his client's ex-wife a few years later, a judge ruled the documents "weren't worth the paper they were printed on."

Lawyer Brian Galbraith, owner of Galbraith Family Law, is shown in a handout photo. Some law firms say they've seen an increase in the number of so-called DIY divorces during COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

He tried to save a few dollars at the front end by doing it himself and ended up costing himself a lot, Galbraith said.

Experts in family law say that as anecdotal evidence suggests a spike in divorces amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the complex nature of the process means it's often worth hiring proper legal representation at the start in order to prevent a costly, drawn out affair.

DIY options such as like Untie the Knot offer couples access to an uncontested divorce "without the high cost of a lawyer." For $899 (or $499 if you file your own documents) the service claims to guarantee 100 per cent court approval.

According to Diana Isaac, a partner at Toronto-based family law firm Shulman & Partners, the issue isnt so much signing a template divorce agreement as it is what could come up in the aftermath.

The firm has seen a spike in interest during the pandemic, she said. From June 2019 to June 2020, Shulman and Partners reported a 19-per-cent jump in new clients, including people looking to challenge a DIY divorce.

These are usually issues that have to go to a trial and going to a trial is very, very expensive, Isaac said in an interview. At times, it could cost six figures."

Galbraith said his firm has also reported an increase in clients  numbers are up 30 per cent since last year.

And like Isaac, Galbraith said the firm has been doing more repairing as well.

My guess would be that doing repairs to an agreement that was done improperly would be many times more expensive than doing it properly the first time, he said.

Along with having to pour more money into the divorce, Isaac spoke about the heightened emotional toll that revisiting divorce settlements can have on clients.

I look at these people and say, Well, had you come to us in the first instance, it would have been a lot more cost effective, and there's no assurance that you'll be successful in setting it aside or not.

In general, most cases the firm sees concerning DIY divorces involve clauses that may have been excluded from the initial agreements, like settlements on property, spousal support obligations and child care, Isaac said.

Challenging a divorce agreement starts with a cost-benefit analysis, she said, and if the benefits dont outweigh the time, effort and funds required to take the matter to court, clients may find themselves stuck with a bad deal.

You dont want to pay $10,000 (just) to get $11,000, she said.

Lawyers also need to consider the unique qualities of each case, including figuring out whether one of the parties in the divorce was under duress or if both parties were fully aware of the others assets at the time the divorce was finalized.

No two cases are alike. The area of family law is so factually contingent, so a lot of this is looking at the parties' circumstances, the family dynamics and tailoring a resolution, she said.

The increase in DIY divorces may be connected to an overall increase in divorce rates during the pandemic, said Rachel Margolis, a professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Margolis, who studies how family dynamics shape population change over time, said in an interview that while there arent recent numbers on divorce rates in Canada, she expects there could be an increase in separations in the coming years based on data from previous economic recessions.

During recessions, generally divorce declines because people don't have the money to get divorced, Margolis said. During the pandemic  I think for a lot of (people), there's been a lot of sort of reorientation of what people value.

My general sense is that the pandemic and everyone being at home will increase the speed of divorces that were going to happen anyway, Margolis added.

Both Galbraith and Isaac said they recommend couples seek legal advice from experts if they are planning to end their marriage and avoid templates and other DIY services.

Nobody wants to draw out their matter. No one wants to go to court," said Isaac.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles City Council passed a sweeping anti-camping measure Thursday to remove widespread homeless encampments that have become an eyesore across the city.

FILE - In this June 8, 2021, file photo, a jogger walks past a homeless encampment in the Venice Beach section of Los Angeles. Los Angeles City Council is poised to clamp down on homeless encampments, making it illegal to pitch tents on some sidewalks, beneath overpasses and near parks. The measure being considered Thursday, July 1, 2021, is billed as a humane way to get people off streets and restore access to public spaces. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Los Angeles City Council passed a sweeping anti-camping measure Thursday to remove widespread homeless encampments that have become an eyesore across the city.

The measure was billed as a compassionate approach to get people off streets and restore access to public spaces in the city with nation's second-largest homeless population, though critics said it would criminalize the problem.

I cant think of any reason why we would not unite in support of what the people of Los Angeles want us to do," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, coauthor of the measure. "Restore order to our streets, while also uplifting and providing services to those in need.

Among other limits, the ordinance that passed 13-2 would ban sitting, lying, sleeping or storing personal property that blocks sidewalks, streets and bike lanes or near driveways, fire hydrants, schools, day care centers, libraries, homeless shelters and parks.

It wouldnt be enforced in some locations until someone has turned down an offer of shelter and the council has passed a resolution placing that space off-limits, posting signs and giving two weeks' notice. It could be enforced immediately if a person or tent is blocking handicap access guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act or placing themselves or others in danger such as blocking a loading dock.

The measure, which requires a second vote in late July, replaces a more punitive anti-camping proposal that stalled in a committee. Under the ordinance approved, police would only get involved if there's a crime, and people who resist leaving would be fined rather than arrested.

The majority of callers during a limited public comment period spoke in support of the measure, describing homeless encounters that included assaults, break-ins and one explaining how children walking to school are forced into a busy street to avoid tents crowding sidewalks.

People who opposed the measure, including a couple who used profanity, said it lacked compassion and would criminalize a problem the city has failed to solve.

Pro housing activists rally outside Los Angeles City Hall Thursday morning July 1, 2021. Los Angeles City Council is poised to clamp down on homeless encampments, making it illegal to pitch tents on some sidewalks, beneath overpasses and near parks. The measure being considered Thursday, July 1, 2021, is billed as a humane way to get people off streets and restore access to public spaces. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The meeting was closed to the public because of coronavirus restrictions, but a group of advocates for the homeless protested outside City Hall.

Pete White of the LA Community Action Network said the measure is loosely written to allow broad interpretation for enforcement and will make most of the city off-limits to people living on the street.

Draconian is definitely the correct word, he said. Its impossible to comply.

White said that an ordinance that limited where people could park RVs and sleep in cars overnight left little more than 5% of streets available for parking.

California is home to more than a quarter of the nations homeless people, according to federal data, and it has reached a crisis point in many cities. There are deep disagreements in how to solve a problem that goes beyond economics and is often complicated by mental illness and addiction issues that require treatment and can make people resistant to accepting shelter.

The city of Los Angeles has an estimated homeless population of more than 40,000, which is second only to New York's.

Encampments have steadily grown over several years and often sprawl entire blocks. They can include barbecues, sofas, recliner chairs and even a shower. Many are crammed with piles of belongings, scavenged junk and covered in tarps.

A federal judge directed the city of LA to offer housing to thousands of homeless people on Skid Row by this fall, though the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put that on hold.

The appeals court has separately held that cities can't make it a crime for homeless people to sleep on the streets when alternative shelter is not available.

The leading Republican candidates seeking to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election came to LA County this week to announce their plans to address the statewide problem.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer called for more shelters, while rival businessman John Cox said people insisting on sleeping on streets should be locked up or forced into treatment.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, has proposed a right to housing that would require the city to provide shelter to all residents.

While the crisis is widespread across Los Angeles, a dispute about how to solve the problem has become a flashpoint on Venice Beach recently, where an encampment exploded in size during the coronavirus pandemic.

The situation has left residents weary and worried for their safety  and for the wellbeing of those in camps  after several violent incidents. A homeless man was arrested last week in the killing of another homeless man who was bludgeoned in his tent on the beach.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva, whose deputies patrol unincorporated parts of the county, entered city turf with a homeless outreach team to announce a plan to get people into housing by July 4.

His lofty overture, which has moved some people off the boardwalk but is unlikely to meet his goal this weekend, was met with resistance from much of LA's political establishment, particularly Councilman Mike Bonin, whose district includes Venice.

Bonin, who criticized an approach that could lead to jail time if people don't leave, launched his own plan days later. That effort, which has moved 64 people indoors, is being rolled out in several phases into August and promises to eventually provide permanent housing.

Bonin opposed the ordinance Thursday, saying the city doesn't have tens of thousands of beds needed for the homeless and criticizing the plan for not showing where people can sleep.

Bonin, who is recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, disclosed that he lived without a home in his 20s and ended up sleeping on the beach when his car was in the shop or he couldn't crash at a friend's house.

I can't tell you how much turmoil, there is in your heart when the sun is setting and you dont know where you can sleep, Bonin said. I cannot describe how demoralizing and dehumanizing and defeating that experience is when you dont know where youre gonna sleep.

This story has been corrected to reflect that the measure requires a second vote later this month, not next month.
BANGKOK (AP)  A court in Myanmar on Thursday extended the pretrial detention of Danny Fenster, a U.S. journalist employed by an online news magazine in the military-led Southeast Asian nation who was arrested in May on an incitement charge that carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.

FILE - In this file photo provided by Bryan Fenster shows his brother Danny Fenster in September of 2019 in Krakow, Poland. A court in Myanmar on Thursday, July 1, 2021, extended the pretrial detention of Fenster, a U.S. journalist employed by an online news magazine in the military-led Southeast Asian nation who was arrested in May on an incitement charge that carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment. (Photo courtesy Byron Fenster via AP, File)

BANGKOK (AP)  A court in Myanmar on Thursday extended the pretrial detention of Danny Fenster, a U.S. journalist employed by an online news magazine in the military-led Southeast Asian nation who was arrested in May on an incitement charge that carries a penalty of up to three years imprisonment.

Fenster, who is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24, as he was trying to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.

Fensters lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, told The Associated Press that the 37-year-old journalist was in good health but appeared to have lost some weight at Thursdays hearing at the special court at Yangons Insein Prison, where he is being held. He asked that his wife send him medicine and food. Two consular officials from the U.S. Embassy also attended the hearing, the lawyer said.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 15, but the case will not come to trial then because the court has too many cases backed up, he said.

Fensters court appearance came a day after authorities began a release of about 2,300 prisoners who were charged in connection with protests that erupted after the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. The new government has tried to silence independent news media by withdrawing their licenses and by arresting journalists.

Those released included protesters as well as journalists. Most were being held on the same charge as Fenster. Because there is no official list of freed detainees and the releases are taking place over several days, the exact number of journalists freed is not known.

An unofficial tally kept by Myanmar journalists says of 88 journalists who were arrested after Februarys military takeover, 49 have been released, including 14 on Wednesday.

In June, a court released U.S. journalist Nathan Maung, who was arrested in March while working for Kamayut Media, a local online news platform. The charges against him were dropped, his case dismissed and he was deported to the United States.

The Myanmar juntas continued detention of journalist Danny Fenster is outrageous and unacceptable. Independent reporting of whats happening on the ground in Myanmar should not be considered a crime, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.

The authorities should immediately drop all charges against Fenster, and permit him to leave the country if that is what he wants to do. The junta should also unconditionally free the more than 50 Burmese journalists who are still in detention and lift the license revocation orders imposed against numerous local media outlets," Robertson said. Myanmar is also known by its old name, Burma.

Than Zaw Aung said Fenster is charged in connection with his work at a previous job, as a reporter and copy editor for the online news site Myanmar Now.

Myanmar Now, along with several other media outlets, had its license revoked in early March, banning it from publishing on any platform. However, it has continued to operate online.

Fenster resigned from Myanmar Now in July last year and joined Frontier Myanmar a month later, so it is unclear why he was arrested, his lawyer said.

I dont know in detail. What I can say is that he was accused as a staff member of Myanmar Now. Im not clear if it concerns a story posted on Myanmar Now or not.

Fensters family in the United States, led by his parents and brother Bryan, have rallied support for his release with a website, an online petition and contacts with their representatives in Congress to keep pressure on the State Department to push Myanmar on the case. The U.S. government has made repeated pleas for media freedom in Myanmar and for Fensters release.

The Irish rock band U2, which has long taken an interest in the fight for democracy in Myanmar, on Wednesday tweeted its support for Fensters release.

Journalism is not a crime. We join @RepAndyLevin and @bryanfenster in urging the immediate release of journalist Danny Fenster from detainment in Myanmar and thank heroic organizations like @pressfreedom for fighting to protect journalists everywhere -- #BringDannyHome, it said.

This is what we want. We want champions of human rights and social justice in a connected world to take on our cause," Bryan Fenster said Thursday. And what better example of that than all the guys in U2?

Bryan Fenster said he was able to speak to his brother on the phone this week  their first conversation since Danny Fenster was detained.

The U.S. Embassy arranged to have the detained journalist speak by phone with his wife, Julianna, in Yangon. Then, they were able to get in touch with me on another phone and kind of held them up to each other so we could hear each other and talk to each other, Bryan Fenster said.

To finally hear his voice, you know, we could finally exhale, sink into the back of the couch for a little bit, he said. He sounded good. We were able to crack a few jokes that made me feel really good, in particular, because hes got a great sense of humor. And happy he has his wits about him given the circumstances.

Associated Press writer Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico is directing the nation's biggest chunk of federal coronavirus relief money to helping middle-class families pay for child care, a vast expansion aimed at getting parents back to work in one of the poorest states in America.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announces an increase in child care subsidies on Thursday, July 1, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. Subsidy eligibility expanded to families with income at 350% of the federal poverty line, the most generous in the nation. Lujan Grisham is calling for New Mexico to become the first U.S. state to offer universal child care. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico is directing the nation's biggest chunk of federal coronavirus relief money to helping middle-class families pay for child care, a vast expansion aimed at getting parents back to work in one of the poorest states in America.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday that the state will subsidize child care at 350% of the federal poverty line, or about $93,000 for a family of four. Thats up from about $54,000.

Were going to double the subsidies for child care, said the Democratic governor, who was flanked by balloons and overlooked a gaggle of young children wearing party hats. She added that the state could one day go even further: Why dont we have universal access for child care?

New Mexico's two-year spending commitment will expand eligibility to the highest income levels of any state. Its the largest and latest example of states using pandemic relief aid to subsidize child care. Others include Georgia and Montana, while California is debating a child care funding package.

Child care advocate Katherine Freeman watches Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announce an expansion of child care subsidies at a mask-option event on Thursday, July 1, 2021, in Santa Fe, N.M. Freeman, CEO at Growing Up New Mexico, said the expansion of child care subsidies to 350% of the federal poverty line is a high point in her career. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

Some states, like New Jersey, offer subsidies at 350% of the federal poverty line but only when relatives are providing care.

New Mexico also will be the first state to increase payments to child care providers by using a reimbursement formula that focuses on the local cost of running child care businesses, instead of the market rate of what parents can pay.

State Early Childhood Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky called the announcement an important landmark on our journey towards creating a true cradle-to-career education system that helps all New Mexicans thrive.

Groginsky was pivotal for winning federal approval of the new formula in Washington, D.C., where she served as assistant superintendent of early learning for the District of Columbia before taking the job in New Mexico. While the formulas are not identical, the experience there provides an idea of how much child care providers will benefit.

Child care providers in Washington got a 24% to 57% increase in reimbursement during the transition in 2019, according to officials there. No providers saw a decrease.

Early childhood advocates say the new rules will lead to increased pay for child care workers, who often make just above minimum wage. They also expect improvements in worker-to-child ratios, the main benchmark of child care center quality.

So for your child what that means is that theres a lower ratio between (staff) and children, said Katherine Freeman, CEO at Growing Up New Mexico. Why is that the most significant thing? Because children need individual attention.

Parents should see immediate benefits, especially those who earned too much to qualify for past subsidies but too little to pay for child care without spending half their paycheck.

The expansion is paid for in part by $300 million in federal awards that expire in 2024.

Democratic state lawmakers already have a plan in motion to increase child care funding long term by tapping into a unique $20 billion state endowment funded by resource extraction royalties and market investments.

A ballot initiative before voters next year could increase the amount of funding from the endowment to the states Early Childhood Education and Care Department and possibly replace the federal funding when it expires.

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 undercovered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
LONDON (AP)  Japanese carmaker Nissan and its partners plan to invest 1 billion ($1.4 billion) pounds to expand production of electric vehicles and batteries in northeast England, a major victory for the U.K. governments efforts to attract jobs and investment following the countrys departure from the European Union.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Nissan Motor Co. plant, in Sunderland, England, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Japanese carmaker Nissan and two partners announced plans to invest 1 billion ($1.4 billion) pounds to produce a new model of an all-electric vehicle and batteries in northeast England, a major victory for the U.K. governments efforts to attract jobs and investment following the countrys departure from the European Union. ( Jeff J Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)

LONDON (AP)  Japanese carmaker Nissan and its partners plan to invest 1 billion ($1.4 billion) pounds to expand production of electric vehicles and batteries in northeast England, a major victory for the U.K. governments efforts to attract jobs and investment following the countrys departure from the European Union.

Nissan said Thursday it will build a new all-electric crossover sport utility vehicle at the companys plant in Sunderland, creating more than 6,200 jobs at the factory and its suppliers. As part of the project, Envision AESC will build the U.K.s first gigafactory to supply next generation batteries for the cars.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Nissan Motor Co. plant, in Sunderland, England, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Japanese carmaker Nissan and two partners announced plans to invest 1 billion ($1.4 billion) pounds to produce a new model of an all-electric vehicle and batteries in northeast England, a major victory for the U.K. governments efforts to attract jobs and investment following the countrys departure from the European Union. ( Jeff J Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP)

The announcement marks a turnaround for Nissan, which last year warned its U.K. operations would be unsustainable if Britain failed to secure a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with the EU. The government reached a deal with Brussels in December and, freed from EU competition rules, is now able to offer financial incentives to attract investment.

Nissans announcement  is a major vote of confidence in the U.K. and our highly skilled workers in the Northeast, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested the government would help finance the plant, but he declined to provide specifics because talks are continuing with other electric carmakers amid the shift away from fossil fuels.

Its no secret that across the world, governments are seeking to attract what is a once-in-a-generation opportunity  to build these gigafactories, he told the BBC. Weve committed some measure of support, but the billion pounds that theyre giving far outweighs and is in far excess of the amount of support that we provided.

Ashwani Gupta, Nissans chief operating officer, said the company made the decision to invest in Sunderland after Britain negotiated a trade-friendly Brexit.

Government funding was also critical, he said.

The government support is not quantified in terms of numbers because we are still discussing, but for sure without the government support it would not have been possible, he told the BBC.

The agreement will be seen as a huge boost to the U.K. auto industry, which has been struggling to cope with the new trading relationship with the EU and the economic slowdown caused by COVID-19.

U.K. car production fell 29.3% to 920,928 vehicles last year, the lowest total since 1984, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, an industry trade group.

Automakers are also under pressure to invest large amounts of money in electric car production as countries around the world phase out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles due to concerns about global warming.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT, said much more needs to be done if the industry is going to meet its goal of producing 1 million electric vehicles by 2030.

The U.K. will need to produce at least 60 gigawatt hours of batteries annually by the end of this decade, according to the SMMT. Thats about 20 times the current production capacity.

The Envision project in Sunderland will have the capacity to produce 9 gigawatt hours of batteries annually. Future investment could push that to 25 gigawatt hours.

The future competitiveness of our industry depends on securing these investments but also wider support for manufacturing, Hawes said. We need a Build Back Better Fund to help manufacturing transformation, as well as a plan for charging infrastructure that will assure consumers to make the switch to these vehicles.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday hell push to further upgrade relations with China, his main ally, as he struggles to navigate his country out of a deepening crisis linked to the pandemic.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday hell push to further upgrade relations with China, his main ally, as he struggles to navigate his country out of a deepening crisis linked to the pandemic.

Kim made the comments in a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulating him on the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Workers Party of Korea, by its firm unity with the Chinese Communist Party, would raise (North Korea)-China friendship to a new strategic point as required by the times and as desired by the peoples of the two countries, Kim was quoted as saying.

In an apparent reference to the United States, Kim said that hostile forces vicious slander and all-round pressure upon the Chinese Communist Party are no more than a last-ditch attempt and they can never check the ongoing advance of the Chinese people, according to KCNA.

Kims message came a day after state media said he had told a powerful Politburo meeting that a crucial lapse in the anti-virus campaign has caused a great crisis. He did not elaborate, but there was speculation that Kim may have aimed to raise a call for international assistance, including vaccine shipments.

North Korea maintains some of the worlds toughest anti-virus measures, including 1 1/2 years of border shutdowns, despite its much questionable claim to be coronavirus free. Such draconian steps have devastated its already struggling economy, and Kim has said before his country faces the worst-ever situation. It's unclear when North Korea would reopen its border with China, and so far, there are no reports that it has received any vaccines.

More than 90% of North Koreas trade goes through China, which has long been suspected of refusing to fully implement U.N. sanctions against North Korea imposed over its nuclear weapons programs. Experts say China worries about a collapse and chaos in North Korea because it doesnt want refugees flooding over the long border and a pro-U.S., unified Korea on its doorstep.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin held out the possibility of sending assistance to North Korea.

China and the DPRK have a long tradition of helping each other when they encounter difficulties, Wang said, referring to the North by the initials of its official name. If necessary, China will actively consider providing assistance to the DPRK.

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and British agencies disclosed on Thursday details of brute force methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to try to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations.

WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. and British agencies disclosed on Thursday details of brute force methods they say have been used by Russian intelligence to try to break into the cloud services of hundreds of government agencies, energy companies and other organizations.

An advisory released by the U.S. National Security Agency describes attacks by operatives linked to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency, which has been previously tied to major cyberattacks abroad and efforts to disrupt the 2016 and 2020 American elections.

In a statement, NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce said the campaign was likely ongoing, on a global scale.

Brute force attacks involve the automated spraying of sites with potential passwords until hackers gain access. The advisory urges companies to adopt methods long urged by experts as common-sense cyber hygiene, including the use of multi-factor authentication and mandating strong passwords.

Issued during a devastating wave of ransomware attacks on governments and key infrastructure, the advisory does not disclose specific targets of the campaign or its presumed purpose, saying only that hackers have targeted hundreds of organizations worldwide.

The NSA says GRU-linked operatives have tried to break into networks using Kubernetes, an open-source tool originally developed by Google to manage cloud services, since at least mid-2019 through early this year. While a significant amount of the attempted break-ins targeted organizations using Microsoft's Office 365 cloud services, the hackers went after other cloud providers and email servers as well, the NSA said.

The U.S. has long accused Russia of using and tolerating cyberattacks for espionage, spreading disinformation, and the disruption of governments and key infrastructure.

The Russian Embassy in Washington on Thursday strictly denied the involvement of Russian government agencies in cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies or private companies.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the embassy said, We hope that the American side will abandon the practice of unfounded accusations and focus on professional work with Russian experts to strengthen international information security.

Joe Slowik, a threat analyst at the network-monitoring firm Gigamon, said the activity described by NSA on Thursday shows the GRU has further streamlined an already popular technique for breaking into networks. He said it appears to overlap with Department of Energy reporting on brute force intrusion attempts in late 2019 and early 2020 targeting the U.S. energy and government sectors and is something the U.S. government has apparently been aware of for some time.

Slowik said the use of Kubernetes is certainly a bit unique, although on its own it doesnt appear worrying. He said the brute force method and lateral movement inside networks described by NSA are common among state-backed hackers and criminal ransomware gangs, allowing the GRU to blend in with other actors.

John Hultquist, vice president of analysis at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, characterized the activity described in the advisory as routine collection against policy makers, diplomats, the military, and the defense industry.

This is a good reminder that the GRU remains a looming threat, which is especially important given the upcoming Olympics, an event they may well attempt to disrupt, Hultquist said in a statement.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency joined the advisory, as did the British National Cyber Security Centre.

The GRU has been repeatedly linked by U.S. officials in recent years to a series of hacking incidents. In 2018, special counsel Robert Muellers office charged 12 military intelligence officers with hacking Democratic emails that were then released by WikiLeaks in an effort to harm Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and boost Donald Trumps bid.

More recently, the Justice Department announced charges last fall against GRU officers in cyberattacks that targeted a French presidential election, the Winter Olympics in South Korea and American businesses.

Unlike Russias foreign intelligence agency SVR, which is blamed for the SolarWinds hacking campaign and is careful not to be detected in its cyber ops, the GRU has carried out the most damaging cyberattacks on record, including two on Ukraines power grid and the 2017 NotPetya virus that caused more than $10 billion in damage globally.

GRU operatives have also been involved in the spread of disinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. officials have alleged. And an American intelligence assessment in March says the GRU tried to monitor people in U.S. politics in 2019 and 2020 and staged a phishing campaign against subsidiaries of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, likely to gather information damaging to President Joe Biden, whose son had earlier served on the board.

The Biden administration in April sanctioned Russia after linking it to election interference and the SolarWinds breach.

Bajak reported from Boston.
PHUKET, Thailand (AP)  Thailand embarked on an ambitious but risky plan Thursday that it hopes will breathe new life into a tourism industry devastated by the pandemic, opening the popular resort island of Phuket to fully vaccinated foreigners from lower-risk countries.

One of the first tourists arrive from Abu Dhabi at the Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Starting Thursday, Thailand will welcome back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

PHUKET, Thailand (AP)  Thailand embarked on an ambitious but risky plan Thursday that it hopes will breathe new life into a tourism industry devastated by the pandemic, opening the popular resort island of Phuket to fully vaccinated foreigners from lower-risk countries.

As the first flight arrived, airport fire trucks blasted their water canons to form an arch over the Etihad jet from Abu Dhabi as it taxied to its gate.

Leaving the airport, Frenchman Bruno Souillard said he had been dreaming for a year of returning to Thailand and jumped at the opportunity.

I am very, very happy, the 60-year-old tourist said.

The Phuket sandbox program comes as coronavirus infections are surging in Thailand, including a significant number of cases of the Delta variant, and many have questioned if it's too early to woo tourists back, and whether they'll come in significant numbers in any case due to the restrictions they'll still face.

One of the first tourists arrive from Abu Dhabi at the Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Starting Thursday, Thailand will welcome back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

But the number of new cases on the island itself is extremely low, in the single digits daily, and more than 70% of its residents are fully vaccinated. The government is gambling that travelers will be willing to put up with coronavirus-related regulations for the opportunity for a beach holiday after being cooped up in their home countries for months.

Before the pandemic, the tourism sector made up some 20% of Thailand's economy, and 95% of Phuket's income.

The resort island off the southern coast saw fewer than a half million visitors in the first five months, and almost no foreigners, compared to more than 3 million during the same period last year including some 2 million foreigners.

The first group of tourists arrive on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi at the Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Starting Thursday, Thailand is welcoming back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

In a nod to the importance of the sandbox plan, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha flew to Phuket to be on hand in person for the launch.

He emphasized that the sandbox was just the first step toward his goal announced in June of having Thailand completely reopened within 120 days.

"This reopening is related to not only Phuket but also the whole country, he said.

The first group of tourists arrive on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi at the Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Starting Thursday, Thailand is welcoming back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Last-minute hitches in some of the program details and cautions from authorities that if cases start to rise on the island more restrictions may be needed  or it may have to be shut down entirely  meant some cancelations before it even began. Fewer than 250 international travelers were expected on the first day compared to the initial target of 1,500.

But as the kinks are worked out and people report their first-hand experiences, authorities are hopeful for a steady increase in the numbers. From July 1 to 15, there are currently 1,101 hotel bookings for a total of 13,116 room overnights.

Travelers to other parts of Thailand are subject to a strict 14-day hotel room quarantine, but under the sandbox plan, visitors to Phuket will be allowed to roam the entire island  the country's largest  where they can lounge on the white beaches, jet ski and enjoy evenings eating out in restaurants, although clubs and bars remain closed.

The first group of tourists prepare for a COVID-19 swab test after arriving at the Phuket International Airport in Phuket, southern Thailand, Thursday, July 1, 2021. Starting Thursday, Thailand will welcome back international visitors  as long as they are vaccinated  to its famous southern resort island of Phuket without having to be cooped up in a hotel room for a 14-day quarantine. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Only visitors from countries considered no higher than low or medium risk  a list currently including most of Europe and the Mideast, the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand  are permitted, and they must fly in directly to Phuket, though plans are in the works to allow carefully controlled transfers through Bangkoks airport.

Following the inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi, passengers were expected to arrive later Thursday from Qatar, Israel and Singapore.

Adult foreign visitors must provide proof of two vaccinations, a negative COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours before departure, and proof of an insurance policy that covers treatment for the virus of at least $100,000, among other things. Once on the island, they have to follow mask and distancing regulations and take three COVID-19 tests at their own expense  about $300 total  and show negative results.

After 14 days, visitors can travel elsewhere in Thailand.

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul in Bangkok contributed to this report.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  One of the worlds largest port operators, DP World, said Thursday it has acquired an American logistics firm in a $1.2 billion deal, the latest investment as the maritime company pushes to expand farther afield.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2009 file photo, cranes off load containers at the Jebel Ali port terminal 2, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. One of the world's largest port operators, DP World, said Thursday, July 1, 2021, that it has acquired an American logistics firm in a $1.2 billion deal, the latest investment as the maritime company pushes to expand farther afield. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  One of the worlds largest port operators, DP World, said Thursday it has acquired an American logistics firm in a $1.2 billion deal, the latest investment as the maritime company pushes to expand farther afield.

Dubai-based DP World said its purchase of global logistics provider Syncreon Holdings is expected to close later this year. The company plans to fund the acquisition from existing resources so as not to take on more debt.

The move comes after the port operator posted a 29% drop in 2020 profits as the coronavirus pandemic froze global supply chains and upended trade flows. The company delisted from the stock exchange and returned to full state-ownership last year.

Syncreon operates supply chains for the automotive and technology industries, managing warehouses and fulfillment centers for packing, shipping and delivering across 19 countries.

DP World now operates in 61 countries along some of the worlds busiest shipping routes, from Brisbane, Australia, in the East to Prince Rupert, Canada, in the West. The company has aggressively extended its reach up the Horn of Africa, positioning the United Arab Emirates as one of the main foreign players crowding into the strategic Red Sea.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, DP World has done brisk business in recent months, striking a range of deals to grow its footprint as a vast logistics company.
BERLIN (AP)  The number of people registered as sex workers with German authorities declined sharply last year as coronavirus restrictions shut brothels for months, official data showed Thursday.

FILE - In this Saturday, March 14, 2020 file photo people walk through the red light district in Frankfurt, Germany. The number of people registered as sex workers with German authorities declined sharply last year as coronavirus restrictions shut brothels for months, official data showed Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file)

BERLIN (AP)  The number of people registered as sex workers with German authorities declined sharply last year as coronavirus restrictions shut brothels for months, official data showed Thursday.

Legislation in 2002 legalized and regulated prostitution in Germany, giving sex workers social benefits, and they are now obliged to register. But brothels have been closed for much of the time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 as part of wider lockdowns.

At the end of last year, 24,940 prostitutes were officially registered with authorities, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was down from some 40,400 a year earlier  a 38% drop.

One-fifth of the registered sex workers were German citizens. They were joined by 8,800 Romanians, 2,800 Bulgarians and 1,800 Hungarians, among others.

It isn't clear how accurate a picture the figures paint of the state of the business. Among other issues, registration processes were also disrupted by the pandemic and it has taken time to get reporting processes established over recent years.

By some past estimates, more than two-thirds of sex workers arent registered. The statistics office noted that it is unable to give information on unregistered sex workers and brothels.

The number of officially sanctioned establishments offering sex services  the vast majority of them brothels or the like  stood at 2,290 at the end of last year, a 5% rise from the 2,170 registered a year earlier.
MOSCOW (AP)  Russian health authorities on Thursday launched booster coronavirus vaccinations for people immunized more than six months ago, as the country faces a surge in new infections and deaths.

A group of people some of them wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus stand in line to get a coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination point in Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Russia was among the first in the world to announce and deploy a coronavirus vaccine last year, but so far only about 23 million, just over 15% of the population have received at least one vaccine shot. Hampered by widespread vaccine hesitancy and limited production capacity, Russia's vaccination rates have picked up in recent weeks, after authorities in many regions made shots mandatory for employees in certain sectors. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

MOSCOW (AP)  Russian health authorities on Thursday launched booster coronavirus vaccinations for people immunized more than six months ago, as the country faces a surge in new infections and deaths.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he had received a booster shot and urged city residents to follow suit.

In view of the difficult epidemiological situation today, doctors recommend having booster shots six months after vaccination, Sobyanin said on his blog. I'm pleading with you not to miss a chance to get additional protection from the virus, which is particularly important amid the spread of a more aggressive delta variant.

Moscow health authorities on Thursday started offering booster shots with the domestically produced, two-shot Sputnik V vaccine and its one-shot Sputnik Light version. Other Russian regions are also starting to offer booster shots.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told a government meeting Tuesday that the ministry has issued guidelines allowing those who contracted COVID-19 to get vaccinated six months after they recovered, and those who have been immunized to get booster shots six months after their first vaccination.

Health authorities said the more contagious delta variant of the virus has accounted for the bulk of recent new infections in Moscow and some other regions. The nations chief sanitary doctor, Anna Popova, confirmed Tuesday that authorities also registered the first infection with the delta plus variant, which has an extra mutation, although its significance is unclear.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova has cited studies indicating that immunity in those who have recovered from the virus persists for six months on average and winds down gradually after nine to 12 months.

A group of people some of them wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus stand in line to get a coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination point in Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Russia was among the first in the world to announce and deploy a coronavirus vaccine last year, but so far only about 23 million, just over 15% of the population have received at least one vaccine shot. Hampered by widespread vaccine hesitancy and limited production capacity, Russia's vaccination rates have picked up in recent weeks, after authorities in many regions made shots mandatory for employees in certain sectors. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Health Ministry's guidelines indicated that the booster shots will be rolled out until at least 60% of the population has immunity against COVID-19. Once that goal is reached, booster shots will be delivered once a year.

With most vaccinations, scientists believe people get more protection if there is an extended interval between the shots. There is no evidence that having more vaccines within a short amount of time increases the amount of immune protection. Its also unclear how long protection from COVID-19 vaccines lasts and who will need a booster.

The new guidelines come as infections in Russia are soaring and vaccination rates lag behind those of many other nations.

Russias state coronavirus task force has been reporting over 20,000 new COVID-19 infections daily since last Thursday, more than double the average in early June. On Thursday, it reported 23,543 new cases and 672 deaths  the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.

Russian officials have blamed the rise in cases on Russians lax attitude toward taking precautions, the growing prevalence of more infectious variants and vaccine hesitancy. Although Russia was among the first countries to announce and deploy a coronavirus vaccine, just over 23 million people  or 15% of its 146 million population  have received at least one shot.

St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city which is set to host the quarterfinal Euro 2020 match between Spain and Switzerland on Friday, has seen a sharp spike in infections recently.

There are a lot of soccer fans here, both Russian and those who came from other countries," said local resident Antonina Milenina. That undoubtedly impacts the situation.

President Vladimir Putin revealed during Wednesday's call-in show that he had received the Sputnik V vaccine earlier this year and stressed the importance of getting vaccinated. The Russian leader, who had received the shots out of the public eye, had previously refused to identify the vaccine he got to avoid offering a competitive advantage to its maker. Sputnik V is the most widespread of the four domestically-designed vaccines in circulation.

Russias vaccination rates have picked up in recent weeks, after authorities in many regions made shots mandatory for employees in certain sectors, such as government offices, retail, health care, education, restaurants and other services.

While reaffirming his position that vaccinations should be voluntary, Putin emphasized that mandatory inoculation for some workers was based on the law and voiced hope that it could help prevent a nationwide lockdown.

In accordance with new rules effective since Monday, restaurants, bars and cafes in Moscow have only been admitting customers who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months or can provide a negative test in the previous 72 hours  a measure that helped ramp up the pace of vaccination.

In the past week, there has been an influx of people getting vaccinated, said Natalia Kuzenkova, a doctor who was administering shots at the GUM shopping mall on Red Square. "We have increased our carrying capacity more than three times.

A spike in vaccination over the past days was quickly followed, however, by reports of vaccine shortages in a number of Russian regions, and some experts have questioned whether Russia will have enough vaccines to go around.

Officials said earlier this week that 36.7 million sets of four domestically-developed coronavirus vaccines have been released into circulation, and 30 more million are expected to be produced in July.

As a new wave of contagion spread, authorities in some regions have started imposing travel restrictions.

From Thursday the southern Krasnodar region, which has a long stretch of the Black Sea coast, required incoming hotel and resort clients to produce a certificate of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or a document showing they had been previously sick with the virus.

Starting Aug. 1, only those with proof of vaccination or a document showing recovery from COVID-19 will be allowed into hotels and resorts. The stringent rules have triggered a wave of tour cancellations that has shaken the nation's tourist industry.

Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
MONTREAL - It isn't easy to find an apartment in St-Donat, Que., these days, much less an affordable one.

A for rent sign is seen in front of an apartment building, Wednesday, June 30, 2021 in Saint-Eustache, Que.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL - It isn't easy to find an apartment in St-Donat, Que., these days, much less an affordable one.

An influx of city dwellers seeking more space has caused housing demand to surge in the community 130 kilometres north of Montreal, leaving a shortage of affordable apartments for the young people it desperately needs to work in local businesses during the tourist season.

"Rental housing that isnt too expensive? There isnt any more, or (units) are very, very rare or not good quality," Mayor Joe Deslauriers said in a recent interview.

Most residential leases in Quebec expire July 1, resulting in many Quebecers spending Canada Day packing up their belongings and moving to a new home. The frantic rush this time of year for apartments heightens concerns over shortages and affordability that inevitably focus on big cities such as Montreal. But increasingly, even small towns and rural areas are witnessing housing crunches.

Data released by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in May shows that rental vacancy rates for apartments in cities of 10,000 people or fewer stood at 1.5 per cent  the lowest of any province. In many Quebec communities, the vacancy rate is zero, especially for larger apartments of two or three bedrooms.

Small-town officials say COVID-19 didn't create the problem but exacerbated issues that were already present. Those include a lack of traditional apartment blocks in small towns, rising home prices, the popularity of vacation rental sites such as Airbnb and the challenges of attracting developers.

Nowhere is the issue more pressing than in Iles-de-la-Madeleine, a small island archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, north of Prince Edward Island. Vacancy rates for many types of rentals sit at zero per cent, according to legislature member Joel Arseneau.

Home sale prices on the island, he said, have risen 60 per cent in the last year, adding that many of the sales are going to seasonal residents or to people who want to rent the homes for profit.

Arseneau helped put in place a crisis team earlier this year after receiving calls about some 40 people who he said would have been left "literally in the street" or forced to live in a tent during the summer. He said local authorities are still working with the Red Cross to help about half a dozen families.

Arseneau said both he and municipal officials have been working to get more housing built. A bill passed in the legislature last year has given the municipality the right to subsidize property taxes for developers who build rental housing. Another program that would allow it to subsidize construction costs is in the works.

The idea of limiting short-term rentals may eventually be on the table, but it's a tricky proposition in a place where many residents depend on the lucrative tourism sector to pay their bills.

While there's been interest from developers, Arseneau said building isn't easy in the region due to its remoteness, high construction costs, limited land and labour shortages. "We need at least 100 homes, but in the next year will we be able to build 20, 40, 50?" he said.

"It would be ambitious to say we will eliminate the deficit completely."

The situation is also serious in the Bas-St-Laurent region, where the vacancy rate for three-bedroom apartments in Rimouski, Que., has fallen to 0.2 per cent, leaving "almost no apartments for families," according to Alexandre Cadieux, spokesman for community housing group Comite Logement Rimouski-Neigette.

Cadieux said the low vacancy rate in the region on the lower shore of the St. Lawrence River means landlords can discriminate, with some opting not to rent to new immigrants or people with large families.

Catherine Leviten-Reid, an associate professor in community development at Cape Breton University, says rural communities face particular challenges when it comes to tackling housing issues. Those communities, she adds, often lack services such as homeless shelters and housing advocacy groups.

Furthermore, theres a lack of data about rural housing and homelessness, which makes it harder for politicians and community groups to act, Leviten-Reid said in a recent interview.

If your population size is less than 10,000, then you only have data collected on your rental housing market once every five years, and so that, as you can imagine, is a real problem, she said.

While housing issues are complex, Leviten-Reid said solutions exist. Limiting short-term vacation rentals is one. Longer term, she said, theres a need to build permanently affordable long-term rentals, likely developed by the non-profit sector.

Back in St-Donat, Deslauriers said he's considering a number of options to increase housing, including exploring the idea of non-profit co-ops. He said he's also hoping the province will step in by developing more social housing and reducing the red tape for developers to access programs that incentivize them to build affordable homes.

Deslauriers said the town's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic depends on it.

There are hundreds of jobs available in the town, but he admits most aren't highly paid, and businesses are being forced to cut hours because they can't attract workers.

"To be able to work, people have to be able to house themselves," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday began putting in place consumer protections against surprise medical bills enacted in bipartisan legislation signed last year by former President Donald Trump.

FILE - In this June 10, 2021, file photo, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Biden administration Thursday, July 1, began putting in place consumer protections against surprise medical bills enacted in bipartisan legislation signed last year by former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration on Thursday began putting in place consumer protections against "surprise" medical bills enacted in bipartisan legislation signed last year by former President Donald Trump.

Regulations jointly issued by four federal agencies spell out protections for insured patients against surprise billing in medical emergencies, and unexpected charges from out-of-network doctors at an in-network facility. Out-of-network clinicians and service providers would also be barred from billing patients for the difference between their charges and what insurance paid.

Surprise medical bills are a common and frustrating problem for people with health insurance, even if they thought they were protected. Charges that can run from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars come from doctors and hospitals outside the network of a patients health insurance plan. Its estimated that about 1 in 5 emergency visits and 1 in 6 inpatient admissions triggers a surprise bill.

Thursdays action signaled that the Biden administration is committed to having the new protections in place for consumers by Jan. 1, as the law requires. Work continues on another major piece of the new framework, a process to resolve billing disputes between insurers and medical providers without dragging patients into them.

It's a rare demonstration of bipartisanship on health care, one of the most politically polarized issues of the past decade, as Republicans repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to repeal the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.

"It's about getting good health care at a good price for all Americans  it's a bipartisan effort," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, whose department is working on the issue with Treasury, Labor and the federal government's personnel agency. "You will no longer be stuck in the middle of a payments dispute because you were blindsided by a charge you weren't expecting."

Consumer advocates, insurers and medical and hospital associations are poring over the complicated fine print of the Biden administration's 400-page rule. Arcane definitions pertaining to such issues as payment levels can translate to millions of dollars of economic impact. Also under the rule, insurers and health care providers would have to notify patients about their new protections.

"They are clearly pulling out the stops to get this implemented in a timely manner," said Karen Pollitz, a health insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "We know this has been a problem that people put at the top of their list of worries."

Pollitz said it could take until well into next year to see how the new system works in real life. Currently millions of surprise bills are sent every year. "Even if 90% of them are handled perfectly the first year, you could still have hundreds of thousands that go through to the patient," she said.

The advocacy group Families USA, leading a coalition that has urged the administration to take a pro-consumer approach to implementing the rule, said in a statement the details will take time to digest "but at first blush it appears to recognize the significance of ensuring strong transparency and easily understandable patient notice and consent standards."

Although many states have passed curbs on surprise billing, federal action was needed to protect patients covered by large employer plans regulated at the national level. The Biden administration is allowing 60 days for public comment on its rule.

The surprise billing law passed by Congress last year takes patients and their families out of the financial equation by limiting what they can be billed for out-of-network services to a fee thats based on in-network charges. That amount gets counted toward their in-network annual deductible.

The central provisions of the legislation include:

 Holding patients harmless from surprise bills resulting from emergency medical care. Protections apply if the patient is seen at an out-of-network facility, or if they are treated by an out-of-network clinician at an in-network hospital. In either case, the patient can only be billed based on their plans in-network rate.

 Protecting patients admitted to an in-network hospital for a planned procedure when an out-of-network clinician gets involved and submits a bill.

 Requiring out-of-network service providers to give patients 72-hour notice of their estimated charges. Patients would have to agree to receive out-of-network care for the hospital or doctor to then bill them.

 Barring air ambulance services from sending patients surprise bills for more than the in-network cost sharing amount.

Surprise bills are a direct of result of high health care costs. To try to keep premiums in check, insurers set up networks of hospitals and doctors who agree in advance on payment levels. But some high-demand clinicians, such as emergency room doctors and anesthesiologists, have an incentive to stay out of at least some networks, to maximize their earnings.

Public programs like Medicare and Medicaid prohibit or restrict such billing practices.
EDMONTON - The 44-year mystery around the identity of a man whose scorched body was found in a septic tank has been solved with a forensic technique used to find the Golden State Killer in the United States, Alberta RCMP say.

EDMONTON - The 44-year mystery around the identity of a man whose scorched body was found in a septic tank has been solved with a forensic technique used to find the Golden State Killer in the United States, Alberta RCMP say.

In April 1977, the remains were found on a farm near Tofield, Alta., about 70 kilometres east of Edmonton. At the time, police said he had been tortured and sexually assaulted before his death.

RCMP say they have identified the man whose burned body was found in a septic tank on an abandoned Alberta farm 44 years ago. Staff Sgt. Jason Zazulak says the victim is Gordon (Gordie) Sanderson, shown in a handout photo, an Indigenous man from Manitoba who was living in Edmonton when he died. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-RCMP MANDATORY CREDIT

RCMP identified the victim Wednesday as Gordon Edwin Sanderson, an Indigenous man in his mid-20s from Manitoba. He had been living in Edmonton around the time of his death.

"He was known as Gordie to his family and friends," Sgt. Jason Zazulak said at a news conference.

"Gordie had a hard life. He was separated from his family at nine years old during the 60s Scoop and placed in foster care."

The 60s Scoop, which took place between the 1960s and 1980s, was a child welfare practice in Canada where thousands of Indigenous children were removed from their families and placed in care.

"He struggled with addictions and had various run-ins with the police," Zazulak added.

RCMP sent biological samples last year to Othram Labs in Texas to develop a DNA profile that could be searched against public DNA databanks in Canada and the U.S. that track ancestry.

As a result, they were able to develop a family tree with several possible relatives  one of whom turned out to be Sandersons sister, Joyce Sanderson, who had lost track of her brother, Zazulak said.

"(Sanderson) was last heard of by family when he was going to meet his younger brother, Arthur, in Calgary," he said. "Sadly, Gordie did not make it to that meeting."

Zazulak added that Sanderson also has a daughter.

Sandersons sister reported him missing in the early 1980s, "but never heard back about him," Zazulak said.

He said police identified Sanderson in January and the case became an active homicide investigation.

"We believe that Gordie Sanderson was killed by associates of his involved in various criminal acts in the Edmonton area," Zazulak said.

"We would like to speak with anyone who knew Gordie Sanderson and may have information about his death."

But he acknowledged that Sandersons killer may no longer be alive.

"Between the passage of time and just some of the lifestyles that people were involved in at the time as well, its very possible that they have passed away."

The infamous cold case made headlines throughout the decades as investigators tried to gather leads.

At one point, the Alberta Medical Examiners office made a three-dimensional reconstruction of the victims face in the hope of identifying him.

Zazulak said RCMP will be using the same genetic genealogy techniques in other cold cases.

"It is a very important technique, but its not something that can be used in every case," he said.

"It does have a fairly narrow applicability. But where it is applicable, it is very powerful."

Genetic genealogy as a police tool wasnt broadly known until 2018 when Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo was arrested in Northern California.

It was alleged that DeAngelo, a former police officer, was responsible for about a dozen murders and about 50 rapes in the 1970s and 80s. Last June, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder and dozens of rapes that were too old to prosecute.

Since then, law enforcement agencies and amateur genealogists have touted the benefits of people transferring their DNA profiles compiled by commercial genealogy sites onto smaller, public open-source databases to help solve crimes.

Commercial sites, such as Ancestory.com and 23andMe, require police to obtain search warrants for information, while public sites do not.

More recently in Canada, genetic genealogy was used by Toronto police to identify a suspect in the killing of nine-year-old Christine Jessop in 1984.

In October, police said DNA evidence indicated Calvin Hoover, then 28, had sexually assaulted Jessop and he would have been charged with her murder if he were alive.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2021.

 With files from The Associated Press
SHERBROOKE, Que. - The Crown prosecutor's office in Quebec says the last known Hells Angels bunker in the province has been demolished.

A crane demolishes a Hells Angels bunker in Sherbrooke, Que., on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. The bunker was the site of some notorious crimes during the biker war of the mid 1980's in Quebec. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

SHERBROOKE, Que. - The Crown prosecutor's office in Quebec says the last known Hells Angels bunker in the province has been demolished.

A spokeswoman confirmed the notorious red-roofed landmark was torn down today in Sherbrooke, Que., about 150 kilometres east of Montreal.

The property had been empty since 2009, when a major police operation led to mass arrests and the dismantling of much of the Hells Angels' network in the province.

Members of the criminal biker gang fought a long legal battle to stop the building from being confiscated and demolished, but the case came to an end last April after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal.

Audrey Roy-Cloutier of the Crown prosecutor's office says the bunker was a symbol of Quebec's criminal past and demolishing it sends a message that organized crime won't be tolerated. She says the land has been evaluated at about $538,000 and will be put up for sale.

The bunker, which a judge once described as a "nearly impenetrable fortress," was the last known Hells Angels stronghold that remained standing in the province. Several others were demolished in past years.

"Theres a whole symbolism associated with those places, so demolishing sends a clear message to those who are considering getting involved in organized crime," she said in an interview.

She says the building had been damaged over the years and was a safety hazard, which was another reason to knock it down.

In April, the City of Sherbrooke declined to buy the building from the Crown, citing the asking price and demolition costs.

The city's website indicates the land has been rezoned as a natural area, effectively ruling out residential or commercial construction on the site.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2021.
As Caralena Greene logged off Google Classroom for the final time this year, the sixth-grader was not overcome with the same kind of excitement that typically accompanies the last day of school.

As Caralena Greene logged off Google Classroom for the final time this year, the sixth-grader was not overcome with the same kind of excitement that typically accompanies the last day of school.

A sign-off is not quite the same as walking out of school with a pile of projects in hand and classmates at ones side, after the final bell signals the start of summer break.

SUPPLIED Caralena Greene submitted a lengthy assignment about how things unfolded this year.

The 12-year-old said she will also miss her routine, although she is looking forward to spending the coming months cooling off in her backyard pool and being with her family.

"I was sad because school was something to do during the pandemic because we cant really go places," said Caralena, who attended the last of her virtual classes at Starbuck School this week.

While much of the last 10 months have been marked by uncertainty and social isolation, academics have been one of few constants for students in 2020-21  even though motivation challenges and technological glitches have been abundant.

Topping the list of credits at the bottom of Caralenas end-of-year reflection assignment in June was Mrs. Wuerch  her homeroom teacher, "for giving me this assignment and continuing to teach us and help us learn throughout the pandemic."

Also on her list of people who deserve a thank-you: family, for their constant support; friends who FaceTimed; her Irish dance teacher, for hosting virtual classes; dedicated essential workers; scientists who discovered a COVID-19 vaccine, and the province, for creating public health restrictions.

Teacher Jodie Wuerch straddled a "fine line" when discussing the pandemic in her Grade 5-6 class this year. The educator of more than 20 years said she had to balance teaching restrictions, including a ban on talking at lunchtime when masks were off to eat, while not frightening students.

"The first and foremost thing we talked about always was their safety, my safety, everyones safety, and so, at the beginning of the year, we were pretty firm about the guidelines," she recalled Wednesday, the last designated instructional day of 2021-22. "But I had to be very careful when I was talking about case numbers and deaths and things like that, because anxiety levels for students went up a lot this year."

Starbuck, located 40 minutes southwest of Winnipeg, was one of at least 556 schools in Manitoba that recorded one or more exposures. Wuerch counts her class lucky because their cohort was never affected. They did, however, have to switch to remote learning for the last six weeks of the year, owing to rising case numbers in the rural region.

Tasked with keeping students engaged in June  a trying job when they are within eyesight, let alone learning remotely, Wuerch assigned a writing project to ask students to reflect on their experiences with virtual school.

Her pitch? "You guys are making history right now because youre going to school at home through a worldwide pandemic and this is something that you will want to tell your children about in the future, and your grandchildren."

Caralena compiled a 15-page Google Doc, featuring a summary of pandemic pastimes and lessons learned. She wrote about the "scary, saddening, and life-changing events" she lived through, Wi-Fi challenges, and discovering focusing strategies, such as using fidget toys, in order to do work and relieve stress. She plans to print a copy to put in a box with other items to preserve 2020-21 memories.

She will also hold onto her new tech skills and email etiquette, gained from an unusual Grade 6.

"Ill probably look back on it as a really challenging time, where I went through a lot of self-growth," she said. "Im a perfectionist and I had to learn how to not be perfect because I couldnt control everything that was happening."

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie
The extraordinary" meeting between the Pope and representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year proves the Pope is serious about reconciliation, the archbishop of Winnipeg says.

The "extraordinary" meeting between the Pope and representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year proves the Pope is serious about reconciliation, the archbishop of Winnipeg says.

Richard Gagnon, who is also president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, pointed out the pontiff will meet for one hour with each delegation, and then for an hour with all three groups together, from Dec. 17 to 20.

"The Pope is a world leader (and) most heads of state get 15 minutes with him," he said.

The amount of time he will spend with the delegations is a sign of "how important this is to him," said the archbishop, who countered reports the Pope isnt interested in reconciliation with Indigenous groups. They've been calling for a papal apology after unmarked burial sites were found near former residential schools, including two in B.C., and one in southeastern Saskatchewan. The Catholic church was involved in running many of the schools, which were put in place by the federal government.

CP Pope Francis will meet Canadian representatives from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities later this year. (Gregorio Borgia / The Canadian Press files)

"This is not a political exercise for the Pope, not ticking off a box," he said. "Its a pastoral process and encounter, a time of dialogue, of sitting with people and listening. He wants to hear from them directly."

At the meeting, which will take place in Rome, the archbishop and others from the Catholic Church will be observers, he said, not participants. "We are deferring to the delegates."

As for whether the Pope will come to Canada and apologize to Indigenous peoples, the archbishop said he cant presume what the Pope will say or do.

Gagnon said he would "strongly support an apology," similar to the Popes apology to Indigenous people in South America in 2015.

"If he offered an apology for wrongs done in South America, why not also in Canada?" he asked. "Thats the way he approaches reconciliation."

He added the Pope is "open to coming, and thats a wonderful thing," noting such a visit will be discussed by the Canadian bishops in September.

Most world leaders only get 15 minutes with the Pope, says Winnipeg Roman Catholic Archbishop Richard Gagnon. (Sasha Sefter / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The archbishop also addressed criticism of a homily he gave in Brandon a week ago in which he said the Catholic Church in Canada is facing "persecution."

In the homily, he said he is getting "bombarded a lot" by criticism and is noticing a lot of inaccurate information, exaggerations and false ideas about the church in the media in relation to residential schools.

"And so I say in my heart, You know something? Theres a persecution happening here," he said during the homily.

The archbishop acknowledged "maybe thats a bit strong of a word," but said his comment was "fuelled" by his reaction to misinformation being spread about the church.

Hes heard reports about priests and nuns killing children, which "are not true," he said, adding "such reporting and rumours fuel flames of bigotry against the church. It inflames people to act on false information."

On Wednesday, a Catholic church burned to the ground in Morinville, Alta., in what police said was arson. Since May 27, when it was announced unmarked graves had been found near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., a handful of churches have been set on fire, including at Cross Lake in northern Manitoba and in two communities in B.C.'s Okanagan region.

He realizes people are upset at the church, but he wants Canadians to know it isnt "sitting idly by. Weve been in discussions with the three Indigenous groups for almost three years, and apologies have been issued since 1991. Were not sitting back and doing nothing."

He said he and the bishops are disappointed the church's campaign to raise $25 million for residential school survivors and their families, which began in 2005, brought in only $3.7 million before it was scrapped in 2013.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gagnon would support an apology to Canadian Indigenous groups, similar to the Popes apology to Indigenous people in South America in 2015. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files

The commitment was part of an agreement that stemmed from lawsuits filed against the federal government and churches that ran the schools.

The agreement obligated the 50 Catholic Church entities (mainly religious orders, but also a few dioceses) to pay $29 million in cash, set up a $25-million fund for programs and to raise another $25 million.

"Something was obviously lacking with it," Gagnon said, noting there is talk among Canadas Catholic bishops about revisiting the idea.

"But if we go back, we wont use the same model," he said, adding it would be important to include Indigenous voices.

Right now, the focus is on the meetings in Rome, he said, noting there are frequent meetings between church officials and members of the three groups.

"This is a time of challenge, but also a time of opportunity for us as a church and as a whole country in dealing with our very important relationships with Indigenous people; an opportunity to build a new future together, one based on charity, consideration and respect for each other," he said.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
The city will open a new cooling centre on the main floor of the Susan A. Thompson building to help vulnerable Winnipeggers escape the heat.

The city will open a new cooling centre on the main floor of the Susan A. Thompson building to help vulnerable Winnipeggers escape the heat.

Mayor Brian Bowman says the move comes after he asked the province to staff its own downtown Winnipeg cooling centre  a request that was not granted.

"The Susan A. Thompson building (within the city hall campus), in lieu of the province opening a cooling centre, was the next best option," Bowman told media Wednesday.

The mayor said the province is responsible for health care, social services and housing, so it should staff and operate a cooling centre, suggesting it could do so at the downtown concert hall.

"They really are the lead on these matters. Municipalities are really there to support their efforts In the meantime, the city is taking actions to help," he said.

The city will also reinstate a tent in Central Park to provide drinking water, as it did during the last heat wave about a month ago. The tent and cooling centre will be open from noon to 8 p.m. daily, Thursday through Sunday.

Potable water tanks will continue to be available at the Salvation Army, Bear Clan headquarters and some recreation centres.

"We are going to see some extreme temperatures and I am concerned about people being able to come out of the heat," said Jason Shaw, Winnipeg assistant chief of emergency management.

Shaw said heat exhaustion and heatstroke can be serious health threats.

Environment Canada predicts Winnipeg will see high temperatures of 33 C or hotter through Sunday, with a sizzling 37 C expected Saturday.

While the city invited Winnipeggers to cool down at libraries and other city recreation buildings during pre-COVID-19 pandemic times, Shaw said options are far more limited now due to health restrictions.

"Currently, the public health orders dont allow libraries to be open," he said.

In an emailed statement, a provincial spokesperson stressed the province is working with the city on the matter.

"This morning, (Winnipeg's) interim CAO asked the province about the use of the Centennial Concert Hall as a cooling centre. The department of Municipal Relations engaged EMO on the request, who then connected with other provincial officials and the city emergency officials, resulting in the current plan supported by both provincial and city departments," the statement says.

"The province is committed to remain engaged and to work collaboratively with the city through emergency officials."

Bowmans office said the request to the province was first made directly to Manitobas interim health minister during the last heat wave.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
Opinion

In a recent interview, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland explained the need to focus on economic growth to deal with many of Canadas fiscal issues, including our high debt levels. Freeland is correct that higher rates of economic growth would solve many of the countrys issues. Unfortunately, her policy prescription for higher growth is more of the same  more debt-financed government spending and new and higher taxes  which has delivered lower, not higher, economic growth since the Trudeau government came to power.

A recent study compared the economic performance for the four-year periods preceding the last five recessions (or economic slowdowns)  specifically, the economic performance of 2016-19 (Trudeau), 2011-14 (Harper), 2005-08 (Martin-Harper), 1997-2000 (Chretien) and 1986-89 (Mulroney).

The results were clear, both in terms of overall economic growth (GDP) and growth in per-person GDP. The Trudeau government experienced the weakest economic growth compared to the previous four governments. For per-person GDP growth, the results werent even close. Trudeau recorded average growth of 0.8 per cent, which was 50 per cent lower than the next lowest performer (1.2 per cent during the Martin-Harper period of 2005-08).

Detailed data are now available for narrower measures of income at the household and individual level, which unfortunately tell the same story. Market income  basically wages and salaries, self-employment income and investment income  for households (excluding single individuals not part of households) grew by 0.9 per cent (on average) during the Trudeau period of 2016 to 2019. This is by far the lowest growth rate of any previous pre-recessionary period including Harper (1.9 per cent), Martin-Harper (2.0 per cent), Chretien (3.8 per cent) and Mulroney (2.2 per cent).

The Trudeau government ranks last again on growth of average total household income, which includes both earnings (discussed above) and government transfers, at only one per cent compared to 1.6 per cent for Harper, two per cent for Martin-Harper, three per cent for Chretien and 2.1 per cent for Mulroney.

Finally, the Trudeau government records the lowest average growth in total household income adjusted for income taxes, with an average growth rate of one per cent compared to Harper (1.4 per cent), Martin-Harper (2.4 per cent), Chretien (3.1 per cent) and Mulroney (1.2 per cent).

We find similar general results for growth in income for individuals rather than households. But remember, the Trudeau government made it a priority to focus on middle-income households and those Canadians wishing to join the middle class.

And its important to remember that these economic growth rates were all pre-COVID-19.

And again, rather than recognize the economic weakness that has accompanied the Trudeau governments policies of higher debt-financed spending and taxes, Freeland has doubled down on more of the same  more government spending financed by borrowing and the likelihood of higher taxes.

The literary definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing but expecting different results. If the finance minister is truly interested in achieving higher rates of economic growth, then the government requires a complete 180-degree turn in policy  specifically, a short-term plan to balance the budget based on spending reductions coupled with a clear commitment to no new taxes or increases in existing taxes.

Otherwise, Canadians will continue to hear the rhetoric about improved economic growth while suffering from slower growth.

Jason Clemens, Milagros Palacios and Niels Veldhuis are economists with the Fraser Institute and the authors of Comparing Economic Performance in Five Pre-Recession Periods .

 Troy Media
The COVID-19 global pandemic has been accompanied by misinformation about the virus, its origins and how it spreads.

Opinion

The COVID-19 global pandemic has been accompanied by misinformation about the virus, its origins and how it spreads.

One in seven Canadians thinks there is some truth to the claim that Bill Gates is using the coronavirus to push a vaccine with a microchip capable of tracking people. Those who believe this and other COVID-19 conspiracy theories are much more likely to get their news from social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.

In extreme cases, conspiracy thinking spurred by online disinformation can result in hate-fuelled violence, as we saw in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Quebec City mosque shooting, the Toronto van attack and the incident in 2020 where an armed man crashed his truck through the gates of Rideau Hall.

Moderate content

These and other events have placed pressure on social media platforms to label, remove and slow the spread of harmful, publicly viewable content. As a result of implemented responses to the spread of misinformation, Donald Trump was deplatformed during the final weeks of his presidency.

These discussions on content moderation have mainly centred around platforms where content is generally open and accessible to view, comment on and share. But whats happening in those online spaces that arent open for all to see? Its much harder to say. And perhaps not surprisingly, conspiracy theories are spreading on private messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger and WeChat, to spread harm.

By leveraging large groups of users and long chains of forwarded messages, false information can still go viral on private platforms.

White nationalists and other extremist groups are trying to use messaging apps to organize, and malicious hackers are using private messages to conduct cybercrime. False stories spreading on messaging apps have also led to real-world violence, as happened in India and the United Kingdom.

Trust and private communication

We conducted a survey of 2,500 Canadian residents in March 2021 and found that theyre increasingly using private messaging platforms to get their news.

Overall, 21 per cent said that they rely on private messages for news  up from 11 per cent in 2019. We also found that people who regularly receive their news through messaging apps are more likely to believe COVID-19 conspiracy theories, including the false claim that vaccines include microchips.

There is a level of intimacy in private messaging apps thats different from news viewed on social media feeds or other platforms, with content shared directly by people we often know and trust. A majority of Canadians reported that they had a similar level of trust in the news they receive on private messaging apps as they do in the news from TV or news websites.

Our research also uncovered a uniquely Canadian phenomenon. As a multicultural society with many newcomers, the Canadian private messaging landscape is remarkably diverse. For example, people who have arrived in Canada in the last 10 years were more than twice as likely to use WhatsApp. Similarly, newcomers from China were five times more likely to use WeChat.

We also found that half of Canadians receive messages that they suspect are false at least a few times per month, and that one in four receives messages with hate speech at least monthly. These rates were higher among people of colour. Because different apps provide different ways of spreading and mitigating harmful content, each requires a tailored strategy.

Mitigating harm

Platforms and governments around the world are grappling with the tension between mitigating online harms and protecting the democratic values of free expression and privacy, particularly among more private modes of communication. This tension is only exacerbated by some platforms use of privacy-preserving end-to-end encryption that ensures only the sender and receiver can read the messages.

Some messaging apps have been experimenting with how to reduce the spread of harmful materials, including the introduction of limits on group sizes and on the number of times a message can be forwarded. WhatsApp is now testing a feature that nudges users to verify the source of highly forwarded messages by linking to a Google search of the message content. Some experts are also advancing the idea of adding warning labels to false news shared in messages  a concept that a majority (54 per cent) of Canadians supported when we described the idea.

However, there is certainly more that governments can do in this quickly moving area. More transparency is required from messaging platforms about how theyre responding to user reports of harmful material and what approaches theyre using to stall the spread of these messages. Governments can also support digital literacy efforts and invest in research about harms through private messaging in Canada.

As Canadians shift to more private modes of communication, policy needs to keep up to maintain a vibrant and cohesive democracy in Canada while protecting free expression and privacy.

Sam Andrey is the director of policy and research at the Ryerson Leadership Lab and Alex Rand is a research assistant on technology, cybersecurity and democracy at Ryerson University.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.
IF you visit any Canadian teachers union website, you might think that all teachers reside on the far left of the political spectrum.

Opinion

IF you visit any Canadian teachers union website, you might think that all teachers reside on the far left of the political spectrum.

For example, the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) isnt shy about taking left-leaning stands on controversial political topics. Among other things, the BCTF supports student climate strikes, advocates for more spending on social programs, promotes unrestricted access to abortion and opposes the construction of new oil pipelines.

The BCTF also wants to cut military spending and, at one point, even created posters that discouraged students from considering a career in the Canadian Armed Forces. One can only imagine how uncomfortable military families must feel when their children are subjected to this type of left-wing propaganda in B.C. public schools.

Sadly, the BCTF is not an outlier among Canadian teachers unions. With its recent decision to affiliate with the Manitoba Federation of Labour, the Manitoba Teachers Society (MTS) has thrown in its lot with an organization that officially supports the NDP. In other words, MTS can no longer credibly claim to be politically non-partisan.

The left-wing activism of teachers unions clearly sends a loud message about the political leanings of many  perhaps most  teachers.

Fortunately, not all teachers are left-of-centre. But you wouldnt know that if you listened to the organizations that speak on behalf of teachers. While right-of-centre teachers do exist, its the left-wing teachers who typically become union reps. Otherwise, teachers unions would be singing a different tune.

An important reason for this imbalance is the one-sided indoctrination prospective teachers typically receive in faculties of education. Right-of-centre education professors are few and far between. The vast majority are politically left-wing.

Any prospective teacher who earns an education degree will encounter one left-wing professor after another, with hardly any who balance this perspective with centrist or right-wing perspectives. Thus, unless a student already has a well-entrenched political position, most newly minted teachers will graduate as political liberals.

The predictable result of this indoctrination is that schools end up being staffed by teachers from one side of the political spectrum. While many left-wing teachers make a genuine effort to expose students to various viewpoints, its important that students are taught by teachers who dont all share the same narrow range of political beliefs.

Many school divisions have slogans that emphasize the importance of diversity. However, in far too many cases schools end up with teachers who are diverse in race and gender but uniform in thought. People look different but think the same. This isnt true diversity.

Canada is a diverse country, not only in ethnicity but also in political and ideological beliefs. Each major political party is supported by a significant number of Canadians. Classrooms are filled with students whose parents voted Conservative, Liberal or NDP, and they should all feel welcome at school.

There should be no pressure, direct or indirect, on students to conform to any one political ideology.

Diversity of thought is perhaps the most important type of diversity in schools. Faculties of education and school divisions should pay more attention to diversity of thought when training and hiring teachers.

The last thing students need is to be educated in an ideological echo chamber.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher, a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, and author of A Sage on the Stage: Common Sense Reflections on Teaching and Learning.

 Troy Media
The community of aqam, one of four bands in the Ktunaxa Nation, has announced a search employing ground-penetrating radar found 182 unmarked gravesites near the former St. Eugenes Mission School.

The community of aqam, one of four bands in the Ktunaxa Nation, has announced a search employing ground-penetrating radar found 182 unmarked gravesites near the former St. Eugenes Mission School.

The residential school outside the city of Cranbrook, B.C., run primarily by the Catholic Church between 1912 and 1970, instructed more than 5,000 children from the Ktunaxa, Okanagan, Shuswap, and Blackfoot nations.

A statement released Wednesday  the day before Canada Day  says: "It is believed that the remains of these 182 souls are from the member bands of the Ktunaxa Nation, neighbouring First Nations communities, and the community of aqam."

There is likely no way to know for sure. The records of these children  if such documents existed at all  have never been released by church leaders, government departments or whoever else was involved.

The school was well-known for having frequent, deadly outbreaks of influenza, mumps, measles, chicken pox, and tuberculosis  but also rampant abuse and violence, as well. It was a terrible place.

What is clear: school administrators didnt care much to bury the children respectfully; many are in shallow graves.

Wednesday's news brings the number to more than 1,300 unmarked graves at residential schools "discovered" in June  in places like Kamloops, B.C., Brandon, Regina, Lestock, Sask., and Cowessess First Nation (Sask.).

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented 3,201 deaths at residential schools, according to the records they were provided by governments and the churches. In one month, after searches led by First Nations, nearly one-third more have been found.

This means there are likely thousands more out there.

Without being too macabre, lets do the math: if 182 of 5,000 children died at the St. Eugene school (and this is conservative), it is roughly four per cent of all students who attended.

Thats one out of every 25 students, roughly one per classroom.

Would you send your children to a school where one student in each class would die?

What if it was your daughter or son? How would the rest of the class feel having one of their members die?

What if school administrators didnt care? What if they tried covering it up? What if there was rampant disease everywhere and the school day continued, uninterrupted?

What if media, politicians, and professors told you the school where your child died at "wasnt all that bad" and "you should focus on the positive stories"?

What if those responsible for the deaths were never held accountable?

What if they had statues made in their honour, were called heroes, and buildings were named after them?

What if someone defaced one of those statues, refused to recognize them as a hero, or burnt down a building built in their honour?

What would you do?

Sitting with these difficult and complicated thoughts, feelings, and answers is what its like to experience Canada Day for an Indigenous person.

Canada Day is not a day to celebrate for us, but something we endure, often painfully.

Canada Day is not a day to celebrate for us, but something we endure, often painfully.

We are reminded amongst the songs, celebrations, and drunks dressed in red that our lands have been stolen, our children have been stolen and harmed, and most cant speak our languages.

Its a day impossible to celebrate but also difficult to cancel. For when we wake up, Canada will still be here, staring us in the face.

This is why our communities have always chose treaties and conversation over silence, beginnings over endings, and relationships over wars.

Its hard to live in a place and with a people who have often chosen fireworks, flags and maple syrup over recognition, restitution and reconciliation. Amazingly, Indigenous peoples do it everyday  with grace, respect and kindness to others.

It has been in the hope, one day, this country would grow up and take responsibility for its atrocities.

On Canada Day, this country will have an opportunity like no other; to listen, learn and consider what actions will be necessary as a result.

On Canada Day, this country will have an opportunity like no other; to listen, learn and consider what actions will be necessary as a result.

Indigenous peoples have been talking for a very long time about all of these things.

Ironically, as the announcement at Cranbrook took place, 500 radio stations across Canada were participating in a 12-hour "A Day to Listen" initiative, featuring stories and songs by Indigenous leaders, musicians, educators, and residential school survivors. (All interviews are hosted on the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund website.)

After you listen, the next actions will be up to you.

Sharing the land, teaching our children, and fighting to ensure no Indigenous people live in poverty, have children taken away or tainted water is a good start.

Enjoy what will be the most remarkable Canada Day in this countrys history.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
The provinces next target for reopening is within reach after 100,000 doses were plunged into arms over four days in Manitoba during a record-setting week.

The provinces next target for reopening is within reach after 100,000 doses were plunged into arms over four days in Manitoba during a record-setting week.

As of Wednesday, 73.6 per cent of Manitobans 12 and older had been vaccinated with at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine; 42.4 per cent of them were fully immunized.

Mixing vaccines has good results: study A study in the United Kingdom that investigated the immune response triggered by mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines has generated positive results. click to read more A study in the United Kingdom that investigated the immune response triggered by mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines has generated positive results. Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for Manitoba's vaccine task force, said the findings of the Com-Cov study by Oxford University has shown vaccine interchangeability results in a comparable or better immune response. Mixing vaccines has the same, or better, immune response than taking the same brand of a COVID vaccine twice, Reimer said. Reimer said the study confirms what other, smaller studies have shown, but is more reliable because it was a randomized trial with a larger participant pool. The study found the immune response for two shots of Pfizer and a mixed schedule of AstraZeneca and Pfizer was the same. The immune response was stronger for a mix of vaccines compared with two shots of AstraZeneca. The findings of the study reinforce what the medical and scientific community had been predicting, that vaccine interchangeability is a good thing, or at least neutral, but in some cases may even be desirable over taking the same brand (for dose two), Reimer said. The research strongly supports the decision to recommend and to continue recommending mRNA for dose two, no matter what you receive for dose one. In Manitoba to date, 51,200 people who had AstraZeneca for their first shot took either Pfizer or Moderna for their second dose. Close

"Its really worthy of celebration to know what we have all done together to protect ourselves, protect our loved ones and protect our communities," said Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for the provinces vaccine task force. "I want to thank everyone in Manitoba for these exciting numbers."

Johanu Botha, co-lead for the task force and head of operations and logistics, said Manitobans are turning out by the thousands to get their second shots.

By the end of Wednesday, more than 1.4 million doses of vaccine will have been administered in the province, with the final 100,000 delivered in the past four days, Botha said.

"Manitobans are now amongst some of the most fully vaccinated people across the country. We are hitting even more milestones across the province," Botha said.

According to data from COVID-19 Tracker Canada, which compiles vaccination stats from across Canada, Manitoba was leading the provinces in per capita administration rates, as of Wednesday.

"Theres no guarantee that we stay up there. We need to put in all the effort for this big push in July and certainly Manitobans have to keep rolling up their sleeves," Botha said.

The province also set a record on Monday when it administered about 35,000 doses, at least 4,000 of which were first doses.

RUTH BONNEVILLE Johanu Botha, co-lead, Manitobas vaccine implementation task force. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Botha thanked the staff and volunteers at immunization sites.

"I know were asking a lot of our teams to fill all of those shifts to get needles into arms. You are life-savers and community heroes," Botha said.

Botha said the province remains on track to hit its Aug. 2 target of vaccinating 75 per cent of the eligible population with one dose, and fully immunizing 50 per cent.

When the target is reached, the Manitoba government has said it will proceed with the next phase of its reopening plan. It calls for a broad reopening with at least 50 per cent capacity restrictions for businesses, services, and facilities, fewer restrictions on specific sectors, and increased gathering sizes. Public health officials have said they want a minimum of two weeks between each reopening phase.

It is likely the province will hit that target ahead of schedule  perhaps as early as next week  although Botha did not want to commit to a date to reach the milestone.

"As long as supply comes in and our capacity holds, which I think it will, its really up to all of us together," Botha said. "We're all in this together watching how fast we all get there."

Some of that progress is due to adults mixing vaccine brands by taking a Moderna shot instead of waiting weeks for a second Pfizer dose, Botha said.

So far, 66,301 Manitobans have chosen to take the Moderna vaccine after receiving a shot of Pfizer. About 1,015 people chose to take Pfizer after receiving Moderna for their first shot.

"Overall, our timelines are looking really rosy because of the amount that's going to come in by the end of July, but it's really good to get those numbers up now," Botha said.

Data from the province shows first-dose immunization rates remain steady, with a daily average of 3,114 doses delivered in the past week.

When counting all first doses recorded on the provinces dashboard, 74.9 per cent of Manitobans had received their first shot as of Wednesday.

However, the province has said its population coverage calculation does not include non-residents and people who do not have valid information in the provincial Public Health Information Management System, which results in the lower number.

For second shots, another 84,726 second doses need to be recorded.

More than 220,000 appointments were on the provinces books from June 28 to July 4, and at least 115,000 doses were planned for in the following week.

The large injection of vaccine supply to Manitoba in recent weeks has ramped up the work at super sites, Botha suggested, and attributed the high daily dose counts to the work of mass clinics with high demand for shots.

"Weve had these... large super sites ready for a long time, and over the last two to three weeks or so, weve finally had enough supply to really move them through at this rate," Botha said.

Botha said small clinics and focused immunization teams have boosted first-dose immunization rates, particularly in communities that are not well-served by mass clinics.

Community organizations have received about 20,000 doses to administer, including food processing plants which provided shots to their employees earlier this week.

Vaccines are also available at pharmacies and doctors offices throughout Manitoba and on a walk-in basis at all provincial mass vaccine clinics except the downtown Winnipeg convention centre.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
We want the House to reject it and try again, said protest organizer Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence. We are in a state of emergency. This isn't a situation where we can wait another year so more people can end up dead.

Garraway's fiance, Justin Teigen, a Black man, was found dead in a recycling bin after fleeing from St. Paul police in 2009, in circumstances that remain in dispute. She said in an interview that activists' priorities for additions included lifting the statute of limitations for wrongful death lawsuits against police and mandating that families of people killed in confrontations with police get to see body camera video within 24 to 48 hours. She warned that another police killing could lead to the kind of unrest and destruction that erupted after Floyd's death.

We need to understand that if police don't start being held accountable for their actions, and the hurt and the harm that they've committed against the community, if the state doesn't start holding these officers accountable, it's going to get bad for everybody because people can only take so much pain," Garraway said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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The Tribune emailed and left a voicemail for the La Crosse Republican Party Tuesday afternoon inviting comment on Bidens visit but did not receive an immediate response.

Individuals were stationed on a roadside closer to the La Crosse Municipal Transit Facility, holding banners and signs asking Biden to stop the proposed Line 3 Pipeline Replacement Project in Minnesota.

Water protectors and climate activists have been calling on President Biden to step in and protect our air water and climate from the dangerous pipeline, Sierra Club of Wisconsin chapter director Elizabeth Ward said in an email to the Tribune. We need infrastructure that prioritizes frontline communities, creates millions of family-sustaining jobs, cuts climate pollution in half by 2030, and advances gender, environmental, Indigenous, economic and racial justice. We have no time to waste.

Ward noted decisions made now will affect the direction of society and the health of the earth for decades to come, and said this is President Bidens opportunity to turn his commitments into reality and go big rather than negotiating small with Republican politicians who have repeatedly proven they have no interest in addressing the scale and scope of the nations most pressing crises.
John Merchlewitz, of Winona, has been elected president of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association for 2021-22.

Denny Lemler, of Cohasset, was elected vice president. Outgoing President Denis Quarberg, Windom, remains on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past President.

This is a critical time for Minnesotas deer and deer hunters, said Merchlewitz. MDHA members recognize that CWD is the biggest threat to Minnesotas wild deer herd. MDHA, as Minnesotas leading deer organization, will do everything it can to protect Minnesotas deer and deer hunting tradition.

Lemler commended MDHAs members for their dedication and support of the organization through the pandemic.

For 15 months, MDHA had almost no ability to hold banquets, which are the primary means in which we raise funds to support our mission. Members continued to contribute to MDHA and with the assistance of PPP funding, we have come out of the pandemic as a healthy organization. We cant wait to begin our banquet season in earnest, starting in August. We hope our members and interested deer hunters will keep their eyes open for upcoming membership drives and annual banquets in their area.
Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Mack would face between 14 and 17 1/2 years behind bars, but her defense team argued in court papers that probation or a sentence to home confinement is more appropriate. Prosecutors had agreed that any prison term should be below the guidelines range because of her cooperation.

"The NXIVM saga and the story of Ms. Mack's descent have been a tragedy for all involved. But that need not, and should not, be the end of the story for Allison Mack," her lawyers wrote in court papers.

A victim, Jessica Joan, rejected Mack's apologies, telling the judge Wednesday that the actor deserved no mercy.

"She can blame Keith all she wants but she is a monster cut from the same cloth," Joan said. "Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being."

Mack, 38, was once part of the inner circle of Raniere, whose group attracted millionaires and actors among its adherents. Prosecutors said she became a "master" for "slaves" she ordered "to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere."

As authorities closed in on Raniere, he fled to Mexico with Mack and others to try to reconstitute the group there. He was arrested and sent to the United States in March 2018; Mack was arrested a few days later.
Vosen said in Sauk County the first vaccination clinic for staff members saw about 80% participate.

I think those other people who were hesitant at first saw things went okay, then they jumped on board for February, Vosen said.

They offered data on the vaccines and decided to make time for employees to ask questions and talk to those already knowledgeable in them to clear up any misunderstandings. Vosen said the best way to ensure others are well-informed is to have the educators well-versed in the material.

I truly feel that what we did in educating our staff and telling them, Its going to be okay and being right there next to them, rolling up our sleeves, by example helped, Vosen said.

Part of the motivation for ensuring high vaccination rates circles back to the care employees want to provide for their elderly residents. Vosen said immunity means removing masks and allowing people to interact in the ways that work best for them.
During an unrelated school nurses report for the 2020-21 school year Monday, nurse Rebecca Christensen said her two cents worth on the mask issue is the district follows state and county guidelines.

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The state health agencys website notes that school guidance on masking remains unchanged and advises schools to continue following CDC recommendations until more people and children are vaccinated.

Schenck acknowledged that deaths among children are low, but said they arent the only thing to consider as some infected children have suffered long-term effects. He said he would consider a change if children under 12 could be vaccinated.

I also worry about all of the talk about mental health in the way that I feel like its being portrayed that the masks are causing mental health problems and if we just remove the masks, the mental health problems will go away, and I dont think that thats the case at all, Schenck said. I think there is a mental health problem and it has gotten worse through the coronavirus pandemic, and I dont think that has to do with whether people are wearing masks.

Public viewpoints
There is no question there are jobs available for those seeking work. Wisconsins unemployment rate is currently at 3.9%, which is historically low. However, with the myriad changes in the economic environment with the lockdowns, restrictions and controls, it is difficult to compare our current unemployment status to historical markets.

So why are so many jobs available, with so few workers wanting to fill them? The answer may be in several components. There are still workers impacted by the pandemic that have chosen not to return to the workforce out of an abundance of caution or concern about the potential work environment, despite a much lower risk factor than we have experienced since this all began. Though difficult to quantify, I would suspect a number of folks just decided not to come back to the workforce.

There is also a likelihood that some are staying out of the active workforce due to the current federal supplement to unemployment. Currently, and until Labor Day, the federal government is providing an additional $300 per week to recipients of unemployment. This is above and beyond any state unemployment benefits someone may receive.
According to a press release from the Dodge County Sheriff, Buechel had contact with his probation agent by telephone on Feb. 20, 2019, after the agent had issued a warrant for Buchels arrest. The warrant was issued because Buechel threatened to assault his former wifes boyfriend. Having learned about the warrant, Buechel called the agents department telephone over 30 times in a matter of minutes making it ring incessantly.

When the agent answered, Buechel launched into a profanity-laden diatribe threatening the agent and saying he would be showing up at the agents residence or the residence of her associates. The agents supervisor also answered one of Buechels calls, and Buechel again screamed profanities into the telephone. During the calls he also said that he was in the vicinity of the office, which caused the office to be placed in lockdown. When a police officer contacted Buechel by telephone to investigate the matter, Buechel again was threatening and profane. He told the officer that he was going to find out where she lived and show up at her residence. Buechel also told the officer he was going to kill the judge that issued the warrant.
I dont expect Columbia County to build new ATV trails or open up trails because there is so much private land, McCormick said. In northern Wisconsin where there are an abundance of trails, there is a lot of state forest land that allow ATV/UTV trails.

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McCormick said some people would like ATV trails to open up on farmland similar to snowmobile trails.

The difference is snowmobile trails, for the most part, are on top of the packed down snow. They are not riding directly on the ground and property, McCormick said. With ATVs, they disrupt the ground and ruin farmland.

Ellen Pulver has started a group with a few other residents in hopes of opening local roads to allow ATV riders to use town roads to access local trails.

Right now we cant get from our house to the trails, Pulver said. We need to put the ATVs on a trailer and drive them to the trails. If Wyocena would open the roads it would make traveling a lot easier in the area.

Pulver and Burdick both talked about people from out of town that have heard that ATV riders want to come to the area to spend money.

People would like to come here and ride their ATVs and then spend money at shops in the city, Burdick said.
UTICA, N.Y.  Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri has released more details about the citys Independence Day celebration planned for Monday, July 5.

The event will be held at F.T. Proctor Park from 7  10 p.m., with a performance by Soul Injection at 7:30 p.m.

Centro will offer a shuttle service from Mohawk Valley Community Colleges Payne Hall starting at 6:30 p.m., and will bring people back after the fireworks.

Food, vendors and a bounce house will be at the event throughout the evening.

Fireworks will begin at dusk.

A vaccination clinic will be set up from 5  8 p.m., with Johnson & Johnson shots available for adults and the Pfizer vaccine for those 12 to 17 years old.

Road closures and traffic pattern changes will be announced later this week ahead of the event.
WASHINGTON  A Utica woman stood by Congresswoman Claudia Tenney in Washington D.C. Wednesday morning to rally support for the Essential Caregivers Act of 2021.

Tenney introduced the bill in the House back in March.

The bill would allow nursing home residents to have family members designated as caregivers that can visit and care for them, even during a public health emergency like the coronavirus pandemic.

Karla Abraham-Conley helped write the Essential Caregivers Act, to advocate for those who were kept away from loved ones in nursing homes during the pandemic.

Abraham-Conleys mother died in the pandemic, after she being isolated at a nursing home for several months.

"Essential caregivers are not just visitors. They are as the name implies, caregivers, she said, outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. They help with the activities of daily living and provide emotional support and companionship.

The bill has been in committee in the House since June 4. The next steps would be for the House and Senate to vote on the bill before heading to the president to become law.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Attorneys for the state argue that Indianas economic recovery will suffer irreparable harm unless an appeals court overturns a judges order that the state must continue the federal governments pandemic unemployment benefits programs.

An appeal filed Tuesday by the state attorney generals office disputes a Marion County judges ruling last week that Indiana law requires the state to procure all available federal unemployment benefits for residents.

The order came in a lawsuit challenging Republican Gov. Eric Holcombs decision in May to withdraw the state from federal programs providing an extra $300 in weekly payments to unemployed workers and expanded jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The changes took effect June 19.

The attorney generals office argues that the judge wrongly interpreted the state law and supplanted Holcombs policy decision.

The State will suffer irreparable harm to its economic and social recovery efforts if the order isnt blocked, the appeal filing said. The governor has determined that CARES Act benefits are now contributing to a labor shortage and stunted Indianas recovery from the pandemic.

The state Department of Workforce Development said it was determining how to resume the federal programs if the judges order remains in place.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Central Catholic Jr. / Sr. High School on June 30 broke ground on new signage to replace it's aging sign on 9th Street.

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski and representative Sheila Klinker were both in attendance for the groundbreaking.

The new signage will incorporate elements and symbolism of the school down a large path leading to the school. Much of the field in front of the building will be repurposed for the entrance. Executive Director of the Lafayette Catholic School System Eric Davis says the new entrance should have multiple uses.

"We thought we might as well make this space functional, not only for passersby as a place for reflection but also for our students to use even as, to some extent, an outside classroom," Davis said.

Captain Mary Therese Klinker, a graduate of Central Catholic will also be honored in front of the school. Therese Klinker served in the Air Force and was killed in a plane crash near Saigon during "Operation Babylift," when Vietnamese orphans were being evacuated from the city.

Diana Vice of the Daughters of the American Revolution wanted to ensure she was remembered outside her school.

"We couldn't think of a better place for this marker, here, because Mary was only 27 when she died so she lived most of her fun years, should I say, here," Vice said.
87 year old, Woodward resident passed away December 28, 2020. A memorial service will be held Wednesday, July 7, 2021 in the Elmwood Cemetery at 10:00 a.m. Remembrances may be shared online at www.billingsfuneralhomewoodward.com
Waters Corporation will expand its joint research work with the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), a research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Here is A*STAR's research centre in Singapore. (File Photo)

MILFORD, US/SINGAPORE: Waters Corporation announced an expansion of its joint work with the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), a research institute of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Among their new collaborative projects, Waters and BTI have started work on applying analytics that can rapidly identify and visualize complex molecules within glycomics and metabolomics data to help ensure overall safety, accuracy, and speed of biologics manufacturing.

Waters and BTI are engaging in data analytics research meant to eliminate a major bottleneck in the characterization of biopharmaceuticals, namely the identification and quantitation of complex biomolecules such as released N- and O- glycans and metabolites that influence therapeutic function. Isomerism of both glycans and metabolites is particularly troublesome and can be tackled using Waters advanced instruments.

However, because the data generated is massive, advanced bioinformatics approaches and machine learning techniques are needed to deliver robust and accurate identification for these and other biomolecules to overcome time-consuming and expensive conventional methods and current analytical software that cannot adequately interpret or visualize the data.

As part of the project, Waters will contribute scientific expertise and the use of Waters instruments including the SYNAPT series mass spectrometry system along with a BioAccord LC-MS System. The SYNAPT instrument features ion mobility mass spectrometry technology to provide complete characterization of complex compounds and molecules. The BioAccord system can be used to monitor product quality attributes in real time that can affect efficacy and safety of innovator drugs and biosimilars.

Complex structural analyses of a molecule may hold the key to the development of novel therapies, including biologics and cell & gene therapies. The understanding of complex glycan and isomeric compound structures is largely constrained by the ability to rapidly and accurately analyze these structures from raw mass spectrometry data, said associate professor Andre Choo, deputy executive director of BTI.

Leveraging BTIs deep domain expertise in bioprocessing technologies and advanced bioanalytical capabilities, BTI and Waters will develop methods that combine data analytics with extensive bioinformatics libraries to ease complex data annotation. Our aim is to make data interpretation easier and faster for scientists to accelerate discovery, for conventional biologics and novel therapeutics.

Our work with BTI spans multiple successful collaborations in the realm of glycomics and bioprocessing research, said David Curtin, vice president of Asia Pacific, Waters Corporation.

They are pioneers in biomanufacturing innovation in Singapore with world-class expertise in bioprocess science and engineering. This work aims to help biotherapeutic manufacturers with at-line or in-line measurements of complex molecules to identify issues quickly during routine production and reduce costs or frequency of failed batches.

First established in 2014, Waters collaborative relationship with BTI has focused on evaluating the performance of a new N-linked glycan label aimed at biopharmaceutical applications, the GlycoWorks RapiFluor-MS Glycan Kit, and its complete workflow  from sample preparation to analysis  for glycosylation profiling.

 Worldofchemicals News
Childrens Commissioner for Wales calls for immediate end to mask wearing in class rooms and end to mass self isolation

The Childrens Commissioner for Wales has called for the immediate end for the need to wear face coverings in classrooms  despite the rising Covid cases in Wrexham schools.

Professor Sally Holland has also called for an end to mass isolation of pupils when suspected Covid cases are identified and replaced with a more targeted approach.

Hundreds of pupils in Wrexham are currently self-isolating following a rise in coronavirus cases.

Prof Holland has written to the Welsh Government calling for an end to mask wearing in classrooms, end of mass self isolation and revised guidance for schools to be published this term.

She said the current restrictions faced by children and young people in schools and colleges are now firmly out of sync with the relative freedoms being granted to the adult population.

As one example, adults in Wales can sit in a pub with friends from six households, without wearing a face covering, while most of our secondary pupils are required to wear face coverings all day, every day, whilst seated, despite known impacts on their learning.

We continue to see the ongoing impact of mass self-isolation requirements for young people in many schools and areas of Wales.

Despite the heroic efforts of schools across the country to support and educate their pupils, all children and young people have missed two full terms of face-to-face education even before any self-isolation periods are taken into account.

Isolation experiences compound this disadvantage and a fresh approach is urgently required.

On face coverings, these are continuing to impact on young peoples learning and educational experience.

The rules are out of kilter with requirements for groups of adults in social settings, and are causing anxiety for some current year 6 pupils as they try to imagine school life for them in September in a secondary setting.

This is despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of this as a control measure, and evidence that indicates that schools are not the driving force or catalyst behind community transmission. I think the time has now come to remove this policy.

Schools need to have the freedom to do what they do best; teaching and learning, support for learners and their well-being, and helping children and young people develop their wider life skills.

I am aware that the Welsh Government has announced plans to bring in a fresh approach in September, which I welcome, but I have asked the Minister to provide the details of this before the summer break to provide reassurance and clarity for children, young people and school and college staff.

I have asked the Welsh Government to:

Remove the recommendation for face coverings to be worn in classrooms from the first day of the next term at the latest but preferably with immediate effect;

End mass-isolation requirements and replace them with a more targeted approach that does not place significant burden on school and college leaders, as is being currently trialled in England; and

Ensure the revised guidance, which should be published this term, allows schools and colleges to have the freedom to do what they do best: teaching, learning and supporting learners.

Currently, all education settings in Wales follow national guidance in terms of face masks, social distancing, hygiene measures, the use of lateral flow tests and self-isolation for bubbles.

Earlier this week Wales education minister Jeremy Miles, outlined plans earlier this week to bring coronavirus safety measures in schools under local control next term.

The minister said that whilst education settings will not be back to normal by September, the Welsh Government will look to gradually ease the extraordinary measures weve had to put in place.

A new framework will be published which will allow an escalation or de-escalation of measures, such as testing the use of face coverings, and social distancing.

These decisions would be made by local incident management teams and do not mean that safety measures can be scrapped altogether.

Mr Miles said the framework will also look at best practice across Wales to ensure that we do not have a disproportionate number of learners self isolating.
New chief fire officer takes over the helm at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service

North Wales Fire and Rescue Services new chief fire officer has officially assumed her leading role.

Dawn Docx takes over the helm from retiring Chief Fire Officer Simon Smith.

She returns to North Wales after three years as deputy chief fire officer at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, having previously joined North Wales Fire and Rescue Service as Assistant Chief Fire Officer in 2006 before being promoted to the role of Deputy in 2009.

I am delighted to be back in North Wales and am immensely proud to take over the reins as Chief Fire Officer, she said.

I am looking forward to reconnecting with staff, many of whom I already know, and to the opportunity of linking up with crews who work around the clock to keep residents safe.

Of course it has been a challenging period for everyone since the start of the pandemic but I am fortunate to be leading a fire and rescue service which has really stepped up to the challenge of meeting the needs of communities in North Wales during the most exceptional of times.

I am also proud to be the first woman to take on this role in North Wales and am committed to championing an inclusive and progressive fire and rescue service.

I feel privileged to be taking on a fantastic organisation, full of dedicated people who are proud of the part they play in keeping people safe.

I look forward to the next chapter for our fire and rescue service and am exceptionally pleased to be starting on that journey today.

Mr Smith said: The Service has been a huge part of my life and it has been my absolute privilege to have served as its Chief Fire Officer for the past 20 years.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank staff and residents for their continued support and dedication in helping to safeguard our communities. I wish Dawn every success in her new role and the very best to the Service and its staff for the future.

Cllr Peter Lewis, Chair of North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority said: I am delighted to welcome Dawn back to North Wales  she has extensive experience and brings with her strong leadership and a wealth of knowledge following her time at Greater Manchester.

There will be challenges ahead as we move into a post Covid world, and we are confident Dawn will address those challenges and maintain the high standards for which North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is renowned.

I would like to thank Simon for his dedicated service for navigating the Service through recent challenging times. We wish him well in his retirement.
New guidelines to help courts determine how to sentence those who assault emergency worker now in effect

New guidelines to help courts determine how to sentence those who assault an emergency worker come into effect today (1 July 2021).

The Sentencing Council guidelines will help courts in England and Wales to make a balanced assessment of the seriousness of the offence and impose a proportionate sentence.

It is the first time that judges and magistrates will have specific guidance for sentencing assault on emergency worker offences, which reflects legislation that increased the maximum sentence for common assault when the victim is an emergency worker.

The emergency services in Wales have seen an increase in the number of assaults on its workers.

Over 4,240 assaults were committed against emergency workers, including police, fire and ambulance crews, in the period April 2019  November 2020, representing a monthly average increase from 202 in 2019 to 222 in 2020, or 10%.

Dylan Parry, the Welsh Ambulance Services Violence and Aggression Project Officer, said: A split-second act of violence can have a devastating and long-term impact on our staff, so we need to ensure that when an emergency worker is assaulted, justice is delivered for them.

These new guidelines are a welcome addition and bring clarity and consistency when sentencing such offences.

Assistant Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett of North Wales Police said: Every day our officers, staff and volunteers deal with very difficult and challenging situations putting themselves in harms way to uphold the law and protect the public.

They must be able to carry out their duties as safely as possible.

Being assaulted is not and should never be regarded as part of the job.

It is wholly unacceptable for them to be threatened, attacked, verbally abused or spat at  and those responsible should face the full force of the law.

These attacks have a lasting impact and we wholeheartedly welcome the new sentencing guidelines.

Under the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, the definition of an emergency worker also extends to prison staff, search and rescue workers and NHS workers.

Darren Hughes, Director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, said: Staff working in the NHS do a difficult job, often working in emotionally testing circumstances, and they are there to help people.

Being exposed to assaults or any other inappropriate behaviour is totally unacceptable.

We welcome the guidance, which will reflect the seriousness of the offences and the impact on emergency workers, both physically and emotionally.

More than 4,240 assaults were committed against emergency workers in Wales in the period April 2019  November 2020, representing a monthly average increase from 202 in 2019 to 222 in 2020, or 10%.

Assaults ranged from kicking, punching and head-butting to spitting and verbal abuse.

Tony Dicken, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS Cymru Wales, said: These new guidelines formally require courts to apply an appropriate uplift to sentences for offences of assaulting an emergency worker.

They also require sentencers to state in open court that the offence was aggravated by reason of the victim being an emergency worker and also to state what the sentence would have been without that element of aggravation.

This means that it will be clear to defendants and the general public just how seriously the law views these offences.

The Sentencing Councils Her Honour Judge Rosa Dean added: Assault is a traumatic offence and can cause great distress to the victim both physically and psychologically, and it is important that sentences reflect the harm and upset that can be caused to many people.

The guidelines will ensure appropriate and proportionate sentences are imposed for these offences that fully recognise the level of harm caused to the victim.

In 2018, the maximum sentence under the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act was doubled from six months to 12 months in prison, but criminals could soon face up to two years in prison under new laws.

In May, emergency workers in Wales launched the milestone new With Us, Not Against Us campaign to ask the public to treat them with respect.

Pledge your support and join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #WithUsNotAgainstUs or #GydaNiNidYnEinHerbyn.
Six arrested as multiple dugs warrants executed  mainly focussed in Caia Park

Six people have been arrested after nine warrants were executed across North Wales this morning.

In a joint effort with Merseyside Police, officers carried out the raids, mainly focussed in Caia Park, Wrexham, as part of Operation Finch  a regional drug supply investigation.

Police say a significant quantity of cash and drugs were recovered.

Six people, including one from Merseyside, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, including heroin and cocaine.

A further two arrests were made at the properties in relation to unconnected matters.

Wrexham Town Inspector Luke Hughes said Drug supply in Wrexham will not be tolerated and you will be caught. Your day will come. (vid via North Wales Police) https://t.co/ZKU0Lktyg4 pic.twitter.com/8QEo51XEgN  Wrexham.com (@wrexham) July 1, 2021

The warrants follow previous operations in the area, which saw a considerable number of drugs, illicit cash and criminal property taken off the streets.

Wrexham Town Inspector Luke Hughes said: I hope todays action once again shows beyond any doubt that we are committed to addressing the menace of drugs in our town.

Our focus is and always has been on organised crime, those who seek to exploit the community for their own financial gain.

The supply of cocaine and heroin brings violence and misery.

Those involved have no regard for those who consume their product, for its purity or what its cut with and they dont care if it comes into the possession of a child or someone vulnerable.

They certainly dont have any regard for the impact it has those lives through the misery it will certainly cause.

He added: Drug supply in Wrexham will not be tolerated and you will be caught. Your day will come.

Insp Hughes said todays result came following a cultural change in the area, with more people prepared to speak out about concerns in their community.

Its primarily focussed on the work the Neighbourhood Policing Team are doing.

Weve got good connections in the community. People trust us and want to help us  people are sick of drugs in their communities, he said.

As a result of that work, were able to execute warrants like this today.

He added: As always, I want to reassure you that all information is treated in the strictest confidence.

I know there is a general reluctance to pass information to the police  this is your town and if we work together we can make it a fantastic place to live, work and enjoy please support us in dealing with these issues.

The success of Operation Finch also comes following a 550,000 investment into the Caia Park area last year, secured by former Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, as part of the UK wide Safer Streets campaign.

North Wales Police have worked with a range of partners to home in on crime hotspots in the area following the successful bid for the cash from the Home Office.

It saw the introduction of more CCTV cameras in the community to improve security in areas particularly affected by burglary, vehicle theft and robbery.

As part of the scheme, community wardens and members of the voluntary community watch scheme were also trained to help residents act themselves to prevent crime.

The Wrexham Town policing team has also launched the You Said We Did campaign, running pop-up sessions that offer locals the opportunity to raise any concerns within their area.

Sessions were running today on Prince Charles Road and the Parish Church car park in Rhostyllen, with more upcoming in the coming weeks.

Anyone with concerns about drug supply in their area can contact police in confidence by calling 101, via the live web chat. Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Wrexhams MP joins local primary school pupils for an Under the Sea Super Learning Day

Wrexhams MP recently joined pupils at a local primary school to take part in an Under the Sea Super Learning Day.

Sam Bennett, an eleven-year old pupil at Park Primary School, contacted Ms Atherton last month to raise concerns about hunting and whaling leading to some animals becoming endangered.

Sarah Atherton MP responded by telling Sam that some of his questions were more sensible than some I hear in Parliament! before the two discussed the issues over email, which led to Year 6 organising a day of awareness for the rest of the school and inviting Ms Atherton along.

Speaking of the event, Ms Atherton said: It is fantastic not just to see children becoming aware of the effect we all have on the planet around us, but actually organising themselves to make others aware.

Year 6 set this up and took ownership of educating the younger year groups in their school, and if that doesnt make for responsible future citizens, I dont know what will.

Jason Whalley, Year 6 Teacher at Park Primary school added: After discussing the effect of plastic pollution on the ocean population, pupils were encouraged to participate in independent learning, to raise awareness of the ever-increasing global issue.

When conducting research pupils stumbled across a cultural tradition in the Faroe Islands Grindadrap where hundreds of whales are killed each year, with the meat being distributed to feed the population. The pupils questioned if there was a more humane way to kill these animals, and, if there were other sustainable food sources on the islands. Some pupils felt so strongly that they wrote emails to politicians giving their own opinions and solutions.

We have also been in contact with Faroese representation in London and will be linking up with a school in The Faroe Islands to share information and learn more about life in each others countries directly.

I am extremely proud of all the children for their hard work. It shows that we have ethically informed citizens in our school in meeting with the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales 2022.

Speaking specifically about whaling, Ms Atherton added: Whale populations have still not recovered from past hunting and face serious threats such as pollution and climate change.

Whaling has been illegal in the UK for 30 years and we have a long-standing commitment to maintaining the moratorium on commercial whaling and supporting ongoing work to strengthen conservation and welfare initiatives managed by the International Whaling Commission, but it is important that we bring pressure on other countries, who may not be so concerned with the impact they are having on the seas.
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A grieving wife is pleading for answers in her husband's murder. 60-year-old James Springer was found dead on the side of the road in February. So far, no one has been arrested.

+2 Metro Police search for missing man's car after he's found dead today Metro Police detectives are looking for a car connected with a missing person, who was found dead on Thursday morning.

Springers wife, Annice, called News4 to keep her husbands story out there. She spoke about James on Wednesday.

Almost five months ago, he went to Subway on West Trinity Lane. Annice said it was to get his sister something to eat. We kissed and he said Ill be back and I was like okay. Be careful, Springer said.

She was fully expecting him to come home. When that didn't happen, she reported him missing.

The next morning, someone found James shot to death. They discovered him on the side of West Hamilton Road near Drakes Branch Road more than five miles from the restaurant. Police also found his blue Nissan Rogue burned in an alley in North Nashville.

You just don't take nobody's life and nobody knows what's going on. We want to know. We need to know. I need to know who did this and I need to know why, Springer said.

Annice is now a voice for her husband. She said it's important to keep his story out there until someone is arrested.

I believe and we hope that somebody will say 'ok, Ive been holding onto this long enough, I can speak up, Springer said.

The death of James not only impacted his family, but the community. He was known as someone who loved people and his church. People are hurting still today because he was just that kind of man. Just a nice guy. A good guy, Springer said.

Prayer, friends, and her children by her side are what's helping Annice get through each day.

Just whatever we can do to help each other and encourage each other because it's hard for them. It's hard for all of us, Springer said.

News4 checked in with MNPD on Wednesday. They said the investigation remains active and no one has been ruled out in this case.
The University Executive Board (UEB) of the University of Sheffield plans to close its world-renowned Department of Archaeology. This act of wanton cultural vandalism could be greenlighted in a matter of weeksas early as Septemberwith the loss of the remaining 11 jobs.

The University of Sheffield is one of only seven of the 24 Russell Group universities (the UKs highest-ranking) with a dedicated archaeology department. Established in 1976, Sheffield archaeology is currently ranked 5th in the UK, and 12th worldwide. It is conducting groundbreaking and crucial research and teaching, including valuable work at Stonehenge.

Upon hearing of their planned dissolution, the archeology department tweeted, As a department we unanimously reject this decision, and the grounds upon which it was made. It will mean the end of Archaeology at Sheffield.

Archaeology staff, students and supporters have instigated a campaign against the closure and have held several protests. Third-year Sheffield archaeology student Liam Hand set up an online petition to oppose the closure that has garnered over 45,000 signatures so far. The campaign has won significant support from around the world, including from other various world-standard archaeology departments.

A protest sign reading "Save Archaeology" on the Sheffield Minalloy House building of the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology (Credit: WSWS Media)

Maria, a former student at the Archaeology Department who is now finishing a PhD at the University of Oxford told the World Socialist Web Site, I was deeply shocked and saddened when I heard the news that the Archaeology Department is under institutional review which could lead to its dissolution and closure At Sheffields Archaeology department I found a true sense of community and an interdisciplinary environment in which we could develop ideas and learn from each-other across a range of subfields. I have yet to find another institution that has reached the same standard.

Archaeologists from the Sheffield department are working on animal teeth and bones located close to Stonehenge which suggest prehistoric peoples travelled from as far away as northeast Scotland to bring animals to cater to those constructing it. Mike Parker-Pearson, a leading Stonehenge expert and a former member of the Sheffield department, directs the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which has made a series of major discoveries including evidence of a second Stonehenge two kilometres away. He told the Guardian, Colleagues at Sheffield are working right now on material for my project at Stonehenge, and if they lose their jobs it jeopardises completion of this project which has grabbed the worlds media attention over the last 15 years.

Recently, the Archaeology department has worked on excavations at Sheffield Manor Lodge, where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned, and at the UKs biggest prisoner of war camp in suburban Lodge Moor in southwest Sheffield.

Colleagues at the University of Sheffields history department affirmed their support for their colleagues declaring, Archaeologists recover the past in places where our own methodological tools fall short. Such knowledge is vital to research that takes place in our own department.

The University of Sheffield have attempted to run archaeology into the ground over recent years. Asked during an interview with the WSWS if the department has been subjected to managed decline, Professor Umberto Albarella of the archaeology department and a leading figure within world zooarchaeology replied, Totally, totally, I mean there is no question about the fact that it has been deliberate. The professor noted, When I came to Sheffield in 2004 there were 29 permanent staff. Now I think weve got 10 or 11. That gives you a sense of what has been happening.

Like all higher education institutions, the University of Sheffield is under heavy pressure from the Treasury to reduce costs, student numbers and the Conservative governments exposure to unpaid and underpaid student loans. The protracted and severe job cuts to archaeology have been made simultaneously and in conjunction with the accelerating marketisation and privatisation of higher education that has proceeded under the framework of the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act.

Sheffields archaeology department was recently placed under institutional review by the UEB and was found wanting by the marketised value for money criteria for higher education. The department is supposedly unable to attract enough undergraduate students and failing to generate sufficient research income.

The UEB plans to close the archaeology department and discontinue archaeology as a coherent academic discipline at Sheffield. They aim to retain only potentially money-making aspects of archaeological research and education. Human osteology and cultural heritage are to go to the departments of medicine and landscape respectively.

Professor Albarella described the arguments about the department not being financially viable as a red herring and believes the decision to close the department is driven by ideological calculations by management.

A-levels results for school-leavers wanting to study archaeology at Sheffield were raised from an already relatively high bar, limiting undergraduate numbers, and obstacles were placed in the way of prospective mature students intending to study archaeology at Sheffield. The Pipeline, an investigative digital news magazine, notes in a piece on the planned Sheffield closure that, The upshot of this is that the Archaeology Department was required to make it harder for students to join the department.

The Pipeline reported that it had seen several emails detailing how university management conveniently disposed of the records of crucial meetings from the review procedure. Pipeline asserts that the university made a calculated attempt to withhold access to crucial documents which contributed towards the fate of the department. Notes and transcripts have been destroyed, denying staff and supporters the opportunity to scrutinise the decision made to close the department. Contrary to university policy, the university claimed the notes and transcripts had to be destroyed because they contained sensitive information. Anti-closure campaigners point out that the university maintains sensitive information, like staff evaluations and disciplinary records, for years.

At a meeting held on May 18, students, councilors and academic reps were not made aware they were participants in a departmental review nor that the review could lead to the closure of the department. They were told by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Gill Valentine that the aim of the meeting was to support the development of the department.

Students were told they would be consulted and their views considered in a timely and reasonable manner regarding any changes. Instead, say campaigners, last-minute changes and a lack of transparency meant academic reps did not have time to collect students opinions, which should have informed the review. A commitment to students to take reasonable steps to protect your studies has been proven a lie. Campaigners say no timeline, preparation, or plans are evident for the closure, leaving students feeling like an afterthought, one person told The Tab .

The university is also refusing to publish the report upon which the decision to close the department was made. Just a one-hour PowerPoint presentation was shown to academics, which a lecturer in the department, Hugh Willmott, described on Twitter as pathetically inaccurate. Professor Albarella described to the WSWS how archaeology staff were not even allowed to speak to the two external assessors employed by the university for the purpose of the review.

Social science, arts and languages departments across the country will soon face the noose if the University of Sheffield succeed in closing archaeology. The universitys history department noted, As members of the faculty of Arts and Humanities, we are mindful of the wider context of these proposed cuts: the devaluation of the Humanities in our society based on the narrow and misguided criteria of value for money recently condemned by the Royal History Society.

Despite this grave threat, the Sheffield branch of the University and College Union (UCU) has only stated that it is deeply concerned by the decision to recommend the closure of the archaeology department, and warning, We will be taking the necessary next steps to consult our members on escalating a dispute as soon as we can.

The UCUs ritual registering of concern and vague promising of an escalation is a death sentence on any serious struggle. Thousands of jobs have been lost at colleges and universities over the last decade, with the union not lifting a finger, except to insist that they be lost voluntarily instead of being imposed. All the UCU has actually done at Sheffield is urge the university to reverse their decision and call on the public to sign the petition and to send messages of support.

The Socialist Equality Party calls on staff and students at the archaeology department to take forward their struggle by establishing a fighting rank-and-file committee, independent of the UCU, which can immediately reach out to university and other workers across the country and internationally. The fight to save the Sheffield archaeology department requires a determined struggle against the whole marketisation of higher education.
Responding to a June 10 letter from Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Douglas Ducey of Arizona, seeking emergency assistance, nearly a dozen Republican governors have responded that they will be deploying National Guard soldiers and state police to the US-Mexico border.

In preparation for former President Donald Trumps fascist rally in McAllen, Texas, on June 30, Republican governors in South Dakota, Florida, South Carolina, Iowa, Idaho, Georgia, Nebraska and Arkansas have either announced or have already sent National Guard soldiers or state police officers to Texas and/or Arizona.

Former President Donald Trump, left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, right, visit an unfinished section of border wall, in Pharr, Texas, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A quick summary of some of the announced deployments:

Florida: Earlier in June Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to send 50 police officers because of the failure of the Biden administration to secure our southern border and indeed to really do anything constructive about what is going on in the southern border.

South Carolina: The morning Trump arrived in Texas, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster tweeted that he had authorized over 300 National Guard soldiers to be deployed to the border.

Arkansas: Governor Asa Hutchinson has authorized a 90-day deployment of up to 40 National Guardsmen. My hope is that our 90 days of support will improve the security of our country and reduce the adverse impact of illegal immigration on Arkansas, he said.

Iowa and Nebraska each have already each sent 25 state patrol officers to the border, while the Iowa National Guard still has 24 soldiers deployed to Texas under a federally-funded activation in response to a Trump administration request from October 2020.

While the numbers are small, the action has great political significance. Patrolling the US border has always been a federal responsibility. While forces from the border states may occasionally play a backup role within their own states, police and troops from other states have never before been mobilized to the border, without a federal request.

Even more remarkable, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem announced that up to 50 National Guard soldiers would be sent to Texas, with their deployment paid for by a private donation.

A spokesman for Noem, Ian Fury, confirmed to multiple news outlets that the donation came from the Willis and Reba Johnson Foundation, located in Franklin, Tennessee. In short interviews with the Daily Beast, Politico, USA Today and the Washington Post, billionaire chairman of Copart Inc. Willis Johnson confirmed he had made the donation but refused to reveal the total amount.

Copart Inc., founded in 1982, dominates the automotive salvage and auction industry in the US, where it enjoys close relationships with major insurers State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide and Farmers. According to Forbes, Johnsons net worth as of today is $2.2 billion.

Johnson is a Republican mega-donor, who gave more than $350,000 towards Trumps reelection campaign and nearly $180,000 to the Republican National Committee in the last two years. According to a 2018 IRS form, the Willis and Reba Johnsons Fund also donated $1.15 million to a Tennessee Baptist church and $25,000 to the National Rifle Association.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Johnson confirmed that he reached out to Noem, after he heard that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had agreed to send police officers to Texas.

I seen (sic) what Governor Abbott was doing down there in Texas, Johnson told the online magazine. I thought, you got two big states in it, now you got a smaller state doing it, I thought I might as well help out. So I gave her a call.

Johnson, who plans to support either Trump, Noem or DeSantis for president in 2024, described his actions as helping America, adding that he thinks that people can come to America, I love America, but its gotta be under the law, not under some president who can just say were opening the borders up.

While the US government regularly hires fascistic private military death squads, such as Blackwater or Northern Red Inc., to train US police or deploy mercenaries in neocolonial imperialist wars overseas, it is historically unprecedented for a billionaire to simply pay a state government to deploy soldiers in another state for political reasons.

In a story for military.com, neither the Pentagon nor the National Guard bureau would comment on the fact that National Guard soldiers, supposedly sworn to uphold the Constitution, are now mercenaries for hire, at the disposal of anti-immigrant billionaires.

The deployment of soldiers along the border against immigrants and their families is an attack on the entire working class and an example of the methods and tactics the ruling class is prepared to use against workers both within the US and internationally.

In several statements and interviews parroting Trump, the Republican governors have claimed the deployment of soldiers and police on the border is necessary to stem an invasion of drug smugglers, child traffickers and cartel members who have been emboldened to cross the border due to President Joe Bidens weak immigration policies.

The coordinated attack on immigrants by far-right Trump-aligned governors and the unconstitutional deployment of National Guard troops have been met with silence by Biden.

Testifying to the terminal fecklessness of the Democratic Party, Texas Democratic congressmen Filemon Vela and Vicente Gonzalez released a statement describing Abbotts and Trumps actions as a distraction, while Representative Henry Cuellar (28th Congressional District), like Biden, remained silent.

The fact is the Biden administrations immigration policies have been just as cruel and inhumane as those of his predecessor. In May, Customs and Border Patrol reported over 180,000 encounters on the border, with over 60 percent of those encounters ending with immigration police quickly deporting asylum seekers and refugees via Title 42, which invokes public health reasons (the COVID-19 pandemic) for denying a hearing.

The use of Title 42 to expel migrants was first suggested to Trump by his neo-fascist White House advisor Stephen Miller. This policy has continued under the Biden administration.

Appearing in Texas alongside Abbott on Wednesday, Trump spewed fascist lies regarding immigrants and again railed against the 2020 presidential election, claiming it was stolen.

Trump alleged, without evidence, that countries are opening up their jails, opening up their prisons  they are letting their murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and human traffickers come to the US.

Intertwining his fascist lies together Trump added: We have a sick country in many ways. Its sick in elections, and its sick in the border. And if you dont have good elections, and if you dont have a strong border, you dont have a country.
Storms knocked out power throughout southeastern Michigan last Friday, resulting in widespread flooding in the region due to freeway pump failures. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was forced to declare a state of emergency for Wayne County on Sunday, while Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The extensive damage to highways, vehicles and homes is the result of a massive infrastructure failure. Residents have been left to deal with submerged cars and flooded basements with little or no governmental assistance.

Interstate 94, a major freeway in Detroit (WSWS Media)

DTE worker electrocuted

On Tuesday, a 61-year-old DTE Energy worker who was helping restore power in Detroit was electrocuted by a downed wire in the Brightmoor neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The workers identity has not been released.

DTE released a perfunctory statement:

Its with heavy hearts that we confirm that we lost one of our own at DTE today. A line worker who was working to restore power in Detroit came in contact with a live wire and was fatally wounded. He was dedicated to doing his best to serve our customers, and to us he was a hero. Were in the process of informing his family and colleagues, and are asking for time and respect to make these notifications. Our 10,000 employees are grieving right now. We send our love and support to his family and loved ones.

Major freeways still underwater

Busy commuter routes such as the Lodge and Southfield freeways were underwater by Saturday morning, as well as Interstate 94 and Interstate 75, which connect Detroit to other major cities. Sections of I-75 were not reopened until four days after the flooding. Westbound I-94 opened Wednesday, but some parts of eastbound I-94 remain closed until further notice.

Traffic is being rerouted from eastbound I-94 to Michigan Avenue through downtown, causing major congestion and backups with few sustainable alternate routes.

All nine pump stations along this freeway route failed when the rain began because the power was out, thanks to DTE Energy. While power outages are common due to outdated infrastructure, none of the pump stations along this freeway route had a generator to prevent such chaos.

Roads are shoddily constructed, using layers of asphalt, concrete, stone and sand. When the freeway flooded, the water broke some of these layers apart, causing severe damage. Now the freeways need to be rebuilt entirely. Great Lakes Contracting Solutions said it would be strengthening the base using stone instead of asphalt to prevent major damage the next time there is flooding.

Dirty water reported in several neighborhoods

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) is investigating multiple reports of dirty water coming out of taps at residences and businesses in the east side neighborhoods of East English Village, Morningside and Cornerstone.

As of this writing, the city has not issued an advisory to boil water, suspecting that the discoloration is the result of a disruption in service causing sediment to enter taps.

A trashed lined Eastside street (WSWS Media)

Households are being told to run water for two minutes and refrain from using it if the color does not change. DWSD claims that it has not received similar reports from other areas.

Michigan attorney generals statement on price gouging by towing companies

On Friday, city officials estimated that roughly 1,000 vehicles were submerged on flooded freeways. Two fire engines had to be towed. The states emergency system was overwhelmed on Saturday by the volume of calls, according to the Michigan State Police.

Many drivers had no choice but to abandon vehicles and watch helplessly as the water level rose.

Detroits Goch and Sons Towing company made the front page of multiple local news outlets for charging exorbitant prices to tow flood victims vehicles from the submerged freeways. There were reports of towing tickets ranging from $500 to $900, including a swimmers fee. A GM Freight truck driver was charged $9,100 after narrowly escaping his semi as it flooded with water while he was stuck in traffic.

As outrage mounted over the price gouging, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released a statement expressing concern that bad actors may use the weekends flooding to overcharge or scam people who need assistance. She added that while [we] hope that most towing companies are operating properly and legally, we know that some are not.

Goch and Sons owner defended the extortionate prices in a television interview with Local 7 Action News. Lieutenant Mike Shaw gave an interview to the same news program expressing the indifference of the Michigan State Police to the price gouging.

Im a state trooper, not a tow truck operator, he said. What the prices are I dont know. When asked why people with towed vehicles were being charged exorbitant daily storage fees when the shop wasnt even open, he responded, Goch and Sons was closed. Is that fair? Thats between the consumer and person who towed the car.

Residents left to fend for themselves and each other

Brian has been a resident since 2014 of Jefferson Chalmers, one of the worst-hit neighborhoods on the citys east side. His told the World Socialist Web Site that his neighbors are mostly retired city workers and teachers, whose lives have been upended by the flooding.

He explained his nightmare ordeal to the WSWS. I got a call from my buddy around 3 a.m. and he told me to go look in my basement. So I went down there and, sure enough, its up to my waist.

A flooded neighborhood on the East side (WSWS Media)

He said he lined up outside Home Depot at around 5 a.m. after watching his basement fill up with five feet of water. Soon, he said, before the doors to the store were even open, dozens of other residents were lining up outsideall to purchase electric pumps to bail raw sewage and rainwater out of their homes.

Some of my neighbors were totally helpless, he said. If it wasnt for me driving all the way to this Home Depot in Warren, they wouldnt have been able to buy or rent anything to bail themselves out. Its just crazy.

He said he spent the entire day helping his neighbors drain their basements.

Along with power outages, floods are increasingly commonplace in Detroit and other cities, as Democrats and Republicans alike refuse to allocate the necessary funding to update crumbling infrastructure.

Thousands of residents had flooding in their basements. (WSWS Media)

Jon is a resident of Farmington Hills, a northern suburb of the city. While his home was not impacted this time around, he recounted how his teenage son was nearly trapped in a 2018 flood.

As my son drove up the Lodge toward home after some heavy rain, he came upon an area of the highway that had standing water on it. Cars were backed up, passing the flooded section on the one relatively dry shoulder, one by one. My son was not an experienced driver and he figured he could go through the water, not realizing how deep it might be. Soon he felt the tires leave the pavement and the van was then floating helplessly on the highway under the Wyoming Avenue bridge. There was nothing they could do. They couldnt move the van and they didnt dare open the doors to get out.

Eventually, a Detroit Fire Department engine pulled up next to the van, which was bobbing in the water. My son and his friend were able to climb out the vans window and step onto the fire engine, which was heavy enough to keep its wheels on the pavement under the water so it could drive out.

The firefighters drove the boys to a drug store about a half-mile up Wyoming and dropped them off. The fire department was so busy running to other calls that the boys received no information whatsoever about what to do from that point, including about the van. But fortunately, they were safe.

My son called me and as he explained what had happened, I found it hard to believe. The Lodge had famously flooded during heavy rains a few years before, in August 2014, and everyone knew the cause was failed pump houses along the route. At least two people around Detroit died from the 2014 flooding.

It disturbs me to know that in the years between 2014 and 2018, nothing was done to prevent this same dangerous situation from repeating itself. And now, in 2021, it has happened yet again! In seven years, no progress. Clearly, highways turning into swimming pools is now normal, even in the most populous, developed part of Michigan, and the home of the auto industry. Perhaps the car companies should turn to making amphibious vehicles for commuting workers, since the state and the power company DTE Energy are clearly doing nothing near enough to fix this dangerous repeating problem.
A major COVID-19 outbreak that has developed over the past two months at a mine in Canadas far north has once again laid bare the disastrous consequences of the ruling elites profits before lives policy during the pandemic. The refusal to allow serious public health measures to impinge on the accumulation of corporate profits has resulted not only in scores of miners getting sick. It has also led to hundreds of additional infections in Canadian provinces to the south.

COVID-19 began to spread among workers at the Nunavut Territorys Mary River Mine on April 19, and by May 5 the outbreak had become so severe that the mine was forced to suspend its operations.

Baffinlands operations at Milne Inlet, Nunavut, some 160 kilometers north of its giant open pit mine. The company plans to double the size of the mine and build a railway to Milne Inlet. This project is vehemently opposed by much of the local Inuit population because it threatens to destroy the regions delicate ecosystem and the hunting and trapping essential to many Inuit livelihoods. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

One of the northernmost mines in the world, the open-pit iron ore mine is located in the Qikiqtani region of Baffin Island. Workers fly in and out of the remote site as part of a three-week shift rotation, and approximately 800 workers are located at the mine at any given time.

Among the initial three cases of COVID-19 detected, two workers tested positive for variants of concern. One worker had the B.1.1.7 strain, and on April 30 another was confirmed to have contracted the Delta variant.

The fact that the highly transmissible Delta strain, first identified in India, had been detected among the mine workforce was not made publicly known in the companys May 2 press release announcing the outbreak. Consequently, the number of Delta variant cases rapidly mushroomed. As of June 12, there were 106 confirmed cases of mineworkers contracting the virus, and 96 of these are of the Delta variant.

According to International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 793 spokesperson Mike Gallagher, one worker has died. Another is recovering after being hospitalized due to the virus. Currently, the Mary River Mine outbreak is one of the largest known outbreaks of the Delta variant to have occurred in Canada.

Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, which operates the mine, used its own staff to carry out contact-tracing measures throughout the outbreak. Workers deemed by the company as low risk were allowed to fly out of the site and travel home when operations came to a halt. As a result, 1,200 workers returned to their homes, located in every province and territory across Canada. Many of these workers have unwittingly carried the COVID-19 virus and its dangerous and partially vaccine-resistant Delta variant into their home communities.

Nunavuts chief public health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, announced that the province is aware of cases directly linked to the mine outbreak in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick.

Over 400 workers went back to their homes in Ontario. Flight manifests retrieved by Nunavut Public Health show that the workers flew into airports in all 34 of the provinces health jurisdictions.

As of June 12, 127 COVID-19 cases in Ontario had been linked to the Mary River Mine outbreak, and it is known that 10 of these are of the B.1.617 lineage, which includes the Delta variant.

Similarly, in Alberta, 120 cases are currently linked to the mine and at least 9 of those are confirmed to be Delta cases.

Ontarios associate chief medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, stated in a press conference that mineworkers who had been exposed to the virus and had since travelled home may not be aware of their high-risk status. Dr. Yaffes May 31 remarks were among the first time public health authorities issued specific warnings about the May River Mine outbreak to the public or even their counterparts. Neither Baffinland management nor Nunavuts health authorities notified the provinces to which workers were rapidly returning.

Health officials in Ontario only became aware of the outbreak when Ottawa Public Health alerted them of the potential dangers of the situation on May 7. Even following this, it wasnt until May 25 that local Ontario health units were informed that all returning workers from Baffinland should be considered high-risk. All public health units in Ontario have now issued warnings to their residents and requested that anybody who visited the mine since April 30 self-isolate, notify public health and seek testing.

Speaking to the Toronto Star, IUOE spokesperson Mike Gallagher defended Baffinland, stating that the union has no idea how the virus spread and feels the company took extensive health and safety precautions. In a typical three-week work shift, employees are tested about five times. All the expected PPE (personal protective equipment) is supplied and physical distancing (in place), Gallagher told the Star. The camp has one person to a room and the air ducts were capped to prevent airborne transmission.

Scandalously, Gallagher provided this whitewash of the companys role in the same interview in which he reported that a miner had died from COVID-19. But the unions full-throated defence of a corporation that continued to operate full-throttle during a pandemic in pursuit of profit should come as no surprise. Throughout all economic sectors, from Canadas auto industry to public schools and food processing plants, the unions have acted as the chief enforcers of the ruling class open economy/open schools policy, which has led to over 1 million infections and tens of thousands of deaths. Striking miners at Vales Sudbury operations have reported to the World Socialist Web Site that the United Steelworkers (USW) collaborated with the Brazil-based multinational to cover up major COVID-19 outbreaks at their highly profitable nickel mining operations.

Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health who has publicly voiced concerns that major dangers are posed by Ontarios rush to reopen, called into question Baffinlands attempts at stopping airborne transmission. With aerosol, where its infection via shared air  a lot of those public health guidelines being used to assess risk fall apart, he said in a recent interview with the Star.

Fisman believes that the arbitrary definitions of risk employed in public health restrictions arent effective when airborne transmission is considered. He also questions whether or not airborne transmission was factored in when the companys contact-tracers deemed that workers could be sent home as low-risk.

The company defended by the IUOE union has endangered not just its own workers, but communities across the entire country. The consequences of its drive to obtain every last possible dollar during a global health crisis are far-reaching; the lives, livelihoods, health and families of Canadians in every province and territory have been put at risk.

The Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation is jointly owned by the Texas-based Energy and Minerals Group and ArcelorMittal.

In May, 2,500 ArcelorMittal workers went on strike in northeastern Quebec after workers had overwhelmingly rejected a USW-endorsed concessionary agreement. The union promptly ended the strike, sidelining important issues, after four weeks, when the company, seeking to exploit record high iron prices, offered modest improvements to the financial package.

Transnational giant ArcelorMittal is the worlds second-largest steel producer and the worlds 120th largest company. It earned net profits of almost US $2.3 billion in the first three months of 2021 alone, an increase of more than $1 billion over the $1.2 billion profit that it made in the last quarter of 2020.

ArcelorMittals interests could not lie further from the health and safety of their workers, whether they labor in its Canadian Arctic archipelago iron mine or in its iron mines, port facilities, offices and rail lines in northeastern Quebec.

The disastrous consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak at Mary River mine underscore the urgency of workers building rank-and-file safety committees independent of and in opposition to the pro-capitalist trade unions, which are fully complicit in the ruling elites policy of mass infection and death. Rank-and-file safety committees must be fought for in every workplace to wage a struggle to shut down all nonessential production with full pay for all workers, until the pandemic is truly brought under control. Such measures could easily be funded with the vast amounts of wealth hoarded by companies like ArcelorMittal.
Over the past month, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the University of Newcastle Students Association (UNSA) have waged a cynical and diversionary campaign opposing the announcement that former National Party politician Mark Vaile was to become the new chancellor of the university in regional New South Wales.

The NTEU, the main academic union, and UNSA hailed management's recent withdrawal of the plans to install Vaile as a victory for University of Newcastle (UoN) students and staff. During their campaign, both had pointed to Vailes record as deputy prime minister in the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government, which carried out significant attacks on tertiary education, and his subsequent career on the boards of several coal mining companies.

The University of Newcastle (Credit: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/)

The proclamations of a win for students and staff are a sham. A sweeping, pro-business restructuring at the University of Newcastle is already well underway. The NTEU and UNSA are enforcing the destruction of hundreds of courses and permanent jobs, suppressing widespread opposition from students and staff, and collaborating closely with the current university executive. This assault will be intensified, whichever representative of the corporate elite is appointed chancellor, in line with a deepening of the attacks on tertiary education across the country.

At a rally held late last month, Luka Harrison, the president of UNSA stated that: Vaile was part of a government that gutted the higher education sector, slashed billions of dollars from higher education in this country. His government introduced voluntary student unionism which has gutted the student union movement in this country. It is an absolute shame that this university would consider him at all qualified to fill this position.

This is true. But the same could be said of the Labor Party, which the NTEU and UNSA support, and of which Harrison himself is a member. Labor governments abolished free university education and have spearheaded the corporatisation of the universities, including through billions of dollars in funding cuts.

Current Vice Chancellor Alex Zelinsky referenced this record in April, praising the Education Revolution of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments, which were in office from 20072013, and their introduction of a demand driven system. This fully opened universities to the forces of the market, forcing them to compete for enrollments to secure funding, and greatly heightening their reliance on international student fees. Gillards Green-backed administration slashed $2.3 billion in the largest cut to university funding in Australian history. UNSA held protests over Vailes appointment, but has not organised a single event against the ongoing restructure. This is all the more striking given the scale of the overhaul. More than 200 full-time and professional jobs are on the chopping block and management is already scrapping or amalgamating 530 of the universitys 2,200 courses.

While feigning outrage over Vailes prospective appointment, the student association, has been more than happy to collaborate with the current administration chiefs. UNSA put on a series of consultation meetings with management in May, at which they provided management with a platform to promote the cuts to student audiences.

Harrison and other UNSA leaders shared platforms with university executives, including Zelinsky, a prominent political figure who has campaigned for the ever-greater subordination of universities to corporate interests. Zelinsky was also Australias Chief Defence Scientist from 2012 to 2018, during which time he collaborated closely with Labor and Liberal-National governments, including on the expansion of ties between universities, the military and private weapons developers.

The NTEU and UNSA campaign over Vaile was an attempt to cover-up their record of collaboration with management. It was also motivated by their concerns that Vaile, because of his political and corporate record, would not be the best face for the ongoing restructure and management-union offensive against staff and students.

This was spelled out by NTEU Newcastle branch president Dan Conway in a June 10 media statement, which declared: I want to make it clear for those who are stating this a form of Liberal bashing that this has nothing to do with Mr Vailes politics. Julie Bishop (Australian National University chancellor), who held similar roles in Liberal-National governments, is an appointment that I think most would be proud of. Ms Bishop, or someone like her, would come without all the baggage of Mr Vaile.

Conway warned that Vailes appointment would not be appropriate, because right now, our university is dealing with devastating and ill-considered staff cuts, and we will be reeling from those cuts for years to come. In other words, the union is willing to work with any representative of big business or member of a former government that has attacked the universities. They only ask that the individual selected not be likely to further provoke student and staff anger.

While issuing weasel-words of concern, the NTEU is fully on board with current restructure. Its main complaint has been that the cuts have not been sufficiently justified to staff. This is coupled with appeals for greater transparency and collaboration between the unions and management. The union has ensured that the course cuts, already well-underway, have proceeded without organised opposition, and has signaled its willingness to implement cost-reductions in a new enterprise agreement that is still the subject of backroom discussion.

One of the unions objections to Vaile was that questions had been raised about his suitability to oversee implementation of the Universitys own Strategic Plan. That statement, and others like it, demonstrate the unions tacit endorsement of the Looking Ahead Strategic Plan 20202025, adopted in early 2020. The document calls for the university to greatly expand its partnerships with different sectors of business, a program fully in line with the federal governments push to complete the transformation of universities into pipelines for the provision of labour and research to the major corporations.

One of the aims of these industry partnerships was spelled out in a September 2017 NSW parliamentary submission by University of Newcastle management.

The submission declared: Increased collaboration with local, national and international industry on identified areas of growth and national priority is a key part of UONs overall strategy. Defence has been identified as an area with significant potential given its national focus and existing regional capability. As such, UoN is working to further its connections with Defence and Defence Industry and is actively consulting and engaging with stakeholders to develop new strategies to boost UON Defence participation.

In 2019, the university signed an agreement with Lockheed Martin, one of the worlds largest weapons manufacturers. The deal with the arms company, whose products are implicated in major war crimes, serves to support the development of tailored and targeted initiatives needed to develop the advanced defence industry technologies, i.e., weapons, and to cultivate a layer of young researchers who can help develop them. Similar partnerships, struck by universities across the country, are part of militarisation of the sector, bound up with the US and Australian preparations for war with China.

The University of Newcastles partnership with Lockheed Martin is only the sharpest expression of the reactionary consequences of the current restructure and the broader assault on education. Just as they have lined-up behind the staff and course sackings, the NTEU and UNSA have done nothing to oppose the integration of the university into the war machine.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) club at the University of Newcastle is the only political tendency on campus, fighting to mobilise students and staff against the union-enforced restructure and the subordination of the campus to the military and big business. The IYSSE fights for a unified movement of staff and pupils throughout the sector, in the struggle to guarantee permanent jobs, with decent conditions and pay for academics and university employees, and high-quality, free education for all as a fundamental social right.
Hundreds have died of heat stroke and hyperthermia in British Columbia and an unknown number in the US states of Washington and Oregon in a five-day heat wave that began to subside on Wednesdayor rather, to pass further east into the less populous mountain areas of Idaho, Montana and eastern B.C.

The chief health officer of British Columbia put the death toll from the first four days of the heat wave at 233, the bulk of them in the Vancouver metropolitan area. The death toll in Oregon was estimated at 60, including a farmworker, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, who died working outdoors on Saturday at a plant nursery north of the state capital at Salem. The state of Washington, with the largest number of people exposed to the lethal temperatures, did not even bother to issue an official estimate of the death toll.

Paramedics Cody Miller, left, and Justin Jones respond to a heat exposure call during a heat wave, Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

As temperatures mounted over the weekend, newspapers in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver displayed an almost schizophrenic character. One side of their front pages carried dire warnings about the heat wave and the need for precautions to stay cool. The other side carried celebratory reports of the end of COVID lockdowns and the reopening of the local economiesmeaning that tens of thousands of workers are being forced back into workplaces that are little more than ovens.

The Boeing factory in Everett, Washington, where jumbo jets are assembled, is reputedly the largest building in the world. It is also entirely without air conditioning. When the weather is hot, management orders the doors opened, which meant on Monday, letting in 108-degree air. International Association of Machinists District 751, which represents the workers at Everett, issued a one-paragraph statement urging workers to take more water breaks and linking to Boeing documents dealing with high temperatures, in other words, health and safety information provided by the company.

The tragic events of June 25-29 are the product of two interrelated processes: the formation of a heat dome over the region, due to instabilities in the movement of the jet stream in the upper atmosphere; and the systematic neglect of critical infrastructure and public services by capitalist governments in both the United States and Canada.

The heat dome is itself not primarily a natural process but rather a byproduct of climate change, a man-made process, which, in addition to raising the overall temperature of the atmosphere, also facilitates extreme weather phenomena of all kinds, including tornados, hurricanes, floods and more violent erosion of coastlines.

This is the underlying connection between such disparate events as the early start to the Gulf hurricane season (four named storms before the official July 1 starting date); the collapse of a 12-story residential building in Surfside, Florida (due in part to rising sea levels, undermining the soil of the former sandbar on which the high-rise was built); the flooding of highways, homes and factories in Detroit (a sudden rainstorm dumped as much as seven inches in a 12-hour period); and the heat dome over Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

The heat dome is perhaps the most obvious byproduct of climate change, although according to meteorologists the connection is not a straight line. Warmer atmospheric currents did not directly and immediately produce temperatures that reached 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.7 Centigrade) in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, 108 degrees (42.2 C) in Seattle, and 121 degrees (49.4 C) in the village of Lytton in central B.C., the hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Canada.

Rather, global warming produced an indirect result, through a process described as the creation of an omega block, as powerful currents of air, the jet stream in the upper atmosphere, wobble under the impact of warming air in the north polar region, allowing a north-south flow of air which then loops back, in the shape of the Greek letter. The air in the nearly closed circle sinks towards the surface, trapping heat for a period of time (the heat dome). Temperatures rise far more sharply than would be expected based on previous weather patterns.

At its worst, portions of British Columbia, usually temperate, forest-covered and ocean-cooled, were hotter for several days than Las Vegas, Nevada, nearly 1,500 miles to the south, and located in the Southwestern desert, without either significant vegetation or much cloud cover.

Climate change is a byproduct of human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels and other processes connected with industrialization. Alleviating it requires coordinated action on a global scale, action that would introduce the necessary changes into economic life. These are completely feasible from a technical standpoint and would not require any reduction in the standard of living of the great mass of the population. They would, however, impact on the profits and wealth of the capitalist class.

Global warming, like COVID-19, pays no attention to national borders. The global coordination needed to fight climate change collides with the framework of the capitalist nation-state system and, above all, with the drive by American imperialism to maintain its world domination against both its main rivals, China and Russia, and lesser imperialist powers like Germany, Japan, France and Britain.

The venality and incompetence of the financial elite is demonstrated in their response to the heat dome. Neither state and federal governments in the US nor provincial and federal governments in Canada have mobilized the necessary social resources to prepare for the type of extreme climate event seen over the past week or to alleviate its impact.

Washington and Oregon are under Democratic Party rule, as is the US federal government. These Democratic administrations have done little or nothing to safeguard their populations. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who based his abortive presidential campaign on a single-issue emphasis on climate change, cannot even provide a count of the number of heat-related deaths in his state.

In Seattle, the largest city in the state, paramedics responded to 165 emergency heat-related calls on Monday alone, overwhelming the system, which handled only 91 such calls in all of 2020. As the heat wave moved east, driving temperatures to 109 degrees in Spokane on Tuesday, and 115 degrees in Lewiston, Idaho, the power company in that region, Avista, began rolling blackouts because its system could not handle the demand.

President Biden, at a previously scheduled meeting with Western state governors to discuss the upcoming wildfire season Wednesday, made only a passing reference to the heat crisis in those states. He announced, as his major initiative, raising the starting pay for those fighting forest fires to a miserable $15 an hourthe same as his proposed minimum wage.

Things are no better on the Canadian side of the border. British Columbia Premier John Horgan aroused widespread popular outrage when he commented, in response to the hundreds of heat-related deaths in the province, Fatalities are part of life. He went on to suggest that the danger of the heat wave was well known, and that people had to exercise a level of personal responsibility to stay safethis in a region where relatively few people have home air conditioning.

Horgan heads a government of the New Democratic Party, the union-based social democratic party that has long abandoned any support for actual progressive reforms and competes with the Liberal and Conservative parties for the favor of big business. His remarks are just as crude and callous as the notorious statement by British Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson, opposing any new lockdowns: let the bodies pile high in their thousands.

No section of the ruling class, or any of its political servants, has any solution to the crisis of world capitalism, which underlies global warming and such catastrophes as the heat dome, which are a warning of things to come. Extreme weather phenomena, like the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrate the completely outmoded character of world capitalism, and the necessity to put an end to this bankrupt system and its insatiably corrupt ruling class, and replace them with world socialism.
On July 1, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), an umbrella organization of over 100 of New York Citys municipal unions, will announce the health insurance company it has chosen with the Democratic de Blasio administration to manage a privately-run, for-profit plan, called Medicare Advantage, for over 250,000 retirees.

A march of public employee retirees against the cut in health care benefits (Source: Twitter/The Independent)

Behind the backs of their members, the unions and the Democrats are ditching the federal Medicare health care insurance for what will amount to a cut-rate program that costs retirees thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses and limits their choice of physicians. The MLC will choose from an array of private health care providers, including Aetna, Emblem Health, or Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The change will save the city over $600 million this year in costs in health care, part of billion-dollar cuts to health care for retired city workers, including teachers, sanitation workers, administrative workers, parks and public housing workers, and staff and educators from the City University of New York.

Michael, a retired social studies teacher from Bayard Rustin High School in Manhattan, told the World Socialist Web Site, It is frightening. They are sugar-coating the change to Medicare Advantage. It is not as widely accepted. Under regular Medicare our liability for a hospital stay is only up to $1,000 but with Advantage it is $7,500.

Medicare Advantage is fine as long as you are healthy. Advantage can deny coverage. I read an article about people taken by ambulance in emergencies to the hospital, with Advantage plans then denying coverage, saying that they are not emergencies. At present, we pay $150 per person a month for supplemental Medigap but, the best I can tell from what I read, it would become $400.

At online meetings held for retirees by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which negotiates for public K-12 educators, and Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which manages benefits for CUNY faculty and staff, many questions were left unanswered.

It is not clear to retirees, for example, if supplemental insurance for dental, eyeglasses, and drugs, which are not covered by Medicare, will remain as they were. UFT President Michael Mulgrew has promised that all coverage under the current health plan for educators will remain as it is and all doctors who accept Medicare will participate because they will get paid the Medicare rate. Many retirees, however, are concerned that physicians do not want the work and oversight that come from Advantage plans, which can also be subject to changes over time.

The anger among retirees at the municipal unions over this backroom deal is widespread.

One retiree said on a Facebook group, Nothing about this seems aboveboard. The only way retirees have really heard about it is via people they know. Thats not doing a very good job of informing our members!

Speaking on the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which negotiates with the city on behalf of school principals, a retired assistant principal, Gerry, told the WSWS, The union says, dont worry but otherwise they did not say anything to us.

On the role of the MLC unions collaboration with Mayor de Blasio, Michael, the retired social studies teacher, stated, This whole thing was done in secret, only leaking out first from people in the PSC union. Negotiations for the plan began three years ago.

One of the members of the MLC is a board member of the Emblem Health company, so of course he wants to force us out of Medicare, Michael said, referring to Gregory Floyd, secretary of the MLC and president of Teamsters Local 237. This is a conflict of interest. The union should be fighting for us but is fighting for the city.

Around the country, Michael continued, the unions oppose single-payer insurance. The UFT is no longer fighting for us. When unions won the dues checkoff, they no longer had to care about you and me. Once the Supreme Court made the Janus decision where workers do not have to pay dues, the union made the decision of who are we going to screw based on sacrificing the lower income stream and trading off health care for wage increases. They pit retirees whose dues are about $240 if their pension is $60,000 against active members paying $1,200 dues.

Retirees understand what they could face with catastrophic health care problems under Medicare Advantage. As one retiree explained on Facebook, My concern is the fact that I have illness that requires me to take very expensive medicine (Part D pays for it) to keep me alive. Medicare Advantage will most likely find excuses to reject me at every corner of my life. So how do I deal with that?

Retiree Louise told the WSWS, I am a recently diagnosed cancer patient undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and they do not accept Medicare Advantage. I am extremely worried about what will happen with my treatment if the city switches our coverage. My oncologist has said to me that Medicare is the one insurance that you dont need approvals first to treat the patient.

Eric, another retired high school social studies teacher, said, I think the health care change was for the billionaires benefit. I have Parkinsons disease. It would directly affect me. I see an internist, but I see so many specialists, including movement doctors and neurologists, and I dont need to go through a primary care physician screening my care for the health insurance company when I already have a good team of doctors. I think they should stay with the status quo. They have all that COVID money coming, so they shouldnt change anything. The unions should protect the workers. They are not doing their job. It sucks.

Another retired teacher, Nathaniel, commented, Union leaders have become a muzzle for their members instead of a voice, just when a megaphone is needed the most because of media concentration. This is because we are deep into the degenerative phase of the Democratic Party. The era of capitalisms progressive political pluralism is past. With unions and Democrats like this, the Republicans hardly have to do anything. Wall Street gives so much money to the Democrats because it sees the Democrats as their buffer to the working class.

Michael posed a key question: If we give in to this major cut for retirees, what will be next? Retirees paid for their healthcare by a career of work. This is happening all over the country to workers because the unions want to keep influence over the workers and maintain a hold on the health care insurance that teachers need instead of having single-payer insurance that would not need them.

The action by the MLC has national and international significance. It will set a precedent for attacks on the social right to decent health care, not only for retirees, but for in-service workers, and not only for public workers, but for those in private companies as well.

It is imperative that New York City workers take up the fight to unite on a socialist program that defends all the social rights of the working class, from health care and education to the right to safe workplaces and decent living standards.

The anti-worker skulduggery of the MLC shows that the financial elite uses both political parties and the unions as instruments to maintain its profiteering on the backs of the working class.

To fight for their interests, workers in every workplace and community must form rank-and-file action committees to link up an independent political and industrial struggle, and the preparation of a political general strike.

The development of such a rank-and-file committee among 3,000 striking Volvo workers in Dublin, Virginia, who are currently fighting not only the company but also the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which is seeking to isolate the strike, is an example for municipal workers in New York City and for the international working class.

Educators, university staff, sanitation, parks, public housing and city office workers must make every effort to link up their struggles with the Volvo workers and with every other independent action of workers around the globe. City workers of all classifications can help to develop rank-and-file committees in New York by signing up here.
Frederic Rzewski, the American-born composer who rejected both serialism and minimalism in his struggle to create a significant body of work over the past half-century, much of it politically themed, died on June 26 in Italy.

Frederic Rzewski in 2011 (Photo creditChristian Mondrup)

Rzewski, who taught at the Royal Academy of Music in Liege, Belgium from 1977 until his death, is best known for his set of variations for solo piano, The People United Will Never Be Defeated, based on a protest song, written by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, that became inseparable from the resistance of the working class to the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and installed fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973.

The massive set of 36 variations, spanning nearly an hour in length, was premiered by and created for the pianist Ursula Oppens in 1976, at a series of concerts in Washington D.C. to mark the bicentennial of the United States. It was often performed by Rzewski himself, and a 2005 recital by him was reviewed in the WSWS.

The People United Will Never Be Defeated

The song itself is a very simple tune. Rzewski later explained, I wanted to write a piece that [Oppens] could play for an audience of classical-music lovers who perhaps knew nothing at all of what was happening in Latin America. By virtue of listening to my piece for an hour, they might somehow get interested in the subject. I really was trying to reach the audience by using a language they would not find alienating.

What the composer did with the song made all the difference. The work is suffused by the originality and improvisation that characterized his composition as a whole. It is a complex mixture of old and new, the popular, romantic, jazzy and experimental, full of contradictory and unpredictable qualities, yet also unified and exhilarating, as performed by Rzewski, Oppens and many others. As Ms. Oppens, a lifelong friend of the composer, told critic Tim Page for his obituary for Rzewski in the Washington Post, the work is that mountain that pianists see and they feel they have to climb itbecause it is there!

The People United has been recorded by some of the most well-regarded, thoughtful and original pianists of recent decades, including Marc-Andre Hamelin, the Canadian virtuoso a generation younger than Rzewski, and Igor Levit, of yet a later generation. Many of those who seek out the work are undoubtedly attracted to its theme of resistance to dictatorship. Levits 2016 recording of it, on a three-CD set that included Beethovens Diabelli Variations and Bachs Goldberg Variations, provocatively placed Rzewski alongside sets of variations by the two most famous giants of Western classical music. It won the Gramophone Magazine award for Recording of the Year.

Rzewski, The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

While The People United is most instantly recognized by those familiar with the name of Rzewski, the composer wrote prolifically for various ensembles, especially chamber and vocal works, and above all piano. Nonesuch Records released a seven-CD set of Rzewskis compositions for solo piano between 1975-1999. Wikipedia lists more than 150 works by the composer, who longtime Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer, writing about 20 years ago, described as standing in an honorable line of barnstorming pianist-composers that includes Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff. He is a daredevil pianist who has composed his most important works for his own instrument, and one of the three or four most significant composers for the piano in the past half-century.

Rzewski, born in 1938 in Westfield, Massachusetts (a suburb of Springfield), studied at and obtained degrees, first from Harvard and then from Princeton, studying with such well-known composers as Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. He spent part of the 1960s in Europe. He played the most avant-garde works by Stockhausen and Boulez, and also helped to organize an experimental electronic music group, MEV. However, Rzewski began to take a very critical approach to serialism and atonal music in general, even though it was then triumphant in academic circles.

The composer was also greatly influenced by the international social and political upheavals of the 1960s. He was part of a milieu, including younger musicians like Oppens, the late Peter Serkin and others, who were similarly drawn to radical politics during this period. Rzewski had come of age in the previous decade, and by the 1960s had already drawn some conclusions. As the composer Christian Wolff described it, in an article in the New York Times from 1997, by 1956 Rzewski was very vocal in his viewpoints, which more often than not concerned left-wing politics. He knew all about Marx before the rest of us had even read him.

These performers and musicians each tried in some way to make their work more relevant to the world around them. Rzewski returned to the US in 1970 and remained there for the next five or six years. Among his compositions from this period, before The People United, was Coming Together, from 1973, a monodrama for actor and ensemble, consisting of the reading of some letters from Sam Melville over a jazz-influenced repetitive background. Melville was one of the organizers of the 1971 Attica prison rebellion, in which the murderous assault ordered by then-New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller led to 43 deaths, including Melville himself.

Rzewski, always politically outspoken, found it very difficult to obtain a university teaching job, which is how most of his fellow musicians earned a living. Oppens later explained, People wanted to make him irrelevant, due in part to political opposition. When Rzewski was offered a job in Belgium, he accepted it.

He continued composing until the end of his life, as noted above, but the political elements tended to recede along with the sharp move to the right in the capitalist West, led by the Thatcher and Reagan governments, and culminating in the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union. The 1990s nevertheless saw, among other work, one of his more significant historical-political efforts, De Profundis (1992), in which a speaking pianist reads the poem of that name, written by Oscar Wilde from jail in 1897, alternating the text with music for piano.

De Profundis

While continuing to compose, Rzewski acknowledged some discouragement about the state of the world and its connection with his compositional work. He told the Times in the abovementioned article, Theres a big difference between 1997 and 1977. I have my own feelings about whats happening in the world, but I dont think I can express them musically with any great clarity as I could have 20 years ago. Things seemed simpler and clearer then. For one thing there was a movement, there were large numbers of people who shared similar ideas, and one could feel that one was part of something larger than oneself.

The difficulties were real enough, as is Rzewskis acknowledgment of the impact on his music. While he may have been disappointed, however, and unable to see that a new upsurge in the class struggle was being prepared, he was not bitter, and he did not accommodate himself to the filthy business of enriching oneself at the expense of the working class.

This comes out very clearly in a lengthy interview at the US Library of Congress from 2016, in conjunction with a commission for Satires, a work for violin and piano, that was performed at that time by Rzewski himself, along with violinist Jennifer Koh.

In the hour-long conversation, which is available online, Rzewski restates his hostility to serialism and minimalism (Serialism did not help to advance the art of musiceven worse was Minimalism). He explains that the creative level of music has been going down for the past 100 years, or more, that there has been a steady decline, from Brahms through Richard Strauss to Stockhausen, while the level of performance has gone up.

Conversation with Frederic Rzewski & Charlton Lee

This has been a complex process, he says, but basically, capitalism is not good for culture, capitalism does not lead to better art; on the contrary, it is destructive in many ways. Its time to get rid of it, we need something else.

The composer adds, perceptively and accurately, that this was not always the case, of course, that in the 19th century, during the period of the ascendancy of the capitalist system, art could and did flourish.

When questioned about music with a social message, Rzewski responds that it is not obligatory. The composer can write about love, death, a lot of things, but if you have one [a social message], its important to speak it outIf you have something to say about society and you can use music to say it, yes, said Rzewski, pointing to the way in which Verdis Nabucco, especially its Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, helped inspire the Italian Risorgimento of the 1860s, and also the example of the Internationale, whose melody was composed by Pierre de Geyter in 1888, and went on to have what Rzewski calls a notable career, although it is largely forgotten now.

That last phrase once again reflects the discouragement of Rzewski and most of his generation. At the same time, he set an important musical example, and remained true to his socialist ideals. As recently as 2019, in one of many interviews with Rzewski that can be found online, he called Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish-German revolutionary Marxist who was assassinated in 1919, the most important personality of the 20th century.

Igor Levit, one of the most widely known pianists of his generation, and who has placed himself courageously in the forefront of the struggle against xenophobia, anti-Semitism and the threat of resurgent fascism in his homeland of Germany as well as elsewhere, paid tribute to his friend and mentor Rzewski in an interview with the New York Times this week, declaring that he must have believed in the possibility of what music can do to people. It can provide people with an idea. A piano piece cant save the world. But we can. He will not see the beautiful revolution he was hoping for, but the revolution will come anyway. And when its here, his music will sound with it.
It has now been one week since the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed in the beachside town of Surfside, Florida. The death toll has risen to 16, as four more bodies were uncovered overnight Wednesday. The number of residents still unaccounted for is now 147, according to Miami-Dade County mayor Daniella Cava.

As rescue operations continue and desperate families struggle to find missing loved ones, more questions have arisen as to the structural integrity of other high-rises similar to Champlain Towers South and the vulnerability of countless buildings adjoining the Florida shoreline. The catastrophe in Surfside has highlighted critical dangers facing other infrastructure in the region, built in unstable areas that are being subjected to the consequences of human-induced climate change.

Search and rescue personnel work atop the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condo building, where scores of people remain missing almost a week after it partially collapsed, Wednesday, June 30, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

While both the Democratic and Republican parties have largely presented the tragedy as an isolated issue, abundant evidence has emerged in recent years showing that Floridas geological base is threatened by rising sea levels and the erosion of its beaches, posing significant risks to buildings all along the states coast line. The foundations of countless structures are made of material incapable of dealing with corrosive seawater.

Numerous articles in the press have referenced a 2018 engineering report examining the integrity of Champlain Towers South, warning of serious damage arising as a result of major breakage of concrete under the Towers foundations and other significant cracks, risks that were greatly exacerbated by deteriorating waterproofing and existing design flaws.

The public document serves as one piece of evidence to the endangered future of other high-rise towers and apartments that are increasingly battered by rising sea levels.

In an interview with the Guardian, Professor Zhong-Ren Peng, an expert on sea level rise at the University of Florida, said that the materials used for the buildings base were not built to withstand salt water intrusion, which can corrode substantial amounts of steel and concrete. Cracks in the concrete allows more sea water to get in, which causes further reactions and the spreading of cracks, Peng noted. Negligence of these critical defects can invariably lead to the type of structural failure witnessed in Surfside.

The entire Florida peninsula region sits on top of karst limestone, a porous rock that allows rising seawater to accumulate around the base of buildings. A weakness of limestone material is that cavities can form inside them in which percolating solutions, such as salty water, can mix with minerals inside the material, thereby dissolving the rocks and undermining the foundations.

Karst, a term used to describe an environment where the bulk of its rocks can dissolve, opening up sinkholes and caves, makes up about a fifth of the United States landmass and is even more prevalent in Florida due to its own unique geology. One theory that has been floated as to the cause of the Champlain collapse has been a widening sinkhole underneath the structure. The theory is plausible, as large sinkholes have opened up elsewhere in the state, swallowing up roadways, vehicles and in a few cases, entire buildings.

While Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Cava said Monday that no evidence exists that a sinkhole was responsible for the fall, information and eyewitness testimony has hinted at a sinkhole being present around the time of the collapse. In reviewing video and pictures of the Champlain Towers, experts have said it seems as if the collapse started around the buildings pool deck. This lines up with reports that one of those missing in the rubble called her husband just before the building fell, telling him that she saw a hole open up where the pool deck used to be moments before the collapse.

The inundation of limestone with seawater on a large scale can lead to significant outbreaks of sinkholes. This has dire implications for the states infrastructure, since the foundation which virtually all of Floridas buildings are built on, including its major towers and high-rises, is subject to dissolution.

Already, experts are drawing a direct connection between the rise of sea levels caused by climate change and the susceptibility of Miamis coastal construction. Professor Peng noted in an interview that salt water accumulation around a building can lead to rusty decay absorbing the steel of the structure. The consequences include instances of corrosion so severe that it may cause many buildings to not be able to handle the weight and eventually succumb to a pancake freefall.

Sea level rise has coincided with persistent king tide flooding and changes in soil consistency. Flooding has become such a frequent reality that Miami residents have become used to seeing their cars flooded inside garages and water seeping up from drains onto roads, even on clear weather days. A 2019 analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that high-tide flooding in 2018 broke records at more than a dozen locations throughout the US, including Miami and Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast. This has coincided with international trends, with global sea levels rising about one inch every eight years.

South Florida has emerged in recent years as a central area of concern for the impact climate change is having on at-risk coastal infrastructure. In the island city of Key West, located at Floridas southernmost point, sea levels rose at about 3.9 inches between 2000 and 2017, according to a 2019 report from the Southeast Regional Climate Change Compact. Experts are projecting South Floridas coastal waters will jump 10 to 17 inches by 2040 and another 21 to 54 inches by 2070. The report stresses that the regions sea level rise could be faster than the global rate because of the Gulf Stream current slowing down.

Professor Atorod Azizinamini, an engineering researcher at Florida International University, explained to the Palm Beach Post that the subtle increase in rising seas was not a concern in the 1980s, a time which saw the explosion of high-rise coastal development for many of the current buildings in Florida. This began in earnest in the 1980s and continued unabated into the 1990s. Warnings that had been issued in those two decades about the inevitable consequences of climate change on coastal developments, including along Floridas shoreline, were either ignored or suppressed by the political establishment, the major newspapers and sections of the corporate oligarchy.

In the 1980s, Shell Oil and ExxonMobil issued a slate of secret warnings that their fossil fuel activities were fueling climate change, forecasting significant global damage from their oil secretion. These damages included the worsening of sea levels and the rapid disintegration of the Antarctic ice sheet from the buildup of carbon emissions. Shells assessment foresaw a one-meter sea level rise by 2030, and noted that warming could also fuel disintegration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, resulting in a worldwide rise in sea level of five to six meters.

Another warning was a report released in 1990 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which produced a remarkably accurate projection on the rise of sea levels for the first three decades of this century, and approximately reasonable estimate for the rest of the century leading to 2100. This has applied in particular to losses of water from Greenland, Antarctica and other land water.

Florida has appeared on the front lines of a growing climate crisis which the state, in particular its southernmost parts, is finding ever more difficult to extricate itself from. Behind this lies every aspect of social life being subordinated to the anarchy of the capitalist system and the prioritizing of wealth for the ruling class at the expense of the lives of the population. Efforts by officials to forestall the crisis by replenishing South Floridas seaside beaches with sand have proven to be inadequate panaceas unable to curtail rising sea levels.

According to the Guardian, Florida authorities have spent $1.3 billion since the 1950s refurbishing or nourishing beaches, periodically importing supplementary sand that has been consistently eroded by rising sea levels. Nearly half the states 825 miles of beaches are now considered critically eroded, as the state and US are coming to grips with a worldwide shortage of sand.

For Miami Beach, sand shortages have exacerbated the deluge of seawater ramming into the coastline, cutting divots into shores such as that seen in front of the Fontainebleau hotel. The US Army Corps of Engineers released a plan in July 2015 on patching up the eroded sections of Miami Beach, in which it noted Miami-Dades sand resources had become exhausted.

However, access to nearby oceans to replenish Miamis beaches immediately ran up against opposition from officials in neighboring Martin and St. Lucie counties, which rejected proposals for borrowing their sand resources because of the wholesale scarcity caused by rising seas.

St. Lucie commissioner Frannie Hutchinson declared that the Corps should take its shovels and buckets and go home. She filed more than a dozen public comments on the Corps proposal, saying that it failed to address sea level rise, while citing St. Lucies own sand shortage.

Sarah Heard, a Martin County Commissioner, angrily asserted that Miami-Dade had depleted their resources and now they want to come and take ours. Heard continued, we dont know exactly how sea level rise is going to impact us, but we know its accelerating rapidly, we know theres going to be inundation.

Blame for the climatic devastation now hitting Floridas coastline lies squarely with capitalism and its representatives in both corporate-controlled parties, who have signed off on coastal developments while ignoring the dangers rising seas pose to infrastructure. Massive profit interests are bound up with the construction and maintenance of high-rise towers similar to Champlain Towers South, which are a crucial component of Miamis lucrative tourism industry. In 2017, a record 116.5 million tourists visited Florida, generating commerce valued well over $67 billion.
The World Socialist Web Site urges meatpacking workers to get in touch with us to share news tips, comments and stories of working conditions in your plant, and to learn how to build a rank-and-file committee of workers. Your privacy is of utmost importance and any information given will be kept anonymous. Contact us today.

Two new revelations made public in the last week have unearthed a vast conspiracy of the ruling elite, both Democratic and Republican, to force meatpacking plants to remain open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch filed a lawsuit accusing Smithfield Foods, a major pork producer and food-processing company, of falsely stoking consumer fears of meat shortages during the pandemic in order to keep their operations running at full capacity. The advocacy group provides evidence that the US was, in fact, never in danger of running out of meat. According to the group, the US could have kept meat supply stocked in supermarkets for several months without production running.

Three Tyson Foods workers at its pork processing plant in Waterloo died after contracting coronavirus after the company allegedly lied to keep them on the job during an outbreak. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The second revelation consists of a trove of documents, including emails between high ranking Trump administration officials, the USDA and various US state governors, that were obtained through a public records request by the law firm Public Justice. The documents reveal, among other things, that Former Agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue and staff at USDA and the vice presidents office attempted to prevent state governments from temporarily shutting down meatpacking plants to control the spread of the virus.

The revelations illustrate the way in which the ruling establishment, aided and abetted by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), conspired to keep meatpacking plants open. Below is a timeline of these events which detail how the decisions led to hundreds of meatpacking worker deaths and thousands of related deaths throughout the US.

January 21, 2020

The CDC confirms the first US COVID-19 Case.

Early March, 2020

As COVID-19 testing results come online, the number of documented US cases surge from less than 100 to more than 200,000. It is not until approximately March 14 that widespread lockdowns begin in the United States.

March 20, 2020

Numerous meatpacking plants throughout the country, including the Sioux Falls Smithfield plant, (responsible for 5 percent of the countrys pork production), announce that they will not shut down even as workplace closures are being implemented around the country.

March 26, 2020

Smithfield Foods confirms its first positive COVID-19 case. It is later revealed that meatpacking plants throughout the country were also beginning to confirm their first COVID-19 cases in late March.

Early April, 2020

Smithfield officials, in collaboration with state officials in South Dakota, keep the growing number of positive COVID-19 cases among Smithfield Food employees a secret from the public.

By April 8, the South Dakota Department of Health releases statistics showing that over 80 workers at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls tested positive for the coronavirus, less than two weeks after the initial case was reported. The facility is now the largest hot spot in the city.

In a press conference held on the same day, Governor Kristi Noem claims, We believe that the employer is taking appropriate action in regards to Smithfield.

April 9-12, 2020

Under immense public pressure, Smithfield opts to close for three days to clean and sanitize the plant. By April 11, confirmed cases at Smithfield surpasses 230, becoming the largest hot spot in the state. Governor Noem is forced to call on Smithfield to shut down the facility for two weeks.

Meanwhile, a similar situation is unfolding at Tysons largest US pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa.

On April 12, in a single night, nearly two dozen workers are sent to the emergency room due to symptoms of COVID-19. According to a lawsuit filed by the son of a Waterloo worker who later died of COVID-19, only four days later, Tyson company officials publicly denied a COVID-19 outbreak at the Waterloo Facility.

Working conditions at the plant are so bad, with workers packed shoulder-to-shoulder in unsanitary conditions, that the local sheriff later declared he was [shaken] to the core after visiting the plant.

April 15, 2020

Smithfield officially becomes the countrys largest coronavirus hot spot as cases tied to the plant surpass 640.

Also on April 15, according to the newly-released Public Justice documents, an executive from Perdue Farms, one of the largest pork processing companies in the US, emails former CDC director Robert Redfield to thank the agency for offering to do outreach to local health departments.

The email reads, in part: I do think it would help to get in front of some of the health anxiety out there, where it pertains to meat processing. ... We need our local public health authorities to do everything they can to keep the food supply chain operational, and at the same time ensuring the health and safety of employees.

Perdues communication with Redfield is a level [of intervention] we hadnt seen before, according to Adam Pulver, an attorney with Public Citizen. It is troubling to think that CDC would be making decisions based on the pork industrys goals of staying open, not public health.

April 20, 2020

The Sioux Falls Smithfield plant is finally forced to shut down. The same day, Augustin Rodriguez, 64, becomes the first known Smithfield employee to die from COVID-19. He worked at Smithfield Foods for two decades in the pork cut department.

Meanwhile, Governor Kim Reynolds says she will not order Tyson to close its Waterloo plant.

Throughout this month, at both Waterloo and Sioux Falls, employees were offered a $500 responsibility bonus for not missing a day of work, at the height of virus-spread in the plants.

The conditions at Waterloo and Sioux Falls continue to play out at meatpacking facilities throughout the country in the following months.

April 21, 2020

In response to the closure of the Smithfield plant, CEO Kenneth M. Sullivan issues a statement warning of a meat shortage. It reads in part: The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.

April 28, 2020

President Trump declares meat processing plants critical infrastructure, in an effort to ensure that facilities around the country remain open under the pretense of looming shortages of pork and chicken.

Playing off the fear-mongering of the food processing company CEOs, Trump claims the recent closures of meat processing facilities threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency.

In addition to the executive action, which was taken under the Defense Production Act, the Labor Department and OSHA issue guidance that would provide additional liability protections for companies seeking to operate amid the risk of outbreaks.

The reopening of the meat industry would now be a state-sanctioned operation. The companies would be given full protection for any worker deaths associated with the reopenings.

April 30, 2020

According to the Public Justice documents, the USDA considers taking action under the Defense Production Act to mandate the reopening of meat processing facilities.

Two days after the executive order was signed, Steve Censky, the former USDA deputy secretary, writes to USDA staff asking for more information about plant closures so that we can make a determination of whether we need to issue an order under the DPA to the plant and inform state and local officials of such action.

While we should continue to try to work cooperatively with the plants and state/local officials to achieve resolution without the need for us to issue an order, the indefinite and two-week closures dont meet that test and are unacceptable, writes Censky.

According to the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN) internal talking points prepared for Perdue on April 29 in preparation for the executive order show that the agency was prepared to issue a Defense Production Act order keeping plants open.

Among a series of steps to be taken under the executive order is to direct meat and poultry processing plants to immediately reopen and resume operations.

May 2, 2020

In direct response to Trumps executive action, Smithfield officials announce the facility will partially reopen. By now, the Sioux Falls Smithfield outbreak has infected 853 of its more than 3,500 employees.

May 7, 2020

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) throws its full weight behind the decision to reopen the plants. Sioux Falls Local UFCW president BJ Motley declares: Smithfield is doing everything they can for the employees and their safety. We stand with Smithfield to get this plant back open.

May 2122, 2020

The USDA issues a report on May 21, indicating that the amount of meat in cold storage actually increased from levels reported a year prior, according to recently unearthed documents from the Food and Water Watch lawsuit against Smithfield.

On May 22, USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service issues its weekly report on meat exports which notes that exports of pork were up noticeably from the previous week and up 36 percent from the prior 4-week average. The reports show that there were 2.455 billion pounds of beef, pork, chicken and turkey in cold storage in April 2020, up 2.1 percent over April 2019 levels.

In other words, Trumps invocation of the Defense Production Act, which was supported by the Democratic Party, is based on a lie. The US was never close to running out of meat supply. Rather, these actions were taken to secure the profits of the meatpacking companies.

Early July, 2020

Outbreaks continue to spread like wildfire among meatpacking workers throughout the country.

The Arkansas Department of Health reports more than 3,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases among meatpacking workers in the state. At Tyson, whose headquarters are located in Springdale, Arkansas, 13 percent of the workforce has contracted the virus. Statewide, there are 158 poultry workers hospitalized and 18 deaths. The total for the state is over 32,500 cases and 357 deaths.

Through the first two weeks of July, hundreds of meatpacking workers conduct a wildcat strike at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, the deadliest workplace in the state, with at least eight COVID-19 deaths and 287 workers who have tested positive.

Opposition to the deadly back-to-work orders spearheaded by the Trump administration and supported by the Democrats is building among all sections of workers, including autoworkers and health care workers.

Sept. 10, 2020

OSHA announces that it is fining the Smithfield Packaged Meats Corporation a paltry $13,494 for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus, a news release states. The fine is the maximum amount allowed by law.

Oct. 2, 2020

A South Dakota News Watch investigation reveals that the CDC gave Smithfield a watered down set of recommendations.

According to the investigation, the CDC issued a report on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls but then retracted that report in order to reissue it with less stringent worker-safety recommendations. The first report was dated April 21, 2020, and included 15 pages of recommendations for improved safety. The second report, issued the next day, included many of the same recommendations, but with added language stating that safety improvements were discretionary and not required.

November, 2020

Charles Taylor of Columbia University and Christopher Boulos and Douglas Almond of the University of Chicago publish a study showing that outbreaks at meatpacking plants were responsible for nearly 8 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States during the early months of the pandemic.

The researchers found that by July 21, residents of counties with meatpacking plants had a 51 percent higher rate of infections and a 37 percent increase in death rates. The study also found that meat processing facilities that received waivers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase production line speeds resulted in more county-wide cases.

November 19, 2020

Isidro Fernandez files a wrongful death lawsuit accusing top Tyson executives of responsibility for the death of his father Oscar Fernandez, who worked in the companys Waterloo plant. The suit alleges, among other things, that the plant manager at Tysons largest US pork plant ran a betting pool with supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would become infected with coronavirus.

The complaint also argues that top management was fully aware of the spread of the virus throughout the plant and other facilities nationwide, but lied to the public and to workers, claiming that no infections had occurred at all.

June 10, 2021

Under President Biden, OSHA, a division of the US Department of Labor, releases new rules ostensibly made to protect vulnerable workers from the virus. However, the rules, which include an obligation to ensure six feet of distance between workers as well as paid time off to get vaccinated and to recover from any side effects, only applied to the health care industry and leaves out all other essential workers.

* * *

The experience in the meatpacking and food processing industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic stands as one of the starkest expressions of the cruelty and callousness of the entire political establishment toward the working class. Hundreds of meatpacking workers died as a result of these actions. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of additional COVID-19 cases and deaths are linked to the forced reopening of these plants and facilities. Every one of those illnesses and deaths were preventable.

There is massive opposition among workers in the meatpacking industry who have suffered through the consequences of the ruling class response to the pandemic.

However, what the experience of the last year and a half exposes above all is that meatpacking workers, like all workers, face fierce enemies, not only with the corporate bosses and the political establishment, but also in the UFCW and other unions, which serve big business, not the workers. If a struggle is to be waged to defend both the lives and the livelihoods of the working class, then workers need new organizations, independent of the unions and both political parties.
Several New Zealand health experts have warned that Jacinda Arderns Labour Party-Greens coalition government has become complacent over COVID-19 and didnt act fast enough to suspend travel with the Australian state of New South Wales after a positive case from Sydney surfaced in Wellington last week.

The New Zealand capital went from alert level 1 to 2, which mandates some social distancing measures, on June 23 after an Australian visitor who spent the previous weekend in the city tested positive on his return to Sydney. That city had been under limited restrictions following an outbreak that began on June 16.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden speaking at a press conference in September 2020. (Image Credit: Jacinda Arden/Facebook)

Governments on both sides of the Tasman Sea ignored the dangers as the highly infectious Delta variant spread from a cluster in Sydneys eastern suburbs throughout much of the city. Despite concerns among health experts, the New Zealand government took no action to suspend flights from Sydney after previously halting them from Melbourne during an upsurge in cases there.

Despite the Ardern governments international reputation as a success story for its control of the spread of COVID-19, the countrys systems are severely compromised. Relatively low case numbers have been used to justify relaxing restrictions in the interests of the economy. In April, borders were recklessly opened for quarantine-free travel with Australia, at the expense of public health safety, after a clamour by the tourism industry and other businesses.

Auckland University Professor of Medicine Des Gorman told Radio NZ on June 23 that the government was tardy in pausing the travel bubble, even after the Delta variant was identified in the Wellington case. What a shame they didnt close the bubble several days earlier when it was clear Sydney was dealing with a Delta outbreak and there were loose ends, he said.

The tourist visited a series of restaurants, bars and tourist attractions over two days, leaving behind 20 locations of interest and 420 people identified as close contacts. At this point there are 950 people self-isolating but no further positive cases have been uncovered. The fact that the man had received his first vaccine shot prompted speculation that he may have been, somewhat fortuitously, less contagious.

The man reported feeling unwell on his return flight on the morning of June 21, indicating he had been infectious during the visit. However, it took most of last week before authorities confirmed that he had the highly virulent Delta variant. Last Sunday it was revealed that his partner had also tested positive, prompting NZ officials to impose a further 48 hours under Level 2 restrictions in the capital.

Warning that we are not in the clear yet, epidemiologist Michael Baker described the episode as a close call. With the visitor attending multiple indoor venues alongside hundreds of others his trip could have turned into multiple super-spreading events, Baker said.

The case had exposed major gaps in the system and New Zealand needed to upgrade its approach to dealing with COVID-19, Baker warned. The virus has changed markedly and our response needs to change with it, he added.

Public health Professor Nick Wilson also told Radio NZ the government has missed things. It had been a mistake not to make indoor mask-wearing mandatory as well as the use of QR scanning in higher-risk settings as Wellington went into alert level 2. A review of the trans-Tasman travel bubble settings was needed, and an urgent upgrade of New Zealands alert-level system.

Virologist Jemma Geoghegan emphasised that people who have not been vaccinated were up to twice as likely to be hospitalised if theyve been infected with the Delta variant, compared to the other variants.

While the government claims its vaccine rollout is ahead of schedule, according to OECD figures New Zealand ranks with Australia among the slowest in the developed nations. As of June 24, among 4.2 million people aged 16 and older, just 9.08 percent were fully vaccinated and a further 6 percent had received one dose. The low numbers are attributed to constrained supply issues with the imported Pfizer vaccine, which will continue until late July.

Each of the 20 District Health Boards are left mostly to their own devices. In Wellington, a cohort of over 65-year-olds and people with underlying health conditions is still waiting for a call-up after previously being scheduled for vaccination in May. Had the Delta variant grabbed hold in the capital last week, thousands would have been left dangerously exposed.

When trans-Tasman travel was opened up on April 18, and with the Cook Islands in May, Ardern boasted that it was a new chapter in our recovery. We are world-leading ... We are opening at exactly the right time, she declared. COVID Response Minister Chris Hipkins falsely maintained that the risk of transmission between the two countries was deemed to be low.

In fact, the risk to public health was completely over-ridden. The policy was imposed in the midst of a renewed surge of the virus across South Asia and with Australias own vaccine rollout especially shambolic. Flights have repeatedly, but only reluctantly, been suspended as COVID-19 flare-ups have occurred in Australian cities. Many travellers have been left stranded due to sudden border closures, often being forced into quarantine at their own expense.

The last Wellington scare has proven how ill-prepared the authorities are for a major outbreak. Testing facilities in the capital were quickly overwhelmed as thousands of concerned people queued up over several days to get COVID tests. Healthline telephone enquiries were backed up for hours. Fewer than 10 percent of possible contacts could initially be found through the QR scanning system, which has not been made compulsory.

Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles warned that New Zealand will have to take different and more extreme measures to stop it [the Delta variant] from taking off. The earlier Alpha variant had stress tested the country's systems and exposed shortfalls in several aspects, such as ventilation in hotels used as quarantine facilities and Delta is even more infectious, Wiles said.

Hipkins announced on Tuesday that the Level 2 restrictions in Wellington would be ended that evening. Gorman, however, insisted the city should stay in level 2 for another two weeks. That gives you some confidence theres not going to be a tail thats going to come back and bite you, he said. Business owners would not want to hear this, he added, but with one or two smouldering cases possible, an outbreak would require a return to level 3 or 4 restrictions.

Meanwhile flights to and from the states of Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Tasmania are set to resume on July 4, even though the Sydney cluster has spread across Australia. Pre-flight testing is now required, but Wiles has warned its not the silver bullet. She said this has been proved by travellers who tested negative before their flights but were later found to have COVID-19 while in quarantine.

The gathering crisis, which was preventable, is an indictment of the corporate profit-driven response of governments everywhere which have failed to implement effective lockdown, quarantine and vaccination measures. The entire Asia-Pacific region is now seeing a renewed surge of infections based on the Delta variant with Australia, Taiwan and Fiji, all previously considered safe, struggling to contain serious outbreaks.
Tensions continue to mount following the provocative and massive operations mounted by the NATO powers off Crimeas coast in the Black Sea.

Speaking on his annual question and answer session with the population on the Direct Line show Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed information showing that the US government was directly involved in the June 23 operation by the British destroyer warship HMS Defenderwhich entered 3km into waters claimed by Russia off the Crimean coast. In retaliation, Russian patrol ships fired warning shots at the British ship and Russian fighter jets dropped bombs in its path.

Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual live call-in show in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (Sergei Savostyanov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin revealed the information in response to journalist Yekaterina Berezovskaya asking, It is related to the British warship near Crimea. Do you think the world was on the brink of a Third World War, of all things?

Putin denied that the incident could have led to a world war, stating, No, I do not think so To begin with, this was a comprehensive provocation, and it was conducted not only by the British but also by the Americans. The British entered our territorial waters in the afternoon, whereas earlier, at 7:30 am, a US strategic reconnaissance plane took off from a NATO military airfield in Greece, I think from Crete. I was briefed on this, of course, I know all about it. If I remember correctly, tail number 63/9792. We saw it very clearly and monitored it. It was clear that the destroyer entered [Russian territorial waters] in pursuit of military objectives, trying to uncover the actions of our Armed Forces to stop a provocation, with the help of the reconnaissance aircraft they were trying to identify how we operated, and where things were located and how they operated. We saw this and sent them the information which we deemed necessary. I may have let this slip; I hope the military will forgive me. This is the first thing.

Another journalist stated, The Sea Breeze exercise is underway now, and yesterday there was a Dutch frigate.

This was a reference to a statement by the Dutch Ministry of Defence on Tuesday that Russian fighters had, the previous week, come dangerously close to one of its frigates, Zr. Ms. Evertsen, in the Black Sea. The Netherlands government said this occurred on June 24, one day after the HMS Defender carried out its provocation. The statement said, the fighters armed with bombs and so-called air-to-surface missiles, intended to fire at a target from the air and repeatedly, between 3.30pm and 8.30pm, flew dangerously close by and low [over the frigate], performing feint attacks. Russia then caused disruptions to the Evertsen's electronic equipment.

Evertsen is a heavily armed warship with weaponry including machine guns, a vertical missile launch system, surface-to-air missiles and torpedo launchers with Raytheon torpedoes. It possesses a sophisticated long-range air and surface surveillance radar system.

Putin replied with an extraordinary statement indicative of the state of tensions between nuclear armed powers: You said that this put the world on the brink of a global war. No, of course, not. Even if we had sunk that ship [HMS Defender], it is nevertheless difficult to imagine that this would have put the world on the brink of a third world war because those who did this know they could not win a war like that.

He continued blithely, I do not think that we would have been happy at the turn of events you mentioned [a world war breaking out!], but we at least know what we are fighting for: we are fighting for ourselves and our future on our own territory.

Of the ongoing NATO Sea Breeze operation, the largest ever held by NATO in the Black Sea and involving 30 countries, Putin said, It was not us who covered thousands of kilometres by air and sea towards them; it was them who approached our borders and entered our territorial sea, which is a crucial component in the overall situation.

While playing down the dangers of a global conflagration, Putin insisted, Russia's economic sovereignty is increasing and its defense capabilities have reached a very high level. He warned, No matter what sanctions are imposed on Russia, no matter what the scaremongering, Russia is developing and in some respects our country has surpassed the European countries and even the US If they cross some boundaries, we will take asymmetric responses that will be sensitive enough for our partners.

The US government all but confirmed Putins claims. Asked about Putins statements, Chief of public affairs for the US European Command, Navy Captain Wendy Snyder, declared, Yes, we did have aircraft in operations We are operating in and watching everything in the Black Sea region, as we always do.

The reckless operation to enter Russian territorial waters had been planned for months. In January, the UK Defence Journal website noted that Evertsen was listed by the UKs Ministry of Defence as a component part of NATOs UK led Carrier Strike Group from fellow NATO countries. The Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21) is led by the UKs new 3 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, which remained in the Mediterranean Sea at the ready while HMS Defender carried out its Black Sea provocation.

CSG21 will next head to the Indian Ocean and then carry out operations in the South China Sea. The MoDs January statement read, The group includes NATOs most sophisticated destroyers coming together from the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Dutch Navy. The group includes NATOs most sophisticated destroyersthe Royal Navys Type 45s HMS Diamond and HMS Defender and US Navy Arleigh Burke-class USS The Sullivans as well as frigates HMS Northumberland and HMS Kent from the UK and the Dutch Navys HNLMS Evertsen.

Prior to this, in September 2020, Evertsen was part of an HMS Queen Elizabeth Task Group carrying out GROUPEX (Group Exercise 2020) and Joint Warrior Exercises. Those operations included nine warships, F-35B Lightning jets, 11 Fleet Air Arm helicopters and nuclear submarines. Group Exercise 2020 included drills in the North Sea with the Royal Navy commenting in October, British and American jets carried out strike missions from the [Queen Elizabeth] carrier using live weapons for the first time, while newly-modernised support ship RFA Fort Victoria and HMS Kent undertook the Royal Navys first transfer of ammunition at sea in three years. The operation also saw heavy involvement of US forces. The arrival of F-35B strike fighters from VMFA-211 in September marked the first time HMS Queen Elizabeth had embarked a squadron from the US Marine Corps. It added, GroupEx 2020 was followed by Exercise Joint Warrior, in which the Carrier Strike Group joined other NATO warships for a series of demanding scenarios across air, land and sea.

Contrary to Putins dangerous bluster, with such a massive presence of NATOs armed forces on Russias doorstep, any incident could be the spark for a disastrous military conflict.

Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov responded to the HMS Defender provocation by stating that if such an incident happened again, Russias response would not be to fire warning shots: we can bomb on target.

These comments should be understood in the context of a Daily Mail article Wednesday revealing, On the same day [as HMD Defender was fired on by Russia for encroaching on its claimed territory], US Navy's Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71) was shown on ship tracking services as sailing with a Ukrainian patrol boat just five miles off the coast of the contested Crimean Peninsula in the middle of the night.

It added without apparent conviction, The US Navy denied that the ship was ever near Crimea, and it is believed it could be an instance of deliberate spoofing of maritime tracking data.

Under Article 5, NATO powers are committed to coming to defence of a NATO ally which comes under armed attack.

This week the Washington Examiner reported that in a virtual [May 9] meeting with [US] President Joe Biden a group of nine Eastern European NATO countries led by Romania called for a bigger allied military presence on the Eastern Bloc.

Asked by the website and weekly magazine what commitment Biden gave, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu replied, the message of President Biden was very strong as far as the commitment to Article 5, the importance of making the trans-Atlantic bond even stronger. He said that this is not only uniting the two shores of the Atlantic, but its going across Europe towards the Black Sea, including this very important [area] from a strategic point of view for the alliance.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Experts say it can take less than two minutes for your car to be out of commission without its catalytic converter.

When a thief gets underneath your car and steals your catalytic converter, it can be an expensive repair. That happened not once but twice to a local kids group in the Wabash Valley.

"It was a painful experience for us because those are actually pretty expensive to replace," said Brandon Halleck, the Chief Operating Officer at Chances and Youth Services.

That hefty price would be around $1,700.

"It's frustrating because we use that bus to transport our kids from our before and after school program," said Halleck.

Governor Eric Holcomb took action to stop this from happening, signing a bill into law that makes theft and illegal purchasing of catalytic converters a level six felony.

Local officials agree with Holcomb on the law that went into effect July 1.

"I think it's a wise move, you know. That's the only way we're gonna have more enforcement," said Terry Modesitt, the Vigo County Prosecutor.

The new law brings longer jail sentences to anyone who violates it. Instead of spending up to a year in jail, violaters could spend up to two and a half years instead.

"Basically the legislature increased the rate of crime it consists of because of all of the complaints," said Modesitt.

It can happen anywhere your car is parked, even in safe areas.

"We noticed there was, it was running a little rough, check engine light and realized that, when we took it to the shop, they said, 'oh, somebody took the catalytic converter,'" said Halleck, telling the story of how they found out something was wrong with the company bus.

Now that the law is in effect, Vigo County prosecutors say they're going to do what they can to make the crimes stop.

"We can only, you know, use the laws that we have before us. So before it was a misdemeanor which you know, means it was considered on the minor spectrum if it's a crime. And now it's a felony which has a major impact," said Modesitt.

Halleck says he recommends doing what his company did with the bus--parking in well-lit areas.

This has been known to prevent vehicle break-ins as well.
WABASH VALLEY, Ill. (WTHI) - This year, there have been 509 traffic deaths in Illinois. The state says this is up 33 from last year.

With this, the annual Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over safety campaign is underway right now in Illinois.

The Illinois Department of Transportation and Illinois State Police are joining forces with law enforcement statewide.

It's all to crack down on injures and deaths while driving. The campaign focuses on impaired driving during the holiday weekend.

The state of illinois says to have a plan this holiday weekend.

Designate a sober driver, drive free of distractions, always wear your seat belt.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP)  An Evansville Democratic Party activist has been sentenced to probation for sending illegally pre-marked mailings to voters ahead of the 2020 primary elections.

Janet Reed was ordered to serve 18 months of probation for one count of unauthorized absentee ballot, to which she pleaded guilty in May, the Evansville Courier & Press reported Thursday.

Prosecutors said Reed mailed the absentee ballot applications with instructions leaving voters no choice but to participate in the Democratic Partys June 2 primary.

Prosecutors filed the charge in May 2020 after the Vanderburgh County Election Board referred it to them with a letter outlining the legal case against Reed. It included samples of applications Reed sent to voters pre-marking for Democrats the section that allows them to choose a party.

Reed was working for the campaign of E. Thomasina Marsili, an Owen County Democrat who won the partys nomination to challenge 8th District Republican U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon but lost in the general election.
VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Members of the Vigo County Health Department are strategizing new ways to vaccinate underserved populations. This includes nearly 600 homeless people living in the area. However, this does not come without challenges.

"It's a very tough group to reach out to and vaccinate," Brendan Kearns, the co-chair of the Wabash Valley Homeless Coalition, said. "A lot of them don't want it, and a lot of them don't want to be bothered."

Kearns says he hopes the outreach is successful, but it's important that there is trust established.

"A lot of our homeless are very solitary people," he said. "They want to be left alone. When you approach them, if you don't have the relationship already established with them, it makes it so much harder. If I was a homeless person and someone came up to me and said, 'hey, I'm here to help you get a shot,' I would be reluctant to do that myself."

There is one big way the Vigo County Health Department will help with this effort. The department recently received a grant worth $221,000 from the Indiana State Department of Health. They say this grant will help vaccinate populations that are underserved, including the homeless.

"It's just important for everyone who wants a vaccine to be able to get one ,and we just want to get rid of any barriers they have," Roni Elder, a health educator at the Vigo County Health Department, said.

Kearns says this could be really good news for the homeless, especially when it comes to looking for a place to sleep.

"A lot of the shelters require a negative test," Kearns said. "If they have the vaccination, it may help a lot of our homeless get housed. If they are seeking housing, having proof that they've been vaccinated may help them get placed."

Officials say they will never force anyone to get the vaccine, but they want to make it available to anyone who wants one.

The department is planning on using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. They say this is because a one-shot vaccine will be less of an inconvenience to the already hesitant homeless population.
Bill Cosby, who has been accused of misconduct by 60 women, was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania's Supreme Court overturned his sexual assault conviction. That he is a free man today sends a profoundly disturbing message to women who survive sexual assault: that if they come forward they will confront all but insurmountable hurdles as they pursue justice.

In 2018, Cosby was convicted by a jury of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004, but the court ruled that a deal he struck with a prosecutor to avoid prosecution in exchange for a deposition in a civil case had been improperly used against him, and that he should not have been charged in the criminal case.

Recall that Cosby has been accused of misconduct by 60 different women. "I have always maintained my innocence," he tweeted on Wednesday.

Of course, Cosby is an octogenarian who played a TV dad back in the 1980's and early 1990's. Modern celebrities, on the other hand, live on the Internet and in what we may like to believe are more enlightened times. In fact it might be tempting to think that things have changed since 16 years ago, when Cosby was alleged to have committed the sexual assault for which he was convicted. Since then, we've seen lots of women come forward to share their stories of sexual harassment, assault and violence as part of the #MeToo movement.

Some may therefore perceive that norms have changed and men know that they can't get away with this kind of behavior anymore because women are speaking out.

But that is untrue.

If anything, since Cosby's time, the world has become less safe for women -- thanks to the very place the #MeToo movement originated. While researching a book about women and the Internet, I have discovered that sexual violence against women is regularly enabled online in new and ever more dangerous ways.

Cosby is alleged to have met his victims in person. Today, there are many tools that match sexual offenders with women, making it even easier for perpetrators to find victims.

They're called dating apps.

In 2019, Columbia Journalism Investigations conducted a survey -- which it warned wasn't scientific -- of 1,200 women in America who said they had used dating apps. More than a third of the women said they were sexually assaulted by someone they met through one of these apps. This figure is staggering. If it's anything close to accurate, sexual violence is becoming astonishingly commonplace.

In fact, a spokesperson for The Match Group, a Dallas-based company that owns dozens of dating companies, told the investigative reporters that "there are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products."

The Match Group checks Match.com users against sex offender databases, but doesn't do so on Tinder, PlentyofFish or OkCupid, according to the CJI report, which was co-published with ProPublica and Buzzfeed. ( "A Match Group spokesperson contends that background checks do little more than create what she calls 'a false sense of security' among users," because government databases may be incomplete or inaccurate, the report said. Users can also, of course, use fake identities).

However, in March, Tinder announced that it would roll out an in-app background check feature at a later date this year, according to a report on BBC.com, that would allow users to view public records information of prospective dates using their name or mobile number.

Obviously, dating apps should be required by law to conduct background checks on their users. But this wouldn't come close to solving the problem, because there is evidence that the ease with which apps match perpetrators with victims appears to be encouraging more people to perpetrate sexual crimes for the first time.

The UK National Crime Agency's Serious Crime Analysis Section warned in a 2016 report that online dating sites appear to be creating "a new kind of sexual offender," who is "less likely to have criminal convictions, but instead exploit[s] the ease of access and arm-chair approach to dating websites." According to the report, while 84% of people who rape strangers have prior convictions, just 49% of those who commit sexual crimes through online dating sites have previous convictions.

Aside from dating apps, another problem, according to Nancy Jo Sales' just-published book Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno, is that the proliferation of online porn, which often depicts violence against women, has made real-life sex more violent. A 2010 study of porn videos--cited in a New York Times article about how online porn is shaping young people's views about sex--found that 88% depict aggression.

Now, some men are copying these activities when they have sex with women in real life. A 2019 study found that more than 23% of women said they had become scared during sex as a result of something done to them. Choking, for instance, has become alarmingly common.

Clearly, the culture change we need hasn't begun to happen as part of the #MeToo movement. Indeed, a lot of women and parents of young girls may not even be aware of how dramatically the Internet is facilitating sexual crimes.

As one part of the solution, it's clear that kids need to be educated about why porn is different from sex in real life (though, as Peggy Orenstein pointed out in a commentary earlier this month, when schools attempt to do this, parents freak out.)

The Cosby outcome also makes clear that victims need far more support than they're currently getting, including help documenting evidence and building strong legal cases. They also need help rebuilding their lives after they become victimized -- from mental health services to assistance finding new jobs after leaving abusive employers. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden "will continue to" fight violence against women. He should back that up by providing funding for more programs to provide this kind of support to victims.

Let's be clear: Bill Cosby can't be dismissed as an anachronism. In fact, since the period during which he was alleged to have assaulted women, the Internet appears to have only deepened the dangers of sexual assault for women. In this sense, it's bitterly fitting that an actor accused over and over again of sexual assault is still called by some "America's dad." Sexual violence has become a pervasive American problem.
HOUSTON, Miss. (WTVA) - After serving the city for 15 years, Houston Police Chief Billy Voyles left the city hall on Wednesday as a retired man.

Family, friends and officers all gathered Wednesday to congratulate Voyles.

Voyles has served in many roles during his decade-and-a-half with Houston Police Department.

He appreciated the city, the citizens of Houston, his family and more.

The city also presented a plaque to Houston Alderman Frank Thomas who also retired on Wednesday.

Related - Retiring Houston police chief speaks about his career, future during final week on job
WASHINGTON (WTVA) - U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has been chosen to lead the panel to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Thompson is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.



Riot at the U.S. Capitol, Photo Date: 1/6/2021 | Credit: ZUMA / MGN | Riot at the U.S. Capitol, Photo Date: 1/6/2021 | Credit: ZUMA / MGN | Image Source

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) | Source: guest.house.gov U.S. Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) | Source: guest.house.gov

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named seven Democrats to the panel and a single Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Pelosi's remaining panel members are Virginia Congresswoman Elaine Luria, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, California Congressmen Pete Aguilar, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren.

The committee is tasked to investigate the events of that day when hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to interrupt the certification of Joe Bidens presidential election victory.

On Wednesday, the House voted 222-190 to establish the committee.

According to NBC News, the committee will have 13 House members, with five being chosen by Pelosi in consultation with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and will have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.

Congressman Michael Guest, R-Miss., voted against the resolution to create the committee.

His office released this statement on Wednesday.

I am firmly opposing Speaker Pelosis Select Committee to investigate the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Speaker Pelosis Select Committee is set up to operate more like the partisan impeachment process than a real investigation, and it will only be used to attack the political opponents of the Democratic Party.

Note: Guest quote added at 11:10 a.m.
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Police blotter is a list of recent arrests compiled from public records in Laramie County. All people listed here are innocent until proven guilty. Anyone listed who has a charge dismissed or is acquitted of the charge may bring or mail a court document proving such to the WTE editor, 702 W. Lincolnway, Cheyenne, WY 82001.
David Adler , Ph.D., is a noted author who lectures nationally and internationally on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and presidential power. His scholarly writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts by both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress. Adlers column is supported in part through a grant from Wyoming Humanities funded by the Why it Matters: Civic and Electoral Participation initiative, administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Adler can be reached at david.adler@alturasinstitute.com.
Medical marijuana patient Madonna Long, who was paralyzed in a bus crash as a high school senior, delivers remarks on the steps of the Wyoming Capitol at a marijuana legalization rally in Cheyenne on June 11, 2021.
Kentucky 43rd District Representative Charles Booker. Dec. 4, 2020

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky  Almost exactly one year after his bid for U.S. Senate came up just short in the Democratic primary, Charles Booker formally launched his new candidacy for the office Thursday, this time hoping to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Rand Paul in 2022.

Booker is scheduled to kick off his candidacy at a noon rally in the majority-Black West End of Louisville, part of the district he represented for one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

In a Wednesday interview with The Courier Journal about his new run for Senate, Booker said his campaign will build on the themes and issues of his 2020 run and the Hood to the Holler nonprofit advocacy group he formed in its wake.

Booker formed an exploratory committee for a potential run in April, saying he would travel the state and listen to Kentuckians to gauge if there was enough support for him to win a race against Paul, who says he will run for a third term.

"What we started, the story I tell in my previous run, was the story that the people of Kentucky knew we needed to finish telling," Booker said. "And it's one that says we're ready to come together across race, class, geography, that we're ready to fight for structural change, and we're ready to heal, and we're ready to do more than just struggle."

A massive underdog last year in the Democrat primary against Amy McGrath  who greatly outspent him and had the backing of the national party establishment  support for Booker's unapologetically progressive campaign surged in the final month, though he fell just 3 percentage points shy of the upset.

Despite also outspending Sen. Mitch McConnell in the general election, McGrath went on to be blown out by the Republican Senate leader in the November election  a common outcome for Democratic statewide candidates over the past decade, as Kentucky continues its rightward political shift.

Though some Kentucky Democrats believe a centrist candidate is the only kind that can win a statewide race in the current political climate, Booker says his unique brand of politics will create an unconventional path to victory.

Story continues

"I know for a fact that we will blow out Rand Paul," Booker said. "The path to victory really goes to the heart of us redefining our politics."

More: Charles Booker, Kentucky's progressive phenom, looks to carry momentum into '21 and beyond

As he vowed in his last campaign to interact and listen to Kentuckians "from the hood to the holler," Booker says he'll take no area for granted and break through conventional partisan politics to reach voters who typically tune out his party.

"Rationing your insulin, like I've had to do, that's not partisan. Putting food on the table, being safe in your home, these issues aren't partisan," Booker said. "And if we can tell that truth and show that we're actually fighting the same battles, so we should fight together, it's an opportunity to transcend party, to really build this coalition based on those kind of bonds."

While national party establishment like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee put its finger on the scale for McGrath in last year's primary, Booker said through conversations he's had, it is his expectation that "national leadership will respect and understand that it's our time to lead the way."

"It's been made clear that they recognize my leadership, they understand that I've built the infrastructure," Booker said. "We're building this for the people of Kentucky, and anyone that is willing to get behind us  and certainly get out of our way  we're appreciative of that."

Related: Rand Paul visits Kentuckians, slams socialism on eve of Charles Booker's announcement

There has been very little chatter about other prominent Democratic names entering the Senate race, though political neophyte Ruth Gao announced Wednesday she is entering the race.

Booker said he hopes to build up support from Democratic officials across the state over the course of his campaign, but expects state legislative leaders to be there in support at his kickoff rally Thursday.

While some of the same campaign staff will return, Booker says its leadership team will feature two women instrumental in flipping Georgia from red to blue in 2020  Dasheika Ruffin, a senior adviser for Sen. Raphael Warnock's successful campaign, and campaign manager Bianca Keaton, who was chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party in Georgia.

When Booker announced his exploratory committee, the Paul campaign and National Republican Senate Committee issued near identical statements saying he was out of step with Kentuckians' values, wanting to defund the police and take away their gun rights, with the NRSC calling him "a proud socialist."

Paul's campaign also touted the endorsement of former President Donald Trump  who won Kentucky by blowout margins in 2016 and 2020  saying the senator had a "proven record of fighting the liberal Washington agenda."

News: Donald Trump endorses Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for 2022 reelection

Booker said the current climate of hate and fear is being "stoked and weaponized in very troubling ways, where they're saying the quiet parts out loud, and Rand Paul has really been the champion of that."

"It's a smokescreen, it's a fear tactic," Booker said. "It's an aim to keep the people of Kentucky, the people of our country divided fighting amongst ourselves, so that they can laugh to the bank, they can continue to hold power at our expense."

Booker expressed confidence that he would not just shock many political observers by beating Rand Paul, but "build infrastructure to transform our future at the local, state, federal level across the board."

Booker said he is almost finished writing his memoir that will be published early next year, and is expecting the birth of his third daughter, Justyce, "in a couple of weeks."

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today at the top of this page.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Charles Booker announces run against Rand Paul for U.S. Senate
Jul. 1New Mexico State Police on Wednesday identified the officer who shot and killed an armed gunman on a downtown street last week as Sgt. Bradley Lopez, who has been employed by the Santa Fe Police Department for about 7 1/2 years.

According to state police, Lopez was responding to a fight and shooting at De Vargas Park just after 10 a.m. June 23 when he overheard on his police radio a call of a foot pursuit by another Santa Fe police officer on De Vargas Street.

Lopez headed in that direction and saw an officer running after Francisco Javier Lino-Gutierrez, who was armed with a handgun.

"During the foot pursuit Lino-Gutierrez waived the handgun and pointed it towards the officers while running north on Old Santa Fe Trail and towards a crowded tourist area," state police said in a news release. "Lino-Gutierrez stopped and turned towards the [Santa Fe Police Department] officers, who gave him numerous verbal commands, which he ignored."

When Lino-Gutierrez pointed the handgun at officers, Lopez fired toward him at least once and struck him, state police said.

Lino-Gutierrez, 29, of Lamy was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooting was the first of two by law enforcement in Santa Fe that day. Santa Fe County deputies later shot and killed a man on Siler Road following a chase in a stolen truck, state police said.

The agency has not yet released the identify of the slain man or the deputies involved in the shooting.

"As soon as we receive an update with more information, we will send it out via press release," Officer Dusty Francisco, a state police spokesman, wrote in an email Wednesday.

Court records show Lino-Gutierrez had a lengthy criminal history, including two cases pending at the time of his death. He was charged in November with aggravated assault after a couple reported to police he had approached them with a knife at a gas station parking lot off Cerrillos Road. In April, he was charged with receiving or transferring stolen vehicles and criminal damage to property after allegedly throwing a rock through the windshield of a truck in the parking lot of the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder.

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In 2018, he pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting an officer at Salvador Perez Park.

Previously, Lino-Gutierrez faced numerous misdemeanors, all of which were dismissed due to lack of prosecution.

Kalin Addison, 20, who is accused of wounding a woman in the June 23 shooting at De Vargas Park and then handing the gun to Lino-Gutierrez before he fled the scene, faces charges of first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery and tampering with evidence.

A hearing is scheduled Thursday on prosecutors' motion requesting Addison remain jailed without bond until her trial. Her public defender has asked the court to order an evaluation to determine if she competent to stand trial.

Follow Daniel J. Chacon on Twitter @danieljchacon.
Chicago feels refreshingly alive again. Restaurants across the city  the ones that managed to stay open  bustle with diners. Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field are once more inviting full capacity. Beaches, the lakefront path, city parks  specked with Chicagoans. That sense of normalcy the city craved for over a year  Chicago can feel it. Time to pop the Champagne?

Hold on. The delta variant is derailing party plans.

One lesson weve learned during the pandemic is the coronaviruss capacity to mutate. Variants have emerged  gamma from Brazil, alpha from the U.K., and now, delta from India  that have caused new outbreaks in parts of the world and forced governments to reimpose lockdowns. In Australia, Sydney issued a two-week stay-at-home order over concern about the delta variant. Delta also prompted Israel to reimpose its mask requirement.

In the U.S., delta now accounts for half of all new cases in as many as 10 states, including Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, and for more than 20% of all new coronavirus infections in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Illinois, cases attributed to the delta variant remain low  just 84 as of Sunday. However, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week that Illinoisans can expect delta to dominate cases statewide by the fall.

Deltas especially concerning because it spreads faster than other variants. Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, calls delta the most transmissible variant as of yet. And, the CDC says the delta variant can result in more severe disease.

As daunting as delta is, the best firewall we can put up is obvious. Vaccinations are the biggest reason why Illinois seven-day rolling average positivity rate is now under 1%. On Wednesday, Illinois had 259 COVID-19 cases, compared with a peak of 17,608 last November. And yet, despite that progress, more than half of Illinoisans have yet to be fully vaccinated. The states daily average for vaccinations has dipped from more than 100,000 a day in the sprint to the current seven-day rolling average of 43,219 vaccines administered.

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The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, said at a recent White House briefing on the virus. Good news: Our vaccines are effective against the delta variant.  We have the tools. So lets use them, and crush the outbreak.

Younger Americans, those in their late teens and early 20s, have been particularly reluctant to get vaccinated. Reasons vary from strong ideological opposition to vaccines to indifference about the need to get them. The Biden administration says it will redouble efforts to get younger Americans vaccinated.

In the meantime, everyone within earshot of a Gen Z individual  parent, grandparent, sibling, neighbor  should drive home the message. Want everything as it was? Pine for a time when masks stay in drawers? Want to turn back the threat of the delta variant? Get vaccinated. Its free, its easy and its the best and only way to put the pandemic in our collective rearview mirror.
Jun. 30Grand Forks Air Force Base is set to take command of another U.S. Air Force squadron, and add to its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission.

On June 30, the Air Force announced the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at GFAFB will take over command of E-11 Battlefield Airborne Control Node aircraft mission, based at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. According to the Air Force, the proposal comes about as part of its efforts to retire four E-8 JSTARS aircraft, to make way for the E-11 mission. The proposal is contingent on congressional approval.

"Bringing the E-11 under the jurisdiction of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing at the Grand Forks Air Force Base is an acknowledgment of the incredible leadership at the base, a recognition of how critical the base is to the nation's defense, and a reminder of how the base is responsible for much more than what can be physically seen there," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. "(Wednesday's) announcement will also help solidify the base's long-term success and stability in Grand Forks. I am grateful for the Air Force leaders who made this wise decision, and I look forward to helping ensure its success."

The E-11 mission is supported by about 290 service members at Robins Air Force Base. Those members won't be transferred to Grand Forks, and the unit will be considered a "geographically-separated unit" which will report to the 319th Reconnaissance Wing.

According to the GFAFB website, there are only four E-11 aircraft in service, though the Air Force will continue to take delivery to build its fleet inventory. E-11 aircraft function as a flying signal relay, to ensure communication between forces in the air and on the ground.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., lauded the decision to put the E-11 mission under GFAFB's control. Both Hoeven and Cramer have worked to support the base, by highlighting its capabilities for ISR, drones and communication satellites, and by discussing with high-level Air Force and U.S. Space Fire officials the possibility of conducting research in the region.

"We've worked to make Grand Forks a premiere hub for the Air Force's ISR operations," said Hoeven. "Placing the E-11 mission under the 319th RW's command further reinforces these efforts and is a testament to the excellent work of our service members in Grand Forks."
Jul. 1All members of the state House and Senate have been summoned to meet at noon Tuesday to consider overriding or amending any number of 28 bills that Gov. David Ige plans to veto, but exactly which bills remains uncertain.

At least one measurea proposed veto by Ige related to the state budgetwill be considered, state Sen. President Ron Kouchi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

On May 1, the day after the Legislature adjourned, the U.S. Treasury said that COVID-19 related American Rescue Plan Act funds cannot be used for debt service.

So Ige has said that he needs to veto the debt service planas well as other billsin order to comply with federal funding rules that were not in place during the legislative session that ended with lawmakers sending more than 200 bills to Ige's desk.

"We have directed them (House and Senate members ) to be present for session because we need at a minimum to fix the bond debt bill, " Kouchi said. "It is not a special session. A special session would have required two-thirds of each legislative body to agree to it, or the governor would have had to call us in. We are coming in for veto override purposes, so it's limited to that only. ... We are not entering a special session at this time."

Legislators had to make critical decisions coming out of the country's pandemic economy. During the legislative session, federal funding rules also remained unclear.

Then after the session, as Hawaii's tourism-driven economy rebounded, the economic forecast improved.

"Our economic shortfall wasn't as bad, " Kouchi said. "If that information was made to us, we would have made different decisions."

He and House Speaker Scott Saiki said they have asked Ige to tell them by Friday exactly which bills he intends to veto so they can decide how to proceed.

Depending on the bills that Ige vetoes, legislators could choose not to override them, to override them or to suggest changes to Ige that both the House and Senate would have to agree to.

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The length of the veto override discussions will depend on how legislators proceed.

They could meet only on Tuesday or possibly over multiple days, Kouchi said.

"If the House and Senate agree to a proposed fix, " Kouchi said, "they would have to lay it on the table for 48 hours."

Any bills that Ige does not veto by 11 :59 p.m. Tuesday become law with or without his signature.

It's the largest number of bills that Ige has signaled his intentions to veto, according to his office. The previous record high was 20 bills in 2019.

"Normally it's five to 10, " Kouchi said.

The record number of potential vetoes under Ige is largely the result of uncertainty over how much federal support Hawaii was going to receive amid the economic and health devastation from COVID-19and how that funding could be used.

In announcing his intent-to-veto list, Ige said guidance from the U.S. Treasury announced the day after the legislative session adjourned made it clear that federal rescue funds cannot be used for debt serviceso he needed to veto some bills to comply.

They include :House Bill 200, which would use federal funds for general obligation bond debt service and other programs that provide matching funds for federal dollars.House Bill 54, which would include federal stimulus funds to replenish the state's rainy day fund, which Ige said would violate federal guidelines.House Bill 613, which would use federal money to pay bonuses to teachers, another violation of federal rules, Ige said.House Bill 62, which would significantly change how the Hawaii Tourism Authority is funded and paves the way for increases in each county's Tourism Accommodations Tax rates.

Ige has repeatedly said that HTA is the best organization to manage Hawaii's resurgent tourism industry, being met with community complaints and concerns.
John Travolta/Instagram

John Travolta is spending some quality time with his youngest child.

On Wednesday, the Grease star, 67, and his 10-year-old son Benjamin attended Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Florida.

In a sweet video posted to Instagram, the father-son duo cheered on the Florida team while sitting in box seats at the arena.

"Stanley Cup playoffs. Let's Go Bolts! ," Travolta captioned the clip.

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RELATED: John Travolta Celebrates First Father's Day Without Late Wife Kelly Preston

Travolta's post comes two weeks before the first anniversary of wife Kelly Preston's death. The actress died in July 2020 at 57 after a two-year battle with breast cancer

Last month, Travolta celebrated his first Father's Day without his late wife.

The actor commemorated the special day with a sweet social media post featuring his children, Benjamin and Ella, 21.

"Happy Father's Day everyone! It is a privilege to be the father of these two beautiful children - thank you for the honor and my love and respect to all fathers," the Hairspray star wrote.

Ella honored her father on the occasion with a heartfelt Instagram tribute, in which she called Travolta her "best friend."

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RELATED VIDEO: John Travolta is Selling the Maine Mansion He Shared with Late Wife Kelly Preston for $5 Million

Alongside a photo of Travolta with his kids, Ella wrote, "Daddy, You make parenting look so easy, though it not always is. You make everyday better than the one before it. You bring joy to us when we are down. You are our best friend and we love you to the moon and back around."

"I hope to be even half as good of a parent as you someday," she continued the meaningful post. "Happy Father's Day to this incredible man and to all of the amazing Dads out there"

Travolta and Preston were married for 28 years before her death, after tying the knot in 1991.
Florida's social media 'deplatforming' law that would've taken effect on Thursday has been temporarily blocked by a federal court. US District Judge Robert Hinkle has granted a preliminary injunction to stop "the parts of the legislation that are pre-empted or violate the First Amendment" from being enforced, according to AP and The New York Times. The law would give the state the right to fine social media companies like Facebook up to $250,000 a day if they ban or remove the account of a statewide political candidate. They could also be fined up to $25,000 a day for banning a local office candidate.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposed the law shortly after Facebook, Instagram and Twitter banned former President Donald Trump. Republican politicians have long accused mainstream social media platforms of having an anti-conservative bias. After the bill successfully went through Florida's legislative house and senate, DeSantis signed it into law back in May. While the law targets the world's biggest social networks, the authors made sure Disney+ won't get caught up in it by making an exemption for theme park owners. As AP notes, the Walt Disney World located outside Orlando is one of the state's biggest employers.

The entities that filed the lawsuit to challenge the legislation were NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association  lobbying groups that represent Facebook, Google and other tech giants. Judge Hinkle explained that the plaintiffs would likely win the lawsuit on their claim that the new law violates the First Amendment if the case went to trial.

According to Hinkle:

"The legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standards  speech they otherwise would not host  and forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would...
PENSACOLA, Fla.  U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is inviting pop star Britney Spears to testify about her controversial conservatorship before Congress.

In a press release issued by Gaetz's office Thursday morning, the congressman from northwest Florida said he led a letter sponsored by Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Burgess Owens of Utah, encouraging Spears to testify before Congress about her "alleged abusive conservatorship, which gives her father full control of her multi-million-dollar assets and life decisions, despite Ms. Spears ability to competently control her actions and estate."

Gaetz announced his letter in an interview Wednesday evening on One America News. Overnight Wednesday, a California judge denied Spears' request to have her father, Jamie, removed as her conservator.

Gaetz speaks out for Britney: U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz joins 'Free Britney' campaign with push to look at conservatorships

A Britney Spears supporter waves a "Free Britney" flag outside a court hearing concerning the pop singer's conservatorship at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Last week, Britney Spears addressed the court in person about her conservatorship for the first known time in more than two years. She asked the judge to remove her father as her conservator, saying her conservatorship was "abusive" and her family was taking advantage of her multi-million dollar estate.

More: Britney Spears details abusive conservatorship in court. Here are biggest revelations.

"Im not here to be anyones slave," she said while appearing in Los Angeles court remotely via telephone last week. "Ive lied and told the whole world Im OK and I'm happy. It's a lie. I thought that maybe if I said it enough, I would maybe become happy because I've been in denial. Ive been in shock. I am traumatized.  Im so angry its insane. And I'm depressed."

In March, Gaetz requested that the House Judiciary Committee convene a hearing to review and examine the "plight" of Americans trapped unjustly in conservatorships, following a New York Times documentary about Spears' situation.

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More: Spears' forced IUD sparks important conversations about disability, reproductive rights

Here is the full text of Gaetz's recent letter to Spears:

Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Britney Spears conservatorship: Matt Gaetz asks her to testify
Jun. 30WASHINGTON  A bipartisan group of 21 Northwest lawmakers called on President Joe Biden on Tuesday to prioritize a long-running effort to renegotiate a 60-year-old treaty that governs how the United States and Canada share the waters of the Columbia River Basin.

In a letter to Biden, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Sen. Patty Murray and Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio led the group urging the president to update the Columbia River Treaty and keep the region's congressional delegation apprised of the negotiations. Efforts to revise the treaty, which was signed in 1961 and went into effect in 1964, began in 2013 amid concerns over salmon runs, flood risk and electricity the U.S. sends to Canada under the accord.

"Modernizing this treaty is critically important to protecting our region from flood control risks and ensuring we can continue to lead with clean, renewable, reliable, and affordable hydropower," McMorris Rodgers, a Spokane Republican, said in a statement. "The status quo and lack of communication are unacceptable. It's time for American leadership to step up and reach an agreement that benefits the entire Pacific Northwest in the 21st Century."

The treaty, which took more than 20 years to negotiate, came together after a devastating 1948 flood washed away what once was Oregon's second-biggest city, Vanport. It provided for the construction of one dam in Montana and three in British Columbia, completed between 1968 and 1973, that together more than doubled the amount of reservoir storage in the basin, providing benefits for both flood prevention and generating power.

Most of the treaty's provisions don't have an expiration date, but half a century after its signing, changing conditions spurred an effort to modernize it. The Bonneville Power Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers  which together form the U.S. entity responsible for the agreement  began a review of the deal in 2011 and recommended a series of changes to the State Department in 2013.

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The recommendations included letting more water flow through the dams in spring and summer to improve fish passage, decreasing the treaty's impact on tribal resources and updating flood management plans. The BPA and Army Corps of Engineers also recommended changing a provision known as "the Canadian Entitlement," which requires the U.S. to send cash and half of power generated downstream to Canada in exchange for the water resources.

The BPA and Army Corps of Engineers have estimated the value of the Canadian Entitlement to be between $229 million and $335 million a year, contending the current treaty gives the U.S. a raw deal. Canadian negotiators have argued the current entitlement is fair and they see no reason for the treaty to exist without that provision. Either country can terminate the treaty with 10 years' notice, but neither has done so.

"We want to get to a good deal as quickly as possible for our economy and families across the Pacific Northwest," Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. "I hope and expect the Biden administration will work with Tribes and stakeholders to quickly reach a comprehensive renegotiation of the treaty while keeping Congress abreast of its progress."

A State Department spokesperson said Friday the agency doesn't comment on congressional correspondence but promised to consult with lawmakers on the treaty.

"We are working to identify next steps with Canada regarding the Columbia River Treaty regime and will consult with our congressional colleagues on this issue, which impacts many sectors in the Pacific Northwest, including ecosystem protection, flood risk management, and energy," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter's other signers are Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson, both Idaho Republicans; Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley; Rep. Matthew Rosendale, R-Mont.; Oregon Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Kurt Schrader  all Democrats  and Cliff Bentz, a Republican; Washington Democratic Reps. Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Pramila Jayapal, Kim Schrier, Adam Smith and Marilyn Strickland; and Washington GOP Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse.

Two other Northwest senators who did not sign Tuesday's letter, Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell and Idaho Republican Jim Risch, sent their own letter June 10 asking Biden to prioritize the talks, designate a White House official to work with the State Department-led negotiating team, and requesting a meeting with

While Cantwell and Risch expressed their "full confidence" in the State Department team in their letter, the 21 other lawmakers on Tuesday demanded more transparency from the administration, writing, "We reject the argument that providing adequate information to the delegation puts our negotiating position at risk."

U.S. and Canadian negotiators held 10 rounds of talks between May 2018 and June 2020. Wednesday marks a full year since the last negotiating round.

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Orion Donovan-Smith's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
When it gets really hot and you still have to work during a climate emergency, it's important to know what labor protections are in place. (Photo: chuchart duangdaw via Getty Images)

Several cities in the Northwest experienced record-breaking temperatures this week, causing dangerous working conditions for people trying to do their jobs during the sweltering heat wave.

Lifeguards in Portland, Oregon, got sick from the heat, airline crews in Seattle needed rest breaks in cool down vans and Amazon workers in a Washington warehouse said temperatures reached 90 degrees indoors. Restaurant employees in at least three states walked off the job over hot conditions.

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The blazing sun and stifling heat dont just irritate and exhaust people trying to do their jobs - it can also be fatal. Excessive heat has been the leading weather-related killer in America for 30 years. Heat stress killed 815 U.S. workers and seriously injured more than 70,000 from 1992 through 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just this past Saturday, a farmworker in Oregon died while moving irrigation equipment on a day when temperatures reached 104 degrees.

Getting sick because of heat is an unfortunately common risk. As of June 30, more than half of farmworkers in Washington said that they have experienced a symptom associated with heat illness while working, according to a survey by the United Farm Workers Foundation.

Agricultural and construction workers are among the most at risk for heat exposure on the job, but because of the climate crisis, dangerously hot days are becoming the new normal for more industries. Heres what you need to know about your rights as a worker when it gets too hot:

You can refuse to do your job, but there is no federal standard for how hot is too hot to work.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency tasked with protecting workers health, gives workers the right to refuse dangerous work if theres a clear risk of death or serious physical harm. But if their employer fires them for it, workers have to win a retaliation case under the agencys laws to be reinstated or win back wages.

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When it comes to heat, experts say those laws are behind the curve.

Since 1972, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has issued multiple reports recommending standards for occupational heat exposure. These recommendations include basic requirements such as employers having to produce a plan for gradually acclimating workers to the heat and giving workers access to water and rest breaks in a shaded or air-conditioned area.

OSHA, however, has not followed these recommendations and adopted a specific heat standard. Instead, when deciding whether to issue citations for safety violations, the agency relies on a general duty clause that states employers must provide workplaces free from recognized hazards.

But filing a complaint under OSHAs general duty rule doesnt necessarily mean anything will be done right away to address excessively hot conditions on the job. David Michaels, the head of OSHA during the Obama administration, told HuffPost that the agency generally relies on its general duty clause after someone becomes sick or dies due to heat. The process can involve waiting for a death certificate and an autopsy report and analyzing other proof that there was a recognized hazard.

What that often means is that the citations are issued long after the heat has passed, so the citation has very little impact on other employers, Michaels said.

Still, death or illness doesnt have to be the only reason to file a complaint. If workers are being forced to work in extreme heat with no rest breaks and the opportunity to get out of the heat, for me this is a violation of OSHA law, Michaels said. And OSHA could use the general duty clause even though no one has been hurt yet.

But if OSHA had a heat standard, he said, the process could be done in days.

This is not a complicated hazard. Its not something where you need expensive personal protective equipment or some complex procedural way to limit the exposure, said Jessica Martinez, co-executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker advocacy group. Its very basic. Its rest, shade and water. We are in a position where we need that [heat standard] law in place, but its going to take some serious work.

To speed OSHA along, Democratic members of Congress this spring introduced the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, which would set a two-year deadline for OSHA to set a heat standard. Currently only a few states, including Washington, Minnesota and California, have specific laws governing occupational heat exposure, but even those can vary. In California, workers must be allowed to have access to nearby shade when temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit, while Washington does not have rest or shade requirements.

People can team up with their co-workers to demand changes such as more rest, A/C and water on high-heat days.

One of workers best options to protest working through excessive heat is to team up with co-workers. The National Labor Relations Act guarantees workers who qualify the right to engage in protected concerted activity, such as rallying for better working conditions. A group of colleagues working together to voice concern about a broken air conditioner or a lack of rest breaks in the heat will be more difficult for an employer to ignore than one person alone.

Take the example of Jack in the Box workers in Sacramento, California, who walked off the job Tuesday in protest over the heat in their restaurant. A group of employees said they walked off the job and filed a complaint because the air conditioner wasnt working on a 109-degree day earlier this month and that it still hasnt been fixed properly.

Because OSHA can only retroactively assist people fired for refusing to work in dangerous conditions  if they win their case, that is  Martinez recommends that vulnerable workers in high-risk, low-wage jobs present their demands as a group to help protect against potential retaliation.

Gather your co-workers and talk to your employers about what your demands are. We want rest, we want shade, we want water, Martinez said, recommending people use OSHAs educational materials as a resource for what they can ask for. Michaels also recommended OSHAs heat index app that tracks associated risk levels specific to a users geographical location. He said that showing OSHAs education materials, like the app, to an employer could also help bolster a potential OSHA case down the line.

For farmworkers, who have been historically excluded from the labor protections offered by the NLRA, learning to identify what heat illness looks like is key until more state and federal standards are in place.

Making sure youre keeping an eye on your co-workers, talking amongst each other as colleagues can even prevent heat illness. And, most importantly, take your breaks and if you feel sick, make sure you stop and rest, said Leydy Rangel, communications manager for the United Farm Workers Foundation. Other than that, the best way to protect farmworkers from heat illness across the U.S., really, is to make sure heat illness and prevention fatality standards are in place.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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There's a new thrilla in Manila on deck.

RuPaul's Drag Race queen Manila Luzon is set to host the first Filipino drag queen competition series Drag Den, the superstar announced Thursday on social media.

"It's time to lace up, Pilipinas! You wanted a drag cartel? We heard you, and we're making it MAJOR!" the two-time RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars competitor tweeted. "The first ever drag reality show in the Philippines is finally here, and I'm running the show!"

CS Studios 'RuPaul's Drag Race' queen Manila Luzon is hosting a new drag queen competition series 'Drag Den' in the Philippines.

Luzon didn't reveal details regarding the show's format, though an official profile for the project teases a "fierce and fabulous" journey with the drag superstar at the head.

After rising to prominence on season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race back in 2011, Luzon returned to compete on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 1 and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 4, where she quickly became a fan-favorite competitor for her ace acting skills and jaw-dropping fashions.

Though Luzon is hosting, Drag Den is not affiliated with the main RuPaul's Drag Race franchise or its production company, World of Wonder. Season 1 of Drag Den joins Canada's recently announced Call Me Mother  presented by season 9 queen Peppermint and RuPaul's Drag Race UK season 1 competitor Crystal  as the latest non-Drag Race pageant set to launch in the near future.

Still, the RuPaul's Drag Race series continues to expand its global reign, as WOW also announced Thursday that Drag Race Italia season 1 is on the horizon, while RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6 is currently airing new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

Subscribe to EW's BINGE podcast for full recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including our new season diving into all five All Stars seasons, featuring exclusive interviews with Jujubee, Alexis Mateo, Shea Coulee, Alaska, Detox, BenDeLaCreme, Kennedy Davenport, and more. And be sure to catch up on our BINGE recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race seasons 1-13 with Symone, Jaida Essence Hall, Trixie Mattel, Katya, Peppermint, Bianca Del Rio, Bob the Drag Queen, Sasha Velour, and more!

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England have added Somerset batsman Tom Banton to their one-day squad for Sundays final match against Sri Lanka.

The 22-year-old has been called up as cover after Dawid Malan was forced to leave the group for personal reasons.

That left England one batsman light in the series opener at Durham, with Jason Roy also missing the match with a tight hamstring, but they were still able to cruise to a five-wicket win.

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Getting replacement players into camp takes more time than usual given the current bio-security restrictions in place, meaning Banton will not join up for the second game at the Kia Oval on Thursday and will head straight to Bristol instead.

Should an unassailable 2-0 lead already be on the board, he could be given a chance to add to the six ODI caps he won in 2020, with a top score of 58 on debut against Ireland.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  A white Nashville police officer will plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter Friday just ahead of his first-degree murder trial, three years after he fatally shot an armed Black man from behind during a foot chase, his attorney confirmed Thursday.

Attorney David Raybin made the confirmation on behalf of 27-year-old Officer Andrew Delke, who was about to face trial over the death of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick.

The attorney for Hambrick's family, Joy Kimbrough, said Hambrick's mother, Vickie Hambrick, was not contacted or consulted and did not know about the deal until after it was done. Kimbrough said the deal includes a three-year prison sentence. Raybin declined to comment on any sentence length.

Shes very upset about it. Shes distraught about it. And she has said its like losing her son all over again, Kimbrough said of Hambrick's mother.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Glenn Funk said he could not confirm anything.
Coronavirus Coverage

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Mask order, other guidance for unvaccinated people

As Washington reopens, the state Department of Health encourages people to keep doing their part to stop the spread of COVID-19. Reopening does not mean the pandemic is over or that the risk of COVID-19 is gone, officials said in a news release.

The Secretary of Healths mask order remains in place. If you are unvaccinated:

 Continue wearing masks when indoors in public places.

 Keep washing your hands and watching your distance.

 Enable WA Notify for completely private exposure notifications and get tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms.

Reopening guidance

 Vaccine verification/negative testing: Recommended but not required for large indoor and outdoor events

 Capacity limitations: No restrictions in restaurants, bars, stores, businesses, theaters etc. (except large indoor events)

 Physical distancing: No requirements

 Facial coverings: Not required for vaccinated individuals, unless required by individual business

 Travelers: Follow CDC recommendations

*Some exceptions will include schools and childcare centers that will continue to have some facial coverings and physical distancing requirements.
Yankton, SD (57078)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 99F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
This undated photo provided by the Austin Police Department shows Daniel Perry, an Army soldier who shot and killed an armed protester after driving into a crowd demonstrating against police violence in the Texas capital last summer. Authorities say Perry has been indicted on a murder charge, Thursday July 1, 2021.
Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 110F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 81F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

Tomorrow

A mainly sunny sky. High 111F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
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YORK  Jonetta Lucas, 35, who is an inmate at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, will be spending additional time in prison and in post-release supervision after she was convicted of assaulting another inmate.

Her sentencing was held this week in York County District Court.

She is currently serving a four-year sentence out of Douglas County for two convictions of theft by shoplifting and operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest.

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She has also served prior prison sentences for the following crimes: possession of cocaine in Sarpy County; theft by shoplifting in Douglas County, and theft by shoplifting, third offense, in Douglas County.

She has participated in programming while incarcerated and intensive supervised probation could be helpful for her, her attorney, York County Public Defender David Michel said to Judge James Stecker, prior to the pronouncement of sentence.
NEW DELHI: Delhis Indraprastha Apollo has started administering the Sputnik V anti-COVID vaccine to the public in a staged manner from June 30. The hospital said that as of today, around 1000 persons have been administered the Sputnik V vaccine.

The spot registration and walk-in facility for Sputnik V are currently restricted and we are encouraging beneficiaries to register and make appointments through the CoWIN app, the Indraprastha Apollo hospital said in a statement.

The spot registration and walk-in facility for Sputnik V are currently restricted and we are encouraging beneficiaries to register and make appointments through the CoWIN app: Indraprastha Apollo#Delhi  ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2021

Indraprastha Apollo hospital had earlier said that it would tentatively start administering the two-dose vaccine by June 25. Sputnik V uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans. The two doses, given 21 days apart, are different and not interchangeable.

The Centre has fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs 1,145 per dose. The maximum price of Covishield for private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) has been fixed at Rs 780 per dose, while that of Covaxin at Rs 1,410 per dose.

Russia's Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has developed the vaccine and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is marketing it globally.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has been importing the shots from Russia. Over a period of time, the vaccine is also going to be manufactured in India. According to Gamaleya and the RDIF, Sputnik V has demonstrated an efficacy rate of 92 per cent.

In a related development, the central government`s Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has denied permission to Dr Reddy`s Laboratories for conducting Phase 3 trials of Russia`s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik Light in India.

"The SEC has denied permission to Dr Reddy`s to conduct phase-3 trials on the Russian vaccine Sputnik Light in India," sources told ANI.

After launching Sputnik V, Russia had introduced a new single-dose vaccine called Sputnik Light in May. Sputnik Light has also been developed by the Russian Ministry of Health, the Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

The RDIF had earlier said that the Russian Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine demonstrates 78.6 per cent to 83.7 per cent efficacy among the elderly, according to real-world data collected by the Ministry of Health of the Buenos Aires province (Argentina).

Live TV
New Delhi: Bollywood actress Mahima Chaudhry recently became the target of trolls as netizens expressed their disapproval of her 'insensitive' behaviour before condoling actress Mandira Bedi's husband Raj Kaushal's death. In a video by ace photographer Viral Bhayani, the actress was seen posing for the paps along with her daughter Ariana on Wednesday (June 30) and then expressing her grief over the filmmaker's demise.

In the viral video, Mahima is seen wearing shorts with a grey-green jacket while her daughter is seen sporting red athleisure. The duo is all smiles for the camera and after posing for the shutterbugs, Mahima proceeds to interact with the paps and remember the late Raj Kaushal. She brings out her phone and shows paps an old unseen picture of the director from his youth.

She also told paps that she had known him for a long time and that expressed her sadness over his unexpected demise.

However, the fact that she posed for the paps before speaking on such a sensitive topic did not go down well with netizens. Many of them took to the comments section to criticise the actress for 'smiling while talking while expressing grief'. One user wrote, "No man, this isnt cool. Highly insensitive", while another said, "Is she expressing grief??? Doesn't look like... Smiling and posing".

Check out the video and the comments:



Mahima is a single mother to her daughter. The actress divorced her husband Bobby Mukherji in 2013 and since then been single-handedly raising Ariana.

On Wednesday (June 30) filmmaker Raj Kaushal suffered a massive heart attack and succumbed to it. Actress Mandira Bedi's husband was a renowned filmmaker and producer and was 49 at the time of death.

Hearing the unfortunate news of his demise, several of his celeb friends and fans thronged on social media and extended condolences to the family. Raj Kaushal was the producer of films such as Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi (1999), Shaadi Ka Laddoo (2004), My Brother Nikhil (2005) among others. He turned director for Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, Shaadi Ka Laddoo and Anthony Kaun Hai.
In a world dominated by mobile phones, laptops internet, and online gaming, there's no doubt left that these things take up a chunk of our lives. And when it comes to children, the dependence on tech can have a lasting impact on their health and education. But while admitting to the fact that youngsters are indeed addicted to their phones and laptops, the Madras High Court refused to ban all online and offline video games, as requested by the petitioner. The court observed that it should be left to elected governments to take a policy decision on concerns around the addiction of children and young adults to these games.

There is no doubt children and young adults these days were addicted to their phones and laptops and their world appears to revolve around these gadgets, the court observed. But the courts cannot pass any such ban order at present, the first bench said. Policy matters like these must be looked into by the appropriate governments in the state or the Centre, the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said while disposing of a PIL petition from city advocate E Martin Jayakumar.

The court added that it will intervene only when there is some illegal act going on, or if there's something that is detrimental to larger public interest. But in the current situation, the court won't issue a diktat but rather leave it to the wisdom of those representing the people. The bench added that only if the executive fails to act, and if the court feels that a current situation poses a threat to the society, that it can step in.

The bench directed the petitioner to send within four weeks, representations to the Centre through the Ministry of Women and Child Development and to the State government through the department perceived to be most appropriate by the petitioner. The authorities concerned should give their due consideration to the matter and indicate their stand to the petitioner within eight weeks thereafter, the bench said. However it added that nothing in this order will prevent further complaints in being carried even to this court if appropriate executive action thereon is not forthcoming, it said.

According to the petitioner, mobile phones have completely taken over people's lives and even children crave for and obtain mobile phones. The addiction would be devastating and life-threatening in the sense that it destroys the career-building phase of a young adult and may even lead to suicidal tendencies, the petitioner contended.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Several BJP leaders and workers staged a protest near Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence on Thursday (July 1) alleging a scam in the procurement of buses by Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

While Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta demanded that Kejriwal dismiss transport minister Kailash Gahlot, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri demanded the resignation of the chief minister himself.

If Kejriwal is honest and has no hand in this bus scam, he should immediately dismiss the transport minister, Gupta was quoted as saying by PTI.

"The matter was raised in Assembly too but the ruling party with its brute majority there tried to put it under the carpet, said Bidhuri.

As no action was taken by the government, the BJP legislature party asked the Lt Governor for a probe into this, Bidhuri added.

The Delhi government has put on hold the process of procurement of 1,000 buses by Delhi Transport Corporation. Lt Governor Anil Baijal has formed a three-member committee to look into the matter.

Live TV
New Delhi: In a big setback to COVID vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), an expert panel of the country's central drug authority has recommended against granting permission to SII to conduct the phase 2/3 trial of COVID-19 vaccine Covovax on children aged two to 17 years.

The SII has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Monday seeking permission for conducting a trial of Covovax on 920 children, 460 each in the 12-17 and 2-11 age groups, at 10 sites.

"The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), which deliberated on the application, noted that the vaccine has not been approved in any country," a source said.

"It also recommended that the Pune-based company should submit the safety and immunogenicity data (of Covovax) from the ongoing clinical trial in adults for considering the conduct of a clinical trial in children," the source said.

Government panel recommends against allowing Serum Institute of India to conduct phase 2 & 3 clinical trials of Covavax #COVID19 vaccine on children of age 2-17 years: Sources pic.twitter.com/loOhzpjyFe  ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2021

The recommendations are learnt to have been approved by the DCGI. In August 2020, US-based vaccine maker Novavax Inc.

Had announced a licence agreement with the SII for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and India.

The clinical trials of Covovax began in India in March and the SII hopes to launch it by September for adults. In January, the SII had rolled out the Covishield vaccine in the country. It had entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

Live TV
New Delhi: Addressing concerns about the Delta Plus variant, labelled variant of concern, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria said that there is not much data to suggest that this new Delta strain is more infectious, leads to more fatalities or has developed immune escape mechanism, ANI reported.

Reiterating strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols, he said, There isn't much data on Delta plus variant to suggest it's more infectious, causing more deaths, or has developed significant immune escape mechanism. But if we follow COVID appropriate behaviour, we'll be safe against any of emerging variants.

More data is needed on mixing of doses, studies show that it may be effective and a little more side effects may be there. But we need more data before we can say that this is a policy that should be tried: Dr. Randeep Guleria, AIIMS Director  ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2021

The Delta Plus variant is a mutated form of the Delta variant of coronavirus, which caused the disastrous second wave in India.

Further, Guleria said that more data is required on mixing doses of two different vaccines before it can be recommended.

More data is needed on mixing of doses, studies show that it may be effective and a little more side effects may be there. But we need more data before we can say that this is a policy that should be tried, the AIIMS chief added.

Meanwhile, National Institute of Health (NIH) in the United States found that Bharat Biotechs Covaxin generates antibodies that effectively neutralize both Alpha and Delta variants of COVID-19.

On Friday (June 25), the Centre had informed that 51 cases of the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus have been detected in 45,000 samples sequenced so far in the country. Out of the total cases, nine were identified in Tamil Nadu, 22 cases in Maharashtra, seven in Madhya Pradesh, three in Kerala, two each in Punjab and Gujarat, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Karnataka.

(With agency inputs)

Live TV
Mumbai: NCP president Sharad Pawar's recent meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had elicited a lot of curiosity with plenty of conjectures about the topic of discussion. But Pawar said that the conversation wasn't on politics, rather their talks focused on how to fast-track development programmes of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The Congress is the third partner, apart from NCP and Shiv Sena, in the MVA, a coalition of parties which have different ideologies.

Pawar told the media, "No politics was discussed. Our view is that some decisions need to be taken fast. My meeting with the chief minister was to deliberate on how to expedite the state government's development programmes. There was no political discussion." The NCP leader, whose party is a key constituent in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government, had called on Thackeray two days ago amid speculation in political circles about differences among the ruling coalition partners.

The 80-year-old former Union agriculture minister also said the Centre should hold talks with farmers from North India who are protesting against the new agriculture laws for the last seven months. "The Centre should step up dialogue with them. Bringing political differences in the issue was wrong," he added. The NCP leader said the Maharashtra government favours amendments in the three new farm laws enacted by the Centre last year before their implementation in the state. "A dialogue has begun in that direction. A cabinet sub-committee headed by Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat is looking into it. I am not sure whether amendments will be introduced in the two-day monsoon session of the state legislature beginning from Monday (July 5)," he said.

(with PTI inputs)

Live TV
New Delhi: The Communist Party of China completed its 100 years today. Chinaa aggressive nationalism was on full display as a grand ceremony was organized at Tiananmen Square, in which Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the representatives of his government, Communist leaders and citizens of the country.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Thursday (July 1) explained how the Communist Party of China is resorting to a policy of hyper-nationalism to hide the economic crisis it is going through.

While celebrating the centenary, Jinping wore a coat just like China's first Communist President Mao Zedong. By doing this, Jinping tried to convey that he is the next greatest communist leader of China.

Notably, none of these 70 thousand people who came to take part in the ceremony were wearing a mask. By this, China showed that even as the world is struggling with the second and third wave of coronavirus pandemic, it has defeated it.

Jinping showcased China's communism as a big ideology in front of the whole world and also tried to tell that it has become the new center of global power.

The strength of the Communist Party of China rests on two pillars: its economy and its nationalism.

When Jinping became the President of China in 2013, the GDP growth rate there was 7.7 percent, but in 2020 it came down to just 2.27 percent. It is not that this decline came suddenly in a year. This declining trend has been seen for the last 7 years.

Another challenge before China is that its economy is not based on new inventions. Rather, China's production power is based on making cheap copies of others products.

Apart from this, China's economy is under a lot of debt and is based on exports. This is a strength for China as well as a big weakness because as soon as there is an economic recession in Europe and America, China's exports decrease and its economy starts to dwindle.

The declining number of its working population and the increasing population of the elderly has also posed serious challenges to Chinas economy.

The gist of all these points is that one of the pillars of the Communist Party, that is its economy, is completely shaken. And this is the reason why China is now turning to aggressive nationalism.

About 70 years ago, Mao Zedong said that Power grows from barrel of a gun. And after all these years, the Communist Party of China is working on this very idea.

In 2017, there was a conflict between China and India in Doklam. Then in 2020, China turned the tension into a violent conflict in the Galwan valley. All of this was done to nourish its aggressive nationalism.

It is clear that as Chinas economy is struggling, it is resorting to hyper-nationalism to keep control of its power.

India should be ready for this challenge. And unlike China, where the army does not belong to the country but to the Communist government, the Indian army fights for the country and is filled with the spirit of nationalism.

Live TV
New Delhi: India registered 48,786 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a slight increase from the daily count on Wednesday (June 30), as per the Union Ministry of Health data.

On Thursday, with 1,005 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the death toll climbed to 3,99,459. Also, 61,588 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours. The total caseload has reached 3,04,11,634, while 2,94,88,918 people have recovered so far. On Thursday, the active cases tally stood at 5,23,257.

On Wednesday, India had recorded 45,951 new infections, while the active cases were 5,37,064.

Meanwhile, Delta COVID-19 variant, first identified in India, has been detected in 96 countries, 11 more than last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in its weekly epidemiological update on Wednesday.

As per a recent study conducted in Scotland and published in the international medical journal Lancet, it was found that the hospitalization rate for patients infected with the Delta variant was 85 per cent higher than for those infected with the Alpha variant."This particular Delta variant is faster, it is fitter, it will pick off the more vulnerable more efficiently than previous variants," Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO`s Health Emergencies Program, was quoted as saying by ANI.

(With agency inputs)

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NEW DELHI: A recent report by the Pew Research Center, a Washington DC-based nonpartisan think tank, has found that a majority of Indians enjoy religious freedom, value religious tolerance and believe that respect for all religions is central to the idea of India.

The Pew study is based on a face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults between late 2019 and early 2020, weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world.

The Pew Research Center study highlights the new demographic projections which took into account the current size and geographic distribution of the worlds major religions, age differences, fertility and mortality rates, international migration, and patterns in conversion.

The Pew study also took a closer look at religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society. According to the Pew survey, people of all six major religious groups - Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists-overwhelmingly believe they are very free to practice their faiths.

However, in what seems to be a contradiction, the majority in almost every religious group shows a preference for keeping religious communities segregated and "wants to live separately". The Pew Research Center survey in India was conducted in 17 languages and covered nearly all the states and Union Territories.

Religion important for Indians

-According to the Pew study, 97% of Indians believe in God and religion holds n important place for them.

-Around 80% of people in most religious groups say they are absolutely certain that God exists.

-Cow is regarded as a sacred animal by Hindus in India.

-72% of Hindus in India believe a person is not a Hindu if he or she eats beef. This percentage is higher than those Hindus who say a person cannot be Hindu if they do not believe in God (49%) or never go to a temple (48%).

-One-third of the Buddhists say they do not believe in God as belief in God is not central to the teachings of the religion.

-The Pew survey reveals that around 74% of Muslims want access to their own religious courts for resolving matters related to family and inheritance.

-Though, Indian Muslims have had the option of resolving family and inheritance-related cases in officially recognized Islamic courts, known as dar-ul-qaza since 1937 but the decisions of these religious courts are not legally binding.

-The Pew study also took into account the opinion of the people of India with regard to inter-religious marriage. According to this, 66 percent of Hindus are against getting married in another religion.

-Apart from this, 78 percent Muslims, 36 percent Christians, 47.5 percent Sikhs, 45 percent Buddhists and 62.5 percent Jains are also against marrying in another religion.

-Diwali is the biggest festival of Hindus. As per the Pew study, apart from 95 percent Hindus in India, 20 percent Muslims, 31 percent Christians, 90 percent Sikhs, 79 percent Buddhists and 98 percent of Jains celebrate the festival of Diwali, and from these figures, one can understand that there is a brotherhood among all religions in India.

-India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia, according to the Pew study.

-Worldwide, the Hindu population is projected to rise by 34%, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion, roughly keeping pace with overall population growth.

-More than 70 years after India became free from colonial rule, Indians feel their country has lived up to one of its post-independence ideals: a society where followers of many religions can live and practice freely, according to Pew study.

Major projections of Pew study

The Pew study said that the religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the worlds major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. If current trends continue, by 2050 -

-The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.

-Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion  though increasing in countries such as the United States and France  will make up a declining share of the worlds total population.

-The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.

-In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.

-In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion.

-Muslims will be more numerous in the US than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.

-Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Pew study further stated that if current demographic trends continue, Islam will nearly catch up by the middle of the 21st century. Between 2010 and 2050, the worlds total population is expected to rise to 9.3 billion, a 35% increase.

According to the study, by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.

The global Buddhist population is expected to be fairly stable because of low fertility rates and aging populations in countries such as China, Thailand and Japan.

(Facts, figures & projections based on Pew study)

Live TV
New Delhi: The Jharkhand government, after reviewing the COVID situation in the state, decided to relax the COVID-induced lockdown restrictions in the said on Wednesday (June 30, 2021). The state government also issued a new set of guidelines for the state and said that these will come into force from Thursday (July 1, 2021) itself. According to the new order, the shops in the state can now emain open till 8 pm.

"The provisions related to observance of the Health Safety Week in the context of COVID-19 shall stand extended from 6 am on July 1 till further orders," a state government spokesperson said.

The state government also allowed cinema halls, bars, restaurants and multiplexes to operate with 50 percent capacity. Jharkhand also allowed stadiums, gymnasiums and parks to open from Thursday.

The Information Public Relations Department of the Jharkhand government also revealed that banquet halls and community halls will now be allowed to open with 50 person limit. The state government also announced that those coming from outside the state will no longer need to stay in quarantine for 7 days.

The decision to relax the COVID-19 curbs in the state comes after a high-level meeting of the Disaster Management Department which was chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren himself.

Here are complete guidelines:

- Bus service within the state will be allowed but the prohibition on inter-state bus transport will continue, the official said adding that the norm of seven-day home quarantine for people visiting Jharkhand from other states has been lifted.

- E-pass will not be required for movement in private vehicles within the state, a statement from the state government said adding it will be mandatory for such vehicles coming from outside.

- All government and private offices will be allowed to operate with 50 percent of the workforce.

- All shops can remain open till 8 pm on weekdays and they will be closed from 8 pm on Saturday to 6 am on Monday.

- Healthcare establishments and milk stores will remain open on weekends, the statement said.

- Cinema halls, bars, multiplexes and restaurants will be allowed to operate with 50 percent capacity while stadiums, gymnasiums, and parks can be opened, the statement said.

- All educational institutions will remain closed and examinations conducted by the state will be postponed.

- However, the examinations conducted by the Centre will be held.

- Anganwadi centres will remain closed but food items will be provided to the beneficiaries at home, the statement said.

- Gatherings of more than 50 people will not be allowed.

- Banquet halls and community halls can be opened but the number of people inside cannot exceed 50.

- Religious places will continue to remain closed for devotees and prohibition on procession will continue.

- Organising exhibitions and fairs will also not be allowed.

- Wearing masks in public places and maintaining social distancing will be mandatory.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand reported 85 new cases of COVID-19 and 120 recoveries on Wednesday. According to the state COVID-19 bulletin, the new cases pushed the case tally in Jharkhand to 3,45,610.As many as 3,39,583 people recovered from the disease so far in the state. The active number of cases in the state stands at 914.

(With agency inputs)

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Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) celebrates its Foundation Day each year on July 1 as 'Chartered Accountants' Day' or 'CA Day'.

ICAI is a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, viz. The CA Act, 1949 for regulating the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India.

Chartered accountants were one of the first accountants to form a professional accounting body making ICAI among the oldest professional institutes in India. The organisation has over 2.5 lakh members.

The official motto of ICAI is taken from the Upanishad which reads, Ya esha supteshu jagriti. It means 'the one who is awake in those that sleep'.

Associate members of the ICAI add the prefix CA to their names while members who have been in full-time practice for over five years of practice, can use FCA.

Extending his greetings on the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote,

Greetings to all Chartered Accountants on CA Day. This community has a vital role in Indias progress. I call upon all CAs to keep the focus on excellence so that Indian firms emerge as one of the best globally.

Greetings to all Chartered Accountants on CA Day. This community has a vital role in Indias progress. I call upon all CAs to keep the focus on excellence so that Indian firms emerge as one of the best globally.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 1, 2021

Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who is a CA himself, took to Twitter to wish fellow CAs,

Wishing a happy #CADay to all my fellow Chartered Accountants.

May you achieve success, contribute to taking our economy to new heights & build globally competitive Indian Audit Firms.

Wishing a happy #CADay to all my fellow Chartered Accountants. May you achieve success, contribute to taking our economy to new heights & build globally competitive Indian Audit Firms. pic.twitter.com/l9IkIss6Vp  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) July 1, 2021

PM Modi has time and again lauded the CA community and recognised the contributions of Chartered Accountants to Indias economy. In his radio show Mann ki Baat dated June 27, he lauded the vital role of CAs in India's progress.

ICAI wished all its stakeholders especially its members and students on the occasion and reaffirmed its commitment for a resurgent India.

ICAI wishes a very Happy Chartered Accountants' Day to all its stakeholders especially its Members & Students. Let us profess ethically & reaffirm our commitment for a resurgent India. #CADay2021 #CADay@PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc @JambusariaNihar @drdebashismitra pic.twitter.com/Fbpcd7EbFo  Institute of Chartered Accountants of India - ICAI (@theicai) July 1, 2021

The organisation will conclude its 3-day celebration of CA Day with a live event at 3 pm today (July 1, 2021) with Union Minister Piyush Goyal as the Chief Guest.


"The coronavirus has unleashed upon us a war-like situation. We, doctors and other medical staff, are working like soldiers. But here, we were not only putting our own lives but also those of our family members at risk," says Dr Sandeep Nayar, a senior doctor in the capital. Nayar's words find resonance with other doctors and those involved with the medical fraternity. The world has been dealing with the pandemic for the last one-and-half years, and doctors have been at the forefront of the frontline workers. Only July 1 - the birth and death anniversary of India's well-known physician and second chief minister of West Bengal, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, which is celebrated as National Doctors' Day in the country - we speak to some of the doctors about their journey, both personal and professional, in these COVID times.

'We were fighting a disease whose treatment we didn't know about'

Doctors agree that this has been a roller coaster ride for them. And amid all the difficulty, this was also a learning phase for them. "We had a myriad of experiences - bad, not-so-bad, helpless and even good experiences," says Dr Shyam Kukreja, Director and Head of Department of Pediatrics and Infectious Disease Specialist, Max Hospital. He says that when the virus first started circulating, little was known of it, even by doctors. "It was intriguing to study how some patients improved while some did not. And it was only gradually that we came to know more about the virus."

"We were fighting a disease whose treatment we didn't know about," agrees Dr Sandeep Nayar who is the Senior Director & HOD, Chest & Respiratory Diseases, BLK-MAX Super Speciality Hospital.

'Working in the PPE kits no mean task'

While the common public cribs about having to wear a mask at work, or outside in the heat, for healthcare professionals and doctors, it is a bigger challenge. "Breathing in those N-95 masks is not easy and we have to wear them for long hours. I go for rounds at COVID wards and I have to be in my PPE kit. It's very difficult," says Dr Nayar. Dr Kukreja admits that being not used to the masks, many doctors would initially feel dizzy after donning them for hours.

The fact that very little extra-curricular activities could be pursued amid the pandemic made relaxation further difficult for doctors. As Dr Nayar, who loves swimming, points out, that with pools closed amid COVID restrictions, there was an absence of his biggest stress buster.

'I haven't entered my parents room in the last 1.5 years'

Dr Nayar says that because he treats COVID patients, he has stayed away from entering his parents room, despite staying in the same house, in the last 1.5 years. "Even though I take full precaution, you never know. One small lacuna, and the virus can infect you. So I don't want to put my elderly parents at risk. I maintain social distance from them even inside the house and greet them from outside the room," says Dr Nayar adding, "We discussed this as a family before starting my work in COVID work and they were all supportive. I had told my parents that they won't be seeing a lot of me. But of course, we never expected it to go on this long."

'Don't send your kids to their grandparents' if you have COVID'

Dr Kukreja shares that throughout the pandemic, he has seen parents, who have contracted COVID, send their children to their nana-nani or dada-dadi's place. "This is the worst thing to do. Children are relatively safe and only 2% of COVID patients were kids. It's okay to be worried but it's best to stay in the house in such cases, following COVID protocols. Children are often asymptomatic and when you send them to grandparents', who are obviously in the elderly category, you are leaving them vulnerable. They are the most susceptible age group," says Dr Kukreja.

'Small victories bring joy'

The second wave has been particularly distressing, say doctors, when a lot of people in their 20s and 30s even succumbed to the virus. But amid the crisis, small victories give them joy and hope. Dr Nayar recounts, "A pregnant woman was admitted to our hospital with COVID and she had to be put on a ventilator. The day she walked out of the hospital with a kid in her arms, and COVID-free, it was one of my best memories of these times. Similarly, there was this 89-year-old, himself a doctor, who recovered from COVID, and it felt great. Of course there are countless sad experiences - like when a woman lost her husband when she was expecting - the small victories make us hopeful, give us strength."

Dealing with the administrative side and balancing the personal with professional

Dr Sahar Qureshi, Medical Superintendent, Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital, says that even for those involved with the administrative aspect, this has been a challenging time. "During the first wave, we didn't understand the virus, we now know of the treatment modalities far more than last year. Even we, doctors, were learning with the disease. When our hospital became a COVID-dedicated hospital, infrastructurally, we had to make a lot of changes. Things like where doctors and other healthcare workers should change into their PPE kits, the movements of the patients and doctors within the hospital, minimising chances of cross-infection- all these have to be kept into consideration."

Dr Qureshi also had to balance the professional and the personal. "I come from a family of doctors, so it was not difficult in that respect, but I have always been scared about the safety of my six-year-old son. Also apart from that, when I contracted COVID myself, many people in my family were down with the virus, which took a mental toll, says Dr Qureshi. She also had to undergo bigger personal loss. "One of my father's elder brothers, who I was very close to, passed away from post COVID complications. This affected me mentally, a lot, but I had to continue with my work, throughout. We have to help others."

But as she adds, "COVID has taught us to be patient. And you realise, life goes on."

Doctors' Advice:

On National Doctors' Day, as we celebrate our real-life heros, let's follow their suggestions to the T:

-- Continue to follow all COVID protocols. Follow SMS - (maintain) Social distancing. (wear) Masks, Sanitise (your hands)

-- Don't drop guard just because cases are dipping. Don't go out, unless necessary

-- Stay away from WhatsApp and other social media universities. Only listen to experts, consult doctors

-- Vaccinate. That's our best bet against the virus
New Delhi: Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modis sister has transferred a sum of Rs 17.25 crore from her bank account in UK to the bank account of Government of India, Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday (July 1).

Purvi Modi claimed that she was not aware of the bank account that was opened in her name by her brother and that she informed the investigating agency when she came to know about it.

Purvi Modi alias Purvi Mehta and her husband Maiank Mehta have been accused in the PNB scam.

On June 24, 2021, Purvi Modi intimated Directorate of Enforcement that she had received the knowledge of one bank account in London, United Kingdom in her name, which was opened at the behest of her brother, Nirav Modi, and that the funds did not belong to her, ED said in a statement.

As Purvi Modi was allowed tender of pardon on conditions of making full and true disclosure, Purvi Modi remitted an amount of USD 2316889.03 (Rs 17.25 crore) from her UK Bank account to the bank account of Government of India, Directorate of Enforcement, it added.

The ED said that it was able to recover the amount due to the cooperation of Purvi Modi.

Last month, Nirav Modi, whose extradition to India was ordered in April by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, lost the first stage of his extradition appeal in the High Court in London.

The Westminster Magistrates Court had earlier ordered the extradition of Nirav Modi to India. Modi has been in London Jail for the last two years and three months.

Last month, the ED had transferred attached assets worth Rs 8441.5 crore to a consortium of Public Sector Banks who had lent money to Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

Mallya, Modi and Choksi have defrauded the Indian PSBs to the tune of Rs. 22,585.83 crore.

To date, the ED has seized assets worth Rs. 18,170.02 crore which included assets worth Rs. 969 crore located in foreign countries.

As of date, out of total seized assets of Rs. 18,170.02 crore under provisions of PMLA, assets worth Rs 329.67 crore have been confiscated, and assets worth Rs 9041.5 Crore, representing 40% of the total loss to the bank have been handed over to the Public Sector banks.

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New Delhi: The Odisha government on Wednesday (June 30) extended the partial lockdown imposed in the state for 15 more days till July 16 in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation. The state government has divided the 30 districts into A and B categories on the basis of the test positivity rate (TPR). Twenty districts where the TPR remains less than five per cent are placed in the A category, while the rest 10 coastal districts, where the COVID-19 cases are high, are placed in the B category, Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra said.

Category A districts include Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Kalahandi, Balangir, Nuapada, Sonepur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Boudh, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Angul, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar.

COVID-19 guidelines for Category A districts:

1. No weekly shutdowns. Shops will remain open from 6 AM to 6 PM.

2. Buses will be allowed to ply with passengers up to the seating capacity and taxis and autorickshaws can carry a maximum of two passengers.

3. Daily markets and weekly haats are permitted to open open, small salons can function, street food vendors can operate takeaway businesses.

4. Outdoor and indoor film shooting has been permitted in these districts.

Category B districts include Nayagarh, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore and Mayurbhanj.

Check Category B districts guidelines here:

1. Shops can open from 6 AM to 2 PM but shopping malls, spas and beauty parlours shall continue to remain closed.

2. Bus services will not restart now and weekend shutdowns will continue in these districts.

Meanwhile, night curfew from 6 PM to 6 AM will remain in force across the state, irrespective of TPR. Religious and educational institutions and cinema halls will continue to remain shut. The ban on public gatherings, trade fairs, exhibitions and jatra (theatre) will also continue across Odisha. The restrictions on weddings will also continue, PTI reported.

The state government has modified funeral guidelines of COVID patients in order to let the grieving families pay their last respects. The desiring families of COVID-19 patients can now take the body of their dear one testing negative for the virus at the time of death. "However, if at the time of death, the patient is found to be COVID negative, and if the relatives of the patient claim the body, the same may be handed over to them in a sealed body bag with advisory of its safe disposal, so that the last rites can be undertaken by the family as per their customary practice," Additional Chief Secretary (Health), PK Mohapatra said in a letter.

But, for this the interested families have to give an undertaking that they would abide by the COVID protocols like not opening the body bag or touching or kissing the dead body and observing COVID appropriate behavior, he added.

On Wednesday, Odisha reported 3,371 fresh coronavirus cases which pushed the total tally to 9,09,800. With 48 more fatalities due to the infection, the death toll increased to 4,018. There are 31,422 active cases in the state currently, a health department official informed.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the occasion of National Doctors Day, will address the medical fraternity at an event on Thursday (July 1, 2021) morning. The event will be organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The event comes amid the country is still fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic and our medical fraternity played a crucial role in saving the lives of lakhs of people as the whole nation.

PM Modis address will be a way to show gratitude which the whole country feels towards the medical fraternity for their tireless support amid the crisis. Additionally, the address will begin at 3 PM via video conferencing.

Earlier, PM Modi taking it to his official Twitter handle said, India is proud of the efforts of all doctors in fighting Covid-19. 1st July is marked as National Doctors Day. At 3 PM tomorrow, will address the doctors community at a programme organised by @IMAIndiaOrg.

India is proud of the efforts of all doctors in fighting COVID-19. 1st July is marked as National Doctors Day. At 3 PM tomorrow, will address the doctors community at a programme organised by @IMAIndiaOrg.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 30, 2021

The Prime Minister, time after time, has lauded the efforts of the medical professionals who have been at the frontline of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier, while remembering Dr BC Roy, PM Modi in his 78th Mann Ki Baat address had said, "On July 1, we will celebrate National Doctors' Day. We must pay tribute to our doctors who ensured that India did not succumb to the challenges posed by COVID-19."

Each year, the National Doctor's Day is celebrated on July 1 in India, to acknowledge and celebrate the efforts that medical professionals put into the health, wellbeing and safety of other people. The day celebrates the incessant work put in by medical professionals throughout their careers to save human lives.

On the other hand, PM Modi is also scheduled to interact with the beneficiaries of the campaign on July 1 via video conference to mark the sixth anniversary of the Digital India campaign.

Digital India has been one of the biggest success stories of New India  enabling services, bringing Government closer to citizens, promoting citizen engagement and empowering people, a press release from the Centre read.

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court in a ruling on Thursday observed that street dogs have a right to food and citizens have the right to feed them, the court also said that in exercising this right it should be ensured that in doing so it does not cause harassment or nuisance to other citizens.

The high court laid down guidelines regarding feeding of stray dogs and called it a territorial being. The court observed that it has to be fed and tended to at places which is not frequented by the general public.

"Community dogs (stray/street dogs) have the right to food and citizens have the right to feed community dogs but in exercising this right, care and caution should be taken to ensure that it does not impinge upon the rights of others or cause any harm, hindrance, harassment and nuisance to other individuals or members of the society," Justice J R Midha said in the verdict.

The court emphasised that there is a need to spread awareness that animals have a right to live with respect and dignity and asked the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to carry out an awareness campaign in association with media.

Also, the High Court asked the AWBI to designate areas in consultation with Resident Welfare Associations for feeding of community dogs. Stating it was the moral responsibility of each and every citizen to protect the animals, the court also directed the AWBI to ensure that every RWA constitutes an Animal Welfare Committee.

The bench said that if any of the street or community dogs are injured or unwell, it will be the duty of the RWA to secure their treatment by the vets from the funds of the RWA.
New Delhi: Ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday announced that that his party will form alliance with smaller parties.

"Samajwadi Party is going to form an alliance with small political parties," the SP chief told ANI. Yadav claimed that the people in UP wanted a change and insisted that "people will vote for change".

Reiterating that the 2022 UP Assembly polls will usher in a democratic revolution in the state, he claimed that that his party is making inroads to gain dominance in the state.

Taking a jibe at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said the saffron party has forgotten its manifesto and that they should dump it in the garbage. "Since the day, BJP formed the government (in UP) it has forgotten its manifesto. I think BJP has thrown its manifesto in the garbage," he said.

On Wednesday, in a tweet the SP chief exuded confidence that his party would win 350 seats out of the total 403 seats in the assembly, claiming people are against the BJP government.

Yadav had said, "United against today's disruptive, conservative, negative politics, new politics of exploited, neglected, oppressed, humiliated, dalit, oppressed, deprived, poor, farmers, workers, women and youth is taking birth".

In the panchayat polls, of the total 3050 seats that polled, the Independents won 1081 seats, Samajwadi Party-supported candidates won 851 seats, 618 BJP-backed candidates won, while only 320 of the candidates supported by the BSP made the cut.

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New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to open schools for teachers of Classes 1-8 and academic staff soon. All schools were shut in view of the spiralling COVID-19 situation in the state. Even though the teachers will be called to schools for conducting departmental work and online classes, it will remain closed for the students.

Lucknow division's AD Basic Pratap Narayan Singh said that teachers have been allowed to be called back to schools, however, they will be called only when necessary and no one will be forced to come.

Earlier, an order was issued to reopen government schools for teachers and staff from July 1. Over 1.5 lakh schools, recognized by the Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board (UPBEB), which were closed till June 30, have been allowed to reopen from Thursday (July 1). An order in this regard was issued by Pratap Singh Baghel, UPBEB secretary, on June 15, which read, "Schools may call teachers and employees based on requirement."

Meanwhile, for schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the respective school management committees (SMCs) will decide on calling teachers and administrative staff from July 1.

The government schools have been directed to finish the tasks under 'Operation Kayakalp', which aims at providing basic facilities like toilets, boundary walls, drinking water and other amenities. Online classes or e-pathshala under Mission Prerna will continue till students can return to the campus, IANS reported.

The government schools will also undertake activities to ensure 100 per cent enrolment of students, distribution of food security allowance (for mid-day meal) and free books to students in a time-bound manner.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday (July 1) advised the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to work towards improving the image of the police and to enhance communication with the public.

Shah was addressing the 72nd batch of IPS officers through video conferencing. He said that there are allegations against police about taking "no action" or taking "extreme action", hence they should work towards taking "just action".

Just action means natural action and police should understand the law and do the right thing, Shah said, according to a statement released by the home ministry.

"Communication and sensitivity is necessary to improve the image of the police, that is why there is a need to sensitise all police persons as well as increase communication and public contact," he said.

Stressing that it is very difficult to gather information about crime without public contact, the home minister said that the Superintendent of Police and Deputy Superintendent of Police should go to tehsils and villages and meet people and stay with them overnight to enhance communication.

They should also interact with the people living under the jurisdiction of important police stations in their area, he said.

Shah also said that officers of the All India Services, especially IPS officers, should stay away from publicity.

The home minister told the young police officers to work carefully as they will have the key responsibility of maintaining law and order and ensuring criminal justice system and a little haste in it can do injustice to someone.

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NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of Indias delimitation commission is scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir this week during which it will interact with administrative officials, political parties and public representatives as part of the exercise to complete the delimitation process ahead of polls in the UT.

The visit of the delimitation commission holds significance since it comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s all-party meeting with leaders from Jammu and Kashmir during which they discussed the issue of re-starting political activity in the Union Territory.

What is delimitation?

Delimitation is a process of demarcation of the boundaries of parliamentary or assembly constituencies (based on the latest Census data) in a way that the population of all seats is equally covered and gets a proper representation.

The Delimitation exercise is carried out after every census. Since its a politically sensitive process, it is not carried out by the Centre or state government. Instead, a high-powered body known as the Delimitation Commission is constituted by the Parliament by enacting the Delimitation Act under Article 82 of the Constitution.

The Delimitation Commission is vested with great powers and its orders are legally binding which means they cannot be questioned before any court.

Who all are the members of the Delimitation Commission?

The delimitation commission primarily consists of a chairman, who can either be a retired or a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, the chief election commissioner or any of the two election commissioners, and the election commissioner of the state in which the exercise is being carried out.

Besides, a select number of MPs and legislators (maximum 5) of the state chosen for the delimitation exercise can also be included as additional members of the commission.

Delimitation Commission is a temporary body and entirely depends on the Election Commission for carrying out the delimitation exercise. On behalf of the commission, the poll panel officials collect Census data for each district, tehsil and gram panchayat and on the basis of the information, the new boundaries are demarcated. Delimitation is a complex political exercise and can take up to five years.

Who heads the delimitation commission set for J&K?

For J&K, a three-member delimitation commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai was set up in March 2020 for a year. Later, the panel got a one-year extension from the Central government on March 3, 2021, after it failed to complete its task last year. The commission had resumed its work in full swing in the run-up to PM Narendra Modis recent all-party meeting with top political leaders of J&K.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 notified by the government on August 9, 2019, paved the way for the creation of two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature and Ladakh, without it.

The Act provides that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies will be determined by the Election Commission.

What will the Delimitation Commission do in J&K?

The delimitation commission has been tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies (based on the latest Census data) ahead of the electoral process in J&K and restoration of its statehood in the days to come.

In order to complete the task of delimitation on time, the District Election Officers and Deputy Commissioners of 20 districts of the Union Territory will gather first-hand information and input concerning the ongoing process of delimitation as mandated under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

Why is delimitation exercise in J&K different from other states?

The delimitation exercise held in J&K in the past has been different than the other states because of the special status accorded to the erstwhile state of J&K under Article 370. In J&K, the delimitation commission was first constituted in 1952 and then in 1963, 1973 and 2002.

During the last such exercise, the demarcation of Lok Sabha seats in J&K was governed by the Constitution of India and for Assembly seats of the erstwhile state, it was governed by the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.

The last such exercise in J&K was held in 1995, under the Presidents Rule. Retired Justice KK Gupta was the head of the delimitation commission back then. The next delimitation exercise was supposed to be held in 2005, but it was stoped in 2002 after the then Farooq Abdullah government froze the exercise until 2026 by amending the Jammu & Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957, and Section 47(3) of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir.

Why J&K leaders are concerned about the delimitation exercise?



The delimitation in J&K is a politically sensitive matter as it concerns the representation of Kashmir where Muslims are in majority and the Hindu-dominated Jammu in the Legislative Assembly.

Political parties, including BJP, have been demanding greater representation for Hindu-dominated Jammu in the legislative assembly. To buttress their point, they claim that the freeze enforced by the then Farooq Abdullah government in 2002 has led to a poorer representation of Hindus from Jammu. The J&K Assembly, at that time, had 87 seats - 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh - 24 were reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 notified by the government on August 9, 2019, has paved the way for the creation of two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature and Ladakh, without it. The Act provides that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies will be determined by the Election Commission.

The mainstream political parties in J&K remain concerned that their political fortunes will see a reversal after the delimitation exercise.

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New Delhi: Equity benchmark Sensex dropped 164 points on Thursday following losses in index majors Infosys, HDFC twins and Reliance Industries amid a weak trend in Asian peers. The 30-share BSE index ended 164.11 points or 0.31 per cent lower at 52,318.60.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty inched 41.50 points or 0.26 per cent down to 15,680.

Bajaj Finserv was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 2 per cent, followed by Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and IndusInd Bank.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and NTPC were among the gainers.

"Domestic equities continued to trade range-bound as rebound in auto, pharma and FMCG was overshadowed by profit-booking in financials and IT space," said Binod Modi, Head- Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Strong June month dispatches reported by the automobile companies aided auto index to see sharp rebound, he noted.

However, weak cues from global markets also weighed on sentiments.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo ended with losses. Equities in Europe were trading with gains in mid-session deals. Also Read: Exclusive: Domestic airlines suggest Aviation Ministry allow passengers to take flights with COVID vaccine certificates

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.90 per cent higher at USD 75.29 per barrel. Also Read: Good news for Maruti Suzuki car owners! Free service, warranty timelines extended

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New Delhi: Domestic airlines have urged the Ministry of Civil Aviation to make COVID-19 vaccine optional for flyers carrying a negative RT-PCR report for air travel. Carriers noted that the COVID-19 vaccine certificate should be added as an optional arrangement for air travel.

Representatives of airlines have recommended that if the passenger has taken both the doses of any COVID-19 vaccine or if he has taken a single dose and the passenger is in the safe category in the Arogya Setu app, then he/she should be allowed to travel by air without any issue.

At present, RT PCR negative report is required for air travel in different states, but all the states are not following the same rules.

On behalf of the airlines, representatives said that in case of an emergency journey or if theres a delay in procuring an RT PCR report, COVID-19 vaccine certificates can come in handy.

Domestic airlines, which are going through turbulent times, hope that making COVID-19 vaccines optional for air travel will encourage passengers to vaccinate themselves as soon as possible, giving a push to the governments ambitious target of achieving 100% vaccination.

However, it is important to note states have the right to whether accept travellers based on the COVID-19 report or not. The states can recognize the COVID-19 vaccine certificate for the passengers coming to any airport, railway station or bus stop in their state. Also Read: SBI, Axis, IDBI, other banks change rules from July 1: All you need to know

The Aviation Ministry can appeal to the state government if it agrees with the recommendations suggested by domestic airlines. Also Read: WhatsApp rolls out Snap-like 'view once' feature for Android beta testers

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#mute
Mumbai: Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, who is undergoing treatment for pneumonia at a hospital here, is doing well and is expected to be discharged tomorrow, his secretary said on Thursday.

The 70-year-old actor was admitted to the Khar-based P D Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre, a non-COVID-19 facility, on Tuesday.

"He is doing well. He might be discharged tomorrow," Naseeruddin Shah's secretary Jairaj told PTI.

On Wednesday afternoon, Naseeruddin Shah's wife and veteran actor Ratna Pathak Shah told PTI that he had a "small patch" of pneumonia in his lungs and was undergoing treatment for the same.

Naseeruddin Shah, an alumnus of the National School of Drama (NSD) and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), is known for his contribution towards parallel cinema, with films such as Nishant, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Ijaazat, Masoom, and Mirch Masala.

He has also created a space for himself in the commercial cinema with movies such as Mohra, Sarfarosh, Ishqiya, The Dirty Picture, and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, among others.

The veteran, whose career spans 46 years, is also known for his extensive work in theatre and running the theatre group, Motley Productions.

The multiple National Award-winning actor was last seen in the 2020 feature drama 'Mee Raqsam' and the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video series 'Bandish Bandits'.

Legendary actor Dilip Kumar too has been admitted to the same hospital due to age-related medical issues.
Mumbai: Legendary actor Dilip Kumar has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a city hospital here to address medical issues related to old age, his family friend Faisal Farooqui said on Wednesday.

The 98-year-old screen icon was taken to the suburban Khar-based Hinduja Hospital, a non-COVID-19 facility, after he reportedly complained of breathlessness, hospital sources said earlier in the day.

In an update, posted on Kumar's official Twitter handle, Farooqui thanked the veteran actor's well-wishers for their prayers.

"Dilip Saab has been admitted to Hinduja Hospital, Khar to address medical issues related to illness which are frequently expected in a 98 year old. Your love and prayers are truly appreciated by Saab," he tweeted.

Dilip Saab has been admitted to Hinduja Hospital, Khar to address medical issues related to illness which are frequently expected in a 98 year old. Your love and prayers are truly appreciated by Saab- Faisal Farooqui  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 30, 2021

According to the hospital sources, Kumar was admitted to the medical facility on Tuesday and is currently doing fine.

"He was admitted yesterday during the day due to breathlessness. Given his age and recent hospitalisation, the family decided to take him to the hospital as a precautionary measure. He is fine. He is in the ICU so that the doctors can monitor him," the hospital insider told PTI.

Kumar was earlier admitted to the same hospital on June 6 due to episodes of breathlessness.

The Hindi cinema veteran was then diagnosed with bilateral pleural effusion -- a build-up of excess fluid between the layers of the pleura outside the lungs and underwent a successful pleural aspiration procedure. He was discharged after five days.

Kumar's career spans over five decades with hits like Mughal-e-Azam, Devdas, Naya Daur, and Ram Aur Shyam. His last big screen appearance was in the 1998 film Qila.
New Delhi: A powerhouse of talent, actor-director and producer Farhan Akhtar is gearing up to entice his audiences with 'Toofan'. The actioner is helmed by maverick filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The trailer was unveiled a day back and as expected has received a warm reception.

In a roundtable conference, Farhan Akhtar addressed the media, talking about his upcoming venture Toofan, his prep-up for playing a boxer and much more.

When asked, if ever he's offered a biopic on any film personality, who would it be?, the actor told Zee News Digital, "Wow! I have been asked this before and the reason it is difficult to answer is that when you name one or two, it kind of negates the many other people who have incredible stories to be told. But the ones that more often than not spring to me, and again, am not answering this question as an actor but firstly as someone who would love to see these films. I would love to see a story on Kishore Kumar. He is such a part of our lives through his music and songs. Every generation discovers him over and over again. He had a spark in him and there was a madness in him - would be an incredible film."

"Another person whose life would make for great viewing would be Guru Dutt. Incredibly talented, gifted director, who left us too early. And socially so conscious in all his films," he added.

Farhan continued, "When I think about other characters who I don't know much about, but I would love to know their stories, somebody like Fearless Nadia would be amazing. This part German woman who was doing these action movies, what's her story, where did she come from - there are many like that."

"I hope the day does come, it would be an absolute privilege to do a film based on these incredible legends. Let's hope for the best," the Toofan actor said.

Farhan Akhtar plays a national-level boxer in Toofan. It stars Mrunal Thakur and Paresh Rawal in supporting roles. The film will schedule to release on July 16, 2021, on Amazon Prime Video.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of film producer and Tips Industries co-founder Ramesh Taurani in the case of murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997, and also confirmed the conviction and life sentence imposed on accused Abdul Rauf Merchant.

A division bench of Justices S S Jadhav and N R Borkar also quashed the acquittal of another accused in the case- Abdul Rashid Merchant, brother of Rauf, and convicted him to life imprisonment.

Gulshan Kumar, also known as the 'Cassette king', was shot dead in August 1997 outside a temple in suburban Andheri.

According to the prosecution, his rivals had paid money to gangster Abu Salem to eliminate him.

On April 29, 2002, a sessions court acquitted 18 of the 19 accused. The trial court convicted Rauf under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 392 (robbery) and 397 (causing grievous hurt in robbery) of the Indian Penal Code and section 27 (possession of arms) of the Indian Arms Act.

Rauf subsequently appealed against the conviction, while the state government filed an appeal against the acquittal of Taurani.

On Thursday, the high court dismissed the state government's appeal and upheld the acquittal of Taurani.

The bench, however, upheld the conviction of Rauf and also the life sentence imposed on him, but quashed and set aside his conviction under sections 392 and 397.

"The acquittal of another accused Abdul Rashid Merchant is quashed. Rashid is convicted under sections 302, 120(b) of the IPC and section 27 of the Indian Arms Act. The accused is sentenced to life imprisonment. He is directed to surrender forthwith to the trial court or the D N Nagar police station," the high court said in its order.

The bench also said Abdul Rauf Merchant would not be entitled to remission, considering his conduct during the trial.

"The appellant (Rauf) shall not be entitled to remission considering his criminal antecedents and in the interest of justice and public at large, he is not entitled to any leniency," the court said.

The court noted that after the killing, Rauf had absconded and was arrested only in 2001.

"In 2009, he (Rauf) was granted furlough, but he did not surrender and had to be arrested in 2016 again," the bench said.

The court said if Rashid fails to surrender, then the sessions court can issue a non-bailable warrant.
New Delhi: After actress Mandira Bedi's husband Raj Kaushal's untimely death, the Bollywood industry, his family and friends have been in a state of shock unable to digest his sudden demise. While fans are aware that the filmmaker died of a massive heart attack, music director Sulaiman Merchant recently shed more light on the whole ordeal in an interview with a leading daily.

Speaking to ETimes, he revealed that the filmmaker was feeling uneasy the evening of his demise and had taken an antacid tablet to combat the queasy feeling. However, in the middle of the night, at around 4 am, Kaushal had told Mandira that he was getting a heart attack. By the time they reached the doctor, Kaushal had already left them for his heavenly abode.

He said, "Raj was feeling uneasy in the evening. Well, he took an antacid tablet. Time rolled by into the night, and around 4 am, Raj felt more uneasy. Raj told Mandira that he was getting a heart attack. Mandira acted swiftly and called Ashish Chaudhary, who rushed to their place. Mandira and Ashish put him in the car but he was losing consciousness. I think they drove off, taking him to the Lilavati Hospital if I'm not wrong. But in the next 5-10 minutes, they realised that he had no pulse. Before they reached the doctor, it was too late."

Merchant revealed that Raj had been experienced a heart attack earlier as well. "I think he was 30-32 then. But they took a lot of care after that attack, and he'd kept fine since then," he said.

Filmmaker Raj Kaushal succumbed to a massive heart attack in the wee hours of June 30, 2021, Wednesday. The 49-year-old director-producer is survived by his wife Mandira Bedi, kids Vir and Tara. Fans and industry colleagues expressed shock over the unfortunate incident.

Mandira Bedi was inconsolable at the funeral of her late husband and had celeb friends extending support to her in this hour of grief.
New Delhi: Central government employees and pensioners may have a reason to celebrate, as the long wait for the hike in dearness allowance (DA) could finally end soon. Previously, many were hoping that the government would reinstate the DA hike from July 2021 onwards. However, that doesnt appear to be happening right now. Meanwhile, new reports suggest that the increase in DA could reportedly come into effect from September 2021 onwards, benefitting over 1 crore central government employees and pensioners.

The decision was reportedly taken after the June 26 meeting between officials of the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM), the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT).

The National Council of JCM has issued a letter related to the hike in the Dearness Allowance (DA). The letter, which was seen by Zee Business, pointed out that the June 26 meeting on DA hike restoration ended on a positive note.

The increase in the DA of central government employees has now been suspended for over 18 months. The government had taken the step to save funds to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 situation.

The letter was issued by the office of JCM Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra. In the letter, Mishra had reportedly pointed out that the Union cabinet secretary has agreed to withdraw the suspension on DA and DR. Aslo Read: Factory activity shrinks for first time in 11 months amid COVID-19 crisis

Meanwhile, the government is yet to take a final decision on the arrears of the increased DA or DR, which havent been paid to Central Government employees and pensioners. Also Read: Bank Holidays July 2021: Banks to remain shut for 15 days, check important dates

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New Delhi: Customers of State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), Syndicate Bank and Axis Bank, among others, may need to note that their bank has updated a few rules or charges from July 1. New rules of IDBI Bank and Canara Bank are also coming into effect from July 1, 2021.

New rules of the State Bank of India (SBI)

SBI Basic Saving Bank Deposit (BSBD) account holders will now be able to withdraw cash only four times from ATMs or banks branches for free in a month. Customers will have to pay to small processing fee of Rs 15 plus GST from the fifth cash withdrawal onwards.

Meanwhile, the prices for cheque books have also been revised by SBI. BSBD account holders will now have to pay Rs 40 plus GST for a 10-leaf cheque book while they will have to pay Rs 75 plus GST for a cheque book with 25-leaf.

Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank changes

IFSC codes of Syndicate Bank will change from July 1, 2021. For those uninitiated, the Reserve Bank of India had merged Syndicate Bank with Canara Bank last year. However, the IFSC codes are changing from July 1.

Syndicate Bank customers can add 1000 to their old IFSC codes before sharing them with others for receiving money. For instance, the new IFSC code will be CNRB0013687 if the previous code was SYNB0003687.

IDBI Bank rule change

IDBI Bank will now offer only 20-leaf cheque book for free starting July 1. After exhausting the free limit, customers will be charged Rs 5 per cheque. However, customers of IDBI 'Sabka Savings Account' are immune to the change in the rules.

Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank cheque book change

Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank customers will start receiving new cheque books starting July 1. Both the banks were merged with the Canara Bank by RBI last year.

Bank of Baroda IFSC code change

Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda in 2019. Customers of both the banks were allowed to use old IFSC codes till June 30 as a buffer time provided by the time.

However, from July 1 onwards, customers are advised to use new IFSC codes to ensure that transactions dont fail. Also Read: Big blow to common man! LPG cylinder prices increased by Rs 25.50, check rate in your city

Axis Bank SMS alerts fees

Axis Bank will start charging 25 paise per SMS alert received by customers. A maximum fee of Rs 25 per month can be charged by the bank as part of the service. But customers may not need to worry much because promotional messages and OTP alerts will remain free of cost. Also Read: Small saving schemes alert! PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi interest rates unchanged for next 3 months

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Chennai: A video of Nisha, a newly married 22-year old woman performing martial arts, while clad in a saree has taken the internet by storm. Married on June 28th in her hometown Tuticorin in southern Tamil Nadu, Nisha staged the performance to a large gathering of villagers, right after tying the knot.

With her deft moves and daring precision, she performed traditional Tamil martial art forms Surulvaal, Silambam and Adimurai. Despite being clad in a saree and complete wedding attire, she appeared at ease while performing the complex moves. That perfection is thanks to the martial arts training she is said to have been undergoing for several years.

#ViralVideo: Sari clad, newly married woman acing her martial arts performance in #TamilNadu WATCH: pic.twitter.com/nlkuEEHJbb  Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) July 1, 2021

Her nearly 30-minute performance, amid a gathering of cheering villagers and wedding guests, was done to create awareness among young girls. She performed, at the open venue where her wedding took place. This was her familys way of encouraging girls and women to take up martial art forms for their self-defence and safety.

It is said that the young B.Com graduate is an aspiring police officer and she was motivated by her mother to carry on learning martial arts. Her husband, a farmer is learnt to have been encouraging having the awareness-creating martial arts display, at the time of their wedding.
Beijing: Celebrations in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of China`s ruling Communist Party kicked off on Thursday morning with a flyby of fighter jets and helicopters at Tiananmen Square in the centre of the capital.

Around 30 aircraft formed a "100" as crowds cheered under the gaze of the nation`s leaders, including President Xi Jinping, seated at the southern ramparts of the Forbidden City. In a televised address from the square, Xi said China had achieved its centenary goal of building "a moderately prosperous society."

The overarching theme of the party`s work over the past 100 years was to rejuvenate the nation, said Xi, China`s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. "The people of China are not only good at destroying the old world, they have also created a new world," Xi said. "Only socialism can save China."

Xi and the party are riding high as China recovers briskly from the COVID-19 outbreak and takes a more assertive stand on the global stage, although Beijing also faces criticism over its actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and contends with a worsening demographic outlook that imperils long-term economic growth.

The people of China would never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate them, Xi said. "Anyone who dares try to do that will have their heads bashed bloodied against the Great Wall of Steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," he said.

The Chinese Communist Party, which came to power in 1949 under Mao, initially recruited peasants and workers, but has evolved to embrace markets and entrepreneurship under "socialism with Chinese characteristics" while retaining a Leninist model of authoritarianism.

China will build up its military to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development, elevating it to world-class standards, Xi said in his address on Thursday.

"We must accelerate the modernisation of national defense and the armed forces," said Xi, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, which controls the country`s armed forces.

Party ranks swelled by 2.43 million in 2020, the largest annual gain since Xi became president in 2013, to 95.15 million members now, data released on Wednesday showed.

On Monday, Xi presided over theatrical performances at the "Bird`s Nest" National Stadium in a show attended by thousands and that state media described as "epic". At the end, the audience rose to sing a song, "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China."

Xi said any attempt to divide the party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the party was bound to fail. "The more than 95 million party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," Xi said.

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Copenhagen: The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that COVID-19 cases are rising again in Europe after two months of decline. The global health body warned that a new wave would come "unless we remain disciplined."

"There will be a new wave in the WHO European Region unless we remain disciplined. Last week, the number of cases rose by 10 per cent, driven by increased mixing, travel, gatherings and easing of social restrictions," WHO`s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said at a press conference.

Kluge also cautioned that this reversal came in the context of rising cases of the Delta variant and said that it could become the dominant strain in WHO`s European region, which is made up by 53 countries and territories -- including several in Central Asia -- by August.

The regional director also highlighted the importance of vaccines and said, "Vaccines have been shown to also protect against the Delta variant, but a high level of protection requires two doses."

Kluge mentioned that the average vaccine coverage in the WHO`s European region was 24 per cent, and half of the elderly people and 40 per cent of healthcare workers were still unprotected. "That is unacceptable, and that is far from the recommended 80 per cent coverage of the adult population," he added.

Voicing concern over many countries failing to vaccinate their people, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for vaccinating at least 10 per cent of the population of every country by September as he described vaccination as the best way to control the pandemic and reboot the global economy.

"Vast inequities in the access to vaccines are fuelling a two-track pandemic. While some countries have reached a high level of coverage, many others don't have enough to vaccinate health workers, older people & other at-risk groups," the World Health Organisation Director General said in a virtual address to India Global Forum.

(With Agency Inputs)

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Washington: The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is the "greatest threat" to America's attempt to eradicate the Covid pandemic, the country's leading infectious disease expert and White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has warned.

The variant, which was first detected in India, is more contagious and causes more severe disease than other circulating variants, he said on Tuesday during a White House Covid-19 response team briefing.

Fauci said the Delta variant now makes up more than 20 percent of all new cases in the US, nearly doubling from nearly 10 percent two weeks ago. "Similar to the situation in the UK, the Delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19," Fauci told reporters during a virtual news conference.

However, the "good news" is that the US vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, said Dr Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

"Conclusion, we have the tools, so let's use them and crush the outbreak," he asserted. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed Delta a "variant of concern" last week.

The Delta variant recently became the dominant strain in the UK, surpassing the Alpha variant first discovered in the country. The strain makes up more than 90 percent of new cases and delayed the UK's scheduled reopening.

The transmissibility of the Delta variant is unquestionably greater than the wild type SARS-CoV2 as well as the Alpha variant, Fauci said, adding that it is associated with increased disease severity as reflected by hospitalisation risk compared to the Alpha variant.

The Imperial College of London did a study in over 100,000 homes and found that youth were driving the UK's surge with a five-fold higher positivity among children aged 5-12 and young adults 18-24 years versus people older than 65 years old, he said.

"Look at what is happening in the United States. We have seen, as was the case with B.1.1.7, we seem to be following the pattern with the Delta variant with a doubling time of about two weeks if you look from May 8 with 1.2 to 2.7 to 9.9 and as of a couple of days ago 20.6 percent of the isolates are Delta," Dr Fauci said. He said the United States has tools to address the challenge.

"The effectiveness of the vaccines, in this case, two weeks after the second dose of Pfizer BioNTech with 88 percent effective against the Delta and 93 percent effective against the Alpha when you are dealing with symptomatic disease," he said.

Rochelle Paula Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that CDC continues to follow the prevalence of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

In the last two weeks, the prevalence of cases resulting from the Delta variant has doubled to just over 20 percent. This variant represents nearly half of all infections, she said.

"This is concerning but expected knowing what we do about how efficiently this variant spreads and by what we saw in the United Kingdom with this variant.

"We know our vaccines work against this variant; however, this variant represents a set of mutations that could lead to future mutations that evade our vaccine, and that is why it is more important than ever to get vaccinated now to stop the chain of infection, the chain of mutations that could lead to a more dangerous variant," Walensky said.

The USCDC has classified the Delta as a "variant of concern."

"The B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), P.1 (Gamma), B.1.427 (Epsilon), B.1.429 (Epsilon), and B.1.617.2 (Delta) variants circulating in the United States are classified as variants of concern. To date, no variants of high consequence have been identified in the United States," the CDC said in a statement last week.

The World Health Organization classified the Delta variant as a variant of concern on May 10. "This is the most transmissible of all the variants that we've seen," Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN on Monday.

"We saw what happened in the UK, where it overtook the entire nation. So I'm worried that's going to happen in the US," he said.

Faced with a more transmissible variant, "it looks like we do see a resurgence late in the summer, or in the early fall," said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The most recent model finds that a Delta-like variant that's assumed to be 60 percent more transmissible than Alpha, coupled with 75 percent of eligible Americans getting vaccinated, can result in Covid-19 bouncing back from summer lows to cause more than 3,000 deaths per week at various points during the fall and winter.

That's about 1,000 more COVID-19 deaths than the US has seen over the past week, though still far below the peak of 24,000 deaths during the second week of January.

The US is the worst-hit nation due to the pandemic. The country has reported more than 33,566,000 confirmed cases and reported over 602,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker.

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Hong Kong: Hong Kong has returned to order from chaos since China imposed a sweeping national security law on the global financial hub last year, the city`s acting chief executive, John Lee, said on Thursday (July 1). Beijing imposed the security law just before midnight on June 30 last year to punish anything China deems as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

The security law was Beijing`s first major step to put the global financial hub onto an authoritarian path, kick-starting a campaign dubbed "patriots rule Hong Kong," which included moves to reduce democratic representation in the city`s legislature and various screening mechanisms for politicians.

Lee was speaking for the first time as acting city leader at a flag-raising ceremony marking the 24th anniversary of the former British colony`s return to Chinese rule in 1997, which coincides with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other senior officials were invited to Beijing for the party celebrations. Lee was appointed as her No.2 last week after playing a key role in the city`s crackdown over the past year as security secretary.

"In the coming year, we will continue to take a steady stance to protect national security," Lee said. "Hong Kong absolutely has the conditions to rebound from a trough."

ALSO READ: China celebrates 100th founding anniversary of Communist Party at Tiananmen Square

Lee said the security legislation and electoral reforms had made "Hong Kong society change from chaos to order." Critics of the government say it has used the security law to crush dissent in the former British colony, assertion officials in Beijing and Hong Kong reject.

Supporters of the legislation say it has restored order and plugged national security "loopholes" exposed by anti-government demonstrations in 2019.

So far under the new law, described as a "birthday gift" by senior Chinese official Zhang Xiaoming when it was introduced last year, authorities have arrested 117 people, mostly democratic politicians, activists, journalists and students.

Beijing said it was necessary after mass pro-democracy and anti-China protests in 2019 that have been described as acts endangering national security. Many protesters, however, say they were demanding Beijing respect constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms.

Usually, on July 1, tens of thousands of people take to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against anything from Beijing`s maneuvers in the city to unaffordable housing.

That tradition, which set the semi-autonomous city apart from tightly controlled mainland China, is unlikely to be followed by many people this year after police denied permission for a rally, citing coronavirus restrictions.

"It is crystal clear that under the NSL (national security law), over a year, it does have a chilling effect on Hong Kong people ... less people would have the confidence to go on the street to speak out," said Raphael Wong, an activist with the League of Social Democrats who held a protest with three others that was hemmed in by dozens of police officers.

In many other areas, there was a palpable security presence, with police vans, water cannon trucks, armoured vehicles and units of police officers patrolling many areas.

ALSO READ: Sri Lanka, Maldives emerge as major destinations of drug cargoes originating from Gwadar

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Brussels: On the occasion of the first anniversary of Hong Kong`s national security law, members of the European Parliament wrote a joint letter to top EU leaders, demanding action against the Chinese authorities for the imposition of a legislation law that "destroyed" the `One country, two systems.`

In a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel, the EU members said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) broke the promises made to Hong Kong citizens made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

"In Hong Kong, there is a clear desire of the people to maintain the city`s high level of autonomy and rule of law, exemplified by the umbrella protest movement in 2014 and the pro-democracy protest that began in 2019, during which over me-million Hong Kongers took the streets in an unprecedented fashion," the letter said.

ALSO READ: China celebrates 100th founding anniversary of Communist Party at Tiananmen Square

While stating that the integrity of the `One country, two systems` has been destroyed, the members added: "The so-called national security law, the subsequent electoral reform law and the recent ban of the yearly-organized Tiananmen Vigil represent an unprecedented assault on the city`s identity, its autonomy, rule of law and fundamental freedoms, as well as on international agreements."

The situation in Hong Kong is an important test case for the EU`s commitment to upholding freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law internationally and for its credibility as a global actor, the members said.They also called for sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for the growing "repression" in Hong Kong.

"We call on the implementation of the Council Conclusions of July 2020, as well as the imposition of Magnitsky-style sanctions against those Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for the growing repression, in particular, Xia Baolong and Carrie Lam, the establishment of an international Hong Kong Contact Group, and the suspension of extradition treaties, as demanded by the European Parliament in its resolution of January 2021," the letter added.

The letter was co-signed by several members including Reinhard Biitikofer MEP (Greens/EFA, Germany), Miriam Lexmann MEP (EPP, Slovakia) and Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar MEP (S&D, Spain).

ALSO READ: Sri Lanka, Maldives emerge as major destinations of drug cargoes originating from Gwadar

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